Friends Your People have been ever ready to say Our Charges have been Lies and Forgeries and every where have run with this cry in their Mouths Lies all Lies because alas they never Read our Books or at least never compar'd them with your Authors Therefore we perceive that writing Books will not do but we must bring forth those that you have written at a Publick Meeting and lay them open before your deluded followers and desire them to see with their own Eyes and perhaps they may see such a Frightful Sight as they little expected there You might easily have discerned that our Charge affects the whole Body of your People it relating to Blasphemies so long and so often Printed and yet never Contradicted or Censured but asserted to be from Persons Infallible Blasphemies so often approved of by your Second day Meeting where all your Books are Examined and by an Index Expurgatorius Corrected tho written from the Mouth of the Lord. So that your Church hath owned them and we may justly Charge the Blasphemies of these Books upon it till they disown them But you seem to be much concerned for the Restraint we lay upon you so that you may not go out of this Diocess for your assistance But truely Sirs you see we have put the same Restraint upon our selves we will not go out of the Diocess perhaps but a little way from Home for ours we cannot think you can be at a want for help in such a Diocess where there are several Thousands of you Besides if you will have a little Patience the Persons you had probably designed for this Service may have work enough at Home ere long For we are Inclinable to believe that the like Charge to this will go thro many Diocesses in this Kingdom So that they may save their Powder and Shot till the Charge comes to their Door Friends tho we intend to Charge you with Blasphemy out of your own Books yet we cannot think it fit to give you the Authors Names Line and Page for that were to send you our Arguments before the day we shall use them that you might have time the more cunningly to Elude the force of them It is enough to let you see we intend to Charge you with Blasphemy as expressed in our last tho we should not be so foolishly generous as to tell you the very Place where we intend to assault you Besides we our selves have not yet read over some of your Books out of which as we are reading them there arises every day new matter for a Charge and so perhaps there may to the time of our Meeting For we can searce open a Book of yours but presently we are even frighted with such Apparitions that sends us to our Prayers for a Poor deluded People that are daily haunted with them And further we may add that you have their Books as well as we and would you read them over as we do ye your selves could not but see those Blasphemies we Charge you with being too big to escape your sight But you think it just the Authors of those Books out of which we extract our Charge should be permitted to speak for themselves You cannot but know that most of those Authors are Dead and as for them that are alive we have already heard them in your Prints to little purpose However they have no reason to Challenge it as a peculiar due to them to be the only Vindicators of their Cause seeing every Particular Member of your Church is concern'd in it as well as they So that it is a Charge upon every one of you all as well as upon the Authors of those Books you having Espoused them till they be disown'd and condemn'd by you To conclude we cannot see how it can consist with either Justice or Prudence to alter our Method for the Reasons given We therefore think it but a vain thing for you to trouble your selves or us with any more such Letters Poor People that are going blindfold to Samaria instead of Dothan the Lord open your Eyes to see where you are and whither you are going is the Prayer of your best of Friends tho you may possibly think as your greatest Enemies Hen. Meriton John Meriton Lau. Parke To Hen. Meriton John Meriton and Lau. Parke a Reply to the foregoing Letter dated Nov. the 9th 1698. Friends YOURS of the third Instant we received wherein is the date of your former in Answer to which when we in Friendly sort told you of that Omission it was not that we did Catch at any little escape of yours which did at least relate to the Letter if not to the Cause But to proceed As in our last we judge the term Challenge not proper to the offer we made whatever the Judgment of your Selves or Betters may be concerning it As for its Boldness and Pertness as you are pleased to term it we take it to be another Escape of your Memories to suppose it herein to exceed any of those as you say which were sent to the whole Host of Israel But such as it is we doubt not to make good and that in truth void of Wrath. As to Francis Bugg you did Espouse his Charge blindfold as appears by your after Inquiry and reading of our Books and did Espouse it by more ways then that one of Witnessing to the delivery of his Charge