Darkness and grand enemies of Souls especially the two great Antichrists the Roman Bishop and Church and the new Upstarts who hold the light within every man to be the Saviour Light Righteousness all who do not only as other erroneous or heretical persons a little eclipse or pervert the light of the Scriptures but attempt to pull it down out of the Firmament or render it a dark and useless body but as it receives Light from their Idol the one party to set up the Pope at Rome as absolute in matters of Religion The other to set up the Pope within as absolute and more than he in the little world of every individual man I shall within these following parallel lines give you a view though but in part how both these adversaries do openly spit their venom and discharge their shot against the holy Scriptures And considering how they in most things jump together in the contempt of and detracting from the Scriptures you may conclude that although the Jesuite was not the first contriver of the Quakers grand notion of the Light within to be Christ which I am verily perswaded of to be true yet that he was a promoter of the building erected on that foundation we may easily guess by his mark on so many parcels of it yet I must say that the Romanists were much more sound in their opinions of the Scriptures until about Luther's time wherein the Protestants were too hard for them at those weapons I give you the mind of the Spirit of God expressed in the middle collumn the Quakers Tenets on the left and the Jesuites and Papists on the right hand The Quakers Opinions and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scriptures are not the rule of Faith and life Parnel Shield of the Truth The Spirit of God speaking by the Scriptures Thou shalt not turn aside to the right hand or to the left viz. Gods Statutes and Judgments Deut. 5. 23 32. The Jesuists and Papists Tenets and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scripture is not the rule of Faith Greg. de Valentia Jesuita libro quarto analyseos Carranza in prima controver The Scriptures are not the judge and determiner of Controversies in religious matters Smith Prim. He mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Acts 18. 28. He had put the Sadduces to silence Mat. 22. 3. viz. by Scripture Neither the holy Scripture nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture is the supream and general judge of matters of Faith Beccanus item Gretserus Jesuitae in Colloquia Ratisbon It is impossible for the Scripture to be judge of doubts concerning Faith and the Christian Religion Lorichius Jesuita in fortalitio Matthew Mark Luke and John The beginning of the Gospel of Christ The Gospel is not Scripture it was commanded is not the Gospel Paper sent into the World pag 2. the Son of God Mark 1. 1. to be preached but not to be written Carranza Jesuita in colloquio The light within every man is the rule and guid and not the Scriptures and this light is infallible and will teach you all things Smith Catechis If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6. 23. Vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild Asses Colt Job 11. 12. The Tradition of the Church i. e. Roman is the first chief certain and infallible rule from which any thing may be known to be true and certain to be held in matters of faith and Christian Religion Carranza Jesuita in prima controversia The Tradition of the Church is the very rule of Faith and Piety Pighius The Spirit was before the Scripture therefore we must be led by the Spirit not by the Scripture the Spirit with the Quaker is the light within Smith Prim. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness 2. Tim. 3. 16. We say that the Church is a rule before the Scripture and more known than the Scripture Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scriptures are the Traditions of men Naylor's love to the lost Holy men of God spake the Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. Traditions of the Church to be preferred before the Scriptures Frequent among the Papists Light without must be guided by light within John Story short discovery Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 29. I have hid the wâ—rd in my heart that I might not sin against thee Psal 119. 11. The Scripture is to be ruled by the Church and not the Church by the Scriptures Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scripture is a dead Letter carnal Letter Ink and Paper Parnel Shield of the Truth The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life Joh. 6. 63. For the Word of God is quick and powerful Heb. 4. 12. The Scripture hath no voice it cannot pass judgment viva voce Beccanus Gretserus in Colloquio Ratisbon The Scriptures are but dumb Judges Pighius controversia tertia The Scriptures may be burnt Frequent The Scriptures cannot be broken John 10. 35. Write this for a Memorial in a Book c. Exod. 17. 14. All the Scriptures in the common and native Tongues are to be burnt by a Law The light within was the rule from the beginning and not the Scriptures Smith Prim. The Scriptures were a rule so soon as they had a beginning The Fathers of the Church were expert in the Traditions of the Church from the beginning as being more effectual than the Scriptures Pighius Jesuita in Colloquio Dry cavelling Letter-mongers Scraping in the Scriptures Will. Pen Spirit of Truth c. Fisher veluta quaedam c. An eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18 24. And Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath days râ—asoned â—ith them out of the Scriptures Acts 17. 2. These Lutherans and Hâ—gonots are all for the Letter Frequent He that prefers the Scriptures before the light within is blind in darkness Parnel Shield of the Truth To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because they have no light in them Isa 8. 20. He that shall say the Scripture is to be believed rather than the Church is to be condemned as a Heathen and a Publican and a Sâ—ranger to Gods people Noguera libra secâ—ndo de Ecclesia They are Idolaters that act by Whatever things were written were They are Hereticks and to be condemned who Scripture examples not having their rule by inspiration immediate from God Naylor's love to the lost Morning watch written for our examples Be ye followers of us and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example take the Scripture for their rule without the authority of the Church The Scriptures do not
of the Church meeting together in their respective places do set and keep the affairs of it in good order beware of admitting or encouraging such as are weak and of little faith to take such trust upon them for by hearing things disputed that are doubtful such may be hurt themselves and may hunt the Truth not being grown into a good understanding to judge of things Therefore we exhort That you who have received a ture sense of things be diligent in the Lord's business and keep the Meetings as to him that all may be kept pure and clean according to that of God which is just and equal We also advise That not any be admitted to order Publick business of the Church but such as have felt in a measure of the Universal Spirit of Truth which seeks the destruction of none but the general good of all and especially of those that love it who are of the Houshold of Faith So dear Friends and Brethren believing that your souls will be refreshed in the sense of our spirits and integrity towards God at the reading of these things as ours were while we sate together at the opening of them and that you will be one with us on the behalf of the Lord and his precious Truth against those who would limit the Lord to speak without Instruments or by what Instruments they list and reject the counsel of the Wise-men and the testimony of the Prophets which God sanctified and sent among you in the day of his love when you were gathered and would not allow him liberty in and by his Servants to appoint time and place wherein to meet together to wait upon and worship him according as he requireth in Spirit and calling it Formal and the Meeting of man We say believing that you will have Fellowship with us herein as we have with you in the truth we commit you to God and the Word of life which hath been preached to you from the beginning which is neither limited to place nor time nor persons but hath power to limit us to each as pleaseth him that you with us and we with you may be built up in our most holy faith and be preserved to partake of the Inheritance which is heavenly amongst all them that are sanctified Richard â—arnsworth Alexander Parker George Whitehead Josiah Coale John Whitehead Thomas Loe Stephen Crispe Thomas Green John Moone Thomas Briggs James Parkes It will not be lost-labour to give my Reader an Account of the occasions of this Testimony and of those things contained in it which are of special remark The first and chief Principle which the Quakers cried up and endeavoured to obtrude on all they attempted to draw off from the common Principles of the Christian Religion and to prâ—selyte to themselves was That every man hath a light in him which is no less than Christ and the Spirit Christ the Word of God the Life the Power c. and that this Light is sufficient to lead into the knowledge of all Truth and to move men by its Power to the compleat and perfect Obedience And as upon this Principle they did and do discard the Scriptures from being a Rule of Faith and Life and from bearing the name of the Word of God So many of them believed it as rationally followed That all their Ministry and ordered Meetings to declare what they called their Testimony was not only superfluous but also a contradiction to their main Principle which is indeed rightly inferred Another Principle grounded on the former Foundation was To exclude all Forms of Worship Order or Discipline and every one to be left to his own proper liberty to meet or not to meet to speak or be silent as he or she should be guided by his or her private Light c. But the practices which suited to this Principle as it rendred its Professors discordant and contrary to each other and ridiculous to Observers So also it deprived their Heads and Leaders of that Denomination which was as ambitiously sought by them as by any Sect-Masters heretofore Upon these Considerations those who were chief in esteem and interest among them began to impose upon the rest what they pretended was by the Spirit dictated to them although it did not meet with the same inward relishes and sentiments of the rest Many of the Quakers who kept to their first Principle were hereat greatly offended and made opposition against those Obtrusions as Tyrannical and subverting their Foundation One of whom was the Author of that large Letter of Complaint published in a little Piece entituled THE SPIRIT OF THE HAT Muclow In which may be seen the main Grounds of difference between the Ruling and Non-Conforming Quakers and as well penn'd as was ever any thing by a Quaker But to reconcile these Impositions with the Principle of the Sufficiency and Divinity of the Light within every man the Imposers pretend That the Light of the Body i e. Such who bear the sway can taste and discern what is from the true Light in any and therefore what answers not to that Discerning-Spirit in the Body is to be exploded as not from the true Principle In this Testimony alias The Quakers Canons and Constitutions I shall remark these following particulars 1. That in the Title it is ordered to be read in all their Meetings and kept by them as a Testimony Which are Priviledges that the Scriptures obtain not with them 2. That the Subscribers and those others who joyned with them in their Convocations pretend to have met by the Operation of the Spirit and to have had in that Negotiation the presence of the Lord with them and that hereupon they ground the following Dictates and Impositions 3. That although they take it so grievously that they should be accounted no Christians by us yet they own no other to be the Church of Christ but themselves and have the Charity to reckon of all others as Without and as Heathen and Infidels among which sort they are to be numbered whom they Excommunicate 4. That notwithstanding their former decrying a stated and ordained Ministry Rule and Dignities in the Church as Tyrannical and Antichristian they have now a Ministry Rulers Dignities Offices and Dominions erected among themselves as necessary to the subsisting of their Fellowship And affirm That it is abominable Pride for any particular not to submit to the judgment given by them called The judgment of the Body 5. That although they have with their Authors the Romists and Jesuites reproached the holy Scriptures as a lame and insufficient Rule yea as no Rule Countenancing this their Distraction from the diversities of Opinions Parties and Factions which are found among those who own it for their Rule yet they themselves for all the All-sufficiency of their Light within have Doubts Discords and Factions among themselves and each pretending the Light for its Authority So that their pretended Remedy is an early breeder of those Diseases for which
crucifying within us by disobedience to the light in our Consciences A strange merit and purchase of Salvation and way of pacifying the wrath of God for sin D Damnation Being condemned within by the light in the Conscience and the terrour and affliction arising from thence but nothing of a pain of sense after the body is dead and turned to dust Darkness Not acknowledging the light in every man to be Christ and being guided by its immediate teachings as the only and all-sufficient Rule Death of Christ The light within not obeyed The dead Body The Body living in sin Disciples of Christ No other but those who submit to the light within and follow only its dictates E Election Christ the seed not the persons of men and women Vulturous-Eye The understanding faculty piercâ—ng into and earnestly seeking after Divine Knowledge F Faith A believing in the light within Righteousness of Faith Those acts of Obedience performed by themselves in their own bodies conformable to the dictates of the light withinâ— and in the Faith of its being Christ and the Rule Teaching or doing falsly When not from the immediate motions and teachings of the light within though what is taught be in its self true and what is done be in its self good False Prophets All that are called by men however qualified otherwise all that teach from or out of the Scriptures and not from immediate inspiration as the Prophets and Apostles by whom the Scriptures were penned False Witnesses All who speak not from inspiration and inward meerly divine motions and experience not what they affirm in themselves Flesh Whatever is not from the light within originally and immediately Wisdom of the flesh All Wisdom attained by industry Denying Christ come in the flesh Denying Christ come in the Flesh of Joseph John Sarah or any other who are Quakers Christ come in the flesh Come in their Flesh The Flesh of Christ The Spiritual Flesh that descended from Heaven not the Flesh that lay buried in the Sepulchre after death The Fold of Christ Christ himself Following Christ Obedience to the light within The Friends Friends All professed Quakers The will of the Flesh All that is chosen by man though he be thereto disposed by the will of God revealed in the Scripture G Preaching for Gain Receiving any thing as the reward of preaching the Gospel State of Glory The State of Peace and Joy resulting from the witness of the light within in this life GOD. Father Son and Holy Ghost without distinction the light within every 〈◊〉 the spirit of the Quakers every one of them the soul the seed and much 〈◊〉 that he is not Foundation of God The light within and the inspirations and motions of it The Gospel Christ the light within not the written Word or the sense of it as a Narrative of the good will of God to men in Christ H Handled the Word of Life Not as the Apostles who handled the Body of Christ but feeling by a spiritual sensation the motions of the light within or the Christ within them Hearing the Gospel or Word Listening to and obeying the light within Heaven Not the place where the Man Christ is above or beyond the visible Skies but the happiness they have within them I could never yet hear or read them mention any other Heaven to be enjoyed by them as distinct persons but what they have within them in this world Hell The present torment and loss within Preaching for Hire Hirelings To have provision for the oâ—tward man as a maintenance or reward for preaching though no bargain be made yea though such who receive it would preach iâ— they had never a peny reward in this world from those they preach to Holiness Obedience to the light within and that without any failing The womans Husband at home Christ the light in the conscience I Idolatry Often for worshipping the Man Christ Jesus who is at the right hand of God above or beyond the Stars and visible Heavens taking the examples of the Saints and Churches in the Scripture recorded and doing likewise JESVS The light within the Word in the beginning not the Son of Mary who was made or created The Imaginations All conclusions how demonstrable soever which accord not with their Tenets or are not by immediate inspiration Inchantments Bewitchings A being perswaded and established by Reason and Scripture but especially if humane Artâ— or Sciences have any hand in it Infidels All that obey not or do not place their Salvation in the light within Workers of Iniquity All that live not without sinning against God The Judgment day of Judgment Sin being judged in the Conscience by the light within in this life Justification Christ the light within obeyed K Kingdom of God The Rule and Government of the light within and the peace and joy arising from thence Carnal knowledge All knowledge but what comes by the immediate inspiration of the light within L The Law Christ the light within the Law written in the heart Leadings in Spirit The motions of the light within immediate inspirations and teachings The life Christ the light within The life of Christ The prevalency of the light within Eternal life Being taken into God Saved by the Life of Christ A being saved by the prevalency of the light in the conscience The Letter The dead Letter The Letter that killeth The Scriptures or written Word A Lye Lying What is spoken though true in it self if not from immediate teaching or the light within The Light within Christ God Father Son Spirit the seed of Abraham and David according to the flesh Jesus the only Saviour the Law the Testimony the Gospel the Prophets the Advocate Righteousness Sanctification Justification the only Rule Guide Teacher Judge the Way the only way to the Father the Truth the Life the Power of God the Eternal God God Almighty that which pardons and conquers sin the Judgment the Lamb of God that is slain from the beginning the Word in the beginning the Creator of all things the end of all Books Laws and abundance more than can be crowded into many Pages The Lust All desires that accord not to the light within and proceed not from thence M The Man Christ The spiritual Body of Flesh Blood and Bones which they say descended from Heaven and dwelt in the Body of the Son of Mary and doth also now in every Quaker Cease from man do not hear man What the Faculties of Man have any hand in either by inventing working or expressing all that comes not purely from the light within Measure of God of Christ of the Spirit That degree of the power and inspirations of the light within Something more or less of the very being and Essence of God the Father Son Spirit Meditate Not pondering or exercising the judgment and understanding on holy and divine Objects but a stilness and emptiness of all thoughts attending for the immediate impulses suggestions inspirations and motions of the
