from that strong Delusion and the sad concommitants of it This Relation for substance I and my Wife had from this Maids own mouth A Woman so low in parts as rendred her esteemed not much better then a Naturall Foole being on a day at a Quakers Meeting in the County of Bucks not farre from Ailsbury where Fox the Quaker was was on a suddain so transported that with much liberty of speech and confidence she spake in the Quakers Tone of matters farre above her capacity though she never pretended to Quakerisme before And continued in those strange Raptures for about two dayes or more But afterward changed her Note and fell into a grievous Rage cursing swearing and blaspheaming and crying out a Fox a Devill a Fox a Devill in which she continued till she died which was about a day or two after that raging Frenzie fit took her And though of her selfe she was almost as weak as a Child yet in this fit could scarcely be held in bed by two or three Men. This I had from one living near the place the truth of whose Relation in this behalf I have no reason to question he being a person of credit and one whom this poor Woman sent to speak with the evening of that day in which she was taken with her Rapture The same Friend likewise told me of a Gentle-Woman whose Husband being inclined to the Quakers though she was not on a certain time brought Fox the Quaker up into her Chamber where she was sitting by the fire The said Fox not using many words comes to her and laid his hand on her forehead after which she became a Quaker for a certain time till God graciously recovered her This Relation my Friend had from the Gentlewomans own month that was thus used A Man in Kent sober of good report and religiously disposed but somewhat of the Seekers strain going to the Quakers Meeting one day was so wrought upon whilst there that he fell to Dancing and afterwards went home under great alteration of mind The violent impression of which exercise soon ended his life having before he died and whilst in his violent fits which were sad to behold complained grievously of Fox his holding him in Chaines This I have by credible information and being objected to an eminent Quaker in Kent he put it off with saying it was the just judgment of God upon him for opposing the Quakers A Prayer added only for their help that need it O Most great and most holy Lord God of Heaven and Earth who hast been so justly provoked by the People of this Land for their setting light of Christ the only Mediator between God and Man after such clear plain affectionate and long continued tenders of HIM and of salvation by HIM from sin and punishment that thou hast in thy wrath and sore displeasure given up thousands of them to their own hearts lust to the casting off subjection to thy Lawes and the pursuing the imaginations of their own hearts Yea to professed enmity against God the Father Son and holy Ghost Oh Lord how do they cry down thy holy Word Ministry Ordinances Sabbaths and the Bloud of Jesus Christ as unholy things inso much that we may truly say This day O Lord is a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy Lord how down thine ears and hear open thine eyes and see the words that they speak from the Devill and the Pope who have sent these Papists Quakers Ranters Socinians to reproach the living God Oh that thou wouldst give Repentance and pardon to profane people to formall outside professers to those that are enemies of reformation that have provoked thee to threaten by the sad posture we are in the exterpation of thy true and holy Religion to those also that having no more knowledg of the true Head and Members of thy Church or zeal to thy glory do under pretence of charity call thy Blasphemous Enemies Godly people and of the godly party Oh that my Lord would give Repentance and pardon to his own peculiar ones for all their miscarriages whereby they have provoked thy Majesty to threaten the setting of the Sun of Righteousness in our dayes and bringing a night of Ignorance Err or and Idolatry upon our Children and Posterity Oh my God do this I pray thee for the Lords sake Good Father stay thine anger let thy spirituall plagues proceed no further undeceive simple well meaning souls that seeing not the worst of Seducers think well of them and so are in danger of being eternally undone by them Convert so many of thine Enemies as are not given up to finall impenitency and from implacable ones Good Lord deliver me and this Nation and all thy Churches and Ministers both from their infection and rage Stir up the Spirit of these Nations to oppose the spreading of Blasphemy of Popery and persecution of true Protestants suffer none of thine Enemies to continue uppermost give us such Magistrates as shall be Nursing-Fathers to the Church Curse and blast all Councels and undertakings that are against the Kingdome of Christ Stir up all thy People to pray earnestly unto thee for our selves and Posterity that thou wouldst continue the Gospell with us in power plenty and purity and however thou in thy Fatherly wisdome shalt deal with us that we may be kept faithfull unto the death to the glory of that power grace and holiness of thine which the Word of Truth that we profess holds forth All these things I beg for the sake of Jesus Christ my dear Saviour Amen FINIS
