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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54003	A just rebuke to one & twenty learned and reverend divines (so called) being an answer to an abusive epistle against the people call'd Quakers subscrib'd by : Thoman Manton, Thomas Jacomb, John Yates, John Sheffield, Anthony Palmer, Thomas Cole, Thomas Doelittel, Richard Baxter, William Cooper, George Griffith, Matthew Barker, John Singleton, Andrew Parsons, Richard Mayo, Thomas Gouge, William Jenkyn, Thomas Watson, Benjamin Needler, William Carslake, Stephen Ford, Samuel Smith / by William Penn.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1674 (1674)	Wing P1131; ESTC R208998	24,420	33

A JUST REBUKE TO One Twenty Learned and Reverend DIVINES So called Being an Answer to an Abusive Epistle against the People call'd Quakers subscrib'd by Thomas Manton Thomas Jacomb John Yates John Sheff●eld Anthony Palmer Thomas Cole Thomas Doelittel Richard Baxter William Cooper George Griffith Matthew Barker John Singleton Andrew Parsons Richard Mayo Thomas Gouge William Jenky● Thomas Watson Benjamin Needler William Carslake Stephen Ford Samuel Smith By William Penn. Quid enim iniquius quam ut oderint homines quod ignorant etiam si res meretur odium Tertul. Apologet. The Lord frustrateth the Tokens of the Stars and maketh Diviners mad that turneth wise Men backward and maketh their Knowledge foolish Isa. 44.24 2● Printed in the Year 1674. A JUST REBUKE TO One and Twenty Divines So called c. THe CAUSE of the GOD of TRVTH hath rarely wanted the Endeavours of men of greatest Power and Literature in almost every Age to slander it nor the constant Adherers to it contumelious Treatment for their Integrity No Virtue hath been so Conspicuous no Quality so Great no Relation so Near as to protect them from the Fury of blind Tradition and prejudic'd Education But as this ought not to discourage any that pursueth so Good and Heavenly an Interest especially when the Invincible Faith Patience and Hope of those Holy Ancients that so heartily espoused it stand before us as so many bright Examples and Encouragements so neither have the many and great Attempts of Men of divers yea opposite Interests to render us Vnfit for the Earth and what in them lyeth to invalidate our Claim to Heaven abated one Grain of our Love to Confidence in and Zeal for that worthy Cause And Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ their Essayes have been Insuccessful their Designs frustrated and not one of their Weapons form'd against our Sion hath yet prospered But Crescit sub pondere Virtus These very Sufferings God hath turn'd to our Enlargement daily rewarding our Tribulations with Patience and our Conflicts with Joy in the Holy Ghost fulfilling to us that comfortable Saying of the Apostle All things shall work together for good to them that love him Having this Encouragem●nt from God what Injury soever we sustain from Men well may we say with that Kingly Prophet Whom should we fear Of whom should we be afraid With that Godly Resolution which becometh the Justness of my Cause I enter upon my present Work and first of the Occasion We have been long threatn'd with a Report of the joynt-Endeavours of many Minist●rs which rais'd several into an Expectation of some notable Piece some grave and moderate Disquisition of what had been as frivolously as fouly mannaged by our other petulant Adversari●s that the Controversy so long depending might terminate with some Advantage to such as had made any sober Enquiry after it but we had no sooner received and lookt into the Book then we saw our selves under a very great Di●appointment for instead of some New Essay behold an Old Discourse new vampt or a new Impression of a Book twice largely consider'd and some think effectually Answer'd I mean John Faldo's Quak●rism no Christianity but now recommended as the Title-page tells us by the Epistles of many Learned and Worthy Divines But since it hath pleased so many Persons under that Character to fall in with his Di●course against us to Commend it so highly Recommend it so earn●stly and bestow so liberal an Elogie on him that wrot it I think I may without any the least Injustice look upon them as Authors of this Impression and consequently by espousing his Endeavours R●sp●nsible to the People call'd Quakers for all those Miscarriages therein rightly chargable by them upon him And I no waies doubt through God's Assistance to evidence their Concern in this Affair to carry with it an utter Inconsistency with that Superbe Title they have