That they i. e. Quakers put the North of England for the Town of Bethlehem 'T is also a notorious falshood deduced from his other falshoods which is but adding one Lie to another Thirdly I neither do believe nor can find that the Quakers say Christ's Body either was or is of an earthy perishing Nature as F. B. hath frequently charged it upon Isaac Pennington and consequently upon the Quakers Ministers for his sake but that the Flesh and Blood of our Nature and as 't is in us is of an Earthly perishing Nature whereas Christs Flesh saw no Corruption it did not Corrupt And therefore it were a very great Ignorance and Absurdity for any to say that his Body which is chang'd and glorified is of an Earthy and perishing Nature he being Ascended into Glory This is answer'd in our Charitable Essay p. 4. and Unrefuted by F. B. And I still charge it upon him as a Lie that the Quakers say Christ's Body either was or now is of a perishing Nature Fourthly I do not find in F. Bugg's Instances and Quotations nor yet in any of our Friends Books that the Quakers say The Holy Scripture is either Carnal Dust Death or killeth c. These are not our Words he wrongs us in Fact but that the Letter killeth and is dead And did not the Holy Apostle say The Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life And did he not speak of the Ministration of Death Written 2 Cor. 3.6 7. Yet he did not contemn but own the Holy Scriptures as able to make the Man of God Wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ 2 Tim. 3.15 16. In the Book Cited by F. B. News out of the North p. 14. the Words he chiefly picks out and Objects are viz. Their Gospel is dust it's not the Gospel Mathew Mark Luke and John which is the Letter not their Doctrine but the meer Letter or Writing The Words should rather be thus Transposed viz. Their Gospel is dust who put the Letter or four Books of Mathew Mark Luke and John for the Gospel without distinction Such also have put the Letter or Writings for the Light and the Letter for the Word and for the Gospel yea for Eternal Life consequently for Christ c. Some clapping hands upon the Book saying This Book is the Word of God the Gospel you must have Eternal Life here such Life-less Preachers we have often met withal Though it 's not my place Litterally to excuse these Expressions as laid down before yet I cannot take this Instance for any real Proof or clear Evidence of matter of Fact as charged viz. That the Quakers say the Holy Scripture is Carnal Dust Death c. as he chargeth Us yet if F. B. can fairly prove that any of Us have expresly said or said That the Gospel-Doctrine contained in the four Books of Mathew Mark Luke and John is Dust or but the Letter that killeth We do and shall positively disown it This I fairly proffer him However the said Author's intention and meaning ought justly and charitably to be considered and compared with some other passages in the said Treatise which I take to be thus viz. by Their Gospel is Dust i. e. the false Ministers Preaching their own conceivings and immaginations on Scripture for Gospel and by Matthew Mark Luke and John being the Letter as not meant either of those holy Men or their Evangelical Doctrine but to the meer Letter or Writing in the four Books abstractly considered as in Paper and Ink and false Ministers dead Preaching and Commenting thereupon without the Spirit Life or Power of Christ Jesus like as the false Prophets who though they stole the true Prophets Words yet their Preaching was compared but to the Chaff or Husk c. Jer. 23.28 30. Accordingly the same Treatise before quoted the Reflects on these Hipocrites Proud Covetous and Idolatrous Priests who Preach their own Words Imaginations and Conceivings painting themselves with the Words of the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and teach People They shall never overcome their Sins in this Life calling such Preaching the Gospel This is their Gospel intended before News out of the North p. 12 13 14. yet falsely pretend Matthew Mark Luke and John to be their Gospel There are many substantial living Truths and divine Openings declared and testified in that Treatise which no doubt proceeded from a Divine Motion And supposing some accidental Mistakes and Mistranssposing of Words and Defects in Grammar and Syntax in the manner of wording have happened either in Printing Transcribing or otherwise is it just to charge our Principle or the Author's Intention therewith The Scriptures themselves have not been wholly free from vain Carpers and Caviller our Adversary when he has declared positively That he is not endued with that Spirit the Holy Apostles bad and that his Reasons against us must needs be defective Yet now we must take his meaning that he has it not by way of Eminency as they had Apol. p. 2. Yet pretends the Assistance of God's holy Spirit p. 46. Now let 's but have the same Liberty to construe our Friends Words as he takes here for his own and we shall make them look far better then he does no doubt Concerning G. F's respect to the Holy Scriptures I further add That 't is well known it was his frequent and publick Testimony and in his Books also That Holy Men of God gave them forth from the holy Spirit and that they spake and prophesied as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and that the Scriptures