spirits breath that we all may be preserved until we have well finished our Course and Testimony to the honour and glory of our Lord God who is over all blessed for ever 1. We having a true sense of the working of the Spirit which under a Profession of Truth leads into a Division from and Exaltation above the Body of Friends who never revolted nor degenerated from their Principles and into marks of Separation from the constant Practice of good and ancient Friends who are found in the Faith once delivered to us And also into a slight esteem of their Declarations or Preaching who have and do approve themselves as the Ministers of Christ and of the Meetings of the Lords people whereby and wherein Friends are and often have been preciously revived and refreshed And under pretence of keeping down Man and Forms doing down the Ministry and Meetings or encourage those that do the same We say the Lord giving us to see not only the working of that Spirit and those that are joyned to it that bring forth these ungrateful fruits but also the evil Consequents and Effects of it which are of no less importance than absolutely tending to destroy the work of God and lay waste his Heritage We do unanimously being thereto encouraged by the Lord whose presence is with us declare and testifie That neither that Spirit nor such as are joyned to it ought to have any Dominion Office or Rule in the Church of Christ Jesus whereof the Holy Spirit that was poured forth upon us hath made us Members and Overseers Neither ought they to act or order the affairs of the same But are rather to be kept under with the power of God till they have an ear open to Instruction and come into Subjection to the Witness of God of the encrease of whose Kingdom and Government there shall be no end 2. We do declare and testifie That that Spirit and those that are joyned to it who stand not in Vnity with the Ministry and Body of Friends that are constant and stedfast to the Lord and to his unchangeable Truth which we have received and are Witnesses of and Ambassadors have not any true Spiritual Right or Gospel-Authority to be Judges in the Church and as the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ so as to condemn you and their Ministry Neither ought their judgment to be any more regarded by Friends than the judgment of other Opposers who are without For of right the Elders and Members of the Church which keep their habitation in the Truth ought to judg matters and things that differ and their jugdment which is so given therein ought to stand good and valued among Friends though it be kickt against and disapproved by them who have degenerated as aforesaid And we do further declare and testifie That it is abominable Pride which goeth before Destruction that so puffs up the mind of any particular that he will not admit of any judgment to take place against him For he that is not justified by the Witness of God in Friends is condemned by it in himself though being hardned he may boast over it in a false Confidence 3. If any difference arise in the Church or amongst them that profess themselves Members thereof We do declare and testifie That the Church with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ have power without the assent of such as dissent from their Doctrine and Practices to hear and determine the same If any pretend to be of us and in case of Controversie will not admit to be tried by the Church of Christ Jesus nor submit to the judgment given by the Spirit of Truth in the Elders and Members of the same but kick against their judgment as only the judgment of Man it being manifested according to truth and consistent with the Doctrine of such good ancient Friends as have been and are found in the Faith agreeable to the Witness of God in his people Then we do testifie in the Name of the Lord if that judgment so given be risen against and denied by the party condemned then he or she and such as so far partake of their sins as to countenance and encourage them therein ought to be rejected And having err'd from the Truth persisting therein presumptuously are joyned in one with HEATHENS and INFIDELS 4. We do declare That if any go abroad hereafter pretending to that weighty Work and Service who either in Life or Doctrine grieve good Friends that are stedfast in the Truth sound in the Faith so that they are not manifest in their Consciences but disagree to the Witness of God in them Then ought they whatever have been their Gifts to leave them before the Altar and forbear going abroad and ministring until they are reconciled to the Church and have the Approbation of the Elders and Members of the same And if any that have been so approved of by the Church do afterwards degenerate from the Truth and do that which tendeth to Division and countenance Wickedness and Faction as some have done then the Church hath a true Spiritual Right and Authority to call such to Examination and if they find sufficient cause for it by good testimony may judg them unfit for the Work of Gods Ministry whereof they have rendred themselves unworthy and so put a stop to their proceedings therein And if they submit not to the judgment of the Spirit of Christ in his people then ought they publickly to be declared against and warning given to the Flock of Christ in their several Meetings to beware of them and to have no fellowship with them that they may be ashamed and Lambs and Babes in Christ preserved 5. And if any man or woman which are out of the Unity with the Body of Friends print or cause to be printed or published in writing any thing which is not of service for the Truth but tends to the scandalizing and reproaching of faithful Friends or to beget or uphold Division and Faction then we do warn and charge all Friends that do love Truth as they desire it may prosper and be kept clear to beware and take heed of having any hand in printing republishing or spreading such Books or Writings And if at any time such Books be sent to any of you that sell Books in the Country after that you with the advice of good and serious Friends have tried them and find them faulty to send them back again whence they came And we further desire from time to time faithful and sound Friends may have the view of such things as are printed upon Truth 's account as formerly it hath used to be before they go to the Press that nothing but what is sound and savoury and that will answer the Witness of God even in our Adversaries may be exposed to publick view 6. We do advise and counsel That such as are made Overseers of the Flock of God by the Holy Spirit and do watch for the good
period after he had made a further blind Comment on the Text he glories in his shame with a Weigh this truth all ye Priests and P. 6. Professors and ponder it in your hearts No words big enough to express its madness Christianity made its way not only by the truth SECT II and purity of its Doctrine but also by such and so many signs and wonders wrought before multitudes as were convincing to its most malicious and prejudiced Adversaries and that not only by Christ himself but also by his Disciples and servants both before and after his death And all bare him witness and wondred at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth Luke 22. 4. but men may speak many good words and yet both say and do at other times bad enough but Christ appeals to the faces of his worst Adversaries If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil John 18. 23. But if forcible right words would not make way Christ exhorts them to believe for the very works sake and these were not ordinary works or wonders and miracles neither If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sin And as himself so his servants introduced Christianity with the same holy pomp and state of the Mighty and miraculous works of the Power of God bearing witness to the truth of their Doctrine Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord which gave Testimony unto the word of his grace and granted signes and wonders to be done by their hands Acts 1. 3. But Quakerism made its way by and began in blasphemies against the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom the Apostles preached by gratifying the pride idleness and giddiness of both Professors and prophane as will appear abundantly in the following discourse and by decrying the Scripture of the Old and New Testament as a dead Letter and altogether useless if not mischievous * Sword of the Lord drawn p. 5 Fox the younger Gen. epist P. 4 Your imagined God beyond the Stars a day of calamity will come upon them who have worshipped and do worship an unknown God at a distance and pretend the worship of the true God And if we will not believe the Quakers for their words sake which swell big enough with vanity folly nonsense and errour we are like to continue in the truth still for all them There have been some of them who have been sensible of this defect and have attempted to supply it to the cracking of their credit some to the loss of their lives George Fox hath found a plaister for this sore which I shall produce that you may give your judgement whether it smell more of the Fox or of the Goose FOX Which many prayed by the Spirit and spake by § 3 the Spirit did not shew miracles at the Tempters Command The great Mystery of the great Whore p. 3. though among Believers there be miracles in Spirit which be signes and wonders to the world as Isaiah saith When I read this I had much ado to keep my self from laughing but the weightiness of my thoughts on this imposture soon helped me to reduce it to a compassionate smile Indeed I think him crafty like the Fox not to venture his carcase in attempting any miracle but in spirit and yet more a Goose to call them signes and wonders to the world which the world never saw nor could have wondred at if George Fox and such as he had not blabbed of them But I must not let pass his fathering his absurdity on the Prophet Isaiah the words he intends must be in Isa 8. 18. Behold I and the Children whom the Lord hath given me are for signes and for wonders in Israel I find not the word Signes any where else in that Prophecy He hath a strange spirit of discerning that can find in that Scripture any thing of Miracles wrought in spirit for indeed they themselves were the wonders that is they were wondred at So may the Quakers well be but in a far worse sense or for a worse cause I may the lesse wonder at George's boldness with Isaiah seeing a great Rabby of the Quakers hath said that he is as good a Prophet as Isaiah Who would conceive that so blockish a person as this should be the Fore-man and Chief in account among such a number of such singularly discerning spirits as the Quakers but as among wise men the wisest are most highly esteemed so among others the veriest Christianity entred into the world with ravishing SECT III Songs and Hatlelujahs of the Angels and heavenly Host the Songs and Thanksgivings of Mary Elizabeth Zechariah Simeon and others with the healing of all sorts of diseases casting out devils out of the possessed preaching the glad tidings of the Gospel of Peace and what might express the Sun of righteousness to be risen on the World with healing in his wings I need not find you out the places of Scripture which speak these things But Quakerism entred the world as if Hell were § 2 broke loose and possessions by Satan were to make way and fit souls for the Quakers spirit Instead of that serious compunction that seized gross and black sinners upon their conviction and the consolation that was let into their souls by the joyful sound of remission and salvation throuâ—h a crucified Jesus O the Hell-dark expressions of the Quakers Preachers the frightful and amazeing words both for matter and manner where with they first attempted poor silly men and women whom they frighted almost out of their wits with their dismal noise whose eccho remained in their ears when their words were forgotten What bitter Curses and Execrations did they pour forth against all that made any opposition though most mildly and rationally against their unheard of innovation What disturbing of Congregations and reviling the most serious and faithful Pastors while those whose faults they have made use of to bespatter the guiltless might remain quiet enough as not so dangerous and adverse to Satans interest and Kingdome How generally were their Meetings either silent or taken up with the sudden and violent irruptions of dismal howling and horrible roarings Persons suddenly taken as with the falling-sickness shaking and foaming at the Mouth and some lying flat on the ground as stark dead Some such things as these I have seen and heard and what there are undeniable Testimonies of are so numerous and notorious that though they have now almost if not altogether left the latter sort of them they dare not deny that it was so And if they dare to challenge this with untruth I may requite them with a good Part of a Volume of them to keep alive their remembrance I now proceed to my second consideration of the beginning of Quakerism with respect to time What I have already said in the opening the SECT IV term Christianity will save me much of the labour of proving in this
written by or by the Direction of God himself his son or servants inspired by him so we call it the Word of God but with this distinction the written Word Now that the Scriptures are the Word of God in the SECT II senses aforesaid I shall vindicate from the violent contradictions of the Quakers They have these three Objections against this truth 1. That it is improper so to call them viz. The Word of God 2. That many things or sayings contained in them were spoken by wicked men or the devil 3. That this Title is peculiar to Jesus Christ the Son of God First they deny them to be the Word of God in the singular number I must therefore in dealing with this great Criticism reconcile the plural number to the singular I answer to the first it sounds methinks very harshly § 2 that not one word in the Scriptures should be the Word of God because there are in them more words then one Surely if the first second third fourth and so on be the Word of God then every word in it is the Word of God and never the less but rather the more for being united for that there are few single words which standing alone will signifie any thing whereas divers put together have a sense and signification And the whole body of the Scripture considered together doth signifie the mind of God more compleatly then if it were dismembred and considered apart But I know they aim at more then a meer Grammar-nicety at which kind of failings they use not much to quarrel but are rather affected with them as if the Spirit of God delighted in real non-sense though I think the causes to be three especially First that their first Authors could speak or write no better and they take it to be a perfection to write false English and nonsense after such infallible persons Secondly because they have so few of those they call their Ministry able to write true sense and English that those who can if they list will not lest they should disgrace their Brethren and rather then that should be admitted it shall become the fashion and obtain in time to be better English then sense A third reason may be their taking all matter and form to be infallibly from the Spirit and therefore dare not amend the sense of the Spirit But to what is the Question I return after this so § 4 long yet not altogether inexcusable digression One of their zealous Ministers as they call them thus exclaims And what an improper speech were this to call Fr. Howgil one of Antichrists Voluntiers â—efeated p. 26. twenty thousand Sentences one word and it is called a Declaration and what a Declaration would that be which consisted but of one word but where do we say the Scripture is but one word there is a great deal of difference between but one word and the Word And if the Scriptures be a Declaration in the singular number it must take many Declarations into one for it contains what was declared from Moses time to the Apostles and why not the word in the singular as well as a Declaration in the singular seeing the Scripture contains many Declarations But he gives one kick backward more at what he pleads for Pray have the patience to read this man passing the sentence against himself A Rod for the fools back Prov. 26. 3. And what a foolish man is this to assert his own imaginations and then imagines the Scriptures will prove it what an improper speech is this c. I know not the person he brands with folly but I am sure the Cause as laid down by Howgil himself deserves it not I am confident he understands not what improper means if he intend by improper that it is figurative he need not wonder and say what a figurative speech is this Alas the Scriptures and all Writings abound with figurative speeches but if he mean by improper incongruous or unmeet he offends greatly for then the Scriptures are very guilty herein as will appear by and by and I know not what else he should mean by proper unless not peculiar or a tall speech as we call a tall man or woman a proper and by improper a short speech Let a Propheâ— Naylors Love to the lost p. 17. of their own and he none of the small Prophets neither decide this Controversie Nay who never yet came so far as Balaam who had the Word of the Lord from his own Mouth But to cast this Objection out of doors we are to § 5 take it in a collective sence which is very frequent in the Scripture For instance the Scriptures themselves are sometimes expressed by a plural sometimes by a singular word Ye do erre not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 23. Here it is plural It is contained in the Scripture 1 Pet 2. 6. Here it is singular A sentence is called a word Where the word of a King is there is Power Eccles 8. 3. They were astonished at his doctrine for his word was with Power Either of these instances contain more then one single word The ten Commandments graven on the Tables of Stone are in the Hebr. ten words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you have so rendred in the margin of some of your Bibles Deut. 10. 40. Now divide these Commandments into ten single ones and then each will have but one word come to its share to express it by and some It is too frequent with them to call the holy Scriptures dead Letter and a letter is somewhat less then a word one viz. the fourth hath at least 60 single words in the Hebr. but many more in the English Rom. 2. 9 10. To the Jew not Jews and also to the Gentile not Gentiles can you suppose that one and but one single Jew or Gentile is hereby intended read the sixth verse and you shall have it explained Who will render to every man according to his deeds so that under the single word Jew is expressed all the Jews from first to last in every generation and under the word Gentile all the world of mankind besides Take one Text more to conclude with Isa 8. 20. To § 6 No Morning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ei aurora Montanus the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them not so much as the dawning of the day Both Law and Testimony are here rendred by Word in the singular number in this one Text there is enough not only to silence this petty cavil but to pluck up both root and branch all the principles of Quakerism if they who profess them had any regard to the Authority and verity of the eternal and Almighty God and a few grains of understanding at liberty to consult it 2. Object Many passages in the Scriptures contain the SECT III sayings of wicked men Yea some have been so irreverent and
