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A51023
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Mr. George Keiths reasons for renouncing Quakerism, and entering into communion with the Church of England with other remarkable occurrences that will be acceptable to all orthodox Christians, of every persuasion.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing M2265A; ESTC R32938
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22,833
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38
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What Scripture Proof is there that Christ subsisteth outwardly Bodily without us at God's Right-hand and where is God's Right-hand is it visible or invisible within us or without us only and is Christ a Saviour as an outward bodily Existence or Person without us distinct from God and on that consideration to be worshipped as God Yea or Nay This way of Talking and Writing is the peculiar knack of the Quakers who have more Shifts and Subterfuges to cloak their Heresies than any of the Ignation Tribe In writing about Justification by the Blood of Christ the same Authors contrary to the express words of Scripture say That 't is a Confusion a Labyrinth and Vncertainty to be directed to Christ for Justification and Salvation both as he suffer'd at Jerusalem and as he Rose again and is Ascended into Heaven above the Clouds and Firmaments and to fill up the Measure of their just Condemnation Solomon Eccles has published it in Print * Nar. 1. p. 27. That the Blood of Christ in respect of Justification is of no more efficacy than the Blood of another Saint and certainly if ever Comparisons were Odious this Quakeristical Absurdity is intolerable All their Writings are stuffed with such inexplicable and unintelligible Phrases and wild Notions that they seem rather intended to puzzle and distract than inlighten a Reader and notwithstanding all their fallacious Pretences of being an innocent plain simple People that are most affected with Scripture Language yet they are as far from it as Light from Darkness for in truth no Society of Men that are called Christians no not the Church of Rome it self have so much deviated from Scripture Language and Scripture Doctrine and Sence as the Quakers have done And as the Spirit of Pride and vain Glory does always abound in worthless Minds as empty Vessels and shallow Brooks are known to yield the loudest sound so the Quakers are always filling the World with their own Commendations as if there were no good wise nor vertuous Men upon Earth but what were enclosed within the narrow confines of a Quaking Conventicle whereas in truth the readiest way to know them rightly is read them in the reverse of the Characters they give themselves The Quakers also say that we are not Justified by the Blood of Christ outwardly shed which is a piece of Divinity more fit for Bedlam than any sober Society of People * Nar. 1. p. 33. but as if this was not sufficient to Stigmatize them with the approbius Name of Obstinate or Blind Hereticks they are pleas'd to add also That we are not Sanctified by that Blood of Christ that was shed without the Gates of Jerusalem but by an inward Blood whose Power and Vertue is unknown to any but the Quakers and if these are not bold Strokes against the whole Doctrine of the Bible and the Declarations and Confessions of the whole Christian World you may add to these another of their Tennets and that is * Nar. 1. p. 34. That the Body that dieth never riseth again which is expresly opposite and contradictory to many places of Scripture that especially in Acts the 26th That Christ should suffer and should be the first that should be raised from the Dead In all parts of the World where the Quakers have spread themselves there is a Universal Neglect among them of Preaching Christ Crucified and concerning Faith in him Preaching only the Light within and Christ within And when I began to preach up the Fundamental Principles of the Christian Religion among them they stood up against me and charg'd me with preaching up new Doctrines and one appeal'd to the Monthly Meeting whether they ever heard of such Doctrines preach'd in the Quakers Meetings directing them to Faith in a Christ without them I Reverence Divine Providence that I became a Quakers but if I had known they had had such Errors among them I would as soon have put my Head into the Fire as have associated with them They were so assiduous in maintaining their own Erroneous Principles that they did all they could to prevent me from opposing them by reporting that I was a False Teacher and accused me for setting up thre Heterodox Principles * Nar. 1. p. 38. 39. The first was That Christ's Body rose out of the Grave and they affirm'd it never did and dared me to give an Instance that one English Quaker was of my Opinion The Second Accusation was that I had said That it was lawful to pray to Jesus Christ Crucified And in this also challeng'd me to name one Quaker that I ever heard pray to Christ and when the 1 Cor. 1.2 was read To all that call upon the Lord Jesus Christ both their Lord and ours The Quakers answer'd That Paul was as Dark and as Ignorant as George Keith is adding for our part we know better The third piece of False Doctrine they accused me of was for saying That the best Saints had need to come always to God by the Mediator the Man Christ Jesus This they inveighed against as a gross Error and said they would come to God without him this sort of Doctrine is to be found in William Shewen's Book a Quaker in great esteem among them For these things they Excommunicated me first and afterwards presented me by a Grand Jury at Philadelphia in Pensilvania and they would have found me guilty of Death though I was wholy Innocent of indeavouring to change the Government which they accused me of if the Government had not been taken out of their Hands and I discharg'd from that false and malicious Accusation by Governour Fletcher George Whitehead and William Penn * Nar. 1. p. 38. 40. by Allegorizing Plain and Positive Texts of Scripture have endeavoured to overthrow the Belief of Christ's Birth his Death Resurrection Ascension and coming to Judgment and by this Artifice has left us no Scripture to prove that the Death of Christ was any benefit to us and as to Christ's coming to Judgment Whitehead says in an Answer to R. Gordon that he might look till his Eyes dropt out before he should see Christ appear again outwardly in a Bodily Existence After this having read over my Books they drew up ten Articles against me charging me with false Doctrine in ten Particulars and John Humphrey says in his first Letter that he perceives by those Articles That my Faith relished too much of Carnality a carnal Body of Christ in Heaven a carnal Election and Reprobation a carnal Justification and Adoption a carnal Day of Judgment and Resurrection beyond the Grave I am grieved says he to hear some say they did expect to be justified by that Blood of Christ that was shed at Jerusalem Is not this to be carnally Minded William Baily who was a great Preacher among the Quakers and whose Books * Nar. 3. p. 3.4 they have Re-printed says That the Apostle Preached Christ the word nigh in the Heart and in
