Roberts his Son who Married this Fortune also broke and run away and left his Family like a Wilderness 3. Sam. Newton a great Preacher and Merchant having got into considerable Debts and cheated many fled beyond Sea and paid his Creditors nothing yet still continued a Preacher at Virginia and Maryland 4. Will. Gosnel another Preacher broke and fled beyond Sea and cheated many 5. Benjamin Antrobus another of their Infallible Preachers about Twenty Years together He broke against whom a Statute of Bankrupt was awarded imprison'd in Ludgate paid 5 s. in the Pound but whether his Journeyman Joseph Wyeth got what he lost I will not determine however he is now set up and serves to be the Cat 's Foot for the Quakers 6. Likewise Rebecca Traverse another of their Shee-Preachers and an Entertainer as well as a great Adorer of G. Fox yet the Fox was too many for her he grew Rich and she a Poor Zealot and could not pay her Debts 7. Tho. Burr another of their Infallible Guides and Chief Speakers broke and cheated many 8. Edw. Billing another of their great Writers and Infallible Doctors broke and cheated many 9. George Archer another of their great Preachers cast into Prison for Debt who was guilty of several Crimes also 10. I shall end their Teachers with Christopher Tayler of whose cheating some are still alive Joseph Clark is by himself and must go into the Cage for a Sodomite Now as to their Hearers 1. Brasy a Goldsmith broke for many Thousands against whom a Statute was awarded 2. As also against James Boswell by whom a Brother-in-law of mine lost 100 l. and a Kinsman of mine with his share in the Charge of the Statute 500 l. 3. One French 4. Northcott the Quakers great Bookseller 5. One Olive 6. Robert Goodwin 7. Henry Stone who never yet paid his Composition Money at 5 s. in the Pound 8. Tho. Plumstead 9. Cade of Norwich 10. And Edw. Firth of Mildenhall a great stickler for Quakerism who in his Life-time cheated many by borrowing Money and buying Goods and died not worth any thing so that many of his Creditors and that for great Sums too had not a Penny of their Debts These were all Followers of their Darkness within which they call Light And the Question being put can any Sin that follow this Light It may says J. Wyeth be safely Answered No by which they seem to say that these and the like practices are not Sinful If they shall answer me no these are Sins I then ask why they do not then ask forgiveness for their Sins George Whitehead's Fallacy Reproved In his ANSWER to My Pilgrim's Progress c. GEORGE I Have seen thy Book A Rambling Pilgrim c. said to be an Answer to two Books of mine i. e. The Pilgrim's Progress c. A Modest Defence c. which is so far from being an Answer that it doth not touch at the Tenth part of the Books and that little you spoke to have to them who will compare the Books rather confirms what I charge you withal than otherwise But that I may shew for your Peoples sake how you wilfully mistake me and the state of the Charge and then mislead your People c. I find the first part of your Book is chiefly to insinuate that I said the Sermon was Geo. Whitehead's of his Forming of his Preaching and that in so many Words and thereupon you call it Forgery Now George this is all Fallacy For thou knowest George in thy Conscience that I never intended to have it believed that you at your Yearly Meeting Preached that very Sermon in so many Words but that I did it to expose your Errors contain'd in your Books out of which that Sermon was by me form'd and in p. 108. and p. 222. of the Second Edition it is expresly said A Sermon for George Whitehead to hold Forth c. And the Chapter before gives several Reasons why I proceeded in that unusual method So that your way to have done your Cause good and your People good had been to have confuted me first Touching your Doctrine which I alledged out of your Books Secondly That your Practice is otherwise than by me represented This had been your way to have confuted my Arguments and to have established your People But for you thus to act against Light and Knowledge is such a self-condemn'd Practice that as for your own sake as well as your People whom you mislead I could be glad to see you leave it now in your Old Age. Take one instance A Rambling Pilgrim c. p. 5. Francis Bugg makes Geor. Whitehead thus speak Friends I am now come to the last thing propos'd to speak to on this Solemn Occasion first Respecting Confession of Sin shewing your Exaltation above the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles c. as at large in p. 221. of this Book so that I need not repeat it Now what Answer George dost thou make to this Dost thou say 't is your Friends Practice to make Confession of Sin to God in your Prayers Not a word of it Dost thou prove in any one page of those 5555555 I there mention that you ever recommended the practice of making Confession of Sin to God and begging his Pardon for Christ's sake Not a word of it Dost thou prove out of any of those Books wrote by thy self Fox Burroughs c. that ever you recommended the Practice of the Ten Commandments the Lord's Prayer the Apostles Creed either to be read in your Families or in your Religious Meetings practiced or the reading the Scripture in your Meetings Not a word of it No here is no denial of Matter of Fact out of your Books nor the natural Consequences deduceable therefrom or your practice agreeable to the same And that it may appear so take your Answer in your own words viz. Thus Fran. Bugg represents me Preaching such stuff as I never preached in my Life nor ever own'd any such flattery or deceit as to exalt any Auditory above the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles c. or to disswade any from making Confession of Sin or asking Pardon for Christ's sake who have need of both or who have not received forgiveness of their Sin First It 's not what you did not disswade from that we are examining but what you perswade to We want not Negatives but Affirmatives here you leave your Reader in the Dark Can you prove that in all those Books and Pages recited that you ever made Confession of Sin that you ever asked Pardon for Christ's sake that you in your Religious Meetings or in your Families practiced the Lord's Prayer the Ten Commandments the Apostles Creed that you ever read the Holy Scriptures in your Meetings or further that you ever in all or any one of your Books recommended the practice thereof If not the Charge lyes still against you and your Negative Answers rather confirm what is said than otherwise As to your Certificate p. 28.
the Superlative degree and will give them further ground to believe that when the Government have leisure to examine them and that they are willing to wait it will let the Quakers see they have nothing to do with Queen Elizabeth's Motto Much suspected by me Nothing proved can be and that they 'll be forc'd to sing another Song and to change their Motto viz. Many things are fairly mov'd And also as fully prov'd by me Fra. Bugg Now follows a short Discourse by way of Dialogue between Jacob the Wet Quaker and a Civilian for diversion-sake after a piece of hard Drudgery viz. Civilian Oh! Friend Jacob how dost thou do Come let us have a Bottle of Red and half an Hours Chat. Quaker With all my Heart pray what 's the News Civ News I know but little I meddle not with State Affairs But to be free with you I was astonisht at your Deportment the other Day at the Commons Lobby towards Fra. Bugg when he gave away his Book to the Members of Parliament and how Imperiously you Menaced him whose grey Hairs might have commanded your better Respect and perhaps may be as good a Man as your self if your Debts were paid bidding him put off his Hat to the Members which with great respect he did and needed not your Doctrine which had been fitter for your self to have observ'd and the morose Clowns your Brethren who neither respect your Superiors nor regard your Betters Besides you cannot but know how many of your Teachers are and have been guilty of gross Immoralities as Gerard Roberts and his Son Thomas together with Newton Gosnell Billing Antrobus Archer Burr Travers Murford Taylor Clark c. besides your Hearers as Bracy Boswell Plumstead Northcott French Stone Firth Olive Goodwin Cadey c. besides what he has put in the Cage of Unclean Birds in his Pilgrim's Progress 2d Edit p. 294. Qua. Hold Friend thee seem'st to be in a Passion thou saw as soon as I perceiv'd how the Members took his Books and the People shew'd their dislike I came away Civ I am not angry but since in your Reply to his Modest Defence c. p. 8. you seem to allow the liberty of Printing why are you so angry with him since you have not power as in Pensilvania where you both Fined Imprisoned and took away the Printer's Tools for so much as Printing an Appeal since he does no more than you practice and seem now to allow Qua. Be not mistaken we are an Innocent People and vindicate Truth and Innocency Civ Again p. 7. ibid. you say You are ready to make it appear that your Books are not Blasphemous Again p. 11. We are ready to undertake the proof of every Doctrine we hold by and from the Scriptures Qua. We are ready and dare undertake it Civ To the first I answer 't is impossible for in his Book to the Parliament he has Reprinted one of your Books in which is horrible Blasphemy writ by G. Whitehead c. to the second I say Fra. Bugg has Challenged your Teachers Fifty times and G. Keith as many yet you are not ready to vindicate either your Doctrine or the Books which contain them and since that Whitehead seldom appear'd at Parliament Qua. I grant that Book has put a sad damp on our Friends but you must know that giving us G. Whitehead's Method in his Truth and Innocency c. viz. of leaving out words and adding words to and transposing words we dare meet them As for instance in the last Recital adding two words Never and Any and putting out Every and it should run thus We are Never ready to undertake the proof of any Doctrine we hold Civ This is brave Work indeed any thing may do at this rate pray what say you to p. 11. ibid. where you grant that were it not for the Act of Toleration your Monthly Quarterly and Yearly Meetings were illegal but yet they relating to Religion are allowed by the Act whilst in another Book where being charged with the Doors of their Meeting being Lock'd Barr'd or bolted A Just Censure c. p. 26. there you say these Meetings are not designed for Worship and 't is plain none besides Religious Meetings are tolerated by the Act what say you to this Qua. I perceive thou dost not know us nor our way which is to carry two Faces under one Religious Hood you must not measure us by our words but by our meaning and that of our own giving too and if thee wilt but be a Friend to us I will give thee as good a Hamper of Wine as ever thee didst tip over Tongue Civ This is all downright Hypocrisie for at this rate no Man can tell either your Faith or Principles And as to your Present I will not accept thereof for a Gift may pervert and my Religion to me is more than all nor am I so mean spirited to betray my Conscience for all the Wine in thy Cellar But Friend there is another thing in which I would be satisfied namely your answering Books wherein you falsifie the Text drop Words split Sentences and marr the Sence of your Opponant's Argument I will give you but one Instance in a Sheet presented to the Parliament by Fra. Bugg with a Scheme of your Yearly Meeting c. Col. 2. Reason 6. In one sort of their Books they pretend to Love Own and Honour the King yea to Pray for all Men for Kings and all that are in Authority but in their contrary sort of Books they tell you That all Kings and Emperors sprung up in the Night since the Days of the Apostles among the Antichrists that they own no King but Jesus nor no Government but the Government of the Lamb that they are Traytors against Christ that desire an Earthly King Do you read say the Quakers that there were any Kings since the Days of the Apostles but among the Apostate Christians That Kings are the Spiritual Egyptians Oh what a Sincerity was once in the Nation What a dirty nasty thing it would have been to have heard talk of a House of Lords among them A Parliament chosen by most Voices are not like to act for God and the good of his People It was thorow Ignorance that the People subjected themselves to Hereditary Government or to the Government standing in a single Person successively and our Nation have been under Bondage on this Account Now all that the Quakers in their Just Censure c. p. 18. recite is as followeth viz. In one sort of our Books we seem to Own Love and Honour the King yea to Pray for all Men for Kings and all that are in Authority but in the other sort of our Books we tell People that Kings and Emperors sprung up in the Night and among Apostate Christians and that we are against the English Government c. Now how short and defective they are herein is obvious by comparing each Qua. Friends Intentions are good they
in the Power of the Highest in which thou Rules and Governs in Righteousness and thy Kingdom is Established in Peace and the Increase thereof is without end Judas and the Jews p. 44. Secondly Dear and Precious one in whom my Life is bound up and my Strength in thee stand by thy Breathings I am nourished by thee my Strength is renewed I cannot Reign but in thy Presence and Power Glory unto thee Holy One (p) Holy George for ever John Audland's Letter to George Fox Thirdly George Fox said John Blaikling is blessed with Honour above many Brethren and Thousands will stand by him in a Heavenly Record that his Life Reigns and is Spotless whose Eternal Honour and Blessed Renown shall remain yea his Presence and the Dropping of his tender Words in the Lord's Love was my Soul's Nourishment The Christian disting Part 5. p. 77. Fourthly George Fox a Prophet indeed it was said of Christ that he was in the World and the VVorld was made by him and the VVorld knew him not SO it may be said of this Prophet G. Fox The Quak. Challenge p. 6. Fifthly To confirm all this William Mead now living when he gave William Harris one of George Fox's Journals he said to him Here W. Harris I will give thee one of Geo. Fox's Journals it is a very good Book yea better than the Bible Object 1. But some may say this is only W. Mead's Judgment surely the Quakers do not hold that either their Books or Fox's Journal is better or of greater Authority than the Bible for the Fathers and Councils all submitted to the Test of Holy Scripture as the VVord of God Answ To this I answer That W. Mead is a knowing Man I will not say a wise Man unless in that one Action of his whereby he vigorously opposed W. Penn and endeavoured to exclude him out of their Ministry when he was proclaimed a Traytor to his Country for being charged to be in the Plot with the Lord Preston and others and was therefore forced to hide many Years and for which his Preface to Fox's Journal was not admitted to be bound up with the Journal but waited upon it like a poor Lacquey with its Blue Livery I say this Action of his excepted I will not say he was a wise Man yet as I said he is a knowing Man and spake the Heart of Quakerism in saving George Fox's Journal is better than the Bible First As you have heard 't is question'd by the Quakers VVhether Moses or Hermes was the first Pen-man of the Scripture indeed VVhether either or neither of them The Quakers Refuge fixed c. p. 17. But as for what G. Fox and Friends write it is from and by the Motion of God's Eternal Spirit and avouched so to be by a General Council of the Yearly Meeting (q) Held at London May 1695. And what any of our Friends speak from the Spirit of Truth is of greater Authority than the Bible and Chapters are Truth defending the Quakers c. p. 7. Now who can blame W. Mead on the Quakers Principles Is not a Certainty better than an Uncertainty Secondly The Scriptures lay many Obligations upon us it teacheth us the Observation of the Ten Commandments the Lord's Prayer the Apostles Creed Baptism and the Lord's Supper which the Journal does not at all teach nor inforce the Belief of only to listen adhere and hearken to the Light within and to obey its Dictates Therefore as the Journal is most certain so it is most easie and therefore the best Book and of most Authority and on the Quakers Hypothesis confirm all those Particulars above quoted Thirdly The Scripture teacheth to obey Magistrates as the higher Power and that we should submit our selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake Matth. 22.21 Titus 3.1 Rom. 13.1,2,3 1 Pet. 2.13,14,17 See also Tindal's VVorks Obedience to a Christian Man c. p. 111. But the Journal p. 40 to 400. and our Friends Books teach both by Precept and Example That the Light in every Man is the higher Power to whom all must submit and obey for to it all Power in Heaven and Earth is committed Jos Coale's VVork p. 93. and that this Light is one in the Male and in the Female but to a proud heady high-minded Man there is no Honour due tho' he be in a place to Rule Smith's Primer p. 43. And if so who can say that W. Mead spake unadvisedly in saying The Journal of Fox is better than the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles I think him a right Quaker a knowing Man and one that loves a Certainty better than an Uncertainty Fourthly The Scriptures teach That VVomen should obey their Husbands yea that they Reverence them and live in Subjection to them as their Head Gen. 3.16 Numb 30 to the end 1 Cor. 11.8 1 Pet. 3.1 Tit. 2.5 Colos 3.18 Ephes 5.22 quoting Sarah as an Example But the Journal teaches That the Light is the higher Power that it is one in the Male and in the Female and 't is the Light in each that is to be obeyed for to that all Power in Heaven and Earth is committed Smith's Primer p. 13. The Journal p. 50 to 450. and that there is to be no respect of Persons and if the VVife conceive her Husband to be gone from the Light and the Guidance of it and she be moved to rebel against her Husband betray his Secrets to his Adversaries yea to give publick Testimony against him she does well and shall have Praise of the same The Content Apostate c. p. 5. And for this Reason the Quakers do not put in or make the VVoman promise by their Marriage Certificate to obey their Husbands which as it is contrary to the Tenure of the whole Book of God both the Old and New Testament so 't is agreeable to G. Fox's Journal and their Antient Testimony See their Marriage Certificate Fifthly In a word the Scriptures teach That Children should obey their Parents and honour their Father and Mother that Servants should obey their Masters that Subjects should submit to their Governours and obey Magistrates that Christians should obey their Pastors who are over them in the Lord who watch for their Souls as those that must give an Account But the Journal p. 20 to 320. teaches the contrary both by Precept upon Precept as also by the Practice of their great Apostle G. Fox who not only broke the Laws in disturbing the Ministers in their Churches but taught so to do not only refused to pay Tythes but taught so to do not only slighted the Magistrates Command who oftentimes commanded a strict Fast to be kept but taught his Followers so to do Nay lately one Thomas Mash an Antient Quaker living at Newberry in Berkshire was moved by his Light within to open his Shop-VVindows on the Lord's-Day as on Market Days and set out his Goods to Sale this the Journal justifies p. 200 to the
Sodomites Witches Devils c. those of calling Christ A Garment A Vessel The Sandy Foundation shaken p. 5 to 65. I Answer The reason why we call them so and Translate the Words of Christ John 5.22,27 from the Son of Man to the Light within us * * The Quakers Reason for denying the Blessed Trinity Is because we believe there is no other Son of Man than the Light within us which was in the Jews Gentiles c. before his Incarnation according to my Gospel and the Gospel of my Brother Jeffrey Bullock where we say Therefore the Man Christ Jesus was before He came in the Body or Flesh Judgment fixed c. p. 316 356. For to be plain with you according to our Ancient Testimony we own no other Trinity nor God than is within us for the Light is God the Light is the Son of Man the Light is the Holy Ghost and we having obtained the Repute to be a well-meaning People and tell the Priests in Answer to their Demand Do you own the Trinity Do you own the Sacraments c. We tell them we deny their Unscriptural Terms Where is the Words Trinity and Sacrament in the Scriptures Tho' we are not such Fools but we know the Word Trinity came from the Latin Word Trinitas and Sacrament from Sacra or Sacramentum a Holy Institution or Sacrament yet to hide our selves from the Dint of their Arguments we tell them They are not Scripture Terms Nay even this Sessions of Parliament when the House of Commons were preparing a Bill against such as denied the Trinity we soon perceived what might follow and we gave in a Paper intituled Some Considerations upon the Bill for the more effectual Suppressing of Blasphemy and Prophaneness Humbly offer'd saying Whereas the Bill enacts That if any Person or Persons c. shall deny any of the Persons in the Holy Trinity to be God and make it punishable by the same Bill were it not more safe and plain to put it in Scripture Terms as instead of Deny any one of the Persons to be God to insert If any one shall deny any of the Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word or the Holy Ghost to be God 1 Joh. 5.7 Now if we can keep the Parliament to these Words we shall hide our selves and retain our Ancient Testimony unshaken Again If any of you should yet Object that notwithstanding we according to our Ancient Testimony call the Scriptures Death Dust Beastly Ware Serpents Meat c. News coming up out of the North c. p. 14. A Brief Discovery of a three-fold State c. p. 9. and say That whoever Preach out of them are Conjurers c. Saul's Errand to Damascus c. p. 7. Yet notwithstanding all this we profess to prefer the Holy Scriptures above all other Books extant in the World The Counterfeit Convert c. p. 26 27. To this I Answer That you must observe the Context as well as the Text and then you shall see we do not interfere for in the same Book p. 72. viz. I may see Cause otherwise to word the Matter and yet our Intentions be the same Besides Beloved I would have none mistake me for tho' I am the Man that did say we prefer the Scriptures above all other Books extant in the World which in one Sense is true yet not in another The Count. Conv. c. p. 26. First I hope you do not understand it of its Intrinsick Value of its Real Authority so as to be a Rule of Faith and Practice and that the Commands therein are Obligatory upon Us if you do you are greatly mistaken and that for these Reasons following And First That which is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures or Chapters are and greater Truth defending the Quakers c. p. 7. Secondly That is no Command from God to me what he commands to another Neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scriptures act by the Command which was to another not having the Command to themselves c. Burrough's Works p. 47. Thirdly No Command in the Scriptures is any further obliging upon any Man than as he finds a Conviction upon his Conscience otherwise Men should be engaged without if not against Conviction a thing unreasonable in a Man Quakerism a New Nick-name c. p. 71. Fourthly To this triple treble Cord which I think is not easily broken let me add our constant Practice ever since we have been a People and it will not only confirm these Proofs but shew our Sincerity to our Ancient Testimony I say as a Proof that we do not prefer the Scriptures above our own Books let it suffice That this Forty-eight Years never an Apostate that ever went from us can prove nay not once say if they 'll do us justice * * George what you say is true I am a Witness to thy Sincerity herein that ever we read any one Chapter in the Bible or any one Epistle of the Apostles in our Meetings whilst it hath been our frequent Practice to read our own Epistles And surely if we deemed the Scriptures best most certain and more edifying for us respecting our Ancient Testimony you may depend on 't that we would read the Scriptures in our Meetings nay we challenge all our Adversaries to shew us one Book of our Friends in the Unity that ever so much as recommended the reading any one Chapter or any one Epistle of the Apostles in our Meetings Thus much in Answer to one part of the Objection with respect to the Truth Certainty Value and Worth of the Scriptures But still I say they are occasionally good and in one Sense I do prefer the Scriptures above our own Books and then you may lay your Lives on 't above all Books in the World for sometimes the Scriptures as the Case may stand are like the Philosopher's Stone what they touch they turn into Gold And in that Sense our Confession to the Parliament with the Consequences are a Demonstration viz. I believe with my Heart and confess with my Mouth the Sacred ††Sacred an unscriptural Word yet it now will down with these new Saints to serve a turn c. Scriptures to be Divine left us by Men inspired of God as an exact Rule of our Faith and Behaviour and I profess to believe in One Only God who is the Father and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son very God and very Man and in the Holy Spirit one and the same God with the Father and Son Blessed for evermore The Gen. Hist of the Quakers p. 112. Now my Friends tho' this Confession be as contrary to our Ancient Testimony as Light is contrary to Darkness as by our Books quoted you may see yet we kept our Meaning to our selves we mean'd at the same time The Scriptures to be Dust Death and Serpents Meat News coming up
