SOME PRINCIPLES Of the ELECT People of God In scorn called QUAKERS O send forth thy Light and thy Truth let them lead me let them bring me to thy holy Hill and to thy Tabernacles Psal 43.3 For the Commandement is a Lamp and the Law is Light and the Reproofs of Instruction are the Way of Life Printed in the Year 1671. The CONTENTS Concerning FIrst A Breif Account of what we are and what our Work is in the World By I. Pennington Page 1 Secondly Grounds and Reasons Why we deny the Worlds Teachers Pag. 5 Some Principles of the Elect People of God Called Quakers P. 16 Worship P. 20 The Church Ibid. The Way Ibid. The Cross P. 21 True Communion P. 22 The Gospel Ibid. Faith Ibid. Baptisme P. 23 Persecution Ibid. Scriptures P. 26 Tyths P. 27 The Higher Power P. 28 The Kingdom of Christ how held up and how not P. 29 Teachers Prophets Pastors Bishops Presbiters Ibid. An Exhortation to all Christendom to mind the Grace of God to wit the Light P. 30 Perfection P. 33 Resurrection P. 34 Election and Reprobation Ibid. Fear and Trembling P. 36 The Body of Death P. 37 The Word Thou to a single Person P. 39 Putting off the Hat Bowing the Knee Cringings and Complements Ibid. Good Manniers P. 40 Objections of the World against the Preaching of Christ P. 41 Bread Water and Wine P. 42 The Sabbath Day P. 43 God-Fathers God-Mothers and sprinkling of Infants Ibid. The Word Trinity Ibid. The Ministry P. 44 Dayes Times Meats and Drinks Ibid. Marriages Ibid. False Prophets and Antichrists P. 45 A Generall Objection of People P. 48 The Jew Inward and Outward P. 49 Christ the Covenant of God Ibid. Plots and Conspiracies P. 50 Original sin P. 51 Oaths P. 52 The Word of God and Original Sin What it is P. 54 Heathen Idolaters naming Dayes and Moneth P. 63 Singing Psalms P. 65 A Warning to all to keep out of the Fashons of the World P. 66 Some Queries given forth to Priests ahd People to Answer if they can By G. F. P. 68 The Scriptures P. 72 Baptism P. 75 The Lords Supper P. 76 Prayer P. 77 Ministry P. 79 Magistracy and Government P. 80 Superiority Honour Breeding Manners and the Word Thee and Thou to a single Person P. 84 The Word Thou and Thee P. 89 Putting off the Hat P. 90 Perfection By J. Parnel P. 92 Womens speaking in the Church By W. D. P. 94 The Sum or Substance of our Religion P. 97 Christ Coming to the Father by him c. P. 103 The Gospel Ministration P. 107 Christ manifested without and within and how both are owned by them that know the Truth P. 108 The Principle of Truth what it is and how in may be discerned and how it may be purchased and possessed P. 111 An Invitation to Professors seriously to Consider c. P. 114 A Brief Testimony for Truth By T. Taylor c. P. 119 The Conclusion By I. Penington A brief account of what we are and what our work is in the world WE are a People whom God hath converted to himself a People in whom God hath raised up the Seed of his own Life and caused it to reign over the eartly part in our selves a People whom God hath divorced from the spirit of whordom and joyned to his own Spirit We many of us sought truly and onely after God from our childhood our consciences bearing us witness in the sight of God but the honesty of our hearts was still betrayed and we led aside by the Whorish spirit and knew not how to turn to that of God in us which inclined us toward God By this means we came to great distress and misery beyond all men not but that all men were in as great a want of God his Life Power and Presence as we but the sence therof was not so quickened in others as in us Now it pleased the Lord at length to pitty us and to inform our minds towards himself to shew us where Life lay and where Death lay and how to turn from the one and to the other and he gave us his helping hand to turn us And by being turned to hâ—m we have tasted of the Truth of the true Wisdom of the true Power of the true Life of the true Righteousness of the true Redemption and by receiving of this from God and tasting and handling of it we come to know that that which the world hath set up in the stead of it is not the thing it selfe Now mark we are not persons that have shot up out of the old root into another appearance as one sect hath done out of another till many are come up one after another the ground still remaining the same out of which they all grew but that ground hath been shaken shaking destroyed destroying removed and removing in us and the old root of Jesse hath been made manifest in us and we have been transplanted by the everlasting power of Life and a real change brought forth in us out of that spirit wherin the world lives and worships into another spirit into which no thing which is of the World can enter And hear we have met with the call of God the Conversion to God the Regeneration in God the Justification the Sanctification the Wisdom the Redemption the true Life and Power of God which the World cannot so much as bear the name of And what we are made of God in Christ we know to be truth and no lye and when we testifie of this to the World in the measure of the life of God in us we speak truth and no lye though the World