Part II. p. 108. Burroughs calls our Christ we pray to an Idol God and a dead God * Sword of the Lord drawn p. 5. Atkinson an Imaginary God and a Carnal Christ and Lawson as Cassin charges him p. 36. tells us That the Lord Jesus whom we profess is accursed Fox quotes the very Page of Cassin in his Great Mystery p. 142. and answers it but denies nothing of this Charge That he should say our Jesus is accursed And yet the Jesus whom we 1 Cor. 1. 2 3. worship is that Jesus whom all the Christians in the World and all the Angels of God worship The Apostle saith Such an one speaketh not by the Spirit of God that calleth Jesus accursed Vox faucibus haeret Our Pens are ready to drop out of our Hands while we are only repeating this Blasphemy Whenever the Devil hath one too big for his own Mouth for fear of choaking he hath ever some Quaker or other who never keck at it tho never so great an one to mouth it for him Great God to suffer such Venom to be spit upon thee by such a speckled Creature for such an one to curse our King and our God and yet look up and not to be struck dumb at the uttering of such a Blasphemy The Impunity of such a monstrous Villany if we had doubted of it before were alone enough to convince us there must be a Judgment to come CHAP. IX Of WATER BAPTISM BRief Discovery p. 13. charges them with blaspheming the Ordinances of Christ Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Smith says 1 Primmer p. 6. Our Baptism Bread and Wine are the Pope's Invention Pen says 2 Reason against Raiâ—ing p. 108. 109. Water Baptism is no more in force than Circumcision Fox says 3 P. 4. Our Baptism and Sacraments are Cain's Sacrifice Fox says 4 News come out of the North p. 1â— Your Baptism is carnal and their Communion is carnal Whitehead says 5 P. 26. l. 12. in his Answer Your Water Bread and Wine is carnal Thou hast indeed George a notable art in giving answers nothing to the purpose for the Authors before cited say Our Baptism our Sacraments our Communion are carnal and Cain's Sacrifice and invented by the Pope Now Water and Bread and Wine are not those but the outward part of them which with the inward and spiritual Grace make up the Sacraments and hence they are not carnal but a spiritual Ordinance He tells us again that Will. Smith says only that Infant Baptism was of the Pope's Invention Good Reader see the Primmer as above quoted The Child's Question was not concerning Insant-Baptism but how it was concerning Baptism Bread and Wine Why Child says the Father as to those things those things sure were the things in question they arose from the Pope We matter not what he says afterwards 't is that place we charge with blaspheming Water-Baptism an Ordinance of Christ Whitehead justifies Pen for saying Water-baptism is no more in force than P. 27. l. 3. Circumcision he tells us 't is to be rejected because it is shadowy and of a perishing nature he knows we do not hold that Water Bread and Wine are our Sacraments what then if they perish as long as the thing signified which is the best part of the Sacrament does not so By such an Argument we might prove the Passover must presently have been abolished for the Lamb was a perishing Creature to be slain and eaten up immediately but sure there was somewhat signified by it that lasted a little longer even till the coming of Christ in the Flesh as the thing signified by the Elements of our Sacraments will abide till Christ's coming to Judgment In fine one says Baptism and our Sacraments are carnal Cain's Sacrifice Another says Baptism and our Sacraments were from the Pope Another they are no more in force than Circumcision and therefore to be laid aside Our business therefore shall be next to prove they are Ordinances of Christ and the neglect of them is a contempt of an Ordinance of Christ and their scurrilous Reflections upon them a blaspheming Christ's Ordinances and because Water-baptism is a Sacrament they raise most and their chiefest Arguments against we shall speak to that first We know the Cry is Give us plain express Scripture for Water-Baptism Nothing will pass with them for Scripture proof but what 's express John Stubs in his Epistle before Whitehead's Divinity of Christ hath these words Do the Scriptures speak of three Persons in the Godhead in these express words let us see where it is written come do not shuffle give us plain Scripture let us see in what Chapter is printed Abstract Relative and Concrete while it 's evident enough that Scripture-Consequences are as good proof as express Texts of Scripture Do you think the Lord Jesus knew how to dispute with the Sadduces and prove a Doctrine out of Scripture Prove if thou canst say those Cavillers the Resurrection of the Dead from Scriptures Christ presently proves it out of Exod. 3. 5 6. as we find Mat. 22. 32. where his medium is God's saying I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. If some of thy Brethren had been by and heard our Saviour offer such an Argument out of Scripture to prove the Resurrection would not they have retorted briskly Good Sir what 's this to the Resurrection give us plain Texts of Scripture that the Dead shall rise again would not they have presently given it out tho the Sadduces we find had more modesty how shamefully they had run down and baffled our Saviour and that he had not a word to say for himself not one word of Scripture to confute them with because he brought nothing but Scripture consequences against them We would know what express Scripture you have for your Negative as well as for several other Doctrines that Water-Baptism is not an Institution of Christ and yet 't is a Doctrine that Quakers believe to be Divine which yet they only endeavour to prove by Scripture-consequence tho horridly forced and strained Now let us see whether we can offer better to prove our Water-Baptism 1 st The first Scriptures for we shall here give you two together are John 3. 