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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94202	A reviler rebuked, or, Abraham Bonifield's envy, falseness and folly, in his late book, called The cry of the oppressed, etc., laid open in this answer thereunto Written by Oliver Sansom...	Sansom, Oliver, 1636-1710.	1696 (1696)	Wing S685; ESTC R43915	56,159	52

all may know that he is not changed from what he was but is still and remains in the like Spirit of Malice and Bitterness as is common frequent and inherent he says to my nature Now I observe how he over-shoots himself through his ill will to me and runs himself upon a Rock before he is aware For if as he says I am not changed from what I was but the Spirit of Malice and Bitterness is inherent to my nature then I was always so heretofore and he must know it heretofore and yet who more forward in pretence and shew of Love Friendship and Unity with me than he till of late years since for my gently reproving him for his contentious quarrelling he hath turned against me and set himself to abuse and defame me Many lines of this nature are in his Book which containing nothing but meer Clamour I pass it over as unworthy of any notice The occasion he here takes for his particular Cavils at me is from my returning him a former Book of his which he had sent me and which I had written something on It was a Book of Queries and one part of the Title of it was Plain and Honest Dealing When I had read the Book I found it to be so far from Plain and Honest that I struck out those two words and in their places wrote two others more agreable to the Matter and Substance of the Book viz. False and Treacherous I writ also something on the Book and something on a Paper fixed to it as my Sense both of him and it and having so done sent the Book back to him again In all which I conceive I did him no wrong with respect either to the matter I writ or manner of doing it As for the matter he doth but nibble and carp at some words and passages in it and that how idly shall be shewn anon but doth not undertake to Answer it As to the manner of my doing it which he seems to wrangle about I think I did him no wrong For he having not lent but given the Book to me it was my own and at my own dispose to use as I pleased to add or blot out what I would and make what Alterations I saw meet And when I had so done it was in my choice either to keep or give it away and I chose to give it him again and accordingly did send it him I intended to have Published what I had Written and sent to him with his Book but considering the Subject treated of there does vary from this I think fit to forbear at this time and if occasion offers and way be made there possibly may be a full Answer to it hereafter so for the present I shall proceed to go through with my Answer to this Book Now to manifest the Folly as well as Malice of this Cavilling Man he hath picked two passages out of those two Papers of mine he mentioned p. 33. neither of which he was willing to undertake to Answer and having most dishonestly wrested them to a ridiculous as well as a wrong Sense he fills two pages 34. and 35. with empty noise and clamour in a confused manner and nonsensical heap of words one of the passages he takes out of the latter part of my before-mentioned Paper fixed to his former Book wherein I justly blamed him for his abusive wresting those words which he says J. B. spoke to Friends concerning him viz. That if they could not bind or tie his Tongue they would their own which I told him could import no more in any tollerable Sense or Construction than to this effect that if they could not prevail with him to be quiet and cease contending with and disturbing them yet they would let him alone and not strive with him The other passage he takes out of that which I wrote upon the Book it self where having shewed him the dangerous state he was in by entertaining hatred against W. L. and J. B. which he had evidently manifested by his endeavouring to slay their Christian-Reputation and so was by the Apostle judged to be a Murderer He that hateth his Brother is a Murderer 1 Joh. 3.15 I asked him thus For how couldst thou devise to do them so much mischief and not hazzard corporal Punishment as to expose them as thou hast done Here because I quoted this Scripture he insinuates as if I intended Murdering of the Body when my meaning was no other than as in the very line before slaying their Christian Reputation Yet by a strange sort of perverse abusing and wresting of words he hath inferred from this that I would have Bodily punishment inflicted upon him for writing his Books And from this and the former Expression used he says by J. B. of tying his Tongue which had in it no more either of danger or hardship to him than to themselves for the words it seems were If we cannot tye his Tongue let us tye our own that is if we cannot persuade him to hold his Tongue and not interrupt us Let us hold our Tongues and not answer him I say from these two Expressions he hath run himself into such a fright as if he began to feel either the Whip or the Fire already so true of him is that which the Psalmist saith of the workers of Iniquity They were in great fear where no cause of fear was Psal 53.5 Hereupon he cries out p. 