THE Snake in the Grass Further Discovered: OR, THE QUAKERS No Christians. Proving out of their own WRITINGS, that they Deny, I. The Scriptures to be the Word of God. II. Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. III. The Manhood of Christ, etc. With an Account of their Canons, Constitutions, Ecclesiastical Order and Discipline. LONDON, Printed for J. F. and are to be Sold by A. Baldwin in Warwick-lane. 1698. TO THE READER. THE Proofs I have given (in this Book) of the Quakers Principles, being taken out of divers particular Authors of theirs; it may be objected, That it is not reasonable, that what is Asserted by any one particular, or private Person, should be imputed to a whole Party of Men, who go under the same Name. To which I answer, That if we take not the Writings of particular Quakers for the Quakers Principles in general, we must be altogether uncapable of finding them. The Quakers pretending all their Ministry to be Infallible, they themselves own as well as their Writings and Declarations to be infallibly true. Yea, they affirm them to speak and write by Divine Inspiration, as the Prophets and Apostles in the Old and New Testament. Whatever is in their Writings and Declaring, (though they may deny our Sense of them) they own the Words as from the Lord. J. F. QVAKERISM NO CHRISTIANITY. PART I. CHAP. I. The Explanation of the Title. SECT. I THat I may inform my Reader of the true state of the Controversy agitated in the ensuing Treatise; I hold myself bound as a rational man, and as a Christian, (the Controversy being of a Religious Concern) both to state the main Question; to which I shall endeavour, that all those which are subordinate, or by me pretended to be so, may be plainly reducible; and also to open the terms, that I may neither write, nor my Reader be led into a thicket of impertinencies: but as it may be clear and conspicuous, whereof I affirm; so also, the Reader may be able to judge, how much what is offered is to the purpose. I need not trouble the Reader with any further § 2 account of the Question then the Title; wherein I affirm, that Quakerism is no Christianity, which if it be not only sufficiently proved, and clearly, but also abundantly, I shall not doubt but all honest hearts who shall peruse this Discourse, will be irreconcilably alienated from all appearances of so horrid an Imposture. And I am not altogether out of hope, that many of those who have inclined, or adhered to those woeful Tenets, or persons here discovered, with a design to elevate their Christianity to a higher Standard of Purity, will be convinced, that instead thereof they have but plunged themselves into the ditch of the grossest delusions, and made work for Repentance. For the term Christianity, we are not to understand SECT. TWO by it all those matters of faith and practice, which Christianity doth oblige us unto; for Christianity is a large and noble thing, which is not only a curious Garden, which hath in it that which common Fields, yea and common Enclosures are not furnished withal, but also doth take in, (beside what is peculiar to its self) all that is worthy in those Religions which it hath superseded and outstripped; yea, whatever is good and commendable among the very Heathen, according to that of the Apostle, Finally, Brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Christianity (in a full sense) consists of those principles of Faith and Life; that Worship, Order, and those Ordinances; which have not only a respect to Jesus Christ the Mediator between God and Man, in his lapsed state: but also that frame of them which is proper to the Gospel or New Testament-Administration; which was constituted by Christ while he was manifest in the flesh,, and after he had actually finished the meritorious part of our Reconciliation and Salvation, and as God-Man united in one Person, was invested with all Power both in Heaven and Earth, according to that Scripture, All Power is given unto me in Heaven Mat. 28. 18 and in Earth; and that full Text to this purpose, And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled PhIl. 2. 10, 11. himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross: wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every Name, etc. A Christian in the narrowest sense, is one that owns the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, to be the Lord and Saviour. That this account of Christianity may be understood § 2 aright, I shall spend a few lines (and as few as I can) to inform of the difference, between Christianity as such, and those other things which Christianity obliges to; which yet may be where there is not any the least footsteps of Christianity. To know and acknowledge (in some way) the § 3 one and only true God, Creator of all things, or dependence on, and subjection to him; the love of God, our Neighbour, and ourselves; Justice, Temperance, and all other duties, which by the Light and Law of Nature we may be convinced of, these a man may be exercised in, and yet be nothing of a Christian, and so were some of the Heathens, who not only were altogether ignorant of Christ, but also opposed him and the Christian name. To come yet nearer, the Church of Israel under § 4 Moses's Administration; who had not only the Moral Law, or Law of Nature, given forth by God himself; but also the Promises, Descriptions, Types, and Shadows of Christ the Redeemer; through the faith of whom, all them that were saved came by their salvation: yet their state was not (in a strict sense) Christian, nor the Law and Administration under which they lived, and to which they subjected Christianity: which I shall confirm by some essential exceptions. Christianity necessarily includes the faith and belief § 5 of Christ already come, a Christ crucified, that died, risen again from the dead, is ascended, etc. Without Controversy great is the Mystery of Godliness, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, believed on in the World, received up into Glory. 1 Tim. 3. 16. This was Christian Godliness. But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling bloc●; this Christ as come and crucified, was the main basis of the Gospel and Christianity. Christianity necessarily includes the belief of that Particular, and numerical man Christ Jesus; who § 6 was born of the Virgin Mary, and was of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, to be the Christ of God that was promised to come in due time. I said therefore unto you, that you shall die in your sins, for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins, John. 8. 24. Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Acts 3. 6. These were new Articles of their Creed, without the belief of which they were such as had nothing to do with Christ, as their Mediator. Again, the whole frame of the Administration was altered from Moses to Christ, even the man Christ Jesus as well as God. Hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, Heb. 1. 1. And Moses verily was faithful in all his House, as a servant, for a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a Son over his own House, Heb. 3. 5. We have now nothing to do with Moses Law as such▪ and also the manner of Administration, which is not in a multitude of carnal observancies, types, and resebmlances, but in that way which is more real and more purely spiritual. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, John 4. 23. They were to worship him in spirit before; for where the heart was not in the ceremonial and typical worship they were not accepted; and God never indulged hypocrisy. The meaning must therefore be, That spirit must be taken in opposition to those carnal Ordinances, and the material Temple; and Truth, in opposition to thofe Types, which were not a Lie, but were only the shadows of good things to come. I might enlarge to the Officers, Offices, and restrained § 8 Extent of the Mosaical Administration; and show that in all it is Alien to the Administration of Christ come; and that wherein Christianity consists. For if that [Ministration] which is done a way was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious, 2 Cor. 3. 11. Now to resume the intent of what I have said, § 9 observe, that neither the natural light and practices of Heathen, nor the revealed light, law, and practices Judaical were Christian (as such) though the latter (a great part of them) had a respect to Christ, and the medicinal and remedying part of Religion. And the Jews, who were immediately before the Church of God; yet when the Administration was changed, they were cut off from the Church, though they retained their Morals and those Ceremonial Respects to an expected Messiah, if they did not admit into their Creed or Faith the Articles aforesaid; viz. a Christ come; That Jesus who was crucified was the Christ, and that he was the Supreme Head and Administrator to the Church of God; and those who did so were transmitted into the Christian Church, the other being dissolved. Having expressed with what brevity I could, SECT. III what Christianity (as such) is: I shall in a few lines give an Account what I intent by the term Quakerism. I do not mean thereby, that all that are called and reputed Quakers, are no Christians; for my charity is large enough to believe, That many of them would abhor the Principles of their Leaders, did they but well understand them: for whose sakes in part I have undertaken this Discovery. Quakerism is a Heap of Tenets, with the usurped Names of true Christian Principles, which are yet really no such things, but subverting both Foundation and Fabric of Christianity. And I call him a Quaker that professes the Light within every man to be the only Lord and Saviour, and very God. So that when I say, Quakerism is no Christianity, I do not say, that common Civility, Justice among men, or whatever of their principles or practices which are morally good; for these are generally owned as the principles of those Christians, whom they separate from, and bitterly reproach as Antichristian. And it cannot be for want of Instructions or Examples in such kind of goodness, that they withdraw from the serious Professors, that are as far from their opinions as the East is from the West. CHAP. II. The Beginning of Quakerism different from, and opposite to Christianity. THe first Argument which I shall begin my attempt SECT. I with, shall be from the beginning of Quakerism; which I shall take notice of under two Considerations. First, The manner of the beginning of Quakerism. Secondly, The time of its beginning. Both of which I shall prove exceedingly to oppose, and differ from the beginning of Christianity. The Christian Religion or Christianity was first § 2 introduced by the preaching of the promised Messiah to be come into the world; whose humane Nature was pointed at by John the Baptist, and visible to the bodily eyes of a multitude of beholders. The next day John seethe Jesus coming unto him; and saith, of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. But Quakerism was introduced by preaching a § 3 Christ within every man, born within every man, which was never seen with the bodily eyes of any man; and this Testimony of John concerning the true Christ perverted, for the maintaining of their feigned Christ. And as you give up to that measure of light in your Morning-Watch. p. 41 own Consciences, and wait to be guided by it, and exercised in it, you will know Christ revealed within you, whom you are looking for without you, and put his day far off from you; and so you live in want of him, and know not how to come to him, nor the place where to find him; but live in the dream, and night-visions, and have a talk of him, and what he hath done for you, and so spend your precious time in slumbering and dreaming, etc. This Quakers Text will bear a large Comment, but I will take notice of that only which is to the present purpose. Here is preached a Christ within, in opposition to, and contempt of a Christ without, which John preached, and that faith and hope of the Saints, (which according to the Scripture are the substance of things not seen, and the evidence of Heb. 11. 11. things hoped for) reproached as a slumbering fancy, and a nocturnal dream. But if you would infallibly be convinced of the gross darkness wherewith this sort of men are benighted, or their palpable dishonesty in abusing the Holy Scripture; weigh the following instance out of the preceding Author. Then God sent him [John] to bear witness to the § 4 light, which in him was made manifest, that all in Morning-Watch. p. 5. the light might believe: and he called unto others to behold him, and said he was the Lamb of God, and was to take away the sins of the world. Lest you should mistake him, and g●●ss that a man that could but write his name should not have so little wit or modesty, as to expound that Text of Scripture after this sort: he quotes chapter and verse, John 1. 9 and the next word is (mark) in a Parenthesis, lest his folly should not appear to all men, who should have the hap to read him. And moreover, at the close of the period, after he had made a further blind Comment on the Text, he glories in his shame, with a Weigh this truth all ye Priests and P. 6. Professors, and ponder it in your hearts: No words big enough to express its madness! Christianity made its way not only by the truth SECT. TWO and purity of its Doctrine; but also by such and so many signs and wonders wrought before multitudes, as were convincing to its most malicious and prejudiced Adversaries, and that not only by Christ himself, but also by his Disciples and servants, both before and after his death. And all bore him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, Luke 22. 4. but men may speak many good words, and yet both say and do at other times bad enough: but Christ appeals to the faces of his worst Adversaries; If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil, John 18. 23. But if forcible right words would not make way, Christ exhorts them to believe for the very works sake; and these were not ordinary works or wonders, and miracles neither: If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. And as himself, so his servants introduced Christianity with the same holy pomp and state of the Mighty, and miraculous works of the Power of God, bearing witness to the truth of their Doctrine. Long time therefore abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave Testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands, Acts 1. 3. But Quakerism made its way by, and began in blasphemies against the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth (whom the Apostles preached) by gratifying the pride, idleness, and giddiness of both Professors and profane, as will appear abundantly in the following discourse; and by decrying the Scripture of the Old and New Testament, as a dead Letter, and altogether useless, if not mischievous: * Sword of the Lord drawn p. 5 Fox the younger Gen. epist. P. 4 Your imagined God beyond the Stars, a day of calamity will come upon them who have worshipped and do worship an unknown God at a distance, and pretend the worship of the true God. And if we will not believe the Quakers for their words sake, (which swell big enough with vanity, folly, nonsense, and error) we are like to continue in the truth still for all them. There have been some of them who have been sensible of this defect, and have attempted to supply it, to the cracking of their credit, some to the loss of their lives, George Fox hath found a plaster for this sore, which I shall produce: that you may give your judgement whether it smell more of the Fox or of the Goose. FOX. Which many prayed by the Spirit, and spoke by § 3 the Spirit, did not show miracles at the Tempter's Command; The great Mystery of the great Whore p. 3. though among Believers there be miracles in Spirit which be signs and wonders to the world, as Isaiah saith; When I read this, I had much ado to keep myself from laughing; but the weightiness of my thoughts on this imposture, soon helped me to reduce it to a compassionate smile. Indeed, I think, him crafty like the Fox, not to venture his carcase in attempting any miracle but in spirit, and yet more a Goose to call them signs and wonders to the world, which the world never saw, nor could have wondered at, if George Fox, and such as he had not blabbed of them. But, I must not let pass his fathering his absurdity on the Prophet Isaiah; the words he intends must be in Isa. 8. 18. Behold I, and the Children whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel, I find not the word [Signs] any where else in that Prophecy He hath a strange spirit of discerning, that can find in that Scripture any thing of Miracles wrought in spirit: for indeed they themselves were the wonders, that is, they were wondered at. So may the Quakers well be, but in a far worse sense, or for a worse cause. I may the less wonder at George's boldness with Isaiah, seeing a great Rabbi of the Quakers hath said that he is as good a Prophet as Isaiah. Who would conceive that so blockish a person as this, should be the Foreman and Chief in account among such a number of such singularly discerning spirits as the Quakers? but as among wise men the wisest are most highly esteemed, so among others the veriest— Christianity entered into the world with ravishing SECT. III Songs, and Hatlelujahs of the Angels, and heavenly Host, the Songs and Thanksgivings of Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, and others: with the healing of all sorts of diseases, casting out devils out of the possessed, preaching the glad tidings of the Gospel of Peace, and what might express the Sun of righteousness to be risen on the World, with healing in his wings. I need not find you out the places of Scripture which speak these things. But Quakerism entered the world as if Hell were § 2 broke lose and possessions by Satan were to make way, and fit souls for the Quakers spirit. Instead of that serious compunction, that seized gross and black sinners upon their conviction; and the consolation that was let into their souls by the joyful sound of remission and salvation, throu●h a crucified Jesus: O the Hell-dark expressions of the Quakers Preachers! the frightful and amazing words, both for matter and manner, where with they first attempted poor silly men and women; whom they frighted almost out of their wits with their dismal noise; whose echo remained in their ears, when their words were forgotten. What bitter Curses and Execrations did they pour forth against all that made any opposition, (though most mildly and rationally) against their unheard of innovation. What disturbing of Congregations, and reviling the most serious and faithful Pastors: while those, whose faults they have made use of to bespatter the guiltless, might remain quiet enough, as not so dangerous and adverse to Satan's interest and Kingdom. How generally were their Meetings, either silent, or taken up with the sudden, and violent eruptions of dismal howling and horrible roar. Persons suddenly taken as with the falling-sickness, shaking and foaming at the Mouth; and some lying flat on the ground, as stark dead Some such things as these I have seen and heard; and what there are undeniable Testimonies of, are so numerous and notorious, that though they have now almost, if not altogether left the latter sort of them, they dare not deny that it was so And if they dare to challenge this with untruth, I may requite them, with a good Part of a Volume of them, to keep alive their remembrance. I now proceed to my second consideration of the beginning of Quakerism with respect to time. What I have already said in the opening the SECT. IV term Christianity, will save me much of the labour of proving (in this place) when it began to take place. I know none that assert Heathenism, or the state of the Saints before the flood, or of the Patriarches after the flood, or of the Israelites under Moses' Administration to be (in a proper and strict sense) Christian: except some of the Quakers, who date it from the reign of the light within (their only Christ) and will needs have not only Jews, but Heathen (and especially Adam in innocency to be) under that dispensation. Yet I doubt not to prove both from Scripture, and also from their own Writings by necessary consequence, that Christianity is not so old as the formentioned, nor yet so young as Quakerism. Some (though but few) date Christianity from the § 2 Birth of Christ: Others, with much more reason, from the Resurrection of Christ, when he had finished his Transactions for the merit of our salvation in the Person of God-Man; and from that Declaration he made of the possession of the power committed to him. Matth. 28. 18. All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth. But all agree (who make any distinction) that it began immediately upon the abrogation and dissolution of the Mosaical Administration and Temple-Worship, which was above sixteen hundred years since, although (as the Scripture speaks) The Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch, Acts 11. 26. But the thing Christianity might well be before the name Christian so short a space. And that the Christian Name had about that time its Beginning, appears by the reply of Agrippa to Paul, Almost thou preswad●st me to be a Christian, Acts 28. 8. which then, it seems was the common appellation of Believers and Professors of the Father of Christ. But if all this will not convince, I will add one Text more to make down-weight. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, 1 Pet. 4. 16. Here Christianity is distinguished both from Heathenism and Judaisme. Both the Gentiles and the Jews were bitter enemies to the Christian Name; and that not for the Name but the things sake; the Gentiles for their denying Idol-worship, the Jews for their deserting the Mosaical Constitution; the Gentiles for their only worshipping the only true God; the Jews for worshipping the true God by, and through Jesus Christ the Mediator. And I, Brethren, if I yet preach Ciroumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the Cross ceased, Gal. 5. 11. Having adjusted the entrance of Christianity into § 3 the world in point of time; l●t us now compare Notes whether it agree with the Birth of Quakerism. I know but of two Arguments (such as they be) upon which they build their Antiquity, and by both of them they date their Christianity, either from Adam or Eternity. The first is from Christ the Light who was in the Beginning with God. But if they make the being of their Christianity commensurate with the being of Christ as God: I confess, 'tis but folly for any other to number days with it. But besides the notorious absurdity of this Fancy at first view, to those that dream not waking: I have already proved, that Christianity had a beginning, and that long since the Creation. The other Argument is from Inspirations, and § 4 immediate teaching; which next to the light within is the main principle of Quakerism. To this I answer, by way of grant and concession; that there was immediate teaching and revelation very early in the world: but that wherever and whenever there was immediate teaching, then and there was Christianity: is a thing, that men who have better skill in the Scriptures, and more use of their reason than they, will be ashamed to attempt the proof of. But if it were granted; That Inspirations divine and immediate, did constitute Christianity; and that all who are, or were thereby conducted are to be accounted Christians: it will be long enough ere the Quakers prove they are the persons, and not long before I have proved that they are not; as will appear when you come to that point handled at large in this Treatise. But beside the notoriousness of the Quakers novelty, § 5 I shall fully prove it from their own Assertions; and if they oppose one another, let them look to that, and agree among themselves as well as they can. It is now about seven years since the Lord raised Mystery of the great Whore Epist. 1659. us up in the North of England, and opened our Mouths in this his spirit. By the date of the Impression it should be about 51 that Quakerism broke forth in this Nation, and England hath this unhappiness, that it was the first Breeder of this Sect, and the North of England the part first infected. I remember there is an old Proverb, (I suppose grounded on manifold experiences) All evil comes out of the North. But against this it may be objected, that although they were the first in England, and of late generations, yet the Religion itself is ancient. Let us therefore follow it to the root by their own direction. After these things in the year 1648. God who § 6 had compassion on his people, did cause a branch to Jo. Whithead small Treat. p, 4 spring forth of the root of David, which was filled with virtue: for the Covenant of Life and Peace was with him, and he spread and shot forth many branches; which did partake of the fatness of the Root, and the weary came to rest under his branches: in him also was the Word of Reconciliation, which turned the hearts of the Fathers to the Children, and the disobedient to the Wisdom of the just. Observe the blasphemy of these expressions, § 7 many of which are by the Scripture spoken of Christ, and agreeing to him only; but applied by this Wretch to the first of their Sect brought forth in their Spirit in the year 1648. Who it should be except James Naylor, I cannot guests? and follows immediately. And in the Year 1655, I being a branch of this Ibid. Tree, viz. the Branch aforesaid; the life of its Root caused me to blossom and bring forth fruit; for the Spirit of the Lord come upon me, etc. So that whatever was the Root, the first branch of this degenerate Vine sprung forth in 48. And if the words immediately foregoing those § 8 I here quote, signify any thing, it must be a new Administration, for which the Lord was against them, (the public Pastors) and brought night upon them, that their vision ceased. Then those Pastors had sometime the Vision and presence of God with them, who never preached the light within to be the only Rule, the only Redeemer, nor pretended to minister from immediate Inspirations: but from the Scriptures, by which they were directed, and which were the Treasury out of which they brought forth whatever they handed (as from the Lord) to the people: but about the year 48 or 50, that way of ministration was cried down, and those principles called Quakerism by you inserted in their room and stead. But let us hear another Witness, and he none of the § 9 Isaac Penington concerning Unity, p 1. meanest. Yea, my heart did truly unite with, and enjoy the Lord in what was then [about the beginning of the late troubles] given forth, and I can never be drawn to deny the truth and worth of that dispensation, though I know it was swallowed up by a greater desolation, soon following after: and since, by the breaking forth of a more lively dispensation. And a little after, p. 2. and remained, fixing their mind on that [former dispensation] which the Lord had departed from. It is hereby as plain and clear, as the Sun shining § 10 at noonday, that Quakerism is a late dispensation, taking its date since the beginning of the late troubles. But to put all out of doubt, in page 3. he saith, Is not this [Quakerism] the lowest of all dispensations? Is not this common to all mankind? doth not this fall short (in itself, as I may say, and as it hath formerly been dispensed by young Countrey-Lads of no deep understanding, or ready expression; but very fit to be despised every where by the Wisdom of Man) of the dispensation of the Law of Moses to the Jews? much more of the dispensation by Christ and his Apostles? who would have looked for the Lord here? And yet this hath the Lord chosen to gather his people by, and to appear to the World in, and hath gathered the life, virtue and substance of all former dispensations into it, etc. So that this new despensation hath swallowed up all others, yea, that of Christ and his Apostles; and if so, it is not the dispensation of Christ and his Apostles, but another accounted by the Quakers more excellent and complete; and therefore is not Christianity, any more than Christianity is Judaisme, by their own account. To shut up the proof of this (as owned by themselves, according to the most plain Construction of their own words, or consequence not to be disowned by a rational man) I will give you James Naylor's doctrine. But yours [Commands] in the Letter, and Love to the Lost, p. 16. so of another Administration, for the literal Ministration is done away in the spiritual. Well then, if Christianity began in a manner so vastly differing from, and a time so long before Quakerism, which is not that but another Administration, Quakerism is no Christianity; but the former hath been proved to be true, therefore the latter. CHAP. III. The Quakers deny the Scriptures. SECT. I THAT the Quakers pretend to own the Scriptures, I do not deny; but I shall prove it to be one of the most naked and self-contradicted pretences that ever peeped out into the World, with such a noise and confidence. If mere pretences were of sufficient Authority 'Tis Satan's Masterpiece to betray with a kiss. to command our faith, that portion of Scripture might be well spared, 1. Thes. 5. 21. Prove all things, etc. If they should deny the Scriptures in so many words, they cannot but know, it would nip their designs in the bud, and in stead of promoting their principles, render themselves odious; but Satan is not so silly an Impostor, as to spoil his Market, by appearing so unseasonably, and at first dash in so deformed a shape: he is not ignorant of that Text; Surely in vain is the Not spread in the sight of any Bird. I shall therefore wave pretences on both sides, and bring my charge to a fair trial, wherein their own Testimonies shall be their principal Judges. I desire them not to accuse me of wounding their reputation, seeing the stabs are given with their own daggers, and the Murder is no better nor worse than felo de se, (as the Law phrases it) but in plain English, Self-murder; this I shall prove by sufficient Argument; The Quakers deny the Scriptures of the Old and Arg. 1 § 2 New Testament to be the Word of God. This Charge, none of them that ever I read, heard, or heard of will deny; and if you please to cast your eye on the instances, you may take it on their own words; Blasphemy for any to say To all that would know, p. 4. Naylors' answer to the Jews p. 25 Cuffs, Ribbons, Lace, and such other like things invented by the devil. F. howgil, one of Antichrists, etc. p. 2. the Letter is the Word of God; It is the Devil that contends for the Scriptures to be the Word of God. This error is by some reputed merely verbal, and that in other words they allow the Scripture as much as this comes to. I would it were true of this and all the rest of their errors, which they trumpet out in the Scripture titles and dialect; upon that condition I would be really content to Yea and Nay it, and Thee and Thou it; and moreover, forbidden Ribbons, Lace and Cuffs, (though the most modest that were ever worn) to pollute my Garments; and offend their unnecessary self-denial from that time forward. But they have another opinion of it, or they would not call it blasphemy to be otherwise minded; and we shall find it ere I have done, to be their forelorn Hope; by which they attempt to make a breach on the Authority and esteem the Scripture hath justly obtained in the hearts of all serious Christians; and thereby with more ease and security to enter the whole Army and gross of their delusions; and therefore I shall encounter it first and in good earnest. It will be necessary before I proceed, to let you § 2 know what we intent by the phrase, that the Scriptures are the Word of God: that you may know what we hold and contend for, though they know not what they contend against: except the vain fictions of their own begetting. Know therefore that we do not assert them to be the Son of God, the Christ and Saviour, nor the Spirit of God; neither do we say, that they are so self-sufficient and all-powerful as to sanctify and enlighten savingly, without the coagency, efficiency or assistance of the good Spirit of the Lord, to open our understandings, and write them in our hearts. These things are too high for them. On the other hand, we dare not call them a dead letter, (who have felt them sharper than any two-edged § 3 sword, and tasted them sweeter than then the honey or the honeycomb) nor yet Ink and Paper-Divinity, or merely the words and works of men: These are too low an opinion of them. But positively, First, we intent the sense and matter by them expressed; § 4 containing those Histories, Prophecies, Promises, Threaten, Doctrines, Exhortations, etc. which God at sundry times, and in divers manners, revealed to and pake by his Son and servants, inspired by God, or by inspiration of God. Secondly, the sense and matter aforesaid, being § 5 written or printed, we call the Word of God; so far as the print or writing agrees (in its kind) with the Original Copies; which were written by, or by the Direction of God himself, his son or servants inspired by him, so we call it the Word of God, but with this distinction, the written Word. Now that the Scriptures are the Word of God in the SECT. TWO senses aforesaid, I shall vindicate from the violent contradictions of the Quakers. They have these three Objections against this truth. 1. That it is improper so to call them, viz. The Word of God. 2. That many things or say contained in them were spoken by wicked men or the devil. 3. That this Title is peculiar to Jesus Christ the Son of God. First, they deny them to be the Word of God in the singular number. I must therefore in dealing with this great Criticism, reconcile the plural number to the singular. I answer, to the first, it sounds methinks very harshly, § 2 that not one word in the Scriptures should be the Word of God, because there are in them more words than one. Surely, if the first, second, third, fourth, and so on, be the Word of God, than every word in it is the Word of God: and never the less, but rather the more for being united; for that there are few single words, which standing alone will signify any thing, whereas divers put together, have a sense and signification. And the whole body of the Scripture considered together, doth signify the mind of God more completely, then if it were dismembered and considered apart. But I know they aim at more than a mere Grammar-nicety, at which kind of failings they use not much to quarrel; but are rather affected with them, as if the Spirit of God delighted in real nonsense; though I think the causes to be three especially. First, that their first Authors could speak or write no better; and they take it to be a perfection to write false English and nonsense after such infallible persons. Secondly, because they have so few of those they call their Ministry able to write true sense and English, that those who can if they list will not, lest they should disgrace their Brethren; and rather than that should be admitted, it shall become the fashion, and obtain in time to be better English then sense. A third reason may be, their taking all, matter and form, to be infallibly from the Spirit, and therefore dare not amend the sense of the Spirit. But to what is the Question I return, after this so § 4 long (yet not altogether inexcusable) digression. One of their zealous Ministers (as they call them) thus exclaims, And what an improper speech were this, to call Fr. Howgil one of Antichrists Volunteers defeated. p. 26. twenty thousand Sentences one word! and it is called a Declaration; and what a Declaration would that be, which consisted but of one word! but where do we say the Scripture is but one word? there is a great deal of difference between but one word, and the Word. And if the Scriptures be a Declaration in the singular number, it must take many Declarations into one; for it contains what was declared from Moses time to the Apostles; and why not the word in the singular, as well as a Declaration in the singular, seeing the Scripture contains many Declarations? But he gives one kick backward more at what he pleads for; Pray have the patience to read this man passing the sentence against himself, A Rod for the fools back, Prov. 26. 3. And what a foolish man is this, to assert his own imaginations, and then imagines the Scriptures will prove it! what an improper speech is this! etc. I know not the person he brands with folly; but I am sure the Cause, as laid down by Howgil himself, deserves it not. I am confident he understands not what improper means; if he intent by improper that it is figurative; he need not wonder and say, what a figurative speech is this? Alas, the Scriptures and all Writings abound with figurative speeches; but if he mean by improper, incongruous or unmeet, he offends greatly; (for then the Scriptures are very guilty herein) as will appear by and by; and I know not what else he should mean by proper, unless not peculiar or a tall speech; as we call a tall man or woman a proper, and by improper a short speech; Let a Prophet Naylors' Love to the lost. p. 17. of their own, and he none of the small Prophets neither, decide this Controversy. Nay, who never yet came so far as Balaam, who had the Word of the Lord from his own Mouth. But to cast this Objection out of doors, we are to § 5 take it in a collective sense, which is very frequent in the Scripture. For instance, the Scriptures themselves are sometimes expressed by a plural, sometimes by a singular word; Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures; Mat. 22. 23. Here it is plural: It is contained in the Scripture, 1 Pet 2. 6. Here it is singular. A sentence is called a word, Where the word of a King is there is Power. Eccles. 8. 3. They were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with Power. Either of these instances contain more than one single word. The ten Commandments graven on the Tables of Stone, are in the Hebr. ten words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you have so rendered in the margin of some of your Bibles. Deut. 10. 40. Now divide these Commandments into ten single ones, and then each will have but one word come to its share to express it by; and some It is too frequent with them to call the holy Scriptures dead Letter, and a letter is somewhat less than a word. one, viz. the fourth, hath at least 60 single words in the Hebr. but many more in the English, Rom. 2. 9, 10. To the Jew [not Jew's] and also to the Gentile [not Gentiles:] can you suppose that one, and but one single Jew or Gentile is hereby intended? read the sixth verse, and you shall have it explained; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: so that under the single word Jew, is expressed all the Jews from first to last, in every generation; and under the word Gentile, all the world of mankind besides. Take one Text more to conclude with, Isa. 8. 20. To § 6 No Morning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ei aurora: Montanus. the Law, and to the Testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them; not so much as the dawning of the day. Both Law and Testimony are here rendered by Word in the singular number; in this one Text there is enough, (not only to silence this petty cavil, but) to pluck up both root and branch; all the principles of Quakerism: if they who profess them had any regard to the Authority and verity of the eternal and Almighty God, and a few grains of understanding at liberty to consult it. 2. Object. Many passages in the Scriptures contain the SECT. III sayings of wicked men. Yea, some have been so irreverent and irrational, as to say, some part of it is the words of the devil; this expression hath been frequent with them, and uttered in contempt of the Scripture. I answer, although the Scriptures make frequent mention of such Passages, it is to a good and holy end; and hereby Satan's malice is discovered, whereby in a good measure we are not ignorant of his devices; and hereby we understand his snares, in which our first Parents were taken, and others both good & bad in after-Ages; and Satan is also rendered the most wicked and hateful of all that God created. But to speak close to the Objection, Those speeches of wicked persons, such as Job's wife, the Pharisees, Jews, and Rabshakeh, and the speeches of the Devil, are not the Word of God, or any part of holy Writ, (as they were uttered by them) but far from it. We are to consider the Scripture, as partly Historical; and all those passages being reported historically, there is not the least stain upon the Scriptures thereby. What if I make a true report of the Powder-plot, the Massacres in France, Ireland, etc. And that to good ends and purposes? yea, if I report the blasphemous speeches by them uttered against God, his Saints, and the holy Scriptures; am I therefore , as if I myself had been their Author? I know what hath been said is convincing. Now by the Inspiration and Guidance of the Holy Spirit these things were written; and there is not only a truth, but also a divine truth of History in them. Object. 3. That this title, the Word of God, is peculiar to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they call the light within, the Scriptures within. Here it is indeed that the shoe pinches, and they would fain put off the honour, and put out the light of the Scriptures, because they stand in the light of their fancy. (Pardon me the expression, for it is truth I shall prove by the Lord's assistance, ere I have done.) But what have they to say that the Scripture should not be the Word of God, notwithstanding the Son of God is so called? I will give you the best that ever I met with. The first is, the Authority of their Leaders, who say, It is so, and it must be so; He [Christ] is the Ja. Parnel, Christ exalted, p. 4. Word, the Scripture is not. Why should it be doubted after such an evidence? it is unreasonable and superfluous to expect, that infallible persons, (for so the Quakers believe all their Ministry to be) should give a reason for what they affirm; especially considering they are constrained to be infallible for want of reason. And now seeing he can carry it so easily, he goes on like an empty Cloud carried with the wind, He [Christ] is the light, the Scripture is not; he is the Ruler, Guide, Teacher and Judge, and the Scripture is not. What may not a man prove in one infallible breath? did he not prudently to make haste, before that gale was spent? Well, but who can stand before a whirlwind? one blast hath torn from the Scripture no less than six of those glorious Garments wherewith God hath clothed it. Let us hear G. F. if he do not amend the matter § 4 by a thing like an Argument, He did not say John 1. 1. the Declaration was the Word, but said in his Declaration the Word was God: and he who saith the Latter Difference of Ministers p. 1. is the Word, is a Deceiver, and errs,— for the Scripture saith, That in the beginning was the Word. If you could have found where John said in his Declaration (as you call it) that the Scriptures are not the Word of God, a thousand to one but some or other of the Lords people would have found it out long before Quakerism was in being, and have ceased to take that name in vain. For the second Argument, he said the Word was § 5 God, what then? Why then the Scriptures cannot be the Word unless they be God also. I am sure I have hit on your Conclusion, and the best you can make of it: but let me tell you that the Scripture may be the Word, and Christ the Word also, and yet though Christ be the Word of God, the Scriptures the Word may be quite another thing. Let me give you just such another place of Scripture, They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed ● Cor. 10. 4. them, and that Rock was Christ. Will you conclude from hence that there is no other Rock, but every Rock in the World must needs be Christ? or, that it is sinful, yea, Blasphemy, to call any thing a Rock but Christ? but it may be you will say, 'tis a spiritual Rock in that place; And I say it was spiritual, only as it was mystical or typical of Christ; but in other respects it was a Rock as others are, hard and stony. So I say of the Word that was God, it was the Word that was in the beginning, that created all things. Show me any such Word and I will call it God too: yea, I will say it is blasphemy to deny it to be so. But the Scriptures which we call the Word of God, were not in the beginning, nor did they create any thing, much less all things. Pray let me ask you that are so stiff in this point; § 9 do you not take the light in John 1. 9 to be Christ and God? say nay, if you dare. Yea, and will you not say, that John saith so in his Declaration? I know you will, and I will say so too; what then? Is there nothing called light, or that is truly so, but Christ or God? the Sun, Moon, Day, are called Gen. 1. 5, 16. Mat. 5. 14. Light also; yea, the Disciples are called by Christ himself, The Light of the World. And must they be God too? or Christ be to blame for calling them the Light of the World; a phrase so very near, that in John 1. 9 Christ is called the Way, the Truth and the Life; but if you should make every such expression to be meant of Christ and God; I am sure we should have Lords many, and Gods many, in a far lower sense than the Magistrates, and great men of the world; and Christ would be little beholden to us. I beseech you therefore, who are not stark blind, and steel-hard; either to abandon such principles, or at least do not pretend to Scripture for them, and abuse it after this manner; for the Scriptures are no friend to your crooked, unholy principles, and that your Leaders know well enough. That I may blow the dust out of your eyes, I shall SECT. TWO take a little pains to show you your mistake, and also how to amend it in more and weightier points (in themselves) than this under present consideration. You do not honestly distinguish betwixt proper and figurative words and phrases in reading the Scriptures, but have gotten an Art to construe them backward, quite cross to their true intent and meaning; you will take proper speeches for figurative, and figurative for proper, not care●ing for the true sense, but as they will serve your turn; and thereby you can prove quodlibet ex quolibet, what you will, and any how; and so you seem in the eyes of silly and credulous souls, to make your rope of sand to hang finely together; and you are no more happy here, for Christ the Word is the Word, but in a less proper sense, whereas the Scriptures are the word of God in a much more proper sense; which I shall plainly demonstrate: Only take one direction in the mean while. That where any phrase or word may be taken in a § 2 proper sense, it ought so to be taken: unless there be a necessity to do otherwise, from the consideration of the Context. As in the point in hand, 'tis said, The Word was God, in the beginning, here it cannot be understood of the Word in a proper and ordinary acceptation; because such words or word cannot be God, neither were in the beginning. Besides, what is afterwards spoken of the Word there is plainly and only to be understood of Christ the Son of God, but if you consider the Word expressed, Mark 4. 19 And the cares of this World, and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entering in▪ choke the Word, and it becometh unfruitful. Here you must take it for the doctrinal Word, or Word of Instruction, which is a proper sense of the Word; and if you should take it for Christ the Word, you must read it Choke Christ: which how untrue and uncomely a phrase it is, I leave yourselves to judge. Now I shall show you what is a word in a proper § 3 sense, and that the Scriptures are such: and what in a figurative sense, and that Christ or the Son of God (as the Word in ordinary acceptation) is such. A word in a proper sense, is either an articulate syllabical sound, which the ear is receptive of, and by which somewhat may be understood as its signification, in a commonly received acceptation. Or also a writing, impression or graving, which is such a disposing of letters in their Order as doth express and signify to the eye, what the other doth to the ear. Now Christ is not, cannot be the Word, in neither § of these senses; for he is not a sound thus disposed, nor yet an engraved, printed, or written thing: But the Scriptures are such or consist of such words. How the Scriptures are the word in the singular number, I have already showed and must refer you thither. A figurative word, or word in a figurative construction, § 5 is somewhat so expressed, but is so only by Analogy, as having some proportion with, and similitude or likeness to a word: but will by no means bear the definition of a word, taking in all that is essential to its being a word. For instance, God is called a Husbandman, John § 6 10. 1. But he is not so in a proper sense, for he neither goes to blow, nor sow, nor cart, and managing grounds and as a Husbandman doth; nay, he is not a man (of any occupation whatsoever) but there is some analogy, and similitude betwixt the Almighty and a Husbandman, in his deal with his people: for he takes care of them, he waters them, purges, prunes, blows, digs, fences, feeds them in a spiritual sense. Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the § 7 Vine, the door: yet he is none of these, but with respect to his relation, and usefulness to his people, there is some similitude betwixt Christ, and these Figures and Emblems of him: he is strong and courageous, fears none, overcomes all he encounters with, he conveys sap, life and fruitfulness to his living branches; he is the mean by which we may be reconciled to, and enjoy God; but enough of this. And Christ who is God, is the Word, but by Analogy, § 8 not properly in ordinary acceptation. 1. He is a great part of the substance and scope of the Scriptures the Word of God, they testify of him, and direct to him in their doctrine, types, etc. To him give all the Prophet's witness. Acts. 10, 12▪ 2. He doth also manifest and signify to us all the glorious attributes of God in a splendid manner, but more especially his love, mercy and pity: and that not only as a Prophet and Teacher; by the Word of his mouth; but also in all his concerns as Mediator. 3. As he is the Executor of the good promised, and evils threatened in the Scriptures. So Rev. 19 13. he was employed in bloody work, executing the vengeance of God against his Adversaries, threatened in the Word; and he possesses his faithful ones of the happiness prepared for, and promised to them. Thus I hope I have cleared my way hitherto. One thing only remains to prove their error, which I have reserved as the last blow; and that is to show that the Scriptures do call the Threaten, Promises, etc. therein contained, the Word of God, and the written Word. If I prove, that in any place of Scripture the phrase cannot be taken in the sense the Quakers would have it, that is, for Christ or God; and also, that it can be taken in no other sense then for the matter contained in the Scripture; I have done enough, whether they will be convinced or no; and they must deny the Scripture to be true, or own their doctrine to be false. He that regarded not the Word of the Lord, left § 9 Exod. 9 1● 20. his servants and in the field. He that feared the Word of the Lord, made his and servants to flee into houses. What colour is here to expound the Word of the Lord in these Texts of God or Christ? what more plain, then that they feared the threatening, or regarded not the threatening, or gracious Advice given from God for avoiding the blow, And Peter remembered the Word of the Lord: what word! How Luk. 22 61. he said unto him, before the Cock crow, etc. and that it was the saying of Christ which Peter remembered; Mark. 14. 72. you have Marks word for it, or rather Gods, And Peter called to mind the Word that Jesus said to him. I am against the Prophets that steal my Word, every one from his Neighbour. Can Christ be stolen? or would Jer, 23. 30. God be so much offended with them for obtaining Christ as to put the black brand of theft upon it, while he charges it as the highest crime to reject Christ? Stand thou still a while, that I may show thee the 1 Sam. 9 27 Word of God. This Word was, that God had chosen him King, and the Prophecy of what should befall him in his return: if you will needs have the Word of God in this place to be understood of Christ, you must read it with the Exposition thus, Stand thou still a while, and I will show thee the Christ. There are two words in the Greek which are Translated, § 10 and signify the word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the first is sometimes used for Christ, the personal Word, but the other never: And have tasted of the good Word of Heb. 6. 5. Eph 6. