garment Christ but that which appeared and dwelt in the body They do not deny That there was such a man as Jesus the Son of Mary and that God was in him or rather Christ was in him but this is no more than they profess of themselves That Christ as God and the eternal Word is in them yet that body of the man Jesus which he calls here the bodily garment he tells us they can never call it Christ Another passage out of the same Author will explain this For that which he took upon him was our garment even the flesh and bloud of our nature very right But what follows is wofully false Which is of an earthly perishing nature but he is of an heavenly nature and his flesh and bloud and bones are of his nature The summe is this The flesh and bloud and bones or body of Christ which they own is of a heavenly and eternal nature but the body which Christ took on him of our nature is earthly and perishing and therefore they can never call that or own that to be Christ This is as plain a denying the man Christ Jesus whose body of flesh was of our nature and of the seed of Abraham and the Son of Mary as can be They own him as one that once had a Being but is now perished that is his body of flesh and bloud What can we expect of those men who can disown what the Scripture speaks so plainly and frequently and that not now and then by the by but as its main scope Do not all the Prophets that prophesie of Christ speak of him as to come Doth not he himself and others contemporary that lived with him in the flesh speak of him as then come Do not the Scriptures after his death and resurrection speak of him as having finished the merit of our redemption and salvation and departed from the earth ascended into Heaven and there at his Fathers right hand ruling the affairs of Heaven and earth and making intercession for his people And all this of the body of Christ which he took of mans nature and this called Christ and Jesus and the Saviour Let not these blasphemers of the Lord of life and glory delude people with a fancy as if we believe and preach the flesh and bloud of Christ to be Christ separated from his soul his soul of the nature of mans soul but undefiled or that we take his humane or mans nature to be Christ separate from his eternal and divine nature for they cannot be separated the one is not now without the other nor was the divine nature of Christ compleat Christ untill united to and dwelling in its fulness in the humane or mans nature of Christ Yet as what the mind conceives in a man the man conceives and what the least member of the body doth or suffereth the man doth and suffereth so by a communication of properties and union of natures in Christ the divine and eternal Being of Christ is called Christ sometimes but much more often the humane nature or the man Christ Jesus And the reason is clear because although Christ offered up himself by the eternal Spirit as both dignifying him to a worthiness for such a sacrifice and enabling him to undergo it as a Lamb for patience innocency and meekness and to overcome death yet the mans nature of Christ his soul and his body was the only proper sufferer and sacrifice for God cannot suffer nor be put to death and by the obedience and sufferings thereof was our reconciliation and redemption wrought Only as I said before its union hypostatical with the divine nature did put it into such a capacity and entitle God or the divine nature which in its fulness dwelt in him bodily to all that he did and suffered Having thus explained my self that the weakest that are but willing may understand the truth in this point I shall quote some Scriptures wherein the man Jesus who was born of the Virgin is called the Christ and Saviour and that this man Jesus is now in being and in that body of flesh which he took of the Virgin and wherein he eat and drank and slept and performed those actions proper to a body of flesh and bloud and bones and that this man Jesus is still and ever shall be the Christ of God And it was revealed unto him by the holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lords Christ And he came by the spirit into the Temple and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus to do for him after the custome of the Law then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation a light to lighten the Gentiles This was the Lords Christ whose parents were Mary by nature Joseph in law and by reputation as being Mary's Husband though after Christs birth whom Simeon then saw and not before whom he took up in his arms not only into his heart by faith and love and this Christ is Gods salvation and a light to lighten the Gentiles Therefore being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit upon his Throne he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his Christs soul was not left in hell neither his Christs flesh did see corruption This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins Which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Opening and alleadging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ Be it known unto you all and to the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified whom God raised from the dead even by him doth this man stand before you whole This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders which is become the head of the corner Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And though they found no cause of death in him yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain and when he had fulfilled all that was written of him
