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friend_n	write_v	writer_n	writing_n	10	3	8.1486	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66448	George Fox digg'd out of his burrowes, or, An offer of disputation on fourteen proposals made this last summer 1672 (so cal'd) unto G. Fox, then present on Rhode-Island in New England by R.W. : as also how (G. Fox slily departing) the disputation went on being managed three dayes at Newport on Rhode Island, and one day at Providence between John Stubs, John Burnet, and William Edmondson on the one part, and R.W. on the other : in which many quotations out of G. Fox and Edward Burrowes book ... are alleadged : with an appendix of some scores of G.F. his simple lame answers to his opposites in that book quoted and replyed to / by R.W.	Williams, Roger, 1604?-1683.	1676 (1676)	Wing W2764; ESTC R26378	307,504	516

and Congregations contrary to so many Reasons from Nature and Grace so positively expressed by the Holy Spirit in Scripture What Spirits are their Dumb Spirits in their Dumbe Meetings but those foul dumbe Spirits mentioned in that Gospel which the Lord Jesus will cast out and tumble down to Hell whence they came in his holy season What is their monstrous way of Singing and Toning and Humming many at once as they often do and notoriously did at Portsmouth on Rhode Island this last year when no man is edified nor understands what they say and it may be not themselves and this under colour of singing in the Spirit what is it I say but rendring their Tongues which should be their Glory and the Glory of God their scorn and shame and the holy Name of Gods holy Spirit contemptible also 4. I did also mention a fourth Reason against their Spirit and had prosecuted it but I knew that by reason of my Adversaries interposure I had exceeded my quarter of an hour It was taken from the Holy Spirit of God subjecting it self to be tried commanding all men to search the Records commending the Bereans for examining Pauls Preaching and Spirit by the Holy Scriptures and this is the true meaning of the Spirit of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets not that a true Prophet or Messenger of God can subject the truth of God which he believes so to be and will rather suffer many deaths then relinquish to be sentenced by all the Prophets in the Church to be false and he acquiess or rest in 87 or subject his Spirit and Conscience to that Sentence but that the true Prophets of God are willing to have their Teachings questioned examined and made clear by the holy Records to the Souls and Consciences of all men Hence it pleaseth God to give Rules for the trial and discerning between the true Spirit and the false 1 Iob. 3. 4. chapters On the contrary I would have shewed which indeed all men know that the thief endured not searching the galld Horse endures not rubbing the guilty Debtor endures not Reckoning the false and jugling Spirits escape in a Mist and by the help of dark Lanthorns and under the covert of the night who may not see this in G. Fox all along his Book running into the Thickets and Burroughs of Words of divers significations Scriptures notoriously wrested general and sometimes uncouth and barbarous Language which hath been the trade of the false and lying Murtherous Spirit in all ages and will be until that short time be finished wherein the Lord will tread him under the Saints feet and cast him into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone How oft have I been visited by the Quakers crying Repent Repent hearken to the Light within thee c. And I never could perswade them to sit down and examine their sayings by the Holy Scriptures but when their Cuckoes note and song was over and their Fools Bolt shot then fell they to Cursing and pouring out the Thunder-bolts of Gods Iudgement and so be gone no less then Reve and Muggleton pretending to be Gods two last Prophets and Witnesses about twenty years since in London whose Cursings were notorious But to return while I was beginning to urge the tryal of the Spirits W. Edmundson said the Spirit of God was above the Scriptures and not to be tryed by them for it gave out the Scriptures c. And I said and say it is easie to boast of the Spirit but the true Spirit in a Sense and the holy Scriptures are one as the Father and Son are one and therefore can not but be willing to be examined by the holy Records as every man or author will stand to his own scripture work or writing for the Writers were but Pens of Heaven writing and used by the hand of the holy Spirit And I remember that I said to W. Edmundson Friend You yesterday in your long Sermon alleadged that holy Scripture viz Men will not come to the light least they should be reproved 88 because their deeds are evil This is the true cause of your quarrel against the Scriptures and of exalting the Spirit above them that is upon a true ballance your own Spirit yea the Spirit of Sathan to be God and Christ and Spirit and all After some few interchanges and altercations we descended to the fourth Position which they read out of the Paper as they did all the rest which was this viz. That the People called Quakers did not own the Holy Scriptures In one Copy it was written Really