Hypocrites not to be believed If Changed either your Truth hath changed or they gone from it and so that and you i. e. the Quakers not the same and so may change again as is for your sordid Interest as in the case of the Sloop in Pensilvania Also you are as uncertain and falacious in your main Principle of the Light within as in the case of Fighting In Great Mystery p. 58. you cite one saying To say the Light in every Man is Christ the Redeemer is Error Again They that say the Light in every Man that condemns of Sin to be Christ the Redeemer have set up an Idol c. To both these Fox answers To the first he says Contrary to John who saith This is the true Light which enlightens every Man Here he corrupts the Scripture And to the Second says he Doth not Christ say I am the Light of thâ—â—â—rd c. Here he doth not disprove what the Mâ—â—â—â—firm'd but squintingly justifies that as Truth which the Man opposes as Error i. e. That the Light in every Man is Christ the Redeemer and that it 's no Error so to affirm but Truth and that it 's contrary to Scripture to oppose so saying But in another Book intituled A Vindication of Truth c. by J. N. in Answer to the same Man and the same Passage as is Answer'd to in Great Mystery p. 58. In this Vindication c. p. 51. there is many Particulars which the Man as J. N. says charges on the Quakers as their Affirmations of which there you say to the Man Be ashamed of thy Lyes which thou hast cast on us which never entered into our hearts to do nor speak which thou falsly accusest us withal There is twenty one Particulars The Ninth is this say you That we say the Light in every one is Christ the Redeemer Then after the mentioning all the twenty Particulars which the Man charges the Quakers as holding or saying in p. 5â— of your Vindication c. you say Divers more Deceits hast thou made up into Lyes and laid on us as if we said them when it 's thy own wickedness c. Here you may see that to the same Man and Sentance in one Book i. e. The Great Mystery c. what the Man opposes as Error is owned as true and his opposing it made contrary to Scripture And in the other Book i. e. A Vindication c. the same Words or Sentence disown'd Again page 4. There J. N. charges the Man for saying that he said The Light shining in every Man is Christ a thing not wrot nor intended by me Says J. N. again page 8. The Man is charged with a Lye for saying that the Quakers say the Light within every Man is the Word Again page 11. There says J. N. Thou tells thy former lye over again saying I say the Light within every Man is the Spirit of Truth Again says J. N. It 's a lye that I say the Light in every Man is God's Righteousness Perfection c. Again page 12. that a measure of the Eternal Divinity is in every Man by turning to it out of all Sayings Operations Scriptâ—â—â— or Christ without the same doth purge away Siâ—â—â—d redeem unto God All which is thy own wickedness heaped up from thine own lye Again p. 16. says J. N. I do not say the Light in every Man is God's Son c. And in unity with this says G. W. As to Christ's being in every Man that is not our words c. Also in page 27. says J. N. thou tells four horrible lyes on me the second is that J. N. calls the Light within the Eternal Spirit Also in your Book Deceit brought to Day light c. You charge the Man with many lyes one is his saying that you hold the Light in every Man is Christ page 5. Also in E. B.'s Works page 298. There E. B. being charged as saying that every Man has the Spirit of Christ in Answer you by way of denyal say I never said nor thought so Now if the Light within every Man be not Christ nor the Spirit of Christ nor of Truth nor the Word nor God's Righteousness nor God's Son nor the Eternal Spirit as afore is shew'd you have in your Ancient Testimonies in print held formerly How then is it Or why did you excommunicate G. Keith as an Heretick for saying The Light within was not sufficient without something else i. e. Christ Jesus Either these aforemention'd denyals in your Ancient Testimonies be the Testimonies of Truth or Error if of Error then you ought to publish against them and the Authors but your not so doing you are chargeable with owning them and so either you and your Truth hath changed or contradict your selves For afore I have shewn that in your Great Mystery you contradict what you say in your Books A Vindication c. and Deceit brought to Day Light c. In one passage your Books do contradict each other one owning the same the other denies as also in your excommunicating G. Keith as an Heretick for asserting the same as some of your own Ancient Testimonies do Also whereas here afore I shewed you deny every Man to have the Spirit of Christ yet in Great Mystery c. p. 9. to the same Person who denies that every Man has the Spirit of Christ and charges you with an Error for so saying yet you charge him with it as an Error to deny every Man has the Spirit of Christ and in contradiction thereto you Answer John said Every Man is enlightened c. And the Spirit of Truth he shall reprove the World of Sin c. Mark say you All People here is Saints here is Disciples here is the World get from under this how thou canst for under Reproof thou art come c. And here are all Men says Fox to the same Person and words or Sentence In Great Mystery you oppose him for saying every Man has not the Spirit of Christ and yet in E. B.'s Works you term him lying Tongue for charging you as saying Every Man has the Spirit of Christ and say You never said nor thought so Why sure if as in Great Mystery you imply they have it then you ought to think and believe so And J. Bunyan says Every Man as he comes into the World receives a Light from Christ as he is God which is Conscience which some call Christ tho' falsly This will shew a Man there is a God c. This you answer by way of Denial in E. B.'s Works p. 143. I do deny them i. e. who call the Light Christ and thee if thou hast not made a Lye of some body Now in Great Mystery p. 208. to the same Sentence in your Answer there you say Christ saith I am the Light of the World c. and doth not say its Conscience you have given Christ a New Name that calls him Conscience Will Conscience blot out Sin Christ
they have to excuse Fox's Blasphemy That it was not Fox but Christ said I am Christ c. in or by Fox as they say in one Book Must we deny him the Mouth to speak by But surely by this Figure John Baptist need not when he was asked to have said I am not he for he had the Light iâ— him But what Blasphemy can be spoken but may be excused by such Quibbles as they use to excuse the blasphemous Ancient Testimonies their Truth taught them in the beginning But by the same Rule every one of them may say as Fox did and take the same blasphemous Titles and they may be given to any Quaker as well as to Fox Also in page 242. Great Myst they cite one saying The Apostles were Eye-Witnesses c. In the Answer says Fox All may see what you have received not received the Gospel by the same means the Apostles did who are not Eye-Witnesses as the Apostles were hereby implying the Quakers had or did see Christ in the same manner as the Apostles did For the seeing by Faith no Protestants oppose as I know therefore that could not be the seeing the Man intended whom Fox opposes but the Man meant a seeing with bodily Eyes and it 's in this sence G. Fox opposes and banters the Man and does thereby imply he was not Christ but someching in him and so in Fox was the Christ and he i. e. Jesus but the Vessel Garment or Shell that the Kernel Christ dwelt in And hereby the Foxonian Spirit is proved to be a proud self-exalting Spirit as well as an envious and contemptuous one which according to Scripture must be brought down For altho' they give themselves and one another such high Titles yet because a Minister termed another Minister Reverend Man they say Are you not ashamed to court one another with false and flattering Titles Ye shameless and presumptuous ones who durst assume that Title to your selves which is appropriated to the Lord alone c. Now having given some proofs of the Quakers highly exalting themselves and one another I will shew how they exalt their own Sufferings and Blood also above our Lord's in this fierce despiser E. B.'s Works page 273. say they The Sufferings of the People of God in this Age is greater Suffering and more Unjust than in the days of Christ or of the Apostles What was done to Christ and the Apostles was chiefly done by a Law and in great part by due execution of a Law c. Oh horrible Blasphemous undervaluing of our Lord's Sufferings and exalting theirs as above His and justifying or excusing them who Crucified him Also altho' they so contemn our Lord's yet of theirs i. e. the Quakers Blood in print say they to some Magistrates Do not rashly draw out your Swords against those harmless Ones whom your bloody Teachers represent to you as Deceivers be not prevailed on to release Barabbas and give over Jesus to be Crucified to gratifie the murderous Appetites of your Priests Consider altho' you may with Pilot wash your Hands and appear clear from his Blood yet before the pure Eyes of the Lord will the condemning stain thereof be found on you so fresh that you will by no means be from thence cleansed but by the same Blood i. e. the Quakers which you so cruelly shed Here they Answer that Pagan question of Is Pennington's i. e. can outward Blood cleanse c. Yes you see theirs can altho' our Lord's cannot as they imply Theirs is the Blood of cleansing no other means not by the Blood of our Lord outwardly shed but by the same i. e. the Quakers Blood Also I shall further prove these Foxonian Quakers lead by an evil Spirit by their contempt of and undervaluing the Scriptures and exalting their own above them Fox on the Titles of his Pamphlets says To all Friend every where this is the Word of the Lord unto you all And in another Entituled A Message from the Lord c. says three times this is the Word of God and yet says Great Mystery 247. The Scriptures they are not the Word of God as thou blasphemously affirm And in the Scorned Quaker c. page 19. The Scripture is not his Voice but so far as truly Translated A Declaration of what he spake to and by those Holy Men that were moved to write c. Here you see they not only undervalue our Translation but render the Scripture as an old Almanack or Gazette as to its being binding to us the Ten Commandments or Christ's Sermon on the Mount not God's Voice to us Yet I have afore prov'd Fox said his is the Word of God and G. Whitehead Entituled a little Pamphlet of his The Voice of Wisdom c. Now if G. W.'s be the Voice of Wisdom then it 's Christ's Voice Thus you see how they exalt their own Writings above Scripture and yet have the Arrogance to pretend they prefer Scripture before all other Books and Fox says in his Message from the Lord c. Matthew Mark Luke and John is the Gospel c. with the Light all this Doctrine is seen to be false And in News out of the North c. So Dust is the Serpents Meat their original is but Dust which is but the Letter which is Death Their Gospel is Dust Matthew Mark Luke and John which is the Letter And you say says Fox That Matthew Mark Luke and John is the Gospel which is Carnal c. Again says Fox that the Letter is the Word and that the four Books Matthew Mark Luke and John are the Gospel and all your abominations are discover'd Now none means them four Words or Names be the Gospel but the Doctrine in and by them four Books by them four Evangelists is the Doctrine of the Gospel and it 's this Fox opposes for when Fox put on his this is the Word of God it 's not supposed he meant the Paper and Ink but the Doctrine therein or thereby signified as when the Quakers will not suffer their Papers to be called Mens Edicts it 's not thought they mean the Paper abstractly considered but their Laws therein made for their Subjects to obey And therefore it 's the Doctrines of Scripture and not the Paper and Ink Fox undervalues and condemns and his and Whitehead's Blasphemous Imaginations they Blasphemously term the Word of God and the Voice of Wisdom and make their Preachings and Writings to be God's by them but all others to be Man's and outside Teachings carnal Letter even the very Scriptures unless when they as their Fathers did against our Lord use them to contemn the Christian Faith for altho' they so often use some Scriptures as Christ in you except you be Reprobates c. The Word is nigh in the Heart c. thousands of times yet I challenge them to shew me how often if ever they press that 15 Chapter of the 1 of Corinth the first seven verses or the 9 and 10
