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cause_n	begin_v	great_a	time_n	1,599	5	3.2122	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

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

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

Complaint of any Grievances relating to them He cannot dares not say they did what then had he to do to exhibit a Complaint of Grievances relating to the Monthly Meeting without the Order Direction or Appointment of the Monthly Meeting Nay without the Consent or Privity of the Monthly Meeting If he had not been a very Busie Body he might one would think have given the Monthly Meeting leave to have made their own Complaint of Grievances relating to them if they had any So that this is so far from being a Reason for him that it is a Reason against him weighty enough of it self to have justified the Quarterly Meeting for not reading his Complaint openly in the Meeting A. B's second Reason is Because every Member is equally concerned to exercise the Sense and Vnderstanding that God has given them This I grant but when a Controversie is brought to a Meeting and that Meeting agree to commit the Hearing and Determining thereof to a Select Number surely then no Member of that said Meeting ought further to concern himself in that matter without the Concurrence of the whole Meeting To manifest yet farther the Vnfairness of this Man observe that in p. 3. he says I never left my Case wholly unto them viz. the Seven c. or satisfied at all nor any further nor otherwise neither than as constrained and forced to what I did When as all the Friends then present know that he agreed with the Meeting in it And his excepting against one for the Meeting named eight at first is an ARgument that he consented to the Meetings Choice in the other Seven But that which puts it out of all doubt is that about half a year after at the Quarterly Meteting at Reading he offered to the Meeting to refer and leave his Cause to the Hearing and Determination of these same Seven Friends whom the Meeting had chosen before and that no delay might be occasioned by the absence of one of them he himself named another Friend and desired he might be added to the Six in the room of him that was absent which plainly shews he approwed the Choice and accordingly he went on to exhibit and make out his Charges before them Yet he hath another setch which looks with rather a worse face than the former for when he said I never left my Case wholly unto them viz. the Seven c. he adds To subject or stand to their Award any otherwise than only conditional and with this proviso if managed impartially and to satisfaction p. 3. and p. 5. He says Seeing a Publick Hearing of it could not be obtained I condescended to the aso esaid provided it was done impartially and to satifaction And in p. 6. speaking of his having condescended to refer the matter unto the aforesaid for an Hearing Ending c. he adds yet not without a conditional Reserve Now doth not this manifest great want of Sinoerity in him to pretend and make a shew of giving up his Cause and leaving it to Friends to hear and end and yet at the same time have a conditional reserve in his Mind a secret Proviso to let himself loose by Doth this agree with his writing himself Thine in the Truth that is plain Innocent and void of the beguiling Crafts of men Surely one would think he writ that Craftily that he might the more easily beguile those that are indeed Plain and Innocent Now pray mark what this private Condition this Mental Reservation this secret Proviso was he gives it in these words viz. If managed impartially and to satisfaction p. 3. Provided it was done impartially and to satisfaction p. 5. Who was to judge whether it was done impartially but himself And for whose satisfaction did he provide but his own Was not this an abominable Juggle and Abuse for him to pretend to give up his Case to Friends and leave it to them to Hear and Determine and yet keep a secret Reserve in his Mind that if he was not satisfied with the end they made he would not stand to their Determination This among Men of the lowest Pretences either to Religion or Common Honesty is not counted Honest He had better have told the Meeting at first he would leave it to them or such as they should choose to end it if they ended it to his satisfaction otherwise he would Appeal from them for so it seems he did intend from the first as he intimates p. 5. I condesended to the aforesaid provided it was done impartially and to satisfaction else did intend says he to refer it by Appeal to the Yearly Meeting And as he intended not to stand to our Determination unless it were to his satisfaction so it seems as if he had intended also before we medled with it not to be satisfied with what we should do in it For in the Paper he had drawn up before we came to enquire into it and which when we came he read to us as his Reasons for refusing to let us meddle with it he says Seeing there was such an irregular step made in the very beginning by which he means the Meeting 's not letting him read his Complaint in the open Meeting we cannot reasonably expect these few can either go on well or end it so as it ought to be to satisfaction And so much had he possessed his Mind with that or at least pretended so that when we came first to Reading about it he would not open the matter to us nor yield that we should at all meddle with it Now I desire the Reader to observe and consider the Nature Temper and Spirit of this Man how prone he is to Contention and Quarreling and what contrivances he has and what Provision he makes to continue and perpetuate Discord and Strife by excepting against the proper ways and means for ending it For Experience shews it too seldom happens when Differences fall out between Person and Person that such an end can be made thereof by the most Judicious and Indifferent Persons that can be chosen as will prove to the satisfaction of both sides Now if the Persons differing after they have left or referred their Difference to others to end shall be at liberty on either side to fly off and refuse the Determination made because they don't like it or it is not to their satisfaction what end can be made of Differences Surely this contrivance of his doth not proceed from the Peaceable Spirit of Christ but from that Spirit which loves Dissention and Discord and would not willingly ever be without it and therefore seeks by all the ways it can to encrease it and keep it up A. Bonifield hath another Exception against us and that I think snews his Folly as much as the former doth his Falseness He is angry that we gave any Judgment at all alledging that we were appointed for Reconcilers not Judges but to hear and end all Differences betwixt them so he has it in his Title