the Socinians I do still confess That as the Reasonable Soul and Body is One Man so He that is God and Man is One Christ. And whether this will give Satisfaction to an Implacable Adversary or no I value not knowing my Conscience Clear in the Sight of Him who Judgeth Righteously which I am sure this my Unjust Judge and False Accuser is not who presently after he has stiled me Honest George unjustly Brands me with Infamy as Sophistry Delusion Depths of Satan Mystery of Iniquity Equivocation Jesuitical Confession c. Oh! Rank Malice Bitter Envy c. As for my Confession in the 7th Art alledged against me it stands good and true viz. We own no such saying as that the Holy Doctrine or Divine Precepts of Scripture is either Dust Death or the Serpent's Meat but truly profitable to us by the Assistance of God's Holy Spirit given to us c. And this was in direct Opposition to F. Bugg's saying These Quakers who pretend to own the Precepts and Doctrine of the Bible to be Holy and Blessed yet say 't is Dust and Death the Serpent's Meat c. Apol. Introd p. 18. to his New Rome We do not believe any of these Quakers ever so said of the Precepts and Doctrine nor do they own any such Saying I wholly disown it But then to beg the Question What was it you called Dust and Serpents Meat Was it nothing else but the Ink and Paper Did any Body ever say That these were not Dust Or Is that any part of the Controversie betwixt us Snake p. 177. Here he yields the Point he grants the Ink and Paper to be Dust. I said Will decay and turn to Dust but so will not the Word the Gospel nor the Holy Doctrine contain'd in Scripture And it has been confess'd by F. B. and others That Holiness is not ascrib'd to the Paper and Ink or Inky Characters that will decay but to the Holy Doctrine and Precepts which will not decay but be permanent and endure and therefore are called the Holy Scriptures with respect to the Holy Matters therein contained That the Books and Writings in Ink and Paper will wear out so will not the Word is evident Jehoiakim King of Judah could burn Jeremiah the Prophet's Roll or Book writ with â—nk by Baruch but not the Word of the Lord nor properly the Words thereof for the same Word caused all the former Words to be written again after the Roll was burnt Jer. 36. If then the Books the Paper and Ink be combustible or will decay and turn to Dust but not the Word nor the Doctrine where 's then the Controversie indeed when the same thing is granted on both sides He quotes Gr. Myst. p. 302. as saying Paper and Ink is not Infallible that will come to Dust unto which the Word Christ and the Spirit is preferred in the same place quoted And in the said Gr. Myst. p. 78. by Letter he there means Paper and Ink but the Scripture the thing it speaks of is Spiritual the Word is Spirit And further p. 127. the Scripture or Writing it self without the Spirit that gave it forth is a dead Letter in it self The Spirit is that that gave forth the Scriptures For my part as I am not in the least conscious to my self of the least Contempt of Holy Scripture nor yet of the Bible for I have always preferr'd it to all other Books extant in the World and more affected Reading therein than any other Book even from my Childhood and often bless Divine Providence for preserving to us the Scriptures So I know of none among us guilty of contemning them Neither is what 's said from any Contempt of Scripture no more than it is of the Earth and the Heavens to say They shall wax old and perish but the Word that made them endureth Psal. 102.25 26. Heb. 1.11 12. But say what we can in this Case to clear our selves of any Contempt to the Holy Scripture this our uncharitable Judge and Accuser will not believe us He 's bent to asperse he has swallow'd down so much of the sour Leven of the Malice of a few false Brethren Persecutors and Apostates from whom he derives much of his Authority and thus scurrilously and most falsly imposes upon me viz. And therefore George notwithstanding all thy meally Modesty it is it is indeed George it is the very Doctrine of the Scriptures which you blaspheme as Dust and Death and Serpents Meat on purpose to bring Men off from trying your pernicious Heresies by those Sacred Oracles Ibid. This is a pernicious Abuse and Calumny against my self and others of us to out-face us against our very Sense and Consciences and in good Conscience I Testifie against it it never entred into my Intention or Thoughts so to blaspheme the Doctrine of the Scriptures as to term or deem it Dust Death or Serpents Meat the Lord rebuke this lying envious Spirit Neither do I vilifie the written Doctrine and Precepts of God in comparison of our New Light as he falsly calls it p. 177. but reverently esteem them The Man makes no Conscience of Defaming us Neither do we quarrel with the Law and the Testimony nor yet with Writing or Scripture as 't is in Ink and Paper but distinguish between the Writing and the Things written which is no contempt to either We are thankful to Divine Providence for both the Scripture or Writing and the Holy Doctrine and Divine Precepts therein written for they testifie unto Christ our Light and our Light to the Truth of them And to what he saith If any do not teach the same i. e. according to the Law and the Testimony or written Word it is because there is no Light in them Isa. 8.20 And then puts this Emphasis upon it No Light George Mark that Your false Pretences to the Light within are here over-rul'd Ibid. I deny that our Pretences to the Light within is either false or are here over-rul'd if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Morning to them If he 'll see the Note from the Hebrew in some Bibles he may see no Morning in the Margin over against no Light Then let him Mark that But is there no Light in the Creation before Morning either inward or outward pray Did not the Light shine in Darkness before it shined out of Darkness And had not the Believers a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto they did well to take heed as unto a Light shining in a dark place until the Day dawned and the Day-star arose in their Hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 And are not many reproved by the Light in them for telling Lies and speaking contrary to the Word c. And therefore there was some true Light in them before the Morning appeared to them And though my Accuser says Ibid. These and such-like Texts detect and explode the miserable Ignorance and Blasphemy of these Pretenders to Light For which we have
other Books Writ about that time do abundantly testifie of the like evil Practices in other Counties And that they might the more effectually Convince their Persecutors of the wrong they then did them they Expostulate with them P. 78 79. concerning the Pretences on which these their Persecutors had proceeded against others for what they called Arbitrary Actings while they themselves were then found in Practices not less Arbitrary and Illegal The Words are these To what purpose have been the Hangings by the Neck the Cuttings of the Throat at Tyburn the Imprisonments Confiscation of Estates and other exemplary Punishments executed on Judges Justices and Ministers of State for Arbitrary Acting of which the Records of this Nation speak Why was Strafford's Head cut off and Canterbury's and Charles Stuart's as Traitors for Endeavouring to Subvert the Fundamental Laws of England and what Justice was there in all these c This it 's plain is not Exulting but Quaerying not Praising but Questioning yet the Snake by his Art in Splitting Sentences puts it in another face than this its true one Another Instance the Snake quotes p. 221. from the Book aforesaid p. 96. Multitudes of People flock'd up out of the City to Westminster to complain of their Sufferings which Charles Stuart call'd Tumults But the place as it lies in that Book is thus In the beginning of the Long Parliament some such thing viz. Guards was set at White-hall-gate to hiâ—â—er the Multitudes of People which flock'd up out of the City to Westminster to Complain of their Sufferings by the Bishops and Oppressions c. The last Words it seems the Snake would have kept under the Thumb and by no means have it known that the cause why the People then flock'd to Westminster was their Oppression and Suffering by Bishops No by no means the Snake can much more willingly have it known that King Charles the First was counted faulty than that those Bishops should stand Recorded for Oppressors and Persecutors This must not be Published in Gath nor had I now reviv'd it in this Instance but to Detect the Injustice and Falshood of this Partial Adversary I come now to a Book Entituled Several Papers given forth by G. Fox Printed 1660. From which the Snake in the same manner as from the last quoted gives many Scraps of Quotations with purpose that they may Answer the Title of this Section and to prove his Solecism That all their Fighting has been chiefly against the King But alas his base and nasty practice of Splitting Sentences Curtailing Periods and Perverting the Sense Scope and Purport of them will never be able effectually to do it as who shall read the Pages referr'd to by him viz. p. 8 9 12 15 16. and from which in an interwoven manner he hath plac'd the several Bits he picks will more fully see I omit to Transcribe them for Brevity but their Purport is this George Fox does in those Papers which were Writ long before the King's Restauration though not Printed till the Year before fore-warn and reprehend those who would have Constituted and Set Up an Oppressing King which it was fear'd some in Oliver's Days would have done thereby to Establish and Impose their Religion upon the Nation contrary to their former great Pretence to the Headship and Kingship of Jesus Christ over the Church And thus much as it hath the warrantable Example of Precedent from Holy Writ so neither was it any Fighting against the King When the Jews 1 Sam. 8.5 would have a King to Judge them like all the Nations it is said in the very next Verse according to the Hebrew It was evil in the eyes of Samuel yet Samuel was not therefore accused of Fighting against him whom God in anger gave them to be their King Samuel had a sight of that Declension which was in the Jews contrary to their former Practices in this their desire that displeased him and seemed evil unto him in that there should be such Declension in them Thus some there were who once had some beginnings of the Work of God in their Hearts and while they continued under that Sense were willing that Jesus Christ should have his proper Headship and Government in his Church and that all should be persuaded in their own Minds in the Exercise of their Religious Worship towards God But having declined from this they were endeavouring to set up the contrary viz. a Governour and Government by which they might impose upon those with whom they had formerly Unity as relating to the Freedom of the Conscience Against this it is G. Fox in those Papers speaks which shews the Snake in his scornful Flout p. 223. Alas wretched George now must all Men know that thou even thou thy self didst quench the Spirit and deny the Light c. does of none speak so properly as of himself concerning whom all Men that read him must know by this his Falshood and Malice that he does quench the Spirit and deny the Light which will further appear in the falsity of his saying P. 223. Thee G. F. didst Change just as the times did Change and just as soon The Instance which the Snake gives that G. F. did so Change is a Declaration which he with other of our Friends did give unto the King at his Restauration importing their Truth and Fidelity to him 'T is thus Entituled A Declaration and an Information from us the People of God called Quakers To the Present Governours the King and both Houses of Parliament c. And was delivered to the King the 22 Day of the fourth Month 1660. From p. 4. of this Declaration the Snake p. 224. quotes thus We therefore Declare to take off all Jealousies Fears and Suspicions of our Truth and Fidelity to the King and these present Governours That our Intentions and Endeavours are and shall be Good True Honest and Peaceable towards them and that we do Love Own and Honour the King and these present Governours what follows the Snake has cut off so far as they do Rule for God and his Truth and do not impose any thing upon Peoples Consciences but let the Gospel have its free passage through the Consciences of Men which we do not know that they have by any Law as yet imposed And if they Grant Liberty of Conscience towards God and towards Man then we know that God will bless them So that the ground of that Love and Honour which our Friends did then profess to have for that Government was their Ruling for God and his Truth and not impposing upon the Consciences of Men. And I must needs say that there never was any Governours in the World who have so Ruled but the People of God in every Age have lov'd and honour'd them as they have been always True Honest and Peaceable towards all and must continue to be so through every Age of the World and such Kings Princes and Governments God will bless But in all this where
them in that Catalogue beginning at Page 93 of his Preface to the Snake and before that I begin at Page 7 8 9 17. of the first Edition of the Snake and was so far from passing by his said Objection of manifest Possessions by the Devil c. that I declare his great Injustice false Reflections black Characters and Charges upon the Quakers therein together with his absurd way of Arguing and Falacy to prove the same as evidently appears in my Answer i. e. my Antidote from the second to the twelfth Page thereof to which I refer the Reader for Satisfaction and how far short he is of Proof that either we or our Preachers are Possess'd by the Devil because of any of their Quaking or Trembling alleadg'd against them as both Holy Prophets and other Saints and Christians have done by the Word and Power of God and not from any Diabolical Possession And he can no more prove such Exercise among us to proceed from the Devil than he can prove the visible Possessions of many Quakers by the Devil as he falsly stiles his 21. Sect. or than his Mr. Firmin or Thomas Tillam whose Story is quoted in the same Section p. 297 298 299. could demonstrate his seeing the Devil shake the Quakers like as a Dog doth shake a Hog c. But if this Author has ever seen any visible Possessions of Quakers by the Devil I would ask him in what Shape or Form he saw the Devil at any time so visibly Possess or Act them I never heard that T. Tillam could tell when questioned about it at Colchester tho' he raised the Story as Richard Thomas of Hartford who was present can give further account II. As to all he objects in his 18th Sect. of The Quakers manifold Treasons against the King of their taking Arms and Fighting against him for Oliver and the Rump c. their vigorous opposing the Restauration of King Charles to the very last c. p. 352. Hereupon G. W. is blamed for Answering all this in a few words p. 24. of his Antidote viz. We need but answer these with Negation and Detestation as being most foul Raileries proceeding from a Spirit of Persecution and deadly Malice which the Righteous Lord will Rebuke Which I am still perswaded he will though the Snake-Author hereupon thus Reviles viz. They cannot refrain their Trade in blasphemous and cursed Prophecies which among many other odious Revilings I leave to the just cognizance of the Great and Righteous Judge of all The Man 's charging manifold Treasons taking up Arms and Fighting c. upon the Quakers I still deny as a general and gross Calumny upon that People yet supposing some before they were Quakers or so reputed and before they were in Society with that People were in Arms against the King as many of other Persuasions were and yet some were dissatisfied with Monarchy or afraid of the consequence thereof whilst they were under a Common Wealth 's Government and Principles it follows not that the People called Quakers must be concluded thereby as either guilty of manifold Treasons Fightings Murder or Regicide such absurd kind of unnatural Inferrences against the Quakers I had reason to give my Negation against as neither Just nor Reasonable but altogether the contrary And the Truth of it is I looked upon his said 18th Sect. so extreamly Malicious and so Repugnant to the Act of Indempnity even that of King Charles the Second and divers others since if any charged were culpable And much of the Substance of the said 18th Sect. being answered in my Book Entituled Christ's Lambs defended from Satan's Rage That I thought my self the less concerned again to enter into the Particulars of the said extreamly Malicious Section but to refer him and the Reader to my Treatise of Christ's Lambs c. However in my Antidote referring thereto there 's more of Answer in this case than is cited in the Snake being full of Partiality and Curtailizing in Citation as well as of Perversion and Absurd Defamation And if no authority of Bugg's be quoted at all for the charges before mentioned as he saith it is for divers others which are very false I find in his said 18th Sect. Quakers Vnmask'd p. 4. Is quoted on the same Subject And if this Quaker's Vnmask'd was John Peâ—nyman's and not F. Bugg's then 't was my oversight which I shall not excuse which might easily happen from the near resemblance they have upon the same subject J. P. begun it against us and the other follows it in divers Books upbraiding us about O. C. and his Army and the Government And the Snake in his 8th Sect. quotes F. Bugg's New Rome Arraign'd and New Rome Vnmaskâ—d p. 109.111 and note that two Years after F. B. left our Communion and joyn'd himself to the Church of England he published a Book stiled The Quakers Detected wherein he confesses to the Truth of our Doctrine and Ministry of the Light as a Dispensation of the Love of God sent as a Visitation to Mankind and to our Christian Communion Love and Conversation and that God blessed our Meetings with the comfortable enjoyment of his Presence c. But being gone from the same he complained against our Friends p. 8. as if they had Sold him into Egypt as Joseph was applying to himself his words to his Brethren Gen. 50.20 and 45.4 5. viz. But can say i. e. F. B. can say as Joseph did to his Brethren Gen. 50.20 But as for you ye thought Evil against me but God meant it unto Good now therefore be not Grieved nor Angry with your selves that ye Sold me hither Thus F. Bugg after he was turn'd into the Church of England And finding both J. P. Bugg and Crisp run much in one strain of Enmity against us and their Authorities quoted and so much valued in the Snake 't was the more easie to mistake one for another as to the Titles of their Angry Books However their work so much agreeing and resembling to take one for another in Writing quick as 't is no great Crime so 't is no great Damage to any of them supposing Quakers Vnmasked be put for Quakers Detected or for New Rome Vnmasked And so Bugg's authority for J. Pennyman's his excuses not his Partial credulity of either of them wherein they are a-like invective But a greater Injury than this is done the Quakers in Quotation I find a Pamphlet stiled Some of the Quakers Principles over and over quoted against us in the Snake Sect. 7. Which being thus quoted as The Quakers Principles some may therefore take it to be a True and Real Account of our own when that Pamphlet as I take it to be the same is but a nameless Libel to abuse us with Partial Quotations and Perversions and it is answered in my Just Inquiry Printed 1693. And that I have not endeavoured to deceive the Reader as p. 354. in that I did not perceive he took notice of my
