looked for better satisfaction for his money when the Quaker upon demand of it replied That the Light within him told him that he owed him nothing SECT III. A third Manifestation of the Familists and Quakers being one and the same Sect is their abrogating and disanulling all outward Ordinances and Institutions of Religion That this was the Opinion of David George and H. N. cannot be unknown to any who have but heard or read any thing of them and their Persuasions See H. N.'s Epistle to the two Daughters of Warwick Sect. 5. 7. 10. And that those high-flown Spiritualists the Quakers are of the same mind needs no proof but is evident from their Practice in condemning and censuring men for using a Form of Prayer for baptizing their children for receiving the Sacrament for paying their Tithes and honouring God with their Substance setting apart a place and time for the Worship of God and indeed the whole Duty of Religion if there be any thing outward and of the body in it But that God who has commanded us to worship him in Spirit and in Truth has likewise commanded us to do it with our bodies as well as with our souls 1 Cor. 6. 20. and that bodily expressions by Gestures and Postures are to be used in Christian Religion as kneeling bowing and the like is apparent from the examples of Christ and his Apostles The Holy Jesus himself lift up his sacred Eyes to Heaven when he prayed for Lazarus fell on his face when he prayed in his Agony And St. Paul as himself says Eph. 3. 14. bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ He and St. Peter and the rest of the believers do the like more than once in the Acts of the Apostles Besides confessing praising and glorifying God by the Voice is as much an outward and bodily Worship as any other and therefore if God be not to be honoured and worshipped with bodily Worship we must not pray nor praise him with the Voice Again the very Frame of Christian an Religion presupposes a bodily and outward Worship of God for the Christian Religion is given to men who consist of Body as well as Soul and not to Angels and while we are in these bodies it is impossible but that they must partake in our worship of God yea when it is performed in the most spiritual manner of all Lastly if bodily Worship be not a part of Gods Service there can be no such thing as Idolatry when a man worships an Image As for Example Idolatry is the giving of that Worship to a Creature which is incommunicably proper to God now when a man bows his body to an Image as to an Object of Religious Worship he gives that honour to the Image which is proper to God therefore bowing the body is proper to God and a part of his Worship By this 't is evident what a loss these foolish people are at when they so impudently cry down bodily Worship they run hand over head and never consider the Conclusions that must be drawn from such dangerous Premisses for their very praying together is bodily Worship SECT IV. With a like silly and weak confidence they exclame against Forms of Prayer whenas our Blessed Saviour taught his Disciples a Form Matt. 6. 9. Thus therefore pray ye and lest we should think that this was only a Pattern as if Christ had said Pray after this pattern or to this sense St. Luke Chap. 11. expresses it When ye pray say Our Father c. that is do it in haec verba Moreover that this is a Form of Prayer to be used in the very words it was delivered appears sufficiently from the Occasion of it It came to pass saith St. Luke as Jesus was praying in a certain place that when he ceased one of his Disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his Disciples where we are told first that John delivered a certain Form of Prayer to his Disciples Secondly that the Disciples of our Saviour besought him that he also would give them in like manner some Form of his making that they might also pray with their Masters Spirit as John's Disciples did with theirs For 't is ridiculous to think that either John's or our Saviours Disciples knew not how to pray before whenas they were Jews and had their constant hours of Prayer as the third sixth and nineth But besides all this I shall come nearer to themselves when an Enthusiastic Quaker at a meeting starts up and begins to pray I would fain know whether the rest of the Company join with him and go along with him in this Prayer or not If they do not to what purpose doth he pray in a vocal and audible manner for he might as well have prayed to himself as to speak aloud if it be not for Edification that others may join with him If they do join with him in that his Prayer is it not then a Form to all them that hear it and are not they bound to pray in those very words and expressions which he utters And though he be never so much over-flowed with the Spirit of the Lord as they talk yet the hearers are limited and confined to those very expressions which the inspired Prophet utters With what confidence then can men separate from the Church of God and run after these Whifflers when the case is so plain against them certainly any man that has but half an eye may see that they are mere cheats in these things Let it not be said then that men who can use their Reasons well enough in other things should be so far to seek in these as to be carried away against Scripture Sense and Reason and the Experience of every man only by the prate and talk of an ignorant sottish fellow Object But here they object that St. Paul in Rom. 8. 