born of the Flesh is Flesh and that is against the Spirit and can neither edifie nor comfort though good Words and Scripture sentences may be spoken for it is not speaking the Words of others that doth make a true Prayer but in receiving a measure of the same Spirit of Prayer which is not in thy Common Prayer Book to be found therefore it is made of none effect because thy bowels bring it forth and the Pope gives Life and Breath unto it and from his Loyns it draws its Strength and not from the power of God Tradition what can I say to be received for truth my Ceremonies c. are denyed but there can be nothing said against my Bishops and Ministers the Scriptures speak so plainly of them c. Truth now Tradition harken what Truth saith and give thine Answer to what is demanded of thee Who made thy Archbishops and Lord Bishops and who gave them these Names And who first divided unto them their several Diocesses and appointed them to Rule within their own Diocess And who first made Deans and Prebends Doctors Vicars and Curates and who gave them their Names And who first set up certain Places for Schools And who gave them the Names of Universities And how came they to be call'd Christ's Colledge and Emanuel's Colledge John's Colledge and Jesus's Colledge And who set up Commencements and Degrees that a Man must be made Batchelor of Art and Master of Art before he can be approv'd to be made a Minister in thy Order And who first made that Law which forces and compels the payment of the Tenth part of things encreased to such a Ministry and whether are such the Ministers of Christ who make use of that Law to force their maintenance Are these thy Bishops and Ministers which thou say'st there can be nothing said against them Open thine Eye and behold them for they are Monsters which from thy adulterous Conception are brought forth and they are stamped with thy Image and all thy abominations are denyed and testified against this is a Charge against thee Tradition this thing which make such discoveries of my Practices and with such boldness reproves me for them it is of God for it is not in fear of me nor my power which now is Strong and of great Authority Truth that which doth discover thee and thy deceitful Practices is the Truth i. e. Quakers of God which was before thou had'st a Name and will be when thy Name is lost and it doth boldly reprove thee and is without any fear of thee or thy power and hath opened thee and ript up thy Bowels and discovered thy adulterous Womb and all the false Conceptions that hath been conceived their and now behold ye Archbishops Lord Bishops Deans Prebends Doctors Vicars and Curates and all Prelaticals here is the Womb of your Conception opened and that made manifest from which you draw your breath and prolong the length of your days with all your Service and Worship which you so much esteem and promote Therefore hear and consider ye Bishops Deans Prebends Doctors Vicars and Curates with all Prelaticals you must come to the Bar and if you will but soberly peruse this Catechism or Dialogue you may know and learn that which all your Universities could never give you the knowledge off nor all your Learning and Wisdom could never teach you so escape for your Lives that the stroak may not fall upon you Truth Reader marvel not too much at the Impudence of this Man for it is the Heart of Quakerism He was a right Quaker and no Mungril and Eminent Teacher and a ready Sail. You see he feared not the Bishops nor their Power he had no respect to the Law which Establish'd the Book of Common Prayer nay should the Question be put to Geo. Whitehead whether he would under his Hand condemn this Antichristian piece to be burnt on Tower-hill he would say no not for a World it is the Marrow of his Religion I could give Instances of the like nature out of 100 of their Books but for brevities sake and that I may not stay my Reader too long from something new I shall only recite 2 or 3 Books more that so the Author of the Gen. History may hear his Text fully proved viz. that the Quakers enveigh against the Liturgy and that bitterly too together with the Ministry of the Church of England A Touchstone or perfect Tryal of all Priests Bishops and Ministers This Book contains more than 100 Pages in Quarto printed 1667. by Margaret Fell whom George Fox afterwards Married the purport of which is to shew them all the Clergy are false Prophets Deceivers c. which being but a Woman tho' a very proud imperious Dame I pass her by The Innocency and Consciousness of the Quakers c. p. 7. As for the purity of the Church of England it 's out of our sight we can see a great deal of impurity in it and as much the Members of it confess themselves indeed they confess enough of themselves to cause all wholsome sound understanding People to shun them and their Church and Worship as Men shun a contagious Disease or Infection I think this is so bold as well as base that it need no comment But if they look into the Cage I presume they 'll find little cause to boast especially if I give them the right Key to open it and that amongst their Teachers and Writers but if I should make a Cage for their Hearers ir would be much enlarged every way Truth exalted in a Short but sure Testimony c. by W. Penn p. 9. Come Church of England whence came your Forms of Prayer and Church Government from the Scriptures or the mass-Mass-Book and Popish Canons and what President do you find for Litanies Responces Singing Organs Altars Bowings c. with much more such like dirty Trash and soul Superstition Stand up and answer me you Members of the Church of England But are they not the Off-spring of the Popish Generation God is now breathing forth in Vengeance to Thunder down and Consume all your fair Buildings and pleasant Pictures of Babilonish Inventions But alas poor Souls are you not at have mercy upon us miserable sinners there is no health in us from seven to seventy c. The Guide mistaken by W. Penn p. 18. And whil'st the idle gormondizing Priests of England run away with above 1500000 l. a Year under pretence of being God's Ministers and that no sort of People have been so universally thorow Ages the very bane of Soul and Body to the universe as that abominable Tribe for whom the Theatre of God's most Dreadful Vengeance wait to act their Eternal Tragedy upon Burrow's Works p. 244. Oh what cruel Injustice and Tyranny in Civil Government Oh what abominable Superstition and Idolatries have been in Church Government It is a vexation to the Spirit of the Lord to consider it and the righteous Soul hath long
by any legal constitution a body Politick therefore they should not meddle in State Affairs viz. to condemn Acts of Parliaments as Antichristian and Oppressive to the Subject and thereby absolve their Disciples from their obedience to their Lawful Magistrates whom they ought to obey as the higher Powers set over them by God entrusted with the supreme Authority and their part is to yield a dutiful subjection and faithful obedience as whereunto they stand oblig'd by the commands of Christ and his Apostles and the practice of God's faithful Saints and Servants holy Apostles and Martyrs in all Ages by their Birth as natural born Subjects of these Realms by the dictates of their Consciences and the many Favours they daily receive in being defended and protected in their Liberty and Property and by all kinds of consideration both general and particular c. 4. That they print no Books but what are licens'd by Commissioners appointed by His Majesty for that purpose under pain of forfeiting the whole impression this would be a great means to restore England to its Pristine Glory which once it had when it was famous for extirpating Heresie whereas of latter years 't is reported by the Historian of the Quakers History to be a Nurse for Heresie c. 5. That they do not arrogate to themselves the power of excommunicating such as dissent from them and conform themselves to the Establish'd Religion nor treat them Reproachfully but that they study to be quiet and mind their own business 6. That they be not permitted in their Books and Sermons to call legal Punishments Persecution calling the Magistrates Persecutors thereby rendering them odious to the common People 7. That they be not permitted in these Synods to approve of such Books nor to teach such Doctrine as call the national Ministry Witches Devils Antichrists nor the Parliaments Judges Justices and other Magistrates the Beasts that carry the Whore Persecutors of the Saints nor to impeach their judicial Proceedings 8. That they be not permitted to Summons Try Judge Arraign Condemn and Dyalogue the national Ministry Magistracy and People and thereby lift up and extol themselves as the only Catholick Universal Church of the First-born which cannot err and Curse Damn and Reprobate all other Christians This has been their frequent practice and a main Pillar of their Heresie for when they gain upon the common People that the Apostolick Order of the Church of Christ is re-establish'd only amongst them and that all other Societies are Apostates Antichrists Heathens and Infidels they then have gained the point and will soon claim the Chair and reach at the Scepter 9. That they be forbidden to make Collections and Tax the People and lay by Funds as their manner is for as Money is said to be the Sinews of War so may it be call'd the Nerve of Heresie but let each Society of Quakers maintain their own Teacher and not have a common Bank at London and Feoffees entrusted therewith to give 8 10 or 20 l. at a time to their Travelling Teachers who range all the World over bantering all other Ministers who have a settled maintenance and are far less chargeable to their Hearers than are the Quakers Teachers who come uncall'd for like Flies and Mice eat up the provision of others as saith the Historian 10. That they be not permitted to call the Scriptures of the Prophets Christ and his Apostles by those contemptible Names of Death Dust Beastly-Ware Serpents-Food and the like 11. But that they be compell'd to condemn those Books of theirs which so teach for thus do they bring the Christian Religion into contempt in order to raise Quakerism as the most excellent of all Religions 12. Let them not be permitted to call the Church of England an Adulterated Harlot nor to charge her with Witchcraft and Sorceries to be an Adulterous Womb which brings forth monsterous Births neither let them be permitted to call the Book of Common Prayer which is grounded on the Holy Scriptures composed and professed by our Martyred Ancestors and confirmed by Authority of King and Parliament a branch which proceeded from the Pope and from his Loyns say they it draws its Strength Neither let them be permitted to print and publish to the Nations that they have ript up the Bowels of the Church of England and discovered her Adulterous Womb and all the false Conceptions conceived by her and that without any fear of her or her power 13. Neither let them be permitted to teach Schools for there they read W. Smith's Primmer and Geo. Fox's Primmer and a certain portion every day of Geo. Fox's Journal all which enveigh bitterly against the Church of England and all instituted Religion which tends to instil corrupt Principles whil'st the Bible and other good Books are laid aside These things ought to be noted and for the Generation of years sake to be guarded against 14. Upon the whole matter these sayings contained in the 12 particulars being great contempt upon the Magistracy and Ministry upon the King and his People and upon the whole Nation Yet thus do their Books Teach thus do they print and publish even in so many words if they deny it I am ready to prove it And notwithstanding this and much more that might be said of the same nature yet they are so high and rampant that when I printed my Book New Rome Arraign'd c. and laid open some of these Errors they indicted me and prosecuted me at Law to my great cost and damage seized my Books and prosecuted me with all the aggravations imaginable And that it may yet further appear how tender they are of their own Church their own Ministers their own Writings and Epistles I shall recite one of their Anniversary Injunctions viz. From our Yearly Meeting in London 27 of 3d Month 1675. To all our Quarterly and Monthly Meetings in England c. Concerning Mens and Womens Meetings it is our Judgment and Testimony in the Word of God's Wisdom that the rise and practice setting up and establishing of Mens and Womens Meetings in the Churches of Christ in this our Day and Generation is according to the Mind and Counsel of God and done in the ordering and leading of his Eternal Spirit And it is our Sense Advice Admonition and Judgment in the fear of God and in the Authority of his Power and Spirit to Friends and Brethren in their several Meetings that no such slight and contemptible Names and Expressions as calling Mens and Womens Meetings Courts Sessions or Synods that they are Popish Impositions useless and burdensome that faithful Friends Papers which we Testify have been given forth by the Spirit and Power of God are Mens Edicts or Cannons Elders in the Service of the Church Popes and Bishops with such scornful sayings be permitted among them c. Behold what Names and Expressions are contained in the recited 12 particulars given by themselves to the Scripture Bishops and Clergy Ministry and People
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE Rise Growth and Progress OF QUAKERISM Setting Forth That the Principles and Practices of the Quakers are Antichristian Antiscriptural Antimagistratical Blasphemous and Idolatrous from plain matter of Fact out of their most approved Authors c. Containing Also A modest Correction of the General History of the Quakers wrot in Holland by Gerard Croese By Francis Bugg Senior Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out mine hand and no man regarded I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh Prov. 1. 24 26. Rase it rase it even to the foundation thereof Psalm 137. 7. London Printed Anno 1697. THE INTRODUCTION Courteous Reader IN my former Books I thought my self obliged to Apologize for my writing against the Errors of the Quakers because some People then even the Author of the Snake in the Grass c. thought I might wrong them as the Quakers suggested who since are better satisfied therein their Mask being taken off But yet some objections still remain to obviate which I shall proceed to do Obj. 1. But say some Fra. Bugg in his Book Entituled The Qua. Detected c. gave a tollerable account of the Quakers respecting their beginning and now to write contrary seems contradictory Ans I do acknowledge that in the year 1686. when I wrot that Book I had better thoughts of them respecting their beginning than now I have neither did I then in 1686. know them guilty of holding such pernicious Principles and Fundamental Errors as now I know they do having then not seen many of their Books which since I have both seen and perused But grant I did not so clearly see them then as now nor understand their Fundamental Errors so clearly then as now yet I saw enough to justifie my separation from them from the charge of Apostacy as I made fully appear not only in that Book but also in my Book i. e. New Rome unmask'd c. neither did my acknowledging them and their deportment and the simplicity and plainness of their Carriage which attended them and their Doctrine which I since understand was only a decoy to catch simple Souls to be a reason for their being Orthodox and my self an Apostate from the Christian Faith since not only I but Men more Learned and of better Judgments than I have been mistaken Witness that famous Man and worthy Martyr of Jesus Christ Archbishop Cranmer See Fox's Acts and Mon. p. 1488. The Church of Rome Taught in the beginning a pure Doctrine but after she fell into the new Doctrine of Transubstantiation I marvel that any one could allow it if they knew it But whatever they bear the people in hand that which they write in their Books hath neither Truth nor Comfort Again p. 1325. ibid. I am said Huge Latimer that worthy Martyr Ignorant of things which I trust hereafter to know as I do now know things in which I have been Ignorant heretofore ever learn and ever to be learned to profit with learning I thought in time past that the Pope was Christ's Vicar had been Lord of all the World as Christ is So that if he should have deprived the King of his Crown it had been enough for he could do no wrong Now I think otherwise I thought in time past that if I had been a Fryer in a Coul I could not have been Damned nor afraid of Death and by reason thereof I have been minded many times to have been a Fryer namely when I was sore sick and diseased But now I behold my Superstitious Foolishness It were two long to tell you what blindness I have been in and how long it were e'er I could forsake such Folly c. Reader These two Instances if there were no more shew forth that the best of Men are fallible and may err as I did and be mistaken as also the Humility of these two learned Prelates and worthy Martyrs are exemplary in their Christian acknowledgment thereof and forsaking such a corrupted Church infected with Idolatry