may write over their Doors as over the Doors of them that have the Plague Lord have Mercy on them But what then This is but one of his Complements upon us for he is sure we cannot be saved why then should he pray God to have Mercy on us Is not this to pray not only against Faith but certain Knowledge too besides taking the Name of God in vain which he so often exclaims against But what can we expect different from this from a Man that seems to be made up of Malice Forgeries and Lies as he appears to be through his Book But as for his Account of Hugh's of Plimouth I wonder his Friends would suffer him to over-hale it in Print unless the reviving of that Story would take off the Imputation which can never be unless there were better Vouchers for it than this Hammerer no nor then neither but with such as knew not the Man But being at length fully recovered from his Doctrinal Part he falls in p. 123. into an angry Humour with Ministers Wives for giving some Quakers an account of the ill Conditions of their Husbands I take this to be the Story and if so I say it was not well done of the Women to expose their Husbands Infirmities unless it were a Case of Conscience Though many a Poor Woman pays dear enough at Home for being led abroad once a Week in her Topknot but what their Lot is they must submit to and wade through it as they can Yet if the Women will Gossip and tell of the Cheats of their Husbands why should not they be believed as well as the Quaker's Wife he told of in p. 74. When it becomes his own Case he is not for hearing any Womens Complaints against their Husbands but then he not only if you will believe him heard it but hath also printed it though never the truer for that He says he knew a Famous Minister whose Wife broke his Heart he advises Ministers to keep their Ground for if they do not rule their Wives will He quotes many Presidents for being Henpeckt which would make one suspect that he himself was too deeply affected that way But on enquiry I find his Wife hath the hardest side of it by far and so according to the Proverb The worst Spoak cracks first But to come to an end for 't is time nor had I been here but to clear the Truth and its Professors and expose his Folly that if possible he may be ashamed of it and of himself for its sake with a Parcel of Verses though none of his very well adapted to a Chiding Woman and a few Scoffs and Jeers upon She Friends as he calls them together with another Ramble of unheard of Lies which he pretends to deliver as the Sence of the Quakers he ends his Work and lays down his Hammer but not without a false stroke to the very last lest it should any where fail of being all of a Thread which is thus This Barclay says he tells us if Infallibility be not in his Enthusiasms 't is not lodged in the Scripture but we must go for it to the Chair of Rome Here I cannot find a softer Expression than this The Lake is for the Liar and the Liar for the Lake and that 's the Portion of all such unless they Repent for R. B. no where in his Printed Books says so though this Lying Adversary of ours has the Impudence to assert it but the best of it is 't is with the same Credit with the rest But he goes on thus Every thing Poor Robin to its Centre thy Doctrine came from Rome tends to Rome and many that knew thee believe that thou were 't not to be reckoned in the number of Protestants But why thus Poor Robin And once before away Poor Robin what should induce him to call over his Name at this rate I will not determine whether it was from his great Intimacy with Poor Robin's Almanacks as part of his Study or with a design to lessen the Reputation of R. B. if it was the first he has shewn himself an apt Scholar by his Freaks and Comical Raileries But if it be the latter I pity him that he should be carried away with such Whims as to think that he was able to Impeach R. B. who was well known by most Ranks and Degrees of Men to be raised far enough above the Envy of such a Whiffling Petulant Adversary as this Hammerer hath all along appeared to be And now Reader having done for the present with Trepidantium Malleus I shall Address my self to thee IT is not because I Love Controversie or affect popularity that I have undertook to write the foregoing Reply but because I would take off those Bear-skins this lurking Adversary has endeavoured to wrap us in nor indeed had I undertook it if many or most of our Friends that are qualified for such Services had not declined it as a Scurrilous Libel not worth their notice partly from the Matter it self as being False Idle Comical and Vain and partly from the Knowledge they had of the Author since he is so well known to be out of his right Mind But because he may not be generally known to be so where his Book may come and understanding that the Book is handed about from one to another of the Brotherhood and entertained with great Applause as an unanswerable Piece I found my self concerned to Vindicate the Truth against his Malicious Slanders I observe it 's not his Case only but many more of that Complection for many Years past especially in peaceable Times to be throwing