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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54003	A just rebuke to one & twenty learned and reverend divines (so called) being an answer to an abusive epistle against the people call'd Quakers subscrib'd by : Thoman Manton, Thomas Jacomb, John Yates, John Sheffield, Anthony Palmer, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doelittel, Richard Baxter, William Cooper, George Griffith, Matthew Barker, John Singleton, Andrew Parsons, Richard Mayo, Thomas Gouge, William Jenkyn, Thomas Watson, Benjamin Needler, William Carslake, Stephen Ford, Samuel Smith / by William Penn.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1674 (1674)	Wing P1131; ESTC R208998	24,420	33

A JUST REBUKE TO One Twenty Learned and Reverend DIVINES So called Being an Answer to an Abusive Epistle against the People call'd Quakers subscrib'd by Thomas Manton Thomas Jacomb John Yates John Sheff●eld Anthony Palmer Thomas Cole Thomas Doelittel Richard Baxter William Cooper George Griffith Matthew Barker John Singleton Andrew Parsons Richard Mayo Thomas Gouge William Jenky● Thomas Watson Benjamin Needler William Carslake Stephen Ford Samuel Smith By William Penn. Quid enim iniquius quam ut oderint homines quod ignorant etiam si res meretur odium Tertul. Apologet. The Lord frustrateth the Tokens of the Stars and maketh Diviners mad that turneth wise Men backward and maketh their Knowledge foolish Isa. 44.24 2● Printed in the Year 1674. A JUST REBUKE TO One and Twenty Divines So called c. THe CAUSE of the GOD of TRVTH hath rarely wanted the Endeavours of men of greatest Power and Literature in almost every Age to slander it nor the constant Adherers to it contumelious Treatment for their Integrity No Virtue hath been so Conspicuous no Quality so Great no Relation so Near as to protect them from the Fury of blind Tradition and prejudic'd Education But as this ought not to discourage any that pursueth so Good and Heavenly an Interest especially when the Invincible Faith Patience and Hope of those Holy Ancients that so heartily espoused it stand before us as so many bright Examples and Encouragements so neither have the many and great Attempts of Men of divers yea opposite Interests to render us Vnfit for the Earth and what in them lyeth to invalidate our Claim to Heaven abated one Grain of our Love to Confidence in and Zeal for that worthy Cause And Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ their Essayes have been Insuccessful their Designs frustrated and not one of their Weapons form'd against our Sion hath yet prospered But Crescit sub pondere Virtus These very Sufferings God hath turn'd to our Enlargement daily rewarding our Tribulations with Patience and our Conflicts with Joy in the Holy Ghost fulfilling to us that comfortable Saying of the Apostle All things shall work together for good to them that love him Having this Encouragem●nt from God what Injury soever we sustain from Men well may we say with that Kingly Prophet Whom should we fear Of whom should we be afraid With that Godly Resolution which becometh the Justness of my Cause I enter upon my present Work and first of the Occasion We have been long threatn'd with a Report of the joynt-Endeavours of many Minist●rs which rais'd several into an Expectation of some notable Piece some grave and moderate Disquisition of what had been as frivolously as fouly mannaged by our other petulant Adversari●s that the Controversy so long depending might terminate with some Advantage to such as had made any sober Enquiry after it but we had no sooner received and lookt into the Book then we saw our selves under a very great Di●appointment for instead of some New Essay behold an Old Discourse new vampt or a new Impression of a Book twice largely consider'd and some think effectually Answer'd I mean John Faldo's Quak●rism no Christianity but now recommended as the Title-page tells us by the Epistles of many Learned and Worthy Divines But since it hath pleased so many Persons under that Character to fall in with his Di●course against us to Commend it so highly Recommend it so earn●stly and bestow so liberal an Elogie on him that wrot it I think I may without any the least Injustice look upon them as Authors of this Impression and consequently by espousing his Endeavours R●sp●nsible to the People call'd Quakers for all those Miscarriages therein rightly chargable by them upon him And I no waies doubt through God's Assistance to evidence their Concern in this Affair to carry with it an utter Inconsistency with that Superbe Title they have either given themselves or the Author or Book s●ller conferr'd upon them for the good turn of their so seasonable Epistle viz. LEARNED REVEREND and WORTHY DIVINES Words that make a fine Jingle and please and blow up Vain People at a strange rate The first Paragraph of their Epistle is a great Truth both worthy of the Minds of good Men and necessary to be consider'd at any's Entrance into the Judgment of another's Cause It runs thus One and Twenty Divines That as God is the Wise Distinguisher of Good and Evil and so loveth the Good in any as not to abate his Hatred of their Evil and so hateth the Evil as to love all that is Good So is it no small part of the Wisdom and Integrity of his Servants to Imitate him herein and not like Men blinded by Partiality to just●fie all in those whom they like and Vilifie all in those they d●slike c. W.P. One would think by