Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
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A37216
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A testimony against hypocrites and deceivers in defense of the truth
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David, John.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing D375; ESTC R8994
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13,317
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15
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one to himself saying Lord is it I They went not about to clear the Matter but believed it was true and immediately made a thorow search until the thing was brought forth openly and afterwards they sought not to cover the Transgressor but declared the Truth and left it upon Record to be read by Ages to come Neither did they seek to hide the shameful sin of Peter in cursing and swearing that he knew not the Lord neither did Paul seek to cover the hypocrisie of Peter when he found cause of reproof nor did he admonish others to let it fall but published these things and they are upon Record and the Prophet did not seek to hide the shameful Adultery of David the King one of the most eminent Kings in many respects that ever appeared in the World Jesus Christ excepted And although the King made no more ado but confest his sin and although the Prophet upon the next words said Thy Sin is taken away yet notwithstanding all this there is no covering or hiding but it must be recorded and King David did not bid the Prophet let it fall left bad Spirits should know of it as you do and herein you are found out of the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles But some Objections may be put 1. We only declare against the envy and malice of the Author and not against his Person 2. We charge him to be a Liar and a false Accuser and our Charge stands good and firm because he dare not appear and stand by his Testimony And 3. we declare against his treachery and combination with our professed Enemies and furnishing those Enemies of Truth with such slanderous lying accusations against us and hiding himself not daring to shew his face Answer 1. His malice and envy could do you no hurt for it is worse to be the bearer of malice and envy than to them that it is born against and therefore it had better become you to have soberly cleared your selves from the things charged than to bear such Testimonies against Malice and Envy which is an inward Principle 2. Seing that in your Answer you justifie most part of the substance of his Charge he is not to be judged a Liar and a false Accuser although that his Name is not at his Charge and moreover in his Letter it doth not appear that his Intention was to have it published and therefore it savours more of Malice and Envy in you for it breaks forth and issues out of your Bottles against them which you call Hat-men without any distinction but he makes a clear distinction between what he declareth against and what he is for and hath not jumbled all Good and Bad together but in plainness of speech declares what it is that he disowns and declares against amongst you and you your selves confess most part of the matter of Fact only you seek to darken Counsel and would have People believe that your meanings are otherwise and herein the Lye and the false Accusation stands upon you for as I said you accuse all the Hat-men as you call them so that if his Charge had been altogether false I dare say there are hundreds of those which you call Hat-men that are innocent and do not know of those deboist filthy Actions which you slubberly seek to hide and cover 3. You in that Book also charge all Hat-men as you term us to be malicious vagabond Apostates and this upon the account of one private Letter written by one which you your selves if there is any truth in your Declarations know not who he is which Letter was published by one that knew not the Author as is related in the Preface to the Reader and in this you appear more like unto Haman than the Hat-men unto Judas As it was too small a recompence in the sight of Haman to have Mordecai himself punished but he would have all the People of the Jews destroyed and the cause was no other but that Mordecai sitting in the Gate would not bow to Haman and there is no other cause of all your Sentences of Condemnation against the Hat-men as you call us but because we sit as you say upon our Briches when you pray to your God and not put off our Hats Another Objection Dost not thou pervert our Declarations concerning the Hat which was only the putting it off to Magistrates we declared against and not the putting it off to God in time of prayer Answer Richard Hubberthorn in his Testimony of the Zeal of Oxford declares these words Doffing the Hat worse than a Heathenish Vanity And Oxford is a place where Men send their Children to learn the Languages for to be fitted as they say to become Preachers of the Gospel and a place that the Ministers of the Church of England call The Fountain of Learning and will any Man judg that this Testimony was a particular Testimony only against the Magistrates and not a general Testimony against the practice of Zealots of those Times which held it to be a decent and orderly practice as you do and more especially in regard that there is no exception made throughout all his Book for the reservation of that practice and for the Observation of the time as you