Eternity Men and Angels in the Face yet after all notwithstanding to be thus appeal'd and so struck into and under such a Dreadful fear and manifest Consternation at the very appearance and coming forth of my said Book into Print a peice that so openly discovereth and maketh manifest his own and the rest of his Faction and Associates Treachery Oppression Unjustice c. that rather then he will stand the Judgment so much as of a Man Men or the appearance of the Day he as manifest thinks it now more safe and far better for him to lay by such his scaring Threats of the punishing of Body and Ireful Judgments both on the right Hand and on the left poured forth and pronounced against me as contain'd in a Letter which he sent me but a little before and to Anvil out another way and to his Craft again if he can but as no doubt he will out-face Shame and what else relates to either Men or Conscience c. having reflected so much on A. B. though Innocent as by his own Inconsistency for how can A. B. or any other though their câ—pacity be of the smallest Size c. be Crafty Silly both and yet for all that to so now câ—me down stoop and appear so humble and so low as to thus desire and intreat and it shall be accepted be satisfaction and so for the Controversie to be ended And therefore Friendly and Christian Reader upon the whole matter and circumstances of it may I not break out in this astonishment open my Mouth and say O blush oh Heavens and be astonish'd oh Earth at these things And this further so that by all what hath been said written and apparently and plainly proved upon them viz. O. S. and the rest the true and conscious Reader may plainly see and discern as before how contrary both to themselves as well as unto the Truth I mean the real Truth of God these Men have acted in the premised by being thus false to God false to Men false to their own Consciences and false to what they have Signed and given under their own Hands and which stands will remain and will be in Witness against them until they acknowledge by Repentance for indeed how can that be according to God or consistent with his Will that is so vastly wide and altogether inconsistent with its self as in p. 14. and last Query of my Book of Queries And therefore saith my Soul Oh that the Lord for his Name for his Truth and for his Mercies sake would be pleased to both root out and to drive and chast away out of his Church and Camp all such evil and deceitful Work and Works and all such double-tongu'd and false-hearted ones and to cause it to exterminate and its Remembrance to End and cease amongst Men and especially all the Professors of his Holy Name and Truth And therefore his viz. this O. S's bad treacherous evil and deceitful Ways and Circumstances considered may I not further add and thus infer concerning him Oh Treacherous Heart Oh hard'ned Mind That can such Crafty Ways invent Without remorse or Wound of Soul Or any Token of Relent Where shall I seek Where can I find At all the like of thee Amongst all pretenders to the Faith And for the Vnitie For thou art him thou art known by Name The Hinge and Man of Strife That secretly doth persecute Oppress and wound the Life And as to those general Charges as with respect to the Wickedness on the Persons fore-mentioned that I intended no further or otherways to any O. S. and B. A. excepted than in respect only to those particular Charges alledged and not in the least as to the general or series of their Lives And now a few Lines more in Answer to his needless and unprofitable Postscript which chiefly relates to my placing as he saith some unnecessary or impertinent et setera's or more than happily convenient or proper the which I shall not so much dispute or stand the Test of the Controversie with him the whole aim end and bent of my Spirit being more for and with respect to Truth Justice Substance c. then to either Puctilio's or the Rules or Use of Grammatical Methods having neither pretended to either Skill or Scholarship in those and such things and wherein I have missed or been short in them or any I think that he silly and a witless'd me enough about them But in this I have rather rejoyced and have cause still to rejoyce and to both bless to magnifie and praise the Name of the Lord my God my Rock and my Stay in that he hath so far taught and learned me in the School of Christ his dear Son Truth Righteousness and in the Book of an innocent and a good Conscience so as that I could not nor cannot in the least abet close with cover or connive at any such wicked false deceitful and evil doings that is so too frequently and often found both in him and them he personates and undertakes for but as to the case of the Widow Bunce and her Son which he ciâ—â—s as his first Example I think necessary to annex these two or three Lines further And first as with respect to the Offence that the said John Bunce had taken it is to be noted that it was taken upon or through the occasion of O. S. and the rest refusing or denying his Mother a just and fair Hearing by her Neighbours that best understood the Nature and Circumstances of the case and which only related unto outward Concerns wherein she apprended as in the aforesaid That she had the due right of Claim c. and not that they had any thing otherways or further against him and therefore the case with the Circumstances depending rightly and duly considered whether it may not give both cause and room to conclude or at least to think that he went to the aforesaid viz. the Priest for something else than only for a Wife for that it appears not at all unreasonable but to both suppose and think that he might go to him for to learn Religion also yea and something