Partiality and without Hypocrisie and the Fruits of Righteousness is sown in peace in them that make Peace But say you I am a sower or mover of Sedition So said the Iews by Paul but they accused him falsly and so do you me for I fear God and love all men and herein do I exercise my self to have alwayes a Conscience void of offence towards God and Men and as much as in me lieth endeavour to live peaceable with all men and do know assuredly that I seduce no man for the Lord hath given me in his endless Mercy an understanding to know him that is true And the true Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World doth not lead us to seduce any but reproves and condemns Seducers and Sedition and makes all things manifest of what sort it is But if I did or any of us did move Sedition then it would be seen by our Fruits Lives and Conversations and we should not have that presence of God with us which we have and besides you would do well to shew us wherein as the Apostle did them of Old and shew us our Errors which are not to be found in a Prison nor indeed in us who believe and walk in the Light and are Children of it But perhaps you may say We walk disorderly Suppose we do what then If you will take the Apostles advice you should withdraw from us and if we observed not or obeyed not the Gospel-order do as the Apostle bids you For saith he if any man obey not our Word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed Yet count him not as an Enemy but admonish him as a Brother But not one Word of a Prison or Fine No saith he elsewhere the Servant of the Lord must be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in Meekness in structing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledgment of the Truth and that they may recover themselves out of the Snare of the Devil who are taken Captive by him at his Will Oh that you would take notice of this great piece of Advice And further concerning those that have a form of Godliness but deny the Power thereof from such turn away saith he And so you would shew your dislike of such and disown them to be none of you but alas where is the Power of Godliness to be seen if not in the sober honest Quaker as you call us who dare not speak his own Words nor do his own Will but lays down all to follow the Lamb in true Obedience to what he requires and commands though for the same they suffer the loss of all outward things And truly it is seen fulfilled that he that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution and he that departs from Iniquity makes himself a Prey But the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure Heart and of a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned And saith he thus Warn them that are Vnruly Comfort the Feeble-minded Support the Weak be Patient towards all men see that none render Evil for Evil unto any man but ever follow that which is good both amongst your selves and to all men And then what follows Rejoyce evermore And truly so they might with good cause if this counsel were observed Pray without ceasing saith he that spoke in Charity In every thing give Thanks for this is the Will of God in Christ Iesus concerning you quench not the Spirit despise not Prophecying prove all things hold fast that which is good abstain from all appearance of Evil. Oh what tender Counsel this is And what need have we to take notice of it here in England Nay he tells you elsewhere Though he speak with the Tongue of Men and Angels and have not Charity I am become as sounding Brass and a tinckling Simbal And though I have the gift of Prophecy and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge and though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing and though I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor and though I give my Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Charity suffereth long and is kind doth not make men suffer long for that 's unkind And truly the Apostle is so full in this matter that all Profession or Religion without Charity is nothing worth Charity saith he envieth not beareth all things Compare but this with Peter's words Add saith he to your Faith Virtue to Virtue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly-Kindness Charity if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be Barren nor Vnfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ but he that lacketh these things is Blind and cannot see afar off And now if you would judge the Tree by its Fruits what can you find of these things in Persecution And if you believe Scripture methinks you may see the very current of it runs continually against Persecution Violence Oppression Cruelty Uncharitableness and the like Perhaps you may say It s not worthy to be called Persecution that 's done to a Heretick Let me Answer you once more Suppose you that the Scripture is to be taken notice of and the Precepts therein to be minded then see what it saith A man that is a Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject knowing that him that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself So here he must be admonished to obey what he knows for if he did not sin knowingly he would not condemn himself But if he persist and reject Counsel then reject him disown him and have no Society with him c. But not one word of putting him in Prison Fine him or spoil his Goods But though I thus speak be it known to you I am no Heretick as you have been pleased to call me for I am not in the least condemned of my self for what I do in things relating to Faith and Worship no God is my witness I do what I do in Obedience to him and do know him to justifie me and comfort me in my Bonds for the same and it is a light matter to be judged at mans day yet I for Truths sake was free to clear my self of your false Charges But perhaps you may still say If I be no Heretick I am one that causes Divisions and Offences contrary to your Doctrine Well suppose I be nay suppose I was one that caused Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles yet see what must be done to such Why saith the Apostle I beseech you Brethren mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to our Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Avoid them what is that All flee their Company But let me tell you we are none of this sort for we cause no Divisions from the Truth it is our travail and labour in the Lord that men may be truly joyned unto the Truth and live in it and it s those that serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellys who by good Words and fair Speeches deceive the Hearts of the Simple but these goods Words and fair Speeches the People must pay them well for too else they must not have them But for good Works and fair Conversations those are not to be found amongst the BELLY-SERVERS But may I not here venture to say by the People called Quakers as Paul did by the Romans Your obedience is come abroad unto all Men yea and I believe God will bruise Satan under our Feet shortly though he be suffered to cast some of us into Prison now for the tryal of our Faith and accuse us falsly of many things as he did Iob and makes Lyes his Refuge yet his time is short and God even our God will over all Exalt his own Name and Truth to the Joy of all the Upright-hearted Written in Derby Goal in the Year 1682. where I yet remain a Prisoner JOHN GRATTON Matth. 10. 7. Go Preach saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand Luke 10. 10 11. But into whatsoever City ye enter and they receive you not go your ways into the Streets of the same and say Even the Dust of your City which cleaveth on us we do wipe off against you notwithstanding be ye assured of this that the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you THE END
