debate the said Faulconer was found guilty of perjury in this very matter against the Lord Craven the whole proceedings whereof you have fully related in the Narrative before mentioned This tryall and conviction of Faulconer was May 20. 1653. Hereupon Faulconer was committed to the Upper Bench prison in Southwark where hee lay till hee died Now for the second evidence of Faulconers perjury in his testimony upon which the Lord Cravens estate was sequestred and sold you have here the sad and lamentable confession of poor Faulconer himself upon his death-bed under his own hand and seal confirmed in the presence of several credible persons who were present with him on his death-bed which is to the effect following IN the Name and through the gracious mercy of God I Richard Faulconer being of sound memory and understanding do under my own hand and seal on my death-bed make and confirm this my confession with a contrite heart and penitent soul to the honor of my good God principally and particularly concerning the Lord Cravens business And first I confess I have sinned grievously against my God in taking my oath upon his holy Testament that all my information was true for after a twenty weeks sickness this was done my body being low and in much haste being much enfeebled and above three quarters of a year after I came over Sea so that I here solemnly protest that I did not then absolutely remember whether the words barbarous and inhumane rebels were expunged and these words being once named by mee they were as quickly inserted and I the Lord pardon me swore it but since I really remember those words were put out of the Petition and the Petition which Drury produced in the Upper Bench Court was the true and right Petition Drury did say that the Lord Craven would not bee seen to deliver such a Petition but hee would speak to the Queen of Bohemia I did not hear the Lord Craven say this I sinned swearing the Lord Craven said so when as Drury told it mee And truly these great sins since they perfectly came to my memory and to touch my conscience have wofully perplexed my soul so that I many times wished that the Lord would expiate them by taking my life away and granting mee repentance and pardon through the merits and sufferings of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the which the Lord for his mercies sake vouchsafe to grant Amen And here I utterly renounce all Books and Pamphlets writ by mee or any one in my vindication and especially a late Pamphlet sent to mee by Captain Bishop The cause of my writing that Pamphlet was the shame and disgrace of the world which I feared then more than the provoking of my good God besides other under actors told mee until I did that I could not think my friends would supply mee as they would if that were done liberty and money were falsly promised mee And whereas it was sworn in Court that I was imployed I here protest before the Almighty God that I never undertook any imployment nor ever any one motioned it to mee or I to any but I went over in a poor desperate condition supported by others And here I dare not say that any one bribed mee no none did but I was hastily after a great sickness provoked to it and when I made a demur at the words barbarous and inhumane Rebels Captain Bishop said if you leave that out you do nothing So I let it pass being speedily brought before the Committee where I falsly swore it True I had done great services for them but not by imployment and Captain Bishop kept mee low with small pittances so that I was at his bow c. Richard Faulconer An Advertisement to the Reader Reader I Thought here to have given thee in the attestation of this confession and acknowledgement who were present when it was signed Also some further testimony of other practises of this Quaker and how poor Faulconer to his dying day cryed out against that Rogue Bishop for so it is languaged to mee But in regard the hearing of the Lord Cravens Case in Parliament is not yet past although they have taken cognizance of it already and have appointed to enter further upon it the beginning of their next Session I shall therefore forbear not doubting thou wilt hear further of it by some hand or other So that here is you see manifestly undeniably unjust proceedings here is perjury proved and confessed What 's this to Captain Bishop Hee declares in the presence of the Lord before whom hee feares and who searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and brings every work to judgement that hee is clear and innocent therein and that hee hath not used nor doth hee know of any indirect proceedings in this whole business of Craven and Faulconer Well God send him a good deliverance at the day of Judgement and to that end I heartily beg for him the grace of true repentance and pardon through the blood of Christ shed at Jerusalem And to further this work for his conviction wee shall endeavour to try and examine him here and clear I am that if any Jury in the world of discreet sober impartial and understanding men were to pass upon him they would give in this Verdict That hee George Bishop doth know of many indirect proceedings in the matter of the Lord Craven and Faulconer and that hee George Bishop himself hath used them and that therefore hee is not clear and innocent in this matter And now hear the evidence This book was written by George partly to testifie the proceedings against the Lord Craven to answer the Narrative and to justifie Faulconer there is a book published entituled The Lord Cravens case as to the confiscation and sale of his estate by judgement of Parliament related and argued and objections answered on the behalf of the Commonwealth together with a short examination of a certain Pamphlet entituled A true and perfect Narrative of the several proceedings in the case concerning the Lord Craven c. which is the Narrative before quoted wherein are all the proceedings against Faulconer Now this book the Lord Cravens case c. was printed by William Du-guard 1653. and that this book was written by George Bishop himself I suppose hee will not deny though no name bee to it the book is said to bee written on the behalf of the Commonwealth and this exprest in great Characters I would now but ask George this question why hee of all men in the world being but a Clerk or Secretary call him what you will to a Committee should undertake this private and personal quarrel against the Lord Craven in the behalf of poor perjured Faulconer and the Commonwealth I should think that a Clerk or Secretary if an honest man and impartial when hee had performed the dâ—â—â— of his place should have sate him down and not espouse any personal quarrel unless hee were particularly concerned in
the very approaches of death page 38. But page 46. you most unchristianly reproach him and his doctrine Tâ—â—â—e whereas in purging himself hee means Master Love from the aspersion of lying hee saith thus I hope you will believe a dying man who dare not look God in the face with a lie in his mouth intimating say you as if his being ready to die was a bridle in his lips to restrain him from lying The truth is according to that principle of his that hee whoever once truly believed can never by any sin or wickedness whatsoever loose the love and favour of God His being ready to die in conjunction with a perswasion of his Saintship should rather bee a temptation upon him to lie or commit any other wickednesse than an ingagement upon him to refrain lying I have done with that but I pray that you may finde more favour and mercy from God than hee found from you and to that end let him grant you grace to repent of these spightful and most cruel prosecutions As for your Prosecutions of him in his life and of his tryal I shall not enter upon the story of although I have relations of it it would prove too large an undertaking nor will I insist upon your rotten and unsavoury language of the Ministers of the Gospel whom in scorn you call his Clergie companions you were fairly disposed for quaking then nor will I debate the cause which you maliciously in your former book the Lord Cravens case charge upon Presbyterians in general wherein how rash heady uncharitable and unchristian you are let your self consider In page 22. of that book you speak it which because it tends also to discover the suspition that even your self had of the injustice of sequestring the Lord Cravens Estate and do therefore endeavour to extenuate it from the circumstancy of the time when it was done I shall lay before the Reader and thus you give it forth The time when the Parliament gave judgement upon his estate that 's right not upon his person that had not offended was when the Commonwealth was deeply imbroil'd in wars and designes lay every where to blow up this Nation in all parts thereof their Army in Scotland and the Scots drawn into the field after their rout at Dunbar ready to serve the desperate and great designes and conspiracies laid by Mr. Love those of the Presbyterie and the Kings Partie then ripe and readie to break forth in all parts all of which were the effects of that Treatie at Breda where the Lord Craven was often with the King and his Privy Councel But doth any one person so much as say that hee came to treat or did treat not one and assisting his Officers in their Petition for relief to bee in a capacitie to serve him which you see was proved to bee a lye and some of whom served in those designes and otherwise and of which the Parliament were sensible what was this to the Lord Craven and the Lord Craven had manifested to most that conversed with him his disaffection to the Parliament and Supreme Authoritie no such thing is charg'd against him in such times and cases have many considerations as the reason of their actions which those who are without doors neither know nor apprehend nor are to take upon them so to do Thus hee The language in the last part of it is inconsistent and incoherent a kinde of non-sense but this clearly is his meaning viz. that the times being dangerous as hee describes them have many considerations and reasons to sequester the Lord Cravens estate which those who are not his Judges no nor hee himself are to know or apprehend nor must enquire into In plain English the Lord Craven must lose his estate and none must ask a reason why Are not these sweet doings As hee himself sayes in another case page 19. But to go on with the matter of Mr. Love Mr. Love and the Presbyterie are designing the Nations ruine sayes George if you may bee believed and how honest you are even in your most serious protestations and appeals to God appears already But if you suppose and that 's enough with you that Mr. Love or the Presbytery designe the Nations ruine you will bee sure right or wrong to accomplish these I have heard say heretofore of the Marches in Wales that a cause there did seldome fail for want of prosecution and good witnesses you were a notable man to make an agent there well or ill fare him who if a cause bee not good can make it so I shall not as I said ingage