and Superstition which cleared them from the charge of Apostacy and the same cause leads to the same thing And if I once had a good opinion of the Quakers you see these famous Men had as good if not a better opinion of the Papists who yet left them and forsook them as I did the Quakers and for which I bless God who put it into my heart to forsake such a manifest Heresie Amen Obj. 2. But say the Quakers in their Book Judas and the Jews c. p. 78. But herein you shew your malice for had G. F. been a cursing Man like Muggleton c. Implying it somewhat pardonable then to write against the Quakers Ans See their Book Truth 's Defence c. G. Fox's words to Mr. Camelford a Minister thus O thou filthy Beast no Prayers can we send to thee but for thy Destruction thou Man of Sin and Enemy of Christ O thou impudent and brazen fac'd thou Hypocrite and Pharisee thou art damn'd openly Thou art in the Sorcery in the Witchcraft and in the Adultery and in the corrupt Seed whose Blessings are Cursed O thou slanderous Beast thou natural Brute-beast and here I charge thee to be a Witch and to bewitch the People Thou deaf Adder and Serpent thou child of the Devil Blasphemer and Enemy of all Righteousness O thou falsehearted dissembling Hypocrite the Plagues of God are due to thee and that is thy portion thou blind Sot thou dark Sot thy Torment is but beginning and so fare thee well Thus far Fox Again hear another of the same Praternity viz. Ed. Burrow in his Works p. 29 30 31. In Answer to certain Queries sent to the Quakers by one Mr. Bennet Burrow's Answer runs in this Channel viz. Thou art manifest what thou art where thou art and what Spirit thou art off a Reprobate a child of Darkness the Light condemns thee and all thy Generation of Priests Eternally we witness thee and all thy Generation to be in the Witchcraft and Sorcery for thou art Darkness it self Here thou full of all subtilty hast made manifest thy Poyson and Enmity Here thou Jesuit and thou Reprobate see whether thou be'st not a blind ignorant Sot there thou accursed art made manifest Here thou beast to whom the Plagues of God are due and upon whom his wrath must be accomplished Here thou dark blind Hypocrite thou dead Beast here thou polluted Beast here stop thy mouth thou Sorcerer O thou dark Beast and Conjurer who art Querying with thy Conjuring words c. Reader behold and be amazed that this people should blame any body for writing against them when never did any write like themselves nor was Muggleton a greater Curser and Damner than Fox The next I shall mention is their Learned Fisher who writing against John Owen Richard Baxter Thomas Danson and John Tombs In his Book Stiled The Rusticks Alarm c. calls and compares them to
Gentlemen Justices of the Peace Ministers of the Gospel and People within the County Sheweth That George Fox and James Nayler are Persons disaffected to Religion and the wholsome Laws of this Nation and that since their coming into this County have broached Opinions tending to the destruction of the Relation of Subjects to Magistrates Wives to their Husbands Children to their Parents Servants to their Masters Congregations to their Ministers and of People to their God ††Indeed Mr. Croese in the foregoing recital tacitly says the same and have drawn much People after them many whereof Men Women and Children at their Meetings are strangely wrought upon in their Bodies and brought to fall foam at the Mouth roar and swell in their Bellies and that some of them affirm themselves to be equal with God contrary to the late Act as hath been attested at a late Quarter Sessions holden at Lancaster in October last and since that time acknowledged before many Witnesses besides many other dangerous Opinions and damnable Heresies as appear by a Schedule hereunto Annexed c. May it therefore please Your Honours upon consideration of the Premises to provide a Remedy as to your Wisdoms shall seem meet that some speedy course may be taken for the speedy suppressing these Evils And your Petitioners shall ever pray as in duty bound 1. Charge That George Fox professed and avowed that he was equal with God Defence It was not so spoken as Geo. Fox was equal with God but the Father and the Son is one I and my Father are one and where the same is revealed this is witnessed Let the same mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus who being in the Form of God thought it no Robery to be equal with God and this I witness to be fulfilled for the same Spirit where it is is equal with God and he that hath the same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ is equal with God Observa Mark Reader here is the Charge that 's Blasphemy you do not hear him deny it only he brings in an Equivocation like G. W.'s It is not spoken of George Fox who then is that He I say who is this He if not George that Hath for He and Hath are but the Relative and the Verb. It cannot be meant here that the Spirit of God is equal no it is and He the Man that hath the Spirit which raised Jesus Christ is equal with God 'T is prov'd Blasphemy beyond all the Quakers Glossing 2. Charge That George Fox professed himself to be the Eternal Judge of the World Defence He that was a Minister of God said that the Saints should Judge the World yea Angels Herein they do shew themselves to be no Ministers of God Observe The Charge is confess'd and the Ministers who handed the Petition condemned as no Ministers of Christ for that they will not allow George Fox to be the Eternal Judge of the World 3. Charge He said he was Christ the Way the Truth and the Life Defence The old Man cannot endure to hear the new Man speak which is Christ and Christ is the Way and if Christ be in you must he not say I am the Way the Truth and the Life Observ 1. The Charge is Blasphemy 2. 'T is not denyed but fairly owned and the Petitioners justified to be wise and good Men and not wicked Men nor Fools 4. Charge That George Fox said whosoever took a place of Scripture and made a Sermon of it and from it was a Conjurer and his preaching was from Conjuration Defence And all that do study to raise a living thing out of a dead to raise the Spirit out of the Letter are Conjurers and draw Points and Reasons and so do speak a Divination of their own Brain they are Conjurers and Deceivers and their Teaching is from Conjuration which is not spoken from the Mouth of the Lord c. Observ What contempt is here thrown upon the Scripture and upon all the Servants of God who from the beginning of the planting of Christianity have frequently read the Scripture in the Churches and sometimes have expounded a Chapter and Catechized c. And frequently have taken a portion of Scripture and open'd it and held it forth to the People What signifies the Quakers vindicating the Martyrs printing a Book in Folio Entituled The Spirit of the Martyrs revived c. 'T is not reviv'd in the Quakers surely when they thus condemn them and their practice and condemn all Ministers of the Christian Faith as Conjurers Diviners c. This I would ask G. W. whether these following Martyrs and Ministers were Conjurers and Deceivers Viz. Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Ridly Bishop of London Latimer Bishop of Worcester Hooper Bishop of Glecester Bradford Prebendary of St. Pauls Dr. Taylor Parson of Hadly I say were these and their Brethren which took places of Scripture and Preached from them with the Assistance of God's Spirit accompaning the Ordinance all Conjurers and Diviners 5. Charge That Fox said the Scriptures were Carnal Defence The Letter of the Scripture is Carnal Obser This contempt is confessed c. 6. Charge R. Hubberthorn said that Christs coming in the Flesh was but a Figure Defence As he is held forth in the Scripture Letter without them as in the Flesh without them he is their Example or Figure which is both one Obser Then Christ in the days of his Flesh was but a Figure his Death and Sufferings a Figure his Resurrection and Ascension a Figure of the Quakers Light within them his Death within them his Crucifixion and Resurrection within them This is perfect Blasphemy and infallible Quakerism 7. Charge Ja. Milner professeth himself to be God and Christ and gives out Prophesies that the day of Judgment shall be the 5th of Novem. next that there shall never sit Judge more at Lancaster that he must e'er long shake the Foundation of the great Synagogue i. e. the Parliament c. Defence George Fox said as for Ja. Milner tho' his Mind did run out from his Condition and from minding that Light of God which was in him whereby the World takes occasion to speak against the Truth and many Friends stumble at it yet there is a pure Seed in him Obser I am the longer on this Head because it contains all the Pillars upon which Quakerism stands Gen. Hist p. 103. say these Words were denyed there is not a word of reproof like that of the Apostle who has bewitched you Not a word of condemning his Blasphemy but all is hush'd he had a pure Seed in him I write the more for Mr. Croese his sake that he may see and in seeing may correct the Quakers for their false Information 8. Charge Leo Fell said that Christ had no other Body but his Church Defence There is one Body and one Spirit even as ye are called c. Obser John Whitehead Joshua Coal and as many of them as have spake honestly what they
that it shews 1. That the Quakers believe that Womens Meetings are the Ordinances of Jesus Christ 2. That they pretend to have power to bind and loose 3. That the only way to find Mercy was to submit to George Fox and consequently to obey and observe his Laws 4. That this false Prophesy delivered in the Name of the Lord might be from Age to Age continued upon the Quakers as a brand upon their pretence to Prophesy for when the said Solomon delivered this Message by Letter to John Story the said John was very ill and not like to live yet it pleased God for the honour of his Name and that these false pretenders might be manifest to give him length of days about 4 years after 5. That they accounted George Fox the great Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ from the First Instance 't is no marvel then that the Quakers have thrown off and rejected the Ordinances of Baptisme and the Lord's Supper Instituted by Christ himself since Fox their Apostle have ordained Womens Meetings From the 2d That they are one with the Pope touching the power of the Church From the 3d. That the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ as our Mediator and Intercessor of his Death and bitter Passion are by the Quakers laid aside if the only way to find Mercy with God be to be reconcil'd to the Quaker Church From the 4th That the Quakers are not zealous for God by their cloaking and excusing this false Prophesy of Solomon Eccles as well as divers others of his Idolatrous Practices and by their owning him and his Books to the last and never passing a publick censure upon him and his Books From the 5th That 't is no marvel that they are so much concern'd to vindicate every little Pamphlet of their own with great charge and industry but when the Papists call our Bible a brazen Fac'd corrupt and false Bible this they say in so many words they are not concern'd to vindicate this they leave to the Sectarian and Episcopalians to do for alas they have work enough besides and as to the Bible though the Papists call it a brazen Fac'd Book false and corrupt yet the Quakers are not concern'd to vindicate the Bible and indeed how can they against the Papists for the Papists would soon reply what do the Quakers blame us for calling your Bible a brazen Fac'd Book whil'st you your selves call it Death Dust Beastly Wares Serpents Food How then can you blame us since we are Cousin Jermains and Dear Brethren in the common cause against the Church of England Good God when I consider their deep Hypocrisy in their confession to the Parliament I am astonish'd at their impudence and so I proceed to the next Head 5. Moreover saith the Historian p. 55. it 's also their custome in their Houses never to express a Religious Duty with an outward Voice as praying to God craving his Blessing e'er they take Meat or go to Bed till they feel the impulsion of the Spirit This also is the fruit of Quakerism read one of their Books stiled A Musick Lecture c. p. 25. For where they i. e. Christians are I was in Performances in Ordinances in Family Duties in Hearing in Reading in Prayers in Fastings well but when I came to bend my Mind to that of God in me which is Christ then I begun to learn to be a Fool insomuch that I durst not give God thanks for the Victuals that were set before me c. Reader this their practice is so well known in England as well as in Holland that I need not to enlarge upon it only take up a Lamentation when I consider how many Thousand Families of Quakers there are in England that never prayed to God in their Houses nor gave thanks for Blessings received with outward Voice since they turned Quakers perhaps 20 or 30 years What account then will they be able to give at the great and terrible Day Who have thus bewitched the People from the practice of the Primitive Christians Saints and Martyrs and all Protestant Churches to this day unto the practice of the Heathen that know no God read Jeremiah 10. 25. Pour out thy fury upon the heathen and upon the families that call not on thy name But possibly they 'll say they think of God when they go to Bed and when they receive the Comforts of this Life to which I answer if that be enough and that words are useless why then do their Teachers speak and pray in their Meetings with an audible Voice and sometimes at your own Houses when People are there Is this their practice only that they may be seen of Men a thing I am jealous of for if they look upon it their Duty why not a Duty incumbent upon the hearers also But they say in Burrow's Works p. 47. That is no command of God to thee which God commanded to others unless they receive it a new as the Inspired Apostles did Thus have they taken away they Key of Knowledge from the People I mean the use of the Holy Scripture which would instruct them better Nay this is not all but where the Spirit of Quakerism is in its full vigor if they happen to be in company with a Man of another Profession whether Episcopalian Presbyterian Independant or Baptist who crave a Blessing upon what they receive ☞ sits the Quaker with his Hat on as a Testimony against that laudible Practice 6. They have Anniversary Synods in every considerable Kingdom to whom belong the Care and Administration of all the Affairs of that Kingdom In England they have a fixed Anniversary Synod on the third day of Penticost Gen. Hist p. 51. This may be true but of how dangerous a consequence both to Church and State I am not able to determine but time will further manifest But the more they encrease and gain upon their People and believe that they are the only true Church and as such cannot err that they have power to bind and loose and that their Precepts and Prescriptions are of equal Authority to that of the Apostles and thereupon ought to be indispensibly obeyed I say as this comes to be received and embraced the danger of these Anniversary Synods will be seen more and more and it may be when 't is too late for they not only already think themselves capable to teach Judges Justices yea and the Parliament too What is their Duty what they may do and what they may not do and the utmost confines of their Jurisdiction particularly in the case of Heresy of which I have recited some Instances and can hundreds more as also by two of their Anniversary Synods they have virtually tho' not verbally repealed great part of two Statute Laws that of the 22 of C. II. and that clause of an Act of Parliament made in the First of K. W. Ill. relating to Tythes by their yearly Epistles enregistred by Authority of their Anniversary Synods I
