some dirt which it seems they were resolved to sling at me though they daubed their own fingers in doing it Down therefore they send to Reading where I had lived about 12 years ago and where I had much more reason to expect they would miss of their purpose But I was deceived For there my old Friend D. R. at whose instigation I know not presently sends up some Dirty Rags to pin at my back and some Sugar Plums for Jeremy all in this Letter But truly if his Case had been mine I would have put them up in my pocket and never have shew'd them least an intelligent Reader should suspect I had begg'd them This in short was the Occasion of this Letter 2. Concernig this D. R. that Subscribed it and as he saith by Consent First it is some comfort that I know the Latitude of that word so well that I may be bold to say unless there be a very late increase they need not fear the late Act against Conventicles But 2dly as to the Man himself He is one with whom I have had such intimate familiarity that I may truly say of him as David of his Friend Psal 55.13 In many things He was my Guide and mine Acquaintance we took sweet Counsel together and walked unto the places of the Worship of God in Company In short by his perswasion chiefly I left a certain for an uncertain way of livelyhood to my great loss that I might be serviceable to him and others upon a Christian Account There we continued in Church Fellowship together until the Heat of Persecution brake all in pieces and made us Brethren in Tribulation also In which Condition it 's well known none of them was a greater Sufferer than my self for as much as my Concerns were in Ireland and I could not get Liberty to eversee them And now for this Daniel without any personal provocation or any other than what he himself counts but a piece of folly viz. Writing in behalf of the Quakers I say for him to break all bonds of Christianity and Friendship publish Fire-side and Chamber Discourses and private Transactions 12 years old and mix them with false frivolous and and scandalous Conceits of his own What shall I say shall I write out the 4th verse of the 9th of Jer. and put in the word Baptist before Brother God forbid One Swallow makes no Summer Although D. R. has hereby rendred himself unfit for any mans intimate Friendship who has made so great a breach of it yet I hope there are many hundred of the Baptists that scorn this Baseness But for all this I will lessen his fault as much as I can for I doubt he was hurried into it by some that knew how to work upon his Principle which is not private viz. That unless a Believer be Baptized in Water he has no right to any Promises in the Gospel Now no marvil if this Zeal which lays the wait of Salvation upon a little Water as the Roman Catholicks do be easily stirr'd up to revile and persecute such as say this Baptism is not Fundamentally necessary to Salvation Again Ignorance doth in part excuse any fault and it 's well known he never learned Illud Amicitia sanctum venerabile Nomen nay that he can hardly read the English Rules of Friendship and withal being an Enemy to that Light within which would teach him those Rules no wonder if he be easily provoked to break them under a pretence for Christ as if Christianity and Humanity were inconsistent I wish therefore I may be a warning to all how they make Friendship with an angry or such an illiterate man as makes Formalities the Substance of his Religion But 3dly The Matter concerning me in the Letter first it relates to some things done in Prison which gives him occasion to say That I was blamed for refusing to give God thanks for any of his Mercies or to joyn with them that did which is a great and manifest untruh The story in short is this I was somtimes desired to say Grace as it 's called at Dinner time which I was not willing to do but referred it to others with whom I did joyn and signified it by my constant conformity to those outward Ceremonies which are usual at such times And from hence is this Reproach raised The next Charge is That I was looked upon by All to be a Quaker This word All must be cut off to the Stumps and cured with a Figure or else I should prove it a loud For I can if need were produce hundreds yea the whole Town in general that will say they never took me for a Quaker not that I count it any disgrace to be taken for one I would have my unkind Friends know but to shew the untruth of this Accusation Neither was there any rational ground for it for I never was at any Quakers Meeting all the time I was there nor never conformed to any of their Formalities either of Gesture or Language And then what Reason any man had to look upon me as a Quaker let the Reader judg As for my being a Behmanist I know not what it is and therefore can say nothing to it I never saw any thing of his writing that I could understand but some Epistles And perhaps in private Conference I might commend them And if this procured me the Name they might as well have call'd me Stilling fleetist Greenhillist Baxterist Carilist c. For in theirs and many other Writings I have read things worthy of great Commendation But among all my Names I wonder he omitted Jesuite which was more talked of among the Great Men there than any of the other and was whispered abroad by some others so long till at last it began to catch fire among some weak Presbyterians and then I took a little pains to quench it though the Catholicks themselves knew it was but an Ignis fatuus or bugbear to fright filly people In the next place D. R. was about to do me some kindness in this Letter and tell the Truth of me But he recollected himself poor man and thought it not seasonable to do