Testimony and they are not chang'd they tell you so as I have herein before observed Seventhly And as a Pregnant Instance of the dangerous Consequence of this their Six-Week Meeting and their common Stock or Fund observe that of Joseph Clark one of their Preachers before noticed who tho' he pretended he was moved of God their usual Pretence for their Villanies yet when J. Field and their Fund failed him he presently pays his Tythes professing also that he then could pay them as well as other Taxes which is a clear Demonstration that such as stand it out and will rather spend 20 l. then pay 13 s. is because they are supported by this Illegal Fund c. And Lastly You may by this recited Epistle observe the Confederacy of their Yearly-Meeting and Six-Week Meeting to spread their venemous Books to infect both Youth and Aged Male and Female Old and Young and all under the fine Notion of the Service of Truth meaning Quakerism For if they meant the Truth of the Christian Doctrine they would at one time or other read a Chapter in their Meetings at one time or other recommend to their Monthly and Quarterly Meetings the reading of some Portion of the Holy Scriptures But not a Word of this in their Epistles not a Chapter read in their Meetings for Forty Years together but their own Epistles their own Prophesies their own printed Exhortations These they not only read in their private Meetings in their Families but they must Record you see this recited Epistle in their Quarterly-Book and sometimes read it Oh! 't is a precious Epistle And now Christian Reader I cannot but think my self unable to give a full and compleat Caution against the spreading of the Gangrene of Quakerism and therefore give me leave in the Words of Mr. Ralph Farmer a Minister formerly of Bristol to rehearse part of his Exhortation in his Book i. e. The Myst of Ungodliness c. viz. Now beloved if thou beest a Christian what say'st thou Is not here a Mystery of Ungodliness to the Purpose Where was it hatch'd think'st thou Could any less than all the Devils in Hell keep a Conventicle to Contrive and Plot this Black and Hellish Treason against the Majesty of God Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures Oh! ye Christian Magistrates who rule for Christ and to whom you shall one Day give an Account of your Government how you have ruled for him and how tender you have been of his Honour what is become of your Zeal for Christ and his Glory Good Sirs if these wretched Souls have such Liberty of Conscience to think thus contemptuously of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Gospel let them not upon Pretence of Liberty of Conscience be so audaciously Blasphemous to write and speak thus And O ye Servants of the Lord my Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry of our Dear and Ever-blessed Jesus you that are the Pastors of the Lord's Flock and the Watchmen for the Sheep of his Pasture lift up your Voices and spare not cry aloud to all your Congregations and forewarn them that they be not a Prey to Satan's Devices let the Wolves know that you are not Dumb Dogs and cannot bark and Idol Shepherds that can neither hear nor see nor understand any thing and that at a time of Need can say nothing certainly certainly such as these may ill look for their Gain from their Quarters they deserve it not who so they may be fed care not nor care to discover what devouring Beast comes to destroy the Flock of Christ But you my dear Brethren who are set over the Lord's Folds and who watch for their Souls as those that must give an Account and that have a Desire to do it with Joy and for the Profit of your People read and practise what St. Paul gives in charge to the Pastors of the Church at Ephesus Acts 20.28,29,30,31 and let me give it thee here in his own Words what he gave forth to his Son Timothy I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the Quick and the Dead at his Appearing and Kingdom preach the Word be instant in Season out of Season reprove rebuke exhort with all Long suffering and Doctrine for the time will come and it is now when they shall not endure sound Doctrine but after their own Lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching Ears and they shall turn away their Ears from the Truth and shall be turned unto Fables but watch thou in all things endure Afflictions do the Work of an Evangelist or Gospel Preacher make full Proof of thy Ministry c. CHAP. XI Shews the Quakers Second-Day Meetings and Hypocrisie thereof with its ill Consequences in order to Deceive Reader I Am now come to their Second-Day Meeting even to that Meeting where Satan dwells and where he employs his Archest Emissaries I shall not wrong them as believing I must one Day give an Account for my Actions before the Man Christ Jesus who shall Judge both the Quick and Dead at the Great Day where I hope I shall not be afraid to meet G. Whitehead with this Testimony in my Hand so on the other Hand I shall not spare them hide nor cover them who have by their Wiles by their Books of two sorts deceived the Nations deceived many of the Magistrates many of the Clergy nay my self for I could not have wrote thus Fifteen Years ago †No if I had not seen their deceitful Practices and measur'd them by the Scriptures I could not have known them rightly I took them then at least some Years before to be Prophets at least sincere and to meet there for the approving of what was Right Sound and Orthodox and for condemning the contrary But behold I have found the contrary and that by sad Experience yea I have found that their whole Business is to deceive and carry on a Design yea a Confederacy under the fine Notion of Unity and Concord I have laboured many Years under great Difficulties I have spent my Estate I have spent my Strength I grow into Years I have a Conscience to Discharge I think I cannot do it unless I compleat that Discovery which I have began Tho' I find it prejudicial to my Health and other Business I find my self conscientiously concerned in this weighty Affair I do know that the Reverend Author of the Book entituled The Snake in the Grass * To whose Works I refer the Reader c. have done exceeding well he hath done beyond what I am able to do 't is a Learned Piece and becomes a Learned Reader But I am directing the greatest part of what I say to the more unlearned †i. e. The common People who are not so well School-Learn'd to such whether Quakers or others as sometimes must spell as they read and read over and over before they can understand this makes me sometimes write over and over
Abstract 69 They Vindicate the Socinians 71 Quaker-Teachers about Hospitality 73 They come like Mice and Flies ibid. Hypocrisie their Mysterium Maximum 76 The Quakers Yearly-Meeting 79 G. Keith like Luther at Worms 82 Ellwood about Tythes 84 Acts of Parliament virtually Repealed 86 Letters to appoint Meetings 91 The Qua. against Liberty of Conscience 97 Their Treasonable Practice 101 Their Teachers Self-Preservation 103 Their Usurpation of Government 104 Their Excommunication of Fr. Bugg 106 Their Excommunication of J. Barnard 110 John Ainsloe's Condemnation 113 Thir Black Book 114 Their Power to Bind and Loose 115 About their Fund or Bank 118 W. Rogers's Scourge 120 Ann Docwra against their Fund 121 Tom Tell-Troth Ellwood 125 Their Pretence to Write freely 126 Compared by Ann Docwra to Jesuits 129 Ann Docwra's Verses on Fox 133 Their Six-Week-Meetings Craft 136 VV. Mather's Discovery 137 A Petition of 7000 against Tythes 140 Their way to spread Books 143 A Minister's Zealous Letter 147 The Quakers Horrible Deceivers 150 Their Grand Cheat discovered 155 Against Kingly Government 157 They Justifie the Murder of K. Charles I. 163 Still against all Kings 167 Their Fling at Dissenters 168 Their Popish Design therein 171 Their Inveighing against the Clergy 173 A Hunting of the Fox 174 Letters of the Clergy 175 Of their not Praying for K. W. 178 And their Praying for the late K. J. II. 179 Observation thereupon 182 Their Stopping Joan Whitrow's Book 183 A Proclamation against Penn 185 Observations thereupon 187 The Act of Association 189 The Quakers Refusal to joyn 192 Their Grand Deceit therein 194 At large handled to 205 Luther's Example very good 211 Fox's Ambition about Learning 213 His Battledoor for our Clergy 215 His Liturgy for Churches 217 A Sermon for G. Whitehead 222 A System of their dark Divinity 224 Read with Patience to 248 A Cage of Unclean Birds 249 Their Rage against the Clergy 250 Their Idolatry set forth 253 The Cage full of Birds 254 G. Fox taken out and examined 256 How the other Birds Adore him 260 For their Bright and Morning Star 262 Six of their Unclean Birds 265 Their Features and Feathers display'd 284 Names given me by these Birds 286 My Lord of Norwich his Certificate 292 A Psalm of Praise 295 Mr. Meriton's Letter 299 A Proposition very Necessary 302 A Certificate Signed by four Persons 305 A Word of Encouragement 307 The Parable of the Gulf unfolded 308 Six Queries proposed 1678 302 Bold VVhitehead boldly Answered 313 A Pensilvanian Trumpet 316 Christ's Holy Example 320 An Appendix 323 G. Whitehead's Proposition answered 324 And that by a threefold Method 325 Another grand Fallacy of G. W.'s discern'd 326 D. Leeds's Trumpet sounded 327 W. Penn's Challenge answered 329 Two Quaker-Traytors rebuked ibid. A Damnable Plot discovered 332 The Quakers Suffering above all 333 A Simile of Humility 335 A Cure proposed for Quakerism 336 A Word of Encouragement 343 Fr. Bugg's Challenge continued 345 G. VVhitehead not Triumphant 347 G. VV.'s Grand Fallacy 348 THE PREFACE Christian Reader SINCE December 1689 the Quakers have put forth many Books relating to the West-Dereham Conference and have as industriously spread them under these Titles viz. I. An Apology for the People called Quakers and an Appeal to the Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk c. II. A Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese of Suffolk and Norfolk c. III. A Defence of the People called Quakers being a Reply to the Priests in Norfolk c. IV. An Apostate Conscience Exposed c. V. A Defence of the Apology for the People called Quakers c. VI. Truth and Innocency Vindicated c. And besides these they have Printed a Book Intituled Anguis Flagellatus c. the first Six I have answered which Answers may be had at Mr. Janeway's a Book-Binder next Door to Child's Coffee-House in St. Paul's Churchyard London and the last I shall now take some Notice of not that I shall enter far into the Province of that Reverend Author of the Book Intituled and that excellently well too The Snake in the Grass or Satan transformed into an Angel of Light Discovering the deep and unsuspected Subtilty which is couched under the pretended Simplicity of the Leaders of the Quakers c. And I hope it may be called an Answer according to the Pretences of the Quakers For says W. Penn in his Serious Apology c. pag. 79. My designed Method is not the Common Road of Printing my Adversary's Words at large on all Occasions c. no more is mine especially at this time tho' wherein I do take their Words I shall recite them so full as to carry the Force of their Argument and if so it will not only exceed their Practice but hold pace with their Pretence For Josiah Coale another of the Quakers Prophets in his Book The Whore Vnvailed c. printed 1665 and afterwards reprinted by the Approbation of their Second-Day-Meeting who in Answer to a Book of A. S. a Roman Catholick Intituled The Reconciler of Religions c. in his Preface thus saith Altho' A. S. in his Reconciler of Religions seem to challenge an Answer to all Particulars according to the Number of his Chapters yet I do not look upon this Challenge to be obligatory because there is an easier way to do the Work as effectually For when the Foundation of a Building is razed the whole will fall even as effectually as if a Man should begin at the top of a Building and pull it down Stone by Stone c. And in order to which I shall make some brief Remarks which may serve not only as a Forerunner to a more compleat Answer which I understand is preparing but may together with what follows in the ensuing Discourse pass for a tolerable Answer at least raze the Foundation of their Anguis Flagellatus c. and that in these following Particulars I. Touching the Title Reader you have as above seen the Title The Snake in the Grass or Satan transformed into an Angel of Light c. This Title was well given to that Book which made such a plain Discovery of the Quakers Juggles c. who as St. Paul said Eph. 4.14 lye in wait to deceive by their cunning Slights and deep Craft as the Quakers above all People shew by their double Meanings For in one Book they 'll pretend to own the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority and the best Book in the World yet in their other sort of Books they say it is Death Dust Serpents Meat Beastly Ware a Rotten Foundation c. In one sort of their Books they pretend to own a Scripture-Trinity whilst in their other sort of Books they condemn the Three Persons to the Lake and the Pit * Ishmael and his Mother cast out p. 10. by G. Whitehead c. as I elsewhere from their Books have proved And this Two-fac'd Practice gave occasion for that Title Yet now have they given their Book under