their Squibs at the Quakers although in Times of Persecution they generally are more quiet If they had any reasonable or just Cause to Reproach us for holding any Erroneous or Hurtful Principles it were something But when we are Condemned for Hereticks it is by their Forgeries Lies and Perversions which they would insinuate was our Belief One while we are Papists and Jesuites although we Challenge any of them to go as far as they dare in any of the Negative Doctrines of the Reformation Another while we deny the Humanity of Christ by and by his Divinity One while we cannot Pray without the Spirit by and by we expect to Merit Salvation by our own Works One while we are for turning the whole Scripture into Allegories by and by Persecuted because we keep to Scripture words Their great News about our not Confessing our Sins is as false as the rest though perhaps grounded upon our not doing it in the same Customary way and manner that our Adversaries use But what then doth it therefore follow as he wickedly insinuates page first That we think our selves too good and too perfect to ask a Holy God forgiveness for any imperfection in Thought Word or Astion by no means Nay see how Contradictory he is he chargeth L. S. for Pride and falling into the Condemnation of the Devil because he wisht
proceed to examine his Book To pass by his Humoursome Preface to his Humoursome Brethren as he calls his Readers I found a long and tedious Rattle as full of Noise Scoffing and Envy as empty of Truth and common Sence until I got to page 62. where he expresseth himself thus Either what I have charged them with is true or false if it be false let me be accounted the greatest Defamer upon Earth a Persecutor or what they please If it be true as I call Heaven and Earth to record it is and can justifie before God and Man I do say it upon mature Consideration and with great Composure of Mind that Penn and the Quakers are Impostors or Apostates This I took to be the most sensible since it was if you believe him the result of mature Consideration and great Composure of Mind which the rest wanted and Rational though Malicious Sentence in all his whole Book and that led me more seriously to consider Whether what he had Charged the Quakers with was or could be proved against them since if it could not he so freely at one Cast Condemned himself for the greatest Defamer upon Earth a Persecutor c. Let us therefore now take a view of his Charges and see whether they be true or not Page 6. His first is against Lawrence Steel for being lifted up with Pride and falling into the Condemnation of the Devil A great Charge But wherein was his Pride c The Reason he assigns for it was his saying Not that I am perfect would I were As if to be sensible of Imperfection and to wish to be freed from it were to be lifted up with Pride But to this I shall say more elsewhere Page 7. His next is by way of Query Whether George Bishop of the City of Bristol a Scholar was not a most deceitful Writer Ans He was not for any thing that he hath proved against him but that he himself has cleared him from being so is most evident from his acknowledging that G. B. has given a true account out of these Authors viz. Eusebius Socrates c and that Jerom and others were against taking Oaths as well as the Quakers to prove which was one of the grand Designs of that Book And that the Quakers were like them for Suffering he also grants But so says he were the Protestants in Queen Mary 's Days Now what is this but to eclipse if possible the Glory of those Martyrs But he adds So were the Papists in Queen Elizabeth 's Days and the Nonconformists in King Charles the Second's That the Protestants suffered in Queen Mary's Days is true and that they were Crowned with Martyrdom is equally true As also it is that the Quakers were the Objects of his Brethrens hatred who when they had the Power in their Hands exercised so much Cruelty that it cost many of them their Lives as also that they were exposed after their Joshua was turned out and King Charles came in to very great and terrible Persecutions as Imprisonments c. But that any of the Nonconformists suffered at that time was rare I will not say none did but it was very few for they found the same way for themselves that the Pope found for the Papists under Queen Elizabeth which was that though they did Conform to the Church of England in outward appearance yet they should keep their Hearts fixed on him and the Catholick Church which was the exact practice of our Conforming Nonconformists Thus Papists and such Noncons agree upon one and the same way to dissemble with God Almighty and to Cheat the World till the first could furnish themselves with Tools to Blow up the King and Parliament and the latter to Murder their King Remember Rye-house But that he is so angry with Geo. Bishop I do not wonder seeing he has so effectually laid open the Horrid Barbarity and Murther committed by those beloved Brethren in New-England upon the Persons of many of the People called Quakers Page 9. He Queries Whether the Quakers leaving their places of publick Worship for fear of Confiscation