A Just and Lawful TRYAL OF THE Foxonian Chief Priests BY A Perfect Proceeding against Them AND They Condemn'd out of their own Ancient Testimonies And being brought to the Bar of Justice their own Ancient Testimonies have judged them Guilty and to be no Christians of Christ's making Thou shalt rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him Levit. 19.17 Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Psalm 137.8 But these Quakers say Scripture is not his God 's Voice but Declaration of what he spake to and by those holy Men c. Scorn'd Quaker page 19. Therefore I will give them their own Scripture Must not Jealousie be stirred up in the Powers of the Earth against them as they have stirred up the Powers of the Earth against others Truth 's Character p. 15. Having lost that which gave you a true Title to the Name of Christians you deserve not that Name E. B.'s Works p. 419. LONDON Printed for the Author and to be Sold by B. Aylmer against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1697. ERRATA PAg. 11. Lin. 33. for see r. with p. 23. l. 7. the Comma that 's at in should be at it p. 27. l. 17 18. them words in the Parenthesis be not theirs p. 87. last line but one after the word justly r. deserve to be p. 89. l. 25. after the c. r. of and the Comma's that be at the should be at they for the Protestant Ministers are not their words p. 90. l. 37. after people r. they say p. 96. l. 31. after party r. says p. 111. l. 11. for word r. world Pages 200. and 201. should be 110. and 111. and there be some words inclosed in Parentheses inserted into some of their sentences which be not theirs only added for particular notice or explanation which although not so well distinguished as ought yet by the sense of the matter discernable The PREFACE Christian Reader THe Design of this following Tryal is To shew the wickedness of the Foxonian Spirit and the Chief Priests and Rulers among them That it 's an Antichristian Porphyrian Spirit appears by their bantering all who confess themselves Sinners For T. C. having said I desire my Imperfections nor these Quakers Revilings may not prejudice against reading this c. for they cannot represent me a greater Sinner than I thank God I think my self to be but by their villifying me they shew the weakness of their Cause and the wickedness of their Spirits For the Controversie between us is not what T. C. is but whether or no G. Fox c. has so printed as I charge them and whether those Expressions be not Unchristian c. For this these Quakers thus banter me A large Confession I promise you say they Why in good earnest he hath cut off all opportunities of being told of his Faults for the future by confessing the Indictment and pleading Guilty to this and all others that may be brought against him now henceforth for ever Then we may take it for granted that whatever I have charged him with c. he is conscious he is guilty of consequently I have not wronged him in so representing him nay nor is it possible for me to wrong him c. Little need be said to shew the Injustice of the Foxonians besides their Scoff and Banter But for that they say How can he i. e. T. C. expect any other but to be banter'd c. And not only T. C. but all who confess themselves Sinners are so dealt with by them But to take a little notice of these Quakers Injustice for as to their Bantring T. C. must expect no other from them They say of T. C. He hath pleaded Guilty to this and all others that may be brought against him which is false for T. C. does not confess nor have they proved he is guilty of what they charge him with but they have wronged him For altho' the Prophets confessed as David c. that their iniquities were great and St. Paul said of himself I am the chiefest of Sinners yet they were falsly charged and wronged by your Fore-fathers and they laid to David's Charge things that he knew not and Paul was not guilty of them Sins your Forefathers accused him of Acts 24. But they wronged him as you have T. C. Nor do I find that any of the cruel Jews since Paul's confessing himself the chiefest of Sinners ever made so wicked and Porphyrian a Bantering use of his words as you have done as to say They cannot wrong him nor is it possible to wrong him Paul for let me represent him how I will I cannot represent him a chiefer Sinner than he says he is Nay say these Quakers his i. e. T. C.'s Concession includes not only all this i. e. Whoremonger Swearer Drunkard c. but all other Sins whatsoever But if they pretend they say These Sins we hope he is not guilty of what then Altho' they hope so yet by their own Doctrine they may charge him with them and punish him accordingly its not possible for them to wrong him But now in case that Passage were not so properly worded as it ought I see not so much difference between a greater Sinner and the chief of Sinners as to be so Unchristianly dealt by But humble Christian Acknowledgments are so contrary to their proud Pharisaical bragging Prayers as G. W. ' s at the end of his Judgment fixt c. that causes them to gnash their Teeth so against them but their own Doctrine in their Book Rabshekah c. p. 70. is a proper Answer to them herein and to most of their Books say they I defie the Father of Lies himself to out-do this and I having proved some part of their Book Rabshekah c. was writ or given forth by a wicked Spirit I suppose you will confess it was all given forth by one Spirit therefore let the Reader judge what the rest of it can be E. B. 's Work 's p. 148. There 's some Faults in this Tryal c. which I desire the Readers Charity in passing them by as the smallness of the Letter because I was desirous to bring it into as few Sheets as possible and indeed I did not expect it would have taken up so many but while it was in Printing I Inserted several more Proofs of my Charges into several places as I thought most suitable which I find causes it in some places not to Read so smooth as it ought Also I have shortened it in some partiat the latter end because I find the same Matters are fuller and better Treated on in the Second Edition of the Snake in the Grass c. And I understand that Worthy Author intends a full Reply to the Quakers pretended Antidote c. Whereby I question not but he will discover the Poison of Asps from under the Tongue of G. Whitehead in that pretended Antidote c. as well as he has Discovered the Flames
or body of rich politick People and so purse proud and strong no one People i. e. dissenting Society is able to deal with them They are by their Jesuitical Politick way of Government united as one intire Body unto one Head or Conclave of Cardinals of Chief Priests in London Whitehead c. from and by whose Authority a vast number of their seditious Libels are spread all over England's Dominions and elsewhere and they are so formidable that scarce any eminent Magistrate but they can by some interest or other they have or can make influence for if any just complaint be against any of their Priests they can by their Meetings know who of them have most influence on such in Power most concerned and so can by their quibbles smooth and fawning pretences perswade thar they are Innocent and their Adversaries Malicious as in the case of F. Bugg's dedicating his Book Quak. Withering c. to the Bishop of Glocester on which G. W. made such interest or so influenced him that as Whitehead Prints it the Bishop rather favoured him G. W. than F. B. but had any of his i. e. that Bishops Flock left him and joyned with the Quakers and wrot but half so much in defence of the Quakers and discovery of the Church of England I think the Quakers would not so slightly esteemed it but this shews what advantage they have and make by their fawning and confidence to the damage and scandal of the Protestant Ministers for their seditious Ancient Testimonies not only grow by not being pulled up but they seed and increase which were there as much care taken to defend the Protestant Religion and Ministers by duly answering and suppressing their seditious Books as they do to destroy and suppress them wrot in discovery of their Errors they indite and excommunicate and take away Goods and Imprison and Fine for discovery of their Wickedness and prosecute and complained to the Secretary of State as in the case of F. B. G. K. and W. B. and is it not as fitting to suppress Error and Sedition as for them to suppress Truth also as much care ought to be taken for spreading such Books that are printed in defence of the Protestants against them as they do to spread theirs for although there have been some such wrot yet so few will buy them that the Booksellers are not willing to undertake to Print them which if they were encouraged by a common vend for such Books it might be some check to their Insolency and help to open the Understandings of People for how can it be expected but that the vulgar People and Strangers abroad should believe all their Contempts of the Protestant Ministers be true because so publick all over the Nation and other Parts without opposition not only in their small Pamphlets but also in great Volumes when them fierce Despisers Fox c. be dead with such long Epistles or high Commendations of them and their wicked Works by W. Penn and George Whitehead c. and more especially the Quakers being so formidable and great that as other Foreign Nations have an Agent or Minister residing about the Kings Court to negotiate and improve their Interest in the favour of the Government so have these Quakers their Agent a Person who is not the least in favour although he hath manifested himself an Enemy to the Protestant Ministers nay they Foxonian Quakers rather than they will want Dirt and Infamy to throw on the Protestant Bible Religion and Ministers they will take in aid from the Papists and forge or fetch News from the Pit of Damnation as is proved in this following Tryal and seeing they are so Great Powerful and Strong that no one Society is able to ballance them if were well all differing Protestants were more united against the common Enemy for their greatest danger of hurt is from Rome at home and seeing these Quakers will not endure the least affront as they think to their Persons or Papers but will with the utmost Power and Malice Prosecute and Punish as in their Indicting and Prosecuting F. Bugg as Seditious because he Printed the Figure of a Pillory for Twelve of their Chief Priests how was the Government and Nation alarm'd with it and in Pensilvania they presented George Keith as guilty or worthy of Death by their Law and it s to be feared would have dealt accordingly by him but that Providence took the Power out of their Bloody Priest Jennings's hands and Imprisoned the Man and took away his Goods that Printed G. Keith's Plea Will. Bradford and say it's Blasphemy to term their Paper Sinful Now seeing they will not bear the reproach they justly deserve then why must the Protestant Bible and Ministers be by them so defamed in Print to Posterity by them are not these things of higher concernment and more justly deserving punishment than them Persons they so punished consider this all you Protestants whom it most especially concerns if they be so presumptuous now what may they not attempt when they can effect their wicked design of destroying the Protestant Ministry They having already obtained in some measure to confront or be equal with the Peers of the Realm who formerly they reproached as well as the Ministers and this that they have gained may prove a bait to other ambitious Persons to pretend to be Quakers if but to exempt them from the reach of that Law it s hoped this will no more reflect on our Governours if they have been deceived by their false pretences than it did on Joshua and the Elders of Israel that the Gibeonites deceived I fear the case is much the same it may be feared their Pensilvania Pope W. Penn can already with the help of Twelve more of their London Cardinals Whitehead c. procure more Men or Money to their Interest than any one Subject in England if these give it as their Testimony or Judgment that it 's for the service of Truth and by the Spirit of God i. e. Fox 's Spirit there 's enough Quakers to give up their whole Concerns Spiritual and Temporal to that Spirit as their Barbadoes Church did whereby they sold Themselves Bodies Souls and Estates to that Spirit as in Babel's Builders c. may be seen at large Now consider you 25 W. Myers Tho. Cox G. Laytey Tho. Lower J. Vaughton N. Mark W. Bingly C. Marshall W. Sanders J Feild M. Russel J. Knight H. Gouldny D. Whorly c. you Foxonian Chief Priests and chief Men of War this Title and manner of Proceedings and the Hell-fetch'd Names and Terms are according to your own in print against the Protestant Ministers in general and not only formerly in Pamphlets but now reprinted and the Author highly applauded and recommended to posterity by your Chief Men of War in E. Burrows Works although you were not so extreme shameless as to reprint all his Wickedness but alter leave out and add in to forge them to your mind