else besides that too he seeing and finding such unfair and unjust dealings in the aforesaid towards his Mother that pretended to that degree of Sense Light and Spiritual Discerning above and beyond all others so that if no more impertinency in my overplentious c. then appears in this he places as the first of his Examples he might have staid out his time in the Country where he was if a doing of any good there then to a so hasted to a thus only showed his own Skill and Scholarship and if such a Fault in A. B. by a few overplus or impertinent c. though not so many as appears that he accounts of neither was it not an impertinency not short of it in O. S. for to send unto me such a Book viz. his A Reviler c. to one I say that he looked upon and accounted as his Enemy that had so many both false and confused Misplacings both troublesome to read and much more to Answer they being as followeth viz. after pag. 30. followeth p. 33. after p. 34. followeth 31. after p. 32. followeth p. 37. after p. 38. followeth p. 35. after p. 36. followeth p. 39. But these not altogether so material neither either on the one hand or on the other as his so hipping and skipping as I may say over Mountains and Hills and thus stumbling or rather quarrelling at meer Turfs or Mould-Hills my meaning being by his so skipping evading and giving the Go by to those more material and substantial parts of my aforesaid without either Notice taken or any answer or return at all as at large have mention'd and hinted in the foregoing But to God I shall leave both he and them that will reckon with them all for such their merciless Heard-heartedness Unchristian outrage against their Brethren and my self in particular and that for no other cause that I know of than standing up and being for the Holy Truth of God and witnessing against such their unholy open and apparent Works and Deeds of Darkness account or call them as you will or please And thus having somewhat eased my grieved Heart and wounded Spirit because of these things and enlarg'd therein beyond Intentions I do leave and commend them to the righteous Judge and true witness of God in every Conscience and remain a true Lover of all the honest and sincere in Heart Abraham Bonnifield Let this neither go nor be communicated to or amongst any but Professed or Reputed Friends THE END The ERRATA PAge the first of the Boâ—â— line 35. after the word Pounds add and. pag 4. line 14. after forth add c. line 21. for confesseth read counteth pag. 19. line 20. for account read accord line 31. after wiser add and. and instead of from the Remarks and Circumstances read from the Circumstances and Remarks pag. 22. line 14. for the read his a. pag. 26. line 11 for this read thus pag. 28. line 6. after approved add of pag. 38 line 39 for yet read that pag. 40. line 26. after Words add it pag. 41. line 14. after Bone add more pag. 42. line 31. after it add and me pag. 44. line 10. to add as pag. 53. line 17. after and add in and for Infirmly read Affinity and after Affinity add with pag. 58. line 30 for to read for line 35. after been add both pag. 59. line 14. for and read buy pag. 60. line 17. for so read too pag. 64. line 1. for those read these pag. 65. line 28. after and add the. pag. 67. line 21. after of add 〈◊〉 pag. 72. line 33. after and add I. pag. 75. line 5. before Proceeding add and. pag. 76. line 22. after for add of pag. 80. line 2â— after them add as line 32. before Meeting add a. pag. 87. line 1â— after farther add the. pag. 92. line 36. after A. B. add c. pag. 93. line 10. after then add as line 20. for yet read that pag. â—4 line 38. for the read an pag. 96. line 3. between he and silly add a.
c. And I have not forgotten the Apology neither that he made for his excuses before them which was that he was loath to trouble the Quarterly Meeting with it Though should rather have said to have had his Nakedness and Shame for such his Insolency and Pride laid open before them and therefore O. S. in his saying That the Substance of the Matter was answered by W. L. in agreeing with the Monthly Meeting to refer it to the Quarterly is no more nor other than a meer piece of Craft For gave them before to understand that it was none of his design or intention whatever his seeming agreeing or the substance of the matter c. But pray further observe how that in the very same page O. S. both owns and confesseth viz. That the Monthly Meeting did refer it to the Quarterly Meeting to end it and if so if it were not Recorded in the Monthly Book ought it not to be Recorded there And in that it was not where must we conclude the Fault but on W. L. that had no disposition to that kind of Work And again in page 27. of his citing my Words out of pag. 7. of the Cry viz. That when so made and Recorded that afterwards they deny it to be the act of the Meeting and in the conclusion of the same Paragraph makes this his Notation upon viz. And well they might for there is no such Record thereof in the Book c. So that if no Record no truth though he both confesseth and confuteth himself into the bargain but what of that if his Reader care not or dare not to be so nice Eyed as to see it and if the Recording more weighty than the Truth or the business to be recorded which way will you steer and whither will you run And though he flouts me in his A Reviler c. with Billingsgate-Rhetorick yet if this be not Babylon's and that in no small or mean degree I must confess I am as silly a one as he chargeth me and understand not any thing that relates to either Religion or Reason And then again in pag. 9. of his A Reviler c. It s worth the Reader 's notice how falsly meaning of me he dealt with the Monthly Meeting c. But