26. They came to John and said to him Rabbi he that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou bearest Witness behold the same baptizeth and all Men come to him And John 4. 1 2. The Pharisees heard how that Jesus made and baptized more Disciples than John tho Jesus himself baptized none but his Disciples Here we see Water-Baptism was instituted by Christ long before his Death to be an initiating Ceremony whereby Jewish Converts were admitted into the Society of Christians so that we find our selves obliged to prove these four things 1. That it was Water-Baptism that was spoken of in these Texts 2. That hereby Christ admitted Converts into his Society 3. That they were only Jewish Converts
viz. That God does not accept any where there is any failing who does not fulfil the Law and answer every demand of Justice which Experience as well as God's Word assure us none is able to do so little do these foregoing words contribute towards the rendring those Orthodox which the Brief Discovery charges upon him and if these People in particular should pretend above other Men to be without failings 't would but make them the more ridiculous which in this matter they are already even to Contempt He says we oppose the Urim and Thummim Light and Perfection but do we oppose the Urim and Thummim whilst we assert it to be only in the Breast-plate of our great High-Priest but not upon the Breast of every or any Saint on Earth CHAP. V. Of Immediate REVELATION THE Brief Discovery charges Whitehead and Fox jun. with saying That P. 8. which is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures and Chapters are and greater This undervaluing the Scriptures with respect to their own Writings is not a careless stumble of their Pen but deliberate and design'd for wherever they treat of Scripture 't is in the same Strain not varying from the Analogy of this Faith If ever you will own the Prophets Apostles or Christ himself you will own our Writings given forth by the same Spirit You may as well condemn the Scriptures to the Fire as our Queries and in this Answ to the Westmorel Petit. p. 30. place Whitehead gives the preheminence to their Writings says They are of as great Authority and greater Here he complains again of Injustice because we left out some explanatory words as he calls them in the same period the words are these which rather darken than enlighten the matter as Christ's words were of greater Authority when he spoke than the Pharisees reading the Letter never sure was there so cross so perverse an Answer was the comparison made between the Pharisees reading the Letter and the Quakers Speakings or between the Scriptures and their Speakings The Question ask'd was Whether they esteemed their Speakings of as great Authority as any Chapter in the Bible And the Answer was direct enough They are as great and greater too But when they prefer their Writings to the Scriptures he does not as he tells us mean the Scriptures but the Pharisees reading them If the Pharisees were such A B C-Darians that they knew not how to read a Chapter in the Bible as it ought to be yet the Bible is of the same Authority still read by a Pharisee or an Apostle tho perhaps not of the same Efficacy and the Scriptures whensoever spoken or by whomsoever tho they have not the Spirit who speak them yet whatever Whitehead says in the close of that Paragraph the Scriptures by whomsoever spoken we must obey and not as he says deny In the next Paragraph he bids us note That the Comparison is placed upon the Spirit of Truth speaking in Man in the first place and through and by the Ministers thereof in the next place A wonderful opening and amounts to thus much The Comparison is placed upon the Spirit of Truth speaking in Man in the first place and in and through Man in the second place He concludes we suppose from hence as he should have said the Spirit speaking in and through them as in and through the Apostles hath not lost its Authority and Power since it gave forth the Scriptures therefore their Writings must be of the same Authority with the Scriptures This were true if the Spirit spake in us or them as through a Trunk as the Devil did through the Images when he uttered his Oracles but he speaks in us or them whilst he assists us in our Speakings and Writings so that 't is not the Spirit but we that speak and write by the assistance of Christ's Spirit which assistance is given us according to what degree our Lord pleases as Whitehead acknowledges to us in P. 17. Pâ—r. 2. such a degree as overcomes not the Infirmities of our Nature so as that we should not be liable to some Mistakes but to the Apostles in such a degree as left them liable to none in their speaking or delivering the Scriptures to the World and the Miracles that they wrought were an abundant Evidence to all Men thereof And to shew that which he says in the next viz. That the Spirit of Truth immediately ministring in Man is of greater Authority or Power than the Chapters are without the Spirit is very vain or worse for which are those Chapters in our Bible that are without the Spirit or its Authority since every Chapter sure they will acknowledg is as much the Dictates of the Spirit as their Teachings are And it must be an Atheistical Consideration of the Scriptures to look upon them as Whitehead does here without the Spirit P. 17. l. 3 4 5. As for his Profession that they acknowledg the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be of Divine Authority and prefer them above all other Writings c. 