you and set you up Is not this the Whore that Rode upon the Beast and that the Beast meaning the Parliament carry her Again to the Parliament viz. You do but cause People to drink of the Whores Cup and you are but them that do carry the Whore viz. the False Church And this is plain Dealing to tell you the Truth for proof see Burrough's Works p. 50. 53 501 522 507. 521. 12. Such as Teach that the publick Ministry are Witches Devils Wolves Antichrists Sodomites c. The very bane of Soul and Body of the Universe That the Dissenting Ministers are an Ill-bred Pedantick Crew the bane of Religion and pest of the World the old Incendiaries to Mischief and best to be spared of Mankind against whom the boyling Vengeance of an Irritated God is ready to be poured out that they should give them i. e. the Clergy Blood to drink for they are worthy Turn the Hirelings out of the Kingdom that 't is as warrantable to tolerate Popery as Episcopacy that tolerating Episcopacy is making a League with Hell That all Kings and Emperors have sprung up in the Night of Apostacy that the Kings are Spiritual Aegyptians that such as dote on an Earthly King are Traytors that 't is a nasty and dirty thing to mention a House of Lords that all those Fines which belongs to Lords of Mannors should be given to the Poor that all Abby-lands Gleab-lands that is given to the Priests be given to the Poor of the Nation Judas was kind to the Poor that all the great Houses Abbies Steeple-houses the Kings Rents Parks and Houses should be Sold and all Colledg-lands and Bells out of the Churches except one in a Town to give notice of Fire That to take away the Priests Hour glass if you be moved to it is owned by the Eternal Power For proof of this Doctrine and five hundred times as much of the same Nature Read these Quotations for this is but a short Map of Quakerisme viz. G. Fox 's Great Mist p. 5. 30. to 40. A Serious Apol. c. p. 156. A Brief Discovery c. p. 7. 8. Several Papers given forth by G. Fox c. p. 8. 9 12 16 18. G. Fox's 59 Particulars sent to the Parliament Printed 1659. p. 8. 59 63 65. Burrough's Advice to the Souldiers p. 2. The Guide Mistaken by W. Penn c. p. 18. Reader I have in this little Map given thee a hint of the Doctrines of the Quaker Church I think they are so abominable Erronious Blasphemous and Uncharitable that they need no Comment and as to the Quaker Church their Bride and their Lambs Wife if you still ask me for a Discription of her I tell you they are a broken divided Sect who adhear to the Teachers of this Doctrine tho' in their Meetings before the World's People they sometimes talk a little otherwise but search their Books especially their old ones and they are not changed and this is the perfect Figure nay plain Words of their Doctrine But if any one or more will Condemn their Recited Errors publickly under their Hands they thenceforth are not of their Church but ought to be taken in as Protestants even as G. Keith and his Friends have done whom I neither Interrogate nor Accuse And now if after all their deluded Disciples will not be so noble as to search and after searching to to Renounce them and their Errors but will still remain willingly Ignorant it is a great sign that God has given them up to strong Delusion Reader the design of the Recited Book Intituled Some Reflections upon the Quakers Protestation c. And all that 's Wrote against them is only to bring them to a thorow Conviction of their Errors and to such an Acknowledgment and Confession of them as is Indispensible to a true Conviction there is nothing more desired of them than to Retract and disown what is proved to be Faulty in their Writings and such Faults too as are either Destructive to the Faith or Scandalous and so Sinful to the Reputation of their Neighbours in giving False and Uncharitable Representations of them And this they are obliged to do by all the Rulers of Christianity it being the smallest Satisfaction they can make to repair so far at least the Injuries that are thereby done to the Christian Doctrine and the Good Name of those they have Wrongfully Traduced they are the Aggressors they have Attack'd our Religion in all the Parts of it our Bishops and Clergy and our whole Constitution and we require no greater Amends for all that they have done against us then to say that they are sorry for it and though they should refuse us even this Justice and reasonable Security for the future yet we press for no Persecution against them for no Fines or Imprisonment but only that we should not be obliged to acknowledge them as true Protestants and that we may have Liberty to Justifie our Selves and Reliligion against the Calumnies with which they have loaded both And if this be refused us the Cry of Persecution will run on our side Is it no Persecution of the Tongue for the Quakers to Represent our Bishops and Clergy as the most odious of Mankind We grant their is a Toleration but 't is only for Religious Worship but with all caution that the Doors be open so as any may go in and see what they do but not to hold General Councels with their Doors Lock'd up or a Guard of three or four Stout Men to keep all out but whom they 'll admit and their Business is Government that 's plain which is no way within the Act of Parliament for there is a Clause in the Act p 307. Be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if any Assembly of Persons Dissenting from the Church of England shall be had in any Place for Religious Worship †with the Doors lockt bard Mark tho' they do not always Bolt and Barr yet have they 3 or 4 lusty Fellows to keep Guard during their Convocation or bolted during any time of such Méeting together they shall not receive any benefit from this Law but be lyable to all the Pains and Penalties of all the aforesaid Laws c. which Prohibit all Convocations c. without the King's License much more to Enact Promulgate or Decree any Orders or Constitutions whatsoever Now if the Bishops and Clergy of England tho' Recogniz'd and Establish'd by Law wou'd incur a Premunire so much as to meet consult and debate tho' concerning only their own Order and Spiritual Jurisdiction without the King's Licence How then have the Quakers this Authority to hold their yearly Convocation without controle and with their Doors either lock'd and bar'd or a Guard at them and when there not only to make Laws for their People to observe but to Repeal if not Verbally yet Vertually the Laws of the Land And further If when the Clergy do meet in Council Convocation or
Lizards Moles Tinkers Red-coats Cow-dung Green-headed Trumpeters Rare and Base Wheelbarrows Gimcracks Whirlpools and Whirlygigs a Moon-calf their Bell has no Mettle but the sound of a Kettle capers about quivers up and down like a blind Night-bat Ragged Torn Thredbare Tatterdemallions malicious Serpents Vipers grinning Dogs Jack-puddings dunceable Darkness gropable Blindness Then so many leaps of a Louse bo to a Goose Hedge-hogs Fiery fighters Baxter and Tombs as Twins that tumbled out of one Belly the Womb of that Babylonish Bawd c. All which idle Drollery and ridiculous Nonsence is vindicated by W. Penn in his Epistle prefixed to this Sam. Fisher's Works saying It was so ordered by God's Providence that his Fisher's part fell to be most Controversial in which to carry a clear Mind and an even Hand is very difficult However allowing him in some passages the freedom of the Prophet Elijah against the Prophets of Baal 1 Kings 18 27. sometimes exposing absurd things by vulgar Terms and Proverbs to Derision in the view of his ingenious Reader he hath discharged himself as a conscientious fair and learned Apologist c. Now if the Quakers will have allowance from the Prophets to vent this sort of wild Gibberish I hope I may take a little liberty to expose their absurd Principles to the just abhorrence and derision of the People Obj. 3. But some may say was there no way to accommodate this Controversy without this publick method surely a more Amicable and Friendly way had been more sutable to a religious Difference Ans It would be too tedious to recite the many and frequent offers that I have given them from time to time to meet me and that according to the very words of their own propositions but they would not I have sent them Summons after Summons until at last I Summoned 12 of their Hearers to give me a meeting but they would not a Copy thereof is as followeth A third Summons For Jo. Hubbard Thomas Brewster J. Haws Ed. Deeks Jo. Peacock Jo. Cranwell Jo. Carver Jacob Baker William Mead John Knight Sy. Birgis Amb. Friend Hearers amongst the Quakers to bring forth Sheba the Son of Bichri 2 Sam. 20. Alias G. Whitehead to stand to his own Proposition in his printed Sheet deliver'd to the Parliament December 1693. Entituled The Qua. Vind. c. p. 4. otherwise to give me a meeting your selves within 20 Miles of my Dwelling and timely notice thereof and then and there openly and publickly either justify your Teachers Books by Scripture proof and if it be not possible for you so to do then to condemn the Errors contained in them under your Hands for the prevention of further controversies thereabout but if not then know that my hand will be heavy vpon you if God permit July 20. 1696. Fr. Bugg Sen. But this being sent to divers of them near 6 Months since and they will neither hear nor answer any proposition how equal soever it be tho' I have often wrote to them and spoke to them Therefore I now proceed to lay their pernicious as well as presumptious Errors further open and in so doing I shall not spare them nay nor pity them being wholly clear of them Obj. 4. But if this had been sooner before they got to this heighth and to this order and settlement as to have their Classes their Provincial Synods their Anniversary Synods and Councels and the favour of the Government it might happily have stopt their further growth which now seems impossible Ans I grant their Heresie is of long continuance yet the Arrians much longer which continued as I have read more than 300 Years who thro' their subtilty got so much into the favour of the Government as to get the Pulpit and the exclusion of the Orthodox yet they are dispersed and withered away and these have not yet been half a century and their Errors more notorious And 't is my belief they will not remain the other half before they are exploded Why then should any be discourag'd in such a work The Pope and his Superstitions have not gone on without many Testimonies against them 'T is said that our famous Wickliff an Oxford Scholar has wrote more than 200 Volumns against his Errors and Innovations And I hope we are not without some such now in our famous Universities who as they become sensible of this Quicksilver Tribe I mean New Rome and know where to fix upon them and their invisible Tenets which at present they mask under disguise owning in words being examin'd what in their Books they deny For indeed their Books are of two sorts carrying two contrary Faces The one to the World to decoy people the other to their Friends to be read in their Meetings insomuch as 't is hard to know a Quaker who as Irenaeus said in his third Book against Hereticks viz. Whil'st Hereticks speak like the Faithful they not only mean otherwise than what they say but clean contrary and by their Tenets full of Blasphemy they destroy the Souls of those who with their fair words suck in the poyson of their foul Opinions c. And no marvel saith St. Paul for Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light therefore it is no great thing if his ministers be also transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 13. 14. And for our pattern we have the famous Wickliff who pav'd the way for great Luther in Germany who was wonderfully carryed on even as upon Angels Wings which made the Papists rave and roar fret and fume calling him Apostate Self-condemn'd Apostate insomuch that all Mens minds stood as it were upon their tiptoes to see the issue of Pope Leo's rage and brave Luther's courage who went on undauntedly writing many Books until he finished both his Days and Testimony of whom Beza said Rome tam'd the World the Pope tam'd Rome so great Rome Rul'd by power the Pope by deep deceit But how more large than theirs was Luther's Fame Who with one Pen both Pope and Rome doth tame Go fictious Greece go tell Alcides then His Club is nothing to great Luther's Pen. Jan. 18. 1697. Fra. Bugg Sen. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE Rice Growth and Progress OF Quakerism With a modest Correction of the General History of the Quakers writ in Holland by the Learned Croese Anno 1696. The PROLOGUE WHen I first heard of the said History I thought it might have spared me this Labour hoping it would have given an impartial Account not only of the coming in of that Sect of the names of the Persons of the places of their abodes of their Handicraft professions of their tumultuous behaviours of their belching out their Defamations and scurrilous Languages to Magistrates and Ministers and of their frequent disturbing the Churches and contemning the Ordinances of Christ and all Instituted Religion But also the ways and methods by which Quakerism have grown and increased and prevailed to
this heigth it is now arrived at But when I came to view it and seriously to consider the Contents of it as I find it in many things very well done with respect to the former particulars and thereby will spare me some pains and cost so with respect to the latter viz. to set forth their pernicious Doctrines their horrible Blasphemies their dissembling Cheats and religious Frauds by which they have not only deceived Thousands but almost perswaded many well meaning and worthy Gentlemen to have a better esteem of them and their Tenets than they deserve I found it very deficient viz. In shewing the methods by which they have risen and their Hypocrisie and wretched ways by which they have spread their blasphemous Errors and pernicious Principles and how they have unchurched all but themselves and thereupon it seemed to me that the said History rather tends to strengthen them in their Errors then to help them out of them for it bends too much to the left hand and reflects on our English Magistrates as Persecutors and on our Church as not well disciplired which I charitably presume was occationed by that Learned Authors giving too much credit to the Books and Manuscripts and his conversation with some of them for saith he p. 5. Since therefore I have had the fortune of a long time to be familiarly acquainted and much conversant with these men call'd Quakers and that in many places and besides many of their Writings and Manuscripts of which some are in print some not having fallen into my hands I thought it would be an acceptable Enterprise to write upon this Subject leaving it for every Man to judge as he thinks fit of their Actions Tenets c. And since I find the said History as above observ'd to be deficient in the main Part at least in many main Points I shall write something by way of Correction which I hope neither he nor any other indifferent Person will take amiss since I pretend to have as much experience and knowledge of the Quakers as he can pretend too having the misfortune to be many Years conversant with them and their Teachers as also the good fortune to know their Methods to have of their Writings and Manuscripts by me some in print some not whereby I have been able to derect them and to confute their Errors and so I shall leave it to every Man as he saith to judge as he pleaseth of their Actions Tenets Customs way of Church-Government and principles of Religion and Doctrine which I shall produce from Book and Page of their most Authentick Authors First then that it may appear I have reason to know the Quakers as well as this Learned Author and thereupon as warrantable a Motive to write on this Subject In the Year 1657. I went first amongst the Quakers and in 1659. became one of their Society and continued amongst them about 25 years and since that time I have been a narrow observer of them and much acquainted with many of them I have near 300 of their Books by me besides Manuscripts and old Records and besides all this I was Clark to their Monthly and Quarterly Meetings for the Isle of Ely and County of Cambridge at Haddenham Sutton and Chatterise for about 16 years and more in all which Service I served gratis without Sallery as others had My House was a place of Entertainment for their Teachers for many years together I suffered Imprisonment at Ely and Nislech for their cause in which I was then Embark'd 3 Years and about 4 Months I suffered the loss of more than a hundred Pounds for Meeting contrary to an Act of Parliament made the 22 King Charles II. besides many other affairs in which I was concern'd whil'st with them Sometimes chosen to go to London-Meetings sometimes chosen to end some differences which happen'd amongst us sometimes to assist in Marriages about settlements of Estates in that case as in the Instance of William Read Widower and the Widow Brewster of Brund and divers others as Stephen Clackson and the Widow Young I say put all together and I think I may venture upon my own experience to say as much as the Author of the said Hist and yet notwithstanding I shall not impose upon my Reader but in the main of what I shall write I shall prove from matter of Fact and then as he says shall leave every one to judge as he thinks fit being at all times ready to appear and maintain what I write according to G. W.'s own proposition in his printed Sheet stiled The Quakers Vindication c. And when I meet Mr. Croese I shall go along with him in this History as far as he goes my way and when he turns aside to the right Hand or to the left I shall part friendly with him and deal kindly by him as we us'd to do to strangers But since his Book came over the Water and reflects upon the Government Implicitly charging the Magistrates with the crime of Persecution a thing they are much averse to I shall therefore endeavor to Rectifie it and shew him 't is not persecution but prosecution and to shew that I am not alone in this matter I received a Letter wrot by a dignifyed Clergy-man of the Church of England to a Neighbouring Minister An Abstract thereof is as followeth viz Worthy Sir Since I had the happiness of your good Company here I read over the general History of the Quakers which came from Holland I find it wrote so much to the advantage of that pestilent Sect and so much to the disadvantage both of the Government and Church of England that I think it necessary to be again done by some other hand whom we may confide in for a better performance of it and I know none better sitted for it respecting matter of fact than your Neighbour Mr. Bugg and I doubt not but with your Assistance he may be able to give the World satisfaction in this matter I earnestly desire you would perswade him to it and in Truth the daily growth of that Sect makes it necessary to have it thorowly laid open that Men may thereby be warned the more to beware of it This will be a Service to God and the Church Your humble Servant And so I enter upon my Work SECTION I. The Reason of their Name GEorge Fox was born Anno 1624. in a Village call'd Draton in Leicestershire his Father's Name was Christopher Fox his Mothers Name Mary who gained their Living by Weaving This George afterwards learned the Trade of a Shoomaker and wrought Journy work with George Gee of Manchester who having gained so much Learning as that he could read print pretty well but writing he could read but little of neither could write except very rudely And this was the only piece of Learning he attained too all his Life long For neither then nor any time after did he apply himself to any Liberal Study So that he not
