true Doctrine The same liberty we allowed to them after they had Answered our Charge to Charge any of our Church of England Writers with Blasphemy and without giving us Book Line or Page beforehand we will either Disown or Justify it be sides when a Time of Disputation with an Adversary is Set and I have sent him the Questions to be disputed on was it ever Expected before that I should before the Time send him all my Proofs The Question you know betwixt us is whether they be Blasphemers or no we hold the Affirmative and offer to prove it but they will make no defence for themselves unless we send them all our Proofs beforehand Presently they Cried out we Reproach the Parliament who have owned them to be Dissenting Protestants whilst we would prove them to be Blasphemers and indeed they did Strut Exceedingly for the Honour the Parliament hath done them to Recognize them as Protestants as if under the Protection of the Act of Parliament they might Blaspheme Cum Privilegio and no body must be so bold as to Ask them why do you so They told us we are going about most uncharitably to Damn them all We told them they may Repent of their Blasphemies and be saved For Panl was once one of their Companions in Blaspheming the Name of Jesus Christ and if they will Accompany him in his Change too they may obtain Mercy as well as he They told us Blasphemy against God was the Sin against the Holy Ghost because the Holy Ghost was God We told them we were sorry it was so for their sakes but for their Comfort we hope for to make it appear it was not that unpardonable Sin so from the 12th of St. Math. we Explain'd to them the nature of that Sin and stopt their Mouths and now we began to Charge them with Blasphemy against God they Intreated us to suspend a while and they would desire to speak but one quarter of an Hour and then they would be silent we yielded it then they talked against the Challenger and the Unreasonableness of the Preliminaries what they pleased and when they had Harangued thus a quarter of an Hour Now Gentlemen said we we hope you will give us leave to talk out our quarter too No truly saith one of them that is a new Bargain whereupon the People Shouted and Hissed them and as soon as we began to prosecute our Charge one gets upon a Form and bawls aloud to the People to stop their Ears or Deasen them that they might not hear us Thus they continued for as soon as one was wearied another stepped up in his Place till the End of the Day Tho there were two Magistrates present and many Persons of good Quality with a great Company of all sorts of People besides some of whom offered if we would permit it to have pull'd them down and turn'd them out This Disorder hindred us from prosecuting our design to any purpose tho we Permitted every one of them from London or from Rome if they pleased to have free liberty to Dispute if they will do it fairly without Noise or Clamour No they declar'd they did not come thither to Dispute for they were not prepared And whereas we had brought a great number of the Quakers Books both Old and New and all of them of their most Celebrated Authors they Cryed no Books no Arguments which occasion'd great Laughter and Shouting among the People but they still continued their long Harangue against our Preliminaries and about the great sufferings they had Endured designedly that the People might not hear us and ever and anon they would have been Charging us Insolently urging us to prove our selves Christians and by and by we must prove our selves Ministers of Christ which was Answered tho we told them that was not the business of the Day And 't was a Cunning design of theirs to divert us from our Charge so much dreaded by them When we were in the pursuit of their Blasphemies to start another game in our way we bid them Answer our Charge first and then we should be at leasure to Answer any of theirs provided they be not Charges of some little and small Errours and Mistakes but down-right Blasphemy One of us got to a Corner of the Seat from whence he might be heard by some of the People and laid open some of the Blasphemies we had to Charge them with out of their Books to the great satisfaction of the Auditors who Cried out Blasphemy Blasphemy but he could not proceed far without Disturbance One of them very Pertly asked us that if we looked upon them to be such Blasphemers what is the reason that we have let them alone so long that they never heard of such a Charge from us before even thro the space of Forty years and how comes it to pass that we have been so Careless of our Flocks We Ingenuously told them that we never had so right an understanding of their Principles as of late but for the future we assur'd them that we shall and we hope all the rest of our Brethren throughout all England will take notice of this their Admonition and double their Diligence and Vigilancy in their Respective places