Wenching and Fornicating which were the Wolf in him were not discovered till some time after Leeds in his Trumpet sounded p. 64. tells us of a counterfeit Quaker who tho a silly Woman could put a cheat upon their pretended Spirit of discerning how she travel'd from Meeting to Meeting through several Countries and held forth most powerfully and was entertained by Friends as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their great refreshment and admiration and never discerned to be no Quaker till discovered by others So that now they admit none to travel upon Truth 's account without Certificates Whitehead in his Quaker plainness tells us they have a record in peoples Consciences but now they must have a record in their Pockets too or their Friends will not receive them upon a Conscience-Record Who doubts but Judas was wicked enough yet the people might hear him and follow him whilst in his Doctrine he followed the Instructions of his Master Nay there is no doubt he might convert some by his Ministry and they receive Nourishment from this Wolf as Romulus and Renues from another seeing the efficacy of the Ministry depends not so much on the worth of the Minister as upon God's Grace Far be it from us to plead for the profane and scandalous we could heartily wish there were no more of such Wolves in the Church than there are of the other sort in the Kingdom because tho God may cooperate with the Ministry of such if their Doctrine be according to Truth and Godliness yet he does not so usually do it unless their Preaching be accompanied and enforced with the visible Doctrine of a holy Life Remember Judas was one of the Twelve sent out by Christ to gather a Church and it were an impeachment of the Divine Wisdom to say he made choice of an 2 Cor. 2. 17. Instrument which was no ways fit for the work As for the two Scriptures 1 Thess 1. 5. which he produces when he tells us what he brought them for whether to prove Infallibility or Transubstantiation we will return an answer P. 7. But there is another Quotation out of G. Fox given him by the Brief Discovery which George Whitehead is pleased to take no notice of and it is P. 96. this He says to the Priest Thou not being infallible thou art not in the Gr. Myâ—â— Spirit and â—o art not a Minister of Christ and art not able to judg of Powers that is not infallible nor Magistrates nor Kingdoms nor Churches So then it seems Powers Magistrates Kingdoms and Churches are to be judged at this infallible Bar. 'T is to be feared 't was this Judgment of such a Light within that câ—ndemned and cut off the Head of one great Magistrate in our own Country for nothing can stand before its High Court of Justice all Power P. 13. in Heaven and Earth as W. Smith in his Primer saith being given to it Let the Magistrates look to this perhaps ere long they may find it as necessary for their preservation to cause People to renounce the Authority of a Pope within as of a Pope without Whereas Edward Burroughs was charged in the Brief Discovery as saying Hereticks are infallibly known and discerned by the P. 7. Spirit of God in the true Church of Christ and by every Member of the same George Whitehead endeavours to justify him by desiring the contrary may be P. 13. inverted upon us and then saith he it must be thus That Hereticks are not infallibl known and discerned by the Spirit of God in the true Church of Christ nor by the Members thereof But George wilt thou never play fair with us always dropping the Card out of thy hand that may spoil thy Game Shouldst not thou have said by every Member thereof No that were too invidious and it would have been hard to have brought off Brother Burroughs handsomly for making too large a stretch if he had said every Member therefore he cunningly shuffles in an Indefinite for an Universal The Members of the Church which cannot imply every individual Member as Burroughs said but may mean some few of them as the Church-Representative in their yearly Juncto But does not Burroughs expresly say Hereticks are known infallibly by the true Church of Christ and every Member thereof And is this a fair Conversion of such a Proposition to say The Members thereof Whitehead hath some Scriptures which he hopes may help him at a dead lift to prove this Infallibility of discerning amongst the Quakers but 't will easily appear they have not the least disposition to testify to this Infallibility nay that 't is impossible to wring such a sensless Blasphemy from them for can any imagine the Scriptures of God should go about to set up another God which they would do should they assert another infallible Yet give us leave out of pure Love to them to rescue them from such barbarous violence that they may only give their voluntary and unconstrained Testimony in this matter We will begin with the last being a reserve he places the greatest Confidence in Enoch prophesied of this Behold the Lord cometh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Jude v. 14. 15. would have it rendred in ten thousands of his Saints and denote only Christ's coming in the Spirit into his Saints and then it must be only a Christ in them must execute Judgment upon the Ungodly and convince them c. and so Christ will have as many Courts of Judicatory as there are Saints in which he shall judg and condemn Sinners But all this while tho Christ in executing Judgment be every where infallible in judging or discerning how proves this the Saint is so in whom he is But perhaps he means every Saint must be infallible in his Judgment having such an infallible Director and Mover within him But the Lameness of this consequence is shewn before it will be still with us as with our Watches tho the Spring be never so strong and good yet by reason of some Cracks and Bruises it got by the fall there may be some Errors and Stops in the motion even of this Masterpiece of the Creation which was at first so fearfully and wonderfully made by God But after all 't is plain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be rendred as in our Translation with and it was never otherwise interpreted by any Christian Writer than of the coming of Christ to Judgment with his Saints to this day till it fell into Quaker hands We have a parallel Deut. 33. 2. place He came with thousands of his Saints So The Lord my God shall Zach. 14. 5. come and all the Saints with thee At the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with 1 Thess 3. 13. all his Saints Which he explains by being caught up together in the Clouds to Chap. 4. 17. meet the Lord in the Air. Mind but the Context and it will necessarily â—â—ad to