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Beza renders it, Gladium spiritualem, the spiritual Sword. God. And also, And the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. A little skill in the Original would free them from this and many more mistakes. What I have done here, will be to such as are willing to understand, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. As for those who are of a perverse mind, until the Lord give them a better frame, I shall not wonder if they wink out the Sun at noonday. I shall next and briefly say somewhat of the written Word, which we are greatly concerned to be satisfied in, to be the Word of God, for that we have no other § 11 standing Word as our Testimony of Gods revealed Will, but what is written or printed, which is all to a like purpose; the one being by an impression of the Pen, the other of Stamps. This the Quakers deny, with the addition of many absurdities, arising from so calling and owning it. Where, saith one of them, (and a Chief) readest Ja. Naylor, saul's Errand to Damascus, p. 33. thou in the Scriptures of a written Word? it will be no hard matter to find an Answer to this Question. I have written to him the great things of my Law, but they were accounted as a strange thing. A sharp rebuke to the Objectors. The Ten Commands (or words, according to the Hebr. as I have already showed) were written by the Finger of God himself: and Exo. 31. 18. John 5. 47. Thou hast printed my words. Naylor. afterward by Moses. The Law of Moses is called his Writings, If ye believe not his Writings. And if the matter and sense be the Word of God before, surely when it is written, (which any word that ever I heard may be) it is a word written, or a written word, which you will. Some there are who have written against the Quakers SECT. V who judge, that although the Quakers will not admit of this Appellation of the Scriptures, yet in other terms they allow them such titles as amount to as much: and that the difference is rather verbal then real. But let me tell such, that besides the imprudence and danger of removing the ancient Landmarks, and not holding fast the form of sound words, there is a wide difference and great shortness in the best titles they will afford them, (yea, take them altogether) from this Appellation; and therefore I shall examine the●, and discover their defects herein. First, they will allow them to be of God. So they affirm their own Writings and Say to Morning Watch. 52. be also of God; (And let not this seem small in your eyes,— ye shall you all one day know that the Lord hath spoken it) not only in some sense, but in a higher than the Scriptures, at least with respect to them, and the times wherein we live. But this phrase to be of God, is of so large an import, that the silliest Worm, and the basest clod of Clay we tread on, may claim a share in the Privilege: yea, nothing in the whole Creation but will bear this expression, (sin only excepted in Rom. 11. 36. its obliquity) for of him are all things. Secondly, the Scriptures of truth. § 2 This is ground enough for us to deal with them by the Authority of the Scriptures; but there are many other Writings that are true; and if you take the Scriptures to be understood by way of Eminency, the Scriptures of truth; so as no other Writings extant are so absolutely and divinely true, they will utterly disclaim such a sense. Thirdly, They are the Experiences of the Saints, and § 3 what they witnessed. This is with them a very common phrase. Though A true Testimony of what the Saints were made witnesses of. Smith Prim. p. 10. this be true of some part of the Scriptures, (especially the Book of Psalms) it is too narrow a title by far for the whole Body of the Scriptures. And for that part of the Scriptures, which expresses the Experiences of the Saints, it hath somewhat more as its end than a mere witnessing, or expressing how it was with them. But I do not wonder that they so much delight in this phrase, when I consider that they themselves restrain almost all the Concerns of Religion to their Experiences; yea, things Historically related, that were done without them long ago, and are never again to be acted on the stage of this world: and things Prophetically related in the Scriptures, which shall not have a being until the end of the world. They experience the Birth, Righteousness, Sufferings, Death, Burial Resurrection, Alcension and Exaltation of Christ. They experience the downfall of Babylon, the Day of Judgement, Heaven, Hell, and all within them: and not with respect to some effects, impressions and similitudes of these things: but really, and almost (if not altogether) exclusively of any other meaning: all of which you will find proved in the following Discourse. But this is far short and wide of owning the Scriptures to be the Word of God. There are no Saints but have their Experiences, both good and bad; but he that should write them, and affirm them to be the Word of God, as they are the Experiences of the Saints, will fall with Rev. 22. 18. 19 & Deut. 4. 2. a witness under that severe censure of that true and legitimate Word of God. Fourthly, They call them a Declaration of the Mind § 4 of God. This (all things considered) is the highest expression of their esteem of the Holy Scriptures and Word of God; (for so I will call them whether they will or no) but so were some part of the Writings of the Heathen-Idolaters, who knew not the true God. Yea, many things which they spoke of, as the Duty of Man, and against many immoral Vices. The Apostle says no less, when he quotes such Passages out of such Heathen-Authors, Evil communications 1 Cor. 15. 33 corrupt good manners: This is found in the Comedy of Menander called Thadia. For we are also his offspring, Acts 17. 28 is a Declaration of God, Jovis omnia plena. Virg. And some such things they have not only dictated for the matter, but have also pressed them as the mind of God, according to those notions they had of him. And much more may the large and precious Sermons and Writings of the Servants and Ministers of Christ (whose Discourses are grounded on the Holy Scriptures;) yet he that should call them the Word of God in a strict sense, deserves correction. A man may declare his mind, (yea, or some things of the mind of God) by gestures, nods, becks, frowns, smiles, yet they are not to be equalled by the expression of his mind by his Word, they being much more imperfect and unintelligible than words; the holy conversations of the sound and godly do eminently and effectually declare the mind of God; yet had we them in its stead we should be great losers. Not only the Writings and Say of intelligent § 5 creatures, but also the inanimate part of the Creation is a Declaration of God, and of his mind also in many things, Psal. 19 1, 2. And those Psalms wherein they are called upon, and are said to praise the lord Rom. 1. 19, 20. Acts 14. 17 The Heathen were blamed for not learning the Lesson taught by them (after their kind) no better: yet who will say, that the Declaration made by them is of equal value with the Word of God, either for matter, stile, manner, or perspicuity? Fifthly, They are a Declaration of the Word of God. § 6 By the Word of God they mean Jesus Christ. This is a true Character of a considerable part of the Scriptures, but not of all; and they often restrain them to this, as if it were all the use were to be made of them. So much of them [the Scriptures] as was given Smit● Cat. p. 14. forth by the Holy Men of God, through the Inspiration of the Almighty, they testify of Christ, and that is only their service in their place. You may observe what a skeleton they make of the Scriptures, so much of them, as if all of them were not of the same divine Abstract. They say, the Letter is it [the Word] which doth but Morning-Watch. Farnworth, Light out of darkness. declare of it; They do but testify of me. They testify of him, and it is with a [but] jest you should take them to have any more hand in conveying Christ and his benefits to the souls, than a mere witness of who is, or what is the Christ. To clench the Nail I have been driving hitherto, SECT. VII I must demonstrate, that to deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God, is to deny the Scriptures, which I shall do three ways in few words. First, to deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God, is to deny them that title by which they are commonly known, and distinguished from, and lifted up above all other Writings whatsoever. I will ask any man who understands sense, and hath but one grain of reason; if to deny the Supreme Magistrate of Great Britain to be the King of England, were not to deny the King? though he that doth so should allow him to be entitled a Man, a Gentleman, yea, a Nobleman or Duke, which are titles common to him with others, or below him? sure I am, we Christians are else under an old musty mistake, and guilty of great slander, for affirming the Turks to deny Christ, because they will not own him to be greater than their Prophet Mahomet, or to be the Saviour of men's souls, while they own him to be not only a Man, but also a great Prophet, and next to Mahomet himself. I suppose, a Quaker, whose Child should own him to be a Man, and a good man too, and one that provides well for him, and yet say, He is not his Father, and stand to it in earnest, would say that Son denies him, and is a naughty wicked Child. It is said of the Jews, they denied him in the Act. 13. 13▪ presence of Pilate; vers. 14. they denied the Holy One and the just. Did they deny him to be a man, or some common thing? No, they denied him to be Christ the Saviour, and loaded him with reproaches in stead of his glorious and peculiar titles: and this the Holy Ghost calls denying him. To deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God, § 2 is to deny that Appellation on which their Authority is grounded, and which puts an awe upon the Consciences of men. Though all truths as such (so far as they are apprehended) carry with them the countenance of Authority; yet how much more when a Command, Promise, Doctrine, etc. comes with this written on its forehead, the Word of God, the Word of the Lord! 'tis said, Where the Word of a King is Eccles 8. 4. there is Power, and who shall say unto him, What dost thou? 'tis natural to men to despise the best, and most excellent things, under common and contemptible titles. It is all one in a plain and true construction, as to § 3 deny that the matter and sense expressed by them was ever spoken by God. Experience hath sufficiently taught this, that no sooner this principle is taken in, but the Scriptures become with such as weak as a thread; and whatever you may pretend to, we know and shall prove, that after this title is put off, they become like Samson when God was departed from him. The Papists, who are the more subtle, will tell us, that in their Image-worship they terminate their worship in God alone, but alas, the common people are for downright language; and they, poor souls, being exhorted to worship the Images, do it devoutly, and think no● on God all the while. It is no otherwise in the present case; people will understand after the common sense and acceptation of words. I have sometimes been amazed, and not without § 4 good Company and consideration, that men of such dexterity in matters that concern not Religion, should be so prodigiously blind and besotted, as to deny this truth hitherto vindicated; But since I have been better acquainted with their principles, I find it to be the most necessary to maintain and support their Great delusion, viz. The light within. For that they do hereby rob the Scriptures of abundance of places, wherein that phrase, The Word, and, The Word of the Lord is found, and deck their Idol with them. And indeed so many are the excellent Characters given to the Scriptures under that notion, that if they wear them and shine in their lustre, the Quakers Glow-worm must sparkle nowhere but in the dark, and may still keep its Court and Confines in the Heathen-world. CHAP. IU. The Quakers equal their own Writings and Say with the Scriptures, and prefer them before the Scriptures. I Need not spend time with those who are yet▪ in SECT. I their wits, to prove that they who fall under the Charge expressed above, deny the Scriptures. To take all rubs out of the way, I shall furnish you with a few Demonstrations. First, This is to unhallow them, and make them common things, (or worse) with the conceits of any who shall be so presumptuous, as to pretend to Inspirations and Revelations, and of this sort there are a crowd among the Men and Women also of the Quakers. If they declare, if they writ, yea, whatever religious Action they move in, they pretend all to be from the immediate Guidance and Impulse of the Spirit of God; and that in as ample a manner as ever the Apostles and Prophets could pretend unto. So that this principle being as 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, etc. 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 Sp●rit of the living God. Give a most undeniable Exposition of a Scripture against their way, the Answer is, thy carnal mind 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 than 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 refer you for construing all such ambiguous and Parnel, Christ exalted, p. 3. hard words; and Parnel stigmatizes those who prise them, Doting on the Scriptures with your dark minds. That the Quakers do thus equal their Writings and SECT. TWO Sayings, etc. 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 mist. etc. 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 days? 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: etc. And the Apostle Peter, For the Prophecy came 2 Pet. 1. 21. not in old time by the Will of Man, but holy Men of God spoke 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 say or Writings; And F. H. one of Antichrists Volunteers defeated. P. 18. how should he do otherwise, seeing he hath denied the infallible spirit, from which all the Ministers ministered, and all the Prophets prophesied, and spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. He was here pleading for their men's and women's 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, etc. 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 Prophecy, 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 divine Properties, and that it is Gods indwelling in them thus considered, from which their say and writings proceed. In this they arrogate to themselves and their expressions more than 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 spoke 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, etc. 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 clothed 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 horror 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, etc. 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 your trespasses, and I will change your Natures, and I will make you new Creatures, if you will hearken 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 proceed to the fourth proof of their equalling SECT. III their Say, 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 Say 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 ministered 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. etc. 41. Leave men in the dark and confusion. [Frequent Passage. A clear Discovery. [Title of smith's 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. Nail. Love to the lost, etc. 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 thyself a good foundation. Smith Prim. p. 56. Shows you in a Glass your own faces, which the Scriptures cannot do. Scorned Quakers Account, p. 20. A spiritual Glass opened. Title of smith's Cat. and part of the Title of his Morn. Watch. Precept, and Traditions of men. Morning-Watch, p. 18. Truth's 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, etc. 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, etc. p. 19 Earthly Root. Morning-Watch. 22. Worship and obedience as to its direction, The Harlot's Child. Morn. Watch, p. 23. Hagar and Ishmael, 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 firstborn, 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 say 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 Ringleader 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 joined 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, etc. verse 21. And he began to say unto them, this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears, and all bore him witness, and wondered at the gracious words, etc. 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 grossly failed, or Jesus Christ was not a Minister of the Spirit; and which of these you who call yourselves infallible Ministers of the Spirit will admit of, I know not: but I am sure every true Christian will abhor a Competition between Jesus Christ and G. Fox. And what the Lord and Master did in this case, so did his servants the Apostles, as I might instance abundantly. I will direct you only to Peter's Sermons, Acts 2. I need not instance in any more. He that hath read the Scriptures may easily furnish himself. And who can doubt but they who made use of the Letter of the Scriptures, for evidence of what in their Ministry they preached or writ; were Ministers of the Letter as well as of the Spirit. And moreover, if we consider the letter of the § 3 Scripture to be the letter of the Spirit, written by its direction, and to express (in its kind) the mind of the Spirit, This Querie of George Fox may be turned upon himself thus; and how can ye be Ministers of the Spirit, if ye be not Ministers of the Letter also? The latter part of his Sentence is a higher Demonstration § 4 of the fallibility of his Chair; And how can they but delude people who are not infallible? True indeed, if they did persuade people, that they could not in any thing be mistaken, or be ignorant: but seeing only the Quakers pretended Ministry, and the Pope of Rome do assume this to themselves; they only are in a necessity of deluding the people; for our parts, who live in all manner of pride, (as the Quakers by their spirit of Infallibility do charge us) we are not yet come up to their Perfection, for we freely acknowledge, that we may err in Doctrine, and do err in Practice, which we bewail before God and men; and also that the people may not be deluded by us, we desire them, and charge them not to pin their Faith on our sleeves; but repair to the Law and to the Testimony, and search the Scriptures, try whether the things we affirm be so or no: And if we speak contrary to the Mind of God there expressed, to reject our Doctrine; and also that they follow our Example no further than we follow Christ, even that Man Christ Jesus who was for a time on Earth, but is now in Heaven. But what do you think of the Holy Apostles? were § 5 they universally infallible? could not they err? if you say so, Paul will convict you of error, in his charging Peter, (none of the least of the Apostles) with erring, and in something deluding the people, Gal. 2. 12, 13, 14. Peter dissembled the truth in practising the Mosaical distinction of Jews and Gentiles, and separating from the believing Gentiles as unclean: And the other Jews, (yea, and Barnabas also) was carried away with his dissimulation. But than you will say, how can we be sure that what they wrote and taught was truth? I answer, that although they might in some things be carried away by temptation (as Peter was in that case) yet their doctrine, which they professed to be from the Lord, and by the Inspiration of God, could not admit of erring or fallibility: and that not because they had an habitual infallibility in all things; but because of the love of God to his people, the regard of his honour, and the firmness of his Promises which he made to them: those especially John 14. 26. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my Name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you, John 16. 13. Howbeit, when he the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come. Now these Promises being made to the Apostles for furnishing them with ability for their work, as Apostles, they may be concluded to be infallibly guided by the Spirit; but in other things, though by their eminent habitual grace they were not likely to fail as others, who were not clothed with such a measure and degree as they: yet it was more than possible that they should fail, but according to G. Fox's infallibility, and without limitation, the Apostles themselves could not but delude the People. But to conclude this particular of Infallibility, § 6 take, beside what hath been said, one considerable proof of their non-attainment of Infallibility, and that is the most grossly absurd Exposition they give of the Scriptures. See what follows with the eyes of Christian men. We are accused that we judge people; It is written, the Saints shall judge the world; an infallible proof, as if it were a Command or Prophecy of the Saints, (i. e. the Quakers) calling men all to nought, how serious so ever: who are not professedly conducted and saved by the light within; but he goes on more and more infallibly. And for Judgement am I come into the World, saith Christ. Parnel shield of the truth. P. 33. As if Christ's coming into the World sixteen hundred years ago, were to the end that they might pass their rash Censures freely. But he grows still; And where Christ ruleth in his Saints, he judgeth the world, as Paul witnessed, It is no more I but Christ in me. Where Paul witnessed this, such a Spirit of discerning as they tell us of must find out, for the Scripture hath nothing like it; only in two places; It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth Rom. 7. 17. in me. But I am sure, Sin and Christ are two things. Ye not I, but Christ liveth in me. But that was not Gal. 2. 20. to censure others, but to comfort Paul under the hard censures and usages of others. But the passage of coming into the World for Judgement, brings into my mind one remarkable Expositor— It is a right and sound doctrine to preach him, as he is the light of Humphrey Smith the true and everlasting rule, etc. p 29. p. 32. the World, and lighteth every man that cometh into the world. But what world is this— This is the great Prophet who is come into the World, which is set in the heart, Eccles 3. 11. which is in the midst, out of which Moses saith, the Lord would raise up a Prophet, Leu. 8. 15. which Prophet being come, he saith, I am come a Light into the World, John 1. 12. and 12. 35, 36, 46. The World being set in the heart, there is the light of him, who saith, I am the light. So that (with him) the World is the heart; Christ's coming into the World is his coming into the heart; and as he came into the world [the heart] so he is also raised up out of the world [the heart] but how like such a Prophet is to Moses I should too much suspect your understanding if I should trouble you with my sense; he that is declined as far as dotage may perceive it without a Guide, as also the gross darkness of this Expositor in the rest. Let us see what sound Exposition the great Lantern § 7 of the Quakers gives; for I must not call him their Great Light, for that is in the Lantern. 1 Cor. 14. 34, 35. Let your women keep silence in the Churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law: And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for Women to speak in the Church. I have known some of them to break the Bonds of this inhibition; by expounding the Women to be weakness, she being called the weaker vessel; and so weakness must not speak. But let us hear G. F's Exposition, it may be that may not be so weak. Now the woman here hath a husband to Mystery of The Great Whore, p. 86. ask at home: this Note hath some wit in it; but he proceeds, and not usurp authority over the man; but Christ in the male as in the female, who redeems from under the Law, and makes free from the Law, that man may speak. Now the knot is untied, and the woman's tongue loosed beyond all question. But would any man in his Wits expound this after this fashion? the Woman may not speak, but the Man Christ in the Woman may, and what must their home be then? that must be their Consciences within, where they say the light Christ is. And they are directed to ask their Husbands in the plural number, then according to this Exposition there must be as many Christ's as there are Women in the world (at least) for every one hath a husband at home. Also this home the Conscience must needs be (when the women were there) in the Church. Take but one more, though I could fill a Volume § 8 with them. Ye have Moses and the Prophets within, Fisher, velata quaedam revelata. viz. This written, spoken, manifested in you, Quod tibi ne vis fieri, alteri ne feceris, and (retro)— Whatever you would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them. This (saith Christ) is the Law, or Moses and the Prophets; but if ye will not be admonished nor persuaded by Moses and the Prophets, neither will ye be persuaded 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 will conclude this Chapter with some Inferences SECT. V and Conclusions that naturally flow from this error, (for one error never goes alone) viz. That their writings and say are equal with the Scriptures, and to be preferred before them. First, it would follow that the Scriptures both are § 1 and ever were superfluous; for the light within (as they pretend) was always fitted to inspire every man and woman in the same manner, and to all intents and purposes, as they were inspired and written. Secondly, upon the same ground the tenets and § 2 assertions of all the Heathen, are to be received as of equal Authority with the Scriptures; for although they did not pretend them for divine Inspirations or Revelations, yet they resulted from their light within, improved much more orderly and to purpose then the Quakers do theirs, (whose ungrounded Pretensions to Inspirations weigh nothing in the case) yea, the bitter scoffs of Lucian and Julian the Apostate must be admitted into the same Orders, for, if it be admitted they did not vilify and scorn, and deride Christ, the Scripture, and Christianity, according to the dictates of their Consciences; it cannot be denied, that they therein acted from the power within, which whether it were the power of darkness or not, the Quakers having no rule to judge it by but their own sentiments, it is left by them undetermined: And I know not hardly any worse they said of Jesus of Nazareth, the Scripture, and Christianity; then the Quakers have done under other Names. The Quakers reduce their sentiments and motions § 3 to the power within, (of which I will give you one taste from a chief Author; But sink down from these Isaac Penington concerning Unity p 1. [the reasonings about things] and wait to feel that which lies beneath in the free nature, virtue, life, power and motions, whereof al●ne is your souls salvation) power and motion from within is all with them; and if this be truly divine, and of equal Authority with the Scriptures, or accounted so; the scornful and virulent invectives of some of late, against many worthy Ministers of Christ, and multitudes of serious Christians, are not only not to be rebuked, but to be reverenced as divine emanations and verities: for it could be nothing but a power within with a witness that had such Productions. It will absolve many of those from sin, whom the § 4 Scripture speaks of as gross and heinous offenders. The Apostle Paul, when a persecuting Saul, dealt so hardly with the Cause and precious Saints of the Lord, from the Conduct of what he took to be light, or the light in his Conscience. Christ doth also foretell us of such, who should think they did God good service in killing his Servants; and if mere think so's, persuasions, impressions, motions, without a demonstrable ground, may be taken for divine dictates on the one part, why not on the other? and by consequence the Holy Spirit must be entitled, Dux omnium malorum, and every evil, which is the fruit of ignorance and conceit, fathered on it. It will warrantize a great part of the Popish inventions § 5 and Orders, which had their erection on the pretended inspirations and revelations of some among them; who were Monkish and cloistered Votaries, whose humorous abstinence, moroseness, and uncommanded sanctity, gained credit with the people for any thing they would affirm, and the Politic Clergy made their advantage of it. I remember a passage of a Romanist, who coming § 6 into England, and observing the multitude of Sects here: he being asked which of them came nearest to the Roman Church, he replied, The Quakers. And it the fundamental principles of Sects (as such) agreeing together, do most exactly express their agrcement and likeness each to other; the Quakers and Papists may claim Kindred upon more demonstrable terms then any other Sects whatever. The three main principles, Pillars of the Roman SECT. VI Absurdities, are, First, A Contempt of the Scriptures, as insufficient to determine in all Religious Concerns. Secondly, And therefore, a necessity of some other infallible Judge, which may supply that defect. Thirdly, Immediate Revelations, and divine Inspirations. The first of these is so apparently and abundantly proved of both Papists and Quakers, in the Parallel, in the close of the 12th. Chapter of this Book, and other places here and there, that I need not agitate it in this place. See Chap. 5. The second, That the Romanists build their Faith § 2 on the pretence of Infallibility, is not doubted by any who are in any degree acquainted with their Writings; yet I shall furnish you with a few proofs. In doubtful Controversies (if they were not doubtful (at least to some) they would be no controversies Pighius. Controversia tertia. at all) we must not go to the Scriptures for satisfaction, but to a lively Judge, which (saith he) as was Moses among the Israelites, the Roman Bishop is among Christians. And Moses, whatever he determined and commanded, they ought exactly to obey without further Enquiry. From whence he argues▪ that the Pope is the Infallible and right Determiner of Controversies. Charranza is a little beyond him: saith he, the Highpriest under the Law was a certain Rule in things pertaining to God, but the Evangelical Highpriest must much rather be certain in such things; By the Evangelical Highpriest he means the Roman-Bishop. Bellarmin (de verbo Dei lib. 4.) argues at large § 3 for the Pope's Infallibility; only restrains it a little with an ex Cathedra docens to what he saith out of the Chair, or as Pope, which doth more than a little suit with the Quakers, who if those persons among them, accounted by them infallible, be manifestly proved to err in faith or practice, so as they dare not deny it: their refuge then is, that they did not follow the light; but if they had acted or believed according to the teachings and m●tions of the light within, they had not erred. B●t as 'tis a very h●rd matter, if the Pope were allowed to be infallible (in what he determines ex Chathedra) to know what he doth as Pope, and what as a fallible man; so, it is no less difficult if the Quakers light were such as they pretend, to know what comes from the light, and what from the foolish ignorant, dark, corrupt, and fancy-full man. Isaac Penington's salve will cure the sore, no more than the Papists; who say, the Pope is infallible, notwithstanding the contradictions of one Pope to another, and one and the same Pope to himself; the doing the same thing, the thinking the Penington concerning Unity▪ p. 13 same thing, the speaking the same thing, this doth not unite here in this state, in this nature: but the doing, or thinking, or speaking of it in the same life; yea, though the do, or thoughts, or words be divers; yet if they proceed from the same principle and nature, there is a true unity felt therein, where the life alone is Judge; a strange reconciliation of certain and manifest contradictions! and an ascribing that to the light within, which is impossible to an Omnipotent God, who cannot deny or contradict himself, and yet be the true God. Carranza speaks boldly in the behalf of Papal Infallibility; In disputatione Ratisbon. The general Ordinary and lawful Judge of all Controversies whatsoever, which may arise in the business of Religion, is the Roman Bishop, (whether he define any thing alone, or with a General Council, he is always an infallible Judge when he doth it ex Cathedra, or as Pope) as the chief Bishop liable to no error. The Quakers out go the Papists far, in this Fundamental § 4 or Infallibility. Now he that is not infallible Fox Great M●stery, c●. ●. in his counsel and judgement, and advice, is not he in error? And are not the Ministers of Christ the Ministers of the Spirit?— And are they Ministers of Christ that are fallible? The Papists are herein more modest than the Quakers; for they acknowledge only the Pope, or Pope with his Council, or the Church Catholic to be infallible; but the Quakers affirm it of every one of their Ministry, both men and women; yet he stops not here, but extends it to every Quaker. And you that p. ●. have not that which is infallible to judge in you, know not the Spirit of Christ; neither can you judge of persons or things, that have not the infallible judgement; nor have the spiritual man, neither have you the Word of God in your hearts, nor Christ which is eternal and infallible; all which the Quakers have to judge persons and things. Thus I have showed you, that the Papists and Quakers have pretended Infallibility for their Foundation. But if the Quakers shall object, that they differ, in that the Roman Bishop subjects all others to his sole Infallibility, but the Quakers are each one infallible for themselves. I answer, the ground is the same, only every Quaker hath a Pope in him, or her self; and so there are among them more Pope john's and Pope joan's then ever were at Rome. And it is apparent, that G. Fox hath arrived by this pretence, to a more absolute power over the Quakers in twenty odd years, than the Bishops of Rome in some hundreds over professed Christians. For the third Fundamental common to the Papists SECT. VII and Quakers, viz. immediate Revelations and divine Inspirations; Dr. Stillingfleet in his Fanaticism of the Roman Church hath abundance of instances, to whom I am beholden for the most of what follows on this Head. Revelations have been pleaded by them (the Papists) p. 210. in matters of doctrine; such I mean, which depend upon immediate impulses and inspirations, since the Canon of Scripture and Apostolical Traditions— Anselm mentions a divine Apparition to an Abbot Lu●. Wadding. in a storm, whereby he was admonished to keep the Feast of the Conception of the blessed Virgin.— which Revelation Wadding tells us, is publicly received in the Off●c● for the day. Another Revelation was made to Norbertus the p. 211. Founder of the Praemonstratenses; in which the Virgin Mary appeared, and commended her veneration to him, and gave him a white Garment in token of her original innocency. Which Revelation is believed by all of that Order, and taken as the reason of their habit. S. Brigit had not one or two, but many to this purpose, and the latest were of Joanna a Cruse. But S. Katherine of Sienna had it revealed to her, p. 212. as Antonius and Cajetan say, that she was conceived with original sin. How often have visions and apparitions p. 218. Bellar. de Purg. of souls been made use of to prove the doctrine of Purgatory? witness the famous testimonies to this purpose out of S. Gregory's Dialogues, and Bede's Hist. which latter is recited in the late great Legend of Mr. Cressy, (a Popish Confessor) under the name of a Church-History, etc.— We need not go so far back as Gabriel Biel, to p. 219. Biel in Canon. show that the doctrine of Transubstantiation hath been proved by the appearnce of a child in the Host. Bellarmin very doughtily proves auricular Confession, Bellar. de Poen. by a certain vision of a tall and terrible man, with his Book in his hand; which blotted out presently all the sins the humble Thief confessed upon his knees to the Priest. Upon this ground of Revelations and Inspirations, § 2 most of their Popish Festivals, which we call holidays, were erected. The Religious Orders were instituted among p. 227. them by Enthusiastic persons, upon the credit of their visions and revelations; the most 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 Fanatic (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 canonised 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 than 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 endlessly 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 Jesus, 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 Irradia●ions from God's 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 purify 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 chief 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 subtlety 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 error can there be 289. The Approbations 519. to such a soul? In which [passive unions] God after a wonderful and unconceivable manner affords them interior illuminations and touches; yet far more efficacious and divine [then active Exercises] in all which the soul is a mere 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 pacify the soul, than 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 sm●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 enlightenings 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 sum than 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 rendered in any Gender. These Considerations duly weighed, (if there § 5 were not 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 outcry against Popery, Babylon, false worship, forms that are not only unscriptural, but also idolatrous; while in the mean time they plant and hug the root in their own bosoms: from which all those evils, and more and worse naturally spring. It were no hard matter to prove a symbolising 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 sna●e most dangerous. The Apostle speaks of more Antichrists than 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. ver. 22. Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ; he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. That you who are called Quakers deny Jesus to be the Christ. I prove at large in a Chapter by its self: that you deny the Father and the Son, is no less, true of you, who will admit no distinction between the Father and the Son: so that the Father is (with you) as much the Son of the Father, as the Son is the Son of the Father: and the Son is as much the Father (with you) of the Son, as the Father is the Father of the Son, that by destroying these distinctions you destroy the relation of Father and Son in the Godhead, which the Scripture speaks of so plainly: and it is hereby apparent, that your quarrel is not so much with the word Trinity, as with the thing thereby expressed. The next black mark of Antichrist which is upon you, is that in 2 Thes. 2. 4. who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped: so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do not you advance your light within above the Man Christ Jesus, whom we worship as God, and who is so called in the Scriptures: even that Man, whose being is above the visible Heavens? Do not you call your light within you God eternal, Omnipotent, & c.? Yea, you say it is the light in the Conscience, (which is the Temple of God) and there it doth (as if it were God) rule, govern, judge, execute, in contempt of the written and true Laws of the divine being. I beseech you consider these things, and lay them to your hearts. CHAP. V. The Quakers deny the Scriptures to be a Rule of Faith and Life, or a Judge and Determiner of Religious Controversies. THat this is to deny the Scripture, is obvious and SECT. I plain to all who have not the beam in their eyes. I have before proved them to deny its proper and most frequent appellation; but if that be not sufficient to prove they deny the Scripture, methinks denying their main use and employment, should render them guilty of the full measure of that iniquity. To little purpose will it be to call them the Scripture, the Holy Scripture, etc. if after all, a conformity to their guidance and conduct, will render our belief and practice never the less profane. I shall not further persuade my Reader, that to deny the Scripture to be a Rule of Faith and Life, etc. is to deny the Scripture; for if this suffice not, I know nothing will carry the Question; unless the Scripture should be brought in begging some boon at the Quakers hands, and they proved so hard-hearted as not to grant it. If this were necessary, I should not fail in the proof notwithstanding. For the proof of the Charge, I shall first call forth § 2 James Parnel, an early and forward Quaker, and Parnels Shield of the Truth, p. 10. much esteemed for his works sake. And he also that saith the Letter is the rule and guide of the people of God, is without, feeding upon the husk, and is ignorant of the true Light, which was before the Letter was. By this man's Verdict the Scripture is cast and condemned for husks, a false light, or but a shadow; and its Observers charged with ignorance of Christ the true light for so, doing: But it were well if they could come off so. Behold in the next Accusation, a Charge of no less than the highest robbery and sacrilege. And if thou lookest upon the Scripture to be for a rule Smith's Prim. p. 10. and for trying▪ thou givest that unto them which belongs unto Christ: for he is the rule, and leads his people; and he alone searches the hearts and tries the reins, and not the Scripture. But if you will see a mouth full of blasphemy against the authority of the Scripture, read with horror and amazement the following words. God is at Naylors' Light of Christ, etc. p. 19 liberty to speak to his people by them [the Scripture] if he please, and where they are given by inspiration he d●th so: but the sting is behind, in the tail of this non-such sentence, and so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing, as to Balaam by his Ass. Then such a thing as Balaams' Ass may call up our expectations of God's teachings, guidance, and rebukes, as well as the Scriptures: for God is at liberty to teach us by an Ass, and he hath put no more authority▪ into the Scripture, unless he shall please to hand them to us by renewed and immediate inspiration. But I shall not rake into this Dunghill further, which of its self gives forth so offensive a savour. I intended to have given you upon this Head, the § 3 assertions of some of the Romish Writers, who trample on the neck of the Scripture with the same foot; only the difference betwixt them and the Quakers lies in the aim and design: the Jesuits spurn at them to advance the dictates of the Pope, and the Romish pretended Church, above the Scriptures; but the Quakers to advance the conceit within above them all. Yet I care not if I give you one instance at large. Omnis Judex, praesertim supremus & generalis, ita debet dicere sententiam, ut altera pars litigantium evidenter sciat se vicisse: altera pars evidenter sciat se causam amisisse, quantum est ex parte hujus judicis. At hoc neque Scriptura Sacra, neque Spiritus Sanctus loquens per Scripturam potest facere. Ergo neque Sacra Scriptura, nec Spiritus Sanctus Argumentum Jacobi Beccani, item Gretseri Jesuitae, in Col▪ loquio Ratisbon. loquens per Scripturam est talis judex. Et minorem illustrabat his totidem verbis, Stamus ego & Collegae, & Domini adversarii, in conspectu hujus judicis [Bibliorum] en contendimus, an sit judex Controversiarum. Jam ille judex debet pronunciare sententiam, ut nobis constet evidenter. Sumus hîc in conspectu Sacrae Scripturae, & Spiritus Sancti; pronunciet sententiam, & sic dicat, tu Jacobe Gretsere male sentis, cecidisti causa tua. Tu Jacobe Hailbrunnere vicisti. Tunc ego statim transibo ad vestrum scamnum. Et paulo post, Adsit jam Spiritus Sanctus, jam judicet, jam me condemnet. In English thus, Every Judge, especially who is supreme and general, ought so to give sentence, that the one part of the contenders may plainly know they have overcome: and the other that they have lost their cause, so far as it is in the Judge: But this neither the holy Scriptures, nor the holy Spirit by the Scripture can do. Therefore neither the holy Scripture, nor the holy Spirit speaking by the Scripture, is such a Judge. The minor he illustrates in these very words; I and my Colleagues, and the Lords Adversaries, stand before 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 gon●, and the Scripture must not determine Religious matters. But 'tis a bad step, that so well fits the Pope's 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 wondering 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, ourselves, without control. For convicting the Quakers of gross error, and SECT. TWO 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 Saviour's § 2 own words, O fools! and slow of heart to believe Luk. 24. 25. all that the Prophets have spoken, etc. If it had not been their duty to believe according to the say 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 Prophecies which foretold the death and ill handling of the Messiah; 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 'tis 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 aught § 3 to obey, etc. Ye shall observe to do therefore, as the Lord your 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' Administration. I answer, first, that the commands here chief intended, were such as oblige all men in all Ages, for the matter of them, which is always just and righteous. Secondly, the ground of their authority being the Lord commanding, reaches to whatever he commands in hi● 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 myself, to have a Acts. 24. conscience void of offence towards God and towards men. What can be more plain? the judgement 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 dropped 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 merely 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 farewell the Gospel, and the righteousness of Faith, which the Apostle makes so much ado to bring people to embrace, and disclaim justifying righteousness by the Law. That the teachings, motions, and determinations of the SECT. III Spirit of God by the Scripture are more suitable to the nature, and present state and condition of man; and more certain to his knowledge, than any immediate teaching, which any enjoy in our days. More suitable to the present condition of man. I prove it first from its being that dispensation of God, which he hath put an eminent Character of mercy Psal. 147. 19, 20. upon. He showeth his Word unto Jacob, and his judgements unto Israel: he hath not dealt so with any Nation, and as for his Judgements they have not know them. Praise ye the Lord. If it were not more suitable to man in his fallen state, and tending to his good, it would hardly by the Spirit of God been expressed as a mercy so singular, so excelling his deal with any other people; and such flourishing matter for the praises of the Lord. Never did any of the Saints of old call it a carnal letter, husks, and by such like scornful names. The dispensations of the revealed and written Word, § 2 render God nigher to a people, than to those who are without it. For what Nation is there so great, who hath God so Deut. 4. 6, 7, 8. nigh unto them, etc. Read the Context, and you will find, that the means of God being so nigh was (chief) his written Laws. And it is notorious, that the Gentile Nations, who were without the Scripture, had lost sight of the true God so far, that they worshipped the most despicable things in his stead: and as the Apostle saith, were without God in the world; for all their Eph. 2 12. light within, which the Quakers say all men ever had. The dispensations of God, in and to his Church, rise § 3 higher and higher in excellency and glory. His first after the fall, were some few revelations to some few persons; and by them handed to others: which might be then much more easy than now, for that men lived so long, that the days of Methuselah and Noah took hold of the days of Adam and Abraham: But men increasing in number, and no less in impiety, they quickly lost that little was committed to them. And before the Law, and Covenants, and Scripture (in part) were written (notwithstanding Creation, Providence and some revelation) the knowledge of God was very thin and scant in the World Job. 26. 13, 14. among good and holy men. And if you will not believe me, believe Holy Job. By his spirit he hath garnished the Heavens, his hand hath form the crooked Serpent: lo, these are part of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him. He is speaking before of his works of Creation, yet they were but a part of the ways, whereby God conveyed the knowledge of himself; but take all together, even that of revelation with it; it was but a little of him that was known: whereas, when his word was written, the Israel of God who enjoyed it, 'tis said of them: In Psal. 76. 1. Judah is God known, his name is great in Israel. But the 2 Cor. 3. 11. Speaks close and home to my argument. For if that which is done away was glorious much more that which remains is glorious. From the slipperyness of our memories. Who among the sons and daughters of men, is able § 4 to retain in the memory such a multitude of particulars as concern faith and life? that if it should be granted, that every man at some time or other should have the whole mind of God contained in the Scripture immediately, and by revelation imparted to him: the memory would prove a very leaky Vessel, and bad Steward; and let slip a great part, both matter and from; without a miracle to raise our faculty (not only above the common course, or which is ordinary, but) above the faculty of any man that breathes: whereas the word imparted by the Scripture abides, to which as to an everlasting Record we may have recourse, and supply that defect. More certain to the knowledge of man. § 5 Since man was corrupted, and so long as there remains either corruption or defect in him; the inward motions, and notions of the soul will be affected therewith: the first rise and bubbling up of thoughts, and imaginations, which present themselves to the understanding, judgement, and conscience; will abundantly vary from, and be opposite each to other: and the sentiments or apprehensions of them, be warring, and contending like pleaders at the bar of judgement, and conscience. And those who know and are concerned in the affairs (and their management) on the secret stage of the Soul, must acknowledge (if they will speak their consciences) that whatever be the question agitated in the mind, there will not want the appearances of truth and goodness, offering themselves on both the affirmative and negative part: and in matters of religious concern, all pretend to the sanction, and allowance of God himself. And as their pleas, so their importunities shall be so impetuously violent, that many times the poor creature is on the rack, and which way soever its judgement and resolution inclines, the adverse thoughts will attend it with their Checks, and clamours. In the multitude of my thoughts within me. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my anxious, perplexed, careful, troubled thoughts; beating against Psal. 94. 19 one another like the boughs of a tree agitated with a fierce wind. This was not only David's case, but the Saints which are now upon the earth. And if it were David's, so good a man, and a man so frequently under the power of special divine inspirations; much more may it be ours▪ Well, in such cases what course should we take? if we expect, and depend upon immediate teachings from the spirit, how shall we know they are such? and not the delusions of Satan, or a vision of our own fanciful brains? we can give testimonies enough to convince a Heathen or Atheist, (if he will not abandon the use of reason) that the Scriptures are the word and mind of the Spirit of God: and therefore what that speaks, is the voice of the Spirit, but it will be long enough ere the Quakers, and those that plead for a sole dependence on the Spirits immediate teachings, will be able to give such proofs of theirs. Moreover, the Quakers who pretend to these § 6 teachings, and guidances; resolve against the exercise of a humane (though sanctified) understanding, and resolve all into motions, impulses, and the sensation of them: thereby depriving men of the direction of enlightened faculties, leaving the most violent motions, and appetites; to carry away the undoubted evidence, and character of the Spirits leadings. But how far this is from a spiritual understanding, or a right discerning, I leave those to judge who are acquainted in themselves, or others, with violent temptations from Satan, and the unbridled lusts of men; and this pure sensation of stir, 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 noonday as in the night. One of the severest curses for disobedience, threatened against Israel was, and thou shalt grope at Deu. 28. 29. noonday as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways. 