these wild and worse sayings I know their mystery and depth of Satan but to spread them all in the light will ask more Paper than I am willing to write out in this Book Another expression and quality of the Quaker's § 7 Mystery of great Whâ—re p 4 Pennington quâ—stions Smith Cat. p 5â— justifying righteousness is That it is within them not without them Christ being within there is justification Now is the life the Faith the obedience of the Son the thing which is of value in us And by this power in us all our works are wrought for us So that the righteousness which Christ wrought before we were born even in the days of his flesh is to the Quakers a dead thing and Christ was mistaken shrewdly when he tells his Father That he had finished the work which he had given him to do intending thereby the last scene of death which he was then just entering upon and therefore speaks of all as accomplished § 8 Another notion they have for the countenance of the opinion of justifying righteousness to be within them not without them and wrought in the time of their life not by Christ in the dayes of his flesh above 1600 yeares since is That because the Scripture speaks of justifying by faith and faith being within and wrought in the Saints in this life and in every individual believer therefore the justifying righteousness is within the believer This is abused by the Papists to prove that works Iustifie because faith is a work or act of the soul though that be false for all grace consists essentially in the habit and disposition not in acts for else a man must be graceless when he is fast a sleep for then he is not in action nor grace in act But the Quakers though they embrace many of the Popish Tenets that are erroneous they want wit to manage them as they But to any purpose hâ—re their great Apostle This justification is by the faith of Fox great mystery p. 46. Christ within for all the holy men of God were justified by their faith and that faith is in the heart For â— 9. the right understanding of this we are to consider faith as a disposition and habit and therein a principal part of the new creature This disposition of trusting in relying on adhering to God hath its acts suitable to its self Now the acts of faith either respect its fruits and effects other parts of sanctification as love patience self-denial c. or its objects and aims Faith hath for its immediate objects the promises of God leaning trusting hoping according to them it is said to lean on the Lord trust hope in the Lord its aims and ends for which are the good things wrapt up in the Covenant of grace Now faith is not accounted for righteousness with respect to it self as a holy disposition or its acts as holy acts but as it looks on takes hold of and trusts in the righteousness of Christ It is no rare thing for the act to be denominated from the object Though faith which Justifies justifies as it hath for § 10 its object Jesus Christ who is the righteousness of God and so faith be within the righteousness of Christ which Justifies is not within for faith Justifies as it looks at somewhat without and above our selves Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud justified by faith in Jesus Rom. 4. 25. Gal 2. 16 Heb. 11. 1 Christ Faith is the evidence of things hoped for Again Faith is made the condition of Justification and that not only as it may be considered singly but as it includes the whole body of sanctification in some parts and measures of it But to as many as received him Joh. 1. 12. to them he gave power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name So that faith is a receiving of Christ who is both Prince and Saviour Lord of life and prince of peace and receiving him as such is conditional of this acceptation with God and so may be said to Justifie as it performs the condition of Justification on our part But if faith were the meritorious cause of Justification § 11 it were Justification by works And if faith Justified looking no further than it selfe as it is subjected in the soul it were a strange faith indeed that hath it self for its object and then a man should believe in himself I might entertain you longer than your patience will hold out in pregnant proofs out of their own writings That as Christ's obedience so his sufferings upon which depend our Justification are all transacted within the heart of a believer his agony his crucifying and death c. But I will give you but one Instance lest I leave too little room for what I am willing to be ample in the Subjects Smith Cat. p. 12. of the succeeding Chapters We believe that Christ in us doth offer up himself a living sacrifice to God for us by which the wrath and justice of God is appeased towards us This is in stead of many though their Books do generally speak of the sufferings of Christ as propitiatory to be done over in every person before conversion And the maddest humour of all is That Penningtons quest p. 21. they make the seed or the light or Christ being crucified in the soul by the power of sin and lust to be the crucifying and death of Christ by which God is appeased Do not they which dwell there in spiritual Sodom put his flesh to pain crucifieing it in and to themselves Take one Scripture to guard you against all the fancies of this sort and to close this Chapter But this man after he had offered one sacrifice Heb 10 12 13 for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God from thence expecting till his enemies be made his footstool for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified CHAP. XVI The Quakers disown and deny the Christ of God and set up a false Christ in his room and stead and attribute all to that false Christ which is due and peculiar to the true Christ THis is the grand and root-errour of the Quakers SECT I that great non-such lye which travels with and brings forth that Babel and confused heap of errours wherewith their Religion if they have any such thing is abounding First They disown and deny the Man Christ Jesus who was born of the Virgin Mary who was of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh who was nailed to the Cross and crucified at Jerusalem without the gates to be the Saviour of believers and he who wrought that righteousness and underwent those sufferings by which mans Redemption was wrought This we certainly know and can never call Penningtons questions p. 33. the bodily garment Christ but that which appeared and dwelt in the body They do
Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Acts 3. 6. These were new Articles of their Creed without the belief of which they were such as had nothing to do with Christ as their Mediator Again the whole frame of the Administration was altered from Moses to Christ even the man Christ Jesus as well as God Hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son Heb. 1. 1. And Moses verily was faithful in all his House as a servant for a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after but Christ as a Son over his own House Heb. 3. 5. We have now nothing to do with Moses Law as such and also the manner of Administration which is not in a multitude of carnal observancies types and resebmlances but in that way which is more real and more purely spiritual But the hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth John 4. 23. They were to worship him in spirit before for where the heart was not in the â—eremonial and typical worship they were not accepted and God never indulged hypocrisie The meaning must therefore be That spirit must be taken in opposition to those carnal Ordinances and the material Temple and Truth in opposition to thofe Types which were not a Lie but were only the shadows of good things to come I might enlarge to the Officers Offices and restrained § 8 Extent of the Mosaical Administration and shew that in all it is Alien to the Administration of Christ come and that wherein Christianity consists For if that Ministration which is done a way was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious 2 Cor. 3. 11. Now to resume the intent of what I have said § 9 observe that neither the natural light and practices of Heathen nor the revealed light law and practices Judaical were Christian as such though the latter a great part of them had a respect to Christ and the medicinal and remedying part of Religion And the Jews who were immediately before the Church of God yet when the Administration was changed they were cut off from the Church though they retained their Morals and those Ceremonial Respects to an expected Messiah if they did not admit into their Creed or Faith the Articles aforesaid viz. a Christ come That Jesus who was crucified was the Christ and that he was the Supreme Head and Administrator to the Church of God and those who did so were transmitted into the Christian Church the other being dissolved Having expressed with what brevity I could SECT III what Christianity as such is I shall in a few lines give an Account what I intend by the term Quakerism I do not mean thereby that all that are called and reputed Quakers are no Christians for my charity is large enough to believe That many of them would abhorr the Principles of their Leaders did they but well understand them for whose sakes in part I have undertaken this Discovery Quakerism is a Heap of Tenets with the usurped Names of true Christian Principles which are yet really no such things but subverting both Foundation and Fabrick of Christianity And I call him a Quaker that professes the Light within every man to be the only Lord and Saviour and very God So that when I say Quakerism is no Christianity I do not say that common Civility Justice among men or whatever of their principles or practices which are morally good for these are generally owned as the principles of those Christians whom they separate from and bitterly reproach as Antichristian And it cannot be for want of Instructions or Examples in such kind of goodness that they withdraw from the serious Professors that are as far from their opinions as the East is from the West CHAP. II. The Beginning of Quakerism different from and opposite to Christianity THe first Argument which I shall begin my attempt SECT I with shall be from the beginning of Quakerism which I shall take notice of under two Considerations First The manner of the beginning of Quakerism Secondly The time of its beginning Both of which I shall prove exceedingly to oppose and differ from the beginning of Christianity The Christian Religion or Christianity was first § 2 introduced by the preaching of the promised Messias to be come into the world whose humane Nature was pointed at by John the Baptist and visible to the bodily eyes of a multitude of beholders The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world This is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me But Quakerism was introduced by preaching a § 3 Christ within every man born within every man which was never seen with the bodily eyes of any man and this Testimony of John concerning the true Christ perverted for the maintaining of their feigned Christ And as you give up to that measure of light in your Morning-Watch p. 41 own Consciences and wait to be guided by it and exercised in it you will know Christ revealed within you whom you are looking for without you and put his day far off from you and so you live in want of him and know not how to come to him nor the place where to find him but live in the dreamings and night-visions and have a talk of him and what he hath done for you and so spend your precious time in slumbring and dreaming c. This Quakers Text will bear a large Comment but I will take notice of that only which is to the present purpose Here is preached a Christ within in opposition to and contempt of a Christ without which John preached and that faith and hope of the Saints which according to the Scripture are the substance of things not seen and the evidence of Heb. 11. 11. things hoped for reproached as a slumbring fancy and a nocturnal dream But if you would infallibly be convinced of the gross darkness wherewith this sort of men are benighted or their palpable dishonesty in abusing the Holy Scripture weigh the following instance out of the preceding Author Then God sent him John to bear witness to the § 4 light which in him was made manifest that all in Morning-Watch p. 5. the light might believe and he called unto others to behold him and said he was the Lamb of God and was to take away the sins of the world Least you should mistake him and gâ—â—ss that a man that could but write his name should not have so little wit or modesty as to expound that Text of Scripture after this sort he quotes chapter and verse John 1. 9. and the next word is mark in a Parenthesis lest his folly should not appear to all men who should have the hap to read him And moreover at the close of the
