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
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
period after he had made a further blind Comment on the Text he glories in his shame with a Weigh this truth all ye Priests and P. 6. Professors and ponder it in your hearts No words big enough to express its madness Christianity made its way not only by the truth SECT II and purity of its Doctrine but also by such and so many signs and wonders wrought before multitudes as were convincing to its most malicious and prejudiced Adversaries and that not only by Christ himself but also by his Disciples and servants both before and after his death And all bare him witness and wondred at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth Luke 22. 4. but men may speak many good words and yet both say and do at other times bad enough but Christ appeals to the faces of his worst Adversaries If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil John 18. 23. But if forcible right words would not make way Christ exhorts them to believe for the very works sake and these were not ordinary works or wonders and miracles neither If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sin And as himself so his servants introduced Christianity with the same holy pomp and state of the Mighty and miraculous works of the Power of God bearing witness to the truth of their Doctrine Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord which gave Testimony unto the word of his grace and granted signes and wonders to be done by their hands Acts 1. 3. But Quakerism made its way by and began in blasphemies against the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom the Apostles preached by gratifying the pride idleness and giddiness of both Professors and prophane as will appear abundantly in the following discourse and by decrying the Scripture of the Old and New Testament as a dead Letter and altogether useless if not mischievous * Sword of the Lord drawn p. 5 Fox the younger Gen. epist P. 4 Your imagined God beyond the Stars a day of calamity will come upon them who have worshipped and do worship an unknown God at a distance and pretend the worship of the true God And if we will not believe the Quakers for their words sake which swell big enough with vanity folly nonsense and errour we are like to continue in the truth still for all them There have been some of them who have been sensible of this defect and have attempted to supply it to the cracking of their credit some to the loss of their lives George Fox hath found a plaister for this sore which I shall produce that you may give your judgement whether it smell more of the Fox or of the Goose FOX Which many prayed by the Spirit and spake by § 3 the Spirit did not shew miracles at the Tempters Command The great Mystery of the great Whore p. 3. though among Believers there be miracles in Spirit which be signes and wonders to the world as Isaiah saith When I read this I had much ado to keep my self from laughing but the weightiness of my thoughts on this imposture soon helped me to reduce it to a compassionate smile Indeed I think him crafty like the Fox not to venture his carcase in attempting any miracle but in spirit and yet more a Goose to call them signes and wonders to the world which the world never saw nor could have wondred at if George Fox and such as he had not blabbed of them But I must not let pass his fathering his absurdity on the Prophet Isaiah the words he intends must be in Isa 8. 18. Behold I and the Children whom the Lord hath given me are for signes and for wonders in Israel I find not the word Signes any where else in that Prophecy He hath a strange spirit of discerning that can find in that Scripture any thing of Miracles wrought in spirit for indeed they themselves were the wonders that is they were wondred at So may the Quakers well be but in a far worse sense or for a worse cause I may the lesse wonder at George's boldness with Isaiah seeing a great Rabby of the Quakers hath said that he is as good a Prophet as Isaiah Who would conceive that so blockish a person as this should be the Fore-man and Chief in account among such a number of such singularly discerning spirits as the Quakers but as among wise men the wisest are most highly esteemed so among others the veriest Christianity entred into the world with ravishing SECT III Songs and Hatlelujahs of the Angels and heavenly Host the Songs and Thanksgivings of Mary Elizabeth Zechariah Simeon and others with the healing of all sorts of diseases casting out devils out of the possessed preaching the glad tidings of the Gospel of Peace and what might express the Sun of righteousness to be risen on the World with healing in his wings I need not find you out the places of Scripture which speak these things But Quakerism entred the world as if Hell were § 2 broke loose and possessions by Satan were to make way and fit souls for the Quakers spirit Instead of that serious compunction that seized gross and black sinners upon their conviction and the consolation that was let into their souls by the joyful sound of remission and salvation throuâ—h a crucified Jesus O the Hell-dark expressions of the Quakers Preachers the frightful and amazeing words both for matter and manner where with they first attempted poor silly men and women whom they frighted almost out of their wits with their dismal noise whose eccho remained in their ears when their words were forgotten What bitter Curses and Execrations did they pour forth against all that made any opposition though most mildly and rationally against their unheard of innovation What disturbing of Congregations and reviling the most serious and faithful Pastors while those whose faults they have made use of to bespatter the guiltless might remain quiet enough as not so dangerous and adverse to Satans interest and Kingdome How generally were their Meetings either silent or taken up with the sudden and violent irruptions of dismal howling and horrible roarings Persons suddenly taken as with the falling-sickness shaking and foaming at the Mouth and some lying flat on the ground as stark dead Some such things as these I have seen and heard and what there are undeniable Testimonies of are so numerous and notorious that though they have now almost if not altogether left the latter sort of them they dare not deny that it was so And if they dare to challenge this with untruth I may requite them with a good Part of a Volume of them to keep alive their remembrance I now proceed to my second consideration of the beginning of Quakerism with respect to time What I have already said in the opening the SECT IV term Christianity will save me much of the labour of proving in this
their room and stead But let us hear another Witness and he none of the § 9 Isaac Penington concerning Unity p 1. meanest Yea my heart did truly unite with and enjoy the Lord in what was then about the beginning of the late troubles given forth and I can never be drawn to deny the truth and worth of that dispensation though I know it was swallowed up by a greater desolation soon following after and since by the breaking forth of a more lively dispensation And a little after p. 2. and remained fixing their mind on that former dispensation which the Lord had departed from It is hereby as plain and clear as the Sun shining § 10 at noon-day that Quakerism is a late dispensation taking its date since the beginning of the late troubles But to put all out of doubt in page 3. he saith Is not this Quakerism the lowest of all dispensations Is not this common to all mankind doth not this fall short in it self as I may say and as it hath formerly been dispensed by young Countrey-Lads of no deep understanding or ready expression but very fit to be despised every where by the Wisdom of Man of the dispensation of the Law of Moses to the Jews much more of the dispensation by Christ and his Apostles who would have looked for the Lord here And yet this hath the Lord chosen to gather his people by and to appear to the World in and hath gathered the life vertue and substance of all former dispensations into it c. So that this new despensation hath swallowed up all others yea that of Christ and his Apostles and if so it is not the dispensation of Christ and his Apostles but another accounted by the Quakers more excellent and compleat and therefore is not Christianity any more then Christianity is Judaism by their own account To shut up the proof of this as owned by themselves according to the most plain Construction of their own words or consequence not to be disowned by a rational man I will give you James Naylor's doctrine But yours Commands in the Letter and Love to the Lost p. 16. so of another Administration for the literal Ministration is done away in the spiritual Well then if Christianity began in a manner so vastly differing from and a time so long before Quakerism which is not that but another Administration Quakerism is no Christianity but the former hath been proved to be true therefore the latter CHAP. III. The Quakers deny the Scriptures SECT I THAT the Quakers pretend to own the Scriptures I do not deny but I shall prove it to be one of the most naked and self-contradicted pretences that ever peep'd out into the World with such a noise and confidence If meer pretences were of sufficient Authority 'T is Satans Master-Piece to betray with a kiss to command our faith that portion of Scripture might be well spared 1. Thes 5. 