The pretensions of the present Quakers to the spirit of prophecy, infallibility, &c. wherein it is proved by George Fox's words that they are conjurors.
If what I have shewn of the Quakers were only the delusions of those of them long ago, when they first set up; and that the present Quakers, though they could not be brought to disown them, or condemn their wicked and blasphemous pretences to infallibility, the spirit of discerning, prophecy, &c. yet were privately convinced of them, and would not themselves plead for or practice any more the like, we might the better bear with them, as hoping that in time these destructive errors might wear out from among them, and in the mean while cease to infect others: but if they still persist, not only to justify, but practise those same blasphemies which were with them from their beginning, we are obliged to look more narrowly after them, and pursue them for their own good, till we, by the help of God, shall reclaim them, or at least so detect them, as to prevent others from falling into their snares.
Now I did really think that the present Quakers were ashamed of these gross delusions, so palpably detected past all contradiction; though they would not own it, nor publicly censure these false prophets of theirs, because of overthrowing their foundation, the pretended sanctity of these their leaders. And this was the reason that I thought it highly useful to lay open their horrid deceit, for this purpose chiefly, that I might by this bring our present Quakers under that happy necessity, as I thought, of disowning the mad enthusiasm of these their adored guides, and thereby persuade them to return to the sobriety of religion; in odium to which, as a carnal and spiritless dispensation, they had been betrayed by these pharisaical pretenders to quit the communion of a regularly constituted and apostoli cal church. But, alas! the issue has quite deceived my expectations; for our present obstinate Quakers not only refuse to be brought to disown their own false prophets, (though they cannot deny the in stances wherein they are proved to be such,) but do still fearlessly go on, and pretend themselves to the same extraordinary commission of immediate divine revelation, and thereby a right to affix God's seal, Thus saith the Lord, to whatever their rage, their malice, or their folly shall suggest.
If they think these too hard words, they shall have harder yet; for this matter cannot be compounded; no, this is nothing short of blasphemy, rank, wild blasphemy! And the honour of God must take place of any respect to men, (and I have a great deal for some who are too much herein concerned,) therefore I must, I cannot help it, yea, woe to me if I do it not; I must freely and openly rebuke this proud blasphemous spirit, which seduces the servants of God, and speaks to them in the name of the Lord, whereby they are brought to worship it—What is that? What is it which pretends to be God, and is not? Even that which inspires men to think what it dictates to be the immediate revelation of God himself, and emboldens them to affix to it, Thus saith the Lord. This is the prince of the spirits of delusion, and this prince they worship (though ignorantly) for God, who mistake his inspirations for God's.
Now I am to tell the reader, that the same day month after George Keith was excommunicated, as before told, George Whitehead (one of the Quaker metropolitans) thought not that condemnation sufficient, but pursued him with his prophetical verse, in the following words:
Thus saith the Lord;
Because thou hast poured out great contempt and reproach upon my servants and people, I will assuredly pour out and bring great contempt and confusion upon thee.
This is signed George Whitehead, and dated the 17th of the fourth month, (that is, June,) 1695, and was sent to G. Keith. But copies of it were like wise given out amongst the friends, that they might admire these prophetical gifts; and if any thing un fortunate should in all G. Keith's lifetime befall him, that it might certainly be esteemed as the conse quence of this curse, and G. Whitehead be thought as much a prophet, and to have spoken from the mouth of the Lord, as certainly as ever Jeremiah foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and the seventy years' captivity.