Controversie on foot if you be Impartial in your search and will do your selves the justice to read both sides as you ought to do before you can be capable to pass a Judgment and this to do is highly requisite since not only your Eternal Happiness depends upon a true and lively Faith in God and his Son Jesus Christ but even your Temporal Blessings also I remember well St. Paul's Doctrine 1 Tim. 3.13 who said Evil Men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived and thereupon like a Careful Watchman over the Church of God over which the Holy Ghost had made him an Overseer he then and by his Doctrine now cautions all Believers in the True God and his Son Jesus Christ That we be henceforth no more Children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine whereby they lye in wait to deceive And writing to his Son Titus Chap. 1. Ver. 12 13. he there does most Excellently describe the Cretians from a Testimony of one of their own Prophets or Teachers who like your Teachers were always Liars and Dissemblers and therefore he exhorted Titus to reprove them sharply and indeed it is the only way to work a Cure And this is according to the Doctrine of Tho. Ellwood one of your own Prophets or Teachers saying The only way to recover the deceived is to discover the Deceivers This Witness is true as St. Paul said of the Cretian Poet and thereupon I have for many Years laboured to discover your Teachers and if you will but search diligently read and judge impartially you may see for your selves whether these things be so or no. It 's true I have exposed some of the Immoralities of a few of your Teachers but it is for a good End namely that by your seeing them and considering their high Pretences to Infallibility and a Sinless Perfection you may be admonished to a Confession of your Sins to God and beging Pardon for Jesus Christ's Sake that God may keep and bless and preserve you to his Heavenly Kingdom to Reign with Christ for Ever and Ever You may further observe that G. W. in his Rambling Pilgrim c. has not denied one Quotation yet by a Cunning of his would represent me a Forger but that will soon vanish when you consider that in all Dialogues the like liberty is taken * See S. Eccles Dialogue Fox's and Smith's And I can Appeal to God the Searcher of all Hearts that my Chief End why I so expos'd them was after long forbearing to let them see themselves and learn not to insult over others And as it has had a good Effect upon some so I hope it will upon others And so I conclude with my hearty Prayer to God that of his Infinite Goodness he would vouchsafe a Blessing upon my Labours to the Benefit of you and your Posterity whose Information I have taken great Pains in that you might not continue in Ignorance and be led by your Blind Guides into the Ditch of Error and Heresie I rest your Faithful Friend and Humble Monitor Fra. Bugg March 25. 1700. A Just Rebuke to the Quakers Insolent Behaviour in their Two Books i. e. A Just Censure c. the other A Sober Reply c. both presented to some Members of Parliament Also a Dialogue between a Civilian and a Quaker Christian Reader THE first of these Books is Intitled A Just Censure of Francis Bugg 's Address to the Parliament This shews their Impudence or want of good Manners at least had they Confuted my Arguments or Convicted me of one False Quotation thereby to Misrepresent them they in Justice to themselves might have Confuted what was False either in Fact or Argument But not being able so to do for them in a Magisterial way to Censure my Speech to the Parliament and Address to my Superiors for which I have as an Englishman as good Right as they and every way equally Priviledged with them this was in them both Bold and Presumptuous as well as want of Wisdom not to stay their Censure until the Parliament had past theirs whose Right it was if they had seen Cause and to whom I ought to have submitted as in Duty bound but no Symptoms of that did appear but Pride as it is written goeth before Destruction and a Haughty Mind before a Fall And as it is impossible for a Blackamoor to change his Skin or a Leopard his Spots so is it impossible for the Quakers to cease their Insulting and Domineering Method as if they may present their Books and Papers Fifty Years together and none may Confront them They begin with the Man he has angred them by discovering their Errors and Blasphemies they go on with Personal Reflections against him which affects not the Cause and which he has long since repeatedly Answer'd in Print but still the Man the Man he is an Ill Man say they what Worse than the Quaker Teachers No sure for if he were believe me he were an Ill Man indeed for I think there is not worse than some of them are and have been even in Newgate notwithstanding their high pretence to a Sinless Perfection and Infallibility of Judgment many of whom have been highly guilty of Cheating Couzening Lying and Defrauding of Drunkenness Whoredom Felony and Treason Condemn'd both by the Law of God and Man and some of them Hang'd for their Just Merit some Instances you will find in the Preface to the Pilgrim's Progress c. p. 266 to p. 284. p. 329. ibid. And as I find no Name to the Books so I find no denial of Matter of Fact to Mod. Def. Nihil dicit is Confessing of Judgment and I shall wait patiently to see the Execution and thereupon I shall say the less in Answer to it since as it plainly appears that the Quakers does not deny Matter of Fact because in truth they could not so will their Silence be taken for a tacit Confession of the Charge But say they p. 40. For as we cannot quit any Point of our own Books so we abhor every one of them as given by him Fran. Bugg The English of which is They cannot quit any one Error any one Blasphemy c. in their own Books tho' they abhor them in my Books that is of my Reciting of my Transcribing of my Reprinting Oh! this they abhor with great detestation And why Because I seldom do it without using some Arguments to discover their Hypocrisies this yea this enrages them for this they are angry And therefore I would desire the Quakers to Reprint G. Whitehead's Book Ishmael and his Mother cast out c. where in p. 10. is this passage viz. And here thy Antiquity and thy Reasons and the Three Persons which thou Dreams of which thou i. e. Mr. Townsend the Minister would divide out of one like a Conjurer are ALL denied and thou SHUT UP with THEM in PERPETUAL DARKNESS for the LAKE and the PIT c. This indeed is
the Superlative degree and will give them further ground to believe that when the Government have leisure to examine them and that they are willing to wait it will let the Quakers see they have nothing to do with Queen Elizabeth's Motto Much suspected by me Nothing proved can be and that they 'll be forc'd to sing another Song and to change their Motto viz. Many things are fairly mov'd And also as fully prov'd by me Fra. Bugg Now follows a short Discourse by way of Dialogue between Jacob the Wet Quaker and a Civilian for diversion-sake after a piece of hard Drudgery viz. Civilian Oh! Friend Jacob how dost thou do Come let us have a Bottle of Red and half an Hours Chat. Quaker With all my Heart pray what 's the News Civ News I know but little I meddle not with State Affairs But to be free with you I was astonisht at your Deportment the other Day at the Commons Lobby towards Fra. Bugg when he gave away his Book to the Members of Parliament and how Imperiously you Menaced him whose grey Hairs might have commanded your better Respect and perhaps may be as good a Man as your self if your Debts were paid bidding him put off his Hat to the Members which with great respect he did and needed not your Doctrine which had been fitter for your self to have observ'd and the morose Clowns your Brethren who neither respect your Superiors nor regard your Betters Besides you cannot but know how many of your Teachers are and have been guilty of gross Immoralities as Gerard Roberts and his Son Thomas together with Newton Gosnell Billing Antrobus Archer Burr Travers Murford Taylor Clark c. besides your Hearers as Bracy Boswell Plumstead Northcott French Stone Firth Olive Goodwin Cadey c. besides what he has put in the Cage of Unclean Birds in his Pilgrim's Progress 2d Edit p. 294. Qua. Hold Friend thee seem'st to be in a Passion thou saw as soon as I perceiv'd how the Members took his Books and the People shew'd their dislike I came away Civ I am not angry but since in your Reply to his Modest Defence c. p. 8. you seem to allow the liberty of Printing why are you so angry with him since you have not power as in Pensilvania where you both Fined Imprisoned and took away the Printer's Tools for so much as Printing an Appeal since he does no more than you practice and seem now to allow Qua. Be not mistaken we are an Innocent People and vindicate Truth and Innocency Civ Again p. 7. ibid. you say You are ready to make it appear that your Books are not Blasphemous Again p. 11. We are ready to undertake the proof of every Doctrine we hold by and from the Scriptures Qua. We are ready and dare undertake it Civ To the first I answer 't is impossible for in his Book to the Parliament he has Reprinted one of your Books in which is horrible Blasphemy writ by G. Whitehead c. to the second I say Fra. Bugg has Challenged your Teachers Fifty times and G. Keith as many yet you are not ready to vindicate either your Doctrine or the Books which contain them and since that Whitehead seldom appear'd at Parliament Qua. I grant that Book has put a sad damp on our Friends but you must know that giving us G. Whitehead's Method in his Truth and Innocency c. viz. of leaving out words and adding words to and transposing words we dare meet them As for instance in the last Recital adding two words Never and Any and putting out Every and it should run thus We are Never ready to undertake the proof of any Doctrine we hold Civ This is brave Work indeed any thing may do at this rate pray what say you to p. 11. ibid. where you grant that were it not for the Act of Toleration your Monthly Quarterly and Yearly Meetings were illegal but yet they relating to Religion are allowed by the Act whilst in another Book where being charged with the Doors of their Meeting being Lock'd Barr'd or bolted A Just Censure c. p. 26. there you say these Meetings are not designed for Worship and 't is plain none besides Religious Meetings are tolerated by the Act what say you to this Qua. I perceive thou dost not know us nor our way which is to carry two Faces under one Religious Hood you must not measure us by our words but by our meaning and that of our own giving too and if thee wilt but be a Friend to us I will give thee as good a Hamper of Wine as ever thee didst tip over Tongue Civ This is all downright Hypocrisie for at this rate no Man can tell either your Faith or Principles And as to your Present I will not accept thereof for a Gift may pervert and my Religion to me is more than all nor am I so mean spirited to betray my Conscience for all the Wine in thy Cellar But Friend there is another thing in which I would be satisfied namely your answering Books wherein you falsifie the Text drop Words split Sentences and marr the Sence of your Opponant's Argument I will give you but one Instance in a Sheet presented to the Parliament by Fra. Bugg with a Scheme of your Yearly Meeting c. Col. 2. Reason 6. In one sort of their Books they pretend to Love Own and Honour the King yea to Pray for all Men for Kings and all that are in Authority but in their contrary sort of Books they tell you That all Kings and Emperors sprung up in the Night since the Days of the Apostles among the Antichrists that they own no King but Jesus nor no Government but the Government of the Lamb that they are Traytors against Christ that desire an Earthly King Do you read say the Quakers that there were any Kings since the Days of the Apostles but among the Apostate Christians That Kings are the Spiritual Egyptians Oh what a Sincerity was once in the Nation What a dirty nasty thing it would have been to have heard talk of a House of Lords among them A Parliament chosen by most Voices are not like to act for God and the good of his People It was thorow Ignorance that the People subjected themselves to Hereditary Government or to the Government standing in a single Person successively and our Nation have been under Bondage on this Account Now all that the Quakers in their Just Censure c. p. 18. recite is as followeth viz. In one sort of our Books we seem to Own Love and Honour the King yea to Pray for all Men for Kings and all that are in Authority but in the other sort of our Books we tell People that Kings and Emperors sprung up in the Night and among Apostate Christians and that we are against the English Government c. Now how short and defective they are herein is obvious by comparing each Qua. Friends Intentions are good they