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 entered in the denial and contempt of the Scripture, should advance this step further; it being but the natural offspring 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 ware: whereas if they should in so many words forbidden 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 show 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 judgement and conscience enlightened, and that this aught 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 testify against him to be in darkness and blindness, and is a deceiver, who putteth the letter for the light, and so draw people's 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 people's 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 people's minds from the Scripture. But the close of this sentence is no less than a murderer 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, etc. p. 2. same purpose: And although the holy Scripture without, and the Saints practices are as lights in the world, yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolise 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 allure 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, etc. the Scriptures are not. They assert the light within to be sufficient, yea all-sufficient. SECT. TWO This where it takes hold of the credulity, will draw as hard from attending to the Scripture, as the stoutest Team in England. Alas! it must then (if this be true) be but a piece of wantonness, and the itching disease to read the Scriptures, to which we must take a few steps, though they lie open in the next room; while we have enough in our own bosoms; yea, which we can be no farther from than from ourselves; to the use of which we may pass as quick as thought: 'tis but look inward, (not outward, nor upward) turn the ear inward, and the turn is served. But that this Argument may be heard, John Story and some other such Chapmen vouch for its truth. The light which is sufficient to guide. Before cited. And if thou waitest in the measure of Smith's Prim. p. 10. the light of Christ [within] thou wilt be able to try all things. Quest. But if I should turn to it and obey it when § 2 it reproves me for sin, is there power in it to save me Smith's Prim. p. 14. from sin? etc. Answ. Yes Child, all power in Heaven and Earth is in it. Reader, canst thou withstand the astonishment wherewith a tender conscience of the true God is wont to be surprised by such an open mouth of blasphemy? if thou canst, I must conclude thou art acquainted with this sort of people, and so custom hath made it no surprise; or thou art above half dead and benumbed with the Opium of Quakerism. Yet this is as agreeable to their main principle, as the same thing is to its self. I wonder we hear it not more frequently from § 3 them, that all power in Heaven and Earth is in every one of them; yea in each of them, yea in each drunken Sot, and the silliest profane person. This is as certainly their Tenet, as that God, Christ, Spirit are within them, and all other persons, in the sense they hold. But if they should say that openly, which they believe and speak among themselves, they would be the most ridiculous (to say no worse) people that breath above ground. Thirdly, They affirm the Scriptures to be within. SECT. III If so, it is a great vanity to read them out of a Book. When I am persuaded to be herein of their mind, I assure them, so long as that shall last, I will not be at the fruitless pains of looking into a Bible as my Monitor. Fisher, the best Scholar that ever professed Velataqu●dam revelata, p. 4. Quakerism, asserted this, Ye have Moses and the Prophets within you. Not in Latin I dare be confident, neither had his Book (mentioned in the margin) been so besprinkled with that Language of the Beast, for all his Inspirations, if it had not been first knocked and whipped into him, it may be by some wicked tyrannical Pedagogue. Yet here by the way observe, that such a wicked § 2 thing may furnish with the gift of Tongues, while the Quakers divine Spirit must be confined to speak in plain English, or be dumb. Another of the same mind is Parnel, (of whom I must give this commendation, that he speaks his opinions openly, and not in parables as the most of them; who are afraid or ashamed that their opinions should behold the light, any further than the interest they have obtained may secure their Authors, but of all men Hypocrites are Parnel ' s Shield of the truth, p. 11. the most odious and dangerous) For the Scripture is within, and was read within before it was read without. I would not wrong the Quakers as bad as they are, § 3 and it is pity they should be wronged, who wrong themselves more than enough. If they mean by the Scriptures the sense by them expressed, I wish they said true; and if within be in the heart, i. e. not only known and readily produced out of the heart, as a good man brings forth from thence good things, but also esteemed loved with understanding; I am sure they would be no Quakers. It is a blessed thing to have this Word hid in the heart as David practised, and as God commands: but if by the Scripture they mean the dead Letter, Ink, and Paper (as they call them▪ when they list) they would be but a bad and troublesome Inmate. I do acknowledge with all my soul, that to have § 4 the Scriptures within in the sense of them, yea and the words too, is an inestimable blessing; such a one as young Timothy, and eloquent Apollo's were crowned with: and few of the Saints▪ there are who have not the Scripture within in some good measure; but alas! memory is so weak and frail it will not hold all: and so confused ever and anon, that it is necessary to go to the Scripture without not only to get in more, but also to repair decayed and broken notions of them, and to be sure that our crazy imaginations by brooding upon the frame of them within, have not hatched something of its own, and adopted it Scripture: which the Quakers are not a little guilty in. But while I am commending the first part of their § 5 Tenet, viz. that the Scripture is within; supposing it taken in as good a sense as it may be; I must not forget the latter part which hath the dregs and poison, viz. and was read within before it was read without. If by reading it within before without, they intended it only of the Penmen of the Scriptures, I would join with them, and say so too: but they intent nothing less; but, that in the light which every man hath within him, there is the Scripture all and every part, (at least that may be of use) if it had never been without. I would willingly be resolved of a few things by those that are of this mind. Wherefore did the gracious God expose the Prophets and Apostles to so many difficulties, dangers, and deaths for declaring the matters contained in the Scriptures, if they were read, and might be read by all men within? Why did God with his own finger write the Ten words or Commands, and cause other of his Servants to write both them and the other parts of the Scripture? Why doth he command to read the Scriptures, and by reading and studying them to get them into the heart, memory, understanding? And it shall be with Deut. 17. 19 him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God; to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes to do them. It was not to be with him as you commonly phrase it [in him] their is no such it in the Text, but the Relative it, hath for its Antecedent in the Verse next before, he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests, the Levites: it shall be with him, etc. Why did Christ himself read out of the Book if it were within them? Why did not God chide Josiah for not doing according to the Law (as being guilty of wilful neglect) before he found it in the Book? why did God commend and reward his tenderness of heart in fearing, when the Law was read out of the Book, if he were so hard-hearted as not to hear the Law within? Why did Jesus Christ never rebuke the Jews for not heeding the Scripture within, while he oft rebuked them for not heeding and believing the Scripture without? these are enough and to spare, to discover the vanity of this conceit. The truth is, the Scriptures were written (with respect to us) first without, then within. I would gladly hear any of the Quakers make § 6 a report of any of the Gospel truths contained in the Scriptures which you could assure me you never heard or read without: or that you could all agree without conferring together in a Narrative of those Traditions which the Thessalonians were taught by word, and of those many other things which Jesus 2 Thess. 2. 15. did (or some of them) spoken of John. 21. 25. which were not written: this would be somewhat of conviction to us. But you are unworthy beyond all men of the holy Scriptures, who by such means as these not only take off others from reading them for their instruction, but also deny the mediate and visible instruments and means of those notions you make such a noise and jingling with in the ears of men, as if they were but home-born things. They affirm that there is no light in the Scriptures. SECT. IV That light is in the Scriptures, prove that, or tell Lip of truth opened, p. 7. Ephes. 5. 8. me what one Scripture hath light in it? If the Scriptures gives us a true description of light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light: this is not only an error of the first magnitude, but also one of the greatest discouragements imaginable of looking into the Scriptures for instruction and comfort: for if they manifest or signify nothing to us it will be but lost labour. I am apt to believe they may hold it for very Orthodox Doctrine, intending thereby that there is no light in the Scriptures more than they have or may have without them; and that the Scriptures can add no more to them than the boasting Galatians who were false Brethren (though they Gal. 2. 6. seemed to be somewhat) added to Paul; or that there is no Scripture hath Christ the light in it, he being (in their opinion) no where but within as a light. I shall only prove that the Scripture is a light, or § 2 hath light in it, and so dismiss this argument. O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead Psal. 43. 3. me, let them bring me to thy holy hill. By which we are to understand the promises made to David. He knew the way to God's holy hill, as well as most, but his Adversaries had barred it up; and therefore he prays that God would preform his promises, which were not only the light of comfort to him, but a guide to his faith and hope, as they were truth and good: and such light the Scriptures are replenished with and adorned, as the Firmament with Stars and Constellations. But lest they should say this is but my meaning put to the Scriptures, take one Text that telleth its own meaning in so Prov. 6. 23. many words: For the Commandment is a lamp, and the Law is light. A fifth Argument may be raised out of those dirty and disparaging Titles and Characters which they give of the Scriptures. Of this you have enough before. CHAP. VII. The Quakers affirm the Doctrines, Commands, Promises, holy Examples, expressed in the Scriptures (as such) not at all to be binding to us. THis is a denying of the Scriptures, and the authority of the God of the Scriptures at once, and with a witness. If any shall be furnished with so small a measure of reason, as not to be able to apprehend that such an affirmation is a denying of the Scriptures, I have little hope to convince them. Yet I shall not leave them altogether without some Scripture evidence of the strength of this Argument. Lest I be full and deny thee; and say, who is the § 2 Lord? To say, who is the Lord? or what hath the prov. 30. 9 Lord to do with us, to command or bear rule over us? is to deny the Lord: and to say of the Scriptures, what are they to us? is as plainly to deny them. What is self-denial but rejecting and denying what it would oblige us to, and impose upon us? to relinquish and abandon its authority? To deal so by the Scriptures must needs then be a denying of them. But why do I burn day light? the Argument shines bright enough in its own light and evidence. The greatest expectation will be of the proving § 3 matter of Fact, or that they do thus affirm. I do verily believe that few who have some tolerable opinion of the Quakers and their principles (except the rank Quakers themselves) have had a suspicion that they are so grossly wicked: but I shall blow the dust out of their eyes, by as strong a proof as their own confessions. And it was the rule unto them that gave forth the Scripture▪— and they spoke the words as the Spirit moved; so that the Spirit was before the Smith prim. p. 10. words, and was their rule that spoke the words, and it changes not, but is the same for ever. This he writes to prove that the Scriptures are not a rule, and doth hereby affirm that they had been no rule to the Penmen of the Scriptures themselves, had they not been moved so to take them by the Spirit: and that this way of obligation is unchangeable and abides for ever. He that shall read the foregoing and following words in the Piece quoted, will no more doubt what I have said, than that two and two make four. For all the Saints have their commands in Spirit, Naylors' love to the lost, p. 1●. but yours is in the Letter; and so of another ministration. By the phrase [in Spirit] they intent not that only which reaches the heart, but that which hath its original immediately from the Spirit of God in them. That Naylor intends no other in this place, than its being from the Spirit immediately, he telleth you plainly: for that it is a different ministration from that of the Letter, by which words [the Letter] they always intent the Scripture. But more plain yet, if more plain may be: that § 4 is no command of God to me, what he commanded to Burroughs answer to choice experiences, p. 6, 7. another. Neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture act by that command which was to another, not having the command to themselves: I challenge to find an example to it, E. D. A bold Challenger, who shall be answered in good time: but let us hear a few more first— Because it's only queries gathered by the Author from the letter of the Scriptures without, and no message of heavenly prophecy, doctrine, or exhortation received by the Auth●r from the Lord, through the divine John Story Short discovery, p. 1. inspiration of his light and Spiri● within: therefore may I say it's a very vain and Idolatrous exhortation which J. A. hath given to J. B. his little Book: But further. § 5 And J. A. further saith, let light without be guide to light within. Reply, If by this exhortation I A. means that light without should guide the true light within, which shines in the hearts of the Saints: then I must needs say 'tis a very absurd and foolish exhortation; and being spoken upon a divine account, it is full of Idolatry and evil, and greatly contrary to the Gospel, and exhortation of God's Ambassadors to the Saints on earth, which was, that they should abide in the light or anointing that was in them, 1 John. 2. 27. Hear one more and I have done. And this is your work who at this day set up an James Naylor. p. 16. imitation from the letter, of what other men have done; but have not received your command and power in Spirit from the Lord; and to you it will be said, who hath required these things at your hands? for all the Saints have their commands in Spirit, but yours is in the letter.— But in your vain imaginations are judging you know p. 31. not what, and limiting the spiritual Covenant of God to the literal.— Not in spirit but in the old letter, or tradition p. 40. from men. I suppose that by this time my Reader is passed doubting whether they are guilty or no of this charge: it must not be expected that I should take up all these citations, and deal with them in all their parts; if I should, I should often actum agere, and give you one thing more than twice. The falsehood of this Doctrine I shall prove by Scripture, and rational evidence, and answering what they pretend for the grounds of it. The Laws that were given by Moses, and the SECT. TWO doctrines and promises also were binding to the Congregation of Israel, And afterward all the Children Exod. 34. 32. of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. Who will say these commands were not binding to them? These are the words which the Lord hath commanded Exod. 35. 1. that ye should do them. Will any one in his wits say, that in receiving the command from God by Moses, they had it by immediate inspiration from God? to say so is a contradiction in its self. Moses indeed had it immediately from God, but the Israelites of that Generation mediately from Moses. For the Law was given by Moses. And the Scriptures were John 1. 17. given first immediately from God, and that is their authority with us, though they are handed to us through many Generations, as the Books of the Law and the Prophets were to the Jews. And moreover it were a very superfluous thing for § 2 God to send his commands to them by Moses, if they had them all at as nigh and as good a hand as he. The like may be said of the New Testament Commands and Doctrines, etc. 2 Thes. 2. 15. Therefore Brethren stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or Epistle. Did you ever hear of an Epistle come immediately from God? and all the Doctrines of the Gospel were conveyed to others, except the Penmen or Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles, by Epistles; or what is of the same import in this matter. But let us say a little about the obligation of examples § 3 of the Saints. That I may not run you out Morning Watch. of one error into another, I am willing to take some pains in this, as in the other parts of this Tract. To imitate all the Examples of the best of Saints would lead us into sin, and therefore cannot be our duty. This I will not plead for, for than we ought to murmur, murder, dissemble, and be proud, which at some time or other, some or other of the eminentest Saints recorded in Scripture have been guilty of. To imitate and take example by them from the mere authority of their Example, is not a little § 4 faulty though the thing be good in its self: But to take them for our examples, and follow their steps wherein they act according to the written Word, or are commended and rewarded by God for so doing, yea not any where reproved for so doing: their examples in the like cases and circumstances, it is not only reason to follow, but a sin not to follow. Yet, we are to follow their examples as they are some discovery of the will of God to us, which we knew not so well and clearly without them: or as they are a farther encouragement to our faith and obedience. Neither are we notwithstanding to follow their § 5 examples, which were according to the mind of God when they lived, but since those Laws are abrogated and repealed by a demonstrative act, and law of God. As in the case of the Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies; with all those things which were Typical shadows, the substance and intendment of which is performed and completed. These things premised, I shall prove that their examples are binding to us, yea are a superadded engagement to duty; and render a sin against a command so backed with examples, to be more sinful and more deeply aggravated. It is lawful, and a duty to imitate, and f●llow the § 6 examples of eminent Saints. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which 3 Ep. of Jo. 11. is good. This is spoken of evil and good actions and examples, as appears by the 10th. verse. Leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps. Whose 1 Pet. 2. 21. Heb. 13. 7 2 Thes. 3. 7. and 9 1 Pet. 3. 5. 3 Phil. 15. faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us. But to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves. Brethren be ye followers together of me and Mark them which walk so, as ye have us f●r an ensample. These Scriptures are so plain to the purpose, that they need not a comment. And his sons walked not in his ways. It was an aggravation that they did not 1 Sam. 8. 3. only sin against the Laws of God, but the example also o● their Father. Yea, in doubtful and difficult cases; wherein we § 7 cannot reach the knowledge of our duty, and the way God would have us walk in, by the evidence of his Laws: it is our duty to follow the examples of the greater number of the Saints, especially when the most serious, and understanding are of the company. If thou know not (O thou fairest among women) go thy Sol. Song. 1. 8. way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy Kids beside the Shepherd's Tents. It were well if young beginners in Christianity would § 8 practise this advice; until by diligence, and the blessing of the Lord thereon, they came to an understanding more ripe, and capable of discerning the mind of God in its more proper providence: such a practice would evidence humility, and a knowledge of themselves, and save them many a sin and trouble, and the Church's peace in a great measure: and secure them from the snares and delusions of Satan and his Agents; who have the greatest advantage on those whose hearts are, in their aims, honest in the main, and whose understandings are weak, and indigested; yet daring and presumptuous. I conclude this Chapter with some consequences of SECT. III the denying the doctrines, commands, holy examples in the Scripture contained, to be binding to us, unless they come to us by immediate inspiration or motion of the Spirit. First, than all ministry by men is superfluous and vain; and that not only our ministry, but that also which you call yours, who affirm this dangerous untruth. Can you say your Ministers are the Spirit? if the Spirit teach by, or through them, it teaches mediately; but I say not this as if I took it to be of bad consequence that your Ministry should cease: but to show you how greatly contradictory you are to your own principle. You say the light and the anointing within you, is a sufficient, and only Teacher; and no other can oblige, or move you: yet none make a greater noise in that you call teaching, or declaring, or are so troublesome and importunate therein as yourselves. 2. The consequence will be, that however the § 2 Scriptures are a Monitor from which we may store ourselves with God's counsel, and commands, etc. yet in the intervals, and mean while between inspirations, and motions from the Spirit within: we have no obligation to any duty, nor can we commit any sin. For where there is no Law, there is no transgression; take away the Scripture Precepts, and to you there is none, but as inspirations drop in: and then I assure you, (for all your pretences) you may live lawlessly enough: inspirations being now so rare; and when they were more plentiful, but one Balaam among the wicked was so visited, as we read of. 3. Then the Scriptures signify just nothing, but a § 3 Romance to read, to exercise the fancy; or at most but as a profane or common History, from which we learn nothing but what others did and said; and how it was with them. If you read the Scripture commands, they are nothing to you; if you have a command in Spirit (as you call it) it is enough: though it never were in the Scriptures; yea, though it be contrary to the Scripture, reason, and all modesty. CHAP. VIII. They deny the Scriptures to be any means, by which we may come to know God, Christ, and ourselves. THis is a bold and strange assertion, from those SECT. I who call the Scriptures the Scriptures of truth, and would be thought not to deny, but own them with some respect. But seeing it is within them, I love they should speak out. If the Scriptures are thus impotent, I know no use they are of in things of a Religious concern; all Religions aiming at and depending upon the knowledge of God and ourselves: and the Christian Religion as such, on the knowledge of Christ. They may, notwithstanding this affirmation, call them Scriptures, i. e. Writings still; but sure they do but mock them in calling them holy Scriptures, or they are greatly ignorant what the word holy imports. If the Scriptures than were burned, it would not be a halfpenny loss, and the world would be rid of a burden or a snare, or both. I proceed to the proof of the Charge, and as I have done hitherto, draw my Arrows out of their own Quiver. Quest. Is there not another way by which we may § 2 come to know God? Answ. Nay Child there is not Smith, Prim. p 24. another way, for Christ is the way. The Scriptures (which are Christ's own words) which say Christ is John 14. 6▪ the way, are far from countenancing what this Author shelters under their wing. Christ saith, I am the way,— no man can come to the Father but by me. But he doth not say, (nor is it in the least employed in the words as their sense or consequence) that there is no coming to the knowledge of God but by Christ; for some knowledge of God may be attained not only without Christ as the means, but without the Scripture also. So the Apostle Paul affirms, (whom we have reason § 3 to believe before all the Quakers in the world) For the invisible things of him from the creation of Rom. 1. 20. the World are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: even his Eternal Power and Godhead. Either they never read this Scripture, or the beam is in their eyes, who shall say there is no other way to know God but Christ. If he had said, no other way to know God savingly without Christ, he had saved his credit here, and hit the mark: but what will not men say that have a mind the Scripture should be silent? The reason he grounds this upon is of like strength to most, which they produce under that name or form: For Christ is the way; now this Scripture doth not speak of the knowledge of God, but of coming to God; which is somewhat more than a bare knowledge of God; which m●st have a being in us before we can come, or move towards him. But suppose he had said there is no other way to come to God but Christ only, he had spoken falsely. For, Though there is no other way to come to God § 4 without Christ, yet there are many other ways to come to God by, in conjunction with and subordination to Christ. So our reading the Scripture, knowledge of our alienation from God, our sin, guilt, and danger, sanctification, etc. these are all ways and means by which we come to God. Add to these faith, love; yet who will say that any of these are Christ? (except James Nayl●r, who saith Christ is the Word and Prayer:) but though we make these to be some ways and means of coming to God, we make not any of them the way, as the most excellent and only way: nor do we make them our Saviour's, Mediators, and Intercessors with God for us: nor that they by shedding their blood satisfied Gods Justice and appeased his anger, and made reconciliation between God and man: and yet without these, any one of them (at least such as are within their reach) no person can be saved or be re united to God. I will give you a demonstration as easy as sense itself. Suppose that over a great and deep River there § 5 were but one Bridge; and he that would go to the 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 inquire 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 legs, 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 testify 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, etc. p. 7. of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin (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 Latin called the Original of the Scripture Translations before. Sure he believed that the Scriptures peeped 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 persuaded he wrote this) will have it otherwise. I dare assure this learned person if he be alive, and can but prove the Latin to be the Original, the Pope of Rome will willingly give him a Cardinal's Hat for his pains. But this is not his original error, though an error concerning the Original. He saith the Original is nothing worth pertaining to the knowledge 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 Scriptures § 8 being any means by which we may come to the knowledge of God or Christ: one Witness of the third, viz. of ourselves, 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 shows 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 Rhetoric, 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 shown in a Glass immediately? that Glass may more congruously be called a Mirror (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 show 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. TWO 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 knowledge 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 knowledge of him, and is more than a mere notion of God. And for the knowledge of Christ, it is not possible § 3 that the Scriptures should be a prophetical, historical, and doctrinal account of the natures, person, and offices, etc. of Jesus Christ; and yet no means for the knowledge of him. And according to your own common phrase, a testimony, declaration and witness of Christ, and that they are some means, though not the only means, that 2 Tim. 3. 15. Text is enough to prove, And that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation; through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And who will doubt but that which is a means to save is a means to know God and Christ? I have met with such a silly cavil as this in some of your Writings viz. that they are no such means to them who have no faith, i. e. that obey not the light, and believe not in the light. True, if you understood Christ aright; but yet they are a means of some kind, or it is not true that they are able to make wise to salvation whatever else be in conjunction with them: we never yet said that they alone can do it, if we should say so, we should be like unto you, who deny they can contribute any thing towards it. Concerning the knowledge it gives of ourselves § 4 (whether we are belivers or unbelievers) take two or three testimonies. These things have I written 1 John. 5. 13. unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Surely if they are a means to know if we have eternal life, they thereby show us our faces; that we have the faces of Children, not Swine; or Swine and not Children; and those characters and marks by which one Saint may know itself, may be a means by which another Saint may know itself, and so on the contrary. Paul knew himself by the Law to be such Rom. 7. a sinner, as he knew not before. But I shall give you one Scripture which answers the case in the 1 Jam. 23. 24. Metaphor [a Glass] used by our Adversary. For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a Glass; for he beholdeth himself, etc. I know you, who are called Quakers, will say I pervert this Text, which is to be understood of the light within, not of the Scriptures without; and that it maketh directly against me. I hint this to let people know what need we have to preserve that appellation of the Scriptures, the Word of God; which will preserve the due reputation, and use of those holy and blessed writings. But I would ask any Quaker, if it be not absurd and woeful lame language, to exhort a man to be a doer of Christ? I must not dispute the same thing over and over, but affirm this Text, and the particular Argument given just now, to be a full and plain confirming the Doctrinal word to be a means by which we may know ourselves. I shall express in the close of this Chapter those SECT. III absurdities, falsities, and impieties, that are the Bastards this Error is travelling withal. The Scriptures have less in them of demonstration, § 7 with respect to God, than the dumb Creation, or the most despicable particle of it; a Worm, a Stone, are some means to know God by. That not Writing whatsoever can be any such § 8 means; for the holy Scriptures deserve a preference in religious cases; and that (which will lie very heavy upon you who are called Quakers) all your scribble neither hath been, neither can be to any such good purpose, as the knowledge of God, Christ, etc. Experience and sense itself, and that not of § 3 one but many millions, are not all together worth astraw in point of evidence: for so many have experienced as plainly as sense itself can demonstrate, that by the means of the Scriptures they have come by the knowledge of God, Christ, and themselves. The incomparably greater number of those whom § 4 you confess were Saints, and had peace with God, knocked and entered at the wrong door; and so by your own Exposition of Scripture, are Thiefs and Robbers. Then God, Christ, Prophets, Apostles, are all to § 5 be charged with folly, who taught the knowledge of God, Christ, and man, by the matter expressed by the Scriptures; which was not to them immediately expressed by God, but by Prophets, and humane Teachers. You cast those Worthies who both disputed and § 6 died to maintain not only some Truth's concerning God, Christ, and man, (the knowledge of which they came to by Scripture,) but also for continuing in the possession and to the use of souls for such ends, the Books of the written Word. Yea you condemn them as a company of Fools who cast a way and sold themselves to all the miseries they suffered for a thing of nought. Then neither is Reading, Preaching, nor Instruction § 7 of any such use. This I fear hath gotten too much credit with you, who suffer your Families and Children to take their own courses, except in the concerns of this world, wherein few outdo you: and I should blame you the less if you would so far keep to this principle, as to keep your light within, and your thundering too; into which (though a self contradiction) it breaks forth with a noise without sense or truth: to the amusing of the ignorant, who take them who show the greatest zeal or heat to be the most sincere and intelligent. CHAP. IX. The Quakers affirm the Scriptures to be no means whereby to resist temptation; and that they are dangerous to be read. I Join these into one Argument, the latter being S●CT. I. a high instance for the proof of the former; and both together engage against the life of the Scriptures with a strong hand. What shall we say of those men's owning the Scripture, who turn this standing Table of the Lord into a snare, and render them not only not weapons to resist Satan and Lust our grand Enemies; but to be as Gunpowder to blow up ourselves: yea, as if God himself who is the Father of mercies, and who in his abundant goodness hath afforded us this Armour of light, did thereby rather set a trap for our souls, than a means to deliver us from the snare of the Devil; who leads the blind and unarmed captive at his will. I shall not go about to give demonstrations, that § 2 so to affirm is to deny the Scriptures: when I have proved that they are criminal according to this Charge; I know not what impartial person will judge them guiltless of denying the Scriptures. And therefore I shall attend to it, as carrying the question. 'Tis not your flying to the Scripture that can save Martin Mason loving invitation. p. 4. you from the fire of his wrath— nor overcome the least corruption for you; no verily, nothing then but a Christ within you, etc. and the next sentence is, come thou then, O come with boldness to God's faithful Witness within you! If he had said the Scriptures without the knowledge 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 Soldiers 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, lest you Pag. 11. should not understand him. If you use any other Weapons [than the light within] in this spiritual war, y●u cannot prosper nor prevail against him. I have lighted on a proof of the latter part of my Charge before I was ware, viz. for than 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. TWO 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. etc. 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 rendering 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, 'tis 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▪ etc. 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 scribbling. I shall not comment on his ravening comprehending brain (a most affected phrase amongst the Quakers) nor his clear mysteries, as clear a contradiction as it is; nor fleshly comprehensions, as much untruth and nonsense as (according to their meaning of it) it▪ comprehends; nor his little Child unmanned (as good Philosophy as it is) for I have not room to spread all his rubbish. What is to my present purpose is in the last part of his saying, all must be as unlearned from their— traditional read knowledge, as he is unmanned etc. Sure the Scripture knowledge being read knowledge, or knowledge that comes by reading (as one means) is a most hateful thing to God, that he will impart none of his secrets to those, that will understand any thing by his written Word. How came God to fall out (at such an irreconcilable rate) with his own offspring, his expressions of his mind contianed in the holy Scriptures? how can you have the face to call them holy Scriptures, and yet make knowledge attained by reading them so nauseous to God, that they shall be none of his Children, that learn any knowledge by that Book, or forgo it not all? Did God write, and cause it to be written; and yet never intent we should read it? or that reading it we should not believe a word on't, nor understand, nor be the wiser for it? Shall they be judged ●●. by the Law who lived under it, and yet the knowledge of God thereby be a sin and hindrance to their salvation? To what a height of wickedness and folly do they quickly grow, who are poisoned with that abomination of holding the light in every man's conscience to be God, Father, Son, Spirit, Christ, Scripture, all? But Mr. Pen what means your Latin and Greek, § 6 your foreign Authors, your attempted (though mishapen) Logic, your quotations of so many Scriptures, though some of them in a pitiful manner, all to a bad end? Did you learn all those things by immediate inspiration? Had you them not by reading and tradition? Can you tell that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies light, rather than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies thick darkness, but by tradition and reading? But I smell your design, you would have us throw away all the knowledge we have by reading or tradition, till we come to be regenerate, that is Quakers; and than you are out of its danger. But in the mean time you Eph. 5, 13. would have us without the Armour of light (for whatsoever makes manifest is light) that we may not Eph. 5. 13. be able to defend ourselves against the most ignorant nonsense, that the meanest of your votaries can attempt us with. But the God above and the Scripture without hath taught us better things. I am not unwilling (though I hope few need it) § 7 to quote a few Scriptures, that people may have them in a readiness against these untruths of the Quakers. Rom. 13. 12. Put on the Armour of light, etc. the Scripture makes it day in the World (but especially in and with the Saints) for it makes manifest abundantly. There is your defensive Arms. The Word of God is quick Heb. 4. 12. Eph. 6. 16. 17. and powerful, sharper than any two edged Sword, etc. There is an offensive Weapon. Above all taking the shield of Faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench, etc. 17.— and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. A Sword of the Spirits making, and is effectual when of the Spirits managing. Observe faith in the 16. ver. is preferred above the Word of God in the 17. verse, therefore it is not Christ the Word, but the Scripture the Word: for Faith is not above Christ. Jesus Christ who had less need of the Scriptures than any of us all, resisted Satan's temptations by the Math. 4. Scriptures, it is written, it is written; and what was written, being opposed to Satan's temptations, silenced and confounded him. But it seems, since than he hath gotten more confidence. Consider that the Quakers will allow the man Christ to leave us a perfect example. CHAP. X. The Quakers deny the Scriptures to be read to any profit, any further than they are before hand experienced by those that read them. THey may as well say that hearing the word SECT. I preached, is to no profit neither; any farther than it is experienced before hand: for there is the same reason of the one as of the other. But this is a strange Doctrine, that at one blow cuts off both hearing, and reading the matter contained in the Scriptures, by men unregenerate. For what, I pray you, have they experienced, who are according to your notions stark blind, and utterly without sense of the things of God. Quest. But if there be not another way to God etc. § 2 Answ. Why Child, all that are faithful to God in Smiths prim p. 29. 30. what he makes known unto them, they are not judged. This is pretty charitable, but hear farther, the reason he gives why they that read the Scriptures profit not in the knowledge of God, etc. is, but they read in that book notionally, before they have passed the judgement experimentally. Again p. 30. For people wanting the life and power of Christ in themselves, they are betrayed into the words, etc. And such were the Scribes, who were ever scraping in Fisher. Velata quaedam revelata. the Scriptures to find God, and his life; yet never knew him at any time, nor saw his shape, because they heard not his voice, nor heeded not his word within themselves. John 5. 37. What a vile insinuation is here of the Scriptures, and the study of them? as if the Scriptures were but a dunghill, and every unregegenerate person at least (which all are with them wh● adore not the Light within as Christ) did but the part of a Brute (which scraping implies) in searching the Scriptures to know the things of God. For his blasphemous insinuation that God hath a shape, and that they who heed his voice within themselves see it; I am too sensible of the invisible Majesty of God, to work my thoughts on such a horrid subject: yet, he dares quote John 5, 37. to countenance it, which so far as it reaches it, doth deny any such to be seen. To reprove this evil Spirit of (worse than) error, 3. John 5. 39 40. read and understand this Scripture, wherein there is not any great difficulty. Search the Scriptures, (for in them ye think ●e have eternal life) and they are they which testify of me: and ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I have known more than a good many of the men of this controversy expound this Scripture, as if Christ rebuked them for searching the Scripture, and having such a fallacy in their opinion, as to think eternal life were to be had by searching of them: and instead of and (which gives the absurdity of their searching the Scriptures to find the true Christ, by their testimony; and its testimony being so plain and clear, that 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 th●●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 God's 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 Grandmother 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 Mediator 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 signify little to their cure. CHAP. XI. The Quakers put, or render the Scriptures, and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other. I Can 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 highway, 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, etc. 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 ourselves 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, lest 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, etc. They [Worship, Order, Ordinances, Faith, Practice, understood by the written Word] must all come under the severity of his judgement, 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, Nebuchadnezars Image, putrefaction and corruption, rotten and deceitful, all out of the life and power of God, Apostasy, the Whore's Cup, the mark of the Beast, Babylon the Mother of Harlots, Bastards brought f●rth of flesh and blood, the birth that persecuts the Son and Heir, viz. [the Spirit of God or light within] Babylon's Brats and Children, Graven Images, contrary to him [the everlasting powerful God] etc. If this be not opposing the Spirit of God to the Scripture, and rendering 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 men's 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 withal: and so whatsoever God reveals his mind by, may be called his mouth. And it will follow that the Scriptures are his mouth, as eminently as any thing, yea all things in the world, and more. For God spoke 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 spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue. Hear the rod. etc. 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 spoke by the Scripture. But now is made ●om. 16. 26. manifest, and by the Scriptures of the Prophets; according to the command 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 ●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 etc. p. 25. led by the Spirit of God; so far is true as truth itself; but as the old Serpent, he never heads a saying with the Scripture, but he brings in a lie 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 Scripture 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 Sparke of truth, & ●. might W. P. say, We livingly witness, against all the dry cavilling Letter-mongers in the world. Having frequently met with that Scripture, SECT. TWO 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 show their mistake. The words are, Who als● hath made us able Ministers of 1 Cor. 3 6. opene● 1. the new Testament; not of the Letter but of the Spirit: for the Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth ●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, etc. for if the ministration of condemnation be glory, etc. Th●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 die 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 mere Rom. 4. 15. Rom. 7. 11. 12. Commandments. And the Commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death: for s●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 mere 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 quickening grace in a good measure to sanctify 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 chief, the intent and mind of § 6 the Spirit in the terrible dispensation of the Law of Works, was by discovering man's woeful 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 mere Law of Commandments; in which alone there was not the least appearance of mercy or man's 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 broke in peioes the Brazen Serpent that Moses had made; 2 Kings▪ 18. 4. for unto th●se days the Children of Israel did burn Incense to it, and he called it Nehushtan, [that is Brass nothing of a Deity in it but a little piece of Brass So it were fit the Scriptures should be demolished, as having nothing of divine authority stamped upon them. When I have established this Charge by the mouths of two or three Witnesses, it will be time to leave off pouring in more, where the measure is already running over. § 2 W. D. discovery of man's return p. 21. All people may search the Scriptures, and see how y●u have been deceived by your Teachers; who hav● caused you to seek your lost God in carnal and dea● observations: which they have not any Scripture for●. Who this lost God should be (except Jesus Christ who is ascended above the visible Heavens) is not to be imagined by those who are acquainted with the Quakers Tenets and Phrases: as will appear more plainly where I treat on their Idolatry. And if so, as there is reason to believe; there are two grand parts of Idolatry we are charged with, in complying with the Scripture Precepts and Institutions; as in Preaching, Prayer, Church-order, Baptism, Lords-supper. The first is a false object of worship; which all § 3 of them that ever I met with in print or otherwise will not deny that to be, which is given to the man Christ Jesus, who was crucified between two Thiefs at Jerusalem. The second is false worship for the matter, which is Idolatry, although it were intended to the true God as the object; the sacrificing of Children was intended ultimately to the true God, yet it was gross Idolatry, And they have huilt the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the son of Hinnom, Jer. 31. to burn their Sons and Daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. But you will say, how is this charge for walking § 4 according to Scripture instructions and examples, seeing he doth seem to advise to trying by the Scriptures, whether they do not thus? I answer, that they take not any thing in the Scripture to be obliging, but what comes by immediate inspiration, as the Scriptures were given to the Prophets and Apostles; and whatever we do, however consonant to the precepts there expressed, is all contrary to the Scriptures with them, as I have proved already, if not by immediate inspiration and motion of the Spirit. If this be not clear, we shall pump clear by and by. And this is Babylon the mother of Harlots, viz. § 5 Morning watch p 23. [to read and practice as the Saints did and the Apostles in the Scripture of the New Testament] and the abomination of all uncleanness;— That many Children have been brought forth of flesh and blood, and of the will of man (that is, our choice and not passive obedience to the motions of the thing with in) which is the birth that persecutes the Son and heir.— And not one of them must stand (though ever so seemingly glorious) f●r the day is come, and the true birth is born (the light within) whose right it is to reign; and his glory he will not give to another, nor his praise to Graven Images. If erecting and worshipping God by graven Images be Idolatry, than the Quakers do charge us with Idolatry, for walking according to Scripture instructions and examples. He, who will take the pains to read this inspired Author (though by an evil spirit) pag. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. will find it his scope to prove all Idolaers that ground their worship and order on the Scripture examples: and in page 17. he likens all professions among Christians this day to Nebuchadnezzar's Image, and though some are more shining and glorious in appearance as the head of Gold was beyond his legs of Iron; yet he calls all, part of the Image, and the Scriptures the Feet of Clay they had their standing on. And in pag. 16. hath these words, Then searches the Scripture for words to prove their Image a lawful Son, and this is the bott●m and foundation of all Religions this day. I am even tired with searching these sulphureous § 6 Veins of the Pit and Mine of Quakerism, the root of all which is the deified light within: If you have not enough of this smoke to satisfy you, it is the bottomless Pit it rises out of, I will give you two ebullations more and and leave you satisfied or to get better senses. So amongst the words you find how the Saints in Morning watch p. 45. some things walked, and what they practised, and then y●u strive to make that thing to yourselves, and to observe it, and do it as near as you can; and here you are found transgressors of the just Law of God; who saith, thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Exod. 20. 4. Image, nor the likeness of any thing. And it follows, now what difference is there in the ground betwixt you and the Pope? though in the appearance there seem to be such a great space. The Quakers having thus stripped the holy Scrip SECT. TWO tures of their divine beauty and authority; both name and thing; plucked out their very heart and strength: let us resume the particular Arguments, produced to prove that they deny the Scriptures; and look on them at one view, so sh●ll we better discern their united testimonies and strength. They who Deny the Scripture to be the word of God. Equal their own writings and saying with the Scriptures, and prefer them before the Scriptures. Deny the Scriptures to be a rule of faith and life, or a Judge and determiner in religious controversies. Take men off from reading the Scriptuses, and looking into them for instruction and comfort. Deny the Scriptures to be any means, by which we may come to kn●w God, Christ, or ourselves. Affirm the Scriptures t● be no means, whereby to resi●t temptation, and that they are dangerous to be read, Deny the Scriptures to be read to any profit, any farther than they are beforehand experienced by them that read them. Put or render the Scriptures, and the Spirit of God in opposition to each other. Affirm the doctrines, commands, promises, holy examples expressed in the Scriptures (as such) to be not at all binding to us. Hold it is a sin, & the sin of Idolatry; to believe and live according to the instructions and holy examples expressed in, and by the Scriptures: except we have them by immediate revelation as the Apostles. They who do all these things mentioned in the foregoing particulars, deny the Scriptures. But the Quakers do all these things mentioned in the foregoing particulars therefore the Quakers deny the Scriptures. If any one, or all these arguments together will prove what they are brought to confirm; it is proved: if it be not I shall for ever despair to prove any thing For as much as the holy Scriptures being our § 3 compass on earth, and our evidence for Heaven; are mostly struck at by the Prince of Darkness, and grand enemies of Souls: especially the two great Antichrists, the Roman Bishop and Church; and the new Upstarts, who hold the light within every man to be the Saviour, Light, Righteousness, all: who do not only as other erroneous, or heretical persons; a little eclipse, or pervert the light of the Scriptures: but attempt to pull it down out of the Firmament or render it a dark and useless body; but as it receives Light from their Idol: the one party to set up the Pope at Rome, as absolute in matters of Religion. The other to set up the Pope within, as absolute, and more than he; in the little world of every individual man. I shall within these following parallel lines, give you a view (though but in part) how both these adversaries do openly spit their venom, and discharge their shot against the holy Scriptures. And considering how they in most things jump together, in the contempt of, and detracting from the Scriptures, you may conclude, that although the Jesuit was not the first contriver of the Quakers grand notion of the Light within to be Christ: (which I am verily persuaded of to be true) yet that he was a promoter of the building erected on that foundation, we may easily guests 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 column, the Quakers Tenets on the left, and the Jesuits and Papists on the right hand. The Quakers Opinions and Say 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. God's Statutes and Judgements, Deut. 5. 