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
Fellowship with him until unfeignedly he shall return unto the Truth by Condemnation of that Work and Spirit which in the Love of God we exhort him to and desire that for him a Place of Repentance may be found Reader What Person living who is a Stranger to the Quakers deep-dyed Hypocrisie but that would think this John Barnard had committed some more than ordinary Immorality nay some almost unpardonable Crime Here is such Endeavours said to be used such Gospel-Order exercised such Stiff-neckedness on his Part wilfully persisted in but behold all Centre in a most profound Piece of Hypocrisie as I shall shew and that from divers Reasons And FIRST In that Benjamin Clark their Bookseller a great Quaker in their Unity †I should have said Confederacy sold at the same time Play-Books Popish-Books Gypsie-Books yea Baudy-Books such as I never saw before and yet never Reproved never Admonished according to Gospel-Order never Sentenced and Condemned neither he nor his Spirit By which it may appear how zealous they are for preserving their own good Name and Esteem amongst their Proselytes and their own Law and Commandments from being brought into Disrepute and yet all these their Proceedings they father upon the Lord who hates Iniquity and whose Laws condemn such wicked Books as their own beloved Brother sold and vended every Day Thus do they Pharisee-like make void the Law of God by their Traditions For as soon as this Excommunication came to my Hand I as a Country Man went to the said Ben. Clark's and asked for some pretty Play-Books for Children and he produced me a Parcel of all sorts ut supra of which I bought Eighteen Pennyworth and noticed it in my next Book Intituled De Chr. Lib. Part 2. p. 207 which they never did deny nor did they ever sentence him as above SECONDLY In all the Records of Condemnation that ever I made or ever saw made during the 16 or 18 Years I was their Clerk I never knew of or saw any Record of Condemnation against any Quaker for the Breach of any Scripture Commands but either for writing against their Teachers * As my self or for paying Tythes or for dispersing and selling such Books as allowed of the Payment of Tythes †As W. Rogers or for not Marrying according to their Orders or for the Breach of some one or more of G. Fox's Commandments An Instance of the last followeth Hadenham Quarterly-Meeting the Fourth of the Seventh Month 1678. We at this Quarterly Meeting having the Business of John Ainslo's taking his Wife contrary to the Order of Friends brought BEFORE US and Friends having several times spoke to him about it and he not giving Friends Satisfaction WE do testifie That WE have no UNION with him in this his so doing c. THIRDLY I never knew any Book wrote against any of their Teachers in the Unity tho' guilty of notorious Immoralities †As in the opening of the Cage I shall shew no here was no Conscientious Concern manifested no Gospel Order exercised no Publick Condemnation sent out against them but against my self George Keith Tho. Crisp and others for discovering their Errours Here they pretend a great Case of Conscience and having shewed who they account Scandalous Walkers and who they frequently Record out of the Unity and who they write their Books against I shall conclude this Chapter with one of their Yearly Canons and if any desire to see more of them I refer to my former Books De Chris Lib. c. Part 2. p. 40 to 52. the Fifth and Seventh Chapter of this Treatise London the 27th of the 3d Month 1675. Concerning Recording the Church's Testimony and the Party's Condemnation That the Church's ††The Light and the Body join'd Testimony and Judgment against Disorderly and Scandalous Walkers also the Repentance and Condemnation of the Party 's Restored be Recorded in a distinct Book in the respective Monthly and Quarterly Meeting for the clearing Truths Friends and our Holy Profession to be produced and published for that End and Purpose so far only as in God's pure Heavenly Wisdom they shall be needful And 't is our Advice in the Love of God That after any Friend's Repentance and Restoration he abiding faithful in the Truth that condemns the Evil none among you so remember his Transgression as to cast it at him or upbraid him with it for that is not according to the Mercy of God Thus Reader you see First Who are the Scandalous Walkers they Record out of their Unity 2 dly You see here is an Order from the Yearly Meeting to get a Book distinct for that Use 3 dly You see also that here is a Door open that if any repent of Writing against them of Paying Tythes of Marrying contrary to their Infallible Order they may be restor'd to their former Dignity for they have Power to bind and to loose †Yea whom they please See Judas and the Jews p. 85. Jos Coale's Works p. 243. to condemn and to acquit and that it may evidently appear so I shall recite one of their final Sentences pass'd upon one of their Adversaries Irrevocably viz. In the Name of that God that spanneth the Heavens with a Span and measureth the Waters in the Hollow of his Hand I bind thee here on Earth and thou art surely bound in Heaven and in the Chain under Darkness to the Judgment of the Great Day thou shalt be reserved Was there ever the like Insolency Josiah Coale Some Inferences from the Eighth Chapter IS it so then that these Monthly and Quarterly Meetings who derive their Power and Authority from the Yearly Meetings assume to themselves this great Boldness to Arraign Sentence and Condemn Persons for disregarding their illegal Laws and for the Breach of their Unscriptural Commands †No nor one Scripture Proof was ever produced to strengthen their Laws or condemn Actions What need is there then to suppress these Meetings that thus alienate His Majesties Subjects from their Obedience to their lawful Soveraign and his Laws and to limit this Arbitrary Government thus exercised in these new Spiritual Courts whilst it may be lest the time come wherein they may capitulate with the Supreme Magistrate and tell him with a Carnal Weapon in their Hand that the Light is the Higher Power and all Powers and Dominions ought to cast their Crowns down at its Feet in the Saints However I have given warning by pointing at the Danger and hope to prescribe a Remedy and let not THE POOR MAN'S COUNSEL be rejected lest the time come wherein it may be said Eccles 19.14,15 It is too late for the Gibeonites hath deceived us with their Wiles Pray read the Ninth Chapter of Joshua at your leisure Joshua the 9 th read and ponder I beseech all wise Men. and think it not a strange thing to be deceived by the Quakers fair Shews and innocent Pretences when you see
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
of England than the Quakers did Witness their Trumpet sounded c. See their Trumpet sounded c. in the Eleventh Chapter But notwithstanding all this and a Hundred times as much which might be shewed out of their Books yet they continued villifying the Presbyterians saying Knowing that ye look on it as a Duty to fight by Military Weapons in Defence of your Principle yea to promote Your Cause by the Power of the Sword in which you are Confirmed by some of Your Preachers who are Always labouring to perswade you to this as one Evidence of your Zeal for God and not to spare to hazard your Lives Liberties and Estates in such a Glorious Cause as you call it It were worth your serious Consideration That if these Presbyterian Preachers continue to Stir you Up to Rise in Arms †No nor nothing of it but to stifle the Popish Plot and throw it upon the Protestants they have not much of Self-Interest in their Eye they being now secluded from their Places and that Power and Authority they and their Brethren had taken from them VVhether therefore they seek not to Embroil the Nations in New Wars rather than still to be thus deprived c. A plain and peaceable Advice to those called Presbyterians in Scotland c. Printed Anno 1681. p. 1 7. Thus then it appears that the Quakers to curry Favour with O. Cromwell they complained fearfully of the Presbyterians as Traytors for joining with the Church of England in the Happy Restoration of King Charles II. So now from 1660 to 1681 they all use the Craft and Policy imaginable to bring the Odium of that Reign upon the Presbyterians and thereby to make way for the Papists and to stifle all their wicked Plots and Conspiracies And that it is not my single Judgment I shall publish a Letter sent me SIR It being notoriously known That since the Discovery of the Popish Plot in England many Courses and Endeavours hath been used by the Papists and their Abettors to stifle and hinder the Discovery and Punishment thereof And particularly by pretending a Presbyterian Plot against the King and his Government in England and in order thereto it is evident what Falsities Scandals and Invectives against the Protestants in general under the Name of Presbyterians have Weekly been Published in those Libels Intituled Heraclitus the Observator and others And whereas there hath been lately Printed for Benjamin Clark in George-Yard Lombard-street London * * The Quakers Bookseller this present Year 1681. a certain Book Intituled Advice to the Presbyterians in Scotland which appears to have been written Two Years since which Book doth very much reflect upon some Principles of the Scotch Presbyterians whether rightly suggested or not is not the Intent of this Paper to examine but Twenty Years Experience of the Presbyterians in England have prov'd their Practices in England far different from the mention'd Reflections Therefore sundry well-meaning Protestants of different Persuasions from the Presbyterians for several Reasons have thought the Publication of the said Book in England * * Of Alex. Skene a Quaker-Teacher at this juncture of Time to be injurious to the Protestant Interest in general And some of the said Protestants being informed that Mr. Pennyman did intend to make a publick Protestation against the said Book this Day upon the Exchange did think it their Duty to dissuade Mr. Pennyman from the doing thereof as being probable to be the Occasion of the greater Publication of the said Book unto which he hath consented And the same Persons do likewise desire and require you as much as in you lyes to hinder thereof lest by your Neglect you strengthen the Hands of the Enemies of the Protestants and Protestant Religion in general ††Copy of this was sent to the Quakers 28. July 1681. Thus then doth it undeniably appear how enviously Malicious and of what a Persecuting Spirit the Quakers are yet poor Hearts this in them is all Innocency Meekness and the Lamb's Spirit but in others so much as to tell them of it it 's Persecution Pray why was it in G. Fox and others to call the Clergy Witches Devils Blasphemers false Prophets Jesuits Conjurers Antichrists and what not that might render them odious to the People Smith's Works p. 175. A Brief Discovery of a Threefold Estate c. p. 7 8. Burrough's Works p. 30. This is no Persecution in the Quakers no they are innocent Souls and as far from Persecution as the Meat of an Oyster is from the Shell when living in the Sea for they for the present are given up to suffer Come G. Whitehead what think you of your Brother Smith who calls the Bishops Monsters the Church of England a corrupted Womb and by him ript up What do you think of his saying the Common-Prayer-Book receives its Strength from the Pope's †Good God! was ever the like Impudence known Loins and that the Pope gives Life to it Oh that ye could but see your selves and repent of your Wickedness For if the Government should believe you that the Clergy are false Prophets what remains but Death and that according to the Law of God But I challenge the Quakers to produce one single Clergyman that have prophesied of a thing to come to pass and it did not as Sol. Eccles a Quaker-Prophet did who prophesied That John Story should die within a Year who lived Four Years after as I elsewhere have shewed Again If the Government believ'd the Quakers whose Books affirm that the Clergy are Witches and Devils they ought not to suffer them to live but presently say ☞ There goes a Witch knock him on the Head Exod. 22.18 Again ☞ There goes a Blasphemer stone him to Death Lev. 24.16 Again ☞ There goes a false Prophet let him die Deut. 18.20 Yea saith W. Penn Whilst the Idle Gormandizing Priests of England run away with above 150000 l. a Year under Pretence of being God's Ministers and that no sort of People have been so Universally thro' Ages the very Bane of Soul and Body to the Universe as that Abominable Tribe for whom the Theatre of God's most dreadful Vengeance is reserved to act their Eternal Tragedy upon †Observe the Quakers Goliah of Gath W. P. c. The Guide Mistaken c. p. 18. Thus Reader I have given thee a Relish of the Quakers Meekness and Lamb-like Nature and therefore give me leave to hunt this Fox did I say give me leave Nay I am resolv'd that if thou wilt not give me leave I shall take it What! shall these Rabsheka's be perpetually Railing and Domineering over the Gospel-Ministers without Controul Shall these uncircumcised Philistines appear in Triumph Forty Years together and their Goliah vaunting himself boasting of his Parts Learning and Interest at as the other did of his Strength and Stature whose Staff of his Spear was like a Weaver's Beam and who glorying therein defied the Armies of
Many Tu Thou singular Vos You plural That now why the Teachers of the World Scholars and School-Masters teach People and Children which will not have People nor Children to speak Thou to One and You to Many is not Sense nor good Latin nor good English nor good Hebrew To you that stumble at the Word Thou to a particular because we do not say You this is sent c. GEO. FOX The next thing I have to present the World with is an Abstract of an Epistle of G. Fox's sent to be read in Churches London Printed for Matth. Simmons 1657. Thus did the Pride Arrogance and Presumption of this People appear which as they confess shewed that they were raised contrary to all Men As their Practice in a Hundred Things was contrary to all Men so am I made willing to deal with them as I would by no other Men And since they have ordered a Liturgy for the Churches giving forth an Epistle for them to read why may not I form a few Words out of their own Books and so far as I can make G. Whitehead to hold them forth And since the Quakers would make the Churches read their Nonsence why may not I draw some natural Inferences from the Quakers Doctrine since my End is nothing else but to display their Errours and make them appear in their Native Complexion which by their Teachers are more masked and obscured If any say That by drawing a Scheme of their Meeting and forming a Sermon for them to preach is to do such a thing as no Man ever did Let them remember again That no Man ever yet had the Impudence to write a BATTLE-DOOR for the Learned Gentry and Clergy of a Protestant and Learned Nation as England is nor to form a Liturgy to be read in Churches and especially by a poor Journeyman Shoemaker and an almost illiterate Man that could neither write Sense nor true English and this may probably ballance the Wonder especially considering that it is more than 20 Years since I wrote first against them and from first to last could never prevail with them to retract one Errour nor to condemn one of their Books in which their vile and gross Errours are taught An Abstract of their said Epistle to be read in Churches is as followeth viz. To all the People who meet in Steeple-Houses in England and elsewhere So all you that have the Letter in England therefore to you all this is sent a Message from the Lord Jesus Christ in England or elsewhere into all the Steeple-houses to be read for God is a Spirit and they that Worship Him must Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth and such were drove out of the Synagogues drove out of the Idol's Temple and drove together and so an Epistle was written to them and God is the same He is a Spirit and His Spirit is drawing from all Steeple-houses And these are them that witness Oxford and Cambridge the two Mothers of Divinity which now the Lord's Hand is against and His Sword is drawn against they are in their Witchcraft and Whoredom this is the Cage of unclean Birds the professed Ministers And therefore all People that are here Christ is not in the Letter nor the Life is not in the Letter nor the Word is not in the Letter this mediate Stuff hath Reigned long in the Cage * * Fox's Journal p. 227. of unclean Birds this Babylon And the Serpent and Dragon which hath deceived the Nation you get the Letter for the Light a Steeple-house for a Church Matthew Mark Luke and John for the Gospel ††This is their Ancient Testimony See News coming up c. and his Several Papers spread c. All harp on this string that Matthew Mark Luke and John are so far from being the Gospel that they are Dust and Serpents Food The mighty Day of the Lord is coming and is to be cried in all the Steeple-Houses in England to be read and cried and it is that which you call your Church the High Places of Idolatry it takes away your Life to cry against your Church to take away your High Place of Idolatry there and this is to go abroad in all Steeple-houses in the Nation and their High Places and thro' the World that they may come to God from them G. FOX Now Reader I will challenge a Parallel to the Impudence of the Quakers Amongst all the Hereticks that ever rose up since the Days of Christ in England Scotland Ireland Holland or any Protestant Nation under the whole Heavens to find me a Man unlearned a poor Mechanick to put forth a Book intituled A BATTLEDOOR for all Teachers Scholars and School-Masters to learn them the English of Tu and Vos with the Form and Figure of a Child's Penny Horn-book thereby to render them Ridiculous and Contemptible in the Eyes of the People and with such horrid Cheats attending all the Circumstances i. e. to pretend to Divine Inspiration That he Fox was before all Languages and consequently before the Building of Babel where the Languages were divided and that he was whilst living come to the end of Languages which remain now he is dead and gone No no G. Fox was not the Author it was John Stubbs and Ben. Furley did the Learned Part yet set their Hands only to the Title Page but G. Fox's Hand is set to the Latin BATTLEDOOR the Italian BATTLEDOOR the Greek BATTLEDOOR the Hebrew BATTLE-DOOR the Chaldee BATTLEDOOR the Syriack BATTLEDOOR besides in Three or Four Places more and yet wholly ignorant in all those Languages which the Jews * For what Ben. Furley and John Stubbs could not do for Money out of the Common-Bank did for him O horrid O monstrous Next I make the like Challenge to parallel the Quakers Impudence not only to go into Churches to disturb the Ministers according to their Ancient Testimony and which they cannot deny since 't is Recorded plentifully in their Second Moses their great Exemplar's Journal but I mean to send an Epistle to be read in the Churches calling them at their Will and Pleasure Steeple-Houses High Places of Idolatry where the Christians exercise their Witchcraft and Whoredom yea a Cage of unclean Birds Serpents and Dragons that take the Letter i. e the Scripture for the Light and Matthew Mark Luke and John for the Gospel Oh horrible What Impudence is this What Luciferian Pride is here for a Dissenter nay worse for an Inpostor thus to impose his Imposture upon a Christian Nation Which being compared with what else in other Books I have observed out of the Quakers Writings as that the Bishops and Clergy are Witches Devils Conjurers Sodomites Bloodhounds Antichrists the Sir Symons of the Age Jesuits c. yea Monsters and what not and then let G. Whitehead tell me first What he thinks of the Quakers Meekness and Humility and next Whether this Epistle BATTLEDOOR and great part of their Writings be not Seditious
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
in the time of Moses with the very likeness of things good in themselves but all is but counterfeit a bare likeness appear fair like painted Sepulchers and whited Walls but the inside of their Doctrine is all Rottenness How do they send up and down to invite to their Meetings How do they disperse their Books East West North and South see p. 144. as well as beyond Sea How do they present them to the Parliament the Judges the Justices even to all Ranks and Degrees of Men And shall we sit still and declare to the World we have no Zeal for our Holy Religion which our Martyred Ancestors suffered in the Flames for Wherefore let us put on Courage and excite one another's Zeal lest God in Judgment remove the Candlestick and plant his Gospel amongst a People more deserving And therefore let us put Books into the Hands of our Magistrates to inform their Understandings in these Matters that they may be capable to be Eye-Witnesses of this dismal Tragedy now upon the Stage And into the Hands of our Christian Neighbours who at present may be unthinking and not see the Danger they are in and also caution'd to beware of the Deceivers of our Times who come in Sheeps-cloathing but inwardly they are Ravening Wolves And into the Hands of the Well-disposed amongst the Quakers for the regaining of them And this will be a Means to discover and lay waste the Design and Confederacy now on Foot And for your Comfort this I can tell you that many are now coming off Quakerism embracing Christianity and let us meet them and with all Sweetness invite them Home There are about Six or Eight of their Writers and Teachers come off and Hundreds that were caught by their Snare some of them that have been Quakers these Forty Years are now in Print against them And since I have been in London I have had many of them come to Visit me with Thanks in their Mouths to Me and Others who have dealt plainly with them bidding me keep on my Pace and not to spare Proud Babel And from others I have had Letters of the same Import And in Hopes it will be good News to many of you I will recite a Passage or two out of W. Mather's his Book Printed within this Month he lives in Bedfordshire and hath been a Quaker these Forty Years and an Old Acquaintance of mine 38 Years since viz. An Answer to the Switch c. by W. Mather p. 1 8. It is says W. Mather impossible that the Pens now in Controversie against us Quakers should be put a Stop to before there is an Order given forth from the Second-Days Meeting for the Reformation of our Preachers and also a Book of Retractations of the Errors of our Friends printed Books A Man that does but tell you G. Whitehead c. of your Mistakes that they might be amended had need have the Armour of Grace in his Heart as little David had when he encountred great Goliah yea as bold as David 's Worthies were who ventured their Lives to fetch Water from the Philistines Camp to be sure you will Scoff at him at a high rate Wound or Kill him as you account that Crisp Bugg Keith c. are Dead to the Life of Truth for opposing your Errors Wounded them it's true you have for which God will Judge you For every one of them at first only desired that you might bring your Deeds to the Light to be Tried by the Scriptures But instead of Answering their Christian Desires for your Good you fall upon them and wound them and make them grieve Pag. 9. Consider this you fierce Despisers of all those who desire your Reformation in Doctrine and Practice You know where this Cursed Thing is that causeth all this Disturbance you still hide it but out it must come and be beaten to Pouder Wherefore I beseech you to consider First what Damage hath befaln our Church by the False Doctrine couched under the fair Pretences of the Quakers next their Industry of spreading them as in p. 1.44 but moreover how they give away that Fallacious Book Anguis Flagellatus c. not only to Members of Parliament Judges Justices Lawyers and indeed Men of all Ranks but as I have been told send beyond Sea 500 together And forasmuch as there are many Excellent Books wrote by that Reverend Author of the Book intituled The Snake in the Grass c. that and his Defence of it his Book Satan Disrobed c. and that about Water Baptism and also by that Learned Author Geo. Keith and divers others which discover the Horrible Fraud and Pernicious Principles of the Quakers I say let us not let a Parliament-Man a Judge Justice or any others where we see a Service for the Church be without a Book to inform their Judgments and rectifie the Mistakes of others Let us consider the many Books wrote by our Pious Divines in Defence of our Holy Religion against the Attempts of the Church of Rome and also the great Benefit thereof and good Effects they have had both to Preserve our Members in Communion with us and to Regain many that were wavering and some that were strayed away And as a further exciting our Zeal let us be often Meditating on the Precepts of Divine Writ and Pray God to Illuminate our Understandings and thereby make us able to Read them to our Comfort I cannot but remember with what restless Zeal my self and others used to Advance Quakerism in the beginning and how we sent our Books the Nation over by Pack-Horses and otherwise I my self have given away Twenty Shillings worth at a Meeting and shall we be now less Zealous in Dispersing Books to detect their Errors than they have been to broach them and are now to defend them God forbid Oh let it not be said so of such as love God and are Orthodox in the Faith that love the Scriptures and have a true value for the Sacred Ordinances instituted by our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Thus have I imparted my Mind and I hope without Offence who am Your Humble Servant Fr. Bugg Milden-Hall in Suffolk March 1699 700. THE CONTENTS OF the Author 's Early Education Pag. 1 Of his turning Quaker 5 The Occasion and Means thereof 6 Of the Quaker's Silent Meetings 8 Fox and Muggleton compared 18 Of Muggleton's Doctrine 19 Quakers Laws to be obeyed 25 Scripture-Commands vacated 27 Christ disowned 28 The Quakers Synod 29 The Quakers Creed 33 Scripture-Authority overturned 39 G. Fox the Second Moses 42 G. Fox's Self-Exaltations 45 The Quakers Adoration of G. Fox 47 Fox's Journal preferred to the Bible 48 Distrust all they say and Why 53 Ann Docwra's Letter 54 Christ's Blood undervalued 55 Every Quaker a Virgin Mary 57 Fox's Miracles refuted 61 His Visions Diabolical 62 Who the Quakers own Poor 63 The Quakers Malicious Attempts 65 Tho. Plumstead's Running away 66 G. W.'s pretended Call fallacious 67 Their Teachers mean
