Evils And though I had a foresight and sense that Enemies of Truth would seek to take advantage from my printed Books yet I had also a sense and foresight as I have expressed in my Book page 6. Some Reasons c. That in the conclusion they would be disappointed and that after a little time their great glorying and seeming gratifyings would be turned into discontent and trettings For on the other hand doth it not greatly stop the cry and reproach that Adversaries of Truth cast upon Friends when they find us cordially zealous in our Testimony against all things reproveable among us whether in Doctrine or Practise and will it not much more occasion their outcry and reproach to find us if so any of us should so do covering and excusing what is not excusable And whereas I said in my said Book That the publishing such account of things might be occasion of grief to many which some seek to take advantage against me for I did not think that the simple Relation or Account of these things would or could be any proper cause of grief to faithful Friends but I did judge and so I do still judge that the gross Errors whereof I did give an Account that too many in these American parts were guilty of would be a just cause and occasion of grief to faithful Friends but neither the Relation in Print nor I the Relator of it should be blame-worthy for the same more then if a News-Letter should come forth in Print giving a Relation or Account of some great loss and destruction of our Country-men or near Kindred and Relations at Sea when the things related do and ought to afflict us with grief but who will say we should blame the Relation or him that hath faithfully related it to us but rather that we should give him thanks for his faithful Relation And indeed I judge farther Friends should have been justly grieved with these vile Errors and wicked Practises that too many professing Truth have been guilty of and it had been more becoming all professing Truth among us to have been deeply humbled before the Lord and to have lamented these things with Weeping Mourning and Fasting then to have found fault so unjustly with the zealous Testimony I have borne against these things that they might have approved themselves like these in Ezekiel 9. 4. That did sigh and cry for all the Abominations that were done in the midst of Jerusalem whom the Lord commanded to have a Mark put upon that they might be spared when the City should be destroyed And if my Books or the things therein related have been instrumental to move any unto such godly grief for the great ignorance unbelief Errors in Doctrine that some are guilty of repugnant to the Christian Faith so as to be humbled before the Lord for these Evils with Prayer unto God that he would cause his Light and his Truth to shine forth to the dispelling these Foggs and Clouds that such who are in such Darkness Ignorance and Errors may be recovered I have cause in that respect to rejoyce and have in a great part my end answered XXV page 49 His gross Perversion and Reflection on the yearly Meeting in his saying supposing it were true That no untruth or falshood in matter of fact hath been discovered in his Books it was not the proper business of the yearly Meeting to judge of the matter of fact contained in his Books which were alledged to have been done in America by Persons not there to answer or give an account of them And page 50. He saith Therefore let none think that because the yearly Meeting did not declare the matters of fact in his Books to be false therefore they are all true Here note 1. He grants that the yearly Meeting did not declare the Matters of fact in my Books to be false and for matter of Doctrine they do not blame me in the least and yet he holds that I am justly censured and blamed by the yearly Meeting which seemeth to me an unparalleled instance of unjustice he casts on the yearly Meeting to blame me for things in my Books that are neither matter of Doctrine nor matter of fact for whatever can be said or written in a Book must needs be one of these two either matter of Doctrine or matter of Fact I know not that ever I heard or read of the like instance that a Book or the Author of it was blamed when nothing either in Doctrine or Fact was declared blame worthy But it seems this Man thinks himself to be more sharp sighted than the yearly Meeting that hath as he thinks discovered matter of fact to be false in my Books and that is That I cast the Separation off from my self and lay it upon Friends and that it was so he alledgeth did appear in the opening and stating that matter in the yearly Meeting but he only saith it but doth not prove it And if it did appear in the yearly Meeting how comes it that he saith The yearly Meeting did not declare the matters of Fact in my Books to be false Is not my clearing my self of the blame of the Separation a matter of Fact in my Book this he saith the yearly Meeting hath not declared to be false in matter of Fact therefore they have not declared it that my clearing my self of the Separation is false and consequently they have not declared the contrary but that my clearing my self of the Separation is true wherein he by his own Confession hath plainly contradicted the Judgment of that called The yearly Meeting