yet this and other Seditious Defamings of the Protestant Ministers you have espoused and are your Ancient Testimony and however Wicked and Impudent you may term me yet know I here appear in your own Chief Priests Shape or Colours and whatever herein comes from the Pit of Damnation is not of my fetching thence but your own for I have these and many more in your printed Libels Consider you 24 how outragious you were against that Christian Quaker D. S. for his Answer to F. B. you say of D. S. it was a scandalous malicious Libel a mere trick put on you by some malicious Adversary to abuse you but you prove not your black Charge but you say so and it must go so but yours is a more malicious Libel and where as you say it was not by any directions or leave from you where did he say it was or what occasion had D. S. for your leave but herein your arrogancy is seen in not allowing D. S. or any to subscribe himself a Christian Quaker without your leave where got you this Power over others if you come no honester by your Money its but ill gotten Goods your Consciences knew he D. S. did not intend nor mean you as the Persons concern'd in that Name Christian Quakers for you know that by that Title the dissenting Quakers distinguish themselves from you Foxonians as W. R. in his Book therefore the mere trick was yours to deceive People into the Belief that you are the Christian Quakers when as you are not and had you your Pensilvanian Power here as your Dear Brother that Bloody Foxonian Priest Jennings had in Pensilvania It may be feared D. S. might have faired as W. Bradford did his Goods taken away and imprisoned and his life also if you could had your wicked wills but that Christian Answer of D. S. had been of more service to you than any thing you ever Printed could your Pride have let it pass People might have thought you had been of that number of Christian Quakers who would not hide Iniquity nor acquit your guilty Idols of Jealousie Fox and Whitehead but now you have shewn your selves to be otherwise and intitled your selves and all the Foxonian Quakers to all their Errors wicked Contempts of the Protestant Bible Religion and Ministers which is more than you are able to answer ot make satisfaction for for all you be so rich how can you expect to be thought Men of sincerity when there are so many scandalous Ancient Testimonies of theirs in Print yet you dare not disown them for fear of reflecting on the wicked Authors Fox c. here following I prove you guilty of Malice against the Protestant Ministers in informing against them all along before the Restoration for being for both the Kings Charles I. and Charles II. for restoring him and your thirst after their destruction was so great that because you were prevented of your design against them then by the Restoration in 1660. assoon as ever the King was come in you wickedly alter your charge and then accuse them for being against him See J. Coal's Works The Whore Unvail'd p. 112. highly commended and espoused by G. Fox and his Margaret the Lamb's Wife W. Penn and George Whitehead there you espous'd the Papists defaming the Protestant Bible Religion and Ministers as a Brazen-fac'd Unjust Corrupt Book Pope or Devil if they will but defame the Protestants you Foxonians will be their Factors to vend and spread such Wares you cannot but know there are many of your Ancient Testimonies in Print that much more deserve to be disown'd than that of D. S. and if you would be thought Christian Quakers prove your selves such by condemning these Blasphemous Treasonable and Seditious Ancient Testimonies be not so shameless as to think its enough for you to say you believe according to Scriptures no more than it did your Forefathers in saying they had Abraham to their Father you could give it as a reason to excommunicate G. K. because he did not call in his Books against your wicked erronious Brethren S. Jennings c. you pretend they were of disservice to Truth but are not these your wicked Actions and Seditious Ancient Testimonies greater injury to the Protestant Religion than they for shame you Foxonians who be not Priests be not so Priest-ridden by them will you be so proud and fond of a little Reputation that rather than you will acknowledge you have been mistaken or mislead by them wicked Men Fox c. that you will rack your Consciences and sacrifice your Souls ah unwise Men you purchase it at too dear a rate And if you give not forth some publick Testimony against the Evils of your Chief Priests you are respecters of Persons and so Sinners and then by Foxes Doctrine of the Devil and indeed if the Devil be known by his Teeth as the old Proverbs say he is by his Feet then you have shewn what Teeth you have when you can come to bite as you did W. Bradford and would have done by G. K. and seeing you indicted F. Bugg for not performing that unusual Punctilio of Law to enter his Book in the Stationers Books are your Meetings and Schools according to Law in all circumstances if not if any disadvantage come to any of you thank your selves you have shewn the way and given example how think you to escape the Judgment of God who condemn others and do worse your selves how can you have the face as to print such Malicious Seditious and Scandalous Ancient Testimonies as be in G. F. E. B. and J. Coal's c. Works besides what you have by Forgery alter'd by leaving out and putting in says Fox Let all Fines belonging to Lords of Mannors be taken away and given to the Poor for they have enough this Judge of the World Fox can give or take away the Lords Properties Oh shameless yet say you many have done well but thou dear George excellest them all but pray how liked you it when a long Periwig and Sword were in fashion with you when it was like to be your own case consider this and what follows and if your can shew any such wicked Testimonies in G. Keith's Books now if you do not as publickly disown these your Chief Priest's wicked Ancient Testimonies as you have done D. S. then you are justly chargeable with them for in case you did not own them you would publish against them as you have done against D. S. and G. K. and order them to be called in as you did G. Keith's some of you W. Sanders the Wine-cooper in Company with H. Gouldny on the open Change in full Change called Mr. Pennyman an Ancient Upright credible Citizen Impudent Fellow but are not you worse then Impudent thus arrogantly to take upon you in Print to try and condemn the Protestant Ministers and not content therewith but to satiate your Spirits of Pride and Malice and to effect your Bloody Designs against
them you inform the King in Print against them and if by your own Ancient Testimonies you may be tryed then are you guilty of Damnable Doctrines of Devils and Seditious Doctrines Blasphemy Persecution and are Conjurers and Witches for all these and many more hellish Names I can prove you have given the Protestant Ministers and not only in your small Libels which you have spread Thousands of but in reprinting them in great Volumes with high commendations on the wicked Authors as more than a Prophet excelling all see many Blasphemous Titles and what can be the intent thereof but that all these your Blasphemous Seditious Scandalous Ancient Testimonies against the Protestant Religion Ministers and Bible which you have the Confidence as to Print as a brazen Fac'd Book If you now Foxonian Quakers did not approve of that wicked Work of J. Coals why did not you Print against it as you did against D. S. Christian Answer to F. Bugg and as your White-hart-court Parliament did to G. Keith order it to be called in but your High Priest W. Penn knew well enough that whatever Scandal or Falshood he could invent to defame the Protestant Ministers it would be acceptable to some then in great Power at Court who were able to defend and reward him as G. F. and E. B. had in the Army formerly he had not Pensilvania for nothing and although to beguile the Church of England he tells them far be it from me to deprive them of their just Rights but what their just Rights are he tells us elsewhere that they the Protestant Ministers are that abominable Tribe for whom the Theatre of God's most dreadful Vengeance is reserved to act their Eternal Tragedy upon and that they are the best of Mankind to be spared these are the just Rights he is not willing to diminish them of but give them full Cups of his Fury and Envy and such is his eager Thirst after their destruction that he cannot be content to leave them until that day but if J. C. or any other can fetch from the Pope any thing to help to defame them W. P. and G. W. will be their Factors to encourage the vend of such Wares and such wicked Works is a sure way to Preferment among them they having many Rich Wives and great Trades among them which E. Pennington and such Runnagadoes as he wanted and for further proof that you Foxonians are not Christian Quakers see Isaac Pennington that Paganish Preacher's contempt of the Person and Blood of our Lord Jesus as a Garment Vessel c. as cited by F. B. c. and this Isaac Pennington takes on him to write to the Jews for their Conversion and Redemption and in the Discourse do not mention Faith in the Lord Jesus of Nazareth his Blood and Sufferings as on the Cross as the Four Evangelists do as St. Paul 1 Corinthians Chap. 1. and 2. but directs the Jews to a Seed a Principle within them as the Redeemer c. Now these Foxonian Quakers frame an excuse why they have not so frequently Preached Faith in that Man or Person our Lord Jesus of Nazareth because as they pretend all Christendom have that Belief already and therefore no need for them to Preach it to them but here to the Unbelieving Jews who they cannot pretend do believe the outward History of our new Testament concerning him yet here this Paganish Preacher Isaac Pennington do not Preach him whom their Fathers nailed to the Cross c. our Lord Jesus of Nazareth as the Apostle Peter did therefore he could not be guided by the same Spirit they were but a Principle common to all Mankind and in every Man but he who brings not the same Gospel but another he is to be accursed also their fallaciousness appears that now of late they have more frequently Preached him as the Apostles did although there is not so much need of their doing it now since G. Keith has been raised up to do it but as their Forefathers did in St. Paul's time they Preach Christ in Envy and I believe some of you 24 aforementioned are convinced in your own Consciences that your Chief Priests Fox and Whitehead c. are guilty of Errors in some things of Doctrine and Practice which according to Foxes own Doctrine is sin and then by their own judgment they were of the Devil if they abide not in the Doctrine of Christ they are of the Devil they say Now seeing it s not only our privilege but our duty to try Spirits and in the Tryal of your Foxonian Spirit I here use your own Printed Method against the Protestant Ministers also your own