to the King's Mind Where will you have a Foundation to build your Work upon for as it is found contrary to all these weighty Things so by their Authority your Work in cases of Conscience may well be Questioned The Law of the Nation may justly question you the Spirit of Truth may justly question you the Scriptures may justly question you Christianity may justly question you Reason may justly question you Christ Jesus may justly question you the King may justly question you and what can your Foundation be but the love of Money printed 1668. Mark Reader the Impudence of these Quakers who twit others with their own Crimes I am sure every particular may be apply'd to themselves rightly and yet such is their insolent boldness even whil'st Diffenters and acted as well contrary to the Laws as all the things by them mentioned to give out a general Summons to all the Ecclesiastical Order Established by Law But if I give them a Summons this is presumptious seditious tumultuary yea if I Arraign them as New Rome and print without Licence I must be by them indicted and had I not had a Church of England Jury I might have been ruined These are the meek Men the righteous Men the just Men that Burrows and in him the Quakers prayed in the last recital of Burrow's Works to the Government that they might have the executive part of the Law and that Cases between Man and Man might be left to them but thanks be to God who have given the Nation such a sight of their Hypocrisie that hitherto they have not been thought worthy of a place in the Government no not so much as Constable a remembring their Anti-magistratical principle laid down by their first Founder as in News coming up c. p. 20. Sing all ye Saints and Rejoyce clap your Hands and be glad for the Lord Jehovah will Raign and the Government shall be taken from you pretended Rulers Judges and Justices Lawyers and Constables all this tree must be cut down and Jesus Christ in us will Rule alone c. But I thank God this Tree of Defence is still standing which preserved me from your inveterate malice who for not Licensing my Book tho' it be your own daily practice Indicted me as one turbulent and unquiet practicing and intending falsly unlawfully seditiously and maliciously c. as also to move stir up and cause discords tumults and miserable slaughters c. and all because I printed unlicensed Arraigned them as New Rome c. But behold they can Arraign Try Summons and Judge yea and Condemn Magistrates Ministers and whole Churches by whole sale Are these the meek Men the just Men the righteous Men that would so fain have the Administration of the Government God forbid and let all good Protestants and sincere Christians say Amen Reader I must beg pardon for this Digression 't is a fault that sometimes better Writers fall into The next I shall recite is a Dialogue or Catechism between Tradition and Truth The Terms being interpreted are thus in the Original Truth that is the Quakers and Tradition that is the Church of England and if I were to recite it all it is worse than Tho. Hicks's Dialogue between a Quaker and a Christian for the substance of that is true to my certain knowledge but this is so barbarous a Dialogue as none but such that are void of Charity and the Fear of God would ever have attempted but the Quakers they may domineer and insult over their Superiors yea Summon Arraign Try Judge and Condemn the Church of England and thereby the Magistrates Ministers and People present their seditious Petitions to the Parliament Advise and Councel them to let the Ministers alone stand not say they by Baal's Priests down with all that judge for Money alias take Money for their pains and labor as the Quakers themselves do yet none must say a word to them Oh no no touch the hem of their Garment as if they had a Pattent to commit all manner of reproaches revilings scandalous destructive horrible Blasphemies and all manner of impieties cum privilegio Smith 's Works p. 157. A Catechism by way of Dialogue to all Priests and Prelates Truth lay down thy Fundamentals and what they are that they may be known and in their place come to Tryal Tradition these be my Foundation principles of my Religion believing they are sound because I find in the Scriptures that the Saints performed them and served God in them I have Churches Preaching Praying Singing and Bishops Ministers and under them other Officers for order sake Truth these in their places must be examined and by the Spirit of Truth i. e. Quakers proved whether they be right in the ground and have their rise from the Power of God Open thine Eye and behold thy Ceremonies and see what Monsters thou hast generated and brought forth from thy Adulterous Womb. And so hath the birth of thy Adulterous Womb deceived the Nations Tradition I am reasonably satisfied from what hath been said as to the Ceremonies belonging to my Worship but as to my Church Preaching Praying Singing Bishops and Ministers they must be duly observed Truth I shall try them in order and if I find them right in the ground shall approve them if not testify against them therefore speak plainly what thy Church is that I may proceed to Tryal Tradition my Church is a consecrated Place for my Worship to be perform'd in and by many Ancient Fathers Laws been set by c. Truth now I shall try thy Church and if it be not in God it is none of his but an adulterated Harlot covered over with the Mystery of Iniquity therefore Tradition be silent a little and Truth will shew thee thy Error so be cool and hear what Truth saith for now thy Church comes to Tryal Tradition I know that Praying in my Worship is right for it is mentioned in the Scripture and was practiced very much by the Saints and I have the Lord's Prayer and have made many other Prayers which be useful and comfortable for all conditions and on all occasions and I have put them together in a Book which I call the Book of Common Prayer and use it in my Devotion Truth Prayer in the Spirit the Saints practiced but thou art degenerated and hath formed such Prayers as the Lord hath not required neither doth he open his Ear to them and that which thou call'st the Lord's Prayer be thou silent and make no mention of it for thou hast nothing to do with it Oh thou Adulterous Tradition What Monsterous births hast thou brought forth Thy Common Prayer Book is seen to be conceived in thy Adulterous Womb and to branch forth from the Pope Tradition but what if my Common Prayer Book do not fully agree with the Scriptures and the Saints practice yet there are many good things in it and many Scripture sentences which may edifie and comfort Truth that which is
the Persons charged from his Imputation yet I have so much Justice I confess as not to condemn Parties by Particulars and Charity as to be satisfied with their solemn disclaiming of such Practices For I did never love that one Man should have the making of another Man's Faith and Confession especially if he were his Adversary I must tell him also I cannot admire his Wisdom Manners or Justice in his Reflections on the Roman Catholicks after the Assurance that so great an one of their Communion has given him and his Friends of their Security and Protection for if they are a People able to ruin the whole Earth and lay the Foundations of Eternal Mischief to Mankind believe me England is in an ill pickle And tho' I am an ill Judge he has in it put but a scurvy Complement upon the King let him be just and he will find the Excluders almost every Sunday at their Parish Churches and if three quarters of them were to pray for their Lives it may be they could better read their Clergy than say their Prayers without the publick Liturgy c 3. Animadversions on the Apology of the clamorous Squire c. p. 3. But when he has done all he can they were not Dissenters under Correction that in 1680. prosecuted the Roman Catholicks and refused them Liberty but Church of England Men and such of them too as would not allow it to some Protestant Dissenters for fear that Dissenters should hide themselves amongst them and that they therefore must swallow the most severe Tests that could be framed †Whilest the same W. P. framed the said severe Tests to shew themselves * It seems it was but to shew himself no Friend to that Communion not Friends to that Communion i. e. Papists and to tell Truth and I beseech the Gentleman not to take it amiss that I say the Dissenters were invited into the share they had in opposition to Popery by Church Men ay they were for a comprehension to make the Church of England stand broader the better to receive the assaults of Rome without hazard p. 4. I do affirm the excluders were Conformists and are yet Communicants of your Church and the greatest part of them upon education and constant practice too and that this is a Truth and no Slander read the List and 't is a demonstration nay I challenge the Gentleman to name six Persons of all the excluders that dissent from the Estalish'd Church nor is this of yesterday for if we look back we shall see the most celebrated Bishops of our Church barring the succession in the Law the 13 and 27 of Eliz and when that Queen pleaded Conscience in not assenting to a Law to put our King 's great Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots to Death the same Reverend Bishops undertook to remove the Scruple p. 5. 'T was the Gentlemen of that Communion that impeached the Prerogative in the Declaration of Indulgence and set the Political capacity of the King in opposition to his natural and to make their business more popular bestowed that comment upon it of a design in the Court to let in Popery and Arbitrary Government p. 2. Our Brave King 4. A persuasive to moderation submitted to the King c. p. 1. Pref. We have not to do with an insensible Prince but one that has been toucht with our Infirmities more than any Body sit to judge our cause by the share he once had in it 5. Reasons for the Repeal of the Tests c. p. 3. They ought to be taken away because they are unreasonable and unjust p. 5. 'T is highly necessary that these Tests be abrogated this appears in that the King desires it the Papists crave it and the Interest of the whole Nation requires it We are all then in prudence to consent thereto We have been Taught †who Taught that Doctrine more than W. P. See the first 3 Books quoted to entertain very hard thoughts of their Religion and as we learnt to speak so we stammer'd it out no Papist no Popery Whence sprung this aversion mainly I am sure from our apprehension that Blood and Cruelty attended it The Roman Catholicks tho' sure of the King are willing to concert and accomodate matters with us and to deliver us from what we so dreaded their persecution upon the most reasonable and equal Terms of being freed from the danger of ours I hope our Establish'd Church will bethink her self and better consider of things than by her stubborn Adhesion to her Laws of severity and force to encline us to love Popery when we find it gentle and easie to be entreated p. 6. 7 8. The King promised to maintain her so he doth and will undoubtedly persevere to do if she runs not her self into a forfeiture of the Royal Grace Let her cease to be angry and rebuke her Sons very unmannerly sitting in Judgment upon and censuring the King's Proceedings Let her I say be Wise and know her Duty and Interest the advice is requisit she being at this day tampering to draw the Fanaticks into an Association against the King's most Gracious purpose to them and all his People It is insinuated that undue and false returns of Parliament Men may be made c. But surely there lives not a Man without the Pale of the Church we are talking of so wicked as to think the King doth not detest the Thought of so base a practice he that whispers a thing so greatly below the King will for ought I know suggest that to morrow his Majesty will return us a House of Commons from Hounslow-Heath Discourses of this kind may not be heard but in Bedlam or Newgate therefore adjourning them thither for cure or correction 6. The great and popular objection against the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Tests briefly stated and considered c. p. 3. If the consequences that are imagin'd to follow the Repeal of the Penal Statutes and Tests were indeed so terrible as they are industriously represented I should readily fall in with the common jealousy and help to augment the number of those that are for their continuance But when I consider how long our Government was happy without them how much of heat and partiality prevailed in their constitution and how troublesome and impracticable their Execution are and that in our present circumstances they appear a plain barriere to our happiness p. 11. I own it may affect the present Ecclesiastical Policy of the Church of England but I never took that for Protestancy Reader the reason why I have insisted so long on this Head beyond my first intention is threefold 1st to shew W. Penn by his 3 first Books in his Protestant Dress and by his last six with his Mask off in the contrary Dress 2. That by comparing his last six Books with the Quakers Addresses to the late K. J. 11. from their Anniversary Synods you will see they run in one and the
same Channel issuing from one and the same Fountain especially when you consider that from their said yearly Meetings they never made one Address to his present Majesty nor wrot one Book in favour of the present Government 3. That by both their Addresses a Sample of them you 'll have by and by and by their Books they have joyntly and severally born against the Church of England as with one Shoulder Thus have I briefly shewed what a Writer W. P. hath been and how he has bestowed his parts even against the Protestant Interest the Establish'd Religion and the common cause of Christianity and so I conclude this Head SECTION VII Their horrid Blasphemies their Self-exaltations and vain boastings of their Learning c. GEN. Hist p. 165. About this time came forth a Book call'd a Battle-door for Teachers and Professors to learn singular and plural mark'd in every page with the Form Figure of a peny Horn-book The work was neatly done by John Stubs and Benja Furly but Fox who besides his Engglish Tongue knew none of the Languages therein being Thirty in number as Latin Greek Hebrew Caldee Italick Syriac Arabick c. was so desirous to seem to be the Author of this Book and that what ever it contain'd of Industry and Praise-worthiness had its Original from him that he even here and there subscribed his Name to every page and by him confirmed p. 240. George Fox sent a Letter to John III. King of Poland Written originally in English and sent into Holland and there Translated into the German Tongue This Epistle was so Learnedly done that it looked not like the work of a single Person yet so as that they left it to Fox an ignorant Fellow who Subscribed it only Geo. Fox And hence it is apparent that there is no Mind so humble but is apt to be carried away with the Air of vain Glory yea oftentimes applause is most coveted by those who most condemn it in others c. Now Reader tho' my Learned Author and I differ'd about W. Penn in some Points yet in this we agree in every punctilio touching the Pride vain Glory and Ambition of George Fox who was an ignorant Fellow yet would seem to be Author of a Learned Book containing Thirty Languages as also of a Learned Letter sent to John III. King of Poland in both which as well as in divers cases he gave out that himself was some great learnt Man attributing to himself that which he never had which doubtless was the occasion of a discourse rumour'd about our Country about the Year 1663. or 1664. That George Fox had in one nights time 24 Languages given him by Divine Inspiration and I did believe it and divers others of us for near 20 years I also spake to a Quaker now living and still eminent amongst them who told me he ever did believe it until the late divisions Thus by his counterfeit Miracles his gift of Tongues he still like Simon Magus gave out that he was some