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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30022	A brief history of the rise, growth, and progress of Quakerism setting forth that the principles and practices of the Quakers are antichristian, antiscriptural, antimagistratical, blasphemous, and idolatrous from plain matter of fact, out of their most approved authors, &c. ... / by Francis Bugg, Senior.	Bugg, Francis, 1640-1724?	1697 (1697)	Wing B5367; ESTC R23818	99,372	212

a Miracle as any thing can be found in the Popish Legends for if setting a Man's Neck aright that had gone awry by a fall be a Miracle then many Miracles have been wrought in England and elsewhere for it is very common and yet was never called a Miracle until now that these who published his Journal have so called it and like to this is that one recovered from Sickness after G. Fox had prayed and if this was a Miracle many such Miracles are wrought by Ministers of the Church of England and others SECTION IX Divers particulars contracted out of the General History and branched into six distinct Heads where their Anniversary Synods and their Church Government and private Devotions are Treated of shewing the effects to be disparaging the Scripture withholding Tythes refusing to pay Church Rates neglecting to read the Bible in their Meetings refusing to vindicate it from the aspersions of the Papists throwing of the Sacraments allowing Women to Teach and Vsurp Authority in their distinct Womens Meetings omitting private Duties censuring and reproaching the Church Liturgy Magistrates Ministers such as write against them and for Conscience sake separate from them their gross Hypocrisy in making Legal punishments to be persecutions in saying and recording that they suffer great penalties when they really do not c. GEN. Hist p. 50. to 56. They the Quakers have likewise Meetings like to those we call Classes and Provincial and National Synods or Councils these Conventions are celebrated but so as to allot each Sex both Men and Women their distinct and particular Meetings other Meetings are appointed every Month others every three Months in which they consider their Provincial affairs In these they inspect into and recognize all Books that are to be printed after they have been perused and approved by the Censors appointed for that purpose The Acts of these Meetings are put into Registers they have Anniversary Synods in every considerable Kingdom to whom belong the Care and Administration of all the Affairs of that Kingdom In England their Metropolis they have a fixed Anniversary Synod on the third day of Penticost continuing sittting 4 or 5 days together They have Delegates also come to this Synod from all their Churches in all Counties or Places where the Quakers obtain footing but these must be such as are in the Ministry At this Meeting they make a Catalogue of the Sufferers for their Religion discovering what their Sufferings were and for what causes they were inflicted and by whom when the Synods are dismissed all their Acts and Decisions are enregister'd by the publick Authority of the Synod which are afterwards copyed from the Records in order to be printed and sent to all the Synods of their Associates throughout the World They have no President to their Synod which place say they is supplyed by the Holy Ghost but they have a Clark who marks down every thing moved by the Assembly Moreover it is their custome in their Houses never to express a Religious Duty with an outward voice as Praying to God craving a Blessing e'er they take Meat or go to Bed till they feel the impulsion of the Spirit c. Having contracted the sense of several pages wherein my Author relate the Way Manner and Method of the Quakers Church Government and Family Behaviour now I shall make it my business to shew how Quakerism grows encreases and makes its progress in and by these Ways and Methods and thereby discover not only that Quakerism tends to root up the Foundations of the Christian Religion Instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ who so loved the World that he laid down his precious Life for lost Man but also tends to unhinge the Government both of Church and State and in order to make some further discovery hereof I shall digest the matter into a few Heads and speak briefly and distinctly to each in their place 1. The Quakers in their Synods have no President the Holy Ghost supplying that Office 2. The Quakers at their Synods make a Catalogue of them which suffer for their Religion what they suffer and by whom 3. That the Quakers at their Synods inspect Books to be printed and recognize the same 4. About the Womens distinct Meetings and their way of Government 5. The Quakers custome observed in not Praying to God in their Families nor craving a blessing before they Eat 6. About their Anniversary Synods particularly that at London with some of its Fruits and Effects And lastly with some observations upon a passage in the General History p. 110. The Quakers also could not but Love King William and embrace him as their most effectual Defender c. And so shall conclude these seven particulars 1. The Quakers have no President in their Synod which place they say is supplyed by the Holy Ghost c. This is the great Foundation upon which the Church of Rome build their Faith touching the Doctrine of infallibility and of which they mightily boast over all Protestant Churches For tho' all true Protestants believe that the Holy Ghost is with and will continue with his Church to the end of the World according to Matth. 