Charge of Fanaticism among us You may finde the Doctor as good as his word in the following Pages St. Francis is said by Bonaventâ—re a canonizâ—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 hence forward 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 Isa Let us cite a little of the doctrine and phrases some 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 endlessely 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 beeloâ—ed in Jesu with the blessed soul of Christ resting in the Godhead for into the time that it the soul is in the full â—ights we may not be all holy The only proper disposition towards the receiving supernatural Irradiations from Gods Holy Spirit is an Abstraction of life a sequestration from all businesse 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 God only by the most pure and intime affections of the Spirit what possibility of illusion or errour can there be to such a soul In which passive unions God after a wonderful and unconceivable manner affords them interior 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 do Yea so far is the soul from reâ—ecting 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 Gride and Director of an internal and contemplative life Râ—ynaldus tells of Norius the father of the Oratorians out of Baciâ—s the Writer of his life that he was so offended with the smell 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 from 1 John 2. 27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that a y 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 he 26. ver These things have I written to you conâ—erning 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 Majâ— in the Gr. it may be rendred in any Gender These Considerations duely weighed if there 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 only unscriptural but also idolatrous while in the mean time they plant and â—…ug 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 snare most dangerous The Apostle speaks of more Antichrists then one 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 liar 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 destroying 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
of justifying or so acts on Christ as to justifie the person in the sight of God by cloathing the soul with Christs righteousness And although in the Text it is translated not by faith only it may and I was going to say ought to be translated alone and then the sense is but this That faith which is alone without works doth not justifie a man in the sight of God And I shall give two good Reasons for it The one because it may be so without wrong to the Original Secondly It must be so because it will otherwise contradict the Apostle Paul and the truth also as expressed abundantly in other Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as well signifie alone as only and is very often so rendred as Joh. 8. 29. The Father hath not left me alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 16. 32. And shall leave me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone Yea it is rendred apart Mat. 14. 23. He went up into a mountain apart to pray I could instance abundantly in the like Now whereas being rendred only it implies that works also justifie whereas if it were rendred alone or apart which is as fair in the Greek it would amount but to this a faith which hath not or is separate from works will not be a justifying faith And it must be so because else it opposes the great Doctrine of the Gospel or at least looks like such a thing Rom. 4. 2 5 6. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory c. But to him that worketh not that is aiming at justification thereby but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness The blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works that is without respect to his works But enough of this only take one Text that needs no Comment to raise up this truth out of it viz. That the righteousness of Christ imputed is that alone or only which justifies by way of merit and which true faith looks to for this end For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him SECT III. I must not forget to do somewhat to satisfie the very weak of the influence the sufferings of Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary hath into the satisfaction of Gods justice appeasing wrath reconciling us to God c. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree c. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows c. But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed That God was not is as George Fox hath quoted it to lose the truth and save his errour in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them Having made peace by the bloud of his Cross And without shedding of bloud there is no remission Much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him that glory may dwell in our land mercy and truth have met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven 'T is generally agreed these Verses respect Jesus Christ who is Gods salvation the triumph and glory of whose effects for his people are chiefly two First The reconciliation of Gods mercy to us with his truth and his righteousness to our peace The truth and righteousness of God were engaged to destroy and ruine the whole race of mankind for their sinning against him and breach of his Covenant in those words For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Now whatever inclinations God might have to shew mercy to man and bless him with peace the truth and righteousness of God he having that word gone out of his mouth seemed to oppose it as not consisting with mercy and peace towards man and to have bound up those hands and lockt up those bowels from whence mans peace through the Lords mercy might reach him But through Christ Gods salvation and what he did and suffered in our nature as our publick person and in our stead the mercy of God in reaching poor sinners is set free without any detriment to his truth and the peace of a believing sinner throws no scandal on the righteousness and justice of a gracious God but these his glorious Attributes of mercy truth