THE SNAKE in the Grass: OR, SATAN Transformed into An Angel of Light. Discovering the Deep and Unsuspected Subtlety which is Couched under the Pretended Simplicity of many of the Principal Leaders of those People called QUAKERS. A People that provoketh me to anger continually to my face— Which say, stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am Holier than thou: These are a smoke in my Nose, a Fire that burneth all the day, Isai. 65.3, 5. If the Light that is in thee be Darkness; How great is that Darkness! Matth. 6.23. London, Printed for Charles Brome, at the Gun at the West End of St. Paul's, 1696. An ADVERTISEMENT to the Reader. THE Preface should have been called, The First Part of this Book; which would have prevented the Objection of a Porch bigger than the House. But several Sheets being Printed, before the mistake was discovered, it was too late to rectify it. This First Part is mostly Historical, relating to the Arguments which are Debated in the Book; and Digested into 15 Paragraphs, of which I have added an Index, as of the Sections in the Book. I could say more in Excuse of the Length, if that would not make it Longer. I shall only desire the Reader, before he enters upon the Book, to correct the following Erratas, because many of them do much interrupt the sense. The Contents of the Preface, or First Part. 1. A Fresh Instance of the Quaker Church Authority, in the Excommunication of George Keith, p. 3. 2. That the Present Quakers, as well as those of former times, do pretend to Immediate Revelation, and the Spirit of Prophecy, p. 7. 3. That the Quakers are False Prophets and Conjurers, proved by undeniable Consequence from the words of George Fox, p. 16. 4. That their extraordinary Quaking and Shaking, did proceed from this sort of Possession; of which wonderful Instances are given, p. 19 5. What sort of Enthusiasm or Inspiration is owned by the Church of England, viz. That of the Saving Graces. And the Proud and Uncharitable Arrogance of the Quakers in assuming this only to themselves, p. 46. 6. The Enthusiasm or Inspiration of Miraculous Gifts, not to be Coveted, or Prayed for. False Pretending to them no less than Blasphemy, p. 62. Some Prophecies Mr. Penn mentions, are considered, particularly as to the Fire of London, p. 72. 7. A just Comparison between Fox, Muggleton, and Oliver's Porter; wherein Fox's own Account, how he came by his Inspiration, p 74. 8. The Quakers Now stifling of their Traitorous Prophecies against K. Charles I. and in behalf of Oliver, and the Rump, p. 97. And likewise, as to their Pretended Principle against Fight, p. 100 9 The Authority of their Prophets to overturn Government, p. 113. 10. An Instance of this in the Case of Tithes; wherein tho' they Plead for Liberty of Conscience to themselves, yet they allow it not to those of their own Communion, p. 116. 11. The Quakers Answer to Francis Bugg's Impeachment, upon this Head, considered, p. 121. 12. A short Digression concerning the Original and Divine Right of Tithes, p. 171. 13. That the Quakers are obliged, by their Stated Discipline, to Condemn their False Prophets, p. 196. 14. Some Objections obviated, and Proofs further enforced, p. 200. 15. That no Personal Prejudice has moved the Author, in this Controversy; with a necessary Caution to the Quakers, in case they shall think fit to Answer this Book; wherein notice is taken of their Shuffling Answer to the Quaeres which were given in to their last Yearly Meeting, the 17th of May, 1695. the same day that they Excommunicated George Keith, p. 346. The Sections of the Second Part. 1. THE Quaker-Principles concerning Government. Page. 13. 2. As to their making use of the Carnal Weapon, or Force of Arms. Page. 14. 3. That the Popish Emissaries first set up Quakerism in England. Page. 17. 4. Their Damning all the World but themselves. Page. 21. 5. Their Wrathful and Proud Spirit. Page. 28. 6. Their Aspiring to an Equality with God. Page. 51. 7. Their making their Soul a Part of God. Page. 53. 8. Their Pretence to a Sinless Perfection. Page. 61. 9 To Immediate Revelation. Page. 63. 10. To Infallibility. Page. 66. 11. Concerning the Authority of the Holy Scriptures. Page. 142. 12. Concerning their Light within; wherein of their Idolatry. Page. 171. 13. Of the Resurrection of the Body. Page. 182. 14. Of the Sacraments. Page. 199. 15. Of the Satisfaction of Christ. Page. 211. 16. Of the Holy Trinity. Page. 218. 17. Of the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ. Page. 226. 18. Some Remarks upon George Whitehead 's Creed, as a Conclusion to the whole. Page. 243. ERRATA. FOr Preface, read First Part; In which, page 48. line 2.3. for after, r. in Lent, p. 68 l. 4. r. Abilities, p. 108. for from r. for, p. 157. for All r. Both, p. 200. l. 17. r. so far. p. 271. l. 16.17. r. p. 78.79. p. 288. l. 16. r. Expeditious, p. 343. l. 2. for or r. of, p. 344. l. 8. r. without us, in the Margin, for p. p. r. p. 1. p. 348. l. 8. for to r. two, p. 351. l. 9 In the Second Part. PAge 12. line 10. for as read at. p. 19 l. 7. for Vaughan r. Vaughton, l. 8. for was r. is now, l. 10. r. and Williaem Southby, p. 25. ult. for Unity r. Enmity, p. 28. l. 10. for Watchful r. Wrathful, l. 14. for heal r. treat, l. 16. for Damnation, r. Damned folks, p. 34 l. 13. for Muggleton r. Mucklow, p. 40. l. 17. r. ourselves, p. 55. l. 9 for 19 r. 91. p. 60. l. 3. these words (but in Equality) must be in a Parethesis, as here; l. 14. deal any, p. 64. l. 12. for 221. r. 321. p. 66. l. 5. for with r. which, p. 68 l. 10. for Peter r. the Pope, p. 79. ult. for Episties, r. Epitheis. p. 83. l. 11. r. Omniscience, p. 87. penult. for Gentle r. Genteel, p. 90. l. 4. for Char. r. Christopher, p. 162. l. 4. r. Devil-Driven, p. 171. l. 8. for it be, r. be it, p. 173. for their r. there, p. 179 [l. 17. r. Idolatrous, p. 183. l. 14. for 2dly r. For; p. 191. l. 8. r. Relation to, p. 194. penult. for the r. their, p. 195. l. 12.13. for be useless, r. he uses, p. 207. l. ult. for them r. these Quakers. p. 213. l. 8.9. for Converted r. Conceited, p. 214. l. ult. for Exalts r. Exacts, p. 218. l. 12. r. in Latin, p. 231. penult. for perishing r. Existing, p. 232. l. 2. for life r. like, p. 234. l. 11. for painting r. pointing. p. 262. l. 19 for Contradiction r. Contradistinction, p. 270. l. 6. for Body r. Bodily. THE PREFACE. SInce the following Sheets, or most of them, were sent to the Press, a new occasion has offered, whereby several of the Charges therein Exhibited against the Quakers, are farther Explained and Confirmed. 1. I mean their last yearly Meeting in Grace-Church-street, London, in Whitsun-week, 1695. In this their General Assembly they formally Excommunicated George Keith hereafter mentioned. Of which he has given us a full Account in Print, Entitled, The Pretended Yearly Meeting of the Quakers, their Nameless Bull of Excommunication given forth against G. Keith, etc. And in another Treatise, which bears this Title, The True Copy of a Paper given in to the Yearly Meeting of the People called Quakers— the 15th day of the 3d Month, 1695. with a Brief Narrative of the most material Passages of Discourse betwixt George Whitehead, Charles Marshal, and George Keith, the said day, etc. Together with a short List of some of the Vile and Gross Errors of George Whitehead, john Whitehead, William Penn, etc. Both these are Printed for R. Levis, 1695. and the Bull of Excommunication is inserted Verbatim, in the first of these Accounts. As to the Justice or Injustice of the said Bull, I refer the Reader to these two short Treatises . But the use I have to make of it, is to show the Authority which their Church or Meetings do assume over the Light within Particular Persons; which was the great Pretence upon which the Quakers first set up, and decried all Church-Authority as Carnal and Antichristian. That is (as they have done the Power of the Sword) till it come into their own Hands. See Sect. II. p. 14. This Grace-Church-street Excommunication may be added to the Proceed against G. Keith in Pensilvania, to the Barbadoss Judgement, and other Instances of their Church-Authority over Particular Persons, which are mentioned at the end of Sect. X. from p. 118. But there is another thing of a more astonishing Nature. You will see Sect. IX. of the Ancient Pretence of the Quakers to Immediate Revelation, in the same Degree that the Prophets and Apostles had. And, as a Consequence of this, it is shown Sect. X. how they have aspired to Infallibility, and that not only of their Church (as they call it) but in each of their Particular Persons. And Hence they have taken upon them to pronounce Prophecies, and Curses (as all their Prophecies, that I have met with, are) in the same Style with the Holy Prophets, Thus saith the Lord. This is from the Mouth of the Lord etc., Several of which Prophecies thus solemnly Denounced, have proved Errand Lies, as is shown from Remarkable Instances. 2. Now I did really think that the Present Quakers were ashamed of these Gross Delusions, so Palpably Detected, past all Contradiction: Tho' they would not own it, nor Publicly Censure these False Prophets of theirs, because of overthrowing their Foundation, the pretended Sanctity of these their Leaders. And this was the reason that I thought it highly useful to lay open their Horrid Deceit, for this purpose chief, That I might, by this bring our Present Quakers under that Happy Necessity, as I thought, of Disowning the Mad Enthusiasm of these their Adored Guides; and thereby persuade them to return to the Sobriety of Religion; in Odium to which, as a Carnal and Spiritless Dispensation, they had been Betrayed by these Pharisaical Pretenders, to quit the Communion of a Regularly Constituted, and Apostolical Church. But (Alas!) the Issue has quite deceived my Expectations; for our Present Obstinate Quakers not only refuse to be brought to disown their own False Prophets (though they cannot deny the Instances wherein they are proved to be such) but do still Fearlessly go on, and pretend themselves to the same Extraordinary Commission, of Immediate Divine Revelation; and, thereby a Right to affix God's Seal, Thus saith the Lord, to whatever their Rage, their Malice, or their Folly shall suggest. If they think these too hard words, they shall have harder yet: For this matter cannot be compounded. No! This is nothing short of Blasphemy; Rank, wild Blasphemy! And the Honour of God must take place of any Respect to Men (and I have a great deal for some, who are too much herein concerned) therefore I must, I cannot help it, yea Woe to me if I do it not, I must freely and openly Rebuke this Proud Blasphemous Spirit, which Seduces the Servants of God, and speaks to them in the Name of the Lord, whereby they are brought to Worship It— What is That? What is It, which pretends to be God, and is not? Even That which Inspires Men to think what It Dictates, to be the Immediate Revelation of God Himself; and Emboldens them to affix to it, Thus saith the Lord. This is the Prince of the Spirits of Delusion; and this Prince they Worship (tho' Ignorantly) for God, who mistake his Inspirations for God's. Now I am to tell the Reader, That the same day month after G. Keith was Excommunicated, as abovesaid, George Whitehead (one of the Quaker Metropolitans) thought not that Condemnation sufficient; but pursued him with his Prophetical Curse, in the following words. Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast poured out great Contempt and Reproach upon My Servants and People, I will assuredly pour out and bring great Contempt and Confusion upon Thee. This is signed, George Whitehead, and Dated the 17th of the 4th Month (that is June, 1695.) and was sent to G. Keith. But Copies of ●t were likewise given out amongst the Friends, that they might admire these Prophetical Gifts; and if any thing infortunate should, in all G. Keith●s Life-time, befall him, that it might certainly be esteemed as the Consequence of his Curse; and G. Whitehead be bought as much a Prophet, and to have spoken from the Mouth of the Lord, as certainly as ever Jeremiah foretold the Destruction of Jerusalem, and the Seventy years' Captivity. But I proceed to a Man of much greater Consideration. It is told at the end of Sect. 10. from p. 136. how the otherwise highly-valuable Mr. Penn, pronounced a Sentence of Apostasy against George Keith In the Name of the Lord. It is true this was not taking upon him the Gift of Prophecy, like G. Whitehead; but it was delivering his own Judgement as the Positive and Infallible Oracles of God. And if G. Keith does tell us truth (if not, he is in a Man's Hands, that can, and will surely correct him) in the second of his Books , The true Copy, etc. p. 14. Mr. Penn did own before the Yearly Meeting, That the Glorious Power of God, which he felt; did so Transport him, that he was carried beyond himself, and knew not whether he was sitting, standing, or kneeling, when he Pronounced that Sentence. This was like St. Paul 's whether in the Body or out of the Body, he could not tell— Good God How great is the force of this Mad Spirit of Enthusiasm! That a Man of Mr. Penn's Known Sense and Abilities should not be able to distinguish betwixt the violent Transports of Passion, and the Immediate Inspiration of the Holy Ghost! O that our Religion, and the whole Scriptures should be thus exposed to lose and Atheistical Wits, when they shall compare the Inspirations of the Holy Prophets and Apostles with these of W. Penn, G. Whitehead, etc. and turn both alike into Ridicule! O that the time were come, when these Quakers should at last bethink themselves of this horrid Scandal they have given to Christianity! at least, that Mr. Penn, who has a stock of Breeding, and Excellent Natural Parts (too good to be thus Employed) may Rescue himself from that Herd of Zealots, sotishly possessed even to Blasphemy! And he is thus far towards it (which, to a Man of his Reason, I reckon a great way) that he must either make out his own Inspirations to be from God, in as High a Degree as those which were given to the Prophets and Apostles, or otherwise that he has no Authority to Inscribe the Name of God upon them, as They did. Nay, he must not only Defend his own Works, but he must likewise Justify all the False Lying Prophecies hereafter told; or otherwise he must Un-herd, and be no longer of Them, who dare Father the Lies and Deliriums of their own Brain upon the Holy Spirit of God. He must Answer one of their own Party, John Penniman, who has Printed the Paper he gave in to their last Yearly Meeting, Entitled, A few words of Moment to be Imparted to this Yearly Meeting (at London, 1695.) of the People called Quakers. And indeed they are Words of Moment, and to be duly considered by the Quakers. They are grounded upon two Quotations out of George Fox, as follows. 3. All you that speak and not from the Mouth of the Lord, are False Prophets. G. Fox's Answer to the Westmoreland Pet. p. 5. 1653. They are Conjurers and Diviners, and their Preaching is from Conjuration that is not spoken from the mouth of the Lord. George Fox 's Saul's Errand, etc. p. 7. 1654. Now the Advantage which these Quotations do afford, is, to show from the words of this Great Prophet, that unless all that he has said of his own, and all the Quakers Infallibility; of their Sinless Perfection, Equal with God, not only in Quality, but in Equality; of their Immediate Revelation in the same Degree as the Prophets and Apostles; of their Souls being of one Substance, and Person with God; if all this, and a great deal more which is shown in the following Sections be not from the Mouth of the Lord, then, by G. Fox's own Confession, he was a False Prophet and a Diviner. But all that knew him, or have taken the pains but to read three lines of his Works, will free him from being a Conjurer. If all the Black-mouthed and Hellish Venom mentioned Sect. V was not spoken from the Mouth of the Lord, than were all these Quakers, Conjurers, by G. Fox's Rule. If all the Lying Prophecies mentioned Sect. X. of Solomon Eccles, the Glover's Prophets, etc. were not from the Mouth of the Lord, than were these Conjurers instead of Prophets. If all the False and Foolish miracles which G. Fox tells of himself, in his Journal, Printed 1694. which exceed the Foppery of a Popish Legend, if all these were not from God, then was he, and those who recommended that Journal, all Conjurers. If G. Whitehead cannot, by some better Miracles than these, vouch that the Curse and Prophecy above-told, which he sent to G. Keith, came from the Mouth of the Lord, then is G. Whitehead to be esteemed no better than a Conjurer. Et sic de Caeteris— In short, if the Quakers cannot prove all their Books and Preach (many of which none of sense among themselves can deny to be thick larded with gross Ignorance, and much nonsense) if all and every scrap and tittle of these be not from the Mouth of the Lord, then, by Sentence of G. Fox himself, all is Conjuration. 4. And a visible effect of this was that extraordinary shaking and quaking, like Fits of Convulsion, which these Quakers, at the first, either acted, or like the Heathen Priests of old, were possessed with, whence they had their Name of Quakers. George Fox in his Journal, p. 156. to 161. strongly vindicates this their Quaking, as a Mark of Divine Inspiration. Which if it be not, than it can be nothing else but Witchcraft and Conjuration, as G. Fox complains that the Profane did call it. If you see one (says he, ibid. p. 158.) as Habakkuk, whose Lips quivered, whose Belly shook, etc. ye say he is Bewitched; and p. 159. Some of them that scoff at this Power, call it the Power of the Devil. Yes, and not only they that scoffed at it, but those that adored it, and were possessed by it; and some of these have given us Relations of it in print; which are indeed wonderful, and do equal, if not exceed all the Accounts in any Age, even of Heathenism, concerning the strange Possessions of the Devil; or what has, of later Years, been told of Witches; as their Bodies being seen to lie as Dead, while they have told of their passing through the Air, and acting their Fantastical Freaks, etc. Which is attributed by some to the strong impression made by the Devil upon their Imaginations, whereby they really thought that they did such things as were transacted only in their Brain, fully possessed and turned with the force of an Enthusiastical Madness. But whatever the power of the Devil may be, in such cases; or the Methods by which he works upon those miserable Mortals, who are given up to his Inspirations (which I will not take upon me to determine) there never were more visible and dreadful effects of it, no not in any of the possessed Men mentioned in the Gospel, than has been among the Quakers; even as declared and witnessed by themselves, and that not only as to the strange and preternatural Distortions, Quaking and Shaking of their Bodies, past the power of any to counterfeit, or to act it by their Natural Strength: But what is much more horrible, and exceeding all other Witchcrafts, and Possessions of the Devil that were ever heard of before, These Possessed Quakers do impiously Blaspheme, and call themselves Christ; and some of them have imitated his Passion, Death and Resurrection Madly in themselves. John Gilpin of Kendal in Westmoreland, has given us a strange and wonderful account of his own Possession by the Devil, while he was a Quaker, in a Book, which he Entitled, The Quakers shaken, etc. printed 1653. and attested by the then Mayor of Kendal, the Minister of Kendal, and several other persons, whose Names are thereunto annexed. The Story is prodigious, and such astonishing Quaking and Distortion of his Limbs, as could not be counterfeited; which the Devil told him was the effects of his Inspiration by the Spirit of God. He tells, that he was converted to Quakerism, by the powerful preaching of one Christopher Atkinson, a than renowned Quaker-Apostle, and the Friends are desired to tell us whether he was not the same hereafter mentioned, p. 90. to 95: I find another Edition of John Gilpin 's Book, Anno 1655. which is mentioned by Christopher Wade, in a Book of his called Quakery slain, etc. printed 1657. where, p. 7, and 8. he quotes out of Gilpin 's Book, another Monstrous Possession of one James Milner, who said that he was Christ, and that he must suffer as Christ did; and in a juggling manner, with a Knife and a Basin, pretended that his Blood was shed, and that he gave up the Ghost, as Christ did. He prophesied Twelve strange Prophecies, and lived to see them all prove False. George Fox answers Gilpin, in a very pleasant sort of manner. He owns that the Lord did open True Prophecies, Great Mystery, Printed 1659. p. 298. and mighty things to him (James Milner.) But then as an Excuse for his false Prophecies, and his Blasphemies, in calling himself Christ, etc. he makes this Comical Apology. In some things his Mind runned out, and that he condemns, and yet these wicked men will go tell the Nation of it. This was a very sad case- that he could not call himself Christ, and give forth false Prophecies, but these wicked Men must tell the Nation of it— It was nothing but his Mind Runned out. He only Blasphemed, and sought to delude the Nation, and yet they must not be told of it! For, notwithstanding of all this, he is a good enough Prophet for Fox; Fox thinks that the Lord did open true Prophecies, and and mighty things to him! True and False Prophet in one! Or else there never was one among the Quakers. I will trouble the Reader but with one Instance more. John Toldervy has printed a very punctual Narrative of his own Conversion to Quakerism; and of the most astonishing Possession of the Devil, in which he was held, after his said Conversion, even to the Apparitions of Evil Spirits, Dancing and Singing about him, and directing him what he should do, and encouraging him in the Principles of Quakerism; chief to adhere strongly to his own Light within, which he was to make a superior Guide to Scripture, it being the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures; and consequently that he himself was as Infallible as any of the Prophets or Apostles, as having the same Spirit which they had. And thus being brought to believe every strong Imagination which came into his Head, to be the immediate Dictate of the Holy Ghost. And these Unclean Spirits having the power to make Impressions upon his Imagination, he became entirely subject to their Will, and was carried into strange Excesses, even to attempt Miracles, That as Fire proceeded from the Lord, See John Toldervy 's Book, called, The Foot out of the Snare, Printed 1656. p. 30. upon the Altar, in the sight of Moses, Aaron, and the Children of Israel; so from the Lord in me, [says he, so he called his Light within, thinking it to be very God and Christ; and that he thereby was Christ, the true and real Christ, of whom that Man Christ Jesus was but a Type or Figure; which is the Quaker Doctrine, as is shown Sect. 17. and 18.] should there proceed that Virtue, which should infuse a heat into these Coals and Sticks (which he had gathered together for that purpose) by which a Fire should be kindled; now being confident (he goes on) I should effect the Work; yea, had I been Master of the whole World, I should have ventured all, with a value of no worth, upon the performance of this Deed; having laid all things in their order, as directed by that Spirit which moved me to the Work, Page 31. I was moved to blow with my Mouth— Expecting still that from my Life, The Lord, there should Heat proceed with my Breath, to the lighting of the Fire. But, in the end, not being able to effect the thing, I was extremely troubled, that I, The Christ of God, should fail in the performance of the first Miracle, since so many Miracles were wrought by him that was a Figure of me. It is dreadful to repeat such Horrid Blasphemy! After this, he was tempted to mimic over in himself our Saviour's Agony, Crucifixion, his Death, Burial, and Resurrection, thrusting a Needle through his Thumbs, Page. 37. for the piercing of Christ's Body; falling down, and covering himself with Shave of white Paper for a Winding-Sheet, etc. There are multitudes of prodigious Instances in the said Narrative of the incredible power of Enthusiastic Delusion, to which I refer the Reader. He pretended to be directed by Flies, in most of his This minded me of the Etymology of Beelzebub, Ecstasies. which signifies, The God of Flies. But to go on: James Naylor wrote an answer to Toldervy, called, Foot yet in the Snare, etc. printed in the same Year 1656. To which Toldervy replied the same Year, and called his Replication, The Snare broken, etc. And in the same Year again, in two Sheets, called, The Naked Truth, etc. he made a sort of a half Vindication, and half Recantation, not of the Matters of Fact of his foresaid Delusions; (for these were undeniable) but to free the Quakers from the Imputation and Scandal of them; and to clear himself to have been, and still to continue a true Quaker, which makes the Cause much worse on their side. James Naylor, in his answer to Toldervy, makes him to be both a true Prophet and a False (like Fox 's Apology beforetold for Milner) and where Toldervy tells of his being moved to say Thee and Thou, Foot yet in the Snare, p. 16. not to pull off his Hat, to pull off the Points at his Knees, and his Buttons that were unnecessary, and not to direct his Mind in Drinking to any, and the like Essential points, these things Naylor says were dictated to Toldervy by the Spirit of God: But as to his being led with Flies, to Crucify himself, and to burn his Legs, and prick Needles in his Thumbs, and the like; these, Naylor says, were the Devils Work. And yet they were the same Spirits which bid Toldervy do both the one and the other, and so both Good and Evil Spirits, by Naylor 's Account. But after Naylor had thus endeavoured to Vindicate the Quaker-Spirit, and to show that Toldervy had it not like him (Naylor) in perfection, even that same Year, viz. 24. October 1656. all the Good or Evil Spirits entered into Naylor himself, and he set up to be Christ, and was Hosannaed into Bristol, Quakers leading his Horse, strowing Branches, and their in the way, and singing Hosannah to him, and Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Israel. These Quakers said, upon their Examinations, That he, James Naylor, was the Christ, that his Name was changed from James to Jesus, that he was the only begotten Son of God, the only Saviour, See Ra. Farmer's Narrative of this Triumph of James Naylor, Entitled, Satan Enthroned, etc. Printed 1657. p. 18, etc. and that they knew no other Saviour but him. And James Naylor, upon his Examination, would not disown any thing of this: But Justified, and owned it, in Terms Equivalent, p. 14. But this was Threatening to the Great For, who pretended to be the Christ himself. Naylor was but For is Disciple. And now was setting up to be above him, to be his Lord and Master. And being thrown into Gaol for that his Blasphemous Cavelcade, G. Fox, and his Myrmidons watched their time, run down Naylor, who was, at last, brought upon his Knees before G. For! Confessing his Error, etc. Thus he who, but a day or two before, thought to justify the Quakers, from the False Spirit of John Toldervy, and his Quakers; was Condemned himself for a False Spirit by other Quakers. That nothing might be wanting for the full Conviction of that Cursed Spirit which Possessed them both; and G. Fox as much as either of them, and his followers, in their several Measures. Many more Instances might be added to Gilpin, Milner, Toldervy, and Naylor, of Quakers, in an high Degree, Possessed with the Devil; There have not been, among so many of all Mankind, such a number as of these Quakers that have run quite Mad; of whom Catalogues might be produced. For their Principle is little short of Madness. Reading the Story of Toldervy one night to as sober a Quaker, as, I believe, is of the Number, he owned, that he had many times sat alone, expecting of Revelations. So very Susceptible do the Quaker Principles make Men of the wild Impressions of Enthusiasm! None of them have yet been able, to give us any Mark whereby to distinguish betwixt their Explanation of the Light within, and the mere strength of Imagination, which, in its Excess, is Madness. And they having Encouraged this, beyond all other sorts of Enthusiasts, consequently, more of them have been carried to the height of it. And thereby, their Reason (the Seat of Religion) being thoroughly disturbed, they have been laid open and Fenceless to the downright Possessions of Satan; not only in the Opinion of those that Scoff at it, as G. Fox says in his Journal above Quoted; but forced to be confessed by themselves, by the Best of them. That part of For 's Journal, wherein he thus complains of their monstrous Quaking, etc. to be construed as Witchcraft, and the Power of the Devil, is said to be wrote in the Year 1655. in the very height of their Inspiration. which began in the Year 1650. and went on Trembling and Quaking, in most Prodigious manner, till the Restauration, An. 1660. since which time (the Nation having recovered some sense of sobriety) their strange and Enthusiastical fits of Quaking have been, for the most part, left off by them; or their Numen which Inspired them, has forsake● them; and there is now seldom any such thing to be seen among them. Bu● They too pretend to be Sober! What! Are they ashamed of their former Quaking? Or have they not now so great a Degree of Inspiration as they had before? Patrick Livingston, one of their Preachers, makes a very pleasant Excuse for this, in his Plain and downright Dealing with them that were with us, and are gone out from us, p. 10. when Physic is given to the Body (says he) is it not to work terribly, See the 3d Part of the Quakers Quibbles, Sect. I p 4. 1675. that it may Purge the Body? And when all is Purged out, the Physic leaves working, and the Body is still. Were not all the Breaking's and melt, and Terrible Shakes and Quake of Friends Bodies, to Purge out sin, and to bring to Stillness, Coolness, and Calmness of Mind?— Now when Terrible Shakes, Breaking's, etc. were, they were but for a little time, and so were quickly gone again, and the Voice of the Lord was not distinctly discerned there, but these were that sin might be Purged out, and then the cause of Terrible Potions was taken away; and the stillness being come, that's a durable thing, a solid Condition; and Here the Mind is brought into a Capacity to discern the Voice of the Lord; whereas in the time of the violent motions, the Mind was so Hurried, and Lossed with the Rage of the Enemy, so that there was not a clear Discerning what might be done, or left undone in many things. And this he gives as an Answer to those modern Quakers, who were offended that this Spirit of Quaking, had Ceased among them, and objected that because the mighty motions of the Bodies of Friends are Ceased, and Friends are still, cool and quiet, therefore that the same Power is not in meetings— and they cry, where is the Power that was at first? Now here is a Comparison made betwixt the State of the Quakers from 1650, to 1660; and from thence to this time. The first State, was their time of Physic, they were those Ten long years in Purging out their Sin. And their Terrible Potions of the Spirit wrought violent Convulsions in their Bodies, of Tremble and Quake, to the Admiration of all Beholders! But there was worse than that. For, as Livingston here Informs us, during these Extatick years, they were not in a Solid Condition, and the Voice of the Lord was not distinctly discerned among them, their Mind was so Hurried and Lossed, so that there was not a Clear Discerning what might be done, or left undone in many things. This is a very sad Beckoning! For what now will become of the First Quaker Infallibility set up in these same Ten Quaking Purging years, to Discern between Truth and Error, between every False and Right way, and which Perfectly Discovered to them the true State of All things? And that not only to G. Fox, or some of the Chief of them, but to every one of them in Particular, as you will see hereafter, Sect. X. p. 72, etc. It seems that these Hurrying and Tossing, for the first Ten years, did not come from the Holy Spirit of God, because, Livingston says that they Hindered the Discerning the Voice of the Lord. Whereas the Ecstasies of the Holy Prophets did most perfectly discover to them the Voice of the Lord, and what was to be done, or left undone. But Livingston says plainly, that they (the Quakers) were Hurried and Tossed thus by the Rage of the Enemy: That is, of the Devil. And that it was this which hindered them from the Clear Discerning of what might be done or left undone in many things. For surely, no Inspiration from God could Hinder this. And I hope no Quaker Now will say that the Extraordinary Commotions of the Holy Prophets of Old, were caused by the Rage of the Enemy; when the Scriptures tell us plainly, that they were caused by the Extraordinary Impulse of the Spirit of God. Those caused by the Rage of the Enemy, the Quakers have Vindicated to themselves. And as a farther Demonstration of it, it is apparent that since their Extraordinary Quaking Fits have ceased, they have (many of them) returned to a more Sober Mind. And the Wisest of them now seek to Cover and Palliate, all that they can, the Madness and Extravagance of their first Quaking State. But they will not yet Condemn it. Nay, sometimes (for they are all made up of Contradictions) they will support it, and plead for it. And that not only as an Extraordinary Inspiration for some time; but as an Holy Duty. And if it be such, it must bind for ever. Sam. Fisher, in his Rusticus ad Academicos. Exercit. 2. p. 18. says, As for that Holy Duty itself of Quaking, which as Blind a Guide, and Brute a Beast as Thou (thus he treats Dr. Owen, in the Quaker Courtly Dialect) art in speaking evil of, etc. Now if it be an Holy Duty, then are the Present Quakers fallen from their Duty, and from their Holiness. If it is an Effect of the Extraordinary Inspiration of God: then have not the Present Quakers such a Degree of the Spirit as the First Quakers had, which I suppose they will not be willing to own. For then there will be Degrees in their Infallibility: And if it be once coming Down Stairs— But if (as in truth it is) that their Quaking and Shaking proceeded from a strong Possession of the Spirit of Enthusiasm, it will follow, that all was a Delusion then; and must be so still, while our Modern Quakers take upon them to Justify those who went before them, and their Doctrines. And, by G. Fox's Sentence above-told, all Was and Is Conjuration, and their Quaking was the Possession of the Devil, and the Quakers now are Inspired by Him, and are False Prophets, Diviners, and Conjurers. And this, as G. Fox teaches, must certainly be so, if they have spoken any thing, not only Against the Word of God; but if All that they have said was not spoken from the Mouth of the Lord. Even to make it Heathenism and Idolatry to have the Image or likeness of any Ceature in Heaven or in Earth painted upon a Sign. See a Treatise of G. Fox's, which was surnamed Iconoclastes. And an Order of his Printed at the end of Tyranny and Hypocrisy, 1673. But only a Bedstaff, Fireshovel, Saw, Fork, or the like of Man's making: And where he Preaches against Skimming-Dish-Hats, Unnecessary Buttons on Coats or Cloaks; Slit-Peaks behind on the Skirts of women's Wast-coasts, Short Black Aprons, needless flying Scarves, Vizard-Masks, Bare-Necks, etc. All which he Dictates as from Immediate Inspiration. 5. But because these poor misled Quakers, and other Enthusiasts among us, are made to believe that the Church of England does wholly throw off all Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and rests only on their outward Forms; I will here briefly set down the Doctrine of the Church of England in this Point, and show what sort of Inspiration She allows; and what it is which She rejects. 1st. She constantly Teaches, That all the Saving Graces are wrought in our Hearts by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost: Insomuch that, of ourselves, we are not able so much as to think a good Thought: And that this Inspiration is as necessary to our Fructifying, or bringing forth Good Works, as the Influence of the Sun is to the Earth's bringing forth of her Fruits. That whatever may bear the appearance of Good Works in us, and is not wrought by this Inspiration, is not Good, nor Acceptable to God. As it is expressed in our 13th Article. Works done before the Grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of His Spirit, are not pleasant to God— Yea, rather for that they are not done as God hath Willed and Commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the Nature of Sin. What fuller can be said for the necessity of this Inspiration? And if the Quakers will have this called The Light within, we will not Dispute with them about a Word, it is the Thing and Meaning that we Contend for. This is the constant Tenor of all our Prayers. Almighty God, 2d. Sunday after Lent. who seest that we have no Power of ourselves to help ourselves, keep us, etc. And because— we can do no good thing without Thee— Who seest that we put not our Trust in any thing that we do— We humbly beseech Thee, 1st Sunday after Trinity. that as by thy special Grace preventing us, Sexagesima. Thou dost put into our Minds good Desires, Easter-Day. so, by Thy continual Help, we may bring the same to good Effect— That, 5th Sunday after Easter. by Thy Holy Inspiration, we may think those things that be Good— Grant us by Thy Spirit to have a Right Judgement in all things, Whit-Sunday. etc. And in The Ordering of Deacons, this is the first Question Demanded by the Bishop from those who are to be Ordained. Do you trust that you are Inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office— Do you think that you are truly called according to the Will of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc. The same is Demanded in the Ordination of Priests and Bishops. And the words of Consecration of a Bishop are, Receive the Holy Ghost; for the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church of God.; And the Hymn Veni Creator Spiritus is Sung. Come Holy Ghost our Souls Inspire And lighten with Celestial Fire, etc. And according to this we Pray that God would Cleanse the Thoughts of our Hearts by the Inspiration of His Holy Spirit. First Collect in the Communion Service. That He would Prevent and Further us, Last Collects. in all our Works. And that of His only Gift it cometh, 13th Sunday after Trinity. that we do unto Him True and Laudable Service. Nay, not only our Works, 3d. Sunday after Trinity. or Prayers, but that our very Desire to Pray is his Gift. We Pray for Pensons to be Baptised, that God would Wash them and Sanctify them with the Holy Ghost. Baptism. And our Catechism teaches, 1st Collect. that we are not able of ourselves to walk in the Commandments of God, Catechism. and to serve Him, without His special Grace. And lastly (for I must Transcribe our whole Liturgy to name every place where the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost is Witnessed, and Prayed for) thus the Bishop Prays for Persons to be Confirmed. Strengthen them, we beseech Thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase in them Thy manifold Gifts of Grace; Confirmation. the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding; the Spirit of Council and Ghostly Strength; the Spirit of Knowledge and true Godliness; and fill them, O Lord, with the Spirit of Thy Holy Fear, now and for ever. Here is an Enumeration of the Principal Gifts of Grace for which we Pray: And in the Exhortations before the Communion, it is earnestly Inculcated upon us, that if we be not thus Spiritually prepared, all the Outward Ordinance, will avail us nothing: For otherwise (as it is there worded) the Receiving of the Holy Communion doth nothing else but increase your Damnation And there is not one Book of Devotion used among us, that does not tell us the same. That the Inward is the Soul of Religion; without which, the Outward part is but a Dead Carcase, and stinks before God: And that the Inward Purity of the Heart, cannot be wrought but by the Operation of the Holy Ghost, who is the only Author of all Holiness. So exceedingly groundless is that mistaken Prejudice taken up against the Church of England in this point; that I do not believe there is one Man to be found in our Communion so Ignorant, or so ill Taught, as to think the Outward Performance can make us accepted with God, unless the Inward does go along with it. And if the Quakers or any other thought that we too much neglected the Inward; their Admonitions and Example would have been well received; but not to accuse our Doctrine, as denying Inspiration: For this Doctrine of the Inspiration of the H. Ghost, is the Alpha and Omega of our Religion; I have shown it in our Offices of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders of Bishop, Priest and Deacon. In our Catechism, and Common Prayers. And, to all who are acquainted with these, I have taken very needless pains; at least they might think that one Quotation or two had been sufficient: But I have enlarged for the sake of these Quakers, and others Enthusiasts, who are possessed with the most False and Violent Prejudices against our Doctrine and Worship; and then are strictly forbidden so much as to look into our Liturgy, Articles, or Homilies whereby to undeceive themselves; and are led in as Blind and Implicit a Faith in their Leaders as any is to be found in the Church of Rome itself. If they think I have wronged them, let them then be persuaded to Read, and Judge as they shall find. And for this particular subject we are now upon, of Enthusiasm; as to what sort of Enthusiasm is allowed, and what Censured in our Church, be sides our Homilies, and Liturgy, I recommend to their serious Perusal, Dr. Hammond 's Postscript concerning New Light, or Divine Illumination, which is added to his Annotations upon the New Testament. And that Excellent Sermon of Dr. Hicks, called, The Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised, Preached before the University of Oxford, the 11th of July, 1680. I have briefly shown what sort of Enthusiasm or Inspiration is allowed and owned in our Church: And it is full as much as any sober Quaker can mean by the Light within. Which therefore, in this Sense, is not Disowned but Avowed by us. And as much stress is laid upon it, as they can reasonably desire. It is made Necessary to every Good Work and Thought: And the Cause of all the Good that is in us. And we are Directed to it, to Fellow and be Guided by it; and are assured that it will lead us to all Truth that is requisite and necessary for our Eternal Salvation. It is this which opens the Scriptures to us, and our Understandings rightly to apprehend the true Sense and Meaning of Them; and which inclines our Will to Love and duly to follow the Divine Precepts therein Commanded. If any Quaker (as I am confident all that are in the least sober-minded will) say that this is all they mean by their Light within; then where is the Difference? Why do they break off, and separate from our Communion upon the Pretence of the Light within, wherein we agree with them? What Reason have they to Censure ours, and all other Ministeries but their own? as Mr Penn says, in his Preface to Fox's Journal, p. 38. We have seen (says he) the Fruit of All other Ministries by the few that are turned from the Evil of their Ways. First, This is a very bad Argument: for men's being Evil, may proceed from their own Preverseness, and not from the Fault of the Ministry. We find but about 120 that were Converted by the Ministry of Christ, in all his Life-time. Acts 1.15. And, by Mr. Penn's Consequence, this must be charged upon the Ministry, and as a Proof that it was not Good: And to justify rather the Ministry of Thendas, Acts 5.36, 37. who got about 400 to follow him; and Judas of Galilee drew away Much People. But Secondly, This is a most Uncharitable Presumption, and the Height of Spiritual Pride, to Condemn All the World but themselves. While they cannot deny that there are many in other Communions of Sober, Honest, and, to all appearance, Religious Conversation. But that is no matter! It is all Formality in them! The Quakers only have the Spirit, and truly follow its Inspirations, or the Light within! Therefore Mr. Penn, in the same Page of his Preface, Censures ours (with others) as A Dry Doctrinal Ministry— That can reach but the Ear, and is but a Dream at the best. And p. 21. They (the many Ministeries in the World) declare of Religion, say many things true, in words, of God, Christ, and the Spirit, of Holiness and Heaven, etc. But which of them All— ever directed a Man to a Divine Principle, or Agent, placed of God in Man, to help him, etc. I Answer, which of them has not? Not one that I know of. Did any ever yet deny The Candle of the Lord, searching the Inward Parts? Prov. 20.27. I have sufficiently Vindicated the Church of England in this. And the Sects amongst us, Presbyterian, Independents, Anabaptists, and all the way down to Muggleton himself, have set up upon great Pretences to the Spirit. But Mr. Penn says that is only in Word, none Feel or Experiment the Power of the Spirit but the Quakers! And being Infallible, we must take their Word! As likewise That it is plainly possible for one that hath received the Word of the Lord, Pen Ibid. p. 39 to Miss in the Division and Application of it. Which is a very Pertinent Caution Mr. Penn bestows upon his Beloved and much Honoured Brethrens that are in the Exercise of the Ministry among the Quakers. And if they may Miss, how do we know but they have Missed? How did he know they could Miss, but by their having Missed? And how does this Missing consist with Infallibility? Such Infallibility as they set up (Sect. IX. X. and Mr. Penn, in this same Preface p. 36. For being quickened by it (says he, that is, by the Light within) in our Inward Man, we could Easily Discern the Difference of things, and Feel what was Right and what was Wrong, and what was fit, and what not, both in Reference to Religion, and Civil Concerns. Here is an Infallibility of as large a Latitude as can be desired! It is both Spiritual and Temporal! And yet it may Miss in the Division and Application of The Word of the Lord! And be nothing the less Infallible! But will they give no Body leave to Miss but themselves? Must w● be Conjurers, and They Apostles, and all for our Missing? Is their missing too from the Mouth of the Lord? If not, then G. Fox has Pronounced them all to be Conjuters! Even Dear George! Thou who excellest them all— 6. But I shall exceed the bounds of a Preface. I have shown what Inspiration or Enthusiasm is owned in our Church; which is that of Sanctifying and Saving Graces. I come now to speak of that Enthusiasm which is Extraordinary and Miraculous, such as the Gifts of Tongues, of Prophecy, and Miraculous Cures, etc. And these Miraculous Gifts, as they are of much less Value to us than the Saving Graces, so are they not greatly to be Covertd, See Enthusiasm Exercised before Quoted. nor are they at all to be Prayed for: We must be wholly Passive, in this Case, and leave it altogether to the Wisdom of God, when, where, and how to bestow of these. But to pretend Falsely to any such Gifts, is downright Diabolical, it is Express, Blasphemy against God; and by His Law, to be Punished with Death. All such Enthusiasm or Inspiration is most certainly from the Devil. And therefore we must be well ware of it; and examine all such Pretences diligently; and having detected Falsehood in them, to oppose them with all Zeal, to Cry aloud, and give the World warning of the Spirit of Delusion broken lose among them. And there can be no Neuters in this War. Whoever can be Patiented to see the Name of God thus openly and presumptuously Blasphemed, is no Christian! has no Zeal for God, nor Love for the Souls of Men; but is such a Latitudinarian Laodicean as God will Spew out of his Mouth. Had the Quakers pretended to never so great Talents in Sanctifying Graces, tho' greater than they had, they should never have been opposed by me: Because I wish to them, and to all Men much greater than they have, and daily increase of them. But when I found them pretend to Miraculous Gifts, and upon this Fund to set up Schism, and Seduce Multitudes from the Peace, and Unity of the Church; and introduce Damnable Heresies, I thought it an Unpardonable sin any longer to forbear to warn others, and seek to undeceive the Poor and Simple sort among them, who are ●●d blindly in their Snares. The Lord Rescue them, of his Infinite Mercy. Amen. If G. Fox had set up for the greatest Zeal towards God, and to the most Extraordinary Impulse of Spirit, and Experiences (the then ●and) of God; and that, upon this Pretence, he had been carried even to Excesses; much might have been allowed to such a well-intended Zeal, tho' not according to Knowledge. But in his Journal p. 83. he despises such a low Dispensation, which he turns over to the Priests, as he calls them, who Disputed against him. One of them (says he) told me, That He could speak his Experiences, as well as I. But I told him, Experience was one thing: but to go with a Message, and to have a Word from the Lord, as the Prophets and Apostles had and did, and as I had done to them; this was another thing: and therefore I put it to them again; Could any of them say, he had ever had a Command or Word from the Lord; Immediately at any time? Thus he. And here can be no mistake. Because he puts the Distinction himself, betwixt Immediate Revelation, and Inward Impulses, those ordinary Assistances or Inspirations which Good Men Experiment of the Holy Spirit of God, in their Studies and Meditations upon the Holy Scriptures, their Preaching, Praying, and other Means of Grace which God has appointed. Such Experiences the Priests owned to G. Fox. But he pretended to further, that is, to Immediate Command from God, to go with such a Message, etc. as the Prophets and Apostles had. Not a mediate Command, by the Mediation of the Use and Knowledge of Scripture, Preaching, Praying, or any Human Means; But Immediately, without help of Scripture, or any thing else, from God Himself, as when He spoke to Abraham, or any of the Prophets or Apostles. If George had pretended only to have Reasoned with us out of the Scriptures, we could have born with him. If Mr. Penn had contented himself to have told us of his great Knowledge in the Scriptures (not to give us New) to have Celebrated him for a Thousand Virtues, or for his Learning, or any other Natural or Acquired Aibilities; He should have Peaceably Enjoyed all these Trophy's (however Deserved) for any Pains I had taken to the contrary. But when p. 29. of his Preface, Mr. Penn would persuade us that this Fox had Outward Revelations, and Visions from God, upon a very high Mountain in Yorkshire, and there had his Commission given by God, to go to the North, etc. This obliges us to look more narrowly into the Matter. For there is no Medium left, by this, but either that all these Nations, and all the World (to whom he directs some of his Papers) are Fighters against God in not submitting to his Message by this Prophet Fox: Or otherwise, that this Fox was a Wizard, possessed with the Devil; and that all are Deluded Fatally, who follow him, or would Recommend him. And when all this is but the Preface to Pretended Miracles, Exhibited in his foolish Legend of a Journal, as Vouchers of his Mission! When Miraculous Gifts are not only ascribed to G. Fox, but to the Rabble of these Quakers, whom Mr. Penn (ibid. Sect. 10. p. 23.) compares to the Ancient Prophets; and tells us of their Prophecies, particularly of the Plagne and Fire of London, in express Terms (says be) and likewise Particular ones to divers Persecutions (I suppose it should be Persecutors) which accordingly overtook them, and which were very Remarkable in the places were they dwelled; and in time they may be made Public for the Glory of God. But, Mr. Penn, This would be the best time. For one Prophecy, before it be fulfilled, is worth twenty that are Published afterwards. Besides, People will be apt to say, that you Pick and Choose out of your Register of Prophecies; and, having many (Most, if not All, Curses and judgements) some must likely happen, or towards it, and that you give us only them; but throw all those that miscarry behind the Door. And some may suspect even Forgery, that Prophecies are Coined after the Facts come to pass. Therefore, to obviate all these Objections, and to prevent the deceiving of after-Generations, who may not be so well able to Examine into matters of Fact, said to be done long before their time, it is desired that Mr. Penn would Now Publish his Register of Quaker Prophecies, or for ever after hold his Peace. But we must take them as he pleases to give them; and by what he has told us, we may guests at the rest. He names Prophecies of the Plague and Fire of London, in express Terms. And there he leaves us in the General, but tells not, who, where, when; that is reserved for after Ages, when there shall be none alive to disprove it. But notwithstanding it is fair in us, freely to own what is come to our Knowledge, tho' the Modesty of the Persons concerned, might let it sleep in General's unexamined. Be it known then unto all Men, That one Solomon Eccles, a Quaker Preacher and Prophet, did go Naked through Bartholomew-Fair, the year before the Fire of London, with a Pan of Fire upon his Head, warning the People to Repent. etc. But it must likewise be known, that there is not a Year, hardly a Month wherein some Quaker or other is not going about our streets here in London either Naked, or in some Exotic Figure, Denouncing Woes, judgements, Plagues, Fire, Sword, and Famine. [And it was never more likely that some, or all of these may be coming towards us] nay so frequent are these Quaker-Prophets amongst us, especially in Curses (wherein they wholly Deal) that there is not a Bill of Mortality wherein many of their Prophecies are not Fulfilled. But nothing of a Public Calamity, of any sort can come, but what is Bespoke, and Claimed by hundreds of them. But if the Quaker Prophets knew so particularly of the Fire of London, how came it to pass, that they were not better provided against it? For it is well known that the Quakers in London did suffer as much, by the Fire, as any of their Neighbours, and were as much Surprised by it. As themselves have confessed. But worse than all this. Tyranny and Hypocrisy Detected, 1673. Sect. 16. p. 38. When Thomas Ebbit, another Prophet of theirs, came out of to London, a day or two before the Fire (as a Quaker tells us the Story) to warn them of it; the Quaker Sanhedrin of their Elden at London took him to task, and having Examined his Gifts, rejected him and did almost persuade him that it was a Delusion. As that Quaker Author words it. And so refusing to take warning, they shared with others in that Judgement. But now as to Solomon Eccles (who, I suppose, is the Prophet Mr. Penn points at) I refer the Reader, for a Taste of his Prophetic Talon, to what follows of him, p. 109, 110. But Mr. Penn has liberty to produce any other Prophet he thinks fit, upon this occasion. And he shall have a fair Hearing. 