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A45353
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An account of familism as it is revived and propagated by the Quakers shewing the dangerousness of their tenets, and their inconsistency with the principles of common reason and the declarations of Holy Scripture / by Henry Hallywell.
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Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?
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1673
(1673)
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Wing H458; ESTC R25413
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52,525
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144
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habitation of David which judgeth uprightly thinketh upon Equity and requireth righteousness Through him God will now in this day which he himself hath appointed or ordained thereunto judge the compass of the Earth with righteousness Again Chap. 35 he speaks thus Behold in this present day is this Scripture fulfilled and according to the testimony of the Scripture the raising up and the Resurrection of the Lords dead cometh also to pass presently in this same day through the appearing of the coming of Christ in his Majesty Which Resurrection of the dead seeing that the same is come unto us from Gods grace we do likewise in this present day to an Evangelie or joyful message of the Kingdom of God and Christ publish in all the world under the obedience of the love in which Resurrection of the dead God sheweth unto us that the time is now fulfilled that his dead or the dead which are fallen asleep in the Lord rise up in this day of his Judgment and appear unto us in godly glory It is plain from hence that both the day of Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead are in this life and that H. N. doth both raise them up and judge them by his Doctrine And because the Reader shall be sully satisfied and see that it is not without cause that I lay this charge upon this beastly Generation of Quakers I shall produce some Testimonies from their Writings wherein they deliver themselves after the same manner with H. N. Thomas Forster in a certain Pamphlet which he calls A Guide to the Blind when the blind lead the blind the consequence is apparent speaks thus Christs first appearance to the world was in flesh and the fleshly eye saw him but his second appearance is in spirit which no fleshly eye can behold and live for as the Lightning cometh from one part of Heaven to lighten another part under Heaven so shall the coming of the Son of man be and blessed are all they who wait for his second coming to wit without sin unto salvation for his second coming is to put an end to sin to finish transgression and to bring in everlasting righteousness He that hath an ear to hear let him hear From hence it appears that Christs second coming is made only his spiritual coming into mens hearts to make them without sin and to bring in everlasting Righteousness and that when he thus comes no fleshly eye can see him all which make Christs coming to Judgment to be nothing but his appearing in the Generation of Quakers But the Scripture is express that Christ shall at the end of the world descend from Heaven as he went thither Act. 1. 11. that is visibly and bodily for so he ascended And in Revel 1. 7. it is said Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him Therefore his second coming to Judgment is not his coming into mens hearts by his Spirit but his coming with thousands of Angels to give sentence upon all men and this by a visible descent from Heaven to be seen by the wicked as well as the righteous The same person in another place expresly denies the second coming of our Lord and Saviour to Judgment in the plain and literal sense The Children of the Light says he that is the Quakers can tell you that as Christs first appearance to the world was in the flesh and the fleshly eye saw him so his second appearance is in spirit and no fleshly eye can behold him he being a spirit Is not this a denial of Christs coming to Judgment besides a manifest falshood For Christ is no more a Spirit now than he was in the days of his flesh but sits in his Body at the right hand of God and in the same Body that now he hath in Heaven shall he come to Judgment and be seen of all by their natural sight as we behold one another Now for the glorious Immortality and blessed Rest that every holy Soul expects in the life to come it is perfectly allegorized away and made nothing but a certain condition and state of mind in this life So that Sadducee Forster in the Book before-named pag. 45. declares Our Captain says he is able to make War with the Enemy and not only give us Victory but also an entrance into the Holy of Holies within the Veil here By which it appears that if we enter into the Holy of Holies here that is into Heaven in this life then there is no Heaven nor happiness to be expected in the life to come But to make all sure and compleat the Quaker a perfect Sadducee George Fox in his Great Mystery affirms That the Soul is a part of the Essence and Being of God This was the very thing which caused such an irreconcileable hatred between the Pharisees and Sadducees in our Saviour Christs time But the Fox was not so cunning here as he might have been nor did he well weigh the monstrous and wicked consequences of this his Assertion For if the Soul be a part of the Essence of God it will follow 1. That the Essence and Being of God is discerpible and may be shred and divided into millions of pieces which is a notorious Blasphemy against the sacred Majesty and Perfection of God 2. It will follow That God must reward and punish himself because every mans Soul after death returns according to this opinion and is joined to and lost in the Essence of God and there being nothing but God if he reward and punish any thing it must be himself 3. It will follow that a part of God must be sinful for every mans Soul being fallen into sin and yet is a part of Gods Essence it follows of necessity that a part of God must be sinful A prodigious Blasphemy I forbear any further Citations because the thing it self is so obvious to every man that understands but the drift and purpose of Familism wherein the chiefest Articles of a Christians Faith are made but a Fable whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral is the mystical meaning which they put upon it And are not these brave Guides think you of the Gospel when they frustrate and make void the greatest Arguments that Christ Jesus has thought fit to excite and stir men up to holiness withal that is the consideration of a Judgment to come and a blessed Immortality in the Kingdom of Heaven I grant that there is to be a Resurrection from sin and all men are to be conformable to the Resurrection of Jesus by their rising to a new and holy life and placing their affections upon heavenly and divine Objects according as the Apostle speaks Col. 3. 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above But besides this there is likewise a Resurrection of the natural body to be expected at the end of the world which St. Paul charges those Hereticks Hymeneus and Philetus with