from the Spirit how comes it to pass that the Spirit never moves them as it did in the Apostles days to pray and prophesy in unknown Tongues When we shall see in their Assemblys as the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles did in the Primitive Christians Meetings that they have the Gift of Tongues and the gift of interpreting thereof when together with the Gift of Tongues we shall see that they have as the Christians had all the other miraculous Gifts when we shall see that they shew themselves to be Prophets and spiritual in receiving what this Apostle hath written in particular that a Woman should not speak in the Church as the Commandments of God And lastly when with all this they shall preach no other Doctrine than what the Apostle hath preached and the Catholick Church received then we will believe if they be lawfully baptized that it is the Spirit which is speaking in them and that God is in them and among them of a truth but till then we must believe them all to be Impostors or Enthusiasts or Blasphemers of the Holy Ghost Thus he enough to silence all their pretences to immediate Inspiration Calv. adv Libertines c. 2. which has been the common Stalâ— of each fanatical Party to influence the People by so the Libertines would boast of their Intimacy with God and all See Rutherford's Sâ—â—vey of the Spiritual Antichrist cap. 9. p. 55 56 57 c. their talk was de Spiritu of what Communications they had from the Spirit as Calvin notes Henry Nicholas the first nominated Elder of the Family of Love pretended to Visions and Revelations and Conferences with Angels and said He was raised by the highest God â—anointed with the Holy Ghost godded with God in the Spirit of his Love Caspâ—r Swenkefield pretended to the Spirit and Enthusiastical Dreams called for spiritualness and the Spirit and the Rutherf cap. â— p. 15 16 c. Id. Part 2. p. 211. internal Word revealed his fancys to Luther who sharply rebuked him but to no purpose Pertinacy cleaving to the Plague of Heresy says our Author his Errors are there recited they were condemned by a Synod at Norimburg Anno 1554 and by the Confession of the Divines of Mansfield 1555. who tell us he had vexed the Church thirty years That American Jezabel as she is called Mrs. Hutchison deceived and drew away many boldly asserting that her peculiar Revelations about Events to fall out were as infallible as any parts of Scripture and that she was as much bound to believe them as the Scripture for the same Holy Ghost was the Author of both It were endless to recite what is said of this sort of People who all deluded the World with the Pretence to Visions Revelation and immediate Teachings from the Spirit which was the shield they laboured to secure themselves by when assaulted by the Ministers of the Gospel and therefore we have great reason to caution our People against itching Ears and the being fond of new things but more especially to avoid those who pretend to new â—ights and Revelations as being but Wolves in sheeps clothing remembering that 't is recorded to the great praise of the Bereans that upon St. Paul's preaching they searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so To the Law and to the Testimony If they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them which shows that this ought to be their rule to try all Doctrines by CHAP. VI. Of the SCRIPTURES G EO FOX in his Piece stiled News coming out of the North written See Brief Discov p. 9. from the Mouth of the Lord c. saith Your Original is Carnal Hebrew Greek and Latin A learned Man reading this wondered and well he might how Latin came to be an Original and we cannot guess unless it be to make a court to the Church of Rome which has decreed the vulgar Latin to be as infallible and authentick as the Greek and Hebrew and had he brought in the Latin Service as well as the Latin Bible we had been Al-a-Mode Roman Who knows tho not he yet his infallible Successors may one day make that authentick too Oh this Infallibility can do strange feats when it pleases But he goes on Your Word is carnal the Letter and the Light is carnal the Letter their Original is but dust which is but the Letter which is Death and their Gospel is but Dust Matthew Mark Luke and John which is the Letter To this Geo. Whitehead answers here That the Letter it self is not made up of spiritual Matter or of lasting materials but of such as will decay and turn to dust A wonderful discovery That your Gospel Matthew Mark Luke and John are not printed with never-failing Ink and upon immortal Paper he tlls us in Innocency Triumphant p. 17. they mean no more than the Writings abstractly considered as in Paper and Ink and false Ministers dead preaching and commenting on them Well George if thou hadst but as much honesty as wit tho in that there is but bare measure thou wouldst not abuse us with such a trifling Answer Was ever any thing properly called Carnal that was not capable of being made spiritual Carnality being only the want of Spirituality in a Subject capable And 't is as improper to say Ink and Paper are carnal as a Stone is blind would it not be a wise business for one to discourse of a carnal Dog a carnal Horse a carnal Tree or a carnal Block as if there were those that could be spiritual But further who ever thought the innocent Letters of the Alphabet and the Scrivener's Bottel should be accused as carnal or Hebrew and Greek should have the fortune to be censur'd as carnal Languages and not French Spanish or Italian unless it was because Hebrew and Greek were the first Languages whereby the Doctrine of Salvation was conveyed to the World without the least mention of Light within unless with a note of infamy if the Light in thee be darkness O! 't is this carnal Hebrew and Greek which has done us all the mischief that has chok'd us with this Serpents meat But Fox tells us We Dogs Serpents Swine feed upon the Letter which is Death tho we think 't was never heard that ever any fed upon the Letters of the Alphabet and a Bottle of Ink and took them for his dinner or how Pen Ink and Paper should kill any unless he were such a Fool as to choke himself by swallowing his Bible No no Quakers are not so silly tho wicked enough to think so there 's no question but 't is somewhat conveyed to us by their Letters and Languages they have their spight at as appears further by what he saith here Your Word is Carnal and your Light is Carnal your Gospel is Dust Matthew Mark Luke and John which is the Letter Sure our Word our Light our Gospel our Matthew Mark c. are somewhat