't is Protestatio contra factum he only professing he does not do a thing even whilst he is doing of it Whereas he says the Spirit of God speaking in the Soul is of greater Efficacy Power and Authority than the Scripture without it is a captious Assertion for Efficacy Power and Authority are not the same thing and therefore as joined together we can neither affirm nor deny for of greater Efficacy and Power it may be but not of greater Authority unless they will say the Spirit is of greater Authority than the Spirit it being the same Spirit we are sure that wrote the Scriptures which they pretend speaks in them All this while he hath not offered to prove their Speakings to be of greater Authority than the Scriptures tho he said it very absurdly and blasphemously For can there be any Authority greater than that which is Divine and this Divine Authority Whitehead here saith they the Quakers sincerely acknowledg the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to have We think now 't would be but just to forbear charging the Priests with ignorance as he frequently does since 't is a spice of that which makes his Discoverer so confused here Letter of the 3 d day 3 d month 98. See Keith's 3 d Nâ—â— p. 66. Such Expressions as those above thou thoughtest fit to excuse to G. Keith in a Letter to him for there thou confessedst thou hast been too short and dubious in some Words or Exprestions as not fully explained in thy former Writings which may easily be helped by some ingenuous or charitable Explication or Emendation First by the way Here is thy Infallibility left to its shifts tho Thomas Danson and his Brethren were once no Ministers of Christ for disclaiming of it and Fâ—x tells us Whoever speaks a word and not from the Mouth of the Lord
from the Spirit how comes it to pass that the Spirit never moves them as it did in the Apostles days to pray and prophesy in unknown Tongues When we shall see in their Assemblys as the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles did in the Primitive Christians Meetings that they have the Gift of Tongues and the gift of interpreting thereof when together with the Gift of Tongues we shall see that they have as the Christians had all the other miraculous Gifts when we shall see that they shew themselves to be Prophets and spiritual in receiving what this Apostle hath written in particular that a Woman should not speak in the Church as the Commandments of God And lastly when with all this they shall preach no other Doctrine than what the Apostle hath preached and the Catholick Church received then we will believe if they be lawfully baptized that it is the Spirit which is speaking in them and that God is in them and among them of a truth but till then we must believe them all to be Impostors or Enthusiasts or Blasphemers of the Holy Ghost Thus he enough to silence all their pretences to immediate Inspiration Calv. adv Libertines c. 2. which has been the common Stalâ— of each fanatical Party to influence the People by so the Libertines would boast of their Intimacy with God and all See Rutherford's Sâ—â—vey of the Spiritual Antichrist cap. 9. p. 55 56 57 c. their talk was de Spiritu of what Communications they had from the Spirit as Calvin notes Henry Nicholas the first nominated Elder of the Family of Love pretended to Visions and Revelations and Conferences with Angels and said He was raised by the highest God â—anointed with the Holy Ghost godded with God in the Spirit of his Love Caspâ—r Swenkefield pretended to the Spirit and Enthusiastical Dreams called for spiritualness and the Spirit and the Rutherf cap. â— p. 15 16 c. Id. Part 2. p. 211. internal Word revealed his fancys to Luther who sharply rebuked him but to no purpose Pertinacy cleaving to the Plague of Heresy says our Author his Errors are there recited they were condemned by a Synod at Norimburg Anno 1554 and by the Confession of the Divines of Mansfield 1555. who tell us he had vexed the Church thirty years That American Jezabel as she is called Mrs. Hutchison deceived and drew away many boldly asserting that her peculiar Revelations about Events to fall out were as infallible as any parts of Scripture and that she was as much bound to believe them as the Scripture for the same Holy Ghost was the Author of both It were endless to recite what is said of this sort of People who all deluded the World with the Pretence to Visions Revelation and immediate Teachings from the Spirit which was the shield they laboured to secure themselves by when assaulted by the Ministers of the Gospel and therefore we have great reason to caution our People against itching Ears and the being fond of new things but more especially to avoid those who pretend to new â—ights and Revelations as being but Wolves in sheeps clothing remembering that 't is recorded to the great praise of the Bereans that upon St. Paul's preaching they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so To the Law and to the Testimony If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them which shows that this ought to be their rule to try all Doctrines by CHAP. VI. Of the SCRIPTURES G EO FOX in his Piece stiled News coming out of the North written See Brief Discov p. 9. from the Mouth of the Lord c. saith Your Original is Carnal Hebrew Greek and Latin A learned Man reading this wondered and well he might how Latin came to be an Original and we cannot guess unless it be to make a court to the Church of Rome which has decreed the vulgar Latin to be as infallible and authentick as the Greek and Hebrew and had he brought in the Latin Service as well as the Latin Bible we had been Al-a-Mode Roman Who knows tho not he yet his infallible Successors may one day make that authentick too Oh this Infallibility can do strange feats when it pleases