would have it to be And herein Naaman the Syrian had a more clearer defence for his bowing in the House of Rimmon because that he reserved that when he declared that he would worship no other God but the God of Israel only when his Master went to worship at the House of Rimmon and leaned upon his shoulders and when he boweth with his Master at the House of Rimmon the Prophet must forgive him But after you have declared against a practice in general terms without any exceptions or reservations you bring in your exceptions after twenty years standing and herein is your daubing with untempered Morâ—er and your confusion appearing far beyond that Man which was one of the Gentiles As for the Author he is as yet hidden as he declares and needeth no Man to take part with him until the Lord be pleased to bring him to be seen and as for his Declaration what you have denied in your first Answer you have confessed much of it in your Rejoinder and have gone about to justifie the matter of Fact therein and turned the other side outwards saying to the Hat-men You have been waiting many years with an evil Eye for our Failings and make Musick of it carrying it unto the wicked Professors but we could make a Book of your Failings And herein it is manifest that the Lord is not pleased with the hiding of Wickedness and Transgression for though Noah was the only Man that found favour in the sight of God in the Old World yet his Failings must not be covered and hidden and though Cain was one of his Sons yet he must pronounce a Curse against him and herein you shew your selves and your Declarations to be contrary to the Declarations of the Holy Men of God of old who allowed of no Transgression to be hid and covered but would bring all things to the Light that the Transgressors might not go free But you with your Elders and Ministers have covered your Failings as long as you could and when the Lord caused it in a special manner to be brought forth you were like mad Men at your weak Brethren who from time to time were grieved in their minds to see how you were fallen and did use all lawful means upon all opportunities to seek a reformation And for your saying you can make a Book of the Hat-mens Failings Why have you not made it Seeing the Hat-men did not bow to your Image you ought to have declared the Truth and bring the Transgression to the Light for I profess I never owned your written Orders but upon all occasions declared against them and the backwardness of the Hat-men in not declaring your Failings to the World for many years since doth not shew that they were too forward in discovering your nakedness but on the contrary if there be any Error it is on the other hand in being too backward in declaring the Truth until such time as the Lord brought it forth in a wonderful manner by those that have no communion with the Hat-men as you have declared in Judas and the Jews p. 126. Neither will the Hat-mens Failings serve you for a covering now after such Declarations are published and such plain confession of such gross Errors found among you which Confession is the most true Evidence as may be had against any People in the World for there is no further inquiry to be made when the Party charged confesseth the Fact charged And you say Behold the Hat-men I say the same Let all sober-minded People behold and have regard and bring all things to the Light there to be judged and tried and as for you I challenge you in the fear of the Lord to enlarge your Books as big as you can and let the Hat-mens Failings be no more hidden nor covered but bring all things to the Light And if there be any other Objections to be made against this Testimony take no more pity but let the Wound be thorowly searcht that all corruption may be purged that if possible by that means the Sore may be cured and if there be any incurable Member that that may be cut off And for taking the Authors part I do declare and testifie that I do not know the Man but knowing that a great part of the things declared in his Letter is true and finding that you in your Answer and Rejoinder have brought other things to the Light against your selves which things I knew not before seeing you so unreasonable in maintaining
A Testimony against Hypocrites and Deceivers in defence of the Truth OF all the Hypocrites and Deceivers I have seen or read of from the beginning of the World to this present time you who term your selves the Ministers and set up your selves as Elders and claim Authority over your Brethren whom you call a Visible Body Church and Society and are called QVAKERS are the most shameless brazen-fac'd and stoutest Instruments of your Master and have out strip'd all the rest of your Fore-fathers as may be seen read heard and understood in two several Books of yours the one Intituled the Spirit of Alexander the Coppersmith the other Intituled Judas and the Jews c. Coin the first born of the first Man Adam slew his Brother but he stood not in a long dispute when charged for it though he at first Motion said Am I my Brothers keeper yet presently he fell in his Argument and made no large Reply in defence of his Treachery The Sons of Jacob sold Joseph their Brother but they did not stand to the Justification of the Fact but sought to cover it as long as they could but when they came into distress they confessed and said That misery came upon them because they pitied not their innocent Brother's cry The Centurion and those that were with him