Consideration the Title of Anguis Flagellatus or A Switch for the Snake and by this Slight and piece of Cunning think to avoid the Dint of his Arguments and turn it upon himself tho' indeed they have thereby Lasht themselves Besides they have perverted his Meaning for they knew well enough that Obscure Quakerism was the Snake which that Reverend Author designed to discover And they ought in Point of Justice either to have acquitted themselves thereof by way of Argument or else to have condemned one sort of their Books which rendred them guilty of his Charge For when they wrote a Book against Mr. Pennyman Mr. Mucklow and the Anabaptists they Intitled it Judas and the Jews Now Judas could not in strictness be attributed to the first no not Figuratively because they did not so much as betray the Truths of the Gospel to the Enemies thereof Nor could they with any colour charge the latter to be Jews who own and profess Jesus of Nazareth to be their Saviour Whereas they might rationally have return'd those Names Judas and the Jews to the Quakers for they agree with them in Fundamentals * See W. Penn's Serious Apol. p. 146. Joh. 14.28 19.27 The Quakers they deny the Person that suffered at Jerusalem to be the Son of God And the Jews said they had a Law and by it they put him to Death because he said he was the Son of God Thus much briefly for the Title But Secondly II. About Splitting Sentences Now as to Splitting Sentences mangling curtailing and dropping what is not for their Turn let us see whether the Quakers are not guilty of what they so fearfully complain of as a Fault in the Author of The Snake in the Grass c. almost quite through their Anguis c. For this see their Standard of the Lord lifted up c. by Chr. Atkinson and Edw. Burroughs where E. B. in his Epistle said thus I was moved to go see him John Gilpen and his Will was at Liberty above the Judgment tho' the Judgment was upon the Head of the Beast in him and a true Power working which I did own but his will not being kept in Subjection c. Now the words which I did own the Quakers drop as not for their Turn For it would have shewed that this E. Burroughs the Quakers Prophet and Son of Thunder did own this Gilpin in his Blasphemies and Possessions of the Devil * See the Snake c. Edit 3. p. 288. and Anguis Flagellat p. 446. And a second Instance of their Curtailing is the Author of the Snake in the Grass hath charged the Quakers with an Idolatrous Letter of Josiah Coale's to G. Fox as in p. 261. herein and there you will see that the Quakers have dropt these words And thy Kingdom is established in Peace and the Increase thereof is without end †See the Snake c. Edit 3. p. 115. and Anguis c. p. 180. I say these words were so manifestly blasphemously Idolatrous that the Quakers were forced to drop them altho' the other part shews sufficiently the Quakers Idolatry But thirdly and that I may shew my Reader that this is no new thing to find them curtailing mincing and mangling Sentences how much soever they complain of others I shall recite one Passage more to shew it their old Craft and cunning Slight by which they lye in wait to Deceive and that from an old profound Practitioner in that Black Art namely Geo. Whitehead who in one of his Books The Contentious Apostate Recharged c. pag. 5 6 7. citing one Line here one Line there and sometimes five Words out of the middle of a Line As for Example out of my Book Battering Rams against New-Rome thus p. 12. l. 10. in some 50 l. per Annum not touching the Matter either before or after A notable nonsuch way to confute an Adversary and to dispatch Answers Again Your only way is when Cash grows low to issue out and then he gives a good Leap out of this Line having taken the middle of it into the middle of the next Line and then takes out of it a Letter and two Words viz. A General Epistle and from thence he skips to the last three Words in the next Line i. e. Your own Service and now he hops to the next Line and takes one single Word i. e. for and leaves the next Word as and then catches up the next Word Money and then gives a good stride into another Line and gets a good quantity of Words i. e. 'T is a good Encouragement to your Preachers and Parasites which being put together as we use to join Syllables when I was a Boy and went to School it runs thus Your way is when your Cash grows low to issue out a General Epistle for your own Service for Money 't is a great Encouragement to your Preachers and Parasites Now Reader dost thou not think Whitehead was sorely put to it to Answer that Book of mine But grant that yet who would think that these Men should find fault with others for splitting Sentences for mincing and mangling into Bits and Scraps I say who would imagine that these foul Perverters these horrible Jugglers should have the Impudence to complain of others And which is still worse without Cause For of this I am sure there is not a Man that Quotes fairer nor with more Caution than that Author has all along done For tho' neither he nor Mr. Crisp nor Mr. Keith nor my self do often quote from one another and all to avoid their causeless Cavils yet I am confident no Men can be more careful than we all are I will not deny but we all three lend that Author Books as we do one to another and as I within a Month lent a Friend of his and for his Use Forty of the Quakers old Books Printed in 1653 1654 1655 and 1656 most of which he never saw before yet if we did Quote from one another I hope it would be of as good Authority as for them to Quote one another's Books which yet they frequently do * An Instance you have in their Ang. Flagellat p. 155. and divers other places and that oft-times falsly too by splitting Sentences and dropping what is not for their Turn as in the first and second Instances and an hundred more could I enlarge thereon But this is but a Preface and therefore I must be brief yet I shall raze their Foundation which is Hypocrisie But to proceed III. Their Sinless Perfection and Infallibility I am now come to their principal Pillar upon which their Building chiefly stands For a Question being put to them in these Words Whether a Man can Sin while he follows this Light * Snake Edit 3. p. 10. The Quakers Answer is in these Words It may be safely answered No †See their Anguis p. 44. Now this Answer is according to their Ancient Testimony For I have in this
Treatise p. 40. shewed they own themselves Infallible and from pag. 222 to 248. that they pretend they do not Sin and upon that Pretence do not ask Forgiveness of Sin But then from p. 248 to p. 284 I have shewed that even John Moone one of their Preachers and Judges mentioned p. 31. compared with p. 270. did Sin Nay G. Smith for whose walking in and following his Light G. Whitehead and S. Cater Avouch yet he Sinned as in p. 274 to p. 282. Insomuch that I have thereby razed their Foundation and their whole Building begins to totter and will assuredly fall to the ground IV. Their Negatives to Popery The Author of the Snake in the Grass c. having charged the Quakers in these Words * See the Snake c. Edit 3. p. 189. That of all the Dissenters now in England the Quakers have come nearest the Church of Rome they only have taken up the Popish Pretence of Infallibility unless they will bring in Lodowick Muggleton * See their Anguis c. p. 286. c. To which the Quakers reply in these Words Neither any of the Dissenters nor the Church of England do hold more Negatives in Doctrine to Rome than do the Quakers For we say the Quakers do not only hold all the Negatives which any of them do hold but also more c. Now by way of Addition to the Arguments of the Reverend Author of the Snake c. and in Confutation of the Quakers Defence I shall offer these Instances following to prove that the Quakers come nearest in Doctrine to the Romish Church and that they do not hold a Negative Doctrine to the Romish Church in these Ten following Instances viz. 1. In the Doctrine of Infallibility 2. No Salvation out of their Church 3. The Quakers pretence to Miracles 4. About the sole Judge of Controversies 5. In their Contempt of the Ministers 6. In their Contempt of the Holy Scriptures 7. About their Vnwritten Traditions 8. Touching Idolatry 9. The Pope of Rome and Pope Fox 10. About the Quakers Church being the one only Church of Christ Reader this being the last of the Four Pillars upon which the whole Fabrick of Quakerism stands tho' there are some other Crutches which stand as Shores to prop it up I shall be the longer upon it in order to raze the very Foundation of Quakerism shewing the Oneness of the Doctrine of New Rome with her Elder Sister For when A. S. a Roman Catholick wrote his Book The Reconciler of Religions c. J. Coale an Eminent Quaker-Teacher wrote a Reply to it Intituled The Whore Vnvailed c. by which as with a Key we may unlock their Mystery and see how near Quakerism is to Popery And I. In the Doctrine of Infallibility The Whore unvailed c. p. 4. says Jos Coale A. S. his first Argument to prove the Church of Rome to be the True Church are as followeth viz. Visible Infallible Inerrible in which is the Power of Miracles out of which none can be Saved c. Now to begin with the first and principal Pillar of both Romish and Quaker Church namely Infallibility Jos Coale in his Whore Vnvailed c. p. 12. thus The Infallibility of the True Church of which Christ as the Head I do not go about to deny but that the Church of Rome is Infallible that I do deny This then is a plain Confession that they both agree in the Doctrine of Infallibility only they differ which of the twain is this True Church in which this Infallibility is * See p. 40. in this Book II. None are Saved out of the True Church A. S. having laid it down as a Positive Doctrine That none can be Saved out of the True Church which Church says he is the Roman Church To which Jos Coale in his Whore c. pag. 18. thus replies That thing I do not at all deny * And that is the true Reason why they will neither Marry nor Bury with us nor join with us in giving Thanks to God for Food c. but that none can be saved out of the Roman Church that I do deny for the Church of Rome is not the true Church but the Whore c. Herein it is also confessed that they both agree in this Point of Doctrine so that the Quaker-Church doth not hold herein a Negative Doctrine to that of Rome which both the Church of England and the Protestant Dissenters do III. Of Miracles in the True Church A. S. having affirmed p. 4. That in the True Church there is Power of working Miracles to which J. Coale replies in the Whore c. p. 16. saving And as concerning Miracles in the True Church I do confess and bear Witness that there are Miracles wrought in her daily c. Here then is a Third Point wherein the Quaker-Church doth not hold a Negative Doctrine to the Church of Rome which both the Church of England Protestant Dissenters do both agreeing that the Papists Legend and Fox's Journal are Fabulous and meer Shams IV. The Judge of all Controversies A. S. in Chap. 4. affirms The Church is Judge in Matters of Faith to which J. Coale replies in the Whore c. p. 28. saying That the Judgment of the true Church of which Christ i. e. the Light within them is Head I do not deny * See p. 30. Which shews the Harmony between the Popish and Quaker Church for the Judgment thereof must of necessity be true and ought to be submitted to But the Church of Rome not being the true Church she is not Judge of Controversies in Matters of Faith This then is the Fourth Point in which the Quakers do not hold a Negative Doctrine to the Romish Church the Difference only is which of them twain is the True Church which of right ought to be Judge in all Matters of Controversie and the one gives as good Reason as the other V. Contempt of Ministers A. S. in Chap. 14. calls our Protestant Ministers Intruders Thieves Robbers Hypocrites Ravenous Wolves Murderers Sons of Belial False Prophets and Priests of Baal c. Now to shew that the Quakers do not hold a Negative Doctrine herein read p. 173 174 248 to 251. VI. Contempt of the Holy Scriptures A. S. in Chap. 14. calls our Bible A Brazen-fac'd Book an unjust corrupt and perverse Bible Now that the Quakers do not hold a Negative Doctrine to the Romish Church herein is plain First because they call the Scriptures Death Dust Serpents Meat Beastly Ware a Rotten Foundation and the like contemptuous Names which are frequently quoted in the ensuing Discourse and others of my Books but also in that they Reprinted this fourteenth Chapter of A. S.'s without any Rebuke for their Contempt of the Scriptures as above noted and in plain Words tell us in p. 40. saying I find the rest of his i. e. A. S.'s Book to consist of divers Arguments in which he controverts with
about your Cottage you that can forge Certificates and set Mens Names to it without their Privity Knowledge or Consent as you did that from Huntington in your Book Judgment fixed as Anne Docwra in her Letter to Mr. Crisp March 25. 1684. says you did what credit is to be given to it And besides those three Certifiers conclude thus On credible Information we verily Believe Here then is but their belief on Information and I am credibly informed of what I wrote so the Reader is left to believe as he is perswaded The like may be said of Will. Mead touching his saying to William Harris that Fox's Journal is a better Book than the Bible this Will. Mead does not deny under his Hand I have only Geor. Whitehead's word for it and he that can forge Certificates is not to be believed Again p. 38. What Earnings didst thou F. B. make in the late Discourse before the Bishop of Norwich and the four Members of Parliament where I discovered thy repeated Falshoods Forgery Deceit and Wickedness in divers Matters And how thou wert counfounded when Matters were closely urg'd against thee c. Now George thou knowest in thy own Conscience that this is a Lie spoken in Hypocrisie on purpose to mislead thy Disciples for thou didst not prove one false Quotation Matter or Thing against me But I proved thee guilty of contempt of the Scriptures in exalting your sayings above them as of greater Authority and for the truth of this I submit my self to those Five Persons present one of them having often shewed his Approbation of my management of that Affair These things George do not redound to thy Credit and I can truly say I am sorry for thee George we both grow Ancient let us write for the good of others not for Victory for my part I do upon the word of a Christian design it and if I saw my self in an Error I should willingly submit Again P. 46. Beside the false Printing and bad English as Fr. B. has exposed my Book Ishmael there is another defect after the words The Lake is thy Portion which is the Portion of Liars the words except thou speedily repent are omitted there and in some other places To which I Answer let any body compare your Book Ishmael and his Mother cast out c. in the Original Impression in Quarto and the Reprint in my Modest Desence c. Part 2. and they shall find it for English Comma's and Points and Words the same For in the Quarto Impression p. 3. l. 15. there is we for wo as in Mod. Def. p. 7. l. 13. there is also we for wo and so in all other places where it was bad English and false Spelled and false Pointed so it is Reprinted And as for the words except thou speedily repent being left out I do positively say 't is a most horrid Lie there is not a word in the whole Book left out so careful was I. And how then canst thou pretend to be a Consciencious Writer when in the face of the Sun thou canst thus Prevaricate Dissemble and Lie and that knowingly What is become George of thy seriousness sincerity and plainness thou so often boasts of Again P. 34. He F. B. assumes the boldness to promote in Print an Abstract of two Letters of two Clergymen I pray God open the Eyes of our Governours and cause them to take into Consideration this too much and too deplorable unlimited and unbounded Tolleration especially as the Quakers both claim and use it c. as in Pil. Prog. p. 175. was not this says George a piece of insolent confidence to expose this in Print and thus openly to oppose the Liberty Granted and legally Confirmed by King and Parliament and thus to render our Governours blinds c. Now as I think this was a good Prayer so do I think it no boldness to expose it in Print For George it was not the Liberty Granted and by Law Confirmed which these Clergymen either called unlimited or unbounded for the liberty granted is both limited and bounded as from divers branches of the Laws appear and particularly by the very Act of Tolleration see p. 86 88 101 189 339. No the unbounded Liberty which the Quakers take claim and use is what the Clergy is against and which they Pray the Government would take into their Consideration and I am sure it is a base bold and insolent thing George in you to expose in Print that the Clergy would represent the King and Parliament blind But I have not herein room to set forth your baseness in calling all Kings Spiritual Egyptians all that own any King since the days of Christ Apostates that Parliaments chosen by most Voices are not like to Act for God or the Good of his People that Parliaments are the Beast that carry the Whore Nay in your Book The West Answering to the North c. you justifie the Murther of King Charles I. saying The cutting off his Head was a remarkable Record of the Righteous Judgment of God and for a true sight of these your Antimonarchical as well as Antimagistratical Principles see p. 157. to p. 175. hereafter And George you tell us in Print that your Principles are now no other than they were in the beginning And what they were in the beginning I in this Book the Pilg. Prog. c. have set forth And I think it is both bold and insolent Confidence in you to revive all these your horrid Principles destructive to Government and Humane Society by telling us you are the same in Principles still and I am afraid we may in this believe you In the next place I shall shew even thee George what Liberty the Quakers both use and claim which not only those two Clergymen but many Ten Thousands both of Laity and Clergy are against First Your sending into the Churches Challenges as your Friends did at West-Dereham Secondly Your going from House to House like the Popish Priests to seduce the People inviting them to your Meetings giving them Books which say the Quakers are the one only Church of Christ and that out of your Church there is no Salvation Thirdly That your Monthly Quarterly Six Week Second Day and Yearly Meetings where you revive your old Treasonable Principles which Meetings are expresly against the very Act of Tolleration these and the like as in the ensuing Discourse are the Meetings and the Practices both used and claim'd by you Namely to hold Convocations which the Established Church without Licence from His Majesty cannot legally do These and the like Practices of yours all good Christians and the Laws of the Land are against and I still pray God to give the Nation a sight and sence of it before it be too late In Answer to your 48th Page I query thus Whether it be not as proper for me to Address His Majesty on the behalf of the Church of England and other sound Protestants who hold the
not the Son of God only a Vail a Garment or a Vessel in which the Son did inhabit which now inhabit in us Believers and for which Reason the Names JESUS and CHRIST belong to us as well as to him that suffer'd For saith George Fox our great Apostle and High Priest of our Profession the Jews had a Law that if any one said he was the Son of God he was to die and so the Law in the Will doth persecute THE SON OF GOD NOW where HE is MADE MANIFEST as the NORTH PART of this Nation doth witness who hath fulfilled that Law in Persecuting and Imprisoning THE SON OF GOD where HE is MADE MANIFEST i e. within us those who quaked at the Word of the Lord was ever hated and scorned and in such THE SON OF MAN is manifest We believe an Inward Resurrection with the Light within but deny the Resurrection of the Body laid in the Grave Books of the Quakers which prove these to be their Tenets and a Hundred times as much are these Geo. Fox Jun.'s VVorks Edw. Burrough's VVorks Saul's Errand G. Fox's Journal Truth defending the Quakers c. A Lamentation by one of England's Prophets c. Judgment fixed c. Jos Coal's Works The Quakers Refuge c. W. Smith's Primmer c. A Discovery of Man's Return by W. D. Ishmael and his Mother cast out by G. Whitehead and three other chief Speakers A Brief Discovery of a threefold Estate of Antichrist c. News coming up out of the North Ste. Crisp's Primer printed 1682. The Apostate Incendiary W. Penn's serious Apology The Quakers Challenge A Question to Professors by Is Pennington A Lamentation by one of England's Prophets c. printed at York 1653. A Dispute at Chesterfeild 1655. See the Fifth Chapter following upon which I conclude thus If as they write they do indeed believe Then I affirm this their very Creed If not who can with Safety them believe Who Write and Print the Simple to deceive 2. The Commandments of G. Fox the Quakers second Moses somewhat Abbreviated and taken out of several of his Books I. Thou shalt not pay Tythes to the covetous Priests nor to the Antichristian Improprietors II. Thou shalt not Marry by or with a Priest III. Thou shalt not put off thy Hat in Respect to thy Superiors IV. Thou shalt not shut up thy Shop on the VVorld's Holy-Days Fast-Days c. at the Command of the VVorldly Magistrates V. Thou shalt not pay towards the Repair of Parish Churches VI. Thou shalt not pay towards the Trained Bands nor carry Guns in thy Ship VII Thou shalt not wear Lace nor Ribbons nor Skimming-dish Hats nor short Aprons nor Slits on your VVastecoats nor long Scarfs like flying Colours nor unnecessary Buttons VIII You shall have a VVoman's Meeting distinct from the Men once a Month at at the County-Town about Ten a Clock to get a little Stock IX Thou shalt call the Days of the VVeek First Second Third and Fourth Day c. and the Months First Second and Third Month c. X. I charge you all in the Presence of the Lord God That you judge not one another i. e. those that be in the Unity of the Ministry and Elders in the Church lest you fall into the Condemnation of the Monthly Quarterly Six VVeeks Second Day or Yearly Meeting Amen G. Fox 's Tryal at Lancaster Assizes p. 21. The thundering Voice answered I have glorified thee and will glorifie thee again and I was so filled full of Glory that my Head and Ears was filled full of it that when the Trumpets sounded and the Judges came up again they all appeared as dead Men under me I think it now necessary to insert two Passages out of two of the Quakers most learned Teachers Books the one to deter their Hearers from adhering to the Commands of Moses the other to confirm them in the Belief of G. Fox's viz. Whether the first Pen-man of the Scriptures was Moses or Hermes Or Whether both these or not one Or Whether there are not many Words contained in the Scriptures which were not spoken by Inspiration of the Holy Spirit Whether some Words were not spoken by the Grand Imposture some by wicked Men some by wise Men ill apply'd some by good Men ill expressed some by false Prophets and yet true some by true Prophets and yet false The Quakers Refuge fixed c. p. 17. This being suggested by Robert Ruckhill an Eminent and Learned Man I cannot blame his Hearers who believe that he wrote by the Eternal Spirit nor that they lay aside the Commands of God by Moses and receive the Commands of G. Fox at least not so much as I blame their Teachers For if I did question whether Moses or Hermes were the first Pen-man of the Holy Scriptures or whether both of them had a Hand in it or neither of both was concerned in the writing thereof if I question'd the Truth of what the true Prophets of the Lord said and believ'd that what the false Prophet said were true if I thought that what good Men said was ill expressed and so insignificant as hereby is suggested truly I should give as little heed to them as the Quakers do and be ready with George Fox himself to call them Death Dust and Serpents Meat See News coming up out of the North p. 14. But I thank God I have been better taught even from my Childhood For tho' by the Dissimulation of these Seducers I was carried away into great Errors yet the Love of the Scriptures ever remained with me The next Passage shall be from their Learned Barclay It is no ways inconsistent with this sound and unerring Principle to affirm That the Judgment of a certain Person or Persons in certain Cases is INFALLIBLE or for a certain Person or Persons to give a positive Judgment and pronounce it as Obligatory upon others because the Foundations and Ground thereof IS NOT because they are infallible but because in these things and at that time they were led by the Infallible Spirit The Anarchy of the Ranters c. p. 67. For more of this Quaker-Popery see The Picture of Quakerism drawn to the Life c. p. 8 to 16. By which 't is plain that as Ruckhill in the forecited Passage render the Scriptures Uncertain Fallible and of no Authority so does Barclay render Quakerism Infallible Certain and their Commands and Injunctions Obligatory upon others And why forsooth Why because at such times as the Quakers thus Pronounce thus Write thus give out their Mandates Commandments and Precepts they says Barclay are led thereunto by the Infallible Spirit Some Inferences from the Fourth Chapter IS it so then that the Tendency of the Quakers Doctrine is to undervalue the Holy Scriptures to rob them of their Divine Authority and thereby to exalt their own Horn Let this then be a Caution to their Hearers to examine the Quotations which I bring to prove my Assertions and
end this Whitehead justifies Truth defending the Quakers p. 18. Fox's Great Mystery c. p. 77. Nay Theft by Fox is likewise justified who said And as for any being moved of the Lord meaning their Light within to take away your Hour-Glass from you BY THE ETERNAL POWER IT IS OWNED c. Nay their idolized Apostle not only disregarded the Magistrates and their Laws but declared in plain and significant VVords That he neither heeded nor valued a Cart-load of their VVarrants c. Journal p. 278. Object 2. But some Men will say How then shall we reconcile the Doctrine of W. Mead and G. Whitehead Mr. Mead saith That G. Fox's Journal is a better Book than the Bible and G. Whitehead saith VVe prefer the Holy Scriptures above all other Books extant in the VVorld The Country Convert c. p. 26. To which I answer Very well for p. 72. G. Whitehead thus saith viz. I MAY SEE CAUSE OTHERWISE TO WORD THE MATTER AND YET OUR INTENTIONS BE THE SAME c. p. 72. ibid. Very well now to make it appear that G. Whitehead means one and the same thing that William Mead meaned read his little Book i. e. That which is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in ANY is of as great AUTHORITY as the SCRIPTURES and CHAPTERS are and GREATER Truth defending the Quakers c. p. 7. And on the Title Page thus viz. WRITTEN FROM THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH in G. Whitehead and G. Fox the Younger Now if this little Pamphlet in Octavo of 70 Pages be of greater Authority than the Scriptures and Chapters are how much more G. Fox's Journal in Folio of near 700 Pages For that which is best is of most Authority generally-speaking and that which is of most Authority is the best Thus then is the Journal of Fox's better in the Quakers Esteem than the Bible and thus does Whitehead mean even as Mr. Mead spoke Object 3. But some will say How then shall we know a Quaker if not by the Import of his VVords I Answer 't is impossible to know them rightly as it ever was for the Protestants to know the Jesuits and therefore you ought to do as the Protestants did TO DISTRUST EVERY THING THEY SAY See the Book Entituled The Missionary's Arts p. 32. printed 1688. For as the Quakers stand on the same Bottom and are found in the same Steps with the same Equivocations Reserves and Double-meanings and the same Pretences to Miracles Visions Revelations Perfection and Infallibility they ought to have the same Answer viz. To distrust them in all they say until they Retract Sentence and Condemn one sort of their Books and this is highly reasonable on their part if they would be taken to be at all serious sincere and honest For many of their Hearers of the honest sort begin to think G. Whitehead little better than a Jesuit already he hath been so false in Fact such a Glosser and Defender of every Error the Quakers hold (r) Anne Docwra of Cambridge her Letter dated 26th 12th Mon. 1682. I have a Letter by me which my Cousin Anne Docwra Widow of Cambridge sent me dated 26th of 12th Month 1682. viz. G. Whitehead have sent one of his Books for me to read and there is the old Money Story in it with I know not what besides I was asked by an honest Friend if he was not a Jesuit I answered nay it is not solid enough for them to own especially when they write to a solid People there is pretty much airy conceited Stuff in it ANNE DOCWRA Thus it appears how long the honest sort of Quakers have take G. W. to be little better than a Jesuit and my Cousin Docwra was of the same Mind too else she would not have given me her honest Friend's Judgment only indeed she is thus far of my Mind That Book was not solid enough the Jesuits are more cunning than G. Whitehead then was but he is come on finely fince for of late he is grown so expert as he can Vindicate or Excuse any Blasphemy Idolatry Contempt of the Scriptures Contempt of the Magistrates Contempt of the Ministry Contempt on the Person and Sufferings of Christ yea and Undervalue his Precious Blood too And how contrary soever their Sayings are to each other yet they mean all one thing referring to their Beginning I have in my former Books shewed how their Books are of two sorts their Meetings of two sorts their Doctrine of two sorts carrying two Faces in all they do or say and yet Whitehead can tell you they mean all one thing One Example more I may give and so shall conclude this Chapter I find a Recital of a Letter writ by Solomon Eccles to Robert Porter in a Book of William Burnet's entituled The Capital Principles of the Quakers p. 41. printed 1668. viz. Robert Porter take heed of Belying the Innocent for I hear thou hast reported to a Friend of mine that I should say That the Blood of Christ is no more than the Blood of another Man I never spoke it but do very highly esteem of the Blood of Christ to be more Excellent Living Holy and Precious than is able to be uttered by the Tongues of Men and Angels I MEAN the Blood which was offered up in (Å¿) Perversion it s offered up thro' the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9.14 the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9.41 But the Blood that was forced out of him by the Soldiers after he was dead who before that bowed his Head to the Father and gave up the Ghost but thou say'st that was the Blood of the New Covenant which was shed after he was dead which I DO DENY Yet I did say That was NO more THAN the BLOOD of another SAINT These are my Words which thou art wresting to thy own Destruction I did also say That the Baptists Independants Presbyterians and Pope are all of one Ground and none of you understand the Blood of Jesus Christ no more than a brute Beast Therefore repent for God will soon overthrow your Faith and your Imputative Righteousness too for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness which he did at Jerusalem and without the Gates the Pope the Episcopal the Presbyterian Independants and Baptists shall fare all alike and shall sit down in Sorrow short of the Eternal Rest But the true Imputative Righteousness of Christ we own but it is hid from you all till the Lord open an Eye WITHIN YOU c. Now comes G. Whitehead with his usual Paint to cover palliate and excuse his Brother Eccles saying Now whereas Sol. Eccles in p. 41. is accused of little less than Blasphemy about a Letter chiefly of a Passage concerning the Blood in these Words viz. The Blood that was forced out of him by the Soldiers after he was dead who before that bowed his Head to the Father and gave up the Ghost I did say THAT WAS NO MORE THAN THE BLOOD OF ANOTHER SAINT Now to these Words NO MORE THAN THE
