Christ at the Door the Way the Truth Life the Rock the Elect Stone and all these are but One Here again quoth he is One added here is Octo Personas in the unity of their Essence Hence observe by the way what rare Syntax he makes viz. Here is Octo Personas instead of Here are Octo Personae but chiefly how he has defined Person which is not our Term for those Names given to Christ for to make so many Persons of Christ as Names are given to him as those in Metaphors Parables and Similitudes which are numerous in Sacred Scriptures may he not then by such Logick or Dofinition render Christ to be an Hundred Persons in One Essence What silly Conceits float in this Man 's giddy Head What think his Friends of the Clergy of him Is he a fit Champion to undertake to defend both Theml their Church and the Protestant Religion Moreover I do confess That altho' I have often seen it my Duty to explain some of our Christian Friends Meanings when mistaken or perverted by our Adversaries I really believe I have truly Construed their Intentions and that I have cause to understand the same better than our Adversaries or Enemies And as for my own part I have learn'd that Humility and Self denial that I am not Conscious of being Pertinacious against Light true Conviction or holy Scripture Testimony And I hope also this Advertisement may satisfie every Charitable and Ingenuous Reader having been Sincere and Consciencious towards God from my Youth upward to this day according to the Measure of Light and Understanding he hath bestowed upon me humbly hoping and verily believing he will so preserve me in Christ unto the End 'T is observable how insulting and boasting this F. Bugg is in his Dedication to the Parliament comparing himself in his Work of Darkness against the Light with Daniel his bursting in sunder the Baby lonish Dragon Even so quoth Bugg have I been instrumental and burst in sunder the Quakers great Idol their Darkness within which they call the Light within Thus presumptuously he Boasts and Blasphemes contrary to his former Confession to the Light which we called Quakers profess according to John 1. 4 9. There is a Wo to such as put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light He proceeds in his empty Boasting and Insulting thus viz. I have cut down the lofty Weeds and tall Cedars Pref. p. 27. The Sting of Quakerism being taken out and the Bowels thereof ript up and their Inside turn'd outward Part 2. p. 31. And having taken this Snake Quakerism out of the Grass and laid her on the Table and taken out her Sting Ibid. p. 27. But Reader I have not done with this Snake but must have the other blow at her and smite off her Head lest she get into the King's High Court of Parliament to do mischief for she is a mischievous Beast and full of deadly Poison and begins to stink all the Nation over Ibid. p. 30. Thus far F. B. Now let the serious Reader judge what a presumptuous reviling Boaster this is as if the High Court of Parliament were much beholden to him for his Defence of them by thus shamefully Reviling the Quakers But how helpless mean and indigent does he Imply the Parliament to be to have need of such a Physitian to prepare them Antidotes And then what lofty Weeds and tall Cedars has he cut down among the Quakers What great Execution has he done by his bitter Invectives Scorn Railery and Profanation of the Sacred Name of God and Christ as before is manifest Have not his mischievous Attempts tending to a New Persecution made him stink in the Nostrils of all Moderate Serious and Unprejudiced Readers and Observers of his Works of Revenge and Malice thereby making himself and Abettors Infamous while he seeks to make himself Famous But God will debase his Pride and Presumption Altho' he would render himself an Eminent Champion as having Cut down and slain Quakerism yet eagerly endeavours to Influence both King and Parliament against us he presumes to Dedicate his bitter and scurrilous Invectives against us to the King 's High Court of Parliament superlatively stiling himself Your Honours most Humble and most Obedient Servant and arrogantly presumes to write an Address to his Majesty King William the Third therein also stiling himself One of the Meanest yet most Dutiful Subject Francis Bugg therein notifying G. Whitehead in particular and in pretence Most humbly Praying in the Name of the Church of England and other his Dissenting Protestants that Care may be taken to suppress the same i. e. the Quakers Doctrine and Books viz. such as he writes against In which he would also encourage the King to Judge who is in the Wrong and to punish accordingly And in this Case saith he let not the King respect Persons in Judgment c. Hence observe the Presumption of this silly Creature thus to presume to be the King's Dictator and that in the Name of the Church of England and other Protestant Dissenters too to Influence and Incense him against his Peaceable Subjects called Quakers as if nothing short of Punishment Persecution and Suppressing would pacify his Revenge against us But how comes F. Bugg thus confidently to Address King William in the Name of the Church of England and other his Majesty's Dissenting Protestants as if they had set him on Work so bitterly to Inveigh against the People called Quakers as he hath done Seeing in his Dedication to the Parliament he tells them He can with good Conscience say That from first to last no Clergy-Man in the Kingdom ever asked or desired him to write one Book Page or Line against the Quakers nor have any one Man Clergy or Laity seen this Book till printed If this be true then both the Clergy Laity and all others are so far Excusable as to this Book of his unjustly stiled A Modest Defence But then hath he not wronged the Church of England and Dissenting Protestants too by his Addressing the King in their Names against the Quakers seeing they neither asked nor desired him to write one Book Page or Line against the Quakers no not one Clergy-Man in the Kingdom c. If none of the Church of England nor any other set him at work how durst he Address the King expresly in their Names If he writ Truly to the Parliament how could he so write Truly or Honestly to the King What an officious Agent was he then so peremptorily to Address the King against the Quakers their Doctrine and Books in the Name of the Church of England and other Dissenting Protestants and that for Punishment too He seeks to Incense both King and Parliament and Church of England and other Dissenting Protestants against the peaceable People called Quakers as if he aim'd at their sole Ruin and Destruction For which End they shall not want his Exclamations of Heresie and Blasphemy Cheats Impostors Jesuits c. ay to Incense the World against them if he could But God's Power is above the Devils Glory to our God and to the Lamb that sits upon the Throne for Ever and Ever I conclude with this Scripture as applicable to our Persecuting Adversary Psalm 36. 1. There is no Fear of God before his Eyes v. 2. He flattereth himself in his own Eyes until his Iniquity be found to be hateful v 3. The words of his mouth are Iniquity and Deceit v. 4. He deviseth Mischief upon his Bed c. FINIS