7. But it is not to be omitted, that none of their Prophets told more expressly of the Fire of London, than did Oliver's Porter; and Great notice was taken of it; and I can prounce those who heard him Proclaim it Publicly: That is, General Threaten of Fire, etc. He knew as little as the others; but when the Fire happened, than these General Say of him and others were thought of; and who pleased might think them Prophets. Here let me intercede for a little Acquaintance of mine, and one very well known to Mr. Penn, that he may not be forgot, nor lose his Place in this College of the Prophets. And he shall produce as good Vouchers for his Gift of Prophecy, especially in Cursing, as G. Fox himself, or any Quaker ever was in England. His Name is Lodowick Muggleton! Who Pronounced a Curse against several Quakers by Name, some of whom, (Jos. Coale was one) died soon after. Which he attributed to the weight of his Curse, and urges as a Proof of his Prophetic Spirit. And it was as good a one as that which G. Fox tells in his Journal, p. 488. That Baron Weston died soon after he had fallen into a great Rage against Me, says G. Fox: But Muggleton has many such Miracles to show, and is a Liberal Cursing Prophet, next to the Great Fox, who must always have the Pre-eminence. But Muggleton Claims the Second Rank of Worthies. And one of his Disciples told me, that they had a Register of his Prophecies, which in due time may be made Public. He got his Inspiration about the sametime with George Fox; and both equally Qualified. Fox, a Journy-Man to a Shoemaker (which Mr. Penn does not mention, Preface to Fox 's Journal, p. 29. but makes him keep Sheep, as a just Figure of his after Ministry and Service.) And Muggleton a Tailor: And as they were equal in their Endowments; so the ground and occasion of their Enthusiasm was the same. That is, Despair. For so G. Fox tells of himself, in the beginning of his Journal (p. 3, 4, 5, 8, etc. And I had it as to Muggleton, from his own Mouth, long before Fox 's Journal was Printed. And their Case was so exactly the same, that when I read the Journal, it seemed a very Repetition of Muggleton's Story, as he told it to me. They were both so deeply seized with Despair, that, like the Possessed Man in the Gospel, they forsook all Human Conversation, and Retired into Deserts and Solitary Places, where they spent whole Days and Nights alone. And Fox tells p. 5. That when Physic was Prescribed him for this, and Bleeding, they could not get one Drop of Blood from him either in Arms or Head (tho' they endeavoured it) My Body (says he) being, as it were, dried up with Sorrows, Grief and Troubles, which were so great upon me, that I could have wished, I had never been born. This was the first Instance we find of a Prophet, who submitted to be Cured of his Inspiration by Physic! But in this sad Condition, and Rack of Soul, he, (and Muggleton, as he told me) wandered about to several Priests and Professors (as he called them) seeking Rest, some Relief from his Despair; but finding none, no Advice that could ease his Tortured Mind! he (as Muggleton) concluded the Fault to be in his Physicians (who themselves had run into Schism upon Pretence of their own Enthusiasm, and now read their Sin, in their Punishment) and therefore returned to his House, whence he had come out, his own Disordered and Distracted Mind. And (as he tells us, p. 8.) when all Hopes in them, and [for their sakes] in all Men was gone, so that I had nothing (said he) outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do— In this most Dismal of all conditions, quite overrun, and given up to Despair (the Blackest Fury in Hell) no wonder his Brain was turned; (Despair in that height, is downright Distraction, and the greatest Spiritual Madness) In this Lamentable State, the least glimpse of Comfort, the smallest Respite from these Intolerable Pangs seemed Heaven, and Paradise to him. Now was I come up in the Spirit (says he) through the Flaming Sword, Journal p. 17. into the Paradise of God. All things were New; and all the Creation gave another smell unto me than before, etc. This does lively express the Mad Joy which a Despairing Soul does find in the least Shadow of Relief, in one Drop to cool a Flaming Heart! And then Fox being Prodigiously Ignorant, took every new I hought that came into his mind (tho' common to almost all the rest of Mankind) to be no less than Immediate Divine Inspiration; that this was the very Voice of the Lord to him, that thus The Lord had spoken to him, as he Blasphemously boasted, in things, which every body of Common Sense knew as well as he: But his Ignorance made him think it a Secret to all Humane kind; and the very Thought of it was worthy to denominate him a Prophet sent from God; and Exalted him to the height of Spiritual Pride; and many other Devils ente●ing in with him, to his House ready fitted to receive them, his Poor, Ignorant and Deluded Heart, his last state became worse than the first. Thus p. 5. He tells as a wonderful opening (to repeat his Cant) which The Lord gave to him; and sets it down as a most Extraordinary Discovery, no less than Miraculous in Magnificent manner. Thus: About the beginning of the year 1646. (say● he) as I was going to Coventry, and entering towards the Gate, a Consideration arose in me, how i● was said, That All Christians are Believers, both Protestants and Papists. And the Lord opened to me, that if all were Believers, than were all Born of God. Here was 〈◊〉 mighty Discovery! At nother time (he goes on) as I was walking in a Field, on a First-day Morning, The Lord Opened to me, That being Bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not ●nough to Fit and Qualify Men to be Ministers of Christ: And I stranged at it, because it was the Common Belief of People. But I saw it clearly, as The Lord opened it ●o me; and was satisfied; and admired the Goodness of the Lord, who had opened this thing unto me that Morning. Now this extraordinary Opening, which this Cunning Fox so stranged at, because, as he thought, it was the Common Belief of People, was never the Belief of any one Man in the World, that was not in a Fit of Distraction as great as Possessed him, or his Neighbour Muggleton. For did ever any Man, in his righ● Wits, say, That being Bred at Oxford or Cambridge, was enough to make a Man fit to be a Minister o● Christ? Then could no Bishop refuse to Ordain any Man that wa● Bred at Oxford or Cambridge. 〈◊〉 is true, That Learning is a Great and (without Miraculous Endowments, such as were given to the Prophets and Apostles) a Necessary Qualification to fit a Man to be a Minister of Christ, so as to be able 〈◊〉 Discharge his Office with Profit an● Advantage to his Flock: And su●● Learning is generally to be had 〈◊〉 Universities and Schools; and this Cobbler and his Brother Botche● had been Bred at Cambridge or Oxford, in all Probability, the Nation had ●een freed from both these Madmen. They had not been so Mad, so sottishly ignorant, as to take the Commonest Notions in the World for such Wonders, such Supernatural Reve●tions; and to have Magnified themselves above all Mankind, for what all Mankind knew better than they did. Fox had never Recorded it as such wonderful opening, what he tells, 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉. 6. At another time (says he) it ●as opened in me, That God ●ho made the World, did not ●well in Temples made with ●ands. And this at the first (says he) seemed a strange Word. Mighty strange! Fox, it seems, ●●d not know before but that God 〈◊〉 welt in a Church, as a Man does a House, so as to be locked up, and to be no where else when He wa● There! This is a worthy Man to mak● a Prophet of: And these are Notable Discoveries that he has made And such are all his Discoveries all his New Light. Even this Fundamental, Distinguishing Principle of the Quakers, of Th● Light within, that is, as all the S●●ber of them do Now pretend to e●plain it, and say that Fox himself meant no more by it, than that we not only to look to Christ without us, and, by a mere Histori●● Faith, to Believe that He Di● Rose, etc. for us; But that we 〈◊〉 receive the Influence of His H●● Spirit, within us, in our Hea● and that this is it which does Enligh and Sanctify us, etc. And this no Sober Christian ever yet did deny. So that, if this be all they mean by it, Fox brought no New Principle into the World; no more than all the Christian World knew and believed. Only be was Ignorant of that. And his own Gross Ignorance is all that he has Discovered to us. But he, being thus prepared, came at last to be fully Possessed with the Spirit of Enthusiasm; and whatever roving Imagination (which is strongest in Madmen) took place in his Head; He did Dictate it forth as the Immediate Command of God; And perhaps (for who knows the Length which Enthusiastic Madness may run!) Might come at last to believe himself. When the Lord (says he, p. 24.) sent me forth into the World, He forbade me, To put off my Hat to any— And I was required to Thee and Thou all Men and Women. Such Hideous Stuff is all the rest of that Journal! And perhaps when Muggleton is dead, some of his Disciples, may, after this Example, give us a Legend of his Mission, Life, and Miracles: Which will be nothing behind this of his Colleague Fox: For he began in Black Despair, as the other; and both carried it on with the most Ignorant and Wild Enthusiasm that, it may be, was ever heard of. There was a third Prophet, of the same Grass, who might have gained as many Proselytes, and been as Famous in his Generation, as either of these, but that he was hindered from Travelling, by the Temptation of a very Convenient and Proper Lodging provided for him in moorfield's. His Education and Accomplishments were equal to the others; but he came to greater Preferment; He was by Profession a Porter, to which he was advanced in Oliver's Court. Where having learned to Cant, in the then Mode, he Commenced an Enthusiast Preacher, and (as Fox) never Recovered to the day of his Death. He could quote Scripture as Fast, and to as little Purpose, as either Fox or Muggleton: Nor did he want his Disciples. I was one day making a Visit to him, with the rest of his Collegiates; and upon a Grass-Plat before his Window, which was the End-Room of the Buildings next the Postern; I saw some Women, very busy with their Bibles, turning to the Quotations, as he Preached to them out of the Window; and they did Sigh and Groan, and showed as strong motions of Devotion as could be seen at any Quake● Meeting. I thought indeed they had belonged to the Family; and told the Keeper, that he ought not to dispose o● these so near one another, but should separate that Preacher and his Congregation, because they fed one another's Madness: But he told me th●● he had Charge of none but the Preacher; and that there often came Persons to hear him Preach, and would s● many hours under his Window, wit● great signs of Devotion. This gave me the Curiosity to spe●● to one of these Women, a Grave S●●ber-like Matron, and I asked he● what she could Profit by hearing that Madman? She, with a Composed Countenance, and as Pitying my Ignorance, Replied, That Festus thought Paul was Mad. Which made me Reflect, that there were several sorts of Madness; and what ill luck some Mad Folks had to be Closed up, whilst others went about the streets. This, and not Prisons, had been the proper Lodgement for Fox and Muggleton (who boasts too of his Sufferings) as well as Oliver's Porter. But (if there could be any Diversion in Madness) it would make one Merry, to behold the Civil War, as there was constantly betwixt Oliver's Porter, and the other less Madmen, who called him Mad, and he called them Wicked and Profane, and Pronounced Curses against them In the Name of the Lord, for Despising his Gifts and Mission; so do the Quakers and Muggletonians Curse one another bitterly; and call one another Serpents and Sorcerers. I have heard a Quaker say, that Muggleton deserved all that he met with, that is, Newgate, Pillory, and his Books Burned; because, said the Quaker, he was a Deceiver of the People. And Muggleton says the same of them; and that Fox met better Treatment than he deserved. And the Authority of the one is as good as the other. And there we leave them. But this I must say, that Muggleton sticks truer even to Fox's Principle of Enthusiasm, than either Fox himself or his Followers. For Fox 's Chief and only Principle was, at first, to Direct Men to the Inward Anointing, and that They needed no Man to teach them; See his Journal, p. 5, 31, and 57 but as the Anointing teacheth them. Therefore that they should come off from all men's Teaching unto God's Teaching: For that God was come to Teach His People Himself. But Fox would not trust to this; for he went about Teaching outwardly, and has Erected an Outward Church-Discipline and Authority to overrule that Anointing, if it prove Refractory. And though they have rejected the Sacraments, as Outward things; yet they keep up an Outward Ministry and Preaching; which are more Inconsistent with their Principle, of Reducing all to the Inward, and waiting for the Lord, in silence, within, etc. But Muggleton has no Outward either Sacraments or Teaching, nor any Outward Worship, or Assemblies for any thing Relating to Religious Matters; But leaves every Man Free to follow his own Impulse. and to an Universal Liberty of Conscience. If any Embrace his Principles, Welcome. If not, let them go. This is true Liberty of Conscience. And sticking to the Inward Principle. With which the Quaker, Preaching, and Church-Discipline, is altogether Inconsistent; even as at first Taught by themselves. However Muggleton and Fox must be allowed to be Brethren; (tho' not in equal Perfection) because they both set up to Destroy the Outward, or whole Body of Religion; and Reduce it all to a Skeleton or a Ghost, upon Pretence of giving Preference to the Spirit or Inward part of Religion (which none denies) as if one should Destroy the Cask to Preserve the Wine, upon Pretence that the Cask is no part of the Wine. But these two Madmen, Fox and Muggleton, being totally Ignorant of this, thought themselves Spiritual, by running down all Outward Forms; And both their Inspirations came from the same Author, The Father of Lies, who, in that Hurricane of Schism and Rebellion, got an Act of Parliament for Toleration and Liberty of Conscience to sow his Tares at Noonday, with Doors open, etc. and he made full use of his Liberty. He entered into the Herd of our Swine, the Beasts of the People; and drove them over Precipices of Enthusiasm, to Perish in the Ocean of Heresy and Error. Amongst these Jannes and Jambres, Fox and Muggleton, were Chiefs of greatest Note. But Fox has got more Followers; and, of late, some, tho' very Few, of more Sense and Learning. Whose Labours have rendered their Cause much more Deformed; like a Monkey Dressed in Man's Clothes, and set on Horseback; or, as a Jewel hung in a Swine's Snout. The Jargon was something agreeable to the Enthusiasm of Mechanics; both alike Intelligible! But to see it Dressed up in the Guise of Learning, and set off in Mr. Penn's Elegant Style— 'Tis such a Sight! And it has undone them, by Discovering them: For being now made to speak Sense, they are capable of being answered by Reason. 8. But Nothing, so Diverting as to see them sick of their Prophecies, and spew them up again, when they happen to interfere with their Interest. How they endeavour since 1660, to stifle and conceal the Flattering Prophecies they gave to Oliver, and the Cursed ones against the King and Cavaliers. But in the Reprinting the Works of their Prophets since 1660, they leave out these Now unsavoury Passages. Their Infallibility needs an Index Expurgatorius as well as that of Rome: through which, we suppose, George Fox's Works are to pass, which are designed as a Second Volume to his Journal. Of this Cleanly Art, they have given us a fair Specimen in the Reprinting of the Works of Edward Burrough, one of their main Pillars or Posts, wherein they leave out at p. 100 the following Prophecies, which he directs thus, To all you who are and have been always Enemies to the very appearance of Righteousness, who are called Delinquents and Cavaliers. And he holds forth to them, as follows. Thus saith the Lord, my Controversy is against you— And you are become Cursed in all your Hatching and Endeavours (i. e. to Restore the King) and from time to time my Hand hath been against you in Battle,— Your Kings and Princes and Nobles have been cut off in Wrath— You are given to be a Curse and a Desolation, and a Prey in Houses and Lands and Persons, to them whom I I have raised up against you, (i. e. Oliver Cromwell) and then he goes on to Prophesy for the Future, in these words. And you and your Kings and Lordly Power (by which you have thought to Exercise Lordship over my Heritage) shall be Enslaved by the Devil in the Pit of Darkness, in Everlasting Bondage, where He shall Reign your Lord and King for Evermore. These are the Mildest words they can bestow! Pillars of Fire and Smoak, like the very opening of the Infernal Pit! In all whose Caverns there lodges not a more Furious and Cursed Spirit than that which Inspires these Prophets of the Quakers, whose Breath is Fire and Brimstone! That Book of Burrough's out of which I have Quoted what is above, bears this Title, A Trumpet of the Lord— or Fearful Voices of Terrible Thunders, uttered from the Throne— Declared and Written by a Son of Thunder, etc. 1656. How does it make one's Hair stand on end! And how ought it to raise the Indignation of every Christian, to see such a Blasphemous Wretch, Pretend that all these his Hellish Thunderings were Uttered from the Throne of God To see him begin in such a Style as this. By Order and Authority (says he) given unto me, by the Spirit of the Living God, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, the 31. day of the 10th Month, in the Year of the World's Account, 1655. about the 4th Hour in the Morning, when my Meditations was of my God, upon my Bed, in Kilkenny City in the Nation (he would not say Kingdom, that was too Monarchical, at that time of day) of Ireland, at that time, The Word of the Lord came unto me saying, Writ my Controversy with All the Inhabitants of the Earth, unto All sorts of People, as I will show thee; by this same Authority and Commission Declared, this I send unto you, the Tribes of the Earth, and this upon your Heads shall stand for ever, etc. Given under my Hand, and Sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God, E. B. And he Styles himself thus in the Title Page. By one whose Name is truly known, by the Children of the same Birth, but unknown to the World, though it be called Edw. Burrough. This was in Imitation of our Saviour, who said that the World knew him not. And among the Curses with which this Fury-Prophet loads all the Tribes of the Earth, he bestows what is above Quoted, and more, upon the King and Cavaliers, p. 9 where he tells those who suffered for the King, it is not for well-doing that ye suffer, but my Hand is against you, and my Judgements are upon you. But this whole Chapter of Burrough's Trumpet, notwithstanding of its being sounded forth by God's Express Commission, and Sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God, in the year 1655. was stifled and superseded, by these same Prophets, in the New Edition of Burrough's Works, 1672. It seems tho' they care not for Fight themselves, they can blow the Trumpet to others. As they did to Oliver effectually. Oh Oliver (says G. Fox to him) arise and come out& For thou hast had Authority, Quakers Unmasked p. 4. stand to it— nor let any other take thy Crown— and let thy Soldiers go forth with a free and willing Heart, that thou may'st Rock Nations as a Cradle— This is a Charge to thee, in the presence of the Lord God, etc. And he further Charges Oliver, not to turn Sober Men and True Hearts out of his Army. So that it seems they esteemed Fight a Lawful and a Good thing, (in a Good Cause) because they thought it consistent with Sober Men and true Hearts. But since 1660, it is an Antichristian Doctrine! One of the Orders given forth by their Yearly Meeting, 1693. Commands, That none should carry Guns in their Ships. They would take it ill to have their Doctrine in Pensilvania returned upon themselves Here. For There they Presented G. Keith, as endeavouring to subvert the Government, which by their Law is Death, because that in the 9th and ●oth Articles of a Paper he There Published, called An Appeal from ●he 28 Judges, etc. he Queried whether it was consistent with their Principle against using the Carnal Sword, 〈◊〉 Arm the Indians against one another, ●nd to hire Men, and give Commissions ●o Fight, for recovering a Sloop, ●ome Privateers had taken from them? This they inferred to be, by consequence, a subverting of the Government; because, without using Force, ●pon occasion, their Government, indeed, could not be supported. And therefore they Seized and Imprisoned the Printers and Publishers of the said Appeal: And had not the Change of Government, which happened soon af●er (Coll. Fletcher being sent Governor thither, and superseded the Quaker Governor) put an end to that Prosecution, it might have cost them their Lives; for their Mittimus (which is Printed with the said Appeal) wa● for designing to subvert the Government. And it is signed by sever●● of their Ministers, who are Justice● of the Peace there. But now, is not Force of Arms a● necessary to support the Government 〈◊〉 England as in Pensilvania? And is not the consequence as Dangerous Here, of Decrying the use o● Arms as unlawful to Christians? But it is plain that they are not ●gainst Force of Arms, when the● like the Quarrel. For they did not on●● Encourage Oliver and the other Rebels, but they fought themselves against the King, if you will believe G. F. wh●● in his Letter directed To the Coun●● 〈◊〉 Officers of the Army, and the ●eads of the Nation, and for the inferior Officers and Soldiers to ●ead, 1659. Complains of many Quakers, being Disbanded out of the arm, and that for being Quakers, tho' ●bey were good Fighters. These are his ●●ords, p. 5. And many Valiant Captains, Soldiers, and Officers, ●ave been put out of the Army (by Sea and Land) of whom it ●ath been said among you, That ●hey had rather have had one of ●hem, than seven Men, and could ●ave turned one of them to seven Men; who because of their Faithfulness to the Lord God, being Faithful towards him, it may be for saying Thou to a Particular, and for wearing their Hats, have been turned out from amongst you. Here it is plain that they were Quakers while they were in the Army because, by this, they were turned o● from being Quakers, for saying The● and not taking off their Hats. And that they were willing to ha● continued longer in the Army; because G. Fox, here, complains of their bein● Disbanded, as wrong done to them and to the prejudice of the Army, an● the Good Cause. And p. 6. says he, Oh! Ho● are Men fallen from what whic● they were at first, when thousand of Us went in the Front of you and were with you in the greatest Heat, who looked not for the Spoil, but the Good of the Nation and now thus should be served by those that are set down in th● Possession of the Spoil of our Enemies, that they should requite ●s so in the end! And p. 2, 3, and 8. He encoura●s them to set up their Standard at ●ome, and then to fall upon the ●urk, and pluck up. Idolatry, etc. Here is using the Carnal Sword some purpose! But if you would know in whom ●ey make it unlawful to use the Sword, tells p. 4. where he threatens that God. ●●ill overturn the World, and all ●●e Powers of the Earth, and all word-Men, that be not in his ●ower. that is, the King and the cavaliers, whom they Damn to the sit of Hell, as I have shown. So that instead of their disowning ●e use of the Sword, their true mean●g is, That none have a Right to it ●●t themselves. Only they are not to pretend to till it may be of use to them. But that they have not given their Right to it, is plain by A Declaration from the People call● Quakers, to the present Distract Nation of England, Printed 165 This was Wrote by Edward Bu●rough, in the Name of all the Quakers, and it is Subscribed by Fifte● of the Principal Leaders of the● There, at the end of p. 8. They 〈◊〉 us fair warning; We are dread●● (say they) to the Wicked, 〈◊〉 must be their Fear; for we ha● Chosen the Son of God to be o● King, and he hath Chosen us 〈◊〉 be his People; and he might Command thousands and ten thousan● of his Saints at this day, to Fig●● in his Cause, he might lead the forth and bring them in, and give them Victory over all their Enemies, and turn his Hand upon all their Persecutors. But then they say p. 9 We cannot yet belive that he will make use of Us in that way; though it be his only Right to Rule in Nations, and Our Heirship to Possess the uttermost parts of the Earth; but, for the Present, we are given up to Bear and Suffer, etc. This is plain Language. They will not yet take Arms; not For the present, not till they see their time. But they have entered a Caveat to secure their Right and Title to it, till they think fit to set up their Claim for their Heirship to the uttermost parts of the Earth. But this is a Secret, and to be kept under their Thumb, for the present: And therefore, in their New Edition of Edward Burrough's Works, Anno 1672. This Passage is left out (with others against the King, etc.) But no ways Disclaimed, or Censured by them. Which is now Required from them; or otherwise they must give us leave to believe, that it is their Principle to take Arms, and to Fight, to set up their Heirship to any Kingdom they please; when their King (the Son of God) Commands them. And they believing that their Light within is that very Christ, the Son of God (as is fully shown in what follows) the Consequence is, that they are free to take Arms, whenever they say it is the time. Or if the Mission of a Prophet be necessary to signify the Command of their King, to Fight for Him, and for their own Heirship; that can never be wanting to them: because they do pretend to keep up a continual Succession of Prophets among them. And the Word of every True Prophet, being the Command of God Himself, consequently whoever believes such a one to be a True Prophet, must, at his Command, think themselves obliged to pull down any King, and to set up whomsoever that Prophet names in his Place. As Hazael was made King of Syria, and Jehu of Israel, by the Command of Elijah, 1 Kings 19.15, 16. Now the Quakers do pretend to have still Prophets; and with as great a Power. 9 For by their Printed Injunctions, from the Meeting of Sufferings in London, the 18th. of the 6th Month, 1693. to the respective Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in England and Wales, for preserving and spreading Friends Books for Truth's Service, among other of their Works, (to be carefully by them spread) by way of Epistle, Warning, Caution, and Exhortation, they add likewise Prophecy. And by a Canon of their General Assembly in London, the 27th of the 3d Month, 1675. they strictly Caution and Forbidden to say, That the Faithful Friends Papers, which we (say they) testify have been given forth by the Power of God, are men's Edicts. And in their Paper of Orders from London, in the 3d Month 1666. they reckon them as Heathens and Infidels, who will not submit to the Judgement of their Church; and dare oppose it as the Judgement of Man. This is beyond all Acts of Parliament; they are but the Edicts of Men: And we pretend our Canons and Ecclesiastical Injunctions to be no other. But whatever a Quaker Dictates, if it were to Depose the King, and set up their Universal Monarch above-told; and to assert, by Arms, their own Heirship to the uttermost parts of the Earth. If they should abrogate any, or all of our Laws (as they have done that of Tithes) or any thing else, whatever their Arbitrary, Enthusiastical Spirit shall suggest to them; this must not be looked upon as any thing that is Humane (that is below a Quaker's Pride) but as the very Words of God, as if pronounced by an Angel or an Apostle. So that we must look well to ourselves! These are no Ordinary Men, believe it! 10. And their Design (I mean of their Leaders) is not only Liberty of Conscience (that's but a poor business) but the total overthrow of the Church of England. And that by a very Crafty Policy, first, to take away their Maintenance, that is, the Tithes; and then they are sure it will fall to the ground. And this Rob. Barclay does not conceal. Anarchy p. 42. An. 1676. That Antichristian Apostatised Generation (says he) the National Ministry, have received a Deadly Blow by out Witness against their forc'● Maintenance and Tithes— So that their Kingdom, in the Hearts of thousands, gins to Totter, and shall assuredly fall to the Ground. But what if the Light within some Quakers should allow them to pay Tithes; And think that they ought, in Conscience, to do it, as being Legally Established? etc. Would the Quakers Rulers allow them Liberty of Conscience, and give them leave to follow their Light within? No. No. That is but scaffolding to pull down our Church, and to build their own. And they will not have their Cannon turned against themselves. See his Animadversions on George Whitehead 's Innocency Triumphant, 1694. p. 30. For when Thomas Crisp and other Quakers thought themselves obliged to pay their Tithes, and did so accordingly, they were Proceeded against as Rebels (under no less a Denomination) and that not only as against Men, but against God Himself: For their Writings (as above told) are not to be looked on as the Edicts of Men. But, as G. Fox Proclaims (in his Answer to the Westmorland Petition, p. 30.) If ever you own the Prophets, Christ and the Apostles, you will own our Writings, which are given forth by the same Spirit and Power. And in another place. See G. F. and R. H. Truth's Defence, etc. p. 2. 104. 107. You might as well Condemn the Scriptures to the Fire as our Queries. Our giving forth Papers and Printed Books, it is from the Immediate Eternal Spirit of God. You are Answered from the mouth of the Lord, etc. And from the same mouth of the Lord Thomas Ellwood Denounces, Antidote against the Infection of W. Rogers, etc. p. 78. That they who pay Tithes— thereby deny Christ to be come in the Flesh, which is a mark of Antichrist. And G. Fox, in his Decretal Epistle, bearing Date the 3d Month, 1677. See his Journal, p. 431. Commands severely, that the Friends Testimony against Tithes be kept up with vigour. He says, That for any to cry against the Priests in words, and yet to give them means, and put into their Mouths is a Contradiction. And therefore take heed (says he) for if the Lord God do Bless you with outward Creatures, and you do bestow them upon Baal's Priests, the Lord may justly require the outward things from you again— So all the Preachers for Tithes and money, and the Takers and Payers of Tithe must be testified against in the Lord's Power and Spirit— and therefore, in the power of the Lord, maintain the War against the Beast— that is, as well Payers as Receivers of Tithes. And that is the whole Kingdom, King and Parliament, who made Laws for the Payment of Tithes, and all who dare obey those Laws, are The Beast, Anti-christs', and have denied Christ's coming in the Flesh (as T. Ellwood) and therefore (G. Fox concludes his Epistle abovesaid) keep your Authority and Dominion. That is, over that Beast and these Anti-christs'. This was wrote 1677. and Printed 1694. whereby we may understand what Church they mean, to which Tithes are paid, and against which they have Proclaimed War. 11. But there is just now, since I began this Preface, a most clever and Ingenuous Excuse made for this, in a Paper Dated at London the 4th of the 4th. Month 1695. and Signed, on Behalf of the Friends and yearly Meeting, by John Vaughton, Samuel Watson, John Field, Thomas Lower, and William Bingley. Printed and Sold by T. Sowle near the Quaker Meetinghouse in Grace-Church-street. It is Entitled An Answer to Francis Bugg's Presumptuous Impeachment, etc. There they would persuade us, That all they have said against the Payment of Tithes, was only meant by them against Payment of them to the Popish Clergy. But, by no means, against the Right of the Church of England to Their Tithes, as settled upon them by the Civil Government. No! They are not such bad Subjects as to oppose any thing of the Laws of the Land. We are not Convinced (say they p. 2.) that it can be against the Fundamental Laws of the Land, either to deny Tithes, [What? When the Law enjoins them] now in this Gospel-Day, or to deem them Antichristian, as they were imposed by Popes, and Popish Laws, which are not the Fundamental Laws of this Realm. Are not Acts of Parliament, tho' made in Popish times? And there are Acts of Parliament, since the Reformation, for Tithes. So that this is a mere Shame! But they go on. And our Testimony herein does rather affect a Popish Clergy, than a Protestant Civil Government. And p. 3. they tell that what they are Quarrelled for, was their Testimonies against the Corruption of Priests, and Popish Imposition and Oppression of Tithes. And p. 5. for Deeming, the Imposition of Tithes by the Pope and Popish Laws to be Antichristian. But hark ye Gentlemen (if ye be not offended with that Title) there were no Tithes paid to any Popish Priests in England ever since Quakerism appeared amongst us. And if you meant all you said only against them, your Preaching was altogether vain. But Barclay (as before Quoted) names the National ministry, who had received a Deadly Blow by your witness against Their forced Maintenance of Tithes; whose Kingdom (he says) was tottering, and should assuredly (if he was a true Prophet) fall to the Ground. Slay Baal (cries G. Fox) Balaam must be slain, news out of the North, 1655. p. 31. all the Hirelings must be turned out of the Kingdom. These are the Baal's Priests whom this Fox Commands you not to Feed. The Beasts, the Anti-christs' over whom you are to keep your Authority and Dominion. If it be not so, Why then do you not now pay your Tithes to the Ministers of the Church of England? Why do you boast of your Sufferings and Imprisonments, for not paying your Tithes to them, as being a sort of Martyrdom, for the truth? Why do you Persecute and Disown those of your own Communion who pay their Tithes, not to Popish Priests, but to those of the Church of England? Why are you so Zealous herein as not to leave it to their own Conviction, or Light within whether they will pay their Tithes to the Priests of the Church of England, or not? Why will you not allow them what you yourselves so much plead for, Liberty of Conscience, in this Case? No, This is a Material Cause, This is the surest Method to Destroy the Church of England. And you have gone a great way in it already. For if they are Deprived, first, of the Tithes of all the Quakers, (who are not so few, by the lowest Computation, as one hundred thousand here in England) and then of all those who, to avoid Payment of their Tithes, will pretend to be persuaded by them herein; if the Tithes of all such were substracted, there would not be sufficient left to keep half the Clergy in England from Starving. And it is the Desire and Design of the Quakers to Starve them, as is plainly Confessed and Threatened or Prophesied of in Richard Hubberthorn's Works reprinted since 1660. in his Answer to John Stellum, p. 130. When the Law of the Land (says he) ceaseth to maintain them (the Priests, as he calls them) which will come sooner than they expect, then may they beg their Bread, or Perish for want. And this the Quakers hope to effect by their Testimony against Tithes; and Threaten or Prophesy, that it will come sooner than we expect, either to have the Laws for Tithes altered, or overthrown: if the Government will not alter them, they will overthrow them, by Declaring them Antichristian, and so Abrogated of Course. And it is to be observed that there is no Principle of the Quaker Religion, wherein they are so Zealous as in this. They did not think it sufficient to Preach and Print against Tithes, but they went about and got Subscriptions of many thousands of the Quakers throughout all England, against Tithes; and sent them up to the Parliament in an Humble Threatening Manner. And, as if this had not been sufficient, the Women must be assembled in the several Counties; and They too must sign the like Subscriptions, and sent them likewise to the Parliament: And then they Printed them, to let the Nation know their Force. I have now before me the Printed Testimony and Subscriptions (with all their Names at length) of above Seven Thousand of these Quaker-women, against Tithes, sent to the Parliament (as they called it) the 20th. Day of the 5th. Month, 1659. They were resolv●d to Batter them down! And all who thus Subscribed, were, in their Fashion, Canonised by them. For they are thus styled in the said Printed Account, The Handmaids and Daughters of the Lord. But these seven thousand (who had not Bowed to the Baal of Tithe) would not have you think that there number was so small; for they subscribe not only for themselves, (but as it is there Printed) in the Names of many more of the said Handmaids and Daughters of the Lord, who witness against Tithes, etc. And G. Fox in his Letters of Licence (hereafter inserted) for these Subscriptions, complain, that All the Good Women had not Signed. I have not yet seen the Subscriptions of the Men. But we may compute, by this of the Women, what vast Numbers the Men Subscribers must have been. And we may reasonably suppose their Arguments to have been much the same, with these of the Women; being, likely, drawn by the Men, at least, with their Concurrence. And the Women do positively Declare for Annulling the Laws for Tithes, if the Parliament would not Alter the Laws. The Commands of men (say they, p. 3.) must be Annulled that take Tithes, and not to be obeyed by them that live in the Covenant of God. And they tell p. 4. That they bear their Testimony for the Lord jesus Christ, (in opposition of Tithes) against the Commands of men, set up in opposition to him since the Days of the Apostles, etc. which to you (say they) is the word of the Lord God. And. p. 21. The shout of a King is amongst Us, the Lord God Omnipotent— Therefore we with our Names and Hands bear our Testimony against Tithes, the Giver of them, the Setter of them up, and the Taker of them, p. 40. This Priesthood which takes Tithes Now (this was not the Popish Priesthood) we, in the Power of the Lord God, deny them. p. 63. We Declare with our Hands, and with our Lives and Estates, against the Ministry that ●akes Tithes, and the Setters of them— And the Law that upholds them. p. 71. Are not all these set up by the Dragon's Power, and held up by the Dragon's Power, the Devourer, the Destroyer? Is not this the Power of the Devil? These are their Words. And they need no Comment. They were, and are Plainly for Destroying the Law, if the Law will not Comply with them. But then, as now, they were for Flattering the Powers in being. They soothe that Rebel Parliament p. 54. Some of our Friends (s● they) who have been for the Parliament ever since the Beginning o● the late Wars, have suffere● more by these Plundering Priests than by the Plundering Cavalier● and you have sadned the Hear● of them that are your Friends, by setting up Tithes, etc. And (p. 62.) the wellwishers of the Choicest of the Nation are towards you. Here is a Material Discovery: Because the Quakers, since 1660. would make us believe that they had been Loyal in the Rebellion of 41. And the Reason they give, is, their Sufferings under those Usurpers. But here, it is plain, that their Sufferings were not for their Loyalty to the King, but for their Principles Destructive to all Government; taking upon themselves a Power Superior to all Laws, and to Annul what Laws they think fit. For here they confess themselves to have been for the Parliament, from the beginning of the War (so the Traitors styled that Rebellion) and (as before Quoted out of G. Fox) Soldiers in Oliver's Army. And they urged this, as their Merit, to the Parliament, 1659. and therefore complain that any of them should suffer by Tithes. And to show what thorough-paced Commonwealthsmen they were, G. Fox, in his Letter to the Council and Officers of the Army (before Quoted)▪ speaking of the several steps which were made, by the Rebel House of Commons in Destroying the King, and House of Lords, burst out into an Ecstasy of Commendation of their Glorious Proceed, in these words, p. 7. What a sincerity was there once in the Nation! What a Dirty Nasty thing would it have been to have heard talk of a House of Lords among them! etc. This was in the year 1659. They held out against the King, to the very last. And that not only in Talking and Writing, and Fight; but in Watching, and Discovering, and Betraying. Francis Howgil, (of great Name among the Quakers) in a Book of his called, An Information and also Advice to the Army— and this present Committee of Safety Newly Erected, etc. Printed 1659. p. 7. boasts, as a Merit of the Quakers, their giving Intelligence against Sir George Booth and others who risen for the King in Cheshire and Lancashire; whom he calls Rebels. Them (says he) who were your Real Friends, called Quakers, who gave you and the Army Intelligence about the late Insurrection in Cheshire, who were spoiled, by the said Rebels, of their Goods, etc. But this, with other now ungrateful Passages, are left out of the New Edition of Francis Howgil's Works, in a large Folio, 1676. p. 330. By the buy, Howgil, in this Book, Justifies the Title of the Committee of Safety against the late Parliament (as he calls it), as he did that of the Parliament against the late King, p. 6. And as for the Long Parliament (says he) by whom God did good things, and great things in the overthrowing that Power, which was Deviated from the aforesaid end (to wit) the late King, etc. But these last words [to wit, the late King] are left out in the New Edition p. 329. that, if this should come to be objected, they might say, that by the Power Deviated, etc. they did not mean the King, but some other Power. And as the King Deviated, so (says he) the Parliament Deviated; and thereby justifies the Committee of Safety against the Parliament. And so every thing that is uppermost, to the end of the Chapter. They too have stumbled upon the Doctrine of Success! During the long Reign of the Rump, they run down the King's Prerogative, and up with Privilege of Parliament. But when the Parliament was kicked out of Doors, than Privilege was as great a Beast as Prerogative; and the Committee of Safety only was in the right. And in the year 1660, then round about again, hay for monarchy! they would make you believe that they were always for Monarchy! The Ancient Courtiers (says Howgil, Ibid. p. 4. paragr. 6.) having found so much Ease and Profit by the late King, turned all Cavaliers, and cried up the Prerogative of the King— But the Long Parliament and the People that aided them at that time, counted it no Treason to Oppose him— and God decided the Controversy, in Overthrowing the one, and Establishing the other, etc. Yet many are so blind to this day, that they judge the Nation cannot be Established in freedom without a King, etc. This whole Paragraph is left out in the New Edition, for the Reason aforesaid. But having thus run down the King; they fall as foul upon the Parliament, when it was Discarded. Many (says Howgil, Ibid.) are so Doting on the Name of a Parliament, as though it were Essential, and cries up the Privilege of Parliament— But if they will not hearken, p. 5. to the Cry of their Masters (the People,) but may be call them Rebels and Traitors, if they should be turned out, etc. And so he goes on to maintain the Title of the Committee of Safety, against all others. But they were enraged against none so Implicably as against the King: They would stop all means and possibility of his Return. The Army of their Women , showed particular Zeal in this. They Advise, in their above-told Address to the Parliament, 1659. (the very year before the King came home) That the Late King (as they Rebelliously termed Him) His Rents, Parks, and Houses should be sold. And to what end? To pay the Sacrilegious Impropriators; that they (of all Men) should not lose by the Abolition of Tithes, which the Quakers demanded. And to she their Zeal, in this, against the King, they repeat it three times, p. 59, 63, and 65. In the same place, they join with the Kings-Lands, the Gleab-Lands, and all the Colleges and their Lands to be sold, upon the same foot, and the very Bells out of the Churches, except one in a Town, to give notice of Fire. Thus they had made sure of the Church, and the very Nurseries for the Education of the Clergy. Root and Branch— If the Curiosity of any lead them to see the abovesaid Subscriptions, they are all bound together, and bear this Title. These several Papers were sent to the Parliament the 20th day of the 5th Month, 1659. being above seven thousand of the Names of the Handmaids and Daughters of the Lord, and such as feel the Oppression of Tithes, etc. London Printed for Mary Westwood, and are to be sold at the Black Spread-Eagle, at the West End of Paul's, 1659. And this Book of Subscriptions contains 72 Pages in Quarto. This was the Quaker Solemn League and Covenant, a formal Association wherein they bind themselves, under their Hands, their Lives and Estates, to Extirpate the Church, and the Laws and Government which support it. And this was no Volunteer of the Women. They did not do it, without their Men (Jer. 44.19.) For here follows G. Fox's own Order Verbatim. For all Women Friends to set their Hands against Tithes, they may freely as they are moved, and do not Quench the Spirit of the Lord in any, for the Women in the Truth feel the weight as well as the Men; for the Seed of God in the Women bears witness against Tithes in the Priests and Pope the Author of them, and suffers in Prisons, and are Summoned up in Courts, so that is good which beareth the Testimony against them, and is to be received and set a top of the Author of the Holder's of them up. And so if all the Women in England send up their Names, I shall send them by the Women to the Parliament, for many Women have sent up their Names, and some have not, but have been stopped. Therefore that all may send their Names against Tithes that be Free with speed to London. G. F. He did not Date this, as it was not his Custom to Date the Papers he gave out: and the Reason he gave for it, was, because, as he said, the Apostles did not Date their Epistles. But the year before these Subscriptions of the Women, he printed a Paper A. D. 1658. called Papists Strength, etc. where p. 19 he leads the way to these Pious Handmaids, in all the Particulars which they Requested, or Demanded from the Parliament, even to the Abolition of Schools and Colleges as well as Churches. These are his Words, And this I declare in the Presence of the Lord God, and all the Magistrates that be in God's fear, they will break down the— Mass-Houses, Schools, and Colleges, which you make Priests and Ministers in, etc. I could enlarge, upon this Head, out of the Quaker-writing: But what Authorities I have already produced, are abundantly sufficient to show their deep design against the Church; and the means by which they have agreed to Destroy Her; this especially of keeping up (to use their own Phrase) their Testimony against Tithes. Therefore this Handle must, by no means, be let go. Insomuch that tho' their Pretence to the Sufficiency and Infallibility of the Light within was the Original, and is the Fundamental Principle of all the whole Quaker, Doctrine; yet if any Plead it, in this Case, they shall be run down as Hypocrites and Rebels against God, and to have fallen from the True Light within, and to be guided by a False Light, which comes from Satan, to be very Anti-christs', and to have denied Christ's coming in the Flesh, etc. as I have above shown from Tho. Ellwood's Antidote against the Infection of William Rogers, etc. Now I must tell the Reader that this William Rogers is a Quaker, but of the more moderate sort, and he wrote 〈◊〉 Book called, The Christian Quaker, Printed 1680. where, Part 2. Chap. 8. touching Tithes, He disputes expressly against Tithes, and against the Lawfulness of Suing for them, or Compelling any to Pay them. Only p. 43. he allows those to Pay them, who are Free so to do. And that only as a Voluntary Contribution 〈◊〉 those who Teach them, but not as any thing of a Divine Right. And p. 44. he again limits this to those only who own such Ministers as true Ministers of Christ, and go to Hear them; and, upon that account, bestow a Fifth, Tenth, or what they please upon them. So that hereby he cuts off all Dissenters to the Church of England from Paying Tithes to the Clergy of the Church of England. Seconly, He bars the Clergy from Suing, or using any Compulsory means, to recover their Tithes, even from those of their own Communion. But he makes Tithes merely Eleemosynary; and the Clergy to have no better Title to them than a Beggar has to our Alms. Yet all this was not sufficient for the Quakers. But Tho. Ellwood falls upon him like a Turk, for granting so much, as to make Tithes Lawful upon any Account or Consideration whatsoever. And writes against this Book of William Rogers, the above Quoted An Atidote against the Infection of William Rogers's Christian Quaker. Where, p. 78. he Denounces (as above) against those who Pay Tithes, even according to William Rogers' aforesaid Limitations, That they who Pay Tithes— thereby deny Christ to be come in the Flesh, which is a mark of Antichrist. And in Westmoreland there were 44 Articles Exhibited against John Story, and J. Wilkinson (two Quakers) by sundry of their Chief Preachers and Rulers. One of which Articles was, That he (John Story) said he knew a Man that was an honest Man, that could have given up his Body to be Burnt for the Truth, who said he never saw Evil in Paying of Tithes, and that he could Pay them, and would Pay them. Another Article was▪ That John Story said he believed every Man had not a Testimony for God laid upon them to bear against Tithes: But them which had, he would have them be Faithful. And these two, John Story, and John Wilkinson, were Proceeded against by a General Meeting of the Quakers in London; who the 12th Day, of the 4th Month, 1677. gave Judgement against them, and those that joined with them, in a Formal Instrument, Subscribed by Sixty Six of them. But this was soon Re-buffeted back again upon them, by the Quakers in the West of England, who adhered to Story and Wilkinson, in as Solemn and Judicial a Condemnation of them and their Sentence, and this was Subscribed by Sixty Seven of the other Party, and Styled A Testimony against the 66 Judges called Quakers, etc. and Printed under that Title, together with the Paper of the said Judges, and all their Names Subscribed. It is pleasant to see them Play their Infallibilities against one another. For each of these Parties pretend to the Immediate Spirit of God; and in the Name of God, Pronounce the other to be led by a False, Ravening Spirit. Our Souls (say the Defendants) do in the highest Degree Abominate it, and do surge against it, p. 15. that is, the Authority which the Plaintiffs assumed over Conscience, in Judging