Darkness and grand enemies of Souls especially the two great Antichrists the Roman Bishop and Church and the new Upstarts who hold the light within every man to be the Saviour Light Righteousness all who do not only as other erroneous or heretical persons a little eclipse or pervert the light of the Scriptures but attempt to pull it down out of the Firmament or render it a dark and useless body but as it receives Light from their Idol the one party to set up the Pope at Rome as absolute in matters of Religion The other to set up the Pope within as absolute and more than he in the little world of every individual man I shall within these following parallel lines give you a view though but in part how both these adversaries do openly spit their venom and discharge their shot against the holy Scriptures And considering how they in most things jump together in the contempt of and detracting from the Scriptures you may conclude that although the Jesuite was not the first contriver of the Quakers grand notion of the Light within to be Christ which I am verily perswaded of to be true yet that he was a promoter of the building erected on that foundation we may easily guess by his mark on so many parcels of it yet I must say that the Romanists were much more sound in their opinions of the Scriptures until about Luther's time wherein the Protestants were too hard for them at those weapons I give you the mind of the Spirit of God expressed in the middle collumn the Quakers Tenets on the left and the Jesuites and Papists on the right hand The Quakers Opinions and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scriptures are not the rule of Faith and life Parnel Shield of the Truth The Spirit of God speaking by the Scriptures Thou shalt not turn aside to the right hand or to the left viz. Gods Statutes and Judgments Deut. 5. 23 32. The Jesuists and Papists Tenets and Sayings of the Scriptures and those that adhere to them The Scripture is not the rule of Faith Greg. de Valentia Jesuita libro quarto analyseos Carranza in prima controver The Scriptures are not the judge and determiner of Controversies in religious matters Smith Prim. He mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Acts 18. 28. He had put the Sadduces to silence Mat. 22. 3. viz. by Scripture Neither the holy Scripture nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture is the supream and general judge of matters of Faith Beccanus item Gretserus Jesuitae in Colloquia Ratisbon It is impossible for the Scripture to be judge of doubts concerning Faith and the Christian Religion Lorichius Jesuita in fortalitio Matthew Mark Luke and John The beginning of the Gospel of Christ The Gospel is not Scripture it was commanded is not the Gospel Paper sent into the World pag 2. the Son of God Mark 1. 1. to be preached but not to be written Carranza Jesuita in colloquio The light within every man is the rule and guid and not the Scriptures and this light is infallible and will teach you all things Smith Catechis If the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6. 23. Vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild Asses Colt Job 11. 12. The Tradition of the Church i. e. Roman is the first chief certain and infallible rule from which any thing may be known to be true and certain to be held in matters of faith and Christian Religion Carranza Jesuita in prima controversia The Tradition of the Church is the very rule of Faith and Piety Pighius The Spirit was before the Scripture therefore we must be led by the Spirit not by the Scripture the Spirit with the Quaker is the light within Smith Prim. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness 2. Tim. 3. 16. We say that the Church is a rule before the Scripture and more known than the Scripture Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scriptures are the Traditions of men Naylor's love to the lost Holy men of God spake the Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. Traditions of the Church to be preferred before the Scriptures Frequent among the Papists Light without must be guided by light within John Story short discovery Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. 29. I have hid the wâ—rd in my heart that I might not sin against thee Psal 119. 11. The Scripture is to be ruled by the Church and not the Church by the Scriptures Carranza in secunda Controversia The Scripture is a dead Letter carnal Letter Ink and Paper Parnel Shield of the Truth The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life Joh. 6. 63. For the Word of God is quick and powerful Heb. 4. 12. The Scripture hath no voice it cannot pass judgment viva voce Beccanus Gretserus in Colloquio Ratisbon The Scriptures are but dumb Judges Pighius controversia tertia The Scriptures may be burnt Frequent The Scriptures cannot be broken John 10. 35. Write this for a Memorial in a Book c. Exod. 17. 