the Scriptures within their Teacher within They stil say The Scripture was not the Word of God the Scripture is but a dead Letter they have no need of Paper-Teachers having the spirit that gave it forth Yea as the Papists say if the Scriptures were lost and burnt out of the world the spirit within them could give new Scriptures T is true the Quakers in this Dispute professed to be tryed by the Scriptures which the first Quakers among us wholly denied but only by the Spirit within them But what avails this Confession Is it not but a subtle trick of Equivocation when stil they profess to owne G. Fox all along and he professeth the Soules of all men to be a part of God and the divine Essence and that their is no distinction between God Christ and Spirit and themselves what should hinder but that the Scripture is but a dead Letter and compared with their spirit a weak and needless Paper unto them that hath such a light and Spirit within to guide them I told them before and now that there was an Irish Papist in the late warrs that spoke the very heart and soul of Iews Papists and Common Protestants and the Quakers themselves as to the holy Scriptures In plundering and rifling a Protestants house he found a Bible and flung it in the Kennel and kickt and trod upon it saying The plague of God take this Book it is the cause of all these Quarrels My Opposite said they owned the Scriptures in their place as a Declaration of the Saints Conditions Iohn Burnet took a Bible and read publickly that Passage in Luke 1. where Luke calls his Writing a Declaration I urged that this will of God for this Declaration of what Christ said and did and of all the rest of the Scripture was a Declaration and Revelation of Gods Will to his People and to the whole World this written and revealed 90 will of God I said was the Judge and Decider of all Questions the tryer of all Spirits all Religions all Churches all Doctrines all Opinions all Actions They answered they did owne the Scriptures and would be tryed by the Scriptures which is a new trick meaning according to their own not to be questioned Interpretations I urged that they set up their Spirit above the Scriptures fathering all their Revilings Cursings and Abominations upon the holy Spirit I asked whether they owned the Scripture as the square Rule or Guide according to whose sentence all the Knowledge of God and of our selves the Knowledge of Gods Worship and Service and our own Blessedness and Salvation was to be determined yea and the Spirit within them to be tryed determined approved and condemned also They still fled to this Burrough the Spirit that gave forth Scripture is greater then the Scripture the spirit is in us that Spirit only opens the Scripture the Spirit is immediate and infallible and they only who have this Spirit know the Scriptures I answered that I maintained the inward breathing of the holy Spirit more than themselves for I quoted before Luke 11. viz. that we ought in all our Preachings Hearings Readings Prayings c. to beg the help of the Spirit called the Finger and Power of God and yet I also maintained that this Record this Word Will or Mind of God written and pen'd by chosen Pen-men as Pens in the hand of his holy Spirit and so miraculously preserved from the Rage of the Devils fiery Instruments Babilonian Assyrian Romane and Popish Tyrants and that much among the Jewes and Papists and much by their meanes also though they hate it I say this Record is the outward and external Light Lanthorn Iudge Guide Rule by which God witnesseth himself and his Truth in the World comforteth and feedeth his saints in their Dispersions discovers and reforms the defects and wanderings of his People as in Iosiah his finding this Record and Ezekiel Iohn eating the Book out of which the holy Spirit inspired them to prophesie to Kings and Peoples c. T is true who doubts it but that God and the Spirit were before the Scriptures and so he was before the Creation before Christ Jesus was born and his Redemption actually accomplished are the works of God therefore and the several Dispensations and Institutions and Instruments of God in their several times and 91 places of any whit less power or esteem because the most holy God and his most holy Spirit were before them Iohn the Baptist saith that Christ Jesus was preferred before him for he was before him and he was not worthy to unloose the Shoe-latchet of Jesus the Lamb of God and yet for the fulfilling of all Righteousness the Lord Iesus must come to Iohn to be baptized of him and the holy Spirit of Light will declare himself to be true by the holy Scriptures and discover all other Spirits to be spurious false and Bastards and notwithstanding their cracking and prating of Light if they slight this outward standing Record and Witness of God in the World it is because there is no light in them One of these two must be done either we must subscribe to the Papists and by their pretended Spirit and Church find out and authorize the Scriptures just as the Foxians say or else we must with Luther and his Associates Calvin and his followers maintain Learning study the Scriptures search the Originals Copyes and Translations and vindicate their Purity and Perfection their Authority and sole external Direction how to judge of all pretending Christs and Prophets and Doctrines Churches and Spirits While we were thus discoursing W. Edmundson propounded this Similitude if I should write a letter to a friend and subscribe my name W. Edmundson doth it follow therefore that the Letter is W. Edmundsons I answer that the Quakers do affirm that the Scripture is within them what is the english of that but that the Light which they and every man in the World hath within them the Christ the Spirit which every one hath is Scripture and in a sence I said it was a Truth that W. E. his letter to his friend was W. Edm. not only a Declaration of his word mind or will to his Friend but in a respect his mind and will it self that he sent in Writing to his Friend and so the Scripture in a Sence is Gods mind and Will to us Upon this occasion I told them that the Scriptures were the Love Letters of Christ Iesus to his Church as the Love-Letters of some mighty Monarch to his Betrothed Queen or Empress they are dear not as common Paper and Ink but as the Good-Will the dearest Love and heart of the King and Emperour himself and thus are holy Scriptures highly prized and embraced and laid up in the heart and bosome of the true Children of God 92 believed listned to and followed as the voice of Christ Iesus to his true sheep and Spouse the Bastard Children and
favour of my Positions any might freely speak against them they sat in the midst of the Governour Magistrates of their Opinion and the whole Assembly of their way W. Edmundson though I. Stubs twice said in publick that I had not inter-interrupted them yet W. Edmundson would frequently and insolently interrupt me so that I was not only forced to bear patiently through Gods only help but to suppress my thoughts which here I have added in some places 8. I know that a great weight of your Opinions and Actings lye upon your believing your selves guided by the immediate Spirit of God but I believe that I have proved that it is no more the holy Spirit of God that speaks and acts in you then it was the true Samuel that spake such heavenly words in the appearance of Sam. Mantle amongst a cloud of other witnesses you shall never perswade Souls not bewitched that the holy spirit of God would perswade your Women and Maidens to appear in publick streets assemblies stark naked c. of which I have spoke more particularly in our disputations 9. It is hard to perswade a Fox or a Wolf that he is so c. or that he doth Rob or Steal or Murther it is hard to perswade a man while he dreams that he is in a Dream yea though he be a filthy Dreamer as Gods Spirit speaks In our Dreams we believe lyes and impossibilities to be true as that we are many thousand miles of that we talk with dead men c. that we are at Marriages or Burials and are Kings and Queens c. 10. All that I can hope for without Gods wonderfull mercy is to give my Testimony in my generation for as Solomon speaks of the Whore few or none of you return Yet I know Gods foundation is sure he knows who are his amongst you as amongst other perswasions I have proved and will prove if God please that spiritual Pride that is Pride about spiritual matters is the Root and Branch of your whole Religion and that the King Eternal who did cast out proud Angels out of his Palace will hardly open his Gates to proud and scornful Dust and Ashes Providence March 10. 1672 3 so called I am one of your best Friends R. W. To those many Learned and Pious Men whom G. Fox hath so sillily and scornfully answered in his Book in Folio Especially to those whose Names I have been bold to mention in the Narrativt and Apendix Mr Richard Baxter Mr Iohn Owen c. Sirs THrough your sides the Devil by the Clawes of this wily Fox hath tore at the heart of the Son of God it is no wonder then if he tear at the Heart of his Love-Letters and Institutions and the true Professors of his name who are innumerable in Abrahams Bosome and the rest travelling uprightly thither For Brevity sake I was forced to omit many excellent Passages selected by Fox out of your Writings to select short Sentences of yours unto which he gives short Answers As to matters in Difference between yourselves and me I willingly omitted them as knowing that many able and honest Sea-men in their Observations of this Sun one picture of Christ Iesus differ sometimes in their Reckonings though uprightly aiming at and bound for one Port and Harbour Eternally praised be the Father of Lights and mercyes that we are one in that most glorious ever fixed Cynosura about whom his true Prophets Messengers ever have and doe and shall move and he holdeth them in his right hand I humbly beg of you 1. That you will more and more earnestly candidly and christianly study the things that differ without reflecting upon Credit Maintenance Liberty and Life it self remembring who it was that said it He that loves his life shall lose it 2. More and more to study the Prophesies and the Signs of the Times You know when it was that sive Bishops twenty-two Ministers almost three hunared other precious Believers in the true Lord Iesus were sacrificed in the Flames for his ever blessed sake against that monstrous Man of Sin and bloudy Whore of Rome These Foxians fancy is but a feather to to those high Pico's and Tenariffs the Pope and Mahomet whom some of you may live to see flung into the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone Were it not that the infinite Compassions of Heaven had made our gracious Sovereign the Breath of our Nostrills the fiery Fornace had certainly burnt seven times hotter against Hananiah Mishael and Azariah Surely as for Conscience sake we ought to obey so sor Conscience sake we ought to be Instant and Constant at the throne of Grace for his Royal Preservation and Salvation Prov. March 10 1672 3. I am unworthy to be yours R. W. A Narration of A CONFERENCE OR DISPUTE This last August 1672 so called in the Colony of Rode-Iland and Providence Plantations in N. ENGLAND between Roger Williams of Providence who Challenged Fox by writing which followes and all his Friends then met on Rode-Iland and G. Fox withdrawing Iohn Stubs Iohn Burniat and William Edmundon three of their ablest Apostles on the other that is on the pretended Quakers Party HAving long heard of the great name of G. Fox a man cried up by the People called Quakers and having read his book in Folio some years since against as I think above six score Books and Papers written by pious and able pens against them and now this Summer hearing of his coming into these Parts of N England and the poor cheated Souls the Quakers with joy expecting his coming as the coming of an Angel of light from Heaven I read over his Book afresh as in the holy presence and eye of God with a single Eye and Heart and more clearly finding his Answers so weak and silly so Anti-Christian and Blasphemous and yet so Imperious and Scornfull so Cursing and Censorious 2 Damning and Reprobating all that bow not down to their new Upstart Image my Spirit rose up within me and I believe the holy Spirit of God in answer to my poor Petitions and Meditations resolved and quickened my Spirit to the present Undertake and Service And therefore for his most holy Names sake and the name of his most holy only begotten the true Lord Iesus the God-Man and Mediator c And for the honour of the most holy Spirit of God so horribly torn in pieces by this foul Spirit of the Quakers For the vindicating of many of the precious Truths of the old Christian purity and for the sake of so many precious Souls lying slain and bleeding before me I made this Offer following to G. Fox and any or all his Followers or Associates then together at New-port on Rode-Iland T is true G. Fox was at Providence some few dayes before and spake publickly and it was free for me publickly to have heard him and opposed him But going the last year to one of their general Assemblyes at New-Port
Appearance of it and if any of their women should so practice they should condemn it in them yet nevertheless if it should please the Lord God to stir up any of his Daughters so to appear as a Sign and Testimony against the Nakedness of others they durst not condemn it Iohn Stubs said that they did condemn all immodest Appearances in women both in Behaviour and Gestures But if God stirred them up and commanded them to this service to discover the Nakedness of others they could not but acknowledge Gods hand and submit to it And he further added that it was a great Cross to a sober womans spirit so to act as well as an affliction and suffering to her body Iohn Stubs likewise alleadged the Prophet Isaiah as also did W. E. and the Sign of the Prophet Ezekiel and Iohn Stubs read the 20th of Isa. where Isaiah was commanded to goe naked for a Sign to the Egyptians and Ethyopians to prophesie and denounce that they also should go naked with their buttocks uncovered as the words are and this is said they a proof that the People of the Lord might be stirred up by God to such actions for Signs unto others I Answered that this was in the dayes of Figures and Signs Shadows and Ceremonyes And though this was G. Fox his Answer in his Book which I had there by me yet G. Fox throughout all this his Book in Folio turns of the Allegations and Arguments of many of his Opposites with this Answer to wit The Substance is come the Body is come Christ the End of the Law the End of the Command the End of the Scriptures the End of the Prophets and of all Signs and Shadows and Figures 2. Although it were so threatned that the Ethiopians and Egyptians should so goe totally and stark Naked and that Isaiah did so which is much questioned yet it is not to be questioned but that the Egyptians and Ethiopians in their flight would cover 40 their Secret parts with the first cloaths or raggs they could get as it is no question but the Prophet Isaiah did 3. The difference of Nakedness of Mankind and Womankind is very great in all Nations The Sex of Women is more fitted and framed by God for a Covering for Retiredness and keeping at home and for Modesty and Bashfulness nor do we ever read that ever God commanded such a thing to Women or that ever it came into his heart or that ever any Godly Woman did so practice there is no shadow or colour of Proof from the holy Scripture nor from any Civill and sober People no nor from the naked Barbarians themselves who though they suffer their Male Children to go naked till about seven years old yet cover they their Females from their birth T is true it is said in Brasil and other bruitish places some Savage bruits go so but they are Canibals Men-eaters c. and other Barbarians do not so except in Drunkenness and Madness They still answered that they would not Countenance any such Practice but if the Lord God so commanded his Sons and Daughters it must be obeyed I demanded of them how it should be known that it was the voice and command of God the God of Holiness and not the command of the unclean spirit for I told them that under that Cover that one of them might be so commanded and sent of God in such a posture and behaviour amongst men why might not ten or twenty yea all the women in this present Assembly be so stirred up as it were by the Spirit of God to the horror and amazement of the whole Countrey yea of the whole World They seemed to me to be Confounded with this Argumnet and weary to hear of it and not willing to speak to it I therefore took occasion my self to say that it was true in former Dispensations The Command of God came to Abraham to kill his own Child his son Isaac and this fact enjoined him did seem as horrible unnatural and cruel as this Nakeduess of the Women unwomanly and unnatural But 1. It was in the day and dispensation of such wonderfull Signs and figurative teachings unto men And 2. I said God did furnish them with a Spirit of discerning the true dream from the false the true voice from the false the voice of God from the voice of Sathan But in our day wherein God had altered his Dispensations and Revelations which he 41 used to the Fathers and had spoken to us by his Son and had left his mind both in the old and new Scriptures or Writings We have the example and President of the Lord Iesus that is to attend to the holy Scriptures only and to use the weapon of It is written it is written against Sathans immediate Inspirations and temptations Here W. Edmondson fel into a great heat against me and said that I spoke Blasphemy in saying that Abraham and the Saints then had a way and Spirit of discerning the Spirits which we had not implying that Gods Spirit was not the same He added that I had kept them long and had proved nothing and yet we had not done with the first Position I replyed that I had produced such Grounds as should never be shaken and that I presumed did appear to the Consciences of many and I heartily desired might also appear unto their Spirits Soules and Consciences Some of the Auditors spake to this Purpose especially W. Hitchcocks who insisted upon the Water Baptisme And thus by Gods Mercy and Patience the Discourse of the first day ended which very day was notable and significant as to the created Sun in the Heavens who in the midst of our Contest was eclipsed and hid his Face remarkably and preached aloud to us that although the true Lord Iesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness do suffer in his infinite wisdom and and Patience false Christs and false Prophets and Herod and Pontius Pilate and his enemies of all sorts Iewes and Gentiles to cloud his Face and Glory a little from the World and his own People yet he will break forth again in his eternal brightness splendor and glory When that heavenly young Martyr or Witness of Iesus Christ William Hunter was burnt at Burntwood in Essex it was a close and gloomy day but this gallant young Champion of Iesus Christ crying out aloud at the stake Son of God look on me Son of God shine upon me immediately that most wonderfull Light Fire of Heaven the Sun tore the clouds and brake forth and shined gloriously aud remarkably upon the face of this blessed Witness at the suffering of the flames of fire for Iesus his truth sake against the whorshi Principles of both the Papists Quakers and thus do the holy writings tel us that this most glorious light the Sun of Righteousness visibly appeared in his glorious and glorified Form and Shape to the visible eye of his servant Steven while he