own viz. They did not really own the Holy Scriptures I said there was a twofold owning the Holy Scriptures or the Writings of God as there is a twofold owning the Scriptures or Writings of men the Proclamations and Declarations of Kings and Princes The one is verbal and literal viz. that such a writing or Declaration or Treatise is extant and that it proceeds from the Kings Authority and Command The second is real and actual when the Authority of it is in all humble obedience submitted to and obeyed when the Justice and Equity and the excellency and goodness as well as the royal Authority is embraced and magnified I said the Iews owned verbally and wonderfully that Writings of the Old Testament and the Papists owned both old and new but it is known that in many particulars they do in effect deny and damn them 1. They both set up their rotten Traditions their unwritten Verityes as they speak of equal authority with if not in cases above the holy Scripture 2. They set up the Papists by the authority of the Council of Trent a most defective Translation notoriously false in many places all over above the first Copyes of the Hebrew and Greek whence all Translations as Counterpanes and secondary Copyes or Duplicates ought to flow 3. The Papists set up the Pope as the only infallible Judg Interpreter in all Questions about the Scriptures and the Jews make their Rabbies as so many Popes also 4. Their Interpretations are so forraign and strange and many of them so absurd monstrous from the genuine proper Sence of the Scriptures and adulterated with Wresting and allegorizings c. that is truly said of them that they bring not their Doctrines Disciplines and Conversations to the Scriptures but force the 89 holy Scriptures of God to attend and wait upon their Abomination as a Negro Slave and Lacquey I said the Jews and Papists did not more disowne the holy Scriptures upon the account of their Popes and Traditions and Interpretations than the Quakers did upon the account of their Light and Spirit and Interpretations also Who knows not that in the beginning of their Profession they generally fell from the reading of them by themselves or in their Families or in their Publick Assemblyes only crying up the Light within the Spirit within

but in this first Appearance as Proposals until they are maintained as charges by sufficient proof wherein they may be molified But in truth herein I am at a stand for against whom were the true Apostles more bitter than against the False which if the Defendants be so which in charity I have reason to hope otherwise your Conscience will be more cleared in your Lord and Masters service yet know there may be a zeal without true knowledge therefore let true zeal appear that is not in persecution but for the Glory of God and truths sake as it is in Ie●us 2. Unto the Defending Complainants the loving Quakers which I pray take not as a charge but as appearances unto my Soul in that you never dealt faithfully in your Lord and Masters service for both Complainants and Defendants are all but Servants unto one Lord and Master and you must do that service which is ordained by your Lord and Master to do in your several stations either in truth or falshood there is no hindring of it and when you have done all you can you are but unprofitable Servants falling short of your Lord and Masters infinite Glory and in the end of your service you shall as the Grasse wither and as the Flower fade but unto our everlasting comforts the word of the Lord shall stand and for ever First That you have not done your Master faithful service by assuming and presuming beyond the bounds of Moderation and Christianity but as I said before take not these as charges but as proceeding from your own Expressions and Behaviours in your late actings which have not been for that solid edification of the Auditors which was expected but for defending and advancing of self which appeared 1. By your limiting the Holy one of Israel contrary unto your Lord and Masters Commission 2. By breaking an Apostolical Command so far as in you lay as not to quench the Spirit 73 3. You have not dealt faithfully and Christian like with your elder fellow servant and then what would you do with the Heir To the first appearance you would not begin before you had stated by forced Covenant that none should speak though with leave in modesty and sobriety but those that would joyn issue with the complainant and that under hand writing And herein loving friends you have infringed upon those great Liberties and Mercies which God hath bestowed upon these parts and which you do enjoy and cannot enjoy else where And will you now shut up your common Wine-presses that we can have no fruit nor refreshing but what comes from your private Presses Know Loving Friends this is a sad grievance that lies upon us Y●a you do infringe not only upon our Souls but upon our Temporal Liberties For in our Courts of Iudicature there is a fundamental liberty stated for any to speak freely for Conscience sake in any Cause in the Bounds of Sobriety and Modesty But this appears against the Rules and Practises of all Christianity not practised by the Judicial Convocation nor by the high Commission Court in our Native