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE QUAKERS Further shewn to be Blasphemous and Seditious In a REPLY to GEO. WHITEHEAD'S Answer to the Brief Discovery Stiled Truth and Innocency Vindicated BY EDWARD BECKHAM D. D. Rector of Gayton-Thorpe HENRY MERITON M. A. Rector of Oxborough LANCASTER TOPCLIFFE LL. B. sometimes Senior Fellow of Gonvil and Caius College in Cambridg now Rector of Hockwold Norfolk LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1700. To the honble Sir JACOB ASTLEY Knight and Baronet and Sir WILLIAM COOK Baronet Members of this present Parliament for the County of Norfolk GENTLEMEN YOUR known Love to our Church and Loyalty to your Prince render you deservedly esteemed by all that have a value for each and was our encouragement to shelter the following Papers under your Names We are forced in a Christian Country Quis temper at à lachrymis to contest for Christianity and appear Advocates for our Antient and English Government against a sort of Men who are risen against the Lord The Apostles preached Christ that was crucified within and not another for the other is the Antichrist Now I say if there be any other Christ but he that was crucified within he is the false Christ Geo. Fox ' s Great Myst p. 205. Do you read that there were any Kings since the days of the Apostles but among the Apostate Christians We know that these Kings are the Spiritual Egyptians got up since the days of the Apostles Geo. Fox in his several Papers given forth c. See Brief Discovery p. 16. The Priests of the World are Conjurers Thieves and Robbers Antichrists Witches Devils Scarlet-coloured Beasts really they are Blood-hounds says Geo. Fox See Pennyman ' s Quakers Contradictions p. 3. Sect. 7. And Richard Crane stiles them Antichrists Deceivers Sorcerers ravening Wolves and Babylons Merchants See Will. Mather's Appendix to his Answer to the Switch p. 10 11. and his Anointed reproaching them both as Antichristian As for the Ministers of Christ they upon all Occasions have been sufficiently reviled by them and we doubt not but 't was spoken by way of Contempt when George Whitehead at every turn calls us Priests and in his Title Page stiles us the Three Norfolk Priests he very well knowing that the common People have an ill apprehension of the Word tho very honourable and worthy in it self and of great esteem in the first and Primitive days For who can deny says a most Learned * Mr. Jos Mede l. 1. Disc 5. p. 27. Man of our own that the word Priest is corrupted of Presbyter our Ancestors the Saxons first using Preoster whence by a farther contraction came Preste and Priest the High and Low Dutch have Priester the French Prestre the Italian Prete but the Spaniard only speaks full Presbytero A Name which those two great Apostles of our Lord St. Pet. 5. 1. 2 d and 3 d Epist of St. John v. 1. Peter and St. John were pleased to call themselves by and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both in our Holy Books and amongst the Greek Cor. 5. 20. Ephes 6. 20. See Scapula Steph. Thes Writers to perform the Office of an Embassador and sure both the Name and the Persons were in great esteem with the Christians of the best and earliest Times Epist ad Smyrn p. 6 9. ad Ephes p. 19. ad Magnes p. 31 33. ad Phil. p. 43. ad Trall p. 48 50 53. Edit Voss whenas Ignatius scarce wrote an Epistle wherein he gave not some Marks of Honour to them stiling them the Council of God charging the People to reverence and obey them as the Apostles and in holy things to do nothing without theirs and their Bishops Advice But had the Word been a stile of Reproach we should have worn it as our Crown since it was for vindicating the great Truths of the Gospel and discovering the Blasphemies of those who would introduce another for when our Saviour was so coarsly used yea blasphemed by a new Race of Scribes and Pharisees should his Disciples as St. Peter stand a far off whilst they buffet and spit upon him that were in construction to deny him or at least to say we know not the Man how could we but with the Lydian Prince who tho dumb before broke silence when he saw his Father ready to be assassinated cry out ' t is our Saviour and our holy Books the Scriptures Oh! do not vilify and blaspheme them God knows we wou'd not imitate St. Peter's rashness no more than his cowardice draw a sword to cut off an Ear no not so much as an Hair of their Heads our hearts desire is with holy Paul that they may be saved that they may own their Blasphemies and repent of them if it be posiible for Infallibility or Perfection to acknowledg Sin or Error and that they would take the Advice of a great tho Heathen Woman Mat. 27. 19. to meddle no more so wickedly and blasphemously with the Holy Jesus We know it has been the usage of many to turn their Dedications into Panegyricks on their Patrons and sometimes deservedly too great Merits calling for just Acknowledgments as a due return and to encourage others to become imitators of them but tho your Worth would afford us a large Field to expatiate in your Modesty forbids our very entrance upon it since to do you justice Ignat. Epist ad Trall p. 49. Edit Voss herein would we are sure render you very uneasy like the holy Martyr who underwent a Penance when he heard himself commended Gentlemen You had our Votes and you shall not want our Prayers That God would by his Grace establish you in all Goodness and continue you whilst in this Station the true Representatives of the best and worthiest part of your Country in a just Zeal for the Established Religion and a ready support of the Antient Government of our Church and State which is the only way wherein we can manifest our selves May 10. 1700. Your most affectionate most humble and devoted Servants EDWARD BECKHAM HENRY MERITON LANCASTER TOPCLIFFE A PREFACE To the Judicious and Impartial Reader THE Piece lately put forth by George Whitehead called Truth and Innocency Vindicated might more properly have been stiled Blasphemy and Sedition palliated We acknowledg the Charge which the Brief Discovery gave was high and home and could not but affect them deeply and therefore some Paint and artificial Colours must be procured to render their Doctrines at least tolerable in the Eyes of the World which how far they have done the Reader will easily discern by the following Reply 'T was hop'd after we had given so many clear Instances out of their approved Authors of several blasphemous and seditious Principles maintained by them that either the Citations would have been evidenc'd to be false and forged or the Authors disown'd as to these Particulars at least and so the Doctrines being pernicious