righteousness are at a full agreement amity and union not only in God as they alwayes were and never can be otherwise but also in blessing man with a reconciliation with his offended Creator This Jesus arises like a divine Sun in his almighty strength with healing in his wings And this is no mean evidence of the satisfaction to the truth justice and righteousness of God by what Christ transacted in the world in the behalf of lost and undone man To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus The second glorious effect of this salvation of God Jesus Christ by his transacting our redemption is That righteousness shall look down from Heaven The righteousness in the 11th Verse I suppose is not the same with that in the 10th Verse the former in the 10th Verse being the essential righteousness and justice of God which was to be reconciled to sinners which could not be done with a salvo to his Word but by some means which might answer to and satisfie his justice But the righteousness in the 11th Verse seems to me to be that sinless state which Christ who came down from Heaven hath cloathed them with by imputing to them and putting upon them that divine and glorious righteousness which he wrought in his own person and in our nature when he was in the world and so renders his believing ones not only free from the direfull stroaks and heart-piercing frowns of a just and offended God but also the objects of his love of benevolence yea of delight and complacence To conclude The whole transaction of Jesus Christ as Redeemer is the ground of our justification and its effects and consequences we being instated therein although the righteousness of Christ considered as his obedience and fulfilling that Law under which he was made as man and imputed to us be the glory of the Saints wherewith they shine in the righteousness of God in him And with relation to our union with Christ all those holy fruits the Saints bring forth by the strength and life from Christ received are accepted of by God and shall be eternally rewarded yet have no part nor portion in this matter of justifying our persons
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 And for that 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 Errors 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 Captivity to the silliest Errors 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 supream 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 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 devest 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 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 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 saved and receives life and in this state we stand not in any Opinion but in a feeling of life and salvation for all opinions are in notions and apprehensions in which none feels the life and salvation in Christ but what they apprehend in the natural part unto that they give up their own belief and soâ—rrs from the life in themselves and neither believs unto salvation nor receives Eternal Life Smitâ— prim p. 61. I shall not trouble you with an explanation of these uncouth Phrases you may turn to the Key and resolve your selves Sure iâ—…is be the way to understand truths we may caâ—hiere our understandings and judge the most ensual to have most of the Spirit Mr. Pen is much of the same mind He calls those disputing from the Scriptures Dry-cavilling letter-mongers Penington is a little ingenious when he saith in his Questions concerning Vnity pag. 4. Wherein confess my heart exceedingly despised them and cannot wonder that any wise man did or doth yet deâ—pise them Speaking of the way the Quakers have to get Proselytes being without rational demonstations This is far from the Apostes Doctrine and Practise who demonstrated by Reason that Jesus was the Christ who reasoned with Foelix and exhorts to be ready to give a â—eason of the hope that is in us to every one that â—â—all ask us I expect some Replies to my Book agreeable to this irrational humour But I desire those who shall think fit to undertake an Answer that they would not play the Rats and knaw here and there a scrap leaving the grand designs and Demonstrations of it untouched I do assure them I am not arrived â—et in my own Opinion to such a perfection but I am willing to learn from even my Adversary although I must likewise acknowledge I am not very big with expectation from the Quakers power of convincing But if they shall instead of answering fill some sheets with personal reproaches and reflections which do not render the things asserted more or less true I bless God I am too much above them to be moved and have cast up my accounts of those costs before I began this building If they shall deny what I charge them with in my Book they must discard their Authors I quote or prove I give not the sense of their words I shall be glad of the former and I fear not the later I desire the Quakers from henceforth if they will maintain Moral honesty even such as many Heathens were possessed of that they would no more call themselves Christians until they fall under another Conversion for it is gross Hypocrisie and Cheating if not of themselves yet of others And although some of them have scorned my Prayers and told me they hated I should pray for them I shall love them with so much benevolence as to â—eg of God to convince them of the Truth by this or what means he pleaseth that they may â—ot only be loved of the truly good with goodwill but also delight but above all that they may glorifie God on Earth in a better way and enjoy God in Heaven to a greater blessedness than their Principles express I have done But let every maâ— prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another FINIS Luk. 14. 23. Rom. 1. 14. Mat. 6. 23. 1 Cor. 4. 4. Jer. 10. 23. §. 1. §. 2. §. 1. Mat. 28 18 Phil. 2. 10 11.
