Little Flocks Guarded Against Grievous Wolves, Letter
QƲAKERISM DISPLAY'D, AND GEORGE KEITH DETECTED; IN A LETTER, Addressed unto those parts of New-England, which are most in danger of being thereby SEDUCED.
IT gives me no little Exercise, MY NEIGHBOURS, when I see Quakerism, that great Choakweed of the Christian and Protestant Religion, taking Root in the Borders of a Country famous for that Holy Religion; and unto you, doubtless it is not without prodigy, that altho this Country was planted more than Twenty Years before the first Quaker that ever we could hear of, appeared in the World, yet there should be some scores of Quakers in divers Corners of the Country. But we know, That where God has his Church, there will be something else! Let me give you the Reverend B…x…ers opinion of it, expressed in his own words, which are, Why is George Keith and his other Quakers from Bensylvania now assaulting the Churches in New-England? The Hunter knows, where is the best Game? And allow me that fault of Love, to do something that may help to spoil the Game of the Nimrod, who has Quakers among the Setters, by which Men are catched with him Upon a very exact and sincere Self-Examination, I cannot charge my self with any Malice or Hatred against the poor people that are Seduced into the strong Delusions of that Sect; I am utterly against vexing and creepling of them with punishments on their Estates or Bodies for their Consciences; I would not entertain An Admirer of the Light with worse usage, than an Ancient Jewish History tells us, the Patriarch Abraham was (tho hardly) convinced, That a worshipper of the Fire, coming into his House, was to meet withal; I look upon many of them as fair condition'd men, and persons of a Temper which we are to treat with Civility and Obligation; I think, we should labour to Overcome them with good, with Prayer for them, with pity to them; and for my own part, I must briefly say, Let that Quaker of them all, that has most Abus'd me and Revil'd me, make me to understand wherein I may do him any real kindness, and if I do it not, let this Letter be a witness against me. This I utter not as a vain brag of my victory over them that have spawned one Pamphlet after another, fill'd with impertinent Reproaches and Calumnies against The Colledge-Boy of New-England, as their Hawkers, they say, please to call me; but it is that I may discover the Equality of Spirit, with which I now address you.
Nevertheless I cannot account my self hereby Released, from any proper Endeavours to Antidote my Neighbours against the venemous and contagious Heresies of Quakerism. I remember that George Keith somewhere bids us Turn our minds to the Light within us, wherewith Christ has enlightned all men, and points at this as a way to be saved from mistakes. I do then solemnly declare, that I have seriously Turned unto that Light, and with the best of my light as yet, I can see many damnable Heresies in Quakerism; if I have (as the Quakers own all have) one spark of Light in me, Quakerism is but a profound and a deadly Pit of darkness. I look upon Quakerism, as a snare of the Devil, wherein many are taken alive by him at his will; and I were very uncharitable, if I should not labour to rescue my Friends out of such an undoing Snare; a meaner Creature than the meanest Owner of Reason, must have our Help against a Pit less Dangerous than that of Quakerism. Quakerism, it attempts nothing but the leaving our whole sacred glorious Religion in such a confusion, as that it shall no longer give any plain and clear conduct unto us, in our drawing near to God; and though it pretends unto Light yet it leaves the bewildred Souls of men, in Chains under darkness, unto the Judgment of the Great Day.
