God I proceed to the proof of the Minor or § 10 second Proposition Viz. That the Quakers do own and profess the light within every man to be God This I must prove from their own Writings which will easily be done it being the grand foundation of the whole Fabrick of Quakerism so that I may say its first stone is laid in gross Idolatry It would be needless morning Watch p. 5. 6. 7. is filled with this Subâ—ect to bring Instances of their asserting the light in every man to be that Word which John speaks of John 1. 1. Which was in the beginning which was with God which was God It is the first thing they teach and that not suddenly and amphibiously as they do many other points but in so many words But I shall furnish you with proofs enough over § 11 Fox the younger p. 53. and above that I will make you know that I the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world that all through me should believe am the true eternal God which created all things that by me the light all things are upheld and that there is not another besides me can save Although in this passage he doth not call it the light in every man yet it being a personating the light within in a large and continued discourse he doth often express it the light within as in pag. 50. You scorn me the light in you Pag. 54. Which will not own me the light in them All power in Smith prim Heaven and Earth is in it the light in the conscience They that cannot read out of these passages and § 12 that without spelling that the Quakers own and profess the light in every man to be God are not like to be much the wiser for whatever they read That it is in every one hear one speak his mind Lip of Truth c. p. 45. who would be believed Light is the same in him that hates it and in him that loves it I have done with the first grand Argument and proved abundantly that the light within every man is not God That the Quakers own the light within every man to be God and profess it And these will prove that they are Idolaters or none will ever be so proved I shall now shew you another God of the Quakers SECT II owning or at least their Idol in another dress in manageing the second proof of the Quakers owning that to be God which is not God My Argument is this They that own and profess the souls or spirits of all or some men which are constitutive parts of all or some men to be God do own and profess that to be God which is not God But the Quakers do so Therefore They own and profess that to be God which is not God Two things will prove the whole of this Syllogism First To prove that the souls or spirits of any men are not God Why I put in all or some in the proposition you will see the reason when I prove Secondly That the Quakers hold the spirits or souls of all or some men to be God If the souls or spirits of any men were God then God Arg. 1 may be polluted with sia But God cannot be polluted with sin Therefore The souls or spirits of any men are not God The second Proposition will be granted not only § 2 Rom 3. 5. Job 40. 2. by Christians but Heathens Is there unrighteousness with God who taketh vengeance God forbid He that reproveth God let him answer it The first Proposition I prove from Adam's pollution with sin who of all men except Jesus Christ was the most unlikely to have his soul polluted who was created upright and had the greatest advantages of maintaining his innocency yet his soul was polluted as may appear Gen. 3. Rom. 5. At large Let us cleanse our selves 2 Cor. 7. 1. from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Now the God of peace sanctifie you wholly and preserve you blameless in spirit and soul and body c. This is enough to prove that the spirits of men yea of the Saints and best of men may be and have been polluted with sin If the souls or spirits of men were God then God Arg. 2 may be in prison But God cannot be in prison Therefore They are not God The first Proposition I prove from 1 Pet. 3. 19. By § 3 which he went and preached to the spirits in prison And these were the sinful and disobedient spirits who provoked God in the dayes of Noah The second Proposition all men will grant except the Quakers who often speak of the seed in captivity by which seed they mean no other but Christ or God within every man or the light within every man Arg. 3 § 4 If the spirits or sâ—uls of men were God then God might be condemned But God cannot so be Therefore The spirits or souls of men are not God That the spiriâ—s or souls of men may be so I tremble to write the word appears by that Text 1 Pet. 3. 19. The disobedient spirits in the dayes of Noah are now in prison which is a part of their torment The whole current of the Gospel saith it or implies it I shall now prove out of the Quakers chief and allowed Writers whom they account infallible and SECT III honour with their chief respects that they hold the spirits or souls of men or both to be God Every man hath that which is one in union and like the Spirit of E. B. True Faith c. Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure This he speaks of the Spirit in man which every man hath and sure if it be as good as the Spirit of Christ it must be God for the Spirit of Christ and of God are one and the same But to talk of its measure their usual phrase is a blaspheming God to speak his divine Being any thing less than infinite Now my soul and spirit is centered in its own Being with God and this form of person must return from E. H. Testimony c. whence it was taken The words of Ed. Burroughs the morning before he died Here he makes his soul and spirit one Being with God or God to be the souls own Being And what follows implies that as the body and soul are the form of man while in this world so at dissolution as the body resolves into dust its first Being so the soul to God its first Being A miserable Exposition of the Scripture which saith The body shall return to the dust and the spirit shall return to him that gave it He lived and died a true Quakers but a false Christian if he changed not his mind his last day Priest It is an expression of a dark deluded mind to say that God is not distinguished from the Saints § 2 Fox great mystery c p. 16. Thus he brings
celebrated Orders at this day in the Roman Church are the Bellar. de Pont. Rom. l. 3. c. 18. Benedictines Carthusians Dominicans Franciscans and Jesuits It is a very fair way towards the proof of it that Bellarmin confesseth concerning the four first and that of Romoaldus that they were at first instituted by S. Benedict S. Romoaldus S. Bruno S. Dominick S. Francis by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and for Ignatius Loyola if he do not appear as great a Fanatick i. e. Enthusiast as ever hath been in the World we shall be contented to be upbraided with the Charge of Fanaticism among us You may find the Doctor as good as his word in the p. 234. Bonaven vita Franc. c. 2. following Pages St. Francis is said by Bonaventure a canoniz'd Saint to be an illiterate man had no Teacher but Christ and learned all by Inspiration for a long time wherein he got his credit among the Papists once casting away his very breeches and being stark naked before them all he said thus to his Father Hitherto I called thee Father on Earth but henceforward I can securely say Our Father which is in Heaven I know not but the Quakers learned their going naked and denying to call any Father which was their practice at first but the light grows wiser and wiser from St. Francis rather then the Prophet Isaiah Let us cite a little of the doctrine and phrases some § 3 of which are pretended from Inspiration by the Popish Votaries and first of Mother Juliana That the soul is so deep-grounded in God and so endlesly p. 224. treasured that we may not come to the knowing thereof till we have first knowing of God which is the Maker to whom it is oned Our kindly substance is beclosed in Jesu with the blessed soul of Christ resting in the Godhead for into the time that it the soul p. 285. Pref. to Sanct. Sophia is in the full mights we may not be all holy The only proper disposition towards the receiving supernatural Irradiaâ—ions from Gods Holy Spirit is an Abstraction of life a sequestration from all business that concerns others and an attendance on God alone in the depth of the Spirit And a little after the lights here prayed for and desired are such as do expel all images of Creatures and do calm all manner of passions to the end that the soul being in a vacuity may be more capable of receiving and entertaining God in the pure fund of the spirit But they seek rather to purifie themselves and inflame their hearts to the love of God by internal quiet and pure actuations in spirit so disposing themselves to receive the influxes and inspirations of God whose Guidance chiefly they desire to follow in all things Rejecting and striving to forget all images and representations of him God or any thing else yea transcending all Operations of the imagination and all subtilty and curiosity of reasoning And lastly seeking an union with Sanct. Sophia c. 3. God only by the most pure and intime affections of the Spirit what possibility of illusion or errour can there be 289. The Approbations 519. to such a soul In which passive unions God after a wonderful and unconceivable manner affords them interiour illuminations and touches yet far more efficacious and divine then active Exercises in all which the soul is a meer Patient and only suffers God to work his divine pleasure in her The which unions though they last but even as it were a moment yet do more illuminate and pacifie the soul then many years spent in active exercises of spiritual Prayer and Mortification could Treat 3. sect 11. c. 1. 292. 215. do Yea so far is the soul from reflecting on her own Existence that it seems to her God and she are not distinct but only one thing That God only by his holy Inspirations is the Guide and Director of an internal and contemplative life Reynaldus tells of Nerius the Father of the Oratorians out of Bacius the Writer of his Life that he was so offended with the smâ—ll of filthy souls that he would desire the persons to empty the Jakes of their souls Such a divine Nose had this Saint among them a degree of Enthusiasm above the Quakers who can but discern not smell souls Some of you called Quakers pretend a great advantage § 4 from 1 John 2. 27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him The Anointing here cannot be understood of Christ neither do we find the Anointing any where to be understood of Father Son or Spirit essentially considered and indeed the phrase is not fit to be applied to God who is the Anointer or Christ who is the Anointed The teaching of the Anointing being understood of the Graces and the habitual and special Enlightnings of the Spirit these devote and addict the soul under the power of them to adhere to the true Christ For the all things it is to be considered as restrained to the matter agitated in the Chapter which is their adhering to the true Christ and this is plain in the 26. ver These things have I written to you concerning them that seduce you The summe then is this they knowing certainly the true Christ from any Antichrist that which they were mainly to look after was a heart cleaving to and improving him which the Graces of God in their souls actuated by the Spirit of God was sufficient in this matter to make their knowledge of Christ sanctifying and saving As for the words in him which render it Masc in the Gr. it may be rendred in any Gender These Considerations duly weighed if there § 5 were no more are sufficient to any who have respect to the pure truths of the Gospel to render the principles here detected and opposed not only suspicious but hateful It is no little absurdity in the Quakers to make an out-cry against Popery Babylon false worship formes that are not onely unscriptural but also idolatrous while in the mean time they plant and hug the root in their own bosomes from which all those evils and more and worse naturally spring It were no hard matter to prove a symbolizing and agreement in a multitude of particulars between the Papists and Quakers in those things wherein they are contrary to the Protestant Profession of Christianity and the Scripture Rule but more especially in the spiritual part of their errors which in the sight of God are of all other the most sinful and to men a snaâ—e most dangerous The Apostle speaks of more Antichrists then one § 6 though of one as the Chief of whose Characters Quakerism hath the blackest I shall mention only two the first expressed in 1. Ep. of John chap 2.
his mouth as eminently as any thing yea all things in the world and more For God spake by them to us more than by all other things he saith to Jeremy Jerem. 15. 19. Thou shalt be as my mouth As thou spakest by the hand of Moses 1 Kings 8. 53 2 Sam. 23. 2. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue Hear the rod. c. Is it not a frequent phrase in the Scripture As saith the Scripture They believed the Scripture And what is that but God speaking by the Scripture and believing what God spake by the Scripture But now is made â—om 16. 26. manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the â—â—mmand of the everlasting God made known unto all Nations for the obedience of faith What more plain that the Scriptures are the mouth of the Lord or those means by which the Lord doth manifest his mind to men But the Quakers will not have it so and therefore it must not be so But they who â—nquire of or at the Scriptures for the mind of the Spirit run another way than that the Spirit walks and is to be found in and sin against the Spirit of God And that you may see how they set the Spirit and Scripture together by the ears Naylor saith further For those only are the Children of God who are Love to lost c. p. 25. led by the Spirit of God so far is true as truth it self but as the old Serpent he never heads a saying with the Scripture but he brings in a lye at the end and tail of it to whom they who are led by the Letter were ever enemies Here you have two great Commanders or Leaders § 5 brought into the field as the most hostile implacable Enemies whose followers from the time there where any were foes each to other And what can render the Spirit and the Sâ—ripture more opposite than that whosoever follows the Letter is a foe to him that follows or is led by the Spirit And the Leaders are the formal cause of it too and therefore it was ever so and is as inseparable as natural cause and effect It this be all true well W. Pen Sp of truth â— might W. P. say We livingly witness against all the dry cavelling Letter-mongers in the world Having frequently met with that Scripture SECT II 1 Cor 3 6. By them produced to prove the Scriptures to have a contrary tendency to the Spirit I shall here open it and shew their mistake The words are Who alsâ— hath made us able Ministers of 1 Cor. 3 6. openeâ— 1. the new Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth â—ife Whereas they would have us by the Letter to § 2 understand the whole written word as written that is the body of the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament Law and Gospel without distinction and by the Spirit the inward immediate teachings of the Spirit of God they are in both mistaken For it is as certain as that the following words are truth that by the Letter here is meant the Law as given forth by God from Mount Sinai and by the Spirit the Covenant of Grace especially as expressed in the New Testament under the administration of the Reedemer But if the ministration of death written and engraven Ver. 7. Ver 9. one stones was glorious c. for if the ministration of condemnation be glory c. Thâ—se passages express and explain the same § 3 thing called the Letter in the 6. Verse and that it was the Law given forth by God before it was written not only as written the matter and manner of which was glorious but in terribleness insomuch that Moses said I exceedingly fear Heb. 12. 21. and quake and it was death for any to touch the Mountain yea the Israelites were ready to dye Exod. 20. 19. with fear at the appearences of God on that Mount Sinai at the giving forth of the Law And as the manner of giving it forth by God so § 4 the matter of it was mortal nothing but death was written in the forehead of it going alone The Law worketh wrath That is the Law of meer Rom. 4. 15. Rom. 7. 11. 12. Commandments And the Commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sâ—n taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me Thus it is plain what is meant by the Letter the Law of meer Commandments as given forth on Mount Sinai That by the Spirit is to be understood the Covenant § 5 of promise in the hand of the Mediator is as certain and not of the Scripture or written Word in general for in the 6. Verse it is opposed to the Letter of the New Testament not of the Letter that is the Gospel not the Law and it is called the Spirit in three respects First As the New Testament or Covenant of promise especially in the hand of Christ promiseth and conveyeth soul quickning grace in a good measure to sanctifie and enable and dispose the soul to keep the Laws of God Secondly As by the New Testament or Covenant life and spirit comfort and refreshment is put into the hearts of poor drooping sinners under the sense of the severity of the Law and their liableness to the punish of it Thirdly And chiefly the intent and mind of § 6 the Spirit in the terrible dispensation of the Law of Works was by discovering mans woful estate to make the promises of the Gospel or the new Covenant sweet and welcome and to put souls on embracing the redemption through Christ So that the matter of the pure New Testament or Covenant in the hand of the Mediator was that which God especially aimed at to promote by the Letter or the meer Law of Commandments in which alone there was not the least appearance of mercy or mans welfare implied CHAP. XII The Quakers hold it is a sin and 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 imme iate inspiration and at first hand as the Apostles received them I Am now come to the highest round of their SECT I Ladder and I know not what one step of sin beyond it except the unpardonable one they could charge those with who walk by the light of Scripture day Samuel whole rebuke to Saul for his sin in the matter of the Amalekites was expressed in the keenest and highest terms compared his sin but to Witchcraft Iniquity and Idolatry And if this charge against us were as true as it is that they so charge us it is high time to serve the Scriptures as Hezekiah served the brazen Serpent And brake in peioes the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made 2 Kings 18. 4. for unto thâ—se days the Children
and a poor puffed deluded creatures errors and miscarriages from the obedience of him who is God-man who is the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his person Let us first see what they profess of justification by § 2 Smith â— Cat. p. 74. Christs righteousness Quest Do not you depend on the things you do for life and salvation Answ Nay We do not so c. Quest What is the righteousness that justifieth in the Pennington mysteries of the Kingdom p. 17. sight of God Answ The righteousness of Christ alone c. One would think the Quakers in this point very sound by this part of their profession but their Bell sounds not long before its jarring with truth discovers it to be foully crackt It follows in the Answer to the first Question For we have lifâ— before we have motion to act or do any thing that is pleasing to God and in that life we have salvation and so life and salvation is freely given us of God The latter part of the Answer is brought to prove the truth of the former and you will say they are huge good at proving who reason at this rate They are not the things we do because we have life from God and that freely before we can move or do any thing This being one of the great delusions of this poor people wherein they shew so much ignorance as without much grace from God they are utterly uncapable of instruction I shall hoping in that grace for a blessing of conviction upon them demonstrate by the most familiar and easie things the falsity of their such Conclusions By the same Reason all your bodily motions and actions are the motions and actions of God and you do nothing at all the while Was there not life before motion And did not God give you this life Can any man move hand or foot or tongue in any natural action but by that life they first receive from God but will you say therefore these are Gods actions and not mens For you to say Your good actions and motions are Christs righteousness because you have life from him to perform them is no less absurd Let us see if Pennington who had somewhat of a § 3 Scholar will do any thing better in the explanation and proof of his Answer to the second Question This righteousness conveyed to the creature in and through the seed and brought forth in the creature by the seed and the creature united to Christ in the seed here is justification of life A strange justifying righteousness by Christ alone brought forth in the creature by the seed I would ask any of this opinion Whether their tongues and lips did not move in the words they call righteous words And the hands in some of those they call righteous actions Sure they will not deny they do and how then can they say it is the righteousness of Christ alone in which the bodies of Thomas John c. are imployed But yet the fine mysteries in this Doctrine which I must confess may puzzle many an honest Countreyman to find out the sense of amoâ—nts to no more than this great absurdity What a contradiction there is in the creatures being united to Christ in the seed the Quakers themselves if any liberty be left them so to do will find out Christ is the seed and the seed is Christ both but one and the same thing and yet the creature is united to Christ in the seed that is to Christ in Christ But the blind swallow many a Fly For by the Law of faith is self-fanctification self-mortification § 4. Naylor Love to the lost p. 6. 4. â— and self-justification excluded right so far the worst will be in the tail Though they who receive the Spirit were called to all this by faith in his bloud yet it is the work of God wrought by Christ in the beleiver Two things are here observable for errour and ignorance First They who received the Spirit were called to all this self-work he talks of and that by faith in Christs blood too and yet by the Law of faith it is all excluded So here faith does and undoes calls for self-justification c. and when it draws nigh shuts the door against them begets children and that by Christ too and so soon as they are born utterly disclaims them If he had said they were called to sanctification mortification and not put that blot of self in their Escutcheons to render them base-born and then have asserted they were not the righteousness by which we are justified he had spoken like a man and a Christian but they are two things in the Quakers account adverse and together by the ears and therefore Nailor will have to do with neither But that a man should be called by faith to self-justification is a strange riddle and after all the condemnation of these things it is for all that the woâ—k of God wrought by Christ in the believer But to finish Naylor's testimony of justifying righteousness observe what he faith somewhat more plainly Whereby such become his workmanship in Christ Naylor Love to the lost p. 37. Jesus wrought into his obedience and his obedience into them in their measure till they become of one heart one mind one soul one spirit one flesh one bone and bloud and one obedience and one life that it is no more we that live but Christ that lives in us Here is some shew but a great deal of abuse of the holy Scriptures and the Spirit of God by whom they were given forth Whereas those who are God's workmanship in Christ Eph. 2 10 Jesus created to good works are thereby designed and disposed by God to walk holily Naylor will have the Saints wrought into the obedience of Christ and his obedience into them and blended together so perfectly that the most discerning Quaker of them all can make no distinction between the one and the other yea untill body and soul flesh and spirit bloud and bones and the obedience of both Christ and his Saints and their very life too be no more distinguished but what is the one is the other the Quaker is Christ for which Naylor's tongue was bored with a hot iron and Christ is I am afraid to write it From such stuff as this the poor souls who hug these Angels of darkness talk at that confused and blasphemous rate as they do and adopt whatever is the Product of an idle proud deluded raw undâ—rstanding into the very acts and expressions of Christ himself He saith moreover which may a little explain this § 6 p. 36. last Instance Which obedience stands not in any thing seen from man or by man done thereby to imitate or do the like for that is two obediences That as the same Father calls for the same obedience in spirit so in the same spirit doth the believer offer up himself c. I leave you to brood on