which none of our honest unprejudicate Neighbours would As for Quotations made by Bugg from our Books you say the pretended Answerers deny not the truth of them but betake themselves to their usual Palliating and Painting tricks c. This Assertion we have no cause to Credit but for the present will say that we know that in several Answers of ours to Books of this sort there is frequently detected false Quotations and his apparent Forgeries which if either you have not read or not observed it might have been well enough to forbear that scurrility of Painting and Tricks Now for your Charge you acknowledge it to be upon the whole Body of us and therefore as in our former we think you are not just in your limitation nor does your threat if you will have a little Patience c. fright us from still insisting on our Exceptions For as our last did declare our acceptance of such of your Propositions as were equal and fair and desired the rest might be agreeable and such as we are perswaded no ingenuous or just Persons would Evade or deny us So we still insist on them not knowing any Power or Dominion you have over us to overrule what we have so fairly offered to qualify your Limitations For if you intend to confine us as Respondents only who are within this Diocess it is reasonable to confine you not to Charge Persons or their Books more remote or absent For why should a Man whom you may Charge be obliged to Answer by Proxy when perhaps he can better defend himself the
if we stick to our former measure without apparent Violation of it Now Sirs what are those hard measures I pray Why truly after we have Charged some of yours with Blasphemy in some Books Printed 10 20 30 some 40 Years ago that were never Corrected nor Censured by your Church in your Second days Meeting erected on purpose to Examine Books and Licence them but have been approved and commended to us and admired by almost all of you we demand that you would either justify or disown them publickly under your hands And now you ask us very pertinently whether we are willing to be Charged with all the Old and New Books and Pamphlets that our Brethren of the Clergy have written or Printed to stand or fall by them Such an Impertinency as this is would be almost Intolerable but that we are so commonly used to them by your Party Do but Scratch your Heads a little and consider seriously the force of such a consequence We are bound to justify or disown all the Books of our Brethren as to every little Error or Mistake because we call upon you only to justify or disown the Blasphemies of yours We doubt not but there have been some tolerable Errors in ours which are no great blot to an Author that acknowledges himself to be a Man viz. fallible but a mighty prejudice against the Infallible Club whether at Rome or Grace-Church-street that pretend they cannot Err And we are only obliged to a Charitable forbearance in such Cases when you will be obliged for every Error you find in yours by reason of such a pretence to disown them as Cheats But if any of our Authors have wrote or Printed Blasphemy we are sure such have not been approved or allowed of by our General Meeting our Convocation who have made bold to Censure them without asking the Authors leave or if there be any such that have escaped the Knowledge of the Convocation and therefore not Censured by them perhaps they have been condemned if not burnt by Parliaments and Universities or if they have escaped such a Censure bring out such Books of ours when you will and you shall see we will either justify or disown them without calling for the Authors to come and plead their Cause To the Second Question we Answer You shall have equal liberty with us produce our Books and your Charge against them Supposing it be of Blasphemy when you will after you have first answered ours and we will give you leave to reserve your particular instances to the very Time and Place of Meeting if you please For we are assured that Blasphemy is of so strong and rank a Scent that every Christian that hath not his Nose quite stopt that as St. Paul says can but exercise his Senses never so little about Good or Evil as soon as ever it 's opened or discover'd will presently nauseate and turn away from it And we are sorry that so many of you have got such a stuffing in your Heads as not to perceive it Nay you think them sweet Odours sure that you will not be satisfied till you be allowed Advocates to Plead for them as sound and wholsom and therefore to be continued in the best Room of the House the Church The third Question is Coincident with the First but we must answer it or you 'l say we dropt it for its Weight for there is no reason we should appear in the Porson of all those our Brethren so as to be Charged with every little Error out of their Books in their stead but this we will do bring forth their Books and Blasphemies as we havesaid before and we will either justify them or disown them without consulting the Authors