A SURVEY OF Quakerism As it is STATED IN THE Professed Doctrine and Principles OF THAT PARTY With a Serious REFLECTION ON THE Dreadful Import thereof to Subvert the very Being and Reality of the Christian Religion By a Lover of the Truth LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the Lower end of Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1677. Licensed and Entred according to Order To the READER Christin Reader IT should be a sad and unpleasing Subject this to converse with in a time when so much is on every hand to cause grief if the defence of the Truth and a Being guarded against the contagion of so horrid a way did not necessarily require the same which besides a surprising call and pressing desire of some for whom I owed greatest respects hath occasioned these few lines to go forth to the World I may say with much aversion of spirit otherways thereto It seems peculiar to this Age to have out-gone all former times in a new and unusual way of sinning and a daring insolence to oppose the Truth whilse such amazing Prodigies of Atheism Prophanity and Error do at once meet together To let this generation see how inexcusable they are if Judgment from the Lord yea some unusual and stupendious stroke thereof do surprize them where so loud a cry goes before of its coming But it is well the Truth abides sure and immoveable and we know must out-live with a growing splendour and brightness this so remarkable an hour of the power of darkness yea hath that Authority not only on the Conscience of such who embrace it in love but on its Enemies as must enforce some awe and dread on the greatest blasphemers of the time whether they will or not The Virgin-daughter of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee whom hath thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high even against the holy One of Israel Should it not deeply affect such as love Our Lord Jesus Christ to see such a party crouding in the streets and high-ways of Britain whose express design is so obvious not to darken only but subvert the whole of the Gospel in the Incarnation Death and Sufferings of our glorious Redcemer and of his being truly God and Man in two distinct Natures united in one Person Oh if we should be bereaved of this inestimable treasure we were bereaved indeed Yea such whose work is to depress the credit and authority of that great and sacred Instrument of Truth the Scripture in the light whereof the redeemed of the Lord now in Glory have got thus safe to Land without any other Light or Rule besides this to walk by and on which so innumerable a company have adventured hitherto bearing their witness to its truth and faithfulness whose record we know to be true and some should reckon themselves under singular engagements to seal this Truth though with their dying breath That in all the steps of the Lords way even such as seem most dark to these who look on them at a distance assuredly he is what he hath declared himself to be in the written Word I shall only add what with much confidence I may here witness that as I know no quarrel but one with any of that way which is for the Truths sake I could not but judg I had too sure ground to charge these as their Principles and Doctrine upon them which they have publickly owned to the World if they keep not some reserved sence contradictory to their own words and so far as I can reach without any known retractation SECT I. THOUGH it is undeniably sad and one of the most searching Tryals of the Church at which many are ready to be shaken when the Truth seems intangled in a consusion of contrary Doctrines and the spirit of Error let loose to darken the same and that we see it also one of the greatest strokes from God inflicted here yea greater than that on the Affections in the delivering up of mens Reasons and Judgments to strong delusion with these fearful productions which are this way oft found because they received not the love of the Truth yet it is well we know the Faithfulness of God is sure and stands good to bring the Elect safe unto Glory whatever Rocks and Shelves be in the way on which so many have visibly made shipwrack nor can the Truth conflict with such a Tryal but for its farther Triumph and some more bright breaking forth of its light and that no evil eye nor the cursing of any shall ever blast that Interest which God hath blessed One thing I confess seems strange and most threatning in this time whilst Religion and the Christian Faith is in such eminent hazard and the Devil in an unusual manner let loose to deceive to see how great a part of those who professedly own the Truth are fallen as in a dead Palsey and indifference about the things of Christ though never more vigorously moving about their own things nor seem they with such suitable fear to be jealous of the corruption of the mind and intellectual Errors as they are of moral Corruption as though diseases in the Head were not to be feared which are usually found of all to be most mortal yea when so discernibly this is one of the depths of Satan and his known devices to bring in Atheism and Irreligion by