to such Men by using the same Arguments to their hopes and fears as before But there are a sort of People who pretend to be Children of Light Sons of God that are yet Bastards and not Sons many a Wolf that lurks under a Sheep-skin so that the appearance can give us no certain Rule to judg by and we can look no further nor can we certainly know whether he be a Sheep or a Wolf Devil or Saint without a Revelation the Apostles themselves could not discern a Judas tho our Saviour could nor the Quakers a wanton Atkinson till a great Belly reveal'd it to them Yet we can minister to their Cases too we can press upon them a sincere and universal Holiness we can shew them the danger of Hypocrisy Thus we can minister unto all tho we know not certainly much less infallibly every Man's Case till it be revealed to us We desire to know of G. Whitehead if a Person should come to him with a troubled mind how he could discern by the help of his Infallibility where it pained or pinched him unless he opened his Condition and told him the cause of his Grief and yet if he were sullen and would not he might minister Advice and Counsel to him In none of these Cases can we reach further than a certainty far from a Quaker Infallibility and in every Case where we have not so much as a certainty still we may and ought to minister The Third Proposition We own That a Minister that is fallible is in the Spirit a Minister of Christ tho he cannot discern another Man's State and Condition so as to give an infallible Character of him The Apostles were Ministers of Christ and yet could give no such infallible judgment of the state of one amongst themselves and therefore cry Master Is it I and intreat their Master who alone could do it to discover the Traitor Neither can the most infallible Quaker of them all infallibly tell whether G. Whitehead himself he a right-bred Eagle Quaker tho now listed into the number of their Apostles One would imagine by his late coined Creeds he were about to Keithize and warp from his antient Testimony which God Almighty grant and is the worst harm we wish him neither would it be any dishonour to him to become an Holy Apostate which the Apostle exhorts every Christian to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him depart from iniquity The fourth is ushered in with a consequently and therefore now if ever we shall have a Consequence yea verily such an one which as naturally flows from our Principles as the Tyber from the Thames 't is this Because the holiest Man alive does not infallibly know a Man's spiritual State he must not only be fallible but uncertain in his Ministry If we be fallible we must be uncertain a Consequence evidently false and foolish for a Man may be certain by his sense and knowledg not from the Infallibility of the Faculties but from a rational Evidence that in the present Case he is not deceived Whitehead in this agrees with his Brother Penn who in his Answer to Faldo saith He that doth not infallibly Pag. 36. know knows nothing certainly They would fain make Certainty and Infallibility the same thing which are vastly different Certainty is an Affection that belongs properly to an Act of the Understanding Infallibility to the Power and Faculty it self and there is still such an Imperfection in the Power and Faculty of our Understanding that it might possibly have been deceived even in those things wherein we are certain it hath not actually been deceived and our Certainty that we are not deceived doth not arise from the Infallibility of the Power or Faculty but from hence that we have all the Reason in the World to believe that in the present Case our Faculties have not deceived us G. Whitehead at the Close of this Principle makes it consequent that we are not only rendered hereby fallible and uncertain but blind and ignorant of the state and condition of others How far ignorant of Mens States we have shewn before but by his leave not quite blind He says he ascribes this Infallibility originally and principally to the Spirit P. 12. l. 18. of Truth one would have thought it might have been wholly which as it is it self infallible so is the teaching of it saith he Yes verily the Spirit 's teaching is very infallible but is he sure that every Man alive â—ay that any Man alive does infallibly follow the Spirit 's Teachings is it impossible it should be otherwise It must be therefore a wonderful Opening in G. Whitehead to tell us That so far as we are led by the Spirit we are assured by it and led into sound Judgment Certainty and full Assurance c. Whenas the difficulty lies here to prove that fallible Creatures do at any time infallibly follow the Spirit 's Instructions neither can we take it for Gospel what Prophet Parnel says That whoever P. 23. l. 12. are guided by the true Light cannot walk contrary to it no more than he that is guided by the Light of the Sun cannot stumble nor stagger tho he shuts his Eyes or be drunk unless he means they that follow the guidance of the true Light cannot but follow it while they follow it an Identical Proposition which Fools assert and no wise Man can deny Again he adds If there be no discerning of Spirits no infallible Character P. 12. ult to be given of Men then Christ's Sheep may follow Strangers Dogs Wolves Alas poor Sheep that cannot discern the Shepherd from his Dog If they will consider the Sheep may know a Shepherd if he be rightly called and minister to the Sheep according to the Instructions of the chief Shepherd of the Sheep They may be true Shepherds in relation to their Flocks tho in relation to God they may be Wolves and so reckoned at the last Day but the Sheep sure may hear such a ones Voice and follow such a Conduct tho the men be wicked and ungodly whilst their Doctrin is true 'T was our Saviour's direction to the Multitude and to his Disciples also concerning the Scribes and Pharisees who were the wickedest of men Whatsoever they bid you observe Mat. 23. 3. that observe and do but do not ye after their Works There was once a Wolf in Sheeps clothing as they will acknowledg amongst themselves whom they thought to be very instrumental in bringing many out of our Darkness into their Light while he taught men to follow the Light as the only Rule and stoutly declaim'd against an imaginary God and a carnal Christ beyond the Stars Oh how they flock unto him by shoals Poor Lambs how they suck at the Breasts of this Wolf as at their own natural Dam. For all their inward sense and instinct they run bleating after him for spiritual Food and Refreshment being deceived by the Sheepskin Covering that he wore His
