favour of my Positions any might freely speak against them they sat in the midst of the Governour Magistrates of their Opinion and the whole Assembly of their way W. Edmundson though I. Stubs twice said in publick that I had not inter-interrupted them yet W. Edmundson would frequently and insolently interrupt me so that I was not only forced to bear patiently through Gods only help but to suppress my thoughts which here I have added in some places 8. I know that a great weight of your Opinions and Actings lye upon your believing your selves guided by the immediate Spirit of God but I believe that I have proved that it is no more the holy Spirit of God that speaks and acts in you then it was the true Samuel that spake such heavenly words in the appearance of Sam. Mantle amongst a cloud of other witnesses you shall never perswade Souls not bewitched that the holy spirit of God would perswade your Women and Maidens to appear in publick streets assemblies stark naked c. of which I have spoke more particularly in our disputations 9. It is hard to perswade a Fox or a Wolf that he is so c. or that he doth Rob or Steal or Murther it is hard to perswade a man while he dreams that he is in a Dream yea though he be a filthy Dreamer as Gods Spirit speaks In our Dreams we believe lyes and impossibilities to be true as that we are many thousand miles of that we talk with dead men c. that we are at Marriages or Burials and are Kings and Queens c. 10. All that I can hope for without Gods wonderfull mercy is to give my Testimony in my generation for as Solomon speaks of the Whore few or none of you return Yet I know Gods foundation is sure he knows who are his amongst you as amongst other perswasions I have proved and will prove if God please that spiritual Pride that is Pride about spiritual matters is the Root and Branch of your whole Religion and that the King Eternal who did cast out proud Angels out of his Palace will hardly open his Gates to proud and scornful Dust and Ashes Providence March 10. 1672 3 so called I am one of your best Friends R. W. To those many Learned and Pious Men whom G. Fox hath so sillily and scornfully answered in his Book in Folio Especially to those whose Names I have been bold to mention in the Narrativt and Apendix Mr Richard Baxter Mr Iohn Owen c. Sirs THrough your sides the Devil by the Clawes of this wily Fox hath tore at the heart of the Son of God it is no wonder then if he tear at the Heart of his Love-Letters and Institutions and the true Professors of his name who are innumerable in Abrahams Bosome and the rest travelling uprightly thither For Brevity sake I was forced to omit many excellent Passages selected by Fox out of your Writings to select short Sentences of yours unto which he gives short Answers As to matters in Difference between yourselves and me I willingly omitted them as knowing that many able and honest Sea-men in their Observations of this Sun one picture of Christ Iesus differ sometimes in their Reckonings though uprightly aiming at and bound for one Port and Harbour Eternally praised be the Father of Lights and mercyes that we are one in that most glorious ever fixed Cynosura about whom his true Prophets Messengers ever have and doe and shall move and he holdeth them in his right hand I humbly beg of you 1. That you will more and more earnestly candidly and christianly study the things that differ without reflecting upon Credit Maintenance Liberty and Life it self remembring who it was that said it He that loves his life shall lose it 2. More and more to study the Prophesies and the Signs of the Times You know when it was that sive Bishops twenty-two Ministers almost three hunared other precious Believers in the true Lord Iesus were sacrificed in the Flames for his ever blessed sake against that monstrous Man of Sin and bloudy Whore of Rome These Foxians fancy is but a feather to to those high Pico's and Tenariffs the Pope and Mahomet whom some of you may live to see flung into the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone Were it not that the infinite Compassions of Heaven had made our gracious Sovereign the Breath of our Nostrills the fiery Fornace had certainly burnt seven times hotter against Hananiah Mishael and Azariah Surely as for Conscience sake we ought to obey so sor Conscience sake we ought to be Instant and Constant at the throne of Grace for his Royal Preservation and Salvation Prov. March 10 1672 3. I am unworthy to be yours R. W. A Narration of A CONFERENCE OR DISPUTE This last August 1672 so called in the Colony of Rode-Iland and Providence Plantations in N. ENGLAND between Roger Williams of Providence who Challenged Fox by writing which followes and all his Friends then met on Rode-Iland and G. Fox withdrawing Iohn Stubs Iohn Burniat and William Edmundon three of their ablest Apostles on the other that is on the pretended Quakers Party HAving long heard of the great name of G. Fox a man cried up by the People called Quakers and having read his book in Folio some years since against as I think above six score Books and Papers written by pious and able pens against them and now this Summer hearing of his coming into these Parts of N England and the poor cheated Souls the Quakers with joy expecting his coming as the coming of an Angel of light from Heaven I read over his Book afresh as in the holy presence and eye of God with a single Eye and Heart and more clearly finding his Answers so weak and silly so Anti-Christian and Blasphemous and yet so Imperious and Scornfull so Cursing and Censorious 2 Damning and Reprobating all that bow not down to their new Upstart Image my Spirit rose up within me and I believe the holy Spirit of God in answer to my poor Petitions and Meditations resolved and quickened my Spirit to the present Undertake and Service And therefore for his most holy Names sake and the name of his most holy only begotten the true Lord Iesus the God-Man and Mediator c And for the honour of the most holy Spirit of God so horribly torn in pieces by this foul Spirit of the Quakers For the vindicating of many of the precious Truths of the old Christian purity and for the sake of so many precious Souls lying slain and bleeding before me I made this Offer following to G. Fox and any or all his Followers or Associates then together at New-port on Rode-Iland T is true G. Fox was at Providence some few dayes before and spake publickly and it was free for me publickly to have heard him and opposed him But going the last year to one of their general Assemblyes at New-Port
being President Also what I have spoken against W. Harris touching his firing the Town and Colony I thought so and therefore contended against him but I never sought his life note that R. W. Thou sayst 17 thou art not conscious of any recoyling in thy spirit so much as in a thought Here thou manifest's an impious spirit that seekes to murther the Innocent what Fury possesseth thee to talk of the God of peace yet retainest a murtherous mind not having repented of thy wickednesse how is thy heart hardned in seeking the lives of such as thou thy self hast confest to be the Children of God Oh murtherous man that hath not any Remorse for thy long-liv'd Wickedness I am sorry for thee though thou slight all my writings counsells take all in the worst sence yet I beseech thee to consider thy latter end my desire for thee is that the Lord would awaken thy Soul give thee Repentance unto life In the last place thou writest how highly I esteem of G. Fox and thou desirest to think as low of thy self How will this agree with thy boasting of great Education great Experiences great struglings and strivings within to bring out thy Positions and Conclusions which all my loving Testimonyes against as issuing from a diabolicall spirit did no more take place with then a Feather against a Rock Call to mind the preaching of Jonas to Ninive yet forty dayes and Ninive shall be destroyed a short speech yet they repented and the Lord pardoned And so I desire thou mayest repent and find mercy with the God of mercy Thy Neighbour I. T. THus Reader it pleased the Infinite Wisdom of the most holy and only Wise to pierce through my heart with the thrusts and stabs of a of a foul-mouth'd slanderous spirit by the hands of long professed friends and lovers yet pretending the name of God and of Scripture as wel as my self How doth it behoove us then to make sure that we can in truth say as Ieremiah Lam. 3. Thou art my portion saith my Soul O Lord Thou and none else Thou alone without Health Strength Beauty Honour Lands Goods Friends .c. How should we make sure that with Thomas we may say unto the Lord Jesus my Lord and my God for whose sake we ought joyfully to bear what false Christs false spirits and their Souldiers can dart from Earth or Hell against us My Answer was as followeth MY ancient Friend it pleaseth the most High to give to all mankind his Children also and them especially many bitter Cups and that oftentimes by the hands of dear friends and 18 dear Relations that we might fall more in love with himself then ever who isinfinitely more sweet and even Holiness and Power and Wisdom and Love it self Your Lines in this your third Fury against me being full of Bitterness in themselves are more bitter to my Spirit upon diverse accounts But the most High and only Wise will have it so and your judgment and Conscience and mine will have it so yet that will not acquit us we both say we must come to another Barr and there stand or fall eternally In this First You tell me you willingly omitted the Particulars I mentioned as not concerning the matters in handling I am not of your mind it is an Easie yet a Suspicious way of answering and implyes not only unwillingness but a willing Ignorance and Guilt also For is it not concerning the matter in hand especially when so personally provoked to vindicate our selves and friends our Teachers and Apostles our Spirits and Religion also 2. Next you blame my subtle spirit for not answering by Scripture or Reason your loving Admonitions I gave you my Reason shewing how simple it was for you to give fire upon me and tell me my Paper was Scurrilous full fraught with impudent Lyes and Slanders and yet give me not one Scripture nor Reason to prove any of them to be so 2. I shewed you how irrationall it was for you to think that I should so suddenly renounce my understanding and Conscience and Positions upon the sudden sound of your Outcry Repent Repent 3. You tell me it is childish bruitish and irrationall to say that you are worse then Barbarians Answ. I said not so in generall you and all the world ought to abhor the particular case viz. the stripping Naked of your Women and Maidens a case worse then Savage and Barbarous only practised by the Bruites and sometimes by Indians and Whores in their drink when all Modesty and Reason is overwhelmed with more then common Drunkenness Who can but abhor to think of such whorish and monstrous Immodesty such an hellish Incentive to filthy Lusts and that under the most holy name of the Spirit of God 4. As to my first Position you now tell me that it is childish and foolish for G. Fox to prove I suppose you mean for me to desire G. Fox to prove what he and all friends disown and thou in scorn callest Quakers Answ. I know the Quakers say 19 that name is given them in scorn and yet we also know it it hath its denomination from those great bodily Shakings which have been believed to have come in mightily upon them by the power of Devillish spirits for many Reasons of which afterward However G. Fox in 370th page of his Book in Folio writes thus in the title of each page The Quakers answer The Quakers Answer I know what may be said and I know may be said and justly to that excuse and what shall be said in the Dispute following 5. As to my 12th Position of Suffering of the Quakers and you say it is a Brat of mine own and that is an evidence against me and all os my Persecuting Spirit Answ. I shall by Gods assistance prove that you doe make it an Evidence of your Religion and then it must be your one Brat and Bastard As to my persecuting spirit the most High hath been a holy witness to my Travels and losses and hazards and other sufferings in my vindicating and procuring Soul-liberty and I humbly hope in his mercy he will preserve me from being like many Quakers fouly fallen from their former Christan Religion 6. You say How darest thou blame me for not giving Scripture or Reason against thy railing and impious Positions when thou challengest and assignest another to doe it G. Fox .c. Answ. I only blamed I. T. for being so fierce and furious so hot and hasty in crying out a scurrilous Paper fraught with lyes and impudent slanders and yet gave me not one Scripture or Reason against any one of them common Modesty and humane Sobriety would have taught a little Patience till G. Fox had answered or untill you had answered something of Scripture or Reason your self 7. Nextly you tell me of my Serpent-like spirit in witnessing against my neighbour secretly To which I lay before the most High I
to Paul as Peter to Cornelius and Paul to the Iailor it pleased God to use his holy means and instruments of Men to men Gods sweet and familiar way to men the immediate Teachings of God by Dreams by Vision by Voices by Motion the Holy Scripture mentions many before and since the coming of the Lord Jesus the Question is not whether it may not please the most Holy and infinite Prerogative of the most High so to teach where and when and whom he please But whether it be Christian obedience or Diabolical laziness to fling off all means as Fox all along teacheth to sit still and listen to immediate Teachings that is say I to the Devils whisperings I believe the Papists and Quakers would give much to be rid of the Scriptures I know also that notwithstanding their pretence of Spirit yet both of them are forced to use means Praying Preaching Congregating and in stead of the holy means by Gods Spirit have appointed many Inventions and Superstitions from a Satanical Spirit G. Fox saith there is no Fallacy in the Revelation of God Ans. True but will he say these seven things 1. That all the pretended Revelations are the Revelations of God 2. That Revelations may not pretend Angelical Light and yet be Diabolical Darkness 3. That we may receive any Revelations and Teachings as Children and Mad Folks do without chewing and rational weighing consideration 4. That God hath not appointed his old Scripture and Writing 192 new since Christs coming as a Standard Rule or Touch stone to try all our own and others Inspirations by 5. That Mahomets Inspirations are not one of the most prevailing Snares Traps and Engines whereby he hath catcht whole Nations and Kingdomes and the greatest part of this poor world at this day 6. That when God reveals his word or will in writing which G. Fox grants to be the words of God and they are slighted it is not common and most righteous with God to deliver up proud lazy Souls to strong Delusions to believe Lyes as at this day it is most wonderfull 7. Whether there be any way in this world to escape the snares of Sathans Whisperings but by humble attending to the search and Meditation of the heavenly Records by humble cryes to the Father of Spirits for his holy Spirit and help in all the Meanes by himself appointed in Love and Pitty to the Souls of men A 4th Instance of G Fox his lame stuff is in Pag. 4. Where he brings in the same Author Sam Eaton saying The Gospel is the Letter c. He Answers And the Apostle saith it is the power of God c. and the Letter kills and many may have the Form but deny the Power and so stand against the Gospel which is the Power of God I reply we all know that the word Gsopel from the old Saxon is as strange to us English as the word Evangelium or Euangelion the Latine and Greek are but we all agree that it may be turned according to its meaning Glad Newes This wise cunning man tels us the Glad Newes is not the Glad Newes ' Why so Because it is the Power of God who sees not here the simple subtelty of this Deceiver The Gospel or Glad Newes preached is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth c. Rom. 1. Therefore this Glad Newes told written printed preached is not the Glad Newes would he now perswade himself and us that Moses and the Prophets that wrote of this Glad Newes and those four heavenly Pen-men or Pens which by the finger of God his immediate Spirit wrote the History of the Life and Death of the Lord Jesus c. wrote nothing of the Gospel or glad news for the glad news is the power of God 2. I know the trick of these old Cheaters and Juglers to hide 193 themselves and their cheating in the Bushes and Thickets of words of diverse