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IV.

Works,

45. “All this traditional worship, and false imita- CHAP. 'tions which have been set up since the apostles days, 'shall be overthrown and confounded; the Lord is Bur' risen and will dash down, and overthrow all this rough's 'idolatry now practised amongst Christians: and a p. 437. 'great shaking and confounding shall suddenly come " among Christians; for the Lord will break down that which hath been builded, because it is pollu'ted; and he will pluck up that which hath been planted, because it is defiled; and a mighty work will the Lord work in the earth. And for this state, all that fear God, and love him, are to wait, for 'this shall come to pass in the world.”

ibid.

46. "Concerning the things whereof we have tes'tified these divers years, I am no way doubtful but p. 766. our God will fulfil them, neither can my confidence

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'be shaken, by what is or can come to pass; for Antichrist must fall, false ministry and worship, false ways and doctrines God will confound, false power ' and false church the Lord will lay low;—and Truth • and Righteousness must reign.-These things have we prophesied from day to day; and my faith is 'constant and immoveable, that God will effect these things in his season."

47. The epistles and warnings of this faithful witness of Christ, are left as a standing monument of the testimony of truth at that day; as a controversy of God with all the inhabitants of the earth, directed unto all sorts of people; as a trumpet of the Lord, རྞ and a true noise of a fearful earthquake at hand, which shall shake the whole fabrick of the earth, and the pil lars of its standing shall full, and never more be set up again. Declared and written by a son of thunder, as a warning to all the inhabitants of the earth. By order and authority given unto me by the Spirit of the living God. So testified Edward Burrough, in the year 1655.

48. Beginning at the head of the nation, he delivers his message to Oliver Cromwell, and all his council-To all judges and lawyers-To all astrologers, soothsayers, and wise men-To all generals, colonels, commanders, officers, and soldiers, in England, Scotland, and Ireland-To all the priests, and proph

V.

CHAP. ets, and teachers of the people-To all the Papists, their whole body and head at Rome-To all Protestants of the eldest sort-To all Presbyterians and Independents-To all Anabaptists-To all free willers -To all Ranters-To all seekers and waiters.-And lastly, to those who were in the light of eternal life. And two years after, he delivered ten solemn warnings to Friends.*

49. Those testimonies, which were then delivered from time to time, breathe the most evident spirit of prophecy, in regard to the end of a corrupt Christian World, and the setting up of the pure and everlasting kingdom of Christ.

50. Now certain it is, that the many complaints of worldly mindedness, of deadness and insensibility, of resting on a mere profession, and of receiving a false spirit, which stand against the general body of the Friends, by their own writers, are sufficient evidences that they are not that pure, spiritual and heavenly church, of which those witnesses prophesied, whose name they now bear.

THE

CHAPTER V.

The Subject continued.

HE church of Christ in the latter day, was not to be composed of the worldly minded-the dead and insensible-or of such as would be led away by a false spirit. Yet not one word of truth could fall to the ground that had been delivered by the witnesses of God: for the whole must be accomplished.

2. The dissolution of the Christian World, with all its false establishments, was an event as certain as any that had ever been marked out by the spirit of prophecy; and the jarring materials of which it was composed, lost the centre of their attraction and bands of uniformity, within forty years after the testimony

* These addresses may be seen at large in Burrough's Works, p. 96 to 114.

of George Fox, Edward Burrough and the rest, was delivered; when civil rulers caused the persecuting sword to be put up into its sheath, and began to proclaim liberty for every one to enjoy his own faith unmolested.

3. The whole chain of prophecies, that relate to the heavens and the earth that then were, have been evidently fulfilling ever since liberty of conscience was granted; sects and parties have not only been dissolving asunder, and removing more distant from the mother church, and from each other, but the most fundamental points of doctrine, discipline, and government, and even whole creeds, confessions, common prayer books, &c. are, in many parts of Christendom, passing away with a great noise, and the elements in which they were composed, are melting with fervent heat. So that every attempt to reform, repair, and unite together the different parts of the great Christian World, can only widen the breach, and hasten the final dissolution of the whole.