of others; and not leaving them to their Primitive Liberty, of following their own Light within. On the other Hand, the London Quakers who assumed a Superiority over the Country Quakers, Condemned that Spirit which Possessed them, as a wrong Murmuring, and Dividing Spirit. p. 5. And our Day (say they) hath lamentably shown us the Effects of that Spirit, that under a Pretence of Crying down Impositions, and Pleading for Liberty, and doing nothing but what it is Free to, endeavoureth to lay waste the Blessed Unity of the Brethren— with a lose and Vn-subjected Conversation; which would bring Confusion to the Church— and is a plain Independency from the Practice of the Church of Christ throughout the World. p. 6. It is Comical (but Provoking) to see these Men so Gravely vouch the Practice of the Church throughout the World, who own no Church in the World but themselves! And for them now to speak against the pretence of Liberty in others, as a Breach of their Unity; when they themselves set up the very same Pretence, to break the Unity of that Church, whereof they once were Members! But it is come justly home to them (I wish they may reflect upon it) that they who set up the Pretence of a Light within to undermine the Authority of our Church; are now obliged to Condemn that same Pretence among themselves, in order to keep up their own Authority and Government. This shows them, as in a Glass, the utter Inconsistency of that Principle (to use their own Word) of an Vn-subjected Light within, to all Rule, Order, or Good Government, whether in Church or State: For it makes every Man Absolute and Supreme, that is, Un-subjected. Any Lesser Light within had not made them Vn-subjected to the Church: And this Vn-subjected Light within they now declare to be Inconsistent even with their Church. Thus have they justly Reaped, what they have wickedly Sown: And in the same Net which they hide Privily, is their own Foot taken. Mr. Penn, in his Preface to Fox 's Journal, p. 27. has done the most that Wit can do to rid them out of this Dilemma, and reconcile the two Extremes, of Outward Government in the Church, and an Unsubjected Light within Particular Persons. He says that the Quakers Known Principle is For an Universal Liberty of Conscience. On the other Hand (says he) they equally dislike a● Independency in Society. An Vn accountableness in Practice and Conversation, to the Terms of their own Communion, and to those that are the Members of it. Very well. But what if some of these Members should make Terms of Communion, that others would not submit to? as John Story, John Wilkinson, and 67 on their side of the West Country Quakers, refused to submit to those Terms of Communion which were imposed upon them by 66 of the Quakers at London Assembled, of whom William Penn was one, and his Name is among the Subscribers of the Judgement above-told against Story, Wilkinson, etc. who would not allow these 66 Judges, as they called them, the very Name of Quakers, because of their taking upon them thus to Judge others; for, as abovesaid, the 67 Western Quakers Condemnation of the Presumption of the 66, is Entitled, A Testimony against the 66 Judges called Quakers. They would allow them no more than to be called so, but not to be Reckoned as True Quakers, who fell so far from the first Quaker Independent Spirit, as to take upon them to Prescribe to their Brethren. George Fox set up a new Oeconomy and Jurisdiction of the Woman's Meetings; which was Styled, The Great and Good Ordinance of Jesus Christ. That is, as being Commanded by G. Fox, who had the same Spirit! And John Story, etc. were Cursed and Excommunicated for refusing to submit to this Ordinance, (as is told hereafter) and Articled against for so much as allowing Liberty of Conscience to a●● Quaker to Pay Tithes (as told above) now it lies upon Mr. Penn to Explain how an Universal Liberty of Conscience was allowed to these Men? Was that Universal which was so Limited? And what is an Universal Liberty, but Independency and Un-accountableness in Practice and Conversation? For if my Liberty be Dependant upon another; if I am Accountable to another, than my Liberty is not universal Mr. Penn will tell us how the one, that is, universal Liberty of Conscience, can be the Known Principle of the Quakers; and how ●hen they Equally Dislike the other, ●●at is, an Independency, and Un-●ccountableness; which are all but too words for the same thing! George Keith did Publicly Reprehend many Gross Errors, (as he was ●erily persuaded in his Conscience) ●f his Brethren the Quakers. For which, he was Prosecuted in Pensil●vania, 1692. and Required by the Yearly Meeting in London, 1694. ●o clear all the Quakers from the Impu●ations which he had cast upon them; for not doing of which he was Excommunicated by the next Yearly Meeting, 1695. (as in his Accounts of it above mentioned) tho' he declared that he could not, in Conscience, do it; for that ●he knew not All the Quakers, and so could not clear them all Universally: Nay further, that he knew several of th● Chief of them there present, who were Guilty of those Gross Errors, against which he had Preached; and which be there offered to prove before the Yearly Meeting, and desired a Fair Hearing and therefore that he could not, in Conscience, clear their whole Profession from these Errors: yet for not doing of it, and without any Hearing allowed him, as to his Charge against these Men, he was, Ipso Facto, by that same Yearly Meeting, Excommunicated and utterly Disowned by them. Now I would ask Mr. Penn (because he was one of his Judges) whether G. Keith had, by this Proceeding, an universal Liberty of Conscience allowed to him, or not? If not, (as it is impossible to say he had) then ●et the Quaker Pretence to Liberty of Conscience stand upon the common Level with all others; that is, it is made a great Cry of by those who are under the Pressure of the Government; but allowed Universally by no Church in the World, when they have the Power Thus the Presbyterians, who cried out for Libetty of Conscience in England, and complained of Fines or Imprisonments, here, when they got into New-England, Hanged up the poor Quakers, who Dissented from them there. And the Quakers, when they had tasted a little of the sweet of Government in Pensilvania, Prosecuted G. Keith, and other Dissenters there, and took up the old Pretence, that it was not for his Doctrine, but as it was a Disturbance to the Government. No Church, not that of Rome, Pretends to any Power farther than to Excommunicate. And the Quakers Pretend 〈◊〉 to the same, and Exercise it. And all who can get the Assistance of the Civil Government, do take it. And all Corporal Punishments are only from the Civil Government even in the Popish Countries. And the same Distinction serves at Rome, and in Pensilvania For Sam. Jennings Esq Justice of Peace, gave out his Warrants, etc. against G. Keith and his Accomplicieses, as Subverters of the Government▪ But plain Samuel Jennings the Butcher, Butcher, and Preacher, pretends to no Superiority over G. Keith his Fellow Minister in the Church! Or that their Church (Quatenus Church) pretends to any outward Coercion, or Corporal Punishments. So that they have said nothing New upon this Head. Only Mr. Penn's Expression is Remarkable (ibid. p. 26.) where he speaks against A Coercive Power to whip People into the Temple, which he calls Persecution. He would seem, by this, to lead us to the Precedent of our Saviour 's Scourging the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple. And is it greater Persecution to whip People into the Temple, than to whip them out of the Temple? But I would desire Mr. Penn, and the other Quakers to Reflect, that the greatest Zeal which Christ ever showed, was to Preserve the Honour and Reverence due to Outward Institutions of Religion; even to the Material Temple of Stones and Lime; through which he would not suffer so much as any Vessel to be carried (Mark 11.16.) and his Disciples applied to this, that of Psal. 69.9. The Zeal of thine House hath eaten me up, (Joh. 2.17.) And if he thus Reproved the Jews Profanation of their Outward Temple, tho' they Pretended, and, in many things, did express great Vener●●● towards it; How would he h●● Scourged those who durst Despise and Contemn it, at the vile Quaker rate, and Ridicule it by the Name of a Steeplehouse, as Fox through all his Journal? And some, yet more Profanely, have called the Church, a Bawdy-House, a Whore-House, etc. which I have from those that have heard them. And they value themselves as Spiritual and Enlightened, from this Contempt of God's House, and of all Outward things Dedicated to his Service: Upon Pretence (forsooth) of reducing all to the Inward; as if they were more Spiritual than Christ, or Wiser than He, to think that Outward Institutions were not Necessary, to Guard, to Preserve, and to Improve the Inward and Spiritual Part of Religion: To think that there is no Sacrilege, no Robbing of God, in this Gospel-Day, tho' we seize upon His Tithe and Tribute due to Him; as if we Depended less upon Him, or owed Him less Acknowledgement than formerly, and that we had now the Privilege to appear Empty before the Lord, and to Sacrifice to Him only out of that which Cost us nothing, neither the Sweat of our Brows, nor hardly the Expense of a Thought; a few undigested Extempore Prayers, the Calves of our Lips; but to bar His Title to any part of our Estate, so much as to the Lame or Blind of our Flock, or to a Penny of our Money, as a Due or Just Debt to Him: But if we give a Bit, or a Scrap to the Levite, or to the Poor, that it should be accepted as a Free-Will-Offering, wherein we must be our own Carvers, but have nothing Imposed upon us: No, not so much as a Tenth Part, tho' we acknowledge that to have been God's Tribute, Universally Paid to Him both before the Law, and under the Law, and we can produce no Discharge from it under the Gospel. But we Suppose ourselves Free, and have cast away His Cords from us. And having Spiritualised away all the Letter of the Scripture in other matters, it would be a shame to leave Literal Tithe to be Paid. The Quakers will thank Him for His Love, but desire to be Excused as to Money Matters. They know God has no need of Money; therefore they will use it for Him, and Pay Him in Spiritual Coyn. But tho' they dare thus Mock God to His Face; yet they are afraid of the Face of Man. Tho' they make no Scruple of withholding God's Tithe, and pretend Conscience forit; yet they would smooth it to the Government, as being against their Laws, and make Jesuitical Subterfuges to avoid their Displeasure: As in this Quaker Answer to Bugg, which I have spoke of before, and will Prosecute a little further, to Detect their Deceit and Hypocrisy. As it was said of Hannibal, that He never Fought without an Ambush, so the Quakers never Writ without 〈◊〉 Reserve, a Double Meaning, to secure their Retreat, when Pinched from another Quarter, as is most apparent in this their Apology against Francis Bugg 's Impeachment, as to the matter of Tithes. I will conceal none of their Strength. I see the Starting-hole they have left, (as in all their Writings) whereby to escape from what I have before Quoted, viz. That their Testimony against Tithes does Rather affect a Popish Clergy, than a Protestant Civil Government. The Charm lies in the word Rather; and if they are pressed Hereafter with this Testimony of theirs, as Favouring of Tithes: No, they will say, We did not, by that, at all Allow of Tithes; but only, by way of Comparison, we would Rather grant it to a Protestant Civil Government, than to a Popish Clergy: Not that we think it lawful to pay them to Either. And this is their True and Genuine meaning by this Testimony; which I will show yet more fully from the Proofs they bring for it. They bring Precedents, as Vouchers for them, out of Fox's Book of Martyrs, of some who refused Tithes to the then Popish Clergy; and thence would insinuate as if their Case were the same. Therefore they grievously Accuse Francis Bugg, in that he most shamefully Quarrels with the Quakers, p. 3. for renewing and asserting his (Wickliff's) and other Famous Protestants and Martyrs Testimonies against the Corruption of Priests, and Popish Imposition and Oppression of Tithes. And they instance another, one William Thorp, in the Reign of Hen. IU. But, to secure their Double Meaning, the Arguments which they Quote of these Men, are not against Paying of Tithes to the then Priests, because they were Popish, but as making Tithes not proper under the Gospel; which reaches to all Priests, whether Popish or others. But will the Quakers be tied to the Opinion of these Men, in other things? No, surely. They will not so much as Pretend to that. Why then should they think to tie us to their Opinion as to Tithes? They lay particular stress upon the Ample Testimony (as they call it) given by William Thorp, as to their present Purpose. And they set it down at large. It militates against Tithes being Paid at all under the New Law, that is, to any sort of Priests. And how does this serve to the Present Purpose of these Quakers, who would put upon us, that they are only against Tithes being Paid to Popish Priests: For otherwise they do, in no sort, clear themselves from Francis Bugg's Impeachment; which is, their opposimg the Laws of the Land, and Preaching them down as Antichristian, and not to be obeyed. But as to Thorp's Argument, wherein they so much Glory; it shows what a Doughty Clerk he was. Our Priests (says he) came not of the Lineage of Levi, but of the Lineage of Judah, to which Judah no Tithes were Promised to be given. Thus he, as these Quakers have Quoted him. But now, who told Thorp, or the Quakers, that out Priests came of the Lineage of Judah▪ Are they Jews? What fullsom stuff it this! But our Saviour was of Judah. What then! He was not a Priest, after the Order of Judah, of which Tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning Priesthood, Heb. 7.14. But he was a Priest after the Order of Melchisedec, Heb. 5.6. And Tithes were Paid to Melchisedec, long before Levi, who Paid Tithes to Melchisedec, being yet in the Loins of his Father Abraham, Heb. 7.10. Now the Evangelical Priesthood is after the Order of Melchisedec: And therefore they Claim Tithes, as being due to that Order of Priesthood: So that all their Arguments as to the Law, and Levitical Priesthood being superseded, operate nothing against Priests of a Superior and more Excellent Priesthood. 12. And there being as Ancient mention of Tithes as there is of Priesthood in the World, I have no manner of doubt but they are as Ancient as Priesthood itself, that is, as Adam: From whom Descended the Knowledge of Tithes, as of Sacrifices, and Priesthood; which are all Relatives, the one being the Maintenance, the other the Office of the Priesthood; and therefore the one must be as Ancient as the other: And they were all alike Received by the Heathen World, by an Immemorial Tradition from the Beginning, without knowing of their Beginning, as they knew not their own Origination, nor of the World, of Marriage, and other Positive Institutions, which, by an Universal Tradition, had been Conveyed down to them. God reserved the Tenth Part of our Substance, as the Seventh of our Time, to be Paid, as a Tribute and Acknowledgement to Him, from whom we Receive All: And therefore the Payment of Tithes is a part of God's Worship. The Priests being made the Receivers (because we cannot Pay them to God immediately) is but a Secondary Consideration. They were part of the Offerings to God, under the Law, Numb. 18.24. They are called His Inheritance, Deut. 18.1. not as then Instituted, but then given to the Levites. Nor is Melchisedec's Tything of Abraham mentioned as the Beginning or first Rise of Tithes; but it is told only occasionly, and as a thing well known and Received, even in these Early Ages. And being part of the Worship of God, Holy unto the Lord, Leu. 27.32, 33. They were not Alienable, or to be Changed with any thing else. The Priests could no more Excuse Men from the Payment of their Tithes (for they were Paid to God) than they could Commute any of the other Offerings or Sacrifices, upon the pretence that they were given to the Priests for their Maintenance. No Man says that the People did offer Sacrifices to the Priests, tho' the Priests did live of their Sacrifices; neither are Tithes offered to the Priests, but to God, tho' they are Paid to the Priests, and Received by the Priests from the Hands of the People, as other Offerings to the Lord were. Therefore the Substraction of the Tithes, as of other Offerings, is called a Robbing, not of the Priests, but of God, Mal. 3.8. It is Invading what God has Reserved Peculiar to Himself, that we may not Touch it of all the other Trees of the Garden 〈◊〉 may freely eat. And this is the same Sacrilege as to taste of the Forbidden Fruit. That was the First Sin. It was Sacrilege. And I am not afraid to say, that all are guilty of it, who have seized upon the Tithes of God, and Pay them not to His Priests. And that this Sin will not be forgiven without a severe Repentance, and Restitution. How far extreme Ignorance, occasioned by the Torrent of the Times, will Excuse, I will not now Dispute: But I am sure Wilful or Affected Ignorance, occasioned by Negligence, or Covetousness will not. And let this be added to all that I have said; That several Kings of England, who had then the sole Right and Property in all the Lands of England, have anew Dedicated, by Particular Vows, as Jacob (Gen. 28.22.) all the whole Tithe of the Lands of England to God; and Signed Charters and Grants of the same tendered upon their Knees, at the Altar of God, in Presence, and with the Approbation of the Lords, and Estates of the Land, with Heavy Curses and Imprecations upon themselves, or any of their Successors, who should Recall the same, or Encroach, in any part, upon the said Tithe of God; and upon all who should Receive such Grants from them, or assist them in such Sacrilege. And the same has been confirmed by several Acts of Parliament. Now if a Man cannot violate H●own Vow, how can he Annul that of another? Especially where his Vow was only for the Payment of what God had before Reserved to Himself. But I will not Launch out here upo● this Subject; only tell these Quakers, That it was the Friars and Schoolmen who first set up the Notion of Tithes being Eleemosynary, against their own Canonists, on purpose to leave the People at Liberty to bestow their Tithes upon the Regulars, and to maintain the Sacrilegious Impropriations which the Pope had made of the Tithes of the Secular Clergy, to endow their Monasteries: which Hen. VIII. instead of Restoring, did yet more Sacrilegiously Impropriate to the Laity. And here let the Quakers take a view of the Original of their Arguments against Tithes: They have only licked up the Spittle of the most Corrupt Part of the Church of Rome; and gone in to the Scandal of our Reformation, which is most justifiable in our Doctrine and Worship; but the High Places were not taken away. Our jehu Reformer destroyed indeed Baal out of the Land, (2 Kings 10.28, 29.) but he departed not from the sin of the Golden Calves. O thou that abhorrest Idols, dost thou commit Sacrilege! Rom. 2.22. But our Quakers exceed all Corruption even in this. They not only refuse to Pay their Tithes to God; But they are Tempted by the Seducer, to Rail against them as utterly Unlawful and Antichristian. And, to add even to this, they would now Hypocritically excuse themselves at the Hands of the Government; and dare not bear their Testimony openly and above-board. They simper with half a Mouth, and say, they mean it not against a Protestant Civil Government; when, no longer since than in their Yearly Epistle for the Year 1693. directed from the Yearly Meeting at London, to the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in England, Wales, and Elsewhere, it is positively Enjoined, That none should Pay Tithes, but Refuse the Payment thereof as an Antichristian Yoke of Bondage. And in a Book delivered by them to the House of Commons, 1694. Intitued the Counterfeit Convert, etc. which was wrote by George Whitehead; and wherein they pretend to vindicate themselves from Calumnies cast upon them; and to set forth their true Doctrine, which they will stand by, and own as such, before the Parliament: There, p. 73. they openly Declare, That their Testimony against Tithes was not a Law of Their making, but of Christ's. This is high indeed! For than it must supersede all our Laws, and render them Antichristian. This is a full Confession of Francis Bugg's Impeachment. But I meddle not now with that, only as to the Conscience of the thing. Where do they find any Law of Christ against Tithes? No, they are not able to produce one word, or any thing like it. But, on the contrary, there are plain Intimations in the Gospel of their Continuance, particularly 1 Cor. 9.13, 14. But we need no new Command for them in the Gospel. If they are not Forbidden, and Abrogated by Christ, they are still of force. They are no part of the Typical or Ceremonial Law: and nothing else of the Law was Abrogated by Christ. They were before the Law; and the Reason of them is Eternal. That is, Honouring the Lord with our Substance (Prov. 39) as with our Time: and that Proportion of either which He, at first, Reserved to Himself must so Remain. But there is another Jesuitical Excuse in p. 2. of these Quakers Answer to Bugg, viz. That these their Orders are not Constitutions or Canons, but Epistles, wherein several matters of Christian Advice are Recommended, and not Imposed:, This would seem as if these Quakers were left to their Liberty whether they would pay Tithes or not. But the contrary is made fully appear, in the Instances of Crisp, Story, Rogers, etc. as before. And as to the Style of their Orders being called Epistles, I suppose, they have heard of the Pope's Decretal Epistles. And he Commands most Absolutely, when he writes himself, Servant of the Servants of God. Soft Words, and Hard Meaning! That Severe and Terrible Excommunication against John Story, etc. above told, was by way of Epistle, which is taken notice of in the above-Quoted Replication, in the very Title of it, viz. A Testimony against the 66 Judges called Quakers, who writ an Epistle (as they call it) against John Story, John Wilkinson, and those joined with them, etc. I have shown before that not only Their Writings, when they are called Epistles, but all, even the very Queries of Theirs are to be esteemed Equal to the Scriptures, so that (as they say) you might as well condemn the Scriptures to the Fire as their Queries. That Their Writings are not to be looked upon as the Edicts of Men, but of God Himself, etc. But when they are Pinched, than they are only Recommendations, and Advices— But such as must be Obeyed, under the pain of being Rebels to God, and Disowned by them. Which, to much the greatest number of them, considering their Dependence upon one another in Trade, is their utter undoing. Now such Advices look very like Commands. And this last Excuse of the Quakers is no better than the former. But in all this Answer to Bugg, they have quite forgot the most material Objection against them, which is some Quotations of theirs as to Tithes, which are cited by Bugg, particularly that mentioned p. 3. of Edw. Burrough, in the 780 page of his Works. Tithes (says he) as received and paid in these days— are of Antichrist. This totally overthrows the Quakers Excuse in their Answer to Bugg, viz. That they only spoke against Tithes being paid to Popish Priests, and by Popish Laws: For here Edw. Burrough condemns those Tithes as Antichristian which are Received and Paid, in these Days; which are to Protestant Priests, and by Protestant Laws. And to this the Quakers Answer has not returned one word, or taken the least notice of it. No, nor to that other Quotation out of the Ancient Testimony, etc. p. 2. So it is no new thing that the People of the Lord called Quakers, have suffered so deeply, for but the Ancient Testimony to the Coming, Death, and Resurrection of Christ, which they that Plead for Tithes, in this Gospel-Day, do, in effect, Deny, etc. Nor to that Quoted out of Thomas Ellwood's Antidote, etc. which I have mentioned before, but Bugg here more at large. Thus, p. 78. of the Antidote; Truth allows no Payment of Tithes at all under the New Covenant, but Condemns it— They who Pay Tithes do therein uphold a Legal Ceremony, Abrogated by Christ; and thereby deny Christ to be come in the Flesh, which is a Mark of Antichrist, etc. To the Argument it is Answered before, That Tithes are no Legal Ceremony; nor any Ceremony at all. They are a just Tribute, and Acknowledgement to God out of that Increase with which He has blessed our Labours. This is far above a Ceremony, which, in its own Nature, is a thing Indifferent, neither Good, nor Bad; which the Duty of Honouring the Lord with our Substance is not, but a Necessary, and even a Natural Duty: And as to the particular Quantum of a Tenth part of our Substance, that was determined long before the Law; and was the Universally received Notion of the World, in all Ages; and therefore, of Divine Institution; and so, far from a Legal Ceremony. And as they were no Ceremony, so neither were they any Type of Christ, and to cease at His Coming, like Sacrifices, whose first Institution was to Prefigure the Death of Christ, and the shedding of His Blood. And therefore Christ is called by the Name of His Types; Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us, 1 Cor. 5.7. He is called our Passover, and Sacrifice; but he is never called our Tithe. For that has no Relation to any Typical Representation of Christ; ●hey Prefigure not His Passion, or Death: They are totally of another Nature, a Tribute due from us to our Creator and Preserver. And therefore never to cease. They are never Fullfilled, but in being daily Paid. Sacrifices, and all other Types of Christ are Fullfilled: For He only is now our Sacrifice: But He is not our Tithe. The nonsense of such a Pretence appears from the very Proposing of it. But in the next place, as Tithes are no Legal Ceremony, nor Type, so neither are they Abrogated by Christ, as T. Ellwood affirms, but cannot Prove. We desire any one Text to show it. He quotes 1 Joh. 4.3. which has no more Relation to it than Neh. 10. to the 28. verse. And is a plain Demonstration that they have no such Proof; else they would have brought it. And it is as plain that they have no Answer to give to those Quotations which Fr. Bugg produces out of their Books, otherwise it is impossible but they must have said something to them; they being so exceedingly Scandalous and Provoking to our Government both in Church and State; as their making our Magistrates to be Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezars, etc. and the Clergy, very Conjurers, Thiefs, Anti-christs', Witches, Devils, Baal's Priests, Hellhounds, etc. and crying woe and misery to the Upholders (whether Kings or Parliaments) of that Treacherous Crew, and Deceitful Generation. But William Penn (continues Bugg in his Impeachment, p. 1.) in his late Book Styled, The Guide Mistaken, etc. goes a little farther, viz. Whilst the Idle Gormondizing Priests of England, run away with above 150000 l. a year, under Pretence of God's Ministers— And that no sort of People have been so universally through Ages, the very Bane of Soul and Body of the Universe, as that Abominable Tribe, for whom the Theatre of God 's most Dreadful Vengeance is reserved, to Act their Eternal Tragedy upon, etc. What Flaming Ovens are the Hearts of these Men! Belching forth nothing but Hell and Damnation! Bugg tells, in the same place, how Industriously these Books are spread amongst the Quakers; insomuch that a poor Widow-Quaker, to whom he Administered, whose substance did not amount to ten pounds, yet she was so well stored with these Quaker Printed Books and Pamphlets, that she had more than two hundred of them. Enough (says he) to Infect a Nation, their Chief tendency being against Magistracy and Ministry, and all Instituted Religion. And to all this Heavy Impeachment, there is not one word of Answer, in that which is called The Quakers Answer to Bugg. Nihil Dicit, is Confessing of Judgement: And, by this, we must believe all these Quotations of Buggs to be True. And that there is nothing to be said in Defence of them: But that the Quakers own them still, and are just such Men as he has Represented them. But to Conclude, If they thought that they could prove Tithes to be Abrogated by Christ; their being against the Law of the Land ought to be no Objection: But their poor Trimming and seeking Excuses, shows either that they dare not stand to the Truth, or that they think not their own Pretences to be Truth, though they would pass them, as such, upon others. If they could prove Tithes to be Abrogated by Christ, then indeed Bugg's Impeachment would appear to be Malicious, only to stir up Persecution against the Truth of Christ, because it was not owned by the Law of the Land. But if it cannot be made appear that Tithes are contrary to the Law of Christ; then they are justly Impeachable, who shall oppose the Laws of the Land in that particular. And this shows how dangerous a thing it is to admit Enthusiasm, in any Government, when their Imaginations and Crotchets shall be thought Equal to the Scripture, and to have Force to dissolve the Laws of the Land. It is no Objection against Quakerism, that it has not been Voted in St. Stephen's Chapel (as bad things have) and I should like it not the better, but the worse, if it were made the Parliamentary Religion of the Nation: which it may come to, in its turn. All Persecution for the Faith, is suffering in opposition to Laws. And the Psalmist tells of those who establish Wickedness by a Law. Therefore this was the easiest Objection in the World to get over. But now, for the Quakers (to curry a little favour) to Shame and Trim, as in this their Answer to Bugg, and that in a matter of Conscience, gives us an Idea of these Men, far short of Infallibility; even as the poorest Time-servers, and, in their unmannerly way, of Flatterers, and Sycophants. And I have shown that they were always so. Courting all the Prosperous Rebellions from 1650. to 1660. I have done this for the sake of those Honest Loyal Quakers now amongst us: If they were all guided with the same Spirit, they would be all such; especially Mr. Penn having told us (ut supra, p. 61.) That their Light within did serve them both in reference to Religion, and Civil Concerns. And we believe it does both alike Infallibly. And then let our Now Loyal Quakers take a measure of their Infallibility in other things, by the Traitorous Principles and Actions of G. Fox, and all the rest of them, from 1650. to 1660. in that Scene of Rebellion and Schism, the two Breasts of the Covenant, whence the Quakers sucked their Infant Milk. I hope this dismal Prospect of the Birth and Growth of Quakerism, will cure those Quakers of Honesty and Sense, who have a just apprehension of the Heinousness of Schism in the Church, and Rebellion in the State. And I would desire them not to satisfy themselves (it will not satisfy the World) to slip out some of the most Monstrous Passages of Treason out of the new Editions of their Prophets, as I have shown they have served Edw. Burrough, Francis Howgil, etc. and I have given them a timely warning as to the New Edition of G. Fox 's Works, which is upon the Stocks: For this disingenuous Trick exposes their Infallibility much more; and they are not to think that some will not watch them, and Detect their Double Dealing. There is nothing less will serve their turn, than down right to Acknowledge the Folly and Wickedness of their Former Prophets; to Renounce, Disown, and Condemn their Blasphemies, and Treasons: otherwise, they must be judged Partners with them, and Favourers, at least, of their Impious Principles, who refuse to Condemn them; when it is so necessary for the Glory of God, and removing so horrid a Scandal, not only to the Quakers, but to the Reformed Religion, and to Christianity itself; which Appellations the Quakers assume to themselves; but how justly, I leave to the Reader. 13. And the Quakers cannot refuse thus to Condemn these Scandalous Prophets and Teachers of theirs, even by their own Discipline: For in their Yearly Meeting, 1675. they made a Decree, That the Church's Testimony and Judgement against Scandalous Walkers; and the Repentance and Condemnation of the Parties Restored should be Recorded in a Distinct Book, to be Produced or Published for that end. Now, if they think Blasphemers and Traitors, and False-Prophets to be Scandalous Walkers, they are obliged here, by their own Rule (and their Practice, in other Cases) to cause them to sign Instruments of Condemnation against themselves, and to Record these in their Public Register, together with their Church's Testimony and Judgement against them, to be Produced and Published for that end, to vindicate their Church from the Scandal. But if they refuse (as I am afraid they will) to Execute this Discipline upon those False-Prophets herein Detected, and many others whom they know, upon all their Blasphemers and Traitors (upon their Persons, if alive, and their Works, if they are dead) if they refuse this, it is plain, that they think not such to be Scandalous Walkers; but that they justify them, and their Principles: Tho' (as in this their Answer to Bugg) they would, for their Temporal Ease and Advantage, and to blind the Eyes of the World, Cover and Cut and Shuffle and Hid themselves. Let this therefore be the Touchstone to prove them: Let them Produce and Publish such their Condemnation of Fox, Burrough, etc. for their False Prophecies, and Traitorous Abetting of Oliver and the Rump, and that In the Name, and From the Mouth of the Lord, adding Blasphemy to Rebellion. Let them either Convict Bugg of False Quotation in those Barbarous Passages he has produced out of several of their Books, in this his Impeachment, or let such Persons be Censured by them, and their Books Disowned. But if they will do none of these things, then let them lie under the Impeachment and the Condemnation laid against them; and it must, in that Case, and for that Reason, be laid upon their Church, as their avowed Doctrine and Principle; and not only as the Failing of Particular Persons. 14. Lastly, I desire to obviate some Objections which have been made by some to whom I have shown the following Sheets, and thereby further to enforce the Proofs hereafter brought. First, It has been objected to me, That I seem to have aggravated that Point against the Quakers of their aspiring to an Equality with God: which is so wild and outrageous a Blasphemy, that some cannot believe these Men mean it, tho' they say it. And indeed it was not without great Force upon myself, that I could be brought to believe it; for I thought it impossible, that any Man, even in Bedlam, could be far given up, to a total Deprivation of all Sense and Reason. But I was over and over, to my Astonishment, convinced of this, by the Perusal of their Blasphemous Writings: Particularly of G. Fox, which I have Quoted, Sect. VI p. 51. and have considered Mr. Penn's Defence of him. Sect. VII. from p. 57 And if this be not sufficient, I will now further prove my Charge, even in Legal Form against him, by Evidence upon Oath: which you will find in a Book Printed 1653. Entitled, A Brief Relation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers, etc. There p. 2. and 3. you have the Account how George Fox did avow himself over and over to be Equal with God: being asked by Dr. Marshal, in the Presence of Mr. Sawro, Coll. Tell, and Coll. West, Justices of the Peace in the County of Lancashire, at a Private Sessions in the Town of Lancaster, whether or no he was Equal with God, as he had before that time been heard to affirm: His Answer was this, I am Equal with God. This Blasphemy hath been attested upon Oath, by the aforesaid Dr. Marshal, and Mr. Altam Schoolmaster of Lancaster, before the Justices at the last Sessions, held at Appleby, the 8th of January, 1652. and before Judge Puleston at the last Assizes held at Lancaster, the 18th of March, 1652. Thus that Account, which was Printed soon after the said Assizes: at the same Assizes, it was proved against this Fox, that he had avowed himself to be the Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Witnessed by George Bickett and Isaac Bourne) That he was the Judge of the World, (Witnesses, George Bickett, Adam Sands, Nathanael Atkinson) yea the Eternal Judge of the World (George Bickett Witness;) and Mr. Sawro, a Justice of Peace, told the Judge, in the open Court, that he could produce many more who could Witness that G. Fox had affirmed himself to be the Christ, etc. But the Witnesses produced were thought sufficient at that time. In the above Account, p. 3. it is likewise Witnessed, that james Naylor affirmed, That he was as Holy, Just and Good, as God Himself; and that ames Milner (before mentioned, p. 24. 25.) in the County of Lancashire, professed himself to be God and Christ. Witnesses, Thomas Shaw, Gerard Shaw, George Inman. These monstrous Blasphemies occasioned a Petition from the Gentlemen of that County, to the then Council of State. Which being short, I give you Verbatim as follows. To the Right Honourable the Council of State. The Humble Petition of several Gentlemen, Justices of Peace, Ministers of the Gospel, and People, within the County of Lancaster, whose Names are Subscribed. Shows, That George Fox, and James Naylor are Persons Disaffected to Religion, and the wholesome Laws of this Nation; and that since their coming into this Country, have Broached Opinions tending to the Destruction of the Relation of Subjects to their Magistrates, Wives to their Husbands, Children to their Parents, Servants to their Masters, Congregations, to their Ministers, and of a People to their God: And have drawn much People after them: Many whereof (Men, Women, and little Children) at their Meetings, are strangely wrought upon in their Bodies, and brought to Fall, Foam at the Mouth, Roar, and swell in their Bellies. And that some of them affirm themselves to be Equal with God, contrary to the late Act, as hath been attested at a late Quarter-Sessions holden at Lancaster in October last passed; and since that time, acknowledged before many Witnesses; besides many Dangerous Opinions, and Damnable Heresies, as appears by a Schedule hereunto annexed, with the Names of the Witnesses Subscribed. May it therefore please your Honours, upon the Consideration of the Premises, to provide (as your Wisdom's shall think fit) that some speedy Course may be taken for the speedy Suppressing of these Evils. And your Petitioners, etc. The Schedule annexed was as follows. 1. George Fox Professed and avowed that he was Equal with God. 2. He Professed himself to be the Eternal Judge of the World. 3. He said that he was the Judge of the World. 4. He said, whosover took a place in Scripture, and made a Sermon of it, and from it, was a Conjurer, and his Preaching was Conjuration. 5. He said that the Scripture was Carnal. james Milner, a Follower of the said Fox, professeth himself to be God and Christ; and gives out Prophecies. 1. That the Day of Judgement shall be the 15th day of November. 2. That there shall never Judge sit at Lancaster again. 3. That he must ere long shake the Foundations of the Great Synagogue, meaning the Parliament. Leonard Fell Professeth that Christ had never any Body but His Church. Richard Huberthorn wrote that Christ coming in the Flesh, was but a Figure. This was the Schedule. And G. Fox wrote an Answer to this Petition, and to every particular in the Schedule; which he Entitled, Saul's Errand to Damascus, etc. Printed, 1653. wherein he inserts the said Petition and Schedule, out of which I have Transcribed them. And I have done it, First, to give the Readers, who are Strangers to the Proceed of the Quakers, a clearer view of them. Secondly, To Invite all that are Curious to Read that Answer of Fox 's Saul 's Errand, etc. because there is none can Imagine but that Fox, having produced so particular a Charge of Gross and Abominable Blasphemies against himself, and Partners, did it on purpose, that he might the more exactly, and in terms most Express and Plain, Renounce and Disown them. And every Reader will judge it Reasonable to conclude Fox and the Foxonians absolutely Guilty of every part of this Charge, which they refuse, in this their Vindication, thus Plainly and Expressly to Disclaim: Or where they Dodge, and Shift, and will not give a Direct and Categorical Answer. Because no Innocent Person would desire to wave his Denial of so Foul an Imputation laid upon him: But, on the contrary, would, with the greatest Earnestness, press to be Herd; and would Purge himself, in the Plainest and Fullest Terms he could devise; and would believe that every one would think him Guilty, would give every one leave to believe him Guilty, if he gave any Dubious, or Foreign Answers. For who will not think him Guilty, who cannot be brought to Plead not Guilty? But such is the Case of Fox in his Saul's Errand, ; He does not Plainly deny, no, not any one of the particulars Charged upon him, or his Followers, in the Petition and Schedule, which he Inserts. Nay, he downright owns, and justifies the greatest part of them. As their Preternatural Convulsions and Quake, Foaming, and swelling of their Bellies, which seized them at their Meetings, even little Children, who could not Counterfeit: and therefore was, no doubt, plain Possession; but whether of a Divine or Diabolical Spirit, has been above considered. The matter of Fact Fox owns, p. 5. and Vindicates it by the Ecstasies Recorded of the Holy Prophets of Old. But none of these ever seized little Children. But the Lapland Possessions have, in those who are given up to the Power of the Devil, of which there are frequent Examples, in our own Countries, besides these of the Quakers. Fox likewise owns the Indictment laid in the Schedule against James Milner, and justifies him, tho' he cannot deny the Fact. As for James Milner (says he p. 9) tho' his mind did Run out from his Condition, and from minding that Light of God which is in him, whereby the World takes occasion to speak against the Truth, and many Friends stumble at it; yet there is a Pure Seed in him. This Pure Seed is what the Quakers mean by the Light within. And which they make to be God and Christ: and therefore take the Name of God and Christ to themselves, because of God's thus supposed Dwelling in them. But, by this Rule, every Man must be God, and Equal to God, as well as a Quaker, because the Quakers say, that This Light is in every Man that cometh into the World. But every Man does not follow this Light. No more did James Milner, or James Naylor . And how shall we then know that George Fox did, or any other Quaker? What is now become of their Pretence to a sinless Condition, and to Perfection, Equal even to the Perfection of God Himself! Milner pretended to it. And Naylor pretended to it. They all pretend to it. And they have it all alike. But how comes Milner here to be so gently dealt with by Mr. Fox? Why! Because his mind did only Run out. He did not follow his Light within. And do the Quakers charge any thing else upon the Heathen, the Papists, the Church of England, etc. but not following their Light within? No, nothing else. But then their mind Run out in Great Matters, whereas the Quakers run out but in Peccadillo's. Let us then compare a little. We will pass the Heathen, for the Quakers have a particular kindness for them: Think their Light within sufficient to save them, without any Merit, or Satisfaction made for their sins by Christ without, or Him, who Died at Jerusalem, as they think of themselves; and both stand upon the same Bottom. But while they thus christian all the Heathen; they Unchristian and Damn to the Pit of Hell all the Christian World since the Days of the Apostles, as you will see hereafter, Sect. IU. p. 21. We will, in this Comparison, let the Papists pass too, as being further off, and come to the Church of England, which the Quakers make to be no less than Antichristian, their Clergy to be Baal's Priests, False Prophets, Conjurers, Diviners, etc. And why? Because they Preach upon a Text of Scripture (as in Artic. 5. of the above Schedule) and in Steeple-Houses, which they call Churches. Receive Tithes, and have a set Form of Prayer in their Public Worship; and many such like things do they, for which they deserve the above Epithets, and All the rest hereafter mentioned, p. 32. But as for james Milner, there is yet a Pure Seed in him. And the Lord did open true Prophecies, See before, p. 24. and mighty things to him. For his Mind only Runned out a little, to call himself God and Christ! And he was only mistaken n● some Prophecies that he gave out. And what great matter was all this in a Quaker! These and 40 more shall be excused while you continue firm to the Friends; but if you offer to expose their Errors, tho' in the most Friendly way, you touch Fire. All Hell shall be Raked for Names to load you with. Vile Cankered Apostate, Devil-Driven, Diabolical, Devilish, etc. Thus have they treated those of their own Communion, who durst once Budge, or Grumble against the Impositions of women's Meetings, and forced Discipline set up by G. Fox, or who presumed to Pay their Tithes, tho' their Light within did dictate it to them, as Lawful and their Duty; and consequently that it would be a sin against Conscience, if they did not do it. But, most of all are they Euraged against George Keith, for Preaching up the necessity of a Christ without, and that the Light within is not sufficient to Salvation, without something else. That is, Christ Jesus, without us Suffering, and Dying outwardly for us. For this is all the Heresy they have to Charge him with; as you will see in the Printed Trials in Pensilvania, which I have Quoted. And yet more fully, in a Book which G. Keith Printed at Philadelphia (the Metropolis of that Colony) 1693. and carries this Title, The Heresy and Hatred which was falsely Charged upon the Innocent, justly Returned upon the Guilty, giving some Brief and Impartial Account of the most material Passages of a late Dispute in Writing, that hath passed at Philadelphia betwixt john Delaval and George Keith etc., They are thus Mad and out of a●● Patience with G. Keith for speaking against the Sufficiency of their Light within: Because if their Light within be not Self-sufficient, then will follow the necessity of a Christ without to take away Sin, by making an outward Atonement and Satisfaction for it; by an outward shedding of outward Blood. And what then will you say? Are you amazed why this should provoke the Quakers so much? Why, will they not yield this? Oh no. This was the Grand Design of him who first Inspired and Possessed them, to Destroy the only Saving Faith, in the Satisfaction made by Christ for our Sins, by turning all this to a mere Allegory, tending only to an inward Christ, ●hat is, their Light within, to Spiritual Blood shed Inwardly in their Hearts; where they make this their inward Christ, to be Born, Suffer, Die, Rise again, Ascend into Heaven, that is, a Spiritual Heaven within them. And the Appearing of Christ which they expect is within them: Thus Samuel Buttivant Subscribes an Epistle he wrote to a most Virulent Quaker Treatise, Entitled, A brief Discovery of a Estate of Antichrist, Printed 1653. he styles himself, A Faithful Friend to the Faithful, and an Affectionate Lover of all that love the Appearing of the Lord Christ in them. And this inward Christ they make to be the Architype, of which that Man Christ Jesus, was but the Type, Figure; and his Birth, Sufferings Death, Resurrection, etc. but i●● History of the Birth, Sufferings, &c of the Light within them, whi●● they call the Mystery, as of great●● Value and Consequence to us. Therefore it is that the Devil is 〈◊〉 concerned to support and keep up th●● Doctrine, which makes no more 〈◊〉 Christ Jesus than a Good Example as a Man who had a great Measure of the True Christ, or the Light with in; but no more Incorporated i● Him, or made part of his Substance and Person, than in any other Man and consequently, that the Light, o● Christ, Dwelled in the Body of that Ma● who was called Christ Jesus, only 〈◊〉 in a Veil or Garment; which he ha● now thrown off; and is no more Man, nor has any Human Nature now 〈◊〉 Heaven. Nay, indeed, at this Rate, He never was a Man, only Dwelled in ●e Body of the Man Christ Jesus or a time, as He Dwells in the Body ●f any other Saint. Nor did He Suffer or Die more in Christ Jesus ●han in any other who Suffered or Died ●or the Truth: or any more than a Man can be said to be Crucify'd, when you Crucify the Cloak or Garment which he wears. Thus has the Devil, in the Quakers, totally Destroyed Christ's Humanity, as, in the Socinians, he has taken away His Divinity; and, in both, he has Rooted up the Doctrine of the Satisfaction made by the Passion and Death of Christ, God and Man, to the Justice of God, for our Sins, which is the very Heart and Cornerstone of the whole Mystery of the Gospel; and by which only we can expect Salvation. Therefore, till the Quakers are fully Rescued out of Satan's Power, 〈◊〉 can never expect that he will give the● leave to quit this main Pillar of hi● Kingdom. No, On the contrary he has made them most Zealous and expressly Blasphemous in this. They compare themselves to Christ Jesus, make themselves Equal to Him, to be Christ, as well as Herald And, in some things, Prefer themselves before Him. They Prefer their own Sufferings to the Sufferings of Christ and His Apostles. These are the words of a Great Apostle of the Quakers, Edward Burrough, p. 273. of his Works. The Sufferings of the People of God (called Quakers) in this Age, is greater Suffering, and more unjust, than in the Days of Christ, or of the Apostles— What was done to Christ or the Apostles, was chief done by a Law, and in Great Part by the Due Execution of a Law. I will not stay to Comment upon this Blasphemous Expression, to say that the Sufferings and Death of Christ was the Due Execution of a Law. If it was Due, than Christ had His Due, and He Deserved what He met with! Nor will I in this place, take time to Detect the subtle Artifice of the Quakers, in Magnifying their Sufferings; of which there are very Remarkable Instances to be given. Nor to show that their Sufferings were by Law, and, for the most part, by the Due Execution of a Law. I being, now chief concerned in their Blasphemous Comparing of themselves with Christ our Lord, and, as in the present Instance, Preferring of themselves before Him; their small Imprisonments or Fines (for none of them suffered Death, the Law does not allow it) for not Paying their Tithes; their Stubbornness and open Contempt of Magistracy and the Laws; for which they would not have Escaped so Easily in any other Christian Country; I say my Business at present, is to show how they compare their short Imprisonments, for the abovesaid Causes, with the Death and Passion of Christ and His Apostles, and make these Their Sufferings not only Greater, against Common Sense, as if Tortures and Death were not Greater Sufferings than Fines and Imprisonments: But most Blasphemously make Their Sufferings too to be more Unjust, than those even of Christ Himself! As if it were more Unjust to touch the Hair of a Quaker's Head, to Fine or Imprison him, tho' transgressing all the Laws of the Land, than to Crucify the Lord of Glory, when they had no Legal Proof against Him, nor any Law either of the Jews, or Romans, by which He ought to die. Let the Quakers never more pretend to Persecution, when they can escape with such Impudent Blasphemy as this! Which was repeated by another of their Prophets, whom I have had often occasion to mention, Solomon Eccles, who said, That the Blood of Christ was no more than the Blood of another Man. I do not mention this, as if this Contempt of our Lord Christ were only to be proved by these Two Evidences. No, There are Clouds of Witnesses to be produced of the like Blasphemy in almost all their Teachers; it is their daily Theme, in their Profane Meetings. But more sparingly since the Noise that has been made upon this Head, by G. Keith and others of their Separatists. They now (to cover themselves from that Horrid Odium which this must justly bring upon them from all the Nation, and from all Christians) begin to Preach, in their Public Meetings of a Christ without, and of His Sufferings at Jerusalem, etc. a Voice which, since their first appearing in the World, has hardly ever been heard among them. The whole Tendency of all their Doctrine, being always to depreciate, as much as was in their Power, the outward Man Christ Jesus; and to build All upon the inward Christ, or Light within. But how sincerely, and with what Reserves, they now (when Forced, by Worldly Politics) speak of Christ without; I have chosen this Instance of Solomon Eccles to explain; by showing the Subtle and true Quaker Answer which he gives to one Robert Porter who objected to him what I have above Quoted, and told it to others. Solomon Eccles writes to him, in these words. Robert Porter, take heed of belying the Innocent, for I hear that thou hast reported to a Priend of mine, that I should say, that the Blood of