Our Blessed Religion is wonderfully suited unto our constitution, by laying before us both sensible and spiritual objects to converse withal; but Quakerism, under the pretence of advancing the Spiritual Objects of Religion, goes to annihilate all the Sensible; so that we must have no Bible, no Jesus, no Baptism, no Eucharist, no Ordinances, but what shall be so Evaporated into Mystical Notions, as to become unto the Children of Men, altogether unintelligible, or at least unprofitable. Indeed, there is hardly any one Fundamental Article of that Reformed Religion, whereby we look to be saved, that is not undermined by Quakerism, whatever professions it makes unto the contrary, when, An Angel of Light, is to be personated. What Religion shall we have, if the Scriptures, once come to be vile in our opinion of them? Now to withdraw men from the esteem and study of the Scriptures, ha's hitherto been the main Design of Quakerism. Are they not the express words, of the Quakers in their Systems of Divinity, Tis Blasphemy for any to say, the letter [by which they meant the Bible] is the word of God; it is the Devil that contends for the Scriptures to be the word of God. Do they not expresly tell us, It is the greatest error in the world, and the ground of all errors, to say, The Scriptures are a Rule to Christians? The Quakers in their Books expresly challenge us, Tell me one Scripture that hath light in it, And at the same time entitle their own books, Light risen out of Darkness. They expresly reproach men for, Doting on the Scriptures; and at the same time their own silly Scribles they call The Shields of the truth, and Things written from the spirit of the Lord, Hence as Mr. Cheiny tells us, in their Disputes, the Quakers openly have said, God has no where commanded us to walk according to the Scriptures. Thus when Mr. Cotton of Plymouth, with some others, had attested, that they heard George Keith affirm, The Scriptures are the word of God, this Keith Prints a letter to revile the witnesses, for, Not Dealing Fairly, nor as becomes true witnesses. Now let any reasonable man, find any reason of their thus treating the Holy Scriptures; what can this caution signify? if they would not have us think, that we pay too much Respect unto those Oracles of God. A Crime which I assure you, few among us are guilty of! Though we are not so far gone in Blasphemous Wickedness, as to speak of the Scriptures in James Nailors Terms God is at liberty (sais he) to speak to his people by them if he please; & where they are given by inspiration he doth so, & so he is at liberty to speak by any other created thing: as to Balaam by his ass. Thus dos that Father of Quakers bray out his contempt of our precious Bible. I say we cannot vomit out such Blasphemies, and yet we think that wonderful Book, our Bible; has not a due estimation with us.
It would be more tedious indeed, than useful for me to Transcribe the many other horrible passages, which continually fall from the Pens of the greatest Rabbi's among the Quakers, and such as have most pretended unto Inspiration among them; but you shall find the Books of their most admired Apostles fill'd (if I may speak the Truth) with most admirable Blasphemies. They begin to speak somewhat warily in their later Catechisms; but what censure have they hitherto passed upon one of their Authors, who twits us in the Teeth, with, Our imagined God beyond the Stars; or, one of their Authors, who tells us, Your carnal Christ is utterly denied by the Light?
When did they deal with Whitehead for calling it a LYE, To say, the Scripture is the means by which Faith is wrought? or for saying in a Book signed by him and three other Quakets, pretending to answer, a worthy Minister, Thou blind Beast, thou that sayest that the Scriptures reveal God, Thou art a Lyar? What Animad version have they used upon the most witty & Learned Gentleman that ever had the unhappiness of being among them, for saying, (as Mr. Thompson cites him) Ʋnless Father, Son, and Spirit, are three distinct Nothings, they must be three distinct Substances, and consequently three distinct Gods? Have they testify'd against the same Ingenious, tho Heretical Writer, for saying, Justification by that Righteonsness, which Christ fulfilled in his own Person without us, is a Doctrine of Devils? or have they chastised their Farnworth, for saying, What Righteonsness Christ performed without me, was not my Justification, neither was I saved by it? What Retractation have they advised unto their Fox, when he had written, He is deceived, who saith God is Distinct from the Saints? Have they thought Mr. Pen worthy to be mended, for saying, Either the Resurrection of the Body, must be without the matter, or it must not; if it must, then it is not that same Numerical Body, and so their proper and strict taking of the word, Resurrection, they must let go; if it must not; then I affirm it cannot be Incorruptible; for in such a manner does he oppose the Doctrine of the Resurrection? Has Mr. Hieks falsify'd, when he quotes Whitehead uttering such a Black Speech as this, They are