Assertion That the Scripture is not Gods Word p. 3. They are the most immodest obscene people in the world next to the late Ranters If all the Stories of their womens stripping themselves to the very skin in the presence of men and of mens so doing in the presence of women of late years should be here et down they would be enough to make a large Volume I will set down but those few which I am sure I can prove to be true and that are by many hundreds known to be true 1. A Female Quaker about four or five years ago came into White-hall Chappell stark naked while a great Congregation was at the publike worship of God the Lord Protector O.C. being present 2. Since then a Relation of mine had a Maid-servant that became a Quaker and one day at Putny where his house was and when he had many friends at dinner with him she came into his Parlour stark naked while they were at dinner to the astonishment of their modesty And another day she did Stark naked go from her Masters house through Wandser and to Lambeth or near it where some Watermen by force stop'd and covered her and carried her back It was said that she intended to have entred London over the Bridge and to have gone in that posture through London Streets unto West minster 3. This last Summer 1659. in Colchester a Man-Quaker went stark naked all through the Market And another day which was the Lords day in the same posture entred into the greatest Assembly that was in that Town walking unto the further end of the lower cross He through many people and then returned without saying a word And from thence he went to a great company of the Quakers assembled together in that Town where he did for a long time act the part of a Speaker which considered as also that when he did go naked he had a Brother waiting upon him carrying his Cloaths under his Arms it was the more apparent that it was an act well-pleasing to and approved of by the Quakers 4. This last Summer 1659. A Man-Quaker went naked through the City of London down Cheapside as hundreds can witness 5. In Colchester this last Summet 1659. many of them as also the Anabaptists have opened their Shops and followed their handicraft Callings every Lords day for many weeks together notwithstanding the Legal oppositions that have been made against them and it 's likely they continue so to do they did untill very lately The like as is known to thousands hath been done several Lords dayes by some of them of late in London and Southwarke 6. In Colchester this last Summer 1659. a Woman-Quaker brought her needlework into a Church and fell to work and singing while the Minister was officiating 7. In Aldermanbury-Church in London this last Summer 1659. a Man-Quaker after one frustrated attempt did while the Psalm was singing and before the Minister ascended get up into the Pulpit and there sate upon the Cushion with his foot upon the Stool or Seat and with a Needle and Thread sewed a Pocket untill he was pulled down since which the same Person hath in Print published the reason of his so doing to be only this That the Burden of the Lord was upon him That he was so prest in his spirit to do it that he could have no rest untill he had done it but declares no end for which he did it Surely the Devil that moved him did not exercise his wit or else had a very fool to work upon that would move to no end They do exceedingly covet that which impudently they say they have but have not namely the gift of working Miracles concerning which take these following Stories wherein may be seen their pride and how the lying Spirit hath befooled them WIlliam Pool a professed Quaker servant to George Knight Clothier of the City of Worcester and a Quaker also seemed for some short time to be much troubled in mind and dejected which his Master and some others tooknotice of But not finding satisfaction from the Quakers with whom he did converse upon the 19. of February 1657. being Friday he was more then ordinarily troubled but the manner and grounds of it are variously reported and at eveningwent suddenly out of his Masters house and could not be found or heard of that night nor the next day but on the Lords day early in the morning was found within half a Mile of the City dead and naked with his face downward in a little puddle of water all his Cloaths lying by him Upon the view of which and hearing the matter the Coroners Inquest found him guilty of self-murder His Mother and Friends on Munday morning the 22. of February caused him to be buried in Claynes Church-yard two Miles from the Ciry And the same day in the afternoon after he had lain buried six or seven hours a strong perswasion of pride and confidence seized upon one Susnnah Peirson one of the most violent heady and high-minded Quakers in the City that she could raise William Pool from the dead whereupon she took three or four more of her way and went to the Church-yard caused his body to be digged out of the earth and laid upon the ground and opened his shroud touching