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
incredible that they should worship a false God seeing they own and profess a false God All those who worship that as God professedly and according to their professed Principles which is not God are gross idolaters But the Quakers do so Therefore the Quakers are gross idolaters I shall not prove the first proposition which none will deny The second I prove by their own concession considered with the proof I have made of the light within every man and the Souls and Spirits of men not to be God but you may take the argument in this form All they who worship professedly and according to their § 2 professed principles the light within every man or the Souls and Spirits of any men as God worship a false God But so do the Quakers Therefore they worship a false God Who are not sprung from the noble gentle seed and to those honour is not due neither can we bow unto Shield of the Truth p. 25. them for if we should we should set the Devil in the room of God and give unto him that which is due to God So that to those who are Quakers and have the birth of the light within the noble and gentle seed as they call it to them with respects to that they may bow And withal he tells you it is such a bowing as is peculiar to God for where it is used to such who have not God in them in the Quakers sense it is a setting the Devil in the room of God If it be objected that they bow to none I answer § 3 that they pretend to own no worship but what is inward and yet they pretend to worship God and meet to that end so that if they worship this Light Within this Soul or Spirit in any men as they profess to worship God they give them or it Divine Worship There was a time when many gave honor and worship John Bolton Senior to James Naylor one now a grand Quaker not being then pleased with it James told him that if they did it to him as a Man he disowned it but if they did it to the Light Within him he accepted it If any doubt of the truth of this the Process against him in Richards Parliament will prove it And John Bolton the Elder the Quaker I speak of can tell you more of it and I doubt not but that for the reproach and worse things which would follow it we should soon find it a general practise with the Quakers to give visible worship to the Gods that dwell in the Temples of each others Carcases But I proceed to further proof He that will worship Christ in his fulness in the Majesty Penningtons questions c. p. 24. of his Glory Dominion and Power must learn to bow down at the lowest appearances of his Light and Spirit even at the feet of Jesus He calls it worship by Christ they all mean the Light Within and the lowest appearances must be bowed at which is the least measure of the Light Within Priest 'To say that Christ is within man is to ' worship Angels and not to hold the Head Christ This he makes the Priest to say but whether any did so or no it matters not to my purpose But his answer Answ Which none comes to witness Christ Fox great mystery p. 55. the Head but who witness him in them that the Angels must worship him that died and suffered at Jerusalem and they that worship him in them worship not the Angels and they that are not worshipping him in them are worshipping Men Devils or Angels By the Christ that died and suffered at Jerusalem they intend nothing less than the Son of Mary I have already shewed they utterly deny him to be the Christ and they own Christ suffering at Jerusalem in no other sense than they say he died suffered or was crucified in every one of themselves And that you may be convinced of the truth of what I here affirm mark what follows They are false Ministers who preach Christ Smith Prim. p. 9. Without and bid people believe in him as he is in heaven above but they are the true Ministers that preach Christ Within C. This is a great difference in their Doctrine for the one to pretend to preach Christ Without and another preacheth him Within Father Yes it doth make a great difference and hath no more fellowship together than the East hath with the West So that the Quakers Christ the Light Within is not only some part of the true Christ who may as Christ be Without as well as Within them but they are at such odds one with another that they can have no more fellowship than East and West and this is the Christ they worship and to worship any other as Fox saith is to Worship Men Devils or Angels Thus I have made good my second Argument and thereby proved them grâ—ss Idolaters And there is somewhat in their Idolatry that is S. 6. not common â—dolatry for it is Apâ—tatical Idolatry which is so earnestly and with such an Emphasis exclaimed against by the Lord Hath a Nation changed 2. Jer. 11. 12 their Gods which are yet no Gods but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit Be astonished O ye Heavens at this be ye horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord. And it is no less aggravated in that while the Heathen who had not their means to know God yet were gross Idolaters and as Pen saith true enough worshipped as the Aegyptians an Ape a Crocodile yea Herbs almost any thing these Wretches for better they are not worship that Natural Conscience that Spirit of Man which is not only a Creature an ignorant Creature but full of darkness errour pride all manner of sin and worst of all a Blasphemer of the God of Heaven and his Son Jesus Christ the dear Redeemer But what now doth it boot them to say they Worship § 7 and own the Creator and Christ and the Lord and only him and such like And what folly is it after such Evidences for any to say Sure they are not so had their principles are of a more tolerable at least stamp they are civil zealous people for Religion in their way How will nothing but drunkenness or robbery of men in their outward goods and such like vices render men wicked will not the highest affronts to Heaven must men be believed rather than God in his Word which hath spoken of such persons to arise 1 John 2 Chap. and many other places See how God excused those in the second of Jer. in the 19. 23 and 24. Verses Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God and that my fear is not in thee saith the Lord God of Hosts How canst thou say I am not polluted I have
Quakers Pope 4. Do the Popish Councils with or without the Pope pretend the Spirit to be present with them and its Authority for all their Determinations to be Infallible Wherein do the Quakers differ from the same Arrogancy when they affirm themselves to meet by the Operation of the Spirit of Truth That the presence of the Lord is with them in their Confulâ—s and then testifie and impose them in the name of the Lord 5. Do the Romists call the Pope or the Pope with his Conventicle of the Prelates the Church and impose their Sentiments and Determinations as the mind and Laws of the Church The Quakers are herein not a hairs-breadth differing from them For that which they call the Light and Sense of the Body and its Determinations is no other than the Dictates and Opinions of George Fox and some of the Leading Quakers which yet are imposed on the rest of the Quakers as the Light of the Body or of the Church of Christ 6. Do the Papists obtrude a submission of the private Sentiments and Opinions of any of their Members to the Determination of the Pope or Pope and Council So do the Quakers requiring That no mans particular Opinion do lift up it self against the