great Man for thus he wrot in the Introduction viz. All Languages are to me no more than Dust who was before Languages were c. and towards the end of the Book thus next follow a few words to the whole matter by George Fox who is before confusion and many Languages were c. This together with what I elsewhere have quoted out of his Books and Journals shew that he was willing to be esteemed a great Man an old Man a learned Man a wise Man an Angel one that see the Heavens open as St. Stephen did and much more to this purpose By all which it appears that he was a great Deceiver And thus Quakerism grew and by deceit prevail'd in its progress And since this learned Author hath given such a full proof of Fox's Pride who being an Ignorant Fellow as he stiles him and yet desirous to be taken for the Author of the said Battle-door containing Thirty Languages I will give him a third Instance viz. Anno 1659. George Fox puts forth a Book Entituled A Primmer in contempt of Learning for all the Doctors and Scholars in Europe c. wherein are contained 2434 Queries in this Method viz. What is a Participle what is it in it self and by whom it came and out of what Ground And why are these declined who was the First and Author of it and by whom it came And why is the Word called Adverb and what is an Adverb the word it self and who was its rise And why do you call the word Conjunction and who was its rise and why the word Preposition and who was its rise And who was the Author of the word Interjection and what are these two words in themselves and whether or no these did not come by the Art of Man What is a Vowel in it self and what was the word Vowel And what is the word Diphthong and who was the Author of these and where are they called by such Names in Scripture so who was the Author of these Names in themselves and of themselves and came they not from the Art of Man yea or nay Why do you call the word Masculine Feminine Neuter and Epicene and what was the ground of these words in themselves What are they and why do they use the word Declension and what is in the word it self and what was its root And why the word Comparative Positive and Superlative and what be these words as they are words of what Author and Root came they from and who gave them these Terms first who was the first Rise and Author of them c. Thus have I taken out six entire Paragraphs as they lye in the said Primmer but I profess I cannot answer these why then should I cite more I cannot tell who spake these words first no more than I can tell who spake the word to first or spake the word and first and who was the first Rise and Author of the word of which to know is as unnecessary as it is ridiculous to query Well take a few more as they lye scattered up and down the said Primmer What is a Major What is a Minor What is Extraction What is Geometry What is Dog-madness What is Badger-madness and what is Wolf madness c. nay what if I add one query what was Fox-madness and folly and whether was not Pride and Ambition the Author of Fox's Madness answer G. W. Having thus far proceeded I shall next recite a few of Fox's words by way of challenge to the Doctors and Scholars viz. These queries are to call you out into the Field let them come out now to little Children little Davids are risen who have the Bags and the Slings and the Stones yea that profess your selves to be Wise and Learned Men and Scholars and are Novices and Fools Answer me draw out your Weapon if you have any and Answer me these things come out of your holes do not hip nor skip from them answer
I deny and this Light to whom they say all Judgment is committed and which they have in them must be Judge of all controversies and consequently their President which deserves the casting Voice No marvel then that the Quakers are not concern'd to vindicate our Bible against the contempt cast upon it by the Papists as saith the same Josiah Coal ibid. p. 104. I find the rest of his Book i. e. A. S. the Roman Catholick consists of divers Arguments in which he controverts with Sectaries and their Bibles and Ministers whose cause I am not engag'd in therefore it doth not concern me to Answer his Charges against them c. No what neither Sectaries their Bibles nor Ministers Surely tho' he thought himself not engag'd to vindicate the Sectaries nor their Ministers yet if as they pretend to the Parliament they do believe the Scriptures to be Divine and left us by Men Divinely Inspired and that they are a rule of Faith and Behaviour they ought to have vindicated the Bible at least Well but some may say what did this A. S. the Papists call the Bible that they the Quakers think themselves thus unconcern'd to vindicate I Answer 't is his 14th Chapter and which the same Josiah Coal hath printed as an Abettor and Co-workers with him in p. 113. to 116 of his Works The contempt the Papists cast on the Bible and which the Quakers are not at all concern'd to vindicate is viz. Protestant Sectarian Ministers and Preachers who stand in a Pulpit or Tub with such a brazen Fac'd Book as is their unjust corrupt and perverse Bible in their hand c. Oh the deceit of this People What do they pretend to own the Bible only for their own ends to obtain their Liberty and when the Papists vilifie and contemn it and call it a brazen Fac'd Book a corrupt and perverse Book and they not concern'd hereat Well I do still hope that some will be concern'd to vindicate the Holy Bible from the contempt of the Papists calling it a brazen Fac'd Book perverse Book and from the contempt of the Quakers who call it Death Dust Beastly ware Carnal Serpents-meat c. 2. That the Quakers at their Synods make Catalogues of Sufferers for their Religion and what they Suffer and by whom c. I have spoken to this Head largely in the 4th Chapter of the first Part and therein shewed how they boast of their Sufferings how they Augment and make them more than they are yea put them in their Monuments Sufferers 20 l. when they are so far from that that they have gotten 10 l. clear into pocket as in the case of Samuel Cater I have made it appear likewise as my Author says Gen. Hist p. 137. that they amplify their Sufferings viz. A scratch a pinch or a blue spot for a grievous Torment and bloody Wound which may be well observed in most of the Monuments which these Men have left of their Sufferings c. 3. That the Quakers inspect their Books to be printed after approved by their Censors c. From whence let it be noted that if their Books be thus inspected and approved by their approved Censors then are the whole answerable for the Errors contained in those Books and for all the horrible Blasphemies in them But their case is still worse for suppose any one or more of them be moved as he pretends to write a Message Warning or Exhortation to a Nation People or Society as the Word of the Lord God their frequent pretence This Book is first sent up to London for inspection and approbation to one of these Meetings or Synods where their Light is President and made infallible Judge having all Judgment committed to it in Heaven and in Earth this Synod thus Assembled shall afterwards vary the Title and change the Matter to make it harmonize with their design and when this Writer Dyes and leaves 20 or 30 Books thus approved and thus sent abroad the surviving Synod shall take these Books and again alter them put in and take out a second time what they please then re-print them again And what is become of their Infallibility now They had their President at their first inspection what could he not then see and discern clearly but that here must be a new inspection was not their President their Light the same For either the Quakers write as they are moved by the Eternal Spirit of God or they do not if they do then they are equal with the Apostles Writings and then the Judgment denounced Rev. 22. 18 19. If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto them the plagues that are written in this Book And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophesy God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book c. This reward they must expect Again if they do not then are they most horrible Deluders and great Deceivers when they write thus this is the word of the Lord God to you the Inhabitants of Bristol or the like and they believe it not they do not believe the Author to be so moved and commissioned and forasmuch as they served the Works of Edward Burrow W. Smith George Fox Is Pennington so viz. altered added and diminished to my certain knowledge I do thereupon affirm that they are not the Works of Fox Burrow Pennington and Smith but the Quakers in general and they are answerable for their Errors notwithstanding each title assert the same Thus hath Quakerism been carried on thus hath it grown and taken its progress by Cheats Frauds and Hypocrisies 4. About their Womens Meetings and their manner and way of their Female Government Having by my Book de Christiana Libertate c. not only treated at large on this head but also been instrumental thereby in giving that Image a deadly blow insomuch as that in some part of the County of Suffolk as well as in divers other Counties in England there is not a distinct Womans Meeting to be seen nor heard of But yet since 't is mentioned in the Gen. Hist p. 50. They have likewise Meetings like those we call Classes and Provincial and National Synods or Councils These Conventions are celebrated oftner or seldomer as the number of their Churches is but so as to allot each Sex Men and Women their distinct and particular Meetings c. I say since the Relation of their Womens Meetings are here brought to light which many think are so dead and dying as that it 's hard to find one in many places and that by way of commendation as I take it I shall therefore briefly touch upon the principal Heads and Orders both of its novel rise and arbitrary Government and chiefly for this reason because in all the Orders there is not so much as one Scripture proof mentioned to confirm and to
need not here relate what an Influence their first Epistle had and how little the Law was regarded or observed the whole Nation is witness and as to the last about Tythes and Church-warden Rates which the Parliament took care to preserve in their old Channel in the same Law which indulge the Quakers in the exercise of their perswasion yet this very Law they Anno 1696. Charged implicitly with Antichristianism saying p. 1. That all due care be taken against that grand Oppression and Antichristian Yoke of Tythes that our Christian Testimony born and greatly suffered for be faithfully maintained against them in all respects and against Steeple-house-rates or Lays as also against the burthen and imposition of Oaths c. Here we see Tythes are Antichristian and their Testimony Christian a perfect Map of their whole Doctrine the Parliament Antichristian the Quakers Christian the Parliament great Oppressors the Quakers Oppressed tho' they pay no more than their Neighbours the Parliament lay Antichristian Yokes upon the Quakers the Quakers the only Christian sufferers and persecuted People of God whose sufferings and persecutions are greater and more unjust than the sufferings of Christ his Apostles and Martyrs for what was inflicted upon them was duly executed by a Law and to this practice of ours agree that Doctrine of St. Edw. Burrow's as it is written in our Gospel in the Book of our Holy Scriptures which we at all times stand ready to vindicate vulgarly call'd Ed. Burrow's Works p. 501. Witnesses we stand against Parliaments Councels Judges Justices who make and execute Laws in their own wills over the Consciences of Men and to such Laws Customs Courts or Arbitrary Usurped Dominion we cannot yield obedience c. And therefore by this our Anniversary Decree we Ordain and Enact that the Members of all our Monthly and Quarterly Meetings and all other our Associates in every Kingdom Nation and County that adhere to us and believe us to be the universal Church of the First born who cannot err but are led by an infallible Spirit that all and every of our Disciples throw off all these Antichristian Yokes of grand Oppression and from henceforth stand faithful Witnesses against Tythes as Antichristian against Church Rates against lawful Oathes against carrying Guns and this as the Historian says is to go through England and Wales yea all the World over and all that suffer for their Stubborness and Antimagistratical Principles by the same Edict is to be taken into Record who it is that suffer for what cause they suffer and on what account I have not time to set forth the dangerous consequences of these Anniversary Synods when they once gain upon the People that they are the only universal Catholick Church and as such cannot err that as G. Whitehead Teaches the People are to believe as she believes I say on this Doctrine of Infallibity hangs a load of dangers the Parliament say one thing the Anniversary Synod at Devonshire-house another they now argue privately but in time may dispute the Point publickly Infallibility sticks at nothing provided it be for the Holy Church in the Papists Dialect or for Truth 's sake in the Quakers They are Terms Synonymous respecting their Authors and W. Penns Books cited declare plainly how vigorous he was for his near Friends and dear kindred in the late Reign and the Quakers addressed from their Anniversary Synods run in the same Channel and flow from the same Fountain for K. J. II. and against the Church of England there came forth publick Addresses Annually besides Books every Month in favour of the then Government and against the Church But since King William came to the Crown never a publick Anniversary Address to King W. nor one Book wrot in favour of the present Governments as anon will appear And thus Quakerism like the Snake in the Grass creeps on undiscovered or at least little notice taken how she secretly Smites and privately Stings and throws out her Poyson both at Church and State She 'll Arraign Impeach Try Judge Summons Dialogue Condemn both Magistrate and Minister Ruler and People yet if she be but toucht Oh how she winches and giffles up and down crying she 's wrong'd she 's abus'd and all is malice that 's said of her whil'st she takes the liberty to abuse traduce stigmatize and calumniate all other People This is the Temper of this clamorous Woman and tho' I do solemnly profess as in the sight of God Angels and Men I am not for Persecution neither do I desire nor none need to fear that our King and Parliament should follow the French King's example in what is of the nature of Persecution or Cruelty yet on the other hand when they perceive the Ingratitude of this insolent People they probably may take some measures to stop the stream of Heresie which spreads like a Leprosie through the Nation And forasmuch as something that is praise worthy on the French King's part in granting the Ministry of the reformed Churches leave to hold a national Synod and for the exemplariness of the French Protestants zeal for God care of his Church subjection to the Laws according to the Evangelical Doctrine of Christ his Apostles and Martyrs I shall set down a few things worthy observation from the 28 Synod held at Charenton near Paris the 26 day of December 1644. as in the 2 Vol. of John Quick's Hist p. 4. 28. to 437. viz. The Sessions being opened with Prayer the Lord Marquis of Clermont General Deputy presented the Writ given forth by His Majesty's Command for calling the Synod as followeth This day being the 12 of February 1644. the King being then at Paris upon the most humble Petition of his Subjects of the pretended reformed Religion to permit them the calling and holding a national Synod desiring to gratifie and treat favourably his said Subjects hath permitted and doth permit them the Convocation of a national Synod next to Charenton but with this condition that they treat in it of none other matters but of those which he allowed them and that the Commissioner whom His Majesty shall please to appoint be present in the said Synod as hath been accustomed in witness whereof His Majesty hath commanded me to issue out this Writ which he hath Signed with his own Hand and caused it to be counter-signed by me his Commissioner and Secretary of State and of his Command Signed in the Original Lewis and a litt'e lower Phelipeaux The Lord Commissioner unto the Synod Messieurs AS it is a very great honour to me to be Commissionated to assist in your Synod and to acquaint you with his Will and Pleasure so also have I great deal of joy and satisfaction to behold this illustrious Assembly chosen out of all the Provinces of this Kingdom and that I can tell you by word of Mouth which is to assure you of their Majesties good will unto you and protection of you and of all your Churches and
