Assemblies are intended must needs be consistent with the same Principles of Love and Union and tend to the Increase thereof and not to the Violation thereof as thou hast falsly charged Upon our Admonition Not to discountenance or weaken their Hands in the Work and Service of the Lord. Thou maketh this observation viz. See what a strict and severe admonition is uttered forth even as if it had come from the Pope's Council of Jesuits and crafty Fryars Scoffing and Smiting still at the Womens Meetings p. 46 47. How now Francis is this thy treatment and comparison of us Hadst thou no better than the Pope's Council of Jesuits and crafty Fryars to compare us unto in our Testimony and Admonition Oh! be ashamed of such foul sordid and scornful and false treatment who instead of proving thy Charge of Inconsistence and Violence as before now abuseth us mocks and scoffs and scandallizeth us like a conceited proud Fool. 6 thly Be ashamed also of thy scornfully upbraiding us with our Womens Meetings as an Idol of our own erecting and asking Why should it not publickly be brought to Light and made as manifest as the Lord Cromwell made the Papists great Idol to wit the Rood of Grace which had goggling Eyes and would smile when a good Gift was offorded to it when he caused it to be brought to Paul's Cross where the People tore it all to pieces in King Henry the 8 ht's time p. 47. Oh thou ungodly Wretch and malicious Informer is this a fit Comparison and Instance to present the Magistrates with against our Christian Religious Charitable and Sober Womens Meetings And dost thou under such an abominable and odious Comparison thus expose them to the Magistrates for their Meetings to be torn to pieces Thou vile Wretch blush and be ashamed of such malicious scornful and defaming Impertinences thus instead of proving thy before-cited Charge to act the malicious reviling and false accusing Informer against God's People then scornfully concludest thy Observation with these words viz. This notable not Scriptural but Anti-scriptural Edict p. 48. Which is a false Conclusion without Premises and a shameful begging the Question wherein thou art an Imposer for not one sentence or word in all that said Paper of our sence and Advice hast thou proved ANTI-SCRIPTVRAL or directly contrary to Scripture as thy terms are p 79. Thou shouldst then have shewn us what Scripture forbids either faithful Womens Assembling or those Religious and Charitable ends and services proposed which their Meetings are intended for I dare challenge thee in this to prove thy charge of Anti-scriptural 7 thly I do affirm thou art so far from making good thy Charge that for all thy Attempts I have still occasion to return the same charge upon thee that we did upon William Rogers which for a pretence thou citest but dost not answer it p. 39. viz. What new and unchristian Doctrines and Practices are we fallen into We find no proof nor discovery thereof in all thy Book I do profess seriously however thou scoffingly callest me a notable serious George I see no cause nor reason thou shewest for the great noise rumble thou makest about outward Laws Prescriptions Orders Edicts or Decrees outward form of Government Apostacy Innovation Impositions Lording over Faith over Conscience c. To which I may add thy terms Womens Charter Grant Confirmation New Order Decretal Order New fashion'd Edict Popes Council Papists great Idol Canonical Rules New spiritual Lords Decrees Canons Edicts of Men Tyrannical proceedings c. whilst thou shewest to us no unjust no unlawful nor uncomely Order or Proceedings amongst us as a People nor yet givest us any Catalogue or Instance of those Impositions Innovations New Doctrines or Practices brought in and received amongst us which are INCONSISTENT with our first Testimony to the Light and Grace of God within and teaching thereof or thereby condemned as Evil or wholly unnecessary in themselves as our words are 8 thly This thou dost not answer but Marvellest that G. Whitehead should have the Confidence thus to call for a Catalogue of New Orders that are introduced among us or rather sayst thou Impudence to deny such things as are every Moneth put in practice among us And therefore sayst thou wilt bring forth Proof and President first the Confirmation of the Foundation of the Womens Meetings namely G. F 's Order by a general Council held at London 1675. To all which I must tell thee thou dost not follow the terms of the Challenge but ramblest impertinently telling us of New Orders such things the Confirmation of the Foundation of the Womens Meetings c. but provest not those things nor one thing practised among us as a People or that first Confirmation as thou falsly callest it to be Inconsistent with or contrary to our first Testimony to the Light and Grace of God within and teachings thereof 'T is not thy making a noise with New Orders Decrees c. shall serve thy turn in this point but I challenge thee to prove that the setting up and encouraging our faithful Womens Meetings are contrary to the