celebrated Orders at this day in the Roman Church are the Bellar. de Pont. Rom. l. 3. c. 18. Benedictines Carthusians Dominicans Franciscans and Jesuits It is a very fair way towards the proof of it that Bellarmin confesseth concerning the four first and that of Romoaldus that they were at first instituted by S. Benedict S. Romoaldus S. Bruno S. Dominick S. Francis by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and for Ignatius Loyola if he do not appear as great a Fanatick i. e. Enthusiast as ever hath been in the World we shall be contented to be upbraided with the Charge of Fanaticism among us You may find the Doctor as good as his word in the p. 234. Bonaven vita Franc. c. 2. following Pages St. Francis is said by Bonaventure a canoniz'd Saint to be an illiterate man had no Teacher but Christ and learned all by Inspiration for a long time wherein he got his credit among the Papists once casting away his very breeches and being stark naked before them all he said thus to his Father Hitherto I called thee Father on Earth but henceforward I can securely say Our Father which is in Heaven I know not but the Quakers learned their going naked and denying to call any Father which was their practice at first but the light grows wiser and wiser from St. Francis rather then the Prophet Isaiah Let us cite a little of the doctrine and phrases some § 3 of which are pretended from Inspiration by the Popish Votaries and first of Mother Juliana That the soul is so deep-grounded in God and so endlesly p. 224. treasured that we may not come to the knowing thereof till we have first knowing of God which is the Maker to whom it is oned Our kindly substance is beclosed in Jesu with the blessed soul of Christ resting in the Godhead for into the time that it the soul p. 285. Pref. to Sanct. Sophia is in the full mights we may not be all holy The only proper disposition towards the receiving supernatural Irradiaâ—ions from Gods Holy Spirit is an Abstraction of life a sequestration from all business that concerns others and an attendance on God alone in the depth of the Spirit And a little after the lights here prayed for and desired are such as do expel all images of Creatures and do calm all manner of passions to the end that the soul being in a vacuity may be more capable of receiving and entertaining God in the pure fund of the spirit But they seek rather to purifie themselves and inflame their hearts to the love of God by internal quiet and pure actuations in spirit so disposing themselves to receive the influxes and inspirations of God whose Guidance chiefly they desire to follow in all things Rejecting and striving to forget all images and representations of him God or any thing else yea transcending all Operations of the imagination and all subtilty and curiosity of reasoning And lastly seeking an union with Sanct. Sophia c. 3. God only by the most pure and intime affections of the Spirit what possibility of illusion or errour can there be 289. The Approbations 519. to such a soul In which passive unions God after a wonderful and unconceivable manner affords them interiour illuminations and touches yet far more efficacious and divine then active Exercises in all which the soul is a meer Patient and only suffers God to work his divine pleasure in her The which unions though they last but even as it were a moment yet do more illuminate and pacifie the soul then many years spent in active exercises of spiritual Prayer and Mortification could Treat 3. sect 11. c. 1. 292. 215. do Yea so far is the soul from reflecting on her own Existence that it seems to her God and she are not distinct but only one thing That God only by his holy Inspirations is the Guide and Director of an internal and contemplative life Reynaldus tells of Nerius the Father of the Oratorians out of Bacius the Writer of his Life that he was so offended with the smâ—ll of filthy souls that he would desire the persons to empty the Jakes of their souls Such a divine Nose had this Saint among them a degree of Enthusiasm above the Quakers who can but discern not smell souls Some of you called Quakers pretend a great advantage § 4 from 1 John 2. 27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him The Anointing here cannot be understood of Christ neither do we find the Anointing any where to be understood of Father Son or Spirit essentially considered and indeed the phrase is not fit to be applied to God who is the Anointer or Christ who is the Anointed The teaching of the Anointing being understood of the Graces and the habitual and special Enlightnings of the Spirit these devote and addict the soul under the power of them to adhere to the true Christ For the all things it is to be considered as restrained to the matter agitated in the Chapter which is their adhering to the true Christ and this is plain in the 26. ver These things have I written to you concerning them that seduce you The summe then is this they knowing certainly the true Christ from any Antichrist that which they were mainly to look after was a heart cleaving to and improving him which the Graces of God in their souls actuated by the Spirit of God was sufficient in this matter to make their knowledge of Christ sanctifying and saving As for the words in him which render it Masc in the Gr. it may be rendred in any Gender These Considerations duly weighed if there § 5 were no more are sufficient to any who have respect to the pure truths of the Gospel to render the principles here detected and opposed not only suspicious but hateful It is no little absurdity in the Quakers to make an out-cry against Popery Babylon false worship formes that are not onely unscriptural but also idolatrous while in the mean time they plant and hug the root in their own bosomes from which all those evils and more and worse naturally spring It were no hard matter to prove a symbolizing and agreement in a multitude of particulars between the Papists and Quakers in those things wherein they are contrary to the Protestant Profession of Christianity and the Scripture Rule but more especially in the spiritual part of their errors which in the sight of God are of all other the most sinful and to men a snaâ—e most dangerous The Apostle speaks of more Antichrists then one § 6 though of one as the Chief of whose Characters Quakerism hath the blackest I shall mention only two the first expressed in 1. Ep. of John chap 2.
before he found it in the Book why did God commend and reward his tenderness of heart in fearing when the Law was read out of the Book if he were so hard-hearted as not to hear the Law within Why did Jesus Christ never rebuke the Jews for not heeding the Scripture within while he oft rebuked them for not heeding and believing the Scripture without these are enough and to spare to discover the vanity of this conceit The truth is the Scriptures were written with respect to us first without then within I would gladly hear any of the Quakers make § 6 a report of any of the Gospel truths contained in the Scriptures which you could assure me you never heard or read without or that you could all agree without conferring together in a Narrative of those Traditions which the Thessalonians were taught by word and of those many other things which Jesus 2 Thess 2. 15. did or some of them spoken of John 21. 25. which were not written this would be somewhat of conviction to us But you are unworthy beyond all men of the holy Scriptures who by such means as these not only take off others from reading them for their instruction but also deny the mediate and visible instruments and means of those notions you make such a noise and jingling with in the ears of men as if they were but home-born things They affirm that there is no light in the Scriptures SECT IV That light is in the Scriptures prove that or tell Lip of truth opened p. 7. Ephes. 5. 8. me what one Scripture hath light in it If the Scriptures gives us a true description of light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light this is not only an errour of the first magnitude but also one of the greatest discouragements imaginable of looking into the Scriptures for instruction and comfort for if they manifest or signifie nothing to us it will be but lost labour I am apt to believe they may hold it for very Orthodox Doctrine intending thereby that there is no light in the Scriptures more than they have or may have without them and that the Scriptures can add no more to them than the boasting Galatians who were false Brethren though they Gal. 2. 6. seemed to be somewhat added to Paul or that there is no Scripture hath Christ the light in it he being in their opinion no where but within as a light I shall only prove that the Scripture is a light or § 2 hath light in it and so dismiss this argument O send out thy light and thy truth let them lead Psal 43. 3. me let them bring me to thy holy hill By which we are to understand the promises made to David He knew the way to Gods holy hill as well as most but his Adversaries had barred it up and therefore he prays that God would preform his promises which were not only the light of comfort to him but a guide to his faith and hope as they were truth and good and such light the Scriptures are replenished with and adorned as the Firmament with Stars and Constellations But lest they should say this is but my meaning put to the Scriptures take one Text that telleth its own meaning in so Prov. 6. 