Christ is no more than the Blood of another Man. I never spoke it, but do very highly esteem of the Blood of Christ, to be more Excellent, and Living, and Holy, and Precious, than is able to be uttered by the Tongues of Men and Angels. And now, Reader, would not 〈◊〉 think, that he had fully denied the Charge against him? And that he did highly esteem the Blood of Christ? But behold the Quaker Subtilty! He does not mean one word of this of the Blood of Christ, which He shed upon the Cross; but of the Spiritual Blood (whatever he, or the Quakers intent by it) for after the abovesaid High Witness to the exceeding Value of Christ's Blood, he adds immediately in the very next words, to Explain himself, I mean (says he) the Blood which was offered up in the Eternal Spirit, Heb. 9.14. You may say, that this was the outward Blood, which Christ shed upon the Cross. True, it was so. For He offered his Blood, through, or in (as this Quaker altars the Text, to make it incline the more to their meaning) the Eternal Spirit. And if Solomon Eccles had said no more, so it might have passed. But he goes on, in plain words, to tell us what he would be at; and distinguishes this from the Blood outwardly shed; for having told us what Blood he so Highly values, as above, he subjoins, in the next words, to signify what Blood of Christ it is, which he did not value more than the Blood of another Man, and that was the outward Blood which was shed upon the Cross. His words are these following. But the Blood that was forced out of Him, by the Soldiers, after He was dead, who before that bowed His Head to the Father, and gave up the Ghost; but thou sayest that was the Blood of the New Covenant which was shed after he was dead, which I deny; yet I did say, that was no more than the Blood of another Saint. These were my words. And he adds a little after, That the Baptists and Independants, and Presbyterians, and the Pope, are all of one Ground, and none of you understand the Blood of Jesus Christ no more than a Brute Beast; therefore Repent, for God will suddenly overthrow your Faith, and your Imputative Righteousness too, for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness, which He did at Jerusalem and without the Gates, the Pope, the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, Independants, and Baptists, shall far all alike, and shall sit down in sorrow, short of the Eternal Rest: But the true Imputative Righteousness of Christ we own, but it is Hid from you All, till the Lord open an Eye within you. These are the words of his Letter, which I have transcribed out a Book wrote by William Burnet, Entitled, The Capital Principles of the People called Quakers, Printed 1668. p. 41. And here you may see how they construe the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness, to be only within them: And disown that which the whole Christian World understand by it; and their Notion of Christ's outward Blood, shed without the Gates of Jerusalem: But they have a Notion of inward Blood, inward shedding, and inward Imputation, which no other Christians know of, more than Brute Beasts, says Eccles. And they expressly deny Christ's outward Blood, to be the Blood of the New Covenant. And make no more of it than of the Blood of any other Good Man. See G. Whitehead's Impious Defence of this, in The true Copy, etc. above Quoted, p. 24, 25. To which I will only add, as a Confirmation of what I before observed, That the Quakers will seem to Confess any thing; but with such Reserves as secure their own meaning, and serve to Amuse the Inadvertent Readers. Thus in G. Whitehead's Answer to this Passage of Solomon Eccles, in the 58. p. of his Book Entitled, The Light and Life of Christ within, Printed 1668. Repeating the above-quoted words of Solomon Eccles, where he speaks of the Blood of Christ, as more Excellent, and Living, and Holy, than is able to be uttered, etc. he adds, which might have satisfied any Spiritual or Unbyass'd mind. And the Reader might have gone away with this, as a full Vindication of Solomon Eccles, without taking notice how he had, in the same place, explained himself, as I have above Quoted him, not to mean this of Christ's Blood shed outwardly upon the Cross; but only of a Notion which the Quakers have of Spiritual Blood, Spiritual shedding, etc. which is all performed within them. And G. Whitehead Entitles that very page of his Book, The Blood of the New Covenant Spiritual. And therein Argues thus Blasphemously against his Opponent (Will. Burnet.) These are his words, But if W. B. intends that the Blood outwardly shed by wicked Hands, was the Price and Life of Christ, as his words import; than it follows, from his own words, that the Life of Christ is not in being; and this would render Him a Dead Christ, etc. But G. Whitehead can speak Honourable things of the Blood of Christ (in his own Sense) and this is enough to satisfy any Unbyass'd Mind! Tho they have evaded the most Express Texts for Christ's Humanity, even that Gen. 3.15. His being the Seed of the Woman. They Allegorise all that too into a Spiritual Sense, quite away from the Letter; and to mean nothing else in the World but their Light within. Where they have a Spiritual Woman, and Spiritual Seed, as well as Spiritual Blood. Hear how Mr. Penn endeavours to prove it, in his part of The Christian Quaker, p. 97, 98. The Serpent (says be) is a Spirit: now nothing can bruise the Head of the Serpent, but something that is Spiritual, as the Serpent is: But if that Body of Christ were the Seed, then could He not bruise the Serpent's Head in all, because the Body of Christ is not so much as in any one; and consequently, the Seed of the Promise is an Holy Principle of Light and Life, that being received into the Heart, bruiseth the Serpent's Head: And because the Seed, which cannot be that Body, is Christ, as testify the Scriptures, the Seed is one, and that Seed is Christ, etc. Thus Mr. Penn. And this is his Deduction. That the Seed being Christ; and he having Proved (as he thinks) that the Body of Christ was not the Seed; his Consequence is, that the Promised Seed was not any Person, but a Principle. And that this Principle is the Light within, and consequently that the Light within is Christ. And his Syllogism stands thus in Mood and Figure. The Seed is Christ: But the Light within is the Seed: Ergo, the Light within is Christ. But the Minor remains yet to be Proved, That the Light within is the Promised Seed. Which Mr. Penn has only supposed: and that the Seed is not a Person, but a Principle. Which is a Supposition of so Pernicious a Nature, that it Unchristians any one who holds it. For the Faith of Christians is built upon that Man jesus Christ, as the Seed Promised to Bruise the Serpent's Head. And that the Bruising of it, was Performed by the shedding of Christ's Blood outwardly upon the Cross, as a Propitiation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World. Tho' the Application of this to our Souls, must by inwardly by Faith in our Hearts; not only a bare Historical Faith, that Christ did so Suffer, Die, Risen again, etc. which the Devils do Believe, and Tremble, to see their Power so overcome. But by a Lively Faith and full absolute Dependence and Trust in that Satisfaction made by Christ's Death for our Sins, as our Surety who has paid our Debt for us, and Purchased an Eternal Inheritance for us, upon our Performance of the Conditions which He has set to us: And not only so, but as our High Priest, now sitting, in His true Humane Nature (whereby He is our Mediator) and in the same Body (tho' Glorified, and Changed in Qualities, but not in Substance) at the Right Hand of His Father, to make continual and daily Intercession for us; and to power down His Spirit upon us, to give us this Saving Faith, for it is the Gift of God. And this Influence and Inspiration of His Blessed Spirit, is the only true Saving Light within us; but not the Seed and Christ Himself (as the Quakers Blasphemously Dream) only a Ray, or Communication of His Light and Life to us. How then can the Quakers have the True Christian Faith, how can they be esteemed as any Christians at all, who will not allow Christ to be the Promised Seed; or that He was more a Man in the Body of Jesus, than in the Body of any other Man; who make no more Reckoning of His Blood, than of any other Saint; who do not believe Him now to be a Man, and, as such, our Mediator and Intercessor, at the Right Hand of His Father? These things I offer to their serious Consideration; and I Pray God to Discover to them those Depths of Satan, and that Bond of Iniquity wherein they are Captivated. But I would ask Mr. Penn one Question before I go, upon his Hypothesis of the Light within being the Promised Seed. And that is, since the Quakers make this Light within to be in every Man that comes into the World, how was it Promised; Gen. 3.15? Was it not Then in the World? And how then were they to look for it as to come? But Mr. Penn has another Argument (Ibid.) to prove that the Outward Christ could not be the Promised Seed; which he says, must be Inward and Spiritual. Why? Because (says he) One outward thing cannot be the proper Figure or Representation of another, nor is it the way of Scripture so to teach us, the outward Lamb shows forth the inward Lamb, etc. I am sorry Mr. Penn should tell us, that this is not the way of Scripture, because it is the Common Highway of the Scriptures. For all the outward Sacrifices under the Law were Types or Figures of the Sacrifice of Christ, the outward Christ upon the Cross. Of whom St. Paul said (1 Cor. 5.7.) Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us. So that the outward Paschal Lamb in Egypt, and the striking of its Blood upon the Side-Posts of their Houses, Exod. 12.7, 13. that the Destroyer might not come in, was a certain Type of the outward Blood of Christ, which keeps off God's Wrath from us, and not of any fansyed inward Lamb slain in our Hearts, etc. as the Craft and Malice of the Devil has suggested, to deface and wear out of our Minds the Faith in Christ's outward Blood, by which only there is Salvation. And by the help of this Distinction of an outward and Inward Christ outward, and inward Blood etc., the Quakers do keep themselves out of sight of all Men not throughly acquainted with their Deceits. They can, upon a Pinch, subscribe the whole Creed, and yet not mean one word of it of God or Christ at all; that is, of any God or Christ without Men, or what all the World believe by God or Christ, as existing without us, tho' by their Blessed Influence operating within us. But their Gross Ignorance could not, at First, distinguish betwixt God and his Influence: and those of them who know better now, think themselves obliged to Justify, at least to Palliate and Excuse the Failings of their Leaders, because they once owned them to be Infallible. By this means, all the Nonsense and Blasphemy of G. Fox lies upon Mr. Penn's Shoulders. If he will maintain him, right or wrong, then must Mr. Penn answer for G. Fox's calling himself Equal with God. And his senseless Argument to prove it, in his Saul's Errand, before Quoted, p. 8. because (forsooth) he had the Spirit of God (as he Pretended) whence he Argues, in these words, He that hath the same Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ, is equal with God. Nor is this Madness peculiar to Fox alone, it runs in the Blood of the Quakers. The Renowned Francis Howgil, is yet more Express in this Blasphemy, if more can be. His Works in Folio, Reprinted 1676. Entitled, The Dawnings of the Gospel-Day, p. 232. The first thing thy Dark Mind stumbles at (says he to his Opponent Edward Dodd) is, that some have said, that they that have the Spirit of God are Equal with God. He that hath the Spirit of God, is in that which is Equal— And he that is joined to the Lord, is one Spirit, there is Unity, and the Unity stands in Equality itself. Thus he, and lest you should think too little of the word Equality, he gives it you with an Emphasis. Equality itself— But he seems to come into a calmer mood, a few lines after, and says, There is Equality in Nature, tho' not in Stature. But instead of bringing him off, this sets him deeper in the Mire. For, first, it is Nonsense, for whatever is equal to God in Nature, must be so likewise in Stature, Since His Nature is Infinite. And, for that Reason, secondly, making us equal to God in Nature, is the highest Equality, it is indeed Equality itself. Which Expression Howgil repeats twice in the distance of three lines, that he might be sure of it. Having thus made themselves Equal to God in very Nature, it is not strange to see them denying any other God or Christ but themselves. They pull God out of Heaven, and upbraid those who believe that there is any God or Christ there; as I have hereafter Quoted their words, out of a Book of theirs called, The Sword of the Lord drawn, etc. p. 5. Your imagined God beyond the Stars, and your Carnal Christ is utterly denied— to say this Christ is God and Man in one Person is a Lye. I will here add to this, how careful they are to instill into their Children, according to their Capacities, these Principles of their most Antichristian Religion; and exceeding the Blasphemy of all that we ever yet heard among the most Barbarous of the Heathen Nations. There is a primer put out for the Quaker Children, by W. Smith. There, p. 8. you have this Question asked, How may I know when Christ is truly Preached? And the Answer is, They that are False (Ministers) Preach Christ without, and bid People believe in Him, as He is in Heaven above; but they that are Christ's Ministers, Preach Christ within. Here was an admirable Cue given to young Children, to prevent their ever receiving the least tincture of Christianity; that if they should, at any time, hear of a Christ in Heaven, or of any Christ out of themselves, they might immediately stop their Ears, and believe all who spoke of it, to be False Ministers. Sure, Satan never advanced his Kingdom in any Age so high, as in these miserably Deluded People! But lest the Child should think that there might be only difference of Expression betwixt the Quakers, and others who Professed a Christ Personally in Heaven, tho' Present with us, and operating in our Hearts by the Influence and Graces of His Spirit; there is another Question p. 9 Here then is great difference in their Doctrine? Answer, Yes, and no more Fellowship than East with West. This Answer is true indeed. For the difference is not only in the Expression, but in the Doctrine. And there is no more Fellowship than East with West. But here take notice, that there are no Christians in the World, who deny Christ 's Spiritual Influence and Operation in the Hearts of Men, and His Light within them. And therefore this difference of Doctrine betwixt the Quakers and us, which they say, is as wide as East from West must be more than concerning the Light within, as a Ray or Beam shining into our Hearts from Christ the Sun of Righteousness; for in this, there are none upon Earth that have any difference with them; and therefore, the difference must be concerning this Light within, being not a Beam, but the Sun itself, the True, Real, and only Christ. The very Person, and not only the Influence of Christ. So that the true state of the Question will be this, whether this Light within be the Principal or a Secondary Agent in us? For if it be only a Beam, it is a Secondary Agent, because it proceeds from the Sun; but if it be the Sun itself, than it is Principal. Again, if it be the Sun, it is the only Agent, because the Sun receives not his Light from another. But if it be a Beam, it is not the only Agent; because the Sun does enlighten by the Beam. And, in both these respects, the Quakers do positively determine their Light within to be not a Secondary Agent, or sent from any other; but that it is, its self, the Only, and the Principle. And this is the Language which they betimes teach their Children. For in Smith's Catechism, p. 57, there is this Question and Answer. And is that which is within you the Only Foundation upon which you stand, and the Principle of your Religion? Answer, That of God within us, is so, for we know it is Christ; and being Christ, it must needs be Only and Principal; for that which is Only, admits not of another; and that which is Principal, is Greatest in Being: And thus we know Christ in us to be unto us the Only and the Principal, etc. Here they expressly disown any other Christ than what is within them. But because all this may be pretended as meant only of Christ's Spirit, not of His Body, tho' there can be no room for any such pretence, because all whole Christ is here spoke of: And that it would be as great Blasphemy to say that Christ had no other Spirit than what was within us, as to say that He had no other Body but what was within us: Yet, to make it exceeding plain that the Quakers do not believe that Christ has any other Body, or other Humanity, than that Spiritual, or Allegorical Body, or whatever they mean by it, which they say He has within them. In Edw. Burrough's Works, p. 149. this Question is asked, in these plain and peremptory Terms Is that very Man, with that very Body, within you, yea, or nay? And the Ans. is as plain. The very Christ of God is within us, we dare not deny Him. Pursuant to this Blasphemus Principle, Solomon Eccles, in a Sheet he Printed the 17th of the ninth Month, 1668. called, The Quakers Challenge, p. 6. says these words of G. Fox. 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 (George Fox) whom John said he was not. This being objected by one Jeremy Ives in his Questions to the Quakers, George Whitehead makes this excuse for it, in his Serious Search, Printed 1674. p. 58. he says that these words, The World was made by him, must not be applied to G. Fox, but only these words, The World knew him not. Tho' they are both in the same Sentence, and no Reason nor Rule of speaking in the World, can apply the one without the other. But even this Arbitrary Interpretation will not do. For the following words whom John said he was not, are, past all help of Dodging, applied to G. Fox. Read the Sentence; So it may be said of this True Prophet (G. Fox) whom John said he was not. Now, who was it that that John said he was not? He said, He was not the Christ. He did not say, He was not G. Fox. And therefore this cannot be applied to G. Fox any otherwise than by supposing him to be The Christ. Which the Quakers (by a Monstrous sort of Transubstantiation) think themselves to be. And now you see the Reason why the Quakers could Palliate and Excuse james Milner, as above-told, for saying that he himself was God and Christ: but yet were all in a Flame against George Keith, for Preaching the Insufficiency of their. Light within to Salvation, without the Person of the Man Christ Jesus, as without us. For this destroyed all their Foundations, and the Kingdom of Satan which he had set up high amongst them. And therefore he stirred up all the Rage and Zeal of his Proselytes against any who durst assault his Asylum, his very Temple and Throne. James Milner was judged to have a Pure Seed in him, notwithstanding of his Horrid Blasphmy, and Lying Prophecies before-told. For they were indeed the Pure Seed and Doctrine of the Quakers, tho' he blurted it Unseasonably and too Plainly. But G. Keith for his most Christian Doctrine, of a Christ without, was Condemned by their last Yearly Meeting, in their Bull of Excommunication, as Acted by an Spirit— And it is the Sense and judgement of this Meeting (say they) That the said George Keith is gone from the Blessed Unity of the Peaceable Spirit of our Lord jesus Christ, and hath thereby separated himself from the Holy Fellowship of the Church of Christ, etc. This is as high as any Pope or General Council ever yet pretended. It is not only from the Fellowship of the Quakers in England, or Pensilvania, but of the whole Church of Christ Of which the Yearly Meeting of the Quakers in London, think themselves the sufficient Representatives, and capable to Determine, and Conclude them by their Votes. But there is one thing come in my way, which I ask the Reader's Patience to set down. It is told hereafter, p. 136. how Mr. Penn at Ratcliff-Meeting the 17th of Feb. 1694. Pronounced G. Keith an Apostate, In the Name of the Lord. This was before G. Keith's Condemnation in the Yearly Meeting 17th of May, 1695. This Apostasy of G. Keith's was by the New Doctrine of a Christ without, he had Preached in Pensilvania, which occasioned the Trials and Debates there, I have mentioned. And upon the noise which these Proceed made here in England, amongst the Quakers, Mr. Penn (the Proprietor of Pensilvania) wrote to one Robert Turner, a Quaker, Justice of Peace in Philadelphia, where the greatest Contest was, about G. Keith's New Doctrine, in which Letter were these words, I am sorry any should Quarrel Honest and Learned George Keith. My Love to him. Let him live in his Principles. If I come there, that Controversy, with the rest, shall soon vanish; and he shall want no Encouragement from me; for I love his Spirit; and Honour his Gifts, and his Peculiar Learning, especially Tongues, and Mathematics, his Platonic Studies too: All being sanctified to the Truth's service, which is worthy to have the Pre-eminence. Thus Mr. Penn. And that which I would know from him, is, whether G. Keith has since varied from that Doctrine which he Then Preached in Pensilvania? I do not hear that it is so much as alleged that he has, in the least tittle, varied since that time. And if so. Here will be sad account of that Infallible Discerning Spirit which the Quakers do appropriate to themselves to Judge Persons and Things, See hereafter. Sect. X p. ●1. Powers, Magistrates, Kingdoms, and Churches. And may it not, upon this occasion, be said to Mr. Penn, in the words of G. Fox (Gr. Myst. p. 96.) Thou not being Infallible, thou art not in the Spirit, and so art not a Minister. For when he wrote the above Letter, he judged G. Keith to have a Right Spirit, and desired to let him live in his Principles: And yet, for the very same Principles, he has since judged him an Apostate, over the Head of him. I love his Spirit, says Mr. Penn. It is An Spirit, says the Yearly Meeting, whereof Mr. Penn was a Principal Member. The Tendency of divers of his late writings (says the Yearly Meeting, in their aforesaid Bull of Excommunication against G. Keith) hath been to Expose the Truth: Did not Mr. Penn then Guess very ill, when he gave it under his Hand as abovesaid; that All G. Keith 's Studies were Sanctified to the Truth's service? These Writings which the Meeting meant, were what G. Keith had Printed in Pensilvania, in Defence of those Principles, which Mr. Penn then approved, at least so far as to give them Toleration, and to let G. Keith live peaceably in them. For G. Keith had not, before that Excommunication, Printed any thing against the Quakers, after his return into England from Pensilvania. The use I have to make of this, is not to Upbraid or Expose, but to beseech Mr. Penn, and all the sober-minded among the Quakers, now at last to consider whither their strange Pretences to Infallibility has led them. Even from the only Infallible Oracles now in the World, the Holy Scriptures, by setting their Light within above the Scriptures; which they do, in refusing to let their Light within be judged by the Scriptures: But, on the contrary, allowing no Obligation which the Holy Scriptures have upon them, in any thing which is not likewise Dictated to them by their Light within: But thinking the Dictates of their Light within to be Obligatory and Infallible, in things wherein the Scriptures are silent. Alas! If that were all! Even in things where the Scriptures are Repugnant, and Command quite otherwise. But, in the Authority which they have taken over the Letter of the Scriptures, they can overrule every Command in Scripture, tho' in Terms never so Positive; as in the Case of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and many other Instances. Chief in that upon which I have so much insisted, because it is the Principal, their Spiriting away the Letter of the Promised Seed, The Humanity of Christ; and the Satisfaction Thereby made for our sins; and his Intercession, and Mediation Therein now at the Right Hand of his Father; to which we Daily own the Gifts and Graces of his Blessed Spirit. And the Adversary could never have gained this point upon them (which is the Heart of Christianity) if he had not first Disarmed them of the Assistance of the Holy Scriptures (wherein this is so mainly and so frequently insisted upon) by persuading them to take their own Light within for the Infallible Rule, instead of the other. And the Devil cannot keep his hold much longer than we shall return to the Scriptures, and submit to them as our Rule. Which we may perceive by this, That no other Sect amongst us, has run into this Excess of throwing off the Humanity of Christ, but the Quakers; because no other has under valued the Scriptures so much as they. What other sort of Men that call themselves Christians, have abused the Scriptures by the contemptible Names of Beastly Ware, Dust, Death, Serpents-Meat, etc. but the Quakers? If they say, That this was only meant of the Letter; that is sufficiently answered in what follows. But I have now to ask them, whether the Letter of their Writings be not as Beastly Ware, etc. as the Letter of the Scripture? And then, why they do not give the same Epithets to their Writings? No, no. Let them not Dissemble the matter. They know very well, that the giving of Vile and Contemptible Names to any Writing, can be for no other end, but to render the Contents of such Writing, not the Letters, Ink, or the Paper, Vile and Contemptible. And this is the Reason that they have taken such care to secure the Honour of their own Writings; not only from such Vile Names as they bestow upon the Holy Scriptures, but even from such Names as are Honourable and of the Highest Estimation among Human Writings; such, as Canons for the Laws of the Church, and Edicts for the Laws of Emperors, and Temporal Government: But these the Quakers think too Mean and Contemptible Names for their Writings; they will have them nothing less than the Immediate Commands of God Himself. And, as to themselves, they scorn the Titles of Elders, Popes, and Bishops; or, that their Meetings should be called by such Contemptible Names as Courts, Sessions, or Synods. Hear the Order of their Yearly Meeting at London, for the Year 1675. in the following words. It is our Sense, Advice, Admonition, and Judgement, in the Fear of God, and the Authority of his Power and Spirit, to Friends and Brethren in their several Meetings, That no such 'Slight and Contemptible Names and Expressions, as calling men's and women's Meetings, Courts, Sessions, or Synods— That Faithful Friends Papers, which we testify, have been given forth by the Spirit and Power of God, are men's Edicts, or Canons— Elders in the Service of the Church, Popes and Bishops, with such scornful say, be permitted among them; but let God's Power be set upon the top of that unsavoury Spirit that uses them, etc. Here you see the World has not Language or Titles good enough for the Quakers, nor for their Writings. Edicts or Canons are too slight and contemptible! Popes and Bishops are scornful say to them! But while they thus vindicate their own Honour, and the no less than Divine Authority of their Writings, at this Sublime ra●e, They take upon them to vilify the Holy Scriptures of God, in the most opprobrious and disgraceful Terms! You must not call their Writings by such 'Slight and Contemptible Names, as Canons or Edicts of Men. But you may call the Holy Scriptures, by the not only much more Contemptible Names of Dust and Beastly Ware, but the Cursed Appellations of Carnal, Death, and the Meat of the Serpent; that is, the Devil! Now, which of these several Treatments, do testify the greatest Respect: And whether their Veneration does Hereby appear more to the Holy Scriptures, or to their own Writings, I leave it, without more Argument, to the Reader. Manger their Thin and Hypocritical Distinction of the Letter. It is plain they never gave the Scriptures a good word, but merely for Popularity, when forced to it, to avoid the Odium of the World. And therefore, since the year 1660. when the Restoration of the Church and Her Liturgy brought the Holy Scriptures again into Request, the Quakers have been more Pharisaically Civil towards them; and, upon some Turns, will bestow upon them the Epithet of Holy; because it is so common in the Mouths of other Men. But in all their Preach or Writings before 1660, wherever they had occasion to name the Holy Scriptures, they seldom or never gave them that Epithet of Holy, or Sacred, but plain Scriptures at best; tho' most commonly, they did not let them pass without some of their sweet Appellations, before-told, of Beastly Ware, Serpent's Meat, Death, and Carnal, to beget the greater Reverence for them in the People! And it is desired, to Confute this Observation, that they would give us what Citations they can (they will not be many) out of all their Books, which were wrote before 1660. (and they are very numerous) which name the Scriptures with the Appellation of Holy or Sacred, or indeed with any sort of Respect: Especially let them Quote Fox, Burrough, Howgil, or some of their Principal Pillars. But if this Observation be Malicious, and that they cannot disprove it now; then let them take time, and put in such Expressions, as oft as they please, in the New Edition of G. Fox's Works, according to their Laudable Custom, before spoke of, to chop and change the Writings of their Dead Prophets, to answer the Exigency of the Times: Tho', if what they wrote was Dictated Immediately by the Holy Ghost, as they pretend, they are of Equal Authority with the Scriptures; and it must be as great a sin to Add or Diminish in the Writings of the Quakers, as in the Holy Scriptures themselves. And then, by the Sentence pronounced, Rev. 22.18; and 19 all those Quakers shall be Blotted out of the Book of Life, who, in the New Editions of the Works of Edward Burrough, Francis Howgil, etc. have taken away from the Words of the Books of their Prophecies. And I have given them Lawful Warning not to incur the like Sin and Shame, in the new designed Edition of their great Apostle G. Fox's worthy Remains. But, that they may not pretend Ignorance or Inadvertence, I do here particularly Caution, that the following Passages may not be left out, nor Blended, in a Book Published by Him, and other Quakers, called, The West Answering to the North, Printed 1657. where p. 7, 8. They tell, That Strafford's Head was cut off, and Canterbury's, and Charles Stuart's, as Traitors, for endeavouring to subvert the Fundamental Laws. And p. 79. That His (Charles Stuart 's) Arbitrary Actions were Recorded every where in the Blood and Misery of the late Wars, and the Destruction of Him and His Family: The Dreadful and Sad Examples of His Righteous Judgements, who Renders to every one according to his Deeds. And p. 89. Doth not here appear from the Grave, the Spirit that was in Christopher Love, Priest, and his Fellow-Traytors; who being within the Jurisdiction of this Commonwealth, look upon them to Commissionate Divers Men to treat with Charles Stuart, the Proclaimed Traitor of the Government. P. 95. The Common Enemy, Charles Stuart, etc. and forget not the wonderful Deliverances from them; all which the Right Hand of the Lord effected. p. 96. 97. Multitudes of People flocked up out of the City to Westminster to complain of their Sufferings— which Charles Stuart called Tumults— and by the Guard one of them was slain; at the place of the shedding of whose Blood, was Charles Stuart's Head struck off, and His Blood poured forth on the ground. A remarkable Record of the Righteous judgements of God. Lastly, Mark these words p. 102— The Righteous Ends of the Wars for Liberty and Law— And these Innocent Servants of the Lord, who have been, All of them, Always Faithful to the honest Interest of the Nation; and many of them for it have drawn the Sword, and Fought in the Field from first to last. And p. 83. The honest Men (then) who owned them (the Parliament Army) throughout England, against the Priests, and the Common Enemy. That is, the Church and the King. And by the Honest and Innocent Servants of the Lord, they meant Themselves. For they allow none other to be such, as is fully shown hereafter, The Defence of them (the Laws say they, p. 16.) have we in the late Wars vindicated in the Field with our Blood, etc. There is another Book of this Great Apostle, wherein I am very apprehensive his New Editors may do him wrong. It is a most Bitter and Senseless Invective against all Kings, and Monarchical Government, which was Printed in the beginning of the Year 1660. but before the Restoration, which was in May the same Year, to show what Obstinate Rebels these Quakers were, who held out against the King to the very last Day. That Book bears this Title, Several Papers given forth by George Fox. London Printed for Thomas Simonds at the Sign of the Bull, 1660. I set it down thus particularly, because the Friends may know that it is still in being, and in the Hands of those who will watch the New Edition of Fox's Works, that they shall neither Add nor Diminish, without being told of it. I give this Caution, because great pains has been taken (and by some Arts, which I will not here mention) to recover this Book out of the Hands of any who are, in the least, Disaffected to their Cause: and it may rationally be supposed, that the Design is either wholly to suppress it, or to take out its Sting, that it hurt them not; and render them odious to all Kingly Government. I will give the Reader but a Taste out of that Delicious Dispensatory. He says, p. 8. That all Kings and Emperors have sprung up in the Night, since the days of the Apostles among the Anti-christs'. p. 12. So the Christians goes out from Christ, and set up Kings, like the Heathens— p. 15. And all these Novice-Christians that are crying up Earthly Kings, and fight for the Kings of the Earth, are not such as follow the Lamb. p. 16. We know that these Kings are the Spiritual Egyptians got up since the days of the Apostles— p. 18. and 9 You never read of any (King) among the Christians, but among the Apostates, since the days of the Apostles— p. 8. Many cry for an Earthly King, and will have Caesar, and is not this the same Nature the Jews was in? and do not they, in this, Crucify Jesus?— p. 9 Are not all these Christians that will dote so much of an Earthly King, Traitors against Christ? And will these, that are true Christians, have any more Kings among them, but Christ?— I say that is the False Church that doth not live— Upon the Heads of the Kings— Such that are out of the Life and Power— Work for an Earthly King, and will change as they change: These all quench the Spirit of God in themselves— These all deny the Light, etc. Alas! Wretched George. Now must all Men know, that Thou, even Thou thyself, didst quench the Spirit, deny the Light, etc. because Thee didst Change, just as the Times did Change, and just as soon. thou didst not stay a minute, nor thy Friends with thee: For after all your Treasons and Rebellions, continued, from your beginning, with the utmost virulence, to the very last day; even while the above Antimonarchical and Poisonous words were in the very Mouth of thee, the King was Miraculously and Unexpectedly Restored: And this Changeling Fox Immediately Tacked about, as did they All. They lost no time, the King came to London, the 29th of May, 1660. and in seven days after, the 5th of June, they had drawn up a Declaration of their Sincerity and good Wishes to the Government; which they delivered into the King's Hand, the 22d of the same Month, as soon as they could get Access. This is endorsed upon the said Declaration, in Print; but it bears Date the 5th of June. It is Subscribed by a Baker's Dozen of them; and George Fox the Foreman, in the Name of themselves, and of those in the same Unity. And it is worth ones while to compare the words of this Declaration with those of Foxs' before-quoted, and much more of the same strain in that Book of his out of which I have taken them, Printed in the foregoing part of the same year 1660. There, they were Traitors against Christ and Crucifiers of Jesus, who were for any Earthly King; and it was The False Church which did not live upon the Heads of the Kings. But now they lay themselves under the Feet of an Earthly King. The same Earthly King against whose Restoration they had Belched forth so much Venom. See their Declaration, p. 4. We do therefore Declare (say they) to take off all Jealousies, Fears, and Suspicions of our Truth and Fidelity to the King, and the present Governors, that our Intentions and Endeavours are, and shall be Good, True, Honest and Peaceful towards them, and that we do Love, Own and Honour the King and these present Governors. But there was a pleasant Passage, which, I am confident, the Reader will Excuse me to tell. In the first Draught of this Declaration, approved by G. Fox and the Body of the Quakers, the words Loyal Subjects were put in, viz. That the Quakers were the King's Loyal Subjects, and that they had suffered much, as himself had done. This would imply as if their Sufferings had been for him. For how otherwise was it any Merit in them, with regard to the King? Which looking like a piece of Gross Hypocrisy, one Edward Billing (a Quaker of more open Sincerity and Courage than the rest) risen up against it; and knowing well that the Quakers had never Suffered, nor Acted any thing for the King; But, on the contrary, were always most bitter Enemies to Him, and to His Interests, he Protested against these words in the Declaration; and said that it was a Mockery in the Face of the World, to give themselves the stile of Loyal Subjects. But G. Fox and the Generality of the Quakers opposed him; and thought it convenient that these Expressions should stand; whereupon Billing, being heated, avowed to them, that if they passed the Declaration with these words, he would Print against it, tho' it cost him his Life. And this did so startle them, (having a guilty Conscience) that, to avoid being thus exposed, they, at last, submitted, to have these words left out; which they would never have done, if they could have stood the Test. But rather, such an Objection, would have made them more Zealous to have asserted their Loyalty with the greater vigour; and to have Censured this Billing, and caused, him to sign an Instrument of Condemnation against himself, for so Foul, and at that time, Dangerous an Imputation, upon the whole Body of the Friends; And that so Publicly, in the Face of their Assembly, which they, according to their stated Discipline, have done in Cases of much less Importance than this; and would not have failed to have done in this, if they had not known his Charge to be True. But this Contest about the word Loyalty was perfectly needless, since they suffered the words which I have Quoted, to stand, viz. Truth and Fidelity to the King. For these imply all that Loyalty can mean. But it serves to this purpose, First, to discover their Disloyalty; and Secondly, Their deep Hypocrisy: of which there never was, surely, such an Impudent Instance given, as in this Declaration; for having themselves served all turns, that ever happened in their time, the Rump Parliament, than Oliver, Protector Dick, the Army that turned him out, the Committee of Safety, etc. as before is told; and now but just turned to the King; they had the Face to upbraid others for their Changing and Trimming. Hear the words of their Declaration, p. 6. And these Priests turned to every Power and every Government, as it turned; and made Addresses and Acknowledgements to every Change of Government— Now let any honest Hearted People judge, whether these be sound Principled Men, that can Turn, Conform and Transform to every Change according to the Times? Whether these be fit Men to Teach People? One would think that this were a Lampoon some Enemy had made upon the Quakers; especially, when in the next page, and p. 8. they tell the King, False Dealing we do utterly deny— and speak the Truth in Plainness, and Singleness of Heart. Of which I leave the Reader to judge, when I have told him farther, That, besides G. Fox 's several Papers , the Quakers in the beginning of the Year 1660, before the Restoration, did likewise Print several Papers of George Bishop, another of their Apostles, containing violent Invectives against the King and Kingly Government, and stirring up all People to keep them out. That Book of Bishop's bears this Title, The Warnings of the Lord to the Men of this Generation, etc. London, Printed by M. Inman, and are to be sold at the Three Bibles in Paul's Churchyard, and by Richard Moon, Bookseller, in Wind-steet in Bristol, 1660. Thus Industriously did they spread their Treasons, and set all their Shoulders to support the then Usurpation, and obstruct the Restauration of the King; and that to the very last, in the same Year, 1660. Bishop p. 26.27. Writing to the then Council of State, warns them, In the Name of the Lord, to be very vigorous in opposing all Attempts that were made towards the Restauration; persuades them (as Ahitophel to Absalon, 2 Sam. 16.21.) to be Desperate, and to think all Reconsiliation betwixt them and the King, to be Impracticable. Beware (says Bishop, ibid. p. 27.) of falling under this Spirit, or of thinking that the Breach between you can be Healed: For I Declare it to you from the Lord, That it is Irreconsilable; it cannot, it will not be Healed— Therefore, in the Power and Dread of the Almighty, stand and Bear over it, Crush it to Pieces, Stamp it to Powder, etc. Therefore it concerns you, whilst ye have time to bear down this Enemy, and to secure Places necessary for Defence. Did he only mean Spiritual Defence, or the Carnal Sword? But he Advises to Murder in Cold Blood, all that stirred for the King, or, as he there words it, The doing Justice on those whom God hath given into your Hands, lest out of this Serpent's Egg, do come a Cockatrice, and his Fruit be a Fiery flying Serpent; and the Lord deliver you and your Forces into the Power of those who seek the Destruction of you and your Interest. That was, the King. And p. 26. ibid. He tells them that there was a necessity of the Expeditions and continual Marching of your Horse [were these Spiritual Horse?] up and down in all parts, especially where these Insurrections have been. This Letter was wrote the 6th of Aug. 1659. when things were moving towards the Restauration; but Printed as before-told, Anno 1660. to stir them up afresh against the King, when they had a nearer Prospect of His Return. Yet, in their foresaid Declaration to Him, after His Return, p. 7. they Gravely tell Him, We are a People that follow after those things that make for Peace, Love and Unity— and do deny and bear our Testimony against all Strife, and Wars, and Contentions, etc. That is, when they were Beaten, and could Fight no longer. But while there was one spark of Life in the Good Old Cause, they Fought, and Preached, and Cursed, and Damned for it all that durst oppose them. That is, all who were on the weaker side: For they still had the Grace to Court those in Power; and, like Rats to fly from a Falling House. Thus the aforesaid Bishop in his Letter to Richard Protector the 9th of September, 1658. assures him, that if he would follow their Principle of the Light within (that is, be good to the Quakers) which is thou dost (says Bishop) and givest up to be Governed by it, the Lord will dash in pieces all the Consultations against thee and thy Father's House, and will settle the Throne under thee, and make thee a Dread and a Terror to all the Nations round about, as he made thy Father. This is in p. 17. of Bishop's Book before Quoted. And the very next Letter is p. 18. Flattering those Officers of the Army, who Pluck a down this Fine Protector, is soon as ever they had done it. It is Dated the 27th of April 1659. and thus Directed, To the General Council of the Army, in whom is risen the Spirit of the Good Old Cause, these following Particulars are tendered, in order to the Carrying through of what is by them begun, etc. The Quakers were for Through Work; and indeed all their Quarrel with Oliver, Richard, and the Rump before them, was for sparing Amalek, for not Destroying downright all that stood, for the King, the Church, or the Laws. This was still the burden of their Song, in all their Addresses, as in Article 11. of the Particulars which they Recommended to these Officers of the Army, p. 19 Remember Amalek i. e. (as this Quaker Bishop there explains it) the Soul-murthering and Conscience-binding Clergyman, and what he did unto you by the way when ye were come out of Egypt— Therefore blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under Heaven— Ye shall not forget it. And Artic. 10 Vex the Midianites, i. e. the Lawyers (says he) for they vex you with their Wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor and Cosbi, i. e. the King and Protector. The Protector, now he is down, is as bad as the King. But see how they soothed the Protector, when he was in the Saddle. Whom (says Bishop in his Letter to him, ibid. p. 10.) we have loved above any Man; whose, with all that is dear to us, have we become, and they Let and Portion have we chosen to stand or fall, as it should be unto Thee; and so have we stood by Thee against All Thine Opposers, whether in Field or Council. Thine Enemies we have accounted and made our own, and never Left Thee till Thou was brought through all. And again; The Righteous Ends of the Wars, in which we have born our Part, in the Heat of the Day. But after the King's Return, than the Case was altered; then they could not Fight, no, not they; they would not draw a Sword for the World! They never were for Oliver, but) were always Loyal and Faithful to the King. They did not Rejoice at Oliver ●●●●cess against the King, but Mour●● for the King tho' they could 〈◊〉 Fight for Him! And they were fore Griever at the Hearts for the Blood which Oliver shed●, and never Applauded him in it. Witness their Exultation (ibid. p. 3.) Did thy Sword (say they) ever return empty from the Blood of the Slain?— Didst not thou come upon Princes as upon Mortar, and as the Potter treadeth the Clay? Were not the Hearts of Honest Men knit to thee as one Man? Was any thing so great that they could not trust Thee with? Was any thing so Dear that they were not ready to lay down for Thy sake? Did they sigh at any time at the remembrance of thee? Did their Faces wax Pale, Confounded or Covered? Or, was not the remembrance of thee to them sweet and pleasant, as the Dew upon the tender Herb, as Life from the Dead, etc. And so they run on whole Pages together in a Hideous Panegyric, to which I refer the Reader. But here he sees how expressly they renounce so much as a sigh, at any time, for all his Traitorous Murders, or that their Faces were ever Pale, or Confounded, or Covered, for all that Blood shed; no, but that they Rejoiced and Gloried in it, and for all His Successes against the King p. 4. Did he not smite them with a Wound incurable, they and their King, and their Nobles? p. 5. Wadedst thou not through the Blood and War— with a restless and unwearyed Spirit— And whilst it was thus with thee, did the Lord ever fail or forsake thee? Or wantedst thou the Hearts and Hands of the Honest Men of these Nations?— Can the Generations that are past, produce the like, of the Lords and His People being with a Man as with thee, etc. These are the Meek and the Loyal Quakers! They can Wade in Blood, so it be of the King, or the Clergy, and their Abettors. Slay Balaam Vex the Midianites!! Remember Amalek! Give the Priest's Blood to Drink! These are the Mild Breathe of the Quaker Spirit! Thus sweetly sings Edward Burrough in his Word of Advice to the Soldiers, p. 2. Oh! (says be with a Gusto) give the Priest's Blood to drink, for they are worthy. But this (with other sweet bits) is left out in the new Edition of his Works; wherein there is yet enough behind to show the largeness of his Bowels, and to what narrow Limits he would confine that Inundation of Blood, which the Good Old Cause had brought upon these Nations; and which he Justifies, and that from the Mouth of the Lord. In his Warning to the English Army, 1659. he assures them (p. 540. of his Works) in these words, Your Victory hath been of the Lord. But then he would have them go on, and carry Blood and Slaughter into other Countries. What are these few Poor Islands (says he p. 537, 538.) that you have run through? And then he advises them to fall upon 〈◊〉 and Spain, and Avenge, says he, p. 537. the Blood of the Guiltless through all the Dominions of the Pope (p. 538.) that your Sword, and the Sword of the Lord may neither leave Root nor Branch of Idolatry— that your Sword be lifted up against them (p. 540.) Set up your Standard at the Gites of Rome. And Prophesying of the time when Vengeance should be taken of Rome; The time is come. says he, p. 537. their Church cannot stand Long. p. 535, 536. and as sure as the Lord lives, so shall it come to pass. But this is long since passed, and their Church stands still. And (which is much a greater wonder) this Burrow is counted still a true Prophet among the Quakers; in whom the fullness of Grace and Virtue ch●el●, ●us was said of him in his Life, ●rote 1663. p. 24. by a Club of the Principal Quakers, G. Fox, ●os. Coal, G. Whitehead, etc. who thus Blasphemed in Praise of a Wretch, that durst Pawn the very Being of God; That as sure as the Lord lives, so it must come to pass, as he said. And since it is not so come to pass, are ●●ti●ll the rest of these Quakers as Mad and Blasphemous as he, who will still believe, that he was sent from God, or spoke His Words! And that all these Lies; and Preaching up of Blood, their Blasphemies and Treasons are of Equal Authority with the Holy Scriptures; yea, of Greater, as I will show you presently from George Whitehead. And, if this be true, we must believe the 〈◊〉 Contradictions of the Quakers before the Scriptures; As that, notwithstanding all these loud Proclamations of Blood and War which we have be●●d from them: and that, if their Advice were followed, all whole Christendom would be turned into an Aceldama, the Protestants falling upon all Popish Countries, and the Papists upon them: I say, that notwithstanding of all this, if the Quakers Writings are given forth by the Spirit of God (as they boldly pretend) we must believe their Declaration given to King Charles II. upon the 21st of January, 1660. subscribed by G. Fox, and Eleven more, in the behalf of the whole Body of the Quakers; wherein p. 4. They Declare positively against the lawfulness of Fight, upon any account. And this (say they) is both our Principle and Practice, and hath been from the beginning; so that if we suffer, as suspected to take up Arms, or make War against any, it is without any Ground from us; for it neither is, nor ever was in our Hearts, since we owned the Truth of God; neither shall we ever do it, because it is contrary to the Spirit of Christ, his Doctrine, and the Practice of his Apostles. And in The Quakers Plea, Printed 1661. p. 5. They say, Such of us whose Principles were once so (that is, for Fight) are changed even from that Principle and Practice of going to Wars, and Fight; and Now, are all of that Mind and Heart, That in the Administration of the Gospel, 〈◊〉 on all Occasions whatsoever, unlawful to go to War, and Fight with any Man, with Carnal Weapons, contrary to the Doctrine of Christ. This was in the Year 1661. to fix this Opinion of them (the Quakers) in the King and Government: But when, by this Deep Deceit and Hypocrisy, they did prevail, and it had for Twelve Years after the Restauration been generally received, that this was, in good earnest, the Principle of the Quakers, as it continues with most to this day; and I doubt not, but many of the simple well-meaning Quakers themselves, are Imposed upon in this, to think that the Quaker Principle is against all War and Fight upon any Occasion whatsoever, as in their Plea above Quoted: Yet, I say, when the World, and many of themselves, had been thus Deluded by their. Leaders, they, in the Year 1672. to secure to themselves their Old Principle of Fight, whenever The Good Old Cause should stand in need of it, did Reprint what I have above Quoted of Edward Burrough, for carrying Blood and War into all the Popish Countries, and much more to the same purpose, in the New Edition of his Works. To which there are high Testimonies affixed of George Fox, George Whitehead, Josiah Coal, Francis Howgil, and Ellis Hooks. Now, if this Doctrine of Fight or making War, upon any Occasion whatsoever, was contrary to the Spirit of Christ and His Doctrine, in the Year 1●60. (that part of the Year, I mean, after the Restauration) how came the Saints abovenamed, to Publish the contrary Doctrine of Edw. Burrough, with such mighty Pomp, in the Year 1672? And we must believe Both to be Infallible as the Holy Scriptures themselves, being Both given forth by the same Spirit! But these Editors of Burrough's Works, are yet more Chargeable with whatever is in the New Edition, because they took more upon them than barely as Editors; that is, to Correct and Amend, and to Expunge what they thought fit: as his Declaring War against the King and the Church, before-told; which, tho' Dictated, as he said, by the Eternal Spirit; yet they made bold, to set these things aside, lest they should offend the Powers then in being: but they thought that carrying the War into Italy and Spain, would be less taken notice of; and would continue their Claim to the Privilege of Fight, when they should have occasion for it. Why otherwise were not these Expunged, as well as the Traitorous Passages against the King and the Government? If it was through the Inadvertence of their Infallibility, let them now Disclaim it, and confess Burrough to have been in an Error, as to that Principle of Fight. No, they will not; and therefore it is their own. They will not; They have not done it; for since the New Edition of Burrough's Works, 1672. when a fair occasion seemed to offer towards the Reasserting of the Good Old Cause, in Monmouth's Rebellion, 1681. Several of the Quakers in the West, where he Landed, took Arms, and Fought in his Quarrel; and tho' some of them were taken Prisoners, yet we heard nothing of their Repentance, or that they were obliged by the rest, to sign any Instruments of Condemnation against themselves for this; or any way Censured for it, by their Yearly Meetings, or any other Authority of theirs. And, if it be true which Edward Burrough says, p. 462. of his Works, That they (the Quakers) are of one Mind, and one Soul (which I do not believe, I have a better Opinion of many of them; but we have here their Infallibility Pawned for it) I say, if this were true, than this would be a Demonstration what all the rest of the Quakers would have done, if Monmouth had proceeded to their Parts; and what they are still ready to do, when a like Opportunity shall Summon them to Arms. But, as I said, I do not believe that they are all of one Mind, in this matter: but then, those that are not of this Mind, must, I think, past all Excuse, Renounce the Infallibility, or the Truth of Edw. Burrough, and of G. Fox, G. Whitehead, and the other Quakers who have Published these Works of Edward Burrough, with such high Applause and Commendation; in which he disdains to limit the Bloody Sword within these Few Poor Islands; but would have had Oliver (his Joshua) carry it through all Christendom. G. Fox Advises further, to fall upon 〈◊〉 Turk, and all the rest of the World. Oh Oliver (say● he in his Letter to him Dated the 11th Month, See Quakers Unmasked, p. 4, 5, 6. 