either given themselves or the Author or Book s●ller conferr'd upon them for the good turn of their so seasonable Epistle viz. LEARNED REVEREND and WORTHY DIVINES Words that make a fine Jingle and please and blow up Vain People at a strange rate The first Paragraph of their Epistle is a great Truth both worthy of the Minds of good Men and necessary to be consider'd at any's Entrance into the Judgment of another's Cause It runs thus One and Twenty Divines That as God is the Wise Distinguisher of Good and Evil and so loveth the Good in any as not to abate his Hatred of their Evil and so hateth the Evil as to love all that is Good So is it no small part of the Wisdom and Integrity of his Servants to Imitate him herein and not like Men blinded by Partiality to just●fie all in those whom they like and Vilifie all in those they d●slike c. W.P. One would think by this that you had Imitated God in your Conduct towards the Quakers and doubtless you writ it that those that read it should think so but why I know not unless because you looking upon your selves his Servants such ought to do so or else to give greater Credit to your Work then your selves perhaps believe it deserves But let us hear what Use you the great Men of Vses make of this Introduction I find it in the next Paragraph in these Words One and Twenty Divines This Justice we must and will observe towards this People called Quakers The Fear of God and Love of Truth forbids us to render them Worse or Better then they are W.P. Better there is little Fear you will You may turn Pelagian in the Case and exclude all Divine Assistance for I hope none are so ignorant in this Age as to think that Men of your Stamp need special Grace to keep you from the Sin of rendering the poor Quakers Better then they are How much Worse will be the Question I confess you say fair but what if you break your Word with us Must not your Censure of us fall upon your own Heads And will it not be reasonable for us to interpret your Use of so true an Expression to be a Trick to decoy People into a Belief that you had taken right Measures of us whilst you have really dealt most unjustly with us Let me a little expostulate with you in this Matter You have either read or not read the Book ye recommend If you have not read it certainly you have done very Ill to recommend it since you know not what you recommend which is not to Imitate God or do the Quakers Justice If you have read it you manifestly entitle your selves to all the Evils of it Again since the Strength of the Book depends upon Testimonies out of our Writings either you have compared his Citations with the Books themselves or ye have not if you have not and I am apt to think that 's your Case you commend him and condemn us by rote If you have compared and considered

Christians and that Christians while such may be judicially deserted of God and hived by the Divel Methinks such Contradiction becometh not Men of your Style and Pretences But tell me why are we judicially deserted of God Is it not because we have judiciously deserted you And don't you therefore say we are hived by the Devil because we will not let you hive us speak Truth Fain would you have it according to the old Proverb as your Bell tinketh the poor Quaker thinketh But blessed be God his Grace has made us wiser then such Teachers we know the Heavenly Voice of our spiritual Shepherd and can no more suffer our selves to be carried away with a Worldly Ministry and that I aver to be such which is not founded upon the Revelations and internal Motions of God's Holy Spirit a Principle you do in the Person of your Reverend Author J. Faldo not only deny but deride who is so far from shewing any Infidelity amongst us that his Book is but a Proof of his own Injustice and not that our Principles but his corrupt Consequences contradict the Essentials of Christianity This is an Inadvertency in you that well deserves as my Reproof so your Repentance But to your next Passage One and Twenty Divines And the Truth is excepting some Jugling Socinianiz'd Persons or Papists that assume their Name there are few of them who are Men of so much Vnderstanding and Consistent Principles as to be Able and Willing to give a Methodical and Intelligible Account what they themselves or their Party hold W.P. A quick Way to do a Quakers Business at once He must either be an Ignoramus a Socinian or a Papist chuse him whether if an Ignoramus he is laught at if a Socinian or Papist he is hated Doth this flow from the Beeishness of your Nature Jugling Socinians Papists or Ignoramus's