which knoweth not the Truth cannot hear our voice Now our work in the World is to hold forth the virtues of him that hath called us to live like God not to own any thing in the World which God doth not own to forget our Country our Kindred our Fathers house and to live like persons of another Country of another kindred of another family not to do any thing of our selves and which is pleasing to the old nature but all our words all our conversation yea every thought in us to become new Whatever comes from us is to come from the new Principle of Life in us and to answer that in others but we must not please the old nature at all in our selves nor in any else And walking faithfully thus with God we have a reward at present and a crown in the end which doth and will countervaile all the reproches and hardships we do or can meet with in the World We are also to be witnesses for God and to propagate his Life in the World to be instruments in his hand to bring others out of Death and Captivity unto true Life and Liberty we are to fight against the powers of darkness every where as the Lord calleth us forth And this we are to do in his wisdom according to his will in his
for those that are of a contrite heart who were for Signes and Wonders to both the Houses of Israel when they shall be confounded ashamed and astonished And before you know sin rooted out and wasted out of your flesh and the Earth shaken and removed out of its place and ye brought into that state which Man was in before he Fell you must know the trembling and shaking of that which is to be shaken and the removing of that which is to be removed before Christ the Seed will appear who is the foundation of many Generations and the Rock of Ages who is the First and the Last Who cannot be shaken neither can be changed So that the whole unjust wicked World hath much to suffer before they come to this they must know the Devils to tremble the Heavens to be shaken and the Earth also before he who cannot be shaken will appear by whom the World was made XX. Concerning the BODY of DEATH It s evident that they who plead for a body of Death and Sin about which the world so earnestly jangle and which they plead for as long as they live upon the earth that they also plead for its Author viz the Divel and this is not to plead for Christ who destroyes him who is the Author of sin and the Body of it Object Now if you Object that John hath said If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Answ John saith If we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar mark but if we confess and forsake our sins the blood of Jesus Christ the son of God cleanseth us from all sin Further he saith He that is born of God sinneth not neither can he because the Seed of God remains in him Because of which Seed he cannot sin for that Seed keeps the Holy so that the Evill one cannot touch him In this the children of God and the children of the Divel are manifest Whose children of both kinds contends and pleads for his own so there is a time in which men may say that they have sinned and have sin and a time to confess and to forsake sin and then a time to know the blood which cleanseth from all sin and then the Birth born which doth not commit sin and the Seed which remaines in him so that he cannot sin for as I said before it keeps the Holy that the Evil cannot touch him And though Paul cryed out of a Body of Death and of a Warfare yet afterwards he gave thanks to God that he had gotten Victory through Jesus Christ over the Body of Death and that the Law of the Spirit of Life had freed him from the Law of Sin and Death And afterwards the Apostle never complained of a Body of Death but he thanked God that he had obtained Victory through Christ who destroyes the Devil the Author of it who destroys Death and its Body and said that he was freed and that there was no condemnation to them who were in Christ Jesus and that the Life that he now lived was by the Faith of the Son of God which Faith gives Victory over Sin Death and the Devil which sin separates from God by which man hath displeased him by which Faith man is purified and hath victory and pleaseth God and hath access to him and is justified and saved Amen XXI Concerning the word THOU to a Single Person It is the manner among us to use the word Thou to a single person and You to more than one as in the Primitive times among the Saints according to Scripture and the Principle of God placed in every man which distinguisheth many from one and hath the proper word both to singular and plural to wit the singular word to a single person and the plural word to more than one according to the true understanding and Spirit of God in every man and the Testimony of all the Prophets But they are degenerated from the Spirit of God they are degenerated from the Scriptures and from their own Translations calling this manner of speaking Thou to one and You to many nonsence and improper when they themselves are gone from the true understanding which whosoever are in it comprehends them who are degenerated from it XXII Concerning putting of the HAT