Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A39764
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A survey of Quakerism, as it is stated in the professed doctrine and principles of that party with a serious reflection on the dreadful import thereof, to subvert the very being and reality of the Christian religion / by a lover of the truth.
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Fleming, Robert, 1630-1694.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing F1274; ESTC R20984
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35,868
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86
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how sad a subject the Truth of an immortal soul and its being for ever it to such whom the Devil hath so far got under his Command and Power as those visibly are at this day Pos 10. This they professedly own also That not the same individual body is raised again which is laid in the dust but there is a change thereof in substance as well as in qualities which is no new opinion but what was the Heresie of the Marcionites and the Valentinians of old but according to the Scripture it is clear 1. That there shall be a transforming of those vile bodies at the resurrection to be fashioned after the glorious body of Christ Phil. 3. 21. and no forming of a new one which could not possibly be understood if the same numerical body should not be raised and that this change here is but in qualities not in substance 2. If the resurrection of the Saints be conformable to the resurrection of Christ then must it be the very same numerical body that is raised up from the dead and not another 3. This was not Job's testimony only but the Holy Ghost's speaking in the Scripture to us what was his assured hope herein that though worms destroy this body yet in his flesh should he see God whom he should see for himself and his eyes behold and not another Job 19. 26 27. 4. We may humbly adventure to say it is suitable to the holy and unspotted Righteousness of God that the same very body which did accompany the soul here in the pain and labour of duty and under much tribulation for the Truth should be its companion in Glory that those who strove together and run in one race should be both interested in the same crown and reward and the same body also which was the souls Organ and Co-partner with it in committing of sin should partake also of that punishment after the resurrection One thing farther I must here add in which they seek to make themselves remarkable to the World by these austere appearances of Mortification and strictness in denying all civil respects to others which they seem to intend as a visible badg of their prefession but if this be a matter of such weight whereon serious Religion and Mortification to the flesh leans so much as they would have us believe it is then clear 1. That the Popish-Capucchins and Mahumetan-Dervices to whom this way hath so visible a resemblance can sufficiently pretend to and contend for a preference 2. Then the Christian Church must take a new Copy and have no regard to the Example and deport of the Saints this way in Scripture such as Nathan the Prophet of whom the Holy Ghost records when he came in to the King he bowed himself to the very ground 1 Kings 1. 23. Or the Apostle Paul in his expressing himself to Festus and Agrippa Acts 26. 25. Or Luke the Evangelist in the designation he hath of Theophilus Luke 1. 31. 3. If a conformity to this mode and way must be an essential requisite to Religion we must quit the Scripture-Rule also Lev. 19. 32. Thou shalt rise up before the boary head and honour the face of the old man the reason of which Precept is undeniably moral and founded upon immutable grounds and that Rom. 13. 7. Give honour to whom honour is due nor does this suit the Apostles Rule and practice in things indifferent I was all things to all that I might gain some which would be far from denying an humane civil deport to others where this might be gaining 4. But oh what amazing confidence is this for those who find it easie to turn the great Realities of the Gospel and most express institutions of the Word into a shadow and allegory yet to lay such a stress of duty on an outward gesture Do they think the World is such as they may impose upon it what they please and hath so far lost reason though there were no sense of Religion as not to discern such an imposture SECT III. HAving touched a little the most concerning Tenets which these great adversaries of Jesus Christ and his Truth do publick own in their Doctrine we would in the second place seriously consider what so strange and amazing an attempt against the Truth can mean or what these possibly intend except they have concluded the Christian World to be turned wholly Atheistical and to have so far lost all Sense and Impression of Truth as that they need not hide their design to perswade men to quit Religion and Reason at once whilst with so strange a confidence they own yea thus in the open Light dare offer such an assault to the Church 1. To give up at once the whole of Christian Religion and quit that good and old way wherein since Abel the Righteous and Enoch who walked with God it is so clear the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles yea the whole race of the Saints have to this day walked to come over and embrace a way that if no other were known for Religion in the World it might give Atheism some warrant to judg there were none at all What have we to leave to posterity so precious as the Truth or what can any other gain and advantage amount to if this be lost And why did such an innumerable company of Martyrs on whom the Spirit of God and of Glory was seen to rest seal it with their blood Was it not to stand in defence of the Gospel and of these Truths which they so visibly oppose 2. And is the Night so dark as such a Party dare come forth to have us believe there hath been no true Church in the World but since these twenty or thirty years past except what hath its rise from John of Leyden Thomas Muntzer c. whose steps in most of their Doctrine they seem to follow yea that the great substantials of Christian Religion until now have been but some imposture or mistaken thing and all such who were the excellent of the Earth in their time who expresly owned the same Doctrine and died in the Faith thereof which the Protestant Church doth at this day as can be unanswerably demonstrated have been but false witnesses against God for however they may seek to shift this by undeniable Consequence it must follow either Quakerism is a horrid Imposture or the Truth and way of God hath not been found out till now and the Church both under the old and new Testament hath steered her Course by a wrong compass in taking the Scripture for her Rule 3. Is all sight of the Truth so far lost as that it should be easie for some to come forth and impose upon the World a new Bible a new Guide to follow which every one may find within himself to perswade us to build on another Foundation than that of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone Ephes 2. 20 Yea thus put in our hand instead of