of Goods Imprisonment c. were not either Notorious Impostors or Apostates Asserting in their Printed Books that it was unlawful to leave their publick Worship for any Persecution whatsoever adding page 10. That they lived in the sinful omission of open Duties for many Years I Answer Such Books and the Quakers practice in the late Suffering Times abundantly proved their Unanimity and whoever is Ignorant of it must have lived farther off than Moorfields or Box either unless Infants Deaf Dumb or Idiots But perhaps he expects that the Quakers to purge themselves from this Calumny that he has so unreasonably formed against them should produce a Catalogue of their Sufferings but that cannot be done without gratifying him and his Party by reflecting on the Instruments of that Work that he may have the Satisfaction to see them upon all Occasions stand Indicted Against whom as well as the Quakers he already hath not omitted to throw some of his envious Darts but in this he is not like to be gratified nor is it in any wise needful seeing their Sufferings are too fresh in the Memories of most staid Persons to require the Trouble to enumerate them or any proofs to perswade their Truth And besides that to recount but a small proportion of what they underwent for their constant maintaining and openly owning in the hottest Rage of Persecution what they were called to profess far contrary to what he would falsly suggest would swell this piece too much beyond its designed Bulk Or another Reason that might induce him to urge so unjust a Charge against us might be a desire to alleviate that just one brought against themselves of being Deserters of their Cause in Times of Danger by bringing the Quakers a People well known to exceed others for stedfastness in such Cases upon the level for Cowardice with himself and Brethren and so render them as fearful and from thence as guilty as they whose Principles and avowed Practice has been to shift from Corner to Corner in Woods remote and obscure Places or any where to save their Bacon supposing themselves not to be called to Suffer though to Believe so that this Charge of omitting open Duties for many Years together he seems to have aimed at us but directly hits at the Heads of his own Fraternity for it touches not the Quakers notwithstanding his unheard of Impudence in bringing it against them and that for several Years too though when and what Years there 's not one word nor in what particular place neither but generally all England over it seems which is so very false that almost every Parish where any Quakers lived can give him the Lie And for Bristol the place he so often with Indignation mentions it is Notorious that when the Men and Women that constituted the Meetings were taken up and committed to Prison the very Children by their
THE QUAKERS Cleared from being APOSTATES OK THE Hammerer Defeated And Proved an Impostor Being an ANSWER to a Scurrilous Pamphlet Falsly Intituled William Penn and the Quakers either Apostates or Impostors Subscribed Trepidantium Malleus With a POSTSCRIPT Containing some Reflections on a Pamphlet Intituled The Spirit of Quakerism and the Danger of their Divine Revelation laid open By B. C. LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Gracious Street 1696. TO THE READER Reader IF thou art moderate Reading may do thee good and inform thy Vnderstanding and if thou wilt be just thou oughtest to Read our Defence as well as Charge and seriously consider both But if thou art rigid perhaps thou may'st do with Replies or Answers to thy Champion's Attempts as Goliah did by David Curse it and Despise it but never give it an Impartial Perusal the Common way our Adversaries have taken with our Answers The Design of this Preface is chiefly to let the Reader know what sort of Adversary I have to deal with a Person that is said by them that know him to have been Mad through Pride and Conceitedness for which he hath been under the Doctors Hands So deeply had Love-Melancholly seized him before his Marriage that as he said himself 'T was impossible for him to look upon a Woman but he must of necessity Lust to be Naught with her but how it is with him since I will not determine He was one while for exercising the Office of a Curate in the Parish of Bursletown near Bristol but smelling so strong of Presbytery he could not hold it there long So that his Residence has been mostly among the Presbyterians since and how he hath Improved his Gift of Preaching among them they can tell better than I But his Demands for Preaching have been so high as I am inform'd as to make some of them uneasie under him The Account I have had of his Conversation in general is such that I dare say no moderate Presbyterian as some such I know there are desires to hear more of it That he has a little Learning he need not be told of it for no Ape can be prouder of a Top-knot than he is of it A little Rambling Wit he also has but that with a Spirit of Pride has undone him since it has eat out all Charity and fill'd up the vacancy with Prejudice and Envy even to such a degree that is not common An instance of this thou hast