words Our Ministers do not teach that the Name of Jesus and Christ belong to every Member in the Body or Church as Amply as to Christ the Head And that you may take notice of it the word Amply is put in a different Character in old Black Letters lest you shou'd mistake and think that George was Christ as Amply as Jesus That was modest indeed But then George Thou art Christ as well as Jesus tho' not so Amply and then your first Art above Quoted which calls Jesus the Christ means no great matter but is rank Sophistry and Dodging and casting a Mist before the Eyes of poor deluded People For I have that Charity for a great many of your Followers as to think that they do not know those Depths of Stan and that Mystery of Iniquity into which thou and others have led them And out of which thou dost not desire to Rescue them but to bind them faster in it by this thy Equivocating and Jesuitical Confession of Faith As Article 2. where you confess with the Socinians Christ's coming in the Flesh That is as before explain'd taking Flesh upon him as a Veil or Garment but not in the Language and true Sense of the Scripture That he was made Flesh John 1.14 that is took it into his Person and joyn'd it in a Personal Union with his Divine Nature so that as it is express'd in the Athanasian Creed as the Reasonable Soul and Flesh is one Man so God and Man is one Christ. If you had believ'd what is contain'd in these words you wou'd not have scrupl'd setting it down in these words which must have given the best satisfaction if it had been your design to have given satisfaction without any reserve for that wicked Heresie which you wou'd seem not to plead for yet in such words as you might easily afterwards explain to mean nothing against it Article 7. You say We own no such saying as that the Holy Doctrine or Divine Precepts of Scripture is either Dust Death or the Serpent's Meat But you say that wicked Men have Perverted the Scriptures That no Body can deny to You. But what then Is the Holy Word of God therefore become Death and Serpent's Meat because you have made it Death unto your selves God forbid says St. Paul Rom. 7.13 in answer to the same Argument which you bring Wherefore the Law is Holy and the Commandment Holy and Just and Good tho' the Vnlearned and the Vnstable wrest them to their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 But what was it you call'd Dust and Serpent's Meat Was it nothing else but the Ink and the Paper Did any Body ever say that These were not Dust Or is that any part of the Contest betwixt us Was it the Ink Only and the Paper of which you doubt as before Quoted in the Quakers Refuge whether Moses or Hermes was the Pen-Man Thou meanedst verily which of them made the Pen that was all upon the word of a Quaker Was it the Pen or Ink of which you doubt that some of it was not spoken by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit And whether some of it was not spoken by the Grand Impostor Some by False Prophets and yet True some by True Prophets and yet False The Ink or Paper are neither True nor False but the Doctrine only which is written in them And therefore George notwithstanding all thy mealy Modesty it is It is indeed George it is the very Doctrine of the Scriptures which you Blaspheme as Dust and Death and Serpent's Meat on purpose to bring Men off from trying your Pernicious Heresies by those Sacred Oracles and to make your Followers trust wholly to your New Light within in comparison of which it is that you vilifie the written Doctrine and Precepts of God which are most opposite to all your Gross Delusions it is not the Ink nor the Paper that you quarrel at No they do you no hurt But it is the Law and the Testimony according to which written Word if any do not teach the same Holy Scriptures do Instruct us it is because there is no Light in them Isai 8.20 No Light George Mark that Your false Pretences to the Light within is here over-rul'd and to be measured by the written word without These are hard sayings to the Infallible Friends And it was for the sake of these and such like Texts which Detect and Explode the miserable Ignorance and Blasphemy of these Pretenders to Light which made Thee Friend George in this same Book to which Thou hast prefix'd Thy abovesaid Affirmative Confession of Faith p. 28. Excuse and Justifie the Diabolical Suggestions in the Quakers Refuge against the Authority of the Sacred Scriptures by saying that it Question'd but of some of the Scriptures not all as I have shewn before But now come George we are near an end and we know not if ever we shall meet again tell me in the Plain Downright Honesty and Simplicity of thy Light within Didst Thou mean no more by this but that only some and not all the Ink was thick and muddy and fit for Serpents Meat and that only some Sheets of the Paper or Parchment or Barks of Trees on which they wrote