desir'd them to begin with the Scriptures and prove the Contradiction of my Doctrine first to the holy Scriptures and then it was time to Consider these men's Books Samuel Jennings in a publick Meeting at Philadelphia on a first day said it was not necessary to prove me guilty of Heresie whereof they had accus'd me from the Scriptures but from Friends Books for said he the Question betwixt G. K. and them is not who is the best Christian but who is the best Quaker And though I still desir'd them to bring their Scripture proofs yet they for most part waved that and continued clamouring that my Doctrine contradicted Will. Pen. Geo. Whitehead and other Friends which I did not know all that time that it did for though the places they quoted out of their Books seemed much to favour my Adversaries yet I was not willing to think so but labour'd to retain my Charitable perswasion of them putting the most Charitable Constructions upon their Words as was possible so farr as I had read the passages in their Books that seemed to interfere with me At last I came to a firm Resolution in my mind to Come for England having first writ to George Whitehead and other Friends of the Ministry about our differences desiring to know their sense they seemed to blame me for the separation but in great part to approve of my Principles but the words in their Epistles were so dubious like the Heathen Oracles that as to the main difference of Principles betwixt my Adversaries and me in Pensilvania it was rather increas'd by their Epistles then allayd my Adversaries Construing them one way and I and my Friends another way After I arrived in England and came to London And had some private Conferrences with George Whitehead and William Penn about these very Principles of the sufficiency of the Light within to Salvation without any thing else by the something else that I did plead for declaring that I meant the man Christ Jesus and his most holy and perfect Obedience unto death for our Sins and his Intercession for us in Heaven I began easily to perceive that they greatly differed from me in those great things yet they did seek to hide themselves as much as they well could mainly and almost only blaming me for the Separation and making a breach in Pensilvania and the neighbouring Provinces among Friends But by degrees the difference in Principles betwixt them and me began plainly to appear before they Excommunicated me at their yearly Meeting in the Year 1695. For at a large Meeting of Friends of the Ministry where were many Country Friends about two days before the yearly meeting in 1694. William Penn accused me for seeking to bring in a new method of Preaching Christ and Faith in him differing from that of Friends and that new method was to preach the Man Christ without us and his Death and Sufferings in order to bring people to know the Divine Principle within them and the work of Regeneration And at the said Meeting G. W. blamed me for affirming that all the Light and Grace that any men had in any age of the World was the effect of Christ's Obedience unto death for us and argued against it thus Men had Light and Grace before Christ came in the Flesh to perform that obedience can the Effect be before the Cause this plainly enough let me see into G. Whitehead's Principles he had the same strength of Argument but that 's none at all against any mens having Remission of Sin by Christ's death before he came in the Flesh why can the effect be before the Cause I told him a Moral effect can be before its cause and oft times is and gave an Example how a man by a Contract or Covenant buyeth a House or Field and posesseth it before the Money is paid the Condition of the Covenant being that the Money is not to be paid until such a time so by Virtue of the Covenant of Grace which respected Christ to Come and the satisfaction he was to make to divine justice by his Death and Sufferings for mens sins past as well as to come all the faithful had remission of sin and inward Light and Grace as well before he came as since And some Months after this at a publick Meeting of the Quakers at Ratcliff by London William Penn did publickly oppose my testimony and charged me to be an Apostate and that I endevoured to pluck up the testimony of truth by the roots And at the same time He told the Auditory that Friends saw no great need to preach the Faith of Christ's Death and Sufferings for all England had that Faith and all Christendom had it but it did not profit them * Reader by this Argument it should not be Preached at all With many Abusive words all which he father'd upon a transport of the glorious power of God at the next yearly Meeting when I Complain'd upon his so abusing me Yet they have after all this sought to hide the differences in Doctrine betwixt them and me from publick notice so that in their sentence of Excommunication they blame not my Doctrine nor Morals in any particular thing but cast out