A SERIOUS SEASONABLE WARNING UNTO All People Occasioned by two most Dangerous Epistles to a late BOOK of JOHN FALLDOE'S Subscribed by RICHARD BAXTER Tho. Manton Tho. Jacomb John Yates John Sheffield Ben. Needler Rob. Bragg A. Palmer Tho. Cole Tho. Dolittel Will. Cooper Will. Carslake Th. Wadsworth Geor. Griffith Matth. Barker John Singleton Andr. Parsons Steeph Ford Fran. Warham Rich. Mayo Tho. Gouge Will. Jenkins Tho. Watson Sam. Smith Will. Tutty Brethren all in Iniquity Whose Bow is alway ready bent With Quivers of Malice against the Innocent For loe the wicked bend their Bow they make ready their Arrows upon the String that they may privily Shoot at the Vpright in heart Psalm 11. 2. Whose Slanders and Lyes against the Holy People called Quakers are hereby Reproved By C. P. These things have I written to you concerning those that seduce you 1 John 2. 26. They are impudent Children and stiff hearted but surely they will not hear neither indeed will they cease for they are a rebellious house yet shall they know that there hath been a Prophet amongst them Ezek. 2. 4 5. London Printed in the Year 1675. To the People called Anthony Palmers CHURCH Mr Friends my knowledge of you hath been long about this time 20 years my Love to you can never expire being unfeigned I heard of you first at a place called London-house and am constrained to remind you of that day You then were a Reproached Suffering People and it was then a Reproach to go to your Meetings several of you in that day being Imprisoned for bearing a Testimony against the Sins of those times and in that day you being humble and meek the presence of God was amongst you in so much as a Rumer of it went through the Nation and you were visited by many choice Spirited men your heart were melted by the powerful strivings of Gods Spirit Oh ye degenerated People remember that Day But you resisting the Holy Spirit Pride and Lust and Self-seeking gat up amongst you and then you defiled your selves by touching with the Iniquities you had testified against and then a Spirit of Strife and Division entered you and brake you to pieces and ye went into Sects and Parties one Party publickly declared against another as Old Leaven purged out and thus ended your Glory and by this means were many honest hearted that uprightly sought the Lord amongst you scattered Now it is not possible to utter the grief that was in my heart in that day for I dearly loved you And when the Lord brought that great Desolation upon all professing Interests 1659. whereat even the whole world was amazed then great was my expectation that by affliction you would be turned to the Lord and that accordingly again his Presence would be found amongst you and you know what a noise you then made in your many days of Fasting Prayer then in sincerity seeking to be establisht in Religious matters expecting to be strengthned by a neerer fellowship with you so as to abide in the tryals of that day I sought to be neerly related to you and was admitted as one of your Members and the Lord knoweth I closed with you in uprightness towards him and true love to you which pure unfeigned Love still resteth upon my heart unto you And here I cannot forget and it may be good for you to be minded of it that at that time one of your Chiefest to my great disappointment told me in the hearing of several of you that you were sensible that the Presence of God was suspended from you endeavoring to satisfie me that God doth often suspend his presence from his Church I then answered that if I found a want of the Lords Presence I alway charged it upon my self as the cause of it Now after some considerable time of tryal I found you spake truth to my very great distress finding that the presence of the Lord was not amongst you and dismal and dark was that day when I came to see that I sought the Living amongst the Dead Now Oh People God Almighty that scarcheth the heart and tryeth the reins knoweth that I am deeply sensible of your state who have only a name to live but are dead and in true love to you have mourned for you and fervently desired your Salvation and indeed hoped well concerning you until lately finding the name of your Teacher A. Palmer amongst many more to a Book publisht by John Faldoe as Approvers deep sorrow even seized upon me that the Teacher of you a People that for many years have loudly proclaimed to the world That Love to all Saints is a Foundation Principle of your Fellowship should set his hand in a way of Recommendation to the world of the said book to an Epistle stufft with most detestable lies and slanders of and against a People that by many years experience I have found to be a holy People walking in the fear of God blameless and sound in the faith of the Gospel whom by your aforesaid Principle you ought to Love and knowing them to be clear of those foul things laid to their Charge by your said Teacher