in ancient time and might write the Scriptures for ought thou knowest was course and ugly Is all thy Malice only against those base Printers or VVriters who Prophane the Letter by poor sneaking Impressions and provide not good Ink and Paper If thou thinkest all this to be Railery not becoming thy Gravity See I pray thee if it be any thing more than what thou settest forth as the very true and only Reason for those vile Epithets which thou and thy Friends do bestow upon the Holy Scriptures of God And be asham'd and blush if thou canst for that Silly and Childish come off with which thou Gravely undertakest to Banter all Mankind as if all your Ignominies and Contempt cast upon Scripture were to be understood only of the Ink and Paper Nor is thy salvo more Ingenious in the Eleventh Article of thy aforesaid Creed wherein thou endeavourest to reconcile the Heretical Notions of thy Sect against the true Incarnation of Christ calling his Body a Figure Veil c. It is really say'st thou contrary to our Faith and Principle to make Christ Jesus himself only a Figure a Veil or Garment Here the word only as the word Amply in the tenth Article is put in great Black Letters to shew the stress thou layst upon it And to discover thy Sophistication thou sayst That Christ Jesus is not only a Figure or a Garment Not only No more is a Cloak or a Veil It is not only a Garment for it is Cloath or Stuff and may be put to many other uses There is no one thing in the World that is only one thing It may be taken under more considerations than one But this as I observ'd at first of thy Equivocating manner is but a Negative Confession
Thou tellest us what Christ Jesus is not Not only a Veil Figure c. so we may say that he is not only Man not only God that God is not only Just not only Merciful c. But George this is not saying what he Is. He may be any thing a thousand things notwithstanding of all thy not onlys And thou usherest in this Article with more Solemnity than any of the rest that we may not suspect thee with a Really It is Really contrary c. as above Quoted But Really George this is not Re-assuming your Christian Testimony in the Affirmative as thou dost promise in the Title to this thy Creed We did not want to know what was contrary to your Tenets this is still hiding your selves in the dark in Negatives But we wou'd know Affirmatively what it is you do Profess and this thou didst promise and this thou hast not perform'd Therefore tell us plainly did Christ assume Flesh not only as a Veil or a Garment like Angels when they appear'd in Bodies but did he take our Flesh into his own Substance and Nature so as to make it one Person with himself as our Flesh is part of our Person of our Substance and our Nature Was it thus that Christ Cloathed himself in Flesh and Blood If in this sense you wou'd mean that he took Flesh or was made Flesh we will not Quarrel with you for the word Garment or Veil for so it may be said that our Soul is Cloathed with our Body as with a Garment or Veil It is not words but the meaning that we contend about And you cannot satisfie the World nor your own Consciences with this Dodging about words while you shun to declare what you mean by them Nay you do not shun to declare what you mean by them That is on the Socinian Heretical side as above is shewn to wit that Christ did not assume Flesh into his Nature and Person But when you wou'd impose upon us then you Dance about the words Veil and Garment and will not deny the wicked Heresies of those before you but rather insinuate Excuses and Defences for them as I before observ'd Thus in this same Eleventh Article we are now upon after your full and Affirmative Declaration as above-said you suborn two Texts as Favourers of your Damnable Heresie before-told Yet say you slily His Flesh was called the Veil Heb. 10. and he took upon him the Form of a Servant and was made like unto Men and was found in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shape or Figure of a Man Phil. 2.6 7. Ah George George I cou'd forgive thee any thing but this What! Put upon us at this rate And with a fine Quaker Really too But tell us among Friends didst thou not Really know George the word veil Heb. 10. and Figure Phil. 2. Meant nothing at all of what thy Friends mean by them in this Controversie Know then George if thy Light has hitherto forgot to tell thee that the Veil in the Temple that is the Partition-wall which enclosed the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple was a Type of Christ And that as that Veil was rent from the Top to the Bottom at the Death of Christ and so open'd a way into the Holy of Holies which was kept shut before none but the High Priest who was a Type of Christ entering into It and that but once a year with the Blood of Expiation which Holy of Holies was the Type of Heaven And this shewed that Entrance into Heaven was only