14. All the Scriptures in the common and native Tongues are to be burnt by a Law The light within was the rule from the beginning and not the Scriptures Smith Prim. The Scriptures were a rule so soon as they had a beginning The Fathers of the Church were expert in the Traditions of the Church from the beginning as being more effectual than the Scriptures Pighius Jesuita in Colloquio Dry cavelling Letter-mongers Scraping in the Scriptures Will. Pen Spirit of Truth c. Fisher veluta quaedam c. An eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures Acts 18 24. And Paul as his manner was went in unto them and three Sabbath days râ—asoned â—ith them out of the Scriptures Acts 17. 2. These Lutherans and Hâ—gonots are all for the Letter Frequent He that prefers the Scriptures before the light within is blind in darkness Parnel Shield of the Truth To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because they have no light in them Isa 8. 20. He that shall say the Scripture is to be believed rather than the Church is to be condemned as a Heathen and a Publican and a Sâ—ranger to Gods people Noguera libra secâ—ndo de Ecclesia They are Idolaters that act by Whatever things were written were They are Hereticks and to be condemned who Scripture examples not having their rule by inspiration immediate from God Naylor's love to the lost Morning watch written for our examples Be ye followers of us and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example take the Scripture for their rule without the authority of the Church The Scriptures do not
other side must go by this Bridge and it should be said and truly no man can get to the other side of the River but by this Bridge would this conclude that you must not enquire where this Bridge is how you may pass over by it that you must not take those passages and steps that lead to the Bridge that you must not have and use your leggs and your eyes and all because you cannot get over but by the Bridge At no wiser a rate do the Quakers plead for Christ being the only way excluding all other as subservient But enough of this passage only observe that the Author quoted will not have the Scriptures nor any thing else Christ excepted to be any means of knowing God Let us hear him explain himself a little more Quest Doth God manifest himself within man § 6 Answ Yes and man cannot know him by any other Smith's Catech. p. 2. way but by the manifestation of himself in his light within him Here he saith much more than in his former sentence there he saith there is not another way to know God but by Christ here but by his light Christ and that within him too lest we should mistake and suppose that the light of Christ also is to be found in the Scripture Hear him speak plainer and yet more to the purpose Then he John Morning Watch p. 6. declared him as he knew him not from any tradition or writing before him though then there was much written which did truly testifie of him This he brings in to prove that Christ is to be known and made known to others not by the Scripture but his own light or he himself the light within and that though the Scriptures were then in being he made no use of them to declare Christ by to the knowledge of those he preached to They are such people as tell the world that Matthew Paper sent out into the world p. 2. Mark Luke and John are the Gospel they are but the Letter The Gospel is as much as to say a good message or glad tidings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strange that they should not be glad tidings because they are the Letter as if a good message or glad tidings were never written in this world And the Scripture brings no tidings of Christ because they are tidings in the most ample form viz. in writing or printing which will abide much longer than a breath or sound and may be better considered Take another to couple with him as very a Wiseaker as he And the knowledge of the Languages John Higgins warning c. p. 7. of Hebrew Greek and Latine which they call the Original is nothing worth as pertaining to the knowledge of God This Author did certainly lose the light or the light lose him when he wrote this I never heard the Latine called the Original of the Scripture Translations before Sure he believed that the Scriptures peept first out of Rome in that their Original Copy should be in the Roman Language as others of them that the Lords Supper and Baptism were from Rome and the Pope But however we have been hitherto of this mind the Quakers infallible monitor the Light within by which I am perswaded he wrote this will have it otherwise I dare assure this learned person if he be alive and can but prove the Latine to be the Original the Pope of Rome will willingly give him a Cardinals Hat for his pains But this is not his original errour though an errour concerning the Original He saith the Original is nothing worth pertaining to the knowledg of God If so our Translations which we had from thence are less worth than nothing for they must give the upper hand to the Original I have sufficiently proved their denial of the Scritures § 8 being any means by which we may come to the knowledge of God or Christ one Witness of the third viz. of our selves and I shall call in no more of them for the proof of this Charge Christ by his Scorned Quakers