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
glad to have kept Meetings with many or most of the People of the Meeting of the other side after the Separation was begun believing and knowing that they were in great measure beguiled and led astray by their Leaders that they were too much given up to follow yet retaining a measure of Simplicity but we could not meet with them in Peace after their Leaders on the other side had begun the Separation not having freedom given us or Permission peaceably to exercise our gift among them but were always interrupted and molested when we met together and otherwise most unchristianly abused And thus I hope I have sufficiently shewed the good Consistency betwixt my saying I and my Friends had Unity with the most there at that Meeting considering the Circumstances then of that Meeting and yet did remain in a Separation both of Spirit and outward Fellowship from many of that Meeting both then and since and the same Answer here given may serve to answer the same Objection and Accusation made against us very unduely in the Book called The Christian Doctrine and Society of the People called Quakers page 18. of the said Book XXIII page 47. His Perversion of my words about the word many and very many in my saying it was my charitable Perswasion that the worthy Name Christian doth belong to very many of that People where by very many he construeth my Sense to be only these few I had an experimental proof of through intimate Conversation and frequent verbal Communication with since I came last into England But this is a gross Forgery and Perversion for I did really mean not them only but all them whom I have at any time formerly bad Experience of their Christianity by intimate Conversation and verbal Communication either in England or any other part of the World that have given me no occasion to think otherwise of them as many have not though some have and my Charity leads me to believe and judge that there are very many called Quakers that are true Christians both in Faith and Practice that I have had no outward knowledge of but I cannot in Charity esteem them Christians who have unchristian'd themselves either by their bold and open contradicting the great Truths of Christianity or by their persecuting and otherwise unjust and wicked Practises XXIV page 48. His Perversion of my words that though I said in my last Book called The causless ground c. I have not charged the People called Quakers either in the general or in the plurality he will needs have it to be understood only of these few I have intimately conversed with since I came last into England Oh! How hath prejudice blinded him But how can he or I either be positive to say the People called Quakers are good Christians either in general or in the plurality when Geo. Whitehead hath told us in his printed Epistle printed about four years ago at London and was re-printed in Penstlvania called A Christian Epistle to Friends in geneneral c. That few sincerely seek the Lord c. And very few have their Minds and Spirits really and inwardly exercised in frequent Prayer and daily Supplications to God or in heavenly Meditation or spiritual Contemplations in Gods pure and spiritual Laws Ways Judgments and Works or in holy Scriptures by the Holy Spirit which opens them but too many have their Minds Hearts and Affections taken up with these fading Objects and things below or overcharged with the love of Riches Caâ—es and Cumbers of this Life to compass the Earth wherein many a good Talent has been hid and poor Soul buried in Captivity And concerning Friends Children and young Persons he saith It 's but few in Comparison that come in at that door viz. the work of Regeneration And who will say that the worthy Name of Christian doth belong to such And yet by G. W's charge they must be at least the plurality when very few do otherwise though some formality and something of the form of Truth as he saith they may have by outward Education But let none think I blame G. W. in this it may be a true charge for what I know to the contrary but why should I be so much blamed for charging neither the generality nor plurality but some particulars when he hath charged many more with things as bad as Errors in Principles and that publickly in Print beside that Errors in Practise do commonly go along with Errors in Principle But it seems strange to many as well as to me that Errors in Principle as Pride vanity of Apparel Covetousness Envy Backbiting may without offence be publickly reproved by word of Mouth in Meetings and also in Print but Errors in Principle must not be reproved and witnessed against either in publick Meetings or in Printed Books Do Errors in Practise as Pride vanity of Apparel Covetousness Envy and the like when publickly witnessed against in Print or in Meetings open the Mouths of Adversaries and grieve faithful Friends less than Errors in Principles unless it be said that reproving Errors in Principles reflect upon the Preachers but reproving Errors in Practise reflect only upon the People but if any of the Preachers be guilty why may they not and ought they not to be as publickly reproved as the People unless we respect Persons and that both for their Error in Doctrine and Practise Is it not a just charge upon some called Preachers which Christ charged upon the Scribes and Pharisees They loved the Praise of Men more than the Praise of God and therefore cannot beat to be reproved for it hath been the general default of Teachers and Leaders of the People in former times to hide their own Faults and expose the Faults of others especially of such as did not flatter them and gave them not honour enough before Men. And nothing can be said against my Printed Books in reference to my publick witnessing again the Errors in Principles whereof some are guilty in Pensilvania and elsewhere but what may be as much said against G. Whitehead his reproving these great Vices and Immoralities among many called Friends having the Name and form of Truth Have my Books tended to the dishonor of God disservice to Truth reproach and grief of Friends for my Printing against the vile Errors whereof some called Friends are guilty And hath not G. Whiteheads printed Epistle had as much that tendency for his printing against the vile Practises of many more than ever I charged But in reality I judge and many others do judge that the faithful witnessing against Mens gross and vile Errors either in Doctrine or Practise is no proper and direct cause of such Effects as the dishonour of God the disservice of Truth the reproach and grief of Friends but on the contrary the proper and direct cause of Gods being honoured Truth cleared the Reproach removed and faithful Friends comforted with a publick Testimony borne against such publick Sins and
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