of them And this is all that we desire of you either to justify or disown Yours and Their Blaspemies under Your Hands which we may expect from you by the same rule you lay before us do as you would be done by And why may we not expect this of you seeing you have abandoned you Authors in lesser matters as in their Orders about Ribbons Lace Slit-wast-Coats Prancing Steeds Costly Habits fine Clothes Stately Buildings in for bearing to Thee and Thou and Sir your Betters Seeing many of you have opposed their Orders in Paying Tithes Womens Meetings Swearing in Courts of Judicature of carrying no Guns in their Ships or using the Carnal Weapen Last of all We take Notice with much joy to see you so much fall off from the former rude and rugged behaviour of those Men whose Cause you espouse towards the Clergy It is not long since your Address to them was in that Tinkerly Language Gready Doggs Babylons Merchants Devil driven dungy Gods Witches Bloodhounds Sodomites Gimcracks Wheelbarrows Tatter demallions which you have now Exchanged for more familiar and kind Expressions to call us Friends tho your former Carriage hath been as Divinely Authorized as your present Blasphemies Your very Railings have been as you have pretended by Inspiration We hope since you have begun to draw from that Old filthy Spirit that dwelt in your Ancestors you will at last totally abandon them seeing you have abandoned them in lesser Matters and why not in their Blasphemies Friends Pray trouble us no more with your Letters for our Measures are fix't and you may Chuse whether you will meet us upon the Terms resolved upon or no. No more from those who are resolved to continue your real Friends whether you will or no. Hen. Meriton John Meriton Lau. Parke Here followeth the Copy of the Quakers last Letter dated November the 23d 1698. To which the Ministers made no Answer Friends YOURS of the 16th Instant We have receiv'd the tenor of it declares Your purpose still to evade our just demand as is set forth in our 2d and 3d Letters to you we shall now give you a brief Reply because we perceive our Letters are troublesome to you First if you were as real as you pretend Frindship towards us the Moderation of Friendship questionless would prevent your being astonished at our denial of the Term Challenge in our Letter to you For then it had been our place to have Charged you so we should have made our selves Plaintiffs and you had been Defendants We doubt not but upon more mature thoughts your astonishment will vanish away 2dly We still insist upon our former demands as just and reasonable for how can you or any Man whatsoever think that we or any others for us can make Answers to Matters thus hiddenly Charged upon us whilst you refuse us the knowledge of them as you say they stand in our Books Pray be plain with us and if there be such Rank Blasphemy as you say bring it forth do not be shy Give us Author Title Book and Page and if you please tell us in the first place what is Blasphemy 2dly Wherein do you Charge us with Blasphemy against God and against Jesus Christ and against the Holy Scriptures What are the
to Dispute and those Six to be known Inhabitants within the Counties of Norfolke and Suffolke Or the City of Norwich and that there be but one of those Six to speak at a time and that he be not interrupted unless he run out beyond the term of five Minutes at a time IV. That no Personal reflections shall be made one against another that are Forraign to the Cause V. That a Notary of each side be appointed to write down the Objections and Answers that are made by either Party and that they be compared at the end of every Meeting if there shall happen to be more than one The matters we Charge you with are as follow I. We Charge you with Blasphemy against God II. With Blasphemy against Jesus Christ III. With Blasphemy against the Holy Scriptures IV. We Charge you with great contempt of Civil Magistracy and the Ordinances which Jesus Christ Instituted viz. Baptism by Water and the Lord's Supper with Bread and Wine V. We Charge you that the Light within as taught by you leaves you without any certain Rule and Exposes you to the forementioned and many other Blasphemies Hen. Meriton John Meriton Lau. Parke October 31. 