like to be deceived, who are expecting that Christ's Second Coming will be personal? In fine, hath their Primer yet been corrected, wherein we read, False Teachers preach Christ without, and bid people believe in him, as He is in Heaven above; we are told, Those things called Ordinances, as Baptism, and Bread and Wine, rose from the Popes Invention. We are told. As for that called, The Lords-day, people do not understand what they say, every day is the Lords Day. Does not their Catechism (which came out of William Smith's Forge, in the year 1665) also deride men, for saying in their Prayers, They are miserable Sinners, and they do those things they ought not to do? Is not this the Reflection there made upon it. And if so, then not Believers; for they that believe in Christ, are not miserable sinners, neither do those things they ought not to do. In that which they call, The Lords Prayer, they generally say, Our Father; Now the Children of God are not miserable Sinners; nor do not those things they ought not to do? And as to Prayer, is not this the Conclusion there made of all, All must ceafe from their own words, and from their own time, and learn to be silent, until the Spirit gives them utterance? The sense of which, if you would know, you must fetch it from the horribly prayerless Lives of the Quakers. How many prayerless Houses, and prayerless Tables, are to be found among the best of them▪ Some of them have confess'd, That they never pray without an inward motion from the Spirit; and that in many years, they have not had a motion to prayer. See J. C's Call to prayer, page 97. Thus do these Blasphemers, charge their own pride, and sl…, and wickedness, upon the Eternal Spirit of God!
I say, until the Quakers do disown and reprove such Expressions as these, they must pardon us, if we look upon these Expressions to be but the Explications of what they mean, when they speak with more subtilty in their Confessions which they make, when they are charged with being No Christians; and indeed their Confessions are mostly so worded as to admit of these Explications. If the Quakers do sincerely intend as my Charity obliges me to think and hope, that many of the Seduced may honestly intend, no more than they declare in some of their later Catechisms, it is a prognostic whereat I would rejoyce exceedingly; it is a marvellous Alteration; yea, it threatens no less than an Approaching Extirpation of the Heresies, whereby that Sect formerly Denied the Lord that bought us. I find the Sect very wonderfully changed, in several of their Circumstances; and particularly, in that grand one from whence the Name of Quakers was first put upon them. Heretofore, at almost every Meeting, you might have seen some of them, taken with a strange Quaking, which look'd so like a Diabolical Possession, as that it well nigh produced another sort of Quaking, by the horror it gave to the Beholders of it; and Fisher in his Rusticus ad Academicos which is in English, The Clown speaking to the Scholar, calls Dr. Owen, a Blind Guide and a Bruit Beast, [a Language, befitting a Clown] for some words of his against (as the man styles it) The Holy Duty of Quaking. But this is now grown, I suppose, a rarer thing among them; and the words of their Patric Livingston upon it are, Because the mighty motions of the Bodies of Friends are ceased and Friends are still, cool, and quiet, they think that the same power is not in Meetings; but oh ye Foolish Ones,—Were not all the shakings and quakings of Friends Bodies, to purge out sin? they were but for a little time, and so were quickly gone again; and the voice of the Lord was not distinctly discerned there. The stilness being come, that's a durable thing; and here the mind is brought into a capacity to discern the voice of the Lord. One would inferr from this; either that those who are of late years Converted unto Quakerism, have no Sin to purge out; or else that after their Quakerism they continue with their sins unpurged all their Days. But however, 'tis here granted, That about thirty years ago, The Quakers did not distinctly discern the voice of the Lord; so that I am not altogether in Despair, that they may now better discern it, and by degrees return to him that is the Shepherd and Bishop of Souls, by leaving all their Errors, as well as the Tremblings which first accompany'd them. Nevertheless, no Spectacles I have yet met withal, can dispose my Charity to do any other than suspect the Integrity of the more busy Teachers among the Quakers, when they seem to acknowledge the principal Articles of our Christian Religion; there is cause to think, that they Kiss that Religion of ours only to Betray it; it is doubtless in this thing that they practise what they sometimes prosess, To become all things unto all men, that they might win the more; nor do I make my self a Judge of Hearts, if I give you that warning about them, When they speak sair, believe them not, for there are seven Abominations in their Hearts. The cause of my suspicion is plainly this; If they believe just as they speak in some of their Confessions, about