of the entire execution of the Edicts of Pacification so long as you continue your selves within the bounds of your Duty Subjection and Fidelity which you owe unto their Majesties they being the higher Powers set over you by God intrusted with the supreme Authority and your lot and portion being the honour of obedience unto them whereunto you stand obliged by your Birth the dictates of your Consciences and the Favors you daily receive from their Majesties and by all kinds of consideration both general and particular and observe it I beseech you as a singular mark of their Majesties Favor unto you that there be of your Religion in the Kingdom Persons of the highest Quality There be amongst you most Noble and Illustrious Dukes and Peers Mareschals of France Generals of Armies Magistrates and Judges of Sovereign Courts and their Majesties now this very day out of their great confidence they have of your Loyalty and Fidelity have granted you this Assembly at the very Gates of the Metropolis of this Kingdom in the very face and view of all France and of this infinite People of Paris vastly different from you in Manners and Humours Inclination and Religion who will be severe Witnesses and Judges over all your Actions And that all things may be done in that Order prescribed me by their Majesties I am in their Names commanded to acquaint you that all Ministers who are not Natural born Subjects but Strangers are to be excluded this Synod and that none may assist to Vote in it who hath not Letters of Deputation from his Provincial Synod and that during the time it be held you may have no Communication with Forreigners or other suspected Persons and forasmuch as your Assemblies are not by any legal constitution a Body Politick their Majesties have forbidden you to meddle in State Affairs or matters of Justice because your Synod hath no power to judge of such matters but only to treat of Points of Doctrine and Church Discipline Moreover their Majesties do forbid you to print any Books in any place whatsoever concerning your Religion which are not attested i. e. licensed by two manuel Certificates of two Ministers at the least under pain of confiscation of the whole Impression nor may you denounce any excommunication against any Minister or others who shall change their Religion for that of the Roman Catholicks nor treat them reproachfully neither by Word nor Writing Moreover when they speak of the Pope they are not to call him Antichrist nor to treat him disrespectfully nor shall they tax the Roman Church with Idolatry nor the Sacraments nor Ceremonies thereof as humane Inventions and Idolatry c. Nor to make Collections of Money The Moderator's Answer We thankfully acknowledge the great Goodness and Mercy of Almighty God in answering the Prayers of his poor Churches with his heavenly Blessing and their Majesties condescention in accepting our most humble Petition presented by the Lords of our general Deputies and granting us this privilege of holding this Synod and committing the inspection of it unto a Person most Illustrious for his Vertues and well deserving that high Place of Dignity and Honour in the first and chiefest Parliament of the Kingdom All these and many other considerations do enforce our Souls with a sweet and pleasing violence to break forth into enlarged Praises and enflamed Thankfulness unto their Majesties yea and in most ardent Supplications unto our God for the preservation of their Sacred Persons his Benediction upon their Government the Glory of their Crowns under whose comortable shadows the Churches enjoying a sweet Peace will never have any other desire or thought than to practice faithfully and conscientiously that most express command of our Lord and Saviour by his Apostle St. Peter to fear God and honour the King and that with a most entire and sincere obedience And as we have no design to do it so we shall never admit any persons to sit as a Member of our National Synod who hath not a Deputation c. nor shall we hold any correspondency with nor receive any Letters coming from Forreigners nor return any answers to them unless that my Lord Commissioner who represents His Majesty's Person shall have first perused them nor will we debate about matters of State nor make any Orders in relation to them nor shall we set up Provincial Counsels in opposition to His Majesty's Will nor as His Majesty hath demanded of us will we suffer those Canons of our National Synods concerning the approbation of Books that shall be printed on matters of Religion to be violated nor shall we excommunicate any of those Persons who quit the Communion of our Churches for we do not arrogate to our selves any Jurisdiction over them from that minute in which they left us nor shall we tollerate any Sermons fraught with any injurious and reproachful Language against the Members of the Church of Rome nor suffer that Monies be collected c. Thus Reader you see the Protestants ask and the King grants the King limits them sets them bounds the Protestants promise to obey 1. Not to admit Strangers to sit in their Synods 2. Nor to hold correspondency with Forreigners 3. Nor will they debate about State matters 4. Nor make any Orders relating to them 5. Nor print Books unlicens'd 6. Nor excommunicate Persons that quit their Society for they do not arrogate to themselves such a power nor conceive themselves the only true Church in the World like the old Strumpet and the young Harlot 7. Nor will they tollerate any Sermons or Books fraught with injurious and reproachful Language nor will they suffer Money to be collected which as it 's called the Sinew of War so it may be called the Nerve of Heresie I hope to such as will read this Book and others I have wrote will not stand in need of proof that the Quakers are guilty of all that the Christians are herein said to be thus innocent of Having shewed the danger of the Quakers Anniversary Synods upon their Principle of Infallibility read Mat. 22. 21. Tit. 3. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 13 14 17. Rom. 13. 1 2 3. and Tindal's Works i. e. The obedience of a Christian Man c. p. 111. viz. For God hath made the King in every Realm Judge over all he that resisteth the King resisteth God if the Subjects Sin they must be brought to the King's Judgment if the King Sin he must be brought to the Judgment of God and as it is to resist the King so it is to resist his Officers which are sent to execute the King's Commandment for it is written let every Soul be subject to the higher Power here is no Man exempt but all Souls must obey and so I proceed to the next Head 7. Gen. Hist p. 110. The Quakers also could not but love him King William and Embrace him as their most Effectual Defender without the hindrance or fear of Molestation HEre I find my Author as
People may be heartily thankful yet it plainly appears that your Leaders and Teachers and Anniversary Synods are of another mind for had you been as hearty and zealous for the present Government as in point of gratitude you should and ought to have been your People had not been so divided and so confused touching the Protestant interest as now they are the sad and evil Effects of which must and will be laid at your doors Consider what is said repent and amend your ways for this Government and the Protestant Interest are so link'd together that those who are not true to the one cannot be true to the other whatever their pretences are or may be This I wrot and caused it to be printed and dispersed as a Testimony against their lukewarmness to the present Government and their Zeal to and for the late Reign as this Section and Sections 5 6 do make plainly appear Obj. But possibly some may object that these are private Addresses by some few particulars and be ready to demand whether they ever made a publick Anniversary Address that thereby they might in all Kingdoms shew their Loyalty to the late King c. Ans Yea that they did and that it may more evidently appear that William Penn's Books mention'd in Section V. VI. run in the same channel I will write part of their said Anniversary Address Anno 1688. viz. The humble Address of the People call'd Quakers from their yearly Meeting the 6th of the Month called June 1688. viz. We the Kings peaceable Subjects from divers parts of his Dominions being met together in this City after our usual manner to inspect the affairs of our Christian Society throughout the World think it our Duty humbly to represent to him the blessed Effects the Liberty he has graciously granted his People to worship God according to their Consciences hath had both on our Persons and Estates for whereas we formerly had long and sorrowful Lists brought to us from almost all parts of his Territories of Prisoners and the spoil of Goods by violent and ill Men upon account of Conscence We bless God and thank the King the Goals are every where clear except in cases of Tythes and the repairs of Parish Churches and some few about Oaths and we do in all Humility lay it before the King to consider the hardships our Friends are yet under for Conscience sake in those respects being in the one chiesly expos'd to the present Anger of the offended Clergy who have therefore imprisoned some of them till death and in the other they are rendered very unprofitable to the publick and themselves for both in reference to Freedoms in Corporations Probats of Wills and Testaments and Administrations Answers in Chancery and Exchequer Tryals of our just Titles and Debts proceeding in our Trades in the Custome house serving the Office of Constables c. They are disabled and great advantages taken against them unless the King's Favour do interpose and as we humbly hope he may relieve us so we confidently assure our selves he will ease us what he can Now since it hath pleased thee O King to renew to all thy Subjects by thy last Declaration thy gracious Assurances to pursue the Establishment of this Liberty and Property upon an unalterable Foundation and in order to it to hold a Parliament in Nov. next at farthest we think our selves deeply engaged to renew our assurances of Fidelity and Affection and with God's help intend to do our part for the effecting so blessed and glorious a Work that so it may be out of the power of any one party to hurt another upon the account of Conscience And as we firmly believe that God will never desert this righteous cause of Liberty nor the King in maintaining of it so we hope by God's Grace to let the World see we can honestly and heartily appear for Liberty of Conscience and be inviolably true to our own Religion whatever the Folly or Madness of some Men on that account may suggest to the contrary These are the sayings of their Anniversary Synod Here you see is nothing wanting but bended knees here is in all Humility in all Fidelity with all Affection yea all all all all Prayers for him for long Life for a prosperous Reign Laud and Praise in the highest for his Deliverance for the defeating his Enemies the excluders yea it would be too long to enumerate them Besides Book after Book in favour of the Government and Letter after Letter printed and dispersed a first a second and a third for the repealing the Penal Laws and Tests that so the Papists might sit in Parliament to Establish them a new Order even St. George's Order as compleatly as their Grandfather Ignatius Loyola had his Order confirmed by the Popes Bulls October 3d. Anno 1540 as at large set forth in a Discourse concerning the Idolatry of the Church of Rome c. p. 281. But God in his righteous Judgment deserted their King their Cause and will in time more fully discover their Order to be of the same tendency and carried on by the same Holy cheats that Ignatius Loyola's Order of the Jesuits was And so much briefly to shew how Quakerism grew and after what manner it made its progress and how they bent their strength against the Protestant Interest Church of England and all Orthodox Religion But Reader did you ever hear of an Anniversary Address to King William No such matter Did you ever see a Book put forth in favour of the present Government No such matter no no 't is as in my printed Letter 1690. above recited No Salutation no Message no Prayer for nor no Address to King William III from this their yearly Synod nor a Book wrot in favour of the Government no in all Humility no in all Affection no publick Prayers for his long and prosperous Reign no Laud and Praise that his Enemies are defeated here is no no no no. Come George Whitehead and foreman of your Anniversary Synod what can you say for your selves Why are you mute Why have you not brought forth one publick Anniversary Synodical Address this seven years nor publick Prayers or are you still like those we read on 1 Sam. 10. 27. But the children of Beliel said how shall this man save us and they despised him and brought him no presents no Prayers no Addresses but the King held his peace But that I may not leave out one cluster of the Quakers Vine by which Quakerism has been nourished I shall now mention a notable passage to discover the Quakers aversion to the present Government viz. The Widow Whitrow formerly a Quaker wrot a Book in favour of the Government about four years since but it did so cross the Quakers current that they made an Order for the calling it in and suppressing the same the which I have together with their not addressing His present Majesty more largely handled in my Book New Rome unmask'd p. 26.
yet none must say why do they so but it must be accounted malicious and yet how tender are these Men of their own blasphemous Books and defamatory Libels insomuch that as I am willing to note some things from the French King so would I have some observe the Quakers method in this matter for their example and not suffer the Holy Scripture the Book of Common Prayer the Christian Magistracy and Ministry to be thus contemned vilifyed and set at naught by this irreligious spawn of the Jesuits and so I conclude this matter and subscribe my Name Fra. Bugg Sen. January the 28th 1696. A Supplement to the former History containing a further correction of the learned Croese's General History of Quakerism GEN. Hist p. 62. ' They the Quakers condemn no Man till they hear him c. My Author the Historian is now so far besides the matter and gives a Relation so contrary to their practice that He and I must part again for I may not keep company with him at present but I must shew him his mistakes 1st In general They Summons all Archbishops Lordbishops Deans Prebends Doctors Vicars Curates and all Prelaticals as this Book sets forth at large not personally but fictiously and when this is done they Arraign Try and Judge them unheard to be Monsters Witches Devils Antichrists Bloodhounds Conjurers and false Prophets but to come closer to matter of fact viz. Particularly about the Year 1676. A difference happen'd between me and Sam. Cater and one of their Speakers touching a Fine of 15 l. which I suffered for him for that his Name and Habitation was unknown to the Justices so as to levy a Fine upon his Goods and Chattels and in regard I thought it but reasonable that he should make me restitution and also finding by their Books that in the loss of 13550 l. by Fines and Distresses by an Act of Parliament made the 22 of King Charles II. Entituled An Act to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles c. The Preachers where strangers never lost 50 l. and thereupon not barely for my own sake but my Fellow Hearers I prosecuted Sam. Cater for restitution of the said 15 l. suffered for him as aforesaid in that he did not declare his Name and Habitation when he saw the Informers convicting the Meeting as at large set forth in my Book The painted Harlot both Stript and Whipt c. and that Entituled Reason against Railing c. and to which I refer the Reader for further satisfaction Yet to shew that they condemn Persons unheard and that their judicial proceedings are Arbitrary and Partial as well as Illegal and therein like the high Court of Justice which would not permit King Charles I. to give his Reasons nor to be heard in his just defence as at large in The History of Independancy c. I shall transcribe some passages of that Transaction viz. Anno 1676. I went to the Yearly Meeting in London and in the Face of their Assembly I proposed this Question viz. Whether Friends in the Ministry where they are strangers ought not to tell their Names and Habitations upon their apparent sight of Informers coming into the Meeting taking the Names of Friends in order to convict the Meeting that so they may stand in the same capacity relating to sufferings with the Hearers and not the Ministers in one capacity free from Sufferings and the Hearers in another capacity i. e. always lyable to Sufferings and not for themselves only but also for the Meeting-houses for the Poor and Indigent for Strangers and Forreigners and for the Preachers unless they declare their Names and Places of Abode c. This was such an unexpected and terrifying Question that it set the Synod on Fire and startled the most Eloquent Orator of them all insomuch that W. Penn steps upon a Form and adjourned the Meeting to Horsly-down Meeting-house in Southwark the next day at 7 in the Morning where after some private debate it terminated thus that unless a Magistrate or a Constable with his Staff came to a Meeting to demand the Speaker's Name and Habitation he was at his liberty whether to declare it or no upon which finding which way the Hare run I came home and the Month of September following I gave Sam. Cater a personal Summons to appear at our Monthly Meeting next following at Chattirise in the Isle of Ely where I demanded Justice against Sam. Cater but the Meeting refused and rejected my Reasons and then I appealed from thence to the Quarterly Meeting as Superior but that Meeting also thro' the influence of Sam. Cater refused to do me right Then I appealed from thence to the Yearly Meeting Anno 1677. as Superior to them all and as a preparatory for my matter I wrot seven sheets of Paper to W. Penn called Speeches and Passages grounded upon an Edict made at the Yearly Meeting Anno 1675. Whereby the Hearers were obliged neither to forsake decline nor remove their Meetings like worldly fearful and Cowardly Professors and on that bottom and for divers reasons grounded thereupon I set forth the reasonableness that the Preachers who thus advise and enjoyn the Hearers and exhort them to stand valiant and give up all should likewise stand the brunt and not shrink and turn back like Cowardly Officers and become the same worldly and politick Professors they advise us not to be like I also wrot a Letter to W. Penn J. Crook and R. Barkley referring the matter in controversy to them Thus being prepar'd I went to the Yearly Meeting Anno 1677. and after some discourse with W. Penn to give him his due he used great diligence to get me a Meeting which was at Ed. Man's House in Bishops-gate-street June 9th 1677. and there we came to this Agreement viz. Memorandum That on condition that Friends of the Quarterly Meeting do chuse and elect 10 or 12 Friends to hear and determine the controversy between F. B. and S. C. relating to the 15 l. Fine c. They the said F. B. and S. C. do hereby promise to stand to their final determination witness our Hands this 9th of June 1677. Fra. Bugg Sam. Cater Witnesses Jo. Whitehead G. Barnadiston W. Whaley Jo. Burnyate Amb. Rigg Leo. Fell and others But when the Quarterly Meeting came which was the 5th of Sept. 1677. I call'd for the written agreement but Sam. Fulbig with whom it was entrusted being Sam. Cater's Creature would not produce it neither would Sam. Cater allow that the Meeting should chuse any but themselves Moreover the Meeting resolved against any other Election but themselves by which I perceived their design but being tired with an endless prosecution I at last tho very unwillingly submitted to the Meeting who chose 12 out of themselves to examine the matter and to put an end to the controversy contrary to the condition of the recited agreement which only impower'd the said Quarterly Meeting to chuse and elect and not to judge