we meet with such Instructions for Profaneness in the Example and Precept of our Saviour The Examples and Precepts of his holy Apostles Or in the Example and Precept of of such who in a true sense of Religion have declared the end of their endeavours were to reclaim and reduce the Erronious and convince Gain-sayers Is it possible Reader that supposing me in Error and Gain-saying I should think a Man so profanely Scoffing should have any real Concern for the Salvation of my Soul so as to be reduced by him Or if I be not in Error that he can have any consciencious Concern for my preservation Nor will the example of Elijah do him any service here he by a warrantable Irony did confute the pretended God-head which hath Eyes and sees not Ears and hears not thereby to reclaim the Idol-worshippers But we the Quakers nor any other Dissenters in England that I know of do or ever did acknowledge any other God than that one Almighty Being the Father of all Things and Jesus Christ his Eternal Son and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son who is one God blessed for ever This hath been so often declared that the Snake could not be ignorant of it wherefore he is the more Inexcusable Secondly Of his Hypocrisie p. 2. I have says he great Charity for the Generality of the Ignorant sort of them some of whom I know to be very Honest and Well-meaning Men and Devout in their Way I do freely own that I have a real Kindness and good Wishes for every one of the Quakers that I have hitherto been acquainted with and I never received any sort of Disobligation from any of them in my whole Life And yet treats the Quakers with all the marks of Bitterness Baseness Contempt and Disdain and with all the marks of open Enmity that can be shewn in the most Scurrilous manner insomuch that he implicitly denies One Dram of the Spirit of Christianity to be in all the Quakers p. 182. and in p. 177. to George Whitehead he says Come George we are near an end and we know not if ever we shall meet again tell me in the Plain Down-right Honesty and Simplicity of the Light within See Reader not only the Prophaneness but the Hypocisie of Pretended Kindness and Good Wishes and the base Returns for no Disobligation Page 202. the Picture of the Quaker Spirit he says he feels sees and abominates by the very Conviction of his Sense Then what grand Hypocrisie must it be to pretend as he doth that he hath real Kindness and good Wishes for such whose Spirit he abominates I have shewn before from his Profane and Scornful Treatment of us that he cannot wish well to our Souls and himself declares he abominates our Spirit which being both absent what would his kindness to our Bodies be Why there is sufficient Ground to believe that his kindness to them is much what the cruel Emperor's was to the Romans when he wished them all but one Neck and then their dispatch would be speedy And to shew that it is not meer Conjecture I now proceed Thirdly To his Injustice which is manifest not only in Wresting our Writings and Perverting our Plain Meanings therein and that knowingly and wilfully since they have been explained by our selves but also by false Quoting our Books sometimes by packing Sentences which stand at distance close together as one continued Quotation or else only with the distinction of a Break without any regard to his breaking off the Sense of the Writer Of which in my way through his Book I shall shew abundance of Instances Add to this his Injustice in urging against us our Adversaries false Charges some upon bare hear-say and often out of Books written against us by open Enemies and that without taking notice of our Answers which is equally Unjust As to have urged the Writings of Celsus Porphyry or other Heathens against the Primitive Christians or the Writings of the Romanists against the Protestants as Eckius against Luther Harding againg Juel c. without any regard had to their Answers Which whosoever should do might have the name of a Bold and Confident but not Wise or Honest Man Yet such is this Snake's Practice and that he might not come short in any thing wherein he can be Injurious he hath purposely mis-stated our Principles that thereby he might make himself an Advantage to fasten upon us what in him lies such Absurd Extravagant and Impious Consequences as he pleases Of this sort I shall have frequent proof to shew thee Reader and now go on to the Book Page 1. The Controversie with the Quaker Dissenters has not been pursued by the Church of England with the like Zeal and Pains as those against the Presbyterians Independants and other Dissenters because the Quakers were not so considerable But their Numbers increased by being neglected are become Formidable It is not my business here to inquire what the Zeal and Pains of the Church has been against other Dissenters it shall suffice me briefly as I may to shew how warm her Zeal and how great her Pains towards us Tho' I here declare it is not pleasant to me afresh to object the Unchristian Treatment Zeal and Pains wherewith very many Members of that Church have pursued us and I would rather have let it slept in Oblivion than called to mind that Harsh Treatment had it not been necessary to remember it and object it for Confutation to the false Pretences of one who pretends to personate her Cause wipe his Mouth say what Harm have we done and to tell the World a most Egregious Lye how the Quakers have been Neglected and thereby Increased For Confutation of this I say I shall briefly Hint to the Sober Reader that we have not come behind our Neighbours in Sufferings in the several Capacities of Name Person and Estate and give some short Specimen of each And first for Sufferings in Name and Fame The many Books written against us even from the very first are Witnesses For the Priesthood in many places in the Days of our Infancy did not only write against us themselves but these incouraged their Flocks whereby there frequently came forth many Books against us insomuch that to the Year 1660. if occasion did require I could produce a Catalogue of many Hundreds which is no mean Beadroll of Adversaries And while Pens were thus imploy'd against us Lying Tongues were not idle for Report and Fame spoke of us in blackest Characters from the Envious and the Ignorant which yet hath often been of advantage for when some in Curiosity have been inclin'd to see for themselves what Monsters of Men they must needs be of whom such ill Fame and Report did go and have seen and found that Fame and Report false they have been inclined to love what that was designed to have made them to hate Nay so general hath our Suffering in this sort been I may say
said Lord what wilt thou have me to do Which shews his inward sense of Mind But the Apostle Rom. 7.9 is large in the account of the Work of his Regeneration and he does acknowledge he was alive without the Law once But when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died Which plainly shews the Command was inward and it was hard for Paul to kick against this Command which did thus slay him as in the 11th verse Our Adversary does acknowledge that the Pricks there are to be understood the Power of Christ. And this Power it was Acts 2.37 That prickt them at the heart who were witnesses of the sheddings abroad of the Spirit at the time of Pentecost And of this Power David speaks Psal. 73.21 Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reins Whence thus in short Paul a zealous Man and a Persecutor is by the Power of Christ let see that he was opposing his Power in his Saints by such Persecution At this in the Apostle's language Sin revived i. e. the sense of it whereby he saw his guiltiness and then he died from any further Life in it And whether this be not a heart work all experienced Readers may judge Ibid. p. 12. Besides they are in great confusion and contradictions amongst themselves concerning their Notion of the Light within denying and affirming backwards and forwards as you may see in Mr. Tho. Crisp his just and lawful Tryal of the Foxonian Quakers Reader This is one of those Instances wherein the great Injustice of this adversary appears in that he takes this false Charge from a Book writ against us by an open Enemy and takes no notice of any reply by us Which was largely and fully given to this Adversary by our Friend Ed. Penington And if after the same manner I should object and say The Church of England are in great Confusions and Contradictions amongst themselves in their Notion of the Trinity which has been abundantly treated of here of late affirming backwards and forwards and recommend for proof of this some Book disowned by that Church the Proof were much the same Or if I should object and say They are in great confusion and contradiction in their Notion of any other Article and bring for proof Harding Stapelton or any of the Romish Church who being Adversaries have so affirmed having no regard to the disallowance of the first or answers to the last I might deservedly be accounted a confident and prejudic'd but not a fair or reasonable Man Yet Reader this is the practice of this Snake with us SECT II. Shewing that we do not make our Souls of the same Person and Substance with God nor aspire to an Equality with him I Shall here consider and reply to his Second and Third Sections together the Charge being the same and the distinction unnecessary For in his mode of speaking a Sameness of Person and Substance imply an Equality concerning which before I procede to the Quotations in the Snake I shall observe to thee Friendly Reader That having in the beginning of the foregoing Section given a brief but real and true account of our Scriptural Belief concerning The Light of Christ in Men. Shewing that the Soul of Man being subjected thereunto he may by the guidance and assistance thereof without it he cannot attain unto Salvation I say having shewn thus much concerning our belief herein it is impossible that we so believing as we do should make our Souls to use his phrase of the same Person and Substance with God or Aspire to an Equality with him Our Friends according to Holy Writ have frequently said and writ and may safely That those who by walking in the Light are become Children of it are such for whom our Saviour Jesus Christ did pray to his Father John 17.21 22 23. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee That they also may be one in us That they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me This Oneness in the Holy Spirit our Friends have pressed and contended for in Opposition to the hurtful belief that had too much prevailed upon Men of an imagined Distance of God from Man at this Day and that Man was now no more to expect the Revelation of the Holy Spirit without which our Saviour hath testified Mat. 11.27 And no Man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any Man the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him This testimony of Jesus Christ with many more to the same purpose do shew the certainty of Revelation as in many others the absolute necessity of it is shewn First By our Saviour who saith John 12.50 And I know that this Commandment is Life Everlasting and the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.5 Know ye not your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you except you be Reprobates And for our acknowledging to and witnessing of the truth of these Testimonies declared in Holy Writ have we met with great opposition and misrepresentation of which Reader there follows now divers instances in these Sections of the Snake's which he thus begins p. 13. Thou sayest says G. Fox to his Opponet Great Mystery p. 247. Christ doth not dwell in them Personally Doth not Christ dwell in his Saints as he is in the Person of the Father the Substance Reader This our Adversary gives for a quotation from G. Fox his Great Mystery and that we might see at what he carps he puts it in Large Black Characters which yet are not blacker than his Envy and Injustice which will appear thus First In that he hath left out the Priests Words which are unsound and unscriptural Secondly In that he hath left out the beginning and end of G. Fox his Answer For thy more certain knowledge of which I subjoin first the Priest's Words and then G. Fox his Answer Priest The Scriptures are the Word except yâ—u dare to deny Christ is God Let the Word of God meaning the Scripture dwell in you richly To this G. Fox thus Answers So he makes the Scripture Christ and God and he doth not say Let Christ dwell in you but means the Scripture and God dwells in you The Apostle saith Let Christ Dwell in your hearts by faith and God will dwell in you But thou sayst Christ doth not dwell in Them Personally Doth not Christ dwell in his Saints as he is in the Person of his Father the Substance And are they not of his Flesh and of his Bone Here Reader thou mayst see that the plain meaning and drift of G. Fox's words are to assert and maintain that Spiritual Oneness of which I have been speaking and shewing that Christ prayed that his Followers might witness and not to make the Soul of the same Person
by our Saviour and mostly in his words viz. as Mat. 5.48 Luke 6.36 and the last Scripture G. Fox there mentions does shew 1 Joh. 4.17 To which he might have added those other Texts 1 Joh. 2.6.3.3.7 where we are exhorted to walk even as he walked to purify our selves even as he is pure and to be righteous as he is righteous Which exhortations it is impossible to witness fulfilled otherwise than by the Assistance of the Holy Spirit which as G. Fox saith is in equality with God And the Expressions being Scriptural it need not trouble us that he is angry Nor do we nor never did we understand these expressions in Holy Writ above-mentioned otherwise than to relate to the Operations of the Holy Spirit in men For we never imagined that ever any Man or Woman can be even as God is or even as Christ is quatenus God and Christ. The Snakes next Quotation p. 17. is from Saul 's Errand to Damascus p. 8. He that hath the same Spirit that raised up Jesus from the Dead is equal with God Which is as declared by G. F. at his Trial hereafter mentioned to the purpose before for when Men are guided by the Holy Spirit they are certainly guided by God For the Father Son and Holy Spirit are one God and therefore equal and that which is equal as G. Fox often expresses it The Snake's next Quotation p. 18. is from Great Mystery p. 248. All that have the Son and Holy Ghost have that which is Equal in Power and Glory with the Father This Quotation Reader is another instance of the great insincerity of this adversary in that he hath placed the words here as spoken and asserted by G. Fox which yet are sound and true but they were not otherwise than thus The Priest had deni'd the Revelation of Christ in Man otherwise than by Adoption and his Christ's Equality with the Father in answer to this G. Fox mentions that passage in the Assemblies Catechism The Holy Ghost and Son are equal in Substance Power and Glory with the Father and then thus queries not asserts tho' it be true what Then all that have c. See the Readiness of this Man to misrepresent things The Snake's next Step p. 18. is to whom he floutingly calls the Renowned Francis Howgil who he says is yet more express in this Blasphemy if more can be His quotation from F. Howgil p. 232. of his Works is The first thing thy dark Mind stumbles at says he to his Opponent Edward Dodd is that some have said they that have the Spirit of God are equal with God He that hath i. e. obeyeth the Spirit of God is in that Holy Ghost which is equal with God The same says the Scriptures and the same says the Catechism as I have just now noted but F. Howgil goes on He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit there is unity and the unity stands in equality it self there is equality in Nature tho' not in Stature And now after all the Snake can say against it it is agreeable to those several Texts of Scripture quoted p. 49 50. foregoing and also to many others tho' a Mystery to Men not regenerated And therefore F. Howgil goes on and bids learn what these things mean the Understanding and the Learned will know what I say and this is neither damnable nor blasphemous but on the contrary it 's saving and precious to them that believe The next Reader is another Instance of the Snake's Injustice in urging against us a Book writ by one R. Gordon an open Enemy taking no notice at all of any Answer of ours in which practice I have already detected him in p. 48. foregoing and shall have occasion hereafter and therefore shall not say more of it here nor take notice at present of the passages he urges from that Book which yet the sober and unprejudic'd Reader cannot call a leaping over it because not urged upon valid Authority The Snake's next Quotation in p. 18. is from Saul's Errand p. 7 8. Jesus Christ the Mystery passed before The same Spirit now takes upon it the same Seed where it is manifested What pray is this more than to say Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever and is sound and true For they who obey his words do know of his Doctrine and they do experience him to be the same he ever was Snake p. 19. Having thus shewn the Quotations of the Quakers out of their printed Books I will now further prove my Charge in Legal Form against them by Evidence upon Oath Having hitherto detected the Snake in false quoting of our Books and perverting the plain Sense and Meaning of them so as it is obvious to the intelligent Reader I shall now examine and detect his Legal Form but first will shew what it is Snake p. 19. Which you will find in a Book printed 1653. Entituled A Brief Relation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers c. Here Reader Is the Snake's Legal Form A Pamphlet writ by professed Adversaries like the Snake which pretends to give an account of two or three Trials of G. Fox and J. Nayler for Blasphemy and what is in this related the Snake says is proved by evidence upon Oath When indeed it is only a great Argument of the Snake's Ignorance or Malice I rather think the last to call a private Pamphlet a Legal Form A Charge of Fact done many years past and brought to Trial in Courts of Justice cannot be said to be prov'd in Legal Form if the Conviction of the accused cannot be proved by the Records of the Court. Which I defy the Snake to produce Nay he cannot because the Parties were discharged from their Accusations the Evidence proving insufficient against them And now for the Snake in his own Language Boldly and Impudently to give the Lye to the Judge of the Assize or other Magistrates before whom these Charges of Blasphemy were brought against G. Fox and J. Nayler and to say it was proved when it was not argues Impudence towards the Magistrates but Villany towards the memory of the Accused For had it been proved they must have been convict and have suffered the demerits of Blasphemy And all this would have been upon record But besides this one grand and notorious Lye of the Snake's viz. That the Charge was proved there is in His Legal Form many other Lyes which I shall detect as I come at them Snake p. 19 20. There the Snake directs to that Lying Pamphlet p. 2 and 3. You have an account how G. Fox did avow himself over and over to be equal with God being asked by Dr. Marshal in the presence of Mr. Sawro Col. Tell and Col. West Justices of the Peace in the County of Lancaster at a Private Sessions in the Town of Lancaster whether or no he was equal with God as before that time he had been heard to affirm His Answer was this I
am equal with God Pray Reader observe had this been true that G. Fox had so answered as the Snake says he did in the presence of three Justices what need was there for Marshal and Altam to swear it against him since the Justices if they had heard it themselves might have convicted him thereof upon their own personal hearing without other evidence Or how likely is it that Col. West and Tho. Tell both Justices upon the Bench at this Tryal should sign a Supersedeas which both of them did for his acquittal if either of them had heard him say the words charged Or how could he have been discharged for want of another Evidence when his Adversaries might have brought in the three Justices against him had it been true that they had heard him themselves But besides there are two Lyes in this Paragraph the first is There was not any Justice of the Peace or Colonel named Tell. Secondly G. Fox did not answer that he was equal with God But thus it was There were Eight several Charges against him the fourth of which was that he had said he was equal with God which being asked in Court He made the following answer G. Fox That was not so spoken by me But he that sanctifieth and he that is sanctified is all of one Heb. 2.11 It is God and Christ that sanctifieth and the Saints are all one in the Father and the Son They are of his Bone and of his Flesh Ephes. 5.30 And the Father and the Son are one and they are the Sons of God Gal. 4.6 And as they that are joyned to the Lord are one Spirit so they that are joyned to an Harlot are one Flesh 1 Cor. 6.16 17. This the Scriptures witnesseth and I witness This Answer is Scriptural and is directly opposite to what he was then charged with as it also is to what the Snake's Pamphleteer says he did then answer Snake p. 20. This Blasphemy hath been attested upon Oath by the aforesaid Dr. Marshal and Mr. Altam School Master at Lancaster before the Justices at the last Sessions held at Appleby the 8 th of January 1652. and before Judge Puleston at the last Assizes held at Lancaster the 18 th of March 1652. This is false in both the parts of it For G. Fox had not any Tryal at any Sessions in Appleby in the year 52. Nor had he any Tryal before Judge Puleston or any other Judge at any Assize held in Lancaster in the year 1652. These notorious Lyes I charge upon the Snake let him clear himself if he can But for the Readers satisfaction and information I shall briefly say G. Fox was at Michaelmas Sessions in Lancaster in the year 1652. at which time was upon the Bench with others as Justices of the Peace Tho. Tell and Will. West called to answer to Eight Articles of Blasphemy c charged upon him by Three Witnesses viz. Altam but Marshal did not swear Birkett and Attkinson this last a young Lad which Charge the Evidence did swear was gathered by them from words spoken by him at a Meeting some time before But when to the several particulars they were by the Bench severally interrogated they were confounded insomuch that Birkett said he could not answer directly but the other could say it To which the Bench reply'd Have you charged the Prisoner upon your Oath and now say He can say it It seems you did not hear these words spoken your self To this Confusion of the Evidence was also added the Testimonies of many People who had been at that Meeting where the words were charged to be spoken and did then declare in the open Sessions that no such words as those charged were then spoken by G. Fox Besides all this G. Fox did then himself go through all the several Eight Articles of his Charge and shewed his Scriptural Belief in opposition to the Blasphemies they had sworn By which means the matter issued thus a Supersedeas was granted against a Writ which had gone out for his apprehending tho' he was not apprehended upon it but came voluntarily to this Sessions to answer his Enemies false Charges Besides this G. Fox had no Tryal at Appleby or Lancaster nor at any Assize at all in Lancaster in 1652. Thus Reader the Snake's Legal Form is false both in matter and form and himself by these his Lyes must be scandalous much below the dignity of a Pleni-Potent which by a ridiculous assurance he arrogates when in p. 336. He pretends to demand reparation in the Name of the Church of England By what Name must he be now impleaded whose Legal Form has only served to shew that he is Truly proved a Lyar But the Snake has not yet done with his Legal Form Ibid. p. 20. p. 3. He refers to the Brief Relation It is likewise witnessed That James Naylor affirmed That he was as Holy Just and Good as God himself 'T is true it was so witnessed but falsly wherefore when James Naylor was conven'd at Appleby Sessions in January 1652. The Evidence proving insufficient he was acquitted and did by the Answers he gave to the Questions put to him by the Bench in matters of Religion shew himself neither Blasphemer or Heretick as was charged Snake p. 21. These Monstrous Blasphemies occasioned a Petition from the Gentlemen of that County to the then Council of State Forbear Lying It was not monstrous Blasphemy but monstrous Disappointment did occasion that Petition For when G. Fox and J. Naylor in the face of the Country did appear Orthodox and Scriptural in their Faith and the Persons that Swore against them insufficient in their Evidence by which means they were both cleared Then it was they ran to White Hall with those Lyes which they could not prove at Lancaster against G. Fox nor at Appleby against J. Naylor And of these Petitioning Gentlemen there were of the Priesthood much about the number mentioned Acts 23.21 And they were no less disappointed For the Council dismist the Petition with it s annexed Schedule Wherefore I also shall only consider so much of it as is yet not reply'd to And first for James Milner mentioned in the Schedule I shall speak of him in answer to the Snake's 21st Section wherein the Snake speaks more largely concerning this Man Another Article in the Schedule is Leonard Fell Professeth that Christ had never any Body but his Church To this Article The Honest Old Man being yet in health and strength through the mercies of God and preserved out of the Jaws of Violence he answers for himself I have not at any time professed that Christ had never any Body but his Church nor did ever speak any words tending to it Leo. Fell. Snake p. 22. G. Fox wrote an Answer to this Petition and to every Article in the Schedule which he Entituled Saul's Errand to Damascus 'T is true he did so and a Pretty Book it is and answers the End for which it was writ Ibid.