none must touch the Hem of their Garment O Proud Hypocrites and also amongst the said Papers was one subscribed by twelve Persons directed to the Second-Day Meeting in London wherein Friends are misrepresented and greatly abused which said Paper we believe the said Francis Bugg promoted Now we being greatly grieved in our Spirits and truly sensible of his herein going from Truth do testifie We have no Unity with him nor can have whilst he is thus Acted OBSERVE First I was judged and condemned behind my Back without a Hearing Secondly The Papers subscribed by Twelve Persons they only supposed to be of my promoting Now if John Lilborn's Judges had been thus implicite in their Faith at his Tryal at Guild Hall in October 1649. he must have been Hang'd for writing The Naked Truth in Oliver Cromwell's time c. The next Instance I shall recite and which I think is to the Purpose is to shew the Quakers implacable Malice against not only W. Rogers but his Book too and no Passage in his whole Book came under the like sad Sentence as that of his admitting a Voluntary Payment of Tythes if the Supream Powers bestowed it on a National Ministry c. His Words are We are so far from condemning all those who freely pay them i. e. Tythes and not by Constraint that we look upon it to be the Duty of all professing Christianity to contribute towards the outward Maintainance of such whom they usually hear and account to be true Ministers of Christ in case they have need And if the Charity of any should be such as to bestow upon them one Fifth Part instead of a Tenth far be it from us to condemn it c. The Christian Quaker distinguished c. Part 2. p. 43. But this was such a horrible Tenet and so much of Liberty of Conscience in it that as you have heard First It was an Errour of Judgment 2 dly It came from an unsound Mind 3 dly That Truth i. e. the Quakers Light allows no Payment of Tythes at all under the New Covenant 4 thly They who do pay Tythes tho' Voluntarily do therein uphold a legal Ceremony abrogated by Christ 5 thly And thereby deny Christ to be come in the Flesh quoting 1 John 4.3 which speaks not one Syllable of Tythes 6 thly That it is downright Ranterism c. Ellwood's Antidote p. 78. 139. Well but W. Rogers was so modest as not to put this Book into the Bookseller's Hands to Sell lest thereby he might widen the Difference which both he and my self at that time thought might have been composed †For I did not then understand their Fundamental Errours but Thanks be to God that as their fair and smooth Pretences proved a Snare to catch me so their gross Dissimulations proved a Means to see them that he put it into the Hands of John Barnard a Merchant being one of the separate Quakers for him to dispose of and to disperse as he in Wisdom should see meet and some Hundreds of them he did disperse Well he was Summoned time after time to the Monthly Meeting in Devonshire-House London to Answer for his Fault and I think he as often appeared But being of too Masculine a Temper to submit to their Arbitrary Authority and Usurped Dominion he still continued selling and disposing of this so sad and so lamentable a Book of which you have heard the greatest Crime namely for admitting a Voluntary Payment of Tythes c. And to say true so it was for there is nothing upon Earth that the Quakers thirst more after than the utter Ruin of the Priesthood and the Abolishing the Maintainance thereof This is the Vein that runs fluently thro' all their Books and Sermons nay rather than the Priests should have it and that it might be a Means to starve them they are willing to pay Tythes to Secular Use For saith G. Whitehead if the King and Great Council of the Nation were pleased †The Case of the Quakers concerning Oaths defended c. p. 50. per G. Whitehead to repeal those Old Laws inforcing the Payment of Tythes and to convert them into some necessary civil Use as for the Poor Oh Judas or some National Service and Benefit Oh smooth George Here is the Face of a Lamb but the rough Paw of a Bear and the Claws of a Leopard it would appear whether we should not pay our Parts and whether the Royal Exchequer would not be conveniently supplied without the Tenths from the Priests c. Thus they could pay Tythes into the Exchequer to maintain a War which they equally Disclaim Oh but do what you will with the Tythes so the Priests do but starve and their Ministry fall and their Religion overturned then HEY BOYS UP GO WE But blessed be God the Fear of that is past Well but let us hear what became of this honest John Barnard Why in short he was Excommunicated ipso facto A Copy of it here followeth Verbatim From the Monthly Meeting at Devonshire-House the Fourth of the Eleventh Month 1681. Whereas there hath been some unruly Spirits gone out from Truth and the Unity of the blessed Power of God which hath gathered us to be a People Writing Printing and Publishing Things Hurtful and Prejudicial to Truth by corrupting of People's Minds tending also to draw them into Disesteem of many of the Lord's Servants ††A Preservative for their Teachers decaying Reputation whose Faithfulness hath manifestly appeared amongst us with whom our Unity stands to our mutual Satisfaction and Refreshment Upon Consideration of these Things we find our selves conscientiously concerned * * Oh! Deep Hypocrisie to take notice of something of this Kind befaln John Barnard Merchant formerly a Member of this Meeting who having dispersed into several Parts of this Nation divers of those Pernicious Books wrote by William Rogers called The Christian Quaker distinguished from the Apostate and Innovator in Five Parts c. which hath manifestly been proved in many material Passages Erroneous and False both in the Historical and Doctrinal Part of it was privately and publickly reproved for that unrighteous Action by several Friends at divers times according to Gospel-Order as they found it on their Spirits from the Lord ††Never was God's Name more prophaned by a People professing Religion as also admonished against it yet after all the Labour and Travel Friends have had on his Behalf being desirous if possible to reclaim him out of the Enemies Snare into which he is fallen he hath from time to time resisted their Advice and Counsel so that now we being wholly clear having used our utmost Endeavours in the good Will of God to reclaim him as aforesaid do not only testifie against that Spirit which hath led him into that disorderly Practice but also against him whilst join'd thereunto * * Both the Man and his Spirit condemned nor can we have Spiritual Communion or
c. p. 14. That to say Christ is God and Man in one Person is a Lie The Sword of the Lord drawn c. p. 5. But as I said We may sometimes see cause yea and great cause too otherwise to word the Matter yea contrary to our Ancient Testimony and yet mean the same thing c. The Counterfeit Convert c. p. 72. that is to say mean not a word we say And now to the Consequence and for which we prefer the Bible For Friends we no sooner Signed this Confession but we had our Liberty and we no sooner had our Liberty but all our London Preachers spread themselves like Locusts all over England and Wales * * Like Mice uncall'd for and like Flies unsent for and fall upon their Provision some went East some West yea North and South and being generally Tradesmen We not only got our Quarters free our Horses free and well maintain'd in our Travels a Silver Watch here a Beaver there a piece of Hair-Camblet and sometimes other Gifts Moreover by our Liberty obtained by the recited Confession we got into great Trades and by spreading our selves in the Country into great Acquaintance and thereby received Orders of the best of the Country Tradesmen for Parcels whilst the Protestant Tradesmen in London ††Londoners look about you for none like the Quakers but Jews and Jesuites as time will farther shew who had not this Advantage stood still and in their Shops had little to do whilst we fill'd our Coffers Witness Tho. Greene for one Instance whose Wife would scarce suffer him at home she being willing according to the Proverb to make Hay whilst the Sun shines insomuch that in a little time he raised his small Beginning to many Thousands Since I printed this Tho. Greene is dead and died worth as is said Six or Eight Thousand Pounds who was a poor Mason when he set up for a Preaching Quaker All which shew that the Scriptures are accidentally good c. And this leads me to the second Proposition namely The Authority of our Friends Books and Sayings c. First I shall shew you that as 't is Blasphemy to call the Scriptures the Word of God To all that would know the Way to the Kingdom c. p. 4. Mene Tekel c. p. 22. so I shall shew you that our Scriptures for as I told you in my Serious Apol. p. 48. Writings signifie Scripture are the Word of God and this you will find written in the Epistle of our Second Moses in these Words Friends to you all this is the Word of the Lord take heed of judging one another this is the Word of the Lord unto you I charge you in the Presence of the Lord God to send this Epistle among all Friends and Brethren every where to be read in all Meetings to you all This is the Word of God Several Papers given forth for spreading Truth c. p. 60 61 62. Again that I may corroborate and strengthen your Faith in the Exercise of our Ancient Testimony * * G. W. keeps to his Text. Read in the Gospel of our Great Apostle and High Priest of our Profession Geo. Fox where you 'll find these Words viz. You may said G. F. to the Priests as well condemn the Scriptures to the Fire as our Writings for our giving forth Papers and Printed Books it is from the IMMEDIATE ETERNAL SPIRIT of God Truths Defence c. p. 2 102. upon which our Dear Brother Thomas Ellwood saith That none can squirt any Filth on the Epistles of Friends but it will tend to be spatter the Apostles An Antidote against c. p. 1 44 57 125. And in Confidence thereof our Brother Robert Barclay hath these Words That as the true Principles of the Gospel by their i. e. Quakers Testimony are restored so is also the ANCIENT Apostolick Order of the Church of Christ re-established amongst them i. e. Quakers and settled upon its right Basis and Foundation that as thro' our Faithful Testimony in the Hand of the Lord that Antichristian and Apostatized Generation the National Ministry hath received a deadly Blow by our discovering and witnessing against their Forced Maintainance and Tythes so that their Kingdom in the Hearts of Thousands begin to Totter and lose its Strength and shall assuredly Fall to the Ground So on the other Hand we do weaken the Strength of their Kingdom who judge for Reward The Nation shall come to be disburdened of that deceitful Tribe of Lawyers as well as Priests * * Let all Lawyers Tradesmen Clergy and Magistrates guard against the Prevalency of Quakerism for they are all highly concerned I never knew any that left us prove steady to those to whom they go I find other Professors make but small Boasts of any Proselytes they get out from us I hear little of their proving Champions for the Principles of others against us The Anarchy c. p. 1 16 42. Thus Friends you see that upon Confidence of the Truth of our elder Brother Geo. Fox's Ancient Testimony viz. That it was Blasphemy to call the Scriptures the Word of God and yet laudable to call his Papers sent up and down to be read in Meetings The Word of God the Word of the Lord God I say you see how stoutly our Brother Ellwood avouched that none could squirt any Filth on the Epistles of Friends but it must inevitably fall upon the Epistles of St. Paul and he was in the right on 't ††G. W. is no Changling he keeps to his Text. and likewise R. Barclay in confidence of the Truth of G Fox's Testimony viz. That to call the Scriptures The Word of God was no less than Blasphemy whilst his own Writings sent up and down to spread Truth and in order to it to be read in Meetings was The Word of the Lord and as such to be read and as such to be receiv'd You may see I say how he built his Hopes of our Restoration and the Downfal both of the Clergy and Lawyers insomuch that he did not once think any should ever go from us to prove Champions for the Principles of others against us And therefore I exhort you this Day to stand Faithful to your Ancient Testimony which is to throw down the Scriptures and exalt our own Books and so will the Work of your Light prosper in your Hands Besides for your Encouragement and that you may see my Sincerity and Seriousness which is the sign of my writing in every of my Epistles look into one of my Gospels and you shall find these VVords That which is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures and Chapters are and greater c. Truth defending the Quakers c. p. 7. VVherefore ye dear Lambs be ye encouraged and go on boldly and if any Apostate write against us besure you warn all our Friends in the Country not to
the Kingdom c. p. 4. Several Papers given out for spreading Truth c. Ninthly In teaching That if Christ that 's Crucified be not within and that Christ that 's Risen be not within I say that ye are Reprobates Now I say that if there be any other Christ than he that 's Crucified within he is a false Christ and he that hath not this Christ that was Risen and Crucified within is a Reprobate Tho' Devils and Reprobates make a Talk of him without God's Christ is not Distinct from his Saints nor his Body the Church for he is within them not Distinct from their Spirits And thou say'st thou art saved by Christ without thee and so hath recorded thy self a Reprobate and they that profess Christ without them and another Christ within them here is two Christs G. Fox 's Great Mystery c. p. 206 207 250 254. And to confirm this false Doctrine see Edw. Burrough's Answer to a Question and William Smith's to his Child which are as followeth Query Is that very Man said the Minister to Burrough with that very Body within you Yea or Nay Burrough Answers The very Christ of God is within us we dare not deny him Burtongh 's Works p. 149. Query How may I know when Christ is truly Preached W. Smith's Answer They that are false Ministers Preach Christ without and bid People believe in him as he is in Heaven above But they that are Christ's Ministers Preach Christ within c. Smith 's Primer c. p. 8. Now Reader if this Doctrine be sound and Orthodox then were all the Apostles Martyrs and all Christian Ministers false Teachers and Deceivers but if this Doctrine be Heterodox then the Quakers only are the false Teachers Deceivers and Antichrists W. Penn also is one with Fox Burrough and Smith See his Christian Quaker and Div. Test p. 97 98. and his Sandy Foundation p. 21. Tenthly G. Fox speaking of his own Rise out of the North gives his Book this Title News coming up out of the North sounding towards the South written by Fox from the Mouth of the Lord from one who is Naked and stands Naked before the Lord cloathed with Righteousness whose Name is not known in the World risen out of the North which was prophesied of †Query by what Prophet and now fulfilled Thus much briefly touching this Blasphemous Bird which being the Master of the Assembly and first Founder of this Sect he shall not be of the Number of the Twelve intended viz. Six of each sort which now shall follow in their Order the first Six being of the same Feather witnessing to their Forerunner and great Apostle who tho' he once said he had a Celestial Body * Before two credible Witnesses one being still alive that he had Power to binde and loose whom he pleased yet his Body proved an Earthly one and is dead and gone and for some Years whilst living amongst them was like a Statue or an insensible Image which could scarce see or understand being grown Corpulent and in bulk of two or three Men and so dosed away his time with strong Liquors and Brandy who left these Words for W. Rogers John Raunce Anne Docwra and others who had opposed his Tyranny and Usurpation viz. And as for this Spirit of Rebellion and Opposition that hath risen formerly and lately it is out of the Kingdom of God and Heavenly Jerusalem and is for Judgment and Condemnation with all its Books Words and Works †This was Printed in their Yearly Epistle 1691. and Reprinted in Fox's Journal 1694. p. 616. Now observe how this Fox is ador'd Burrough the First Bird of the Blasphemous Six See their Book This is only to go amongst Friends p. 19. viz. Oh thou North of England who art counted as Desolate and Barren and reckoned the least of the Nations yet out of thee did the Branch Fox spring and the Star Fox arise which gives Light unto all the Regions round about in thee the Son of Righteousness Fox appear'd out of thee Kings Priests and Prophets did come forth in the Name and Power of the most High meaning Hubberthorn Howgil Burrough Farnsworth Nayler Atkinson Whitehead c. which uttered their Voices as Thunders c. Thus has Burrough ecchoed back and confirmed Fox his Imposture saying Amen to his Blasphemy alluding to Micah 5.2 to Matth. 2.5,6 as more largely handled in my Book New Rome Unmask'd c. p. 79 to 88. and New Rome Arraigned c. p. 5 6 7. And I marvel at Whitehead's Impudence to deny it In his Sober Exp. p. 57 58. but to make it clear and past his Exception if possible let 's take out more Birds but he that will deny Burrough's Book to have this Title This is only to go amongst Friends which is the only and all the Title and which Book I have by me what will not such a Fellow deny Jos Coale the Second Bird. Dear Geo. Fox who art the Father of many Nations whose Life hath reached through us thy Children even to the Isles afar off to the begetting many again to a lively Hope for which Generations to come shall call thee Blessed whose Being and Habitation is in the Power of the Highest in which thou Geo. Fox Rulest and Governs in Righteousness And Thy Kingdom is Established in Peace and the Increase thereof is without End Read Numb 24.17,19 Zech. 3.8 cap. 6. v. 12. Malachi 4.2 Luke 1.32,33 Isai 9.6,7 Thus then it is plain That both Burrough and Coale call'd G. Fox comparatively the Branch the Son of Righteousness yea Christ Sol. Eccles the Third Bird. Several Petitions Answer'd c. p. 60. Stand up Muggleton thou Sorcerer whose Mouth is full of Cursing Lies and Blasphemy who calls thy last Book a Looking-Glass for Geo. Fox whose NAME thou art not worthy to take into thy Mouth who is a Prophet indeed and hath been faithful in the Lord's Business from the beginning It was said of Christ that he was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not John 1.10 So it may be said of this true Prophet Geo. Fox whom John said he was not Several Petitions Answer'd c. p. 60. but thou wilt feel this Prophet one Day as heavy as a Millstone upon thee and altho' the World knows him not * See the first Instance of the Ten about Fox yet he is known c. The Quak. Chal. p. 6. Thus do they all agree that Fox is their Star their Branch c. For if he be Christ as Eccles saith if he had a Kingdom established of whose Encrease there never was to be an end as Coale said then he was Christ and so the Branch the Star c. as Burrough said and indeed as they all mean else they would condemn these Blasphemous Books but instead thereof this Letter of Coale's is vindicated in their Book Judas and the Jews p. 44. in
some may say What other Way is there to put a Stop to the Growth of Quakerism if they have this Liberty Such an Expedient would be requisite if such an one were to be found Answ I have once offer'd my Thoughts in this Case and shall now enlarge thereon For as I then said so I still believe that the main Requisite to work a Cure is to know the Disease which when found out an ordinary Practitioner may prescribe a Remedy sooner than an able Physician who knows not the Disease Besides this I have heard that when a Bill for the well-Tanning of Leather was brought into the House of Parliament one of the Honourable House of Lords being willing to inform himself into the Nature of that Affair he apply'd himself to a Cobler discourses with him about this that and the other Default in Leather and what VVays might be found to remedy the Abuses thereof for the Publick Good The Cobler tells his Honour what he knew by many Years Experience and told his Lordship how it might with Ease be remedied insomuch that when the said Bill came under Debate in the House his Lordship was so well skill'd not only in the Means to be used but in the Terms of Art that his Lordship spake like some experienced Tanner who by his Discourse gave Light to the whole House Now whether this was so or no I will not determine but 't is not improbable since the wisest of Men may sometimes improve by such weak Helps as in other Cases 't is frequent such a Virtue is Humility And thereupon in answer to the Objection I shall say thus much I. Let G. Whitehead and some others of the Quakers chief Leaders and Fr. Bugg c. be summoned by Authority to appear And whereas G. Whitehead c. has given in a Sheet to the Parliament Anno 1693. suggesting that Fran. Bugg c. has wronged the Quakers in Charge Citation and Observation and if G. W. can make it appear so for our Law judges no Man before it hears him let Fran. Bugg c. be made an Example Again on the other Hand if it appear that Fran. Bugg c. has not wronged the Quakers nor falsly charged them either in Book or Page and that those Points of Doctrine objected against the Quakers by F. B. c. be found to strike at the Foundation of the Christian Religion and to subvert the Faith then let the Quakers be oblig'd to renounce them and condemn those Books which so teach This yea this would strike Quakerism to the Heart This is the thing feared by G. W. c. when they cry out Fran. Bugg would stir up Persecution and give it a Mortal VVound and preserve the Quakers too and the Books being condemn'd to be burnt as it would remove the Scandal brought upon the Christian Religion so would it be a Means to rescue their VVives and Children from the Jaws of Quakerism that Fatal Mischief to Mankind and preserve others from falling into it For now many of them think their Teachers write and speak from the Eternal Spirit whose so speaking is of greater Authority than the Bible Truth defending the Quakers c. pag. 7. And that 't is as lawful to burn the Bible as their Books Papers and Queries Truth 's Defence c. p. 2.104 Then would those who are now Tinctured with the Leaven of Quakerism vomit it up and forsake their Errors This I take to be one proper Remedy and possibly might effect the Cure If not II. If the Quakers would Apologize That now they Believe otherwise than they did formerly then as a Proof of their Sincerity and Conversion let them having first condemn'd their Books as aforesaid set out certain Articles of their Faith in Plain Clear and Positive Words agreeable to Scripture since of late they have so much pretended to be Orthodox therein and at the Close of them condemn all their other Books which teach the contrary particularly by Name III. The next thing requisite to make a firm and lasting Cure to them their Heirs and Successors is to admit each Congregation of Quakers to have their Teacher or two if one will not do And likewise that thse Teachers may attend only their own Flock and not to range all the World over at most not above Five or Ten Miles to Hold-forth lest this Putrified Sore break out again and the last end be worse than their beginning And as this thus granted is what other Professors Dissenters from the Church of England are content with so will it answer all the just Ends of that Liberty of Conscience so much by them sollicited for and so graciously already granted by the Government IV. Let them not be permitted to hold Yearly Convocations with Doors Lockt Barr'd or Guarded by Men on Purpose to prevent Inspection in order to make Laws against the Laws of the Land and with respect to their Subjects to repeal such Laws as suite not their Design which shews that they are a Government within the Government Whose Laws thus made they keep private even from many of their own People For as this Practice no Dissenters Quakers only excepted do desire and indeed without His Majesty's Licence more than the Bishops of the Established Church can Legally do so would it be a Means to work a perfect Cure of this so much to be lamented Gangrene of Quakerism V. Lastly That they may not be permitted to Teach School Publickly for thereby they corrupt the Youth and lay a Foundation for the next Age for the Seeds of Quakerism to spring and put forth again for they teach G. Fox's Journal which contains such Doctrine as tends to undermine the Christian Religion Object III. G. W. in his late Book Truth and Innocency c. p. 41. objects Our Adversaries would make as if we promoted Regnum in Regno not only independent but opposite to the Civil Government which none of our Meetings are being to promote real Practice of Piety Christianity and true Religion among us as a People and to prevent the contrary We know of no such Supream Assemblies among us as gives Laws and makes Orders for the Government of our People suppressing Books c. Answ This is all fallacious he knows they do and I can prove it And not only make Laws for their People but make Laws or Orders contrary to the Laws of the Land And as for his Pretence that at these Meetings they do not promote Regnum in Regno since their Meetings are to promote real Piety c. 1. When the Bishops and Clergy meet do they not promote the real Practice of Piety as much as the Quakers pretend to Yet if they should meet as do the Quakers without Licence from His Majesty it would as Lawyers say be against these Statutes 28 Hen. 8. c. 19 21. 27 Hen. 8. c. 15. 3 Ed. 6. c. 10 11. 1 Eliz. c. 12. Magna Charta c. 29. Pet. of R. 5 Eliz. c. 1.