23. many words For the Commandment is a lamp and the Law is light A fifth Argument may be raised out of those dirty and disparaging Titles and Characters which they give of the Scriptures Of this you have enough before CHAP. VII The Quakers affirm the Doctrines Commands Promises holy Examples expressed in the Scriptures as such not at all to be binding to us THis is a denying of the Scriptures and the authority of the God of the Scriptures at once and with a witness If any shall be furnished with so small a measure of reason as not to be able to apprehend that such an affirmation is a denying of the Scriptures I have little hope to convince them Yet I shall not leave them altogether without some Scripture evidence of the strength of this Argument Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the § 2 Lord To say who is the Lord or what hath the prov 30. 9. Lord to do with us to command or bear rule over us is to deny the Lord and to say of the Scriptures what are they to us is as plainly to deny them What is self-denial but rejecting and denying what it would oblige us to and impose upon us to relinquish and abandon its authority To deal so by the Scriptures must needs then be a denying of them But why do I burn day light the Argument shines bright enough in its own light and evidence The greatest expectation will be of the proving § 3 matter of Fact or that they do thus affirm I do verily believe that few who have some tolerable opinion of the Quakers and their principles except the rank Quakers themselves have had a suspicion that they are so grosly wicked but I shall blow the dust out of their eyes by as strong a proof as their own confessions And it was the rule unto them that gave forth the Scripture and they spake the words as the Spirit moved so that the Spirit was before the Smith prim p. 10. words and was their rule that spake the words and it changes not but is the same for ever This he writes to prove that the Scriptures are not a rule and doth hereby affirm that they had been no rule to the Pen-men of the Scriptures themselves had they not been moved so to take them by the Spirit and that this way of obligation is unchangeable and abides for ever He that shall read the foregoing and following words in the Piece quoted will no more doubt what I have said than that two and two make four For all the Saints have their commands in Spirit Naylors love to the lost p. 1â— but yours is in the Letter and so of another ministration By the phrase in Spirit they intend not that only which râ—aches the heart but that which hath its original immediately from the Spirit of God in them That Naylor intends no other in this place than its being from the Spirit immediately he telleth you plainly for that it is a different ministration from that of the Letter by which words the Letter they alway intend the Scripture But more plain yet if more plain may be that § 4 is no command of God to me what he commanded to Burroughs answer to choice experiences p. 6 7. another Neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture act by that command which was to another not having the command to themselvesâ— I challenge to find an example to it E. D. A bold Challenger who shall be answered in good time but let us hear a few more first Because it 's only queries gathered by the Author from the letter of the Scriptures without and no
Jesus of Nazareth he that then talked with them was he they have read it but you will not c. as if the one were exceeding opposite to the other viz. searching the Scripture whereas the true sense is it condemns you as irrational men that you should think to have eternal life in the Scriptures and will not believe their testimony I must remember to tell you that I do not take the Scriptures to be able to give eternal life to all that have them in their houses or heads or that do barely search them and not set thâ—â—r hearts according to its direction to find eternal life It were ten to one if I had not said so much some or other of them would have had a fling at me as making a Christ of the Scripture By what hath been produced you may be sure § 4 there is the best profit by Gods blessing on an honest reading of the Scriptures Young Timothy was bred up from a Child in the Holy Scripture and it was the commendation of his Mother and Grand-Mother for so educating him but can you think he experienced all he read before he read it some of them are prophetical of things to come Can any of you all experience things that never yet had an existence or being And should the Gentiles and Jews have been reproved for hearing Paul and Peter and Christ himself preach the Gospel and the Mediatour of it because they did not experience it in themselves But why should I use many words about such a cause the willing to understand may see its grossness and forthose that will be ignorant means signifie little to their cure CHAP. XI The Quakers put or render the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other I Could produce a thousand instances of this crime SECT I against the life and being of the Scriptures committed by the Quakers as their principle and duty This wickedness is their open high-way and beaten road If the Scripture had not been the word of the Spirit of God the revelation of his mind and will whose holiness and authority had its being from God its author the frame of it agreeing to the nature and will of God we would not think it worthy the name of Scripture in that peculiar sense which it hath obtained among Christians But if once we knew it opposite and an adversary to the Spirit so far at least that it must come to a parting and they that cleave to the teachings of the Spirit must forsake being taught comforted c. by the Scriptures and they that cleave to the Scripture teaching by the Spirit have forsaken the Spirit of God and his teachings we would own our such profession to be a denying the Scriptures yea should take our selves bound in so many words to deny it and send it as far out of the way as may be as dangerous to the just prerogative of the Spirit of God And if those who profess what I shall instance had any honesty in them they would tell the world they utterly deny the Scriptures to be what the Christian world hath accounted them and in plain and open words and testimonies as far as they can produce exhort and move them to lay them aside and have no more to do with them nor give them one good word least the adversary to the Spirit should in the hearts and lives of men be exalted against him For the proving of the Charge at the head of this Chapter take the words of James Naylor the § 2 Quakers proto-Confessor For all the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the Letter Naylor's love to the lost p. 8. and so of another ministration for the literal ministration is done away in the spiritual Here you have the commands in Spirit or by the Spirit put in opposition to the Letter which is with them the written Word or the Scripture and so far in opposition that as heat being opposite to coldness and light to darkness the one so far as it prevails expelleth the other by its contrariety and opposite qualities so the spiritual ministration or ministration of the Spirit banishes and expelleth that of the Letter as its enemy and contrary But if you will have a prodigious instance a non-such for Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures read what follows out of a great Writer of theirs William Smith And reading in the Scriptures that there were some who met together and exhorted Morning Watch. p. 22 23. one another and were edified and comforted one in another they observe and do as near as they can what they read of the Saints practice and so conceives a birth in the same Womb the Scriptures and brings it forth in the same strength as others do and they make haste thither and open their eyes to look at the things which are seen the Scriptures and this is pleasing to the carnal mind c. They Worship Order Ordinances Faith Practice understood by the written Word must all come under the severity of his judgment because they are Bastards and not Sons for these adulterous births have provoked the Lord and grieved his Spirit It would amaze a Christian and sound mind to read § 3 what is contained in the two pages in the Margin quoted of vilifying and reproach to the Scriptures and the Doctrines from thence received Traditions Ib. 22 23 of men earthly root darkness and confusion Nebuchadnezzars Image putrefaction and corruption rotten and deceitful all out of the life and power of God Apostacy the Whores Cup the mark of the Beast Babylon the Mother of Harlots Bastards brought fâ—rth of flesh and blood the birth that persecuts the Son and Heir viz. the Spirit of God or light within Babylons Brats and Children Graven Images contrary to him the everlasting powerful God c. If this be not opposing the Spirit of God to the Scripture and rendring them adverse to each other the Devil himself must despair of inventing words to express it by I conclude the proof of this Charge with the words § 4 Naylors love to the lost p. 30. of Naylor And of this sort are they who have their preaching to study and to seek at other mens mouths or from the Letter and have it not from the mouth of the Lord. Then with him and the Quakers who are of his mind what we have from the Scriptures we have not from the mouth of the Lord. I would know of the Quakers what they will make of the mouth of the Lord Do they take it to be some part of his body which is like our mouths the Organs of speech We have thought hitherto that God being a Spirit hath no mouth at all only to express things to our understandings he speaks by similitudes taken from such things we are acquainted withall and so whatsoever God reveals his mind by may be called his mouth And it will follow that the Scriptures are