34. of me for scaring or affrighting him with Corporal or Bodily Punishment And in p. 49. he very gravely if there can be gravity in so great folly says thus And it might not I believe be amiss if but or the Truths sake that some ancient and grave Friends would be and were so concerned as to examine and know of O.S. what manner and degree of Punishment it is to be or must be that my Body is to suffer or to be punished withal for the great mischiefs c. And towards the bottom of the same page he mentions again my using such scaring threats of Corporal Punishment or Punishments upon his Body 'T is well he is so apprehensive of Bodily Punishment that the fear of that may deter him from attempting that which might subject him to it But it is strange to see how upon these meer and willful Perversions he runs out in a noise of Words against Persecution setting forth not only the heinousness thereof but the hideousness thereof and representing to himself and his Reader no less than most cruel Sufferings and exquisite Tortures yea and in the end death it self And before that binding of Head Tongue Hands Feet the use and cruelty of the Gag and whatever else he could think of to heighten his affrighted fancy the Coat and Hat of fearful and affrighting painted Devils Hell and Hell-fire put upon them c. And all this noise and out-cry he makes for nothing or without any cause or ground given him but meerly from an evil mind and desire in

A Reviler Rebuked OR Abraham Bonifield's ENVY FALSENESS and FOLLY In his Late Book Called The CRY of the OPPRESSED c. LAID OPEN In this ANSWER thereunto Written by OLIVER SANSOM Behold he Travelleth with Iniquity and hath Conceived Mischief and brought forth Falshood He made a Pit and digged it and is fallen into the Ditch which he hath made His Mischief shall return upon his own Head and his violent Dealing shall come down upon his own Pate Psal 7.14 15 16. LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle near the Meeting House in White-Hart-Court in Grace-Church-street 1696. A REVILER REBUKED OR Abraham Bonifield's ENVY FALSNESS and FOLLY in his late Book called the Cry of the Oppressed c. laid open in this Answer thereunto OF the many ways which Satan hath used to cast reproach upon the Way of Truth and them that truly walk therein thereby to hinder those that are enquiring after it from entering thereinto One and that not the least mischievous hath been to stir up Discontent Emulation or Envy in some or other who make or have made Profession of the same Way of Truth against either some particular Member or the whole Society and having drawn them by degrees into Prejudice and Enmity then to thrust them forward to make open War by Word or Writing and to load the Faithful Professors of Truth with Calumny Reproach and false Accusations How much the Apostle Paul suffered by such either False Pretenders to or Backsliders and Apostates from the Way of Truth may be gathered from divers occasional hints in many of his Epistles There were some High Talkers amongst the Corinthians that were puffed up against the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.18 19. Some that were ready to Censure him as if he walked according to the Flesh 2 Cor. 10.2 Some who despised his Bodily presence as weak and counted his Speech contemptible ver 10. Such he called False Apostles and Deceitful Workers cap. 11 ver 13. And recounting the many Sufferings Hardships and Perils he had undergone for the sake of the Gospel mentions his Perils among false Brethren ver 26. He complains to the Galatians of false Brethren at Jerusalem who sought to bring him into Bondage Gal. 2.4 He tells the Philippians That some at Rome Preached Christ even of Envy Strife and Contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to his Bonds Phil. 1.15 16. He warns Timothy of Alexander the Copper-smith who he says did him much evil and greatly withstood his Preaching 2. Tim. 4.14 15. Nor was the Apostle John free from the like Exercise and Suffering from Diotrephes who prated against him with malicious words 3 John 9 10. So that it need not seem strange to any now neither should any be startled at it to see some rise up amongst us or pretending to be of us and fall upon us with bitter Revilings and false Accusations since it appears to have been the work of the wicked One in former Ages to stir up such perverse and unruly Spirits to Rail at Revile Reproach and Defame even the Apostles themselves Which evil work he hath continued ever since and in this Age especially wherein the Light of the Glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ hath broken forth more brightly and clearly than in many Ages before he hath drawn some that professed to walk therein into Discontent Division Prejudice Enmity and so at length into open Opposition even to Write Print and publish Books stuffed with Falshoods and Defamations against the Faithful Followers and Ministers of Christ Jesus Among the too many whom Satan hath beguiled corrupted and hardened to that degree Abraham Bonifield of Reading is one who having long since discovered himself to be a Man of a restless and unquiet Mind and of an unruly and contentious Spirit seeking occasions to make Disturbances and break the Peace of the Church was divers years ago