towards God and also towards all men and to serve the Lord in our generation and to do good unto all men as much as in us lies and to study Peace and Quietness minding every one our particular Calling whereunto God hath called us that we might adorn the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by a holy and blameless Converlation by which we have received remission of Sins and are remitted unto God yet notwithstanding great hath been the enmity that hath been raised up against us and great hath been the out-cryes of many and much the hatred though we can say in a clear Conscience with David without a cause And great have been our Sufferings this many years insomuch as we may say truly Long Furrows have been plowed upon our backs and we have had all manner of Evil spoken of us but we bless and magnify the Lord not for evil doing but falsly yea falsly for the Name sake of Christ though we have been slanderously and fasly reported from time to time by the the Time-serving-Ministers of Antichrist who have alwayes * Witness that their Address to Richard called Protector flattered the Powers of the world and stirred them up against us by false suggestions flatterings and daubing insinuations because we have discovered their Deceit and our Conversation hath been more blameless than theirs they have prevailed so far as to raise up unbelief in peoples hearts and to set the Rulers of the Earth against us as much as in them lay to our utter ruine and extirpation in this life as ever Haman did against the Jews But seeing the adversary of mankind hath prevailed so far with many to hear receive and believe the many false slanderous reports of us and to publish them abroad and seeing that traps are laid for us and snares for our feet both to ensnare our Consciences and to the ruine of our Estates to bring us into bonds to the separating us from our Wives and Children to confiscation of our Estates to Banishment of us our of our Naive Country to seek our bread among strangers to the rendring of us odious unto all to the making of us Slaves and Bond-men and sell us to any for a thing of nought to make People believe we are not subject unto Authority that we disobey the Laws of the Nation which are just that we plot Mischief against the Government that we are ready to side with a Forreign Enemy to bring the Nation again into a Civil War that we hold correspondency with Forreign Enemies that we annimate one another in Sedition and Rebellion and that the principal end of all our Meetings and Conventicles so called is to confirm one another in Malice against the Government And that we make Collections for the support of a Party who are listed to appear in any desperate undertaking That we have designed the very time That we are industrious and dextrous and spread abroad our intelligence to stir us Strife and Commotion and to disturb the publick Peace of the Nation And this greatly reflects upon us and not only upon us but the everlasting Truth of Christ Jesus which we profess which if these things were true we were not fit to live in a Nation but to suffer according to our demerits And seeing two Acts are chiefly made against us for the suppressing of our Innocent and Peaceable Meetings whereby diverse thousands are and have been and are like to be in bonds only we say for the Worship of God and keeping Faith and a good Conscience yet how great severity hath been used against us God knows and many good People in the Nation also Notwithstanding as though this had not been enough yet our Sufferings are augmented and Affliction unto Affliction by a Letter lately sent by some Chief Magistrate of England as we are enformed to the Nobility and Justices of the several Counties which is read in some places in the publick Sessions in which though we be not particularly nominated in that Letter yet many of those things contained in it are imputed unto us and the Justices of Peace and others take it for granted And so our Miseries Bonds and Sufferings are augmented time after time which if the Lord by his eternal Power doth not change the minds of them that are bent against us we are like to be destroyed as men from having a being amongst the rest of our Neighbours and Country-men Therefore all these things considered We are necessitated to declare our Innocency unto all and to clear the truth of such things wherein some are jealous of us and to speak the truth from our hearts and Consciences as before the Living God the Judge of the quick and the dead who in his day will render unto every one according to his works and also before his holy Angels and all just men and to all the Potentates Nobility Rulers Magistrates Justices of Peace and to all People in this Nation and to all the whole World and to every particular Person where this may come and according to the truth of this our Testimony we desire the Lord may judge us and we never to expect his Blessing upon us if we do it not with all sincerity of heart and uprightness before him First of all We cannot but testify unto all with boldness That we love the King's person and desire his good in that which pertains to this life and that which is to come and that his Throne may be established in Righteousness that we under him may live a Godly Honest and Peaceable life serving God in our generation and doing that which is acceptable in his sight and that which becomes true Members of this Kingdom that it might be preserved in Righteousness and Peace 2. We utterly deny all such as not to be of us and did never neither can nor shall ever own such to be of us who plot or contrive any Sedition Rebellion Insurrection or Misdemeanor against the Peace of the Nation to embroil it again into Wars we utterly do deny all such things from our hearts and also every individual person that hath doth or may act any thing conducing to such a mischievous end and deny all desperate persons and their designs who wish or deny all desperate persons and their designs who wish or desire in their hearts evil to the King or to any of his Magistrates or that act any thing conducing unto War for the hurt of the Nation in general or any particular men therein 3. We utterly deny all such Councils whether few or many and their confederacies who hold any correspondency with any forreign Enemy or domestick if any such there are have been or shall be and likewise any such Order as any person or persons shall send abroad in any part of the Nation to the disquieting or disturbing the Peace of the Nation as is mentioned in that Letter 4. We utterly deny such as have provided any Arms or listed any men if any