28. yet that thereby any Synod Councel or Church is infallible in their Precepts and Councels that as such they are to be indispensably obeyed as was the Precepts of the inspired Apostles this they deny and none hold it but the Papists and Quakers And as this vain glorying of infallibility in the Papists has been refuted so it will be in the Quakers also and in order to it let us examine how and in what manner the Holy Ghost is the President of the Quakers Counsels and Synods c. It is written John 5. 23. For the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son v. 27. and hath given him Authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man And to this agrees that Apostolical saying Acts 17. 31. Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Now this Text in St. John the Quakers do not like it as translated and therefore to bend the Scripture to serve their design and to quadrate to their principles they have perverted these Scriptures in Josiah Coal's Works p. 93. saying All Judgment being committed to the Light that Lighteth every Man the Light that is in every Man must of necessity be Judge of all controversies c. So that it plainly appears from hence as also in my First Chapter in the First Part. That whereas God Almighty hath committed all Judgment to the Son and hath ordained him to be Judge of quick and dead because he is the Son of Man Therefore the Quakers translate this Prerogative from the Son of God Christ Jesus to their Light which by their Logick is the Son of Man which

I deny and this Light to whom they say all Judgment is committed and which they have in them must be Judge of all controversies and consequently their President which deserves the casting Voice No marvel then that the Quakers are not concern'd to vindicate our Bible against the contempt cast upon it by the Papists as saith the same Josiah Coal ibid. p. 104. I find the rest of his Book i. e. A. S. the Roman Catholick consists of divers Arguments in which he controverts with Sectaries and their Bibles and Ministers whose cause I am not engag'd in therefore it doth not concern me to Answer his Charges against them c. No what neither Sectaries their Bibles nor Ministers Surely tho' he thought himself not engag'd to vindicate the Sectaries nor their Ministers yet if as they pretend to the Parliament they do believe the Scriptures to be Divine and left us by Men Divinely Inspired and that they are a rule of Faith and Behaviour they ought to have vindicated the Bible at least Well but some may say what did this A. S. the Papists call the Bible that they the Quakers think themselves thus unconcern'd to vindicate I Answer 't is his 14th Chapter and which the same Josiah Coal hath printed as an Abettor and Co-workers with him in p. 113. to 116 of his Works The contempt the Papists cast on the Bible and which the Quakers are not at all concern'd to vindicate is viz. Protestant Sectarian Ministers and Preachers who stand in a Pulpit or Tub with such a brazen Fac'd Book as is their unjust corrupt and perverse Bible in their hand c. Oh the deceit of this People What do they pretend to own the Bible only for their own ends to obtain their Liberty and when the Papists vilifie and contemn it and call it a brazen Fac'd Book a corrupt and perverse Book and they not concern'd hereat Well I do still hope that some will be concern'd to vindicate the Holy Bible from the contempt of the Papists calling it a brazen Fac'd Book perverse Book and from the contempt of the Quakers who call it Death Dust Beastly ware Carnal Serpents-meat c. 2. That the Quakers at their Synods make Catalogues of Sufferers for their Religion and what they Suffer and by whom c. I have spoken to this Head largely in the 4th Chapter of the first Part and therein shewed how they boast of their Sufferings how they Augment and make them more than they are yea put them in their Monuments Sufferers 20 l. when they are so far from that that they have gotten 10 l. clear into pocket as in the case of Samuel Cater I have made it appear likewise as my Author says Gen. Hist p. 137. that they amplify their Sufferings viz. A scratch a pinch or a blue spot for a grievous Torment and bloody Wound which may be well observed in most of the Monuments which these Men have left of their Sufferings c. 3. That the Quakers inspect their Books to be printed after approved by their Censors c. From whence let it be noted that if their Books be thus inspected and approved by their approved Censors then are the whole answerable for the Errors contained in those Books and for all the horrible Blasphemies