The Snake in the Grass Further Discovered, Part 1 · Chapter 6
CHAP. VI.
The Quakers take men off from reading the Scripture, and looking into them for inſtruction and comfort.
IT is no matter of wonder at all, that they who are SECT. I ſo far entred in the denial and contempt of the Scripture, ſhould advance this ſtep further; it being but the natural off-ſpring of what I have already proved to be their Tenets. And whatever elſe is the round of their writings and declarings, all centres in putting people upon looking to the light within, as the only Counſellor and Comforter. And this is the Smith Ca…. p. 95.meaning of our Doctrine, to bring people to the everlaſting Word of God in themſelves. Whereby they ſteal away their eſteem and uſe of the Scriptures inſenſibly: and they are ſhut up and loſt in another Book [viz. The light within] before they are aware: whereas if they ſhould in ſo many words forbid them to read the Scriptures, it would make their hearts recoil. Alas, that men are ſuch Children, who ſuſpect not a deſign to rob them of their Gold; when a Counter, a trifle is commended to them, and impoſed upon them, that they may not think of, or mind that which is a Treaſure! By this means the Scriptures are forgotten, 'till the love and eſteem of them be loſt, by doting on the new and gay fancy of a divine and perfect light within. But to the proof, further.
But turn your ears inward to the meaſure of light in § 2 Morning Watch, Epiſt.you, which is without guile. So to that of God in thee—I will direct thee. Their Pamphlets are ſtuffed ſo full with expreſſions of this nature, that I ſhould but ſhew you their great road in citing their words: neither will any of them deny what they are brought to prove. But if they intended the judgment and conſcience enlightned, and that this ought to be minded in its place, we ſhould not condemn for ſuch directions: but when it is made a God of, and by conſequence an Idol; and thoſe beams of Divine light ſhining in the Scripture excluded, as if they had the body of the Sun within themſelves: it is the higheſt inſtance of folly, and proof of taking men off from reading the Scriptures for inſtruction and comfort.
Yet take their minds in expreſs words; And by the § 3 Parnel's Shield of she truth, p. 10.ſame light do we diſcern, and teſtifie againſt him to be in darkneſs and blindneſs, and is a deceiver, who putteth the letter for the light, and ſo draw peoples minds from the light within them, to the light without them: ſeeking the living among the dead. You may here diſcern the confidence they have in their light within, that they dare oppoſe it to the Scripture, yea and take its falſe witneſs which it bears againſt the Scripture: and with what a black coal he marks thoſe who put the letter [i. e. the Scriptures] for the light? and this he conſtrues to be a drawing peoples minds from the light within them, to the light without them: ſo that by his own way of reaſoning, I have authority to ſay, that putting the light within them for the Scripture the light without them, they draw peoples minds from the Scripture. But the cloſe of this ſentence is no leſs than a murtherer of the holy Scripture, (ſeeking the living among the dead) yea a ſtrangling the Scripture with one of its own ſilver Cords: Why ſeek ye the living among the dead! as if the ScriptureLuke 24. 5. were a very Grave and Charnel-houſe, from which the living Jeſus is for ever departed; or which is more congruous to their ſenſe, they are no more able to miniſter inſtruction and comfort, than a dead Carcaſe rotting in the Grave.
Hear one more of their Trumpets ſounding to the § 4 John Story ſhort diſcovery, &c. p. 2.ſame purpoſe: And although the holy Scripture without, and the Saints practiſes are as lights in the world, yet far be it from all true Chriſtian men ſo to idolize them, as to ſet them in eſteem above the light which is ſufficient to guide: or to eſteem them equal with the light and Spirit of Chriſt within. The Scriptures are as lights, but they will not right them ſo far as to call the Scripture a light: and the commendations of that Idol the light within are ſuch, as, if they were true, he were a ſtark fool who would direct his eyes to the Scripture, having ſuch an excelling light in his own boſom. But leſt after all theſe allurings they ſhould not be underſtood, and people ſhould be ſo ſilly as to attempt to light their Candle at the Scripture Taper, they will tell you in plain Engliſh the vanity of ſuch an undertaking. For he Smith Prim. p. 12.[Chriſt the light within] alone ſearches the hearts—and not the Scripture. So that to draw people from attending to the Scripture, they do not only commend the light within (being ſilent concerning the Scripture in the mean while) but tell you in plain words, the Scriptures are in this matter of no ſervice at all; as Parnel before cited, he is the light and guide, &c. the Scriptures are not.
