Their damning all the Christian World but themselves
Having equalled themselves to Adam in his innocency, as above is shewn, they must needs prefer themselves to all since the fall.
(1). Thus while they themselves pretend to infallibility of discerning, and infinity in righteousness, as shewn before, they arraign the apostles of gross error and delusion, even where they spoke from the mouth of the Lord, and in his name: as, when St. Paul said, I Thess. iv. 17, We which are alive shall be caught up in the clouds, &c. though he said, ver. 15, This we say unto you by the word of the Lord; yet Thomas Ellwood, in his Answer to G. Keith's Narrative of the Proceeding at Turner's-hall, June 11, 1696, p. 162, supposes that St. Paul expected to be caught up in the clouds himself; and that the day of judgment would come in his time, while he was alive: and that the same was the meaning of St. Peter, when he said, The end of all things is at hand, 1 Pet. iv. 7. See Satan Disrobed, sect. IV. n. 3.
At a meeting or council of their ministers, about the year 1678, (which will be told hereafter,) that text, I Cor. i. 2, being urged as a proof for the in vocation of Christ, which many of them did deny, answer was made by one of them, that Paul was blind and ignorant, and that they saw beyond him. It was a common saying with them, that the prophets were not come to the Son, i. e. to Christ: and they proved themselves greater than Abraham, because Abraham was before John; and that the least in the kingdom, i. e. the least of the {Page 196} Quakers, was greater than John; and so consequently greater than all before John, than Abraham, or any of the prophets: though, as shewn above, their modesty did not stop here, but they got before the apostles too, who were after John. All were dark and ignorant in respect of the new light of the Quakers.
(2). Now, they having treated the prophets and apostles at this rate, we cannot expect that they should pay any great respect to the ancient and holy fathers of the church. No, they run down them by wholesale. Thomas Ellwood is very angry for so much as comparing the books of the Quakers with the Greek and Latin fathers, supposing, says he, friends' books to have been written by no better guidance, nor clearer sight, than theirs who lived and wrote in those dark times. And p. 178 and 179 of his answer to G. Keith's Narrative, (before mentioned,) he names Ambrose, Augus tin, Hierom, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Cyprian, and others of the ancient and most glorious lights of the primitive church. And all these the Quakers tram ple under their feet, as not fit to be compared with them. See Satan Disrobed, sect. 4. n. 4.
(3). But now, what quarters shall we have, when we see prophets and apostles postponed, and the holy fathers of the church trod down to the earth, that the Quakers alone may be exalted in this day! how shall we be able to stand before them They damn us all together to hell, i. e. all Christians: but they are more favourable to the heathen, whom they think worshippers of the same light with them, and not led to outward things by the belief of an outward Christ, and faith in his outward sufferings, {Page 197} death, &c. which they think corrupts the Christians, as carryng them from the inward, trusting only to their own light. And therefore they discard all the Christians in the world, the primitive fathers and all; all since the very days of the apostles: they con clude them all in the apostasy; and that they (the Quakers) have a spirit given to them beyond them all.
George Fox, in his Great Mystery, p. 89, says, That the Quakers have a spirit given them beyond all the forefathers, since the days of the apostles, in the apostasy. George Whitehead would fain come off of this, and thus endeavours to excuse it, in his Charitable Essay, printed 1693, p. 5, in these words; The very intent and meaning of George Fox's words herein was, not beyond all the forefathers without exception, but beyond all in the apostasy: that is, George Fox did not think that all the forefathers were in the apostasy; and that he only spoke of those who were in the apostasy: so that some were in the apostasy, and some were not in it. Now here it would have been incumbent upon George Whitehead to have named those whom he or George Fox did believe were not in the apostasy. But that he could not do; for in truth they condemn all the Christian world but themselves; though here George Whitehead would fain mince the matter. Let us hear George Fox explain himself in other places of the same book; you will best know his meaning from himself. P. 217 he says, that since the days of the apostles all the world went after them, i. e. after those who (as he there expresses it) did inwardly raven in sheep's clothing. And now, says he, are {198} people but coming from them to the rock, p. 219. That the whole world was standing against the light, and against the saints and the Lamb, p. 226. Since the days of the apostles, all that dwelt upon the earth went after them, the false prophets and the beast, p. 175. Since the apo stles' decease the faith hath been departed from; the unity among all Christians hath been From that ye have ravened, you and the papists, and all sects upon the earth, p. 253. Such as differ from us dif lost in all Christendom fer from Christ, p. 267. You, all priests and teachers, who call yourselves ministers since the days of the apostles, who inwardly are ravened from the Spirit of God, are turning, and have turned, all people from the light to the darkness; and so have kept thousands and millions of souls in damnation, and turning and keeping them in the path and way unto hell, p. 98. And thou, and all you that speak and write, and not from God immediately and infallibly as the apostles did, and prophets, and Christ—You are all un der the curse in another spirit, ravened from the Spirit that was in the apostles, only have had the sheep's clothing, inwardly ravening wolves, so de ceived the world and the nations—And so power hath been given to the beast over all kindreds, tongues, and nations, p. 153. Which have de ceived the nations, and led the world, and brought them all upon heaps, and have never heard the voice of God, nor the voice of Christ, and have not the same infallible Spirit as the apostles had, and no immediate revelation nor inspiration as they had: so these have taken away the key of {Page 199} knowledge from among people since the days of the apostles, p. 158. Of his (Christs) body are all professors, protestants, and papists upon the earth ignorant Therefore be all in the enmity one among another, p. 111. And all upon the earth that be from this light, (which the Quakers set up,) they be in the error, out of the covenant of God, and strangers from the cove nant of promise. And in plain terms, p. 249, he asserts all others to be so, (equivocating, deluding hypocrites,) except Quakers. And, p. 267, that the Quakers are the only ministers of Christ, not made by men, but by the will of God. And adds, Is not all sects joined with you against them? p. 111. All the earth doth rage against them: and that we may be sure that England is included, he says, p. 311, The ministers which are so called in England hath gotten the name, but are found the ministers of unrighteousness, and are wolves indeed in sheeps clothing ---- What greedy dumb dogs are these! &c.
I will not trouble myself nor the reader to apply all this, and shew that George Whiteheads exposition above named is a mere sophistication, and quite contrary to the meaning of George Fox. The thing shews itself: but if George Whitehead was really mistaken in George Foxs meaning, then I do expect from him, if he be a sincere honest man, that upon examining the above mentioned quotations, and many more which he may find in the same book to the same purpose, he will publicly and in print acknowledge his error, because the satisfaction to the world ought to be as public as the offence which was given; and that he and all the rest of {Page 200} the Quakers will, for ever hereafter, own and con fess that George Fox did damn all the world since the apostles, but the Quakers; and not only those in the apostasy, as George Whitehead would turn it off, for that he held they were all in the apostasy.
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