the Baptists in Newport who hearing their Clamours their only Refuge he hath proved nothing and said aloud The man hath discharged his Conscience He hath fully proved what he undertook to prove against you and the words that he hath spoken shall Judge you at the last day And thus the Father of Lights the first and last the Alpha and Omega graciously carried me through all alone these three dayes Contests as in a shadow of Death with these Deceived and Deceiving Souls through my Labours of making out my proof the burthen whereof lay wholly upon me though they had been silent through their Censures Reproaches Falling on me so many at once their Interruptions and other Disadvantages and Provocations his holy Name be ever praised and magnified 141 Our Conferences and Disputes at PROVIDENCE upon the seven other Positions mentioned in my Paper sent to G. Fox and his Associates AFter we were thus as above said parted They Remembered their Promise to me of discussing the other seven at Providence and accordingly Iohn Stubs and William Edmundson sent me a Note of their willingness to come to Providence the last day of the next week being the 17th day of the sixth Moneth called August I Returned them from the Shoar side another Note signifying that if God permitted I would then and there be ready to Receive them That day it pleased the goodness and patience of God to bring us to and being met thus at Providence I first presented them with the Letter which was sent to them and me God knows without my thought or knowledg at Newport in publick Assembled But there they thrice refused it and here at Providence William Edmundson Answers that they came not to Pro 142 vidence to hear Papers but to hear me make out my Charges against them One of my Neighbours Thomas Olny Senior an able and Leading man amongst the People called Baptists at Providence moved also for the Reading of the Letter William Edmundson said to him who art thou Art not thou a Baptist hast not thou seen it already and further said to him Thou art an Envious and filthy man upon no other Provocation but his Rational desire the Letter might be Read William Edmondson thongh he had on either side of him an able Iohn viz. Iohn Stubs and Iohn Cartwright spake all and at last was forced to say that if the Letter Contained matter tending to prove my Positions it should be read But in the End I put up my Letter again at the motion of Captain Holden of Warwick as I did at Newport in the morning of our third dayes Conference for I observed that for all their bruitish Clamour of Diana their Light or dark Lanthorn â—hey could not endure to be Informed Admonished Counselled least of all Reproved by any and I also resolved to wait upon Gods mercy for a Season of publishing it on the House Top and therefore the Reader hath it Faithfully presented in the Eighty seventh Page in the beginning of the third dayes Conference at Newport this time stood up Captain Iohn Green of Warwick one of our Magistrates who observing the Insulting Carriage especially of William Edmundson he desired leave to propose one Query which being granted he said he spake not as a Magistrate with Authority but as an Auditor and sitter by and he said I desire â—o know whether Mr. Williams be here as a Delinquent Charged to Answer at the Barr or as a Disputant upon equal Terms This Query they waved as well as they could and I waved it also and bore what seemed Intollerable to some that we might not be discouraged to go on in our business about this time Mr. Caverly of Warwick desiring leave to speak motioned for the Choice of a Moderator between us William Edmundson Answered that Roger Williams had himself pro 143 vided a Moderator and he produced and Read my Paper of Position wherein I desired that all matters might be left to every mans Conscience and Iudgement c. I knew with whom I had to deal and therefore purposely waved what ever I thought they would bogle at purposely gave them all possible Advantages c. and I humbly waited on God for patience for his sake to bear with all Inconveniences Insultings Interruptions c. and then I knew there would be no great need of a Moderator Having thus cleard the way I told them I would briefly fall on my proof of the first of the seventh Positions to be debated at Providence William Edmundson took forth his Paper and Read it viz. The People called Quakers in Effect hold no God no Christ no Spirit no Angel no Devil no Resurrection no Iudgement no Heaven no Hell but what is in man I told them that it was true that in words and Terms they professed and maintained all these as other Protestants did but if their writings were Examined and especially this of G. Fox which I had there by me it should appear that what they professed in one place they overthrew in another I told them that they had there George Fox his Book as well as I and if Iohn Stubs would turn to them I would name the Quoted Pages and read them and he might read them also I named Pag. 273. where George Fox brings in Alexander Ross saying It is horrible Blasphemy to say the Scripture is not the Word of God and to say the Soul is a part of God He Answers The Scriptures are the words of God Exodus 20. and the four Books of the Revelations but Christ is the word in whom they End And it is not Horrible Blasphemy to say that the Soul is a part of God for it comes out of him and that which comes out of him is of him and Rejoyceth in him I said here what George Fox meant by the four Books of the Revelations I knew not and if they did they should do well to declare 145 But they past it by and so did I and I insisted on the matter which was that G. Fox imagined such a God and Godhead as is partible and divisible which might be divided into parts and pieces and by this strange communication of his Essence made him dissolvable and so corruptible c. against the Purity Majesty Eternity of God For this renders the Essence or Being of God capable of falling from his purity as man hath done and doth and capable of punishment and condemnation in Hel-Fire as the Soul of man is all which and more necessary Consequences of of that opinion are horrible and blasphemous to imagine much more to be uttered of the eternal invisible and infinitely and only Wise God Iohn Stubs here read the words of G. Fox and said the reason was to be weighed which G. Fox used which was For it came out of him and that which came out out of him is of him and rejoyceth in him To this end he desired the
and having begun to present to them some Considerations about the True Christ and the false the True Spirit and the False and being cut of in the midest by sudden Prayer of one and the Singing of another and then by the Prayer of another and the sudden dissolving of the Assembly I resolved to try another way and to offer a fair and full Dispute according to Ed. Burrowes and therein G Foxes Offer in his large Epistle to Foxes Book To this Purpose I drew up my thoughts into fourteen Propositions and knowing that New-Port was the chief Town on Rode-Iland and Providence on the Main and that G. Fox had spake at both places and bewitched many with his Sorceries I sent this Paper following to G. Fox at Newport viz TO G. Fox or any other of my Countrey-men at New-Port who say they are the Apostles and Messengers of Christ Jesus In humble Confidence of the help of the Most High I offer to maintain in Publick against all Comers these 14 Propositions following to wit the first seven at New-Port and the other seven at Providence For the time When I refer it to G. Fox and his Friends at New-port Only I desire 1 To have three dayes Notice before the day you fix on 2 That without Interruption or many speaking at once the Conference may continue from Nine in the morning till 3 about four in the afternoon and 3 That if either of the seven Propositions be not finished in one day the Conference may continue and goe on some few hours the next day 4 That either of us Disputing shall have free uninterrupted liberty to speak in Answers and Replyes as much and as long as wee please and then give the Opposite the same Liberty That the whole may be managed with that Ingenuity and Humanity as such an Exercise by such Persons in such Conditions at such a Time ought to be managed and performed the Propositions are these that follow First That the People called Quakers are not true Quakers according to the holy Scriptures 2 That the Christ they profess is not the True Lord Jesus Christ. 3 That the Spirit by which they are acted is not the Spirit os God 4 That they doe not own the holy Scriptures 5 Their Principles and Professions are full of Contradictions and Hypocrisies 6 That their Religion is not only an Heresy in the matters of Worship but also in the Doctrines of Repentance Faith c 7 Their Religion is but a confused mixture of Popery Armineanisme Socineanisme Judaisme c. 8 The People called Quakers in effect hold no God no Christ no Spirit no Angel no Devil no Resurrection no Judgment no Heaven no Hell but what is in man 9 All that their Religion requires externall and internall to make Converts and Proselites amounts to no more than what a Reprobate may easily attain unto and perform 10 That the Popes of Rome doe not swell with and exercise a greater Pride then the Quakers Spirit hath exprest and doth aspire unto although many truly humble Soules may be captivated amongst them as may be in other Religions 11 The Quakers Religion is more obstructive and destructive to the Conversion and Salvation of the Souls of People then most of the Religions this day extant in the world 12 The Sufferings of the Quakers are no true evidence of the Truth of their Religion 13 That their many Books and writings are extremely Poor Lame Naked and sweld up only with high Titles and words of Boasting and Vapour 4 14. That the Spirit of their Religion tends mainly 1 To reduce Persons from Civility to Barbarisme 3 To an Arbetratry Goverment and the Dictates and Decrees of that sudden Spirit that acts them 3 To a sudden cutting off of People yea of Kings and Princes opposing them 4 To as fiery Persecutions for matters of Religion and Conscience as hath been or can be practised by any Hunters or Persecutors in the world Under these forementioned Heads if the Spirit of the Quakers dare civilly to Argue will be opened many of the Popish Protestant Jewish and Quakers Positions which cannot here be mentioned in the Dispute if God please they must be alleadged and the Examination left to every persons Conscience as they will answer to God at their own Perills in the great day approaching Roger Williams THis Paper above-said I sent inclosed in a Letter to my kind friend Capt. Cranston Deputy Governour of the Colony that being such a publick person he might timely be informed of such a publick Assembly and as also might vouchsafe as afterwards he carefully did to afford his Countenance and Assistance to such Peaceable and Pious Exercises But before the Boat went down with the Letter aforesaid from Providence to Newport I sent a Copy of my Positions to a Neighbour I T. whom I heard was inclining to them He takes a Copy of them and reads them in their Meeting before Iohn Crosman Master of the Boat one of them also who presently the same hour called me Blind Sot in the open Street upbraiding me how I durst send my 14 Lyes to such a man as G. Fox one of them called him the eternall Son of God so that before my Letter went to Newport which Crosman carried by Letters Crosman his and other Relations all was known even long before my Letters were opened or delivered to the Deputy Governour For in the Iunto of the Foxians at Newport it was concluded for Infallible Reasons that His Holiness G. Fox should withdraw seeing there was such a Knot of the Apostles of Christ Jesus now at Newport together especially Iohn Stubs a man knowing the Greek and Hebrew Therefore that it might appear that such a Nehemiah as he would not fly it was 5 agreed that my Letters should not be delivered to the Deputy Governour untill G. Fox was gone so that it might be truly said that he never saw the Paper which I sent unto him I had a touch of this Leger de main trick in our Dispute at Newport and the Deputy Governour did publickly testifie that my Letters to him were dated the 13 of Iuly which he said he wondered at but were not brought to him untill the 26th of the said Moneth and untill G. Fox was some hours departed Iohn Burniat profest that that he knew nothing of the detaining of the Letters only he knew that G. Fox never saw my Paper G. F. supposed I would be forced to be as plain in my Proofs as I was in my Positions He knew that I was furnished with Artillery out of his own Writings He saw what Consequences would roll down the mountaines upon him from his proud and Insolent yet poor and bald Writings and how far some of his present practices were fallen out with his Writings and therefore this old Fox thought it best to run for it and leave the work to his Iourney-men and Chaplains to perform in his absence for him
Christ and the materiallity of his 31 Bloudshedding This Paper they took but waved it W. Edmunson openly charged me with breach of Covenant viz. That if any would speak on my behalf they should set their hand to my Propositions T is true it was desired by one of them at my house at Providence that if any joined with me they should subscribe to my Paper But I answered that I was alone in the Business I had not consulted with any others but the God of heaven himself so that I denied vehemently that there was any such agreement or any colour for it Besides it was ridiculous to put either such a Bar and Limit upon any mans spirit and least of all upon Gods Spirit viz that no man should desire leave to object or querie c. except first he would subscribe my Proposalls But I took the boldness justly to charg them with palpable and gross Partiality viz. that W. Hitchcock and others opposing or dissenting might not speak but W. Harris W. Dyar or any favouring of them might speak without exception because all that speak for their ptetended light it must be supposed that they speak from the Spirit of God himself others out of Ignorance Malice and Envy this will appear more afterward However there were these few debates about the liberty of speech in the Auditory and By-standers and the Quakers deniall and enjoining of Subscription yet the most High Father of Spirits did so compose all spirits that it was wonderfull that such Opposites should goe through such a work and Conslict all day untill night without more Interruptions and Disturbances I was ready and waited to put forth my third Reason to prove they were not true Christian Quakers it was from Isai. 66. To this man will I look that is poor and contrite and trembleth at my Word I told them that G. Fox in his Book all along was so far from trembling at the Word of God in the holy Writings or Scriptures that he could not endure they should have that name or be once called the Word of God T is true I know his pretence that Christ Iesus is called the Word of God Rev. 19. But I know t is true also that he grants the Scriptures to be true and inspired from the holy Spirit of God and to be Gods words though not his Word Well to pass by the simplicity of the Distinction and let us take what he grants and is it not prodigious and monstrous Contempt that these holy Words this holy Book and Writing of God should be so undervalued and slighted yea vilified 32 and nullified if compar'd with their pretended new found Light within them which was say they before the Scriptures and gave forth the Scriptures and therefore was above the Scriptures and gave forth the Scriptures and therefore was above the Scriptures and therefore is not judged or tried by the Scriptures but they by it Yea and this light must be in every one of mankind in the whole World Hence it was that these holy Writings were so disused in their own private Readings in their Publick Worship and in their Families I told them God was little beholding to the Pope and the Quakers for their humble Reverence and great Affection to his holy Letters Declarations and Proclamations The Pope had his Infallibility as well as they his immediate Inspirations as well as they They both owned and yet did not owne the holy Scriptures the Pope and they only must interpret Scriptures they only give the Sence they only judge all Controversies yea they dispence with the Scriptures and if they were quite lost and burn'd and not a Copy of them left in the World yet there were no loss but a good Turn a good Riddance for then the Pope and the Quakers Infallible spirit and its immediate Inspirations would be more esteemed and set by I produced an Instance of one Thurston an Apostle of theirs who came to Providence with extraordinary long hair hanging over his shoulders It was so long that an aged Soul captivated for present amongst them the wife of C.S. demanded of him why he ware it so long since Nature it self did teach it to be a shame for a man to wear long Hair as the holy Scripture affirmed He would not say He car'd not what Nature or the holy Scriptures said but he said as much in effect as she told me her self and may with true fear and trembling still think on it viz. when that God that bid me wear it bids me cut it off the will I cut it off As if he would say what tell you us of the teachings of Nature as we see in that monstrous case of their womens Nakedness or what tell you me of Scripture I have a Light within me that made that Light was before it gave it forth is above it This mans hair was so offensive and odious that meeting of me and saying Fear the Lord God I could not but answer him in these words viz. What God dost thou mean a Ruffians God alluding to that of Paul to Titus They profess to know God but in their Works they deny him 33 I told them the rage of the Devill in all Ages had been most fierce against these heavenly Records in which the most gracious God and King out of the infinite depths of his Wisdome and Goodness had provided for the Ages and Generations to come the glorious Appearances of the eternall Invisible King in the former Generations of mankind from the Creation of the World as also the Wonders yet to be finished till time should be no more all which were in the holy Scriptures I remembred them of a profane bloudy Wretch in Ireland who in the late horrid Massacre hunting among other bloudie Wolves after the Goods and Lives of the Protestants found a Bible and with Indignation the same which I believe is in most Papists and Quakers he flung it into the Kennell and stampt upon it with his feet saying A Plague of God take this Book this hath caused all the Quarrels among us Whether I spake all these Particulars at one individuall time or Turn I cannot clearly remember only I am certain thus I spake and more My Opposites once and again had Turnes of Speech but still the only sum of all was that they owned the Scripture but yet the Spirit that gave it forth was above it withall they urged that I could not prove where in the Scripture the Scripture was called the Word of God I Answered That many things were infallibly so and true although not in so many Terms and Words mentioned But yet there were abundance of Scriptures wherin the Prophets did expresly say Thus saith the Lord The Word of the Lord came unto me and Hebr. 1. The Lord spake diverse wayes and at diverse times in the Prophets but now he hath spoken by his Son Sure his Speech is his Word