burden of it But what is this to immediate infusions and inspirations in Prayer SECT V. Now as for Baptism it is no wonder if they throw that by as a useless carnal Ordinance for they rejecting the Gospel of Christ Jesus and pretending one of their own by immediate Revelation do but follow the conduct and guide of their own Opinions in denying Obedience to a positive Command of that Lord whose Rule and Dominion they have cast off and disallow They that refuse and despise the Governour will not stick to slight his Laws and these men undervaluing and contemning the Person of Jesus Christ the Son of God and Judge of Men and Angels will easily contemn and vilifie his Commands as things of no value and moment But the Christian Church has always looked upon Baptism as a rite of Initiation into a Religion and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ finding it in use among the Jews adopted it into his Religion and made it subservient to holy and blessed purposes under the Gospel And being a Ceremony neither burdensom nor offensive he has commanded it to be used by every one that professes Christianity whereby we enter and are admitted into the Church of Christ and we know of no other door set open under the Gospel for Salvation but this Matth. 28. 19. Go and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost So Saint Mark Chap. 16. 15 16. Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature he that believes and is baptized shall be saved but he that believes not shall be damned And Christ says expresly Joh. 3. 5. That Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God When therefore the Apostles had received this Commission from the Lord Jesus they baptized every one that desired to enter into Christs Religion and lest these Deceivers should apply this Baptism to a mystical sense the Acts of the Apostles will furnish us with Examples enough that the Apostles baptized with the outward element of Water Acts 2. 41. They that gladly received his word were baptized Acts 10. 47. 48. Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we Mark here they were baptized with the Spirit and yet needed the Baptism of Water And he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of the Lord. Acts 8. 36. See here is Water says the Eunuch to Philip what hinders me to be baptized And v. 38. They went down both into the water both Philip and the Eunuch and he baptized him And this Custom of admitting men into Christs Family and Religion by Baptism hath been used successively in the Church of Christ in obedience to his Command and conformity to the Apostles Practice without any Interruption from their time to this very day And because 't is likewise necessary that every good Christian be furnished with knowledge to defend his Religion against the Adversary I shall answer what they bring to seduce the ignorant People from this Institution of our Saviour Jesus Christ And though what the Quaker urges for himself be nothing to this purpose yet because it will manifest to the world that there is nothing in Quakery but Folly and Cavils I will produce it He says therefore that Baptism is a Figure or Type and therefore now not to be used and for this he brings 1 Pet. 3. 21. The like figure whereunto even Baptism also doth now save us Which place does very much confirm the use and practice of Baptism for the Apostle speaking of Noah and his Family being saved in the Ark from perishing by Water answerable to which Baptism says he now saves us not only the external sign or washing with water but the answer of a good Conscience the being baptized into the Death of Christ and rising with him to newness of life Now if the washing with water together with the answer of a good Conscience save us then it ought still to be used For if the Apostle had here denied the baptizing with water there had been no Analogy or correspondence in his speech but he expresly says that as Noah was saved by Water so answerable to that are Christians by Baptism But these Heretics would fain separate the sign and the thing signified which the Apostle does not SECT VI. By the same Diabolical Spirit wherewith they are possessed they lay aside the Sacrament of the Lords Supper as a thing too carnal for such high flown and conceited Spiritualists as they are But I desire those that are not yet taken in their snares nor bewitched with their enticing and subtle words to look back to Christs own Institution and if they have any fear of God or love to that Saviour who redeemed them to consider seriously with what confidence they can deny so plain a Command and cast off a Duty to the practice o which not only Christ Jesus the great Law-giver but their own particular needs and necessities bind and oblige them In Matth. 26. v. 26. 27. we have Christs Institution of this holy Sacrament how that He took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to the Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body Then he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it St. Mark Chap. 14. repeats the very same and says They all drank of it But St. Luke Chap. 22. 19. and St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 24. add these words Do this in remembrance of me the full importance of which words is First a Commission given by our Lord Jesus to his Apostles to continue this Ceremony now used by him as an holy Ceremony or Sacrament in the Church for ever Secondly a Direction that for the manner of observing it they should do to other Christians as he had now done to them i. e. Take bless break this Bread take and bless this Cup and then distribute it to others settling this on them as a part of their Office a branch of that Power left them by him and by them communicable to whom they should think fit after them Thirdly a specifying the end to which this was designed a commemoration of the Death of Christ a representing his Passion to God and a coming before him in his Name first to offer our Sacrifices of Supplications and Praises in the name of the crucified Jesus as of old both among Jews and Heathens all their Sacrifices were rites in and by which they supplicated God And secondly to commemorate that his daily continual Sacrifice or Intercession for us at the right hand of his Father now in heaven It is not my purpose to make here a Discourse of the Sacrament but to shew that Christ by his Institution of it intended it to continue in his Church till his coming again to Judgment and that