this that you had Imitated God in your Conduct towards the Quakers and doubtless you writ it that those that read it should think so but why I know not unless because you looking upon your selves his Servants such ought to do so or else to give greater Credit to your Work then your selves perhaps believe it deserves But let us hear what Use you the great Men of Vses make of this Introduction I find it in the next Paragraph in these Words One and Twenty Divines This Justice we must and will observe towards this People called Quakers The Fear of God and Love of Truth forbids us to render them Worse or Better then they are W.P. Better there is little Fear you will You may turn Pelagian in the Case and exclude all Divine Assistance for I hope none are so ignorant in this Age as to think that Men of your Stamp need special Grace to keep you from the Sin of rendering the poor Quakers Better then they are How much Worse will be the Question I confess you say fair but what if you break your Word with us Must not your Censure of us fall upon your own Heads And will it not be reasonable for us to interpret your Use of so true an Expression to be a Trick to decoy People into a Belief that you had taken right Measures of us whilst you have really dealt most unjustly with us Let me a little expostulate with you in this Matter You have either read or not read the Book ye recommend If you have not read it certainly you have done very Ill to recommend it since you know not what you recommend which is not to Imitate God or do the Quakers Justice If you have read it you manifestly entitle your selves to all the Evils of it Again since the Strength of the Book depends upon Testimonies out of our Writings either you have compared his Citations with the Books themselves or ye have not if you have not and I am apt to think that 's your Case you commend him and condemn us by rote If you have compared and considered

an Accursed Ham a Treacherous and Wilful Deluder a Madman an Hangman an Infallible Stager a Fool an Ape a Dunce an Impudent Forger and what not Is this to act like a FRIEND to the Quakers or give Testimony of a Large Spirit and Principle as you to make a foul Matter fair have so untruly intimated Doubtless no Man hath taken more Pains to abuse a poor People then J. Faldo hath to misrepresent the Quakers yet this very Style you more especially recommend Can you yet think your selves Learned Reverend and Worthy Divines Men of Conscience and Honour And the Truth is you were very hard put to it to make up the Recommendation for in the Scope of four Pages you three times compare us to Papists and I●fidels thrice charge and aggravate our designed Obscurity with abundance of Impertinency and Contradiction four Times go over our Separation from you and last of all you five Times charge us with Singularities enlarge and grow Elegant upon it Repetitions Tautology And by the Way I must needs take this notice of the New Advertisement in this Impression First That he most horribly abuseth us in saying We pretend all our Ministers to be Infallible More then ten Times over hath he both scornfully and untruly cast this at us We asscribe not an Infallibility to Men but to the Grace of God and to Men so far as they are led by it for that it certainly teacheth what it doth teach Secondly Whereas he insinuates as if I allowed of every Passage he cited as of the Books and Authors themselves This is so great an Untruth that many of them are misquoted and almost every one of them mis-applyed and this I have largely and frequently complained of in my Answer and more particularly in my Rejoynder I leave off Wondering at him for he seems to have prepared his Conscience for any thing that may countenance his Attempts against the Quakers which gives us Cause to suspect the altering of the folio of the Old Book in this Impression is done on Purpose to hinder the Reader from finding his in my Answers thereto referred Miscarriages But to you again Suppose we are as bad as you bespeak us how can we help it Your Principle takes away all Liberty from our Wills and tells us of being ordained to all these Mischiefs Would you have us better then we can be that is to expect Impossibilities at our Hands Or would you that we should attempt to invalid God's Immutable and Absolute Decree which besides that it cannot be done allowing your Notion were a great Impiety but to think of you should either change your Creed in this Particular or seem less concerned at the Event of Things confessedly Irremedable I remember an Old Book published by Three and fifty Presbyterians some of whom help to make up your One and Twenty Reverend Divines it 's call'd A Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ and our Solemn League and Covenant for you know they must go togethe● the Bent of it is to collect the then held Errors and bitterly to Exclaim on all that hold and plead for or encline to favour a Toleration and such were Episcopalians Independents Anabaptists c. Among many other these are brought in for Capital Ones 1. HIERARCHY 2. INDEPENDENCY 3 An Opposition of the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation as you hold it 4. The Doctrine of the Freedom of Man's Will 5. That Christ died for all Men or that the Benefit of Christ's Death extended to all Men And some Leaves off thus express themselves Doubtless that old Serpent call'd the Devil hath been the grand Agent in propagating these stupendious Errors all which