Hence the Word of God is the Word preached as Paul 2 Thess. 1. Not as the word of man but as it is indeed the Word of God Act. 19 which preaching of the Word growing of the word were not competent and proper expressions to be affirmed of the perfon of the Lord Iesus especially I told them I would use the words of the Lord Iesus when he fought with the Devil that famous Combate Math. 4. No other Weapon did he use against him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is written and again It is written It is written here Christ Iesus quotes Dut 8. Man shall not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God where Moses and Christ Iesus affirm 34 that God hath many words contrary to what some Quakers hath affirmed to me saying that God hath no more words but one and Christ Iesus here affirmeth That every appearance and providence of God is a word proceeding out of the mouth of God as well as this holy Scripture he alleadged Though yet it is true that Christ Iesus is the Word or declared Mind of God incomparably above all his spoken or written or providentiall Words and Expressions He came out of the Bosome of the Eternal Father and brought the brightest Revelations of his eternal God-head Councels and therefore is most justly and eminently stiled the Word of God I urged that the Word or Words of God were Figurative Speeches for properly God had no Mouth nor Tongue nor Lips nor Heart nor Brains c. but as our Kings Majesty his Declaration touching Religion his royal Charters his Letters from Breda are often insisted on and urged by the Quakers as the word of a King though his writings contain many hundred words so it is with the King of Heaven his Scriptures and writings c. I had oft occasion to mention G. Fox and Ed. Burrowes their Book in Folio called The great Mystery c. upon which W Edmundson reproved me for speaking of G. Fox and E. Burrowes in scorn and derision so his words were I guest he took me as if I had scornfully intended G Fox in his Burrowes but I had openly purged my self protesting before the Lord that I had no such thought yet this Passage was the occasion of the Title of the Book For the finger of Gods most wise and holy Providence is often wonderfully seen in small unexpected inconsiderable Turns and Occasions In such poor shells oftimes may be found the Kernels of rich and usefull Observations Sure thought I Gods holy Finger is in it that G. Fox and Ed. Burrowes Men so qualified and named should so notorioufly conspire against the true Lord Iesus Christ in their dark and subtle hellish Contrivings and Imaginations It was also Gods overruling hand that VV. Edmundson should so upbraid me and first put the Conceit and thought of such a Consideration into me which I apprehended as Digitus Dei the finger of God directing and pointing me to so proper and pertinent an use and Application Thus the only Wise and Righteous King catcheth the craftiest Foxes in their own Burrowes and turns their proud Surmises Censures upon their own Pates This occasioneth me with Amaze 35 ment and Astonishment to cry out O God how deep are thy Being thy Attributes thy Providences thy Self and all thy wayes beyond our thoughts and finding out To proceed I had observed and prepared many Quotations out of G. Fox his Book but they desired not to hear them read as in the following dayes of Conference they were read by my continual importunate Urgings I say at first I could not get oportunity to insist upon some Particulars a Tast whereof I think now fit to present the Reader with In Page 155. of G. Foxes aforesaid Book he brings in one I Stallam their Opposite saying To say the Light in every man gave forth Scripture and will open Scripture to us is palpable Darkness and contradicts the Scripture G. Fox answers All be in utter Darkness and know not the Scripture untill they come to the Light that every man was in that gave forth Scripture for the Light lets them see to what it was spoken and Christ the end of them The english of that Answer is That every man that is all Mankind Men and Women if they will can give forth Scriptures or write holy Scriptures I know they call this Light God and Christ and Spirit the Covenant of God the Life Truth and Grace of God I asked them in publick Since this Light comes into this World in and with all Mankind whether it comes into them at the Conception or at the Birth or when else Whether it was in all Mankind before the coming and death of Christ Iesus or whether to those that are in the world since his coming or both Whether it be in the Understanding Will Memory Affections in any of them severally or lodgd in all of them jointly For it was a prodigious Fable to imagine such a Sun to shine in every Room of an house and yet none of the Inhabitants nor any that come into the house discern and see it Christ Iesus saith as the mouth is the heart is and before a true turning unto God we are in darkness we are darkness we hate the light of God and endure not to see it but wish there were no God no Father of Lights to discover and plague us for our dark Courses yet our Hearts are so cunning and cheating that they will tell us that we have Light and Christ and God within us and that we can speak and write holy Scripture not remembring that as Christ Iesus said of the Temple our hearts are Dens of Thieves and like painted Tombs full of dead mens bones and rottenness 36 untill a second Birth by the VVord and Spirit of Christ Iesus Again in the same Page G. Fox brings his Opposite saying And to say every mans Light is the true word of Prophecy is an old Fable no man shall be able to spell out a syllable of the Gospel by all that is written in a mans Heart This subtle Fox answers The Light that enlightens every man is Christ and the sure Word of Prophecy to him he shall find it In this Passage who can but see their horrible and simple profaning and wresting of plain Scripture Is it not clear as day to him that is not willingly blind that this word of prophecy in Peter is the Word which the Prophets spake and writ of Christ Iesus unto whome the spirit of God in Peter sends us as being a more sure and convincing word to us then that voice which Peter and Iohn affirmed that they heard from heaven in the Mount of Transfiguration But thus profanely and simply do others of them affirm this Light to be that Prophet which Moses wrote of Deut. 18. whereas the holy Spirit in Stephen Acts 7. applyes expresly that
no other Presence or Absence of a Christ but invisible and Spiritual and subtilly affirms that Christ Iesus hath no bodily Presence at all in the sence which all Christians of what sort or Sect soever but these Iuglers and themselves also in word and horrible hypocrisie do acknowledg and profess In Page 10 He brings in the same Author saying Christ was not in his Disciples when he said I am the Light of the world G Fox answers And so corrected by Christ I in you and you in me Pag. 12. He brings in the same Author saying The Body of Christ is out of the sight of all his Saints G. Fox Answers they sat with Christ in Heavenly places the Saints are Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone were the Church which he is head of his Body In which I Answer and all his Book over though he own a Christ without and that died at Ierusalem in word yet he allows in effect no other Body to Christ Iesus but what is Mistical and Spiritual so that with notorious Iugling and Iesuitical Impudence they would make their simple Followers believe that they own such a Christ as shed his Blood at Ierusalem and yet leave him in his Body no more Blood to shed then is in a Spirit which hath no Bones Flesh nor Blood to shed at all Pag. 17. He brings in Enoch Howet Affirming That it is Blasphemy to say that Christ is in Man as God Man G. Fox Answers still like the Cuckow in one silly Note How are they of his Flesh and of his Bones And doth not the Scripture say Christ in you and God will dwell in you and walk in you and are not his Saints of his Flesh and of his Bones and there is one sentence added are they not partakers of the Divine Nature I Reply this Participation of the Divine Nature is saith Peter in the Saints by those precious Promises that is by receiving Christ Jesus by believing in him according to that Ephes. 3. 10. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Believing not that the Divine Being or Essence and Nature or Godhead is communicable to a finite Creature from hence these proud Simpletons fancie and some have been such bold Bayards as to say they are Christ and God as much as he that died at Ierusalem Christed with Christ and Godded with God 51 It is remarkable that Nicholas the Deacon was the Father as I believed of the old Nicholaitans and Henery Nichols in King Iames his time the Father of the new Nicholaitans in London and other places crying up their perfection their Spirituality and Godhead all leading from the purity of Gods Worship and Authority of the Holy Scripture and at last to carnal Filthiness as the Daughters of these the Ranters declare evidently This Humane Nature humane Soul and Body of Christ Jesus is so cross opposite and contrary to their new whimsical Christ Jesus the Light within them that G. Fox in all this Book cannot endure to hear of the word Humane as being a new Name and never heard of in the Scriptures As to the word Humane such an odious Word and Bugbear to G. Fox in all this Book I said in publick many Words truely and properly English were well and commendably used that were not in the Scripture in English it is true the word Humane comes from the word in Latin Humanus signifying partaining or belonging to Man so a Humane Soul or Body is no more but such a Soul or Body as all Mankinde have Hence I told them that the word Anthropinos peirasmos 1. Cor. 10. I presumed Iohn Stubs knew might have been turned Humane but is truely turned no Temptation or Trial but such as is common to Men. This Fox knows that if Christ Jesus be granted to have had such a Soul and Body as is Humane or Common to Men down falls their Dagon before the Chest or Ark of God viz. their Horrible Monstrous Idol of a Christ called Light within them We went on thus in alleadging Quotations though not in a close Examination of them which they endured not though ever and anon I made some sallies out upon them and had some Skirmishings and sometimes sharp Disputes before I would retreat from the Quotation In Pag. 282. He brings in Daniel Gaudry saying We shall not see Christ as he is until he comes to Iudgement and then and not before we shall see him G. Fox Answers You where you are see him not nor know him as he is we do believe you but the Saints the true Church whom he is the Head of in whom he is in the midst and in whom he is c. I was not desirous to trouble the Audience with more Quotations but they still urged haste thou any more hast thou any more c. upon their provocation I Quoted many more to 52 make up an overwhelming Cloud of Witnesses against these Protestant Iesuites and Iudasites Betrayers of the Son of God the true Lord Jesus Christ. In Foxes Answer to his Opposite Daniel Caudry it is clear that he affirms the contrary to his Opposite to wit that Christ Jesus is as much now seen visibly as ever he shall be seen in which I believe he speaks the heart of all the Antichristian Wolves and Foxes who quake and tremble at the thought of Christs return again to judgment and therefore these deluded and deluding Souls in their dark Prisons of willing Blindness and the hellish Chaines of the pride and hardness and security of their hearts they dream they sit in Robes of Glory themselves now keep open the high Court of eternal Iudgment and pass Sentence upon this Christ without as a poor Outside Christ and all that worship him 2. I observe in Fox his answer that he can not keep out of his Burrow of confounding a visible eye and a Spiritual a visible and invisible seing you see him not saith he where you are that is you that look upon such a real person indeed such an one born living and dying as the History sets forth you cannot see him as he is but we that look at Christ Iesus and the history of him as Mystical immediate invisible though we use to please you children and fools with the words of Christ dying at Ierusalem we see him he is in the midest of us and he is the invisible Head of the Church in God while you talk of Visibles and seing him as Visible c. In Page 276. he brings in Richard Meyo saying that he did believe in a Christ that dyed at Ierusalem and that he doth not believe in a Christ within and preach Christ within is a Reprobate Colloss 2. 2. Cor. 13. And he is not in a true Belief of Christ without that doth not believe in a Christ within but is in the Devils Belief and believes as the Devils do In this his answer an
Scriptures they produce as Christ in you except ye be Reprobates c. concern an inward invisible and Spiritual presence and yet they bruitishly cry out contrary to the Prophets Christ the Apostles 61 It comes to my mind that in reading urging some of these Passages concerning these Foxians denying the Humane Nature and Person of the Lord Iesus one of my Opposites Iohn Stubs insisted upon that 9. of Isaiah where Christ is called the Everlasting Father and yet he said He was the Son of Man born of a Woman c. I Answered the Hebrew word rendred by our Transâ—ators the Everlasting Father is Translated by some the Father of an age or the Father of Ages alluding to the great increase and spreading of Christs Name and the mighty increase of his Spiritual Seed as the Lord promised to Abraham and Isaac as the Stars of Heaven Iohn Stubs said the Hebrew word was Abi Haad c. and it was rendred Pater Eternitatis I replied that it was rendred and that more near the Hebrew Pater seculi or seculorum But I told him it was not a seasonable time and place for him and me to spend much time about the Translation of the word he said he had brought the Hebrew Bible with him and it may be he understood the Hebrew and the Greek and other Languages as well as my self and better too I was about to say that they were wonderfully altered and changed from their former principles and practises for heretofore they have professed to me that they had no need of Books no not of the Scripture it self for they had the Teacher within them that gave forth Scripture c. if now they were perswaded to study the Holy Scripture and the Translation of it and to examine the Translations and the Copies of them then they did err and sin before which they say the Saints cannot in so wonderfully neglecting and slighting them as useless and needless things Yea the truth is if their Light be so Alsufficient as they make it to bring them to Heaven to guide them immediately and infallibly c. what simplicity is it in them to stoop to Pen and Ink and mens fallible Translations yea many wayes charged with many failings I know their Pretences of becoming All to All to win the more and of removing the offence and stumbling block viz. as if they denied the Scriptures but the truth is they look at the Holy Scriptures still but as the Ceremonies which the Apostles dispensed with for a season they care no more for the Scriptures then the Papists do they are forced to make use of them for an end but all their hope is in their Interpretations which both Papists and Qua 62 kers bend their utmost to secure viz. the Priviledge of Interpretation and chair of Infallibility to themselves or else down they tumble for most sure it is the Holy Scriptures and both Papists and Quakers are at irreconcilable difference if the one stand the other must fall for ever Although I desired to finish all the first seven Positions that day and offered once or twice to proceed yet W. Edmundson especially upbraided me that I kept them long and that I proved nothing and upon a sudden a violent tumultuous disorderly Wind or Spirit filled all his Sails so that he rose up and fell into a downright Speech or Sermon to the People and Auditory and first he declared how notoriously I had wronged them in laying and publishing so many false and some of them dangerous Charges against them 2 And how they had been so long patient towards me and suffer me to produce so many Allegations out of G. Fox his Book and yet they speak nothing for me but G. Fox his words cleared him from all my unjust challenges and charges 3. He Appealed to the People how willing they had shewed themselves to own the Scriptures and to have all their Teaâ—hings and Differences tried by the Scriptures 4. He fell upon the two Hinges of all the Quakers common Discourses First An Invective against the Priests False Teacher False Apostles who had got on the Sheeps cloathing and sold the words of Scripture for their Game and Lucre and he amplified this much how all their care and study was to get a good Living or Benifice of 50. 6â— 100. or 200 pounds a year more or less and he that complained how I took up time now tediously made us all to hear a Story which he said he knew himself of one of the Priests that lived not many miles from the place where W. Edmund lived who told with his own Mouth unto William Edmund viz. how that having a good Benefice another Priest of his acquaintance came to visit him whom he entertained kindly and this his Guest told him that he was going to the Bishop of Dublin who was his Friend and the Priest the Host was afterward informed that this treacherous and ungrateful Guest did use all the art he could with the Bishop of Durham or Dublin to get his Friends that had entertained him his Living from him 2. The second part of his Sermon was as usually it is of all their Sermons an extolling and magnifying of that Light which 63 he said had appeared to him which he advanced as the Principle and the Foundation the Light c. he added how they had left all the Glory and Pleasures of the World for this Light and how they had endured and suffered much for Preaching this Light to ungodly and ungrateful men who had ill requited them for their Message and Work was only to bring good News unto them to tell them that they should be free from sin and have Christ Jesus live and dwell in them I kept silence until this famous Apostle and Preacher of Christ Iesus had done this Speech or Sermon which he said he was moved in his heart to make unto them as he often said to give an account of his Faith which he performed with very great zeal and fervency both of mind and body I had thought then to have spoke but immediately Io. Stubs stood up being moved as he said to Declare his mind and Thoughts unto the people also and so he began a large Oration Speech or Sermon also though not so long as William Edmundsons he declared how pleasant a thing the Light was and how pleasant a thing it was to behold it And he said are you angry because we bring you the Tidings of the Light This was the principle this was the Foundation of all the Light c. He added for Iohn Stubs his was but a Repetition of William Edmundsons his Sermon that they had forsaken all the Glory of Honours and Pleasures of this World for this Light and they had left their Wives and Children and exposed themselves to hard Travels and to many Hardships and Sufferings for the Light sake I heard him also patiently and gave him no
