Abraham but not the word humane And Christ's nature is not humane which is earthly for that is the first Adam And he is so pleased with this Criticism that he has it over and over again again O learned Observation and yet we find the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anthropinos which all our Lexicons and Dictionaries tell us signifies in Latine humanus humane no less than Seven times in the Epistles of the New Testament and once James 3.7 it is joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nature humane nature and 1 Cor. 2.4 it is rendered man's which indeed is the plain English of it for humane is rather Latine What is then the humane nature of Christ but the man's nature of the man Christ Jesus And if Christ be indeed a man must he not of necessity have the nature of a man or a humane nature Behold This man never betrays his folly more than when he pretends most to learning Thus you may see that your difference from others is grounded much upon words and phrases misunderstood If G. F. had understood Greek as he highly pretends or Latine nay or good English he would never have run into many of those absurdities he is guilty of Now I should conclude and leave what I have written to your serious consideration and I doubt not but it will have a divers reception among you For there are some among you as I hear that are already griev'd at G. F. and thinks he takes too much upon him There are others I perswade my self that have so high an opinion of the Doctrine of the Light your great Fundamental and conceive they are so certain of that and have found so much benefit thereby that they are ready to say Though an Angel from heaven should preach any other Doctrine than that which G. F. has preached and they received they could not give ear to it To such I say First that the evidence I have brought of G. F. his failing and falsity is as clear and full as if I had brought miracles to confirm it for the evidence of miracles depends upon the certainty of our faculties and senses and such certainty we have in this case 2 ndly I appeal to the light in every one of you whether he is not guilty himself in a much higher degree of such things as he condemnes in others 3 dly I desire you to consider that this principle of the light in every man which you so much boast in is the principle of all Protestants however you have entertain'd it under new names as that which you were not aware of before and have extended it farther than it will reach 1. That it is the principle of all Protestants is evident from the dissent from the Church of Rome the Church of R. pretended to be the infallible guide of all men in matters of Religion No says the Protestant Every man is to judge for himself to be satisfied in his own mind to try the spirits whether they be of God to prove all things and hold fast that which is good and not to pin his faith upon any man or Church's sleeve And that they may so do God has say they endued every man with such a light of common and certain principles written in every mans heart that if a prophet should come and give them a sign or a wonder to draw them away from the observance of that light and those principles they ought not to hearken to the words of that prophet See Deut. 13.1 2 3. Moreover they say that God has promised his holy spirit to them that humbly implore it in the obedience of that light which God has already afforded To this purpose they quote those words of Christ If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God c. Joh. 7.17 2 ly That you have entertained it under new names appears from the contention between you and others whether God have given this light to men by nature consequently whether it is a natural light or a divine light c. to which purpose your adversaries quote Rom. 2.14 15. For when the Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves which shew the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another You urgo Joh. 1.9 to prove it is a divine light which Christ the true light lighteth every man withall that cometh into the world Is not the difference now between you and others about words and names for whether God hath given it unto men by nature or not it is of God in respect of it's proceeding from God and tending to him for God is as truly the Author of the good gifts that come unto men by nature as of other gifts and what reason can there be why that should not be said to be natural which agrees to every Individual of the same kind as you say the light doth for G. F. saith p. 20. a blind man and an Infant is inlightned with the light of Christ and where there is life in an Infant there is light And the Apostel saith The Gentiles do by nature c. and are a law to themselves Thus and eminent preacher in a great Assembly of late upon that Text. And so far the Quakers are in the right if they understand themselves and mean no more by it when they say that every man hath light within him than this That every man hath naturally the notions of good and evil within him which in plain cases of good and evil right and wrong will tell him what he ought to do and what he ought to avoid by which he ought to be directed and that his conscience will acquit and excuse him if he do the one and accuse and condemn him if he do the other Thus far he And this helps me to show in the 3 rd place that you extend the Doctrine of the light in every man farthor than you ought for it is not to be extended to all cased whatsoever as if every man that attends to the light in him did certainly know what is good what is evill right or wrong in every case for many cases are every difficult and even good men do commontly differ in their Judgment concerning their So we see that among the Saints at Rome to whom Paul wrote One faith he believeth that he may eat all things another who is weak eateth herbs One man esteemeth one dya above another another esteemeth every day alike Rom. 14.2 5. And the Apostle doth not condemn them for judging thus diversly but teacheth them how to behave themselves under this diversity And I appeal to the Conscience of very one of you who has not enslaved his Judgement to the Judgment of your Ministers and Elders whether in divers cases which