irrational as to say some part of it is the words of the devil this expression hath been frequent with them and uttered in contempt of the Scripture I answer although the Scriptures make frequent mention of such Passages it is to a good and holy end and hereby Satans malice is discovered whereby in a good measure we are not ignorant of his devices and hereby we understand his snares in which our first Parents were taken and others both good bad in after-Ages and Satan is also rendred the most wicked and hateful of all that God created But to speak close to the Objection Those speeches of wicked persons such as Job's wife the Pharisees Jews and Rabshakeh and the speeches of the Devil are not the Word of God or any part of holy Writ as they were uttered by them but far from it We are to consider the Scripture as partly Historical and all those passages being reported historically there is not the least stain upon the Scriptures thereby What if I make a true report of the Powder-plot the Massacres in France Ireland c. And that to good ends and purposes yea if I report the blasphemous speeches by them uttered against God his Saints and the holy Scriptures am I therefore blameable as if I my self had been their Author I know what hath been said is convincing Now by the Inspiration and Guidance of the Holy Spirit these things were written and there is not only a truth but also a divine truth of History in them Object 3. That this title the Word of God is peculiar to the Son of God the Lord Jesus Christ whom they call the light within the Scriptures within Here it is indeed that the shoe pinches and they would fain put off the honour and put out the light of the Scriptures because they stand in the light of their fancy Pardon me the expression for it is truth I shall prove by the Lords assistance ere I have done But what have they to say that the Scripture should not be the Word of God notwithstanding the Son of God is so called I will give you the best that ever I met with The first is the Authority of their Leaders who say It is so and it must be so He Christ is the Ja. Parnel Christ exalted p. 4. Word the Scripture is not Why should it be doubted after such an evidence it is unreasonable and superfluous to expect that infallible persons for so the Quakers believe all their Ministry to be should give a reason for what they affirm especially considering they are constrained to be infallible for want of reason And now seeing he can carry it so easily he goes on like an empty Cloud carried with the wind He Christ is the light the Scripture is not he is the Ruler Guide Teacher and Judge and the Scripture is not What may not a man prove in one infallible breath did he not prudently to make haste before that gale was spent Well but who can stand before a whirl-wind one blast hath torn from the Scripture no less then six of those glorious Garments wherewith God hath cloathed it Let us hear G. F. if he do not amend the matter § 4 by a thing like an Argument He did not say John 1. 1. the Declaration was the Word but said in his Declaration the Word was God and he who saith the Latter Difference of Ministers p. 1. is the Word is a Deceiver and erres for the Scripture saith That in the beginning was the Word If you could have found where John said in his Declaration as you call it that the Scriptures are not the Word of God a thousand to one but some or other of the Lords people would have found it out long before Quakerism was in being and have ceased to take that name in vain For the second Argument he said the Word was § 5 God what then Why then the Scriptures cannot be the Word unless they be God also I am sure I have hit on your Conclusion and the best you can make of it but let me tell you that the Scripture may be the Word and Christ the Word also and yet though Christ be the Word of God the Scriptures the Word may be quite another thing Let me give you just such another place of Scripture They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed ◠Cor. 10. 4. them and that Rock was Christ Will you conclude from hence that there is no other Rock but every Rock in the World must needs be Christ or that it is sinful yea Blasphemy to call any thing a Rock but Christ but it may be you will say 't is a spiritual Rock in that place And I say it was spiritual only as it was mystical or typical of Christ but in other respects it was a Rock as others are hard and stony So I say of the Word that was God it was the Word that was in the beginning that created all things Shew me any such Word and I will call it God too yea I will say it is blasphemy to deny it to be so But the Scriptures which we call the Word of God were not in the beginning nor did they create any thing much less all things Pray let me ask you that are so stiff in this point § 9 do you not take the light in John 1. 9. to be Christ and God say nay if you dare Yea and will you not say that John saith so in his Declaration I know you will and I will say so too what then Is there nothing called light or that is truly so but Christ or God the Sun Moon Day are called Gen. 1. 5 16. Mat. 5. 14. Light also yea the Disciples are called by Christ himself The Light of the World And must they be God too or Christ be to blame for calling them the Light of the World a phrase so very near that in John 1. 9. Christ is called the Way the Truth and the Life but if you should make every such expression to be meant of Christ and God I am sure we should have Lords many and Gods many in a far lower sense then the Magistrates and great men of the world and Christ would be little beholden to us I beseech you therefore who are not stark blind and steel-hard either to abandon such principles or at least do not pretend to Scripture for them and abuse it after this manner for the Scriptures are no friend to your crooked unholy principles and that your Leaders know well enough That I may blow the dust out of your eyes I shall SECT II take a little pains to shew you your mistake and also how to amend it in more and weightier points in themselves then this under present consideration You do not honestly distinguish betwixt proper and figurative words and phrases in reading the Scriptures but have gotten an Art to construe them backward quite cross to their true intent and
equalled by the expression of his mind by his Word they being much more imperfect and unintelligible then words the holy conversations of the sound and godly do eminently and effectually declare the mind of God yet had we them in its stead we should be great losers Not only the Writings and Sayings of intelligent § 5 creatures but also the inanimate part of the Creation is a Declaration of God and of his mind also in many things Psal 19. 1 2. And those Psalms wherein they are called upon and are said to praise the Lord. Rom. 1. 19 20. Acts 14. 17 The Heathen were blamed for not learning the Lesson taught by them after their kind no better yet who will say that the Declaration made by them is of equal value with the Word of God either for matter stile manner or perspicuity Fifthly They are a Declaration of the Word of God § 6 By the Word of God they mean Jesus Christ This is a true Character of a considerable part of the Scriptures but not of all and they often restrain them to this as if it were all the use were to be made of them So much of them the Scriptures as was given Smit◠Cat. p. 14. forth by the Holy Men of God through the Inspiration of the Almighty they testifie of Christ and that is only their service in their place You may observe what a skeleton they make of the Scriptures so much of them as if all of them were not of the same divine Abstract They say the Letter is it the Word which doth but Morning-Watch Farnworth Light out of darkness declare of it They do but testifie of me They testifie of him and it is with a but lest you should take them to have any more hand in conveying Christ and his benefits to the souls then a meer witness of who is or what is the Christ To clench the Nail I have been driving hitherto SECT VII I must demonstrate that to deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God is to deny the Scriptures which I shall do three ways in few words First to deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God is to deny them that title by which they are commonly known and distinguished from and lifted up above all other Writings whatsoever I will ask any man who understands sense and hath but one grain of reason if to deny the Supreme Magistrate of Great Britain to be the King of England were not to deny the King though he that doth so should allow him to be entituled a Man a Gentleman yea a Nobleman or Duke which are titles common to him with others or below him sure I am we Christians are else under an old musty mistake and guilty of great slander for affirming the Turks to deny Christ because they will not own him to be greater then their Prophet Mahomet or to be the Saviour of mens souls while they own him to be not only a Man but also a great Prophet and next to Mahomet himself I suppose a Quaker whose Child should own him to be a Man and a good man too and one that provides well for him and yet say He is not his Father and stand to it in earnest would say that Son denies him and is a naughty wicked Child It is said of the Jews they denied him in the Act. 13. 13 presence of Pilate vers 14. they denied the Holy One and the just Did they deny him to be a man or some common thing No they denied him to be Christ the Saviour and loaded him with reproaches in stead of his glorious and peculiar titles and this the Holy Ghost calls denying him To deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God § 2 is to deny that Appellation on which their Authority is grounded and which puts an awe upon the Consciences of men Though all truths as such so far as they are apprehended carry with them the countenance of Authority yet how much more when a Command Promise Doctrine c. comes with this written on its forehead the Word of God the Word of the Lord 't is said Where the Word of a King is Eccles 8. 4. there is Power and who shall say unto him What doest thou 't is natural to men to despise the best and most excellent things under common and contemptible titles It is all one in a plain and true construction as to § 3 deny that the matter and sense expressed by them was ever spoken by God Experience hath sufficiently taught this that no sooner this principle is taken in but the Scriptures become with such as weak as a burnt thread and whatever you may pretend to we know and shall prove that after this title is put off they become like Sampson when God was departed from him The Papists who are the more subtil will tell us that in their Image-worship they terminate their worship in God alone but alas the common people are for downright language and they poor souls being exhorted to worship the Images do it devoutly and think no◠on God all the while It is no otherwise in the present case people will understand after the common sense and acceptation of words I have sometimes been amazed and not without § 4 good Company and consideration that men of such dexterity in matters that concern not Religion should be so prodigiously blind and besotted as to deny this truth hitherto vindicated But since I have been better acquainted with their principles I find it to be the most necessary to maintain and support their Great delusion viz. The light within For that they do hereby rob the Scriptures of abundance of places wherein that phrase The Word and The Word of the Lord is found and deck their Idol with them And indeed so many are the excellent Characters given to the Scriptures under that notion that if they wear them and shine in their lustre the Quakers Glow-worm must sparkle no-where but in the dark and may still keep its Court and Confines in the Heathen-world CHAP. IV. The Quakers equal their own Writings and Sayings with the Scriptures and prefer them before the Scriptures I Need not spend time with those who are yet in SECT I their wits to prove that they who fall under the Charge expressed above deny the Scriptures To take all rubs out of the way I shall furnish you with a few Demonstrations First This is to unhallow them and make them common things or worse with the conceits of any who shall be so presumptuous as to pretend to Inspirations and Revelations and of this sort there are a crowd among the Men and Women also of the Quakers If they declare if they write yea whatever religious Action they move in they pretend all to be from the immediate Guidance and Impulse of the Spirit of God and that in as ample a manner as ever the Apostles and Prophets could pretend unto So that this principle being as
and Earth is in it To shut up this particular hear one of their prime § 4 Ministers who speaks plainly his mind and not in Parables I will make you know that I the light which G. Fox jun. p. 53. p. 54. p. 55. lighteth every man that cometh into the World that all through me should believe am the true eternal God which created all things that by me the light all things are upheld and that there is not another besides me can save And I will purge out all your iniquities and forgive all yâ—ur trespasses and I will change your Natures and I will make you new Creatures if you will bearken to me and obey me the light in you What I have here written is the words which the Father who is one with Christ the Son gave me to write in which words the true Christ is renewed and a Testimony given of him and no other But enough and too much of this Blasphemy I need not take pains to ravel into it for it s so plain that none but those who shut their eyes and are wilfully blind but may see it in an unexpressible deformity I now procced to the fourth proof of their equalling SECT III their Sayings Writings and Light within and preferring them before the Scriptures I place them in this Order that you may behold them at one view in their not only disproportion but opposition The CHARACTERS of the Scriptures given by the Quakers CHARACTERS of their own Teachers Writings and Sayings given by them Feeding Death with Death The Letter which killeth Declaration from the Ministers of the Word p. 7. The Voice of the Son of God was uttered forth by him by which the dead was raised F. H. Life of E. B. p. 20. Paper Ink and Writing Declar. from the Ministers of the Word p. 2. A Shield of the Truth Title of James Parnel's Book A dead letter The old letter Seeking the living among the dead Parnel Shield to the Truth Naylor Love to the Lost His words ministred Grace to the Hearers Fox jun. life of E. B.  Forcible and very pleasant as apples of gold in pictures of silver This in the freshness and quick sense of life Penington quest c. 41. Leave men in the dark and confusion Frequent Passage A clear Discovery Title of Smiths Prim.  O how certain a sound did his Trumpet give Life of E. B. p. 2. Part of it the words of the Devil and wicked men Wisdom of words Nayl Love to the lost c. 21. Written from the Spirit of the Lord. Title page Parnel Shield of truth  The Voice of the Son of God Life of E. B. 20. My upright desire to the Lord for you is that he would strip you of all your knowledge of the Scriptures according to the flesh Penington quest p. 12. And now Child hear Instruction and be wise Treasure it up in thy heart that thou mayest lay up for thy self a good foundation Smith Prim. p. 56. Shews you in a Glass your own faces which the Scriptures cannot do Scorned Quakers Account p. 20. A spiritual Glass opened Title of Smiths Cat. and part of the Title of his Morn Watch. Precept and Traditions of men Morning-Watch p. 18. Truths Principles Title of Crooks Book That light is in the Scriptures prove that or tell me what one Scripture hath light in it Lip of truth c. p. 7. Light risen out of darkness Title of Farnworths Book Natural Lawson Carnal Letter Shield of the truth p. 10. God is at liberty to speak by them the Scriptures if he please and where they are given by Inspiration he doth so and so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass Ja. Naylor Light of Christ c. p. 19. Earthly Root Morning-Watch 22.  Worship and obedience as to its direction The Harlots Child Morn Watch p. 23.  Hagar and Ismael Mother and Child after the Letter Penington Mysteries of the Kingdom Preface He proclaimed liberty to the Captives in the Power and Authority of God F. H. of E. B. p. 15. Letter without Swine feeding on the husk The shadow Parnel Shield of Truth p. 10. Let this be sent to be read in the fear of the Lord in the Holy Assemblies of the Church of the first-born where she is scattered to the ends of the Earth W. D. Doting on the Scriptures Parnel Christ exalted p. 4.  Betrayed into the words Smith Prim. p. 30.  Dangerous to feed on them Sm. Cat. 36.  I having sufficiently proved that they equal their SECT IV writings and sayings with and prefer them before the Scriptures it is not fit I should let them pass without contradiction I shall therefore review their Grounds for so doing and discover them to be but swelling words of vanity And I shall begin with their Infallibility I am confident that G. Fox the Ring-leader of the Sect understands not what he saith nor whereof he affirms It is one thing not to fail another to be infallible for that is to be without all possibility of falling or erring Again it is one thing to be infallible with a restriction to something another to be universally infallible and without limitation If G. Fox understands so much he is a Non-such § 2 for confidence and being void of reason that affirmeth as he doth let us examine but that one passage before-cited How can ye be Ministers of the Spirit and not of the Letter if ye be not infallible Here he puts Ministry of the Spirit and of the Letter in opposition which Christ and his Apostles joyned hand in hand as loving companions and meet helps each to other And there was delivered unto him the Book of Luke 4. 17. the Prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the Book he found the place where it was written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me c. verse 21. And he began to say unto them this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears and all bare him witness and wondred at the gracious words c. was not Christ then a Minister of the Spirit it is by him said this day this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears viz. the Spirit of the Lord is upon me And was he not also a Minister of the Letter why he opened the Book and found where it was written and no doubt read it out of the Book to his Auditors or else it would have been very impertinent to tell them This Scripture is fulfilled for they must have divined or not known what Scripture he intended And I suppose none will doubt whether that which is written in a Book be written in Letters Well then either George Fox is fallible yea and hath grosly failed or Jesus Christ was not a Minister of the Spirit and which of these you who call your selves infallible Ministers of the Spirit will admit of I know not but I am sure every true Christian will
lusts of men and this pure sensation of stirrings and motions becomes better by far the stark blind than those who have eyes in their heads We grope for the wall like the blind and we grope Isa 59. 10. as if we had no eyes we stumble at noon-day as in the night One of the severest curses for disobedience threatned against Israel was and thou shalt grope at Deu. 28. 29. noon-day as the blind gropeth in darkness and thou shalt not prosper in thy wayes And what is this principle of the Quakers but to turn us again into the darkness and Chaos of Gentilism instead of beholding as in a Glass with open face the glory of the Lord to be feeling after him by the corrupt and half senseless touches of a natural conscience acting on the narrow and uncertain indications of Creation and providence which though they may teach something concerning God and our original duty to him will be as far from acquainting us with Gospel truths or such as concern Christ and our redemption by him as a stone or tree is from discerning and expressing the secret and bosom counsels of God or man I would not yet have you think that we deny § 7 or disown a sensation and feeling of the holy and blessed mind of God for we look on nothing of greater moment than to have a heart and conscience delivered from searedness and being past feeling But our feeling and sense of the truths of God is by the Faith of them revealed to us in and by his Word into which we desire absolutely to resolve our belief and which is the objective rule to the understanding by the senses CHAP. VI. The Quakers take men off from reading the Scripture and looking into them for instruction and comfort IT is no matter of wonder at all that they who are SECT I so far entred in the denial and contempt of the Scripture should advance this step further it being but the natural off-spring of what I have already proved to be their Tenets And whatever else is the round of their writings and declarings all centres in putting people upon looking to the light within as the only Counsellor and Comforter And this is the Smith Ca◠p. 95. meaning of our Doctrine to bring people to the everlasting Word of God in themselves Whereby they steal away their esteem and use of the Scriptures insensibly and they are shut up and lost in another Book viz. The light within before they are aware whereas if they should in so many words forbid them to read the Scriptures it would make their hearts recoil Alas that men are such Children who suspect not a design to rob them of their Gold when a Counter a trifle is commended to them and imposed upon them that they may not think of or mind that which is a Treasure By this means the Scriptures are forgotten 'till the love and esteem of them be lost by doting on the new and gay fancy of a divine and perfect light within But to the proof further But turn your ears inward to the measure of light in § 2 Morning Watch Epist you which is without guile So to that of God in thee I will direct thee Their Pamphlets are stuffed so full with expressions of this nature that I should but shew you their great road in citing their words neither will any of them deny what they are brought to prove But if they intended the judgment and conscience enlightned and that this ought to be minded in its place we should not condemn for such directions but when it is made a God of and by consequence an Idol and those beams of Divine light shining in the Scripture excluded as if they had the body of the Sun within themselves it is the highest instance of folly and proof of taking men off from reading the Scriptures for instruction and comfort Yet take their minds in express words And by the § 3 Parnel ' s Shield of she truth p. 10. same light do we discern and testifie against him to be in darkness and blindness and is a deceiver who putteth the letter for the light and so draw peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them seeking the living among the dead You may here discern the confidence they have in their light within that they dare oppose it to the Scripture yea and take its false witness which it bears against the Scripture and with what a black coal he marks those who put the letter i. e. the Scriptures for the light and this he construes to be a drawing peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them so that by his own way of reasoning I have authority to say that putting the light within them for the Scripture the light without them they draw peoples minds from the Scripture But the close of this sentence is no less than a murtherer of the holy Scripture seeking the living among the dead yea a strangling the Scripture with one of its own silver Cords Why seek ye the living among the dead as if the Scripture Luke 24. 5. were a very Grave and Charnel-house from which the living Jesus is for ever departed or which is more congruous to their sense they are no more able to minister instruction and comfort than a dead Carcase rotting in the Grave Hear one more of their Trumpets sounding to the § 4 John Story short discovery c. p. 2. same purpose And although the holy Scripture without and the Saints practises are as lights in the world yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolize them as to set them in esteem above the light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them equal with the light and Spirit of Christ within The Scriptures are as lights but they will not right them so far as to call the Scripture a light and the commendations of that Idol the light within are such as if they were true he were a stark fool who would direct his eyes to the Scripture having such an excelling light in his own bosom But lest after all these allurings they should not be understood and people should be so silly as to attempt to light their Candle at the Scripture Taper they will tell you in plain English the vanity of such an undertaking For he Smith Prim. p. 12. Christ the light within alone searches the hearts and not the Scripture So that to draw people from attending to the Scripture they do not only commend the light within being silent concerning the Scripture in the mean while but tell you in plain words the Scriptures are in this matter of no service at all as Parnel before cited he is the light and guide c. the Scriptures are not They assert the light within to be sufficient yea all-sufficient SECT II This where it takes hold of the credulity will draw as hard from attending
