one else For there is something in them that tells them That they should not Practice those Evils or any other before mention'd Which if notwithstanding they should do them that there are but two Ways the one that leads to Heaven where the Righteous go the other that leads to Hell where the Wicked and Debancht Whoremongers and Adulteres Murderers Lyars Thieves go To the one the Lord of Heaven and Earth will say Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World but to the other he will say Depart ye Cursed into Everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels The Wicked into Everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal Mat. 25. Now consider Friends that it s no Transgression for a Master of a Family to instruct his Family himself or else some others in his behalf but rather that it is a very great Duty lying incumbent upon them As Abraham did and Joshua did as to the first the Lord said I know that Abraham will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the Way of the Lord to do Justice Judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him And as for Joshua said he Josh 24.15 And if it seems Evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this Day whom you will serve whether the Godds which your Fathers served that were on the other side of the Flood or the Godds of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell But as for me and my House we will serve the Lord. And further consider this That it is a Duty lying upon us to Pray and to Teach Instruct and Admonish those in and belonging to our Families it being the Command of the Lord the Disobedience to which will incur the Lord's Displeasure as you may see in Jer. 10.25 where it s written Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not upon thy Name Now Negars Tauny Indians make up a very great part of Families here in this Island for whom an Account will be required at the Great Day of Judgment when every one shall be Rewarded according to his Deeds done in the Body whether they be Good or whether they be Evil In that Day I say of the Resurrection both of the Good and of the Bad of the Just and of the Unjust when the Lord shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels in Flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with Everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power when he shall come to be Glorified in his Saints 2 Thess 1.8 Here follows the Addition VVHereas divers Reproachful Speeches by some of the Priests and People of the Island of Barbadoes were cast upon George Fox since his arrival here its manifest that the Devil was the Author of them to prevent and pervert the Minds of People from the Living Truth of God and the Right Way to God to wit Jesus Christ of whom the said G.F. inform'd the People that so they might all come to inherit Christ Jesus and so inherit the Substance viz. Christ their Teacher their Way their Prophet of whom Moses prophesied long since That him they should Hear their Bishop to Over-see them and their Shepherd to Feed them and their Minister that Ministereth Grace and Life and Truth unto them who is their Rock and Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and of us who in Scorn they call Quakers yea of that Christ who bruised the Serpent's Head and destroyes the Devil and his Works So he is the Way to God to the pure God who is the Pure Foundation of many Generations is the Life of all Mankind that have Life for as they all dyed in the first Adam so the Life they have is in the second Adam to wit Christ Jesus by whom the World was made who was Glorified with the Father before the World began Now I say every one must receive him in whom they have Life Eternal who is the Son of God and so receiving him they receive the Faith of the Son of God and receive his Blood that sprinkles their Hearts and Consciences from dead Works that so they might serve God in the new Life in Christ Jesus I say that Christ Jesus that was Crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem who was born of the Virgin Mary and was Dead and Buried whom Judas betray'd to the Chief Priests for thirty pieces of Silver who afterwards arose out of the Grave even the third day though the Magistrates and Priests set a Watch a Guard of Souldiers upon his Sepulchre and the chief Priests gave the Souldiers large Money to say That his Disciples stole Him away by Night This Christ I say is our Life who Dy'd for our Sins and is Risen for our Justification who remains in the Heavens at the Right hand of God until the restitution of all things And we say He is Manifested and Revealed in us and we are in him by his Light Power and Spirit and he hath taught us what to believe in to wit the Light as you may see in John who saith He is the Light and commands us to believe in the Light that we may be the Children of Light And so we are Believers in the Light to wit Christ Jesus and have the Witness within our selves And after we believ'd we were seal'd by the Spirit of Promise and we can set to our Seal That God is True in all his Prophets and Promises concerning