Error and turn the World from all setled perswasion of the Truth by some high pretences thereto for which one sad instance I must here give that I am sure except men shut their eyes they cannot but see No engin could have a more native and effectual tendency to bring such as were unstable the farthest length of Vaninus and his followers even to deny and blaspheme a Deity than to unhinge them once from founding on the Scripture and turn them over to that way of the Quakers which now seems to have such a formidable growth in the Church What these are who under this name and peculiar cognizance of Quakers have become so known and stated an adversary to the Truth this day the account they give of their own Doctrine and Principles can too clearly witness nor needs there any great search to be made about their rise and descent it is too late and but a few years since the World knew such a monstrous birth though I confess in its complex frame if it be seriously considered it is a most discernible compound of these ancient Heresies that have sprung up in the Church which did formerly each in their turn essay to ruin the Truth But this also we may know how at an ebb-tide after much former abuse of Light and in an hour of great Temptation on the Churches of Christ these did adventure to creep forth to whom once the Light and authority of the Truth would have been
Conscience enforce this conviction upon them that in the Church of Christ from which they are gone out there are still Ministers of the Spirit and not of the dead Letter and empty sound and a Ministration of Power and Life found to go along with these blessed Ordinances they so avowedly contemn yea that by this Doctrine of the Church they have now quit the followers of the Truth do in these times as well as in former ages receive the Spirit and know the certainty thereof that it is the Spirit of Holiness most exactly corresponding with the written Word 8. Does not that conviction also follow them though they flee never so fast from it what burning and shining Lights there have been and yet are among the Ministers of Christ in these late times such as were Mighty in the Scriptures servent in Spirit cloathed with the Power and Authority of God before whose Ministry the most daring and stout-hearted have been made to tremble than whom none have witnessed more zeal for the Truth and that Doctrine so much now cryed down by the Quakers yea how some also of these we have known to have had very extraordinary discoveries and immediate in-breathings of the Mind of God in particular cases who in this were led by a Scripture-spirit and in no other path but in the way of the Word though by some more singular enforcing Application of the same 9. Are not such enforced also to see so as their Conscience cannot contradict What unspeakable joy and peace Christians do witness in their sufferings for the Truth and bearing Testimony to that way to which they are so known and stated Adversaries yea that when such are a-dying with what a marvelous gale of assurance and joy they have parted from time putting their Seal to the same Doctrine of the Church and Ministry thereof which they so virulently revile blessing the Lord that ever they were made acquainted therewith even then when all that lookt on might perceive their soul raised and under some present Transport with these begun unexpressible Tasts of Heaven and that some sight thereof was there broken up unto them which no Words could express 10. I must attest their Conscience if they be not constrained to justifie such as are most serious in adherence to the Truth even over the belly of the greatest prejudice that they are such as are real and serious in what they profess and may be known to make no naked and empty shew thereof but are willing to be tried in what is their Testimony and render a reason of that hope within them with the greatest seriousness by bringing it to the Tryal of the Scriptures of Truth I shall but further appeal to their own Conscience and Light within if they do not see this way of Holiness and serving the Lord according to that Rule of the Scripture which they so expresly disown to be that good and old way in which the footsteps of the Saints may be found since the beginning and how it is no new Light broken up in the World but a continued succession hath been still of those who from one time to another delivered over the same Truth to succeeding ages yea can they possibly deny that as at the first up-breaking of the Christian Faith so in these late times the Lord hath put to his Seal by extraordinary Signs and Confirmations with such an immediate appearance of himself to the same Truth now owned and professed by the reformed Churches as the greatest Atheists will stand in a we to question I must shut up this with one Word more of appeal to the World and most ordinary observers in this time If without shutting their eyes they can consider this way of the Quakers and not see the imposture thereof also 1. How their work is as the Serpent deceived Eva to engage more by enticing words and laying baits before the Affections than