Light and Grace of God within and teachings thereof This is matter thou hast undertaken to bring proof and president for This is close to the terms of our Challenge and thou hast but made shuffling slubbering work about it 9 thly Moreover what we propounded in our Paper aforesaid which thou callest The Confirmation by a general Council held at London Anno 1675. and which thou hast instanced for proof of thy Charge of Inconsistency and Violence and consequently as Antichristian was tenderly concluded in these terms viz. All which we recommend to the Evidence of Gods holy Witness in the Hearts of his People Why didst thou not take notice of this Conclusion to have prevented thy false charge of Imposition wherein thou hast contradicted thy Brother William Rogers for he hath divers times assented to and own'd the giving advice and counsel by way of Recommendation distinguishing that from Imposition as his own Books and Words are evidence But thou cryst out Impositions Inconsistency Violence to our first Principles of Vnion on that very same Paper which is concluded by way of Recommendation to the Evidence of Gods holy Witness in the Hearts of his People And to this and other Papers of Advice Judgment c. thou hast opposed Liberty of Conscience and so made void Spiritual Censures contrary to the very Author thou hast printed owned and espoused as being of the same Judgment with thee where he saith pag. 138. part 1. 'T is very fit that wheresoever you will suppose Errors to be sprung up all the means Christ hath appointed for that end should be used to suppress them and reclaim Men from them Let their Mouthes be stopped with sound Doctrine and Spiritual Censures The only Question is about the use of the Temporal Power in such things Principles and Opinions in the Mind were never extinguished by
in Prayer and Supplication to the Father whilst in great sorrow and deep suffering for Mankind even when he bore the Sin of many and made intercession for the Transgressors Thus his soul was poured out and made an offering for Sin that he might see his Seed and the effect of his Souls travail and be satisfied and through all Reign with the Father in the same Glory which he had with him before the World began So that the Messiah reigneth in Life Glory and Immortality blessed forever and his Saints shall reign with him for evermore But thy Error ends not here in asserting that Christ's Soul dyed seeing thou hast publickly opposed the Immortality of the Soul in my hearing and the hearing of many more and hast affirmed The mortality of the Soul of man that it dyes with the Body And so denying future States Beeings and Rewards of mankind Thou knowest Jeffery I have laboured with thee at sundry times and before several endeavoured to Convince thee of thy Atheistical Error in this very point and many are my Witnesses therein But thou hast appeared wilful dark and pertinacious in thy blind dark and confused Imaginations whereupon I have exhorted thee and do exhort thee to give over Preaching and telling People of saving their Souls by the Word and of raising of our Souls out of the Grave of Sin and Death by the Light and Power of God within when thou dost not believe any Immortality of the Souls of Men more than of a Beast as I have told thee to thy Face when the Beast dyes there 's an end So what gross Hypocrisie is it in thee so often to Preach in Friends Meetings at Sudbury in opposition to our Friends and to pretend as if thou hadst such a great Regard to Peoples Souls that they might be saved raised up and delivered from Sin in this Life when thou hast nothing further to propose to them than only a Hope in this Life a Happiness in this Life a Portion in this Life which is so short and uncertain that the dayes of Man here are compared but to a Shadow and to a Cloud that vanishes and as being swifter than a Post or than a Tale that 's told and swifter than a Weavers Shuttle c. So that if we have hope in this life Only we are of all men most miserable But I cannot take thee as a Person consistent with thy self in this thy Atheistical Doctrine of the Soul's Mortality no more than in other things for thou art manifestly inconsistent and contradictory to thy self in this matter for in thy Pamphlet i. e. GROSS ERRORS thou hast confessed That Christ's Soul never was captivated p. 4. And That the Blessing is to God's invisible Creation within the Sons and Daughters of men as that cometh to be begotten by a measure of divine Life into a true and living Faith the which invisible Creation sayest thou or the Souls and Vnderstandings of men and women over the which Death that power of Darkness hath invisibly reigned p. 3. And That Ministry which is sent of God it is to the Souls and Vnderstandings of Men and Women That so their Souls may be turned to the Light or measure of divine Life which hath appeared to their Souls p. 4. As also thou sayest That God's appearance is both to the Souls and Vnderstandings of the Sons and Daughters of Men even whilst they are altogether Children