26. saith That the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Therefore we ought not to put up our petitions to God in a Form of Prayer Answ Here we may see those very persons who deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God yet like the Devil make use of them for their own advantage But if it shall be manifested that the Text alledged has not one syllable in it that proves an immediate Inspiration of God both for the words and matter of Prayer their boasting will be found to be ridiculous and vain May not this then be St. Paul's meaning who all along before was discoursing of bearing the Cross that the Holy Spirit helps the weakness of our natures lifting and bearing up as it were a part of the burden of the Cross for us for that we know not which part to chuse or to pray for either a perfect deliverance from it or that we should continue longer under the
great deal of poison I shall therefore for the sake of the Ignorant and such as lie most obnoxious to their snares discover the Cheat. To omit that this Expression Several Ministrations before and after the Law by Moses and after by John Baptist and Christ and his Apostles can scarce be made tolerable sense a fault pardonable enough in Mechanics and the Brethren of the Family but a notorious instance of their Hypocrisie in pretending immediate Inspiration from the Spirit when they write nonsense In the Discourse such as it is we learn these three things 1. That the Ministration of Christ was but a temporary Ministration to continue only till the Dispensation of the Spirit came and therefore was disliked and rejected of God as wanting that full Measure Rule and Power of the Spirit which should afterwards come into the world Whereas the Ministration of Christ was indeed the Ministration of the Spirit and therefore to set up a Dispensation of the Spirit above and in opposition to that of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel is a blasphemous derogation from the honour of our blessed Saviour who said to his Apostles Joh. 16. 14. He shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you 2. It follows from the forementioned passage that the Spirit of God equally moves and acts in them as it did in the Apostles therefore say they As the Apostles were commanded to wait at Jerusalem for the gracious illapse and descent of the Holy Spirit so they and this signifies to them both what and when to speak But will any sober person believe that a Quaking Speaker is divinely inspired when he commits endless Tautologies and vain repetitions and makes inconsequent illations and especially when the greatest part of his Harangue shall be downright railing Shall the eternal Spirit of Wisedom and Reason be guilty of nonsense and absurdities 3. It will follow that what they speak or write must be as good Canonical Scripture as the Bible and we are as much bound to believe George Fox and James Nailor as S. Paul and S. Peter I shall instance but in one Quaker more to prove this first part of their Doctrin all one with Familism and that shall be out of Humphrey Smith's Discourse of the three Ministrations of Moses Christ and the Spirit If Moses says he with all his Priests Tythes and long Prayers were now upon earth and Christ in his own body with his Miracles Baptism and Supper then whether those obey not Moses who leave the Priests and come to Christ And whether such when they are come to Christ should always be looking and following after his Body Miracles Baptism or Supper without them or tarry and wait to receive the Spirit within them And then which of these now should all people that profess Christ be led by in these days either Moses or the Person of Christ or the Spirit of Truth There is no sober Christian that can read this passage without anger and disdain to see such wicked wretches scoff and flearingly insult upon the sacred Person of our Lord Jesus the whole History of whose blessed Life and Death in the Letter of it they esteem no better than one of Esop's Fables Again the same Person hath this Whether they be not compassed about with a cloud of error who are upholding that Ministry of the Law which Christ is the end of and likewise such as are upholding and keeping up that which Christ said he had finished And being that Moses nor indeed his true Ministers of the Law are upon Earth neither the body of Christ which by the Professors was murdered at Jerusalem visibly to be seen upon earth then what was it these have to follow who have not received the Spirit to be led by Here again the Personal Offices of the blessed Jesus are laid aside SECT II. The second thing wherein the Familists and Quakers are all one is the Pretence of immediate Revelation David George and H. N. both pretended to receive their Doctrin from the Angel Gabriel And Wil. Gibson the Quaker says that the Gospel which they preach they have not received it from men nor from books nor from writings but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in them and then he goes on and denies the Scriptures of the old and new Testament to be the revealed Will of God There are two things especially by which our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles demonstrated the Truth of their Doctrin 1. The Miracles which they did And these were so many infallible Seals and Marks of the Divinity of the Doctrin they communicated to the World that God was the Author of it For there can be no surer evidence of any thing being delivered from heaven than when a man in favour of it is enabled to work Miracles And this was the sign which Moses gave the children of Israel when they asked how they should know the word which God has not spoken Deut. 18. 