were thus given forth to be Read Believed and Fulfilled To return though it be improper to say the four Evangelists are but the Letter because they were holy Men who Preached the Gospel and their Testimonies and Declarations contain evangelical and lasting Truths as declared yet the four Books as made up of Paper and literal Characters will decay wear out and turn to Dust as many good Bibles have done as in my Just Enquiry is more fully answered with due respect to the holy Scriptures to wit the Holy Doctrines and divine Precepts thereof and to the Books also as F. Bugg also confesses viz. G. W. says Though he does not ascribe Holiness to the Paper and Ink or dead Characters no more do I nor do I know any body does but says George to the holy Doctrine and blessed Precepts therein contained which therefore are called holy Scriptures Very well here we agree if G. W. c. speak as they mean Apol. Introd p. 6. Thus far F. B Pray observe then both we and he agree in this not to ascribe Holiness to the Paper and Ink or dead Characters but to the holy Doctrine and blessed Precepts therein contained How now F. B. where art thou now with thy Charge and Condemnation of Perjury and Pillory upon us Thou hast fairly given away thy Cause and discharged us whom thou hadst unjustly Condemned Thy Charge is now more remote from Proof
Richard Needham Francis Etteridge John Bowater William Robinson c. what can you say why Sentence of Perjury should not be pronounced against you upon your own proposals to Authority S. W. And the rest we are like Children sitting in the Market if G. W. Pipe we Dance if he write a Certificate whether true or false we Subscribe and now â—ccording to the old Proverb the Blind leads the Blind until we are fallen into the Ditch of Error and Perjury together and We are fallen into a sad Dilemma and none will help Us nor none will pitty Us. F. Bugg Come G. W. thou old Make-bate and Cunning Sophister what canst thou say for thy self and thy Proselites who write after thy Copy After other Fictions and Bugg's pretending to sum up the Evidence and to speak both to matter of Fact and matter of Law to his pretended Jury he feigns his Jury to bring us in Guilty Thus viz. Jury Guilty of the Matter charged and all things relating thereunto or depending thereupon and that of PERJVRY Against all which pretended Proceeding Trial and Examination invented and feigned by F. Bugg we solemnly and sincerely testifie as both a wicked false and malicious Forgery to defame and scandalize both our Christian and Civil Reputation and against the said F. B. as an unjust Judge false Accuser and false Witness and that his Proceeding Trial and Judicature are both Illegal Presumptuous and Arbitrary Signed in behalf of our selves and the rest of our Friends concern'd George Whitehead Gilb. Latey John Bowater John Butcher Rich. Needham William Robinson I do further solemnly and in good Conscience Testifie and Declare That I find no cause in the least to retract or receed from our Negative Testimony before recited against Fra. Bugg's Perversions and his grosly Misrepresenting us about Jesus Christ and the Holy Scripture and for which our Testimony F. B. hath most unjustly rendred us Perjured Persons Hereunto I subscribe G. Whitehead II. The aforesaid Testimony Vindicated against Fr. Bugg his gross Abuses and foul Perversions herein examined BY the way 't is to be noted That in this mock Tryal and Court of Judicature presumptuously Erected and Feigned by Fr. Bugg He makes himself both Judge Accuser Witness and Jury and also forges the Quakers Answers without taking the least Notice of our own proper Answers to his Objections in our Books only impertinently cites three or four Lines out of G. W.'s Charitable Essay for his Answer p. 7. Though in none of these Instances cited against us can we find those words as charged by him viz. That the Quakers say The Holy Scripture is Carnal Dust Death and Killeth c. or that they deny Jesus to be The Christ c. And 't is evident That F. B. is not able to make Replication or Answer to our single sheet Intituled A Charitable Essay Nor to clear himself from the Arguments and Inversions upon him therein concerning his feigned Creed and false Charges against the Quakers but gives the greatest part of that Sheet and the most substantial Matters that are in it to clear us the go by so it remains against him unrefuted His pretended Evidence That we deny Christ Jesus c. and that we cannot call Him Christ is from Isaac Pennington's Questions to Professors wherein he calls the Body or Flesh which the Son of God took upon him the Vail c. And what then Does this prove we deny Christ Jesus that was born of the Virgin Did not the Apostle say he consecrated a new and living way through the Vail that is to say his Flesh Heb. 10.20 Did the Apostle herein deny Jesus to be Christ No sure But what if I. P. said he could not call the bodily Garment or Vail Christ that is the entire Christ or the Body which was prepared for him chiefly and in the first place Christ as he Explains his own words Does this deny Him the Son of God to be Christ Surely no. Is the masculine Him properly relative to the Neuter Body distinct from the Soul I do not think that to be proper or Grammatical Sence The word It is relative to Body but Him to our Lord Jesus Christ himself For