to clear and convince the Judgment so as it is not stange though such are induced to change their Religion as had never yet in earnest imbraced any 2. Can they see here any thing else but the grossest Atheism under a new dress when such do expresly deny whatever they pretend the only true God revealed in Jesus Christ except as an abstract Notion and Principle within every one 3. And may not the most ordinary observers of the time be struck with the conviction of a more excellent spirit in such as seriously own and imbrace the Truth with that savour their way hath of humility self-denial without daring to revile and what a more convincing resemblance this hath to that perfect Rule of the Scripture than that imbittered raging spirit which in such horrid scurrilous expressions fears not to vent it self among this Party 4. Do not all see this also their taking advantage to wrest the Scripture so far as they can see the least shadow there to bring it to their Interest whilst yet they fear not to throw off the whole and deny subjection thereto in its being the alone Rule of a Christians Faith and Practice as though these they converse with were in no case to discern so gross and visible an Imposture A Postscript READER This sad subject with the threatned effects of such a contagion in any of the Churches of Christ may have a serious voice to us this day if we could hear or be awaked to read from the sin and distemper of others and our own duty concerning which I shall in a few lines further add some things which thus seem to be convincingly pointed at First To be more deeply affected with such a plague on the spirits of men as we would be with the sword or pestilence breaking forth in the Land when withal it must be considered 1. That it is no consequent of ordinary sins but may be seen to follow some remarkable hight of resisting the Holy Ghost and rejecting of the Word of Truth in more bright discoveries thereof than most parts of the Christian World at this day have had 2. That this Meteor of Quakerism doth so obviously threaten and hath its proper aspect on the Churches of Britain and Ireland beyond any else of the Reformed Churches 3. That in all times the abounding of spiritual plagues in any place where the Truth did shine are still found to go before the saddest of temporal Judgments and can there now be found such threatning symptoms in any Church-history or Records of ancient time to have gone before the most desolating stroke which does not in some unusual manner meet in our case this day yea such prodigies both of Error and Prophaneness and the highest daring of the glorious God to his face as cannot be instanced by any paralel since the first dawnings of Christianity 4. And should not this also make it the more affrighting to us that it speaks with so audible a voice where some great pretences to Religion may yet end and what cause to fear lest many
one against another 1. That riches and what any hath received beyond others of the World is not theirs but is a Talent in Trust to Trade with for the Masters use for which each must be accountable according to their measure Mat. 25. 15. Luk. 19. 15. VVhat a sound will that once be which is hastening on all Come give an account of your Stewardship 2. That it is clear on what Negatives this dreadful sentence Matt. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed c. is there stated and what is intended by that parable Luk. 16. 19. of the rich man of whom no such account is given us as a glutton or notoriously wicked but that in his life-time be had his good things though with a small regard to such a case as Lazarus's 3. And is it not thus clear why then there is such a hardly being saved for the Rich as is expresly by our great Master told Matt. 19. 24. Luk. 18. 26. It being so rare an instance for such to be keeped humble or truly faithful in that trust yea keeped off some snare thereby that plungeth men into eternal perditions Oh how many have riches weighing them down to the pit and what a dreadful noise is now there VVe have lost a heaven and eternity of joy for things of the earth which were but for a moment and are now gone But it seems most in this day shut their eyes and cannot see what Light shines so clearly in the Scripture about it Else I am sure it were not conceivable how they could own any true claim to that blessed Inheritance above in such a way as they embrace and improve their Interests here in the earth whilst so much more ground may he to fear their account for the fruit and product of this Talent in any suitable proportion to the measure received shall be found no other at their appearance before Jesus Christ the great Judg than a hiding it under the earth or putting it in a napkin Fifthly Let it discourage or weaken the spirit of none who now follow the Lord that it is such a thick darkness on the Church and that when personal sufferings are so sore on the one hand there should be on the other such assaults to darken and subvert the Truth Since there is much more to countervail all if we seriously consider 1. That it is sure if there be a safe founding