22. When a Prophet speaks in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is if he do no Miracle that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken 2. The Reasonableness of the Doctrin which they delivered To this S. Peter seems to appeal 2 Pet. 3. 15. when he bids us be ready 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always to give an answer to every man that asks us a reason of the hope that is in us Now let us examin a little the Doctrin of these Modern Familists or Quakers by these two foregoing Rules they pretend Divine Revelation and would fain have the World believe that they are divinely inspired but is any man so simple as to believe they are so merely because they say it so a man may believe all the Cheats and Impostors in the World What sign do they shew or what evidence do they bring that they have received their Doctrin immediately from God If they can work any Miracles to confirm it we will believe them otherwise we have no more faith to believe them than we have to believe that Mahomet discoursed with the Angel Gabriel and received his Alchoran from him As for the Reasonableness of their Doctrin a very easie and mean capacity can find none in it for how should there be any Reason in what they teach when they themselves deny the use of Reason and tell the world they are guided by a Light within them that is neither Reason nor Conscience which yet is but like a dark Lanthorn that gives light to none but themselves And besides by this Principle it is impossible they should ever convince any man that is not merely besotted As for Example the Quakers Light says that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is needless but the Light within me tells me it is not And is not my Light as good as his nay much better for I have the warrant of Christ and his Apostles but he has only his own bare blind Fansie And the man
habitation of David which judgeth uprightly thinketh upon Equity and requireth righteousness Through him God will now in this day which he himself hath appointed or ordained thereunto judge the compass of the Earth with righteousness Again Chap. 35 he speaks thus Behold in this present day is this Scripture fulfilled and according to the testimony of the Scripture the raising up and the Resurrection of the Lords dead cometh also to pass presently in this same day through the appearing of the coming of Christ in his Majesty Which Resurrection of the dead seeing that the same is come unto us from Gods grace we do likewise in this present day to an Evangelie or joyful message of the Kingdom of God and Christ publish in all the world under the obedience of the love in which Resurrection of the dead God sheweth unto us that the time is now fulfilled that his dead or the dead which are fallen asleep in the Lord rise up in this day of his Judgment and appear unto us in godly glory It is plain from hence that both the day of Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead are in this life and that H. N. doth both raise them up and judge them by his Doctrine And because the Reader shall be sully satisfied and see that it is not without cause that I lay this charge upon this beastly Generation of Quakers I shall produce some Testimonies from their Writings wherein they deliver themselves after the same manner with H. N. Thomas Forster in a certain Pamphlet which he calls A Guide to the Blind when the blind lead the blind the consequence is apparent speaks thus Christs first appearance to the world was in flesh and the fleshly eye saw him but his second appearance is in spirit which no fleshly eye can behold and live for as the Lightning cometh from one part of Heaven to lighten another part under Heaven so shall the coming of the Son of man be and blessed are all they who wait for his second coming to wit without sin unto salvation for his second coming is to put an end to sin to finish transgression and to bring in everlasting righteousness He that hath an ear to hear let him hear From hence it appears that Christs second coming is made only his spiritual coming into mens hearts to make them without sin and to bring in everlasting Righteousness and that when he thus comes no fleshly eye can see him all which make Christs coming to Judgment to be nothing but his appearing in the Generation of Quakers But the Scripture is express that Christ shall at the end of the world descend from Heaven as he went thither Act. 1. 