SECTION XII.

QUERY XII. Whether St. Paul's Admonition to Titus 3. 10. and St. John's Exhortation to the Elect Lady, Epistle 2. er. 10. and St. Jude's to all Chriftians, ver. 3. be not justly applicable, with reference to the Writers and Speakers among the Quakers, who broach fuch pernicious Errors as thefe among the deluded People, fo plainly tending to fubvert the Foundation of Chriftianity? And, whether fuch vile Errors, when joined on the one hand with extreme Pride and Self-Conceit, with grofs Cenfo rioufness and Uncharitableness, in unfainting all that differ from them, with a wretched Neglect of all Family-Prayer, and an immoderate Purfuit of the World, and yet joined on the other, with fuch an affected, needless Singularity in Speech, Garb, and Behaviour, as the Scriptures no where require, be not a palpable Inftance of Satan's Transforming himSelf into an Angel of Light? And, whether the de luded People among them are not therefore highly concerned to open their Eyes, and to compare these Doctrines of their principal Writers with that of the Holy Scriptures, and to reject them, if they find them manifeftly contrary thereto? And, whether all ferious Chriftians should not be warned by fuck dangerous Errors of fuch as pretend fo high, to no less than an infallible Spirit, to hold fast the Form of found Words delivered in the Holy Scriptures, that they be not as Children, toffed to and fro with every Wind of Doctrine? 2 Tim. 1. 13.

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Efth. 3. by

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neithe not, I pray you accept to Man;

ND when Haman faw that Mordecai bowed
not, nor did him Reverences then as Haman

HOI [full of Wrath, as gallrepos

Let

any Man's Perfon Job 32, 21, 22. let for know fo norme

ker would foon take

not

t

me away to give flattering Fisles, in so doing my Ma I fon at sout et dirty s •Trois But be not ye called Rabbi, V.JI Masters; for Mat. 23. §. 40. one is your Master, even Chrift, and all ye are BreStoy shit) the My Brethren, be not many Masters, knowing thas James, 3. (IX. banye, fhall receive the greater Condemnations ni Rom. 12b29d And be not conform'd to this World, but he ye fransformed. I

22.9

2nd fell at his feet to worship him and he faid Rev. 19.10, anda unto me. See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-fervant, and of thy Brethren that have the teftimoux of Fefus worship God for the teftimony of Fefus is the fpirit of prophefie. Thén fuch he, unso me: See show do is sot: for I am thy fellowfervant, and of thy brethren the Prophets, and of them which keep the fay ings of shis book Worship God 191 es sold inucite 9 mont Jer. dy stolorod Learn not the Way of the Heather, for the Customs 21943 of 10 5 of the People are rain.

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1 Pet. 1. 14.

thou

As obedient Children, not fafbioning your felves according to the former Lufts in your Ignorance

ni enig Forafub as ye know than ye are not redeem'd Ver. 18 9:13 with carsleppible Things, as silver and Gold frong -wool ad of your vain Converfation receiv'd by Tradinon from your

Fathers

au dinidw. 5100 speaking of Womens Apparel, be fays, Whose Adorn I Pet. 3. 3, 40 ming. let in not be that outward Adorning of planing the Hair, and of wearing of Gold, or of putting on of the hidden Man of the Heart.

Apparel, but let it

1 Tim. 2.19, 10.

be

In like manner alfo, that Women adorn themselves in modest Apparel, with Shamefacedness and Sobriety; not with broider'd Hair, or Gold, or Pearls, or coftly. Array, but which becometh Women profeffing Godliness with good Works. Moreover, the LORD faith. Because the Daugh ters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth Necks, and wanton Eyes walking and wincing as they go, and making tinkling with their feet:

3

1 from 16 to the End.