Significations or figurative Speeches which all honest Reason teacheth carefully to distinguish I know it is Fox his trick and all their tricks in his and their Writing to make God and Christ and Spirit Gospel Covenant Iustification as before I proved to be all that one cheating Fancy called Light in them and in every one that cometh into the World These bewitched souls will not owne a figurative speech when it makes not for their Idols 3. Is it not that the Lord calls the preaching of the Glad Newes the Power of God because of the wonderfull effect of it to him that believeth this Glad Newes which few or none believe as being a foolish thing to believe as the Iews and thousands others say to believe in a beggars brat laid in a Manager and a Gallowes-Bird c. 4. Paul calls this Glad news his Gospel or Glad news Rom. 2. Will the Foxians therefore say that either Paul lyed or else it is not Gods Gospel nor Christs but Pauls although it is most true that as Paul had charge of it as a Shepheard of another mans Flock or a Mariner of an other mans Ship it may be common Phrase of Speech though not literal but figurative be called Pauls or any other Messengers of Christ Glad news or Gospel 5. There is a wild beast called a Fox a subtle and pernicious creature there was a famous heavenly Man a famous writer of the Book of Martyrs Iohn Fox and there is this poor deluded deluding Soul G. Fox to whome I am now replying ought not these to be distinguished Is there not such a mischievous subtle Beast called the Fox because G. Fox bears and that most justly and by a finger of Gods providence bears it the wild Beasts name or was not such a learned heavenly wonderfully deligent zealous man as I. Fox because G. Fox bears that name also 6. But further If the Glad news may not be called the Glad news when t is Scripture that is written or preached then not Glad news when spoken 7. The Law denounceth Sentence of Death against a Traitor c. this Sentence is written in a Sence may be called a Killing Letter the King pardons this Traitor and this Sentence of Pardon is written this gracious word of a King is not less his Word because it is Written then it was when first spoken by him and this word or pleasure of the King written may be called Gospel or Glad news the Glad news or Gospel of his Temporal Salvation will any sober man say as G. Fox impiously and frantickly that the writing of the Pardon and the Broad-Seal is a Dead letter a Killing letter c. because Paper Parchment c. If G. Fox from hunting after Souls by Sea and Land arrive at 194 any Port in England and send a Letter Post to his Wife Friends containing his many Deliverances many Experiences his safe Arrivail and his Purpose
World knows not written in the Book of Life Here is the new Man known after God in Righteousness and true Holiness Now who is the New Man and this new Name the World may call him by the old so it is not a mystery of iniquity to say the World calls him so I Reply 1. As to Christian or Christen Names or Things bearing or pretending to bear the Name Authority or an Uniting of Christ Jesus as we know the word Christian signifies it is incumbent on every Christian Soul to search into the Root and Rise and Practise and Warrant of them with holy fear and trembling in the presence of God 2. But to the mystery of Iniquity here insinuated against them Is it not a proud trick of a Pharisee thus to scorn the poor Heathens and Publicans as not worthy to know the Foxians high Names or take up such sacred Names and Mysteries upon their Lips yea is it not a ridiculous Fancie thus to prate and like Pharisees to scold about washing of Hands and Pots and Cups therein placing invented Holiness c. For 1. VVhat are the Heathen this Heathenish Soul here strikes at doth he mean the wilde Savages who give Names to their Children and oft times full of Reason and Significance c. Or doth he account all Nations Savages and Barbarians that give Names to their Children and consequently themselves Savages and Barbarians also for they give Names unto their Children also 2. It is true that by the word Heathen the Goj in the Hebrew and Ethne in the Greek the Nations or Gentiles were signified as distinct from the Holy Nation or Church of God the Iews but so it is not common in our English Phraze to call all the Nations Heathen that are not of the Iewish Nation 3. Did not the Saints before the coming of Christ give Names to their Children did not Leah and Rachael by Iacobs leave give all those significant Names unto the twelve Patriarchs and 84 have not the Saints of God as well as all Nations still so practised 4. Doth Christian Regeneration or New Birth destroy Natural Births or Marriages or Procreations or Names and Educations Only as Diamonds in Gold-Rings and Aples of gold in pictures of silver Christianity beautifies and adorns all these Natural and Civil Actions with an heavenly Spirit Carriage in Earthly matters 5 Can there be any Instances given of any Servants of God before or since the coming of Christ Jesus disowning or slighting the Names which their Parents had given them yea though there were some seeming honour to false Gods in them Fortunatus Apollo Phebe c. 6. Why may we not though we are for his Heathens call the Foxians by the same Names by which they call themselves for in this great Book we find G. Fox and Edmund Burrough subscribed It is a Query why they so plainly subscribe and yet defend them that do not Have they a Priviledge Or do they thus quarrel with us poor Heathens about straws or things Indifferent and yet so weighty as the New Name and new man created in holiness c 7. But what is this new Creature and new Name they speak of How shall the world call them by it if they know it not Such are their Nonsensical Fancies of giving no Respect to any in word or gestures Such are their Fantastical Conceited Answers when being asked where they dwell they Answer they dwell in God and where they live they Answer They live in God c 8. Are not these Foxians a kin to the Popes in this Fancy also when raised to the Devils Pinacle to the Popedome they throw down their old Names to the world and though they be as subtle as Foxes yet now they will be called Leones Lions though they be as fierce and Cruel as Lyons they will now be called Clement and though they be as Impious as swine even as Os pores they must be called pius In the last place as the Pope cast away his net which he used as the Remembrance of the Fisherman Peter when he had catcht the Popedome so G. Fox having made his Fortune as it is prophanely called having attaind a great Marriage His new Carriage and Courtesie and Civility condemns Humphry Nortons 85 and his own former Rigidity as I am sure they will do most of them for worldly Advantages For as they abuse that Scripture The World is in their Heart I may truly use it and affirme the world and the pride and Advantage of it though they deny it as the Pope and Cardinals and Iesuits do is in their Heart and is the Body and Soul the Root and Branch of all their whole Religion The 42 Instance is in pag. 243. where G. Fox brings in Richard Sherlock saying We must not look for an Immediate Extraordinary and miraculous Teaching from the Lord. He Answers Yet he saith all men are taught of God what Confusion is here The grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men and this he calls an outward Teaching by the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that which brings Salvation outward All in the Truth may judge this and try thy Spirit And the Teachings of the Lord is not mediate but Extraordinary above all yours which are men got up since the dayes of the Apostles I Reply 1. Although I have spoken before of their Immediate Inspirations yet seeing how greedily and boastingly this deluded Soul with scorn and Contempt of all his Opposites sucks in the poyson of Devilâ—sh Inspirations in stead of the pure wine and milk of Christian Truth and milks out this poyson into the mouths of his poor bewitched Followers I shall add a few words G. Fox here affirmeth that the Teachings of the Lord are not mediate but Immediate Extraordinary and miraculous Contrary to the whole stream of Scripture and Experience 1. Contrary to the Ordinary and daily and mighty preaching of the whole Creation Psal. 9. The Heavens c. 2. Contrary to the Teachings of God in every mans Nature and making being taught of God above Gods Teaching the Fowls of the Air and Beasts of the Field Doth not Nature teach you 1 Cor. 11. as to long hair 3. Contrary to Abrahams Teaching of his Children and the Command of God to all Parents 4. Contrary to Ordinary Teachings of the Priests and Levites Commanded by God in so much that Christ Jesus Commanded the Scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses Chair to be heard and attended 5. Contrary to the Ordinary and Constant feeding by Sheep 89 herds and Teachers in the Christian Flocks and Assemblies 6. Contrary to the Teachings of the holy writings or Scripture written by Immediate breathing of God for our Instruction and Consolation c. Ob. Yea but saith this great wrester of holy writings They shall be all taught of God I Answer 1. Who or how shall they be all taught of God that
Ministeryes or Offices 3. Operations Works or Successes all wrought in the Saints by the holy Spirit for the Glory of the same Father Lord and Spirit the mutual comfort and edifing of the Saints yea and for the Convicting and drawing of other poor Sinners out of the World to God The Lord mercifully awaken your Souls to the Love of God and the Love of his holy Truth for the not beleiving of which but the profane playing with it the most high and righteous Judge of the whole world in a way of Iudicial Sentence delivers up poor Souls to believe Lyes and that so strongly as to give their bodyes to be burned for them The Papists catch hold upon a Letter This is my body You as simply as doe the Generalists catch hold upon the Letter All every man that comes into the world .c. whereas the Scope and Connection in all writings and in all matters in the world are rationally to be minded The Sence and Meaning is in all Speech and Writing in our own and other Languages the very Speech or Writing it self These Words All and every one in our own and other Tongues 9 are often used figuratively it is so all the Scripture over and thrice in one verse Colloss 1. 28. where Reason cannot imagine that Paul did literally and individually admonish every man teach every man and present every man that comes into the world perfect in Christ Jesus which could not cannot possibly be true without another Sence and Exposition then the words literally hold out 4 Again you are dangerously bold to say that you write from the Spirit of Truth wherein you Father these your childish Irrationalityes your profaning of the holy Majesty of God his holy Scriptures and writings and your rash Judging and Examining of others upon the holy Spirit of God But I do humbly hope to evince that the Spirit you boast of is so far from the Spirit of God that it falls beneath the foot of a sober and well grounded Humanity At present I only Instance in that whorish and monstrous act of your Women and Maidens stripping themselves stark naked by your Spirit and with a face of brass coming into the open streets and publick Congregations of Men and Youths This Spirit though defended by G. Fox and others is such a piece of unnaturall and bruitish Impudence that I cannot hear of the like amongst Jews or Gentiles yea not amongst the most Savage Base and Barbarous of them all all Circumstances considered 5. In the last place I observe your Fickleness and Inconstancy what and how often have I heard you speak of the Chief of the Quakers now at Newport How lately and how much have you uttered of John Crosman his Cross and froward spirit even since he pretended the Spirit yea how inhumane and injurious to your self in the way of his Calling now all on a sudden for I heard but little untill I saw your Lines you are got up into the lofty Chair of Judging and ready to say God I thank thee I am not as this Publican I beseech the Lord to make you savingly to remember that Word God resisteth that is sets himself in Hostility against the Proud but he giveth Grace unto the Lowly so prayes your old unworthy Friend R. W. Providence 18th 5th 72. I had hoped that I had Conjur'd down at least for the present that Waspish spirit but he flyes out against me within a few dayes in this second Letter following 10 Providence 23. 5. 75. ANcient Friend and Acquaintance I read thy Note four dayes after the subscribing it that so thy Councellors might throughly be informed of thy continued Zeal in a dangerous Case What I write to thee in Love hath a contrary effect in thy Spirit being so prejudiced against us according to the Proverb Nothing is well spoken that is not well taken Upon Discourse thou didst say the Quakers could not be believed on their Words or Writings having a secret Reservation within them which gives me to conclude that wee are Iudged before wee Speak For my charging upon thee Slanders and Lyes Examine but thy Positions which will make manifest what I say As for the Terror which thou speakest of c. I leave it to thee to consider what thou art about least thou be called to Account for it before thou art ready As for charging me with Irrationality for not alleadging Scripture for what I write yet I alleadged three Scriptures one of which thou wrestest adding what I wrote not so that if I had urged more I should have had the like Catching But we both must come to give an Account of what is done in the Body In this my Letter thou mayest see my witnessing against most of thy Slanderous Propositions Concerning the Spirits manifestations 1 Cor. 12. 13. I freely consent that they were the Saints by Calling who are there Considered As thou alleadgest the Papists Catch at a word This is my body so we catch at a word All and misapply Scripture so that I perceive thou hast not a Guide to thy mind but utterest thine own Conceivings John 3. 16. The Promise is to them that Believe and not to All. Again Thou findest fault with my rash judging thee and abusing Scripture Take it to thy self for the word Damning thou foistest in thy self neither dare I pass Sentence of Damnation upon any For Iudgment belongeth to the Lord and we must stand or fall to our own Master As for my Fickleness and Inconstancy Lay thy hand upon thy mouth and Consider thy Windings and Turnings in thy Iudgment and Practice how thankfull thou wast to J. Burnet whome thou highly commendest after thou camest home and now reproachest the Truth which then thou assentest to and in thy 14 Positions thou hintest by thy wicked Surmises what the sudden spirit of the Quakers is to take away the Lives of Kings .c. but I told thee in my first Letter thou art a stranger to that holy Spirit we act by But further thy Malice appeareth in going to one thou saidst that 11 if the spirit of the Governour were to cut of his head he must doe it Call to mind what thou didst to thy peaceable Neighbours seeking their Blood crying out Treason when the Court discerned thy Blood-thirsty spirit which thy friends at Newport were ashamed of and thy Accusations proved Invalid How childish didst thou act to swear against One when another told thee of somewhat spoken to allay thy fury against William Harris Call to mind thy Books written and see thy Fickleness wanting a Guid to thy mind being for and against Persecution Thou chargest me to have gotten into the Chair of Iudging thy two Scripts I return upon thy self Physitian heal thy self The Wisdom of man puffeth up but the Wisdom of God humbleth that God may be all in all I desire thee to look back to thy Lines and where thou mentionest the Satisfaction of infinite