Religion, pray why do they oppose and reproach us, for speaking of those very things? For instance, The Quakers will verbally say, that they own the man Christ Jesus, who suffered for our sins, and in the entire and perfect Nature of man is gone into Heaven, and shall in like manner come again. But if they really think so, why do they fling out whole Pamphlets against godly men meerly for speaking that very thing? I pray tell me, Does not George Fox in a Folio Book vehemently Revile and pretend to Refel, one Antagonist for saying, The Lord Jesus Christ is afar off in his Bodily presence? and another, for saying, Christ is with out the Saints, in respect of his Bodily presence? and a third, for saying Christ is distinct from every one of us? And a fourth, for saying, There is not any Heaven, within, into which the man Christ is Ascended, or can any man contain a man four foot long. What occasion can the Quakers have to Write, Rail, and Shoot Porcupine's Quills, in voluminous Harangues, against them that have so expressed themselves, if they deny not the Things contain'd in the Expressions that are thus unexceptionable? or, what should ail their Humphry Norton to say in Print, You look for a Christ without you; what Country man is He? You stand gazing up in the Clouds after a man; but we stand by in white, Chiding of you? The other principles of the Protestant Religion, are in like manner treated by these Gaynsayers; when they seem to own those principles, 'tis protestatio contra Factum, they give themselves the Ly: If they own those principles, why won't they give us leave to own them? Why must we for Holding and Preaching of those principles, be worried by these people under the most christian, loving, handsome Names, of Idol Shepherds, Priests, Dogs, Vipers, Dragons, Serpents, Reprobates, Children of Darkness, Lyars, Blasphemers, Devils, Impostors, Sorcerers, polluted and accursed Beasts? And yet these are the best Names for that very cause put upon us, in the Writings of those whom the Quakers do celebrate as, Men of God.
Suppose that Mather the Younger, should say He witnessed the Light which is in every man to be Christ the Saviour of the world, and yet suppose he should publish whole Books, to Reproach every man as a Blasphemous Beast, for using such terms; would not the Quakers call him worse then ever they have called him hitherto, tho they have call'd him bad enough? would they not count him a lying Hypocrite in his protestation for the Light? Either the Leaders of the Quakers design by fair Speeches in their Catechisms to decoy their Proselytes into such horrible opinions as I have laid before you; or else they are Stark Mad, when they spit such foul speeches at us, for maintaining the Things that are seemingly allow'd in those Catechisms; and if so, it was then most fitly propounded by a wise and good Magistrate in Plymouth Colony, That a Law might be made for the Quakers to have their Heads shaved; The punishment, I confess is Capital. But as it is the worst Punishment that ever that Colony will inflict on them, so 'tis the best Remedy, for ought I know, that we can provide for them; unless, The Oyl for Lunatscks, lately invented might be more efficacious.
Among the modern Leaders of the missed Quakers, you must give me leave to set a special remark, upon one George Keith, who rather then leave the Churches of God unmolested, has … express terms contradicted the Tremblers tha… have writt before him; and yet on the other side lest he should be a pure Keithian, alone by himself, he puts in, My Doctrine is one with theirs. By the Respect which Keith finds among his friends, One may see what an unsetled and uncertain Thing it is to be among them. Heretofore, they made Lamentable outcries, against that which they call, Outward Learning; and the way to be applauded with them, was to have the qualifications of the Liquatri Illiterati, at No…ci…, a Town scarce ten Leagues from Rome; where they do at this Day choose their own Magistrates, but use an exact care, That no man who is able to write, or to Read, shall be capable of any share in the Government. Whereas, That which now renders Keith to be A great one, among his Friends, is, That he ha's a little Outward learning, that is the outside, or Bark and shell of a Scholar with him: tho he be most horribly venemous, yet he has a pearl in his head, and they make him their head upon that account. It is a passage which Mr. Tompson cites, from their paper sent forth into the world, pag. 3. The word, which is the Original, was before Tongues were and your Original, which will break all your Tongues and Original to pieces. Pilate had your Original, of Hebrew, Greek and Latin, [where, by the way, their light fail'd 'em; for, when did we make the Latin our Original?] who crucified Christ. He that drawes back into many languages, as into Hebrew and Greek, drawes back into the Naturals and so drawes into confusion. But the Ministers of God, who preach the Everlasting Gospel, draw up into one Language; and so the Priests, and all that Trade into Natural Languages we utterly deny.