and Bowing the KNEE and Cringings and Complements To put off Hatts bowing Knees Cringing and Complements are from below and Customes and Manners of the World which shall pass away and never came from God neither is that honour wherewith men ought to honour one another for if all men had honoured and esteemed one another they had been of an higher Spirit than the Spirit of the World and of a more noble and generous Spirit Then neither Man nor Woman throughout all Christendom had received wrong or injury if they had esteemed and honoured one another for he that honours men will in no wise hurt them in this consists Breeding and Civillity And every Knee shall bow to me saith the Lord. For this is the cry Worship God and Fear him and Reverence him And if you Object That some in times past bowed them-themselves to an Angel but in the time of the Gospel which is the Power of God which was before the Fall in the state of Reformation and Restauration John was forbidden to bow to the Angel and the Apostels reproved them that bowed to them And although Jacob bowed for a time to his Brother Esau yet it is not said that he bowed to him all his Life time For it is written The Elder shall serve the Younger So the Elder shall bow among the Cringers and Knee-bowers one to another who will kill and envy one another and to them this is a Mystery XXIII Concerning GOOD MANNERS Evil Words and Evil Communications corrupts Good Manners And if Christendom would learn good Manners they must all come to the Light of Christ Jesus to the Spirit of God in themselves and to the Word of God in their hearts and months which will teach them to leave off Evil Words and will lead them from them and to deny them and this is the way to come to Good Manners But they who live in high Expressions and Complements and full of Evil Words and Flatteries and Dissimulations and call such Good Manners their Words and Works testify and manifest that they are Evil and Corrupt and such whose Manners are evil and corrupt they quench grieve and vex the Spirit of God in themselves and hate the Light and will not come to it because it reproves them of their evil words Such do love envy wrath vanity pride rashness hastiness and yet they are found in flattering Expressions and bowings one to another and they call it Good Manners and Honour when all such things are altogether out of that Honour that comes from above and are those things which the Witness of God in themselves testifieth against and testified in the Name of
the Lord that he will bring such honour in the dust and that which he will condemn as unjust The Apostle saith That Women ought not to adorne themselves with gould silver pearls costly attire platting of the hair but to be adorned with a meek and a quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price and the hidden man of the heart c. And if Christendom had minded this it had been more virtuous and more sober and less envious towards one about their Manners XXIV Concerning Objections of the World against the Preaching of CHRIST Object The World Objests and saith That some Preach Christ of Envy and some of Good-will and some of Strife and Contention And that Christ commanded to hear the Pharisees So we may hear say they our Teachers although they be wicked Answ He that hath the Form of Godliness and denyes the Power from such turn away The Apostle bid turn away from Envious men and Contentious men and men of Strife Although there was a time when the Name of Christ was first spread abroad in which time he permitted Envious men to spread his Name abroad But when his Name was spread abroad then he forbad such Envious and Contentious men to Preach and exhorted Timothy to withdraw from and avoid such for they could not bring People into the Power For Envious and Contentious men may Preach the Form and have it but they cannot bring People into the Power And so there came a time before the decease of the Apostles to turn away from such Now as to the hearing of the Pharisees this was before Christ was Offered up and before the fulfilling of the Law for they were Ministers of the Law and so people ought to do as they said but not as they did but when Christ was offered up he commanded them to Preach the Gospel and not to hear the Pharisees and it was the work of the Apostles to bring People to the end of the Law to the Seed into Gospel-fellowship into the Power of God which was before the Power of darkness was XXV Concerning BREAD WATER and WINE Bread Water and Wine are earthly and perishing things for the Bread and Wine which Christ gave at Supper in the Evening which the World takes at Noon those things Christ and the Apostle gave for a shewing forth and a remembrance of his death until he should come And after some of the Disciples had receiv'd it they doubted Whether he was the Christ or not And after the Apostle had given the Supper to the Corinthians in his first Epistle he bad then Examine themselves and so to eat in the remembrance of Christ But in the second Epistle he bad them examine themselves and try themselves whether Christ except they were