company and not before yea and what is that waiting in silence used in private and in the publick Assemblies of the Quakers but a confessed means in which they wait for the Spirit of God as poor Souls they think descending on them I was then forced to omit the Allegations out of G. Fox his book then by me and ready but I will now recite a few of them In page 6. of this Book in Folio G. Fox brings in Samuel Eaton saying The Prophets and Apostles drew people to an outward Word He Answers Now is that which lives and endures forever outward and did not they bring them to Christ the power of God which is the end of words which is immediate Again in the same Page Samuel Eaton Is not the Gospel an External way He Answers No the Gospel is a Living way which is revealed within and is the power of God to Salvation In the same Page Samuel Eaton Are not they seduced who are drawn off from the External means by which the Spirit is given and Faith wrought to wait for the receiving of the Spirit without any Word to convey it to them which Spirit when they have it is not the Spirit of Truth but of delusion For Answer The Spirit and Faith is not conveyed to any Man without the Word and they are seduced which rests in the External from the Eternal and the Spirit is not given by Eternal means neither is Faith wrought I Reply and observe how the wisdome of Men is enmity against God and how witty this Fox is to catch himself and others in the Traps of eternal Howling how doth he here confound the audible words or preachings of Gods mercy in Christ Jesus with the inaudible invisible mystical and metaphorical word Christ Jesus himself 2. Who sees not his gross and impudent denying of the Spirit and Faith to be conveyed by means from God unto us In Page 15. G. F. brings in Henoch Howet saying There is nothing in Man to be ministred to but man He Answers How then ministred the Apostle to the Spirit and Christ spake to the Spirits in Prison and Tim. was to stir up the Gift that was in him and the Spirit of the Father speaks within them and the Light shines in the Heart and the Son of God is revealed in me saith the Apostle that which may be known of God is manifest in man for God hath shewed it unto them Rom. 1. and the Apostle was 79 manifest to every ones Conscience in the sight of God and that was of God which the Children disobeyed I Reply 1. As in his late Book exalting his Heathen Light above the Holy Scriptures he simply and prophanely joyns the Philistian Priests and Egyptian Conjurers with Holy Iob and his Friends c. so here he confounds and jumbles together the natural powers and faculties and Humane Light in all Mankinde with the Grace and Spirit of God both ordinary and extraordinary as may be seen at the first view 2. His Scope is abominably and horribly to make the holy Spirit of God capable of being preached unto to be converted and turned unto God yea to refuse and be damned for it is not Man he saith that is preached unto 3. How Sottish and Blind doth this Deceiver proclaim himself in the Christian Doctrines of Preaching Conversion Faith and the Grace and Spirit of God confounding Gold and Drosse Pearls and Pebbles Harps and Harrows as all one altogether In Page 136 137. He brings in Thomas Moor saying Nor are we to wait for a further Revelation to be given forth then the Scripture for the Word of God came not first immediately to the Gentiles but to the Apostles He Answers The Apostles that Preached the Word of God it was immediate to whomsoever they preached it for they had read it immediately for the Word it self is immediate with more that follows to the same senceless and absurd purpose Reply As if all that receive G. Fox his Book simply pretended to be from the Spirit of God receive it without G. Fox his Brain and Hand and Pen or Paper Printing and Letters or because a King delivers his minde to his Secretary and commands him to Pen it in a Proclamation Declaration c. therefore the Kings Word or Will comes to every man immediately without any such means as the Secretaries composing his Clarks Transcribing the use of Printing Letters Paper c. to talke after this sort what is it but to talk Frantick and Bedlam and without the guidance of a common rational Spirit In Page 5. he brings in Samuel Eaton saying Though all the Saints have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them which is Eternal and Infallible yet that this Spirit should do all which Saints do and should say all that Saints say and should judge for them both persons 80 and things after an infallible manner and that they should neither say nor do any thing by any understanding of their own but the Spirit all this we deny He Answers Which is contrary to the Apostle who saith as many as are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God and Christ acts all in them and for them and the fruits of the Spirit c. and the Spiritual man judgeth all things And that is it which leads the Saints to divide and discerne all things both temporal and spiritual the spiritual Wisdome of God which gives them a spiritual understanding which men must rule withal but not with their own which comes to nought and you that have not that which is infallible to judge in you know not the Spirit of Christ neither can you judge of persons or things that have not the infallible judgement nor have the Spiritual man neither have you the Word of God in your hearts nor Christ which is eternal and infallible all which the Quakers have to judge persons and things I Reply Mahomet the Grand Segnior or Elder and Prophet transcending Moses and Christ as he and his followers Mahumetans say he pretended that he had the mind of God by immediate Revelation and that by Revelation of the Holy Spirit in the shape of a Dove he wrote the Minde the Word or Scriptures of God the Alcoran But poor silly Souls were Mahomet and all his Disciples compared with the Seraphical Doctors the Foxians who neither say nor do any thing with any understanding of their own but the immediate and infallible Spirit of God says and does all in them who are fit to be Kings and Princes Governours and Judges Masters of Ships and Families c. indeed of any place of power or trust but these walking Gods and Christs and Spirits even the meanest of the Quakers May not the meanest Youth or Wench if but a pretended Quaker according to this rule or rate of being immediately inspired in all they do or say transcend all other Teachers Translators Interpreters Kings and Counsellors Navigators
and Congregations contrary to so many Reasons from Nature and Grace so positively expressed by the Holy Spirit in Scripture What Spirits are their Dumb Spirits in their Dumbe Meetings but those foul dumbe Spirits mentioned in that Gospel which the Lord Jesus will cast out and tumble down to Hell whence they came in his holy season What is their monstrous way of Singing and Toning and Humming many at once as they often do and notoriously did at Portsmouth on Rhode Island this last year when no man is edified nor understands what they say and it may be not themselves and this under colour of singing in the Spirit what is it I say but rendring their Tongues which should be their Glory and the Glory of God their scorn and shame and the holy Name of Gods holy Spirit contemptible also 4. I did also mention a fourth Reason against their Spirit and had prosecuted it but I knew that by reason of my Adversaries interposure I had exceeded my quarter of an hour It was taken from the Holy Spirit of God subjecting it self to be tried commanding all men to search the Records commending the Bereans for examining Pauls Preaching and Spirit by the Holy Scriptures and this is the true meaning of the Spirit of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets not that a true Prophet or Messenger of God can subject the truth of God which he believes so to be and will rather suffer many deaths then relinquish to be sentenced by all the Prophets in the Church to be false and he acquiess or rest in 87 or subject his Spirit and Conscience to that Sentence but that the true Prophets of God are willing to have their Teachings questioned examined and made clear by the holy Records to the Souls and Consciences of all men Hence it pleaseth God to give Rules for the trial and discerning between the true Spirit and the false 1 Iob. 3. 4. chapters On the contrary I would have shewed which indeed all men know that the thief endured not searching the galld Horse endures not rubbing the guilty Debtor endures not Reckoning the false and jugling Spirits escape in a Mist and by the help of dark Lanthorns and under the covert of the night who may not see this in G. Fox all along his Book running into the Thickets and Burroughs of Words of divers significations Scriptures notoriously wrested general and sometimes uncouth and barbarous Language which hath been the trade of the false and lying Murtherous Spirit in all ages and will be until that short time be finished wherein the Lord will tread him under the Saints feet and cast him into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone How oft have I been visited by the Quakers crying Repent Repent hearken to the Light within thee c. And I never could perswade them to sit down and examine their sayings by the Holy Scriptures but when their Cuckoes note and song was over and their Fools Bolt shot then fell they to Cursing and pouring out the Thunder-bolts of Gods Iudgement and so be gone no less then Reve and Muggleton pretending to be Gods two last Prophets and Witnesses about twenty years since in London whose Cursings were notorious But to return while I was beginning to urge the tryal of the Spirits W. Edmundson said the Spirit of God was above the Scriptures and not to be tryed by them for it gave out the Scriptures c. And I said and say it is easie to boast of the Spirit but the true Spirit in a Sense and the holy Scriptures are one as the Father and Son are one and therefore can not but be willing to be examined by the holy Records as every man or author will stand to his own scripture work or writing for the Writers were but Pens of Heaven writing and used by the hand of the holy Spirit And I remember that I said to W. Edmundson Friend You yesterday in your long Sermon alleadged that holy Scripture viz Men will not come to the light least they should be reproved 88 because their deeds are evil This is the true cause of your quarrel against the Scriptures and of exalting the Spirit above them that is upon a true ballance your own Spirit yea the Spirit of Sathan to be God and Christ and Spirit and all After some few interchanges and altercations we descended to the fourth Position which they read out of the Paper as they did all the rest which was this viz. That the People called Quakers did not own the Holy Scriptures In one Copy it was written Really own viz. They did not really own the Holy Scriptures I said there was a twofold owning the Holy Scriptures or the Writings of God as there is a twofold owning the Scriptures or Writings of men the Proclamations and Declarations of Kings and Princes The one is verbal and literal viz. that such a writing or Declaration or Treatise is extant and that it proceeds from the Kings Authority and Command The second is real and actual when the Authority of it is in all humble obedience submitted to and obeyed when the Justice and Equity and the excellency and goodness as well as the royal Authority is embraced and magnified I said the Iews owned verbally and wonderfully that Writings of the Old Testament and the Papists owned both old and new but it is known that in many particulars they do in effect deny and damn them 1. They both set up their rotten Traditions their unwritten Verityes as they speak of equal authority with if not in cases above the holy Scripture 2. They set up the Papists by the authority of the Council of Trent a most defective Translation notoriously false in many places all over above the first Copyes of the Hebrew and Greek whence all Translations as Counterpanes and secondary Copyes or Duplicates ought to flow 3. The Papists set up the Pope as the only infallible Judg Interpreter in all Questions about the Scriptures and the Jews make their Rabbies as so many Popes also 4. Their Interpretations are so forraign and strange and many of them so absurd monstrous from the genuine proper Sence of the Scriptures and adulterated with Wresting and allegorizings c. that is truly said of them that they bring not their Doctrines Disciplines and Conversations to the Scriptures but force the 89 holy Scriptures of God to attend and wait upon their Abomination as a Negro Slave and Lacquey I said the Jews and Papists did not more disowne the holy Scriptures upon the account of their Popes and Traditions and Interpretations than the Quakers did upon the account of their Light and Spirit and Interpretations also Who knows not that in the beginning of their Profession they generally fell from the reading of them by themselves or in their Families or in their Publick Assemblyes only crying up the Light within the Spirit within
the Wolves covered only with the sheepskins they have other Words Letters Spirits 2 Thes. 2. whatever they prate of Scripture and speak brave swelling empty words as Iude speaketh T is true as G. Fox all along in his Book vapours that the Spirit was before Scripture and gave forth Scripture but I proved before that their Spirit their Light their Christ were but hellish Darkness the spirit of Sathan and a false lying Christ c. 2. The Dispensations of God were many and divers as before the Law and after but in this last and third dispensation he hath spoken that is his word mind and will whatever the Quakers as well childishly as Blasphemously prate to the contrary by his Son And as the Son himself the Lord Jesus in his own person when he personally maintained that famous combat with the Devil used no other weapon but Prayer and Fasting and the Holy Scripture so he left written this holy patern and example that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 14. Luther being demanded how he gain'd such knowledge and abilities in such blind Popish darkness he freely confessed that the holy Scripture was his first help the second Meditation the third earnest Prayer to God to vouchsafe his Spirit to bless the two former unto him The Lord Jesus therefore not only ordained his Messenger or Preachers of his glad Tydings to Iews and Gentiles but his Pen-men also Ioh. 20. for those two great ends as to us to wit 1. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ to wit that that individual person and man called Jesus was the Christ the Messiah so long promised and expected contrary to the Blasphemous Fancies of the Quakers And 2. That Believing in him that individual person called Jesus and not in a Fancy within we might have Life and Blessedness It is no wonder therefore that the Devil the great Thief as he compasseth Sea and Land with the Pharisees Iesuites and Quakers to make Proselytes so wherever he comes he labours to blow out the Candle of the Holy Scripture It is the Spirit Breath or wind of the Devil in the lips of Atheists Iews Papists Quakers Ranters c. that puffs and blows 93 against this Holy Light more precious infinitely then the Sun in the Heaven it hath been most wonderfully to amazement preserved like the Sun in the Firmanent and shines most gloriously again and again after the blackest and longest storm and night of Apostacies and Persecution The Turkish Hystory tells us of a Woman appearing in the Heavens with a Book open in her hand some of their Mahumetan Priests dared to say for which one greatly suffered that the Woman was the Christian Church and the Book was their Bible or Scriptures which threatned ruine to their Mahomet and Alcoran Iohn was not commanded and in him the Protestant Witnesses to stand still and listen to a Light to a motion or voice within but to eat up the little Book open once again in the hands of Christ Jesus Rev. 10. and after this eaten up to prophesie to Peoples and Nations to Tongues and Kings Whether this Book be the Book of the Revelation or the Book of the whole Bible or Scripture it is apparent that during the 42 Months of the the Papal Reign and Darkness Christ Iesus hath given Authority and power to his Witnesses to search after the Holy Records in the Original Hebrew and Greek Copies and to bring them forth by Translating and Preaching the Doctrine of them c. for which they have suffered Death and Burning as Tindal and many other excellent men of God The Walls of Rome yea the Gates of Hell have shaken and felt the might of this Heavenly Artillery It lies therefore the Devil and all his Messengers in hand to break to pieces or to nail up their heavenly Ordinance It hath been observed that there never were any more than others famous for Christanity but they first were famous for an admirable Love kindled by God in their Hearts to the Holy Scriptures It is true the Iews to whom the Oracles of God were committed to wit in the Old Testament how studious have they been in it even to every Word and Letter they accounted it a crime for any Book to ly upon it but this alwayes to lye uppermost My self have seen the Old Testament of the Iews most curious writing whose price in way of trade was threescore pound which my Brother a Turkey-Merchant had and shewed me But I speak of an inward love a Soul-love c. It is wonderful what Luther relates of that blessed Duke of Saxony whom 94 God stir'd up to favour and cherish Luther c viz. that he caused his six Pages each of them to read to him daily everyone his hour in the Holy Scripture This was the affection in all the first Witnesses the Waldensians the Bohemians the English French Dutch Scotch c. who together with the Scriptures had mighty Affection to the study of the Hebrew and Greek in which golden Cups and Bowles the King of Kings was pleased to convey the Wine like Ahashuerosh of his Eternal Majesty and Goodness to us It is wonderful to consider how much the study of the Scriptures and of the Hebrew and Greek Tongues confounded and put to flight the Papists and forced them to study the Scriptures and the Tongues also both which the barbarous dark Spirit of the Quakers hate as darkness hates the Light It is no wonder this Spirit of Lying cries out so fiercely against the Schools of Learning in Old and New England it knows that the right and regular propagation of natural of civil and especially of Divine Knowledge scatters the thick Fogs of the Quakers affected hellish ignorance The blessed Martyrs and Witnesses of Jesus in all ages have been ravished with holy delights like David in the holy Scripture in Q Maries dayes that famous Ridley called Bishop of London he had got most of the holy Epistles in Greek by heart even before he left Pembrook Hall in Cambridge and as the fire of persecution grew hotter so did those blessed Witnesses like Jesus with Moses and Elias and Paul at Troas spend hours and nights in Prayer and holy Conference upon the Scriptures and those things which the Lord Jesus should and hath now accomplished according to the Scriptures It is true in print Iames Parnel spake like a Papist an Atheist and a Quaker of the holy Martyrs or Witnesses of Jesus Christ and of the book of Martyrs it self It is no wonder that the most Righteous and jealous Lord left him not to dye the common death of all Mankinde but to Murther himself by a proud presumptuous attempt of declaring himself to be Christ by fasting 40 dayes and 40 nights I believe this to be a Truth from the Testimonies I have seen of Parnels
he brings in the Author of Hosannah to the Son of David saying The sure Word of Prophesie the Apostle speaks of is the Prophesie of Scriptures He Answers Doth the Scripture shine in a dark place until the Day dawne Are they them them that must be taken heed unto as to a Light Can any see the Scripture and know the Scripture but with the Light within Can not a Cain a Baalam a Core bring Scripture that is gone from the Spirit of Prophesie within and then put the Letter for it 98 I Reply 1. I know that Fox makes their Idol within called Light to be the more sure word of Prophesie and his usual proof is The Testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of Prophesie But first why must all the Prophets or Messengers of God who from the beginning of the world were Gods mouth and Pens Concerning the Birth Life Death Burial Resurrection Ascention and coming to Judgement of the Lord Jesus be here cast out from the Word of Prophesie Is it nothing Luk. 1 that God spake surely Gods speaking is his word God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the World began And Heb. 1. God spake sundry times and in divers manners in Time past unto the Fathers but how did God thus speake or utter his word but by the Prophets And Rom. 16. But now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment c. Therefore how oft is it written concerning the Lord Jesus These things were done that the Scriptures might be Fulfilled in which regard as to our satisfaction and belief the written word of Prophesie of the Prophets are a more sure Word and Evidence to us concerning the Lord Jesus then the Miraculous Appearance from Heaven of Moses and Elias and the voice from Heaven of which Peter here speaketh though in it self a true Testimony yet not so sure so firm and pregnant as the Word that God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets from the beginning of the World c. Hence the Answer of Abraham and indeed of Christ Jesus If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe though one should rise from the Dead 2. How sure is the Quakers Light their Word of Prophesie A sober mind can not but admire that Face and Forehead of Brass and Adamant with which God the Righteous Judge of the whole hath plauged Satan and his Followers so that they blush not to prefer such a simple Image a meer Babie and Childs Puppet of their Immediate Word of Prophesie before the Word the mind and will of God by the mouth of all the Prophets For is it not known in the holy Scripture in all Histories in all Ages in all Nations what Cursed Opinions horrible Uncleannesses Bloody Murthers and Slaughters have been Conceived and brought forth from the Spirit within and Revelati 99 on s from Divilish Lights and Spirits and the horrible End that generally the Authors and Promoters of such Spirits and Inspirations have come to 3. This Scripture Revel 19. The Testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of Prophesie what is it but Goliahs Sword to fetch off the head of this proud Philistin for doth not the Angels forbid Iohn worshipping of him upon this ground viz. that the Angel was his Fellow Broker Fellow Servant Fellow Worshipper Fellow Witness Is not this the Argument whereby he prohibits him viz. that one Testimony of Jesus was the work of Gods Spirit in the Angels in their way as well as in Iohns and Peters in theirs c. and shall we say that the Angels too are Quakers and Christ hath enlightened them also as well as every man that comes c And Revel 22. Doth not Christ threaten the Adders to and Diminishers from the word of this Book of this Prophesie what Affinity hath a written Book a written Prophesie with Immediate whisperings and Inspirations 2. Why should G. Fox here mention Cain Balaam Core what Scriptures could they bring what Scriptures were written in their times I think it no breach of Charity to guess that the Quakers and G. Fox are so used to Cursing and Censuring their Opposites at the first dash for Cains Baalams Cores that they could not well tell how to miss them Such persons no question and the Foxians and the lying Spirit the Old Fox and Serpent bring Scripture But doth the Divel cordially prize and love the word of Prophesie the Testimony and Witnesses of Jesus However he plainly here Confesseth that the holy Scripture is so powerful that the very Counterfeit the picture and Name of it will do him good Service with such whom he desires to cheat and Ruine And yet secondly this shews the Quakers horrible wickedness that although they love the holy Scripture for the general of them as well as doth their lying Father yet turn they the Truth of God into a lye and with the ugly Spider sucks that which he turns into poyson even from the same Flowers of Paradice the holy Scriptures from whence the hony Bees the true Believers suck the pure hony of Eternal Truth and Comfort 3. Again what madness is it for this blind Dreamer to ask his Opposite whether the Scripture shines in a dark place until the 100 dawne whether they must be taken heed unto as to a Light For how often is the holy Scripture even the very Law before the Gospel or glad News was preached adorn'd and beautified with the Illustrious Title of Light and all the subtle Foxes in the world must know that if they attend unto whisperings and peepings Isai. 8. and leave the written Law the Word and other Prophesies of Scripture or written Prophesies Words and Oracles of God! For all their Childish Vapourings and pratings of their Light the Eternal Father of Lights proclaims them to be Children of howling darkness and that there is no Light within them I speak it with horrour and Amazement and also with sorrowful Confidence that he that shall find a spark of true Light either of the knowledge or grace of the true Lord Jesus in this their Fantastick Light he shall find the Living among the Dead he shall prove the Prophets that spake and the Lord God of the Prophets whose word was spoke to be Lyars for saying there is no Light within them But Fox again demands Can any know the Scripture but with the Light within And I ask him what Light have the Papists and Iews and the Divel himself when they and he bring Scripture to Christ himself I know very well what he means in his Iesuitical Diabolical Reservations by the Light within and by knowing the Scripture his meaning is known and Common viz. except he be one of those dark Souls called Quakers But did not the Devil bring a pertinent Scripture and promise to Christ Jesus as ever Papist or Quaker could have alleadged though pointed and directed
a greater pride then the Quakers have exprest and would aspire unto although many truly humble Souls may be captivated amongst them I have here two mighty Fields to expatiate and walk in viz. The pride of Christ Iesus his pretended triple-crowned Vicar and the pride of the new Papists pretending to be Christ himself of which the holy Spirit speaketh There is a Generation oh how lofty are their eyes and their eye lids are lifted up In publick Discourse I knew I was but to take a short turn of a quarter of an hour I am now at more liberty of inserting what I intended but was forced to abbridge wlth all possible brevity at that time I told them there was a pride in outward and external things in Parentage in Person in Beauty Strength Wit Aparrel Houses Money Shipping Land Cattle Offices Relations c. this I now past by All these like Diogenes on Platoes carpets the Quakers say they tread on c. There was 2. the devils pride and the devils Condemnation a pride in Spiritual Knowledg spiritual Gifts spiritual Priviledges and Excellencies This was the Devils Break-neck and will be 163 of the Popes and Quakers and of all that aspire to the Eternal power and Godhead for God or they must fall to all eternity I named then diverse Parallels between the Popes and Quakers I will now name all I can remember I named and will name some more at this present First The Popes have exalted themselves above all that is called God above all Civill powers Kings and Princes riding upon their backs disposing of their Crowns making them lead their horses hold their stirrups kiss their toes yea lye down under their feet bodyes and souls and submit their neck to this abominable foot of pride as the Scripture calls it As to the Quakers they know it is not yet time to put on the Lions and the Eagles but the Sheeps and the Foxes Skin but no man need question that if God should please to let loose the Quakers spirit to the full length of its tedder as he hath done that of the Popes the spirit of the Quakers would scorn to come behind the pope For who sees not how at the first fledging and creeping out of the Shell how they boast and vapour of their numbers We said W. E. to me in publick at Newport are a great People many thousands in England many thousands in London besides Virginia Barbados N-England and other places what would they say and doe if they had the popes Universality and could boast of the many Waters Peoples Nations Tongues and Multitudes upon which the Whore sitteth Beside W. E. a man fit to make a Bonefacius or a Hildebrand Iohn Stubs also though of a more prudent and moderate spirit was up with the same boasting of their Numbers and all of them are ready to cry up their Diana whome all Asia and the world worshippeth But 2. In their first creeping like Hercules out of the Cradle how doth this Spirit dare the Spirits of Kings and Keyfars and Popes themselves under the pretence of Translations and acceptations of words to Thou and Thee to the faces of mighty Monarchs with what Brasen Faces have they addrest the Royal presence of our Gracious Dread Soveraign without either bowing the knee or baring the Head signs of English reverence and civility and this out of an horrible and lying pretence that Christs amity even in Civil things respecteth no mans person that they may trample as Gods on all man-kinde c. 164 3. I can say what mine eyes and ears have seen and heard viz. our Honoured and Aged Mr. Nicholas Easton Governour of this Colony under his Majesty offering to speak once and twice in our late Contests at Newport and no question would have spoke for the Quakers against me yet Pope Edmundson put forth his hand imperiously toward the Governour saying Whist Whist which whisting and silencing Language if they use to their Friends in Authority what will they say or Thunder to their Enemies if ever they get up into the Papal Chair 2. The Pope sits in the Temple of God as over the Churches and Consciences of the Christian Name and Worship giving Canons and Decretals to be observed by all Christian People on peril of loss of Earth and Heaven c. And do not their new Popes not regarding as the Apostles and Bereans the Holy Scripture lay on the common Quakers Consciences and Congregations their Decrees t is true G. Fox in his Book in Folio gives the immediate Spirit of Infallibility to all his Saints yet must they in a ridiculous contradiction sit still possest with a Dumb Devil except some He or She Apostle come amongst them who send word of their coming to call the Country in many dayes before and seem to have a Command of their Diabolical Spirit more then other Quakers have though they as I said before in a ridiculous Contradiction ascribe it unto all their Saints and Quakers Thus did Humphrey Norton a Pope in his day in these parts overtopping and rating W. Brand at Newport he confirmed the Decree for the weekly Meetings not only on the first dayes but on the week dayes at Newport and Providence he ordered their sitting and departing Dumb unless a He or She Apostle came amongst them he left in writing which I can produce an overthrow of all civil Order and Government except in the hands of his Saints entituling his Paper thus the Saints Law and the Sinners Law as G. Fox his decree under the title of the Law G. Fox succeeds as Pope Humph. Norton in these parts and being angry with his Predecessour as some Popes have been he lets loose the Dumb Devil and gives Liberty to all to speak as the Spirit gives them utterance this shews what a lying Spirit of Unity they boast of such an one was in Nailors business though they most proudly deny Unity to all but to themselves as 165 the Papists do G. Fox also gave forth his Decree of loosing them from that bruitish and doggid Behaviour which W. Brand and Humphrey Norton left them in and by Word and Example commanded them to be more sociable and manlike so that many of them will speak in Salutations and shew some reverence by bowing the Heads or uncovering it as Fox himself did after his Sermon at Providence uncovering his Head and bowing to the People and passing through the midst of them his Hat in his hand with much respect and civility And he blames those as I hear which violently and madly have flung themselves upon unnecessary temptations and dangers whence follows in the eyes of the whole World that either the latter or the former Spirit was not Gods and perfect and the Spirit of Unity of which they childishly so crake and vapour as the chiefest Flower in their Crown of Pride 3. The Pope lifts up himself as God over