World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath Ordained whereof he hath given Assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the Dead I say Is it so And have the Quakers perverted these Texts in St. John and put on a new Translation saying All Power in Heaven and Earth is committed to their Light Quoting John 5.23 Josiah Coal's Works p. 93. This is a bold Attempt this is most Horrible if not Blasphemy thus to subvert the Gospel to serve their Corrupt Ends. How wary then had People need be of receiving the Quaker's Doctrine Is it so that People being thus caught in a Snare and brought over to their Silent Meetings and thereby weaned and drawn off from the Principles and Practices of the Christian Churches in all Ages as Baptism the Lord's Supper the Lord's Prayer Ten Commandments the Apostles Creed Confession of Sin and reading the Scriptures in their Meetings in the Worship of God Oh! what Care ought to be taken that these People should be shunned and these false Worshippers be rejected as a contagious Disease Is it so that the Quakers hold that what is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of greater Authority than the Holy Scriptures which was ever since the Days of Christ and his Apostles brought as a Proof to cast the Ballance in all Controversies And do they indeed hold as their Books teach That that is no Command of God to me what he commanded to another and that no Command in the Scripture is any further obliging upon any Man than as he finds a Conviction upon his Conscience as W. Penn and their Prophet Burroughs teach Burrough's Works p. 47. Quakerism a new Nick-name c. p. 71. This surely is the Womb of all Iniquity in the World this opens the Flood-Gates to all Errour Atheism Deism Socinianism Arianism and what not This therefore ought to precaution all People to beware how they receive the dangerous Pill of Quakerism how excellently soever it is covered with some plausible Pretensions and fair Arguments Is it so that the Quakers have not nor ever had since the Days of Symon Magus none like them amongst the Christian Churches who denied the Ordinances of Baptism Supper and Confession of Sin but John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton How then does it behove their Followers to examine the Doctrine and Practice of their Teachers and to turn from them and flee as for their Lives CHAP. IV. Shews that this Anarchy did not last long but a Government was set up Sometimes a Single Person as Pope over us and sometimes the Light in the Body of Friends claimed a Power over the Light in the Particular FOR after we became dead to the Rudiments of the World as we accounted those Christian Duties commanded by Christ and his Apostles and practised by Christian Churches downwards as Baptism Supper Confession of Sin c. and became stedfast and fixed in the Notion of Quakerism of which I gave only a Hint as I passed thro' my Pilgrimage in that Particular then our Teachers began to bethink themselves of the Necessity of a Government in our Church as well as our Neighbours and if a Government then a Governour and this Government must be either Inward or Outward The Inward we had tried and found defective for the Disciple pretended he was enlightned as well as the Apostle and he thought he had as much Right to follow his Guide i. e. his Light within as to follow and obey the Light in his Teacher or the Light in any Man Upon this the Teachers met in Council at London in the Month of May 1666 to settle this so necessary as well as difficult Point and many Arguments passed between the Clergy and Laity viz. between the Teachers and the Deputies At last it was decided That the Body should govern and the Light in the particular should submit to the Light in the Body But still this Body being without a Head seemed like a Monster so that there was a Necessity to find a Head to clap upon this Body Well this Head must either be visible or invisible the latter it could not be for then the least Hearer would plead his Light his Guide his Judge his Leader as the Teachers told them in the beginning when they decoyed them over to them So then it was resolved it must be George Fox he being the first must become our Great Apostle who together with the Body was to Govern from East to West and from North to South Since which time it was in vain for any single Person to plead the Sufficiency of his Light or the Authority of it for to the Light in the Body was all Power in Heaven and Earth committed Jos Coal's Works p. 93. And to support this Glorious Cause Will. Penn wrote a Book wherein he affirmed That it is a Dangerous Principle and Pernicious to True Religion and which is worse it is the Root of Ranterism to assert That nothing is a Duly incumbent upon thee but what thou art perswaded or convinced is thy Duty c. A Brief Examination and State p. 3. This was Printed in 1681 and and written by the same W. Penn who in the Year 1673. wrote his Book stiled Quakerism a New Nick name for Old Christianity where he then Judged it so far from Ranterism to act as they were perswaded that Page 71. he saith No Command in the SCRIPTURE is any farther OBLIGING upon ANY Man than as he finds a CONVICTION upon his Conscience otherwise Men said Mr. Penn should be engaged without if not against Conviction a thing unreasonable in a Man c. Thus then it 's plain That with respect to the Commands of God recorded in the Holy Scriptures Men are to be at Liberty they are to obey if they be convinced or perswaded it 's their Duty so to do if not they may by Mr. Penn's Doctrine be at Liberty And so saith E. Burroughs for says he That is no Command from God to me what he commands to another neither did any of the Saints that we read of in Scripture act by the Command which was to another not having the Command to themselves c. Burrough's Works p. 47. And if we read on in the same Page we may find that these Commands of God thus rejected by the Quakers unless they have them anew as the inspired Apostles and Prophets had were Baptism and other Ordinances And now let me return to see what things Will. Penn would have done and obey'd Conviction or no Conviction and this will give us some Light into their Mystery of Iniquity thus to reject the Commands of God recorded in Scriptures and teach that none need to obey them unless convinced of the Usefulness of them as they have done these 40 Years GO TEACH ALL NATIONS BAPTIZING c. DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME c. When you Pray say FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE c. Matth. 28.19,20 Luke 22.19,20
in the Church or amongst them that profess to be Members thereof WE do declare and testifie That the Church with the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ HAVE POWER WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF SUCH WHO DISSENT FROM THEIR DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE TO HEAR AND DETERMINE THE SAME All Property is now lost unless there be Conformity and Submission like the Star-Chamber and High Court of Justice c. And if any pretend to be of us and in Case of Controversie will not admit to be TRIED by the Church i. e. the Body nor SUBMIT to the JUDGMENT given by the Spirit of Truth in the Elders and Members of the same but kick against their Judgment as only the Judgment of Man WE testifie in the Name of the Lord That if any Judgment so given be risen against and denied by the Party condemned then He or She ought to be rejected as having erred from the Truth and persisting therein presumptuously are joined in ONE with Heathens and Infidels George Whitehead Josiah Coale Stephen Crisp John Moone Thomas Loe Thomas Greene John Whitehead Thomas Briggs James Parke Alexander Parker Rich. Farnsworth c. Having by this time shewed First How our Teachers in order to bring us over to them and to decoy us told us the Light within was a sufficient Guide Teacher and Leader even sufficient to lead to Salvation yea above Scriptures above Fathers above Councils and above Churches I have in the last Instance shewed the Fallacy of their so early and smooth Pretences and that from the beginning they have been a false perfidious and treacherous Tribe of Deceivers as ever the World produced Well now they appear plainly to be a Body and I having found who is the Head of this Body namely George Fox it will not be amiss to recite the Quakers Creed and his Commandments which whatever Quaker do not submit to convinced or not convinced of the Reasonableness of their Obedience it 's now plainly seen what will befall them I need not Comment upon the recited Canon Creed Fox's Commandments nor their Zeal to maintain them as their Ancient Principles altho' God's Commandments by Moses the Apostles Creed and all the Scripture the Quakers slight and reject as not to be read in their Meetings not to be taught their Children nay so proud is G. Whitehead that he tells you as above The Jews might as well have carried them to Christ in the Days of his Flesh Viz. the Ten Commandments for him to learn observe and obey them as for the Christians to carry them to the Quakers to learn observe and obey them Truth defending the Quakers c. p. 18. For saith he What is spoken by the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Bible and Chapters are and greater Burroughs Works p. 47. This is the Tenure and Purport of his Doctrine and I do affirm it 's right Quakerism For Edw. Burroughs said That was no Command from God to me what he Commands to another And W. Penn confirms the whole saying No Command in Scriptures is any further obliging upon ANY Man than as he finds a Conviction upon his Conscience otherwise Men should be engaged without if not against Conviction a thing unreasonable in Man c. Quakerism a New Nick-name for old c. p. 71. But for their poor infatuated Disciples to plead whether to conform or not whether to obey or not the Commands of G. Fox i. e. not paying Tythes not to be Married with a Priest not to put off the Hat not to open their Shops on Feasts or Fast-Days I say to plead to be left to their Freedom herein and the Grace of God in their Hearts Oh! no Says W. Penn This is a dangerous Principle this is a pernicious Plea this is perfect Ranterism VVhat to have Liberty whether to obey the Commands of the Body given out by the Head thereof This is wicked indeed as by their Yearly Epistle above-recited is plain However I shall recite both the Quakers Creed and the Commands of G. Fox Viz. 1. The Quakers Creed WE believe that the Light within us is the True and Eternal God which Created all things and that by me the Light all things are upheld and that there is not another besides me that can save and thereupon we believe we are endued with the Almighty Power of God and thereby have wrought Miracles and conclude we are equal to God and that our Speaking is of greater Authority than the Bible VVe believe our Light within is Jesus Christ the Son of God the Man Christ Jesus to whom all Power in Heaven and Earth is committed tho' we cannot believe that this our Light within to whom we direct our Disciples to expect Salvation by was ever crucified by Nailing to a Cross nor that he Died or was Buried nor that he was Buffered Spitted upon Smote with the Palms of the Hands of the Jews for he never was seen with Carnal Eyes nor that he Rose from the Dead the Third Day nor that he Ascended in the Sight of the Galileans into Heaven and there Sit at the Right Hand of God but that all Apostate Christians that so teach are false Ministers nor do we believe that our Light within shall come at the last Day to judge both Quick and Dead For the Light within us is the Judge and the Book is opened within the Sentence of Death and Judgment is pronounced within from the Mouth of our Light within against every idle VVord and all the Deeds of the Body within and Judgment is executed within and the flaming Sword within which proceedeth out of the Mouth of the Lamb i. e. our Light within which will cast thee into Hell within where is weeping and wailing within sealed down under the Wrath of God's Eternal Judgment within We believe the Light within us is the Holy Ghost and that these three are one and not distinguishable and that such as talk of three Persons in the Godhead like Conjurers are to be shut up with their three Persons they dream of which they would divide out of one in perpetual Darkness in the Lake and the Pit That the Scripture which the Apostate Christians build their Faith upon for this their Trinity of Persons in the Godhead is a rotten Foundation yea Dust Death and Serpents Meat and therefore their Ministers that tell their People the Scriptures are the Word of God are Deceivers For the Father Son and Spirit the World and their Teachers call three Persons but they speak they know not what therefore believe them not We believe our selves the only Catholick Church and Elect People of God and that none are in the Truth but we our selves We never did in any of our printed Books or printed Prayers from 1560 to 1690 make any Confession of Sin nor ask Pardon of God for Jesus Christ's sake who was Born of the Virgin and why We testifie that the outward Person that suffered at Jerusalem was
which both repealed this Law respecting the Quakers who adhered to them as the Higher Power alienated their Obedience from the Magistrates and the Laws of the Land Which Edict is as followeth viz. Concerning our open Testimony by Publick Meetings in Times of Sufferings That as it hath been our Care and Practice from the Beginning that an Open Testimony for the Lord should be born and a Publick Standard ††High boasting Words but the Snake lay in the bottom i. e. Disobedience to Authority their Light being the Higher Power for Truth and Righteousness upheld in the Power and Spirit of God by our open and known Meetings against the Spirit of Persecution that in all Ages hath sought to lay waste God's Heritage and that only thro' Faithfulness Constancy and Patience Victory hath been and is obtained SO IT IS OUR ADVICE and JUDGMENT That all Friends gathered in the Name of Jesus * * Meaning their Light in opposition to the Doctrine and Practice of the Apostles and all Christian Churches as well as against the Commands of Jesus of Nazareth Go teach all Nations Baptizing c. Do this in Remembrance of me c. When you Pray say Our Father c. Forgive us our Sins for c. Read Luke 11.14 Matth. 28.19,20 Luke 22.19 John 1.8 Psal 38.18 50.15 51.1,2,3 Isa 64.6 Lam. 3.20 Job 7.20 Prov. 20.9 Eccles 7.20 Nehem. 