THE SPIRIT OF THE QUAKERS TRIED According to that discovery it hath made of it self in their great Prophet and Patriarch George Fox In his Book Titled The great MYSTERY of the great WHORE c. In an Epistle to the said QUAKERS but especially to the honest hearted amongst them Wherein the whole Evidence except a very few things doth consist of matters of fact in about 50 Instances obvious to every one's eyes who can but read English and compare one writing with another ALSO The Judgement and Sentence is pronounced by GEORGE FOX himself against himself and party in the persons of his Adversaries By a Lover of Truth and Men. For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt he condemned Matt. 12.37 Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee Luc. 19.22 London Printed for Maurice Atkins 1672. THE SPIRIT OF THE QUAKERS TRIED According to the discovery it hath made of it self in their great Prophet Patriarch GEORGE FOX in his Book Titled The great Mystery the great Whore c. Beloved friends I Have of long time with much grief and sorrow of heart beheld and considered your persons and principles for whilst some of you excell in many things which are in themselves good and laudable you do by the circumstances wherein you stand and by other practices and Doctrines render your selves very dishonourable and dangerous to Christian Religion I am ready to acknowledge in you a great deal of Temperance and moderation in the use of meat drink apparel and other pleasures and ornaments but I wish your insobriety pride and Arrogance in a high conceit of your selves and contempt of others foolish boastings and braggings were not as conspicuous you are just and punctual in bargaining but are you free from making a prey upon your Neighbour's credit and taking up a slander against him You say you have put away malice envy and hatred but where shall we find more bitterness reviling and reproachful speeches than in your writings and discourses You love the Brotherhood well and are kind toward them but you disown and condemn all how vertuous and devout soever if in these times of the shining of your light they subject not themselves to the yoke of your conduct You talk much of Christ the light but you seem at least to deny his person Your affections are much on things in Heaven within you but not on things above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God You are much to be commended for your courage and patience but highly to be discommended for your superstition and gross ignorance whereby you expose your selves in great part to those labours and hardships you undergo Thus I could in many particulars set your vices and defects against your vertues and attainments but it is not my design at this time to take a full view of you And indeed I have found it very fruitless to deal with you by way of reason and Scripture for your leading men have so ordered the matter that you will not give ear to the most demonstrative arguments that are against you and you accept of the weakest reason imaginable on your side And the reason is evident for whil'st you look upon your selves as lead by an infallible spirit though it be indeed nothing but the fancy of George Fox or some other of your Teachers you must needs reject the clearest light that God has given to men or Angels when it opposes your sentiments And you are ready with your answers of This is the wisdom of the world This is natural understanding that knows not the things of God the knowledge from the letter or tradition and the like If we will not be put off so but tell you we by your own confession have the light within as well as you and that light tells us thus and thus contrary to what you assert O then you tell us alas you have the light but you have not been obedient to it you are not come to plain language you are still in the customes of the world respect of persons c. and therefore you are not to be heeded Thus you prove your selves to be in the truth and us to be in errour not by divine reason and holy Scripture but by the high opinion you have of yourselves and your low opinion of others I will not therefore now deal with you so much by arguments drawn from reason or Scripture and depending purely upon the understanding and mind but by such arguments whose evidence depends mostly upon the outward senses And I hope though you will not allow us to judge whether a mental proposition be true or false sence or nonsence yet you will not deny us capable of determining concerning matters of fact that are before our eyes That is to say if you will but allow us competent witnesses to prove that George Fox kill'd a man supposing we have seen him at noon day thrust him through the heart with a sword or if not that you will grant that we can read English or Greek that is not understand English or Greek but know A. from B. and sound them when we find them together A B. and know that A B. is not Co and the like then upon these concessions we will undertake to prove that George Fox is a false Prophet a liar or Impostor But if you will not allow us competent witnesses against George Fox either in matters of reason or sense then we beg but this favour of you that you will please to believe your own eyes and if you will not do that I hope you will excuse us from ever believing any thing that you say or affirm and from ever speaking or writing to you any more But as for those of you that have in the simplicity of their hearts by good words and fair appearances been induced to walk in your path for to such chiefly do I address my self I make no question but they will see themselves mistaken For their sincerity will oblige them to give their own consciences some satisfying account why they take George Fox for a true Prophet and his Doctrine for infallible as he pretends it is but it will be impossible for them to give themselves any such account against the evidence of their senses As for those of you that are much affected with and have a good share in the glory and honour which accrue unto them from this singular way of knowing all things and being better than all other men I may say of you as Abraham to the rich man neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead But it is time for me now to begin to make good what I have undertaken to witt To prove to your senses that George Fox who is not only a great Patriarch but also in highest esteem among you is a false Prophet liar or Impostor And thus I go about it If George Fox in matters of concernment not only to mens