Paper which layeth it at my door viz. The Separation so far as I have been concerned therein and yet I judge they lay it not so much at my door as by their own words they should lay it at the door of them of the other side for they plainly say And as to the Separation among Friends in America arising from the unhappy Differences c. So here what can be more plain than that they make the Differences betwixt us in America to be the cause of the Separation as the word arising doth plainly import And seeing the original ground and Cause of the Differences was the unsound and erronious Doctrines held by them of the other side which that Paper called A true Account of the Proceedings c. Doth own them to be guilty of it plainly appears they of the other side were the culpable cause of the Separation and it lyeth mainly at their door in that respect and no otherwise doth it lye at my door but as I opposed their erronious Doctrines and if for this any will lay it at my door as being the innocent cause of it I need not much contend with them though I still say I began not the Separation even as the Differences in Doctrine betwixt Luther and such as joyned with him on the one hand and the Pope and Church of Rome on the other hand caused a
that the monthly Meeting in the first Month last there mentioned was in the next Month following in the Year 1692. see that very Year mentioned page 27. unless he can find out some Month or Months betwixt the 12th Month of the Year 1691. and the 1st Month of the following Year 1692. X. page 24. He most perversly and ignorantly doth alledge by a sort of Argument that is so silly and weak that scarce an ordinary School boy would use it that if this Act of T. L's viz. His withdrawing from the monthly Meeting adjourned where I begin it was the cause of the Separation then it could not be the Separation it self but the Separation must come after this as the Effect follows the Cause and of this Argument he is so conceited though ridiculously weak that though I answered it in the yearly Meeting to the Satisfaction of many at which time I advised him to beware of falling into the Ditch of that called Philosophy yet he brings it up again and is not ashamed to Print his ignorance and expose it not to say his folly but the Answer I gave him then I now again give him more largely that though the efficient Cause cannot be the Effect yet the formal Cause is the Effect in part as all Logicians or School men that treat on the Nature of Causes and Effects do teach and the material Cause is also another part of it and thus the Soul and Body are the formal and material Causes of a Man and yet they are the Man Wood and Stone and Fashion or Figure of the House are the material and formal Causes of the House and yet they are the House So T. L. and his Faction going away out of the Meeting and his rude and disorderly manner of doing it denying them to be a Meeting and consequently to be the Church were the material and formal Causes of that begun Separation and that evil Spirit that set him and them at work was the efficient Cause of it and the final Cause was to exalt themselves over their poor Brethren that as they ruled in the State most of them being Magistrates that went out so they might rule in the Church and exercise a Tyranical and Arbitrary Power Papist like over them which they not long after discovered by their open Persecution of Fining and Imprisoning for Conscience Sake And thus I have assigned the four general Causes of that begun Separation made by them which this unjust Man by his Sophistical wrangling would cast upon us XI He falsly alledgeth that the change of the Meeting in Philadelphia from the Bank to the Center was in Course page 30. This I prove to be false and a fiction because as the time of the Course of it was not yet come nor did come either so soon before or after so T. L's puting it to a Vote by giving a Sign whether it should be removed or not the Sign being They that stood should be for its removing they that sate for it s not removing but this not being according to the way and order of Truth nor vielded to we gave no regard to it farther then to prove by it the Meeting was not changed by Course but by Will and Arbitrary Power and 't is no wonder that they had an influence on many to joyn with them having the worldly Government in their Hands XII page 33. His Perversion of Thomas VVilsons Words that gave Evidence against me at the Yearly Meeting that I said I believed they removed the Meeting to force me to meet with them proveth that they that used that force toward me were guilty of the separation and the cause of it For can there be any greater cause of separation or breach than to force Mens Consciences as some of them thought to force me to joyn in Prayer with them whom I could not in Conscience joyn with for their unchristian Usage towards me one of them having publickly cursed me in the Mens Meeting saying VVoe be to thee from the Lord another calling me in the Meeting Babylons Brat and none of them censuring these wicked Actions and they knowing that I was not like to be forced by them to joyn with such in Prayer they knew how to find an occasion against me to disown me And how many Hundreds here in England Friends as well as