A little after we took liberty each of us to propound an Argument but could hardly go through with one of them and upon Reading their Books to prove our Arguments the People again Cried out Blasphemy Blasphemy It being near the Evening one of their Speakers made mention of our Lord Bishops Name and that he had waited on him at Norwich and Discoursed with him About this Matter in the presence of the Arch-Deacon Dr. Jeffery's And insinuated to the People as if my Lord had now a more favourable opinion of their Challenge than before since he had given him a more Just Relation as he said of the Circumstances but none of us could believe his Relation About this Time or somewhat before they threw among the People great numbers of little Pamphlets thus stiled The Christianity of the People called Quakers tho it neither Comes up to their Principles Expressed in their former Books nor is said to be written from the Mouth of the Lord and Sealed with the Eternal Spirit as those are and without any of their Names or name affixed to it so that any of them if Charg'd with it may at their own pleasure deny it as not agreeing with their former Teslimonies but plainly design'd to serve a present turn This Charge of Blasphemy nettled them Exceedingly and they sometimes Expostulated with us saying the Charge was very High we granted it to be so but the worst of it was we should Certainly prove it if they would let us go on but when we urg'd them with a passage out of Christopher Atkinson's Book call'd The Sword of the Lord drawn as Guilty of Blasphemy they utterly disowned both him and his Books saying the Quakers had renounc'd him above Thirty years ago
Friends Your People have been ever ready to say Our Charges have been Lies and Forgeries and every where have run with this cry in their Mouths Lies all Lies because alas they never Read our Books or at least never compar'd them with your Authors Therefore we perceive that writing Books will not do but we must bring forth those that you have written at a Publick Meeting and lay them open before your deluded followers and desire them to see with their own Eyes and perhaps they may see such a Frightful Sight as they little expected there You might easily have discerned that our Charge affects the whole Body of your People it relating to Blasphemies so long and so often Printed and yet never Contradicted or Censured but asserted to be from Persons Infallible Blasphemies so often approved of by your Second day Meeting where all your Books are Examined and by an Index Expurgatorius Corrected tho written from the Mouth of the Lord. So that your Church hath owned them and we may justly Charge the Blasphemies of these Books upon it till they disown them But you seem to be much concerned for the Restraint we lay upon you so that you may not go out of this Diocess for your assistance But truely Sirs you see we have put the same Restraint upon our selves we will not go out of the Diocess perhaps but a little way from Home for ours we cannot think you can be at a want for help in such a Diocess where there are several Thousands of you Besides if you will have a little Patience the Persons you had probably designed for this Service may have work enough at Home ere long For we are Inclinable to believe that the like Charge to this will go thro many Diocesses in this Kingdom So that they may save their Powder and Shot till the Charge comes to their Door Friends tho we intend to Charge you with Blasphemy out of your own Books yet we cannot think it fit to give you the Authors Names Line and Page for that were to send you our Arguments before the day we shall use them that you might have time the more cunningly to Elude the force of them It is enough to let you see we intend to Charge you with Blasphemy as expressed in our last tho we should not be so foolishly generous as to tell you the very Place where we intend to assault you Besides we our selves have not yet read over some of your Books out of which as we are reading them there arises every day new matter for a Charge and so perhaps there may to the time of our Meeting For we can searce open a Book of yours but presently we are even frighted with such Apparitions that sends us to our Prayers for a Poor deluded People that are daily haunted with them And further we may add that you have their Books as well as we and would you read them over as we do ye your selves could not but see those Blasphemies we Charge you with being too big to escape your sight But you think it just the Authors of those Books out of which we extract our Charge should be permitted to speak for themselves You cannot but know that most of those Authors are Dead and as for them that are alive we have already heard them in your Prints to little purpose However they have no reason to Challenge it as a peculiar due to them to be the only Vindicators of their Cause seeing