before he found it in the Book why did God commend and reward his tenderness of heart in fearing when the Law was read out of the Book if he were so hard-hearted as not to hear the Law within Why did Jesus Christ never rebuke the Jews for not heeding the Scripture within while he oft rebuked them for not heeding and believing the Scripture without these are enough and to spare to discover the vanity of this conceit The truth is the Scriptures were written with respect to us first without then within I would gladly hear any of the Quakers make § 6 a report of any of the Gospel truths contained in the Scriptures which you could assure me you never heard or read without or that you could all agree without conferring together in a Narrative of those Traditions which the Thessalonians were taught by word and of those many other things which Jesus 2 Thess 2. 15. did or some of them spoken of John 21. 25. which were not written this would be somewhat of conviction to us But you are unworthy beyond all men of the holy Scriptures who by such means as these not only take off others from reading them for their instruction but also deny the mediate and visible instruments and means of those notions you make such a noise and jingling with in the ears of men as if they were but home-born things They affirm that there is no light in the Scriptures SECT IV That light is in the Scriptures prove that or tell Lip of truth opened p. 7. Ephes. 5. 8. me what one Scripture hath light in it If the Scriptures gives us a true description of light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light this is not only an errour of the first magnitude but also one of the greatest discouragements imaginable of looking into the Scriptures for instruction and comfort for if they manifest or signifie nothing to us it will be but lost labour I am apt to believe they may hold it for very Orthodox Doctrine intending thereby that there is no light in the Scriptures more than they have or may have without them and that the Scriptures can add no more to them than the boasting Galatians who were false Brethren though they Gal. 2. 6. seemed to be somewhat added to Paul or that there is no Scripture hath Christ the light in it he being in their opinion no where but within as a light I shall only prove that the Scripture is a light or § 2 hath light in it and so dismiss this argument O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead Psal 43. 3. me let them bring me to thy holy hill By which we are to understand the promises made to David He knew the way to Gods holy hill as well as most but his Adversaries had barred it up and therefore he prays that God would preform his promises which were not only the light of comfort to him but a guide to his faith and hope as they were truth and good and such light the Scriptures are replenished with and adorned as the Firmament with Stars and Constellations But lest they should say this is but my meaning put to the Scriptures take one Text that telleth its own meaning in so Prov. 6. 23. many words For the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light A fifth Argument may be raised out of those dirty and disparaging Titles and Characters which they give of the Scriptures Of this you have enough before CHAP. VII The Quakers affirm the Doctrines Commands Promises holy Examples expressed in the Scriptures as such not at all to be binding to us THis is a denying of the Scriptures and the authority of the God of the Scriptures at once and with a witness If any shall be furnished with so small a measure of reason as not to be able to apprehend that such an affirmation is a denying of the Scriptures I have little hope to convince them Yet I shall not leave them altogether without some Scripture evidence of the strength of this Argument Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the § 2 Lord To say who is the Lord or what hath the prov 30. 9. Lord to do with us to command or bear rule over us is to deny the Lord and to say of the Scriptures what are they to us is as plainly to deny them What is self-denial but rejecting and denying what it would oblige us to and impose upon us to relinquish and abandon its authority To deal so by the Scriptures must needs then be a denying of them But why do I burn day light the Argument shines bright enough in its own light and evidence The greatest expectation will be of the proving § 3 matter of Fact or that they do thus affirm I do verily believe that few who have some tolerable opinion of the Quakers and their principles except the rank Quakers themselves have had a suspicion that they are so grosly wicked but I shall blow the dust out of their eyes by as strong a proof as their own confessions And it was the rule unto them that gave forth the Scripture and they spake the words as the Spirit moved so that the Spirit was before the Smith prim p. 10. words and was their rule that spake the words and it changes not but is the same for ever This he writes to prove that the Scriptures are not a rule and doth hereby affirm that they had been no rule to the Pen-men of the Scriptures themselves had they not been moved so to take them by the Spirit and that this way of obligation is unchangeable and abides for ever He that shall read the foregoing and following words in the Piece quoted will no more doubt what I have said than that two and two make four For all the Saints have their commands in Spirit Naylors love to the lost p. 1â— but yours is in the Letter and so of another ministration By the phrase in Spirit they intend not that only which râ—aches the heart but that which hath its original immediately from the Spirit of God in them That Naylor intends no other in this place than its being from the Spirit immediately he telleth you plainly for that it is a different ministration from that of the Letter by which words the Letter they alway intend the Scripture But more plain yet if more plain may be that § 4 is no command of God to me what he commanded to Burroughs answer to choice experiences p. 6 7. another Neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture act by that command which was to another not having the command to themselvesâ— I challenge to find an example to it E. D. A bold Challenger who shall be answered in good time but let us hear a few more first Because it 's only queries gathered by the Author from the letter of the Scriptures without and no
that the Scriptures should be a prophetical historical and doctrinal account of the natures person and offices c. of Jesus Christ and yet no means for the knowledg of him And according to your own common phrase a testimony declaration and witness of Christ and that they are some means though not the only means that 2 Tim. 3. 15. Text is enough to prove And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus And who will doubt but that which is a means to save is a means to know God and Christ I have met with such a silly cavil as this in some of your Writings viz. that they are no such means to them who have no faith i. e. that obey not the light and believe not in the light True if you understood Christ aright but yet they are a means of some kind or it is not true that they are able to make wise to salvation whatever else be in conjunction with them we never yet said that they alone can do it if we should say so we should be like unto you who deny they can contribute any thing towards it Concerning the knowledge it gives of our selves § 4 whether we are belivers or unbelievers take two or three testimonies These things have I written 1 John 5. 13. unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God Surely if they are a means to know if we have eternal life they thereby shew us our faces that we have the faces of Children not Swine or Swine and not Children and those characters and marks by which one Saint may know it self may be a means by which another Saint may know it self and so on the contrary Paul knew himself by the Law to be such Rom. 7. a sinner as he knew not before But I shall give you one Scripture which answers the case in the 1 Jam. 23. 24. Metaphor a Glass used by our Adversary For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a Glass for he beholdeth himself c. I know you who are called Quakers will say I pervert this Text which is to be understood of the light within not of the Scriptures without and that it maketh directly against me I hint this to let people know what need we have to preserve that appellation of the Scriptures the Word of God which will preserve the due reputation and use of those holy and blessed writings But I would ask any Quaker if it be not absurd and woful lame language to exhort a man to be a doer of Christ I must not dispute the same thing over and over but affirm this Text and the particular Argument given just now to be a full and plain confirming the Doctrinal word to be a means by which we may know our selves I shall express in the close of this Chapter those SECT III absurdities falsities and impieties that are the Bastards this Errour is travelling withal The Scriptures have less in them of demonstration § 7 with respect to God than the dumb Creation or the most despicable particle of it a Worm a Stone are some means to know God by That no Writing whatsoever can be any such § 8 means for the holy Scriptures deserve a preference in religious cases and that which will lye very heavy upon you who are called Quakers all your scriblings neither hath been neither can be to any such good purpose as the knowledge of God Christ c. Experience and sense it selfe and that not of § 3 one but many millions are not all together worth astraw in point of evidence for so many have experienced as plainly as sence it self can demonstrate that by the means of the Scriptures they have come by the knowledge of God Christ and themselves The incomparably greater number of those whom § 4 you confess were Saints and had peace with God knocked and entered at the wrong door and so by your own Exposition of Scripture are Thieves and Robbers Then God Christ Prophets Apostles are all to § 5 be charged with folly who taught the knowledge of God Christ and man by the matter expressed by the Scriptures which was not to them immediately expressed by God but by Prophets and humane Teachers You cast those Worthies who both disputed and § 6 died to maintain not only some Truths concerning God Christ and man the knowledge of which they came to by Scripture but also for continuing in the possession and to the use of souls for such ends the Books of the written Word Yea you condemn them as a company of Fools who cast a way and sold themselves to all the miseries they suffered for a thing of nought Then neither is Reading Preaching nor Instruction § 7 of any such use This I fear hath gotten too much credit with you who suffer your Families and Children to take their own courses except in the concerns of this world wherein few out-do you and I should blame you the less if you would so far keep to this principle as to keep your light within and your thundring too into which though a self contradiction it breaks forth with a noise without sense or truth to the amusing of the ignorant who take them who shew the greatest zeal or heat to be the most sincere and intelligent CHAP. IX The Quakers affirm the Scriptures to be no means whereby to resist temptation and that they are dangerous to be read I Join these into one Argument the latter being Sâ—CT I. a high instance for the proof of the former and both together engage against the life of the Scriptures with a strong hand What shall we say of those mens owning the Scripture who turn this standing Table of the Lord into a snare and render them not only no Weapens to resist Satan and Lust our grand Enemies but to be as Gunpowder to blow up our selves yea as if God himself who is the Father of mercies and who in his abundant goodness hath afforded us this Armour of light did thereby rather set a trap for our souls than a means to deliver us from the snare of the Devil who leads the blind and unarmed captive at his will I shall not go about to give demonstrations that § 2 so to affirm is to deny the Scriptures when I have proved that they are criminal according to this Charge I know not what impartial person will judge them guiltless of denying the Scriptures And therefore I shall attend to it as carrying the question 'T is not your flying to the Scripture that can save Martin Mason loving invitation p. 4. you from the fire of his wrath nor overcome the least corruption for you no
c. p. 16. Call to that Office and Imployment And their Call to the Ministry we deny which is mediate But who can witness an immediate Call from God and speak it the Gospel as they are moved by the Holy Ghost and such travel from place to place and have no certain dwelling place this Ministry we own and witness Thou art corrected by the Scripture and the Fox mystery c. p. 48. Apostle corrects thee who saith I have not received it of man nor by man and bid others look at Jesus the Author of their Faith Their writings are abounding with matter of this nature We acknowledge that all the true Ministers of § 3 Christ ought to have an immediate Call such as consists in grace and gifts and disposition to that worthy Office and Imployment and such as have not this immediate Call we account unworthy of the thing and name but the Quakers pretended immediate Call is far from the Apostles as I have proved at large on the point of Inspirations neither are the Ministers of Christ now Apostles as they were But if we call for the Quakers proof of their immediate Call hear what Farnworth saith As for pretences Farnworth against Stalham p. 22. we do not pretend that we are immediately call'd but we witness that we are And what is their Witness their own fancy and their own say-so and we witness that such Witnesses will carry the Cause no where but in the fools Court who the wise man saith believeth every word And G. Fox's proof is as much to the purpose not § 4 of man the call of the Apostle while we pretend not to be Apostles And bid others look at Jesus the Author of their Faith as if that Text intended a a Faith that they were called to be Apostles which speaks of the faith of all believers who received it by the mediate Ministry of the Gospel For being moved by the Holy Ghost which is by them made an Essential mark of a true Minister we allow but yet affirm That those who are moved by the Commands of the Spirit in the Scripture are moved by the Holy Ghost especially when the Authority of God therein prevails with them As for having no certain dwelling place and leaving § 5 houses lands and possessions let them repair to William Pen and others of their Ministers for an Answer to it who have large possessions and brave habitations such as few Ministers whom they disclaim especially the poor Non-Conformists enjoy and will not so easily as Pen's phrase is be fohb'd out of them as they fob others out of the truth of the Gospel But indeed will you deny that the Elders that were 〈◊〉 6. ordained in every City by the appointment of Paul Tâ—â— â— and by the hand of Titus had any mediate Call or those spoken of Acts 14. 23 And when they had ordained Acts 14. â—3 them Elders in every Church and had prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed If you will not believe these had a mediate Call I despair of your believing any thing but what you list Another ground of their denying our Ministry is SECT IV that they teach from the Scripture And the Word is immediate and all the Ministers of Christ preach the Fox mystery â— c. p 44. immediate Word and wait for it and the outward written words with ink and paper are mediate So then the written Word being preached from makes a man no Minister And of this sort are they that have their W. D p. 30. preaching to study and to seek at other mens mouths or from the letter but have it not from the mouth of the Lord. If the Scripture be not the mouth of the Lord there is no such thing as Gods mouth And here is the difference of the Ministers of the World and the Parnel ' s Shield of the Truth p. 17. Ministers of Christ the one of the Letter the other of the Spirit For they are meer Deceivers and Witches bewitch people from the truth holding forth the shadow for the substance and what is the Chaff to the Wheat Here is not a bare denial of those to be Christs Ministers § 2 who preach the Word of God out of the Scriptures but charging them with Witchcraft and what are the instruments of their Witchcraft but the holy Scriptures most horrid doctrined and yet these wretches will tell you they honour the Scriptures and a Scripture Ministry But this is not all the tide rises yet higher And so he the Devil takes Scripture to maintain his kingdom and this he delivers by the mouth of Ministers which he fonds abroad to deceive the Nations leading people in blindness c. These words are plain and no parable therefore I leave you to behold without a glass the vileness of these misleaders I have already proved that not only we ought § 3 but Christ and his Apostles did teach out of the Scriptures therefore by the Quakers account they were also as bad as they charge us to be witches and deceivers c. O but there is another inditement against us we are not infallible How can ye be Fox Mystery c. p. 72. Ministers of the Spirit and not of the Letter if ye not infallible There is none but God alone absolutely infallibly And for certainty of what we teach we dare weigh with the Quakers at any time But sure I am that I never met with one of their Teachers yet in Writing or otherwise but I found him more than fallible even foolish contradicting the Spirit of God speaking by the Scripture contrary to the clearest reason and themselves also But more than all this We are Hirelings preach § 4 for Hire and take Hire for preaching And a main question for a scrutiny into the truth of our Ministry is Whether is your Gospel free and without Charge yea Fruits of a Fast p. 21. or nay This is the nail they find will drive People love a Cheap Gospel they that will sell them such a one shall buy their souls into the bargain and vassalize their understandings to their most corrupt dictates To preach for Hire we call a Vile iniquity to § 5 receive Hire for preaching we dare not condemn because Christ hath said The labourer is worthy of his 10 Luke 7. 2 Cor. 11 8. hire And the Apostle said He took wages of other Churches to serve them the Corinthians It is ordained 1 Cor 9. 14. that they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel And so hath the Lord ordained So that a Ministers maintenance for preaching the Gospel is Gods Ordinance The Apostle exhorts Timothy To give himselfe to the work of the Ministry as it is the duty of every one-ordinarily imployed therein And is God and Christ a hard Master to oblige his Ministers to give up themselves to that work and let them and theirs starve