1698. Friends YOUR Paper with the Charge upon the People call'd Quakers without a Date came to the Hands of our Friend John Hubbard on the 27th Instant You were pleased to call the Offer we made to you in Writing a Challenge which term we think is no ways applicable to it For we taking Notice of your readiness to Espouse Francis Buggs Charge and Challenge we lookt upon it very Reasonable and Prudence in you as Wise men to hear our Defence therefore referr'd you to several of our Printed Answers which if you had desir'd of us to have seen them we would have procured them for you but not one word of that from you in so many Weeks time And for our excluding F. B. from any Part of the intended Dispute we have so much Cause and reason for it we believe as will sufficiently justify us in the Opinion of all Judicious Persons And whereas you render it difficult to Procure our Friends Books we are willing to expose them to any that desires them as is well known and as you might have Prov'd if you had made Tryal And now before we take Notice of your Propositions we judge it necessary to enquire into the Extent of your Charge whither it be upon the whole Body of the People called Quakers or upon Particular Persons or upon the Writings of Particular Persons Especially your three first Charges If you Charge a whole Body of People you are not Just in your limitation that the Persons that have a share in the Dispute be only known Inhabitants in Norfolke Suffolke and City of Norwich and at the same time Charge all the said People generally If it be against particular Persons we judge you ought to name Them in your Charge if it be against the Writings of particular Persons it is necessary for you to name the Authors and the Titles of the Books and the Pages this we insist upon These things Premised we take Notice of your Propositions I. As to the Place in West Dereham we do not object against it but are indifferent as to that II. The day Prefixt being the Eighth of December will not be convenient for some of us being in Stoak fair Week III. That Six Persons of a side only be Permitted to Manage the Dispute and those Six to be known Inhabitants in Norfolke Suffolke and Norwich we agree to provided your Charge reaches not to any Person or the Writings of any Person that lives not in either of the said Counties or the said City but if it doth we expect and account it very reasonable to be left to our free liberty in the Choice of our Six and allow the same liberty to you And that but one be allowed to speak at a time is very necessary and we like it well but not to be limited Precisely to the space of five Minutes yet to endeavour brevity and before answer be made that there be a little pause IV. V. Your 4. and 5. Proposition we like as stated by you And do expect an Explanation of the extent of your Charge as is abovesaid to be sent us without much delay waving here to Repeat or Object against it or any Article thereof but refer that until we hear further from you We are your Friends Rich. Ashby John Hubbard Dan. Phillips Richard Case John Brown Phillip Tassill To Rich. Ashby John Hubbard Dan. Phillips Richard Case John Brown and Phillip Tassell the Coppy of a Letter in Answer to the Former dated November the 3d 1698. Friends WE Observe in your last dated Octob. the 31st 1698. how apt you are to Catch at every little Escape tho nothing relating to the Causes the omission of a date We hope tho we forgot the 27th of October we shall not forget the 8th of December You are offended we call your first Letter a Challenge to us tho our betters have thought it to be the Boldest and Pertest that ever was sent to the whole Host of Israel viz. as you more then once in your Letter term it to us or any of us all and to any of our Cloth and that from the Hands of such whom we never took to be any great Goliahs But all this anger is it seems because we so Zealously as you think espouse Francis Buggs Charge One may see how ready you are to take Fire when so small a Spark will kindle you For one of us was not there when he delivered his Charge Another of us came by meer accident and None of us were any other then as Witnesses to the delivery of it which any Three of your honest Neighbours we suppose might have been without offence As to the Books you mention'd to us to be Read which you conceive would have cooled our Zeal for Bugg and his so often as you say baffl'd Charge You may please to know that we have Read them and that Bugg is not Answer'd nor can be Answer'd any other way seeing this Charge is drawn from Quotations out of your Books but by denying the Truth of Them which your pretended Answerers do not do but betake themselves to their usual Palliating and Painting tricks to cover over and hide their deformities We consess we had a better Opinion of your Principles before we saw your Books then now we have for indeed we have received more satisfaction from your Answers then from the Books they pretend to Answer being confirm'd more in our belief that they are Unanswerable And if you write in this manner we shall never desire to take the Pen out of your Hands for it will do us no Hurt but for the Gall that is in the Ink. Yet because you say he must be rejected and you will have it so we have given you your Humour and have accepted of your Challenge without him