23, 32. The Jesuists and Papists Tenets and Say 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 publicly showing 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 supreme 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 guide 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 Ass' 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 spoke [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 w●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 judgement 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. Writ this for a Memorial in a Book, etc. 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 cavilling Letter-mongers. Scraping in the Scriptures. Will. Pen Spirit of Truth, etc. Fisher veluta quaedam, etc. 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 reasoned ●ith them out of the Scriptures. Acts 17. 2. These Lutherans and H●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 S●ranger to God's people. Noguera libra sec●ndo de Ecclesia. They are Idolaters that act by Whatever things were written were They are Heretics, 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 give light nor are they binding any further, than they come by inspiration, and are recceived in Spirit. James naylor's love to the lost. Let us break his bands asunder, and cast his c●rds from us, Psal. 2. They that are under the Law, shall be judged by the Law. The Scripture not being understood is no Scripture. Lorinus Jesuita in Psalmum 119. 105. The Scripture without the authority of the Church not binding. The Gospel of Matthew, no more than the History of Titus Livius. Surdisius Cardinalis in Catechismo. No more to be valued than an Aesop's Fable. Papists, Prelates, Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, all fly to the Scriptures. Morning watch. To the Law and to the Testimony. Isa. 8. 20. Most of the Heretics, if not all, take refuge in the Scriptures. Gretserus Jesuita All that are unconverted (that is not Quakers) must be shut out of the Scriptures. Naylors' love, etc. Parn. Shield, etc. I have written to him the great things of my Law, but they accounted them a strange thing. The Scriptures are neither necessary, fit, nor profitable for the common people to read Harding Jesuita Petrus Lizetus. Scriptures profaned by their Reading. All the false Religions this day take their Rise from the Scriptures. Morning Watch. The words of the Lord are pure words, Psal. 12. 6. Every word of God is pure, Prov. 30. 5. All the Heretics pretend to the Scriptures, and will seem thence to fetch the venom of their Heresies. Hardingus Jesuita. Bellarminus. PART II. CHAP. XIII The Quakers deny, and subvert all the Ordinances of the Gospel. THe Ordinances of God are those means, SECT I in which God and his creature, Man, do hold and maintain a professed and mutual converse and communion, wherein all men are (as their duty) to draw nigh to God in their express worship, and acknowledgements of the divine Being: and therein to expect from God, his gracious presence with them, and his blessing them both with spiritual, temporal, and eternal blessings. And although God be not tied to this or that way, wherein to shine upon his poor creatures by his manifold goodness; yet he is far from being bound to the lose and wanton humours of men. And having Isa. 64 5 commanded some things to be done by us, as means in order to our being so blessed, and thereto annexed Deus non superstitione coli vult sed pietate. God will not take superstition but piety for h●s worship. Cicero many great and gracious promises of being so found of us: it is an affront of no mean nature to the divine Majesty, and contempt of our own welfare; yea and implicit denial of our dependence on him, to neglect, much more to deny, most of all to disdain those his Ordinances, and to cast reproach and scorn upon them. The eternal God who gives being to all things that are, and to whose being and blessedness it is beyond the reach of any, or all together to make the least ●ota or tittle of addition, owes us nothing, and whatever of his free bounty▪ he shall please to reach us with, it is not only suitable to Scripture revelation, but right reason also, that in order thereunto he should choose his own ways. And although many enjoy plenty, and prosperity § 2 in the outward good things of this life, in all whose thoughts God is not, and who are utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In the way which pleaseth his own mind Socrat. in Plato Viz▪ God will be worshipped. Quicunque Deum aut Numen non agnoscit, no ●an●um ratione caret sed etiam sensu. Avicen●a. strangers to his worship; yet God will make them know one day, that they, not coming into the possession of those good things by the right door of his holy and religious Ordinances, they are but thiefs and robbers. But for men to attempt, or expect spiritual blessings from God out of his own ways, (so far as they are capable of understanding what they are, and how to reach them) is such a direct opposition, and contradiction to a soul, truly addicted and disposed to spiritual blessings, as would fill up a volume to enumerate its parts, and express its folly: except you will say, that spiritual blessings have nothing, to do with a conformity to the will of God, and a holy complacency, and delight resulting to our souls therein: and that they are made up of nothing but a self pleasing conceit, and fancy, that we have brought God to our own bow, and made him a subject and captive to our unbridled lusts; and so our blessedness hath been § 3 hitherto spelled backward, but newly found out really Who acknowledgeth▪ not God▪ is void not only of reason, but sense also. to consist, not in our conformity to God, but his conformity to us. Some of these Ordinances of the Lord have been written in nature's Book, by the light of which men have been led to prayer, and some kind of thankful and reverend acknowledgements of God. More by revelation, which with respect to Ordinances had three steps: the first what was revealed before Moses: the second by Moses: the third at the beginning of Christ's administration. By Gospel Ordinances therefore, I do not intent either those (with their circumstances) that were known and practised by the light of nature; nor those which were under the Mosaical administrations, with their circumstances: but those Ordinances which were commanded by precept, or prescribed by example in the New Testament: or which being of natural obligation, are therein form with the substantial and additional respect to a Mediator already come in the flesh, and ascended in his humane nature into heaven. All those Gospel Ordinances, according to the § 4 account, being so spiritual, and so suiting the grace of the Gospel, stripped of those costly and burdensome members of the Mosaical dispensations, which the Apostle calls beggarly Elements, Gal 4. 9 Heb. 9 10 carnal Ordinances; how aggravated a rebellion must it needs be, to kick against them, and not endure so easy and so becoming a yoke? beside it's rich and plentiful Incomes. I shall first prove, that the Quakers deny Gospel SECT TWO Ordinances in general, and then in particular. You must not expect, on the first head, that I shall produce their denial of ordinances under the terms Gospel Ordinances: but if I prove they deny all the things that are truly such, it is as much as can be reasonably expected. And we, say he, [Christ] hath triumphed over the Ordinances, and blotted them out; and they are § 2 George Fox great mystery. 〈◊〉 p 16. not to be touched, and the Saints have Christ in them, who is the end of outward forms: and thou art deceived who thinks to find the living among the dead. This is the Quakers chief Apostle, to whom they have all regard, as the first, among the first three of their Worthies. In the first place he abuses the Scripture by a grossly false and directly contradictions Exposition. The Scripture which 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, entered 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 God's 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 form, 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 engage 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 remembering 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 God's forms. But I wonder not, that they that hold not fast the form of sound words, are so easily persuaded to let go the forms of sound worship. Let us hear another. For this, I say, that the Father hath given his Son James Naylo●, 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, etc. 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 enlarge and raise the spirits of the Saints, but quite contrary they are found to limit, and imprison the spirit. Sure it must be Satan's spirit, and not Christ's, to whom the Ordinances are such Chains. That I may show you the Quakers Babel, let us § 6 hear Isaac Pennington's Light speak contrary to the Light of G. Fox. When Israel was bend to seek after Isaac Pennington concerning Unity 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 Christ's 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, etc. 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, Babylon's forms, and abominations. Until they show us better grounds for Christ's 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 itself, let none who follow not Christ blindfold, 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 ●arn●l' s Shield etc. p. 16. Call to that Office and Employment. And their Call to the Ministry we deny, which is mediate. But who can witness an immediate Call from God— and speak it [the Gospel] as they are moved by the Holy Ghost— and such travel from place to place, and have no certain dwelling place; this Ministry we own and witness. Thou art corrected by the Scripture, and the Fox mystery etc. p. 48. Apostle corrects thee, who saith, I have not received it of man, nor by man, and bid others look at Jesus the Author of their Faith. Their writings are abounding with matter of this nature. We acknowledge, that all the true Ministers of § 3 Christ ought to have an immediate Call, such as consists in grace, and gifts, and disposition to that worthy Office and Employment; and such as have not this immediate Call, we account unworthy of the thing and name: but the Quakers pretended immediate Call, is far from the Apostles, as I have proved at large on the point of Inspirations, neither are the Ministers of Christ now, Apostles, as they were. But if we call for the Quakers proof of their immediate Call, hear what Farnworth saith: As for pretences, Farnworth against Stalham, p. 22. we do not pretend that we are immediately called, but we witness that we are. And what is their Witness? their own fancy, and their own say-so; and we witness, that such Witnesses will carry the Cause no where but in the fools Court, who the wise man saith, believeth every word. And G. Fox's proof is as much to the purpose, not § 4 of man, the call of the Apostle, while we pretend not to be Apostles. And bid others look at Jesus the Author of their Faith; as if that Text intended a a Faith that they were called to be Apostles, which speaks of the faith of all believers, who received it by the mediate Ministry of the Gospel. For being moved by the Holy Ghost, which is by them made an Essential mark of a true Minister, we allow; but yet affirm, That those who are moved by the Commands of the Spirit in the Scripture, are moved by the Holy Ghost, especially when the Authority of God therein prevails with them. As for having no certain dwelling place, and leaving § 5 houses, lands, and possessions, let them repair to William Pen, and others of their Ministers, for an Answer to it, who have large possessions, and brave habitations, such as few Ministers▪ whom they disclaim (especially the poor Non-Conformists) enjoy, and will not so easily (as Pen's phrase is) be fohbed out of them, as they fob others out of the truth of the Gospel. But indeed will you deny that the Elders that were 〈◊〉 6. ordained in every City by the appointment of Paul, T●●. ●. and by the hand of Titus, had any mediate Call? or those spoken of, Acts 14. 23 And when they had ordained Acts 14. ●3 them Elders in every Church, and had: prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. If you will not believe these had a mediate Call, I despair of your believing any thing but what you list. Another ground of their denying our Ministry is, SECT. IV that they teach from the Scripture. And the Word is immediate, and all the Ministers of Christ preach the Fox mystery, ● c. p 44. immediate Word, and wait for it, and the outward written words with ink and paper are mediate: So then, the written Word being preached from, makes a man no Minister. And of this sort are they that have their W. D p. 30. preaching to study, and to seek at other men's mouths, or from the letter, but have it not from the mouth of the Lord. If the Scripture be not the mouth of the Lord, there is no such thing as God's mouth. And here is the difference of the Ministers of the World, and the Parnel ' s Shield of the Truth. p. 17. Ministers of Christ,— the one of the Letter, the other of the Spirit.— For they are mere Deceivers and Witches, bewitch people from the truth, holding forth the shadow for the substance, and what is the Chaff to the Wheat? Here is not a bare denial of those to be Christ's Ministers, § 2 who preach the Word of God out of the Scriptures, but charging them with Witchcraft; and what are the instruments of their Witchcraft, but the holy Scriptures? most horrid doctrined and yet these wretches will tell you, they honour the Scriptures, and a Scripture Ministry. But this is not all, the tide rises yet higher. And so he [the Devil] takes Scripture to maintain his kingdom, and this he delivers by the mouth of Ministers, which he fonds abroad to deceive the Nations, leading people in blindness, etc. These words are plain, and no parable; therefore I leave you to behold, without a glass, the vileness of these misleaders. I have already proved, that not only we ought, § 3 but Christ and his Apostles did teach out of the Scriptures; therefore (by the Quakers account) they were also as bad as they charge us to be, witches, and deceivers, etc. O but there is another indictment against us, we are not infallible. How can ye be Fox Mystery, etc. p. 72. Ministers of the Spirit, and not of the Letter, if ye not infallible? There is none but God alone absolutely infallibly. And for certainty of what we teach, we dare weigh with the Quakers at any time. But sure I am, that I never met with one of their Teachers yet, in Writing or otherwise, but I found him more than fallible, even foolish, contradicting the Spirit of God speaking by the Scripture, contrary to the clearest reason, and themselves also. But more than all this, We are Hirelings, preach § 4 for Hire, and take Hire for preaching. And a main question for a scrutiny into the truth of our Ministry is, Whether is your Gospel free, and without Charge; yea Fruits of a Fast. p. 21. or nay? This is the nail they find will drive: People love a Cheap Gospel, they that will sell them such a one shall buy their souls into the bargain, and vassalize their understandings to their most corrupt dictates. To preach for Hire we call a Vile iniquity, to § 5 receive Hire for preaching we dare not condemn: because Christ hath said, The labourer is worthy of his 10 Luke. 7. 2 Cor. 11 8. hire. And the Apostle said, He took wages of other Churches to serve them [the Corinthians;] It is ordained, 1 Cor 9 14. that they that preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel. And so hath the Lord ordained. So that a Ministers maintenance for preaching the Gospel, is God's Ordinance. The Apostle exhorts Timothy, To give himself to the work of the Ministry, as it is the duty of every one-ordinarily employed therein. And is God and Christ a hard Master, to oblige his Ministers to give up themselves to that work, and let them and theirs starve for it? But moreover, you may know (if you please) that there are thousands this day in England, who § 6 preach the Gospel in poverty and distresses, and cleave to their work when stripped of their wages; which number there needs not one Quaker to make up; yet take heed you commend them not for it. Another objection is, we study for our Sermons. § 7 What is study but meditation, and searching to understand the truth, and to get it into our heads and hearts? if this be a sin, obedience to God is so. And the Apostle bids Timothy (who had excellent 2 Tim. 2. 15 gifts, and was brought up from a child in the holy Scripture) study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. Then it seems it is no idle task to preach like a workman, and divide the Word of truth aright, and that we may be approved to God, and free from shame among men, we must study. But that which turns us all off handsmooth is, SECT. V That till we are taught by the light within immediately, we cannot speak one word of truth, but all lies, though the matter we deliver be the highest truth. And all be in the Satanical delusions, Fox great mystery, p. 5. p. 62. that be not in the immediate teachings from the Spirit. But the greatest professors upon the earth are there of the Devil, that speaketh the words of truth, but not as they are in it; as so saith Christ to the Jews, they were of their Father the Devil, they speak of themselves— they speak of themselves as the Devil doth, but abide not in the truth, but a liar from the beginning. The Devil speaks a lie from himself, that is a truth, for no body need teach the Devil to lie. But how will it follow, that whatever any man speaks of himself is a lie? then it seems for a man to be first in telling any thing, true or false, 'tis a lie, whereas we use most to suspect the truth of that which comes by a second, or third hand, or more: but the conclusion is, what we have not by immediate inspiration, and teach it, we speak it of ourselves, and therefore are devilish liars. § 2 The learned Fisher will help the Fox at a dead Velata quaedam revelata, p. 7. Jer. 5. 2. lift, and piece his tale. And to such wise sayers and knowers as these— God saith, though ye say God lives, yet as I live ye swear falsely; and why falsely? was not that a truth that God lives? but not a truth truly testified unto by them (● any more than what is testified in foro hominum, in men's Courts, by such as being not eye witnesses thereof, have it only by hear-say from others) because they witnessed to it but in stolen words. Here is then the proof, that we speak more than we know; and therefore lie. This is indeed pretty near a lie; but that they who live in the light of the Creation, and read, and believe, and know the Scripture to be the Word, or the Words of God, and affirming no nicer a truth, than that God liveth, should lie; because they know it not by immediate Inspiration, is very strange: He that lives, may know from thence that God lives, who holdeth every soul in life that lives. But the meaning of the Text may be (and I will trust the sober Readers judgement to decide it betwixt us) that they did not believe the Lord lived, and swearing what they thought untrue, or doubted of, they therein swear falsely, or that they dared to swear to a falsehood, and yet abuse the Name and Ordinance of God to confirm it. But I desire those who give credit to such Teachers as infallible, and inspired immediately from God, to try by the instance I am now upon, whether we are not likely to speak more rightly concerning God from the Scripture, than their Teachers without book? In the Quotation of this Text, Fisher hath falsified (beside his Exposition) in three plain cases, for they say, he writes ye say, for the Lord lives, God lives; there is both taking away a word, and changing another, and makes God swear too, where there is not a word or tittle of it in the Text, and so adds to the Word of the Lord these words, yet as I live. This is ordinary from these inspired Teachers, and to tell us God saith so, lest we should take them to be his own words, adds to the boldness of the perverting the Scripture. I could write a Catalogue of a thousand such faults in the Quakers citing of Scripture, some adding, some leaving a word or two out through carelessness, or wilfulness. I have, from what is here evident, reason to say to you, as the Apostle to the Galatians, O foolish [Quakers] who hath bewitched you? Certainly Gal 3 1. it must be a strong delusion that thus blinds you; He feedeth on ashes, a deceived heart hath turned him aside, Isa. 44. 20. that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? The next Ordinance I shall prove them to deny is, a Gospel-Church. And the Church so gathered into Naylor love to the lost. p. 17. God, is the Pillar and ground of truth, where the Spirit alone is Teacher. The Gospel-Church is a Church which hath other Teachers, and not the Spirit alone; but such a Church is not James Naylor's, nor the Quakers. The Church wherein the Apostles were, sure had some Teachers beside the Spirit; whereas the Apostles gave themselves to preaching of the Word. And Elders were ordained in every (particular) Acts 14. 23 1 Cor. 4. 17. 1 Cor 12. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Church. As I teach in every Church. God hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondly Prophets, thirdly Teachers. The Elders are exhorted to feed the Flock of Christ which is among you. Priest (that is the Minister) he brings in, saying, § 2 We utterly deny all their ways and doctrines, who exclude Fox great mystery. p. 32. all teachings of man. Answ. Contrary to the Prophets, who bid people cease from man, whose breath was in their nostrils; a Text hugely to the purpose. But most will conclude, that these Authors do not speak the minds of the Quakers, for that they have more Teachers than all others. Men-Ministers, Women-Ministers, and any one of them, when there is a motion to it. It is confessed, that in point of fact it is so; but it § 3 is a most palpable contradiction to their professed Principle. I should be glad to hear they were more true to it, that the Light within might be their only Teacher, and they would let others alone, till that turned them Quakers. But Satan is cunning, and can give a dispensation, where it may serve so greatly to the promoting of his Kingdom. Sometimes they have silent meetings, as is known to most; then they say they attend to the Teacher within, which is 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 spoke by the Spirit. I asked him how? He told me, because they all found refresh. 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 Overseers Great mystery. etc. 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 Zi●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 form 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 steadfastness 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 ministered 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 Christ's from, first to him, than 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 means hear preached, for (as I hinted from G. Fo●) 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 Gospel of peace? etc. 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 itself, 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 man's 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] by any other way, Smith Cat. p. 12. but by the manifestation of his light within him. Now I shall prove, that the light is the main § 3 (if not the only) thing to be preached, according to the Quakers Tenets. Mind the light of God which hath convinced you. And this is the meaning of our Doctrine, to bring people to the everlasting Word of God in themselves. And that this light within is also preached to, and the only Auditor of the Doctrines which the Quakers say are preached, and taught by the light, is proved by these instances. To the light of God in all your consciences I speak, which is one in all. So I desire that Parnel ' s Shield of the Truth, Epistle. p. 42. Fox great mystery, etc. p. 15. you may mind the light of God, to which I speak, which is my witness. Priest. There is nothing in man to be spoken to, but man. Answ. How then ministered the Apostle to the Spirit? And Christ spoke to the Spirits in prison: And Timothy was to stir up the gift that was in him. I must not ravel into these Texts now, as brought in by Fox; I shall say more of it in the following 1 Pet 3. 19 opened. pages▪ only take notice, that these Spirits were the souls of those men (and so a part of them) with whom the Spirit of God did strive before the Flood, but are now (as the Devils) under the irreversible sentence of damnation, which is in part already executed on them. Over and above, George Fox is both out of the humility, and the meekness, (as they phrase it) and out of the knowledge of himself, and out of his wits also, in saying, That there is a proof to thee, that the Quakers are sent of God, who speak to thee of the Fox great mystery. p 64. §. 4. Scriptures right as they are. I am lastly to show you by good proof, that the light within is the obedient subject also, to its own absolute and infallible dictates; and then I have discharged a very fair Province. Now is the life, the faith, the obedience of the Son, the thing which is of value Pennington quest. ●26. in us. So that their obedience is the obedience of the Son, alias the light in them; which is all one with the light in me obeys. And upon this conceit it is, that they say they are saved by the righteousness of Christ, because they account all the righteousness done by them, to be the pure and unmixed acts of the light within. We are accused that we judge people. Answ. Where Parnel Shield of the truth, p. 3. Christ rules in his Saints he judgeth, as Paul said, It is no more I, but Christ in me. I forbear here to remark his forging of Scripture, or making God's stream to turn the Devil's Mill: But, right or wrong 〈◊〉 plain he would have you believe, it is not their act, but Christ's act. And if you inquire of any of them, (that have drunk in their principles, and are not Novice- Quakers) whether any act of their obedience to the light, be their obedience? they will answer, no, no, 'tis the obedience of Christ; the obedience is of the light. The Quakers disown Gospel-Prayer. I take Gospel Prayer to be the souls uttering its SECT. TWO wants and desires to God, by way of humble supplication, with an audible voice, when it is exercised solemnly in a Congregation, or Family; with or without an audible voice, when a person is private: but always in the name, and for the sake and merits of Jesus Christ. And this the Quakers disown. That they use not prayer (audibly at least) with § 2 their Families daily, is known by all that have opportunities of so conversing with them; wherein they sin against our Saviour's Directory: After this manner Mat. 6. 9 Luke 11. 2. pray ye, etc. When ye pray, say, Our Father, etc. And in both, one Petition is, Give us this day our daily bread; wherein two things are implied: First, Prayer by more than one; Our Father give us. Secondly, Family-Prayer; for that the whole Family sharing in common in the plenty or scarcity of provision, (especially for the Belly, which is the great spender) they are concerned to put up their joint supplications to God for daily bread, and that daily; which might have made a third Note, viz. That although we may pray every prayer we offer up to the Lord, for provision to our lives end; yet we are to pray for it every day and especially for the provision of the present day▪ But this the Quakers wholly disuse, as a con 〈…〉 〈…〉 tible form. That they crave not God's blessing, nor express § their thankfulness at Set-meals for their Table mercies, is as notorious as the other: whereas we have Christ's example for it; And Jesus took the loaves, and John 6, 9 Mark 6, 41. Acts 27, 35, when he had given thanks, he distributed, etc. And when he had taken the five loaves, and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, etc. So Paul, He took bread, and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broke it, he began to eat, etc. All that ever I could learn of the Quakers acknowledgement § 4 of benefits received, or receiveable by us, from what the Man Christ Jesus did and suffered in the world, amounts but to this: He left us a perfect example; and yet they think scorn to follow that, as below such spiritual persons. He lo●ked up to heaven; which implies, he did it for example sake at least, (though all the fullness of the Godhead dwelled in him bodily) express the Divine Being (especially, and in his more glorious Manifestations) to be above, or beyond the visible boundaries of this little World. And as it is against Christ's example, so against somewhat more than a Gospel-precept: For every Creature of God is good, and nothing 1 Tim, 4. ●. 5. to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of God, and Prayer. So tha● to omit this duty (which therefore Paul would not when in a storm, and the company in a consternation w●●h s●ar of death) renders the Creature no good to us, as being unsanctified by God. But rather than this shall pass for a proof of what we assert, and for a rebuke to the Quakers spirit of disobedience, James Naylor will engage his Infallibility Naylor love to the lost. p. 57 to bring them off clear. But where the pure is not (viz. the light) all things are defiled, when they are not sanctified by the Word, and Prayer, and therefore are to be received in fear, and therein remembering his death till he come, who is the Word, and Prayer. And now soul take thine ease, eat and drink; for if thou hast the Quakers light within thee, thou needest not frame thyself to the serious employment of Prayer, and Thanksgiving at Meals; for the light within (the Quakers only Christ) is not only the word that commands prayer, but prayer also in the abstract; and they that have that, cannot at any time be without prayer, though they are altogether silent. They also deny public Ministerial prayer: for although ●. 5. they have some who utter Petitions, they do it (as I am informed) always in the first person singular, I pray thee, not We pray thee. So that although they may pray for others, they pray not with them as their mouth, which is contrary to Christ's Directory, and the Communion of Saints in the Ordinances of the Gospel. And if uncontrolled Fame fa●l not, they give this reason for it, That they both pray and declare for the sakes of others, not their own, who are obedient to the light▪ for they need neither. But there are three things that fully prove their SECT III denying of Gospel-prayer. First, Their contempt of true Gospel-prayer. So the same Wisdom may deny Smith Cat p. 100L. the prescribed way, as betng formal, and may invent something instead of it, in a higher mystery of iniquity; and though they may not speak in such formal words composed, yet in the same wisdom their words are formal: they can set their own time to begin and end, and when they will they can utter words, and when they will they can be silent; and this is the unclean part which offers to God, which he doth not accept, etc. What the wisdom is, intended by the Author, you shall see by and by: but the main formality inveighed against is keeping of set-times; but they may forgive us this error, it being so well known, that they have set-times, and exceed their ordinary hours no more than we. And the wisdom of the flesh is, that we do it in our own wills. If they mean not in obedience to the will of God, 'tis more than they know: if it be according to the will of God, and our wills comply with that, it is so much the better, for God likes no service against, nor without the will. To choose the things that please God, pleases God very well. But that conceived prayer (as such) should be with iniquity, a mystery of iniquity, and that to so high a degree, is a bold charge. It is well known, that many of them, when they come into our Congregations, and are present when the minister is at prayer, they will sit all Isa. 56. 4 the while in the midst, with their Hats on their heads, in contempt, which I myself have experienced more than once. Secondly, Owning no prayers that is not by immediate § 2 inspiration, and motion of the Spirit; and with out the use of our conception, and direction of the understanding. But as every creature is moved by the Spirit Naylor Love to lost p. 13. of the living God, who is that Spirit who will be served with his own alone, not with any thing in man, which is come in since the fall; so the imaginations, think, and c●nceivings Smith Cat. p. 100 are shut out. So all must come to the Spirit of God, by the Spirit to be ordered, and cease from their own word, and from their own time, and learn to be silent till the Spirit give them utterance. That we ought to pray in the Spirit, and with the Spirit, is far from us to deny: but he that prays according to the mind of the Spirit of God revealed in the Scripture, (which is the Spirits Directory) and who, by the commands, exhortations, and promises therein contained, is moved to pray: he prays in the Spirit, and with the Spirit, although he have no immediate motions from the Divine Being. He that obeys God's commands in his written Word, doth his duty, and is through Christ accepted of him. But lest you should mistake the Quakers meaning of the phrase, traditions of men, take notice, That they hold the written Word, and what is therein contained as its sense, to be but the traditions of men, except it come to us by immediate inspiration, as to the Prophets and Apostles, and not at second hand; which I have already proved, and therefore need not do it over again. By what I have here produced, you may learn, That § 3 they deny any thing of man to be exercised in prayer. If he intent hereby, only the depravation that is come in since the fall, it were every right: but certainly faith in the Redeemer, and the promises which in him are yea and amen, the encouragement to prayer are come in since the fall though no part of the fall; and all the Ordinances of Christ, as such, are come in since the fall; and faith and Gospel-obedience are all in man most eminently. But that the imaginations, think, and conceivings must be shut out also, is a most absurd notion. What! must we pray, and neither conceive nor think what we are to do, what we ought to do, nor how to express ourselves? no, nor while we are praying? Must all be done, as if man in his faculties of conceiving, knowing, were not Gods? nor to be concerned in his worship? Certainly, if nothing of man, soul or body, be active therein, man doth not worship God, nor pray at all, and so God worships himself; which is the true result of the Quakers Tenets. But let us consider a Text or two out of the Word § 4 Job 23. 4. of God. I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. The word Order, in the Heb. signifies a marshalling his words. Prayer is not only a Petition, but a humble pleading, wrestling with God: and sure there was somewhat of Job in ordering his cause and he used his spiritual skill in it: 'Tis rendered by Arias Montanus, disponerem, I would dispose my cause. Give ear to my words, O Lord. What Psal, 5, 1. 1 Cor, 14, 15. is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also, etc. Here is Paul's will in prayer, I will: and here is Paul's understanding also exercised in prayer, vers. 15. But my understanding is unfruitful; which he blames as a companion of prayer, that being supposed. Thus I have proved the Quakers denying Gospel-prayer in this respect above mentioned, and reproved their Anti-Gospel-notions by the Scriptures. Lastly, They own no prayer but what is by the light, and in the light within. And the prayers of § 5 Smith Cat. p. 112. such only are accepted, and not the prayers of those who think to be heard for their much babbling, who have many words, but not in the life. So that their prayers only are acceptable who pray in the life, (that is, with the Quakers, by the motions of their light within) and although we are far from thinking to be heard, for the sake of much better things than much babbling; yet all the words of prayer that are not qualified by their principle, the light within, is in their account but babbling. For its truth in the inward parts he seeks for, wherein Naylor Love to lost p. 16. none of you can worship, who know not the living Word in your hearts, to keep them up to God in your worship; and that worship which is not in the will of God, is the worshipping of Devils. If you ask any of them, What is the truth in the inward parts? They will not answer, it is sincerity, meanings suitable to our expressions, and appearances; but it is Christ the light within, who is the truth. And for knowing the living Word; it is of the same sense, it is all but the light within every man, the Quakers Christ. And for the Will of God, that is nothing but the immediate life and motions of the light within. I have said enough out of their Writings to prove these things, neither will they deny them: but Naylor telleth you (and it is not for any Quaker to resist the Spirit by which he spoke) that worship not thus qualified, is the worshipping of Devils. It may be some of the Quakers, though they know in their consciences that I speak but the very truth of their Tenets and Notions, will say, I put my meanings to their words: but if they will but bate me speaking from their light within, which they hold necessary to qualify a man to speak truly, I dare undertake to expound, according to their meaning, their ill-meant phrases, as well as the most of them, and their mystery is none to me at all. And although they talk of praying in the Name of Christ, yet as Naylor phrases it, That is done in the Name of Christ, which is done in his Light and Power. But when all is done, this Christ, and Name, and Light, and Power, is but the light within, and its teachings and motions. It is to me reported on all hands, that they never § 5 pray in the Name of Christ as their Mediator; much less than do they pray to God, in, or in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary; or of that one Mediator between God and Men, the Man Christ Jesus; even that Jesus who was Crucified at Jerusalem between two Thiefs, above 1600 years since. I have put this to many of them, and they denied not this Charge; neither can I see how they can pray to the Father in the Name of Christ, seeing God the Father, and Christ (with them) admit of no distinction; and for the Man Christ that was born of Mary, they have nothing to do with him. The Apostle saith, A Mediator is not of one, but God is one. And whoever they are that deny and disown prayer in the Name of Christ, are far from owning the Gospel-Ordinance of prayer. Reading the Scriptures, and Meditation, which are Gospel-Ordinances, SECT. IV they also deny. I need not tell you of the contempt they put upon the Scripture as a dead Letter, the carnal Letter; and on those who attend to it, as dry Letter-mongers. Take only one instance of William Pens; But all must W. P. Spirit of truth. be as unlearned as 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. And Fisher calls studying the Scripture, scraping in the Scripture. I wonder wherefore God ordered and commanded them to be written, if they are not to be read and studied? The Spirit of Christ within, is the end of the Tables, Great mystery, p. 32. William Deusbuty Return, p. 7. Law, Works, and Books, and the Law is now in the heart. Whatever thou be, whether a Teacher of others, or a Professor of what thou comprehends to be truth from the Letter of the Scripture, under what form, name, or title soever thou be, thou art a dead man, and a dead woman, and the wrath of God abides on thee, though thou see it not, Rom. 7. 9 Miserable man! that talks at this rate, and will father it on the Scripture too, and such a one as is directly against him. But we have had enough of this smoke. I shall say somewhat of their abundant scorn of SECT. V of the Lords Supper, and Baptism; wherein they express a superfluity of naughtiness, not only in their Tenets, but downright railing. The Ordinances I have hitherto considered in particular, are called Moral, from their natural obligation, although that substantial and Essential part, and qualification of them, their respect to a Mediator, will require a denomination more Evangelical, and without which we cannot call them Gospel, or Christian-Ordinances. Those two Gospel-Ordinances I come now to consider, are purely and perfectly positive, and depend merely upon Divinely-revealed Institution, without which they had never come within our notice, nor had they been any way obliging to us. Yet such is the Sanction that the Lord hath put upon § 2 Institutions of this nature, that not only since his revealed Law hath abounded to his Church, but also when the Revelation of his mind immediately to his Servants was very rare, he did not omit Injunctions of this kind. The Sacrifices we read of as early as Cain and Abel: Yea, Adam in his state of Innocency, (who then needed not any indication of Moral duties, beyond what was within the reach of his natural, entire, and uncorrupted light, and innate to his perfect frame, and holy disposition) had the obligation of a positive duty from God, in the matter of the Tree in the midst of the Garden. And to me the main ground of it was, that the absolute Sovereignty of the Creator might be acknowledged, and man might learn to render obedience to God, not only because the matter of it is just in its self, and would be so if God had never explicitly commanded it, but also because it is the Will of God; yea, where his Will obliges singly, without the respect of natural and unchangeable Equity. And God hath so expressed his jealousy over this ●. 3. right of his, that when sins against not only natural light, but superadded Precepts to confirm and strengthen its doubtfulness and decays, have been passed by without any special expressions of his provocations, sins committed against his positive Laws, have been avenged with a high hand. Adam's and Eve's transgression was against an Institution and positive Law, the Commission of which so stirred up the displeasure of God, that he banished them out of Paradise, and imposed that Curse, under which the World groans to this day. And it is not below our notice, that although they were capable of sinning against God in many other respects, yet God affixes the direful penalty to this positive Law: In the day that thou 2, Gen, 17. eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. The case of Nadab and Ahihu, when God bore § 4 witness against them from heaven, by consuming them with fire, was as a Pillar of Salt to season others with an awful Reverence of God in his purely instituted worship. Vzzah was smitten, and died on the spot, when he miscarried so little, as in sinning against a positive Law, by putting forth his hand to save the Ark, the intention of it being good and commendable. And as under the Old so under the New-Testament-Dispensation, God hath not left his positive Laws without the fence of his special displeasure witnessed against the contemners and abusers of them: For this cause many are weak and sickly 1, Cor, 11, 30, among you, and many sleep; that is, are dead, turned into the grave. This was inflicted on them for their disorder at the Lords Supper: although (especially among the Corinthians) we read of many great sins against Moral Precepts, yet the Spirit of God assigns not them, but this breach as the cause. And if we consider the great inclination of man, § 5 to pride himself in his own innate reason and wisdom, and great unwillingness to subscribe to any thing, that is not in its own nature within the reach of it; we may suppose, that something with respect to th●t, (which is so apt to break the bonds of mere Authority, even that of God himself) the Lord hath put such a guard on positive Laws, and will not, no not now under the Dispensation of the gracious Gospel, leave men without a Test of their Resignation to his Divine Wi●dom, and absolute (though never unjust) Sovereignty and Authority. And I having observed these Ordinances of the Gospel, (which are the only merely positive Laws of the New Testament) to be slighted, because in their own nature they seem of no tendency to edification, have given my Reader this (not superfluous) Introduction. I shall begin with Baptism, it being the first in order of the two, both in its Institution and Practice. The Quakers deny Water-Baptism, to be now an Ordinance or Christ. The Baptism we own, which Parnel ' s Shield of the Truth, p. 11. is the Baptism of Christ with the Holy Ghost, and with fire, but we deny all ot●er. Here is Water-Baptism plainly denied. But this will not serve the turn, it must be stigmatised also, with all those who ever so conscientiously and regularly practise it. And now I p. 12. see the other [Water-Baptism] to be formal imitation, and the invention of man, and so a mere delusion, and all are Heathens, and no Christians, who cannot witness this Baptism, [the Baptism of the Quakers spirit of Delusion] who can witness this, denies all other. Farnsworth against S●alham. Your Brain-imaginations we deny. Methinks they who have read the Scripture, should not call Water-Baptism the invention of men, that is too palpable an untruth; though to call it § 2 Formal Imitation be an untruth also, it is more tolerable than the other: but to brand it with the charge of a mere Delusion, is of such reflection on its Author, as nothing but a heart Steel-hard, and a head Dungeon dark, and both void of the fear and awe of God, could thus suggest. And to make up the measure full, all must be reproached as Heathens, and no Christians, whose eyes are not as blind, and foreheads as impudent as theirs; and yet as rank Quakers as this, will call me not only injurious, but a Blasphemer also, for saying and proving they are no Christians. But lies and confidence with them are prerogative things, while Truth must beg, and have nothing but by their good leave and grace, and then it may starve, or flee where the Quakers rule the roast. They [Baptism, Bread, and Wine] risen from the § 3 Smith prim. p. 39 Pope's invention; and the whole practice of those things, as they use them, had their institution from the Pope, etc. Without doubt the light within is wonderfully learned in History, and (as some of the Quakers writ) doth declare to them the Creation, the Fall, and what not, without the Scripture? This regardful Prophet can tell you, that Baptism risen from the It was that which by the Pope and Popish affected Priests was ordained, and by such it is upheld to this day. Higgins Warning. p. 5. §. 4. Parnel Shield of the truth. p. 11. Pope, yea, and the Wine in the Sacrament too, which the Pope indeed took away from the Laity, but never instituted it. And this Author, as I have before cited him, tells the world, we call the Latin the Original: his mind is all on Rome, and there I'll leave him. Yet that I may not imitate the Quakers, who will not consider the weightiest reasons, and clearest against their Tenets, I shall weigh theirs truly and justly, before I determine this point. They who would have one Baptism inward, another outward, would have two Baptisms, when the Scripture saith, the Baptism is but one. I must tell him, by the way, that he tells an untruth wilfully, and what that is he could tell another. He uses (or rather abuses) the words of the Apostle just before repeated, One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; and there he adds his but, which the Text hath not. And here the Scripture saith, the Baptism is but one; let him find such a Scripture, and I will be bound to turn Quaker: But there being no such, I am sure he hath not the Spirit of God, and is by it infallibly guided, who thus forges Scripture. But to the Objection, take notice, that Water-Baptism is the sign, the Baptism of the Spirit the main thing (but not all) signified: now to have the thing signifying, and the thing signified, called by the same name, doth not make them to be two of that name, no more than there were two new Covenants, because the matter contained in the Covenant is called the Covenant, Heb. 8. 10. And Circumcision, the sign of the Covenant, is called the Covenant also, Gen. 17. 13. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must need be circumcised, and my Covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting Covenant. Moreover, Baptism with water is Baptism in a proper sense, Baptism of or with the Spirit, but Analogically so called, as having in it something a likeness to, or proportion with it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifies washing with water, dipping into water properly; that of the Spirit, washing the soul but improperly, for freeing it from sinful pollutions. Therefore this Objection is a mere fancy, and they that will contemn the Deeds and Seal, because they are Paper, and Ink, and Wax, and cast them away, may lose Land and all for their contempt, and then they will pay for, and repent of their folly. Another ground for denying it is, it was not laid § 5 Naylor Love to the lost. p. on the Apostle of necessity, but as they found it of service, or dis-service. This is to be understood only of Paul, who in his Call (which was out of due time, and in an extraordinary manner) had not this of Baptising mentioned, as the rest had: therefore he said, Christ sent me not to baptise, but to preach the 1 Cor. 1. 17 Gospel: Yet he did baptise, therefore it was an Ordinance; and that he baptised so few in that Country, it was rather Providential than designed by Paul: for he being so famous an Instrument of converting the Gentiles, they began to cry him up as if he had not been Christ's Minister, but rather his Competitor; and therefore he thanks God he baptised no more, lest they should have said he baptised in his own name. But though he did not baptise, there might be enough beside for that work; and we read not of one that omitted it, when they understood of the Ordinance, and had any to administer it to them. Object. It was to confer the Holy Ghost. § 6 That was but one consequence, but not what Baptism▪ signified: Beside, the giving the Holy Ghost was of a miraculous nature for the Confirmation of the Disciples in the newness of the Christian Religion, and conviction of others: and the friends of Cornelius had the Holy Ghost before Baptism. Object. None were called to baptise, but those that § 7 were sent to preach to all Nations. Answ. Ananias baptised Paul, yet was not so sent. The ends of Baptism, which was a sign and seal of what interest they had in Christ, and of Regeneration, and the righteousness of Faith remain; and therefore that remains to be dispensed by the ordinary and mediate Officers of the Church, who are Stewards of the Mysteries of God, of which this is one. It being also a Cognizance of Christianity, there is the same reason for it, and it is in vain to talk of Ordinances abolished, without some proof, when, and why they are so. Naylor saith, Paul preached the Love to lost p. 41. Baptism of the Spirit in its stead. Let that be proved, and something is said. But John Higgins saith, That Water-Baptism was Warning, etc. p. 5. but the administration of John, is known and confessed. I say no more to him, but I perceive he is but little acquainted with Confessions. I must bring in the sentence of the great Patriarch Gait mystery of great Whore. p. 65. §. 