both as to Doctrine and Conversation I forthwith sent your Teacher one of William Pens Answers to him and his Brethren Moniters And thus wrote to him Anthony Palmer IT is so plain hereby proved that thou art guilty of Lies and Slanders against Gods People called Quakers that he that Runs may Read it and that thou art so guilty I hereby charge upon thee if thou art the A. Palmer there meant as I believe thou art and I send this that thou mayst see thy Error which if thou wilt acknowledge and send it me under thy hand that thou dost see and acknowledge thy Sin herein I shall be right glad otherwise if in some short time I do not receive such an account from thee thou mayst expect that I shall in that Congregation whom I knew I judge many years before thou didst and whose Souls Salvation I desire bear my Testimony against thee as a Slanderer and Lyar not fit for the Communion of such much less to be a Teacher of any People pretending to Christianity The 19th Day of the 10th Month. 74. After waiting many days having a great desire to have heard of his eyes being open to see his great Sin herein as saith the Prophet Amos 5. 12. I know your manifold Transgressions and your mighty Sins they afflict the Just It was in my heart to clear my Conscience publickly amongst you but my expected Opportunitie being disappointed by one of your Meeting denying to inform me where you intended to be Assembled it entered into my heart to commit my Message unto you into writing Oh People In bowels of tender Love to you I beseech you to consider the evil and danger of that Spirit that slandereth and belieth the Innocent as your Teacher hath herein done and have a care I warn you least he begetteth the same
Spirit in you And in a Conscientious discharge of my Duty to God and you I hereby bear my Testimony against what your Teacher hath written to be most detestable Slander proceeding from the old cursed Enmity of the Serpents Seed against the Seed of the Woman and I do in seriousness of Spirit hereby call upon you to consider of the state of your Souls and the sad danger you are in to be seduced by this sort of men into that detestable Spirit that hereby they have manifested to be in them having long known you and been of your number I am the more concerned for you and do beseech you to examine your Condition after so many years talk of Christ and Salvation by him I must tell you your Building is but on the Sand and the Rock you know not for you know that when the Winds blew and Waves beat upon you of Persecution you fled in that Winter there was no courage for God amongst you but you fled from your Testimony manifesting by your fainting in the day of Adversity that your strength was but small And I must clear my Conscience towards you that for many years in many places of this City made such a noise concerning Religion and when the hour of tryal came fled and turned your backs on your Testimony the cause is this your Building is on the Sand and so like the wicked you oft fled when none persued so captivated were you by the fear of man I know and your Consciences know how you consulted your fleshly Ease and Interests and fled the Cross Consider I earnestly intreat you how it came to be thus with you Men have seduced you into a false Faith and false Hope and the God and Christ you talk of I testifie unto you you know not and so in the hour of tryal how should you stand that know not the Rock Oh ye backslidden People thus it is with you whether you will hear or forbear this is the word of the Lord unto you even a Lye is in your Right hand while you are talking of Christ his Death and Sufferings and Resurrection and Justification by him yet being rebellious against his Light in you you are ignorant of and strangers to him and so truly I see and am sensible of your sad danger even to be seduced by your Teacher to stumble at the Foundation fall and perish for ever Oh that ever the Teacher of All hollows witness-bearing People should enter into a Confederacy with the worst of men against the Innocent Holy People of God for such are they who by him and his Colleagues are so Reviled I say a People sanctified by Faith in Christ Jesus Oh People the Lord hath a sore and terrible dreadful Controversie with you for you are as the Cauldron the Prophet speaks of with its great scum in it so it is with you the fire hath not purified you but you retain your scum of Pride Fleshly-ease and Sensuality Formality in Religion and Conformity to the world Oh that it should be thus with you after such a day as God hath brought amongst you Now I am to tell you of one great depth of Sathan whereby you have been seduced for which the wrath of God Almighty is against you and that is your offering Sacrifice when God calleth you to Service In that your Practice of keeping those Days in a way of Fasting and Prayer when God calleth you to testifie against their