7

there

Therefore the LORD will fmite with a fcab the crown of the Head of the Daughters of Zion; and the LORD will difcover their fecret parts. that day the LORD will take away the Bravery of their tinkling ornamenes about their feet, and their Cauls, and their round tires like the Moon. The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers. The bonnets and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the ear rings, The rings, and nofe-jewels. The changeable, fuits of apparel and the mansles, and the wimples, and the crifping pins. The glaffes and the fine linnen, and the hoods, and the vails. And it fhall come to pass, that in stead of a sweet smell, there fhall be a flink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and inftead of well fet bair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of fackcloth, and burning instead of beauty. Thy men fhall fall by the fword. and thy mighsy in the war. And her gates fball lament and mourn, and he being defolate, Thall fit upon the ground,

Truly, the Wonder ceafes, why fuch a general Excefs and Immodefty in Garb and Apparel, in Speech and Behaviour, grows among the Profeffors of Christianity, contrary to Divine Authority, when the very Leaders of the People, by Example and Doctrine, thus caufe them to err, efpecially fuch to whom our fomewhat different Deportment hath rendred us contemptible and diftaftful, being ambitious of Honour and Refpect, and love Greetings; fup pofing a complaifant Compliance to the Fafhions and Compliments of the Age, to be the best Way of expreffing their Civility and good Manners.

༡; Next, I fhall offer fome Reafons for our confcien cious Singularity in Speech and Behaviour: Bc. 1

Tis manifeft, Thee and Thou to a fingle Perfon, is found, proper. and grammatical; not only the Dia leet of Holy Scripture throughout, without one Ex ception, but also the common Dialect of thofe Ages, and is ftill preferved in certain Countries to this Day, And lince tis caly to prove, and, I believe, our Querift will not deny, that this Corruption of Speech had an evil Original, to wit, to flatter Princes and great Men, unless he can prove the Nature of this Corruption is changed from Evil to Good: "Tis evident, that the Quakers do well in efchewing the

2

fame,

fame, as well as other flattering Titles, which often lay a Neceflity upon Christians to lye; and what Law of Man can oblige me to call Good Evil, and Evil Good, or fecure me in fo doing, from the juft Judg ment of GOD, who forbad His to learn the Way of the Heathen; for the Cuftoms of the People are vain, therefore we refrain alfo the heathenifb Cuftoms of naming the Mouths and Days of the Week after their Idols?

The Salutation of the Hat was not in Ufe in the Apoftles Time, nor till the corrupter Ages of Chritianity: But in the Apostles Time, GOD required that Honour to be done to Himself, and therefore to give that Honour to Men, which he hath fet apart for Himfelf, and was not done to Men in the purer Ages of Chriftianity, is, in fome measure, to give His Glory to another, and favours too much the Error of the Rontanifts, in paying the Honour and Wor hip to Images, that is due to GOD alone. I to fit y Thus reafons Robert Barclay on this Subject in his Prop. i5. Section VI. p. 530." He that knceleth or proftrates himself to Man, what doth "he more to GOD? He that boweth and uncover reth his Head to the Creature, what hath he rer ་ ferved to the Creatore Now the Apostle fhews us that the uncovering the Head is that which GOD requires of us in our worshipping of Him, Cor. 11. 4. But if we make our Addrefs to Men in *( "the fame manner, where lieth the Difference? σε Not in the outward Signification, but purely in the Intention, which opens a Door for the Papift's Ves neration of Images, which is hereby neceflarily ex Cluded. najtanol aid, tedt ynob won lliw fir In thefe Things, as well as plainness of Garb and Apparel, for which the Queriff's elder Brother, Baxter, highly commended, us, though the Querift maliciously capugh calls it Satan Transform'd, &c. At fist it

2

was

was great Self-Denial in the fincere Quaker, to deviate from Custom, nothing less than pure Confcience could oblige him thereto, nor fupport many in the grievous Sufferings they underwent for bearing a TeAlimony against thofe Cuftoms, which were not only contrary to the Practice of CHRIST, and his Apoftles, but inconfiftent with the Simplicity that is in CHRIST, and were borrowed from the Heathen, whofe Ways and vain Cuftoms the LORD forbid bis People to follow; and Chriftians are to be redeemed from the vain Converfation received by Tradition from their Fathers, as in the Texts aforefaid.

OUZELIUS, upon Minutius Felix, tells us, the firft Chriftians were counted, and despised for ill bred in Manners, unpolished in Speech, unfashionable in Be baviour in fine, Rufticks and Clowns

The Care and Zeal of the Primitive Fathers, fo called, to fupprefs the fashionable Education and Cu Atoms, to encourage and recommend the Simplicity and Moderation of the Manners and Behaviour of the first Chriftians, was very great, as appears from the Conftitutions of Clemens Romanus, Tertul lian, Gregory Nazianzen, Clemens Alexandrinus, Auftin, and Gregory the Great.