4. But again, when the Friends, in the declining state of their power, applied to an arm of flesh for protection, and had their religion established by law, they united with the remaining power of the beast, through the influence of which they became a dead lifeless body, as a people. And in setting out to build another old heaven church upon the principles of their former light and testimony, before the time had arrived for their testimony to be accomplished, they only exposed themselves, equally with others, to suffer the loss of all their superfluous labour, in the general wreck of false buildings.

5. It is true they were very cautious as to adopting those forms and ceremonies of worship which pertained to the kingdom of Antichrist; so that in this they are a very distinguished people. Nevertheless, the root and foundation of all false religion, and the very source of this general deadness and insensibility, they did not touch. They spared Agag and the best of the flock.

6. The lawless works and fruits of the flesh they lopped off in a great degree; but the flesh itself they carefully preserved and transplanted over into

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CHAP.

V.

V.

CHAP. their new soil. So that, when that power failed, by which God is able, of stones, to raise up children unto Abraham, their numbers might still increase by the works of natural generation, and their children be taught by tradition, to say over the words of their forefathers, while totally ignorant of their power.

Fox's Journal.

7. "Their way of marriage (says William Penn,) is peculiar to them, and is a distinguishing practice vol. i. p. from all other societies professing Christianity.

preface.

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They say that marriage is an ordinance of God, and that God only can rightly join man and woman in 'marriage." But instead of showing how God joins them, they give a lengthy detail of their own proceedings, which are as formal and ceremonial as those of any other professing Christians: and they do not state any thing peculiar in their manner or motive of copulation to distinguish their natural posterity as the peculiar people of God, more than others.

8. We appeal to the light of Christ within them, whether their secret motive or manner in the ground work of this matter, is any thing peculiar and distinguishing from the practice of other professing Christians. And until the Friends can give evidence that they are a peculiar and distinct people in this respect, they must be numbered with that generation, with which their ancients testified, God was not well pleased.

9. They cannot be numbered with the true followers of the Lamb, because they do not follow him in the regeneration; and if they ever enter that kingdom, of which their ancients so abundantly prophesied, it must be in the same strait and narrow way of complete self-denial with others of the same corrupt nature, otherwise they never will see that kingdom while the earth endureth.

10. God never intended that the real gifts of the Holy Ghost should be conveyed from one to another by the works of natural generation; but he intended (and it was so) that every succeeding age should be dependant on him for their present gifts and calling.

11. Admitting that the first witnesses among the Friends had no special command from God, either in regard to natural or spiritual marriage, (as was the

V.

case,) this can be no reason why the matter should CHAP. be overlooked in them, by those who now stand in the spirit and power of that work of which their ancients prophesied.

12. It may here be particularly observed, that God raised up witnesses in different ages, and in divers manners, to effect certain purposes; and what was sometimes the testimony or practice of one witness, was not always of another; neither was the testimony or practice of one witness to be always the standing rule of faith or practice to a nation or people.

13. The prophet Hosea was expressly commanded to go and take a wife of whoredoms, and beget children of whoredoms; and because he was justified in this, was, therefore, his example to be followed by the whole nation of the Jews? In no wise. It was not an example, but a sign or reproof to the nation for their whoredoms, when their prophet performed openly, what they practised in secret.

vol. ii.

14. The Friends, according to their own account, Fox's were charged in open court, that, "they went to- Journal gether like brute beasts," because they would not p. 5. have their marriages solemnized by a priest, or civil officer. So might the Jewish lawyers have charged the prophet and his spouse with coming together like whoremongers; and admitting the charge in either case to be ever so well founded, neither of them could be charged with criminality in fulfilling what might have been commanded them in particular.

15. But to take that which might have been given as a reproof, or at best merely tolerated, and turn it into an example, or precedent, because lawyers or judges could prove it to be both lawful and Christian, must surely be a grand deception, and very foreign from any thing dictated by the Spirit of truth. And therefore the Friends lie under this deception, if they suppose that this outward ceremony or civil rite of marriage, was given to the first witnesses, whose name they bear, as a standing ordinance of God.

16. The truth is, that George Fox, Edward Burrough, and many of the same spirit cotemporary with them, were the true witnesses of the Most High God, possessed of his spirit and power; and on ac

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