together in the presence of many Witnesses and a Record in Writing witnessing the Day Place and Year Subscribed by Witnesses A Fourth Order for Marriage At a Quarterly Meeting in Hadenham in the Isle of Ely 1st of the 10th Month 1675. viz. It is ordered and agreed upon at this Quarterly Meeting that no Friends for time to come may permit or suffer marriages without the consent of Friends at two Mens and Womens Meetings and the Man and Woman to come both to the said Meetings to receive the answer of Friends that so no disorderly and indirect proceedings may be carried on any more contrary to the unity of Friends c. From whence several things are observable First their alteration in Judgment about taking money for Recording at first none now 50 l. per Ann. if they say there is more work there is more Persons to do it so that if it was criminal at first 't is criminal still Secondly at first they might publish at the market-cross or they might not as their Light bids them but now they are not permitted so to do but must come to their mens and womens distinct Meetings in manner and Form All liberty is taken away and imposition and forms erected amongst them which in others they condemned But it was but whil'st they could graft themselves into a Government for I. A. took his Wife according to the 3 former Orders but transgressing this last he was excommunicated or declared out of their unity for nonconformity I shall shew that and then conclude this Head At a Quarterly Meeting in Hadenham the 4th of the 7th month 1678. We at this Quarterly meeting having the business of John Ainsloe's taking his Wife contrary to the Order of Friends brought before us and Friends having several times spake to him about it and he not giving Friends satisfaction we do testify that we have no union with him in this his so doing c. Here is Liberty given and Liberty taken away an Order that nothing should be paid in money for Recording marriages c. and now common They formerly cryed out against Forms and now impose Forms and enjoyn a conformity to them and for non-submission Record out of the unity which is all they yet can do when they can do more look for it they will do more and this time will manifest A Postscript by way of Dialogue READER by the First Part of this Book I have set forth the Quakers claim to their Tytle to be the true Church of the First Born and from their Books have proved the contrary as also cleared the Magistracy from the Odium of Persecution And by the second part I have Historically treated of the Rise Growth and Progress of Quakerism shewing not so much the Names and Handicraft Professions of that People the Places of their abode with some other particulars thereabout the same being excellently well done by the Author of the General History of the Quakers but how and by what means Quakerisme hath advanced and therein have modestly corrected the said Historian and shewed him his mistakes in many things as also corroborated and strengthened him wherein he is right and now I am come for diversion's sake by way of Dialogue to handle some points relating to both Parts in which I shall suggest nothing but what I stand ready to make appear And this familiar Discourse between Thomas a Preacher and Benjamen their Clark I shall endeavour further to illustrate the matter in hand viz. Teacher Friend Benjamen how dost thee do I am glad to see thee prethee let us smoke a Pipe and drink a Glass and have a little serious Discourse about the affairs of Truth and let us be free for who can argue these points better than we Clark Friend Thomas with all my Heart let us go to Jacob Francklins for there is a glass of good Claret known by all and many of the World's People come thithet which is a demonstration I know you travel from East to West from North to South and from one Nation to another like our Grandfather Ignatius Loyola Teacher Drawer bring us a Bottle of good Claret and 2 or 3 Pipes I profess Benjamen I am glad to see thee and how goes things relating to Truth Clark Pretty well here away only here are some Apostate Quakers that are like thorns in our sides who hinder the progress of Truth and seem to follow the steps of Luther and others who you know were great Enemies to our elder Sister Rome However there is but few that go from us prove Champions for the cause of others against us yet I must confess G. Keith hath done us more hurt than any that ever went from us for he does charge us boldly without fear of us or our power with these Four things 1. To deny Faith in Christ as he dyed outwardy Suffering without the Gates of Jerusalem to our Salvation 2. Justification and Sanctification by the Blood of Christ outwardly shed 3. The Resurrection of the Body that dyed 4. And that we deny Christ's coming outwardly in his glorify'd Body to Judge both the quick and the dead and the general day of Judgment as in his Narrative p. 14. And I perceive the Apostate Christians are generally pleased with this his Work both Episcopalians Presbyterians Independants and Baptists for they all acknowledge and confess to all these Points tho' in some things they differ each from others and to be plain with you I fear there is too much truth in what G. Keith says pray how is it in Barbadoes Merryland East and West Jersy Pensilvania Burmodoes Antego Mevis Holland and other parts where you Travel holding forth Truth Teacher I do acknowledge that our Friend Barkly in his Anarchy p. 16. saith I find Professors make but small boasting of any Proselites they get from us I hear little of their proving Champions for the Principles of others against us c. But to be plain they so far prevail that I find G. Whitehead the cunningest Writer we have except Friend Penn and Ellwood is hardly able to encounter them and to be free with you G. Keith hath proved such a Champion for them and against us as that the City and Country as well as parts beyond the Sea ring of his same for he has lighted such a candle as we cannot blow out nor extinguish the light thereof for both he and others produce matter of Fact from our Books which none of us if we would speak truth can deny so that to deal freely I am of your mind I fear there is too much truth in their Allegations against us on those four Heads which are such four Fundamentals held by the Apostate Christians and so proved by the Letter which they call the word of God that I know not what to think of these things Clark Pray what think you of George Fox's Miracles mentioned in his Journal some talk strangely of them especially Fra. Bugg and this I observe
Prelaticals Here is the Womb of your Conception opened c. Now Brother Ben. all these things considered what reason had our dear Brother in Iniquity G. Whitehead to presume had not he been Impudent as well as Presumptuous That the Government should so far tolerate us and not Assist G. Keith who hold all the Essential Points of the Christian Faith that the Men of the World hold viz. First That Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as he Suffered and rose again from the Dead is necessary to our Salvation Secondly That Justification and Sanctification is by Faith in the Blood of Christ outwardly shed being applyed by Faith and the Operation of his Holy Spirit in us Thirdly That after Death there will be a Resurrection of the Body that dyeth Fourthly And that Christ will come without us in his Glorified Body at the Day of Judgment to Judge both the Quick and the Dead and whose Principles lead him to submit to Authority witness his keeping the Fast appointed by King William April 28. 1697. When our Brethrens Shops were open in Submission to the Commandment of our great Apostle G. Fox I say all these things considered I cannot but marvel at our Brother Whitehead's Presumption not to say Impudence really Brother Ben. I am perswaded we loose Ground and I fear we are going downwards and that our fall will be speedy unless we sincerely Retract our Scandalous Books and Erroneous Writings and though our Brother Whitehead neither consult Events nor fear Effects I think it will stand us in hand to look about us So that we have little reason to boast of being Recognized Protestants by such as we account Christians and whom we would not tolerate no more then we would Tolera Papists or such as Worship false Gods as this Book of ours Teach Clark Fifthly Well come 't is not very late and since we are entred into Discourse let us talk freely I will warrant thee that John Pennyman George Keith Francis Bugg and Thomas Crisp before they left us have had many an Hours Discourse of this Kind pray then what think you of G. Whitehead is he not very bold to send out the Quakers Protestation against the meeting appointed by G. Keith And therein to be so Presumptuous as to suggest that G. Keith had not License of the Civil Authority as if he knew the Lord Mayors Place and Power better than himself Teach I Answer G. Whitehead was not only Bold but Impudent But what shall I say I have of late seen his Books and considered them and 't is like him every way I remember I saw a Friend that was lately in the North and saw his House where he was born not worth Fifty Shillings I Discoursed another that said he came among us a poor Boy on foot and lived upon Alms yet lately Riding out of Town he had Ben. Antrobus to ride before him and Tho. Kent one of our Ministers worth many Hundreds of Pounds rod behind him carrying his Portmantel and he in State in the mdidle like some Peer which answers the Old Proverb set a Beggar on Horseback and he knows not how to Ride Again for us that account the Church of England the Whore of Babylon and Antichristians Summon the Bishops Dialogue the Clergy Arraign Try and Condemn the Protestants and declare in our Books that t is as Laudable to tolerate Popery as Episcopacy And after all this to presume that the Government thus Condemned will so stand by us Assist us and Defend us as not to have our Errors exposed this is such Presumption and manifest Impudence that I presume hath not a Parallel Clark Well but I have heard that in Scotland as well as in France that the Government do not permit the Presbyterians to hold a Synod unless they have a Commissioner Recide therein but I confess we are above that First we scorn to ask the World's People leave for we once a Year in Whitson-Week hold a Synod keep our Doors Lock'd or else a good Guard to keep out the World's People and when we are met we consider what Laws the Worldly Magistrates have made which sute not with our Light within And if we find any for paying Tythes or Repairing Churches or the like them we give warning to all our Associates through the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed not to pay to them but Testifie against them as a Grand viz. a great Oppression and not only so but which is ten times worse an Antichristian Yoke and thereby Absolve our Disciples from their Obedience to the Laws of the Land And if the King himself give forth a Proclamation to keep a Fast we matter it no more than we do their Law for Tyth's they being both against the Commandment of George Fox our great Apostle see part the first p. 12. Now the Question is whether this be not great Impudence Teach Answer yea and if I do answer I must say yea but 't is like all our Proceedings For First our Books teach that George Fox was Glorified at Lancaster Assize 1664. That none knew him nor his Name that he was before Languages were part the first p. 38. That he see the Heavens opened that he was in the Paradise of God so fill'd with Power having on his Leather Bretches that the World's People did fly before him that in Beverly Church he was like an Angel and spoke the Wonderful things of God The Voice of God came to a Trooper and bid him go to G. Fox for Direction F. Howgill said of him that he spake with Authority and not like the Scribes Jos Cole said his Kingdom was Established in Righteousness and of the Increase thereof there shall be no end Sol. Eccles said of him the World was made by him John Audland said Dear and Precious one in whom my Life is bound up and my Strength in thee stands Then he went through the City of Litchfield baresoot crying wo wo to the Bloody City of Litchfiield I saw in the Street a Pole of Blood c. and a hundred Lyes Stories and Fables and pretended Miracles in his Journal c. And for us to think that the Government will be against the Discovery of these and the like Errors no let us not be mistaken I am truly Brother Ben. afraid that G. Keith Francis Bugg Thomas Crisp and others follow us up so to the Heels as at last we shall be forced either to Retract our Errors or do worse and then we shall go down faster then we got up And so fare thee well till I see the next Volume of G. Fox I must go hence 't is late The Conclusion Christian Reader I think the Friends have spoke more truth in a corner in two or three hours time than all their Leaders have Preached this 20 years But say some if these things be so in very deed how came they to obtain so many and frequent Favours of the Government I Answer