Light of the Body but be determined thereby and acquiesce therein 7. Do the Papists reject the Scriptures from being their Rule while they advance Traditions in their rooms The Quakers have gone beyond them who give not that Authority to the Scriptures which the Papists allow them and to over-match the Popish Traditions bring in the Doctrine of Good ancient Friends as their Rule while the Scriptures are denied that Preferment 8. For Implicite Faith the Quakers are no way inferiour to the most strict Votaries of Rome The pretended Light and Inspiration of their Leaders they have a swallow for that a Monster as big as a Whale will pass without haesitation And that these pretended Inspirations are indeed from the Spirit of God they have no other proof but the Opinion of their Infallibility or the Miracles in Spirit which George Fox talks of which are as indemonstrable as the other 9. The continual Sacrifice of Christ in the Popish Mass hath a good Preparative in that Principle of the Quakers That Christ in them doth offer up himself a living Sacrifice to God for them by which the wrath of God is appeased towards them 'T is but removing the invisible Sacrifice from the dark and close corner within to the Altar in some visible sign 't is all one Which may in time appear as agreeing to the light as W. Penn's Ceremony of keeping the Hat off in Prayer doth fitly signifie the Veil removed from their hearts It would yet seem a lame Comparison between the Papists and Quakers if among the Quakers there be no Idols nor yet the Image of the Pope the greatest Idol of all the rest But the Jesuites and Factors of Rome have not been such unskilful Artists and unfaithful Servants to their Master as to do their work so imperfectly 10. If the Light within be not God as certainly it is not then do they professedly give Divine Worship to a Creature or to an Imagination of their own framing And if the Souls and Spirits of men are God or a part of God and of his Being by their Principles which are as truly their Principles as words can express then they are Idolaters with a witness 11. But the Romists give Divine Worship to Saints which is not as most believe the Quakers Idolatry If I do not prove them herein to overmatch them I am greatly mistaken and whether I am or not I will leave it to my Readers judgment The Quakers Worship as they profess is inward Worship which all confess to be the most excellent part of Worship And therefore if they affirm Worship to be given to those whom they put in the room of Saints it must be acknowledged that they worship them though their bodies bow not down to them They profess to worship those who are sprung from the noble gentle Seed and that with Divine Worship and to bow down to the lowest appearances of Christs Light and Spirit Yea George Fox tells us That not to worship Christ in them is to worship Men Devils or Angels This kind of Idolatry may explain the mystery of the Quakers looking so devoutly for a considerable season in each others faces when they meet continuing all the while in a deep silence And there are sufficient witnesses living of the bodily and visible Worship which James Naylor received from divers of them Herein they exceed the Papists Idolatry in the number of their Idols being all that have Christ in them or that are sprung from the noble gentle Seed viz. All thorow Quakers And in the quality of their Idol-Saints for in the room of S. Peter Paul the Virgin Mary are William George c. who are as like to those Saints as the blacker sort of white Devils And also in point of Time for the Papists worship their Saints after their death but the Quakers worship theirs while living See Quakerism no Christianity Chap. 16. for a fuller proof of this 12. To find a Pope or somewhat like him among the Quakers we need seek no further than George Fox who is among them a Pope and more than a Pope His Supremacy among the Quakers is sufficiently known among them and by some lamented But I shall descend to some particulaâ— instances in which George Fox equals or out-does the Pope in his Papal Arrogance and Blasphemy I could produce woful instances from the hand of credible Reports but I shall decline them and present you with a Letter to him from Josiah Coale one of the Quakers chief Ministers which contains a Map of a world of Blasphemies in a small room This Letter I had out of the Quakers Registry it being there preserved as a Testimony of the greatness of George Fox And as bad as it is I having printed it in my Vindication William Penn undertakes twice in print to vindicate every line of it DEar George Fox Who art the Father of many Nations whose Life reached thorow us thy Children even to the Isles afar off To the begetting of many again unto a lively Hope for which Generations to come shall call thee Blessed whose being and habitation is the power of the Highest in which thou rules and governs in Righteousness and thy Kingdom is established in peace and the encrease thereof is without end Doth the Pope pretend that from Peter's Chair Ministers were sent out to convert all those Nations who professed or do profess the Christian Religion Such an one is George Fox said to be for he is called The Father of many Nations and indeed of almost all who are Quakers who with them are the only Christians Doth the Pope pretend to be Christs Vicar and clothed with his power So is it pretended of George that his Habitation is in the power
Jesus of Nazareth he that then talked with them was he they have read it but you will not c. as if the one were exceeding opposite to the other viz. searching the Scripture whereas the true sense is it condemns you as irrational men that you should think to have eternal life in the Scriptures and will not believe their testimony I must remember to tell you that I do not take the Scriptures to be able to give eternal life to all that have them in their houses or heads or that do barely search them and not set thâ—â—r hearts according to its direction to find eternal life It were ten to one if I had not said so much some or other of them would have had a fling at me as making a Christ of the Scripture By what hath been produced you may be sure § 4 there is the best profit by Gods blessing on an honest reading of the Scriptures Young Timothy was bred up from a Child in the Holy Scripture and it was the commendation of his Mother and Grand-Mother for so educating him but can you think he experienced all he read before he read it some of them are prophetical of things to come Can any of you all experience things that never yet had an existence or being And should the Gentiles and Jews have been reproved for hearing Paul and Peter and Christ himself preach the Gospel and the Mediatour of it because they did not experience it in themselves But why should I use many words about such a cause the willing to understand may see its grossness and forthose that will be ignorant means signifie little to their cure CHAP. XI The Quakers put or render the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other I Could produce a thousand instances of this crime SECT I against the life and being of the Scriptures committed by the Quakers as their principle and duty This wickedness is their open high-way and beaten road If the Scripture had not been the word of the Spirit of God the revelation of his mind and will whose holiness and authority had its being from God its author