that he is not Almighty Yet when Man does fall it is no plain Conviction that he could not have stood by an Almighty assistance We have never placed Infallibility in Persons otherwise than by the assistance of the Holy Spirit to which if Men are obedient it will infallibly guide them to Heaven and so safely protect them that as our Saviour saith John 10.29 No Man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand But when Men depart from the Grace of God They may as Samson when he had lost his Strength Judg. 16.20 say I will go out as at other times and shake my self And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him But their weakness will soon discover they are gone from their Guide Thus it was with the People of the Jews and thus with all those Persons whose failings the Holy Spirit has recorded in the Scriptures when they departed from the Lord they left their Strength and fell some very fouly Yet what less than Blasphemy is it to say That the Holy Spirit had they been obedient could not have preserved them as well as there are Instances it did restore several of them And it is no breach of the Oath of God made to Abraham and his Seed nor any argument of the Shortness of his Arm as the Prophet's phrase is That they are become a Desolation because they refused to hear and obey And should it which God forbid come to pass that the Defection of the People called Quakers from the guidings of the Holy Spirit should be as general as is now that of the Jews who sometime were the People of God Yet the Holy Spirit of Christ were not at all the less infallible or sufficient in it self to be the Author of Salvation to all that do obey it His first Story p. 44. is of one Christopher Atkinson who he calls in ridicule p. 43. a Precious Brother in p. 44. a Bright Lamp with other such marks of Scorn insulting over his Miscarriage in the Lust of the Flesh And this Story the Snake makes a twofold use of one to reproach the Memory of the Person who fell and the other to reproach the Principle and Practices of those with whom the fallen Person had walked To both I shall say somewhat To the first I know of no good use which can be made of raking in the Crimes of the Deceased unless for Cautions to the Living But then their Crimes are not to be dressed in the Scornful Garb of a merry Andrew Because tho' that may raise more Vanity yet it can raise no Reformation on such as are guilty or be any means of Preservation to those that are not yet so And therefore we find that the Holy Spirit in recording the failings of Noah Lot Moses David Solomon Peter and others hath done it in Language proper to these purposes And there is not a truer mark of a mean and base as well as an unchristian Spirit in a Man than only for the Glory of Insult and Liberty of Ridiculing to call back to the minds of the Living the Crimes of the Dead To the Second it can be no fault in the Holy Spirit of God that Men are disobedient to it nor is it any argument that the Infallible Spirit of God does not preserve any because I or another may fall but it is certain the Holy Spirit will teach and will preserve all who will keep in Subjection and Obedience to it and they who do so keep have a Godly Jealousie and Care that the Practice of those who make Profession of the Guidings of the Holy Spirit be according to it in all the Fruits of it and accordingly Richard Huberthorn and some others who were then at Norwich did wait for the Counsel of God that in his Wisdom they might search out this evil which C. A. had wrought and by their dealing with him did bring him so to a sense of his Naughtiness that he did confess it and condemn it And further that it might not be supposed that such Naughtiness was tolerated and allowed by a Society professing Christianity it was communicated to the Publick that the guilty Person might bear his own Iniquity and the Holy Truth he had made profession of be cleared The like Laudable Practice tho' call'd by the Snake p. 45. A not regarding the Sacredness of the Seal of Confession was practised by the Prophet Nathan towards King David and the Apostle Paul towards his Brother in the Apostleship and also by others recorded in Holy Writ and yet the Holy Spirit is not at all the less Infallible Ibid. p. 46 47. There was much more tender regard shewed to some Young Women who had given a Confession in Writing to John Bolton of their frailty in the Flesh as is told in the Spirit of the Hat but it was hush'd up because it touched many eminent Ones in the Ministry who from day to day resorted unto them and giving them these appellations Innocent Lasses and Daughters of Sion This Charge and Story upon nameless Persons is Reader another Instance of the Injustice of this Adversary in that he hath taken it out of a Book written against us and Printed Anno 1673. and which was answered in the same Year as the Snake well knows and hath not been since reply'd to and what is an aggravation of the Snake's Injustice herein is that in the Answer to it there is a Certificate under the hands of John Bolton and Sam. Newton testifying to the contrary of this very Charge and of this the Snake could not be ignorant because he makes Quotations from the same Book and in or near the same Page in which this Certificate stands which I shall here set down as answer sufficient to this nameless Charge Whereas the Author of the Spirit of the Hat Insinuates that our Ministry is guilty of Vncleanness Whoredoms and such like beastly Practices under a feigned commendation of us under written as prosecutors of such Persons that they may be brought to Judgment We do declare in the Fear of the Everlasting God that tho' we abhor with our whole Souls such unrighteous Practices and if such things were we should we hope clear our Consciences for God and His Living Truth and People Yet we do declare in the Uprightness of our Hearts that we know of no such nor can acknowledge any such to be either of our Ministry or our Body much less eminent among us as hath been wickedly suggested by the Author of The Spirit of the Hat whom we have found painful and faithful to God his Truth and People Therefore to say we were hindred from bringing them to Judgment whom we never went about to charge neither can we is a wicked envious and false suggestion of the Adversaries of the Truth and this in God's Fear we testify to the World John Bolton Sam. Newton Ibid. p. 47. Instances can likewise be given of some of their She Preachers whom they call
so many Meetings and so great stir among theâ— For G. Keith was not so much as accused for Preaching any thing else but this But now Snake who mumblâ—â—â—â—istles was not he accused of very many Turbulent and Indecent Actions and Expressions as is at large seen in The State of the Case which I have above quoted and which the Snake also quotes with perversion as I have before shewn Snake p. 67. Here is a many forked and involved Infallibility one Meeting Justifying another Condemning G. Keith and all for the very same Doctrine Ibid. p. 68. This will not only overthrow the Infallibility in each particular Person but even of their Churches or Meetings That particular Persons may make Defection from the Guidings of the Spirit of Truth and may Apostatize from that Union and Fellowship which they had once with the Friends of it I have already largly shewn and what particulars may do Assemblies made up of such particulars may also do Floods and Parties as the Snake expresses it may Apostatize as well as particulars nay a whole Community may Apostatize and yet the Infallibility of the Guide of any one particular Person who continues Faithful and Obedient to the Holy Spirit remains firm and sure Thus 1 Cor. 10.4 The Apostle testifies of the Jews They all Drank the same spiritual Drink for they Drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. Now this Rock could have as Infallibly preserved the whole Tribes of Israel from Egypt thro' the Wilderness to the promised Land had they been Obedient to it as it did Caleb and Joshua who were the only two of all the Thousands that left Egypt and entered in But further that Assemblies or Churches may Apostatize and Backslide the Holy Spirit is sufficient Warrant by the particular reproofs or cautions it gives to the seven Asiatick Churches mentioned Rev. 2.2 and 3. And sure the Snake will not be so hardy as to say that the Holy Spirit was able only to give Reproof and Caution suitable to their wants and defects but not to have preserved them blameless and to have guided them Infallibly in that way he appointed them to go Ibid. p. 68. Besides this first proof in Pensilvania there is yet another more express and positive called The Barbadoes Judgment c. And besides the detecting the Snake's false conclusion in that I have to say to this that according to his usual Injustice he herein makes use of an Adversary's Book Babel's Builders c. without taking notice of the Answer which was published to it Intituled A Babilonish Opposer of Truth reproved c. By S. C. I. P. and R. R. as he also passes over in Silence tho' mentioned in that Adversaries Book a Letter of G. â—'s and others writ to Barbadoes concerning this very thing wherein they are shewn their cause is not right that they had taken which Letter and the matter it relates to is fully spoken to in our Answer above mentioned wherein is also S. E's condemnation of his rashness in those words spoke by him to J. S. mentioned p. 125. foregoing Ibid. p. 69 70. I was told by one present at the Quaker Meeting at Ratcliff on Sunday the 17 th of February 1694 5 That Mr. Penn having Preached and after G. Keith rising up and expounding some Scripture in another manner than Mr. Penn had done Mr. Penn stop'd him and solemnly denounced these words against him In the Name of the Lord I pronounce him an Apostate over the Head of him Vpon which occasion I have these few Questions to ask Q. Whether this was a Sentence from Mr. Penn himself or from their Church Whether by an Ordinary Commission of Succession to Christ and the Apostles Whether by an Extraordinary Commission such as the Prophets and the Apostles had To the first W. Penn being in Unity with the Church declared this of one who had broken Unity by making defection from that term of Union which in time passed he had declared he was by the Light of Christ in him led to profess and believe Secondly All who are kept living by the Spirit of Truth in that bond of Union which that did at first lead into such have ordinary Commission therefrom to testifie against Apostates And this not by such falsly pretended Succession as the Papal Chair or others may pretend to from the Apostles But by succeeding in a measure of that same Light and Holy Spirit which they were in To the Last W. Penn tho' then knowing G. K. to have broken Union as is before expressed he might at that time in the Openings of the Spirit of Truth have a larger and fuller Sight of his Apostacy and so a Warrant to Declare it And for this there needed no new Credentials viz. Miracles it being no more than what hath been confirmed by those the Apostles wrought Ibid. p. 72. But for the present I only apply it to the point of their Church Authority over the Light within particular Persons their original and great pretence The Light within particular Persons is as much our Characteristick now as ever and we have no Church Authority over it or repugnant to it and that in the case of G. K. no such Authority was used Consider the following Lines G. Keith hath often Printed and Declared that he did believe and profess the same Doctrines and Principles of Faith with us and that he was led so to do only by the Light of Jesus Christ shining into his Heart Through and by which Light he did profess to have true union and fellowship with us and accordingly he so was denominated and distinguished Now the Light of Jesus Christ is not contrary to it self and if by the inshinings thereof and his obedience to it it was that G. K. did profess as above Then it naturally follows G. K's innovation to the contrary of what he hath so professed cannot proceed from that Light of Jesus Christ from which the above profession of Unity and Fellowship did Therefore to give Judgment against G. K. is not to give Judgment against the Light of Jesus Christ but agreeable to it even in G. Keith against himself The like is to be said of J. Story c. and others who have innovated and made defection as these did whose Works being bad the issue is the same with what Gamaliel shews Acts 5.28 They are come to naught And therefore after all the Boast which the Snake makes about Separation and Faction We may concerning all of them now declining and towards their end hope and have ground to believe that as many as are yet in a Spirit of Separation in whom are any true desires towards God for his guidance in the Truth such he will restore to the Fold they have strayed from And he will scatter them whose end is not his Honour agreeable to what the Psalmist said concerning the Wicked Psal. 37.36 He is gone I sought him but he could not be
action as is above related to be done in Grace-Church-Street-Meeting Nor did I ever attest to any such Action As witness my Hand Rich. Smith Ibid. p. 107. But to come to further Evidence and give you even a Judicial Determination of the Quakers about the Year 1658. Thomas Padle accused John Chandler at a Meeting of the Quakers at the Bull and Mouth up one pair of Stairs I give it thus particularly that the Friends may not pretend Ignorance and because I have Eye and Ear Witnesses to produce if it be in the least disputed for saying That he prefer'd the Scriptures before the Friends Books which accusation John Chandler did not deny but being reprov'd for it by the Meeting said The People urg'd him to it One Principal Reason they gave for preference of their own Books to the Scriptures was That tho' the People had had the Scriptures many years yet they had not Converted so many to the Truth as Their Books had done It is a strange degree of Assurance which this Snake frequently shews in boldly and falsly averring that in Gross and in the Lump of which he can give no Proof thus in p. 62 63 c. foregoing I have shewn the nullity of that Charge of his which he says was prov'd in Legal Form c. against G. F. and others And that both He and They accused were discharged because the Matter was not proved as the Snake falsly hath alledged of which see more in the place refer'd to And now here with like false Assurance he says upon the Credit of Eye and Ear Witness such as himself that the Quakers gave a Judicial Determination and Solemn Judgment against the Scriptures Yet shews not what this Determination and Judgment was Which if there had been any such thing no doubt but his Witness would have obtained a Copy of the Determination and Judgment so Judicially and Solemnly made and given as well as have preserved any of the Reasons on which that Judgment was grounded But of this so necessary a thing as a Copy of that Judgment is We have not one Syllable the true Reason of which is because there was no Original from whence to take it But then why the Snake should baulk at that and not forge a whole Paper and give it the name of an Original as well as forge the Title viz. Judicial Determination and Solemn Judgment or as well as he hath forged that Slanderous and False Charge in a matter of this same nature against R. S. of Wansworth which thou wilt find in Sect. 8. hereafter or as well as he hath with no less impudence to use his own Term related divers other things which have no footstep of Truth in them of which the Reader may herein find many Instances But after all I also have Eye and Ear Witnesses to produce in opposition to his Eye and Ear Witness who do say That that Meeting wherein the Difference between T. P. and J. C. was mentioned did not give any Determination nor any Judgment against the Scriptures is as falsly said by the Snake Nor did that Meeting give any such reason as is mentioned by the Snake or any other reason why Books writ by any of our Friends should have the preference to the Scriptures of Truth Ibid. p. 108 109. Edward Burroughs p. 47. of his Works determines clearly that the Scriptures are not now of any Authority at all to us at this Day Whether this be E. B's Determination or the Snake's pray Reader consider the following true Quotation from p. 47. of E. B's Works That is no Command from God to me what he Commands to another neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scripture act by the Command which was to another not having the Command to themselves I Challenge to find an Example for it They obeyed every one their own Commands One was sent to Baptize and to Preach the Gospel Another was sent not to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel and thou J. Turner or any other who goes to Duty as you call it by Imitation from the Letter without which was Commands to others in your own Wills and Time your Sacrifice is not accepted but is an Abomination to the Lord for you go without the moving of the Spirit in your own Wills and Strength which God Hates This Quotation the Snake hath pickt in two or three places leaving out the particular Instances and Examples and put it together that so it might answer what he hath boldly and falsly asserted as above of E. B. as before p. 160. I have detected him in the same manner upon this point abusing of W. Penn. Now Reader pray consider the Snake says E. B. has determined the Scriptures to be of no Authority to us at this Day because he saith the particular Commands from God to the Apostles are not sufficient warrant for us to do the same things which they were so particularly commanded to do But to do the work of the Gospel we must know the movings of the Holy Ghost to call us to it And now I will shew thee that if this be to determine clearly that the Scriptures are not of any Authority at all to us at this Day Then according to the Snake's words the Church of England have clearly so determined For he shewing what Enthusiasm she owns p. 316. speaking of their Church Offices saith This is the first Question demanded by the Bishop from those who are to be ordained Do you trust that you are inwardly mov'd by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this Office Do you think that you are truly called according to the Will of the Lord Jesus Christ Here is according the Snake's perversion a clear Determination against the Scripture for if the Commands from God to the Apostles were sufficient not for themselves only but for all succeeding times to call them to the Work of the Ministry what occasion is there for the Bishop to ask or any to know whether they are thereunto inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost Or that they thereunto are truely called according unto the Will of Jesus Christ To do thus can it be faulty in us and do we thereby deny the Scriptures and yet the Church of England not thereby deny them Ibid. p. 110. And therefore it was no strange thing to hear G. W. in his Serious Apology p. 49. Prefer not only their own Writings but their Ex Tempore Preachments and even all whatsoever they speak upon any account to the Holy Scriptures It would raise some Admiration in a Man to find one in his words p. 16. thus Boldly and Impudently asserting so notorious a Lye as the experience of all that knows us must know this to be Not only Writings and Ex Tempore Preachments but all whatsoever we say on any account are preferred to the Scriptures So that according to the Snake what is spoken in Common Conversation in the transacting our Civil Affairs and Business of
Throne c. Rev. 3.21 And John says he saw Thrones and they who sate on them Rev. 20.4 And after all the Exception that the Snake may take at it it is true that as many as through the Power and Authority of the Spirit of Christ in them do follow him in Regeneration they shall sit upon Thrones metaphorically speaking that is in the Power of God over that which heretofore while in Disobedience they were in Captivity to Ibid. p. 113. The Snake quotes part of a Letter said to be writ by G. F. but for any proof that he has given it may either be adulterated by the Snake or some Apostate or forged by them If they were G. F's why did not the Snake give the whole Letter To what purpose hath he made a break in it And what is left out at it The Editors of the Journal had no Reason why they should have left out or altered as p. 114. he says they have those words My Kingdom is not of this World and those words who is the Son of God which need not have given offence if they had been in For they whom Jesus Christ hath washed from their Sins in his own Blood are by him made Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1.6 and to them it is their Father's good pleasure to give the Kingdom Luke 12.32 which is not of this World And for those last words said by the Snake to be omitted and instead of which he says are added I set my Name what room or place was there for all that to come after his Name was set which the Snake hath given and omitted with a Ibid. p. 114. In a Book called News coming out of the North p. 15. G. Fox says I am the Door that ever was the same Christ Yesterday to Day and for ever Reader if now upon view of G. Fox's words they shall plainly appear to be by him spoken of Christ thou wilt I doubt not agree with me that the injustice of this Adversary must be very great who hath of set purpose traduced and perverted G. F's words insinuating that he spake them of himself when in truth it is no such thing This will best appear by giving the Quotation with the Marginal Scriptures from the page quoted by the Snake and is as follows P. 15. Now to all dear Ones and dear Hearts I speak The same Seed which is Christ the same Spirit takes upon it now as ever was the same World is now as ever was the same Temptations and the same Devils and the same Worship of the World twining into one another Form and Colour And Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life he is the Door that all must pass through and he is the Porter that opens it I am the same Door that ever was the same Christ Yesterday to Day and for Ever Look at the Captain Jesus Christ who hath passed before who was tempted the Captain of our Salvation and the same temptation to Worship the Devil and if thou wilt Worship the Devil thou shalt have the Glory of the World but if thou wilt not bow down and Worship the Devil thou shalt have none of the Worlds Glory but be called a Devil as Christ was and be called a Mad-man as he was This Reader with much more of the like Import which I have omitted G. F. does there speak concerning the Power of Jesus Christ to preserve Men out of Temptation and the workings of the Devil to destroy Men by them Yet this by the Snake is accounted part of the Quakers Idolatry The Snake's Quotation from the Introduction to G. F's Battle-Door I have already reply'd to p. 149. and therefore need not say more to it here The Snake 's next Quotation p. 114. is from The Title Page of News coming out of the North from whence he insinuates and charges G. F. with saying of himself that he was prophesied of His Quotation is this Written from the Mouth of the Lord from one who is Naked and stands Naked before the Lord Clothed with Righteousness whose Name is not known in the World risen up out of the North which was prophesied of but now is fulfilled here the Snake leaves off but G. F. continues The Army is coming out of the North against you Terrible Ones whose Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual G. F. Now from G. F's words it is plain that those words which was prophesied of relate to that Prophecy of Jeremy the 31.8 and not to himself or any Person and are only an allusion to those Prophesies of the H. Prophets concerning the Armies of the North which were to fight against and overcome the Jews and other Nations for their Disobedience and Wickedness Which as they litterally did do so by a usual allusion the People fulfilling this Prophecy Jer. 31.8 will through the Assistance of God's Grace their Weapons being Spiritual not Carnal go on in the Warfare of the Gospel-Day The Snake's next Quotation p. 114. is from Several Petitions answered c. p. 60. And he gives it thus My Name is Covered from the World and the World knows not me nor my Name G. F. Now who would not take this to be either all that G. F. had here spoken or else the words last delivered But Reader it is neither of these for G. F. is subscribed at the bottom of several lines more than these the Snake hath given and are continued by G. F. thus The Earthly Name the Earthly Man knows and he is afraid of Reproach and cannot bear it upon the Earthly Name he that overcometh hath the New Name and knoweth it Now Reader what is this but the sense of those Scriptures 1 Pet. 4.14 Rev. 2.17 and 3.12 which whether this Adversary did not know or had wilfully omitted to consider are yet sufficient to shew the falsity of his Charge of our Idolatry herein The Snake's next Quotations are from an Adversaries Book which was answered Yet such is his Injustice that he takes no notice of the Answer but objects as if they had not been reply'd to wherefore it deserves not to be taken notice of till he shall have reply'd to that Answer and disprov'd it And any Man may with equal Justice quote the Books of the Romanists to prove the Church of England Schismatical Heretical c. without taking notice of the Answers written to them Charges But whether such practice would be reasonable or not not only the Agrieved Party but all impartial Men can readily determine One of these Quotations is from part of a Letter writ by Josiah Cole to G. Fox and which had been formerly objected against by John Faldo and other Adversaries to which Objections W. P. did Answer in two several Books one Entituled Judas and the Jews the other Entituled The Invalidity of J. Faldo 's Vindication Of the first of these Books the Snake takes so much notice p. 115. as to say that W. P. does in p. 44.