Rom. 4 8 11 50 His faith was imputed c. Rom. 10 15 18 20 Have they not heard c. 1 Cor. 1 17 39 Not to baptize but to preach 2 Cor. 5 16 108 We know no man after the flesh Rom. 4 2 5 6 57 Faith accounted for c. Coloss 2 14 4 Hand writing of Ordinances Coloss 1 27 98 Christ in you the hope c. 1 Pet. 3 19 22 Preached to the Spirits c. 2 Pet. 1 19 98 More sure word day star arise James 2 14 21 24 55 And not by faith only c. In the Third Part. Book Ch. Ver. Pag. Words Gen. 6 1 7 My Spirit shall not alway strive 2 Chr. 6 2 18 House of habitation for thee Nehem. 3 19 20 10 Thou ledst thy people Job 32 3 11 The inspiration c. Psal 139 7 13 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Psal 25 14 28 The secret of the Lord is with Joel 2 28 36 I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh Luke 2 46 55 Found him among the Doctors Acts 1 24 40 Of these two thou hast chosen Acts 2 16 17 49 I will pour out c. Acts 14 17 49 Nâ—t himself without witness Acts 26 13 41 I saw in the way a light Rom. 1 19 20 48 Seen by the things made 1 Cor. 9 1 42 Have I not seen Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 7 6 7 12 54 Speak I not the Lord. 1 Cor. 15 8 43 He was seen of me also 1 Tim. 3 2 54 In season and out of season Heb. 5 12 14 52 For the time ye ought 1 Joh. 1 1 41 We have seen with our eyes Errata Part 1. TItle Page l. 15. r is 1 Part p. 3. l. 32 blot out as Julian Apostata p. 2. l 29. blot out not p. 30. l. 3 read untrue p. 34 read from and let to not only as a Parenthesis and the Quakers words p 41. l. 23 blot out sixthly p. 43. l 4 read properties p. 67. margin read Beccani p. 126. l. 26. read though Part 3. Pag. 21. l. 20. read mutantem p. 5. l. 17. blot out and is p. 46. l 3 read will benefit p 50. l. 31 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scriptures or Scripture which are used indifferently as expressing the written Word either in the singular or plural number I desire you not to charge a false concord on me where the Relative may not be of the same number with the Antecedent I using the word often writ it in my Copy short Scr. leaving it to the Printers discretion Quakerism no Christianity PART I. CHAP. I. The Explanation of the Title SECT I. THat I may inform my Reader of the true state of the Controversie agitated in the ensuing Treatise I hold my self bound as a rational man and as a Christian the Controversie being of a religious Concern both to state the main question to which I shall endeavor that all those which are subordinate or by me pretended to be so may be plainly reducible and also to open the terms that I may neither write nor my Reader be led into a thicket of impertinencies but as it may be clear and conspicuous whereof I affirm so also the Reader may be able to judge how much what is offered is to the purpose I need not trouble the Reader with any further account of the question then the title wherin I affirm that Quakerism is no Christianity which if it be not only sufficiently proved and clearly but also abundantly I shall not doubt but all honest hearts who shall peruse this discourse will be irreconcileably alienated from all appearances of so horrid an Imposture And I am not altogether out of hope that many of those who have inclined or adhered to those woful tenets or persons here discovered with a design to elevate their Christianity to a higher Standard of Purity will be convinced that instead thereof they have but plunged themselves into the ditch of the grossest delusions and made work for repentance SECT II. For the term Christianity we are not to understand by it all those matters of faith and practice which Christianity doth oblige us unto for Christianity is a large and noble thing which is not only a curious Garden which hath in it that which common Fields yea and common inclosures are not furnished withal but also doth take in beside what is peculiar to its self all that is worthy in those Religions which it hath superleded and outstript yea whatever is good and commendable among the very Heathen according to that of the Apostle Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things Christianity in a full sense consists of those principles of faith and life that Worship Order and those Ordinances which have not only a respect to Jesus Christ the Mediatour between God and man in his lapsed state but also that frame of them which is proper to the Gospel or New Testament-Administration which was constituted by Christ while he was manifest in the flesh and after he had actually finished the meritorious part of our Reconciliation and salvation and as God-Man united in one Person was invested with all Power both in Heaven and Earth according to that Scripture All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth and that full Text to this purpose and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name c. A Christian in the narrowest sense is one that owns the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to be the Lord and Saviour That this account of Christianity may be understood aright I shall spend a few lines and as few as I can to inform of the difference between Christianity as such and those