the frame of it agreeing to the nature and will of God we would not think it worthy the name of Scripture in that peculiar sense which it hath obtained among Christians But if once we knew it opposite and an adversary to the Spirit so far at least that it must come to a parting and they that cleave to the teachings of the Spirit must forsake being taught comforted c. by the Scriptures and they that cleave to the Scripture teaching by the Spirit have forsaken the Spirit of God and his teachings we would own our such profession to be a denying the Scriptures yea should take our selves bound in so many words to deny it and send it as far out of the way as may be as dangerous to the just prerogative of the Spirit of God And if those who profess what I shall instance had any honesty in them they would tell the world they utterly deny the Scriptures to be what the Christian world hath accounted them and in plain and open words and testimonies as far as they can produce exhort and move them to lay them aside and have no more to do with them nor give them one good word least the adversary to the Spirit should in the hearts and lives of men be exalted against him For the proving of the Charge at the head of this Chapter take the words of James Naylor the § 2 Quakers proto-Confessor For all the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the Letter Naylor's love to the lost p. 8. and so of another ministration for the literal ministration is done away in the spiritual Here you have the commands in Spirit or by the Spirit put in opposition to the Letter which is with them the written Word or the Scripture and so far in opposition that as heat being opposite to coldness and light to darkness the one so far as it prevails expelleth the other by its contrariety and opposite qualities so the spiritual ministration or ministration of the Spirit banishes and expelleth that of the Letter as its enemy and contrary But if you will have a prodigious instance a non-such for Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures read what follows out of a great Writer of theirs William Smith And reading in the Scriptures that there were some who met together and exhorted Morning Watch. p. 22 23. one another and were edified and comforted one in another they observe and do as near as they can what they read of the Saints practice and so conceives a birth in the same Womb the Scriptures and brings it forth in the same strength as others do and they make haste thither and open their eyes to look at the things which are seen the Scriptures and this is pleasing to the carnal mind c. They Worship Order Ordinances Faith Practice understood by the written Word must all come under the severity of his judgment because they are Bastards and not Sons for these adulterous births have provoked the Lord and grieved his Spirit It would amaze a Christian and sound mind to read § 3 what is contained in the two pages in the Margin quoted of vilifying and reproach to the Scriptures and the Doctrines from thence received Traditions Ib. 22 23 of men earthly root darkness and confusion Nebuchadnezzars Image putrefaction and corruption rotten and deceitful all out of the life and power of God Apostacy the Whores Cup the mark of the Beast Babylon the Mother of Harlots Bastards brought fâ—rth of flesh and blood the birth that persecuts the Son and Heir viz. the Spirit of God or light within Babylons Brats and Children Graven Images contrary to him the everlasting powerful God c. If this be not opposing the Spirit of God to the Scripture and rendring them adverse to each other the Devil himself must despair of inventing words to express it by I conclude the proof of this Charge with the words § 4 Naylors love to the lost p. 30. of Naylor And of this sort are they who have their preaching to study and to seek at other mens mouths or from the Letter and have it not from the mouth of the Lord. Then with him and the Quakers who are of his mind what we have from the Scriptures we have not from the mouth of the Lord. I would know of the Quakers what they will make of the mouth of the Lord Do they take it to be some part of his body which is like our mouths the Organs of speech We have thought hitherto that God being a Spirit hath no mouth at all only to express things to our understandings he speaks by similitudes taken from such things we are acquainted withall and so whatsoever God reveals his mind by may be called his mouth And it will follow that the Scriptures are
most agrees with his words is in 2 Col. 14. blotting out the hand-writing of 2 Col. 14. opened Ordinances he might have added the next words that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross but these words were not for his turn The true meaning of the Text is that Jesus Christ § 3 by his death fulfilling what was signified by the typical Jewish Ordinances and abolishing the Mosaical Dispensation entred his house his Church to undertake the administration of its affairs which he in all things disposed as was suitable to the gracious nature of the Redeemer and that glory of Gods goodness that now shines in the Face of Jesus Christ But will this great Prophet G. F. say that the pure Gospel-Ordinances are against us contrary to us or as the Jewish standing in the way of the Conversion of the Gentiles through their burthensomness Will he say that Christ by his death abolished his own proper Ordinances Will he say that he nailed them to his Cross before they had a being divers of them not being formed till by his Apostles after his Resurrection Will he say that he blotted out the Lords Supper and nailed that to his Cross also as soon as he had instituted it as if he delighted in a fickle humour as the Quakers and to give life to an Ordinance and within twenty four hours put it to death yea to ingage his Disciples thereby to remember his death as often as they did it and yet abolish the Ordinance by his death and so take away all opportunity of remembring his death thereby And that phrase of the Angel seeking the living § 4 among the dead because they are taken with the sound is often used by them though not only beside the meaning of it but contrary to the sense of any Scripture I am sure it was never intended to prove Gospel-Ordinances dead You may hereby note what he denies viz. outward forms they are not to be touched and his reason is an excellent one the Saints have Christ in them At another time he will say Moses Abraham and the Old-Testament Saints had Christ in them and that in their own sense and yet I hope he will give us leave to believe that it was their duty to observe Gods forms But I wonder not that they that hold not fast the form of sound words are so easily perswaded to let go the forms of sound worship Let us hear another For this I say that the Father hath given his Son James Nayloâ— Love to lost p 52. §. 