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
Consideration the Title of Anguis Flagellatus or A Switch for the Snake and by this Slight and piece of Cunning think to avoid the Dint of his Arguments and turn it upon himself tho' indeed they have thereby Lasht themselves Besides they have perverted his Meaning for they knew well enough that Obscure Quakerism was the Snake which that Reverend Author designed to discover And they ought in Point of Justice either to have acquitted themselves thereof by way of Argument or else to have condemned one sort of their Books which rendred them guilty of his Charge For when they wrote a Book against Mr. Pennyman Mr. Mucklow and the Anabaptists they Intitled it Judas and the Jews Now Judas could not in strictness be attributed to the first no not Figuratively because they did not so much as betray the Truths of the Gospel to the Enemies thereof Nor could they with any colour charge the latter to be Jews who own and profess Jesus of Nazareth to be their Saviour Whereas they might rationally have return'd those Names Judas and the Jews to the Quakers for they agree with them in Fundamentals * See W. Penn's Serious Apol. p. 146. Joh. 14.28 19.27 The Quakers they deny the Person that suffered at Jerusalem to be the Son of God And the Jews said they had a Law and by it they put him to Death because he said he was the Son of God Thus much briefly for the Title But Secondly II. About Splitting Sentences Now as to Splitting Sentences mangling curtailing and dropping what is not for their Turn let us see whether the Quakers are not guilty of what they so fearfully complain of as a Fault in the Author of The Snake in the Grass c. almost quite through their Anguis c. For this see their Standard of the Lord lifted up c. by Chr. Atkinson and Edw. Burroughs where E. B. in his Epistle said thus I was moved to go see him John Gilpen and his Will was at Liberty above the Judgment tho' the Judgment was upon the Head of the Beast in him and a true Power working which I did own but his will not being kept in Subjection c. Now the words which I did own the Quakers drop as not for their Turn For it would have shewed that this E. Burroughs the Quakers Prophet and Son of Thunder did own this Gilpin in his Blasphemies and Possessions of the Devil * See the Snake c. Edit 3. p. 288. and Anguis Flagellat p. 446. And a second Instance of their Curtailing is the Author of the Snake in the Grass hath charged the Quakers with an Idolatrous Letter of Josiah Coale's to G. Fox as in p. 261. herein and there you will see that the Quakers have dropt these words And thy Kingdom is established in Peace and the Increase thereof is without end †See the Snake c. Edit 3. p. 115. and Anguis c. p. 180. I say these words were so manifestly blasphemously Idolatrous that the Quakers were forced to drop them altho' the other part shews sufficiently the Quakers Idolatry But thirdly and that I may shew my Reader that this is no new thing to find them curtailing mincing and mangling Sentences how much soever they complain of others I shall recite one Passage more to shew it their old Craft and cunning Slight by which they lye in wait to Deceive and that from an old profound Practitioner in that Black Art namely Geo. Whitehead who in one of his Books The Contentious Apostate Recharged c. pag. 5 6 7. citing one Line here one Line there and sometimes five Words out of the middle of a Line As for Example out of my Book Battering Rams against New-Rome thus p. 12. l. 10. in some 50 l. per Annum not touching the Matter either before or after A notable nonsuch way to confute an Adversary and to dispatch Answers Again Your only way is when Cash grows low to issue out and then he gives a good Leap out of this Line having taken the middle of it into the middle of the next Line and then takes out of it a Letter and two Words viz. A General Epistle and from thence he skips to the last three Words in the next Line i. e. Your own Service and now he hops to the next Line and takes one single Word i. e. for and leaves the next Word as and then catches up the next Word Money and then gives a good stride into another Line and gets a good quantity of Words i. e. 'T is a good Encouragement to your Preachers and Parasites which being put together as we use to join Syllables when I was a Boy and went to School it runs thus Your way is when your Cash grows low to issue out a General Epistle for your own Service for Money 't is a great Encouragement to your Preachers and Parasites Now Reader dost thou not think Whitehead was sorely put to it to Answer that Book of mine But grant that yet who would think that these Men should find fault with others for splitting Sentences for mincing and mangling into Bits and Scraps I say who would imagine that these foul Perverters these horrible Jugglers should have the Impudence to complain of others And which is still worse without Cause For of this I am sure there is not a Man that Quotes fairer nor with more Caution than that Author has all along done For tho' neither he nor Mr. Crisp nor Mr. Keith nor my self do often quote from one another and all to avoid their causeless Cavils yet I am confident no Men can be more careful than we all are I will not deny but we all three lend that Author Books as we do one to another and as I within a Month lent a Friend of his and for his Use Forty of the Quakers old Books Printed in 1653 1654 1655 and 1656 most of which he never saw before yet if we did Quote from one another I hope it would be of as good Authority as for them to Quote one another's Books which yet they frequently do * An Instance you have in their Ang. Flagellat p. 155. and divers other places and that oft-times falsly too by splitting Sentences and dropping what is not for their Turn as in the first and second Instances and an hundred more could I enlarge thereon But this is but a Preface and therefore I must be brief yet I shall raze their Foundation which is Hypocrisie But to proceed III. Their Sinless Perfection and Infallibility I am now come to their principal Pillar upon which their Building chiefly stands For a Question being put to them in these Words Whether a Man can Sin while he follows this Light * Snake Edit 3. p. 10. The Quakers Answer is in these Words It may be safely answered No †See their Anguis p. 44. Now this Answer is according to their Ancient Testimony For I have in this
Treatise p. 40. shewed they own themselves Infallible and from pag. 222 to 248. that they pretend they do not Sin and upon that Pretence do not ask Forgiveness of Sin But then from p. 248 to p. 284 I have shewed that even John Moone one of their Preachers and Judges mentioned p. 31. compared with p. 270. did Sin Nay G. Smith for whose walking in and following his Light G. Whitehead and S. Cater Avouch yet he Sinned as in p. 274 to p. 282. Insomuch that I have thereby razed their Foundation and their whole Building begins to totter and will assuredly fall to the ground IV. Their Negatives to Popery The Author of the Snake in the Grass c. having charged the Quakers in these Words * See the Snake c. Edit 3. p. 189. That of all the Dissenters now in England the Quakers have come nearest the Church of Rome they only have taken up the Popish Pretence of Infallibility unless they will bring in Lodowick Muggleton * See their Anguis c. p. 286. c. To which the Quakers reply in these Words Neither any of the Dissenters nor the Church of England do hold more Negatives in Doctrine to Rome than do the Quakers For we say the Quakers do not only hold all the Negatives which any of them do hold but also more c. Now by way of Addition to the Arguments of the Reverend Author of the Snake c. and in Confutation of the Quakers Defence I shall offer these Instances following to prove that the Quakers come nearest in Doctrine to the Romish Church and that they do not hold a Negative Doctrine to the Romish Church in these Ten following Instances viz. 1. In the Doctrine of Infallibility 2. No Salvation out of their Church 3. The Quakers pretence to Miracles 4. About the sole Judge of Controversies 5. In their Contempt of the Ministers 6. In their Contempt of the Holy Scriptures 7. About their Vnwritten Traditions 8. Touching Idolatry 9. The Pope of Rome and Pope Fox 10. About the Quakers Church being the one only Church of Christ Reader this being the last of the Four Pillars upon which the whole Fabrick of Quakerism stands tho' there are some other Crutches which stand as Shores to prop it up I shall be the longer upon it in order to raze the very Foundation of Quakerism shewing the Oneness of the Doctrine of New Rome with her Elder Sister For when A. S. a Roman Catholick wrote his Book The Reconciler of Religions c. J. Coale an Eminent Quaker-Teacher wrote a Reply to it Intituled The Whore Vnvailed c. by which as with a Key we may unlock their Mystery and see how near Quakerism is to Popery And I. In the Doctrine of Infallibility The Whore unvailed c. p. 4. says Jos Coale A. S. his first Argument to prove the Church of Rome to be the True Church are as followeth viz. Visible Infallible Inerrible in which is the Power of Miracles out of which none can be Saved c. Now to begin with the first and principal Pillar of both Romish and Quaker Church namely Infallibility Jos Coale in his Whore Vnvailed c. p. 12. thus The Infallibility of the True Church of which Christ as the Head I do not go about to deny but that the Church of Rome is Infallible that I do deny This then is a plain Confession that they both agree in the Doctrine of Infallibility only they differ which of the twain is this True Church in which this Infallibility is * See p. 40. in this Book II. None are Saved out of the True Church A. S. having laid it down as a Positive Doctrine That none can be Saved out of the True Church which Church says he is the Roman Church To which Jos Coale in his Whore c. pag. 18. thus replies That thing I do not at all deny * And that is the true Reason why they will neither Marry nor Bury with us nor join with us in giving Thanks to God for Food c. but that none can be saved out of the Roman Church that I do deny for the Church of Rome is not the true Church but the Whore c. Herein it is also confessed that they both agree in this Point of Doctrine so that the Quaker-Church doth not hold herein a Negative Doctrine to that of Rome which both the Church of England and the Protestant Dissenters do III. Of Miracles in the True Church A. S. having affirmed p. 4. That in the True Church there is Power of working Miracles to which J. Coale replies in the Whore c. p. 16. saving And as concerning Miracles in the True Church I do confess and bear Witness that there are Miracles wrought in her daily c. Here then is a Third Point wherein the Quaker-Church doth not hold a Negative Doctrine to the Church of Rome which both the Church of England Protestant Dissenters do both agreeing that the Papists Legend and Fox's Journal are Fabulous and meer Shams IV. The Judge of all Controversies A. S. in Chap. 4. affirms The Church is Judge in Matters of Faith to which J. Coale replies in the Whore c. p. 28. saying That the Judgment of the true Church of which Christ i. e. the Light within them is Head I do not deny * See p. 30. Which shews the Harmony between the Popish and Quaker Church for the Judgment thereof must of necessity be true and ought to be submitted to But the Church of Rome not being the true Church she is not Judge of Controversies in Matters of Faith This then is the Fourth Point in which the Quakers do not hold a Negative Doctrine to the Romish Church the Difference only is which of them twain is the True Church which of right ought to be Judge in all Matters of Controversie and the one gives as good Reason as the other V. Contempt of Ministers A. S. in Chap. 14. calls our Protestant Ministers Intruders Thieves Robbers Hypocrites Ravenous Wolves Murderers Sons of Belial False Prophets and Priests of Baal c. Now to shew that the Quakers do not hold a Negative Doctrine herein read p. 173 174 248 to 251. VI. Contempt of the Holy Scriptures A. S. in Chap. 14. calls our Bible A Brazen-fac'd Book an unjust corrupt and perverse Bible Now that the Quakers do not hold a Negative Doctrine to the Romish Church herein is plain First because they call the Scriptures Death Dust Serpents Meat Beastly Ware a Rotten Foundation and the like contemptuous Names which are frequently quoted in the ensuing Discourse and others of my Books but also in that they Reprinted this fourteenth Chapter of A. S.'s without any Rebuke for their Contempt of the Scriptures as above noted and in plain Words tell us in p. 40. saying I find the rest of his i. e. A. S.'s Book to consist of divers Arguments in which he controverts with
about your Cottage you that can forge Certificates and set Mens Names to it without their Privity Knowledge or Consent as you did that from Huntington in your Book Judgment fixed as Anne Docwra in her Letter to Mr. Crisp March 25. 1684. says you did what credit is to be given to it And besides those three Certifiers conclude thus On credible Information we verily Believe Here then is but their belief on Information and I am credibly informed of what I wrote so the Reader is left to believe as he is perswaded The like may be said of Will. Mead touching his saying to William Harris that Fox's Journal is a better Book than the Bible this Will. Mead does not deny under his Hand I have only Geor. Whitehead's word for it and he that can forge Certificates is not to be believed Again p. 38. What Earnings didst thou F. B. make in the late Discourse before the Bishop of Norwich and the four Members of Parliament where I discovered thy repeated Falshoods Forgery Deceit and Wickedness in divers Matters And how thou wert counfounded when Matters were closely urg'd against thee c. Now George thou knowest in thy own Conscience that this is a Lie spoken in Hypocrisie on purpose to mislead thy Disciples for thou didst not prove one false Quotation Matter or Thing against me But I proved thee guilty of contempt of the Scriptures in exalting your sayings above them as of greater Authority and for the truth of this I submit my self to those Five Persons present one of them having often shewed his Approbation of my management of that Affair These things George do not redound to thy Credit and I can truly say I am sorry for thee George we both grow Ancient let us write for the good of others not for Victory for my part I do upon the word of a Christian design it and if I saw my self in an Error I should willingly submit Again P. 46. Beside the false Printing and bad English as Fr. B. has exposed my Book Ishmael there is another defect after the words The Lake is thy Portion which is the Portion of Liars the words except thou speedily repent are omitted there and in some other places To which I Answer let any body compare your Book Ishmael and his Mother cast out c. in the Original Impression in Quarto and the Reprint in my Modest Desence c. Part 2. and they shall find it for English Comma's and Points and Words the same For in the Quarto Impression p. 3. l. 15. there is we for wo as in Mod. Def. p. 7. l. 13. there is also we for wo and so in all other places where it was bad English and false Spelled and false Pointed so it is Reprinted And as for the words except thou speedily repent being left out I do positively say 't is a most horrid Lie there is not a word in the whole Book left out so careful was I. And how then canst thou pretend to be a Consciencious Writer when in the face of the Sun thou canst thus Prevaricate Dissemble and Lie and that knowingly What is become George of thy seriousness sincerity and plainness thou so often boasts of Again P. 34. He F. B. assumes the boldness to promote in Print an Abstract of two Letters of two Clergymen I pray God open the Eyes of our Governours and cause them to take into Consideration this too much and too deplorable unlimited and unbounded Tolleration especially as the Quakers both claim and use it c. as in Pil. Prog. p. 175. was not this says George a piece of insolent confidence to expose this in Print and thus openly to oppose the Liberty Granted and legally Confirmed by King and Parliament and thus to render our Governours blinds c. Now as I think this was a good Prayer so do I think it no boldness to expose it in Print For George it was not the Liberty Granted and by Law Confirmed which these Clergymen either called unlimited or unbounded for the liberty granted is both limited and bounded as from divers branches of the Laws appear and particularly by the very Act of Tolleration see p. 86 88 101 189 339. No the unbounded Liberty which the Quakers take claim and use is what the Clergy is against and which they Pray the Government would take into their Consideration and I am sure it is a base bold and insolent thing George in you to expose in Print that the Clergy would represent the King and Parliament blind But I have not herein room to set forth your baseness in calling all Kings Spiritual Egyptians all that own any King since the days of Christ Apostates that Parliaments chosen by most Voices are not like to Act for God or the Good of his People that Parliaments are the Beast that carry the Whore Nay in your Book The West Answering to the North c. you justifie the Murther of King Charles I. saying The cutting off his Head was a remarkable Record of the Righteous Judgment of God and for a true sight of these your Antimonarchical as well as Antimagistratical Principles see p. 157. to p. 175. hereafter And George you tell us in Print that your Principles are now no other than they were in the beginning And what they were in the beginning I in this Book the Pilg. Prog. c. have set forth And I think it is both bold and insolent Confidence in you to revive all these your horrid Principles destructive to Government and Humane Society by telling us you are the same in Principles still and I am afraid we may in this believe you In the next place I shall shew even thee George what Liberty the Quakers both use and claim which not only those two Clergymen but many Ten Thousands both of Laity and Clergy are against First Your sending into the Churches Challenges as your Friends did at West-Dereham Secondly Your going from House to House like the Popish Priests to seduce the People inviting them to your Meetings giving them Books which say the Quakers are the one only Church of Christ and that out of your Church there is no Salvation Thirdly That your Monthly Quarterly Six Week Second Day and Yearly Meetings where you revive your old Treasonable Principles which Meetings are expresly against the very Act of Tolleration these and the like as in the ensuing Discourse are the Meetings and the Practices both used and claim'd by you Namely to hold Convocations which the Established Church without Licence from His Majesty cannot legally do These and the like Practices of yours all good Christians and the Laws of the Land are against and I still pray God to give the Nation a sight and sence of it before it be too late In Answer to your 48th Page I query thus Whether it be not as proper for me to Address His Majesty on the behalf of the Church of England and other sound Protestants who hold the
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
their Ancient Principles and they cannot quit them or retract them in their own Books but tell us their Principles are now no other than they were then only they can word the Matter otherwise I grant they hate abhor and detest these things of my reciting c. But as they lye snug in their own Books they read them in their own Meetings they are sweet Morsels of Quaker Consolation read A Modest Defence c. Part II. p. 22. for more of this where I have Reprinted their whole Book Ishmael c. to avoid their Cavils of Curtailing and Splitting Sentences as well as to shew Quakerism in its Native Complexion In their Sober Reply c. p. 11 14 15. in Answer to the Norfolk and Suffolk Petition c. they say To the first we say It is strange you should fear the Christian Religion should be polluted by the Quakers who of all that go under the Protestant Name are generally acknowledged to be furthest removed from and most averse to Popish Superstition so we always offer our Doctrines and Principles to be examined by the Scriptures To the second we say They desire they may Enjoy their wisht-for Happiness of a peaceful Life we envy it them not but God forbid they should swim into it through a Sea of Innocent Blood c. 1. In Answer to the first That the Quakers are furthest removed from Popish Superstition than any that go under the Name Protestant this I deny in their Name and have made it appear from their Doctrine in their Books as in the Preface to my Pilgrim's Progress 2d Edit c. and that from these following Instances in which they do not hold Negative Doctrines from the Romish Church they only differ which of them twain is the true Church to which these Qualifications are duly attributed c. I. That the Quakers are the One Only Church of Christ II. They agree in the Doctrine of Infallibility III. And that none can be Saved out of the True Church IV. They both agree in the Doctrine of Miracles V. Also about the Judge of all Controversies in Matters of Faith VI. They agree in their Contempt of the Protestant Ministers VII They agree in their Contempt of the Holy Scriptures VIII They agree in the Authority of their Unwritten Traditions IX Also in the Pope of Rome and Pope Fox X. They agree in their Idolatry to each Pope 2. That they always desired their Doctrine and Principles might be examined by the Scriptures this is false in Fact when they did in the Face of the World deny it to the Norfolk Clergy at West-Dereham to George Keith at Turners-Hall being thereunto Invited Four Years one after another to my Self at Milden-Hall See New Rome Unmasked c. p. 1 to p. 9. as also at several other times notwithstanding their false and bold denial A Just Censure c. p. 7. 3. They desire they may Enjoy their wisht-for Happiness of a Peaceful Life We envy it them not say the Quakers but God forbid they should swim into it through a Sea of Innocent Blood If it be to swim through a Sea of Blood only to desire that the Quakers Errors and Blasphemous Principles which contemn the Scriptures deny that Jesus of Nazareth who suffered on the Cross to be the Son of God and damn to the Pit of Hell the Ever-blessed Trinity should lye Censured and Condemned and their Books that so teach Burnt by the Common Hangman then indeed they are guilty But if this be not Persecution but agreeable to the Law of the Land the Votes of Parliament His Majesties Royal Will and Pleasure declared in his Proclamation then they are not guilty of Persecution nor of running through a Sea of Innocent Blood in the Defence of Christianity as the Quakers would impose upon their Readers to avoid the dint of an Examination notwithstanding their pretence A Reply c. p. 11. We are ready to undertake the Proof of every Doctrine we hold by and from the Scriptures I have read in St. Jude's Epistle that as in ver 3. he exhorts us to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints so ver 9. That Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the Body of Moses durst not bring against him a Railing Accusation but said The Lord rebuke thee And now I am Disputing with the Quakers his chiefest Emissaries and immediate Servants I hope I shall not bring a Railing Accusation But as it is Natural for a Worm when trodden upon to turn again and for an Englishman to set the Saddle on the right Horse so I hope I shall as long as Life last especially when St. Jude has so rightly described the Men as ver 8. saying Likewise also these filthy Dreamers defile the Flesh despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities as I have shewed in my Modest Defence c. Part I. p. 10 13 14 15. But say they A Just Censure c. p. 1 2. The Man he and his Abetters are ill Men. P. 11. It were greatly to be wished that these Zealots would turn their Spleen against Sin what fair Quarter all sorts of Enormities meet with from some of them But that none allow fairer Quarter to Vice and Immorality than the Quakers and Leaders of the Quaker Church is plain See Pilgrim's Progress c. p. 244 to p. 284. And one Reason I take to be is their own Guilt which would make their Reproofs sound like the Kettle calling the Pot Black-A and therefore 't is the Inconsideration of their Hearers that supports the Credit of such Vicious Hypocrites who are upheld by their Character rather than their Vertue and are become much less loved than feared for I demand an Instance of any one Book wrote against their Vicious Teachers and Hearers provided they keep Fox's Commandments about the Hat Thee Thou not Marrying or Burying with us and the like unwritten Traditions but I can give you an Account of Hundreds of Books wrote against such as dissent from them and conform themselves to the Church of England calling them Apostates Betraying Judasses Malicious Informers Renegadoes Beasts Dogs Wolves Children of the Devil Enemies of all Righteousness Devils Incarnate and a Hundred other Names And they call the Publick Ministry for endeavouring their Conversion Witches Devils Thieves Robbers Antichrists the Bane of Soul and Body threatning them with all direful Vengeance and this if rightly considered is not the least part of their Insolent Behaviour to the Government Now whether your Just Censure c. was in Answer to my former Sheet with a Scheme of your Yearly Meeting or to my Modest Reply c. or both since 't is said to be a Just Censure of my Address to the Parliament and I presented none under that Title I will not determine since it seems to the first tho' given in since my last yet I cannot but admire at your Impudence in your Reply c.