11. that is visibly and bodily for so he ascended And in Revel 1. 7. it is said Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him Therefore his second coming to Judgment is not his coming into mens hearts by his Spirit but his coming with thousands of Angels to give sentence upon all men and this by a visible descent from Heaven to be seen by the wicked as well as the righteous The same person in another place expresly denies the second coming of our Lord and Saviour to Judgment in the plain and literal sense The Children of the Light says he that is the Quakers can tell you that as Christs first appearance to the world was in the flesh and the fleshly eye saw him so his second appearance is in spirit and no fleshly eye can behold him he being a spirit Is not this a denial of Christs coming to Judgment besides a manifest falshood For Christ is no more a Spirit now than he was in the days of his flesh but sits in his Body at the right hand of God and in the same Body that now he hath in Heaven shall he come to Judgment and be seen of all by their natural sight as we behold one another Now for the glorious Immortality and blessed Rest that every holy Soul expects in the life to come it is perfectly allegorized away and made nothing but a certain condition and state of mind in this life So that Sadducee Forster in the Book before-named pag. 45. declares Our Captain says he is able to make War with the Enemy and not only give us Victory but also an entrance into the Holy of Holies within the Veil here By which it appears that if we enter into the Holy of Holies here that is into Heaven in this life then there is no Heaven nor happiness to be expected in the life to come But to make all sure and compleat the Quaker a perfect Sadducee George Fox in his Great Mystery affirms That the Soul is a part of the Essence and Being of God This was the very thing which caused such an irreconcileable hatred between the Pharisees and Sadducees in our Saviour Christs time But the Fox was not so cunning here as he might have been nor did he well weigh the monstrous and wicked consequences of this his Assertion For if the Soul be a part of the Essence of God it will follow 1. That the Essence and Being of God is discerpible and may be shred and divided into millions of pieces which is a notorious Blasphemy against the sacred Majesty and Perfection of God 2. It will follow That God must reward and punish himself because every mans Soul after death returns according to this opinion and is joined to and lost in the Essence of God and there being nothing but God if he reward and punish any thing it must be himself 3. It will follow that a part of God must be sinful for every mans Soul being fallen into sin and yet is a part of Gods Essence it follows of necessity that a part of God must be sinful A prodigious Blasphemy I forbear any further Citations because the thing it self is so obvious to every man that understands but the drift and purpose of Familism wherein the chiefest Articles of a Christians Faith are made but a Fable whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral is the mystical meaning which they put upon it And are not these brave Guides think you of the Gospel when they frustrate and make void the greatest Arguments that Christ Jesus has thought fit to excite and stir men up to holiness withal that is the consideration of a Judgment to come and a blessed Immortality in the Kingdom of Heaven I grant that there is to be a Resurrection from sin and all men are to be conformable to the Resurrection of Jesus by their rising to a new and holy life and placing their affections upon heavenly and divine Objects according as the Apostle speaks Col. 3. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above But besides this there is likewise a Resurrection of the natural body to be expected at the end of the world which St. Paul charges those Hereticks Hymeneus and Philetus with
the denial of 2 Tim. 2. 17. Who concerning the truth have erred saying that the Resurrection is past already and overthrow the Faith of some We therefore who are taught and believe the written Word of God and make that the Rule of our Faith and Manners do own and profess a Resurrection of our mortal bodies at the last day when Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God whom the Heavens shall contain till in his own good time he shall think fit to put an end to the Generations of men and the frame of this visible World shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and having called the dead from their graves shall visibly distinguish the righteous from the wicked taking them up with him into Heaven to join with his glorious Host of Light and sentencing these into everlasting fire which heavy doom and vengeance shall presently be executed upon them for through the stupendious Operation of the Son of God the Earth that now is with all the works therein shall be on fire and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat and all wicked men and devils shall be plunged into that Lake that burns for ever Knowing therefore these terrours of the Lord the Ministers of the Gospel perswade men by a speedy repentance to turn unto God to mortifie