5. for a Leader and Guide to all Ages and into and out of all forms at his will and in his way and time in every Generation and therefore it is that all who know his will herein cannot endure that any visible thing should be set up to limit his leadings in Spirit Here you have the Tenet and the pretended reason of it all that know his will herein that is the Quakers cannot endure that any visible thing should be set up c. But what if Christ have set them up If they can prove as strongly that Christ hath pulled them down and is departed from them as we can that Christ did set them up and is present with and in them we will quickly in that point turn Quakers But alas the proof that he hath done so is but this they limit his leadings in Spirit that is the Quakers fancies But if he intended the Spirits leadings in a true sense it is very strange that the Gospel and Law of Works should be both sick of one disease That which was ordained to life I found to be unto death The Ordinances of the Gospel were ordained to inlarge and raise the spirits of the Saints but quite contrary they are found to limit and imprison the spirit Sure it must be Satans spirit and not Christs to whom the Ordinances are such Chains That I may shew you the Quakers Babel let us § 6 hear Isaac Pennington's Light speak contrary to the Light of G. Fox When Israel was bent to seek after Isaac Pennington concerning Vnity p. 1. the Lord and applied their hearts to wait upon him in fasting and earnest supplications wherein my heart hath often had the testimony that they were accepted of him and had many times the seal of his presence and power among them yea my heart did truly unite with and enjoy the Lord in what was then given forth and I can never deny the truth and worth of that Dispensation though I know it was swallowed up by the breaking forth of a more lively Dispensation This he saith he found about the beginning of the late troubles How doth this agree to G. Fox's nailing all those forms to Christs Cross at his death and then blotting out these Ordinances § P. 38. I deny that God did ever or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thou callest the means of Grace C. Atkinson But yet I. P. will needs have them swallowed up now though he gave them leave to live 1600 years more mercifully however than G. who would have them stifled in the womb or crucified so soon as born But Pennington is so cruel by that time he arrives to p. 38. that he saith Such of the people of God as do not follow the Lord perfectly out of the City of abomination visible worship but be found in any part thereof when the Lord cometh to judge her the Lord will not spare her nor the spirits of his dearest people who are found there c. Both by the Scripture and their own confession Christ did not long since dwell in those Ordinances which we call Gospel-Ordinances and the Quakers Babylons forms and abominations Until they shew us better grounds for Christs remove than the secret witness of the Spirit within them which we can prove to be a spirit of delusion by Scripture reason and sense it self let none who follow not Christ blind-fold have the worse opinion of Ordinances for all the Quakers talk I now come to particulars and begin with the Gospel-Ministry They deny and subvert the Ministry of the Gospel SECT III railing on the Ministers as the vilest persons and veriest Cheats in the world making ill use of those Scripture words Smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered Next to the Scripture they lay not their batteries against any thing so much as against the Ministers of the Gospel and have so little honesty as to take up all that is to be found on any one or any that pretend to be the Ministers of Christ and cast it in the faces of all without distinction as equally guilty And for their more particular attempts those who are the most faithful and serious are the objects of their greatest fury I shall not blot paper with their railing First They deny all Ministry that hath a mediate § 2 â—arnâ—l ' s Shield
divine things read the 46 â—7 Verses where he is said to be disputing with the Doctors and that his answers were astonishing to the Hearers Fifthly Apostolical inspirations were intended by the Spirit for a divine and authoritative Obligation to the Faith Order Life and Consciences of others and arâ— therefore rightly placed among the Scriptures or written Word If any man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that I write are the Commandments of the Lord. But the teachings of the Spirit to the Saints as Saints are no such obligation any farther than they agree with and have their authority from the mind of God revealed in the Scriptures Sixthly Apostolical teachings and inspirations § 11 were of authority to constitâ—te a new order and poâ—ity of the Church to which the former though of divine authority in their season were to give place Yea those Doctrines and Promises so revealed to them by God and by them declared as such are binding to our faith and practice although we cannot discern any of the like import in the Scripture before written But the teachings and illuminations by the Spirit of the Saints as such do not add to or change any thing of the Doctrine or Order established by Christ and his Apostles neither are they contrary to the written Word nor in point of Doctrine beside the sense of it or beyond it To conclude the teachings of the Spirit and its § 12 motions in the Saints which are most purely divine and immediate in our days are the bringing to remembrance explaining to the understanding imprinting on the affections the matter contained in the Scripture and directing them to understand Providences to act in their occurrent occasions suitable to his will revealed in the Scripture and moving their wills to â— compliance with his but are all to be tryed by the Scripture and not the Scripture by them Some I believe will reply How did the Prophets SECT VI and Apostlâ—s when they received immediate Revelations â—nâ— were inspired of God know it was no delâ—sion and it they knew it being men as we are why may not we I dâ—râ— not attempt to pry into the most secret ways of God and undertake to give you a history and description to the full of the Spirits workings on the Souls of his Prophets in conveying his will to them and satisfying their judgments and Consciences that they were the inspirations of God Yet I shall say so much of them as may satisfie any willing Reader to be informed that they had more to evince it than any have now and we have enough to convince us that they were inspired First Whoever they were that were givers forth § 2 of the Law or the Covenants in their first promulgation had the Testimonies of God for them by Gods outward Call to that as their special Office and his promise of guidance in the discharge thereof signs and wonders wrought either by God immediately or by their hands as the Apostles Jesus Christ Mâ—ses Secondly All the Prophets have a Testimony of their being inspired of God by Miracles which they wrought or by the quoting Scripture out of the Books written by them or bearing their names in the New Testament by Christ or his Apostles Thirdly For the Historical part which hath a § 3 respect to the things done within their knowledge as men the Writers of that or those parts of the Scripture were either under the Testimonies of Miracles or were by some express Testimony of God rendred holy men and being so qualified they would not write more than they knew and could not easily be mistaken in matter of fact and being Scripture is said by Paul to be of Divine inspiration Fourthly All those Books of the Old Testament § 4 out of which somewhat is not quoted in the New as Scriptuer were received as Scripture by the Jews and then Church of God and that in the time of many Prophets to whom Divine Testimony hath been given and it cannot with any shew of Reason be supposed that those Writings should be falsly fathered on God