and for maintaining and allowing it for ought I know to this day Then he turns Generallist and writes against all Magist-ates Laws Courts Charters Prisons Rates c. pretending himself and his Saints to be the Higher Powers as now the Quakers do and in publick writings he stir'd up the People most seditiously and desperately threatning to begin with the Massachusets and to cry out no Lords no Masters as is yet to be seen in his Writing this cost my self and the Colony much trouble Then as the Wind favoured his ends no man more cries up Magistrates then not finding that pretence nor the People called Baptists in whom he confided serving his ends He flies to Connecticut Colony then and still in great Contest with us in hopes to attain his gaping about Land from them if they prevail over us to this end he in publick Speech and Writing applauds Connecticut Charter and damns ours and his Royal Majesties favour also for granting us favour as to our Consciences which he largely endeavours by writing to prove the K. Majesty by Laws could not do My self being in place by Speech Writing opposed him Mr. B. Arnold then Governour and Mr. Io. Clark Deputy Governour Capt. Cranstone and all the Magistrates he was Committed for speaking writing against his Majesties Honour Prerogative Authority He 207 lay some time in Prison until the General Assembly where the Quaker by his wicked ungodly and disloyal plots prevailing he by their means gets loose and leaves open a door for any man to challenge the Kings Majesty for being too Godly or Christian in being too favourable to the Souls of his Subjects against his Laws c. I had thought to have declared thus much publickly and how seasonably the Kings Declaration came over against him also how that one General Assembly and another and another had been troubled with him c. and fined him c. but now my Lord Edmundson grew hot and told me that I had charged the People of the Lord with many great and grievous Charges which he said I could not prove yea he said he would speak it before the Lord I had not proved one of them and therefore he warned me being an old Man that I should not carry such a Burden on my back to my Grave and among other angry insultings he said he heard I had been a Magistrate and said I was a fit man to be a Magistrate that would so wrongfully charge the Innocent Io. Stubs spake to the same effect and how I had hindred them from going about the work of the Lord he said also that it was only the Light which they had spoke for and that some had interrupted them but he confest that Roger Williams himself had not done it I saw God in their Confession And for the last point and Branch of the 14 Position viz. Their Persecuting Spirit having spoken to it before and finding them unwilling to mention it I urged it not having at Newport shewed from Page 170 of G. Fox his Book That the Magistrate that is the Magistrate in their Light ought to Subject the Nation to his Light else he is not a faithful Magistrate In page 90. 96. G. Fox sets up his Saints as formerly W. Harris his Antagonists to be the higher Powers as knowing who Worship God aright and who not and only able to judge of Powers Magistrates Kingdomes and Churches Herein W. H. and the Quakers are one c. It is true that W. Edm. declared that the People of God were not to meddle with Carnal Weapons as also that before time many of the People of God called Quakers had been Souldiers Captains and Colonels yet now coming to the Light they had laid down their Carnal Weapons but if Fox say true in his Book either they Mope or Equivocate for Fox speaks of the Magistrates for Christ in the aforesaid Page 170. he discerns who be Idolaters who not which true Churches which not and are to praise the VVell Doers and terrifie the Evill Doers with the Carnal and Material Sword or else they talk nothing 208 But 2. If this Confession Profession of theirs were not yet if Chrst Jesus say true viz. The Tongue tells to all the World what the Heart is was there ever People professing the Name of Christ Jesus except the Papists so Reproaching the Protestants and amongst the Protestants was there any ever so Reproaching Reviling the Professing and Conscientious People as Quakers do was there ever any known professing the fear of God in so high a measure so sharp and cutting in their Tongues even to eminently knowing and Conscientious persons Thou Lyar thou Serpent thou Cain thou Judas thou Hipocrite thou Devil c. Shall we rationally question whether their hands like Simeons and Levyes will not be as fierce and cruel if the most holy and only Wise permits Whips Halters Swords Fagots to fall into their Hands and what did Sam. Fisher Ed. Burrowes write less to the Souldiers at Dunkirk that if they received the light they should on to Rome 3. Have we not known the deceitfulness of mens hearts fly out into greater matters then Persecution Hazael earnestly asked whether the Prophet thought him a Dog that he should doe such matters c. Pendleton vow'd his Collops should fry ere he would to Mass in Q Maryes dayes and yet to Mass he went and persecuted others also that would not bow to the Image as he had done Just here Capt Green of Warwick desired leave to speak to two things 1. To immediate Revelations such as Abraham and Moses and Ehud had 2. As to the Soul being a part of God I was weary and withdrew but afterward Capt. Green told me that none of them were willing to speak punctualy to either of these two but rather desired to wave them as a bstruse and high matters and Mysteryes Then Pardon Tillinghast a leading man among the People called Baptists at Providence he prest against them the continuation of Christs Ordinances untill he came The Quakers said Christ was come again to his Disciples He replyed that after Christs Ascention he spake of another Coming his second Coming Heb 9. W. E. fel to Prayer as with me he ftl to Preaching Pardon Tillinghast as himself told me declared to them that he was free to discourse with them but he was not free to joyn with them in Worship so he departed and after W E. his Prayer the whole Assembly And thus it pleased the God and Father of Lights and Mercyes to bring us to the end of this 4th dayes Contest and the end of the whole matter in much Peace and Quietness and the Consideration of matters left to every mans Soul and Conscience and so doe I this Narrative which God knows is the Sum and Substance of all our Transactions Unto his Eternal Majesty therefore I humbly
us Did not W. Harris when in place more than justifie us by judging himself bound to hurry your self and about twenty more to Newport to answer for Contempt of the Kings Authority though but in an accidentall peaceable and by his Covetous violence occasioned Meeting Was not Mr Clark though favourable to W. H. so amazed at W. Harris his desperate Presumptions that he readily acted with us in Examination and Commitment Yea did not W. Harris upon the point Confess that we could not but Commit him and therefore provided beforehand his Bedding and other Conveniences for a Prison 8. It is not true that either in Word or Writing I cryed out Treason against him But it is notoriously known that he and his Complices lay in Wait and at Catch at every word as Foxes and Lyons for Mr Greens Blood and mine as Traitors against King Charles for our pleading the Colonyes proceeding against W Harris in the time of the Parliament and Oliver Cromwell Oh Friend whither will thy poor Soul next be hurried Is not the Gap and Gate now left open for W. Harris or any man to Dispute openly against the Kings Prerogative and tell him that he knowes not nor his Councill nor Iudges the Laws that he cannot dispence with penall Laws on the Consciences of his Subjects Papists or Protestants at Home or Abroad But see the Finger of the most High the Kings Majesty as if he knew all our proceedings against W. Harris his presumptions debasing the Kings Power and Prerogative in the present juncture of these Affairs sent forth his Royall Declaration to the World asserting his Supream Power and Authority in such matters and by virtue of many Statutes and Acts of Parliament 9. In the last place that your self and others may admire your new spirit how much and how often and how long hath your own Mouth and Hand and Capt. Fenner and diverse with you declared and remonstranced to the Generall Assembly against W. Harris which Assembly therefore fined him and outed him as the restless Fire-brand of Town and Colony and who hath with all his power now kindled and blown this Fire between 15 Conecticut Colony and our selves Yet now in your and the Quakers bosom must W. Harris be hug'd as an innocent and peaceable Soul and the Kings faithfull Officers reproached and threatned as Blood-thirsty and cruel Oppressors 10. You bid me mind my Books and my being for and against Persecution But through Gods mercy I can look at them with humble Thanksgiving and peace without any recoiling thought to Persecution as you falsly intimate from them 11. As to G. Fox his Armour Sword and Cuttings with which you threaten me I desire to think as low of my self .c. as you or G. Fox can think high of himself It is infinite mercy that I live and as a Living Dog may wait for Crums of mercy clearly to See dearly to Love uprightly to Follow and constantly to Maintain the eternall Crown and Glory of the true Lord Iesus Christ and his most holy Spirit and Scriptures with whose gracious Assistanee I hope to prove that the Quakers spirit and Christ have no Communion Roger Williams THe Ingenious and upright Reader might now well suppose that the Contest were over but it is not the Light of Truth or Reason or Scripture or Experience or the Testimony of the Prudent or their own Consciences that will satisfie this white Devill of this pretended Light and Spirit within them and therefore must I crave the Readers Patience while I produce I. T. his third and last Letter to me and my Answer to it Neighbour COncerning the mistaking the Date of my Letter as thou writest which could not be seing I sent it thee the same day I writ it but thine I heard of it some dayes before I received it As for my passing over many particulars which did not concern the matter in handling I willingly omitted them discerning thy subtil spirit in no respect answering by scripture or reason my loving Admonitions to thee But in thine own words is it not bruitish irrationall childish to affirm we are worse then Barbarians which thy sordid Positions do hold forth How childish yea how foolish dost thou shew thy self in thy first Position for G. Fox to prove what he and all friends disown and in scorn thou callest Quakers And in thy 12th Position dost affirm That our Sufferings are no Evidence of the truth of our Religion Thou mightest have spar'd thy paines in bringing 16 forth this Brat which is of thine owne begetting But we are sure it is an Evidence against thee all other of thy Spirit which persecute that they have drunk deep of the Cup of Fornication upon whom the Violls of Gods wrath are powred forth in spirituall Fornications How darest thou find fault with me in not alleadging scripture nor reason in declaring against thy impious Charges mentioned in thy railing impious positions Would'st thou have me to take the matter in hand which thou challengest G. Fox to answer to give like a fool scripture reason for what thou assignest another to doe Oh what Serpent-like spirit dost thou act by that dost not own my plain dealing with thee in owning the scripture wrestest foistest in as I meant not nor writ If thy spirit were reall as before men thy words seem to import thou wouldest not then shew a smiling Countenance when War is in thine heart in witnessing against thy Neighbours secretly against that Golden rule Doe as thou would'st be done by Thou countest it open violence for a Woman to speak in the Church but if thou knewest what Woman that should not speake thou would'st have spared me these lines writing have eased thy selfe of thy great struglings strivings within thee to bring forth on Abortive Thou chargest me in making a great Out-cry against thy Blood-thirsty spirit concerning W. Harris as though thou didest at no time cry out Treoson Treason Answ. how dost thou shift of as one that is guilty and dare not mention the case I writ upon shufling it to be his last imprisonment which I know not the ground of but as I had it related by thee But the Circumstances considered it cannot possibly be paraleld as my Letter declareth with this last Case of W. Harris First thy taking Oath against my wife upon an other mans word on purpose to allay thy furious spirit against W. Harris he not thinking thou wouldest have prosecuted against her as also against sixteen of thy peaceable neighbours Can thou deny that at that Court thou cryed not out Treason Treason making all as guilty as W. Harris Thou sayest I bid thee mind thy Book written against Persecution and yet thy self a Persecutor of thy peaceable Neighbours even unto death Answ. How canst thou in peace through the God of peace as thou sayest look upon thy wicked Travels to murther the Innocent as thou didest at Newport crying out Treason
very unhandsome Clout of a grievous Interruption so that sometimes I was forc't to play the Moderator and to protest that such practises were against the sober rules of Civillity and Humanity It pleased God to help me with such Patience to weather them that Iohn Stubs openly confest twice that though some others had given them some interruptions yet that I had not done it I took my Seat at the other end of the house opposite to them and began telling them that the most High was my witness that not out of any prejudice against or disrespect to the persons of the Quakers many of whome I knew and did love and honour nor any foolish Passion of pride or boldness for I desired to be sensible of my many decayes of my house of Clay and other wayes nor any earthly or worldly ends I had that occasioned this trouble to my self and them I was first commanded this work from Heaven Why should not this Argument be good for mee and for others as well as the Quakers they say their commands are immediate for Interpretations are immediate but I say they herein suffer Satan to cheat them for they say they pray they fast they wait they listen they judge of the motions that arise within them and so have I done The great maker and searcher of all hearts knowes that none but his holy Majesty was privy to the Conception of this business 1. My end was the vindicating his most holy Name which my Soul saw was trodden in the dirt by Sathan clothed with Samuels Mantle and the bright garment of an Angel of Light which once he was but pride deceived him 26 2. I had in mine eye the vindicating this Colony for receiving of such persons whome others would not we suffer for their sakes and are accounted their Abettors that therefore together with the improvemeut of our Libertyes which the God of Heaven and our Kings Majesty have graciously given us I might give a publick testimony against their Opinions in such a way and Exercise I judged it incumbent upon my Spirit and Conscience to doe it in some regards more than most in the Colony I may also truly say that 3. I had also in mine eye that this exercise might occasion some Soul Consideration in many I told them that we had a dolefull Alarum and instruction lately we were taught what Salvation and saving was in the late death and drowning of a person so known to us and all N. England Nicholas Davis I told them our case and the case of all mankind is his in Spirituall and Soul matters Oh a world for an Oar a Rope a Plank Only it must be to all of us our work to try whether our Saviour our Salvation be reall and not failing in so great a Straight Some of these blessed ends it hath pleased God to propagate by this occasion all this Colony over and all of us round about have put forth our selves in Disquisitions and Searchings after the true grounds of the Christian Religion and Worship I had many thoughts of beginning such an exercise with Prayer unto God for his Presence but I knew I could not joyn with them nor would they owne my Prayers I had thoughts as Eliah among the Baalites to have prayed in the singular number But some Considerations made my spirit content with this kind of Petition unto God For not only in my Closet and my heart but publickly before them all I said I doe humbly hope and beg of God the Father of Spirits so to order and direct our Spirits in these our Agitations that his holy name may receive glory and the Soules of all of us some Soul-profit and Advantage I began with the first Position which I think W. Edmunson also read out of the Paper viz. That the People called Quakers are not true Quakers according to the Scriptures 1. I said I knew they did not owne that name Quakers as imposed on them by God or taken up by themselves but given them in scorn and derision as G. Fox Ed. Burrowes and I had heard Iohn Stubs who joined with them declared and that 27 one Gervace Bennet a Iustice in Derby first so called them in the year 1650 And yet I had cause to judg that the name was given by Iustice Bennet and others to them from that strange and uncouth possessing of their bodyes with quaking and shaking of their Bodyes even in publick Assemblyes and Congregations which extraordinary motions I judged to come upon them not from the holy Spirit and Power of God but from the spirit and power of Sathan for diverse Reasons First Although they pretend that Moses and David and Habbacouck and Daniel were Quakers yet as to the Christian Profession and the dayes since our gallant fore-Fathers in Germany at Spiers protested against the whore of Rome and from that Prostestation by the Papists they were called in scorn and wrath the Protesters or Protestants about 150 years since unto this day I say as to the Protestant Professors and Confessors the Quakers are but a new upstart party or Faction risen up little above 20 yeares since in the northern parts of England Lancashire c. T is true t is probable they are the Offspring of the Grindletonians in the same Lancashire about two yeares before who held those two grand Points though many wicked paths of Doctrine aud Practice were amongst them viz. 1. That God doth all 2 They could not sin taking it according to the Letter These Grindletonians were the Offspring of the late Nicholaitans as all of them are in truth justly so called from Henery Nichols who put forth his Books of the same Poison in K. Iames his time which long since I read and were confuted by many and by Mr Ainsworth and Mr Robinson precious and powerfull Witnesses of Christ Jesus H. Nichols aud his Nicholaitans were the Litter of those Spirittualls and Libertines which spread in Germany and France in Calvin's dayes against whome that heavenly soul gave his powerfull and heavenly witness in his Book against the Libertines These Libertines Satan raised up about the Protestant Reformation from the ruines and rubbish of the old Manicheans and Gnosticks and other blind Guides who swarmed in the first third and fourth Christian Centuryes until the Pope swallowed up all the lesser Serpents and so became a Dragon with seven Heads and ten Horns forcing all with fire and Fagot to deny Christ Iesus and to martch under Anti-Christ the Anti-christ the man of sin his Colours Some of these Particulars I could not then express but think 28 fit here to remember the former dayes for Information of such as doe desire it These People came from Lancashire and other northern parts to the Southward of England and to London I spake with some of their Chief then in London I knew it was the old proud spirit which had appeared in so