every Particular Member of your Church is concern'd in it as well as they So that it is a Charge upon every one of you all as well as upon the Authors of those Books you having Espoused them till they be disown'd and condemn'd by you To conclude we cannot see how it can consist with either Justice or Prudence to alter our Method for the Reasons given We therefore think it but a vain thing for you to trouble your selves or us with any more such Letters Poor People that are going blindfold to Samaria instead of Dothan the Lord open your Eyes to see where you are and whither you are going is the Prayer of your best of Friends tho you may possibly think as your greatest Enemies Hen. Meriton John Meriton Lau. Parke To Hen. Meriton John Meriton and Lau. Parke a Reply to the foregoing Letter dated Nov. the 9th 1698. Friends YOURS of the third Instant we received wherein is the date of your former in Answer to which when we in Friendly sort told you of that Omission it was not that we did Catch at any little escape of yours which did at least relate to the Letter if not to the Cause But to proceed As in our last we judge the term Challenge not proper to the offer we made whatever the Judgment of your Selves or Betters may be concerning it As for its Boldness and Pertness as you are pleased to term it we take it to be another Escape of your Memories to suppose it herein to exceed any of those as you say which were sent to the whole Host of Israel But such as it is we doubt not to make good and that in truth void of Wrath. As to Francis Bugg you did Espouse his Charge blindfold as appears by your after Inquiry and reading of our Books and did Espouse it by more ways then that one of Witnessing to the delivery of his Charge which none of our honest unprejudicate Neighbours would As for Quotations made by Bugg from our Books you say the pretended Answerers deny not the truth of them but betake themselves to their usual Palliating and Painting tricks c. This Assertion we have no cause to Credit but for the present will say that we know that in several Answers of ours to Books of this sort there is frequently detected false Quotations and his apparent Forgeries which if either you have not read or not observed it might have been well enough to forbear that scurrility of Painting and Tricks Now for your Charge you acknowledge it to be upon the whole Body of us and therefore as in our former we think you are not just in your limitation nor does your threat if you will have a little Patience c. fright us from still insisting on our Exceptions For as our last did declare our acceptance of such of your Propositions as were equal and fair and desired the rest might be agreeable and such as we are perswaded no ingenuous or just Persons would Evade or deny us So we still insist on them not knowing any Power or Dominion you have over us to overrule what we have so fairly offered to qualify your Limitations For if you intend to confine us as Respondents only who are within this Diocess it is reasonable to confine you not to Charge Persons or their Books more remote or absent For why should a Man whom you may Charge be obliged to Answer by Proxy when perhaps he can better defend himself the
THE Quakers Challenge MADE TO THE Norfolk Clergy OR A RELATION OF A CONFERENCE BETWEEN Some Clergy-Men of the Church of England and some Quakers held on the 8th of December 1698. in West-Dereham-Church in the County of Norfolk together with those Letters which passed between them in order thereunto To which is added a Certificate relateing to the Challenge LONDON Printed by H. Hills for Edward Poole at the half Moon under the Royal Exchange Cornhill 1699. A Relation of a Conference between some Clergy-Men of the Church of England and some Quakers SOME Quakers in the County of Norfolke having by a Letter Challenged the Clergy of the Church of England Time and Place leave from our Superiours first obtained were at length fixed and our Charge according to their desire sent to them as appears by our first Letter and on the Day appointed viz. Dec. 8th 1698. the Quakers and We met in West Dereham Church in the County aforesaid and took our Places before prepar'd We first read the Service of the Day near the beginning of which they coming in staid it out not to Joyn in the Duty but rather to affront it carrying themselves Irreverently all the Time As soon as our Service was Ended one of their Speakers began to Pray whereupon all of them immediately pulled off their Hats and carried themselves as at a Religious Worship The first thing we did we read the Letter containing their Challenge presently they started up and denied it to be a Challenge and Avowed they would not go one step further unless we would own our selves to be the Agressors and acquit them of that Charge we Insisted that they were our Challengers and Repeated to them their own Letter of Challenge