tho he was Mov'd as he there Witnesses in the Title page by the Lord God of Life and the Spirit of Truth as it was made manifest in him from the Lord. The Night approaching and many of the People there being at great distance from their Homes the Magistrates then Present seeing nothing more which might tend to Edification was like to be done were pleased to put and End to the Contest and Dissolve the Assembly After we had declared that seeing they had Challenged us we would not leave the matter thus but seek for some more favourable opportunity to make good our Charge against them and so we Intend by Gods help when the Days are long and the Weather good and if the Quakers will Answer fairly we will permit any of them all to Appear but if they shall fall a Clamouring as they Incessantly did at this Meeting we will very Civilly by some means or other take them by the Hands and lead them out of Doors But notwithstanding they have done so much to hinder our good Design of proving our Charge to the People we hope we have stopt the Gangreen that it spreads no further in our Corner the People being generally satisfied and do believe them now to be Blasphemers because they Refused to come to a Tryal nor would suffer their Books to be Read This we thought necessary to give the World an Account of not only for our own Vindication but their Satisfaction which we the principal Managers have given under our Hands this 12th day of December 1698. Edw. Beckham D. D. Rector of Gayton Thorpe Henry Meriton Rector of Oxborough Lancaster Topcliffe Rector of Hockwold December the 12th 1698. Having seen a Relation of a Conference at the Management of which we were present Attested under the Hands of Edw. Beckham D. D. Henry Meriton and Lancaster Topcliffe We do hereby Testify and Declare that the Sum and Substance of the abovesaid Relation is true E. Wodehouse Justices of the Peace John Wodehouse Justices of the Peace John Meriton Rector of Boughton Laur. Parke of Barton St. Andrews Henry Bell Esq Thomas Fysh Preacher at Kings Lynn Thomas Walker B. D Fellow of Sidney Coll. in Cambridge John Williamson Minister of the Gospel John Turner Charles Peast Phi. Wodehouse Gent. William Blythe Bellw Raven Edward Tilson John Maxey Junior A Copy of the Quakers Challenge September the 7th 1698. Hen. Meriton John Meriton and Laur. Parke IT is Prudence in Wise men to hear and weigh a Desence as well as a Charge Francis Bugg hath Charged the People called Quakers in Print and has been Answered to those several Charges several times Some of the Answers wrote in Defence of the said People are Entituled A Charitable Essay A Just Enquiry Innocency Triumphant and the Counterfeit Convert a Scandal to Christianity Which are those which at present occur to our Memory And when you have read over those Answers if you will give it under your Hands that those Answers are Defective Or if you think you have Matter to Charge us withal let us have your Charge under your own Hands and appoint Time and Place convenient and we or some others of us God willing will meet You as Publickly as you Please But we reject Francis Buggs Charge as being already sufficiently Answered several times over as also him to be one of the Persons concerned against us in Disputation because of his unreasonableness We cannot suppose you so void of Common Sence as to look upon it suitable to a right Management of Controverfy to answer an Opposer several times over in one and the same thing or things And be it known unto you all this is not thro any Consciousness to our selves of holding any Errors But if you think it is you may if you please try the utmost of your skill and strength and see what you can get by it Pray leave of Boasting till you have obtained the Victory Remember the Answer that was given to Ben-hadad 1 K. 20. 11. You may make up a Quaker according to your own Dress to please your Fancies but Counterseits will not pass with us for true Coyn. Therefore to conclude at present as we said before we are free or some others of us to meet with you or any of you all Francis Bugg only Excepted for the Reasons aforesaid to take your Charge and stand a publick Tryal desiring only the Common Priviledges to such occasions belonging Provided as aforesaid you think meet in your own Names or any other of your Cloth to Charge us And through the Lords assistance you shall hear from us or some other of us whom you or some of you have endeavoured to traduce and we doubt not Publickly to put aside that Disguise that by others hath been put upon us and to make it appear to all unbiassed Persons that we really are in the Truth and Simplicity of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Your real Friends Rich. Ashby Stephen Stanton Tho. Buckingham John Hubbard Daniel Phillips Richard Case Phillip Tassell Matth. Harrison John Brown Rich. Marler John Hunter A Copy of the Answer to the Quakers Challenge sent to John Hubbard Richard Ashby Daniel Phillips Rich. Case c. the 27th of October 1698. Friends IT hath not been from any distrust of the goodness of our Cause or any backwardness in us to defend It that we have been thus long in returning an Answer to the Challenge you sent us but partly from not being able to resolve immediately at that distance we Live from those we had to Consult how far it was sit to Comply with some of your