1.6 1 Tim. 1.15 Dan. 9.4,5,20,23 See Pict of Quak. p. 63 to 70. keep up those Publick Testimonies in their Respective Places and not DECLINE FORSAKE or REMOVE their Publick Assemblies because of Times of Sufferings as WORLDLY FEARFUL and POLITICK Professors have done because of Informers and the like Persecutors For such Practices are not consistent with the Nobility of the Truth and therefore not to be owned in the Churches of Christ Subscribed by G. Whitehead W. Penn Tho. Salthouse Al. Parker Jo. Burnyeat St. Crisp London the 23d of the Third Month 1675. Thus have I given two Instances as particular Demonstrations That as their Books teach so their Practice confirm it That their Light is the Higher Power to which they require Obedience contrary to the Practice of God's Saints and Servants in all Ages where nothing that is sinful and so against the written Word of God is commanded Read Mat. 22.21 1 Pet. 2.13,14,17 Rom. 13.1,2,3 Tit. 3.1 See Tindal's Works i. e. The Obedience of a Christian Man c p. 111. and compare these Holy Sayings with their Practice unless where Idolatry or Things sinful are commanded and then 't is better to obey God than Man but this the Quakers could never produce But as they thus slighted and trampled upon the Government so did their great Apostle glory in it saying He did not heed a Cart load of Warrants Journal p. 278. And now I shall briefly run through several of their other Methods and Ways at their Yearly Meeting reserving their Doctrinal Part which support and influence them to a distinct Chapter by it self First They oft refer to their last Yearly Epistle that the Contents of it be seriously reminded in all Monthly and Quarterly Meetings but not a Word of Scripture referred to therein as their Rule of Faith and Practice 2 dly Against that grand Oppression and Antichristian Yoke of Tythes yea Antichristian in the Law-maker in the Payer and in the Receiver 3 dly Against the paying of Churchwardens Rates by which we have much Trouble in the Country otherwise things might be easie but from this Fountain spring their Antimagistratical Practices 4 thly That all their Sufferings may be brought up to London in order for a Martyrology both full and compleat that nothing may be wanting to reproach the Magistrates and extol their own Sufferings which they are not already asham'd to say are Greater and more Unjust than in the Days of Christ's Apostles the Ten Persecutions and all the Massacres for the Name of Christ see Burrough's Works p. 273. tho' many of them are meer Shams as in the Case of Sam. Cater who pretended and got it Recorded that he suffered 20 l. for Preaching at Phakenham in Norfolk altho' he never did for that Meeting suffer a Groat yet for that Pretence had 10 l. sent him out of their London Exchequer or Fund And yet this is not the whole of this grand Cheat but Nine Years after he printed a Book intituled The Lamentable Cry of Oppression c. p. 14 44. wherein he had the Impudence still to complain of Sir Christopher Colthorp's Injustice and Persecution concealing his having his Goods again and 10 l. to boot And by this their Chronicles they so much boast of †Yet no Chronicle appears What are they asham'd of their Sham-Sufferings may be measured 5 thly Against their People using Guns in their Ships which in 1693. When this Advice was given His Majesty had need of such as would Fight c. But tho' the Quakers in Pensilvania can Fight as Magistrates yet they cannot Fight as Quakers and 't is not time yet to throw off their Coats of Quakerism and put on the Robes of Magistracy 6 thly To receive Applications Epistles and Embassies from the Foreign Parts beyond the Seas mentioned in the former Part of this Chapter and grant them Orders Edicts and Laws for the governing themselves in Subjection to their Light the Higher Power especially when met in a Body as the Epistle Anno 1660. before recited shew 7 thly To refer the Sufferings of their own Poor i. e. such as by breaking the Laws lying in Goal for Non-payment of Tythes c. For otherwise tho' their own Brothers they may starve e're they 'll take any charitable notice of them Nay Fathers as in the Case of T. Ellwood who suffer'd his Father to go from Door to Door as John Rauce's Relation is or of a Woman that wears a Lace of a Groat on her Head or a Man that puts off his Hat no many of these are God's Poor but the Quakers Poor are of another sort and they having merited the Quakers Kindness by obeying their Laws These are plentifully rewarded so that what they call their Unity is rather a Confederacy which ought to be noticed 8 thly They take care that all their Erronious Books may be dispersed by all their Monthly and Quarterly Meetings for the spreading of Truth but not a word of dispersing the Bible however it may serve for a Motive to our Clergy for to take Care to Disperse such Books as discover the Quakers Errours and Hypocrisies the Neglect of it has been very hurtful 9 thly They every Year order a Committee to be chosen to view the Accounts and to examine the State of their Cash i. e. the Quakers Exchequer which some say now run over They likewise nominate their Feoffees for the time being who by the Order of their Superiors give out sometimes 5 l. sometimes 10 l. sometimes 20 l. at a time to their Preachers and such as
none must touch the Hem of their Garment O Proud Hypocrites and also amongst the said Papers was one subscribed by twelve Persons directed to the Second-Day Meeting in London wherein Friends are misrepresented and greatly abused which said Paper we believe the said Francis Bugg promoted Now we being greatly grieved in our Spirits and truly sensible of his herein going from Truth do testifie We have no Unity with him nor can have whilst he is thus Acted OBSERVE First I was judged and condemned behind my Back without a Hearing Secondly The Papers subscribed by Twelve Persons they only supposed to be of my promoting Now if John Lilborn's Judges had been thus implicite in their Faith at his Tryal at Guild Hall in October 1649. he must have been Hang'd for writing The Naked Truth in Oliver Cromwell's time c. The next Instance I shall recite and which I think is to the Purpose is to shew the Quakers implacable Malice against not only W. Rogers but his Book too and no Passage in his whole Book came under the like sad Sentence as that of his admitting a Voluntary Payment of Tythes if the Supream Powers bestowed it on a National Ministry c. His Words are We are so far from condemning all those who freely pay them i. e. Tythes and not by Constraint that we look upon it to be the Duty of all professing Christianity to contribute towards the outward Maintainance of such whom they usually hear and account to be true Ministers of Christ in case they have need And if the Charity of any should be such as to bestow upon them one Fifth Part instead of a Tenth far be it from us to condemn it c. The Christian Quaker distinguished c. Part 2. p. 43. But this was such a horrible Tenet and so much of Liberty of Conscience in it that as you have heard First It was an Errour of Judgment 2 dly It came from an unsound Mind 3 dly That Truth i. e. the Quakers Light allows no Payment of Tythes at all under the New Covenant 4 thly They who do pay Tythes tho' Voluntarily do therein uphold a legal Ceremony abrogated by Christ 5 thly And thereby deny Christ to be come in the Flesh quoting 1 John 4.3 which speaks not one Syllable of Tythes 6 thly That it is downright Ranterism c. Ellwood's Antidote p. 78. 139. Well but W. Rogers was so modest as not to put this Book into the Bookseller's Hands to Sell lest thereby he might widen the Difference which both he and my self at that time thought might have been composed †For I did not then understand their Fundamental Errours but Thanks be to God that as their fair and smooth Pretences proved a Snare to catch me so their gross Dissimulations proved a Means to see them that he put it into the Hands of John Barnard a Merchant being one of the separate Quakers for him to dispose of and to disperse as he in Wisdom should see meet and some Hundreds of them he did disperse Well he was Summoned time after time to the Monthly Meeting in Devonshire-House London to Answer for his Fault and I think he as often appeared But being of too Masculine a Temper to submit to their Arbitrary Authority and Usurped Dominion he still continued selling and disposing of this so sad and so lamentable a Book of which you have heard the greatest Crime namely for admitting a Voluntary Payment of Tythes c. And to say true so it was for there is nothing upon Earth that the Quakers thirst more after than the utter Ruin of the Priesthood and the Abolishing the Maintainance thereof This is the Vein that runs fluently thro' all their Books and Sermons nay rather than the Priests should have it and that it might be a Means to starve them they are willing to pay Tythes to Secular Use For saith G. Whitehead if the King and Great Council of the Nation were pleased †The Case of the Quakers concerning Oaths defended c. p. 50. per G. Whitehead to repeal those Old Laws inforcing the Payment of Tythes and to convert them into some necessary civil Use as for the Poor Oh Judas or some National Service and Benefit Oh smooth George Here is the Face of a Lamb but the rough Paw of a Bear and the Claws of a Leopard it would appear whether we should not pay our Parts and whether the Royal Exchequer would not be conveniently supplied without the Tenths from the Priests c. Thus they could pay Tythes into the Exchequer to maintain a War which they equally Disclaim Oh but do what you will with the Tythes so the Priests do but starve and their Ministry fall and their Religion overturned then HEY BOYS UP GO WE But blessed be God the Fear of that is past Well but let us hear what became of this honest John Barnard Why in short he was Excommunicated ipso facto A Copy of it here followeth Verbatim From the Monthly Meeting at Devonshire-House the Fourth of the Eleventh Month 1681. Whereas there hath been some unruly Spirits gone out from Truth and the Unity of the blessed Power of God which hath gathered us to be a People Writing Printing and Publishing Things Hurtful and Prejudicial to Truth by corrupting of People's Minds tending also to draw them into Disesteem of many of the Lord's Servants ††A Preservative for their Teachers decaying Reputation whose Faithfulness hath manifestly appeared amongst us with whom our Unity stands to our mutual Satisfaction and Refreshment Upon Consideration of these Things we find our selves conscientiously concerned * * Oh! Deep Hypocrisie to take notice of something of this Kind befaln John Barnard Merchant formerly a Member of this Meeting who having dispersed into several Parts of this Nation divers of those Pernicious Books wrote by William Rogers called The Christian Quaker distinguished from the Apostate and Innovator in Five Parts c. which hath manifestly been proved in many material Passages Erroneous and False both in the Historical and Doctrinal Part of it was privately and publickly reproved for that unrighteous Action by several Friends at divers times according to Gospel-Order as they found it on their Spirits from the Lord ††Never was God's Name more prophaned by a People professing Religion as also admonished against it yet after all the Labour and Travel Friends have had on his Behalf being desirous if possible to reclaim him out of the Enemies Snare into which he is fallen he hath from time to time resisted their Advice and Counsel so that now we being wholly clear having used our utmost Endeavours in the good Will of God to reclaim him as aforesaid do not only testifie against that Spirit which hath led him into that disorderly Practice but also against him whilst join'd thereunto * * Both the Man and his Spirit condemned nor can we have Spiritual Communion or
Tythes that belong to them thrown down P. 65. You who are the Parliament of this Nation you should have thrown down Tythes which Abundance of the sober People of the Nation hath petition'd you †What Impudence is this Pretend to petition and beg yet teach the Parliament and tell them what they should do to have taken them away which you voting them up hath voted your selves out of the sober People's Affection of the Nation among the Brutes you should have sold all the Glebe-Lands and sold all the Bells saving one in a Town and Colledges and their Lands and given them all to the Poor of the Nation P. 68. And the Priests cry to you Magistrates for Tythes the Pope's Alms and lye begging with their Petitions at your Doors * It was highly necessary then as well as â—…s now foâ— some to oppose Quakeriâ—… And we would have you maintain these begging Priests some other way than by the Pope's Alms. P. 69. AND EXCEPT YOU TAKE COUNSEL OF THE JUST YOU SHALL NOT SIT †☞ Reader I have recited enough of the Quakers Petition against the Clergy to shew the Nature of their Ancient Testimony and pointed with a Finger ☞ to two Sayings which with the rest are full of Impudence And when against the Clergy I think I may take their Word their whole Carriage and Deportment both by Word and Writing do confirm it But when for themselves they have any Favour to obtain DISTRUST THEM IN ALL THEY SAY for they II stick at no Promise as in the Case of their Indulgence witness their Acknowledging the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given forth by Divine Inspiration That it is the Rules of Faith and Practice c. whilst they believe not one Word of what they themselves say and as a Demonstration thereof I shall recite one of their Epistles sent to the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings shewing their Care of their own Books Nay them very Books which teach that the Scriptures are Death Dust Beastly Ware Serpents Food c. Therefore From the Meeting of Sufferings in London ††Renewed Advice to the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in England and Wales for preserving and spâ—eading Fâ—iend's Boâ—ks for Trâ—th's Serâ—ice Priâ—ted 16â—9 Dear Friends With our dear Love in the Truth unto you all these are to let you understand that our Friends have at several YEARLY MEETINGS had under their serious Consideration how all those Books that are printed for the Service of Truth and in the Unity of Friends might MOST EFFECTUALLY be SPREAD for a general Service to Truth and at the last YEARLY MEETING it was left unto this Meeting who accordingly have taken Care and Pains therein and settled as followeth That those that print Friends Books shall the first Opportunity after printed within one Month at most send to one of the Correspondents in the Counties viz. For your County two Books of a sort for each Monthly Meeting in your County if under Six Pence and but one of a sort if above Six Pence per Book for these Reasons 1 st For Friends to have general Notice what Book is printed 2 dly That they may send for what other Quantities they see a Service for And 3 dly That the Printer may be encouraged in Printing for Friends 4 thly For a Quaker Library That one Book at least of a sort that shall be printed may be kept in each Monthly and Quarterly Meetings for the Service of Truth and Friends as there shall be occasion for the future And as 't was agreed at the last YEARLY MEETING 1692. in the Printed Epistle 5 thly It is agreed that for Encouragement the Printer will allow 2 d. in the Shilling for all such Books 6 thly It 's agreed that some here shall be appointed that two or three Weeks before each Quarter Day to examine the Printer to see that they send no Books but what are approved by Friends and no more than two of a sort as aforesaid except the Friends in the Country shall write for more which it 's hoped they will not fail in ††I have heard that they begin to fail and send but slowly as they see a Service for them 7 thly It 's agreed or advised that the Printer's Accompts be fully cleared once a Year at least by those Friends the Country shall send up to the Yearly Meeting 8 thly It 's agreed that the Name of the Printer imploy'd by Friends should be sent with Directions how to write to him And Dear Friends and Brethren It 's Tenderly and in Brotherly Love advised and recommended unto you that ye be careful and diligent in the Spreading of All such Books that are printed for the Service of Truth and are either written in Defence of it or Christian Doctrine or Holy Profession or by way of Epistle Warning Caution Exhortation or Prophesie Not a Word of the Bible that so we may not be any way or in any wise Remiss or Negligent in promoting that Holy and Eternal Truth it hath pleased Almighty God to bless us with the Knowledge of and hath raised us up to stand Witnesses for in our Age and Generation nor nothing may be wanting on our parts to promote it and the spreading of it Signed on the Behalf of the Meeting for Sufferings in London 18. 