1 Ed. 6. c. 2. 37 Hen. 8. c. 17. 8 Eliz. c. 1. 1 K. W. Q. M. N. 307. And such Meetings let the Pretence be never so seemingly good are interpreted to be Regnum in Regno viz. not only independent but opposite to the Civil Government and should the Bishops and Clergy so meet with never so real a Purpose to promote real Piety and Christianity of which the Quakers is but a Counterfeit they thereby would as the Learned in the Law say run themselves into a Praemunire Neither do or are any People in England so bold so to Meet in Contempt of the Laws of the Land expresly against the King's Prerogative the Rights of Parliaments and the Liberty and Property of the Subject the Quakers only excepted whose Principles are Extrajudicial and Antimagistratical and of how dangerous a Consequence Time will best demonstrate for hitherto they have not been able to do Hurt as to the Government But see one of their own Books before they got to this Height in Oliver Cromwell's Days intituled The West answering to the North c. by G. Fox and others of them p. 80. viz. Any Party of Men under a Government to make Laws not being Authorized so to do for the Binding of others and thereunto require Obedience is the setting up of themselves above the Law and treading it under their Feet and rendring of them whom they so Bind their Slaves and Vassals and so is TREASON Object IV. As for what is Collected which they call a Fund is not for Stipends for our Teachers we have no Mercenary Teachers nor among us Attendants on both Houses of Parliament c. Answ This is all false in Fact 1. I do affirm and offer to prove it That their Teachers have Stipends and great Sums of Money out of the Money collected if I do not let but my Superiors give me the Opportunity I will engage to forfeit my Life yea as clearly as Daniel proved to the King the Fraud of Bell's Priests And also will shew the private Entrance or Passage which the Quakers Mercenary Teachers go in and out to this Fund or Bank or Common Stock or Collection let it have a Name of the Quakers own giving if that will please them without strewing Ashes If I do not do this let me suffer if I do and that I also shew that the Charges Attending the Parliament come out thereof then let this Fund Stock or Bank together with their Yearly Meeting and all other their Monthly Quarterly Six-Week and Second-Day's Meetings which are not designed for Worship but for Government be supprest and let them be content with their Meetings on Sundays for Publick Worship with their Doors open as other Dissenters have Now if they be but as Confident as Bell's Priests were let them try the Experiment I am ready to engage them when the Government shall call me to it and by no other Methods than is usual oft-times with the Members of the House of Commons to use when they would find out a hidden Secret which they fear tends to subvert the Government Object V. G. Whitehead in Excuse of the Quakers recording their Sufferings as only to have have recourse to and not designed to render the Government odious to Posterity Answ I answer this is such a fallacious Evasion that it serves only to shew their Hypocrisie Read but The Picture of Quakerism drawn to the Life c. p. 102 to 106. and The Pilgrim's Progress c. first Edition p. 167. where five Quotations are at large taken out of their Prints written by W. Penn R. Barkley and others of Note amongst the Quakers and they afford a Demonstration and Proof sufficient and which they never yet gainsaid by Answer thereunto Object VI. G. W. pag. 69. of his Truth and Innocency Vindicated c. says Let their Books and ours be compared to clear our Innocency from their Adversaries gross Calumnies Perversions Misrepresentations c. Answ Content with all their Hearts But tho' I am no Prophet nor the Son of a Prophet yet I dare venture to say that Geo. will not be so willing to put their Cause upon this Issue as the Priests of Bell and the Dragon were to put their Fraud to the Test No theirs was a sufficient Example to their Followers in Deceit and Falshood And I marvel G. W. should have the Face to propose a Thing which they have these Fifteen Years to my knowledge always refused and when any one proposes it they fly off and cry out Persecution Persecution For he knew both many of his own Books as well as Fox's Burrough's and their Chieftains are well fraught with Errors Blasphemy Seditious and Bloody Treasonable Principles And that they stood in as much need of an Act of Oblivion as any People upon English Ground and with which all their Crimes might for all me have been buried had they not revived them and told us over and over That their Principles are now no other than what they were in the Beginning Thus having answer'd these Objections I shall add no more on this Head only referr to my former Book intituled The Picture of Quakerism Part 2. pag. 121 to 128. for more of this Nature which probably may be of good Use if the Poor Man's Counsel be taken Eccles 9.14,15,16 Read the Ninth Chapter of Joshua at your leisure And now to conclude with a Word of Encouragement to such who are concern'd in the Discovery of Quakerism Do you not remember the Day I am sure I do how the Quaker-Teachers went into Churches and disturb'd the Established Ministers But now none must disturb them if they do the Officer is call'd for and the Offender prosecuted Witness Geo. Keith did but desire to go into the Quakers Meeting at Bristol this present August and they refused his going in tho' he promised not to disturb them but threatned him with executing the Law against him as in his printed Relation appears more at large This is a certain Sign of what they would do in other Cases had they Power I say do you not remember how they challenged the Publick Ministers to dispute to answer their Queries c. It would make a Volume to handle this Matter throughly But behold here is a Change with them you may challenge them long enough but cannot get them out of their Holes they see and know they are discover'd this makes them Timorous and as the Scriptures say Fearfulness surprize the Hypocrites They see this that and the other Book come out against them which they cannot answer nor are they able to defend themselves and now they call out for a Cessation of Arms and are for an Amicable Conversation yea for Peace and Quietness and 't is Seditious to challenge them and remind them of their Errors this is against Magna Charta say they Geo. Keith hath three times called them out and challenged them but they dare not appear but like self-condemn'd Apostates lye mute
Abstract 69 They Vindicate the Socinians 71 Quaker-Teachers about Hospitality 73 They come like Mice and Flies ibid. Hypocrisie their Mysterium Maximum 76 The Quakers Yearly-Meeting 79 G. Keith like Luther at Worms 82 Ellwood about Tythes 84 Acts of Parliament virtually Repealed 86 Letters to appoint Meetings 91 The Qua. against Liberty of Conscience 97 Their Treasonable Practice 101 Their Teachers Self-Preservation 103 Their Usurpation of Government 104 Their Excommunication of Fr. Bugg 106 Their Excommunication of J. Barnard 110 John Ainsloe's Condemnation 113 Thir Black Book 114 Their Power to Bind and Loose 115 About their Fund or Bank 118 W. Rogers's Scourge 120 Ann Docwra against their Fund 121 Tom Tell-Troth Ellwood 125 Their Pretence to Write freely 126 Compared by Ann Docwra to Jesuits 129 Ann Docwra's Verses on Fox 133 Their Six-Week-Meetings Craft 136 VV. Mather's Discovery 137 A Petition of 7000 against Tythes 140 Their way to spread Books 143 A Minister's Zealous Letter 147 The Quakers Horrible Deceivers 150 Their Grand Cheat discovered 155 Against Kingly Government 157 They Justifie the Murder of K. Charles I. 163 Still against all Kings 167 Their Fling at Dissenters 168 Their Popish Design therein 171 Their Inveighing against the Clergy 173 A Hunting of the Fox 174 Letters of the Clergy 175 Of their not Praying for K. W. 178 And their Praying for the late K. J. II. 179 Observation thereupon 182 Their Stopping Joan Whitrow's Book 183 A Proclamation against Penn 185 Observations thereupon 187 The Act of Association 189 The Quakers Refusal to joyn 192 Their Grand Deceit therein 194 At large handled to 205 Luther's Example very good 211 Fox's Ambition about Learning 213 His Battledoor for our Clergy 215 His Liturgy for Churches 217 A Sermon for G. Whitehead 222 A System of their dark Divinity 224 Read with Patience to 248 A Cage of Unclean Birds 249 Their Rage against the Clergy 250 Their Idolatry set forth 253 The Cage full of Birds 254 G. Fox taken out and examined 256 How the other Birds Adore him 260 For their Bright and Morning Star 262 Six of their Unclean Birds 265 Their Features and Feathers display'd 284 Names given me by these Birds 286 My Lord of Norwich his Certificate 292 A Psalm of Praise 295 Mr. Meriton's Letter 299 A Proposition very Necessary 302 A Certificate Signed by four Persons 305 A Word of Encouragement 307 The Parable of the Gulf unfolded 308 Six Queries proposed 1678 302 Bold VVhitehead boldly Answered 313 A Pensilvanian Trumpet 316 Christ's Holy Example 320 An Appendix 323 G. Whitehead's Proposition answered 324 And that by a threefold Method 325 Another grand Fallacy of G. W.'s discern'd 326 D. Leeds's Trumpet sounded 327 W. Penn's Challenge answered 329 Two Quaker-Traytors rebuked ibid. A Damnable Plot discovered 332 The Quakers Suffering above all 333 A Simile of Humility 335 A Cure proposed for Quakerism 336 A Word of Encouragement 343 Fr. Bugg's Challenge continued 345 G. VVhitehead not Triumphant 347 G. VV.'s Grand Fallacy 348 THE PREFACE Christian Reader SINCE December 1689 the Quakers have put forth many Books relating to the West-Dereham Conference and have as industriously spread them under these Titles viz. I. An Apology for the People called Quakers and an Appeal to the Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk c. II. A Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese of Suffolk and Norfolk c. III. A Defence of the People called Quakers being a Reply to the Priests in Norfolk c. IV. An Apostate Conscience Exposed c. V. A Defence of the Apology for the People called Quakers c. VI. Truth and Innocency Vindicated c. And besides these they have Printed a Book Intituled Anguis Flagellatus c. the first Six I have answered which Answers may be had at Mr. Janeway's a Book-Binder next Door to Child's Coffee-House in St. Paul's Churchyard London and the last I shall now take some Notice of not that I shall enter far into the Province of that Reverend Author of the Book Intituled and that excellently well too The Snake in the Grass or Satan transformed into an Angel of Light Discovering the deep and unsuspected Subtilty which is couched under the pretended Simplicity of the Leaders of the Quakers c. And I hope it may be called an Answer according to the Pretences of the Quakers For says W. Penn in his Serious Apology c. pag. 79. My designed Method is not the Common Road of Printing my Adversary's Words at large on all Occasions c. no more is mine especially at this time tho' wherein I do take their Words I shall recite them so full as to carry the Force of their Argument and if so it will not only exceed their Practice but hold pace with their Pretence For Josiah Coale another of the Quakers Prophets in his Book The Whore Vnvailed c. printed 1665 and afterwards reprinted by the Approbation of their Second-Day-Meeting who in Answer to a Book of A. S. a Roman Catholick Intituled The Reconciler of Religions c. in his Preface thus saith Altho' A. S. in his Reconciler of Religions seem to challenge an Answer to all Particulars according to the Number of his Chapters yet I do not look upon this Challenge to be obligatory because there is an easier way to do the Work as effectually For when the Foundation of a Building is razed the whole will fall even as effectually as if a Man should begin at the top of a Building and pull it down Stone by Stone c. And in order to which I shall make some brief Remarks which may serve not only as a Forerunner to a more compleat Answer which I understand is preparing but may together with what follows in the ensuing Discourse pass for a tolerable Answer at least raze the Foundation of their Anguis Flagellatus c. and that in these following Particulars I. Touching the Title Reader you have as above seen the Title The Snake in the Grass or Satan transformed into an Angel of Light c. This Title was well given to that Book which made such a plain Discovery of the Quakers Juggles c. who as St. Paul said Eph. 4.14 lye in wait to deceive by their cunning Slights and deep Craft as the Quakers above all People shew by their double Meanings For in one Book they 'll pretend to own the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority and the best Book in the World yet in their other sort of Books they say it is Death Dust Serpents Meat Beastly Ware a Rotten Foundation c. In one sort of their Books they pretend to own a Scripture-Trinity whilst in their other sort of Books they condemn the Three Persons to the Lake and the Pit * Ishmael and his Mother cast out p. 10. by G. Whitehead c. as I elsewhere from their Books have proved And this Two-fac'd Practice gave occasion for that Title Yet now have they given their Book under
Fundamentals of the Christian Religion as it is for G. Whitehead to Address himself by Dedication to the Clergy and Universities personating a Schism which professes such Doctrine as tends to overthrow the Christian Faith Come George Answer me this Question how came you to be such a Man You know I could shew Books of your Friends Burrough Fisher Fox and others who tho' as great Imposters as any in the World ever knew yet they have Dedicated and Addressed and not only so but Dictated to Kings Lords and Commons Come G. what was your birth Whence came your breeding Were you not Rambling Pilgrims who like Gypsies lay in Barns lived upon Alms with your Feet at other Mens Tables See E. Burrough's Epist to his works What must none Address now but you Must none apply themselves to the Government but you Surely George you are a Pegg too high Come George let us reason together what power have you to summons all Ecclesiastical Courts and Officers more than I have to summon you What Power have you to Dialogue the Bishops and the whole Church more than I have to Dialogue you What Authority have you to Arraign Try Judge and Condemn all the Clergy in a Kingdom more than I have to Arraign you and Try you by your Fruit I tell you George I cannot see you mount the Stage and thus Insult Domineer and Exalt your selves not only above the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Saints and Martyrs and all Christians with respect to your so much boasted-of Sinless Perfection but above all the King's Subjects as if you and you only had right to Address Dedicate and Present Papers to the Parliament and that it were Treason to confront you I tell you as above noted that you are a pegg too high But George before you had Addrest your selves and Dedicated your Books to the King and Government you ought to have condemn'd your Books mentioned p. 154 157 167. And before you had Dedicated this Book to the Clergy you ought in prudence to have retracted your Books mentioned p. 217 249 250. And as to G. K's Book it was approved by the Quakers and you ought to have retracted the Doctrine of it as G. K. has and likewise W. Penn's and Alexander Skien's mentioned in p. 168 170. But your Temporizing is both seen and discovered to be seen by others And now for your Dedication to the Clergy A Rambling Pilgrim p. 3. An Epistle Dedicatory to those of the Clergy and of the two Universities whose kindness Fran. Bugg boasts of 30 th of the 4 th Month 1629. By George Whitehead Now George to shew you what a kind Reception your Dedication met with from my Benefactors I shall though I have no order present you with part of a Letter which one of them sent me which take as follows viz. March 11. 1699. Mr. Bugg I Cannot but thank you for the service you have done especially among the Common People by your way of Writing and for the plentiful materials you have furnish'd out to imploy others with respect both to the Principles and Practices of the Quakers and your laborious Attendance at Parliament as a Check to the Insolencies of the Quakers in their presenting their deceivable Papers in which they have been too much neglected wherefore be not dishearten'd but go on and Charge the Quakers Party through and through with their Blasphemies against the Blessed Trinity their Doctrine of Infallibility and Sinless Perfection their denying the Fundamental Articles of our most Holy Religion viz. The Incarnation of Christ the Resurrection of the Body and the Day of Judgment For to talk of Lenitives and Gentle Applications is like the old way of sowing Pillows under their Arm-holes and you may as well give Opium in a Lethargy as to fancy to cure some Men into their Senses by your mild and tender Remedies And therefore to deal plainly is the best way to work their Conversion from the Infidelity of Quakerism to the Faith of Christ Crucified which God of his Mercy grant them if it be his Will It was a notable Confession of St. Paul when he drew up an Indictment and Arraigned himself in the Murther of St. Stephen for his standing by and consenting unto his Death and holding the Garment of them that slew him I wish the Quakers were Humble enough to follow his Example whose malice I am afraid is greater and the dignity of the injured Person higher for they have Spirited away our Blessed Saviour and have left us nothing but a Notional and Chimerical Christ so that we may take up the Lamentation of Mary Magdalen They have taken away the Lord and we know not where they have laid him That was well noted in the Spirit of the Hat For I am perswaded there cannot be an Instance made in any Society of Men of that bigness that have gotten more Bastards and more unnaturally dispos'd of them that have drank deeper Draughts of stoln secret Intemperance that have fed higher and fared more deliciously every Day than have some of these Perfectionists in their shining brazen disguises of Religion I am heartily sorry for the poor Quaker I heard lately of who hanged himself * * viz. Will. Rust a Preacher at Chaterice in the Isle of Ely who opposed G. K. with G. K's Narrative in his Pocket and the more for the exact parallel I must make between him and Judas both in his Life and in his Death I pray God give them Grace to lay it to Heart and humbly to confess their Sins to God and to beg pardon by the Merits of Christ that God may give them Repentance unto Life SIR Your most Faithful Friend to Serve you c. It may be some may say why did you not Print his Name to it To which I Answer suppose I had a Friend in my Parlour and knew that if I did open the Door that the Dogs would come in and worry him can any think that if I lov'd my Friend I would not secure him from their Rage yea and with Just Lot rather venture my self out among the Sodomites than suffer my Friend to be torn in pieces And besides that I have Muzzled some and put others of them in a Cage so that they can only Grin Bark and shew their Teeth POSTSCRIPT To the Sincere amongst the Quakers whether they be Thousands Hundreds Fifties or peradventure but Ten who are of the true Berean Race FRIENDS BEsides the forenoted Six Books of the Quakers I have herein Examined and Refuted Four more at least in their principal parts VII Their Anguis Flagellatus or A Switch for the Snake VIII A Rambling Pilgrim c. by George Whitehead IX A Just Censure of F. B 's Address to the Parliament c. X. A Sober Reply c. in Answer to F. B 's Modest Defence To all which you will find in the foregoing and following such an Examination and Confutation as will give you some light into the
their Ancient Principles and they cannot quit them or retract them in their own Books but tell us their Principles are now no other than they were then only they can word the Matter otherwise I grant they hate abhor and detest these things of my reciting c. But as they lye snug in their own Books they read them in their own Meetings they are sweet Morsels of Quaker Consolation read A Modest Defence c. Part II. p. 22. for more of this where I have Reprinted their whole Book Ishmael c. to avoid their Cavils of Curtailing and Splitting Sentences as well as to shew Quakerism in its Native Complexion In their Sober Reply c. p. 11 14 15. in Answer to the Norfolk and Suffolk Petition c. they say To the first we say It is strange you should fear the Christian Religion should be polluted by the Quakers who of all that go under the Protestant Name are generally acknowledged to be furthest removed from and most averse to Popish Superstition so we always offer our Doctrines and Principles to be examined by the Scriptures To the second we say They desire they may Enjoy their wisht-for Happiness of a peaceful Life we envy it them not but God forbid they should swim into it through a Sea of Innocent Blood c. 1. In Answer to the first That the Quakers are furthest removed from Popish Superstition than any that go under the Name Protestant this I deny in their Name and have made it appear from their Doctrine in their Books as in the Preface to my Pilgrim's Progress 2d Edit c. and that from these following Instances in which they do not hold Negative Doctrines from the Romish Church they only differ which of them twain is the true Church to which these Qualifications are duly attributed c. I. That the Quakers are the One Only Church of Christ II. They agree in the Doctrine of Infallibility III. And that none can be Saved out of the True Church IV. They both agree in the Doctrine of Miracles V. Also about the Judge of all Controversies in Matters of Faith VI. They agree in their Contempt of the Protestant Ministers VII They agree in their Contempt of the Holy Scriptures VIII They agree in the Authority of their Unwritten Traditions IX Also in the Pope of Rome and Pope Fox X. They agree in their Idolatry to each Pope 2. That they always desired their Doctrine and Principles might be examined by the Scriptures this is false in Fact when they did in the Face of the World deny it to the Norfolk Clergy at West-Dereham to George Keith at Turners-Hall being thereunto Invited Four Years one after another to my Self at Milden-Hall See New Rome Unmasked c. p. 1 to p. 9. as also at several other times notwithstanding their false and bold denial A Just Censure c. p. 7. 3. They desire they may Enjoy their wisht-for Happiness of a Peaceful Life We envy it them not say the Quakers but God forbid they should swim into it through a Sea of Innocent Blood If it be to swim through a Sea of Blood only to desire that the Quakers Errors and Blasphemous Principles which contemn the Scriptures deny that Jesus of Nazareth who suffered on the Cross to be the Son of God and damn to the Pit of Hell the Ever-blessed Trinity should lye Censured and Condemned and their Books that so teach Burnt by the Common Hangman then indeed they are guilty But if this be not Persecution but agreeable to the Law of the Land the Votes of Parliament His Majesties Royal Will and Pleasure declared in his Proclamation then they are not guilty of Persecution nor of running through a Sea of Innocent Blood in the Defence of Christianity as the Quakers would impose upon their Readers to avoid the dint of an Examination notwithstanding their pretence A Reply c. p. 11. We are ready to undertake the Proof of every Doctrine we hold by and from the Scriptures I have read in St. Jude's Epistle that as in ver 3. he exhorts us to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints so ver 9. That Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the Body of Moses durst not bring against him a Railing Accusation but said The Lord rebuke thee And now I am Disputing with the Quakers his chiefest Emissaries and immediate Servants I hope I shall not bring a Railing Accusation But as it is Natural for a Worm when trodden upon to turn again and for an Englishman to set the Saddle on the right Horse so I hope I shall as long as Life last especially when St. Jude has so rightly described the Men as ver 8. saying Likewise also these filthy Dreamers defile the Flesh despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities as I have shewed in my Modest Defence c. Part I. p. 10 13 14 15. But say they A Just Censure c. p. 1 2. The Man he and his Abetters are ill Men. P. 11. It were greatly to be wished that these Zealots would turn their Spleen against Sin what fair Quarter all sorts of Enormities meet with from some of them But that none allow fairer Quarter to Vice and Immorality than the Quakers and Leaders of the Quaker Church is plain See Pilgrim's Progress c. p. 244 to p. 284. And one Reason I take to be is their own Guilt which would make their Reproofs sound like the Kettle calling the Pot Black-A and therefore 't is the Inconsideration of their Hearers that supports the Credit of such Vicious Hypocrites who are upheld by their Character rather than their Vertue and are become much less loved than feared for I demand an Instance of any one Book wrote against their Vicious Teachers and Hearers provided they keep Fox's Commandments about the Hat Thee Thou not Marrying or Burying with us and the like unwritten Traditions but I can give you an Account of Hundreds of Books wrote against such as dissent from them and conform themselves to the Church of England calling them Apostates Betraying Judasses Malicious Informers Renegadoes Beasts Dogs Wolves Children of the Devil Enemies of all Righteousness Devils Incarnate and a Hundred other Names And they call the Publick Ministry for endeavouring their Conversion Witches Devils Thieves Robbers Antichrists the Bane of Soul and Body threatning them with all direful Vengeance and this if rightly considered is not the least part of their Insolent Behaviour to the Government Now whether your Just Censure c. was in Answer to my former Sheet with a Scheme of your Yearly Meeting or to my Modest Reply c. or both since 't is said to be a Just Censure of my Address to the Parliament and I presented none under that Title I will not determine since it seems to the first tho' given in since my last yet I cannot but admire at your Impudence in your Reply c.