reproved therefore and testified against by the Quarterly Meeting of the County where he lives And having since left the Meeting of Friends to which he us'd before to resort and joyned himself to them in Reading who some years ago Separated themselves from Friends he hath very lately Published a Book in Print containing many Foul Reflections Slanderous Reports and False Accusations against divers Friends by Name among whom he hath made me a principal Butt to shoot his Envious Arrows at and hath laboured much to defame me in my Reputation both as a Man and a Christian I find a concern upon my Spirit to Vindicate Truth and other Friends concerned as well as my self from his False and Foul Aspersions and to lay open his Deceit and Wickedness therein He calls his Book The Cry of the Oppressed in Sion But by the Confusion that is in it he manifests himself to be in Babylon He should have told what he means by Sion For as Sion outwardly was a Mountain in Jerusalem upon or near which the Temple was said to be builded So Sion Spiritually or in a Mystical Sense is used for that Holy Mountain which the Prophet spoke of when describing the Peace of Christ's Kingdom in the Gospel-Days he said They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain Isa 11.9 And to such as come to dwell in this Holy Mountain the same Prophet said elsewhere In Righteousness shalt thou be established Thou shalt be far from Oppression for thou shalt not fear and from terrour for it shall not come near thee Chap. 54.14 Whence then has he fetched his Cry of the Oppressed in Sion He says it is Sounded forth aloud in the Camp But he doth not say what Camp Surely it must be in the Camp of the Vncircumcifed Besides his Cry he hath given another Title to his Book he calls it also An Appeal from the Wicked and Vnjust Judgment of Men to the Judgment-Seat of Christ that Just and Vpright Judge and Lord of Heaven and Earth And to his Holy Witness in the Hearts and inward parts of all the Real Professors and Possessors of the Holy Truth Here he makes a two-fold Appeal one to the Judgment-Seat of Christ another to his Holy Witness in the Hearts c. by distinguishing of which it seems as if he referred in the former to the general Judgment at the end of the World For that world Judgment-Seat is used in that Sense by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans chap. 14. ver 10. For we shall all stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ and 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether good or bad And I do not remember it is used in any other Sense in Scripture unless it be with Relation to Civil Judicatures Besides these he hath yet a Third and more particular Appeal in his Book page 30. where he Appeals to all that have Eyes of their own and dare use them I am well

deliver up to be destroyed all his Papers and Writings that do relate to or contain matter of Charges Complaints or Reflections against his Brethren W. L. and J. B. and that he cease and forbear Writing any more of the like evil and hurtful tendency which we are sensible can produce nothing but ill consequences and have been gathered together and treasured up not by that Spirit wherein the Fellowship of the Gospel standeth and Bond of Peace is kept but in a wrong Spirit out of the Counsel of God And moreover our Sense and tender Advice to all Friends concerned is That in all things they walk circumspectly in the tenderness and gentleness of the Love and Life of our Lord Jesus Christ and be careful what in them lieth to cut off all occasions of offences from any that may seek it and endeavour to remove the Blocks as much as they can out of the way of them who are in danger of stumbling And as touching Business Meetings and Recording matters there concluded our Sense and Judgment is That if any omission or shortness have been it ought to be acknowledged and amended for the future And as touching open Feuds Heats and Contentions in Publick Meetings our Sense and Judgment is That such things are against the Interest of Truth and tend to stumble and hurt the Weak and ought by all Friends wholly to be avoided and that all Reflections against each other in Publick ought to be forborn as much as may be James Potter Oliver Sansom William Austell William Cooper Benjamin Antrobus John Gidden Richard Vokins Jun. Against this Judgment A.B. and R.S. exclaimed extreamly calling it an Unrighteous Judgment And when at the next Quarterly Meeting which was at Newberry the 6th of the 10th Month 1691. it was read A.B. being present was so Clamorous and Troublesome that the Meeting could not well proceed in their business For which reason partly and partly because some Friends were willing to try what might be done to bring him to a sense of his evil doing and to repent thereof that so the Recording of it might have been spared it was not Recorded in the Book at that Meeting Which tenderness towards him he hath since made an evil use of falsly suggesting as if the Meeting was not satisfied therewith and could not agree about Recording of it but at the next Quarterly Meeting following it was Recorded by Order of the Meeting in the meeting-Meeting-Book A.B. who was present behaving himself more like a Man bereaved of his Sences than like a Sober Man threatning a sad