it now and therefore cuts off that part which might commend me For he says I am for Vniversal Communion with All sorts he should have said of Good men and then he had said right but leaving that out he do's me wrong I know the cause of this he tells you our private Discourses about Mr. Jesse whose practice of this kind I have so much commended that it 's much he did not call me a Jessite But that Name wâ—s thought too honorable for me As for the other traducing Phrases in the Letter such as Strange Humours uncertain Fictions wandering Fancles giddy Brains tottering Buildings and rotten Posts they are so commonly used among those and none but those that fall to scolding about Religion that I think it 's greater folly to take notice of them than it was to Print them A word in behalf of G. W. and I have done From what hath been said and what I could farther say concerning my Relation to the Baptists I do assure W. R. that G. W. might properly call me their Brother according to the Method of their own Discipline For since the time I first was joyned to them about twenty seven years past I never heard the least word of being disowned before now And as wandering as D R. says my fancy is yet in all this time I never joyned or commonly Assembled with any other People but them In all their Dangers and greatest Sufferings I have been Partaker with them not as it were of Necessity but Choice and he and others know I have been more than once invited to Preach among them It 's true indeed I could not consent to what they call Close Communion in this Country though often desired to it because of some unnecessary Divisions among them which I did hope in time would be removed of which in Charity I now forbear to mention To Conclude therefore though G. W. is not to be blamed in this matter yet had I known before he published it I should have desired him not to mention my Relation to them at this time And then probably this trouble about it had been prevented Only I am doubtful whether I should have stopt the publishing D. R.'s Letter because it was so exactly squared to the present Design of my Defamation and consequently as much as in him lay of my Destruction But I trust they shall never hear of my rendering Evil for Evil to any man All rhe harm I wish the Contrivers of it is That the Lord would not lay this Sin to their Charge W. L. BY these two Letters my Name is well known to the Persons particularly concerned in this Book and I have no desire to spread it farther for that Reason which a Learned Man gives us in his Preface to EIPHNIKON or a Treatise of Peace Printed for N. Brooks 1660. His words are these That my Endeavours saith he might the rather Prosper I have concealed my Name as well knowing that men are wont to make a God or a Devil of a mans Name If such or such precious Man speak this or that it 's received do an Oracle from God If the same thing be spoken by one decryed as supposed Heterodox and Erronious it 's esteemed by the same Man a Damnable Error FINIS
QUAKERISM NO PAGANISM OR A FRIENDLY REPLY To W. R. his UNFRIENDLY DISCOURSE INTITULED Quakerism is Paganism SHEWING The Insufficiency of what he hath Written to Unchristian the Quakers and to render them as Heathens and Pagans to the People By W. L. a Lover of Peace more than of Parties Let not them that are mine Enemies wrongfully Rejoyce over me For they speak not Peace but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the Land Psal 35.19.20 Nihil quidquam tam probe aut provide dicâ— potest quod non vellicare malignitas possâ—â— Just Lip de uâ—â Relig. London Printed in the Year 1674. To all called Non-Conformists who are Lovers of Holyness and Followers of Peace with all Men. BELOVED BRETHREN MAny have been my Perils at Sea and Perils at Land and now for your sakes I am brought to tast of those Perils which the unkindness of some and malice of other False Brethren have cast upon me The occasion they have taken is this No sooner was a breathing space of Liberty granted us to Worship God according to our Consciences but presently the Spirit of Strife and Debate entred into the Sons of Diotrophes and filled Pulpits and Presses with Disputations and Controversies against an Innofensive People about matters in no moderate mans Judgment Fundamentally necessary to Salvation and yet furiously prest upon that account by those who otherwise could have no pretence for their impertinent Zeal When I saw this Imprudence could not contain it self within the bonds of our respective Meeting places nor quietly be lodged in Booksellers shops for those only to read and buy that took delight in matters of Controversie but that Books of that kind full of bitter and disgracing Language were sent to be cryed about the Streets and in the Gates of our Exchange to publish our Simplicity and make us a Disgrace and a By word to the Merchants of all the Nations about us who certainly could not but withal Pity us though some do not pity themselves while we stabbed and wounded with such envious Tongues and Pens I say the sight and report of these things so pressed my Spirit that I could not forbear to write a few Lines only that I might signifie what a desire I had and many more to quench those flames of Zeal which under pretences of Truth are burning up all Christian Love and Charity among us I have good reason to say many for I cannot meet with one sober Christian of any Church whatsoever that is not grieved at heart for these unprofitable Assaults The Title I gave that small Treatise is the Twelve Pagan Principles This I foresaw would make a fearful sound But I sent it up with that name that you in the City might know what Language