Joseph went unto Pilate and asked the Body of Jesus and took It down and wrapped It in a Linnen Cloath and laid It in a Tomb Luke 23.52 53. Which is also called the Body of the Lord Jesus Chap. 24.3 Yet the entire Messiah or Christ of God is not to be divided in Body or Soul And Isaac Pennington did not say he could not call Him Christ who was both God and Man Immannuel and the Man Christ Jesus the Messiah First His Charge That the Quakers believe and say They cannot call Him Christ that was born of the Virgin I cannot find these words either as believed or said by the Quakers in any of Bugg's Quotations either out of Is. Pennington's Questions or any other and therefore I desire him in his next to shew me expresly where the Quakers say they cannot call Him Christ that was born of the Virgin c. if he can I can as expresly deny that saying for I have told him the contrary in my Charitable Essay Secondly I cannot find nor believe that the Quakers call Geo. Fox the Branch the Star the Sun of Righteousness In the Instance quoted by F. Bugg p. 34. I find not G. Fox mentioned in that Citation but instead thereof F. Bugg questions it in the Margin thus viz. Pray who do you account this Branch if not G. Fox I say who else did you assign these Titles to Was it to G FOX or the Light in him Pray distinguish in your next Thus he now questions that which before he has possitively charged over and over Thus instead of Proof he meerly beggs the Question and so whirles about begging Questions and not only so but like an unjust Judge has condemn'd us as perjur'd Persons yea even a pack of false Witnesses and perjur'd Persons for denying his Charge p. 33. And this is not all but he has condemn'd us to the Pillory too with his ridiculous Figure thereof in his Epistle to the Bereans as before But now upon Tryal and Enquiry he is fain to question Matters of Fact after his Condemnation and such his Execution Thus preposterous is this unjust Judge in his arbitrary Proceedings and scandalous Treatment against us And his Consequence of the Quakers giving Witness to G. Fox Instead of Christ follows not from such his begging Questions his lame Defective and false Evidence and we are sure it's contrary to our Faith and Testimony For our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ of whom the Holy Scriptures Testifie who is the Branch the Morning Star the Sun of Righteousness and hath spiritually risen both in the North South East and West of England and other Parts even in the Hearts and Souls of many Thousands and G. F. and many others only his Servants and Ministers F. Bugg's other consequence
for whom the Body was prepared It was not Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh but the Word Joh. 1.1 Apol. Introd p. 3. And yet he has confessed it was the Son of God that took the Body p. 4. What confusion and Self-contradiction does the Man blindly run into And how contrary to the Apostle John's Testimony is his Doctrin herein See 1 Joh. 4.2 3. Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God and every Spirit which confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God but this is the Spirit of Anti-Christ What Spirit is this in our Adversary which saith It was not Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh who was it then It was the Word the Son of God as if Jesus Christ were neither the Word nor the Son of God O horrible Anti-Christianism And contrary also to that Martyr Dr. Barnes his Confession as cited by F. Bugg himself p. 45. viz. I believe that without Man's will or power Christ Jesus was Conceived by the Holy Ghost and took Flesh of the blessed Virgin Mary Acts and Mon. p. 610. Now if Jesus Christ took Flesh of the blessed Virgin Mary then it was Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh But it was Jesus Christ that took Flesh Therefore 't was Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh consequently F. Bugg's Doctrine That is was not Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh is Anti-Christian Anti-Apostolical and contradictory to the said Martyr 's Doctrine Note His accusing us That we own no other Christ than He that appeared in the body Introd p. 5. 'T is well he grants we own that Christ what other Christ would he have us own For his Light Spirit Heavenly Treasure that we have in our earthen Vessels is neither any dividing of Christ nor any other Christ but of the same Christ Jesus who came in the Flesh was born of the Virgin Mary c. and spiritually manifested and partaken of in his Saints in Measure by his Grace and good Spirit where the Spirit of Christ is there is Christ. I observe that much of F. B's former Book is reprinted in this at which rate 't is an easie matter to make Books to print and reprint the same things over and over again and when Answered as in my Charitable Essay instead of Replication to impose the same things refuted over and over again And this is F. B's manner of troubling the World with his Impertinent Scribbles and Scandalous Books tending to divide and make discord Sedition and Strife among the People as may be easily made appear that the very Nature and Tendency of them is Seditious to cause Discord most falsly to render the People commonly called Quakers Obnoxious and so much Popish as Rome's Sister New Rome Babylon the Whore a Cage of unclean Birds