the very secret instinct and working of Nature leads men to the Practice of this Duty and hence likewise it was that the Jews though never commanded of God had two sorts of Places for Religious Duties besides their Tabernacle or Temple the one called Proseuchae Oratories and the other Synagogues The Oratory or Place of Prayer was a Plot of Ground encompassed with a Wall or some other like Mound or Inclosure and open above and the use was properly for Prayer and this stood without the City But the Synagogue was a covered Edifice as our Houses and Churches are where the Law and the Prophets were read and expounded and the People instructed in Divine Matters according to that Acts 15. 21. Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day and this stood within the City The Oratory or Place of Prayer is sometimes mentioned in the New Testament as in Luke 6. 12. where it is said that our Saviour went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an Oratory or Prayer-house of God And in Acts 16. 13. St. Luke tells us that St. Paul being come to Philippi in Macedonia On the Sabbath day they went out of the City to a river side 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where there was famed or reported to be an Oratory yet if we render it Where Prayer was wont to be made it will follow that here was a place set apart and used for Prayer and there St. Paul sate down and spake to the women that were come together there From what has been said it follows that to set apart a Place for the Worship of Almighty God is the common Voice and Dictate of Reason and Nature inasmuch as the Jews had set Places in and about every City and Town where the Word of God was preached and to which they assembled to pray unto him which Places God never commanded them to erect and build and yet both these sorts of Places were sanctified with Christs own presence in them And what they did all other Nations equally thought themselves obliged to do as I have above instanced in the Heathens yea the very Turcs have their Moschs or Places to pray in and to worship God Only these Familistical Heretics because they deny the Lord Jesus Christ do likewise despise his Religion and the Place wherein he is worshipped And because the Familistical Generation do at this time befool ignorant though many honest and conscientious People and draw them off from the Truth which their Fore-fathers peaceably and harmlesly mainteined by telling them that to call a Material Building a Church is Popery and Antichristianism I shall shew 1. That it is so called and used in the Holy Scripture 2. That there were such Places in the Apostles times That the word Church Ecclesia is used for the Material Building as well as to signifie the People or Congregation let any man that doubts consult 1 Cor. 11. 22. Have ye not houses to eat and drink in or despise ye the Church of God That by Church here is not meant the Assembly or Congregation but the Place appears 1. By comparing the 18. and 20. verses before-going When ye come together in the Church and the Apostle in the 20. verse continuing his speech upon the same subject goes on thus When ye come together therefore into one place so that now it is determined what the word Church signifies namely the Place whither they came together 2. The Apostle opposes the Church to their own Houses Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in As if he had said Your houses are the places to eat and drink in but the Church is the Place of Prayer and to commit such a Disorder there is to vilifie and contemn the Place which is set apart for Gods Worship And therefore in the last verse the Apostle says If any man hunger let him eat at home by which 't is plain the Church and their Houses were different Places 3. The very Etymology of our English word Church denotes the Place for that comes from the German word Burken and that of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Dominicum the Lords House or the Place where the Lord is worshipped But if such Whifflers did not despise all Learning as well as the Church of God they might from an ordinary School-Boy be furnished with Examples enough where one and the same word signifies both the Persons and the Place as he would tell them that Civitas signifies both the Citizens and the City Collegium the Society and the House Senatus the Senators and the Senate-house Synagoga the Assembly and the Place of the Assembly and so Ecclesia Church signifies both the People and the Material Building For the second thing that there were Churches that is Oratories or Places set apart for Divine Worship in the Apostles times and that they did not assemble promiscuously and uncertainly here and there as they pleased and in places of common use appears not only from those Records which make mention of their Times but from some places in the New Testament We read in Acts 2. 46. of the first Christian Society at Jerusalem That they continued daily in the Temple and breaking bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the house ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart That which I observe from hence is this that the Disciples at Jerusalem met together in a certain House which was dedicated and set apart from common use for the peculiar Worship of God and therefore ought to be read in the House and not as we translate it from house to house And so 't is used elsewhere in the New Testament as Rom. 16. 3 5. Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the Church that is in their house And again sending salutation from them 1 Cor. 16. 19. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the Church in their house Now that by the Church in their house is not to be understood their Family is evident in that St. Paul useth it only to some persons and not to others who questionless were Masters of Families likewise Thus St. Paul salutes Philemon and v. 2. the Church in his house from which I gather that Philemon's House was the Church in which the believers met to serve God in Laodicea And I have these two reasons to think it to be so 1. That if by the Church in Philemon's house were meant his Family it should properly and regularly have been joyned immediately after the greeting of Philemon whereas St. Paul salutes Apphia and Archippus between 2. It were very strange he should not salute the Family of Archippus who was then Bishop of Laodicea as well as the Family of Philemon By the Church therefore at such a mans house must be the whole Congregation of the Saints which assembled at such a house which House