Hence the Word of God is the Word preached as Paul 2 Thess. 1. Not as the word of man but as it is indeed the Word of God Act. 19 which preaching of the Word growing of the word were not competent and proper expressions to be affirmed of the perfon of the Lord Iesus especially I told them I would use the words of the Lord Iesus when he fought with the Devil that famous Combate Math. 4. No other Weapon did he use against him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is written and again It is written It is written here Christ Iesus quotes Dut 8. Man shall not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God where Moses and Christ Iesus affirm 34 that God hath many words contrary to what some Quakers hath affirmed to me saying that God hath no more words but one and Christ Iesus here affirmeth That every appearance and providence of God is a word proceeding out of the mouth of God as well as this holy Scripture he alleadged Though yet it is true that Christ Iesus is the Word or declared Mind of God incomparably above all his spoken or written or providentiall Words and Expressions He came out of the Bosome of the Eternal Father and brought the brightest Revelations of his eternal God-head Councels and therefore is most justly and eminently stiled the Word of God I urged that the Word or Words of God were Figurative Speeches for properly God had no Mouth nor Tongue nor Lips nor Heart nor Brains c. but as our Kings Majesty his Declaration touching Religion his royal Charters his Letters from Breda are often insisted on and urged by the Quakers as the word of a King though his writings contain many hundred words so it is with the King of Heaven his Scriptures and writings c. I had oft occasion to mention G. Fox and Ed. Burrowes their Book in Folio called The great Mystery c. upon which W Edmundson reproved me for speaking of G. Fox and E. Burrowes in scorn and derision so his words were I guest he took me as if I had scornfully intended G Fox in his Burrowes but I had openly purged my self protesting before the Lord that I had no such thought yet this Passage was the occasion of the Title of the Book For the finger of Gods most wise and holy Providence is often wonderfully seen in small unexpected inconsiderable Turns and Occasions In such poor shells oftimes may be found the Kernels of rich and usefull Observations Sure thought I Gods holy Finger is in it that G. Fox and Ed. Burrowes Men so qualified and named should so notorioufly conspire against the true Lord Iesus Christ in their dark and subtle hellish Contrivings and Imaginations It was also Gods overruling hand that VV. Edmundson should so upbraid me and first put the Conceit and thought of such a Consideration into me which I apprehended as Digitus Dei the finger of God directing and pointing me to so proper and pertinent an use and Application Thus the only Wise and Righteous King catcheth the craftiest Foxes in their own Burrowes and turns their proud Surmises Censures upon their own Pates This occasioneth me with Amaze 35 ment and Astonishment to cry out O God how deep are thy Being thy Attributes thy Providences thy Self and all thy wayes beyond our thoughts and finding out To proceed I had observed and prepared many Quotations out of G. Fox his Book but they desired not to hear them read as in the following dayes of Conference they were read by my continual importunate Urgings I say at first I could not get oportunity to insist upon some Particulars a Tast whereof I think now fit to present the Reader with In Page 155. of G. Foxes aforesaid Book he brings in one I Stallam their Opposite saying To say the Light in every man gave forth Scripture and will open Scripture to us is palpable Darkness and contradicts the Scripture G. Fox answers All be in utter Darkness and know not the Scripture untill they come to the Light that every man was in that gave forth Scripture for the Light lets them see to what it was spoken and Christ the end of them The english of that Answer is That every man that is all Mankind Men and Women if they will can give forth Scriptures or write holy Scriptures I know they call this Light God and Christ and Spirit the Covenant of God the Life Truth and Grace of God I asked them in publick Since this Light comes into this World in and with all Mankind whether it comes into them at the Conception or at the Birth or when else Whether it was in all Mankind before the coming and death of Christ Iesus or whether to those that are in the world since his coming or both Whether it be in the Understanding Will Memory Affections in any of them severally or lodgd in all of them jointly For it was a prodigious Fable to imagine such a Sun to shine in every Room of an house and yet none of the Inhabitants nor any that come into the house discern and see it Christ Iesus saith as the mouth is the heart is and before a true turning unto God we are in darkness we are darkness we hate the light of God and endure not to see it but wish there were no God no Father of Lights to discover and plague us for our dark Courses yet our Hearts are so cunning and cheating that they will tell us that we have Light and Christ and God within us and that we can speak and write holy Scripture not remembring that as Christ Iesus said of the Temple our hearts are Dens of Thieves and like painted Tombs full of dead mens bones and rottenness 36 untill a second Birth by the VVord and Spirit of Christ Iesus Again in the same Page G. Fox brings his Opposite saying And to say every mans Light is the true word of Prophecy is an old Fable no man shall be able to spell out a syllable of the Gospel by all that is written in a mans Heart This subtle Fox answers The Light that enlightens every man is Christ and the sure Word of Prophecy to him he shall find it In this Passage who can but see their horrible and simple profaning and wresting of plain Scripture Is it not clear as day to him that is not willingly blind that this word of prophecy in Peter is the Word which the Prophets spake and writ of Christ Iesus unto whome the spirit of God in Peter sends us as being a more sure and convincing word to us then that voice which Peter and Iohn affirmed that they heard from heaven in the Mount of Transfiguration But thus profanely and simply do others of them affirm this Light to be that Prophet which Moses wrote of Deut. 18. whereas the holy Spirit in Stephen Acts 7. applyes expresly that
the Scriptures within their Teacher within They stil say The Scripture was not the Word of God the Scripture is but a dead Letter they have no need of Paper-Teachers having the spirit that gave it forth Yea as the Papists say if the Scriptures were lost and burnt out of the world the spirit within them could give new Scriptures T is true the Quakers in this Dispute professed to be tryed by the Scriptures which the first Quakers among us wholly denied but only by the Spirit within them But what avails this Confession Is it not but a subtle trick of Equivocation when stil they profess to owne G. Fox all along and he professeth the Soules of all men to be a part of God and the divine Essence and that their is no distinction between God Christ and Spirit and themselves what should hinder but that the Scripture is but a dead Letter and compared with their spirit a weak and needless Paper unto them that hath such a light and Spirit within to guide them I told them before and now that there was an Irish Papist in the late warrs that spoke the very heart and soul of Iews Papists and Common Protestants and the Quakers themselves as to the holy Scriptures In plundering and rifling a Protestants house he found a Bible and flung it in the Kennel and kickt and trod upon it saying The plague of God take this Book it is the cause of all these Quarrels My Opposite said they owned the Scriptures in their place as a Declaration of the Saints Conditions Iohn Burnet took a Bible and read publickly that Passage in Luke 1. where Luke calls his Writing a Declaration I urged that this will of God for this Declaration of what Christ said and did and of all the rest of the Scripture was a Declaration and Revelation of Gods Will to his People and to the whole World this written and revealed 90 will of God I said was the Judge and Decider of all Questions the tryer of all Spirits all Religions all Churches all Doctrines all Opinions all Actions They answered they did owne the Scriptures and would be tryed by the Scriptures which is a new trick meaning according to their own not to be questioned Interpretations I urged that they set up their Spirit above the Scriptures fathering all their Revilings Cursings and Abominations upon the holy Spirit I asked whether they owned the Scripture as the square Rule or Guide according to whose sentence all the Knowledge of God and of our selves the Knowledge of Gods Worship and Service and our own Blessedness and Salvation was to be determined yea and the Spirit within them to be tryed determined approved and condemned also They still fled to this Burrough the Spirit that gave forth Scripture is greater then the Scripture the spirit is in us that Spirit only opens the Scripture the Spirit is immediate and infallible and they only who have this Spirit know the Scriptures I answered that I maintained the inward breathing of the holy Spirit more than themselves for I quoted before Luke 11. viz. that we ought in all our Preachings Hearings Readings Prayings c. to beg the help of the Spirit called the Finger and Power of God and yet I also maintained that this Record this Word Will or Mind of God written and pen'd by chosen Pen-men as Pens in the hand of his holy Spirit and so miraculously preserved from the Rage of the Devils fiery Instruments Babilonian Assyrian Romane and Popish Tyrants and that much among the Jewes and Papists and much by their meanes also though they hate it I say this Record is the outward and external Light Lanthorn Iudge Guide Rule by which God witnesseth himself and his Truth in the World comforteth and feedeth his saints in their Dispersions discovers and reforms the defects and wanderings of his People as in Iosiah his finding this Record and Ezekiel Iohn eating the Book out of which the holy Spirit inspired them to prophesie to Kings and Peoples c. T is true who doubts it but that God and the Spirit were before the Scriptures and so he was before the Creation before Christ Jesus was born and his Redemption actually accomplished are the works of God therefore and the several Dispensations and Institutions and Instruments of God in their several times and 91 places of any whit less power or esteem because the most holy God and his most holy Spirit were before them Iohn the Baptist saith that Christ Jesus was preferred before him for he was before him and he was not worthy to unloose the Shoe-latchet of Jesus the Lamb of God and yet for the fulfilling of all Righteousness the Lord Iesus must come to Iohn to be baptized of him and the holy Spirit of Light will declare himself to be true by the holy Scriptures and discover all other Spirits to be spurious false and Bastards and notwithstanding their cracking and prating of Light if they slight this outward standing Record and Witness of God in the World it is because there is no light in them One of these two must be done either we must subscribe to the Papists and by their pretended Spirit and Church find out and authorize the Scriptures just as the Foxians say or else we must with Luther and his Associates Calvin and his followers maintain Learning study the Scriptures search the Originals Copyes and Translations and vindicate their Purity and Perfection their Authority and sole external Direction how to judge of all pretending Christs and Prophets and Doctrines Churches and Spirits While we were thus discoursing W. Edmundson propounded this Similitude if I should write a letter to a friend and subscribe my name W. Edmundson doth it follow therefore that the Letter is W. Edmundsons I answer that the Quakers do affirm that the Scripture is within them what is the english of that but that the Light which they and every man in the World hath within them the Christ the Spirit which every one hath is Scripture and in a sence I said it was a Truth that W. E. his letter to his friend was W. Edm. not only a Declaration of his word mind or will to his Friend but in a respect his mind and will it self that he sent in Writing to his Friend and so the Scripture in a Sence is Gods mind and Will to us Upon this occasion I told them that the Scriptures were the Love Letters of Christ Iesus to his Church as the Love-Letters of some mighty Monarch to his Betrothed Queen or Empress they are dear not as common Paper and Ink but as the Good-Will the dearest Love and heart of the King and Emperour himself and thus are holy Scriptures highly prized and embraced and laid up in the heart and bosome of the true Children of God 92 believed listned to and followed as the voice of Christ Iesus to his true sheep and Spouse the Bastard Children and