meer say so As the story may prove false so till it be shewn that it be not so it needs now no further Answer than that it is none of our Doctrine nor approved of by us Ibid. p. 126. And G. F. says That if there be any other Christ but he that was Crucify'd within he iâ— the false Christ quoted from Great Mystery p. 206. This Christ that was Risen and Crucify'd within Devils and Reprobates make a talk of him without It is Reader horrid Injustice in this Snake so fouly to pick and pervert a Man's words as he here does G. F's as if he did by these words deny that Christ Jesus who was Crucify'd at Jerusalem which that he did not I produce both the Priest's Words and his Answer and offer them to thy consideration Great Mystery p. 206. Priest It is a Scripture of the Devil 's making to apprehend this Crucify'd Christ within G. F. Now I say if there be any other Christ but he that was Crucify'd within he is the false Christ And the Scripture holds forth this and the Devil never made it but he and his Messengers are against it And he that hath not this Christ that was Risen and Crucify'd within is a Reprobate tho' Reprobates and Devils may make a talk of him without Thus G. F. and his Words are sound and as himself says according to Scripture for it is not another but the same Christ who was Crucified by the Jews and is now by his Spirit in the Hearts of Men reconciling them unto God and in as many as obey he is Christ in them the Hope of Glory And them who rebel do crucifie unto themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame Heb. 6.6 Rev. 11.8 Ibid. p. 126. And he G. F. disputes against those who say that the Man Christ that was Crucified his Body is now in the presence of his Father or that Christ is absent from them the Quakers as Touching his Flesh Great Mystery p. 210 211. G. F. does warrantably dispute against and oppose those Priests who declared Christ was absent from his People because he is present with them in Spirit And as G. F. in the pages last above quoted doth say That the Apostle declares of Christ that he is the Head of the Church and are of his Flesh and Bone and sit with him in Heavenly Places and Christ saith they must eat his Flesh and he is in them If the Snake will oppose this Scriptural Doctrine let him do it Ibid. p. 136. The Snake makes his Quotation from Great Mystery p. 254. They that profess a Christ without them and another within them here is two See Reader the falsity and perversion of the Snake in this Quotation by the following true one Great Mystery p. 254. They that profess a Christ without them have a Christ without them and another Christ within them here is two For if it be not the same Christ that ended all Types and Figures and Shadows if it be not him that is within they have not the Possession the Substance nor the Comfort of the True Christ. What plainer can be spoken to shew that is the same and not another Christ who suffered at Jerusalem and thereby ended the Law and is now by his Spirit in the Hearts of his People Ibid. p. 126. Robert Gourdon was the first among them that I find who taught the Orthodox Faith in this Point of the Divinity of Jesus Whether owned or not the Snake finds not because he seeks amiss and I am sure he did not seek right when he pretended to find R. Gourdon the first amongst us For R. Gourdon tho' once in Unity or Fellowship with us Apostatiz'd and with this Snake became an Adversary to us But the Orthodox Faith in this Point of the Divinity of Jesus hath been Testified by us ever since a People And from this R. Gourdon the Snake according to his usual Injustice transcribes in p. 127 128 129. divers false and abusive charges but takes no notice of the Validity or Invalidity of the Answers of our Friends to that Adversary's Book He is indeed so triflingly just as to say p. 127. Against this wrote G.W. with three other Quakers but what they said or how far they did disprove R. G's false Charges the Snake takes no notice wherefore I shall take no further notice of what he so quotes from him than to acquaint the Reader what relates to S. Eccles Quaker Challenge p. 6. is answered before in p. 188 189. as are also many of the other Bits of Quotations which here as mentioned by the Snake have neither Book nor Page to distinguish them Ibid. p. 129 130. The Snake borrows from himself out of Satan Disrob'd and saith of W. P. that he will not have the true Christ to be a Person but only a Principle c. and refers to that Book wherein he says it is more at large discussed with the Defences of Thomas Elwood I shall not run back to that Book Satan Disâ—ob'd it having already been somewhat spoken to by G. Whitehead since which there hath been no additions to it But so far as it lies here I shall reply and shew that W. P. in that Book of his Christian Quaker from which the Snake does so charge him will have and does acknowledge and confess to Christ both as God and Man which will fully refute what the Snake hath alledged To this purpose Reader consider the following Quotations from W. P's Christian Quaker From p. 104 to 114. W. P. there makes a Confession to Christ's Redemption Remission Justification and Salvation distinguished into nine several Heads or Parts of Discourse It would be too tâ—dious for my Reader to have transcribed them 〈◊〉 hither tho' all worthy of notice wherefore I shall only transcribe the first and seventh Heads or parts of Discourse which are as follows P. 104. First We do confess that tho' the Eternal Power Life and Light which inhabited that Holy Person which was born at Nazareth Bethlehem it should be was and is chiefly and eminently the Saviour For there is no Saviour besides me saith God Hos. 13.4 Yet that it was instrumentally a Saviour as prepared and chosen for the Work which Christ had then to do in it which was actually to the Salvation of Some and intentionally to the Salvation of the whole World then and in Ages to come suitable to that Scripture Lo in the Volume of the Book it is written I come to do thy will O God a Body hast thou prepared me c. Heb. 10. P. 107. Seventh But there is yet a further Benefit that accrueth by the Blood of Christ viz. That Christ is a propitiation and redemption to such as have Faith in it For tho' I still place the stress of particular Benefit upon the Light Life and Spirit revealed and witnessed in every particular Yet in that general Appearance there was a general Benefit justly to be
and Answers which are in p. 8 9. of W. Smith's Primmer and which are as follows Child But do they Ministers not all preach Christ in words Father Yes the false Ministers can speak of the Name of Christ as the true do but they want his Power Child But how may I then know which is true and which is false by their words seeing words may be the same Father Why they that are false preach Christ without and bid People believe in him as he is in Heaven above but they that are true Ministers they Preach Christ within and direct People to wait to feel him in themselves and so to believe in him as he makes himself manifest in them and this is true Doctrine that brings People to mind that principle of God in their own Consciences which comes down from Heaven and goes thither again and such as are in the earthly wisdom they do not know Heaven above Child This is a great Difference in their Doctrine for one to preach Christ without and another preacheth him within Father Yes it doth make a great Difference and hath no more fellowship together than the East hath with the West Thus W. S. And this is so far from preventing the least tincture of Christianity that it is a sound initiating Lesson for Children it being no other than a plain and short Paraphrase of divers Texts of Scripture and particularly of 2 Cor. 5.16 17. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the Flesh Yea tho' we have known Christ after the Flesh yet henceforth know we him so no more Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new Col. 1.27 That God would make known what is the riches of the Glory of this Mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of Glory In which places according to the whole tenour of the Gospel-dispensation the Apostle labours to bring People to give up to the workings of the Spirit of Christ in them Yet does not hereby slight or undervalue much less deny Christ in his appearance in the Flesh nor the Office of his Mediatorship in Heaven by whom it is that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to Men. And agreeable to this was the Labour and End of W. S. in that Primmer of his But further if we make but a small amendment of the word only to the second Answer what will become of the Snake's Cavil and then read it thus They that are false preach Christ without and bid People believe in him only as he is in Heaven above c. It will be past his Cavil and he ought not for such an Elipsis to have forfeited all his Pretended Charity nor falsly to have declared it an admirable Cue to prevent the least tincture of Christianity I expect that this amendment may be opposed by him and that he may urge that our Writings are by no means to be added to But if it be so urged I would then answer The Church hath given abundant encouragement to supply Eliptick Defects by her Example and Practice in the Holy Scriptures in which there are a thousand I believe Instances of a word or words added with purpose I would in Charity think of more fully expressing the Mind of the Holy Ghost And what is so familiarly done with Holy Writ surely we may do with our Friends Books Ibid. p. 145. The Snake makes a curtail'd quotation from p. 17. of E. B's Preface to G. F's Great Mystery thus We differ in Doctrines and Principles and the one thou must justifie and the other thou must condemn as being the one clean contrary to the other in our Principles E. B. in this place was speaking of those Doctrines and Principles of the Priests which were opposed in that Book some of which I have mentioned p. 155. but not indefinitely of all the Principles they did or might hold and that there was reason to oppose them I question not but the impartial Reader will agree not simply for that they are clean contrary to us but for that they are so to true Christian Doctrine And of these and such as these E. B. speaks thus p. 17. ut supra And besides their Petitioning which the Priests and others did the Magistrates against us and Preaching and Praying against us and all the evil and wickedness in Work Word and desire brought forth against us from time to time Yet here sober Reader thou hast a Catalogue and whole number of Books printed and written against us and abundance of their Doctrines uttered against us and in opposition to us gathered up in this Volume in a sum with our Answers to them And if thy Mind and Heart be single thou mayst hereby understand in measure the difference in Doctrine between them and us and compare each of them with the Scriptures and see whether their Doctrines and Principles laid down as the subject of their Books or our Doctrines and Principles laid down in answer to theirs be according to and and agree with the Scriptures And if thou be impartial in this business and single in this Search and Judgment I doubt not but thou wilt in a great measure satisfie thy self and be resolved concerning their Priests and Professors in England and us who are called Quakers And when thou hast thus done own and deny whether them or us for thou mayst fully perceive we differ in Doctrines c. Now Sober Reader what just exception can there be to the tryal of Doctrines and Principles where the Holy Scripture is assigned for the Touchstone and such persuasion as the Lord shall give is to be Leader But this is a Tryal the Snake dreads because it wholly destroys Implicit Faith and blind Obedience Ibid. p. 146. And therefore this difference of Doctrine betwixt the Quakers and us which they say is as wide as from East to West must be more than concerning the Light within c. Yes so it is it is concerning the Separation and Incommunication of the Deity mentioned p. 189 foregoing It is concerning the Holy Scriptures alone being the Object of Faith It is concerning the Letter of the Scripture being the Sword of the Spirit It is concerning the Letter of the Scripture being God It is concerning the Scriptures being the Power of God and the Iudge by which all Men shall be judged And in fine it is concerning many other things mentioned in that Book Great Mystery several of which I have refer'd to in their several pages as I have met with them Ibid. p. 146. The Quakers do positively determine their Light within to be not a Secondary Agent or sent from any other but that it is it self the Principal The Quakers do indeed determine according to the Testimonies of our Saviour and his Holy Apostles Mat. 10.20 John 14.17 20. and 15.4 Rom. 8.9 10 11. 1 Cor. 3.16 and 6.19 Gal. 4.15 Col. 1.27 1 John 4.4 That the
agreement or likeness to Her in our Sense and Declaration thereof as I have already largely shewn Sect. 5. foregoing to which it is unnecessary to add more for the conviction of him whose Character is in nothing so eminent as in a Dogmatical Falshood of which a Notorious Instance now next follows Ibid. p. 189. The Snake doth implicitly charge Josiah Cole with Reprinting and Publishing with great Approbation a most violent Invective of the Church of Rome against the Protestants and chiefly against the Church of England in a piece of his Entituled The Whore Vnvailed Now Reader for thy more particular Information and the discovery of the Hypocrisie and Falshood of the Snake herein I shall acquaint thee That there was a Book Writ and Subscribed A. S. a Roman Catholick against the Church of England and other Potestants among which by the way the Quakers were included which he Entituled The Reconciler of Religions or a Decider of all Controversies in Matters of Faith In which Book there was divers Reflections upon our Principles as well as upon others who he pretended to Reconcile Josiah Cole writ an Answer to it which he Entituled The Whore Vnvailed or The Mystery of the Deceit of the Church of Rome Revealed By this Title it should not seem to be Repinted by J. C. with Great Approbation nor indeed was it For Josiah Cole as he quotes several parts of it he subjoins his own Answer detecting the Deceit of its Author A. S. very particularly And there being in this Book of A. S's a part which he made his 14th Chapter that did more particularly reflect upon and relate to those who in the Title of his Chapter he calls Protestant or Sectarian Ministers charging them not to be true Preachers or sent by God Josiah Cole with intent that the Persons charged might answer that which related to themselves does put it at the end of his Book and declares concerning it in his Title Page I thought meet to publish this herewith that the Sectarians or Episcoparians may answer for themselves This Reader is the Reality of that Business of which the Snake with so great Confidence and Falshood grounds that manifest Slander of his in saying The Quakers have more barefac'd than any openly sided with the Papists against the Protestants And I defy the Snake to produce any one piece written about that time which J. C's was that does more particularly detect and lay open the Deceit and Falshood of the Romanists than that of J. C's does So little reason had this Snake falsly as he does to bring in J. C. saying this Charge viz. the 14th Chapter against their Bibles and Ministers whose Cause says he I am not engaged in When J. C. hath no where said that he was not engaged in the Cause of the Bible But said he was not engaged in the Cause of them who A. S. had called Sectarian Ministers This briefly is the true state of that Matter on which the Snake makes near two pages of most false and scandalous Insinuations and Charges Ibid. p. 190. They have exceeded them in every thing and improv'd the Errors which they had learn'd from them Here the Snake will have the Quakers exceed the Romanists and that they have improv'd their Error even in a Question which himself determines p. 32. that our simplicity has depriv'd us of every one of these helps which the Romanists have But we having been from p. 32 to p. 190. under the Snakes hand it is no wonder if his Viparous Fancy having formed a Monster at first that he should think the proportions encreas'd Ibid. p. 190. G. W. asserts that the Righteousness which God affects in us is not Finite but Infinite Voice of Wisdom p. 36. And the reason which the Snake has left out is this For Christ is God's Righteousness and Christ is formed in us Gal. 4.19 and so that Righteousness which God works in us by his Spirit it 's of the same kind and nature with that which worketh it for the Saints are made partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Ibid. p. 191. But if you will ask how could Infinite Righteousness fall G. Fox will answer you who wrote That he was beyond the state of the first Adam that Fell in the state of the second Adam that never Fell. But where G. Fox hath so writ the Snake tells not yet if he hath so writ what is it more than the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.22 45. hath said concerning our Death by Sin through the first Adam and our Regeneration through obedience to the Quickning Spirit the second Adam the Lord from Heaven And they who through the Operation of his Quickning Spirit have witnessed a being regenerated and born again may truly say that they are beyond the state of the first Adam that Fell. Ibid. p. 191. And in a Printed General Epistle of his to the Quakers which I have now here before me he says Who hath any thing against my way who never fell nor changed And he concludes This is the word of the Lord God to you all and spread this abroad The truth of the words is not less General than the Epistle for it is a General and a Standing Truth that the second Adam that never Fell Jesus Christ the Just Man's Path is the Everlasting Way to the Father which did never Fall nor never Change Therefore G. Fox might well ask who hath any thing against this Way And the Word and Command of the Lord through all Generations by his Servants hath been to call People to walk in this Way But that I may not forget I would now ask for that Answer which the Snake hath just now said G. Fox will give to the Question How could Infinite Righteousness Fall The Snake was willing to start some strange thing but not being then furnish'd with a seemingly probable Lie or forgetting to add such an one he hath omitted to say any thing which he calls G. F's Answer to that Question But the Snake is not more forgetful in this than he was in adapting the Matter treated of in this Section to the Title of it The Title he gives it is That Popish Emissaries set up Quakerism in England And to prove his Title he brings in G. F. saying That he was beyond the State of the first Adam that fell in the state of the second Adam that never fell That is He was born again by the Operation of the Quickning Spirit of Christ Jesus our Lord. See Reader How far this proves that Popish Emissaries set up Quakerism in England If this Argument be insufficient he hath others of like sort of which one is That G. Fox hath said of Jesus Christ his Way Who hath any thing against my Way who never fell nor changed A fine Argument that Popish Emissaries set up Quakerism in England He hath also given a Quotation from G. W's Voice of Wisdom p. 36. That the Righteousness which God effects in us is
above-mentioned p. 45. made a Quotation from T. E's Further Discovery p. 99. thus In comparing the Books of Friends to the Books of them called the Greek and Latin Fathers He has not done as a Friend and Brother but as an Enemy in supposing Friends Books to have been written by no better Guidance or clearer Sight than theirs who lived and wrote in those dark Times Upon this G. K. remark'd to his Auditory You see how modest they are here At this Remark G. K. says his Auditors gave a Shout signifying as he says Their dislike that the Quakers Books should be preferred so far to the Greek and Latin Fathers next to the Days of the Apostles To all this T. Ellwood in his Answer to G. K's Narrative as above in p. 177 178. replies One might wonder here at the cause of his Auditors Shouting For such of them as could understand what was meant by Greek and Latin Fathers one might expect should be Men of greater Wisdom and Gravity than to Shout in such Assemblies and for the Vndiscerning Mobb it was a subject so much above their Capacity and Pretences that it cannot be supposed they should Shout at that if they had not been excited thereunto by some little Antick Gesticulation from him But to the matter They shouted he says signifying their dislike that the Quakers Books should be prefer'd so far to the Greek and Latin Fathers next to the days of the Apostles These are not my words I did not refer to the Times next to the days of the Apostles But my words were Who lived and writ in those Dark Times Must those Dark Times needs be next to the Days of the Apostles See what an unfair stretch is this Thus T. Ellwood And yet as unfair as G. K's stretch was the Snake has stretch'd beyond him and pronounces They the Quakers run them down by wholesale But whether it be so or not I leave with the sober Reader to judge and shall observe by the way that how jealously tender soever he is of the names of them he calls Ancient and Holy Fathers Yet Bishop Jewel being prest with some Authorities brought from them by his Opponent Harding the Jesuit makes no scruple to do what this Snake calls run them down by wholesake for applying to his Reader he says That Doctors in all Ages and in all parts of the World were brought against him And the Bishop then queries Who would not be afraid to see such an Army come against him Howbeit gentle Reader be of good Cheer all this is but a Camisado These be but Vizards they be no Faces they are brought in like Mummers for a Shew and say nothing Jewel against Harding p. 6. Printed 1566. What will the Snake think of the light Character given of Doctors in all Ages and in all parts of the World And were it proper in this place I could add plenty of Instances that many of the Reform'd have made so bold with those this Snake calls Ancient and Holy Fathers as to run them down If to discover their Errors and slight their Authority as incompetent when offered in Contradiction to the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Spirit which gave them forth be so Ibid. p. 194. But now what Quarters shall we have If the Snake ask for himself the answer is ready if it be such as he deserves it will be none of the best For one who tells Lyes for Bread and can pawn all the pretences of Religion upon the Score of Malice and base Design may easily guess what value is to be put upon such an Undertaking Ibid. p. 194. How shall we be able to stand before them It is a Question the Snake may well ask concerning himself after so many Injuries of divers sorts and so great Injustice as he is guilty of towards us the weight of which may well be some pressure upon a Spirit that is at all on this side Obduration Ibid. They damn us all together to Hell i. e. all Christians It is false we Damn none no not the Snake much less all Christians Ibid. But they are more favourable to the Heathen whom they think Worshippers of the same Light with them and not led to Outward Things by the Belief of an Outward Christ and Faith in his outward Sufferings Death c. This Snake has an unusual degree of Impudence for he is not contented only to suborn our Books and pervert our Words and forge Lyes but he does bely our very Thoughts and say we Think what we never declared we did Think For we have never declared That the Heathens indefinitely speaking were obedient to the Light of Jesus Christ But we have often said according to the Apostle Acts 10.35 In every Nation he who feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him And concerning the Heathen in particular with the Apostle Rom. 2.14 15. For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves Which sheweth the work of the Law written in the Heart And of such Heathens who do thus shew forth the Work of the Law written in their Hearts we may say when considered and compared with meer Nominal Christians who have not known the Inward Vertue of what they believe Christ did Outwardly Suffer as our Saviour did say concerning the Pharisee and the Publican Luke 18.14 I tell you this Man departed to his house justified rather than the other For a Man may have a Historical Faith of all the Outward Things which are recorded in Holy Writ that Christ did and suffered Yet through disobedience to the Holy Spirit which Reproveth for Sin John 16.18 he may never know that Faith begotten in him which gives victory over the World Yet hence it 's not to be concluded that such who are obedient to the Holy Spirit in its Reproofs for Sin do therefore slight much less disbelieve any part of what Christ outwardly did and suffered No they cannot but must and do highly value and esteem It knowing the Benefits that we receive by it and do bless God that it is our Lots to have the means of the Knowledge of what Christ did outwardly do So that the Snake is most injuriously Abusive in his false Insinuations to the contrary The Snake now turns again to G. F's Great Mystery from whence not unlike the Quacks of the Town who of their pretended Panacea's boast they will cure all Diseases he pretends to fetch proofs for every Charge tho' contradictory to themselves but how falsly I have at least in some measure shewn As that the Quakers at first setting up pretended to be equal and of the same substance with God And it must also prove that the Quakers now abated from that and do now only claim to be Infallible as Prophets and Apostles Again Great Mystery must prove that there was a time when there was no God p. 122. And also that not the