Errors Heresies and Blasphemies we are confident we may loath execrate and abhor and that without the least Breach of Charity Oh the Strength and Religion of this Charity that can loath execrate and abhor to think that Christ dyed for all Men or that all Men may be saved as plain Scripture as any in Scripture This they call the Presbyterian Testimony which in plain English doth but loath execrate and abhor the Belief of the Generality of Christendom And that you may yet know your selves better observe this Passage The Cursed Blasphemies the general Looseness the spreading Heresies of our Times have in a manner born down before them the Authority of the sacred Scriptures the Life and Power of Godliness our solemn League Covenant but above all Our Souls are wounded to think with what Hope and Industry a TOLERATION of all these Evils is endeavoured Which in short amounts to this 1. All that quadrate not wi●h Presbytery is Error Heresie or Blasphemy 2. That above all things it wounds them to think of having such tolerated as believe and maintain them This Doctrine with some Allay in the Episcopacy you exploded for Antichristian Popish and Tyrannical When through such Pretences you had mounted the Chair by a notable Figure call'd Self-Interest it became an excellent Doctrine with you yea a most necessary part of your Creed Pray tell me if this be Imitating of God being Just to all men Doing as you would be 〈◊〉 by Can you yet be so blind as not to see your selves to be a great way off from Christian Charity and an universal Communion of Christians that even make Believing of plain Scripture a Reason for your Abhorrence of their Communion that so believe unless they will subject such obnoxious Passages to Calvinistical Interpretations Is not this like the Egyptian Tyrant that stretcht all longer that were ●horter and cut all shorter that were longer then Himself This shows you Caesar-like would have had ●o Equal and resolv'd to raign alone come what will of those you now have learn'd to call Christians It is but too manifest that the genuine Sense of your Faithfulness to promote God's Cause and Interest is YOUR SELVES But you are several times angry with us for our Separation One and Twenty Divines They seek by Backbiting Reviling and Reproaches to disgrace the Doctrines Practices and Persons of others that they themselves may seem more exce●●ent and glorious then all that have been excellent before them and that they may not be thought unworthy of some Communion themselves grow presently of Opinion that all the rest of the World of profest Christians are so ignora●● 〈◊〉 so bad as to be unworthy of Communion with them W.P. Methinks that it is not only an ill way to be thought more Excellent and Glorious then all that were before us but that no Man that refuseth to captivate his Sence and Reason to serve the Interest of whatsoever you say or do can believe that we should take such an improbable Way to Glory Such juggling Socinians and Papists as you make the chief of us to be should better understand their Business then to be guilty of so much broad and distastefull Folly in doing of it but what cannot you say of the Quakers who rather then not say enough will

be impertinently Tautological and say the same thing in four pages five times over to fix an Odium in the Minds of People against us What is this but to do what you condemn But the Truth is you have so well exprest the Matter for your selves that an unwary Reader would think you equally Enemies to Separation and Reviling those you separate from But of a●● men this Language is most infufferable from you who have transcended in the Guilt of those things you seem so heartily to censure You are made up of Presbyterians and Independents let me a little Expostulate with you Argumentum ad hominom I will begin with you who are called Presbyterians Are you not Separatists from the Church of England You know you are And pray what is the Ground of your Separation Is it Difference in the Essentials of Religion you know you say it to be only in some matters of Discipline for this you have divided your selves and smartly vindicated your Separation witness Galaspee in Scotland and Smectimnaeus in England Was it not a great Reason of the Wars that divided so many Famili●s shed so much Blood and exhausted so great a Treasure Did it not lay Episcopacy in the Dust and excite the Parliament in these very Terms Elijah opposed Idolatry and Oppression so do ye Down with Baal's Altars Down with Baal's Priests Do not I beseech you consent unto a Toleration of Baal's Worship in this Kingdom upon any Politick Consideration whatsoever Which is as much as to say Away with the Arch-Bishops Bishops the wh●le Ministry and Worship of the Church of England Again The Morthes of your Adversari●s are opened against you that so many D●linquents that is to say Royalists are in Prison and yet but very few of them brought to their Tryal Did he mean to relea●e them And saith another of your eminent Brethren be●ore the Commons Aug. 28. 