They aſſert the light within to be ſufficient, yea all-ſufficient. SECT. II This where it takes hold of the credulity, will draw as hard from attending to the Scripture, as the ſtouteſt Team in England. Alas! it muſt then (if this be true) be but a piece of wantonneſs, and the itching diſeaſe to read the Scriptures, to which we muſt take a few ſteps, though they lye open in the next room; while we have enough in our own boſomes; yea, which we can be no farther from than from our ſelves; to the uſe of which we may paſs as quick as thought: 'tis but look inward, (not outward, nor upward) turn the ear inward, and the turn is ſerved. But that this Argument may be heard, John Story and ſome other ſuch Chapmen vouch for its truth. The light which is ſufficient to guide. Before cited. And if thou waiteſt in the meaſure of Smiths Prim. p. 10.the light of Chriſt [within] thou wilt be able to try all things.
Queſt. But if I ſhould turn to it and obey it when § 2 it reproves me for ſin, is there power in it to ſave me Smiths Prim. p. 14.from ſin? &c.
Anſw. Yes Child, all power in Heaven and Earth is in it.
Reader, canſt thou withſtand the aſtoniſhment wherewith a tender conſcience of the true God is wont to be ſurprized by ſuch an open mouth of blaſphemy? if thou canſt, I muſt conclude thou art acquainted with this ſort of people, and ſo cuſtom hath made it no ſurprize; or thou art above half dead and benummed with the Opium of Quakeriſm. Yet this is as agreeable to their main principle, as the ſame thing is to its ſelf.
I wonder we hear it not more frequently from § 3 them, that all power in Heaven and Earth is in every one of them; yea in each of them, yea in each drunken Sot, and the ſillieſt prophane perſon. This is as certainly their Tenet, as that God, Chriſt, Spirit are within them, and all other perſons, in the ſenſe they hold. But if they ſhould ſay that openly, which they believe and ſpeak among themſelves, they would be the moſt ridiculous (to ſay no worſe) people that breath above ground.
Thirdly, They affirm the Scriptures to be within. SECT. III If ſo, it is a great vanity to read them out of a Book. When I am perſwaded to be herein of their mind, I aſſure them, ſo long as that ſhall laſt, I will not be at the fruitleſs pains of looking into a Bible as my Monitor. Fiſher, the beſt Scholar that ever profeſſedVelataqu… dam revelata, p. 4. Quakeriſm, aſſerted this, Ye have Moſes and the Prophets within you. Not in Latine I dare be confident, neither had his Book (mentioned in the margin) been ſo beſprinkled with that Language of the Beaſt, for all his Inſpirations, if it had not been firſt knockt and whipt into him, it may be by ſome wicked tyrannical Pedagogue.
Yet here by the way obſerve, that ſuch a wicked § 2 thing may furniſh with the gift of Tongues, while the Quakers divine Spirit muſt be confined to ſpeak in plain Engliſh, or be dumb. Another of the ſame mind is Parnel, (of whom I muſt give this commendation, that he ſpeaks his opinions openly, and not in parables as the moſt of them; who are afraid or aſhamed that their opinions ſhould behold the light, any further than the intereſt they have obtained may ſecure their Authors, but of all men Hypocrites areParnel's Shield of the truth, p. 11. the moſt odious and dangerous) For the Scripture is within, and was read within before it was read without.
I would not wrong the Quakers as bad as they are, § 3 and it is pity they ſhould be wronged, who wrong themſelves more than enough. If they mean by the Scriptures the ſenſe by them expreſſed, I wiſh they ſaid true; and if within be in the heart, i. e. not only known and readily produced out of the heart, as a good man brings forth from thence good things, but alſo eſteemed loved with underſtanding; I am ſure they would be no Quakers. It is a bleſſed thing to have this Word hid in the heart as David practiſed, and as God commands: but if by the Scripture they mean the dead Letter, Ink, and Paper (as they call them▪ when they liſt) they would be but a bad and troubleſom Inmate.
I do acknowledge with all my ſoul, that to have § 4 the Scriptures within in the ſenſe of them, yea and the words too, is an ineſtimable bleſſing; ſuch a one as young Timothy, and eloquent Apollos were crowned with: and few of the Saints▪ there are who have not the Scripture within in ſome good meaſure; but alas! memory is ſo weak and frail it will not hold all: and ſo confuſed ever and anon, that it is neceſſary to go to the Scripture without not only to get in more, but alſo to repair decayed and broken notions of them, and to be ſure that our crazy imaginations by brooding upon the frame of them within, have not hatched ſomething of its own, and adopted it Scripture: which the Quakers are not a little guilty in.