Divinity but the Incarnation of Christ is denied by them Again Great Mystery must prove that Popish Emissaries set up Quakerism in England And it must also prove that the Quakers Damn all the Christian World but themselves Again Great Mystery must prove that the Quakers are pure and sinless And it must also prove that they are Venemous and Nasty These with many other no less Contradictory and for which the Book affords no true Ground does the Snake by the help of a prolifick fancy draw Ibid. p. 195. G. F. in his Great Mystery p. 89. says That the Quakers have a Spirit given them beyond all the Fore-Fathers since the Days of Apostles In the Apostacy G. Whitehead would fain come off of this and thus endeavours to excuse it in his Charitable Essay Printed 1693. p. 5. in these words The very intent and meaning of G. F's words herein was not beyond all the Fore-Fathers without exception but beyond all in the Apostacy And indeed it is very plain that G. F's meaning must be so because the natural import of his words shew as much But the Snake says Here it would have been incumbent upon G. W. to have named those whom he or G. Fox did believe were not in the Apostacy Why so incumbent To what purpose should they be named who were not in the Apostacy The prophet shews not any Incumbency there was to have the Seven Thousand named whom God said he would spare and for whom he testified that they had not bowed their Knees unto Baal 1 Kings 19.18 Ibid. p. 195. Let us hear G. Fox explain himself in other places of the same Book you will best know his meaning from himself A Wonder The Snake has once spoke Truth But it mightily contradicts himself for in other places speaking of this very G. Fox whom he here supposes capable to explain himself He says he was a Fool one of such an immoderate degree of Dulness and lack of Vnderstanding as could hardly befall any thing in Humane Shape But to proceed let us hear G. Fox as quoted by the Snake from Great Mystery p. 217. He says That since the Days of the Apostles all the World went after him i. e. after those who as he there expresses it did inwardly raven in Sheeps Clothing And now says he are People but coming from them to a Rock This the Snake calls hearing G. Fox explain himself but is in Truth nothing less because the Snake has miserably cut assunder and disjointed G. Fox his words and by the help of i. e. he has put a meaning of his own upon them To prove which I shall only give the place as it is in Great Mystery by which we have the Snake's word we shall best know his meaning which with the occasion of them is as follows G. Fox his Opponent had said False Prophets and Christs and Deceivers many shall come if it was possible to deceive the very Elect. To this G. Fox says Yea Christ said they should come to his Apostles which before their decease did come and went forth from them which Christ said should inwardly raven and get the Sheeps Clothing And since the Days of the Apostles all the World went after them as thou mayst read in the Revelations and now are People but coming from them to the Rock and now shall the Everlasting Gospel be preached to them that dwell upon the Earth over the Heads of the Beast and False Prophet and they shall be taken and the Lamb and the Saints shall have the Victory This is what the Snake blinded by the Dim suffusions of Malice says is to condemn all the Christian World but our selves But whether it be so or not we will now examine by Scripture and there our Saviour tells us Mat. 24.24 that false Christs and false Prophets should come And the Apostle 2 Thes. 2.7 testifies The mystery of Iniquity doth already work c. and so great was the increase of its workings in the space of fifty years for it was hardly more from Paul's writing to the Thessalonians to John's writing the Revelations that John in the Revelations 13.3 says all the world wandred after the Beast I would here ask the Snake Did John the Divine herein condemn all the Christian World Did he condemn all those who at the writing of that Book did yet persevere in true Faith and Obedience to Christ Surely he did not Why then must G. F. using the Apostles words and having respect to the same Apostacy of which the Apostle speaks be so understood They cannot be justly so understood because their natural import as used by the Divine and from him by G. Fox is all the World that is all that were entred into the Apostacy which was foretold by our Saviour should come and declared by the Apostle Paul was come in its beginnings and which John testifies was more generally come at his writing of the Apocalyps To the same purpose with the Quotation last made by the Snake he makes about twelve more from several places of the same Book in all which the Snake would pervert G. Fox his words to be meant of such who were not in the Apostacy but offers not one Argument to shew that those to whom G. F. did speak were not so To which it may be convenient here to observe that as the Apostacy from the Spirit and Life of Christianity had its beginning very early even while several of the Apostles were yet alive and was more generally overspread before the death of John So it did by general confession continue for many Ages after Nay it is not yet quite done away for all those who do resist and withstand the Spiritual Appearance of Christ in People and do endeavour to keep them from witnessing that Faith of which he is the Author and Beginner and which gives Victory over the World may be and are truly said to be in that Apostacy which did overspread the Nations through their forsaking the right way of the Lord. And to such who are in that Apostacy to tell them of it and admonish them to come out of it is not to Damn them No it is the Office and Duty of those to whom God giveth the Ministry of his Word as to the Prophet Isaiah 58.1 Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet and shew my people their Transgression and to the House of Jacob their Sins And this the Prophet did do very sharply many times yet he did not therefore Damn them nor include every particular of the People and House of Jacob under his Charge no more hath G. F. or any other of our Friends For fuller evidencing of this past all the little tricks by perversion insinuation or false quoting of the Snake I shall for conclusion to this Section subjoin somewhat out of a piece writ by Isaac Penington which was first Printed 1660. and reprinted in his Works 1681. p. 313. and bears for Title An
there wants not Examples of the like practice in the Reformation I will content my self to instance but in two Martin Luther and William Fulk who for the sharpness of their Style hardly come behind any Martin Luther being called before the Emperor Charles the Fifth to answer for his Books Having divided them into Three Sorts one of which was those he had sharply written refused though upon deliberation given him to retract or unsay any word therein as we read in Sleidan Yea he defends his Eagerness as being of an Ardent Spirit and one who could not write a dull Style and affirm'd he thought it God's Will to have the Inventions of Men thus laid open seeing that Matters quietly handled are quickly forgot Milton's Apology p. 24 25. And William Fulk comes not much short of him herein for it being objected to him that he had ill treated Allen Stapleton Martial Staphylus and Bristow who were Papists he defends the Treatment and further says I call not only Martial but all Papists shameless Dogs and Blasphemous Idolaters who maintain and make Vows to Images which travel to them and offer up both Prayers and Sacrifices of Candles Mony Jewels and other things Fulk 's Confutation of the Papists Quarrels p. 9. printed at the end of his Edition of the New Testament 1633. And upon a search neither strict nor tedious it were easie to heap up Instances of this sort which as I am not inclin'd to do so neither would I have mentioned these had not the meer necessity of Teaching this Adversary the practice of such whom that Church will own to which he is a Pretender But now this Snake who denies the soundness of such reproof as I have before shewn from Scripture and from the Reformation and will needs have it proceed from a Spirit Venemous and Nasty and that it is the effect of Fury Spight and Envy and proceeds from the wicked and hateful Ebullitions of a Distorted Soul May yet nay doubtless is when speaking of himself be in the right For it is not impossible but he may know what Distortion of Soul what wicked and hateful Ebullitions they were in him From whence proceeded his Fury Spight and Envy in the several Appearances which it has made against the Government against Vs and against Others It was a Venemous Libel which was writ in Answer to Dr. King now Bishop of London-Derry in Ireland It savour'd of no small Envy to endeavour to run over to our Enemies nor did it savour of less Nastiness to run away from the Messenger who by the force of some Sweet and Kind Expressions which were the Covers of Hypocrisie in the Snake was prevail'd upon to let him go and ease himself upon the occasion of a Violent Loosness which in Jesuitical manner he had before told the Messenger He feared would carry him off The Officer not mistrusting the meaning of the words carry him off had no fear upon him from them till it was too late and had found that his pretences to a Violent Loosness and which received some colour from the fear he was in had afforded him an opportunity which had indeed carried him off And now for the Libel The Snake in the Grass O! The Fury Spite and Envy which his Love and Good Nature or rather Wicked and Hateful Ebullition of his Distorted Soul hath vented as Valpoon Fool Blockhead Monster Deluded Wretch George Magus and G. W's plain words he calls Rank Sophistry Equivocation Jesuitical Confession Diabolical Suggestion and of all that differs from him he says they are like the Spawn of the Viper and that the Devil enter'd into the Herd of our Swine the Beasts of the People These are a few of the many Instances which this Libel affords which whether they are Kind and Sweet Expressions natural to Love and good Nature or Furious Spiteful Envious and Grating vented from the Wicked and Hateful Ebullitions of a Distorted Soul Let the Impartial Reader Judge But notwithstanding this his practice he objects to G. F. p. 199. That he calls William Thomas a false Prophet and that he said to Christopher Wade The Devil was in thee And of this what greater Proof need any Man give than false Doctrine and Lyes which G. F. hath shewn they had uttered Ibid. p. 299. You be in the Diabolical Devilish says he to some Priests in the Bishopwrick But the Snake has not told the Reader that the words Diabolical Devilish were not G. F's but the Priest's and G. F. did only shew that they themselves were in that which they had said the Quakers were in Is there no Venom in Diabolical Devilish when spoke first by Priests And yet much Venom when their own words are justly returned to them Ibid. p. 200. The Snake does from an Adversaries Book take upon trust a great many names which he gives without further Proof or attempting to shew that they are the words of our Friends or that if they were they were improper as spoken No that would have been a difficult task But it is easier for him to pronounce like one of Liberal Education Much of this is owing to the mean Education of these Scribes which furnished them with such Mechanick Ribaldry and Billingsgate And why owing to that Pray don't beg the Question since I have shewn before that sharp and severe Expressions have been the Immediate Dictate of the Spirit of God And that some not of meaner Education than possibly the Snake have used the like If they were proper as it may be the Snake will grant because properly applyed these may be so too if the Snake cannot shew that they were improperly apply'd let the Education of the Speakers be what it will Ibid. p. 202. You have seen the Venom Fury and Nonsense of this Quaker-Spirit c. And why pray the Venom Fury and Nonsense Names are no Proof and other than Names the Snake has not given Ibid. p. 202. That it may appear Vniform and all of a piece After all the Deformity and Distortion which the Snake from a likeness of it to his own Mind and Soul shall endeavour falsly to fix upon our Principles they will still when set in their true Light have a perfect Symetry and Proportion of Parts and agreement to the Truths recorded in Holy Writ Ibid. p. 202. These and such like were sent to John Wiggans from the Quakers in Letters open c. A good token there was nothing sent but what was true and if true A good means to have Truth Published and if read by others as the Snake says it was no hurt while Truth That which would have been of great Moment if I may inform the Snake after a Collection of these Characters Descriptions or Epithets given in these Letters said to be sent to John Wiggans would have been to have shewn that they had been Falsly and Nonsensically given but of this not one Syllable Ibid. p. 202. And this shews the true Picture of the
in your high Nest of Liberty in the Lust and Pride and Filthiness of the Flesh. And in like manner he goes through many of the then Parties into which the People were divided and faithfully tells them their Trangression and admonishes to Repentance that so their then impending Destruction and which did come might have been averted And this is so far from being the effects of a Cursed Spirit or Hellish Thundrings and the opening of the Infernal Pit that it hath many Examples in Holy Writ in which God by his Prophets hath denounced and foretold grievous Desolations and Destruction which should come because of Transgression Thus the Prophet Amos 8.11 Jeroboam shall die by the Sword and Israel shall be led away Captive out of their own Land And the treatment he met with was much such as the Snake gives for we read in the 10th vers Then Amaziah the Priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam King of Israel saying Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the House of Israel the Land is not able to bear all his words Thus Amaziah and our Snake are of the same Mind who when a Prophet from the Lord declares his Will concerning the Disobedient these will have such a Prophet to Approve of and Glory in their Destruction Which horrid Imputation cannot appear in any thing to be more false than that these same Men with many of the Prophets of the Lord who have been concerned in like Messages have called in the Word of the Lord to Repentance and Amendment by which the Impending Judgments that they foretold should come might have been turned away and that there was need of Repentance King Charles in the Declaration before-mentioned has abundantly testified but of that I care not to be more large at present The Snake p. 208. next carps at a Book Entituled Good Council and Advice but mentions no more of the Title lest it should betray and destroy the purpose he quotes it for and testifie that the Writers of it were true Prophets it is thus Rejected by Disobedient Men. And the days of Oliver Cromwell 's Visitation passed over and also of Richard Cromwell c. Printed 1659. From which Book p. 27 36. the Snakes quotes thus and begins Oh Oliver arise and come out which is an abuse and false Quotation for these words in that Book do stand twelve Lines assunder and begins thus Oh Oliver hadst thou been Faithful And of this the Snake declares they did blow the Trumpet to Oliver effectually But it is very false for from the Title of the Book their Visitation passed over and from the event viz. Oliver's Death and Richard's being Cast out it appears otherwise Ibid. p. 208. And he further charges Oliver not to turn Sober Men and True Hearts out of his Army And a very good Charge it was Ibid. So it seems they esteem'd Fighting a Lawful and a Good Thing in a Good Cause because they thought it consistent with Sober Men and True Hearts According to what I have before observed p. 138. God not having disarmed himself of the Outward Sword he may and often hath for Causes seeming Good in his Sight put the Sword into the Hands of such whom he hath appointed to be the Ministers of his Anger against wicked Men and among these his Ministers we believe there very often is and hath been Sober Men and True Hearts according to those Discoveries of the Will of God which they have had And this we also know that if Sober Men and True Hearts who have been raised up by the Lord and made Instrumental in his Hand by the outward Sword to Castise His and His Peoples Enemies do humbly wait upon God to have further discoveries of his Will and thereby come into greater degrees of Obedience to the Holy Spirit of Christ the Peaceable Saviour they may at length come to see concerning them against whom God raised them up as Joshua in the word of the Lord recounts to Israel concerning their Enemies Jos. 24.12 And I sent Hornets before you which cast them out before you even the two Kings of the Amorites and not with thy Sword nor thy Bow For it is certainly true that those 〈◊〉 do come to that Spiritual Marriage with the Lord spoken of by the Prophet Hosea 2.9 they will witness the compleating of that Prophecy mentioned in the 18th verse of this Chapter And in that Day will I make a Covenant for them with the Wild Beasts and with the Fowls of the Heavens and with that that creepeth upon the Earth And I will break the Bow and the Sword and the Battle out of the Earth and will make them to sleep safely Ibid. p. 209. But since 1660. it is an Antichristian Doctrine Before and since 1660 even ever since we were a People it hath been our Principle and Practice not to use the outward Sword Ibid. One of the Orders given forth by their Yearly Meeting 1693. Commands that none should carry Guns in their Ships Our Yearly Meeting did never give forth any Commands but in Brotherly sort hath caution'd against those things which are not consistent with our Holy Profession of which this is one Ibid. p. 209. They presented G. K. as endeavouring to Subvert the Government which by their Law is Death because that in the 9 th and 10 th Articles of a Paper there Published called an Appeal from the 28 Judges c. he queried whether it was consistent with their Principle against using the Carnal Sword c. That it was not Because he Queried c. as the Snake falsly says he was presented but because of his indecent and tumultuary Behaviour the Declaration of the Sessions it self will best shew which I shall here quote from S. J's State of the Case p. 50 51. Their words are these Therefore for the undeceiving of all People we have thought fit by this Publick Writing not only to signify that our Procedure against the Persons now in the Sheriffs Custody as well as what we intend against others concerned in its proper place respects only that part of the said Printed Sheet viz. The Appeal which appears to have the tendency aforesaid that is Sedition Disturbance Subversion of the Government or aspersing the Magistrates and not any part relating to Difference in Religion c. Ibid. p. 210. But it is plain that they are not against Force of Arms when they like the Quarrel for they did not only encourage Oliver c. but they fought themselves against the King if you will believe G. F. who complains of many Quakers being Disbanded out of the Army and that for being Quakers tho' they were good Fighters It is false G. F. does not complain that any Quakers were disbanded much less that they were disbanded for being Quakers That which G. F. does here complain of is the Pride and Haughtiness of them to whom he writ and as an instance of their Apostacy from that tenderness towards Religious and
wrought by them nay expresly the contrary not by Sword nor by Spear And God as he pleases can overturn without the Sword as well as with the Sword And the overturn here threatned is not by Sword-men but of Sword-men Ibid. p. 212. The Snake hath here injuriously made a Quotation from A Declaration of the People called Quakers c. by leaving out the intermediate lines which are expressive of the sense of his whole Quotation and which are as opposite to the Gloss the Snake puts on them as can be After his Quotation from the Tract above-mentioned he saith This is plain Language they will not yet take Arms nor for the present not till they see their time But they have entered a Caveat to secure their Right and Title to it till they think sit to set up their Claim That Edward Burroughs Language in this place is plain Language is very true and therefore so much the greater is the fault of the Snake in perverting to a wrong sense what E. B. has delivered so plainly as these his words which the Snake hath left out in the Quotation does shew p. 9. But yet his Kingdom is not of this World neither is his Warfare with Carnal Weapons neither is his Victory by the Murdering and Killing of Mens Persons neither hath he Chosen us for that end neither can we yet believe he will make use of us in that Way c. This is indeed such plain Language that nothing but plain Malice could have perverted And tho' the Snake pleases himself by playing upon the words yet and for the present and would basely insinuate them to be a Caveat entered c. they are no such thing For First the word yet is not always an Adverb of time as in the words above it appears it is not for so would they absolutely destroy each other and the Snake don't seem inclin'd that the last words should for if they be then his pretence of their being a Caveat will necessarily vanish and yet before His Kingdom c. cannot possibly relate to Time because our Saviour hath assured us without all bound of Time My Kingdom is not of this World And by the way it is worth observing that our Saviour gives that as the reason why his Servants could not Fight John 18.36 now this reason must always continue and the Kingdom of God in the sense which our Saviour speaks it can never be of this World for that as the Apostle says It is Enmity with God therefore can his Servants not Fight and E. B. hath said expresly Neither hath he chosen us for that end Secondly Those words for the Present on which the Snake does with equal Malice and Falshood insult have no Relation to Fighting but to Suffering under which many of our Friends then were and as the words immediately following those quoted by the Snake do shew they are these P. 9. But for the present we are given up to Bear and Suffer all things for his name sake and our present glory and renown therein stands till the appointed time of our Deliverance without the Arm of Flesh or any Multitude of an Host of Men this we declare c. What more notorious and wilful Perversion could an Adversary be guilty of than to suggest and pervert the meaning of these words to be the Entering a Caveat to secure a Right and Title to take Arms What follows p. 213 214. Is already reply'd to and therefore shall not repeat the Answer tho' the Snake does the Objection It is with him an easie way of making a great Bulk of Charge and Slander but tho repeated a Thousand times over it is of no weight when refuted in the first Instances as these have been and now the Snake labouring in that Mine of Lyes his Brain has met with something which in p. 215. he calls a Material Discovery He expresseth it thus Because the Quakers since 1660. would make us believe that they had been Loyal in the Rebellion of 41. and the Reason they give is their Sufferings under those Vsurpers But here it is plain that their Sufferings were not for their Loyalty to the King but for their Principles destructive to all Government Here Reader is to use the Snake's expression a Material Discovery of the Snake's Lying Contradiction for in p. 329. foregoing I have observed him saying that we joyned with all the Vsurpations c. And here he gives as a reason for our Sufferings under them that our Principles are destructive to all Government How then could we Joyn with them that we were destructive too Or if we were not destructive to them How could we Joyn with them at the same time when we suffered under them all No it was impossible it could not be nor did we ever so Joyn with them For evidence of this take E. B's own words in the Declaration c. fore-quoted where he saith p. 8. Neither are we for one Party or another nor do we side with one sort and rebel against another neither do we joyn our selves to this sort or the other nor do we War against any by Carnal Weapons neither shall we ever provoke the Nation against us otherwise than by our Righteous and Holy Walking c. This our Testimony published 1659. had it been false could then have been easily detected and refuted but no such thing we ever heard of then But this Snake now will have that the Quakers did Rebel did Joyn with Vsurpers and Fight against the King tho' the contrary is most true as is above testified by E. B. We have for the present done with Edward Burroughs and now the Snake turns to Francis Howgill in a Book of his called An Information and also Advice to the Army c. printed 1659. from p. 7. of which Book the Snake in p. 216. quotes Them who were your real Friends called Quakers who gave you and the Army Intelligence about the late Insurrection c. This the Snake gives for proof that They the Quakers held out against the King to the very last and that not only in Talking Writing and Fighting but in Watching Discovering and Betraying And if this be proof sufficient for all this then it may be also proof sufficient that the Priests did to the last hold out against the King c. because that some of them did upon that Insurrection come up and acquaint the House with the same thing and declared they had not engaged with the rest of their Brethren Priests in Cheshire and Lancashire and they had thanks con'd them for their pains But this tho' mentioned in the same page from which he takes the foregoing Quotation the Snake takes no notice but when the Quakers gave Information to the House as F. H. says that they were Spoiled of their Goods and Horses to a great Value Oh! This is a great Crime this is Watching Discovering and Betraying Ibid. p. 217. And as the King deviated so says he the