other things which Christianity obliges to which yet may be where there is not any the least footsteps of Christianity To know and acknowledge in some way the one and only true God Creator of all things or dependance on and subjection to him the love of God our Neighbour and our selves Justice temperance and all other duties which by the Light and Law of Nature we may be convinced of these a man may be exercised in and yet be nothing of a Christian and so were some of the Heathens who not only were altogether ignorant of Christ but also opposed him and the Christian name as Julian Apostata To come yet nearer the Church of Israel under Moses's Administration who had not only the Moral Law or Law of Nature given forth by God himself but also the Promises Descriptions Types and Shadows of Christ the Redeemer through the faith
Competition between Jesus Christ and G. Fox and what the Lord and Master did in this case so did his servants the Apostles as I might instance abundantly I will direct you only to Peters Sermons Acts 2. I need not instance in any more He that hath read the Scriptures may easily furnish himself And who can doubt but they who made use of the Letter of the Scriptures for evidence of what in their Ministry they preached or writ were Ministers of the Letter as well as of the Spirit And moreover if we consider the letter of the Scripture to be the letter of the Spirit written by its direction and to express in its kind the minde of the Spirit This Querie of George Fox may be turned upon himself thus and how can ye be Ministers of the Spirit if ye be not Ministers of the Letter also The latter part of his Sentence is a higher Demonstration of the fallibility of his Chair And how can they but delude people who are not infallible True indeed if they did perswade people that they could not in any thing be mistaken or be ignorant but seeing only the Quakers pretended Ministry and the Pope of Rome do assume this to themselves they only are in a necessity of deluding the people for our parts who live in all manner of pride as the Quakers by their spirit of Infallibility do charge us we are not yet come up to their Perfection for we freely acknowledge that we may erre in doctrine and do erre in practice which we bewail before God and men and also that the people may not be deluded by us we desire them and charge them not to pin their faith on our sleeves but repair to the Law and to the Testimony and search the Scriptures try whether the things we affirm be so or no And if we speak contrary to the Minde of God there expressed to reject our doctrine and also that they follow our Example no further then we follow Christ even that Man Christ Jesus who was for a time on Earth but is now in Heaven But what do you think of the Holy Apostles were they universally infallible could not they erre if you say so Paul will convict you of errour in his charging Peter none of the least of the Apostles with erring and in something deluding the people Gal. 2. 12 13 14. Peter dissembled the truth in practising the Mosaical distinction of Jewes and Gentiles and separating from the believing Gentiles as unclean And the other Jewes yea and Barnabas also was carried away with his dissimulation But then you will say how can we be sure that what they wrote and taught was truth I answer that although they might in some thingâ— be carried away by temptation as Peter was in thaâ— case yet their doctrine which they professed to bâ— from the Lord and by the Inspiration of God could not admit of erring or fallibility and that not because they had an habitual infallibility in all things buâ— because of the love of God to his people the regard of his honour and the firmness of his Promises which he made to them those especially John 14. 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you John 16. 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will shew you things to come Now these Promises being made to the Apostles for furnishing them with ability for their work as Apostles they may be concluded to be infallibly guided by the Spirit but in other things though by their eminent habitual grace they were not likely â—o fall as others who were not cloathed with such a measure and degree as they yet it was more then possible that they should fail but according to G. Fox's infallibility and without limitation the Apostles themselves could not but delude the people But to conclude this particular of Infallibility take beside what hath been said one considerable proof of their non-attainment of Infallibility and that is the most grossely absurd Exposition they give of the Scriptures See what follows with the eyes of Christian-men We are accused that we judge people It is written the Saints shall judge the world an infallible proof as if it were a Command or Prophecy of the Saints i. e. the Quakers calling men all â—o nought how serious soever who are not professedly conducted and saved by the light within but he goes on more and more infallibly And for Judgement am I come into the World saith Christ As if Christs coming into the World sixteen hundred years ago were to the end that they might pass their rash Censures freely But he grows still And where Christ ruleth in his Saints he judgeth the World as Paul witnessed It is no more I but Christ in me Where Paul witnessed this such a Spirit of discerning as they tell us of must finde out for the Scripture hath nothing like it only in two places Rom. 7. 