Judgment that should fall on Friends if they did Record that Unrighteous Judgment as he called it for he by his great swelling words would have frighted Friends if he could from doing it But Friends saw his Spirit to be wrong and Recorded the Judgment which hath stood and will stand over him and let him twist or twine which way he can he will never get from under it unless he Repent Thus Reader I have given thee as briefly as I could a plain and true Account of this Matter so far as the Quarterly Meeting was concerned in it by which thou mayest see a pretty deal of A. Bonifield's Shifting Tricks the uncertainty of his Temper and the unruliness of his Spirit which cannot rest nor be quiet He hath represented things in his Book far otherwise than in truth they were But he is so hobled in the doing it that from his own Book his Falshood appears He makes the ground of his refusing to stand Tryal before those Friends whom the Quarterly Meeting upon his Complaint had with his own consent referred it to because his Complaint was not openly read in the Quarterly Meeting In this he discovers a great want both of Judgment and Sincerity Had he not wanted Judgment he might have seen that as it was properly in the Power and at the Dispose of the Quarterly Meeting whether a Complaint not coming from a Monthly Meeting but in a private manner should be read openly in the Meeting or no So it was not reasonable that a Complaint against any Member or Members of the Meeting should be read openly in the Meeting unless that Meeting had intended to have had the whole matter contained in such Complaint Examined Heard Try'd and Determined in the open Meeting which that Meeting did not think fit Had he not wanted Sincerity he would not have started back and refused to stand to what the Meeting had Ordered and himself had agreed to much less would he have alledged this as a Pretence or Excuse for his so doing when-as he had consented to submit his Cause to be Heard and Determined by those Seven Friends whom the Meeting had appointed thereunto and the time was set for the hearing thereof after he knew the Meeting had refused to have his Complaint openly read And he himself afterwards at the Quarterly Meeting at Reading in the 3d Month 1691. without having his Complaint openly read did offer to leave his Cause to the same Seven Friends that had been before appointed by the Meeting for them to hear and end it which shews his Exception against them both before and since was but a Shifting Cavil and that he was void of Integrity in urging it Besides the Reasons as he calls them which he gives why he would have had his Complaint read openly and why upon the not reading thereof he refused to stand to the Meetings Order and his own Agreement doth sufficiently manifest his own unreasonableness they are in p. 4 5 6. of his Book where also he changes the Title of his Paper from a Complaint to a Petition which word he repeats over and over near half a score times I guess and in his Confusion calls it sometimes and most often a Petition simply sometimes a Petition or Complaint and anon a Petition and Complaint not knowing himself what he would be at Or as if he knew not the difference between a Petition and a Complaint Charge or Impeachment The fore part of that Paper which he calls Something offered as the Reasons of desiring the publick Hearing or Reading of a Petition c. which begins in his 4th page hath nothing in it of Reason or that looks like Reason let him assign any Sentence out of it if he can After that in p. 5. he sets a new Title thus Here followeth something upon a Second and more Deliberate Consideration what I now find my self concerned and best satisfied to do and so far is he from offering Reasons in this that it rather shews his resolute Will than Reason To this in his 6. p. he adds a Postscript in which he says are Two weighty Reasons for a Publick Hearing of the Petition first because the Grievances therein contained relate to the Monthly Meeting so not a Private nor a Personal Concern If this be true it makes against him For it is evident the Monthly Meeting did not Imploy nor Impower him to make

he kept on his Hat at the Prayer of those others which now 't is like he puts it off to Now if Persons whose common Practice is to put off their Hats in Prayer do keep on their Hats at such times only when a Person thrusts himself upon them taking upon himself to be the Mouth of the Meeting to God in Prayer as well as the Mouth of God to the Meeting in Preaching and so will impose his Preaching or Praying upon a Meeting as if he were in Unity with and owned by that Meeting when indeed he is not the keeping on the Hat at such times and in such Cases is no Evil nor irreverent Practice but it would look more like an Hypocritical Practice to put it off His Ninth Article is Their refusing to take his Money which he says he laid down at a Monthly Meeting towards a Collection What reason had he to expect they should take his Money when as in his Second Article he says they had told him they saw him to be a Man of a wrong Spirit The Tenth and Last Article of his Charge is against J. B. in particular and is thus worded For his wicked and most Blasphemously affirming That he did see my Inside as likewise that he discerned my Heart and