in Answer to my Modest Defence where you say p. 7. But sure we are and always ready to make it appear that neither are our Books Blasphemous nor our Principles Pernicious Again p. 11. We are ready to undertake the Proof of every Doctrine we hold by and from the Scriptures this is False in Fact and a Notorious Lie in the Face of the Government First In that you knew I had presented to the Parliament the Reprint of an entire Book of yours stiled Ishmael c. which is both pernicious to the Fundamentals of Christianity and horridly Blasphemous Secondly In refusing to prove any one Doctrine you held at West Dereham Thirdly In refusing to meet Geo. Keith upon any of his Invitations Again p. 10. We sincerely own all that is written in the Scriptures concerning Christ respecting his Conception Birth Life Miracles Doctrines Death Burial Resurrection Ascension Mediation and Future Coming to Judgment when in reality you own not one of those Articles rightly nor as all Orthodox Christians own them as G. Keith's 4th Narrative has from your Books made evidently to appear Again p. 6. ibid. That we assume Rules of Discipline in Church Matters they are for our selves only Powers in Matters of Religion for and among our selves only Nor say they do we see how those Acts could be truly called Acts of Toleration to Dissenters if they did not tolerate each sort of Dissenters to assume Rules of Discipline Power in Matters of Religion and Forms of Church Government for and amongst themselves c. Again p. 11. And if it relate to Religious Performances as it seems to do by the next words i. e. having their Monthly Quarterly and Yearly Meetings c. From whence it is plain that these Monthly Quarterly and Yearly Meetings then when it suit their turn they own to be Religious Meetings and as such tolerated by the Act of Toleration and without allowing them the Act could not be called An Act of Toleration Yet to shew that Liars had need to have good Memories they in Contradiction to themselves when pinched from another Quarter for keeping their Doors Lock'd Barr'd or Guarded to prevent Inspection they in their Just Censure c. p. 26. confess saying These Meetings are not intended for Worship what then What For Government and to assume Rules of Discipline and Forms of Church Government which is more than the Establish'd Church can legally do without His Majesties Licence and therefore worse and more dangerous their Doors being kept Lock'd or Guarded and expresly against the very Act of Toleration in which is this Clause viz. Provided always and be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if any Assembly of Persons Dissenting from the Church of England shall be had in any place for Religious Worship and such only the Act tolerates with Doors Lock'd Barr'd or Bolted during any time of such meeting together all and every such Person or Persons that shall come to and be at such Meeting shall not receive any Benefit from this Law but be liable to all the Pains and Penalties of all the aforesaid Laws recited in this Act for such their Meeting notwithstanding his taking the Oaths and his making and subscribing the Declaration And likewise as the Learned in the Law say Such Meetings with Doors Lock'd c. to assume Rules of Discipline and Forms of Church Government are expresly against the Rights of Parliaments the King's Prerogative and Liberty of the Subject and these Statutes following viz. 28 H. 8. c. 19 21. 27 H. 8. c. 15. 37 H. 8. c. 17. 3 Ed. 6. c. 10 11. 1 Eliz. c. 12. 5 Eliz. c. 1. 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. 8 Eliz. c. 1. 1 K. W. Q. M. Magna Charta c. 29. Pet. Right and that such as so meet run themselves into a Premunire But the Quakers being a united Confederacy a Body Politick Incorporated and having a Fund or Common Bank to support and propagate their Principles they are too powerful for any single Person and thereupon the Government is prayed to take it into their Consideration And that these Meetings are not within the Act of Toleration but obnoxious to the Laws and of a dangerous Consequence I have more fully shewn in my Pilgrim's Progress from Quakerism to Christianity c. 2d Edit in Octavo wherein I have more largely set forth their Monthly Quarterly Second-day Six-week and Yearly Meetings shewing they are not only for Government as themselves now confess but a Government Imperium in Imperio But one thing I cannot but observe in these Meek Harmless Quakers viz. in their representing the Justices Grand Juries and Burgesses of Norfolk and Suffolk as a Bloody-minded sort of Tyrants and that to the Right Honourable and Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled in Parliament then no wonder they treat me at that disdainful rate they do and the Reverend Clergy for my sake but as hitherto Thanks be to God the Protestant Magistrates and the Episcopal Clergy have been a Bulwark against Popery so I trust they will against the prevalency of Quakerism and the danger of them which seems to threaten both them and the Nation A just Censure c. p. 12. And consider say they whether it was decent in the Aldermen and Burgesses of Bury c. thus to Impeach the Wisdom and Conduct of the Government P. 13. That all those high Charges in the Petition exhibited against us are grounded but upon their own groundless Jealousies they how mannerly say they let others judge offer the Parliament Hobson 's Choice cut our Throats or knock out our Brains And would they have the Honourable the House of Commons undertake this Inhumane piece of Butchery to defile their Hands in the Innocent Blood of so many Thousands of harmless People to Enact such a Barbarous Tragedy only to remove the groundless Fears of a few Jealous-headed Aldermen Justices Grand Juries c. of Bury c. P. 15. God forbid they should swim into it i. e. a peaceful Life and the Enjoyment of their Religion through a Sea of Innocent Blood c. But why is all this Why 'T is only that they prayed the House of Commons to take these things into their Consideration and that the Principles and Practices of the Quakers might be Examined and their Errors Censured and Suppressed whether by obliging them to Retract their Errors or if not to order their Books to be Burnt by the Common Hangman or any other Method as to their great Wisdom shall appear to deserve c. and for this Noble Act this Generous and Christian Undertaking with that Modesty which highly became them to be thus Censured by the Quakers to Impeach the Wisdom of the Parliament to excite them to a Barbarous Tragedy to cut their Throats that they may swim through a Sea of Blood is not only a False Pernicious and Scandalous Representation of the Petitioners and their Right of Petitioning but it is Imperious in
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
not the Son of God only a Vail a Garment or a Vessel in which the Son did inhabit which now inhabit in us Believers and for which Reason the Names JESUS and CHRIST belong to us as well as to him that suffer'd For saith George Fox our great Apostle and High Priest of our Profession the Jews had a Law that if any one said he was the Son of God he was to die and so the Law in the Will doth persecute THE SON OF GOD NOW where HE is MADE MANIFEST as the NORTH PART of this Nation doth witness who hath fulfilled that Law in Persecuting and Imprisoning THE SON OF GOD where HE is MADE MANIFEST i e. within us those who quaked at the Word of the Lord was ever hated and scorned and in such THE SON OF MAN is manifest We believe an Inward Resurrection with the Light within but deny the Resurrection of the Body laid in the Grave Books of the Quakers which prove these to be their Tenets and a Hundred times as much are these Geo. Fox Jun.'s VVorks Edw. Burrough's VVorks Saul's Errand G. Fox's Journal Truth defending the Quakers c. A Lamentation by one of England's Prophets c. Judgment fixed c. Jos Coal's Works The Quakers Refuge c. W. Smith's Primmer c. A Discovery of Man's Return by W. D. Ishmael and his Mother cast out by G. Whitehead and three other chief Speakers A Brief Discovery of a threefold Estate of Antichrist c. News coming up out of the North Ste. Crisp's Primer printed 1682. The Apostate Incendiary W. Penn's serious Apology The Quakers Challenge A Question to Professors by Is Pennington A Lamentation by one of England's Prophets c. printed at York 1653. A Dispute at Chesterfeild 1655. See the Fifth Chapter following upon which I conclude thus If as they write they do indeed believe Then I affirm this their very Creed If not who can with Safety them believe Who Write and Print the Simple to deceive 2. The Commandments of G. Fox the Quakers second Moses somewhat Abbreviated and taken out of several of his Books I. Thou shalt not pay Tythes to the covetous Priests nor to the Antichristian Improprietors II. Thou shalt not Marry by or with a Priest III. Thou shalt not put off thy Hat in Respect to thy Superiors IV. Thou shalt not shut up thy Shop on the VVorld's Holy-Days Fast-Days c. at the Command of the VVorldly Magistrates V. Thou shalt not pay towards the Repair of Parish Churches VI. Thou shalt not pay towards the Trained Bands nor carry Guns in thy Ship VII Thou shalt not wear Lace nor Ribbons nor Skimming-dish Hats nor short Aprons nor Slits on your VVastecoats nor long Scarfs like flying Colours nor unnecessary Buttons VIII You shall have a VVoman's Meeting distinct from the Men once a Month at at the County-Town about Ten a Clock to get a little Stock IX Thou shalt call the Days of the VVeek First Second Third and Fourth Day c. and the Months First Second and Third Month c. X. I charge you all in the Presence of the Lord God That you judge not one another i. e. those that be in the Unity of the Ministry and Elders in the Church lest you fall into the Condemnation of the Monthly Quarterly Six VVeeks Second Day or Yearly Meeting Amen G. Fox 's Tryal at Lancaster Assizes p. 21. The thundering Voice answered I have glorified thee and will glorifie thee again and I was so filled full of Glory that my Head and Ears was filled full of it that when the Trumpets sounded and the Judges came up again they all appeared as dead Men under me I think it now necessary to insert two Passages out of two of the Quakers most learned Teachers Books the one to deter their Hearers from adhering to the Commands of Moses the other to confirm them in the Belief of G. Fox's viz. Whether the first Pen-man of the Scriptures was Moses or Hermes Or Whether both these or not one Or Whether there are not many Words contained in the Scriptures which were not spoken by Inspiration of the Holy Spirit Whether some Words were not spoken by the Grand Imposture some by wicked Men some by wise Men ill apply'd some by good Men ill expressed some by false Prophets and yet true some by true Prophets and yet false The Quakers Refuge fixed c. p. 17. This being suggested by Robert Ruckhill an Eminent and Learned Man I cannot blame his Hearers who believe that he wrote by the Eternal Spirit nor that they lay aside the Commands of God by Moses and receive the Commands of G. Fox at least not so much as I blame their Teachers For if I did question whether Moses or Hermes were the first Pen-man of the Holy Scriptures or whether both of them had a Hand in it or neither of both was concerned in the writing thereof if I question'd the Truth of what the true Prophets of the Lord said and believ'd that what the false Prophet said were true if I thought that what good Men said was ill expressed and so insignificant as hereby is suggested truly I should give as little heed to them as the Quakers do and be ready with George Fox himself to call them Death Dust and Serpents Meat See News coming up out of the North p. 14. But I thank God I have been better taught even from my Childhood For tho' by the Dissimulation of these Seducers I was carried away into great Errors yet the Love of the Scriptures ever remained with me The next Passage shall be from their Learned Barclay It is no ways inconsistent with this sound and unerring Principle to affirm That the Judgment of a certain Person or Persons in certain Cases is INFALLIBLE or for a certain Person or Persons to give a positive Judgment and pronounce it as Obligatory upon others because the Foundations and Ground thereof IS NOT because they are infallible but because in these things and at that time they were led by the Infallible Spirit The Anarchy of the Ranters c. p. 67. For more of this Quaker-Popery see The Picture of Quakerism drawn to the Life c. p. 8 to 16. By which 't is plain that as Ruckhill in the forecited Passage render the Scriptures Uncertain Fallible and of no Authority so does Barclay render Quakerism Infallible Certain and their Commands and Injunctions Obligatory upon others And why forsooth Why because at such times as the Quakers thus Pronounce thus Write thus give out their Mandates Commandments and Precepts they says Barclay are led thereunto by the Infallible Spirit Some Inferences from the Fourth Chapter IS it so then that the Tendency of the Quakers Doctrine is to undervalue the Holy Scriptures to rob them of their Divine Authority and thereby to exalt their own Horn Let this then be a Caution to their Hearers to examine the Quotations which I bring to prove my Assertions and
end this Whitehead justifies Truth defending the Quakers p. 18. Fox's Great Mystery c. p. 77. Nay Theft by Fox is likewise justified who said And as for any being moved of the Lord meaning their Light within to take away your Hour-Glass from you BY THE ETERNAL POWER IT IS OWNED c. Nay their idolized Apostle not only disregarded the Magistrates and their Laws but declared in plain and significant VVords That he neither heeded nor valued a Cart-load of their VVarrants c. Journal p. 278. Object 2. But some Men will say How then shall we reconcile the Doctrine of W. Mead and G. Whitehead Mr. Mead saith That G. Fox's Journal is a better Book than the Bible and G. Whitehead saith VVe prefer the Holy Scriptures above all other Books extant in the VVorld The Country Convert c. p. 26. To which I answer Very well for p. 72. G. Whitehead thus saith viz. I MAY SEE CAUSE OTHERWISE TO WORD THE MATTER AND YET OUR INTENTIONS BE THE SAME c. p. 72. ibid. Very well now to make it appear that G. Whitehead means one and the same thing that William Mead meaned read his little Book i. e. That which is spoken from the Spirit of Truth in ANY is of as great AUTHORITY as the SCRIPTURES and CHAPTERS are and GREATER Truth defending the Quakers c. p. 7. And on the Title Page thus viz. WRITTEN FROM THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH in G. Whitehead and G. Fox the Younger Now if this little Pamphlet in Octavo of 70 Pages be of greater Authority than the Scriptures and Chapters are how much more G. Fox's Journal in Folio of near 700 Pages For that which is best is of most Authority generally-speaking and that which is of most Authority is the best Thus then is the Journal of Fox's better in the Quakers Esteem than the Bible and thus does Whitehead mean even as Mr. Mead spoke Object 3. But some will say How then shall we know a Quaker if not by the Import of his VVords I Answer 't is impossible to know them rightly as it ever was for the Protestants to know the Jesuits and therefore you ought to do as the Protestants did TO DISTRUST EVERY THING THEY SAY See the Book Entituled The Missionary's Arts p. 32. printed 1688. For as the Quakers stand on the same Bottom and are found in the same Steps with the same Equivocations Reserves and Double-meanings and the same Pretences to Miracles Visions Revelations Perfection and Infallibility they ought to have the same Answer viz. To distrust them in all they say until they Retract Sentence and Condemn one sort of their Books and this is highly reasonable on their part if they would be taken to be at all serious sincere and honest For many of their Hearers of the honest sort begin to think G. Whitehead little better than a Jesuit already he hath been so false in Fact such a Glosser and Defender of every Error the Quakers hold (r) Anne Docwra of Cambridge her Letter dated 26th 12th Mon. 1682. I have a Letter by me which my Cousin Anne Docwra Widow of Cambridge sent me dated 26th of 12th Month 1682. viz. G. Whitehead have sent one of his Books for me to read and there is the old Money Story in it with I know not what besides I was asked by an honest Friend if he was not a Jesuit I answered nay it is not solid enough for them to own especially when they write to a solid People there is pretty much airy conceited Stuff in it ANNE DOCWRA Thus it appears how long the honest sort of Quakers have take G. W. to be little better than a Jesuit and my Cousin Docwra was of the same Mind too else she would not have given me her honest Friend's Judgment only indeed she is thus far of my Mind That Book was not solid enough the Jesuits are more cunning than G. Whitehead then was but he is come on finely fince for of late he is grown so expert as he can Vindicate or Excuse any Blasphemy Idolatry Contempt of the Scriptures Contempt of the Magistrates Contempt of the Ministry Contempt on the Person and Sufferings of Christ yea and Undervalue his Precious Blood too And how contrary soever their Sayings are to each other yet they mean all one thing referring to their Beginning I have in my former Books shewed how their Books are of two sorts their Meetings of two sorts their Doctrine of two sorts carrying two Faces in all they do or say and yet Whitehead can tell you they mean all one thing One Example more I may give and so shall conclude this Chapter I find a Recital of a Letter writ by Solomon Eccles to Robert Porter in a Book of William Burnet's entituled The Capital Principles of the Quakers p. 41. printed 1668. viz. Robert Porter take heed of Belying the Innocent for I hear thou hast reported to a Friend of mine that I should say That the Blood of Christ is no more than the Blood of another Man I never spoke it but do very highly esteem of the Blood of Christ to be more Excellent Living Holy and Precious than is able to be uttered by the Tongues of Men and Angels I MEAN the Blood which was offered up in (Å¿) Perversion it s offered up thro' the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9.14 the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9.41 But the Blood that was forced out of him by the Soldiers after he was dead who before that bowed his Head to the Father and gave up the Ghost but thou say'st that was the Blood of the New Covenant which was shed after he was dead which I DO DENY Yet I did say That was NO more THAN the BLOOD of another SAINT These are my Words which thou art wresting to thy own Destruction I did also say That the Baptists Independants Presbyterians and Pope are all of one Ground and none of you understand the Blood of Jesus Christ no more than a brute Beast Therefore repent for God will soon overthrow your Faith and your Imputative Righteousness too for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness which he did at Jerusalem and without the Gates the Pope the Episcopal the Presbyterian Independants and Baptists shall fare all alike and shall sit down in Sorrow short of the Eternal Rest But the true Imputative Righteousness of Christ we own but it is hid from you all till the Lord open an Eye WITHIN YOU c. Now comes G. Whitehead with his usual Paint to cover palliate and excuse his Brother Eccles saying Now whereas Sol. Eccles in p. 41. is accused of little less than Blasphemy about a Letter chiefly of a Passage concerning the Blood in these Words viz. The Blood that was forced out of him by the Soldiers after he was dead who before that bowed his Head to the Father and gave up the Ghost I did say THAT WAS NO MORE THAN THE BLOOD OF ANOTHER SAINT Now to these Words NO MORE THAN THE