his Son and the Doctrine of the Apostles that preacht Christ's Birth and Life Miracles Sufferings his Death and Resurrection So we do confess him before men to be our Shepherd our Way and our Foundation and the Head of his Church and he is our Bill op our Minister and our Priest who is made higher then the Heavens Holy and Harmless and this we are not ashamed to confess before men Now as for the Filthy and Unsavory words that have been cast upon me they are all False O! that People should bend their Tongues to invent filthy Lyes and that others should be given up to believe a Lye So that Say … of Christ is fulfilled They shall speak all manner of Evil◠you for my sake But yet this we can truly say The Lord forgive them if it be his will if that they have not sin'd out their day and we do earnestly desire their Repentance if there be any place found for Repentance But truly it is much if God's Wrath and his Sore Judgments do not fall heavy upon them in this Island a great measure whereof they have seen and felt already and that not long since both by the Plague that swept Multitudes away as with a Besom and by a very great Fire that
you And did not the Apostle speak of a company that were Heady High-minded and Lovers of Pleasures more then Lovers of God Self-willed and Covetous that had got a Form of Godliness but denyed the Power thereof from whom he commandeth to turn away read your selves in 2 Tim. 3.3 4 5. And truly Friends I must needs say to you I never heard so much debauch'd Language and Hellish Lyes as has been cast unjustly and wickedly upon me since I came into this Island which grieves my Soul that ever such should be in Peoples Mouthes and that you Ministers should gladly be Entertainers if not the Fomenters and Preachers of them where-with you have filled and poysoned Peoples minds with wicked Lyes I say and false and filthy Slanders and so corrupted them O! how can ye be otherwise called then Teachers of Lyes and Lyars even such as love and make a Lye Rev. 22.15 and such as are given up to believe Lyes see their sad End in Rev. 21.27 And when you cannot with all your Lyes provoke and stir up the Magistrate to Persecution then you persecute us with your Tongues But I hope that many of the Magistrates will come to see you so as that you shall not get to ride on them and spur them on for if you should you would make them your Drudges just as the Priests of old spurred up Pilate when they got over him to Persecute and Crucifie our Lord and Saviour But consider it well the same spirit and nature is in you that would Crucifie Christ who is revealed now in his People For have there not been Sauls among you with their Packet of Letters to Persecute the People of God in this Island of late read but Priest Lessley's and some other Priests Petition which they sent or delivered to the Governour and Council here a Copy whereof is hereunto annexed And what hath he and others done this last Assembly convened 't is well known Were not the Chief Priests the Authors of Saul's Packet for had he not a Packet from them But now it seems you Chief Priests are grown more bold for you can go your selves with your Packets to this last Assembly I say O! is it not a Shame that you who call your selves Ministers of the Gospel should go to the Magistrate to perswade them to persecute Christians And do you think that the Magistrates have no other Work to do in this Island even to do Justly and to love Mercy and walk Humbly with God and to take Care of the Preservation and Right Governing of the people in Righteousness and in Holiness and that every man may be preserved in their respective Estates and to see that all do to others as they would have others do unto them and to see that the Island may be preserved in Peace and to take Care of that which is for the Good of this Island and Property of its Inhabitants As for Religion that belongeth to God for it came from God and Christ Jesus who is the Author of every mans Faith and sets up his Worship which is in the Spirit and in the Truth and is to rule in the Hearts of his People who receive that Religion from above that is pure and undefiled in God's Sight and so God and Christ must have a place in man to dwell in to wit the Heart that so he may have his Due his Worship and Honour from and by them But to return to your Slandâ—â—â— namely that I should hang ribbons upon peoples arms and that I brought a young Women from England to be nought with her And that I should lie with my Sister and such-like stinking and filthy Lyes have you and your Auditors reported of me which no sober man I am sure will give Credit to being full well known that I was never tainted or blamisht with any such Uncleanness So that with David I may say False Witnesses did rise up they laid to my Charge things that I knew not Psal 35.11 Certainly many of you are and have been naught your selves this way else you would have vertue in your mouthes rather then have such things as a modest Ear abhors yea such filthy stuff and wicked Lyes as these which came from the Devil who is the Father of them are your