17. It is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me But I am sure Sin and Christ are two things Gal. 2. 20. Yet not I but Christ liveth in me But that was not to censure others but to comfort Paul under the hard censures and usages of others But the passage of coming into the World for Judgement brings into my minde one remarkable Expositor It is a right and sound doctrine to preach him as he is the light of the World and lighteth every man that cometh into the world But what world is this This is the great Prophet who is come into the World which is set in the heart Eccles 3. 11. which is in the midst out of which Moses saith the Lord world raise up a Prophet Lev. 8. 15. which Prophet being come he saith I am come a Light into the World John 1. 12. and 12. 35 36 46 The World being set in the heart there is the light of him who saith I am the light So that with him the World is the heart Christs coming into the World is his comeing into the heart and as he came into the world the heart so he is also raised up out of the world the heart but how like such a Prophet is to Moses I should too much suspect your understandings if I should trouble you with my sense he that is declined as far as dotage may perceive it without a Guide as also the gross darkness of this Expositor in the rest Let us see what sound Exposition the great Lanthorn of the Quakers gives for I must not call him their Great Light for that is in the Lanthorn 1 Cor. 14 34 35. Let your women keep silence in the Churches for it is not
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 then 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 thou by an evil spirit pag. 18 19 20 21 22 23. will find it his scope to prove all Idolaters 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 parts 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 bottom and foundation of all Religions this day I am e'en tired with searching these sulphureous 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 ebullitions more and then leave you satisfied or to get better senses So amongst the words you find how the Saints in some things walked and what they practised and then you 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 transgressors of the just Law of God who saith thou shalt not make to thy self any graven 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 great space SECT II. The Quakers having thus stript the holy Scriptures 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 shall we better discern their united testimonies and strength They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Equal their own writings and sayings with the Scriptures and prefer them before the Scriptures They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Deny the Scriptures to be a rule of faith and life or a Judge and determiner in religious controversies They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Take men off from reading the Scriptures and looking into them for instruction and comfort They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Deny the Scriptures to be any means by which we may come to know God Christ or our selves They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Affirm the Scriptures to be no means whereby to resist temptation and that they are dangerous to be read They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Deny the Scriptures to be read to any profit any farther than they are beforehand experienced by them that read them They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Put or render the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God Affirm the doctrines commands promises holy examples expressed in the Scripture as such to be not at all binding to us They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God 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 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 colume the Quakers Tenets on the left and the Jesuites and Papists on the right hand I do not give the Quakers books names and pages because it would not be contained in any order and in the body of the Book they are exactly proved I give you the Jesuites names and quotations of most or all because they are not mentioned in the body of the Book The Quakers Opinions and sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Spirit of God speaking by the Scriptures The Jesuites and Papists Tenets and sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scriptures are not the rule of Faith and life Thou shalt not turn aside to the right hand or to the left viz. Gods Statutes and Judgments Deut. 5. 31 32. The Scripture is not the rule of Faith Greg. de Valentia Jesuita libro quarto analyseos   Carranza in prima controver The Scriptures are not the judg and determiner of Controversies in religious matters He mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that