or taken for Authentick Scripture and the Prophets not discover and reprove it whereas far less heinous evils than that would have been were often the subject matter of their sharp reprehensions Let any Quaker or other give me or themselves § 5 the like satisfaction of their being immediately inspired and they shall have my leave to hold such an Opinion of it But for those inspirations which they say many had before the Scriptures were written the mention of their time will give full satisfaction it will be a poor Argument to prove men are now inspired as they considering they had not the revealed written Word at all and we have iâ— sâ— fâ—ll 〈…〉 necessary for any to know are therein included and thereby expressed The second thing I must reply to is what the Quakers § 6 frequently object viz. That we make the Scripture the Judge of the Spirit whereas the Spirit gave forth the Scriptures I answer this is for want of judgment in the Objectors Far be it from us to bring the to-be-adored Spirit of God to any mans Bar for judgment to be passed on it or any thing that is his immediate work or word All we profess in this matter to make the Scripture a Judge or Determiner of is whether this or that be the mind of the Spirit or no but if once it appear to be the voice and mind of the Spirit we profess it our duty to reverence and submit to it And we being certain that the holy Scriptures were given forth from God and that God is not opposite to himself we conclude that what is contrary to the Scripture cannot be the Word of the Spirit because then the Spirit should bear witness against it self and the word of the Spirit would be contrary to the word of the Spirit And moreover if any shall pretend to abolish by § 7 the Authority or inspiration of the Spirit those Ordinances and Institutions which were setled by Christ or Christ in his Apostles it would be unreasonable to credit them without the same Testimonials such Miracles as they wrought by which they were erected But the Quakers are far enough from shewing such a zeal for their pretended Ministry and Order And further we are obliged not to receive another Gospel and that by the Holy Spirit though an Angel from Heaven should preach it and we are warned not to believe any other as Truth Divine against it though many wonders should be wrought for confirmation The third thing I must reply to is that our knowledge § 8 of the mind of God by the Scriptures is uncertain I answer If you mean a knowledge of all Gods mind you are not to expect it if you mean all that is there contained it is not necessary and you may go to Heaven and do your duty without such a vast knowledge and if you
endeavour it in your places and as God hath given you the means it will not be your sin much less your condemnation that you do not know it all Sure there are many Babes in Christs Family yet they are Children and all are first Babes and that would be a Monster never yet seen in the Church of Christ a new-born Babe knowing the mind of God contained in the Scripture as fully as the most serious Christians of the longest standing Jesus Christ himself grew in wisdom and in stature and I intreat you be content to leave a little of the mind of God to be found out in the Scripture by the Generations to come If you mean our knowledg of the mind of the Spirit is uncertain so far as it is necessary for our living in an acceptable mâ—nner to God soberly righteously and godly in this present world and to attain Heaven at last it is a great mistake for if pride lust and idleness stand not in our way there is no person that hath a few grains of reason but may understand so much of the mind of God by the Scripture as is necessary for him to know to his Eternal Salvation But if you talk of the Scriptures being a dead Letter § 9 and not moving and teaching with a voice or impulse without our reading praying and applying it in the Lords strength you talk at a strange random as if God had given us our eyes and brams only to look after the world and the things thereof but in the knowledge of God we must be meerly passive A KEY TO THE QUAKERS Usurped and to most Unintelligible PHRASES THere is not any thing in the Quakers Method of delu ding which doth more tend to the insnaring of unwary Souls than their asserting their False Antichristian and Anti-Scriptural Tenets under Scripture-words and Phrases and in those very terms wherein are expressed the Truths of God while in the mean time they mean nothing less than their true import and what people who are not well acquainted with their Tenets suppose them to mean By this Artifice they beget a good Opinion of themselves and Errours with too many and by degrees so vitiate their Principles that in a short time they are prepared to imbrace the grossest Errours bare-faced I shall therefore as a work of no small use to such who are attempted by them or who have a Call or opportunity to deal with them for their convincing or confuting or the securing others who are in danger by them give you a true and candid account of their sense and meaning of a multitude of Scripture and Religious Phrases which they utter and apply to their falshoods and also of their new-coyn'd Words and Phrases which are more peculiar to their Sect and Notions I dispose them Alphabetically for their more easie finding on any occasion A. Above NOt in locality but excellency so Christ and Heaven they say are above i. e. excellent and may therefore be nothing but what is within them The Anointing The Light within Christ the Spirit essentially Assembling Meeting in Spirit Assurance What they feel in themselves not what they believe from the Scripture the inward witness viz. experience teachings of the light within B. Babylon All the Ordinances Worship Faith Obedience that have any thing of a form or visible in them or that are gathered from the written Word or pretended to be so Baptism Not any thing by Water but the Spirit i. e. the Quakers Spirit to an obedience and devotedness to the light within and inspirations and immediate teachings Blasphemy To speak against the light within every man to be Christ and God and what they hold it to be Blind Not to acknowledge the light within to be Christ not to know him by immediate imspiration The Blood of Christ The Life of Christ i. e. the power of the light in them The Spiritual Blood which they say came down from Heaven and was part of a Spiritual Body which Christ brought with him from thence which dwelt for a while in the Man Jesus who died at Jerusalem Salvation purifying reconciling by the Blood of Christ Not by the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross but by the Blood of the Spiritual Body of flesh blood and bones which they say Christ descended in which is in every Quaker as really as in the Man that was the Son of Mary and so Salvation is by no other blood but what is in themselves The Body of Christ Not that which was crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem in Judea but the spiritual Body aforesaid which they say took up its Habitation and Tabernacled in the Body of Jesus the Son of Mary and so the Body of Christ is as much in them as it was in him Bondage Not only our selves in bondage to sin but the light within the seed of God or Christ being in bondage under the disobedience of men Born again Regeneration Perfect obedience to the light within as Christ and God Comprehending Brain A large understanding