then were severe and we under Hardship in the depth of Winter wherein my self with the rest had my share Though I then was but weak and young being but about 18 Years of Age yet was in my Heart truly tender and sincere to God and his Presence I often felt to strengthen me in that and divers other hard Imprisonments in Cromwel's time and by his Special Divine Providence I was supported in his Work and Service blessed be his Name for ever Who also hath made me to Triumph in Christ over Reproaches and Aspersions of This and all other my most Implacable Adversaries F. B. may think he has found out a deadly Weapon against me by his raking up and reprinting the said Ishmael c. printed in 1655. But he does very ill and very dis-ingenuously in upbraiding me and my Friends with some unwarrantable Expressions which I have positively disown'd and disclaim'd in Two Books as he knows And yet from thence he unjustly asperseth the Quakers That they dissemble the Doctrine of the Trinity when they pretend to own it whilst in their Books they damn it to the Pit and Lake Ded. p. 11. And part 2. p. 22. Margent This is their ancient Testimony to damn the blessed Trinity to the Pit of Hell the like in Part 3. p. 35. I say This is not true 't is neither the Quakers Ancient nor Modern Testimony and the passage upon which he makes this Note in the Margent though never intended against either God his Son or Holy Spirit or this Scripture-Trinity as I may say Yet I say as to the said Passage noted upon on the Margent I have positively disown'd those offensive Expressions publickly in Print in Two Books The 1st Entitled The Christianity of the People called Quakers Vindicated 1690. p. 28. The 2d Truth and Innocency Vindicated 1699. p. 51. Besides many Years since I corrected them where I met with that Answer And though I writ some Passages therein yet I still affirm I was not the Author of the said Unwarrantable Expressions nor of divers other sharp ones but C. Atkinson who miserably fell into Pollution and Condemnation after my self and my other Fellow-Prisoners had left him in Prison being discharg'd before him I was sorry my Name was to that Answer without distinction between my own Words and his For though I was then but Young Weak and Low yet I still believe and am satisfied I had a Measure of Understanding given me of the Lord and a Sense of his Power and Presence And I do not deny but I writ some Part or Paragraphs in that Book aforesaid by reason whereof I suppose my Name was to it and the Substance of what I writ I cannot disown to this day namely 1. Asserting the Word which was in the beginning to be God Christ the Light and the Foundation of Faith 2. And that the Word was before the Scripture or Writing or Letter thereof was 3. That Jesus Christ was the true and only Foundation 1 Cor. 3. 11. This was in Opposition to our then Adversary's Asserting the Scripture to be the only Foundation of Faith c. And I cannot in the least believe that there ever could be any Intention of Contempt or Contemptible Expressions design'd against God or his Dear Son or Holy Spirit among us or that we could be so grosly dark and ignorant as to think to confine him in Darkness who is an Omnipresent God and he being Light in whom is no Darkness at all this hath been our Principle from the beginning But to fasten the whole Book Ishmael on G. W. F. B. saith he owns the Book viz. in Truth Defending 1659. 1. From Tho. Smith's calling it G. Whitehead's Book 2. From the words Our Book Part 1. p. 31 32. Answ. How far I then own'd it I have signified 1. As having writ some part of it 2. But not then espousing the very words chiefly objected by F. B. and disown'd by me as before but my own Construction then given partly in these words viz. And he that Dreams and tells Lyes contrary to the Scriptures of Truth which we own he with his Imaginations and Dreams is for the Lake Rev. 21. 8. Yet what the Scripture saith of the Godhead the Father the Word and the Spirit which are one 1 John 5. 7. we own Truth Defend p. 1 2. Tho' I confess I there questioned the Notion of Three Distinct or Divided Persons as not Scripture but an Imagination And in our Disputes at Cambridge in the same Year 1659. My Opponents then Arguing They i. e. the Father Son and Holy Ghost are Three Hees therefore Three Persons and that because Christ was under the Water when baptised and the Holy Ghost then descended upon him like a Dove therefore Three Distinct or Separate Persons I then thought such Arguing as much beside true Scripture-Divinity as good Logick However I cannot call to Mind That at those Disputes I had with Tho. Smith the Library-keeper c. in Cambridge 1659. I either did own or defend that very Passage now objected against us out of Ishmael which I have disown'd and disclaim'd as before If I were now Conscious thereof I should be sorry for it To conclude this Point about the Trinity I refer the Reader 1. To a Catechism in the Words and Phrases of Scripture with this Imprimatur Guil. Sill. R. P. D. Henr. Episc. Lond. â Sacris Domesticis printed 1693. wherein are these Questions and Answers viz. Q Is there any more than One God A. There is none other God but one 1 Cor. 8. 4. Q. What is said of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost A. It is said That these Three are One 1 John 5. 7. Note Here they confine themselves to Scripture-Language 2. 'T is worthy of Observation what Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Sarum in the Life of John Earl of Rochester p. 104. speaking of the Trinity saith Which for want of Terms fit to express them by we call Persons and are called in Scripture the Father Son and Holy Ghost Besides the false Printing and bad English in the said Ishmael as F. B. has expos'd it there 's another Defect after the words The Lake is thy Portion which is the Portion of Lyars the words except thou speedily Repent are omitted there and in some other places The Old Impression I have not seen for many Years nor do I know where to find it tho' it seems F. B. hath industriously sought it out and reprinted it after a fashion with his perverse Annotations in the Margent to reproach Quakers withal And now let 's a little observe F. B.'s Definition of Person part 1. p. 18 19. viz. From the words God Christ the Light the Word the Spirit the Truth the Kingdom of God within me and these are one F. B. infers viz. Reader here is in the Quakers Essence Septem Personas Also from the words Stumble not at the Light for if thou dost thou stumblest at God at
