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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30026	De Christiana libertate, or, Liberty of conscience upon it's [sic] true and proper grounds asserted & vindicated and the mischief of impositions amongst the people called Quakers made manifest : in two parts : the first proving that no prince nor state ought by force to compel men to any part of the doctrine, worship, or discipline of the Gospel, by a nameless, yet an approved author [i.e. Sir Charles Wolseley], &c. : the second shewing the inconsistency betwixt the church-government erected by G. Fox, &c., and that in the primitive times ... : to which is added, A word of advice to the Pencilvanians / by Francis Bugg.	Bugg, Francis, 1640-1724?; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated.; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience the magistrates interest.	1682 (1682)	Wing B5370; ESTC R14734	148,791	384

Practices a man may discern without a pair of Spectacles ERROUR and SUPERSTITION coming in apace LIMPING upon their old crooked Crutches of IMPLICIT FAITH and BLIND OBEDIENCE And least you should not know how to answer these Queries I will answer them in the Words of our own Principles that so you may the better behold your Revoltings and perceive your Innovations and take notice of your Apostatizing from your Primitive Principles But if my Answer please you not then let me see by one Answer of your own what you can say for your selves Query I. Whether to Impose any thing upon another Mans Conscience either to do or practice be not a doing otherwise to others than we would they should do unto us and so Antichristian See the Second and Third Chapter about Marriages Answ Yea For so says R. Hubberthorn in his Works p. 188. where he tenders seven Reasons why no Impositions ought to be upon any Mans Conscience by any but the Lord. And says he To Impose any thing upon another Mans Conscience either to do or Practice is not A doing to others as they would be dealt by and therefore is contrary to Christs Doctrine which say I is ANTICHRISTIAN Query II. Whether such Societies as do not govern themselves according to their Primitive Principles but erect new Orders and new Models of Government New Ceremonies and new ways of Sentencing Judging and Condemning the Innocent Recording and Excommunicating such as cannot yield Conformity and Uniformity thereunto do not more resemble Tyranny than Order Nay Is it not Antichristian Answ Yea For all Societies are to Govern themselves according to their Institutions and First Principle of Union where there is violence upon this Part Tyranny and not Order is Introduced Now since Perswasion and Conviction begun all true Christian Societies ALL Christian-Societies MVST uphold themselves upon the same Free Bottom or they turn Antichristian Query III. Whether to restrain People from the free Exercise of their Consciences or to compel People to act against their Faith and Perswasion in Matters Spiritual be not Popish and a Practice of the Church of ROME Address to Prot. pag. 149. 150. Answ Yea For the Apostle in his Day said Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind or Conscience And did not go about to force People to Conform to such Things as they were not perswaded of in their own Consciences But the Church of Rome doth not admit that every one should Walk or Act as they are Perswaded in their own Conscience See Josiah Coal's Whore Vnvailed p. 71. 72. Query IV. If so Whether it be not Wisdom to beware of this Trojan Horse of this Practice which so much resembles Rome who commonly lay more Stress upon their own Ceremonies and written Traditions Orders and Institutions than upon the holy Scriptures or the Primitive Christians Example Answ Yea I beseech you Protestants by the Mercies of God and Love of Jesus Christ Ratified to you in his most precious Blood Fly Rome at Home have a care of this Presumption carry it not too high lay not Stress where God hath laid none Neither use his Royal Stamp to Authorise your Apprehensions in the Main of his Institutions Address to Prot. p. 77. Query V. Whether the holy Scriptures be not of more Authority than our written Traditions and Orders And whether it be not as commendable now to search the Scriptures to see whether our Orders Traditions and Ceremony be agreeable to them as it was formerly for the Bereans who by the Scripture examined Pauls Testimony Seeing some of you call them the Professors Weapons and will not suffer them to be alledged in our Quarterly-Meetings Answ Yea For it cannot be denyed But that the great Foundation of our Protestant Religion is the Divine Authority of the Scriptures from without us and the Testimony and Illumination of the holy Spirit within us Vpon this Foot the First Reformers stood and made and maintained their Separation from Rome with good Cause therefore it is the general consent of all Sound Protestant Writers That neither Traditions Counsels nor Cannons of any Visible Church much less the Edicts of any Civil Sessions or Jurisdiction but the Scripture ONLY Interpreted by the Holy Spirit in us give the final Determination in Matters of Religion and that Only in the Conscience of Every Christian to himself which