mean well and can now word their Matter otherwise and yet mean the same thing for our Principles are now no other than they were in the beginning And by Reason thereof and that we cannot quit our Infallibility some that went from us throw in their Bombs amongst us which doth fearfully annoy us and have split our Main-mast of Infallibility and broken the Helm of our Sinless Perfection Civ Now Friend Jacob it grows late I cannot stay I shall only sum up a few Observations from the Premises and then take my leave of you 1. As to F. B. whether he has New Cloaths or not what he had left when his Horse and Pocket-money for his Expedition was discounted make nothing to the purpose he has given as great a proof that he has not been Mercenary in writing 16 or 18 Years together against you without Money as any Quaker can give 2. Your Leaders are very Sawcy to meddle with the Bishops Certificate as in any thing you have attempted Suppose he had been mistaken in the Man he did not say he gave it forth from the Eternal Infallible Spirit of God he only said he had known him some Years this you do not disprove That he appeared to him to be an Honest Sober Industrious Man this might be for ought you either say or know and if he had been mistaken he does not pretend to know the Heart nor to discern who are Saints who are Devils and who are Apostates as the Quakers do and if he had been mistaken it had been no more than some of your Teachers have been That he had taken much Pains to Undeceive and Convert the Quakers by publishing useful Books and not without Success this he might safely say for it was true in Fact for at that time Mr. Rands his Wife and others that had left the Quakers declared to some that his Book The Painted Harlot Stript and Whipt c. was instrumental therein and since that many others are come off who have acknowledged as much And that by the Hardness of Times Charge of Printing he was reduced c. this was true in Fact wherefore says he I apprehend him a Real Object of Charity and that he does truly deserve the Bounty of well-disposed Persons unto whom I recommend him what hurt is in all this And what had your Friends to do with it May you hold a Yearly Meeting with Doors Lock'd issue out your Epistles for Money to relieve your Friends as you say and may not a Bishop of the Established Church recommend one of their Members to well-disposed Persons of the same Communion without your Censure Can you not be content to Censure the Acts of Corporations Grand Juries and Justices but must your Boldness extend to the Exposing and Censuring the Bishops I think you are a Peg too high 3. Whereas they pretend to undertake the proof of every Doctrine they hold this appears to be a Lie told in Hypocrisie Let them Confute the Six Articles above exhibited and Defend themselves from the Ten Instances wherein they are Charged to be one in Doctrine with the Romish Church Let them Answer F. B's Seventy Queries or else it will be taken pro Confesso and that they are never able to clear themselves from being guilty of Idolatry Blasphemy Contempt of God's Word and an Hundred other gross and vile Errors 4. In Oliver's time then the Clergy put in Books into the Parliaments Hands and it was your Business to Answer and but reasonable you should defend your selves and that the Government should hear both sides this Priviledge none deny'd you But now you put Books into their Hands not only in Sessions time but send them the Nation round to their Houses in the interval of Parliaments and F. Bugg Answers them and presents them in Sessions time this now you cannot bear this angers you and you fall upon the Man the Man is an Ill Man the Man is Contentious the Man is Quarrelsom the Man is an Apostate a Renegado this I tell you is very Bold and Imperious in your Teachers that such as forsake your Heresie and conform to the Establisht Religion are by you Censured Apostates and Renegadoes this highly reflects upon the Government and by implication Charges the King and Parliaments Religion to be Heathen For it was always accounted that such as forsook the Heathen Worship and imbraced the Christian Faith were Converts and that such as forsook the Christian Religion and imbraced Heathen Idolatry as some did formerly as well as now were Apostates and Renegadoes now by your Quakers Doctrine the Church of England is Heathen and you Christian how then have you the Face to appear to such as humble Suiters and with such Books too as tell them by implication at least that they are a Heathen Parliament and that such as forsake the Quakers and go to Church with the Parliament are Apostates Renegadoes c. 5. In their Just Censure p. 40. they tell us We are satisfied that it is no other Attestation than he has Collected out of our old Adversaries Books c. this F. B. denies he took not a word of it out of their Adversaries Books 6. Nor does he believe they are able to produce a Letter of the Late Lord Archbishop's to clear W. Penn from the general belief that he is a J t but if they could 't is not one Negative Evidence will do it since some of the very same Order has confirmed that Opinion 7. If your Teachers be ready as they boast to prove every Doctrine they hold let them appoint Time and Place and G. Keith and F. Bugg will not only meet them but prove the recited Charge upon them if not I will be one that shall desire they may be set in the Pillory for Examples on Condition the Quakers will be obliged if they do that they 'll retract their Errors this to be sure is no Persecution tho' the only thing they fear and all in support of their great Idol Infallibility and Sinless Perfection 8. But if they refuse this it will appear that your Teachers Friend Jacob are great Prevaricators impudent Liars horrible Deceivers great Impostors wicked Blasphemers and gross Idolaters Subverters of Laws Religion and that their Principles improved are destructive to all Mankind 9. And therefore Friend Jacob there is not only Bombs sent into your Camp but there is a whole Broadside given which will shake your Strong Hold That is to say by two Books the one by Fra. Bugg Intitled The Pilgrim's Progress c. which shews that your Monthly Quarterly Second-day and Six-week Meetings are nor for Worship as you now confess but for Government and that that Government is contrary to all the Laws above recited the other by Geo. Keith Intitled The Fourth Narrative of Proceedings at Turners-Hall shewing that your Principles are destructive to Christianity and tend to overthrow the Christian Religion 10. And I am glad to see you thus pursued and for
your own good too in hopes that our Government will find a time to Examin these things and prevent your walking in Masquerade as well as your deep Design to supplant Christianity 11. And I am willing further to observe that as the Proceedings of Francis Bugg has been a Check upon you so has he been useful in keeping on foot the Petition till a Convenient Season as also in Answering your Books by which you Banter the Grand Juries the Corporations and the Justices of Peace which will be no small Motive to the Prosecution now in hand 12. Not that I believe or desire Persecution will ensue no. I am not for punishing the Swearers and Damners of the Age with Cutting their Throats or a Sea of Blood but that as God permits them to Live so the Nation suffers them tho' not tolerated by an Act of Indulgence no more 't is hoped will you in your Blasphemous Errors and Pernicious Principles unless you do heartily and sincerely retract them and thereby make some Atonement for the great Scandal you have been to the Reformed Religion and so Adieu ERRATA PReface p. 1. line 4. for 1689 read 1698. p. 9. l. 18. f. as r. is p. 37. l. 13. f. have to r. to have Page 28. line 2. Smith's Works and Penington's Question p. 35. l. 15. f. 1560. r. 1650. p. 52. l. 14. f. Country r. Counterfeit p. 61. l. 24. f. writ r. wrought p. 78. l. 15. f. Reason r. Harlot p. 128. l. 4. r. till you have p. 172. l. 27. f. why r. what p. 250. l. 14. f. Reason r. Religion l. 17. r. Boyling Vengeance p. 227. f. every r. ever p. 303. l. 3. f. is r. in p. 305. l. 6. r. which to p. 154. l. 8. r. the Lord. THE Pilgrim's Progress FROM QUAKERISM TO Christianity c. CHAP. I. Giving an Account of my Education in the Profession of the Christian Faith and how I came to Apostatize from it and fall in with the Schism of Quakerism I Was Born at Milden-Hall in the County of Suffolk on the 10th Day of March Anno 1640. and Baptized into the Church of Christ the 14th of the same Month promising then by my Sureties to Fight manfully under Christ's Banner My Father's Name was Robert Bugg second Son of Francis Bugg and Margaret his Wife who was Chief Constable many Years my Mother's Name was Joan the Fourth and Youngest Daughter of Thomas Holman and Mary his Wife who was Baptized the 16th Day of March 1619. living at Lakenheath-Hall My Parents were of a good Yeomen-Family and lived in good Repute and brought me up in the Profession of the Church of England and when I came to Years capable of Instruction they Taught me the Lords Prayer the Ten Commandments and the Apostles Creed and very severe they were in Teaching me the Rudiments of the Christian Religion I remember my Mother who was a very good and pious Woman and religiously inclined would not suffer me to Sleep when I went to Bed e're I had said my Prayers and sometimes part of my Catechism And on the Lord's Day she made me to frequent the Church and at Home on that Day as well as most other Days to read some Portion of the Holy Scriptures They brought me up to School Learning until I attained to the Age of about Fifteen Years whereby I was capable to Write and Read English very well as also to cast Accompt few Lads went beyond me As also the Grammar wherein I was well instructed in the Rules thereof insomuch that I began to make a Piece of Latin but my Father living in a great Farm at Undley-Hall in the Parish of Lakenheath of 200 l. a Year besides a Fen-Farm in his Hands of 100 l. per. Ann. more he had in the Summer-time great Occasion for my Assistance and thereby was prevented of attaining to that Degree they once designed And afterwards being an Apprentice and so fell into Business that I soon lost a great part of that Learning I once had attained I must also confess I was in my Youth inclined to Company especially to Dancing and Musick yet I had in my early Years a Love to Religion and delighted much in Reading the Holy Scriptures sometimes Eight or Ten Chapters together I also lov'd much to hear good Preachers I very well remember that sometimes I went to Milden-Hall where we formerly liv'd on the Lord's Day on purpose to hear Mr. Watson who was accounted a famous Preacher being Four Miles from my Dwelling Thus much briefly touching my early Education Observations on the First Chapter REader I am the more particular in these Remarks for that the Quakers how much soever I was in esteem whilst with them since I left them have traduced me and laid all the Reproaches on me which Malice can invent (a) Non patitur Ludum fama Fides Oculus i. e. A Man 's Good Name his Faith his Eye will not be dally'd with said Luther in his Comment upon Gal. p. 51. as shall be shewed hereafter as well as to shew how excellent a thing it is for Parents to bring up their Children in the Nurture and Fear of the Lord to instruct them in the Principles of Christianity teach them the Lord's Prayer the Ten Commandments the Apostles Creed and the Church Catechism These Things together with Reading and Hearing the Scriptures Expounded being instiled into them in their young Years they will scarcely forget it when they are Old But if they should yet at one time or other the Remembrance of them may so far be brought to mind that they may thereby be brought to a Sense of their Condition And I speak what I know by Experience for the first Sermon I heard which was Preached by Mr. Smithies of Cripplegate London after I was about 25 Years amongst the Quakers and the very hearing of the Lord's Prayer the Ten Commandments the Apostles Creed and Confession of Sin did so strike me and bring things to my Memory that it shak'd all my Self-Confidence and brought me to the Consideration of Times past CHAP. II. An Account of my Apostacy and how I came to be carried away by the Quakers Dissimulation ABout the Year of our Lord 1657 Thomas Symonds of Norwich came to Lakenheath and appointed Meetings and many Quakers came from Thetford and other Places And tho' I went to Church on the Forenoon yet I had itching Ears to hear the Quakers and my Mother being dead and much of my Restraint thereby taken off I went to their Meetings in the Afternoon and gave great heed to what was spoken whose chief Subject was The Light within every Man and this Light to be Christ And their great Argument was from Christ's telling the Woman of Samaria her Thoughts saying Come see a Man which told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ c. John 4.29 Therefore said the Quakers this Light within must needs be the Man Christ and no other
in the Church or amongst them that profess to be Members thereof WE do declare and testifie That the Church with the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ HAVE POWER WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF SUCH WHO DISSENT FROM THEIR DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE TO HEAR AND DETERMINE THE SAME All Property is now lost unless there be Conformity and Submission like the Star-Chamber and High Court of Justice c. And if any pretend to be of us and in Case of Controversie will not admit to be TRIED by the Church i. e. the Body nor SUBMIT to the JUDGMENT given by the Spirit of Truth in the Elders and Members of the same but kick against their Judgment as only the Judgment of Man WE testifie in the Name of the Lord That if any Judgment so given be risen against and denied by the Party condemned then He or She ought to be rejected as having erred from the Truth and persisting therein presumptuously are joined in ONE with Heathens and Infidels George Whitehead Josiah Coale Stephen Crisp John Moone Thomas Loe Thomas Greene John Whitehead Thomas Briggs James Parke Alexander Parker Rich. Farnsworth c. Having by this time shewed First How our Teachers in order to bring us over to them and to decoy us told us the Light within was a sufficient Guide Teacher and Leader even sufficient to lead to Salvation yea above Scriptures above Fathers above Councils and above Churches I have in the last Instance shewed the Fallacy of their so early and smooth Pretences and that from the beginning they have been a false perfidious and treacherous Tribe of Deceivers as ever the World produced Well now they appear plainly to be a Body and I having found who is the Head of this Body namely George Fox it will not be amiss to recite the Quakers Creed and his Commandments which whatever Quaker do not submit to convinced or not convinced of the Reasonableness of their Obedience it 's now plainly seen what will befall them I need not Comment upon the recited Canon Creed Fox's Commandments nor their Zeal to maintain them as their Ancient Principles altho' God's Commandments by Moses the Apostles Creed and all the Scripture the Quakers slight and reject as not to be read in their Meetings not to be taught their Children nay so proud is G. Whitehead that he tells you as above The Jews might as well have carried them to Christ in the Days of his Flesh Viz. the Ten Commandments for him to learn observe and obey them as for the Christians to carry them to the Quakers to learn observe and obey them Truth defending the Quakers c. p. 18. For saith he What is spoken by the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Bible and Chapters are and greater Burroughs Works p. 47. This is the Tenure and Purport of his Doctrine and I do affirm it 's right Quakerism For Edw. Burroughs said That was no Command from God to me what he Commands to another And W. Penn confirms the whole saying No Command in Scriptures is any further obliging upon ANY Man than as he finds a Conviction upon his Conscience otherwise Men should be engaged without if not against Conviction a thing unreasonable in Man c. Quakerism a New Nick-name for old c. p. 71. But for their poor infatuated Disciples to plead whether to conform or not whether to obey or not the Commands of G. Fox i. e. not paying Tythes not to be Married with a Priest not to put off the Hat not to open their Shops on Feasts or Fast-Days I say to plead to be left to their Freedom herein and the Grace of God in their Hearts Oh! no Says W. Penn This is a dangerous Principle this is a pernicious Plea this is perfect Ranterism VVhat to have Liberty whether to obey the Commands of the Body given out by the Head thereof This is wicked indeed as by their Yearly Epistle above-recited is plain However I shall recite both the Quakers Creed and the Commands of G. Fox Viz. 1. The Quakers Creed WE believe that the Light within us is the True and Eternal God which Created all things and that by me the Light all things are upheld and that there is not another besides me that can save and thereupon we believe we are endued with the Almighty Power of God and thereby have wrought Miracles and conclude we are equal to God and that our Speaking is of greater Authority than the Bible VVe believe our Light within is Jesus Christ the Son of God the Man Christ Jesus to whom all Power in Heaven and Earth is committed tho' we cannot believe that this our Light within to whom we direct our Disciples to expect Salvation by was ever crucified by Nailing to a Cross nor that he Died or was Buried nor that he was Buffered Spitted upon Smote with the Palms of the Hands of the Jews for he never was seen with Carnal Eyes nor that he Rose from the Dead the Third Day nor that he Ascended in the Sight of the Galileans into Heaven and there Sit at the Right Hand of God but that all Apostate Christians that so teach are false Ministers nor do we believe that our Light within shall come at the last Day to judge both Quick and Dead For the Light within us is the Judge and the Book is opened within the Sentence of Death and Judgment is pronounced within from the Mouth of our Light within against every idle VVord and all the Deeds of the Body within and Judgment is executed within and the flaming Sword within which proceedeth out of the Mouth of the Lamb i. e. our Light within which will cast thee into Hell within where is weeping and wailing within sealed down under the Wrath of God's Eternal Judgment within We believe the Light within us is the Holy Ghost and that these three are one and not distinguishable and that such as talk of three Persons in the Godhead like Conjurers are to be shut up with their three Persons they dream of which they would divide out of one in perpetual Darkness in the Lake and the Pit That the Scripture which the Apostate Christians build their Faith upon for this their Trinity of Persons in the Godhead is a rotten Foundation yea Dust Death and Serpents Meat and therefore their Ministers that tell their People the Scriptures are the Word of God are Deceivers For the Father Son and Spirit the World and their Teachers call three Persons but they speak they know not what therefore believe them not We believe our selves the only Catholick Church and Elect People of God and that none are in the Truth but we our selves We never did in any of our printed Books or printed Prayers from 1560 to 1690 make any Confession of Sin nor ask Pardon of God for Jesus Christ's sake who was Born of the Virgin and why We testifie that the outward Person that suffered at Jerusalem was
if they find it so as that they may for I have ever been willing and still am to produce Book and Page to prove Matter of Fact then let them carry the said Books to their Teachers to condemn and censure as Heretical and tending to overturn the Christian Religion and if not let them if they be wise turn their Backs upon them forsake their Errours and imbrace the Christian Faith so shall the end of all my Labour and Pains be Answered but if they after all the Pains my self and others have taken will still shut their Eyes and stop their Ears my Reward will be with me and they shall bear their own Burthen in the Day of the Lord. CHAP. V. Giveth many Reasons both Negative and Affirmative That George Fox took himself to be a Second Moses and that the Heads of the Quakers attributed to him Divine Honour as Head of their Church and Lawgiver to it TO come to a right Understanding of this I shall first insert an Objection raised by W. Rogers The Christian Quaker distinguished c. Part I. p. 9. and by him taken out of a Manuscript with Names to it next George Fox's Answer and then proceed to other particular Reasons and Demonstrations Object 'T is true Friends in the beginning were turned to the Light in their own Consciences as their Guide but when it pleased the Lord to gather so great a Number into the Knowledge and Belief of the Truth then the Heavenly Motion came upon George Fox as the Lord 's Anointed and Chosen having the Care of the Churches as being the great Apostle of Christ Jesus and as one whom the Lord had ordained to be in that place amongst the Children of Light in this our Day as Moses was amongst the Children of Israel in his Day to set forth Methods and Forms of Church-Government and to establish Monthly and Quarterly Meetings of Men and Women distinct from the Men and these Meetings since are called the Church whose Counsel Advice and Judgment is to be submitted unto by every one who profess himself a Member of Christ's Church and that we ought to believe as the Church believes as G. VVhitehead teacheth viz. I affirm That the true Church is in the true Faith that is in God and we must believe thus as the true Church believes or else it were but both a Folly and Hypocrisie to profess our selves Members thereof G. VVhitehead 's Book the Apostate Incendiary c. p. 16. This Objection W. Rogers made from the Strength of divers Arguments he found in the Manuscript from the VVords and VVritings of divers Persons whose Names he did forbear to mention but for the clearing up this Point VVhether G. Fox looked upon himself the Second Moses the great Prophet and Apostle see his Answer to W. Rogers The Christian Quaker distinguished from the Apostate and Innovator in Five Parts See Part 4. p. 83. George Fox's ANSWER VVilliam Rogers thou say'st There is a Spirit risen at this Day that gives many occasion to be jealous that I am look'd upon by some as that Prophet which Moses testify'd of that God would raise up Deut. 18.15 but who they are thou hast not mention'd And thou say'st Christ is that Prophet that is to be heard c. and he is the only Lawgiver and no Outward Man (m) (m) So W. Rogers said now mark his long-sided Answer Then is not this Prophet to be in Man to give forth his Law which comes after Moses But I cannot deny that Prophet which Moses spake of to be raised up for I know that it is he that is opposed and his Law too by many Talkers of him and the Light of his Glorious Gospel and the Order of it and what I am I am by the Grace and Love of God and will not deny (n) (n) Deny no there was no Body desired that But if he had not owned himself to be that Prophet he ought to have been plain and denied himself to be that Prophet as John did I am not the Christ said John Joh. 1.20 the Prophet which came after Moses nor the Election before the World began tho' all turn into the Jealousies in which they were before they were convinced for I believe few of them that does oppose knows this Prophet that comes after Moses tho' they may speak of him in Words of which Prophet I am not ashamed Reader The Text and Context being duly consider'd I mean W. Roger's Objection touching the common Jealousies which was amongst us at that Day besides the Letters in the said Manuscript c. I say that duly consider'd on the one Hand and G. Fox's Answer on the other Hand which was so far from denying himself to be that Prophet which Moses prophesied of Deut. 18.15 and St. Stephen testified of Acts 7.37 and St. Peter Acts 3.23 and St. John the Evangelist John 1.45 These and many others gave witness to the fulfilling of the Prophesie of Moses in sending the promised Messiah I say G. Fox's Answer was so far from denying himself to be that Prophet which Moses prophesied of that it confirmed us in that Day and since much more that he did not deny but rather owned the Charge But to strengthen my Argument I shall give some small Hints and but name them having been heretofore more large first What he said of himself next What his Followers said of him First Written from the Mouth of the Lord from one who is naked and stands naked before the Lord cloathed with Righteousness whose NAME is NOT known in the World risen up out of the North News coming up p. 1. which was Prophesied of (o) This is News indeed what Prophet prophesied of Fox's Rising in the North Secondly My Name is covered from the World and the World knows not ME nor MY NAME Several Petitions Answered p. 30. Thirdly HE that HATH the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the Dead is EQUAL with God Saul's Errand to Damascus p. 8. Fourthly All Languages are to me no more than Dust who was before Languages were The Battledoor c. Introd Fifthly And the Thundering Voice Answered I have Glorified thee and will Glorifie thee again and I was filled so full of Glory that my Head and Ears were filled full of it c. G. Fox's Tryal at Lancaster p. 21. Reader Here was Fulness of Glory if his Head and Ears was so filled c. However 't is plain it alludes to John 12.18 16.14 and 17.1 For nothing would please him but to be equal if not above Christ as One Hundred Instances might be given Next I may just name some few of those High Titles and Divine Attributes which his Disciples and Followers Men of greatest Note amongst them gave him which are only due to Christ who was the Prophet Moses Prophesied of and not the subtle Fox the doting Quakers so much admire and idolize First George Fox the Father of many Nations whose Being and Habitation is