in the minister saying Answ But God and Christ is in the Saints and dwells in them and he the Priest is a reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine If it were only out of ignorance in not understanding the word distinguished or of the manner of Gods Being in his Saints it should not be his Charge in this place But you shall if you read further see he intends no less than the wicked import of his words But to call him reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine is over measure a great deal he might have spared him that in charity John Bunion saith He God is distinct from the Saints and Bunian is deceived who saith he is distinct p. 16. from the Saints and so you are a company of pityful Teachers By these expressions he renders not only the Souls and Spirits of the Saints the same being with God but their whole man without distinction Again thou makes a great pudder that any one should witness he is equal with God Answ A Catechism of § 3 the Assembly of the Priests and put forth to the nation in which they have laid down that the holy Ghost and the Son is equal in power and glory with the Father Fox great mystery yet if any come but to witness the Son revealed in him or come to witness the Holy Ghost in them as they gave out the Scriptures or witness the mind of Christ and witness that equal with the Father they cry out horrid blasphemy Observe he doth not in the least deny the priests charge as he calls him but calls it a pudder he makes as if the most horrid blasphemies opposed or charged on the blasphemers were but making a pudder And to heal his sore he would wound the assembly of Divines by laying the like monster at their door but herein he shews his ignorance with his malice and slander For the rest of his phrases I shall only say this that they make no difference between the Spirit of the Quakers yea of all men and the Son of God or the Holy Ghost And is not that of God which comes out from God § 4 is not that of his being the soul which he hath in his Fox great Mystery hand and so divine There is a great difference to be of God with respect to relation or creation and to be of God as of his being or the same being with him the one is common to the whole Creation for of him are all things the other is peculiar to the blessed Creator Magnus Bine saith the Soul is not infinite in it self but Fox great mystery p. 29 is a Creature and Richard Baxter saith it is a spiritual substance Answ Now consider what a Condition these called Ministers are in they say that which is a Spiritual substance is not infinite in it self but a creature that which came out from the Creator and is in the hand of the Creator which brings it up and to the Creator again that is infinite in it self which the hand goes against him that does evil in which hand the Soul is which is immortal and infinite which hand is infinite which brings it up to God is infinite If any man can match the ignorance confidence blasphemy and nonsence of this passage out of the mouths or pens of any but the Quakers he may be reckoned a great discoverer But this is received by those poor deluded souls as infallibly true and divine mystery being the dictates of George Fox whom none of them dare or will contradict such is the stupendious captivity of these poor people Is not the Soul without beginning come from God It is not horrid Blasphemy to say the Soul is a part of God for it § 5 Fox great mystery came out of him and that which came out of him is of him Thus I have proved not by remote consequences but their open and plain assertions and that pleaded for after their wild manner hat they hold the Soul of Man to be God apart of the Divine being infinite in it self without beginning-part of the creator here is enough of blasphemy and idolatry for one author to fill the mouths of many I shall cite yet more of them that none may think it is but one Quaker though I may stand for a thousand who is so prodigiously wicked § 6. Fisher velata quaedam revelata p. 17. And whereas you Querie whether the said Spirit the Spirit of man is mortal or immortal I answer it is immortal and neither mortal nor corruptible but the immortal and incorruptible seed of God even something of the living word which is said to be made flesh What the word is that was made flesh John saith was God 1. John 1. That which the Lord from Heaven begetteth of his own Penningtons Quest 27. Declaration against poverty query 27. image and likeness of his own substance of his own seed of his own Spirit and pure life Speaking of the Saints the members of Christ Whether do you wait and believe to have the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus who thought it no robbery to be equal with God And Christ thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet he was no Pharisee though of the pharisees judged a blasphemer and as he is so are we saith the Saints And they who dwell in the truth witness Parnel Shield c p. 37. one with another For the light of God owns its own for God cannot deny himself They own the Spirit of God Christ the seed and the § 7 spirit of man to be but one and the same thing but some times will deny any to have a Spirit at all but the regenerate that they may not say the unregenerate have the Spirit of God or God the Spirit in them See Fishers rare distinction to serve this turn Fisher velata quaedam revelata p 13 As to the Spirit of man which concurres to the constituting of man in his primitive perfection it is the breath of life which God breathed into his Soul after he had formed him as to his body of the dust of the earth whereby he came to be a living Soul a Soul that did partake something of Gods ovvn life this Spirit of man is that living principle of the divine nature vvhich man did before his degeneration and shall gâ—vin after his regeneration partake of This Charge being of so black and horrid a nature I did not judge it unmeet to prove the truth of it by abounding instances and now Reader judge and put on the largest Charity that a man or Christian ought in any case to exercise and give thy verdict if I have not made appear That the Quakers are gross Idolaters so far as owning and professing that to be God which is not God will contribute to a demonstration I shall manage my second grand argument but briefly SECT IV for the work I have done will render it not very
not gone after Baalim See thy way in the Valley know what thou hast done thou art a swift Dromedary traversing her ways A wild Ass used to the Wilderness that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure in her occasion who can turn her away All they that seek her will not weary themselves in her moneth they shall find her CHAP. XVII The Quakers deny the Resurrection of the Dead I Doubt not but all who are not infatuated with the SECT I Quakers Spirit to a perverting the genuine sense of almost all the expressions of Principles of Faith will understand by the Resurrection of the Dead the raising again to life and from the dust and corruption the bodies of men and women however disposed of after their natural death or dissolution The Quakers will deny their guilt of this Charge and come off with an Allegorical evasion They will tell youâ— that they believe and own the Resurrection of the Dead yea of the dead body whereas in truth their opinion and meaning is quite another thing than the ordinary acceptation of that Doctrine as will appear by the instances following And hath no will nor wisdom nor reason left in him Smith Cat. p. 31. §. 2. but all baptized down into the sufferings of Christ and there the power kills him and gives him life again and so man lays down his own life and takes up life in Christ in which life he comes to be raised in the Resurrection of Christ I must confess this account is like his who though he may have too much Will is utterly void of Reason But he that shall own no other Resurrection of the Body than what Smith expresses comes under that severe rebuke of the Apostle Who concerning the Faith have erred saying that the Resurrection is past already and have destroyed the faith of some The foresaid Author saith farther Quest But must man pass through death and rise p. 29. again while he is in the Body Answ Yes for except he be regenerated and born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And therefore he must die to the first Adams flesh and be quickned and raised again in the second Adams Spirit And so in the Resurrection and life enter the Kingdom as a little Child You see here plainly that their Resurrection of the Body is but their Regeneration and this is fulfilled while they are in the body But above all that I have read of the Quakers § 3 Velata quaedam revelata Fisher is the best skilled in the allegorizing of the Resurrection But if you will not be admonished nor perswaded by Moses and the Prophets within you neither will you be perswaded by such of us who were once dead in Sin with you but are now risen to life by the Power of God which is his light and in the same sent to speak unto you from the dead I know not how they can deny his words to be his gloss on 16 Luke 31. If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets neither wilâ— they be perswaded if one should rise from the dead If Christ had intended Conversion or Regeneration there by rising from the Dead it were no rare thing to have such Preachers sent to them for all the Saints of God are such as are Regenerated and such Preachers they had many at that time we may conclude that the Resurrection spoken of by Christ was of some one in the state of the Dead to have his body raised to life and with that advantage of experience to preach to them Whereby the heart is free from corruption and § 4 Naylor Love to the Lost p. 3. made able to escape the pollutions of the World and to run in the pure ways with delight which is the glâ—rious liberty of the Sons of God the Resurrection from the Dead I have said enough of what abundantly implies their denial of this great and fundamental truth I do not at all expect nor can I with any reason that they should in their writings in so many words deny the Resurrection of the Dead because so open and plain dealing in this great point would render them intolerable and shut the door against Proselites but yet in verbal and private converse they stick not to deny the Resurrection of the same bodies which ordinarily when dead are put into a hole in the ground and covered with earth I have examined many of their Books that pretend to give a full account of their Tenets and Belief but in all of them their Resurrection is no other than I have already expressed Take an Account of one or two in their Systems of their Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead We say that Christ is the Resurrection and the Life to § 5 Isaac Pennington Some principles of the Elect called Quakers p. 34. raise up that which Adam lost and to destroy him who deceived him viz Adam so Christ is the Resurrection unto Life of Body Soul and Spirit and so renews man c. What is this Resurrection but what they call Regeneration and the Resurrection of the Body is but in the same sense as the Soul and Spirit is raised which is not from a natural death or dissolution of their essential form but from their depravation and defection to a sensual and sinful disposition and their aversation from God Concerning the Resurrection of the Dead In the Chapter intituled ' as above he hath these Naylor love to the lost p. 78. words But to such busie minds who are saying how are the dead raised and with what bodies do they come I say to such the Apostles words are very suitable Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die but the mystery is sealed with the Sons of God nor can any ever know with what bodies they shall arise but who comes to the Flesh of Christ and discerns his Body the sight whereof in the life slays the Serpent and opens the Mystery Till then cursed is he that reveals that which God hath sealed and hidden from the Serpents Wisdom c. Naylor before and after quotes many Scripture-phrases which abundantly prove the Resurrection of the Body after dissolution or natural death but when all is done there is a Mystery a sealed Mystery in his meaning and a curse laid on those who reveal their Tenet No wonder then that they speak not out to any other but themselves whom he dare trust with the greatest abominations in their delusions but notwithstanding his inhibition divers of them have to me acknowledged that they believe not that the body which when dead is ordinarily put into a hole in the ground and covered with earth and turns to dust shall ever be made alive again And that which may put you out of doubt that this is their Tenet I can prove by many Witnesses that George Whitehead one of their chief Misleaders after much importunity to speak his mind plainly in this
in jeopardy every hour 1 Cor. 15. 29. 30. Thirdly it utterly subverts and makes Shipwrack § 3 of the faith of the Gospel that looking at a prize and reward on the other side the Grave But if there be no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith also in vain 1 Cor 15 13 14. For if the dead rise not then is not Christ raised and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins 1 Cor. 15 16 17. So that there is a Chain of the most woful consequences that this wicked error draws after it Fourthly Then the Gospel is a meer fallacy and § 4 delusion which promises a reward to men whose persons are constituted of a body as well as a soul Many more might be inferred of so grand an import as would render this Doctrine the most pernicious that was ever hatched among pretended Christians CHAP. XIX The Quakers profess not the Doctrine of a future reward in another World I Have been a diligent Enquirer to find some expressions SECT 1 in their Writings or Verbal Converse that might satisfie me they owned a future happiness or misery after this life but all to no purpose in this point they make no noise at all I have searched those Writings of theirs especially which have pretended an account of their Principles in all or most points of Religion but though this of a future state of reward or punishment be the vitals and end of all Religion yet they do not so much as touch upon it From whence I must conclude it is blotted out of their Creed 'T is said of the Gospel which is the Christian Dispensation that it brings life and immortality to light what was in the Scriptures of the old Testament more seldom and obscurely expressed is the very scope of the Gospel or New Testament the peculiar of Christianity But then certainly Quakerism is no Christianity that is so silent in this matter I know they talk of immortality and eternal life but what is immortality with them Fox saith man is immortal before death in his Great Mystery and their Salvation is no more but what they have within them and is accomplished in this world Farnsworth saith speaking of the righteousness of Christ neither was I saved by it So that his Salvation was not future but present or past And Pennington in some Principles of the Elect c. saith and so they who forget God and do wickedly they are to be turned into Hell But what Hell is this no more than what they say is in this life For they who forget God and do wickedly they go from the life and power of God into the separation from him and out of his acceptance For in the life is the acceptance What is here more than is suffered in this life which we call paena damni or the punishment of loss A Book intituled The Spirit of the Quakers c. § 1 charges the Quakers for having their hearts much set on a Heaven within them but not on the things above to which Pen replies and vindicates after his fashion the Kingdom of God within but saith not a word to assert their belief of and affections to the Heaven above from whence it is plain that they believe no such thing to have a being I wonder not therefore that this is so frâ—quently their saying That if we are not perfect here we shall never be perfect It is easily deduceable from their more openly professed § 2 principles that they deny and disown a blessedness or misery in another world For if they deny the body to have life any more after it is dead and turned to dust and that the Soul and Spirit are of the being of God and that as the body returns to its former dust from whence it came and never revives again so the Soul and Spirit returns into God its first being all which I have already proved what then remains to be the subject of happiness or misery E'ne nothing at all except God and he is not man E. Burroughs the day he died expressed himself thus that he was now putting off this manner of person and returning to his own Being or words of the same import which I have quoted on the Chapter of their Idolatry When I have asked some of them what should become of their souls after death Their answer hath been they shall be taken into God Let them profess that they believe a happiness to be enjoyed by men and women after their bodies are rotted to dust distinct from the Being of God or that which they had not a thousand years before they were born i. â— to be in God from whom as of his Being they say the soul came and it will be news to me and all that are acquainted with them In the mean time I have given you Reasons enough to conclude they believe no future blessedness or misery in anoâ—her world I shall now resume the Question and gather up all the proofs of what I have affirmed into an entire body If Quakerism be another Dispensation than that of Christ setled and preached by the Apostles If it deny the Scripture If it deny all the Ordinances of the Gospel If it deny any influence of Christs transactions in Judea above 1600 years since into our Justification and Salvation If it deny Jesus the Son of Mary the Christ of God If it own false Gods and be Idolatry If it professedly owns the worshipping of false Gods If it deny the Resurrection of the Dead If it affect not a future blessedness or misery in another world to men and women according to their deeds in this Then Quakerism is no Christianity But all these things are true and have been proved of Quakerism Therefore Quakerism is no Christianity PART III. BEING AN EXAMINATION Of the First Part of VV. PEN'S Pamphlet CALLED The Spirit of Truth Vindicated c. WITH A Rebuke of his Exorbitances WHiles I was writing this Book I met with SECT 1 a Pamphlet of William Pen's intituled The Spirit of Truth Vindicated against that of Errour and Envy c. Which is pretended to be an Answer to a malicious Libel intituled The Spirit of the Quakers tryed c. I having the piece by me I once perused it In the general I resâ—nted it as one of the best and most ingeniously 〈…〉 aged and beyond all material and just excepti 〈…〉 at least by the Quakers that ever I read against 〈◊〉 sort of people But reading Pen's Answer 〈◊〉 finding his Epistle giving such a Character of his 〈…〉 versaries Book and himself for malice lameness 〈…〉 ing and what not that might render it and him 〈…〉 ed and contemptible I began to mistrust my conclusion supposing a person of P's education and pretences would not say so much evil of it without great cause and therefore I compared them
endeavour it in your places and as God hath given you the means it will not be your sin much less your condemnation that you do not know it all Sure there are many Babes in Christs Family yet they are Children and all are first Babes and that would be a Monster never yet seen in the Church of Christ a new-born Babe knowing the mind of God contained in the Scripture as fully as the most serious Christians of the longest standing Jesus Christ himself grew in wisdom and in stature and I intreat you be content to leave a little of the mind of God to be found out in the Scripture by the Generations to come If you mean our knowledg of the mind of the Spirit is uncertain so far as it is necessary for our living in an acceptable mâ—nner to God soberly righteously and godly in this present world and to attain Heaven at last it is a great mistake for if pride lust and idleness stand not in our way there is no person that hath a few grains of reason but may understand so much of the mind of God by the Scripture as is necessary for him to know to his Eternal Salvation But if you talk of the Scriptures being a dead Letter § 9 and not moving and teaching with a voice or impulse without our reading praying and applying it in the Lords strength you talk at a strange random as if God had given us our eyes and brams only to look after the world and the things thereof but in the knowledge of God we must be meerly passive A KEY TO THE QUAKERS Usurped and to most Unintelligible PHRASES THere is not any thing in the Quakers Method of delu ding which doth more tend to the insnaring of unwary Souls than their asserting their False Antichristian and Anti-Scriptural Tenets under Scripture-words and Phrases and in those very terms wherein are expressed the Truths of God while in the mean time they mean nothing less than their true import and what people who are not well acquainted with their Tenets suppose them to mean By this Artifice they beget a good Opinion of themselves and Errours with too many and by degrees so vitiate their Principles that in a short time they are prepared to imbrace the grossest Errours bare-faced I shall therefore as a work of no small use to such who are attempted by them or who have a Call or opportunity to deal with them for their convincing or confuting or the securing others who are in danger by them give you a true and candid account of their sense and meaning of a multitude of Scripture and Religious Phrases which they utter and apply to their falshoods and also of their new-coyn'd Words and Phrases which are more peculiar to their Sect and Notions I dispose them Alphabetically for their more easie finding on any occasion A. Above NOt in locality but excellency so Christ and Heaven they say are above i. e. excellent and may therefore be nothing but what is within them The Anointing The Light within Christ the Spirit essentially Assembling Meeting in Spirit Assurance What they feel in themselves not what they believe from the Scripture the inward witness viz. experience teachings of the light within B. Babylon All the Ordinances Worship Faith Obedience that have any thing of a form or visible in them or that are gathered from the written Word or pretended to be so Baptism Not any thing by Water but the Spirit i. e. the Quakers Spirit to an obedience and devotedness to the light within and inspirations and immediate teachings Blasphemy To speak against the light within every man to be Christ and God and what they hold it to be Blind Not to acknowledge the light within to be Christ not to know him by immediate imspiration The Blood of Christ The Life of Christ i. e. the power of the light in them The Spiritual Blood which they say came down from Heaven and was part of a Spiritual Body which Christ brought with him from thence which dwelt for a while in the Man Jesus who died at Jerusalem Salvation purifying reconciling by the Blood of Christ Not by the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross but by the Blood of the Spiritual Body of flesh blood and bones which they say Christ descended in which is in every Quaker as really as in the Man that was the Son of Mary and so Salvation is by no other blood but what is in themselves The Body of Christ Not that which was crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem in Judea but the spiritual Body aforesaid which they say took up its Habitation and Tabernacled in the Body of Jesus the Son of Mary and so the Body of Christ is as much in them as it was in him Bondage Not only our selves in bondage to sin but the light within the seed of God or Christ being in bondage under the disobedience of men Born again Regeneration Perfect obedience to the light within as Christ and God Comprehending Brain A large understanding or a desire of Knowledge by the use of the Rational Faculty C. Call The motions of the Light Christ in the Conscience Christ Not the Man Christ Jesus the Son of Mary which the Godhead assumed and united to its self in one person but the light within every man a Christ that had nothing of Adams Nature whose Body now in being was not created or had a beginning in time which was never visible to the bodily eye Not in any respect distinct from God the Father and God the Holy Ghost Christ in the Saints Not Christ without them an Object of the faith and love within them but his very Being his Divinity his Soul and his Body consisting of spiritual Flesh Blood and Bones not his Image and Likness but the self-same in his Being and Essence Christs coming In the Spirit or his spiritual coming into his people i. e. no other but the prevailing motions of the light within or by inspiration The Command in Spirit By immediate inspiration and motion Comprehension Fleshly Comprehensions That Opinion or Belief which is grounded on a rational demonstration though from the written Word of God Carnal All things of a Religious concern which we are not enlightned about and moved to by immediate inspiration yea whatever hath a form or is visible to the bodily eye Fleshly Conceivings Those Opinions or expressions whose beginning and birth are in the humane faculties very great weakness if not sin and unbelief contrary to the assured and undoubted dictates of the Infallible Light and Spirit within them Condemnation The reproofs and sentencings of the light in the Conscience Conversion A full obedience to the light in the Conscience a total freedom from the prevailing of any sin such a state as the Disciples of Christ had not attained when Christ was crucified nor Paul when he wrote the Epistle to the Romans Crucifying of Christ Not that crucifying on the Cross of Wood but a