in his Book Page 71. where he saith thus Did they the Quakers know by the Spirit of Discerning all the Priests and Jesuites that came among them whom they almost Adored insinuating That there were amongst the Quakers both Priests and Jesuites which is as false and sly an Insinuation as if it came directly out of Scotland from the Reformers there or with the last Ship from Boston But he goes on Bedloe told my Brother how often Whitebread and he as well as other Papists had been at Quakers Meetings that Whitebread Executed was a Speaker Behold this Impostor in his Colours Who that reads this and knew neither him that saith it nor the Quakers but would believe that Whitebread the Papist Executed for the Popish Plot in Charles the Second's Reign was a Quaker and a Preacher among them which is so great a Lie that it 's not possible for him to out-do it But if you ask him Whether he meant so And Charge it upon him he may have a way according to the Cameronian Cant to creep out by saying I said that he and other Papists did go to the Quakers Meetings which perhaps may be true enough as well as many Presbyterians and that he was a Speaker is true for so he was unlâ—ss Dumb but he did not say that he was a Preacher amongst the Quakers I must confess when I saw that passage I thought him too great an Impostor to be Honoured with a Confutation to use his own words and had it not been for that his Books is handed about and sold and extoll'd by many of that Fraternity in the City of Bristol I should have left him to Triumph in his Imaginary Victory as G. K. lately did in his for such sort of Cattel are as ungovernable in their Passions when they dote on their own doings as they are unsupportable when they see their own Folly which rarely happens till all the World sees it first I have not replied to every particular Paragraph of his Book since 't is a considerable part of it Tautological as well as Comical not fit for a Sober Man to take notice of and another part is Collections out of the Snake in the Grass c. which I have understood is Answering by another Hand and to that I refer using as much brevity as possible Another part of it is Directions to his own Tribe in which though he has given me just occasion to detect him for his Vain and Foolish pretences to Divinity yet since 't is to them and not me I shall take little notice of it let them discover his Foolish Pretences if they please and detect it too or else the more will be their shame but pass it by in Silence nor have I taken notice of all his Allegations against the Quakers since many of them are both Foolish False and Insignificant and too Apish for any Reply but all his Capital Charges I think I have fairly Confuted and proved him the Impostor by Clearing the Quakers of his Charge against them THE QUAKERS Cleared From Being Apostates c. AS Madmen are to be known by the places they are committed to for Cure more than by their Discourse at some times since the maddest of Men may have their lucid Intervals and speak intelligible so had the Author of the Book Intituled William Penn and the Quakers either Impostors or Apostates c. but put his Name to it there had been little occasion for an Answer especially in those places where the Author is known But since he conceals his Name and instead thereof Subscribes Trepidantium Malleus and that being such an Herculean Character as if after this Club Beetle or Hammer the Quakers were no more to hold up their Heads I think my self obliged to Vindicate the Quakers and their Christian Principles from the Abuses of this Hammerer whose Malicious Design seems to be no less than to set the Mob or his Cameronian Brethren to tear us if it were in his Power to pieces But if any should think that I am obliged to Answer it Methodically because an Adversaries Book I must take the liberty to tell them that as it is next to an Impossibility to reduce a Mad-man's Work to method so it cannot reasonably be expected that I should exactly trace all his wild ranges or be very Methodical in a Reply to such for to attempt it would shew but little Discretion Yet nevertheless lest any should object That a Mad-man may sometimes speak Truth I shall therefore
some of his Brethren has set forms he infers though very unjustly that the Quakers decline it We do say if Men pray they ought to pray with the Spirit and with an Understanding also and therefore we say all are to attend the Spirits time in order to help them in the production of what it hath conceived and 't is certain that they who are intent hereon shall not find themselves at a loss for want of the Spirit to enable them when the Circumstance of Time and Place calls for it yet at all times Men are to have their Hearts set on God and to meditate on his Law but they are not always obliged to a Vocal Prayer nor doth God expect it though sometimes he do that they may sanctifie his Name by a Vocal Prayer as well in a private Family as a publick Meeting and this the Quakers own and practice therefore he is a Defamer Persecutor and Impostor for insinuating the contrary In Page 51. Our Adversary is very Abusive touching our