some taught us in the Country by their mincing Negatives for we know but one word in opposition to Christianity and that is Heathenism or Paganism though I confess this word Pagan is not so common as Heathen yet we know both signifie one thing So that when you tell us the Quaker is no Christian what says every Plough man then he must be a Heathen Again Sometimes an odious and shameful Name brings a thing into contempt undeservedly much more when it is deservedly and properly given My Design was to make Disputations of this kind contemptible and therefore I did hope the Name might make them nauseous to the people And I have the Apostle for an Example who when he went about to wean the Ceremonious Galatians from Elements calls them weak and beggarly Soon after I had published my Observations upon these Twelve Opinions collected by T. H. out of his Dialogues I was in hope to hear of more able and powerful Instruments as little Pearcers make way for great ones appearing in so seasonable and honourable a work as Pacification whose Wisdome and Prudence might allay the noise of that Passion which so much hinders the sound of Truth and produce such charitable thoughts and friendly Correspondency that the Government under which we live might be encouraged to continue our Liberty a peaceable Neighbour being a good sign of a peaceable Subject But behold O Friends contrary to my expectation another Goliah starting forth and in Hebrew Greek and Latin bidding in effect Defiance to Peace deriding and abusing my moderate considerations tendered only to incline the minds of both Parties to forbear farther Contentions about these Opininions And although he tells us in the first line of his Book That he designs not to traduce the Person of any man or wrong him in his Sentiments of Religion yet he has closed up with an Epistle which does both and that in such a Malicious and Contradictious manner as in probability may bring a blast upon his whole Design as I shall shew in the Conclusion It 's true I cannot lay the Epistle it self at W. R. his door but this is plain that if he had no design nor desire to traduce he might have sent me a Copy of that Letter before he published it and if I could not have satisfied him he had been blameless but now I may say qui non vetat peccare cum possit jubet But moreover though he traduces not my Person yet you may perceive a Spirit very unlike to a Lover of Christianity creeping along the Book slighting jeering endeavouring to sow Discord and create Trouble groundlessly charging me with Shifts and Equivocations and what this may be called I know not nor do I much care being confident that he who hath enabled me by his Grace to pass through good Report will also assist me to bear the contrary which all things considered is a burden more easie and less dangerous As touching the Book it self I shall not meddle with those matters in it which have already been sufficiently controverted but only such of those particulars which relate to my Constructions put upon those Twelve Opinions which were the occasion of my first Writing W. R. is much mistaken if he think to draw me to dance after his Disputing Pipe especially at such a time and in such a Cause as this is which one grain of Christian Charity would easily Reconcile In a word If the Controversie had not been serued up so high as to exclude the Quakers from the number of Christians and to render them as Heathens Pagans and Infidels to their Neighbours Friends and Relations W. R. perhaps had never heard of such a Title as Pagan Principles but hinc illae Lachrimae Having thus given you the true occasion of that Book and the Reasons of its Title I shall first take some notice of W. R. his Preface and then to the particular Charges as before mentioned 1. He begins with a Complemental Perswasion to Mr. Penn to own the Man Christ Jesus This is very strange that when he and others he especially hath so owned him in us plain words as can be desired to the satisfaction of so many that W. R.
Resurrection is past already And what think â—ou can be the Design of this Compariâ—â—n but to possess peoples minds that they deny any Resurrection at all Whereas you cannot but know that the Difference betwixt them and us is onlâ— about the manner of the Resurrection a needless nay a forbidden Controversie even by him that you think says moâ—â— for your Notion And let any impartiâ—â— man but read the very Quotations yoâ— have brought out of their Books anâ— all that ever W. P. has writ about it anâ— they will say the same And I shall plain tell you more That if I did understanâ— the Quakers as well in all other poinâ—â— as in this I should not have refrainâ—… their Meetings as I have done and dâ— not that I think it unlawful to go bâ—â— I will not say I would be a Quaker thâ—â— is one of the weakest passages in all yoâ—â— book As if a man could be a Quâ—ker or any other Profession when 〈◊〉 pleased It s true indeed he may perhaâ—â— when he will take up the formal of any thing But to get into 〈◊〉 Life Spirit and Power of Reliâ—â—on is not a work so easie as you suâ—gest Next I shall speak to that whiâ—â— hath something of Argument in it and conclude I brought a Demonstration sufficient to convince any rational man that the Quakers did own a Resurrection and a better Being after Death or else they would never be so mad as to expose themselves to all sorrows and miseries in this life when they may avoid it The Apostle himself confirms this Consequence saying Let us eat and drink if to morrow we shall die and be no more But W. R. rejects this and brings two Witnesses to be of his side The first of the Saduces which saith he