1659., etc. Thou shouldst not have stood Trifling about small things— Do not stand cumbering thyself about Dirty Priests; and then h● tells him, that if he had followed his Counsel, The Hollanders (says h● to him) had been thy Subjects— How! How! George! Our Dea● Friends the Dutch! Must they t● Pot too! When the Quaker Sword is drawn, it spares none! Protestants, Papists, Turks, it is all one Germany (Fox goes on) had give● up to thy Will, and the Spania●● had quivered like a Dry Leaf— The King of France should have Bowed under thee his Neck: The Pope should have withered as in Winter: The Turk in all his Fatness should have Smoked: Thou shouldst have Crumbled Nations to Dust. Therefore, says he, Let thy Soldiers go forth with a free and willing Heart, that thou may'st Rock Nations as a Cradle— For a Mighty Work hath the Lord to do in other Nations, and their Quake and Shakes, are but entering: So this is the Word of the Lord God to thee, as a Charge to thee from the Lord God, etc. Here is Destruction Proclaimed, to the Ends of the Earth, and that from the Mouth of the Lord! O Blasphemous Cursed Wretch— that durst thus set The Dreadful Name of The most High God to thy Diabolical Inspirations for Blood and Slaughter through the whole Earth. And yet to see these Men wipe their Mouths, and say, that they are the Meek of the Earth! They never were for Fight! No, not they! They now deny the use of the Carnal Sword, as Anti Christian! Poor Lambs! And yet I believe in my Heart, that many of them now are Deceived, and think that the Quaker Principle is really against Fight, because they have heard so much of it since 1660. and that most of the Quakers of this Generation, do not know (for it is Studiously concealed from them, by those of the Old Stamp) what Bloody Devils G. Fox, Edw. Burrough, G. Bishop, and the rest of the Primitive Quakers were. Do they know that after Oliver ●s Death, G. Fox pursued his Son Richard with the same Cry for Blood; General, Universal Blood Fox? would have sent him (an Able Hand!) to have set up his Standard at Rome; and then; (says he, in his Letter to him) you should have sent for the Turks Idol, and plucked up Idolatry— and to have made Inquisition for Blood, etc. Now if using the Carnal Sword, upon any account be contrary to the Doctrine of Christ, as the Quakers since 1660. have Preached; and, if they do believe themselves, they must Hunt this Bloody Fox out of their Herd, and for ever hereafter Disown his Spirit and his Writings. And I do earnestly invite Mr. Penn to follow this Chase; it is most incumbent upon him of any other, because (I think myself obliged to tell it him) he is suspected by some of his fellow Quakers, as favouring this Principle of using the Carnal Sword. And to convince him that I do not speak without Book, I have now before me a Letter from Philadelphia (the Metropolis of Pensilvania) Dated the 21st of the 4th Month, 1695. wherein are these words, I have seen a Copy of the King's late Grant of the Government, wherein they give the Reasons of their taking it away; and of Will. Penn's humble Submission, and Requesting the Government to be Granted to him again; which was therefore done, on his giving them certain Assurance that he would Secure and Defend the Place; and would send 80 Soldiers to Albany, when call●d for, or find Money to Pay them: This causeth a great stir among the People, who are not very ready to comply therewith, etc. I will make no Comments; but leave it to Mr. Penn himself to Own or Deny the Matter of Fact. And whether he will stand by G. Fox as to his Principle of Fight, or not? And if any have been heretofore Deceived by G. Fox, that they would now Repent, and Return. But I must tell them, that they must first Cease to be Quakers: For they who pretend to Infallibility can never Repent, or Acknowledge a Fault. Therefore the Quakers do not ask Pardon for Sin, because they says they have no Sin. If any one can give Evidence, that ever he heard, at ●y Quaker Meeting, Remission of Sins Prayed for, he is desired, for the Vindication of the Truth, to Declare it. God has Promised to Give to those who Ask; but those who will not, Ask have no Title to any Promise in the Gospel. Their Condition is the most Desperate of any of Mankind. The Lord help them, and hear our Prayers for them, since they will not Pray for themselves. Had ever the Devil any Poor Creatures at such a Lock before! To bar up their way, by a Proud and Blind Conceit of Perfection, from seeking, or so much as Wishing to Return from their Sins! And the same Principle must keep them from making any Restitution to Man: Because a Wrong to Man, is a Sin against God; and therefore, if they cannot Sin against God, they cannot do any Wrong to Man; and on the contrary, if it can be proved, th●●t they have done any Wrong to Man, it follows certainly, that they can Sin against God. Therefore, they must put it to that Issue, whether any Quaker ever Wronged any other Man; and to let their Infallibility stand and fall with this. They must do this, they cannot refuse it as being a necessary Consequence of their Principles. And yet they will not do it, they cannot do it: Because there are many and undeniable Instances which can be produced to the contrary; and if the Friends desire any, for fat is faction, they shall have sufficient: But, for the present, I do here demand Reparation, in the behalf of the Church of England, for all the Vile and Scandalous Epithets, which the Quakers have bestowed upon her (some of which I have Repeated) and indeed upon the whole Catholic Church; and upon all the Christian Kings that ever were in the World, making them all Apostates and Anti-christs' (as above is Quoted out of G. Fox's several Papers, etc.) and likewise in behalf of all the Particular Persons whom they have traduced, with such Odious and Hell-fetched Names hereafter mentioned, p. 32. But particularly, in behalf of one whom they have most scandalously Robbed; the Person wronged, is Mr. Selden, and the Thief is Francis Howgil, in whose Works there is a Discourse against Tithes, that is stolen, most apparently, in whole Paragraphs Verbatim, out of Mr. Selden's History of Tithes; which I have compared. It was showed to me as a Learned piece of a Quaker; but I soon found the Deceit, and think it incumbent upon me to Detect it. This will let the World see, that the Quakers Railing against Learning, was only because they themselves had none of it: But when they thought that they could make any Advantage by it, they would venture even to steal it from others. I would now desire the Friends to tell me, whether Selden was not Inspired as much, or rather more than Howgil, since Howgil only stole from him? And whether this Plagiary Art has not mightily exposed the Friend's assurance of their own Infallibility; since they durst not trust to their Light within, but come for 〈◊〉 to those, whom they had vilifyed, and run down as very Anti-christs' and Devils, and the Seed of the Serpent? Let no Man have the Name of a Minister (says G. Fox, in his Several Papers before Quoted, p. 33) that is made at Schools and Colleges, and by the Tongues the Natural. But, it seems, their Ministers may borrow Tongues from those that are bred at Schools and Colleges, as the Israelites did Jewels from the Egyptians. But the Israelites did not steal the Egyptians Jewels: They had their good leave, before they took them. But alas! They stole their Gods too. These Quakers (whether they know it or not) have stolen and Improved the Ancient most Antichristian Heresies. Mr. Penn 's Sandy Foundation, Printed, 1668. is nothing else but the height of Socinianism, in the two great Branches of it, denying the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ: These are what he call. The Sandy Foundation, and his whole Book is wrote on purpose, and expressly against these. The Manichees, Eutychians, Marcionites, and Saturnians, said that Christ was a Man only in Appearance, but had not properly an Human Body or Soul. Thus say the Quakers, That he Dwelled only in the Body of that Man Jesus, as in a Veil or Garment; but took not That Body into his own Person, so as to become Hypostatically united to it: And if so, He was not truly a Man, but only in Appearance. And agreeing to this, the Cerdonites, the Eutychians, and Manicheeans said, that the Passion of Christ was not Real, but in Appearance only, and outward show. And such it was, if, according to the Quaker Doctrine, His Veil only, or Garment was Crucify'd. Others taught (the Family of Love of late) that it was all an Allegory. And thus the Quakers most expressly, making Christ's outward Blood, the Type and Figure of inward Blood shed Spiritually in their Hearts: making Christ without but the History, and their Light within the Mystery, or Substance; which the Christ without, as a History, or Shadow of it, only pointed. But lastly, (because I must not stay here to Deduce and Compare all their Heresies) those Ancient Heretics the Ebionites and nazarenes, from whom our Modern Socinians and from them the Quakers, do derive their Doctrine, did mightily undervalue the Holy Scriptures. Some of them pretended to Mend the Scriptures, and did boldly Adulterate them; Euseb. Hist. l. 5. c 28. Theod. Haeret. Fab. l. 2. c. 5. and set up other Scriptures against those received by the Church. And this the Quakers have done beyond any that ever went before them. For they have Canonised all, and every of their own Writings; tho' most Blasphemous, and expressly Contradicting one another, as has been shown. And none ever have so Contemned and Vilifyed the Holy Scriptures as they have done. One of their Mighty Prophets, (before and hereafter mentioned) height Solomon Eccles, came into the Church at Aldermanburic in London, in time of Divine Service, all Naked, besmeared up to the Elbows, with Excrements; and other Quakers did justify this Beast, and said that he might as well come into the Church with that Filth in his Hands, as the Minister with a Bible. And he was, after this, very dear to G. Fox, and the Companion of his Travels. Upon the 10th of August, 1681. at the Quaker-Meeting-House in Grace-Church-street, one, who had a greater Reverence for the Holy Scriptures than the rest, brought a Bible with him; and before the Meeting was gathered, or their Preachers come (so that it was no Disturbance to their Public Service) he, being in the Gallery, read part of a Chapter, it was the 14th of St. Luke, so nothing particular as to the Quakers, that they could take notice of: But it was the Bible! And that was a sight not used to be seen there, much less to hear it read; which so moved their Indignation, that one of the Chief of them snatched the Bible out of his Hand, and (notwithstanding of all their Meekness) thrust him (an Ancient and Grave Man) all along the Gallery, down several steps. Richard Smith was present, and will attest it. But that this may not seem strange to the Reader, he must know that there never was, from their first appearing in the World, one Chapter of the Holy Scriptures read in any of their Meetings. No, nor has any of their Preachers, that I could hear of, to this Day, ever recommended the reading of the Holy Scriptures to their People; but rather lead them from it, as from a Dead Letter; which was Hurtful and Pernicious: and that they should mind only their own Light within; that is, to follow their own Imaginations. But would not that Argument of minding only their own Light within, conclude as much against reading the Letter of the Quaker Writings? O, no, that was far from their meaning! For, having thus taken the People off from reading or minding the Holy Scriptures; the Fetch which the Devil had in this, was to substitute the Rankest Poison in lieu of that Heavenly Manna, the Scriptures of God. And therefore this Grand Deceiver Possessed the Quakers with that Nonsense as well as Blasphemy, That when, upon Pretence of the Light within, he had drawn them away from reading of the Scriptures, yet, upon the same Argument, he made them Zealous for the Reading and Studying of their own Writings; as if the Pretended Sufficiency of their Light within, were not as much overthrown by the one, as by the other. But this plainly discovers their Preference of their own Writings to the Holy Scriptures; that, while they rejected the Scriptures, as not Necessary to the Guidance or Direction of their Light within; they, at the same time, enjoined, under the severest Penalties, even of rejecting the Authority of God Himself, not only the Private Studying, but the Public Reading of their own Writings, in their Meetings. Thus their Great Fox Commands. This is the Word of the Lord (says he) I charge you, in the Presence of the Lord God, to send this (Epistle) amongst all Friends and Brethren every where, to be read in all Meetings. To them All this is the Word of God, etc. Yet he calls it Blasphemy, to say the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God, as you will see hereafter, p. 150, 151. and George Whitehead, in what he calls An Epistle for the Remnant of Friends, concludes thus, Let this (Epistle) be read distinctly, in the Life and Authority of God, from whence it came, amongst Friends in and about London, and elsewhere, etc. Now I do desire G. Whitehead, to produce out of any of his, or all of their Writings, such an Advice or Encouragement as this, for reading of the Holy Scriptures. Or to tell us whether they ever yet endured so much as one Chapter of them to be read, upon any occasion whatsoever, in any of their Meetings? And then, whether it be not a plain Consequence, that they do Prefer their own Writings (which they so strictly enjoin to be read) to the Holy Scriptures, which they not only not Enjoin, or Command, but never so much as Advise, or Recommend to be read? But, on the contrary, they give all the Threatening Discouragements that can be, to deter any from reading of them, calling them Carnal and Death, as before is told. But to come to further Evidence, and give you even a Judicial Determination of the Quakers Assembled in their Public Meeting, when they durst speak out against the Scriptures, about the Year 1658. this Cause was brought before them, and solemn Judgement given. For than it was that Thomas Paddle accused John Chandler (both of Southwark, Quakers) at a Meeting of the Quakers at the Bull and Mouth, up one pair of Stairs. I give it thus particularly, that the Friends may not pretend Ignorance; and because I have Eye and Ear Witness to produce, if it be in the least Disputed, that Then and There the said John Chandler was Accused by the said Thomas Paddle, for saying, That he Preferred the Scriptures before the Friends Books; which Accusation J. Chandler did not deny (he was something of a Scholar, beyond the common Quaker Level) but being Reproved for it by the Meeting; he said, in Excuse, that it was in Dispute with some Opposers, and that the People urged him to it. And some of those who were present at that Meeting, do very well remember, that one principal Reason they gave for the Preference of their own Books to the Scriptures, was, That tho' the People had, had the Scriptures many years, yet they had not Converted so many to the Truth as Their Books had done. They really thought themselves t●● have a Dispensation beyond the Prophets or Apostles; whom they called Low and Carnal in their Day (see hereafter p. 235.) I can name those that now stand high among them, who being pressed with a Text out of one of St Paul's Epistles (not twenty years ago) did, before many Witnesses, of the Principal Quakers, not stick to say, That Paul was Dark and Ignorant, like— (him whom they opposed) and that they saw beyond him. The occasion of this (if the Friends pretend not to remember it) was a solemn Meeting, or Council which was called of some of their Principal Preachers in London, about the Yea● 1678. upon an Accusation preferred by some of them against one of their Number, for these three Heretical Doctrines, as they esteemed them. 1. That the Body of Christ arose out of the Grave. 2. That Christ is ●o be Prayed to 3. That we must come to the Father through Christ. There were various Opinions in that Learned Council concerning all of these; they being such Deep and Abstruse Points in Divinity! But none of the Heretical side were Disowned by the other, or caused to sign Instruments of Condemnation against themselves, as in other Cases is usual with them. Upon the 2d Point, that Text, 1 Cor. 1.2. being urged as a Proof for the Invocation of Christ, the above Answer was returned, That Paul was Blind and Ignorant, and that they saw beyond him. An● they stood upon it, that no English Quaker was ever heard Pray to Christ. If the Friends think it more for their Service, that Names, Time, and Place be set down; it shall be done, whenever I can say, that it is upon their Request; because I wou●d be Civil. In the mean time I can tell them, that about the Year 1662. John Parrot, one of their Chief Preachers, being questioned for some Expression he had used, he justified himself, by showing the like in the Prophet Hosea; to which G. Fox answered, That the Prophets were not come to the Son. This was a common saying with him. And at another time, one pressing him hard with the Authority of Abraham, he said, Abraham was before John; ●nd that the least in the Kingdom ●i. e. of the Quakers) was Grea●er than Herald Greater indeed! When (as is shown hereafter, near the ●nd of Sect. V and of Sect. XII.) G. Fox was Adored with the Epithets and Worship of Christ. And that Blasphemous Volpone took it Gravely, without any Reprehension; but on the contrary, with Delectation, stroking his Hand over their Faces (as his Custom was) who kneeled, or fell Prostrate before him. But because the Friends call always for an Instance, tho' the Case by never so common; I will, to oblige them, go a great way back; and name Ann Gargil, who when G. Fox came first to London, threw herself upon her Knees betwixt his Feet; and cried out to him, Thou art the Son of t●● Living God S. B. another Qu●ker, now alive, was present; a●● confesses she was struck with that Blasphemous Expression. At another time, a She-Preache● arose in a Public Meeting, an● with a Trembling Voice, an● singing Tone, thus accosted G. Fox then present, Thou art the King of Saints! Whereat another Quake● Woman being offended, did expostulate with her, after the Meeting: an● her excuse was, that it was not to G. Fox she spoke those words, but t● Christ who was within him; th● same Distinction which all Idolater use for Worshipping their Idols: An● which G. Whitehead uses in thi● same Case, as you will see hereafter at the close of Sect. XII. And the same would excuse Simon Magus, for being called, The Great Power of God (Act. 8.10.) That was more modest than our Magician, who was called The Christ himself; and not only His Power or Virtue. Simom desired only, That the Holy Ghost might be given by his Hands (Acts 8.19.) but George Magus, owned no other Holy Ghost than what was within himself, of which he was the Possessor and Owner. These have far outstripped their Master. For Simon Magus was the Father of the Quakers, Socinians, and all the rest of the Anti-Trinitarian Heretics. He first Blasphemed against the Holy Trinity; slighted the Scriptures, Epiphan Haer. 21. Iren. Advers. Haer. l. 1. c. 20. denying the Law of Moses to be from God; set up Magic, Idolatry, and Sensuality. In all of which he was not more followed by the Gnostics than the Quakers; as, I think, I have sufficiently shown. I hope without Exception, unless it be that sometimes I do not name every Voucher, and sometimes set down but the two first Letters of their Names, which is but seldom; and then only when they were not willing (unless upon necessity to clear the Truth, which they will not refuse) to have their Names exposed to the Fury of the Quaker-Spirit; which throws so much Dirt upon any who dare oppose them, that no Man, though never so Innocent, would desire to be so bespattered; which is the Reason given by the Ingenious Author of The Third Part of the Quakers Quibbles, Printed, 1675. why he did not let himself be known. And may be one Reason why they have not yet attempted any Answer to that Book alone (I think I may say) of all that have been wrote against them: being deprived of their beloved Topick, which they use instead of Argument, to Vilify and Discredit all that is in their Power, the Good Name of any who writes against them. Let the Reader take this for one Reason (if he please) tho' I say not that it is the only one, why the Author of this small Treatise has not troubled the World with his Name. For he desires no stress to be laid upon who says, but upon what is said. Besides, he thought it needless to tell his Name to these Gentlemen with whom he has to do; because, as hereafter Quoted, p. 71. George Fox says, That they (the Quakers) have an Infallible Judgement to judge Person● and Things. Which yet has not discovered to them the Author of The Quakers Quibbles: and this Author may perhaps escape as well; tho' his Concern is not great if it prove otherwise. But this by the buy. To return to Edw. Burrough p. 47. of his Works, determines clearly, that the Scriptures are not now of any Authority at all to us, at this day. Why? Because they were Commands given to others, and not to us. For example, That the Epistles to the Corinthians bond no other Church; that to the Galatians, had respect only to those of Galatia, and so of all the rest. And that the old Prophets were only to be harkened to at that time, by those particular People or Nations, to whom they then directed their Prophecies. For it being objected, that the Quakers held this pernicious Principle, That the Saints were not to do Duties by or from a Command without, but from a Command within; and that the word Command in Scripture, was not a Command to them; till they had the word within them. Burrough owns and justifies it. I answer, (says he) That is no Command from God to me, which he Commands to another; neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture, act by the Command which was to another, not having the Command to themselves; I Challenge an Example of it; they obeyed every one their own Command; and thou or any other, who goes to Duty, as you call it, by Imitation from the Letter without, which was Commands to others— your Sacrifice is not accepted, but is Abomination to the Lord, etc. Here it is made Abomination to the Lord, to obey the Command of Scripture, or to live by Imitation, (as he calls it) from the Letter; that is, not to follow our own Imaginations without the control of Scripture, or any other Law. This is the same Principle which is hereafter, p. 156. related from Mr. Penn; and almost in the same words, That what was a Command of God, in old time (that is, in the Scriptures) is not so to us, unless required by the same Spirit Anew. Here the whole Authority of Scripture is, at one blow cut down. For no Command in Scripture is, by this Rule, obligatory, unless it be Commanded Anew by the Quaker Light within (that is, by every Man's Roving Imagination) and, if it be Commanded by their Light within, than they think that it is Dictated by the same Spirit, which gave forth the Scriptures of old; and, upon that account only, that it is obligatory; but not because it is contained in Scripture; which was only a Command to those in former Ages, but not to us who have another Rule given unto us Anew; that is, our own Light within. So that the Scriptures are, by this, as much out-dated, as an old Almanac. And we must no longer search the Scriptures, we must not live so much as by Imitation of what we find there. Burrough says, it is Abomination to the Lord. And therefore, it was no strange thing to hear George Whitehead, in his Serious Apology, p. 49. Prefer not only their Writings, but their Extempore Preachments, and even all whatsoever they speak, upon any account, to the Holy Scriptures themselves. The Question demanded was this, Do you esteem your Speakings to be of as great Authority as any Chapter in the Bible? And his Answer is in these words, That which is spoken by the Spirit of Truth in any, is of as great Authority as the Scriptures and Chapters are, and Greater. And therefore, tho' they have let no supposed contempt of their own Books go unrebuked (as in the Instance before of Chandler) yet we never heard of any Censure they have passed upon those many much grosser contempts of Scripture, which daily are found among them. Particularly (that we may always name some Instance) of Mary Tucker a Quaker Servant to William Reyman a Barber, now living in Queen-street, Cheapside, but formerly in Bread-street, where this Marry, than his Servant, took the Bible, and, in the open day, publicly Burnt it, against the Church in Bread-street, to show her Zeal. Pursuant to this their Principle, in their Disputes among themselves, they appeal to their own Writings, instead of the Holy Scriptures. Thus when in their Public Meeting, at Philadelphia, upon Sunday 11. Dec. 1692. G. Keith was Accused of Heresy, See Heresy and Hatred before Quoted, p. p. in saying That the Light within was not sufficient to Salvation, without something else, i. e. Christ Jesus, as without us. And that G. Keith desired to have that Pretended Heresy proved against him by Scripture; it was Replied by Sam. Jennings, as the Mouth of the Meeting, we are not to prove it from Scripture, but from Friends Books; for the Question betwixt us and George Keith, is not, who is the best Christian, but who is the best Quaker. And indeed they did rightly distinguish betwixt the Christian and the Quaker: For (as before Quoted out of Smith's primer p. 9) they are as distant as East from West. And, according to their Rule, they produced, instead of Scripture, 〈◊〉 Citation out of Mr. Penn's Part of the Christian Quaker, against G. Keith, to prove him an Heretic, Mr. Penn's words were these, The Talon is in itself sufficient. And so G. Keith was Damned as an Heretic for saying, That the Light within was not sufficient without something else. Ut supra. It was two years before this, when Thomas Fitzwater (hereafter mentioned, p. 129. and 131.) another Quaker Preacher, at Philadelphia, being asked how he liked G. Keith's Doctrine? Said, not at all. For that he was Building up, what they (the Quakers) had been throwing down these 40 years; to bring People back to the Scriptures▪ and the Professors of Christ. This is the True and Genuine State of the Controversy betwixt G. Keith and the other Quakers; and betwixt the Quakers and other Christians. And here I will end this tedious Paragraph. 15. And I will enlarge no farther, than to assure the Reader that there is no mixture of any Personal Prejudice in this undertaking: For I do freely own, that I have a real Kindness and good Wishes for every one of the Quakers that I have hitherto been acquainted with; and I never received any sort of Disobligation from any of them, in my whole life. And that it was, in a great measure, for their sakes, that I engaged myself in this Controversy; out of an earnest desire to open the Eyes, 〈◊〉 least of some of them, to see those Horrible Delusions, wherein they are ●●d. And, in the next place, to hinder ●he increase of such Pernicious Doctrines, and prevent others from falling into their Snares. But because it would be too great hopes to expect the Conversion of all of them at once (I wish I may be mistaken) and that I am told it is their Custom to Answer all Books which are Printed against them. I do, before hand, give a necessary Caution to whomsoever shall be appointed to this Task, that they should not after their usual Fashion, Carp at some word, or Expression, and neglect the whole substance of the matter against them, or give one general Evasive Answer to the whole; as they have done to the Seven Queries bearing date the 15th of May, and Presented to their last Yearly Meeting the 17. of the same May, 1695. (the same day that they Excommunicated George Keith) whereby the better to Conceal their Janus Answers, which All carry two Faces, looking to direct contrary ways. For being Cautioned in the Introduction to the said Queries, in as plain Terms, I think, as words can bear, of their manner of double Answers; particularly as to the Nature of Christ, how that they can subscribe the whole Creed (as above-told) and yet not mean one word of it of a Personal Christ, existing now in Heaven, in his own true Humane Nature, without all other Men: or that he is now any otherwise a Man, than as existing in His Saints: But that they mean all they say of their own Light within Only, which they call a Spiritual Christ, and shedding Spiritual Blood, etc. within them. And being thus Cautioned, and Desired, to clear themselves from this Imputation (if it was one) by giving a plain Yea or Nay to the said Seven Queries; of which the 1st Quer. was, Do you believe in a Christ without you, now in Heaven? and Quaer. 6. Is Christ now, at this day, and for ever to come, Truly and Really a Man, in True and Proper Humane Nature, without all other Men? These are Plain and Short Queries. And yet they say, in their Answer, That they cannot give their Yea or Nay to each Quaery as desired, because they were not Plain and Direct Queries. And therefore, put them all off together, with one ●neral Answer; wherein their pro●●●●● the same manner against which they wer● Cautioned; and which they were told was laid to their Charge, as a Trick and Deceit of theirs to Hide and Cover the●● Monstrous Heresies: but, notwithstooding of all this Provocation, they still use i●; they must use it, for they have no other way left to blind the Eyes of the World, and to preserve the least pretence to the Name of Christian. Accordingly in their said Answer, they tell of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, etc. but they keep off the whole stress of the Queries, viz. Whether they believe in such a Christ, as without them? And that he is now▪ at this day, a Man, without all other Men. No, not a word of this: this pinches too close. And I think this a full Confession of their Heresy; while they will not, by any means, be brought, in plain Terms, to disown it. And then give such a Senseless, and apparently False Excuse for it; as that the Queries were not so Pl●● and Direct, as that they could Answer to them Particularly: And refer, in general, to their Books already Printed. Out of some of which, G. Keith has Collected their True and Genuine Answers, to each of the said Queries: And they are Printed, together with the Queries and their Answer, by Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's- Head in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1695. under this Holy Title, Gross Error and hypocrisy Detected, &c, to which I refer the Reader. And, I may, perhaps, present him with a further Examination of the abovesaid Quaker-Answer to the Seven Queries, of their waving to Answer, as to the Satisfaction of Christ; wherein they dare not deny themselves to be direct Socinians; and of some other Material Points, which I will not insist upon, in this, that has already swelled so much beyond its first intended bounds. Only I do now give this Caution to those Quakers who shall be ordained to Answer this Book (if they so think fit) that they serve it not as they have done the Queries before-told; but that they would Reply distinctly to each Section by its self: And not Answer a Book as Rats do, by nibbling at some corners of the Leaves; stealing through it like Moths, to no other purpose than to deface some Words at a venture, without any need so much as to open the Book, or examine into the Sense and Meaning of it. Otherwise, let them pass it, in Silence. and that shall be taken for a full Confession of the Charge. But if they will Answer, I desire that they would (for Brevity, and to give us a taste of their Spirit) begin with a plain Yea or Nay to the two of the Seven Queries, which are above inserted, viz. the First and the Sixth. These are not so Long, nor so Intricate, as not to admit of a Plain Yea or Nay, in Answer to them: But if the Quakers refuse this, or shall over again, after all this Caution, give only a General and Evasive Answer: Then I shall Conclude, and I believe, all the Readers with me, That nothing fair is intended by them, or to be expected in their Answers to all the rest of this Book: And that they are not sound in the Faith. THE SNAKE in the Grass, OR, SATAN Transformed into An Angel of Light. Discovering the Deep and Unsuspected Subtlety which is Couched under the Pretended Simplicity of many of the Principal Leaders of those People called QUAKERS. THE Controversy with the Quaker-Dissenters, has not been pursued by the Church of England with the like Zeal and Pains as those against the Presbyterians, Independents, and other Dissenters; because the Quakers were not so Considerable, either for their Learning, or for their Influence upon the Public Revolutions, which the others caused both in Church and State. But their Numbers (whether increased by being so neglected) are now really Formidable, I mean for the many Souls Seduced by them (for I speak not now of Temporal Considerations;) they not only swarm over these Three Nations, but they Stock our Plantations abroad. It is wholly for the love of Souls, that I have entered into this Controversy. And therefore, to do Right to All, I have made a Distinction between them, in the very Title. I name many of their Principal Leaders; because I have great Charity for the generality of the Ignorant sort of them, some of whom I know to be very Honest and Well-meaning Men, and Devout in their way, and who suspect nothing of the Depth of that Mystery of Iniquity, wherein they are Blindly, and Implicitly led. And therefore it is chief for the sake of these, that I detect the Errors of their Leaders and Ministers, that they may, now at length, if it be the Will of God, recover themselves out of the Snares of the Devil, wherein they are taken Captive by him at his will. Secondly, I name the Subtlety of these Rabbis of the Quakers Sect. For, tho' they are generally thought the most Ignorant and Contemptible Sect amongst all our Dissenters; and therefore are most neglected by us; yet, since I have perused their Books, and Conversed with some of them, I have much altered my Opinion as to that. I find them to Inherit the Subtlety as well as Heresy of the Arians and Socinians, who were the most Subtle and hardest to be Detected, of any of the Christian Heretics. And the Quakers do defend themselves with the same Distinctions, and even add to their Arts, as you shall see. But they are now at a very hard Lock. For many of them have really gone off from the height of Blasphemy and Madness which was Professed among them at their first setting up, in the Year 1650. and so continued till after the Restauration Anno 1660. since which time they have been coming off by degrees; especially of late, some of them have made nearer Advances towards Christianity than ever before: And among them the Ingenious Mr: Penn has of late refined some of their gross Notions, and brought them into some Form, has made them speak Sense and English, of both which George Fox (their First and Great Apostle) was totally Ignorant, as you will see in the few Quotations, which I have Transcribed out of his Great Mystery in his own words. But so wretched is their State, that tho' they have in a great measure, Reformed from the Errors of the Primitive Quakers, yet they will not own this; because, as they think, it would Reflect upon their whole Profession, as indeed it does, and Argues that their Doctrine was Errouneous from the Beginning; and their Pretence False and Impious, upon which they first left the Church, and run into Schism: Therefore they endeavour, all they can, to make it appear that their Doctrine was Uniform from the Beginning, and that there has been no alteration; and therefore they take upon them to defend all the Wrizing of George Fox, and others of the first Quakers, and turn and wind them, to make them (but it is impossible) agree with what they Teach now at this day. On the contrary, they have, by these Arts brought back their New Reformation to the Old Standard; and while they would Reconcile, they, in effect, Justify and still Maintain their first Blasphemous Pretences; only have Dressed and Couched them more Craftily, which is more Wickedly. Therefore, to rid them out of this Difficulty, I would persuade them, openly and above-board to Renounce George Fox and their first Reformers, and all their Blasphemous and Heretical Doctrine. Which whoever refuses to do, must be concluded to remain still in that Root of Bitterness, and Bond of Iniquity. For this Reason I have taken my Rise from the Writings of George Fox, and others of their Scribes; and shown the little, pretty Distinctions, which the Modern Quakers make use of, to Cover, Palliate, and Reconcile those Doctrines of Devils at first taught by them. And I hope I have performed thus much, That our present Quakers must either plainly Renounce George Fox, and other their Original Rabbis; or otherwise that they are not to be believed in that fair Face which they, at present, would put upon their Doctrine. There is nothing so Monstrous or so Senseless for which excuses may not be made, and some seemingly plausible meaning put upon the grossest Absurdities. No Quakers in the World do Defend themselves with greater vehemence, and self-assurance than the Muggletonians do. And they go (as the Quakers do) upon the Pretence of an Infallible Inspiration of the Spirit of God, or, the Light within; and are as Positive as any Quaker of them all. And, I must say it, they give the same Proof for their Extraordinary Inspiration, as the Quakers do, that is, none at all, but their own Confident averring of it. Mr Penn, in his Winding-Sheet (hereafter Quoted) p. 6 Sect. 6. calls Muggleton the Sorcerer of our Days. Now I would beseech Mr. Penn (who has more Wit than all the rest of his Party) to let us know what Ground he had for leaving the Church of England more than Muggleton? Or, than others of the Separate Quakers have for leaving of him, and his Party? Or why we should trust the Light within Him, or George Fox, rather than the Light within Lodowick Muggleton? Has Lodowick wrought no Miracles to prove his Mission? No more have George Fox, or William Penn. Are they very sure that they are in the Right? So is he. Are they Schismatics? So is he. Are they above Ordinances? Have they thrown off the Sacraments? Muggleton has done more: He has discarded Preaching and Praying too: For these are Ordinances. Is He against distinct Persons in the Godhead? So are They. Is He against all Creeds? So are They. Does He deny all Church-Authority? So do They. Yet does He require the most Absolute Submission to what Himself teaches? So do They. Does He make a Dead Letter of the Holy Scriptures, and Resolve all into his own Private Spirit? So do They. Does He Damn all the World; and all since the Apostles? So do They. All which will be shown at large in what follows. These are Twin-Enthusiasts, both born in the year 1650. (for then it was Muggleton says he got his Inspiration) and have proceeded since upon the same main Principle, tho' in some particulars, they have outstripped one another, and Persecute one another, as if they were not Brethren: But tho', like Sampson's Foxes, they draw two ways, their Tails are joined with Firebrands, to set the Church in a Flame. I desire here, before I go farther, to obviate a Prejudice which some Readers may take as a little Raillery I am forced to, now and then; which they may think not becoming the Gravity of the Subject in Hand: But there are some things so very Ridiculous, as to make a serious Confutation of them no less Ridiculous. I am to tell the Reader, likewise, that I do not, in this, undertake to give an Account of all the Errors of the Quakers: And some of those which I do name, I dismiss very briefly, intending chief to insist upon some of their more Material and Monstrous Heresies. 1. Therefore first, As to their Principles concerning Government. I shall only refer you to the Quakers Unmasked, Printed at London, 1691. where p. 14, 15. you will see them to be Commonwealthsmen; against Kingly and Hereditary Government, and making all Governors Accountable to the People. And p. 18, 19, 20. They Court Oliver Cromwell at no small rate, justifying the Murder of King Charles I. whom they call Traitor, Common-Enemy, etc. and yet after the Restauration, 1660. they come about again, and compare the same Oliver to Abab, Haman, and Pharaoh. They had got a New Light! See more of this in the latter part of Sect. XI. SECT. II. As to Their Principle against using the Carnal Weapon, or Force of Arms. I Will dispatch this Head, with a pleasant Story I find in the Printed Trials of G. Keith and others in Pensylvania; where the Government is in Mr Penn, as Propriator, and under him chief Managed by Quakers, who are Justices of the Peace, and in other Commissions there. But so it fell out, that some Pirates took a Sloop of theirs. This put them into great Distress, betwixt their so much cried up Principle against using outward Force, tho' in their own Defence; which a whole Dozen of them, and George Fox the first, Signed in a Declaration to K. Charles II. in the year 1660. to be Antichristian; which Declaration is inserted in the said Trial, with other Testimonies of the Quakers, against even Defensive War, tho' to save their Throats or Goods from Thiefs, Robbers and Cutthroats (I use their own words) as being Atheism, and a Mistrusting of Providence in Restraining Evil Men. They were in great pain how to save this Principle and the Sloop too. But that was impossible. And all their Sloops, and all that they had, might have gone the same way, if they would not oppose Force to Force: which at last was resolved upon, and they retook their Sloop, and made some of the Pirate's Prisoners. They soon found that necessity in Government, when it was in their own Hands, which they could not be convinced of while it was in the Hands of others. But they must not go from any former Principle, for spoiling of their Infallibility: Therefore they Coined, or Borrowed a pretty Distinction, and said that they did not use the Carnal Weapon, as Quakers, but as Magistrates And now all is whole again. This is the same Salvothe Pope has for his using the Temporal Sword. And this is not the only thing which the Quakers have learned from the Church of Rome, which I briefly touch upon. SECT. III. That the Popish Emissaries first set up Quakerism in England. EDward Burrough, who wrote the Preface to George Fox's Great Mystery, Printed 1659. tells us that the Quakers first appeared in England Anno 1650. and came first into London Anno 1654. Then it was that Rome was reaping a plentiful Harverst which they had long been sowing, by setting up, in that Universal Toleration, Multitudes of various Sects, on purpose to Divide, and so Confound their only substantial Adversary, the Church of England. They dressed Enthusiasm in several Shapes and Forms, of Presbyter, Anabaptist, Independent, Quaker, Muggleton, and a long etc. which differ only in degrees. Of this many Instances may be given, See Foxes and Firebrands, Printed 1680. p. 15, etc. and Proofs undeniable. Enthusiasm, when it is a Delusion, or falsely pretended, is the surest means to overthrow all Church-Government and Order, and all Sobriety of Religion; for it is no less than Blasphemy falsely to pretend to Extraordinary Inspirations from God. And this Doctrine of Enthusiasm came chief from the Church of Rome; Labbade a Jesuit set it up in Holland; and Rob. Barclay the Quaker was tinctured in his younger years in the Scotch Convent at Paris; and John Vaughan was a Roman Catholic, who was a great Preacher among the Quakers in London, and a Preacher now among them in Pensylvania. But God has punished them, by sending the same Spirit among themselves: And has made a great Fraction in the Church of Rome by the growing Sect of the Molinists, or Quietists in Italy. There is a Sect like unto these rose up in Germany, called Pietists; some of whom I am told have been in London, and owned as Brethren by the Quakers, and gone many of them to Pensylvania. The Quaker Infallibility was contrived on purpose to bring Men back to the Infallibility of the Church of Rome, by these steps. First, the Infallibility was placed by George Fox, and all the Primitive Quakers in every single Quaker; which I will show. This most Ridiculous Pretence, the Jesuits well knew, could not long be Tenable: and that it would roll naturally into the Infallibility of their Church or Meetings; which it is already come to, as shall be abundantly made appear. And now there is but one step behind, and that is, to Dispute the Infallibility betwixt the Two Churches, that of Rome, and that of the Quakers: And the Issue of this who does not see, when their Succession and other Marks of the True Church, come to be compared together. SECT. iv Their Damning all the World, but themselves, since the days of the Apostles. GEorge Fox in his Great Mist. p. 89. says, That the Quakers have a Spirit given them beyond all the Forefathers, since the days of the Apostles, in the Apostasy. George Whitehead would fain come off of this, and thus endeavours to excuse it, in his Charitable Essay, Printted 1693. p. 5. in these words, The very Intent and Meaning of George Fox's words herein, was not beyond all the Forefathers, without Exception, but beyond all in the Apostasy. That is, George Fox did not think that all the Forefathers were in the Apostasy; and that he only spoke of those who were in the Apostasy. So that some were in the Apostasy, and some were not in it. Now here it would have been incumbent upon George Whitehead to have named those whom he, or George Fox did believe were not in the Apostasy. But that he could not do, for, in truth, they Condemn all the World but themselves. Tho' here George Whitehead would fain mince the Matter. Let us hear George Fox explain himself in other places of the same Book; you will best know his meaning from himself. p. 217. he says, That since the days of the Apostles, All the world went after them, i. e. after those who (as he there expresses it) did inwardly Raven in the Sheep's Clothing. And now (says he) are People but coming from them to the Rock. p. 219. That the whole World was standing against the Light, and against the Saints and the Lamb. p. 226. Since the days of the Apostles, All that dwelled upon the Earth went after them, the False Prophets and the Beast. p. 175. Since the Apostles Decease— the Faith hath been departed from, the Unity among All Christians hath been lost, in All Christendom— From that ye have Ravened, You, and the Papists, and All Sects upon the Earth. p. 253. Such as differ from us, differ from Christ. p. 267. You all Priests and Teachers who call yourselves Ministers, since the days of the Apostles, who inwardly are Ravened from the Spirit of God, are turning, and have turned All People from the Light to the Darkness, and so have kept Thousands and Millions of Souls in Damnation, and turning and keeping them in the Path and Way unto Hell. p. 98. And Thou and You All that speak and write, and not from God Immediately and jufallibly as the Apostles did, and Prophets, and Christ— You are All under the Curse in another Spirit, Ravened from the Spirit that was in the Apostles, only have had the Sheep's Clothing, inwardly Ravening Wolves, so deceived the world and the Nations— And so Power hath been given to the Beast over All Kindred's, Tongues, and Nations. p. 153. Which have deceived the Nations, and led the World, and brought them all upon Heaps, and have Never heard the Voice of God, nor the Voice of Christ, and have not the same Infallible Spirit as the Apostles had, and no Immediate Revelation nor Inspiration as they had: So these have taken away the Key of Knowledge from among People since the Days of the Apostles. p. 158. Of his (Christ's) Body are All Professors, Protestants and Papists upon the Earth Ignorant— Therefore be All in the Unity one among another. p. 111. And All upon the Earth that be from this Light (which the Quakers set up) they be in the Error, out of the Covenant of God, and strangers from the Covenant of Promise. And in plain terms, p. 249. he asserts all others to be so (Equivocating, Deluding Hypocrites) except Quakers. And p. 267. That the Quakers are the Only Ministers of Christ, not made by Men, but by the Will of God. And adds, Is not All Sects joined with you against them? p. 111. All the Earth doth Rage against them. And that we may be sure that England is included, he says p. 311. The Ministers which are so called in England, bath gotten the Name, but are found the Ministers of Unrighteousness, and are Wolves indeed in Sheep's Clothing— What Greedy Dumb Dogs are these? etc. I will not trouble myself nor the Reader to apply all this, and show that George Whitehead 's Exposition abovenamed is a mere Sophistication, and quite contrary to the meaning of George Fox. The thing shows itself. But if George Whitehead was really mistaken in George Fox 's meaning, than I do expect from him, if he be a sincere honest Man, that, upon examining the above mentioned Quotations, and many more which he may find in the same Book, to the same purpose, he will Publicly, and in Print acknowledge his Error; because the satisfaction to the World ought to be as Public as the Offence which was given: and that he and all the rest of the Quakers will, for ever hereafter, own and confess that George Fox did Damn all the World since the Apostles, but the Quakers; and not only those in the Apostasy, as George Whitehead would turn it off; for that he held they were All in the Apostasy. SECT. V The Watchful and Proud Spirit of the Quakers. HAving thus Damned all the World, it is not strange to see them Heal all the rest of Mankind with a Respect proportionable. For what should Damnation do with Respect? There is nothing which discovers the inward Disposition and Temper of the Mind, more than our Words and Language to one another. Kind and sweet Expressions are natural to Love and Good Nature; as Furious, Spiteful, Envious, and other Grating and Violent Passions do Naturally vent themselves in the like wicked and hateful Ebullitions of a distorted Soul. Hypocrisy covers these Embers sometimes; but the least wind disperses those thin Ashes, and kindles all into a Flame: Thus the least Provocation; nay, no other Provocation than that of Disputing against them, raises up a strange Spirit of Fury in them, such as possesses no other sort of Mankind that ever I heard of. And I believe there is no one who has engaged against them, that has escaped this sort of Treatment. And yet they are out of all Patience at the least return of this sort to themselves. They love not to be approached, but with the greatest Ceremony of