belief of a Christ within which he falsly puts in opposition to a Christ without saying This Word outward is in great Contempt with them but how this word Outward is so contemptible with them he has not assigned That we are Contemners of the outward Scripture is false from what is said before That we are Contemners of Christ viz. he that was Crucified is as false for we are well assured that by the Offering up of himself upon the Cross he became a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World and by vertue of his Blood comes Remission of Sins and yet this Remission is no otherwise to be Experienced than by Mens Repentance and Belief of the Truth and a Faithful walking in Holiness of Life with which as an Ingenious Author said we may but without which we never shall be saved notwithstanding Christ Died for us The Design of whose Death was not to make a good Life unnecessary but to render it efficacious and available not to procure a Priviledge of being Saved without it as some fancy but that we might be Saved with it c. After he has told his Reader That Baptism and the Lord's Supper were Outward Ordinances with them he queries But why does not these Men contemn outward Meats and Drinks and Outward Cloathing too If they did the Controversie would soon be at an end But for all his Scoffs he is mistaken though by ending the Controversie he means we should be out of his way I must confess I believe it would be a joyful Day to him and such as he But pray let me Expostulate with these People a little Are not you for an inward Vertue from Christ the Fountain to Revive your Spirits and Comfort your Souls under any Affliction as well as to Encourage you to Perseverance Are not you for the Marrow of the Scripture as well as the Words and Sentences therein contained Are not you for sitting down in an Heavenly Place in Christ Are not you desirous of receiving the Substance of what Baptism and the Supper is but the Sign of If you say Yea may not I if I would act the part of this Hammerer return it upon you that you are since you cry up the outward all for the outward but not at all for the inward Which I can with as much Justice and Truth do as he has Charg'd the Quakers for contemning all the outward c. But what a poor Flurt was it to bring in outward Meats and Drinks and Cloaths too and then the Controversie he saith will soon be ended But that 's not true for we are against outward Meats and Drinks and Cloathing too and yet the Controversie is not ended and if he had not been blinded with Folly as well as Envy he might have escaped such a Blunder For where Meats and Drinks are offered either Superstitiously or Profanely the Quakers are against it and refuse it But what a comparison he has made Here is Christ without the Scriptures without Heaven without Baptism without the Lord's Supper without with outward Meats outward Drings and outward Cloating and what weight there is in that pray read Col. 2. 17. and then let him tell me according to his own Comparison what real ground there is for him or any else to blame the Quakers for disusing the Two Great Ordinances as they call them since according to his Comparison they are but a shadow and if People have seen and enjoy the Substance and will follow it rather than the Shadow are they to be blamed for it or called Hereticks But till the Substance is known those Shadows may have their Service and we are not for pressing any to decline it till their own Convictions do For I agree with the Apostles who said Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind There has been many Books writ upon this Subject of Baptism I shall therefore say the less the greatest Argument I have ever heard brought for the Continuation of Water-Baptism was from Acts 10. 48. which stands thus Can any Man forbid Water that those should not be Baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we from which they argue that if Baptism was not a standing Ordinance since these had received the Holy Ghost why was it here practiced I Answer first of all there was no mention of Water in the Commission Mat. 28. 19 20. yet to teach Baptizing was secondly since John's Baptism was distinguisht from Christ's by Water as that was from John's by the Holy Ghost nothing can be more plain than that Christ intended his and not John's Baptism And if the Apostle Paul was not behind as he saith he was not any of the Apostles yet 't is evident he did not understand Mat. 28. 19 20. in the sence our Adversaries do for if Baptizing with Water was a part of the Commission there mentioned he never understood his Commission if he had he would not have thanked God that he Baptized so few as he did and positively declared that he was not sent to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel but that he did some and Peter more is true but this neither proves it a standing Ordinance nor yet that it was by Command from God to be a standing Ordinance but as in the Case of Circumcision Anointing the Sick and divers other things practiced by the Jews whose Religion was greatly Ceremonious as the Gentiles was Idolatrous the Disciples of Jesus condescended as in the case of Circumcision that by becoming all to all they might gain some for to take them off all at once was not likely to be received by them since by a long Custom they had used themselves to such outward things But besides John himself had before declared that he must decrease and that Christ must increase which plainly implied the decrease of his Ministry and Baptism not all at once but gradually as it did the increase of Christ's Ministry and Baptism