he brings in the Author of Hosannah to the Son of David saying The sure Word of Prophesie the Apostle speaks of is the Prophesie of Scriptures He Answers Doth the Scripture shine in a dark place until the Day dawne Are they them them that must be taken heed unto as to a Light Can any see the Scripture and know the Scripture but with the Light within Can not a Cain a Baalam a Core bring Scripture that is gone from the Spirit of Prophesie within and then put the Letter for it 98 I Reply 1. I know that Fox makes their Idol within called Light to be the more sure word of Prophesie and his usual proof is The Testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of Prophesie But first why must all the Prophets or Messengers of God who from the beginning of the world were Gods mouth and Pens Concerning the Birth Life Death Burial Resurrection Ascention and coming to Judgement of the Lord Jesus be here cast out from the Word of Prophesie Is it nothing Luk. 1 that God spake surely Gods speaking is his word God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the World began And Heb. 1. God spake sundry times and in divers manners in Time past unto the Fathers but how did God thus speake or utter his word but by the Prophets And Rom. 16. But now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment c. Therefore how oft is it written concerning the Lord Jesus These things were done that the Scriptures might be Fulfilled in which regard as to our satisfaction and belief the written word of Prophesie of the Prophets are a more sure Word and Evidence to us concerning the Lord Jesus then the Miraculous Appearance from Heaven of Moses and Elias and the voice from Heaven of which Peter here speaketh though in it self a true Testimony yet not so sure so firm and pregnant as the Word that God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets from the beginning of the World c. Hence the Answer of Abraham and indeed of Christ Jesus If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe though one should rise from the Dead 2. How sure is the Quakers Light their Word of Prophesie A sober mind can not but admire that Face and Forehead of Brass and Adamant with which God the Righteous Judge of the whole hath plauged Satan and his Followers so that they blush not to prefer such a simple Image a meer Babie and Childs Puppet of their Immediate Word of Prophesie before the Word the mind and will of God by the mouth of all the Prophets For is it not known in the holy Scripture in all Histories in all Ages in all Nations what Cursed Opinions horrible Uncleannesses Bloody Murthers and Slaughters have been Conceived and brought forth from the Spirit within and Revelati 99 on s from Divilish Lights and Spirits and the horrible End that generally the Authors and Promoters of such Spirits and Inspirations have come to 3. This Scripture Revel 19. The Testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of Prophesie what is it but Goliahs Sword to fetch off the head of this proud Philistin for doth not the Angels forbid Iohn worshipping of him upon this ground viz. that the Angel was his Fellow Broker Fellow Servant Fellow Worshipper Fellow Witness Is not this the Argument whereby he prohibits him viz. that one Testimony of Jesus was the work of Gods Spirit in the Angels in their way as well as in Iohns and Peters in theirs c. and shall we say that the Angels too are Quakers and Christ hath enlightened them also as well as every man that comes c And Revel 22. Doth not Christ threaten the Adders to and Diminishers from the word of this Book of this Prophesie what Affinity hath a written Book a written Prophesie with Immediate whisperings and Inspirations 2. Why should G. Fox here mention Cain Balaam Core what Scriptures could they bring what Scriptures were written in their times I think it no breach of Charity to guess that the Quakers and G. Fox are so used to Cursing and Censuring their Opposites at the first dash for Cains Baalams Cores that they could not well tell how to miss them Such persons no question and the Foxians and the lying Spirit the Old Fox and Serpent bring Scripture But doth the Divel cordially prize and love the word of Prophesie the Testimony and Witnesses of Jesus However he plainly here Confesseth that the holy Scripture is so powerful that the very Counterfeit the picture and Name of it will do him good Service with such whom he desires to cheat and Ruine And yet secondly this shews the Quakers horrible wickedness that although they love the holy Scripture for the general of them as well as doth their lying Father yet turn they the Truth of God into a lye and with the ugly Spider sucks that which he turns into poyson even from the same Flowers of Paradice the holy Scriptures from whence the hony Bees the true Believers suck the pure hony of Eternal Truth and Comfort 3. Again what madness is it for this blind Dreamer to ask his Opposite whether the Scripture shines in a dark place until the 100 dawne whether they must be taken heed unto as to a Light For how often is the holy Scripture even the very Law before the Gospel or glad News was preached adorn'd and beautified with the Illustrious Title of Light and all the subtle Foxes in the world must know that if they attend unto whisperings and peepings Isai. 8. and leave the written Law the Word and other Prophesies of Scripture or written Prophesies Words and Oracles of God! For all their Childish Vapourings and pratings of their Light the Eternal Father of Lights proclaims them to be Children of howling darkness and that there is no Light within them I speak it with horrour and Amazement and also with sorrowful Confidence that he that shall find a spark of true Light either of the knowledge or grace of the true Lord Jesus in this their Fantastick Light he shall find the Living among the Dead he shall prove the Prophets that spake and the Lord God of the Prophets whose word was spoke to be Lyars for saying there is no Light within them But Fox again demands Can any know the Scripture but with the Light within And I ask him what Light have the Papists and Iews and the Divel himself when they and he bring Scripture to Christ himself I know very well what he means in his Iesuitical Diabolical Reservations by the Light within and by knowing the Scripture his meaning is known and Common viz. except he be one of those dark Souls called Quakers But did not the Devil bring a pertinent Scripture and promise to Christ Jesus as ever Papist or Quaker could have alleadged though pointed and directed
take from us or bring upon us I said and say that neither the teachings of the Papists or Quakers will help them to get up one Step of this heavenly Ladder for by the utmost strength and activity of Nature no man can advance and climbe higher then to love God and Christ and Heaven for it Self and Self-ends which is no more but Flattering of God base and dog-like Fawning and Hypocrisie I cannot call to mind ought that was opposed by my Antagonists against these Considerations but Iohn Stubs said Dost thou count our Religion an easie Religion for my part said he we have not found it so easie to forsake all the glory and pleasure of this world to forsake wife and children c. to goe about the work of the Lord in strange Countreys c. 157 And W. E. said thou sayest our Religion is an easie Religion For my part said he I have not found it so I have not found it so easie to forsake all the glory and honour and pleasures of this World and to expose our selves to hardships to forsake our Wives and Children Friends and Relations and to goe about in strange Countreys c. And W. E. further said in that thou saist our Religion is an easie Religion it is a plain evidence that thou that talkest so much of Religion and of the Religion of the Quakers thou yet never knewest what Religion is with more to this effect and they according to their wild spirit insisted vehemently on the wronge which I did them and the People called Quakers and that as for themselves they were but a few but the people called Quakers were a great Body they were many thousands all over England they were many thousands in London as also in Barbadoes and New-England and Virginia and other places I replyed that my time would not give me leave as they knew to say much to their greatness and number yet I said their Religion like the Papists was easie and agreeable with Nature they had the wind and tyde of natural corruption to joyn with their spirit which knew this well enough 1. It was easie to perswade the Quakers to change one fowle Spirit and Devil for an other a Devil more gross and ugly for a Devil more refined painted and guilded their pride in Cloathes and fantastical Fshions to pride in self conceit and fantastical Opinions their Drunkenness and Gluttony with Wine and Flesh to Intoxications with high and proud Vapours How many millions travel on the broad way to Destruction and yet prate of a strict and narrow Path What wonderfull hardships doe both Turks and Papists endure in their religious Pennances How doe they macerate and whip themselves even till the bloud of their tender Women hath streamed down upon the ground from them Yea how zealously in the cause of their Religion have the very Iewes themselves cast away their Lives as Spain and Portugal can witness Besides I told them it was a poor lame thing to talk of numbers when the Council of the only Wise was so clearly revealed concerning his Little Flock opposed to the vast and monstrous Herds both of civiliz'd and wild Nations 158 I put them in mind of the innumerable multitudes that followed after that stupendous Cheater Mahomet even thirteen parts of the world divided into thirty as very knowing Cosmographers or Describers of the World have computed And if so be that the Pope and Church of Rome be the eight Head the great Whore that sits upon many Waters Kingdomes and Nations what a poor Slut is the Quakers Fancy compar'd with the Baals Priests the Romish Proselites the Beast whome the whole world wonders after 3. Again it is to me and may be to all men wonderfull that since the Religion of the Quakers is so easie c. that ten thousands more of people in old and new England Scotland Ireland and other parts have not lifted themselves under this new Mahomet pretending so much from the Dove from Heaven as Mahomet did T is true G. Fox and Foxians pretend the two horns of the Lamb and that their weapons are not Iehues nor Baals Priests but that they have forsaken all Carnal Weapons but this I shall shew to be an horrible Lye when I come to the last Position The Devil and the Papists and the Quakers know that the Quakers only want a Sword to subdue as many Proselites as either Mahomet or the Pope hath done The Quakers some prate subtilly others childishly against Carnal Weapons Carnal Weapons c. but I shall shew if God please in my 14th and last Position what a Devil of Pretence this is At present the Devil knowes they want but a Sword not Hearts nor Hands nor Principles whereby to subdue as maâ—y Proselytes as the Pope or Mahomet hath and literally and materially thrash the Mountains with Flails of iron and make the Nations turn in an easie Hypocrisie and Dissimulation Dissembling Quakers I wonder and adore the Councels of the Eternal that any of these three should be Cheated by this spirit First Any of those truely fearing God for their Principles spirit and practices being so notoriously opposite to the meek and patient Spirit of true Purity and Holiness and evidencing them to be lead by a dumb and dogged Spirit 1. Their high and shameless Pride and Vapouring is notoriously known of which in the next Position 2. Their mouth full of Cursing and Railing above any or all that profess to march under the Christian Name and 159 Colours 3. They spit not out their Venome so fiercely against any as against the most conscientious Preachers and Professor of the Protestant Faith as appears all along in this railing of Fox in Folio against them 4. They easily fall in with openly profane and ungodly persons and with carnal and luke-warm Laodiceans who can swim with the tyde sail with every wind If they can but say Thee and Thou c. 5. It is wonderfull how their spirit professing to be Protestants can so wickedly strike in with the bloudy spirit of the Papists against the Witnesses and Martyrs of Jesus compiled by that heavenly I. Fox in the Book of Martyrs which this bloudy spirit in Iames Purnels Watcher upbraidingly calls Your Record as if it were none of theirs nor the bloudy Papists against whose bloudy practises under their Popes and the old proud Romans the Romane Gods and Emperours that heavenly Book shews how those heavenly Martyrs or Witnesses over came by the Bloud of the Lamb the word of their Testimony and not loving of their Lives unto the Death 6. That most Savage and worse then Indian Spirit of their stripping their women stark naked and so to enter into the streets and Assemblyes of men and youths which Piety Christianity and common Womanhood and Modesty abhor to think of Secondly As I wonder how any godly Soul so how any Learned Soul who hath studied the primitive Copyes
the Holy Scriptures He is the sole Judge and Interpreter of them and the sole decider of all controversies in Religion about the expounding of them yea he hath power to dispence with Peter and Paul c. yea what Christ and God can do that gave forth Scripture that can the Pope their Lieutenant do hence all this Dispensations of Oaths of Marriages c. Do not the Quakers also tread this Holy Scripture this inestimable Jewel of Gods Writing and Book under their proud feet as formerly I noted upon the fourth Position of their not owning the Holy Scripture Do they not upon the point say that they made they wrote and gave out the Holy Scripture and though in our late Conference they said they would be tryed by the Scriptures yet as the Papists they admit no Interpreter but themselves for the Spirit within them they say gave forth the Scripture and is above the Scripture and both they and the Papists have said that there would be no losse if they were gone out of the World for the Papists say their Traditions and their infallible Spirit would supply the loss and the Quakers say the Scriptures is within them in effect they say that all that they do and say is Scripture so far are both Papists Quakers from a Christian and Candid Profession of being tried by the Holy Scripture that they most Horribly and most Hypocritically trample it under their proud feet 166 4. These Romanists or Proud ones as the Hebrew signifies both Papists Quakers most insultingly lift up themselves against the Servants and Children of God all the world over that bow not down to their Images be a Soul never so humble and penitent never so holy and mortified believe the Scriptures c. and give his life for the truth of of them yet he is damned if he believes not the Pope to be the head of the Church and say not the Quakers the same of all that believe not in their pretended Lights your Repentance is nothing your Holiness nothing your Zeal Praying Preaching Fasting Suffrings nothing and they think they have reason to say so because you believe not in the true Christ and therefore you are in Cains Nature in the Satanical Delusion Reprobates c. so that all the blessed Souls under the Alter calling for vengeance against the shedders of their blood the Roman Emperour or since the Roman Popes they are all branded with a black cole of damned Souls and Reprobates by G. Fox because they professed preacht and died for a Christ without them though that Christ without them dwelt in their hearts Ephes. 3. by believing and for his sake they loved not their lives to the Death I told them that the Pope and they were one in the great point of the Infallibility they both pretended the Spirit of God as did the Apostles c. but I have proved their pretence is as true as that of Apollo's Worshippers by whose Priests the Devil gave Oracles Extripode from their threefold stool and that so subtilly and cunningly that whatever Oracle or Voice it was and whatever the event were yet the Devil would save his own Apollo should be the true God of Wisdome and Apollo's Priests true Prophets At last when Christ came Apollo being consulted and failing to give answer the Devil was forced to answer that there was an Hebrew Childe borne that stopt his mouth I am sure this Hebrew Childe the true Lord Jesus Christ hath often also stopt the mouthes in one sense of Pope Quakers for their Predictions have not come to pass though some which the Devil could guess at have and he will shortly stop their mouths forever It was truely said of that long eighteen years hatching Devilish Junto of Trent that the Holy Ghost that is the Popes Holy Ghost came every week from the Pope at Rome c. to his Legates at Trent in a Cloak-bag and do not G. Fox his Books 167 and all their writings declare for their corrivality and competition with the Pope for this their pretended Holy Ghost do they not upbraid all other Ministers and People for being out of the infallible Spirit Do they not say their Ministers and their Commissions are invisible because immediate and infallible do they not assigne this to be the cause of all the Sects and Divisions among the Protestants because they have not the infallible Spirit as the Quakers have Here as I remember Iohn Stubs stood up and alleadged that place in 1 Iohn 4. Hereby we know that we dwell in him because he hath given us of his Spirit And again you have the unction and know all things And W. Edmondson boastingly and proudly said that they had the same immediate and infallible Spirit which the Apostles had and that Iohn Peter were but their elder Brethren Unto which I answer Peter I know and Iohn I know but who are you For 1. They were Eye-Witnesses of the Lord Jesus his Life and Death and Resurrection 2. They were immediately endowed with fiery Tongues and fiery hands to preach in all Languages and to pen from Gods mouth his holy word and Pleasure and to work real Miracles not metaphorical ones only as G. Fox said at Providence the Quakers did that is open the eyes of the Blind by Conversion c. I added that it might please the infinite Wisdom of God to send higher Pretenders to Apostleship then the Quakers who should speak all Tongues doe Miracles But as Gods Servants had a Rule Isa. 8. the written Law and Testimony and were not to believe their Dreames though they came to pass Deut. 13. So have Gods Servants now viz. The Doctrine of Christ Iesus both concerning Faith and Order and to strive earnestly for the Faith once delivered The Pope like Baalam sayes he is the Mouth of God whome he blesseth they are blessed and whom he curseth c. therefore sendeth he his Curses like Thunderbolts yea among Kings Kingdomes in other Nations and our own as K. Henery 8th K. Edward 6th Queen Elizabeth experimented c. and is there any People bearing the name Christian so like the pope their Father as these whose Mouth saith David is full of Cursing and Bitterness like Floods out of the Dragons Mouth and fire-brands arrowes and Death crying out against the most Humble and Con 168 scientious Cain Saul Iudas Viper Serpent Reprobate Dragon Devil yea one of their Shee-Apostles Devil Devil Devil all at once to one that opposed her amongst us and such foul stinking exprefsions like the Quakers in London about the Dung of Mankinde that modesty especially the bashfulness and modesty of Women would have been far from A seventh is that great point of horrible Pride in both Pope Quakers exalting the Dung and Dirt of their own Qualifications Excellencies Graces Labours Fastings Satisfactions Believings Suffering as a price and satisfaction to Gods Justice