But he goes on Your Word is carnal the Letter and the Light is carnal the Letter their Original is but dust which is but the Letter which is Death and their Gospel is but Dust Matthew Mark Luke and John which is the Letter To this Geo. Whitehead answers here That the Letter it self is not made up of spiritual Matter or of lasting materials but of such as will decay and turn to dust A wonderful discovery That your Gospel Matthew Mark Luke and John are not printed with never-failing Ink and upon immortal Paper he tlls us in Innocency Triumphant p. 17. they mean no more than the Writings abstractly considered as in Paper and Ink and false Ministers dead preaching and commenting on them Well George if thou hadst but as much honesty as wit tho in that there is but bare measure thou wouldst not abuse us with such a trifling Answer Was ever any thing properly called Carnal that was not capable of being made spiritual Carnality being only the want of Spirituality in a Subject capable And 't is as improper to say Ink and Paper are carnal as a Stone is blind would it not be a wise business for one to discourse of a carnal Dog a carnal Horse a carnal Tree or a carnal Block as if there were those that could be spiritual But further who ever thought the innocent Letters of the Alphabet and the Scrivener's Bottel should be accused as carnal or Hebrew and Greek should have the fortune to be censur'd as carnal Languages and not French Spanish or Italian unless it was because Hebrew and Greek were the first Languages whereby the Doctrine of Salvation was conveyed to the World without the least mention of Light within unless with a note of infamy if the Light in thee be darkness O! 't is this carnal Hebrew and Greek which has done us all the mischief that has chok'd us with this Serpents meat But Fox tells us We Dogs Serpents Swine feed upon the Letter which is Death tho we think 't was never heard that ever any fed upon the Letters of the Alphabet and a Bottle of Ink and took them for his dinner or how Pen Ink and Paper should kill any unless he were such a Fool as to choke himself by swallowing his Bible No no Quakers are not so silly tho wicked enough to think so there 's no question but 't is somewhat conveyed to us by their Letters and Languages they have their spight at as appears further by what he saith here Your Word is Carnal and your Light is Carnal your Gospel is Dust Matthew Mark Luke and John which is the Letter Sure our Word our Light our Gospel our Matthew Mark c. are somewhat
are so he 's our Judg and Guide rather than our Rule and he judges and guides us by the Rule and Laws of the Holy Scriptures 2. Because we are yet at uncertainties where to find that Rule that we may be guided by it if the Light within be a guide to us we would be glad to know whose Light it is that hath the honour whether that Light in Whitehead or Pen or Burroughs or Hubberthorn for without our Compass how can we steer a right Course and therefore we intreat you to tell us whether we are to go to London York Bristol or Rome for our Christians Rule If they say the Spirit it self is our Rule 't is no more than to say the Light within us or the Light the Spirit of God â—heds into our Hearts is so for the Spirit substantially considered is no Rule to any for so it guides and teaches none but as it effects and sheds abroad a Light into our minds to guide and direct us by as is proved before which Light being different in every one of us for as they phrase it 't is in every one of us according to our different incasures so that we cannot have one and the same Rule of Christianity common to all but as many Rules as there have been or will be Men in the World to the World's end which was an inconvenience God Almighty thought fit to obviate in the beginning by sending our first Forefathers a Revelation concerning the Seed of the Woman the Sabbath Sacrifices and other Doctrines of Faith and Means of Worship a settled standing Rule they were to walk by he did not leave every own to his own Light to hammer out and invent a Rule for himself and now in these last Ages God hath given by a particular Revelation of his Mind tho conveyed to us in ten thousand Bibles any one that pleases may know where to find our Rule 't is in our Bibles and if we had a mind to it we could tell where to search for the Popish Rule in the Tomes of their Councils but we think it not worth our pains but where to find the Quakers Rule we should be beholding to him that will inform us Again how shall I know which are those Dictates of the Spirit of God that I may not be deceived in the choice of my Rule seeing I have no Rule to judgthem by Will not every Fancy and strong Inclination of Man vicious or virtuous be ready to put in a Plea for that honour to be accounted his Rule One Man hath an unsatiable thirst after the glittering Glorys and Honours of this World why may he not pretend to that Spirit of God that moves him to climb that Precipice Another hath a brutal lustful Inclination why may be not pretend he hath a vehement impulse of the Spirit upon him to commit Fornication and Adultery as a Speaker in Maryland Tho. Thurston pretended P. 138. to a Woman when her Husband was absent in England See Bugg's Pilgrim Mather ' s Answer to the Switch p. 4. G. Fox ' s Great Myst â— 77. ult Another that hath a violent inclination to Sodomy as Mather relates of Clark a Quaker Speaker why may he not pretend 't was a motion of the Spirit of God lead him to it for love of the Creature Another whose fingers itched to be robbing a Till or a Church why might he not pretend as one did he was moved to it by God s Spirit having no Rule to judg by but the Spirit in every Man and you may be sure that no Man's Spirit will bring in