Printed Doctrines rather than the Scriptures because you have contemn'd them and say its Blasphemy to say they are the word of God but of yours you say this is the word of God c. and in discharge of my duty not to let sin be upon you unreproved but to discover the deceivers is the only way to recover the deceived this is your own Doctrine and you declare you are contrary to the Ministers in Principle and Practice and we cannot own both you and them too but must disown one in your Epistle before E. Burrow's Works c. Now I say where or when did Christ or his Apostles accuse their Opponents to the Magistrates and indict them for those things they were worse and more guilty of themselves or when did they Imprison Fine and take away Men's Goods all which have been done by or for you Foxonian Chief Priests and S. Jennings c. they presented G. K. as a subverter of the Government which was Death by your Law these and other your wicked doings prove your Foxonian Spirit a Wicked Bloody Proud Envious Spirit and contrary to the Spirit of Christ and his Apostles for where do you read they did so indeed I read in Rev. 2. Chap. 10. v. it s said that the Devil shall cast some of you into Prison Now let People judge whether these wicked Actions of your Chief Priests be not more like the Devils then Christ or the Apostles and these Bloody Actions of your dear Brother Foxonian Chief Priest S. Jenning was so acceptable to your Pope Penn that I here he endeavoured to make him his Deputy Governour there doubtless as a reward for his Good Service in persecuting G. Keith and imprisoning and taking away W. Bradford's Goods for printing G. Keith's Defence also to encourage him and others in such Bloody Works and to deter others from daring to adventure to oppose any of your wicked Foxonian Preachers Errors as G. Keith had done now judge it s your own Doctrine that none should be Ministers that would have Creatures to be Imprisoned again say you did Christians ever cast into Prison any but Foxonian Priests have so done therefore are by your own Doctrine no Christians of Christ's making I could fill a Book with Quotations of your exclaming against going to Law and imprisoning
Ministers is not a fuller proof of their hunting after Protestant Ministers Blood then that saying of the Ministers they so term for in their Book aforementioned pag. 48. Say they but stay Sirs was it a Quaker or was it a Priest that lost his Head on Tower-Hill by the Sword of Justice mind that were both your Hands i. e. two Ministers clear of the wickedness of that bloody Design that Design was as they word it elsewhere in bringing him i. e. Charles II. into his Father's Throne but the Quakers go on saying if they were its well but there were so many of your Generation concern'd in that piece of Treason i. e. to restore Charles II. had the State disputed it according to the Provocation they might have found sufficient cause to cut many Priests shorter by the Head again say they doth not this show that the Priests have as little mind to the Protector as they have to the Quakers doth not here appear the Spirit of Chr. Love and his Fellow Traytors who took on them to treat with C. Stewart the proclaimed Traytor to the Government at Breda for the putting him into that they call his Fathers Throne for which and his other Treasons he Chr. Love lost his Head see say they A short Plea for the Commonwealth c. and therein the Priests Treasons doth not the Spirits of the Bishops appear c. in their Book the West answering to the North c. pag. 89. Finding the Quakers here and elsewhere espouse that Book I got it and find the drift of it was to incense Ol. Cr. and them then in Power against the Protestant Ministers again say these Quakers is Chr. Love Charles Stewart and the Scots overcome and the Bishops plucked up Root and Branch c. But since the Restoration said they of the Ministers in R. H. works when R. C. was made Protector whom the Priests flocked to and did cleave unto him as they did unto all them before for their own ends and again in 1674. W. Penn to incense the King against the Ministers cites one of them saying to former Powers do not I beseech you consent to a toleration of Baal's Worship and for fear it would not inrage them he adds his aggravating explanation says he as much as to say away with the Bishop's whole Ministry and Worship of the Church of England again this same W. Penn quotes a Minister saying thus so many Delinquents that is to say Royalists says the Quaker fearing it would not effect his Bloody Design without his aggravatings are in Prison and few brought to Tryal did he mean to release them says Penn again they quote a Minister saying what the Word cannot do the Sword shall and again these Quakers upbraid the Ministers in 1660. and say to them you are forced to creep under the shadow of those whom you called the common Enemy thus Malicious were they when the King came in although as is afore shewn they used the same Terms much more I have collected of their Seditious and Malicious Printed Doctrines again the Protestant Ministers as being for the King to Oliver and to the King in 1660. for being against him I am sure if these Quakers be not the best to be spared this wicked envious Foxonian Spirit is and Reader judge whether these Foxonian Quakers be not more Malicious Informers than F. Bugg whom they so persecuted as such for discovering them for this Book out of which much of this their Envy is taken is falsly titled A wholsome Information to the King c. wherein they do what they can to induce the King to destroy the Protestant Ministers and were so drunk with Envy and Thirst after their ruin that you could not see your own Confusion but made to Copy out your own Condemnation for in Ol. Crom. time you espouse and recommend a Book against Monarchy and the Protestant Ministers because then such Books were in Fashion at Whitehall but when times turned and Papists and their Works more in Fashion and Esteem at Court then you promote and espouse a Papists Book in Defamation of the Protestant Religion and Ministers and say you are not concern'd to answer it if Pope or Devil will but defame the Protestant Ministers G. Whitehead and W. Penn c. will be their Factors to help to vend such Wares they shall have their recommendations nay these Foxonians can forge or fetch News from the Pit of Damnation to help on that Work as is here shewn and this Wicked Spirit is that they Blasphemously term Christ the Spirit and Power of God but in case they pretend that Book is not theirs but Printed in theirs as the Papists yet by their own Rule they are chargeable with it having Printed Epistles of high recommendations of the Author J. C. and his Works who Printed it and these their high Praises are fixed before the Book to encourage the selling and reading of it of Fox and his Wife both Penn Whitehead and this Wicked Defamation of the Protestant Religion Bible and Ministers of the Papists is particularly mentioned in the Title and printed in a larger Letter than the rest and the whole Chapter intire together and not taken in parts and yet they say they are not concern'd but could be concern'd to print that more large and full than the rest to defame the Protestant Ministers and gratifie their Elder Sister Rome and is highly commended by the Foxonian Quakers and the commending of an Author or Publisher of a Book implies their approbation of it as you charge 21 Divines with J. Faldees Errors in his Book And some Persons having set their names after J. Gilpin's Book c. in confirmation of the Truth of the Relation and say only thus we believe this Relation to be true yet in your Answer in your great Mystery c. you charge all them Persons who only attest as to the Truth of the matter of Fact with the Doctrine in the Book notwithstanding he J. G. says in his conclusion he procured several Persons to testifie the probability if not the certainty by what they have seen and heard notwithstanding they give not every Man such Epistles in recommendation of him as you do of J. C. the Author of that Book in which that Wicked and Seditious contempt of the Protestant Reformation Bible and Ministers also consider how you testifie against what you like not as the Christian Quaker D. S. and give it as a reason or cause of excommunicating G. K. for his not calling in or not clearing the Guilty i. e. Pen and Whitehead c. of their Errors therefore if you had not approved of that Book of J. C. you would disown it and published against it as you have done against others less deserving if you were True Protestants also you could injoyn Mr. Pennyman publickly to condemn his throwing your Seditious Pamphlets on the ground in the Exchange and burning some wast Paper and say he was instigated
not more recommendations thereof than these Quakers have given of this but the same Principles is in their other Ancient Testimony in the beginning which they now injoyn their Subjects to hold up But judge Reader if these Foxonian Cardinals Whitehead c. were not very Shameless in that they durst thus maliciously accuse the Protestant Ministers to the King so soon as 1660. for being against his Father and for Oliver and them Governments when as themselves that is Foxonian Quakers were so highly guilty in the same Case and here I have proved their being out of Christ's Doctrine and so by their own Doctrine to be of the Devil for here afore you see how heinous a sin they make it even as Crucifying our Lord for saying the Protestant Religion was in danger to be rooted out by the Quakers here its plain they did not do as they would be done by for in the same Libel they inform against the Protestant Ministers as dangerous to the King these Foxonians G. Whitehead c. reflect on and endeavour to incense the King against the Men the Creatures they strike at them therefore their Spirit or Light which they blasphemously term Truth and the Spirit of God c. cannot be the same Spirit as Christ and the Apostles had by their own judgment now seeing it s not Christ's Spirit and they say there are but Two Spirits Gods and the Devils and themselves have judged it I have now proved them the Foxonian Chief Priests so Wicked and Malicious against the Protestant Ministers that they have informed against them to Oliver c. for being for the King and assoon as ever the King was restored they were so abominable shameless as to inform against them for being against him when themselves were guilty of the same in a higher degree and were not content although they had Chr. Love's a Ministers Life but they accuse the Ministers in General as in pag. 12. it s said for the Parties this Case respects it runs through generally the whole Ministry of the Nation and in their Book Information to the Army c. pag. 7. say they when a company of greedy Priests came to tell you they had not engaged with G. Booth in the Rebellion but your real Friends Quakers who gave you and the Army intelligence about the Insurrection in Cheshire i. e. Sir G. Booths for the King were spoiled by the Rebels c. and in their Book the West to North pag. 102. say they these Innocent Servants of the Lord G. Fox Ed. Piot Many of them have drawn the Sword and fought in the Field from first to last also p. 16. say they the Laws c. The defence of them we have in the late Wars vindicated in the Field with our Blood But this and many others they have left out in reprinting the Letter in G. Fox's Journal as may hereafter be more fully shown But in the mean time take this caution not to trust nor believe these now Foxonian Chief Priests W. Penn and G. Whitehead c. in what they print or recommend to you as the works of their Fellows Fox c. or as other mens words they have so altered them in many places by leaving out and adding to forge them to their purpose Therefore you may judge what abominable falshoods they will impose on the World hereafter when those few now living who are able to detect them be dead but there is a Collection of as many as are found to be published that by that you may judge of the rest of their Works what grose Forgers they are and will be And seeing they say they are contrary in Principle and Doctrine to the Protestant Ministers and we