21. Prove all things c. If they should deny the Scriptures in so many words they cannot but know it would nip their designs in the bud and in stead of promoting their principles render themselves odious but Satan is not so silly an Impostor as to spoil his Market by appearing so unseasonably and at first dash in so deformed a shape he is not ignorant of that Text Surely in vain is the Not spread in the sight of any Bird. I shall therefore wave pretences on both sides and bring my charge to a fair triall wherein their own Testimonies shall be their principal Judges I desire them not to accuse me of wounding their reputation seeing the stabs are given with their own daggers and the Murther is no better nor worse then felo de se as the Law phrases it but in plain English Self-Murther this I shall prove by sufficient Argument The Quakers deny the Scriptures of the Old and Arg. 1 § 2 New Testament to be the Word of God This Charge none of them that ever I read heard or heard of will deny and if you please to cast your eye on the instances you may take it on their own words Blasphemy for any to say To all that would know p. 4. Naylors answer to the Jews p. 25 Cuffs Ribands Lace and such other like things invented by the devil F. Howgill one of Antichrists c. p. 2. the Letter is the Word of God It is the Devil that contends for the Scriptures to be the Word of God This errour is by some reputed meerly verbal and that in other words they allow the Scripture as much as this comes to I would it were true of this and all the rest of their errours which they trumpet out in the Scripture titles and dialect upon that condition I would be really content to Yea and Nay it and Thee and Thou it and moreover forbid Ribands Lace and Cuffs though the most modest that were ever worn to pollute my Garments and offend their unnecessary self-denial from that time forward But they have another opinion of it or they would not call it blasphemy to be otherwise minded and we shall finde it ere I have done to be their forelorn Hope by which they attempt to make a breach on the Authority and esteem the Scripture hath justly obtained in the hearts of all serious Christians and thereby with more ease and security to enter the whole Army and gross of their delusions and therefore I shall encounter it first and in good earnest It will be necessary before I proceed to let you § 2 know what we intend by the phrase that the Scriptures are the Word of God that you may know what we hold and contend for though they know not what they contend against except the vain fictions of their own begetting Know therefore that we do not assert them to be the Son of God the Christ and Saviour nor the Spirit of God neither do we say that they are so self-sufficient and all-powerful as to sanctifie and enlighten savingly without the coagency efficiency or assistance of the good Spirit of the Lord to open our understandings and write them in our hearts These things are too high for them On the other hand we dare not call them a dead letter who have felt them sharper then any two-edged § 3 sword and tasted them sweeter then then the honey or the honey-comb nor yet Ink and Paper-Divinity or meerly the words and works of men These are too low an opinion of them But positively First we intend the sense and matter by them expressed § 4 containing those Histories Prophesies Promises Threatnings Doctrines Exhortations c. which God at sundry times and in divers manners revealed to and pake by his Son and servants inspired by God or by inspiration of God Secondly the sense and matter aforesaid being § 5 written or printed we call the Word of God so far as the print or writing agrees in its kind with the Original Copies which were
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.
ver 22. Who is a lier but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son That you who are called Quakers deny Jesus to be the Christ I prove at large in a Chapter by its self that you deny the Father and the Son is no less true of you who will admit no distinction between the Father and the Son so that the Father is with you as much the Son of the Father as the Son is the Son of the Father and the Son is as much the Father with you of the Son as the Father is the Father of the Son that by distroying these distinctions you destroy the relation of Father and Son in the Godhead which the Scripture speaks of so plainly and it is hereby apparent that your quarrel is not so much with the word Trinity as with the thing thereby expressed The next black mark of Antichrist which is upon you is that in 2 Thes 2. 4. who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God Do not you advance your light within above the Man Christ Jesus whom we worship as God and who is so called in the Scriptures even that Man whose being is above the visible Heavens Do not you call your light within you God eternal Omnipotent c. Yea you say it is the light in the Conscience which is the Temple of God and there it doth as if it were God rule govern judge execute in contempt of the written and true Laws of the divine being I beseech you consider these things and lay them to your hearts CHAP. V. The Quakers deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Life or a Judge and Determiner of Religious Controversies THat this is to deny the Scripture is obvious and SECT I plain to all who have not the beam in their eyes I have before proved them to deny its proper and most frequent appellation but if that be not sufficient to prove they deny the Scripture methinks denying their main use and imployment should render them guilty of the full measure of that iniquity To little purpose will it be to call them the Scripture the Holy Scripture c. if after all a conformity to their guidance and conduct will render our belief and practice never the less prophane I shall not further perswade my Reader that to deny the Scripture to be a Rule of Faith and Life c. is to deny the Scripture for if this suffice not I know nothing will carry the Question unless the Scripture should be brought in begging some boon at the Quakers hands and they proved so hard-hearted as not to grant it If this were necessary I should not fail in the proof notwithstanding For the proof of the Charge I shall first call forth § 2 James Parnel an early and forward Quaker and Parnels Shield of the Truth p. 10. much esteemed for his works sake And he also that saith the Letter is the rule and guide of the people of God is without feeding upon the husk and is ignorant of the true Light which was before the Letter was By this mans Verdict the Scripture is cast and condemned for husks a false light or but a shadow and its Observers charged with ignorance of Christ the true light for so doing But it were well if they could come off so Behold in the next Accusation a Charge of no less then the highest robbery and sacriledge And if thou lookest upon the Scripture to be for a rule Smiths Prim. p. 10. and for trying thou givest that unto them which belongs unto Christ for he is the rule and leads his people and he alone searches the hearts and trys the reins and not the Scripture But if you will see a mouth full of blasphemy against the authority of the Scripture read with horrour and amazement the following words God is at Naylors Light of Christ c. p. 19. liberty to speak to his people by them the Scripture if he please and where they are given by inspiration he dâ—th so but the sting is behind in the tail of this non-such sentence and so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass Then such a thing as Balaams Ass may call up our expectations of Gods teachings guidance and rebukes as well as the Scriptures for God is at liberty to teach us by an Ass and he hath put no more authority into the Scripture unless he shall please to hand them to us by renewed and immediate inspiration But I shall not rake into this Dunghill further which of its self gives forth so offensive a savour I intended to have given you upon this Head the § 3 assertions of some of the Romish Writers who trample on the neck of the Scripture with the same foot only the difference betwixt them and the Quakers lies in the aim and design the Jesuits spurn at them to advance the dictates of the Pope and the Romish pretended Church