in what or wherein he is short and sparing for want of Reason to back his Charge for after a great Round-about and Ramble the chief ground alledged by him was only because that I did not immediately I mean at the next Quarterly Meeting bring forth my Charge and Allegations against the said W. L. notwithstanding there were neither time nor limitation set or given when or where to do it nor yet either care or notice taken for the same to be signified to the Quarterly Meeting either by Word or Writing And how could it be thought that they would credit or take any more notice without it than when I presented the Paper of Complaint containing the Offence and Grievances of divers and several of us And therefore 't is better worth the Reader 's noticing how strange and at what a venture and random-rate he runs in thus Stigmatizing and Calumniating a Man for Falshood that neither broke Promise Engagement or any Obligation of his own or any thing so much as like it from any other And in the same page further undertakes to give an Impartial Relation of the manner of my presenting of my said Paper of Complaint to the Quarterly Meeting at Ore the 15th of 7th Month 1690. And first by telling That the said Meeting did not think fit for to trouble the whole Quarterly Meeting with our private quarrels but committed it to eight Friends which when the Names of them were read unto him he objected against but one of them But O. S. not so ingenuous or plain as to tell and let them know that I objected against and was dissatisfy'd with any other hearing but the knowledge of and the sense and approbation of the whole and besides if not the whole how then the Meeting as in page 3. of the Cry c. And how that several times one after another I told and signify'd unto them That if the said Seven did not end it fairly and impartially that I was resolv'd to make my Appeal to the Yearly Meeting and yet this Man hath the hardiness to say and with which A. B. seem'd satisfy'd and contented which never seem'd other or further to consent than as before and that as only by constraint and force there being no further or other priviledge offer'd or allow'd me but that or none and if but a meer matter of Oyer and Termer as his own phrase is yet ought it then to be open and free and both the Plaintiff and Defendant with like equal priviledge admitted to appear and be heard Face to Face before the whole And as to my objecting against one of the eight it was when I saw that it must and would be so and no other way and this is true and he knows it and yet observe that notwithstanding my objecting against the aforesaid he was nevertheless chosen though allow'd and approved my exception and concern'd too and had a Hand in it and that from first to last though as forehinted one of another County And again Of the Seven saith he to whom this Service was by the Quarterly Meeting committed I was one and though A. B. is so violently set and so bitterly against me now I suppose I stood fairer in his Opinion than otherways having the liberty of Exception allow'd him and making use of it as aforesaid to exclude one he might have also excepted against me To the first it was but his Supposition and if it had been as he fondly supposes I know not in the least of any just Cause for it but was doubtful he was treacherous as since have found to be to true and if I had objected against him there would have been as much and no more in it than in the other he mentions and that was nothing at all for that as before notwithstanding my Objection and their allowance he was still kept and continued with the rest And again However saith he we undertook this Service I can truly say for my self and believe I may safely say it for the rest of my Friends concern'd with a conscious regard to the Honour of God the Prosperity of Truth and the Peace of the Church in that place To which let me say and return that you are vastly and widely out and besides the matter in this and such your Confidence for to either conceive or think that by any such Works of Injustice or Evil any peace or good should come of it and how other than to conclude it as no less than Deceit and Craft and that in the largest and highest degree to thus tell and talk of the Honour of God Prosperity of the Truth and Peace of the Church in the doing and practice of those things so
resolute Ways and Wills that they have even left the very Room where the rest of Friends have been in their Business and have begun to settle and go forward with theirs in another and again after a very little while have wheeled about by a back Way and come into the same Meeting again yet all both grave and profound in the sence and view of O. S. And again He giveth another instance saith he of a pretended disorderly breaking up of a Meeting in the 5th Month 1691. which appears no more then the former Answ How so when the first was in the 6th Month 1690. and the other in the 5th Month 1691. near eleven Months difference And what other proof doth he expect than the Name of the Persons and Place when and where acted I cannot tell neither do I know and seeing that they the Parties so charged be thus Silent and stand mute with respect to their own Defence it 's none of the least Demonstration of their Truth and it 's being so And as to the varying if their be a Disconcurrence as before with respect to the dates may I hope both Easily and Reasonablly be excused in me that had my most perfect Copies and Papers taken or kept from me lost or pretended to be lost as in pag. 18. of the Cry c. But what is that material or to the purpose since accounts not the thing it self as either evil Crime or Matters of Fact and if he desire