its Verdict against it selt If they say the several individual Lights in the several members of their yearly meetings that make up our great Luminary collectively is their Rule what must poor Quakers do all the interval of this meeting being all that while without a Rule without Light for it seems the Light in particular Defence of the Snake Collect. p. 15. Numb the first Quakers is too weak and glimmering sufficient to guide them in their course which was the reason when some hard Questions were propounded to the Pensylvani in Quakers the other day their Light being so dim that they could not answer them by it they were sam to send to London for more Light to resolve them by We hope they will not say 't is their inward Light in specie as abstracted from the several individual Quaker Lights is to be our Rule to guide us We say a Species operates nothing as it does not exist but in Individuals it was not homo in specie that begot Geo. Whitehead or Will. Pen but some unhappy individual Man to be a Plague and Pest God permitting to our common Christianity 3. Because this Rule is uncertain and mutable A Rule ought to be fix'd and steady as we ought to have a rational Evidence that it was constituted so to us by a sufficient Authority which their Light within hath not so a Rule ought to be a certain standard to measure by that never alters as is the Scripture the same for 1600 years together but their Light within how oft hath it turned even to every Point of the Compass Some years since their Light within taught them that the Scriptures were Dust Death Serpents meat but now it seems it teacheth them that they are given by inspiration and they are the Holy and Sacred Scriptures A few years since it told them their own Writings were to be preferred before them but now we know not what Wind hath turned the Cock they are the best Books in the World Sometimes it hath strictly forbidden to go to Law * An Account from the Child of Light p. 19. Now as for our selves say they so many as walk in Christ Jesus we have one Judg and Lawgiver appointed to us by Christ Jesus and we may not go to law with one another as Men being come to Christ But in Serious Search †P. 43. it gives them a liberty it says some of them are necessitated to make use of the Law to maintain their just Rights and Properties It was never christ's Faith to sue and contend says Naylor Living Faith p. 7. We sue no Man at the Law but are sued by them Shield of the Truth p. 3. But Tho Elwood's Light within taught him otherwise In civil Cases 't is no injustice saith he for a Man to recover his Due by Law Truth prevailing and detecting Error p. 361. see Christianity no Enthusiasm p. 108. cap. 7. Sometimes their Rule is against fighting with a carnal Weapon as in their Declaration to King Charles the Second but we have reason to think their Rule will direct them to other things as soon as they have opportunity J. Pennyman in his Remarks upon Christ's Lambs defended p. 1. cites a Quaker Minister saying We direct all Peopel to the Spirit of God in them and if that leads them to fight I have nothing to say
Men renourced their Christianity and turned Turks they laid aside this Livery and took up 〈◊〉 Circumcision and spit at the mention of the Name of Châ—ist and from thence are accounted true Musselmen so that Quakers by rejecting Water Baptism arâ—gâ—â— half way to Turky There was a memorable Advertisement from Dorsetshire 't is before the Answer to Mr. Den's Quaker no Papist in the Gag for Quakers of a strange Discovery made oâ— many Witches in and near Shâ—rborn they were near 200 of them at one Meeting most of them Quakers and Anabaptists it tells us 3 Men and 2 Women formerly Quakers committed to Dorchâ—ster Goal where they were Prisoners at the wâ—iting of that Advertisement confessed upon Examination and since their Commitment to sundry Persons who have visited them that when the Devil first appeared to them and tempted them to be Witches before he would admit them into that Sacred Ordâ—r he caused them to renounce their Baptism and truly the Devil had sâ—me reason for this to make them tear off the Livery of their old Master his greatest Enemy before he took them into his Service besides in Baptism they had renounced him and all his Works and he thought it necessary such a Covenant should be cancelled before they entred a new League with him and if Quakers had doubted the Truth of this in those days they might have gone and visited their Friends in Goal as hundreds did and been satisfied from their own mouths The Devil in our days need not put most of our Quakers to the trouble of renouncing Baptism who never receiv'd it and so are in a more appropriate disposition to be taken into that Service Margaret Bradlâ— and Mary Langhorn perhaps might commence Witches without such a Solemnity these Quaker Witches would have taken away the Life of their Brother-in-Law Winder by a false Accusation at Carlisic Assizes they were eminent Teachers amongst the Quakers neither did they ever disown them for their Villainy See Snake 305. 306 307. and no doubt there have been hundreds more such Instances that have bewitched multitudes into horrid Ravings Yellings Foamings and Convulsions as soon as they have come into their Meetings You may believe in every one of them as well as those of Shâ—rborn the principal Article of the Contract was if ever they received it to renounce Baptism Oh how Converts of old in Times of Persecution would crowd to Baptism though they burut for it they would run through the Fire to Water Baptism ambitiâ—us of the honour of being known to be Christ's Servants which they were by bâ—ing baptized Had Quakers lived in those days they would never have been known to be Christians by a little yeaing and naying only for a Mode of Speech their Christ being no such Man as the Heathens were incens'd against nothing but Meekness Patience Temperance Chastity c. which the Heathens were great Admirers of No Brother Heathen would never have hurt a Quaker they are these wicked Christians the Quakers cry out of as their Persecutors as the Christians cried out of the Heathens Quakers and Heathens are too good friends to fall out for a Yea and Nay As for their Objections out of Scripture if need had been we could have brought most of them as Proofs of the Doctrine they have brought them to oppose theiâ— Goliah Argument is from the 1 Cor 1. 