Selected quad for the lemma: act_n
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A40299
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To the ministers, teachers, and priests (so called and so stileing your selves) in Barbadoes by George Fox.
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Fox, George, 1624-1691.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing F1957; ESTC R36426
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49,015
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79
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the Alpha and the Omega the Bening and the Ending Hallelujah A Copy of the Priests Petition To the Honourable President and Council of his Majesty's Island of Barbadoes the Humble Petition and Address of the Clergy of the said Island Sheweth THat whereas many of us in the Publick Discharge of our Ministerial Function upon the Lord's Day in the Time of Divine Prayer and Sermon have been Frequently and Irreverently Interrupted and Holy Mother the Church of England Scandalously Vilified as if she were both in Doctrine and in Discipline False and Erroneous and Antichristian the Honest and Learned Clergy thereof even in the Face of their own Congregations not only taxed as Seducers Hirelings Teachers of Lyes and such like but Uncharitably Pursued and Anathematized with Words and Execrations and Bitter Invectives by a Base Sort of Phanatick People commonly termed Quakers Men whose Practices and Opinions seem not less repugnant to Civil and Ecclesiastical Government which tends to the Disparagement of us and Prostration of our Order to Contempt but also and chiefly which is the saddest Evil of all to the Poysoning if not the utter Ruin of many Well-meaning Souls in our Flock who being infatuated and inveighed with their Pernicious Tenents do desert the Publick and Consecrated Places of God's Worship to with-draw into Private and Unlawful Conventicles which we are credibly informed they do repair to Duty Four Times in the Week contrary both to Common and Ecclesiastical Laws and to Acts of Parliament in the Raign of Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth and King James and King Charles the first and of our now Gratious Soveraign Charles the second in such Cases Wholsomely Provided May it therefore please your Honour either to Revive and Inforce the Statute against them or that some other Speedy Expedient against those Growing Distempers may be considered of whereby our People may be less exposed to the Danger of the Wicked Insinuations and our selves by your Pious Care succoured from such Rude Affronts and Scurrillities for the future may be Enconraged with more Alacrity to proceed in the Faithful Discharge of that High Calling wherein God hath placed us and we shall continue your Daily Chaplins and Orators William Lessley John Bernad William Johnson John Hopwood Mathew Grey John Page The Priests of this Island about the beginning of the 10th Moneth 71. did Petition the Assembly to make Laws against the People called Quakers and to suppress them amongst which Will. Lessley and Will. Johnson and Priest VValker were very active But after their Paper was read in the House it s credibly affirmed they were advis'd to put it into their Pockets lest the Quakers by some means or other might procure the Copy of it and so they did their Deeds of Darkness being ashamed of the Light lest it should Reprove them Here follows George Foster's Testimony concerning Priest Lessey's Striking and Kicking of him INasmuch as William Lessley Priest of the Parish called St. John's doth revive his Rage and Malice against the People of God called Quakers and against the Precious Truth of God which they hold forth to all even That Christ Jesus is the True Light of the VVorld and that he hath Enlightened all Mankind with a measure of his True Light I say Inasmuch as he revives his Rage I think it not amiss to revive my Testimony which once I bore against him in his publick House of Speaking so far as I was permitted to speak which is That he is no True Minister of Christ Jesus the Lord of Life and Glory for his Fruits make him so manifest Once I went to his House Civilly to ask for some Goods that were due to me and he did fall upon me with several hard Blows and with Violence Thrust me out of his Porch and gave me one bad Kick in the Small of my Back as I went or was down the steps of the Porch Now let all Sober People judge and to God's Pure Witness in all Consciences I leave it to be judged Whether Priest Lessley's Dealings with me do not manifest him to be one of those whom Christ Jesus speaks of saying Many shall come in Sheep's Cloathing but inwardly they are Ravening Wolves by their Fruits ye shall know them George Foster This Paper was sent us about the 26th of the 8th Moneth 1671 somewhat before his Death To VVilliam Lessley VValker VVilliam Johnson VVilliam Frith Dyke and the rest of the Priests and Ministers in Barbadoes Friends IN much Terderness of Love and Yearning Bowels of Compassion some of us called Quakers but indeed True Christians came here to this Island through the Tender Mercy and Good Providence of our Heavenly Father to visit our Brethren in Spirit being thereunto moved by him as was the Practice of the Servants of the Most High in the Primitive Times before the Grand Apostacy so to do as you may read in Acts 15.36 37 c. and verse 40. Paul took Silas being recommended by the Brethren unto the Grace of God Now since I have been fully informed that you as your Fore-Fathers ever did in Ages past are the Main and Principal if not the only Instruments in the Hands of Antichrist to provoke and incite the Civil and Military Powers here in this Island to draw out their Swords against us to exercise I mean their Power to disturb our Peace and Quiet and to Persecute us as we read how Saul persecuted the Christians in Acts 9.1 2 c. which great Wickedness he acknowledgeth with much Ingenuity after he became Paul a Convert Gal. 1.13 1 Cor. 15.9 yea persecuted unto Death and into Prisons Acts 22.4 and 1 Tim. 1.13 I was saith he a Persecutor and a Blasphemer and Injurious but I obtained Mercy because I did it Ignorantly in Unbelief And even Paul himself after he I say became a Convert and a Preacher of Righteousness was sorely Persecuted but by whom Mark by the Chief Priests and Elders of the Jews who by one Tertullus their Orator informed the Governor against him saying We have found this man a Pestilent Fellow Mark and a Mover of Sedition among all the Jews throughout the World and a Ring-Leader of the Sect of the Nazarens who also hath gone about to Prophane the Temple c. Acts 24.1 2 3 c. and in the 14th verse they call that Way of Worship Heresie mark that For do not you so if not worse of us Christians in terming our Ministry Heresie and Blasphemy and what not as they did his then And you may read how Christ himself the Beloved Son of the Father the Saviour and Redeemer of the World who did no Sin who knew no Sin then whom no man spake like did not escape their Persecution viz. of the Priests So then this is plain that this has ever bin the usual and constant Practice of the Priests in all Ages and of the false Prophets false Apostles and Clergy and Ministers of Antichrist who falsly term themselves the True