Concerning the Quakers Pretence to Immediate Revelation, Equal to what was given to the Pen-Men of the Holy Scriptures
BEFORE I produce any quotations upon this head, let us fix the meaning of immediate revelation in this place, because they use great fallacy about it; sometimes (when sore distressed for proofs of such revelation) they pretend to mean no more by it than the ordinary influences of the Holy Spirit, which all good men do experiment, in their several degrees: and these, in some sense, may be called revelations, and immediate too, as coming immedi ately, that is directly, from the Holy Spirit into our hearts, as the sun, by its rays, shines upon the earth.
But the holy prophets and apostles had revela tions of a much higher degree than this, viz. to fore tell things to come, to work miracles, to go with particular messages from God, as Moses was sent to Pharaoh, Abraham commanded to sacrifice Isaac, and the like immediate commands; which came not to them by reading or meditation, or any human means, but immediately from God.
And to this George Fox pretended, even to outward visions and revelations, (as in his blasphemous Journal,) particularly upon a high mountain in Yorkshire, where he tells of his receiving his commission to preach ; and by an outward vision then shewn to him, directed to go particularly to the north, with the vast multitudes to be converted by him then visibly appearing before his eyes. And this Mr. Penn sets out in great pomp, p. 29. of his preface to Fox’s Journal, which I shall have occasion to mention more fully hereafter: as likewise, p. 83, of the Journal, where Fox does plainly distinguish betwixt the ordinary experiences of the inward operations of the Spirit of God upon our hearts, and the being sent immediately from God with such a message as the prophets and apostles had, and which he avers that he had. “One of them, (i.e. of the professors, as they call their opponents,) says he, told me, he could speak his experiences as well as I; but I told him, experience was one thing; but to go with a message, and to have a word from the Lord, as the prophets and apostles had and did, and as I had done to them, this was another thing: and therefore I put it to them again, Could any of them say he had ever had a command or word from the Lord immediately at any time?" These are his words; and shew plainly what he meant by immediate revelation ; and how it distinguished him from the professors, who could boast only of their inward experiences, but had no outward revelations as he had. And he vouches this by a company of vile and senseless miracles, to which he pretends in his Journal, that he might in nothing come behind the holy prophets and apostles, to whom he compared and equalled himself.
And now, having gained what he meant by revelation, and immediate revelation, I will shew you that he attributes it not only to his own worthiness, but to the Quakers in general. They are, says he, in his Great Mystery, p. 242, in the same power, understanding, knowledge, and immediate revelation from heaven that the apostles were in.
Are not ye, says he to the professors, p. 241, in the presumption, and usurped authority to preach or to teach, that have not the immediate revelation, as the apostles had? P. 213. Thou canst not know the scriptures, but by the same degree of the Spirit the prophets and apostles had.
P. 97. They (the Quakers) witness immediate revelation; they are come to that the apostles was in: the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, they witness immediate revelation. P. 153. But the rest of the world 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.
P. 321. Revelation is now witnessed in our days, as it was in the apostles'; but not amongst you, who have inwardly ravened from the Spirit of God, which have apostatized from the apostles and so you be in the diabolical devilish, that ex pects not that now which was in the days of the apostles. 1If ever you own the prophets, Christ, and the apostles, you will own our writings, which are given out by the same Spirit and power.
You may as well condemn the scriptures to the fire, as our queries. Our giving forth papers, and printed books, it is from the immediate eternal Spirit of God.
You are now answered from the mouth of the Lord.
Of their styling their own writings, the word of the Lord, and denying it to the holy scriptures, you will see further, sect. VII, concerning the authority of the holy scriptures.
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G.F.'s Answer to the Westmorland Petition, p.30. Truth's Defence G.F. And R.H. P. 2. 89, 204. ↩︎
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