were men that profest Religion in opposition to the common Opinion of the Jews and so consequently were exposed to sufferings Mark it he says they were but Consequently exposed to Sufferings he tells us of none Nor do I remember any they suffered for their Religion as tide a Consequence as T. H.'s used to be It 's true they shared in the unavoidable Calamities of War but that is not to our Business Other stories mention a Tolleration among them and that they liv'd peaceably in their several ways Again if I may draw Consequences also it 's as probable they were wicked men as good notwithstanding their Profession and their fine name For nothing is more common than for the worst men to get the best names The Pharisees name was as full of Holyness as the Sadduces of Justice and yet were the vilest men in those times But suppose some particular Sadduces should rather suffer death than deny their Notions this would be no better proof than if you had brought some high Spirited Gallant who will out brave death for a point of Honour Besides there is no Confession of theirs now extant and we know what it is to take one at anothers hand nor doth Josephus make all of them so to hold Your other Testimony is of the Esseans And you bring some of Josephus his words saying That notwithstanding they denyed the Resurrection of the Body yet they could not be forced to revile their Law Maker but scofft at their Tormentors and joyfully yielded up their Souls as though they hoped to receive them again And so indeed they did hope for in the same page saith Josephus It was an Opinion among them that the Body is corruptible but yet the Souls remain for ever immortal And that when they are delivered out of these carnal bonds then presently as freed from a long bondage they joyfully mount aloft the good to felicity the bad to misery Now why would you conceal this did you think I would trust you No you knew this confirmed what I had said That the Quakers exposing themselves to this lifes miseries was a plain Demonstration they owned a better being hereafter But you serve Josephus as you serve me either take no more than serves your turn or stop where it makes an ill sound to the Reader Mind your dealing in pag. 63. where you bring in my Answer thus But suppose they should tell us this very Body shall not rise what care I Is this a handsome place to stop at or just to do so What will a hasty man be ready to say when he reads this surely this is a careless man indeed he cares not whether his Body rise or not And so may take pett read no farther and then what reports must I expect Sir this is not Christianity nor Paganism in the best sence Such devises as these will do you no service in the end tho for a time they may bring Scandals upon Quakers and all that desire their Toleration You know the whole Sentence is this But suppose they should tell us this very Body should not rise what care I so long as they tell me I shall have a better And Sir when you hear of any Beggar that rails upon another for taking away his earthen Pitcher after he has given it him again turn'd into Gold then will I repent of this carelessness Your last and greatest Argument to prove your Notion about the manner of the Resurrection you would have grounded upon Reason A thing I confess I love so deerly that I dayly pray to be delivered from Unreasonable men for all men have not Faith 2 Thes 3.2 whence I conclude that an unreasonable Faith commonly produces the worst sort of unreasonable works that is Conscience Persecution But to your Argument which you say is highly rational the substance whereof is That if the Body be a partaker of the Sin it should also partake of the Punishment But the Body is a partaker of the Sin therefore This I think is your sence for these are your words It s absurd to imagine that one Body should commit the sin and another Body that never sinned be punisht To this then I answer that the Minor is defective For in this you suppose that the Body is a part of man capable of Action or Passion without or distinct from the Soul and if it were so I confess you are in the right But it 's no such matter This should have been proved but I fear it 's too Philosophical for you This Body is but a piece of Animated Clay and can do nothing and is good for nothing without the Soul See Dr. More on the point The evil Spirit cares not for it if he did he would not let Witches and Reprobates be burned But he knows they shall have such a body at the Resurrection as is more fit for his purpose in which the Soul like Perillus in his Brazen Bull may be tormented for ever So on the other hand though you say it 's not to be allowed never fear it I 'le venture my eternal life upon it that none will disalow of the Change of their vile bodies when they see them fashioned
like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ The text you bring makes against you I grant the end of the Resurrection is That we might receive a reward according to the deeds none in the Body 2 Cor. 5. But it doth or say we shall receive the reward in the same Body wherein the deeds were done No the Apostle tell us in the same Chapter that this House or Tabernacle meaning his Body was but a groaning Burthensome thing and desired to be cloathed with that House which is from Heaven suppose a poor Tenant in a thackt Cottage should do his Landlord such faithful Service that at length he should take him out of that Cottage and Seat him in one of his best Buildings and therein reward him for his former Service do you think this will not be allowed or is this to deny rewards But you say you cannot possibly understand that the Quakers intend the same