above the Scriptures but the Quakers to advance the conceit within above them all Yet I care not if I give you one instance at large Omnis Judex praesertim supremus generalis ita debet dicere sententiam ut altera pars litigantium evidenter sciat se vicisse altera pars evidenter sciat se causam amisisse quantum est ex parte hujus judicis At hoc neque Scriptura Sacra neque Spiritus Sanctus loquens per Scripturam potest facere Ergo neque Sacra Scriptura nec Spiritus Sanctus Argumentum Jacobi Beccani item Gretseri Jesuitae in Col loquio Ratisbon loquens per Scripturam est talis judex Et minorem illustrabat his totidem verbis Stamus ego Collegae Domini adversarii in conspectu hujus judicis Bibliorum en contendimus an sit judex Controversiarum Jam ille judex debet pronunciare sententiam ut nobis constet evidenter Sumus hîc in conspectu Sacrae Scripturae Spiritus Sancti pronunciet sententiam sic dicat tu Jacobe Gretsere male sentis cecidisti causa tua Tu Jacobe Hailbrunnere vicisti Tunc ego statim transibo ad vestrum scamnum Et paulo post Adsit jam Spiritus Sanctus jam judicet jam me condemnet In English thus Every Judge especially who is supreme and general ought so to give sentence that the one part of the contenders may plainly know they have overcome and the other that they have lost their cause so far as it is in the Judge But this neither the holy Scriptures nor the holy Spirit by the Scripture can do Therefore neither the holy Scripture nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture is such a Judge The minor he illustrates in these very words I and my Collegues and the Lords Adversaries stand before
lusts of men and this pure sensation of stirrings and motions becomes better by far the stark blind than those who have eyes in their heads We grope for the wall like the blind and we grope Isa 59. 10. as if we had no eyes we stumble at noon-day as in the night One of the severest curses for disobedience threatned against Israel was and thou shalt grope at Deu. 28. 29. noon-day as the blind gropeth in darkness and thou shalt not prosper in thy wayes And what is this principle of the Quakers but to turn us again into the darkness and Chaos of Gentilism instead of beholding as in a Glass with open face the glory of the Lord to be feeling after him by the corrupt and half senseless touches of a natural conscience acting on the narrow and uncertain indications of Creation and providence which though they may teach something concerning God and our original duty to him will be as far from acquainting us with Gospel truths or such as concern Christ and our redemption by him as a stone or tree is from discerning and expressing the secret and bosom counsels of God or man I would not yet have you think that we deny § 7 or disown a sensation and feeling of the holy and blessed mind of God for we look on nothing of greater moment than to have a heart and conscience delivered from searedness and being past feeling But our feeling and sense of the truths of God is by the Faith of them revealed to us in and by his Word into which we desire absolutely to resolve our belief and which is the objective rule to the understanding by the senses CHAP. VI. The Quakers take men off from reading the Scripture and looking into them for instruction and comfort IT is no matter of wonder at all that they who are SECT I so far entred in the denial and contempt of the Scripture should advance this step further it being but the natural off-spring of what I have already proved to be their Tenets And whatever else is the round of their writings and declarings all centres in putting people upon looking to the light within as the only Counsellor and Comforter And this is the Smith Ca◠p. 95. meaning of our Doctrine to bring people to the everlasting Word of God in themselves Whereby they steal away their esteem and use of the Scriptures insensibly and they are shut up and lost in another Book viz. The light within before they are aware whereas if they should in so many words forbid them to read the Scriptures it would make their hearts recoil Alas that men are such Children who suspect not a design to rob them of their Gold when a Counter a trifle is commended to them and imposed upon them that they may not think of or mind that which is a Treasure By this means the Scriptures are forgotten 'till the love and esteem of them be lost by doting on the new and gay fancy of a divine and perfect light within But to the proof further But turn your ears inward to the measure of light in § 2 Morning Watch Epist you which is without guile So to that of God in thee I will direct thee Their Pamphlets are stuffed so full with expressions of this nature that I should but shew you their great road in citing their words neither will any of them deny what they are brought to prove But if they intended the judgment and conscience enlightned and that this ought to be minded in its place we should not condemn for such directions but when it is made a God of and by consequence an Idol and those beams of Divine light shining in the Scripture excluded as if they had the body of the Sun within themselves it is the highest instance of folly and proof of taking men off from reading the Scriptures for instruction and comfort Yet take their minds in express words And by the § 3 Parnel ' s Shield of she truth p. 10. same light do we discern and testifie against him to be in darkness and blindness and is a deceiver who putteth the letter for the light and so draw peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them seeking the living among the dead You may here discern the confidence they have in their light within that they dare oppose it to the Scripture yea and take its false witness which it bears against the Scripture and with what a black coal he marks those who put the letter i. e. the Scriptures for the light and this he construes to be a drawing peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them so that by his own way of reasoning I have authority to say that putting the light within them for the Scripture the light without them they draw peoples minds from the Scripture But the close of this sentence is no less than a murtherer of the holy Scripture seeking the living among the dead yea a strangling the Scripture with one of its own silver Cords Why seek ye the living among the dead as if the Scripture Luke 24. 5. were a very Grave and Charnel-house from which the living Jesus is for ever departed or which is more congruous to their sense they are no more able to minister instruction and comfort than a dead Carcase rotting in the Grave Hear one more of their Trumpets sounding to the § 4 John Story short discovery c. p. 2. same purpose And although 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 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 The Scriptures are as lights but they will not right them so far as to call the Scripture a light and the commendations of that Idol the light within are such as if they were true he were a stark fool who would direct his eyes to the Scripture having such an excelling light in his own bosom But lest after all these allurings they should not be understood and people should be so silly as to attempt to light their Candle at the Scripture Taper they will tell you in plain English the vanity of such an undertaking For he Smith Prim. p. 12. Christ the light within alone searches the hearts and not the Scripture So that to draw people from attending to the Scripture they do not only commend the light within being silent concerning the Scripture in the mean while but tell you in plain words the Scriptures are in this matter of no service at all as Parnel before cited he is the light and guide c. the Scriptures are not They assert the light within to be sufficient yea all-sufficient SECT II This where it takes hold of the credulity will draw as hard from attending