of the Church meeting together in their respective places do set and keep the affairs of it in good order beware of admitting or encouraging such as are weak and of little faith to take such trust upon them for by hearing things disputed that are doubtful such may be hurt themselves and may hunt the Truth not being grown into a good understanding to judge of things Therefore we exhort That you who have received a ture sense of things be diligent in the Lord's business and keep the Meetings as to him that all may be kept pure and clean according to that of God which is just and equal We also advise That not any be admitted to order Publick business of the Church but such as have felt in a measure of the Universal Spirit of Truth which seeks the destruction of none but the general good of all and especially of those that love it who are of the Houshold of Faith So dear Friends and Brethren believing that your souls will be refreshed in the sense of our spirits and integrity towards God at the reading of these things as ours were while we sate together at the opening of them and that you will be one with us on the behalf of the Lord and his precious Truth against those who would limit the Lord to speak without Instruments or by what Instruments they list and reject the counsel of the Wise-men and the testimony of the Prophets which God sanctified and sent among you in the day of his love when you were gathered and would not allow him liberty in and by his Servants to appoint time and place wherein to meet together to wait upon and worship him according as he requireth in Spirit and calling it Formal and the Meeting of man We say believing that you will have Fellowship with us herein as we have with you in the truth we commit you to God and the Word of life which hath been preached to you from the beginning which is neither limited to place nor time nor persons but hath power to limit us to each as pleaseth him that you with us and we with you may be built up in our most holy faith and be preserved to partake of the Inheritance which is heavenly amongst all them that are sanctified Richard â—arnsworth Alexander Parker George Whitehead Josiah Coale John Whitehead Thomas Loe Stephen Crispe Thomas Green John Moone Thomas Briggs James Parkes It will not be lost-labour to give my Reader an Account of the occasions of this Testimony and of those things contained in it which are of special remark The first and chief Principle which the Quakers cried up and endeavoured to obtrude on all they attempted to draw off from the common Principles of the Christian Religion and to prâ—selyte to themselves was That every man hath a light in him which is no less than Christ and the Spirit Christ the Word of God the Life the Power c. and that this Light is sufficient to lead into the knowledge of all Truth and to move men by its Power to the compleat and perfect Obedience And as upon this Principle they did and do discard the Scriptures from being a Rule of Faith and Life and from bearing the name of the Word of God So many of them believed it as rationally followed That all their Ministry and ordered Meetings to declare what they called their Testimony was not only superfluous but also a contradiction to their main Principle which is indeed rightly inferred Another Principle grounded on the former Foundation was To exclude all Forms of Worship Order or Discipline and every one to be left to his own proper liberty to meet or not to meet to speak or be silent as he or she should be guided by his or her private Light c. But the practices which suited to this Principle as it rendred its Professors discordant and contrary to each other and ridiculous to Observers So also it deprived their Heads and Leaders of that Denomination which was as ambitiously sought by them as by any Sect-Masters heretofore Upon these Considerations those who were chief in esteem and interest among them began to impose upon the rest what they pretended was by the Spirit dictated to them although it did not meet with the same inward relishes and sentiments of the rest Many of the Quakers who kept to their first Principle were hereat greatly offended and made opposition against those Obtrusions as Tyrannical and subverting their Foundation One of whom was the Author of that large Letter of Complaint published in a little Piece entituled THE SPIRIT OF THE HAT Muclow In which may be seen the main Grounds of difference between the Ruling and Non-Conforming Quakers and as well penn'd as was ever any thing by a Quaker But to reconcile these Impositions with the Principle of the Sufficiency and Divinity of the Light within every man the Imposers pretend That the Light of the Body i e. Such who bear the sway can taste and discern what is from the true Light in any and therefore what answers not to that discerning-Discerning-Spirit in the Body is to be exploded as not from the true Principle In this Testimony alias The Quakers Canons and Constitutions I shall remark these following particulars 1. That in the Title it is ordered to be read in all their Meetings and kept by them as a Testimony Which are Priviledges that the Scriptures obtain not with them 2. That the Subscribers and those others who joyned with them in their Convocations pretend to have met by the Operation of the Spirit and to have had in that Negotiation the presence of the Lord with them and that hereupon they ground the following Dictates and Impositions 3. That although they take it so grievously that they should be accounted no Christians by us yet they own no other to be the Church of Christ but themselves and have the Charity to reckon of all others as Without and as Heathen and Infidels among which sort they are to be numbered whom they Excommunicate 4. That notwithstanding their former decrying a stated and ordained Ministry Rule and Dignities in the Church as Tyrannical and Antichristian they have now a Ministry Rulers Dignities Offices and Dominions erected among themselves as necessary to the subsisting of their Fellowship And affirm That it is abominable Pride for any particular not to submit to the judgment given by them called The judgment of the Body 5. That although they have with their Authors the Romists and Jesuites reproached the holy Scriptures as a lame and insufficient Rule yea as no Rule Countenancing this their Distraction from the diversities of Opinions Parties and Factions which are found among those who own it for their Rule yet they themselves for all the All-sufficiency of their Light within have Doubts Discords and Factions among themselves and each pretending the Light for its Authority So that their pretended Remedy is an early breeder of those Diseases for which
universally entertained as the name of Christ it might be said without an Hyperbole that the whole World could not contain the Pamphlets that would be written and called The Word or Words of the Lord and of what value the Holy Scriptures would be in such a crowd of its pretended betters it is not hard to conclude Naylor Love to the Lost Pref. W. D. printed in the year 1663. Hear what James Naylor saith The things following which I have declared of are not the things of man nor by man did I receive them but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ The Word of the Lord to his beloved City c. This is the Title He concludes Through your Brother and Companion in the Tribulation and Kingdom of Patience in the Lord Jesus imitating the words of John in Rev. 1. 9. This I say in Parnel shield of the Truth p. 41. the Presence of the living God and by the Spâ—rit of the living God Give a most undeniable Exposition of a Scripture against their way the Answer is thy carnal minde discerns not the things of God Thou puttest thy meanings to the Scriptures the Scriptures must be judged of by the light or the Spirit from whence they came but thou art in neither If we bring a plain text in so many words against their Tenets and practices the Answer then is Thou art in the Letter And therefore Penington prays seriously My Penington qu. p. 12. upright desire to the Lord for you is That he would strip you of your knowledge of the Scriptures according to the flesh By Flesh their sense is the use of our understandings though sanctified as will appear in the KEY at the end of this Book to which I must referre you for construing all such ambiguous and Parnel Christ exalted p. 3. hard words and Parnel stigmatizes those who prize them Doting on the Scriptures with your dark minds That the Quakers do thus equal their Writings and SECT II Sayings c. with the Scripture shall appear by four undeniable things First they pretend to Infallibility This they assert to be necessary in all their Ministers who ordinarily declare or write and that without it it were impossible to be fitted for that work Hear what the chiefest of their Apostles saith How can ye be Ministers of the Spirit and not of the Letter G. Fox great myst c. p. 12. if ye be not infallible And how can they but delude people who are not infallible and George Whitehead in a Letter to me writes thus Quest Whether Infallibility be attainable by any in these dayes which we affirm is to true believers which if thou deniest we question thy Call to the Ministry They pretend to speak and write by the immediate Inspiration of God and this is another part whereby they aspire to equality The Apostle Paul gives this Character of the Scripture All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3. 16 c. And the Apostle Peter For the Prophesie came 2 Pet. 1. 21. not in old time by the Will of Man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Let us now compare Notes and see how far in these respects the Quakers will give the Scriptures the upper hand of their sayings or Writings And F. H. one of Antichrists Voluntiers defeated P. 18. how should he do otherwise seeing he hath denied the infallible spirit from which all the Ministers ministred and all the Prophets prophesied and spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost He was here pleading for their Mens and Womens prophesying and concludes that to deny the Infallible spirit to be and speak in the Quakers was to deny the infallible spirit by which all the Prophets prophesied c. Therefore may I say much more it is not in the Power Jo. Story short Discovery in Answer to Christian Queries of that little Book either to throw down self-will in any in whom it is not yet subdued or to exalt the truth in general because its only Queries gathered by the Author from the Letter of the Scriptures without and no Message of heavenly Prophesie Doctrine or Exhortation received by the Author from the Lord through the divine Inspiration of his light and spirit within therefore I say it is a very vain and idolatrous Exhortation The Writings of the Quakers are full to this purpose but my business in these instances being to prove matter of Fact only this may suffice Thirdly they pretend the Spirit of God to be in § 3 them in an essential consideration and in all his devine Properties and that it is Gods indwelling in them thus considered from which their sayings and writings proceed In this they arrogate to themselves and their expressions more then any of the Prophets and Apostles durst once imagine All they believe and declare they say is from the light within yea it is the light within that reveals it and not they and therefore they will not call them their sayings ordinarily but such as pass through them as if God spake through them as one may speak through a Trunk which is only a passage for the voice but no proper Organ of speech Through your Brother and Companion c. The W. D. Conclusion Voice of the Son of God was uttered forth through him by which the dead was raised And indeed this light within they pretend to be both Father Son and Life of Ed. Burroughs Spirit for they make no distinction But this being matter of fact I shall prove it out of their writings yet you must not suppose that I shall find any such words as essential or properties in their Authors for such words are too proper for them and expressive of the truth to such who understand them yet I shall find the things as very God cloathed with those Attributes which are peculiar to him And whoever reads what immediately follows and considers the Evidences to be but the Quakers own Confessions and shall not be touched with horrour and indignation against their principles let that man or woman know that a Conscience seared with a hot iron is too soft a term for their insensibleness G. B. true saith of the Gospel of Peace p. 18. Every man hath that which is one in union and like the Spirit of Christ even as good as the Spirit of Christ according to its measure Child I am sensible that there is something in my Smith Prim. p. 14. Conscience that lets me see my secret Thoughts and the Intents of my heart c. Father That is the true light of Christ within that lets thee see the thoughts and the intents of thy heart and God hath freely given in unto thee and requires thy obedience to it Ch. But if I should turn unto it and obey it when it reproves me for sin is there Power in it to save me from my sin Answ All Power in Heaven
and Earth is in it To shut up this particular hear one of their prime § 4 Ministers who speaks plainly his mind and not in Parables I will make you know that I the light which G. Fox jun. p. 53. p. 54. p. 55. lighteth every man that cometh into the World that all through me should believe am the true eternal God which created all things that by me the light all things are upheld and that there is not another besides me can save And I will purge out all your iniquities and forgive all yâ—ur trespasses and I will change your Natures and I will make you new Creatures if you will bearken to me and obey me the light in you What I have here written is the words which the Father who is one with Christ the Son gave me to write in which words the true Christ is renewed and a Testimony given of him and no other But enough and too much of this Blasphemy I need not take pains to ravel into it for it s so plain that none but those who shut their eyes and are wilfully blind but may see it in an unexpressible deformity I now procced to the fourth proof of their equalling SECT III their Sayings Writings and Light within and preferring them before the Scriptures I place them in this Order that you may behold them at one view in their not only disproportion but opposition The CHARACTERS of the Scriptures given by the Quakers CHARACTERS of their own Teachers Writings and Sayings given by them Feeding Death with Death The Letter which killeth Declaration from the Ministers of the Word p. 7. The Voice of the Son of God was uttered forth by him by which the dead was raised F. H. Life of E. B. p. 20. Paper Ink and Writing Declar. from the Ministers of the Word p. 2. A Shield of the Truth Title of James Parnel's Book A dead letter The old letter Seeking the living among the dead Parnel Shield to the Truth Naylor Love to the Lost His words ministred Grace to the Hearers Fox jun. life of E. B.  Forcible and very pleasant as apples of gold in pictures of silver This in the freshness and quick sense of life Penington quest c. 41. Leave men in the dark and confusion Frequent Passage A clear Discovery Title of Smiths Prim.  O how certain a sound did his Trumpet give Life of E. B. p. 2. Part of it the words of the Devil and wicked men Wisdom of words Nayl Love to the lost c. 21. Written from the Spirit of the Lord. Title page Parnel Shield of truth  The Voice of the Son of God Life of E. B. 20. My upright desire to the Lord for you is that he would strip you of all your knowledge of the Scriptures according to the flesh Penington quest p. 12. And now Child hear Instruction and be wise Treasure it up in thy heart that thou mayest lay up for thy self a good foundation Smith Prim. p. 56. Shews you in a Glass your own faces which the Scriptures cannot do Scorned Quakers Account p. 20. A spiritual Glass opened Title of Smiths Cat. and part of the Title of his Morn Watch. Precept and Traditions of men Morning-Watch p. 18. Truths Principles Title of Crooks Book That light is in the Scriptures prove that or tell me what one Scripture hath light in it Lip of truth c. p. 7. Light risen out of darkness Title of Farnworths Book Natural Lawson Carnal Letter Shield of the truth p. 10. God is at liberty to speak by them the Scriptures if he please and where they are given by Inspiration he doth so and so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing as to Balaam by his Ass Ja. Naylor Light of Christ c. p. 19. Earthly Root Morning-Watch 22.  Worship and obedience as to its direction The Harlots Child Morn Watch p. 23.  Hagar and Ismael Mother and Child after the Letter Penington Mysteries of the Kingdom Preface He proclaimed liberty to the Captives in the Power and Authority of God F. H. of E. B. p. 15. Letter without Swine feeding on the husk The shadow Parnel Shield of Truth p. 10. Let this be sent to be read in the fear of the Lord in the Holy Assemblies of the Church of the first-born where she is scattered to the ends of the Earth W. D. Doting on the Scriptures Parnel Christ exalted p. 4.  Betrayed into the words Smith Prim. p. 30.  Dangerous to feed on them Sm. Cat. 36.  I having sufficiently proved that they equal their SECT IV writings and sayings with and prefer them before the Scriptures it is not fit I should let them pass without contradiction I shall therefore review their Grounds for so doing and discover them to be but swelling words of vanity And I shall begin with their Infallibility I am confident that G. Fox the Ring-leader of the Sect understands not what he saith nor whereof he affirms It is one thing not to fail another to be infallible for that is to be without all possibility of falling or erring Again it is one thing to be infallible with a restriction to something another to be universally infallible and without limitation If G. Fox understands so much he is a Non-such § 2 for confidence and being void of reason that affirmeth as he doth let us examine but that one passage before-cited How can ye be Ministers of the Spirit and not of the Letter if ye be not infallible Here he puts Ministry of the Spirit and of the Letter in opposition which Christ and his Apostles joyned hand in hand as loving companions and meet helps each to other And there was delivered unto him the Book of Luke 4. 17. the Prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the Book he found the place where it was written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me c. verse 21. And he began to say unto them this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears and all bare him witness and wondred at the gracious words c. was not Christ then a Minister of the Spirit it is by him said this day this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears viz. the Spirit of the Lord is upon me And was he not also a Minister of the Letter why he opened the Book and found where it was written and no doubt read it out of the Book to his Auditors or else it would have been very impertinent to tell them This Scripture is fulfilled for they must have divined or not known what Scripture he intended And I suppose none will doubt whether that which is written in a Book be written in Letters Well then either George Fox is fallible yea and hath grosly failed or Jesus Christ was not a Minister of the Spirit and which of these you who call your selves infallible Ministers of the Spirit will admit of I know not but I am sure every true Christian will
