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George Fox, or any of his followers, did never command any one Chapter of the Holy Scriptures to be read in any of their meetings, nor hath any fuch thing, from their first starting up, to this day, been practis'd among them; yet have they been peremptory in commanding the reading of their own printed Epiftles, and in them have Aflumed that very title, and appropriated it thereunto, which they have blafphemously denyed to the Holy Scriptures. "I charge you in the prefence of the "Lord (faith George Fox) to fend this among all "Friends and Brethren every where to be read in "all meetings. To them all, This is the load of God. George Fox's Letter to all Friends, p. 60. and 62. And again faith he (Speaking of his own Writings) To you all this is the Word of the Loza. Great Myft. p. 225, This Impudent Impostor feverely Checks Mr. Wade for fo calling the Holy Scriptures. Saying They (i. e. the Scriptures) are not the Word of God as thou (i. e. Christopher Wade) Blafpemoufly affirmedft, &c. They are not; but his are. If this. s not most egregious and Impu dent Blapemy, I befeech you what is? And if this may be fuffer'd, why may not the like be fuffer'd of the Alcheran?

Well, but to give the Quakers their due, they were not the first Inventors of this bold Impiety. They have but pratled as their Popish Fathers taught them.

About the Year 1256. the Franciscan Friars published a Book called Evangelium Eternum. Wherein they declared that the Gopel of Christ was not the Everlasting Gospel (which was by confequence to fay it was not the Word of God for that abideth for Ever, or is everlasting, 1 Pet. 1.23.) but that Christs Gospel was to cease, and determine, as the law did at the comming of our Saviour: but theirs was the eternal Gopel. See Matt. Paris Hift. in Ann. 1256.

Well

Well done, honeft Friars, we fee here to whom it is the Quakers owe their Blasphemies both in debafing the Holy Scriptures, and Exakting their own Substituted Vanities.

Sect. II. The Quakers load the Holy Scriptures with odious and blafphemous Appellations.

Befides what hath been faid already, the most convincing proof of their Undervaluing the Holy Scriptures, may be taken from the odious Epethices with which they daily load them.

They all in general call it the Letter only, in open contempt of the great Myfteries therein contained. George Fox, and his Difciple Farnham, nay all the rest of them to a man, would not for a long time afford them a better title.

One of them faith that all that which we call the Scripture is an Idol. See The new Law of Righ teonfness, p. 97. Chandler calls them dead Words. And that worthy Theorie John in his Book of Ten Epiftles, p. 72. Being charged that he had faid that, the New Testament was a Lye, in his Anfwer thereunto, faith, "That in Truth of Speech it is a Lye. Altho' (faith he) you say it is the Holy Gospel of Chrift, and the Holy Word of God. Thereby ridiculing all fuch as call it holy,

John Tamey faith, "It is a name of dead Letters "fet together, and interwoven with Mans inventions. And indeed at the first the very prime and choiceft of their Sect never mention'd them with any Titles of refpect: but on the contrary, call them dust, death, Serpents-meat, as hath been abundant ly proved out of their own printed Writings.

The good God (if it be his good pleasure) open thefe Mens eyes, that they may at laft fee and bewail this their ftupendous madness. F4

By

By what you have now feen, you may perceive what Stuff thefe Men in their printed Books and Difcourfes offer to the People. We will now fhew out of whofe Shops they have procured them.

Albertus Pighius (the Quaker Cardinal) calleth the Holy Scriptures, Dumb Judges which cannot Speak, Pigh. Contr. 3. de Ecclef. and

Lind calls them dead Characters, a killing Letter and a Shop of Herefies, Lind. lib. 2, Strom. c. 2. &6. And as if all this were too little, Cardinal Bellarmine faith farther, "that the People will not "only reap no benefit, but receive certain Detriment

by reading them, Bell. de Verbo Dei, lib. 2. c. 15. Here the Man doth not fhew his teeth only, but biteth too, and that Angrily, and to purpose. And yet farther,

Lindan faith, "The Scripture is a Nofe of wax, a "dead and killing Letter, without Life, a meer fhell "without a kernel, a leaden rule, a wood of thieves, a "Shop of Herefies, &c. Lind. Panopl. lib. 1. c. 22. & c. 6. lib. 5. c. 4. Here you fee the Quakers careboufe. And becaufe Costerus the Jefuite will not lag much behind his fellows. He tells us in plain terms "That it was never the Mind of Christ either to com mit his Myfteries to parchment, or that his Church "Should depend upon paper writings.