to the Scripture as the stoutest Team in England Alas it must then if this be true be but a piece of wantonness and the itching disease to read the Scriptures to which we must take a few steps though they lye open in the next room while we have enough in our own bosomes yea which we can be no farther from than from our selves to the use of which we may pass as quick as thought 't is but look inward not outward nor upward turn the ear inward and the turn is served But that this Argument may be heard John Story and some other such Chapmen vouch for its truth The light which is sufficient to guide Before cited And if thou waitest in the measure of Smiths Prim. p. 10. the light of Christ within thou wilt be able to try all things Quest But if I should turn to it and obey it when § 2 it reproves me for sin is there power in it to save me Smiths Prim. p. 14. from sin c. Answ Yes Child all power in Heaven and Earth is in it Reader canst thou withstand the astonishment wherewith a tender conscience of the true God is wont to be surprized by such an open mouth of blasphemy if thou canst I must conclude thou art acquainted with this sort of people and so custom hath made it no surprize or thou art above half dead and benummed with the Opium of Quakerism Yet this is as agreeable to their main principle as the same thing is to its self I wonder we hear it not more frequently from § 3 them that all power in Heaven and Earth is in every one of them yea in each of them yea in each drunken Sot and the silliest prophane person This is as certainly their Tenet as that God Christ Spirit are within them and all other persons in the sense they hold But if they should say that openly which they believe and speak among themselves they would be the most ridiculous to say no worse people that breath above ground Thirdly They affirm the Scriptures to be within SECT III If so it is a great vanity to read them out of a Book When I am perswaded to be herein of their mind I assure them so long as that shall last I will not be at the fruitless pains of looking into a Bible as my Monitor Fisher the best Scholar that ever professed Velataquâ—dam revelata p. 4. Quakerism asserted this Ye have Moses and the Prophets within you Not in Latine I dare be confident neither had his Book mentioned in the margin been so besprinkled with that Language of the Beast for all his Inspirations if it had not been first knockt and whipt into him it may be by some wicked tyrannical Pedagogue Yet here by the way observe that such a wicked § 2 thing may furnish with the gift of Tongues while the Quakers divine Spirit must be confined to speak in plain English or be dumb Another of the same mind is Parnel of whom I must give this commendation that he speaks his opinions openly and not in parables as the most of them who are afraid or ashamed that their opinions should behold the light any further than the interest they have obtained may secure their Authors but of all men Hypocrites are Parnel ' s Shield of the truth p. 11. the most odious and dangerous For the Scripture is within and was read within before it was read without I would not wrong the Quakers as bad as they are § 3 and it is pity they should be wronged who wrong themselves more than enough If they mean by the Scriptures the sense by them expressed I wish they said true and if within be in the heart i. e. not only known and readily produced out of the heart as a good man brings forth from thence good things but also esteemed loved with understanding I am sure they would be no Quakers It is a blessed thing to have this Word hid in the heart as David practised and as God commands but if by the Scripture they mean the dead Letter Ink and Paper as they call them when they list they would be but a bad and troublesom Inmate I do acknowledge with all my soul that to have § 4 the Scriptures within in the sense of them yea and the words too is an inestimable blessing such a one as young Timothy and eloquent Apollos were crowned with and few of the Saints there are who have not the Scripture within in some good measure but alas memory is so weak and frail it will not hold all and so confused ever and anon that it is necessary to go to the Scripture without not only to get in more but also to repair decayed and broken notions of them and to be sure that our crazy imaginations by brooding upon the frame of them within have not hatched something of its own and adopted it Scripture which the Quakers are not a little guilty in But while I am commending the first part of their § 5 Tenet viz. that the Scripture is within supposing it taken in as good a sense as it may be I must not forget the latter part which hath the dregs and poison viz. and was read within before it was read without If by reading it within before without they intended it only of the Penmen of the Scriptures I would join with them and say so too but they intend nothing less but that in the light which every man hath within him there is the Scripture all and every part at least that may be of use if it had never been without I would willingly be resolved of a few things by those that are of this mind Wherefore did the gracious God expose the Prophets and Apostles to so many difficulties dangers and deaths for declaring the matters contained in the Scriptures if they were read and might be read by all men within Why did God with his own finger write the Ten words or Commands and cause other of his Servants to write both them and the other parts of the Scripture Why doth he command to read the Scriptures and by reading and studying them to get them into the heart memory understanding And it shall be with Deut. 17. 19. him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them It was not to be with him as you commonly phrase it in him their is no such it in the Text but the Relative it hath for its Antecedent in the Verse next before he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites it shall be with him c. Why did Christ himself read out of the Book if it were within them Why did not God chide Josiah for not doing according to the Law as being guilty of wilful neglect
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
of Israel did burn Incense to it and he called it Nehushtan that is Brass nothing of a Deity in it but a little piece of Brass So it were fit the Scriptures should be demoâ—ished as having nothing of divine authority stamped upon them When I have established this Charge by the mouths of two or three Witnesses it will be time to leave off pouring in more where the measure is already running over § 2 W. D. discoveâ—y of mans return p. 21. All people may search the Scriptures and see how yâ—u have been deceived by your Teachers who havâ— caused you to seek your lost God in carnal and deaâ— observaâ—ions which they have not any Scripture forâ— Who this lost God should be except Jesus Christ who is ascended above the visible Heavens is not to be imagined by those who are acquainted with the Quakers Tenets and Phrases as will appear more plainly where I treat on their Idolatry And if so as there is reason to believe there are two grand parts of Idolatry we are charged with in complying with the Scripture Precepts and Institutions as in Preaching Prayer Church-order Baptism Lords-supper The first is a false object of worship which all § 3 of them that ever I met with in print or otherwise will not deny that to be which is given to the man Christ Jesus who was crucified between two Thieves at Jerusalem The second is false worship for the matter which is Idolatry although it were intended to the true God as the object the sacrificing of Children was intended ultimately to the true God yet it was gross Idolatry And they have huilt the high places of Tophet which is in the Valley of the son of Hinnom Jer. 31. to burn their Sons and Daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart But you will say how is this charge for walking § 4 according to Scripture instructions and examples seeing he doth seem to advise to trying by the Scriptures whether they do not thus I answer that they take not any thing in the Scripture to be obliging but what comes by immediate inspiration as the Scriptures were given to the Prophets and Apostles and whatever we do however consonant to the precepts there expressed is all contrary to the Scriptures with them as I have proved already if not by immediate inspiration and motion of the Spirit If this be not clear we shall pump clear by and by And this is Babylon the mother of Harlots viz. § 5 Morning watch p 23. to read and practice as the Saints did and the Apostles in the Scripture of the New Testament and the abomination of all uncleanness That many Children have been brought forth of flesh and blood and of the will of man that is our choice and not passive obedience to the motions of the thing with in which is the birth that persecutes the Son and heir And not one of them must stand though ever so seemingly glorious fâ—r the day is come and the true birth is born the light within whose right it is to reign and his glory he will not give to another nor his praise to Graven Images If erecting and worshipping God by graven Images be Idolatry than the Quakers do charge us with Idolatry for walking according to Scripture instructions and examples He who will take the pains to read this inspired Author though by an evil spirit pag. 18 19 20 21 22 23. will find it his scope to prove all Idolaers that ground their worship and order on the Scripture examples and in page 17. he likens all professions among Christians this day to Nebuchadnezzar's Image and though some are more shining and glorious in appearance as the head of Gold was beyond his legs of Iron yet he calls all part of the Image and the Scriptures the Feet of Clay they had their standing on And in pag. 16. hath these words Then searches the Scripture for words to prove their Image a lawful Son and this is the bottâ—m and foundation of all Religions this day I am e'en tired with searching these sulphureous § 6 Veins of the Pit and Mine of Quakerism the root of all which is the deified light within If you have not enough of this smoak to satisfie you it is the bottomless Pit it rises out of I will give you two ebullations more and and leave you satisfied or to get better senses So amongst the words you find how the Saints in Morning watch p. 45. some things walked and what they practised and then yâ—u strive to make that thing to your selves and to observe it and do it as near as you can and here you are found transgressours of the just Law of God who saith thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Exod. 20. 