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
for the praise of them that do well By which we are taught Obedience and Submission to all lawful Powers as the Christians to whom St. Peter wrote were to yield Obedience to the then Roman Emperor though a Heathen And St. Paul likewise from God enjoins Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God But these men disown and deny every Magistrate that is not according to their own Description which is all one as if the Christians should have rebelled against the Government of Caesar because he was an Heathen So that if a Magistrate shall speak or act any thing contrary to their Humor he is so far from having Obedience that he is denied and disowned and after this if it lie in their power 't is easie to imagin what will become of him If a Magistrate be wicked there is still an Obedience due to him not out of Constraint but out of Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Tragedian Sophocles but Saint Paul with an Apostolical Gravity They are Gods Ministers But when men shall profess they will own none but such as are holy and righteous in their esteem how is any Magistrate secure in his place but when they shall get an opportunity into their hands he may presently be accounted wicked and fit for nothing but to be disowned and testified against Is not this now a Doctrin fitted to stir up Sedition and Rebellion If the Parent be never so harsh or severe there is still a duty of Honour and Obedience to be used to him by the child how much more to Magistrates who are Gods Vicegerents and his Ministers 2. They exauctorate and disclame the Civil Magistrates Right and Power in ordering the affairs of Religion and confine his Authority only to matters of right and wrong in Temporal concerns For such they declare their Judgment to be in the fore named Book p. 52. We believe that the outward Laws and Powers of the Earth are only to preserve mens Persons and Estates and not to preserve men in Opinions neither ought the Laws of the Nation to be laid upon mens Consciences to bind them to or from such a Judgment or Practice in Religion I cannot tell what can be spoken more plainly to take away from the King all Power and Authority in matters of Religion and the Service of God and if any of his Majesties Subjects will turn Turcs or Jews it seems he has nothing to do to meddle with them or punish them or to make Laws to the contrary A very fine Prerogative that the King shall have power to secure mens Estates from spoil and rapin but none to make Laws to secure their Souls from the Devil The Donatists of old taught this as Petilian in St. Austin Quid vobis c. What have you to do with worldly Emperors And as that other in Optatus Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What has the Emperor to do with the Church And our Brownists learned the same ditty and the Quaker he comes on with the third Part to the same Tune Belike they cannot think themselves good Christians except they be Rebels But certainly his Majesty as a Christian Prince may and ought to have the same Power that the Kings of Israel and Judah enjoyed who were commended by the Spirit of God or condemned according as either they established or neglected Religion and the Service of God among their People So that certainly he must by his Authority preserve and secure Religion as well as mens Estates And God be thanked the Church and its Rights are the Care of his Majesty and his thoughts are daily for the promoting the Interest and Welfare of it 3. P. 50. of the fore-named Principles of Truth mis-called for Heresie they say We believe that all Governours and Rulers ought to be accountable to the People and to the next succeeding Rulers for all their actions which may be enquired into upon Occasion and that the chiefest of the Rulers be subject under the Law and punishable by it if they be transgressors as well as the poorest of the People We know that his Majesty the King is the chiefest of the Rulers or chief Ruler in the Kingdom of England and all other his Majesties Dominions but by this wicked Principle of Quakers he is to be accountable to the People and punishable by them How near this borders upon Treason I leave the Civil Magistrate to judge And if it were possible to make a more favourable Interpretation of their words yet when they express their Loyalty in such doubtful terms and their obedience grounded upon such a ticklish hold it is easie to imagin what sense they themselves own and considering withal how obstinate and deaf they are to all good Principles and Instructions and how numerous in many Counties of England it must needs be an Act worthy the supreme Power to suppress the growing Evil that those who are yet good Christians and Subjects may not be seduced and corrupted by such dangerous Doctrins 4. They affirm that the taking of an Oath in any case whatever though before a lawful Magistrate is unlawful and contrary to the Word of God Which whether it were at first instilled into them by the Jesuite to avoid the Oath of Supremacy or taken up to give themselves a greater Latitude and Liberty to the commission of all that Villany and Wickedness which in many cases the Imposition of an Oath may and does frequently obstruct and hinder I know not But this I know that to deny the Lawfulness of taking an Oath is to throw away the greatest Tie and Security that any King hath upon his public Officers Ministers and Subjects and by which all mens Titles are cleared in Civil Causes and Justice executed in Causes Criminal and indeed that by which all human Society is preserved And in all these cases the taking of an Oath hath been and is still used by all nations under the heavens In the Old Testament it is commanded as a thing that is lawful and necessary in the forementioned Instances Deut. 6. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and swear by his Name So Deut. 10. 20. Jer. 4. 2. Thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in Truth in Judgment and in Righteousness And to such as swear in such a holy and religious manner God promises a blessing Jer. 12. 16. If they will diligently learn the ways of my people to swear by my Name then shall they be built in the midst of my people And if the Quaking Generation shall object and say that this was under the Law therefore now not to be used they may remember that the exacting and taking of an Oath was used long before the Law of Moses thus Abraham sware to Abimelech Gen. 21. and he requires an Oath of his Servant Gen. 24. And Jacob requires an Oath of his Son Joseph Gen. 47. 31. But what if a Duty