They told us they were provoked by certain Carriages of Ours to write that Letter But nothing could they make appear under our Hands only urged some Stories they had heard as a provocation we told them further that that was a plain owning of their Challenge that they did it only they were provoked to it And after many long Harangues of several of their Speakers they desired that all the Letters which had passed between us might be read to the Auditory not as if they could get any advantage by reading them but as appeared to us afterwards meerly to divert us an Hour or more from prosecuting our Charge Then they Quarrelled with us about the Preliminaries of our Charge that we did not send them the Charge some time before We told them we had in our first Letter and it was a Charge of Blasphemy against God c. but they Insisted to have a more particular account than a general Charge that is they Expected to have the Names of the Books Page and Line from whence we Intended to prove our Charge against them sent them some time before We answered we had Law and Equity against such an unreasonable demand We told them the Law was their own 't was from Edw. Burroughs who was a Son of Thunder and spoke all from the Mouth of the Lord whose Book used to be with them of as much Authority as the Bible which allows us a liberty to appoint our own Time Place and Terms They would by no Means have it read spending two Hours or more in a mighty noise against it which sufficiently Exposed them to all our People who in great numbers and very oft cryed out Let it be read Read Edw. Burroughs and tho we assured them it was not to be read as any proof of the Blasphemies we Charged them with but only to settle the preliminaries yet could we not prevail for a long while And so gladly would we be made manifest to all the World if that after the reading of this Book any be unsatisfied still in this matter and if any Especially of the Heads and Rulers have Doubts and Jealousies raised in them concerning Us and the Priests and that they further would be satisfied and resolv'd for that end let any wise Men propound for full satisfaction of all sorts of People that We with the consent of the Chief in Authority that have Power in this Nation who may preserve Peace and Safety among People and thereby to stop all Jealousies may Freely and Cheerfully 4 10 20 30 more or fewer of Us give as many of the Wisest and Ablest of the Priests and Professors a meeting for Dispute at any Place in England at what Place Time and for what Continuance as they shall Ascribe and Consent unto and to Dispute and Controvert betwixt Us and Them any such Thing and every such Particular as shall or may be objected by any of the Heads and Rulers or other grave understanding Men and a little after he saith thus And let such whether Them or Us that cannot prove our Selves to be the True Church of Christ nor of the True Worship and True Religion nor in the Truth but is found to be in the Errour and out of the Truth Let such deny their Worship and Church Renounce all their Religion and Confess to all the World under their Hands that they are and have been deceived and for ever hereafter stop their Mouths and never profess nor practice any more what they have done in such a Religion And freely upon these Issues and Conditions We will joyn Tryal with Them Let Them appoint Time Place and profer Terms at Their own pleasure and then to all the World it shall be manifest and to all People discovered whether We have not good Ground and sufficient Reason to War against these Priests The passage out of Edw. Burroughs being read at last they then alledged they were not bound neither would they stand to Edw. Burroughs's Terms for such Meetings as these And then We Insisted upon Equity and told them there was no reason as in one of our Letters that We should be so generously kind to Them as to tell 'em the very Place where We would Assault 'em for the nature of the Blasphemy We charge 'em with should be so Plain and Obvious that every Christian shall be able to understand it to be so upon the reading it to them But should we tell them the Names of our Books Page and Line beforehand we had deserv'd rather to be laughed at as Fools than looked on as Disputants for this would be to send them our Arguments before the Disputation if we should tell 'em all the Mediums from whence we intended to setch them We told them the Evidence we should bring was not from ours but from their own Books and it was not sit we should tell them the Names of our Witnesses beforehand that they might have time to Tamper with them and make them speak what they never Intended and so weaken their Testimony We assur'd them the Blasphemy we Charge them with should be very plain and they need not send for their Advocates from far Countries to Plead the Cause of it and make People believe that Blasphemy is