to the whole of your prosecution against him I shall only notifie what I finde concerning your self in a book written and published by Mr. Love himself which in the close hee sayes was finished the last day but one before his death and at such a time what every you say men are most serious and to bee believed The title of it thus A clear and necessary vindication of the principles and practices of me Christopher Love c. which book hee sayes hee writ for the vindication of his name from those obloquies and reproaches which by the Sons of Slander were cast upon him was not this you George who would fain have his name to bee buried and rot above ground before his friends could bury his body under ground In this book of his hee complains that whereas at his Tryal hee had a Notary to write for him they took away all the books from him so that nothing might come to publick view but with what additions or alterations they please to his greater disadvantage But hee sayes his hope is that some faithful pen or other hath writ his defence and the Witnesses depositions which is done and I have and according to them hee desires that his innocency bee judged by indifferent and unprejudicated men it contains seventeen sheets very large paper and very small print I shall not meddle with ought thereof I shall only give in what I have from Mr. Loves own book In page 36. hee desires his Readers that if other slanders for hee had answer'd and wip'd off many should be cast upon him that they would have so much charitie not to believe reports raised upon him when hee shall bee silent in the grave and not able to speak in his own vindication And page 37. hee sayes 'T is very likelie that they his Prosecutors will not publish the depositions of the Witnesses in Court but the private examinations taken from them in private and patcht together by Master S. and Captain Bishop They were not ashamed sayes hee to produce them and read them in open Court And hee sayes some of the Witnesses had so much hâ—nesty left as to disavow them in open Court and therefore sayes hee believe nothing but what was sworn in open Court nor all that neither for some of the Witnesses swore falsely as sayes hee I made appeare in my defence In the
it But sayes George that Pamphlet tends to the blemishing of the Parliament and their Ministers so hee page 1. of his book for so I shall call it all along as I have occasion to quote it and therefore hee puts pen to paper and writes that book Mark the Parliament and their Ministers are blemished Who those Ministers are at least one wee shall see anon 't is the securest way to save ones ears to joyn in the Ministers of the Parliament with the Parliament it self But the Parliament may bee honest though their Ministers may bee knaves and therefore George presently sayes that that book of his is not purposely to Apologize for the Parliament well then it is for some body else he would not have writ it to no purpose But why not for the Parliament Why sayes hee 't is a thing needless among true English men Mark here George would have actions of Parliament so highly reâ—enced that none might question this business who are used highly to reverence actions of Parliament c. Sure George 〈◊〉 noâ— say that Parliaments are so infallible But wee 'l take it for granted that this Apology is not for the Parliament but for their Ministers but who or what are they Sure it is some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some busie Bishop in another mans Diocess so the word signifies 1 Pet. 4. 15. but 't is rendred in our translation a busie body in other mens matters matters they should not have medled in But who is it why 't is George Bishop busie George Bishop who had the transactions of all that business So hee sayes himself page 14. line 25. of his book two or three lines before hee hath these words How dare any thus falsly to charge a State with such gross wickedness as to corrupt Faulconer Though Captain Bishop himself writ the book yet hee speaks as if it we re written by another and so playes behinde the Curtain which let the reader remember for his better understanding what I quote from that book of his hee means And then goes on but as there was not a tittle produc'd to prove corruption malice or wilfulness in the said Faulconer against the said Lord so Captain Bishop who had the transactions of all that businesse upon his oath cleared him of all These are Georges words Well then stop a little here and though wee break order in the form of proceedings in legal tryals you Gentlemen of this Jury who are to give your verdict in this matter of George Bishop I pray take notice Geo. you see upon his oath it was at Faulconers tryal clears Faulconer of corruption or malice against the Lord Craven Poor man hee intended no such thing at first against him no Faulconer was altogether a stranger to the Lord Craven and since hee came over hee confest to some of good credit that the Lord Cravens deportment at Breda where this horrible treason should bee by him committed and for which his estate is sequestred was altogether inoffensive as to the Commonwealth of England and that hee Faulconer understood nothing of the said business namely of that dreadful Petition for which hee was so sequestred more than that a consideration was defired to hee had of the present wants and great necessities of the Petitioners This you have in the fourth Petition presented to the Parliament on the behalf of the Lord Craven in the Narrative aforesaid page 19. Aye these were their words will George say But I answer they offered to prove them to the Parliament if they might have been admitted But to second this I 'le shew you what George himself sayes in his own book for Faulconers honesty simplicity and harmlesness as to the Lord Craven and this upon Bishops oath if it bee any thing worth page 13. line the last but 10. he sayes that when Faulconer gave him accounts of designes agaist the Commonwealth The same hee hath again in page 42 43. hee said nothing to him of the Lord Craven nor of any thing of this passage of the Petition upon which the estate was sequestred nor notwithstanding many discourses with him said hee any thing till about five moneths afterwards and then but accidentally not of his own accord as page 43. Captain Bishop asking him who were at Breda with the King not thinking of the Lord Craven Faulconer reckoned the said Lord amongst the rest and being asked said something of that business which Captain Bishop not much valued then Thus hee How this was improved you shall see afterwards so that here Faulconer is cleared of any intention of mischief against the Lord Craven the man poor Faulconer is yet honest in this matter But yet you see hee was afterwards perjured and forsworn How comes this about Oh see what a fearful temptation 't is to bee in poverty and want it will put an honest heart into great straits I now think upon that prayer of honest Agur Prov. 30. 8 9 Give mee not poverty lest I bee poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain Poverty is a sore tryal even to a good and honest heart but when it shall meet with a wretched and profligate spirit what will it not put him upon I minde that dreadful expression of poore Faulconer before expressed whilst hee was ranting and drinking healths to the devil I have spent my brothers estate and mine own I will never want money for whilst there is any in the Nation I will get it one way or other and I will do something of infamy to be talkt of the name of Faulconer shall never die Oh how dreadfully did the Lord say Amen to this poor creature And what a lamentable thing is it for such a poor wretch to fall into the hands of such as will make use and advantage of his low condition Why you will say what 's the matter Do you ask what 's the matter look back upon Faulconers confession and there hee tells you hee was provoked to swear falsly How read the last words of his confession Captain Bishop kept mee low with small pittances so that I was at his bow At his bow what to do Hee Faulconer made a demur at those words barbarous and inhumane rebels whether they werein the Petition or no which hee did not then remember but now did and so it seems scrupled to swear to them and Captain Bishop said if you leave that out you do nothing and so sayes hee I 'le let it pass Being speedily brought before the Committee where I falsly swore it and concludes Captain Bishop kept mee low with small pittances that I was at his bow What think you of this Sirs Is this direct just honest proceedings to provoke a poor man in want to swear with a scrupling conscience and to that which now appears to bee false Hee was resolved it seems hee should swear something to the purpose Do you want any more evidence This is enough you will say but if
The IMPOSTOR Dethron'd OR The Quakers Throne of Truth Detected to bee SATANS Seat of LYES By way of Reply to a Quaking and Railing Pamphlet written by Capt. Bishop entituled The Throne of Truth exalted over the Powers of Darknesse Wherein is briefly hinted the rottenness of the Quakers conversion and perfection in general exemplified in this busie BISHOP in special instanced In his Practises against the Estate of the LORD CRAVEN Life of Mr. LOVE By occasion whereof this Truth is asserted viz. If we may judge of the Conscience Honesty and Perfection of Quakers in general by this man in particular A man may bee as vile a person as any under heaven and yet a perfect QVAKER Come down and sit in the dust O Virgin daughter of Babylon sit on the ground there is no Throne O daughter of the Chaldeans Isa 47. v. 1. Thy nakedness shall bee uncovered yea thy shame shall bee seen v. 3. By Ralph Farmer a servant of that Jesus Christ who was Crucified at Jerusalem above sixteen hundred years ago and whose Blood the Quakers trample under foot as a common thing Published according to Order London Printed by R. I. for Edw. Thomas and are to bee sold at his House in Green-Arbour 1658. The impudent and daring Protestation and Appeal to God of George Bishop concerning the business of the Lord Craven whereof as hee confesses hee had the whole mannagement I Do declare in the presence of the Lord before whom I fear who searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and bringeth every work to judgement that I am clear and innocent therein nor have I used nor do I know of any indirect proceeding in that whole business of Craven and Faulconer To the Right Honourable William Lord Craven Baron of Hampsteed Marshall in the County of BERKS IT 'S usual my Lord you know in publishing books to prefix the name of some worthy and considerable personage and I now apply my self to your Honour upon several accounts First Tua res agitur much of the matter ensuing concernes your self Secondly I never heard but that you were a lover of your Country alwayes with much respect and honour treating and entertaining your Countrymen that came over into the Low Countryes the place of your residence for many yeares together and hee that loves my Country I