That Popish Emmisaries first set up Quakerism in England.
Edward Burroughs, 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 Harvest 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 dress'd Enthusiasm in several Shapes and Forms, of Presbyter, Anabaptist, Independent, Quaker, Muggleton, and a long &c. which differ only in degrees.
Of this1 many Instances may be given, 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 chiefly from the Church of Rome. Labbade, a Jesuit, set it up in Holland, and Robert Barclay, the Quaker, was tincture'd in his younger years in the Scotch Convent at Paris, and John Vaughton was a Roman Catholic, who is now a great Preacher among the Quakers in London, and William Southby, a Preacher now among them in Pennsylvania. But God has punish'd 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 own'd as Brethren by the Quakers, and gone many of them to Pennsylvania.
The Quaker Infallibility was contriv'd on purpose to bring men back to the Infallibility of the Church of Rome, by these steps. First, the Infallibility was plac'd by George Fox, and all the Primitive Quakers, in every single Quaker, as I have shewn. This most Ridiculous pretence the Jesuits well knew cou'd 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 has been 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 compar'd together?
Of all the Dissenters now in England, the Quakers have come nearest to the Church of Rome: They only have taken up the Popish Pretence of Infallibility (unless they will bring in Muggleton for a Third Man) none other except Papists and Quakers, do now set up for it. Nay, the Quakers have, more Bare-fac'd than any, openly sided with the Papists, against All the Protestants, especially the Church of England. They have taken pains to Re-print and Publish, with great Approbation, the most violent invectives of the Church of Rome against the Protestants, and chiefly the Church of England. And have Abetted and Enforc'd the Popish Arguments against us. Josiah Coal (of the first rank of worthies among the Quakers) wrote a book, which he call'd, The Whore Unveil'd, printed 1665, wherein he Re-printed (and set it down at large in his Title Page) a most senseless, but bitter Libel of one A. S., a Papist, against the Church of England, and other Protestants; wherein he calls our Clergy, Intruders, Thieves, and Robbers, Hypocrites, Ravenous Wolves, and Murtherers, Sons of Belial, False Prophets, and Priests of Baal. Which being the very words which the Quakers have Chim'd over and over against us, we see from whom they have learned them, and with whom they take part against us. And besides these words, which you will find in Coal's book, p. 48, he sets down, p. 50, this Delicious Bit of that Vile A. S. where he calls our Holy Bible a Brazen-fac'd Book, Unjust, Corrupt, and Perverse Bible. And, p. 40, Josiah Coal is so far from finding fault with this, that he joins with him in it, says that it does not concern them (the Quakers) to Answer it, but leaves them (the Protestants, whom he impudently calls Sectaries) to answer for themselves this Charge against their Bibles and Ministers (these are his words) whose Cause, says he, I am not Engaged in. Not in the Cause of the Bible, more than of our Ministers! See more of this in the Gleanings to Satan Disrobed, sect. III. n. 3. Here we see from whom they have learn'd their Contempt of the Holy Scriptures, as well as of the Sacred Ministry; their vain pretence to Infallibility, and all their Billingsgate against us. These Features of the Child do plainly enough denote the Father. But more expressly their Notion of The Catholic Church, which they (as the Papists) confine to their own Communion alone. Of which see Satan Disrob'd, sect. v. n. 10. And, as a consequence of this, Damning all the World but Themselves. Of which see the Proofs in the next Section, in a strain far outdoing their Masters.
They have exceeded them in every thing: And Improv'd the Errors which they had learn'd from them. Thus, from their vain Conceit of their own Infallibility and Perfection, even Equal to God, as before is shewn, George Whitehead asserts2, That the righteousness which God effects in us is not finite, but infinite. Here they assume Infinity as well as Infallibility, i.e. a Made Infinity bestow'd upon them by God. Such a Made Divinity as the Socinians allow to Christ. See this assertion of G. Whitehead's further Examin'd in Satan Disrobed, sect. II. N. 7. p. 24.
But if you will ask, how could Infinite Righteousness Fall? G. Fox will answer you, who wrote, That he was beyond the state of the first Adam that fell; in the state of the second Adam that never fell. And in a Printed General Epistle of his to the Quakers, which I have now before me, he says, Who hath any thing against my way, who never fell nor changed. And he concludes, This is the word of the Lord God to you all; and spread this abroad. He said, that His marriage was above the state of the first Adam in his Innocency, in the state of the second Adam that never fell. This was in a Letter he wrote in Defence of his Marriage, which William Mucklow (among others) has seen: Therefore let it not be forgot in the New Edition that is on foot of G. Fox's works. If any doubt of this, see The Spirit of the Hat, p. 42. He marry'd an old Widow, who was past the Age of Child-bearing, and said, that she was a Figure of the Church coming out of the Wilderness. And therefore, that she must not be Barren, but wou'd, as Sarah, bring forth an Isaac in her old Age. With this he pleas'd himself; and this was given forth, and certainly expected among the Quakers. For, to feed, and at last Expose their Delusion, she grew Bigg, as if with Child, and the Spirit of Discerning fail'd them: for all things were provided for the Lying-in, and the Midwife attended several Weeks in the House, till Belly fell, the Figure was spoiled, and the Quakers disappointed of their Isaac.
This their presumptuous pretence to Miracles and Foolish Legends, is another Instance wherein they have imitated and outstrip'd the Roman Catholics. As likewise what follows in the next Section. Their Damning all the Christian World but Themselves, which is a consequence of their making Themselves the only Church, and alone Infallible, &c.
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