the Holy Scriptures He is the sole Judge and Interpreter of them and the sole decider of all controversies in Religion about the expounding of them yea he hath power to dispence with Peter and Paul c. yea what Christ and God can do that gave forth Scripture that can the Pope their Lieutenant do hence all this Dispensations of Oaths of Marriages c. Do not the Quakers also tread this Holy Scripture this inestimable Jewel of Gods Writing and Book under their proud feet as formerly I noted upon the fourth Position of their not owning the Holy Scripture Do they not upon the point say that they made they wrote and gave out the Holy Scripture and though in our late Conference they said they would be tryed by the Scriptures yet as the Papists they admit no Interpreter but themselves for the Spirit within them they say gave forth the Scripture and is above the Scripture and both they and the Papists have said that there would be no losse if they were gone out of the World for the Papists say their Traditions and their infallible Spirit would supply the loss and the Quakers say the Scriptures is within them in effect they say that all that they do and say is Scripture so far are both Papists Quakers from a Christian and Candid Profession of being tried by the Holy Scripture that they most Horribly and most Hypocritically trample it under their proud feet 166 4. These Romanists or Proud ones as the Hebrew signifies both Papists Quakers most insultingly lift up themselves against the Servants and Children of God all the world over that bow not down to their Images be a Soul never so humble and penitent never so holy and mortified believe the Scriptures c. and give his life for the truth of of them yet he is damned if he believes not the Pope to be the head of the Church and say not the Quakers the same of all that believe not in their pretended Lights your Repentance is nothing your Holiness nothing your Zeal Praying Preaching Fasting Suffrings nothing and they think they have reason to say so because you believe not in the true Christ and therefore you are in Cains Nature in the Satanical Delusion Reprobates c. so that all the blessed Souls under the Alter calling for vengeance against the shedders of their blood the Roman Emperour or since the Roman Popes they are all branded with a black cole of damned Souls and Reprobates by G. Fox because they professed preacht and died for a Christ without them though that Christ without them dwelt in their hearts Ephes. 3. by believing and for his sake they loved not their lives to the Death I told them that the Pope and they were one in the great point of the Infallibility they both pretended the Spirit of God as did the Apostles c. but I have proved their pretence is as true as that of Apollo's Worshippers by whose Priests the Devil gave Oracles Extripode from their threefold stool and that so subtilly and cunningly that whatever Oracle or Voice it was and whatever the event were yet the Devil would save his own Apollo should be the true God of Wisdome and Apollo's Priests true Prophets At last when Christ came Apollo being consulted and failing to give answer the Devil was forced to answer that there was an Hebrew Childe borne that stopt his mouth I am sure this Hebrew Childe the true Lord Jesus Christ hath often also stopt the mouthes in one sense of Pope Quakers for their Predictions have not come to pass though some which the Devil could guess at have and he will shortly stop their mouths forever It was truely said of that long eighteen years hatching Devilish Junto of Trent that the Holy Ghost that is the Popes Holy Ghost came every week from the Pope at Rome c. to his Legates at Trent in a Cloak-bag and do not G. Fox his Books 167 and all their writings declare for their corrivality and competition with the Pope for this their pretended Holy Ghost do they not upbraid all other Ministers and People for being out of the infallible Spirit Do they not say their Ministers and their Commissions are invisible because immediate and infallible do they not assigne this to be the cause of all the Sects and Divisions among the Protestants because they have not the infallible Spirit as the Quakers have Here as I remember Iohn Stubs stood up and alleadged that place in 1 Iohn 4. Hereby we know that we dwell in him because he hath given us of his Spirit And again you have the unction and know all things And W. Edmondson boastingly and proudly said that they had the same immediate and infallible Spirit which the Apostles had and that Iohn Peter were but their elder Brethren Unto which I answer Peter I know and Iohn I know but who are you For 1. They were Eye-Witnesses of the Lord Jesus his Life and Death and Resurrection 2. They were immediately endowed with fiery Tongues and fiery hands to preach in all Languages and to pen from Gods mouth his holy word and Pleasure and to work real Miracles not metaphorical ones only as G. Fox said at Providence the Quakers did that is open the eyes of the Blind by Conversion c. I added that it might please the infinite Wisdom of God to send higher Pretenders to Apostleship then the Quakers who should speak all Tongues doe Miracles But as Gods Servants had a Rule Isa. 8. the written Law and Testimony and were not to believe their Dreames though they came to pass Deut. 13. So have Gods Servants now viz. The Doctrine of Christ Iesus both concerning Faith and Order and to strive earnestly for the Faith once delivered The Pope like Baalam sayes he is the Mouth of God whome he blesseth they are blessed and whom he curseth c. therefore sendeth he his Curses like Thunderbolts yea among Kings Kingdomes in other Nations and our own as K. Henery 8th K. Edward 6th Queen Elizabeth experimented c. and is there any People bearing the name Christian so like the pope their Father as these whose Mouth saith David is full of Cursing and Bitterness like Floods out of the Dragons Mouth and fire-brands arrowes and Death crying out against the most Humble and Con 168 scientious Cain Saul Iudas Viper Serpent Reprobate Dragon Devil yea one of their Shee-Apostles Devil Devil Devil all at once to one that opposed her amongst us and such foul stinking exprefsions like the Quakers in London about the Dung of Mankinde that modesty especially the bashfulness and modesty of Women would have been far from A seventh is that great point of horrible Pride in both Pope Quakers exalting the Dung and Dirt of their own Qualifications Excellencies Graces Labours Fastings Satisfactions Believings Suffering as a price and satisfaction to Gods Justice
Night and Light from Darkness For it is known that I. Fox his Martyrs or Witnesses those blessed Souls under the Altar were slain for maintaining the Authority and Purity of the Holy Scriptures as the revealed word or will of the Eternal God against the Traditions and Inventions of men But G. Foxes Sufferers have generally suffered for their Childrens Baubles fantastical Traditions and Inventions for setting up a Dream of a Light and Christ within all Man kind above the holy Scriptures above the Son of God above all Earthly Dignityes and all their Betters endeavouring with the Pope to trample all souls and Bodyes under their proud feet 180 3. The carriage of these two Sorts of Sufferers differ as much as East from West and Heaven from Hell 1. The ground of Iohns Sufferers was that which Iohn so much writes of viz. love to the Heavenly Bridegroom without which Paul slights burning it self this appears in their wonderfull Love to the holy Scriptures the Love-Letters of Christ Iesus and unto all that loved Christ Iesus also The Quakers are known to be Fierce Heady Proud Self-conceited Stout Bold and driven on by an Audacious and Desperate Spirit which G. Fox and some subtle Foxes with him have of late blaâ—â—ed in H. Norton c. No question but some of them have a notion of Wrath yet to come and therefore rather then to endure Hell Fire they will give up their lives to the Flames others of them fast 40 dayes and yet be far from true Virgin Love to the Son of God A Virgin that loves a man for Himself will not slight his Love-letters nor his Near Relations least of all abhor them and sink and burn them as these Foxians doe 2. The carriage of I. Foxes Witnesses though in respect of Gods holy Truth it was couragious and gallant yet their lowliness and humility did shine forth gloriously also 1. As to God being more sensible of their sins then of their sufferings conâ—essing with many tears that although God did turn their sufferings unto his Glory and although ungodly men like Foxes and Wolves hunted them like innocent Lambs and Chickins yet they had deserved and calld for this Storm by their unthankfulness for their former peace and liberties by their drowsiness and sleeping upon the Earthen bed of worldly Profits and Pleasures Contrarily it is known to all that although sometimes the Quakers will say we come in love to your Souls yet the Quakers are far from confessing their sins as having no more sin then God hath and according to their Principles and some of them say it they can no more sin against God then God can sin against them As to Men Christs sufferers were meek patient respective contented thankful But as the Quakers hearts have an insensible brawniness and hardness like frozen Rivers come over their hearts in matters of God so as to men 181 1. Was there ever a People Men and Women professing such an height of Christianity so fierce so heady so high-minded and though generally not hardned so censuring reviling cursing and damning and so savage and barbarous as in the stark nakedness of men and women c. 2. As to Revenge how patient and pitiful and praying for their Enemies were I. Foxes Martyrs or Witnesses and G. Foxes how spitting Fire Brimstone witness the second part of N. England judged by G. Bishop because Christ in them is come to judgement wherein he pronounceth Destruction to Bodies and Souls of N. England men saying in his Epistle that their judgement lingreth not nor doth their damnation slumber T is true some of their Predictions have and may come to pass as do many also of Conjurers Witches for the Devil knows the Complexion of persons and things and what is like to come to pass as in Sauls case and in other events and still the poor Quakers and other his Captive Slaves with such Bables as these I told you what weather it would be I told you where the Wind would blow I told you what would come to pass and yet as blessed Mr. I. Dod used to say though the Devil was up early God was still up before him for the Proverb is here true God hath sent curst Cows short Horns his infinite Wisdome Power and Goodness is pleased to put an Hook into the Jaws of Sathan he shews himself the pitisui sparer and preserver of men When the Devil is a Fisher longing for troubled and bloody waters yet God hath graciously proved many of the bloody prophesies of his waspish Prophets and Prophetesses as I can prove to be lying and false already We now descended to the thirteenth Proposal the sixth to be discus'd at Providence which was read by them and is this viz. These many Books and Writings are extreamly Poor Lame and Naked swelld up only with High Titles and Words of Boasting and Vapour I told them that I had not shun'd as in the presence of the most High to read any of their Books or Letters I could come at but the truth is I could never pick out any Wheat of solid rational and heavenly Truth out of their heaps of Chaffe and Dreams and Fancies of new Christs new Spirits c. It is true that W. Edmund said that the Word of the Lord 182 was a Fire and a Hammer c. But I said the word they meant was but a painted Fire and a painted Hammer and that never broke nor burned up sin as sin Let a man read the Works of the Papists Lutherans Arminians and amongst our selves the Episcopal and Presbyterian Writings a man shall have wherein to exercise his Judgement Memory c. he shall have Scripture proposed Arguments alleadged yea he shall read Answers and Replies whereby to satisfie a rational Soul and Understanding But in the Quakers Books Writings Peter Iude tells us what I have found clouds high of an imaginary Christ and Spirit high swelling words strange from the Holy Scripture Language and all sober and Christian Writers and Speakers Let Io. Chandlers Writings and the Writings of Theora Iohn that Monster of Delusion be viewed whose bodily Raptures and frantick Writings of the Quakers Principles and of the Iews in Hebrew Greek Latin Arminiack Writings which he confest he understood not and let the rest of their Writings be brought to the Touch-stone and see if an honest Goldsmith can find ought else but the Dross Dreams and Fancies in stead of the solid Gold of Heavenly Scripture I have read Nichols and Nailor and Howgel and Burrows and Parnel and Farnworth and Fox and Dewsbury and Pennington and Whitehead and Bishop c. And I could readily and abundantly prove my position out of all of them but my desire and intention was as by my Paper to G. Fox appears to have made it good to G. Fox himself and to all Christians how poor and lame and naked G. Fox his writings are who seems
to be as Pighius and Echius amongst the Papists and as Bellarmine the greatest Writer amongst them I told my Opposites I would therefore Answer this Bellarmine and I would not say Bellarmine thou liest but I would by Holy Scripture shew G. Fox and his deluding Foxians how the old Fox the old Serpent was too crafty for them all and had brought them and their Followers to the brim of the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone First then I said let who will that understands true English and are able to read and write true English though he know no more take G. Fox his Folio Book in hand and tell me whether 183 through his whole Book he writes like an English-man And though he upbraids all his Opposites scornfully and ridiculously as poor Children that know not the Bible nor their Accidence in saying you to a singular c. whether in many scores of places in his Book he confounds not the singular and the Plural I confess when I urged this in publick my Opposites desired of me no proof of this out of Foxes Book and therefore remembering my quarter hour Glasse I fpared Quotations but now through Gods patience and my Readers my Tedder being longer I shall give one or two brief Proofs and Instances In page 282. in G. Fox his second Answer he saith You where you are sees him nor where it should be the Plural see him not if this Proud Bruit had known either his Accidence or the Bible In Page 300. he saith The Scriptures is able to make wise unto Salvation which should be are able c. In Page 16. The Churches was to hear for were to hear In Page 110. As thou doth which should be as thou dost And abundance more of this Boyes English all his Book over which I cannot impute to his Northern Dialect having been so long in the South and London and read and answered as he dreams so many English Books nor to the Printer the faults of that kinde being so numerous but to the finger of the most High and most Holy whose property it is and therefore delights to run thwart and cross the shins of proud and insulting Souls and Spirits 2. I observe throughout his Book a Devillish Black Line of despising those that are Good as the Scripture speaketh He counts none Godly but himself and his Foxians yea there is no God no Christ no Spirit but what is in him and them feelingly though they say he is in every man and woman in the world and Christ Iesus the Sun of Righteousness and the Holy Spirit and the Kingdome of God which they confess consists in Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirits and yet as they impiously and simply speaks these Inhabitants and Hosts to all these Guests know nothing of their lodging and dwelling within them G. Fox gives a shrewd suspition that he never knew what the true fear and love and peace and joy of God mean if he did is it possible that he could puff at so many Writers excellent for great Knowledge and godliness denying any thing of God or 184 Christ or Spirit or Grace to be in them some of them eminent servants of God I have known of others of them I have smelt the sweet Odour of an Heavenly report from the mouthes of others and in their Writings But as G. Fox will be found to adore an Image Crucifix for the true Lord Jesus so whatever he say of others will his Faith his Love his Spirit of Discerning and Hope of Glory and Salvation prove without Repentance dolefully false in the latter end For doth not this Proud Censor know that men may be true Saints in their persons and yet be subject to sudden Epileptical Falling Fits may not David walk with God with a perfect heart and yet in the matters of Bathsheba and Uriah and many other particulars fall down like a Jewel into the Dirt that Christ Jesus owns Peter and his Confession c. and yet in another case get thee behind me Sathan That Peter resolves to dye for Jesus and yet denies with Cursing and Swearing that he never knew him and after Christs Resurrection and Ascention even Peter plays the Hypocrite Dissembler Yea did not the high Fathers in Godliness famous Kings in Gods Church live long in the incivility of many Wives and the impiety of Worshipping in the High places c. to what purpose doth the Lord inspire his holy Pen-men to write these holy Histories was it to shame his Saints departed or to shame his own Holiness and to cast a stumbling block and a protection for after sinners and transgressors or amongst other holy ends to teach us like Moses to distinguish between an Egyptian whom he slew and the Israelites whom he chid for wronging each other since they were their Brethâ—en so that he is a poor Christian Goldsmith that knows not to discern the Gold of Holiness and the Copper of Hypocrisie yea and to give the best Gold in the World its due allowance with which it will pass currant in Earth and Heaven with God and such who truly know and love him But with G. Fox in all this great Book the most humble and able godly and conscientious are with him but Vipers Serpents Cains Iudasses false Prophets Pharisees dumb Dogs Sorcerers Witches Reprobates Devils c. 3. In this Book of G. Fox all along he denies the Scripture to be the Word of God and he said that every man in the world hath that Spirit that gave forth Scriptures and that all Saints are 185 acted by the same Spirit immediately that moved the Prophets and Apostles and holy Pen-men of the holy Scriptures all tending to vilifie and nullifie the Holy Scriptures Besides his Impiety in these Assertions which half an eye of Mahumetans Iewes Papists Protestants will see I note his Simplicity for a Fox though he be crafty is but a Beast still For out of his Piety he grants the holy Scriptures through all his Book to be the Words of God though not the Word of God and for this his Grant he quotes Exod. 20. God spake all these Words and the four Books of the Revelations which I nor my Opposites could tell in publick what to make of But if they are the Words of God and fome of them fearfully written by the inconceivable Finger of God once and twice then every particular word of these words must needs be the Word or Will or mind of God every grain of gold is gold and every drop in the Ocean is Water and Salt too as I urged to them before concerning every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God else the Words of God when brought to particular examination they are not the word of God but of Angels or Men or Devills How sweet are not Words but right Words every man shall kiss his lips that gives