BLOOD OF ANOTHER SAINT his INTENT (s) George Jesuit-like is excellent at directing the Intention WAS as to Papists and you whose Minds are Carnal who oppose the Light within and ALSO SIMPLY as to the ESSENCE of the BLOOD c. See his Book i. e. the Light and Life of Christ within c. Printed 1668. Thus much by way of G. Whitehead's Interpretation of Solomon's Words and Meaning which I take to be a fair Confession of the Charge of Blasphemy exhibited by Mr. Burnet But to confirm the Reader that the Quakers are defective in the Faith of the Christians in general I will shew another Passage of the same Kind thereby shewing the Quakers Harmony about the Body of Christ from another of their eminent Authors viz. So now this Christ was before the World began and was a Seed †i. e. A Principle within before any Name was given to it who in Process of time was Born of a Virgin but none knows him born or ever shall but of a Virgin he that hath Ears let him hear be thou Man but the Virgin the Power of the most High shall overshadow thee and that HOLY THING which shall be Born of Thee shall be called the Son of God and saith Christ a Body hast thou prepared for me mark the Distinction thou me and a Body this me that spake in the Body was the Christ They his Disciples loved his Person for the sake of the Frame and Quality of the Spirit that dwelt in Him or else what was his Person to them more than another Person But for that that dwelt in him they loved him let none mistake I do not slight it nor the Person of any of his Brethren or Children as they are prepared to do the Will of their Father (t) As the Blood of Christ so the Body of Christ hath by their Doctrine no Preference above the Body and Blood of another Saint c. W. Bayly's Works p. 291. And hereupon they do not only deny Christ even the Lord that bought them as in my Book Quakerism Withering and Christianity Reviving c. I have shewed beyond all their Glossing but also how they thereby take occasion to magnifie THEMSELVES their OWN Blood their OWN Sufferings as I shall yet briefly shew For saith Isaac Pennington The Name Jesus and Christ belong to the whole Body and every Member in the Body as well as to the Head A Question to Professors c. p. 20 27. Again saith Josiah Coale His Edward Burroughs's Blood will be upon you as the Blood of a Thousand Men Jos Coale's Epistle to E. Burroughs's Works c. Again saith Thomas Speed Do not rashly draw your Swords against those harmless ones i. e. Quakers whom your bloody Teachers cloath and represent to you in the ugly Garb of Blasphemers remember that the Son of God who suffered at Jerusalem was not Crucified by the strict Religious as an innocent or just Man but as a Blasphemer be not therefore prevailed with to release Barabbas (v) For the Name Jesus belonged to the Believing Quakers as well as to Christ the Head and so the whole Paralle holds good and give over Jesus to be Crucified to gratifie the Murtherous Appetite either of the Priests or the Multitude considering that tho' you may with Pilate wash your Hands and to those Eyes that are dazled with Fury against innocent Jesus i. e. the Quakers appear clear from his Blood yet before the pure Eyes of the Lord will the condemning Stain thereof be found upon YOU so fresh THAT YOU WILL BY NO MEANS BE THENCE CLEANSED BUT BY THE SAME BLOOD WHICH YOU SO CRUELLY SHED See The Guilty covered Clergy-Man c. p. 16 17. Again see Burroughs's Works p. 273. The Suffering of the People of God call'd Quakers in this Age is a GREATER Suffering and MORE unjust than in the Days of CHRIST or of the APOSTLES or in ANY time SINCE what was done to CHRIST and the APOSTLES was CHIEFLY done by a LAW and in a GREAT Part by the DUE EXECUTION of a Law c. Now to close up this Head let us hear what Father Penn says for none of them all express themselves more full to the Point in Hand viz. See The Christian Quaker and his Divine Testimony c. p. 107. To conclude We tho' this general Victory was obtained and Holy Priviledges therewith and that the Holy Body was not instrumentally without a Share thereof yet that the efficient and chiefest Cause was the Light and Life (x) Within p. 102. so that the Invisible Life was the Root and Fountain of all which is sometimes ascribed in the Scriptures to the Body by that common Figure or Way of speaking amongst Men the thing containing which is the Body for the thing contained which is the Life p. 209. Nevertheless not to the Body but to that Holy Light and Life therein (y) As in the Quaker's Body c. is chiefly ascribed the Salvation and to the Body however excellent but instrumentally p. 97 98. The Serpent is a Spirit now nothing can bruise the Head of the Serpent but something that is Spiritual but if that BODY of CHRIST were the SEED (z) Mark here Christ the promised Seed Gen. 3.14 the Son of David of Mary is plainly denied to be the Christ of God then could he not Bruise the Serpent's Head in all because the BODY of CHRIST is not so much as in any one †Yes by Faith Read Acts 4.10,12 Luke 2.11 and consequently the Seed of the Promise is an Holy Principle of Light and Life that being received into the HEART bruiseth the Serpent's Head AND BECAUSE THE SEED WHICH CANNOT BE THAT BODY IS CHRIST as testifie the Scripture The Seed is one and that Seed is Christ They are false Ministers that Preach Christ without and bid People believe in him as he is in Heaven above Smith's Primer p. 8. But they that are Christ's Ministers Preach Christ within Your imagined God beyond the Stars and your Carnal Christ is utterly denied that this Christ is God and Man in one Person is a Lie c. The Sword of the Lord drawn p. 5. Reader I have taken in enough to shew the Marrow of the Quaker's Divinity and the Harmony of their Antient Testimonies And they tell you in a late Print That God is the same Truth is the same his People the same their Principles are the same c. The People call'd Quakers cleared c. p. 7. And in another Our Principles are now no other than what they were when we were first a People Primitive Christianity c. p. 53. Printed 1698. So that there needs no Comment only for further Satisfaction I refer to my former Books New Rome Unmask'd and her Foundation Shaken c. New Rome Arraign'd and out of her own Mouth Condemned c. Quakerism Withering and Christianity Reviving c. The Snake in the Grass c. Satan Disrobed
in the same Page he tells us that the false Christians meaning the Church-People are more intolerable than Heathens Turks and Jews saying The equal Conversation of those Infidels should make both Priest and People blush (b) And why not Quakers too But Mr. Clapham the Minister against whom W. Penn writ that Book says It 's a foolish thing to flatter the Papists Socinians and Quakers with the Hopes of Salvation p. 31 32 ib. Upon which Mr. Penn in his wonted career first condemns the Clergy then vindicates the Soeinians his Words are these If Pap. Socin Quak. be defective they owe it to the Idle Lying Covetous Ignorant and Murdering Spirit and Practice of the Priests whose Interest it has ever been to enslave and obscure the People's Understanding it 's not my Business to Apologize for Papists As for the Socinian I know him to have Wit and Learning enough his Exemplary Life and Grave Deportment I must acknowledge to be very singular and if his Cause receive no greater Foil than this Person 's bare Reproaches the discreet World will sooner acquiesce in the stronger Arguments of Socinus and his quaint Adherents (c) W. P. Vindicate the Socinians Object But may some object If the Quaker Teachers be such thirfty Men are they also charitable Men We have heard the Quakers maintain their own Poor Answ I do not know many of their Teachers now having been so long from them but such of them as I do now know and formerly have known they were a sort of mercenary poor Men at their first Rise some few excepted but very uncharitable in their Language the World never produced the like since Noah's Flood and I know not nor never did that the Ministers of that People were ever given to Hospitality but what they got commonly they held fast and beside ungrateful to their Benefactors I remember I met one of them in London (d) John Kilborn sometime since and he was so Proud being now grown Rich that he would not speak to me altho' I have entertain'd him and his Horse yea and Companion too at my House divers times sometimes a Week together yea when he has been thin and thread-bare I have taken him into my Shop and at my own Charge have cloathed him I will not say what I have done to others both in Money and Cloathing but thus much I will say that 't is the chargeablest Ministry this Day in England to some Particulars For as Mr. Croese well observes they range all the Nation round and come like Mice uncall'd for and like Flies unsent for and both for their Horses Themselves and their Companions fall upon their Provision Oats Hay c. insomuch that I can say the Ministry of the Quakers has cost me as much in Three Months time nay much more than the Publick Ministry have cost me this Fifteen Years But as to their Hospitality and Charity I never met with any of it I remember about Twenty Years since my Wife had a mind to see London and I went with her to visit Tho. Green who as well as many others of them made my House his Home when in our Country yet he never invited me and my Wife to a Meal Brothers and Sisters nay his own Kindred that have come to Visit him out of Northamptonshire have scarce eat and drank at his House but which is still worse for I can now spare none where a Discovery may be made of this false Ministry and deluding Teachers I say worse for his own Brother William Green who once was a chief Speaker amongst them but poor Man he was a wet Quaker and they put him by Preaching the Man married grew Poor and notwithstanding his Brother Thomas Green was vastly Rich 'T is now judged he is worth 8000 l. and Application made to him time after time yet he held a deaf Ear so long until his Wife was forced to go to St. Gregory's Parish for Relief for him or else he might have starved (e) I have been told that he 'll not allow his Horse Litter but lets him lye on the bare Flint-Stones for all his own Brother is worth many Thousands I shall give but one Instance more of this kind and then tell you who are their own Poor and who they think themselves obliged to maintain c. The Instance is touching S. Cater whose Father was a poor Man went about to sell Wings three for Two Pence from Door to Door but as you have heard he by being a Preaching Quaker is grown Rich Well he has a Kinsman that lives at our Town and takes Collection a Sweep-Chimney this poor Man sometimes in the Summer-time will go to Littleport (f) Where S. Cater dwells i. e. about Eight or Ten Miles to visit his Rich Cousin his Father's Brother's Son but when he comes there I have heard him say that they will not so much as let him come in I will not say but sometimes he may have gotten something but very little no they have very little Charity to God's Poor but their own Poor and such as they so esteem and thereupon look upon themselves obliged to maintain such as Merit their Charity by Obeying their Doctrine in Transgressing the known Laws of the Land viz. such as are Sued and Imprisoned for Tythes such as met in Defiance of the Statute made 22 of K. C. II. S. Cater's Instance for one Yea if such could but make the Feoffees to the Fund at London believe they did suffer whether true or false such were supplied But if any one of their People happen to wear a 4 d. Lace on their Pinner or pull off their Hat to a Magistrate or break and violate the Quakers Laws such are turned to the Parish I know but one poor Quaker in our Town Milden-Hall it may be she is not so starch'd a Quaker as the rest it may be she may say You instead of Thee and Thou or some such small Defect Well tho' she be a poor Widow with several small Children and very Necessitous yet she must starve if our Parish did not sometimes relieve her and for this Seven Years I believe she hath lived in a little House of mine and the Town pays me her Rent No they only take notice of their own Poor viz. such as are made poor through their Obedience to the Quakers unlawful Laws or Laws against the Laws of the Realm I do not question but I have made the Friends angry yet if they take the Boldness to stigmatize the Bishops Magistrates and Clergy and to reproach them with what is not true why may not I tell them of their Faults G. Whitehead wrote lately to G. Keith i. e. G. W.'s Letter to G. Keith May 98. I could further expose thee to thy Terror and Shame (g) They 'll tell you they cannot seek Revenge than ever I have done for I have been very sparing towards thee in comparison of
which both repealed this Law respecting the Quakers who adhered to them as the Higher Power alienated their Obedience from the Magistrates and the Laws of the Land Which Edict is as followeth viz. Concerning our open Testimony by Publick Meetings in Times of Sufferings That as it hath been our Care and Practice from the Beginning that an Open Testimony for the Lord should be born and a Publick Standard ††High boasting Words but the Snake lay in the bottom i. e. Disobedience to Authority their Light being the Higher Power for Truth and Righteousness upheld in the Power and Spirit of God by our open and known Meetings against the Spirit of Persecution that in all Ages hath sought to lay waste God's Heritage and that only thro' Faithfulness Constancy and Patience Victory hath been and is obtained SO IT IS OUR ADVICE and JUDGMENT That all Friends gathered in the Name of Jesus * * Meaning their Light in opposition to the Doctrine and Practice of the Apostles and all Christian Churches as well as against the Commands of Jesus of Nazareth Go teach all Nations Baptizing c. Do this in Remembrance of me c. When you Pray say Our Father c. Forgive us our Sins for c. Read Luke 11.14 Matth. 28.19,20 Luke 22.19 John 1.8 Psal 38.18 50.15 51.1,2,3 Isa 64.6 Lam. 3.20 Job 7.20 Prov. 20.9 Eccles 7.20 Nehem. 1.6 1 Tim. 1.15 Dan. 9.4,5,20,23 See Pict of Quak. p. 63 to 70. keep up those Publick Testimonies in their Respective Places and not DECLINE FORSAKE or REMOVE their Publick Assemblies because of Times of Sufferings as WORLDLY FEARFUL and POLITICK Professors have done because of Informers and the like Persecutors For such Practices are not consistent with the Nobility of the Truth and therefore not to be owned in the Churches of Christ Subscribed by G. Whitehead W. Penn Tho. Salthouse Al. Parker Jo. Burnyeat St. Crisp London the 23d of the Third Month 1675. Thus have I given two Instances as particular Demonstrations That as their Books teach so their Practice confirm it That their Light is the Higher Power to which they require Obedience contrary to the Practice of God's Saints and Servants in all Ages where nothing that is sinful and so against the written Word of God is commanded Read Mat. 22.21 1 Pet. 2.13,14,17 Rom. 13.1,2,3 Tit. 3.1 See Tindal's Works i. e. The Obedience of a Christian Man c p. 111. and compare these Holy Sayings with their Practice unless where Idolatry or Things sinful are commanded and then 't is better to obey God than Man but this the Quakers could never produce But as they thus slighted and trampled upon the Government so did their great Apostle glory in it saying He did not heed a Cart load of Warrants Journal p. 278. And now I shall briefly run through several of their other Methods and Ways at their Yearly Meeting reserving their Doctrinal Part which support and influence them to a distinct Chapter by it self First They oft refer to their last Yearly Epistle that the Contents of it be seriously reminded in all Monthly and Quarterly Meetings but not a Word of Scripture referred to therein as their Rule of Faith and Practice 2 dly Against that grand Oppression and Antichristian Yoke of Tythes yea Antichristian in the Law-maker in the Payer and in the Receiver 3 dly Against the paying of Churchwardens Rates by which we have much Trouble in the Country otherwise things might be easie but from this Fountain spring their Antimagistratical Practices 4 thly That all their Sufferings may be brought up to London in order for a Martyrology both full and compleat that nothing may be wanting to reproach the Magistrates and extol their own Sufferings which they are not already asham'd to say are Greater and more Unjust than in the Days of Christ's Apostles the Ten Persecutions and all the Massacres for the Name of Christ see Burrough's Works p. 273. tho' many of them are meer Shams as in the Case of Sam. Cater who pretended and got it Recorded that he suffered 20 l. for Preaching at Phakenham in Norfolk altho' he never did for that Meeting suffer a Groat yet for that Pretence had 10 l. sent him out of their London Exchequer or Fund And yet this is not the whole of this grand Cheat but Nine Years after he printed a Book intituled The Lamentable Cry of Oppression c. p. 14 44. wherein he had the Impudence still to complain of Sir Christopher Colthorp's Injustice and Persecution concealing his having his Goods again and 10 l. to boot And by this their Chronicles they so much boast of †Yet no Chronicle appears What are they asham'd of their Sham-Sufferings may be measured 5 thly Against their People using Guns in their Ships which in 1693. When this Advice was given His Majesty had need of such as would Fight c. But tho' the Quakers in Pensilvania can Fight as Magistrates yet they cannot Fight as Quakers and 't is not time yet to throw off their Coats of Quakerism and put on the Robes of Magistracy 6 thly To receive Applications Epistles and Embassies from the Foreign Parts beyond the Seas mentioned in the former Part of this Chapter and grant them Orders Edicts and Laws for the governing themselves in Subjection to their Light the Higher Power especially when met in a Body as the Epistle Anno 1660. before recited shew 7 thly To refer the Sufferings of their own Poor i. e. such as by breaking the Laws lying in Goal for Non-payment of Tythes c. For otherwise tho' their own Brothers they may starve e're they 'll take any charitable notice of them Nay Fathers as in the Case of T. Ellwood who suffer'd his Father to go from Door to Door as John Rauce's Relation is or of a Woman that wears a Lace of a Groat on her Head or a Man that puts off his Hat no many of these are God's Poor but the Quakers Poor are of another sort and they having merited the Quakers Kindness by obeying their Laws These are plentifully rewarded so that what they call their Unity is rather a Confederacy which ought to be noticed 8 thly They take care that all their Erronious Books may be dispersed by all their Monthly and Quarterly Meetings for the spreading of Truth but not a word of dispersing the Bible however it may serve for a Motive to our Clergy for to take Care to Disperse such Books as discover the Quakers Errours and Hypocrisies the Neglect of it has been very hurtful 9 thly They every Year order a Committee to be chosen to view the Accounts and to examine the State of their Cash i. e. the Quakers Exchequer which some say now run over They likewise nominate their Feoffees for the time being who by the Order of their Superiors give out sometimes 5 l. sometimes 10 l. sometimes 20 l. at a time to their Preachers and such as