These Expressions do not quadrate with the Titles of L●arned and Reverend Divines What is it but to tell us you resolve to render the Quakers odious and if they have nothing of themselves you will adapt any thing that is hateful of other Perswasions into theirs that you may bring them into Suspicion and Abhorrence with your People However you are so constant to contradict your selves that you grant to some of us both an Ability and Willingness to render a Methodical and an Intelligible Account of what we and our Friends believe after having rated us for designed Obscurities and affected Vnintelligibleness But that I may not leave you so let me tell you first that both Socinians and Papists have written and that with Severity against us next The Labours of no Adversary hath had more grateful Acceptance in the Thoughts of your Reverend Author J. Faldo then a noted Socinian of whose Attempt he speaks thus I resent it as one of the best and most ingenuously mannaged that ever I read against that Sort of People meaning the Quakers He also both in his first Book and in his Vindication as heartily advocates the Cause of a Socinian against me as if he had been doubly feed to the Work Besides all this we have been of late both publibkly and vehemently yet groundlesly exclaimed upon for denying the Man Christ Jesus and asscribing the Christship to the Divinity alone and you know the Socinians own him to be but a bare Man and that some of our eminentest Adversaries in that Controversie were assisted by Socinians I am able to prove But to what Pitch of Inconsistency may not the Pride Passion and Prejudice of Men raise them You think it enough to do our Business to pin the Pope at our Tail but you may remember how unjust you thought such Suggestions from some of the former Prelates of the English Church who made the same Use of your Separation and as well as you Presbyterians Independents agree against us both of you have mutually Jesuited one another the Refuge of Malice when drove to a Pinch To conclude I must tell you we are neither Socinians nor Papists and I do hereby require at your Hands to produce one Socinian or Papist that goes under the Name of a Quak●r among us till when you remain under the Just Imputation of Slanderous Persons But let us see what is next One and Twenty Divines Divers Honest W●ll meaning and Ignorant Persons have fallen in with the Quakers supposing them by their plain Habit Austerity and rude Deportment to be the strictest and therefore the Holyest Sort of Professors And thu● seeing no farther they become Quakers from the same Principles in the main and from the same Dispositions as the more Ignorant Votaries among the Papists are Carthusians Franciscans and other such like Monks and Nuns W.P. I would fain ask you if you can yet think your selves Men of Charity You elsewhere say we want it at this Rate we may do so for all you Behold the Brand you set on every Soul that leaves you Can you satisfie your Consciences that you have herein shown the Justice you promised us in describing the Quakers or Imitated the Rectitude of God in the Measures you have taken of us Truly if you can they are greatly to be suspected Give us one Instance of any Honest or Well-meaning Person that for the sake of those outward Appearances became a Quaker which in other Terms is to expose themselves to the bitter Anathema's of such High-Priests as your selves the Severity of their dearest Relations the Penalties of Magistracy and to the general Reproach of the Multitude Methinks upon second Thoughts you should not have such good ones of your selves and such bad ones of your Neighbours But though you take so little Care of being tender nay Just to us yet you should be more circumspect for your selves You tell us in the Person of J. Faldo That the Quakers deny to perform any Thing relative of Religion bu● upon Inspiration or Motion of the Spirit And you all know or may know the Papists turn not Carthusians Franciscans c. upon such Pretences or as being so disposed You or your People have affirmed That they by such Works think to merit Eternal Life Whether it be true or fal●e let them look to that sure I am that such as say Those Works are my Works and that upon my Principle who otherwhile tells the World That I admit of no Work in Religious Matters but by the Impulse of God's Spirit contradict themselves to purpose and that you have done Popery brought into Company with what you call Quakerism doth your Work with some of your Vulgar but your Comparison had shown less of Envy if you had pleased to produce those Principles and describe those Dispositions you unworthily insinuate Quakers and Monks in common to be acted by But methinks your frequent frothy Reflections upon our Deportment as Monk●sh and Cynical c. look more then ordinarily ugly from the Mouths of such as profe●s themselves to be of the Race and Stock of Ancient Puritans whose little