watching when they saw the Wonders the great Earth quake that the Vail of the Temple was rent c. at the giving up of the Ghost feared greatly saying Truly this was the Son of God Judas the Traytor did not stand for the justification of his wicked Act when he saw how he had betraied the Innocent but said I have sinned c. The persecuting Priests of late years here in England who stoned whipped imprisoned haled out of the Synagogues the poor Quakers at their first appearance would seek to make some coverings for to hide their wicked Persecutions and would not with such confused boldness stand in open justification of lying Testimonies after it should be openly published in their faces as you in your said Books have done And for proving of this Truth let him that runneth read First you say You are standered greatly because it is said of you that you deny Liberty of Conscience and you appeal to God's Holy Witness in all Consciences for your proof I Answer Let all People that do in any measure own a Witness in their Consciences consider first what you your selves confess you never liked the word Liberty of Conscience and you seek to cover your selves under pretence that you did not mean it of outward but of inward liberty Again I Answer You say you liked not the word as commonly used Alex. the Coppersm p. 8. Is not the word Liberty of Conscience most commonly used by Men in requiring a liberty to exercise themselves in Matters of Religion and Worship according as the Spirit of the Lord makes manifest within in the Conscience And hath not this Request been from time to time in all Ages made by Professors of Religion unto Magistrates and Rulers desiring their Liberty Was not this the Request of Moses and Aaron when they were sent of the Lord to appear before Pharaoh King of Egypt And did they not say then unto Pharaoh that the Lord had sent them to require a Liberty for the People to go three days journey into the Wilderness to worship their God and was not this Request for a Liberty to an outward exercise of God's Worship Nay did not Moses and Aaron say when Pharaoh said they should go but leave something behind them that they must bring all with them because say they we must hold a Feast unto the Lord And is it not then about the outward exercise of God's Worship that was the Message of Moses and Aaron unto Pharaoh for Liberty Yet notwithstanding you reply and rejoin over and over seeking to uphold yourselves in this great Confusion and whereas you appeal unto God's holy Witness in all Consciences if ever you so used any Conscientious Enquirers as to thrust them out of your Meetings pag. 11. And you say It is baseness to suggest your ill-using of People in general and none named And thus when the Truth in plainness of Speech is laid open against you that you cannot in any measure deny but that the very words testifie in plain terms against your practice yet with boldness you would make People believe putting meanings contrary to the sound of your own words which your Fore-fathers the Professors that went before you would not adventure so far though they would put meanings to the Scriptures which was other Mens words yet would not they be so brazen-fac'd as to belie their own Expressions by putting contrary meanings thereunto Secondly You say you are not fallen from the first Principle of Doctrine first preached by the People called Quakers though you uphold maintain preach declare and publish in print That putting off the Hat in Prayer is an innocent and a reverent practice and comely order And though you have also declared and published in print that you have your time for Publick Prayer and that you have purchased parcels of the Earth on purpose to lay your dead Bodies together from the People of distinct ways Now let all that will not be wilfully blind consider how far this Doctrine will concur and agree with the first Principle of the Quakers Doctrine and Declarations both in words and writings when they came first forth and went into the Professors Meetings and declared against all their outward Forms and Observations against all their Hour-glasses and Watches limiting themselves unto times for to pray or preach yea they stood with their Hats on in the times of the then Professors Prayers saying That God must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth that is before Time was and will continue the same when Time vanisheth away and be no more And when the Professors withstood them saying the Apostle said Every Man praying or prophesying with his Head covered dishonoureth his Head They answered That Christ was Head within them and that Christ was the same Son of God in Male and in Female and where-ever the Son appeared to speak whether in Male or in Female he discovered himself unto all that would receive and obey him And the Quakers Doctrine then was for the rising of the Witness in every Conscience and that all should cease from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils and turn the mind to within and there to wait for Teachings and that none should look out for Teachings but wait in silence and be faithful to the measure be it ever so little it is sufficient It is the whorish Woman whose Eyes gad abroad whose Feet abide not in her own House and she that swept her House found the lost Groat in her own House And the Wise Virgins had Oil in their own Lamps the Foolish Virgins were shut out whilst they went abroad for Oil The Eye that looks out unto others