on that foundation of the Prophets and Apostles then may such as have imbraced the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches and received it in love have a sweet and secure calmness amidst the raging fumes of this time as knowing assuredly they build on the same Foundation and no other and are in that good and old way in which the Saints in all ages have revealed the Spirit and been sealed to the day of Redemption 2. Is it not clear also if there wanted not an observing spirit and our eyes were not so much withheld from seeing the Glory of these times there wants not such great convincing discoveries of a Godhead and stately acts of Providence as might silence our complaints with wonder and amazement to see that marvelous way the Holy God takes in building his House 〈◊〉 unfolding his design and bringing forth his Word in most surprising appearances both of Judgment and Mercy and whilst we wait and wonder he comes not one way when we are ready to stint our thoughts he comes very remarkably another way to let all see his faithfulness fails not if man had but eyes to perceive the same 3. Should not the Tribulation of these days be a confirming Seal to the Truth and Doctrine of this Gospel more than a stumbling-block to discourage or shake the spirits of any since it is sure salvation by Jesus Christ is not more plainly discovered than the Worlds hatred and opposition to his way yea to what Hight it should come and in what different ways and manner the Truth and its followers should suffer 4. Whatever sore wrestlings now are when the Waters seem more to rise and swell than to have any discernible abatement yet it is well we may know by the clearest Scripture-Light that the strongest difficulties when overcome yeeld the greatest victory and shall be not only matter of joy here but to all eternity they having with patience and hope endured and got well through such a throng of Temptations and assaults in adhering to the Truth O that Glory which is coming where each of the Saints shall then get an account of the way of the Lord and whole series of Providence towards them in their journey so as to see no way could have been so unspeakably fit and safe for them and thus become matter of praise joy and admiring for ever evermore FINIS
men in things pertaining to God 4. Not only is this Ministry and it 's perpetual use held forth but we see also a mediate call thereunto by the Church 2 Tim. 2. 2. The things thou hast heard of me before many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who may be able to teach others Where not only the calling Authority and Power is express but a necessary cognition by the Church of the fitness and qualification of those who should be set a-part to that work 5. I must here add since there is no possible access to deny that convincing seal which in all ages Christ hath put to this Ministry that they so much revile I may say without giving a lye to the Holy Ghost In these marvelous effects it hath had on the World to save them who believe which a Divine immediate power accompanying the same could only effectuate and how by the simplicity of the Gospel and foolishness of Preaching have the moist savage and rude been tamed the Conscience of the most daring and stubborn Enemies of the Truth forced to tremble under the conviction of an Authority more than humane join'd with it yea which none can debate by this way was the Pagan-World turned Christian Pos 7. It is known at what rate they disown and revile those great Scripture-Ordinances of Baptism the Lords Supper the Observation of the Sabbath and reading or hearing of the Word preached as being carnal and Commands of the Letter In which I confess the Devil knows his game and could have taught no more effectual way to gain Proselites than by such a mould of Religion suited and pleasing to the flesh but they must not think it strange 1. That their Bible is no guide to us I mean the Light within so much cried up as a sufficient Rule and when the Holy Ghost prefers the Scripture as more sure even to an immediate voice from Heaven That the Christian Church gives it a preference to any voice that can speak within the Soul 2. I am sure it cannot be known why Christians should part with those Ordinances injoyned by the express Authority of the great Law-giver upon such unquestionably moral and perpetual grounds and not part with the whole Scripture of God also 3. Why do they not also lay aside those ancient Ordinances of eating and drinking as carnal I am far from intending a jest here upon so serious a subject but does the enforcing necessity to keep up their natural Life let them know the perpetual use of the same as a duty and is there not a sure ground to know that none can be a Christian in earnest without an indispensible necessity of those blessed Ordinances of the Gospel for their spiritual life to keep close by the foot-steps of the Flock and to feed among the shepherds Tents by reading and hearing of the Word a spiritual observance of the Sabbath and that great sealing Ordinance of the Lords Supper Nor know we another way of getting beyond