of the Vnrighteous Nature and Spirit for that very end that so they may be quickned and also raised up and so come to be changed they being made partakers of the Divine Nature pag. 7. Query How then dost thou affirm that such Souls are Mortal This change in such Souls does not only bespeak their Immortality but their being Immortally happy Is not that Soul or Birth immortal that 's capable of partaking of the divine Nature or that doth partake thereof Can that Soul dye with the Body or end in Mortality No no the very Souls of the Wicked and impenitent workers of Iniquity shall live in Torment where the Worm dyeth not and the Fire is never quenched Christ's instance of Dives and Lazarus doth really intimate the two different states hereafter see Luke 16.22 23. c. How grosly Erronious and Contradictory art thou in this point and farther to thy own confutation addest viz. Thus the Sons and Daughters of Vnrighteousness come to be made the Children of Righteousness they being changed and also lifted up by the Spirit of Life from under the power of Death into the Kingdom of God with him to reign over the Power of Death even as the Son of God did in the dayes of his Flesh p. 7. How now Jeffery These passages relating to the Soul's conversion and their being made partakers of the Divine Nature and being lifted up into the Kingdom of God are some of thy better sort of Preaching but thy Doctrine of the Soul's mortality or the Soul 's dying with the Body doth allow the Souls of the Children of men even of the Converted but a very short share and uncertain time in the Kingdom of God if but in this Life only O Jeffery give over thy troublesom hypocritical Preaching in our Friends Meetings for shame and never pretend such a concern for the Conversion and Salvation of Peoples Souls whilst thou holdest this Atheistical Opinion That they are all Mortal Keep at home and give over such Hypocritical Preaching for 't is neither Conscientious nor Religious § 11. Now concerning the Scripture thy Doctrine followeth J. B. in his Antichrist's Transformations p. 22. saith viz. For the Book of the Scriptures both was and is the Fruit which the Tree of Knowledge bears And in his Testimony against the Quakers false Doctrine as he falsly calleth it page 19. He saith thus viz. The Book of the Scriptures is part of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge I say that the Book of the Scriptures is the Fruit that the Tree of Knowledge bears Answ. This Doctrine is not only Unscriptural but a dark erronious Imagination and Whimsie of thy own Thou knowest not whereof thou affirmest and hast plainly contradicted thy self herein by confessing not only That the Scriptures are opened by the Spirit of Truth but that They were given forth by the Word of Life p. 22. and 29. Thou farther proceedest like a whimsical self-opposing and contradictory Person in these words viz. Let all that read your Book and also the Letter that was given me which I disowned which Letter is printed in my first Book and they may easily perceive that the Line of your Testimony is in the Letter and Book of the Scriptures and not in the Light and Law written in the Heart Thus in thy Testimony p. 19. Here thou hast at one dash confuted and overthrown thy own Work and knockt down thy own evil cause at one blow Thou hast undertaken to detect the Quakers Errors and many of the Doctrines of the leading
Appeal and Supplication I do Conclude OH Thou Heart-searching God and righteous Iudge of all unto thee I make my Appeal and Supplication against this Jealous Dividing Rending Spirit that hath appeared in Strife and open Contention against thy Servants and faithful Witnesses and against that good order and society that thou hast been pleased to gatber us into Thou knowest the integrity of my soul before thee and that I have waited for thy Counsel how to act and behave my self in these matters and that I have not sought to exalt my self nor any Popularity Party or Interest to my self but only thy Glory and the good of Souls Thou knowest that in the first place my soul hath sought for Peace in the way of Peace and for a quiet Composure of Differences occasioned by some Self-willed and Luke-warm Professors of thy Truth whilst there was any hope or probability thereof before the opposite Party became open Adversaries And O Lord thou knowest I am not alone in this concern many others of thy faithful servants have traveled in the same Christian Spirit with me for peace and quietness and for a quiet end of Differences in Truth and Righteousness But thine and our Adversaries have rewarded us evil for good and to me hatred for my love And now O Lord behold how true love and tenderness is rejected by thy Adversaries and how thy holy spirit is offended Behold and judge the bitterness of their spirits Their Rancor and Fury their Words of Hatred Reviling and Slander against thy faithful Servants and Witnesses Their Disregard to the Honour and Reputation of thy Truth thy Name and People Their working against the Glory and