Couutry where often I have been and the Metropolitan with the rest of the Bishops in Gravity and Christianity though their pleadings were by Proctors yet gave liberty especially for Relations to speak As in one Instance of a person whom you all have heard of when he was to come upon Examination his wife being big with Childe came with him the Arch-Bishop though otherwise he might be improper yet herein shewd great civility by considering the Womans condition and gave liberty for speaking to the full with replying no discomfortable Words yea in Christianity delayed further prosecution until she was delivered though afterwards they acted their improper persecution But into what a condition shall we be brought I hope not into an high Commission nor Inquisition Court if this Imprimator goes on that none shall speak no not so much as suffered to desire to speak though they are great with Childe with the Man Christ Iesus But I hope the People will see their Liberties and your selves know this was not the true Apostles practises 2. Your sad quenching of the Spirit when the motion of it arose in any for Soul-satisfaction in any to speak you would not suffer them to be expressed but stifle them in their coming forth O dear Friends consider you would not be so dealt with For what did you know but 74 the Lord might bring forth from any of the Auditors for witnessing his Eternal Truth and Glory therefore as your Heavenly Master is bountifully free be not you Niggards in shutting up his Bounties and suffring none to pass but through your own Purses I speak as the Apostle did after the manner of men 3. Your Indecorum Behaviours both in words and gestures unto your elder Fellow-Servants aged Father complaining as not performing your duty as young men according unto Rule of honouring gray hairs 1. But by unseemly smiles of Derision saying often for a time Thou old Man thou old Man thereby appearing to provoke to passion 2. When that would not move his exceeding great patience then charging of him with Blasphemy and to prove his Blasphemy 3. Again not Apostle or Gospel like seeking and taking advantages against the Aged and contrary to Covenant by three or four baiting him at once unto the confounding of his memory or stopping of his utterance under the pretence of challenging all comers when reasons considers of coming in Order But your defence was that you were but one Man then you should have been but one Mouth Again your improper charging of the complainant with mispending of time when in Truth it was your selves in not suffering of him orderly to proceed But by your often Iterations Tautologies Indecorum Behaviours and Expressions with improper Preachments at that time and yet lay the defect upon the aged and would not be satisfied with his substantial Proofs divine Reasons and Argumental Demonstrations And herein your Conscience if unsatisfied had liberty in timely Order to have made your substantial Desence if patience had been suffered to have had her perfect work It is acknowledged by Auditors that as the Complainant brought substantial proof for so far as he proceeded so you the Defendants also brought substantial defence in what was substantial but now who shall judge ye will not suffer the Gospel rule that the standers by the Spirits of the Prophets shall judge Then both of your own private Interpretations doth aim to be judges and so will be endless and true judgeless And by proceedings the cause of Christ Iesus being now at stake much dishonoured unto the sadness of my Soul and unsatisfied Conscience and also the expectation of the Auditors which was for Soul-edification frustrated and unto publick shame as yet only self contendings hath the supream Appearance Therefore Loving Friends 75 pleading and defending for your Lord and Masters sake shew your selves faithful Servants of

the Scriptures within their Teacher within They stil say The Scripture was not the Word of God the Scripture is but a dead Letter they have no need of Paper-Teachers having the spirit that gave it forth Yea as the Papists say if the Scriptures were lost and burnt out of the world the spirit within them could give new Scriptures T is true the Quakers in this Dispute professed to be tryed by the Scriptures which the first Quakers among us wholly denied but only by the Spirit within them But what avails this Confession Is it not but a subtle trick of Equivocation when stil they profess to owne G. Fox all along and he professeth the Soules of all men to be a part of God and the divine Essence and that their is no distinction between God Christ and Spirit and themselves what should hinder but that the Scripture is but a dead Letter and compared with their spirit a weak and needless Paper unto them that hath such a light and Spirit within to guide them I told them before and now that there was an Irish Papist in the late warrs that spoke the very heart and soul of Iews Papists and Common Protestants and the Quakers themselves as to the holy Scriptures In plundering and rifling a Protestants house he found a Bible and flung it in the Kennel and kickt and trod upon it saying The plague of God take this Book it is the cause of all these Quarrels My Opposite said they owned