But while I am commending the firſt part of their § 5 Tenet, viz. that the Scripture is within; ſuppoſing it taken in as good a ſenſe as it may be; I muſt not forget the latter part which hath the dregs and poiſon, viz. and was read within before it was read without. If by reading it within before without, they intended it only of the Penmen of the Scriptures, I would join with them, and ſay ſo too: but they intend nothing leſs; but, that in the light which every man hath within him, there is the Scripture all and every part, (at leaſt that may be of uſe) if it had never been without. I would willingly be reſolved of a few things by thoſe that are of this mind. Wherefore did the gracious God expoſe the Prophets and Apoſtles to ſo many difficulties, dangers, and deaths for declaring the matters contained in the Scriptures, if they were read, and might be read by all men within? Why did God with his own finger write the Ten words or Commands, and cauſe other of his Servants to write both them and the other parts of the Scripture? Why doth he command to read the Scriptures, and by reading and ſtudying them to get them into the heart, memory, underſtanding? And it ſhall be with Deut. 17. 19.him, and he ſhall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God; to keep all the words of this law, and theſe ſtatutes to do them. It was not to be with him as you commonly phraſe it [in him] their is no ſuch it in the Text, but the Relative it, hath for its Antecedent in the Verſe next before, he ſhall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Prieſts, the Levites: it ſhall be with him, &c.
Why did Chriſt himſelf read out of the Book if it were within them? Why did not God chide Joſiah for not doing according to the Law (as being guilty of wilful neglect) before he found it in the Book? why did God commend and reward his tenderneſs of heart in fearing, when the Law was read out of the Book, if he were ſo hard-hearted as not to hear the Law within? Why did Jeſus Chriſt never rebuke the Jews for not heeding the Scripture within, while he oft rebuked them for not heeding and believing the Scripture without? theſe are enough and to ſpare, to diſcover the vanity of this conceit. The truth is, the Scriptures were written (with reſpect to us) firſt without, then within.
I would gladly hear any of the Quakers make § 6 a report of any of the Goſpel truths contained in the Scriptures which you could aſſure me you never heard or read without: or that you could all agree without conferring together in a Narrative of thoſe Traditions which the Theſſalonians were taught by word, and of thoſe many other things which Jeſus2 Theſſ. 2. 15. did (or ſome of them) ſpoken of John. 21. 25. which were not written: this would be ſomewhat of conviction to us. But you are unworthy beyond all men of the holy Scriptures, who by ſuch means as theſe not only take off others from reading them for their inſtruction, but alſo deny the mediate and viſible inſtruments and means of thoſe notions you make ſuch a noiſe and jingling with in the ears of men, as if they were but home-born things.
They affirm that there is no light in the Scriptures. SECT. IV
That light is in the Scriptures, prove that, or tell Lip of truth opened, p. 7. Ephes. 5. 8.me what one Scripture hath light in it? If the Scriptures gives us a true deſcription of light, for whatſoever doth make manifeſt is light: this is not only an errour of the firſt magnitude, but alſo one of the greateſt diſcouragements imaginable of looking into the Scriptures for inſtruction and comfort: for if they manifeſt or ſignifie nothing to us it will be but loſt labour. I am apt to believe they may hold it for very Orthodox Doctrine, intending thereby that there is no light in the Scriptures more than they have or may have without them; and that the Scriptures can add no more to them than the boaſting Galatians who were falſe Brethren (though theyGal. 2. 6. ſeemed to be ſomewhat) added to Paul; or that there is no Scripture hath Chriſt the light in it, he being (in their opinion) no where but within as a light.
I ſhall only prove that the Scripture is a light, or § 2 hath light in it, and ſo diſmiſs this argument.
O ſend out thy light and thy truth: let them lead Pſal. 43. 3.me, let them bring me to thy holy hill. By which we are to underſtand the promiſes made to David. He knew the way to Gods holy hill, as well as moſt, but his Adverſaries had barred it up; and therefore he prays that God would preform his promiſes, which were not only the light of comfort to him, but a guide to his faith and hope, as they were truth and good: and ſuch light the Scriptures are repleniſhed with and adorned, as the Firmament with Stars and Conſtellations. But leſt they ſhould ſay this is but my meaning put to the Scriptures, take one Text that telleth its own meaning in ſoProv. 6. 23. many words: For the Commandment is a lamp, and the Law is light.
A fifth Argument may be raiſed out of thoſe dirty and diſparaging Titles and Characters which they give of the Scriptures. Of this you have enough before.