Honour of thy excellent Name among us Their crucifying thy Son afresh to themselves and putting him to open shame and reproach in the Eyes of thy open Enemies and Persecutors of thy People Oh! Lord Lord look down behold and judge for these things show thy Power in putting an end as openly to these Controversies as they are openly forced out into the World by Apostates and Adversaries of thy Truth and People Thou knowest O Lord that though thou hast endued me with a Christian Spirit and with Faith Patience and Rejoycing under all my Sufferings and Tribulations for thy Name sake and enabled me patiently to undergo the open Revilings and Infamies cast upon me both by open profest and secret Enemies in all which I daily praise thy Name for thy Goodness Yet thou hast also endued me with the Spirit of Righteous Judgment Understanding and Zeal for the Glory of thy holy Name and Truth and hast raised me up in defence of thy Gospel to vindicate thy Truth and innocent People who are Lovers of Peace and Union in thy Son Christ Iesus And now O Lord I humbly pray thee preserve thy Lambs and tender Babes and open the Eyes and unvail the Understandings of all whom the Enemy has deceived and prejudiced who are mistaken in their Iudgments and not guilty of willful Opposition and Hatred That they that have not sinned out their day nor become judicially hardened may yet find a place of Repentance and Mercy in returning to thee with Humility true Contrition and Brokenness of Heart that thou maiest heal their Backslidings and love them freely O my God! in these my Labours and Endeavours as I have eyed thee and thy Counsel and thou hast been with me for which I praise thy Name So I recommend all to thee to manifest the real intent and end of all and to plead and justifie my Cause it being thy own Cause and the Cause of thy whole Heritage Amen Amen saith my Soul ADVERTISEMENT FIrst Note That where in pag. 158. of this Treatise mention is made That G. F 's intention and sence is by another hand spoken to That and much more is yet reserved in Manuscript against W. R's abusive Books Secondly That whereas in pag. 205. it is said It being now above six Weeks since the Letter was left at Ely c. and yet no Answer It is now above three Moneths since and yet no Answer received from F. B. being now at the Printing hereof towards the latter end of the 11th Moneth 1682. Thirdly That this Treatise has been long in the Printer's hands and not hastened in the Press because of these Additions in the three last Chapters to Francis Bugg Thomas Crisp John Pennyman and Jeffery Bullock for the Answer to William Rogers's 7 th part of his Christian-Quaker was writ in a short time after it was out Fourthly It is some question whether two or three of the Names in pag. 250. be right i. e. Averset Snazdale and Tysoeth by reason of their Names being badly writ in the Certificate sent up Fifthly Note That where in the Postscript after the Letter to Francis Bugg pag. 253 4. and in his Book also p. 52. he gives account of a Minister thus viz. That in the Quarterly-Meeting Book at Hadenham they shall find a Record wherein he is recorded out of the Vnity for not taking his Wife according to the Order of Friends i. e. not publishing his Intention before the Womens Meetings Which Account is excepted against upon Friends positively giving a contrary one to me Let it be farther remarked that Francis Bugg's pretended Proof appears not from Evidence of the Fact but is his consequence drawn from the Records But first his Consequence appears not only fallacious but false in Fact in his restraining the Order of Friends only to the Womens Meetings which is not consequent to the Record of the Quarterly Meeting dated the first of the 10th Moneth 1675. and cited by F. B. p. 61. for Proof for the extent of that Record is For the consent of Friends at two Mens Meetings and two Womens Meetings c. 2 dly Neither can his Account be true if there was not then a Womans Meeting established in that part of the County but that the complaint of the Monethly Meeting was That the Person concerned did not publish his Intention above once to the Mens Meeting and refused to bring the Woman to any Meeting at all before the time of their Marriage 3 dly Since the said Exception was writ I have met with a Certificate under the Hands of several Persons of Credit i. e. Phillip Taylor William Brasier John Prime and Jacob Baker who do confirm the matter excepted against Francis Fugg's said Account whereby they declare it to be his false Insinuation and a manifest misrepresenting of Friends in those parts and a malicious Falshood For they affirm That there was no Womens Meetings established in that part of the County where it fell in course for the said Person to publish his Intention of Marriage and that because he refused to bring the Woman to any Meeting at all to manifest her consent and intention of Marriage with him And his proposing it but once to the Mens Meeting and that in her absence before he took her to Wife This they looked