in them But their case is still worse for suppose any one or more of them be moved as he pretends to write a Message Warning or Exhortation to a Nation People or Society as the Word of the Lord God their frequent pretence This Book is first sent up to London for inspection and approbation to one of these Meetings or Synods where their Light is President and made infallible Judge having all Judgment committed to it in Heaven and in Earth this Synod thus Assembled shall afterwards vary the Title and change the Matter to make it harmonize with their design and when this Writer Dyes and leaves 20 or 30 Books thus approved and thus sent abroad the surviving Synod shall take these Books and again alter them put in and take out a second time what they please then re-print them again And what is become of their Infallibility now They had their President at their first inspection what could he not then see and discern clearly but that here must be a new inspection was not their President their Light the same For either the Quakers write as they are moved by the Eternal Spirit of God or they do not if they do then they are equal with the Apostles Writings and then the Judgment denounced Rev. 22. 18 19. If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto them the plagues that are written in this Book And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophesy God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book c. This reward they must expect Again if they do not then are they most horrible Deluders and great Deceivers when they write thus this is the word of the Lord God to you the Inhabitants of Bristol or the like and they believe it not they do not believe the Author to be so moved and commissioned and forasmuch as they served the Works of Edward Burrow W. Smith George Fox Is Pennington so viz. altered added and diminished to my certain knowledge I do thereupon affirm that they are not the Works of Fox Burrow Pennington and Smith but the Quakers in general and they are answerable for their Errors notwithstanding each title assert the same Thus hath Quakerism been carried on thus hath it grown and taken its progress by Cheats Frauds and Hypocrisies 4. About their Womens Meetings and their manner and way of their Female Government Having by my Book de Christiana Libertate c. not only treated at large on this head but also been instrumental thereby in giving that Image a deadly blow insomuch as that in some part of the County of Suffolk as well as in divers other Counties in England there is not a distinct Womans Meeting to be seen nor heard of But yet since 't is mentioned in the Gen. Hist p. 50. They have likewise Meetings like those we call Classes and Provincial and National Synods or Councils These Conventions are celebrated oftner or seldomer as the number of their Churches is but so as to allot each Sex Men and Women their distinct and particular Meetings c. I say since the Relation of their Womens Meetings are here brought to light which many think are so dead and dying as that it 's hard to find one in many places and that by way of commendation as I take it I shall therefore briefly touch upon the principal Heads and Orders both of its novel rise and arbitrary Government and chiefly for this reason because in all the Orders there is not so much as one Scripture proof mentioned to confirm and to

need not here relate what an Influence their first Epistle had and how little the Law was regarded or observed the whole Nation is witness and as to the last about Tythes and Church-warden Rates which the Parliament took care to preserve in their old Channel in the same Law which indulge the Quakers in the exercise of their perswasion yet this very Law they Anno 1696. Charged implicitly with Antichristianism saying p. 1. That all due care be taken against that grand Oppression and Antichristian Yoke of Tythes that our Christian Testimony born and greatly suffered for be faithfully maintained against them in all respects and against Steeple-house-rates or Lays as also against the burthen and imposition of Oaths c. Here we see Tythes are Antichristian and their Testimony Christian a perfect Map of their whole Doctrine the Parliament Antichristian the Quakers Christian the Parliament great Oppressors the Quakers Oppressed tho' they pay no more than their Neighbours the Parliament lay Antichristian Yokes upon the Quakers the Quakers the only Christian sufferers and persecuted People of God whose sufferings and persecutions are greater and more unjust than the sufferings of Christ his Apostles and Martyrs for what was inflicted upon them was duly executed by a Law and to this practice of ours agree that Doctrine of St. Edw. Burrow's as it is written in our Gospel in the Book of our Holy Scriptures which we at all times stand ready to vindicate vulgarly call'd Ed. Burrow's Works p. 501. Witnesses we stand against Parliaments Councels Judges Justices who make and execute Laws in their own wills over the Consciences of Men and to such Laws Customs Courts or Arbitrary Usurped Dominion we cannot yield