among whom he has croswise plac'd the names of many honest Men far more Righteous and clean than himself in the Figure or Form of a Cage p. 50. maliciously invented by him as his Pillory is to Reproach and Scandalize Men fearing God and of good Repute and Esteem in their day as G. Fox John Audland Francis Howgil Samuel Fisher Edward Burroughs Jo. Blaykling Isaac Pennington Richard Hubberthorn Stephen Crisp William Gibson John Whitehead and others having in all to the number of Thirty Four Persons names in his Cage Thus he can Pillory Stage and Cage-Men at his pleasure to defame and scandalize them His Accusation that the Quakers insinuate in a Book called The Quakers Refuge That what the true Prophets spake was false and what the false Prophets spake was true p. 47. We disown these Expressions as laid down and I think they are not duly Inferr'd from the said Book questioning Whether some Words in theirs were not spoken by Wicked Men some by Wise Men ill applied some by good Men ill Expressed some by false Prophets and yet true some by true Prophets and yet false or rather mistakes yet this questioned but of some words in Scripture not all as what the true or false Prophets spake as he states it in his New Rome Vnmask'd p. 23. Of the false Ministry Introd p. 9. He is offended at some of our Friends formerly calling them The Priests of the World Conjurers raising dead Doctrines out of the Letter Theives Robbers Anti-Christs ravening Woolves greedy Doggs c. Introd p. 9. But who were these names given to Not to all other Ministers in general that are not of us or not in outward Society with us Who to then F. B. Answers They i. e. Quakers give them generally to all the false Ministry Apol. Introd p. 10. And why is he offended then Have our Friends wrong'd the false Ministry therein What need he be so much concern'd for the false Ministry But he Objects They account none true Ministers but themselves which is not true There were sincere and true Ministers under several Dispensations as among the Puritans Protestant Martyrs and others according to what the Lord had made known to them And there are divers true in Words who have a Zeal of God in some measure but too many who Preach true and good words live bad lives But F. B. it seems is rather willing to rake up the Characters given of the false Ministry against us than to answer what he calls our false Glosses Evasions and subtil Turnings Ibid. p. 12. which appears to be his Evasion and Shuffle when he cannot answer my Arguments but is put to a Ne plus ultra then he rambles rakes up picks and reiterates Stories scraps and broken Sentences and pieces out of old Books and so patches up his Dirty and Scurrilous Books against us and then gives us all the ill names he can and cries out against us as New Rome Impudence Impudent Impostors Cowards cunning Sophisters Jugglings Legerdemean a pack of false Witnesses and Perjur'd Persons And saith Surely Simon Magus never exceeded these Impostors Act. 8. Introd p. 11.15.18.47 Thus his great Outrage and Implacable Malice appears And like a furious Incendiary to blow up the Fire of Contention and Persecution again and to incense the Government and Magistrates against us he does not only call us New Rome Rome's Sister comparing us with the Papists as coming not one jot behind them but harmonising with them Ep. Ded. p. 3.4 and most unjustly accusing the Quakers with condemning the Protestant Religion in general terms Ibid. and with accounting Magistracy a cumbersome Tree that must be cut down and our Principles he maliciously accuseth as both Anti-Magistratical and Anti-Monarchical Ep. to Bereans p. 12 13. How much resembling an Incendiary and Seditious Writer hath our Apostate Adversary appeared in these Invectives against a peaceable People fearing God and by his Divine Providence recogniz'd by the Government as Protestants also Though this Incendiary will needs have us Papists But pray does he therein befriend the Protestant interest or Government either By thus magnifying or
Apostles and Prophets And in that day how did our Harmony sound in our Assembly and how did our Love abound one towards another and our Zeal for the Holy Name of our God! In this stood our Unity in this stood our Fellowship even in that Inward Testimony which God committed to us to bear for His Name sake From all which F. B. is now apparently Apostatized and gone into Envy and Malice as appears on the other side Here was the moving Cause of our Love to God and one towards another Even the inward Testimony or Manifestation of his Spirit which God in his infinite Love hath given us to Profit withal pursuant to his former Promises to our Fathers by his Prophets saying I will give him for a Light to the Gentiles and to be my Salvation to the ends of the Earth I will give him for a Commander and a Leader to my People Israel And as we came to believe this Report and to experience the fulfilling of these Promises and to be Witnesses of the virtue of his blessed Appearance so we declare to others that they might also believe and have Fellowship with us therein I never understood that F. B. was a Preacher And the more we came thus to be spiritually minded and spiritually exercised and the more we came to take delight therein and to meditate therein the more the Lord manifested his Love unto us and