in the same Page he tells us that the false Christians meaning the Church-People are more intolerable than Heathens Turks and Jews saying The equal Conversation of those Infidels should make both Priest and People blush (b) And why not Quakers too But Mr. Clapham the Minister against whom W. Penn writ that Book says It 's a foolish thing to flatter the Papists Socinians and Quakers with the Hopes of Salvation p. 31 32 ib. Upon which Mr. Penn in his wonted career first condemns the Clergy then vindicates the Soeinians his Words are these If Pap. Socin Quak. be defective they owe it to the Idle Lying Covetous Ignorant and Murdering Spirit and Practice of the Priests whose Interest it has ever been to enslave and obscure the People's Understanding it 's not my Business to Apologize for Papists As for the Socinian I know him to have Wit and Learning enough his Exemplary Life and Grave Deportment I must acknowledge to be very singular and if his Cause receive no greater Foil than this Person 's bare Reproaches the discreet World will sooner acquiesce in the stronger Arguments of Socinus and his quaint Adherents (c) W. P. Vindicate the Socinians Object But may some object If the Quaker Teachers be such thirfty Men are they also charitable Men We have heard the Quakers maintain their own Poor Answ I do not know many of their Teachers now having been so long from them but such of them as I do now know and formerly have known they were a sort of mercenary poor Men at their first Rise some few excepted but very uncharitable in their Language the World never produced the like since Noah's Flood and I know not nor never did that the Ministers of that People were ever given to Hospitality but what they got commonly they held fast and beside ungrateful to their Benefactors I remember I met one of them in London (d) John Kilborn sometime since and he was so Proud being now grown Rich that he would not speak to me altho' I have entertain'd him and his Horse yea and Companion too at my House divers times sometimes a Week together yea when he has been thin and thread-bare I have taken him into my Shop and at my own Charge have cloathed him I will not say what I have done to others both in Money and Cloathing but thus much I will say that 't is the chargeablest Ministry this Day in England to some Particulars For as Mr. Croese well observes they range all the Nation round and come like Mice uncall'd for and like Flies unsent for and both for their Horses Themselves and their Companions fall upon their Provision Oats Hay c. insomuch that I can say the Ministry of the Quakers has cost me as much in Three Months time nay much more than the Publick Ministry have cost me this Fifteen Years But as to their Hospitality and Charity I never met with any of it I remember about Twenty Years since my Wife had a mind to see London and I went with her to visit Tho. Green who as well as many others of them made my House his Home when in our Country yet he never invited me and my Wife to a Meal Brothers and Sisters nay his own Kindred that have come to Visit him out of Northamptonshire have scarce eat and drank at his House but which is still worse for I can now spare none where a Discovery may be made of this false Ministry and deluding Teachers I say worse for his own Brother William Green who once was a chief Speaker amongst them but poor Man he was a wet Quaker and they put him by Preaching the Man married grew Poor and notwithstanding his Brother Thomas Green was vastly Rich 'T is now judged he is worth 8000 l. and Application made to him time after time yet he held a deaf Ear so long until his Wife was forced to go to St. Gregory's Parish for Relief for him or else he might have starved (e) I have been told that he 'll not allow his Horse Litter but lets him lye on the bare Flint-Stones for all his own Brother is worth many Thousands I shall give but one Instance more of this kind and then tell you who are their own Poor and who they think themselves obliged to maintain c. The Instance is touching S. Cater whose Father was a poor Man went about to sell Wings three for Two Pence from Door to Door but as you have heard he by being a Preaching Quaker is grown Rich Well he has a Kinsman that lives at our Town and takes Collection a Sweep-Chimney this poor Man sometimes in the Summer-time will go to Littleport (f) Where S. Cater dwells i. e. about Eight or Ten Miles to visit his Rich Cousin his Father's Brother's Son but when he comes there I have heard him say that they will not so much as let him come in I will not say but sometimes he may have gotten something but very little no they have very little Charity to God's Poor but their own Poor and such as they so esteem and thereupon look upon themselves obliged to maintain such as Merit their Charity by Obeying their Doctrine in Transgressing the known Laws of the Land viz. such as are Sued and Imprisoned for Tythes such as met in Defiance of the Statute made 22 of K. C. II. S. Cater's Instance for one Yea if such could but make the Feoffees to the Fund at London believe they did suffer whether true or false such were supplied But if any one of their People happen to wear a 4 d. Lace on their Pinner or pull off their Hat to a Magistrate or break and violate the Quakers Laws such are turned to the Parish I know but one poor Quaker in our Town Milden-Hall it may be she is not so starch'd a Quaker as the rest it may be she may say You instead of Thee and Thou or some such small Defect Well tho' she be a poor Widow with several small Children and very Necessitous yet she must starve if our Parish did not sometimes relieve her and for this Seven Years I believe she hath lived in a little House of mine and the Town pays me her Rent No they only take notice of their own Poor viz. such as are made poor through their Obedience to the Quakers unlawful Laws or Laws against the Laws of the Realm I do not question but I have made the Friends angry yet if they take the Boldness to stigmatize the Bishops Magistrates and Clergy and to reproach them with what is not true why may not I tell them of their Faults G. Whitehead wrote lately to G. Keith i. e. G. W.'s Letter to G. Keith May 98. I could further expose thee to thy Terror and Shame (g) They 'll tell you they cannot seek Revenge than ever I have done for I have been very sparing towards thee in comparison of
so is TREASON c. Thus then is it apparent that what is in others Treason they themselves practice in the Face of the Government For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest neither any thing hid that shall not be made known and come abroad Luke 8.17 CHAP. VIII Shews the Executive Part of the Quakers Laws and Government in their Monthly and Quarterly Meetings I Join the Use and Service of their Monthly and Quarterly Meetings together for Brevity-sake as also because they are much the same in all Respects only the Monthly is inferior to the Quarterly because in one County there may be three or four Monthly Meetings much like Justices Monthly Meetings where the Party offending need not be Concluded but entering his Recognizance to appear at the Quarter-Sessions he may have a more full Hearing so it is with the Quakers he may Appeal from the Monthly to the Quarterly Meeting This I know very well not barely because I was Clerk in these Meetings many Years but also during my Controversie with Sam. Cater I Summon'd him first to the Monthly Meeting and when I found no Justice I Appeal'd from that to the Quarterly and indeed from the Quarterly to the Yearly and so twice or thrice round as I remember For it was the greatest Tryal that ever was amongst them in regard it struck at the Ministry viz. WHETHER THEY OUGHT NOT TO TELL THEIR NAMES AND HABITATIONS AND THEREBY SET THE MSELVES IN A LIKE SUFFERING CAPACITY WITH THE HEARERS †At large in my Book The Painted Harlot both Stript and Whipt c. And the Postscript stiled Reason against Railing c. c. since they advised us to be valiant and give up all c. But to the Matter When we came together which is commonly 9 or 10 a Clock then we sat awhile together Silent unless we have a Teacher with us and then it may be we may have a short Exhortation to keep to our Antient Testimony * i. e. George Fox's Commandments and some other things which in the next Chapter you 'll hear of so then the Doors being secured they proceed after this manner The Clerk calling over the Meeting I mean the particular Meetings of every Town which possibly may be Forty Towns more or less viz. Clerk Come Friends How is it as to your Town of Littleport A. and B. For there is to be two appear from every Town Things are pretty well with us only D. E. is married with a Priest Meeting Aye How came that to pass Did you not perceive his Relapse from the Truth and the Order of it till he made such a Revolt as to become an Apostate A. B. Truly we found he declin'd and some Friends in our Town spoke to him and warn'd him of the Danger of it but all would not do Meeting Well let some Body be ordered to go to him and admonish him if he Repent and acknowledge his Fault and confess to Truth †i. e. To them for if he confess his Fault to them they Absolve him and all 's well again Clerk How is it at your Town of Milden-Hall A. B. Things are pretty well with us but Francis Bugg still continues his Writing against Friends And he being examined by Samuel Fulbig whether he owns W. Rogers's wicked Book Which admits of Liberty of Conscience to pay Tythes or not to marry with a Publick Minister or not and he owns it And therefore we must take Care about him for he does much hurt to Truth and lays Stumbling-Blocks in the way of others Meeting Course we know not well what Course to take with him he will neither lead * Into blind Conformity nor drive †Into an Implicite Faith Indeed we have suffered him too long Clerk in this Meeting but he may thank R. S. J. A. E. L. and some of you his Friends or else he had been excluded long since for his very owning W. Roger's Book which admits of a voluntary Payment of Tythes which as our dear Brother Ellwood saith is a Mark of Antichrist a Denial of Christ come in the Flesh yea downright Ranterism Antidote p. 78. 139. But notwithstanding thro' such Arguments as W. Rogers use we have by woful Experience seen that some have been convinced Ten some Twenty Years and yet can pay Tythes without any Acknowledgment of Evil therein Christ Quaker disting Part 2. p. 42. And altho' we grant saith our Brother Ellwood in his Antidote p. 109. That our great Apostle G. Fox did say in his Several Papers given forth for spreading Truth Friends to you all this is the Word of the Lord †See Fox's Papers are the Word of the Lord whilst they say 't is Blasphemy to call the Letter i. e. Scripture the Word Take heed of judging one another judge not one another I command you in the Presence of the Lord See his Book entituled The Way to the Kingdom of God pag. 4. and judge not one another behind one another's Backs * Yet they passed Sentence on me behind my Back I not being there that Day i. e. 4th of June 1682. I command you in the Presence of the Lord this is the Word of the Lord unto you Neither lay open one another's Nakedness and Weakness behind one anothers Backs for thou that dost art one of Ham 's Family which is under the Curse c. This indeed continues our Beloved rother is a Warning to Friends not to judge one another †No let their Immoralities be gross do but keep in the Unity of the Corrupt Body But it is not a Warning to Friends not to judge those that oppose Friends being gone out of the Unity of Friends themselves and endeavouring to draw others out also and to divide and rend the Church so that you have mist your Aim and lost your Blow c. Thus Friends you have the Judgment of the Church and Francis Bugg has not only owned that Pernicious Book but has written two Books against Friends as Pernicious as that of W. Rogers Intituled De Christiana Libertate c. and The Painted Harlot both Stript and Whipt c. Nay not only so but hath wrote divers Letters Remonstrances and Queries to particular Friends to the Second-day Meetings And therefore 't is time to take some Course with him c. Meeting Content therefore let us draw up a Paper against him and when we have view'd it let us Record it c. This was done a Copy whereof is as followeth viz. At a Quarterly Meeting in Hadenham 7th Day of the 4th Month 1682. Whereas this Day there was inferred ††Notable Scholars INFERRED into our Meeting several Papers subscribed by Francis Bugg wherein he hath Unrighteously and Ungodlily reflected upon Antient Friends and greatly abused Faithful Ministers of the Gospel * * They can call other Ministers Witches Devils Thieves Robbers Antichrists Jesuits Bloodhounds Sodomites and what not But
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
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
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
God that made the King's retiring into our Native Country i. e. Scotland in 1679. give a Happy Turn to his Affairs to the defeating and disappointing the Designs of his Enemies We do justly conceive Oar selves obliged by a special Tie to praise God for his Goodness in carrying the King through and over all his Troubles since by the same Providence and at the same time by which the Lord began in that more observable manner to evidence his Care of him he made him the happy Instrument to deliver us from our Troubles so that the Prosperity of his Affairs and our peaceable Fruition of the Exercise of our Consciences bears the same Date c. The Humble Address of the People call'd Quakers to K. James II. from our Yearly Meeting 1688. We the King's loving and peaceable Subjects from divers Parts of his Dominions being met together in this City to inspect the Affairs of our Christian Society ††Which by Interpretation is Infect Throughout the World think it our Duty humbly to represent c. Now since it hath pleased thee O King to renew to all thy Subjects by thy last Declaration thy Gracious Assurance to pursue the Establishment of this Christian Liberty c. We think our selves deeply engaged to renew Our Assurances of Fidelity and Affection And as we firmly believe that God will never desert this just and righteous Cause of Liberty Nor the King in maintaining of it so we hope c. Thus Reader you see here is nothing wanting but bended Knees here is in All Humility in All Fidelity with All Affection yea All All All all Prayers for him for a long Life for a prosperous Reign Laud and Praise in the highest for His Deliverance for the defeating his Enemies i. e. Protestants besides by a modest Computation Ten Thousand Books spread up and down the Nation in favour of his Government See my Sober Expostulation with the Hearers of the Quakers c. p. 13. But since King William came to the Crown No Salutation No Message No Prayers for No Address to him from their Yearly Meeting †Unless this in 1698. now the War is ended and no Hopes left them No in all Humility No in all Fidelity No with all Affection No Publick Prayers for his long Life for his prosperous Reign No Laud and Praise that his Enemies are defeated Here is all No No No nor one Book wrote in Favour of the Government during this Reign But that my Reader may rightly understand which side of the Hedge the Quakers have to this Day hid themselves I will recite one Query to them anew as in that Book of mine I did New Rome Unmask'd c. p. 31. as I took it out of a Jacobite Catechism p 5. For as I would not write one Sheet which hath not a Tendency to shew either their Errours Hypocrisie Covetousness or Treachery to the Nation so shall I take in all that concur thereto tho' it be Twenty Sheets The Query is Query What made the Quakers no more concern'd for the Loss of those brave Patriots of our Country Essex Russel Sidney Cornish Bateman c. I could never get an Answer to this Query This was such an untoward knotty Question that all the Quakers were not able to answer it that ever I understood No no instead of being sorry G. Whitehead Fran. Camfeild Gilbert Layty and Alex. Parker deliver'd an Address to King Charles II. at Windsor about the time of the Execution of my Lord Russel This was the first Address they ever made to Authority crying out extreamly against all Hellish Plots and all Trayterous Conspiracies and that they had nothing but Love and Good-will to him and his Brother the Duke of York But to return to the Observation I have made on the Quakers Publick Prayers for and their Yearly Meetings Address to the late King James II. and their contrary Practice to King William III * No for what they do at their Yearly Meeting is is done by the Body I have something more to offer as an Aggravation of their Ingratitude for they made an Order for the calling in the Widow Whitrow's Books she being formerly of their Society and by her plain Dress some take her to be so still which was in Favour of this Government Now G. Whitehead what Scripture had you for that Or by what Authority did you presume to give out this Order Now I shall transcribe the Widow Whitrow's Paper concerning the Quakers Order for calling in her Books which is as followeth viz. December 1689. The Widow Whitrow ordered Andrew Sowle to Print a Book for her intituled The Widow Whitrow's Humble Address to King William III. And in December 1690. ordered him to Print another Book intituled For Queen Mary the Humble Salutation and Faithful Greeting of the Widow Whitrow †The very Titles of these Books were sufficient for the Ruling Quakers to Censure the Books c. Both which were well accepted and which Andr. Sowle * Sowle was the Quakers Printer and Bookseller sent into the Country to his Friends the Quakers and many of the said People did buy them and liked them well †This perplexed the Foxonian Quakers and sent for more But the chief Quakers in London at their Monthly Meeting at Devonshire-House the 7 th of January following made an Order to have all those Books called in and appointed John Ethridge and William Ingram to go to the Printer and acquaint him with the said Order which accordingly they did Too true Sons of the Foxonian Quaker-Church At which the Printers seem'd troubled saying They thought Friends would not have been against them i. e. such Books seeing they were mostly writ against the Pride and Wickedness of the Times And asked What it was they had against the Books They answered They * Meaning their Monthly Meeting had little against them Only that they were writ in Favour of This Government and reflected upon the former †i. e. Their brave King James II. and that Friends had Resolved not to Meddle with the Government c. It is to be observed That the first Book called The Address c. was Printed above a Year before and sold by their Booksellers and not any Stop put to them till some †Viz. The Lord Preston W. P. c. were endeavouring the Overthrow of this Government so that it is easily to be understood what the Meaning was of such an Order at such a Time and Season c. This Account is still ready to be attested if deny'd and which I signify'd something of formerly but now I thought fit to recite it at large See New Rome Arraign'd c. p. 30. Well this Order was made where G. Fox and the Chief Governing Quakers in London were present in January but in February following came out a Proclamation against one of their chief Men who upon the News of it and as a
tacit Confession of great Guilt run up a Cock-loft at least a Chamber Four Story high to hide himself Let now the Quakers remember their Book where they say Some of the Presbyterian Nonconforming-Preachers are fled Beyond-Sea others lurk in Corners here and there and keep private Conventicles where many times they preach Sedition against their Lawful Prince c. as I before observed and let Mr. Penn remember and be humbled and thankful for the Favours he has receiv'd and the Forgiveness he has met with And let him look upon his Preface viz. To the Christian Quaker and his Divine Test The PRIESTS like FOXES seeing their KENNEL TUMULTUOUS BLOOD-THIRSTY COVENANT-BREAKING GOVERNMENT-DESTROYING ANABAPTISTS keep their old Haunt of creeping into GARRETS Cheese-lofts Coal-boles and such-like Mice-Walls * Now W. Penn himself was forced to hide and upon a far worse Occasion than those he mentions as may be seen by Their Majesties Proclamation c. By the King and Queen a Proclamation for Discovering and Apprehending William Penn and James Grahme MARIE R. Whereas Their Majesties have received Information That William Penn Esq and James Grahme Esq with other Ill-affected Persons have Designed and Endeavoured to Depose Their Majesties and Subvert the Government of this Kingdom by Procuring an Invasion of the same by the French and other Treasonable Practices and have to that End held Correspondence and Conspired with divers Enemies and Traytors and particularly with Sir Richard Grahme Baronet Viscount Preston in the Kingdom of Scotland and John Ashton Gent. lately Attainted of High-Treason For which Cause several Warrants for High-Treason have been issued out against them but they have withdrawn themselves from their usual Places of Abode and are fled from Justice Their Majesties therefore have thought fit by and with the Advice of their Privy Council to Issue this Their Royal Proclamation And Their Majesties do hereby Command and Require all their Loving Subjects to Discover Take and Apprehend the said William Penn and James Grahme where-ever they may be found and to carry them before the next Justice of the Peace or Chief Magistrate who is hereby Required to Commit them to the next Goal there to remain until they be thence Delivered by due Course of Law And Their Majesties do hereby Require the said Justice or other Magistrate immediately to give Notice thereof to Them or Their Privy Council And Their Majesties do hereby Publish and Declare to all Persons that shall Conceal the Persons above-named or any of them or be Aiding or Assisting in the Concealing of them or Furthering their Escape that they shall be proceeded against for such their Offence with the utmost Severity according to Law Given at Our Court at White-Hall the Fifth Day of February 1690 1. in the Second Year of Our Reign Whereupon as I was credibly informed one Mr. Pennyman on the 22d of that instant February 1690 1. in Abhorrence of this Traiterous Conspiracy uttered these Words in their Meeting in White-Hart-Court in Grace-Church-Street London Viz. He that is a Traytor or he that in the least goeth about to betray this his Native Country he is a Traytor to the Living God and he that is a Traytor to his Maker is not nor cannot be a Disciple of Jesus that Holy and Just One and he that is guilty of such cursed hellish Practices must bear his Judgment whoever he be But as an Aggravation of this their Crime they did not only make that Order for the suppressing the said Address to the King which was writ I believe in Love and Good-will to him c. but suffered their Printer Andrew Sowle a Quaker to print several Odious and Scandalous Books and Papers of Mr. Stafford's against the Government and tho' they were friendly and privately acquainted with it with Desire that those Scandalous Books c. might not be dispersed yet they could not be prevailed withal to have them stopt However to do the Quakers all just Right we must acknowledge some of them and indeed but some and that of their Hearers too were for the Government who to give them their due drew up a Paper against W. Penn for being concerned in that horrible Plot with the Lord Preston c. For they having seen his Letters that he had writ on that Occasion in Aaron Smith's Custody and were assured that they were of his own Hand-writing This Paper was signed by W. Mead and a few more who would have had it made Publick but the contrary Party being powerful prevented it Only when W. Penn after his Sculking some Years appeared by our merciful King's Favour and preached as formerly in the Quakers Meetings then W. Mead and some others took him to task telling him That tho' the King had pass'd by his Offence yet they knowing him Guilty as by the said Letters under his own Hand was manifest they ought to have Satisfaction as they were a Religious Society before he preach'd in their Assemblies But he having the Teachers on his side and the Generality of the Hearers he went on nolens volens and if there had not been a Peace 't is to be still feared that W. Penn and his Confederates for some of 'em held it out to the very last asserting it for a Truth that there would be no Peace unless c. would have pursued their Design which might have proved fatal to this Nation But still to shew that the Quakers have rather merited the Displeasure of the Government than the Favour and Countenance thereof and of which they so often boast viz. of their being Recognized Protestants of their being Free-born Englishmen and thereby of their Rights and Priviledges as such I shall recite an Abstract of another Act of Parliament and shew their Non-submission and Aversion thereunto intituled Anno Septimo Octavo Gulielmi III Regis An Act for the better Security of His Majesties Royal Person and Government N o 551 552. Whereas the Welfare and Safety of this Kingdom and the Reformed Religion do next under God intirely depend upon the Preservation of Your Majesty's Royal Person and Government which by the merciful Providence of God of late have been delivered from the Bloody and Barbarous Attempts of Traytors and other Your Majesty's Enemies who there is just Reason to believe have been in great Measure Encouraged to Vndertake and Prosecute such their wicked Designs partly by Your Majesty's Great and Vndeserved Clemency * * W. Penn is not this true towards them and partly by the want of a sufficient Provision in the Law for the securing Offices and Places of Trust to such as are well-affected to Your Majesty's Government and for the Repressing and Punishing such as are known to be Disaffected to the same Be it Enacted c. No. 554. Whereas there has been a Horrid and Detestable Conspiracy formed and carried on by Papists and other Wicked and Trayterous Persons for Assassinating His Majesties Royal Person in order to encourage an