4. Image nor the likeness of any thing And it follows now what difference is there in the ground betwixt you and the Pope though in the appearance there seem to be such a greate space The Quakers having thus stript the holy Scrip SECT II tures of their divine beauty and authority both name and thing plucked out their very heart and strength let us resume the particular Arguments produced to prove that they deny the Scriptures and look on them at one view so shâ—ll we better discern their united testimonies and strength They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Equal their own writings and saying with the Scriptures and prefer them before the Scriptures Deny the Scriptures to be a rule of faith and life or a Judge and determiner in religious controversies Take men off from reading the Scriptuses and looking into them for instruction and comfort Deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to knâ—w God Christ or our selves Affirm the Scriptures tâ— be no means whereby to resiâ—t temptation and that they are dangerous to be read Deny the Scriptures to be read to any profit any farther then they are beforehand experienced by them that read them Put or render the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other Affirm the doctrines commands promises holy examples expressed in the Scriptures as such to be not at all binding to us Hold it is a sin 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 immediate revelation as the Apostles They who do all these things mentioned in the foregoing particulars deny the Scriptures But the Quakers do all these things mentioned in the foregoing particulars therefore the Quakers deny the Scriptures If any one or all these arguments together will prove what they are brought to confirm it is proved if it be not I shall for ever dispair to prove any thing For as much as the holy Scriptures being our § 3 compass on earth and our evidence for Heaven are mostly struck at by the Prince of
Darkness and grand enemies of Souls especially the two great Antichrists the Roman Bishop and Church and the new Upstarts who hold the light within every man to be the Saviour Light Righteousness all who do not only as other erroneous or heretical persons a little eclipse or pervert the light of the Scriptures but attempt to pull it down out of the Firmament or render it a dark and useless body but as it receives Light from their Idol the one party to set up the Pope at Rome as absolute in matters of Religion The other to set up the Pope within as absolute and more than he in the little world of every individual man I shall within these following parallel lines give you a view though but in part how both these adversaries do openly spit their venom and discharge their shot against the holy Scriptures And considering how they in most things jump together in the contempt of and detracting from the Scriptures you may conclude that although the Jesuite was not the first contriver of the Quakers grand notion of the Light within to be Christ which I am verily perswaded of to be true yet that he was a promoter of the building erected on that foundation we may easily guess by his mark on so many parcels of it yet I must say that the Romanists were much more sound in their opinions of the Scriptures until about Luther's time wherein the Protestants were too hard for them at those weapons I give you the mind of the Spirit of God expressed in the middle collumn the Quakers Tenets on the left and the Jesuites and Papists on the right hand The Quakers Opinions and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scriptures are not the rule of Faith and life Parnel Shield of the Truth The Spirit of God speaking by the Scriptures Thou shalt not turn aside to the right hand or to the left viz. Gods Statutes and Judgments Deut. 5. 23 32. The Jesuists and Papists Tenets and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scripture is not the rule of Faith Greg. de Valentia Jesuita libro quarto analyseos Carranza in prima controver The Scriptures are not the judge and determiner of Controversies in religious matters Smith Prim. He mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Acts 18. 28. He had put the Sadduces to silence Mat. 22. 3. viz. by Scripture Neither the holy Scripture nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture is the supream and general judge of matters of Faith Beccanus item Gretserus Jesuitae in Colloquia Ratisbon It is impossible for the Scripture to be judge of doubts concerning Faith and the Christian Religion Lorichius Jesuita in fortalitio Matthew Mark Luke and John The beginning of the Gospel of Christ The Gospel is not Scripture it was commanded is not the Gospel Paper sent into the World pag 2. the Son of God Mark 1. 1. to be preached but not to be written Carranza Jesuita in colloquio The light within every man is the rule and guid and not the Scriptures and this light is infallible and will teach you all things Smith Catechis If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6. 23. Vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild Asses Colt Job 11. 12. The Tradition of the Church i. e. Roman is the first chief certain and infallible rule from which any thing may be known to be true and certain to be held in matters of faith and Christian Religion Carranza Jesuita in prima controversia The Tradition of the Church is the very rule of Faith and Piety Pighius The Spirit was before the Scripture therefore we must be led by the Spirit not by the Scripture the Spirit with the Quaker is the light within Smith Prim. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness 2. Tim. 3. 16. We say that the Church is a rule before the Scripture and more known than the Scripture Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scriptures are the Traditions of men Naylor's love to the lost Holy men of God spake the Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. Traditions of the Church to be preferred before the Scriptures Frequent among the Papists Light without must be guided by light within John Story short discovery Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 29. I have hid the wâ—rd in my heart that I might not sin against thee Psal 119. 11. The Scripture is to be ruled by the Church and not the Church by the Scriptures Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scripture is a dead Letter carnal Letter Ink and Paper Parnel Shield of the Truth The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life Joh. 6. 63. For the Word of God is quick and powerful Heb. 4. 12. The Scripture hath no voice it cannot pass judgment viva voce Beccanus Gretserus in Colloquio Ratisbon The Scriptures are but dumb Judges Pighius controversia tertia The Scriptures may be burnt Frequent The Scriptures cannot be broken John 10. 35. Write this for a Memorial in a Book c. Exod. 17. 14. All the Scriptures in the common and native Tongues are to be burnt by a Law The light within was the rule from the beginning and not the Scriptures Smith Prim. The Scriptures were a rule so soon as they had a beginning The Fathers of the Church were expert in the Traditions of the Church from the beginning as being more effectual than the Scriptures Pighius Jesuita in Colloquio Dry cavelling Letter-mongers Scraping in the Scriptures Will. Pen Spirit of Truth c. Fisher veluta quaedam c. An eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18 24. And Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath days râ—asoned â—ith them out of the Scriptures Acts 17. 2. These Lutherans and Hâ—gonots are all for the Letter Frequent He that prefers the Scriptures before the light within is blind in darkness Parnel Shield of the Truth To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because they have no light in them Isa 8. 20. He that shall say the Scripture is to be believed rather than the Church is to be condemned as a Heathen and a Publican and a Sâ—ranger to Gods people Noguera libra secâ—ndo de Ecclesia They are Idolaters that act by Whatever things were written were They are Hereticks and to be condemned who Scripture examples not having their rule by inspiration immediate from God Naylor's love to the lost Morning watch written for our examples Be ye followers of us and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example take the Scripture for their rule without the authority of the Church The Scriptures do not