cannot as they say own both but must deny one Therefore either all the Generations of Protestants in all Ages to the end of Time not only Ministers but Princes and all Estates and Degrees must be condemned as Antichrists and Apostates as these Foxonian Quakers have and do record them to posterity except one Thorpe c. or else these Foxonian Quakers Blasphemous Seditious Ancient Testimonies which their Truth at first taught them must be condemned and disowned Now whether is most reasonable that these few Foxonian Quakers most of them being dead except W. Penn and G. Whitehead come under the deserved blame of false Accusers and men influenc'd by a wrong Spirit and their Blasphemous and Seditious Testimonies publickly condemned or their infamous Contempts and Slanders be recommended to after Ages for Divine Revelations and the wicked Authors as the only Prophets of God in this Age. What can be their intent but that their Blasphemous Seditious Ancient Testimonies may be of as great or greater Authority than the Holy Scripture But as a further proof that they these Foxonian Quaker's Spirit is not Christ's the Apostles and all Protestants but an avowed Enemy to the Protestant Religion and Ministers in general They are not content with their own volumnious defamatious Slanders they have filled the World with by their printed Libels but to gratifie the Papist's interest which then was great and able to defend and reward them therefore they joyn with their elder Sister Rome and print in 1671 with their own in J. C.'s Works highly extolled by W. Penn and G. Whitehead Fox and his Wife A Papist scandalous Libel wherein they term the Protestant Bible Brazen-fac'd Book and villifie the beginning of the Reformation and give the Protestant Ministers the same Hellish Names as their own Books do and say to see such stand in a Pulpit with such a Brazen-fac'd Book as is their unjust Bible and term it corrupt and a perverse Book Such Brazen Faces had these Foxonians when the Papists interest was great Haman like improving their interest to destroy the Protestant Ministers because they would not bow to their blasphemous Spirit This shews what kind of Protestants they would have proved if what they then expected had taken effect even serving the Protestants as they had done all the former Governments from 1648. to 1660. own and encourage them while they prosper but when like to fall or gone then exclaim against them and would do by the Protestants as they have by the Dissenters Inform against them when it 's for their interest and tell the Papist their elder Sister how shall she ever without great danger to her self put confidence in such Hereticks as the English Protestants be And it 's not unlikely but that they printed at large this seditious Libel of the Papists against the Protestants and put it into their Works in such a remarkable Character as an earnest-penny that they may come in with their elder Sister Rome for a share when they see it for their interest to pull off their Masks Another proof I shall give that their Light or Spirit is not from Heaven above but more likely from the Pit of Damnation below for to Defame the Protestant Ministers in a Book Entituled A Serious
and shall give an account for it one day But these may quibble it off that this was against them in Oliver's times and it 's against such as be in Errors c. I Answer that they accounted the Church of England Ministers worse than them and for Errors c. They count them all such as at large may be seen in the Epistle before E. B.'s Works Another proof of the Arrogancy of this Foxonian Spirit is in their Book Counterfeit Convert c. p. 72. They say That their Testimony against Tythes should be maintained is not a Law of their own making but of Christs This is in Answer to something said to them in T. C.'s Animadversions p. 39. where T. C. objects against their Arrogant and Unchristian Judgment they have passed on all Christendom Kings Lords Martyrs and all People who pay Tythes altho' freely as is Christianly held in W. R.'s Christian Quaker and opposed in theirs intituled An Antidote in Answer to W. R. But it 's this the Quakers Imposition and Tyranny over others Consciences that they will not allow them to be Christians but Antichrists and mark them as such and Deniers of Christ It was this their Unchristianing all who can freely pay Tythes without constraint that T. C. objects against and this they make a Law of Christ's making thereby positively Judging the Laws of England for Tythes to be opposite to Christ's Laws and so the Upholders of such Laws of all Degrees Deniers of Christ and Antichrists and not only the Law-Makers and Maintainers but those who pay them freely For THAT Unchristian Testimony of theirs it was T. C. termed a Law of their making c. In Answer hereto they do not deny its a Law but deny it 's of Their making but of Christ's say they This Book was by them delivered to the Parliament Here Sentence is past on all Degrees past present and to the Worlds End when the Court of our Judges the Foxonian Cardinals of their Second Days Meeting will please to order Execution I know not But further To prove these their Testimonies as they term them be Laws observe also in their Book intituled Rabshekah c. page 90. they say Formerly he i. e. T. C. having transgressed in some matters Again say they And by his said Transgressions c. Now where there is no Law there is no Transgression but here they charge and punish for Transgression for not obeying their Laws contrary to the Law of the Nation and say It 's not of their making but of Christ's This is of very high rnd general Concernment for it affects as well as reflects on Laws and Law-Makers as well as Law-Obeyers and which is of most force or which must have preference either the Law of the Nation or of the Quakers Why if as they say that theirs against them who can freely pay Tythes is of Christs making then the Quakers Law or Testimony is of greatest force because it 's of Christ's i. e. Fox's making This is larger and better treated on in The Snake in the Grass c. the Second Edition with Additions I only say Either the Quakers are very Arrogant or else by their Doctrine the Law-Makers and Laws of England are contrary to Christ's And I think these Quakers Reflections and Scandal they have laid on the Laws and Religion and Ministers of England much more deserve to be taken notice of by them in Power than Francis Bugg's Book with the Picture of a Pillory did which on the Quakers Complaint against him as Seditious was seized by a Messenger by Order of a Secretary of State and he F. B. Indicted for three Crimes Defaming or Scandalizing G. W. c Quakers But the Quakers scandalizes the Laws and Law-Makers and Observers in all Ages since the Apostles until the End of Time who pay or uphold Tythes altho' freely and therefore is very Arrogant as well as Unchristian And this proves it is not Liberty of Conscience but Power over others Consciences they aim at and also proves their Deceit in pretending theirs are but Counsel and Tender Advice for altho' to deceive they use such gentle Words as Recommend or Tender Advice yet you see they expect exact Obedience and punish as Transgressors for not obeying their Orders as the Laws of Christ or of his making Now are not these Quakers very Wicked and Arrogant in doing as they have Not only to the Ministers but defamed the Memories of Kings and Martyrs ever since Christ that paid or shall pay Tythes And they have been so drunk with furious Malice as to violate Sepulchers and trample on the Graves of the Dead nay they have been so ignoble base and meanly scurrilous as to bestow their Billingsgate Rhetorick not only on other Men but Kings more especially Charles the First that cannot answer for themselves because in their Graves It is not fit they i. e. these Arrogant Quakers should pass without Rebuke therefore to expose the poorness and wickedness of their Spirit which they blasphemously term Christ's to the view of those of a more Generous and Christian Temper and to manifest what a kind of Antagonists the Ministers have I have here collected a part of their Abuses of those good Men some of them now at rest who never deserved at these Quakers hands I am perswaded these Demonstrations of Rancor against them These Quakers Malice is so great against the Protestant Ministers that I have not offered a third part of the Abusive Expressions they have used against them both here afore and following All this and more is their own in their Book Rabshekah c. page 68. because G. Fox's and their Wickedness was discover'd which these now Quakers are so far from disowning as they ought that they contrariwise vindicate them and exalt the Authors Fox c. with high Commendations A mighty Prophet and more than a Prophet endued with the Almighty power of God which lived and reigned in him and this Epistle aforementioned wrot by him is such a choice Revelation with them that it 's twice printed and put before 2 Books one of Fox's in 1659. and another since printed by them Foxonian Quakers 1672. of above 900 pages in Folio stuft with bitter Revilings and Defamations of the Protestant Ministers to the great scandal of the English Nation as following is shown And it 's the Protestant Ministers in general that fot upholding them he G. W. threatens the Magistrates And for further proof that the Foxonian Spirit is not Christ's but that which influenced Haman to seek the Destruction of the Jews appears by the Fruits of Malice and Defamation following that they have vâ—â—ted against the Protestant Ministers and it 's chiefly the Ministers Support that is their Grievance and only take that of Tythes for their pretence as being likely to take with covetous and poor People c. For formerly when some considerations were in hand on the hideous Noise they made against Tythes for some
other settled Maintenance of Godly Ministers they opposed that also In the year 1659 say they to the Committee of Safety If you should take them Tythes away and settle anything by way of Compulsion on the People for any Ministry you leave us in Bondage and we must declare against that as against Tythes and we cannot pay that nor the other c. And after the Nonconformists that were turned out of Places had Meetings and their Hearers gathered by Collection what the People freely gave G. Whitehead enviously informs against them saying of them Who being dismounted from their Parochial Bishopricks c. are now for the Ratling of their Platters which have been very beneficial to many Have their Platters rattle more secretly c. The Nature of Christianity pag. 5. That the Protestant Ministers live torments these Quakers being they have blasphemously prophesied their begging and Starving And say they If the King c. Repeal the Law inforcing Tythes and convert them into some necessary Civil Use it would appear whether we should not pay our parts and whether the Royal Exchequer would not be conveniently supplied without the Tenth from the Priests page 50. of The Quakers Case c. In this case G. Whitehead's Spirit looks more like Haman's than Christ's as in Esther 3. it 's said If it please the King let it be written that they may be destroyed and I will pay Ten Thousand Talents of Silver into the hands of those that have the Charge of the Business to be brought into the Kings Treasuries And in the Epistle before E. B.'s Works To all the World they say their difference was not only with some Sects or Persons but say they with all Sects in these Nations Priests and Professors and have just cause to deny their whole Religion And say to the Ministers In the Name of the Lord you are contrary to them i e. the Apostles in all your Doctrines in all your Ways and Practices and say they Our Spirits were fill'd with Indignation against the Priests and with and against them we began War and against them as the Fountain of all Wickedness and as being the Issue of Profaneness from them hath Profaneness gone forth in all Nations Deceivers Antichrists this was our first Work to thrash down Deceivers the Protestant Ministers false Idle Shepherds Wo wo unto these Shepherds saith the Lord God Fox they shall be confounded they shall be