professors in this time be under an irrecoverable woe in the matters of Eternity when profession is so much turned into the form of godliness without the power thereof which should be nothing else when it is native but as the shadow appearing that must needs be because it cannot cease to follow the body Secondly As we must not despise or look lightly on such an amazing sight as that Party now is so it should concern us to guard also against any stumbling at serious godliness on this account but how to improve the same for being more fixed and confirmed in the good ways of the Lord when it is so evident 1. How one and the same spirit and with one concurrence to the same work moves in this Party with the most flagitious and open persecutors and though under some different form yet they do all vigorously unite in that common Interest to counteract Truth and Holiness to decry the Scripture cast reproach on the great Ordinances thereof and how to make that Ministry given by Jesus Christ to his Church contemptible and vile which as it may be seen is the very same work the most profligate Atheists are at and so must have from one airth their Incitements thereto 2. Whatever be of the falling in of some to that way who once seemed to love the Truth and embrace it yet is it not evident as to most of this Party how remarkable the earth hath been made to help the Woman by drinking in such a flood as the Devil had cast forth to ruine the Church whilst so many have thus parted with the Truth of whom no known or convincing evidence could be given that ever they had received it but a most discernible tendency in their way to such an infection had broke forth before the spots of it from that small regard they were known to have to the solid saving and substantial Truths of the Word 3. This sad subject with such shaking winds as now blow almost from every airth on the Church should it not press us to some further length than most seem to satisfie themselves with in a sure and solid founding on the Scripture when it is so clear that none can ossuredly know the Scriptures being the Word of God but may have a sufficient antidote against this deadly poyson and by these great Demonstrative evidences thereof must thus know 1. That it is undoubtedly a full and perfect Rule such as the whole race of the Saints to this day could not have wished it another thing than it is for their Counsel and Conduct within time and takes off all possible ground for the adding either Traditions or any Revelation thereto yea that it is such a Rule as manifests it self with that sufficiency of Light to all as none can reject this one evidence but these whose eyes the God of this World hath blinded since there is no want of Light in the Truth it self but from mens blindness and a defect in the â—isive faculty 2. It is thus they assuredly know how it is no dead Letter by that Divine Power and Efficacy thereof and to be no Historical Rule which is sharper then any two-edged sword to a dividing asunder the soul and spirit with the joynts and marrow Heb. 4. 12. that gives Law to the Conscience makes it tremble and searches in to the most secret recesses of the hearts of men 3. Thus also we know the Holy Ghosts speaking in and by the Scripture to be no private voice and such an Impression as comes in a divided way or by bearing witness to the Truth and Authority of the Scripture in any other way than by the Scripture and an imparting thereto its Power Efficacy and Majesty and enabling us to know and discern the same 4. That such are these great supernatural Truths revealed there as could only have been revealed from Heaven and never possibly could have been once thought of or conceived in the mind of Man by any reasonings or natural helps without Divine Revelation so as it is no pretended Light within can let us know what are the things of God further than it is derived from the Scripture 5. And is it not thus known also what an undoubted certainty is in the verification of these supernatural Truths in the experience of the Saints as they can know they live or breath which is not witnessed to some individual persons only as if from any advantage of Nature and Edification they might have it but in every time in all the Churches of Christ yea by the whole generation of the Saints hath still with the greatest oneness of consent been undeniably attested when it is so clear also How much a great part of professedChristians is wholly stranger thereto and how it is no less above mens reach by Nature to know or discern what thus belongs to the state of the Saints than for a Beast to know what concerns the state of Man and what advantage should it then be as this Party pleads for all persons to follow a Light within themselves Fourthly Though we must own no such austere mode or appearance of Mortification as this Party of the Quakers seek to amuse the World with being visibly stretched beyond the Rule of the Word yea so false and ridiculous a shew of strictness therein as is a reproach to serious Religion yet is it a clear and indispensable Duty to guard against conformity to the World in these sad extravagant fashions of the time so as Christians may let their Moderation be known to all and their faith of the Lords being at hand may commend the Truth by that true adorning which is in the hidden man of the heart and a meek and quiet spirit not by plaiting of the hair or putting on of apparel 1 Pet. 3 4. Which oft as a publick sign stand at the door to let others know what pride lightness and vanity dwell there as though they had not an eternal salvation to work out with fear and trembling or did not believe the third of Isaiah from the 16. vers to the close to be the Scripture of God and to have the same Authority the same theratning Aspect in this generation whic in had then on Israel yea is this a being accountable in the Improvement of what some have beyond others of the World as a Trust put under their hand now when it is such an hour of great Tribulation on the Churches I confess this ground I have last mentioned is such as may cause many in this age fear they be under a sad mistake in their Claim and Title to Heaven and hath oft put me to wonder what kind of peace many have on this account who seem to out-run others in a profession of the Truth Since if the Scripture be undoubtedly sure and no falling to the ground of the least Tittle thereof should not these clear discoveries which are there he as that hand-Writing on the Wall to make their knees smite