because the Parliament do not know them no more than Constantius knew the Hypocrisy of the Arrians who at length thro' their subtle delusions and fair pretences prevail'd and got the Pulpit and the Orthodox banished and I have heard some fear the like consequence respecting the Quakers But let such be satisfied that Quakerism is at the heighth and begins to tumble and our Governours both of Church and State begin to see them I remember that in 1693. They were very fair to obtain a Bill for their solemn Affirmation to go for an Oath but when I deliver'd in my sheet shewing their Principles in two hours time it was thrown out and as Col. Goldwell told me there was not a Man appeared for them and when I came to London March 1696. some worthy Members of the Commons House chid me for not coming sooner saying they wanted matter of Fact adding that the Quakers frequent and unwearied Sollicitation prevail'd with too many worthy Gentlemen who understand not their undermining Principles However much good may their obtained Bill do 'em since the 10 l. clause is in and they barr'd from any place of Trust so much as of being Constable And whereas their judgment is whatever is more than yea yea and nay nay cometh of evil and is Swearing yet now they must call God to witness c. which is indeed not less nor more than an Oath and this pleases some of them that could Swear before but some it displeases who say the Act do them no good for whatever is more than yea yea nay nay is swearing Well but may some say have not the Quakers Merrited the favour bestowed on them yea by the rule of contraries for the Quakers have Recogniz'd the Parliament Antichrists the Beast that carry the Whore and that it 's as commendable to give Liberty of Conscience to the Papists nay to a People that worship false Gods graven Images c. as to tollerate Episcopacy the false Church whose Bowels they have ripped up adding that the Common Prayer Book is Popery and from the Loyns of the Pope receiv'd its Strength c. And the Parliament have as they pretend and often boast Recogniz'd them Protestant Dissenters give them their Liberty without any restraint but how not knowing them nor their Principles but as Constantius was are mistaken in them whose Books and Carriages are of two sorts I remember the last Whitsuntide in Northcoat's Shop in George-yard Lombard-street W. Mead the great Quaker asked me if I broke Bread with the Church of England I said yea what said he dost thou lick up thy old Vomit I 'll warrant you he said no such word to the Worthy Members of the House of Commons nor to the Bishops of the Church no no as their Books carry two different Faces so do their Carrage and if it be Criminal to conceal Treason against my natural Prince what is it to conceal these Impostors who undervalue the Death and Sufferings of Christ condemn his Laws despise his Ordinances revile his Magistrates and reproach his Ministers which I hope this Book fully sets forth and which I stand ready to prove out of their Books upon G. W.'s Proposition to the Parliament as cited by me in the First Part p. 123. And until they do so meet and if proved upon them then Retract them they are not to be believed tho' in their Meetings they like the Magitians in Moses's time may make the likeness of the same Confession and Profession that G Keith and others do as well as in their late Books yet while their other Books which teach the contrary stand uncondemned the Quakers are Quakers still and their Principles diametrically opposite to all Christians Saints and Martyrs in all Ages and they ought to be guarded against as Enemies to Church and State May 5. 97. F. E. A Short Map of Quakerism Reader HAving since the foregoing was Printed off seen a Book Entituled Some Seasonable Reflections upon the Quakers Protestation against the Proceedings at Turners-hall April 29. 1697. c. Wrote by an Ingenious Hand Wherein the said Author marvels as well he may that the Quakers should Accuse G. Keith for Invading of Property who themselves hold it no Sin to Invade the Properties of others as in the Case of Tyth's which are as much the Property 's of the Clergy Confirmed by Act of Parliament as any Man's Estate in England nay not only so but as the Author well observes in other things from several Particulars which G. Fox c. sent to the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England Printed 1659. p. 8. 32. Particular viz. Let all those Fines that belong to Lords of Mannors be given to the Poor for Lords have enough Particular 29. Let all those Abby-lands Gleab-lands that is given to the Priests be given to the Poor of the Nation let all the Abby's Steeple-houses and Whitehall be for Alms-houses for the Blind and the Lame to be there And in the fore mentioned Address to the Parliament 1659. Subscribed by above 7000 Quakers p. 59. 63 and 65. They require that the Late King as these Rebels Stil'd him his Rents Parks and Houses should be Sold and all the Colledges and Lands and the very Bells out of the Churches except one in a Town to give notice of Fire c. This was no Invading of Property in them but for G. Keith or any others to Detect their Errors this is Incroaching upon their Properties as English-men yea forsooth Persecution But say's Edward Burrough in his Word of Advice to the Souldiers p. 2. Give the Priests Blood to drink for they are worthy Slay Baal turn the Hirelings out of the Kingdom c. Here was no design of Persecution or hurting any Man's Property or of Reviling and Blemishing the Reputation of Free-born English-men and exposing them to the Fury of the Mob to the Scorn Contempt and Rage of the mixt Multitude who are Unmeet to Judge of Religious Controversies as these Meek Lambs the Quakers urge against G. Keith in their Protestation c. And that they are not chang'd see their last Yearly Epistle 1696. Wherein they Exhort their Disciples not to be mov'd at the Objections against their Doctors But to hold up the Holy Testimony of Truth which hath made us say they a People to God and Preserved us unto this Day And that in all the parts of it for Truth is one and changes not and what it convinc'd us of to be Evil in the beginning it Reproves still c. i. e. The Church of England and all the Magistrates Kings Lords and Commons to be Serpents Devils and Scarlet-coloured Beasts c. For Truth is one say they and changes not i. e. Quak. who are and always have been in the Truth have not chang'd at all since the beginning So that 't is plain that as they are the same still so have they made themselves answerable for all that have been said by them since their
this very Testimony from this Great Prophet of theirs Printed 1659. and Reprinted in 1672. by Whitehead and the Chief Quakers Approbation and at the same time too when the Quakers were seeking Favour was such a piece of Impudence as Arius never had But to proceed to my 4th and last Head proposed viz. Who are in the Quakers Account True and Orthodox Preachers since all that Baptise with Water all that Study the Scriptures and Preach out of them all that Preach Christ without as he is in Heaven above all that take Receive or pay Tyth's are false Ministers Witches Devils c. In a word all not Quakers for so they affirm The Quakers Challenge c. p. â— Come Protestants Presbyterians Independents and Baptists the Quakers deny you all p. 3. The Quakers are in the Truth and none but they c. And therefore 't is highly necessary to know who they account true Preachers which are these that follow viz. 1. Such as Teach that the Name of Christ belong to every Member of the Body as well as to him that Suffered at Jerusalem that his Body was but a Vail a Garment c. and which they can never call Christ that his Person was no more to his Disciples then another Person but for the sake of the Spirit Frame and Temper that dwelt in him his Disciples loved him that Christ is not God and Man in one Person For Proof hereof see Is Pennington's Question to Professors c. p. 20. to 33. Will Bayly's Works p. 300. 307. The Sword of the Lord Drawn c. p. 5. 2. Such as deny the Blessed Trinity see W. Penn's Sandy Foundation c. p. 15. to 20. and W. Penn's Christian Quaker and his Dev. Testimony p. 98. 3. Such as Teach that the Scriptures are Dust Death Serpents Food that the Sacraments are Dust that Matthew Mark Luke and John are Serpents Meat Dust and Beastly Ware and such as propose it doubtful whether Moses or Hermes was the 1st Pen-man of the Scripture and whether some of it was not spoke by the Grand Imposter some by Wicked Men some by Wise Men ill Applyed some by Good Men ill Expressed some by False Prophets and yet True some by True Prophets and yet False for Proof see The Quakers Refuge Fixed c. p. 17. News coming out of the North c. p. 14. David's Enemies Discovered c. p. 7. 4. Such as Teach that the Scriptures are not the Word of God and that so to Affirm is Blasphemy See G. Fox's Book Stiled Firebrands c. 2 part p. 159. Printed 1678. and his Great Mist c. p. 240. Printed 1659. 5. Such who Teach that the Quakers Writings are the Word of God given forth by the Eternal Spirit of God that we may as well burn the Scriptures as their Books Papers and Queries That if ever we own the Prophets Christ or the Apostles we will own their Books that what is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures and Chapters are and greater for Proof See Truth 's Defence c. p. 2. 104 107. Fox's his Answer to the Westmorland Petitioners c. p. 3. both Printed 1653. likewise G. Whitehead's Serious Apology c. p. 49. A Brief Discovery c. p. 8. Several Papers given forth for spreading Truth c. p. 40. 6. Such as Teach that Water Baptism is no Ordinance of God but an Institution of the Whore of Rome And that the Practice of it is Idolatry and that such are bewitched to accept of those two Institutions of Christ Baptisme and the Lord's Supper For Proof News coming up out of the North c. p. 34. 35. A Musick Lecture p. 25. Burrough's Works p. 51. 518. William Smith's Primmer p. 36. 7. Such as Teach that the Quakers Sufferings are greater and more unjust than the Sufferings of Christ his Apostles and all the Marters since That the Sufferings Inflicted upon Christ his Apostles and Martyrs were chiefly done by a Law and in a great part by the due Execution of a Law see Burrough's Works p. 273. Behold Reader not only how they Magnifie their Sufferings the Blasphemy of their Doctors But the horrible Lye far exceeding that of Mahomet's Journey to Heaven as at large in that Learned Treatise Wrote by Dr. Prideaux Arch-deacon of Suffolk Entituled The Nature of an Imposture in the Life of Mahomet c. Printed 1697. Sold by W. Rogers at the Sun in Fleetstreet London 8. Such as Teach and leave it upon Record to Posterity that they Suffer 20 l. at a time for Preaching when they not only not suffer a penny but get ten pound clear by the Bargain as in this Book at large shewed in the Instance of that Self magnifying Teacher of theirs Samuel Cater of Little Port in the Isle of Ely See The lamentable Cry of Oppression c. p. 40. to the end Hadenham old Records c. 9. Such as Teach that the very Christ of God is within us his Sufferings within us that his offering himself as a Sacrifice is within us and by the scope of their Ancient Testimony deny him that was nail'd to the Cross Pierced c. to be Christ which their Light never was c. See Burrough's Works c. p. 149. W. Smith's Primmer p. 8. 9. and his Catechism p. 57. to 60. 10. Such as Teach that the Quakers have a a Spirit given them beyond all the Fore-fathers and thereby know who are Saints who are Devils and who are Apostates without speaking ever a word and that none need to give the Quakers Discerning or Judgment for Christ i. e. their Light doth furnish them at all times and on all occasions see G. Fox's Great Mist. p. 89. Judas and the Jews c. p. 58. 11. Such as Teach and that truly too that the Quakers are raised contrary to all Men yea ever since Noah's Flood and that they have given their Power only to God and that they cannot seek that 's a grand Lie the Parliament can bear me witness to outward Authority But stand Witness against Parliaments that 's true Judges Justices and to such Laws Customs Courts c. they cannot yield Obedidience that the Quakers Kingdom is from above and that they reject the Beasts Authority i. e. the Parliament and the Dragons Power And that the Quakers are gather'd up into the Life which the Holy Men of God lived in That they i. e. Quakers are fallen from the World and it's Ways and Nature That even the Father oh dreadful Blasphemy bears Witness of them and therefore their Witness is true Alluding as in many other Cases to Equalize themselves to Christ John 5. 32. There is another that beareth witness of me and I know the witness which he witnesseth of me is true that Teach saying What have you the publick Ministry lost the Lord to be your Strength that you must flee for Help to Men Must they make Laws to Establish
Synod the King may have his Commissioners present to Inspect and even to Regulate their Proceedings That nothing may be their Transacted prejudicial to the Government How much more reasonable is it to have the Quakers Synods Inspected who have given such demonstration of their Antimagistratical Principles If Christian Emperors and Princes have had their Ambassadors and Ministers present in general Councils If the Hugonots in France have submitted nay desired and requested to have the Kings Commissioners present in their Synods which by His Majesties Grace and Favour they have been suffered to hold If the Presbyterians in Scotland tho' now Establish'd as the National Religion have a Commissioner present in their general Assemblies why should the Quakers not be oblig'd to receive a Commissioner from the Government to recide in their Anniversary Synods If at their beginning they were too Inconsiderable for the notice of the Government they are now become a numerous and wealthy People and in all respects worthy not to be neglected especially if their Principles be as their Writings set forth And their not meeting G. Keith and others who have in like manner challeng'd them is not the least demonstration of their Guilt The Postscript to the Map Being told that the Quakers had Answer'd my Book The Qua. Set I went yesterday to their Booksellers Shop in White-hart court for one but found it not but seeing G. Whitehead's Antidote against the venome of the Snake c. I found two Passages which being Reply'd to may indifferently serve for an Answer to the Book For no Charge can be undenyably true upon them Why Because they can deny any Charge how true soever it be Again if they will not Determin a Point in Controversie being proved out of their most Authentick Authors unless we can produce the Original Manuscript Copy which is impossible for us to do then farewel all Answering Books Behold the Quakers run and are ready to give up their Cause the Passages are these viz. The Author of the Snake c. said That Mr. John Pennyman was an Ancient Worthy and most Sincere Gentleman as indeed none that know him can with any Colour of Justice say the contrary who had been invegled with their False Shew and Pretence to Piety till he discovered their Gross Immoralities which being complained of tho' the Fact could not be denyed yet they could not Sensure any that remained in their Unity for which Reason he at last left them G. W's Antidote 252. Answer as his Character of John Pennyman is in the Superlative Degree appears Flattery and his Scandalous Story 's on his behalf and reason of leaving us appears neither True nor Impartial I never had any undeniable Proof of the Matter of Fact heard from John Pennyman c. Reply Well done George thou art in the right on 't for I never knew any Matter of Evil Fact Charged on the Quakers and their Errors but thou hast had the Impudence to deny it at least as Stated or in some other Sophistical manner So that 't is Morally Impossible to prove Matter of Fact against the Quakers undenyably True Why because they have a Face of Brass to deny any Matter of Fact against them how true soever it be of which this Antidote is not the least Instance and for which Reason I could wish the Author of the Snake may not trouble himself to Reply Again 2dly p. 254. G. Whitehead has Cited a Passage in the Snake c. viz. Quakers Registring their Sufferings for the Truth as they call it would make them exceed all the Ten Persecutions and to be more Undescerving than the Sufferings of Christ himself or the Apostles c. To which G. Whitehead Answers These are False Suggestions we have no such hopes he i. e. Snake Cites Edward Burrough's Unfairly and Partially in this Point And yet the Comparison of the Quakers Sufferings as Greater and more Unjust than in the Days of Christ and his Apostles or any time since is a mistake And whether it was so first Verbally Stated by Edward Burrough's or some time since I shall not Determin unless I see the Original Copy c. Reply I do positively Affirm and before any Ten Ministers of the Protestant Churches viz. Episcopal Presbyterian Independent or Baptists will prove that the from Recited Authors Charge is undeniably true Matter of Fact But what then G. W. still complains of Evil Suggestions of Unfair and Partial Citations tho' poor Heart he is so Stung with this Snake that he is forced to acknowledge a Mistake some where but dust not determin where oh horrible what a Book Wrote in 1657. by one of their Inspired Prophets as the Word of the Lord and dispersed 15 Years up and down the Nations and then Reprinted by thy own Approbation dear George with thine and G. Fox's Epistles of Recommendations And now to tell us of a Mistake but know not where and to call for Original Manuscripts Wrote 40 Years since is such a piece of Fallible Infallibility that had I room I should farther enlarge upon it Francis Bugg Sen. May 13. 1697. BOOKS Wrote by Fra. Bugg Sen. 1. DE Christianae Libertate c. in 8vo bound 2. The Painted Harlot both Strip'd and Whip'd c. 3. Reason against Railing c. 4. Innocency Vindicated and Envy Rebuked c. 5. The Quakers Detected and their Errors Confuted 6. A Lette to the Quakers shewing their Frequent Addresses to K. J. 2. 7. Battering Rams against New Rome c. 8. One Blow more against New Rome c. 9. New Rome Unmask'd and her Foundation shaken c. 10. New Rome Arraigned and out of her own Mouth Condemned c. 11. A Sheet delivered to the Parliament Dec. 1693. Entituled Something in Answer to the Quakers Allegation c. 12. Quakerism Withering and Christianity Reviving c. 13. Quakerism Annotonized c. 14. A Sheet Entit The Quakers Yearly Meeting Impeached c. 15. A second Summons to the City Abel by way of Metaphor to deliver up Sheba the Son of Bichri 2 Sam. 20. i. e. G. Whitehead c. 16. The Quakers set in their true Light c. 17. A Brief History of the Rise Growth and Progress of Quakerism 18. The Picture of Quakerism drawn to the Life c. FINIS