are so he 's our Judg and Guide rather than our Rule and he judges and guides us by the Rule and Laws of the Holy Scriptures 2. Because we are yet at uncertainties where to find that Rule that we may be guided by it if the Light within be a guide to us we would be glad to know whose Light it is that hath the honour whether that Light in Whitehead or Pen or Burroughs or Hubberthorn for without our Compass how can we steer a right Course and therefore we intreat you to tell us whether we are to go to London York Bristol or Rome for our Christians Rule If they say the Spirit it self is our Rule 't is no more than to say the Light within us or the Light the Spirit of God â—heds into our Hearts is so for the Spirit substantially considered is no Rule to any for so it guides and teaches none but as it effects and sheds abroad a Light into our minds to guide and direct us by as is proved before which Light being different in every one of us for as they phrase it 't is in every one of us according to our different incasures so that we cannot have one and the same Rule of Christianity common to all but as many Rules as there have been or will be Men in the World to the World's end which was an inconvenience God Almighty thought fit to obviate in the beginning by sending our first Forefathers a Revelation concerning the Seed of the Woman the Sabbath Sacrifices and other Doctrines of Faith and Means of Worship a settled standing Rule they were to walk by he did not leave every own to his own Light to hammer out and invent a Rule for himself and now in these last Ages God hath given by a particular Revelation of his Mind tho conveyed to us in ten thousand Bibles any one that pleases may know where to find our Rule 't is in our Bibles and if we had a mind to it we could tell where to search for the Popish Rule in the Tomes of their Councils but we think it not worth our pains but where to find the Quakers Rule we should be beholding to him that will inform us Again how shall I know which are those Dictates of the Spirit of God that I may not be deceived in the choice of my Rule seeing I have no Rule to judgthem by Will not every Fancy and strong Inclination of Man vicious or virtuous be ready to put in a Plea for that honour to be accounted his Rule One Man hath an unsatiable thirst after the glittering Glorys and Honours of this World why may he not pretend to that Spirit of God that moves him to climb that Precipice Another hath a brutal lustful Inclination why may be not pretend he hath a vehement impulse of the Spirit upon him to commit Fornication and Adultery as a Speaker in Maryland Tho. Thurston pretended P. 138. to a Woman when her Husband was absent in England See Bugg's Pilgrim Mather ' s Answer to the Switch p. 4. G. Fox ' s Great Myst â— 77. ult Another that hath a violent inclination to Sodomy as Mather relates of Clark a Quaker Speaker why may he not pretend 't was a motion of the Spirit of God lead him to it for love of the Creature Another whose fingers itched to be robbing a Till or a Church why might he not pretend as one did he was moved to it by God s Spirit having no Rule to judg by but the Spirit in every Man and you may be sure that no Man's Spirit will bring in its Verdict against it selt If they say the several individual Lights in the several members of their yearly meetings that make up our great Luminary collectively is their Rule what must poor Quakers do all the interval of this meeting being all that while without a Rule without Light for it seems the Light in particular Defence of the Snake Collect. p. 15. Numb the first Quakers is too weak and glimmering sufficient to guide them in their course which was the reason when some hard Questions were propounded to the Pensylvani in Quakers the other day their Light being so dim that they could not answer them by it they were sam to send to London for more Light to resolve them by We hope they will not say 't is their inward Light in specie as abstracted from the several individual Quaker Lights is to be our Rule to guide us We say a Species operates nothing as it does not exist but in Individuals it was not homo in specie that begot Geo. Whitehead or Will. Pen but some unhappy individual Man to be a Plague and Pest God permitting to our common Christianity 3. Because this Rule is uncertain and mutable A Rule ought to be fix'd and steady as we ought to have a rational Evidence that it was constituted so to us by a sufficient Authority which their Light within hath not so a Rule ought to be a certain standard to measure by that never alters as is the Scripture the same for 1600 years together but their Light within how oft hath it turned even to every Point of the Compass Some years since their Light within taught them that the Scriptures were Dust Death Serpents meat but now it seems it teacheth them that they are given by inspiration and they are the Holy and Sacred Scriptures A few years since it told them their own Writings were to be preferred before them but now we know not what Wind hath turned the Cock they are the best Books in the World Sometimes it hath strictly forbidden to go to Law * An Account from the Child of Light p. 19. Now as for our selves say they so many as walk in Christ Jesus we have one Judg and Lawgiver appointed to us by Christ Jesus and we may not go to law with one another as Men being come to Christ But in Serious Search †P. 43. it gives them a liberty it says some of them are necessitated to make use of the Law to maintain their just Rights and Properties It was never christ's Faith to sue and contend says Naylor Living Faith p. 7. We sue no Man at the Law but are sued by them Shield of the Truth p. 3. But Tho Elwood's Light within taught him otherwise In civil Cases 't is no injustice saith he for a Man to recover his Due by Law Truth prevailing and detecting Error p. 361. see Christianity no Enthusiasm p. 108. cap. 7. Sometimes their Rule is against fighting with a carnal Weapon as in their Declaration to King Charles the Second but we have reason to think their Rule will direct them to other things as soon as they have opportunity J. Pennyman in his Remarks upon Christ's Lambs defended p. 1. cites a Quaker Minister saying We direct all Peopel to the Spirit of God in them and if that leads them to fight I have nothing to say