Witness or plead Ignorance of those Disorders the whole Meeting who at one time or another have seen and believed can give witness of its Truth which he questions not but quibbles 6. His Sixth Article saith he Is their incouraging and promoting at least if not first projecting as he conceives several Papers drawn up and signed against him c. This is very idle and silly saith O. S. for he grounds their projecting c. of those Papers but upon his own conception but for there incouraging and promoting them he offers not so much as that To the first although I placed in such easie and modest manner yet I might and could have been more Positive and Particular in it as in pag. 8. of the Cry where I have told them that it was drawn up at a private Meeting held at J. Buy 's and in the which I was Positive and observe O. S. hath not in the least deny'd it Secondly That as certainly inform'd that W. L. and J. B. were both of them present at the said Meeting And Thirdly That they would have Signed it too had not some Judged it not proper they being Parties and if all the forementioned Instances and Circumstances be not reasonable and enough to induce one to Believe that they were both the Projectors and Promoters of them I shall be contented to be thought as idle and silly as they count me And as to the Second of their incouraging and promoting them saith he He offers not so much as that as little worthas it is Therefore surely O. S. is fallen into a Dream and Groaping as one that is benighted But to be yet more plain and particular in it A. Hall was one of them that refused or deny'd to Sign the aforesaid when carried about to get Hands to it as may be further proved if occasion be but O. S. need not thus seek to Create ways to excuse or evade it seeing in the conclusion of his answer to the said Article he has both Own'd and Justify'd them in it and the thing it self by saying But if they had incouraged the Signing of those Papers yet so long as those Papers contained nothing but what is true what evil had they done in that But how idle he is in it shall leave the Reader to Judge that accounts it not in the least as matter of fact though through and by the means of which viz. such their Dark and Underhand-dealing they have as apparent thus rent and torn us to peices and in the which he has but only beg'd the Question and as silly to use his own towards me to so take and receive as may say for Truth the main and matter in Controversie without more or further proof to it but it may be W. L. and J. B. have said it and what need of any more and yet what evil is this with him or them Oh thou contriver countenancer and incourager of Strife and Debate what will be thy Reward for this work in the end His seventh Article saith he is their causing of great discords and distraction in our publick Meetings for Worship by breaking up and dissolving them in the time of his Testimony and Prayer Note the which O. S. doth not in the least either deny or seek to excuse but tells of Discords and Smiting and all the Disorders assign'd is only my so appearing and of Smiting you have only his Word for it for he tells neither how when or wherein nor yet mentions any one Particular that I have observed in all this Noise and Clamour be has made therefore may I not return again upon him in his own Maxim viz. That Generals serve best for Slanderers to hide under And concerning my Testimony thus further adds Which was his Testimony indeed saith he not Truth 's and therefore was by Friends in Truth testified against Answ But that not my own but Truth 's Testimony both the nature matter and manner I hope will give Testimony of it's self for surely hardly any one except O. S. and his Associates that is so hardy and wilfully Blind that cannot or doth not see it especially such that have Read and Consider'd my Articles and Charges against them and what they are as Pride Lording Insulting Blasphemy c. and for which my Mouth is to be stopped and counted for a Smiter Disturber one of a wrong Spirit out of unity Brother to Bugg and like to Rogers and Story And then back again to there Law of force or unrevokable Argument or what else can I term it viz. their Wicked and Unjust Judgment this being saith he after Judgment had been given against him c. Surely he thinks he has hit it now he has said enough and that their is neither need nor occasion for any more And all this it seems as would have thought for my such Contention and Reflection on faithful Friends but shall leave others that Read not O. S. to judge of the Contentions c. And how faithful by their Fruits not his or any one's words as also do call to both him them and all Men that ever heard me or was there when at any time I opened my Month that hath heard any such wicked vile hard-hearted cruel and merciless Words or Expressions come out of it towards or concerning any or either of them or of any Man else no God forbid for my Heart hath been kept and stood more in awe and fear of him then as before to frequent and to often have