or a desire of Knowledge by the use of the Rational Faculty C. Call The motions of the Light Christ in the Conscience Christ Not the Man Christ Jesus the Son of Mary which the Godhead assumed and united to its self in one person but the light within every man a Christ that had nothing of Adams Nature whose Body now in being was not created or had a beginning in time which was never visible to the bodily eye Not in any respect distinct from God the Father and God the Holy Ghost Christ in the Saints Not Christ without them an Object of the faith and love within them but his very Being his Divinity his Soul and his Body consisting of spiritual Flesh Blood and Bones not his Image and Likness but the self-same in his Being and Essence Christs coming In the Spirit or his spiritual coming into his people i. e. no other but the prevailing motions of the light within or by inspiration The Command in Spirit By immediate inspiration and motion Comprehension Fleshly Comprehensions That Opinion or Belief which is grounded on a rational demonstration though from the written Word of God Carnal All things of a Religious concern which we are not enlightned about and moved to by immediate inspiration yea whatever hath a form or is visible to the bodily eye Fleshly Conceivings Those Opinions or expressions whose beginning and birth are in the humane faculties very great weakness if not sin and unbelief contrary to the assured and undoubted dictates of the Infallible Light and Spirit within them Condemnation The reproofs and sentencings of the light in the Conscience Conversion A full obedience to the light in the Conscience a total freedom from the prevailing of any sin such a state as the Disciples of Christ had not attained when Christ was crucified nor Paul when he wrote the Epistle to the Romans Crucifying of Christ Not that crucifying on the Cross of Wood but a
light within They put to their meanings Expounding or giving the sense of the Scripture however true in its self if not by immediate meer Divine Revelation In the Meekness In the light within Christ which is meekness in the abstract and between whom and their spirits there is no distinction Ministers of the Everlasting Gospel Both men and women Ministers among the Quakers who declare from immediate inspiration not from the Letter of the Scripture Ministers of Antichrist Babylon Idol-Shepherds All such who have a mediate Call from man or preach from the Letter of the Scripture Ministration of the Spirit The immediate teachings and motions of the Spirit exclusive of all forms in worship the will though sanctified in chusing and all premeditation and acting by the prescription of the written Word Miracles Sometimes Miracles in Spirit invisible to bodily senses or humane understanding The Star of the Morning the Morning of the first day Christ the light within Moved by the Holy Ghost An inward immediate impulse of the light and power within From the Mouth of God Immediate teachings from the light within excluding all other Mysteries of the Kingdom Mysteries of God Such things as the faculties of man have no power to understand or express no not from or by the Scripture such things as are only sensâ—ted in the experience An allegorizing the Scripture N Natural man Every man that is not a Quaker The Natural man Every thing in man which is distinct from God or the light within The New man Christ the light within considered essentially They did by Nature the things contained in the Law By the new Nature which is Christ the light contained in the Law within the heart which is also Christ the light O Obedience of Christ What is done by men by the power life and strength of the light within them Obedience in Spirit Wrought by immediate impulses of the Spirit The Kingdome of God cometh not with observation The light within and its prevalencie which they call and that only the Kingdom of God is not obtained any way by the study or consideration of the Scripture or any thing without us Observers of times Such as keep any certain days as separated to holy use as the Lords-day or such as propose an hour or two to be spent in the Worship and Ordinances of God or any time with limitation Christ the Offering The light within Offeringâ— up of Christ The light within disobeyed or contesting with the lusts yea or the right reason of men Officers of the Church Invisible Officers and Overseers who do all their work in Spirit Gods Off-spring A part and measure of the very being of God continuing to be in a degree as good and divine as God himself The Souls and Spirits at least of the Quakers which they say came out of God The Old man All that is disobedient or not conformable to their light within One-ness with God Christ Spirit Not relative nor by love or faith or Mystical Membership but such an oneness as leaves no room for distinction between God Christ the Spirit and such whom they say are one with Christ Openings of Life Springings of Life Sudden workings to action or impressions on the mind and affections proceeding from within of their own accord and motion Overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of his Testimony All amounts but to an obedience to the light within which Smith saith was the Lamb of God whom John bid the Jews behold and the force of the light and life within which with them is the blood i. e. the life of the Lamb. P Put Christ to pain Resisting the motions of the light within The painted Whore Not only the Papals with their irreligious Pomp but all the good words thoughts and actions of any sort of men who derive them not from the immediate teachings and motions of the light within yea all forms of Worship according with the Precepts and Examples of the Scripture and they are with them the most painted who come nearest to the Scripture as a Rule The People of God They and none but they who profess the light within every man to be Christ the only Saviour and Teacher and give up themselves to its conduct as such Perfect Perfection Not that which is sincere or a perfection of parts or sanctification throughout in part but a being without sin in the least remains or stains of it Persecution Not only a penalty or hurt inflicted on their Bodies or Estates but also a speaking or writing against their Principles in the most purely rational and Scriptural Authority The seed in Prison and Captivity and Bondage The light within not obeyed as Christ and God Pictures and Images Not only those Images and Pictures that to the bodily eye represent Christ or God or the Saints and are adored with Religious Worship but all Worship Opinions Actions Words that are in imitation of the Examples and in obedience to the Precepts contained in the Scripture Men-pleasâ—rs They who comply with men though in things not only lawful but also to edification Pollutions of the world Not only things in themselves sinful as drunkenness swearing lying c. but also whatever Customs they dislike and decline as Cuffs Ribands putting off the Hat signs of respect c. which they say are from the Devil All recreations as Bowling Ringing though used seasonably and moderately The Power of God The Light within the Christ within Praying in Spirit Secretly or inwardly not with the voice by the immediate impulses of the light and power within without the exercise of so much as the conceptions of man Prayer Christ the light within is sometimes by them so called The presence of the Lord. The