Realms nor yet Sign'd their Paper And therefore they must go home and get another more Authentick or their Bill for their Affirmation to pass in lieu of an Oath would be rejected Well away they went very sorrowful and I conceive might have amongst themselves a Discourse of this Nature viz. G. Whitehead Friends our Paper is rejected for yonder was our old Antagonist Francis Bugg and he has deliver'd to the Peers a Paper suggesting that we Prevaricate he has also delivered about an Hundred of his Books to the Lords intituled The Quakers set in their True Light c. and therefore we must get another Ancient Testimony more full to the Matter lest we lose the Advantage of our Bill but let us stay awhile for if we go presently who knows but that Apostate may reply to our next Paper for he is so Eagle-ey'd that if he espy any thing that 's defective he may be instrumental in throwing out our Bill You cannot but remember that we were fair for the same Bill to pass in Anno 1693. but he then Printed a Sheet and deliver'd it to the House of Commons and in Three Hours time our Bill was thrown out of the House Indeed we Printed a Sheet stiled The Quakers Vindication c. but he having printed a Thousand of those Sheets and gave to the House about 500 and sent to all the Coffee-Houses from Westminster to Bishopsgate about 400 more he prevail'd against us Nay this is not all but presently wrote a Book intituled Quakerism Withering and Christianity Reviving c. and deliver'd about Two or Three Hundred of them to the House of Commons We saw our selves so baffled that we thought it not meet to revive our Bill that Sessions of Parliament and therefore let 's be wise let us stay until we think he is out of Town for he has been here Two or Three Weeks already and what with his Charge in Printing the Papers he gave to the Lords and the Charge of giving in so many of The Quakers set c. together with his Charges of staying one way or other it will cost him not so little as 6 or 7 l. and he having no Publick Fund to go to it will make him weary c. I say after this they got another Paper and presented to the House of Lords a Copy thereof is as followeth The Ancient Testimony and Principle of the People called Quakers renewed with Respect to the King and Government presented to King William III. We the said People do solemnly and sincerely declare That it hath been our Judgment and Principle from the first Day we were called to profess the Light of Christ Jesus manifested in our Consciences unto this Day That the setting Up and putting Down Kings and Governments is God's peculiar Prerogative and that it is not our Work or Business to have any Hand or Contrivance therein nor to be Busiebodies above our Station much less to Plot or Contrive the Ruin or Overturn of any of them but to Pray for the King and Safety of the Nation and Good of all Men * * No hold not for the Priests nor Governours unless they please you that we may live a Peaceable and Quiet Life in all Godliness and Honesty under the Government which God is pleased to set over Us And according to Our Ancient and Innocent Principle We often have given forth Our Testimony and now freely and sincerely do the same against all Plotting Conspiracies and Contriving Insurrections and against all Treacherous Barbarous and Murderous Designs whatsoever against the King or the Government as being Works of the Devil and Darkness And We believe that the timely Discovery and Prevention of the late Barbarous Design and Mischievous Plot against King William * * A forc'd put First time and the Government and the sad Effects it might have had is an eminent Mercy from Almighty God for which We and the whole Nation have great Cause to be humbly thankful to Him and to pray for the Continuance of His Mercies to Them and Us And We sincerely bless God and are heartily thankful to King William ††O brave This is the second time and the Government for the Liberty and Priviledges We enjoy under them by Law And further We are really satisfied that God by His Special Providence did bring in and set up King William * * This is News indeed Third time over these Realms and do own Him Rightful and Lawful King ††But George why did you not say so freely without Whip or Spur and are obliged in good Conscience to be True and Faithful to Him and the Government as becomes Obedient Followers of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ At a Meeting of the said People in London the Third of April 1696. Signed by many of Us on Behalf of our selves and the rest of our Friends and presented to the King Apr. 8. 1696. Thus endeth their April Ancient Testimony Reader before I come to make Observations upon these two March and April Ancient Testimonies of the Quakers there is one thing very remarkable and worth your noticing in the whole Conduct of Quakerism and that in two Respects the first is past the second 's still to come and ought to be guarded against and which makes me so long on this Head and so plain with them in this Matter and briefly thus That altho' no one People in England did so flatter Oliver Cromwell Richard his Son the Rump and all the several Changes of Government during the Usurpation as the Quakers did nor more oppose the Restauration of K. Charles II. Nay not only so but justifying Oliver in his Murthering K. Charles I. and in carrying on the War with all Vigour against the Cavaliers and Delinquents But when the Times turned Oh! how they laid all the Blame of both the War and Usurpation upon the Presbyterians Independants and Baptists as if they themselves had all along been as Innocent as New-born Babes This puts me in mind of a pleasant piece of News we had run thro' our whole Camp when I was a Quaker viz. Anno 1674. W. Penn put forth a Book stil'd A Just Rebuke to Twenty-one Divines c. P. 25. Was it not a great Reason of the Wars that divided so many Families shed so much Blood and exhausted so great a Treasure Did it not lay Episcopacy in the Dust and excite the Parliament in these very Terms Elijah opposed Idolatry and Oppression so do ye down with Baal's Altars down with Baal's Priests do not I beseech you consent unto a Toleration of Baal's Worship in this Kingdom which is as much as to say said Penn away with Arch-Bishops Bishops and the whole Ministry and Worship of the Church of England Again The Mouths of your Adversaries are opened against you that so many Delinquents that is to say said W. Penn Royalists are in Prison and yet but few of them brought to Tryal Did
free-willing Heart that thou may'st rock Nations as a Cradle ††This is their Ancient Testimony and keep thou in the Fear of the Lord and all thy Soldiers and them that are under thee This is a Charge to thee in the Presence of the Lord God I am a Lover of thy Soul and Eternal Good an Establisher of Righteousness G. FOX * * The Righteousness of Gâ—d c. p. 11. To thee O Oliver Cromwell thus saith the Lord I had chosen thee among the Thousands in the Nations to execute my Wrath upon my Enemies and gave them to thy Sword with which I Fought for the Zeal of my own Name and gave thee the Enemies of my own Seed to be a Curse and a Reproach for ever and made thee an Instrument against them And many have I cut down by my Sword in thy Hand that my Wrath might be executed on them to the utmost G. Roffe These I affirm were your Ancient Testimonies in Print which deserves to be burnt on Tower-Hill Secondly I must acknowledge it is according to your Old Testimony with Respect to your Hypocrisie viz. in pretending to pay your Acknowledgment to the King for his Kindness and yet never mention by Name what King you mean'd when two Kings laid Claim to the Crown and for which your Paper was justly rejected as a Fruit of your Hypocrisie of which your Second-Day Meeting is full Thirdly It was according to your Ancient Deceit in not owning King William to be your Rightful and Lawful King and yet to tell the House of Lords that your refusing to Sign the Association was not in Opposition to his being declared Rightful and Lawful King of these Realms which piece of Hypocrisie the Lords soon perceived and sent you packing with your Paper Fourthly It was also according to your Ancient Testimony in wheeling about and worshipping the Rising-Sun to bring in your April Testimony with the King's Name three times over and to own him your Rightful and Lawful King and YET to leave your Promise of Signing the Association Fifthly It was according to your Old Testimony of Deceit and Hypocrisie to pretend in your said April Testimony That you owned King William III. to be Rightful and Lawful King and yet in your March Testimony to pretend your Conscience would not allow you Liberty to Sign the Association according to the Act of Parliament in that Case made and provided as above-recited in regard you could not avenge your selves But being told by my Paper which I presented to the Lord's House which was in Reply to yours That you told R. Cromwell You would be a Strength to him and stand by him in the Day of his Trouble and Defend him and his just Government c. Then in your next Paper to wit your April Ancient Testimony you left out your refusing to Sign the Association as well as the Cause why you could not Sign it * O deep Deceit 'T is well for you that the Lords did not perceive this namely because you pretended you cannot take Revenge For alas in that my said Paper I had shew'd the Lords That you had prosecuted a Man for killing a Quaker gave 50 l. for the Discovery of him got him and procur'd him to be hang'd in Chains and yet could not avenge the Blood of your Prince †Tâ—ey can revenge the Blood of a privaâ—… 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 reâ—…ge the Bâ—…d of their Prince Hâ—peful Subjects They deserve Protection apace O tender Consciences Thus you make Conscience your Stalking Horse in all your Villanies besides your Indicting my self and others are Demonstrations that you can seek Revenge for Personal Wrongs and Injuries and 〈◊〉 you cannot for Conscience-sake stand by and defend King William as you promised you would Richard Cromwell in his JUST GOVERNMENT c. Some Inferences from the Eleventh Chapter IS it so then that this Second Days Meetings is as the Helm to the Ship the Wheel within the Wheel which set all going and that they can leave out of their Reprints such Prophesies as suit not with the Times This shews them arrant Impostors Is it so that neither Second-Days Meetings nor Yearly Meetings have ever yet given out one Publick Address to King William III. nor one Congratulatory Paper to acknowledge Him their Right and Lawful * For their Ancient Testimony April 3. 1696. and their late Paper presented to the King Feb. 7. 1697. were both drawn up of a Friday King and that they refused to Sign the Association with the rest of His Majesty's Subjects What reason then have they either grounded upon Reason or Merit to expect such singular Favours from the Government as they would seem to insinuate they have And why boast they so much upon their Right of Priviledges when they 'll comply with nothing but what suits with their Interest and Design And where they are call'd to any Publick Test either for their Fidelity to the Government or to stand by and defend the King they then at every turn plead their Conscience in Excuse from their Duty What! Hath no Body any Conscience but they Is it so that their Ancient Testimony is so utterly against Monarchy against Parliaments and Magistrates as to say We stand Witnesses against Parliaments Councils Judges Justices who make or execute Laws in their Wills over the Consciences of Men or punish for Conscience-sake and to such Laws Customs Courts or Arbitrary Usurped Dominion we cannot yield Obedience that the Parliament is the Beast and the Church of England the Whore of Babylon that no King is to Rule but Jesus c. See Burrough's Works p. 203 501 524. I have instanced three several Acts they 'll not obey And thereupon they 'll obey no Act of Parliament which cross their Design What reason is there for their so boasting at every turn of their being Recognized as Protestants when their Principles are not only repugnant to all Christians but their Practice to all Protestants the World over and till they repent thereof and retract their Errours they are a Scandal to Christianity and a Reproach to the Name of Protestant I have by me the Address of the Honourable House of Commons made in February 1697. and His Majesty's Gracious Answer thereto I have also His Majesty's Gracious Proclamation which consists chiefly of Two Parts the one against Vice Immorality and Prophaneness the other Part against Writing Printing or Publishing Pernicious Books and Pamphlets containing impious Doctrines against the Holy Trinity and other Fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith c. I have also by me a Copy of the Quakers Paper presented to His Majesty dated the 7th of February 1697. wherein they own him King as the Jewish Captives did Belshazzar Dan. 5.21 and thereby themselves Captives wherein they take some notice of the first Particular but not a Word of the latter But this Chapter is extended beyond what at first I intended so shall not at
it not amount to a just Provocation to any Child to see such foul Aspersions and horrible Slanders cast upon his Mother from whose Breasts of Consolation he hath received great Consolation and Comfort both to vindicate her and to set forth what manner of Men they are that thus scandalize his Mother-Church not only privately in their Chimney Corners but in their Meetings yea in Print in all Cities Towns and Villages c. G. Whitehead said That God laid a Necessity upon him to write his Book Judgment fixed c. where he called me and others Apostate Informers Treacherous Hypocrites False Brethren Deceitful Workers Betraying Judas 's Devils Incarnate Dogs Wolves Raging Waves c. And his God laying such a Necessity upon him thus to Write and Rail in Vindication of Quakerism he adds And in the discharging my Duty I neither consult Events nor fear Effects Now in Answer I cannot pretend to such an immediate Motion as the Quakers do but I do really think my self in point of Duty and Conscience to bear these Testimonies against the foul Aspersions of these railing Rabsheka's and have both consulted and considered the Events that may ensue and hope well of the Effects that may follow even the Confutation of their Teachers and Conviction of their Hearers and I hope the Conversion of the Sincere amongst them And now to the Men and what manner of Men they are that thus undermine the Christian Religion Ministry and Worship And thus much by way of Introduction to the Cage of Unclean Birds POSTSCRIPT Note Reader That George Fox the first Bird in the Cage did cause John Fretwell Christ Gilhorn Ja. Nayler and others to go down upon their Knees before him publickly before Friends which is Idolatry and then and there upon their Knees to make their Confession and own Judgment upon what he charged them with before he would own them or receive them into the Unity amongst Friends c. To all People professing the Eternal Truth c. p. 6. per John Harwood one of G. W. 's Fellow-Preachers Babylon is fallen is fallen and is become the Habitation of Devils and the Hold of every foul Spirit and a Cage of every Unclean and Hateful Bird. For her Sins have reached unto Heaven and God bath remembered her Iniquity Rev. 18.2,5 Reward Her even as She hath Rewarded you and double unto Her double according to Her Works In the Cup which She hath filled fill to Her double Rejoyce over Her thou Heaven and ye Holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on Her Ver. 6 20. A Cage of Vnclean Birds GEORGE FOX John Harwood George Smith Edw. Burrough Samuel Fisher Stephen Crisp Will. Warwick Jos Helling Samuel Cater Thomas Leacock Allelujah Fisher Solomon Eccles John Audland Jofiah Coale T. Thurston George Whitehead Thomas Ell Rich. Hubberthorn William Gosnell Thomas Biddle William Gibson John Whitehead Sam. Newton Christ Atkinson Daniel Wills Immanuel D Jo. Swinton Sen. Tho. Rudiard John Blaikling John Ty Ezekiel Wooley John Moon Francis Howgill Isaac Pennington Reader I am now about opening the Cage and shall take out Twelve of the Birds and open their Wings and spread their Feathers to the Intent thou maist view them and note their Features and observe their Natures and Dispositions and George Fox the Cage-Keeper shall be over and above with some little Observations upon him and the rather because G. Whitehead has denied That the Quakers call him their Branch their Star their Son of Righteousness c. in his Sober Expost c. p. 55 58. I remember that about the Year 1662. Geo. Fox came into the Isle of Ely and at his Meetings great part of his Discourse was about the Cage of Unclean Birds saying The Church of England as in his Epistle to be read in Churches and the Professors were a Cage of Unclean Birds and the Note he made them sing was thus Come ye Episcopals How do you sing in the Cage Answ No Perfection here no Perfection here Well come you Presbyterians Independants and Baptists what say you How do you sing Let us hear your Note Answ No Perfection here no Perfection here Then said George Come out of the Cage in a very comical Manner Thus did he deride the Professors of Christianity exalting themselves a Figure of which you have in Geo. Whitehead's Sermon in the Thirteenth Chapter And now you shall hear how his Birds chirrup and what Note they sing to his Lute But to understand this rightly I think it necessary to give you a brief Description of Geo. Fox that so when you hear Six of the Birds of one sort sing to his Tune and dance after his Pipe you may the better understand whether they do not call him their Branch c. First He G. Fox a great Liar like Mahomet a great Seducer like Symon Magus a vain Boaster like Ignatius Loyold saying That neither he nor his Name was known in the World Several Petitions Answered c. p. 60. when there was not Ten Men in the whole Nation more universally known Secondly In that he taught That he that hath the same Spirit that raised up Jesus Christ is equal with God that he was before Languages were and that he was come to the end of Languages Saul's Errand c. p. 8. His Battledoor the Introduction c. Thirdly In that he taught That he was come to such a Fulness of Glory as that his Head and Ears was filled full of Glory yea that a Thundering Voice answered him saying I have glorified thee and will glorifie thee again alluding to John 12.28,29 The Examination and Tryal of G. Fox at Lancaster Assize c. p. 21. Fourthly In that he said David's Sepulcher was with the Quakers and that they had seen it Truth 's Defence c. p. 56. An abominable Lie like that of Mahomet's Journey up to Heaven upon an Ass Fifthly In saying That if every People own the Prophets and Apostles Writings they will own the Writings of the Quakers and that they may as well condemn the Scriptures to the Fire as their Papers and Queries c. Several Petitions Answered c. p. 38. Truth 's Defence p. 2 104. Sixthly In that he taught That he wrought Miracles Fox 's Journal the Third Index and yet never wrought a Miracle in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth all his Days only some Lying Wonders forged out of his Luciferian Brain without any Attestation like Symon Magus Seventhly In that he taught That the Breach of the Eighth Commandment Thou shalt not steal was no Sin if moved thereto by the Spirit of the Lord. G. Fox 's Great Mystery c. p. 77. In this Fox if not a Ranter yet joined with them and so are all that own his Doctrine Eighthly In that he taught That to call the Scriptures the Word of God was Blasphemy whilst that he yea even he called his own Writings the Word of God and frequently the Word of the Lord. Way to