account p. 20. light within shews you in a glass your own faces which the Scriptures cannot do Here I find them in love yea so in love with a little Rhetorick that rather than go on plain ground they will kick their own shins and trip up their own heels Truly friends you have here gone on Glass or Ice which you will You teach or declare in almost all your Writings which concern teachings in a religious sense that you are taught immediately by the light within Was ever any thing in this world shewn in a Glass immediately that Glass may more congruously be called a Mirrour the ancient name of a Loking-Glass than any I ever saw or heard of however let whatever be the Glass or means by which or in which we may see our faces the Scriptures by your leave must not be it But whether you will or no the Scriptures are a Glass or as a Glass wherein if you or I will please to look with an honest mind God will by it in a good measure shew us what we are and they have one property above all the Looking-Glasses in the world viz. that we can see your faces in and by them though you should not look into them nor suffer the Book wherein they are contained to be in the same house where you are For the help of the unready in the Scriptures I SECT II shall quote a few of its testimonies to confute this Doctrine although the consciences of the greater number of themselves if they will but turn over their records placed in their memories will give verdict against them And for all those who have been at the pains to learn what the Scriptures are capable of teaching and have not engaged themselves right or wrong to the service of the light within I doubt not but they will subscribe themselves experimentors of the truth here by you opposed That all the people of the earth might know the Josh 4. 24. § 2. hand of the Lord that it is mighty that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever As the heathen Nations so the Generations and Posterity of Israel who had not seen those works with their own eyes were helped to the knowledg of them and of the Lord who wrought them by the means of the Scripture History And it shall be when he sitteth on the throne of Deut. 17. 18. 19. his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God Here the Scriptures are not only a means to know God but also to fear God which cannot be without knowledg of him and is more than a meer notion of God And for the knowledg of Christ it is not possible § 3
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
this Judge the Scripture behold we dispute whether it he a Judge of Controversies Now this Judge ought to give sentence so as it may be evidently manifest to us We are here before the holy Scripture and the holy Spirit let him pronounce sentence and say thus thou Jacob Gretserus believest not aright thy cause is overthrown thou Jacob Hailbrunnerus hast overcome then I will quickly go over to you And a little after Now let the Holy Ghost come now let him judge me now let him condemn me If he had not had the metaphorical word to have played with the world had not been troubled with so impertinent an Argument and language so ludicrous abusive and daring to the Holy Spirit By this you may see that if the Quakers and Jesuits agreement in the same false Witness against the Scripture will carry it our cause is gonâ— and the Scripture must not determine Religious matters But 't is a bad step that so well fits the Popes Foot to mount his usurped and infallible Chair by and which both Papists and Quakers tug for as for life I remember when I was a small Lad I heard our § 4 Protestant Divines usually affirm that every man was born with a Pope in his belly which to my then childish genius seemed a very pretty phrase but such an one as I thought as was not only improbable but also impossible but the Generation I am contending against tug for the truth of it though under other terms tooth and nail And I have ceased wondring that so many so easily turn Quakers when I consider how natural it is to shake off the Doctrine and Discipline even of God himself that we alone may rule if not over the great world of all others at least over the little world our selves without controul For convicting the Quakers of gross errour and SECT II establishing others in the truth I shall prove from the Divine Authority of the Scripture these three things First That whatsoever is by the Lord affirmed in the Holy Scripture it is our duty to believe Secondly That whatsoever is thereby or therein commanded of the Lord not being repealed by the coming of Christ it is our duty to obey Thirdly That the Holy Scriptures do in their kind determine or discover to us whether we believe and walk or practise aright or not For the first of these I shall prove from our Saviours § 2 own words O fools and slow of heart to believe Luk. 24. 