they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre but God raised him from the dead Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore amen and have the keys of hell and death I might fill many Pages with Scriptures of the like import these are so plain for what I produce them and the Quakers deny that they need no Exposition or Comment or as the Quakers phrase it have any meanings put to them If men be so blind as not to see the errour of disowning Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Mary who was hanged on a tree put into the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea to be yet alive and the Christ of God by all these Scriptures it is a blindness wherewith never any before the Quakers who professed the Scripture to be a true testimony were smitten Surely God hath given them up for their pride giddiness or idle ignorance and that in justice and the Devil the destroyer hath blinded their minds with a witness that this light of the glorious Gospel should not shine unto them Can yea dare any of you guilty of the errour here charged say That all this is true of and to be applied to the light within every man which these Scriptures assert of Gods Christ Read them over and compare them with that which is your only Christ and Saviour If this man Christ Jesus in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead and who was thus described by the Spirit of God be the Saviour your light within is not If your light within be the Saviour and Christ and Redeemer he was not Of whom all these Scriptures and a thousand more speak so plainly The Lord be mercifull to your souls the Lord rebuke you who are so bold in denying the Lord that bought you and â—rampling under foot the bloud of the Covenant O consider that fancies and dreams though having ever so strong an impression while you are possessed with them will when you awake out of your graves of earth and dust yea when your souls depart from your bodies leave you to the naked truth which God in his Word the Scripture hath revealed to us not to be abused after your manner but that we might believe and live after their direction which who despises Wo unto their souls for they have rewarded evil to themselves I have not yet given you all the evidence I have out of the Quakers chief Writers that they disown the man Jesus the Son of Mary to be Gods Christ Some of them take together Can outward bloud cleanse the conscience Yes by faith therein We witness the same Christ that ever was now manifested in the flesh The man Christ Jesus was not ever for he was made and born in time of the Virgin Mary was Abraham's and David's seed after the flesh and though he now have a Being in Heaven and is manifested on earth by his Word and by that faith which is in the hearts of his people yet he is not now manifest in the flesh according to that Scripture which saith God was manifest in the flesh not is And Christs nature is not humane which is earthly for that is the first Adams And immediately before Where doth the Scripture speak of humane Now we do not deny that Christ according to the flesh was of Abraham but not the word humane How pityfully doth he wind and turn to get out of the noose and holds the world in hand as if he did not deny the thing that Christ is constituted of the humane nature only he will not allow the word humane Yet he that hath a small measure of discerning may see that peep out which he would fain hide He denies Christs nature to be earthly which the first Adams was Sure if Christ was the seed of the woman by Adam his nature as man was such as Adams But for his questioning the word humane as not in the Scripture he pretending to be able to examine the justice of our Translators in turning the Greek into English in his great Libel called Mystery of the great Whore should methinks have found as much as humane in the Greek though not in the English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being five times used in the Epistles which in the Latine is more hominum humanus after the manner of men humane And Christs humane nature is no more but his mans nature of his nature according to man and so he is now in the humane nature in the Heavens Seeing then that we have a great high Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession Mark the last clause For we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Infirmities here must not be understood of sin the Text bars that but such a weak nature as is constituted of flesh and bloud liable to pains grief hunger and weariness And he was found in fashion as a man and that I think is more hominis Now this man is not was but is our high Priest in the Heavens and not as Fox hath it was of the seed of Abraham but is so A few Instances more yet And they that are false Ministers preach Christ without Your carnal Christ is utterly denied by the light Your imagined God beyond the Stars But none can witness this whose eye is outward looking at a Redeemer afar off So much of the proof of their denying that man to be Christ SECT II. I must not say That the Quakers do not own a man Christ for that they frequently