the Mouth and that the Ingrafted Word is able to save the Soul He did not preach a Visible Christ with Flesh and Bones as some others do So he taught them to pray Our Father not to look at his Person and to pray to him as a Person without them but within them Where we may observe that if they were not to pray to him as a Person without them by the same Reason they are not to believe in him as a Person without them but Christ not only consider'd as the Word who is Omnipresent and in all Men and Things but as made Flesh and having taken the true Nature of Man into a Personal Union therewith and replenishing the same with the fullness of the Godhead and with all fullness of Grace and Truth is the Object of the Christian Worship together with the Father and the holy Spirit dwelling and residing in him But of all this Antichristian Quaking Crew none have discovered more Indignity and Hatred to the Blessed Jesus Christ than William Shewen in a Book call'd A small Treatise concerning evil Thoughts p. 37. being about to conclude a Paragraph he saith Not to Jesus the Son of Abraham David and Mary Saint or Angel but to God the Father all Worship Honour and Glory is to be given A Mahometan would have expressed greater Reverence to Christ than this Quaker has done but what can be expected from such People as deny the Lord that bought them and count the Blood of Jesus as unprofitable to Mankind And whether these are not sufficient Reasons for leaving People of such Principles I leave the World to judge William Smith a great Man among them when he was alive in his Primmer Printed at London 1668 Asks this Question p. 8. Child but how may I know which are the True and which are the False Teachers seeing Words may be the same and makes Childs the Father thus instruct the Child Why they that are false Preach Christ without and bid People believe in him as he is in Heaven above but they that are true Ministers they Preach Christ within and direct People to wait to feel him in themselves and so to believe in him as he makes himself manifest in them And having given this as an infallible Sign of a Quaker he makes the Child ask but must I not try all things by the Scriptures and the Father answers Nay for the Scriptures were given forth by the Spirit and it is the Spirit that tries whether the things be true or false good or evil Here is another piece of the Old Serpents Subtilty for since the Spirit must try all things they laying a claim to the Spirit have invested themselves with a pretence to make their own Sentiments of greater Authority than the Sacred Scriptures Which is another good Reason for leaving them that deny the Word of God to be the Test of Christian Doctrines and though we are commanded to Search the Scriptures discharge us from doing it Through the Pride of their Hearts the Quakers pretend to Infallibility and a sinless Perfection in this Life * Nar. 4. p. 1 2. vilifying all those that deny them this Prerogative as under the Curse in another Spirit than Christ the Prophets and Apostles were in that gave forth the Scripture And George Whitehead affirms Those that Ministers that want Infallibity have not the Spirit of Christ but are out of the Truth and their Ministry is deceiful And this they as confidently and proudly affirm as the Pope himself But it is denied by all Oxthodox Christians as repugnant to the Doctrine of the New Testament who yet grant that all the Faithful are infallibly led into all Truths necessary to Salvation by the infallible Spirit in the use of the Holy Scriptures which contain the infallible Truths of the Gospel But as this Doctrine of the Quakers is contradictory to Scripture which brands all with the Infamous Character of Lyars that pretend to it so it is seldom claim'd but by those that are farthest from it as is manifest among the Quakers who though they pretend to be guided by an infallible Spirit 't is apparent that many of them are under great Delusions and Errors concerning the great Truths of the Evangelical Dispensation as has been proved by the foregoing Instances Again as to their pretence to Sinless perfection he that makes a Scrutiny into their Morals will scarce find them such a Church as is without Spot or Wrinkle but are as far from that Perfection which they boast to have attained to as any other sort of People that pretend to any exactitude in their Conversation and as to their Principles 't is certain that George Fox their Quondam Metropolitan Edward Burroughs Francis Hougil Richard Hubberthorn and some of their greatest Saints lived in great Ignorance Error and Unbelief in divers great Fundamentals of the Christian Faith and in great uncharitableness toward such as differ'd from them The same humour of Self-conceit that began with this People still continues among them and G.W. laughs at the Church of England who are always from Seven Years of Age to Seventy Praying Lord have mercy upon us miserable Sinners Is not this a plain Evidence of the intollerable Pride that reigns among the Quakers concerning their Sinless perfection who despise not only the Church of England but all other Christian Churches throughout the World who pray for Forgiveness of Sins tho' when Christ taught his Disciples to pray for their Daily-bread he enjoined them also to pray for the Forgiveness of their Sins Must not the Diseased come to the Physician till they are cured and those that feel the Burden of Sin pray to be Eas'd How arrogantly does George Whitehead charge the Church of England for Confessing and not Forsaking their Sins How can he more prove his Charge against them than against his own Society or himself Many in the Church of England and among other Protestants may compare with the best of Quakers for Holiness of Life and far exceed them in many Vertues especially in Sobriety and Humility But pray tell me you Self-conceited Quakers are not they better employ'd who confess their Sins and yet through humane Frailty find they Relapse into some Sins than such proud Pharisees as you are that neither Confess nor forsake your Sins but employ your Selves in Railing against them that do They that Confess their Sins shew a Desire and pray for ability to forsake them whilst those that say they have no Sin deceive themselves into such a Security as is the ready Road to Damnation The next great Article of Faith which they deny and Fight against is the Resurrection of the Body but because the denying this in plain terms they think would make them be despised among all the various Professors of Christianity William Penn being urged to Answer the Proofs that were brought from the 1 Cor. 15. says in his Rejoinder That let the whole Chapter be considered and we shall find