Parliament deviated and thereby Justifies the Committee of Safety against the Parliament And so every thing that is uppermost to the end of the Chapter They too have stumbled upon the Doctrine of Success No such matter we have not so stumbled for tho' we know that God can and will bring his own works to pass and he will cause to succeed that Work which he doth appoint Yet every matter which doth succeed according to the desire of those who are Instrumental in the accomplishing of it is not therefore approved of God As to the Deviating of the King I need not trouble my self to say more than what his Son King Charles the Second hath declared in his Declaration from Dunfirmling before quoted p. 327. viz. Sect. 2. Tho' his Majesty as a Dutiful Son be obliged to Honour the Memory of his Royal Father and have in Estimation the Person of his Mother Yet doth he desire to be deeply humbled and afflicted in Spirit before God because of his Father's hearkning to and following Evil Councels and his Opposition to the work of Reformation and to the Solemn League and Covenant by which so much of the Blood of the Lord's People hath been shed in these Kingdoms c. Now if the Snake will answer this Declaration and shew that the King did not Deviate I shall not engage to reply to it no more than the Snake would to those Tracts of the Royallists which do affirm that that Parliament deviated As they are Questions which concern us not in our private Capacities so I shall not pretend to meddle in them further than under the good Authority of what is given under the Hand of a King as is the Testimony above And in this I had been wholly silent had not the necessity of shewing that the Snake had no cause to Cavil and Misrepresent Francis Howgill for using the word Deviate while there was such publick Allegations of it For with respect to States and the unhappy differences which have sometimes happened in them we do continue to say with Edward Burroughs as before quoted Neither are we for one Party or another nor do we side with one sort and rebel against another neither do we joyn our selves to this sort or the other nor do we War against any by Carnal Weapons neither shall we over provoke the Nation against us otherwise than by our Righteous and Holy Walking c. But now we come to a very Grievous Charge which the Snake in his Romantick Method calls p. 219. A formal Association the Quaker Solemn League and Covenant wherein they bind themselves under their Hands their Lives and Estates to Extirpate the Church and the Laws and Government which support it c. Which most Scandalous and Impudent Assertion will vanish when I shall have Informed my Reader both of the Nature of that which he so Intitles and the Ground and Occasion of it which are briefly these In the Year 1659 the then Parliament had among other things under their Debate The Maintenance of Church-Ministers And upon this occasion there were different Endeavours of the People in this Question according to their different Liking and Belief by Petitioning by Remonstrating or otherwise for it being a Question then handled de novo as to the manner of their Maintenance it appears each side did suppose they had an equal Right to express their Sense of the Matter and to endeavour their ease and safety in the Conclusion of it And when for this purpose the Clergy c. found themselves so nearly concern'd as to procure and send up Petitions in the Name of Six Thousand or more to pray The Parliaments Establishment of Tythes and had thus lead the way by Solemn League and Covenant into a Formal Association as the Snake will have it then others found it their Season to Remonstrate the contrary and to shew that great Spoil and Havock that had been made by the Clergy upon their Conscientious Neighbours and particularly by Means of an Act which they had before obtain'd for the Recovering of Treble-Damages for they love an abundance upon the Refusers of them And under that grievous Oppression the Women who did find themselves included in their several Capacities did speak their Sentiments of the Matter then in Question Some might be sensible of the Oppression in their own Persons others as Wives of those who did so and some as the Children of Parents whose Estates were impaired by that means and as Sufferers they from their several Counties did send to the Parliament And if a Petition from Six Thousand or more Men might then be offer'd as Reason why that Parliament should determine the Question to their Sense Pray why might not the like be offer'd from Seven Thousand or more Women shewing their past Grievous Sufferings which they or some of them had lain under and therefore desire that the Question might be determin'd to their future ease This Reader is what the Snake calls a Solemn League and Covenant but that it 's vastly differing in Nature from that which his Country afforded the fore-going brief Account does truly shew And as it was no such Association as this Adversary doth falsly Suggest so neither was it in its Nature or Terms binding under their Hands Lives and Estates to Extirpate the Church and the Laws and the Government c. For while a Question is yet undetermin'd and is under the Cognisance of Superiours as this then was I cannot see that they who Petition against it do more bind themselves Lives and Estates to Extirpate the Laws c. than they who Petition that that might be Enacted viz. the Establishment of Tythes which was then a Question whether it should be so or not But that these Papers Subscribed by the Women were an Association for the Extirpating of the Government the Snake gives himself the Lye because they were delivered to those whom I doubt not he will acknowledge were Vsurpers And he hath said as I have observed P. 326. fore-going that we Joined with all the Vsurpations from our first Rise And I think they give no great mark of Joyning with a Usurpation who bind themselves under their Hands Lives and Estates to Extirpate it Yet thus Contradictory is the Snake Ibid. P. 220. They Exult That Strafford 's Head was cut off and Canterbury 's and Charles Stuart 's as Traytors for endeavouring to Subvert the Fundamental Laws For these and many more Scraps pick'd here and there a Line he quotes The West Answering the North Printed 1657. But that there is no such Exulting as the Snake does Suggest will soon appear both from the Form and Occasion of the Words First to the Occasion This Book West Answering the North was Writ to lay open the Illegal Practices and Grievous Persecutions which some then in Authority did do and use against many of our Friends in the Counties of Cornwal and Devonshire which was by the way no Mark of Joyning with them as
be known which is also a very great Truth that we have towards all Governours utterly denied all Fase Dealing and have dealt faithfully and plainly with every one without favour or partiality reproving and blaming every one for their Faults shewing every one their Dangers and warning every one by the Fall of others that went before them to beware of shun and turn from those Evils which brought ruine upon the former But they never joined with fell in with acted with sought or accepted Places of Profit or Trust from any of them which the Fawning Priests and some Professors did and therefore as with very great Truth and Boldness they might and did say all that the Snake has quoted above So with like Truth and Boldness they say more which the Snake has cut out least while he remember'd their Faithfulness his relucting Mind should object his own past Treachery The words as they stand in the place he quotes from are these Treason Treachery and False Dealing we do utterly deny False Dealing Surmising or Plotting against any Creature upon the Face of the Earth and speak the Truth in plainness and singleness of Heart If the Snake could for himself in truth say so much it would be a brave Testimony I come now to a Book of George Bishops Entituled The Warnings of the Lord to the Men of this Generation Printed 1660. Under the Title of which Book because of Directions to two Places at which it was then sold the Snake says they did industriously spread their Treasons But I would know of him why a Warning to Peace Love and Vnity and Caution against Persecution and such this Book is may not at least be disposed of at as many publick Places as his Defamatory Libels or as his Seditious ones was at private Places But now from the Manner of its Disposal we come to the Matter of the Book The Snake begins with p. 27. of this Book and quotes thus p. 228. Beware of falling under this Spirit or of thinking the Breach between you can be healed for I declare it to you from the Lord That it is irreconcileable it cannot it will not be healed Thus far the Snake quotes and by a dash strikes out about three following Lines which are these Yea the day will come and now is wherein it will be said we would have healed Babylon but she would not be healed let us depart every one to his own place And now upon a Consideration of these Lines what more can be the meaning than that that separation and distance which was between the Spirits and Interest of the Conquerors and Conquered was irreconcileable And the Breach of their Contention was such as could not be healed with the peaceable and quiet possession of those who were then uppermost viz. in the Year 1659. which some might then either foolishly hope or wish But now the Snake after his Dash at which he left out the Lines above-mention'd continues his Quotation thus Therefore in the Power and Dread of the Almighty stand and bear over it viz. that Spirit of Persecution which would vainly hope a Reconciliation Crush it to pieces for that Spirit of which G. Bishop is here speaking had persecuted and afflicted and in many ways made Men to suffer for their Tender Consciences Stamp it to Powder i. e that Spirit of Persecution But the Forgery of the Snake is remarkable here for that after the words last above-quoted he puts an c. and then goes on as if what followed in his Quotation did follow in the same order in the Book from which he quotes it but it is far otherwise for the Lines which he here makes to follow do in that Book precede the beginning of his Quotation eleven or twelve Lines and by the like packing and transposing of Lines which this Snake uses a Man may make the Decalogue or the Lords-Prayer speak to answer any purposes which the wicked Projector shall design Ibid. p. 229. Yet in their Declaration to Him the King after his Return p. 7. they Gravely tell Him We are a People that follow after those things that make for Peace and Vnity and which the Snake has left out it is our Desire that others Feet may walk in the same and here the Snake goes on do deny and bear our Testimony against all Strife and Wars and Contentions c. that is says the Snake when they were beaten and cou'd fight no longer First It is notoriously false that the Quakers did Fight or bear Arms in the Year 1659. or any other Year to the opposing of the Restauration Nor indeed was the Restauration brought to pass by Fighting but there was more immediately the Hand of God in it in that without outward Strength the Powers which then were crumbled and broke to pieces as they were often by our Friends foretold they should having in their several Days and Times of Trial been found to encrease that Yoak which was the Original Pretence of their First Opposition to the King And that it was always our Principle to follow after those things that make for Peace and Unity and have desired that others might walk in the same and did bear our Testimony against all Strife and War and Contention c. George Bishop does in this Book of his the Warnings of the Lord testifie where in p. 10. speaking to O. Cromwell and shewing him in what and how far he had regard to him He saith in behalf of Liberty of Conscience which Oliver had before declared to be a Natural Right yet was herein so far darkned as not to establish this Right which once was in his power to have done and therefore G. B. enumerates some of the Sufferings of our Friends to him herein and at the same time tells him what was the nature of that Dispensation which the Quakers were come to which he tells him in these words We who through the unspeakable love of the Father are come to Witness the end of the Wars the Son of God made manifest in the Flesh whose is the Kingdom and the Glory and the Dominion for ever even his Immortal Seed raised and raising up in us by which we are brought to testifie against the World and all the Deceivers therein and against the Fashions and Customs and Works and Deeds thereof that they are Evil as by his Light we have been shewn and by his Blood redeemed therefrom in our own particulars c. And in p. 14. G. B. enumerating some Instances of those whom the Spirit of Persecution had overthrown and the pretences on which they went as Haman to Ahasuerus the Informers against Daniel and the Three Children and the Pretences of the Elders Chief Priests and Scribes against our Saviour as also their pretences against the Apostles under which they would cloak their wickedness hath these words This is what that Spirit viz. of Persecution suggested throughout all Ages on Record in the Scriptures of Truth and with this
that Spirit blinded the Kings Princes and Rulers and set them against the Lord and against his Anointed which prov'd in the Issue their destruction This is that the Bishops said of the Puritans to the Late King this is that which brought forth the Law in those days against their Meetings to seek the Lord upon pretence of Conventicles and with this the Late King they blinded and set him against these People which became the overthrow of Him his Posterity and Followers and of that Generation and of those that joined with them And this is that Spirit that is now blinding of thee viz. Oliver Cromwell who wast the Lord's Battle-Ax and Weapon of War to the cutting down of him and those whom after this manner it blinded and set against the Lord and his People and which is now setting Thee against the Seed of God which in this fulness of the Dispensation of times he is raising up to reign for ever and ever unto which Spirit if thou continue to hearken and to follow and to be guided by thou shalt be cut off the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it This is part of a Letter which is in that Book and which G. Bishop did send to Oliver as it is there dated the 16th of the 5th Month 1656. By which and much more such plain Dealing in the said Letter wherein he tells him p. 17. Because thou hast hardned thy Heart and turned against him He God hath turn'd from thee his Presence Wisdom from thy Councils Spirit from thy Men of War and Success from thine Vndertakings and is Stripping of thee of thy Fence and Guard and making thee naked and bare and is coming against thee c. It appears from all this according as our Friends in their Declaration to King Charles upon his Restauration had said That the Quakers even in the Days of Oliver c. were a People that did follow after those things that made for Peace c. in that they did faithfully warn the then Powers against that Spirit of Persecution which was as they had foretold their overthrow And that they did not fight but were redeemed out of all outward fighting and through the Vnspeakable Love of the Father were brought to the end of the Wars So that it is false and malicious in the Snake to say the Quakers were Beaten and could Fight no longer when they gave that Testimony in their Declaration that they did Deny and Bear their Testimony against all Strife and Wars and Contentions c. For had they been in that Warring Nature there was space and time when that Letter of G. Bishop to Oliver Cromwell before-mentioned was writ wherein he testifies that the Quakers did witness the end of the Wars it being near four years before the Restauration of the King But tho' there was time and space yet the Quakers did never joyn with them or fall in with them nor were they concerned in places of Trust or Profit under them but when those who were in such places or in the Army did in their own particulars come to be redeem'd out of all outward Wars and to be obedient to that Convincement they laid down such their Places or Arms which is more than can be truly said of many fawning Priests and Professors And what is more the Quakers from the first even all the time of those several Changes in Government before the Restauration were great Sufferers by them because of that Truth and Plainness which they witnessed forth both to Governors and Governed And thus G. Bishop not soothingly but plainly told O. C. in his time wherein his safety and danger stood Thus he told R. Cromwell in his time wherein his safety and danger stood Thus he told the General Council of the Army wherein their safety and danger stood Thus he told the then Parliament wherein their safety and danger stood Thus he also told the Council of State wherein their safety and danger stood viz. In Establishing that equal and just Liberty and Freedom of Conscience in matters of Worship which near all of them in their turns promised and engaged to do but did it not therefore were they as he shews overthrown And when the King was Restored George Bishop did also Warn Him and his Parliament as in his piece A Book of Warnings c. p. 2 it is seen where after having recounted the Mercies of God to the King and Them he says And now what doth the Lord require of you That you take not upon you to rule over his Kingdom or to prescribe to his Dominion whose Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom and his Dominion that which shall never have end that of him in the Conscience Thus Reader under the different Governments his Advice was that Persecution might be taken away and in great Plainness without Soothing or Flattering of any to whom his Messages were he did it appears deliver them Ibid. p. 232. But after all this Sweetness as soon as ever the King was Restored Anno. 1660. the Quakers stoutly deny that ever they had Complemented Oliver or they had forgot it What the Snake calls Sweetness that We the Quakers did shew to Oliver we take to be our Duty as required by the Lord to shew to all whom it shall please God come to have Government That is to Advise that they Govern for God and his Truth that all Profaness Immorality and all Wickedness may be discouraged in which the Blessing both of Governors and the Governed doth consist This O. C. was frequently admonished of but he rejecting his Vows to God his Pretences to Men and the Admonition which God by his Servants did frequently send Several of our Friends in great Truth and Plainness did foretel him of his Overthrow which none of those his Soothing and Flattering Priests did dare to do The same plain Dealing our Friends did use to the other Changes in Government and also to Richard Cromwell not Complementing nor Flattering any And when W. Caton in his Truth 's Character of Professors said that the Priests and Professors did Sooth and Flatter O. Cromwell and his Son and made great Promises to him the Proof was apparent by their Addresses to him which in that Book he does briefly give What less than Flattery was it when the Priests c. of Suffolk in their Address to Richard Cromwell upon the Death of his Father told him Although our Sun is Set no Night hath ensued And what less was it in the Priests of Norfolk who did solemnly Promise and Engage Faithfully to serve and obey his most serene Highness for so they then called R. Cromwell as his Leige People in the Defence of his Person and Government with their Lives and Estates It 's true they did afterwards so soften the terms of their Allegiance that they found themselves ready to embrace another Shelter when the Gourd was withered and thus they turn'd to the Rising Side But after all if all this was
done but Ironically as the Snake says and that they did not mean what they said in their Address The Snake instead of doing them a kindness by endeavouring so to bring them off hath given the Reader cause to suspect that those Priests when they did so Solemnly Promise and Engage if they did not mean one word of what they then spoke they were as well guilty of deep Hypocrisie as of Soothing and Flattery Ibid. p. 233. They the Quakers represent to him the King that the Professors could not be good Subjects to him because that in his Exile some of them call'd him only the King of the Scots E. Burroughs 's Works p. 762. Edw. Burroughs or any of the Quakers had great cause to represent to the King that those Professors who only for and because of our difference in Judgment and Practice concerning Spiritual things did Murder and most Barbarously use some of our Friends in New-England could not be good Subjects Nor can any be good Subjects to a Government who for such cause endeavour to raise Persecution disturb the publick Peace and raise Jealousies and Evil Surmisings whereby all Civil Prosperity is overthrown and this had then been the practice of the New-Englanders among themselves and for their own excuse and colour of their wicked Practices they did send over a Petition and Address from the General Court at Boston Anno. 1660. In answer to which E. B. writ a piece intituled Some Considerations which was presented to the King In which among other things to shew the changeableness of the Petitioners who in that Petition stiled him High and Mighty Prince and Dread Soveraign He gives an Instance well known to him of a Letter from Boston subscribed by some of these same Petitioners wherein it was said There is more danger in these Quakers to trouble and overcome England than in the King of Scots and all the Popish Princes in Germany Of these it is E. B. did shew they were Changable As for the Snake's Charge of Bloody and Diabolical Invectives against the King by E. B. for which he refers to what he hath said before I have already answer'd it in the order which it's first quoted in and therefore judge it needless to repeat my Answer to him here either in this or those many other Instances in which he does but repeat to shew the Strength of his Malice what he has said before Of this sort are the many little scraps of perverted Quotations about which he spends near two Pages to endeavour to prove concerning E. B. That all his Fighting was chiefly against the King But that E. B. was not a Man of a Fighting Principle it may for Conclusion to what I may say of him on this head be proper to give a Testimony from himself It is in his Standard lifted up c. printed 1658. p. 28. Again all Kings Princes Rulers and People whatsoever know ye assuredly that we are not Enemies against but Friends unto all Civil Government and to all Just and Righteous Orders and Decrees and wholesome Laws and Customs of any Common Wealth and no way no not by the Sword are we destructive to or destroyers of the Peace and Welfare and wholesome Laws which are according to God of any Nation whatsoever But are preservers of the Peace of all People and wait in Patience for the establishment of Justice and true Judgment and that Righteousness may spring forth and the Government of all Nations may be according to the Law of God Neither are we such who make void the just Government of any Nation or City neither are we such who through evil purposes Plot Conspire or Contrive Evil in our Hearts against any Governors or Government whatsoever but wish Peace and Truth and the fear of the Lord unto all Men and Nations and desire not the overthrow or evil to any People or their Government but are Subject to just Government every where by Obedience to it and Subject to evil Government by Suffering in Patience under it and for that cause we Suffer patiently under our Enemies Thus E. B. This Principle vouch'd by an agreeable Practice in E. Burroughs F. Howgil G. Bishop and all others who were truly Quakers did occasion a Letter to the Parliament of England An. 1653. wherein is set forth a brief Account of the Sufferings of our Friends at that time And there in p. 8. it is Testified by the Author Anthony Pearson concerning the Quakers at that Day They are says he above all others I know it Innocent Harmless Peaceable they Dispute not Authority with any Man nor Question Forms of Government nor trouble their Heads what becomes of the World but as Strangers and Pilgrims they have their Conversation on the Earth wandring to and fro seeking another City c. This Testimony as it was given to the then Parliament so had the above relation concerning the Quakers been false it had been easie to have Detected it and shewn the contrary I could heap up Instances on this Head from our Friends would I be tedious but I choose Brevity where Truth easily appears Wherefore I shall here only add the following Testimonies of our Early Peaceable Obedience to Magistracy and Government The first is from James Parnel in his Book Entituled A Shield of Truth c. Printed 1655. p. 18. We own it Magistracy and Government in its place for while the Devil hath Power over Man there will be Transgression For this end was the Law given forth to Curb Evil Doers and to Preserve and Encourage them that do well And all Magistrates who Fear God and hate Covetousness and are guided by the Light of God in the Conscience and executes the Law in its place and this we Own and Honour and are Subject to for Conscience sake The next is in the same Year 1655. from James Naylor in his Book Entituled A Fool Answered according to his Folly written as the former of Ja. P's was In Answer to the Charges of our Enemies among which one was The Magistrates to you are no Magistrates viz. the Magistrates during the Vsurpation which by the way I would desire the Reader to observe is yet some Testimony for us against the direct contrary Charge of the Snake who says we joined with them To this J. N. Answers p. 12. Magistrates we own and the Power of God who bear the Sword of God which is a Terror to the Evil Doers and is to be laid upon the Offenders Ordained of God for that purpose and to this Ordinance for Conscience sake we are subject Thus Reader thou hast here some Testimonies both against Fighting and of our Subjection to Magistracy during those Years from which the Snake falsly Suggests the contrary and with these do concur those Testimonies which the Snake Cites out of the Declaration of our Friends An. 1660. and in the Quakers Plea 1661. And all of them are no more nor less than we have held and practised ever since