his mouth as eminently as any thing yea all things in the world and more For God spake by them to us more than by all other things he saith to Jeremy Jerem. 15. 19. Thou shalt be as my mouth As thou spakest by the hand of Moses 1 Kings 8. 53 2 Sam. 23. 2. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue Hear the rod. c. Is it not a frequent phrase in the Scripture As saith the Scripture They believed the Scripture And what is that but God speaking by the Scripture and believing what God spake by the Scripture But now is made â—om 16. 26. manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the â—â—mmand of the everlasting God made known unto all Nations for the obedience of faith What more plain that the Scriptures are the mouth of the Lord or those means by which the Lord doth manifest his mind to men But the Quakers will not have it so and therefore it must not be so But they who â—nquire of or at the Scriptures for the mind of the Spirit run another way than that the Spirit walks and is to be found in and sin against the Spirit of God And that you may see how they set the Spirit and Scripture together by the ears Naylor saith further For those only are the Children of God who are Love to lost c. p. 25. led by the Spirit of God so far is true as truth it self but as the old Serpent he never heads a saying with the Scripture but he brings in a lye at the end and tail of it to whom they who are led by the Letter were ever enemies Here you have two great Commanders or Leaders § 5 brought into the field as the most hostile implacable Enemies whose followers from the time there where any were foes each to other And what can render the Spirit and the Sâ—ripture more opposite than that whosoever follows the Letter is a foe to him that follows or is led by the Spirit And the Leaders are the formal cause of it too and therefore it was ever so and is as inseparable as natural cause and effect It this be all true well W. Pen Sp of truth â— might W. P. say We livingly witness against all the dry cavelling Letter-mongers in the world Having frequently met with that Scripture SECT II 1 Cor 3 6. By them produced to prove the Scriptures to have a contrary tendency to the Spirit I shall here open it and shew their mistake The words are Who alsâ— hath made us able Ministers of 1 Cor. 3 6. openeâ— 1. the new Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth â—ife Whereas they would have us by the Letter to § 2 understand the whole written word as written that is the body of the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament Law and Gospel without distinction and by the Spirit the inward immediate teachings of the Spirit of God they are in both mistaken For it is as certain as that the following words are truth that by the Letter here is meant the Law as given forth by God from Mount Sinai and by the Spirit the Covenant of Grace especially as expressed in the New Testament under the administration of the Reedemer But if the ministration of death written and engraven Ver. 7. Ver 9. one stones was glorious c. for if the ministration of condemnation be glory c. Thâ—se passages express and explain the same § 3 thing called the Letter in the 6. Verse and that it was the Law given forth by God before it was written not only as written the matter and manner of which was glorious but in terribleness insomuch that Moses said I exceedingly fear Heb. 12. 21. and quake and it was death for any to touch the Mountain yea the Israelites were ready to dye Exod. 20. 19. with fear at the appearences of God on that Mount Sinai at the giving forth of the Law And as the manner of giving it forth by God so § 4 the matter of it was mortal nothing but death was written in the forehead of it going alone The Law worketh wrath That is the Law of meer Rom. 4. 15. Rom. 7. 11. 12. Commandments And the Commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sâ—n taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me Thus it is plain what is meant by the Letter the Law of meer Commandments as given forth on Mount Sinai That by the Spirit is to be understood the Covenant § 5 of promise in the hand of the Mediator is as certain and not of the Scripture or written Word in general for in the 6. Verse it is opposed to the Letter of the New Testament not of the Letter that is the Gospel not the Law and it is called the Spirit in three respects First As the New Testament or Covenant of promise especially in the hand of Christ promiseth and conveyeth soul quickning grace in a good measure to sanctifie and enable and dispose the soul to keep the Laws of God Secondly As by the New Testament or Covenant life and spirit comfort and refreshment is put into the hearts of poor drooping sinners under the sense of the severity of the Law and their liableness to the punish of it Thirdly And chiefly the intent and mind of § 6 the Spirit in the terrible dispensation of the Law of Works was by discovering mans woful estate to make the promises of the Gospel or the new Covenant sweet and welcome and to put souls on embracing the redemption through Christ So that the matter of the pure New Testament or Covenant in the hand of the Mediator was that which God especially aimed at to promote by the Letter or the meer Law of Commandments in which alone there was not the least appearance of mercy or mans welfare implied CHAP. XII The Quakers hold it is a sin and the sin of Idolatry to believe and live according to the instructions and holy examples expressed in and by the Scriptures except we have them by imme iate inspiration and at first hand as the Apostles received them I Am now come to the highest round of their SECT I Ladder and I know not what one step of sin beyond it except the unpardonable one they could charge those with who walk by the light of Scripture day Samuel whole rebuke to Saul for his sin in the matter of the Amalekites was expressed in the keenest and highest terms compared his sin but to Witchcraft Iniquity and Idolatry And if this charge against us were as true as it is that they so charge us it is high time to serve the Scriptures as Hezekiah served the brazen Serpent And brake in peioes the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made 2 Kings 18. 4. for unto thâ—se days the Children
for it But moreover you may know if you please that there are thousands this day in England who § 6 preach the Gospel in poverty and distresses and cleave to their work when stripped of their wages which number there needs not one Quaker to make up yet take heed you commend them not for it Another objection is we study for our Sermons § 7 What is study but meditation and searching to understand the truth and to get it into our heads and hearts if this be a sin obedience to God is so And the Apostle bids Timothy who had excellent 2 Tim. 2. 15 gifts and was brought up from a child in the holy Scripture study to shew thy self approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth Then it seems it is no idle task to preach like a workman and divide the Word of truth aright and that we may be approved to God and free from shame among men we must study But that which turns us all off hand-smooth is SECT V That till we are taught by the light within immediately we cannot speak one word of truth but all lyes though the matter we deliver be the highest truth And all be in the Satanical delusions Fox great mystery p. 5. p. 62. that be not in the immediate teachings from the Spirit But the greatest professors upon the earth are there of the Devil that speaketh the words of truth but not as they are in it as so saith Christ to the Jewes they were of their Father the Devil they speak of themselves they speak of themselves as the Devil doth but abide not in the truth but a lyar from the beginning The Devil speaks a lye from himself that is a truth for no body need teach the Devil to lye But how will it follow that whatever any man speaks of himself is a lye then it seems for a man to be first in telling any thing true or false 't is a lye whereas we use most to suspect the truth of that which comes by a second or third hand or more but the conclusion is what we have not by immediate inspiration and teach it we speak it of our selves and therefore are devillish lyars § 2 The learned Fisher will help the Fox at a dead Velata quaedam revelata p. 7. Jer. 5. 2. lift and piece his tale And to such wise sayers and knowers as these God saith though ye say God lives yet as I live ye swear falsly and why falsly was not that a truth that God lives but not a truth truly testified unto by them ◠any more than what is testified in foro hominum in mens Courts by such as being not eye witnesses thereof have it only by hear-say from others because they witnessed to it but in stoln words Here is then the proof that we speak more than we know and therefore lye This is indeed pretty near a lye but that they who live in the light of the Creation and read and believe and know the Scripture to be the Word or the Words of God and affirming no nicer a truth than that God liveth should lye because they know it not by immediate Inspiration is very strange He that lives may know from thence that God lives who holdeth every soul in life that lives But the meaning of the Text may be and I will trust the sober Readers judgment to decide it betwixt us that they did not believe the Lord lived and swearing what they thought untrue or doubted of they therein swear falsly or that they dared to swear to a falshood and yet abuse the Name and Ordinance of God to confirm it But I desire those who give credit to such Teachers as infallible and inspired immediately from God to try by the instance I am now upon whether we are not likely to speak more rightly concerning God from the Scripture than their Teachers without book In the Quotation of this Text Fisher hath falsified beside his Exposition in three plain cases for they say he writes ye say for the Lord lives God lives there is both taking away a word and changing another and makes God swear too where there is not a word or tittle of it in the Text and so adds to the Word of the Lord these words yet as I live This is ordinary from these inspired Teachers and to tell us God saith so lest we should take them to be his own words adds to the boldness of the perverting the Scripture I could write a Catalogue of a thousand such faults in the Quakers citing of Scripture some adding some leaving a word or two out through carelesness or wilfulness I have from what is here evident reason to say to you as the Apostle to the Galatians O foolish Quakers who hath bewitched you Certainly Gal 3 1. it must be a strong delusion that thus blinds you He feedeth on ashes a deceived heart hath turned him aside Isa 44. 20. that he cannot deliver his soul nor say is there not a lye in my right hand The next Ordinance I shall prove them to deny is a Gospel-Church And the Church so gathered into Naylor love to the lost p. 17. God is the Pillar and ground of truth where the Spirit alone is Teacher The Gospel-Church is a Church which hath other Teachers and not the Spirit alone but such a Church is not James Naylor's nor the Quakers The Church wherein the Apostles were sure had some Teachers beside the Spirit whereas the Apostles gave themselves to preaching of the Word And Elders were ordained in every particular Acts 14. 23 1 Cor. 4. 17. 1 Cor 12. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Church As I teach in every Church God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Teachers The Elders are exhorted to feed the Flock of Christ which is among you Priest that is the Minister he brings in saying § 2 We utterly deny all their ways and doctrines who exclude Fox great mystery p. 32. all teachings of man Answ Contrary to the Prophets who bid people cease from man whose breath was in their nostrils a Text hugely to the purpose But most will conclude that these Authors do not speak the minds of the Quakers for that they have more Teachers than all others Men-Ministers Women-Ministers and any one of them when there is a motion to it It is confessed that in point of fact it is so but it § 3 is a most palpable contradiction to their professed Principle I should be glad to hear they were more true to it that the Light within might be their only Teacher and they would let others alone till that turned them Quakers But Satan is cunning and can give a dispensation where it may serve so greatly to the promoting of his Kingdom Sometimes they have silent meetings as is known to most then they say they attend to the Teacher within which is