Alas, what will then become of our poor Friend George? He has in his Writings, tho less Truth, yet more Hebrew and Greek, than ever Pilate had upon the Cross; he is upon all occasions drawing back into many Languages; and indeed he draws into confusion too. 'Tis his drawing back thus into the Naturals that procures him the Admiration of a Drove that are little more than meer Naturals; they Deny him no…, but rather Adore him, because tho he be a compound of as great Inconsistences as Iron and Clay, yet he has (I will not say, a Golden, but) a Guilded Head. This Keith it is, who has given the greatest advantages to Quakerism, & that with no little Alterations. Of his, we are newly Entertained with a wily Catcehism, wherein Quakerism is so disguised, as that one would almost suspect him a Real Protestant; nevertheless, the juice of Toads, were as wholsome a potion as that Catechism. You cannot swallow it, unless, you also come to Believe, That the inward excusing or condemning principle, which all men are born withal, is the man Christ Jesus. Upon whieh, the Ingenious Mr. Lodowick, a Gentleman of Rhode-Island lately Recovered out of Quakerism, in a Challenge to the Quakers, tells them, If this your foundation stand sure, it would follow, That all honest Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans, are in Christ as well as you; and true Christians, Believers, Disciples, and Followers of Christ (at least, as to the Mystery) and so your Brethren in Christ. There are moreover, some other Errors, plainly enough expressed in that Catechism, to make us all avoid them. E. G.
That some who are left without either the Help of the Holy Scriptures, or Holy Men. do yet so rightly improve the inward Help of Christ's Light and Teaching in their Hearts, as to be Accepted with God; altogether contrary to Rom. 1. 21, 22. where we see what became of the Heathon, for want of the Gospel. And, That some who are under the first Covenant, and have not had Christ outwardly preached unto them, yet cannot perish; directly contrary to Rom. 10. 14. where we find no Salvation is to be had without Believing, and no Believing without Hearing and Preaching. And, That the principle of the New Covenant is in all men; contrary to Eph. 2. 12. where we see many Strargers to the Covenant of promise. And, That the having of more Wives than One, was not for bidden to Jews or Gentiles under the First Covenant. Contrary to Mat. 19. 45, 48. which points to a Law from the beginning against that Iniquity. And. That when one feels not a present Help to pray in words, he is to wait in silence. Contrary 10 Acts 8. 22. where a man that was without the Spirit of God was bidden to pray. And, That Faith is not the only Instrument whereby Christ is Received for Justification. Contrary to Rom. 3. 28. A man is justify'd by Faith without the Deeds of the Law; and Rom. 11. 6. If it be of works, then it is no more Grace. And, That none become Reprobate, until they are finished in wickedness, and have no true Humanity remaining in them. Contrary to Rom. 9. 11, 12. where 'tis affirmed of those not yet born. And, That Christ's Baptism is not with Water. Contrary to Asts 8. 38. And, That the Lords Supper is to be Administred withou outward Eating. Contrary to 1 Cor. 11. 26. But let all unwary Readers know, that the principles of this Catechism, are but the Shooing-horns of more Quakerism; if you swallow so much of the more specious and guilded Quakerism, you will soon find your selves entangled at such a rate, that you must wax worse and worse, and become as bad as all the other Heresies of a Keith can render you. For notwithstanding the Orthodoxy which in some other points George Keith has blended in his Catechism with such False Doctrines as these now recited; and although he, like other Quakers, in their Books, has a way of discoursing more ambiguously than ever any Daemon of Delphos did, and usually imitates the Cuttle-fish by so darkning his Context with his Ink, that one can hardly find him without some evasion; yet I have one sure way to catch him. He directed (and since published) a Letter unto the Ministers of Boston, which begins with saying, I being well assured, both by the Spirit of God in my Heart, and the Testimony of the Holy Scripture, that the Doctrine ye preach to the people is false, and concludes with divers Articles of this Doctrine, which he particularly charges as False Doctrine, besides many others (as he says) that I could mention. Well then, from what George Keith here counts False, we more easily than from his crafty expressions in other places, may gather what he counts True; and I now promise you the fairest and finest System, we have yet had of a Quakers Divinity. He tells us, we hold False Doctrine, when we say, That God hath