THE Prisoners Uindication WITH A Sober Expostulation AND REPREHENSION OF Persecutors By Iohn Gratton What mean ye that ye beat my People to pieces and grind the faces of the Poor saith the LORD God of Hosts Isa. 3. 15. Lord how long shall the Wicked Triumph How long shall they utter and speak hard things They break in pieces thy People O Lord and afflict thy Heritage they slay the Widdow and the Stranger and murder the Fatherless Psal. 94. 3 4 5 6. LONDON Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Holloway-Lane near Shoreditch 1683. To all Persecutors both by Words and Actions A few words for the clearing of my self and the Truth I profess in real Love from him that seeks the good of all Mankind in general having real Love to all especially the Houshould of Faith who are redeemed to God out of the Vncleanness of the World who are in Scorn called Quakers UPon the 16th day of the 6th Moneth called August 1680. I being at Backewell about my trading it being a Fair was by two or three Bailiffs arrested by virtue of a Writ of Excommunicato Capiendo for not coming to the Parish Church so called and not appearing at the Spiritual Court though I had appeared several times and had offered to the Parish Priest that if he could make it appear that I was in an Error by clear Scripture I would take him for my Friend And further That if he could make it appear from clear Scripture that it was my duty in the sight of God to come to the Parish Church and conform to them that I would do it but did not find it his business to seek to inform me at that time or any other being not so charitable as to bid me come another time and he would discourse with me But being after this never cited to the Court again was upon the day aforesaid taken and sent to Darby Goal a very strange way to convince me of any Error if I be in any where I remain a Prisoner After I was sent to Prison many false charges were flung after me to render me and Truth odious to the Country-People who were ready to wonder why they should send such a peaceable man to Prison and I was by my Persecutors so highly accused to be An Heretick A Factious Fellow The Ringleader of a Factious People yea a Blasphemer an Enemy to Caesar and a dangerous Fellow and a Spreader of dangerous Principles and what not and all to make the People think hardly of me and believe if they could against their Belief that I was some dangerous man insomuch that they said I was not fit to live especially not fit to be loose in a Country for by keeping me in Prison they had hopes to scatter the rest At the hearing of these strange and malicious false Calumnies I was not a little grieved not for my self but others who I heard were ready to think hardly of me because such Reports had gained some Credit with some that were thought both wise and sober they believed them because others believed them those others believed them because my Persecutors who are looked upon by most to be spiritual men reported them amongst these black-Mouth'd uncharitable men I could not have one to come at me to shew me my reported sad Condition but in Prison I must lie come what will come of Wife and Children so that then my Wife went with two Friends more to the Arch-Deacon so called and shewed him the unreasonableness of my suffering and the need of my liberty but his words were great Charges as aforesaid though he never discoursed me about Religion in his life its true he also said That he would come to me and discourse me and if I was in the right and he in the wrong I should come out of Prison and he would go in for me but he yet fails to make his words good And I do declare to all that may see these Lines that if I cannot make it appear that he is wrong and I right I then will be content to stay where I am only I would be judged by unprejudiced men to the Truth and such as are not partial nor make no outward Gain of the Scriptures Many others have desired my Enlargement some by Letters and some have gone in Person but all fails except I will conform and pay the Charges they have been at in laying me in Prison which thing I cannot or dare not do For First I believe I ought not to conform to the Worship that now by the Priests of this Nation is maintained by their preaching and practice I do not mean by their Purses for both they and it cost the People dear 2dly I believe that though it be after the way which they call Heresie yet that the Worship I now own is the true Worship of God and do find by good and great experience that the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who is a Spirit doth approve and own it so to be for the Worship I own and believe is the true Worship of God is that spoken of in Iohn 4. 23 24. They that Worship God aright worship and serve him in Spirit and in Truth and saith our Saviour The Father seeketh such to worship him 3dly Seeing our Lord Christ Jesus did set up appoint and command this Worship therefore I believe I ought not to leave it and run to another Worship that is no where commanded either by Christ or any of his Apostles thinking thereby to save my Estate and to live at liberty in the World and enjoy those natural Rights and Priviledges I am free-born Heir to which I see the Drunkard Swearer Curser and Proud Wicked Person is not deprived of though he be so Wicked Lastly Seeing I do those things I believe I ought to do and have not given any just occasion of Offence or done wrong to any man therefore can I not own my self in a fault and give Moneys for a Pardon to them that while they are pardoning others are therein committing the highest Sins they can approach unto for if I have sinned it is against God and to him I look for Mercy but in this I am not by him accused or judged as a sinner but owned and justified by him and can say Its God that justifies me who shall condemn me Now should I come to my Persecutors and own my self an Offendor and buy their Absolution and conform to their invented Ceremonies then should I by so doing give God's Spirit and my own Heart and Conscience the Lye from which I hope without offence I may take liberty to say Good Lord preserve me But seeing I must have no better treatment from my Persecutors than a Prison which indeed hath alwayes been the way of argument that the false Prophets in all Ages have taken with things of the like Nature as Fines Whips Lyons Dens Firey Furnaces Faggots and such like I desire they will be