obedience c. And therefore by this our Anniversary Decree we Ordain and Enact that the Members of all our Monthly and Quarterly Meetings and all other our Associates in every Kingdom Nation and County that adhere to us and believe us to be the universal Church of the First born who cannot err but are led by an infallible Spirit that all and every of our Disciples throw off all these Antichristian Yokes of grand Oppression and from henceforth stand faithful Witnesses against Tythes as Antichristian against Church Rates against lawful Oathes against carrying Guns and this as the Historian says is to go through England and Wales yea all the World over and all that suffer for their Stubborness and Antimagistratical Principles by the same Edict is to be taken into Record who it is that suffer for what cause they suffer and on what account I have not time to set forth the dangerous consequences of these Anniversary Synods when they once gain upon the People that they are the only universal Catholick Church and as such cannot err that as G. Whitehead Teaches the People are to believe as she believes I say on this Doctrine of Infallibity hangs a load of dangers the Parliament say one thing the Anniversary Synod at Devonshire-house another they now argue privately but in time may dispute the Point publickly Infallibility sticks at nothing provided it be for the Holy Church in the Papists Dialect or for Truth 's sake in the Quakers They are Terms Synonymous respecting their Authors and W. Penns Books cited declare plainly how vigorous he was for his near Friends and dear kindred in the late Reign and the Quakers addressed from their Anniversary Synods run in the same Channel and flow from the same Fountain for K. J. II. and against the Church of England there came forth publick Addresses Annually besides Books every Month in favour of the then Government and against the Church But since King William came to the Crown never a publick Anniversary Address to King W. nor one Book wrot in favour of the present Governments as anon will appear And thus Quakerism like the Snake in the Grass creeps on undiscovered or at least little notice taken how she secretly Smites and privately Stings and throws out her Poyson both at Church and State She 'll Arraign Impeach Try Judge Summons Dialogue Condemn both Magistrate and Minister Ruler and People yet if she be but toucht Oh how she winches and giffles up and down crying she 's wrong'd she 's abus'd and all is malice that 's said of her whil'st she takes the liberty to abuse traduce stigmatize and calumniate all other People This is the Temper of this clamorous Woman and tho' I do solemnly profess as in the sight of God Angels and Men I am not for Persecution neither do I desire nor none need to fear that our King and Parliament should follow the French King's example in what is of the nature of Persecution or Cruelty yet on the other hand when they perceive the Ingratitude of this insolent People they probably may take some measures to stop the stream of Heresie which spreads like a Leprosie through the Nation And forasmuch as something that is praise worthy on the French King's part in granting the Ministry of the reformed Churches leave to hold a national Synod and for the exemplariness of the French Protestants zeal for God care of his Church subjection to the Laws according to the Evangelical Doctrine of Christ his Apostles and Martyrs I shall set down a few things worthy observation from the 28 Synod held at Charenton near Paris the 26 day of December 1644. as in the 2 Vol. of John Quick's Hist p. 4. 28. to 437. viz. The Sessions being opened with Prayer the Lord Marquis of Clermont General Deputy presented the Writ given forth by His Majesty's Command for calling the Synod as followeth This day being the 12 of February 1644. the King being then at Paris upon the most humble Petition of his Subjects of the pretended reformed Religion to permit them the calling and holding a national Synod desiring to gratifie and treat favourably his said Subjects hath permitted and doth permit them the Convocation of a national Synod next to Charenton but with this condition that they treat in it of none other matters but of those which he allowed them and that the Commissioner whom His Majesty shall please to appoint be present in the said Synod as hath been accustomed in witness whereof His Majesty hath commanded me to issue out this Writ which he hath Signed with his own Hand and caused it to be counter-signed by me his Commissioner and Secretary of State and of his Command Signed in the Original Lewis and a litt'e lower Phelipeaux The Lord Commissioner unto the Synod Messieurs AS it is a very great honour to me to be Commissionated to assist in your Synod and to acquaint you with his Will and Pleasure so also have I great deal of joy and satisfaction to behold this illustrious Assembly chosen out of all the Provinces of this Kingdom and that I can tell you by word of Mouth which is to assure you of their Majesties good will unto you and protection of you and of all your Churches and