Protestation made by the First Publick Reformers against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the Fifth Imposing Church Traditions without Scripture Authority Mark you Order Makers the same Cause moves to the same thing gave first beginning to the Name Protestant and with that Name hath ever been received this Doctrine which prefers the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and Spirit to that of the Church and her Traditions Address to Prot. p. 148. Query VI. Whether it be not a Popish Tenet to cry down Wisdom and to say That Wisdom will destroy us as 't is usually with you to say for the Papists care not how foolish the Common People are nor how much in Ignorance it being as they say the Mother of Devotion they educate them provided thir Ministers and Jesuits be very expert and able to defend their way of Worship and heap of Ceremonies And when do any that Write or Dispute to defend our Way of Worship write and speak like Fools except they can neither write nor speak otherwise and why do you cry out against Wisdom upon every occasion as if Ignarance were become our only Darling Answ For to admire what Men do not know and to make it a Principle not to enquire is the last Mark of Folly in the Believers and of Imposture in the Imposers To be short a Christian Implyes a Man and a Man implyes Conscience and Vnderstanding but he that hath no Conscience nor Vnderstanding as he hath not who hath delivered them up to the Will of another men is no Man and therefore no Christian Upon this Principle Men must be made Fools in Order to believe Shall Folly which is the Shame if not the Curse of a man be the Perfection of a Christian. Address to Prot. pag. 187. Query VII Is it not great Deceit and Illusion first to make Rules or Cannons to walk by and when any refuse Obedience to them and cannot for Conscience sake Conform to them then to Senctence Judge and Record such out of the Unity and yet to the World pretend and that in Print that we do no such Thing I say Is not this great Decoit and Delusion Answ Yea That our Friends says W. P. meaning us the People called Quakers Require any men to practice what they are not convinced of I utterly renounce in their Name and that at an Infamous Slander Alexander the Copper-Smith page 10. Query VIII Whether Antichristian Practices Popish Principles Contempt of Scriptures Folly Ignorance and Partiality Practising one thing and Pretending another be Corruptions or no If yea then whether or no a private Man ought not

by their Number outgrown the Political part of Persecution For the Second Consideration of Liberty the giving it so as will naturally produce several Principles and Opinions in men he that would prevent that must give no Liberty to the Protestant Religion must not let the Bible be read by the Vulgar There is no way to keep out several Opinions in Religion but an implicit ignorant Subjection to an imposed Infallibility and to do as the Turks do who will not have any Learning or Discourse amongst them of Religion for that very Reason because they will have no Religion but Mahomet nor no Learning but the Alcoran Such Policy to Murder mens Souls is hatcht in Hell The Art of Printing was at the first thought dangerous because it was looked on as a thing like to introduce several Opinions in Religion Cardinal Woolsey in a Letter of his to the Pope hath this Passage about it That his Holiness could not be ignorant what divers Effects the New Invention of Printing had produced for as it had brought in and restored Books and Learning so together it hath been the occasion of these Sects and Schisms which daily appear in the World but chiefly in Germany where men begin now to call in question the present Faith and Tenents of the Church and to examine how far Religion is departed from its Primitive Institution And that which particularly was most to be lamented they had exhorted the Lay and Ordinary men to read the Scriptures and to Pray in their Vulgar Tongue That if this were suffered besides all other dangers the common People at last might come to believe that there was not so much use of the Clergy for if men were perswaded once they could make their own way to God and that Prayers in their native and ordinary Language might pierce Heaven as well as in Latin How much would the Authority of the Mass fall How Prejudicial might this prove unto all our Ecclesiastical Orders Lord Herberts History of Hen. 8. Liberty of Conscience lies as naturally necessary to a Protestant State as Imposition to a Popish State he must be a good Artist that can find a right middle way between these two 'T is the Glory of Protestant-States to have much of the Knowledge of God amongst them and that variety of mens Opinions about some less weighty and more obscure matters of Religion as it much tends to a discovery of the Truth of them so it no way breaks the Bond of Protestant Union where men generally agree in the same Rule of Religion and in all the chief and necessary Fundamentals of Salvation Liberty of Conscience in such States as it is their true and genuine Interest and without which they will but deny themselves those advantages they might otherwise arrive at so with the forementioned Boundaries can never prove hurtful or