those Ordinances but one of two a being safe landed through grace in Heaven even there where no Temple is or a judicial arrest from the Lord of Induration which may be truly said to be an entring into the very Suburbs of Hell even in this life Pos 8. Such is the Doctrine of this Party as expresly owns a perfection in this life to be attained in which if they intend only a perfection in kind which is indispensably necessary to the lowest size of a Christian or a being perfectly justified and compleat in Christ we believe the same also but since they have no reserved sense here nor hide their intent and meaning that a perfect freedom from sin is in this life to be attained I must then ask 1. To which of all the Saints in the Scripture will they turn Who knew ever such a thing sure not to Moses unto whom the glorious God spake face to face not to that beloved Disciple who leaned on Christs bosom not to him who was caught up into the third Heaven whose sore wrestlings and groans under a body of Death are to this day on publick Record in the Church 2. Did the Church know any such thing in Isaiah's time But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness is as filthy rags Isa 64. 6. or in those pure Primitive times of the Christian-Church if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and make God a liar 1 Joh. 1. 8. 3. Why are such observable failings recorded in Scripture of those to whom the Holy Ghost did bear that witness that they were perfect in their generation such as Noab and Job Is it not to shew what perfection that is which the greatest of the Saints can attain here 4. Nothing is more clear from the known experience of the Saints than this that the greatest Hights in Christianity have still kept them most low under the humbling sense of a Body of Death and that contrariety between the flesh and the spirit which doth never cease until Death once decide that strife but were any such thing attainable here I am sure none more visibly contradict its Truth than this Party and are at a greater disadvantage to pretend thereto except wrath passion reviling of others in the most reproachable scurrilous terms that can be exprest be some part of tht perfection they mean Pos 9. It is their professed Doctrine that the soul is a part of the essence of God without beginning and infinite A strange Position that the Heathens whose sole guide was the Light of Nature in their search of the souls Original could have no confidence to own though these things we know to be undeniably clear 1. That the soul of Man is one of the rarest pieces of the Creation of God 2. That in its frame it is a simple immaterial and active substance which is not compounded of Principles and therefore can be resolved into none 3. That the soul hath no cause of Corruption from any opposition of contraries as the body hath through the prevalence of heat or cold but to assert its being infinite and without beginning is a blasphemy almost beyond President even among those whom the Devil hath most visibly acted forth against the Truth since 1. This is the incommunicable propriety of the glorious God alone from whom and for whom are all things 2. This does deny the Creation of Man of whom the soul is the noblest part for to be created and infinite imply the greatest contradiction and are terms incompatible 3. Thus a part of the essence of God should go to Hell and the souls of the damned there must have the same Prerogative with the great former of all things to have had a duration without beginning I confess this Principle as most of their Doctrine is such as might make them Quakers in earnest and cause their Conscience to tremble with horror and amazement if upon any serious reflection they could see
how sad a subject the Truth of an immortal soul and its being for ever it to such whom the Devil hath so far got under his Command and Power as those visibly are at this day Pos 10. This they professedly own also That not the same individual body is raised again which is laid in the dust but there is a change thereof in substance as well as in qualities which is no new opinion but what was the Heresie of the Marcionites and the Valentinians of old but according to the Scripture it is clear 1. That there shall be a transforming of those vile bodies at the resurrection to be fashioned after the glorious body of Christ Phil. 3. 21. and no forming of a new one which could not possibly be understood if the same numerical body should not be raised and that this change here is but in qualities not in substance 2. If the resurrection of the Saints be conformable to the resurrection of Christ then must it be the very same numerical body that is raised up from the dead and not another 3. This was not Job's testimony only but the Holy Ghost's speaking in the Scripture to us what was his assured hope herein that though worms destroy this body yet in his flesh should he see God whom he should see for himself and his eyes behold and not another Job 19. 26 27. 