committed his Counsel wholly to Writing; by which he knows, we mean, That God has not obliged us to believe or practise any thing in order to our Salvation, which the Scriptures do not either directly or by just consequence Reveal unto us. So then, the Quaker holds. That there is part of Gods Counsel, (that is, that we are to think or do something in order to our own Salvation) which we cannot learn from the Holy Scriptures. He tells us, we hold False-Doctrine, when we say, That God hath foreordained whatever cometh to pass; although he knows we affirm, That God has not by his Eternal Decree either taken away the liberty of the Creature, or become the Author of sin in the Creature. So then the Quaker holds, That there are some things come to pass which God has not foreordained; and so the Blessed God either do's not Fore-Know every thing, or else He do's Fore-Know something which He do's not Decree: and it must be said, that He knows things because they will be, and not that things will be because he appoints them; and His Knowledge must be Fallible and Uncertain; and the Glorious First-Being is made Subordinate to, & Determined by second causes. He tells us we hold False-Doctrine when we say That God hath not afforded or provided sussiciency of Grace, and means of salvation to all mankind whereby they may be saved; albeit we also say, That all mankind are Salvable. So then the Quaker holds, that the Indians and Negroes, and the Pagans beyond China, have Sufficiency of Grace and means of Salvation. He therefore holds according to what Keith adds upon it, That the Light that is in every man, is sufficient to enable him to do any work acceptable to God. He must hold that there is not in the darkest corner of the Indies, a man that is Ʋnto every Good work reprobate. He tells us we hold False-Doctrine, when we say, That Christ hath not Dyed for all men; although we therein speak only concerning The Secret purpose of God and Christ; and we grant, That the satisfaction of our Lord is both sufficient for all men, and offered to all men; and that a day of patience for all men is thereby procured. So then the Quaker holds, That, Christ has Dyed for all men; And that the vertue and success of our Lords Death depends wholly upon something to be done by men themselves, which God is not the doer of: That the Death of Christ never bought that Grace and Faith and Repentance for us by which the Elect are qualified to enjoy the vertue and success of it; and that Peter was no more beholden to the Merit of the Lord Jesus for his Salvation, than Judas was for his. He tells us, we hold False-Doctrine when we say That Justification is only by Christs Righteousness without us, imputed unto us, and Received by Faith alone, and not by any Righteousness of God or Christ infused into us, or wrought in us. Albeit, he cannot be ignorant, that we think Justification is always attended with Evangelical Obedience. Hence then the Quaker holds, that Justification and Sanctification are the same thing [which is rank Popery; and ye Keith charges us with Antichristianism, for holding of the contrary: so by the way, I see Keith is one of those who look not for Antichristianism in Popery;] and that (as K…i…hs own words are,) The Graces of Sanctification are the Instruments of obtaining Justificationfrom Christ; and so that men exercise all those Graces, before they can be Justify'd; and (as Keith also elsewhere expresses it) He who is imperfectly Sanctify'd, cannot, while such, be perfectly Justify'd; and so it seems there is not one Justify'd man alive in the world. He tells us we hold False-doctrine, when we say, That beginnings of true Sanctification cannot be totally fallen from; although we do also say, That every sin is Mortal; That Saints falling into grosser scandals, do becloud the Evidences of their Saintship; That yet Saints cannot fall so far, but God will Recover them before they dy, and make them sincerely penitent. It follows then, the Quaker holds, That a truely sanctify'd man may totally fall away, and a child of God become a child of the Devil. When shall we have done? He tells us, we hold False Doctrine because we say, No man in this life, by any grace of God given him, or to be given him, can perfectly keep the Commandments of God, but doth daily break Them in Thought, Word, and Deed; though we do not say, That the good works of Gods Holy Spirit are Defiled, but we say, our Duties as far as they are our own, will in this life alwayes have Imperfection cleaving to them, which God pardons, therewithal accepting what sincerity is in them for the sake of Christ Jesus. The Quaker then must hold, That men in this life can perfectly keep the commandments of God; and that a man may say, He has no sin, without being a Lyar for saying so.