14 15 16 17. I was not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel We shall not need to prove that this is Water-Baptism here spoken of having proved it before Besides they acknowledge it which I believe they would never have done but only that they might screw an Objection out of it against Water-Baptism for hence they observe to us Paul an Apostle was never sent to baptize with Water or otherwise why should they not yield the same word signifies the same thing in other places By the way let us premise when a Doctrine is proved by such Arguments the Command of Christ the Practice of the Apostles and the whole Christian Woâ—ld to this day 't is not to be overth own by one Objection out of Scripture that may bear a sence as well agreeing with that Doctrine as the sence that opposes it Our Arguments should first be answer'd which because they cannot do they busie themselves in finding out difficulties If this were enough the Being of God and Existence of Souls Doctrines as demonstratively proved as any in the World might be overthrown for the Atheist hath found difficulties enough to puzzle and perplex them But though this way of theirs be a very fallacious Artifice yet we stall no be afraid to grapple with their Objections this mighty one in particular But why doth St Paul thank God he baptized so few if an Ordinance of Christ 'T is evident he baptized some and if he had not been impower'd by Christ to baptize I would have been presumption in him to have bapazed any body But why so few As in the 15th 't is answered by himself lest any one should say I baptized in my own name You may observe from v. 10 how childishly they began to range themselves into Sides and Parties one was for Paul another for Apollos as if they had only baptized and made Disciples to themselves to set up as many Sects of Christians as they had done of Philosopheâ—s under their several Masters Ver. 13. Do you think says Paul you were baptized into the Name of Paul or Peter or Apollos I thank God says he as it happen'd I baptized none of you that you may have no pretence for such a Schism under my Name he does not thank God they had not been baptized but that he had not done it for the abovesaid reason But you will say then su e here was a great stress laid upon Water Baptism because there were so few thus baptized A Consequence indeed because he baptized so few therefore there were no more baptized May not a Man as justly inferr the contrary though there have been multitudes of them baptized yet I have baptized but few of them especially if you compare this place with Acts 18. 8. where a great many other Corinthians were baptized as well as Crispus and Gaius But ver 17. St Paul says Christ sen him not to baptize but to preach the Gospel We answer every Apostle besides a general Commission had commonly a particular Mission Their general Commission gave them Power and Authority through the whole World to preach buâ— because that had been too numerous a Parish and it would have been impossible for them to have executed those Powers by pâ—eaching to every Person in the World it pleased God by a secret Motion and Impulse of the Spirit to send them into several Quarters one to the Gentiles another to the Jews one inâ—o Spain another into the Indies to preach there for the more orderly and effectual execution of those Powers in the World St. Paul had Power and Authority in his
Power and none have followed them more in those pretended Prophesies and Revelations than the Quakers and that their's were not so influential upon the English Nation as the others were upon Munster and other places is to be attributed to that Sobriety of Temper the greatest part were induced with and that Freedom from Arbitrary Opprassion the others were liable to as also to their Experience what a Condition for several years they had been brought unto by turbulent and unquiet Sects Our first Charge is That they are Enemies to Kingly Government and this the Passages we quoted from Burroughs George Fox and others did clearly evince nay not only their Aversion to Monarchy but to the Person of King Charles the 2 d. as a Review of them will make manifest Edward Burroughs speaks thus p. 244. The Lord is risen to overturn to overturn Kings and Princes Governments and Laws And he will change Times and Laws and Governments and there shall be no King ruling but Jesus nor no Government of Force but the Government of the Lamb nor no Law of Effect but the Law of God all that which is otherwise shall be ground to Powder And p. 507. he says further But as for this People i. e. the Quakers they are raised of the Lord and established by him even contrary to all Men and they have given their Power only to God and they cannot give their Power to any Mortal Men to stand or fall by any outward Authority and to that they cannot seek but to the Lord alone What saith George to all this truly he dares not recite it all but after he had gone a little way stops as if he had seen a Spectre The Lord is risen to overturn to overturn Kings Princes Governments and Laws and he will change Times and Laws