love him and him I honour As for your Adversary the man I here deal with his tongue is no slander for who will believe a common lyar which whether I have made him appear to bee or no judicet mundus Thirdly I understand the present Parliament hath taken cognizance of your cause and intend to consider it next Session and I am come in the mean time to bring you good newes your Adversary quakes which if it bee a symptome of true Conversion there is hopes that confession an ingenuous confession of the whole design and an endeavour of satisfaction if it can bee will follow but fearing it may prove but a false birth I have put manum obstetricalem in intima search'd his bowels for a real discovery that the world may no longer bee deceived with a windy conception Truly my Lord your case is hard but what shall wee say 't is the fortune of the wars and there you know as in a common scuffle many an honest man that stands by and means no harm gets a knock as well as those who begun the quarrel and this your Adversary himself who confesses to have had the mannagement of the whole business against you seems to me clearly to acknowledge as the ground of your Sequestration For in answer to an objection made on your Honours behalf by your friends in the Narrative by them published hee your Adversary doubting of the weight and validity of the testimonies produc'd against you sayes in the fourth particular answer page 22. of his book that the time when your estate was sequestred was when the Commonwealth was deeply imbroiled in wars And then goes on and sayes in the next page that in such times and cases they have many considerations as the reason of their actions which those who are without doors that is your Honour and your friends who were not of the Parliament neither know nor apprehend nor are to take upon them so to do So that here you see is Club-law you must bee sequestred because the Commonwealth was imbroil'd in wars and your Honour being out of doors must neither know nor apprehend 't is too far above your reach the reason why nor are you to take upon you 't is presumption so to do For hee tells you page 2. that true Englishmen have used to have Parliaments and their Acts as being the judgement of the whole Representative of the Nation in more veneration and esteem than to bee put into the ballance with the contradictory assertions of any private or byass'd spirits And truly my Lord upon this ground we may well question whether you bee a true Englishman or no who being swayed by your own private interest and byass'd with a desire after your own estate again should dare now to move any thing against the actions of that Parliament which as he tells you in the same page answ 6. upon the proofs by him alledged and because they were not full enough for reasons best known to themselves in time of general imbroilments order'd your estate to bee confiscate So that still my Lord you must take the fortune of the wars and though your Honour and all out of doors know no reason for it yet they did it sayes hee for reasons best known unto themselves But will your Honour give mee leave as a true Englishman to say something for that Parliament and indeed for all Parliaments and Courts of Judicature you well know that the manner of their proceedings in administration of Justice is much according to that Aeconomico-Political process of nature in man himself wherein the apprehensive deliberative and conclusive faculties which in a word wee call common sense which is the great Judicatory in man doth determine all things with a common and equal respect as they are represented Now the outward sences are the Spies and Intelligencers of the Soul who bring in several objects according to their respective natures and faculties to bee judged of and determined by the understanding And hence wee say nihil in intellectu quod non sit prius in sensu Now if these senses either by any defect or vice in the organ faculty or medium which wee might follow with an exact and elegant Analogy but I will avoid prolixity If I say the senses either by deficiency or redundancy under or over-doing make a false report unto the Court the common sense false judgement must proceed accordingly and yet the Court blameless But some men tell us of inferiour faculties even in the soul it self which do corrupt the superiour and so obstruct Justice and pervert judgement If this bee so it is within doors and I who am
's very like if the Lord prevent not Magisterially and Dictator-like almost in Cathedra to bee resolved That wee neither have nor had true Churches or Ministers among us and that wee must renounce our Ordination take it up from the people and so make all new after a mode which yet our eyes nor the eyes of our Fore-fathers have ever seen or their eares ever heard of To effect this have those Emissaries of the Roman Faction no doubt stirred up and set on foot these obstreporous Quakers though the generality of them suspect no such matter to cry down our Churches Ministers and Ordinances to whom they have now drawn in heads and pens more subtil and able who aliud agentes as it were do that for them which they themselves in their own persons openly were not able to effect or accomplish who doth not with fear and sadness that doth consider foresee that lamentable result that 's like to follow upon the contests raised and encreasing between our brethren of the Presbyterian and Independent perswasion and which by the heat and opposition of persons of ability on both sides are like to grow more high than ever But if my poor low voice might bee heard between them and Oh that the Lord would perswade them to hear I should say as Abraham to Lot Let there bee no strife between you for you are Brethren and I should beseech them in Josephs language to his Brethren Fall not out by the way But if I cannot bee heard I make this protestation disclaimer and prayer Lord let not my soul come into the secrets and let mee never partake of the delicacies of those men who make Schismatical separation destroying those Churches and Ministery wherein and by whom blessed be God thousands have been converted and saved and who are willing to reform and conform according to what is revealed in the Scripture Sure I am and experience the Mistress even of fools hath made it good unto the world that Discipline and Government in the Church hath ever since the reformation from Popery kept the Reformed Churches free from Heresie and Blasphemy getting head among them and if there were danger of an inrode and an incursion by the abuse of Government hee shall come little short of an Ideot and wise men will easily acknowledge it that doth not perceive that no Government at all every one being left to his own fancy will much more do it It 's a strange piece of madness not to put a difference between inforcing men to Religion and tolerating all Religions to the hazzarding of the true Or if putting a difference Matchivilianisme shall so far prevail with any as that so they can secure their own interests they care not for the concernments of Jesus Christ and his Gospel As for my own former undertakings by the help of the Press I have but endeavoured to discover these upstart enemies and adversaries to the truth who privily brought in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them By occasion whereof I have raised up this home-bred Adversary my own Countryman by hinting only at whose impostures in this kinde the impostume is broken and much filth and quitture hath been vomited forth from it in most unchristian railings lyings and reproachings who yet withal pretends to higher measures of Saintship and perfection than ordinary which considering and well knowing the man and his practises I concluded this with my self that if wee might judge of the conscience honesty and perfection of the Quakers in general by this man in particular wee may well assert this viz. A man may bee as vile a person as any under heaven and yet a perfect Quaker which after a brief discourse of the conversion and perfection of Quakers in general I have endeavoured to demonstrate from the practises and doings of him in special and this in his dealings in the matters of the Lord Craven and Mr. Love the ones Estate and the others Life The materials I have built my discourse with in the matter of the Lord Craven are two printed pieces the one entituled A true and perfect Narrative of the several proceedings in the case concerning the Lord Craven wherein are set forth the whole proceedings together with the Indictment Tryal and Conviction of Faulconer of Perjury in that information upon which the Lord Cravens Estate was sequestred which piece was printed and published by the friends of the Lord Craven the other is a piece entituled The Lord Cravens Case c. with a short examination of that former Narrative and this latter was written by Bishop himself in excuse and defence of himself and Faulconer of which book hee printed so few and so disposed of them as that I could not get one either here or at London until by providence I was directed to send to himself to borrow it And this I did because in his Pamphlet against mee hee quotes it and refers to it for clearing as hee thought of his innocency which if hee had refused to lend mee I intended to acquaint the world that hee had quoted his book to clear himself which could not bee come by which it may bee hee feared and therefore sent it mee or otherwise by the disposing of Divine Providence the time being come for the discovery of his deep hypocrisie hee was over-ruled so to send it For his own Confessions therein contained and Faulconers Confession upon his death-bed of that perjury which Bishop would in his book free him from being conferred and compared the whole practise and whence it arose and how it was carried on is manifestly discovered as in the discourse following to which I have added a little of his dealings against Mr. Love to let him and the world see whether hee bee not also a blood-sucker Could I have gotten his other book called A Short Plea c. which hee also published against Mr. Love I doubt not but thence I should have made a further discovery of him but hee dealt as subtilly in this as in the former printed so few as that they cannot bee gotten But I suppose what I have done is sufficient the improvement I make of the whole is this to let the world see how deeply and closely wickedness may lye lurking in our natures and what a desperate evil Hypocrisie is that a man may continue in such wickedness unrepented of and yet think himself a Saint and to have attained to perfection If by what I have herein done I may bee instrumental to bring him to repentance or his case may bee as a Pillar of Salt to season and caution others I shall bee abundantly satisfied in my labour and shall when I know it give God the glory In the mean time I rest Reader Thine and the Churches Servant RA. FARMER THE IMPOSTOR DE THROND OR The Quakers Throne of Truth Detected to be Satans Seat of LIES IT 's the great Criterion and distinguishing Character of the Generation of Quakers among us that