Once more, He saies, we hold False-Doctrine, because we say, No men ever since the Apostles Days are assisted, by any Infallible Spirit, to Preach, Pray, and Write; and that to Speak and Pray by the Holy Ghost, as the Prophets and Holy men witnessed of old, are ceased. In which Assertion, we are far from limiting the Holy O…e of Is…ael, who may still do things extraordin…ry and miraculous: but our intent is That we have no Warrant now to look for such Extatical Inspirations and Insallible Assistences as the Ancient prophets had. And yet we own special Illuminations of the Holy Spirit which the Souls of all true Believers do and must experience; and we declare that without special Assistances of the Holy Spirit, we can do no Duty as it should be done. We do not think (as Keith did a a minute or two ago) that we bring into the world with us a principle that is sufficient to enable us to do any work acceptable unto God. Now the Quaker must then hold, That men in our Days have the same Inspirations and Assistances, that were given to the Apostles of old; and may preach, pray, write, with as much Infallibility as they.
There are several other things, which Keith charges us with False-Doctrine for holding of; and what sense can there be in his charges? what is he but stark out of his wits, if he do not hold the contrary for true Doctrine himself? Supposing then that Keith has truly represented the Doctrine of the Quakers, as indeed he has laid before us but the most Easy Tenets of it; You then see Quakerism in a true light; and I have taken the more pains, because that so to Behold it, is a much more difficult thing, than to Refute it. My Neighbours, you see what Quakerism is, the very best of Quakerism, or else you are never like to see what it is at all. Say, whether we are like to have any Religion, that may be call'd Protestant or Christian, if once this Doctrine be received! I am confident there need no more to render Quakerism loathsome to all sensible men then the bare dissection of it, yet that I may further prevent your Drinking the death in the pot, about the Ingredients whereof I have thus advis'd you, it is necessary that I first give you the Characters of the Man, who is thus inviting you to swallow it. If I now set before you the Marks of him that is labouring to snatch many poor Lambs out of our Flocks, with such a vigilance and violence, as has awakened me to give you notice of him, it is not out of any particular spite at his person, but meerly because his Person (under the Disguise of Sheeps-cloathing) is that by the Fame and Noise whereof, his Doctrine comes to be the more favourably look▪d upon. 'Tis because he is cry'd up for a Rare Man, that his Word begins to go so far among many unthinking people; and therefore, if I can Demonstrate, That George Keith is not the Man which he is taken to be, but a most absurd and wicked Seducer, and one from whom all good men should with Detestation Turn away: I shall do more to obviate the spreading of a perilous Cancer among you, than by answering all the Arguments of the Quakers, which are just No…e at all. I find that when the Bl…ssed Apostle Paul would stop the progress of an Error, which the Quakers in our Days are infected with, he offers a pourtraiture of the persons that were the principal Spreaders and Patrons of that Malignant Error. Give me leave then to tell you, What a person 'tis, that some have in admiration so as to be in hazard of becoming Quakers for him; and I shall deal so moderately in it, as to avoid all Reports and Hear says, and confine my self to the Idaeas of him which his own Books, and but two or three of Them neither, have given us. I say then,
That GEORGE KEITH is a Person, from whom, they that have any Love and Care for their own Souls, are to Turn away.
And I thus prove it.