powerful influences and impressions of the light within either to terrour or peace and joy The pride of Man A not submitting to their light and especially receiving tokens of respect and wearing Ribands Cuffs and Lace The Priests A word of scorn put on all indifferently who are separated to the work of the Gospel-Ministry by men or that receive maintenance for their work The Worlds Professors All that are not Quakers Formal hypocritical Professors All that walk in the Ordinances of Christ commanded or prescribed in the Scripture or in the order of the Gospel Spirit of Prophecy Immediate impulses and inspirations False Prophets All that act not by immediate Revelation Prophecying falsly How true soever in it self if not from their spirit Publicans and Sinners All that are not Quakers Walking in the pure Walking after the dictates of the light within Purifying the heart by the Bloud of Christ Acting and being disposed according to inward motions by the light and life of the Christ within them Q Quenching the Spirit Resisting the motions of the Light within Quickned in the Life Stirred up by the power within R Raised to life Conversion to Quakerism Ravening brain Studying and following after Divine Knowledge or the knowledge
of divine things Inwardly ravening from the Spirit A recourse to the Scripture or any thing else except their spirit for sight and understanding in the things of God Carnal reasonings Reasonings of the Flesh All use of the understanding and judgment of man for searching and finding out truths about Divine and Spiritual things Received from the Lord. By immediate Revelation Reconciliation Giving up themselves to the light within The Word of Reconciliation Christ the light within The Lords Redeemed Those who are conformed to the light within Redemption A being reduced into the state of Adam in Innocency not what was wrought by Christ in the Flesh 1600 years since The Redeemer Not that Jesus Christ who is ascended above and beyond the Stars but the light and power within every man as such Refreshings in Spirit Something they are pleased with they know not why and come by they know not how As the Quakers who were refreshed at the Dutch-womans declaring while they understood not a word she spake The New man CHRIST The rest of the people of God A quiet and peace within though from a blind deluded conscience The Resurrection of Life Obedience to the light in this world Resurrection of the Body Resurrection of the light within to a dominion in the man for with them the Body is Christ and Christ is the light within Also the Body which was a servant to sin being acted by the light and power within Revelations Not Scripture-Revelations but what come by immediate inspiration to them Righteous ones Such as are without sin Righteâ—usness of Christ That which is wrought by the power and conduct of their Christ the light within The Root of Jesse The Light within The Royal Seed Christ and every Quaker They who run and not sent All that teach the Gospel from the Scripture and not by Immediate Inspiration Reprobation Sin S The Sabbath Every day the present Rest and Heaven of the Quakers The Sacrifice of Christ The light within obeying or they obeying in the light within Having Salt in themselves Having Christ in themselves The Salt of the Earth Christ the light within Salvation Conversion to the obedience of the light within Sanctification All one with Justification all one with Christ obedience to the light Building on the Sand. Making the Scripture a Rule of Faith and Life The Saviour The light within every man According to the Scriptures By immediate inspiration as the Prophets and Apostles received the mind of God The Seed The light within or the Christ essentially within the Eternal Word that which was in the beginning with God The Seed of Abraham according to the Flesh The Eternal Word Christ as God Self-righteousness All that is not from the immediate motions within Shadows All Forms and external worship The Scriptures which Pen saith are as the shadow of the true Rule viz. living touches Idol-Shepherds The Ministers who have a mediate Call or teach out of the Scripture Shut out of the Scriptures Cannot understand them have nothing to do with them Signs and Miracles in Spirit No body can tell what All flesh must be silent Nothing must be said but what comes by immediate revelation from the Spirit for all else is the voice of man and of the flesh In the Simplicity Without the use of humane understanding or if you will out of your wits To live in Sin Sinners Such as have any remains of sin in them or do at any time in any sort commit sin Slâ—ying the Witnesâ— Disobeying the light within but especially a resolved rejecting it as our only Rule Teacher and Saviour Sons of God Only the Quakers Soul A part or measure of God Speaking in the Spirit By immediate Inspiration Spirit of Antichrist That which leads to Forms though Christ's and Gospel-Forms All that opposes the light within to be Christ False Spirits They that ground their Doctrine on the Scripture or any mediate thing Spirit of Bondage Being under the power of any sin Spirit of God The light within every man God the Father Son Holy Ghost without distinction Spirit of the World Whatever is not conformable to the light within as Christ The Spiritual man Christ or Christ in every Quaker The Lord hath Spoken What comes to them by immediate inspiration The Lord hath not Spoken Whatever is not by immediate inspiration though it be written in the Scripture A true Christians State Being taught by God immediately not by the Letter The statutes of God The Law in the heart or within They steal my word every one from his Neighbour Teaching Doctrines as the Word of the Lord taken out of the Scripture Stoln words All that we have out of the Scriptures and not by immediate inspiration to our selves In the Stilness An unactive attending to the light within Standing in the Counsels of God Conformity to the Teachings of the light within and abiding therein Studying for Divine Knowledge and what comes thereby from the Scripture Carnal toil birth and wisdom of the flesh Scraping in the Scriptures The Woman in Subjection Weakness must subject it self to the man Christ The Supper of the Lord. Spiritual joy or joy in the Spirit from the presence and influence of the light within all eating and drinking to God and in remembrance of Christ Sword of the Spirit Christ the light within What is declared by immediate inspiration of the Spirit Synagogues of Satan The Assemblies of any sort of people for Divine Worship who are not Quakers T Christ Tabernacling in the outward Vessel Christs dwelling for a little time in the body born of the Virgin Mary The like of every Quaker Taking away the Tables All Forms and Books as useless in the things of God Taught of God Taught immediately from the light within Teachings of Men. All that is not immediately inspired though the sense and words of the Scripture Cease from man From the Teaching by Man Outward Court of the Temple given to the Gentiles All forms of Worship all visible Worship being the Worship of Heathens not of Christians Testifie to the light in the Conscience Appealing or speaking to Christ the light within Bearing Testimony to the light Declaring for and from the light within The Testimony and the Testaments Christ the Light and Law within Thanksgiving Give thanks in Spirit or inwardly Thieves and Robbers All that are Teachers by a mediate Call All Ministers but the Quakers All that walk by Scripture-light Traditions of men The Scripture or written Word Trading with the Scripture Having maintenance for a Ministry Ministring from the Scripture or written Word The Birth In Travel The time of wrestling betwixt convictions of the light within and perfection Trembling and Quaking The horrour and consternation that they are under from as they say the wrath of God while the flesh is judged and they are in the hell of condemnation which is all the bell they hold that I can find aâ—d this trembling and quaking they say is such as