and a poor puffed deluded creatures errors and miscarriages from the obedience of him who is God-man who is the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his person Let us first see what they profess of justification by § 2 Smith â— Cat. p. 74. Christs righteousness Quest Do not you depend on the things you do for life and salvation Answ Nay We do not so c. Quest What is the righteousness that justifieth in the Pennington mysteries of the Kingdom p. 17. sight of God Answ The righteousness of Christ alone c. One would think the Quakers in this point very sound by this part of their profession but their Bell sounds not long before its jarring with truth discovers it to be foully crackt It follows in the Answer to the first Question For we have lifâ— before we have motion to act or do any thing that is pleasing to God and in that life we have salvation and so life and salvation is freely given us of God The latter part of the Answer is brought to prove the truth of the former and you will say they are huge good at proving who reason at this rate They are not the things we do because we have life from God and that freely before we can move or do any thing This being one of the great delusions of this poor people wherein they shew so much ignorance as without much grace from God they are utterly uncapable of instruction I shall hoping in that grace for a blessing of conviction upon them demonstrate by the most familiar and easie things the falsity of their such Conclusions By the same Reason all your bodily motions and actions are the motions and actions of God and you do nothing at all the while Was there not life before motion And did not God give you this life Can any man move hand or foot or tongue in any natural action but by that life they first receive from God but will you say therefore these are Gods actions and not mens For you to say Your good actions and motions are Christs righteousness because you have life from him to perform them is no less absurd Let us see if Pennington who had somewhat of a § 3 Scholar will do any thing better in the explanation and proof of his Answer to the second Question This righteousness conveyed to the creature in and through the seed and brought forth in the creature by the seed and the creature united to Christ in the seed here is justification of life A strange justifying righteousness by Christ alone brought forth in the creature by the seed I would ask any of this opinion Whether their tongues and lips did not move in the words they call righteous words And the hands in some of those they call righteous actions Sure they will not deny they do and how then can they say it is the righteousness of Christ alone in which the bodies of Thomas John c. are imployed But yet the fine mysteries in this Doctrine which I must confess may puzzle many an honest Countreyman to find out the sense of amoâ—nts to no more than this great absurdity What a contradiction there is in the creatures being united to Christ in the seed the Quakers themselves if any liberty be left them so to do will find out Christ is the seed and the seed is Christ both but one and the same thing and yet the creature is united to Christ in the seed that is to Christ in Christ But the blind swallow many a Fly For by the Law of faith is self-fanctification self-mortification § 4. Naylor Love to the lost p. 6. 4. â— and self-justification excluded right so far the worst will be in the tail Though they who receive the Spirit were called to all this by faith in his bloud yet it is the work of God wrought by Christ in the beleiver Two things are here observable for errour and ignorance First They who received the Spirit were called to all this self-work he talks of and that by faith in Christs blood too and yet by the Law of faith it is all excluded So here faith does and undoes calls for self-justification c. and when it draws nigh shuts the door against them begets children and that by Christ too and so soon as they are born utterly disclaims them If he had said they were called to sanctification mortification and not put that blot of self in their Escutcheons to render them base-born and then have asserted they were not the righteousness by which we are justified he had spoken like a man and a Christian but they are two things in the Quakers account adverse and together by the ears and therefore Nailor will have to do with neither But that a man should be called by faith to self-justification is a strange riddle and after all the condemnation of these things it is for all that the woâ—k of God wrought by Christ in the believer But to finish Naylor's testimony of justifying righteousness observe what he faith somewhat more plainly Whereby such become his workmanship in Christ Naylor Love to the lost p. 37. Jesus wrought into his obedience and his obedience into them in their measure till they become of one heart one mind one soul one spirit one flesh one bone and bloud and one obedience and one life that it is no more we that live but Christ that lives in us Here is some shew but a great deal of abuse of the holy Scriptures and the Spirit of God by whom they were given forth Whereas those who are God's workmanship in Christ Eph. 2 10 Jesus created to good works are thereby designed and disposed by God to walk holily Naylor will have the Saints wrought into the obedience of Christ and his obedience into them and blended together so perfectly that the most discerning Quaker of them all can make no distinction between the one and the other yea untill body and soul flesh and spirit bloud and bones and the obedience of both Christ and his Saints and their very life too be no more distinguished but what is the one is the other the Quaker is Christ for which Naylor's tongue was bored with a hot iron and Christ is I am afraid to write it From such stuff as this the poor souls who hug these Angels of darkness talk at that confused and blasphemous rate as they do and adopt whatever is the Product of an idle proud deluded raw undâ—rstanding into the very acts and expressions of Christ himself He saith moreover which may a little explain this § 6 p. 36. last Instance Which obedience stands not in any thing seen from man or by man done thereby to imitate or do the like for that is two obediences That as the same Father calls for the same obedience in spirit so in the same spirit doth the believer offer up himself c. I leave you to brood on
was manifest in the flesh and therein fulfilling his work as Redeemer hath abolished those strait dispensations and broken down the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile making no difference but shining by his Ordinances and favour on either indifferently so rising as a Sun of righteousness to give light to the whole world without any restraint by his Ordinance or appointment whereby those Prophecies are fulfilled And he said It is a light thing that thou shouldest Isa 49. 6. be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayst be my salvation to the ends of the earth So it seems he was not so at the time of this Prophecy although he were then the Divine and Eternal Being and he who should in time come and redeem and save by his actual Merit I the Lord have called thee in righteousness Isa 42. 6. and will hold thine hand and I will keep thee and give thee for a Covenant to the people for a light to the Gentiles This speaks still of Christ to come as such a light Let us consider that passage in the Song of Simeon Luke 2. 30 31 32. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles c. So that the appearance of Christ in the flesh in that body which Simeon took up in his arms was his being prepared to be a light to lighten the Gentiles Now this light was present And in the Text agitated John 1. 9. This light was past that is that appearance and work of Christ which made way for the salvation of God to be divulged and its ordinary means to be enjoyed by all indifferently This was the true light God was 1 Tim. 3. 16. manifest in the flesh preached unto the Gentiles The second Text they usurp is in Romans 10. 8. SECT V Rom. 10. 8. opened But what saith it The Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the Word of Faith which we preach This Text joyned with John 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God they build their Tenet upon that Christ the Word is within every man as upon the Text before agitated they affirm that he is within them as a saving light Let us first consider whether the Word in this Text be of the same sense and import with that in John 1. which speaks of Christ the Personal Word That it is not so but the Doctrinal Word is plain from these Considerations First The Apostle doth in these words allude to § 2 Deut. 30. 14 opened the words of Moses Deut. 30. 14. But the Word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst do it This Word in Deuteronomy is said in Verse 10. to be the Commandments and Statutes which were written in the Book of the Law which Book they had among them and by that means had the contents of it in their heart either in the love of it or by rote as we use to say a writing is gotten by heart when it is treasured in the memory and it was in their mouth by profession or discourse Secondly the Apostle gives the same answer to a § 3 supposed Objection How shall we know what is our duty How we should please God and be blessed therein saith Moses 'T is no such difficult thing for you to know this for what you have gotten into your heart out of this Book of the Law and what you have in your mouth by discourse and profession that is it you should observe and do So the Apostle if you suppose while we preach salvation by Christ whom you must receive that we preach impossibilities for that the person of Christ if in Heaven or in the grave he is out of your reach this will cure your mistake to consider that as the Word of the Law which Moses taught and wrote was in the heart and mouth to do it so the Word of faith or to be believed is in your heart and mouth to believe and confess it And this will as effectually save you as if Christ in his person were in your arms yea and more too And that this is his sense is plain in Verse 9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe Rom 10. 9. in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved The third Consideration is That the word that § ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 18 25. is said to be in the heart is said also to be in the mouth and we all know what manner of word uses to be in the mouth that it is a word saying or speaking while it is there such as that spoken of in Samuel tidings in his mouth or that in Esther As the word went out of the Kings mouth therefore it cannot be meant of Christ but that speech those sayings which are or may be spoken as in the Gospel when pâ—eaching or when written Fourthly Both that in Deuteronomy and this word § 5 in the Romans are said to be in the heart and mouth of those who were the Church of God as Israel was to whom Moses spake and the Romans to whom Paul wrote and so were taught by the one the truths of the Law by the other of the Gospel It sorrily follows from hence that it is in the hearts of all men Lastly The Apostle agitating this argument farther § 6 Verse 14. How shall they call on him of whom they have not heard He doth not tell them Christ Jesus the Word will preach himself and he is in the heart where if you will but stand still and wait and listen you shall hear him teach you all things as is the Quakers Rom. 10 17. Doctrine No but he tells them in Verse 17. So then faith cometh by hearing so say the Quakers too but of whom Verse 15. Of them that are sent them whose feet are beautifull for the sake of the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace which they bring And these are more than that one personal or as the Quakers phrase it eternal Word Christ for they are expressed by they them which are plurals but Christ is but one Yet from this Text do they most confidently avouch Christ the Word who was in the beginning § 7 and who is God to be in the heart and not only in the hearts of the Saints and Believers but in theirs also who are the most wicked and ignorant among the sons of men And I have by a grand Quaker been given the lye in the Pulpit for expoundâ—ng the Word in Jer. 23. 20. of the Word of the Lord Doctrinally confidered and this Text in the Romans produced with no more but confidence