for it But moreover you may know if you please that there are thousands this day in England who § 6 preach the Gospel in poverty and distresses and cleave to their work when stripped of their wages which number there needs not one Quaker to make up yet take heed you commend them not for it Another objection is we study for our Sermons § 7 What is study but meditation and searching to understand the truth and to get it into our heads and hearts if this be a sin obedience to God is so And the Apostle bids Timothy who had excellent 2 Tim. 2. 15 gifts and was brought up from a child in the holy Scripture study to shew thy self approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth Then it seems it is no idle task to preach like a workman and divide the Word of truth aright and that we may be approved to God and free from shame among men we must study But that which turns us all off hand-smooth is SECT V That till we are taught by the light within immediately we cannot speak one word of truth but all lyes though the matter we deliver be the highest truth And all be in the Satanical delusions Fox great mystery p. 5. p. 62. that be not in the immediate teachings from the Spirit But the greatest professors upon the earth are there of the Devil that speaketh the words of truth but not as they are in it as so saith Christ to the Jewes they were of their Father the Devil they speak of themselves they speak of themselves as the Devil doth but abide not in the truth but a lyar from the beginning The Devil speaks a lye from himself that is a truth for no body need teach the Devil to lye But how will it follow that whatever any man speaks of himself is a lye then it seems for a man to be first in telling any thing true or false 't is a lye whereas we use most to suspect the truth of that which comes by a second or third hand or more but the conclusion is what we have not by immediate inspiration and teach it we speak it of our selves and therefore are devillish lyars § 2 The learned Fisher will help the Fox at a dead Velata quaedam revelata p. 7. Jer. 5. 2. lift and piece his tale And to such wise sayers and knowers as these God saith though ye say God lives yet as I live ye swear falsly and why falsly was not that a truth that God lives but not a truth truly testified unto by them ◠any more than what is testified in foro hominum in mens Courts by such as being not eye witnesses thereof have it only by hear-say from others because they witnessed to it but in stoln words Here is then the proof that we speak more than we know and therefore lye This is indeed pretty near a lye but that they who live in the light of the Creation and read and believe and know the Scripture to be the Word or the Words of God and affirming no nicer a truth than that God liveth should lye because they know it not by immediate Inspiration is very strange He that lives may know from thence that God lives who holdeth every soul in life that lives But the meaning of the Text may be and I will trust the sober Readers judgment to decide it betwixt us that they did not believe the Lord lived and swearing what they thought untrue or doubted of they therein swear falsly or that they dared to swear to a falshood and yet abuse the Name and Ordinance of God to confirm it But I desire those who give credit to such Teachers as infallible and inspired immediately from God to try by the instance I am now upon whether we are not likely to speak more rightly concerning God from the Scripture than their Teachers without book In the Quotation of this Text Fisher hath falsified beside his Exposition in three plain cases for they say he writes ye say for the Lord lives God lives there is both taking away a word and changing another and makes God swear too where there is not a word or tittle of it in the Text and so adds to the Word of the Lord these words yet as I live This is ordinary from these inspired Teachers and to tell us God saith so lest we should take them to be his own words adds to the boldness of the perverting the Scripture I could write a Catalogue of a thousand such faults in the Quakers citing of Scripture some adding some leaving a word or two out through carelesness or wilfulness I have from what is here evident reason to say to you as the Apostle to the Galatians O foolish Quakers who hath bewitched you Certainly Gal 3 1. it must be a strong delusion that thus blinds you He feedeth on ashes a deceived heart hath turned him aside Isa 44. 20. that he cannot deliver his soul nor say is there not a lye in my right hand The next Ordinance I shall prove them to deny is a Gospel-Church And the Church so gathered into Naylor love to the lost p. 17. God is the Pillar and ground of truth where the Spirit alone is Teacher The Gospel-Church is a Church which hath other Teachers and not the Spirit alone but such a Church is not James Naylor's nor the Quakers The Church wherein the Apostles were sure had some Teachers beside the Spirit whereas the Apostles gave themselves to preaching of the Word And Elders were ordained in every particular Acts 14. 23 1 Cor. 4. 17. 1 Cor 12. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Church As I teach in every Church God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Teachers The Elders are exhorted to feed the Flock of Christ which is among you Priest that is the Minister he brings in saying § 2 We utterly deny all their ways and doctrines who exclude Fox great mystery p. 32. all teachings of man Answ Contrary to the Prophets who bid people cease from man whose breath was in their nostrils a Text hugely to the purpose But most will conclude that these Authors do not speak the minds of the Quakers for that they have more Teachers than all others Men-Ministers Women-Ministers and any one of them when there is a motion to it It is confessed that in point of fact it is so but it § 3 is a most palpable contradiction to their professed Principle I should be glad to hear they were more true to it that the Light within might be their only Teacher and they would let others alone till that turned them Quakers But Satan is cunning and can give a dispensation where it may serve so greatly to the promoting of his Kingdom Sometimes they have silent meetings as is known to most then they say they attend to the Teacher within which is
parts he seeks for wherein Naylor Love to lost p. 16. none of you can worship who know not the living Word in your hearts to keep them up to God in your worship and that worship which is not in the will of God is the worshipping of Devils If you ask any of them What is the truth in the inward parts They will not answer it is sincerity meanings suitable to our expressions and appearances but it is Christ the light within who is the truth And for knowing the living Word it is of the same sense it is all but the light within every man the Quakers Christ And for the Will of God that is nothing but the immediate life and motions of the light within I have said enough out of their Writings to prove these things neither will they deny them but Naylor telleth you and it is not for any Quaker to resist the Spirit by which he spake that worship not thus qualified is the worshipping of Devils It may be some of the Quakers though they know in their consciences that I speak but the very truth of their Tenets and Notions will say I put my meanings to their words but if they will but bate me speaking from their light within which they hold necessary to qualifie a man to speak truly I dare undertake to expound according to their meaning their ill-meant phrases as well as the most of them and their mystery is none to me at all And although they talk of praying in the Name of Christ yet as Naylor phrases it That is done in the Name of Christ which is done in his Light and Power But when all is done this Christ and Name and Light and Power is but the light within and its teachings and motions It is to me reported on all hands that they never § 5 pray in the Name of Christ as their Mediator much less then do they pray to God in or in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary or of that one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus even that Jesus who was Crucified at Jerusalem between two Thieves above 1600 years since I have put this to many of them and they denied not this Charge neither can I see how they can pray to the Father in the Name of Christ seeing God the Father and Christ with them admit of no distinction and for the Man Christ that was born of Mary they have nothing to do with him The Apostle saith A Mediator is not of one but God is one And whoever they are that deny and disown prayer in the Name of Christ are far from owning the Gospel-Ordinance of prayer Reading the Scriptures and Meditation which are Gospel-Ordinances SECT IV they also deny I need not tell you of the contempt they put upon the Scripture as a dead Letter the carnal Letter and on those who attend to it as dry Letter-mongers Take only one instance of William Pens But all must W. P. Spirit of truth be as unlearned as from their first Birth Education and Traditional read knowledge as he is unmanned that is again become a little child before the secrets of Gods work come to be made known And Fisher calls studying the Scripture scraping in the Scripture I wonder wherefore God ordered and commanded them to be written if they are not to be read and studied The Spirit of Christ within is the end of the Tables Great mystery p. 32. William Deusbuty Return p. 7. Law Works and Books and the Law is now in the heart Whatever thou be whether a Teacher of others or a Professor of what thou comprehends to be truth from the Letter of the Scripture under what form name or title soever thou be thou art a dead man and a dead woman and the wrath of God abides on thee though thou see it not Rom. 7. 9. Miserable man that talks at this rate and will father it on the Scripture too and such a one as is directly against him But we have had enough of this smoak I shall say somewhat of their abundant scorn of SECT V of the Lords Supper and Baptism wherein they express a superfluity of naughtiness not only in their Tenets but down-right railing The Ordinances I have hitherto considered in particular are called Moral from their natural obligation although that substantial and Essential part and qualification of them their respect to a Mediator will require a denomination more Evangelical and without which we cannot call them Gospel or Christian-Ordinances Those two Gospel-Ordinances I come now to consider are purely and perfectly positive and depend meerly upon Divinely-revealed Institution without which they had never come within our notice nor had they been any way obliging to us Yet such is the Sanction that the Lord hath put upon § 2 Institutions of this nature that not only since his revealed Law hath abounded to his Church but also when the Revelation of his mind immediately to his Servants was very rare he did not omit Injunctions of this kind The Sacrifices we read of as early as Cain and Abel Yea Adam in his state of Innocency who then needed not any indication of Moral duties beyond what was within the reach of his natural entire and uncorrupted light and innate to his perfect frame and holy disposition had the obligation of a positive duty from God in the matter of the Tree in the midst of the Garden And to me the main ground of it was that the absolute Soveraignty of the Creator might be acknowledged and man might learn to render obedience to God not only because the matter of it is just in its self and would be so if God had never explicitely commanded it but also because it is the Will of God yea where his Will obliges singly without the respect of natural and unchangeable Equity And God hath so expressed his jealousie over this ◠3. right of his that when sins against not only natural light but superadded Precepts to confirm and strengthen its doubtfulness and decays have been passed by without any special expressions of his provocations sins committed against his positive Laws have been avenged with a high hand Adam's and Eve's transgression was against an Institution and positive Law the Commission of which so stirred up the displeasure of God that he banished them out of Paradise and imposed that Curse under which the World groans to this day And it is not below our notice that although they were capable of sinning against God in many other respects yet God affixes the direful penalty to this positive Law In the day that thou 2 Gen 17. eatest thereof thou shalt surely die The case of Nadab and Ahihu when God bare § 4 witness against them from heaven by consuming them with fire was as a Pillar of Salt to season others with an awful Reverence of God in his purely instituted worship Vzzah was smitten and died on the spot when
29. The Father hath not left me alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 16. 32. And shall leave me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone Yea it is rendred apart Mat 14. 23. He went up into a mountain apart to pray I could instance abundantly in the like Now whereas being rendred only it implies that works also justifie whereas if it were rendred alone or apart which is as fair in the Greek it would amount but to this a faith which hath not or is separate from works will not be a justifying faith And it must be so because else it opposes the great Doctrine of the Gospel or at least looks like such a thing Rom. 4. 2 5 6. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory c. But to him that worketh not that is aiming at justification thereby but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness The blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works that is without respect to his works But enough of this only take one Text that needs no Comment to raise up this truth out of it viz. That the righteousness of Christ imputed is that alone or only which justifies by way of merit and which true faith looks to for this end For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we 2 Cor. 5 2â— might be made the righteousness of God in him I must not forget to do somewhat to satisfie the SECT III very weak that the sufferings of Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary hath influence into the satisfaction of Gods justice appeasing wrath reconciling us to God c Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree c. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows c. But he was wounded for our transgressions he 1 Pet. 2. 24. Isa 53. 4 5 6. was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed That God was not is as George Fox hath quoted it to lose the truth and save his errour in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them Having made peace by the bloud of his Cross And without shedding of bloud there is no remission 2 Cor. 5. 19â— Col. 1 â—0 Heb. 9. 22. Rom 5. 9. Psal 85. 9 10 11. opened Much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him that glory may dwell in our land mercy and truth have met to gether righteousness and peace have kissed each others Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven 'T is generally agreed these last verses respect Jesus § 2 Christ who is Gods salvation the triumph and glory of whose effects for his people are chiefly two First The reconciliation of Gods mercy to us with his truth and his righteousness to our peace The truth and righteousness of God were engaged to destroy and ruine the whole race of mankind for their sinning against him and breach of his Covenant in those words For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt Gen 2. 17. surely die Now whatever inclinations God might have to shew mercy to man and bless him with peace the truth and righteousness of God he having that word gone out of his mouth seemed to oppose it as not consisting with mercy and peace towards man and to have bound up those hands and lockt up those bowels from whence mans peace through the Lords mercy might reach him But through Christ Gods salvation and what he did and suffered in our nature as our publick person and in our stead the mercy of God in reaching poor sinners is set free without any detriment to his truth and the peace of a believing sinner throws no scandal on the righteousness and justice of a gracious God but these his glorious Attributes of mercy truth righteousness are at a full agreement amity and union not only in God as they alwayes were and never can be otherwise but also in blessing man with a reconciliation with his offended Creator This Jesus arises like a divine Sun in his almighty strength with healing in his wings And this is no mean evidence of the satisfaction to the truth justice and righteousness of God by what Christ transacted in the world in the behalf of lost and undone To declare I say at this time his righteousness Rom. 3. 26. that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus The second glorious effect of this salvation of God § 3 Jesus Christ by his transacting our redemption is That righteousness shall look down from Heaven The righteousness in the 11th verse I suppose is not the same with that in the 10th Verse the former in the 10th Verse being the essential righteousness and Iustice of God which was to be reconciled to sinners which could not be done with a salvo to his Word but by some means which might answer to and satisfiâ— his justice But the ighteousness in the 11th Verse seems to me to be that sinless state who which Christ came down from Heaven hath cloathed them with by imputing to them and putting upon them that divine and glorious righteousness which he wrought in his own person and in our nature when he was in the world and so renders his believing ones not only free from the direfull strokes and heart piercing frowns of a just and offended God but also the objects of his love of benevolence yea of delight and compâ—acence To conclude The whole transaction of Jesus § 4 Christ as Redeemer is the ground of our justification and its effects and consequences we being instated therein although the righteousness of Christ considered as his obedience and fulfilling that Law under which he was made as man and imputed to us be the glory of the Saints wherewith they shine in the righteousness of God in him And with relation to our union with Christ all those holy fruits the Saints bring forth by the strength and life from Christ received are accepted of by God and shall be eternally rewarded yet have no part nor portion in this matter of justifying our persons in the sight of God Having proved the Quakers disowning that justifying SECT IV righteousness which the Gospel holds forth and in some measure vindicated and explained it I shall now address my self to a discovery of that righteousness which the Quakers adventure their justification before God upon They will tell you They are justified by no other righteousness but the righteousness of Christ with abundance of confidence though as we shall prove they know not what they say nor whereof they affirm their righteousness being as far from what is pretended as darkness from light