to be as Pighius and Echius amongst the Papists and as Bellarmine the greatest Writer amongst them I told my Opposites I would therefore Answer this Bellarmine and I would not say Bellarmine thou liest but I would by Holy Scripture shew G. Fox and his deluding Foxians how the old Fox the old Serpent was too crafty for them all and had brought them and their Followers to the brim of the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone First then I said let who will that understands true English and are able to read and write true English though he know no more take G. Fox his Folio Book in hand and tell me whether 183 through his whole Book he writes like an English-man And though he upbraids all his Opposites scornfully and ridiculously as poor Children that know not the Bible nor their Accidence in saying you to a singular c. whether in many scores of places in his Book he confounds not the singular and the Plural I confess when I urged this in publick my Opposites desired of me no proof of this out of Foxes Book and therefore remembering my quarter hour Glasse I fpared Quotations but now through Gods patience and my Readers my Tedder being longer I shall give one or two brief Proofs and Instances In page 282. in G. Fox his second Answer he saith You where you are sees him nor where it should be the Plural see him not if this Proud Bruit had known either his Accidence or the Bible In Page 300. he saith The Scriptures is able to make wise unto Salvation which should be are able c. In Page 16. The Churches was to hear for were to hear In Page 110. As thou doth which should be as thou dost And abundance more of this Boyes English all his Book over which I cannot impute to his Northern Dialect having been so long in the South and London and read and answered as he dreams so many English Books nor to the Printer the faults of that kinde being so numerous but to the finger of the most High and most Holy whose property it is and therefore delights to run thwart and cross the shins of proud and insulting Souls and Spirits 2. I observe throughout his Book a Devillish Black Line of despising those that are Good as the Scripture speaketh He counts none Godly but himself and his Foxians yea there is no God no Christ no Spirit but what is in him and them feelingly though they say he is in every man and woman in the world and Christ Iesus the Sun of Righteousness and the Holy Spirit and the Kingdome of God which they confess consists in Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirits and yet as they impiously and simply speaks these Inhabitants and Hosts to all these Guests know nothing of their lodging and dwelling within them G. Fox gives a shrewd suspition that he never knew what the true fear and love and peace and joy of God mean if he did is it possible that he could puff at so many Writers excellent for great Knowledge and godliness denying any thing of God or 184 Christ or Spirit or Grace to be in them some of them eminent servants of God I have known of others of them I have smelt the sweet Odour of an Heavenly report from the mouthes of others and in their Writings But as G. Fox will be found to adore an Image Crucifix for the true Lord Jesus so whatever he say of others will his Faith his Love his Spirit of Discerning and Hope of Glory and Salvation prove without Repentance dolefully false in the latter end For doth not this Proud Censor know that men may be true Saints in their persons and yet be subject to sudden Epileptical Falling Fits may not David walk with God with a perfect heart and yet in the matters of Bathsheba and Uriah and many other particulars fall down like a Jewel into the Dirt that Christ Jesus owns Peter and his Confession c. and yet in another case get thee behind me Sathan That Peter resolves to dye for Jesus and yet denies with Cursing and Swearing that he never knew him and after Christs Resurrection and Ascention even Peter plays the Hypocrite Dissembler Yea did not the high Fathers in Godliness famous Kings in Gods Church live long in the incivility of many Wives and the impiety of Worshipping in the High places c. to what purpose doth the Lord inspire his holy Pen-men to write these holy Histories was it to shame his Saints departed or to shame his own Holiness and to cast a stumbling block and a protection for after sinners and transgressors or amongst other holy ends to teach us like Moses to distinguish between an Egyptian whom he slew and the Israelites whom he chid for wronging each other since they were their Brethâ—en so that he is a poor Christian Goldsmith that knows not to discern the Gold of Holiness and the Copper of Hypocrisie yea and to give the best Gold in the World its due allowance with which it will pass currant in Earth and Heaven with God and such who truly know and love him But with G. Fox in all this great Book the most humble and able godly and conscientious are with him but Vipers Serpents Cains Iudasses false Prophets Pharisees dumb Dogs Sorcerers Witches Reprobates Devils c. 3. In this Book of G. Fox all along he denies the Scripture to be the Word of God and he said that every man in the world hath that Spirit that gave forth Scriptures and that all Saints are 185 acted by the same Spirit immediately that moved the Prophets and Apostles and holy Pen-men of the holy Scriptures all tending to vilifie and nullifie the Holy Scriptures Besides his Impiety in these Assertions which half an eye of Mahumetans Iewes Papists Protestants will see I note his Simplicity for a Fox though he be crafty is but a Beast still For out of his Piety he grants the holy Scriptures through all his Book to be the Words of God though not the Word of God and for this his Grant he quotes Exod. 20. God spake all these Words and the four Books of the Revelations which I nor my Opposites could tell in publick what to make of But if they are the Words of God and fome of them fearfully written by the inconceivable Finger of God once and twice then every particular word of these words must needs be the Word or Will or mind of God every grain of gold is gold and every drop in the Ocean is Water and Salt too as I urged to them before concerning every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God else the Words of God when brought to particular examination they are not the word of God but of Angels or Men or Devills How sweet are not Words but right Words every man shall kiss his lips that gives
a right Answer how dirty then how filthy and bloudy are those Lips that in so many places debating with so many wise and learned and pious men drop not Honey and Milk but Wormwood and Gall the Venome and the Poyson of Asps to them that lick up such deceitfull and destroying Doctrines 4. In G. Fox his Book I observe that all along he notoriously nibbles ar VVords and quarrels at VVords which he saith are not Scripture as that wicked word Humane relating to the Person of the Son of God and man Also the word Trinity and Sacrament Oh how zealous is this Fox for the purity of Language Why may not the word Humane be used as well as the word Sabboth and Sabbaoth and Bethlebem and Ierusalem which are Hebrew words and as well as the words Baptisme and Iesus Christ which are Greek words Scribes and Scriptures and Pretorium which are Latine words That word Humane is odious c. for Christ Iesus sake and therefore the more I love and honour it as expressing the appearance of God in Flesh in that personal Individual Flesh of Christ Iesus the 186 Mediator petween God and Man the Man Christ Iesus 5. I observe the loose and wild Spirit of G. Fox in dealing with so many heavenly Champions the Leaps and Skips like a wild Satyre or Indian catching and snapping at here and there a Sentence like Children skipping ore hard places and Chapters picking and culling out what is common and easie with them to be paid of and answered 6. Any sober Soul may read in most of their Books and in G. Fox his Book such Tautologies and needless Repetitions that may even Turn his Stomach and make him abhor to touch a Quakers Book more How many hundred times have you Christ is within you except you be Reprobates Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone c. and I presume neer a thousand times if not a full thousand times repeated That lightens every man that comes into the World that lightens every man that comes into the world c. G. Fox had many Bullets flying about his eares and therefore at every turn like a man fighting for his life he is forced to hold out a Pretence a Buckler a Breast-plate simply called Light and at every turn to cry Oh the Light the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World 7 Through all his Book like some great Commanders or Generals by Land or Sea yea like the Emperors or Dictators among the Romanes so doth this wild devouring Soul give forth his high and haughty Sentences this proud Bladder is big with Simon Magus his thoughts of being Some Body I shall preâ—ent one Instance Pag. 253. His Opposite Henry Haggar saith you call all men Dead and Carnall in the Serpents nature in what form soever they differ from you this proud Soul Answers All that be not in the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World which is the way to the Father differeth from us such be dead such be carnal in the nature for none comes to the life but who comes to the Light in what form soever they be and such as differ from us differ from Christ for none comes from under the Satanical nature but who comes to the Light what Iulian the Apostate what Duke D' Alva what Wolsey could have spoken more imperiously insultingly bloudily then this wild Fox hath done against all the true Servants Witnesses of the Most High that ever have been or shall be to the end of this world they differ from Fox therefore are Devils c. 187 8. I observe that G. Fox all along his Book powres forth a flood of Fire Brimstone against all his Oppsites and tells us that it is not Railing c. for his chief Adversary the holy Scripture gives Instance of Christ Jesus himself giving such Language and also it is no other then the Opposites to the Quakers give unto them but Godly and Sober Souls will consider 1. That Moses and the Prophets and Christ Iesus and his Apostles do not universally absolutely and promiscuously fling out Fire-brands and shoot Arrowes and Death into the Sides and Souls of all that differ from them as here G. Fox doth We may observe in the holy Scripture that generally they were high handed hypocritical and hardned Sinners against whome the holy Spirit thundred out such Titles threatnings and Judgments But Fox in this place makes no Distinction but as boldly as Blind Bayard saith all that differ from us c. 2. This is no rare business but Fox and his Foxians common Language and Barkings Thou Cain thou Serpent thou Devil Devil Devil Devil as one of their She-Apostles have said amongst us 3. It is G. Fox his bruitish and ridiculous Song in the close of his Answers and sometimes in the beginning without any Truth Humanity or Modesty to cry out saying And as for the rest of thy Lyes and Slanders they are not worth the mentioning when he hath pickt out a few Sentences or pieces of Sentences easie for himself to carpe at c. his conclusion and Burthen of his bruitish ridiculous Song is As for the rest of thy Lyes and Slanders instead of holy Scripture or solid Arguments with Answers to his Opposites Reasons and Replyes and Rejonders that an humble soul may see some footing to rest on 4. As we say in the death of the Martyrs or Witnesses of Iesus it is not the Suffering but the Cause Spirit Cariage is to be considered So in bitter Language it is not lawfull to call every Prince or King Fox as Christ called Herod nor every Opposite Viper Serpent Fool and Blind and whited painted Wall and Sepulchre c. They seemed to speak Reason to Christ upon his Cross Thou that savest others thou that destroyest the Temple c. come down now save thy self c. and yet Gods Spirit calls this Reviling and Railing at him 9. All may see what a simple Craking Sound of vapouring and 188 boasting runs through all this Foxes Book Doubtless Sysera and his Mideanites Goliah and his Philistines Rabshekah and his Assirians were types of these Children of Pride whose Vapours whose Prophesies so me notoriously false already proved whose promised Victoryes Spoils Threatnings lye like black foul Blots of ink or grease over all his Papers and the Papers of most of them far from that Closet Content and Sincerity of the true Saints who are content with the eye of God alone in secret 10. For a more full proof of the Lameness and Stark nakedness of their Writings I shall select and mention some Particulars out of this Grand Alcoran of G. Fox 1. His Opposites Words then his Answer And 3. My Replyes c. Page 1. He brings in Sam. Eaton saying He doth not believe that there is Substantial Essential or Personal Union between the Eternal Spirit and Believers