4. We may humbly adventure to say it is suitable to the holy and unspotted Righteousness of God that the same very body which did accompany the soul here in the pain and labour of duty and under much tribulation for the Truth should be its companion in Glory that those who strove together and run in one race should be both interested in the same crown and reward and the same body also which was the souls Organ and Co-partner with it in committing of sin should partake also of that punishment after the resurrection One thing farther I must here add in which they seek to make themselves remarkable to the World by these austere appearances of Mortification and strictness in denying all civil respects to others which they seem to intend as a visible badg of their prefession but if this be a matter of such weight whereon serious Religion and Mortification to the flesh leans so much as they would have us believe it is then clear 1. That the Popish-Capucchins and Mahumetan-Dervices to whom this way hath so visible a resemblance can sufficiently pretend to and contend for a preference 2. Then the Christian Church must take a new Copy and have no regard to the Example and deport of the Saints this way in Scripture such as Nathan the Prophet of whom the Holy Ghost records when he came in to the King he bowed himself to the very ground 1 Kings 1. 23. Or the Apostle Paul in his expressing himself to Festus and Agrippa Acts 26. 25. Or Luke the Evangelist in the designation he hath of Theophilus Luke 1. 31. 3. If a conformity to this mode and way must be an essential requisite to Religion we must quit the Scripture-Rule also Lev. 19. 32. Thou shalt rise up before the boary head and honour the face of the old man the reason of which Precept is undeniably moral and founded upon immutable grounds and that Rom. 13. 7. Give honour to whom honour is due nor does this suit the Apostles Rule and practice in things indifferent I was all things to all that I might gain some which would be far from denying an humane civil deport to others where this might be gaining 4. But oh what amazing confidence is this for those who find it easie to turn the great Realities of the Gospel and most express institutions of the Word into a shadow and allegory yet to lay such a stress of duty on an outward gesture Do they think the World is such as they may impose upon it what they please and hath so far lost reason though there were no sense of Religion as not to discern such an imposture SECT III. HAving touched a little the most concerning Tenets which these great adversaries of Jesus Christ and his Truth do publick own in their Doctrine we would in the second place seriously consider what so strange and amazing an attempt against the Truth can mean or what these possibly intend except they have concluded the Christian World to be turned wholly Atheistical and to have so far lost all Sense and Impression of Truth as that they need not hide their design to perswade men to quit Religion and Reason at once whilst with so strange a confidence they own yea thus in the open Light dare offer such an assault to the Church 1. To give up at once the whole of Christian Religion and quit that good and old way wherein since Abel the Righteous and Enoch who walked with God it is so clear the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles yea the whole race of the Saints have to this day walked to come over and embrace a way that if no other were known for Religion in the World it might give Atheism some warrant to judg there were none at all What have we to leave to posterity so precious as the Truth or what can any other gain and advantage amount to if this be lost And why did such an innumerable company of Martyrs on whom the Spirit of God and of Glory was seen to rest seal it with their blood Was it not to stand in defence of the Gospel and of these Truths which they so visibly oppose 2. And is the Night so dark as such a Party dare come forth to have us believe there hath been no true Church in the World but since these twenty or thirty years past except what hath its rise from John of Leyden Thomas Muntzer c. whose steps in most of their Doctrine they seem to follow yea that the great substantials of Christian Religion until now have been but some imposture or mistaken thing and all such who were the excellent of the Earth in their time who expresly owned the same Doctrine and died in the Faith thereof which the Protestant Church doth at this day as can be unanswerably demonstrated have been but false witnesses against God for however they may seek to shift this by undeniable Consequence it must follow either Quakerism is a horrid Imposture or the Truth and way of God hath not been found out till now and the Church both under the old and new Testament hath steered her Course by a wrong compass in taking the Scripture for her Rule 3. Is all sight of the Truth so far lost as that it should be easie for some to come forth and impose upon the World a new Bible a new Guide to follow which every one may find within himself to perswade us to build on another Foundation than that of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone Ephes 2. 20 Yea thus put in our hand instead of