it How can they who read and believe that saying of Christ Mat. 16.18 The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church believe that Church to be His whose Total Ruine wou'd follow if Tythes were taken way Now least the Snake should glide away and make his Escape through the words in his Parenthesis as they suppose which I suppose he left for a starting hole Pretending that it is only a Supposition of the Quakers that if the Clergy be depriv'd of their Subsistence Tythes they would sink of Course and so the Total Ruine of the Church wou'd follow It will be convenient to remember That one of the Clergy in a Book writ on purpose in Defence of Tythes Entituled The Right of Tythes Asserted c. p. 13. compares Tythes to the Oyl that nourishes the Lamp without which the Lamp would not burn nor give any Light at all and comparing the Priests to an Army says Because they dare not engage this Army they attempt to force them to disband for want of Pay And p. 15. From a saying of Tacitus concerning the State which he says May be applied to the Church in this Case viz. There can be no Quiet to the Nations without Soldiers no Soldiers without Pay nor no Pay without Tribute on which therefore the Common Safety doth depend He infers Even so no Peace in the Church without Ministers no Ministers without Maintenance nor no Maintenance without these Publick Contributions namely Tythes on which therefore the safety of Religion doth depend I hope the Reader will here consider that it is not as they the Quakers suppose but as they the Clergy suppose that the Total Ruin of the Church would follow as also I wou'd desire my Reader to consider what Religion what Church what Clergy that is that doth so depend on Tythes that if Tythes were taken away these must sink in Course Ibid. p. 245. And this R. Barclay does not conceal That Antichristian Apostatiz'd Generation says he the National Ministry have receiv'd a Deadly Blow by our Witness against their forc'd Maintenance and Tythes So that their Kingdom in the Hearts of Thousands begins to Totter and shall assuredly fall to the Ground Anarchy c. p. 41. Printed 1676. This is a Truth which it was not proper to Conceal for it is fit their Kingdom in the Hearts of People should fall because they have but usurped it they have no Right to have a Kingdom in the Hearts of People and the Reason why it Totters and why it and they will fall is because they are not built upon the Rock Christ Jesus but depend upon a forc'd Maintenance by Tythes of which if they be depriv'd the Clergy will it seems sink in Course Ibid. But what if the Light within some Quakers should allow them to pay Tythes and think they ought in Conscience to do it as being Legally Established c. Whether Tythes be Legally Established is neither my business nor purpose here to discuss but supposing them to be Legally Established is a Legal Establishment by Civil or Human Authority a Bond to bind Conscience in things relating to Religion and the Worship of God Time was when the Sacrament of the Altar Auricular Confession the Caelibate or single Life of Priests and the rest of the Six Articles were in this Nation Legally Established Did that Establishment bind the Conscience to the performance of those things Unhappy Martyrs then who gave their Bodies to be burnt rather than they wou'd comply with those things tho' so Established Legal Establishments are of equal force in one Country as in another Are not these Six Articles not only practised by the Popish Party but reputed to be legally established in Popish Countries and vigorously impos'd and press'd in some particularly in France Are the Poor Protestants there to be Condemned as acting against Conscience while they have suffered such Ravages and Inhumane Cruelties for not complying with those things which are there Legally Established Who but a Snake wou'd thus hiss at them in his envy against Us But says he if the Light within some Quakers should allow them to pay Tythes Wou'd the Quaker Rulers allow them Liberty of Conscience and give them leave to follow their Light within The words Quaker Rulers as scoffingly used by him I reject and know of no such that the Light within ought to be the Rule for every one to walk by I assert But it is not impossible for some who may pretend to walk by it to put Darkness for Light and take that to be the Allowance of the Light to them especially in a case where either advantage or danger outwardly is likely to follow which is contrary to the Light This is not to be wondred at especially by them who call the Scriptures their Rule of Faith and Manners since there is hardly any thing more common nor more evident than that some in all Communions of them do think and are persuaded that according to the Scriptures they ought to believe and practise such things and after such manner as others not only of other Communions owning the same Rule but those of the same Communion with themselves deny to be the meaning of that Rule and oppose or condemn them for If a Bishop or other Clergy-man of the Church of England or any Minister or Member of any other Religious Society should so far mistake himself as to think the Scriptures which he takes for his Rule does allow not to say require him to say Mass to pray to Saints departed or other distinguishing Doctrines of Popery or to practise any abrogated Jewish Rite as Circumcision or the like wou'd the Church of England or any of the other Communions allow such an one the Liberty of his Conscience therein and give him leave to follow that which he says is the sense of the Scripture and yet continue to be of the Clergy of the Church of England or a Minister or Member in those other Communions If not but that they wou'd as they ought disown or deny such a one to be of them let not them condemn themselves in condemning us who have done no more as we ought not to have done less This I judge sufficient answer to his Idle Cavil about T. Crisp and other Apostates from us whose pretence to an allowance from the Light within to act those things which are contrary to the General direction and Testimony of the Light within has been fully laid open in several printed Treatises The Snake to swell his Libel not strengthen his Argument here brings in two Quotations from G. Fox and R. Hubberthorn nor relating to Tythes to which I need say little being already before answered and therefore shall here only add to what is already said that if he intend hereby to deny the Hypothesis only That any of our Writings are given forth by the same Spirit by which the Holy Scriptures were given forth I am content to leave it to the Witness
stood or the Reformers must all be guilty of breaking the Fundamental Laws of the Realm which is a Charge that the Modesty of this Snake will hardly forbear to put upon them after having so warmly endeavoured to prove them Schismaticks as I have before shewn But while I am upon this point of Fundamental Laws I would ask the Snake to give if he can some Reason why the Act of Parliament made in the 27th H. 8. for setting out of Tythes was more a Fundamental Law of the Land than the other Act made in the 31st of the same Reign for Establishing the 6 Articles Tythes are rightly deem'd Anti-christian as impos'd by Popes and Popish Laws because they were so imposed by vertue of the Levitical abrogated Law Besides by Popish Laws there mentioned I take our Friends to mean not Acts of Parliament made in Popish Times which the Snake would craftily twine it to but Decrees or Constitutions of Popish Bishops or Councils because Popish Laws are joyned there with Popes impos'd by Popes and Popish Laws not Papists in their Civil Capacities only but Papists quatenus Papists in their Ecclesiastick Capacities and for Establishing not Civil Government but the Popish Religion and Church And indeed the Stature in the 27th H. 8. was not properly imposing of them for they were impos'd by the Lateran Council long before and the Impositions of them was intirely Popish And upon that Imposition Tythes being supposed to be due to God and Holy Church as the Preamble of that Statute shews the manner of Payment and direction for Recovery were appointed by that Statute and the other Statute made in the 2 d Edw. 6. is grounded on that of H. 8. and refers to it and expresly declares it is made to the intent the said Tythes may be hereafter truly paid according to the mind of the makers of the said Act. And that being made by H. 8. and his Parliament about four Years before the Act for the Six Articles was made sufficiently shews what the mind of the Makers of that Act was and whom they would have Tythes then paid to who profest Communion with the Church of Rome tho' they quarelled with the Pope and burnt the Protestants as fast as they appear'd so that if it should be supposed that Tythes were imposed by those Statutes it will be hard to free them from being a Popish Imposition Ibid. p. 248. There were no Tythes paid to any Popish Priests in England ever since Quakerism appear'd amongst us Nay rather was there any Tythes paid to any Priests but what in their Original here in England were demanded by Popish Priests Are not all Priests that take Tythes what ever other Denomination they may go under in that and so far at least Popish And this may serve for Answer to his Interrogative in the same Page Why do you not now pay your Tythes to the Ministers of the Church of England Ibid. Why do you boast of your Sufferings and Imprisonments c. We do not boast nor have we any thing to boast of that we can do or suffer it is the Lord that hath carried us through our Sufferings as he did his People in former times and the Glory belongs to him which it is fit we should give unto him by Commemorating his Goodness therein towards us But it is an Aggravation of Cruelty and an unusual sort of Barbarity to put Men to pain and then blame them for Groaning to oppress Men and not suffer them to Complain or seek Redress Ibid. p. 249. Why do you Persecute and Disown those of your Communion who pay their Tythes c. We Persecute none but in disowning such as pretending to own our Principle do act contrary to it we do but our Duty Ibid. Why are you so Zealous herein as not to leave them to their own Conviction or Light within c. We leave them to take their own way if they will persist therein after frequent Admonition and Endeavours to bring them to the right way Ibid. Why will you not allow them what your selves so much plead for Liberty of Conscience in this Case We do allow all such the same Liberty we our selves plead for For we don't plead for a Liberty to act contrary to the Principles of any other â—ociety and oppose them and yet require them to receive and own us as Members of that Society we oppose We meddle no further with any of those who have deserted our Principle than to declare they are gone from us and are no longer of us and to Defend our Principle and us against Assaults And if other Societies which we departed from had done no more nor otherwise by us we should not have complain'd of them Ibid. The Quakers are not fewer by the lowest Computation than One Hundred Thousand here in England I wish he speak true Let Joab's wish 2 Sam. 24.3 go with it The Lord add unto the People how many soever they be an hundred fold But since the Quakers are known to all and acknowledged even by their Enemies to be an Industrious People it may be hop'd this Intimation of their Numbers may occasion our Governours to consider How much more useful an Hundred Thousand working Bees may be to the Civil Government than Ten or Twenty Thousand Drones Ibid. If the Tythes first of all the Quakers and then of all those who to avoid Payment of their Tythes will pretend to be persuaded by them herein were Substracted there would not be Sufficient left to keep half the Clergy in England from Starving By this one wou'd think either that there are great Numbers of those who Pay their Tythes with an ill will and would gladly be eased of the Payment of them which I hope we may be allow'd to say is very good News because it bespeaks a growing Sense of the Oppression and Evil of Tythes For since the Clergy as they love to call themselves are not the hundredth part of the People if the Tythes of the one half of all those who Pay to them were Substracted they should have instead of the Tenth but the Twentieth nay the Thirtieth Part of the Increase they would have more than double or near treble to their Proportion than all the rest of the Inhabitants besides of the danger of whose Starving this Snake seems not at all apprehensive What he says Ibid. was Threaten'd or Prophesied he can't tell which it seems by Rich. Huberthorn seems to be a Reproof of the Priests Pride and Luxury who would be likely rather to Beg or suffer want than set their Bones to Work for their Living as others are glad to do And this being spoken of the Priests of that time when that Book was Written before the Year 1660 who were not of that Church which is now call'd the Church of England when they were turn'd out and the Law of the Land ceas'd to maintain them which came sooner upon them than they expected they might have begg'd their
think that Outward Institutions were not necessary to Guard to Preserve and to Improve the Inward and Spiritual part of Religion That a Steeple-House cannot be God's House I have above-shewn to which I may add that 't is below Christianity and the Gospel-Dispensation to talk of and call one of these God's House now since the Legal Temple is forsaken and destroy'd The Saints are now his House 1 Cor. 3.16 and 6.19 so for Outward things dedicated to God's Service they did belong to the Legal Dispensation and if Christ had judged Outward Institutions necessary to Guard Preserve and Improve the Inward and Spiritual part of Religion he would not have abolished those which God had so Divinely and Solemnly Commanded The talking of Tythes and Tribute due to God now under the Gospel for which that affords no Warrant is a meer Artifice and Knack of Priest-Craft Our detecting and opposing of which is the chief Ground of the Priests pouring forth their Rage and Fury upon us and indeed it is no wonder for it is not easie for them to part with what the Snake calls the Baal of Tythes What he prates Ibid. of Sacrilege Robbing of God in this Gospel-Day seizing his Tythes and Tribute due to him c. Is only a noise of Words without Sense and the Course of his Jewish Expressions shew that he understands not the Gospel-Day They who were not to appear empty before the Lord were to bring Outward Sacrifices and Offerings Oxen Sheep Turtles Flower Wine Oyl c. If they must not now appear in that Sense empty before the Lord but must have something to offer must that be Outward as under the Law If so why not the same Pray where did Christ or his Apostles appoint any Commutation of those for these now in use as Easter Offerings Womens Churching as it is call'd with a whole Train of such Ceremonial Fragments from which there is no need to produce any discharge until he shall have shewn how they became obligatory in the Church at this Day And after all his Idle Tattle how little does or rather did he because of his Abdication or do too many of the Priests regard how empty of the Spiritual Sacrifice the People appear before the Lord provided they appear full-handed to them They may Sacrifice to the Lord that which cost them nothing if Prayers ready made and read out of their Book or repeated by rote may be said to cost them nothing so they do but offer to the Priest that which will yield him something if he may but have a Calf from the Stall it 's much better to him than the Calves of their Lips if he may but have the Sweat of their Brows it will serve such Priests turn tho God be not in all their thoughts Ibid. p. 263. No not so much as a tenth part tho' we acknowledge that to have been God's Tribute universally paid to him both before and under the Law That the Tenth was universally paid c. Is but begging the Question which never was nor can be prov'd Before the Law it was never paid nor but once given as appears and then expressy call'd a Gift Gen. 14.20 Heb. 7.2 4. Under the Law it was paid by virtue of a Legal Command for it which extended to none but those that were under the Law and to them only for the Tythes of Canaan and that only during that Law and Priesthood We can and have produced a fair and full discharge from it under the Gospel viz. Heb. 7.12 tho' there was no need of an express discharge for that which was instituted but for a certain time Ibid. Yet they are afraid of the Face of Man c. There is indeed little sign of it for had they been affraid of the Face of Man they had not been Quakers nor had ever been able to hold out in their Testimony against what he calls the Baal of Tythes as it 's well known they have done Ibid. It was said of Hannibal that he never Fought without an Ambush so the Quakers never write without a Reserve It is said of a Slanderer He that hideth Hatred with Lying Lips and he that uttereth Slander is a Fool Prov. 10.18 This Snake has made sure of that Title to himself for his Hatred has opened his Lying Lips to expose his Folly by uttering a Slander against the Quakers of such a nature as every Body that reads our Books may Convict him of nothing being written more plainly singly and free from reserve or double meaning than our Writings and that in the case of Tythes wheresoever they are treated of Ibid. p. 264. I see the starting Hole that they have left whereby to escape from what I have before quoted viz. That their Testimony against Tythes does rather affect a Popish Clergy than a Protestant Civil Government True it does so and yet affects both It does rather affect a Popish Clergy as 1st reputing every Clergy however otherwise denominated which exacts Tythes in that and so far Popish And 2 dly it affects the Clergy principally as those that have abused the Civil Governments and drawn them to Spoil their Honest and Peaceable Protestant Subjects for not feeding the Clergy with Tythes But that we never endeavoured to Smooth it to the Government as he words it or to persuade them that we refused Tythes to one sort of Priests or of Men only our constant practice in denying to pay Tythes to any and therefore Suffering does sufficiently disprove Ibid. They grievously accuse F. Bugg in that he most shamefully Quarrels with the Quakers for renewing and asserting his Wickliff's and other Famous Protestants and Martyrs Testimonies against the Corruption and Priests and Popish Imposition and Oppression of Tythes And not without very good reason for Wickliff's Testimony as ours is was against the Corruption of the Priest both in Life and Doctrine against the Imposition of Tythes or any forced Maintenance which he would have had left free Ibid. p. 265. But will the Quakers be ty'd to the Opinion of those Men in other things No surely Why then should they think to tye us to their Opinion as to Tythes This is extreamly Shallow will the Priests of any sort or this Snake himself who quote the Opinions of those they call Fathers as Origen Tertullian Cyprian Chrysostome Augustine Jerome c. be ty'd to the Opinions of those Men in all things If not why then should he think to tye others against whom they alledge the Opinions of those Men to those Opinions for which they alledge them Ibid. p. 266. Tythes were paid to Melchisedec long before Levi c. Tythes were not paid to Melchisedec but given that 's the word used both by Moses Gen. 14.20 and by the Apostle Heb. 7.2 4. and that but once viz. by Abraham Gen. 14.20 and that not of Corn c. but of the Spoil of War Ibid. The Evangelical Priesthood is after the Order of Melchisedec and therefore they claim
he sheweth that the Devil on a time Assaulted him not in visible Form but by dreadful Suggestions in his Conscience as it were thus calling him to remembrance These many Years thou hast said Mass thou hast shew'd up Bread and Wine to be Worshipped as God yet now thou knowest it was a Creature and not God thereof follow'd Idolatry and thou wert the Cause thereof All these things he saw to be true by the Testimony and Light of his own Conscience and therefore confess'd he had offended and yielded himself unto God The Devil's purpose was to lead him to Despair but God mercifully deliver'd him If he think it so heinous a Matter for a Godly Man to be vex'd by the Devil perhaps he will also find some fault with Christ who was carried by the Devil into the Mount or with St. Paul that had the Angel of Satan to buffet him Thus the Bishop who seems to have had another Sense of this Matter than this our Adversary I shall only add to this before I come to his particular Instances to my Reader That if any Person Professing Unity with us in whom was began the work of Reformation hath not abode Faithful but run into the Temptations of the Enemy and hath had freakish Actions and Gestures and loose and wild Imaginations and have Falsly and Blasphemously Ascrib'd them to be the Operations of the Spirit of God We are not accountable for them as the Apostle was not for those in his time who were given up to strong Delusion because they receiv'd not the Truth in the Love of it All that we find the Apostle did to them that we have done to such that is testifie against them and their ways For we do not own such Inspirations as have not for their Origen the Holy Spirit and are warranted by the Scriptures of Truth I come now to the Snake's Instances His first is thus p. 288. John Gilpin of Kendal in Westmerland has given us a strange and wonderful account of his own Possession by the Devil while he was a Quaker in a Book which he Entituled The Quakers shaken Printed 1653. In Answer to this there was Published in that same Year 1653 a Book Entituled The Standard of the Lord c. to which Book E. Burroughs writ the Epistle to the Reader In which speaking of this same John Gilpin p. 2. he saith By hearing of the Truth declared through the Witness in his own Conscience he was Convinced of the Everlasting Truth c. This was very well but it seems he continued not under that Convincement for he ran out into Airy Imaginations and Imitations as E. B. saith who speaking further of him says I was mov'd to go to see him and his Will was at liberty got above the Judgment though the Judgment was upon the head of the Beast in him and a true Power working but his Will not being kept in Subjection it led him into Impatiency and into Rebelling against the Lord who was made manifest to destroy the unruly Will and wandring Mind And then I did declare against him and shewed him the deceit where it lodged in him Thus E. B. who it hereby appears did shew the Man his state and did also deny him and his doings But the Matter issu'd thus This Gilpin continu'd to go on in that same Rebellion of which E. B. speaks so that he quite run from under the Judgment and Gilpin in this his worst Estate endeavoured with the help of the then Priest of Kendal in a Book Publish'd under Gilpin's Name to charge the Wicked and Blasphemous Actions and Sayings which he had been guilty of upon that Principle of the Light of Christ in Men which the Quakers Profest though Gilpin being Charg'd with it did deny it in these Words I have neither written nor spoken any thing against the Quakers So that by this it should seem the Book was writ by the Priest and Gilpin's Name put for a Cover And if it had not been so but that Gilpin did really write it there was a fair opportunity given them to have prov'd it because the Words above-mentioned spoke by Gilpin were Publish'd in the Answer before-mention'd Entituled The Standard of the Lord c. which came forth in the same Year which that Book Subscrib'd by Gilpin did Ibid. Attested by the then Mayor of Kendal the Minister of Kendal and several other Persons It was not strange that the Mayor of Kendal should be procur'd to Subscribe what the Priest had so eminent a Hand in though he owns it no further than a Fellow Subscriber But as this was an early Instance viz. 1653. wherein the Priest did lead the Civil Magistrate into such a Mistake which a prudent Inquiry wou'd have prevented so we have often since found they have endeavoured to Ride the Civil Power blindly into Mistakes and Prejudices against us and where such have been able to Hood-wink a Magistrate we have seldom found so little disadvantage from it as is the setting his Name to Partial and Untrue Relations of Fact In fine the Case is thus Gilpin as before related was once under a Convincement of Truth but he abode not under the Judgment of God manifested in him for Sin but started aside as a broken Bow He got into Wild Blasphemous and Airy Whimsies and Notions In all this he was presently denied and testified against For Edw. Burroughs did while this Gilpin was under these Extravagancies deny him and we were sufficiently discharg'd of him And what may further shew the Degeneracy of the Man was the Dissoluteness of his After-time for some Actions of which a Warrant was it seems Issuâ—d out for his Apprehension but he like this Snake ran away from it as is express'd in the Book aforesaid which was writ in Answer to him The Snake's next Story is of one James Milner mention'd p. 66. fore-going This Man and some others did as the former start aside from under the Judgment but the Event was not the same as is seen in G. F's Journal p. 103. where speaking of this Man and his Condition he saith James Milner and some of his Company had true Openings at the first but getting up into Pride and Exaltation of Spirit they run out from Truth I was sent for to them and was mov'd of the Lord to go and shew them their Goings forth And they came to see their Folly and Condemn'd it and came into the way of Truth again That he did see and condemn his Folly was very well and it was yet better for him that he return'd into the way of Truth Ibid. p. 289. But then as an Excuse for his false Prophesies and his Blasphemies in calling himself Christ c. he G. F. makes this Comical Apology In some things his mind runn'd out and that he Condemns and yet these wicked Men will go tell the Nation of it Great Mystery Page 298. It is not very Comical but very Provoking to find one who