It is told before, p.82 of this vol. how Mr. Penn pronounced a sentence of apostasy against George Keith, in the name of the Lord. It is true, this was not taking upon him the gift of prophecy, like G. Whitehead, but it was as high a pretence to the infallibility of discerning, by delivering his own judgment as the positive and infallible oracles of God. And if G. Keith does tell us truth (if not, he is in a man's hands that would have surely corrected him) in the second of his books above mentioned, The True Copy, &c. p. 14, Mr. Penn did own before the yearly meeting, that the glorious power of God which he felt did so transport him, that he was carried beyond himself, and knew not whether he was sitting, standing, or kneeling, when he pronounced that sentence. This was like St. Paul's whether in the body or out of the body, he could not tell—Good God! how great is the force of this mad spirit of enthusiasm that a man of Mr. Penn's known sense and abilities should not be able to distinguish betwixt the violent transports of passion, and the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost! O that our religion and the whole scriptures should be thus exposed to loose and atheistical wits, when they shall compare the inspirations of the holy prophets and apostles with these of W. Penn, G. Whitehead, &c. and turn both alike into ridicule!
O that the time were come, when these Quakers should at last bethink themselves of this horrid scandal they have given to Christianity! at least that Mr. Penn, who has a stock of breeding, and excellent natural parts, (too good to be thus employed,) may rescue himself from that herd of zealots, sottishly possessed, even to blasphemy!
And he is thus far towards it, (which, to a man of his reason, I reckon a great way,) that he must either make out his own inspirations to be from God, in as high a degree as those which were given to the prophets and apostles, or otherwise that he has no authority to inscribe the name of God upon. them as they did.
And he is thus far towards it, (which, to a man of his reason, I reckon a great way,) that he must either make out his own inspirations to be from God, in as high a degree as those which were given to the prophets and apostles, or otherwise that he has no authority to inscribe the name of God upon. them as they did.
Nay, he must not only defend his own works, but he must likewise justify all the false lying prophecies before told; or otherwise he must unherd, and be no longer of them who dare father the lies and deliriums of their own brain upon the Holy Spirit of God.
He must answer one, once of their own party, John Penniman, who has printed the paper he gave into their late yearly meeting, entitled, A few Words of Moment to be imparted to this Yearly Meeting (at London, 1695) of the People called Quakers. And indeed they are words of moment, and to be duly considered by the Quakers; they are grounded upon two quotations out of George Fox, as follows:
All you that speak, and not from the mouth of the Lord, are false prophets. G. Fox's Answer to the Westmoreland Petition, p. 5, 1653.
They are conjurers and diviners, and their preaching is from conjuration that is not spoken from the mouth of the Lord. Errand, &c. p. 7, 1654.
Now the advantage which these quotations do afford is to shew from the words of this great prophet, that unless all that he has said of his own and all the Quakers' infallibility; of their sinless perfec tion, equal with God, not only in quality but in equality; of their immediate revelation in the same degree as the prophets and apostles; of their souls being of one substance and person with God; if all this, and a great deal more, which is shewn in the foregoing sections, be not from the mouth of the Lord, then, by G. Fox's own confession, he was a false prophet and a diviner: but all that knew him, or have taken the pains to read three lines of his works, will free him from being a conjurer.
If all the black-mouthed and hellish venom, and the beastly nastiness before mentioned, was not spoken from the mouth of the Lord, then were all these Quakers conjurers by G. Fox's rule.
If all the lying prophecies mentioned sect. 6. of Solomon Eccles, the Glover's prophets, &c. were not from the mouth of the Lord, then were these conjurers instead of prophets.
If all the false and foolish miracles which G. Fox tells of himself in his Journal, printed 1694, which exceed the foppery of a popish legend, if all these were not from God, then was he, and those who recommended that Journal, all conjurers.
If G. Whitehead cannot by some better miracles than these vouch that the curse and prophecy above told, which he sent to G. Keith, came “from the “mouth of the Lord,” then is G. Whitehead to be esteemed no better than a conjurer; et sic de caeteris
In short, if the Quakers cannot prove all their books and preachings, (many of which none of sense among themselves can deny to be thick-larded with gross ignorance and much nonsense,) if all and every scrap and tittle of these be not from the mouth of the Lord, then, by sentence of G. Fox himself, all is conjuration.
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