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
they boasted of it as an Infallible Cure 6. That therefore they now reduce the Light within each particular under the Superintendency of that they call the Light in the Body or Church of Christ which is no other than the Dictates and Impositions of those among them who assume that name and have the greatest interest to maintain it 7. That while they disown the Scriptures or Written Word to be a Rule of Faith and for tryal of Doctrines and Practices affirming the Spirit to be the only Rule they set up the Doctrines of GOOD ANCIENT FRIENDS i. e. of James Naylor who was bored thorow the Tongue for Blasphemy George Fox Edw Burroughs and such Wretches in its stead To which all must be Consentaneous or be condemned and by which their Ecclesiastical Censures must be passed 8. That the Faith they pretend to adhere unto claims no longer standing in this Testimony than good ancient Friends and what was delivered to the Authors of this Testimony I suppose by the foresaid good ancient Friends 9. That as great Disturbers and Contemners of Christian Congregations Ministry and Forms of Worship as they have been they having now set up such-like things of their own cannot digest the contempt and neglect of them from those Quakers who according to their Fundamental Principle oppose that among themselves which they all condemned in others 10. That to difference their Ministry Worship Meetings and Appointments of time to that end from theirs whom they condemn they father all on the Spirit of God calling themselves only its Instruments 11. That among the Quakers those who dissent from the Ruling party are as little endured as Dissenters among any whom they charge with Antichristianity and Oppression And upon persisting in their Non-conformity to the Dictates and Impositions of those who will call themselves the Church are ejected out of their Ministry Rule Office Dominion and Membership and shut out from having any thing to do in their Church-affairs yea and persecuted too so far as to be kept under with the power of God which is a Sentence that hath in it without their help an inexplicable as well as an unlimited sense 12. That they admit of none to their Debates about their more private and offensive Principles and ordering of their Ecclesiastical matters but such as they have made sure of and have well digested their Tenets or as they phrase it have a good understanding and true sense of things and are felt in a measure of the Vniversal Spirit 13. That the Counsel given by the leading Quakers is by them said to be the Counsel of the Wise-men and the Prophets 14. The Authoritative and Magisterial stile in which they express these Canons scil We declare and testifie We testifie in the Name of the Lord We warn and charge you 15. That they are very industrious for the suppressing of all Prints and Writings that have an ill Aspect on their Persons or Principles though published by Quakers No wonder then that their Votaries will not or dare not take the liberty of reading those Books which are published for their Conviction by professed Friends to their Souls who are as professed Adversaries to their Soul-destroying Opinions and Practices 16. 〈◊〉 their way of Licensing Books of theirs to be printed permits none to pass the Press but such as have the Approbation of the Tryers as they believe will answer the Witness of God i e. the Light which is the Quakers God and Guide even in their Adversaries From which it may be inferred That not only the corrupt Opinions but also all other Weaknesses and Extravagancies contained in their Books printed according to their Order may be fixed on not only their particular Authors but also on the Body of the Quakers and the Spirit by which they are led 17. That in all the matters contained in this Paper they ground not any Advice Counsel Charge or Determination on the Scriptures nor make any mention of their Direction or Authority while the Witness of God in Friends and the Doctrines of good ancient Friends are again and again made the Proofs and Tests of their proceeds By which 't is easily understood of what value or use the Scriptures are in their esteem It is not without ground of more than a Suspicion that the hand of the Jesuite hath been laying a Popish Plot in the business of Quakerism And although I was sometime as far from entertaining that Opinion as most I have found that in their Concerns which hath forced me into a strong Presumption of the truth of it And the more I understand them the more I am of that mind especially when I consider That the nearer they approach to any form the more of the Image of that Man of Sin appears upon them It was a cunning Artifice of Satan in his first Attempts by by his Quaking Instruments to draw them off from the Yoke of Christ in his Word and Ordinances by asserting That every man had a sufficient Light and Motion within himself which if heeded would be more effectual to render them perfect than all the Precepts and Rules in the Bible by which Pride Idleness and Libertinism is exceedingly gratified And when they were sufficiently distasted at and hardned against the holy Laws and Ordinances of Christ beyond hope of return then to fall on hammering those Bonds of his own to put upon them and frame them for his farther designs Wherein that Scripture is sadly verified by them While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption c. 2 Pet. 2. 19 c. In my Book entituled Quakerism no Christianity I gave a large account of the Quakers building their Babes on the same Foundations on which Popery as such is foun 〈…〉 viz. Contempt of the Scriptures pretences of Infallibility 〈…〉 t immediate Inspirations vid. Chap. 4. Sect. 7. and Chap. 12. Sect. 2. Those instances I produced in them had chiefly a relation to their Doctrines and Enthusiasm I shall now add some remarkable parts of their Discipline Order and Rule wherein they symbolize with Rome no less than in the former 1. Do the Papists pretend themselves to be the only Church and all other Professors of the Christian Religion to be Heretick The Quakers call themselves only the Body the Church of Christ and all others Antichristian Heathen and Infidels 2. Do the Papists by their little Juncto's which they call General Councils make Laws Canons and Constitutions beside and contrary to the Scriptures and impose them on their Members as of Divine Authority So do the Quakers 3. Do the Papists admit none into their Councils but such as are in Unity with their Church and acknowledg the Pope the Roman Head Neither will the Quakers admit any though professed Quakers into their Councils or to order any thing in their Church-affairs who are Dissenters from the Ruling party are not in Vnity with the Body or that comply not with George Fox the