A Rambling Pilgrim OR Profane APOSTATE EXPOSED BEING An Answer to Two Persecuting Books Falsly Entitled I. The Pilgrim 's Progress from Quakerism to Christianity II. A Modest Defence WITH An Epistle Dedicatoryto his Bountiful Benefactors By G. W. a Servant of Christ. Let the lying Lips be made Dumb which Cruelly Proudly and Spitefully speak against the Righteous Psalm 31. 18. LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street 1700. AN Epistle Dedicatory To those of the Clergy and of the Two Universities whose Kindness and Bounty Francis Bugg boasts of in his Pilgrim's Progress Chap. 15. WHereas the said Francis Bugg appears highly to value himself upon the Countenance of some of the Clergy in his Contests against the People called Quakers sounding a Trumpet of the Clergy's Kindness and being very Bountiful to him and particularly of the Bishop of Norwich upon his Request to him giving him a Certificate in his Recommendation together with his Bounty which he says was very Considerable Giving also this Account of the Improvement he intended to make of the said Certificate viz. I was minded to make Application to my Lords the Bishops of the Church of England the two Universities and to some particular Clergy-Men All which I no sooner asked than he granted me and it pleased God so to open the Hearts of my Lords the Bishops and Reverend Clergy that I found help in time of need These his Incouragements considered this Epistle is therefore Dedicated to you who are concern'd therein Friends Do you design to promote Christianity indeed You must use better Instruments for it than Fra. Bugg the Author of the said Pilgrim's Progress whose Progress is apparently from Christianity into Apostacy from Truth and true Charity into Falshood and Envy As hath been evinc'd in divers Answers extant which he could never wipe off and is also further manifest in the Sequel 'T is no small Offence to God or Injury to Men to encourage such Agents as can Forge Lye Calumniate and Asperse under pretence of Contending for the Faith of Christ and promoting Christianity Profanation of the Sacred Name of God and Christ in idle Romance and Fiction is no small Dishonour thereto I hope your Profession does not allow thereof or of taking Liberty thereunto as this Agent F. Bugg is proved to take very largely and if you can either Connive at his so doing or Indulge him therein how will he and you answer it in the great Day of Account before the Tribunal-Seat of Christ the Righteous Judge of Quick and Dead What Account will be given for the Violation of these Two Commandments Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him Guiltless that taketh his Name in vain And Thou shalt not bear false Witness against thy Neighbour Both which he has notoriously violated in his forged Sermon in my Name and many other Fictions and Forgeries Do you allow thereof or gratify him for the same Or is it his own officious heady Act and Device only For what then have you been so very Bountiful to him and Contributed such Considerable Sums of Money to him Is it for his just Demerits more than others in devising how to bring Contempt upon the People called Quakers by Forgeries and Calumnies Falsly forming a Judicature Trial ridiculous Answers Pillory Cage c to scandalize honest Men of good Report as a Pack of Perjur'd Persons as in his New Rome Arraigned for denying his Calumnies and false Accusations How should ever Christianity be promoted by such Mockers who act more like Stage-Players Merry-Andrews Jack-Puddings c. than sober Christians or Persons designing to promote Christianity And 't will be no Honour for you to promote or abet such Agents but procure you great Disgrace if you glory in such shameful Treatment and Abuse as this of F. Bugg's against us Besides it will be an Indication of your own Weakness to manage your Cause if not of the Cause it self for you to be beholden to such scornful Agents to manage it What may People think of you Has all your Learning fail'd you that you must needs contribute large Money to a busie Body for his Scribbling against the Quakers Never complain against Illiterate and Lay-Preachers or Mechanick Ministers if such an one must be your Champion who whilst his great Pretence is to Contend for Christ and the holy Scriptures can take Liberty to Contradict both in Practice if to Lye Misrepresent falsly Vilifie and Reproach be contradictory to both as we are sure no Lye is of the Truth And we are not only for Confessing with the Mouth the Lord Jesus and sincerely Believing with the Heart that God rais'd him from the Dead Rom. 10. but also for a Christian Life and Conversation agreeable to such Confession and Believing as is unto Righteousness well knowing that to make good Confessions to speak good Words and live bad Lives to confess Christ in Words and deny him in Actions will not commend or prove any to be true Christians The Sincerity of our Belief in and Confession to the true Messiah the very Christ of God to whom all his holy Prophets gave witness together with the Verity and Divine Authority of the holy Scriptures as being first given by Divine Inspiration I say our Sincerity herein is known to Him who searches and knows our Hearts however we be misrepresented in these Two main Points by some ill-affected Persons perverting cutting mangling and altering the Words Sayings and Sense of both deceased and living Authors which this Agent has been and is prov'd notoriously guilty of as a Person not Consciencious in his Writing and frequent Repetitions of the same Refuted Calumnies still imposing the same over and over without making Defence thereof by any serious Answer Replication or Rejoynder his Course of Scribbling being to repeat the same Fallacies and Misrepresentations under divers Models Titles Forms and Shapes as sometime to make them in Form of a Creed another in the Form of a Trial in a Court of Júdicature another while in the Form of a Dialōgue another while in the Form of Queries another while in the Form of History another while in the Form of a Sermon Together with his Scoff and Jeers Flouts Boasts Challenges intermixt and thus he can make up numerous Books fill'd with Repetitions of the same Stuff in divers shapes without taking any serious notice of Answers or Confutation And according to his crooked perverse Manner of Writing picking mincing clipping forging and perverting Words and Sentences Ill minded Persons may easily abuse and make the best of Writings look ill And now how bitter and envious and how full of cruel Mocking this Agent is turn'd against us the said People called Quakers and with what Contempt he hath writ concerning the Light within or in Man and our Doctrine thereof that his Self-Condemnation and Apostacy may therein the more appear please to observe his own