a Gospel and the old devill who upon pretence of teaching our first Parents in another way than God had declared made their children blinde ever after till restored and recovered of their sight by a new Creation and till then no marvell if they go on in their wickednesse with resolution as too much to be feared this man hath done in many particulars For to come to his dealings and practises and to begin and to consider what he begins with how vainly and like the bragging souldier in the Comedy how Thrasonically and with long-winded expressions doth he lift up the hands of that blaspheming wretch James Naylor And how daringly doth he ask the question What law hath he broken Or what offence against man hath he committed Whom the Parliament hath censured and in part punished as a horrible blasphemer It 's free to this man Geo. Bishop to arraign and censure the actions of the Parliament but is James the Champion of the Lord of Hosts before whom none of the Priests could stand as George sayes And was his light so clear so infallible so sure How comes it to pass that this glorious son of the morning is like Lucifer so cast down and darkned by that woman and her company Martha Simons with all their filthiness and deceit as he phrases it page 5. beg What Spirit was that and what darknesse was that which he speaks of page 4. that clouded him When began it And is it not still upon him And how came it to pass that being delivered he became dark again page ead These things would be known that so wee might say when James is in the dark or when he is in the light that so we might not be mistaken in him for we must not be altogether led by George Bishop lest wee agree not with those who notwithstanding his and his fellow Foxes disclaimes did and do still own James Naylor But to let this pass for he is not worth inquiring after by the wisdome of God that fore-sees all things sayes he page 5. it was so ordered that there was found among the papers that were about James Naylor one paper wherein that spirit good or bad the woman and her company Martha Simons and their practises were expresly discerned and judged This was the Letter sent from Fox and Bishop to Naylor mentioned both in my Narrative and Geo. answer In which Letter they disclaim and judge James Naylor and his crew as deceivers But now mark horrendum facinus the false and mischievous spirit of the Priest that publish'd that Narrative and his foul and dishonest dealing and how unfaithful he is in his relation The Priest out of devillish wickedness Georges words forges such a word as had it been truly so might have rendred George Fox a blasphemer under his own hand and this is such a fact that words need not further to express it which in its very face is so manifestly wicked and abominable a wickedness not found in the roll of those evils which the Apostle mentions should make the last daies perillous and 't is manifest this act is wilfull All this and more page 7 8. of his Pamphlet and part of the 9. To all this out-cry by way of answer one would have expected that one so eminently perfect in charity as George is for if hee have not charity hee is nothing hee is not what hee pretends would have judged the best which is one main property of charity it would have taught him as v. 5. not to be ready to think evil of another 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. and not to have triumph'd and rejoyced in my sin and made so many words of it and to aggravate it so highly Charity would have suggested this or the like Possibly through his the Priest and his Scribes neglect or mistake or the hand of the Clerk from whom hee received the Copy of that Letter being obscurely written there being not much difference between these two words own and am as they may be written might mislead both or either of them Or it may be a mistake of the Printer and the Priests over-sight in correcting Or if none of this could have pleaded my excuse to clear me from so great a crime as foul forgery he might have in reason considered me from his own condition before he became so singularly illuminated For I ask was he never in the time of his darkness and ignorance guilty indeed of forgery of which hereafter Or was it not because he had been so often criminous in such practises that hee so easily so readily and so confidently charges others I leave it to his light within him But to satisfie every honest person the truth is It is just so as I have set it down in the Copy of the Letter which I received from the hands of the Clerk who took the examination and that as plainly written as any words in the world which Master Dorney will acknowledge and which the Copy it self will justifie which I have to shew to all that desire it As for the Letter it self it was sent up to London to the Parliament and there continues And as Mr. Dorney said upon sight of the Copy it might be so as I have exprest it for ought hee knew in the original which whether it be or no in this case is not material I am clear I did not forge it and yet upon this base doth he build the great weight of his discourse charging and re-charging like a doughty Captain again and again in several places of his Pamphlet making this his great Achilles And so much in discharge of that great calumny which he makes so much use of And I wish him to consider whether hee did not willingly take it up as a matter to reproach mee when as probably hee might bee informed I followed my Copy For sure I am I have been divers times asked before the publication of his scurrilous Pamphlet how it was in my president or copy To which I gave satisfaction if he did it wilfully the Lord humble him and forgive him And whereas he sayes page 9. that what I have publish'd in my Narrative p. 10 11. of the examination of Martha Simons is enough to prove mee my design and title and book to be a lie Surely he presumes highly upon the blindness ignorance or negligence of his Reader for it clearly demonstrates that Fox and his Crew were against Naylor and his and so that they were not all guided by one spirit or at best by that spirit which is the spirit of division which was part of the design and title of my book and so not a lie But that which sticks much in the Captains teeth and puts him to picking from page 11. of his Pamphlet to 24. is the Quakers confusion with which I charge them And truly I believe had he been left at large to choose his own testimonies and to have suborn'd and produc'd his own witnesses
and many of the Parishioners intending to present it to the Committee here for my establishment and understanding that this Committee here had no power to do it they sent up to the Committee above and effected it and since I am in a sort inforc'd to it I shall declare the two principal reasons of my acceptation The one was I was perswaded by them and many other of my friends that in regard most of the inhabitants neer and about the Colledge were persons of another judgement than my self in civil matters I should have little converse or comfort among them but rather the contrary nay some did suggest to mee that my settlement there was procured by some who bore mee no good will on purpose to make mee weary and so to leave the City but that I satisfied them the matter was of my own seeking and endeavour and the other reason was that going so far out of the City I should not have any opportunity of any Church communion and Christian fellowship with any considerable number of which I was convinc'd to bee a duty although I was then unwilling to undergo the burthen of a Pastor And indeed considering that some honest-hearted Christians in Thomas Parish with whom I had there communion did still desire it and hoping that divers of Nicholas having formerly been exercised in it I should finde them more comfortably complying than those who had been a long time strangers to it I did the more willingly imbrace it but as for the advantage in removing from poor Thomas to rich Nicholas as the Calumniator phrases it let him and the world know that upon these grounds I removed from the rich Colledge to poor Nicholas nor was it the poverty of Thomas though poor enough that made mee leave them nor was it or could it bee filthy lucre or sordid covetousness that drew mee to Nicholas which could by no reasonable man bee imagined would amount to what was setled upon mee at the Colledge And since I must boast but 't is to secure the credit of my Ministery that it suffer not damage in any thing I will do it a little further having good witness of the truth on 't After I had consented to come to Nicholas and came to give them a meeting at their Vestry although I knew that with much difficulty they raised what some of them had ingaged unto by bond to M. Jessop and which as I have heard was not above eighty pound per annum yet when they ask'd mee what would content mee for my labour so far was I from seeking my self as that I told them I would not make a bargain for preaching the Gospel but that I would do my duty and leave them to do theirs and how richly it hath been performed by them I speak not of all I am asham'd to mention Sure not beyond poor Thomas nor so much by two parts in three which M. Jessop now reaps as I am informed and which place was setled upon him upon my commendations of him to M. Strong at Westminster and which M. Strong intended to let him know had hee not been prevented by death heu premature if hee hath not done it formerly But much good may it do him and much good may he do them I envy no mans gain or preferment nor will the inhabitants of Nicholas say I contend with them in that matter although I have cause enough to take notice of their neglect yea and sin in this particular For I dare say there are few handy-crafts men that work upon so small incouragement for I suppose their calling feeds their family I have been the large in this matter because some persons are and have been as willing to take up and spread this ly and calumny as others have been to raise and make it And truth it is I should hardly have undertaken to answer his railing Pamphlet but to satisfie the world in these two last particulars and to wipe off the aspersion of base forgery which my soul abhors and to make good what I promised concerning the discovery of this Quaker to which I 'le hasten with all expedition As for his charging of several Trades upon mee it is but the lickings up of the excrements of William Erburies black pudding A book so called written by W. Erbury wherein hee would prove mee to bee a black pudding In which foolish Pamphlet most if not all of these things are whereby I see George was very hungry and wanted matter to feed upon being it seems troubled with that disease which Physitians call Caninus appetitus The dog-like appetite which makes them huge greedy and to catch at any thing but I wish his after-mess may do him more good than the Pudding it self did Erbury For a few daies after hee had publish'd it he went home and died whether hee died for shame or what