dangerous there being always a just distinction to be made between those who desire only to serve God and such who pretend that to become injurious to men And thus we have seen that not only Religion but Reason not only Duty but Interest do invocate Princes and States in this particular To whom it may fitly be said in the words of the Psalmist Be wise now therefore O ye Kings and be instructed O ye Judges of the Earth FINIS De Christiana Libertate Or the Mischief of Impositions amongst the People called Quakers Made Manifest Shewing The Inconsistency betwixt the Church Discipline Order and Government erected by G. Fox and those of Party with him and that in the Primitive Times Being Historically treated on WITH A Word of Advice to the Pencilvanians And is the First Part of Naked Truth By FRANCIS BUGG GAL. 6.12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the Flesh they constrain you to be Circumcised c. GAL. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not again intangled in the Yoak of Bondage GAL. 5.2 Touch not taste not handle not c. London Printed for the Author 1682. An EPISTLE Dedicated to the Noble BEREANS Of this Age. HAving by the Book prefixed laid before the Magistrates and others concerned a clear Demonstration and many weighty Arguments for Liberty of Conscience to all Protestant Dissenters who desire to live a peaceable Life under the Government I am now come to treat on the Religious Differences amongst us the People called Quakers and therein to vindicate the Christian-Quakers who retain their Primitive Principles and defend their Plea for Liberty of Conscience from the Calumny and Reproach which the Innovators have put upon both it and the Pleaders thereof as if the Tendency thereof was to introduce Loosness Ranterism or the like sort of Abominations all which we detest and deny And in the Introduction to the Accus c. they have Sentenced William Rogers to be no Quaker by which they mean no Christian for if I may be in their account a true Christian and yet no Quaker then what damage is it to be no Quaker So that as the Baptists and others about the Year 72. by their Dialogues and otherwise rendred us no Christians because our Creed lay not litterally in their 8th Article of Faith So doth the Apostate and Innovator endeavour to Unchristian the true Christian-Quaker And the two principal Reasons that can be alledged against us are First our Nonsubmission and Nonconformity to the New Order of the Women Erected by G. Fox and Confirmed by a London Yearly-Meeting And Secondly That their way of compelling and Antichristian way of Proceeding to bring to and force a Uniformity is by us slighted and contemned and published in Justification of our Plea for the Liberty of the exercise of our Conscience in Matters Spiritual I say these two are the grand Reasons for which they render us no Quakers as I said consequently in their Esteem no Christians Whereupon we the Caluminated Abettors of the Cause of Truth can do no less than call to you the BEREANS of our Age not to believe every wandring Book that is put forth against us but read and examine the Matter and before you pass Judgment see what we can say for our selves in Defence of our Christian-Plea for Liberty of Conscience and for which Reason I choose to Dedicate the Ensuing Tract in the first Place to you expecting your Impartial Examination c. For as William Penn very well says in his Epistle to you the Noble and Examining BEREANS who usually hear both Sides in the Front of the Book Entituled the Christian-Quaker and his Divine Testimony Vindicated c. So we find it Experimentally viz. The Insatiable Thirst of men after Religious or Civil Empire hath filled almost every Age with Contest There is something in Man that prompts to Religion and such as stand not in the TRADITIONS of Men nor any meer Formality But Man that he may not loose the Honour of a Share with an unwarrantable Activity so Adulterates by

be a Record in Writing witnessing the Day Place and Year of such things to be kept in that Meeting the which the one or both of them are Members under which Writing the Witnesses may subscribe their Names or so many of them at may be convenient for the stopping of the Mouths of Gainsayers and for the manifesting of the Truth to all who are without This is the seventh Particular mentioned in the said recited Epistle of Advice to the Brethren in the North which in number were twenty wherein it is manifest what regard they had to the Practice of the Holy Men of God recorded in Scripture and yet by the Conclusion of the said Epistle it is manifest that they were far from limiting Friends in that Day to a prescribed Rule or Form and that under the greatest Penalty too that they were able to inflict as of late days hath been the Practice of George Fox and those of Party with him as hereafter will be manifest see the Conclusion of the said Letter of Advice which is as followeth Viz. Dearly beloved Friends these Things meaning the 20 Particulars advised to we do not lay upon you as a Rule or Form to walk by but that all with the measure of Light which is pure and holy may be guided and so in the Light walking and abiding these things may be fulfilled in the Spirit not from the Letter