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
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
and of that enough to prove me so There is a passage of Willam Pen's either in his Book called Sandy foundation c. or else The Spirit of Truth c. which is this at least the matter of it That Christ is most eminently the Word all will agree or none will deny I have not time to look it But I shall say thus much to antidote that fancy That that is most eminently the Word of that species about which we contend which is most properly so though other considerations may render Christ the Word more eminent in another kind and not that which is sometimes but improperly so called Christ is called a Lion a Door 'T is true Christ as God is more eminent than all things beside in Heaven and Earth and we use to say and do not yet repent it that all uncompounded good things are eminently in God So as there is strength and courage in a Lion with respect to strength and courage Christ may be said to be eminently most eminently strong and couragious but to be the most eminently a Lion would be a strange and untrue expression of Christ For Forma dat esse and he that is without the form that gives the being cannot be so eminently such as the meanest that hath the true form And that the Word Christ is only so analogically I have shewed and the definition of a Word in the second Chapter I desire Mr. Pen to consider better next time and not think every body else not a hairs breadth beyond his size A third Scripture I am willing to explain to fence SECT VI the weak against the Quakers seductions is 2 Pet. 1. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts This more sure word of prophecy compared with a voice from Heaven which Peter James and John heard expressed in Verse 17. is by Peter affirmed to be rather to be credited than that or any other immediate Revelation By the more sure word of prophecy is meant those prophecies written in the Old Testament which are called verse 20. Prophecy of Scripture and are called The light that shineth in a dark place as Prophecies shine but with a dim light yet are welcom and give some light comparatively with Providences which are the fulfilling of those Prophecies The dawning of the day and the day-star arising in their hearts cannot be meant of Christ known and received by faith to salvation and sanctification too in some measure for so he was risen in their hearts when the Apostle wrote this or else he would not have said them to have obtained like precious faith with him and others the Apostles and Saints which he doth in verse 1. as the direction of his Epistle I therefore conclude that the sense is this He exhorts § 2 them to be intent on the Propheciâ—s whether verbal or figurative which had respect to not only the coming of the Messiah which they believed already but also the abolishing of the Mosaical Rites and constituting in their room the spiritual and Gospel-administration till thereby they were convinced of that truth which is called the dawning of the day and the day-star with respect to its light and beauty and reality above the Mosaical Ceremonies and Rites which were but dim night-stars in comparison or till they were convinced that the day of the Gospel-realities was come and so the night-shadows of the Law to be done away .. The grounds I have for this Exposition are these § 3 added to the former Peter the Pâ—n-man of this Epistle is said to be the Apostle to the Circumcision as the Gospel of Circumcision was to Peter And Gal. 2. 7. therefore we may gather that those to whom he wrote were Jews whom the Scripture speaks to be zealously addicted to the Law of Moses And this is farther confirmed by his direction of them to the heeding of the Scripture-Prophecies which few but the Jews were acquainted with or did own as worth the heeding except the converted Gentiles of whom there was no danger that they should Judaize unless moved thereunto by such of the Jews as needed this conviction This to me is sufficient I leave the grounds for others to consider One Text more I shall weigh and then I judge I § 4 have done enough to satisfie those that are willing how the Quakers abuse those Texts which are not so easily understood as some others to their own and others destruction To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among Col. 1. 27. opened the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory From hence they conclude they have very Christ his Being and Essence within them It will not be easily refuted that the hope of glory is to be understood to be in them which being a hope in Christ the crucified Jesus was such a mystery as the Gentiles called foolishness But we preach Christ 1 Cor. 1. 2. crucified to the Jâ—ws a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness For Christ to be in them rightly understood would be no such hard matter for the Gentiles to believe who understood Metonymical phrases very well as to believe such a glory to be attained by faith in and obedience to the Laws of a man who died as a Malefactor and that this death of his should reconcile God to man with the addition of such a purchase But because it is a truth that Christ is in Believers I shall therefore say that which with the blessing of the Lord to a willing mind to be instructed will prove convincing First The man Christ that was nail'd to the § 5 Cross the Quakers do not believe to be in them nor that he hath a being or life nor can he be in them in his person as a man if they had a sounder faith For the God-head of Christ that is with respect to his Being and Essence is every where and every where alike Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Jer. 23. 24. Lord So that with respect to the infinite Being of God who comprehends all things he is in every thing at all times and nothing can be void of his presence So that if this be it you mean the Saints have no more priviledge than any other creature whatsoever But it remains that Christ is in his people by his graces wrought by his Spirit which is his Image and Likeness by his love which hath a uniting nature to its object as we say such are one who love dearly Every man is where he loves more than where he lives And so also where he is beloved for that will make him frequently thought on and a man to be sensible of his good or hurts as if he himself enjoyed the one or suffered the other And he is said to
in jeopardy every hour 1 Cor. 15. 29. 30. Thirdly it utterly subverts and makes Shipwrack § 3 of the faith of the Gospel that looking at a prize and reward on the other side the Grave But if there be no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith also in vain 1 Cor 15 13 14. For if the dead rise not then is not Christ raised and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins 1 Cor. 15 16 17. So that there is a Chain of the most woful consequences that this wicked error draws after it Fourthly Then the Gospel is a meer fallacy and § 4 delusion which promises a reward to men whose persons are constituted of a body as well as a soul Many more might be inferred of so grand an import as would render this Doctrine the most pernicious that was ever hatched among pretended Christians CHAP. XIX The Quakers profess not the Doctrine of a future reward in another World I Have been a diligent Enquirer to find some expressions SECT 1 in their Writings or Verbal Converse that might satisfie me they owned a future happiness or misery after this life but all to no purpose in this point they make no noise at all I have searched those Writings of theirs especially which have pretended an account of their Principles in all or most points of Religion but though this of a future state of reward or punishment be the vitals and end of all Religion yet they do not so much as touch upon it From whence I must conclude it is blotted out of their Creed 'T is said of the Gospel which is the Christian Dispensation that it brings life and immortality to light what was in the Scriptures of the old Testament more seldom and obscurely expressed is the very scope of the Gospel or New Testament the peculiar of Christianity But then certainly Quakerism is no Christianity that is so silent in this matter I know they talk of immortality and eternal life but what is immortality with them Fox saith man is immortal before death in his Great Mystery and their Salvation is no more but what they have within them and is accomplished in this world Farnsworth saith speaking of the righteousness of Christ neither was I saved by it So that his