8. George Fox to decide all; for, after his words, 'tis not fit any of his inferiors should speak again: Where was Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John baptised? and many more which the Apostle Paul thanked God he had not baptised? Baptising is making Disciples to the Lord Jesus, and baptising them into his Name, that is, his Power;— but he [Paul] told of the Spirits Baptism, and brought the Saints off from the things that are seen; and Water is seen, and its Baptism. Strange arguments! as if the Command, and abundant instances of its practice had no force, unless we have an account where every Believer was baptised; and because Paul did not baptise all, therefore they were not baptised at all. But for Baptism being a making Disciples, if it be understood of Water-Baptism, it will be no small friend to Infant-Baptism: if of the Baptism of the Spirit, I suppose George Fox will eat his words again, and acknowledge that the Apostles had not power to bestow the Spirit of God on persons, and make them new Creatures, that was the mistake of Simon Magus, and now of George Fox. But the last argument is such an one as never offered § 9 itself to such a service, till the Quakers light (which they say is Almighty) had the management of it, and so may make an effectual instrument of any thing. Paul brought the Saints off from the things that are seen, and Water is seen, and its Baptism. He 2 Cor. 4. 18. that shall look into the Text to which his words refer, will admire his sharp-piercing Genius, or his non-such ignorance, that could find such a meaning of that Text, or tell the world it was there. But if all that is seen must be cast away and rejected, I counsel the Quakers not to be such eager pursuers of the world, and that I dare ground upon the Text: But (above all) to reject their proud dreaming intolerable notions, the ignorance and delusion of which is so gross, that it is not only seen, but may be felt also. But for all this, the Quakers will affirm they own Baptism, and believe that George Fox is sent of God, because he speaks of the Scripture right as they are. The Quakers disown the Ordinance of the Lords Supper, SECT. VII to be now a Gospel-Ordinance, or any Ordinance of God at all. As of Baptism, so of the Lords Supper; they will say they own it, (at least many of them) but they call quite another thing by that name, which is the way they have to delude people in all other matters of the 1 Cor. 11. 23. Christian Religion. If what the Apostle Paul saith he received of the Lord, 1 Cor. 11. 23. do express the true Lords Supper, the Quakers deny it. Feeding upon the husk and shadow, which is carnal. Parnel Shield of the truth, p. 13. For the bread which the World [all that are not Quakers] breaks, is natural and carnal— so also the Cup which they drink; and here is no communion but natural, outward, and carnal. They [Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper] are Smith prim p. 39 the Pope's invention.— The Priest gives it to the people, and tells them, it is the Blood of Christ which is shed for them, when it is Wine, and not Blood. I will not trouble thee with so unnecessary a thing, as a reply to these silly Cavils, and plain contradictions to the Scripture. The main Objection the Quakers have against this § 2 Ordinance (beside that against all forms, and all things that are seen) is, That Christ is c●me, and his Disciples were to do it in remembrance of him till he was come; but Christ is come in the Spirit to them, and therefore this Precept doth not bind them. But who would think the Spirit, or Christ in the Spirit, was not come (either in shedding it abroad miraculously, as in the 2 Acts) or as a Sanctifier (in the hearts of his people) when the Disciples, and whole Church at Jerusalem, were so frequent in this Ordinance; and when the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians, The 1 Cor. 1●. 16. Bread which we break, etc. But that none must be engaged by this Ordinance, but those to whom Christ was not come by a Spirit of Sanctification, is exceeding gross: For whereas the Ordinance is for the Saints, this renders it to be peculiar to those in a state of sin, and unconverted to Christ; and they are not ashamed to own it to be so. Which was the thing Christ in tender love to his Disciples, Naylor love to the lost. p. 58. at his departure, warned them on, knowing that their nature would draw to the Earth-ward, not yet being changed, nor having Christ born in them to keep them; and for all this Warning, and leaving this as a Sign, etc. If Christ born in the soul, be not till the light within be obeyed as Christ the Son of the living God, we doubt not the truth of Nailor's speech: and that the Apostles and Disciples of Christ were all strangers to such a Conversion. Before I part with this Subject, it will not be unmeet § 3 to inform you, what they mean by the Lord's Supper which they own. But if you eat in remembrance of him, and so come to die to that which slew him, then do you show the Lords p. 57 Naylor Love to the lost. death till he come; and when he comes, he shall not find you eating and drinking with the drunken, etc. So that mortification to sin (taken in the best sense) is with him the Lords Supper; but in his own sense, it is a dying to all that doth not obey the Christ of the Quakers, [The light within.] At another turn it is somewhat else, and quite p. 56. contrary: Which all know who come to his Supper, where the Father and the Son are come in, and sup with the Creature, which all the Imitators and Observers of times are ignorant of, whose contention is about outsides. In the words cited before, it was a Fast, a Popish cruciating Fast: But this last cited a Feast, a Spiritual Feast; and the Feast is constituted of the coming of the Father and the Son supping with the Creature: whereas before his mind was, that when Christ comes, the Supper is ended; but now it is no other but Christ himself present. But the strangest Supper of the Lord is expressed by the same Author, in these P. 54. words: And this was to be done at all seasons, when they eat and drink; in their eating and drinking they were to do it to the Lord, and therein to have Communion with his Body and Blood;— yea, when they were to eat with Gentiles, they were to partake of the Table of the Lord, as is plain, 1 Cor. 10. Thus hath the Lord given up these people to confusion. § 4 Sometimes the Lords Supper is quite gone, and done away; than it remains, but 'tis a fasting from, and dying to sin, and what they call Excess. Then it is Spiritual and within, and Christ's coming makes the Supper. And last of all, 'tis every meal you eat, and every draught you drink, you ought therein to remember the Lords death till he come, at breakfast, dinner, supper, and afternoons luncheons also. And yet this Wretch Nailor (to whom some of the Quakers sang Hosanna, and worshipped him, and calle● him the Son of God, The Christ; and none of the Quakers now, that I can hear of, but own him as a great Prophet, and highly honoured and beloved of God) and yet he dared to say concerning this false confused stuff, What I have received of the Lord, that p. 56. I shall declare unto you. And again, And this is known from the Lord in the Eternal, to be the true end of the p. 57 Supper of the Lord, etc. If denying the Ordinances of Christ, after the manner proved of the Quakers in this Chapter, be Christianity, or consistent with a Christian, the holy Scriptures have given us a very unintelligible account of Christianity, or a Christian: And that mouth (which said, I deny that God did ever, Changed▪ Atkinson. or will ever reveal himself, by any of those things th●u callest the means of Grace) was not full of blasphemy, or in any fault against Scripture▪ Prayer, Hearing, which were intended by it. CHAP. XV. The Quakers deny the transactions of Jesus Christ, when he was manifest in the flesh in Judea, above sixteen hundred years since; or as he is now at the right hand of God, to have any influence into our Justification before God, and our Salvation. SECT I IN this point they come not short of themselves, who in every path of Error outstrip all others who are found in the same crooked way. I shall proceed to the proof. All that are called Presbyterians Ed. Bur. Trumpet, etc. p. 17. and Independents, with their feeding upon the report of a thing done many hundred years ago. This he saith, by way of reproach, against all that act Faith on, and receive comfort from the blessed Effects of Christ's Righteousness, and sufferings by him wrought and suffered, when he was in the world. What Righteousness Christ performed without me, was Farnworth not my Justification, neither was I saved by it. I believe it of himself, if he died in the same mind. Can outward Blood cleanse the Corscience? Can outward Penningtons' Questions, p. 25. Water wash the Soul clean? A plain denial of the Efficacy of the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross, to cleanse the Soul from the guilt of sin, by its satisfaction to the Justice of God. Seeing the Apostle speaks Pennington. of purifying the heavenly things themselves, Heb. 9 23. it would seriously be enquired into, and the Lord waitedon to know, what nature th●se Sacrifices must be of, which cleanse the heavenly things? Whether, they must not of necessity be heavenly? If so, then whether it was the flesh and blood of the Veil, or the flesh and blood within the Veil? Whether was it the flesh and blood of the outward earthly nature, or the flesh and blood of the inward spiritual nature? Whether was it the flesh and blood which Christ took of the first Adam ' s nature, or the flesh and blood of the second Adam ' s nature. §. 2 By these Queries you may see how far he is from believing, that the offering up of the Man Christ Jesus, the Seed of the Woman, hath any influence into our remission, and cleansing from the guilt of sin, contemning the value of the Flesh and Blood of the Man Christ Jesus, as beneath and short of such an Efficacy; and that of necessity there must be flesh and blood mysteriously included in the outward, and visible flesh and blood, of a more heavenly and spiritual nature; contrary to the words of the Apostle which he quotes, Heb. 9 23. which is the Apostles most forcible and plain argument, to prove the Efficacy of the offering of Christ's Flesh and Blood: For if the blood of those Beasts, as they were shadows and types of Christ, were so effectual, how much more the true Sacrifice, shadowed out by them. But we may with pity and horror behold the woeful shifts men are put to, and bewildered in, who forsake the plain paths of the Lord in his Word, and are resolved to lay hold on any fancy, and foolish imagination, rather than let go the lie in their right hand. §. 3 And this we witness, who through the Lamb, our Saviour, Parnel's Shield of the truth. p. 30. do reign above the World, Death, Hell, and the Devil; but none can witness this, whose eye is outward, looking at a Redeemer afar off, and still live in sin. As for the qualification of living in sin, they frequently express it, to put a blind before the Readers eyes, and are far from the true meaning of that phrase in the Scripture: for whereas the Scripture intends it of the unconverted, and those who are not sincere in their hatred of sin, and obedience to God, the Quakers will needs have all to be such as live in sin, who have any remains of sin in them, or whose lives are not totally free from the stains of it. But nothing is more plain, than his utterly disowning the Christ without, and Faith that looks at him; to have any thing to do in the victory over Death and Hell, etc. and that the Man Christ Jesus, who lived and died as far off as Jerusalem, is not the Lamb their Saviour. §. 4 Let us hear one more, that it may not pass for only one, two or three of their Doctor's Opinions. And conclude to themselves a belief in Christ, and apply Morning Watch, p. 21 his promises, what he did for them in the body that suffered without the gates of Jerusalem; and by his death and offering all things is accomplished for them, and no sin shall be imputed to them, though they live in it: And through his mediation and intercession for thom, as he is at the right hand of God, at a distance from them, they believe that they have access to God, and are accepted of him, and yet they neither know God nor Christ, nor the place where they say he sits at the right p. 22. hand of God; and being in their mind persuaded that Christ hath satisfied, and hath reconciled them to God, though they be yet sinners. Those he calls sinners, and condemns, are all that repair not to the light within as their Saviour, by his teaching and power within them, as is the scope of his Book. I should but cloy you to cite more for this purpose. It is their Opinion, that Christ did what he did in the flesh which he took of the Virgin Mary, and what he suffered therein also, as our Example, and no more. The influence of Christ's transactions without us, above SECT. TWO 1600 years since, into the Justification and Salvation of Believers, asserted, and vindicated I shall not need to be voluminous in the agitating this subject, many far more able and worthy having wrote on it at large. And although amongst persons who deserve not only the name of Christian, but Venerable in the Church of God, there is not the same prospect into some of the more curious parts of it; yet that the transactions of Christ without us, and before we were born, are the merit of our Justification and Salvation, they are so firmly agreed in, that they may as soon be persuaded to condemn and throw away their Bibles, as to be of a contrary belief. I shall therefore consider Christ's Obedience as active and passive; and prove them to have in them the efficacy denied by the Quakers, and answer some Objections. And then show you what Righteousness they profess Salvation and Justification by. The righteousness of Christ's active Obedience without and before us considered. § 2 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith which he had yet being uncircumcised, Rom 4. 8. 11. opened. that he might be the Father of all them that Believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also. The righteousness here spoken of is in a complete sense, and unlimited to this or that particular case; 'tis a righteousness without stain of sin or unrighteousness. And indeed there is no such thing as a complete righteounsess in the sight of God, that hath any the least crookedness, obliquity, or fault in it 'Tis that rightcousness, of the Covenant of grace, or thereby expressed; for Circumcision, the seal of this righteousness, was a seal of that Covenant. The imputation of it is according to this Text, § 3 a reckoning it to a person; verse. 10, How was it then reckoned? verse. 9 Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness: not as James Naylor saith, And Love to the Lost, p. 7. with him his righteousness is freely imputed, or put into the creature; as if imputing were a putting in. It was imputed to James Nail●r that he was a blasphemer; was it then, and thereby put into him to be a blasphemer? A very fit Expositor of mysterious Scriptures! However he hit right of the Quakers mind, and therefore it must be no more but put in, to this day. But to return: it being reckoned, and that as a grace of the new Covenant, it was not the righteousness § 4 of Abraham by him wrought, or wrought in his own person, as the subject of it; for than it had not been any grace or favour from God to reckon it to him: therefore it was a righteousness of another that was reckoned to him, not his own. Whose righteousness it was then, may be gathered by the title of the imputed or reckoned righteousness, verse 11. A seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had being yet uncircumcised. Well then, this consideration may lead us to the truth of imputed righteousness; if we consider faith, as being an act of the soul, and therefore not the righteousness imputed: for so far as that is righteousness in obeying the command of God, it is our own act. The just shall live by his faith. His faith Hab. 2, 4. Rom. 4 5. is accounted for righteousness. It must needs then be the object of faith, or that which faith acts on or looks to, and this is no other, but the Lord our righteousness, Jer. 23, 6. the great subject of the promise and Covenant; and is therefore called. The promise, the Covenant, and frequently, The righteousness of God, he being the worker of that righteousness in his own person, which is of God's appointment, to justify a poor believer, which is not a believers, but as it is reckoned or imputed to him. A second ground of this Doctrine of imputed Rom. 5. 21: § 5. righteousness, is in Rom. 5. 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. That this righteousness of Christ is imputed to Justification, and therein the abounding grace of God; is plain in the 17, 18, and 19 verses, where the Apostle lays his argument for grace and righteousness through Christ, in its similitude to the influence of Adam's sin by imputation. For if by one man's offence death Rom 5: 17, 18, 19 reigned by one, verse 17. Therefore as by the offence of one, judgement came upon all men verse 18. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, verse 19 much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ, verse 17. so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men, to justification of life, verse 18. so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous, verse 19 And further to clear this truth (if clearer evidence may be possible) the consideration of verse 14. will § 6▪ contribute a good measure. Nevertheless de●th reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. There are two respects wherein (at least many of) those over whom death reigned from Adam to Moses, did not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression. First, They did not sin against a revealed Law, which Adam did, in eating the forbidden fruit: and there was not revealed Law, or Covenant of life expressly and explicitly given from God after Adam's time, before the fall, until Moses. Secondly, They did not all sin actually, and in their own persons, as Adam did; yet death reigned over Infants, who were in respect of actual sin, Innocents'. And by what Law did Infants suffer death? if not as they were included in Adam the first man, and his offence becoming theirs thereby; according to those words, 1 Cor. 15. 22. For as in Adam all die so 1 Cor. 15. 22 in Christ shall all be made alive. So that if it were not by the imputation of Adam's sin, Children or Infants suffered a penalty without all Law; which is contrary to the Apostles words, Rom. 5. 13. But sin is not imputed when there is no Law. But there was a Law then in force, viz. the penalty of Adam's sin, which by imputation reached to his posterity. And in this very respect Adam was the figure of him that was to come viz. Jesus Christ. So that if the righteousness of Christ, of that one man Christ Jesus, be not imputed to justification of all his children by faith, or that are considered by God in Christ, the whole frame of the Apostle's arguing seems but trifling, and to conclude nothing of what it seems to aim at. There are four Objections (among others) I have § 7 met with, against the evidence of these Texts, to the Doctrine I have vindicated. Object. 1. Christ was our example, and therein did answer to Adam as his figure; for sin came into the world by Adam's example, and righteousness by Christ's. Answ. This is an old error; and what error so old and rotten, that the Quakers will not embrace who live in error as their element? The Texts I have quoted, have not the least appearance of sin entering the world by example; and the Infants over whom death reigned, were not capable of sinning by example. Object. 2. There might be a derivation of § 9 Adam's corrupted nature to all his posterity, and so all of them might be guilty of sinful disposition, and habits in their own persons; yet by generation from Adam, and not by imputation of his sin committed in his own person: so the righteousness that justifies, may be derived in spiritual regeneration, whereby the soul is disposed, and enabled to work righteousness, by that spiritual life and vigour it receives from him as its root. Answ. That cannot be the meaning, frr then the condemnation spoken of would be by all and every one; which though it be true, that dispositions to sin are derived from Adam by natural generation, and dispositions to holiness by regeneration from Christ, yet cannot be the meaning of these Texts: for the emphatical word which as upon the hinge the whole argument turns, is the word one; by one man's offence, by the obedience of one; whereas if the Objection did hit the meaning, the Apostle must rather have said, So by all or every man's offence, condemnation came upon all: But there is no mention of that middle thing, man's corrupt disposition to knit condemnation to Adam's sin, as a more original and remote cause. Also it should then be in or into all, and not upon all. Object. 3. The condemnation that came upon § 10 all, and that reigned from Adam to Moses, was but tempopal death, and what is that to eternal; or to bear a prnportion with justification to life, spirtual and eternal. Answ. It is more than you prove, or can prove, that it was but corporal and temporal death; and we can prove that it was the guilt of eternal death, if we go no further to fetch the proof, than from what is opposed to it in the last verse of the Chapter; righteousness to eternal life. And temporal death is not remitted or discharged to those, who enjoy the benefit of the grace by the second Adam Jesus Christ. Object. 4. The Apostle James saith, what doth it § 11 Jam. 2. 14. opened. 21. profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have no works? can faith save him? Was not Abraham our Father justified by works? etc. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. To the first Instance in the objection I answer, The saying a man hath faith, is not sufficient to render him justified, or to justify him. Secondly, A dogmatical or historical faith cannot justify, or so act on the promise and Covenant, as to put us under the imputation of justifying righteousness: for such a faith the Devils have; and there is a vast difference between believing the History of the Gospel, and believing in Christ. And this is the dead faith the Apostle speaks of verse 17. To the second instance: Abraham's works though they justified his faith, yet they did not justify his § 12 person. And the History of his offering up his Son, doth give evidence for this Exposition: Now I know Gen 22. 12. Jam 2. 18. that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son, thine only Son from me▪ And I will show thee my faith by my works. To the third Instance, which seems to join works § 13. with faith in justification, that is, our works: I answer, That although justifying faith is not without works, yet faith justifies without works: as a man cannot have seeing eyes, if he have not lungs, and heart, and brains, which are essential to life, and the living motion of every member; yet the eye only sees, and not the lungs, or brains, etc. but if you should pluck the eyes out of the head, they would so alone be to little purpose. So works are essential to the being of justifying faith; yet faith alone is in the act of justitying, or so acts on Christ, as to justify the person in the sight of God, by clothing the soul with Christ's righteousness. And although in the Text it is translated, not by faith only, it may, and (I was going to say) ought to be translated, alone; and then the sense is but this. That faith which is alone without works doth not justify a man in the sight of God. And I shall give two good Reasons for it: The one, because it may be so without wrong to the Original. Secondly, It must be so, because it will otherwise contradict the Apostle Paul, and the truth also, as expressed abundantly in other Scriptures. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth as well signify alone as only and is very § 14. often so rendered. as Joh. 8. 29. The Father hath not left me alone, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Joh. 16. 32. And shall leave me, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone. Yea it is rendered, apart Mat, 14. 23. He went up into a mountain apart to pray. I could instance abundantly in the like: Now whereas being rendered, only, it implies, that works also justify; whereas if it were rendered, alone or apart, (which is as fair in the Greek) it would amount but to this, a faith which hath not, or is separate from works, will not be a justifying faith. And it must be so, because else it opposes the great Doctrine of the Gospel, or at least looks like such a thing: Rom. 4. 2, 5, 6. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory, etc. But to him that worketh not, (that is, aiming at justification thereby) but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness,— The blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works, that is, without respect to his works. But enough of this only take one Text, that needs no Comment to raise up this truth out of it, viz. That the righteousness of Christ imputed, is that alone or only which justifies by way of merit, and which true faith looks to for this end. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we 2 Cor. 5▪ 2●. might be made the righteousness of God in him. I must not forget to do somewhat to satisfy the SECT. III very weak, that the sufferings of Christ the Son of the Virgin Mary, hath influence into the satisfaction of God's justice, appeasing wrath, reconciling us to God, &c Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. etc. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows, etc. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he 1 Pet. 2. 24. Isa. 53. 4, 5, 6. was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. That God was (not is, as George Fox▪ hath quoted it, to lose the truth, and save his error) in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Having made peace by the blood of his Cross. And without shedding of blood there is no remission. 2 Cor. 5. 19● Col. 1, ●0. Heb. 9 22. Rom 5. 9 Psal. 85. 9, 10 11. opened. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land; mercy and truth have met to gether, righteousness and peace have kissed each others Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. 'Tis generally agreed, these last verses respect Jesus § 2 Christ, who is God's salvation; the triumph and glory of whose effects for his people, are chief two: First, The reconciliation of God's mercy to us, with his truth, and his righteousness, to our peace. The truth and righteousness of God were engaged to destroy and ruin the whole race of mankind, for their sinning against him, and breach of his Covenant, in those words, For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt Gen 2. 17. surely die. Now whatever inclinations God might have to show mercy to man, and bless him with peace, the truth and righteousness of God (he having that word gone out of his mouth) seemed to oppose it, as not consisting with mercy and peace towards man; and to have bound up those hands▪ and locked up those bowels, from whence man's peace (through the Lord's mercy) might reach him. But through Christ (God's salvation) and what he did and suffered in our nature, as our public person, and in our stead, the mercy of God in reaching poor sinners is set free, without any detriment to his truth; and the peace of a believing sinner throws no scandal on the righteousness, and justice of a gracious God, but these his glorious Attributes of mercy, truth, righteousness, are at a full agreement, amity and union, not only in God, (as they always were and never can be otherwise) but also in blessing man with a reconciliation with his offended Creator. This Jesus arises like a divine Sun in his almighty strength, with healing in his wings. And this is no mean evidence of the satisfaction to the truth, justice and righteousness of God, by what Christ transacted in the world, in the behalf of lost and undone. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, Rom. 3. 26. that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. The second glorious effect of this salvation of God § 3 Jesus Christ, by his transacting our redemption is, That righteousness shall look down from Heaven. The righteousness in the 11th. verse (I suppose) is not the same with that in the 10th. Verse: the former in the 10th. Verse being the essential righteousness and justice of God, which was to be reconciled to sinners; which could not be done with a salvo to his Word, but by some means which might answer to, and satisfy his justice. But the ighteousness in the 11th. Verse (seems to me to be) that sinless state, who which Christ came down from Heaven hath clothed them with, by imputing to them, and putting upon them, that divine and glorious righteousness, which he wrought in his own person, and in our nature, when he was in the world: and so renders his believing ones, not only free from the direful strokes, and heart piercing frowns of a just and offended God, but also the objects of his love of benevolence, yea, of delight and complacence. To conclude, The whole transaction of Jesus § 4 Christ as Redeemer, is the ground of our justification, and its effects and consequences, we being instated therein: although the righteousness of Christ, considered as his obedience, and fulfilling that Law under which he was made as man, and imputed to us, be the glory of the Saints, wherewith they shine in the righteousness of God in him. And with relation to our union with Christ, all those holy fruits the Saints bring forth, by the strength and life from Christ received, are accepted of by God, and shall be eternally rewarded: yet have no part nor portion in this matter of justifying our persons in the sight of God. Having proved the Quakers disowning that justifying SECT IV righteousness which the Gospel holds forth, and in some measure vindicated and explained it: I shall now address myself to a discovery of that righteousness, which the Quakers adventure their justification before God upon. They will tell you, They are justified by no other righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ, with abundance of confidence: though (as we shall prove) they know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm; their righteousness being as far from what is pretended, as darkness from light, and a poor puffed deluded creatures, errors and miscarriages, from the obedience of him who is God-man, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person. Let us first see what they profess of justification by § 2 Smith ● Cat. p. 74. Christ's righteousness. Quest. Do not you depend on the things you do, for life and salvation? Answ. Nay, We do not so, etc. 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, etc. 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 cracked. It follows in the Answer to the first Question: For we have lif● 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 show 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 easy 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 Christ's 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, etc. are employed? But yet the fine mysteries in this Doctrine (which I must confess, may puzzle many an honest Countryman to find out the sense of) amo●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. ●. 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 blood, yet it is the work of God wrought by Christ in the beleiver. Two things are here observable for error and ignorance. First, They who received the Spirit, were called to all this self-work he talks of, and that by faith in Christ's blood too; and yet by the Law of faith it is all excluded. So here faith does and undoes; calls for self-justification, etc. 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 wo●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 blood, and one obedience, and one life; that it is no more we that live, but Christ that lives in us. Here is some show, 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, until body and soul, flesh and spirit, blood 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 understanding 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, etc. I leave you to brood on these wild and worse say, I know their mystery, and depth of Satan; but to spread them all in the light, will ask more Paper than I am willing to write out in this Book. Another expression and quality of the Quaker's § 7 Mystery of great Wh●re, p 4▪ Pennington qu●stions. Smith Cat. p 5●. justifying righteousness is, That it is within them, not without them. Christ being within, there is justification. Now is the life, the Faith, the obedience of the Son▪ the thing which is of value in us. And by this power in us, all our works are wrought for us. So that the righteousness which Christ wrought before we were born, even in the days of his flesh, is to the Quakers a dead thing; and Christ was mistaken shrewdly, when he tells his Father, That he had finished the work which he had given him to do; intending thereby, the last scene of death, which he was then just entering upon; and therefore speaks of all as accomplished. § 8 Another notion they have for the countenance of the opinion of justifying righteousness, to be within them, not without them, and wrought in the time of their life, not by Christ in the days of his flesh above 1600 years since, is, That because the Scripture speaks of justifying by faith, and faith being within, and wrought in the Saints in this life, and in every individual believer; therefore the justifying righteousness is within the believer. This is abused by the Papists, to prove that works justify, because faith is a work or act of the soul; though that be false, for all grace consists (essentially) in the habit and disposition, not in acts; for else a man must be graceless when he is fast a sleep, for than he is not in action, nor grace in act But the Quakers though they embrace many of the Popish Tenets that are erroneous▪ they want wit to manage them as they. But to any▪ purpose, h●re their great Apostle. This justification is by the faith of Fox great mystery, p. 46. Christ within— for all the holy men of God were justified by their faith, and that faith is in the heart. For ● 9 the right understanding of this, we are to consider faith as a disposition and habit, and therein a principal part of the new creature. This disposition of trusting in, relying on, adhering to God, hath its acts suitable to its self. Now the acts of faith either respect its fruits and effects, other parts of sanctification, as love, patience, self-denial, etc. or its objects and aims. Faith hath for its immediate objects the promises of God, leaning, trusting, hoping according to them: it is said to lean on the Lord, trust, hope in the Lord, its aims and ends for which, are the good things wrapped up in the Covenant of grace. Now faith is not accounted for righteousness with respect to itself, as a holy disposition, or its acts as holy acts; but as it looks on, takes hold of, and trusts in the righteousness of Christ. It is no rare thing for the act to be denominated from the object. Though faith which Justifies, justifies as it hath for § 10 its object Jesus Christ, who is the righteousness of God; and so faith be within, the righteousness of Christ which Justifies is not within, for faith Justifies as it looks at somewhat without, and above ourselves. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, justified by faith in Jesus Rom. 4. 25. Gal 2. 16, Heb. 11. 1 Christ. Faith is the evidence of things hoped for. Again, Faith is made the condition of Justification, and that not only as it may be considered singly, but as it includes the whole body of sanctification in some parts and measures of it. But to as many as received him, Joh. 1. 12. to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So that faith is a receiving of Christ, who is both Prince and Saviour, Lord of life and prince of peace, and receiving him as such, is conditional of this acceptation with God, and so may be said to Justify, as it performs the condition of Justification on our part. But if faith were the meritorious cause of Justification, § 11 it were Justification by works. And if faith Justified, looking no further than itself, as it is subjected in the soul; it were a strange faith indeed that hath itself for its object, and then a man should believe in himself. I might entertain you longer than your patience will hold out, in pregnant proofs out of their own writings: That as Christ's obedience, so his sufferings, upon which depend our Justification, are all transacted within the heart of a believer, his agony, his crucifying and death, etc. But I will give you but one Instance, lest I leave too little room for what I am willing to be ample in, the Subjects Smith Cat. p. 12. of the succeeding Chapters. We believe that Christ in us, doth offer up himself a living sacrifice to God for us, by which the wrath and justice of God is appeased towards us. This is in stead of many, though their Books do generally speak of the sufferings of Christ as propitiatory, to be done over in every person before conversion. And the maddest humour of all is, That Penningtons' quest▪ p. 21. they make the seed, or the light, or Christ being crucified in the soul by the power of sin and lust, to be the crucifying and death of Christ, by which God is appeased. Do not they which dwell there (in spiritual Sodom) put his flesh to pain, crucifieing it in and to themselves? Take one Scripture to guard you against all the fancies of this sort, and to close this Chapter. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice Heb 10 12, 13▪ for sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God, from thence expecting till his enemies be made his footstool; for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. CHAP. XVI. The Quakers disown and deny the Christ of God, and set up a false Christ in his room and stead, and attribute all to that false Christ, which is due and peculiar to the true Christ. THis is the grand and root-errour of the Quakers, SECT. I that great non-such lie, which travels with and brings forth that Babel, and confused heap of errors, wherewith their Religion (if they have any such thing) is abounding. First, They disown and deny the Man Christ Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary, who was of the seed of Abraham, according to the flesh; who was nailed to the Cross, and crucified at Jerusalem without the gates, to be the Saviour of believers; and he who wrought that righteousness, and underwent those sufferings by which man's Redemption was wrought. This we certainly know, and can never call Penningtons' questions, p. 33. the bodily garment Christ, but that which appeared and dwelled in the body. They do not deny, that there was such a man as § 2 Jesus the Son of Mary, and that God was in him, or rather Christ was in him: but this is no more than they profess of themselves, that Christ as God, and the Eternal Word, is in them; yet that body of the Man Jesus, which he calls here the bodily garment, he tells us, they can never call it Christ. Another passage out of the same Author will explain this: For that which he took upon him was our garment, even the p. 20. flesh and blood of our nature: (very right) But what follows is woefully false. Which is of an earthly perishing nature, but he is of an heavenly nature, and his flesh, and blood, and bones, are of his nature. The sum is this, The Flesh and Blood, and Bones or Body of Christ, which they own, is of a heavenly and Eternal Nature; but the body which Christ took on him of our nature is earthly and perishing: and therefore they can never call that, or own that to be Christ. This is as plain a denying the Man Christ Jesus, § 3 whose body of flesh was of our nature, and of the seed of Abraham, and the Son of Mary, as can be. They own him as one that once had a Being, but is now perished, that is, his body of flesh and blood. What can we expect of those men, who can disown what the Scripture speaks so plainly and frequently? and that not now and then by the by, but as its main scope? Do not all the Prophets that prophesy of Christ speak of him as to come? Doth not he himself, and others contemporary that lived with him in the flesh, speak of him as then come? Do not the Scriptures, after his Death and Resurrection, speak of him, as having finished the Merit of our Redemption and Salvation, and departed from the earth, ascended into Heaven, and there (at his Father's right hand) ruling the affairs of Heaven and Earth, and making intercession for his people? And all this, of the Body of Christ, which he took of man's Nature; and this called Christ, and Jesus, and the Saviour. Let not these Blasphemers of the Lord of Life and Glory, delude people with a fancy, as if we believe and preach the Flesh and Blood of Christ to be Christ, separated from his Soul, his Soul of the nature of man's soul, (but undefiled) or that we take his humane or man's nature to be Christ, separate from his Eternal and Divine Nature; for they cannot be separated, the one is not (now) without the other; nor was the Divine Nature of Christ complete Christ, until united to, and dwelling in its fullness in the humane or man's nature of Christ. Yet, as what the mind conceives in a man, the man § 5 conceives; and what the least member of the body doth, or suffereth, the man doth, and suffereth: so by a communication of properties, and union of natures in Christ, the Divine and Eternal Being of Christ is called Christ sometimes, but much more often the humane nature, or the Man Christ Jesus. And the reason is clear, because although Christ offered up himself by the Eternal Spirit, as both dignifying him to a worthiness for such a Sacrifice, and enabling him to undergo it as a Lamb, for patience, innocency and meekness, and to overcome death: yet the man's nature of Christ, his soul and his body, was the only proper sufferer and sacrifice, for God cannot suffer, nor be put to death; and by the obedience and sufferings thereof, was our reconciliation and redemption wrought. Only (as I said before) its union hypostatical with the Divine Nature, did put it into such a capacity, and entitle God, or the Divine Nature, (which in its fullness dwelled in him bodily) to all that he did and suffered. Having thus explained myself, that the weakest § 6 that are but willing, may understand the truth in this point, I shall quote some Scriptures, wherein the Man Jesus, who was born of the Virgin, is called the Christ and Saviour; and that this Man Jesus is now in being, and in that body of flesh which he took of the Virgin, and wherein he eat, and drank, and slept, and performed those actions proper to a body of flesh and blood and bones; and that this man Jesus is still, and ever shall be the Christ of God. And it was revealed unto him by the holy Ghost, that Luke 2. 26, 27, 28, 29, 32. he should not see death, before he had seen the Lords Christ. And he came by the spirit unto the Temple, and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the Law, than took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,— Lord, now let est thou thy servant departed in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.— a light to lighten the Gentiles. This was the Lords Christ, whose parents were Mary by nature, Joseph in Law, and by reputation, as being Mary's Husband, though after Christ's birth; whom Simeon then saw, and not before, whom he took up in his arms, not only into his heart by faith and love: and this Christ is God's salvation, and a light to lighten the Gentiles. Therefore being a Prophet and knowing that God Act 2. 30. 31. had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit upon his Throne; he seeing this before, speaks of the resurrection of Christ, that his [Christ's] soul was not left in hell, neither his [Christ's] flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are Verse 32▪ witnesses. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, Verse. 36. that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified; both Lord and Christ. The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye Acts 5. 30. 31. slew and hanged on a tree; him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing Act. 1. 11. up into Heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven. Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have Acts 17. 3. suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ Be it known unto you all, and to the people of Israel, Acts 4. 10, 11, 12. that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead; even by him doth this man stand before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you bvilders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet Acts 13. 28, 29, 30. desired they Pilate that he should be slain; and when he had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre: but God raised him from the dead. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, is preached unto you the forgiveness of Verse 38. sins. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God 1 Tim. 2. 5. and man, the man Christ Jesus. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am Rev. 1. 18. alive for evermore, amen; and have the keys of hell and death. I might fill many Pages with Scriptures of the like import: these are so plain for what I produce them, and the Quakers deny, that they need no Exposition or Comment, or (as the Quakers phrase it) have any meanings put to them. If men be so blind as not to see the error of disowning § 7 Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, who was hanged on a Tree, put into the Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, to be yet alive, and the Christ of God, by all these Scriptures; it is a blindness wherewith never any before the Quakers, who professed the Scriptures to be a true testimony, were smitten. Surely God hath given them up for their pride, giddiness, or idle ignorance, and that in Justice; and the Devil, the Destroyer, hath blinded their minds with a witness, that this light of the glorious Gospel should not shine unto them. Can? yea, dare any of you (guilty of the error here charged) say? That all this is true of, and to be applied to the light within every man, which these Scriptures assert of God's Christ? Read them over, and compare them with that which is your only Christ and Saviour. If this man Christ Jesus, in whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead, and who was thus described by the Spirit of God, be the Saviour your light within is not. If your light within be the Saviour, and Christ, and Redeemer, he was not; of whom all these Scriptures, and a thousand more, speak so plainly. The Lord be merciful to your souls, the Lord rebuke you, who are so bold in denying the Lord that bought you, and trampling under foot the blood of the Covenant. O consider, that fancies and dreams, though having ever so strong an impression while you are possessed with them, will when you awake out of your graves of earth and dust, yea, when your souls depart from your bodies, leave you to the naked truth, which God in his Word (the Scriptures) hath revealed to us, not to be abused after your manner; but that we might believe, and live after their direction; which who despises, Woe unto their souls, for they have rewarded Isa. 3. 9 evil to themselves. I have not yet given you all the evidence I have § 8 out of the Quakers chief Writers, that they disown the man Jesus, the Son of Mary, to be Gods Christ. Some of them take together. Can outward blood Penningtons' Questions, P. as. Fox. cleanse the conscience! We witness the same Christ that ever was, now manifested in the flesh. The man Christ Jesus was not ever, for he was made, and born in time of the Virgin Mary, was Abraham's and David's seed after the flesh: and though he now have a Being in Heaven, and is manifested on earth by his Word, and by that Faith which is in the hearts of his people; yet he is not now manifest in the flesh, according to that Scripture which saith, God was manifest in the 1 Tim. 3. 16 flesh, not is. And Christ's nature is not humane, which is earthly, Fox mystery etc. p. 71. for that is the first adam's. And immediately before, Where doth the Scripture speak of humane?