1644. Ye cannot Preach nor Pray them down directly and immediately Well That which the Word cannot do the Sword shall To render which saying authentick the Apostle is brought in two lines after I could set out this part of your Story to the Life but at this time shall forbear nor do I delight in this but since I must needs mention Your Separation how can I do it without telling who it was you separated from And can I do it more candidly then in your own Words I wish there had been no need for it Only from hence you may observe your sort of Dislike of Separation and how notably Presbyterians revile even Men that are one with them in the Essentials of Religion Behold a short Instance of your Carriage to the Church of England you separated from Let us now take a short view of your Treatment of those that dissented from you You shewed the Independents the way first to separate upon Conscience and then to plead Conscience for Separation and how reasonable it was that Conscience should be Tolerated Are you constant to your selves Do you give what you will take No such matter But let us hear you Matters of Religion says Dr Corn Burges in his Sermon before the House of Commons Novemb. 5. 1641. ly a Bleeding all Government and Discipline of the Church is laid in her Grave and all putredinous Vermin of bold Schismaticks glory in her Ashes making her Fall their own Rising to mount our Pulpits That the Independents are concern'd under the term Schismaticks Dr Cawdrey bestows an whole Book upon it which is Entituled INDEPENDENCY a great Schism yet some of these great Schismaticks are some of the One and Twenty Reverend Worthy Divines I find another of your Brethren Octob. 22. 1644. that tells us of Parliamentary Heresies saying You are the Anabaptists and you are the Antinomians these are your Errors if they spread by your Connivance Was not this spoaken like a Man of Charity one that disdain'd not the Communion of other Christians that are not altogether of his Mind A Virtue commended by you in your Epistle Another eminent Person of your Way before the Parliament Sept. 12. 1644. We are grown beyond Arminianism Brownism Anabaptism we are come to the down-right Libertinism that every man is to be left to the Liberty of his own Religion An Opinion most pernicious and destructive saith he And another of your Brethren in his great Zeal before the House of Commons 1644. styles them Bastard Imps of the Whore of Babylon Though you know that many of you plead a Romish Succession for your Ministry and consequently that you ministerially descend of what you call the Whore think on 't as you will But all this is exceeded by a zealous Presbyterian who in his Book called The Gangraen c. Part 1. p. 91. querieth thus Shall the Presbyterians Orthodox Godly Ministers be so cold as to let Anabaptism Brownism Antinomianism Libertinism Independency come in upon us and keep in a whole skin when Arch-Bishops Bishops c. hazarded the loss of their Preferments to withstand the Toleration of Popery Where not only Anabaptists and Independents are rendred unworthy of a Toleration by this great Presbyterian but their Perswasion rendred more intolerable then Popery I would ask G. Griffith M. Barker R. Mayo M. Palmer T. Cole who help to make up the One and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines if this Man was a Wasp or a Bee one that had more of Sting or Honey Well what 's his Resolution Let 's therefore saith he fill all Presses and cause all Pulpits to ring and so possess Parliament City and whole Kingdom against the Evil of Schism and a Toleration that we may no more hear of a Toleration nor of separated Churches being hateful Names in the Church of God AMEN ' AMEN All I shall say of the Man is this he was hearty in his Work and what he did he did with all his Might Another of them runs so high that he impeacheth Gamaliel for a loose Naturalist a Time-serving Polititian a second Achitophel and only because he was for Toleration when you know the rest of the Jewish Counsel were for Persecution If you will not believe me peruse I. Words Sermon before the Commons 1645. How agrees this with your present Desires of Indulgence and Thanks for it Let me say there is the same Exception against you upon this Doctrine as any other sort of Dissenters But as ill as this man thought of Worthy Prudent Gamaliel his Counsel hath been strong and sea●onable even in Presbyterian Apologies But lest you should reject these Evidences of your rank Severity to others though for minute Differences as being but the Opinion of 3 or 4 men I will conclude with the Judgment of the Presbyterian Ministers in the City of London presented in a Letter to the Assembly of Divines sitting at West minster 1645. INDEPENDENCY is a Schism they draw seduce our Members from our Congregations a Toleration of it will be follow'd with inevitable Mischiefs They erect

them you must needs have offered great Violence to your Understandings in giving your Approbation which anon we shall so undeniably evidence as it would have been comparatively your Virtue to have recommended the Book without reading it or examining the Citations Besides the most of what he chargeth upon us to be our Principles are not so laid down by any one of us nor say we sayable by any of us upon our real Principles but are such Consequences as he through Ignorance or Malice hath indirectly drawn from our Words For Instance That there is no other Judgment Heaven or H●ll then what is within us in this Life Which is so far from being our Principle in Our Words that it is as inconsistent with the Truth of our Creed as Darkness is with Light Charge this upon him and he will tell you I doubt not That this is not the Quakers Faith in terminis but the Consequence of it but then it is to be observed that he must have the making of it I would fain know of you if you would be so treated with the Respect to the Articles of your