Of Sam. Fisher's Prophecy and F. B.'s Malice and injurious Construction p. 14 15 16. PART II. Of the Light of Christ the Spirit 's Authority the Holy Scriptures Ten Commandments Silent Meetings p. 17 18 19 20. Of F. B's offence against Light and Conviction and his Self-Contradiction about the Light Lawgiver and Head of the Body the Church c. p. 20 21 22. Of his notorious Abuse about the Ten Commandments p. 22 23 24. How to charge F. B. if he will not behave himself quietly p. 24. Of his Falshood Envy Contradiction and Insolency against the Light and the Ministers thereof p. 24 25. Of his Calumnies and accumulated Lyes and Perversions against the Quakers compaering them to Jesuits to be distrusted in all they say p. 26 27. A Certificate on G. Whitehead's behalf against F. B's idle Detractions p. 27 28. Of his Trumpeting out his Hospitality and upbraiding our Ministers p. 28 29. Of his blasphemously comparing the Pope of Rome and the Quakers Light and of our Meetings c. p. 30 31. Of his Fallacy and Abuse in a Quotation out of G. Keith's Way cast up p. 31 32. Of Praying for the King and our plain Testimony against Plots and Conspiracies c. p. 32 33. Of F. B's exposing in Print a Passage of Two Clergy-Men's against the Liberty granted and Legally confirmed p. 33 34. Of his Pillory and Cage idle Mockery Contempt and Folly p. 34. Of his horrid Calumnies about a most Damnable Plot charg'd against our Meetings c. p. 35. Of his Hypocritical Asseveration and presuming to dictate to Authority unjust Restrictions and Limitations to prevent the Growth of Quakerism as he calls it p. 35. 36 37. Of his silly and insolent Boasting and Challenging and of our Discourse in the presence of the Bishop of Norwich and some Members of Parliament p. 37 38. His Spirit of Envy Falshood and Persecution still appearing in other things p. 38 39. A Catalogue of my Answers to F. Bugg's Books extant in Print p. 39 40. A Brief Answer to Francis Bugg's Book falsly stiled A Modest Defence c. p. 41. THE Rambling PILGRIM EXPOSED PART I. THE principal Notice I am concerned to take of Francis Bugg's Pilgrim's Progress from Quakerism to Christianity as he falsly terms it is of his Chap. XIII Entituled The Quakers Conversion G. Whitehead 's Sermon explaining their ancient Testimonies of above two printed Sheets which G. Whitehead utterly denies and in good Conscience solemnly testifies against as a Sermon never preached nor owned by him and which Fr. Bugg also knows in his own Conscience is a Fictitious Romance presumptuously contriv'd and invented by himself to ridicule defame and scandalize both G. W. and the People called Quakers and their Yearly Meeting which he calls their Convocation and The Quakers Synod also calling it a Sermon for G. W. to hold forth at their Convocation He is positive in his first Title that it is G. W's Sermon and as idle self-contradicting and false in the other that it is For him to hold forth consequently not G. Whitehead's Sermon but F. Bugg's Forgery And as the said fictitious Sermon is compos'd of base Forgery ridiculous Romance foul Perversions gross Lies idle and sordid Stuff with many curtail'd and abused Citations out of our Books besides his presumptuously Profaning the sacred Name of God and Christ and the Light within in his said Forgery And that it may evidently appear such I may recite some Passages out of it under the Title of Forgery and shew 1. His invented Cut of Pictures about a Table to represent the Quakers Synod as he calls it some having their Names over their Heads and others Deputies And on the Table two Books Pictur'd the one stiled The Journal of G. Fox and the other Church-Canons on the outsides Which is a meer Fiction of his own And in the same Cut or Figure which he entitles The Quakers Synod he feigns G. Whitehead to say Are the Doors shut And W. Bingley to answer Yea the Doors are lock'd And he feigns W. Penn to say Call over the List Are none of Truth 's Enemies here Then over one he has set B. Bealing the Scribe Which are fictitious Inventions of his own And yet I heard this Cut has been of a considerable Charge to ridicule us with such a piece of lying Vanity 2. He feigns me G. W. to Preach a Sermon in the said Synod some Passages whereof do follow with brief Observations thereupon viz. Forgery Beloved You see what great Mistakes are happened to this People of England who by following the Doctrine of their blind Guides have taken Matthew Mark Luke and John for the Gospel that is Glad-Tidings No no 't is Beastly Ware yea Dust and Serpents Meat And this I can prove by two Books wrot by our Apostle George Fox c. p. 108 109. Observe This is a horrid piece of Forgery I never preached this Doctrine in my days nor do I own it but abhor calling either Matthew Mark Luke and John or their Gospel-Testimony or holy Scripture Beastly Ware c. nor did I ever read those Expressions in any of G. F's or other Friends Books And for this gross Lye and Calumny Fra. Bugg has been several times reprehended in Print and yet still persists in the Repetition thereof see my Sober Expostulation p. 104 105. and p. 67 98 137. and other Answers to him c. Forgery Moreover the Scriptures are so uncertain that it is questionable who was the first Pen-man thereof whether Moses or Hermes yea either or neither p. 109. Observe I deny this to be Part of any Sermon of mine or ever so asserted by me There is not only Forgery against me in this but also a Perversion and Abuse against some other Friends The Questions were not their own but arose from some others as evidently appears in their Book entituled The Quakers Refuge c. p. 17. and 't is Answer'd in my Antidote against the Venom of the Snake in the Grass pag. 83 84. Forgery I still affirm the same and do tell you That it is according to our ancient Testimony and you know we cannot change nor alter being as Unchangeable as our Light within p. 109. Obs. I utterly deny that I did so tell them in any Sermon of mine That we are as Unchangeable as our Light within This is not only a Forgery but also a scurrilous Abuse of the Light within Forgery We our selves use many words not Scriptural as these of calling the Scriptures Death Dust Beastly Ware c. The Reason why we call them so and translate the Words of Christ John 5. 22. from the Son of Man to the Light within c. is because we believe there is no other Son of Man than the Light in us p. Ibid. Obs. Thus he falsly feigns me to Preach and to repeat his own gross Lye over and over of calling the Scriptures Beastly Ware and as if we used so to call them