Bands cropt Lock● exceeding plain Apparel severe Aspects with many more Instances of Preciseness and Austerity as you call it were the Subjects frothy Minds play'd upon You do not think B. Jonson acted like a Christian-Man in his Comical Representation of Puritans yet your selves call'd Learned and Reverend Divines have shown as much Injustice though it may be one and Twenty more of you could not show so much Wit It is known to God with what Sincerity we are acted in Obedience to the Convictions of his own Spirit and that it is not Affected Singularity but Real Conscience that engageth us to those things you make the Subject of your Mo●kage and Contempt and God hath to reckon with you for the Liberty you give and your People take To indulge them in that Vnchristian Latitud● and fling Monkish Aust●rities upon us who through Fear of offending Almighty God by giving Way to a Worldly Appetite conscientiously live under s●me more then ordinary Restriction is to deal deceitf●lly with them and injuriously with us and God will judge for these Things The Truth of the Matter is you are Angry the People can live without you and rack your Wits to bring that Principle People and Way into Suspicion and Hatred whose self-Denyal judgeth you and yours your Interest in People stands in that which when the Everlasting God shall terribly shake all Things will fall and such as have vainly conceited themselves Christians upon your Character they will be found without their W●dding-Garment But the Truth is nothing is well with some Men that a Quaker doth if he be retired he is sullen if plain in his Apparel Cynical if careless about Salutation Proud his Industry must be Worldly-Mindedness his Mod●rate Vses of Imjoymens Penuriousn●ss his Hospitality Fl●sh-Pleasingness his being at a Word a Decoy for Custom and a New Way of Cheating if he refuse to answer any Questions relating to Religion eit●er he can give no Account of his Religion or he he holds some Error he is afraid to discover if he doth answer them either it is Nonsense or Equivocation In short his Virtues must be Vi●es but thi● is his Resolution if to be as he is be to be Vile he will be more Vile and I doubt not but God will plead our Cause against you and evidence to you and all Men that we have not pursued Cynical Singularities nor Affected undue Separation but with Holy Fear and Sincerity of Soul have been herein resign'd to the Good-Will of God as he hath made it known by the Light of his Son in our own Consciences and this I affirm that all those Endeavours many vigorously employ to vilifie an Inward Principle and disswade Persons from believing in it waiting upon it and being guided by it center in the rankest Atheism because the Sence and Influence upon the Mind is the most sensible express and constant Argument for God and his pure Religion which lost makes Way for Infidelity But as in Point of Doctrine so in Conversation you believe we are not all alike your Words are these One and Twenty Divines And yet some of them being Rich and grown into Estates in the World can and do live in as Flesh-pleasing Fulness Splendor and indulging to a sensual Life as others whom they have condemned W.P. I would willingly know these Persons who they are and where they live Did you love Truth and your own Credit ye would scarce be so lavishing of your Words You say We condemn all but our selves what is the Consequence but this if you speak true That there is not a Person in the World that is not a Profest Quaker who either hath more Ability to-live Flesh-pleasing or that actually doth indulge himself more to a Sensual Life then some Quakers can and do Which way to save your Credit I know not unless you make it appear that the Quakers are both as Rich as other Men and as indulgent to themselves in all sensual P●easures I perceive rather then the Quakers shall want Faults you will make some for them a Practice very unfit for One and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines But to do you right you are kind in your Cruelty you provide against believing what you say by saying what is incredible of us I shall now consider your Recommendation of his Book One and Twenty Divines Wherein the Quakers Principles are