Acts 13. 28 29 30. desired they Pilate that he should be slain and when he had fulfilled all that was written of him they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre but God raised him from the dead Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of Verse 38. sins For there is one God and one Mediator between God 1 Tim. 2. 5. and man the man Christ Jesus I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am Rev. 1. 18. alive for evermore amen and have the keys of hell and death I might fill many Pages with Scriptures of the like import these are so plain for what I produce them and the Quakers deny that they need no Exposition or Comment or as the Quakers phrase it have any meanings put to them If men be so blind as not to see the errour of disowning § 7 Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary who was hanged on a Tree put into the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea to be yet alive and the Christ of God by all these Scriptures it is a blindness wherewith never any before the Quakers who professed the Scriptures to be a true testimony were smitten Surely God hath given them up for their pride giddiness or idle ignorance and that in Justice and the Devil the Destroyer hath blinded their minds with a witness that this light of the glorious Gospel should not shine unto them Can yea dare any of you guilty of the errour here charged say That all this is true of and to be applied to the light within every man which these Scriptures assert of Gods Christ Read them over and compare them with that which is your only Christ and Saviour If this man Christ Jesus in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead and who was thus described by the Spirit of God be the Saviour your light within is not If your light within be the Saviour and Christ and Redeemer he was not of whom all these Scriptures and a thousand more speak so plainly The Lord be merciful to your souls the Lord rebuke you who are so bold in denying the Lord that bought you and trampling under foot the bloud of the Covenant O consider that fancies and dreams though having ever so strong an impression while you are possessed with them will when you awake out of your graves of earth and dust yea when your souls depart from your bodies leave you to the naked truth which God in his Word the Scriptures hath revealed to us not to be abused after your manner but that we might believe and live after their direction which who despises Wo unto their souls for they have rewarded Isa 3. 9. evil to themselves I have not yet given you all the evidence I have § 8 out of the Quakers chief Writers that they disown the man Jesus the Son of Mary to be Gods Christ Some of them take together Can outward bloud Penningtons Questions P. as Fox cleanse the conscience We witness the same Christ that ever was now manifested in the flesh The man Christ Jesus was not ever for he was made and born in time of the Virgin Mary was Abraham's and David's seed after the flesh and though he now have a Being in Heaven and is manifested on earth by his Word and by that Faith which is in the hearts of his people yet he is not now manifest in the flesh according to that Scripture which saith God was manifest in the 1 Tim. 3. 16 flesh not is And Christs nature is not humane which is earthly Fox mystery c. p. 71. for that is the first Adams And immediately before Where doth the Scripture speak of humane Now we do not deny that Christ according to the flesh was of Abraham but not the word humane How pitifully doth he wind and turn to get out § 9 of the Noose and holds the world in hand as if he did not deny the thing that Christ is constituted of the humane nature only he will not allow the word humane Yet he that hath a small measure of discerning may see that peep out which he would fain hide He denies Christs nature to be earthly which the first Adams was Sure if Christ was the seed of the woman by Adam his nature as man was such as Adams But for his questioning the word humane as not in the Scripture he pretending to he able to examine the Justice of our Translators in turning the Greek into English in his great Libel called Mystery of the Great Whore should methinks have found as much as humane in the Greek though not in the English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being five times used in the Epistles which in the Latine is more hominum humanus after the manner of men humane And Christs humane nature is no more but his mans nature of his nature according to man and so he is now in the humane nature in the Heavens Seeing then that we Heb 4 14 15. have a great High-Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession Mark the last clause For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Infirmities here must not be understood of sin the Text bars that but such a weak nature as is constituted of flesh and bloud liable to pains grief hunger and weariness And he was found in fashion as a man and that I think is more hominis Now this man is not was but is our High-Priest in the Heavens and not as Fox hath it was of the seed of Abraham but is so A few Instances more yet And they that are false Ministers preach Christ Smith prim p. 9. without Your carnal Christ is utterly denied by the light Your imagined God beyâ—nd the Stars But none Sword of the Lord c. p. 24. Shield of the Truth p. 30. can witness this whose eye is outward looking at a Redeemer afar off So much of the proof of their denying that man to be Christ I must not say that the Quakers do not own a SECT II man Christ for that they frequently in their writings and sayings express such a thing but I desire that none will be offended that I will not take Chips for Guinâ—ys or half-Crowns because some silly Cheats would put them upon me under those valuable names much more ought I and every one else take heed of receiving that for Christ which God the Father hath not sealed because men of what countenance soever will perswade us it is no other whilst by the very Candle-light of meer reason it will appear to be a meer fancy If I should say no more but that it is an absurdity as big as an impossibility for a man constituted not only of a soul for
and of that enough to prove me so There is a passage of Willam Pen's either in his Book called Sandy foundation c. or else The Spirit of Truth c. which is this at least the matter of it That Christ is most eminently the Word all will agree or none will deny I have not time to look it But I shall say thus much to antidote that fancy That that is most eminently the Word of that species about which we contend which is most properly so though other considerations may render Christ the Word more eminent in another kind and not that which is sometimes but improperly so called Christ is called a Lion a Door 'T is true Christ as God is more eminent than all things beside in Heaven and Earth and we use to say and do not yet repent it that all uncompounded good things are eminently in God So as there is strength and courage in a Lion with respect to strength and courage Christ may be said to be eminently most eminently strong and couragious but to be the most eminently a Lion would be a strange and untrue expression of Christ For Forma dat esse and he that is without the form that gives the being cannot be so eminently such as the meanest that hath the true form And that the Word Christ is only so analogically I have shewed and the definition of a Word in the second Chapter I desire Mr. Pen to consider better next time and not think every body else not a hairs breadth beyond his size A third Scripture I am willing to explain to fence SECT VI the weak against the Quakers seductions is 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts This more sure word of prophecy compared with a voice from Heaven which Peter James and John heard expressed in Verse 17. is by Peter affirmed to be rather to be credited than that or any other immediate Revelation By the more sure word of prophecy is meant those prophecies written in the Old Testament which are called verse 20. Prophecy of Scripture and are called The light that shineth in a dark place as Prophecies shine but with a dim light yet are welcom and give some light comparatively with Providences which are the fulfilling of those Prophecies The dawning of the day and the day-star arising in their hearts cannot be meant of Christ known and received by faith to salvation and sanctification too in some measure for so he was risen in their hearts when the Apostle wrote this or else he would not have said them to have obtained like precious faith with him and others the Apostles and Saints which he doth in verse 1. as the direction of his Epistle I therefore conclude that the sense is this He exhorts § 2 them to be intent on the Propheciâ—s whether verbal or figurative which had respect to not only the coming of the Messiah which they believed already but also the abolishing of the Mosaical Rites and constituting in their room the spiritual and Gospel-administration till thereby they were convinced of that truth which is called the dawning of the day and the day-star with respect to its light and beauty and reality above the Mosaical Ceremonies and Rites which were but dim night-stars in comparison or till they were convinced that the day of the Gospel-realities was come and so the night-shadows of the Law to be done away .. The grounds I have for this Exposition are these § 3 added to the former Peter the Pâ—n-man of this Epistle is said to be the Apostle to the Circumcision as the Gospel of Circumcision was to Peter And Gal. 2. 7. therefore we may gather that those to whom he wrote were Jews whom the Scripture speaks to be zealously addicted to the Law of Moses And this is farther confirmed by his direction of them to the heeding of the Scripture-Prophecies which few but the Jews were acquainted with or did own as worth the heeding except the converted Gentiles of whom there was no danger that they should Judaize unless moved thereunto by such of the Jews as needed this conviction This to me is sufficient I leave the grounds for others to consider One Text more I shall weigh and then I judge I § 4 have done enough to satisfie those that are willing how the Quakers abuse those Texts which are not so easily understood as some others to their own and others destruction To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among Col. 1. 27. opened the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory From hence they conclude they have very Christ his Being and Essence within them It will not be easily refuted that the hope of glory is to be understood to be in them which being a hope in Christ the crucified Jesus was such a mystery as the Gentiles called foolishness But we preach Christ 1 Cor. 1. 2. crucified to the Jâ—ws a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness For Christ to be in them rightly understood would be no such hard matter for the Gentiles to believe who understood Metonymical phrases very well as to believe such a glory to be attained by faith in and obedience to the Laws of a man who died as a Malefactor and that this death of his should reconcile God to man with the addition of such a purchase But because it is a truth that Christ is in Believers I shall therefore say that which with the blessing of the Lord to a willing mind to be instructed will prove convincing First The man Christ that was nail'd to the § 5 Cross the Quakers do not believe to be in them nor that he hath a being or life nor can he be in them in his person as a man if they had a sounder faith For the God-head of Christ that is with respect to his Being and Essence is every where and every where alike Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Jer. 23. 24. Lord So that with respect to the infinite Being of God who comprehends all things he is in every thing at all times and nothing can be void of his presence So that if this be it you mean the Saints have no more priviledge than any other creature whatsoever But it remains that Christ is in his people by his graces wrought by his Spirit which is his Image and Likeness by his love which hath a uniting nature to its object as we say such are one who love dearly Every man is where he loves more than where he lives And so also where he is beloved for that will make him frequently thought on and a man to be sensible of his good or hurts as if he himself enjoyed the one or suffered the other And he is said to
not gone after Baalim See thy way in the Valley know what thou hast done thou art a swift Dromedary traversing her ways A wild Ass used to the Wilderness that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure in her occasion who can turn her away All they that seek her will not weary themselves in her moneth they shall find her CHAP. XVII The Quakers deny the Resurrection of the Dead I Doubt not but all who are not infatuated with the SECT I Quakers Spirit to a perverting the genuine sense of almost all the expressions of Principles of Faith will understand by the Resurrection of the Dead the raising again to life and from the dust and corruption the bodies of men and women however disposed of after their natural death or dissolution The Quakers will deny their guilt of this Charge and come off with an Allegorical evasion They will tell youâ— that they believe and own the Resurrection of the Dead yea of the dead body whereas in truth their opinion and meaning is quite another thing than the ordinary acceptation of that Doctrine as will appear by the instances following And hath no will nor wisdom nor reason left in him Smith Cat. p. 31. §. 2. but all baptized down into the sufferings of Christ and there the power kills him and gives him life again and so man lays down his own life and takes up life in Christ in which life he comes to be raised in the Resurrection of Christ I must confess this account is like his who though he may have too much Will is utterly void of Reason But he that shall own no other Resurrection of the Body than what Smith expresses comes under that severe rebuke of the Apostle Who concerning the Faith have erred saying that the Resurrection is past already and have destroyed the faith of some The foresaid Author saith farther Quest But must man pass through death and rise p. 29. again while he is in the Body Answ Yes for except he be regenerated and born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And therefore he must die to the first Adams flesh and be quickned and raised again in the second Adams Spirit And so in the Resurrection and life enter the Kingdom as a little Child You see here plainly that their Resurrection of the Body is but their Regeneration and this is fulfilled while they are in the body But above all that I have read of the Quakers § 3 Velata quaedam revelata Fisher is the best skilled in the allegorizing of the Resurrection But if you will not be admonished nor perswaded by Moses and the Prophets within you neither will you be perswaded by such of us who were once dead in Sin with you but are now risen to life by the Power of God which is his light and in the same sent to speak unto you from the dead I know not how they can deny his words to be his gloss on 16 Luke 31. If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets neither wilâ— they be perswaded if one should rise from the dead If Christ had intended Conversion or Regeneration there by rising from the Dead it were no rare thing to have such Preachers sent to them for all the Saints of God are such as are Regenerated and such Preachers they had many at that time we may conclude that the Resurrection spoken of by Christ was of some one in the state of the Dead to have his body raised to life and with that advantage of experience to preach to them Whereby the heart is free from corruption and § 4 Naylor Love to the Lost p. 3. made able to escape the pollutions of the World and to run in the pure ways with delight which is the glâ—rious liberty of the Sons of God the Resurrection from the Dead I have said enough of what abundantly implies their denial of this great and fundamental truth I do not at all expect nor can I with any reason that they should in their writings in so many words deny the Resurrection of the Dead because so open and plain dealing in this great point would render them intolerable and shut the door against Proselites but yet in verbal and private converse they stick not to deny the Resurrection of the same bodies which ordinarily when dead are put into a hole in the ground and covered with earth I have examined many of their Books that pretend to give a full account of their Tenets and Belief but in all of them their Resurrection is no other than I have already expressed Take an Account of one or two in their Systems of their Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead We say that Christ is the Resurrection and the Life to § 5 Isaac Pennington Some principles of the Elect called Quakers p. 34. raise up that which Adam lost and to destroy him who deceived him viz Adam so Christ is the Resurrection unto Life of Body Soul and Spirit and so renews man c. What is this Resurrection but what they call Regeneration and the Resurrection of the Body is but in the same sense as the Soul and Spirit is raised which is not from a natural death or dissolution of their essential form but from their depravation and defection to a sensual and sinful disposition and their aversation from God Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead In the Chapter intituled ' as above he hath these Naylor love to the lost p. 78. words But to such busie minds who are saying how are the dead raised and with what bodies do they come I say to such the Apostles words are very suitable Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die but the mystery is sealed with the Sons of God nor can any ever know with what bodies they shall arise but who comes to the Flesh of Christ and discerns his Body the sight whereof in the life slays the Serpent and opens the Mystery Till then cursed is he that reveals that which God hath sealed and hidden from the Serpents Wisdom c. Naylor before and after quotes many Scripture-phrases which abundantly prove the Resurrection of the Body after dissolution or natural death but when all is done there is a Mystery a sealed Mystery in his meaning and a curse laid on those who reveal their Tenet No wonder then that they speak not out to any other but themselves whom he dare trust with the greatest abominations in their delusions but notwithstanding his inhibition divers of them have to me acknowledged that they believe not that the body which when dead is ordinarily put into a hole in the ground and covered with earth and turns to dust shall ever be made alive again And that which may put you out of doubt that this is their Tenet I can prove by many Witnesses that George Whitehead one of their chief Misleaders after much importunity to speak his mind plainly in this
in jeopardy every hour 1 Cor. 15. 29. 30. Thirdly it utterly subverts and makes Shipwrack § 3 of the faith of the Gospel that looking at a prize and reward on the other side the Grave But if there be no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith also in vain 1 Cor 15 13 14. For if the dead rise not then is not Christ raised and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins 1 Cor. 15 16 17. So that there is a Chain of the most woful consequences that this wicked error draws after it Fourthly Then the Gospel is a meer fallacy and § 4 delusion which promises a reward to men whose persons are constituted of a body as well as a soul Many more might be inferred of so grand an import as would render this Doctrine the most pernicious that was ever hatched among pretended Christians CHAP. XIX The Quakers profess not the Doctrine of a future reward in another World I Have been a diligent Enquirer to find some expressions SECT 1 in their Writings or Verbal Converse that might satisfie me they owned a future happiness or misery after this life but all to no purpose in this point they make no noise at all I have searched those Writings of theirs especially which have pretended an account of their Principles in all or most points of Religion but though this of a future state of reward or punishment be the vitals and end of all Religion yet they do not so much as touch upon it From whence I must conclude it is blotted out of their Creed 'T is said of the Gospel which is the Christian Dispensation that it brings life and immortality to light what was in the Scriptures of the old Testament more seldom and obscurely expressed is the very scope of the Gospel or New Testament the peculiar of Christianity But then certainly Quakerism is no Christianity that is so silent in this matter I know they talk of immortality and eternal life but what is immortality with them Fox saith man is immortal before death in his Great Mystery and their Salvation is no more but what they have within them and is accomplished in this world Farnsworth saith speaking of the righteousness of Christ neither was I saved by it So that his Salvation was not future but present or past And Pennington in some Principles of the Elect c. saith and so they who forget God and do wickedly they are to be turned into Hell But what Hell is this no more than what they say is in this life For they who forget God and do wickedly they go from the life and power of God into the separation from him and out of his acceptance For in the life is the acceptance What is here more than is suffered in this life which we call paena damni or the punishment of loss A Book intituled The Spirit of the Quakers c. § 1 charges the Quakers for having their hearts much set on a Heaven within them but not on the things above to which Pen replies and vindicates after his fashion the Kingdom of God within but saith not a word to assert their belief of and affections to the Heaven above from whence it is plain that they believe no such thing to have a being I wonder not therefore that this is so frâ—quently their saying That if we are not perfect here we shall never be perfect It is easily deduceable from their more