nay when they say 't is Blasphemy to say they are the Word of God and they are no rule at all to us All is for the wonderful deference they have for those â—â—â—â—ed Books For shame â—ir after all the Wounds you have given to the Scriptures to add Mockery and Scorn to Stripes and after you have spit upon them reviled and buffeted them to put the Purple and the Crown upon them as the Jews did upon their Author after such Indignities to cry out O how we love and honour them after the Treason to bestow the Kiss See Will. Penn's Courtship to the Scripture * Reâ—â—inder p. 1â—â— but especially Sam. Fisher's †Additional Append. p. 21. He calls the Scripture a Nose of Wax and it 's capable of being made no other a Character he took from the mouth of a Jesuit Andradius but Quakers we hope like it never the worse for that We could easily shew you that all the Arguments that Fisher and Pen use to prove the Scriptures are not the rule of Faith are the same the Papists have used this 100 years if they had been 7 years at School at Rome they could not have spoke Italian plainer than they have done A little further Fisher tells us he and the Quakers have put it to the question how it may be known infallibly that the Scripture is all of God and not a cunningly devised Fable He tells us of the uncertainty of Translations the various Lections and the loss of many Portions of them which they needed not have taken such pains about for the Papists have done that before and Penn in the forecited place hath mustered up a great many more such Popiâ—â— Objections against the Scriptures which were cast in our dish by Papists and as often answered before Quakery was born but all that you must understand is said for the great respect they bear to the Scriptures Reader if thou desirest to see more of such respect to the Scriptures see Parnel p. 16. You Teachers are doting upon Scriptures without with your dark Minds with the blind Pharisees seeking for life where it is not to be found P. 18. We can do all things without the Scriptures or any thing without Solomon Eccles coming into a Church at London naked and besmeared with T d carrying his â—ands fuâ—l of the same Filth compared it to the Bible which the Minister carried in his hand into the Pulpit Fisher in his Velara Revelata p. 845. says Such Men as the Scribes are ever scraping in the Scripture to find God yet never know him nor see his Shape To call our love to the Scriptures a senseleâ—s Dotage to compare David's Hony and Hony-comb as he calls the Word to a stinking Excrement and our reading the Scriptures to a Brute's scraping or rooting in a Dunghil must needs manifest a mighty respect they have for those Writings By the way does not Fisher deserve to be accounted Angelicus Doctor for talking of the Shape of God how glad would some Papists be if he could shew it them that they might draw his true Picture by it Lorreto Market would go near to be spoiled by it and most of her Votaries would come thronging hither sure to worship an Original But as a further Testimony of their respect for Scripture hear what Smith Morning-Watch p. 22 23. says Reading in the Scripture that there were some that met together exhorted one annother edified and comforted one another they observe and do as near as they can what is the Saints practice and so conceive a Birth in the same Womb and bring it forth in the same strength that others do these are Bastards and not Sons for these adulterous Births have provoked the Lord and gâ—â—â—â—â—ed his Spirit What an hellish Smâ—ak is this a Belch sure from the bottomless Pit to say that our meeting together according to Scripture Examples to exhort comfort and edisy one another is no better than going to a Brothel-house for there can be nothing but Bastards got by it and adulterous Births This may pass for another Quaker-Panegy rick upon Scripture Penn calls Searchers of Scripture as Faldo quotes him p. 113. and in his Answer Penn does not deny it Lettermongers We suppose though he differ in expression from his Brother Smith his intention is the same he means Whoremongers or Bastard-getters All these Quotations have we brought to prove Friend Whitehead's Assertion That Quakers have a marveilous Honour for the Scripture though we believe heâ—ll hardly be so grateful as to give us thanks for our pains In a Testimony from the Brethren in London met 66 together signed Farnsworth Parker Whitehead see Brief Discovery p. 11. l. 5 they say If any difference arise in the Church we declare and testify that the Church with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ hath power without the assent of those that differ to hear and determine the same and if any of ours will not submit so to be tried nor submit to the Judgment given by the Spirit of truth in the Elders and Members of the same being consistent with the Doctrine of such good antient Friends as have been and are found in the Faith agreeable to the witness of God in his People viz. the Light within then we testify in the name of the Lord that he or she is to be rejected and joined with Heathens and Infidels Mark we pray if he or she kick against their Judgment consistent with the Doctrine of antient Friends and agreeable to the Light within Here is no notice taken of the Scriptures how agreeable or disagreeable soever it be to them And p. 23. l. 26. yet Whitehead hath the face to say this makes nothing against them It seems to be a small fault or none with G. to take away the Commission God hath given to the Scriptures to be Judg of Controversys in matters of Faith The Question G. is not whether the Church hath any Power in matters of Religion which is all thou provest from Mat. 18. 17. and we know none deny it 1. If it be exercised about indifferent matters in Discipline and Worship we allow her not only a Judgment of discretion to discern what 's fit to be imposed but also an authoritative Judgment to oblige her Members to obedience or else she would have less Authority over her Members than every Master hath over the Servants of his Family 2. As for things that are necessary to Salvation we think our selves only obliged to submit our Faith and Practice to the Authority of God in the Holy Scriptures and not to the Authority of any Church pretending to Infallibility meeting together in Treat or in Gracechurch-street So then that which we find fault with you for is a profane neglect of Holy Scriptures in determining matters of Faith or Doctrine that your Church should censure its Members only for this cause that you will not submit to the Authority of the Churches Judgment