some general charges against me for being turbulent c. and seperating my self from the Church of Christ But their unchristian dealings with me as well as Antichristian Principles have sufficiently proved them not to be a Church of Christ though still I have that charity to diverse among them that they belong to Christ and his Church but not as respecting that visible Society that has less the face of a Church than any Society of Protestants any where in the world A third Reason is that this publication of the foregoing Relation will be a true Evidence and Witness for me that as to the great fundamentals of the Christian Faith I am not changed from what I was Twenty years ago when own'd among them and for many years after acknowledg'd by them that I was in the Unity And that therefore it is manifest to be a Calumny and false Accusation rais'd by some Malicious Persons among the Quakers against me that I am Apostatised from my former Principles of Christianity and have embraced new notions or Priests and Professors Principles as they are pleased 〈…〉 that formerly I had relinquished and from a tentation that I had let prevail over me to seek and affect preheminence over my Brethren and not finding my desire and end answered in that I sought occasion to differ from them and purposely chang'd my Principles that I might have a ground of Strife and Contention with them all which the Righteous Judge of the whole Earth and the searcher of hearts knoweth to be false and injurious charges I have sufficiently in my late Printed Books proved that I am the same in all Principles of Truth that I was formerly and wherein I am changed in some lesser matters of Perswasion it is to
p. 301. Add to this another Instance given in the Further Discovery before Quoted wrote by Five Ministers p. 91. of a Quaker woman who came to Disturb one of their Congregations at Kellet in Lancashire she fell into a Trance her Belly puffed up her sides Extended her Back-bone thrust out her whole Body as a Bladder when it is in Blowing c. This is attested under the hand or Mr. Moore Minister at Kellâ—t But Instances are Endless See the General Account of it in a Book Printed at that time 1653. call'd A brief Relation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers Wrote by Francis Higgison p. 15. Those in their Assemblies that are taken with these Fits fall suddenly down as it were in a Swoon as tho' they were surpris'd with an Epilepsis or Apoplexy and ly Groveling on the Earth and strugling as it were for Life and sometimes more Quietly as tho' they were Departing While the Agony of their Fits is upon them their Lips Quiver their Flesh and Joints Tremble their Bellies swell as tho' Blown with Wind they Foam at the Mouth and sometimes Purge as if they had taken Phisick In this Fit they continue sometimes an Hour or two sometimes Longer before they come to themselves again And when it leaves them they Roar out Horribly with a Voice Greater than the Voice of a Man The Noise those say that have heard it is a very Horrid Fearfull Noise and Greater sometimes than any Bull can make The Speaker when any of them falls in this Fit will say to the rest that are sometimes Astonisht at this sight especially if they be Incipients let them alone trouble them not the Spirit is now strugling with the Flesh if the Spirit overcome they will Quickly come out of it again though it be sorrow now it will be Joy in the Morning c. And when they have said a few words to this Effect they go on with their Speaking Sometimes they carry those wretched Patients to Beds when they are near them and let them Ly on them till their Fit be over These Quakings they Maintain Saul's Errand p. 5. and in their Books and Papers call them the Marvelous works of the Lord Battels of Shaking and Trembling before the Presence of the Lord and call them that speak against them Ishmaelites that scoff at the works of the Lord They say also those that speak against this Quaking shew themselves to be Blasphemers and that it is Presumption and Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to speak against it Thus that Account Take another two Years after this Wrote by Mr. Edmund Skipp then Minister of Bodenham in Hereford-shire but who as himself tells us had been before seduc'd by the fair Pretences of the Quakers and was one of them But by the Great Mercy of God having Discover'd their Gross Deceits he Return'd from them and then Gave notice of them to the World in a Book printed 1655. which he Intituled The Worlds wonder or The Quakers Blazing-Star c. there p. 22. he tells of these Mysterious Deceits of Anti-Christ Which I gather says he from those strange and unheard of Passions and Agonies those Great Burthens and Exercitations of Body in so much that they are sometimes in Trances and Soundings and if they are not brought into such a state of Deadness as it were yet they suffer most Extreme Tortures of Body that hath been Visible