to do SECT VI thy will for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of uprightness Psal 43. 10. To bend this Text to your bow you talk thus The Question will be whether it was Davids intent and the scope of his desire that God should teach and lead him by his good Spirit or some other thing But methinks it is resolvable in the affirmative in two respects What a strange Question is this Who doubts but David commended the Spirit of God as a good Teacher what then must all other Teachers which the Spirit of God makes use of as the means by which he teaches be cast off Suppose I should say such a man is a good School-master I would fain be taught by him doth that imply I would not learn out of a Grammar or other books which he uses to that end or doth it not rather conclude that I like not only his abilities but his method and means by which he teaches The Psalmist saith Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest out of thy Law You would little less than hoot at him that should from hence conclude the Psalmist to reject the Spirit as a Teacher and to admit of no other Teacher but the Law It is after this lofty manner of disputing you undertake our overthrow When you have so learnedly framed your Question § 2 which by the disjunctive Or you make to consist of two members which would he have for his Teacher the Spirit or some other thing You answer it like your self Methinks it is resolvable in the affirmative But I pray which of the parts of your Question do you affirm which do you deny Why truly it is the safest course you take to affirm it of both for then the truth is owned and in this point the quarrel ended But then what need your fighting against what you affirm unless you are resolved to be quarrelsome Alas poor man it was by a meer mistake you said truth you intended to resolve in the affirmative that he desired to be taught by the good Spirit of God but in the negative of any other thing Canis festinans coecos parit catulos The two respects which thus blinded you are enough § 3 to keep any mans eyes open that is but willing to see First How that the Word was hid in his heart That internal Law Word and Spirit of God which plentifully shews how much he was an Enthusiast and Quaker in the sense this man esteems us most Heterodox Law Word and Spirit are all one with you But where do you find the Word hid in the hearts of the Saints called the Internal Word 'T is true that it is within in the memory faith love and hid there with the hiding of security but it was as much without before it was within as the Childs Lesson which it gets by heart out of a book which when done you might as well call it the Child 's Internal Lesson Your second respect is the very words viz. of the § 4 Text imply the thing we urge them for and can import no other sense Also what did that clause do there viz. thy Spâ—rit is good Can the Spirit be good for nothing if the external word be good for something as a Teacher I mistrust not the eyes of any but the Quakers but that they will see at first glance what a feeble Champion you are without my pointing Parvas habet spes Troja si tales habet I shall trace you foot by foot no further you shoot at so many marks at once that 't is hard to find which you level at only in the conclusion you presume you have hit the Pin of the white Vnisâ—nat cuculis rudibus geminantibus odis Your Arguments are generâ—lly sick of one disease § 5 you argue from the presence of the Spirit of God in and with his people by his motions influences manifestations gifts graces means to his Essential Being as the sense of those Texts which is fallacious as I prove by this Argument answer it when you can The Spirit of God essentially considered or as very God is every where at all times without the least change or alteration for ever But the Spirit of God in and with his people according to the import of those Texts of Scripture which you produce is not every where at all times without any the least change or alteration for ever Therefore the Spirit of God in and with his people according to the import of those Texts of Scripture which you produce is not the Spirit of God essentially considered or very God The first Proposition is proved from Mal. 3. 6. For § 6 I am the Lord I change not The second Proposition I prove from Joel 2. 28 29. which you cite Pag. 21. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie c. This was in time what and where it was not before Ezek. 36. 27. Pag. 20. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes c. it was future what it was not before and is spoken of the gathering of the Jews from all Countries Then the Spirit of God shall be put within them but this is not alway the same without alteration 1 Cor. 6. 19. cited by you Pag. 30. What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you The Holy Ghost did not dwell in them according to the import of that Text before their Conversion The Lord was in the Temple at Jerusalem and dwelt therein I have built a House of habitation for 2 Chron. 6. 2 thee and a place for thy dwelling Who is able to build him an House seeing the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens 2 Ki. 19. 15 cannot contain him How did God dwell there more then elsewhere but by placing his Name owning a relation to it as his house sanctifying it to his own use manifesting himself in it to those who waited on his Ordinances there solemnized But now the place is void of all the foot-steps of that presence I deny not I doubt not but the presence of God § 7 by his Spirit in and with his people is much more glorious than that Type possessed yea such a Mystery of Union and Glory as will be matter of intellectual exercise and delight for ever yet it is most certainly no more his Essential Presence than is every where The difference is his being related to actuating of effecting in and manifesting himself to and union with the Souls of his people so as none in the world but they are blessed withal And herein the Saints are so happy they may well be content and not put the name of the God-head in a strict and proper sense on these his blessings Such conceits are the natural source and have been of Opinions and practices
dishnourable to God and unworthy of his Grace Another fallacy in your arguings is from the Spirits § 8 teachings Indefinitely to the Spirits teaching Universally at least all that concerns the duty of the people of God in religious things The people of God have the Spirit therefore they could not be destitute of an unerring Spirit in what concerned them either towards God or men But your main fallacies are these two from an SECT VII infallible Spirit teaching to the infallibility of the Subjects in which the Spirit dwells as a Teacher and from the Spirits teaching to its immediate and peculiar teaching For the first of these I shall produce some of your wild reasonings 1 Thes 15. 19. Quench not the Spirit Page Those to whom he gave the caution had the Spirit if those could not quench the Spirit who had it not Consequently the Primitive Churches were not without an unerring Spirit But I believe and can prove that they who had not the Spirit themselves might quench it in others by despising Prophecyings in the exercise of its gifts 20. ver and those who have the motions of the Spirit as you say the old World had before the Flood may be far from having the Spirit in the Scripture-sense i. e. dwelling in them to sanctification But supposing they had the Spirit dwelling and teaching in them 't is a miserable erroneous and weak Conclusion that they were infallible That this is that you would conclude from such improper premises is apparently your drift all along A taste of this you give us p. 32. in these words § 2. Page 32. If God sends forth his Spirit into the hearts of his children then are they not without an infallible Spirit but the express Letter of the Scripture affirms it and consequently our Adversaries reflection upon us for making it part of our belief is unsound and condemnable Your Adversaries have not so little knowledge of the Spirit of God as to say the Spirit of God is fallible nor yet so ignorant of your spirits and of the Scripture as to say you are infallible If the latter be it you say is unfound it is upon no other grounds than your arguing from the infallibility of Gods Spirit to the infallibility of your spirits or of theirs who are Gods people But we are not ignorant that your principles make no distinction much less a difference between the spirits of Gods people and the Spirit of God which is indeed the secret byass which moves you so obliquely of which I shall give a more ample account in its place But you are yet so unwilling to speak plainly your mind that you appear in many shapes to insinuate this untruth but are industrious to be uncertain and amphibious Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo You say page 31. And how this man can be esteemed § 3. Page 31. a good Christian who would render Christ Jesus the Head of a fallible body by divesting Christians of an infallible Spirit I leave to persons of better judgment more honesty and greater moderation to judge By this we may more than guess your mind But verily if the asserting Christ to be the Head of a fallible body i. e. that may in some things erre or be mistaken be worthy of your such reflections I know none will escape them among professed Christians but Quakers and Papists I see by this you may serve for a Voter at Rome but your Logick is so leaky you will hardly attain a higher promotion there she will be loath to venture her Grandeur built upon the Foundation of the Churches infallibility upon your pitiful scribling I wonder how you came to talk of Christs body to § 4 which he is Head Or what men of your principles can mean by it with the qualification of infallible Sure you do not mean his body in the most strict sense i. e. the invisible Church that is not yet compleatly existing and I doubt not but when they meet and vote they will be infallible but that will not be yet Nor yet the Universal Church visible i. e. Professors of Christianity Members of the Universal Church or any particular organical Church for your party have gored and besmeared those to excess I know not how we shall get