6. Mo. 1693. By Benj. Bealing Postscript And this Agreement and Account herein sent we think it needful you should record it in your Quarterly Book and sometimes read it for Remembrance and general Notice Observations from hence Reader From what hath been said you may observe First That there is such a Meeting as I have set forth both from their Yearly and the recited Six-Week Meeting in case the Quakers deny it Secondly That their Business principally is to take Care of the Sufferings of their own Friends and that how plentifully they reward such as are faithful to their Church-Canons as in the Instance of Sam. Cater who for pretending to suffer 20 l. tho' he suffered not a Groat yet had 10 l. sent him as a Reward for meeting boldly contrary to the Law in that Case made and provided Thirdly That they have a Fund or Common Bank and that the Accompts are examined by a Committee chosen out of the Yearly Meeting for that Purpose Fourthly That such as suffer for Non-payment of Tythes are to send to the Quarterly Meetings Correspondents left their Sufferings be delayed Fifthly You may also perceive what a Confederacy is held by the Quakers and how they are enabled by their Exchequer to hold Suit with both Priest and Impropriator †As in the Instance of Mr. Holeman who was a Justice of the Peace a Counsellor at Law yet tired Sixthly You also may see how the Quakers solicite the Parliament for Favours as also how they Petition against the Clergy the Churches the Colledges and Bells too Yea this is according to their Ancient
the same thing to inculcate if possible the Matter I am upon into their Heads that at last they may understand as well as to lay a Foundation for abler Pens This then I thought fit to premise by way of Introduction c. This Meeting of the Quakers is held every Second Day of the Week which we call Monday throughout the Year in London the Members of it are the Teachers of the Quakers residing in and about London where of G. Fox * For he seldom lived with his Wife but kept at London in his Life-time was the Principal and G. Whitehead now as I am given to understand The Meeting formerly was kept in Ellis Hook's Chamber in Lombard-street now I presume in Grace-Church-Street This Meeting doth much resemble His Majesty's Privy-Council For the King by and with the Advice of His Privy Council can do many things he can by Proclamation put the Laws in Execution I think he can proclaim War and make Peace So can this Meeting they can quicken the coming in of Money granted by the Yearly Meeting they can issue out their Proclamation for a War against the Ministers of any Society they can alter and change any Message stop any Prophesie stifle any Revelation silence the Voice uttered by the Spirit of the Lord thro' their most eminent Prophets in what respect they please and make it speak louder and more shrill where they think there is most Service or may be more conducive to their Design they are like the Helm to the Ship which turn it which way the Pilate please they are the Wheel within the Wheel which move all the whole Work yet so invisibly as few shall know how and fewer know who for they are Persons uncertain and accidental and cannot be chargeable by Name for any Errour tho' guilty of every Errour in their Books so far as Consent Approbation and Recommendation can make them For all Books Printed and Reprinted pass thro' the fiery Tryal of their Infallible Examination they Govern they Rule they Steer the Vessel but all Invisibly they pay their Ministers but their own People many of them that give to their Collections and Contributions do not know it nor if you tell them of it will they believe it For none can tell who pays nor who receives but now and then by chance what some or other as Ellwood blabb'd it out at unawares But their Principal Work is to Approve and License their Books Printed for the Service of the Truth as they phrase it But the last being their most principal Verb I shall the more infist upon it to shew their most horrible Deceit and Hypocrisie And I bless God and am thankful to his Servants who have enabled me not only to Print but to Reprint this Book to which they neither have returned an Answer nor can they But to proceed suppose one of their People pretend he is moved of the Lord by his Eternal Spirit to write a Message or Warning to the Inhabitants of Bristol with this Title This is the Word of the Lord to thee O Bristol Well this Book is sent up to their Second-Day Meeting and there they take it into Consideration then they will Alter and Change Words and Sentences put in and leave out what they conceive suit best with the Times and yet let it go as The Word of the Lord. Thus do they sit in the Judgment-Seat and like the Old Prophet deceive not only the Nations but the poor young Prophet that thought he had wrote from the Infallible Motion when alas 't is now so alter'd so added to and diminish'd from what it was that it 's meerly Calculated to the Design of the Cabal and yet shall go with the same Title i. e. This is the Word of the Lord to thee O Bristol Of this most horrible Deceit I could give a Hundred Instances and find Matter enough for to write a Book by it self but I must consult Brevity lest my Pen outrun my Penny and therefore shall single out one Instance which I hope will give some Satisfaction it shall be out of a Book wrote by Edward Burrough entituled A Trumpet of the Lord sounded out of Sion sounding forth the Controversie of the Lord of Hosts c. Printed in Quarto 1656. But before I go to the chief Matter intended I shall recite the pretended Commission of this bold Prophet and then it will appear whether the Second-Day Meeting did well in altering his Prophesie by adding to and taking from the same for either they did believe him to be a Prophet that the Word of the did come to him as expresly as to Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel and the rest of the Prophets or they did not if they did how then dare they add and diminish and leave out in the Reprint of his Works what had gone for the Word of the Lord from 1656 to 1672 If they did not believe him to be a Prophet divinely inspir'd but an Impostor why did they suffer the said Book to go as The Word of the Lord from 1656 to 1672 So take it which way they will and it will appear that G. Whitehead whose Epistle of Recommendation is prefix'd and Printed to Edw. Burrough's Works and others of this Second-Day Meeting are most horrible Cheats and grand Deceivers And therefore now to the Commission which Edw. Burroughs received which to G. W. and others that believed it was both Authentick and Substantial viz. By Order and Authority given unto me by the Spirit of the Living God King of Kings and Lord of Lords the 31st Day of the Tenth Month 1655. about the 4th Hour in the Morning when my Meditations was of my God upon my Bed in Kilkenny City in the Nation of Ireland at that time The Word of the Lord came unto me saying Write my Controversie with all the Inhabitants of the Earth unto all sorts of People as I will shew thee by this same Authority and Commission declared This I send unto you the Tribes of the Earth and this upon your Heads shall stand for ever to be witnessed by the Light of Christ Jesus â—n all your Consciences in the dreadful Day of Vengeance which upon you O Inhabitants of the Earth is coming Prepare prepare to meet the Lord. O Nations Tongues and People unto you all hereby a Warning is come and a Visitation from the Presence of the Living God which you are straitly required to put in Practice as at the terrible Day of dreadful Vengeance you will answer the contrary Given under my Hand and Sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God who lives for ever thro' a Servant of the Lord Edw. Burrough Thus Reader you see the Commission which Edw. Burrough receiv'd whether counterfeit or not is not my present Business which was forthwith Printed in Quarto and sent up and down the Nation as The Word of the Lord and as such receiv'd by Thousands of us and to be sure approv'd of by the Second-Day Meeting yet
Sodomites Witches Devils c. those of calling Christ A Garment A Vessel The Sandy Foundation shaken p. 5 to 65. I Answer The reason why we call them so and Translate the Words of Christ John 5.22,27 from the Son of Man to the Light within us * * The Quakers Reason for denying the Blessed Trinity Is because we believe there is no other Son of Man than the Light within us which was in the Jews Gentiles c. before his Incarnation according to my Gospel and the Gospel of my Brother Jeffrey Bullock where we say Therefore the Man Christ Jesus was before He came in the Body or Flesh Judgment fixed c. p. 316 356. For to be plain with you according to our Ancient Testimony we own no other Trinity nor God than is within us for the Light is God the Light is the Son of Man the Light is the Holy Ghost and we having obtained the Repute to be a well-meaning People and tell the Priests in Answer to their Demand Do you own the Trinity Do you own the Sacraments c. We tell them we deny their Unscriptural Terms Where is the Words Trinity and Sacrament in the Scriptures Tho' we are not such Fools but we know the Word Trinity came from the Latin Word Trinitas and Sacrament from Sacra or Sacramentum a Holy Institution or Sacrament yet to hide our selves from the Dint of their Arguments we tell them They are not Scripture Terms Nay even this Sessions of Parliament when the House of Commons were preparing a Bill against such as denied the Trinity we soon perceived what might follow and we gave in a Paper intituled Some Considerations upon the Bill for the more effectual Suppressing of Blasphemy and Prophaneness Humbly offer'd saying Whereas the Bill enacts That if any Person or Persons c. shall deny any of the Persons in the Holy Trinity to be God and make it punishable by the same Bill were it not more safe and plain to put it in Scripture Terms as instead of Deny any one of the Persons to be God to insert If any one shall deny any of the Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word or the Holy Ghost to be God 1 Joh. 5.7 Now if we can keep the Parliament to these Words we shall hide our selves and retain our Ancient Testimony unshaken Again If any of you should yet Object that notwithstanding we according to our Ancient Testimony call the Scriptures Death Dust Beastly Ware Serpents Meat c. News coming up out of the North c. p. 14. A Brief Discovery of a three-fold State c. p. 9. and say That whoever Preach out of them are Conjurers c. Saul's Errand to Damascus c. p. 7. Yet notwithstanding all this we profess to prefer the Holy Scriptures above all other Books extant in the World The Counterfeit Convert c. p. 26 27. To this I Answer That you must observe the Context as well as the Text and then you shall see we do not interfere for in the same Book p. 72. viz. I may see Cause otherwise to word the Matter and yet our Intentions be the same Besides Beloved I would have none mistake me for tho' I am the Man that did say we prefer the Scriptures above all other Books extant in the World which in one Sense is true yet not in another The Count. Conv. c. p. 26. First I hope you do not understand it of its Intrinsick Value of its Real Authority so as to be a Rule of Faith and Practice and that the Commands therein are Obligatory upon Us if you do you are greatly mistaken and that for these Reasons following And First That which is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in any is of as great Authority as the Scriptures or Chapters are and greater Truth defending the Quakers c. p. 7. Secondly That is no Command from God to me what he commands to another Neither did any of the Saints which we read of in Scriptures act by the Command which was to another not having the Command to themselves c. Burrough's Works p. 47. Thirdly No Command in the Scriptures is any further obliging upon any Man than as he finds a Conviction upon his Conscience otherwise Men should be engaged without if not against Conviction a thing unreasonable in a Man Quakerism a New Nick-name c. p. 71. Fourthly To this triple treble Cord which I think is not easily broken let me add our constant Practice ever since we have been a People and it will not only confirm these Proofs but shew our Sincerity to our Ancient Testimony I say as a Proof that we