Dog to his Vomit and the Sow to her wallowing in the Mire to Capping and Kneeling to observations of Times monthly Weekly Quarterly Yearly a set time to Pray and another to Preach a time to serve God and a time to serve self As for your saying that we are followers of John Perrot and his mark is the Hat on in time of Prayer I answer that 's not true for we have seen several of John Perrot's Books brought forth by you relating of his Travel and Sufferings for a long time after the dissention and difference did arise amongst you about your corrupt rotten confused hypocritical dissembling Ministries and that you were drawn into parties crying as in the days of the Apostles I am of Paul I am of Apollos I am of Cephas I am of Christ And so you the followers of James the followers of George the followers of John Perrot And it is not true as you say that the grand cause of that dissention first began by John Perrot and it is not the Truth of the matter as you affirm it of his Spirit for he was but a Creature Manking and as in that estate was Dust and to return to Dust again and for his Spirit it was to return also to its own place and this shews your madness about Spirits And as for the Hat it is a dead Creature and has no Spirit in it and herein you make manifest that you are led by a delusive lying and wicked Spirit who say Hat-Spirit for the Hat hath as I said no Spirit in it and the Spirit of the Hat is a lying Expression given forth by the Devil and his Instruments and it is the evil Spirit that first invented such a Name for the Devil is the Father of Lies and the Tree is known by its Fruit herein your Fruit makes you manifest who call People Hat-Spirits and we do not declare in the dark against your secrets but against the fruit of the Spirit that moves you to utter forth these lying Expressions I was Imprisoned in the days of Oliver the Protector so called because I could not acknowledg and declare that the Scripture was the Word of God as some of you well know to remain for three Months without Bail or Mainprise and yet I did and do own the Scripture which was declared by the holy Men of God to be a true Declaration and I do also own the Word that was in the beginning of which Word the Apostles did bear a true Testimony to be the Word of God and the Light of God and was before the Scripture was written and before time and in that Word and the Light of his Countenance do we pray do we move and have our Being And we find that all the holy Men of God recorded in Scripture from Time to Time received their Wisdom and Strength to Speak and to Write from that Word which was in the beginning Moses prophesied of him saying The Lord will raise unto you a Prophet like unto me Him shall you hear in all things Esay prophesied of that Word and said He should eat Butter and Honey until he should come to chuse the Good and refuse the evil John said In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his Glory To his own he came and his own did refuse him but as many as received him he gave them Power to become the Sons of God This Word we have received and this Word we will follow and in this Word will we put our whole Trust and Confidence This is He of whom we have received a Measure and in that Measure do we wait continually our Measure is our Teacher which teaches us as we abide faithful unto Him how to Pray when to Pray how to Speak and when to Speak unto that measure did the People called Quakers at their first coming forth amongst us direct us to turn our Minds and our Minds were turned accordingly and we will not leave that our Measure unto which our Minds are turned and return again to the observation of outward Traditions And if any People come among us to spy out our Liberty we will not thrust them out of our Houses and if they will speak that which is not Truth that hurteth not us when we are waiting in the Light we do know that you are shut out from the knowledg of our Conditions as you do confess and how we do build up one another in our most holy Faith for we do not complain against those that come in among us to wait with an evil Eye And I do challenge you to set forth what you can against my Words and Actions ever since the time that I declared against your Formality And we know that there is no such jarring and jangling in the true Church and the Ministers of Jesus Christ never gave forth such large Testimonies in the Name of the Lord in Writing or in Print and afterwards recant and condemn those Testimonies and publish that they were given forth by the dark Spirit in an hour of Temptation and that their Testimonies were fit for the Fire as you have done and with such confidence maintain such confused stuff and with open Faces stand in the Justification thereof and jumble one thing with another to seek to blind Peoples Eyes one while bearing a Testimony in the Name of the Lord that there was no such thing as was declared and you said that five great and manifest Lies meet together therein See Alexander the Coppersmith c. pag. 24. And in a while after quite contrary maintain and justifie the very thing before denied in your Book Judas and the Jews c. pag. 49 50. With these unfruitful Works of darkness we cannot join Thus we were used in those days when we parted with the formal Traditions of those Professors among whom there were many tender hearted People but their Pastors Teachers and Elders preached unto the People the very same Doctrine as you now Preach to wit that the Quakers came forth to disturb the Churches peace and when a Man would come in among them in a peaceable and quiet manner and sit or stand civilly and orderly in the Meeting if he would but speak or ask a question in sobriety they would presently bestir themselves in such a disquiet manner that the Meeting would be in an uproar and for that cause thrust the poor Quaker out of the House saying that he came to disturb their Peace And as then it was with those Professors so it is now with you who say that the Hat on in Prayer disturbs the Churches peace and herein we find you in the same persecuting Doctrine as those persecuting Pastors and Elders were in when at first we left their outward Traditions and betook our selves to follow the Light And as they then said that our Light was darkness so say you now And