it was I know not nor dare I say this was the cause or occasion of it no God forbid I should presume to meddle with the secrets of the Almighty or to judge any man But I mention this because a hare-brain'd fellow came as himself said to revenge Erburies death upon me which I no wayes promoted but probably this poor fellow might take up the thoughts upon what hee might hear some sober persons speak of it But bee it what it will George it seems having swallowed it must vomit it up again the second time that the world may see his foul stomack But see how the vapours of it whilst there had corrupted his brain and be fool'd his intellectuals Did ever any man in the world understand being a member of an Independent Church or of a Presbyterian Church to bee a trade And it is a trade when a man in the former troubles ingages for a time in some publike service as most active spirits did and then lay it aside Is this a trade How many trades has George had then And for a man living in the Country as I did to practise Physick being thereunto lawfully licens'd by the University of Cambridge upon tryal and examination I say for a man so living in the country and having a house fitted for such a purpose no other convenient house being there to bee had for a pleasant dwelling Is it a trade if a man make malt there for a time Doth not many a Gentleman many a Minister do so And did I not so soon as I could get there a more pleasant dwelling give it over And being a Physitian do men call that a trade Or is it a trade being so to apply ones self to the ingenious experiments of Chimistry in order to the inabling himself to deal in his profession with more security and understanding without which Physitians are no better than Empericks Or is it a trade if a man living in London as a Physitian the Earle of Berkshire keep an Office in his house for that which is not a Monopoly but a priviledge granted to him by
his credit and testimony And when as the Judge slighted such applications unto him saying if hee were innocent that would prove his best vindication Don't you know what was done and how unquiet you were till hee was inlarged Was not Affidavit made that hee was imployed upon publike concernments and did not Faulconer give it under his hand what services hee had done for the publike and how he was the chief witness against the Lord Craven And was it not so carried that there was slack prosecution of the Indictment and when Faulconer was set at liberty upon Bail to appear at next Sessions at Newgate they never appeared and so the matter ended which whether it were Justice and honesty to pervert or obstruct Justice and whether this bee not indirect proceedings let all the world judge To this you answer page 41. and say For Faulconer to bee releast without tryal fixes no crime upon him and an honest man may bee committed upon suspition True but you should have suffered him to come to tryal and sure hee was no honest man that hindred it it was a crime and a great one in him that hindred it you know who it was George It seems the Lord Craven must bee a Delinquent and a man for the purpose must bee countenanc'd against Law and Justice but I say why was not his liberty procured him now and the money promised paid him now Oh! the business was done the estate sold let him hang let him starve now It may bee the sum promised was too great and they could not agree who should pay it the estate being sold Ah poor Faulconer how art thou befool'd no marvel thou cryest out against Bishop to thy dying day But let mee ask you further George concerning your indirect proceedings the direct proceedings against Delinquents was that the informations were taken before the Commissioners at their usual place of sitting and set down in writing by the sworn Examiner thereunto belonging who was thereby ingag'd to bee a person just and indifferent between the Commonwealth and party accused And was not this indirect proceeding that you should frame the Oath and Information before hand in your Chamber at White-Hall and in such a manner as aforesaid catching at hasty and inconsiderate words which were the only material words and then send as you did for the Commissioners at Haberdashers Hall to your Chamber who knowing you to bee Clerk to the secret Committee and supposing you had some secrecy of State to communicate unto them came and there you tendered to them Faulconers oath so ready drawn to bee sworn to and hee was there contrary to the ordinary and direct way of proceedings upon some little alteration made by them upon their examination sworn to it I know how smoothly you wipe your mouth or rather how you would wipe your Readers nose and how slightly you come off in this matter page 43. of your book saying that because of the season and the danger of discovery the Commissioners of Sequestrations were desired to come to White-Hall and there took his deposition What you mean by the season I know not but indeed the danger of discovery was considerable But would you sequester a mans estate in hugger mugger as wee use to say 't is honestly said though not honestly done that you confess you sent for the Commissioners to White-Hall to take the information because of the danger of the discovery Go too George go too are you innocent are not these indirect proceedings I ask you again further when the Indictment for Perjury Narr page 16. was brought against Faulconer in London where the Bill was found by the Grand-Jury and Colonel Drury before mentioned being served with a Subpena to appear at Guild-Hall to give in further evidence against Faulconer in the behalf of the Lord Craven did not you take away the Subpena from him saying How durst you be examined against the Commonwealth and not acquaint mee first therewith Further saying Mr. Mayor meaning the Lord Mayor had better have done something else than to have suffered that Indictment to bee found And did not you George Bishop thereupn immediately call for a Messenger and commit the said Drury to the custody of one Middleton a Messenger to the Councel of State who forthwith carried away Drury a prisoner to the Strand to the house of the said Middleton where the said Drury was kept in strict custody from Munday when the Indictment was found till Saturday that the Session was past that no further proceedings could bee had against Faulconer at that time by reason of Druries restraint who had Faulconers own hand-writing to produce against him and being the most material witness against him and before the next Sessions the Bill for the sale of the Lord Cravens estate was passed Were not these indirect proceedings towards the Lord Craven to hinder and obstruct the discovery of Faulconers perjury upon whose oath the Lord Cravens Estate was sequestred was this direct and honest and even carriage Are you innocent To excuse this you shuffle so miserably and catch at such strawes In your book page 34. and 35. that I cannot but commend your wit though not your honesty in printing so few of your books that every one cannot see how poorly you come off in your answers And I take it as a great Providence I hope for your good that I was so directed as to send to your self for one of them and which I thank you you sent mee it is no doubt from that hand which as you rightly said before orders all things that you were over-ruled so to do and I wish that this discovery of you to your self from your self I mean your own book in great part may bee for your conviction and conversion And because your book is not to bee had easily I 'le give in the weight and substance of your answer for the whole is very long and if you suppose I do you wrong in concealing any thing thereof that may tend to your vindication print your whole book and let them ordinarily bee had and if any understanding Reader will say I have injured you I will be content to bee accounted as you are You say that Drury being a Papist a Traytor apprehended upon a Warrant from the Councel of State and in safe custody and being examined by you of his Treasons should have been continued in safe custody but that upon his sad complaint that hee had neither money nor friend to relieve him there and that hee must needs perish you gave him his Parol which in English is as I suppose you let him go at liberty to return when required After this Drury having acquainted you that he had been sworn at Guild-Hall London and given in evidence to the Grand Jury against Major Faulconer there and examined upon part of what hee had been examined by you before I perceive your meaning Sir in these last words But I pray before you
go any further because you had examined him before in one part was it unjust that my Lord Craven should examine him or cause him to bee examined on another part to cleare himself Doth or should your examination take him off from being examined by others They did not examine him of secrets or mysteries of State but of Faulconers perjury and your mysteries of iniquity Well but then you were a man in power and hereupon you say that Drury shewing you the Subpena you asked him whether hee told them that hee was under the warrant of the Councel of State and under examination of their Committee of Examinations As to that particular amongst others but I must tell you hee was not under their examination to that particular of Faulconers perjury hee answered no. Then you say you asked him why hee had not acquainted you with the Subpena before hee went to Guild-Hall and was sworn yea there was his fault since hee was a prisoner under examination and under Parol To which as you say hee giving no reasonable answer but that hee knew not what the business was and such like when as as you say the Indictment could not have been drawn without the consent of and converse with Drury yea still there was the sin and who you say was the chief witnesse upon which it was grounded it being prepared and found that day and had hee not been committed by you Faulconer had been convicted that Sessions of that perjury which was afterwards proved and himself confessed But you go on and say That you perceiving thereby how hee did prevaricate and how things were done in design and combination against the State But stay Was it a design against the State that the Lord Cravens innocency should bee cleared Oh base Yes now I remember my self it was for then the design against the estate of the Lord Craven in all likelihood of Justice might have proved ineffectual But you go on and say further that you not knowing what other inconvenience might come to the State by his Druries further liberty since hee had made that use of it aforesaid reproved him therefore with that high language against him and the Lord Mayor as before which you do not deny received the Subpena from him and taking of his Parol returned him into custody from Munday evening to the Friday following And was it not to Friday evening following as well as from Munday evening before which you reckon up with a four nights and no longer and I say four dayes too so long that no proceedings could bee expected