a right Answer how dirty then how filthy and bloudy are those Lips that in so many places debating with so many wise and learned and pious men drop not Honey and Milk but Wormwood and Gall the Venome and the Poyson of Asps to them that lick up such deceitfull and destroying Doctrines 4. In G. Fox his Book I observe that all along he notoriously nibbles ar VVords and quarrels at VVords which he saith are not Scripture as that wicked word Humane relating to the Person of the Son of God and man Also the word Trinity and Sacrament Oh how zealous is this Fox for the purity of Language Why may not the word Humane be used as well as the word Sabboth and Sabbaoth and Bethlebem and Ierusalem which are Hebrew words and as well as the words Baptisme and Iesus Christ which are Greek words Scribes and Scriptures and Pretorium which are Latine words That word Humane is odious c. for Christ Iesus sake and therefore the more I love and honour it as expressing the appearance of God in Flesh in that personal Individual Flesh of Christ Iesus the 186 Mediator petween God and Man the Man Christ Iesus 5. I observe the loose and wild Spirit of G. Fox in dealing with so many heavenly Champions the Leaps and Skips like a wild Satyre or Indian catching and snapping at here and there a Sentence like Children skipping ore hard places and Chapters picking and culling out what is common and easie with them to be paid of and answered 6. Any sober Soul may read in most of their Books and in G. Fox his Book such Tautologies and needless Repetitions that may even Turn his Stomach and make him abhor to touch a Quakers Book more How many hundred times have you Christ is within you except you be Reprobates Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone c. and I presume neer a thousand times if not a full thousand times repeated That lightens every man that comes into the World that lightens every man that comes into the world c. G. Fox had many Bullets flying about his eares and therefore at every turn like a man fighting for his life he is forced to hold out a Pretence a Buckler a Breast-plate simply called Light and at every turn to cry Oh the Light the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World 7 Through all his Book like some great Commanders or Generals by Land or Sea yea like the Emperors or Dictators among the Romanes so doth this wild devouring Soul give forth his high and haughty Sentences this proud Bladder is big with Simon Magus his thoughts of being Some Body I shall preâ—ent one Instance Pag. 253. His Opposite Henry Haggar saith you call all men Dead and Carnall in the Serpents nature in what form soever they differ from you this proud Soul Answers All that be not in the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World which is the way to the Father differeth from us such be dead such be carnal in the nature for none comes to the life but who comes to the Light in what form soever they be and such as differ from us differ from Christ for none comes from under the Satanical nature but who comes to the Light what Iulian the Apostate what Duke D' Alva what Wolsey could have spoken more imperiously insultingly bloudily then this wild Fox hath done against all the true Servants Witnesses of the Most High that ever have been or shall be to the end of this world they differ from Fox therefore are Devils c. 187 8. I observe that G. Fox all along his Book powres forth a flood of Fire Brimstone against all his Oppsites and tells us that it is not Railing c. for his chief Adversary the holy Scripture gives Instance of Christ Jesus himself giving such Language and also it is no other then the Opposites to the Quakers give unto them but Godly and Sober Souls will consider 1. That Moses and the Prophets and Christ Iesus and his Apostles do not universally absolutely and promiscuously fling out Fire-brands and shoot Arrowes and Death into the Sides and Souls of all that differ from them as here G. Fox doth We may observe in the holy Scripture that generally they were high handed hypocritical and hardned Sinners against whome the holy Spirit thundred out such Titles threatnings and Judgments But Fox in this place makes no Distinction but as boldly as Blind Bayard saith all that differ from us c. 2. This is no rare business but Fox and his Foxians common Language and Barkings Thou Cain thou Serpent thou Devil Devil Devil Devil as one of their She-Apostles have said amongst us 3. It is G. Fox his bruitish and ridiculous Song in the close of his Answers and sometimes in the beginning without any Truth Humanity or Modesty to cry out saying And as for the rest of thy Lyes and Slanders they are not worth the mentioning when he hath pickt out a few Sentences or pieces of Sentences easie for himself to carpe at c. his conclusion and Burthen of his bruitish ridiculous Song is As for the rest of thy Lyes and Slanders instead of holy Scripture or solid Arguments with Answers to his Opposites Reasons and Replyes and Rejonders that an humble soul may see some footing to rest on 4. As we say in the death of the Martyrs or Witnesses of Iesus it is not the Suffering but the Cause Spirit Cariage is to be considered So in bitter Language it is not lawfull to call every Prince or King Fox as Christ called Herod nor every Opposite Viper Serpent Fool and Blind and whited painted Wall and Sepulchre c. They seemed to speak Reason to Christ upon his Cross Thou that savest others thou that destroyest the Temple c. come down now save thy self c. and yet Gods Spirit calls this Reviling and Railing at him 9. All may see what a simple Craking Sound of vapouring and 188 boasting runs through all this Foxes Book Doubtless Sysera and his Mideanites Goliah and his Philistines Rabshekah and his Assirians were types of these Children of Pride whose Vapours whose Prophesies so me notoriously false already proved whose promised Victoryes Spoils Threatnings lye like black foul Blots of ink or grease over all his Papers and the Papers of most of them far from that Closet Content and Sincerity of the true Saints who are content with the eye of God alone in secret 10. For a more full proof of the Lameness and Stark nakedness of their Writings I shall select and mention some Particulars out of this Grand Alcoran of G. Fox 1. His Opposites Words then his Answer And 3. My Replyes c. Page 1. He brings in Sam. Eaton saying He doth not believe that there is Substantial Essential or Personal Union between the Eternal Spirit and Believers
I said much more 204 might it be said of Mens Laws Writings that surely they had no need of them for what could be more just and equal more pure holy in all Cases Controversies Businesses then the immediate Voice of God W. E. said what dost thou fill peoples ears with strange Notions as if the People of God called Quakers were a lawless people and would bring all Government and all Laws to nothing We are for righteous Goverment and righteous Lawes we are not for any to rule by Force and more he spake to this purprse I Replyed that he mistook me by an Arbetrary Goverment I did not intend a Goverment ruling by Force for there could be no Goverment in the world without the Sword but Arbitrary I said came from Arbitrium which signified Will or pleasure and so my Argument was that Persons immediately speaking from God it was impertinent and profane to clog and cumber them with Lawes for the Voice of God the Law of all Laws proceeded out of their mouth then which there could be none more Just more Wise more Holy Here stood up an Aged man and as able as most in the company T. A. though much of late adhering to the Quakers and said Methinks there is Weight in Mr. VVilliams his Argument He being a noted man and his voice very audible and so heard by all VV. E. was forced to take notice of his speech and said wherein is there any weight in it T. A. Answered why if a Magistrate be immediately inspired by God and speaks Gods Laws Sentence sure there seems to be no need of any other Laws They saw they were in a Pound and I perceived it and yet not being willing to grate upon them but watching my time as I was glad all along to pass handsomly from one Point unto another I said unto them if they pleased I would pass on to the Third Branch viz. That the Quakers Spirit tending to the sudden cutting off of People yea Kings and Princes that oppose them I here told them that I must crave their patience whiles I must profess my fears least that Spirit by which they were guided might run them upon their own and others temporal Destruction I told them I thought they had no such thing in their Thoughts or Eye at present but if power of the Sword come into their hand it was easie to imagine that whom their Spirit infallible decreed to death Peasant or Prince if it were possible he must be executed c. W. Edm. said Thou here makest a false and lying charge against the People of God who are peaceable and quiet and yielding to Magistrates c. I Replied I charge them with no matter of Facts but I charge them and their Spirit with a tendency c. For why 205 might they not say that Abraham with an impulse was killing Isaak Moses the Egyptian Ehud killing Eglon the King of Moab Samuel hewing Agag the King of Amelech in pieces and Paul Ananias and Saphira c. and why not Sathan stir up his Instruments to pretend the like Spirit as we know he hath done both in former latter days My Antagonists joyntly bid me shew when any of the Quakers had done so I Answ. They spake not to the point c. for I did not charge them to have done so but that their Spirit tended to it I was saying that Faubord at Grindleton was killlng his Son in imitation of Abraham if his Sons crying out and the breaking open of the House had not prevented and that Iames Parnel moved by this Spirit to Fast forty dayes c. perished the eleventh day c. but perceiving more than ordinary heats and that W. Edm. charged me that I had a false heart of mine own and would measure others by my bushel I told them of the wonderful actings of Tho. Munster and I. Becold and Fifer Knipperdoling c. in Germany and of their Pretences Murthers Poligamies and all by the Spirit c. I told them that our Royal Sovereign his Grandfather Henry 4th of France that famous and wonderful Man he was stab'd to death by a Frier pretending a Vision of Angels on Christmas night who commanded him from God to dispatch and kill the King which he most desperately effected W. Edm. interrupted me and spake to this effect why should we suffer this man thus to wrong the innocent people of God we will measure him with his own Bushel For thy Book declares thy approving of the killing of the Kings Father and said where is the Book At which word W. Harris a Fire-brand of Town and Colony Country rose up and carried a Book which they said was mine to W. Edmundson I perceived that W. Edm. W. H. who was for any Religion and a malicious mortal enemy to all good had been a plotting and I said openly I knew what malicious bloody counsel had been between W. Har. and themselves but they would finde themselves befooled for there was nothing in the matter but ridiculous malice for all of us knew that W. H. loved the Quakers whom now he fawn'd upon no more then he did the Baptists whom he till now fawn'd on but would love any as a Dog for his Bone for Land which he had a long Suit for as was known to all the Country and their cost Hereupon Capt. Green of Warwick Magistrate desired that such matters might be forborn and others spake to the same purpose and I Stubs and others are said to speak to W. Edm. to forbear so that the Book was laid aside and delivered again to that 206 malicious bloody Soul W. Harris I challenged them again and again to read and improve what possibly they could which I knew was no more then fome words applauding the Parliaments Iustice and Mercy which these Bloody Sophisters would like Wolves Foxes construe as my approving the Kings Death which God knows I never approved to this day Upon this Occasion I may now inform the Reader how easily the malicious Spirit of W. Edm. W. Har. met in one formerly no man amongst us had spoken more scornfully of the Quakers then W Harris now he extreamly privately and publickly fawns upon them seeing them my Enemies who had ever been his Friend and never his Enemy but in his outragious practises against Town Colony Country He was a Pretender in Old England but in New my experience hath told me that he can be one with the Quakers yea Iesuits or Mahumetans for his own worldly ends and advantage He is long known to have put Scorns Ieers upon the eminent Inhabitants of Town and Country He hath been notorious for quarrelling and challenging and fighting even when he pretended with the Quakers against Carnal Weapons so that there stands upon Record in the Town-book of Providence an Act of Disfranchisement upon him for fighting and shedding Blood in the street
and for maintaining and allowing it for ought I know to this day Then he turns Generallist and writes against all Magist-ates Laws Courts Charters Prisons Rates c. pretending himself and his Saints to be the Higher Powers as now the Quakers do and in publick writings he stir'd up the People most seditiously and desperately threatning to begin with the Massachusets and to cry out no Lords no Masters as is yet to be seen in his Writing this cost my self and the Colony much trouble Then as the Wind favoured his ends no man more cries up Magistrates then not finding that pretence nor the People called Baptists in whom he confided serving his ends He flies to Connecticut Colony then and still in great Contest with us in hopes to attain his gaping about Land from them if they prevail over us to this end he in publick Speech and Writing applauds Connecticut Charter and damns ours and his Royal Majesties favour also for granting us favour as to our Consciences which he largely endeavours by writing to prove the K. Majesty by Laws could not do My self being in place by Speech Writing opposed him Mr. B. Arnold then Governour and Mr. Io. Clark Deputy Governour Capt. Cranstone and all the Magistrates he was Committed for speaking writing against his Majesties Honour Prerogative Authority He 207 lay some time in Prison until the General Assembly where the Quaker by his wicked ungodly and disloyal plots prevailing he by their means gets loose and leaves open a door for any man to challenge the Kings Majesty for being too Godly or Christian in being too favourable to the Souls of his Subjects against his Laws c. I had thought to have declared thus much publickly and how seasonably the Kings Declaration came over against him also how that one General Assembly and another and another had been troubled with him c. and fined him c. but now my Lord Edmundson grew hot and told me that I had charged the People of the Lord with many great and grievous Charges which he said I could not prove yea he said he would speak it before the Lord I had not proved one of them and therefore he warned me being an old Man that I should not carry such a Burden on my back to my Grave and among other angry insultings he said he heard I had been a Magistrate and said I was a fit man to be a Magistrate that would so wrongfully charge the Innocent Io. Stubs spake to the same effect and how I had hindred them from going about the work of the Lord he said also that it was only the Light which they had spoke for and that some had interrupted them but he confest that Roger Williams himself had not done it I saw God in their Confession And for the last point and Branch of the 14 Position viz. Their Persecuting Spirit having spoken to it before and finding them unwilling to mention it I urged it not having at Newport shewed from Page 170 of G. Fox his Book That the Magistrate that is the Magistrate in their Light ought to Subject the Nation to his Light else he is not a faithful Magistrate In page 90. 96. G. Fox sets up his Saints as formerly W. Harris his Antagonists to be the higher Powers as knowing who Worship God aright and who not and only able to judge of Powers Magistrates Kingdomes and Churches Herein W. H. and the Quakers are one c. It is true that W. Edm. declared that the People of God were not to meddle with Carnal Weapons as also that before time many of the People of God called Quakers had been Souldiers Captains and Colonels yet now coming to the Light they had laid down their Carnal Weapons but if Fox say true in his Book either they Mope or Equivocate for Fox speaks of the Magistrates for Christ in the aforesaid Page 170. he discerns who be Idolaters who not which true Churches which not and are to praise the VVell Doers and terrifie the Evill Doers with the Carnal and Material Sword or else they talk nothing 208 But 2. If this Confession Profession of theirs were not yet if Chrst Jesus say true viz. The Tongue tells to all the World what the Heart is was there ever People professing the Name of Christ Jesus except the Papists so Reproaching the Protestants and amongst the Protestants was there any ever so Reproaching Reviling the Professing and Conscientious People as Quakers do was there ever any known professing the fear of God in so high a measure so sharp and cutting in their Tongues even to eminently knowing and Conscientious persons Thou Lyar thou Serpent thou Cain thou Judas thou Hipocrite thou Devil c. Shall we rationally question whether their hands like Simeons and Levyes will not be as fierce and cruel if the most holy and only Wise permits Whips Halters Swords Fagots to fall into their Hands and what did Sam. Fisher Ed. Burrowes write less to the Souldiers at Dunkirk that if they received the light they should on to Rome 3. Have we not known the deceitfulness of mens hearts fly out into greater matters then Persecution Hazael earnestly asked whether the Prophet thought him a Dog that he should doe such matters c. Pendleton vow'd his Collops should fry ere he would to Mass in Q Maryes dayes and yet to Mass he went and persecuted others also that would not bow to the Image as he had done Just here Capt Green of Warwick desired leave to speak to two things 1. To immediate Revelations such as Abraham and Moses and Ehud had 2. As to the Soul being a part of God I was weary and withdrew but afterward Capt. Green told me that none of them were willing to speak punctualy to either of these two but rather desired to wave them as a bstruse and high matters and Mysteryes Then Pardon Tillinghast a leading man among the People called Baptists at Providence he prest against them the continuation of Christs Ordinances untill he came The Quakers said Christ was come again to his Disciples He replyed that after Christs Ascention he spake of another Coming his second Coming Heb 9. W. E. fel to Prayer as with me he ftl to Preaching Pardon Tillinghast as himself told me declared to them that he was free to discourse with them but he was not free to joyn with them in Worship so he departed and after W E. his Prayer the whole Assembly And thus it pleased the God and Father of Lights and Mercyes to bring us to the end of this 4th dayes Contest and the end of the whole matter in much Peace and Quietness and the Consideration of matters left to every mans Soul and Conscience and so doe I this Narrative which God knows is the Sum and Substance of all our Transactions Unto his Eternal Majesty therefore I humbly