in their Writings and sayings express such a thing but I desire that none will be offended that I will not take Chips for Guineys or half Crowns because some silly Cheats would put them upon me under those valuable names much more ought I and every one else take heed of receiving that for Christ which God the Father hath not sealed because men of what countenance soever will perswade us it is no other whilst by the very Candle-light of meer reason it will appear to be a meer fancy If I should say no more but that it is an absurdity as big as an impossibility for a man constituted not only of a soul for that may be crowded into a little room but a body of flesh bloud and bones to be within a man surely no woman with child ready to be delivered would by her swelling and bigness proclaim it to the eyes of all beholders more effectually than such who should be so inmated And although they talk of all this being by faith they must give
more and more if you will needs deifie such a poor Creature as natural Conscience and reduce so much within the compass of a poor earthen defiled vessel But if you are resolved to go on at this rate let the Title of your next Book be instead of The Spirit of Truth c. The Spirit of Babel and this will much more properly express the Contents of it Babel in the Hebrew is the word from whence Babble in English The Pretences of the Quakers to Apostolical and immediately Divine Inspirations considered and a Spiritual and Rational account of truly Apostolical men and their immediate Inspirations SECT I. Next to their Tenet of the light within every man to be the Christ and God essentially considered This of its immediate Dictates which they hold to be as purely Divine as any the Apostles had or the Scriptures express is the grand Pillar of their other Opinions and Practices called Religious This pretext according to an Author of their own E. H. one of Antichrists Voluntiers defeated pag. 5. gives the credit to what they affirm And yet would fasten all these upon the Lord so that his deceit might be of more Authority and noâ—â— might question the matter thereof because the Lord always moveth to Truth and Righteousness Well then if we can prove that the Quakers are not inspired persons but far otherwise we shall prove them gross Iâ—â—â—stors abominable persons slanderers and blasphemers of the Holy and Divine Spirit and break that snare by which their poor deluded Proselytes are fast bound and chained to their Dictates But sure you will judge that they who pretend thus high have somewhat like a Reason for what they affirm The main props of this Opinion of themselves I shall bring to light and examine The first is a Prophesie of the pouring out of the Spirit Joel 2. 28. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie c. Let us consider how much this will befriend them They will not say I am perswaded that all flesh in the Text is to be understood without any limitation at all for then Sheep and Oxen must prophesie nor yet will they allow that the Spirit shall be poured forth upon all men and women old and young without some limitation for then the most wicked and sottish must be of the number yea those who are the keenest Adversaries to their Doctrine among which I doubt not they will give me a room but if they say every one hath the light within which is a Principle capable of this Character if they gave heed to it and at set it liberty I answer so had all men this principle ever since the world began if what they say themselves be true but the Prophesie saith It shall come to pass after those days So that it must needs be meant of a time then to come but if it be to be understood as without doubt it is as well of some particular persons and not all universally as of some Age or Ages and not all universally They must bring some proof that they are the persons inintended or give us leave to tell them they have here in stollen the words of the Lord which belonged not to them by falsly applying it to themselves And if the Exposition which Peter the Apostle gives of this Prophesie be worth the heeding it was fulfilled at least in a good measure 1600 years since and whether the world shall ever hereafter behold the like in that part of it I shall not assert Act. 2. 16 17. and so on But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel c. What They spake with other Tongues about fifteen in number the wonderful works of God and this was ushered in by Signs from Heaven A 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 God's Messias before promised But let us see how neer the Quakers approach to 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 eyes of others Nor do they speak variety of Languages by the gift of the Holy Ghost though some of them have gone into forein 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 verse 32 33 but the Quakers improve their gifts with al their might to disclaim that man Christ Jesus Christ 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 SECTION II. The next main prop for this mistake is that they 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. 2. 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