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

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

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

them you must needs have offered great Violence to your Understandings in giving your Approbation which anon we shall so undeniably evidence as it would have been comparatively your Virtue to have recommended the Book without reading it or examining the Citations Besides the most of what he chargeth upon us to be our Principles are not so laid down by any one of us nor say we sayable by any of us upon our real Principles but are such Consequences as he through Ignorance or Malice hath indirectly drawn from our Words For Instance That there is no other Judgment Heaven or H●ll then what is within us in this Life Which is so far from being our Principle in Our Words that it is as inconsistent with the Truth of our Creed as Darkness is with Light Charge this upon him and he will tell you I doubt not That this is not the Quakers Faith in terminis but the Consequence of it but then it is to be observed that he must have the making of it I would fain know of you if you would be so treated with the Respect to the Articles of your own Creed Would you esteem it just in me to give my Consequence for your Principle supposing I thought it a true Consequence especially if you reject it For Example You are most if not all of you strict Calvinists in the Point of Election and Reprobation would you take it for a candid Representation of your Judgment that I should proclaim it to the World T. Manton T. Jac●mb c. believe That God is the Author of Sin That God's Secret Will crosseth his Revealed Will That no Man is oblieged by the Laws either of God or men That Men are not the Cause of their own Destruction That there are neither Rewards nor Punishments c. because perhaps I believe those Consequences to be deducible from the Calvinistical Principle I am perswaded you would look upon me as an Injurious Person in so doing yet this hath been the Practice of your Reverend Author J. Faldo and which is le●s to your Credit you have notwithstanding commended him in it which how well it suits with On● and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines I leave to their Judgment who understand what Persons of such a Character ought to do and be But I hope you do not think this to be Imitating of God if you do your Case is desperate But ●ad your Carriage been less blamable in these Particulars it had not only been your Discretion but Duty to have enquired if ever any thing had been writ in Answer to this Discourse you recommend by any of that People that it was writ against if there had to have procured and perused it before you had so freely spent your peremptory Judgment against us You generally fling Infallibility at us though it be about Matters of highest Importance to Salvation as if it were a Capital Sin to be assured of what a Christian ought not to make a Doubt of and yet nothing below asscribing such an Infallibility to your Reverend Author can excuse you in not examining him by our Discourses before you conferr'd so kind ●n Epistle upon his Book I ask you if the like Practice would please you in your own Ca●e you have prov'd it doth in ours which makes not for your Honour Some of you are Writers your selves and thereby have ascended to no small Degree of Fame for some thing or other tell me honestly if you would think it a Piece of Justice in any Class of Men to recommend a Book most abusive of your Religion to the World for an Ingenious Essay an Exact Account of your Belief a Tract that in Matter Proof and Style your own Words merits the Notice of all such as desire an Information concerning your Principles of Religion whilst you both disown the Principles of Religion it calls yours and in Two large Answers have detected him of several hundred Miscarriages against your Persons and Principles I am perswaded you will provide better for your selves But if you must needs be so liberal me thinks your Recommendation had been better bestow'd upon his Vindication since his writing That proveth This wanted it and if it wanted it then it wants it still and yet it seems the Book Vindicated must be the Defence of the Vindication and all the Return I am like to have to my Rejoynder bating The Epistle of many L●arned Reverend and Worthy Divines in Praise of such a Book and ●uch an Author May none of you at least in this Temper be Inquisitors when I am to be examin'd for my Religion I shall now fall more closely to the Matter of your Epistle One and Twenty Divines The Quakers preach another Gospel and endeavour to seduce well-meaning Souls to whom they speak in unintelligible Words and from whom they hide the Poyson of their Antifundamental Doctrines W.P. Here is a great deal in a little and very sowerly said Were it as True as it is False the Day were yours You say We preach another Gospel You do but Say it and I thank God You can Do no more But doth it become One and Twenty Learned and Reverend Divines to give so general and black a Charge without making any the least Offer to Prove it Is not this to Calumniate rather then to ●onfute us If you say your Reverend Author John Faldo hath done it for you I must tell you that he is an Irreverent Abuser of God the Christian Religion and the Quakers and which is more to my Contentment whatever it be to his and yours Some and No Quakers too think I have prov'd him such And let me ask you If it be Another Gospel To own Remission and Eternal Salvation by the Son of God both as he appear'd above 1600 Years ago in the Flesh and as he reveals himself within in Power and Spirit What is the Gospel or Glad Tidings but Deliverance from Sin here and Wrath to come And what can effect this but the Powerful Grace of God that bringeth Salvation which is dispens'd by Him to all men who is full of Grace and Truth For the other part of your Accusation That we should Say one thing Mean another It is by Consequence to call us the worst sort of Knaves by how much a Deception in matters of Eternal Moment is more impious then any Cozennage about things of this Life and yet you would be thought Charitable Men and say We want it Is this the Way to supply us But I would willingly know of you By what Skill you arrive at the Knowledge of our Hearts Inspiration is one part of our Heresy if your Reverend Author is to be credited The Scripture can not be your Rule in the Point for that nowhere saith The Quakers Say one thing and Mean another and if you measure us by our Words you must grant that either you do not understand us or we mean very Good Things for you elsewhere say That our