and some never The Quakers yet are more gross in this point because they maintain that the least that hearken to the Light are born again That they which are born again cannot Sin that they which can not Sin are pure as God is pure and therefore they Falling away from them they must necessarily hold that which is blasphemous of all to be abhorred that God himself may fall from Grace also and is kept down as the 110 as this barking Fox speaks as a Cart laden with sheaves perverting the Scripture by wickedness wicked spirits which are too hard for God and Christ and Spirit in all the Men and Women in the world that do not hearken to their feigned Light and let loose the Imprisoned Cart and Seed c. Wee may make a stand here and observe three things 1. The horrible abuse of Gods Excellent Gifts of Reason and Acuteness which these men so grossly desile in handling the Misteries and Parables of the holy Scripture 2. Gods Infinite Patience in bearing with such a rotten stinking thing as man is 3. What kind of Grace it is that so easily persons Fall away away from and part withal 2. As to Ezek. 18. How doth it follow that because the word Righteousness in which Fox in his wonted Burrough signifies divers things that therefore in this first place it must signify the Imputed Righteousness of God in Christ from which a man really Invested with it may really Totally and Finally depart And Secondly the Sanctifying Righteousness of Christ Jesus adorning a poor sinner Justified and pardoned and of that true Righteousness a truly sanctified Soul and member of Christ Jesus may make shipwrack But is there not beside these a very thirdly Indian Rigâ—teousness when a Barbarian is Innocent and free from Crimes falsly charged on him 4. Is there not a Civil Righteousness when men are free from Gross and Barbarous Courses and live Civilly soberly and justly among their Neighbors 5 Yea is there not a Pharisaical Righteousness which Paul prided himself in viz that concerning the Law he was blameless and yet saith the Lord Jesus Except your Righteousness go beyond this Righteousness you shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven 6. Again Is there not a Righteousness of the foolish Virgins who hath a shew and Lamp of Profession and make as brave a shew in building as the house upon the Rock it may be fairer and yet no true work of Conversion of the Soul to God nor the Oyle of Gods Spirit in the heart for all their boasting of it The most High and holy will be clear when he is Judged Adam shall live if he keep his Bargain and so shall all his Posterity if they keep the first Covenant 111 If any shall say God knows the Bargain is too hard for us Our first Father did not how shall we c. I Answer what will become then of the Papists and Quakers who say they can and the Papists more also then God commandeth 2. Christ did not mock but meekly and savingly teach the young man when he Answered If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments nor doth he mock the Iews dealing with them upon the Terms of Iustice Obey and live Transgress and die It is a pertinent question why was the holy Law of God written and given so many hundreds of years after man was Fallen and not able to keep his Bargain The Spirit of God Gal. 3 tels us that four hundred and Thirty Years after the Promise to Abraham the Law was written by Gods own Immediate Finger to shew unto man his Sin and Judgements and need of a Mediator promised 3. As to G. Fox Cursing his Adversary as a Diminisher from the holy Scripture I Answer Doth this Face of Brass who hath so horribly slighted the holy Scripture now adore them Is he now zealous for them and against the violation of them Doth he regard the adding to or Detracting from them or the Plagues and Curses therein denounced against the Adders to or Detracters from them Doth he not throughout all his Book and all of them in word and writing deny the holy Scripture to be the word of God and only that Frantick Light or Christ imagined by them to be in all mankinde to be the only Word of God yea is it of any use or more availe to them that have the Scripture in their heart as they say then a dead Letter and an Old Almanack c. O hear O Heavens and give Ear O Earth did ever the Devil vomit out more poyson against God and the Souls of men by the mouths and pens of Iews or Turks or Anti-Christans then these Foxians do in their undermining the holy Scriptures Some know it not Some of them speak Reverently of it The very Papists Confess it to be the very word or Speech of God But the Devil and the Quakers abhor to hear them Verbum Dei the Word of God These bewitched Soules affirme they have a higher Teacher yea 112 every man in the world hath him in them then the Scriptures are and yet they say in horrible simplicity and hypocrisy that they are the Words of God The 58th Instance of G. Fox his slight Answer as in Pag. 356 where he brings in a Book from Holland saying That God hath put out the Remembrance of your Sins and of your Corruptions within you wherein you must fight all your Life Time G. Fox whilst the Sins you are fighting withal are not blotted out in your own particulars this is not the Life of the Saints They are not fighting all their Life Time but come to the Kingdome of God witnessing sin and Iniquity blotted out and the Everlasting Covenant of Peace and Life with God I Reply This subtle Mountebank having gotten a Scaffold he acts Tricks wonderful in the Eyes of the simple yet as in all his Books he shews no knowledge of the Hebrew and the Greek whence our English Scripture comes as a Daughter from the Mother so falls he short of most English writers who scorns to disgrace their Mother English by so much bastard and false English as this poor Mountebank hath done in all his Books If ever any poor empty Soul have talkt of God without God Of a Christ and the holy Spirit within without them or any true Savour of them of the holy writings of God without any true Reverence and love to them Of Light without any Spark of true Illuminations of sin without any true Sence of the Exceeding Sinfulness of it This Empty Cask this loud Boaster and Censurer is one of them 1. His Answer saith three things in Effect 1 That no sin is blotted out until there be no more Root nor Seed of it in the Soul to fight against I Reply to this I have spoke much before and shewed how clear it is against so much holy Scripture against the Counsels and
book if such had proved desirable These alterations will all be noted in this reprint and will be designated as Roger Williams ' Manuscript Annotations The seconâ— Position Concerning true false Christs Traitors Rebells against the King eternaâ— Murtherers of him The true Lord Iesus Christ His humane nature which G. Fox alâ— night long so barks against The Quakers Christ allegorical and meerly Fancy destroying the History Humphrey Norton deales plainly against the Person of Christ The Equivocation of the Foxians Eph 3. 10. The true Union that is â—etween Christ Iesus Believers The Quakers painted Christ. Christ winhin and Christ without Two Questions to Quakers G Fâ—x his Book in Folio produced Page 3. The Papists Quakers destroy the Person of Christ. The being of Christ in the Heavens The Quakers endure not trying but are willingly ignorant Willing Ignorance Nehem 8 they gave the Sence The Quakers nonsensical Spirit Iohn Bunyan Christs twofold Presence The Quakers Conjure with Christs Body The Quakers endure not Sences or Meanings just as the Papists and yet talk all of light The old question of Christs Presence Fox Bonnet no difference The Quakers pretend to ownâ— Christs Bloud yet in truth allow him no Bloud to shed Enoch Howet The divine and humane nature of the Lord Iesus Nicholas the Deacon and Nicholas Fathers of the old and new Nicholaitans 1 believe R. W. Ms. Ann. So Cristopher Houlder he boggles at the word Manhood The word Humane considered Used in the Scripture 1 Cor 10. Dan. Grudry Christ not seen as he is until the day of Iudgement The personal coming of the Lord Iesus A visible and in visible eye and object Christ â—ithin Christ without The Papists and Quakers Christ is no where Christoph Wade The Author whome G. Fox opposeth and in Pride and madness rageth against The Quakers Christ but a whimsical Christ Hosanna to the Son of David 1 Ye poor Apostates R. W. Ms. Ann. The Spirit of the Papists the Quakers but one The Quakers notoriously dissemble for they do own and not own the Christ that dyed at Ierusalem Humph. Norton more plain in words then other Quakers Christ yesterday and to day The Quakers endure not to be searched temer of false and thievish spirits 1 Interline be R. W. Ms. Ann. The Quakers Apolloes Oracles the same Iohn Burton If ever there Equivocating Iesuites in the world the Quakers are The Quakers wonderful jugling about the true Christ John Burton The Quakers Traitors Rebels against the true Lord Iesus I have known the poor Lobsters catch the Foxes The wonderful blindness and hardness of my Antagonists 1 the plain Evidences R. W. Ms. Ann. Frances Higginson The Quakers endure not the word Humane Acts 13. Opened of Christs Humanity Tho. Collier The second coming of the Lord Iesus The Everlasting Fathâ—r Christ Iâ—su how The Quakers wonderfully changed yet but in Dissimulation as to learning the Scriptures W. Edmund leaves the Dispute is hurried into Preaching W. Edmund his story concerning Benefices And his vain extolling of their Idol Light John Stubs his sermon The Quakers unruly and rash interruptions A short Answer to 2 Sermons The motions of Gods spirit not those of the Quakers Tâ—e Quakers not orderly nor patient The Offices of Christ Iesus The Kingly office of the Lord Iesus The visible Christian Church Ordinances Touching the several Churches extant Churches nearest to Christ Iesus This was and I hope is the principle of the N English Church The various appearances of Christ Iesus 1 their R. W. Ms. Ann. My offer in the end of the second dayes conference Lying pretenders to Gods service The Authors just Apologie agaiâ—st the unjust clamors of the Quakers A mutual agreement for a third dayes conference A quarter of an hour much canvased The Quakers spirit policy The Quakers would not dispute on the first day and why The third dayes conference at New-port A Letter sent in to all of us The Letter refused to be opened by the Quakers The Sum of the Letter My self reproved in the Letter in 3 particulars The dâ—fference of the Quakers Sharpness sometimes a duty The Letter it self True librety infringed Quenching of the Spirit The insulting Spirit of the Quakers The true cause of our long discourse at Newport The modesty of this letter The third Position against the Quakers spirit Discussed The word spirit The quality of Spirits All spirits must be tried Gods Spirit given by Gods means The Spirit of God working by means The Quakers at Newport appealed too publickly Samuel Eaton Henoch Hoâ—vet G. Fox ignorant of the true spirit of God Tho. Moor. The use of means Fox and the Quakers above all Kings and Princes Popes Emperors Saints and Angels The Mahumetans Quakers considered and found one The Quakers Gods upon Earth all other Beasts Reprobates Devils The leading of the Spirits debated The tryal of Revelations Reason sanctified and rightly improved The Spirit gotten of prayer The Quakers Spirit The omnisciency of the Quakers Their in humanityâ— and cruelty Knowing and doing all things The Light within 2 Cor. 4 God hath shined in our hearts The darkness within An Evidence that the Quakers spirit and a deceitful Heart are one The testimony of the Deputy Governour Câ—pt Cranston and others against W. E. slanderous rashness The great Cheater who cheats all Cheaters The great Magna Charta xi Iâ—a 59. The true Seed The railng spirit of the Quakers Their Cursing Mens and Womens Nakedness Their Womens Preaching Dumb Meetings The monstrous Singing of the Quakers The true Spirit willing to be examined by the Scripture and every mans Consceence The false and Iuglers endure not searching The Quakers cry is Light but they dare not come to it The two pretended Witnesses Reeve and Muggleton The Quakers would set the Spirit and Scripture at odds The 4th Position concerning the Scriptures A twofold owning of any scripture or Writing The Iews and Papists and Quakers all of them in effect deny the holy Scriptures The Quakers slighting the holy Scriptures in many horrible Particlars A dissembling Show of Quakers respecting the Scriptures An Irish Papist confessing the Truth The Scriptures miraculously preservd to be Gods standing outward Record witness The holy Scripture the only outward standing Rule Record like the Records in the Tower The Holp Scriptures are Gods Love-letters The admirable excellency of the Scripture Luthers Light Ioh 20. 2. considered A famous vision in Turkey The two Witnesses eat up the book of Script Tindal the first heavenly Translator burned 1 nail up this R. W. Ms. Ann. The Iews outward reverence to the Script The first Protestants affâ—ction to the Scripture The Scriptures put both Papists Quakers to flight Christs Martyrs or Witnesses love to Scriptures Iames Parnel his horrible sin Iudgment How the Quakers own Scripture 2. King 17. the Samaritans feared the Lord and yet feared him not
The Quak. dig up the root of al Christianity in the 4 great Doctrines thereof 1 Interline man R. W. Ms. Ann. Tho Collier The Quak. hold no Heaven nor Hell to come John Clapham The Pollard The epicurian Philosophers the Quakers one Sect. 1 Change to err R. W. Ms. Ann. The 9th Position proved Mâ— Perkins saying of the Papists and mine of the Quakers Neither Papists nor Quak skil â—ow to pay Gods justice The Character of a Quaker 1 Interline or R. W. Ms. Ann. What true turning to God is Iacobs Ladder of true Christianity The Quakers â—nd most mens Shipwrack The Quakers Minâ—sters and â—heir Plea A close fight as to Religion The easiness of the Quakers Religion One Devil changed for another yea sometimes one for seven The Quakers simple boast of numbers The carnal weapons The Quakers Spirit far from purity and Holiness The Spight og the Quakers Spirit The ignorance of the Quakers The abominable Spirit of the Quakers nakedness Quakers driven on by the old Spirit of the Adamites The rising of the Quakers Diverse Sorts suffered by God to fall into the Quak Ditch But especially for Male and Female Protestants The great distinguishing Character of true and false Pretenders The 3d Position debated at Providence Two great Competitors the Popes and Foxians Spiritual pride the devils pride The Popes Quakers pride compared The Quakers hoast of their number The audncious impious faecs of the Foxians Pope Edmond commanding silencing the Governour A second Paralel between the Pope Quakers 1 these R. W. Ms. Ann. The Pope and Quakers usurp over the Souls of all men Humph Norton G Fox compared G F. a subtler Fox then Hum. Norton A third parallel between the Pope Quak. Both Papists Qukers their Pride above the Scriptures The Pope aad Quakers horrible revilers Slanderours cursers of the Righteous The 5. parallel The infallibility of the Popes and Quakers Oracles The Holy Spirit in a Cloakbag at the Councel at Trent The Pope and Quak the two great pretenders and corrivals for the pretended Holy Ghost The Quak pretending to be Apostles F F his Counterfeit mirrcles 1 Interline and. R. W. Ms. Ann. A 6 Parallel between the Pope the Quak. A 7 parallel between the Pope and Quakers 8 Parallel as to the sinless condition of the Quakers G F his proud Blasphemy as to God himself H B the first Perfâ—ctist in these parts and most notorious for Imperfections The difference amongst the Quakers as to these things The 4th of the seven last Positions The Indians Religion A Deity or higher Power acknowledged by Indians The four chief Religions of the World The religious Diffâ—rences among the Protestants Fundamental Differences The Quakers easie Conversion and Churches not comparable to the way of N-England Flatterers of Kings The whorish Quakers and whore of Rome The Devil a roaring Lion The Quak pretences to outgo all pretending Preachers True Preachers or messengers The Earthly Heavenly Sword A great mystery amongst Papists and Protestants A word to the Protestants The mystical Farmers The 5th of the last 7 positions The suffrings of the Quakers Pauls and the Quak suffrings The Quak. sufferings in Hystory of G. Bishop recorded E. Burrowes his Epistle quoted The Quotation weighed What true Suffering is 1 Interline and R. W. Ms. Ann. True Scripture Language The wonderfull Sufferings of Hereticks Great failings of Gods Children in this life True and False Sufferers for the Name of Christ. The Quakers described 1 Interline a. R. W. Ms. Ann. I Fox G Fox their Martyrs the contrary causes of their Sufferings Heavenly love carried on G Foxes even felf God and Christ Spirit Virgin love to God c. The humility of Christs sufferers Devilish pride The predictions of the Quakers A blessed saying of blessed Mr. Dod. The 13 position discusd The Quakers and other Authors compared G. F. his Writingâ— poor and lamâ— G F his book in folio considered G F his ignorance of common English Horrible contradiction 1 Holy Spirit R. W. Ms. Ann. The excellent men Whom G F in his book in folio trampleth â—n as Dishclouts Dogs Devils A difference of Sinners G. Fox no true Goldsmith Fox his subtilty and yet simplicity in granting the Script to be the words of God The word Humane abominable above all words to the Quakers The simple tautologyes of the Quakers The injuâ—â—ing wild imperiousness of G. Fox Hen. Haggar Bloudy and devillish Pride of the Foxians Fox his horrihle railing Fox his bruitish and ridiculous Song What Railing is Instances out of G. F. his Book Sam. Eaton 1 1. Tim. 6. R. W. Ms. Ann. Gods being out of our reach The nature of Spirits How God and Christ of is in us Sam. Eaton The Scripture the Rule The Holy Scripture a Lanthorn Try all things Sam Eaton Gods mediate teachings his word voice manifold and specified Pauls wonderful mediate and immediate conversion Immediate teachings Revelations considered in 7 particulars The great business of Revelations Sam Eaton What is the Gospel The horrible Cheat of the Foxians Why the Gospel is called the Power of God How it is called Pauls Gospel 1 by R. W. Ms. Ann. Three Foxes The Scripture the word or glad news from Heaven written Counterfeits destroy not true â—eirs and owners for ever A word to all Foxians Gods wonderful preservation of his word or wil to poor mankind John Bunian The great Position of Iustification Iustification what it is The proud Quakers affirm no distinction between God themselves 1 Drops R. W. Ms. Ann. Ioseph Kellet Our natural Alienation from God Few excellent men saved 1 Ye R. W. Ms. Ann. Our alienation from God Richard Baxter The matters of perfection Phil. 3. about perfection 1 Erase Brethren and. R. W. Ms. Ann. The estate of Gods Children upon Earth Richard Baxter The great consequence of a word Ellis Bradshaw The honor which the Quakers give to others Civil respect Thou Thee Incivilities ought to be moderately punisht The 14. Position debated W E. c standing upon coals Civility and Courtesie N. Eng. one work to civilize a Barbarous People The Quakers monstrous Incivility The Indians and Quakers of one Spirit The Quakers again maintain their womens Nakedness Signs and Figures discussed The Quakers spirit enraged The Quakers spirit tending to Arbetrary Government The Quakers have no need of Scripture much less of the written Laws of men The Quakers none else in the World fit for Gonrnment as they judge T A his Testimony The 3d. Branch Immediate impulses The Kings Grandfather H. 4. of France murthered upon pretence of a vision of Angels W. Edm. W. Harris their mallice towards me W Harris his character and practise W H the Q the higher powers as they simply affirm W Edm. his ignorant and impudent zeal and upbraidings The point of persecution So many Quak. so many Popes The pretended meekness of the Quakers