pretends to be a Lover of Souls to be really a Hater of Truth and a gross Perverter of Words Is it any Excuse for False Prophesies or Wild Whimsies to say of those who are guilty of them That they are got up into Pride and Exaltation of Spirit and that they are run out from Truth I think it is not but is on the contrary a Sound and Substantial Denial of them as it was an evidence of their Return who had so been guilty when from a sight of and sorrow for the Wickedness they had been guilty of they did Condemn their Wickedness and return into the Way of Truth which they had forsaken and when Erring Persons are so return'd it is no less than Wickedness imperiously and by way of Taunt to object to them their past Miscarriages and much more so to throw them Evils so forsaken and repented of at a Community for their Scandal Ibid. p. 289. I will trouble the Reader but with one Instance more Then we are not like to have very many for we have had yet but two And were I dispos'd to vie Numbers with the Snake I could enumerate more pretended Members of the Church of England who have in Wicked and Freakish manner pretended falsly to Revelations and Inspirations Ibid. John Toldervy has Printed a very Punctual Narrative of his Conversion to Quakerism and of the most Astonishing Possession of the Devil in which he was held after his said Conversion even to the Apparitions of Evil Spirits dancing and Singing about him and directing him what he should do and encouraging him in the Principles of Quakerism The Snake has taken up near three pages with the story of this Man of which the foregoing words are the substance which are a complex of falshoods as I shall presently make appear But first I shall desire my Reader to observe that the Snake affirms that the Astonishing Possession of the Devil did encourage this J. Toldervy in the Principles of Quakerism which is so venemous a falshood that nothing short of Envy could lead him to affirm it and that in opposition to the Authority he quotes viz. the Book Foot out of the Snare which is the Book which the Snake here calls a Punctual Narrative and also quotes in p. 290. I will give my Reader some account both of the Man J. Toldervy and his Book above-mentioned from both which it may fully appear how far the Astonishing Possession of the Devil or bewitched Imaginations in which he was was from being either owing to or encouraging of the Principles of Truth which we profess And first for the Man He was one who I shall anon give my Authority for what I say had been zealously affected in divers ways of Worship at length he made a shew of a Convincement upon his Spirit and did come to our Meetings but it was not long before he did discover himself not to have any true work of Regeneration upon his Mind but run out into very strange and wicked Imaginations for which he was soon reproved by the Quakers but he persisting they did separate from him and deny him both by Word and Writing because of his following a Bewitched Spirit The Quakers being thus discharged of him his Wild Imaginations turn'd to Envy and he endeavoured to charge his Crimes upon the Principle of the Light of Christ in Men professed by us in order to which he writes a Book Entituled Foot out of the Snare and to give it greater Grace it hath Eight Warrantees or Subscribers for the truth of it Wherein they pretend to set forth the Manner of his Separation from the Quakers In answer to this of theirs James Naylor wrote a Piece entituled as above Foot yet in the Snare in which he shews and often repeats it that J. Toldervy was denied by the Quakers and that they had Testified against him And for the fuller evidencing that the Quakers had denied him he does in p. 21 22. refer to their Book Foot out of the Sare and says In p. 33. Do you not confess that when he came to the Meeting at the place where the Quakers were shewing the holes he had made in his Thumbs and telling of those Lying wonders which he had been acting many of the Quakers being there all of them Judged him with one Consent charged him to be silent and told him that he was in Darkness and had slain the Witness of God in him Thus by their own Testimony nay by the Testimony of Toldervy himself for he was it seems the Author The Quakers had denied him of which we can desire sure no better proof than his own Confession attested by Eight Witnesses of which Tho. Brooks Tho. Jacomb Geo. Cockaine Joh. Tombs and Will. Adderly were part Having thus shewn that the Quakers did deny and therefore not chargeable with him nor his Actions I shall further shew from the same Authority which hath testified our denial of him as above that those his strange and wicked Imaginations were neither owing to nor encouraging of the Principles of Quakerism in him as the Snake has wickedly said For proof of this see Foot yet in the Snare p. 20. where James Naylor clearing our Principles from this suggestion saith thus quoting their own Book before-mentioned And have not you confessed p. 49. the Cause of these Distractions and Confusions in his Mind was having been zealously affected in divers ways before There was begotten in him much Fleshly Wisdom in which his Hope did rest believing it to be the Holy Spirit revealed in him and that he was covered with Deceit and could glory in that Condition Here in their own Testimony they say he was Covered with Deceit did rest in Fleshly Wisdom and believed it to be the Holy Spirit and in this he had been zealously affected in divers ways which was as themselves say the Cause of his Distractions and Confusions and all this before he came among us and staid not long when he was come But yet further James Naylor does in p. 26. quote them more amply clearing the Quakers Principle from his Delusions where they clear the Truth and say He J. T. being fully persuaded by what he learned from the Quakers of the Truth which was made known by the Light in us which Light is Spiritual and guides out of the Work of the Flesh to worship God in Spirit and Truth he was then to wait out of Thoughts and Imaginations c. And his Understanding being now thus opened he was possessed with much Joy in the Sense of that Love he had received whereupon he was resolved to give all diligence that his Calling and Election may be made sure But being naturally of a hasty and forward Mind and his Resolution in part being a Covenant of his own there was speedily begot in him an extream Fiery Zeal so that in the general he was hastily carried forth before the true Light by which in a short time he became lost in his
of God the Unity of the Church and the Good of Souls But to his Flouting Question What will become of the First Quaker Infallibility I Answer Nothing but well because as I have largely shewn in the Section particularly treating of Infallibility neither the First Quakers nor the Present have ever placed Infallibility in any Man or Men but only in the Spirit of God And the Manifestations of this being given by the Mediation of Jesus Christ to lead Men to Heaven it is absolutely necessary that it be able on it's part Infallibly to answer the End for which it is given Well but if it be asked How comes the Voice of the Lord not to be distinctly discerned Since the Spirit of God is Infallible in its Manifestations to Men Why the Answer is ready because when the Mind is Hurried and Tossed and in the deep Exercise and Affliction because of its condition it cannot yet come to have so clear a discovery and so distinct discerning of the Voice and Will of God as afterwards in its further Growths in his Grace and Truth And the different attainments of such who are turned into the Way of the Lord the Apostle hath exprest by going on from one Degree of Grace unto Another Ibid. p. 297. It seems these Hurryings and Tossings did not come from the Holy Spirit of God The Effects of the Work of the Power and Spirit of God binding the Strong Man and purging out the Old Leaven does much agree with that which is described by the Prophet 1 Kings 19.11 12. and hath sometimes been as with a Great and Strong Wind sometimes as with an Earthquake sometimes as with a Fire before the Still Small Voice hath been heard And the Rage of the Enemy as P. L. saith is not small against the Soul which is redeeming from under his Captivity but endeavours to raise Hurryings and Tossings whereby the mind might be so darkn'd as not distinctly to discern the Voice of the Lord. Now again for Stories And there the Snake bestows 3 Pages about a Story bearing date the 19th of the 8th Month 1654. related by one whom he is contented pro hac vice to call a Minister because his Narration is against the Quakers But when that is over then with all the rest of the Dissenters he is with the Snake but as the Spawn of the Viper But to take him in his Character of Minister He was a Seventh-Day Baptist named Tho. Tillam sometime Resident in the County of Durham where he was Pastor to a People but they because of his Wickedness and Filthiness did cast him out and deny him This same Minister such a one in many respects as the Snake came up to London and wanting Induction to some place he apply'd himself to the then Commissioners for approving and giving Induction such as they then used to Ministers this T. Tillam from them gets a Place in Essex about Colchester and here it is that he spreads this Report This Report one Gyles Firmin another such Minister takes up and puts at the end of a Book of his which he writ against the Quakers and printed 1656. To this Edw. Burroughs did writ an Answer printed the same Year wherein he does positively deny both this Story of Tillam's and that other of Firmin's which the Snake mentions and says it is a Lye Then it was Incumbent upon the Snake's two Ministers Tillam and Firmin to have brought out their Testimonials of the Truth of what they had said but no such thing came nay indeed one of them could not stay for that purpose for he Scandalously run away from his Charge here in Essex to which he had been Inducted as before he was thrown out of his Charge in Durham because of his Scandalous Carriage in it As Witnesses yet living do testifie Snake p. 304. Since the Publishing the 1st Edition of this Book there has been published an astonishing account of some Quaker Witches who prosecuted one Henry Winder and his Wife for their Lives accusing them of Murder from the Mouth of the Lord. And since the Publication of the Snake an Answer hath been published thereto entituled An Old Apostate Exposed manifesting the great Wickedness and Uncleanness of the said H. W. to his lasting Shame and Confusion of Face and had he not been under strange Delusions and hardness of Heart he could hardly have been drawn by his abettors to have given such occasion to make his abominable Actions publick But so great is the Malice of the Snake and such like envious Men that even their own Shame will not deter them from venting their Malice but let them reap the Fruit of their doings and let 's hear the Snake further Ibid. One of them being examined how this Revelation came to her said she could not tell but she was sure it began in her Feet See what Idle and Ridiculous Stories this Snake licks up surely if Satan's Delusions had not began in his Malicious Heart he had never been brought so to vent it with his Pen. Ibid. But the Snake goes on to give an account of matters notoriously infamous of which the said H. W. was by these two Women accused Wherein whether the Women were altogether Wrong and how far the said Winder was Guilty God knows However for some satisfaction to the Moderate Reader hear the said Winder and his Wife what they said then viz. about 1674. under their hands as it is related by T. Cam in the aforesaid Answer p. 6. We acknowledge and confess that we have sinned and transgressed against the Lord God and against his People who have born grievous Burthens for us we must needs confess before you But this know dear Friends that the Enemy wrought in a Mystery in us to the persuading of us that we might do such things and yet live Then through the weakness of the Flesh Sin took occasion and overcame us then Sin being finished it brought forth Death to the Innocent Life which we once lived in Here it 's plain from H. W's own Confession he had been about some foul piece of Work then though now a fit Tool for the Snake's turn However let 's a little further view the account of H. W's matter as we have it in the Old Apostate Exposed page 9 10. I shall now add what is so notoriously known in the Neighbourhood that though the said H. W. be greatly hardned yet I presume he cannot have a Face to deny relating to their great Uncleanness for which they were denyed of us c. So that it seems before H. W. was fit for this Snake's Communion he was fit to be expell'd ours But since the Snake has him let 's shew him further what he has got Old Apostate Exposed p. 10. The said H. W. had her that is now his Wife so great with Child in his first Wife's days that there was but about Six Weeks betwixt the Death of his first Wife and the Birth of that Child However
it not been thrown in my way by his first crying out Thief Thief The Snake hath in this Section made very many scornful and false Comparisons according to his title between G. Fox Muggleton and Oliver's Porter which is but a repetition of somewhat of the same kind in the beginning of his Libel and which I have replied to from p. 33 to 36. it being there somewhat Argumentative and the Enlargement which he here makes together with the Addition of Oliver's Porter in the Comparison has so much of Scandal to all the Pretences of Religion that his Impudence deserves no other Answer than Silence nor himself any other treatment than as a Person very Contemptible even as the Scandal of Religion and the bane of Society In that against the Experience of many Thousands of our Friends against the knowledge of very many Persons of all Ranks amongst whom are some of Chief Note and Dignity who are not of Us before whom and with whom G. Fox for Forty or more Years even to his Death had occasion to converse Towards all which Persons his Sobriety of Life Peaceable Behaviour Exemplary Conversation in Godliness and Humility was evident Demonstration that he acted both as became a Man and a Christian Should yet after his Death be by this Incendiary listed with a Known Mad-Man and Profest Libertine I come now to Consider of a Letter which the Snake gives at the end of his Libel which he says is Spelt and Pointed according to the Original and of which he gives some bits before in p. 115. And here I have to say that what he calls John Audland's Letter I have many Reasons to believe is none of his For First Some former Adversaries have as the Snake p. 115. pretended to give some Pieces of it but have contradicted one another as to the Matter of it by which contradiction in terms it is fully shewn that they could not all be right as they have pretended they were Secondly As to the Spelling and Pointing of it it is so far from being agreeable to John Audland in other of his Writings that it hath many plain marks of being Spurious because he was Correct in both and did understand Orthography better than is shewn in this pretended Letter Thirdly This Pretended Letter from J. Audland to G. Fox was not so well contriv'd but that the Forgers who have heretofore given it with a date have made it bear date from Bristol Anno 1665. This was a very unlucky oversight which as it cannot be now mended so it absolutely overthrows the pretence of its being his because John Audland was buried in Westmerland the 24th of the 1st Month March 1663. being the last day of that Year So that it appears he was dead about two years before the Date of the Pretended Letter But Lastly John Audland has in a Collection of Books and Epistles writ some by himself and some by him and John Camm and of which we have undoubted Proof that they are genuine giving very many Testimonies of his Clear and Christian Principle Holy Reverence and Honour to Jesus Christ according to Holy Writ which do effectually shew that it was far from him to attribute Divine Honours to G. Fox or any Man Some of which Testimonies I shall here subjoin from that Collection c. Collection c. p. 180. I must walk according to the Commands of Christ and his Apostles Ibid. p. 188. Walking in the Spirit which mortifies the Deeds of the Flesh being subject to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ here is rest to the Soul Ibid. p. 190. We see the way of Life to all that believe in the Name of the Lord Jesus Ibid. p. 202. The Jews had a Law by which they judged the Holy One that he ought to die Ibid. p. 222. We find acceptance with God through Jesus Christ. Ibid. p. 287. They the Holy Prophets Prophesied of Christ who was born not by the Will of Man supposed to be the Son of Joseph which was the Son of God These with very many more Plain and Voluntary Confessions of J. A. to the very Christ of God in that Collection of Books c. do fully shew that he was very far from owning any such Blasphemy or Idolatry as the Snake does suggest Besides what I have now here said both in opposition to the Pretended Letter and also by Quotation from that Book of John Audlands hath been before spoken to by G.W. in his Just Inquiry printed 1693. which the Snake ought to have invalidated if he could before he repeated these Objections of other Adversaries What I have herein said hath been with purpose to remove that False and Envious Covering which the Snake in his several Charges hath endeavoured to cover Us with Reader As thou shalt have read it with an Impartial Mind thou wilt then be able to make a true Judgment how far my End is Answer'd As for what follows it is G. W's own Defence in Answer to the Snake's particular Objections to him in what he calls Remarks upon G. W 's Creed and a Supplement upon Occasion of G. W's Answer to the Snake in the Grass lately Published A Supplement upon occasion of what the Snake calls Remarks upon G. W 's Creed and in Reply to the Supplement in the Snake upon occasion of G. W's Antidote c. in Answer to the First Edition of The Snake in the Grass By George Whitehead SECT XXII A Reply to what the Author stiles Some Remarks upon George Whitehead's Creed Relating to some of the Particulars beforegoing taken out of the Antidote c. THe nameless Author of the Snake in the Grass having vented his and others Venome and great Spite against the People called Quakers in General and divers Particulars by Name Now to compleat his Design of great Envy he must put forth his Sting and have a fling and fit of Hissing like an angry Snake or as one that Whispers out of the Dust Isa. 29.4 against the said G. W. I being the Person aim'd at may now briefly answer for Truth and for my self as concerned 2. The word Creed he imposes upon me 'T was no formal Creed or Summary of our Faith though real Truths by way of Positions in the affirmative as a Christian Testimony in direct Opposition to F. B's great Abuse false Charge and Perversions which with a negative Testimony against him therein are both adapted to answer his own Terms Words and Phrases that our Testimony and Positions might be the more apparent against his Abuse and Perversions for I know no Adversary that I find fault with but I can freely and in good Conscience assert my own Sense in the Matters in Controversie as well as oppose his tho' it be not in the manner of a formal Creed yet true in it self for we should have numerous Creeds if all Positions we write in Opposition to Opposers must be esteemed Creeds or Summaries and Confessions of our Faith nevertheless we believe
a good degree in the Antidote and now more fully since he has so much alter'd and magnified his Structure i. e. the Snake therefore the Reader may not now securely depend upon the Quotations he has produced as he would have him if he should think he may securely depend upon them he is very insecure and will be deceived and greatly Err in depending upon such an inveterate Adversary's false partial and unjust Quotations as many of them are proved to be upon a more full Examination and Detection And if his Quotations is in Effect the whole Cause as he saith then his Cause is fallacious rotten and nought 't is of no value or credit If his Quotations in divers principal Matters and Charges against us be found false partial and unjust as they are what 's become of his whole Cause whose Cause is it to belie slander defame and foully misrepresent others but the Devils Cause which in the Snake in the Grass is strennously prosecuted against us And so insulting and slighting he is of G. W's Answer casting his Contempt and Scorn upon both him and it that a Body would think 't were below his Highness Learning and Parts to take so much notice of them as he seems to intend He tells us G. Whitehead's Answer consists of bitter Railing and Threatning of very poor and guilty Excuses for some things that are objected against them and a total Silence or Forgetfulness of the most Material Points wherein they were accus'd of calling this a severe Persecution against them of Pleading not Guilty to the Charge without disproving any part of the Evidence p. 361 362. To Detect the Falshoods herein contain'd I must refer the Impartial Reader to my said Antidote however invalid and impertinent he renders my Answer therein How well consistent is he with himself in this his declared Intention viz. When I have leisure to consider this Answer of the Quakers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 step by step I suppose he means which for their Good I do intend I hope by it to put an end to my Pains in this Controversie But if the Answer be so Insignificant very Poor and without disproving any part of his Evidence what need of his further leisure so particularly to consider it or pains in the Controversie But if my Answer require such deep and exact Consideration 't is an Indication that it is of some weight and validity and that it does not consist of such Railing Threats or Evasions as 't is render'd he must have leisure farther to study the Points in Controversie and not to shift them off with false partial and curtail'd Quotations nor with his using Railery as he has confessed If he makes Replication he should write more cautiously than to accumulate Lies against us which he appears very prone to In short quoth he It was intended i. e. G. W's Answer purely to have it to say That there was an Answer to such a Book meaning to the Snake in the Grass and that is enough with the Quakers who are not permitted to read the Books that are written against them and receive as Gospel whatever their Rabbies Dictate This is Ridiculous and False as all that know us will own 1. As if our Answer were no Answer at all but only intended to have it to say there was an Answer 2. And that this so saying though no Truth in 't is enough with the Quakers Thus credulous he unjustly renders the Quakers 3. That they are not permitted to read the Books that are written against them is such a notorious known Lie that Thousands of the Quakers can testifie against it besides many think themselves obliged to understand what our Adversaries write against us whether any new Matter or only what 's old obsolete rusty nasty Stuff that has been long since thorowly Examined and Answered like such Stuff as Bugg and the Snake have frequently reiterated to spit and vomit abroad their Venom Rancour and Deadly Malice against the People of God in derision term'd Quakers And how can we the said People reasonably suppose that such inveterate Adversaries can in such their Pains against us to reproach us design any such Christian Duty towards us as to contribute their Pains to open our Eyes and save us from destruction both of Soul and Body p. 351. as this bitter Adversary saith for himself supposing us under Delusion and Blindness by our Infallible Guides as he often derides them Or with what Conscience can this Envious Adversary say That he has 〈◊〉 other Design or sincerely say so before God 〈◊〉 our Good and Salvation When he has publickly defam'd and reproach'd us as Blasphemers against God Christ and Holy Scriptures Enemies to Government deluded bewitched possessed with the Devil as if we were not fit to live upon Earth or under any Civil Government then demurely to tell us I will venture their Displeasure rather than fail in my Christian Duty towards them to contribute my Pains to open their Eyes and save them c. Oh Snake thou hast shewn thy Venom thou hast been long hissing at us we 'll not believe this thy now Fawning and Hypocritical Pretences whose Treatment of us like as if Rude Persons should smite us on the Face and gather all the Dirt they can out of Kennels and throw on our Faces Eyes and Clothes and then tell us Oh! we love you what we do unto you and all this Pains we bestow upon you it is all in Christian Duty to you to open your Eyes and save you from Destruction both of Soul and Body we have no other Design than your Good and Salvation And to make us believe they are Sincere herein Presumptuously so tell us before God And now that the Reader may not take the Man's Supplement wholly upon Trust he pretends here to give him a Specimen of the Truth of what he says behold what special Specimens he gives against G. W. viz. p. 351. I. First then he wholly passes by what one would think a Material Objection against them of the manifest Possessions of many of them and some of their chief Preachers by the Devil which was in the beginning of the Preface But he i. e. G. W. says nothing to this nor reckons it as any of the Mistakes Abuses or Calumnies in the Snake for having made a Catalogue of these as he endeavours to prove them he begins at Page 93. of the Preface and so goes on whereby we may reasonably suppose he found none such in what went before To which I reply This his Specimen is as false as his material Objection and Charge Of Manifest Possessions by the Devil For 1. 'T is false that I wholly pass by and said nothing to the same in my Answer 2. That I did not reckon it any of the Mistakes Abuses or Calumnies in the Snake c. For though I made a Catalogue of some of the great Mistakes Abuses and Calumnies in the Snake It was but of some of