— Now we do not deny that Christ according to the flesh was of Abraham, but not the word humane. How pitifully doth he wind and turn to get out § 9 of the Noose, and holds the world in hand, as if he did not deny the thing, that Christ is constituted of the humane nature, only he will not allow the word humane. Yet he that hath a small measure of discerning, may see that peep out which he would fain hid. He denies Christ's nature to be earthly, which the first adam's was. Sure if Christ was the seed of the woman by Adam, his nature as man was such as Adam's. But for his questioning the word humane, as not in the Scripture, (he pretending to he able to examine the Justice of our Translators, in turning the Greek into English, in his great Libel, called, Mystery of the Great Whore) should methinks have found as much as humane in the Greek, though not in the English, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being five times used in the Epistles, which in the Latin is, more hominum, humanus, after the manner of men, humane. And Christ's humane nature is no more but his man's nature, of his nature according to man; and so he is now in the humane nature in the Heavens. Seeing then that we Heb, 4, 14, 15. have a great Highpriest that is passed into the Heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Mark the last clause. For we have not an Highpriest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Infirmities here must not be understood of sin, the Text bars that; but such a weak nature as is constituted of flesh and blood, liable to pains, grief, hunger, and weariness. And he was found in fashion as a man; and that, I think, is more hominis. Now this man is, (not was) but is our Highpriest in the Heavens; and not as Fox hath it, was of the seed of Abraham, but is so. A few Instances more yet. And they that are false Ministers, preach Christ Smith prim. p. 9 without. Your carnal Christ is utterly denied by the light. Your imagined God bey●nd the Stars. But none Sword of the Lord, etc. p. 24. Shield of the Truth, p. 30. can witness this, whose eye is outward, looking at a Redeemer afar off. So much of the proof of their denying that man to be Christ. I must not say, that the Quakers do not own a SECT TWO man Christ; for that they frequently in their writings and say express such a thing: but I desire that none will be offended, that I will not take Chips for Guineas or half-Crowns, because some silly Cheats would put them upon me under those valuable names: much more ought I, and every one else, take heed of receiving that for Christ, which God the Father hath not sealed, because men of what countenance soever will persuade us it is no other; whilst by the very Candle-light of mere reason, it will appear to be a mere fancy. If I should say no more, but that it is an absurdity as big as an impossibility, for a man constituted not only of a soul, (for that may be crowded into a little room) but a body of flesh, blood and bones, to be within a man; surely no woman with child ready to be delivered, would by her swelling and bigness proclaim it to the eyes of all beholders more effectually, than such who should be so inmated. And although they talk of all this being by faith, S. 2. they must give me leave to tell them; that though faith in Christ be so in the heart of a believer, that it doth thereby enjoy the blessed effects and fruits of the Redeemer; yet while the faith in Christ is in the heart, the man Christ in his person, or if you will, his glorified body, flesh, blood and bones, is as far from them, as beyond the visible Heavens. And I care not if I mind you of the Popishness of their conceit, near of kin to Transubstantiation, (but that is but an Infant-absurdity to this) that one single body, one individual man of flesh, blood and bones, should be entirely in so many places at once, as in every Quaker; yea, every man and woman in the world. But it may be the Quakers being the only Masters of the Mysteries, can say more for it than we can imagine, I am sure more than any man in his wits can believe. Let us therefore give them the hearing, before we § 3 Fox great mystery, etc. p. 286. dismiss this importunate Candidate with Ignoramus, or a condemning Verdict. Now the woman here hath a husband to ask at home, and not usurp authority over the man; but Christ in the Male, as in the Female, who redeems from under the Law, and makes free from the Law, the man may speak: Christ in the Male and Female, who are in the Spirit of God, are not under the Law; but the Whore who drinks the blood of the Saints, is gone from her husband from under the Law, to ask the Whoremaster that doth drink the blood of the Saints, which Christ the seed judgeth upon, to whom he gives judgement. I have transcribed the more of this Answer of George Fox's, that you may see what spiritual rare matter the Quakers swallow from the hand of Fox's infallible and inspired Authority, the Chief among that Sect. The nonsense and rarity of the Exposition of the Apostles Inhibition of women's speaking in the Church, I shall leave you to construe and descant upon: But you find him owning a man Christ, in the Male, and in the Female. The clearest Expositor that I have met with among the Quakers, of this Mystery, is Isaac Pennington. Two passages, of many, I shall quote out of him. Was not the Word made flesh? And did not the Word § 4 Pennington's questions to the professors of Christianity p. 29. p. 20. made flesh dwell and appear in a Tabernacle of flesh? and cause the glory of his own divine flesh to shine through the earthly flesh? Is it the flesh and blood of the body which was prepared for, and taken by him, wherein he tabernacled and appeared? Or is it the flesh and blood of hi●, who took, tabernacled and appeared in that body? For that which he took upon him was our garment, even the flesh and blood of our nature, which is of an earthly perishing nature; and his flesh, and blood, and bones, are of his nature, etc. The scope of this judicious Author, in many Pages, (a non-such for new discoveries) is, to let us know, that there was a heavenly, spiritual, divine body, constituted of flesh, blood and bones, in which Christ came from Heaven; and that he put that body into the other body of our nature, which he took of the Virgin; and that outermost body of our nature he left behind, when he ascended into Heaven, no body knows where. And this heavenly, spiritual body (nothing of kin to Abraham, David, Mary according to the flesh) is the man Christ, which is in the Quakers, and so the Quakers are as complete Christ's as ever the Son of Mary was: for they also have the divine nature of Christ dwelling in a body of spiritual flesh and blood, and that dwelling in those their bodies which we see, and are but the outward tabernacles of the God and the man Christ Jesus. And when they speak, and what they act, all is but the words and deeds of this man Christ, within the bodies of every he and she- Quakers; and so no more they, but Christ in them. However ridiculous this may seem to be, it is no more but what they as seriously own, as any Article in their Creed. I say no more on this particular, but that he that can digest such fables as these, hath a stomach hotter than an Ostrich. The Quakers in their opinion of the divine nature ECT. III. of their Christ, are exceeding superfluous: and they have not more diminishing thoughts of the humane nature of the true Christ, whose body they have doomed to perish into dust and corruption, than they have magnifying apprehensions of the divinity of their false Christ. Their Tenet which jam next to consider, is, That every man and woman in the world, have in them a saving light from Christ and this light is no other but Christ, the Saviour and God eternal, and there is no other Saviour but it. It hath been the opinion of some (before the Quakers known in the world) that by the redemption of Christ (called universal) all men have a sufficient light given them from God, the utmost improvement of which will prove saving: but far were they from accounting this light to be the Christ the Saviour. However alien my thoughts may be from this Tenet, it is not my work here to consider it; But that peculiar to the Quakers; that the light within every man is Christ, and the only Saviourand very God. Although there are none of them will stick to proclaim § 2 this on the housetop, yet I shall for general satisfaction give it you under their hands. And no one Fox great mystery &c p. 8. knows salvation, but who knows this, Christ in you who is the salvation; and where he is within, there is salvation. And this [Christ in us] be in whom our salvation Smith Cat. etc. p. 64. standeth, as the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And we also know and believe, that he is the same p. 71. Christ in us, which in dispensations past did humble himself to the Cross. And you, whom the Prince of the ●●wer of the air § 3 Fox the younger. p. 49, 50. hath led out of me you scorn me, the light in you— They have disobeyed it, and called it a natural light; and ye have said, that I the light am not able to save those that believe in me. That if you would believe and wait in me the light, p 54. — I will purge out all your iniquities, and forgive all your trespasses, and I will change your nature, and I will make you new creatures, if you will hearken to me, and obey me the light in you. How confident they are of this to be true, may be seen in a bold adventure. If ever man be justified by his Maker, otherwise than by Martin Mason's loving invitation, p. 5. believing in God's Covenant of light, which in the conscience bears its testimony against all iniquity— then let me for ever be condemned from the presence of the righteous God. My design is to do two things. First, To consider the Scriptures, which they lay as their principal foundation, and chief corner-stones in this building. Secondly, Prove by Scripture and Reason, the falsity and abomination of their Error. That was the true light, which lighteth every man SECT. IV John 1. 9 that cometh into the world. The Exposition of these words I shall give, (according to what the Lord hath enabled me with) and refute what the Quakers give as the meaning of it, and conclude from thence. We shall not question that the Relative that, hath for its Antecedent, and is to be understood of the Word which was in the beginning, which was with God, which was God, by whom all things were made, the light of men, etc. The special Character of this Word, who was God § 2 and Creator, that was the true light, I thus explain: Light is taken properly for that which doth manifest or discover any ●hing; so Christ is light. But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus 2 Tim. 1. 10. Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. The meaning is, That that salvation eternal, which God had purposed to give to his people, which could not be seen in the purpose of God as such, is, by the appearing of Christ in the flesh, and therein transacting and declaring this salvation and eternal life, abundantly discovered. For God who commanded the light to shine 2 Cor. 4. 6. out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And as light properly is that which makes manifest, so metaphorically it is that which comforts and rejoiceth: And as the first is put in opposition to ignorance, or the absence of the means of knowledge; so the other is put in opposition to affliction, grief, distress, which are so frequently called darkness in Scripture, that I need not turn to their Instances. And I do not in the least doubt, but Christ the Word is here called Light in both respects, and that eminently: for, as he discovers the gracious thoughts and purposes of God for the salvation of man, it hath in its open hand the light of comfort; they are glad tidings, and gladding tidings. And this I take to be the import of the fourth verse, In him was life, and John 1. 4. the life was the light of men: that is, the salvation and life eternal of poor sinners, was wrapped up in Christ as God, who being so qualified was capable of working it: and this consideration of God manifest in the fl●sh for those ends, is matter of strong consolation, as being an Adequate and sufficient Foundation for Faith to build on. The qualification of this light, the true light, cometh § 3 next under consideration. True is taken in opposition to false, but so we are not to understand it here. True is taken in opposition to types and shadows; so Christ is the true light, which all the types and shadows in the Mosaical Dispensations were not, no more than the picture and portraiture of a man drawn with the dark lines of Charcoal, are the man they so express; or the figures for a thousand pounds in a Bond or Bill, are the money. And this is the true Exposition of the 23d Verse of the 4th of John: John 4. 25. God never accepted in-sincere and hypocritical worshippers under the Old Testament-Dispensation. But the question being of worshipping at Jerusalem, or Mount Gerazim; he tells her, as his sense, that question was now almost out of date, for that the Temple being but a shadow and figure of Christ and Gospel-worship, they were now shortly to use those shadows no more, Christ being come, and the Gospel-Spiritual-worship, which they were but prefiguring of. Again, The true light is to be understood of the § 4 light eminently considered; and so, though John was a true light, and by Christ's own testimony a burning and a shining light, and so the Prophets were true lights; yet Christ excelled them all in light, as the Sun doth the Stars. The brightness of his Father's glory, Heb. 1. 3. and express Image of his Person. So that while they gave a more dim and imperfect light, Christ shined as the daylight. In the Text last mentioned, he is to be understood of Christ in the flesh, before his Ascension. Lastly, By true light we may understand, his being § 5 that light to whom, and of whom all the Prophet's bare witness: as Isaiah did not speak those things read out of him by the Eunuch of himself, but of Act. 8 34. Jesus Christ, as Philip expounded them to him. I now proceed to the efficacy of this light, wherein lies a great part of the Controversy. Which lighteth. It is not to be doubted but this light doth give light, both in respect of manifestation, (which may be of that which is matter of terror) and also of comfort to a miserable world, by sin and its effects. But I pray how will it follow from hence, that Christ is within those whom he lighteth? Truly no more than the Sun in the Firmament is within every one it affordeth light unto. But it is the scope of some pages in William Pen's late piece, to prove, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be rendered, not lighteth, but enlighteneth; which pages he fills with the Authority of both Latin and other foreign Authors. But by this I perceive he is as very— as those Spirit of Truth, etc. p: 53. etc. Physicians who impose severe abstinence on others, but they themselves will take their Cups off, and their good Cheer, to wantonness and giddiness. I return to the business in hand, and grant that § 7 most Translators render it enlighteneth. But what helpeth it? 'Tis never the more the Quakers light within: for a seeing Faculty can do nothing alone, no more than the best eyes in the head without a light without, as a medium by which to discern objects. And this faculty of man's understanding is enlightened by Christ so, as that by his light it is made capable to discern the Face of God shining on sinners, according to the import of the Covenant of Grace: and that enlightening may be no more, Two Scriptures will evidence. First, that concerning Jonathan: And dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his 1 Sam. 14: 27, 28. hand to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened.— See, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened. If the light within be no more in the Conscience than the honey was in Jonathan's eyes, it will make little for the Quakers notion of the light in the Conscience to be very Christ, and not only his manifestations, which are his acts and influence, not himself. The other Text is more plain to the purpose. His § 8 Psal. 94. 4. lightnings enlightened the world, the earth saw, and trembled. If by the earth be not meant the men on the earth, and by the world the men in the world, lightning was not likely to be seen by, or help them so to see, as to effect trembling; unless you will say, the mere Animals were intended▪ Well then, the world was enlightened by God's lightnings, that were totally without them; whether their seeing by those lightnings have respect to the objects of their bodily eyes, or to God the object of the eye of the mind, who is in a good measure made known by his mighty and terrible works. But if you will needs have the enlightening in the ●. 10. Text, to be a bettering of the faculties of the mind, to discern its spiritual concerns; I grant, that the Lord Jesus Christ did by his redeeming work merit, and doth now by his Spirit effect that great good in his people; and they have thereby better understandings, and a more pure and faithful conscience than others: But that Christ by being (essentially considered) in the conscience of every man, should be its enlightening, is a most base dishonour to his Divine Majesty; for what is it less, than to render God under no better notion, than the qualification of the faculty of a pitiful creature? Therefore however it be expounded, it makes nothing for the Quakers light within, or rather the enlightening within, to be the Being of Christ. Every man. If this phrase be taken strictly in its ●. 11. full latitude, intending every individual, without exception, Christ enlightening must be understood so doing as Creator, not as a Redeemer; which Exposition hath a better countenance from the Context, than any thing that can make on the Quakers side. For the Evangelist treats in the introductory Verses of Christ as the Universal Creator; and by consequence the eyes of the body and mind (by which both are enlightened) are creatures of his framing. This is the opinion of many, (Superiors to me in judgement by far) and I shall not contradict it; but modestly, and with submission, offer my opinion. But if that be right, (which all the Quakers in the world are not able to prove, it cannot be so understood) the Quakers may quit this Text, as doing them no service. Some have affirmed that John wrote his Gospel, upon the occasion of the Heresy of Ebion and Cerinthus, in denying the Eternal and Divine Nature of Christ. But suppose it be to be understood of Christ's enlightening § 12 as Redeemer, and so the enlightening to be with respect to the Gospel-discoveries; it need not (it cannot lightly) be understood of all universally. Why more than that Text? Whom we preach, warning Col. 1. 2●▪ every man, and teaching every man, etc. Sure the Apostle being but a man himself, could not warn and teach every man without limitation; it must therefore mean all that he preached to, or rather the Professors of Jesus Christ to whom he preached; he thus taught and warned. Commending ourselves to every 2 Cor. 4. 2▪ man's conscience, etc. There were many that never heard Paul, nor heard of him; therefore it must be understood, that he had been so faithful, that he deserved commendation from all (and had it from those whose consciences were pure) to whom he ministered. Well then, why may it not be understood thus? Every man that is enlightened with a spiritual Gospel-light, is enlightened by Christ. I will show you a Text of the like form, which must be so construed. Psa. 145. 14 The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. Sure it means, that all that are upheld, are upheld by God; and all that are bowed down, and raised up, are raised up by God. Yet I rather incline to take the every man to be § 13 Jew and Gentile, without those limitations of the Covenant, dispensed before Christ came. The Prophets, the Temple, the Sacrifices, and all those typical Representations of Christ, were restrained to the Church of Israel, till the coming of Christ. To them were committed the Oracles of God. The Disciples must not go to preach the Gospel in the ways o● places of the Gentiles. Peter is of opinion, he mus● not converse with those who were Gentiles, as a Preacher of the Gospel. The Jews are offended with him for going on so good an Errand, till they heard his Commission from God, and the blessed effects of his Ministry. But they are quickly informed of the Partition-wall being broken down, and employed according to their Commission, to teach all Nations. And as I take it, it gives a good countenance to this Exposition. I have but one Hill more to get over, and that is, § 15 whether the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, refer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: and so, whether it may be read, The light coming into the world enlighteneth every man; or every man coming into the world, the light [Christ] enlighteneth. As I said before, if it should refer to man, every man in the very instant of, or before his birth, Christ enlighteneth: it must be meant of created faculties in the natural body, as eyes, reason, etc. and so Christ as Creator enlightens all: for experience and sense (without any one instance to control it) will tell us, that none can believe without hearing, nor hear without a Preacher, for all the talk of some of the preaching Stars, and others of the preaching Gospel-light in the Conscience. Show us the man that can express any thing of Christ, or the Covenant of Promises, that never had any other means. But there is a reason in the Text gives such a countenance ●. 16. to referring it to the light, as will not easily be found for the contrary. That was the true light, not this or this is; which plainly imports, not the light Christ, as he is now in Heaven, nor as present with John, and his contemporary Saints, when he wrote the Gospel, (for then it would have been this, or at least that is the true light, etc.) but it clearly points at Christ's appearance in the flesh, in his state of humiliation, wherein he transacted man's salvation, and conversed and shined among men, as he shall never do over again; that state of Christ which was when John wrote his Gospel past. And this construction is the very scope of the words, viz. That Jesus Christ (who was shadowed out formerly by types and figures, and whose Ordinances for conveying knowledge and grace to the sons of men, and which were the ordinary acceptable ways of God's worship, were afore-time restrained to the Temple and Jewish Church) was manifest in the flesh; and therein fulfilling his work as Redeemer, hath abolished those straight dispensations, and broken down the partition-wall between Jew and Gentile, making no difference, but shining by his Ordinances and favour on either indifferently; so rising as a Sun of righteousness, to give light to the whole world, without any restraint by his Ordinance or appointment, whereby those Prophecies are fulfilled: And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest Isa. 49. 6. be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my salvation to the ends of the earth. So it seems he was not so at the time of this Prophecy, although he were then the Divine and Eternal Being, and he who should in time come, and redeem and save by his actual Merit. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, Isa 42. 6. and will hold thine hand, and I will keep thee, and give thee for a Covenant to the people, for a light to the Gentiles. This speaks still of Christ to come as such a light. Let us consider that passage in the Song of Simeon: Luke 2. 30, 31, 32. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, etc. So that the appearance of Christ in the flesh, in that body which Simeon took up in his arms, was his being prepared to be a light to lighten the Gentiles. Now this light was present: And in the Text agitated, John 1. 9 This light was past, that is, that appearance and work of Christ, which made way for the salvation of God to be divulged, and its ordinary means to be enjoyed by all indifferently: This was the true light. God was 1 Tim. 3. 16. manifest in the flesh— preached unto the Gentiles. The second Text they usurp, is in Romans 10. 8. SECT. V Rom. 10. 8. opened. But what saith it? The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the Word of Faith which we preach. This Text joined with John 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, they build their Tenet upon; that Christ the Word is within every man: as upon the Text before agitated, they affirm, that he is within them as a saving light. Let us first consider, whether the Word, in this Text, be of the same sense and import with that in John 1. which speaks of Christ the Personal Word. That it is not so, but the Doctrinal Word, is plain from these Considerations. First, The Apostle doth in these words allude to § 2 Deut. 30. 14 opened. the words of Moses, Deut. 30. 14. But the Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayst do it. This Word in Deuteronomy is said in Verse 10. to be the Commandments and Statutes which were written in the Book of the Law; which Book they had among them, and by that means had the contents of it in their heart, either in the love of it, or by rote; as we use to say, a writing is gotten by heart, when it is treasured in the memory; and it was in their mouth, by profession or discourse. Secondly, the Apostle gives the same answer to a § 3 supposed Objection, How shall we know what is our duty? How we should please God, and be blessed therein? saith Moses, 'Tis no such difficult thing for you to know this; for what you have gotten into your heart out of this Book of the Law, and what you have in your mouth by discourse and profession, that is it you should observe and do. So the Apostle, if you suppose while we preach salvation by Christ, whom you must receive, that we preach impossibilities, for that the person of Christ if in Heaven, or in the grave, he is out of your reach; this will cure your mistake, to consider; that as the Word of the Law which Moses taught and wrote, was in the heart and mouth to do it, so the Word of faith, or to be believed, is in your heart and mouth to believe and confess it. And this will as effectually save you, as if Christ in his person were in your arms, yea and more too. And that this is his sense, is plain in Verse 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe Rom 10. 9 in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The third Consideration is, That the word that § ●. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 18▪ 25. is said to be in the heart is said also to be in the mouth, and we all know what manner of word uses to be in the mouth, that it is a word saying or speaking while it is there, such as that spoken of in Samuel tidings in his mouth; or that in Esther, As the word went out of the King's mouth: therefore it cannot be meant of Christ; but that speech, those say, which are or may be spoken, as in the Gospel when p●eaching, or when written. Fourthly. Both that in Deuteronomy, and this word § 5 in the Romans, are said to be in the heart and mouth of those who were the Church of God, as Israel was to whom Moses spoke, and the Romans to whom Paul wrote; and so were taught by the one the truths of the Law, by the other; of the Gospel. It sorrily follows from hence, that it is in the hearts of all men. Lastly, The Apostle agitating this argument farther § 6 Verse 14. How shall they call on him of whom they have not heard? He doth not tell them, Christ Jesus the Word will preach himself, and he is in the heart where if you will but stand still, and wait and listen, you shall hear him teach you all things, as is the Quakers Rom. 10 17. Doctrine. No, but he tells them in Verse 17. So then faith cometh by hearing. (so say the Quakers, too) but of whom? Verse 15. Of them that are sent, them whose feet are beautiful for the sake of the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace which they bring. And these are more than that one personal, or (as the Quakers phrase it) eternal Word, Christ; for they are expressed by they, them, which are plurals; but Christ is but one. Yet from this Text do they most confidently avouch Christ the Word who was in the beginning, § 7 and who is God, to be in the heart; and not only in the hearts of the Saints and Believers, but in theirs also, who are the most wicked and ignorant among the sons of men. And I have by a grand Quaker been given the lie in the Pulpit, for expounding the Word in Jer. 23. 20. of the Word of the Lord Doctrinally considered; and this Text in the Romans, produced with no more but confidence, and of that enough to prove me so. There is a passage of Willam Pen's either in his Book called Sandy foundation, etc. or else The Spirit of Truth, etc. which is this, (at least the matter of it) That Christ is most eminently the Word, all will agree, or none will deny. I have not time to look it: But I shall say thus much to antidote that fancy; That that is most eminently the Word of that species, about which we contend, which is most properly so; (though other considerations may render Christ the Word more eminent in another kind) and not that which is sometimes, but improperly so called. Christ is called a Lion, a Door. 'Tis true, Christ as God is more eminent than all things beside in Heaven and Earth; and we use to say, (and do not yet repent it) that all (uncompounded) good things are eminently in God. So, as there is strength and courage in a Lion, with respect to strength and courage, Christ may be said to be eminently, most eminently strong and courageous; but to be the most eminently a Lion, would be a strange and untrue expression of Christ: For, Forma dat esse; and he that is without the form that gives the being, cannot be so eminently such, as the meanest that hath the true form. And that the Word Christ is only so analogically, I have showed, and the definition of a Word, in the second Chapter. I desire Mr. Pen to consider better next time, and not think every body else not a hairs breadth beyond his size. A third Scripture I am willing to explain, to fence SECT. VI the weak against the Quakers seductions, is 2 Pet. 1. 19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts. This more sure word of prophecy, compared with a voice from Heaven, which Peter, James and John heard, expressed in Verse 17. is by Peter affirmed to be rather to be credited, than that, or any other immediate Revelation. By the more sure word of prophecy, is meant those prophecies written in the Old Testament, which are called, verse 20. Prophecy of Scripture; and are called, The light that shineth in a dark place; as Prophecies shine, but with a dim light, (yet are welcome, and give some light) comparatively with Providences, which are the fulfilling of those Prophecies. The dawning of the day, and the daystar arising in their hearts, cannot be meant of Christ, known and received by faith to salvation, and sanctification too, in some measure: for so he was risen in their hearts, when the Apostle wrote this; or else he would not have said them to have obtained like precious faith with him, and others the Apostles and Saints, which he doth in verse 1. as the direction of his Epistle. I therefore conclude, that the sense is this, He exhorts § 2 them to be intent on the Prophecies, (whether verbal or figurative) which had respect to (not only the coming of the Messiah, which they believed already, but also) the abolishing of the Mosaical Rites, and constituting in their room the spiritual and Gospel-administration, till thereby they were convinced of that truth; which is called, the dawning of the day, and the daystar, with respect to its light, and beauty, and reality, above the Mosaical Ceremonies and Rites, which were but dim night-stars in comparison; or till they were convinced, that the day of the Gospel-realities was come, and so the night-shadows of the Law to be done away .. The grounds I have for this Exposition are these, § 3 added to the former. Peter, the Pen-man of this Epistle, is said to be the Apostle to the Circumcision, as the Gospel of Circumcision was to Peter. And Gal. 2. 7. therefore we may gather, that those to whom he wrote were Jews, whom the Scripture speaks to be zealously addicted to the Law of Moses. And this is farther confirmed, by his direction of them to the heeding of the Scripture-Prophecies, which few but the Jews were acquainted with, or did own as worth the heeding, except the converted Gentiles, of whom there was no danger that they should Judaize, unless moved thereunto by such of the Jews as needed this conviction. This to me is sufficient; I leave the grounds for others to consider. One Text more I shall weigh, and then I judge▪ I § 4 have done enough to satisfy those that are willing, how the Quakers abuse those Texts which are not so easily understood as some others, to their own and others destruction. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among Col. 1. 27. opened. the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory. From hence they conclude, they have very Christ, his Being and Essence within them. It will not be easily refuted, that the hope of glory is to be understood to be in them; which being a hope in Christ, the crucified Jesus, was such a mystery as the Gentiles called foolishness. But we preach Christ 1 Cor. 1. 2. crucified, to the J●ws a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. For Christ to be in them (rightly understood) would be no such hard matter for the Gentiles to believe, (who understood Metonymical phrases very well) as to believe such a glory to be attained by faith in, and obedience to the Laws of a man, who died as a Malefactor; and that this death of his should reconcile God to man, with the addition of such a purchase. But because it is a truth, that Christ is in Believers; I shall therefore say that (which with the blessing of the Lord to a willing mind to be instructed) will prove convincing. First, The man Christ that was nailed to the § 5 Cross, the Quakers do not believe to be in them, nor that he hath a being or life, nor can he be in them in his person as a man, if they had a sounder faith. For the Godhead of Christ, that is, (with respect to his Being and Essence) is every where, and every where alike: Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Jer. 23. 24. Lord? So that with respect to the infinite Being of God, who comprehends all things, he is in every thing at all times, and nothing can be void of his presence. So that if this be it you mean, the Saints have no more privilege than any other creature whatsoever. But it remains that Christ is in his people by his graces, wrought by his Spirit, which is his Image and Likeness; by his love, which hath a uniting nature to its object; as we say, such are one who love dearly: Every man is where he loves, more than where he lives: And so also where he is beloved; for that will make him frequently thought on, and a man to be sensible of his good or hurts, as if he himself enjoyed the one, or suffered the other. And he is said to live in the hearts of his people by faith, as faith believes how lovely and desirable he is, and so loves him, and works all those other graces in the soul which are his Image; and do as effectually possess the soul for Christ, and to his use and interest, as a faithful friend can do: According to that Text, That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love, etc. You know what the Scripture saith of faith, that it worketh by love. Eph. 3 17, 5. 6. So that in very ●●ed, Christ both as God and Man, doth live in all his Saints, but not in his person, but by the manifestations of his love and glory, his works and Image in, and on the soul. And this is enough to satisfy those that are sober, and are contented with, and rejoice in those privileges which God affords to his Children; which are enough to render them blessed, rather than those which pride and ignorance will choose, like our first Parents, to be as Gods, and pay dear for the delusion. Having stripped them of these Texts wherewith SECT. VII they fortify their light within to be the Christ and Saviour; and proved, that the Man Jesus of Nazareth, in whom dwelled, and now dwelleth the fullness the Godhead bodily, is the Christ of God; and not the man without the Godhead, nor the Godhead without the Manhood, I shall resume my Argument: That this Christ of God the Quakers disown and deny, and set up in his room and stead another, viz. the light within every man: and therefore disown and deny the true Christ, and set up another in his room, which is not the true Christ, the Christ of God. The light within every man, was not born of the § 2 Virgin Mary: It was not the light within every man of which Mary and Joseph were said to be the Parents: It was not the light within every man, that was arraigned before, and condemned by Pilate: It was not the light within every man, that was crucified (being hanged on, and nailed to the Cross of Wood) without the gates of Jerusalem: It was not the light within every man, that was laid in the Sepulchre of stone belonging to Joseph or Arimathe●, that risen out of that Sepulchre, that eat and drank after his Resurrection with the Disciples, that shown to Thomas the prints of the nails that nailed his hands and feet to the Cross, that ascended up into Heaven in the sight of the bodily eyes of the Disciples; but the Christ of God was he, and is he, that did and suffered all these things: Therefore it is a most stupendious contradiction, to pretend to believe the Scriptures, and that they own the Christ to whom the Scriptures bear witness; and yet say, The light in every man is the Christ and only Saviour. And that the Godhead of Christ should be within every man, or any man breathing in the Quakers sense, I have sufficiently refuted already: yet I shall offer a few of many Arguments farther to convince, That the Quakers Christ is not the true Christ and Saviour. They call their light within the seed. § 3 Naylor Lov to the lost. p. 3. That he regards not the seed of God, which is fallen under all this death and darkness; so long as the creature will but hearken to him [the Serpent] and his lying promises, he will lead him from one thing to another in things without, etc. 'Tis a strange Christ, who is in the power of every man to be brought under death and darkness, as long as the world endures; yet this is the Quakers Christ. Whereas God's Christ was dead, but died but once; and was offered up but once for all, and that one offering hath that in it which perfects for ever them that are sanctified. But how the seed spoken of Christ in the Scripture should be in every man, and yet the Son of Mary not be there yea not be any where, is a most ridiculous Riddle: for God, or the Godhead of Christ, was not the seed of the woman, or Abraham, or David; the seed was the man Christ according to the flesh. So to the light of Christ, that which changeth not in Naylor Love, etc. Preface. every one; I appear to be judged—— for therein alone, both these things and all others that proceed from that ●ot, makes for gathering creatures together, unto that one name and seed wherein all the nations of the earth are blessed. The Scripture he pretends to is Gen. 22. 18. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. But Christ as God was not the seed of Abraham. Who that understands any thing can be thus deluded, to take the light within every man to be the seed of Abraham, the man Christ Jesus. The Quakers light within cannot be the Saviour, § 4 for their ●ight within is, as they say, God, Father, Son and Spirit, without distinction, and that they are but one: whereas the Christ of God is the Mediator, and therefore must be distinct from God the Father, and sinful man; who are the parties to be reconciled. There is one Mediator between God and man, the man 1 Tim. 2. 5. Gal 3. 20. Christ Jesus. Compare this with Gal. 3. 20. Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one, but God is one. Well then, the light within, which the Quakers say, is God without any distinction, and not the man Christ, who was in the womb of Mary, cannot be a Mediator, for a Mediator, is not of one, but between two distinct persons. Now this being a truth, where is their Mediator? God eternal is not a Mediator to himself, nor man a Mediator to himself: so shut out the Christ without you, (a middle person between God and sinful man) and you are in a woeful condition. Christ as God separate from that man who was § 5 born of Mary, is not, nor ever was complete Christ. So that if it should be granted, that the light within you were the true God, God essential (which is a blasphemy no tender and understanding soul dare come near the brink of) yet I say, your light within were not Christ. God had no capacity to suffer, to die, to do the Offices necessary for a Saviour and Redeemer, according to the conditions of the Covenant of grace: and although many were saved before Christ was born and died for sinners; yet they were saved by faith in the promised Redeemer who was to come. And these all having obtained a good report through Heb. 11. 39 faith, received not the promise. And therefore until his Incarnation, he is spoken of as God's Christ in election, but not actually and completely Christ. Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom Isa. 42. 1. my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles. Read Isa. 49. where you may with open face behold this truth, in that discursive converse and expostulation between God the Father, and God the Son. Wherefore Heb. 10. 5. when he cometh into the world, he saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Then I said, Lo I come (in the volume of the Book rseVe 7. it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. What was this will, but his fulfilling the Law both activelly and passively as Redeemer? which he could not do as God, therefore God prepared him a body, that body which was born of the Virgin, to which he being united, and therein dwelling, and performing our Redemption, he became actually and completely a Saviour, and not before. Therefore if you believed aright concerning the Godhead of Christ, yet denying his manhood which was made, a created Being, a Being in time; you disown and deny the true Christ. And that is a notorious unmanning of Christ, and § 6 denying him, which one of your great Writers saith. And the Scriptures throughout testify of him, and declare his unchangeableness, who through all [ages] abides Morning Watch, p. 4. the same, what he was in the beginning. Whereas if the man Christ were so the same, he never had a beginning. And the Scripture or you are much out; for they tell us, When he was twelve years old he went Luk 2. 42. up to Jerusalem, and there disputed with the Doctors; which would have been no matter of wonder, if he had been (as man) from the beginning. B●t if you will read such a mystery of iniquity, ignorance, and bold perverting of Scripture, as the world was never till of late acquainted with, observe what follows out of the Author. And he [John] was sent of God to bear witness unto p. 5. this truth, which was; in the beginning.— But that is the true light (saith John) that enlightens every man that comes into the world, John 1. 9 Observe he corrupts the Text and puts is for was which in my Exposition of this▪ Text, I show to be the break-neck of the Quakers design. You may hereby perceive they are sensible how much the word was makes for my Exposition. But he proceeds, Here was the light sh●ne out of darkness in John, the morning and the first day was come unto him, as was unto Moses. A most strange, false, and absurd passage; to make Christ to be the morning and the first day: but any thing to worm out our blessed Redeemer born in time. In the beginning of his book he tugs hard to have the created light and the day distinguished from the night, to be no other but Christ the light within: And here he will have it shine out of darkness in John. It follows a few lines after, Then God sent him to bear witness to the light which in him was made manifest, that all in the light, might believe; and he called to others to behold him, and said, he was the Lamb of God, and was come to take away the sins of the world, Joh▪ 1. 29. (Mark) he behold him— weigh this truth all ye Priests and professors, and ponder it in your hearts. What cannot the Devil lead men into, who are led captive by him at his will? and make them also glory in it, and stand to't with a (mark) in a Parenthesis, and call on men to weigh their wickedness. I am amazed! The Lord have mercy on us, and poor weak souls, who know not how to espy such gross delusions as this, That the Lamb of God John there spoke of, was the light in him, and which shone forth in him. The light within every man cannot be the Saviour, § 8 John 4. 22. opened for salvation is of the Jews; which the light within is not. These words were spoken by Christ himself to the woman of Samaria, to convince her of the Samaritans false worship. Ye worship ye know not what, that is, ye know not what to worship, nor for what end: The Temple at Jerusalem was a type of Christ, and the worship of God which shadowed out Christ, as the Sacrifices, Altar, etc. were restrained to that Temple, to show that worship was not performed in Christ, should not be accepted. Now saith Christ, You know not what you do, in worshipping at the Temple at Mount Gerazim, for no Temple but that in Jerusalem is a type and representation of Christ, and withal salvation is of the Jews. The true Saviour is to be born in the true Church, and from thence to bless the world. There shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn ungodliness from Jacob; That is, out of the Israelitish or Jewish Church. For out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. There is one Scripture much abused by those I oppose, § 9 which I shall explain before I shut up this Chapter. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the ● Cor. 5. 16. flesh, yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. This Scripture is by them made a sufficient ground for their infidelity in the Christ of God, the Son of Mary: for they say, he was a man of our nature, of the flesh and blood of the earthly Adam and nature; as I have already shown out of their Authors: but therefore he is not to be believed in, which you have had proof of sufficient. By the flesh, we are not to understand the body, § 10 as if he should have said, we are to take no notice of our own, or others, or Christ's body of flesh: for the Apostle calls them worse than Infidels, who do not provide for the bodies of those who are of their own house: or that we should have no remembrance of Christ, as he was in the flesh; for than we must forget and be ignorant of the great mystery and foundation of the Gospel. Great is the Mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. But we preach Christ crucified. I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. The meaning therefore must be, That he and his fellow-Apostles did not preach the Gospel for worldly respects, and esteem of men; and please their fancies and humours, for the sake of outward and carnal advantages. The grounds of this Exposition are three among others. First, The subject and scope of the Chapter is the life § 11 to come, and to persuade so to walk and behave ourselves in this world, as those that must quickly be unclothed of this earthly tabernacle, and be concerned with only the things of another life. Secondly, The end of Christ's death expressed in Verse 15. That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves. That is, to their outward, temporal interests, as their prime and chief aim, for to their spiritual and eternal selves, they were to live, which are best promoted by living to Christ. Thirdly, From what is expressed in Verse 17. as necessary to making the honour and interest of Christ our chief aim. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. As if he should say, This proves those that are in Christ to be new creatures; that their aims and ends are holy and spiritual, which is too high for an unregenerate man, whose faith and love to them and concerning them, is much too weak to steer the course of their lives, as those that are bound for Christ and Heaven. And as their ends, so the means is altered; for as before they shaped their whole course to please the flesh, 'tis now conformed to pleasing the Lord, and providing for their souls welfare. And whereas it is said, though we have known § 12. Christ after the flesh, etc. It may refer to the Apostles, in whose person the Apostle speaks, (though he himself were not concerned with them) who did sometimes dream of being great in the world, and sharing with Christ in an earthly kingdom; but now being better informed, and attained to a higher and more noble degree of spiritual understandings and affections, they were crucified to those childish and carnal designs, and their considerations of Christ in his glorified body, and his exaltation in Heaven at the Father's right-hand, did raise their souls to a longing after a further and complete view of his glory, and sharing with him in his heavenly Kingdom. This is suitable to the eighth Verse of this Chapter, which hath some Contexture with Verse 16. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Then Christ was not in them as in his Heaven and Glory. To conclude, I beseech you who are engaged with the Quakers, from the good opinion you have of their § 13 Tenets, or from the other respects which may quickly produce their entertainment; do not think it a light thing, to disown him who must be your Redeemer, or you must for ever perish; or that the difference between the true Christ, and any thing else that is so called, is so small, that you may wink and choose, no danger of miscarrying which ever be your foundation. If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins; was the saying of Truth itself, and he was not the light within but the man Christ Jesus, who was then in Judea, and no where else, who is now in Heaven, not on earth. How is it that the Apostles (whose knowledge of and zeal for Christ, is not to be equalled by any of ours) did preach Christ so abundantly by the name of JESUS, which was the proper name of his humane nature; and as the CHRIST which is a name proper to God and man in one person, he that is the all sufficient Saviour, and not by the name of the light within? which is not to be found, once in the Scripture; and where the words are found, (which Christ himself spoke) which is but once, it may be a terrible and a seasonable monitor to you. But if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? I beg of you once more to weigh what I have written in this Chapter, and beg for you, that the Lord would give you understanding in all these things. CHAP. XVI. The Quakers are gross Idolaters; and Quakerism gross Idolatry. THere have been great Contests in the world, SECT. I about the imputation of this Character of Idolaters, and what is Idolatry? Some have contended, That not only a false worship (though of the true God) is Idolatry, and by consequence that those who live in the practice of such a worship are Idolaters; but also that any Appendices to that worship of God (which in the substance of it is true worship) are also Idolatry, being of man's invention, and added by his own proper Authority, as a part of divine worship: and that so doing is a crime against the second Commandment in the Decalogue, or ten words, or Commandments written in tables of stone. The proof of my Charge against the Quakers, will not depend upon such nice and disputable premises, but if there be any such thing as Idolatry in the whole world, I shall prove them guilty in the highest degree. And because this Charge looks very big, and would be no small sin against both the principles and persons of those concerned, if untrue; and also that such a crime of theirs is not so visible to the world, as may be within the cognizance and notice of all who converse with them: I shall dispose my Argument plainly and formally. All those that own and profess that to be God which is § 2 not God, are gross Idolaters. But the Quakers own and profess that to be God which is not God: Therefore, the Quakers are gross Idolaters. My second proof is in this Argument. All those who worship that as God (professedly, and according to their professed principles) which is not God, are gross Idolaters. But the Quakers do so: Therefore they are gross Idolaters. My first Argument I shall first prosecute, and with that perspicuity, as will be apparent to all that are not more blind than Bats. For the first Proposition, viz. That all those that own and profess that to be God which is not God, are gross Idolaters. I know none but will grant the truth of it, who (in matters of a religious nature) can discern their right hands from their left. The Minor or second proposition of my Syllogism, I am concerned to confirm. Here will be the issue depending; and if this be throughly proved, no man convinced thereof, but will sit down by the conclusion, That the Quakers are gross Idolaters. I shall manage my proof of this by these two § 3 Syllogisms. They who own and profess the light within every man to be God, own and profess that to be God, which is not God: But the Quakers do own and profess the light within every man to be God: Therefore, The Quakers own and profess that to be God which is not God. Again, 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 own and profess so; Therefore, They own and profess that to be God which is not God. The first Syllogism I shall manage in the first place, the Major and Minor of which I shall fully prove. And although some have attempted the conviction of the Quakers, by showing the natural faculties of light in man, to be far short of what they ascribe to it, I shall not go their way to work; for so long as the Quakers hold their light within to be Christ or God, 'tis vain to restrain it to less than infinite. And I having to do with those, whose opinion of the light within depends on such a conceit, I shall prove the light within every man not to be Christ or God. For the proof of the first proposition, I must prove, That the light within every man is not God: and in so doing, all that is requisite to the first proposition will be discharged. § 4 That the light within every man is not God▪ I prove thus: That which hath not power in it to dispose and order Arg. 1 the ways of a man is not God: But the light within every man hath not power in it to disp●se of the ways of a man: Therefore, It is not God. The first Proposition will be granted by all who § 5 own the omnipotence of God: take away that and you un-God him. The second Proposition I prove from J●r. 10. 23. O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. If it be not in man, it is not within man: I cannot say that to be within me, that is not in me; though that may be said to be in me, that is not a part of me. So then, if the prophet Jeremy were not mistaken, there is nothing in man, or within man, that hath the power to dispose or wisdom to direct his steps; but he may either fail in directing unwisely, or for want of power to perform what is well directed or determined: Therefore I must conclude against the Quakers, That the light in every man is not God. Arg.. § 6 That which is not infinite and immense, or without or beyond measure, is not God: But the light within every man is not infinite and immense, or beyond measure Therefore, The light within every man is not God. The first proposition I prove from Psal. 47. 5. Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is infinite. To say, That which is infinite is not beyond measure, is a contradiction in itself. The second proposition I prove by their own concession; and grant, There is scarcely any one thing more frequent in their Writings, than to talk of the measure of God, the measure of Christ, the measure of the light in men. But turn your ear inward, to that measure ●arnel's Shield of the truth. P. ● 2. of light in you. I could fill a volume with Instances of this nature, how they measure out the light within and Christ, and God, and the Spirit: but none of them will deny this. It is a horrible abomination, for men through their gross and dark conceits thus to dishonour God; to share him into more and less degrees and measures, who is entire, infinite, indivisible; who is not (with respect to his Being less in one place than in another. This measuring would agree well to his manifestations, and discoveries of himself to his creatures, and by his works: it would agree well to those graces wrought by his Spirit in the hearts of his people which in some is more, in some less, and capable of growing in all; b●t God cannot be more or less than he is, and ever was. That which may be darkness in a sinful and evil sense, § 7. Arg. 3. (and that in the abstract) cannot be God: But the light within some men, may be darkness in a sinful and evil sense (in the abstract) Therefore, The light within every man is not God. I suppose, and hope they are not yet arrived to that height of wickedness as to charge God with ignorance or sin in the least degree, or that he is capable of so degenerating: therefore I will take the first proposition for granted. For the second, I shall prove from Scripture, Eph. 5. 8. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. What can be more exclusive of all spiritual light or light in spiritual things, than to be darkness in the very abstract? But if you who adore the light within, shall say, this is meant of man, but the light within is God, and Christ; and that is not man, of whom the Apostle speaks. I Answer, That sometimes you plead hard, that the lighteth in Joh. 1. 