100. God hath all Souls in his hands and is not this which cometh out from God which is in God's Hand part of God He had said immediatly before our Souls are in God's hand not God's Breath and now what was in his Hands must be a part of God He complains of our disingenuity for leaving out what might have cleared the point whenas we aver nothing is left out of that Sentence which could serve his turn He says plainly p. 100. “ that which came out from God which God hath in his Hand that Christ is Bishop of is not this of God's Being Now we read that Christ is the Bishop of Souls never the Bishop of God's Breath After all let George Whitehead tell us what is meant by the Breath of God Does he think that God really breaths or has Lungs to breath with or is it only a Metaphorical Expression Is it an more when 't is said God breathed into Man the Breath of Life than he spake the word and it was made as Whitehead owns p. 9. l. 25. Speech being caused by the Breath and that is no more than a will to create And it would have been the same if he had said he breathed a Being into the Sun or Moon they being both created by his powerful Word or Breath as well as the Soul Now this Will or Word of God we doubt not but is God's Being for it is himself but this Will of God can it be ever said it came out from God or was in the hand of God or that Christ was the Bishop of it Can any thing that is God as the Will the Word or the Breath of God is come out of God as if any thing of God could be divided or separated from God And tho a Creature may be said to come from God as an effect of his Wisdom and Power which yet is an impropriety of Speech tho tolerable enough yet to say that which comes out from God is a part of God of God's Being as Fox does is rank putid Blasphemy Whitehead saith p. 9. l. 19. his Friend speaks plainly in another place and what is that to the Blasphemy he has spoken in this Would you have a man blaspheme in every Line he writes that were to outdo the great Blasphemer himself who sometimes drops a Truth tho it ill becomes the Father of Lies We know no Amulet or Charm no not his pretended Infallibility he so much boasts of could secure that Prophet from speaking Inconsistencies or Contradictions sometimes neither can plain Blasphemy in one place be excused by plain Orthodoxy in another Is it such a matter for Quakers to be inconsistent as their Tutor was to say sometimes thou art the Son of the Living God and sometimes if thou be the Son of God There is a spiritual Lunacy that possesses Quakers so that they speak Orthodoxly by fits they are not always in the raving mood of Blasphemy tho the mad fit was upon Penn and Whitehead in the sandy Foundation and in Light of Life against the Trinity and the outward Blood when their Moon their Light within them was at the Full that Light waining now apace they begin to speak soberly of both To say then he could not speak Blasphemy in one place because he is Orthodox in another is idle and inconsequent Brief Discovery p. 6. charges Fox for saying p. 91. Gr. Myst that the Soul is without beginning or ending and is infinite in self What says Whitehead to this Truly not one word but cunningly glides by to another point which brings to mind a piece of Poetry When Broth 's too hot for greedy Hounds how they Quarles Will lick their scalded Lips and sneak away Ah George Thou sawest it well enough and that it was too evident a Blasphemy to be excused but Friends must not fall out and call one another Blasphemers tho they be so But give us leave to stop thee in thy hast and when thou hast read it once more tell us upon the new Quaker Oath As God is thy Witness whether thou thinkest such words as these to be blasphemous viz. that the Soul is without beginning and infinite in it self and by consequence God Why then dost thou not yield up thy Friend and Apostle to be bored through the Tongue for a Blasphemer Two things we may take liberty to conclude from thy silence 1 st That George Fox for once has been convicted of Blasphemy and therefore we may call him a Blasphemer upon a nihil dicit And 2 ly That when he said the Soul was one Soul with God he must mean substantially one because he makes it without beginning and infinite in it self that is the same with God William Pen in his Invalidity of Faldo's Vindication lays it upon Fox's great P. 353. Ignorance saying he observed no nicety of Expression Truly 't is evident he was ignorant enough and tho we thought him always acted by a kind of Religious Madness yet we never believ'd that too much Learning made him so The words abovesaid are nevertheless Blasphemy in themselves tho it may be more excusable in him who speaks them ignorantly than in another who does it knowingly 'T is Blasphemy to say there is no God tho spoken by a Fool and ◠Tim. 1. 13. St. Paul blasphemed tho he did it ignorantly Again we grant his Expressions were very vulgar far from having any nicety in them and therefore think 't would have better become him to have kept to his Trade of mending of Shooes than set up for a mender of Religion before he could speak sense and tho his Ignorance might excuse Fox from so great a Guilt yet we can never excuse his Impudence in laying all this Blasphemy at God's Door by telling the World they were all from the mouth of the Lord. From mentioning his ignorance we can't forbear a short comparison of Brother Fox the Father of the Foxonians to Brother Francis the Father of the Franciscans Bonavent tells us St. De Vita Franc. c. 1. Sect. 2. Francis was a simple illiterate Man his Conversion was owing to Dreams and Visions as Father Fox's upon a Northern Mountain he had no Teacher but he learnt all by Inspiration and the People flockt about him like a Madman and gave him the common Civility of such People to mad Folk Dirt and Vita Igna. l. 1. c. 1. l. 1. n. 44. e. 16. Stones Maffeius tells us that Loyola had hardly ever learnt his Letters yet never without Visions and Revelations Orlandinus tells you he never gave any Titles of respect and Maffeius says when he was brought before the Spanish Commander he would not so much as pull off his Hat to him that he ran up and down praying in the Streets so that Quakery we now see is a little older than we thought and derives its pedigree some 100 of years from antient and honourable Families two great Saints of the Church of Rome St. Francis