for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life c. Thus the Reader my see That in the Beginning our Advice by Letter did concur with our publick Testimony and both with the Scriptures and Evidence of the Spirit in the Hearts of the People to winch our Ministring Friends in that Day both by Word Epistle and Doctrine desired to be made manifest for they then did not desire to exercise Dominion Gentile-like c. CHAP. II. Manifesteth an Alteration and Change Shews the Womans Charter for their Jurisdiction Sets forth the Grant and Confirmation made at a London Yearly-Meeting 1675. I Am now come to manifest the Alteration and Change and the cause of Divisions amongst us about Matters of Faith and the Exercise of it Church-Discipline and Conformity to it whereby William Penns Saying in his Address to Protestants pag. 149. is fulfilled Viz. For all Societies are to govern themselves according to their Institutions and First Principles of Vnion where there is Violence upon this part Tyranny and not Order is introduced Now since Perswasion and Conviction began all true Christian-Societies All Christian-Societies must uphold themselves upon the same free Bottom or they turn Antichristian c. And for proof that we so find and by woful Experience know there is an Alteration and Change and Violence done to our First Principles of Union I am now about to manifest and in order thereunto I shall here insert George Fox his New Order which was wrote about the Year 71. for Womens-Meetings to be held distinct from Mens Meetings and was confirmed afterwards by a general Council or Yearly-Meeting c. VIZ. Dear Friends TO whom is my Love in that which changes not it would do well and be of Service for you to have a Womens-Meeting as they have in other Parts that the Women may come into the Practice of the pure Religion which is to visit the Fatherless and Widdows and to see that all be kept from the spots of the World and so the Lord Jesus redeeming you by his Spirit out of the Old Adam in the Fall into the Image of Gods Righteousness and Holiness that Man was in before he fell in which you are all Helps Meet to the Men in Righteousness and Truth and Holiness and Justice and the Wisdom of God and you may assist and inform the Men of Necessities in what you cannot do your selves for Man and Woman being both in the Power and Seed of Christ they are both Helps Meet and so it would do well for the Women to have a distinct Meeting by themselves as it is in other Places and to set that nothing be lacking then all is well amongst you that you all may be perfect and compleat in Christ Jesus your Heed holding Him from whence you have Understanding and Wisdom to order all things toh is Praise and Glory and when you do see that all is well and nothing is lacking to honour God that all may be kept out of that which dishonoureth Him and all may be kept in your Testimony of Jesus and to see that nothing is lacking outwardly in Gods House in his Family who have the Mind of Christ to do good unto all especially the Houshold of Faith and when you see that all is well then whose mouth the Lord opens in the Womens Meetings 〈…〉 praise confess him to his Glory they are to be obedient as it is in other Womens-Meetings so once a month to have a Womens-Meeting in the County Town or other Places convenient then the other Neigbouring Women may come and go home they Meeting together about the tenth Hour of the Day And so they may keep a little Stock among themselves to help the Poor and those that be in necessity and what they cannot do themselves they may inform the Men of all the poor Widdows and poor Mens Children that are fit to go to be Apprentices and to Services to Friends that they may be trained up in the Fear of God and in the New-Covenant He might have said in the New-Governmet that they may be the Children of the New-Covenant where all may come to know the Lord who is Blessed for ever Amen George Fox having thus laid a Foundation on for the Womens-Meetings distinct and apart from the Men to be once a month at the tenth hour of the Day and to get a little Stock by them under many specious Pretences and Fine Coverings insomuch that many began to assemble and to meet together accordingly in several Parts of the Nation yet there were also very many that waited to see the End and Purpose of their so meeting it being a New Thing and also knowing that the very Papists at their raising and first ordaining the several Orders of Fryars and Religious Nuns were not without as fair Pretences and fine flourishing Shews as this Grant or Order of George Fox for the ordaining these Womens-Meetings so that after a little season several Friends perceiving that these Women thus assembled aspired after the comly and beloved Apple of Rule and Government they shewed their Dislike and it began to be too hard for George Fox to carry them on on his own sole Authority so that at a Yearly-Meeting or General Council held at London in the Year 1675 the said Grant or Order was strengthened and confirmed in all Points and with as much Policy as ever the Learned Bishops or grave Senates used to Establish their Monarchical Governments c. And that the Reader may be assured of the Truth thereof and that it is not of my own devising to accuse