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
Sanctified People of God So likewise it was the Rule of Life and Practice first and before any other Rule and always had the Preheminence in our Testimony from the Beginning F. B. p. 68. Ibid. To me it seems easie to write a History of the Rise Growth and Progress of their Church-Government and that monster Womens Meetings c. and how the Spirit of Persecution hath been among them from the Beginning Even when we loved one another with love unfeigned and how did our love abound one towards another and when doubtless God blessed our Meetings with the Comfortable Enjoyment of his Presence And if any question the Truth of what I have here affirmed then for Proof thereof I referr them to the Testimonies of Isaac Pennington Edward Burroughs George Bishop c. Published by T. Crispe together with the Writings of Francis Howgill Richard Hubberthorn and many other Antient Friends c. Thus far Francis Bugg's Confession to the Truth of those Testimonies and Authors which he has now declined and not only most basely Revolted from but Opposed and shamefully Reproached divers of the same Authors as with his Mock-Cage Scorn and Envy c. whose Testimonies he has here so manifestly Assented unto Owned and Asserted which shall Rise up in Judgment against Him whose Judgment lingereth not and whose Condemnation slumbereth not SOME REMARKS Upon F. B.'s former CONFESSIONS FARTHER Arguing and Evincing his Self-condemnation and Apostacy his Hypocrisie and Temporising PRay impartial Readers observe what excellent Testimonies and Characters he has here before given of the Principles Foundation Faith Religion Profession Church and Christ as Head thereof Ministry Christian Love Society Enjoyment and Conversation of the People called Quakers both as in the Beginning and for many Years together wherein he walked among them Come F. B. now do thou observe and consider well 1. That in all these foregoing ample and solemn Confessions and Commendations thou hast given of the Christian Doctrin Society and Conversation of the said People and their Ministry both before and after thou forsook them and conformed to the Priests c. Thou wast either Sincere or Insincere therein To be Insincere therein I suppose thou wilt not charge thy self If Sincere then thy Conformity was Insincere and Hypocritical and Self-condemned it being thy own and our professed Principle and Testimony in the beginning and for these many Years when thou wast conversant among us according to thy own Confessions made in the Year 1684 and 1686 before and since thy conformity 2. Thy new Pretence Thou art not now of the same mind thou wast in in 1686 concerning us in the beginning and that thou hadst then a charitable Opinion and better Thoughts of us with respect to our beginning than now thou hast and that thou wast in an Error mistaken c. As in thy New Rome Vnmasked p. 12 13 16. Then thy good and charitable Thoughts of us our Ministry Doctrine and Society respecting our beginning and for many Years continued until Anno 1986 until near two Years after thy conformity Wherefore thy turning to the Priests and Church of England in 1684. proceeded not from inward conviction of Conscience nor from the Spirit of Christ but self-condemned Hypocrisie and Temporising For in the beginning the Quakers were in a clear Separation from the National Priests c. And the same is continued by all of them who are sincere and faithful to their Principle And that thou knewest when thou suffered among them for Meeting and Nonconformity then thou hadst a Testimony against all Mercenary Priests against Tythes and their Persecutions Oppressions c. Wast thou mistaken therein all that Time and mistaken in thy Testimony for the Light of Christ and our Ministry and Doctrine as in the beginning both before and since thy conformity If so then why dost thou not retract thy mistaken Books in that Case And then who will credit thy Scribling It seems thou knewest not thy pretended mistake till some Years after thou hadst turned about and conformed which if so it was therefore in a blind Obedience Didst thou go blindfold to Church so called Such slim Shifts and mean Subterfuges will not cover or acquit thee from Self-condemnation nor thy telling us Thou art not of the same mind thou wert in in 1686 concerning us in the beginning p. 12. Thou art very mutable then no doubt thy Thoughts grow worse and worse and thy Charity very cold and why so Why are thy Thoughts grown of late so bad of us Thou sayest thou hast of late examined our ancient Errors and observed the Consequences of them New Rome unmask'd p. 12. that is when we were a true Church and Christ our Head and Law-giver found in Doctrine and Christian in Conversation Love and Society according to thy own Confessions in 1682. before thou went out to the Parish Church so call'd and in 1686. after thou so went out and conformed thereunto It seems then thou knewest no such pretended Errors in 1686. two Years after thy Revolt and Conformity then 't was not Error in Doctrine that was the cause of thy deserting us and turning to the Priests what then