and Governments c. and there he is at a full stand hoping his Reader wou'd never meet with more of it And those he says p. 28. were prophetical Passages wrote 1657 and yet spoken in the present tense the Lord is risen not will arise very true George Some of us can well remember to our Sorrow how the Lord in his Wrath did then rise and for the Punishment of our Sins did overturn by such wicked Instruments as the Quakers who gloried in their having a hand in that overturning-work Kings Princes Governments and Laws Edward Burroughs prophesies says George Whitehead but 't is of things past or present which he saw accomplish'd when he wrote them and there in wisely caution'd the Quakers would they have heeded it never to go beyond their Ken and had they done so without foolishly venturing upon things to come neither they nor their Prophesies had been exposed to so much Shame and Scorn as they have met with But suppose these Prophesies were of things to come such Generals coming to pass would no more establish Burroughs a Prophet than it would have done John Lilburn and others who foretold the downfal of their Enemies but if any Revolutions had happened for 20 years after in any parts of the known World they should have been brought in to have vouch'd him a Prophet of the Lord for George Whitehead wou'd have his Reader observe That these Prophesies were directed to all the World under the Title of a Standard listed up and an Ensign held forth unto all Nations a large Province indeed for him to pretend unto when he gave not the least sign to any of these Nations by which they should be convinced that he was commission'd as a Prophet from the Lord unto them whereas all Persons of old that pretended to be Prophets came attested with some sign or wonder as we have shewn before And yet p. 46. saith George Whitehead Edward Burroughs was a Man truly inspired with the Spirit of God and of Prophesy tho God never gave the World a convincing Proof thereof but what may not such Enthusiastick Persons vent to the People under the pretence of Prophesy if the Character of a Prophet may be allow'd them without giving any Evidence thereof if for such stuff as this Burroughs must be said to be inspired with the Spirit of Prophecy What shall we say to Anna Trapual who exceeded both the Quakers and most of the other Pretenders in exceâ—sive Fastings and in foretelling several things that came to pass afterwards She wou'd fast sometimes 9 11 14 Days She was told by the Spirit of the Soldiers See the Cry of a Stone p. 4 5 6 7 c. and p. 20 qaâ—ted in Christianity no Enthusiasm p. 96 100. coming to London she had a Vision of the Scots everthrow before Dunbar of the Fight with Holland of the dissolving the Long-Parliament and several Visions of Oliver's being Protector which she was troubled at and foretold Gidcen's i. e. his being laid aside yet after all she brands the Quakers as a delirous deluded People Let them tell him viz. Oliver of his Sins and tell him with Humility and Tears not as those deluded Spirits that go running about the Streets and say we have such Visions and Revelations who come out with their great Speeches of Vengeance Judgments and Plagues Oh but thine who come from thee thou givest them Humility Meekness Bowels Tears which was indeed most like to the true Prophets Jer. 9. 1. who were mightily affected with the Miseries they foresaw coming upon a People but how cheap and mean is Prophesy made by such as Fox Burroughs and others of their Order assuming it Let the Reader please to observe what trifling things they advance as Prophesies rather than lose the Honour of being accounted Prophets Upon the proclaiming King Charles 2 d. some Queries A Visitation of Love unto the King and the Royalists p. 4 5. were sent to the Quakers which this Edward Burroughs answered The first Query was Whether you or any of you that did pretend to Inspiration and Revelation did foresee or was it reveal'd to you that ever Charles Stuart should be proclaimed King to reign in England any more Now rather than be thought in the dark here see what he reckons up for Visions and Revelations from God This says he was not contrary to that which some of us have seen For thus much was said by George Fox in a Letter to Oliver Crâ—mwel What and if for and because of thy Wickedness in the sight of God he should raise up the Cavaleers and make them Instruments in his hands to accomplish his Wrath upon thee even like as he made thee once his Instrument to overthrow them Here saith Burroughs the thing was believed to be possible and it is now come to pass even as was seen and believed Spectatum admissi risum tenâ—atis Was ever such things call'd Visions and Revelations before Because the thing was possible for God to do tho' it was not done in Oliver's Days which the passage in that Letter seems to refer unto nor yet neither during his Son's Rule and Government God