O Abominable Abuse And I positively deny that we so translate the Words of Christ John 5. 22. as F. B. saith as if we believed no Son of Man without us but only the Light within us which is as falsly Charg'd as the rest though the Son of Man which is Christ the Son of the Living God be the true Light yea the Light of the World the Sower of the good Seed of Life and Light in the World Forgery Notwithstanding we call the Scriptures Death Dust Beastly Ware c. Obs. Note Upon this often-repeated Falshood is grounded much of his idle and wicked Romance which he calls George Whitehead's Sermon Oh F. B. repeat this Lye no more Forgery Now my Friends though this Confession be as contrary to our ancient Testimony as Light is contrary to Darkness as by our Books quoted you may see And what Confession that is he relates just before viz. I believe with my Heart and confess with my Mouth the sacred Scriptures to be Divine left us by Men inspired of God c. And I profess to believe in one only God who is the Father and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son very God and very Man and in the Holy Spirit one and the same God with the Father and Son blessed for evermore Observe How he most falsly and ridiculously feigns me to Preach this Connfession to be as contrary to our ancient Testimony as Light is contrary to Darkness and consequently to make me Preach us all guilty of gross Dissimulation and Blasphemy What horrid absurd Folly is this Agent guilty of Forgery And therefore I exhort you this day to stand Faithful to your ancient Testimony which is to throw down the Scriptures and exalt our own Books and so will the Work of your Light prosper in your hands p. 113. Observe Thus he represents me to Preach expresly contrary to my known Principle and Testimony for the preferring and exalting the holy Scriptures above all other Books extant in the World So far am I from Preaching to throw down the Scriptures and from Fathering any such Doctrine upon our Light as I am wickedly misrepresented in contempt against the Light also contrary to this Man 's former serious Testimonies for the Light And the Preference I have ascribed to the Spirit of Truth and its Immediate Teaching either in or through its Ministers to the Scriptures or Chapters was not any Preferring of our own Books thereto as I am often misrepresented But allowing the Spirit its due Preference to the Scripture Letter or Chapters For the Spirit was before Scripture and I never heard any assert the Division of Chapters and Verses to be of Divine Authority though the holy Doctrine contain'd in Scripture be This Point is more fully explain'd in my late Just Examination of the three Norfolk Priests entituled Truth and Innocency vindicated c. p. 16 17 19 to 23. p. 57 58. Forgery My tender Lambs You see first that we are the true Church of Christ next that you are to believe as the Church believes and there lies G. Fox ' s Journal on the Table c. For as our Brother Mead has express'd himself It is the best Book in the World for our keeping up our ancient Testimony yea better than the Bible said he And now to conclude this Head look into the Book of Canons which lies before you on the Table p. 114. Observe Thus to ridicule me he forges such Stuff in my Name which I never owned preached or asserted neither did I ever hear W. Mead so express himself as That G. Fox ' s Journal is the best Book in the World yea better than the Bible but expresly the contrary and denies that ever he said so but gives the Bible the Preference to all other Books Forgery Friends I am now come to the last thing propos'd to speak to on this solemn Occasion and it shall be by way of Use and Application for your Comfort and Consolation c. First respecting Confession of Sin shewing your Exaltation above the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Primitive Christians Saints and Martyrs and all the Christian Churches to this day p. 114. And p. 115. You being the True Ancient Apostolick Church of Christ and as Quakers elected thereto c. have no need to make any Confession of Sin in our Prayers to God as our Practice for near Fifty Years does confirm c. Our Adversaries cannot prove from any one of our Books wrote by my Self G. Fox E. B F. H Father Penn S. Fisher c. that ever we made Confession of Sins and asked pardon for Christ's sake nor that ever we recommended such a Practice to our Disciples c. Now Friends what Cause have we to rejoyce and to magnifie our Light within which hath led us to such a State of sinless Perfection Obs. Thus F. Bugg represents me preaching such Stuff as I never preached in my Life nor ever own'd any such Flattery or Deceit as to exalt any Auditory above the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles c. or to disswade any from making Confession of Sin or asking Pardon for Christ's sake who have need of both or who have not received forgiveness of Sins And my known publick Practice both in Ministry and Prayer often times testifie the contrary To the True Witness in all who know me and my publick Exercise and Travel for the good of Souls I do Appeal to clear me in this Matter against this Man's absurd and abominable Forgeries which he terms George Whitehead's Sermon And he goes on still with his Forgery as my Sermon viz. Forgery Now Friends what a happy thing is this that you need not trouble your selves with any Confession of Sins since you are not like other Men nor like these Publicans And therefore I exhort you to keep to your ancient Testimony in all the parts of it make no Confession of Sins nor be sure you do not recommend the Practice of it by Word or Writing but keep to our ancient Practice Nor is there any need for our Hearers to follow those Christian Precepts viz. And whatsoever you do in Word or Deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving Thanks to God the Father by him Col. 3. 17. Whether ye Eat or Drink or whatever ye do do all to the Glory of God 1 Cor 10. 31. Matth 15. 36. Observe Where did ever F. Bugg or any other hear me or any of us Preach such a Sermon as this to exhort the Hearers to make no Confession of Sin or ever tell them there is no need for them to follow those Christian Precepts cited as before out of Col. 3. 17. 1 Cor. 10. 31 Oh poor Francis What will become of thee What will be the End of this thy Liberty and Profaness How wilt thou Answer the great God in the Day of Judgment for such presumptuous Forgery and Profanation of the Sacred Name of God and Abuse of me his Servant who have been many times