Tythes that belong to them thrown down P. 65. You who are the Parliament of this Nation you should have thrown down Tythes which Abundance of the sober People of the Nation hath petition'd you †What Impudence is this Pretend to petition and beg yet teach the Parliament and tell them what they should do to have taken them away which you voting them up hath voted your selves out of the sober People's Affection of the Nation among the Brutes you should have sold all the Glebe-Lands and sold all the Bells saving one in a Town and Colledges and their Lands and given them all to the Poor of the Nation P. 68. And the Priests cry to you Magistrates for Tythes the Pope's Alms and lye begging with their Petitions at your Doors * It was highly necessary then as well as â—…s now foâ— some to oppose Quakeriâ—… And we would have you maintain these begging Priests some other way than by the Pope's Alms. P. 69. AND EXCEPT YOU TAKE COUNSEL OF THE JUST YOU SHALL NOT SIT †☞ Reader I have recited enough of the Quakers Petition against the Clergy to shew the Nature of their Ancient Testimony and pointed with a Finger ☞ to two Sayings which with the rest are full of Impudence And when against the Clergy I think I may take their Word their whole Carriage and Deportment both by Word and Writing do confirm it But when for themselves they have any Favour to obtain DISTRUST THEM IN ALL THEY SAY for they II stick at no Promise as in the Case of their Indulgence witness their Acknowledging the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given forth by Divine Inspiration That it is the Rules of Faith and Practice c. whilst they believe not one Word of what they themselves say and as a Demonstration thereof I shall recite one of their Epistles sent to the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings shewing their Care of their own Books Nay them very Books which teach that the Scriptures are Death Dust Beastly Ware Serpents Food c. Therefore From the Meeting of Sufferings in London ††Renewed Advice to the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in England and Wales for preserving and spâ—eading Fâ—iend's Boâ—ks for Trâ—th's Serâ—ice Priâ—ted 16â—9 Dear Friends With our dear Love in the Truth unto you all these are to let you understand that our Friends have at several YEARLY MEETINGS had under their serious Consideration how all those Books that are printed for the Service of Truth and in the Unity of Friends might MOST EFFECTUALLY be SPREAD for a general Service to Truth and at the last YEARLY MEETING it was left unto this Meeting who accordingly have taken Care and Pains therein and settled as followeth That those that print Friends Books shall the first Opportunity after printed within one Month at most send to one of the Correspondents in the Counties viz. For your County two Books of a sort for each Monthly Meeting in your County if under Six Pence and but one of a sort if above Six Pence per Book for these Reasons 1 st For Friends to have general Notice what Book is printed 2 dly That they may send for what other Quantities they see a Service for And 3 dly That the Printer may be encouraged in Printing for Friends 4 thly For a Quaker Library That one Book at least of a sort that shall be printed may be kept in each Monthly and Quarterly Meetings for the Service of Truth and Friends as there shall be occasion for the future And as 't was agreed at the last YEARLY MEETING 1692. in the Printed Epistle 5 thly It is agreed that for Encouragement the Printer will allow 2 d. in the Shilling for all such Books 6 thly It 's agreed that some here shall be appointed that two or three Weeks before each Quarter Day to examine the Printer to see that they send no Books but what are approved by Friends and no more than two of a sort as aforesaid except the Friends in the Country shall write for more which it 's hoped they will not fail in ††I have heard that they begin to fail and send but slowly as they see a Service for them 7 thly It 's agreed or advised that the Printer's Accompts be fully cleared once a Year at least by those Friends the Country shall send up to the Yearly Meeting 8 thly It 's agreed that the Name of the Printer imploy'd by Friends should be sent with Directions how to write to him And Dear Friends and Brethren It 's Tenderly and in Brotherly Love advised and recommended unto you that ye be careful and diligent in the Spreading of All such Books that are printed for the Service of Truth and are either written in Defence of it or Christian Doctrine or Holy Profession or by way of Epistle Warning Caution Exhortation or Prophesie Not a Word of the Bible that so we may not be any way or in any wise Remiss or Negligent in promoting that Holy and Eternal Truth it hath pleased Almighty God to bless us with the Knowledge of and hath raised us up to stand Witnesses for in our Age and Generation nor nothing may be wanting on our parts to promote it and the spreading of it Signed on the Behalf of the Meeting for Sufferings in London 18. 6. Mo. 1693. By Benj. Bealing Postscript And this Agreement and Account herein sent we think it needful you should record it in your Quarterly Book and sometimes read it for Remembrance and general Notice Observations from hence Reader From what hath been said you may observe First That there is such a Meeting as I have set forth both from their Yearly and the recited Six-Week Meeting in case the Quakers deny it Secondly That their Business principally is to take Care of the Sufferings of their own Friends and that how plentifully they reward such as are faithful to their Church-Canons as in the Instance of Sam. Cater who for pretending to suffer 20 l. tho' he suffered not a Groat yet had 10 l. sent him as a Reward for meeting boldly contrary to the Law in that Case made and provided Thirdly That they have a Fund or Common Bank and that the Accompts are examined by a Committee chosen out of the Yearly Meeting for that Purpose Fourthly That such as suffer for Non-payment of Tythes are to send to the Quarterly Meetings Correspondents left their Sufferings be delayed Fifthly You may also perceive what a Confederacy is held by the Quakers and how they are enabled by their Exchequer to hold Suit with both Priest and Impropriator †As in the Instance of Mr. Holeman who was a Justice of the Peace a Counsellor at Law yet tired Sixthly You also may see how the Quakers solicite the Parliament for Favours as also how they Petition against the Clergy the Churches the Colledges and Bells too Yea this is according to their Ancient
Testimony and they are not chang'd they tell you so as I have herein before observed Seventhly And as a Pregnant Instance of the dangerous Consequence of this their Six-Week Meeting and their common Stock or Fund observe that of Joseph Clark one of their Preachers before noticed who tho' he pretended he was moved of God their usual Pretence for their Villanies yet when J. Field and their Fund failed him he presently pays his Tythes professing also that he then could pay them as well as other Taxes which is a clear Demonstration that such as stand it out and will rather spend 20 l. then pay 13 s. is because they are supported by this Illegal Fund c. And Lastly You may by this recited Epistle observe the Confederacy of their Yearly-Meeting and Six-Week Meeting to spread their venemous Books to infect both Youth and Aged Male and Female Old and Young and all under the fine Notion of the Service of Truth meaning Quakerism For if they meant the Truth of the Christian Doctrine they would at one time or other read a Chapter in their Meetings at one time or other recommend to their Monthly and Quarterly Meetings the reading of some Portion of the Holy Scriptures But not a Word of this in their Epistles not a Chapter read in their Meetings for Forty Years together but their own Epistles their own Prophesies their own printed Exhortations These they not only read in their private Meetings in their Families but they must Record you see this recited Epistle in their quarterly-Quarterly-Book and sometimes read it Oh! 't is a precious Epistle And now Christian Reader I cannot but think my self unable to give a full and compleat Caution against the spreading of the Gangrene of Quakerism and therefore give me leave in the Words of Mr. Ralph Farmer a Minister formerly of Bristol to rehearse part of his Exhortation in his Book i. e. The Myst of Ungodliness c. viz. Now beloved if thou beest a Christian what say'st thou Is not here a Mystery of Ungodliness to the Purpose Where was it hatch'd think'st thou Could any less than all the Devils in Hell keep a Conventicle to Contrive and Plot this Black and Hellish Treason against the Majesty of God Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures Oh! ye Christian Magistrates who rule for Christ and to whom you shall one Day give an Account of your Government how you have ruled for him and how tender you have been of his Honour what is become of your Zeal for Christ and his Glory Good Sirs if these wretched Souls have such Liberty of Conscience to think thus contemptuously of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Gospel let them not upon Pretence of Liberty of Conscience be so audaciously Blasphemous to write and speak thus And O ye Servants of the Lord my Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry of our Dear and Ever-blessed Jesus you that are the Pastors of the Lord's Flock and the Watchmen for the Sheep of his Pasture lift up your Voices and spare not cry aloud to all your Congregations and forewarn them that they be not a Prey to Satan's Devices let the Wolves know that you are not Dumb Dogs and cannot bark and Idol Shepherds that can neither hear nor see nor understand any thing and that at a time of Need can say nothing certainly certainly such as these may ill look for their Gain from their Quarters they deserve it not who so they may be fed care not nor care to discover what devouring Beast comes to destroy the Flock of Christ But you my dear Brethren who are set over the Lord's Folds and who watch for their Souls as those that must give an Account and that have a Desire to do it with Joy and for the Profit of your People read and practise what St. Paul gives in charge to the Pastors of the Church at Ephesus Acts 20.28,29,30,31 and let me give it thee here in his own Words what he gave forth to his Son Timothy I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the Quick and the Dead at his Appearing and Kingdom preach the Word be instant in Season out of Season reprove rebuke exhort with all Long suffering and Doctrine for the time will come and it is now when they shall not endure sound Doctrine but after their own Lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching Ears and they shall turn away their Ears from the Truth and shall be turned unto Fables but watch thou in all things endure Afflictions do the Work of an Evangelist or Gospel Preacher make full Proof of thy Ministry c. CHAP. XI Shews the Quakers Second-Day Meetings and Hypocrisie thereof with its ill Consequences in order to Deceive Reader I Am now come to their Second-Day Meeting even to that Meeting where Satan dwells and where he employs his Archest Emissaries I shall not wrong them as believing I must one Day give an Account for my Actions before the Man Christ Jesus who shall Judge both the Quick and Dead at the Great Day where I hope I shall not be afraid to meet G. Whitehead with this Testimony in my Hand so on the other Hand I shall not spare them hide nor cover them who have by their Wiles by their Books of two sorts deceived the Nations deceived many of the Magistrates many of the Clergy nay my self for I could not have wrote thus Fifteen Years ago †No if I had not seen their deceitful Practices and measur'd them by the Scriptures I could not have known them rightly I took them then at least some Years before to be Prophets at least sincere and to meet there for the approving of what was Right Sound and Orthodox and for condemning the contrary But behold I have found the contrary and that by sad Experience yea I have found that their whole Business is to deceive and carry on a Design yea a Confederacy under the fine Notion of Unity and Concord I have laboured many Years under great Difficulties I have spent my Estate I have spent my Strength I grow into Years I have a Conscience to Discharge I think I cannot do it unless I compleat that Discovery which I have began Tho' I find it prejudicial to my Health and other Business I find my self conscientiously concerned in this weighty Affair I do know that the Reverend Author of the Book entituled The Snake in the Grass * To whose Works I refer the Reader c. have done exceeding well he hath done beyond what I am able to do 't is a Learned Piece and becomes a Learned Reader But I am directing the greatest part of what I say to the more unlearned †i. e. The common People who are not so well School-Learn'd to such whether Quakers or others as sometimes must spell as they read and read over and over before they can understand this makes me sometimes write over and over
the same thing to inculcate if possible the Matter I am upon into their Heads that at last they may understand as well as to lay a Foundation for abler Pens This then I thought fit to premise by way of Introduction c. This Meeting of the Quakers is held every Second Day of the Week which we call Monday throughout the Year in London the Members of it are the Teachers of the Quakers residing in and about London where of G. Fox * For he seldom lived with his Wife but kept at London in his Life-time was the Principal and G. Whitehead now as I am given to understand The Meeting formerly was kept in Ellis Hook's Chamber in Lombard-street now I presume in Grace-Church-Street This Meeting doth much resemble His Majesty's Privy-Council For the King by and with the Advice of His Privy Council can do many things he can by Proclamation put the Laws in Execution I think he can proclaim War and make Peace So can this Meeting they can quicken the coming in of Money granted by the Yearly Meeting they can issue out their Proclamation for a War against the Ministers of any Society they can alter and change any Message stop any Prophesie stifle any Revelation silence the Voice uttered by the Spirit of the Lord thro' their most eminent Prophets in what respect they please and make it speak louder and more shrill where they think there is most Service or may be more conducive to their Design they are like the Helm to the Ship which turn it which way the Pilate please they are the Wheel within the Wheel which move all the whole Work yet so invisibly as few shall know how and fewer know who for they are Persons uncertain and accidental and cannot be chargeable by Name for any Errour tho' guilty of every Errour in their Books so far as Consent Approbation and Recommendation can make them For all Books Printed and Reprinted pass thro' the fiery Tryal of their Infallible Examination they Govern they Rule they Steer the Vessel but all Invisibly they pay their Ministers but their own People many of them that give to their Collections and Contributions do not know it nor if you tell them of it will they believe it For none can tell who pays nor who receives but now and then by chance what some or other as Ellwood blabb'd it out at unawares But their Principal Work is to Approve and License their Books Printed for the Service of the Truth as they phrase it But the last being their most principal Verb I shall the more infist upon it to shew their most horrible Deceit and Hypocrisie And I bless God and am thankful to his Servants who have enabled me not only to Print but to Reprint this Book to which they neither have returned an Answer nor can they But to proceed suppose one of their People pretend he is moved of the Lord by his Eternal Spirit to write a Message or Warning to the Inhabitants of Bristol with this Title This is the Word of the Lord to thee O Bristol Well this Book is sent up to their Second-Day Meeting and there they take it into Consideration then they will Alter and Change Words and Sentences put in and leave out what they conceive suit best with the Times and yet let it go as The Word of the Lord. Thus do they sit in the Judgment-Seat and like the Old Prophet deceive not only the Nations but the poor young Prophet that thought he had wrote from the Infallible Motion when alas 't is now so alter'd so added to and diminish'd from what it was that it 's meerly Calculated to the Design of the Cabal and yet shall go with the same Title i. e. This is the Word of the Lord to thee O Bristol Of this most horrible Deceit I could give a Hundred Instances and find Matter enough for to write a Book by it self but I must consult Brevity lest my Pen outrun my Penny and therefore shall single out one Instance which I hope will give some Satisfaction it shall be out of a Book wrote by Edward Burrough entituled A Trumpet of the Lord sounded out of Sion sounding forth the Controversie of the Lord of Hosts c. Printed in Quarto 1656. But before I go to the chief Matter intended I shall recite the pretended Commission of this bold Prophet and then it will appear whether the Second-Day Meeting did well in altering his Prophesie by adding to and taking from the same for either they did believe him to be a Prophet that the Word of the did come to him as expresly as to Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel and the rest of the Prophets or they did not if they did how then dare they add and diminish and leave out in the Reprint of his Works what had gone for the Word of the Lord from 1656 to 1672 If they did not believe him to be a Prophet divinely inspir'd but an Impostor why did they suffer the said Book to go as The Word of the Lord from 1656 to 1672 So take it which way they will and it will appear that G. Whitehead whose Epistle of Recommendation is prefix'd and Printed to Edw. Burrough's Works and others of this Second-Day Meeting are most horrible Cheats and grand Deceivers And therefore now to the Commission which Edw. Burroughs received which to G. W. and others that believed it was both Authentick and Substantial viz. By Order and Authority given unto me by the Spirit of the Living God King of Kings and Lord of Lords the 31st Day of the Tenth Month 1655. about the 4th Hour in the Morning when my Meditations was of my God upon my Bed in Kilkenny City in the Nation of Ireland at that time The Word of the Lord came unto me saying Write my Controversie with all the Inhabitants of the Earth unto all sorts of People as I will shew thee by this same Authority and Commission declared This I send unto you the Tribes of the Earth and this upon your Heads shall stand for ever to be witnessed by the Light of Christ Jesus â—n all your Consciences in the dreadful Day of Vengeance which upon you O Inhabitants of the Earth is coming Prepare prepare to meet the Lord. O Nations Tongues and People unto you all hereby a Warning is come and a Visitation from the Presence of the Living God which you are straitly required to put in Practice as at the terrible Day of dreadful Vengeance you will answer the contrary Given under my Hand and Sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God who lives for ever thro' a Servant of the Lord Edw. Burrough Thus Reader you see the Commission which Edw. Burrough receiv'd whether counterfeit or not is not my present Business which was forthwith Printed in Quarto and sent up and down the Nation as The Word of the Lord and as such receiv'd by Thousands of us and to be sure approv'd of by the Second-Day Meeting yet
when the Times chang'd and the Second-Day Meeting came to Reprint the several Prophecies and Revelations of this remarkable Prophet Ed. Burrough amongst the rest you will find this Book you stiled The Trumpet of the Lord sounded c. Reprinted in the Works of Ed. Burrough p. 97. And First To thee Oliver Cromwell and his Council 2 dly To all Judges and Lawyers and their Train 3 dly To all Astrologers Magicians c. 4 thly To all Generals Collonels Commanders c. To all these four sorts the Reprint has it with some little Variation indeed enough to spoil the Predictions which had they been true ought not to have been added to or taken from And the Second-Day Meeting in 1672. pretended to believe them to be true by their Title in the Index viz. A Trumpet of the Lord sounded forth of Sion which containeth a Testimony from the Word of the Lord. But behold and be astonished at the Deceit of these Jugglers i. e. the Second-Day Meeters for the Fifth Prophesie directed thus To all you who are and have been always Enemies to the very Appearance of Righteousness who are called Delinquents and Cavaliers I say this whole Fifth Prophesie is left out in the Reprint tho' as positively Avowed to be the Word of the Lord as the other as certainly Sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God as the other and every way Authorized by as ample a Commission from the Spirit of the Living God yea the King of Kings and Lord of Lords as the other and yet all left out in the Reprint And to make it appear so beyond all their Glossing I shall recite it Verbatim as it follows the preceding Title and Direction To the Delinquents and Cavaliers Page 9. in the Quarto Impression printed 1656. Thus saith the Lord my Controversie is against you even my Hand in Judgment is upon you already and you are become cursed in all your Hatchings and Endeavours and from time to time my Hand hath been against you in Battel and you have been and are given up to be a Prey to your Enemies for the Purpose and Intents of your Hearts have been known always to be against the Form of Truth and much more against my powerful Truth it self And because you attempted to take my Throne Conscience therefore I rose in my Fury against you and will have War with all your Followers herein for ever who shall attempt to take my Throne Conscience and tho my Hand hath been evidently against you yet to this Day you remain in Rebellion in your Minds in hatching Murder and Cruelty in your wicked Hearts Note All this to the Delinquents is left out in the Reprint 1672. And tho' your Kings and Princes have been cut off in Wrath and your cruel desperate Inventions and Plots of Wickedness conceived in your cursed Womb have been broken and you cut short in your Desires yet you repent not nor will not see how you are given up to be a Curse and a Desolation and a Prey in Houses and Lands and Persons to them whom I raised against you and gave Power over you yet you are hardned and your Cruelty in Persecution against my Servants cannot be measured where you have any Power you smite with the Fist of Wickedness and count it your Glory to despise my Name In the Valleys of vain Hopes do you feed and on the Mountains of foolish Expectations and conceive in your Cruel Womb of Tyranny the Overthrow of the Nations but in the bringing forth your selves are overthrown And it is not for well-doing that you suffer but my Hand is against you and my Judgments are upon you and except you Repent ††Then some Hope 's left Why then should not this have been continued for their Good shall continue upon Earth with you and follow you and pursue you to the Lake of Destruction where there is no Repentance and you and your Kings and Lordly Power by which you have thought to exercise Lordship over my Heritage shall be enslaved by the Devil in the Pit of Darkness in everlasting Bondage where he the Devil shall Reign your King and Lord for evermore c. Note That all this whole Chapter concerning K. C. II. and his Friends and Royal Family is left out in the Reprint of his Works Anno 1672. From whence it is evident That tho' this Prophesie was said to be as true as any Chapter in the Bible yea that the Word of the Lord came to Burrough the 31 st of December 1655 at the Fourth Hour in the Morning and Sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God yet this Second-Day Meeting hath or claim to have a Power superiour and by Virtue thereof can silence the Prophet stifle his Prophesie cancel his Revelation and null and make void his Commission for as I said they either believ'd his Commission to be Real or Counterfeit It must be Real or Counterfeit if Real as so they always pretended then is it not great Wickedness that it should be thus smothered up and stifled and left out of his Works since tho' the Delinquents and Cavaliers were very wicked yet upon Repentance there seems to be some Hopes which now this Prophesie cannot be instrumental in since the Second-Day Meeting hath buried it in Oblivion in that they did not Reprint it with the rest of the same Book in his Works in Folio Printed 1672 If Counterfeit What wicked Wretches were these Members of the Second-Day Meeting in 1656. to Print it in Quarto as the Word of the Lord and Sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God and thereupon and as such sent it up and down to us to deceive us by recommending a Counterfeit Commission for a Real Thus let them take it which way they will and it is wicked in the Superlative Degree But this is not all it shew'd their Cowardize and Temporizing for this was wrote in O. Cromwell's time designed I perceive to curry Favour with him and to shew that himself and his Brethren the Quakers were Enemies to Monarchy But when it was Reprinted it was done in K. Charles the Second's time and then they wheel'd about and complain'd of O. Cromwell and flatter'd the King Cavaliers and Court-Party and then this Prophesie Sealed never so strong Revealed never so clear the very Day Month and Year specified nay the very Hour in the Morning yet as I have said it not suiting with the Design on foot namely To root out Christianity and introduce Quakerism it must be suspended stifled and buried Thus then it appears how wickedly deceitful are these Second-Day Meeters who can thus prevaricate and dissemble with God and Man of which I could give many Instances but rather refer to The Snake in the Grass c. which doth most amply set forth their turning with the Times and their facing about with every Wind that might seem to blow a prosperous Gale for the Advance of Quakerism c.