man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new The Apostle speaks of the new creation as a thing done G. F. as a thing a doing and not done for that agreed better with his design in tha place 30. But we have not yet done with the 2 nd Epistle to the Corinthians where Ch. 2. v. 16. the Apostle saith To the one that perish we are the Savour of death unto death and to the other the saved the Savour of life unto life But G. F. I suppose as he had heard it sometimes from some Priest applies it to the word thus For the word it self is immediate for it is the Savour of death to the death and of life to the life Thus when it is for the honour of his phrase the word must be put for the Apostles and Preachers of it 31. The Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 3. prophesying of the wicked ones that should come in the last dayes saith p. 6. of this sort are they which creeps into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth But G. F. that he may lay load upon all those Preachers that are not Quakers saith of suoh as have got the good wonds c. who are reprobates concerning the faith which crept into houses before the Apostles decease which have kept people always learning but never able to come to the know ledge of the truth led away with dibers lusts Now the Apostle doth not attribute to these false Teachers which yet were bad enough that they kept people always learning c. but they led captive such as were so He should give him without wrong to the holy spirit in the holy Apostle 32. And that our Prophet G. may seem to have some colour for disparaging the other Ministers upon the account of their humance learning he saith p. 70. So all your tools ye have wrought withal since the Apostasy hath been taken out of the stops of humane learning which is earthly this proves ye are Apostates and the spirits gone out into the world And Luke saith the tongues of the Hebrew Greek and Latine was set up a top of Christ by Pitale who crucified him But where Luke saith so he leaves us to ghess I have found indeed that Luke saith Ch. 23.38 And a super scription also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latine and Hebrew but I could never yet find Luke saying The tongues of the Hebrew Greek and Latine was set up a top of Christ This came out of George's own brain that is not over fraught with those tongues I dare warrant you but yet he will undertake to correct the Translatours and he never doth it with greater advantage than in the rendering of that passage of the Apostle to the. 33. Colossians Ch. 1. v. 23. which we read thus If ye continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven The use of this last clause in G. Fox is this p. 41. Priest He dare boldly assert that the Gospel is not first made known by the seeing within but by hearing tidings without c. G. Fox's Answ Contrary to that which they call their original which saith the Gospel is preached in every creature That which is to my purpose chiefly is that puts is for was that it may be accommodate to his Doctrine of the Gospel in these days and all days of the world preached within them that never heard or saw a tittle of the Gospel either by word or writing Thus when our Lord said unto his Disciples Mar. 16.15 Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature in is not there he bade them do that which was done already and was always done ever since there were men in the world And them it would have been hand for the Apostle Paul to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named Rom. 15.20 It seems G. F's Gospel of Christ is preached where Christ is not named This excellent use doth G. Fox make of his skill in the Orginal as they call it But more of that afterward 34. But is it not pretty that whil'st G. F. charges the Translators with corrupting the Scripture because they render en to in English and sometimes with or among that yet himself when they have translated it in should change it into within as he chang'd it into with which I observed before upon Eph. 2. Thus p. 105. Now the Scriptures cannot lead into all truth but it testifies of that that doth so And if Christ be not within people they are reprobates The Apostle and the Translators say know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates 2. Cor. 15.5 But G. thinks he may boldly and to the Scripture when he doth not alter the sence though he reproves it very sharply in others As if in you could admit of no other sence but within you Let us see then whether the words of Christ will always admit that sence Mat. 20.26 27. But it shall not be so within you but whosoever will be great within you let him be your minister and whosoever will be chief within you let him be your servant Here if G. please to consult that which they call the Greek he will sind it en by min in you and then we must read it as I have done And is not that excellent sence let the impartial judge The like fault is G. F. guilty of in relation to 1 Joh. 2.27 where the Apostle speaketh of the anointing which abideth in you but G. p. 79. the Apostles brought the Saints then to the anointing within them and a little below in the same page no one knows the eye of the soul but who comes to the light within 35. But that charge will not lye against him for the term within in Luke 17.21 because he finds it in the Text but it 's rare with him to use any Text and not abuse it therefore in stead of The kingdom of God as it is in the Text he makes it go for the kingdom of heaven p. 64. But that 's a small matter and might be passed by but he will not leave it so for his Adversaries do often press him with the many Scriptures which speak of Christ's being in Heaven and consequently absent from the Saints on earth as far as heaven is from earth this Text now must be press'd for his service at this turn and must prove that Heaven is within men Therefore he said p. 101. And the Scriptures doth witness heaven within Is not this fair dealing first to change the Kingdom of God into he Kingdom of heaven and then to leave out Kingdom too and put Heaven for the