25. all that the Prophets have spoken c. If it had not been their duty to believe according to the sayings of the Lord by the Prophets which were not immediate to the Disciples it had been neither their fault nor their folly not to believe or to have been so slow and unready to believe even those Prophesies which foretold the death and ill handling of the Messias which was so much above their understandings and so thwart to their affections Yea the innocent and compassionate Jesus would have been not a little faulty for so severely rebuking them for what was no crime at all But lest you should say these Prophecies were within them as some of you have said know first that they were ignorant of them for as yet they John 20. 9. knew not the Scriptures And 't is said Luke 4. 27. Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself Thus much may suffice to prove it our duty to believe what the Scriptures speak and that all and universally Secondly What is therein commanded we ought § 3 to obey c. Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord yâ—ur God Deut 5. 32. hath commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left If it be objected this was obliging to them not to us who are not under Moses's Administration I answer first that the commands here chiefly intended were such as oblige all men in all Ages for the matter of them which is alway just and righteous Secondly the ground of their authority being the Lord commanding reaches to whatever he commands in hiâ— written Word in all Ages of the world Thirdly the Israelites had them not immediately by inspiration but by the hand of Moses either from his mouth to that Generation or by Writing and Tradition to the Generations following Who gave Jacob for Hos 12. 8. a spoil and Israel to the Robbers did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient to his Law Thirdly the holy Scriptures determine according § 4 to their kind or as much as a Writing can do whether we believe and practise aright or not I hope you are not yet resolved with the Jesuits and William Pen that because they do not express the sense contained in them viva voce or direct it to thy conscience without any other help and say thou A. art in the right thou B. art amiss therefore thou wilt not take them to be meet to determine good and evil right and wrong We may as certainly determine by words written as by words spoken and they are altogether as worthy of credit Those who come under the executive determination of Laws do find that Process in writing doth not lose its force for the decrees and sentence being put into that form All Scripture is given 2 Tim 3. 16 17. by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God maybe perfect throughly furnished unto all good works the words for correction here are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for conviction And herein all things which are written in the § 5 Law and the Prophets do I exercise my self to have a Acts. 24. conscience void of offence towards God and towards men What can be more plain the judgment whether he did righteously with respect to God and men was passed in his conscience by the Scriptures and that not by immediate inspiration only though he were an Apostle but by the written Law attained by study and serious meditation Herein I exercise myself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he laboured by study and meditation therein as the Greek imports he was not an idle Quaker that must have knowledge dropt in his mouth for dig he cannot and to ask of others he scorns it But for all that I had rather be laborious rich and humble with Paul than flothful poor proud and meerly in conceit rich with them To the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8. 20. if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them G. Fox the grand Quaker will needs have Christ to be the Law and the Testimony if so I am as sure as can be that they that are saved by Christ are saved by the Law and then farewel the Gospel and the
all his Vagaries who hath the faculty only to the stupidly ignorant Fallere mille modis nâ—c non intexere fraudes In the winding up of your intangled bottom you frame an Objection thus Object 1. Though you have said a great deal to Page 37. prove that Christians should have an infallible Spirit in general Yet you prove nothing distinctly but confound a Judge Rule and Guide together Habemus confitentem reum Least you eat your words I shall put good proof § 2 of the truth of your confession upon Record You say in your answer to your own Objection That to me there is no more difference then essentially there can be in the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God They are so interwovâ—n that the one goes not without the other P. 17. 