all its Parts A small Treatise wrote in Alisbury Prison the 3d. Month 1661. by J. Whitehead Jo. Whitehead the Fourth Bird. where he saith In the Year 1648. God who had Compassion on his People did cause a Branch to spring forth of the Root of David which was filled with Vertues for the Covenant of Life and Peace was in him Jo. Whitehead the Fourth Bird. 'T is well Calculated for about 1648. Fox first rose in the North only did not spread forth his Branches till about 1650. And he Fox spread and shot forth many Branches which did partake of the Fatness of the Root and the Weary came to Rest under his Fox 's Branches and in him Fox was also the Word of Reconciliation which turned the Hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the Disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just And in the Year 1652. I John Whitehead being a Branch of this Tree Fox the Life of its Root caused me to Blossom and bring forth Fruit for the Spirit as a Key opened his Fox 's Treasure and shewed me for he was before Languages were that which was from the beginning Read p. 4 5. of the same Treatise Thus then has this J. Whitehead put all out of Doubt and quite confuted G. Whitehead and overthrown all his Arguments by confessing Matter of Fact If I have made Whitehead oppose Whitehead 't is no more than in other Cases I have done for the Quakers having no Bottom no Solid Foundation but all speaking as their Light move them it 's casie to see how they interfere and jarr only G. W. has this Faculty he can otherwife word his Matter and yet mean the same A right Jesuit a Doctrine first coin'd in their Mint and only serve to their Ends whose Work has been to sow Divisions make Rents and beget Schisms c. The next Bird shall be John Audland in a Letter of his to G. Fox from the West of England an Abstract thereof is as follows viz. John Audland the Fifth Bird. Dear and Precious one in whom my Life is bound up and my Strength in thee stands by thy Breathings I am nourished by thee my Strength is renewed Blessed art thou for evermore and Blessed are all that enjoy thee Life and Strength comes from thee Holy one daily do I find thy Presence with me which doth exceedingly preserve me for I cannot reign but in thy Presence Fox and Power Pray for me that I may stand in thy Dread Fox for evermore I am thine Fox Begotten and Nourished by thee and in thy Power Fox am I preserved Glory unto thee Fox Holy One for ever Reader These are the Birds in the Cage tell me are they not all of a Feather Do they not all agree in the main That G. Fox was the Quakers Branch and Star yea their All in All the Bottom and Corner and Top-Stone of their Building Pray spare me the Pains of a large Comment I think there is no need he that runs may read and he that reads may understand the Foundation of Quakerism no marvel then if it wither no marvel if it fall like a Millstone into the Bottom of the Sea never more to rise But let me add another Bird since I have Plenty c. Jo. Blaikling the Sixth Bird. Here followeth the Testimony and Certificate of John Blaikling to the clearing of the Aspersions that William Rogers c. cast upon G. Fox that 's blessed with Honour above many Brethren and that Thousands will stand by him in a Heavenly Record unto the Integrity of his Soul to Truth that still lives with him That his Life Reigns and is Spotless Innocent and still retains his Integrity whose Eternal Honour and Blessed Renown shall remain yea his Presence and the dropping of his Tender Words in the Lord's Love was my Soul's Nourishment c. The Christ Quaker disting c. 5th Part p. 77. Come George Whitehead give me thy Hand ☞ ☜ I 'll take thee out of the Cage and do thee this Honour not to be a Partner with the last Six Blasphemous Birds but as a Witness for them that we may hear what thou canst say on their Behalf But I 'll put thee in again and keep thee there lest thou flyest up and down the Nation and do more Mischief Oh George thou art a plump Bird thou' rt grown fat I find well what canst thou say I affirm that G. Fox does deny the same i. e. these Divine Attributes in reference to himself as a particular Man or Person whose Days and Years are limited only the Truth of the Immortal Seed Christ in him he stands to maintain against all Opposers and Apostates Judgment fixed c. p. 19. And as to his Francis Bugg 's Charge of Idolatry if not Blasphemous Names and Titles given to Geo. Fox in certain Letters how proves he Francis Bugg that they gave and intended those Titles to the Person of Geo. Fox and not to the Life of Christ in him Innocency against Envy c. p. 18. How George I 'll tell thee how because Josiah Coale said Dear G. Fox c. by this I know they intended G. Fox for if they had intended those Titles to the Life of Christ in him they would have directed their Letters suitably saying Dear Life of Christ in G. Fox c. This I hope will satisfie thee if Reason could take place if not I despair of giving thee or thy Friends Satisfaction But George for thy Comfort if thou wilt mean as thou say'st according to the Import of thy Words and on that Foot retract and condemn these thy Fallacious Covers and Excuses and thy own apparent Errors and the Errors in thy Friends Books which thou hast most impudently glossed over with thy Hypocritical Paint I will take thee out of the Cage if not there lye for ever singing Here is Perfection here is Perfection c. Thus much shall serve in answer to G. W.'s Book intituled A Sober Expostulation c. p. 54 55 56. as well as to shew what manner of Birds are in the Cage of this sort namely Blasphemers and Idolaters and next let me take out Six of the other sort namely of their Vicious Teachers against whom G. Whitehead would not write a Book for the World No seriously I believe him his Sincerity is so true to their Ancient Testimony besides if he should there being so few of them clear that here would be Hell broke loose for if they should write one against another all would come out and then they 'd appear a dark sort of Quakers indeed Christopher Atkinson the Seventh Bird but the first of the last Six beforementioned who was since hang'd for Felony And Christ Atkinson was G. Whitehead's Fellow-Traveller Fellow-Sufferer Fellow-Writer and Fellow-Preacher But so it was that he got Ursula the Maid-Servant of Tho. Symonds with Child when he was a Sufferer for their Ancient Testimony in Norwich-Goal but this was not all
Scott a Linnen-Draper in London * Lying and Forgery meet in this Upright and Well-meaning Quaker as Geo. Whitehead and Sam. Cater wrote of him for 40 l. but I forget something which is remarkable of this 40 l. there wanted 15 s. which Washington promised to send as also to find it Linnen for a Year or more all which is forgot as Goodwife Owers averrs and she is a VVoman of good Repute and the Child lives well and looks well this Child was put to Goodman Owers under the Name of Mary Scott but they have Baptiz'd the Child and call'd it Mary Smith Goodman Owers is dead but his VVidow is alive and lives at Risby within three Miles of Bury and six Miles of Barton-Mills and two small Miles distance from Great-Saxum where the Boy lives and this Boy and Girl often visits each other And if their Father had but that Grace to take Care of them it might mitigate his Crime I am sure it would have abated the Edge of my Pen for he is my Kinsman And were it not to discover the Quakers VVays I should not have been so large and sent him a Letter to that Purpose A Copy of it followeth * For I was advised by a Gentleman in Risby to take some Care about it c. Cousin George I was requested by a Gentleman in our Country to use some Means that your By-Children which are put out to Nurse in our Country may have something settled upon them for their future Maintainance and pursuant thereunto I do desire it of you in regard it is but reasonable and just that you should do it Wherefore I make Application to you in this private Way as most suitable and it may make some Amends for your Crime and extenuate the Heinousness of your Offence for it seems to me a most horrible Crime besides the Sin and as an Aggravation thereof to beget Children and send them into the World as Vagrants they being from under the Verge of the Law and can be Heirs of nothing but the Shame of their Parents which altho' they cannot help it yet must they wear the Badge and Livery thereof as long as they live If you answer my Expectation in this Matter as I have hitherto been sparing of you so I shall make no Complaint to any Justice of the Peace if not you may depend on it if God give me length of Days I shall do what I legally can to have something settled on them And therefore let me have your Answer I am your Friend and Kinsman Fran. Bugg Sen. Aug. 30. 1697. But no Answer have I receiv'd since Come George Whitehead VVhat think you of these Things VVhere is your Seriousness VVhere is your Sincerity You told me that your God laid a Necessity upon you to write against me and others wherein you call'd me Apostate Informer Devil Incarnate Beast Dog Wolf c. Epistle to Judgment fixed But the before-mentioned you sooth up as well-meaning and upright Lambs and never writ a Book against them yet three Books against me in Nine Months time And George then you were Rampant you neither studied Events nor feared Effects you were resolved to go on come what will come you were resolved to Unchristian all that opposed you and separated from you you were resolved to ruin them if possible both in Name Reputation and Estate I have felt the weight of your Hand and the Strength of your Indignation and implacable Malice but blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that amongst his manifold Mercies to me that he hath vouchsafed to give me Time and Ability to return your sharp Arrows back into your own Bosoms and I let them fly freely I am not sparing for as Jeremiah said The Lord hath opened his Armory and hath brought forth the Weapons of his Indignation Jer. 50.24 And George they will light on the Skirts of this Painted Harlot and all thy Jesuitical Craft cannot throw it off for your Cause is drooping I have given you the Key of the Cage look into it and you may see the Abominations of the Earth even the Mystery of Iniquity VVell George after it came into my Heart to write this Book I said Shall I spare them any longer Concluding No But give this Harlot a double Cup and make her drink the very Dregs of it And having laid fast hold of the two main Pillars upon which your Building stands viz. INFALLIBILITY and PERFECTION I did with all my Might shake Judges 26.29 and behold it begins to tumble For George the time is come that one shall chase a Thousand and two shall put Ten Thousand to flight Deut. 32.30 And art thou so blind George that thou canst not see it Dost thou not see thy self and thy Brethren ready to fall upon your own Spears for very Anguish and Vexation of Spirit Art thou so ignorant George that thou canst not perceive thy self calling to the Hills to hide thee and the Mountains to cover and excuse thee Sober Expostulation First and Second Chapter But George thou hast no more Answer than Baal's Priests had 2 Kings 18.26 tho' you call from Morning to Evening and thump your Breasts and leap and jump from one end of your VVooden Pulpits to the other stamping like the Friars yet there is no Answer there is none to Pity you none to Mourn for you no Advocate to Plead for the stopping the Pens that are imployed against Quakerism no Babylon is falling is falling and great will be the Fall thereof even like a Millstone into the Sea so falls Quakerism never more to rise again Amen Amen Alleluja CHAP. XV. Sheweth the Enmity of the Quakers against me for my Testimony against their Errours and the Providence of God supporting me under my Sufferings IT is not unknown to many of the Quakers still alive with what Zeal and Care with what Sufferings by Fines and Imprisonments with what Pains and Charge I was in divers Kinds exercised whilst I was a Quaker and that for the carrying on the Cause of Quakerism nothing seemed dear to me to part withal or to spend for the Advancement thereof But when I came to see them walk contrary to what they pretended and that their seeming Sincerity was real Hypocrisie I then began to look into things that there might be a Reformation and the first thing that gave me occasion was see Innocency vindicated c. p. 8. That of forcing Apprentices to stand bareheaded in their Houses and Shops and yet at the same time pretended they could not put off their Hats in respect to Persons This looked so bad i. e. to receive nay exact Respect from our Inferiors and not to give it to our Superiors that I wrote a Letter to the Yearly Meeting in May 1675. as a Testimony against it which gave great Offence The next which gave Offence to me and others was our Teachers who would exhort us to be bold to give up all
telling us The Fleece would grow again who themselves at the same time would give up nothing nay not set themselves in a like suffering Capacity with the Hearers insomuch as that in the Loss of 13550 l. our Teachers never lost 50 l. but the Hearers suffer'd for them as also for themselves See Painted Harlot c. p. 5. And this I saw and spake against some Months before it fell to my turn to be Fined for our Preachers But at last I was sined 15 l. for Sam. Cater for that he did not declare his Name and Habitation and thereby put himself in a like Suffering Capacity with us the Hearers as I shewed at large see Reason against Railing c. p. 73 to 80. and how I prosecuted the Restitution of the said Fine of 15 l. and had it again tho' with great Loss by Charges Interest c. The third thing which gave me Offence was G. Fox's setting up a Female Government by VVomen's Meeting Monthly c. This I opposed vigorously and to be short I do think I gave by my Book that Image a deadly Blow De Chris Lib. c. Part 2d But by this time G. Whitehead Sam. Cater R. S. and others wrote several Books against me wherein they called me A Child of the Devil Enemy of all Righteousness an Apostate a Betraying Judas a Treacherous Hypocrite a Dog a Wolf a Beast an Informer 18 or 20 times in one Book intituled Judgment fixed c. The Lib. of an Apost Cons c. Righteous Judgment placed c. with abundance more such Stuff VVell upon this I apply'd my self to our Milden-Hall Meeting for a Certificate against these scandalous Detractions which they not only Printed but sent up and down into all Counties where I dealt particularly into Leicestershire in order to ruin my Reputation * Which then was a most hateful Name amongst Tradesmen VVell Twenty-seven Members of this Meeting gave me a Certificate many of them still alive and both then and still the chief Men of the Meeting See New Rome Unmask'd c. Epist to the Bereans and Introd See The Picture of Quakerism c. 2d Part p. 146. These Books they still sent into every County which did me much hurt in my Trade And this Certificate with the several Books I wrote so maul'd them that Sam. Cater and his Assistants gave over But G. Whitehead he still goes on he wrote sometimes three Books in less than a Year against me calling me Self-condemned Apostate Counterfeit Convert a Scandal to Christianity a Fool and Novice c. And when this would not effect their manifest Design then they sent Letters about against me and raised all manner of Lies and Stories and by Post sent me not only Books wrote against Francis Spira but Letters also A Relish of which is as followeth viz. Francis Bugg such as is thy Name such thy Nature the darkest of the creeping Things in the whole Earth they love the Night feeding upon Filth and Dung Night is thy Habitation the Earth has received thee Night and Darkness is come upon thee Thy Father is shut out of Heaven and thou also that makes ye Howl and Roar Woe hastens and the Eternal Night is come and coming upon thee Woe and Alas poor Night-Bugg c. 3d. 1st Month 1690. This Letter sent me without any Name to it I sent a Copy of it the next Post to Geo. Whitehead to know if he was the Author of it but he sent me word he was not nor did he know who was whether he said true or false therein I cannot tell But the 14th of the same Month I receiv'd another * Not of the same Hand-writing but the same Man which was Ste. Crisp for I know his Hand and have shewed it to others that do from the same Man tho' of a different Hand but the last I know to be Stephen Crisp's And thus he wrote Francis I am not Geo. VVhitehead Alas for Thee and Hogg and Pennyman the Arrows from Heaven shall stick fast in your Consciences when thou hast found me O Galilean And thou may hear more from me c. Then in Verse thus Indeed to Vaunt and proudly Bragg Doth not become a feeble Night-Bugg I Prophesie the Hour is near O Bugg unclean With wicked Julian shalt cry thou hast found me O Galilean As vile an Apostate as ever was wicked Julian A wicked Pharisee no Penitent Publican c. Reader here is enough to shew the Quakers Spirit and besides my Knowledge of its being Stephen Crisp's by his Hand-VVriting it 's to be observed that as above he said I might hear further from him for about three Months after came out another Book intituled Innocency against Envy Signed by G. W. and St. Crisp besides his usual Expression I Prophesie c. by which if Whitehead did not know of his first yet he knew of his second Letter and the Matter being the same in Substance I am satisfied it was his I am likewise to let you know that notwithstanding they pretended to the Parliament that they cannot seek Revenge for themselves and thereupon could not Sign the Association yet they Indicted me for Printing Unlicensed whilst it's their own frequent Practice in the Old-Baily London which put me to great Charge insomuch as one way or other by my attending this Controversie by Writing and Printing first by opposing their Errours next by vindicating my self from their repeated Abuses both Publickly and Privately both as a Man and Christian I did come by great Loss in my outward Estate and when Men perceived it they came so fast upon me as that I could not bear up See The Picture of Quakerism p. 79. I do not in all Cases justifie my self in the too much neglecting my Business to attend the Motion of the Quakers who are a compacted Corporation and my self a single Person there was too much odds But I met with such Provocations which would fill a Volume to relate and thereupon I came to see my Fall by the Hand of Saul for the Sons of Zerviah were too hard for me For I had maintained the Contest without the Help of the Clergy from 1675 to the Year 1697. and in all that time I never receiv'd of any one or more of them Ten Shillings nor Ten Nights Lodgings And whereas they now call me Mercenary because I have accepted of the Clergy's Kindness which has been very Bountiful let any Quaker of them all shew me that he have waged War at his own Charge and Cost so long and at so much Expence Cost Labour Pains Charge and Trouble and I will not from henceforth call him Mercenary but their Tongue is no Slander and now I shall shew somewhat of the wonderful Providence of God in my Preservation to this Day For when I found how the Case stood with me I waited Two or Three Months under some Heaviness and Concern hearing from all Quarters how the Quakers glory'd