Salvation was not future but present or past And Pennington in some Principles of the Elect c. saith and so they who forget God and do wickedly they are to be turned into Hell But what Hell is this no more than what they say is in this life For they who forget God and do wickedly they go from the life and power of God into the separation from him and out of his acceptance For in the life is the acceptance What is here more than is suffered in this life which we call paena damni or the punishment of loss A Book intituled The Spirit of the Quakers c. § 1 charges the Quakers for having their hearts much set on a Heaven within them but not on the things above to which Pen replies and vindicates after his fashion the Kingdom of God within but saith not a word to assert their belief of and affections to the Heaven above from whence it is plain that they believe no such thing to have a being I wonder not therefore that this is so frâ—quently their saying That if we are not perfect here we shall never be perfect It is easily deduceable from their more openly professed § 2 principles that they deny and disown a blessedness or misery in another world For if they deny the body to have life any more after it is dead and turned to dust and that the Soul and Spirit are of the being of God and that as the body returns to its former dust from whence it came and never revives again so the Soul and Spirit returns into God its first being all which I have already proved what then remains to be the subject of happiness or misery E'ne nothing at all except God and he is not man E. Burroughs the day he died expressed himself thus that he was now putting off this manner of person and returning to his own Being or words of the same import which I have quoted on the Chapter of their Idolatry When I have asked some of them what should become of their souls after death Their answer hath been they shall be taken into God Let them profess that they believe a happiness to be enjoyed by men and women after their bodies are rotted to dust distinct from the Being of God or that which they had not a thousand years before they were born i. â— to be in God from whom as of his Being they say the soul came and it will be news to me and all that are acquainted with them In the mean time I have given you Reasons enough to conclude they believe no future blessedness or misery in anoâ—her world I shall now resume the Question and gather up all the proofs of what I have affirmed into an entire body If Quakerism be another Dispensation than that of Christ setled and preached by the Apostles If it deny the Scripture If it deny all the Ordinances of the Gospel If it deny any influence of Christs transactions in Judea above 1600 years since into our Justification and Salvation If it deny Jesus the Son of Mary the Christ of God If it own false Gods and be Idolatry If it professedly owns the worshipping of false Gods If it deny the Resurrection of the Dead If it affect not a future blessedness or misery in another world to men and women according to their deeds in this Then Quakerism is no Christianity But all these things are true and have been proved of Quakerism Therefore Quakerism is no Christianity PART III. BEING AN EXAMINATION Of the First Part of VV. PEN'S Pamphlet CALLED The Spirit of Truth Vindicated c. WITH A Rebuke of his Exorbitances WHiles I was writing this Book I met with SECT 1 a Pamphlet of William Pen's intituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated against that of Errour and Envy c. Which is pretended to be an Answer to a malicious Libel intituled The Spirit of the Quakers tryed c. I having the piece by me I once perused it In the general I resâ—nted it as one of the best and most ingeniously 〈…〉 aged and beyond all material and just excepti 〈…〉 at least by the Quakers that ever I read against 〈◊〉 sort of people But reading Pen's Answer 〈◊〉 finding his Epistle giving such a Character of his 〈…〉 versaries Book and himself for malice lameness 〈…〉 ing and what not that might render it and him 〈…〉 ed and contemptible I began to mistrust my conclusion supposing a person of P's education and pretences would not say so much evil of it without great cause and therefore I compared them
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
of divine things Inwardly ravening from the Spirit A recourse to the Scripture or any thing else except their spirit for sight and understanding in the things of God Carnal reasonings Reasonings of the Flesh All use of the understanding and judgment of man for searching and finding out truths about Divine and Spiritual things Received from the Lord. By immediate Revelation Reconciliation Giving up themselves to the light within The Word of Reconciliation Christ the light within The Lords Redeemed Those who are conformed to the light within Redemption A being reduced into the state of Adam in Innocency not what was wrought by Christ in the Flesh 1600 years since The Redeemer Not that Jesus Christ who is ascended above and beyond the Stars but the light and power within every man as such Refreshings in Spirit Something they are pleased with they know not why and come by they know not how As the Quakers who were refreshed at the Dutch-womans declaring while they understood not a word she spake The New man CHRIST The rest of the people of God A quiet and peace within though from a blind deluded conscience The Resurrection of Life Obedience to the light in this world Resurrection of the Body Resurrection of the light within to a dominion in the man for with them the Body is Christ and Christ is the light within Also the Body which was a servant to sin being acted by the light and power within Revelations Not Scripture-Revelations but what come by immediate inspiration to them Righteous ones Such as are without sin Righteâ—usness of Christ That which is wrought by the power and conduct of their Christ the light within The Root of Jesse The Light within The Royal Seed Christ and every Quaker They who run and not sent All that teach the Gospel from the Scripture and not by Immediate Inspiration Reprobation Sin S The Sabbath Every day the present Rest and Heaven of the Quakers The Sacrifice of Christ The light within obeying or they obeying in the light within Having Salt in themselves Having Christ in themselves The Salt of the Earth Christ the light within Salvation Conversion to the obedience of the light within Sanctification All one with Justification all one with Christ obedience to the light Building on the Sand. Making the Scripture a Rule of Faith and Life The Saviour The light within every man According to the Scriptures By immediate inspiration as the Prophets and Apostles received the mind of God The Seed The light within or the Christ essentially within the Eternal Word that which was in the beginning with God The Seed of Abraham according to the Flesh The Eternal Word Christ as God Self-righteousness All that is not from the immediate motions within Shadows All Forms and external worship The Scriptures which Pen saith are as the shadow of the true Rule viz. living touches Idol-Shepherds The Ministers who have a mediate Call or teach out of the Scripture Shut out of the Scriptures Cannot understand them have nothing to do with them Signs and Miracles in Spirit No body can tell what All flesh must be silent Nothing must be said but what comes by immediate revelation from the Spirit for all else is the voice of man and of the flesh In the Simplicity Without the use of humane understanding or if you will out of your wits To live in Sin Sinners Such as have any remains of sin in them or do at any time in any sort commit sin Slâ—ying the Witnesâ— Disobeying the light within but especially a resolved rejecting it as our only Rule Teacher and Saviour Sons of God Only the Quakers Soul A part or measure of God Speaking in the Spirit By immediate Inspiration Spirit of Antichrist That which leads to Forms though Christ's and Gospel-Forms All that opposes the light within to be Christ False Spirits They that ground their Doctrine on the Scripture or any mediate thing Spirit of Bondage Being under the power of any sin Spirit of God The light within every man God the Father Son Holy Ghost without distinction Spirit of the World Whatever is not conformable to the light within as Christ The Spiritual man Christ or Christ in every Quaker The Lord hath Spoken What comes to them by immediate inspiration The Lord hath not Spoken Whatever is not by immediate inspiration though it be written in the Scripture A true Christians State Being taught by God immediately not by the Letter The statutes of God The Law in the heart or within They steal my word every one from his Neighbour Teaching Doctrines as the Word of the Lord taken out of the Scripture Stoln words All that we have out of the Scriptures and not by immediate inspiration to our selves In