Resurrection the Apostle doth in 1 Cor. 15. I believe you For there is a veil over your Understanding which all your Wisdome cannot remove the Lord remove it And the Quakers may say the like to me for they believe some five things perhaps which yet I cannot possibly understand What then shall I speak evil of that I know not no let us wait in the Spirit of Love and Meekness and God shall reveal to us whatsoever he sees necessary for us in his own time Thus Beloved Friends I have given you and all that please to read me a faithful account why I writ that little Book called The Twelve Pagan Principles and the Reasons of that Title together with those Considerations which in my understanding ought in some measure to calm the passions of those who at first sight of those Charges thus seperated from all Sayings that might help them have been hasty to condemn the Quakers upon their account And that I intended nothing but to beget at least a moderate Language and Behaviour and to stir up others to the same work methinks the great condiscending and little better than beseeching way of Arguing I us'd might convince even W. R. himself Had I come forth with a Resolution to help the Quakers to a Victory though more than I think them sufficient to their own defense and that their Adversaries have both wanted and fallen into a confederacy I would not have talked at that submissive truckling rate of putting in or taking words out of their Sayings to facilitate their being understood No I would have betook my self to the more laudable Sanctuary of Rhetorick especially at a Pinch as W. R. doth page 37. where Figures honourable among some men lie ready to overturn these Charges with little trouble if better Reason had been wanting But W. R. himself satisfies you that my Pen was indifferent notwithstanding he would have me a Quaker for he says all along my Book that I have cleared T. H. of Forgery then I hope T. H. his Party cannot be angry And on the other side the Quakers making no complaint signifies they are not offended with what I writ And if this be not Indifferency there 's none in the world I have heard as if he commended the endeavours of that Quibbling Author of the Quakers Quibbles and that as an indifferent Pen if so he shews great blindness that faults me of Partiality I am of that mind had W. R. been guided by this Loving Meek and Peaceable Spirit of Christ when he began to write he might have expected a Blessing upon his Labours but let him know assuredly that while he is a Promoter of these unprofitable and dishonoarable Disputes the Lord will not hear his Prayers FINIS NOtwithstanding the manifest Innocency of my Purpose and Innosensiveness of my words yet hath W. R. published an abusive Letter to which he might very pertinently if he knew all have annexed one Line of his Title page saying Is this thy kindness to thy Friend I shall give you an account of the Principal matters in the Letter relating to my self but say nothing of the latter part of it which is all in praise of him to whom it was sent and smells too much of daubing and design Some Animadversions upon a Letter sent from D. R. at Reading to J. I. as London concerning W. L. IN my Account hereof I shall observe this Method 1. I shall tell you the Occasion of it 2. Somthing of him that Subscribed it 3. Of the matter contained in it concerning my self 1. The Occasion was briefly thus I the said W. L. being at the Barbican Meeting Oct. 9. and with grief of heart observing through the unfair carriage of some how unprofitable it was like to be to the People the generality of whom also not shewing that Reverence to the matter treated on though of a Religious nature and regard to the desires and Intreaties of those chiefly concerned that became the weight of the affair I sent a Letter to J. I. bewailing this and some other unchristian Passages at that time In this Letter upon the account of former familiarity yea and Church Society never before but now disowned I called him Brother as we usually did when we met But at this time it happened to be offensive A little while after I writ the Treatise mentioned in the beginning of this In one place of that Discourse I blamed T. H. for leaving out a Sentence of W. P.'s which explained his meaning in the matter of that Charge This thing G. W. taking notice of bids the Baptists consider how I their Friend and Brother had rebuked T. H. Now began ill blood to stir For some Baptists observing the Quakers to lay some weight upon this Brotherhood thought it greatly concern'd them to cancel that Nay W. R. is so troubled at it that in his passion he says I am a Quaker and concludes p. 53. that I avoid the name only that I might be serviceable in propagvting their Cause which is utterly false For though Paul made it a motive among the simple Idolatrous Athenians so perhaps it may be now among some poor weak People to tell them of their own Poets yet I do not believe Examples of this kind are of any force now meerly as such among those that are impartial and but of an ordinary Capacity However because I had endeavoured to procure any Charity for the Quakers it must be published that I am no Baptist to let all know that no real Baptist will offer to speak a word for a Quaker But I hope they are mistaken In order to this some sent down into the Country where I live and had a Certificate that I had not been in Communion with the Baptists here this seven years past And though this was as much as was needful to satisfie the Quakers that they might not call me a Baptist any more yet this did not answer the Design of some This Certificate was too fair clean I must not go off so They wanted