Terms that appeared unreasonable to us and partly from the disiculty of getting your Books which you might with greater Justice expect in this Case we should read if they were permitted to go more freely then yet we can find into other Hands as well as those of your Friends But having with a great deal of trouble in some Measure got over this Stop we shall not insist upon Francis Buggs bearing any part in the intended Dispute Nor wave the Challenge you have turned upon us instead of accepting of his which yet we think you ought to have done Notwithstanding what you Precarriously assirm in your own Cause of his being unreasonable and Answered already But your excluding him shall not hinder us or some of our Bretheren from giving you a Meeting in Anwer to your Challenge And that we may prevent Tumults and Consusions and that our Meeting may obtain the design we hope for God's Glory and the Hearers Edification we think fit to acquaint you with these following Propositions I. That the Place to Meet in be West-Dereham Church being pretty Capacious and well Gallery'd II. That the time of our Meeting be on Thursday the 8th of December at Ten of the Clock in the Forenoon and so on as many Thursdays following as there shall be occasion for III. That but Six of a side be permitted
Justice of the Common Law in this Case much exceeds your pretence of Edification And this being denied by you we take it for granted your design is to Censure and pass Judgment on Persons unheard And if your Charge be to be drawn from Books it is as reasonable by the Common voice of Mankind that their Titles and Pages be given the Authors of which if living have an undoubted right to explain for themselves or if Dead such notice is reasonable for our due preparation to Answer Till which we shall only say that the Living labours of the Dead have this Justice due to them viz. that the whole be considered and the Scope and Intent of the Writer be taken and not rigidly much less falsly to pervert his words to a Sence contrary and repugnant to the Scope of the whole The refusal whereof will speak a design Partial Injurious and Precipitant but we hopeing on better Consideration you 'l do otherwise do expect as above to be sent us in such convenient time as we may examine them which cannot be in less time then Three weeks at least This demand its true you laugh at and call it a foolish generosity yet it being reasonable we insist on it For the frightful Apparitions which by opening our Books you say sent you to your Prayers c. we doubt your Frights or Fevers have been so great as to prevent your having any true Idea of Them or any loving concernment for Vs therein And not finding our selves haunted as you suggest we rather desire you to speak truth than offer false Sacrifice For conclusion to this and to try your Ingenuity whether your Method be to do as you would be done unto we put these following Questions I. Whether you are willing to be Charged out of all the Old and New Books Pamphlets and Sermons that your Brethren the Clergy have Wrote and Printed to stand and fall by them II. Are you willing we should Publickly Charge you with Errors or Mistakes out of any of the abovementioned and not beforehand give the Particular Instances to you For know ye that we expect Equal liberty with you to Charge as well as to be Charged III. Will you Personate all your Brethren as above both Dead and Living so as to be Charged out of their Books in their stead Your direct Answer we expect without any further Evasion Boast or Menace in the interim conclude Your abused because not sufficienly known Friends Richard Ashby John Hubbard Dan. Phillips Richard Case The Reply dated November the 16th 1698. Friends YOUR last does not a little astonish Us. 1 st That you should deny your Challenge which is as plain an one as Words in English can make it and truly very brave to all our Cloth that is to Nine or Ten thousand of us 2 ly That you affirm that we espoused Bugg's Cause when you or some of you cannot but know the contrary by one of us For when the last Summer you demanded of Hen. Meriton whether he would justify Bugg's Books written against you he Answer'd They contain'd Matters of Fact which he was not capable of judging of having not the Books to compare them with Francis Bugg's Writings yet told you that if his Citations were true you see then he made an If of it and therefore did not justify them he would justify such Expressions were Blasphemy But you are still offended at our unreasonable limitation of you as to the Place whence you are to fetch your Disputants But Friends did not you begin with us Did not you limit us when you rejected Francis Bugg and all others too that were not of our Cloth some of whom you know too well might have been very useful to us in this Service Nay did not you reject Francis Bugg for this reason because he had been Answer'd as you pretend over and over again and was unreasonable as if we had nothing to do