that Sessions against Faulconer The last day of the Sessions being no time for such prosecutions but calling over the Goal and concluding former businesses and then you say upon information of the poverty of Drury and that hee had no money to pay for his diet and lodging which you knew well enough before and have acknowledged when you gave him money for his supper and would not commit him lest hee should perish And now you say in meer charity when there was no opportunity for him at Sessions hee had his liberty upon his Parol again and enjoyes it Charitable wretch And did you in charity commit him Fie upon such base hypocrisie And then you go on with a company of blinde supposals to argue the improbability of your committing of him to the end to obstruct the proceedings against Faulconer which are so childish and coming in but by way of additional aid to your former answer which is your chief buckler but a silly one I shall not trouble my self and the Reader with which if you think any thing worth print it and I 'le bee your bondman if it any way help you nay if it don't further discover your folly and I would have writ it but that 't is as long as impertinent and this is enough And your main answer which how it clears you let all or any man of common reason judge And say is George Bishop innocent in this matter And one thing more I finde charg'd against you George which I suppose is an unjust and indirect practise Narr page 40. and used by you in the matter of Craven and Faulconer And in the Margin of the Narrative where this matter following is spoken to there is written Observe and 't is observable 't is short but home and therefore printed in another Character in these words By way of digression observe that Druries and Briscoes informations which Captain Bishop had taken above twelve moneths since and which tended to clear the Lord Craven hee concealed till this hour that hee produc'd the same in Court and never transmitted these two mens examinations to the Parliament though before the Bill of Sale did passe hee did transmit Bardseys and Kitchingmans re-examinations taken by himself and which hee apprehended made against the Lord Craven Here now is a heavy charge and certainly these proceedings if true are very indirect and hee cannot bee innocent But hear him speak for himself and I 'le give you every word And thus hee begins page 44. of his own book What Captain Bishops imployment was is already spoken his duty was to take and to keep such informations as concerned the Committee and to do with them according to their or the Councels or the Parliaments orders but neither the Council nor Committee ordered him to transmit them to the Parliament though they were not ignorant of them and several times shewed by him to some of the members of the Councel and to the Committee nor did the Parliament call for them or what papers concerning the Lord Craven were in the custody of the Councel or Committee nor take the depositions into debate after the first vote of confiscation and whether those examinations advantage the Lord Craven let the reader upon consideration of what is already mentioned and argued thereupon judge Nay but George let mee put in a word or two by the way it had been very honest and fair for you to have put down their examinations themselves that the reader might judge upon them for wee can't see them nor must wee take your word But you go on Nor were any papers at all transmitted by him meaning himself G. B. to the Parliament either for or against the Lord Craven for Bardseys examination when hee had taken it hee sent it in to the Councel for Bardsey to make oath thereof which after hee had made it was put presently into the hands of one of the members viz. Mr. Gourdon to report to the Parliament who received it and lodged it with Mr. Scobel it being not returned to Captain Bishop and for Kitchingmans re examination hee transmitted no such thing nor was any such taken whilst the Committee for examinations was in being Kitchingmans information being deposed by him at Haberdashers Hall Now I pray what 's all this to the purpose doth this excuse you will you give mee leave to interrogate you If you will not
I trust I heard no more of him now had I yeelded in this matter an honest Gentleman might have been ruin'd for if wee had sequestred him in London though hee had not much there they would presently have sent down into the Country and done the like there The person is one of worth and honor afterwards a member of that Parliament and of the close Committee or safety I have forgotten the title and is now a member of this present Parliament one so cordial to the publike interest that I do profess whom I afterwards saw him upon his return from the circuit my heart rejoyced that I had so appeared for him whom upon my own knowledge was so true a friend to the Parliament for I well knew him before by sight but did not know him by name to bee the person prosecuted I could tell you further George of others whom I have rescued from the jawes of ruine upon Parliamentary prosecutions and that upon base and packt knavery followed with perjury and by some of our own Officers which I my self have discovered and caused them to bee turned out So that George you must not sculk and hide your head under the shelter of the Parliament And for the rest that followes in your answer and excuse the reader will easily perceive you do but quibble and trifle upon forms and circumstances which makes nothing to the substance of the business I shall not need to mention your zeal and earnestness at the tryal of Faulconer in his behalf nor your reflecting upon the Judges in these words page 15. of your book The Judges in the issue summâ—â—â— not up the evidence which they should have done As for the Jury you bestow this upon them in the same page The Jury of the affections of whom for the Parliament wee cannot yet understand neither took any notes nor ask'd a question yet in a very short time were agreed in their verdict and the next morning gave it into the Court that Faulconer was guilty of the perjury mentioned in the Indictment And then you go on and say That a man indeed without divining might have told which way the cause would go by the countenances of the Jury all along the tryal of the cause as was taken notice of by many honest men such as you are no doubt And then you sadly complain thus George is huge angry that Faulconer is found guilty of Perjury But this is what every honest man may expect in cases wherein the State is concern'd when the unpardoned traytors whom with the peril of their lives they discover to bee undermining the safety of a State in times of great danger in the field and under ground conspiracies working towards the general destruction thereof shall after the enemie is overthrown and prevented bee permitted to come into England when they can no longer do the Commonwealth mischief abroad and to be good witnesses against such honest discoveries risum teneatis amici in such Traitors own causes as to their lives as hath happened to one of the States witnesses Faulconer in the very case now in question And so you flirt upon the Jury again page 47. I will not comment upon it because I hasten to an end But the man is very angry with Judge and Jury and Witnesses and as before with the Lord Mayor as no friends to the State that Faulconer was found perjur'd which yet hee himself hath confest himself to bee But why is George so angry it seems hee is much concerned in it for though hee act for good affection to the State yet its reason that hee should bee consider'd and therefore in my information from London by a hand that is able to make good his undertakings I am thus told that hee George repaired to Drury house and contracted for about 300 pound a year of the Lord Cravens Land where and when this argument was used that hee might bee favourably dealt with and considered in the purchace for that hee was the man that brought the Commonwealth so great an estate and that but for him the Lord Craven had not been put into the Bill of Sale and accordingly hee was favourably dealt withal But Master Baker Surveyor General to the Trustees then reprehended the said Captain Bishop for so speaking the scandal whereof was it seems like to prove so great as well it might that hee relinquisht the contract and when in the last Parliament but this this contract was laid to his charge by the Committee of Parliament appointed to hear the Lord Cravens case and hee urg'd to answer whether hee did contract or not How sayes my information did hee prevaricate and shuffle with the Committee and put off an answer till hee did see there were those present that were ready to produce the contracts out of the book and then to his shame and admiration of the Committee hee did confess at last hee did contract for a considerable part of the Lord Cravens estate but that hee had since that time declined the same So that for all your pretences of publike interest you drove on a design of your own private and if the way had been honest you might have done it and you need not have declin'd it and to back this and so an end Did not you write to a Gentleman an acquaintance of mine and yours one imployed for the publike to inform you of the quality and worth of a Mannour of the Lord Cravens call'd the Mannour of Hinton Norton in Sommerset-shire and did not you afterward in your Study at White-Hall tell him that you inquired after it for that you expected that the Parliament should reward your good service you had done for the State in sequestring the Lord Cravens estate Or words to that purpose And now Sirs you that are to give your judgement upon George Bishop upon the whole matter what say you Is George clear and innocent Hath hee not used nor doth hee not know of any indirect proceedings in that whole business of Craven and Faulconer of which hee makes such a bold appeal to the Almighty Say is it any matter whether hee bee a Quaker or no or what he is And if wee may judge of the conscience honesty and perfection of the rest by him may wee not conclude as I undertook to make good That a man may bee as vile a person as any under heaven and yet a perfect Quaker If hee had repented of it and what in him lies made restitution it had been somewhat I should have said nothing for who will upbraid a man with that for which hee hath repented But hee still like a Quaker justifies himself as if he had done no evil and I easily perceive the buâ—h under which hee hides himself and thinks no body sees him For after his protestation hee sayes Hee has had a large time of tryal wherein hee hath neither wanted enemies for the sake of truth nor they malice and opportunity to lay to