I heartily defire the Candid Reader to compare thefe Writings of the Papists, and Quakers together; and to be Impartial in his Judgment on them. And to obferve, that tho' their ends feem to be divers, the one to lead us to their light with in, and the other to their Traditions, yet in this they both agree, totis Viribus, to bring us off from the Holy Scriptures: And for thofe ends, exert the like spleen, and rancour against them. And indeed face never Anfwer'd face more exactly in a glass, than thefe do one another. Their Argu

ments

ments are the fame, and their opprobrious Language a gainst thefe Divine Oracles exactly Parallel,nay exactly Identical.

O! the patience of the Almighty God to bear, and of Men (that pretend to be Children of God and of his House and Family) to hear and read fuch Deteftable, Execrable, and Abominable Blasphemy.

Give me leave therefore (before I part with thefe two Sections) to Vindicate these Holy Ora cles against the malitious cavils of both these their Adverfaries. The Holy Scriptures then are to be confider'd both as to their Original, which is Divine, and as to their ends, which are admirable.

Firft as to their Driginal, it is from God only, they are not the fpurious iffue of Vain Men, the product of their fhatter'd and disjointed thoughts, and of their weak and dull conceptions. They have no less than the infinitely wife God for their Author and Men for their publishers only. They are all of Divine Inspiration of the Holy Ghost, 2 Tim. 3. 16. In which, are comprehended the great things of the Law, and the gracious glorious things of the Gofpel. Even all Scripture is of Divine Infpiration, faith St. Paul, and faith St. Peter, The Prophecies came not in old time (or as it is in the Marg. of our Bibles, at any time) by the will of Man, but Holy Men of God Jpake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 2 Pet. 1. 21.

T

Secondly as to the ends for which they were written, they were not mean and trifling: not low and contemptible: but of highest concern, for Caufes moft Sublime and Eminent. I will point here at two only, because others alfo will occafionally fall in hereafter, as I treat farther on this subject.

First they were written for our learning, to beget in us the Knowledge of the Truth. We were

not

not left to our own Conceits or Imaginations, to frame unto our felves Notions in Divinity, ac-. cording to our own fancies and conceptions, every Man to be guided by his own blind Dictates, or by his own light, which is often darkness. For the natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can be know them, because they are fpiritually difcerned, 1 Cor. 2. 14. Nor were we left to Supernatural Revelations, wherein many Men may mistake, and be deceived For tho' a Voice came from Heaven, Whereby the Almighty God declared our Saviour to be his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased: And tho' the Difciples themselves heard this Voice, and that it was also heard twice, firft at his Baptifm, Mat. 3. 17. And then again at his Transfiguration, Mat. 17.5. Yet faith St. Peter, We have also a moze fure Word of Prophefie; whereunto you do well that ye take beed, as unto a light that fhineth in a dark place, 2 Pet. 1. 19. Even Revelations themselves must be tried by the Scriptures. For tho' a Voice from Heaven is a great Teftimony, yet because we may fail, and be deceived thereby, therefore the Scripture was given us for our Touchstone, and for our Guide, as a furer Word of Prophefie. For whatfoever things were written aforetime, they were written for our learning, that we thro' patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope, Rom. 15.4.

Secondly, the Scriptures were written to beget faith in Chrift: and thereby, eternal Life. For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, Rom. 10. 17. Now how neceflary a grace faith is, appears from hence, that without this, no Man can pleafe God, for it is utterly impoffible, Hebr. 11.6. Therefore faith St. John. These things are written that ye might believe, And that believing, ye might have Life through his name, John 20. 30,