but Actum agere Aud may not we say the same of your Hackny Disputants they have truged so long in that road and have been Spur'd and Gall'd by us enough already and therefore in reason we ought to turn them off awhile and give them rest till another occasion More plainly they have been Answered over and over already and are unreasonable Besides Your Church which you profess your selves so Zealous Members of have owned and approved of those Books we intend to quote and your selves have been known to admire and almost adore them and their Authors And therefore till you disclaim them you are as much concern'd to Vindicate them as the Authors themselves for by owning them you become joynt Authors and your Plea for them will be the Plea of Parties and not of Proxies But now When the Court of Equity will not relieve you you fly to Common Law but if yon give us no better proof of your skill in it then in this instance we shall have little reason to take your Counsel in Law Business Friends 'T is matter of Fact we Charge you with that we find such and such Blasphemous Expressions in your Books For matter of Right whether such Expressions are to be esteemed Blasphemy we shall leave it to the Judgment of the Auditory The matters of Fact your Authors have already owned them at least so much as will make good our Charge And for matter of Right whether such Expressions are Blasphemous or no we think the Common Law will not allow the accused Malefactor when he 's convicted of the Fact a right to Judge of the Law or whether his Fact hath been a breach of it Suppose we had Charged some of your Friends with Common Swearing by their Maker and they should not deny matter of Fact that they have said such words only they excuse them with a great deal of Artifice that they were spoken in Passion that they dropt from them rashly or their minds did a little run out or truly they do not affect such Speeches or they may see Cause otherwise to word them is there any Law or Equity such Men should be admitted in any Court in the World to Plead and Apologize for Common Swearing If matter of Fact be Prov'd or Own'd may not the Judge turn such Men out of the Court and pass the Definitive upon them The fact is own'd by their Men themselves that such Expressions are in their Books so much at leastwise as will prove the Charge and let the Auditory whom we appeal to as Judges in this Case determine whether Blasphemy or no. We dare affirm it will be easier for the People to Judge that such and such words are Blasphemy then such words are Swearing And we are Sorry to see you so Zealous for such Authors only to give them an opportunity to excuse Blasphemy At last you direct us to that Golden Rule in Divinity to do as we would be done by and think you have Gravell'd us with three Questions which you suppose we cannot Answer
Words of those several Blasphemies Your direct Answer to those particulars 3dly We think it not worth while to follow you thro all the Parts of your Letter it being a great part of it Rattle and Noise besides our present business 4thly You evade our Instance of the Common Law We distinguish between matter of Fact and a Right to Judge You have Charged us with matter of fact We demand a Copy of our Charge that we may prepare our Answer to make as a point of Justice allowed by the Common Law to Male factors We deny your having any Jurisdiction over us as Judges and before we submit we will have full proof of your Commission Temporal Judges you are not and to be Spiritually qualified you must prove before we acknowledge you as such 5thly Seeing you resolutely refuse our just demand we do not look upon our selves obliged to Meet you under the limitation of your Terms We stand to our former offer and by the Terms we have offered to qualify yours and if you refuse it shews for all your pretence of Friendship a contrary design upon us we cannot look upon your Resolution to Friendship any thing else but an empty pretence until as a proof that it is otherwise you give us the instances of your Charge in Form and Manner aforesaid which is not as you say to send us your Arguments before-hand but the matter of fact you Charge us with This as a point of Justice from you we seek not your mercy make your Arguments as strong as you will But while you thus put us off we look upon it no other then a shift and Evasion on your Parts and a design to over-rule us We leave it with you as a Test upon your resoluet Friendship Give us our just demand of Author Title Book and Page with convenient time as set forth in our last to you to prepare to make Answer which if you still deny we look upon your pretence of Friendship to be a meer Complement and Decoy and a Design of much evil to us Couch'd under 't Notwithstanding we are your Friends and desire you would mind the witness of God in your Consciences that admits of no deceit and will if minded lead you to deal plainly To which you must stand or fall one day Richard Ashby John Hubbard