had occasion to speak and write of their's viz. as Divil Dogg Lyon Swine Vulter Bear base Abortive Illigetimate Brat who have made Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and whose Conscience is sear'd as with a hot Iron and for whom is reserved the Blackness of Darkness forever betraying Judas's c. As more at large in pag. 20. of the Cry Oh how can or dare this hardned Man or any of the rest thus charge or criminate other for Contention Reflection c. that are found thus idlely evil foul outragious themselves and that beyond the bounds of all Mortality or Civility as amongst Men Oh be astonished and blush for shame ye men of falsehood and pride Again in the close of this Article meaning of me Then he cometh saith he to the other three viz. W. Spikeman and the two Women for no other cause so far as I see saith O. S. but that he might thence take occasion to throw some of his Dirt upon them Answ From whence it may be observed that he counteth them both clear and clean enough as with respect to themselves The First of which hath been charged and that by his own Children as before with Barbarous Severity towards his Wife and them and not by A. B. or any invention of his The Second of being with Child before she was Married the last as a professed Quaker and that for nigh this twenty Years and permitted for a Preacher amongst them too that is so unfaithful even in the beginning part of our visible Profession viz. the plain and single Language therefore think there 's no occasion for my casting of more Dirt where so much and to much before and I hope the Reader will place his Remarks and also observe how ready and dextrous O. S. is to personate and espouse their case without the least Sentence Censure or Crimination of wrong Spirit or out of Unity surely men of Sobriety will blush to hear or see them though O. S. is so double-eyed and dark-sighted that he cannot And then goes on and tells of E. B's Blameless Conversation though a Person under the aforesaid foul and evil Circumstances notwithstanding permitted and allowed to so oppose and interrupt and praised too for it I do not question the which I charge upon her as a second matter of fact if she hath owned and repented of the first And to that of Ann Moore thus further If any saith O. S. after so long profession of Truth is not come so far as to speak Plain Language such a one is greatly to be blamed But yet A. B. is more to blamed who after a longer time of profession is so far gone from it if ever he was come to Plain-dealing as to deal abusively and falsly by others as his late Book makes appear And that is all his Answer to it Is not this both an Honest and Ingenious proof and sufficient do you think in so large and so great a Charge wherein I am concerned both as a Man and a Christian for to only tell as his late Book makes appear Surely he has cause enough to be ashamed if he had any in him And yet to tell that Generals serve best to Slanderers to hide under But that general of his is but such a scrap of one if may account it so much as that it rather discovereth then any ways hides or obscures him and if A. B's late Book hath so discovered him how lavish is O. S. of others Purses to run up his Reader to six pence charges upon his And as to my Dealing that it hath been plain and honest I can and do appeal to all and every one that is honest and impartial that I have had to do withal as a Man or Christian And so dare not he and to mention but one case instead of many let him remember himself of the subtil Wiles and cunning Craft that he used towards the Friends of Newberry he elsewhere mentions to his defence when he removed from Boxford thither under pretence of a Call But what should I mention or enter into particulars in a case so obvious and manifestly known by Friends of that place save in one only and that as with respect to the House that they had taken for him And how his Actions if not pretended Call went out like the Snuff of a Candle that leaves a stink behind it If he desire more he may have it in the next otherways but to plain both in Heart Tongue and Dealing to be fit for your turn and use as more at large in my Book Hidden things revealed c. And by which the Reader to use his own to me may judge of the rest viz. At what an easie rate both as with respect to Religion as well as Civils men are and may be thus exposed by such silly and reasonless Arguments and yet for all this J. B. a Man as ready and quick-sighted as himself especially at judging at heart and inward part discerning told J. W. a Friend of London of that excepting in that which related to the difference None could say Black was my Eye or to this effect and how black in the other he that runs may read seeing that I have witness'd against nothing in him them or the rest but what is so black and to black too if Spiritual Pride Lording Insulting Blasphemy c. can or may be accounted so and by which their Sence Discerning c. may be also observed that censure and judge so apparently contrary one to the other And then proceedeth In the other part of the Charge saith he relating to W. Spikeman he is both envious and unjust c. And yet three or four Lines lower he makes as if but John Veals charge and he the only author and alledger of it and that the aforesaid brought it in a Paper saith O. S. as he finds it by the Monthly-Meeting-Book the 26th of the 5th Month 1692. But how these two can hang together I shall leave the Impartial to judge and upon what an easie rate I am judged for both envious and unjust though acted and done by another as by his own Confession And then goes on and tells how that the said Meeting had ordered Andrew Hall Daniel Bullock John Buy and John Thorne to hear and examine the matter at Daniel Bullocks House and having heard and examined the matter on both sides as fully as they could they made report thereof to the next Monethly Meeting and then annexeth to the foregoing a kind of a Certificate signed by D. Bullock A. Hall and J. Buy and who therein signifie to the like import viz. That upon the best Inquiry that they could make that they did not find W. Spikeman was guilty of the said Complaint To which do return that it may be that they were so just as to ask the Person charged whether he were guilty or no and thought it to be enough too and sufficient in the case But what Inquiry I