9 should be rendered enlighteneth; and W. P. tugs hard for it, in his pamphlet called, The Spirit of Truth, etc. But it will be granted with less ado. Well than, if the light within every man be the enlightening of every man, (at least virtually) so that if he be willing to be guided by its conduct, it will lead him as you dream; than it must be within him, as a qualification of his conscience▪ though it be not produced into exercise. And you tell men, they have that within them, that will be a sufficient guide, if they will but listen to it: therefore this Text reaches the light within you, which saith, there was a time when they were darkness. It would be a strange affirmation, to say, the world or Creation were darkness, while the body of the Sun were in it shining, although not one man should move by its light. And it is worth the noting, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text rendered darkness, signifies such a darkness, as is the total absence of light. A second Scripture that proves this, is Mat. 6. 23. § 8 But if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! It is the same word in the Greek, as in the fore▪ cited Scripture. And lest you should cavil, and say, Christ doth but suppose it, he doth not affirm that the light in any one is darkness; the foregoing Verse tells you, That if thine eye be evil, (that is, not single and sincere in its aims) thy whole body shall be full of darkness. And sure you will not say, but there are many in the world whose eyes are evil, who account all such that are not Quakers. And it may be considered, that where the whole body is full of darkness, there cannot possibly be in it any light. And that this which men conceit to be light, and are conducted and led by it, as if it were such, is sinful ignorance and darkness; I shall not think it calls for proof. Well then, 'tis as clear as day, that the best light some men have within them, is but perfect night: therefore it cannot be God. Thus I have proved by three Arguments, That the Arg. 4 light within every man is not God. I will but name a few more, and leave them to the judgement of the Reader, without further proof. That which may be kept under, and in captivity by the lusts of men, is not God: But the light in some men (not only) may be (but) is kept under and in captivity by the lusts of men, (and that by the Quakers own confession:) Therefore, The light in every man is not God. That which may be crucified, and put to pain in Arg. 4 a proper sense, is not God: But the light within every man (which the Quakers call God) may (by their own confession) be put to pain and crucified, and that in a proper sense; (or they talk but madly of being saved by its being crucified within them) Therefore, It is not 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 Fabric 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 Sub●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, etc. 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 show you another God of the Quakers SECT TWO owning, or at least their Idol in another dress; in managing 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, than 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 forbidden. 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 ourselves 2 Cor. 7. 1. from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit. Now the God of peace sanctify you wholly, and preserve you blameless in spirit, and soul and body, etc. 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, than 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 days 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 s●uls of men were God, than God might be condemned: But God cannot so be: Therefore, The spirits or souls of men are not God. That the spiri●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 days 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, etc. 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 centred in its own Being with God, and this form of person must return from E. H. Testimony, etc. 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 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 pitiful 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 pother, 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 priest's charge (as he calls him) but calls it a pother; he makes as if the most horrid blasphemies opposed or charged on the blasphemers, were but making a pother. And to heal his sore he would wound the assembly of Divines, by laying the like monster at their door; but herein he shows 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' Been saith the Soul is not infinite in itself, 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 itself, 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 itself, 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 nonsense 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 itself, 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 form 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 own life,— this (Spirit of man) is that living principle of the divine nature, which man did before his degeneration., and shall g●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 incredible, that they should worship a false God; seeing they own and profess a false God. All those who worship that as God (professedly and according to their professed Principles) which is not God are gross idolaters. But the Quakers do so: Therefore, the Quakers are gross idolaters. I shall not prove the first proposition, which none will deny. The second I prove by their own concession (considered with the proof I have made of the light within every man and the Souls and Spirits of men not to be God) but you may take the argument in this form. All they who worship professedly, and according to their § 2 professed principles the light within every man, or the Souls and Spirits of any men as God, worship a false God. But so do the Quakers: Therefore they worship a false God. Who are not sprung from the noble gentle seed, and to those honour is not due, neither can we bow unto Shield of the Truth, p. 25. them; for if we should, we should set the Devil in the room of God, and give unto him that which is due to God. So that to those who are Quakers, and have the birth of the light within, the noble and gentle seed, (as they call it) to them (with respects to that) they may bow. And withal he tells you, it is such a bowing as is peculiar to God; for where it is used to such who have not God in them, (in the Quakers sense) it is a setting the Devil in the room of God. If it be objected, that they bow to none: I answer, § 3 that they pretend to own no worship but what is inward, and yet they pretend to worship God, and meet to that end; so that if they worship this Light Within, this Soul or Spirit in any men, as they profess to worship God, they give them or it Divine Worship. There was a time when many gave honour and worship John Bolton Senior. to James Naylor; one (now a grand Quaker) not being then pleased with it, James told him, that if they did it to him as a Man, he disowned it; but if they did it to the Light Within him, he accepted it: If any doubt of the truth of this, the Process against him in Richard's Parliament will prove it. And John Bolton the Elder, the Quaker I speak of, can tell you more of it; and I doubt not but that for the reproach, and worse things which would follow it, we should soon find it a general practice with the Quakers, to give visible worship to the Gods that dwell in the Temples of each others Carcases. But I proceed to further proof. He that will worship Christ in his fullness (in the Majesty Penningtons' questions, etc. p. 24. of his Glory, Dominion, and Power) must learn to bow down at the lowest appearances of his Light and Spirit, even at the feet of Jesus. He calls it worship, by Christ they all mean the Light Within, and the lowest appearances must be bowed at, which is the least measure of the Light Within. Priest. say that Christ is within man, is to ' worship Angels, and not to hold the Head Christ. This he makes the Priest to say; but whether any did so or no, it matters not to my purpose: But his answer. Answ. Which none comes to witness Christ Fox great mystery, p. 55. the Head, but who witness him in them, that the Angels must worship him that died and suffered at Jerusalem; and they that worship him in them, worship not the Angels; and they that are not worshipping him in them, are worshipping Men, Devils, or Angels. By the Christ that died and suffered at Jerusalem, they intent nothing less than the Son of Mary. I have already showed, they utterly deny him to be the Christ, and they own Christ suffering at Jerusalem in no other sense than they say he died, suffered or was crucified in every one of themselves: And that you may be convinced of the truth of what I here affirm, mark what follows. They are false [Ministers] who preach Christ Smith Prim. p. 9 Without, and bid people believe in him as he is in heaven above; but they are the true Ministers that preach Christ Within. C. This is a great difference in their Doctrine, for the one to pretend to preach Christ Without, and another preacheth him Within. Father. Yes, it doth make a great difference, and hath no more fellowship together, than the East hath with the West. So that the Quakers Christ, the Light Within, is not only some part of the true Christ, who may (as Christ) be Without as well as Within them, but they are at such odds one with another, that they can have no more fellowship than East and West; and this is the Christ they worship, and to worship any other (as Fox saith) is to Worship Men, Devils, or Angels. Thus I have made good my second Argument, and thereby proved them gr●ss Idolaters. And there is somewhat in their Idolatry that is S. 6. not common idolatry, for it is Ap●tatical Idolatry, which is so earnestly and with such an Emphasis exclaimed against by the Lord: Hath a Nation changed 2. Jer. 11. 12 their Gods, which are yet no Gods; but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished O ye Heavens at this, be ye horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. And it is no less aggravated, in that (while the Heathen, who had not their means to know God, yet were gross Idolaters; and as Pen saith true enough, worshipped (as the Egyptians) an Ape, a Crocodile, yea Herbs, almost any thing) these Wretches (for better they are not) worship that Natural Conscience, that Spirit of Man, which is not only a Creature, an ignorant Creature, but full of darkness, error, pride, all manner of sin; and worst of all, a Blasphemer of the God of Heaven, and his Son Jesus Christ the dear Redeemer. But what now doth it boot them to say, they Worship § 7 and own the Creator, and Christ, and the Lord, and only him, and such like? And what folly is it, after such Evidences, for any to say, Sure they are not so had, their principles are of a more (tolerable at least) stamp, they are civil, zealous people for Religion in their way? How! will nothing but drunkenness, or robbery of men in their outward goods, and such like vices, render men wicked? will not the highest affronts to Heaven? must men be believed rather than God in his Word, which hath spoken of such persons to arise, 1 John 2 Chap. and many other places? See how God excused those in the second of Jer. in the 19 23, and 24. Verses. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee: Know therefore and see, that it is an evil thing, and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of Hosts. How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have 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 month 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 you● 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 baptised 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 passed 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 Adam's flesh, and be quickened and raised again in the second Adam's 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 allegorising of the Resurrection. But if you will not be admonished, nor persuaded by Moses and the Prophets; [within you] neither will you be persuaded 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 wil● they be persuaded 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 glorious 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 Proselytes; 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, etc. 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 entitled, ' as above, he hath these Naylor love to the lost. p. 78. words: But to such busy 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 quickened 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 Serpent's Wisdom, etc. 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 matter) did affirm, That he did not believe that his body should rise again after its Death. I never knew any of them affirm the Resurrection § 2 of the Body, intending thereby the Body which is such in a proper sense and common acceptation: I have often discoursed them about it; and when I have proposed the question so plainly, that they had no room to evade by their Allegories, their Answers have been, Thou art upon the Catch, we shall not answer thee, Or, Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Sometimes with that in Job, If a man die, shall he live again? and as the Beast dieth, so dieth Man. But when all their Arguments are answered, which they think are lodged in their Scriptures; their last refuge is their false interpretation of 15 Cor. 38. God giveth it a Body as it pleaseth him. Who will doubt, but that such who will not give a plain answer yea or nay, when questioned about the Resurrection of the Dead; but instead thereof, produce all those Texts which to them seem to deny the Resurrection; I say who will doubt that such do deny the Resurrection of the Dead? before I discharge this subject, I shall answer their Cavils about this point, prove the truth▪ and give some inferences from their corrupt wicked Religion, and soul-destroying Tenet. First, their Cavil from that Scripture 1 Cor, 15. 50. Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. By § 3 Flesh and Blood here, is to be understood Corruptible flesh and blood, which is clear from the consideration of the following words, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption; compare this with ver 42. it is s●wn in corruption, it is raised in incorruption, and ver. 49. and as we have born the Image of the Earthly, so also we shall bear the Image of the Heavenly. So that it is still the same body, only with the Change to spiritual and incorruptible. For that in Job, if a Man die shall he live again? the meaning can be no more than this, (if Job understood himself) he shall not live again in this world, and in that state in which he liveth before death; which is plain from what he most confidently affirms, Job 19 26, 27. And though after my skin Worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another, though my Reins be consumed within me. And it is remarkable, that God whom he here speaks of seeing, is intended by him Christ the Redeemer who shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth verse 25: for that in Fcclesiastes 3. 19 As the one dieth so dieth the other. It is expounded in the next verse, all go unto one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. But this doth not at all oppose Man's Resurrection out of his dust again. But that silly evasion which is very frequent with § 4 them, but God giveth it a Body as pleaseth him; It doth no way deny the resurrection of the Body, or condemn those that inquire into the manner of its being after the Resurrection. For if God be pleased to acquaint us in his word, that there shall be such a resurrection, and that it shall be then spiritual and incorruptible; it is our duty to take his word, and to understand what he is pleased to manifest to us of this great truth. Another text they frame an objection out of is 1 Cor. 19 36, 37. Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be. I answer, that the Apostle doth not call him a Fool, who inquires concerning the resurrection (which is the common charge of the Quakers from this Text) but him that doubts of the resurrection, from its seeming impossibility, and for the sameness of the body though not in all circumstances, yet that it shall be the same essence, is plain from the relative it all along, which hath for its antecedent the body of flesh and blood, wherein we now live and are visible to the bodily eyes of one another, and ver. 38. to every seed it's own body. I have met with some of them, who could not, or would not understand it of the same body, because the § 5 Apostle saith, vers. 51. We shall all be changed: From whence they conclude, it cannot be the same body. I would ask such, if they would be content to be refused their debt owing to them when young being demanded when old; or owing when well, if demanded when sick; or contracted when they were not Quakers, and demanded when Quakers? for as to the latter, they will affirm they are changed, and that from natural to spiritual. But, I suppose, in such cases, they will show more sagacity, and be content to believe that a change in a person is not the change of a person; and for all those changes, they are the same persons still, to whom the money both was and is due. I might say moreover, that if it be another, and not the same body that shall be raised again, it is a § 6 contradiction, for than it must not be a resurrection, but a creation; and who will guests so wide of the mark, that God should create another body, which was never in this world, and did either good or evil, to be rewarded or punished, in stead of the body concerned in those actions, which in the mean time shall be free among the dead, and buried in everlasting forgetfulness? Some of them have denied the resurrection of the body of Christ, and stood by their error, upon the account of his entering the room when the coors were shut, and his appearing in such forms, that his Disciples did not know him. To which I shall say only this, that Christ, as God, could convey himself how and where he pleased, and that the Disciples not knowing him, was not because he was not in the same form as before, but because their eyes were withholden, that they should not know him, Luk 24. 16. The woeful companions and consequences of the error SECT. III here charged on the Quakers, and proved to be theirs, take a few of; which are enough and great enough, to make any who are not resolved to be Atheists or Infidels, to tremble at the first motions to such a delusion. First, This tenet of the Quakers doth naturally eat out the heart and vitals of all Religion, if the dead rise not, Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die. All Religion obliges with a respect to the life to come. The opinion of no resurrection let's lose the reins to the most extreme sensuality, an Epicure is then the wisest Man. Secondly, this error renders it a mere humour, § 2 and a piece of foolish obstinacy to persist in the profession and practice of any thing Religious, when endangering our temporal concernments: If the dead rise not at all— and why stand we in jeopardy every hour? 1 Cor. 15. 29. 30. Thirdly, it utterly subverts and makes Shipwreck § 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, than 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 woeful consequences that this wicked error draws after it. Fourthly, Then the Gospel is a mere 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 satisfy 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. 'Tis 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, etc. 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 entitled, The Spirit of the Quakers, etc. § 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 frequently 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'en 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 rotten to dust, distinct from the Being of God, or that which they had not a thousand years before they were born, (i. ●.) 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 another 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 settled 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 Christ's 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 W. PEN'S Pamphlet, CALLED The Spirit of Truth Vindicated, etc. WITH A Rebuke of his Exorbitances. WHiles I was writing this Book, I met with SECT. 1 a Pamphlet of William Pen's, entitled, The Spirit of Truth Vindicated against that of Error and Envy, etc. Which is pretended to be an Answer to a malicious Libel, entitled, The Spirit of the Quakers tried, etc. I having the piece by me, I once perused it. In the general. I resented 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 diligently. But for P's. sake, I shall believe it more than possible, § 2 that a man of the highest pretences, having some more than ordinary means to deal rightly and ingenuously, may yet so far deceive my expectations, as to give the highest contradictions to them all. I am altogether ignorant of the name or person of the Author of the Piece opposed by Pen; and if he be a Socinian, as Pen affirms, I shall be far enough from vindicating him therein: but for the Piece itself, wherein Pen saith he could find neither head nor tail, I will sell my eyes and brains for two pence, if it deserve so contemptible a Character: And for the Answerer Pen, if he were not furnished with forehead▪ and tales beyond measure, his Pamphlet would have had nothing remarkable in it. I expecting next his Epistle and Preface, an orderly § 3 combating his Adversaries Charge; I find him taking up his Post in the Quakers conceited strong hold of the infallible guidance of the Spirit of God, afforded to his people; exclusive of any other means. In the debating of which, he roams and tosses to and fro, like a man in a confused troubled dream, for above thirty pages. His pretences therein lying athwart my present work, I thought meet to give some account of his Forces; especially considering him to be a man of noise, and no small prop to the Quakers Cause, in their own esteem. His Question in which he pretends to include the Quakers strength, and which he saith he is resolved to stand by as such, he states in these words. The Question stated. Whether Gods holy and unerring Spirit, is, or should SECT. TWO be the proper Judge of Truth, Rule of Faith, and Guide of Life among men, especially under the Administration of the blessed Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, or not? I affirm it, and proceed to prove it by Scripture and Reason. Considering his words foregoing, (which are too many, and too worthless to transcribe) and what he aims at in the handling of this Question, I never read one so lame and deformed in my life, come forth with such state and confidence, and such a train or rout of mediums, as deformed as itself: There is in it neither Logic nor Honesty. Certainly if he had not turned Quaker, and in that fall put all out of joint, he could not likely, after so good Nursing, have been thus lamentably crippled in his Intellect, and somewhat besides. First of all, here is a fallacy, à bene divisis, ad malè § 2 conjuncta: many Questions confounded together. Secondly, no explanation of the terms, most all of which are metaphorical or amphibious, and in that part especially affirmed, the greatest ambiguity of all. quisque est linguâ nequior, Solvans, ligantque quaestionum vincula, Per syllogismos plectiles. He tells us indeed, pag. ●7. that there is no more difference to him between a Judge, Rule and Guide, than essentially there can be in the Wisdom, Justice, and Holiness of God; he should have added, nor between truth, faith, and life among men, and then he would have showed himself a workman indeed, to have so stitched them together into one, as would admit of no distinction. I do not admire, that his Acumen cannot distinguish Essence and Subsistence, three Persons in one Divine Being and Godhead; who cannot distinguish these Attributes of God, nor these acts, with respect to men, mentioned in the Question. He is unlike to wade through a deep River, who is so often over head and ears in a shallow Dish. But these escapes are but the D●st of the Balance § 3 to what follows. The word proper in a Question, as modifying these Offices or Acts of the Spirit, is greatly improper. Proper is sometimes in opposition to figurative, sometimes in opposition to common, sometimes in opposition to meet or fit; in which sense he would be understood, it doth not fit his purpose nor principles to tell us: but this is an unworthy part of a Disputant, and becoming none but those who are resolved not to be understood. If he would assert the Quakers Tenet, he must say, it is the peculiar, sole and immediate Guide, Rule and Judge; and this is that he pleads for now and then, after his fashion, in his following arguments; and all the Quakers I have read or discoursed, plead for in plain terms. But if it had been so expressed in the Question, his Nose would have been held too hard to the Grindstone, in attempting strictly to prove it, and most would have smelled the Rankness of Quakerism. But Mr. Pen, do you deal fairly and honestly with your Adversaries, to imply in your Question, that we deny the Spirit of God to be a proper (that is one that is fit, and hath right to be a) Rule of Faith, Guide of Life, Judge of Truth? You know that we own it to be such, and that it doth both in the Conscience, and by the Scripture▪ Creation, and Providence, perform such acts, to such purposes, and that of right; only we deny that the Spirit always performs these acts without the use of the Scripture, or any external means or Ordinances; or that it doth so at any time contrary to its mind expressed in the Scripture. This you should oppose, or you do but trifle, and abuse us, and your unwary Readers. The latter part of your Question, which expresses § 4 the Administration of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (especially to countenance your Tenet) is playing at Blind-mans-buff. You should have told us who, or what you mean by Lord and Saviour: If it be understood of the Quakers Lord and Saviour, the light within every man, that is none of our Lord and Saviour. If it be understood of the Man Christ Jesus, who was of the seed of David according to the flesh; who was the Son of Mary crucified to death on the Cross of Wood by shedding his blood, and is now in his humane or man's nature united to the Godhead in one person, ascended above the visible heavens; he is none of your Saviour, and can be no more within you (personally considered) than the body of one individual man can be entirely in all the men, and women, and children in the world, and at the same time. It must be a Transubstantiation, much more ridiculous than the Papists, that must support such a fancy. It is also no less strange, that you should talk of the § 5 Gospel Administration of our Lord and Saviour, who hold nothing of a Saviour but what is Eternal à parte ante, nor any other Gospel but the light within, and its immediate Dictates; which you generally affirm was within every man from the beginning of the world. I shall not spend time and paper to show the many other absurdities in your question; I have left a Harvest for Gleaners. For the proof of your affirmation (such a blind one as it is) you produce abundance of Scriptures, which are as much to your purpose, as if you had quoted 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 mere whimsy 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 h●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 God's Spirit hath frequently striven with men, and for the ends ; and consequently, 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 mere confused thicket of impertinencies and non se●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 Arithmetic also to number 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 absurdities, dropped from their admired Dictator's: but, Quos D●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 ●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 Consequence: but that's no matter, if they will not grow one upon another, you'll 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'll rack the letter for it; but the'res no cruelty to a dead letter. B●t Mr. Pen if your conscience have any eyes § 3 I entreat 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, etc. indefinitely; and your proof speaks of the Spirits striving with wicked men. Your aim is to prove it an immediate and peculiar Teacher, etc. of God's 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 Repentance; 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 wander 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, etc. 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 showed 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, etc. This part of your quotation is not only 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 only 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 burden 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 mediate, 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, and the inspiration of the Job. 32▪ 3. Almighty giveth him understanding. I shall explain this text by another, which carries the full sense of it, and almost the same words: For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. But doth this encourage men to cast off all external means, and the use of their reason? Nothing less. It is given as an encouragement to the use of the means expressed in the four first verses, which are made conditional of being blessed with that knowledge and wisdom which comes from the lord If thou searchest. If thou triest. It will now be more easy to take in the right sense of your cited Scriptures. There is a Spirit in man, that is, a rational Soul § 2 (say some) yet knowledge and understanding doth not so depend upon its improvement, as to shut out the breathing and blessing of God from the chief efficiency. A young man (as Elihu) may attain a measure by that divine blessing, beyond the aged and more experienced. If you can prove that those holy men, who carried on that debate, of which the Book of Job is a history, did neglect the external means which the Lord afforded them, for informing their judgements about divine and spiritual concernments, upon the grounds of the inward teachings of the Spirit of God, Eris mihi magnus Apollo: and unless you can do that, your arguing from this Text is but mere trifling, beating of the air, and contending for what is granted on all hands, but nothing at all to your purpose. And it is not beside the purpose to consider that those holy eminent Saints who contended with Job, were rebuked by God; for not speaking rightly of God as Job did: and Job did not pass free without a chiding also for his miscarriages and presumptions; Job 42. verse. 7. and forward To conclude this Argument, you talk at a miserable § ●. lame rate to say; that because the inspiration of the Divine Spirit giveth understanding, therefore it is not from the strength of man's reason, memory, or utmost c●eature-ablities, that his knowledge of religious and heavenly things comes; but from the revelation and discovery of the inspiration of the Almighty. Let me tell you once for all, that if reason, memory, and humane abilities have nothing at all to do in the search, and understanding of Divine things; a mere animal, or such an idiot as Jack Adam's may know as much of the Divine and Heavenly mysteries as W. Pen: but if I should say, such a one is as able a Teacher, or Writer as you; I doubt not but you would take yourself to be not a little affronted. And it is as lame arguing to conclude, because some § 4 men had Divine inspirations, and teachings of some Divine truths, when there was not one Book of the written Word in being; (as I dare undertake to prove) and they who had those Inspirations, made use also of their reason, to know Divine things, by all external means within their reach; therefore all God's people (i. e. Quakers) have in these days, (wherein God hath blessed us with so large a portion of his written Word, or Word without us) sufficient teachings by immediate Divine Revelations, to lead them infallibly in the way that is most acceptable with the Lord, without the use of their created faculties, or any outward means, is no good consequence. The next Scripture you abuse, is Psal. 139 7. Wither SECT. V Psal. 139. 7. shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence; from whence you scribble thus: If God's unerring Spirit be so nigh, and the sense of it so certain, it must be either to reprove for evil done, or to inform uphold lead and preserve in reference to all good: now in which of the two senses it shall be taken, the presence of God's Eternal Spirit, and his being the Saints Instructor, Judge, Rule and Guide, are evidently deduceable from the words.— Rudis indigestaque moles! worse than ever Bear brought forth her Cubs! which with her licking may be brought into some shape; but your products are so defective, both in Truth, Right Reasoning, Syntax, and Sense, that it is no dis-reputation to your Adversary to be confounded by them. It is an effectual (but an impudent) course to silence all the world from opposing you, by writing such confident confused nonsense. Were it not for the sake of many who conceit your infallibility, which you are here so blindly pleading for, I would as soon abandon my time to dispute with a distracted man in his raving fits, as with W. Pen, till he come better to himself than I can find him in this Pamphlet. If Gods infinite Being, Omnipresence, Omniscience, § 2 wonderful works of Creation, all-disposing Providence, (which is the scope of the Psalm) and his Omnipresence especially, (the sense of the Text) do prove that which you produce it for, and infer from it, you have found out a way of seeing, that may tempt us to dig out our eyes, punish them for mere Cheats; and for ever hereafter commend the blind Archer for the best Marksman. We may presume that you intent this Text to § 3 prove, that all God's people are upheld, ruled, guided, etc. In reference to all good by the Spirit of God; which you say is evidently deduceable from the words. But who would have thought that such desirable considerations, and the certain sense of them, should put so holy a man as David on such expressions of going and flying from the Spirit and presence of the Lord? No doubt the presence of God is every where, in the Skies, the Seas, the Wilderness; what then? doth he therefore perform all these acts where ever he is present in his infinite Being, even where there are no intelligible Creatures? Doth he judge, inform, instruct stones, and trees, and mountains? I, and must do so too, or else he doth not answer the end of his presence being so nigh? Truly Mr. Pen, we have had more reverend thoughts of the Eternal and Omnipresent God, than to assign any thing as the end of his Being but himself. But it may be you lay your stress on the certain § 4 sense of it; and this joined to his Omnipresence, will do your work. Is the sense of it so certain to every good man? was it so to David when he so long time was tainted with a heap of impieties? Was it so with Jonah, when he fled (as he thought) from the presence of the Lord? or was it so with you when you wrote some things in this book of yours which I shall acquaint you with before I have done. If it should be granted you, that all God's people have the certain sense of it, without doubting or alteration, it would be nihil adrhombum, far from proving God's Spirit to be the peculiar Teacher of his people, and so to teach them, as to render them infallible, which is the mark you aim at. The next Scripture you produce is, Teach me 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 David's 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 Schoolmaster, 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 yourself, 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 fight against what you affirm, unless you are resolved to be quarrelsome. Alas poor man! it was by a mere 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 man's 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 shows 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? 'Tis 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 Child's Lesson which it gets by heart out of a book; which when done, you might as well call it, the Childs 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 Sp●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 'tis hard to find which you levelly at, only in the conclusion, you presume you have hit the Pin of the white. Vnis●nat cuculis, rudibus geminantibus odis. Your Arguments are generally 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 prophesy, etc. 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, etc. 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 always 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 dwelled 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 than 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 solemnised. But now the place is void of all the footsteps 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 Godhead (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 prophesyings 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, 'tis 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 God's Spirit, to the infallibility of your spirits, or of theirs who are God's people. But we are not ignorant that your principles make no distinction, much less a difference between the spirits of God's people, and the Spirit of God: which is indeed the secret bias 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 judgement, 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 err 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 Logic 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 Church's infallibility, upon your pitiful scribbling. I wonder how you came to talk of Christ's 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 completely 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 intent 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 Scriptu●e. But Mr. Pen, if Christ be Head to none but the infallible, woe 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 God's 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 error, yet those whom it teacheth directively may err, either not understanding, or not submitting to his teachings; that where the Spirit moves and strives too, though itself 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 strive 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 all his Vagaries, who hath the faculty (only to the stupidly ignorant.) Fallere mille modis, n●c non intexere frauds. In the winding up of your entangled 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. Lest 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 interwoven, that the one goes not without the other: P. 17. 6▪ Thus it is in being a Judge, Rule, and Guide, etc. 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 busy to inquire, 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 writ, to frame no Objections against yourself; 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 viuâ 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 privilege: 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'en as right, as if he had been inspired 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 wrapped 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 mere Ciphers: And if this living touch, etc. (as he believes) be without, or contrary to the Scripture, 'tis all as good and Authentic. 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 privilege, 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 viuâ 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 Hobson's 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! woe worth the days passed for so many Ages! wherein among all professed Christians, but now and then one, were in this state; and that but a little while, 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 Christ's 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? 'Tis 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 numbered among the Scriptures, as well as Paul's, or david's, 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, etc. It is further to be considered, that the words you quote out of the Scripture you pervert, and the sense also: for secret, you put secrets: for Lord, you put God. For the latter you'll say it is one and the same sense; for the Lord is God, and God is the Lord: But here you are too bold for all that, God hath more names in Scripture than one; and if the varying had nothing of significancy, the Wisdom of God would not have so expressed himself: but to put secrets for secret, mars the sense: But you'll say, not the truth. Yes verily, the truth in this place: for this Text doth not say so; and to say it saith, and the Apostle saith, what they say not, is an untruth; and if I greatly mistake not, the words that follow, and he will show them his Covenant, are interpretative of the word secret. For indeed, though the matter and Surface of the Covenant be obvious to every common intelligence, yet the necessity, worth, a considerable part of the sense; but especially the faith, interest, and well-grounded comfort of it, are the secrets which this one great secret the Covenant contains, and this Scripture speaks of, imparting to those who fear the Lord: yet it excludes not external means. And guide me by thy counsel. What is this to oppose § 8 or exclude God's guidance by his written or printed word? Have I not written to thee excellent Pro. 22. 20. things in counsels, and knowledge? Sure these were then a fit Guide, as God's means. But verily there Vitia nostra quae amamus defendimus & malumus ea excusare quam excutere, Sen. Ep. 117. appears such a Spirit of slumber, idleness, and worse, in your labours, as if you gloried in a careless or designed perverting the Scriptures, both for sense, words, and form; and to vindicate the same of G. Fox, by the Authority of your like Crimes, or greater. The Text saith, Thou shalt guide me, etc. which expresses his Faith in God's promises; but you turn it into a prayer, Guide me, etc. I had almost forgotten a main consideration in § 9 your flourish, about immediate teachings; viz. ●e meets it in print (because in print) you here insinuate Psa. 73. 20. the formal cause of our respects to the written word, or printed; to be its being in print, and that there lies the difference between you and us. Not so, good Mr. Pen, the beam in our eyes is not so big. Neither are we inclined to that piece of superstition; for than no sooner you could get your conceits in print, but immediately we must hug them, and get the second impression in our hearts without more a do: for they are in print. But if you would know the Truth and speak it of us the next time you have occasion; it is this, We value not the sense for the prints sake, but the print for the sense sake, and the blessings that attends that way of conveying the holy and revealed Will of God. And so much to correct your vapour, which may do you good; if you have so much good nature left, as is able to work with it. And now, Mr. Pen, to shut up this discourse; I shall SECT. IX show you your face in the glass of sense if you think your eyes worth the using to that end. If you had dressed yourself by the glass of the Scripture, at this coming abroad, you had certainly been free of these spots. Foul Epithets as knave, pupy, fool, rascal, loggerhead, Pag 7, Cheat. This, you say, was the language of your adversaries small Crier; but, as you call it, of a loathsome scent, so you blow it on the Author of the book within five lines▪— tryers of other men's spirits, who have so little proof of the knowledge of their own, as to be wanting in the alphabet, or first principles of common civility. This is not fair, to charge him with another's faults. But compare this Civility of yours, with your own▪ thus far this impertinent man. To all this I say Pag. III. he obt●udes an arrant lie upon our very senses. Wretched scribbler! how idle? frivolous? and how very troublesome is he with his how ridiculous remarks. If you are not guilty of the obtrusion you impute to § 2 your adversary, (and that frequently, and apparently,) I cannot read and transcribe english. But this I take the trouble of, to let the world know, that▪ W. Pen, will daub his adversary, and that Per fas, per nefas; and like one greedy of victory, Aut inveniam aut faciam. You will find him in faults, or make gross ones, and charge upon him. G. Fox he thinks, has miscited a Scripture, ergo he is Pag 4. an Impostor, and the Quakers a pack of Heretics; It is after this lofty manner of disputing, etc. I never read a more confident untruth. The Author's Argument is too large to transcribe here. Your adversary saith, some of you excel in many Pag 1. things, which are in themselves good and laudable. You say, If we excel in all things, as he confesseth; Pag. 10 which is to say, that there are but few things▪ wherein we doneed transcend all others: and you direct us to page the first, where we may prove your falsifying. Your adversary saith it is rare with him [For] to Pag. 1. use any text, and not abuse it. You say, A few Scriptures he mostly confesseth, that but one of us hath miscited; either in reference to a disorderly quotation of the words, or unsuitable application of them, you know he pretends to deal but with G. Fox's abuses. Your Adversary saith, And indeed I have found Pag 2. it very fruitless to deal with you, by way of reason and Scripture; and Page 3. I will not now deal with you, so much by Arguments drawn from reason or Scripture and depending purely on the understanding and mind▪ etc. You say, He promiseth for the future to avoid the use Pag 13. of both Scripture and reason; and direct to Page 2. I could produce in your Spirit of Truth, many more And actor calumniare aliqu●d adherebit. such falsities in point of fact, and you saying, Page 1. You carefully perused the Book; you prove yourself to be more than a mere, careless, even a wilful transgressor. But if this be your way of answering your adversaries, and throwing contempt and reproach upon § ●. them, 'tis not possible for any to escape your hardest 〈◊〉. And I am persuaded you are secure of your 〈◊〉 considering what is objected against your principles and practices of a Religious concern▪ by any of your 〈◊〉 writings, or you would not thus adventure y 〈…〉 ●●putation with them. I would desire you, if you will hereafter pretend to be 〈…〉 swearer; you would be more solid and rational, then (when you find your adversaries appealing to the light within you, to judge whether G. Fox. have rightly transcribed the texts of Scripture he pretends to use; which may be done with a little measure of natural light, and common sense) to conclude P. 77. 78. with a high rant, and charging your adversary with infatuation; that he hath given himself the lie, and and you the cause: as if thereby he acknowledged the light within you, to be so alsufficient, as you pretend, and that if a man can judge infallibly, when he reads and compairs a few written or printed lines; whether they agree in the same words: The Quakers light must needs be infallible, and indefinitely, and without any bounds, at least in Religious and Divine▪ Concerns. But above all, let me entreat you, that if your▪ § 5 Adversary give you your due, saying moreover, The light ●n every man is not to be extended to all cases whatever: as if every man that attends to the Light in him, did certainly know what is good, what is evil; right or wrong, in every case. That then you will not gratify him with such Reason and Rhetoric, as in the following words of yours: I hearty pity the man, and am really afraid he has overcharged the strength of his brain; for with me such manifest contradiction is but a smaller degree of distraction. I would fain have a rational answer from him, if he be yet capable of one; How can the Light be a Judge of good and evil, and not be so? and all within the space of ten lines. If the Light, as by him acknowledged, be a Judge of good from evil, and the contrary; then in all cases wherein good and evil, right and wrong make up the Question, the Light cannot be secluded, as wanting in ●rue judgement, because good and evil are part of the Question in the granted Proposition; deny that the Light is sufficient in any case of right and wrong, and deny all. Verily, Mr Pen, you seem to lay a plot here, to § 7 blow, at least, all the Judges off from the Bench, to make room for any Quaker, though the most witless of them all. For, if he can but discern right and wrong in any case; suppose, whether in changing a shilling, he hath wrong done him if he receive but two groats for it? and right if he receive three? he can then discern right and wrong in all cases wh●●soever; and he that shall say the contrary, you will chastise him with Sarcasms, as keen as a Badge 〈…〉 Teeth. Though I am a little pleasant (for I cannot sudare § circa nuces) pray bear with me. I assure you I have had some heart-akes for you, when I have deeply considered, that a man of your hopes should be thus left of God (I fear for pride and giddiness) as to be made a Pillar of Salt, to caution others to take heed lest they▪ fall into the same snare; which whatever conceit you may have of yourself, is too apparent. Do not affect to be a Chief of a Party; learn that Lesson by Scripture-light: It is better to hear the rebukes of the wise, (I mean Eccles. 7. 5. not myself) than for a man to hear the Song of Fools. It is great pity, that what parts God hath given you should be fettered, and smeared with the polluted Chains of the grossest delusions: expect no other, but that God will whither you in your Rationals more and more, if you will needs Deify such a poor Creature as Natural Conscience, and reduce so much within the compass of a poor Earthen defiled Vessel: But if you are resolved to go on at this rate, let the Title of your next Book be, instead of The Spirit of Truth, etc. The Spirit of Babel; and this will much more properly express the Contents of it. Note, Confusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Babel in the Hebr. comes our English word Babble. The Pretences of the Quakers to Apostolical, and immediately Divine Inspirations considered; and a Spiritual and Rational account of truly Apostolical men, and their immediate Inspirations. NExt to their Tenet of the Light within every SECT. I man to be the Christ and God essentially considered; this of its immediate Dictates (which they hold to be as purely Divine as any the Apostles had, or the Scriptures express) is the grand Pillar of their other opinions and practices, called Religious. This Pretext, according to an Author of their own (E. H. one of Antichrists Volunteers defeated, pag. 5.) gives the credit to what they affirm; And yet would fasten all these upon the Lord, so that his deceit might be of more Authority, and none might question the matter thereof, because the Lord always moveth to Truth and Righteousness. Well then, if we can prove that the Quakers are not inspired persons, but far otherwise, we shall prove them gross Impostors, abominable persons, slanderers and blasphemers of the Holy and Divine Spirit; and break that snare by which their poor deluded Proselytes are fast bound, and chained to their Dictates. But sure you will judge that they who pretend thus high, have somewhat like a Reason for what they affirm: The main Props of this opinion of themselves I shall bring to light, and examine. The first is a Prophecy of the pouring out of the § 2 Spirit, Joel 2. 28.— I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesy, etc. Let us consider how much this will befriend them: They will not say (I am persuaded) that all flesh (in the Text) is to be understood without any limitation at all; for then Sheep and Oxen must prophesy: nor yet will they allow that the Spirit shall be poured forth upon all men and women, old and young, without some limitation; for then the most wicked and sottish must be of the number; yea, those who are the keepest Adversaries to their Doctrine (among which I doubt not they will give me a room:) but if they say every one hath the Light within, which is a principle capable of this Character, if they gave heed to it, and set it at liberty: I answer, so had all men this principle ever since the world began (if what they say themselves be true) but the Prophecy saith, It shall come to pass after those days: So that it must needs be meant of a time then to come: but if it be to be understood (as without doubt it is) as well of some particular persons, and not all Universally, as of some Age or Ages, and not all Universally: They must bring some proof that they are the persons intended; or give us leave to tell them, they have herein stolen the words of the Lord, which belonged not to them, by falsely applying it to themselves: And if the Exposition which Peter the Apostle gives of this Prophecy be worth the heeding, it was fulfilled (at least in a good measure) 1600 years since; and whether the World shall ever hereafter behold the like in that part of it, I shall not assert: Act. 2. 