6 Thus it is in being a Judge Rule and Guide c. What would you say of a man that should affirm his brains heart and lungs being essential to the life of the body and so interwoven that the one goes not without the other are but one and the same thing the one cannot live and be in good state without the other and therefore they are but one and the same thing without difference or distinction And the man suppose John-a-Nokes should upon this ground when he hath a Delirium or Vertigo diseases seated in the brain be very busie to enquire what is good for the Pthysick or Cough of the Lungs or palpitation of the heart but being rebuked for his impertinencies should reply they cannot be one without the other They are essential to the body of man its perfection therefore what is said of the one may be said of the other and what is good against the Pthysick or Cough is good must be good for a Vertigo or Delirium Let me advise you next time you write to frame no Objections against your self unless you shall have learned better to solve them A second Objection you frame thus But at this § 3. Page 38. rate you utterly contemn and seclude the Scriptures as having no part nor portion in being a Rule Judge or Guide to Christians I would your whole book had consisted of Objections for you have spoken more truth of your own framing in two Objections than in most of your affirmations You attempt to solve this with much the like success as the other you praise the Scriptures and hug them hugely till you have reduced them to much like the shadow of the true Rule And then you illustrate the sense of their Authority in these very words He that is so inward with a Prince as to know vivâ voce what his mind is heeds not so much the same when he meets it in print because in print as because he hath received a more living touch and sensible impression from the Prince himself to whose secrets he is privy And this the Scriptures teach us to believe is a right Christian state and priviledge For said the Apostle we have the mind of Christ and the secrets of God are with them that fear him And guide me by thy counsel and bring me to thy glory What Friends but when they read this Princely § 4 flourish but will conclude not only that he hath done it neatly but hit the Nail o' th' head full and spoken their minds e'n as right as if he had been inspir'd by them all and no doubt he shall be their White Boy for all his defects who strokes them so finely and advances them to such a singular Dignity of privacy and inwardness with God that not only his revealed will in print is known by them in a more honourable and immediate way but also his secrets which never stooped so low as to be wrapt in letters Here we have as in a glass W. P.'s Opinion of the immediate teachings of the Spirit to be not only above his teachings by the Scripture as to have a thing whispered in the ear from the Princes own mouth doth excel any Narrative by a Declaration but also so much above them that he who enjoys this favour which must still be no other but a Quaker heeds not so much the same in print How much just not at all For if this viva vox more living touch and sensible impression do not put Authority into them they are but meer Cyphers And if this living touch c. as he believes be without or contrary to the Scripture 't is all as good and Authentick It is upon my Spirit is of much more Divine Obligation than it is written But Mr. Pen That the Scriptures teach us to believe this is a right Christians state and priviledge is a hard-hearted saying The Scripture knows nothing of it nor could I ever yet have a proof that any of you all ever heard the Voice of God as vivâ voce is to be understood and I am very well satisfied the Quakers may be mistaken if they should presume they did ever since some of them took Paul Hobsons mumbling through a Trunk and a hole in the wall to be the voice or the Lord. But that this should be the state of a right Christian wo worth the days past for so many Ages wherein among all professed Christians but now and then one were in this state and that but a little while e're their folly appeared to all men only now and then the Papists had a Job to do for which a viva vox was a fit pretence But you have little Charity in unchristianing all the § 5 world whose very state is not according to these Characters A man in the dark especially if his fancy be strong is full of Visions which have no other being than his imagination affords them this appears to be your state and the part you are acting I shall in short consider your warrants which you § 6 annex to your rare Harangue For said the Apostles we have the mind of Christ Sure he had a good part of it by Tradition from the other Apostles who were Christs Witnesses of what he said and did and we have it in the Scripture And the Secrets of God are with them that fear him But where did the Apostle say this 'T is no matter if it was not the Apostle Paul it was the Apostle David and that 's as good Psa 25. 14. Nay it is all one if it had been the Apostle G. Fox or the Apostle W. Pen whose words and writings are of Prophetical and Apostolical Authority and may be numbred among the Scriptures as well as Pauls or Davids or any other witness your audacious lines put in a different letter to be so understood You say but the Scriptures are herein fulfilled the holy way the vulturous eye did never see Pag. 84. and that same ravenous Spirit after knowledge our adversary must come to know judged c. It is further to be considered that the words you quote out of the Scripture you pervert and the sense also
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
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