lusts of men and this pure sensation of stirrings and motions becomes better by far the stark blind than those who have eyes in their heads We grope for the wall like the blind and we grope Isa 59. 10. as if we had no eyes we stumble at noon-day as in the night One of the severest curses for disobedience threatned against Israel was and thou shalt grope at Deu. 28. 29. noon-day as the blind gropeth in darkness and thou shalt not prosper in thy wayes And what is this principle of the Quakers but to turn us again into the darkness and Chaos of Gentilism instead of beholding as in a Glass with open face the glory of the Lord to be feeling after him by the corrupt and half senseless touches of a natural conscience acting on the narrow and uncertain indications of Creation and providence which though they may teach something concerning God and our original duty to him will be as far from acquainting us with Gospel truths or such as concern Christ and our redemption by him as a stone or tree is from discerning and expressing the secret and bosom counsels of God or man I would not yet have you think that we deny § 7 or disown a sensation and feeling of the holy and blessed mind of God for we look on nothing of greater moment than to have a heart and conscience delivered from searedness and being past feeling But our feeling and sense of the truths of God is by the Faith of them revealed to us in and by his Word into which we desire absolutely to resolve our belief and which is the objective rule to the understanding by the senses CHAP. VI. The Quakers take men off from reading the Scripture and looking into them for instruction and comfort IT is no matter of wonder at all that they who are SECT I so far entred in the denial and contempt of the Scripture should advance this step further it being but the natural off-spring of what I have already proved to be their Tenets And whatever else is the round of their writings and declarings all centres in putting people upon looking to the light within as the only Counsellor and Comforter And this is the Smith Ca◠p. 95. meaning of our Doctrine to bring people to the everlasting Word of God in themselves Whereby they steal away their esteem and use of the Scriptures insensibly and they are shut up and lost in another Book viz. The light within before they are aware whereas if they should in so many words forbid them to read the Scriptures it would make their hearts recoil Alas that men are such Children who suspect not a design to rob them of their Gold when a Counter a trifle is commended to them and imposed upon them that they may not think of or mind that which is a Treasure By this means the Scriptures are forgotten 'till the love and esteem of them be lost by doting on the new and gay fancy of a divine and perfect light within But to the proof further But turn your ears inward to the measure of light in § 2 Morning Watch Epist you which is without guile So to that of God in thee I will direct thee Their Pamphlets are stuffed so full with expressions of this nature that I should but shew you their great road in citing their words neither will any of them deny what they are brought to prove But if they intended the judgment and conscience enlightned and that this ought to be minded in its place we should not condemn for such directions but when it is made a God of and by consequence an Idol and those beams of Divine light shining in the Scripture excluded as if they had the body of the Sun within themselves it is the highest instance of folly and proof of taking men off from reading the Scriptures for instruction and comfort Yet take their minds in express words And by the § 3 Parnel ' s Shield of she truth p. 10. same light do we discern and testifie against him to be in darkness and blindness and is a deceiver who putteth the letter for the light and so draw peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them seeking the living among the dead You may here discern the confidence they have in their light within that they dare oppose it to the Scripture yea and take its false witness which it bears against the Scripture and with what a black coal he marks those who put the letter i. e. the Scriptures for the light and this he construes to be a drawing peoples minds from the light within them to the light without them so that by his own way of reasoning I have authority to say that putting the light within them for the Scripture the light without them they draw peoples minds from the Scripture But the close of this sentence is no less than a murtherer of the holy Scripture seeking the living among the dead yea a strangling the Scripture with one of its own silver Cords Why seek ye the living among the dead as if the Scripture Luke 24. 5. were a very Grave and Charnel-house from which the living Jesus is for ever departed or which is more congruous to their sense they are no more able to minister instruction and comfort than a dead Carcase rotting in the Grave Hear one more of their Trumpets sounding to the § 4 John Story short discovery c. p. 2. same purpose And although the holy Scripture without and the Saints practises are as lights in the world yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolize them as to set them in esteem above the light which is sufficient to guide or to esteem them equal with the light and Spirit of Christ within The Scriptures are as lights but they will not right them so far as to call the Scripture a light and the commendations of that Idol the light within are such as if they were true he were a stark fool who would direct his eyes to the Scripture having such an excelling light in his own bosom But lest after all these allurings they should not be understood and people should be so silly as to attempt to light their Candle at the Scripture Taper they will tell you in plain English the vanity of such an undertaking For he Smith Prim. p. 12. Christ the light within alone searches the hearts and not the Scripture So that to draw people from attending to the Scripture they do not only commend the light within being silent concerning the Scripture in the mean while but tell you in plain words the Scriptures are in this matter of no service at all as Parnel before cited he is the light and guide c. the Scriptures are not They assert the light within to be sufficient yea all-sufficient SECT II This where it takes hold of the credulity will draw as hard from attending
verily nothing then but a Christ within you c. and the next sentence is come thou then O come with boldness to Gods faithful Witness within you If he had said the Scriptures without the knowledg of them or the notion of them without the power or without the Spirits concurrence he had spoken truth But to beat these Weapons out of their hands to cry out with a vehemency to throw down those Arms as useless and run away to that second Antichrist the light within this is horrid The true Christ is not so far from the Scriptures nor so disagreeing with them but he can dwell in one heart with them and arms all his Souldiers with the weapons of the truths therein contained but Christ Jesus the Christ of God and Redeemer of his people and the Quakers Christ are nothing of kin But one would think this should be but a slip of § 3 his Pen let us see if he speak not more favourably of the holy Scriptures in his following discourse but alas the darkness within hath so bewitched him that nothing but the Quakers Idol is good for any thing The Scriptures nor any other outward things Pag. 11. are able to grapple with him the Devil you must put on the armour of light light within and with that resist him or be taken captive by him What a rapture of zeal is here for the thing within though the Scriptures alone can do little yet sure if God Almighty undertake the combat either with or without the Scriptures he will be too hard for all the Devils or he had not kept his Throne from being usurped by them and if God be not without the Quakers or any other creature as well as within them he is not infinite as we have taken him to be by the light of Reason and more by the light of Scripture But what blasphemy will not men run into who have changed their God for that which is no God and have turned their backs on the Lord Jesus and taken so gross a delusion in the room of him Again he goes on to the same purpose least you Pag. 11. should not understand him If you use any other Weapons than the light within in this spiritual war yâ—u cannot prosper nor prevail against him I have lighted on a proof of the latter part of my Charge before I was aware viz. for then it is dangerous to read the Scriptures lest you should be tempted to try some of those inviting Arms which that Magazine is stored with and so spoil all your prosperity and prevalence in your spiritual Warfare However this shall not prevent the producing my SECT II intended proofs of the danger as the Quakers say that attend reading the Scriptures But seeing as the Quakers say we must try the Spirits by the Spirit let us try William Smith's spirit by Isaac Pennington's who speaking of knowledge gained by the Pennington's quest c. P. 12. Letter of the Scriptures speaks thus Making him wise and able there in his head to oppose truth and so bringing him into a state of condemnation wrath and misery beyond the Heathen and making him harder to be wrought upon by the light and power of truth than the very Heathen By opposing truth we must needs understand it of the Quakers truth and if reading the Scriptures and getting knowledge from or by them puts us in to a bad condition both as rendring conversion difficult and our misery and condemnation great beyond the Heathen I scarce know what is more dangerous than reading the Scriptures But the comfort is it doth but render us harder to be wrought on to entertain the pernicious Guide and Saviour the Quakers light within and therefore is exceeding safe and necessary It follows in the same Author My upright desire to the Lord for you is that he would strip you of all your knowledge or wisdom of the Scriptures after the flesh Their meaning of after the flesh is that which comes not by immediate inspiration For those only are the Children of God who are led by the Spirit of Naylors love to the lost p. 53. God to whom they who were led by the Letter were ever enemies So Naylor doth as certainly say 't is dangerous to read the Scriptures to be led by them as it is truly dangerous and evil to be Enemies to the Children of God That this abominable Tenet is the Quakers I know SECT III it sufficiently and that they look upon our adhering to the Scripture light as the greatest adversary in the world to their adored light within But I love not the Quakers way of demonstration viz. we witness this and that but if you would know how they witness it it is only their own experience which is a dumb kind of witness while they can make no proof or testimony of it to another nor will ordinarily attempt it and so their witness is to themselves alone But my witnessing of what I here charge them with shall have more light in it that all that read it may be convinced of its truth Therefore take one instance more out of their famous Author W. P. or William Pen. But I will assure them they shall yet grope in the dark § 4 W. Pen's Spirit of truth c. p. 23. till they come into the daily obedience of the light and there rest contented to know only as they experience and not from a ravening comprehending brain that would in its unregenerated state grasp at the clear mysteries of the Kingdom into which fleshly comprehensions and notions can never enter but all must be as unlearned from their first birth education and traditional read knowledge as he is unmanned that is again become a little Child before the secrets of Gods Work come to be made known That W. P. of all others should talk at this rate is most ridiculous What! know only as they experience know what God is no farther than they experience Can we experience his Omnipotency his infiniteness which is not within the experience of all finite beings put together What! know the death by Spear and Nails of Iron or Steel and Cross of wood of the man Christ Jesus which he suffered above 1600 years since only by experience What! know the life to come the judging of all men that are ever were or shall be by the Lord Jesus only by experience where is faith all the while what credit hath God with W. P. that he will know him nor any thing he saith no further than he sees feels in his experience If none but Believers be Saints such as W. P. are professedly none if he know not that objects of faith and experience as such are contradistinct things he is very unfit to assure who they are that grope in the dark and is very unlike to mend his confused scribling I shall not comment on his ravening comprehending brain a most affected phrase amongst the Quakers nor his clear
Jesus of Nazareth he that then talked with them was he they have read it but you will not c. as if the one were exceeding opposite to the other viz. searching the Scripture whereas the true sense is it condemns you as irrational men that you should think to have eternal life in the Scriptures and will not believe their testimony I must remember to tell you that I do not take the Scriptures to be able to give eternal life to all that have them in their houses or heads or that do barely search them and not set thâ—â—r hearts according to its direction to find eternal life It were ten to one if I had not said so much some or other of them would have had a fling at me as making a Christ of the Scripture By what hath been produced you may be sure § 4 there is the best profit by Gods blessing on an honest reading of the Scriptures Young Timothy was bred up from a Child in the Holy Scripture and it was the commendation of his Mother and Grand-Mother for so educating him but can you think he experienced all he read before he read it some of them are prophetical of things to come Can any of you all experience things that never yet had an existence or being And should the Gentiles and Jews have been reproved for hearing Paul and Peter and Christ himself preach the Gospel and the Mediatour of it because they did not experience it in themselves But why should I use many words about such a cause the willing to understand may see its grossness and forthose that will be ignorant means signifie little to their cure CHAP. XI The Quakers put or render the Scriptures and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other I Could produce a thousand instances of this crime SECT I against the life and being of the Scriptures committed by the Quakers as their principle and duty This wickedness is their open high-way and beaten road If the Scripture had not been the word of the Spirit of God the revelation of his mind and will whose holiness and authority had its being from God its author the frame of it agreeing to the nature and will of God we would not think it worthy the name of Scripture in that peculiar sense which it hath obtained among Christians But if once we knew it opposite and an adversary to the Spirit so far at least that it must come to a parting and they that cleave to the teachings of the Spirit must forsake being taught comforted c. by the Scriptures and they that cleave to the Scripture teaching by the Spirit have forsaken the Spirit of God and his teachings we would own our such profession to be a denying the Scriptures yea should take our selves bound in so many words to deny it and send it as far out of the way as may be as dangerous to the just prerogative of the Spirit of God And if those who profess what I shall instance had any honesty in them they would tell the world they utterly deny the Scriptures to be what the Christian world hath accounted them and in plain and open words and testimonies as far as they can produce exhort and move them to lay them aside and have no more to do with them nor give them one good word least the adversary to the Spirit should in the hearts and lives of men be exalted against him For the proving of the Charge at the head of this Chapter take the words of James Naylor the § 2 Quakers proto-Confessor For all the Saints have their commands in Spirit but yours is in the Letter Naylor's love to the lost p. 8. and so of another ministration for the literal ministration is done away in the spiritual Here you have the commands in Spirit or by the Spirit put in opposition to the Letter which is with them the written Word or the Scripture and so far in opposition that as heat being opposite to coldness and light to darkness the one so far as it prevails expelleth the other by its contrariety and opposite qualities so the spiritual ministration or ministration of the Spirit banishes and expelleth that of the Letter as its enemy and contrary But if you will have a prodigious instance a non-such for Blaspheming the Spirit of God in the Scriptures read what follows out of a great Writer of theirs William Smith And reading in the Scriptures that there were some who met together and exhorted Morning Watch. p. 22 23. one another and were edified and comforted one in another they observe and do as near as they can what they read of the Saints practice and so conceives a birth in the same Womb the Scriptures and brings it forth in the same strength as others do and they make haste thither and open their eyes to look at the things which are seen the Scriptures and this is pleasing to the carnal mind c. They Worship Order Ordinances Faith Practice understood by the written Word must all come under the severity of his judgment because they are Bastards and not Sons for these adulterous births have provoked the Lord and grieved his Spirit It would amaze a Christian and sound mind to read § 3 what is contained in the two pages in the Margin quoted of vilifying and reproach to the Scriptures and the Doctrines from thence received Traditions Ib. 22 23 of men earthly root darkness and confusion Nebuchadnezzars Image putrefaction and corruption rotten and deceitful all out of the life and power of God Apostacy the Whores Cup the mark of the Beast Babylon the Mother of Harlots Bastards brought fâ—rth of flesh and blood the birth that persecuts the Son and Heir viz. the Spirit of God or light within Babylons Brats and Children Graven Images contrary to him the everlasting powerful God c. If this be not opposing the Spirit of God to the Scripture and rendring them adverse to each other the Devil himself must despair of inventing words to express it by I conclude the proof of this Charge with the words § 4 Naylors love to the lost p. 30. of Naylor And of this sort are they who have their preaching to study and to seek at other mens mouths or from the Letter and have it not from the mouth of the Lord. Then with him and the Quakers who are of his mind what we have from the Scriptures we have not from the mouth of the Lord. I would know of the Quakers what they will make of the mouth of the Lord Do they take it to be some part of his body which is like our mouths the Organs of speech We have thought hitherto that God being a Spirit hath no mouth at all only to express things to our understandings he speaks by similitudes taken from such things we are acquainted withall and so whatsoever God reveals his mind by may be called his mouth And it will follow that the Scriptures are
most agrees with his words is in 2 Col. 14. blotting out the hand-writing of 2 Col. 14. opened Ordinances he might have added the next words that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross but these words were not for his turn The true meaning of the Text is that Jesus Christ § 3 by his death fulfilling what was signified by the typical Jewish Ordinances and abolishing the Mosaical Dispensation entred his house his Church to undertake the administration of its affairs which he in all things disposed as was suitable to the gracious nature of the Redeemer and that glory of Gods goodness that now shines in the Face of Jesus Christ But will this great Prophet G. F. say that the pure Gospel-Ordinances are against us contrary to us or as the Jewish standing in the way of the Conversion of the Gentiles through their burthensomness Will he say that Christ by his death abolished his own proper Ordinances Will he say that he nailed them to his Cross before they had a being divers of them not being formed till by his Apostles after his Resurrection Will he say that he blotted out the Lords Supper and nailed that to his Cross also as soon as he had instituted it as if he delighted in a fickle humour as the Quakers and to give life to an Ordinance and within twenty four hours put it to death yea to ingage his Disciples thereby to remember his death as often as they did it and yet abolish the Ordinance by his death and so take away all opportunity of remembring his death thereby And that phrase of the Angel seeking the living § 4 among the dead because they are taken with the sound is often used by them though not only beside the meaning of it but contrary to the sense of any Scripture I am sure it was never intended to prove Gospel-Ordinances dead You may hereby note what he denies viz. outward forms they are not to be touched and his reason is an excellent one the Saints have Christ in them At another time he will say Moses Abraham and the Old-Testament Saints had Christ in them and that in their own sense and yet I hope he will give us leave to believe that it was their duty to observe Gods forms But I wonder not that they that hold not fast the form of sound words are so easily perswaded to let go the forms of sound worship Let us hear another For this I say that the Father hath given his Son James Nayloâ— Love to lost p 52. §. 5. for a Leader and Guide to all Ages and into and out of all forms at his will and in his way and time in every Generation and therefore it is that all who know his will herein cannot endure that any visible thing should be set up to limit his leadings in Spirit Here you have the Tenet and the pretended reason of it all that know his will herein that is the Quakers cannot endure that any visible thing should be set up c. But what if Christ have set them up If they can prove as strongly that Christ hath pulled them down and is departed from them as we can that Christ did set them up and is present with and in them we will quickly in that point turn Quakers But alas the proof that he hath done so is but this they limit his leadings in Spirit that is the Quakers fancies But if he intended the Spirits leadings in a true sense it is very strange that the Gospel and Law of Works should be both sick of one disease That which was ordained to life I found to be unto death The Ordinances of the Gospel were ordained to inlarge and raise the spirits of the Saints but quite contrary they are found to limit and imprison the spirit Sure it must be Satans spirit and not Christs to whom the Ordinances are such Chains That I may shew you the Quakers Babel let us § 6 hear Isaac Pennington's Light speak contrary to the Light of G. Fox When Israel was bent to seek after Isaac Pennington concerning Vnity p. 1. the Lord and applied their hearts to wait upon him in fasting and earnest supplications wherein my heart hath often had the testimony that they were accepted of him and had many times the seal of his presence and power among them yea my heart did truly unite with and enjoy the Lord in what was then given forth and I can never deny the truth and worth of that Dispensation though I know it was swallowed up by the breaking forth of a more lively Dispensation This he saith he found about the beginning of the late troubles How doth this agree to G. Fox's nailing all those forms to Christs Cross at his death and then blotting out these Ordinances § P. 38. I deny that God did ever or will ever reveal himself by any of those things thou callest the means of Grace C. Atkinson But yet I. P. will needs have them swallowed up now though he gave them leave to live 1600 years more mercifully however than G. who would have them stifled in the womb or crucified so soon as born But Pennington is so cruel by that time he arrives to p. 38. that he saith Such of the people of God as do not follow the Lord perfectly out of the City of abomination visible worship but be found in any part thereof when the Lord cometh to judge her the Lord will not spare her nor the spirits of his dearest people who are found there c. Both by the Scripture and their own confession Christ did not long since dwell in those Ordinances which we call Gospel-Ordinances and the Quakers Babylons forms and abominations Until they shew us better grounds for Christs remove than the secret witness of the Spirit within them which we can prove to be a spirit of delusion by Scripture reason and sense it self let none who follow not Christ blind-fold have the worse opinion of Ordinances for all the Quakers talk I now come to particulars and begin with the Gospel-Ministry They deny and subvert the Ministry of the Gospel SECT III railing on the Ministers as the vilest persons and veriest Cheats in the world making ill use of those Scripture words Smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered Next to the Scripture they lay not their batteries against any thing so much as against the Ministers of the Gospel and have so little honesty as to take up all that is to be found on any one or any that pretend to be the Ministers of Christ and cast it in the faces of all without distinction as equally guilty And for their more particular attempts those who are the most faithful and serious are the objects of their greatest fury I shall not blot paper with their railing First They deny all Ministry that hath a mediate § 2 â—arnâ—l ' s Shield