to be obtain'd by Jesus our true High Priest and that by the Offering of his own Blood which by the way was not his own Blood if he did not assume it into his own Substance and Person otherwise he only carry'd it in as the High Priest did the Blood of others but not his own Blood and as the breaking of the Veil opened the Passage into the Holy Place Eph. 2.14 so the breaking of Christ's Body on the Tree broke down the Partition-wall which was betwixt us and Heaven and open'd the Passage into Eternal Life which otherwise had ever been kept shut against us And this shews the necessity of Christ without and of his Bodily Sufferings without the Gates of Jerusalem Heb. 13.12 and the Literal sheding of his Blood as an Atonement for our sins and not only as a Type or Figure of the Light within the Quakers as the Father of all Lyes has Blasphemously taught them And as you have heard above Quoted from them And which thou George Whitehead and all the Now Quakers if they had but one Dram of the Spirit of Christianity in them wou'd Renounce and Detest and with Zeal disown the Authors of such Doctrines of Devils and not Palliate and Excuse them as even thou George dost and seek'st to sodder their Leaky Infallibility that thou may'st Inherit it But if thou hast sown the wind thou wilt Reap the Whirl-wind Hos 8.7 And now I have told you in what Sense Christ's Body is call'd a Veil Heb. 10. But what has this to do with the Sense in which the Quakers above Quoted do call it a Veil They call It a Veil that is a Garment in contradiction to Its being Christ's Substance and of his Nature But Heb. 10. It is call'd a Veil in Relation to its Type the Veil of the Temple And these are as quite different Considerations as can be as far distant as East and West And yet George Whitehead brings in the one to support the other which is a gross Sophistication and if not the height of Ignorance it is a Malicious Deceit As is his Application of that other Text Phil. 2. where George Whitehead brings in the word Figure which is not in the English Translation But let him have it He himself makes it Synonymous to Shape Who being found in the Shape or Figure of a Man c. And now what Relation has this to the calling Christ Jesus a Type or Figure of their Light within Which I have shewn above out of the Quakers Books A Type and a Shape are things so distant as to have no Relation at all or Likeness to one another A Type is being the Fore-Runner or Shadow which points out something to come But what has this to do with the shape of ones Body And because the word Figure may be apply'd either to a Type or a Shape therefore George Whitehead brings it where he confesses that it means a Shape to justifie the Quaker Blasphemy of calling him a Type of their Light within I suppose G. Whitehead will not say that Christ Jesus is the Shape of their Light within and that is the meaning he puts upon the word Figure in this Text and therefore he can make no advantage of it to his Cause he brought it in only as an Amusement I cou'd give several other Instances of the like Ingenuity and Craft in the Quaker Answers But I intend not this for
great Non-sense as well as Blasphemy and utterly inconsistent with the first Notions of a God And upon this Scheme no tolerable account can be given for the Death of Christ. For whether as an Example or an Intercessor or a Teacher which are all the Notions wherein the Socinians and Quakers do receive him in none of these is there any Necessity or Rational Account to be given for his Death This is the Mill-stone of Socinianism which will sink it into the Sea These Men pretend to the highest Reason and reject the most express Revelations of the Holy Trinity of God and the Divinity of Christ meerly upon the account that their Reason cannot comprehend these profound Mysteries These Men reject the Doctrine of the Satisfaction upon the like pretence of Reason and advance in its place the most Arbitrary and Unaccountable suppos'd Covenant betwixt God and Christ to remit the sins of the Penitent for the altogether Needless and Barbarous Murther of the most Innocent Person in the World But having wrote at large upon this Subject I will not here repeat My business at the present being not to enter into the large Field of the Socinian Controversy But to shew the much misled generality of the Quakers how Ignorantly and blind-fold they are led in the most gross and vile Heresie that ever the Enemy sow'd in the Christian Church which is that of the Socinians and which in Name the Quakers do so much abhor SECT XVI Concerning the Holy Trinity THE Quakers and Socinians acknowledge a Three but deny a Trinity which is to confess the same thing in English and to deny it Latine For Trinitas is only Latine for the Three But the meaning is they wou'd not have the Three in Heaven to be three Persons Tho' they cannot tell what Three they