Conditions and neglects his own is the Eye that offends and must be plucked out that the pure Eye may be opened which offends not and the Beam must first be cast out of thy own Eye and let all flesh keep silence before the Lord and let none speak his own Words nor think his own Thoughts but let every Soul be subject to the Higher Power all Power is of God who is from Eternity And this Doctrine we still own and abide in and your Time of Publick Prayer and your imposition putting off Hats which the People called Quakers at first before your Visible Body was heard of declared to be a practice worse than a Heathenish Vanity we deny and will follow the Light in our own Consciences according to the first Doctrine and will let the Dead bury the Dead and will not join with you in your Usurpation who are not ashamed to declare in print that you denied them that contributed with you in the purchasing of a piece of Ground for to lay their Dead in when they had need of such a thing and bid them go else-where for a burial place and you say It is no usurping of their property for they never desired their parts of the Collection and herein you say you are standered If you cannot shew me one Instance of such shameless withstanding the Truth and such boldness in the maintaining your selves in gross Errors after the discovery thereof as you do in these things in any People of any Profession what-ever let all sober-minded People take notice that you have surpassed all Usurpers that went before you for you acknowledg them to be joint-purchasers with you that they contributed with you in the Purchase thereof And as for your saying They desired not their part of the Collection to be returned You manifest your selves to all that read your Testimony to be Usurpers of their Property For what-ever it was that they parted with towards the purchasing thereof be it great or small they had no property therein for that was become the property of him or them that sold the Land So that if your own Testimony be true you did them manifest wrong in denying them their just Right Ahab offered Naboth that he would give him a better Vineyard than his own or the worth of it in Mony Yet Naboth refused it though Ahab was King of Israel and moreover when Ahab went to take possession of Naboth's Vineyard he did not maintain his Argument against the Prophet's Reproof but fell therein saying Hast thou found me O mine Enemy And herein you exceed wicked Ahab in upholding and maintaining your confused Arguments And herein is no suggestion but plain Truth confessed by your selves and needeth no other Name or Testimony but your own Confession for proof against you 1. That you liked not the word Liberty of Conscience as commonly used 2. That you are found in another Doctrine and Practice than the first Quakers in days past were found 3. That you are not slandered in saying That you usurped the Property of others and as for your saying it is baseness to suggest your ill-using of People and none named I find that when they are named you are not at all more ashamed but still wilfully and confusedly you maintain and uphold that wicked persecuting practice of haling and thrusting out of your Assemblies which practice is as contrary to the practice of the people called Quakers about twenty years ago as Light is to Darkness for you will not admit of any Inquirer to be conscientious that will not submit to your prescribed Orders For the Doctrine and Practice of the people called Quakers then was If any thing be revealed unto him that standeth by let the first hold his peace And your Doctrine and Practice now is If any Man speaks in the Meeting that is not conformable unto your Orders let such hold his peace or else be thrust out of the Meeting yea you will not admit such a one to speak without the Door but will thrust him forth into the Streets and this I can witness and stand to my testimony in any of your Assemblies if I am called thereunto And whereas you say of the Author of that Letter to which your answer is addressed that his saying that every Member is equal is false I answer your saying is twofold false For first his saying is not that every Member is equal but that the Assemblies of the true Church are equal having Christ the Light equally present with them and in them See Spirit of the Hat pag. 15. Which saying is true and not false and herein you are found to be the Perverters of true Words and not only so but denying the true Church usurping Authority over the Consciences of your weak Brethren declaring that you have power to injoin the Consciences of Individuals which is contrary to the Doctrine of the People called Quakers at first who admonished every individual Person whatsoever that would hearken unto their Voice then to return unto the measure of God within in his own Conscience and they did not then as you do now challenge a Power over the Consciences of Individuals nor did they warn us to put off our Hats when they prayed to Almighty God but they then admonished us to wait in the Light to be taught of the Light only and not to speak act or move unto any Exercise of Worship unless we were truly moved by our own Measures every one in particular which Doctrine and Practice is quite contrary to your Doctrine and Practice now who claim Power over the Conscience and say that your Orders are Gospel and herein we find you bringing in another Doctrine and preaching another Gospel contrary unto that Gospel preached by the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ who preached Christ the Word which was in the beginning with God which Word was God to be the true Light which lighteth every Man that comes into the World And this Gospel we own And the Apostle preached Jesus Christ a Stumbling-Block to the Jews and Foolishness to the Gentiles but the Power of God to Salvation unto all them that believe and the Apostles called People to the Light saying you have a Light shining as a Candle in a dark place to which you do well to give beed unto until the Day dawn and the Day-Star arise in your Hearts And the Apostle said you have an Vnction the Anointing within you and you need not that any Man should teach you but as the Anointing which you have received teacheth you and it is Truth That which is known of God is manifest in Man Know ye not that Christ is in you except you be Reprobates He that believeth hath the witness in himself And this Doctrine also the People called Quakers at their first coming forth among us brought unto us and this Doctrine we have received and believed and we will not deny this Doctrine and this Gospel and turn again with the