was it outward Prescriptions Forms Orders Decrees of Men Laws Canons Ecclesiastical c. as thou pretendest Qua. Detect p. 3.4 Thou cannot be sincere in any such Pretence unless thou hadst conformed to a Church that hath no Order nor Discipline Canons or Rules in it and where 's that Church that will own its self to be without Order or Discipline in it Thy comparing thy Case with Bishop Cranmer's and the Protestant Martyrs p. 13 14. appears more thy Ambition then Pertinent or Sincere If Bishop Cranmer said in the Beginning the Church of Rome thought pure and sound Doctrine but did he say he was mistaken and in Error in so saying No he own'd her as such But after the Church of Rome fell into that new unsound Doctrine of Transubstantiation c. He disowned Her He could be no self-condemn'd Apostate therein whilst he neither diserted the pure sound Doctrine nor conformed contrary to his own Testimony thereunto as thou hast done Thou in Words hast owned and commended of a Church and People i. e. call'd Quakers as once pure and sound in Doctrine and Conversation both before and since thou left them and joyn'd to another in Opposition to that Church and People and now to excuse thy whirling about and base temporizing pretendest thou wast mistaken even in such thy solemn Commendation Thus uncertain Unstable Self-contradictory and self-condemn'd thou art both ways Insincere and Self condemn'd in acting contrary to the Principle Profession and Conversation of a Church and People whilest highly commended by thy Self and thou appearest a Self Condemned Temporizer in retracting that Commendation as an Error and Mistake Self Condemned in now pretending thou hast of Late examin'd and observ'd our ancient Errors as thou callest them Being some Passages in some ancient Books writ by some particular Persons even when we were a Church pure and sound in Doctrine and Conversation in thy own account and as still we are That God Blessed Vs and our Meetings according to thy late Confessions as thou hast unfairly snapt and carpt at some Passages or Words out
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
Papists according to F. B's way of arguing concluding all by one But many others of our Friends have sincerely testified against Popery Superstition and Idolatry both in the root and branch and for the Protestant Religion considered in the purity of it and therefore free from excusing Idolatry as falsly charged on their Teachers in his third charge p. 23.44 which hath been refuted both in some other answers to this false Accuser as also in our Answer to the Athenians so called and more particularly in my Just Inquiry into the Libeller's abuse from p. 17. to p. 30. concerning the pretended Letters of John Audland and Jos. Coale Now Bugg acknowledges himself to have a Hand in and to own the Composing the Book he should have said Scandalous Libel or Pamphlet Intituled Some of the Principles and Doctrines Laws and Orders of the Quakers c. Introd p. 10. which is fairly answered in the said Just Inquiry Some of F. B's Abuses in Citation 1. OBject p. 33. News coming out of the North p. 15. He cites G.F. thus I am saith G. Fox The Door that ever was the same Christ yesterday and for ever This is a plain perversion rendring G.F. to speak this of himself whereas these quotations in the Margent John 14.6 and Chap. 10.3 Luk. 11.34 and Joh. 1.9 clearly shews that he speaks it of Jesus Christ and not of himself and so do the foregoing words viz. Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and Life he is the Door that all must pass through which words are very unfairly left out in Bugg's citation 2. Risen up out of the North which was Prophecied of but now is fulfilled Here he leaves out The Armies coming out of the North against you terrible ones This was Prophesied of see Jer. 23.8 Isa. 43.6 Jer. 16.15 and 51.48 he could not mean that G. Fox's being risen up out of the North was Prophesied of by Isaiah and Jeremiah 3. Your Baptism is Carnal Here he leaves out Sprinkling Infants which God never Commanded 4. Their Sacrament as they call it left out Is Carnal and their Communion is Carnal a little Bread and Wine left out Query if their Bread and Wine be Spiritual If he saith it is Query then is it Transubstantiated Are there not Carnal Ordinances and Washing mentioned in Scripture Their Church is Dust a heap of Lime and Stones gathered together left out 5. That the Quakers Teach that the Gospel is Dust p. 47. This is false also here he puts the Gospel for their Gospel whose Gospel The Covetous false Minister's who put the Letter and their own conceivings thereupon for the Gospel Moreover F. B. pursuant to his old Lye viz. That we deny Him to be Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary c. saith It doth appear by Jo. Coales Testimony that Christ after he Ascended had no other Body but his Christ consequently did not Ascend in his Body which was seen apparently Act. 1.9 10 11. Quoting p. 332. of Josiah Coales's Works Which consequence I must needs look upon as unjustly deduc'd from J. C's words in the very Page Quoted For he does not only own the Church