to Dispute and those Six to be known Inhabitants within the Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke Or the City of Norwich and that there be but one of those Six to speak at a time and that he be not interrupted unless he run out beyond the term of five Minutes at a time IV. That no Personal reflections shall be made one against another that are Forraign to the Cause V. That a Notary of each side be appointed to write down the Objections and Answers that are made by either Party and that they be compared at the end of every Meeting if there shall happen to be more than one The matters we Charge you with are as follow I. We Charge you with Blasphemy against God II. With Blasphemy against Jesus Christ III. With Blasphemy against the Holy Scriptures IV. We Charge you with great contempt of Civil Magistracy and the Ordinances which Jesus Christ Instituted viz. Baptism by Water and the Lord's Supper with Bread and Wine V. We Charge you that the Light within as taught by you leaves you without any certain Rule and Exposes you to the forementioned and many other Blasphemies Hen. Meriton John Meriton Lau. Parke October 31. 1698. Friends YOUR Paper with the Charge upon the People call'd Quakers without a Date came to the Hands of our Friend John Hubbard on the 27th Instant You were pleased to call the Offer we made to you in Writing a Challenge which term we think is no ways applicable to it For we taking Notice of your readiness to Espouse Francis Buggs Charge and Challenge we lookt upon it very Reasonable and Prudence in you as Wise men to hear our Defence therefore referr'd you to several of our Printed Answers which if you had desir'd of us to have seen them we would have procured them for you but not one word of that from you in so many Weeks time And for our excluding F. B. from any Part of the intended Dispute we have so much Cause and reason for it we believe as will sufficiently justify us in the Opinion of all Judicious Persons And whereas you render it difficult to Procure our Friends Books we are willing to expose them to any that desires them as is well known and as you might have Prov'd if you had made Tryal And now before we take Notice of your Propositions we judge it necessary to enquire into the Extent of your Charge whither it be upon the whole Body of the People called Quakers or upon Particular Persons or upon the Writings of Particular Persons Especially your three first Charges If you Charge a whole Body of People you are not Just in your limitation that the Persons that have a share in the Dispute be only known Inhabitants in Norfolke Suffolke and City of Norwich and at the same time Charge all the said People generally If it be against particular Persons we judge you ought to name Them in your Charge if it be against the Writings of particular Persons it is necessary for you to name the Authors and the Titles of the Books and the Pages this we insist upon These things Premised we take Notice of your Propositions I. As to the Place in West Dereham we do not object against it but are indifferent as to that II. The day Prefixt being the Eighth of December will not be convenient for some of us being in Stoak fair Week III. That Six Persons of a side only be Permitted to Manage the Dispute and those Six to be known Inhabitants in Norfolke Suffolke and Norwich we agree to provided your Charge reaches not to any Person or the Writings of any Person that lives not in either of the said Counties or the said City but if it doth we expect and account it very reasonable to be left to our free liberty in the Choice of our Six and allow the same liberty to you And that but one be allowed to speak at a time is very necessary and we like it well but not to be limited Precisely to the space of five Minutes yet to endeavour brevity and before answer be made that there be a little pause IV. V. Your 4. and 5. Proposition we like as stated by you And do expect an Explanation of the extent of your Charge as is abovesaid to be sent us without much delay waving here to Repeat or Object against it or any Article thereof but refer that until we hear further from you We are your Friends Rich. Ashby John Hubbard Dan. Phillips Richard Case John Brown Phillip Tassill To Rich. Ashby John Hubbard Dan. Phillips Richard Case John Brown and Phillip Tassell the Coppy of a Letter in Answer to the Former dated November the 3d 1698. Friends WE Observe in your last dated Octob. the 31st 1698. how apt you are to Catch at every little Escape tho nothing relating to the Causes the omission of a date We hope tho we forgot the 27th of October we shall not forget the 8th of December You are offended we call your first Letter a Challenge to us tho our betters have thought it to be the Boldest and Pertest that ever was sent to the whole Host of Israel viz. as you more then once in your Letter term it to us or any of us all and to any of