a vote from them except in the Creed called the Apostles to which a small matter excepted all give consent But then the Quakers are none of the Church who will subscribe but to few of the Articles in that Creed How shall we find your meaning I will undertake to shoot near the mark if not hit the pin in the white You intend it of all the Quakers and every individual person among them at least such who give up to the light within and its guidance and is the Church in Spirit a Phrase used by Friends more than once in their writings but never in the Scriptuâ—e But Mr. Pen if Christ be Head to none but the infallible wo to the poor Saints who have trusted hitherto they had a Head in Heaven who hath pity on the ignorant and those that are out of the way who is their Advocate with the Father and thereby a remedy against the the sad consequences otherwise of their errings And I am sure Christ is then none of your Head But to conclude this form of your reasoning what § 6 I shall say to it You may as well conclude all Gods people are omnipotent because they have the Spirit of God which is omnipotent And they are omniscient because the Spirit of God who teaches them is so And they are infinite upon the same grounds The last two of these I can prove from some of the Quakers writings to be their blasphemous Opinions from this ground on which you build Monstr ' horrend'inform ' ingens cui lumen ademptum Were you so judicious and humble to submit to the certain teachings of the Spirit in and by the § Scripture you may know that the Spirit though it never teacheth an errour yet those whom it teacheth directively may erre either not understanding or not submitting to his teachings that where the Spirit moves and strives too though it self be omnipotent yet it may move and strive in such a measure as the corruption of bad men and sometimes of good men do prevail against its strivings and motions Although the Spirit of God will teach and move all the Elect so largely and so effectually that they shall not fail of heaven nor the necessary means thereunto yet there is not one that can be proved not to err in practice much less to have learned all things of a Religious concern to them I might proceed to your fallacious arguing from SECT VIII the Spirits teaching indefinitely expressed to its teaching peculiarly and immediately which is frequent in your Pamphlet particularly page 18 29. and many more of your fallacious and confused arguings I might expose were it worth while to trace such a Trifler in
sound as of a mighty rushing wind Cloven Tongues like as of fire all of which were witnesses sent by God for the confirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ whom they preached to be Gods Messias before promised But let us see how near the Quakers approach to § 3 this evidence That they began with a noise yea a rushing noise we know but that it was a sound from heaven we are sure of the contrary That they have Tongues and fiery and Cloven Tongues also we shall not deny but these are not such Cloven Tongues like as of fire sitting on them and appearing to the bodily â—yes of others Nor do they speak variety of Languages by the gift of the Holy Ghost though some of them have gone into forreign Countries with a confidence they should be gifted with strange Languages but their Spirit deceived them Those in the Text in those Languages or Tongues spake the wonderful works of God but the Quakers with their Native Language only speak the amazing delusions of Satan The persons in the Text had and used these gifts to confirm and evidence Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ 22 verse and that same Jesus to be exalted by the right hand of God verses 32 33. but the Quakers improve their gifts with all their might to disclaim that man Christ Jesus as having any being and to exalt their own Christ whom they call the light within every man And considering also that the Prophet saith the Spirit shall be poured out on all flesh methinks they of all others should claim the least share in it who call others flesh who are not of their mind but themselves Spiritual and will not seem to endure any thing that hath a relation to the flesh though sanctified by the Spirit and Grace of God which they rebuke in such-like terms as these Silence all flesh before the Lord. Thus I have discharged this Text from so bad a service The next main Prop for this mistake is that they SECT II speaking and writing by the conduct and motion of the light within them that being with them the Spirit of God as well as Christ the Son of God it must needs be by Inspiration of God and motion of the Holy Ghost And by the same light light within do we discern and testifie c. Parnel Shield of the Truth pag. 10. Yea they will have Moses and all the Prophets to be inspired Divinely as they were guided and moved by the light within The Word said Let there be light Gen. 1. 4. mark this and the light was brought out of darkness so the morning was come and the day was created in the Eternal Word and into this life I suppose it should be light was Moses gathered and had his understanding opened that he could see to the beginning And there was no Tradition to give him the knowledge of it but the light which shone out of darkness in his heart Morning Watch pag. â— What words can express the untruths absurdities and blasphemies of this saying The Word Christ created the Light Christ the first created morning is Christ and all this together within was the Inspiration by which Moses understood what he wrote of the Creation Hear a third that by the mouth of more than § 2 two Witnesses what I have said may be confirmed John Story Short Discovery c. pag. 2. And though the holy Scripture without and the Saints practises are as lights in the world yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolize them the Scripture and Saints practises as to set them in esteem above the Light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them equal with the Light and Spirit of Christ within from which the Scriptures were given forth and are but branches of that holy râ—ot and as it were fruits of that heavenly Tree viz. the appearances of God in the hearts of his people You may see then whence their Opinion of Divine Inspiration to be the Inlet of their Notions arises and that the Scriptures are but branches growing from the same root viz. the light within That I may arm those who are willing to be defended § 3 against such a strong delusion where ever it hath once seized the belief by Scripture-light I shall take the pains to lay down some certain Characters of all the Apostles divinely inspired and all their Doctrines that flowed from the Spirit of God by way of Inspiration immediate contained in the Scripture and having the same Divine Authority Characters of the Persons who were Christs Apostles SECT III and preached or wrote the Gospel by Inspiration of God which we call the Scripture or Word of God They had an immediate Mission and Call from without them by Jesus Christ to preach and declare the Gospel That Call and Commission which the Apostles had Mat. 28. 16. to the end of the Chapter was from without it was Christ who conversed with them and was the object of their bodily eyes It was that Christ whom the women held by the feet ver 9. and his Call as his person was without them the sound of which was received by their bodily ears in those words ver 18 19. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore c. And it is a strong Argument to prove this immediate outward Call to be essential to the Apostolical Office and Power that when by Judas's fall the number was imperfect he that was chosen in his room was chosen and called by an outward call the Spirit of God determining by a Lot Matthias to be the twelfth Apostle as Christ did the rest by his voice without them Acts 1. 24. and 25 verses they had a large measure of the Spirit within and Matthias in particular but that was not sufficient Yea the Apostle Paul who was born out of due time had this immediate outward Cal when Christ appeared to him in that glorious and terrible form Acts 26. 13. At mid-day O King I saw in the way not in the heart or â— in the way saw a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun the light in the Quakers I am sure would be seen by any who are not bodily blind if it were such shining round about me then it could not be a light only within and them that journeyed with me if it had not been without him they could not have seen it Verse 14. I heard a Voice speaking unto me not within me I am Jesus Chap. 10. Ver. 22. Jesus of Nazareth and I am sure the light within is not of Nazareth These things are enough to prove the Apostles had all of them an outward Call or a Call from Christ without them to their Ministry and Apostleship and that the Quakers Apostleship and inspired Ministry is far from Apostolical They were all such as had seen and conversed with § 2 the Lord Jesus in an outward
crucifying within us by disobedience to the light in our Consciences A strange merit and purchase of Salvation and way of pacifying the wrath of God for sin D Damnation Being condemned within by the light in the Conscience and the terrour and affliction arising from thence but nothing of a pain of sense after the body is dead and turned to dust Darkness Not acknowledging the light in every man to be Christ and being guided by its immediate teachings as the only and all-sufficient Rule Death of Christ The light within not obeyed The dead Body The Body living in sin Disciples of Christ No other but those who submit to the light within and follow only its dictates E Election Christ the seed not the persons of men and women Vulturous-Eye The understanding faculty piercâ—ng into and earnestly seeking after Divine Knowledge F Faith A believing in the light within Righteousness of Faith Those acts of Obedience performed by themselves in their own bodies conformable to the dictates of the light withinâ— and in the Faith of its being Christ and the Rule Teaching or doing falsly When not from the immediate motions and teachings of the light within though what is taught be in its self true and what is done be in its self good False Prophets All that are called by men however qualified otherwise all that teach from or out of the Scriptures and not from immediate inspiration as the Prophets and Apostles by whom the Scriptures were penned False Witnesses All who speak not from inspiration and inward meerly divine motions and experience not what they affirm in themselves Flesh Whatever is not from the light within originally and immediately Wisdom of the flesh All Wisdom attained by industry Denying Christ come in the flesh Denying Christ come in the Flesh of Joseph John Sarah or any other who are Quakers Christ come in the flesh Come in their Flesh The Flesh of Christ The Spiritual Flesh that descended from Heaven not the Flesh that lay buried in the Sepulchre after death The Fold of Christ Christ himself Following Christ Obedience to the light within The Friends Friends All professed Quakers The will of the Flesh All that is chosen by man though he be thereto disposed by the will of God revealed in the Scripture G Preaching for Gain Receiving any thing as