Reprobates were in them or not Now they may be Reprobates who have taken the Bread and Wine and have had the Water They were Reprobates if Christ was not in them For Bread and Wine is not the Flesh and Blood of Christ which came down from Heaven which flesh whosoever eates lives for ever For People may eat of Bread made of Grain and may drink Wine make of Grapes and yet may dye Reprobates Now they were to take it in remembrance of his Death this was one State and than they were to come to dye with him and this was a nearer state than the taking of Bread and Wine in remembrance of his Death and then they were to arise with him and then to seek those things which were above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God but Bread Water and Wine are all earthly things and they are not Christ and they who have him they are not Reprobates neither do they need outward things to put them in mind of his Death whenas they are dead with him and risen with him to live with him But they who will not dye and suffer with him such live in the Old Nature and desire to have outward things continually to put them in mind of his Death and such live in Strife and Contention about outward things and shaddows and do not come to Christ the Substance who was before the world was made in whom there is no strife at all but only Life and Peace XXVI Of the SABBATH DAY The Jews they kept the Sabbath-Day a Type and Sign of Rest that both the Man-servant and Maid-servant and Strangers and all Cattel should rest within their Gates a sign of Christ who destroys the Devil the Author of Oppression and gives rest to Man and Beast and to the whole Creation and brings it again into that blessed condition which it was in in the beginning before the Fall Now as to the Saints Meeting together on the first Day of the Week this practice is not denyed but owned by us for who are come to the First Day as they Jews on the Last Day But there is more in the Word XXVII Concerning God-Fathers and God-Mothers and SPRINKLING of INFANTS Concerning God-Fathers and God-Mothers and Sprinkling of Infants and such like things the Scriptures make no mention yet the Scripture saith Repent Teach and Baptize XXVIII Concerning the Word TRINITY Of this word Trinitas there is no mention made in Scripture yet the Scripture speaks of Father Son and Holy Spirit and of Water Blood and Spirit and all these are one among us as in the Primitive time among the Apostles who gave no such outward Names to them as Trinity as the World now doth XXIX Concerning the MINISTRY They that receive from Christ they receive freely and they give freely they pray freely and preach freely and the Ministry is the gift of God and is to be exercised freely and of a free People of their earthly things it is to be Administred freely Heavenly men and bringers of glad Tydings of a Kingdom of which they are Heirs must Minister to the Eternal condition of People And this is the highest Love in the Life XXX Concerning Dayes and Times and Meats and Drinks The Kingdom of God consists not in Dayes Times Meats and Drinks and such like things but in Power Righteousness Faith and Joy in the holy Ghost and People ought not contend and Persecute one another about such things for the Apostles gave not any Commandment or Example that any should do so but on the contrary reproved them who did so and keep People in such things XXXI Concerning MARRIAGES Whom God hath joyned together let no man put asunder and those which he joynes he joynes with his Power even by his Immortal Power with a Band over and above the State which is in the Fall where Men joyn and put asunder about outward and earthly things and jangle and fight about them but this is all in the defiled Bed out of the honourable state which was in the beginning where there was no hardness of heart And Marriage in it self is not condemned but owned and among all them who are in the Power I say it is
that thou is the proper word to one particular person and is so all along the Scripture throughout to any one without respect of persons yea to God himself and the word you is the proper word to more then one but not to one and it so is all along the Scriptures throughout As for example at all times when the Apostles spake to Christ they used the word thou or thee unto him and when he spoke to more then one of them he used the word you or ye but if he spoke but to one he used the word thou or thee as in Mat. 16.14 15 16 17. verses And also Paul thoued King Agrippa and King Agrippa thoued him as in Acts 26.27 28. verses and so all along the Scripture And so it is plain that now it is an invention of proud Lucifer in man to exalt himself as it will plainly appear for amongst the great and rich ones of the Earth they will either thou or you one another if they be eqall in degree as they call it but if a man of low degree in the Earth come to speak to any of them then he must you the rich man but the rich man will thou him Nay you shall find it so betwixt Priest and People If a poor labouring man come before one that you call a Minister though he be one of his hearers and