Inward Parts which Wicked Proud and Presumptuous words of his I do not look upon says he or can conceive to be at all less or other than plain and absolute Blasphemy and taking to himself the Power and Attributes only and alone proper and due to the Immortal God This he harps upon in other parts of his Book and makes a great noise about Now tho' I understand he hath stretched the words beyond what J. B. spoke yet taking them as he hath laid them down I think he will be hard put to it to find Blasphemy in them It is true that it is the Lord that searcheth the Heart but it is also true and methinks he should not deny it that God who searcheth the Heart both can discover and sometimes hath discovered the secret Thoughts and Purposes of one Man's Heart to another When Samuel told Saul I will tell thee all that is in thine Heart 1 Sam. 9.19 Was that Blasphemy Or did did he speak Wicked Proud Presumptuous Words When David said of his Enemies There is no faithfulness in their mouths their inward part is very wickednefs Psal 5.9 Did he speak at randon or at a venture Or had the Lord discovered their inward part to him and let him see their inside When Peter said to Ananias Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lye to the the Holy Ghost Acts 5.3 And why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart Ver. 4. Did he not discern the heart of Ananias And see what he had conceived in his Heart When the same Apostle told Simon Thy heart is not right in the sight of God Acts 8.21 Did he not discern Simon 's heart and see his very inside Did the Apostle take to himself the Power and Attributes only and alone proper and due to the Immortal God Did he speak plain and absolute Blasphemy Or Wicked Proud and Prefumptuous words If God hath in former Ages discovered to his Servants the Hearts and secret Purposes of evil minded men will A. B. deny that he can and may do so still His Hand is not shortened And A. B. says p. 6. We know for certain that God is not limited to Parts nor Persons So that what he has done of old he may do again and that by the meanest as well as by the highest Member in his Church Has A. B. forgotten that amongst the excellent Manifestations which the Apostle Paul reckons up as wrought in man by the Spirit of God one is Discerning of Spirits 1 Cor. 12.10 Was that to give sight of the outside only or of the inside Heart and inward parts But there is besides this an understanding of the inside partly by the outside or Fruits brought forth a knowledge of the Tree by its Fruits And so apparently uvil are the Fruits A. B. hath brought forth that one may safely say and J. B. did not say so before he sees his inside and discerns his Heart to be corrupt and naught without danger of uttering Blasphemy or speaking Wicked Proud or Presumptuous words Thus I have briefly touched the several Articles of his Charge against W. L. and J. B. which he laid so much stress upon calling them Crimes of an high and criminal nature But how light and trivial they are in respect of the noise and bustle he hath made about them I doubt not but every intelligent Reader will soon and easily see He adds that he had also several other Articles in Charge against W. L. and which were also as material as these and very little varying from the same Subject If they varied but little from the same Subject they might soon be as material as these and yet be immaterial enough or sufficiently void of solid matter or substance And therefore he had no cause to quarrel with us for declaring in our Judgment that his many Articles Complaints and Charges being measured by the Line of Truth and weighed in the right Ballance there appeared little of Substance in them especially considering that as hath been noted in several particulars before he hath added many things to them since Yet he hath so little Wit as thereupon to say p. 26. If so viz. that there appears but little Substance in them then the less to be blamed But I think every Judicious man will think him the more to be blamed for drawing up a Charge in so many Articles and making so great a clutter about them that had so little Substance in them I come now to that part of his Book which is levelled more directly and particularly at me beginning at p 33. where he says Seeing that O. S. one of the aforesaid unjust Judges hath taken a fresh occasion to thus run out against me through some offence he has taken at my late Book of Queries it hath come into my thoughts to further discover and manifest him and that in his plain and naked shape And tho' in p. 45. he reproacheth Friends with being like them of old who said Report and we will Report it Yet now to his shame he doth professedly undertake to make this discovery of me saying thus viz. Not only from the Evidence and Proof from his own Mouth and Pen but also from the Allegations Reports and Accounts of others concerning him c. And accordingly he hath dealt by me exposing what he hath picked up by Report as in p. 37. line last or Hear-say p. 39.40 against me and where even that hath been wanting or not full enough to answer his Envious Intention he hath endeavoured to make it out with his own Surmises and Suppositions no less than three times in one page p. 40. And this he pretends to do saying thus viz. To the end that