Superstitious Observation your Teacher aforehand tells you that such a day you will have a diversion from your Callings and therefore apoints it to be spent in Fasting and Prayer thus if any Testimony exposeth you to Sufferings you to shun the Cross to offer Sacrifice you agree O depth of Deceipt Oh ye Antients of that Congregation there was a day when your beloved John Symson exhorted you to open your shops on such days as a Testimony God required yâ—u to bear against Superstition and I have heard him reprove the neglect of it in these words I passed along the Streets such a day and scarce fee one shop open being the 25th day of the 10th Month and lamented it and reproved you for it Oh you Back-sliders compare this with the Spirit of your present Teacher Oh what a filthy pickle you are in that have thus long wallowed in your mire the Lord abhors you and all your Fastings and Prayers even as the Prophet said to degenerated Israel of old this is the word of the Lord unto you Oh People Zech. 7. 5. Speak unto all the People of the Land and to the Priests and say when ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh Month even the seventy Years did ye fast unto me did appoint it I this day testifie unto you these 14 or 15 years ye have not fasted unto the Lord but to your selves to your own Bellyes to preserve your fleshly ease and interests and it is no better than the cutting off the dogs neck or offering Swines blood Consider this Oh ye Houlers and hear as in the sight of God that justifieth me in it and requireth it of me I charge it upon you that call your selves Churches to be guilty of thickning the Veil of Darkness upon the minds of the People of this age by your deserting your Testimony against Superstition and running away in the day of suffering Oh ye Hypocrites when God calls you to a publick Testimony against Popish Observations you run into corners and keep a houling of your fears of the dark night of Popery coming upon the Nation I know your doings in the dark the Righteous God hereby chargeth it upon you to be guilty of making gross and thick the Veil of Darkness upon the minds of People in this day and in his Fear I charge it upon you Woe woe unto you from the jealous God of Israel that out of Sion this day roareth and uttereth his voice from Jerusalem against you Oh ye evil doers that have run into Corners Cole holes Closets or on tops of houses through Valleys from one house to another enquired after and consulted to have back doors and all to escape the Crosâ— Oh blush that ever men should be so impudent as to appear in this day to admonish the People that have so acted their part Now no wonder your Teacher joyns his hand with that notorious Enemy to God and Reformation R. Baxter who hath strained his wits on that Teynters to reduce this age into Aegyptian Darkness witness his Cure for Church Divisions wherein he hath condemned the Saints and Martyrs of all ages and no doubt but Ed. Bagshaw that so honestly opposed him was counted with these 25 Moniters a Reverend Divine but to pass them Oh how can I but lament that the people of Allhollows should be entered into this most detestable confederacy against the work of God in this day Oh you whom God hath emptied from Vessel to Vessel and hewed some of you to piece
by slandering us your old cause taught you better all this will not serve your turn for God is stripping the veil off peoples minds and they will ere long see with their own eyes not yours and the unprejudiced know you are false accusers herein and that all sensualists are judged of us and not of us for we follow peace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. 21. MONITERS Few among them are men of so much understanding and competent Principles as to be able and willing to give a methodical account intelligibly of what they or their party hold HEre is a Lye Couchant he that rides conquering and to conquer notwithstanding all your weapons of opposition hath in our day riden prosperously that in our Nation at this day is many thousands of true Israelites of which great number it may be suppos'd you 25 are not acquainted with 100. And yet you are so confident as to affirm us all fools but a few Oh ye Artists and men of Methods that are wise to deceive We are not ashamed to grant that we are come to that Wisdome that the world calls folly being willing to become fools that we may be truly wife as the Apostle testified in his day and it 's not novelty for such as preach in the wisdom of God to be called babblers by such as you We are come to that which giveth subtilty to the simple and in that mistery how should we be intelligible to you carnal men whose wisdome is from beneath sensual divelish But before you upbraid us for our ignorance oh Rabbies you should answer Rusticuss by S. F. What will you boast and put off your harness as victorious and sing and ring a victory