broken down and never builded any more the Lord will pluck them up by the Roots and they shall never again be planted Their whole Ministry hath a dependance on Popery All savours of Popery Their whole Religion in all parts thereof degenerated c. You see it 's the whole and every Part that they are against of the Protestant Ministers and Reliligion in these three Nations and in page 1. they say It 's from the Lord and they term the Ministers A cursed deceitful Ministry And in page 88. to prove the Protestant Ministers false Prophets charge them that they speak what they have studied for then surely they would have condemned Timothy for obeying Paul who bid him study c. Even say they a Divination of their own Brain Take other Mens Words See the Snake in the Grass first Part p. 316. where the Quakers are proved to have done the same Nor have heard the Voice of God but take Chapter and Verse But surely then Fox was a very false Prophet for he took others words altho' durst not or could not tell Chapter and Verse because he usually corrupted it by adding or diminishing as he pleased And in obedience to their Law or Act made by their Conclave of Cardinals to hold up their Holy and Ancient Testimony of Truth in the beginning and that in all the parts of it c. Now this afore against taking or reading Chapter or Verse being a part of what their Truth taught them in the Beginning being since by Re-printing also further confirmed may be some cause that they are so offended with G. Keith for or because he has a Bible before him and sometimes reads some Scripture-Text therein And I hear W. Penn did in their Publick Meeting in his Preachment reflect on it saying Christ did not preach out of a Book or to that effect But he might more truly have said Christ nor his Apostles did not preach in or with Periwigs as he c. does And altho' he c. be so offended at G. Keith's reading in the Bible and term it Preaching yet he may read in the 4th of Luke and 16th That as his Custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath Day and stood up to read and there was delivered unto him the Book of Esaias and when he had opened the Book he found the Place where it was written c. Surely he had less need of the Book or opening it than W. P. or his Master Fox either yet he did it altho' these Quakers not only do not follow his Example therein but are offended and revile others for so doing as here shewn but perhaps this Infallible Fallible Spirit of Fox's in W. Penn was as ignorant of this Scripture as he was of the place where our Lord was born But their preferring Fox's Journal or Work before the Bible appears by their fixing it i. e. Fox's Journal in their Publick Meeting and not only W. Penn but several others of them have shewed dislike to G. K.'s using the Bible at Turners-Hall Again Pag. 10. Say they All thy Teachers O England are denied by them who are taught of God O People your Teachers have beguiled you Your Reward will be Vengeance and your Charge will be Murthering Souls The most innocent among you will be found guilty of Innocent Blood G. W. can you be so ingenuous as to exempt Dr. Stillingfleet from these your Scandals And page 101. which they say was sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God to the Priests and Teachers Thus saith the Lord Fox My Controversie is against you of all others and my Judgments shall be on you to the uttermost for you in Hypocrisie c. have exceeded all others Abominably loathsome is your filthiness in preaching for hire c. They go on against the Ministers saying They had made Merchandise of their Peoples Souls Prophaneness is gone forth from you into all Corners of the Earth c. Again You have shut the Kingdom of Heaven against Men to the destruction of Thousands and Ten Thousands And your Prayers have been to your Idol God for all sorts from whom you could receive a Reward Original the Womb of Witchcraft You pray to your dead Gods Deceiving Thousands Whose Blood you are absolutely guilty of Your Rebellion is the Crime of Witchcraft which cannot cease to do Evil for you have bound your selves in the Covenant with Hell My Cup of Indignation is the assured Portion of your Lot and Blood shall you have to drink as your Reward from me My Plagues
i. e. these Quakers shall remain with you on Earth and shall follow you to the Lake My Fire of Indignation is kindled on you which shall burn for ever more All these Six Lines of their Fury is in the compass of one page of their 900 and of this their Reviling the Protestant Religion and Ministers his Vouchers Whitehead c. could not afford to abate any thing but as they say pour out full Cups of their Malice against the Ministers But out of the same Book which they say was writ by Command of the Lord the 31 day of the 10th Month 1655. unto all sorts of People yet these forging Foxonians have left out one whole Message to one sort of People called Cavaliers the Kings Friends p. 9. And in several places left out and altered and added Words and Sentences They proceed and say of the Ministers p. 190. Their Doctrines it 's not Doctrine are of the Devil They have filled the World with Damnable Heresies That Sprinkling Infants with Water is Baptism into the Faith of Christ and that the Steeple-house is the Church c. These are Damnable Heresies even to denying the Lord that bought them And say they this is the Doctrine of Devils And Lyes they speak in great numbers Page 195. These Teachers of this Generation are of them i. e. the Beast Whore and false Prophet of their Root and Off-spring c. Consider what God did to the Bishops and their Crew of Persecutors How the Lord overthew them P 261. You have been the Fountain of all this wickedness i. e. the Quakers Sufferings acted against the Just c. P. 162. Have been cursed Precedents to the Rulers and People who have followed your cruel steps of Envy And they have drunk in your Poysonous Doctrines not Doctrine Mens hearts have been filled with your Damnable Doctrine of Devils P. 269. The Time of your Overthrow draws near upon you all and despisable shall you be to all that fear the Lord. The Quakers Throats are open Sepulchres and not covered ones For say they Page 348. Their Worship and Ministry which stands not in exercise of pure Conscience but in Superstitious Idolatry His the Ministers Labour is abomination and deceiving of Souls And page 626. The Controversie hath been held forth between the Ministers of the Church of England on Antichrists part and the People called Quakers of the other part Here you see their Envy and Charge is against the Protestant Ministers in general Page 674. They say It 's not lawful for the Saints to joyn to your Ordinances nor own your Ministry No wonder they say their Testimony against Tythes is a Law of Christ's making for here they say It 's not lawful c. And page 672. To clear the Quakers from the guilt of the King's Sufferings and to incense the King and Nation against the Protestant Ministers say they If it be considered who they are that first raised the War against the King and Nation and who it was that first preached and prayed up the War and prosecuted it against his Father and who it was that cast out the Bishops and took their Revenues And yet none owned and encouraged Oliver and justified their Cruelty to King Charles the First 1648 more than the Quakers nay Fox and this very shameless E. B. condemned the King and his Friends and hath cast Infamy on his Name and Family as is before shewn and yet here have the face to say Their i. e. the Quakers Sufferings have been more cruel and unjust than towards them the King But they that can so contemn our Lords Sufferings and Blood and exalt their own as more Cruel and Unjust than His it 's no wonder that they also advance their own Sufferings above the Kings c. But they go on against the Ministers p. 687 Such as have been your i. e. the King's Enemies and and preach'd and pray'd and fought against you and now pray for you Can you trust that these will be faithful to you And whether thus to deny their former Oaths and Engagements is commendable Here these Quakers blame them for not keeping the Scotch Covenant or Solemn League which was against the King and House of Lords and to utterly extirpate Episcopacy that dead loathsome Form as the Quakers elsewhere upbraid the Presbyterians for as is mentioned in T. C's Animadversions on G.W. 's Book But all these sufficiently prove the Maliciousness of these Quakers Spirits against the Protestant Ministers they accuse for not performing their Engagements against the King Lords and Bishops and yet also accuse them for what they did in performance Now were these Quakers as they falsely pretend they stand to their Principles and are the Kings Friends then they should not blame others for not performing but for engaging but it s plainly shewed they did not blame but encourage Oliver c. in what they did against both the Kings and boasted and bragged that they fought from first to last and accused Oliver c. for putting them out of the Army and it was because they maintained the Protestant Ministers and suffered Fox and Ed. Piot c. to be imprisoned that they accused and threatened Oliver for and not for any thing done against the King c. But have in this very Book in their squinting way justified it for here you see they say they stand to their Principles of Faith c. Oh two-fac'd envious Hypocrites Again p. 766. say they Antichrists false Ministry and Worship and Doctrines God will confound Now if any say this is true it is so but it 's all the Worship and Ministry of the English Protestants they so term and defame And page 730. Ye all have deceived the World and the Blood of Souls rests on you ye have been as Canker-Worms and that have corrupted the whole World whom have you not deceived by your Lyes c. God is weary of you and the time is at hand he will pluck you up by the Roots and visit you with great destruction and your Names shall be a reproach among Men the Lord will bring unresistable Destruction upon you The Earth is weary of you which you have corrupted with your false ways and the Kingdom groans under your Oppressions and the Earth will spue you out Again In p. 521. these Quakers are charged to joyn with the Cavalierish Party i. e. the Kings In denial of it say they That Generation of Priests are joyned with the Prelatical Cavalierish Party this is known in the Nation in the North especially Here you see they were then against the Kings Interest as well as the Ministers whom they maliciously inform against therefore for And p. 523. say the Quakers They i. e. Honest People see that wicked Interest of the Clergy prosper more than the Freedom of the People and this I say from the Lord That while that Interest of this false Priesthood is so much favoured you can never prosper nor the Nations