others have been separated from other Professions because of their seeking to force and compel them to a way of VVorship they could not in Conscience own So their seeking to force me proves they had a design to disown me And so Thomas VVilson's saying that he juddged me out of my own mouth judgeth him and them out of their own Mouth XIII His Perversion in blaming me for having a private Family meeting my House hence casting the Separation upon me to instruct my Family and pray in my Family saying page 33. That I give no account by whose appointment or what Authority that Meeting was held so that by his Sentiment Men must not instruct their Families nor pray in their Families without Authority and Appointment of the Mens-Meeting or if they do they must let none others be present though the Act of Parliament now expir'd and repeal'd permitted Five beside the Family His Clamour about our meeting at the Barbadoes House is idle and impertinent we met not there till they had separated themselves from us and denyed the Monthly Meeting And after this who can say but we had liberty to meet where we thought fit Besides that they not only threatned to keep us out of the Bank Meeting but most rudely abused us when we met in it at our ordinary times having a Right to it as good as theirs always interrupting any of us that spoke though we never interrupted them and at last sending some by their Magistratical Authority with Saws and Axes to knock down our Gallery but they were prevented by some that knocked down both the one and the other which I had no hand in directly nor indirectly XIV p. 35. His Perversion that I affirmed a Power to alter choose change pull down and set up Meetings as I pleased and the foundation of this Forgery is by his own confession because I declar'd my Sense by way of Proposition That it were good to have but one publick Meeting on First days and the remaining part to be used in private Families Now Reader judge what ground he had from my simple Christian-Proposition to invent this Forgery XV. He grosly perverteth my Words that because I said It was good to have but one publick Meeting on First days thereby inferring that it was not good according to my sense but evil to have two publick Meetings on First days and that therfore to keep two was against my Conscience But let the Reader judge what perverse Reasoning this is Pag. 36 37. Knoweth he not a Distinction betwixt two goods and the one either equal to the other or better than the other as
Separation betwixt them and the Separation did arise from the difference in Doctrine And if any will charge Luther to be the cause of that Separation who own the Truth of his Doctrine and disown Popery they will say he was the innocent cause of it and the Pope and his Adherents were the culpable cause of it the Application is easie to the case in hand But let none be offended that I call that Paper having this Title A true Account of the Proceedings c. That called the Judgment of the yearly Meeting because indeed I never owned it to be the Judgment of the yearly Meeting but of a party of Men in it that were swayed by some beyond what they ought to have been for a very great part of the yearly Meeting was gone before any Judgment was given and I can sufficiently prove they that did remain were not unanimous in that Judgment And T E. doth but equivocate when he saith page 23. That I know when the Sense and Advice of the Meeting was in the Meeting openly read and delivered in Writing to me there was not any one Member of the Meeting that objected against it or expressed any dissent from it for though they did not express their dissent in my hearing yet as some of themselves tole me they had expressed their dissent formerly before I was called for divers in that Meeting did shew their dissent in charging the Separation upon me and I judge the words of the Paper it self as I have proved layeth it more upon them of the other side and there seemeth not to be a good consistency but rather an interfering in the words of that Paper of one part with another Beside that divers there did judge the Judgment was too partial and too favourable towards them of the other side and especially towards Sam. Jennings Nor can it be said that that called the yearly Meeting was a free Meeting for it was too private and limited to too small a number and many of them deeply prejudiced against me and who had long before pre-judged the case especially many of them called publick Friends both of the City and Country And many Friends that had a desire to be present were hindered to come in and the Door kept shut by some appointed so to do and some that had got in were turned out and therefore it cannot be owned to be the yearly Meeting nor any Meeting duely and regularly constitute when any faithful Friend had not freedom to be present and deliver his Sense And granting the Judgment given in that Paper called A true Account was the Judgment of the Plurality then present this proves it not to be a true Judgment for R. B. in his Anarchy c. saith page 79. The Quakers allow that at times the plurality may be wrong and the few may be right Nor can it be said that the yearly Meeting is the Representive of the body of Friends in cases that pertain to matters of