of Christ as his Body under Affliction now on Earth but also that this his Body shall be Fashioned like unto his glorious Body whereof notwithstanding all they are Members who are Members of the true Church So that the Body of Christ in it's Union and fulness is one Body I take notice of what an Abusive fling he has at me about a little Book Intituled The Christian Doctrine and Society of the Quakers c. relating to some differences in America Accusing me with Peeping and Creeping and with Turning and Winding this way and that way hither and thither and centring no where but Janus like looking two ways c. with other false and scurrilous detractions And why so Why am I vilified in this Case also Bugg saith He meaning my self seems to own the Doctrine i. e. of one Party but dare not own his Testimony nor him in it He seems to blame the Doctrine i. e. of the other Party but dare not blame their Persons nor give Testimony against their Doctrine as their's c. pag. 37. To pass by his scornful Abuse of me herein Did not the Holy Apostles testifie against Divisions in the Churches sometimes without naming or reflecting on the Persons by name concerned therein Did Paul name those of Corinth whom he charges with Strife and Devision c. and therefore Carnal Where one saith I am of Paul another of Apollo c. was this to reflect on them by name And what 's more usual among Judicious and Impartial Men who know common Law and Justice than to give Judgment or Counsel only upon the Case in difference where the Parties differing are absent without reflecting on the Persons of either Party Because it is not Judicial nor Just to pass Judgment on Persons unheard Face to Face in their own respective Pleas and Defence But such an Imperious Arbitrary and unjust Judge is this our Implacable Enemy that he can presume not only to be both Accuser Judge and Jury but also to Trie Sentence and Condemn Persons in their absence both to Perjury Pillory and Cage without either hearing their own Just Defence or taking Cognizance of their respective rational Pleas and Answers for themselves But instead thereof Forging and Framing Answers in their Names which never were their's nor in the least resembling them as he hath done against us whom he hath most ignominously and scandalously Traduc'd Condemn'd and Sentenced both to Perjury and Pillory And this is not all But because I cannot be as Unjust and Wicked as himself to Condemn Persons in their absence and they as far remote as America Therefore he Flouts Scoffs Scorns Rages and Rails Foaming out his own Shame And I doubt not but the Just God will rebuke him in his own time for his Injustice and Cruel Envy with all his Secret Abettors therein let him Scoff Boast Insult and Scribble out of old Books as long as he can it will not rescue him from the stroke of that Divine Hand that will seize upon him I wish it may at last humble him unto Repentance If yet there be a place thereof to be found for him He complains of Personal Defamations and Detractions which have had such an Effect not only saith he of our profession in Religious Matters but upon our Persons and Imployments which in time may be farther taken notice of p. 37. 'T is very strange he should thus complain of Personal Defamations and Detractions when he is so deeply and notoriously Guilty thereof who hath used Personal Defamations and Detractions so gross as he himself What presume to set himself up as both Accuser Judge and Jury and Sentence and Condemn honest Men of good repute as a pack of Perjur'd Persons to the Pillory and also to the Cage of unclean Birds and yet complain of Personal Defamation and
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
of G. F.'s Great Mystery Printed in 1569. Isaac Pennington's Question to Professors Some of Edward Burrough's Books with more old Books many Years ago printed being writ within the compass of those many Years wherein thou had'st such sweet Conversation and Divine Blessing among us long before thou left us we may believe thee therein therefore the Fallacy and Deceit of thy now pretence of ancient Errors will not excuse thy Back-sliding nor absolve thee from Self-Condemnation in thy acting against Light and Conviction which will pursue thee Besides thou yet confessest a party of Christian Quakers who hold what 's sound and that though they dissent from the established Religion yet they hold the true Faith for Substance New Rome unmask'd p. 68. and yet actest contrary to the Faith Profession and Practice of those Dissenting Christian Quakers in thy going to Parish Churches or rather Steeple-Houses wherein they do not follow thee for according to thy own Confession thou art gone or sold into Egypt as in thy Qua. detected p. 8. In applying Joseph's Words to thy Self Namely that thou canst say as Joseph did to his Brethren Gen. 45.5 Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with your Selves that you sold me hither though very greatly misapplyed for we did not sell thee into Egypt but to evade the Cross and shun suffering for it thou wentest down voluntarily thither for help which woe is to them that do and doe thou