openly professed § 2 principles that they deny and disown a blessedness or misery in another world For if they deny the body to have life any more after it is dead and turned to dust and that the Soul and Spirit are of the being of God and that as the body returns to its former dust from whence it came and never revives again so the Soul and Spirit returns into God its first being all which I have already proved what then remains to be the subject of happiness or misery E'ne nothing at all except God and he is not man E. Burroughs the day he died expressed himself thus that he was now putting off this manner of person and returning to his own Being or words of the same import which I have quoted on the Chapter of their Idolatry When I have asked some of them what should become of their souls after death Their answer hath been they shall be taken into God Let them profess that they believe a happiness to be enjoyed by men and women after their bodies are rotted to dust distinct from the Being of God or that which they had not a thousand years before they were born i. â— to be in God from whom as of his Being they say the soul came and it will be news to me and all that are acquainted with them In the mean time I have given you Reasons enough to conclude they believe no future blessedness or misery in anoâ—her world I shall now resume the Question and gather up all the proofs of what I have affirmed into an entire body If Quakerism be another Dispensation than that of Christ setled and preached by the Apostles If it deny the Scripture If it deny all the Ordinances of the Gospel If it deny any influence of Christs transactions in Judea above 1600 years since into our Justification and Salvation If it deny Jesus the Son of Mary the Christ of God If it own false Gods and be Idolatry If it professedly owns the worshipping of false Gods If it deny the Resurrection of the Dead If it affect not a future blessedness or misery in another world to men and women according to their deeds in this Then Quakerism is no Christianity But all these things are true and have been proved of Quakerism Therefore Quakerism is no Christianity PART III. BEING AN EXAMINATION Of the First Part of VV. PEN'S Pamphlet CALLED The Spirit of Truth Vindicated c. WITH A Rebuke of his Exorbitances WHiles I was writing this Book I met with SECT 1 a Pamphlet of William Pen's intituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated against that of Errour and Envy c. Which is pretended to be an Answer to a malicious Libel intituled The Spirit of the Quakers tryed c. I having the piece by me I once perused it In the general I resâ—nted it as one of the best and most ingeniously 〈…〉 aged and beyond all material and just excepti 〈…〉 at least by the Quakers that ever I read against 〈◊〉 sort of people But reading Pen's Answer 〈◊〉 finding his Epistle giving such a Character of his 〈…〉 versaries Book and himself for malice lameness 〈…〉 ing and what not that might render it and him 〈…〉 ed and contemptible I began to mistrust my conclusion supposing a person of P's education and pretences would not say so much evil of it without great cause and therefore I compared them
diligently But for P's sake I shall believe it more than possible § 2 that a man of the highest pretences having some more than ordinary means to deal rightly and ingenuously may yet so far deceive my expectations as to give the highest contradictions to them all I am altogether ignorant of the name or person of the Author of the Piece opposed by Pen and if he be a Socinian as Pen affirms I shall be far enough from vindicating him therein but for the Piece it self wherein Pen saith he could find neither head nor tail I will sell my eyes and brains for two pence if it deserve so contemptible a Character And for the Answerer Pen if he were not furnished with forehead and tales beyond measure his Pamphlet would have had nothing remarkable in it I expecting next his Epistle and Preface an â—rderly § 3 combating his Adversaries Charge I find him taking up his Post in the Quakers conceited strong hold of the infallible guidance of the Spirit of God afforded to his people exclusive of any other means In the debating of which he roams and tosses to and fro like a man in a confused troubled dream for above thirty pages His pretences therein lying athwart my present work I thought meet to give some account of his Forces especially considering him to be a man of noise and no small prop to the Quakers Cause in their own esteem His Question in which he pretends to include the Quakers strength and which he saith he is resolved to stand by as such he states in these words The Question stated Whether Gods holy and unerring Spirit is or should SECT II be the proper Judge of Truth Rule of Faith and Guide of Life among men especially under the Administration of the blessed Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or not I affirm it and proceed to prove it by Scripture and Reason Considering his words foregoing which are too many and too worthless to transcribe and what he aims at in the handling of this Question I never read one so lame and deformed in my life come forth with such state and confidence and such a train or rout of mediums as deformed as it self There is in it neither Logick nor Honesty Certainly if he had not turned Quaker and in that fall put all out of joynt he could not likely after so good Nursing have been thus lamentably cripled in his Intellect and somewhat besides First of all here is a fallacy à bene divisis ad malè § 2 conjuncta many Questions confounded together Secondly no explanation of the terms most all of which are metaphorical or amphibious and in that part especially affirmed the greatest ambiguity of all Vt quisque est linguâ nequior Solvans ligantque quaestionum vincula Per syllogismos plectiles He tells us indeed pag. â—7 that there is no more difference to him between a Judge Rule and Guide than essentially there can be in the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God he should have added nor between truth faith and life among men and then he would have shewed himself a work-man indeed to have so stitched them together into one as would admit of no distinction I do not admire that his Acumen cannot distinguish Essence and Subsistence three Persons in one Divine Being and God-Head who cannot distinguish these Attributes of God nor these acts with respect to men mentioned in the Question He is unlike to wade through a deep River who is so often over head and ears in a shallow Dish But these escapes are but the Dâ—st of the Ballance § 3 to what follows The word proper in a Question as modifying these Offices or Acts of the Spirit is greatly improper Proper is sometimes in opposition to figurative sometimes in opposition to common sometimes in opposition to meet or fit in which sense he would be understood it doth not fit his purpose nor principles to tell us but this is an unworthy part of a Disputant and becoming none but those who are resolved not to be understood If he would assert the Quakers Tenet he must say it is the peculiar sole and immediate Guide Rule and Judge and this is that he pleads for now and then after his fashion in his following arguments and all the Quakers I have read or discoursed plead for in plain terms But if it had been so expressed in the Question his Nose would have been held too hard to the Grind-stone in attempting strictly to prove it and most would have smelt the Rankness of Quakerism But Mr. Pen do you deal fairly and honestly with your Adversaries to imply in your Question that we deny the Spirit of God to be a proper that is one that is fit and hath right to be a Rule of Faith Guide of Life Judge of Truth You know that we own it to be such and that it doth both in the Conscience and by the Scripture Creation and Providence perform such acts to such purposes and that of right only we deny that the Spirit always performs these acts without the use of the Scripture or any external means or Ordinances or that it doth so at any time contrary to its mind expressed in the Scripture This you should oppose or you do but trifle and abuse us and your unwary Readers The latter part of your Question which expresses § 4 the Administration of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ especially to countenance your Tenet is playing at Blind-mans-buff You should have told us who or what you mean by Lord and Saviour If it be understood of the Quakers Lord and Saviour the light within every man that is none of our Lord and Saviour If it be understood of the Man Christ Jesus who was of the seed of David according to the flesh who was the Son of Mary crucified to death on the Cross of Wood by shedding his blood and is now in his humane or mans nature united to the God-head in one person ascended above the visible heavens he is none of your Saviour and can be no more within you personally considered than the body of one individual man can be entirely in all the men and women and children in the world and at the same time It must be a Transubstantiation much more ridiculous than the Papists that must support such a fancy It is also no less strange that you should talk of the § 5 Gospel Administration of our Lord and Saviour who hold nothing of a Saviour but what is Eternal à parte ante nor any other Gospel but the light within and its immediate Dictates which you generally affirm was within every man from the beginning of the world I shall not spend time and paper to shew the many other absurdities in your question I have left a Hâ—rvest for Gleaners For the proof of your affirmation such a blind one as it is you produce abundance of Scriptures which are as much to your purpose as if you had quoted
and the inspiration of the Job 32 3. Almighty giveth him understanding I shall explain this text by another which carries the full sense of it and almost the same words For the Lord giveth wisdome out of his mouth cometh knowledg and understanding But doth this incourage men to cast off all external means and the use of their reason Nothing less It is given as an encouragement to the use of the means expressed in the four first verses which are made conditional of being blessed with that knowledg and wisdom which comes from the Lord. If thou searchest If thou triest It will now be more easie to take in the right sense of your cited Scriptures There is a Spirit in man that is a rational Soul § 2 say some yet knowledge and understanding doth not so depend upon its improvement as to shut out the breathing and blessing of God from the chief efficiency A young man as Elihu may attain a measure by that divine blessing beyond the aged and more experienced If you can prove that those holy men who carried on that debate of which the Book of Job is a history did neglect the external means which the Lord afforded them for informing their judgments about divine and spiritual concernments upon the grounds of the inward teachings of the Spirit of God Eris mihi magnus Apollo and unless you can do that your arguing from this Text is but meer trifling beating of the air and contending for what is granted on all hands but nothing at all to your purpose And it is not beside the purpose to consider that those holy eminent Saints who contended with Job were rebuked by God for not speaking rightly of God as Job did and Job did not pass free without a chiding also for his miscarriages and presumptions Job 42. verse 7. and forward To conclude this Argument you talk at a miserable § â— lame rate to say that because the inspiration of the Divine Spirit giveth understanding therefore it is not from the strength of mans reason memory or utmost câ—eature-ablities that his knowledge of religious and heavenly things comes but from the revelation and discovery of the inspiration of the Almighty Let me tell you once for all that if reason memory and humane abilities have nothing at all to do in the search and understanding of Divine things a meer animal or such an ideot as Jack Adams may know as much of the Divine and Heavenly mysteries as W. Pen but if I should say such a one is as able a Teacher or Writer as you I doubt not but you would take your self to be not a little affronted And it is as lame arguing to conclude because some § 4 men had Divine inspirations and teachings of some Divine truths when there was not one Book of the written Word in being as I dare undertake to prove and they who had those Inspirations made use also of their reason to know Divine things by all external means within their reach therefore all Gods people i. e. Quakers have in these days wherein God hath blessed us with so large a portion of his written Word or Word without us sufficient teachings by immediate Divine Revelations to lead them infallibly in the way that is most acceptable with the Lord without the use of their created faculties or any outward means is no good consequence The next Scripture you abuse is Psal 139 7. Whither SECT V Psal 139. 7. shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence from whence you scribble thus If Gods unerring Spirit be so nigh and the sense of it so certain it must be either to reprove for evil done or to inform uphold lead and preserve in reference to all good now in which of the two senses it shall be taken the presence of Gods Eternal Spirit and his being the Saints Instructor Judge Rule and Guide are evidently deduceable from the words Rudis indigestaque moles worse than ever Bear brought forth her Cubs which with her licking may be brought into some shape but your products are so defective both in Truth Right Reasoning Syntax and Sense that it is no dis-reputation to your Adversary to be confounded by them It is an effectual but an impudent course to silence all the world from opposing you by writing such confident confused non-sense Were it not for the sake of many who conceit your infallibility which you are here so blindly pleading for I would as soon abandon my time to dispute with a distracted man in his raving fits as with W. Pen till he come better to himself than I can find him in this Pamphlet If Gods infinite Being Omnipresence Omniscience § 2 wonderful works of Creation all-disposing Providence which is the scope of the Psalm and his Omnipresence especially the sense of the Text do prove that which you produce it for and infer from it you have found out a way of seeing that may tempt us to dig out our eyes punish them for meer Cheats and for ever hereafter commend the blind Archer for the best Marks-man We may presume that you intend this Text to § 3 prove that all Gods people are upheld ruled guided c. In reference to all good by the Spirit of God which you say is evidently deduceable from the words But who would have thought that such desirable considerations and the certain sense of them should put so holy a man as David on such expressions of going and flying from the Spirit and presence of the Lord No doubt the presence of God is every where in the Skies the Seas the Wilderness what then doth he therefore perform all these acts where ever he is present in his infinite Being even where there are no intelligible Creatures Doth he judge inform instruct stones and trees and mountains I and must do so too or else he doth not answer the end of his presence being so nigh Truly Mr. Pen we have had more reverend thoughts of the Eternal and Omnipresent God than to assign any thing as the end of his Being but himself But it may be you lay your stress on the certain § 4 sense of it and this joyned to his Omnipresence will do your work Is the sense of it so certain to every good man was it so to David when he so long time was tainted with a heap of impieties Was it so with Jonah when he fled as he thought from the presence of the Lord or was it so with you when you wrote some things in this book of yours which I shall acquaint you with before I have done If it should be granted you that all Gods people have the certain sense of it without doubting or alteration it would be nihil adrhombum far from proving Gods Spirit to be the peculiar Teacher of his people and so to teach them as to render them infallible which is the mark you aim at The next Scripture you produce is Teach me
for secret you put secrets for Lord you put God For the latter you 'l say it is one and the same sense for the Lord is God and God is the Lord But here you are too bold for all that God hath more names in Scripture than one and if the varying had nothing of significancy the Wisdom of God would not have so expressed himself but to put secrets for secret mars the sense But you 'l say not the truth Yes verily the truth in this place for this Text doth not say so and to say it saith and the Apostle saith what they say not is an untruth and if I greatly mistake not the words that follow and he will shew them his Covenant are interpretative of the word secret For indeed though the matter and Surface of the Covenant be obvious to every common intelligence yet the necessity worth a considerable part of the sense but especially the faith interest and well-grounded comfort of it are the secrets which this one great secret the Covenant contains and this Scripture speaks of imparting to those who fear the Lord yet it excludes not external means And guide me by thy counsel What is this to oppose § 8 or exclude Gods guidance by his written or printed word Have I not written to thee excellent Pro. 22. 20. things in counsels and knowledge Sure these were then a fit Guide as Gods means But verily there Vitia nostra quae amamus defendimus malumus ea excusare quam excutere Sen. Ep. 117. appears such a Spirit of slumber idleness and worse in your labours as if you gloried in a careless or designed perverting the Scriptures both for sense words and form and to vindicate the same of G. Fox by the Authority of your like Crimes or greater The Text saith Thou shalt guide me c. which expresses his Faith in Gods promises but you turn it into a prayer Guide me c. I had almost forgotten a main consideration in § 9 your flourish about immediate teachings viz. â—e meets it in print because in print you here insinuate Psa 73. 20. the formal cause of our respects to the written word or printed to be its being in print and that there lyes the difference between you and us Not so good Mr. Pen the beam in our eyes is not so big Neither are we inclined to that piece of superstition for then no sooner you could get your conceits in print but immediately we must hugg them and get the second impression in our hearts without more a do for they are in print But if you would know the Truth and speak it of us the next time you have occasion it is this We value not the sense for the prints sake but the print for the sense sake and the blessings that attends that way of conveying the holy and revealed Will of God And so much to correct your vapour which may do you good if you have so much good nature left as is able to work with it And now Mr. Pen to shut up this discourse I shall SECT IX shew you your face in the glass of sense if you think your eyes worth the using to that end If you had dress'd your self by the glass of the Scripture at this coming abroad you had certainly been free of these spots Foul Epithets as knave pupy fool rascal loggerhead Pag 7 Cheat. This you say was the language of your adversaries small Cryer but as you call it of a loathsome scent so you blow it on the Author of the book within five lines tryers of other mens spirits who have so little proof of the knowledg of their own as to be wanting in the alphabet or first principles of common civility This is not fair to charge him with anothers faults But compare this Civility of yours with your own thus far this impertinent man To all this I say Pag. III. he obtâ—udes an arrant lie upon our very senses Wretched scribler how idle frivolous and how very troublesome is he with his how ridiculâ—us remarks If you are not guilty of the obtrusion you impute to § 2 your adversary and that frequently and apparently I cannot read and transcribe english But this I take the trouble of to let the world know that W. Pen will daub his adversary and that Per fas per nefas and like one greedy of victory Aut inveniam aut faciam You will find him in faults or make gross ones and charge upon him G. Fox he thinks has miscited a Scripture ergo he is Pag 4. an Impostor and the Quakers a pack of Hereticks It is after this lofty manner of disputing c. I never read a more confident untruth The Authors Argument is too large to transcribe here Your adversary saith some of you excell in many Pag 1. things which are in themselves good and laudable You say If we excel in all things as he confesseth Pag. 10 which is to say that there are but few things wherein we done 't transcend all others and you direct us to page the first where we may prove your falsifying Your adversary saith it is rare with him For to Pag. 1. use any text and not abuse it You say A few Scriptures he mostly confesseth that but one of us hath miscited either in reference to a disorderly quotation of the words or unsuitable application of them you know he pretends to deal but with G. Fox's abuses Your Adversary saith And indeed I have found Pag 2. it very fruitless to deal with you by way of reason and Scripture and Page 3. I will not now deal with you so much by Arguments drawn from reason or Scripture and depending purely on the understanding and mind c. You say He promiseth for the future to avoid the use Pag 13. of both Scripture and reason and direct to Page 2. I could produce in your Spirit of Truth many more And acter calumniare aliquâ—d adherebit such falsities in point of fact and you saying Page 1. You carefully perused the Book you prove your self to be more than a meer careless even a wilful transgressor But if this be your way of answering your adversaries and throwing contempt and reproach upon § â— them 't is not possible for any to escape your hardest 〈◊〉 And I am perswaded you are secure of your 〈◊〉 considering what is objected against your principles and practices of a Religious concern by any of your 〈◊〉 writings or you would not thus adventure y 〈…〉 â—â—putation with them I would desire you if you will hereafter pretend to be 〈…〉 swerer you would be more solid and rational then when you find your adversaries appealing to the light within you to judg whether G. Fox have rightly transcribed the texts of Scripture he pretends to use which may be done with a little measure of natural light and common sense to conclude P. 77. 78. with a high