16, 1. and so on: But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel, etc. What? They spoke with other Tongues (about fifteen in number) the wonderful works of God; and this was ushered in by Signs from heaven; A sound, as of a mighty rushing wind, Cloven Tongues like as of fire; all of which were witnesses sent by God for the confirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they preached to be Gods Messiah before promised. But let us see how near the Quakers approach to § 3 this evidence: That they began with a noise, yea, a rushing noise, we know; but that it was a sound from heaven, we are sure of the contrary: That they have Tongues, and fiery and Cloven Tongues also, we shall not deny; but these are not such Cloven Tongues, like as of fire sitting on them, and appearing to the bodily ●yes of others: Nor do they speak variety of Languages by the gift of the Holy Ghost, (though some of them have gone into foreign Countries, with a confidence they should be gifted with strange Languages, but their Spirit deceived them.) Those in the Text, in those Languages or Tongues, spoke the wonderful works of God; but the Quakers, with their Native Language, only speak the amazing delusions of Satan. The persons in the Text had and used these gifts to confirm and evidence Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ, 22 verse; and that same Jesus to be exalted by the right hand of God▪ verses 32, 33. but the Quakers improve their gifts (with all their might) to disclaim that man Christ Jesus, as having any being, and to exalt their own Christ, whom they call the light within every man: And considering also that the Prophet saith, the Spirit shall be poured out on all flesh; methinks, they of all others should claim the least share in it, who call others flesh who are not of their mind (but themselves Spiritual) and will not seem to endure any thing that hath a relation to the flesh (though sanctified by the Spirit and Grace of God) which they rebuke in suchlike terms as these, Silence all flesh before the Lord. Thus I have discharged this Text from so bad a service. The next main Prop for this mistake is, that they SECT. TWO speaking and writing by the conduct and motion of the light within them (that being with them the Spirit of God, as well as Christ the Son of God) it must needs be by Inspiration of God, and motion of the Holy Ghost. And by the same light [light within] do we discern and testify, etc. Parnel Shield of the Truth, pag. 10. Yea, they will have Moses, and all the Prophets to be inspired Divinely, as they were guided and moved by the light within. The Word said, Let there be light, Gen. 1. 4. (mark this) and the light was brought out of darkness, so the morning was come, and the day was created in the Eternal Word; and into this life (I suppose it should be light) was Moses gathered, and had his understanding opened, that he could see to the beginning— And there was no Tradition to give him the knowledge of it, but the light which shone out of darkness in his heart. Morning Watch, pag. ●. What words can express the untruths, absurdities, and blasphemies of this saying! The Word [Christ] created the Light [Christ] the first created morning is Christ, and all this together within, was the Inspiration by which Moses understood what he wrote of the Creation. Hear a third, that by the mouth of more than § 2 two Witnesses what I have said may be confirmed: John Story Short Discovery, etc. pag. 2. And though the holy Scripture without, and the Saints practices are as lights in the world; yet far be it from all true Christian men so to idolise them, [the Scripture and Saints practices] 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, from which the Scriptures were given forth, and are but branches of that holy r●ot; and as it were fruits of that heavenly Tree, viz. the appearances of God in the hearts of his people. You may see then whence their Opinion of Divine Inspiration to be the Inlet of their Notions arises; and that the Scriptures are but branches growing from the same root, viz. the light within. That I may arm those who are willing to be defended § 3 against such a strong delusion (where ever it hath once seized the belief) by Scripture-light; I shall take the pains to lay down some certain Characters of all the Apostles divinely inspired, and all their Doctrines that flowed from the Spirit of God, by way of Inspiration immediate, contained in the Scripture, and having the same Divine Authority. Characters of the Persons who were Christ's Apostles, SECT III and preached or wrote the Gospel by Inspiration of God, which we call the Scripture, or Word of God. They had an immediate Mission and Call from without them by Jesus Christ, to preach and declare the Gospel: That Call and Commission which the Apostles had, Mat. 28. 16. to the end of the Chapter, was from without; it was Christ who conversed with them, and was the object of their bodily eyes: It was that Christ whom the women held by the feet, ver. 9 and his Call (as his person) was without them; the sound of which was received by their bodily ears, in those words, ver. 18, 19 And Jesus came, and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given to me in heaven, and in earth: Go ye therefore, etc. And it is a strong Argument to prove this immediate outward Call to be essential to the Apostolical Office and Power, that when by Judas' fall the number was imperfect, he that was chosen in his room, was chosen and called by an outward call; the Spirit of God determining by a Lot Mathias to be the twelfth Apostle; as Christ did the rest by his voice without them, Acts 1. 24. and 25 verses: they had a large measure of the Spirit within, (and Mathias in particular,) but that was not sufficient. Yea the Apostle Paul, who was born out of due time, had this immediate outward Cal when Christ appeared to him in that glorious and terrible form, Acts 26. 13. At midday, O King, I saw in the way (not in the heart, or ● in the way saw) a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun; (the light in the Quakers, I am sure, would be seen by any who are not bodily blind, if it were such) shining round about me (than it could not be a light only within) and them that journeyed with me; if it had not been without him, they could not have seen it. Verse 14. I heard a Voice speaking unto me, (not within me) I am Jesus, Chap. 10. Ver. 22. Jesus of Nazareth: and I am sure the light within is not of Nazareth. These things are enough to prove the Apostles had all of them an outward Call, or a Call from Christ without them to their Ministry and Apostleship; and that the Quakers Apostleship and inspired Ministry is far from Apostolical. They were all such as had seen and conversed with § 2 the Lord Jesus in an outward visible form to the bodily senses: And that I take to be the literal sense and import of that Scripture, ● John 1. 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of Life. All these expressions cannot with any show of reason be construed of a mental or spiritual converse with Christ as an object of faith, but must be understood of the exercise of the bodily senses and faculties upon the visible humane nature of the Lord Jesus. And if it be objected, that it is said this Object was from the beginning, which his humane Nature and Body could not be; I answer, There is a communication of both Natures in the person of Christ, by which the properties and concerns of the one are attributed to the other, as I might give abundant proof of. But I will instance in one which may be sufficient; Acts 20. 28.— To feed the Church of G●d which he hath purchased with his own blaud. God is not a being made up of flesh and blood, but a pure impassable Spirit; yet Christ being God as well as man, the Blood of his Manhood is called the Blood of God. It is observable, that the Apostle John brings these proofs of his Apostleship in the front of his Epistle▪ as being necessary for obtaining Credence, to what follows. To put all out of doubt, consider what is expressed 1 Cor. 9 ch. ● ver. Am I not an Apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Some did probably object against Paul's Apostleship, because he had not seen Christ in the flesh, as all the rest of the Apostles had done: But he answers this Objection; Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? It could not be meant of seeing him by the spiritual eye of faith; for so all the Saints have seen the Lord: that is common to the weakest Babe in the faith. And where did he see him, but in the way to Damascus? Compare the forecited Text with 1 Cor. 15. 8 ver. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. He was not born a Saint, or Believer out of due time; for conversion will be in season to the end of the world: But he was born an Apostle out of due time, the Lord Jesus visibly appearing to him to that end in an extraordinary season. Thus we see that to Apostleship the sight of the person of Christ, as an outward visible object to the bodily sense, is necessary. A third distinguishing Character is, they were all § 3 enabled to work Miracles; such Miracles as were neither in secret for the place, nor doubtful for the matter. I should but waste time and paper to give instances of this; the Histories of the Evangelists, and Acts of the Apostles, will furnish you with enough. The Quakers having been conscious of the necessity of this, have some of them pretended to Miracles to credit their Apostolical pretended inspirations; but none can they prove. Some have attempted such like performances, but have failed in the undertaking; so that if we will not believe them for their bold asserting, we are like to have no better evidence: and he that is so silly as to believe on so feeble a ground, I am sure his faith stands not only below the Power and Wisdom of God, but the right reason of man. And this must needs be a humane faith (in the most sordid sense) which hath not any divine evidence for its support. We can by the Grace of God give a reason of that hope in us which is grounded on Scripture-verity, because we can prove that it is the Word of God, which was sent from him by the Messengers by him appointed, and furnished to that end; Acts 19 13. Jesus we know, and Paul we know; but who are ye? The Apostles as they were commissionated to teach § 4 all Nations, so they were furnished with Tongues and Languages in a supernatural way; by which they could speak to the understandings of any Nation or people to whom they were sent; Acts 2. 8. And how we hear every man in our own Tongue, wherein we were born. And it is remarkable, that the Apostle Paul was gifted this way above all, or most; he being the Apostle (more eminently) to the Gentile-world, and traveled more foreign Countries than any of the other, that we read of. I cannot but wonder at the blindness of the Quakers who give it as a mark to the true Ministry, (denying and disdaining all others) not to be confined to a certain place in the ordinary exercise thereof; but as the Apostles, to have no less than the Universe for their Bishopric: while it is apparent, that they do not more outstrip others in pretences of spiritual and supernatural gifts, than they come short of them in visible qualifications for the Ministerial employment, especially the knowledge of the Tongues: and who ever among them understand any Tongue, or can speak or write it, besides their Native Mother-tongue; let them say it if they dare, that they came not by it by natural and ordinary means. And if God had given them an Apostolical Call and and Gifts, surely this of Tongues would have made some sign and noise of it; for God never calleth to any Gospel-Office and work immediate, where he doth not afford abilities for the discharge of it. If the Quakers had the Gift of Tongues, who direct their pamphlets to all Princes and potentates; to every Creature, and all Nations in the World; surely some of them by that Gift would have preached their Doctrines to foreign Nations: But some have attempted it, and sped so ill, as to become dumb preachers in other Countries: Others have learned more wit than to make the adventure; their Writings are full stuffed with the bold asserting of their Apostolical Call, Gifts and Inspiration. Having given you some Characters of the Apostles, SECT. IV who were called to that Office, and were inspired by the Holy Ghost; I shall take some pains to give you an account of inspiration itself, as it is distinct in its very species and kind (not in degrees only) from those teachings and illuminations of the Spirit, which are ordinary, and common in some measure to all the Saints. The right understanding of this, will keep not only in the Controversy before us, but in many other cases that may occur. I shall (before I enter on the differences between the Spirits inspirations, and common illuminations of the Saints by the Spirit) prove that there is such a difference, and that the one is not in any degree or measure the other. All the Saints have the saving and sanctifying teaching and enlightenings of the Spirit; yet not all of them (nay, but a very few of them) had the extraordinary enlightenings of the Spirit by way of inspiration. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God? and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, 1 Cor. 3. 16. So that every Babe in Christ hath the Spirit of Christ in its saving manifestations and operations, or effects; though but a few were immediately inspired. And God hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, etc. Are all Apostles? are all Prophets? are all Teachers? 1 Cor. 12. 28, 29. The Apostle Paul doth plainly express this specifical § 3 difference, or difference, in the very kind of the Spirits teachings in and to his own person: But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgement; and I think also that I have the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 7. 40. The Apostle doth in the case there agitated, give his advice as a Saint who had the Spirit of God in the same kind of enlightening, which other Saints had, or all the Saints had; but in an eminent measure: yet this enlightening and teaching of the Spirit was not by way of immediate, and Apostolical inspiration; but by enlightening his judgement, and enabling his natural faculty of discerning to pierce into, and rightly decide the difference. For if the Apostle had received what he here expressed by Divine inspiration, or the Spirit of the Lord immediately inspiring, it would have been not only unnecessary, but very much injurious to the infallibility and authority of the Spirit of God, to have made his judgement bear a part with it. Yea, it had been an usurping on the Divine Spirit, which an exercis● of our judging faculty concerning its truth or falsehood, must needs be; where it is evident that the Spirit of God doth its part, by way of immediate inspiration; to which ready and full credit ought to be given without hesitation. Characters of Divine Apostolical▪ Inspirations, SECT. V distinguishing them from all other Instructions. That Divine inspiration whereby the Apostles and Prophets (as such) were illuminated, came in without the use of the bodily senses, as receptive o● 〈◊〉 outward Objects, and carrying them to the rational and considering faculties, to make conclusions from ●●em: and this is properly immediate Divine inspiration, But Divine Truths received by the Saints (as Saints, ordinarily) are received by such means as are Objects to the bodily senses, as significative sounds to the ear, visible Objects to the eye, etc. let the Quakers or any other show me, if they can, that the knowledge of God comes ordinarily to men by any other way without these: Faith comes by hearing (that is ordinarily; for a Babe may have the habits of saving faith, whose hearing serves little to that purpose) or by reading, & that knowledge of God which the Heathen had, or might have had, without the Word revealed handed to them as to us, it was by considering the works of God's Creation and Providence; which were the Book; wherein God wrote to them many Lessons concerning him, and their duty. So that in few words, persons being illuminated by inspiration, it was first within them; others have it first from without them; at least in the premises from whence the understanding assisted by God, infers Truths. The great Objection of the Quakers against the § 2 later Position is from this Scripture, Rom. 1. 19, 20. because that which may he known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them: for the invisible things of him, etc. The words in them in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, are either in or among them, the later sense is to me the most probable, because, that while the far greater part of the Gentile-world were so brutish, that they little regarded or understood any thing of God; but were so besotted with sensuality, that they understood and minded nothing but what might gratify a blind, and impetuous appetite: some among them, whose intellects were better employed, came by the knowledge of excellent things concerning God, which they not only taught, but left in writing as a witness to Posterity. But to put all out of doubt, the 20 verse speaks what § 3 I affirm plainly: For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, etc. Here you have an account what may be known of God by the Heathen, who had neither revelation immediate to themselves, nor handed to them from others by the Word heard, or read: viz. the eternal power and Godhead: and that which they were condemned for, ver. 26. was not for not knowing, or practising what had relation to the Mediator, or not believing the word of promise, which never was within the reach of their ears, but for their miscarriages against God the Creator, whom they might and ought to have known, and acknowledged. God is in his Essential Being the Invisible God; but he was manifest among them, How? From the Creation of the World, by the things that are made. Take another Text for the confirmation of my Exposition of this, Act. 14. 17. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from Heaven, and fruitful seasons, etc. They were not without witness concerning the Divine Being, and Attributes of Mercy and Goodness; yet if the Rain, and fruitful Seasons, were without them, the Witness was without them before it was within them. But for the Quakers pretences of their conceits of § 4 Divine things to be by immediate inspiration of the Spirit to them, when we hear of Pagans and Heathen, who never had the least notice of, or from the Scripture, talk of Jesus Christ, a Crucified Redeemer, and the Promises, and Covenant of God; we may a little listen to them: but for a people who live where the Scriptures are so much known, to talk Scripture-phrases, and Gospel-phrases; and then tell us, they had it all by Divine Revelation immediate to themselves, is as ungrateful and foolish, as for those, who were born and bred in England, and have learned their Mother-tongue from their Childhood, after 30 or 40▪ years, to affirm they learned every word of it by immediate Inspiration, or could have known it as perfectly if man had never taught them; while in the mean time those foreign Languages they never heard spoken, they can neither speak, nor understand one sentence of, if it would save the world. Again, Those Gospel-illuminations, for the matter § 5 which are by immediate inspiration, are beyond the utmost reach of our natural faculties of the mind (though sanctified) to attain by their improvement: and therefore it is said to be, 2 Tim. 3. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Divinely inspired. It is not produced in the exercise of the Rational Faculties; the Soul is purely passive or receptive therein, and is to those Illuminations as the Wax is to the Seal; according to 2 Pet. 1. 21. For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the 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 bend 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, etc. and the Doctrinal parts written by the Apostles, etc. 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 itself, without the least stain or spot of humane frailty and w●a●ness. Whereas that illumination of the Spirit, which (in the kind of it) is common to all Saints, flows in by the Lord's blessing on the improvement of their understandings and judgements, 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 Loiterer 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, etc. 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 show somewhat more than palpable error, gross ignorance, and unparallelled confidence, 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 Tides, which have their ebbings and flow, yet the Channel always plentifully supplied, but as bourns and floods 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 always 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 always 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 judgement as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. 25. But she is happier if she so abide, in my judgement, 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 employ 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 i'll 〈…〉 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 wisdom, and instature. And that it was meant of divine light, o● light in divine things, read the 46, ●7 Verses, where he is said to be disputing with the Doctors, and that his answers were astonishing to the Hearers. Fifthly, Apostolical inspirations were intended by the Spirit, for a divine and authoritative Obligation to the Faith, Order, Life, and Consciences of others, and ar● therefore rightly placed among the Scriptures, or written Word. If any man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual, let him acknowledge, that the things that I writ are the Commandments of the Lord. But the teachings of the Spirit to the Saints (as Saints) are no such obligation, any farther than they agree with, and have their authority from the mind of God revealed in the Scriptures. Sixthly, Apostolical teachings and inspirations § 11 were of authority to constitute a new order and polity of the Church; to which the former, though of divine authority (in their season) were to give place: Yea, those Doctrines and Promises so revealed to them by God, and by them declared (as such) are binding to our faith and practice; although we cannot discern any of the like import in the Scripture before written. But the teachings and illuminations (by the Spirit) of the Saints (as such) do not add to, or change any thing of the Doctrine or Order established by Christ and his Apostles; neither are they contrary to the written Word, nor in point of Doctrine beside the sense of it, or beyond it. To conclude, the teachings of the Spirit, and its § 12 motions in the Saints, which are most purely divine and immediate in our days, are the bringing to remembrance, explaining to the understanding, imprinting on the affections the matter contained in the Scripture, and directing them to understand Providences, to act in their occurrent occasions suitable to his will revealed in the Scripture, and moving their wills to ● compliance with his; but are all to be tried by the Scripture, and not the Scripture by them. Some I believe will reply, How did the Prophet's SECT. VI and Apostles▪ when they received immediate Revelations, ●n● were inspired of God, know it was no delusion? and it they knew it, being men as we are, why may not we? I d●r● not attempt to pry into the most secret ways of God▪ and undertake to give you a history and description (to the full) of the Spirits workings on the Souls of his Prophets, in conveying his will to them, and satisfying their judgements and Consciences that they were the inspirations of God. Yet I shall say so much of them as may satisfy any willing Reader to be informed, that they had more to evince it than any have now; and we have enough to convince us that they were inspired. First, Whoever they were that were givers forth § 2 of the Law, or the Covenants in their first promulgation, had the Testimonies of God for them, by God's outward Call to that as their special Office, and his promise of guidance in the discharge thereof, signs and wonders wrought either by God immediately, or by their hands; as the Apostles, Jesus Christ, M●ses. Secondly, All the Prophets have a Testimony of their being inspired of God, by Miracles which they wrought, or by the quoting Scripture out of the Books written by them, or bearing their names (in the New Testament) by Christ, or his Apostles. Thirdly, For the Historical part, which hath a § 3 respect to the things done within their knowledge as men, the Writers of that, or those parts of the Scripture, were either under the Testimonies of Miracles, or were by some express Testimony of God rendered holy men; and being so qualified, they would not write more than they knew, and could not easily be mistaken in matter of fact; and being Scripture, is said by Paul to be of Divine inspiration. Fourthly, All those Books of the Old Testament, § 4 out of which somewhat is not quoted in the New as Scriptuer, were received as Scripture by the Jews, and then Church of God, and that in the time of many Prophets, to whom Divine Testimony hath been given; and it cannot with any show of Reason be supposed, that those Writings should be falsely fathered on God, or taken for Authentic Scripture, and the Prophets not discover and reprove it: whereas far less heinous evils than that would have been, were often the subject▪ matter of their sharp reprehensions. Let any Quaker, or other, give me or themselves § 5 the like satisfaction of their being immediately inspired, and they shall have my leave to hold such an Opinion of it. But for those inspirations which, they say, many had before the Scriptures were written, the mention of their time will give full satisfaction, it will be a poor Argument to prove men are now inspired as they, considering they had not the revealed written Word at all, and we have i● s● f●ll 〈…〉 necessary for any to know, are therein included, and thereby expressed. The second thing I must reply to is, what the Quakers § 6 frequently object, viz. That we make the Scripture the Judge of the Spirit, whereas the Spirit gave forth the Scriptures. I answer, this is for want of judgement in the Objectors. Far be it from us to bring the to-be-adored Spirit of God to any man's Bar for judgement to be passed on it, or any thing that is his immediate work or word: All we profess in this matter, to make the Scripture a Judge or Determiner of, is, whether this or that be the mind of the Spirit or no? but if once it appear to be the voice and mind of the Spirit, we profess it our duty to reverence and submit to it. And we being certain that the holy Scriptures were given forth from God, and that God is not opposite to himself; we conclude, that what is contrary to the Scripture, cannot be the Word of the Spirit; because then the Spirit should bear witness against itself, and the word of the Spirit would be contrary to the word of the Spirit. And moreover, if any shall pretend to abolish (by § 7 the Authority or inspiration of the Spirit) those Ordinances and Institutions which were settled by Christ, or Christ in his Apostles; it would be unreasonable to credit them, without the same Testimonials (such Miracles as they wrought) by which they were erected. But the Quakers are far enough from showing such a zeal for their pretended Ministry and Order. And further, we are obliged not to receive another Gospel (and that by the Holy Spirit) though an Angel from Heaven should preach it: and we are warned not to believe any other as Truth Divine against it, though many wonders should be wrought for confirmation. The third thing I must reply to is, that our knowledge § 8 of the mind of God by the Scriptures, is uncertain. I answer: If you mean a knowledge of all God's mind, you are not to expect it; if you mean all that is there contained, it is not necessary; and you may go to Heaven, and do your duty, without such a vast knowledge; and if you 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 Christ's 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 newborn 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 entreat 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 knowledge of the mind of the Spirit is uncertain, so far as it is necessary for our living in an acceptable m●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 Lord's 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 merely 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 ensnaring 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 Errors with too many, and by degrees so vitiate their Principles, that in a short time they are prepared to embrace the grossest Errors 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 falsehoods; and also of their new-coined Words and Phrases, which are more peculiar to their Sect and Notions. I dispose them Alphabetically, for their more easy 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 dwelled 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 ourselves 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 Adam's 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 Likeness, but the selfsame in his Being and Essence. Christ's 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 enlightened 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 sentencing 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 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 terror 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 piercing 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 within and in the Faith of its being Christ and the Rule. Teaching or doing falsely. 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 merely 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 outward man, as a maintenance or reward for preaching, though no bargain be made, yea though such who receive it would preach, i● they had never a penny reward in this world from those they preach to. Holiness. Obedience to the light within, and that without any failing. The woman's 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. JESUS. 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. Enchantments, Bewitchings. A being persuaded and established by Reason and Scripture, but especially, if humane Art● 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 Judgement, day of Judgement. 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 itself, 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 Judgement, 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 dwelled 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 judgement and understanding on holy and divine Objects, but a stillness 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 mere 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 choosing, 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 sensated in the experience. An allegorising 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 Kingdom of God cometh not with observation. The light within, and its prevalency (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 Lordsday; 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. Offerings 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. God's Offspring. 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. Springing 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 Putskie 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-pleas●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, etc. but also whatever Customs they dislike and decline; as Cuffs, Ribbons, putting off the Hat, signs of respect, etc. 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 terror, or peace and joy. The pride of Man. A not submitting to their light; and especially receiving tokens of respect, and wearing Ribbons, 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 World's 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. Prophesying falsely. How true soever in itself, 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 Blood 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. Quickened 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 judgement 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. Refresh 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 spoke. 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. Righteousness 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. Slaying the Witness 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. Stolen words. All that we have out of the Scriptures, and not by immediate inspiration to ourselves. In the Stillness. 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 itself 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. Christ's 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. Testify 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. Thiefs 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: Ministering 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 horror 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) a●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 falsely spoken. Witnessing to the Truth. Declaring, or suffering for the light within, and its dictates. V The flesh of the Veil. The Body wherein Christ dwelled 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 Veil 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 dwelled: also our bodies. Victory over the devil, sin, flesh world. Perfection in this life, resulting from the travail of the light within. In the Unbelief. Not acknowledging the light within to be the only Teacher and Saviour, whatever the faith and life otherwise may be. The Uncircumcised and . All that are not Quakers. . The same. Unlearned, and without Understanding. 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 than 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 listening and attentive to the inward teachings, as not either to let slip any of its motions, or reject them. Blind Watchmen. 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 breaking's 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 practised from the written Word. Will of God. The Commands from within, from the light. Will of Man, Will of the Flesh. All that we choose 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 testify 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 choose. 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 judge and terrors 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 CONCLUSION. I Have not in this Treatise dealt with the more minute and light Errors and Absurdities of the Quakers, because they would amount to too large a Volume for this Subject; and I love not to Tithe 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, Pedantic 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 Judgements are not in § 2 captivity to the silliest Errors, will conclude with me, that Quakerism is no Christianity, yea, Not consistent with Christianity; being no more capable of dwelling together in one Breast, than light and darkness in their absolute and supreme Dominion. I am persuaded 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 ourselves 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 itself, 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 saved, and receives life; and in this state we stand, not in any Opinion, but in a feeling of life and salvation; for all Opinions are in notions and apprehensions, in which none feels the Life and Salvation in Christ, but what they apprehend in the natural part, unto that they give up their own belief, and so errs from the life in themselves, and neither believes unto Salvation, nor receives Eternal Life. Smith Prim. p. 61. I shall not trouble you with an explanation of these uncouth phrases: you may turn to the Key, and resolve yourselves. Sure, if this be the way to understand Truths, we may cashier our understandings, and judge the most Sensual to have most of the Spirit. Mr. Pen is much of the same mind. He calls those disputing from the Scriptures, Dry § 6 cavilling Letter-mongers. Penington is a little ingenious, when he saith in his Questions concerning Unity, pag. 4. Wherein I confess my heart exceedingly despised them, and cannot wonder that any wise man did, or doth yet despise them. Speaking of the way the Quakers have to get Proselytes, being without Rational demonstrations. This is far from the Apostles Doctrine and Practice, who demonstrated by Reason that Jesus was the Christ; who reasoned with Faelix, and exhorts to be ready to give a Reason of the hope that is in us, to every one that shall ask us. I expect some Replies to my Book agreeable to § 7 this irrational humour: But I desire those who shall think fit to undertake an Answer, that they would not play the Rats, and gnaw here and there a scrap, leaving the grand designs and demonstrations of it untouched. I do assure them, I am not arrived yet in my own Opinion to such a perfection, but I am willing to learn from (even) my Adversary: although I must likewise acknowledge, I am not very big with expectation from the Quakers power of convincing: But if they shall, instead of answering, fill some sheets with personal reproaches and reflections, which do not render the things asserted more or less true; I bless God, I am too much above them to be moved, and have cast up my accounts of those Costs before I began this Building. If they shall deny what I charge them with in my Book, they must discard their Authors I quote, or prove I give not the sense of their words I shall be glad of the former, and I fear not the latter. I desire the Quakers from henceforth, if they will § 8 maintain Moral Honesty, even such as many Heathens were possessed of, that they would no more call themselves Christians, until they fall under another Conversion: for it is gross Hypocrisy and Cheating, if not of themselves, yet of others: And although some of them have scorned my prayers, and told me they hated I should pray for them; I shall love them with so much benevolence, as to beg of God to convince them of the Truth, by this or what means he pleaseth, that they may not only be loved of the truly good with good will, but also delight; but above all, that they may glorify God on Earth in a better way, and enjoy God in Heaven to a greater blessedness, than their Principles express. I have done. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another, Gal. 6. 4. FINIS. AN APPENDIX TO Quakerism no Christianity. Wherein is published, The Quakers Canons, and Constitutions for Ecclesiastical Censures and Discipline, with an Account of their Symbolising with Rome therein, and in other matters of Order and Polity. Also a Catalogue of their Principal Errors and Blasphemies. IT hath been the common Opinion of those who are unacquainted with the Quakers, That they are a People altogether Confused, as well in other things as their Principles; But Satan the great Enemy to Mankind, and Master of Error, is not so sottish as to decline all Polity and Order, where he designs to advance his Kingdom. And therefore wherever he subverts the Laws and Ordinances of Christ, he sets up some of his own in their room and stead; well knowing, that Unity in Evil is its Strength; and any Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. And although the known Principles of the Quakers was, and is, That every man ought to be guided by the Light within himself as sufficient; yet as the Reason of others, so their own Experience have taught them, That such a Guide, without another to guide and restrain that, tends to Distraction and Confusion: And therefore they have erected their Canons and Constitutions. What they are in part, and how imposed, may be seen in this following Account; which was conveyed to me out of their Registry by sure hands, and which I have given you entire, to prevent all pretences of unfair citing. That this Testimony is no feigned thing, but really what it pretends to be, W. Penn hath given sufficient evidence. I cited a few lines out of it in my Vindication of Quakerism no Christianity, in answer to Penn. He finding by that little shred, that I had gotten the whole piece into my hands, expresses his discontent in these words, If such inoffensive, nay Christian and necessary Resolves, for the right Disciplining the Church of Christ in the ways of Peace and Righteousness, cannot escape John Faldo's cruel hands; instead of rendering us Papists, I shall not wonder if from a Nonconforming Priest, he turns a Spanish Inquisitor, or any thing else that can be worse, Penn's rejoinder to Faldo, p. 177. A Testimony from the Brethren, who were met together at London, in the third month, 1666. to be communicated to the faithful Friends and Elders in the Countries; by them to be read in their several Meetings, and kept as a Testimony among them. WE your Friends and Brethren, whom God hath called to labour and watch for the Eternal good of your Souls: At the time aforesaid, being through the Lord's good hand, who hath preserved us at liberty, met together in his Na●e and Fear, were by the Operation of the Spirit of Truth, brought into a serious Consideration of this present state of the Church of God; which in the day of her return out of the Wilderness, hath not only many open, but some Covert- Enemies to Conflict against; who are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities, and despise Government: without which we are sensible our Societies and Fellowship cannot be kept holy and inviolable. Therefore as God hath put it into our hearts, we do communicate these things following unto you; who are turned from darkness to light, and profess with us in the Glorious Gospel throughout Nations and Countries: Wherein we have traveled, as well for a Testimony against the unruly, as to establish and confirm them, unto whom it is given to believe the Truth; which is unto us very precious, as we believe it is also unto you, who in love have received ●t, and understood the Principles, and felt the Virtue and Operation of it. In which our 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 joined 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 testify, That neither that Spirit, nor such as are joined to it, aught 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 increase of whose Kingdom and Government there shall be no end. 2. We do declare and testify, That that Spirit, and those that are joined to it, who stand not in Unity with the Ministry and Body of Friends; that are constant and steadfast 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 judgement to be any more regarded by Friends, than the judgement 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 judge matters and things that differ, and their judgement which is so given therein, aught to stand good and valued among Friends; though it be kicked against and disapproved by them, who have degenerated as aforesaid. And we do further declare and testify, 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 judgement 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 hardened, 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 testify, That the Church, with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, have power (without the assent of such as descent from their Doctrine and Practices) to hear and determine the same. If any pretend to be of us, and in case of Controversy, will not admit to be tried by the Church of Christ Jesus, nor submit to the judgement given by the Spirit of Truth in the Elders and Members of the same, but kick against their judgement, as only the judgement 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 testify in the Name of the Lord (if that judgement 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 erred from the Truth, persisting therein presumptuously, are joined 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 steadfast 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 ministering, 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) than 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 judge them unfit for the Work of God's Ministry, whereof they have rendered themselves unworthy; and so put a stop to their proceed therein. And if they submit not to the judgement of the Spirit of Christ in his people, then ought they publicly 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 scandalising 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 public 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 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 Public 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 Household 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 sat 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 Wisemen, 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 farnsworth, Alexander Parker, George Whitehead, Josiah Coale, John Whitehead, Thomas Lo, Stephen Crispe, Thomas Green. John Moon, 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 proselyte 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, etc. and that this Light is sufficient to lead into the knowledge of all Truth, and to move men by its Power, to the complete 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, etc. But the practices which suited to this Principle, as it rendered 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, entitled, THE SPIRIT OF THE HAT: Muclow In which may be seen the main Grounds of difference between the Ruling and Nonconforming Quakers, and as well penned 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-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 Privileges that the Scriptures obtain not with them. 2. That the Subscribers, and those others who joined 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 judgement given by them, called, The judgement of the Body. 5. That although they have (with their Authors the Romists and Jesuits) 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 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 trial 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 thorough 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 suchlike 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 descent from the Ruling party, are as little endured, as Dissenters among any whom they charge with Antichristianity and Oppression. And upon persisting in their Nonconformity 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 Universal Spirit. 13. That the Counsel given by the leading Quakers, is by them said to be the Counsel of the Wisemen and the Prophets. 14. The Authoritative and Magisterial stile in which they express these Canons, scil. We declare and testify; We testify 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 'tis 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 Jesuit 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 hardened 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, etc. 2 Pet. 2. 19, etc. In my Book entitled, 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 chief a relation to their Doctrines and Enthusiasm. I shall now add some remarkable parts of their Discipline, Order, and Rule, wherein they symbolise 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 Heretic? 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 acknowledge 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 Unity 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 Conful●s, and then testify 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 man's particular Opinion do lift up itself 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 Implicit Faith, the Quakers are no way inferior 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. 'Tis but removing the invisible Sacrifice from the dark and close corner within, to the Altar in some visible sign, 'tis 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 signify 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 Jesuits 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) than 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 judgement. 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 Christ's 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 thorough Quakers: And in the quality of their Idol-Saints; for in the room of S. Peter, Paul, the Virgin Mary▪ are William, George, etc. 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 particular instances, in which George Fox equals or outdoes the Pope, in his Papal Arrogance and Blasphemy. I could produce woeful 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 thorough 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 increase 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 Christ's 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 err, wherein he acts as Pope? 'Tis 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 Unity and Concord, while the Heretics are at continual Discord? 'Tis 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 'tis 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 increase of whose Kingdom, etc. So that it seems by comparing Notes, That George Fox is the Power of God that must keep them under; and 'tis he who is the Witness that must be subjected to, before they are readmitted to Office or Membership: Which well agrees with the Pope of Rome, who assumes to himself the power of Christ, as his Vicar and Vicegerent; and makes those who submit not to his Yoke, feel the weight of his Loins, 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 Universal 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 Bedstaff, Fire-shovels, Saw, Fork, Compasses, Andirons, Harrow, Blow, or any such thing. And all Friends, every where, Admonish one another, young and old, that ye do not run after the World's 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-scarves, 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 Universality 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, Barbados, 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, entitled, 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 suchlike 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 Outcry 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 Heretics 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 Nonsense, 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 Sunbeams. 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 fallen, to confess themselves Transgressor's; which is from a spirit of Pride and Folly. And indeed, considering what height of Pride, and depth of Error, Folly and Ignorance, with contempt of their Betters, do meet together in these Monuments of Delusion, I wonder not that, AS PROUDLY 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 downright Popery, in the present posture of the Quakers Religion, as may render it no great strain to jump into it, 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 Universal Spirit; which seems to be no other than the somuch 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 straitened, 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 Gulf unpassable? And if many of the more devout sort of Quakers should be loath 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 Catholics 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 Errors 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 Prophet's words, etc. and runs into other men's 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 ourselves 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 dwelled 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 Virtues, although they believed not on Jesus the Son of Mary, nor have any knowledge 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 committed 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, but● 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 ministering. That our Ministers, who receive Maintenance for their work, are Hirelings, Thiefs, and Robbers. That those who preach from the Scriptures, taking their Sermons from thence, steal the Prophet's 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 public Prayer, nor beg pardon for themselves. They pray not Ministerially in their public Assemblies, as the mouths of others; but always in the singular number, scil. I pray, etc. 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, etc. 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 Universal 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, etc. See the Letter to him from Coal. This man is a Sphere above any of the rest. Concerning Judgement, Heaven, and Hell, and the Resurrection. All these things they hold to be within, in the time of this life. The Day of Judgement 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, 'tis 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 quickened 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.