Parishes fill'd with For I would have you know that I abhor detest and scorn such things it being well known in England I say that I was never tainted with the least Unclean action nor thus taxed till I came here amongst you but what is in your own Hearts that you cast upon me so that ye fulfil Christs Words who foretold They should speak all manner of Evil against you falsly for my Name 's sake And indeed it is for Christ's sake that you do it So that we can be exceeding glad and rejoyce in Christ Jesus in that it is for his sake that we are thus evil spoken of But know this and be assured of it the time will come that he will appear for our glory and to your shame and confusion For We would have you to understand that we have an esteem of our Bodies for our Bodies the Lord hath honoured with his mercies and they are Vessels of his honour and Temples of Christ and of God and of the Holy Ghost and not for Adultery and Fornication Truly I could not but wonder and stand amazed to hear of such soul beastly and unmannerly and uncivil Language as I have heard since I came here What is this Gospel Teaching O but consider what the Scriptures speak concerning slanderous Tongues and of lying Lips and of such as have Venom under their Tongues and the Poyson of Asps What do you not believe that God will judge for these things and sweep away the Refuge of Lyes and take the Reproach from off his People Would you have the same Measure measured to you as you have done to me and the rest of us Surely you have not had so much as Common Civility or Humanity much less Christianity for if you had had either you would have come and spoken to me when I was in the Island and not have railed against me behind my back and incensed others against me Was this Humane or Christianly or Neighbourly done Judge ye But alas what shall I say I do very much fear that the Hand of the Lord God will suddenly come upon many of you with his swift Destruction The Lord did visit and that not very long since this Island with two sore Judgments the one of Fire the other of the Plague but alas what Repentance what Change have they wrought in you and upon you What saith the Prophet of the Lord in Isa 26.9 When thy Judgments are on the Earth the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness But alas are you not rather worse then you were before and hardened more then you were before Pharoah-like as it is in the 10th verse Let Favour be shewn to the Wicked yet
force People to observe dayes came not this Power and Wisdom first from the Pope and not from the Apostles nor from Christ Jesus if you have it from Christ Jesus and the Apostles let us see where it is convince us with Scripture And where I say do you find in Scriptures that Christ or his Apostles did ordain the day you call Christ-Mass and the rest of the dayes attending it which you call Holy-dayes But to say the Truth you may rather term them Unholy by reason of the Ungodly and Debaucht Heathenish Practice So that whereas you pretend to Honour the Lord Jesus in and by them you do no other indeed but dishonour him and do Persecute others that will not do as you do and so break the Command of God who saith Six dayes shalt thou labour c. and here your Command is that they must play more then Six Dayes Now tell me if you can how many hundred of years after Christ and the Apostles were these days first observed as Holy-dayes and set apart to be kept as you do now keep them O! the Whoredoms and Debauchery and Drunkenness the Excess Sensual Pleasures Carnal Delights Carding Diceing Dancing that these dayes are filled up with so that the Devil hath more Work done him in these dayes then in many other dayes before or after So let the Witness of God in your Consciences answer Yea or Nay and let all Sober People judge whether or no I speak not Truth when I say God is more dishonoured and his Name prophanened and taken in vain and blasphemed more in the twelve Holy Dayes so called then in three times the number of them let I say your Consciences and all sober people judge So here you may see how the Apostle judged them that did observe days But consider whether or no doth the Kingdom of God stand in Meats and Drinks and Washings and in Days Nay nay it stands only in Righteousness and in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost which Kingdom all people are in the first place to seek after And then concerning your Fasts in Lent c. the Lord will say Who required these things at your Hands as it is in Isa 58.3 4. Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest or regardest not c. Behold saith the Lord in the day of your Fasts you find Pleasures and exact all your Labours ye fast for Strife and Debate and to smite with the Fist of Wickedness Ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your Voices to be heard on high Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a Day for a man to Afflict his Soul Is it to bow down his Head like a Bull-Rush And wilt thou call this a Fast see the Contents of the Chapter above where it is reproved for Hypocrisie But is not this the Fast that I have chosen saith the Lord To loose the Bands of Wickedness to undo the heavy Burdens to let the Oppressed go free and that they break every Yoak Is it not to deal thy Bread to the Hungry c. Now whether your Fast be such yea or nay let your own Consciences judge And the Apostle commands us to pray every-where lifting up holy hands without Wrath or Doubting 1. Tim. 2.8 Now consider this are not your hands like those fists of Wickedness and are you not full of Wrath and Doubting or are your Hands Clean and Holy Let the Witness in your Consciences judge and see if those Actions and Practices be not found among you as was amongst them whom the Prophet speaks of here which is called Hypocrisie as was said before And did not Judas carry the bag who was a Thief who betray'd his Master And are not they for his Bag and Money to hold it by intayle even all who are the Betrayers of Christ now in this day where he is made manifest in his People I say do they not betray him now and seek to crucifie him in his members or his members for his sake And is it not the Son of Perdition spoken of 2 Thess 23. who exalts himself above all that is called God whom Christ will destroy with the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming Look into your selves and read this if you can But are not such now worse then Judas who carried the Bag for we never read that Judas persecuted any for not putting into his bag as too too many now a dayes do and have done who will not go without the bag And are not all such Transgressors of Christ's Command who bids them go without a bag or Scrip and Freely you have received Freely give How will such answer Christ think you at the day of Judgment when they are brought before his Throne and before him at his Judgment Seat who then will say unto them Depart you Cursed c. but to his Sheep on his right hand Come ye Blessed of my Father c. and so enter thou into the Joy of the Lord and the other into everlasting Punishment who have been persecuting others for Worshipping the living God in Spirit and in Truth which Worship Christ Jesus set up above 1600. years since as you may read in John 4.23 24. Now Friends to look into your Families and into your own Practices are not we to see that first you are to be approved before you do minister both you and your Families For are we not to try all things and to follow you no farther then you follow Christ And were not thâ—â—ereans accounted Noble in that they searcht the Scriptures to see whether or no that which the Apostle had delivered them were according to the Law and the Prophets And must we be more ignoble then they think you and now to try whether you are in the steps of the true Prophets and of Christ and of the Apostles or in the steps of those False Prophets they cryed out against must we not try here by the Scripture viz. by the Prophets words and by Christ's and his Apostles Words Then for the Trying you the Apostle saith in 1 Tim. 3.1 2 3 c. A Bishop must be Blameless the Husband of One Wife Vigilant Sober of Good behaviour given to Hospitality apt to teach not given to Wine no Striker not Greedy of filthy Lucre but Patient not a Brawler nor Covetous one that ruleth well his own House having his Children in subjection with all Cravity Now are you Blameless are you Sober of Good behaviour and are you given to Hospitality are you apt to teach 'T is Storied of one Parson Gray of this Island being at a Feast the custom was for the Cups to be often handed about one of Brandy the other of Sack but as for the Sack the Parson cared not much for it having had enough of that Liquor whereupon said the pretended Reverend Parson when he saw the Cup of Sack come about again which he cared not for Lord saith he If thou wilt let this Cup
burnt down most part of the Houses at the Bridge but we desire in our Hearts if it be his Will That his Wrath may pass from them And yet I cannot nor do not see how well they should escape and go Unpunished since people give themselves up to such Debaucht Talk and Wicked and Slanderous Speeches which manifests the Wickedness of their Hearts For an Evil Man out of the Evil Treasure of his Heart brings forth that which is Evil out of the abundance of his Heart his Mouth speaks Luke 6.45 Now therefore O Barbadians I Warn you to take heed and Repent lest the Judgments and Wrath of the Lord break out like Fire suddainly upon you and as a Thief in the Night in an Hour when you little Dream of it For alas I do see that that makes my Heart even ready to Tremble almost to speak of the Judgments and Plagues that this Corrupt Nature brings upon a Land Where alas is Vertue to be found among you where is Sobriety where is Moderation as the Apostle saith let your Moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4. where is Modesty where is Love Unfeigned where is Holiness and Righteousness the Blessed Fruit of the Spirit of Life and Holiness to be found but rather the Fruits of the Flesh O! what a Great Crop may be gather'd of these And so that Birth of the Flesh judgeth of others to be like it self Know this If you Priests were the