over me notwithstanding they were the chief Cause of my Misfortune not only with respect to the Controversie but by Six or Eight of them breaking in my Debt Upon which I went to visit Mr. Erasmus Warren a neighbouring Minister and told him my Condition and he spake comfortably to me and bad me not be discouraged for God was All-sufficient and that the Earth was the Lord's and the Fulness thereof or to this purpose and told me that if I would write a Letter of Request to my Lord Bishop of Norwich he and some others would sign it I did so and it was signed by himself Mr. Archer Mr. Davis c. So I went to Norwich and did with no little Heaviness presume to go with it to my Lord Bishop of whom I did rather expect some little chiding being sensible of my own Fault than to be so kindly receiv'd But when I came to him he examined me about my Condition and press'd me to be honest and to pay as far as I was able For said he our Religion teacheth us to do Right and Justly by all Men and when you have done rest upon God's Providence it is not your Case alone Times have been hard and Disappointments many And then asked me what I would have him do for me I told him that if his Lordship would please to give me a Certificate of his Thoughts of me Iw as minded to make Application to my Lords the Bishops of the Church of England the two Universities and to some particular Clergy-men All which I no sooner asked than he granted me and it pleased God so to open the Hearts of my Lords the Bishops and Reveread Clergy that I found Help in time of Need and when it was in my Heart to write this Book I asked one of my Lords the Bishops Leave to give some Publick Acknowledgment of their Kindness but he answer'd me No go thy ways home and be thankful we desire no such thing But reading the Scriptures and finding in St. Mark 's Gospel Chap. 1. 44 55. that when Christ healed the Leper he charged him saying See thou say nothing to any Man c. But he the Leper being cured went out and began to publish it much and to blaze abroad the Matter and I never read that Christ blamed the Man for his Gratitude and I trust no more will his Ministers and Servants for this my Presumption For how can I receive such unexpected and unmerited Favours and not blaze it abroad I that for about Twenty Years Persecuted the Church and drew Disciples after me †I know of no one Man drew more into the Schism of Quakerism and yet upon my Return met with no upbraiding but rather like the returning Prodigal am met half way and loaden with Kindnesses Surely this is of the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in my Eye to whom be the Praise of all his Mercies and Providences now and for ever Amen A Copy of my Lord Bishop of Norwich's Certificate is as followeth THese are to certifie That I have known Francis Bugg some Years and that he has appear'd to me a Sober Honest and Industrious Man and to have taken much Pains to Undeceive and Convert the Quakers by Publishing useful Books and that not without Success but by the Hardness of Times several Losses and the Charge of Printing the Books he writ he is reduced to great Difficulties Wherefore I apprehend him a real Object of Charity and that he does truly deserve the Bounty of well disposed Persons unto whom I recommend him John Norwich Oct. 22. 1697. And having obtain'd this Favour together with his Bounty which was very considerable I took my Leave of him with many Thanks for his Kindness and Liberality First That I might take care not only to do what was just to others but to take care of my Family also for he that does not is worse than an Infidel Secondly That I might not lye under the Contempts and Insultings of the Quakers who as they have for many Years sought my Ruin * As they do all that oppose their Errors and Immoralities by all Ways and Methods they could devise both in Person Name and Estate so they have been observ'd like the Philistines Judges 16.24,25 to glory in my Misfortunes as thinking they had accomplished their Ends But notwithstanding all their Rejoycing I had a secret Hope that my Strength would be renewed and that God would enable me to lay hold of their two main Pillars Ver. 29. i. e. Perfection and Infallibility and putting thereto all my Might I should yet be able to shake their Building as at this Day Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath so wrought my Deliverance as to bring things thus far to pass Thirdly That thereby I might be enabled to grapple with the Quaker's Goliah that Uncircumcised Philistine Geo. Whitehead by Name who together with his Brethren have defied the Armies of Israel even all the Professors of the Christian Faith under every Denomination And not only so but Excuse Justifie Vindicate and Defend all the Idolatrous Practices Blasphemous Principles and Damnable Errors Said Wrote and Printed Broached and Spread by the Quaker Teachers enough to Infect the Nations if God had not put it into the Hearts of some Instruments to discover the same and thanks be to God who from the beginning of my Discovery of their Errors hath given me Strength Ability and Courage to go on and not to turn to the Right Hand nor to the Left in my Pursuit after Sheba the Son of Bichri that Man of Beliel 2 Sam. 20.21,22 i. e. Geo. Whitehead until I have hemm'd him in on every side altho' I have been hard beset and gone thro' many Difficulties and Streights * Which few know but my self and have been forced to climb up the Hill upon my Hands and Feet like Jonathan 1 Sam. 14.13 yet as he slew Twenty upon the spot so have I discomfited Twelve of their principal Men and maul'd Doeg the Edomite alias Jos Wyeth see my Sober Expostulation with the Hearers of the Quakers against the Mercenary Teachers c. p. 1. to the 15. that Pupil of W. Penn's who as I am informed was equally unbelieving with Mr. Penn touching the late happy Peace without a Restau such Hopes had they of extirpating the Protestant Interest c. for the time is come that One shall chase a Thousand and Two shall put Ten Thousand of them to flight and thus doth God bring to pass his Acts his strange Acts by weak Instruments to whom over all be the Glory together with the Son and Blessed Spirit Three Persons and One God now henceforth and for evermore Amen And therefore in the Words of David I will praise the Lord saying O Lord with my whole Heart I will shew forth all thy marvellous Works I will be glad and rejoice in thee I will sing Praise to thy Name O thou most
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
several Opposers Well I was not yet willing to give over this Meeting but I offer'd him to lay aside these Men and the Advantages I had thereby and to have a Publick Meeting with him provided he would first engage under his Hand to retract and condemn what I proved Erroneous Blasphemous and Idolatrous in the Quakers Books but this he also refused As at large in my Book Quakerism Withering c. pag. 5 6 7 8. Which to me is a sufficient Evidence that he is Self-condemn'd and Conscious to himself of the Quakers Manifest and Apparent Errors which he is not able to Vindicate as in an hundred Instances I might mention but I will only name one in this place viz. W. Rogers having wrote That the Quakers looked upon George Fox to be in that Place amongst the Children of Light in this our Day as Moses was amongst the Children of Israel in his Day to set forth the Methods of Church-Government c. The Christian Quaker Distin Part 1. p. 9 Part 4. p. 3. To this Geo. Whitehead replied saying And for Geo. Fox to be in this our Day in that VERY Place amongst the Children of Light as Moses was amongst the Children of Israel in his Day this Comparison we own not c. Now there was no Body said that he was in the VERY Place upon the VERY Spot of Ground on which Moses stood at Mount Sinai No but that George Fox was with respect to his Power and Authority to give forth Laws Statutes and Ordinances in the same Place that is endued with the like Authority And in this Sence G. W. did not deny but only that he might quibble it off as his manner has been and thereby blind the People for which he has a sore Cup to drink Read Burrough's Works pag. 515. and G. W.'s Serious Search pag. 51 52 53. and Third Part of the Quakers Quibbles p. 33 to 44. 85 to 95. and Dan. Leed's Voice of a Trumpet pag. 4 to 40. He that deceives willingly and of set purpose as I am certain has been his Custom What shall we say to such a one but must leave him to God the Righteous Judge G. Fox Jun. speaking in the Person of the Quakers Light viz. You have in your Imaginations put me afar off and will not own me the Light and Life in you I the Light will overturn Kingdoms Nations and gathered Churches which will not own me the Light in them I will make you know that I the Light which lighteth every Man that comes into the World am the true Eternal God c. This Whitehead vindicates The Light and Life of Christ within c. p. 11. Yea if we may consider what Titles G. Fox puts upon himself as Dan. Leeds says News of a Trumpet sounded c. pag. 109 110. Professing Equality with God A brief Relation c. p. 2 3. Gr. Myst pag. 67. 127. Saul's Errand pag. 6 7 8. News coming up c. p. 1. Quakers Challenge c. p. 6. And G. Whitehead and W. Penn's Vindication of those Divine Attributes given to G. Fox in their Books A Serious Search p. 58. Judas and the Jews c. p. 44. Judgment fixed c. p. 19 20. Innocency against Envy c. p. 18. The Accuser of our Brethren c. pag. 40 41. together with Fox's being set up a Worker of Miracles too I say says D. L. should the Jews give equal Credit to the things contained in their Books with the History of St. Luke how shall they know who is the Messiah G. Fox or JESUS of Nazareth especially since W. Penn denies that outward Person to be the Son of God which suffer'd at Jerusalem who was called JESUS of Nazareth See his Ser. Apol. c. pag. 146. Good Christian Reader says D. Leeds yea and Fr. Bugg consider the Event and Effects of these things be we intreat you otherwise minded than G. Whitehead is who says he neither consults Events nor fears Effects in what he writes See his Judgment Fixed c. Introd Thus then does it appear not only by what is here quoted but by what is taken from the Quakers Books in this and other of my Books in D. Leed's Books in G. Keith's Books in Th. Crisp's Books and others that Quakerism is a Plot against Christianity and strikes at its Root and Branch I cannot but foresee that my old Friends will be half angry with me for mentioning W. Penn's Plotting to Subvert the Government But this I can tell them honestly that since the Danger of that is over and His Majesty has out of his Gracious Favour pardon'd them I should not speak a Word of it did I not see that he and his Brethren are in a most Damnable Plot against the Christian Religion of which I gave Notice in The Pict of Quak. p. 72 to 102. But since that Alarm did not sound loud enough I have already and shall yet sound a little louder so that all Ears may tingle and Hearts may lament when they see the Honour of our Christian Religion defam'd and the Holy Profession thereof invaded by these Impostors But why should they be angry W. Penn has given me a Challenge to it saying This open Challenge I make That if amongst the many Plots that have been spoken of and several have been hang'd for that there has been one known Quaker found amongst them I confess that the Magistrate is excusable in his Discreet Jealousie over Us c. But then if one Instance of a Quaker-Traytor is sufficient to justifie the Discreet Jealousie of the Magistrates over the Quakers as William Penn truly says then to make up a Pair I may give a second Instance namely John Yates a Quaker who liv'd at Hull a Master of a Ship who for carrying Lead into France in the time of the late War had his Estate seiz'd but himself fled from his Dwelling and was forced to hide as his Partner did or else in all probability he might have been Hang'd for tho' they cannot Fight as they say yet they can carry Lead to make Bullets for the French to kill the English with All which shews that the Magistrates Discreet Jealousie over the Quakers is excusable by W. Penn's Allowance and truly I am of that Opinion too and not only in that Case but in their most Horrible Plot against Christianity which tends directly to subvert the Faith in the Crucified Jesus and therewith the Foundation of Christianity and I pray God to give the Magistracy a due Sence hereof and then to inspire them with an Holy Zeal to find out a Remedy For I do say that to me it does plainly appear and to as many as of late have been conversant in their Writings and who have observed the Tendency of them together with the whole Frame and Model of their Church-Government that Quakerism is a most Formidable Plot and a United Confederacy both against the Christian Religion the Professors thereof together with the
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.
whereby it 's manifest their Innocency so much boasted of is not Triumphant as G. W. says in his Book Innocency Triumphant c. And therefore the way to deal with these cunning Sophisters G. W. c. is still to pursue them with Challenges to call them into the Field and thereupon I will pitch my Standard here on Behalf of the Christian Religion and Protestant Profession against Quakerism Head and Tail and once more challenge G. Whitehead to appear on his own Proposition to the Parliament viz. For each of us to chuse four or six moderate Men of common Sense and Reason out of the Professors I call it his because he did voluntarily offer to meet me before any Six Ten or Twelve moderate Men c. of the Christian Faith and let us dispute it out fairly and above-board And thereupon I shall renew my Challenge and let it stand here as a Monument of the Quakers Cowardice and Self-Condemnation if they 'd rather lye under this heavy Charge following than to come out and make their Defence viz. First That they deny Jesus of Nazareth who was Born of the Blessed Virgin Mary who suffer'd without the Gates of Jerusalem to be Christ the Son of the Living God Secondly That they deny the Scriptures by their speaking contemptuously of them calling them Carnal Death Dust Beastly Ware Serpent's Meat c. and that Preaching out of them is Conjuration Thirdly That they exalt their own Sayings and Writings above the Scriptures as being of greater Authority and more Certainty not only in Words but in Practice Fourthly That they undervalued the Death and Sufferings of Christ Jesus by granting they were inflicted by or for the Transgression of a Law and executed in a great Measure at least by the due Execution of a Law Fifthly That they exalt their own Sufferings as greater and more unjust than the Sufferings of Christ his Apostles and Martyrs yea even than all the Persecutions from the Days of Christ to the Year of their Rise namely 1650. Sixthly And that for these and the like Reasons the Quakers Books which thus teach are Blasphemous and their Practices in their Adorations are Idolatrous This is my Charge which I have often laid down and which I now renew and offer to make good upon them if he will chuse his Men and meet me according to his own voluntary Offer and my Acceptation thereof or otherwise because I will give him his Choice of two Methods viz. or on Condition At Oxford I offer'd Sylas Norton to prove the same Charge against the Quakers and their Doctrine that he George Whitehead will engage under his Hand to Retract their Errors if proved upon them out of the Quakers Books wrote by their approved Authors and condemn the Books which teach this Horrible Doctrine promising my self also to Engage under my Hand to Retract what he shall prove Erroneous in my Books or False in Fact relating to my Charging the Quakers thereby making them publick Satisfaction and to Burn my Books if found Guilty as a Testimony of my Injustice A Sign of my not being Conscious of Guilt herein And to this I subscribe my my Name Aug. 3. 1698. Francis Bugg This then is my Flag of Defiance which I hold out to G. Whitehead c. this is my Standard which I have pitched ON Behalf of my Saviour JESUS CHRIST which the Quakers have Contemned Disown'd and Denied to be the SON of GOD ON the Behalf of the Scriptures which the Quakers say are Dust Death Beastly Ware Serpents Meat c. ON the Behalf of the Holy Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper which Christ Instituted ON the Behalf of the Church of ENGLAND both Magistrates and Ministers which the Quakers have most wickedly Traduced and Abused as Intolerable to bear and Seditious in its own Nature Let them come forth out of their Dens and Holes and acquit themselves like Men if they think I wrong them or else be content to lye under my Charge as self-condemned Persons and let them also know that my Book New Rome Arraigned c. stands unshaken and that George Whitehead is not Triumphant but forced by the Guilt of his Conscience to submit to the Charge above exhibited which is Ignoble and Base on his Part and will lower his Topsail to his great Abasement Shame and Confusion of Face in the Eyes of all sorts of Intelligent Persons Thus having stated the Contest between G. W. and me and advised my Friends and Fellow-Labourers not so much to Answer the Quakers Books as to Charge and Recharge them again and again till they at last being confounded with Shame Horror and Confusion be forced to come out But I shall shew Whitehead's Fallacy in his way of answering Books only by one Instance for I having in my Book New Rome Arraign'd c. pag. 47. by way of Retaliation upon the Quakers who call the Publick Ministers Antichrists and Deceivers and the World's Teachers given Fifteen Instances why the Quakers are the World's Teachers and Deceivers the second of which was this The Quakers who teach that the Name JESUS and CHRIST belongs to the whole Body and every Member in the Body as well and as amply as to Christ the Head are of the World and Deceivers New Rome Arraigned c. pag. 47. Now this was no Quotation but a Charge which rests for me to prove I grant the Word amply is by me added by way of Illustration but the Words as well that G. W. neither mentions nor disowns Isaac Pennington's Words are Doth not the Name Jesus and Christ belong to the whole Body and every Member in the Body as well as to the Head So that the Name is not given to the Vessel but to the Nature in the Vessel A Question to Professors by Isaac Pennington c. p. 27. P. 33. The Scripture does expresly distinguish between Christ and the Garment which he wore between Him that came and the Body in which he came between the Substance which was vailed and the Vail which vailed it Lo I come a Body hast thou prepared me there is plainly He and the Body in which He came there was the Outward Vessel and the Inward Life this we certainly know says Isaac and can never call the Bodily Garment Christ c. And whoever read the Scriptures may clearly see that the Quakers are False Teachers in that they first teach that the Name JESUS and CHRIST belongs to every Believer as well as to CHRIST the Head since they can first call him as you have heard A Garment a Vessel a Vail a Body but in express Words they say they cannot call Him Christ but whoever read the Scriptures by me quoted in the Sixteenth Chapter I hope they will be convinced And St. John says Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him Then came Jesus forth wearing a Crown of Thorns Then the Soldiers when they had crucified Jesus they took his Garments but one of
the Soldiers with a Spear pierced his Side She turned her self back and saw Jesus Jesus saith unto her touch me not for I am not yet ascended Thomas said except I shall see in his Hands the Print of the Nails and put my Finger into the Print of the Nails and thrust my Hand into his Side I will not believe Then saith he Jesus to Thomas reach hither thy Finger and behold my Hands and reach hither thy Hand and thrust it into my Side and be not faithless but believing And Thomas answered unto him my Lord and my God And many other Signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you might have Life through His Name John 1.5,23,34 20.14,17,25,27,28,30,31 Thus then it is evident That the same Jesus that was Born of the Virgin Mary the same Jesus which Suffer'd at Jerusalem is the Christ which the Apostles preached and which all true Christians believe in yet as evident That the Quakers do not own him nor believe in him For as above noted Isaac Pennington says there was the Outward Body which they can never call Christ Isaac Pennington's Question to Professors c. p. 27 33. G. W.'s Judgment fixed c. p. 336. W. Penn he says But that the Outward Person which suffer'd was properly the Son of God We utterly deny W. Penn 's Ser. Apol. c. p. 146. Well but let us hear this George Whitehead who thus reply'd saying I deny that the Quakers teach that the Name Jesus and Christ belongs to every Member in the Body as amply as to the Head Where proves he Fran. Bugg as amply Says Geo. Whitehead W. Baily's Works p. 229 230 307. The Sword of the Lord drawn c. pag. 5. Mark Reader here is a Tacit Confession of the Words as well tho' he carps at my Word amply which I put in for Illustration sake it not being a Quotation but a Charge which I still offer to make good if he will meet me on his own Proposition for I take the Word amply to mean no more but as Plainly as Evidently as Apparently and the Quakers say that the Name Jesus and Christ belongs to every Believer as well as to the Head This Whitehead denies not this he disowns not only carps at the Word amply And therefore my Advice to all my Fellow-Labourers is to take this my Method give New-Rome Charge after Charge as Geo. Keith has done see his Three Narratives as Daniel Leeds is a doing A Trumpet sounded out of the Wilderness c. p. 141. who has been a Quaker about 20 Years and let this be the Test between Christianity and Quakerism If the Quakers be Innocent and Sincere tho' mistaken thro' Error they 'll come out if Insincere and Self-conscious of their Hypocrisie they 'll not appear but Rave and Rail like Rabshekah at a distance by this Test shall the Plot be discovered and the Conspirators be made manifest And I am not without Hopes but that what I have said in Conjunction with my Fellow-Travailers will be a Means to preserve some from running Headlong as the Swine did into the deep Lake of Quakerism and and to convert others that are misled as well as be useful to the Church of God in general Which God of his Mercy grant for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Fran. Bugg August 25. 1699. FINIS A COLLECTION OF Some Passages Touching those call'd QVAKERS Which were Writ with much more of the same tendency by several that were or still are amongst that People WHEREBY The Reader may plainly see and perceive what Spirit it is that Acts their Preachers and Leaders and how they have been foretold and faithfully warned of the Day of Perplexity Reproach and Ignominy that is come and coming upon them O thou Sword of the Lord how long will it be e're thou be quiet Put up thy self into thy Scabbard rest and be still How can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a Charge I cannot hold my Peace because thou hast heard O my Soul the Sound of the Trumpet the Alarum of War Reader THese Passages in this Page of Ann Docwra and Robert Sandiland's Writing I have added since I had a Proof from the Printer of those Collections following He i. e. S. Cater a great Preacher has written more than is true concerning me he is very Bold and the most Confident Liar that ever I met with I laid the Record against J. Ainsloe before him also G. W's False Certificate about the said Record In his Book Judgment Fixed c. it is an abuseful Forgery for some of those whose Names are to the Certificate absolutely disowns it and say they set their Hands to none it is very sad said she that Men should be so Bold in their Wickedness A. D's Letter to Mr. Crisp March 25. 1684. I know it is common says she with some of them in their Books of Controversie to put the Names of such Persons as they account their Vassals both to Certificates and Books sometimes without the Consent of the Parties whose Names are Inserted and sometimes with their Consent through slavish Fear of having their Trades obstructed and thereby Ruined See A. D's Printed Broad-side i. e. The New Projecting Formalist Characteriz'd c. Which Impious Practice of theirs is confirmed in their shameful Forgery in R. S's Book Righteous Judgment c. as at large in a Letter of his to me printed in my Modest Defence c. p. 20. may be seen And as to splitting Sentences mincing and mangling and thereby marring the Sence of their Opponents no People so False so Perfidious and so Deceitful that I know of F. B. A COLLECTION OF Some Passages Touching those call'd QUAKERS c. I Have long seen saith R. R. the Abomination that maketh Desolate standing amongst the Quakers Wherefore hear the Word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom and People of Gomorrah 't is this Spirit that hath encompassed your Jerusalem about as with Armies by which we know the Destruction thereof draweth nigh Finally 't is that Spirit of Wickedness in the form of Righteousness that hath already torn your Crown from off your Head and discovered your Secret Parts so that the Scab of Contention and Strife is seen that will never leave nor cease to Divide you till the Name of Quaker become an Hiss and a Scorn amongst the Nations This Witness is true And you that for the vast number of your Tribes have seemed to magnifie your selves in your increase of Children Wo be to you that now give Suck and take so much pains to add to your Sect for behold in one Day loss of Children and Widowhood shall come upon you This Witness is true Of this I am most certain that a Bitter Lying and Persecuting Proud Spirit inhabits your Tents which Babylonish Garment hath