But to conclude or rather confirm this Head and to shew what Temporizers these Quakers have been as well as knowingly Wicked these Second-Day Meeters ever from first to last were let me add one Citation more as it lies dispersed in a Book of Ed. Burrough's Printed in Quarto 1659. containing several Letters written and said to be delivered to O. Cromwell Anno 1657. and some Letters said to be delivered to R. Cromwell Anno 1658. then Protector But I distrust all they say †So cannot believe they did deliver them as Printed since after Printed can thus alter them for having compared this Quarto Book I find many places which mentions the King or the Kingly Government left out in his Works in Folio which Words so left out you will find them in Capital Letters which as it shews their Temporizing so it discovers their Wickedness to stifle Prophesies if they believ'd them such to be if not still as wicked to let this Burrough in his Works still go for a Prophet and by Whitehead Coale Howgill and Fox c. recommended as such I do say it is such a Depth of Hypocrisie that I want Words to set it forth sufficiently P. 15. And these things are not right in the Sight of the Lord that such who have been for many Years faithful in the Service and in their Trust and hazarded Life and Liberty for Conscience-sake which they cannot now possess because of thee Dear Oliver but are cast out for the Exercise of their pure Conscience consider of it for this makes the Nation more unhappy and less blessed when such who delight in true Justice and Judgment are cast out of their Places * Oh! how the Quakers did flatter O. Cromwell to get into Offices yea Justices forsooth and so deprived of giving their Judgment amongst Men and absolutely this will make thy Army less prosperous when such who fear the Lord against whom thou canst not justly charge no Evil are cast out and despis'd and this in time thou may'st see to thy Sorrow and as thy Friend I lay this before thee and do in Plainness tell thee If thou thus utterly deny the People of God in the Day of thy Prosperity and thou thus wholly cast them out of thy Service they cannot stand by thee nor own thee in the Day of thy Trouble †Oliver did not much value his new Saints i. e. Quakers P. 16. When as such who feareth the Lord are cast out of Judicatories in thy Government and out of Defence in thy Armies What! Is this the end of that long Travel in Wars and of so many Promises of Liberty of Conscience that just Men should thus be dealt withal as one without Bowels of Compassion unto such who have truly served with thee in a faithful Service for the Common-wealth who many of them now are grievous Sufferers under thee P. 17. Many Enemies thou hast which watch over thee O. C. for Evil and not for Good First There is a People scattered thro' all these Nations who is full of Wrath towards thee EVEN OF THOSE KNOWN BY NAME MALIGNANTS * Oh! how careful the Quakers were of their dear Friend O. C. in whose Hearts to this Day there is continual Hatred against thee and all thy Off-spring Daily Advantage they seek against thee by secret Plottings of Maliciousness in their EVIL Hearts seeking by all Means if it be possible how to be avenged and to revenge themselves and THE CAUSE OF THEIR KING with no better Purpose than to destroy thee Such is the Cruelty and Desperateness of some of them their own Lives are not dear unto them to take away thine I have felt the Strength of their Rage against thee which carries them above Sense or Fear to undergo any Danger that they may see their desired End of thee their Malice towards thee is so seated in their wrathful Hearts that it cannot easily be quenched I know the Lord hath CURSED them and their Endeavours to this Day and thou hast had Dominion and Power given thee of God to break them in Pieces AND WHAT THOU HAST DONE TO THEIR KING SHOULD NOT BE RECKONED AGAINST THEE BY THE LORD †Murder acquitted if O. C. would but stand by the Quakers IF NOW THOU ART FAITHFUL TO WHAT HE REQUIRES OF THEE P. 20. Tho' we the People of God doth not envy thy Person nor Government yet Friend the Want of our Prayers to God for thee is worse to thee than the secret Plotting of all wicked Men And how can we mention thee in our Prayers to God for thee except it be to be deliver'd from thee Good Counsel and Advice rejected Printed in Quarto 1656. Reprinted in Folio 1672. To this agrees that Saying of G. Fox to Mr. Camelfeild a Minister in his Book i. e. Truth 's Defence c. p. 15. No Prayers can we send to thee but for thy Destruction thou Man of Sin and Enemy of Christ c. No neither to Oliver their Governour nor to the Priests no they cannot pray for their Enemies unless they do Kindness for them i. e. make them Justices or Commanders no no Penny or what 's Equivolent no Pater Noster from the Quakers See the Margin †Is that the Reason they 'll not pray for King William III P. 21. And this I have written to thee out of perfect Love in the Fear of God And if thou could'st own them i. e. Quakers they would own thee in the Face of all thy Enemies P. 35. To Richard AS CONCERNING THY WAR AND ARMIES ABROAD IN SPAIN SOMETHING THERE IS IN * Something yea who knows not that this is like a Gypsie-Prophesie IT KNOWN TO THE LORD MAKE NO COVENANT WITH IDOLATERS BUT TREAD DOWN THEIR IDOL GODS WHICH THEY HAVE SET UP AND HEW DOWN THEIR MOUNTAINS IN WHICH THEIR CONFIDENCE STAND AND PLOW UP THEIR GROUND THAT THE SEED MAY BE SOWN AFTER THEE IT 'S HONOUR ENOUGH TO BE THE LORD'S PLOWMAN P. 44. And if thou walk with the Lord and preserve his People i. e. Quakers that fear him then shalt thou prosper and thy Name shall be greater than was thy Father's and the numberless Number of this now distressed People will be unto thee a Strength and stand by thee in thy Day of Trouble and defend thee and thy Just Government †Then R. Cromwell's Government was Just in the Quakers Account and their Hearts shall cleave unto thee and thou shalt prosper for their sakes and none of thy Enemies shall have Power over thee P. 53. And as for thy Father the late Protector great things did the Lord do for him in raising him up and casting out his Enemies before him and giving him Victory Renown and Power * O brave Oliver the Quakers Champion thro' Nations and we know the Lord shewed Favour to him and gave him Strength Wisdom and Valour and a right Spirit and he was called of God into that great
Power and Authority to Institute and Ordain such a way of Government And in whose Name do you compel to a Conformity and thus to impose your Ceremonies c. Query 6. Whether were not the Bereans accounted noble in that they searched the Scriptures to see whether what St. Paul taught did accord therewith And will it not become us to do the like to see whether what George Fox imposes on us accord with the Scripture If not whether we are obliged to observe his Dictates and Prescriptions Yea or Nay c. To which Queries I never received any Answer And thus it pleased God of his Infinite Mercy to give me Courage and Boldness 22 Years since for it was some Years before †Yea it was May 17. 1675. See Innocency Vindicated c. p. 8. that I wrote to their Yearly Meeting about their forcing their Apprentices to stand bareheaded before them whilst they refuse that Respect to their Superiors to appear against what I saw to be wrong in them even whilst amongst them equally according to my Understanding to what I have done since and methinks I desire no more in the Quakers than to be sincere and that for their own Good too I mean to put on Courage and say What do you tell me of G. Fox or G. Whitehead or any other Man I will stand by no Man nor no Principle nor no People †Such a Man I have not found amongst their Teachers Tho. Vpshot came nearest but when I came to ask him whether he would justifie their Books He flew off saying No he would not meddle farther than they are right at least in my Apprehension no farther than they agree with the Holy Scriptures No I am not yet Ear-bored to this nor the other Man Form or Society for Self-Ends for Advantage in Trade for a Name among Men no I am for Truth and Righteousness so far as I know it I thank God thus it was with me when I was as Famous amongst them as since they have endeavoured to render me Infamous and I desire no more of the Quakers than this let their Errors be never so great and their Understanding never so clouded if they be Sincere and willing to be informed I could heartily imbrace them and for which I have great Reason for I was as erroneous in many things as the most of them But when I find that G. Whitehead teach them first That the Quakers are the true Church next That they are to believe as this true Church believes See his Apost Incend c. p. 3 16. and that the People love to have it so i. e. like Teacher like People the Blind to lead the Blind till both fall into the Ditch of Error and Heresie together this is sad But says Geo. Whitehead No such Matter I challenge Francis Bugg and his Teachers Abettors and Congratulators to produce those Books of the Quakers with the Pages and Words wherein we deny the same Jesus that was Born of the Virgin Mary otherwise Retract and Condemn this Calumnious Aspersion A Sober Expostulation with some of the Clergy c. p. 46. This bold Challenge has been often Answer'd in The Snake in the Grass 3d. Edit p. 129 to 145. Satan Disrob'd c. p. 8 9 13 14. Gleanings p. 2. and so fully as I cannot pretend to yet since this Error of the Quakers denying Christ seems to be the Mother of all their other Errors I shall for this Challenge sake that so his Disciples may see his Impudence herein also prove that they i. e. Quakers do deny the same Jesus that was Born of that Virgin Mary And if I do so I think he is obliged to Retract his Errors and Condemn the Quakers Books which so teach by the same Rule of Arguing viz. That both I and my Abettors ought to condemn the Calumny cast on the Quakers by such a Charge if not true And now to the Matter When Jesus came into the Coast of Cesarea Philippi he asked his Disciples saying whom do Men say that I THE SON OF MAN am Matth. 16.13 Simon Peter answered and said THOU art CHRIST the SON of the LIVING GOD Verse 16. Again And WE believe and ARE SURE that thou art THAT CHRIST the SON of the LIVING GOD John 6.69 That the outward Person that suffer'd was properly the Son of God we utterly deny A Body hast thou prepared me said the Son Then the Son was not the Body tho' the Body was the Son's A Serious Apol. c. by Will Penn p. 146. Here you have the Question proposed by Christ himself Whom do Men say that I the SON OF MAN AM You also hear St. Peter's Answer which is as plain and as home to the Purpose as can be and now you shall hear Christ's Approbation and Confirmation thereof But you see the Quakers Answer is point-blank contrary yea Will. Penn does utterly deny That Person who suffer'd at Jerusalem to be the SON OF GOD. Mark Reader Christ's Reply to St. Peter's Answer to his most Gracious Question viz. And Jesus answer'd and said unto him Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona for Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven Matth. 16.17 and 17.5 I think I need say no more especially since this Point is so largely handled and so fully proved upon the Quakers by that Reverend Author in the Books above-quoted Only thus much I may add That if St. Peter be Orthodox in this Point then are the Quakers Heterodox and that herein their utter Testimony is levell'd and strikes at the very Foundation of Christianity and as a Reply to G. W. I do offer De Novo to prove the same and I do now affirm That the Quakers by their Books do deny the same Jesus that was Born of the Virgin Mary The Same Jesus to whom the Voice came from the excellent Glory saying This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him The Same Jesus that St. Paul preached Acts 17. The Same Jesus that St. Peter testified saying Let the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that Same Jesus whom ye have Crucified both Lord and Christ And this I offer to prove to G. Whitehead Vive Voce at any convenient time on Condition he will under his Hand covenant to condemn the Quakers Books which so Teach when proved upon him as by his own Argumentation in the Challenge above-recited he is in Equity obliged too And if I do not prove it I will burn my Books that so charge the Quakers and let this be the Touchstone to try us both in the mean time any Quaker that thinks I am in the Wrong let them look first on W. Penn's Book by me heretofore quoted as well as this before me and the Scriptures following viz. Luke 1.26,31,32,33,35 2.10,11,12,13 Matth. 16.13,16,17,20,27 cap. 17.5,9,12,13,26,29 cap. 26,27,38,50,67 cap. 28.6 Mark 9.7 John 5.22,27 cap. 6.69 Acts 1.10,11 cap. 5.30,31 cap.
2.36 Heb. 5.9 cap. 12.2 Rom. 8.34 1 Cor. 15.15 Acts 7.35,36 cap. 10.38 to 44. cap. 17.3,31 cap. 18.5 John 20.31 which I have taken Pains to collect and he will then certainly find that I have on my Side the Testimony of the Glorious Angels Holy Apostles Blessed Martyrs yea the whole Tenor of the Scriptures and beside all this a Cloud of Witnesses viz. the Concurrent Testimony of the Ancient Fathers and all the present Christian Churches to this Day and that G. Whitehead will have none of his Side but W. Penn and a few of his Brethren and the Writings of Isaac Pennington W. Bayly W. Smith Edw. Burrough Geo. Fox Ja. Nayler Christ Atkinson c. But I knowing that so soon as your Teachers once espy your looking towards Christianity they will not only hinder you from reading such Books that are or shall be wrote against Quakerism but refuse you the Sight of such Books of theirs as we quote for so long as they can keep you in Ignorance so long they may keep you Quakers I shall therefore give you the same Quotations out of some of their Books which I shall in this Book let you know where to have the most of them viz. William Penn's Serious Apology c. p. 146. W. Smith's Catechism c. p. 57. W. Smith's Primer c. p. 8. W. Shewen's Treatise of Thoughts c. p. 35. Jos Coale's Works c. p. 93. News coming up c. p. 33. The Teachers of the World Unvail'd c. p. 35. The Sword of the Lord drawn c. p. 5. Edw. Burrough's Works p. 149 273. Geo. Fox's Great Mystery p. 206 207 210 211 250 254. The Quakers Challenge p. 6. Saul's Errand to Damascus p. 7 8. Some Principles of the Elect People of God call'd Quakers p. 126. A Question to Professors c. by Isaac Pennington p. 25 27 33. The Capital Principles of the People call'd Quakers Sol. Eccles's Testimony p. 24 25 41. Will. Penn's Part in The Christian Quaker c. p. 97 98 W. Penn's Sandy Foundation c. p. 10 to 30. I shall now add something out of a Book intituled News of a Trumpet sounding in the Wilderness c. Wrote by Dan. Leeds who has been a Quaker about 22 Years which is come lately out of Pensilvania Printed 1697. and for the Usefulness of it I could be glad that it was reprinted with this Title A Trumpet sounding from Pensilvania giving an Alarum to the Magistrates and People of England to beware of Quakerism That so not only the Justices of the Peace but even our Honourable Patriots might have one put into their Hands But all things in their Season Quakerism had a time to advance and it must have a time to fall But as no Heresie since the Days of Christ ever rose so fast prevailed so much nor carried on with so much Craft and curious Paint so none ever fell so fast as I am perswaded this of Quakerism will do insomuch as that in a few Years it will be a Shame for any Man of Sense to appear in the Streets who owns the Principles and Practice of the Quakers according to their Ancient Testimony And now a Hint out of the Pensilvanian Book aforesaid intituled News of a Trumpet sounding c. p. 21. viz. Tho' they i. e. Quakers clash between their Old and New Testimonies yet we see says D. Leeds that they have in their late Books dropt here and there some Christian Expressions more than formerly And what may we think they intend thereby Why Geo. Whitehead in his Counterfeit Convert p. 72. says I may see Cause otherwise to word the Matter and yet our Intentions be the same Now is it not admirable that a Man of Geo. Whitehead 's Pretences * To Seriousness to Sincerity to Reality to Fidelity to Constancy to Infallibility to Perfection to Plainness c. Ib. 42. should be grown so bold in Crafty and Deceivable Glosses to deceive his Readers Is this like the Ancient Simplicity of the Quakers to say I may see Cause otherwise to word the Matter and yet intend the same Pray who knows then when such a Man is sincere or bow to believe him in what he says that thus hides his Meanings says one thing and means another c. And now I cannot but expect says Daniel p. 42. that there will be great Devising Pulling and Drawing Painting and Glossing rather than make Confession of their Errors Confusion and Contradictions herein Manifested and Charged as also in other Books by Geo. Keith Tho. Crisp Fr. Bugg and others because they have so much accused their Opponents for the same things themselves are now justly charged with surely some curious Wire-drawing Mincing Mangling otherwise Wording and Equivocating †G. W. You must now call your Brother Ellwood and your whole Society of Jesuitical Scribes for the Alarum is sounded in your Pope's Borders we must expect but they having caught themselves in this Net the more they flutter the more they 'll fetter insnare and entangle themselves for they cannot thus dance in a Net but some Body will see them For they are now as easily seen thorough God be thanked as they pretend to see through others yea this will certainly be the Consequence till they use the only Christian Means to get out of this Net which is by Humbly Confessing and Condemning their Errors in their Books as Geo. Keith has done c. To all which I cannot but joyn and wish for their own sakes it may be so adding that if ever it so come to pass then I shall see a great Truth in what Tho. Ellwood wrote in his Epistle to Friends p. 72. viz. The way to recover the Deceived is to discover and lay open the Deceivers In the mean time taking it to be a sound Truth I have adventured to put his Doctrine in Practice and so I conclude this Passage out of that Useful and Compendious Book from Pensilvania which had that People receiv'd my Advice in my Postscript to my Book intituled De Christianae Libertate c. Printed 1682. p. 214. viz. To frequent the Holy Scriptures and read them diligently c. this might have been prevented And now to conclude my Advice lest any should prevent you taking the Advice I gave the Pensilvanians 18 Years ago as above I shall according to my further Experience in this Pilgrimage tell you that it was the Practice both of the Church of the Jews and the Christians which for Substance are one to read and expound the Scriptures in their Assemblies which the Quakers call Conjuration from Morning to Mid-day and to give the Meaning thereof to the People out of the Law of God given forth by Moses 1 Chron. 34.18,19,35 Nehem. 8.1,2 Ezra 1.10,11 and Christ himself went into their Synagogue as his Custom was where he stood up for to read And when the Book of Isaiah the Prophet was given to him he found which argues he
whereby it 's manifest their Innocency so much boasted of is not Triumphant as G. W. says in his Book Innocency Triumphant c. And therefore the way to deal with these cunning Sophisters G. W. c. is still to pursue them with Challenges to call them into the Field and thereupon I will pitch my Standard here on Behalf of the Christian Religion and Protestant Profession against Quakerism Head and Tail and once more challenge G. Whitehead to appear on his own Proposition to the Parliament viz. For each of us to chuse four or six moderate Men of common Sense and Reason out of the Professors I call it his because he did voluntarily offer to meet me before any Six Ten or Twelve moderate Men c. of the Christian Faith and let us dispute it out fairly and above-board And thereupon I shall renew my Challenge and let it stand here as a Monument of the Quakers Cowardice and Self-Condemnation if they 'd rather lye under this heavy Charge following than to come out and make their Defence viz. First That they deny Jesus of Nazareth who was Born of the Blessed Virgin Mary who suffer'd without the Gates of Jerusalem to be Christ the Son of the Living God Secondly That they deny the Scriptures by their speaking contemptuously of them calling them Carnal Death Dust Beastly Ware Serpent's Meat c. and that Preaching out of them is Conjuration Thirdly That they exalt their own Sayings and Writings above the Scriptures as being of greater Authority and more Certainty not only in Words but in Practice Fourthly That they undervalued the Death and Sufferings of Christ Jesus by granting they were inflicted by or for the Transgression of a Law and executed in a great Measure at least by the due Execution of a Law Fifthly That they exalt their own Sufferings as greater and more unjust than the Sufferings of Christ his Apostles and Martyrs yea even than all the Persecutions from the Days of Christ to the Year of their Rise namely 1650. Sixthly And that for these and the like Reasons the Quakers Books which thus teach are Blasphemous and their Practices in their Adorations are Idolatrous This is my Charge which I have often laid down and which I now renew and offer to make good upon them if he will chuse his Men and meet me according to his own voluntary Offer and my Acceptation thereof or otherwise because I will give him his Choice of two Methods viz. or on Condition At Oxford I offer'd Sylas Norton to prove the same Charge against the Quakers and their Doctrine that he George Whitehead will engage under his Hand to Retract their Errors if proved upon them out of the Quakers Books wrote by their approved Authors and condemn the Books which teach this Horrible Doctrine promising my self also to Engage under my Hand to Retract what he shall prove Erroneous in my Books or False in Fact relating to my Charging the Quakers thereby making them publick Satisfaction and to Burn my Books if found Guilty as a Testimony of my Injustice A Sign of my not being Conscious of Guilt herein And to this I subscribe my my Name Aug. 3. 1698. Francis Bugg This then is my Flag of Defiance which I hold out to G. Whitehead c. this is my Standard which I have pitched ON Behalf of my Saviour JESUS CHRIST which the Quakers have Contemned Disown'd and Denied to be the SON of GOD ON the Behalf of the Scriptures which the Quakers say are Dust Death Beastly Ware Serpents Meat c. ON the Behalf of the Holy Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper which Christ Instituted ON the Behalf of the Church of ENGLAND both Magistrates and Ministers which the Quakers have most wickedly Traduced and Abused as Intolerable to bear and Seditious in its own Nature Let them come forth out of their Dens and Holes and acquit themselves like Men if they think I wrong them or else be content to lye under my Charge as self-condemned Persons and let them also know that my Book New Rome Arraigned c. stands unshaken and that George Whitehead is not Triumphant but forced by the Guilt of his Conscience to submit to the Charge above exhibited which is Ignoble and Base on his Part and will lower his Topsail to his great Abasement Shame and Confusion of Face in the Eyes of all sorts of Intelligent Persons Thus having stated the Contest between G. W. and me and advised my Friends and Fellow-Labourers not so much to Answer the Quakers Books as to Charge and Recharge them again and again till they at last being confounded with Shame Horror and Confusion be forced to come out But I shall shew Whitehead's Fallacy in his way of answering Books only by one Instance for I having in my Book New Rome Arraign'd c. pag. 47. by way of Retaliation upon the Quakers who call the Publick Ministers Antichrists and Deceivers and the World's Teachers given Fifteen Instances why the Quakers are the World's Teachers and Deceivers the second of which was this The Quakers who teach that the Name JESUS and CHRIST belongs to the whole Body and every Member in the Body as well and as amply as to Christ the Head are of the World and Deceivers New Rome Arraigned c. pag. 47. Now this was no Quotation but a Charge which rests for me to prove I grant the Word amply is by me added by way of Illustration but the Words as well that G. W. neither mentions nor disowns Isaac Pennington's Words are Doth not the Name Jesus and Christ belong to the whole Body and every Member in the Body as well as to the Head So that the Name is not given to the Vessel but to the Nature in the Vessel A Question to Professors by Isaac Pennington c. p. 27. P. 33. The Scripture does expresly distinguish between Christ and the Garment which he wore between Him that came and the Body in which he came between the Substance which was vailed and the Vail which vailed it Lo I come a Body hast thou prepared me there is plainly He and the Body in which He came there was the Outward Vessel and the Inward Life this we certainly know says Isaac and can never call the Bodily Garment Christ c. And whoever read the Scriptures may clearly see that the Quakers are False Teachers in that they first teach that the Name JESUS and CHRIST belongs to every Believer as well as to CHRIST the Head since they can first call him as you have heard A Garment a Vessel a Vail a Body but in express Words they say they cannot call Him Christ but whoever read the Scriptures by me quoted in the Sixteenth Chapter I hope they will be convinced And St. John says Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him Then came Jesus forth wearing a Crown of Thorns Then the Soldiers when they had crucified Jesus they took his Garments but one of
the Soldiers with a Spear pierced his Side She turned her self back and saw Jesus Jesus saith unto her touch me not for I am not yet ascended Thomas said except I shall see in his Hands the Print of the Nails and put my Finger into the Print of the Nails and thrust my Hand into his Side I will not believe Then saith he Jesus to Thomas reach hither thy Finger and behold my Hands and reach hither thy Hand and thrust it into my Side and be not faithless but believing And Thomas answered unto him my Lord and my God And many other Signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you might have Life through His Name John 1.5,23,34 20.14,17,25,27,28,30,31 Thus then it is evident That the same Jesus that was Born of the Virgin Mary the same Jesus which Suffer'd at Jerusalem is the Christ which the Apostles preached and which all true Christians believe in yet as evident That the Quakers do not own him nor believe in him For as above noted Isaac Pennington says there was the Outward Body which they can never call Christ Isaac Pennington's Question to Professors c. p. 27 33. G. W.'s Judgment fixed c. p. 336. W. Penn he says But that the Outward Person which suffer'd was properly the Son of God We utterly deny W. Penn 's Ser. Apol. c. p. 146. Well but let us hear this George Whitehead who thus reply'd saying I deny that the Quakers teach that the Name Jesus and Christ belongs to every Member in the Body as amply as to the Head Where proves he Fran. Bugg as amply Says Geo. Whitehead W. Baily's Works p. 229 230 307. The Sword of the Lord drawn c. pag. 5. Mark Reader here is a Tacit Confession of the Words as well tho' he carps at my Word amply which I put in for Illustration sake it not being a Quotation but a Charge which I still offer to make good if he will meet me on his own Proposition for I take the Word amply to mean no more but as Plainly as Evidently as Apparently and the Quakers say that the Name Jesus and Christ belongs to every Believer as well as to the Head This Whitehead denies not this he disowns not only carps at the Word amply And therefore my Advice to all my Fellow-Labourers is to take this my Method give New-Rome Charge after Charge as Geo. Keith has done see his Three Narratives as Daniel Leeds is a doing A Trumpet sounded out of the Wilderness c. p. 141. who has been a Quaker about 20 Years and let this be the Test between Christianity and Quakerism If the Quakers be Innocent and Sincere tho' mistaken thro' Error they 'll come out if Insincere and Self-conscious of their Hypocrisie they 'll not appear but Rave and Rail like Rabshekah at a distance by this Test shall the Plot be discovered and the Conspirators be made manifest And I am not without Hopes but that what I have said in Conjunction with my Fellow-Travailers will be a Means to preserve some from running Headlong as the Swine did into the deep Lake of Quakerism and and to convert others that are misled as well as be useful to the Church of God in general Which God of his Mercy grant for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Fran. Bugg August 25. 1699. FINIS A COLLECTION OF Some Passages Touching those call'd QVAKERS Which were Writ with much more of the same tendency by several that were or still are amongst that People WHEREBY The Reader may plainly see and perceive what Spirit it is that Acts their Preachers and Leaders and how they have been foretold and faithfully warned of the Day of Perplexity Reproach and Ignominy that is come and coming upon them O thou Sword of the Lord how long will it be e're thou be quiet Put up thy self into thy Scabbard rest and be still How can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a Charge I cannot hold my Peace because thou hast heard O my Soul the Sound of the Trumpet the Alarum of War Reader THese Passages in this Page of Ann Docwra and Robert Sandiland's Writing I have added since I had a Proof from the Printer of those Collections following He i. e. S. Cater a great Preacher has written more than is true concerning me he is very Bold and the most Confident Liar that ever I met with I laid the Record against J. Ainsloe before him also G. W's False Certificate about the said Record In his Book Judgment Fixed c. it is an abuseful Forgery for some of those whose Names are to the Certificate absolutely disowns it and say they set their Hands to none it is very sad said she that Men should be so Bold in their Wickedness A. D's Letter to Mr. Crisp March 25. 1684. I know it is common says she with some of them in their Books of Controversie to put the Names of such Persons as they account their Vassals both to Certificates and Books sometimes without the Consent of the Parties whose Names are Inserted and sometimes with their Consent through slavish Fear of having their Trades obstructed and thereby Ruined See A. D's Printed Broad-side i. e. The New Projecting Formalist Characteriz'd c. Which Impious Practice of theirs is confirmed in their shameful Forgery in R. S's Book Righteous Judgment c. as at large in a Letter of his to me printed in my Modest Defence c. p. 20. may be seen And as to splitting Sentences mincing and mangling and thereby marring the Sence of their Opponents no People so False so Perfidious and so Deceitful that I know of F. B. A COLLECTION OF Some Passages Touching those call'd QUAKERS c. I Have long seen saith R. R. the Abomination that maketh Desolate standing amongst the Quakers Wherefore hear the Word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom and People of Gomorrah 't is this Spirit that hath encompassed your Jerusalem about as with Armies by which we know the Destruction thereof draweth nigh Finally 't is that Spirit of Wickedness in the form of Righteousness that hath already torn your Crown from off your Head and discovered your Secret Parts so that the Scab of Contention and Strife is seen that will never leave nor cease to Divide you till the Name of Quaker become an Hiss and a Scorn amongst the Nations This Witness is true And you that for the vast number of your Tribes have seemed to magnifie your selves in your increase of Children Wo be to you that now give Suck and take so much pains to add to your Sect for behold in one Day loss of Children and Widowhood shall come upon you This Witness is true Of this I am most certain that a Bitter Lying and Persecuting Proud Spirit inhabits your Tents which Babylonish Garment hath