remember it Nor is thy Case like that of Joseph for he confest as that God had a hand in sending him thither before his Brethren for their Preservation but thou art gone down into Egypt to Revile Reproach and Rail against thy Brethren as if thou wouldst incense Egyptians against them even the very Mob or Rabble to destroy them if thou couldst with thy Pillory and Cage c. to excuse and cover thy wilfull Revolt and Back-sliding and to extenuate thy Judgment and Self Condemnation but the Lord will find thee out and thou shalt know that thine own Wickedness shall correct thee and thy Back-sliding shall reprove thee and the Witness of God will pursue thee to thy Anguish And further to give a summary Demonstration of thy Self-Condemnation and Apostacy and where thou art Thou callest Conformity the monstrous Womb de chr Lib. p. 81. and confessest that Conformity is a Monster conceiv'd by the great Whore Mystery Babylon p. 83. Yet in Self-contradiction to thy Self art since conformed and consequently joyn'd to a Monster if Conformity be it though thou mightest better have distinguished Conformity Thus thou art Conformed to shun Conformity thus confused and into Babylon thou art run and in the Cage of unclean and hateful Birds left among whom thou hast unjustly pretended to Cage and number us Thou hast not only in contempt writ against Conformity outward Prescriptions Forms Orders Decrees of Men Canons Rules Laws Impositions c. i. e. in Church-Government and Discipline in thy several Pamphlets as Q. detected B. Rams one Blow c. but hast charged us with Apostacy therein and turned from us on that Pretence Yet in contradiction to thy self art conformed to a Church and Ministry which have all these i. e. outward Prescriptions Forms Orders Decrees of Men Canons Rules c. in Church-Government and Discipline whilst thou canst prove no unjust or unwarrantble Canons Rules Laws or Methods in our Church either in Government or Discipline Thy now Pretence of false Doctrine Error Heresie and Imposture against us is a new Pretence lately taken up for a Cloak to thy Back-sliding and Temporizing and contrary to thy own Confession as before cited and therefore no just Pretence nor true Excuse for thy deserting or going out from us and turning to the Priests Our Principle Ministry and Doctrine were true when thou wast amongst us when thou left us and since thou left us the same considered as from us Beginning according to thy own Confession and therefore thou appearest a self-condemn'd Hipocrite 1 st In conforming contrary to thy own Testimony against Conformity to outward Canons Prescriptions c. 2 dly In thy now Reproaching us as Erronious and Heretical contrary to thy own solemn Confessions both before and since thy conforming as before mentioned So that into Egypt and Babylon thou art gone and miserably fallen and shalt see and know that it is an Evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord God and that his Fear is not in thee And mayst thou not justly expect that a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour Truths Adversaries will surprize and seize upon thee And I wish all others concerned may take timely Warning by thy Fall and Misery Thy poor Soul's and all Mens Friend G. WHITEHEAD POSTSCRIPT THere are yet two Things remarkable to manifest what Perfection of Malice and Impudence this our persecuting Adversary F. Bugg is arrived unto First His dedicating his scandalous Book hereby answered unto Henry Goldwell Esq A Justice of Peace and A Member of the House of Commons with this Complement viz. I have been the bolder Honoured Sir to present you with the ensuing Discourse in hopes of your favourable Construction of my weak Endeavours and that under your Patronage they may appear c. Now I am perswaded from some late Discourse which I and some others of our Friends had with the said H. Goldwell Esq that he is a Person so rational that he must needs justly resent Bugg's boldness herein as no small Reflection upon him and his Reputation to be thus rendred a Patronizer of such a wicked scandalous and abusive Book as that of Bugg's is against a peaceable People fearing God But to do the said H. Godwell Justice and Right in this Matter When three of us shewed him the Injury Bugg had done him therein he signified to us That he was not made privy to his Dedication for he knew not of it before it came forth and had shewed his dislike thereof What a Shame and Insolency was it then in Bugg so publickly in Print to hope for his Patronage to make a Person in his Station suspected for encouraging this our implacable persecuting Adversary in such his scurrilous and most calumnious Book hoping that not only this Account may be some reprehension to the said Bugg's presumptuous Insolency But also that the said Justice Goldwell will farther in point of Justice reprehend him for Imposing such a Dedication upon him for his Patronage Secondly It is farther remarkable how the said Bugg to vent his inveterate Malice had the Impudence to deliver an envious perverse and lying Phamphlet of his own against the People called Quakers to the Members of the House of