Deference and Regard to their High Character, far beyond that of all the Kings upon the Earth (which I will show in its place) George Fox, in his Great Mist. p. 237. Thus corrects William Thomas, Minister of Ubley, for Reflecting, as he said, upon two sorts of them, The work of the Ministers of the Gospel (says he) is not to Reflect upon Persons— And so thou that art Reflecting upon Persons, dost show a Mark of thyself to be a False Prophet— And this Reflecting upon Persons was never the way to beget to God. And yet in the same Breath, while he thus Reproves William Thomas for Reflecting upon others, he calls him a False Prophet. Which is as severe a Reflection as could be put upon any who owned himself as a Minister of the Gospel. The Devil was in thee (says he to Christopher Wade, p. 250.) You be in the Diabolical Devilish (says he to some Priests in the Bishopric, p. 321.) And thou talkest foolishly (he replies to Tim. Trevers, p. 326) and given up to the Devil's Power. And in the foregoing Section, you see what Reflections he makes upon all the Priests and Teachers in the World, calling them Raveners from Christ, Wolves, Dogs, Equivocating, Deluding Hypocrites, etc. Take some more of their sweet words, Some of the Quakers Principles, etc. Printed 1693. p. 8, 9, 10, 11. such as these. Conjurers, Thiefs, Robbers, Anti-christs', Witches, Devils, Scarlet-coloured Beasts, Bloodhounds, gaping like the Mouth of Hell, raging like Sodomites, Lizards, Moles, Tinkers, Green-headed Trumpeters, Wheel-barrows, Gimcracks, Whirlpools, Whirligigs, Moon-calves, Threadbare tatterdemalions, Serpents, Vipers, Ministers of the Devil, Ravening Evening Wolves and Bears, Devils Incarnate, Devil-driven Dungy Gods, etc. Much of this is owing to the mean Education of these Scribes, which furnished them with such Mechanic Ribaldry and Billingsgate. But the Furies which breath in their Spirit, can go along with it into Breasts of more Free and Generous Conversation; Mr. Penn's Sense and Breeding could not secure him from the Tincture of this Leaven, which transported him (for nothing else could do it) to treat his old Friend Mr. Firmin, at this course rate, calling him (in his Winding-sheet, Printed 1672. p. 2.) That Little Great Pragmatical Thomas Firmin, a Monster, all Tongue and no Ears— I abhor his Folly, Lightness and Foul Mouth. And he calls Mr. Hedworth (p. 1.) a very Night-bird, a Wanderer; one that looks and creeps about like an Angry Vagrant Momus. (p. 3.) Burstened with Folly and Revenge. (p. 4.) Stuffed with dull Ignorance and Cavils— Shallow Head, Envious Heart, an Idle Shifter, Bombast, a Lie as black as Hell. All this in one Sheet of Paper. In the Conclusion of which, in one line he calls Mr. Hedworth, a Busy Body, Caviling, Conceited, Proud, Wrathful, Equivocating, Slandering, Cowardly Man. And in a Pamphlet Entitled, The Spirit of Alexander the Coppersmith, etc. Printed 1673. p. 1, 2, 14, 16. he calls William Muggleton, his Opponent, an Old Cankered Apostate, a Clamourer, a New Alexander, Phygellus, Hermogenes, Hymenaeus, Philetus, a very Mutineer in Religion, a Dark, Envious Inveterate Man— An Adamantine Alexander the Apostate, etc. Such sort of Railing, and Effeminate Spite one would not have expected from a Man of Education, and Excellent Natural Parts. But it shows the strength of the Poison, and how hard it is to touch Pitch, and not be defiled! This Wrathful Spirit of the Quakers shows itself yet three times more Deformed, and Ridiculous when it is vented Naturally by the Mechanic Gang, who have no Art to hid its Natural Colours. Take some of their Poetical Elevations against some of their own Separatists, which is Recorded in T. C's Animadversions (hereafter Quoted) p. 10. Rogers, Team, Crisp, * This Pen, is not William Penn (who is not one of their Separatists, but one John Peniman, contracted into Pen for this sweet Verse. Pen, Bullock, and Bugg, Dark Devil-driven Dungy-Gods, desperately Lug, That are tied to the Tail of the separate Schism, Popish Libertine, Heathen Judaisme, Atheism. Such Filth and Nonsensical Venom could never proceed from the Spirit of Purity or of Wisdom! There needs no Argument to discern betwixt Perfume and Stench. The opening of the Box does it. And this shows the true Picture of the Quaker-Spirit, exposes it to our Touch; we Feel, See, and Abominate it, by the very Conviction of our Senses. As Heaven and Hell would discover themselves at first sight. No less distinguishable are Blessing and Cursing, Meekness and Fury. His Delight was in Cursing (says David, Psal. 109.16.) and it shall happen unto him: He loved not Blessing, therefore it shall be far from him. He Clothed himself with Cursing, like as with a Raiment— Psal. 14.5. The Poison of Asps is under their Lips; their Mouth is full of Cursing and Bitterness. Thus much for their Wrathful Spirit, next for their Pride. Pride is involved in Wrath, and Wrath proceeds from Pride. But of all Pride, there is none so dangerous and wicked as that of Spiritual Pride. It is this which makes us likest to the Devil. But when Wrath expresses itself in the Contempt and Disparagement of others, than it is direct Pride, which consists in a Comparing of ourselves with others, and a Preferring of ourselves before them. And when this is upon Account of Religion, of our own supposed Holiness above that of others— Stand by thyself, Isai. 65.5. come not near me, for I am Holier than thou— These are a smoke in my Nose (says God) a fire that burneth all the day. Now the Quakers in this, exceed all the Sects upon the Face of the Earth. And that most Uncharitably. They Damn all the World to Hell, all, since the days of the Apostles, but themselves, as above is shown. Sect. 4. They make themselves as Infallible as Christ or the Apostles, as hereafter will be shown; They Explain not their Light within to be only an Illumination from Christ, as Mr. Penn has, of late, Ingeniously turned it, but to be the very Person of Christ in them; and that there is no other Christ, no Personal Christ in Heaven, or any where without them (Which I will show abundantly from G. Fox and others of their Apostles) and therefore that the Title or Name of Christ does belong to them, to every Member, as well as to the Head, as well as to that Man Jesus Christ, in whom Christ or the Light dwelled, no otherwise, tho' some of them will sometimes say, in a Greater Measure, than in every one of the Quakers. Nay, G. Fox says that their Soul is a Part of God, Gr. Mist. p. 273, 100, 91, 229, 90, 29, 207, 282. of his Being and Essence; that they become one Soul with God, that their Soul is Infinite in its self. And that God is not distinct from his Saints, as I come to show. They pretend to a Perfection even Equal with God, as I will show, in express Terms, out of G. Fox. And therefore they say they are without Sin; and they never beg Pardon for Sin, but Laugh at us, and Upbraid us, for confessing of selves to be Sinners, or Praying to God for Mercy. Alas poor Souls! (says Mr. Penn, of the Church of England, in his Truth Exalted, Reprinted at London, 1671. p. 9) are you not at Have Mercy upon us miserable Sinners, there is no Health in us, from seven to seventy? And p. 8. He accuses the Church of England as Opposers of Perfection. They think it not Honour enough to stand before the Throne of God, but G. Fox places them upon the Throne, p. 31. The Quakers (says he) are in the Power of God, and in the Authority of the Lamb, above all Houses, and— are upon the Throne. And according to this high Dignity in which they place themselves, they give to themselves, and to one another, the most peculiar Titles of Christ, as that of the Branch and the Star, and the Son of God, which are attributed to G. Fox, New Rome Arraigned, p. 33, 34. and which he takes to himself. I saw the Copy of a Letter of his to Oliver Cromwell, transcribed by a Quaker, and preserved as a Precious Piece● He there calls himself the Son of God, and says of himself, My Kingdom is not of this World. But because some would turn it off, and pretend that he spoke these words of Christ, and not of himself, I will set down verbatim that part of the Letter, and leave the Reader to judge. These than are his words. I who am of the World called George Fox, do deny the carrying or drawing of any Carnal Sword against any, or against thee Oliver Cromwell, or any Man, in the presence of the Lord God I Declare, as God is my witness, by whom I am moved to give this forth from him, whom the World calls George Fox, who is The Son of God, who is sent to stand a Witness against all Violence— My Weapons are not Carnal, but Spiritual, and My Kingdom is not of this world, therefore with the Carnal weapon I do not fight. He said, The Quakers Unmasked, Printed 1691. p. 26, 27. That he was beyond the state of the first Adam that fell— that his Marriage was above the state of the first Adam in his Innocency, in the state of the second Adam that never fell— And that he never fell nor changed. I am (saith G. Fox) the Door that ever was, the same, Christ yesterday, to day, and for ever. (And in the Title page) Written from the Mouth of the Lord, from one who is naked, New Rome Arraigned, p. 33. and stands before the Lord, Clothed with Righteousness, whose Name is not known in the world, risen up out of the North, which was Prophesied of, but now is fulfilled— My Name is covered from the world, and the world knows not me, nor my Name. G. F. G. Fox came out of the North of England, where they thus break forth, Ibid. p. 34. O thou North of England! Who art counted as Desolate and Barren, and reckoned the least of the Nations, yet out of Thee did the BRANCH spring, and the STAR arise, which gives Light to all the Regions round about: in Thee the Star of Righteousness appeared, etc. Jos. Coal, in his Letter to G. Fox, thus Adores him, Ibid. p. 33. Dear G. Fox, who art the Father of many Nations, whose Life hath reached through us thy Children— whose Habitation is in the Power of the Highest, in which thou Rulest and Governs in Righteousness, and Thy Kingdom is Established in Peace, and the Increase thereof is without End. And all this W. Penn does Justify and Excuse. Judas and the Jews, etc. p. 44. John Audland, another Quaker-Preacher, offers his Sacrifice and Worship in the following words of his Letter to G. Fox from the West of England. New Romevnmasked, p. 43. 44. from whence to p. 50. you will find many more of the like Idolatrous Letters, and Blasphemies. Dear and Precious One, in whom my Life is bound up, and my strength in thee stands. By thy Breathe I am Nourished, by thee is my Strength renewed, Blessed art thou for ever more, and Blessed are all that Enjoy thee; Life and Strength comes from thee, Holy One— Daily do I find thy Presence with me, which doth exceedingly preserve me; for I cannot Reign but in thy Presence and Power. Pray for me, that I may stand in Thy Dread for evermore— I am thine, Begotten and Nourished by thee; and in thy Power am I Preserved. Glory unto Thee, Holy One for ever. I mention this Letter more particularly, because I have seen the Original, in John Audland's own Hand, and compared it with other of his Letters; and, as well by the Character, as by some unusual spelling of some words, it is as Demonstrable to be John Audland's own Handwriting, as can be given, except seeing of him write it. But, because some of the Modern Quakers would fain deny it, tho' they cannot, this Letter was sent by some Quakers to Chippenbam in Wilt shire, where John Audland used to Preach, and there were many who were well acquainted with his Hand, and it was returned from thence with the Attestation of many Quakers, that it was certainly his own Handwriting. And for farther Confirmation, it was sent likewise to Kendal in Westmoreland, where John Audland was born and died, and it was certified from thence likewise, by the Quakers who knew him, that it was unquestionably John Audland's own Handwriting. Many more Instances of this Nature are to be shown; but I hasten, and refer you to the Books Quoted upon the Margin. And their Pride will yet farther appear in the following Sections. But before I take leave of this Head, of their Wrath and Pride, let me observe that the Bitterest and most Venomous Appellations above Quoted, Devil-Driven Dungy-Gods, Judas' Old Cankered Apostates, &c, are bestowed upon the Separate Quakers, for making a Schism in their Church. Never Reflecting how themselves have made a Schism from the Church of England. I began this Section with a Quotation out of G. Fox against Railing, and I will end it with one out of W. Penn's Address to Protestants, Printed 1679. p. 242. Men that are Angry for God, Passionate for Christ, that Call Names for Religion— may tell us they are Christians if they will, but no Body would know them to be such by their Fruits; to be sure they are no Christians of Christ's making. Now I would earnestly desire Mr. Penn to read over again once more the Names he and others have called Men for Religion, some of which are above Quoted, and then to tell me, whether by his present Sentiments, as here expressed, they were, at that time, Christians, of Christ's, or of whose making? And to strengthen the Modern Mr. Penn, I add two Texts, 1 Cor. 6.10. That Revilers shall not Inherit the Kingdom of God. And James 1.26. If any Man among you seem to be Religious, and bridleth not his Tongue— This Man's Religion is vain. And we must bridle our Tongue not only from Railing against our Brethren; but much more from such Luciferian Pride, as to assume the Name and Titles of God to ourselves, and to aspire even to an Equality with the Almighty; with which we now go on. SECT. VI, Of the Quakers aspiring to an Equality with God. THis in effect is proved already. But more expressly, and in very terms. G. Fox's Adversary (Gr. Mist. p. 282.) yields to him, tho' very unreasonably, that we may be Perfect as God, in Quality, but not in Equality. Against this G. Fox Disputes, and endeavours to prove that they (the Quakers) are Perfect as God, not only in Quality, but in Equality; for Christ (says he) makes no Distinction in his words, but saith, Be ye Perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is— And, as he is, so are we, and that which is Perfect as he is Perfect, is in Equality with the same. And in his Saul's Errand, New Rome Unmasked, p. 42. etc. p. 8. he saith, He that hath the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the Dead, is Equal with God. He Acuses Christopher Wade, Great Mystery p. 248. because he denied Equality with the Father, and says, All that have the Son and the Holy Ghost, have that which is Equal in Power and Glory with the Father; and this all the Quakers say they have. This appears further in the next Section. SECT. VII. Of the Quakers making their Soul of the same Person and Substance with God. THou sayest (says G. Fox to his Opponent, Great Myst. p. 247.) Christ doth not Dwell in them Personally. Doth not Christ dwell in his Saints, as he is in the Person of the Father, the Substance? Hence he makes the Soul without Beginning or Ending, and Infinite in itself. His Opponent had granted him in these words, p. 90. There is a kind of Infiniteness in the Soul; but it cannot be Infiniteness in itself. Against this G. Fox Disputes, and no Kind of Infiniteness will serve his turn, but Infiniteness in himself, which is the Infiniteness of God alone: for He only has Infinity in Himself; as not being given by any other. Is not the Soul (says he) without Beginning? Hath this a Beginning ●r Ending? and is it not Infinite in itself, and more than all the world? P. 29. Now consider what 〈◊〉 ●●●dition these called Ministers are in: They say, that which is a Spiritual Substance, is not Infinite in itself, but a Creature. Here he will not let the Soul be a Creature. His proof is in the next words, 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. I do not meddle with his Philosophy (which is wretched,) I only show you his Opinion, that the Soul is not a Creature, but Infinite, and that in itself. Which is making of it God in the strictest terms. Will you have any more of it? He makes the Soul to become one Soul with God. Christ (says he, p. 19) brings the Soul up into God, from whence it came, whereby they come to be one Soul. And p. 229. who are come up into the Bishop Christ, they are one Soul. It is horrid Blasphemy (said Alexander Ross,) to say— The Soul is a part of God. It is not horrid Blasphemy (replied G. Fox, p. 273.) to say the Soul is a part of God, for it came out of Him, and that which came out of Him, is of Him. Fox does not say that the Soul came from God, that is, that God Created it: But that it came of God, as a Part of God, of his Substance, Person, and Essence. And, p. 100 is not this of God's Being? Says he. And he Disputes against this Position, That there is not an Essential Indwelling of the Divine Nature in God's People; and That God dwells not in the Saints by a Personal Union. Or that Christ's Person is not in Man, which is as much as to say (replies G. Fox p. 248.) as if we were not of his Flesh and Bones, and had not his Substance. Here the Light within is not only an Illumination or Inspiration from Christ, but the very Person of Christ, his Substance, his Flesh and Bones. And he says, p. 207. That Christ is not distinct from his Saints. That Christ is the Elect. p. 88 That the Light within is Christ. p. 310. That they who are of the Faith, are the Flesh of Christ, the Flesh of Him who Suffered. But this will come under a following Head, Sect. 17. therefore, for the present we dismiss it. Only I will tell you before I go, Mr. Penn's Excuse for G. Fox in all these particulars. He lays it upon George's extreme Ignorance. The Invalidity of John Faldo 's Vindication, etc. 1673. p. 353. That when he said the Soul was Equal with God, by Equality he meant only Unity. And that when he called the Soul Infinite, he did not mean Infinite, but something that is not Finite, or which comes to an End: And that when he said the Soul was without Beginning, and a Part of God, he did not mean the Soul, but the Breath of God, etc. He says that George observed no nicety of Expression, and finds great fault with those who make ill use of his Plain and Vulgar Phrases. An Indifferent Man would rather have said Ne suitor ultra Crepidam— That this Fox should rather have kept to his Original Trade, than to set up for Interpreting the Scripture before he had learned to speak Sense, or writ English. A defect in which is a strange excuse for Infallibility. But it is just with God thus to detect such Wicked and Blasphemous Pretences, to all who are not resolved to shut their Eyes. For will any one believe that that Spirit which could dictate an Infallible Knowledge of the Scripture, and of all Persons and Things (as G. F. etc. pretended) could not have enabled these Men to speak common sense, or to understand plain English words! But the truth is, all this was a Bewildring of G. F's poor understanding, and not to be charged only (as Mr. Penn's over Charity does) upon his Plain and Vulgar Phrases. For in both the above Instances of the Soul's Infinity, and Equality with God, the Distinctions were plainly given to G. F. what sort of Infinity and Equality was allowed to the Soul, and he expressly Disputes against such Distinctions, and rejects any Limited Sense of the Souls Infinity, and Equality with God; But will have it Infinite in itself, and no Lesser kind of Infiniteness, which was allowed him: And to be Equal to God, not only in Quality, but in Equality, which was a great deal too much to be Granted: But that itself would not satisfy G. F. And this must proceed (past help of Mr. Penn, and all the World) either from a most Impious Blasphemy, or such an immoderate degree of Dullness, and lack of Understanding as could not befall any thing in Human shape, much less, any one who pretended to Inspiration, and proudly to Decry, and Damn all the World since the Apostles! SECT. VIII. Of the Quakers pretence to a sinless Perfection. THis is dispatched already Sect. 6. where we see them claim a Perfection even Equal to God. But because I suppose there are some of them who are not willing now to go that Blasphemous length; I will set down some of their more Moderate Pretences to Perfection; that is, to a sinless State, even in this Life. I have before Quoted Mr. Penn upbraiding the Church of England as Opposers of Perfection, and Ridiculing us for confessing ourselves sinners, and imploring God's Mercy. Now hear G. Fox, p. 101. It is the Doctrine of Devils that Preacheth that Men shall have sin, and be in a Warfare so long as they be on Earth. They that pretend coming to God and Christ out of Perfection, they be in the Error. p. 111. All who come to Christ, they come to Perfection— p. 231. They attain to Perfection in the Life of God. p. 271. For who are Sanctified, have Perfect Unity, Perfect Knowledge, Perfect Holiness. p. 281. The Life of the Saints is Christ, not sinful at all. This will appear further in what follows, which might be put all under one Head, but for Method's sake, and Plainness, I distinguish them. SECT. IX. Concerning the Quakers pretence to Immediate Revelation, Equal to what was given to the Penmen of the Holy Scriptures. GEorge Fox says p. 242. That they are in the same Power, Understanding, Knowledge, and Immediate Revelation from Heaven, that the Apostles were in. Are not ye (says he to the Professors, p. 241.) in the Presumption, and Usurp Authority to Preach or to Teach, that have not the Immediate Revelation, as the Apostles had? p. 213. Thou canst not know the Scriptures, but by the same Degree of the Spirit the Prophets and Apostles had. They (the Quakers p. 97.) Witness Immediate Revelation, They are come to that the Apostles was in, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, they Witness Immediate Revelation, p. 153. But the rest of the World, have never heard the Voice of God, nor the Voice of Christ, and have not the same Infallible Spirit as the Apostles had, and no Immediate Revelation nor Inspiration as they had. p. 221. Revelation is now witnessed in our Days, as it was in the Apostles; but not amongst you, who have inwardly Ravened from the Spirit of God, which have Apostatised from the Apostles— And so you be in the Diabolical Devilish, that expects not that now, which was in the Days of the Apostles. If ever you own the Prophets, Christ, New Rome Unmasked, p. 42. G. F's Answer to the Westmorland Petition, p. 30. Truth's Defence▪ G. F. and R. H. p. 2, 89, 104▪ and the Apostles, you will own our Writings, which are given forth by the same Spirit and Power. You may as well Condemn the Scriptures to the Fire, as our Queries. Our giving forth Papers, and Printed Books, it is from the Immediate Eternal Spirit of God. You are now Answered from the Mouth of the Lord. Of their styling their own Writings, The Word of the Lord, and denying it to the Holy Scriptures, you will see farther Sect. 11. Concerning the Authority of the Holy Scriptures. SECT. X. Concerning the Quakers Infallibility. THis Section may seem needless, as being included in the former. For who pretend to an Equality with God, to the same Immediate Revelation with Christ, the Prophets, and Apostles had, must needs be Infallible. But I conceive it will be worth the Readers while to see how they Branch it, and Descend to particular Marks and Instances of their Infallibility. This Section therefore is like opening the Juggler's Box— And you may expect to see Rareties. I told you before how their Infallibility was Palmed upon them by the Church of Rome. Of which they were so greedy, that they swallowed it down by wholesale; and would have none of those Cautions, with which the Church of Rome used to Defend themselves, or else forgot them, in their Haste, and in their Honey Month while they were New-fangled. Thus, while the Church of Rome placed their Infallibility only in their Church, or at most in the Pope alone, as the Head of it; the Quakers set up for it, All, and every One of them! There was an Infallibility for you! The Church of Rome had cunning Hiding Places, and if you attacked the Infallibility of their Church, they would not tell you what they meant by their Church, nor where to find their Infallibility: some would make you believe that it was in the Pope, as Head of the Church, and only Successor of Peter, to whom the Promises Super hanc Petram, and Tues Petrus, were made. But then some distinguished, and said, not in Peter alone, nor always, but only when he was in Cathedra; and some said that was with his Conclave; others said not; but only with a General Council. Again some placed the Infallibility in the Council above the Pope; others in the Pope above the Council; others in neither of them asunder, but only in both together: And lastly, some will have it none of all these ways, but say it is only to be looked for in the Diffusive Body of the Church. And then as to the Infallibility itself, some tell us that it relates to Manners as well as Faith; and to Practise as well as Theory: Others will by no means admit of that; but confine it wholly to matters of Faith: And then it will be a long Dispute what shall be adjudged a Matter of Faith, and what not, but only as Relating to Faith. These are long and intricate Mazes; and it requires no little Skill to be able to follow them through all these various Subterfuges. But the Simplicity of our Quakers has deprived them of every one of these Helps. For as they place Infallibility in every single Quaker; so they confine it not to matters of Faith, but extend it to all Persons and Things. To know all men's Hearts, and all Things in the World, by their inward Light, without being told by any. I am sure, by this time, the Reader is impatient to come to the Proof, to see if it be possible for Men to be possessed with such an incredible degree of Enthusiasm: And I am willing to begin, that I may no longer lie under the suspicion of Imposing unjustly; or, at least, of Aggravating any thing against them. G. Fox says plainly, Gr. Mist. p. 89. That they can discern who are Saint, who are Devils, and who Apostates, without speaking ever a word. Ibid. p. 5. That they have the Word of God, Christ which is Eternal and Infallible in their Hearts, to judge Persons and Things. Thou (says he to his Opponent, p. 96.) not being Infallible, thou art not in the Spirit, and so art not a Minister, and art not able to judge of Powers that is not Infallible, nor Magistrates, nor Kingdoms, nor Churches. Now which of the Quakers is it who have this Spirit, to judge thus Infallibly of Persons and Things, of Powers, Magistrates, Kingdoms, and Churches? And to discern men's Hearts, who are Saints and who Apostates, and that without being told by any, as G. F. expresses it, without speaking ever a word? This is told us in p. 7. of Edward Burrough's Epistle to the Reader of G. F's Great Mystery, where he says, that this Infallible Spirit was given. To us (says he) every one of us in particular— And this Light gave us to discern between Truth and Error, between every false and right way, and it Perfectly discovered to us the true state of All Things. Thou sayest (says Fox to his Opponent, p. 107.) that the Holiest Man is not able to give an Infallible Character of another Man: Hast thou not in this discovered thyself to be no Minister of Christ, or of the Spirit? Who cannot give an Infallible Character of another Man, how canst thou Minister to his Condition? How canst thou see where he is? How canst thou see them that be turned from the Darkness, and that be in the Darkness, and distinguish the one from the other, and an Holy Man from an Unholy Man, that canst not give an Infallible Character of and Man's Estate. And p. 94. Have ye given yourselves a Name of the Church of Christ, and is there not a Spirit of discerning among you? Have ye not manifested here that ye are Harlotted from the Church of Christ the Apostles were of? And how can ye Minister or Teach People, if ye do not discern their states, how they stand before God? How can you commend yourselves to every Man's Conscience in God's sight? How can ye present the Souls of Men to God, and see not their states how they are in his sight? How come ye to have Fellowship in the Spirit? How can you or any Minister to the state and condition that People be in, and see where they are, and doth not see how they stand in God's sight. Here the Quakers have Excluded all from the Church of Christ, from having any Fellowship in the Spirit, who have not this Infallible Spirit of discerning every Man's Heart. And it is evident (as I will show presently) that they did not discern George Keith, Francis Bugg, and many others, whom, for many years they owned as true Quakers, and some of them as Ministers among them, and boasted a long time in their Gifts, and thought them to be Principal Pillars among them, whom now they Vilify as Wicked Apostates: And therefore by their own Argument, they are Harlotted from the Church of Christ, and have no Fellowship in the Spirit. Page 33. He that is not infallible in his Council, and Judgement and Advice, is not he in Error? And are they Ministers of Christ that are Fallable? Page 105. G. Fox condemns all Protestant Churches, as well as the Church of Rome, for want of this Infallible Spirit, which the Quakers ascribe only to themselves. These are his words. We says he (the Pope) and you (the Protestants, whom he calls Professors) are Apostatised from the Infallible Spirit that the Apostles was in, In which we are come— For who witness these Conditions that they were in that gave forth the Scriptures, they witness Infallibility, an Infallible Spirit, which is now Possessed and Witnessed among those called Quakers, Glory to the Highest for ever. This is dreadfully Astonishing! But I was much more surprised to find the otherwise Ingenious William Penn laugh at his Adversary for not being Infallible. There was an Anonymous Book wrote against the Quakers, called, Controversy Ended; to this Mr. Penn Replied in a Sheet of large Paper in Print, which he Entitled, A Winding-Sheet for Controversy Ended, which bears Date the 16 of the 12th. Month, 1672. In the first page, he catches up the Author, (whom he calls Henry Hedworth) for saying that he had been mistaken in the good Opinion he had before of Mr. Penn's Judgement and Conscience. How can he choose (says Mr. Penn) who denies Infallibility? But if mistaken before, why not in the Quakers now? And so ad Infinitum, being so Fallible. And, p 3. Sect. 2. He Vindicates what George Fox had asserted of the Quakers Infallibility; for having Repeated these words of G. Fox's (which were put as an Objection against him) How can ye be Ministers of the Spirit, and not be Infallible? And how can they but Delude the People, who are not Infallible? He makes this Reply. I Answer (says he) G. F's words stand immovable for ever. And he gives this strange Reason to support himself and G. F. For, says he, He that is a Minister of the Spirit, is Infallibly for And in that Ministry, is Infallible, otherwise the Spirit's Ministry is Fallible. Which is such a Consequence as this, that if any Man, who is lighted by the Sun, stumble, or miss his way, the fault is in the Sun, which showed him a False Light. What else can be the meaning of that saying, that if a Minister be not Infallible, than the Ministry of the Spirit is Fallible? To make God himself Fallible, rather than we should not be Infallible. But he comes quite off of this again in the next page and Sect. And this, says he, Roundly checks his (Hen. Hedworth, his Opponent) saying, That I bestowed 32 pages to prove George Fox's Spirit to be Infallible; For that belongs, simply to God alone, and then those that are led by it, which was my Question, and in which sense, He is, and all such persons are Infallible, as he himself confesseth, page 27. And if be fooled himself by any other Belief of us before, let him look to that. Here Henry Hedworth is made Infallible too! Whom, in this same Winding-Sheet (as above Quoted) he calls a very Night-Bird, and Vagrant, Burstened with Folly and Revenge, a Busybody, Cavilling, Conceited, Proud, Wrathful, Equivocating, Slandering, Cowardly Man, etc. all which Epistles, and all the rest which the Quakers so Liberally bestow upon their Adversaries; may, by this Rule, belong to George Fox, or any other Infallible Quaker. Nay, the Devil himself is Infallible, at this rate, for he has his Knowledge, as well as Being from God; Knowledge is Light: and if that Knowledge which comes from God be Infallible, then while the Devil follows that Light or Knowledge, he must be Infallible: And if this be all the Infallibility which the Quakers ascribe to themselves, it distinguishes them not from Wicked Men or Devils. But, sure George Fox meant something more by it, when by it, he distinguished the Quakers from all other sorts of Men; and ascribed to them an Infallible Discerning Spirit, to know the Hearts of Men, without speaking ever a word. Of which I wish Mr. Penn would afford us, I will not say an Infallible, but an Intelligible Comment; for I protest, I say not this out of any Obstinacy or Perverse Temper, but to be able to apprehend, if possible, what these Men would be at: For they turn and wind this Infallibility of theirs at such a rate, that no Man can (I am sure cannot) know what they mean by it. Sometimes it makes them as Infallible as the Apostles, nay, as Christ Himself. But at other times, when they are pressed, they bring down this Infallibility to mean nothing in the World that does distinguish them from other Men: Tho' it was upon the pretence of this, that they did separate themselves from the Church, and from all other Men: For they said that they ought not to be Subject to, nor had need to be Guided by any Church, who had an Infallible Guide within their own Breasts; that is, each Particular Person for himself, as before is told. But this pretence is now exploded by the Separate Quakers; and Explained, at some turns, by the others, as above by Mr. Penn, to mean just nothing; that is, nothing which differences them from other Men; or any thing New, or other than what all Mankind have ever acknowledged, to wit, Tha● every Man's Reason, Knowledge Conscience, Light within, or by what ever other Name or Names you may express it, was given him by God; and so is an Inspiration or Breathing of His into our Soul. But this will no more prove it to be Infallible, or Sufficient, of itself, to bring us to Heaven, than it will follow that Man cannot die, because God Breathes into him the Breath of Life; or that he is Omnipotent, because his Strength comes from God. Omniscence and Infallibility is as much God's Attribute as Omnipotence: And the Strength which God has given to our Bodies is as sufficient to climb up to the Skies, as the Wisdom or Light which He has given to our Souls was sufficient, of itself, to have found out the Redemption of Lost Man, by the Incarnation, and Satisfaction of Christ to God's Justice for our sins; or if found out, to have paid that Price, and to have accomplished that whole wonderful Oeconomy of our Salvation, by our own Abilities: So very Insufficient is the Light within us, even tho' followed to the utmost, by its own strength, to carry us to Heaven. And therefore the Quakers Preaching up the Sufficiency of the Light within (as all of them, but the Separatists, do) is not only highly Derogatory to the Satisfaction paid by Christ for our sins: But it is Blasphemous in ascribing to ourselves a Power sufficient to work out our own Salvation; whereas no Wisdom, less than Infinite, could have found out the Means, nor Power less than Infinite could have Effected our Salvation. And tho' we are Commanded, Phil. 2.12. to work out our own Salvation, that is, to perform the Conditions which are required on our Part. That does not make the Light within the Efficient Cause of our Salvation, or give it any Title to Infallibility, more than ver. 13. of the 4th Chap. in the same Epistle, can Entitle us to Omnipotence, because St. Paul says there, I can do all things. But if any could pretend to Infallibility from the Countenance of some Texts in Scripture, they will be found to have the best Title to whom the Quakers would most unwillingly grant it. For it is Written Prov. 16.10. A Divine Sentence is in the Lips of the King, and his Mouth Transgresseth not in Judgement. If either Pope or Quaker could show such a Text for either of their Infallibilities, we should never have done with them. I fancy I hear George Whitehead answering of this Text thus. That King's Lips and their Mouths were only made Infallible by this: But that they might Transgress in their Hearts, and with their Hands, and make Signs with Head, Eyes, or Feet, for Unrighteous Judgements, or Subscribe though not Dictate wicked Decrees. If he think that this is making too bold with him, I learned it from himself in his Sheet called, A Charitable Essay, Printed in Answer to Fr. Bugg's New Rome Unmasked; there, p. 6. he Answers the Quotation out of G. Fox, that they (the Quakers) could discern who were Saints, and who Apostates, without speaking ever a word, and he puts it off Ingeniously thus, That they could discern it by their Lofty Looks, Wanton and Scornful Eyes, Envious and Fallen Countenances. And so, without speaking ever a word. What! Do you think that the Quaker Infallibility is limited to speaking only? they can make an Infallible Judgement of Men's Hearts, and tell who are Saints and who Devils, by very Winks and Glances! But if Envious and Fallen Countenances be such sure Marks of Devils, I would advise some Friends to go to the Dancing-School, and learn a more Gentle and Graceful Mien: For it would be a sad thing to be made a Devil of, for scrouling down one's Head, or their Hat hanging over their Eyes! Therefore, George; Hold up thy Face and look like a Man! Come, be Brisk, and tell me, by Yea and by Nay, is not this very hard Fishing for Infallibility? Thou, and thy Godfather Fox can know a Saint from a Devil, without speaking, but not without a little Mincing and Prinking; if Thee but once see him Peep, or Trip it through the Floor a turn or two, Thou couldst spy the Cloven Foot presently. Alas! Poor George! Is the Infallible Quaker dwindled down to a mere Gipsy, or Paltry Fortune-Teller, to nothing but a little Skill in Physiognomy! Ah! George! What a Blessed Spirit wouldst Thee have thought Satan, if Thee hadst seen him, when he was Transformed into an Angel of Light! Thou hast seen him, George, so Transformed, and hast so mistaken him. But smaller Jugglers than he, can easily deceive these Infallible Physiognomists. In the very Dawning of the Quaker Light, when their Infallibility was spick and span new, before those Miserable Flaws, which have been since Discovered in it, in the year, 1655. the very year after Quakerism came first to London, there happened a Notorious Detection of George Whitehead's Infallibility by Signs and Faces, as well as of George Fox's, without speaking ever a word. For so it fell out, that a Precious Brother, one Char. Atkinson, being in Prison in Norwich, for the New Faith in the Infallible Light, proved Carnally Fallible in Darkness with a Dear Sister, the Maid of Thomas Symons, who was likewise one of the Infallible. Now these put so good a Face upon the matter, that neither by their Lofty Looks, Wanton and Scornful Eyes, Envious and Fallen Countenances, were they discovered. Nay, tho' there was some suspicion of it, and, as R. Hubberthorne tells some other Infallible Friends, J. N. F. H. and E. B. in his Letter from Wramplingham, Dated the 9th Day of the 5th Month, 1655. while (as Hubberthorne saith) in the Wisdom of God we were searching it out, and in his Will, waiting for his Counsel— Yet all this notwithstanding, and that in his said Letter, he desires that George Fox may be acquainted with it, and names George Whitehead too by Name (whose Letter to the foresaid J. N. F. H. and E. B. Dated the 9th of the 5th Month, is added to the abovesaid Letter of Hubberthorne's, in the Copy which I have seen) I say, notwithstanding of all this, neither G. Fox, G. Whitehead, nor any other of the Infallible Gang, could find it out, till Christopher Atkinson, Pricked, as he said, with the stings of his own Conscience; did freely, and of his own accord confess it, and Signed a Paper of Condemnation of himself for this wicked Fact, Dated in Norwich Gaol the 3d Day of the 5th Month, 1655. and gave it, as an Act of Penance, and of the Sincerity of his Repentance to three Friends, John Stubbs, William Cotton, and Tho. Symons. But these not regarding the Sacredness of the Seal of Confession, or being not acquainted with it; and fearing that this would be known, and so reflect upon the in-errable Society, and preferring their own Honour, to the Honour of God, and the Restoring of a Lapsed Brother, did resolve to Reveal his Confession, and then Renounce him; which they did (and pretended that it was by the special Direction of God) by sending his Paper of Confession to the Magistrates (tho' they thought them to be the Children and Rulers of Darkness) which was under-written in these words. The above-written being declared to me, I am moved of the Lord to make it known to you that are the Rulers of this City, that the Truth of God may be cleared, and he to bear his own iniquity, who hath done this wicked Deed, which is hated of them that dwell in the Light. This from me, Tho. Symons. But now, how do you think they contrived to salve their Infallibility that could not find out this of Christopher Atkinson till he told it himself? Why! most Cleverly! As we have it in another Letter of the above R. Hubberthorne to E. B. F. H. Ger. Roberts, and the rest, from Gissing, the 5th Day of the 5th Month, 1655. wherein he ascribes this Confession of C. A's to a miraculous Force upon him from God, and against his own Will. And therefore we are left to suppose (if we please) that it was obtained by their Prayers. His words are these. When it was intended by them (Christopher Atkinson and the Maid) to have been hid, they were forced from the witness of God in them to Declare it, and own their Condemnation. And here was a greater Miracle than if they had found it out of themselves; if they could prevail with God to force the very Guilty Parties to confess it, against their own Wills. And therefore no thanks to them— And therefore these Quaker Confessors were not bound to Conceal the Confession which C. A. made to them in Prison; nor to seek to Restore him, but rather to Drive him farther into Despair, by quite throwing him off, and disowning him. There was much more tender Regard showed to some Young Women, who had given a Confession in Writing to John Bolton of their Frailty in the Flesh, as is told in the Spirit of the Hat, Printed, 1673. p. 43. but it was hushed up, because (as the Quaker Author Declares) it touched many Eminent ones in the Ministry; who from day to day resorted unto them, and giving them these Appellations: Innocent Lasses, and Daughters of Zion. Instances can likewise be given of some of their She-Preachers (whom they call Travelling Friends) that went abroad to propagate the Faith, and to settle the Churches, who got something in their Journey which made them Propagate and Travail, even according to the Letter. It is not good Manners to name Names upon such an Occasion. Yet, if the Friends will plead Ignorance, something may be done for their Satisfaction. But let the shame lie at their own Door. It is but ask and have. But we may make a little more bold with the men's Infallibility. And I will not go to Mean ones. The great James Naylor was brought upon his Knees before their Church, where George Fox Presided, to acknowledge his Failings. And I saw, in George Fox's own Hand, this Sentence against James Naylor, viz. Friends shall not be judged, for judging of him, J. N. This was preserved by one present (among many others) when he wrote it. This James Naylor suffered himself to be Hosannaed into Bristol, as Christ was into Jerusalem. And I have told you before of G. Fox's ascribing not only the Names and Titles of Christ, but his Power and Virtue, to himself; and others of their Preachers Invoking and Worshipping him, as God, in the Style and Attributes of God. These are much more dreadful Failings than those (before spoke of) of the Flesh, than those of W. W. of Hallelujah Fish (the Saints know whom I mean) and several others whom I could name. And I had not mentioned one single Person, if it had not been against Pretenders to Infallibility; which Plea leads us Naturally and Necessarily into this sort of Redargution: as giving a Man a Fall is the shortest and plainest Conviction that he is not Almighty. And I am very sure that all the knowing among the Quakers will believe that it was merely the necessity of the Argument which forced me to expose the Failings of any; for that if it had proceeded from any Inveteracy or Malice, Catalogues might have Been produced, instead of single Instances here set down, and those at great Distance. But I hope what has been said will be sufficient (and then it has reached my Purpose) to cure Men of this most mistaken pretence to Infallibility; grounded upon the Infallibility of the Spirit of God: as if nothing could proceed from Infallibility but what was Infallible; or from Omnipotence, but what was itself Omnipotent. But tho' God Omnipotent and Infallible did Create all things that are; yet there is Weakness, Error, and Sin in the World. Of all which there is not any Instance so great, as of those who deny this, who are not sensible of their own Weakness and Fallibility, but pretend to Perfection and that even Infallible. But let such consider, that it is a just Judgement from God, to give up those to follow their own Imaginations, who, of their own Heads, durst presume to leave those Guides (the Bishops of the Church) under whose Government God had placed them; and to rend the Body of Christ by a causeless, and Desperate Schism. So that even their Error may, in this Sense, come from God, that is, as a Judgement upon them. And for this cause (says St. Paul, 2 Thess. 