the Stilness An unactive attending to the light within Standing in the Counsels of God Conformity to the Teachings of the light within and abiding therein Studying for Divine Knowledge and what comes thereby from the Scripture Carnal toil birth and wisdom of the flesh Scraping in the Scriptures The Woman in Subjection Weakness must subject it self to the man Christ The Supper of the Lord. Spiritual joy or joy in the Spirit from the presence and influence of the light within all eating and drinking to God and in remembrance of Christ Sword of the Spirit Christ the light within What is declared by immediate inspiration of the Spirit Synagogues of Satan The Assemblies of any sort of people for Divine Worship who are not Quakers T Christ Tabernacling in the outward Vessel Christs dwelling for a little time in the body born of the Virgin Mary The like of every Quaker Taking away the Tables All Forms and Books as useless in the things of God Taught of God Taught immediately from the light within Teachings of Men. All that is not immediately inspired though the sense and words of the Scripture Cease from man From the Teaching by Man Outward Court of the Temple given to the Gentiles All forms of Worship all visible Worship being the Worship of Heathens not of Christians Testifie to the light in the Conscience Appealing or speaking to Christ the light within Bearing Testimony to the light Declaring for and from the light within The Testimony and the Testaments Christ the Light and Law within Thanksgiving Give thanks in Spirit or inwardly Thieves and Robbers All that are Teachers by a mediate Call All Ministers but the Quakers All that walk by Scripture-light Traditions of men The Scripture or written Word Trading with the Scripture Having maintenance for a Ministry Ministring from the Scripture or written Word The Birth In Travel The time of wrestling betwixt convictions of the light within and perfection Trembling and Quaking The horrour and consternation that they are under from as they say the wrath of God while the flesh is judged and they are in the hell of condemnation which is all the bell they hold that I can find aâ—d this trembling and quaking they say is such as
Moses and other Prophets were seized with at the appearance of God The Truth No other but Christ the light within Speaking Truth Truly When it is spoken from immediate inspiration and motion of the Spirit but however true without these it is falsly spoken Witnessing to the Truth Declaring or suffering for the light within and its dictates V The flesh of the Vail The Body wherein Christ dwelt and tabernacled which for a while he took of the Virgin Mary but at the death of that left it no body knows where The Vail is over them The belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be the Christ and now existing in Heaven in that body of flesh of our Nature which he took of the Virgin Mary The Vessel The Body wherein for a while Christ dwelt also our bodies Victory over the devil sin flesh world Perfection in this life resulting from the travail of the light within In the Vnbelief Not acknowledging the light within to be the only Teacher and Saviour whatever the faith and life otherwise may be The Vncircumcised and Vnclean All that are not Quakers Vngodly The same Vnlearned and without Vnderstanding To be without the light within its teachings and immediate Revelations The Voice of the Lord. The secret immediate lively touches and teachings within W Hirelings serving for Wages Ministers who receive maintenance little less then Robbery at least very Jewish and Antichristian Wait on the light Desisting from a search after Truth by any external means and passively attending to the motions and teachings within Watch to the light To be so listning and attentive to the inward teachings as not either to let slip any of its motions or reject them Blind Watch-men Those Ministers who see and warn by Scripture-light and not their light within Watch to the Morning To be diligent to observe and improve the first breakin gs forth of the power of the light within The Way CHRIST The way of Truth Those into which they are led by the pure light within The Whore of Babylon All forms of Worship visible Worship all that is believed or practiced from the written Word Will of God The Commands from within from the light Will of Man Will of the Flesh All that we chuse by the direction of the understanding or in which the humane faculties have any thing to do Will-worship Whatever Worship is not from the motions of the light within Children of Wisdom The Quakers born to the light within We Witness We experience we speak it from the testimony and feeling of the light and motions within And Pen saith This is right witnessing to witness what they experience But they that testifie what they believe from the Scriptures and right rational demonstrations go by hear say and reports but cannot witness it The Word The Word of God The Word of the Lord. No other but Christ the Eternal God The secrets of the Work of God The inward power and motions neither wrought nor perceived by or with the use of the humane understanding and will Righteousness of Works Whatever man hath any hand in or doth chuse The World All that are not Quakers Worship in Spirit Not the Worship where the heart and will goes along with the outward appearance but what is from the motions of the light within Wrath of God Day of Wrath. The inward judgings and terrours by the Light Christ within and that in this world The Writings when spoken diminishingly The Scriptures or written Word I have the Witness of my Conscience that I have not in this Key in any measure abused or wronged the Quakers but have declared what in their Writings and Verbal Converse I have found to be true and could have proved by particular instances but for being too large They who weigh what is written in the Body of the Book may find satisfaction in the most if not all of them THE CONCLVSION I Have not in this Treatise dealt with the more minute and light Errours and Absurdities of the Quakers because they would amount to too large a Volume for this Subject and I love not to Tythe Mint Annis and Cummin where weightier matters call forth my thoughts Where the Lord shall make what hath been written convincing and effectual those Superstructures and Appendices of the conceit of Perfection denying the sober use of Civil Ceremonies unnecessary scrupling at modest Ornaments Pedantick Words Phrases and Gestures obstinate Jewish and Ceremonious respect to this or that place for Worship and a multitude more will quickly and easily dissolve of themselves I doubt not but all whose Judgments are not in § 2 captivity to the silliest Errours will conclude with me that Quakerism is no Christianity yea Not consistent with Christianity being no more capable of dwelling together in one Breast than light and darkness in their absolute and supreme Dominion I am perswaded that all who have honest meanings among the Quakers little think that in turning to Quakerism they turn Christianity out of doors yet it is a truth a sad truth that calls for more serious notice than themselves or most others afford it who profess and that sincerely a love to Truth and Souls My greatest discouragement in writing this Treatise § 3 was from the sense of the Quakers being out of the reach of Scripture and Reason to almost or altogether a Spiritual Delirium Yet I was not without some encouragement from my hopes that the Lord would bless it to the informing and securing of many whose feet are yet out of their snare I have not a little been amazed to read in their Authors such Expressions as prompt us to divest our selves of being men that we may be Christians As if Rational and Spiritual God and the Scriptures Understanding and Christianity were mortal Foes I intended a Chapter by it self to demonstrate Quakerism to be no Christianity from its excluding right Reason any thing called Reason from having to do in the search after Christianity its Choice Defence or Approbation I care not if I collect a few for my Readers satisfaction § 4 Smith's Prim. pag. 56. Quest How do you manifest this inward foundation which you say is Christ to be the true and only foundation which God hath laid Answ From the feeling we have of it by which we know that it is sure in us and from the sure and certain knowledge which we have of it in the feeling we manifest it from its own Nature and Being to its own Nature and Being You may here perceive what a reasonable Religion the Quakers is whose demonstration is nothing else but sense and feeling and this sense and feeling nothing is capable of but the very nature and being of this Foundation He proceeds further pag. 65. Quest And can § 5 none have true Faith unto Salvation and Life Eternal but such as are of your Opinion Answ We are not in any Opinion but in the principle of Life by which we are