be This Witness is true Printed 1678. in the Book A Sensible Cry c. p. 6. A. M. IX BEhold you Great Goliahs your strength is in an Arm of Flesh but mine is only in the Living God before whom all your deceitful covers are manifest which will stand you in little stead in the Day of Distress that is coming upon you For he will certainly plead with you for all your Abominations You are full of Designs to keep up your Esteem among the People but the Lord by whose Power I am raised up against you will bring you low and utter disgrace will come upon you because you have not sought his Glory so much as your own Quakers unmasked c. Preface By J. P. Printed 1682 and 1691. X. A Day of Trouble Anguish and Disappointment is come and coming upon You which you can neither escape nor prevent You must reap the fruit of your own doings for as you have sowed the Wind you must expect to reap the Whirlwind wherein is nothing but Confusion Darkness Blackness and Tempest And this is the Portion of all the Builders of Babel or Babylonish Builders And tho' you may think that you have built the highest and fairest Structure of any yet know and that for a truth that not one Stone thereof shall be left upon another and all your Buildings your Inventions your Imaginations and Conceivings about your Forms your Proud Self-conceited Modes your Impositions your Prescriptions Laws and Comely Orders as you in your fallen Wisdom call them must all be thrown down laid waste and become as a By-word or Proverb of Reproach to the very Heathen and not only to them but also to those whom you have defamed and stigmatized with the blackest of Names and for no other cause but only for their Faithfulness in Discharging a good Conscience towards their God towards You and towards all Men. These are faithful and true Sayings if thou canst receive them thou mayest Printed 1680 in a Letter to G. F. by J. P. a Person well known and of an unspotted Reputation Behold that which you have Built must be Broken down and that which you have Planted must be Plucked up This Witness is true It may be they will present their Supplications before the Lord and will turn every one from his Evil Way For great is the Anger and the Fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this People THE END Advertisement IF any Person be desirous to have this Book and my former Books bound either them in Quarto or them in Octavo or Single Stitcht they may be furnished with all except them of those Impressions wholly Sold off at Mr. Janeway's a Bookbinder in St. Paul's Churchyard next Door to Child's Coffee-house London And Likewise if any Abler Men for of such there is very great need be disposed farther to unmask the Leaders of this Heresie this is to give notice that in the Library of Christ-Church Colledge in Oxford there is by a Worthy Gentleman a Divine of the Church of England Bought of me and Given by him for the Service of the Church of Quakers Books wrote by the most Approved Authors of that Sect which I think are thus Chained up from doing any more hurt First G. Fox's Journal next to it Muggleton's Journal or Works containing more than 1000 Pages Quarto and I think the best Quaker of the two next to that G. Fox's Great Mystery c. Fol. with near Twenty more of his Books next the Works of Edw. Burroughs Francis Howgill Will. Smith Sam. Fisher all in great Folio's next the Works of Jos Coale Steph. Smith R. Hubberthorn Will. Bayly Is Pennington G. Fox Junior in Quarto next divers Books wrote by James Naylor Will. Penn Christ Atkinson G. Whitehead Sol. Eccles Tho. Lawson Christ Taylor R. Farnsworth Geo. Bishop and divers others in all near the Number of Four Hundred bearing distinct Titles which may furnish any Person sufficiently with Matter of Fact A Catalogue of Books Wrote by Fran. Bugg 1 DE Christiana Libertate c. in 8 vo bound 2 The Painted Harlot stript and whipt c. 4 to 3 Reason against Railing c. 4 to 4 Innocency Vindicated c. 4 to never Answered 5 The Quakers Detected and their Errors Confuted c. 4 to 6 A Letter to the Quakers shewing their frequent Addresses to and Prayers for the late K. J. II. and not to King William III. 7 Battering Rams against New Rome c. 4 to 8 One Blow more at New Rome c. 4 to 9 New Rome Unmask'd and her Foundation Shaken c. 4 to 10 New Rome Arraigned and out of her own Mouth Condemned c. 4 to 11 A Sheet Presented to the Parliament 1693. in Answer to the Quakers Allegations c. 12 Quakerism Withering and Christianity Reviving c. 8 vo 13 Quakerism Anatomized c. 4 to never Answered 14 A Second Summons to the City Abel by way of Metaphor to deliver up Sheba the Son of Bichri namely Geo. Whitehead 2 Sam. 21. 15 The Quakers Yearly Meeting Impeached on the behalf of the Commons of England c. 16 The Quakers set in their true Light c. Presented to the House of Lords 1696. never Answered 17 A Brief Reply to the Quakers Ancient Testimony presented to the House of Lords 1696. never Answered 18 A Brief History of the Rise Growth and Progress of Quakerism 8 vo never Answered 19 The Picture of Quakerism drawn to the Life 8 vo never Answered 20 A Sober Expostulation with their Hearers touching the Mercinary Teachers never Answered 21 The Pilgrim's Progress from Quakerism to Christianity c. Printed in 4 to and Reprinted in 8 vo 22 Seventy Queries to several Quakers c. never Answered 23 A Broad Sheet with a Scheme of the Quakers Synod presented to the Parl. 1699. 24 Jezebel Withstood and her Daughter Anne Docwra publickly Reproved never Answered 25 Quakerism Exposed to publick Censure c. 8 vo 26 The Christian Ministry of the Church of England Vindicated c. 8 vo never Ans 27 A Modest Defence c. presented to the Parliament 28 The Quakers Anguis Flagellatus Examined and Refuted 29 A Brief Reply to G. Whitehead's Book Stiled A Rambling Pilgrim c. in Answer to my Pilgrim's Progress from Quakerism to Christianity presented to the Parliament 1700. 30 A Just Rebuke to the Quakers Insolent Behaviour in their Two Books i. e. A Just Censure c. the other A Sober Reply c. presented to the Parl. 1700. Besides Three Books I Wrote part of 31 W. Rogers his Seventh Part of the Christian Quaker distinguished c. about 1682. 32 A Looking-glass for the Quakers in Two Columns 33 A Postscript to the Norfolk Clergies Book i. e. A Brief Discovery of some of the Quakers Blasphemous and Seditious Principles c. FINIS
for he broke Prison stole Goods and run away I have his Confession in Print Signed by John Stubbs William Cotton and Thomas Symonds And it 's worth noticing to see what Grief Atkinson was in because it dishonour'd the Cause of Quakerism in that it could not be kept private from the Knowledge of the World's People But not a Word of Confession of Sin to God nor asking his Pardon for Christ's sake But to the second Stephen Crisp the Eighth Bird. Stephen Crisp in his Circuit going to Norwich by Mendlesham in Suffolk Robert Duncon advised him to carry it wisely at Norwich for said he my Kinsman Sam. Duncon is a Man of a Timerous or Brittle Disposition Well away goes St. Crisp to Norwich sets up his Horse at the Place allotted for their Teachers Horses and then goes to Samuel Duncon's House but Samuel not being at home Stephen takes up Samuel's Wife into the Chamber Anon Samuel comes home where is my Wife says he to the Maid She 's gone up the Chamber said she with Stephen Crisp Well Samuel walks up and down the House he rubs his Elbows scratches his Head and very melancholy he was so between Nine and Ten of the Clock as I was told by some Quakers that knew it down came Stephen and Sam 's Wife And this bred great Discontent between Sam. and his Wife * She was a very handsome Woman and 't was thought too yielding but Stephen wanted no Boldness to carry it off Many such Stories we had of him knowing he was Light and Airy and a great Lover of strong Wines and Waters of 8 s. a Pint and many of us looked upon him little better than a Ranter if not an Atheist W. C. can inlarge on this Subject no doubt If any question the Truth of this let them go to Joseph Carver Tho. Budderyw if living and other Ancient Quakers in Norwich and they can tell you more of this As also of Tho. Murford another of G. Fox's Preachers who used to lay Plaisters to some Parts of Samuel's Wife which oft-times did Incommode her Husband This is so well known at Norwich that none but G. W. will have the Face to deny it But if he do I will set W. I. and W. Mires to talk with him about that and some other things Tho. Leacock the Ninth Bird. Tho. Leacock lived at Emny in Norfolk two Miles distance from Wisbech is the Bird I am now taking out of the Cage his Forepart is like a Rook but his Claws like a Kite or some Bird of Prey He was one of Geo. Whitehead's great Assistants both in Preaching and Disputing and whom George mentions as such in his Serious Apology p. 3. This Leacock was a notorious Drunkard only like some others of thier Teachers as well as Hearers of the Epicurean sort a private one But to be short so it fell out that upon a time being at a Neighbour's House where Drink was free he was so drunken that going out to make Water he stagger'd and fell backward into a Cistern made to catch Rain-Water that had they not from within heard him fall like a Millstone he had been drown'd in that little Sea but from that he was by strong Hands saved yet he broke his Bladder and was forced to wear a Dish in his Breeches to catch his Water to his dying Day And his Wife still continu'd the same Trade if not dead within these two Years who will sit and drink Brandy till she is so drunken that she will p ss as she sits Let her then be hereby caution'd to take warning by the Misfortune of her Sister Quaker-VVoman in London who about a Year and a half ago being drunken with Brandy and alone the Fire by Accident if not in Judgment took hold of her Cloaths and as I am credibly inform'd was burnt alive in her drunken Fit But let it be noted that the said Leacock was a Man extream zealous against Ribbons and Laces in a word for every Commandment of G. Fox And moreover as a Work of Super-errogation he was excellent to convey away a Female Sister if things fell out cross that so Truth might not be dishonour'd by the VVorld's People knowing of it I remember well that about the Year 1662. there was a noted Quaker got his Maid with Child and Tho. Leacock took her into Norfolk and acted so wisely in it that I do think it never was heard of by the VVorld's People and for which he has had many a hot butter'd Loaf I will not say what else Money answers all things John Moone the Tenth Bird. John Moone is the Tenth in number He was an excellent Orator a great travelling Preacher and of great Fame amongst the Quakers of which I need not say much in this place if the Reader be pleased to turn back to the Fourth Chapter he shall see him amongst the VVorthies one of the Eleven Elders to govern the Church one half of them Cage-Birds pray observe from thence what Judges and Elders the Quakers Body is to which the poor Hearers must submit 't is well worthy thy notice However after many Years Preaching and suffering Imprisonment for G. Fox's Cause in England he went into Pensilvania and was a great Preacher there and a Justice of Peace forsooth under the Honourable W. Penn But he could not leave his Vicious Habit for he first got his Maid with Child and so pursued that Course of Life until he died of the foul Disease I would have the Quakers look into G. Whitehead's Sermon and compare it with the Cage of their unclean Birds all VVriters and Preachers and I hope it will humble them tho' my Verses did not which yet were intelligible to them for I was loth to expose them because I do believe that amongst the Hearers there are many honest-minded People but I verily believe that according to the number of the Quaker-Teachers compar'd with the Multitude of the Clergy and other Protestant Teachers I say where there is one of the last mention'd chargeable with Vicious Immoralities there is a Hundred of the Quaker-Teachers yet how impudently have W. Penn and the rest of that Gang bespattered the Clergy Ut supra And particularly W. Penn viz. But to excuse this Brazen Impudence and Hypocrisie his Hackney Mercenary Spirit He Jonathan Clapham boldly calls Christ his Redeemer not observing how unsuitable his Life and Doctrine is with the Redeemed of the World For whosoever is Redeemed by Christ is perfectly so in as much as all his Works are perfect But as this Guide Mr. Clapham 's Conversation manifests the contrary by his Very Great Miscarriages * A base Suggestion I am told by many worthy and good Men that Mr. Clapham was a Pious Man and a good Liver Nor is there any thing so much stumble Infidels and brings a Reproach upon the Christian Religion as Priests and People Writing Talking and Fighting hard for Christ as Redeemer whilst every
Eye finds them as Polluted and deeply Engaged in Dishonest and Immoral Practices as those against whom they contend c. See his Book The Guide mistaken c. p. 28 29 53 55. Indeed I do not think the Quaker Teachers great Miscarriages are so visible to every Eye as the Failings and Imperfections of Mr. Clapham's c. were But let the Quakers first pluck out the Beam out of their own Eye and then they shall see the more clearly how to remove the Mote out of another's Eye But to proceed to discover this Beam let me take out another Bird namely Tho. Thurston the Eleventh Bird. Thomas Thurston is the Eleventh Bird was an eminent Preacher up of G. Fox's Orders Laws and Commandments and a great Favourite of Fox's who liv'd in America who in his Travels to spread their Truth pretended to the Deputy-Governor's VVife that he Tho. Thurston had a Motion from the Spirit to get her with Child †Come W. Venn was not this a great Miscarriage Was it not visible to the Eye of the Deputy-Governour she believing him submits to a Tryal of Skill and it proved so infallibly the VVoman's Husband being then in Old-England where he stay'd about a Year or more but at length he came home and finding things bad he examin'd his VVife strictly how it came to pass She confest that such a Friend Tho. Thurston told her that he had a Motion from God to get her with Child and she was overcome by him VVell said her Husband if you will do one thing I will forgive you which is To go to the Quakers-Meeting and declare openly how you were deluded by this Preaching Quaker She did so and he forgave her and as I am credibly informed many of the Quakers thought his Motion was true he was so eminent an Orator and he still kept on some time a Preacher And why might not G. Fox allow of the Breach of this Seventh Commandment given forth by Moses as well as he did of the Breach of the Eighth Commandment viz. And as for any being moved of the Lord to take away your Hour-Glass from you by the Eternal Power it is owned c. G. Fox's Great Mystery c. p. 77. Such Influence had Fox's Doctrine as you may see in these two Cases and a Hundred more I could mention but enough of this Bird. Come George what thinkest thou of thy Brother Preacher Tho. Thurston He Preached amongst the Infidels and if he had been a Christian Minister I do agree it might have stumbled them but being a Quaker and led thereto by the Spirit it did confirm Quakerism George I could be more particular I could tell you of several pretty Stories and W. Ingram and Walter Myres should evidence it I could tell you of a Cannon-street Story but you know that and many others I could tell you of a She-Preacher who went from her Husband Geo. Knight so long holding forth that her Husband got a By-Child or two and at last marry'd another Wife But since that your She-Preachers kept more at home I could tell you a Story of your Meeting to cleanse the Camp about John Swinton and others and of Rebecca Travers her Testimony which would make you look more like the Synagogue of Satan than the Church of the First-Born as you boast but I delight not in it were it not to humble you So that I shall only mention one Bird more at present he being a Favourite of yours and your Brother Cater who notwithstanding his gross Immoralities yet you both wrote in Favour of him in these Words viz. George Smith a poor well-meaning Man that hath been convinced about 13 or 14 Years and ever since he came amongst us hath walked uprightly according to his Measure and hath been of a blameless Conversation amongst Men from his Youth up c. Judgment fixed c. p. 207. The Lib. of an Apost Consc c. p. 18 19. Come G. Whitehead this is high Commendation but he was a Man for your turn one strict for G. Fox's Commandments and was not ungrateful to you for your high Praise and Commendation For as one good Deed requires another as the Proverb is so he Geo. Smith saith in The Lib. of an Apost c. p. 29. I have Cause to believe better things of them all i. e. the Quakers and for Sam. Cater whom thou Fran. Bugg so much abusest I know his Conversation hath been such amongst us as becomes a Man that fears God that it is not thy Lies that can hurt him for he hath a Witness in our Consciences * Thus they witness one for another excuse and justifie each other for his faithful Service and upright Conversation amongst us Come George here is hiding here is excusing nay justifying each other in your Abominations like the two wicked Elders in the Story of Susanna saying Tush God sees us not nor the World's People do not know it And G. Smith standing Suit with the Minister of Littleport about Tythes As in the Year 1697. he did he is faithful to G. Fox's Commandments and is a true Son of our Church a well-meaning Man one that hath lived uprightly ever since he came amongst us even from his Youth up Oh George your Hypocrisie must come out and therefore and for that Reason only I shall take out of the CAGE this your well-meaning upright Bird namely George Smith But first let me acquaint the Reader that since I came to London this August 1699. I have seen a Letter from a Quaker in Huntingtonshire to his Friend in London giving a Narrative of Sam. Cater's Vicious Behaviour to several Women in Huntingtonshire A. W. for one in Cambridge and in Suffolk about which Richard Jobson called him in Question and at a Meeting at St. Ives at Tobias Hardmeat's House and in the Presence of him his Wife John Everard and some few others where R. Jobson charged poor Sam. very home but he as stoutly denied it at first being as his Sister Anne Docwra said a confident Liar But A. W. the Woman with whom he had to do being present Sam. at last confessed the Fact and was sorry he had dishonoured the Truth i. e. Quakerism But to the Matter which is a Narrative of the Proceedings of this well-meaning Man G. Smith who both G. Whitehead and Sam. Cater commend as an upright Man a well-meaning Man and that from his Youth up As for Sam. Cater I shall let his Narrative alone at present only to shew the Affinity of the Birds and how they 'll commend each other to the Skies whilst they condemn all beside themselves Reader These are their Infallible Doctors these are their Sinless alias Senseless Saints and the Perfectionests of our Age viz. George Smith the Twelfth Bird. George Smith of Littleport having a Wife of his own being a Bailiff for a Gentleman of the same Town whose Wife was a handsome young Woman G. Smith in time