the Scriptures in their place as a Declaration of the Saints Conditions Iohn Burnet took a Bible and read publickly that Passage in Luke 1. where Luke calls his Writing a Declaration I urged that this will of God for this Declaration of what Christ said and did and of all the rest of the Scripture was a Declaration and Revelation of Gods Will to his People and to the whole World this written and revealed 90 will of God I said was the Judge and Decider of all Questions the tryer of all Spirits all Religions all Churches all Doctrines all Opinions all Actions They answered they did owne the Scriptures and would be tryed by the Scriptures which is a new trick meaning according to their own not to be questioned Interpretations I urged that they set up their Spirit above the Scriptures fathering all their Revilings Cursings and Abominations upon the holy Spirit I asked whether they owned the Scripture as the square Rule or Guide according to whose sentence all the Knowledge of God and of our selves the Knowledge of Gods Worship and Service and our own Blessedness and Salvation was to be determined yea and the Spirit within them to be tryed determined approved and condemned also They still fled to this Burrough the Spirit that gave forth Scripture is greater then the Scripture the spirit is in us that Spirit only opens the Scripture the Spirit is immediate and infallible and they only who have this Spirit know the Scriptures I answered that I maintained the inward breathing of the holy Spirit more than themselves for I quoted before Luke 11. viz. that we ought in all our Preachings Hearings Readings Prayings c. to beg the help of the Spirit called the Finger and Power of God and yet I also maintained that this Record this Word Will or Mind of God written and pen'd by chosen Pen-men as Pens in the hand of his holy Spirit and so miraculously preserved from the Rage of the Devils fiery Instruments Babilonian Assyrian Romane and Popish Tyrants and that much among the Jewes and Papists and much by their meanes also though they hate it I say this Record is the outward and external Light Lanthorn Iudge Guide Rule by which God witnesseth himself and his Truth in the World comforteth and feedeth his saints in their Dispersions discovers and reforms the defects and wanderings of his People as in Iosiah his finding this Record and Ezekiel Iohn eating the Book out of which the holy Spirit inspired them to prophesie to Kings and Peoples c. T is true who doubts it but that God and the Spirit were before the Scriptures and so he was before the Creation before Christ Jesus was born and his Redemption actually accomplished are the works of God therefore and the several Dispensations and Institutions and Instruments of God in their several times and 91 places of any whit less power or esteem because the most holy God and his most holy Spirit were before them Iohn the Baptist saith that Christ Jesus was preferred before him for he was before him and he was not worthy to unloose the Shoe-latchet of Jesus the Lamb of God and yet for the fulfilling of all Righteousness the Lord Iesus must come to Iohn to be baptized of him and the holy Spirit of Light will declare himself to be true by the holy Scriptures and discover all other Spirits to be spurious false and Bastards and notwithstanding their cracking and prating of Light if they slight this outward standing Record and Witness of God in the World it is because there is no light in them One of these two must be done either we must subscribe to the Papists and by their pretended Spirit and Church find out and authorize the Scriptures just as the Foxians say or else we must with Luther and his Associates Calvin and his followers maintain Learning study the Scriptures search the Originals Copyes and Translations and vindicate their Purity and Perfection their Authority and sole external Direction how to judge of all pretending Christs and Prophets and Doctrines Churches and Spirits While we were thus discoursing W. Edmundson propounded this Similitude if I should write a letter to a friend and subscribe my name W. Edmundson doth it follow therefore that the Letter is W. Edmundsons I answer that the Quakers do affirm that the Scripture is within them what is the english of that but that the Light which they and every man in the World hath within them the Christ the Spirit which every one hath is Scripture and in a sence I said it was a Truth that W. E. his letter to his friend was W. Edm. not only a Declaration of his word mind or will to his Friend but in a respect his mind and will it self that he sent in Writing to his Friend and so the Scripture in a Sence is Gods mind and Will to us Upon this occasion I told them that the Scriptures were the Love Letters of Christ Iesus to his Church as the Love-Letters of some mighty Monarch to his Betrothed Queen or Empress they are dear not as common Paper and Ink but as the Good-Will the dearest Love and heart of the King and Emperour himself and thus are holy Scriptures highly prized and embraced and laid up in the heart and bosome of the true Children of God 92 believed listned to and followed as the voice of Christ Iesus to his true sheep and Spouse the Bastard Children and