our Cloth and that from the Hands of such whom we never took to be any great Goliahs But all this anger is it seems because we so Zealously as you think espouse Francis Buggs Charge One may see how ready you are to take Fire when so small a Spark will kindle you For one of us was not there when he delivered his Charge Another of us came by meer accident and None of us were any other then as Witnesses to the delivery of it which any Three of your honest Neighbours we suppose might have been without offence As to the Books you mention'd to us to be Read which you conceive would have cooled our Zeal for Bugg and his so often as you say baffl'd Charge You may please to know that we have Read them and that Bugg is not Answer'd nor can be Answer'd any other way seeing this Charge is drawn from Quotations out of your Books but by denying the Truth of Them which your pretended Answerers do not do but betake themselves to their usual Palliating and Painting tricks to cover over and hide their deformities We consess we had a better Opinion of your Principles before we saw your Books then now we have for indeed we have received more satisfaction from your Answers then from the Books they pretend to Answer being confirm'd more in our belief that they are Unanswerable And if you write in this manner we shall never desire to take the Pen out of your Hands for it will do us no Hurt but for the Gall that is in the Ink. Yet because you say he must be rejected and you will have it so we have given you your Humour and have accepted of your Challenge without him
Justice of the Common Law in this Case much exceeds your pretence of Edification And this being denied by you we take it for granted your design is to Censure and pass Judgment on Persons unheard And if your Charge be to be drawn from Books it is as reasonable by the Common voice of Mankind that their Titles and Pages be given the Authors of which if living have an undoubted right to explain for themselves or if Dead such notice is reasonable for our due preparation to Answer Till which we shall only say that the Living labours of the Dead have this Justice due to them viz. that the whole be considered and the Scope and Intent of the Writer be taken and not rigidly much less falsly to pervert his words to a Sence contrary and repugnant to the Scope of the whole The refusal whereof will speak a design Partial Injurious and Precipitant but we hopeing on better Consideration you 'l do otherwise do expect as above to be sent us in such convenient time as we may examine them which cannot be in less time then Three weeks at least This demand its true you laugh at and call it a foolish generosity yet it being reasonable we insist on it For the frightful Apparitions which by opening our Books you say sent you to your Prayers c. we doubt your Frights or Fevers have been so great as to prevent your having any true Idea of Them or any loving concernment for Vs therein And not finding our selves haunted as you suggest we rather desire you to speak truth than offer false Sacrifice For conclusion to this and to try your Ingenuity whether your Method be to do as you would be done unto we put these following Questions I. Whether you are willing to be Charged out of all the Old and New Books Pamphlets and Sermons that your Brethren the Clergy have Wrote and Printed to stand and fall by them II. Are you willing we should Publickly Charge you with Errors or Mistakes out of any of the abovementioned and not beforehand give the Particular Instances to you For know ye that we expect Equal liberty with you to Charge as well as to be Charged III. Will you Personate all your Brethren as above both Dead and Living so as to be Charged out of their Books in their stead Your direct Answer we expect without any further Evasion Boast or Menace in the interim conclude Your abused because not sufficienly known Friends Richard Ashby John Hubbard Dan. Phillips Richard Case The Reply dated November the 16th 1698. Friends YOUR last does not a little astonish Us. 1 st That you should deny your Challenge which is as plain an one as Words in English can make it and truly very brave to all our Cloth that is to Nine or Ten thousand of us 2 ly That you affirm that we espoused Bugg's Cause when you or some of you cannot but know the contrary by one of us For when the last Summer you demanded of Hen. Meriton whether he would justify Bugg's Books written against you he Answer'd They contain'd Matters of Fact which he was not capable of judging of having not the Books to compare them with Francis Bugg's Writings yet told you that if his Citations were true you see then he made an If of it and therefore did not justify them he would justify such Expressions were Blasphemy But you are still offended at our unreasonable limitation of you as to the Place whence you are to fetch your Disputants But Friends did not you begin