the reward of preaching the Gospel State of Glory The State of Peace and Joy resulting from the witness of the light within in this life GOD. Father Son and Holy Ghost without distinction the light within every 〈◊〉 the spirit of the Quakers every one of them the soul the seed and much 〈◊〉 that he is not Foundation of God The light within and the inspirations and motions of it The Gospel Christ the light within not the written Word or the sense of it as a Narrative of the good will of God to men in Christ H Handled the Word of Life Not as the Apostles who handled the Body of Christ but feeling by a spiritual sensation the motions of the light within or the Christ within them Hearing the Gospel or Word Listening to and obeying the light within Heaven Not the place where the Man Christ is above or beyond the visible Skies but the happiness they have within them I could never yet hear or read them mention any other Heaven to be enjoyed by them as distinct persons but what they have within them in this world Hell The present torment and loss within Preaching for Hire Hirelings To have provision for the oâ—tward man as a maintenance or reward for preaching though no bargain be made yea though such who receive it would preach iâ— they had never a peny reward in this world from those they preach to Holiness Obedience to the light within and that without any failing The womans Husband at home Christ the light in the conscience I Idolatry Often for worshipping the Man Christ Jesus who is at the right hand of God above or beyond the Stars and visible Heavens taking the examples of the Saints and Churches in the Scripture recorded and doing likewise JESVS The light within the Word in the beginning not the Son of Mary who was made or created The Imaginations All conclusions how demonstrable soever which accord not with their Tenets or are not by immediate inspiration Inchantments Bewitchings A being perswaded and established by Reason and Scripture but especially if humane Artâ— or Sciences have any hand in it Infidels All that obey not or do not place their Salvation in the light within Workers of Iniquity All that live not without sinning against God The Judgment day of Judgment Sin being judged in the Conscience by the light within in this life Justification Christ the light within obeyed K Kingdom of God The Rule and Government of the light within and the peace and joy arising from thence Carnal knowledge All knowledge but what comes by the immediate inspiration of the light within L The Law Christ the light within the Law written in the heart Leadings in Spirit The motions of the light within immediate inspirations and teachings The life Christ the light within The life of Christ The prevalency of the light within Eternal life Being taken into God Saved by the Life of Christ A being saved by the prevalency of the light in the conscience The Letter The dead Letter The Letter that killeth The Scriptures or written Word A Lye Lying What is spoken though true in it self if not from immediate teaching or the light within The Light within Christ God Father Son Spirit the seed of Abraham and David according to the flesh Jesus the only Saviour the Law the Testimony the Gospel the Prophets the Advocate Righteousness Sanctification Justification the only Rule Guide Teacher Judge the Way the only way to the Father the Truth the Life the Power of God the Eternal God God Almighty that which pardons and conquers sin the Judgment the Lamb of God that is slain from the beginning the Word in the beginning the Creator of all things the end of all Books Laws and abundance more than can be crowded into many Pages The Lust All desires that accord not to the light within and proceed not from thence M The Man Christ The spiritual Body of Flesh Blood and Bones which they say descended from Heaven and dwelt in the Body of the Son of Mary and doth also now in every Quaker Cease from man do not hear man What the Faculties of Man have any hand in either by inventing working or expressing all that comes not purely from the light within Measure of God of Christ of the Spirit That degree of the power and inspirations of the light within Something more or less of the very being and Essence of God the Father Son Spirit Meditate Not pondering or exercising the judgment and understanding on holy and divine Objects but a stilness and emptiness of all thoughts attending for the immediate impulses suggestions inspirations and motions of the
light within They put to their meanings Expounding or giving the sense of the Scripture however true in its self if not by immediate meer Divine Revelation In the Meekness In the light within Christ which is meekness in the abstract and between whom and their spirits there is no distinction Ministers of the Everlasting Gospel Both men and women Ministers among the Quakers who declare from immediate inspiration not from the Letter of the Scripture Ministers of Antichrist Babylon Idol-Shepherds All such who have a mediate Call from man or preach from the Letter of the Scripture Ministration of the Spirit The immediate teachings and motions of the Spirit exclusive of all forms in worship the will though sanctified in chusing and all premeditation and acting by the prescription of the written Word Miracles Sometimes Miracles in Spirit invisible to bodily senses or humane understanding The Star of the Morning the Morning of the first day Christ the light within Moved by the Holy Ghost An inward immediate impulse of the light and power within From the Mouth of God Immediate teachings from the light within excluding all other Mysteries of the Kingdom Mysteries of God Such things as the faculties of man have no power to understand or express no not from or by the Scripture such things as are only sensâ—ted in the experience An allegorizing the Scripture N Natural man Every man that is not a Quaker The Natural man Every thing in man which is distinct from God or the light within The New man Christ the light within considered essentially They did by Nature the things contained in the Law By the new Nature which is Christ the light contained in the Law within the heart which is also Christ the light O Obedience of Christ What is done by men by the power life and strength of the light within them Obedience in Spirit Wrought by immediate impulses of the Spirit The Kingdome of God cometh not with observation The light within and its prevalencie which they call and that only the Kingdom of God is not obtained any way by the study or consideration of the Scripture or any thing without us Observers of times Such as keep any certain days as separated to holy use as the Lords-day or such as propose an hour or two to be spent in the Worship and Ordinances of God or any time with limitation Christ the Offering The light within Offeringâ— up of Christ The light within disobeyed or contesting with the lusts yea or the right reason of men Officers of the Church Invisible Officers and Overseers who do all their work in Spirit Gods Off-spring A part and measure of the very being of God continuing to be in a degree as good and divine as God himself The Souls and Spirits at least of the Quakers which they say came out of God The Old man All that is disobedient or not conformable to their light within One-ness with God Christ Spirit Not relative nor by love or faith or Mystical Membership but such an oneness as leaves no room for distinction between God Christ the Spirit and such whom they say are one with Christ Openings of Life Springings of Life Sudden workings to action or impressions on the mind and affections proceeding from within of their own accord and motion Overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of his Testimony All amounts but to an obedience to the light within which Smith saith was the Lamb of God whom John bid the Jews behold and the force of the light and life within which with them is the blood i. e. the life of the Lamb. P Put Christ to pain Resisting the motions of the light within The painted Whore Not only the Papals with their irreligious Pomp but all the good words thoughts and actions of any sort of men who derive them not from the immediate teachings and motions of the light within yea all forms of Worship according with the Precepts and Examples of the Scripture and they are with them the most painted who come nearest to the Scripture as a Rule The People of God They and none but they who profess the light within every man to be Christ the only Saviour and Teacher and give up themselves to its conduct as such Perfect Perfection Not that which is sincere or a perfection of parts or sanctification throughout in part but a being without sin in the least remains or stains of it Persecution Not only a penalty or hurt inflicted on their Bodies or Estates but also a speaking or writing against their Principles in the most purely rational and Scriptural Authority The seed in Prison and Captivity and Bondage The light within not obeyed as Christ and God Pictures and Images Not only those Images and Pictures that to the bodily eye represent Christ or God or the Saints and are adored with Religious Worship but all Worship Opinions Actions Words that are in imitation of the Examples and in obedience to the Precepts contained in the Scripture Men-pleasâ—rs They who comply with men though in things not only lawful but also to edification Pollutions of the world Not only things in themselves sinful as drunkenness swearing lying c. but also whatever Customs they dislike and decline as Cuffs Ribands putting off the Hat signs of respect c. which they say are from the Devil All recreations as Bowling Ringing though used seasonably and moderately The Power of God The Light within the Christ within Praying in Spirit Secretly or inwardly not with the voice by the immediate impulses of the light and power within without the exercise of so much as the conceptions of man Prayer Christ the light within is sometimes by them so called The presence of the Lord. The powerful influences and impressions of the light within either to terrour or peace and joy The pride of Man A not submitting to their light and especially receiving tokens of respect and wearing Ribands Cuffs and Lace The Priests A word of scorn put on all indifferently who are separated to the work of the Gospel-Ministry by men or that receive maintenance for their work The Worlds Professors All that are not Quakers Formal hypocritical Professors All that walk in the Ordinances of Christ commanded or prescribed in the Scripture or in the order of the Gospel Spirit of Prophecy Immediate impulses and inspirations False Prophets All that act not by immediate Revelation Prophecying falsly How true soever in it self if not from their spirit Publicans and Sinners All that are not Quakers Walking in the pure Walking after the dictates of the light within Purifying the heart by the Bloud of Christ Acting and being disposed according to inward motions by the light and life of the Christ within them Q Quenching the Spirit Resisting the motions of the Light within Quickned in the Life Stirred up by the power within R Raised to life Conversion to Quakerism Ravening brain Studying and following after Divine Knowledge or the knowledge