more thorrowly investigated then in any Book which we have seen and we judge it for Matter Proof and Style to be especially useful for those who need or desire Information concerning the Quakers and their Principl●s W.P. Had we no other Weapon this were enough to Wound your Cause incurably for first he hath laid down about 20 Principles in the Quakers Name 18 of which are not only None of theirs as so exprest but not so much as by Consequence That they are none of ours it is enough we say so unless our Faith is not to be taken at our Mouthes but at our Adversaries He that tells me I believe that which I do not believe is either Foolish or Dishonest and his Confutation is not of me but of himself That they are not our Principles by Consequence I have abundantly proved both in my Answer and Rejoynder However Matter Proof and Style you commend it for The Matter of it lyeth in the Proof of it What Proof and what Style I am willing to shew you and first as to Proof Who would not think it excellently performed that hath such an Epistle and so subscribed on Purpose to recommend it But that so many Men with such fine Titles may ●e guilty of great Mistake and Abuse I will produce you Ten Instances of Notorious Perversion any one of which were unworthy even of such poor Heathen as ye think us to be referring you to my Answer and Rejoynder for a more compleat Detection of his Miscarriages 1. John Faldo affirms That W. Smith had not one Exhortation to read the Scrip●ures nay that the main Design of the Book was to deny them and throw Dirt upon them yet J.F. cites him concerning the Scriptures thus Child Then the Scriptures are to be own'd and believed c Father Yes They are to be OWN'D and BELIEV'D and they that do not so are to be DENIED Observ. Can any thing be more inconsistent then your Reverend Author Is it this sort of Proof you commend Can you think this the Way to convert such Infidels as you deem us to be To this let me add another notable Passage in the same Discourse he faults with Dirting and Denying the Scripture Quest Of what Service are the Scriptures as they are given forth and recorded without Answ. MUCH EVERY WAY unto those that have receiv'd the same Spirit from whom they were given forth for unto such they are PROFITABLE and MAKE WISE unto Salvation and are unto them of Service for INSTRUCTION EDIFICATION and COMFORT Obs. Is there no Exhortation lodg'd in

these words And is this to Deny or throw Dirt upon the Scriptures If any shall object W. Smith's making the Spirit necessary to the profitable Reading of the Scriptures let them go to W. Tindal J. Bradford Bp. Jewel J. Philpot Luther Calvin Peter Martyr and others they will preach them the same Doctrine which I have observ'd in my Rejoynder and may easily be found in my Catalogue of Authors 2. My second Instance shall be this That he maketh W. Smith call the Scriptures Traditions of men Earthly Root Darkness Confusion Corruption All out of the Life and Power of God which he only asscribed to degenerated Men their Worship Imaginations and Traditions Shall this be call'd Proof or Perversion Doubtless a Proof of nothing but of that hateful sort of Perversion 3. That the Quakers understand by Knowledge according to the Flesh the Vse of the Vnderstanding though sanctified which is also a grofs Abuse both of our Words and Sense 4. That I. Penington should call Visible Worship as such the City of Abomination This is a downright Forgery and your Praise of his Proof makes you Accessories Look on it as you will 5. That by Traditions of Men we understand the Scripture or written Word A base Abuse of our Words 6. That the Quakers mean by the Vail that is over People their Belief of the Man Christ Jesus born of the Virgin Mary to be now existing in Heaven An Impiety of ●is own Inventing and your Approving 7. From W. Smith's saying that the present Practice of the Sacraments as Baptizing with a Cross and counting the Bread and Wine the Flesh Blood of Christ arise from the Pope's Invention You in the Person of John Fal●● give out That W. Smith calls the Lord's Supper the POPE's INVENTION At this rate what will your Testimony be worth Little certainly with such as know Good Coyn from B●d 8. From Edw. Burrough's making the Light of Christ within to be One in Nature with the Spirit of Christ J. Faldo infers That the Quakers hold the Soul to be God as if that had been said of the Soul which was said of the Light of Christ shining in the Soul or that they were Synonymous What cannot a Man of his Skill in This black Art do yet this is your own Reverend