with us Did not you limit us when you rejected Francis Bugg and all others too that were not of our Cloth some of whom you know too well might have been very useful to us in this Service Nay did not you reject Francis Bugg for this reason because he had been Answer'd as you pretend over and over again and was unreasonable as if we had nothing to do but Actum agere Aud may not we say the same of your Hackny Disputants they have truged so long in that road and have been Spur'd and Gall'd by us enough already and therefore in reason we ought to turn them off awhile and give them rest till another occasion More plainly they have been Answered over and over already and are unreasonable Besides Your Church which you profess your selves so Zealous Members of have owned and approved of those Books we intend to quote and your selves have been known to admire and almost adore them and their Authors And therefore till you disclaim them you are as much concern'd to Vindicate them as the Authors themselves for by owning them you become joynt Authors and your Plea for them will be the Plea of Parties and not of Proxies But now When the Court of Equity will not relieve you you fly to Common Law but if yon give us no better proof of your skill in it then in this instance we shall have little reason to take your Counsel in Law Business Friends 'T is matter of Fact we Charge you with that we find such and such Blasphemous Expressions in your Books For matter of Right whether such Expressions are to be esteemed Blasphemy we shall leave it to the Judgment of the Auditory The matters of Fact your Authors have already owned them at least so much as will make good our Charge And for matter of Right whether such Expressions are Blasphemous or no we think the Common Law will not allow the accused Malefactor when he 's convicted of the Fact a right to Judge of the Law or whether his Fact hath been a breach of it Suppose we had Charged some of your Friends with Common Swearing by their Maker and they should not deny matter of Fact that they have said such words only they excuse them with a great deal of Artifice that they were spoken in Passion that they dropt from them rashly or their minds did a little run out or truly they do not affect such Speeches or they may see Cause otherwise to word them is there any Law or Equity such Men should be admitted in any Court in the World to Plead and Apologize for Common Swearing If matter of Fact be Prov'd or Own'd may not the Judge turn such Men out of the Court and pass the Definitive upon them The fact is own'd by their Men themselves that such Expressions are in their Books so much at leastwise as will prove the Charge and let the Auditory whom we appeal to as Judges in this Case determine whether Blasphemy or no. We dare affirm it will be easier for the People to Judge that such and such words are Blasphemy then such words are Swearing And we are Sorry to see you so Zealous for such Authors only to give them an opportunity to excuse Blasphemy At last you direct us to that Golden Rule in Divinity to do as we would be done by and think you have Gravell'd us with three Questions which you suppose we cannot Answer
if we stick to our former measure without apparent Violation of it Now Sirs what are those hard measures I pray Why truly after we have Charged some of yours with Blasphemy in some Books Printed 10 20 30 some 40 Years ago that were never Corrected nor Censured by your Church in your Second days Meeting erected on purpose to Examine Books and Licence them but have been approved and commended to us and admired by almost all of you we demand that you would either justify or disown them publickly under your hands And now you ask us very pertinently whether we are willing to be Charged with all the Old and New Books and Pamphlets that our Brethren of the Clergy have written or Printed to stand or fall by them Such an Impertinency as this is would be almost Intolerable but that we are so commonly used to them by your Party Do but Scratch your Heads a little and consider seriously the force of such a consequence We are bound to justify or disown all the Books of our Brethren as to every little Error or Mistake because we call upon you only to justify or disown the Blasphemies of yours We doubt not but there have been some tolerable Errors in ours which are no great blot to an Author that acknowledges himself to be a Man viz. fallible but a mighty prejudice against the Infallible Club whether at Rome or Grace-Church-street that pretend they cannot Err And we are only obliged to a Charitable forbearance in such Cases when you will be obliged for every Error you find in yours by reason of such a pretence to disown them as Cheats But if any of our Authors have wrote or Printed Blasphemy we are sure such have not been approved or allowed of by our General Meeting our Convocation who have made bold