do not prefer the Scriptures above our own Books let it suffice That this Forty-eight Years never an Apostate that ever went from us can prove nay not once say if they 'll do us justice * * George what you say is true I am a Witness to thy Sincerity herein that ever we read any one Chapter in the Bible or any one Epistle of the Apostles in our Meetings whilst it hath been our frequent Practice to read our own Epistles And surely if we deemed the Scriptures best most certain and more edifying for us respecting our Ancient Testimony you may depend on 't that we would read the Scriptures in our Meetings nay we challenge all our Adversaries to shew us one Book of our Friends in the Unity that ever so much as recommended the reading any one Chapter or any one Epistle of the Apostles in our Meetings Thus much in Answer to one part of the Objection with respect to the Truth Certainty Value and Worth of the Scriptures But still I say they are occasionally good and in one Sense I do prefer the Scriptures above our own Books and then you may lay your Lives on 't above all Books in the World for sometimes the Scriptures as the Case may stand are like the Philosopher's Stone what they touch they turn into Gold And in that Sense our Confession to the Parliament with the Consequences are a Demonstration viz. I believe with my Heart and confess with my Mouth the Sacred ††Sacred an unscriptural Word yet it now will down with these new Saints to serve a turn c. Scriptures to be Divine left us by Men inspired of God as an exact Rule of our Faith and Behaviour and I profess to believe in One Only God who is the Father and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son very God and very Man and in the Holy Spirit one and the same God with the Father and Son Blessed for evermore The Gen. Hist of the Quakers p. 112. Now my Friends tho' this Confession be as contrary to our Ancient Testimony as Light is contrary to Darkness as by our Books quoted you may see yet we kept our Meaning to our selves we mean'd at the same time The Scriptures to be Dust Death and Serpents Meat News coming up
of that sort of People to every one that would convince them of their Errors 't is the Sibboleth of the Party indeed they may very well challenge to themselves the sole Priviledge of exercising the black Art of Railing because they are the only Men that I know of that can rail by Inspiration One Mouthful of Dirt I remember he squirted upon you i. e. He said you were drunk the last time you were in London Sir I doubt not in the least your Innocency but they must Calumniate still or how shall they prove themselves right-bred Children of the Accuser of the Brethren God Almighty assist and strengthen you to break the Brood of that Viperous Generation that hath so poyson'd our Nation that at last you may triumph over that old Serpent that hath commenced so Bloody a War against them that keep the Testimony of Jesus you must expect he will be fill'd with great Wrath that he will both Hiss and Sting and pour out Water as a Flood after you his time being short c. Hen. Meriton April 11. 1698. Upon my receiving this Letter I went to Stoake and asked John Hubbard what Ground he had to raise this false Accusation I told him that I did not remember that I spent a Groat at a time all the time I was in London †Which was more than a Month. He told me he heard so Pray tell me your Author at last he told me T. Belch * A Quaker in London at the Ship in Cheapside Linnen-Draper When I came to London I got Mr. Law rence of St. Gregory's Parish to go with me to him to whom I said Sir do you know me No said Tho. Belch I told him that my Name was Francis Bugg and that I understood he had raised a Report of me viz. That I was drunk in London March last I heard so said Belch if that be thy Name Who is your Author said I He is not in Town said he I reply'd What is his Name and insisted on it a good while but could not prevail with him to tell me To the Truth of this Mr. Lawrence subscribed his Name John Lawrence Reader When I saw my self thus attack'd from all Quarters by Books by Letters by Reports sometimes that I was a Drunkard as you have heard sometimes that I was distracted and so discomposed as not able to rest Night nor Day occasion'd by writing against the Quakers sometimes that I left my Wife and Son in their Society to introduce me again into their Community and Twenty Lies more I went to the Quakers-Meeting in Milden-Hall on Sunday the First of May 1687. as the most probable Raisers of these or some of these Stories and spake to them after this manner Friends This is the 15th Year since I came to this Meeting for a Certificate on my Behalf again the Suggestions of S. Cater and Geo. Whitehead c. which were That I was an Informer which at that time was a hateful Name to a Tradesman and very Prejudicial to my Reputation as well as divers other False and Scandalous Detractions in their Books And this Meeting at least the Major part of it Twenty-seven in number gave me ONE * As in The Picture of Quakerism Part 2. p. 146. with great Courage and Freedom which at that time was very useful and I now come to you for a Testification against my self and ask no Favour at your Hands touching several Reports raised on me Ut supra and upon your signing it with your Names I promise to print it and what I cannot justly deny I will fairly confess But several answer'd me and not opposed by the rest or any of them That they never heard any such Report nor knew any cause why there should be such Reports But for the farther clearing the Matter and removing Stumbling-Blocks out of the way I shall recite the Substance of several Certificates which I took FROM my Son who tho' one of them yet I hope he is sincere for I have heard him say and that before some Quakers Come what is Wrong is Wrong whether it be in Geo. Fox or my Father and I will no more stand by what is wrong is the one than I will in the other FROM Philip Craniss who was my Servant near 20 Years * He came to me in 1676. and has not been from me Three Years and as familiarly concern'd in all my Concerns in Trade both Buying and Selling having taken in and deliver'd out many Thousand Pounds worth of Goods and is still living and of known Reputation FROM William Belsham who was my Servant 15 or 16 Years and is a Quaker and one that handed my Certificate above-mention'd in 1683. a Man of known Reputation FROM Matthew Belsham his Brother both living well each having some Estate of their own He was my Servant about 16 Years tho' none of them at this time who if I were such a Person as some would represent me to be some if not all of these must know something of it Nay I do believe I could have had a Hundred of my Neighbours to avouch the same so far as my Actions have come under their Cognizance But these being Persons of Credit and that have had Experience of my manner of Life may I think ballance those Reports whose Authors cannot be found out And indeed were it not for the sake of my Testimony which the Quakers would wound thro' my Sides I should not have said so much on this Subject but rather have taken David's Patience for my Example who when Shimei cursed and reproached him in the Day of his Affliction yet he bore all patiently 2 Sam. 16.6,7,8 And tho' its true I am now made to Unmask this Painted Harlot which will still more enrage her thereby endeavouring if possible that she may see her self and repent in Dust and Ashes and be humbled before the Lord that so she may be Converted and Healed at least that hereby others may be caution'd not to embrace her Pernicious Errors yet in all this 20 Years time †Tho' about Four Years thereof I was in their Community labouring for a Reformation not then understanding their grossest Errors of my Controversing with the Heads of this Sect I never render'd Railing for Railing nor do I now neither have I taken Advantage at their Miscarriages a small Sample whereof I have now set forth in the former Chapter as my Books do manifest but have handled those Errors which they taught in their Books which indeed open the Flood-Gates to all their Viciousness see a Paper from Pensilvania intituled A Brief Admonition to the Elders and Ministers of the People call'd Quakers and with which they are so tainted as put all Christian Societies together their Number consider'd there is not so much Viciousness in any one Society Tho' if Christ had one amongst twelve it cannot but be suppos'd there is in every Society too many that do not in Life and
Conversation answer their Holy Profession neither do I bring these Testimonies to excuse my self from my own Infirmities I am not without Sinful Imperfections I do acknowledge Here follows the Contents of the several Certificates above-mention'd Viz. First That he Fr. Bugg neither is nor never was distracted or discomposed since any of us can remember him or that ever we heard of Secondly That in all his Time he has been moderate both in his Meat Drink and Apparel and never by any of us known to be Drunk as is reported nor yet inclined to Drinking in Excess Thirdly That he ever was a good Provider for his Family a Lover of his Wife an Indulgent Father to his Children forcing none farther than Perswasion to a Comformity to his way of Worship Fourthly That we believe he never left his Wife and Son amongst the Quakers to introduce him to them again this is a Malicious Report to render him a Hypocrite which his whole Life and Conversation has declared the contrary to his Cost Fifthly The Press being open and both Parties having equal Priviledges we look upon it utterly wrong to make use of such Indirect Methods And some of us are sorry we have no better way to confute his Arguments Sixthly That we are ready to enlarge on any of these Heads to any Man's Face that shall question the Truth hereof Subscribed by William Belsham Matthew Belsham Philip Cranniss Fran. Bugg Junior Reader As I could not pass by such Publick Mercies and Benefits as I have received without some Publick Acknowledgment without great Ingratitude both to God and Man so would I not be too particular lest thereby I do offend yet with St. Paul I can say That as Sufferings and hard Usage formy Testimony-sake abound so do not only Inward Consolation but Outward Benefits abound also 2 Cor. 1.5 and as a Proof thereof I shall add but one Instance more which is That since I came to London an Ancient Friend of mine to whom I did owe a certain Debt upon Bond who considering the hard Usages I have received from the Quakers in which he himself has had a deep share and finding me still conscientiously concern'd without my asking or once thinking of or expecting brought me the Bond and forgave me the Debt resting due to him upon it without any Covenant or Promise on my part Thus hath God opened the Hearts of his Servants and moved them to Compassion Blessed be his Holy Name for ever and Humble Thanks to all unto whom I have been oblig'd CHAP. XVI A Word of Encouragement to all who are Sincere amongst the Hearers of the People call'd Quakers who begin to be weary of the Yoke of Quakerism and are willing to embrace the Christian Faith FRIENDS HAving given you a Brief Account of my Travel in this Pilgrimage and shewed you the many Turnings and Windings which I have gone through and the many Quicksands and Quagmires that I have passed without sinking tho' oft-times in great Danger what by Enemies within and Enemies without as also in some Places pointed to Israel's Rock the Man Christ Jesus I am now come to remove one Stumbling-block which Solomon Eccles has laid in your way namely That there is as great a Gulf fixed between you and the Christians as there was between Dives and Abraham insomuch that if you would come from them i. e. Quakers you cannot his Words are these Viz. I testifie in the Spirit of Truth * Viz. By Authority greater than the Scripture Truth defending the Quakers c. p. 7. by G. W. that there is as great a Gulf between the Baptists and consequently other Christians that are NOT in Christ that is NOT in the Quakers Light and those Quakers that are in the Truth as there was between Abraham and Dives See his Music Lecture c. p. 23. Again as an Explanation of this Doctrine he saith Come Protestants Presbyterians Independants and Baptists the Quakers deny you all The Quakers are in the Truth and none but they c. The Quakers Challenge c. p. 2 3. And from this and the like Doctrine spring that Aversion in you that it is impossible to prevail with many of you either to hear a Sermon preach'd by the Publick Ministers or to read their Sermons So that when the Quakers once catch any in their Cobweb it is very hard and difficult to get you out unless here and there one that is resolv'd to observe the Apostle's Advice who said Prove all things holdfast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 And I am not doubtful but that as there has been a Remnant that has taken this Advice and has forsaken the Quakers Errors so will there many more follow their Example For this Doctrine of theirs which alludes to Christ's Parable is falsly applied for that Parable relates to the Final Estate of the Blessed and the Damned after this Life as you may read at large Luke 16. And as for the Quakers denying all the Professors of Christianity affirming themselves to be in the Truth Only or the Only Church of Christ as in my former Writings viz. The Picture of Quakerism c. Part first I have made to appear from their Books this is all Pride yea Spiritual Pride and Self-Conceit and ought not to be any Hindrance to you in your Examination and Tryal of your selves but rather as a Spur to your Zeal lest you should be in the Wrong And if you come once sincerely so to do I no way doubt but you will soon forsake Quakerism I well remember that when I first heard it Rumour'd that G. Fox was looked upon as a second Moses to give forth Laws and Orders for us to walk by and Methods and Forms of Church-Government I presently wrote Six Queries touching Church-Government in the Year 1678 * 22 Years since which went in Manuscript far and near as Printed in my Book intituled De Chris Lib. Part 2. Page 72 80. the Tenor of which was Query 1. Whether Jesus Christ be Head of the Church or George Fox Query 2. If you say Christ then whether he be not Lawgiver to his Church Query 3. If you say that Christ is both Head and Lawgiver to his Church then whether we ought not to Follow and Obey the Commands and Precepts of Christ which are laid down in the Scripture by the four Evangelists and his Apostles rather than the Commands and Precepts of G. Fox Query 4. If you say that the Commands and Precepts of Christ ought rather to be obey'd than those of Geo. Fox then I further Query whether Christ or any of his Apostles ever commanded the Observation of Womens Meetings apart and distinct from the Men Query 5. If you say that neither Christ nor his Apostles commanded nor left any Example or President for Womens Distinct Meetings to be set up Monthly any way to intermeddle with the Government of the Church then I further Query where have George Fox or you your