Author who for his Proof against the Quakers is not a little in your Books 9. Because G.F. rejected that carnal Notion that confines the Infinite Omnipresent God to a Residence only above the Stars he makes no Difficulty of inferring That we deny the Manhood of Christ Jesus As Absurd as Base 10. From our affirming that such a kind of Reading of Scripture as the Pharisees us'd and to those Ends makes men harder to be wrought upon to true Conversion then the Heathen John Faldo infers That reading the Scriptures and getting Knowledge thence puts men into a worse Condition then the Heathen and that there is scarcely any thing more Dangerous then reading the Scriptures Yea he accuses us of Charging the Miscarriages of mens Souls on the Knowledge the Scripture BY GOD's BLESSING doth convey Behold at what rate your Reverend Author hath investigated our Principles you have said truely in saying he did it throughly for he hath scarcely toucht any Thing that he hath not throughly abused yet this is the Man whose Attempts so obnoxious as you see you have adventured to commend You say you judge it among other Things for the PROOF of it to be especially useful for those who desire Information concerning the Quakers and their Principles That ever Men of your Age Experience and Reputation should precipitate themselves into any Thing so foul and scandalous Can you believe this is Imitating God and being Just to the Quakers I hope your Condition is not yet so dangerous I think fit further to add for the Information of the Ignorant that J.F. began with us in this Book call'd Quakerism No Christianity I answered him in a Book entituled Quakerism a New Nick Name for Old Christianity against this he put forth his Vindication unto which I made my Rejoynder consisting of TWENTY THREE CHAPTERS in which I vindicated our Principles stripping them of those frightful Vizards and hateful Disguises he put upon them confirmed them by many Scriptures and Reasons and to compleat our Defence produced in favor of the whole above TWO HUNDRED TESTIM●NIES out of both ancient and modern Authors Besides all this I faulted his Conduct and Behaviour in this Controversie in above FOUR HUNDRED PARTICULARS and that under distinct Sections None of which hath he taken notice of how much soever it stood his Credit upon but after his own Proof of his Books wanting a Vindication he reprints it to consummate the Controversie To me it is a manifest Token that the Man hath gotten to a Ne plus ultra therefore goes back again and doubtless were not his Cause deeply sunk it should never need the Help of One and Twenty Divines and those term'd so Learned and Reverend as you are to recover it and yet you see at what a Rate you have performed your Task We have Hopes you will be better advised the next Time I am sure your Circumstances need it And that you have as well abused us in your STYLE as Proof and therefore proportionably deferve the Censure of Impartial Readers I shall produce some Instances out of your Epistle and his Book I may say yours for ye have made it so by adopting it First In your Epistle A strange Sort of People preach another Gospel and endeavour to seduce well-meaning Souls Poison of their Anti-fundamental Doctrines Infidelity among them Jugling Socinianized Persons Papists Carthusians Franciscans and other such like Monks and Nuns Judicially deserted of God arrived to Pride and Ignorance seek Back-biting Reviling and Reproaches nauseous Conceitedness Deluded Souls Barbarous Language Pittiful Ignorance No Christians subverting Christianity Wasps of Satan's Hiving This is the Language of your own Epistle that do not love Reflections nor Railing if we will believe you Now for the Style of your Reverend Author in his Books whom you would have us believe is a Friendly Person to the Quakers Of our Light Ignis fatuus the second Anti-christ the Quakers Idol Pernicious Guide and Saviour Fancyful Teacher And in his Vindication A Sord●d Sinful Corrupt and Ridiculous Thing Of our Religion and Friends Quakerism made its Way by and began in Blasphemies against the Lord Jesus Christ Quakerism entered the World as if Hell were broak loose and Possessions of Satan were to make Way and fit Souls for the Quakers Spirit Blasphemy and Idolatry Our Friends Quakers so called Dark-Lanthorn-Men being hid with Palpable Knavery and Impudence Absurd and Blasphemous Idiots Prodigiously Wicked Oh the Hell-Dark Expressions of the Quakers Preachers speak the Amazing Delusions of Satan And in his Vindication A Presumptuous and Blind Accuser a Sophister an Haman