Dan. Phillips Richard Case c. P. S. SEeing you have rejected our Terms as aforesaid and we have refused to be imposed upon by some of your Limitations we therefore shall take our Liberty either to Meet or not Meet you And if we Meet you to have others of our Friends present with us who are not Inhabitants within this Diocess if we see Cause and if they have freedom thereto A Certificate of several Principal Inhabitants within the Parishes of West-Dereham and of other adjacent Parishes to obviate the false Reports given out by the Quakers wherewith they endeavour to make the World believe that the late Norfolke Challenge was not made by them to the Clergy of the Church of England THE Parish of West-Dereham in Norfolke having in it several Divisions and Sectaries and but an Exceeding small Sallary for a Minister discouraged most Men from supplying the Cure By reason whereof it was seldom well Supplyed for any long time together and the greatest part of the People in danger of falling to the Quakers who seldom fail of making their Markets in such dark Corners until the present Minister thereof undertook it at the request of some Principal Men of the Parish and entred upon that Cure in June 1691. and very laboriously and constantly has continued till this present time Against whom the Quakers have been in a continual rage for being disappointed of their Prey Which displeasure of theirs they could not forbear to Express by many undecent Acts becoming a People of such pernicious Principles and rugged behaviour as they Such Instances whereof as at present occur to our minds are these The Wife of one Becket a Quaker gave her self the trouble of going three Miles to the Ministers House on purpose to vex him with Quakerly Questions in a Quibling way upon Aseension day Morning 1695. His Family can Witness the truth of this as also Mrs. Bishop a Principal Person of the Town of Barton who happened to be with the Minister then We of this Parish and divers other Persons of Neighbouring Parishes too do very well remember the time that Becket the Husband himself watcht our Minister in a Lane not far from the Church lin'd on both sides with People to Dispute him when his Spirits were exhausted with Preaching and his Strength weakened by performing the Duty of the Day One Phillips a Quaker went to disturb our Minister at his own House one Munday in May last to Challenge and Provoke him to Dispute with the Quakers at a Meeting at Stoak that was to be held on the Morrow as himself confessed after he came Home And he and his Friends set abroad the Report some days before to call the Country together and then gave it out that the Priests promised but durst not come both which we believe to be false This Phillips together with one Mason and Beket by speaking Profanely of the Ordinances of Christ and setting up a Conventicle contrary to Law in an unlicenc'd Barn where there never had been one before and their restless Importunities to make Men go to their Meetings and by Villifying our Minister for no other Cause but preserving his Sheep from being devoured by the Wolves gave our Minister and us great occasion to dread an Apostacy of the People from the Christian Faith This and nothing but this made us and our Minister willing to permit Mr. Bugg to come among 'em to try if he could conjure down this busy Spirit which possesses the Quakers and is so troublesom to us having heard that he had thrown that unclean and Blaspheming Legion out of some other Places before We and our Minister accompanied him to one Quakers House and sent one of his Printed Charges in a Letter to Sam. Cater a Speaker Further than which we believe our Minister was not concerned And it was his great desire of saving Souls and a quiet life that made him ingage so far For he was always averse that either he or his Brethren should ingage in a Publick Dispute He to our knowledge was ever so far from giving a Challenge as that he never would accept it when it was offer'd till now For many Provocations and Challenges has he had One above all the rest we cannot forget which was given him in Writing when he was in the Pulpit by one Lilly in sight of the whole Congregation Which besides many more he evaded as well as he could till this last bold Challenge came on which was to all the Clergy of England as well as to his Brethren and him So that whatsoever the Quakers may pretend to the contrary we verily believe They are the Challengers and none but they But we hope it has done much good and had the Ministers been permitted to make out their Charge which was Artificially drowned in Noise Quakerism in these Parts would have received a Mortal Stroke The truth of all this is Certified by us whose Names are here Subscribed William Fenn William Young Richard Taylor Geo. Archer John Smith John Wright Tho. Wade Tho. Complin John Goddard Tho. Ward Tho. Hubbard William Prick Caleb Mayor Grace Lamson Mary Parke Barth Ramsey Sam. Chicco VVil. Sargison FINIS