one who helps to maintaine him according to his ability yet he must you the Priest and the Priest thou him And here the Heathen Lord over one another by their corrupt wills but this is contrary to the Apostles and Ministers of Christ who made themselves servants to all and yet those will call themselves the Ministers of Christ And the word Minister signifies a servant and they are Masters and so they have gotten the Name but not the Nature and so are bastards and no heires who are not sprung from the gentle seed and yet they are hired as servants of men and yet bears rule by their means as Masters over those that maintaines them so that he that hath an eye to see let him see the deceits of the professed Ministers of England Jer. 5.30 31. Concerning putting off the HAT. This is another invention of proud Lucifer whereby he is honoured and worshipped and exalted in man but the Scripture doth not speak of any such fashon used in any age but man hath found out many inventions since the Scripture was recorded and now it is so that it is a fashon throughout the Land whereby one man is exalted above another for if a poor man come before a rich man it may be the rich man will move his hat that is called courtesie and humility but the poor man must stand with his hat off before him and that is called honour and manners and due respect unto him but if the rich man doe bid him put it on it is counted a great courtesie and he gets honour to himself there to be counted a courteous man But this difference or respect of persons was never ordained by God but by the Devil whereby he exalts himself in man but James the Apostle of Jesus Christ witnessed against it as in James 2.1 2 3 4 5. and so on and said He that respects persons committs sin for there is no respest of persons with God Acts. 10.3 4 and therefore saith James Howl ye rich men and here your professed Ministers abide not in the doctrine of Christ and so hath not God but the Devil and his Ministers they are whom they exalt 2 John 5. And now you shall see the partiality of the names in this your breeding and manners First from a poor man to a rich man it is called honour and due respect and manners from a rich man to a poor man it is called courtesie and humility but amongst the rich and nobles of the Earth it is called Court-like breeding but of those of the lower degree it is called Country breeding and amongst the lower sort of the world it is called neighbourhood and civil respect one to another and so the Devil hath covers for all his deceit and so he is honoured and exalted both in Court and Country but the highest in the Court and therefore they have the highest title But wo unto them that hides their sin and covers with a covering and not of the spirit of the Lord Isa 30.1 But this is the riches of the world and the Devil that makes so many degrees as between Dives and Lazarus and Haman and Mordecai for the Lord hath made all the Nations of the Earth of one mold and one blood but we who are redeemed out of his Kingdome he calls us clowns and fools and saith our Religon is built upon such small and frivilous things and stumble at strawes and leaps over blockes this saith his wisdome but it is even death to him to bâ—ar these strawes especially where he is the highest exalted for it puls down all his honour and therefore do rich men and great ones of the Earth and Rulers and Priests and Pharisees persecute and oppresse us and draw us before Judgement Seats and would root us out of the Nation as Haman would have done by Mordecai and the rest of the scattered Jews because they cannot bear those strawes but I say whatsoever it is that comes to be forbiddâ—n in the conscience it becomes a weight and a burden though it be never so small a thing in the eye of a Pharisee so let none despise the day of small things Ezek. 4.10 but some will call it stubbornness obstinacy pride and presumption but the same nature would have called it so in Mordechai who could not bow to Haman as the rest did that sate by and so let every one take heed of speaking evill of that you know not least you call good evill and evill good for the woe is pronounced against such but they that were after the Flesh alwayes in all Ages persecuted them that were after the Spirit And so it is not many mighty nor many noble nor many wise after the flesh are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and the weak to confound those that are mighty that no flesh should glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.26 27 29. Concerning Perfection Man was perfect without sin before the Fall or else he could not have been the Image of God for God is pure and perfect and he made man after his own Image pure and perfect without sin but when he sinned he defaced his Image and lost his pure estate and was drove out of Paradice and became the Image of the Devil for sin is the Image of the Devil and here all sin is in the Fall and who are in the Fall are in the Devils kingdome which is impure and impefect and unclean but God promised the seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 and Christ the