2.11.) God shall send them strong Delusion, that they should believe a Lye. And if the Prophet be deceived (Ezek. 14.9.) I the Lord have deceived that Prophet. And it was the Lord who put a Lying Spirit into the Mouths of Ahab's Prophets, 1 Kings, 22.23. Now whether it be such a Spirit or not, which is in the Mouths of the Quaker Prophets, we have a plain Rule whereby to know, Deut. 18, 20, 21, 22. The Prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my Name, which I have not Commanded him to speak— even that Prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine Heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a Prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the Prophet hath spoken it Presumptuously; thou shall not be afraid of him. Here is a plain Touchstone, which cannot be mistaken. And the case of the Quakers is so hard, that if we can prove but one False Prophet among them, the Infallibility of all and every one of them must be a Deceit; because (as above-quoted out of Ed. Barrough) the Infallibility is asserted to belong to every one of them in particular. And I need not Travel far to find Instances undeniable, upon this Head. But I will be as merciful in Exposing them as I can. Therefore, without telling Names, the Friends do know that there is a Quaker Glover in Cheapside, London, who had his Till Robbed, and that a Quaker Prophet came to him, and told him he was sent from God, to Reveal to him, in the Name of the Lord, that his Maid Servant (who was likewise a Quaker) was the Person who had Robbed him. The Maid, being thus Charged, stood resolutely in asserting of her Innocency. But the Prophet endeavoured to bear her down by his Prophetic Authority; and bid her not deny it, for she was seen do it. Who saw me? said the Maid. The Prophet replied (with a Monstrous assurance!) The Lord saw thee. This prevailed so far with the Glover that he had his Maid before a Magistrate, who was persuaded, the more to terrify her, to send her to Newgate, where she was threatened with the Irons, or put in them: But nothing could extort any Confession from her, and having no Evidence against her, at length she was dismissed from the Prison; but her Master (the Glover) believing the Prophet, turned her out of Doors. Had that poor Maid been either Threatened or Flattered into any Confession, here had been a Prophet as great as Elijah! But however the Prophet stuck to his point, and those who were so inclined, believed him rather than the Maid. But (Alas!) this Story did not end here. For the Devil owed some Body a shame. And these Quaker Prophets resolved to try their hands round, since they had begun, and see if they could terrify some or other to Confess to their Infallibility: and then all the Nation should have been Deafened with their Miraculous Gifts. In order to this, soon after the Glover had turned off his Maid, as abovesaid, there came to him, in the Power and Spirit of the Lord, as he Blasphemously pretended, one John— another Quaker Prophet, and told him, that as God sent Prophets to the Children of Israel, so had he even now Prophets among his People; that he was a Prophet sent to him from the Lord, and did pronounce to him in the Name of the Lord God, that his Apprentice, then present, was the Person who had Rob him. The young Man, the Apprentice tho' a Quaker, knew his own Innocence; and therefore did boldly, before his Master, confront this Prophet; and that with so much assurance and such Circumstances as overcame the Prophet's Confidence; who, thereupon, owned to his Master and to him, that he was mistaken in the Person, for that it was not the Apprentice who had Robbed the Till. The Glover then asked the Prophet if he had spoke of this to any? The Prophet said, Yea, to one Robert a Friend, and a Shoemaker in martin's, near Aldersgate. Then said the Glover, Thou canst do no less than to clear my Apprentice to him, which he promised to do. And away went the Apprentice with him, to see his Reputation vindicated, When they came there, and the Quaker Shoe-maker had gone with them into a Room, the Prophet being loath to fall to his work, sat silent, Humming and Groaning as if moved by the Spirit, till the Apprentice, having waited very long, minded him of the end of their coming there, and related to the Shoemaker how the Prophet had confessed himself mistaken in charging the Robbery upon him, and had come there on purpose to own so much before him (the Shoemaker) because he had aspersed him to the Shoemaker: And therefore desired the Prophet to proceed, and perform his Promise. But the Prophet, having bethought himself, gave no answer, but continued in his Humming posture— The Shoemaker seeing the distress of the Prophet, interposed very seasonably, and said to the impatient Apprentice, Perhaps, he desireth some longer time to consider of it. And turning to the Humming Prophet, said, Dost thou not John? Yea, cried the Prophet, hastily, finding himself relieved. And the Apprentice was forced to return to his Master, without the satisfaction which was promised. But, on the contrary, John the Prophet, upon second thoughts, found it best to stick to his Infallibility; and therefore returned to the Glover, and repeated his Charge, in the Name of the Lord, against the Apprentice: But after this, the Robber was taken, Robbing a Till at another Shop; and, among other of his Robberies, Confessed that he had Rob the Till of this Glover. Then was this Prophet again confounded. And nothing left to the Friends to salve up the Deceit of this Prophet, otherwise than by concealing it. But they see, it is not concealed; nor a great many more Instances, which, if they will join Issue upon that point, shall be produced. Only, for the present, let me mention one yet more Notorious, and Remarkable mistake in a greater Prophet and Preacher of theirs called Solomon Eccles: And the Proof is not Hear-say, but under his own hand, in a Letter of his, which he did not send but carry, and deliver to a Fellow Quaker of his, one John Story, who was one of the Opposers of the women's Preach, and the Jurisdiction of the women's Meetings, set up by G. Fox, as an Ordinance of Christ. This Letter bears Date the 1st Day of the 1st Month, 1677. and is Printed by Thomas Crisp (another Quaker Opposer of this Prelacy of the Women in their Church) in his Babel's Builders, etc. The first Part, reprinted at London, 1682. Where he likewise tells us that for the greater Solemnity, Solomon Eccles carried with him two Eminent Friends, and Espousers of G. Fox and his Party, to be present at his delivery of his own Letter to this Back-sliding John Story; in which Letter, being Ushered with so great Ceremony, after very sharp Reprehensions to the sai● John, for opposing himself to their Great Apostle G. Fox, he Denounces thus, This is the word of the Lord to thee (says he) That this Year shalt thou (John Story) die, because thou hast taught Rebellion against the Living God. Note, That as T. Crisp tells us, in his Book above-Quoted, this John Story was, at that time, ill, and not like to live long. And to Men possessed with such Enthusiasm as the Quakers are; and Languishing under the Infirmities of Sickness, such a Cordial as this administered with such Circumstances of Terror, might have wrought the Effect it foretell; which, in all probability, was Solomon's Design; and if he had not lived to see himself proved to be a False Prophet, he might have been hanged for a real Murderer. But this John Story lived about four years after this; to the Eternal Confusion of the Quaker pretence to Infallibility. But that is not all. If losing their Plea to Infallibility were all, they would still stand upon the Common Level with other Men. But now it is made apparent that that Spirit which possesses them, is the very Spirit of Lies, which is the Spirit of the Devil; and consequently that their Light within is Darkness; and then as our Saviour said, O how great is that Darkness! How Great indeed, to see a miserable Wretch possessed with the Devil, pronounce his Delusions as the Immediate Revelation of God, with a This is the Word of the Lord. And the same horrible Blasphemy is in all pretended Extraordinary Inspirations from God. O therefore let those Christians beware who are led away with Pretences to the Spirit, in any Men, not only Against but Beside that which is Written. Who break the Unity of the Church (which Christ calls the tearing of his own Body to pieces) and forsake the Communion of their lawful Bishops; (whom Christ has left as his own immediate Representatives, and Vice-gerents, and as the Principles of Unity in their Respective Churches) upon pretences of Extraordinary Inspirations in those Teachers whom they have heaped to themselves: For Extraordinary Inspirations are not to be Credited, unless vouched by Miracles; which God always sent to attest to his Extraordinary Commissions: And if they are pretended to come from Him, and are not, than it is a Demonstration that they come from the Devil. And let us take this one Mark more to judge when such Inspirations are from God, or from the Devil. Those from the Devil generally tend to Schism and Rebellion; as in that of Jeroboam and the Ten Tribes, who broke off from the Priesthood of Aaron, as well as from the House of David; and set up opposite Altars to that of Jerusalem. But, on the other Hand, tho' God sent many Prophets to Reprove the Kings and the Priests; yet they neither Rebelled against the Kings, nor set up opposite Altars against those of those wicked Priests: But as they paid all Dutiful Obedience to their Persecuting Kings, and suffered Martyrdom under them, without Resistance: so did they always keep in the Communion of those same Priests whom they had Provoked and Reproved, and paid all due Obedience to their Sacred Authority, and never would Countenance any Separate Communions set up in Opposition to Their Communion, at the same time that they were Denouncing the Judgements of God against them for their manifold Iniquities and Prevarications. And when our Saviour himself came into the World, he did not Separate from the Public Worship, and Communion of the Jewish Church. But in the same Chapter (Mat. 23.) where he inveighs most severely against their Wickedness, he Guards their Authority as Sacred and Inviolable; and, to show that the receiving of Christianity itself was no Exemption from paying all Obedience to them, he Commands his own Disciples, as well as the Multitude, to pay them all manner of Obedience. Then spoke Jesus to the Multitude, and to his Disciples, saying, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses Seat; All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do. And the Apostles, after our Saviour, frequented the Jewish Temple, Luke 24.53. and observed their hours of Public Worship▪ Acts 3.1. Acknowledged the Authority of their High Priest, and submitted themselves to him, as to one invested with God's Commission, as to God's High Priest, even when he was judging them unjustly, and Commanding them to be smitten contrary to the Law, Acts 23.3, 4, 5. And they frequented the Jewish Temple, and Liturgy, tho', they had Separate Meetings for the breaking of Bread, and other Institutions of the Christian Religion, which they could not have in the Jewish Communion: from which they did not abstain, while it lasted in the World; that is, till the Destriction of Jerusalem by the Romans. By all which Examples we are instructed how strongly we are to adhere to the Public Communion of the Church; and to suspect all pretended Inspirations which would draw us away from it. But this concerns the others of our Dissenters as well as the Quakers: Let us return to them. And we shall find their Infallibility disproven, not only in particular Instances, such as that of Solomon Eccles, and the Glover's Prophets. But 2dly, in whole Floods and Parties; for Francis Bugg, and many others have come openly off from their Communion, after having lived many years with them; and as Zealous Quakers as the best: But now Detect their gross Errors Publicly and in Print. But, Thirdly, Those among them who continue still Quakers, have notwithstanding joined in disproving their Pretences to Infallibility, and discovering many other Damnable Heresies and Doctrines of Devils among them, Denying the Lord who bought them, etc. From which Diabolical Errors George Keith being Converted, he has endeavoured to strengthen his Brethren; and has gained many; and has Separated them in a distinct Communion from the other Quakers; who call these Separatists, Apostates, and False Brethren, that have Erred from the Faith: And the Separatists say the same of Them. Now if their above-told Pretences to Infallibility do hold, than it will follow that these their former Opinions, which the Separatists now Condemn, were True Then, and False Now. Nay, that they are both True and False even Now; because some Quakers do now hold them to be True, and others contend as Zealously that they are False: Then the Separate Quakers, and the others do not differ, tho' they Damn one another; nor are they Separate, tho' they be Separate. All these Contradictions must be Reconciled, or else it must be granted that G. Fox and others have grossly Erred, who asserted, that They (the Quakers) and every one of them in particular were Infallible; as above is Quoted. And that they could discern who were True Quakers, and who were only False or Pretended ones, without speaking ever a word. For either Francis Bugg (who lived 25. years in their Communion, their Secretary, and a Principal Man among them) G. Keith (who as Sam. Jennings tells us in his State of the Case, hereafter mentioned p. 2.) was 28 years of their Communion. Yea (says he) most of that time a Preacher amongst us, a Vindicator of us, and others were true Quakers or not. If not, why were they owned as such all that time? Then G. Fox, nor any of them had an Infallible discerning Spirit, to which they have falsely pretended. But if Keith, Bugg, etc. were True Quakers; then True Quakers are not Infallible. And then G.F. &c. (who said they were Infallibile) were led by the Spirit of Delusion, and not by the Spirit of Truth. But that nothing may be wanting to the full Conviction of this, Fourthly, The Infallibility of the Private Spirit, or of each Particular Quaker is now Damned by their Church; and their Infallibility is now Reduced by them (as in the Church of Rome, whence their first Inspiration came, as told before, and wherein it naturally ends) to that of their Church. For Proof of this, First, Their Meetings or Churches in Pensylvania, etc. in America, have Censured G. Keith, and other Separatists there, for not submitting to their Judgement, which these Churches have given forth against them. This appears in the Account of the Proceed There against the said G. Keith, etc. in the Year 1692. which was Published by G. Keith or some of his Party, and Printed in the Year 1693. under this Title, New-England's Spirit of Persecution transmitted to Pensylvania, and the pretended Quaker found Persecuting the True Christian Quaker, in the Trial of Peter Bess, George Keith, etc. In Answer to this, was Published a Vindication of the Proceed against G. Keith, etc. called, The State of the Case betwixt the People called Quakers in Pensylvania, etc. in America, and George Keith, with those seduced by him into a Separation from them. This was wrote by Samuel Jennings, a Quaker Justice of Peace in Pensylvania, and one of the Prosecutors of G. Keith and the Separatists, and Printed in London in the Year 1694. To which G. Keith hath Printed a Replication, Entitled, A further Discovery of the Spirit of Falsehood and Persecution, etc. I will not trouble myself nor the Reader to say any thing either for or against the manner of these Proceed of the Old Quakers against their Modern Separatists; let them implead one another as to that. All I am, at present, concerned for, is, that their Churches have Censured these Separatists; and consequently given Judgement against the Light within Particular Persons; which was the Original Pretence, and only Infallible Guide of the First Quakers: And, upon this only ground, they exclaimed against any Church assuming Authority over any Man's Private Spirit, or his Light within, as Antichristian, and Diabolical: and gave this as the Reason of their Separation from the Church of England: And yet now Condemn the Pretence of the Light within others who Separate from them. Nay more, they fly to the Brachium Seculare, when it is on their side, for G. Keith and other of their Separatists were tried before Samuel Jennings and other Quaker Justices of Peace at their Sessions in Philadelphia, etc. and some of them were Imprisoned for Printing and Publishing Defences for themselves, without Licence (tho' it be their daily Practice in London, most, if not all their Books Here being Printed without Licence) they Issued Warrants (one is inserted in the abovenamed Narrative, New England's Spirit of Persecution, etc. p. 4.) against the Printer and Publishers of a Vindication of Georg● Keith and his Separatists, Entitled An Appeal from the Twenty Eigh● Judges to the Spirit of Truth, etc. The 28. Judges were 28. o● their Ministers who had passed Sentence against G. Keith at Philadelphia the 20th of the 4th Month 1692. As a person without the fea● of God before his Eyes, etc. An● they Published a Paper of this Judgement against him. In Answer to which came out the abovesaid Appeal, for which the Printer (William Bradford) was Apprehended and put in Prison, and his Letters seized (whereby he was disabled to support his Family, and at last forced to quit that Country and fled to New-York) and one John Mackcomb (a Tailor) was prosecuted for Dispersing one of them; his Name is inserted in the abovesaid Warrant. And Sam. Jennings was one of the Five Justices, who Signed the Warrant. But the Pretence in the said Warrant was for Reflecting upon Their Majesty's Justices of the Peace in the said Appeal; for some of these 28 Ministers who judged George Keith, were likewise Justices of Peace, as the abovesaid Samuel Jennings, etc. Yet how severely do they inveigh against Ministers in our Church being Justices of Peace! But this double Capacity of Justices and Ministers serves them in stead in other matters, as in the Case of the Sloop abovementioned. But I must not omit to acquaint the Reader that the ground of this Prosecution against G. Keith was his Preaching Christ without, or a Personal Christ in Heaven, besides the Light within, which, he said, was only the Spiritual presence of Christ by his Light and Life, in all his Children. Upon this G. Keith was accused for Preaching Two Christ's, i e. a Christ without, besides the Christ within. And so, Denying the sufficiency of the Light within, which Light the other Quakers say is sufficient, without the Man Christ Jesus. This Sam. Jennings (after their manner of mumbling Thistles) will not Confess, but dare not Deny. If they took no Offence at Preaching a Christ without, and thought this not derogatory to the sufficiency of their Light within, Why was G. Keith accused for this, and nothing else? What need was there for the Ministers of the Quakers (as Thomas Fitzwater, and Will. Stockdale) to appear as Witnesses against G. Keith, for Preaching that Doctrine, and no other, even as his Adversary Sam. Jennings himself gives the Account? Why was this the business of so many Meetings, and of so great stir among them, and at last of an open Separation, if the Quakers do, in good earnest, believe in a Christ without them, or in a Personal Christ who suffered, and died for us, and now Reigns in Heaven in the same Body? For G. Keith is not so much as Accused for Preaching any thing else but this. And I think this as good as a Demonstration, That (however they endeavour to mince the matter) they do not Really believe in any other Saviour than their own Light within; which they call Christ, and so endeavour to amuse us. But, Reader, take notice, that (as it is told in G. Keith's Apology abovesaid, called, New England's Spirit of Persecution, etc. p. 2. and owned likewise by Sam. Jennings) a Meeting consisting of at least sixty Monthly Meeting Members gave Judgement in Vindication of G. Keith, against his Accusers, T. Fitzwater and W Stockdale, the substance of which was, That they should forbear Preaching and Praying in Meetings till they had Condemned their Ignorance and Unbelief, etc. But at the next Quarterly Meeting, a Party withstood the said Judgement, and said, That the Persons being Ministers, none but them of the Ministry were fit to Judge. Which many (says the Account) thought relished too much of Popery. But, as above-told, after this, an Assembly of Twenty Eight of their Ministers met together at Philadelphia, and Published a Paper of Judgement against G. Keith, the 20th of the 4th Month, 1692. in answer to which, he Published An Appeal from these 28 Judges to the Spirit of Truth, etc. In Reply to which, these Ministers, being likewise Justices of Peace, Issued their Warrants against the Printers, Publishers, etc. as above is told. Here is a many-forked and involved Infallibility; one Meeting Justifying, another Condemning G. Keith; and all for the very same Doctrine. There were in America, sixteen Meetings against G. Keith, and as many for him. This will not only overthrow the Infallibility in each particular Person among them, but even of their Churches or Meetings. However their Churches or Meetings assuming an Authority over the Light within particular Persons, totally destroys their Original pretence of Infallibility in particular Persons. Secondly, And besides this first Proof in Pensylvania, there is another yet more Express and Positive, called; The Barbadoss Judgement. The Dispute was this very Point, whether they were to adhere to the Spirit or Light in each particular Person, or to the Judgement of their Church or Meetings. And it was Resolved as follows. At a Quarterly Meeting at Ralph Fretwell 's House in Barbadoes, the 23d day of the Tenth Month, 1680. I desire to give up my whole Concern, if required, both Spiritual and Temporal, unto the judgement of the Spirit of God in the Men and women's Meetings: As believing it to be more according to the Universal Wisdom of God, than any particular Measure in myself, or any particulars with which the Men and women's Meetings have not Unity. This Judgement was subscribed by 39 Men, and 43 Women: in all 82. And the Party that sent the abovesaid Judgement, writes thus: This Paper hath been Promoted in sundry Meetings since, and subscribed: some few have Refused: in Abhorrence whereof, other Persuasions have Posted it. This you have in Babel's Builders before Quoted, p. 4. There are further Testimonies to this in some of the Quakers Principles, etc. before Quoted, p. 14, 15. where the words of some of them are set down as followeth. 'Tis true, Friends in the beginning were turned to the Light in their own Consciences, as their Proper Guide; but when it pleased the Lord to gather so great a Number into the Knowledge and Belief of the Truth, as were in few years gathered; then the Heavenly motion came upon George Fox as the Lord's Anointed, as being the Great Apostle of Jesus Christ; and as one whom the Lord had ordained to be in the place amongst the Children of Light, in this our Day, as Moses was amongst the Children of Israel in his Day, to set forth Methods and Forms of Church Government, and to Establish Monthly and Quarterly Meetings, of Men, and of Women distinct from Men; and these Meetings are since called the Church; whose Counsel, Advice, and Judgement (as occasion shall offer) is to be submitted unto by every one, who Professeth himself a Member of the Church. And, saith George Whitehead, We are to Believe as the true Church Believes, etc. Christian Quaker, Part 1. p. 9 1680. I was told by one present at the Quaker-Meeting at Radcliff on Sunday the 17th of February last, 1694/5. that Mr. Penn having Preached, and after George Keith rising up, and Expounding some Scripture in another manner than Mr: Penn had done, that Mr. Penn stopped him, and solemnly Denounced these words against him, In the Name of the Lord, I Pronounce him an Apostate, over his Head. Upon which occasion, I have these few Questions to ask. 1. Whether this was a Sentence from Mr. Penn himself, or from their Church? If the latter, it comes in the Class just beforementioned, of their Church-Authority over the Light within particular Persons. But if the former, then here is Private Light against Private Light. And Mr. Penn will please to tell us by what Authority he Pronounced this Sentence against G. Keith, in the Name of the Lord. If by an Ordinary Commission, of Succession to Christ and the Apostles by Regular Ordination: That I should be glad to hear. But if by an Extraordinary Commission, such as the Prophets and Apostles had, we would desire such Credentials as they had, that is, Miracles. Otherwise, any Reason why this is not rank Enthusiasm; and liable to the Sentence of those who spoke In the Name of the Lord, when He had not sent them. Mr. Penn owns the Enthusiasm, but does not show the Miracles: for he said publicly in their last Yearly Meeting, in May, 1695. in Excuse, or Justification of his abovesaid Sentence of Apostasy against G. Keith, That he was then so Transported with the extraordinary Power of God upon him, that he knew not whether he was sitting, standing, or kneeling, when he spoke the words. But whether this Enthusiasm proceeded from Divine, or what other Inspiration, will be best known from the Doctrine it supported, and which was the ground of the Contest. And it was thus told to me by one who was present, viz. That Mr. Penn, at a former Meeting, had Explained this Scripture, 1 John 1.7. The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin, in this manner, That the Blood was the Life, and the Life was the Light within. This Resolves all into the Light within; which (as will be further shown) they make to be the Architype and Substance of what Christ's outward Body, Blood, and all that He did, or suffered in it, were but the Types and Shadow; and so of much less Value and Consequence to our Salvation. But, to go on with our present matter of Fact, At the forementioned Meeting the 17th of Feb. 1694/5. G. Keith, taking occasion to Discourse upon the abovesaid Text, 1 John 1.7. did Expound it in a quite different manner from what Mr. Penn had done (but without naming of Mr. Penn); Said, that it ought to be taken Literally; that it was the outward shedding of Christ's Blood, which cleanseth from sin; and that this was not to be Resolved into the Light within, nor to be Spiritualised away from the Letter: For that this was overthrowing of the Faith. Upon which Mr. Penn risen up, and Interrupted him, in the middle of his Discourse (which I am told is contrary to the Method and Freedom of their Meetings, and Church-Discipline) and taking it to himself, and his former Exposition of that Text, which is told above, he inveighed, not without great Passion, against G. Keith, concluded with the Sentence of Excommunication above-told; and stopping G. Keith from any Reply, immediately Dissolved the Assembly. I will not here enlarge upon the Subject matter of this Dispute betwixt them,; because it will be fully Discussed in the following Sections. Particularly Section 12, 17, and 18. But for the present, I only apply it to the point of their Church-Authority, over the Light within particular persons, which was their Original and Great pretence. SECT. XI. Concerning the Authority of the Holy Scriptures. THE Quaker's Refuge, Printed Anno 1673. p. 17. states this, as truly owned by the Quakers, in these words. Whether the first Penman of the Scriptures was Moses or Hermes, or whether both these are not one; or whether there are not many words contained in the Scriptures, which were not spoken by Inspiration of the Holy Spirit; whether some words were not spoken by the Grand Impostor; some by wicked Men; some by wise Men, ill Applied; some by good Men, ill Expressed; some by False Prophets, and yet True; some by True Prophets, and yet False— And from these Suppositions he goes on, and concludes that some part of the Scriptures concerning the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind were True. And, p. 18. That the Scriptures as above Distinguished, are a true Record, etc. Instead of Answering these Diabolical Suggestions against the Sacred Authority of the Holy Scriptures of God, and which evidently overthrow the Certainty of the whole; G. Whitehead in his Innocency Triumphant, Printed 1693. in Answer to F. Bugg's New Rome Arraigned, p. 28. does own the whole, by way of an Excuse for it, and says, That this questioned but of some words in Scripture, not all. But the Holy Scriptures confirming the whole of themselves, one part Quoting another; if the whole be not therefore True, the whole must be False. And we must take this to be the Opinion of the New Quakers, as well as the Old, because Non Asserted. G. Whitehead endeavours to solve this, Ibid. p. 21. in Answer to the Quotations which F. Bugg had brought out of their Authors, which called the Holy Scriptures by the Wicked and Contemptible Names of Dust, Death, Serpent's Meat, etc. Whitehead says that was only in opposition to those who would have the very Paper and Ink and Characters to be the Word of God, and the Gospel: wherein they were opposed (says he) Christ being the Word, and the Gospel the Power of God which Endures for ever, which the Books and Letters or Characters cannot. Here Whitehead says that there were some Priests in the North, in and before the year 1653. when those Books (which Bugg Quoted) were Printed, who were thus Ignorant. And that this was the Reason for those Expressions in these Quaker Books. First, This had been no Reason for these Barbarous Expressions, if it had been so. But Secondly, I will join Issue with G. Whitehead upon it, that there never were such Priests, either in the North, or any where else, that were so Ignorant. No, George! This is an Arrant Lie, without all doubt. Did any Man ever Think or Say that the very Material Paper and Ink and Letters would Endure for ever? Where is now thy Infallibility! Where thy Common Honesty or Morality, thus grossly to belly these Priests as thou callest them? But they thank Thee that it was so Grossly; for it is so very Ridiculous, that it is in no Man's Power to believe Thee, or that Thou canst have the least pretence to Infallibility, or even that Thy word should be trusted in any thing, that Thou averrest, when Thou darest Print so notorious and impossiblean Untruth. Like G. Fox's senseless Reply to Richard Baxter, etc. Writing (says he) Paper and Ink is not Infallible, Great Mystery p. 302. nor the Scripture is not the ground of Faith— Your Rule, Paper and Ink, that will come to Dust. Here I would fain ask them a Question. How it comes, that since they are such bitter Enemies to the Letter, they yet make a Conscience of saying Thee and Thou instead of You in the singular, because these were old English words in the first Translations. Is there any Immorality or Iniquity in these Letters y, o, u, more than in T, h, oh, u? And is not every Nation Master of its own Language? Besides, these were not the words of the Languages in which the Scriptures were wrote. It is likely that G. Fox, and the rest, in the Year, 1650. thought they were, and lighting upon some old English Bible, took it for the Original. For, if stress must be laid upon the Letter, it must be surely upon the Original Letter in which the Scriptures were wrote. And the Quakers may as well lay stress upon the Latin or French, or Dutch Translation as upon the English, in this Case. How do they in other Languages make the Distinction betwixt thou and you, when you is used in the singular Number? Behold here, these Men whose Chief Principle it is to Decry and Damn the Letter, do set up, at the same time, the most Superstitions, and Ridiculous sticking to the Letter that ever was heard of since Adam, so very Extravagant, that, if it had not been, no Man could have believed that it could have been! Or that any Men could have made a Case of Conscience of such a senseless and insignificant Criticism? But as the Scorpion is said to carry Oil which cures its own Venom, so the wise Providence of God has disposed of most Errors, that they carry Contradictions to themselves in their own Bowels. But, if the Holy Scriptures of God must not be called the Word of God, because they are wrote in Letters, why must the Quakers most Blasphemous and Profane Scribbles be Styled the Word of the Lord? Even Solomon Eccles' Lying Prophecy before told, in his Letter to John Story. To you all this is The Word of the Lord, says George Fox, of his own Writings. Great Mist. p. 225. I charge you (says he) in the presence of the Lord God, Some of the Quakers Principles, etc. p. 4. to send this amongst all Friends and Brethren, every where, to be Read in all Meetings; To you all This is the Word of God. [G. Fox's Letter to all Friends, Printed 1671. with several Papers, etc. p. 60. 62.] The Scriptures are not the Word of God. [G. F. etc. Firebrand, etc. p. 159. 2d Part 1678.] A Printed Letter of G. Fox's, which is now lying before me, Dated at Dalston the 13th of the 10th Month, 1683. Bears this Title, All Friends every where, this is The word of the Lord unto you all. And there is a Postscript in these words, This you may read amongst the Children of the Light, and of the Day. And p. 4. of the Letter, he says, I remember, before we were called Quakers, as I was sitting in an House in Nottinghamshire (about the Year 1648.) the word of the Lord came to me, and said, etc. And yet in his Great Mist. p. 246, 247. he calls it Blasphemy to say that the Scriptures are the Word of God. His words are these, They (the Scriptures) are not the word of God, which thou, (Christopher Wade) hast Blasphemously affirmed. But (says he Jesuitcally, to amuse the Reader) Christ is the word of God. As if Christopher Wade, or any Christian had ever affirmed that the Book of Scriptures was the Word of God in the same sense as Christ; or any otherwise than as the Records of those Revelations which God, by his Holy Spirit, did dictate to the Inspired Penmen; But not a Living Person, partaking of the Substance of the Father, like the Word Eternally Begotten! Could this George, either of these Georges, Fox or Whitehead, produce any one Man, even in Bedlam, who ever asserted this of the Ink or Paper of the Holy Scriptures? Why then do they use this Distinction? Against whom do they use it? Against No Body; it was only to Shuffle and Cut, to Cover and Excuse their Contempt of the Holy Scriptures; and, in their place, Deifying of their own Spirit, and their own Scriptures. They knew that the Holy Scriptures could not be discarded openly and above Board, nor all at once: That the World had been long in Possession of them, and of a just Veneration of them; and therefore would not so easily part with them, nor accept of any Fox's Inspirations, instead of them: Therefore they set up a Power, like that of the Church of Rome, of Infallible Interpretation of Scripture: And improved it, as above is told, into Immediate Revelation equal to that of the Prophets and Apostles. And, pursuant to this Plenitude of Power, they have taken upon them not only to Abrogate the most express Ordinances of the Gospel, and Pronounce them expired, at their Pleasure, as Baptism and the Lord's Supper: But to set up, and Institute new ones, as the women's Preach (directly contrary to 1 Cor. 14.35. which suffers not Women to speak in the Church) and the Prelacy of the Woman's Meetings, an Invention never heard of in the World, till G. Fox Cobbled it out. And they Enjoin not these only as Ecclesiastical Injunctions of their Church; but (upon their pretence, before told, to the same Immediate Revelation which was given to the Apostles) as the Institutions of Christ. Solomon Eccles, in his Letter already mentioned to John Story, calls these, the Woman's Preach and the Woman's Meetings, the Great and Good Ordinance which Christ jesus hath set up in his Church. This is directly giving us New Scriptures, and a New Gospel. For which they will find their Reward, Gal. 1.8, 9 Rev. 22.18, 19 And they having (as they pretend) the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures, they cannot be bound by the Scriptures, or any Command in them, unless their Spirit does anew require the same thing which the Scripture Commands. So that the Scripture remains of no Authority with them: because, if what the Scripture Commands, be anew required by their Spirit, they are bound to obey it, because required by their Spirit: But if the Scripture Command the thing, they are, (by their Principles) not bound to obey it, unless it be required by their Spirit Anew. Which is most effectually overthrowing the Scriptures, and resolving all into their Private Spirit, or Light within. This will yet further appear in the Sections which follow. But let me first give an Authority for the last thing that I have said; and it is such a one as does astonish me; because first, it is from the ingenious Mr. Penn; secondly, it is where he accuses others of Misrepresenting the Quaker Principles, and rescuing them from such Misrepresentations, Reason against Railing, 1673. p. 150. Article 21. he sets them down in their most Moderate, and he says, True sense. And he averrs, That what was a Commandment to any Servants of God, in old time (that is, in the Scriptures)— That such are not Commandments to us, unless required by the same Spirit Anew, And he instances in those Elementary Types, Shadows and Figures appointed (as he says) for a season, and to pass off. These are the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords' Supper, which he calls Elementary, Types, and Figures: But that they were appointed only for a season, and to pass off, that is not to be proved from Scripture, which enjoins them till Christ's coming again, 1 Cor. 11.26. always, even unto the end of the World, Matt. 28, 19, 20. But all this signifies nothing. These Commandments are not required by the Quaker Spirit Anew. And so they pass off. This we are sure is not Aggravated upon them. Indeed Mr. Penn does in the same place, find fault with those who would improve this Principle of theirs to justify Immoralists and things inconsistent with Government; As if (says he) that Eternal Holy Omnipresent Light, with which we are enlightened, did not continually declare and require Just and Righteous things at our Hands. This, with submission, instead of an Excuse, is a full Confession o● the whole Charge, unless Mr. Penn can make it appear that the Quakers, and every one of them in Particular, have this Light more than other Men: Or if they have it, that they must necessarily be guided by it. Because otherwise, they may commit Theft, Sacrilege, and all Immoralities under this Umbrage: And no Command of Scripture can Restrain or Convince them, by this Latitude here granted; because if they should Enthusiastically Believe, or Hypocritically Pretend that such Command of Scripture was not required by their Spirit Anew, it is ipso facto superseded by this Principle. Thus it being Objected to G. Fox, that one of his Quakers had Pretended an Immediate Call from Heaven to commit Theft or Robbery, Great Mist. p. 77. and Sacrilege in taking out of the Church an Hourglass. G. F. does vindicate it in these words. And as for any being moved of the Lord to take away your Hourglass from you, by the Eternal Power it is owned. And if another should pretend an Immediate Call to take away the Communion-Plate— for that is used to Superstitious uses— where is the end of these lose Principles! Mr. Penn can tell whether he did not solicit G. W. to return a Letter, Some of the Quaker Principles, p. 8. which another Quaker had stolen and given to him, and whether G. W. did not make this Answer, That unless the Lord required him he would not return it again. See more of this in Tyranny and Hypocr. etc. p. 37. But as for things Inconsistent with Government, which Mr. Penn supposes their Light can never dictate, I refer him to the first Section, and to some of the Quakers Principles, Sect. 10. to 18. These concern the Government of the State, But as for Church Government I think Mr. Penn will not say, but their Principles are wholly Inconsistent. Have they not broke off from the Church-Government established in England, and in all the Christian World? And ●o they not pretend that their Light guides them in it? Have they not by the same Light, Rebelled from Episcopacy, which they cannot deny was in the times of the Apostles, and through all Ages of Christianity to this day? If they think this a Light sin, let them read the 16th of Numb. and see if the sin of Korah was small? Or if it was for any thing else but Church-Government? And St. Judas tells us ver. 11. of those under the Gospel who perish in the gainsaying of Rorah. But if disobedience to Church-Government be no such great matter, why do the Quaker-Church treat their Separatists with such violent fury, and strain their Invention to find Names bad enough for them; Devil-driving Dungy Gods, etc. as if already smoking in Hell? Why do they charge them so desperately with the heinousness of Schism? It is true indeed, that the Church cannot subsist, more than any other Society, without Government: But it is as true, that the Quaker Pretence to the Private Light in Particular Persons, as a Principle overruling Scripture and all outward Ordinances, is Inconsistent with Government either in Church or State, or any security from all the Dismal and Enthusiastical Murders, Rapines, and Outrage of the Zealots among the Jews; who went upon the same Principle, yet showed no evil signs of it; nor, I do Charitably believe, had, at first, any Evil Designs, nor knew, more than Hazael, 2 Kings 8.13. whither these Principles would at last hurry them. But if Hard Words are a Natural Presage, and show and Inward Disposition to come to Blows, no People have shown more Virilence in the First, nor do I believe that they are Infallibly secured from the Latter: But no Tempting occasion has yet offered itself to them. For it is a very convenient Principle to be protected by other men's Swords, without running any of the hazard ourselves; to enjoy the Benefits of Peace equally with others, and to be freed, if not from the Charge, at least from the Slavery and Dangers of War. It is good to sleep in a whole Skin. But yet if they had a Government of their own, they would not part, no not with a Sloop. And I do not think any sort of People would less encourage, under their own Government, their now Pretended Principle of Enthusiasm or the Private Spirit: We see how violently they now oppose it in their Separatists. They call any Opposition to the Orders of their Church, no less than Rebellion, and that against God Himself. Thus Solomon Eccles told John Story, in his Letter above-Quoted, That his opposing the Divine Right of the women's Preach and women's Meetings, set up by G. Fox, was Rebellion against the Living God. (Moore Instances of this see in some of the Quakers Principles, Sect. 13.) And they make Orders in direct opposition to the Laws, and make it Rebellion against God to obey the Laws, T. C's Animadversions upon G. W's Innocency Triumphant, p. 16. and 30. as in the Case of Tithes. They declare all, as well Payers as Receivers of Tithes to be Anti-christs', and to have denied Christ's coming in the Flesh. And it is at their Discretion to declare any other Injunction of the Law of the Land to be against their Light; and than it is Rebellion against God, any longer to obey the Law, in such a Case. So that all our Laws stand but at their pleasure. And if they should declare against All Laws and Kings together; there is nothing excepted from the Plenary Power of their Inward Light. Do not think these for extravagant suppositions. They have done as much as all I have said. Their Principle is Spiritualizing. And as they have Spiritualised away all the Letter of the Scripture, the Sacraments, and Christ's Humanity; so have they reduced Government also, from the outward Administration, at least, of Kings, when the time was that they durst speak plain: Some of the Quakers Principles, Sect. 10. As in Edw. Burrough's Standard, etc. in the Year 1658. p. 9 The Lord is risen (says he) to overturn, overturn, Kings and Princes, Governments and Laws; and He will change; Times and Laws, and Governments: There shall be no King Ruling but jesus, nor no Government of force, but the Government of the Lamb. And George Fox says, There is that Nature that would have an Earthly King to Reign, in which Nature lodgeth the Murderer. A Word from the Lord, p. 15. Anno 1654. The Lord will cleanse the Land of you (Rulers, Priests, etc.) and not any that rejects Christ shall Rule in England. Discovery of the Enmity, p. 29. Anno 1655. Now whether or no the Quakers do reckon us of the Church of England to be among those who Reject Christ, I refer to Sect. 4. And then, whether they think by this Rule, that any such aught to Rule in England, I leave to the Reader. And then whether their Submission to such Govenment, can proceed from Principle or Necessity? In short, Enthusiasts have no Principles. They have no Rule but their own Fancy (which is strongest in Madmen) and this they mistake for Inspiration. And then their Madness is at the height. And it is inconstant as the Wind. They know not their own Minds. Nor can promise for themselves an hour together. They are as dangerous in any Government, as Elephants in an Army, who, if they take the Humour, fall foul upon their Leaders. No Libertines have done greater mischief than the Enthusiasts: The Atheist and Profligate pursue not their Wickednesses with half Their Zeal and Fury. If the Debauched stick at nothing Unlawful, the Zealot thinks every thing he does to be Lawful. And it cannot be denied. No Quaker can deny, but that the Principle of the Quakers is all Enthusiasm. There never was any Enthusiasm in the World that exceeded it. None that ever called themselves Christians have advanced themselves so high, to have the same Infallible Spirit, and Immediate Revelation, as the Prophets and Apostles, or as Christ Himself, to be Equal even to God, to be one Person, Substance, Soul with God. And I do not think that any Human Government can be secure of Men, in whose Power it is to screw themselves up to such Blasphemus heights of Enthusiasm; and who, while they make themselves Gods, think their Governors to be Serpents, Reprobates, and Devils, Raveners from Christ, and his utter Enemies. I here repeat the Caution, which I set down at the beginning of this Discourse. That I do not include all the Quakers in this: But those only who, having seen these Blasphemies and Delusions of George Fox, and other their old Primitive Quakers, will not Renounce them; but seek to Cover and Excuse them, and pretend still to the same Spirit that they had. And what that was, we shall see yet farther in the next Section. SECT. XII. Concerning the Light within. Wherein of the Quaker Idolatry. THE Light within the Quakers call that Light which lighteneth every Man that cometh into the World. They say that every Man has it. Yet they will not call it Natural Reason, nor Conscience. It is not Conscience, Great Mystery, p. 209. says G. Fox. But it be what it will, if every Man has it, it is no Peculiarity to the Quakers. And yet, by virtue of this Light, they advance themselves above all Mankind, and Damn all but themselves, as above is shown. Therefore the meaning must be, That none but, the Quakers do follow this Light. Which they do suppose, but have yet given no proof of it, more than other Enthusiasts; that is, their own saying so, and being very sure of it. However I would ask them this Question, Whether a Man may leave that, Light without Knowing that he does so? If he may, than all the Quakers have left it for aught they Know-worth If he cannot, than all who leave it, do it Maliciously. For I ask again. Whether a Man can sin, while he follows this Light? If he can, than that Light may lead him wrong, and so is not Infallible. But if he cannot sin while he follows this Light; and cannot leave the Light without Knowing of 〈◊〉 (as in the first Quaere) then can there be no sin of Ignorance. Which is contrary to the Law, for their Expiations were appointed for sins of Ignorance. And it is likewise contrary to the Gospel; for Christ tells of those who Know not their Masters William. They Know not what they do, said He of those who Crucify'd Him (Luke 23.34.) The time shall come (said He to His Apostles, John 16. ●.) that whosoever killeth you, shall Think that he doth God service. And it is said 2 Thess. 2.11. That ●●ey should Believe a Lye. Christ ●as foretold (Mat. 6.23.) That ●e Light which is in some Men that is, what they take to be ●ight) is Darkness. And if they be so mistaken, How great is that Darkness! But there can be no such Mistake, as our Saviour supposes, i● the Light within be Infallible; and that every Man has it; and that 〈◊〉 Man can leave it, without Knowing of it. Yet St. Peter says to the Jews who Crucify'd Christ, I wots th● through Ignorance ye did it, Act 3.17. And St. Paul says, 1 Cor 2.8. That had they Known i● they would not have Crucify'd the Lor● of Glory. There is no doubt but these Jews who Crucify'd Christ, an● St. Paul too while he was a Perscutor, did Think that they follow their Light within. Therefore 〈◊〉 Man may Think himself in th●● Right, and be Mistaken, which will destroy all the Quakers certainty. Yes; a Man may Think so, and think very strongly. And yet all this may be no more than a strong Delusion. It would make one Merry (were there not too much of Tragedy in this Miserable and Destructive Error) to see what pains G. Fox takes to struggle from under this Objection. He repeats the Professors Objection against him in these words. The Apostle (Paul) thought to do many things against the Church, Great Mystery, p. 224. and thought be aught to do so, and the Light within did not inform his Conscience. To which George Replies in these words, Did not Christ say that it was hard for him to kick against that that pricked him, and was not that within him that pricked him? Here is manifest Perverting of Scripture. For Christ did not say that it was hard to kick against that that pricked him, or that any thing pricked him. The words which Christ spoke were these, It is hard for thee to kick against the Pricks, Acts 9.5. That is, against the Power of Christ; which would be too hard for him if he strove against it; as a Man that kicks against Pricks or Goads of Iron, only hurts himself. But G. F. Perverts the Text to make it bear this sense, that the Pricks here mentioned, were nothing else but the Pricks of St. Paul's own Conscience, or the Light within his Conscience, as the Quakers love to speak. But whether there was any thing of this in the Case of St. Paul, himself can best tell; who said Acts 26.9. I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth. And Chap. 22.3, 4. That he was not only fully persuaded, but Zealous in the Persecution of the Christians, exceeding mad against them, Chap. 26.11. Had he then any Pricks of Conscience, or of his Light within against the Lawfulness of that wherein he was fully persuaded, and Zealous? Or could he think verily that he ought to do such a thing, if he had had but any the least doubt or surmise against the Lawfulness of it? It will be very hard, when all this is considered, to make Sense of the Quaker Notion of the Light within: Against which this Instance of St. Paul (among many others) stands as an irrefragable proof. But it is strange that the Quakers should arrogate to themselves such lofty Titles, above all the rest of Mankind, even to take to themselves the very Attributes of God, upon the pretence of this Light within; and yet allow that every Man in the World has it, as well as themselves. Indeed they make a Pretence from this Light within to excuse their Blasphemous pride, while they assume all the Worship due to Christ, whom they call this Light, upon the account of His or Its Inhabitation in them. And this was the very Ground and Foundation of all Idolatry, viz. the supposed Presence or Inhabitation of the Divinity in their Images; or in the Sun and other Creatures whom they Worshipped, upon that only Pretence; and as transferring the Honour to God Residing in them, or Represented by them. And this very Excuse do the Quakers give here, Some of the Quakers Principles, Sect. 32. G. Whitehead thus answering the Charge of Idalatry in their Adorations , paid to G. Fox. And as to his (Fran. Bugg's) Charge of Idolatries, if not Blasphemous Names and Titles given to George Fox, how proves he they gave and intended those Names and Titles to the Person of G. Fox, and not to the Life of Christ in Him, whereof He was a Partaker? Innocency against Envy, p. 18. This, as I said before, is the same Excuse that the Heathens, and Romans give for their Idolatries. Secondly, By this Rule, Every Quaker may be Adored with Divine Honour, and all the Attributes of God given to him, because of his Light within, or the Life of Christ in him. Thirdy, I will show in Sect. 17. That they allow of Divine Honour to that Man Christ Jesus, upon no other account than as G. Whitehead allows it to G. Fox, that is, because of the Residing of the Divine Word in Him. And they distinguish it from his Person, as Here from G. Fox's; for, as they express it, They can never call the Bodily Garment Christ. And they do own that the Name Christ does belong to every Quaker as well as to Jesus; that is, to both, only upon the account of the Light within, which they call the Divine Word, or Christ. All which shall be proved in its place. Let me here only observe what an Uncouth and Preposterous piece of Humility it is to deny the Title or Civility of Master, or of their Hat, while, at the same time, they Worship one another with Divine Honour, and bestow upon themselves Titles far above what any Angels, since Lucifer, durst pretend to, to be even Equal with God, of the same Substance, and the fame Soul with Him; and grudge not to apply all the Attributes of God to the Light within them, and to themselves, for its sake: Thus transferring the Honour of God unto Themselves. SECT. XIII. Of the Resurrection of the Body. THis the Quakers do positively deny. Mr. Penn makes Nonsense of it, Reason against Railing, 1673. p. 138. and worse. He compares it to Transubstantiation, nay to the Alcoran. In short (says he) if the complete happiness of the Soul rests in a reunion to a Carnal Body, for such it is sown, than never cry out upon the Turks Alcoran; for such a Heaven and the Joys of it, suit admirable well with such a Resurrection. If the Reader thinks (as I did when I first read this) that Mr. P. meant this only of such a gross Conceit of the Resurrection, as if our Bodies should be in the same frail condition as now, & addicted to Sensualities. If the Reader think thus, as I did (for what else could any one think) he will be, to his astonishment, undeceived, as I was, in reading of what follows. 