c. X. I charge you all in the Presence of the Lord God That you Judge not one another i. e. Those that be in the Unity of the Ministry and Elders in the Church lest you fall into the Condemnation of the Monthly Quarterly Six-Week Second-Day or Yearly Meeting Amen Thus F. B's invented Method of forming Commands how Idle and Impertinent does the Man appear herein And how does he Profane and take the sacred Name of the Lord God in vain For which God will not hold him guiltless And when F. B. will not demean himself quietly towards any of our Friends but be Challenging of them in the Countries or else-where and will be Charging them out of Books they may Charge him First To prove his Trial and Condemnation of our Friends to Perjury and Pillory as in his New Rome Arraigned to be a Real and True Trial and Condemnation Judicial and Warrantable by the Law of God and of the Nation Secondly To prove his Sermon which he calls George Whitehead's Sermon in his Pilgrim's Progress from p. 107 to p. 126. to be a Real Sermon preached by G. W. Thirdly To prove where G. Fox or the Quakers did ever endeavour to make the Commands of God Exod. 20. of none Effect by those or such positive Commands as he has impudently form'd in opposition thereto in his Pilgrim's Progress p. 16 17 18 Now if F. B. will not learn to be quiet towards our Friends c. that he might the more quietly go to his Grave now he grows Old they may very well Charge him on these Three Forgeries last propos'd as many more I could charge him withal and have proved against him upon his own Calumnies and Occasions so manifestly given by himself and let him be held to the point in Charge or any other who dare undertake to Advocate for him therein which I could never yet find if he and they are not minded otherwise to study to be quiet And now that F. B's Falshood Envy and Contradiction may yet farther appear to his own Condemnation seeing he hath given plain Testimony and Confession to the Truth of our Doctrine and Ministry First With respect to the Universality and Sufficiency of the Light of Christ in all Men. Secondly To our Ministry that it was a Dispensation of the Love of God sent as a Visitation to Mankind Thirdly To our bearing the Cross and suffering for the Testimony thereof Fourthly To our Love unfeigned one to another Fifthly To our Religious Meetings as being blessed with the Comfortable Enjoyment of the Presence of God According as the said F. Bugg is more fully before recited out of his Book stiled The Quakers Detected printed 1686. being Two Years after he had left our Communion and joyned himself to the Church of England in 1684. So that his Conviction and Testimony for the Truth among the Quakers even when he had deserted them pursued him into the Church of England But now being grown more hardy and so far hardned against Conviction and Conscience he can out-face both and give himself the Lye in his fore-cited Solemn Testimony and Confession as appears in his envious Contradiction following in his own words viz. Having by this time shewed first how our Teachers in order to bring us over to them and to decoy us told us The Light within was a sufficient Guide Teacher and Leader even sufficient to lead to Salvation yea above Scriptures above Fathers above Councils and above Churches I have in the last Instance shewed the Fallacy of their so early and smooth Pretences and that from the beginning they have been a false perfidious and treacherous Tribe of Deceivers as ever the World produced Pilgrim's Progress p. 15. To such a degree of Hardness and Insolency is this poor Creature now arriv'd that he can now thus scribble in Opposition to the Sufficiency of the Light within and Contempt of the Ministers thereof expresly contradictory to his own Testimony for the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned Men and to the Sufficiency thereof if obey'd to lead to Salvation without the help of Decrees of Men And to his own Testimony also for the Simplicity and Plainness which attended our Ministry which did not import any Design to decoy or deceive Men nor any Falshood Perfidiousness or Treachery as F. B. has falsly and treacherously Scandalized Us and our Ministry and thereby notoriously given himself the Lye and shamefully Belyed his own Conscience and solemn Confession and Testimony in his Quakers Detected aforesaid And the Light now so much slighted by him will pursue him as it did Judas and other Apostates to his great Vexation and perpetual Torment if he persists in his Enmity Perfidiousness and Treachery against the Light and the Children of it Oh F. B If I may yet perswade thee Repeat thy Lyes and Scandals no more His Accusation against W. Mead That he said to one W. Harris I will give thee one of George Fox 's Journals it is a very good Book yea better than the Bible Which Accusation he has many times over p. 22 23 24 25 29. but various in it viz. That 't is better than the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles p. 23. This Accusation W. Mead positively denies as contrary to his Principle which is to prefer the holy Scriptures before all other Books in the World For I asked him seriously about this matter And I am sure it is a base and shameful Abuse of F. Bugg that It is the Heart of Quakerism in saying G. Fox 's Journal is better than the Bible p. 23. This I must tell him is a foul notorious Lye and Calumny against the Quakers so called 'T is neither the Quakers Mind Heart nor Mouth so to speak but the contrary i. e. To prefer the Bible to all other Books extant in the World as hath been often testified Wherefore F. B. repeat this Lye no more against us Again as 't is F. Bugg's common Course to add one Calumny after another and to accumulate Lyes and Perversions upon us he falsly saith The Quakers stand upon the same bottom i. e with the Jesuites and therefore they ought to distrust them in all they say as the Protestants did the Jesuites We do not expect he will trust us who has belyed his own Conscience Conviction and Testimony as before evinced And to add to his Iniquity and aggravate his Calumnies against me he saith Many of their Hearers of the honest sort begin to think G. Whitehead little better than a Jesuite already he hath been so False in Fact such a Glosser and Defender of every Error the Quakers hold I have quoth he a Letter by me which my Cousin Ann Docwra sent me dated 26. 12th Month 1682. viz. G. Whitehead has sent me one of his Books c. I was asked by an honest Friend If he was not a Jesuite I answered Nay it is not solid enough for them to own especially when they write to a solid People