Fact and Conscience for though Men may chuse Representatives to sit in a National Assembly to judge of worldly Matters and to make Laws for the outward Man yet I deny that they can choose Representatives to judge of Matters of Faith and Salvation that bind the Conscience singly as such for this were downright Popery and is the Foundation of all that blind Obedience that the Pope and Church of Rome imposes upon the People because such a general Counsel hath so decreed but rarely hath any general Counsel since the Apostles days done much good but rather hurt especially since the Purity of Christian Religion began to decay And this may clear me of these unjust and groundless Occasions wherewith T. E. doth load me as being guity of Insincerity Hypocrisie double Dealing having not a Conscience c. For my saying in my Introduction to my Treatise The causeless Ground c. I tenderly intreat and desire that none apply or construe any words contained in these following Lines as intended by me in way of Reflection Blame or Charge against either the body of Friends in general or any particular Meeting or Meeting of Friends in particular or against any singular faithful Friend or Friends whatsoever For my Intention was singly to clear Truth and faithful Friends in the first Place and next my Innocency and Christian Testimony and this I did still judge might well be done without Reflection or casting blame upon any faithful Friends or any Meeting of faithful Friends if any blame occasionally and indirectly fall upon any it was not my Intention to blame the faithful and if the unfaithful be occasionally blamed let them see to it to amend what is blame-worthy in them But as for that called The yearly Meeting Judgment I own it not to be such far less of the body of Friends or their true Representative knowing that hundreds of faithful Friends are otherwise minded But my calling the monthly Meeting in Philadelphia that gave Judgment against W. S. and T. E. the only Representative of the Church in that Place doth not prove that the yearly Meeting at London is the only Representative of the body of Friends over all the World where they are to be found That monthly Meeting did contain most of the Men Friends that did belong to that Place but the yearly Meeting doth not contain one for an hundred of the body of Friends beside there is a vast difference and disparity betwixt a monthly Meeting Representing the Church in that Place where all can be present if they will and hear and judge for themselves and not to hear by other Mens Ears and judge by other Mens Sense and believe by other Mens Faith but if a yearly Meeting be made the Representative of the body of Friends all over the World then what they decree or determine in Spiritual Matters must oblige and bind the Conscience of all Friends so that they must believe by the Faith of the yearly Meeting and not by their own Faith XXVI His perversion in saying p. 50. That the printing and publishing my books wherein I bear my Christian Testimony against these gross and vile errors that some are guilty of in America are the proper and direct cause of great hurt and mischief c. But he brings no proof for it but that it is apparent and it is as good an Argument for others to say it is apparent they are not the proper and direct cause of any hurt but of much good and the rather because he confesseth The Yearly Meeting hath not declared that my books contain any untruth or falshood in matter of Fact And for matter of Doctrine they have not charged me in the least how then can a book which hath nothing of Untruth or Falshood in it be the proper cause of hurt For as exveris nil nisi verum i. e. of true premises a false conclusion cannot follow so ex bonis nil nisi bonum out of good things that hath
nothing of falshood in it but much truth can nothing come but that which is good as the proper and direct effect thereof But if the publick reproving of mens errors and vices be the proper and direct cause of hurt and mischief the same argument will prove that when the Prophets did publickly reprove the errors and vices or the sins of the people that were then the Church of God by visible profession and did record them tho not in Print for it was not then in use in books that they were the proper and direct cause of hurt and when John reproved the Pharisees and Christ reproved most sharply Priests Scribes and Pharisees that they were proper causes of hurt and especially the recording of them in books that have remained to posterity and which some have made an ill use of and Paul's withstanding Peter to his Face and committing it to writing that he was to be blamed was the proper cause of hurt c by this unfair and undue way of arguing Also when Friends did print books reproving the Errors of Doctrine in other professions by the same argument they were the proper and direct cause of hurt to open the mouths of Papists against them XXVII pag. 51. His perversion and false charge That I have sought occasions by my late book to throw more Reproach on Truth and Friends But how can faithful witnessing against Error be a throwing Reproach on Truth and Friends of it he may as well say one contrary produceth another Truth produceth Error Light Darkness Good Evil all which is