and St. Ignatius tho rather from the latter A Man would be apt to believe that these Authors wrote the Life of George Fox by Prophecy truth is you may take it to be the life of Loyola or Fox which you please but to return P. 6. Brief Discovery charges Fox for saying in Saul's Errand p. 8. He that hath the same Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ is equal with God To which Whitehead P. 9. ult answers We deny the Words as there printed to be according to Fox ' s sense P. 10. init or ours and he tells us the words he that hath should be left out It must be so or I can't for my heart tell how to defend our dear Friend George Fox from the Imputation of Blasphemy and then Panduntur Portae we break down our Walls and strongest Bulwarks and let in the deceitful Greeks upon us and so our Troy is lost No those words he that hath must be left out And had the Fool left out the little Monosyllable no when he said in his Heart there was no God he had been as Orthodox as Brother Fox But for once George deal a little sincerely with us and tell us whether as the Words lie in the Citation P. 5. col 2. they are Blasphemy or no. In thy Charitable Essay thou tellest us it was only an accidental Mistake an Excuse thou hast cut out for Fox which may serve for every Blasphemy Quakers or any other can be charged with slips of the Pen accidental Oversights innocent Mistakes and 't is a good Horse never stumbles tho we are told yours never does being infallible in all his paces But George do words slip accidentally from the mouth of the Lord as those were said to have been spoken does the Spirit of the Lord write blindfold and at adventure Had his Brother Fox been alive he would not have been ashamed to father the Brat being so like him in all its Features neither would he have taken it kindly for thee to deny him such a friendly Office and hadst thou not thought it a Monster thou wouldst not have refused as much asthou hatest Godfathers to have answered for it notwithstanding a Mole or a little blemish upon its Face a small Mistake But now these words he that hath must be discarded and cashiered But George to be sure those words are found printed there and have been so this 40 years and not only in Fox's life time but view'd and review'd by the second day's Meetings and never yet amended or corrected tho now when a more diligent search is made into your Principles these words are disown'd and rejected as stoln goods are thrown away by the cunning Thief when the hue and cry is close at his Heels We are glad however so hardy a Forehead as Whitehead's is can blush at the Blasphemy of these words They are not Fox's says Whitehead but Francis Howgill very ingenuously P. 232. owns that they are Fox's and is ready to fall fowl upon Whitehead as well as his other Opponents calling them even Beetles and Owls for stumbling at such a Straw The first thing thy dark mind stumbles at says Howgill is that some have said it seems Fox had Company with him He that hath the Spirit of God is equal with God and he labours to confirm it by adding he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit there is Unity and the Unity stands in equality it self Silly Creatures and blind Buzzards saith he to be offended at so light so trivial a Blasphemy We expected Whitehead would have given Howgill a sharp rebuke for so bold a Reflection no he passes it over without any notice for Friends must not fall out for a hard word or two but when he labours to clear Howgill whom we cited as justifying George Fox herein he with great sincerity leaves out the first part of the Quotation viz. The first thing thy dark Mind stumbles at is that some have said that they that have the Spirit of God are equal with God and begins He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit there is Unity and the Unity stands in Equality it self there is Equality in Nature tho not in Stature Here says Whitehead the Equality is placed between the Father and the Son as the Union is between him and them A most evident Falshood such an one as if he has not Aes triplex circa pectus his Conscience must feel Remorses for Do but read the Words He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit Is not the Unity here between the Lord and him that is joined to him Is not here the Unity and is it not this very Unity that is the Unity between God and Believers which stands in Equality it self Or else how would he have vindicated Fox's words which he undertook to do and by consequence calls George Whitehead as good as Fool for stumbling at them It would not answer the Design of Howgill which was to prove a good Man was equal with God only to prove God the Father and God the Son are equal Where Howgil says there is equality in Nature tho not in Stature hear what Whitehead says to this The Equality in Nature relates to the Divine Nature which the Child of God partakes of in measure Did ever any one hear before now of an Equality to the Divine Nature in measure i. e. a short defective unequal Equality Equal in Nature to God in measure See Wyeth's Switch p. 20. may pass for another Blasphemy or at least Nonsense without measure Whitehead p. 11. appeals to his Reader whether he has not more right to put a sense upon his Friends words than we so then tho Fox's words were Blasphemy yet we may be assured for Whitehead says it his sense and meaning was not so it seems he wrote one thing and meant another which William Penn in his Rebuke p. 8. saith is to be no better than one of the worst of Knaves when he said Equal he meant not Equal when he said Infinite he meant not Infinite when he said a part of God he did not mean a part of God so that we must read him as we do Hebrew backwards This is a common muse Whitehead has made for the Fox to creep out of here and in many other places he meant thus and thus but let this serve for a general Answer We charge not their Meanings but their Words with Blasphemy nor has G. Whitehead nor any Man else a power to put what sense they will upon words but they must be conceiv'd to signify what in the common usage and custom of the Country they import that being Vis Norma loquendi the Force and Rule of speaking CHAP. III. Of INFALLIBILITT AND now for Infallibility the grand Sinew of Quakery and Popery too and if we can but shake this Pillar we certainly pull down the House upon the Heads of these Philistines we say then this is