as could flatter dissemble and lye and turn to any thing the people fancied to make themselves rich see chap. 5. 26. c. These were they that lay in wait that set Snares and Traps and catched men whose Houses were full of deceit therefore they are become great and waxen rich they are waxen fat they shine they overpass the deeds of the Wicked they judge not the Cause of the Fatherless yet they prosper and the Right of the Needy do they not judge but the Prophets prophesie falsly and the Priests bear rule by their Means and my People love to have it so and what will you do in the end Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this A wonderful and a horrible thing is committed in the Land c. the false Prophets and the great rich fat Priests bear rule c. yea from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to Covetousness and from the Prophet even to the Priest every one dealeth falsly They have healed also the hurt of the Daughter of my people slightly saying Peace Peace when there is no peace Ier. 13. 14. 8. 10 11. And because Ieremiah prophesied truly to them what the Lord commanded he was put in Prison chap. 32. 2. and 37. 5. and 38. 6. yea into a Dungeon where his feet stuck fast in the Mire but the Lord preserved him and wrought his deliverance And shall I forget to mention Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who would not obey the Kings Law concerning Worship whom God preserved in the hot firey Furnace but those that cast them in were slain with the flame Likewise Daniel who ceased not to pray and give thanks before his God three times a day when the King had given out a Law to the contrary and the Lord delivered him out of the Lyons Den and those that accused him and informed against him were cast into the Lyons Den with their Wives and Children and the Lyons had Mastery over them and brake all their Bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the Den. So its clear thorow all the old Testament that the words of the Apostle are true He that is born after the flesh always persecuted him that was born after the Spirit and so it is still for Iohn Baptist and our Saviour had no better entertainment than the Prophets had had before them for as Christ tells us by way of Parable in Matth 21. When the Lord had sent his Servants to those Husband-men unto whom he let out his Vineyard and they beat some killed some and stoned some last of all he sent his Son and him they took and slew also and to this day are the high-Priests and Rulers slaying crucifying and murdering the holy One and the Just in his Apostles and Servants in whom he appears telling the World This Light within which shines in the Hearts and Consciences of men is a Deceiver a Delusion of Satan a dark Lathorne and what not though it is only this that discovers the thoughts and intents of the heart and makes all things manifest of what sort it is so that the Apostle saith This is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World but men love Darkness rather than Light because their deeds are evil for every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doth Truth cometh to the Light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God This is very clear Light and Darkness cannot agree so that it hath ever been the works of Darkness that the Light hath condemned and judged and made manifest to be Evil and therefore the old Serpent brings his false Accusations of the Light calls it Deceit c. and is the Deceiver himself and yet will not abide to hear Truth spoken of himself no more will his Children who are acted by him in whose hearts he reigns and fills them full of Pride Covetousness Envy Hatred and Malice Cruelty and Filthiness so out of their Hearts proceed these things and they cry to the Rulers for help against those that preach the Gospel boldly and freely as they did by Stephen so they are doing still or would do had they power when they gnashed on him with their Teeth cast him out of the City and stoned him having charged him falsly That he spake Blasphemous words c. These have their blind Saul's to run them Errands to whom they give power to take them bound that are walkers iâ— the Light whether they be men or women These command the ignorant and unlearned men as Peter and Iohn were that preach boldly in the Name of Jesus That they preach no more in that Name But we must obey God rather than Man and cannot but speak the things that we have seen heard Now when the Apostles could not but preach the things they had heard and seen and continued in the Power of God working mightily to the healing of the sick and such as were vexed with unclean Spirits then the high Priest and those that were with him were filled with Indignation and laid their hands on the Apostles and put them into the common Prison but the Lord brought them out and sent them into the Temple early on the next morning where they taught as the Lord commanded them and there went an Informer to the high Priest the Captain of the Temple and the chief Priests and told them That the men they had put in Prison were standing in the Temple and teaching the People then went the Captain with the Officers and brought Peter and Iohn before the Council and the high Priest said Did not we straitly command you that you should not teach in this Name c Then Peter the other Apostle answered We ought to obey God rather than man Acts 5. read it How like those Priests and Officers are these in our days And how plainly walk these in the steps of those and practise the like things against those that walk in the Spirit and Practice of the Apostles And how clear is it that in all Ages it was those that were born after the flesh that persecuted those that were born after the spirit to whom it s given not only to believe but to suffer for his sake not to persecute any for his sake no nor for reflecting him neither but its evident the Persecutors are such as seek to please men not God this is clear from Herod who after he had killed Iohn the Baptist grew more vile and stretched out his hands to vex certain of the Church after Christ was mightily manifested in his Apostles and he killed Iames the Brother of Iohn with the Sword and because he saw it pleased the Iews he proceeded further to take Peter and apprehended him and put him in Prison but the Lord