false XXVIII His perversion and fallacy in seeming to own the Doctrine in my book The Causeless Ground c. pag. 3. and yet altogether waving the chief thing of Doctrine wherein the Controversie lieth betwixt them of the other side and me and as I judge betwixt him and me viz. That the Faith of Christ as he died for our sins and rose again is necessary to our Christianity and salvation that God doth justifie us and pardon our sins for Christ's sake who died for us through our faith in him that is always accompanied with sincere Repentance c. But his leaving out wholly this period and clause that is so material shewing the great difference betwixt us in relation to the Christian faith I question not is to hide his and his brethrens errors in Pensilvania whose evil cause he hath taken up to defend And it will appear clearly so to be by noticing that he joyns not the work of sanctification in the heart to Christ's outward appearance but to his inward appearance Whereas had he the true Knowledge and Faith of Christ he would joyn and attribute the work of Regeneration and Sanctification both to Christs inward and outward appearance and hold forth and assert the Necessity of the Faith of his outward appearance as well as of his inward appearance in order to the work of Sanctification and Regeneration and would inform people that the true Faith in Christ as he did outwardly appear and die for our sins is not a bare historical and literal Faith but a living Faith wrought in the heart by the power of God and his Spirit inwardly revealed But that he doth not joyn the work of Regeneration and Sanctification to Christ's outward appearance Death Refurrection Ascension and Mediation in Heaven but to his inward only is clear from pag. 54. where he saith the Doctrines whereof as well those that related to the outward appearance and work of Christ in the flesh as those that relate to his inward appearance and work of Sanctification in the hearts of his people were in the first Ages of the Christian Church fully and clearly held forth and believed and pag 55. he distinguishing betwixt the Doctrines we hold in common with other professions that have always from the beginning been asserted c and those Doctrines that respect the inward appearance he saith Yet those Doctrines that respect the inward appearance and manifestation of Christ Jesus by his Light Grace and Spirit shining and working in the hearts of men and women from the beginning carrying on and perfecting the work of Regeneration Sanctification and Salvation have been more largely insisted on So that it is evident he attributes the work of Regeneration and Sanctification only to Christ's inward appearance because he gives this as the Reason why the Doctrine of his inward apperrance is more largely insisted on than the Doctrine of his outward appearance that Sanctification is wrought by his inward appearance and not by his outward appearance viz. his Death Blood Resurrection Ascension Mediation wherein he erreth fundamentally for the work of Sanctification is ascribed in Scripture to Christs Blood and Sufferings as well as to his inward appearance and to both indispensibly necessary and to Faith therein For we are said to be sanctified viz. through Faith in it And he was wounded for our Transgressions and by his stripes or Dolors we are healed Isa 535. 1 Pet. 2. 24. XXIX His gross and bold Fiction and Forgery in saying p. 57. Whatever jealousies and Dissatisfactions any of other professions had entertained against us on this account before they had no ground or occasion given them Whereas now he hath given them occasion tho unjustly and without cause to entertain wrong Jealousies of us But this his bold Fiction is false in both Parts 1. That other Professions had no ground of Dissatisfaction given them touching these Doctrines before my Books came forth for they had but too much ground from too many unsound Expressions contained in their Books and which some of that Profession have objected to me and which I could not answer otherwise than to acknowledge them to be unsound but it would take up too much time at present to mention them and the Books and Pages where these unsound Expressions are to be found But if T. E. or any else put me hard to it I can produce for Evidence but too many that to my certain knowledge have offended and stumbled many of other Professions 2. That I have now given them occasion to entertain wrong Jealousies of us for on the contrary by my faithful Testimony to sound Doctrines of the Christian Faith and against the opposite Errors I asserting that these Errors are not chargable on the body of Friends nor on the plurality but on certain particular Persons this is the most effectual way and indeed the only way to remove these Jealousies against us But nothing can be more effectual to confirm their Jealousies against us than to find any among us either to deny that any such erronious Doctrines are chargeable upon particular Persons when 't is clear as the Light of the Noon-day they are chargeable or to excuse and cloak them with such strained glosses as they cannot bear and make the Offence the greater XXX page 52. His Perversion and Fallacy in construing my words That the Doctrine of Christ Crucified c. was buried