THE Remonstrance OF THE Suffering-PEOPLE of GOD CALLED QUAKERS Clearing their Innocency from the many false Aspersions Slanders and Suggestions which are lately come abroad in the Nation causlesly upon them For among my People are found wicked men that lie in wait as he that sets snares They set a Trap they catch them As a Cage is full of Birds so are their Houses full of Deceit Therefore they are become Great and waxen Rich. Jer. 5.26 27. London Printed in the Year 1665. The REMONSTRANCE of the Suffering-People of God called QUAKERS clearing their Innocency from the many false Aspersions Slanders and Suggestions which are lately come abroad in the Nation causlesly upon them FOrasmuch as the everlasting God of all Truth hath visited us from on high out of his Everlasting Love unto us and hath revealed Jesus Christ the Light of the world and the Life of men unto us and in us who have waited and longed for his appearance unto our souls that we might be partakers of his Heavenly Power from on high and that we might know his Eternal Power made manifest to us and in us by which the Saints in former ages were led and guided into all Truth and to walk in the same to the honour of God the Everlasting Being from whom Eternal Life is conveyed through Christ Jesus unto all that do believe in the measure of his Eternal Spirit which he hath given to every one a measure of to profit withal even every man that is come into the world to that intent and end that every one who receiveth it and closeth with it in their hearts might be led from darkness unto Light from sin unto Righteousness from Satan's power to the Power of God and from death and him that hath the power of death which is the Devil unto God the Everlasting God of all Truth and to have fellowship with him in the mystery of the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ by which remission of sin is obtained and an inheritance among the Sanctified Ones who were made meet to be partakers thereof who are gone before and rest in the bosom of the Father unto which high and great Calling God hath called us even to be partakers of the same Faith Hope Inheritance and Calling through the riches of his Love manifest to us in Christ Jesus in the end of the world Now and in the last times that hath yet been in being or ever appeared amongst the sons of men a necessity is laid upon us on the Lord's behalf in whom we have believed to speak the truth as it is in Jesus before God and all his holy Angels and before all men and to the Witness of God in every man in the world who yet doth not believe yet according to this in all Consciences will his Judgment be and unto that everlasting Testimony of God in all English-hearted-men and all men of every Nation Kindred Tongue and People upon the face of the whole Earth and to the Testimony in all Consciences who live and have a being according to Gods everlasting Witness in them we appeal and that shall bear witness to us that either before now or hereafter that we have do and shall speak the truth as it is in Jesus Christ and according to which we must all be judged and to receive Sentence from the hand of the Lord according to what we shall declare unto all in this particular for evermore We are a People who have enquired after the Lord and only desired to know Him and his Worship and that we might worship him in Spirit and in Truth and find acceptance with him and have fellowship with him in that which endures for evermore that our souls might live in his sight and that we might witness his Countenance and Favour manifested to us and the Evidence of his Spirit bearing witness to us and in us that we are accepted of him through Christ Jesus We are not ignorant of all the set and stinted Forms of Worship and Formal profession in our own generation and what it is and what the enjoyments of all are in respect of God and his Worship for we our selves have travelled those paths in diligent circumspection and much vigilancy in the observation of all those outward things which are accounted by some as Divine and Holy Institutions and Ordinances of God which generally the People take upon trust from their Leaders and Elders Tradition of time or Custom of Nations but alas we know how it was with us in that state and how it is with all such who are so busying themselves about bodily exercises which profit little while their hearts are not upright to that of God made manifest in them by which he shews unto man his thoughts and his evil and also that which is good and acceptable in his sight yet notwithstanding all such who are professing God and Christ in words and worship and yet be enemies to him and that which may be known of him in their hearts both in life and works And such were we in times past in ignorance and unbelief and yet had a profession and a zeal according to the times but not according to the true knowledge of God in Christ Jesus But God out of his rich Love and Mercy had compassion on us in this estate and knew the longing and thirsting of our hearts after him that we might obtain him manifested his Eternal Words of Life and Power in our hearts which became a Light unto our feet and a Lanthorn