and Hope shortly to see them shall now this Glad news or Gospel though but a few raggs made Paper be stiled a Dead letter yea a Killing letter though it contain nothing as the Christian Gospel or Glad news doth not but glad news or Tidings 8. Hence it is that we read so often of Preaching the Gospel of Believing the Gospel and that as before Paul calls it his Glad news or Gospel because it was his work to tell it Yea but saith this Deceiver throughout his Book A man may have the Letter and Form without the Power and Life c. I Answer Who knows not that and that a Form picture is not the man himself who knows not that Iudas notwithstanding his pretended Love and Kissing of Christ Iesus that yet he had not the Life power of true Love and heavenly affection but doth it follow that living and moving Bodyes have not Souls Spirits within them because that pictures have not That none preach Christ Iesus truly because that G. Fox preacheth an immaginary and Allegorical Christ in order to establish himself the only true Christ and the Eternal Son of God as many bewitched Souls call him 9. What is this but to cheat poor Birds with the Chaff Falacy of dividing the Body from the Soul the Letter from the Meaning the Instrument or Tool from the Workman or Husbandman using it the Gospel or glad news from Believing of it Ah poor cheated Souls called Quakers all of you why do you willingly out of pretended Enlightnings Experiences shut your eye of common Sense and Reason not daring to call good news good news because some or the most will not Believe it was it not so with the women preaching or telling the good news or gospel although few or none were found to believe that Christ was risen 10. The truth is search your cheating Familiars narrowly you will find that your selves and the Papists would make an Holy Day of that Day in which all the Bibles in the world were burnt that you may establish your infallible spirits Traditions I know I wronge you not I have too much proof of it which you would se if the heart were not the arrantest Cheater in the World and your selves not willing to be cheated T is true Antiochus attempted the burning of Moses and the Prophets out of the world some of the bloudy Emperours followed on in Antiochus his bloudy Steps raging against the Scriptures also the Romane Popes in theirs and common reason may tell all men and the Quakers themselves 195 that if the same power come into their hands as Antiochus the Romane Emperours had the holy Scriptures shall not if they can effect it trouble them or others one day in the world longer But of this more in the next and last Position A 5th Instance is pag 10 where G. Fox brings in Iohn Bunian saying It is not Faith and works that justifie in the sight of God but it is Faith and good works which justifie in the sight of men only c. He answers Abraham was not justified to men only by his Obedience but to God and where is Faith there is Iustification which works by Love and the Saints Faith works were not only to justifie them in the sight of men for the Work of God is to doe what he saith his Will which who doth not are not justified in so doing but to be beaten with Stripes who seek to be justified by their Faith and Works in the sight of men are Dead Faith Works both I Reply In this great business of justification Pardon of Sin which Luther called the great Wall of Seperation between us and the Papists I humbly hope to shew how lame this Fox is and that he his Foxians agree with the Papists Arminians Socinians against the true Protestants in this fundamental business For what is Iustification but a Pardon written and sealed and declared from the King of Heaven to poor condemned Traitors That this Pardon may be merited by any Price that we or all the World can offer is denied by true Protestants but affirmed in effect by the proud unbroken Souls of Papists Arminians Socinians and these Foxians called Quakers It is true after a condemned Soul hath received a Pardon or Iustification from his King freely without Desert upon the Princes Mediation he declares his loyal and thankfull Obedience c. but is this his Pardon Iustification as our subtle Simpletons imagine Again that Abraham was pardoned or justified it is all one for his Work sake as this blind Soul â—aith how doth Rom. 3 4. and the Epistle to the Galathians cry out and the experience of every true broken Heart cry out Lyar against such proud and Popish Blasphemies Further If all the Righteousness of the best of men that is their good Thoughts good Words good Actions Aims Prayers Preachings Sufferings be but as Womens Menstruous filthy Clouts as the Most High calls them what Popish and frantick Madness is it in Fox to talk of Iustification before God by works or by Obedience A 6th Instance is Pag 16. where he brings in Henoch Howet saying It is an Expression of a dark deluded Mind to say that God is not distinguished from the Saints G. Fox Answ. But God and Christ is in 196 the Saints and walks in them and he is is a Reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine I reply to this Canting Gypsie in Pag. 74. He denyes the Position of Ralph Farmer viz. That God the Creator is eternally distinct from all Creatures and that Christ being God only in one Person remains a distinct person from all Men and Angels Also in the same Page that God is distinct in his Being and Blessedness from all Creatures I Answer is it not Sufficient that poor Dust and Ashes poor Chaff and Stubble may be admitted to a Parly with the Heavenly Majesty and receive Smiles of his Countenance in the Face of the only begotten Prince Mediator to be cloathed with the Virgins diverse Collours and heavenly Affections but with the Devil and our first Parents we must aspire to the throne of the Incomprehensible Majesty and Godhead also Besides Let mans Common Sence be Umpire is there no Distinction between Infinite and Finite between the Infinite Ocean of Majesty power goodness Wisdom c. and the poor Dross of which Men Angles are Partakers The King dwells in White-Hall and in other of his Royal Palaces is therefore no Distinction between the King and his Houses though some may be braver then others And yet Fox saith his Opposite is a Reprobate I ask why The only Reason Fox gives is because he licks not up the filthy and hellish poyson of Foxes childish and hellish Blasphemy against the Eternal Godhead A 7th Instance is Pag. 22. where he brings in Ioseph Kellet saying They be all alienated from God and
in this present world I told them that in our Native Countrey and in all civilized Countreys the civility Courteous Speech Courteous Salutation and respective Behaviour was generally practised opposite to the cariage of Barbarous Unciviliz'd People This I said was according to the command of the holy Spirit in Paul Eph 4. and in Peter 1. Pet 3. Be pitifull be Courteous c. Such a Spirit was Christ Jesus of even to his greatest Opposites and to the greatest Sinners insomuch that for his Courtesie Gentleness Sociableness with open Sinners the dogged proud and sullen Pharises counted him a Drunkard and Glutton a friend and Companion of Publicans and sinners We English were our selves at first wild and savage Britains Gods mercy had civilized us and we were now come into a wild and savage Countrey without Manners without Courtesie so that generally except you begin with a What Chear or some other Salutation you had as good meet an Horse or a Cow c. And hath not the Quaker â—pirit been such a Spirit amongst us have we not known persons formerly loving courteous c. and as soon as this Spirit hath come upon them have not our eyes seen them pass by their Familiars their Kindred 202 their Elders and Superiours and though kindly spoken to not give a Word or a Look toward them as if they were not worthy of a word or a look from such High Saints c. How like indeed have they been to the Popish Saints in a Procession they See not Hear not Speak not c. or like these very Barbarians and therefore I said 2. G. Fox in his book affirms that the Conversation of these very Barbarians in many things were better then his Opposites c. I mused in my self being much acquainted with the Natives what G. Fox should mean he not having been in N. England when he wrote that passage but since I have heard that the Quakers have commended the spirit of the Indians for they have seen them come into English Houses and sit down by the fire not speaking a word to any body But this cariage of the Indians proceeds from a bruitish spirit for generally they have boldly come in without Knocking or asking of leave and sit down without any respect in word or gesture to the Governour or chief of the Family whosoever just the Quakers general fashion and Spirit Further I told them that in some respect the spirit and cariage of the Quakers was worse then that of the Indians for if they were sd by the English in the high-way or coming into an House they are very ready to receive your Salutation kindly and return you another But commonly we know that it is not so with the Quakers bruitish spirit 2. The Indians morning and evening and upon all meetings they give a respective and proper Salutation to their own Superiours and sometimes in gesture as well as speech 3. Although the Indians are bruits in their Nakedness both men and women yet they never appear no not in private houses stark naked as the Quaker men and women doe yea they so abhor such a bruitishness except it be in their mad Drunkenness for then they will be stark naked that as to their Female kind they will carefully from their birth keep on some modest covering before them W. E. rose up and said they did abhor Uncleaness as well as our selves or any their women were sober holy and Modest and would not endure some of them to have a Toe to be seen naked but he said if the Lord God did stir up any of his Daughters to be a Sign of the nakedness of others he believed it to be a great Cross to a Modest womans Spirit but the Lord must be obeyed Iohn Stubs immediately seconded him and quoted again the Command to Isaiah Chap. 20. to go naked he added whereas I said at Newport that it was in the time of Signs Types Figures c. He would now prove that all Signs were not abolished by the coming of Christ for Agabus Act. 20. took Pauls 203 girdle and bound himself I replyed that was indeed one of my Replyes at Newport and I was yet far from binding the sweet Influences of the holy One by Dreams Visions immediate Impulses Revelations Signs c. but withall I said that before the coming of the Lord Iesus and at his coming was the time and season of such Appearances from God now he hath fully declared his mind to us by the Personal and most wonderfull coming of his Son out of his Bosome who had commanded his Pen-men to write his Birth his Life his Life his Doctrine his Miracles his Death Resurrection Asscension and promise of Return to us he had also preserved these holy Writings Records most wonderfully that Ioh 20 We might believe in him follow him and live with him But 2. I said what did this concern the monstrous stripping their women naked of which we never heard a tittle either at coming of the Lord Jesus or in those proper seasons of such Administrations before his Appearance Iohn Stubs said he had been a Quaker 19 years and yet had never seen a woman Naked and some of the Quakers said to me aloud when didst thou see any of our women Naked and another of them said We did not think that thou wouldest have been such a wicked man These two though of the Quakers spirit yet of long time had been Loving and respecttive to me but now they were enraged so that I said unto my Antagonists seeing some Heat is risen about these matters I will if you please go on to the second Branch of this 14th Position I told them the 2d Branch was That the Spirit of the Quakers tendeth to bring in an Arbetrary Government I said we all knew how it had cost the blood of thousands ten Thousands this matter of Goverment Lawes that the Most High only Wise choosing one People and Nation of Israel to be his own he wrote them Laws some with his own inconceivable finger written and some by Moses his inspired Pen-man it pleased him not to leave their Wisest and Holyest Kings Governours without written known Lawes with Rewards and Penaltyes annexed But I argued if that were true that all the Quakers were guided in all they said and did by the immediate Spirit of God as I proved Fox maintained then if they obtain higher or lower Governours of their Spirits Surely it shines cleer that there is no need of Laws for them to rule act by for they had no need of Scripture and seing the Immediate Inspirations of God would not suffer them to erre in Judgment for as they said of the holy Scripture they had no need of it for they had the holy Scripture within them their Teacher within them and all that they spake was Scripture and the voice of God c. So
Soul Summond to Death and Judgement looks to Relations c. they all Answer they are in the same Case c. It looks to Wordly Estate c they tell us they will go with us as far as the Grave and provide a Coffin and a Sheet and a Burial c. 3. The old friend is Conscience who will go with us but can be a thousand witnesses against us c. It follows then clearly that the young Prince is the true Lord Iesus Christ not vanished away into a Light in every dark dungeon in the World but Conscience saith he is litterally ascended up into Heaven and will as literally make his speedy Return again to Iudgement The third Instance G. Fox pag. 12. brings in the same Author saying the Light doth not shine in the Consciences of them that be lost The Answer But Iohn saith he Light shines in darkness but the darkness cannot comprehend it and there is that of God in the Children of Disobedience and Reprobates as in Rom. 1. and 2. Chapters I Reply G. Fox is here in his Burrough and takes not the word Light in the same Sense his Opposite doth the Common trick of Cheators His Opposite takes it not for the heavenly Lights Sun Moon nor Earthly Light of Fire Candles precious Stones nor the Metaphorical Light of mens minds differing them from Beasts Birds Fishes Nor the Light of peace joy and Prosperity call'd in Scripture Light c. Nor the Light and Evidence of witness or Reason in Cases depending Nor the Light of the holy Scriptures and the preaching and offering of a 5 Saviour to poor lost Sinners But for that awakening saving Light convincing all mens Condition to be miserable and damnable of Grace and mercy offered and applied to a Soul by the good News of a Saviour someway heard of and the holy Spirit the finger or power of God G. Fox saith this saving Light is in mankind only persons don't mind it and so Christ Iesus is Crucified and slain in them and God and Christ and Spirit and Light c. are all captived hindred from working yea altogether killed slain in them because a Soul doth not mind them and hearken to Christ in them Ah poor simple bruitish Imagination that ever it should enter into the thoughts of Men professing to be Christians c. or of men professing to know more than the Wolves and Foxes in the wilderness I have spoke to this before therefore a word only to G. Fox his proof Rom. 1. and 2. Chapt. From these two Chapters he proves that there is that of God in the Children of Disobedience and Reprobates who denies it For there is something of God that is from the power and wisdome of God in the Fallen Spirits the Devils themselves But I know by that of God G. Fox means God himself prest down as a Cart with sheaves the holy Seed Christ Iesus under the Clods the holy Spirit in prison for the Soul is a part of the Essence or Being of God himself But that there is here a word or title of Colour to any of this dirt and filth flung in the face of the Majestie of Heaven This Scripture speaks of the work or working of the Law written in their hearts but what is this to a second writing of the holy Scriptures or writing inspired into the heart by the most holy Spirit yea what is this to a third writing of their Names written in Heaven in the Lambs Book of Life yea what is this to fourth writing the writing of the new Covenant Consisting of Sin and a new heart a heart of flesh in which his Law is written as formerly in Tables of Stone and yet we poor men of Iabesh Gilead must leave the Testimony as Gilead imports and suffer Nahush the Serpent to put out our right eyes and believe that every man hath the new Covenant Christ Iesus and the Kingdom of God c. with the Pharisees in every mans heart and yet he never knows of it 4. Instance In the same pag. 12 he brings in the same Author saying It is a Counterfeiting of the new Birth for men to 6 follow the Light wherewith men coming into the world are inlightned G. Fox Answ. which none comes to the new Birth but who come to the Light which every man c. in which believing is a Child of the Light c. I Reply G. Fox runs round agian and again like the windmil Sails It is saith he no Counterfeiting of a new Birth why because it is no Counterfeiting none comes to the new Birth but who comes to the Light c. As to the words in Iohn 1. Hitchcock at Newport alleadged that it was not in his Bible enlightneeth every man but lighteth every man c. John Stubs lockt in his greek Testament and confest it was Photizes which is not inlightneth but Lighteth 2. As to the Light We know there are two Opinions how Christ lighteth every man c. First as God in the Creation 2. As God man and Mediatour and that the Greeks word Erchomenon doth not relate to the word anthropon the man or every man that cometh into the world but phoce Light and that it must be read in this Sense viz that Christ Iesus the true Light cometh into the world lighteth every man that is in the world freely that will receive him Even as many whomsoever look up to him as Iohn 3. the stung Israelites to the brazen Serpent and that Christ Iesus is the Light of the world John 8. and 12. to as many as receive him according to 1 Iohn 12. and that the meer phrase imports no more then a Light held forth to all in the world as the Sun in the Heavens and Christs Followers Math. 5. are called by Christ Iesus the Light of the World Thus the word all and every man as I hinted before is used not absolutely but Comparatively and is figuratively taken in many places and four time in that one ver 1 Col. 28. viz. warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that we may present every man perfect in Christ Iesus which literally cannot be true Now G. Fox runs into his Burrough of the many significations of the word Light and the word all and the word inlightneth willingly ignorant that Christ Iesus as Mediator of the new Covenant inlightens none but those whom his Father gives him unto whom he gives Repentance to whom he opens the door of Faith and gives them to believe and suffer c. So that G. Fox Confounds the Elect and the World together and brings in a Counterfeit new Birth a Counterfeit Christ and at last a Counterfeit Salvation 7 5. Instance G. Fox pag. 20. brings in Henock Howet saying It is a fancy to say the Covenant of God is to all men in the world and the grace of God hath appeared to all men c. He Answ.