and subdue all their carnal lusts and corruptions and to be regenerated and born again in the spirit of their minds to cast off the old man with his deeds and to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and holiness because God will bring every man into judgment and they must look to give an account after they are dead of all that they have done in the body whether good or bad But it is a very great argument to me that these Familistical Quakers believe none of these things in good earnest because I find these arguments of the Immortality and future subsistence of every mans Soul of the satisfaction and death of Jesus for the sins of men upon the Cross and his intercession for us now in Heaven of the Resurrection of the Body and the general day of Judgment at the end of the World either not at all made use of by them or but lightly touched and that in a mystical and allegorical way Whereas the holy Apostles did in their Sermons most commonly make use of some or more of these general heads according to the capacities or needs and necessities of their Auditors As for example what can be more effectual for the begetting sincere holiness in men than to press upon them the consideration of the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ who out of meer good will gave his life a ransom for the sins of all the world and that he is now an Advocate and Intercessor in Heaven for those that believe on his Name And if they will not be moved by love and kindness then to advise them to look to their Interest and Advantage forasmuch as all men must give an Account to God at the general Day of Judgment for all their Actions and shall receive either Reward or Punishment as they have been either good or evil and therefore since their Souls are immortal and live after their Bodies are dead it behooves them to provide for them in time and secure them a happy Entrance and Admission into the other world Would not this be much better than to make a long Harangue and nonsensical Story of the Light within and coming to the Witness within which their Auditors understand nothing of in the way they propound it and at last concluding like mad People with downright railing against every man that is not of their mind which way of Preaching the Gospel is very much different from the manner of the Apostles and such as the true Ministers of God in England desire never to be guilty of Learning I have now made it more than a probable Conjecture that although these modern Familists the Quakers make a great noise about Christ within them and the Light of God yet they are mere Sadduces really denying the Immortality and Life of the Soul after the death of the Body and therefore so much more carefully to be avoided by every man that tenders his Happiness in the other world for though they beguile the simple and unwary yet the more prudent and understanding person who is able to dive into the bottom of their Errors and Heresies will undoubtedly confess it to be a piece of beastly sottishness undermining the very foundation of all Religion in the World CHAP. V. That the Quakers are dangerous Enemies of the Civil Magistrate WE have seen their Opposition to the Church and their Disaffection to the Ministry of the Gospel let us now see if they are any better-natur'd to the Civil Magistrate And here you shall find them dissembling their Opinions and because something must be said as well to satisfie the minds of the common People whom they delude as to keep themselves out of the reach and cognizance of the Laws of the Land they pretend a kind of a partial subjection and obedience which when strictly examined is indeed no obedience at all And herein they shew themselves as in all other things excellent Proficients in the School of H. N. who in his Exhortat speaks thus That his Instructions of the upright and Christian Baptism his crying voice c. These may be confessed among the adulterous and sinful Generation and the false hearts of the Scripture-learned for so he calls all that are not of his way but says he ye shall not talk of your secrets or utter your Mysteries openly or nakedly in the hearing of your young Children or Disciples but spare them not in the ears of your Elders which can understand the same or are able to bear or away with the sound thereof In like manner the Quakers conceal the Depth and Mystery of their way from their new-made Proselytes and when they must say something for satisfaction of the world they speak so doubtfully that their Expressions seem not to mean what they carry in them But to descend to some Particulars They are dangerous Enemies to the Civil Magistrate 1. Because their Principles tend to the exciting of Sedition and Rebellion In the Book called The Principles of Truth p. 58. they say thus Such Magistrates who be proud and lofty who rule not for God but for themselves who love the praise of men c. such Magistrates they deny and testifie against This at the first looks very innocently and harmlesly but let the Reader beware how he swallows it for there is Death in the Pot. The Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. commands thus Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and