sufficient and by which they find more comfort often than when there is speaking But at a Meeting not far from my dwelling there § 4 was the strangest Teaching that I believe was ever heard of among pretended Reformers and I had it from a man of note among them who was one of the Meeting There declared not a man but a woman that 's ordinary not an English woman but a Dutch woman that is not so frequent not in English but in Dutch this was orderly according to the Popish Mass and prayers in an unknown tongue to the people But the strangest thing of all was he told me that although not one of them understood Dutch nor could the Dutch woman interpret into English at least she did not they knew she spake by the Spirit I asked him how He told me because they all found refreshings So have children many a time at Puppet-plays What a pass are these people come to who yet deny all Teachings by man But that you may not doubt the truth of the story § 5 there being a Dispute or somewhat so called by some between me and George Whitehead the Quakers Champion I did before all the Audience charge them with this thing my Informer a Quaker being there and many more Quakers who were at that Meeting but none dared to deny one word of the Charge only George Whitehead said it may be there was some body there that understood Dutch But what have they to say think you to this contradiction of their Principles in Teaching Why it is not they but the Man Christ or the Light or the Spirit that teaches and if such light replies will not serve turn you may go somewhere else to be satisfied for them But beyond all contradiction if the Churches and Churches mentioned and owned in the New Testament be Gospel Churches the Quakers deny a Gospel Church for all of them had men who taught them at least they did not deny any such helps But we will produce a testimony or two more to see § 7 if we can make a further discovery For the Church Parnel Shield of the truth p. 34. is but one and the Temple of God we own which is at new Jerusalem the City of the living God I have read of the Church at Jerusalem before it was destroyed by the Romans and of the Churches at Corinth in Thessalonica Ephesus and many places more And I have read of the Church called Jerusalem which is above and the City of the living God but never yet of the Church which is at new Jerusalem this is none of the Churches the Apostles ever built or set in order But let it pass as a rumour till farther confirmation § 8 The holy Ghost made the Officers of the Church Overseâ—rs Great mystery c. p 8. the Overseers to be invisible for they saw with an invisible eye and so they was in the Spirit which is invisible and not in the flesh Strange Officers to as strange a Church Quest Which is the fold of the sheep Answ The Isaac Penningtons Questions p. 49. wisdom life and power of the Father even the same that is the shepherd Object Is not the Church the fold Answ This in the Church or the Church in this is the fold but not out of this Seeing this is the best account we can get I must § 9 repair to William Smith who telleth us That all we do according to Scripture patterns is but building of Babylon and that I am sure is not Ziâ—n and this is the scope of many pages in his Morning Watch. Morning watch But I have proved them to deny all forms and visible things in Religion and worship upon the general head but the Gospel-Church is a form In whom all the building is fitly framed I am sure that is a strange Eph 2. 21. building without any form but to be framed and and formed is one and the same thing with being put into a form For though I be absent in the flesh Col. 2. 5 19. yet am I with you in the Spirit joying and beholding your order and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ And not holding the head from which not in which only all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God So that a Gospel-Church is a number for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a name of many gathered together united according to Christs from first to him then one to another for mutual edification in the things of God But this the Quakers utterly deny CHAP. XIV They deny the Ordinance of hearing the Word preached THey will allow a hearing the Word preached SECT I and that must be the light within but the mind of God contained in the Scripture they must by no meanes hear preached for as I hinted from G. Foâ— we must not hear man for the Prophets bid Cease from man But having already so largely proved their tenet to be That only the light within must be attended to I need not do the same thing over and over I will give you a Scripture or two to strengthen you against this fancy-full teacher the light within And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written Rom. 10. 15 18. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gâ—spel of peace c. But I say have they not heard yea verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Here are more preachers than one and these Texts explain what is meant by the word nigh thee in the 8th verse which the Quakers lay as a strong Foundation for their light within This Word must be heard or they could not believe and it could not preach it self for they could not hear without a Preacher and these Preachers could not be the Word Christ for they had feet which Christ as within Believers Christ as the Eternal God hath not and the Preachers were more than one whereas Christ the Word is but one as appears by the Relatives plural they them theirs But now I am upon the point of hearing the Word § 2 a great Mystery of the Quakers comes into my mind and it is worth the revealing That is this They hold it is the light that preaches the light that is preached the light that hears or is preached to and so the light which with them is God Father Son and Spirit is all concerned in the Gospel and man nothing at all for it is the light that doth all also I think when I have proved this I have discovered that which will render the Quakers the most absurd and blasphemous that ever undertook to speak with mans voice Quest Is there something of God in my conscience Smith Prim. p. 2. that will give me the knowledge of him Answ There is not any thing else that can do it And man cannot know him God
only the 36. Chap. of Genesis wherein is contained Esau's posterity and how many Dukes there were of his Race Yet I shall produce your arguments for the Readers satisfaction that he may believe his own eyes and I shall be more honest than to frame a meer whimsie out of my own head to abuse you and say after this lofty manner of disputing you undertake our overthrow which is your guilt in the fourth page of your Book Your first proof you pretend from Gen. 6. 1. And SECT III the Lord said my Spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years I will for once transcribe your Argument verbatim that it may be notorious how loftily you dispute If God's unerring Spirit has been wont to strive with men either to convince them of or convert them from the evil of their thoughts words or deeds or else to provoke them yet more fully to do the will of God so as to press on from one degree of glory to another then men hâ—ve had an unerring Spirit to be their Teacher and Judge and Rule and Guide of that Truth concerning that Faith and in that most holy way which leads to Eternal Life But the Scripture proves the first Proposition that Gods Spirit hath frequently strove with men and for the ends before-mentioned and câ—nsequently they have not been without an holy unerring Spirit to teach judge regulate and guide them If I should only say your whole Argument is a § 2 meer confused thicket of impertinencies and non seâ—uitur's I believe your conclusion would be most absolute that it was for want of eyes and that I dare not touch a bough of it for fear of pricking my fingers A man had need of good Arithmetick also to numbâ—r the terms You tell us the Scripture proves your first Proposition You are a non Such for diving if you can fetch up from this Scripture what is expressed in your first proposition especially the latter member of it It is more than probable that the Spirit did strive with them to make them better than they were yet none of those ends are expressed in the Text but that it should be that they might more fully do the Will of God and press on from one degree of Glory to another is a guess wonderfully well becoming your infalliblity Why did you not say or to turn them into Suns Moons and Stars which were all out as much in the Text as the other and I dare say some of your Friends would have taken themselves bound to believe it who find no fault with greater absurditiâ—s dropt from their admired Dictâ—tors but Quos Dâ—us vult perdere hos dementat There were eight persons saved in the Ark but one Noah said to be righteous before God and all the â—est overwhelmed by the Deluge for their extreme impieties yet these were pressed on from one degree of Glory to another The consequence of your first Proposition is all manner of Fruits which you had a mind should be grafted on this Stock but as the Text will not impart its Sap to your Proposition so your Proposition is as dry to your Consâ—quence but that 's no matter if they will not grow one upon another you 'l make them hang together right or wrong Yea and if the Spirit do but strive it must be how you will have it and for what ends you please or you 'l rack the letter for it but the'res no cruelty to a dead letter Bâ—t Mr. Pen if your conscience have any eyes § 3 I intreat you make use of the light here afforded you to compare the Text and what you lay at its doors and see how alike they look Your Question is of the Spirits teaching among men c. indefinitely and your proof speaks of the Spirits striving with wicked men Your aim is to prove it an immediate and peculiar Teacher c. of Gods people the Text speaks of neither If I affirm the Spirit strove with them by providential Chastisements ominous presages of Calamities at hand by his goodness which leads to Reâ—entance by the Ark which Noah built moved by faith and fear and by which he condemned the unbelieving besotted World by his Preaching righteousness I can prove my being guided therein by the unerring Spirit of God at another rate than you 2 Pet 2. 5. can your contradiction But your wandrings from truth and reason can § 4 hardly have a higher instance and evidence than that you should be so infatuated as to conclude from a Text which saith my Spirit shall not always strive with man that it doth now teach c. and God hath not left his people in our present nor will in future ages without his Spirit to teach them immediately and solely which is in your Question or your prosecution of it and should have been expressed there if you had had so much ingenuity Instead of being angry that I have shewed your vanity and made your folly in this argument such a spectacle to the world you have reason to give me thanks that I examine it no further However before we part I will try you at another SECT III weapon which you forge out of Neh. 3. 19 20. Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness the pillar of the Cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way c. This part of your quotation is not onely no friend to your affirmation and principles but an invincible adversary No man in his wits will say the pillar of the cloud and fire were the Spirit of God and if God led his people by them they were not led onely and immediately by the Spirit of God It may be the latter part of your citation may do more for you Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them This good Spirit was mainly the Spirit of God which he put upon Moses and Joshua and some other their chief Persons by God's appointment as is evident from these Texts And I will take off the Spirit which is upon thee and § 2 will put it upon them and they shall bear the burthen of the people with thee Num. 11. 17. And the Lord said unto Moses take thou Joshua the Sun of Nun a man in whom is the Spirit and lay thy hand upon him Num. 27. 18. Thou leadest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron Psal 77. 20. Now God is said to give them his good Spirit to instruct them by bestowing it in such a way and measure on their instructers and guides though I deny not but every true Israelite had the Spirit also dwelling in him yet they were never the less but the more submiss to the conduct of their mediat or if you will men-teachers and guides for that Your third chosen Scripture for your service is SECT III But there is a Spirit in man
to do SECT VI thy will for thou art my God thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of uprightness Psal 43. 10. To bend this Text to your bow you talk thus The Question will be whether it was Davids intent and the scope of his desire that God should teach and lead him by his good Spirit or some other thing But methinks it is resolvable in the affirmative in two respects What a strange Question is this Who doubts but David commended the Spirit of God as a good Teacher what then must all other Teachers which the Spirit of God makes use of as the means by which he teaches be cast off Suppose I should say such a man is a good School-master I would fain be taught by him doth that imply I would not learn out of a Grammar or other books which he uses to that end or doth it not rather conclude that I like not only his abilities but his method and means by which he teaches The Psalmist saith Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest out of thy Law You would little less than hoot at him that should from hence conclude the Psalmist to reject the Spirit as a Teacher and to admit of no other Teacher but the Law It is after this lofty manner of disputing you undertake our overthrow When you have so learnedly framed your Question § 2 which by the disjunctive Or you make to consist of two members which would he have for his Teacher the Spirit or some other thing You answer it like your self Methinks it is resolvable in the affirmative But I pray which of the parts of your Question do you affirm which do you deny Why truly it is the safest course you take to affirm it of both for then the truth is owned and in this point the quarrel ended But then what need your fighting against what you affirm unless you are resolved to be quarrelsome Alas poor man it was by a meer mistake you said truth you intended to resolve in the affirmative that he desired to be taught by the good Spirit of God but in the negative of any other thing Canis festinans coecos parit catulos The two respects which thus blinded you are enough § 3 to keep any mans eyes open that is but willing to see First How that the Word was hid in his heart That internal Law Word and Spirit of God which plentifully shews how much he was an Enthusiast and Quaker in the sense this man esteems us most Heterodox Law Word and Spirit are all one with you But where do you find the Word hid in the hearts of the Saints called the Internal Word 'T is true that it is within in the memory faith love and hid there with the hiding of security but it was as much without before it was within as the Childs Lesson which it gets by heart out of a book which when done you might as well call it the Child 's Internal Lesson Your second respect is the very words viz. of the § 4 Text imply the thing we urge them for and can import no other sense Also what did that clause do there viz. thy Spâ—rit is good Can the Spirit be good for nothing if the external word be good for something as a Teacher I mistrust not the eyes of any but the Quakers but that they will see at first glance what a feeble Champion you are without my pointing Parvas habet spes Troja si tales habet I shall trace you foot by foot no further you shoot at so many marks at once that 't is hard to find which you level at only in the conclusion you presume you have hit the Pin of the white Vnisâ—nat cuculis rudibus geminantibus odis Your Arguments are generâ—lly sick of one disease § 5 you argue from the presence of the Spirit of God in and with his people by his motions influences manifestations gifts graces means to his Essential Being as the sense of those Texts which is fallacious as I prove by this Argument answer it when you can The Spirit of God essentially considered or as very God is every where at all times without the least change or alteration for ever But the Spirit of God in and with his people according to the import of those Texts of Scripture which you produce is not every where at all times without any the least change or alteration for ever Therefore the Spirit of God in and with his people according to the import of those Texts of Scripture which you produce is not the Spirit of God essentially considered or very God The first Proposition is proved from Mal. 3. 6. For § 6 I am the Lord I change not The second Proposition I prove from Joel 2. 28 29. which you cite Pag. 21. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie c. This was in time what and where it was not before Ezek. 36. 27. Pag. 20. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes c. it was future what it was not before and is spoken of the gathering of the Jews from all Countries Then the Spirit of God shall be put within them but this is not alway the same without alteration 1 Cor. 6. 19. cited by you Pag. 30. What know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you The Holy Ghost did not dwell in them according to the import of that Text before their Conversion The Lord was in the Temple at Jerusalem and dwelt therein I have built a House of habitation for 2 Chron. 6. 2 thee and a place for thy dwelling Who is able to build him an House seeing the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens 2 Ki. 19. 15 cannot contain him How did God dwell there more then elsewhere but by placing his Name owning a relation to it as his house sanctifying it to his own use manifesting himself in it to those who waited on his Ordinances there solemnized But now the place is void of all the foot-steps of that presence I deny not I doubt not but the presence of God § 7 by his Spirit in and with his people is much more glorious than that Type possessed yea such a Mystery of Union and Glory as will be matter of intellectual exercise and delight for ever yet it is most certainly no more his Essential Presence than is every where The difference is his being related to actuating of effecting in and manifesting himself to and union with the Souls of his people so as none in the world but they are blessed withal And herein the Saints are so happy they may well be content and not put the name of the God-head in a strict and proper sense on these his blessings Such conceits are the natural source and have been of Opinions and practices
dishnourable to God and unworthy of his Grace Another fallacy in your arguings is from the Spirits § 8 teachings Indefinitely to the Spirits teaching Universally at least all that concerns the duty of the people of God in religious things The people of God have the Spirit therefore they could not be destitute of an unerring Spirit in what concerned them either towards God or men But your main fallacies are these two from an SECT VII infallible Spirit teaching to the infallibility of the Subjects in which the Spirit dwells as a Teacher and from the Spirits teaching to its immediate and peculiar teaching For the first of these I shall produce some of your wild reasonings 1 Thes 15. 19. Quench not the Spirit Page Those to whom he gave the caution had the Spirit if those could not quench the Spirit who had it not Consequently the Primitive Churches were not without an unerring Spirit But I believe and can prove that they who had not the Spirit themselves might quench it in others by despising Prophecyings in the exercise of its gifts 20. ver and those who have the motions of the Spirit as you say the old World had before the Flood may be far from having the Spirit in the Scripture-sense i. e. dwelling in them to sanctification But supposing they had the Spirit dwelling and teaching in them 't is a miserable erroneous and weak Conclusion that they were infallible That this is that you would conclude from such improper premises is apparently your drift all along A taste of this you give us p. 32. in these words § 2. Page 32. If God sends forth his Spirit into the hearts of his children then are they not without an infallible Spirit but the express Letter of the Scripture affirms it and consequently our Adversaries reflection upon us for making it part of our belief is unsound and condemnable Your Adversaries have not so little knowledge of the Spirit of God as to say the Spirit of God is fallible nor yet so ignorant of your spirits and of the Scripture as to say you are infallible If the latter be it you say is unfound it is upon no other grounds than your arguing from the infallibility of Gods Spirit to the infallibility of your spirits or of theirs who are Gods people But we are not ignorant that your principles make no distinction much less a difference between the spirits of Gods people and the Spirit of God which is indeed the secret byass which moves you so obliquely of which I shall give a more ample account in its place But you are yet so unwilling to speak plainly your mind that you appear in many shapes to insinuate this untruth but are industrious to be uncertain and amphibious Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo You say page 31. And how this man can be esteemed § 3. Page 31. a good Christian who would render Christ Jesus the Head of a fallible body by divesting Christians of an infallible Spirit I leave to persons of better judgment more honesty and greater moderation to judge By this we may more than guess your mind But verily if the asserting Christ to be the Head of a fallible body i. e. that may in some things erre or be mistaken be worthy of your such reflections I know none will escape them among professed Christians but Quakers and Papists I see by this you may serve for a Voter at Rome but your Logick is so leaky you will hardly attain a higher promotion there she will be loath to venture her Grandeur built upon the Foundation of the Churches infallibility upon your pitiful scribling I wonder how you came to talk of Christs body to § 4 which he is Head Or what men of your principles can mean by it with the qualification of infallible Sure you do not mean his body in the most strict sense i. e. the invisible Church that is not yet compleatly existing and I doubt not but when they meet and vote they will be infallible but that will not be yet Nor yet the Universal Church visible i. e. Professors of Christianity Members of the Universal Church or any particular organical Church for your party have gored and besmeared those to excess I know not how we shall get a vote from them except in the Creed called the Apostles to which a small matter excepted all give consent But then the Quakers are none of the Church who will subscribe but to few of the Articles in that Creed How shall we find your meaning I will undertake to shoot near the mark if not hit the pin in the white You intend it of all the Quakers and every individual person among them at least such who give up to the light within and its guidance and is the Church in Spirit a Phrase used by Friends more than once in their writings but never in the Scriptuâ—e But Mr. Pen if Christ be Head to none but the infallible wo to the poor Saints who have trusted hitherto they had a Head in Heaven who hath pity on the ignorant and those that are out of the way who is their Advocate with the Father and thereby a remedy against the the sad consequences otherwise of their errings And I am sure Christ is then none of your Head But to conclude this form of your reasoning what § 6 I shall say to it You may as well conclude all Gods people are omnipotent because they have the Spirit of God which is omnipotent And they are omniscient because the Spirit of God who teaches them is so And they are infinite upon the same grounds The last two of these I can prove from some of the Quakers writings to be their blasphemous Opinions from this ground on which you build Monstr ' horrend'inform ' ingens cui lumen ademptum Were you so judicious and humble to submit to the certain teachings of the Spirit in and by the § Scripture you may know that the Spirit though it never teacheth an errour yet those whom it teacheth directively may erre either not understanding or not submitting to his teachings that where the Spirit moves and strives too though it self be omnipotent yet it may move and strive in such a measure as the corruption of bad men and sometimes of good men do prevail against its strivings and motions Although the Spirit of God will teach and move all the Elect so largely and so effectually that they shall not fail of heaven nor the necessary means thereunto yet there is not one that can be proved not to err in practice much less to have learned all things of a Religious concern to them I might proceed to your fallacious arguing from SECT VIII the Spirits teaching indefinitely expressed to its teaching peculiarly and immediately which is frequent in your Pamphlet particularly page 18 29. and many more of your fallacious and confused arguings I might expose were it worth while to trace such a Trifler in
Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acted carried Some of them viz. the Prophetical part were so far from being attained by the use of Natural Faculties though sanctified that their very wills which are the first movers even in intelligent Agents did not ordinarily so much as direct their understandings to the finding out the Truths which were revealed to them but when their thoughts in their present posture had no tendency to any such particular things no more than a man in a deep sleep they were then moved by the H. Ghost that whereas ordinarily they are fixed and bent to such or such ends by the humane will here the Divine will takes its place and doth all And for those Historical parts of the Scripture § 6 as of the Creation Fall of Man written by Moses c. and the Doctrinal parts written by the Apostles c. although the things in general might be the scope and aim of their intentions yet the Gale by which they were driven steadily and infallibly was not the utmost of their natural and sanctified and highest improved faculties but the supernatural guidance of the Divine Spirit whose product was like it self without the least stain or spot of humane frailty and wâ—aâ—ness Whereas that illumination of the Spirit which in the kind of it is common to all Saints flows in by the Lords blessing on the improvement of their understandings and judgments whether on Creation Providence or matter divinely revealed without them originally viz. that contained in the Scripture which although their faith be resolved into and determined by yet the highest pitch of their spiritual understanding is raised by a right and sanctified ratiocination from those principles comparing spiritual things with spiritual And experience teacheth that though an idle Loyterer may grow giddy with empty swimming notions which are rather the disease of a spiritual pride and intoxication yet God doth mostly if not only bless those with high and solid illuminations who humbly wait on him and beg the concourse and assistance of the Father of Lights and Spirit of Truth That God doth bless in such ways to the such § 7 illuminations of the Spirit is clear from this Scripture Heb. 5. 12 14. For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk c. It was their sin which was rebuked as the cause of their ignorance and what that should be but their slothful unfaithfulness in the use of advantages I know not But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age this must not be understood of number of days but measure of knowledge even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil They were thus illuminated by the Spirit in the way of the use and exercise of their sanctified Natural Faculties and the Ordinances of God for that end If any Quaker shall say True we are illuminated not by Study and poring as they call it on the Scripture or any thing else but have our knowledge without such carnal toil and the wisdom of the flesh and therefore it is by inspiration immediate Let such know that they must shew somewhat more than palpable errour gross ignorance and unparallel'd confidence e're they gain credit with any but those simple ones in a silly sense who believe every word Pro. 14. 15. §. 9. A third Difference is that Apostolical illuminations and immediately inspired are not habitual they are not the more constant frame of the soul but have their fluxes not as Springs or running Rivers or Tydes which have their ebbings and flowings yet the Chanel alway plentifully supplied but as bourns and flouds that sometimes rise high yet the grounds they cover for a while are sometimes and ordinarily a long time dry and no appearance remaining of those inundations The Apostles and Prophets had not such a Well and Spring of this sort as alway run or out of which they might ordinarily give advice and teachings of this kind Whereas the Spirits most ordinary illuminations common to all Saints do in their several degrees and measures in dwell in their souls and are as qualities adhering to their subjects their minds and faculties being so united to them as Sugar being melted in the Wine its sweetness is constant and abiding thereby And hence it was that the Apostles though they could alway teach from the habits of light and knowledge they were blessed with yet in some cases at some times could not speak as inspired by the Holy Ghost witness Paul who in the body of his Epistle to the Corinthians makes this distinction 1 Cor. 7. 6 12. to the end of the Chapter But I speak this by permission ver 6. but to the rest speak I not the Lord ver 12. Now concerming Virgins I have no commandment of the Lord yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful 25. But she is happier if she so abide in my judgment and I think also that I have the Spirit of God The same Apostle gives instruction concerning the Choice of Bishops that they be such as are apt to teach 1 Tim. 3. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifies both the habit or faculty and also a promptitude and readiness to imploy it And to Timothy to be instant in season and out 2 Tim. 4. 2. of season that is not only at necessary times in a constant course but occasionally and he could not so preach the Word as became it and an Evangelist but from habitual illumination Mat 13. 52. Then said he unto them Therefore every Scribe which is instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is an Housholder which bringeth forth of his Treasure things new and old A fourth Difference the inspiration of the Spirit § 10 doth not grow and increase gradually and according to time and industry Samuel had as elegant and powerful an inspiration or revelation when a Child as when he was old And the Apostles on the sudden at the effusion of the Spirit in that way of ministration had as eminent inspirations as ever afterward But the illumination wherewith God doth usually by the efficiency of his Spirit bless his people doth ordinarily grow at least is capable of it Some to whom John writes were grown to be Fathers For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers Heb. 5. That is ye might have grown to such a degree of il 〈…〉 nation if you had stood in the way wherein the Spirit of God doth usually bless therewith as to have been able to teach others Yea the Lord Jesus Christ himself as man did increase gradually in these habitual illuminations Luke 2. 45 46 47. Jesus grew in wisdome and instature And that it was meant of divine light oâ— light in
crucifying within us by disobedience to the light in our Consciences A strange merit and purchase of Salvation and way of pacifying the wrath of God for sin D Damnation Being condemned within by the light in the Conscience and the terrour and affliction arising from thence but nothing of a pain of sense after the body is dead and turned to dust Darkness Not acknowledging the light in every man to be Christ and being guided by its immediate teachings as the only and all-sufficient Rule Death of Christ The light within not obeyed The dead Body The Body living in sin Disciples of Christ No other but those who submit to the light within and follow only its dictates E Election Christ the seed not the persons of men and women Vulturous-Eye The understanding faculty piercâ—ng into and earnestly seeking after Divine Knowledge F Faith A believing in the light within Righteousness of Faith Those acts of Obedience performed by themselves in their own bodies conformable to the dictates of the light withinâ— and in the Faith of its being Christ and the Rule Teaching or doing falsly When not from the immediate motions and teachings of the light within though what is taught be in its self true and what is done be in its self good False Prophets All that are called by men however qualified otherwise all that teach from or out of the Scriptures and not from immediate inspiration as the Prophets and Apostles by whom the Scriptures were penned False Witnesses All who speak not from inspiration and inward meerly divine motions and experience not what they affirm in themselves Flesh Whatever is not from the light within originally and immediately Wisdom of the flesh All Wisdom attained by industry Denying Christ come in the flesh Denying Christ come in the Flesh of Joseph John Sarah or any other who are Quakers Christ come in the flesh Come in their Flesh The Flesh of Christ The Spiritual Flesh that descended from Heaven not the Flesh that lay buried in the Sepulchre after death The Fold of Christ Christ himself Following Christ Obedience to the light within The Friends Friends All professed Quakers The will of the Flesh All that is chosen by man though he be thereto disposed by the will of God revealed in the Scripture G Preaching for Gain Receiving any thing as the reward of preaching the Gospel State of Glory The State of Peace and Joy resulting from the witness of the light within in this life GOD. Father Son and Holy Ghost without distinction the light within every 〈◊〉 the spirit of the Quakers every one of them the soul the seed and much 〈◊〉 that he is not Foundation of God The light within and the inspirations and motions of it The Gospel Christ the light within not the written Word or the sense of it as a Narrative of the good will of God to men in Christ H Handled the Word of Life Not as the Apostles who handled the Body of Christ but feeling by a spiritual sensation the motions of the light within or the Christ within them Hearing the Gospel or Word Listening to and obeying the light within Heaven Not the place where the Man Christ is above or beyond the visible Skies but the happiness they have within them I could never yet hear or read them mention any other Heaven to be enjoyed by them as distinct persons but what they have within them in this world Hell The present torment and loss within Preaching for Hire Hirelings To have provision for the oâ—tward man as a maintenance or reward for preaching though no bargain be made yea though such who receive it would preach iâ— they had never a peny reward in this world from those they preach to Holiness Obedience to the light within and that without any failing The womans Husband at home Christ the light in the conscience I Idolatry Often for worshipping the Man Christ Jesus who is at the right hand of God above or beyond the Stars and visible Heavens taking the examples of the Saints and Churches in the Scripture recorded and doing likewise JESVS The light within the Word in the beginning not the Son of Mary who was made or created The Imaginations All conclusions how demonstrable soever which accord not with their Tenets or are not by immediate inspiration Inchantments Bewitchings A being perswaded and established by Reason and Scripture but especially if humane Artâ— or Sciences have any hand in it Infidels All that obey not or do not place their Salvation in the light within Workers of Iniquity All that live not without sinning against God The Judgment day of Judgment Sin being judged in the Conscience by the light within in this life Justification Christ the light within obeyed K Kingdom of God The Rule and Government of the light within and the peace and joy arising from thence Carnal knowledge All knowledge but what comes by the immediate inspiration of the light within L The Law Christ the light within the Law written in the heart Leadings in Spirit The motions of the light within immediate inspirations and teachings The life Christ the light within The life of Christ The prevalency of the light within Eternal life Being taken into God Saved by the Life of Christ A being saved by the prevalency of the light in the conscience The Letter The dead Letter The Letter that killeth The Scriptures or written Word A Lye Lying What is spoken though true in it self if not from immediate teaching or the light within The Light within Christ God Father Son Spirit the seed of Abraham and David according to the flesh Jesus the only Saviour the Law the Testimony the Gospel the Prophets the Advocate Righteousness Sanctification Justification the only Rule Guide Teacher Judge the Way the only way to the Father the Truth the Life the Power of God the Eternal God God Almighty that which pardons and conquers sin the Judgment the Lamb of God that is slain from the beginning the Word in the beginning the Creator of all things the end of all Books Laws and abundance more than can be crowded into many Pages The Lust All desires that accord not to the light within and proceed not from thence M The Man Christ The spiritual Body of Flesh Blood and Bones which they say descended from Heaven and dwelt in the Body of the Son of Mary and doth also now in every Quaker Cease from man do not hear man What the Faculties of Man have any hand in either by inventing working or expressing all that comes not purely from the light within Measure of God of Christ of the Spirit That degree of the power and inspirations of the light within Something more or less of the very being and Essence of God the Father Son Spirit Meditate Not pondering or exercising the judgment and understanding on holy and divine Objects but a stilness and emptiness of all thoughts attending for the immediate impulses suggestions inspirations and motions of the
light within They put to their meanings Expounding or giving the sense of the Scripture however true in its self if not by immediate meer Divine Revelation In the Meekness In the light within Christ which is meekness in the abstract and between whom and their spirits there is no distinction Ministers of the Everlasting Gospel Both men and women Ministers among the Quakers who declare from immediate inspiration not from the Letter of the Scripture Ministers of Antichrist Babylon Idol-Shepherds All such who have a mediate Call from man or preach from the Letter of the Scripture Ministration of the Spirit The immediate teachings and motions of the Spirit exclusive of all forms in worship the will though sanctified in chusing and all premeditation and acting by the prescription of the written Word Miracles Sometimes Miracles in Spirit invisible to bodily senses or humane understanding The Star of the Morning the Morning of the first day Christ the light within Moved by the Holy Ghost An inward immediate impulse of the light and power within From the Mouth of God Immediate teachings from the light within excluding all other Mysteries of the Kingdom Mysteries of God Such things as the faculties of man have no power to understand or express no not from or by the Scripture such things as are only sensâ—ted in the experience An allegorizing the Scripture N Natural man Every man that is not a Quaker The Natural man Every thing in man which is distinct from God or the light within The New man Christ the light within considered essentially They did by Nature the things contained in the Law By the new Nature which is Christ the light contained in the Law within the heart which is also Christ the light O Obedience of Christ What is done by men by the power life and strength of the light within them Obedience in Spirit Wrought by immediate impulses of the Spirit The Kingdome of God cometh not with observation The light within and its prevalencie which they call and that only the Kingdom of God is not obtained any way by the study or consideration of the Scripture or any thing without us Observers of times Such as keep any certain days as separated to holy use as the Lords-day or such as propose an hour or two to be spent in the Worship and Ordinances of God or any time with limitation Christ the Offering The light within Offeringâ— up of Christ The light within disobeyed or contesting with the lusts yea or the right reason of men Officers of the Church Invisible Officers and Overseers who do all their work in Spirit Gods Off-spring A part and measure of the very being of God continuing to be in a degree as good and divine as God himself The Souls and Spirits at least of the Quakers which they say came out of God The Old man All that is disobedient or not conformable to their light within One-ness with God Christ Spirit Not relative nor by love or faith or Mystical Membership but such an oneness as leaves no room for distinction between God Christ the Spirit and such whom they say are one with Christ Openings of Life Springings of Life Sudden workings to action or impressions on the mind and affections proceeding from within of their own accord and motion Overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of his Testimony All amounts but to an obedience to the light within which Smith saith was the Lamb of God whom John bid the Jews behold and the force of the light and life within which with them is the blood i. e. the life of the Lamb. P Put Christ to pain Resisting the motions of the light within The painted Whore Not only the Papals with their irreligious Pomp but all the good words thoughts and actions of any sort of men who derive them not from the immediate teachings and motions of the light within yea all forms of Worship according with the Precepts and Examples of the Scripture and they are with them the most painted who come nearest to the Scripture as a Rule The People of God They and none but they who profess the light within every man to be Christ the only Saviour and Teacher and give up themselves to its conduct as such Perfect Perfection Not that which is sincere or a perfection of parts or sanctification throughout in part but a being without sin in the least remains or stains of it Persecution Not only a penalty or hurt inflicted on their Bodies or Estates but also a speaking or writing against their Principles in the most purely rational and Scriptural Authority The seed in Prison and Captivity and Bondage The light within not obeyed as Christ and God Pictures and Images Not only those Images and Pictures that to the bodily eye represent Christ or God or the Saints and are adored with Religious Worship but all Worship Opinions Actions Words that are in imitation of the Examples and in obedience to the Precepts contained in the Scripture Men-pleasâ—rs They who comply with men though in things not only lawful but also to edification Pollutions of the world Not only things in themselves sinful as drunkenness swearing lying c. but also whatever Customs they dislike and decline as Cuffs Ribands putting off the Hat signs of respect c. which they say are from the Devil All recreations as Bowling Ringing though used seasonably and moderately The Power of God The Light within the Christ within Praying in Spirit Secretly or inwardly not with the voice by the immediate impulses of the light and power within without the exercise of so much as the conceptions of man Prayer Christ the light within is sometimes by them so called The presence of the Lord. The powerful influences and impressions of the light within either to terrour or peace and joy The pride of Man A not submitting to their light and especially receiving tokens of respect and wearing Ribands Cuffs and Lace The Priests A word of scorn put on all indifferently who are separated to the work of the Gospel-Ministry by men or that receive maintenance for their work The Worlds Professors All that are not Quakers Formal hypocritical Professors All that walk in the Ordinances of Christ commanded or prescribed in the Scripture or in the order of the Gospel Spirit of Prophecy Immediate impulses and inspirations False Prophets All that act not by immediate Revelation Prophecying falsly How true soever in it self if not from their spirit Publicans and Sinners All that are not Quakers Walking in the pure Walking after the dictates of the light within Purifying the heart by the Bloud of Christ Acting and being disposed according to inward motions by the light and life of the Christ within them Q Quenching the Spirit Resisting the motions of the Light within Quickned in the Life Stirred up by the power within R Raised to life Conversion to Quakerism Ravening brain Studying and following after Divine Knowledge or the knowledge
of divine things Inwardly ravening from the Spirit A recourse to the Scripture or any thing else except their spirit for sight and understanding in the things of God Carnal reasonings Reasonings of the Flesh All use of the understanding and judgment of man for searching and finding out truths about Divine and Spiritual things Received from the Lord. By immediate Revelation Reconciliation Giving up themselves to the light within The Word of Reconciliation Christ the light within The Lords Redeemed Those who are conformed to the light within Redemption A being reduced into the state of Adam in Innocency not what was wrought by Christ in the Flesh 1600 years since The Redeemer Not that Jesus Christ who is ascended above and beyond the Stars but the light and power within every man as such Refreshings in Spirit Something they are pleased with they know not why and come by they know not how As the Quakers who were refreshed at the Dutch-womans declaring while they understood not a word she spake The New man CHRIST The rest of the people of God A quiet and peace within though from a blind deluded conscience The Resurrection of Life Obedience to the light in this world Resurrection of the Body Resurrection of the light within to a dominion in the man for with them the Body is Christ and Christ is the light within Also the Body which was a servant to sin being acted by the light and power within Revelations Not Scripture-Revelations but what come by immediate inspiration to them Righteous ones Such as are without sin Righteâ—usness of Christ That which is wrought by the power and conduct of their Christ the light within The Root of Jesse The Light within The Royal Seed Christ and every Quaker They who run and not sent All that teach the Gospel from the Scripture and not by Immediate Inspiration Reprobation Sin S The Sabbath Every day the present Rest and Heaven of the Quakers The Sacrifice of Christ The light within obeying or they obeying in the light within Having Salt in themselves Having Christ in themselves The Salt of the Earth Christ the light within Salvation Conversion to the obedience of the light within Sanctification All one with Justification all one with Christ obedience to the light Building on the Sand. Making the Scripture a Rule of Faith and Life The Saviour The light within every man According to the Scriptures By immediate inspiration as the Prophets and Apostles received the mind of God The Seed The light within or the Christ essentially within the Eternal Word that which was in the beginning with God The Seed of Abraham according to the Flesh The Eternal Word Christ as God Self-righteousness All that is not from the immediate motions within Shadows All Forms and external worship The Scriptures which Pen saith are as the shadow of the true Rule viz. living touches Idol-Shepherds The Ministers who have a mediate Call or teach out of the Scripture Shut out of the Scriptures Cannot understand them have nothing to do with them Signs and Miracles in Spirit No body can tell what All flesh must be silent Nothing must be said but what comes by immediate revelation from the Spirit for all else is the voice of man and of the flesh In the Simplicity Without the use of humane understanding or if you will out of your wits To live in Sin Sinners Such as have any remains of sin in them or do at any time in any sort commit sin Slâ—ying the Witnesâ— Disobeying the light within but especially a resolved rejecting it as our only Rule Teacher and Saviour Sons of God Only the Quakers Soul A part or measure of God Speaking in the Spirit By immediate Inspiration Spirit of Antichrist That which leads to Forms though Christ's and Gospel-Forms All that opposes the light within to be Christ False Spirits They that ground their Doctrine on the Scripture or any mediate thing Spirit of Bondage Being under the power of any sin Spirit of God The light within every man God the Father Son Holy Ghost without distinction Spirit of the World Whatever is not conformable to the light within as Christ The Spiritual man Christ or Christ in every Quaker The Lord hath Spoken What comes to them by immediate inspiration The Lord hath not Spoken Whatever is not by immediate inspiration though it be written in the Scripture A true Christians State Being taught by God immediately not by the Letter The statutes of God The Law in the heart or within They steal my word every one from his Neighbour Teaching Doctrines as the Word of the Lord taken out of the Scripture Stoln words All that we have out of the Scriptures and not by immediate inspiration to our selves In the Stilness An unactive attending to the light within Standing in the Counsels of God Conformity to the Teachings of the light within and abiding therein Studying for Divine Knowledge and what comes thereby from the Scripture Carnal toil birth and wisdom of the flesh Scraping in the Scriptures The Woman in Subjection Weakness must subject it self to the man Christ The Supper of the Lord. Spiritual joy or joy in the Spirit from the presence and influence of the light within all eating and drinking to God and in remembrance of Christ Sword of the Spirit Christ the light within What is declared by immediate inspiration of the Spirit Synagogues of Satan The Assemblies of any sort of people for Divine Worship who are not Quakers T Christ Tabernacling in the outward Vessel Christs dwelling for a little time in the body born of the Virgin Mary The like of every Quaker Taking away the Tables All Forms and Books as useless in the things of God Taught of God Taught immediately from the light within Teachings of Men. All that is not immediately inspired though the sense and words of the Scripture Cease from man From the Teaching by Man Outward Court of the Temple given to the Gentiles All forms of Worship all visible Worship being the Worship of Heathens not of Christians Testifie to the light in the Conscience Appealing or speaking to Christ the light within Bearing Testimony to the light Declaring for and from the light within The Testimony and the Testaments Christ the Light and Law within Thanksgiving Give thanks in Spirit or inwardly Thieves and Robbers All that are Teachers by a mediate Call All Ministers but the Quakers All that walk by Scripture-light Traditions of men The Scripture or written Word Trading with the Scripture Having maintenance for a Ministry Ministring from the Scripture or written Word The Birth In Travel The time of wrestling betwixt convictions of the light within and perfection Trembling and Quaking The horrour and consternation that they are under from as they say the wrath of God while the flesh is judged and they are in the hell of condemnation which is all the bell they hold that I can find aâ—d this trembling and quaking they say is such as