and never have engaged your enemy If Rusticuss hath put you all to silence why do you so mock at the Rustick You prate against the Rustick and yet run away from him Well ye Rabbies we grant you cannot understand but I tell you the reason is because you were never with us at the School of Christs Cross We know you come from Cambridge Oxford but you are not yet entered in the School of Christs Cross and that 's the reason we who speak the wisdome of God in a Mistery are to you unintelligible We know you have read worldly Authors and have hundreds or thousands a year to pick here and there and then inclose it in your Bible and tell the people thus say the Fathers of the Church thus the Antient and Modern Divines the Text is thus divided into parts these the points of Doctrine thus illustrated these the Inserences these the grounds and reasons of the point these the Uses and thus applyed Lo your Trade and by this craft you fill your bellies and maintain your Families in worldly pomp and thus the spirit that is in you lusteth to envy against the poor and meek of the earth and call them fools and mad men babblers unintelligible of inconsistent Principles Well if ignorance be the Mother of our Devotion we know we have heard and learnt of the Fathers who calleth not many wise nor mighty and confoundeth things that are by that which is not But oh that you Doctors could see that God is in this day turning the wisdome of wise men backward and perfecting his praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings which glorious work though you joyn hand in hand against you shall not go unpunisht for Sions brightness is arising and her God is her glory and in vain do you form weapon after weapon for none of them shall prosper the Lord hath spoken and who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not the Virgin Daughter of Sion laughs at all your plots and conspiracies trusting in the arm of the Lord that hath brought your councels to nothing and yet yet again will make you Diviners mad Oh ye Doctors Remember that hand that subverted all your councels and brought down your lofty nest in 1659. you that deceived the simple ones of that day by your long Prayers and days of Fasts in several places in this City charming them with Lyes until the hand of the Lords Vengance brake forth without remedy could ever this age expect again to hear of you whose light of your eyes and breath of your nostrils is so long agone dead and twice buryed Now oh people can you chuse but stand amazed to see these men so impudent as ever again to appear as your Moniters how many of your dear Fathers Husbands Brothers and Kindred have in this age by these very men been seduced into destructive ways to soul and body to the ruine of many antient and honest Families I say to all people reflect but your own Experience of these men the best Teacher as themselves say and more need not to be said than to remind you of your own experience of these men These men are better known to me than to every one and my feet were well nigh slidden into the everlasting pit of destruction by their seducing Doctrine and it 's my concernment to warn others and I do say could people hear the cry of thousands out of the pit of damnation they would intelligibly hear their Idol of Jealousie and others thus lament Presbyterian and Independants under the notion of Gospel Ministers and Reverend Divines were the men that seduced us hither by their preaching peace to us and crying the Lord is with you had it not been for them we had obeyed the Light in our Consciences and returned from our evil ways and had never come here thus cries John Indicot and others of New England and this is the dolorous complaint of thousands of our but yesterday dear Country men Oh people consider what I say unto you that you would but reflect your own expeperience of these men Oh G. G. how darest thou ever appear again shure thou hast forgotten thy Westminster Flatteries thou most notorious lying Prophet whom I heard thus to pray at Pauls Lord Bless the Army of the Lamb against the Beast give them success The Army that by thy Master was sent to Hyspaniola to rob the Spaniard so then there the Army of the Lamb was hewed to pieces in the woods in Hyspaniola by a few Moors Oh sad Moniter possest with a legion of lying Spirits Solomon saith He that saith to the wicked thou art righteous him shall the people curse Prov. 11. 26. That is thy portion O G. G. by way of eminence Oh if people were not in a Lethargy of seâ—urity they would be aware of you all and shun you as the Plague of the present time Oh People These Priests you see no Changlings are Such as they were such like to be ever They change their Coats and vary their Notes But always you may observe their lure Is strain'd to grasp after filthy lucre Though often routed yet they rallie And face any way to fill their bellie Their net is