incense the Civil Government against them and he being therein often Refuted I am concern'd herein to take notice only of a few of his notorious Abuses Misrepresentations and Perversions viz. 1st In his Dedication to the High Court of Parliament p. 10. he tells them The Quakers tell you They own the Scriptures to be given by Divine Inspiration but mean not a word of it like other Christians 2dly They tell you they own a Scripture-Trinity but mean not a word of it and that Your Honours will find it as difficult a thing to gain the true Meaning of the Quakers touching the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures and their Belief of a Scripture-Trinity as Constantinus the Emperor found it in the Examination of Arius the Heretick to get his true meaning touching the Faith of one Substance And he would have them believe The Quakers are such Enemies to the holy Scripture as that they say It is a rotten Foundation Ibid. p. 11. And that with them it is Beastly Ware c. part 2. p. 29. And that they render the holy Scriptures to be of no more Authority than Aesop 's Fables part 3. p. 40. Such abominable Falshoods this Incendiary presumes to Dedicate and Present to the Parliament expresly contrary to our sincere and publick Confession to the Divine Authority of the holy Scriptures as Eminently given by Divine Inspiration and our Estimation and Preference of the Bible to all other Books extant in the World though many of them may be given by a Degree of the same Divine Inspiration yet the holy Scripture contain'd in the Bible have not only the Priority but more Eminently and Signally Confirm'd by Divine Authority more Comprehensive and more Generally accepted than other Books or Commentaries thereupon the holy Pen-Men of the Scriptures of Truth having also a higher Degree of Illumination and Inspiration in many things than other Writers in after-Ages And Christ himself whose blessed Testimonies are from him Recorded received the Holy Ghost or Spirit not by Measure but in Fulness and to be sure we are bound in Conscience highly to prefer the Authors of Holy Scripture i. e. Christ his Apostles and Prophets above our selves or any other Writers whatsoever therefore we have cause to allow the Bible the Preference as well as Priority before other Books But our embittered Adversary to render us the said People Incredible or not to be Believ'd and such a difficult thing to gain the true Meaning of the Quakers he thus treats us with his wonted Course of Defamation and Calumny giving this pretended Relation viz. That the honest Quakers for some such there are amongst them have suspected G. Whitehead to be a Jesuite at least like them This Witness is true quoth F. B. Pref. p. 18. And farther he proceeds with this Out-cry viz. By which Evidence we may know that the Quakers like the Cretians were always Lyars evil Beasts slow Bellies but not only so but Lyars Forgers and to speak comparatively Knights of the Post Jesuits and dangerous to the Government c. Pref. p. 19 20. Thus furiously he runs on and clamours like one without Eear or Wit he is Accountable for such odious Defamation and the Righteous Judge of all I doubt not will rebuke him for such his Folly and Outrage He strives in his Persecution against us as if it were for Life even for our Lives in not only defaming G. Whitehead for a Jesuit but the Quakers in General and yet some of them Honest Quakers too Such Confusion Envy produces But who these Honest Quakers are that suspect G. W. to be a Jesuit at least like them we are to seek he tells us not who is his true Witness in this Case G. W. utterly denies the Defamation against himself and the rest of his Friends called Quakers being known to be as wholly and absolutely Averse to Popery as any People in Christendom and more than all Persecutors whatsoever Persecution being a principal Prop and Pillar of Popery commonly raised by such Clamour and Outrage as Away with them Hereticks and Schismaticks they are Seditions and Dangerous to the Government and then Imprisonment Havock Exile or Death must follow c. To his other odious Calumny viz. That the Quakers Church agrees with the Papists That our Bible is a Brazen-fac'd Book an unjust corrupt and perverse Bible part 1. p. 4. Oh Horrible The righteous Lord rebuke this Lying Spirit which possesses this Poor Creature How like a furious Incendiary in his boundless Outrage does he Defame and most unjustly Asperse the Innocent Are not the Bibles we frequently use in our Houses and Families the same used by other Protestants and allow'd by Authority Pray let this be observ'd and further inquired into that the notorious Lyes of this Adversary may more manifestly appear to the World to his own and his Abettors shame and disgrace And as I have often urg'd plain Proof from him that the Quakers call the Scriptures Beastly Ware but never yet could obtain it So I now demand Proof that they say The Scripture is a rotten Foundation as before Ded. p. 11. For Proof of this Lye he has quoted a little Pamphlet or Book which he has rak'd up and Reprinted Entitled Ishmael and his Mother cast out first printed in 1655. Upon the Margent on the 14th page he repeats the same gross Lye again thus viz. The Holy Scriptures they say are a rotten Foundation This is their ancient Testimony from which they have not varied This is F. B's Annotation against the People called Quakers but where is his Proof still 'T is upon these words viz. With the Light thou art seen to be a Wrester of the Scriptures and thy rotten Foundation being ready to fall thee c. Here is no such word as the Quakers saying The Holy Scriptures are a rotten Foundation but the contrary viz. Against that Adversary for Wresting the Scripture and that he was judged thereby And that the Scriptures of Truth proceeded from the Life and Power of God were spoken by holy Men as mov'd thereby as also a true Declaration of God the Words of God who with his dear Son Christ Jesus and Holy Spirit and the Baptism thereof are also confess'd in the said Book quoted but falsly noted on the Margent as before quite contrary to these Confessions unto the Truth and Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures They that writ the said Book Ishmael c. did judge that pretended Pastor S. Townsend their then Adversary neither to be built upon Christ nor upon the holy Scriptures and that therefore neither of them was his Foundation but a Spirit of Enmity when he enviously writ and aspers'd those of us that were then Prisoners for Conscience sake in Norwich Goal which was in the year 1654. being 45 Years ago He then more like a busie Incendiary than a Minister of Christ with his envious defaming Pamphlet did Persecute us by Reproaches to add Affliction to our Bonds which