to Censure them without asking the Authors leave or if there be any such that have escaped the Knowledge of the Convocation and therefore not Censured by them perhaps they have been condemned if not burnt by Parliaments and Universities or if they have escaped such a Censure bring out such Books of ours when you will and you shall see we will either justify or disown them without calling for the Authors to come and plead their Cause To the Second Question we Answer You shall have equal liberty with us produce our Books and your Charge against them Supposing it be of Blasphemy when you will after you have first answered ours and we will give you leave to reserve your particular instances to the very Time and Place of Meeting if you please For we are assured that Blasphemy is of so strong and rank a Scent that every Christian that hath not his Nose quite stopt that as St. Paul says can but exercise his Senses never so little about Good or Evil as soon as ever it 's opened or discover'd will presently nauseate and turn away from it And we are sorry that so many of you have got such a stuffing in your Heads as not to perceive it Nay you think them sweet Odours sure that you will not be satisfied till you be allowed Advocates to Plead for them as sound and wholsom and therefore to be continued in the best Room of the House the Church The third Question is Coincident with the First but we must answer it or you 'l say we dropt it for its Weight for there is no reason we should appear in the Porson of all those our Brethren so as to be Charged with every little Error out of their Books in their stead but this we will do bring forth their Books and Blasphemies as we havesaid before and we will either justify them or disown them without consulting the Authors of them And this is all that we desire of you either to justify or disown Yours and Their Blaspemies under Your Hands which we may expect from you by the same rule you lay before us do as you would be done by And why may we not expect this of you seeing you have abandoned you Authors in lesser matters as in their Orders about Ribbons Lace Slit-wast-Coats Prancing Steeds Costly Habits fine Clothes Stately Buildings in for bearing to Thee and Thou and Sir your Betters Seeing many of you have opposed their Orders in Paying Tithes Womens Meetings Swearing in Courts of Judicature of carrying no Guns in their Ships or using the Carnal Weapen Last of all We take Notice with much joy to see you so much fall off from the former rude and rugged behaviour of those Men whose Cause you espouse towards the Clergy It is not long since your Address to them was in that Tinkerly Language Gready Doggs Babylons Merchants Devil driven dungy Gods Witches Bloodhounds Sodomites Gimcracks Wheelbarrows Tatter demallions which you have now Exchanged for more familiar and kind Expressions to call us Friends tho your former Carriage hath been as Divinely Authorized as your present Blasphemies Your very Railings have been as you have pretended by Inspiration We hope since you have begun to draw from that Old filthy Spirit that dwelt in your Ancestors you will at last totally abandon them seeing you have abandoned them in lesser Matters and why not in their Blasphemies Friends Pray trouble us no more with your Letters for our Measures are fix't and you may Chuse whether you will meet us upon the Terms resolved upon or no. No more from those who are resolved to continue your real Friends whether you will or no. Hen. Meriton John Meriton Lau. Parke Here followeth the Copy of the Quakers last Letter dated November the 23d 1698. To which the Ministers made no Answer Friends YOURS of the 16th Instant We have receiv'd the tenor of it declares Your purpose still to evade our just demand as is set forth in our 2d and 3d Letters to you we shall now give you a brief Reply because we perceive our Letters are troublesome to you First if you were as real as you pretend Frindship towards us the Moderation of Friendship questionless would prevent your being astonished at our denial of the Term Challenge in our Letter to you For then it had been our place to have Charged you so we should have made our selves Plaintiffs and you had been Defendants We doubt not but upon more mature thoughts your astonishment will vanish away 2dly We still insist upon our former demands as just and reasonable for how can you or any Man whatsoever think that we or any others for us can make Answers to Matters thus hiddenly Charged upon us whilst you refuse us the knowledge of them as you say they stand in our Books Pray be plain with us and if there be such Rank Blasphemy as you say bring it forth do not be shy Give us Author Title Book and Page and if you please tell us in the first place what is Blasphemy 2dly Wherein do you Charge us with Blasphemy against God and against Jesus Christ and against the Holy Scriptures What are the