to me and several others many times nay so much Extremity that it maketh them Roar out for very Bitterness And I do clearly Judge that if the Lord did not Limit the Devil in their behalf as he did for Job saying Thou shalt not touch his Life it wou'd be Impossible for their Concaves to hold their Inwards in those Violent Motions for they are made under those Agonies to Tremble and Quake as though their Flesh must part from their Bones and Ligatures like unto Men in the strongest Fits of an Ague that ever you saw as tho' they had seen Belshazzar's Vision Dan. 10. that made his knees smite one against another In those strange Passions they are Exercised with so much Heat I know not of what sort that it maketh them cry out for Drink and maketh them Sweat like men in most violent Feavers Now they call these Agonies the Fiery-Trial and say it is the Power of the Holy Ghost burning up and Destroying their Corruptions and Purifying them like Gold that is tried seven times in the Fire And that which is very strange when they are thus in the midst of these Extreme Shakings Quakings Trials Roarings and Perplexities that one wou'd think ther cou'd be no more Torment upon the Damn'd Spirits than is upon them at the Present yet many times when they begin to come to their Speech for it falleth out often that they are not able to speak for a long time they will speak how much Joy and Pleasure they have mix'd with that Torment in such an Inseperable Manner as they themselves Express as Heat and Fire mix'd together that they cou'd wish to be in it for Ever and Ever This they call Drinking of the Cup or the Undergoing the Curse and wrath of God as Christ did for here they speak to my Understanding most Blasphemously and say they must be brought to suffer as Christ did and to Undergo as Great a sense of Wrath as He did when he Cried out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me In a word as far as ever I cou'd Understand their Apprehensions by their Expressions in this last particular I did Judge this to be their Delusion that they must suffer Eternal Burnings bearing the full weight of Divine Justice and wrath as fully as though ther never had been any Christ Crucifi'd or acceptation of His Sacrifice untill as they say ther shou'd be no more left in them but the Pure seed of God in its own Perfect Likeness And they say that Condition or state which is call'd in Scripture Hell or Everlasting Torment is but a Dispensation which shall End at such a time as that Burning and Torment of the Soul and Conscience shall have Refin'd it and brought it into its former Purity and Likeness of God Thus far I have transcrib'd out of this Author not only as to this of their Quaking but because he do's withal open to us the very Heart and Bottom of the Quaker Heresie viz. That the Meritorious Cause of our Justification is not the Sufferings of Christ in His Body upon the Cross but that the same sufferings must be wrought over again in us that we must Bear our own Sins in our own Bodies and must be Healed by our own Stripes which likewise they call the Sufferings of Christ or the Light within them And that what he suffers thus within every man is the only Meritorious Cause of his Justification and Reconciliation to God That what He suffer'd Outwardly upon the Cross is nothing to us but an Example a History
or Facilt Representation of the Greater Mystery of what He Suffers and Acts within us Wherein only the Atonement and Satisfaction for Sin is Perform'd And this they suppos'd to be done in these Monstrous Possessions of Quaking c. And therefore were greatly Desirous of them as thinking their state not secure till they had gone thro' one of these Fits at least As Mr. Skipp tells of himself while he was a Quaker p. 25. I thought it was my unhappiness says he that I was not and it was great Cause of trouble and unspeakable sorrow to me and that which caus'd me to complain bitterly time after time but they wou'd tell me that I must wait for it and they said that they cou'd Believe for me and they were Confident I shou'd be a very Glorious Piece c. Here their Spirit of Discerning fail'd them But that which makes the long Quotation I have taken out of Mr. Skipp the more Valuable is because G. Fox has wrote an Answer to it in his Great Mystery where p. 314. he after his usual fashion Epitomizes and Falsifies Mr. Skipp's words above Quoted thus It is Blasphemy to say we must fill up the sufferings of Christ. Ther are no such words in Mr. Skipp not so put together but he referrs to that Part above Quoted where Mr. Skipp calls it Blasphemy to say that they must suffer as Christ did and are sav'd by Their own sufferings and not by Christs In which G. F. opposes Mr. Skipp and says in Answer Thou hast not Drunk the Cup of the Wrath and Judgment of the Almighty and that you must Drink before you come to know the seed of God come from under all the Power of Wickedness in thee And Christ who