as they then said unto us have not you received some good among us in those Ordinances so say you he dare not say that he enjoyed not comfort from those Prayers that came through an uncovered Head And although that you cannot with all your wresting and twining in your Serpentine Wisdom shew no ill Fruit brought forth but still cry a dark Spirit a Spirit of Envy and Malice and the like and when we require you to prove your Assertions and Allegations by laying open what fruit of that evil Spirit is brought forth you say we keep on our Hats when you Pray by that means we disturb the Churches Peace and this is all you can alledg against us and for this cause are we called Hat-men and herein you have no matter of Fact to lay to our charge for when we come to the Meeting we come in a peaceable manner with our Hats upon our Heads and as we come so we abide quiet and in that there is no matter of Fact done on our part yet you complain that your Churches Peace is disturbed as those Pastors and Elders in those Days did by us and you thrust us out of your Meeting for declaring Words in a peaceable manner as those Professors did in those days by us and it is true and no baseness in this I will stand to this Testimony when ever you please to call upon me And the Apostle did not command the Corinthians to put off their Hats and observe Times for publick Prayers as you would wrest his Words which are Every Man Praying or Prophesying with his Head covered dishonoureth his Head and moreover he said we have no such custom neither the Churches of God And the Apostles did write unto the Gentiles that believed If they would abstain from Meats offered unto Idols and from Blood and from things strangled and from Fornication they would do well and herein is no injunction laid upon the Consciences of Individuals And here we find you bringing in another Gospel and preaching another Doctrine differing from the Doctrine of the Apostles who preached Christ the Power of God to Salvation in all them that believe and differing from the Doctrine of the People called Quakers at their first coming forth who preached the Light within every particular to be the true Teacher and that in the Light was power sufficient and they did not preach the power that the visible Body of Friends had in it self as you do and therefore we own the Apostles Doctrine and the Doctrine of the People called Quakers which they first preached and which we believed and deny your Doctrine The Apostles Doctrine was That the Wife is bound by the Law as long as her Husband liveth but if her Husband be dead she is at liberty to be married to whom she will only in the Lord and Isaac being gone to meditate in the Field Rebekah coming with her Damosel and Abraham's Servant lighted off the Camel and Isaac brought her to his Mother Sarahs Tent and Rebekah became his Wife here is a record of a Marriage in the old Testament How did Abraham the Father of the Faithful order his Servant to go for a Wife for his Son and how did Isaac of whom the Lord said For in Isaac shall thy Seeed be called take his Wife and here is the Apostles Doctrine concerning Marriage that when the Husband is dead the Woman is at liberty to marry whom she will only let her wait upon the Lord for counsel and not run out to Men for advice and let them see in it and shew it to other Men and that none go together but before a dozen Friends there was no such order prescribed either by Abraham the Father of the Faithful nor by his Son Isaac who was promised unto Abraham nor by the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ neither did the People called Quakers bring any such orders among us at their first coming forth as many of you very well know and one of the eminentest of you acquainted me how that a couple that were come out of the North unto West-Chester betook themselves in marriage there If you please to examine me further I will give you further account We do own a true Marriage and the Bed undefiled and those that God joineth together we seek not to put asunder neither do we busie our selves to lay further injunctions upon People than the Holy Men of God of old times laid for we do very well know that all sober-minded Men and Women whose Minds are turned unto the Light in their Consciences will as they abide faithful and obedient to the Light behave themselves toward God and towards one another in sobriety and meekness as becometh honest People so to do and as for others whether they be those that despise the Light or those that pretend to a wrong freedom because they profess the Light and so by their miscarriages bring a scandal upon the Children of the Light we do deny both and have no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of darkness neither do we pretend unto any such outward Authority as to meddle with those Exercises any further than we are concern'd and our admonition unto all is That every one do stand still and wait upon the Lord in that measure given him of God to profit withal for Counsel and not run out unto them that cry Lo here and lo there is Christ and in this we have not fallen from the Principle of Truth nor from the Doctrine of the Holy Men of old Times recorded in the Old and New Testament nor from the true Doctrine first received of the People called Quakers And I can appear and give in my Name and stand unto this my Testimony at noon day And as for those filthy lewd Actions which some of you have been charged with not fit to be mentioned amongst any manner of People that have any civility much less amongst Professors of Religion and above all unfitting that those that profess the Light should have any such things justly charged upon them I do declare and testifie that I am ignorant of any such thing acted amongst those of my Neighbours and Acquaintance although we differ about the aforesaid Orders The Lord forbid that I should in any measure slander you or any People in the World beyond my knowledg nay rather I would be checkt for concealing than that I should over-run my self in such things and in all this I do not flatter I take God's Name for my Witness who will reward every one in Righteousness and true Judgment In this therefore let every Tub stand upon its own bottom And for your charging the said Author to be envious malicious and a wicked Apostate Slanderer in what is declared in his Letter against some Particulars of you I find you therein far differing from the Disciples of the Lord Jesus who when he told them that one of them was a Devil immediately made no more ado but lookt every