Moses and other Prophets were seized with at the appearance of God The Truth No other but Christ the light within Speaking Truth Truly When it is spoken from immediate inspiration and motion of the Spirit but however true without these it is falsly spoken Witnessing to the Truth Declaring or suffering for the light within and its dictates V The flesh of the Vail The Body wherein Christ dwelt and tabernacled which for a while he took of the Virgin Mary but at the death of that left it no body knows where The Vail is over them The belief of the Man Christ Jesus which was of our Nature to be the Christ and now existing in Heaven in that body of flesh of our Nature which he took of the Virgin Mary The Vessel The Body wherein for a while Christ dwelt also our bodies Victory over the devil sin flesh world Perfection in this life resulting from the travail of the light within In the Vnbelief Not acknowledging the light within to be the only Teacher and Saviour whatever the faith and life otherwise may be The Vncircumcised and Vnclean All that are not Quakers Vngodly The same Vnlearned and without Vnderstanding To be without the light within its teachings and immediate Revelations The Voice of the Lord. The secret immediate lively touches and teachings within W Hirelings serving for Wages Ministers who receive maintenance little less then Robbery at least very Jewish and Antichristian Wait on the light Desisting from a search after Truth by any external means and passively attending to the motions and teachings within Watch to the light To be so listning and attentive to the inward teachings as not either to let slip any of its motions or reject them Blind Watch-men Those Ministers who see and warn by Scripture-light and not their light within Watch to the Morning To be diligent to observe and improve the first breakin gs forth of the power of the light within The Way CHRIST The way of Truth Those into which they are led by the pure light within The Whore of Babylon All forms of Worship visible Worship all that is believed or practiced from the written Word Will of God The Commands from within from the light Will of Man Will of the Flesh All that we chuse by the direction of the understanding or in which the humane faculties have any thing to do Will-worship Whatever Worship is not from the motions of the light within Children of Wisdom The Quakers born to the light within We Witness We experience we speak it from the testimony and feeling of the light and motions within And Pen saith This is right witnessing to witness what they experience But they that testifie what they believe from the Scriptures and right rational demonstrations go by hear say and reports but cannot witness it The Word The Word of God The Word of the Lord. No other but Christ the Eternal God The secrets of the Work of God The inward power and motions neither wrought nor perceived by or with the use of the humane understanding and will Righteousness of Works Whatever man hath any hand in or doth chuse The World All that are not Quakers Worship in Spirit Not the Worship where the heart and will goes along with the outward appearance but what is from the motions of the light within Wrath of God Day of Wrath. The inward judgings and terrours by the Light Christ within and that in this world The Writings when spoken diminishingly The Scriptures or written Word I have the Witness of my Conscience that I have not in this Key in any measure abused or wronged the Quakers but have declared what in their Writings and Verbal Converse I have found to be true and could have proved by particular instances but for being too large They who weigh what is written in the Body of the Book may find satisfaction in the most if not all of them THE CONCLVSION I Have not in this Treatise dealt with the more minute and light Errours and Absurdities of the Quakers because they would amount to too large a Volume for this Subject and I love not to Tythe Mint Annis and Cummin where weightier matters call forth my thoughts Where the Lord shall make what hath been written convincing and effectual those Superstructures and Appendices of the conceit of Perfection denying the sober use of Civil Ceremonies unnecessary scrupling at modest Ornaments Pedantick Words Phrases and Gestures obstinate Jewish and Ceremonious respect to this or that place for Worship and a multitude more will quickly and easily dissolve of themselves I doubt not but all whose Judgments are not in § 2 captivity to the silliest Errours will conclude with me that Quakerism is no Christianity yea Not consistent with Christianity being no more capable of dwelling together in one Breast than light and darkness in their absolute and supreme Dominion I am perswaded that all who have honest meanings among the Quakers little think that in turning to Quakerism they turn Christianity out of doors yet it is a truth a sad truth that calls for more serious notice than themselves or most others afford it who profess and that sincerely a love to Truth and Souls My greatest discouragement in writing this Treatise § 3 was from the sense of the Quakers being out of the reach of Scripture and Reason to almost or altogether a Spiritual Delirium Yet I was not without some encouragement from my hopes that the Lord would bless it to the informing and securing of many whose feet are yet out of their snare I have not a little been amazed to read in their Authors such Expressions as prompt us to divest our selves of being men that we may be Christians As if Rational and Spiritual God and the Scriptures Understanding and Christianity were mortal Foes I intended a Chapter by it self to demonstrate Quakerism to be no Christianity from its excluding right Reason any thing called Reason from having to do in the search after Christianity its Choice Defence or Approbation I care not if I collect a few for my Readers satisfaction § 4 Smith's Prim. pag. 56. Quest How do you manifest this inward foundation which you say is Christ to be the true and only foundation which God hath laid Answ From the feeling we have of it by which we know that it is sure in us and from the sure and certain knowledge which we have of it in the feeling we manifest it from its own Nature and Being to its own Nature and Being You may here perceive what a reasonable Religion the Quakers is whose demonstration is nothing else but sense and feeling and this sense and feeling nothing is capable of but the very nature and being of this Foundation He proceeds further pag. 65. Quest And can § 5 none have true Faith unto Salvation and Life Eternal but such as are of your Opinion Answ We are not in any Opinion but in the principle of Life by which we are
spirits breath that we all may be preserved until we have well finished our Course and Testimony to the honour and glory of our Lord God who is over all blessed for ever 1. We having a true sense of the working of the Spirit which under a Profession of Truth leads into a Division from and Exaltation above the Body of Friends who never revolted nor degenerated from their Principles and into marks of Separation from the constant Practice of good and ancient Friends who are found in the Faith once delivered to us And also into a slight esteem of their Declarations or Preaching who have and do approve themselves as the Ministers of Christ and of the Meetings of the Lords people whereby and wherein Friends are and often have been preciously revived and refreshed And under pretence of keeping down Man and Forms doing down the Ministry and Meetings or encourage those that do the same We say the Lord giving us to see not only the working of that Spirit and those that are joyned to it that bring forth these ungrateful fruits but also the evil Consequents and Effects of it which are of no less importance than absolutely tending to destroy the work of God and lay waste his Heritage We do unanimously being thereto encouraged by the Lord whose presence is with us declare and testifie That neither that Spirit nor such as are joyned to it ought to have any Dominion Office or Rule in the Church of Christ Jesus whereof the Holy Spirit that was poured forth upon us hath made us Members and Overseers Neither ought they to act or order the affairs of the same But are rather to be kept under with the power of God till they have an ear open to Instruction and come into Subjection to the Witness of God of the encrease of whose Kingdom and Government there shall be no end 2. We do declare and testifie That that Spirit and those that are joyned to it who stand not in Vnity with the Ministry and Body of Friends that are constant and stedfast to the Lord and to his unchangeable Truth which we have received and are Witnesses of and Ambassadors have not any true Spiritual Right or Gospel-Authority to be Judges in the Church and as the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ so as to condemn you and their Ministry Neither ought their judgment to be any more regarded by Friends than the judgment of other Opposers who are without For of right the Elders and Members of the Church which keep their habitation in the Truth ought to judg matters and things that differ and their jugdment which is so given therein ought to stand good and valued among Friends though it be kickt against and disapproved by them who have degenerated as aforesaid And we do further declare and testifie That it is abominable Pride which goeth before Destruction that so puffs up the mind of any particular that he will not admit of any judgment to take place against him For he that is not justified by the Witness of God in Friends is condemned by it in himself though being hardned he may boast over it in a false Confidence 3. If any difference arise in the Church or amongst them that profess themselves Members thereof We do declare and testifie That the Church with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ have power without the assent of such as dissent from their Doctrine and Practices to hear and determine the same If any pretend to be of us and in case of Controversie will not admit to be tried by the Church of Christ Jesus nor submit to the judgment given by the Spirit of Truth in the Elders and Members of the same but kick against their judgment as only the judgment of Man it being manifested according to truth and consistent with the Doctrine of such good ancient Friends as have been and are found in the Faith agreeable to the Witness of God in his people Then we do testifie in the Name of the Lord if that judgment so given be risen against and denied by the party condemned then he or she and such as so far partake of their sins as to countenance and encourage them therein ought to be rejected And having err'd from the Truth persisting therein presumptuously are joyned in one with HEATHENS and INFIDELS 4. We do declare That if any go abroad hereafter pretending to that weighty Work and Service who either in Life or Doctrine grieve good Friends that are stedfast in the Truth sound in the Faith so that they are not manifest in their Consciences but disagree to the Witness of God in them Then ought they whatever have been their Gifts to leave them before the Altar and forbear going abroad and ministring until they are reconciled to the Church and have the Approbation of the Elders and Members of the same And if any that have been so approved of by the Church do afterwards degenerate from the Truth and do that which tendeth to Division and countenance Wickedness and Faction as some have done then the Church hath a true Spiritual Right and Authority to call such to Examination and if they find sufficient cause for it by good testimony may judg them unfit for the Work of Gods Ministry whereof they have rendred themselves unworthy and so put a stop to their proceedings therein And if they submit not to the judgment of the Spirit of Christ in his people then ought they publickly to be declared against and warning given to the Flock of Christ in their several Meetings to beware of them and to have no fellowship with them that they may be ashamed and Lambs and Babes in Christ preserved 5. And if any man or woman which are out of the Unity with the Body of Friends print or cause to be printed or published in writing any thing which is not of service for the Truth but tends to the scandalizing and reproaching of faithful Friends or to beget or uphold Division and Faction then we do warn and charge all Friends that do love Truth as they desire it may prosper and be kept clear to beware and take heed of having any hand in printing republishing or spreading such Books or Writings And if at any time such Books be sent to any of you that sell Books in the Country after that you with the advice of good and serious Friends have tried them and find them faulty to send them back again whence they came And we further desire from time to time faithful and sound Friends may have the view of such things as are printed upon Truth 's account as formerly it hath used to be before they go to the Press that nothing but what is sound and savoury and that will answer the Witness of God even in our Adversaries may be exposed to publick view 6. We do advise and counsel That such as are made Overseers of the Flock of God by the Holy Spirit and do watch for the good
they boasted of it as an Infallible Cure 6. That therefore they now reduce the Light within each particular under the Superintendency of that they call the Light in the Body or Church of Christ which is no other than the Dictates and Impositions of those among them who assume that name and have the greatest interest to maintain it 7. That while they disown the Scriptures or Written Word to be a Rule of Faith and for tryal of Doctrines and Practices affirming the Spirit to be the only Rule they set up the Doctrines of GOOD ANCIENT FRIENDS i. e. of James Naylor who was bored thorow the Tongue for Blasphemy George Fox Edw Burroughs and such Wretches in its stead To which all must be Consentaneous or be condemned and by which their Ecclesiastical Censures must be passed 8. That the Faith they pretend to adhere unto claims no longer standing in this Testimony than good ancient Friends and what was delivered to the Authors of this Testimony I suppose by the foresaid good ancient Friends 9. That as great Disturbers and Contemners of Christian Congregations Ministry and Forms of Worship as they have been they having now set up such-like things of their own cannot digest the contempt and neglect of them from those Quakers who according to their Fundamental Principle oppose that among themselves which they all condemned in others 10. That to difference their Ministry Worship Meetings and Appointments of time to that end from theirs whom they condemn they father all on the Spirit of God calling themselves only its Instruments 11. That among the Quakers those who dissent from the Ruling party are as little endured as Dissenters among any whom they charge with Antichristianity and Oppression And upon persisting in their Non-conformity to the Dictates and Impositions of those who will call themselves the Church are ejected out of their Ministry Rule Office Dominion and Membership and shut out from having any thing to do in their Church-affairs yea and persecuted too so far as to be kept under with the power of God which is a Sentence that hath in it without their help an inexplicable as well as an unlimited sense 12. That they admit of none to their Debates about their more private and offensive Principles and ordering of their Ecclesiastical matters but such as they have made sure of and have well digested their Tenets or as they phrase it have a good understanding and true sense of things and are felt in a measure of the Vniversal Spirit 13. That the Counsel given by the leading Quakers is by them said to be the Counsel of the Wise-men and the Prophets 14. The Authoritative and Magisterial stile in which they express these Canons scil We declare and testifie We testifie in the Name of the Lord We warn and charge you 15. That they are very industrious for the suppressing of all Prints and Writings that have an ill Aspect on their Persons or Principles though published by Quakers No wonder then that their Votaries will not or dare not take the liberty of reading those Books which are published for their Conviction by professed Friends to their Souls who are as professed Adversaries to their Soul-destroying Opinions and Practices 16. 〈◊〉 their way of Licensing Books of theirs to be printed permits none to pass the Press but such as have the Approbation of the Tryers as they believe will answer the Witness of God i e. the Light which is the Quakers God and Guide even in their Adversaries From which it may be inferred That not only the corrupt Opinions but also all other Weaknesses and Extravagancies contained in their Books printed according to their Order may be fixed on not only their particular Authors but also on the Body of the Quakers and the Spirit by which they are led 17. That in all the matters contained in this Paper they ground not any Advice Counsel Charge or Determination on the Scriptures nor make any mention of their Direction or Authority while the Witness of God in Friends and the Doctrines of good ancient Friends are again and again made the Proofs and Tests of their proceeds By which 't is easily understood of what value or use the Scriptures are in their esteem It is not without ground of more than a Suspicion that the hand of the Jesuite hath been laying a Popish Plot in the business of Quakerism And although I was sometime as far from entertaining that Opinion as most I have found that in their Concerns which hath forced me into a strong Presumption of the truth of it And the more I understand them the more I am of that mind especially when I consider That the nearer they approach to any form the more of the Image of that Man of Sin appears upon them It was a cunning Artifice of Satan in his first Attempts by by his Quaking Instruments to draw them off from the Yoke of Christ in his Word and Ordinances by asserting That every man had a sufficient Light and Motion within himself which if heeded would be more effectual to render them perfect than all the Precepts and Rules in the Bible by which Pride Idleness and Libertinism is exceedingly gratified And when they were sufficiently distasted at and hardned against the holy Laws and Ordinances of Christ beyond hope of return then to fall on hammering those Bonds of his own to put upon them and frame them for his farther designs Wherein that Scripture is sadly verified by them While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption c. 2 Pet. 2. 19 c. In my Book entituled Quakerism no Christianity I gave a large account of the Quakers building their Babes on the same Foundations on which Popery as such is foun 〈…〉 viz. Contempt of the Scriptures pretences of Infallibility 〈…〉 t immediate Inspirations vid. Chap. 4. Sect. 7. and Chap. 12. Sect. 2. Those instances I produced in them had chiefly a relation to their Doctrines and Enthusiasm I shall now add some remarkable parts of their Discipline Order and Rule wherein they symbolize with Rome no less than in the former 1. Do the Papists pretend themselves to be the only Church and all other Professors of the Christian Religion to be Heretick The Quakers call themselves only the Body the Church of Christ and all others Antichristian Heathen and Infidels 2. Do the Papists by their little Juncto's which they call General Councils make Laws Canons and Constitutions beside and contrary to the Scriptures and impose them on their Members as of Divine Authority So do the Quakers 3. Do the Papists admit none into their Councils but such as are in Unity with their Church and acknowledg the Pope the Roman Head Neither will the Quakers admit any though professed Quakers into their Councils or to order any thing in their Church-affairs who are Dissenters from the Ruling party are not in Vnity with the Body or that comply not with George Fox the
