his list of one hundred and ninety-nine "distinct errors, heresies
and blasphemies": "Some say that 'tis lawful for women to preach,
that they have gifts as well as men; and some of them do actually
preach, having great resort to them"!
Furthermore, they held that all tithes and all set stipends were
unlawful. They maintained that preachers should work with their
own hands and not "go in black clothes." This sad error appears
in Edwards's chaotic list: "It is said that all settled certain
maintenance for ministers of the gospel is unlawful." Finally many of
the Baptists opposed the use of "steeple houses" and held the view
that no person is fitted to preach or prophesy _unless the Spirit
moves him_.
The "Seekers" are occasionally mentioned in the Journal and were
widely scattered throughout England during the Commonwealth. They
were serious-minded people who saw nowhere in the world any adequate
embodiment of religion. They held that there was no true Church, and
that there had been none since the days of the apostles. They did
not celebrate any sacraments, for they held that there was nobody
in the world who possessed an anointing clearly, certainly and
infallibly enough to perform such rites. They had no "heads" to their
assemblies, for they had none among them who had "the power or the
gift to go before one another in the way of eminency or authority."
William Penn says that they met together "not in their own wills"
and "waited together in silence, and as anything arose in one of
their minds that they thought favored with a divine spring, so they
sometimes spoke."
We are able to pick out a few of their characteristic "errors" from
Edwards's list in the "Gangræna." "That to read the Scriptures to a
mixed congregation is dangerous." "That we did look for great matters
from One crucified in Jerusalem 1600 years ago, but that does no
good; it must be a Christ formed _in_ us." "That men ought to preach
and exercise their gifts without study and premeditation and not to
think what they are to say till they speak, because it shall be given
them in that hour and the Spirit shall teach them." "That there is
no need of human learning or reading of authors for preachers, but
all books and learning must go down. It comes from want of the Spirit
that men write such great volumes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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