2.36 Heb. 5.9 cap. 12.2 Rom. 8.34 1 Cor. 15.15 Acts 7.35,36 cap. 10.38 to 44. cap. 17.3,31 cap. 18.5 John 20.31 which I have taken Pains to collect and he will then certainly find that I have on my Side the Testimony of the Glorious Angels Holy Apostles Blessed Martyrs yea the whole Tenor of the Scriptures and beside all this a Cloud of Witnesses viz. the Concurrent Testimony of the Ancient Fathers and all the present Christian Churches to this Day and that G. Whitehead will have none of his Side but W. Penn and a few of his Brethren and the Writings of Isaac Pennington W. Bayly W. Smith Edw. Burrough Geo. Fox Ja. Nayler Christ Atkinson c. But I knowing that so soon as your Teachers once espy your looking towards Christianity they will not only hinder you from reading such Books that are or shall be wrote against Quakerism but refuse you the Sight of such Books of theirs as we quote for so long as they can keep you in Ignorance so long they may keep you Quakers I shall therefore give you the same Quotations out of some of their Books which I shall in this Book let you know where to have the most of them viz. William Penn's Serious Apology c. p. 146. W. Smith's Catechism c. p. 57. W. Smith's Primer c. p. 8. W. Shewen's Treatise of Thoughts c. p. 35. Jos Coale's Works c. p. 93. News coming up c. p. 33. The Teachers of the World Unvail'd c. p. 35. The Sword of the Lord drawn c. p. 5. Edw. Burrough's Works p. 149 273. Geo. Fox's Great Mystery p. 206 207 210 211 250 254. The Quakers Challenge p. 6. Saul's Errand to Damascus p. 7 8. Some Principles of the Elect People of God call'd Quakers p. 126. A Question to Professors c. by Isaac Pennington p. 25 27 33. The Capital Principles of the People call'd Quakers Sol. Eccles's Testimony p. 24 25 41. Will. Penn's Part in The Christian Quaker c. p. 97 98 W. Penn's Sandy Foundation c. p. 10 to 30. I shall now add something out of a Book intituled News of a Trumpet sounding in the Wilderness c. Wrote by Dan. Leeds who has been a Quaker about 22 Years which is come lately out of Pensilvania Printed 1697. and for the Usefulness of it I could be glad that it was reprinted with this Title A Trumpet sounding from Pensilvania giving an Alarum to the Magistrates and People of England to beware of Quakerism That so not only the Justices of the Peace but even our Honourable Patriots might have one put into their Hands But all things in their Season Quakerism had a time to advance and it must have a time to fall But as no Heresie since the Days of Christ ever rose so fast prevailed so much nor carried on with so much Craft and curious Paint so none ever fell so fast as I am perswaded this of Quakerism will do insomuch as that in a few Years it will be a Shame for any Man of Sense to appear in the Streets who owns the Principles and Practice of the Quakers according to their Ancient Testimony And now a Hint out of the Pensilvanian Book aforesaid intituled News of a Trumpet sounding c. p. 21. viz. Tho' they i. e. Quakers clash between their Old and New Testimonies yet we see says D. Leeds that they have in their late Books dropt here and there some Christian Expressions more than formerly And what may we think they intend thereby Why Geo. Whitehead in his Counterfeit Convert p. 72. says I may see Cause otherwise to word the Matter and yet our Intentions be the same Now is it not admirable that a Man of Geo. Whitehead 's Pretences * To Seriousness to Sincerity to Reality to Fidelity to Constancy to Infallibility to Perfection to Plainness c. Ib. 42. should be grown so bold in Crafty and Deceivable Glosses to deceive his Readers Is this like the Ancient Simplicity of the Quakers to say I may see Cause otherwise to word the Matter and yet intend the same Pray who knows then when such a Man is sincere or bow to believe him in what he says that thus hides his Meanings says one thing and means another c. And now I cannot but expect says Daniel p. 42. that there will be great Devising Pulling and Drawing Painting and Glossing rather than make Confession of their Errors Confusion and Contradictions herein Manifested and Charged as also in other Books by Geo. Keith Tho. Crisp Fr. Bugg and others because they have so much accused their Opponents for the same things themselves are now justly charged with surely some curious Wire-drawing Mincing Mangling otherwise Wording and Equivocating †G. W. You must now call your Brother Ellwood and your whole Society of Jesuitical Scribes for the Alarum is sounded in your Pope's Borders we must expect but they having caught themselves in this Net the more they flutter the more they 'll fetter insnare and entangle themselves for they cannot thus dance in a Net but some Body will see them For they are now as easily seen thorough God be thanked as they pretend to see through others yea this will certainly be the Consequence till they use the only Christian Means to get out of this Net which is by Humbly Confessing and Condemning their Errors in their Books as Geo. Keith has done c. To all which I cannot but joyn and wish for their own sakes it may be so adding that if ever it so come to pass then I shall see a great Truth in what Tho. Ellwood wrote in his Epistle to Friends p. 72. viz. The way to recover the Deceived is to discover and lay open the Deceivers In the mean time taking it to be a sound Truth I have adventured to put his Doctrine in Practice and so I conclude this Passage out of that Useful and Compendious Book from Pensilvania which had that People receiv'd my Advice in my Postscript to my Book intituled De Christianae Libertate c. Printed 1682. p. 214. viz. To frequent the Holy Scriptures and read them diligently c. this might have been prevented And now to conclude my Advice lest any should prevent you taking the Advice I gave the Pensilvanians 18 Years ago as above I shall according to my further Experience in this Pilgrimage tell you that it was the Practice both of the Church of the Jews and the Christians which for Substance are one to read and expound the Scriptures in their Assemblies which the Quakers call Conjuration from Morning to Mid-day and to give the Meaning thereof to the People out of the Law of God given forth by Moses 1 Chron. 34.18,19,35 Nehem. 8.1,2 Ezra 1.10,11 and Christ himself went into their Synagogue as his Custom was where he stood up for to read And when the Book of Isaiah the Prophet was given to him he found which argues he
some may say What other Way is there to put a Stop to the Growth of Quakerism if they have this Liberty Such an Expedient would be requisite if such an one were to be found Answ I have once offer'd my Thoughts in this Case and shall now enlarge thereon For as I then said so I still believe that the main Requisite to work a Cure is to know the Disease which when found out an ordinary Practitioner may prescribe a Remedy sooner than an able Physician who knows not the Disease Besides this I have heard that when a Bill for the well-Tanning of Leather was brought into the House of Parliament one of the Honourable House of Lords being willing to inform himself into the Nature of that Affair he apply'd himself to a Cobler discourses with him about this that and the other Default in Leather and what VVays might be found to remedy the Abuses thereof for the Publick Good The Cobler tells his Honour what he knew by many Years Experience and told his Lordship how it might with Ease be remedied insomuch that when the said Bill came under Debate in the House his Lordship was so well skill'd not only in the Means to be used but in the Terms of Art that his Lordship spake like some experienced Tanner who by his Discourse gave Light to the whole House Now whether this was so or no I will not determine but 't is not improbable since the wisest of Men may sometimes improve by such weak Helps as in other Cases 't is frequent such a Virtue is Humility And thereupon in answer to the Objection I shall say thus much I. Let G. Whitehead and some others of the Quakers chief Leaders and Fr. Bugg c. be summoned by Authority to appear And whereas G. Whitehead c. has given in a Sheet to the Parliament Anno 1693. suggesting that Fran. Bugg c. has wronged the Quakers in Charge Citation and Observation and if G. W. can make it appear so for our Law judges no Man before it hears him let Fran. Bugg c. be made an Example Again on the other Hand if it appear that Fran. Bugg c. has not wronged the Quakers nor falsly charged them either in Book or Page and that those Points of Doctrine objected against the Quakers by F. B. c. be found to strike at the Foundation of the Christian Religion and to subvert the Faith then let the Quakers be oblig'd to renounce them and condemn those Books which so teach This yea this would strike Quakerism to the Heart This is the thing feared by G. W. c. when they cry out Fran. Bugg would stir up Persecution and give it a Mortal VVound and preserve the Quakers too and the Books being condemn'd to be burnt as it would remove the Scandal brought upon the Christian Religion so would it be a Means to rescue their VVives and Children from the Jaws of Quakerism that Fatal Mischief to Mankind and preserve others from falling into it For now many of them think their Teachers write and speak from the Eternal Spirit whose so speaking is of greater Authority than the Bible Truth defending the Quakers c. pag. 7. And that 't is as lawful to burn the Bible as their Books Papers and Queries Truth 's Defence c. p. 2.104 Then would those who are now Tinctured with the Leaven of Quakerism vomit it up and forsake their Errors This I take to be one proper Remedy and possibly might effect the Cure If not II. If the Quakers would Apologize That now they Believe otherwise than they did formerly then as a Proof of their Sincerity and Conversion let them having first condemn'd their Books as aforesaid set out certain Articles of their Faith in Plain Clear and Positive Words agreeable to Scripture since of late they have so much pretended to be Orthodox therein and at the Close of them condemn all their other Books which teach the contrary particularly by Name III. The next thing requisite to make a firm and lasting Cure to them their Heirs and Successors is to admit each Congregation of Quakers to have their Teacher or two if one will not do And likewise that thse Teachers may attend only their own Flock and not to range all the World over at most not above Five or Ten Miles to Hold-forth lest this Putrified Sore break out again and the last end be worse than their beginning And as this thus granted is what other Professors Dissenters from the Church of England are content with so will it answer all the just Ends of that Liberty of Conscience so much by them sollicited for and so graciously already granted by the Government IV. Let them not be permitted to hold Yearly Convocations with Doors Lockt Barr'd or Guarded by Men on Purpose to prevent Inspection in order to make Laws against the Laws of the Land and with respect to their Subjects to repeal such Laws as suite not their Design which shews that they are a Government within the Government Whose Laws thus made they keep private even from many of their own People For as this Practice no Dissenters Quakers only excepted do desire and indeed without His Majesty's Licence more than the Bishops of the Established Church can Legally do so would it be a Means to work a perfect Cure of this so much to be lamented Gangrene of Quakerism V. Lastly That they may not be permitted to Teach School Publickly for thereby they corrupt the Youth and lay a Foundation for the next Age for the Seeds of Quakerism to spring and put forth again for they teach G. Fox's Journal which contains such Doctrine as tends to undermine the Christian Religion Object III. G. W. in his late Book Truth and Innocency c. p. 41. objects Our Adversaries would make as if we promoted Regnum in Regno not only independent but opposite to the Civil Government which none of our Meetings are being to promote real Practice of Piety Christianity and true Religion among us as a People and to prevent the contrary We know of no such Supream Assemblies among us as gives Laws and makes Orders for the Government of our People suppressing Books c. Answ This is all fallacious he knows they do and I can prove it And not only make Laws for their People but make Laws or Orders contrary to the Laws of the Land And as for his Pretence that at these Meetings they do not promote Regnum in Regno since their Meetings are to promote real Piety c. 1. When the Bishops and Clergy meet do they not promote the real Practice of Piety as much as the Quakers pretend to Yet if they should meet as do the Quakers without Licence from His Majesty it would as Lawyers say be against these Statutes 28 Hen. 8. c. 19 21. 27 Hen. 8. c. 15. 3 Ed. 6. c. 10 11. 1 Eliz. c. 12. Magna Charta c. 29. Pet. of R. 5 Eliz. c. 1.