that the Protestants may do the Papists work and save labour and Charges and so the Pope and his bloudy Whore of Rome may march away securely by the Light of the Protestants fires So deals the Devil the old Serpent with Christ Jesus and the holy Scripture or Records which are but One in a Sense as the Sun and the Sun-dial His end is to tear down the Sun dial the Scriptures under pretence that the Sun is within them and they need no Dials and Clocks no visible thing that are temporal c. and so to destroy the person and Commands of the Lord Jesus as visible and sleshly pretending all to be Light and Spirit 2. The words in the Hebrew Aamar and Dabar as also the Greek Logos and Rema signifie a word and divers other matters as I told my Antagonists in the dispute 1. In both these Languages and divers other Languages it signifies the will and pleasure of the Mind given forth by Command or Decres or Proclamation made by word or writing from Kings and States and Commanders of Armies Navies c. 2. In a Metaphor or Figure it is attributed to God though he have no word properly having no mouth no Tongue no Braine c. but as Nurses he deals with us poor Infants and sucklings c. 3. It is another Metaphor or Figure to say God is the word for God is no more a word then he is a Man or a Spirit or a Sun or Shield or a House or a Fountain or a Shepard litterally c. For as a word or Expression proceeds from the mind thoughts within so are the Thoughts and mind of God declared many wayes but chiefly by that man Christ Jesus called the Word 3. The Inconceivable Godhead being pleased to vouch-safe in Infinite Goodness some back parts and glimpses of his Infinite glori 81 rious Majesty in the Framing of this world and in the restoring of this world by making a Marriage between his Son and mankind all his words and Expressions tend mightily to advance this marriage and great manifestation or Word of God 4. I was once asked by a poor Foxian whether God had any more words but one I Answered and do now that God hath a great many words or Expressions of his mind and Counsels unto Men and Angels and so G. Fox and all the Foxians Confess the Scriptures to be the Words of God and therein Confess that all and every word of Scripture is a word of God The Truth is when God gives forth a word or Command by Angels by Men and by other of his Armies wherein his Infinite Power and Providence daily appeareth his word runneth very swiftly as we see when the word is given in a Kingdome Navy or Army as in Ahashueros his one hundred and twenty seven Provinces c. He sends out his word that is his mind or pleasure and melteth them Psal. 147. 5. So that I Affirm that the two great Lights of Heaven the Sun and Moon and all the lesser Lights the Stars are Words and Preachings and preachers of God to us Every wind and Cloud and drop of Rain and Hail every Flake of Snow every Leaf every Grass every drop of water in the Ocean and Rivers yea every Grain of Corn and Sand on the Shore is a Voice or word and witness of God unto us 6. Hence as in that Admirable 107 Psalm c. Every Turn of the holy hand of God in Ruling and Over-ruling all things in the world upon the two great Hinges of Mercy and Iudgement Psal 110. are but so many Voices or words of God God speaks once and twice Job 33. but man hears it not in Visions in Dreams in Health and Sickness in Ease and pain in wants in plenty in dangers and Deliverances Crosses Losses c. 7. That the Hebrew is most full viz. that God spake by his Prophets or Preachers or declarers of his will divers wayes and divers times but now he hath spoken by his Son From the beginning of the world Luke 1. he hath spoken of the coming of this Son by the mouths of all his Prophets even from the beginning of the World Therefore though God have many Sons yet Christ Jesus that man Christ Jesus among the many millions of 82 Sons is stiled the only Begotten Son of God the Head of all the Elect purchased to God out of every Nation by his Blood c. so by the same excellency and eminency above all the manifestations and appearances of God to the World no word or appearances of God is comparable to that appearance of God in Christ Jesus and therefore called the Word of God as the greatest appearance of the eternal Power and Godhead 8. Hence it follows that these poor Foxians are so much the more shameless and monstrous not only in robbing the Scriptures of their most Heavenly and common Title of the Word of God common to all Gods appearances but also in turning this Word of God Christ Jesus into a Spirit without any body but what is gone for ever from us and by their parting him his God-head from his Man-hood into a Fancie a Dream a meer Whimsie and Devellish Imagination 9 When we deal with Indians about Religion our work is to prove unto them by Reason that the Bible is Gods Word for by Nature they are much affected with a kind of Deity to be in Writing That all their Revelations and Visions and Dreams in which the Devil wonderfully abuseth them are False and Cheating That this Scripture or Writing we pretend to is from God by their own experience because it agrees with their own Consciences reproving them for those sins their Souls say they are guilty of That the terrible Majesty of Gods Justice in punishing Sinners so shines in it and also his infinite goodness and mercy in finding out such a way of Mediation and such a Mediator that their Souls cannot but adore Infinite Justice and Mercy in it That the Holy power of God so appears in it in working upon the Souls of Millions turning them from Dogs and Swine and Wolves and Lions and Sheep and Lambs and Doves c. in Love Meekness Patience c. That it could be none but an Omnipotent Arm that hath preserved the Holy Scripture so many thousand years some part of it through so many wonderful changes through so many Bloody Huntings of Kings Emperours Popes and this more subtile Hunting of these Foxians to run it out of this World and by seeming to embrace it to destroy and kill it 83 The 41. Instance is in Page 228. Where G. Fox brings in Thomas Weld saying There lies a Mystery of Iniquity for to say the World calls them so by such and such Names or gives them their Christian Name He Answers There are Names given by the Heathen the Heathen outward which men are called There is a new Name which the
I said much more 204 might it be said of Mens Laws Writings that surely they had no need of them for what could be more just and equal more pure holy in all Cases Controversies Businesses then the immediate Voice of God W. E. said what dost thou fill peoples ears with strange Notions as if the People of God called Quakers were a lawless people and would bring all Government and all Laws to nothing We are for righteous Goverment and righteous Lawes we are not for any to rule by Force and more he spake to this purprse I Replyed that he mistook me by an Arbetrary Goverment I did not intend a Goverment ruling by Force for there could be no Goverment in the world without the Sword but Arbitrary I said came from Arbitrium which signified Will or pleasure and so my Argument was that Persons immediately speaking from God it was impertinent and profane to clog and cumber them with Lawes for the Voice of God the Law of all Laws proceeded out of their mouth then which there could be none more Just more Wise more Holy Here stood up an Aged man and as able as most in the company T. A. though much of late adhering to the Quakers and said Methinks there is Weight in Mr. VVilliams his Argument He being a noted man and his voice very audible and so heard by all VV. E. was forced to take notice of his speech and said wherein is there any weight in it T. A. Answered why if a Magistrate be immediately inspired by God and speaks Gods Laws Sentence sure there seems to be no need of any other Laws They saw they were in a Pound and I perceived it and yet not being willing to grate upon them but watching my time as I was glad all along to pass handsomly from one Point unto another I said unto them if they pleased I would pass on to the Third Branch viz. That the Quakers Spirit tending to the sudden cutting off of People yea Kings and Princes that oppose them I here told them that I must crave their patience whiles I must profess my fears least that Spirit by which they were guided might run them upon their own and others temporal Destruction I told them I thought they had no such thing in their Thoughts or Eye at present but if power of the Sword come into their hand it was easie to imagine that whom their Spirit infallible decreed to death Peasant or Prince if it were possible he must be executed c. W. Edm. said Thou here makest a false and lying charge against the People of God who are peaceable and quiet and yielding to Magistrates c. I Replied I charge them with no matter of Facts but I charge them and their Spirit with a tendency c. For why 205 might they not say that Abraham with an impulse was killing Isaak Moses the Egyptian Ehud killing Eglon the King of Moab Samuel hewing Agag the King of Amelech in pieces and Paul Ananias and Saphira c. and why not Sathan stir up his Instruments to pretend the like Spirit as we know he hath done both in former latter days My Antagonists joyntly bid me shew when any of the Quakers had done so I Answ. They spake not to the point c. for I did not charge them to have done so but that their Spirit tended to it I was saying that Faubord at Grindleton was killlng his Son in imitation of Abraham if his Sons crying out and the breaking open of the House had not prevented and that Iames Parnel moved by this Spirit to Fast forty dayes c. perished the eleventh day c. but perceiving more than ordinary heats and that W. Edm. charged me that I had a false heart of mine own and would measure others by my bushel I told them of the wonderful actings of Tho. Munster and I. Becold and Fifer Knipperdoling c. in Germany and of their Pretences Murthers Poligamies and all by the Spirit c. I told them that our Royal Sovereign his Grandfather Henry 4th of France that famous and wonderful Man he was stab'd to death by a Frier pretending a Vision of Angels on Christmas night who commanded him from God to dispatch and kill the King which he most desperately effected W. Edm. interrupted me and spake to this effect why should we suffer this man thus to wrong the innocent people of God we will measure him with his own Bushel For thy Book declares thy approving of the killing of the Kings Father and said where is the Book At which word W. Harris a Fire-brand of Town and Colony Country rose up and carried a Book which they said was mine to W. Edmundson I perceived that W. Edm. W. H. who was for any Religion and a malicious mortal enemy to all good had been a plotting and I said openly I knew what malicious bloody counsel had been between W. Har. and themselves but they would finde themselves befooled for there was nothing in the matter but ridiculous malice for all of us knew that W. H. loved the Quakers whom now he fawn'd upon no more then he did the Baptists whom he till now fawn'd on but would love any as a Dog for his Bone for Land which he had a long Suit for as was known to all the Country and their cost Hereupon Capt. Green of Warwick Magistrate desired that such matters might be forborn and others spake to the same purpose and I Stubs and others are said to speak to W. Edm. to forbear so that the Book was laid aside and delivered again to that 206 malicious bloody Soul W. Harris I challenged them again and again to read and improve what possibly they could which I knew was no more then fome words applauding the Parliaments Iustice and Mercy which these Bloody Sophisters would like Wolves Foxes construe as my approving the Kings Death which God knows I never approved to this day Upon this Occasion I may now inform the Reader how easily the malicious Spirit of W. Edm. W. Har. met in one formerly no man amongst us had spoken more scornfully of the Quakers then W Harris now he extreamly privately and publickly fawns upon them seeing them my Enemies who had ever been his Friend and never his Enemy but in his outragious practises against Town Colony Country He was a Pretender in Old England but in New my experience hath told me that he can be one with the Quakers yea Iesuits or Mahumetans for his own worldly ends and advantage He is long known to have put Scorns Ieers upon the eminent Inhabitants of Town and Country He hath been notorious for quarrelling and challenging and fighting even when he pretended with the Quakers against Carnal Weapons so that there stands upon Record in the town-Town-book of Providence an Act of Disfranchisement upon him for fighting and shedding Blood in the street