Ministers of Christ then such things would be Reproved by you and you and your People would receive us gladly when we come among you in the Name and Fear of the Lord and Visit you in Love and not have raised such false Report and Wicked Slanders of us and cast so much Dirt Filth upon our Faces to mar us so that it is much to be feared that you have lost the Day of your Visitation you having Rejected those whom the Lord hath sent in Love to Visit you here And 't is no Wonder considering that this has been the Practice of the False Prophets and Shepherds and Priests of Old to raise Lying Slanders upon the Truth and so do you as you may see all along in the Scriptures of Truth O! what Rage and Malice what Envy and Cruelty did the Priests and Jews who profest themselves to be the Children and People of God and Children of Abraham the Faithful act against the Prophets of the Lord against Christ his Apostles see Joh. 8.39 40 c. But withal mark their End what became of them all its said The Name of the Wicked shall Rot but the Name of the Righteous shall never be blotted out and Psal 37.35 c. And thus you Priests and others of your Gang who they are you may guess have broacht publisht these Lyes and Slanders whose Minds and Tongues seem wholy bent to do Mischief and to speak Evil of the Righteous But a Lying Tongue God abhors Psal 119.163 And Tophet is prepar'd of Old for such as you may read in Rev. 21.8 Now we may say What Christianity is amongst the People here and what Religion have they been taught And truly this is not Civil nor Neighbourly done of such as have raised up these Slanders and Lyes whereof G.F. was not guilty nor ever heard of them before so that it seems the Father Mother of these Lyes are here in this Island and therefore query whether you Priests Baptists have not been the Men-Mid-Wives to forward the birth of them O! where is Modesty and where is Vertue that should be in your Minds and Mouthes where is Truth in your Inward Parts Yea some of these filthy things have been in the Minds Mouthes of some who have been of some Repute amongst you yea and of the Teachers too which is a very strange thing had it been only the rude rabble of people it had not been worth the taking notice of but for such as look upon themselves as Men of Repute amongst you to have such things in your minds and mouthes it is very strange had they any regard to their own Credit and Reputation though I shall name none but you all know your selves who you be therefore it is good for you all to Repent of these things and seek after Vertue and after Peace Truth and Holiness without which no man shall see God and after the Lord Jesus who teaches no such Lyes nor Slanders but destroyes the Lyar and Author of Lyes Another Slander they have got up here That G.F. should Hang Ribbons upon peoples Arms by which means they were Bewitcht Which was first forg'd by an Independent Priest one of Oliver Cromwell's News-Mongers who put it into his Weekly-News-Book and when he was question'd where he had the Information first he said it was a Woman and then afterwards said it was a Man that told him of it but never could we get from him the Name of that Man or Woman or of the Town and Country where he or she lived to this day And this Lye and Slander went for credit it being printed in the Dyurnal and the Priests likewise publisht it in their Pulpits and others would Swear that their Brother Independant Priest caused it to be put into the News-Books when they perceived many of their Hearers to forsake them who would not put into their Mouthes any longer therefore they raised this Slander thinking thereby to cast a Stumbling-block before the people to stop them from coming to embrace the Truth but they were deceived in that for that manifested their Folly the more and their Lyes and Slanders and confirmed the people the more in the Truth And these Independants were the first that gave the Nick-name of Quakers as one Bennet at Darby 1650. And then likewise they rais'd Slanders That we deny'd God and Christ and the Scriptures which were all Lyes and then the Presbyterians Independants and Baptists set their people to Scoff and Mock us calling us Tremblers and Shakers and Quakers in that day what not when they had the day of it the Tythes and Pulpits and the Power in their Hands But the Lord God when he had brought the King into his Power then he shook't them out of their Pulpits their Tythes and Esther-Reckonnings and Midsummer-Dues c. and made such Shaking Quaking Quivering amongst them as Rock't and Shook't them out of their Great Benefices laid their Maintenance levil with the Earth insomuch as that they durst hardly Creep into a House to Meet so the Lord hath given them Shaking and Quaking and Trembling and Quivering enough who were the first Raisers of that Nick-name in calling the People of God Quakers So that they have had a Dreadful Day of Trembling since that And therefore let others take heed and mind the Example of all these Lyars and Slanderers that are gone before them And because that G. F. and some Masters of Families had some Meetings