2dly, No Christian ever held that there was not a great Change of the Body, in its Qualities, at the Resurrection. It is sown in Weakness, in Corruption; it is raised in In-Corruption, and in Power, etc. And therefore if Mr. Penn meant no more than as abovesaid, he would dispute against no Christian. But alas! as you will find, they deny any Resurrection at all of that Body which is sown; that they leave wholly neglected for ever in its Dust. Some of them suppose a perfectly New Body will be made for the Soul; But others, that the Soul itself is the Spiritual Body, which is mentioned 1 Cor. 15.44. and consequently that there is no other Resurrection than at each particular persons death, when the Soul, which they call the Spiritual Body, is freed from the Natural Body, never more to meet again. And, in consequence of this, these believe no General Resurrection, no, nor some of them, any End of the World, every Man's Resurrection being as they suppose, perfected at his Death. But let us return to Mr. Penn. In his Book above Quoted in the Margin, (Reas. against Rail. p. 134.) he is answering this material Objection, That if it be a New Body which is made for the Soul, than there is no Resurrection of the Body: For that does not rise again which never lay down. And when St. Paul says 1 Cor. 15.42. (speaking of the Resurrection of the Body) that It is sown in Corruption, and It is raised in Incorruption, etc. this cannot be true, unless it be the same It, that is, the same Body, which is spoke of in both Branches of the Comparison. The Objection is in these words. If the It in the Text be not the same Body, how can it be call●d a Resurrection; for that supposeth the same? I Answer (says Mr. Penn) If a thing can yet be the same, and notwithstanding Changed, for shame let us never make so much stir against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation; for the Absurdity of it is rather outdone than equalled by this Carnal Resurrection. First, the Church of Rome owes Mr. Penn thanks for so very kind a Representation of Transubstantiation, as to make it stand upon a better foot than the Resurrection of the Body, which is an Article in our Creed, and received by the Catholic Church in All Ages. Secondly, This is answering one Objection with another. But Thirdly, as to his Objection: Cannot he apprehend a thing to be Changed in many of its Qualities, and yet remain the same in its Substance? For that is the present Question: Quite contrary to that of Transubstantiation, which supposes a Change of the Substance, the Qualities or Accidents remaining the same. What does he think? Was not Christ's Body Changed in his Transfiguration upon the Mount? Was it not therefore the same Body? or did Christ take a New Body? That would have been Death. For after a Soul is Hypostatically, that is, Personally united to a Body, their separation is called Death. Unless he thinks that Christ took a Body not otherwise than as Angels have done, that is, not into any Hypostatical Union with his Person, but only as a Cloak, or a Veil, which he might throw off and put on again, without any alteration as to his Person. And if so, then Christ did not die upon the Cross more than upon the Mount; that is, He only put off that Bodily Garment; but that was no Death, more than an Angel is said to die, when he lays down that Body, which he took up only for an occasion. But this will be discoursed of more fully, in the Section concerning the Divinity of Christ. In the mean time, let me give an easy answer to the two Verses in the 15th Chapt. of the 1st Ep. to the Corinthians, which the Quakers make use of against the Resurrection of the Body. One is ver. 37. Thou sowest not that Body which shall be. The other is ver. 50. That Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Answ. Flesh and Blood while Corruptible, as ours is in this Life, cannot bear the Incorruptible State of Heaven. As it is expressed in the same ver. in explanation of the Expression. Flesh and Blood cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth Corruption Inherit Incorruption. But our Corruptible Flesh will be changed in its Qualities, and put on Uncorruptible Qualities; and thus the Dead shall be raised Incorruptible, and we shall be Changed; for this Corruptible must put on Incorruption, etc. ver. 53. etc. The same Answer will serve ver. 37. where the Apostle does Illustrate the Resurrection of our Bodies by the Resurrection of Grain that is sown in the Ground. For the Body of such Grain is changed in its Qualities, but not in its Substance. The Grain must die, or else it will not Fructify or Rise again. In this Death it loses something, as the Husks; but it retains the Substance which rises again, much altered from what it was when it was sown; for it rises in the Blade, than the Stalk, Ears, and then the full Grain in the Ear. But to show that the Substance is not altered in all this, we find that every Grain rises the same it was sown, if you sow Oats you expect not a Crop of Wheat. And there is full as much Reason to say that God does Anew Create every year all the Grain that grows in our Fields, without any respect to the Grain that was sown, or any Natural Production from thence; as that we shall receive totally New Bodies without any Relation, or any part of the Body that was sown. And as to Mr. Penn's mighty Wonder, how a thing can be changed and yet the same, which he cannot comprehend, and compares to Transubstantiation, it is so far from being any difficulty at all, that it proves the thing that is changed to be the same; because otherwise, It were not changed. If George be changed in Quality, in the State of his Health, or in Reputation, this is a certain proof that it is the same George still. But if William be changed, this is no change in George. So that a thing being changed proves it to be the same. Nor is the greatness of the Change any Difference as to the sameness of the Person changed. Death is a great change, yet if William dies, it is William, even the same William that lived, who died: and as sure, it will be the same who shall rise again, tho' undergoing another great change. But I am now to tell you a very strange thing, which I would not believe when it was told me, till I saw it: And that is, that Mr. Penn does understand that Long and Elegant Description of the Resurrection of our Bodies, from the 35 ver. of the 15. Chap. of the 1st Ep. to the Corinthians, only of the Spiritual State of the Soul in this Life. The Invalidity of John Faldo's Vindication, etc. 1673. These are his own words, p. 373. of his Book Quoted in the Margin; and repeating ver. 44. It is sown a Natural Body, it is raised a Spiritual Body, etc. he adds, p. 369. I do utterly deny that this Text is concerned in the Resurrection of Man's Carnal Body at all. I will recite it (says he) with the five following verses, which he there sets down, but for Brevity I omit them, referring to the Chapter; and having repeated them, which speak of the Natural and Spiritual Body, that the First Man is of the Earth Earthly, the Second is the Lord from Heaven; and that as we have born the Image of the Earthly (that is of Adam in this Corruptible Life) so we shall bear the Image of the Heavenly (that is, at the Resurrection, when our vile Bodies shall be made like unto Christ's Glorious Body) but Mr. Penn, p. 370. having repeated these verses, goes on thus. I say this doth not concern the Resurrection of Carnal Bodies, but the two States of Men, under the First and Second Adam; Men are sown into the World Natural, so they are the Sons of the First Adam; But they are Raised Spiritually, through Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, and so they are the Sons of the Second Adam— who came to Raise up the Sons of the First Adam, from their Dead to his Living, the Natural to his Spiritual Estate. But perhaps (says he) it will be objected that the 47. verse, The first Man is of the Earth Earthly, and part of the 9 verse, We shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly, seem to imply a Bodily Resurrection; but let the whole verse be considered, and we shall find no such thing,; etc. I will not take up the Reader's time to repeat all his Arbitrary Interpretations. They are such as will, by the same Liberty, be useless; take away the Literal Adam, and Literal Christ, as well as the Literal Resurrection. And I shall have occasion Sect. 17. to show that the Quakers have Spiritualised away all the Body and the Being of Christ into their Light within. Indeed, if the Spiritualizing Art be allowed in this Latitude, there can remain no one word of Certainty or Reality in the whole Bible, or in any other Book or Writing, or in any other Book or Writing, or in any words that Men can speak. When I urged to a Quaker-Preacher, towards a proof of the Resurrection of Bodies, that Text Mat. 27.52, 53. that many Bodies of Saints arose, and came out of the Graves after Christ's Resurrection, and went into the Holy City, and appeared unto many; He made answer, That that was not meant of the Literal or Earthly jerusalem, that any Dead Body arose there, but of the Spiritual jerusalem which John saw coming down from Heaven. And others told me they heard the same Exposition in a Quaker Sermon at one of their Meetings. Here we have Spiritual Graves, Spiritual Dead Bodies, Spiritual jerusalems', Spiritual Resurrection, and Spiritual Christ, whenever any Text pinches them. Among other Names of Reproach which Mr. Penn in his Spirit of Alexander the Coppersmith (before Quoted p. 4.) bestows upon one of the Separate Quakers, he calls him Hymeneus and Philetus, who (as St. Paul tells of them, 2 Tim. 2.18.) concerning the Truth, have erred, saying that the Resurrection is passed already. That is, they Spiritualised it from the Letter, and meant it only of the Spiritual rising up of Christ in our Hearts; which having obtained (as their Light within did assure them) their Resurrection they supposed was passed already, and they expected no other. But this, St. Paul calls overthrowing the Faith. And I can tell of a Preacher among the Quakers, who was as confident of himself (were they not all so, see Sect. 8, 9, 10.) and said that he had already obtained the Resurrection, by Christ having Risen in his Heart: and that he believed no other Resurrection, nor expected any. And G. Fox says plainly in these words. Great Mist. p. 214. There's none have a Glory and a Heaven but within them. SECT. XIV. Of the Sacraments. AT the same rate they answer that Text, 1 Cor. 11.26. of showing forth the Lord's Death (by the Celebration of His Last Supper) till He come. That is, say they, with Hymeneus and Philetus, till His coming Spiritually in our Hearts. And they supposing that He is so come, there is an end of the time limited, for the Celebration of that Ordinance of Christ. Tho' they cannot deny but that Christ was so come in the Hearts of the Holy Apostles, and of the purest Primitive Christians and Blessed Martyrs, none of whom Dreamed of the time being thus expired; but did continue, and the Catholic Church, from their days to this, in the Religious Observance of that Holy Institution, thinking it obligatory, till his coming again, that is, at the Literal Resurrection in the last day. The same time that was limited to the continuance of the other Sacrament of Baptism, Mat. 28.20. That is, always, even unto the end of the World; as it is there said by Christ, to his Apostles, and their Successors. Go ye and teach all Nations, Baptising them— and lo I am with you (that is, you, and your Successors, in the Execution of this Commission of Baptising, etc.) Always even unto the end of the World. For if this be the time, during which Christ promised to assist his Commission, it must doubtless infer the like continuance of the things required in the said Commission. And I would fain know from any Quaker, why Teaching does not cease, as well as Baptism; since both are in the same Commission, and the time of Continuance spoken equally of both. And the necessity of Baptism greatly enforced in the same Commission (Mark 16.16.) Go ye into all the World— He that believeth and is Baptised, shall be saved. And upon the Quaker Pretence to Infallibility, and the unerring guidance of the Light within every particular Person, why should not all outward Teaching cease as well as Baptism? For what need of Teaching to Infallibility! And is not Teaching an outward Ordinance as well as Baptism? And to last only till we are Taught? And does not the Light within teach sufficiently? The Quakers dare not deny the sufficiency of the Light within: Therefore there is greater need, by their own Principles, for the continuance of Baptism than of Preaching; because Baptism is an initiating Ordinance, and therefore always to be continued while there are any to be initiated or Admitted into the Society of the Church. But Teaching does, of its own Nature, cease, when Men are sufficiently Taught: Therefore to those who hold the sufficiency of the Light within, outward Preaching must be wholly inconsistent. Yet they keep up Preaching and abolish Baptism! All that can be said is, That their Power of Interpretation is a very Arbitrary and Despotic Power: And we must ask no Reasons. Inward Baptism must supersede the Outward; but Inward Teaching must not; even to those whose sole Foundation is the Inward Teaching! Let me here add one Observation for the sake of those who pretend that the Baptism which is spoke of Mat. 28.19. Go ye and Teach all Nations, Baptising them, etc. was meant only of the Spiritual Baptism, or the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. Let me observe to those, That Christ only is He who could Baptise with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is His Gift only. To say that Man could bestow God (which the Holy Ghost is) is the highest Blasphemy. Men indeed are made Ministerial Officers, by whose Hands, Christ does bestow the Holy Ghost, in the use of those Rules and Means which He has appointed. And Simon Magus himself understood it not otherwise, Acts 8.18, 19 He desired only to be made such a Ministerial Officer, through whose Ministry the Holy Ghost might be given. And in all the Gospel there is no such Command given to any Apostle, as to Baptise with the Holy Ghost. Nor is it said that any of them did Baptise with the Holy Ghost. That is the Peculiar of Christ himself, and spoke Characteristically of him alone. John 1.33. They indeed were impowered, as John, to Baptise with Water; which being duly Administered and Received according to Christ's Institution, He has promised the Spiritual Baptism with the Holy Ghost to go along with it, but as His Gift, not as the Gift of his Ministers, by whose Hands He pleases to convey it. Therefore, if the Quaker Interpretation of Mat. 28.19. do hold, it will follow, That the Apostles and their Successors have power to Baptise with the Holy Ghost; Which is Blasphemy. And this must be the consequence, if when Christ gave them his Commission to Baptise all Nations the Spiritual and Immediate Baptism with the Holy Ghost be meant; and not the Ministerial, and Mediate Baptism of Water. And as this Outward Baptism with Water was an Ordinance Instituted, as a Means of Grace whereby the Inward Baptism with the Holy Ghost was conveyed; it was therefore the Form appointed of Admission into the Society of the Church, and thereby giving a Title to all the Privileges and Promises which are annexed to it: And likewise it was a Public and avowed owning of our Christianity. Upon all which accounts it was necessary, even where the Inward Baptism with the Holy Ghost was already attained. As St. Peter said, Acts 10.47. Can any Man forbidden Water, that these should be Baptised, who have Received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And St: Paul, tho' Converted and Instituted immediately from Heaven, was Commanded to be Baptised with Water. And it is very observable, that among those things wherein St. Paul was Instructed thus Immediately from Christ, he tells us 1 Cor. 11.23. That one was the Institution of the Lords Supper. Upon which he lays so great a stress, that he charges grievous Diseases, sent among the Corinthians, and Death itself (ver. 30.) and even Damnation (ver. 29.) upon their Neglect and Abuse of this Holy Mystery. How then would he have Censured the Preaching down this and the other Sacrament of Baptism, as Carnal and Hurtful things! And let me here seriously mind them, and Admonish others how their Neglect of the Outward Ordinances and Signs, has lost to them the Reality, and the thing signified. For it had been impossible for any who had been kept in the constant Use and Practice of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to have forgot Christ's Outward Dying, and shedding of his Blood, or to have turned it, as many of the Quakers have done, to mean nothing but his Spiritual Suffering within us; and that Himself is nothing else but The Light within us. Of this you have seen some proof already, but you find more in Sect. 17. I say, how could any who frequently used to show forth the Lord's Death, by the visible Representation of it in the Sacrament of the Holy Communion, by the Bread Broken, like his Body; and the Wine Powered forth, as His Blood was upon the Cross; how could any who had practised this, and seen Persons daily Baptised into Christ 's Death; How could such a one ever have so much as Imagined? How could it ever have come into his Head to Spiritualise away the. Literal Humanity and Sufferings of Christ? No: It could never have been done. But the Enemy having once deluded Men into a neglect of the Outward Signs and Seals, Pledges and Means of Grace, whereby God Guarded and Fenced the Soul and Spiritual part of his Religion, (as a Kernel is by the Shell in which it grows) the Devil having stolen from us the Body, or Outward part of Religion, the Soul soon disappeared, and left behind it a noisome Carcase of Religion: For Religion can no more live and be preserved to us here, while we are in the Body, without Outward and Corporal Means, than the Soul can live to us here, while we are upon the Earth, without our Body; and hence the Corporal Service, the presenting our Bodies, as a living Sacrifice, etc. is called our Reasonable Service, Rom. 12.1. And whoever goes about to separate the Bodily from the Spiritual Worship, does as much Murder Religion, as he that should separate a Man's Soul from his Body. This is so necessary and plain a Truth, that those who take upon them to abrogate the outward Institutions of Christ, do, at the same time, Invent and set up others of their own; as has been before observed Sect. 11. of the Quakers Institution of Woman's Preach and Woman's Meetings, at the same time that they threw off, as Carnal, the Sacraments of Christ's Institution. SECT. XV. Concerning the Satisfaction of Christ. HErein the Quakers are direct Socinians. For they positively deny the Satisfaction. And this is no less a distinguishing Doctrine of the Socinians, than their denying the Trinity, and the Divinity of Christ. Mr. Penn Blasphemes it, as both Irreligious and Irrational. Reason against Railing, 1673. p. 90. 91. 92. 93. His Arguments are the old Socinian Job Trot, tho' I believe he knew it not; only Good Wits jumped: For in his Invalidity of John Faldo's Vindication, etc. Printed the same year 1673. p. 413. He vindicates himself from an Imputation he says had been cast upon him for being a Socinian, upon occasion of his Book called, The Sandy Foundation shaken; and says, That he had not at that time ever read any one Socinian Book in all his Life, if so much as looked into one. And if he had known this to have been Socinianism, he would not, in his Winding-Sheet, Printed 1672. have upbraided T. F. and H. H. so often with the reproach of being Socinians. Sect. 1. Their belov'd Socinianism, Socinian Agency, the Spirit of Socinianism tried, according to that Discovery it has made of itself, in their Lamentable yet Converted Agent Hen. Hedworth— his Grim Socinian Cavils burstoned with Folly and Revenge. 2.— This Anti-Scriptural Socinian. 7— The Scriptures Socinianized. 8.— This Giddyheaded Socinian, etc. And yet Mr. Penn does (it seems without knowing it) perfectly Copy after these Socinians in all his Arguments against the Satisfaction of Christ. As that there was no need of any Satisfaction to God's Justice for our sins. That it is not called Unjust to Forgive a Debt without any Satisfaction; thus confounding the Notions of Justice and Mercy; for all Forgiveness proceeds from Mercy. But Justice cannot Remit the least Farthing: Else it were not Justice. And what is Inconsistent with the Nature of Justice, is Inconsistent with God; for God is not only Just, but He is Justice itself. Justice in the Abstract, the Highest and most Adequate Notion of Justice. What room then is there for God's Mercy? If he be all Justice, where is his Mercy? Answ. God's Attributes do not Fight, or Contradict one another. They Magnify and Exalt one another. Thus God's Justice is Magnified in that it Exalts Full and Adequate Satisfaction: His Wisdom is Magnified, in finding out such Means as to do it: And his Goodness or Mercy is equally Magnified in affording those Means. And all these are fulfilled to the utmost, that is, Infinitely in the wonderful Oeconomy of our Salvation by the Satisfaction paid to God's Justice for our sins, in the Sacrifice and Death of Christ; which, because of his Divine Nature, was Full and Adequate Satisfaction; and, by his Human Nature, the Satisfaction was paid by the same Nature which offended. But upon the Socinian and Quaker Scheme, one of God's Attributes must Fight with and Conquer the other: one must subdue and beat down the other: and his Justice must quit the Field to his Mercy. This is great Nonsense as well as Blasphemy; and utterly inconsistent with the first Notions of a God. And, upon this Scheme, no tolerable account can be given for the Death of Christ. For whether as an Example, or an Intercessor, or a Teacher (which are all the Notions wherein the Socinians and Quakers do receive him) in none of these is there any Necessity, or Rational Account to be given for his Death. This is the Millstone of Socinianism, which will sink it into the Sea. These Men pretend to the highest Reason; and reject the most express Revelations of the Holy Trinity of God, and the Divinity of Christ, merely upon the account that their Reason cannot comprehend these profound Mysteries. These Men reject the Doctrine of the Satisfaction upon the like pretence of Reason; and advance in its place, the most Arbitrary and Unaccountable supposed Covenant betwixt God and Christ, to remit the sins of the Penitent, for the altogether Needless and Barbarous Murder of the most Innocent Person in the World. But having wrote at large upon this Subject, I will not here repeat: My business at the present, being not to enter into the large Field of the Socinian Controversy; But to show the much misled generality of the Quakers, how Ignorantly and blindfold they are led in the most gross and vile Heresy that ever the Enemy sowed in the Christian Church, which is that of the Socinians; and which, in Name, the Quakers do so much abhor. SECT. XVI. Concerning the Holy Trinity. THE Quakers and Socinians acknowledge a Three, but deny a Trinity; which is to confess the same thing in English, and to deny it Latin: For Trinitas is only Latin for the Three. But the meaning is, they would not have the Three in Heaven to be three Persons. Tho' they cannot tell what Three they are, if they be not three Persons. And the Quakers who own the Divinity of Christ, are under greater difficulties than the Socinians, who deny the Divinity of Christ. For if Christ be God, and that there is but one Person in the Godhead, it must necessarily follow that God the Father was Incarnate and Died. And that Christ was his own Father, to whom he prayed upon the Cross. And too many the like Absurdities, which are avoided by those Socinians, who do not acknowledge Christ to be God. Thou others of them do own the Divinity of Christ; but with such distinctions and salvoes, as I am afraid are at the bottom of the Quaker Pretences. G. Fox opposes Chr. Wade for saying, Great Mystery, p 246. That the Holy Ghost was a Person, and that there was a Trinity of Three Persons before Christ was born. It seems, by this, they do not acknowledge that there were Three in Heaven before Christ was born. And if so, than the Quaker Three in Heaven must be Creatures. The Scriptures (says G. Fox Ibid. to Chr. Wade) do not tell the People of a Trinity nor three Persons; but the Common-Prayer— Mass-Book, speaks of three Persons, brought in by the Father the Pope; and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was always One. He means one Person. As Muggleton does, who says That the Godhead was Incarnate and that there was no God while Christ was upon the Earth: But that Elijah was Deputed by God, upon his Divesting himself of his Godhead, to Govern as God. That Christ knew no more of himself, nor what he was, than Elijah pleased to let him know: That Elijah was the Father, to whom Christ Prayed upon the Cross: That Elijah raised God from the Dead, carried him to Heaven, restored him to his Throne; and then he was God again. All this I have had from Muggleton's own Mouth, as well as from his Writings, It terrifies my very Soul while I repeat such Dreadful and Senseless Blasphemy! And I would not have done it, but to show to what unimaginable Excesses Enthusiasm may drive Men; and that all should beware of that desperate Shelve, upon which both our Church and State have suffered miserable Shipwreck: That we may once again (if it be the will of God) learn some Sobriety of Religion, and Modesty in our own Conceits, to distinguish Fancy from Revelation, and not to think ourselves Wiser than all the World beside. How far the Quakers differ from Muggleton, in what is here told (excepting the Deputyship of Elijah) will appear by their allowing no distinction betwixt the Father and the Son. Great Mystery, p. 142.293. Christ is not distinct from the Father, says G. Fox. They (the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) are not distinct— and you Priests are not fit to judge in such things as they are; they are too weighty and too heavy for you. This was because these Priests (as he calls them) had said, That the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, were Distinct; which Fox thus violently opposes. I hope Mr. Penn's former Excuse will not serve here too, that this must go off upon the account of G. Fox's Ignorance, and that by Distinct he did not mean Distinct, but may be (as an Ingenious Stickler may pretend for him) that he thought Distinct meant Separated (for there is nothing that can be said, for which something may not be alleged) but sure G. F. if he were alive, would give little thanks to any who should vilify his Understanding: for George here exalts his own Understanding, and reproaches that of the Priests, who, he says, were not fit to judge of such Great and Weighty things; And now for any Quaker to say that it was George himself who was not fit, would be a severe Reproof, and look like playing Booty. But secondly, these Priests of G. Fox's did not hold or allege any Separation, but only a Distinction between the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And if you will suppose G. F. so incapable as not to know any difference betwixt these two, he was a very sorrowful Beginner of a Religion; and could neither be Separated nor Distinguished from a Tool that Knaves do work with, called a F—. He licks up, or stumbles upon old exploded Heresies, and vents them for Immediate Revelations. He falls in here with the Patripassians, so called, because they held that it was God the Father who was Incarnate and Suffered. Which G. Fox asserts (ut supra, p. 246.) where he Disputes against Chr. Wade for saying, That God the Father never took upon him Human Nature. Which (says George) is contrary to the Scripture. And says, That Christ was called, The everlasting Father. And, in his usual Style, accuses Chr. Wade for his Ignorance in this Mystery, which G. Fox thought none understood but himself and Partners. Of which you will see yet greater proof in what follows. SECT. XVII. Concerning the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ. THE Quakers Heresy in this, is taken from the Socinians, they say, Christ took Flesh; but no otherwise, as they explain it, than as Angels assumed Bodies; or as He (Christ or the Word) did Inspire or Dwell in Prophets or Holy Men of old, tho' they allow (not always) that Christ did Inspire the Person of that Man Jesus in an higher measure than other Men. But they deny any proper Incarnation of Christ; that is, that he was made Flesh; or that He and Jesus were one Person. Yet they allow Jesus to be called Christ, from the Dwelling of Christ in him: But, for the same Reason, they take the Name Christ to themselves; and say that it belongs to Them, as well as to Jesus, from the same Dwelling of Christ in Them as was in Jesus. They say that Christ did raise up the Body of Jesus from the Dead; but they say not that Christ did carry it up with him into Heaven. So that tho' there be a Christ now in Heaven, that is, as he was before his Descent upon Jesus, as he is the Word of God, yet they do not confess that there is any Jesus now in Heaven, or any where else; they know not what is become of him, or what Christ did with that Body of his after he had raised it from the Dead. They say there is no Christ without them; no other Christ but what is within them. They allow him now no other Body but their own, they call themselves his Body, that is, the Church. And as they give him no other than a Mystical Body; so they Spiritualise all his Life and Death to his Spiritual Living and Dying within them. As one of their Preachers Prayed at a Solemn Meeting. O God, who was Crucify'd, Died, and risen again in us! And G. Fox says, That if there be any other Christ but he that was Crucify'd within, Great Mist. p. 206. he is the False Christ— this Christ that was risen and Crucify'd within— Devils and Reprobates make a talk of him without. And he disputes against those who say, That the Man Christ that was Crucify'd, his Body is now in the Presence of his Father. (Gr. Mist. p. 211.) or that Christ is absent from them (the Quakers) as touching his Flesh (p. 210.) and (p. 254.) they that profess a Christ without them, and another Christ within them, here is two. Robert Gordon was the first among them that I find, who taught the Orthodox Faith in this point, of the Divinity of Jesus, and his Satisfaction to the Justice of God for our sins; by which he purchased Redemption for us, through Faith in him, as outwardly suffering Death for us upon the Cross, and now Personally Reigning in Heaven; and not only as a Light within us: Tho' he denies not that Light within, but strongly asserts the necessity of it, as it is an influence sent from the Spirit of Christ into our Hearts, to guide and enlighten us, but not the very Christ itself; and the only Christ and Saviour as the Quakers Impiously do Blaspheme, denying any other at all. The Book wherein Rob. Gordon taught as abovesaid, he Entitled, A Testimony to the true Saviour, or Jesus Christ of Nazareth, as having already purchased Redemption for us in the Body of his Flesh, and revealing it within us by his Spirit. It was Printed in London in the year 1670. Against this wrote George Whitehead, with three other Quakers. And Rob. Gordon Published an Answer to every one of them severally, which was Printed 1671. and called, Christianity Vindicated. And in R. Gordon's Reply, you will find the abominable broad Blasphemous Heresies which these Quakers did hold, as p. 20. That Christ was never seen with any Carnal Eye, nor his Voice heard with any Carnal Ear. Hereby (says Gordon) plainly denying him to be the Son of Man. And p. 21. You neither confess nor Preach him (Christ) as a Man, but as a Light in that Man Christ, and as a Light in every Man, as it is in every Man, as he comes into the World. And p. 30: Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World. a Voice not heard among you (says Gordon) of the Man Jesus Christ, the Son of the Virgin Mary, as now perishing Outwardly, Bodily, without us, but applied by some among you to Meekness, Humility, and the life within you. And p. 33. The Light, the Seed within, is Christ, than I am he that speaketh; then Hosanna: The Son is equal with the Father, I witness the Son in me, so I witness Equality with the Father: The Light in me is Christ, Christ is the Word by which the World was made, then, 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 Prophet G. F. as is said by S. E. in his Paper Entitled, The Quakers Challenge, p. 6. Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; Christ is in me, and must not he say where he is, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life? He that hath the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the Dead, is Equal with God: Jesus Christ the Mystery passed before, the same Spirit takes upon it the same seed, where it is manifested; as it is mentioned in G. Fox's Book Entitled Saul's Errand to Damascus, p. 7, 8. Here you see them making themselves Equal to God, by their having the true Christ in them: Now see them, for the same reason, Preferring themselves before that Man who was called Christ: they make that Man Christ and all that he suffered and did, to be but a Type or Shadow of what is really performed in them by the true Christ, as you may see in Gordon's Testimony to the true Saviour above Quoted, p. 36, 37. The same things are fulfilled in thee (speaking to the Quaker) that was figured in him (Christ.) But tell us plainly (says he p. 37.) is that one Sacrifice of the Crucify'd Body of our Lord, once offered to bear the sins of many, a Pattern and Figure of things to be done over again in us, the Blood without Typifying Life and Spirit within: Is this: Sacrifice so weak so empty a thing, that it is a Pattern and Figure having nothing in itself, but as Painting to another, to wit, this Light, enlightening every Man? How are you beguiled (does Gordon Reason with them) to Preach up the Light enlightening every Man that comes into the World for the true Christ! to cry up a Light within! to cry down the Blood without! to Preach him as an Example! to cast out the Atonement! to speak of him as a Figure, pointing at this Light within as the abiding Substance— p. 40. Denying him to have any Real, Outward, Individual, Glorified, Bodily Existence in his Father's Kingdom. The Preaching of a Christ without them, they call old Beggarly stuff; and those who have formerly Preached him, as without us (tho' Prophets or Apostles) to be Low and Carnal in their day, according to their Cant, which he there Repeats. See more Quotations of this sort in T. C's Animadversions , p. 35. Your imagined God beyond the Stars, and your Carnal Christ is utterly denied— That this Christ is God and Man in one Person, is a Lye. This is in p. 5. of a Book of theirs Entitled, The Sword of the Lord drawn, etc. Quoted by F. Bugg in his Quakerism withered, p. 26. Printed 1694. The Devil was in thee (says G. F. to his Adversary Chr. Wade, in his Gr. Mist. p. 250.) thou sayest thou art saved by Christ without thee, and so hast Recorded thyself to be a Rebrobate. And p. 183. such as have Christ in them, they have the Righteousness itself, without Imputation, the end of Imputation, the Righteousness of God itself, Christ Jesus. And in his Saul's Errand to Damascus, p. 14. Christ (says he, that is, The Light within) is the Substance of all Figures, and his Flesh is a Figure, i. e. of their Light within, which they make the only Christ. F. B's Sheet, p. 3. The very Christ of God is within us. And the Flesh or Body which Christ ●ssum'd, they do not call the Body ●f Christ, as a Man's Body is called his Body, that is, as one Person with his Soul, both which together make the Man; but only as when an Angel assumes a Body, he ●akes not that Body into his own Nature, so as to be part of his Person, but only as a Cloak, or a Garment which a Man wears, which he may throw off, or put on again, without any alteration in his Person. Nor can such a Garment be called the Man. So we (say the Quakers. F. B's New Rome Arraigned, p. 24) can never call the Bodily Garment Christ, p. 27. For that which be took upon him (his Body) was our Garment, even the Flesh and Blood of our Nature, which is of an Earthly, Perishing Nature. And as a Cloak altars not its Nature, but is the same, whoever wears it, because it does not, thereby, altar its Nature, nor is taken into the Nature of him who wears it; so (and no more) do they make of the Flesh of Christ, which they say (as above) was of an Earthly Perishing Nature. And is Perished, by their account, for they allow not that it was taken up into Heaven. Some of them say it vanished, or was aninhilated: But they have not (that I find) determined Judicially what is become of it. And so their Doctors may vary about it. But from this account which they give of it, they think that the Name of Christ does belong to every one of them, not only more than to that Body now, but as well as to It while it was upon the Earth, and when Christ did Inhabit It. Yea, their very words are (F. B's New Rome, p. 28.) Doth not the Name (Christ) belong to the whole Body, and to every Member in the Body, as well as to the Head: A Quest. etc. p. 27. and G. Fox says (Mist. p. 88) Christ is the Elect. Thus Christ is the Elect, and the Elect are Christ! they make them convertible terms. And p. 207. he desputes against this Position. That God hath a Christ, distinct from all other things whatsoever. And says, in opposition to it, That God's Christ is not distinct from his Saints. I showed in the last Section, that they would not allow God the Father to be distinct from the Son: But here is a stretch which far outdoes that, to show that there is no stop, as in Art, so neither in Enthusiasm; which indeed is an Art, to put upon ourselves as well as others. They say a Man may tell a Lie so often, that he may come to believe it himself at last. And a strong Enthusiastic habit may fix a Man's Thought so long upon a beloved Object, as to dazzle his Understanding, and glare so in his Eyes, that without considering, the grossest Absurdities will go down; and the highest Blasphemies gain a pretence, even of Piety, and Exalted Devotion. This is the Devil transformed into an Angel of Light. This is the most Fatal an Irrecoverable State of a Soul, when we fall in Love with our Diseases, and, as in a Calenture, mistake the deepest Oceans of Presumptuous Blasphemy, for sweet and pleasant Fields of Contemplation, and even of Humility; and thus mistake Hell itself for our Heaven. Who that had not his Head turned with such Enthusiastical Delusion, could have imagined, that G. Fox could find no Difference, no Distinction at all, betwixt Christ and Himself! And that Men of Sense should lick up his spittle! And it is but consequential to this, that all the Divine Attributes should be given to G. Fox as well as unto Christ; if there be no Distinction between them, than they are the same. And I have shown some Instances, Sect. 5. where G. Fox does assume the Style and Names of Christ to Himself; and that others do allow them to him. All which is excused by Mr. Penn in the XI. Chapt. of the Invalidity of john Faldo's Vindication, in such a wonderful manner as will leave no Blasphemy or Idolatry in the World without a very fair pretence. But I turn from him, out of respect to him, and invite the Reader to go along with me, as a Conclusion to this whole Discourse, and take a short view of G. Whitehead's Creed, where it relates to some of the particulars before spoke of, that especially which is Treated of in this Section. SECT. XVIII. Some Remarks upon George Whitehead's Creed, Relating to some of the Particulars before-going IT has been a great and just Complaint against the Quakers, that they would never give us any Creed or Summary of their Faith. They find fault with others; but tell not what they hold themselves. They dwell upon Negatives, but love not to speak in the Affirmative what they would be at. Well! Now G. Whitehead has, at last, done it, in the Introduction to his Innocency Triumphant, which he Entitles thus, Our Christian Testimony reassumed in the Affirmative. And so far he keeps pace with the Apostles Creed, that he comprises it in just Twelve Articles. But (alas!) when you come to consider them, they do not go cleverly off from the abovesaid Damnable Errors of the foregoing Quakers; but, on the contrary, he words his new Confession of Faith in such Dubious and General terms, as may indeed, at first sight, deceive an unwary Reader; but yet keeps, off contradicting the Heart of the Heresy, which he still preserves safe and untouched: And not only so, but often with a slily insinuated Excuse and Defence of it. Thus in his 1st Articl. he confesses Jesus to be the Christ. Even the same Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary at Bethlehem, etc. This would seem a plain Confession to the Christ without; that it was meant of that Man Jesus Christ, and not only of the Light within. But then when you consider that (as abovesaid) they attribute the Name of Christ to their own Light within, and to every one of Themselves, as well as unto Jesus Christ, than it will appear that this Confession of Whitehead's is a mere Fallacy; while it attributes no more to Jesus Christ than to G. W. But let us not wrong honest George! He confesses, Art. 10. in these words, Our Ministers do not teach, that the Name of Jesus and Christ belong to every Member in the Body (or Church) as Amply, as to Christ the Head. And that you may take notice of it, the word Amply is put in a different Character, in old Black Letters, lest you should mistake, and think that George was Christ as Amply as Jesus. That was modest indeed! But then, George, Thou art Christ as well as Jesus, tho' not so Amply: and then your first Art. above Quoted, which calls Jesus the Christ, means no great matter; but is rank Sophistry and Dodging, and casting a Mist before the Eyes of poor deluded People: For I have that Charity for a great many of your Followers, as to think that they do not know those Depths of Stan, and that Mystery of Iniquity into which thou and others have led them: And out of which thou dost not desire to Rescue them, but to bind them faster in it, by this thy Equivocating and Jesuitical Confession of Faith. As Article 2. where you confess (with the Socinians) Christ's coming in the Flesh. That is, as before explained, taking Flesh upon him as a Veil or Garment; but not, in the Language, and true Sense of the Scripture, That he was made Flesh, John 1.14. that is, took it into his Person, and joined it in a Personal Union with his Divine Nature; so that (as it is expressed in the Athanasian Creed) as the Reasonable Soul and Flesh is one Man, so God and Man is one Christ. If you had believed what is contained in these words, you would not have scrupled setting it down in these words; which must have given the best satisfaction, if it had been your design to have given satisfaction without any reserve for that wicked Heresy which you would seem not to plead for, yet in such words as you might easily afterwards explain to mean nothing against it. Article 7. You say, We own no such saying as that the Holy Doctrine or Divine Precepts of Scripture is either Dust, Death, or the Serpent's Meat. But you say that wicked Men have Perverted the Scriptures. That no Body can deny to You. But what then? Is the Holy Word of God, therefore, become Death, and Serpent's Meat, because you have made it Death unto yourselves? God forbidden, says St. Paul, Rom. 7.13. in answer to the same Argument which you bring; Wherefore the Law is Holy, and the Commandment Holy and Just and Good, tho' the Unlearned and the Unstable wrest them to their own Destruction, 2 Pet. 3.16. But what was it you called Dust and Serpent's Meat? Was it nothing else but the Ink and the Paper? Did any Body ever say that These were not Dust? Or is that any part of the Contest betwixt us? Was it the Ink Only and the Paper of which you doubt (as before Quoted in the Quakers Refuge) whether Moses or Hermes was the Penman? Thou meanedst verily, which of them made the Pen; that was all upon the word of a Quaker! Was it the Pen or Ink of which you doubt, that some of it was not spoken by the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit: And whether some of it was not spoken by the Grand Impostor? Some by False Prophets, and yet True; some by True Prophets, and yet False.; The Ink or Paper are neither True nor False, but the Doctrine only which is written in them. And therefore, George, notwithstanding all thy mealy Modesty, it is, It is indeed George, it is the very Doctrine of the Scriptures which you Blaspheme as Dust and Death, and Serpent's Meat, on purpose to bring Men off from trying your Pernicious Heresies by those Sacred Oracles, and to make your Followers trust wholly to your New Light within; in comparison of which it is that you vilify the written Doctrine and Precepts of God, which are most opposite to all your Gross Delusions; it is not the Ink nor the Paper that you quarrel at. No, they do you no hurt: But it is the Law and the Testimony, according to which written Word, if any do not teach, the same Holy Scriptures do Instruct us, it is because there is no Light in them. Isai. 8.20. No Light! George! Mark that. Your false Pretences to the Light within is here overruled, and to be measured by the written word, without. These are hard say to the Infallible Friends! And it was for the sake of these, and such like Texts which Detect and Explode the miserable Ignorance and Blasphemy of these Pretenders to Light, which made Thee, Friend George, in this same Book, to which Thou hast prefixed Thy abovesaid Affirmative Confession of Faith, p. 28. Excuse and Justify the Diabolical Suggestions in the Quakers Refuge against the Authority of the Sacred Scriptures, by saying that it Questioned but of some (of the Scriptures) not all, as I have shown before. But now come, George, we are near an end, and we know not if ever we shall meet again; tell me, in the Plain, Downright, Honesty and Simplicity of thy Light within, Didst Thou mean no more by this but that only some and not all the Ink, was thick and muddy, and fit for Serpent's Meat; and that only some Sheets of the Paper, or Parchment, or Barks of Trees on which they wrote in ancient time, and might write the Scriptures, for aught thou knowest, was course and ugly? Is all thy Malice only against those base Printers or Writers who Profane the Letter by poor sneaking Impressions, and provide not good Ink and Paper? If thou thinkest all this to be Raillery not becoming thy Gravity: See, I pray thee, if it be any thing more than what thou settest forth as the very true and only Reason for those vile Epithets which thou and thy Friends do bestow upon the Holy Scriptures of God. And be ashamed and blush (if thou canst) for that Silly and Childish come off, with which thou Gravely undertakest to Banter all Mankind, as if all your Ignominies and Contempt cast upon Scripture; were to be understood only of the Ink and Paper. Nor is thy salvo more Ingenious, in the Eleventh Article of thy aforesaid Creed, wherein thou endeavourest to reconcile the Heretical Notions of thy Sect against the true Incarnation of Christ, calling his Body a Figure, Veil, etc. It is really (sayest thou) contrary to our Faith and Principle to make Christ Jesus himself only a Figure, a Veil, or Garment. Here the word only (as the word Amply in the tenth Article) is put in great Black Letters, to show the stress thou layst upon it. And to discover thy Sophistication, thou sayest, That Christ Jesus is not only a Figure, or a Garment. Not only! No more is a Cloak or a Veil. It is not only a Garment; for it is Cloth or Stuff, and may be put to many other uses. There is no one thing in the World, that is only one thing. It may be taken under more considerations than one. But this (as I observed at first of thy Equivocating manner) is but a Negative Confession. Thou tellest us what Christ Jesus is not. Not only a Veil, Figure, etc. so we may say that he is not only Man, not only God; that God is not only Just, not only Merciful, etc. But, George, this is not saying what he Is. He may be any thing, a thousand things notwithstanding of all thy not onlys. And thou usherest in this Article with more Solemnity than any of the rest (that we may not suspect thee) with a Really. It is Really contrary, etc. as above Quoted. But Really, George, this is not Reassuming your Christian Testimony, in the Affirmative, as thou dost promise in the Title to this thy Creed. We did not want to know what was contrary to your Tenets; this is still hiding yourselves in the dark, in Negatives: But we would know Affirmatively, what it is you do Profess; and this thou didst promise; and this thou hast not performed. Therefore tell us plainly, did Christ assume Flesh not only as a Veil or a Garment, (like Angels when they appeared in Bodies) but did he take our Flesh into his own Substance and Nature, so as to make it one Person with himself, as our Flesh is part of our Person, of our Substance and our Nature? Was it thus that Christ Clothed himself in Flesh and Blood? If, in this sense, you would mean that he took Flesh, or was made Flesh, we will not Quarrel with you for the word Garment or Veil; for so it may be said that our Soul is Clothed with our Body, as with a Garment or Veil. It is not words, but the meaning that we contend about. And you cannot satisfy the World, nor your own Consciences with this Dodging about words, while you eat to declare what you mean by them. Nay, you do not shun to declare what you mean by them. That is, on the Socinian Heretical side (as above is shown) to wit, that Christ did not assume Flesh into his Nature and Person. But when you would impose upon us, than you Dance about the words Veil and Garment, and will not deny the wicked Heresies of those before you; but rather insinuate Excuses and Defences for them, as I before observed. Thus, in this same Eleventh Article we are now upon, after your full and Affirmative Declaration (as abovesaid) you suborn two Texts as Favourers of your Damnable Heresy before-told. Yet (say you slily) His Flesh was called the Veil, Heb. 10. and he took upon him the Form of a Servant, and was made like unto Men, and was found in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shape or Figure of a Man. Phil. 2.6, 7. Ah George! George! I could forgive thee any thing but this. What! Put upon us at this rate! And with a fine Quaker Really too! But tell us, among Friends, didst thou not Really know, George, the word veil Heb. 10. and Figure, Phil. 2. Meant nothing at all of what thy Friends mean by them in this Controversy? Know then, George (if thy Light has hitherto forgot to tell thee) that the Veil in the Temple, that is, the Partition-wall which enclosed the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple, was a Type of Christ: And that as that Veil was rend from the Top to the Bottom, at the Death of Christ, and so opened a way into the Holy of Holies, which was kept shut before, none but the High Priest, who was a Type of Christ, entering into It, and that but once a year, with the Blood of Expiation, which Holy of Holies was the Type of Heaven: And this shown that Entrance into Heaven was only to be obtained by Jesus, our true High Priest; and that by the Offering of his own Blood (which by the way, was not his own Blood, if he did not assume it into his own Substance and Person; otherwise, he only carried it in, as the High Priest did the Blood of others, but not his own Blood) and as the breaking of the Veil opened the Passage into the Holy Place, Eph. 2.14. so the breaking of Christ's Body on the Tree, broke down the Partition-wall which was betwixt us and Heaven, and opened the Passage into Eternal Life; which otherwise had ever been kept shut against us. And this shows the necessity of Christ without, and of his Bodily Sufferings, without the Gates of Jerusalem (Heb. 13.12.) and the Literal shedding of his Blood, as an Atonement for our sins; and not only as a Type or Figure of the Light within the Quakers; as the Father of all Lies has Blasphemously taught them. And as you have heard above Quoted from them. And which, thou George Whitehead, and all the Now Quakers, if they had but one Dram of the Spirit of Christianity in them, would Renounce and Detest, and with Zeal disown the Authors of such Doctrines of Devils, and not Palliate and Excuse them, as even thou, George, dost, and seekest to sodder their Leaky Infallibility; that thou may'st Inherit it. But if thou hast sown the wind, thou wilt Reap the Whirlwind. Hos. 8.7. And now I have told you in what Sense Christ's Body is called a Veil. Heb. 10. But what has this to do with the Sense in which the Quakers above Quoted do call it a Veil? They call It a Veil; that is, a Garment, in contradiction to Its being Christ's Substance, and of his Nature. But Heb. 10. It is called a Veil in Relation to its Type, the Veil of the Temple. And these are as quite different Considerations as can be, as far distant as East and West: And yet George Whitehead brings in the one to support the other; which is a gross Sophistication, and, if not the height of Ignorance, it is a Malicious Deceit. As is his Application of that other Text Phil. 2. where George Whitehead brings in the word Figure, which is not in the English Translation: But let him have it. He himself makes it Synonymous to Shape: Who being found in the Shape or Figure of a Man, etc. And now what Relation has this to the calling Christ Jesus a Type or Figure of their Light within? Which I have shown above out of the Quakers Books. A Type and a Shape, are things so distant as to have no Relation at all, or Likeness to one another. A Type is being the Forerunner, or Shadow, which points out something to come: But what has this to do with the shape of ones Body? And because the word Figure may be applied either to a Type or a Shape; therefore George Whitehead brings it where he confesses that it means a Shape, to justify the Quaker Blasphemy of calling him a Type of their Light within; I suppose G. Whitehead will not say that Christ Jesus is the Shape of their Light within; and that is the meaning he puts upon the word Figure in this Text; and therefore he can make no advantage of it to his Cause; he brought it in only as an Amusement. I could give several other Instances of the like Ingenuity and Craft in the Quaker Answers: But I intent not this for a thorough Examination of all their Errors; only to give the Reader a short view of their Principal and most Monstrous Heresies; and to provoke them (if possible) to a serious consideration of them. At least, I hope what has been said will be sufficient to keep others from going into their Snares; till they have clearly and fully given satisfaction to what is here objected against them. And let them either justify what is plainly Quoted out of their Books: or freely disown and condemn the Blasphemous Errors of G. Fox their first Apostle, and others of their Party. But if they will not do this latter, for spoiling of their Infallibility: Then let them stick to their Infallibility. If they will do neither, than we may truly judge them to be Self-condemned. And, in the next place, That they have more concern for their own Honour, than for the Honour of Christ, or Truth of the Gospel; who will refuse or scruple to condemn the most Monstrous Blasphemies, but seek rather to Cover, Palliate, and Excuse them. If they think that I have wronged them in this Character, let their Vindication appear, in a Clear, Plain, and Categorical Answer to what is said above. Let that be the Criterion to judge of their Sincerity. And so I leave them. And now I have one word to say to those Quakers of the Separate Congregations. These have thrown off the Pretence of Infallibility. Yet they will be Quakers still. They own Christ without; and Redemption through his Blood. Thus far they are returned to the Orthodox Faith. But they stick still to the Quaker Spirit in denying the Sacraments which Christ Ordained in his Church: and in the Schism which G. F. the first Infallible Quaker, made from the Church, and that upon the account of their own Infallibility. Now how can these, who have thrown off that Blasphemous Pretence to Infallibility, remain still in that Schism, which is grounded only upon that Infallibility? But farther, a False Pretence to Infallibility is not only an Error, but it is a high Blasphemy: and can proceed from none but the Spirit of Delusion. And therefore whatever comes from that Spirit, is justly to be suspected. Now it seems Incredibly strange, that those who have Detected the Fundamental Forgery, should yet stick to that same Spirit in other things! And those of no less consequence than the tearing Christ's Body in pieces, and breaking the Communion of Saints, by Schism; and throwing off those outward Ordinances which are of Christ's own Immediate Institution, and Commanded to be continued till his Coming again; and Appointed by him as Means of Grace, and therefore are the Grounds for our Hope of Glory. But I thank God, I have found in several of them a good Disposition towards receiving again the Sacraments of Baptism, and the Lord's Supper: They have learned to speak of them with Reverence; and wish they had never been disused; and are sensible that great hurt has thereby come to the Faith, especially among the Quakers, who for want of these outward and visible signs, have lost the Substance; and spirited away the Reality of Christ's Natural Body, and his Body suffering for us, together with those Holy Sacraments which he Instituted for the continual Commemoration thereof. But there is a time for all things: And these Beginnings will, I hope, grow into a Perfect Reconciliation of these misled People to the True Christianity; and the True Church of England, from which they have so unhappily and causelessly divided. It is this year, just Forty years since their first appearing in London. London is the Centre of all of them through the World: Whither Deputies come every year from the West-Indies, and all other their Colonies through the World. Such Intelligence, and Politic Institution is not where else to be found, but among the Jews and the Jesuits. And therefore I begin with them here in London, that if it please God, their Return may proceed by the same Steps, and in the same Road by which their Deceivers have led them: And I pray God that they may now at last find Rest, and arrive safely in Canaan, after their Forty years wandering through the Waste and Howling Wilderness, wherein were Fiery flying Serpents of Mortal Heresy and Error. Feb. the 28th 1694/5. FINIS.