his charge could they finde or were there any thing to be found against him Simple fellow I wonder hee could mannage so great a business with so little wit because the Lord Cravens friends did not indict him but Faulconer therefore hee sillily concludes they could finde or say nothing against him Doth hee not know that it was for the Lord Cravens advantage to lay all the blame upon Faulconer and to charge him with the malice of it as well as with the fact that so they might convict him of perjury which being done and hee to his conviction having since acknowledged it by his own confession and you having confest so much and taken so much upon your self to clear him of the malice all which they knew not till you confest it Now all this as afore considered they know what to say to you By the Law it seemes and as the Judges gave their opinion bare forswearing ones self doth not bring a man within the compass of the Law against perjury unless also it bee done maliciously and wilfully And now to deliver Faulconer from the crime and conviction of perjury George at the tryal discovers the rise and ground of all this business freeing Faulconer upon his own oath of any intention of evil and mischief against the Lord Craven as knowing nothing against him that might render him culpable or any way sequestrable as you heard before but George having consulted with some body else by handsome contrivance and mannagement hath brought it to this you now see and by this confession of Georges at the tryal and Faulconers at his death-bed it is now apparent by whom it was begun and effected even by him who as before hee confesses had the mannagement of the whole And now if there were a Starchamber Court or any place of tryal for such practises they know whose eares and estate to require in part of satisfaction In the mean time let the world judge of your innocency George you have a fair estate in land plate great store rings and jewels and cabinets and brave hangings c. you can live without the honest calling of a Brewer which you could not do before you have not been a busie Bishop to no purpose you have your reward but take heed it bee not in this life only It may bee you may come to a reckoning and give an account here for all these things but sure hereafter The present Parliament hath taken cognizance of the Lord Cravens cause and it is to bee hoped they will proceed so justly and impartially that the guilt of injustice and oppression shall not lie at the doors of the Parliament of England and so become the sin of the Nation and draw a curse upon the whole for the iniquity of a few However look you to your light within and let mee tell you thus much if it do not stare you in the face and fright you 't is a sign you are blinde and hardened I was desired to ask you who did trepan Colonel Andrewes into a design for which hee lost his life when as hee had given over all thoughts of engaging till hee was moved thereunto by a Trepanner as hee declared before his death And who it was that trepan'd Sir John Gell into a misprision of treason And lastly who did trepan Mr. Love and some of that party These questions are proposed by those who are no babes in the world and yet honest and they say this Bishop can if hee will give satisfaction in You know George what these things mean and I know what the last means and they advise mee to read a book concerning Mr. Loves designes and his death written and pen'd by you and they say it will give the reader further satisfaction But you have dealt as craftily in the printing of this as of the former printed so few and kept or given so at your own dispose that I cannot get it and I am not so free to send to you for this as the former because you do not quote it against mee But yet what I finde from other pieces I have met with in this matter I will communicate to you and the world and this the rather to shew you what an hypocrite you are in charging us Priests as in scorn you call us with blood-thirstiness and my self in particular as in the title of your Pamphlet you should have pulled the beam out of your own eye before you reproacht us with a mote in ours I suppose e're I have done though it bee prettily well done already you will appear to bee not only a blood-thirsty but a blood sucking person And in the discourse of this I shall discover the ground of your so easie an entertainment of the thoughts or at least suggestions of forgerie in mee from those practises of forgery which I shall declare to have been really acted by you That you were a zealous prosecutor of Mr. Love unto yea and after death is so manifest that as impudent as you are you will not deny â—hat you prosecuted him after death appears by what you published against him when hee had no being to answer for himself wherein you endeavour maliciously to kill him twice and the latter with more cruelty than the former killing his good name and what in you lies making him a Reprobate and an out-cast from God and glory I suppose you will own that piece call'd Mr. Loves case printed by Peter Cole as well as other books you publisht against him wherein you go about most unchristianly to undervalue debase and disparage that comfort and confidence hee professed to enjoy in and at his death and this upon several accounts which I will not recount to avoid tediousness one only I 'le mention to shew your spirit of envy and bitterness it is the Animadversions upon the first Section page 34. Mr. Love say you it 's more than probable was not only vehemently exhorted incouraged importuned but even solemnly by all the sacred interests of high Presbytery conjured by his Clergie companions to die like a valiant and resolute Champion of the cause and not to bewray the least grudging of any fear or repentance for any thing hee had acted upon the service thereof lest it should bee said of Presbytery her glory was stained and betrayed by the cowardise of her first-born And page 38. Here wee have the second part of the Theatrical flourishes of Mr. Loves confidence Much might bee animadverted but I forbear you have a strange spirit that his comforts and confidence in God trouble you And then you go on to charge him with hypocrisie and lying and other base imputations all along bespattering and bespotting and sullying him as you can even to his last I know what flight touches of charity you have now and then and at the close of that Pamphlet which are inconsistent with that you had charged him before as that hee acted the part of a most unchristian Calumniator upon the Scaffold in
same page I desire you sayes hee to take notice that there is a lying Pamphlet put forth entituled A short Plea for the Commonwealth In which there are many gross lies especially in things which relate to mee and which hee himselfe is best able to speak to Hee sayes there further it is not fit for him to enter the lists with him It becomes not sayes hee a dying man to write of controversies which will beget dispute therefore sayes hee I shall not answer the book though I could easily do it but only sum up the many lyes hee relates concerning mee Thus hee And page 39. hee sayes hee supposes Captain Bishop writ that lying book And then Master Love goes on reckoning up his lyes in that book and shewes wherein and in the Margin writes the first lye The second lye and so on to the eleventh lye It will not bee to any purpose to set down the particulars because my Reader hath not the book whereby to judge of the truth or falshood I shall therefore content my self to give you what observations Mr. Love makes upon the man and his lying stories In one place hee sayes that if Bishop should name the person that should say the thing there mentioned every one that heard the tryal would cry out shame upon him viz. Bishop for telling such a lye Hee sayes another is a gross lye And another thing hee charges him with is a loud lye and sayes It is well there were many witnesses to contradict him And surely sayes hee if the Author of this book had not cast off all feare of God and regard to the good name of his Brother hee could not bee so impudent as to affirme what hee did To another hee sayes 't is notoriously false and abominably false and that although hee was not asham'd to say of him as hee did in the general yet hee durst not instance in any particular nor sayes hee will any other in my life time whilst I can answer for my self To another hee sayes Hee that will bee so shamelesse to falsifie my Petitions which are made so visible will not bee ashamed to bely my words Where hee further sayes hee Bishop charged him that Master Calamy instructed him to speak as hee did and that it was that Master Calamies good tricks might not come to light both which together with what hee charged him before hee sayes are very false To another hee sayes hee wonders the man is not asham'd to fasten that upon him which hee did And again hee sayes if this man meaning Bishop hath belied others in his book whom hee names as hee hath done mee there is not one true Page in all his book And to the eleventh lye thus If this man were not an Athiest or an Antiscripturist the example of Ananias and Saphira might make him tremble lest hee should bee stricken down dead with a lye in his mouth And again this false and deceitful man would make the world believe that this were proved against mee and then concludes this matter thus These and many other falshoods might bee found in this book if I should make a through search into it Hee calls it sayes hee a short Plea but I may call it a long lye And 't is not sayes hee for the honour of the present Government to have a common lyar to bee a Pleader for their Common-wealth And amongst all these lyes thus generally hinted I have reserved one in special wherein Mr. Love charges him not onely with lying but also with forgery which hee brings in thus page 38. And because I am belied about my examination before the Committees and may bee more abused after I am dead therefore I am necessitated to discover that jugling and baseness of Mr. S. and Capt. Bishop about my examination which I thought never to have made publick Whiles I was examined sayes hee before the Committee that pragmatical fellow Captain Bishop who I suppose wrote this lying book did put in six or eight ☜ lines into my examination which I never said hee supposing that I would bee so meal-mouth'd as not to read it or to put my hand to his forgery without any more ado but I did to his shame make him blot out at least six lines in my examination which was but very short Some of the Committee did ingeniously say sometimes that I did not speak such words as Captain Bishop did put in By his abuse of mee who would not bee abused by him I cannot but think how hee injured other men Hee goes on I did refuse to put my hand to it seeing I was abused by Captain Bishop but told them if they would give mee a Copy of it I would subscribe my hand but they denied mee a copy which made mee suspect they did not intend to deal fairly with mee as I found true after And then goes on to shew wherein and that to their conviction and concludes thence thus Wherefore I beseech the Reader not to believe any thing that shall come forth either pretended to bee my examination or the examinations of other men against mee they are but the forgeries and contrivements of Mr. S. and Captain Bishop And well might M. Love think how this Bishop injured other men and that in the like kinde I have one instance more under the hand of a godly reverent and faithful Minister of the Gospel now being well known to most of the Inhabitants of this City and many in London so to bee who writes to mee that being to bee questioned about Master Loves businesse as hee was and imprisoned Bishop sayes hee was Clerk to the Committee of Examinations and wrote down all that I said and added divers things thereby endeavouring to insware mee for which I sharply reproved him telling him that I knew his birth and breeding and therefore I did scorn to bee examined by such a one as hee was at which both hee and the Committee were much offended threatning to use much severity against me but the Lord restrained them Now George say Are not you a blood-sucker Were not the lives of these men at the stake Was not one of them actually put to death I 'le say nothing of the man I need not hee was known well enough in England his death is bewail'd by thousands and his name precious with many godly I was once drawn away by your dâ—ssimulations and lies to a prejudice against him but now I see that the most innocent when they fall into the hands of hucksters may bee rendred culpable What George what Are not only the estates of men great estates small bits with you but you can suck and swallow the bloods and lives of men Ministers of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus No marvel you turn Quaker turn Turk man or become a Jew to whom the name and Gospel of Christ and Christian is odious for shame bear not that sacred name any longer lest it bee blasphem'd by its enemies because of