Quakers Pope 4. Do the Popish Councils with or without the Pope pretend the Spirit to be present with them and its Authority for all their Determinations to be Infallible Wherein do the Quakers differ from the same Arrogancy when they affirm themselves to meet by the Operation of the Spirit of Truth That the presence of the Lord is with them in their Confulâ—s and then testifie and impose them in the name of the Lord 5. Do the Romists call the Pope or the Pope with his Conventicle of the Prelates the Church and impose their Sentiments and Determinations as the mind and Laws of the Church The Quakers are herein not a hairs-breadth differing from them For that which they call the Light and Sense of the Body and its Determinations is no other than the Dictates and Opinions of George Fox and some of the Leading Quakers which yet are imposed on the rest of the Quakers as the Light of the Body or of the Church of Christ 6. Do the Papists obtrude a submission of the private Sentiments and Opinions of any of their Members to the Determination of the Pope or Pope and Council So do the Quakers requiring That no mans particular Opinion do lift up it self against the Light of the Body but be determined thereby and acquiesce therein 7. Do the Papists reject the Scriptures from being their Rule while they advance Traditions in their rooms The Quakers have gone beyond them who give not that Authority to the Scriptures which the Papists allow them and to over-match the Popish Traditions bring in the Doctrine of Good ancient Friends as their Rule while the Scriptures are denied that Preferment 8. For Implicite Faith the Quakers are no way inferiour to the most strict Votaries of Rome The pretended Light and Inspiration of their Leaders they have a swallow for that a Monster as big as a Whale will pass without haesitation And that these pretended Inspirations are indeed from the Spirit of God they have no other proof but the Opinion of their Infallibility or the Miracles in Spirit which George Fox talks of which are as indemonstrable as the other 9. The continual Sacrifice of Christ in the Popish Mass hath a good Preparative in that Principle of the Quakers That Christ in them doth offer up himself a living Sacrifice to God for them by which the wrath of God is appeased towards them 'T is but removing the invisible Sacrifice from the dark and close corner within to the Altar in some visible sign 't is all one Which may in time appear as agreeing to the light as W. Penn's Ceremony of keeping the Hat off in Prayer doth fitly signifie the Veil removed from their hearts It would yet seem a lame Comparison between the Papists and Quakers if among the Quakers there be no Idols nor yet the Image of the Pope the greatest Idol of all the rest But the Jesuites and Factors of Rome have not been such unskilful Artists and unfaithful Servants to their Master as to do their work so imperfectly 10. If the Light within be not God as certainly it is not then do they professedly give Divine Worship to a Creature or to an Imagination of their own framing And if the Souls and Spirits of men are God or a part of God and of his Being by their Principles which are as truly their Principles as words can express then they are Idolaters with a witness 11. But the Romists give Divine Worship to Saints which is not as most believe the Quakers Idolatry If I do not prove them herein to overmatch them I am greatly mistaken and whether I am or not I will leave it to my Readers judgment The Quakers Worship as they profess is inward Worship which all confess to be the most excellent part of Worship And therefore if they affirm Worship to be given to those whom they put in the room of Saints it must be acknowledged that they worship them though their bodies bow not down to them They profess to worship those who are sprung from the noble gentle Seed and that with Divine Worship and to bow down to the lowest appearances of Christs Light and Spirit Yea George Fox tells us That not to worship Christ in them is to worship Men Devils or Angels This kind of Idolatry may explain the mystery of the Quakers looking so devoutly for a considerable season in each others faces when they meet continuing all the while in a deep silence And there are sufficient witnesses living of the bodily and visible Worship which James Naylor received from divers of them Herein they exceed the Papists Idolatry in the number of their Idols being all that have Christ in them or that are sprung from the noble gentle Seed viz. All thorow Quakers And in the quality of their Idol-Saints for in the room of S. Peter Paul the Virgin Mary are William George c. who are as like to those Saints as the blacker sort of white Devils And also in point of Time for the Papists worship their Saints after their death but the Quakers worship theirs while living See Quakerism no Christianity Chap. 16. for a fuller proof of this 12. To find a Pope or somewhat like him among the Quakers we need seek no further than George Fox who is among them a Pope and more than a Pope His Supremacy among the Quakers is sufficiently known among them and by some lamented But I shall descend to some particulaâ— instances in which George Fox equals or out-does the Pope in his Papal Arrogance and Blasphemy I could produce woful instances from the hand of credible Reports but I shall decline them and present you with a Letter to him from Josiah Coale one of the Quakers chief Ministers which contains a Map of a world of Blasphemies in a small room This Letter I had out of the Quakers Registry it being there preserved as a Testimony of the greatness of George Fox And as bad as it is I having printed it in my Vindication William Penn undertakes twice in print to vindicate every line of it DEar George Fox Who art the Father of many Nations whose Life reached thorow us thy Children even to the Isles afar off To the begetting of many again unto a lively Hope for which Generations to come shall call thee Blessed whose being and habitation is the power of the Highest in which thou rules and governs in Righteousness and thy Kingdom is established in peace and the encrease thereof is without end Doth the Pope pretend that from Peter's Chair Ministers were sent out to convert all those Nations who professed or do profess the Christian Religion Such an one is George Fox said to be for he is called The Father of many Nations and indeed of almost all who are Quakers who with them are the only Christians Doth the Pope pretend to be Christs Vicar and clothed with his power So is it pretended of George that his Habitation is in the power
of the Highest Doth the Pope pretend not to erre wherein he acts as Pope 'T is said of Pope George that he Rules and governs in Righteousness Doth the Pope pretend to be a Monarch George hath a Kingdom too Doth the Pope say That his Kingdom is in Vnity and Concord while the Hereticks are at continual Discord 'T is said of George's Kingdom that it is Established in peace In other passages of this Letter that is imputed to George Fox which the Pope never dared yet to assume to himself And in this Letter we have a Sentence explained which is the close of the Preamble in the Testimony wherein 't is said that such who persist in their dissent from the Body must be kept under with the power of God till they come into subjection to the Witness of God of the encrease of whose Kingdom c. So that it seems by comparing Notes That George Fox is the Power of God that must keep them under and 't is he who is the Witness that must be subjected to before they are re-admitted to Office or Membership Which well agrees with the Pope of Rome who assumes to himself the power of Christ as his Vicar and Vice-Gerent and makes those who submit not to his Yoke feel the weight of his Loyns if within his reach And Bellarmine gives it as a part of his Definition of a Church-Member That he submit himself to the Government ESPECIALLY of the Bishop of Rome the only Vicar of Christ on earth Bellar. de Eccles milit Lib. 3. c. 2. So that as there is no Communion with the Papists without subjection to Pope Alexander so there must be no Communion or Indulgence with the Quakers until there be a subjection to Pope George And for the Authority which resides in George Fox singly it is able to produce Bulls as Magisterial as ever issued from S. Peter's Chair Behold one of them for a rare example of Superstition and the Quakers Thraldom to their Vniversal Bishop ALL Friends every where On your Signs set not up the Image and likeness of any Creature in Heaven or in Earth But by the power of the Lord keep down all the makers of such things for the ground of them is from the Heathen But set up a Bed-staff Fire-shovels Saw Fork Compasses Andirons Harrow Plow or any such thing And all Friends every where Admonish one another young and old that ye do not run after the Worlds fashions which are invented and set up by the vain and light mind Which if ye do how can ye judge the World for such things Away with your Skimming-dish Hats and your unnecessary Buttons on your Cloaks and Coats and on the tops of your shoulders behind and on your sleeves Away with your long Slit-peaks behind and on the skirts of your Waste-Coats and short Sleeves punishing your shoulders so as you cannot have the use of your arms Away with your short Black Aprons and some having none Away with your Vizards whereby you are not distinguished from bad women and your bare Necks and your great needless Flying-Scarfs like Colours on your backs And so set not up nor put on that which you did once with the Light condemn But in all things be plain that you may adorn the truth of the Gospel of Christ and judge the World and keep in that which is comely and decent George Fox By this you may be satisfied of the Arbitrary Power of G Fox the Quakers Infallible Pope and the Vniversality of his Dominion over the Quakers who according to their Principles are the only Christians and Church of Christ all others being accounted by them the World Heathen and Infidels And it would amaze a serious and intelligent person to hear of the strange Reverence and Submission given to this Impostor by the Quakers in England Ireland Holland Barbado's Virginia and the American Islands and other parts where this Delusion hath gotten footing Of which he made proof in his Travels the last year to visit his Subjects in all the aforesaid parts or most of them Take only two Instances more of this Quaker-Pope The first was a saying of his to some of the Friends viz. Friends Although I have not told it you I now declare it I HAVE POWER TO BIND AND TO LOOSE WHOM I PLEASE This was charged upon him in the Letter printed called The Spirit of the Hat and in the Quakers Reply was not denied The second Instance is of a blasphemous Passage of a grand Quaker Solomon Eccles in his Book entituled The Quakers Challenge It was said of Christ that he was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not So it may be said of this true Prophet whom John said he was not This man was Foxes great Favourite From these and such-like Considerations many of the Quakers themselves cry out upon the Foxonian and prevailing party They are like Rome and their management of matters in their Church is Popery Tyranny Lording Arbitrary which Complaints are confessed by the Authors of The Spirit of Alexander to be the Out-cry of many of the Quakers who for their sensibleness of this unexpected Roman-like Form of Tyranny are as doggedly rated in that Book as ever Hereticks were by the Papists Certainly Popery never arose to such a perfection in so short a time among any people in the World whose first pretences were such strangers and opposites to it And if it be justly said of the Pope or Papal Body That he hath a mouth speaking Blasphemies it will be no crime to impute the same to George Fox and his Adherents It is a sad Consideration That the Quakers should be so infatuated by their first opinions of their Leaders teaching from the immediate Inspiration of the Spirit of God and of their Infallibility the result of the other as not to be able or willing to discern their so notorious an Imposture Which if there were no other Demonstration their Non-sense Self-Contradiction setting up the things they once destroyed and nulling in effect that particular light of every man which they once Deified discover with Sun-beams But what is the sin of many besides them though not in so high a degree is their sin and snare They had rather go forward out of the way than by returning to those Principles from whence they are faln to confess themselves Transgressors which is from a spirit of Pride and Folly And indeed considering what height of Pride and depth of Errour Folly and Ignorance with contempt of their Betters do meet together in these Monuments of Delusion I wonder not that AS PROVD AS A QVAKER is become proverbial I pray God deliver them from that eternal and inevitable destruction of which their obstinacy is a sad Omen I have loved strangers and after them will I go is two exactly the spirit they are of The foregoing things considered it is not difficult to find such a preparedness for down-right Popery in
the present posture of the Quakers Religion as may render it no great strain to jump into it when-ever they find it their interest For why should it be thought unreasonable that they should rather choose to submit their particular Sentiments to the Determinations of a Pope and Council who pretend to the Spirits guidance infallibly therein than to the Determinations of George Fox and his silly Adherents called the Body who can give no better assurance of their Infallibility or common Reason either than mere pretences mounted on confident Ignorance and Arrogancy Especially considering that such a change will better bear the fine affected Mystery of being felt in a measure of the Vniversal Spirit which seems to be no other than the so-much vaunted Universality of Rome cast in the Canting Mould of the Quakers Phraseology Besides they will then have the Accession of the numerous Auxiliaries of Rome not needing to be so straitned and put to their shifts as now by laying the weight of their yet unformed Cause on so many Equivocations and thin Subterfuges defended by only two or three unskilful and unwary Patrons And what if they shall think meet to embrace the Traditions of Rome instead of THE DOCTRINES OF GOOD ANCIENT FRIENDS I am sure it would be short of a Miracle And the things being the same in Substance why should a mere verbal difference be a Gulph unpâ—ssable And if many of the more devout sort of Quakers should be loth to part with their Darling Singularities and Morosities If Rome be pleased so far to indulge to them as to afford them a Dispensation till time and other things have weaned them it is not the first time she hath been so kind a Mother However if they will but own the Roman Head as far as they now own George Fox they may have their Religion with all or most of its other Disorders and be owned good Catholicks of the Foxonian Order and George Fox Sainted to boot for his good service I desire the Quakers to be but so just to themselves as to consider whether what hath been said do not at least call them to a suspicion that their Leaders are rowing towards Tybur whatever face they put upon it And what an exchange they have made in rejecting the Scriptures from being their Rule taking at length the Impositions of men in its room which are so much the more wicked and blasphemous as they lay them to the Spirit of God as their Father and so much the more dangerous as the Opinion these men have obtained among them will render it neither pleasant nor credible for them now to question any thing they say or reject any thing they impose A Summary of the Capital Errours and Blasphemies of the Quakers Concerning the Godhead THey deny a Trinity of distinct Persons to subsist in the Godhead They own the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be God under those distinct terms yet deny either of them to have any relation or property incommunicable to each other They divide the Divine Being and Godhead into measures and parts Concerning the Scriptures They hold That the Scriptures are not the Word of God and that Christ only is the Word of God That much of them were the Words of God but those things are not now the words of God That a great part of the Scriptures were the words of wicked men and the Devil therefore cannot be the Words of God Not considering those parts of the Scriptures to be the Historical Word or Words of God containing in them a Divine Truth of History That the Scriptures are not a Rule of faith and life That not any part of the Scripture hath Authority to oblige us to any matter of faith or practice unless it be dictated to us or inspired into us by the Spirit immediately as the Prophets Apostles and Penmen of the Scriptures received it That those who determine their faith and practice by the Scripture are begotten into the words without the life and power That he that preaches the Doctrines of the Apostles and Prophets expressed in the Scriptures not having them by Inspiration as they and yet calls them the Word or Words of the Lord tells lies is a Thief and a Robber stealing the Prophets words c. and runs into other mens lines and labours That to follow the examples of the Church in those things which were commanded to them and practised by them under the Gospel or New-Testament-Administration is to commit Idolatry and to offend God by making to our selves Graven Images and Likenesses That to own and embrace the Scriptures for our Rule is Idolatry placing them in the room of Christ the Light within Concerning Christ. They hold That the Son of God is Christ and also that the Father or the Spirit is Christ as well as he That God or the Godhead only is the Christ That Christ is not of the Humane Nature or Man according to Adam's nature That the Body of Jesus the Son of Mary which died on the Cross without the Gates of Jerusalem was never nor is not an Essential Constitutive part of the Christ of God That the aforesaid Body is not now glorified and in Heaven and that it is not now alive That Christ was never seen with bodily eyes That Christ never died in a proper sense he being only God and so immortal That God is now manifested in the flesh as he was in the Son of Mary above 1600 year since That Christ hath Manhood but is not a Man of our nature That there is a heavenly Body of Christ consisting of Spiritual flesh blood and bones which came down from Heaven and dwelt in the Body that was born of the Virgin Mary and dwells now at least in every Quaker That every man hath a Light in him which is Christ the Eternal Word of God Concerning Christianity They hold That the Quakers only are true Christians and own the true Christ and all who own not and submit not unto the Light within as Christ are Infidels That those whom we call the Heathen have somewhat of Christianity because they have some justice and common naural Vertues although they believed not on Jesus the Son of Mary nor have any knowledg of him nor make any Profession of him to be their Lord and Saviour Concerning the Soul of man They hold That the Souls of men are a part of the Being of God of his very Life and Substance came out of God are no Creatures are Infinite in themselves and shall return into God again Concerning Redemption They hold That Christ came to Redeem the Seed which is no other but Christ himself That Christ before man's Conversion is the lost in man That the Redemption by Christ is to obedience to the Light within and thereby to Peace and Righteousness That we are not redeemed by what was done and suffered by the Son of Mary above 1600 years since and without us in respect of place That Christ
in them doth offer up himself a Living Sacrifice to God for them by which the wrath of God is appeased towards them Justifying-Righteousness They hold That the Righteousness of Christ and their Righteousness is but one and the same thing That what Righteousness they perform is the Righteousness of Christ because performed by the Teachings and Power afforded to them by him That they are justified by a Righteousness within themselves and not by a Righteousness performed without them or before they had a being That no man is justified who doth not perform every demand of the Law i. e. Of the Light or Law within Concerning Sin They deny Original Sin They deny that motions from within to sin are sin if not complied with They hold That men may attain to be without any sin in this life And that some of them are perfectly freed from its stains and prevalency They hold That there can be no sin but what is commited against Conviction Concerning the Light within They hold That the Light within them is God Christ the Spirit the Law the Gospel the Life the Power the only and sufficient Rule of faith and Life Vid. The Key That all men have this Light within themselves That this Light is not a natural or created Light or Humane faculty That it is of the same nature in those who obey or disobey it That while men resist this Light the Light or Christ is in bondage and kept under That men heeding and obeying this Light Christ is risen in them which is the Resurrection and the life Concerning Ordinances They hold That there is no such thing as Ordinances now under the Gospel That Baptism and the Lords-Supper were once Ordinances butâ— now since the Spiritual Administration are abolished Concerning a Ministry and Preaching They hold That all that pretend to be Ministers of the Gospel and have a Call from Men are not the Ministers of Christ That their Ministry teach only from the immediate Revelation and Inspiration of the Spirit That their Ministers are infallible in their ministring That our Ministers who receive Maintenance for their work are Hirelings Thieves and Robbers That those who preach from the Scriptures taking their Sermons from thence steal the Prophets words and are not sent of God That men are to preach nothing but what they have a motion to from the Spirit at that time That those who preach Christ without are false Ministers and those are true Ministers who preach Christ within and put people upon believing on him as he is manifested in themselves That the end of all their Teaching is to bring men to the Everlasting Word of God in themselves i. e. To follow the Light within That whatever their Ministers teach it is not they that teach but the Spirit through them Concerning Prayer They neither confess their sin in publique Prayer nor beg pardon for themselves They pray not Ministerially in their publick Assemblies as the mouths of others but alway in the singular number scil I pray c. They pray not in the name or for the sake of Christ the Mediator They use no Family-prayer or at set-meals They deny That we are to use our wills or understandings in prayer Concerning the Church of Christ and its Officers They hold themselves only to be the Church of Christ They hold some of them That there ought to be no such thing as Elders and Overseers in the Church but that the Spirit alone is Apostle Prophet Elder Overseer c. This was the first and general Opinion But since they have so far changed their minds the most of them as to hold Dignities Offices Government necessary and also That it is not the Officers but the Spirit in the Officers that doth all the parts belonging to their Offices They hold only one Vniversal Church not particular Churches and that Church to be in God the Jerusalem which is from above In their Meetings sometimes they have nothing but a profound Silence which formerly was when they had no motion but now for most part when none of their Ministry either of the men or women in that Office are there They have a strange Officer among them George Fox whose Titles are full of Blasphemies scil A King the Witness of God the Father of many Nations c. See the Letter to him from Coale This man is a Sphere above any of the rest Concerning Judgment Heaven and Hell and the Resurrection All these things they hold to be within in the time of this life The Day of Judgment is with them the judging of the Flesh or all disobedience to the Light by the Light within and this is the same with Hell And for Heaven they hold 't is within too but no such place as that where we believe the man Christ to be above the visible Heavens The Resurrection of this body wherein the soul now lives they peremptorily deny affirming The belief that ever it shall be quickned and made alive again to be ridiculous and irrational They profess Eternal Rewards but it amounts only to this conceit That the body shall not live again after its death and so there is no reward to that And the soul they say is Eternal came out from God is a part of his Being shall return into him again So that the soul shall be changed from a part of God dwelling in flesh to a part of God resolved into his own and original Being which was the state of their souls a thousand years afore they were born as they conceit Thus God alone shall be Eternally rewarded by being delivered out of these Prisons of the Quakers bodies FINIS ERRATA PAge 8. line 26. for distraction read detraction p. 7. l. 29. for Denomination r. Domination p. 11. l. 16. for Babes r. Babel