bore the Sin of the whole world felt it and was under it and was offered and over it all and makes his Enemies his Foot-stool This is all his Answer And shews what he means by considering what it is which he opposes for without seeing the Books which he Pretends to Answer of which few are now Extant ther is no Understanding by him either what they said for he seldom Quotes them True or what himself says who cou'd write neither Sense nor English But here you see he Denies nothing of Mr. Skipp's Charge against the Quakers but rather Justify's and Defends it in other words that we must suffer as Christ did till the Seed of God come from under the Power of Wickedness which are almost Mr. Skipp's own words And Fox do's not Deny that they Place the Meritorious Cause of ther Justification in those Sufferings within themselves and not in the outward Sufferings of Christ And that when these Inward Sufferings in their Consciences are over and the Seed Purged then that ther is an End of Hell that these Sufferings of the Seed in them is the only Hell this Fox do's not Deny tho positively Charg'd upon them Which is a Plain Confessing The Least one can do is to Deny as G. W. here in this Answer of his But when we Pretend to Answer and dare not so much as Plead Not Guilty it is a full and total yielding to the Charge The truth is the Light within is All things to the Quakers its Shining as they think they are sure within them they call Heaven its being obscur'd that is Hell And they Believe no other Heaven or Hell or God or Christ but their Light within And when they are Possest with their Quaking Fits they call it the Fighting of their Light within against their Darkness within which G. W. wou'd turn off here upon Convulsion Fits For which I leave him to be Chastis'd by those Quakers who have wrote Apologies for their Quaking as being the Effects of a Divine Inspiration And those who were much troubl'd because that Extraordinary Quaking had now in a Great measure left them as if thereby they had Lost that Measure of the Spirit which their Fathers Possest or which Possest their Fathers To Comfort whom Pat. Levingston wrote a Book call'd Plain and down right Dealing wherein he told them that their first years were Purging years but that when Phisick had Purg'd sufficiently then the Patient was more Still and Quiet See the Sn. p. 295. yes George and after Convulsion-fits too when they are over But George few Desire fits of Convulsion or any Natural Disease and Long for them as the Quakers for their Possessions None Express Extasies of Joy in Natural Diseases as we have heard of this Quaker Sickness And all this cou'd not be Counterfited for None can Counterfit such violent Convulsions and Distortions as Exceed the Power of Nature In the Next Place Young Children among the Quakers were often feiz'd with these Quaking Fits and these cou'd not Counterfit And many Earnestly Desir'd them but cou'd not have them when they wou'd And since they are neither Natural nor Counterfit they must be a Praeter Natural either Divine or Diabolical Possession And which of the two it is ther are some Rules whereby to Guess which are Mention'd in the Sn. Sect. xxi which G. W. wou'd do well to Consider and not Shuffle them off as he do's in this Answer But he gives up the Cause by Assigning such Contradictory Reasons for in the same breath within the Compass of one Page he makes three supposes for these Quakings First The word and Power of God Second Convulsion-Fits Third Exorcism or the Casting out of some Evil Spirit If he had said the Entrance of the Evil Spirit and its taking of Possession he had come nearer the Mark But however Why do's he make so many Guesses at the Causes of this Quaking Did he not know whether it was Convulsion or Inspiration or Exorcism or was he Asham'd to tell Well but as to our Present purpose from whatever Cause these Quakings do Proceed it is allow'd on all hands that the Possession is very Strong and carries with it the most visible Effects of Madness And as the Old Proverb says Once Mad and Ever the worse so they who have been once Possess'd with these Quaking Fits seldom Ever after recover the state they were in before but have Raz'd Looks and something Frightful about them But it is not all the Quakers whom God has Deliver'd so far into the Power of the Devil And others have been Possess'd as well as the Quakers But this was more Peculiar to the Quakers than to any others of any sort of People otherwise they had not got the Name of Quakers from thence And at the time when the Devil was most Busie and these Quakings were most Violent and most Frequent about the year 1653 Quakerism was then but very young only three years old and the Quakers did not then bear Proportion of One to a Thousand speaking within Compass to the Rest of England so that we have had a Thousand of these sort of Mad-Men among the Quakers for One any where else And if we Reckon those Mad who