in the rest of the Book signed by four chief Quakers one of them T. Lawson and his Work espoused and recommended by the now Foxonians and just above this Chapter in the conclusion of the foregoing it 's said written from the Spirit of the Lord and this where this Hellish stuff is I think is of Fox's own indicting the Language and Method being so like his and was printed 1653. A Hundred times as much such Hell-fetcht Fury of these Quakers I can out of their Ancient Testimonies produce but these and what is afore and following shews that if the Protestant Ministers be such as they print them then as W. Penn says What remains but that the Rabble or the Government Sacrifice them c. This was because a Minister said that the Womb of Iniquity was in the Quakers Writings See it in the Quakers set in the true Light by F. B. p. 2. But then how much more guilty are these Quakers W. Penn and G. Whitehead c. not only thus to Defame the Protestant Ministers of this Age but all past and to come that pay Tythes or uphold the Ministers Kings Martyrs and all People Equivocating deluding Hypocrites He i. e. G. W. hath proved himself and all others mark it's all others to be so except Quakers and page 228. say they The Priest's work hath been to teach People to keep in and not to come out of their Lusts to Christ And page 267. say they You all Priests and Teachers mark it 's not some but all who are inwardly ravened from the Spirit of God have turned all People from the Light to the Darkness and so have kept Thousands and Millions of Souls in Damnation and keeping them in the way to Hell who are Satan's Ministers and this hath been the Work of your Ministry ever since the days of the Apostles as this Day and the People of the whole Nations witnessed Now if they think to quibble it off that it 's not all but them who have ravened from the Spirit they mean it 's afore shew'd they include all this by Fox and so well approved by Penn and to make it Canonical Scripture He Penn hath printed of him this wicked Fox Many have done well but thou Dear George hath excelled them all mark it not the Light in him but George altho' himself has pretty near match'd him for says he W. Penn These idle gormandizing Priests of England run away with 1500000 l. a Year under pretence of being God's Ministers no sort of People have been so universally through Ages the bane of Soul and Body of the Universe as that abominable Tribe for whom the Theatre of God's most dreadful Vengeance is reserved to Act their Eternal Targedy on Again says W. Penn There is not any thing so Proud Railing and sometimes Ignorant as a sort of Priests who think their Coat will bear out their worst Expressions for Religion An Ill-bred and Pedantick Crew the bane of Reason and pest of the World the old Incendiaries to mischief and the best to be spared of Mankind c. Surely William altho' He Fox excells all as went before him yet thou hast if possible exceeded him and gone further into the Pit of Darkness than he whil'st alive But thou had'st not Pensilvania for nothing but as much as thee could'st do something for the Devil and the Papists as I have said he knew who he pleased and that there were those in power able to Defend and Reward him for any injury he could do the Protestant Ministers Again say they in their Book A Serious Warning c. could people hear the cry of Thousands out of the Pit of Damnation they would intelligibly hear their Idol of Jealousy and Others thus lament Presbyterians and Independants under the Notion of Gospel-Ministers and Reverend Divines were the Men that seduced us hither by their Preaching Peace to us Had it not been for them we had turned from the evil of our ways and never came here Thus crys say they J. Indicot and this is the dolorous complaints of Thousands of our but yesterday Dear Countrymen if People were not in a Lethargy they would beware of you all as the Plague of the present time c. and in conclusion say I shall prove these very Men i. e. Presbyterians and Independant Ministers to be the very Men to be in Doctrine and Practice the very Floodgate of Atheism and Prophaneness is breaking in as a mighty Torrent upon this miserable Age. Is it not evident by all this Wrath and Reproach the Quakers vent against the Ministers that they i. e. these Quakers are more likely possessed with a Legion of lying Spirits than G. G. the Minister whom they say was so possess'd For notwithstanding all this and a hundred times more such defamatious Ancient Testimonies of theirs in print yet they now have the confidence to say in print because their wickedness is discovered c. they are Persecuted with shameful Reproaches and Blasphemies to murder their Reputations as Men not sparing living nor dead say they but who of Kings and Martyrs have they spared ever since the Apostles and to the end of Time Surely these Foxonians W. P. and G. W. c. as little read the Second Chapter to the Romans and are as Ignorant of that as they were of the Second Chapter of Matthew But they may say of them and any Scripture as they do in their Ancient Testimony Which their Truth taught them in the beginning in 1654. That is no command from God to me which he commands to another But this with the many others proves that they abide not in the Doctrine of Christ and so are by their own Doctrine of the Devil for they are more likely to be them grievous Wolves the Apostle foretold should come rather than Christ's Lambs as G. Whitehead c. has the Face to Stile themselves Now if you Ministers and Governours of the Church of England think that all this their Defamations do not affect you but the Dissenters yet know that they have represented you worse than them if it may be Therefore think not your selves unconcern'd but they were and are for driving that Nail they could easiest make go and the Dissenting Ministers in 1672. were more out of fashion at Court here than you as the Protestant Ministers were in France Now if it be true as W. Penn says that they who call Names for Religion c. be sure be no Christians of Christ's making then who made these Foxonian Chief Priests Christians i. e. W. Penn. and G. Whitehead to be sure not Christ And whereas W. Penn among his many other Defamations upbraids the Ministers with Ignorance Sure they are not Ignoranter than Himself and Fox c. was who as one infallible proof of his Ignorance as well as the fallibleness of their infallible Foxonian Spirit print our Lord Jesus as Born at Nazareth when Scripture says at Bethlehem But this shews how little they
converse with the New Testament And they have so intollerably scandalized the English Protestants that it's as they say not fit it should pass without being taken notice of and that by them it more concerns but especially the Ministers they vent their Fury against and set themselves so violently against Tythes because they thought them a great Support to the Protestant Ministers and a likely Argument to prevail with the vulgar covetous luke-warm and poor People which are a great Party in the Nation considered as incouraged by these Quakers who have printed so many of their envious and wrathful Doctrines against the Ministers as Prophecies or by the Eternal Spirit c. And they are obliged to drive on the same design for fear they appear as they are proud envious blasphemous Lyars And for further Proof that they have no more if so much kindness for the Episcopal Clergy than for the Dissenters observe what they say Did you not once make a Solemn Covenant with God that you would utterly extirpate Episcopacy that dead loathsome Form Did you not spue it up And will you turn again and lick up your own Vomit O do not so do not run wilfully into destruction and before I have shewed you how these Quakers blame them for not keeping the Covenant By the foulness of the Expressions you may judge from whence the Spirit came Also one having commended Bishop Hall's Works the Quaker in contempt replies Thou at last fliest to the muckiest hole of all Was not Bishops voted down and some of them put to Death for the unjust Causes they maintained Therefore be not deceived by their present Flatteries For the Protestant Religion and Ministers are no better now but as bad Sorcerers and false Prophets and Teachers of Lasciviousness with them now as then and the Magistrates as much in fault now with G. Whitehead c. for upholding them as then Now G. W. thou said'st to J. P. because he shewed justly deserved contempt to some of your seditious Pamphlets that he was instigated by the Devil but who but he instigated Thee and W. Penn c. thus to vilifie the Protestant Ministers as you have and to be so arrogant as to threaten the Magistrates and accuse them for abusing their Power for as you say either the Spirit of Christ or that of the Devil leads Men. Therefore all these your Blasphemies and Treasons and seditious Practices and Doctrines herein mention'd be some part of your Ancient Truth 's Testimony which it taught you in the beginning or of Error Now if it be not the Testimony of the Spirit of Truth then they ought to be by you disowned and you were not lead by the Spirit of Christ in reprinting them and so blasphemously exalt the wicked Authors but by that of the Devil by your own Doctrine and in case you do not disown them it 's a plain proof you do hold them as your Ancient Testimonies which your Truth taught you in the Beginning and so are by your last years White-hart-court Conclave of Foxonian Cardinals G. W. c. enjoyned your Subjects to maintain and hold up for say you Truth changes not but that you do own them appears by your squinting general Answers and Acknowledgments you now make to deceive the Government with for should you answer'd plainly yea or nay to the two Queries in the Snake in the Grass then you had either discovered your Errors or else contradicted your Ancient Testimonies But now if you have any honesty and plainness to which you so highly pretend make known which of these many printed Ancient Testimonies of yours you do disown for so many of them as you do not disown as you did D. S.'s Answer to F. B. your are justly chargeable with as them you enjoyn your Subjects to maintain and hold up as your Ancient Testimonies for your silence herein will be taken as consent Now as I have shewn you some of these Quakers rage and of their envy against the Protestant Ministers I will also give you some Reasons they give to prove the Protestants Apostates c. which I think includes themselves as well as others in E. B.'s Works page 835. say they All you who are divided in your Knowledge and Judgment about the matters pertaining to God's Kingdom you are Apostate Christians and you never yet received the Spirit of Christ mark that and that is the Reason of all your Divisions in Religious matters c. Page 838. As Christians are brought again to receive the Spirit of Christ and walk therein all Strife and Division about Religion will cease c. And other Marks of false Ministers be They have a place they call Church and observe one day in a week to worship and a few hours in that day and an Hour-glass Now if the Quakers be found to have Strife and Divisions about Religion then by their own Judgment they are condemned as not to have yet received the Spirit of Christ But then by what Spirit they have been moved and whose Ministers and Embassadors they have been judge That they have had Divisions among them early is proved by the Difference between G. Fox and his Party and J. Nailor and his Party also that of G. Fox and his Party with J. Perrot and his Party and that Difference between Fox and his Party and J. Story and J. Wilkinson and their Party in the North and West as also that between the now Foxonians and G. Keith and his Party in Pensilvania besides many more I could mention as Reading c. as abundance of printed Books on both sides proves especially W. R's Eight Parts of the Christian Quakers c. And his second Scourge for G. Whitehead an Apostate Quaker c. And whereas G. W. c. terms G. K. Apostate G. W. is there made to be one himself and Judgments Signed by many on both sides one against another I will give you some passages out of two Letters for proof of their Religious Difference besides what is in print in hundreds of Books one Quaker of Fox's Party Several Papers have come from J. N. since his being in Prison I hearing and seeing to be justified by several that what is there writ came from the Spirit of God and that they are witnesses of the same with him I knowing the contrary writes as follows A Parable about a Tree is made and six Persons named The fruitless Tree says he that cumbers the ground in J. N. is the Root Let his Papers cease to go abroad for more may be deceived by him than the others his being secretly covered with words of truth to cover lyes c. Another Quaker of J. N.'s Party contrary to this afore says One morning being awake in my Bed the word of the Lord spake to me thus go to G. R.'s and speak for James and finding that which is Eternal moving me I went after some time one laid a Paper before me pressing me to read it but finding