rant and charging your adversary with infatuation that he hath given himself the lie and and you the cause as if thereby he acknowledg'd the light within you to be so alsufficient as you pretend and that if a man can judg infallibly when he reads and compairs a few written or printed lines whether they agree in the same words The Quakers light must needs be infallible and indefinitely and without any bounds at least in Religious and Divine Concerns But above all let me intreat you that if your § 5 Adversary give you your due saying moreover The light â—n every man is not to be extended to all cases whatever as if every man that attends to the Light in him did certainly know what is good what is evil right or wrong in every case That then you will not gratifie him with such Reason and Rhetorick as in the following words of yours I heartily pity the man and am really afraid he has overcharged the strength of his brain for with me such manifest contradiction is but a smaller degree of distraction I would fain have a rational answer from him if he be yet capable of one How can the Light be a Judge of good and evil and not be so and all within the space of ten lines If the Light as by him acknowledged be a Judge of good from evil and the contrary then in all cases wherein good and evil right and wrong make up the Question the Light cannot be secluded as wanting in â—rue judgment because good and evil are part of the Question in the granted Proposition deny that the Light is sufficient in any case of right and wrong and deny all Verily Mr Pen you seem to lay a plot here to § 7 blow at least all the Judges off from the Bench to make room for any Quaker though the most witless of them all For if he can but discern right and wrong in any case suppose whether in changing a shilling he hath wrong done him if he receive but two groats for it and right if he receive three he can then discern right and wrong in all cases whâ—â—soever and he that shall say the contrary you will chastise him with Sarcasms as keen as a Badg 〈…〉 Teeth Though I am a little pleasant for I cannot sudare § circa nuces pray bear with me I assure you I have had some heart-akes for you when I have deeply considered that a man of your hopes should be thus left of God I fear for pride and giddiness as to be made a Pillar of Salt to caution others to take heed lest they fall into the same snare which whatever conceit you may have of your self is too apparent Do not affect to be a Chief of a Party learn that Lesson by Scripture-light It is better to hear the rebukes of the wise I mean Eccles 7. 5. not my self than for a man to hear the Song of Fools It is great pity that what parts God hath given you should be fettered and smeared with the polluted Chains of the grossest delusions expect no other but that God will wither you in your Rationals more and more if you will needs Deifie such a poor Creature as Natural Conscience and reduce so much within the compass of a poor Earthen defiled Vessel But if you are resolved to go on at this rate let the Title of your next Book be instead of The Spirit of Truth c. The Spirit of Babel and this will much more properly express the Contents of it Note Confusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Babel in the Hebr. comes our English word Bable The Pretences of the Quakers to Apostolical and immediately Divine Inspirations considered and a Spiritual and Rational account of truly Apostolical men and their immediate Inspirations NExt to their Tenet of the Light within every SECT I man to be the Christ and God essentially considered this of its immediate Dictates which they hold to be as purely Divine as any the Apostles had or the Scriptures express is the grand Pillar of their other opinions and practises called Religious This Pretext according to an Author of their own E. H. one of Antichrists Voluntiers defeated pag. 5. gives the credit to what they affirm And yet would fasten all these upon the Lord so that his deceit might be of more Authority and none might question the matter thereof because the Lord always moveth to Truth and Righteousness Well then if we can prove that the Quakers are not inspired persons but far otherwise we shall prove them gross Impostors abominable persons slanderers and blasphemers of the Holy and Divine Spirit and break that snare by which their poor deluded Proselites are fast bound and chained to their Dictates But sure you will judge that they who pretend thus high have somewhat like a Reason for what they affirm The main Props of this opinion of themselves I shall bring to light and examine The first is a Prophesie of the pouring out of the § 2 Spirit Joel 2. 28. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie c. Let us consider how much this will befriend them They will not say I am perswaded that all flesh in the Text is to be understood without any limitation at all for then Sheep and Oxen must prophesie nor yet will they allow that the Spirit shall be poured forth upon all men and women old and young without some limitation for then the most wicked and sottish must be of the number yea those who are the keeâ—est Adversaries to their Doctrine among which I doubt not they will give me a room but if they say every one hath the Light within which is a principle capable of this Character if they gave heed to it and set it at liberty I answer so had all men this principle ever since the world began if what they say themselves be true but the Prophesie saith It shall come to pass after those days So that it must needs be meant of a time then to come but if it be to be understood as without doubt it is as well of some particular persons and not all Universally as of some Age or Ages and not all Universally They must bring some proof that they are the persons intended or give us leave to tell them they have herein stoln the words of the Lord which belonged not to them by falsly applying it to themselves And if the Exposition which Peter the Apostle gives of this Prophesie be worth the heeding it was fulfilled at least in a good measure 1600 years since and whether the World shall ever hereafter behold the like in that part of it I shall not assert Act. 2. 16 1. and so on But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel c. What They spake with other Tongues about fifteen in number the wonderful works of God and this was ushered in by Signs from heaven A
sound as of a mighty rushing wind Cloven Tongues like as of fire all of which were witnesses sent by God for the confirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they preached to be Gods Messias before promised But let us see how near the Quakers approach to § 3 this evidence That they began with a noise yea a rushing noise we know but that it was a sound from heaven we are sure of the contrary That they have Tongues and fiery and Cloven Tongues also we shall not deny but these are not such Cloven Tongues like as of fire sitting on them and appearing to the bodily â—yes of others Nor do they speak variety of Languages by the gift of the Holy Ghost though some of them have gone into forreign Countries with a confidence they should be gifted with strange Languages but their Spirit deceived them Those in the Text in those Languages or Tongues spake the wonderful works of God but the Quakers with their Native Language only speak the amazing delusions of Satan The persons in the Text had and used these gifts to confirm and evidence Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ 22 verse and that same Jesus to be exalted by the right hand of God verses 32 33. but the Quakers improve their gifts with all their might to disclaim that man Christ Jesus as having any being and to exalt their own Christ whom they call the light within every man And considering also that the Prophet saith the Spirit shall be poured out on all flesh methinks they of all others should claim the least share in it who call others flesh who are not of their mind but themselves Spiritual and will not seem to endure any thing that hath a relation to the flesh though sanctified by the Spirit and Grace of God which they rebuke in such-like terms as these Silence all flesh before the Lord. Thus I have discharged this Text from so bad a service The next main Prop for this mistake is that they SECT II speaking and writing by the conduct and motion of the light within them that being with them the Spirit of God as well as Christ the Son of God it must needs be by Inspiration of God and motion of the Holy Ghost And by the same light light within do we discern and testifie c. Parnel Shield of the Truth pag. 10. Yea they will have Moses and all the Prophets to be inspired Divinely as they were guided and moved by the light within The Word said Let there be light Gen. 1. 4. mark this and the light was brought out of darkness so the morning was come and the day was created in the Eternal Word and into this life I suppose it should be light was Moses gathered and had his understanding opened that he could see to the beginning And there was no Tradition to give him the knowledge of it but the light which shone out of darkness in his heart Morning Watch pag. â— What words can express the untruths absurdities and blasphemies of this saying The Word Christ created the Light Christ the first created morning is Christ and all this together within was the Inspiration by which Moses understood what he wrote of the Creation Hear a third that by the mouth of more than § 2 two Witnesses what I have said may be confirmed John Story Short Discovery c. pag. 2. And though the holy Scripture without and the Saints practises are as lights in the world yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolize them the Scripture and Saints practises as to set them in esteem above the Light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them equal with the Light and Spirit of Christ within from which the Scriptures were given forth and are but branches of that holy râ—ot and as it were fruits of that heavenly Tree viz. the appearances of God in the hearts of his people You may see then whence their Opinion of Divine Inspiration to be the Inlet of their Notions arises and that the Scriptures are but branches growing from the same root viz. the light within That I may arm those who are willing to be defended § 3 against such a strong delusion where ever it hath once seized the belief by Scripture-light I shall take the pains to lay down some certain Characters of all the Apostles divinely inspired and all their Doctrines that flowed from the Spirit of God by way of Inspiration immediate contained in the Scripture and having the same Divine Authority Characters of the Persons who were Christs Apostles SECT III and preached or wrote the Gospel by Inspiration of God which we call the Scripture or Word of God They had an immediate Mission and Call from without them by Jesus Christ to preach and declare the Gospel That Call and Commission which the Apostles had Mat. 28. 16. to the end of the Chapter was from without it was Christ who conversed with them and was the object of their bodily eyes It was that Christ whom the women held by the feet ver 9. and his Call as his person was without them the sound of which was received by their bodily ears in those words ver 18 19. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore c. And it is a strong Argument to prove this immediate outward Call to be essential to the Apostolical Office and Power that when by Judas's fall the number was imperfect he that was chosen in his room was chosen and called by an outward call the Spirit of God determining by a Lot Matthias to be the twelfth Apostle as Christ did the rest by his voice without them Acts 1. 24. and 25 verses they had a large measure of the Spirit within and Matthias in particular but that was not sufficient Yea the Apostle Paul who was born out of due time had this immediate outward Cal when Christ appeared to him in that glorious and terrible form Acts 26. 13. At mid-day O King I saw in the way not in the heart or â— in the way saw a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun the light in the Quakers I am sure would be seen by any who are not bodily blind if it were such shining round about me then it could not be a light only within and them that journeyed with me if it had not been without him they could not have seen it Verse 14. I heard a Voice speaking unto me not within me I am Jesus Chap. 10. Ver. 22. Jesus of Nazareth and I am sure the light within is not of Nazareth These things are enough to prove the Apostles had all of them an outward Call or a Call from Christ without them to their Ministry and Apostleship and that the Quakers Apostleship and inspired Ministry is far from Apostolical They were all such as had seen and conversed with § 2 the Lord Jesus in an outward
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
within the Quakers only Christ is not only the word that commands prayer but prayer also in the abstract and they that have that cannot at any time be without prayer though they are altogether silent They also deny publick Ministerial prayer for although â— 5. they have some who utter Petitions they do it as I am informed always in the first person singular I pray thee not We pray thee So that although they may pray for others they pray not with them as their mouth which is contrary to Christs Directory and the Communion of Saints in the Ordinances of the Gospel And if uncontrolled Fame faâ—l not they give this reason for it That they both pray and declare for the sakes of others not their own who are obedient to the light for they need neither But there are three things that fully prove their SECT III denying of Gospel-prayer First Their contempt of true Gospel-prayer So the same Wisdom may deny Smith Cat p. 10â— the prescribed way as betng formal and may invent something instead of it in a higher mystery of iniquity and though they may not speak in such formal words composed yet in the same wisdom their words are formal they can set their own time to begin and end and when they will they can utter words and when they will they can be silent and this is the unclean part which offers to God which he doth not accept c. What the wisdom is intended by the Author you shall see by and by but the main formality inveighed against is keeping of set-times but they may forgive us this errour it being so well known that they have set-times and exceed their ordinary hours no more than we And the wisdom of the flesh is that we do it in our own wills If they mean not in obedience to the will of God 't is more then they know if it be according to the will of God and our wills comply with that it is so much the better for God likes no service against nor without the will To choose the things that please God pleases God very well But that conceived prayer as such should be with iniquity a mystery of iniquity and that to so high a degree is a bold charge It is well known that many of them when they come into our Congregations and are present when the minister is at prayer they will sit all Isa 56. 4 the while in the midst with their Hats on their heads in contempt which I my self have experienced more than once Secondly Owning no prayers that is not by immediate § 2 inspiration and motion of the Spirit and with out the use of our conception and direction of the understanding But as every creature is moved by the Spirit Naylor Love to lost p. 13. of the living God who is that Spirit who will be served with his own alone not with any thing in man which is come in since the fall so the imaginations thinkings and câ—nceivings Smith Cat. p. 100. are shut out So all must come to the Spirit of God by the Spirit to be ordered and cease from their own word and from their own time and learn to be silent till the Spirit give them utterance That we ought to pray in the Spirit and with the Spirit is far from us to deny but he that prayes according to the mind of the Spirit of God revealed in the Scripture which is the Spirits Directory and who by the commands exhortations and promises therein contained is moved to pray he prays in the Spirit and with the Spirit although he have no immediate motions from the Divine Being He that obeys Gods commands in his written Word doth his duty and is through Christ accepted of him But least you should mistake the Quakers meaning of the phrase traditions of men take notice That they hold the written Word and what is therein contained as its sence to be but the traditions of men except it come to us by immediate inspiration as to the Prophets and Apostles and not at second hand which I have already proved and therefore need not do it over again By what I have here produced you may learn That § 3 they deny any thing of man to be exercised in prayer If he intend hereby only the depravation that is come in since the fall it were every right but certainly faith in the Redeemer and the promises which in him are yea and amen the encouragement to prayer are come in since the fall though no part of the fall and all the Ordinances of Christ as such are come in since the fall and faith and Gospel-obedience are all in man most eminently But that the imaginations thinkings and conceivings must be shut out also is a most absurd notion What! must we pray and neither conceive nor think what we are to do what we ought to do nor how to express our selves no nor while we are praying Must all be done as if man in his faculties of conceiving knowing were not Gods nor to be concerned in his worship Certainly if nothing of man soul or body be active therein man doth not worship God nor pray at all and so God worships himself which is the true result of the Quakers Tenets But let us consider a Text or two out of the Word § 4 Job 23. 4. of God I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments The word Order in the Heb. fignifies a marshalling his words Prayer is not only a Petition but a humble pleading wrestling with God and sure there was somewhat of Job in ordering his cause and he used his spiritual skill in it 'T is render'd by Arias Montanus disponerem I would dispose my cause Give ear to my words O Lord. What Psal 5 1. 1 Cor 14 15. is it then I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also c. Here is Paul's will in prayer I will and here is Paul's understanding also exercised in prayer vers 15. But my understanding is unfruitful which he blames as a companion of prayer that being supposed Thus I have proved the Quakers denying Gospel-prayer in this respect above mentioned and reproved their Anti-Gospel-notions by the Scriptures Lastly They own no prayer but what is by the light and in the light within And the prayers of § 5 Smith Cat. p. 112. such only are accepted and not the prayers of those who think to be heard for their much babling who have many words but not in the life So that their prayers only are acceptable who pray in the life that is with the Quakers by the motions of their light within and although we are far from thinking to be heard for the sake of much better things than much babling yet all the words of prayer that are not qualified by their principle the light within is in their account but babling For it's truth in the inward