are if they be not three Persons And the Quakers who own the Divinity of Christ are under greater difficulties than the Socinians who deny the Divinity of Christ For if Christ be God and that there is but one Person in the God-head it must necessarily follow that God the Father was Incarnate and Dy'd And that Christ was his own Father to whom he pray'd upon the Cross And too many the like Absurdities which are avoided by those Socinians who do not acknowledge Christ to be God Tho' others of them do own the Divinity of Christ but with such distinctions and salvo's as I am afraid are at the bottom of the Quaker Pretences G. Fox opposes Chr. Wade for saying Great Mystery p 246. That the Holy Ghost was a Person and that there was a Trinity of Three Persons before Christ was born It seems by this they do not acknowledge that there were Three in Heaven before Christ was born And if so then the Quaker Three in Heaven must be Creatures The Scriptures says G. Fox Ibid. to Chr. Wade do not tell the People of a Trinity nor three Persons but the Common-Prayer Mass-Book speaks of three Persons brought in by the Father the Pope and the Father Son and Holy Spirit was always One He means one Person As Muggleton does who says That the God-head was Incarnate and that there was no God while Christ was upon the Earth But that Elijah was Deputed by God upon his Divesting himself of his God-head to Govern as God That Christ knew no more of himself nor what he was than Elijah pleas'd to let him know That Elijah was the Father to whom Christ Pray'd upon the Cross That Elijah rais'd God from the Dead carry'd him to Heaven restor'd him to his Throne and then he was God again All this I have had from Muggleton's own Mouth as well as from his Writings It terrifies my very Soul while I repeat such Dreadful and Senseless Blasphemy And I wou'd not have done it but to shew to what unimaginable Excesses Enthusiâ—sm may drive Men and that all shou'd beware of that desperate Shelve upon which both our Church and State have suffered miserable Shipwreck That we may once again if it be the will of God learn some Sobriety of Religion and Modesty in our own Conceits to distinguish Fancy from Revelation and not to think our selves Wiseâ— than all the World beside How far the Quakers differ from Muggleton in what is here told excepting the Deputyship of Elijah will appear by their allowing no distinction betwixt the Father and the Son Great Mystery p. 142.293 Christ is not distinct from the Father says G. Fox They the Father Son and Holy Ghost are not distinct and you Priests are not fit to judge in such things as they are they are too weighty and too heavy for you This was because these Priests as he calls them had said That the Father Son and Holy Ghost were Distinct which Fox thus violently opposes I hope Mr. Penn's former Excuse will not serve here too that this must go off upon the account of G. Fox's Ignorance and that by Distinct he did not mean Distinct but may be as an Ingenious Stickler may pretend for him that he thought Distinct meant Separated for there is nothing that can be said for which something may not be alledg'd but sure G. F. if he were alive wou'd give little thanks to any who shou'd vilifie his Understanding for George here exalts his own Understanding and reproaches that of the Priests who he says were not fit to judge of such Great and Weighty things And now for any Quaker to say that it was George himself who was not fit wou'd be a severe Reproof and look like playing Booty But secondly these Priests of G. Fox's did not hold or alledge any Separation but only a Distinction between the Father Son and Holy Ghost And if you will suppose G. F. so incapable as not to know any difference betwixt these two he was a very sorrowful Beginner of a Religion and cou'd neither be Separated nor Distinguish'd from a Tool that Knaves do work with call'd a F He licks up or stumbles upon old exploded Heresies and vents them for Immediate Revelations He falls in here with the Patripassians so call'd because they held that it was God the Father who was Incarnate and Suffer'd Which G. Fox asserts ut supra p. 246. where he Disputes against Chr. Wade for saying That God the Father never took upon him Human Nature Which says George is contrary to the Scripture And says That Christ was call'd The everlasting Father And in his usual Stile accuses Chr. Wade for his Ignorance in this Mystery which G. Fox thought none understood but himself and Partners Of which you will see yet greater proof in what follows SECT XVII Concerning the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ THE Quakers Heresie in this is taken from the Socinians they say Christ took Flesh but no otherwise as they explain it than as Angels assum'd Bodies or as He Christ or the Word did Inspire or Dwell in Prophets or Holy Men of old tho' they allow not always that