unto our paths by which we came to see our selves and our own estate and that all our righteousness were as filthy rags and that all the inventions traditions and ordinances of men which are repugnant unto the Will and Ordinances of Christ that all these were and are abomination unto the Lord and that he hath no pleasure in them neither in them that draw near unto him pretending honour and worship unto him while they offer up unto him in the darkness and ignorance of their minds with polluted hearts and lips and that which he never required These things are an Abomination we being made sensible thereof by the Spirit of God which discovers both words and works and knowing his Judgment to come upon us not only for sin but also for that which hath been and is by some yet counted for righteousness and worship who are still in the unbelief the Lord made a separation in our hearts betwixt the Precious and the Vile and called us out of the unfruitful works of darkness and out of the World and its wisdom which knows not God and out of the paths of those who are in the Fall and in the Apostacy and are erred from the Life and Power of God and the holy Injunctions of Christ not to have any more fellowship with them in the vain corrupt traditions of men nor them that would set mans threshold by God's threshold and not only so but would even overthrow
suffer and undergo all those hard and heavy censures which already are decreed and determined against us Know all people it is for Christs sake and the Gospel and for the Testimony of JESUS and the Word and Worship of God and not for evil-doings and this we hope all good and tender-hearted people will believe and receive our Testimony which will ballance the suggestions of our enemies and we stedfastly do believe the Lord will be with us in the midst of all Tribulations and will plead our Cause and keep us from every evil way and work and from the Temptations of the Adversary unto his heavenly Kingdom that we shall not make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience nor faint in the midst of Trials and the Lord keep all men who thirst after Righteousness from striving against the Lord or standing in opposition against his everlasting Power which whosoever doth cannot prosper and though we be the only Mark and But to shoot at and are reckoned as the off-scouring of all things singled out from the rest of the Nation as Abjects of Wrath and Vessels of Contempt yet we knowing our own innocency cannot betray it but suffer in Faith and Patience and travel in hope to see an end of all sufferings and bear the reproach for Christ's sake till he arise in his Power and Glory and make his enemies his footstool And indeed we cannot but pitty and commiserate their state who yet are in opposition to us that they should thus requite the Lord for all his kindness after their deliverance out of their adversity trouble and afflictions as to make it the main matter of concernment in the Nation to root out and destroy the Flock of Christ whom he hath redeemed to himself as a purchased Possession and think by this means to settle all in rest and peace Oh the Lord open all their eyes that so judge for they know not what they are doing neither how ill the Lord takes it at their hands that instead of encouraging cherishing and being as a safeguard and refuge they only should discourage and make sad the hearts of many poor and innocent people whom God never made sad and should add affliction unto affliction and that the glorious Truth of Jesus Christ which hath been so richly made manifest both in word and operation to the changing of thousands from sin and ungodliness to bear the image of God and bring forth fruits of Righteousness and season the Earth that the Nation might be blessed with the dew from above and with the heavenly and spiritual blessing in Christ-Jesus But O how is all this slighted in the Nation and O how doth Vice abound and Wickedness and Ungodliness encrease and how do men run after it as if it were the way to felicity and happiness O what prophaness is broken-forth like a land-flood over all the banks what horrible Oaths and Blasphemy what prodigious Swearing and Cursing as if it were even daring God to damn them nay some do frequently use those very words of daring God to it and saying God confound them is the frequent wicked speeches of many in the Nation and taking God's Name in vain at every trivial occasion and O what drunkenness and filthy uncleanness not fit to be named among men what swearing and forswearing that it may truly be said Because of Oaths as of old the Land mourns and what sports vain-pastimes that begets people into lightness and wantonness are permitted if not allowed which are bad and wicked fruits and demonstrate the fear of God to be far away from them that act and countenance such things as people running on heaps unto such vanities but to meet in the fear of God and for the worship of God or for holy Exercises this is reckoned Sedition and counted dangerous and destructive to the Peace of the Nation and nothing but Persecution and Cruelty attends such which if it be continued and persisted in will bring a scourge of God upon the Nation Therefore once more be warned Break off these bonds of wickedness and cease from persecuting of God's People and repent while you have time if you can find a place Lest the fire of the Lords Jealousie smoak against you and there be none able to quench it or deliver you By the suffering and afflicted People of God who are persecuted for Christs sake called QUAKERS It is the same Faith and Hope that we hold and not another for which the Apostles of Christ suffered and were persecuted yet there is none will say in our generation that the Apostles did evil nor none say that they did well that persecuted them Therefore consider of it you that are doing the same thing you condemn in others THE END