his pure Power amongst us and became a Hedge about us and a Wall unto us and gave us favour in the sight of the People Blessed and Praised be his Holy Name for ever And in that day when others would boast of their Church-Authority and Church-Discipline useful Ceremonies comely Orders decent Vestments c. We told them the Spirit of God was the Foundation of our Church as well as the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles That Christ Jesus the second Adam the Lord from Heaven who is a Quickning Spirit was Head of our Church Law-giver to our Church on whose shoulders the Government and Authority of our Church is laid yea the Hedge and Pale of our Church and able to preserve it and in this Faith we Lived walked in pure and undefiled Love If any said to us Lo here is Christ in this Ordinance or in that Observation we told them Nay Christ is within and there they must wait to know him except they were reprobates for the kingdom of heaven is within and there they must wait to receive the Earnest of it for it comes not by outward Observations This we told People this we Proved to the People out of the Holy Scriptures This upon all occasions we Testified to all People Professor and Profane bond and free noble and ignoble F.B. Epis. to Ber. p. 9 10. These Books wrote by G.F. Is. Pennington and other Eminent Quakers Erroneous who have given Testimony to the Spirit of God have not been Burnt either by the Common Hangman or some other Officer then you are to bring these Impudent men in Guilty What for owning Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures and standing by their Testimony F.B. Apol. Introd p. 11. Surely Simon Magus never exceeded these Impostors Yet Christ's Ministers and in their Work Preaching Christ and his Light in Men. F.B. Ibid. Intr. p. 15. Good God! how have these Impostors prevailed upon the People And how was my Vnderstanding darkened by their Sleights for many years since they turned me to the Light of Christ within F.B. Ibid. Intr. p. 18. Whoever observes these Quakers turnings and windings in all their Juglings and Legerdemain will find they tread the same Path i.e. with the Papists How then Living Witnesses to the True Foundation the Inshining Light of Christ Jesus the Holy Unction the Spirit of God the Inward Testimony as sufficient without Outward and Humane Prescriptions and Decrees c. F.B. Ibid. Epis. to Ber. p. 13. Silent Meeting meaning of the Quakers those Nurseries of Ignorance where they sit until they are weaned from the Principles of true Christianity Which Meetings God Blessed with the comfortable Enjoyment of his Presence F.B. Ibid. Book p. 33. And this I charge upon them as a Pack of False Witnesses and perjured persons Yet Living Witnesses of Christ Jesus the True Light and of that Inward Testimony which God commited to us· F. B. Ibid. p. 44. They i.e. the Quakers have False Witnesses at their beck to justifie G.W. and back his work with the most notorious Lyes that Men can be guilty of How then Living Witnesses of a Dispensation of the Love of God to Mankind Yea a True Church whereof the Spirit of God and Christ is the Foundation F. B. Ibid. p. 46. Their Blind Guides Who turn Peoples Minds from Darkness to Light F. B. Ibid. p. 47 48 49. The Quakers are of the World and are Deceivers and Antichrists the Quakers are Great Deceivers and Horrible Blasphemers and Impostors Deceivers and Impudent Impostors Blasphemers Deceivers Deluders and Impostors c. Whose Church nevertheless Christ is the Head and Law-giver of and even the Hedge and Pale thereof who is able to preserve this our Church in true Faith Pure and Undefiled Love F.B. Ibid. p. 48. Such a Generation of Teachers among the Quakers who exceed all that ever went before them Professing Christianity the Papists only excepted both in Idolatry Blasphemy and Superstition yea and other gross Enormities What both Christ's Ministers and Church all thus miserable fallen and degenerate and F.B. only standing in the Faith When backslidden from the Love and from the Testimony and Practice of this Church of Christ that was at least among us for and with which F.B. suffered as he has confest This is new Doctrine Oh! sad Self-condemned and woful Apostacy F. B. Ibid. p. 50. Babylon a Cage of every unclean hateful Bird. And then he has made the form of a Bird-cage with the Names of many faithful and good Men in it as Is. Pennington Fra. Howgill Edw. Burroughs Ric. Hubberthorn and others the Truth of whose Testimony he hath owned and confest F. B. Ibid. p. 54. G.F. and his Preachers would seem to Justle Christ out of his Place Yet their Ministry a Dispensation of the Love of God When they told us of their Articles of Faith and how many they had and the Scripture being the Rule c. We told them that Faith was the Gift of God and to be waited for and that Faith was the Evidence of things not seen And that although in the World there were Faiths many and Lords many yet to us there was but one Faith and one Lord Jesus Christ who was the Author of that Faith And that altho' the Scriptures were good and a true Declaration of those things which were most surely believed by the Apostles and by us ought to be believed yet not the only Rule But still the Spirit of God which was the first Principle the Foundation-Principle the Pale and only Hedge of the Church and