that Matter that he hath so confused himself about that in Eight Lines has told so many Lies but perhaps shortly we may see his Reply to this for if he have any Regard to his Credit he is obliged to it since I positively Charge him for a Malicious Publisher of Notorious Falshoods and then it will be time enough in mean time I observe his Directions like such another Doctor as S. Y. a true Representation of the Author viz. a Rambling Confused Adversary see it page 46. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of Truth Ah! where wilt thou run when he ceases to lead thee This in a Quaker had been rank Herefie enough to have had him write a Book to lay open the Danger of it but in him Orthodox In the next Paragraph and first Sentence of it he saith Dread the Methods whereby others are inveigled viz. a Pretence to all inward Spirituality in Religion You may see what a Religion he is for nothing of Spirit but all Flesh But to fix the aforesaid Character upon him read his next words A Form of Godliness without Life and Spirit God abhors saith he 't was well in one respect he did not set his Name to his Book for if he should be known to be a Member of any Society at all we might if we would act like him Accuse them for Madness or Folly since this Member has shewed himself so in this Case for till he can reconcile the aforesaid Directions viz. Dread Inward Spirituality in Religion viz. Beware of it don't pretend by any means to such a thing yet don't grieve the Spirit of God for a Form without the Spirit God abhors I say until he can reconcile these two opposite Directions I shall not forbear thinking him a Mad-man or worse but this is no more a wonder to me than his Envying the Quakers both for the sake of their Religion as well as for their Temporal Enjoyments since believing the Saving Grace of God in all Men is with him an Intoxicating Notion one would think he was no better acquainted with the Holy Scriptures than he seems to be with the Principles of the Quakers for had he not been intoxicated himself and a Stranger to both how could he have belied the one or contradicted the other as he hath done And until he is better informed of both I intend to leave him or at least for the present since he is so foul and abusive from End to End that hardly one Paragraph is to be found free from Lying Detraction and Perversion It shall suffice me that all Men in their Senses and that are of a good understanding will agree with me in this that this Adversary has most notoriously abused the Quakers by Intituling them to the Mad and Foolish Freaks that some silly People has run into For who would think it just to charge the Church of England for Libertinism because some Men Professors of that Communion has been Convicted for Theft and Murther c Or that the Presbyterians Doctrine is Damnable because some of their Members have Hanged or Stabb'd themselves Or that the Baptists Religion is Lunacy because some of their Members has Drowned themselves A very unjust and uncharitable Conclusion So let the sober Reader judge whether supposing but not granting many such like Idle and Foolish Stories to be true concerning here and there one amongst many Thousands of a regular People is our Christian Communion and Society answerable for it And our Principles Destructive and we Hereticks because of it The Answer I hope is easie In short we know there has been much Industry us'd and what Wit and Malice as well as Madness could rake up has been thrown at us to Reproach our Christian Profession and render its Professors obnoxious to the Government that our Liberties might be by a Legal Power stâ—eightned But Blessed be the Merciful God who hath hitherto helped us by his Grace and good Spirit that though our Adversaries hath not forborn but with open Mouth hath spoken all manner of Evil of us yet it is falsly and we know it to be for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom we have believed Psalm 2. 1. Why do the Heathen Rage and the People imagine a vain Thing Isaiah 37. 22 23. The Virgin Daughter of Zion hath despised thee c. London September the 12th 1696. FINIS * Bedlam and Box places for Cure of Mad People Page 48. Page 48. See C. M. of W Page 60. Page 71. Page 60. a Ezek. 36. 27. b 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. c 2 Pet. 3. 16. d Mic. 5. 2. e John 1. 1 2 3. f Col. 1. 15. g Ver. 16. h Rev. 22. 16. i Heb. 1. 1. 2 3. k Eph. 3. 9. l Heb. 2. 14 16 17. m Heb. 4. 15. n Isa 53. 10 11. o Heb. 9. 12 14. p Tit. 2. 14. q 1 Pet. 3. 18. r Eph. 5. 2. Å¿ Phil. 3. 10. t 1 John 5. 7 8. u Acts 1. 11. x Acts 2. 31 to 37. y Acts 3. 21. z Heb. 8. 1. a Eph. 4. 13.