chusing Parliaments several Years after King Charles return'd and we are not alter'd in the least our Principles being no other now than they were at first Indeed we may see Cause otherwise to word the Matter but our Intentions are the same as George Whitehead tells us which Words we leave to the Consideration of wise Men notwithstanding all his Palliations of them But Burroughs's scurrilous and unsavorory Language is not to be vindicated by all his Endeavours stiling the Ministry the Brief Discovery p. 18. Whore that rode upon the Beast and the Kings and Parliaments of England the Beast that carried her for 't was they that by Laws settled the Maintenance of the National Ministry and not the Usurpers in the late Times who were more ready to take it away and wanted not Encouragement from the Quakers who with great Impetuousness urg'd them unto it Whitehead ' s Truth and Innocency vindicated p. 35. He further rells us That when G. Fox had rung such a dreadful Peal in the Ears of Kings Rulers Judges Justices Lawyers and Constables that they must all down and cease and that the Saints should sing rejoice clap their Hands and be glad thereat because the Lord Jehovah would take the Government from them and reign yea Jesus Christ would rule alone and all those should be cut down with the same Power that cut down the King that Brief Discovery p. 19. reigned over the Nation Whitehead tells us this was wrote in the Year 1655 and he appeals to the whole Nation whether the Tree of the then Government in England hath not been cut down and removed A most wise and worthy Observation design'd if he could to blind the Readers Eyes with for Fox's Prophecy as George Whitehead calls it p. 34. was that the Government should be taken from all these for Jesus Christ to rule alone The King that reigned over the Nation was cut down and all Rulers Judges Justices Lawyers and Constables were to be cut down with the same Power which cut down the King and never to have these any more then we were to have another Earthly King for Jesus Christ was to rule alone And we appeal also to the whole Nation whether we have not all these Officers still Rulers Judges Justices and Constables every Branch of that fruitless Tree as he call'd it blessed be God we have them spring from a better Root though he had so thoroughly blasted them with his Thunder Did George Fox design hereby to make way for King Charles II. to come and rule over the Nations in the room of his Father who was cut down and erect the same Government which he had done we trow not for the Lord Jehovah was to reign and Jesus Christ was to rule alone As for the King who had once reigned over the Nation he was cut off and by Fox's several Papers given forth taken notice of p. 16. of Brief Discovery they desired no more Earthly Kings and indeed they made no more of Crown'd Heads than of Quoif-men and Cap-men whom they pack'd after him Whereas the Quakers presented a Declaration to K. Charles II. 1660. against all Plotters and Fighters saying therein All bloody Principles and Practices we as to our own particulars do utterly deny with all Outward Wars and Strife and Fighting with Outward Weapons for any end or under any pretence whatsoever And this is our Testimony to the whole World c. George Whitehead takes it very ill that we should make this Marginal Note against it Which Government viz. by Kings that they might not support they declare against the use of the Carnal Weapon but what more natural when as they not only used the Carnal Weapon before to support the Rebels in fighting against K. Ch. I. but boasted of their Services therein as more extraordinary than other Mens one of them being better at that sport than seven others and might be turned to seven other Men and this they did besides their Estates if they had any paying their proportion in Taxes and Customs which is all the support they now afford the Civil Government as he acknowledges and which thousands amongst them cannot do by reason of their Poverty and therefore ought to support it by their Personal Assistance when called thereunto but now they declare against fighting with Outward Weapons and this they say is their Testimony to the whole World But their Light dictated this to them but just then as Edward Burroughs confesses for several of them had been engaged in the Parliament Service in the Wars But we are now says he better informed than once we were for though we do now more than ever In his Visitat of Love to the King p. 10. oppose Oppression and seek after Reformation yet we do it not in the way of Outward Warring and Fighting with Carnal Weapons and Swords So that we may observe by the way that all their Principles are not now the same they were when they were first a People as Jos Wyeth asserts see Brief Discov p. 26. 27. and another of them who tells us God is the same Truth is the same his People the same and their Principles the same for they were once for fighting with Carnal Weapons but now says Edward Burroughs they are better See George Keeth ' s 4th Narrative p. 30 31. informed and we do certainly know and so testifie to the World as they say in their said Declaration to K. Ch. that the Spirit of Christ which leads us into all Truth will never move us to fight and war against any Man with Outward Weapons c. And yet alass They not only may be but 't is evident they are mistaken herein for now they can fight with Carnal Weapons as we have a famous Instance in the printed Tryals of George Keith and others in Pensilvania It fell out that some Pirates took a Sloop of the Quakers which put them into great distress how to regain their Sloop and yet preserve their Principle of not fighting with Carnal Weapons but that was impossible as the Case now stood and truly they might lose all their Sloops and all their Goods too if they would not oppose Force to Force which at last was resolv'd upon and by so doing they retook their Sloop and made some of the Pirats Prisoners Nay in a Letter sent to Dan. Leeds by a Person of Note which he printing in his Trumpet p. 145. an account is given him touching one Walter Clerk an Ancient Quaker Preacher and now Governor of Rhode-Issland That he had given several Commissions to Masters of Vessels and Privateers to fight the French and also had Commissioned the Officers of the Train-Bands under his Government sometimes heading the said Train-Bands himself on his lofty prancing-Steed Soldier-like citing for his Defence Eph. 6. 12. We wrestle not against flesh and blood c. And Edward Burroughs himself says We have chosen the Son of God to be our King and