own Creed Would you esteem it just in me to give my Consequence for your Principle supposing I thought it a true Consequence especially if you reject it For Example You are most if not all of you strict Calvinists in the Point of Election and Reprobation would you take it for a candid Representation of your Judgment that I should proclaim it to the World T. Manton T. Jac●mb c. believe That God is the Author of Sin That God's Secret Will crosseth his Revealed Will That no Man is oblieged by the Laws either of God or men That Men are not the Cause of their own Destruction That there are neither Rewards nor Punishments c. because perhaps I believe those Consequences to be deducible from the Calvinistical Principle I am perswaded you would look upon me as an Injurious Person in so doing yet this hath been the Practice of your Reverend Author J. Faldo and which is le●s to your Credit you have notwithstanding commended him in it which how well it suits with On● and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines I leave to their Judgment who understand what Persons of such a Character ought to do and be But I hope you do not think this to be Imitating of God if you do your Case is desperate But ●ad your Carriage been less blamable in these Particulars it had not only been your Discretion but Duty to have enquired if ever any thing had been writ in Answer to this Discourse you recommend by any of that People that it was writ against if there had to have procured and perused it before you had so freely spent your peremptory Judgment against us You generally fling Infallibility at us though it be about Matters of highest Importance to Salvation as if it were a Capital Sin to be assured of what a Christian ought not to make a Doubt of and yet nothing below asscribing such an Infallibility to your Reverend Author can excuse you in not examining him by our Discourses before you conferr'd so kind ●n Epistle upon his Book I ask you if the like Practice would please you in your own Ca●e you have prov'd it doth in ours which makes not for your Honour Some of you are Writers your selves and thereby have ascended to no small Degree of Fame for some thing or other tell me honestly if you would think it a Piece of Justice in any Class of Men to recommend a Book most abusive of your Religion to the World for an Ingenious Essay an Exact Account of your Belief a Tract that in Matter Proof and Style your own Words merits the Notice of all such as desire an Information concerning your Principles of Religion whilst you both disown the Principles of Religion it calls yours and in Two large Answers have detected him of several hundred Miscarriages against your Persons and Principles I am perswaded you will provide better for your selves But if you must needs be so liberal me thinks your Recommendation had been better bestow'd upon his Vindication since his writing That proveth This wanted it and if it wanted it then it wants it still and yet it seems the Book Vindicated must be the Defence of the Vindication and all the Return I am like to have to my Rejoynder bating The Epistle of many L●arned Reverend and Worthy Divines in Praise of such a Book and ●uch an Author May none of you at least in this Temper be Inquisitors when I am to be examin'd for my Religion I shall now fall more closely to the Matter of your Epistle One and Twenty Divines The Quakers preach another Gospel and endeavour to seduce well-meaning Souls to whom they speak in unintelligible Words and from whom they hide the Poyson of their Antifundamental Doctrines W.P. Here is a great deal in a little and very sowerly said Were it as True as it is False the Day were yours You say We preach another Gospel You do but Say it and I thank God You can Do no more But doth it become One and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines to give so general and black a Charge without making any the least Offer to Prove it Is not this to Calumniate rather then to ●onfute us If you say your Reverend Author John Faldo hath done it for you I must tell you that he is an Irreverent Abuser of God the Christian Religion and the Quakers and which is more to my Contentment whatever it be to his and yours Some and No Quakers too think I have prov'd him such And let me ask you If it be Another Gospel To own Remission and Eternal Salvation by the Son of God both as he appear'd above 1600 Years ago in the Flesh and as he reveals himself within in Power and Spirit What is the Gospel or Glad Tidings but Deliverance from Sin here and Wrath to come And what can effect this but the Powerful Grace of God that bringeth Salvation which is dispens'd by Him to all men who is full of Grace and Truth For the other part of your Accusation That we should Say one thing Mean another It is by Consequence to call us the worst sort of Knaves by how much a Deception in matters of Eternal Moment is more impious then any Cozennage about things of this Life and yet you would be thought Charitable Men and say We want it Is this the Way to supply us But I would willingly know of you By what Skill you arrive at the Knowledge of our Hearts Inspiration is one part of our Heresy if your Reverend Author is to be credited The Scripture can not be your Rule in the Point for that nowhere saith The Quakers Say one thing and Mean another and if you measure us by our Words you must grant that either you do not understand us or we mean very Good Things for you elsewhere say That our