them odious like as Haman did the Jews yet hear how they deifie and exalt themselves and one another You have heard how they exalt this fierce Despiser E. B. Of the Father of their wickedness George Fox in their Journal say they He was the Instrument in God's hand to preach the Everlasting Gospel hid c. The Lord revealed it to him and made him open the New and Living Way A Messenger to my House in Swartsmore say Margaret Fox whither he brought the blessed Tidings of the Everlasting Gospel As a Father in Christ he took care of the whole Houshold of Faith over which the Lord made him an Overseer and endued him with such an Excellent Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding and yet knew not the difference between the same degree and a degree of the same but puts one and they now pretend he meant the other Nay W. Penn is so false to his own Conscience and Knowledge as to exalt him above all as is before shewed Also see three blasphemous Letters writ of him by J. Coal S. Eccles and J. Audland being already in Print all three Foxonian chief Priests and Preachers Also another of their Idolatrous Preachers says of Fox The Droppings of his tender Words in the Lords Love was his Soul's Nourishment Where shall you find such a high Character of any of the Words of our Lord JESUS And to Oliver Cromwel he titles himself An Establisher of Righteousness and says From him whom the World calls George Fox who am the Son of God Now it 's not the Light that the World calls G. F. but that Blasphemer or Man and Person G. Fox the World called so but this Blasphemy the White-Hart-Court Conclave of Foxonian Quakers Whitehead W. Penn c. they have forged for this Blasphemy these Words And I set my Name to it This is in their Printed Letter of his to Oliver by Captain Drury And in Saul's Errand c. they do not deny but vindicate Fox saying He was Equal with God and he was the Eternal Judge of the World And in their Book News out of the North on the Title say they Written from the Mouth of the Lord i. e. that Blasphemous Fox from one who is naked cloathed with Righteousness whose Name is not known in the World Yes it was that vagrant blaspheming Cobler Fox risen out of the North which was prophesied off but now is fulfilled c. And in p. 41. say To your Consciences I speak who am not of the World therefore the World knows me not I am not known to the World but well known to God To every one of you I have cleared my Conscience Now hereby it 's plain it 's not the Light but Fox that thus blasphemed And in E. B.'s Works page 64. They say of themselves Quakers Whom God hath chosen to place his Name in and to take up his Habitation among above all the Families of the Earth the Tabernacle of God is with you and only among you is God known c. You are God's only Witnesses c. Ye are the Royal Seed and Off-spring of the Lord All Nations shall call you blessed And in page 66. they say of the North from whence they came O thou North of England Out of thee did the Branch Fox spring and the Star arise which gives Light unto all the Regions round about Out of thee the Terrors of the Lord proceeded which makes the Earth to tremble Out of thee Kings Princes and Prophets Fox and Burroughs came forth in the Power of the most High Gird on your Swords Prepare your selves to Battel for the Nations defie our God Fox Our Enemies are whole Nations Rebellious People that will not come under our Law and will not have our King Fox to reign but despise his Law Let the Nations know your power and the stroke of your hand Give unto the great Whore the Protestants double say they As she hath loved Blood give her Blood Let none of the Heathen Nations nor their Gods escape your hands Your Captains i. e. this E B. Fox c. are mighty Men Cursed be every one that riseth not up to help the Lord Fox against the Mighty The Beast i. e. Magistrates is mighty and the false Prophet i. e. Ministers is great and they keep the Nations under their Power but O thou Beast and thou false Prophet you shall both be tormented together And in J. Coal's Works they say God hath raised us up according to his purpose and determination and fore-knowledge to be faithful Witnesses And again to the Quakers Consider what the Lord hath done for you Hath he done so for any People on the Earth Why Did Christ dye only for you Again Therefore it may be said that us Quakers hath he known above all the Families of the Earth page 82 83. And in W. B.'s Works page 173. The Eternal God hath sworn this People i. e. Quakers only shall prosper of all the Families of the Earth who fear his Name and tremble at his Word they that bless them shall be blessed and they that curse them shall be cursed c. And in p. 111. they make themselves to be the Assembly prophesied of Jer. 50.9 to come out of the North as also is afore shewn and term themselves the Seed the Elect and they say There is but two Seeds Christ that never sinned and the Seed of the Serpent Now they will not own themselves to be the Serpent's Seed but to be the Elect Seed of Christ as in Huberthorn's Works the Seed the Elect his own Seed the Arm of the Lord c. And to the World he is manifest through us as being his natural Branches All the Dominions of the World are not equal in Treasure and Wisdom unto thee You hath he chosen of all the Families of the Earth to place his Name among c. And your Laws shall all the Nations of the Earth become subject unto All that riseth up in Judgment against you Quakers shall be confounded thou chiefest Son of his Love By E. B. And says G. Fox The Quakers are in the Power of God upon the Throne p. 318. And in W. B.'s Works say they We are them of whom Enoch prophesied the Saints and they are charged to say They are as pure as God In Answer Fox does not deny it but in justification of it says As he is so are we in this present World page 232. And being charged to say He was the Way the Truth and the Life and the Eternal Judge of the World he doth not deny it but quibble it off It was not so spoken he doth not say G. Fox is Christ as if when any one Answers to a question and says I am c. yet because they do not pronounce their own Names but say I am c. therefore they may deny they so said because of the changing the terms I am into G. F. or he said he was therefore they deny Also another quibble
Answerable and Chargeable by the Papists or other Adversaries with their Heresies and Scandals and that with a most forcible Argument as some of your selves have said mâ—y any Papist c. quote and charge any of their damnable Heresies on us as too many such be in Print 2. These Persons engaged against them viz. Mr. Keith Bugg and Crisp being but private Men and of little Interest in the Nation have not the Opportunity of spreading their Discoveries so Vniversal as is needful and their Adversaries the Quakers being a numerous able politick and rich Body of People and over all England and the Dominions thereof For as I hear they have Meetings in London every Week called The Second Days Meetings whither all or most of their Preachers that be then in London resort every Sabbath day morning and every Monday which Meeting or the Chief Members thereof them Preachers who live in or near London or are generally there as G. Fox who as I have heard altho' his Family and Residence was in or at Swartsmore formerly Judge Fells whose Widow married this G. Fox was for several years together in and about London These few men their Chief Preachers are as the Helme or Rudder of or to the Ship to govern it or by that the Vessel altho' great the Pilot turns it as he sees good so doth this the Quakers second days Meeting or a few chief men there Influence and Govern that vast Body and Number of Quakers all the World over they being the leading and ruling men in their yearly Meeting and by or from this Meeting they have great advantage to spread their Books or any thing else for thither resort Persons from all parts who communicate to them the Affairs of their several and respective Counties or Circuits they belong to and there receive information of other matters proper to communicate to their respective Circuits so that as the Blood hath its constant and fixed Circulation all over and to the extreamest parts of the Body from the Heart or Liver so do their affairs Their Preachers as I hear being mostly Trading Men and travelling from one Countrey to another can manage their Affairs of Trade as well as their Errors to their Advantage and they have Orders that their Meetings which are many are to have some of all Books they Print Also I am inform'd they bring them to their Meetings Mens and Womens there to be bought by Particulars and not without encouraging Invitations Chapman-like as they do their other Wares and their People charged or enjoyned to read them By such cunning Contrivances they vend many and thereby make them much cheaper to them for the more of any Impression is vended the more is the Booksellers Encouragement And indeed there seems to be some Truth in what is said of them None have the like Correspondency but the Jews and Jesuits The Controversie is of Concernment and these Quakers are more potent able and numerous than could be imagined and it 's the severity of their Discipline that upholds them more than Truth and Justice And if our Bishops would please to take as much or the same Care and Order for spreading what is writ in Opposition to their Errors and in Defence of the true Faith as they do for their Errors that is that a Book of each sort may be sent to every Parish to the Minister to impart as he sees needful But that such Books may not be too numerous nor impertinent care may be taken that none be printed or sent but what be by some appointed therefore approved Also a strict Eye kept over what the Quakers Print and that not to be left to the management of mean under Officers for they are such a great and able Body and have plenty of a sort of Dust that will blind a common Eye For it 's for lack of Encouragement to the Booksellers that they are unwilling to undertake to Print such Books unless at the Authors Charge and it 's too great a Disadvantage for any Private Person to manage a Controversie with such a numerous and able Body as they are for it s not one single Person but their whole Body as one Man And they have such a common road of Defaming Terms and Insinuations to reproach any who oppose them that many are afraid to meddle with them Their Slanders pass for Truth with many and altho' Mr. Keith being a Scholar is not under the same Disadvantages as Mr. Bugg and Crisp yet his Acquaintance being but little besides among them and his circumstances in the World but indifferent and they so rich and numerous do over-power him with Books too many for him to answer But were his Labours Encouraged and Espoused by the Heads of our Church he is the most capable of Detecting their Errors as being a Scholar and having so long been a Preacher among them An Exposition on the 2 Peter 1 Chap. 19 Verse WE have also a more sure word of the Prophets whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day Star arise in your Hearts Some say this more sure word is the Light or Spirit within but I take it here to be meant of the Scriptures or Writings of the Prophets altho' it 's commonly read a more sure word of Prophesy But in an old Translation I find it translated a more sure word of the Prophets Therefore I conclude the words will bear to be so read and I believe the Apostles meaning by a more sure word was a more unquestioned Testimony or Word as if he had said if any Doubt or Question what we say concerning that Voice we heard in the Mount because their was but three that heard it and so are witnesses to the Truth thereof yet the words of the Prophets they own as sure and true and they all testify to the same Lord Jesus as we do And therefore you do well to take heed unto them as St. Paul advised Timothy to give himself to Reading and Study in the Scriptures for they as our Lord said testifie of me Also by the next adjoyning words it seems plain to be the Apostles meaning for says he No prophesy of Scripture is of private Interpretation but saith he Holy Men of God speak as they were moved Also in the third Chapter says St. Peter This second Epistle I write unto you that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before of the Holy Prophets c. And in his first Epistle first Chapter and tenth Verse saith he Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you Hereby it seems to me that the Apostle did not here in this Scripture direct them to a Light or Word within them for a proof of his Doctrine that Jesus was the Christ but to the words of the Prophets as in the Acts in his Sermons he refers to the