you Oh horrid and dreadful not onely bee a common lyar but to forge to put in and to add words on purpose to insnare men no marvel you catcht at Faulconers words but once spoken and put them in hastily to take away ones estate when you forge and put in words many words whole lines in a short examination which were never spoken and this to take away mens lives And here ex ore tuo serve nequam out of thine own mouth from thine own words shalt thou bee judged Look back and minde thine own expressions in thine own book pages 7 and 8 where you charge mee with forgery in one word and which yet was not forgery but a mistake and that not in mee neither and yet see your outcries and loud exclamations You may here see say you of what a false and mischâ—evous spirit this Priest is and what a devillish wickedness it is to forge in such a word as for it were it truly so would take away his Foxes life What credit is to bee given to what such a one saith And again Is not hee that can do this past blushing Is there any wickednesse so great that such a one may not bee well conceived to bee ready to act Is such a one a Minister of the Gospel Words need not further to expresse such an act which in its very face is so manifestly wicked and abominable a wickednesse not found in the Roll of those evils which the Apostle mentions should make the last daies perillous I 'le say no more I need not Read the words and remember your own actions and apply But let mee ask you were these all whose blood you thirsted after Did you not write a letter to a friend of yours in Bristol from White-Hall that until Calamy and some other of the Priests were dealt withal as Love was it would never bee well I hope I shall one day get that book of yours which you writ against him mentioned before viz. A short Plea for the Commonwealth Those who have seen it tell mee it most fully sets forth the fierceness and bitterness of your spirit not only against him but that you shew your rancour and malice therein against many of the servants of Christ whose names are yet precious in the Churches and the memory of whom will live when your name shall rot and perish or if it bee mentioned or remembred it shall bee with abhorrence and detestation as infamous as poor Faulconers is I cannot but remind that passage of yours in your Throne page 34. where because I said the Magistrates had their spots and failings you say they are no Magistrates of God but men of sin and the born of the devil If spots and failings do in your judgement render them thus Oh! what are you mind that Rom. 4. beg Therefore thou art inexcuseable O man whosoever thou art Jew or Gentile Ranter or Quaker that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things nay infinitely worse But wee are sure the Judgement of God is according to truth against them which commit such things and thinkest thou this O man that judgest them who do such things and doest the same that thou shalt escape the Judgement of God But Reader in this poor wretch you see what a dreadful thing and what a heavy judgement it is for a man to bee given up of God what wickedness so abominable that hee will not then commit So Rom. 1. ver 24. to the end And see also how the Lord doth punish hatred and contempt of his Ministry and servants and Apostasie from the truth with hardnesse of heart and blindnesse of mind giving them over to believe lyes 2 Thes 2. 10 11 12. What a sottish piece is this poor man become to turn Quaker But 't is most true Shipwrack of faith and of a good conscience are seldome severed 1 Tim. 1. 19. But yet Countryman come there is hope in Israel concerning this thing there is still balm in Gilead the blood of Jesus Christ shed at Jerusalem though above sixteen hundred years ago is as efficacious as prevalent as ever Come man leave quaking don't trample upon and despise the price of thy Redemption I see thou art in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity but come repent of thy wickednesse and pray to God perhaps the thoughts of thy heart and the wickedness of thy hands and the blasphemies of thy pen and tongue may bee forgiven thee Don't despise the riches of Gods goodness and forbearance and long-suffering towards thee know that the goodnesse of God in this patience of his in not cutting thee off is to lead thee to repentance Consider friend there is a day coming wherein the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest all secret plots contrivances and under-hand counsels Repent whiles 't is called to day lest thy heart bee more and more hardened through the deceitfulness of sin treasure not up wrath by impenitence and hardness of heart one true repentant tear will avail more now than millions of yellings and howlings then our Jesus is able to save perfectly and to the uttermost all those who come unto the Father through him meet him whom thou slightest and make him thy friend And for a close know and consider that if you go on in sin wilfully and impenitently after you have received the knowledge of the truth and that you despise the blood of Christ there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful looking for of judgement and of fierce indignation which shall devoure the adversaries And now from henceforth let none of these Quakers trouble mee I have done with this generation but if they will bee troubling let them know I will not bee troubled And as for any further answers replies contendings or debatings with them or him being well assured that my ground work on which my discourse and discovery is founded will stand firm I declare this as my Coronis my farewel to Quakerisme As for their doctrines or opinions in this or any other of their Pamphlets I think them not worth the reading much less the answering by any serious Christian especially that hath publick imployments indeed not of any one that hath ought else to do but to make a long voyage to Tarshish to fetch only Apes and Peacocks I conclude therefore with holy Augustine Tales judices velim c. I desire such Judges of my writings that will not alwayes require an answer when they shall finde what I have written to bee spoken against those things which being matter of fact have clear testimonies and being matters of doctrine have clear arguments and authorities It were a prejudice and disparagement to either to agitate them alwayes upon the cavils of ignorant or contentious persons therefore I end FINIS Books lately written by William Prynne Esq a Bencher of Lincolnes-Inne and sold by Edward Thomas in Green-Arbour Iâ—s Patronatus Or the Right of Patrons to present Vicars to Parish Churches c. The first and second part of a seasonable legal and historical vindication of the Fundamental Rights and Laws of England The second Edition in Quarto A Declaration and Protestation against Excize in general and Hopps a native incertain commodity in particular A PIECE WORTHY PERUSAL A Polemical Desertation of the Inchoation and Determination of the Lords Day Sabbath An old Parliamentary Prognostication for the Members there in Consultation The Quakers unmasked and clearly detected to bee the Spawn of Romish Froggs c. A new Discovery of Free-State Tyranny The first Part of a Short Demurrer to the Jewes long discontinued Remitter into England The second Part of the Short Demurrer c. A Legal Resolution of two important Queries concerning Ministers giving of the Sacrament to their Parishioners A new Discovery of Romish Emissaries Pendennis and all other standing Garrisons dismantled Also all the former works of Mr. William Prynne both before during and since his Imprisonments are sold by Edward Thomas in Green-Arbour More Books printed and sold by Edward Thomas in Green-Arbour REynolds Of Gods Revenge against Murther Folio Festivous Notes on Don Quixot Folio Phioravants Three Pieces in Quarto A Rich Closet of Physical Secrets in Quarto Bakers Arithmetick in Octavo Crumbs of Comfort in twenty fours Private Devotions by D. Valentine in twenty fours Lillies Grammar in English by R. Robinson The School of Complements in Twelves A Little Handful of Cordial Comforts by Rich. Stardfast Master of Arts the third Edition in Twelves Railing Rebuked or A Defence of the Ministers of the Nation against the Quaker by William Thomas Minister of the Gospel at Ubley in Quarto A Vindication of the Scripture and Ministery by William Thomas Minister of Ubley in Quarto Practical Husbandry Improved by G. Platts in Quarto c. Satan Inthroned in his Chair of Pestilence wherein the whole business of Ja. Nayler his coming into Bristol and his Examination is related by Ralph Farmer Minister of the Gospel in Quarto A so the Life of James Nayler with his Parents Birth Education Actions and Blasphemies is exactly set forth by William Deacon in Quarto Hypocrisie Unmasked or the Definition and Characters of the Natural Moral Civil Praying Hypocrite and how they differ from the sincere Christian by Mr. Samuel Crook late Rector of Wrington in Sommersetshire The true Christ falsly applyed discovered 1. How far his person 2. The expectation of receiving Christ in the Spirit 3. The operation of Christ received 4. The Predestination And 5. His Merits and Free-grace are not truly apprehended from whence some conclude to cast off all Ordinances pretend and expect to Prophesie and work Miracles all which with twenty more false Applications of the true Christ are discovered by W. Kaye Minister at Stokesley