The Snake in the Grass Further Discovered, Part 2 · Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX.
The Quakers profeſs not the Doctrine of a future reward in another World.
I Have been a diligent Enquirer, to find ſome expreſſions SECT. 1 in their Writings or Verbal Converſe, that might ſatisfie me they owned a future happineſs or miſery after this life, but all to no purpoſe; in this point they make no noiſe at all. I have ſearched thoſe Writings of theirs eſpecially, which have pretended an account of their Principles, in all or moſt points of Religion; but though this of a future ſtate of reward or puniſhment be the vitals and end of all Religion, yet they do not ſo much as touch upon it. From whence I muſt conclude, it is blotted out of their Creed. 'Tis ſaid of the Goſpel, which is the Chriſtian Diſpenſation, that it brings life and immortality to light; what was in the Scriptures of the old Teſtament more ſeldom and obſcurely expreſſed, is the very ſcope of the Goſpel or New Teſtament, the peculiar of Chriſtianity: But then certainly Quakeriſm is no Chriſtianity, that is ſo ſilent in this matter. I know they talk of immortality, and eternal life; but what is immortality with them? Fox ſaith, man is immortal before death in his Great Myſtery, and their Salvation is no more but what they have within them, and is accompliſhed in this world. Farnſworth ſaith (ſpeaking of the righteouſneſs of Chriſt) neither was I ſaved by it: So that his Salvation was not future, but preſent or paſt. And Pennington in ſome Principles of the Elect, &c. ſaith, and ſo they who forget God, and do wickedly, they are to be turned into Hell. But what Hell is this? no more than what they ſay is in this life, For they who forget God, and do wickedly, they go from the life and power of God into the ſeparation from him, and out of his acceptance; For in the life is the acceptance: What is here more than is ſuffered in this life, which we call paena damni, or the puniſhment of loſs?
A Book intituled, The Spirit of the Quakers, &c. § 1 charges the Quakers for having their hearts much ſet on a Heaven within them, but not on the things above; to which Pen replies, and vindicates after his faſhion the Kingdom of God within, but ſaith not a word to aſſert their belief of, and affections to the Heaven above; from whence it is plain, that they believe no ſuch thing to have a being. I wonder not therefore, that this is ſo fr…quently their ſaying, That if we are not perfect here, we ſhall never be perfect.
It is eaſily deduceable from their more openly profeſſed § 2 principles, that they deny and diſown a bleſſedneſs or miſery in another world: For if they deny the body to have life any more after it is dead, and turned to duſt, and that the Soul and Spirit are of the being of God; and that as the body returns to its former duſt from whence it came, and never revives again, ſo the Soul and Spirit returns into God its firſt being, (all which I have already proved) what then remains to be the ſubject of happineſs or miſery? E'ne nothing at all, except God, and he is not man. E. Burroughs, the day he died, expreſſed himſelf thus, that he was now putting off this manner of perſon, and returning to his own Being, or words of the ſame import, which I have quoted on the Chapter of their Idolatry. When I have asked ſome of them, what ſhould become of their ſouls after death? Their anſwer hath been, they ſhall be taken into God. Let them profeſs that they believe a happineſs to be enjoyed by men and women, after their bodies are rotted to duſt, diſtinct from the Being of God, or that which they had not a thouſand years before they were born, (i. ….) to be in God, from whom (as of his Being) they ſay the ſoul came, and it will be news to me, and all that are acquainted with them. In the mean time I have given you Reaſons enough to conclude, they believe no future bleſſedneſs or miſery in ano…her world.
I ſhall now reſume the Queſtion, and gather up all the proofs of what I have affirmed, into an entire body.
If Quakeriſm be another Diſpenſation than that of Chriſt ſetled and preached by the Apoſtles; If it deny the Scripture; If it deny all the Ordinances of the Goſpel; If it deny any influence of Chriſts tranſactions in Judea, above 1600 years ſince, into our Juſtification and Salvation, If it deny Jeſus the Son of Mary, the Chriſt of God; If it own falſe Gods, and be Idolatry; If it profeſſedly owns the worſhipping of falſe Gods; If it deny the Reſurrection of the Dead; If it affect not a future bleſſedneſs or miſery in another world, to men and women, according to their deeds in this: Then Quakeriſm is no Chriſtianity: But all theſe things are true, and have been proved of Quakeriſm: Therefore Quakeriſm is no Chriſtianity.