with more Reflections in her Name And then to defame me he infers viz. Thus it appears how long the honest sort of Quakers have taken G. W. to be little better than a Jesuite and my Cousin Docwra was of the same mind too else she would not have given me her honest Friends Judgment p. 25. I leave A. D. to answer for her self in this matter she knows me better But for this Defamation of being little better than a Jesuite thus insinuated against me by F. Bugg he is Accountable as he is for his Trial Condemnation and Pillory forged against us under the Pretence of Perjury and as a Pack of Perjur'd Persons making no Conscience how Criminal and Scandalous he renders us and highly defames us But I challenge him and his Abettors to manifest and produce those many of our Hearers of the honest sort who either begin to think or have taken G. Whitehead to be little better than a Jesuite Let him bring forth and manifest that honest sort of Quakers that so think or have taken me to be such an one for I utterly deny the Accusation as a false Aspersion and Defamation As I also testifie against his other Calumnies as these following viz. That G. W. can vindicate or excuse any Blasphemy Idolatry Contempt of the Scriptures Contempt of Magistrates of the Ministry the Person and Sufferings of Christ c. p. 26. I am not conscious to my self of any such Vindication or Contempt but have often testified the contrary in publick both in behalf of the holy Scriptures Magistracy Christ's Ministry his Person and Sufferings and abundantly answered the same in Print Wherefore F. B. repeat these foul Slanders no more 'T is a wonder F. B. should so much by Insinuation endeavour to represent G. W. like a Jesuit or little better and yet upbraid him as one so Illiterate that neither writes true School-Learning nor one Page good Grammar-English as well as some part meer Non-sense i. e. in Jacob found in a Desert Land Yet he will not call him Fool nor yet nothing of a Schollar for perhaps he might be then enter'd in his Accidence p. 30. Thus F. B. upbraids and detracts against G. W. but to exalt his own Endowments as having both a Competency of Learning and Judgment afforded him to deal with the Quakers p. 30. 'T is a wonder I should be such a Proficient in Learning now as to be compared to a Jesuit seeing I never went to Learn at School since the time I writ that which he deems so foreign to true School-Learning or good Grammar-English although I learned a considerable time after I enter'd my Accidence But I am sure all his Writings are not true Syntax nor true Concord but sometimes both Person and Number confounded But how comes F. B. such a Proficient in his Competency of Learning now When in his New Rome Unmask'd in his Apology he more submissively confesses thus viz. I am not accomplish'd with Parts and Learning sufficient to grapple with such Scholars as are some of the Chieftains of the Quakers Against some others of his silly Detractions please to read the following Ceretificate viz. Whereas Francis Bugg in his Pilgrim's Progress printed 1698. Page 32. after a contemning and detracting manner against George Whitehead hath these Expressions viz. You came from Penury to Plenty from Labour and Toil to Ease and Pleasure you came from your Father's poor Cottage which I have been told by them that saw it that it was not worth 50s to Houses worth 500l And in his Quakerism Exposed printed 1699. he also saith Do Gentlemen live in a poor Cottage standing on Mud-Walls not worth 50s as G. W. did as I am credibly informed by a Person of Note that saw it We whose Names are hereunto Subscribed do Certifie the contrary to this Information of F. Bugg's namely That we have been Lodged and kindly Entertained both Horse and Man at the House that was George Whitehead's House the Father of this George Whitehead at Sunbigin in the Parish of Orton in Westmorland from whence his Son the said George Whitehead came and where his own Sister Ann Pratt and her Husband and Family do now Reside and the House is a Large Substantial and Commodious House after the manner of that Country and of Stone-Walls and no such thing as Mud-Walls pertaining to it Neither do we know of any Houses standing on Mud-Walls in those Parts being greatly replenish'd with Lime-Stone and Quarries meet for strong and durable Building both for their Mansion-Houses and Barns and therefore no need of Mud-Walls for their Buildings And also that the said George Whitehead's Kindred and Relations and the Families from whence he came were and are generally People well Esteemed of and of good Reputation as we have understood and he well Educated and needed not be expos'd to Penury or Want either when at his Father's House or when he was put to Board and Free-School in Cumberland as on credible Information we verily Believe Joseph Baines George Knipe John Thompson I do not think it worth my time to repeat or answer all his Detractions Aspersions or Calumnies against my self however I 'm sure he wrongs me in rendering me a Covetous Worldly-minded Person as none exceeds p. 32. and our Ministry the Chargeablest this day in England but to come off here he says to some particulars But to what Particulars they exceed all other Ministries in being Chargeable he instances only himself viz. That the Ministry of the Quakers has cost me as much in Three Months time nay much more than the publick Ministry have cost me this Fifteen Years p. 24. I do not know what Account he keeps of the Charge our Ministry has put him to yet I do not believe his Hospitality to any of them made him either Break or Fail in the World However he is very apt not only to sound a Trumpet of his Hospitality but also to upbraid such as he has afforded any Entertainment at his House in the time of his Prosperity among the People called Quakers as he upbraided me in Print with his Entertainment of me To which I gave him this Answer As for being Fed at F. B's Table I think 't was not very often whether Three or Four times I remember not which was but seldom in 25 Years time and I suppose it was not without some Invitations by him Didst not thou F. B. invite me to thy House sometimes Surely 't was not then intended to upbraid me in Print with feeding at thy Table thou wast then more a Man and of more Civility 'T is pity thy Conversion to the Priests and Levites should so much deprive thee both of Compassion Natural Affection and Civility However since 't is thy pleasure thus to upbraid Me I offer thee reasonable Satisfaction let me have a true Bill how oft I have fed at thy Table and what each Meal comes to according to the usual Rates of Ordinaries and I will pay