1 Ed. 6. c. 2. 37 Hen. 8. c. 17. 8 Eliz. c. 1. 1 K. W. Q. M. N. 307. And such Meetings let the Pretence be never so seemingly good are interpreted to be Regnum in Regno viz. not only independent but opposite to the Civil Government and should the Bishops and Clergy so meet with never so real a Purpose to promote real Piety and Christianity of which the Quakers is but a Counterfeit they thereby would as the Learned in the Law say run themselves into a Praemunire Neither do or are any People in England so bold so to Meet in Contempt of the Laws of the Land expresly against the King's Prerogative the Rights of Parliaments and the Liberty and Property of the Subject the Quakers only excepted whose Principles are Extrajudicial and Antimagistratical and of how dangerous a Consequence Time will best demonstrate for hitherto they have not been able to do Hurt as to the Government But see one of their own Books before they got to this Height in Oliver Cromwell's Days intituled The West answering to the North c. by G. Fox and others of them p. 80. viz. Any Party of Men under a Government to make Laws not being Authorized so to do for the Binding of others and thereunto require Obedience is the setting up of themselves above the Law and treading it under their Feet and rendring of them whom they so Bind their Slaves and Vassals and so is TREASON Object IV. As for what is Collected which they call a Fund is not for Stipends for our Teachers we have no Mercenary Teachers nor among us Attendants on both Houses of Parliament c. Answ This is all false in Fact 1. I do affirm and offer to prove it That their Teachers have Stipends and great Sums of Money out of the Money collected if I do not let but my Superiors give me the Opportunity I will engage to forfeit my Life yea as clearly as Daniel proved to the King the Fraud of Bell's Priests And also will shew the private Entrance or Passage which the Quakers Mercenary Teachers go in and out to this Fund or Bank or Common Stock or Collection let it have a Name of the Quakers own giving if that will please them without strewing Ashes If I do not do this let me suffer if I do and that I also shew that the Charges Attending the Parliament come out thereof then let this Fund Stock or Bank together with their Yearly Meeting and all other their Monthly Quarterly Six-Week and Second-Day's Meetings which are not designed for Worship but for Government be supprest and let them be content with their Meetings on Sundays for Publick Worship with their Doors open as other Dissenters have Now if they be but as Confident as Bell's Priests were let them try the Experiment I am ready to engage them when the Government shall call me to it and by no other Methods than is usual oft-times with the Members of the House of Commons to use when they would find out a hidden Secret which they fear tends to subvert the Government Object V. G. Whitehead in Excuse of the Quakers recording their Sufferings as only to have have recourse to and not designed to render the Government odious to Posterity Answ I answer this is such a fallacious Evasion that it serves only to shew their Hypocrisie Read but The Picture of Quakerism drawn to the Life c. p. 102 to 106. and The Pilgrim's Progress c. first Edition p. 167. where five Quotations are at large taken out of their Prints written by W. Penn R. Barkley and others of Note amongst the Quakers and they afford a Demonstration and Proof sufficient and which they never yet gainsaid by Answer thereunto Object VI. G. W. pag. 69. of his Truth and Innocency Vindicated c. says Let their Books and ours be compared to clear our Innocency from their Adversaries gross Calumnies Perversions Misrepresentations c. Answ Content with all their Hearts But tho' I am no Prophet nor the Son of a Prophet yet I dare venture to say that Geo. will not be so willing to put their Cause upon this Issue as the Priests of Bell and the Dragon were to put their Fraud to the Test No theirs was a sufficient Example to their Followers in Deceit and Falshood And I marvel G. W. should have the Face to propose a Thing which they have these Fifteen Years to my knowledge always refused and when any one proposes it they fly off and cry out Persecution Persecution For he knew both many of his own Books as well as Fox's Burrough's and their Chieftains are well fraught with Errors Blasphemy Seditious and Bloody Treasonable Principles And that they stood in as much need of an Act of Oblivion as any People upon English Ground and with which all their Crimes might for all me have been buried had they not revived them and told us over and over That their Principles are now no other than what they were in the Beginning Thus having answer'd these Objections I shall add no more on this Head only referr to my former Book intituled The Picture of Quakerism Part 2. pag. 121 to 128. for more of this Nature which probably may be of good Use if the Poor Man's Counsel be taken Eccles 9.14,15,16 Read the Ninth Chapter of Joshua at your leisure And now to conclude with a Word of Encouragement to such who are concern'd in the Discovery of Quakerism Do you not remember the Day I am sure I do how the Quaker-Teachers went into Churches and disturb'd the Established Ministers But now none must disturb them if they do the Officer is call'd for and the Offender prosecuted Witness Geo. Keith did but desire to go into the Quakers Meeting at Bristol this present August and they refused his going in tho' he promised not to disturb them but threatned him with executing the Law against him as in his printed Relation appears more at large This is a certain Sign of what they would do in other Cases had they Power I say do you not remember how they challenged the Publick Ministers to dispute to answer their Queries c. It would make a Volume to handle this Matter throughly But behold here is a Change with them you may challenge them long enough but cannot get them out of their Holes they see and know they are discover'd this makes them Timorous and as the Scriptures say Fearfulness surprize the Hypocrites They see this that and the other Book come out against them which they cannot answer nor are they able to defend themselves and now they call out for a Cessation of Arms and are for an Amicable Conversation yea for Peace and Quietness and 't is Seditious to challenge them and remind them of their Errors this is against Magna Charta say they Geo. Keith hath three times called them out and challenged them but they dare not appear but like self-condemn'd Apostates lye mute
lately risen about the Money thou once told me was gathered amongst Friends for the Relief of J. C. Friends here * * At Cambridge are much concerned about it knowing right well that all honest Friends in that Day gave it freely expecting nothing again some are dead I suppose they did not make the Common Bankers their Executors the Donor's Will must be fulfilled in all things and not the Common Purse-Mongers ††But Fox Whitehead c. never liked those Friends at this Day that being contrary to true Religion to take Thought for to Morrow I have been examined by the Law Professors Whether we had a Common Purse or Bank I answered we had None ††A great Lie and with a Design to Deceive next to Perjury This gave so much Satisfaction that Friends in this Town * * Cambridge have been quiet Ever since ††Thus have the well-meaning Magistrates been all along deceived by the Quakers Lies for all may see she knew as well of their Common Bank their Common Purse their Dagon as I did only to blind the Magistrates and get Liberty she thus deceiv'd ' em The Magistrates look upon Common Bankers to be as bad as those that board up Arms and Ammunition and not said She without Reason for Money answers all things If Friends would put away this Dagon and take Money only for their present Necessities things would soon be better with them God will not bless those that break his Commands with Hoarding up Common Banks and Quarrelling with those that will not bring in Money fast enough to them I have observed it hath been frequent with some to reckon those that brought in most Money into their Common Bank to be the best Christians * * A sign she cannot plead Ignorance of their Fund if she had so long made that Observation and therefore her Lie looks the more designed Quaker-like who stick at nothing that may advance the New Catholick Cause c. Anne Docwra Thus Reader I have shewed by a Recital of Mrs. Docwra's Letter what Sence she had of their Common Fund i. e. that it was as bad as Hoarding up Arms and Ammunition and she is so far in the right on 't You see also what Testimonies hath been given out both Publick and Private against these private Purse-mongers and their raising Common Banks as that which is so pernicious to the Civil Government that it is as bad as Arms and Ammunition for Money asnwers all things For having this private Fund they can pay their Ministers and enable them to range the World over pretending to Teach freely to forsake their Father's Country Riches and Honours as you have heard and all to come and spend themselves their Strength and Years for the Good of Souls and all this freely without Money and without Price And you see your Teachers they must have their Tythes their Gleabe-Lands their Easter-Reckonings and their Midsummer-Dues by which you may see they are Followers of Balaam the Son of Bozer who loved the Wages of Unrighteousness Now by our Fruit and the Fruit of the World's Teachers you may try us and prove us Thus poor Hearts the very same People that give to these Collections †I mean innocent middle sort who are not admitted into the Knowledge of these things know nothing of their Teachers taking Money nay many of them will dispute strenuously against you on their Teachers Behalf That they take no Money that they Teach freely as above told And thus are these silly Sheep carried away with the Wiles of their Teachers and follow them as the Israelites did Rebellious Absalom in the Simplicity of their Hearts 2 Sam. 15.11 But Reader this Scourge did so torment this well-favour'd Harlot it did so sting and nettle her that poor Whitehead's dull Pen was not able to bear up Then came in Tho. Ellwood and tho' he wrote as much to the Point as his Craft could invent yet W. Rogers's Stroaks entered so deep and made such a Wound as that he i. e. Ellwood was forc'd poor Man full ill against his Will to confess their Ministers did take Money and their Clerks were paid out of their Fund which they had not only for Forty Years pretended to the contrary but by Ten Thousand Sermons solemnly declared that they neither take Silver Gold nor Apparel but freely they had received and freely delivered to the People O the horrible Deceit of this People However let it suffice that W. Rogers have whipt them into a better Temper who now confess the Fact and plead the Apostles But I deny that ever the Apostles Practice pretended to take neither Silver Gold nor Apparel and yet contrary to his Pretension took all he could lay his Hands on No this is the Practice only of the Quakers no Man questioning the lawfulness of the Ministers Maintainance save the Quakers only who yet take with both Hands their Fruit hath made them manifest Well let 's hear T. Ellwood viz. Regero Mastix p. 18. But that Christ's Ministers should be supply'd With Necessaries by the Church his Bride Is such a known and certain Truth as none Perhaps hath e'er oppos'd but thou alone That 't is the Church's Duty to supply The needful Wants of all her Ministry And Truth it is too plain to be deny'd Christ's Church should for Christ's Ministers provide What carps thou at then William Would thy Muse Plead that St. Paul did not this Priviledge use †No Thomas 't is Quakers Plea tho' for self-ends they now plead it That what was lacking to him privately The Macedonian Brethren did supply Thus it appears the Apostle did partake Of that Provision which the Church did make Pretend thou canst not that the Stock is given To such as have no need thereof but even Thy Flirt at Richardson * Their Clerk who had 50 l. per An. as much contrary to their Pretences as for their Teachers to take Money but now both confest for taking Pay For what As Clerk he writes does much bewray Thy Folly and Injustice Is' t not fit Who works for others should be paid for it And that by them who him to Work desire The Labourer is worthy of his Hire †'T is confest you have Hirelings in your Herd Observe Reader the Charge is confest First That they have a Stock by which they supply the Wants of their Teachers i. e. pay them yea and well too Witness their Increase of Wealth 2 dly That their Clerks take Money for writing and that they are Hirelings this I and others knew well enough but Whitehead had so denied the same that there was Thousands of Quakers would not believe a word of it But now W. Rogers's Scourge hath so lash'd this painted Harlot that she by her dear Son Ellwood hath confess'd it and spake more Truth in this matter than Whitehead and Twenty more of their Apostate Scribes have
been ever made to do and I am willing to do him Right herein for according to the Proverb I am willing to give the Devil his due I need not quote Book and Page to prove their Preachers Pretences to Preach freely without Money c. their Books are full of Proof and their Sermons from Dan to Beersheba But I have said they pretended to write freely and this I ought to prove which I shall do from their Great Apostle and Second Moses namely G. Fox see their Book stiled Concerning Marriages c. p. 4 5 6. printed 1659. G. Fox viz. If any Friends go together in the Power of the Lord or find a Necessity thereunto that after the thing hath been made known between themselves before any thing be concluded it be declared to Friends who are able * * Viz. Their Teachers which practice came afterwards to be abhorr'd to see and feel into it and if they see the thing in the Light and Power to stand it may be declared to Friends in the Meeting as they are moved or as they are moved they may declare it in the mid-time of the Market on the Market-day in the next Market-Town as they are moved or they may not as their Freedom is Then after a convenient time and the thing be seen and felt and had Unity with then an Assembly of about 12 Friends met together they may speak their Testimony as they are moved how the Lord hath joyned them together in Marriage and then a Certificate by Friends then present may be given of the Day Month and Year that it may be Recorded and as they are moved they may declare it to the Magistrate and they will ††G. Fox was Infallible Sence or Nonsence tot quot omnes or they may not And that nothing may be Recorded for Money in these things but freely a free People and in Love serve one another and that is it that you should feel the Thing in the Power c. George Fox Now let me subjoin a Second Testimony of George Fox's against taking of Money c. Friends you are to do the Nations Business freely and that is the way to get into the Hearts of People c. Several Papers given forth per G. Fox An. 1659. I remember there is in one of the Quakers Declarations a Reserve left for Fighting afterwards We Yet say they cannot believe he will make use of the Sword by us but for the Present we are given to Bear and Suffer c. So had G. Fox said that as Yet let nothing be Recorded for Money but for the Present i. e. till you a fair Opportunity do things freely c. then there had been a fair Plea †As there is now for Whipping Fining Imprisoning and Fighting c. then As Yet might by George Whitehead have been rendered Adhuc and not Tamen for 't is manifest that their early pretence to Teach Preach write Certificates c. freely was but to get into the Affections of the People until a more fair Opportunity and then Experientia docet they can take 50 l. per Annum for writing Certificates c. 30 l. for writing Five or Six Sheets called a Primmer to teach Children 10 l. at a time for Preaching c. See New Rome Vnmask'd c. p. 58 to 63. where I have enlarged hereon from the Quakers Books But G. W. by his Book stiled The Contentious Apostate c. p. 22. he seems to deny G. Fox's Order for Marriage where it 's said nothing is to be Recorded for Money c. as above cited But G. W. I have it and you may soon see it in the Library of Christ's Church College in Oxford where that and many others of your Books which you would be glad were extinct will remain for Ages to see and be able thereby to detect your Falacies And now follows part of the recited Declaration viz. We have chosen the Son of God to be our King and he hath chosen us to be his People and he might command Thousands and Ten Thousands of his Servants at this Day to Fight in his Cause he might lead them forth and bring them in and give them Victory over all their Enemies and turn his Hand upon their Persecutors but yet his Kingdom is not of this World neither is his Warfare of Carnal Weapons neither hath he chosen us for that end neither can we Yet believe * No stay a little longer that he will make use of us in that way tho' it be his only Right to Rule in Nations and our Heirship to Possess the utmost Parts of the Earth but for the Present †Ay be patient a little longer we are given to bear and suffer all things for his Names-sake c. To the present distracted Nation of England c. Printed 1659. p. 8. But Reader if you look back to Fox's Order for Marriage you may observe that he points to have the Matter laid before their Ministers and thereupon I shall shew you a brief Testimony of one of their Female Preachers a Woman of Note amongst them in a Letter I have by me part of that against their Hoarding up Money which is as bad as Hoarding up of Arms and Ammunition viz. * * Anne Docwra's Letter dated Feb. 26. 1684. I have heard something concerning this Controversie now on foot which I perceive arises from a Personal Quarrel about a Maid that was chusing a Husband for her self and also 't is expected she should give up her Concern in that Business to some of our Preachers which was never practis'd until of late ††Not since Popery till Quakerism came in its Room amongst any that profess'd true Religion it is that which hath made the Jesuits to be Abhorr'd amongst some of the wisest and honestest of the Papists themselves so that they would not let them come within their Houses If the Maid be a wise Woman and of Age to dispose of her self she will not let any of our Preachers meddle with her Concerns * * Why G. Fox advised to it look back of chusing a Husband for her they should only meddle with their own Business and let honest Friends make their Choice themselves c. Anne Docwra Reader The main thing I recite part of this Letter is to shew the Sense some still amongst them have of their own Teacher's Jesuitical Practice either in making or breaking of Matches according as they are pleased or displeased I could write a Book by it self only to shew the Baseness of their Teachers Practice not only in making Matches but in making Mischief in Families in setting Men and their Wives at Variance And more particularly G. W. my old Antagonist as may be seen in the Book quoted viz. The Conten Apostate p. 5. The Apost Incend p. 8. Judgment fixed c. p. 289. both relating to my self W. Muclow Tho. Crisp c. setting aside John