him and calling him by his name saying Arise and walk with sundry other expressions many being present But she and her companions returned with shame yet persists still in her Opinion without any change The Lord shew her her sins and give her repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth that she may recover her self out of the snare of the Devil who is taken captive by him at his will They compass Sea and Land to make Proselites and have too much succeeded both in Virginia and Amsterdam But I hope where ever this Book shall arrive before them the people will so well know them as to abhor any further acquaintance with them They are a very cruel bloudy people if we may judge of the Lion by his paw or what is abundantly in their hearts by such speakings of their mouths as these to our Captains in Christs Army That they are of the Synagogue of Satan and know nothing of God but are enemies of God being guided by the spirit of errour without among dogs whose humility is fained That their Sermons are fleshly fancies and Conjurations dirty miry Doctrine a stinking puddle That their hearts are filthy deceitfull seeking praise from men That they are scandalous following the wayes of Balaam and Cain worse then Simon Magus knowing nothing of the life of the Gospel That they are Heathens wallowing in the mire and filth of the flesh on whom all the Plagues of God are to be powred blinde guides proud Baals Priests Lyars Blasphemers Enemies to Christ Jesus Murtherers Sorcerers Whoremongers Children of disobedience greedy dumbrdogs Witches Antichrists Antichrists Merchants Robbers Deceivers Ministers of the world Conjurers Devils of a Serpentine nature a
this substance is the same holy Ghost by which the Apostles were endued and the Christ of God the Redeemer from sin That the Garden of Eden is the world that the Trees thereof are all living beings That Paradice is in man That man fell by harkning to the wicked which was the fleshly mind and that not the Woman properly but the silliest and weakest part was the Woman that tempted him That Adam was the earthly nature in Man That the Redeemer of Man is not that person the Son of God that dyed at Jerusalem but the light which is in every particular Man by which he is given to see sin and inabled by it if obedient to be redeemed from sin That searching the Scriptures is not the way to find out the knowledg of Christ but the turning the mind within there to be taught the measure of God the Law written in the heart That Scripture ought not to be interpreted This Collection following of the Opinions of the Quakers was made by two very Reverend and most credible men Mr. Christopher Fowler and Mr. Simon Ford Ministers of the Gospell in Reading in their Book Intituled A sober Answer to an Angry Epistle of Tho. Speeds a Quaker in Bristol The Quakers Doctrines 1. Sect. 54. Perfect Pharisee p. 3. See also the Relation of the it-religious Northern Quakers THat they are equall with God as holy just and good as God himself Affirmed by G. Fox and J Nailor before Witnesses who attest it in a Book called the perfect Pharisee published by five Ministers of Newcastle 2. Sultable hereunto was the Blasphemy of one of your she-Quakers lately in hold in this Town who being convented before the Major of this Corporation and asked what she was and what was her name roundly answered and stood to it again the next day I AM THAT I AM which will be attested upon Oath by the Major and one of the Constables 3. Suitable to this was the Blasphemy of another of your Brethren who meeting with a godly Londiner occasionally being in this Town on a Lords day lately and asking him the way as he met him to one of our Churches answered him in these words The Church is in God and the Church is God 4. That the being of God is not distinct from them that are begotten by him Sword of the Lord by James Atkinson Quaker 5. That the Nature and Glory of the Elect differ not from the Nature and Glory of the Creator For the Elect are one with the Creator in his Nature enjoying his glory That the Elect is not distinct from the Creator Howgill and Burroughs two Quakers in an answer to Reeve 6 And that God is not distinct from living Creatures for in him living Creatures lives moves c. 7. That God is three Persons or subsistences they say is a lye That there is no distinctions of Persons in the Godhead Sword of the Lord by J. Atkinson G. Fox Errand to Damascus 8. That the soul is a part of the Divine Essence See perfect Pharisee p. 6. 9. That Jesus Christ is God and Man in one person they say is a lye 10. They deny and detest this Doctrine That Christ being the only God and Man in one person remaines for ever a distinct person from all Saints and Angels notwithstanding their Vnion and communion with him Sword of the Lord by James Atkinson 11. That the person that Son of God which died at Jerusalem is not the Redeemer of Man from sin but the Redeemer is in every man that light by which he is given to see him c. The discourse of a Quaker with J. Toldervy Foot out of the Snare p. 7. 12. That Christ is in every man even Heathen Indians and in the Reprobates he is hold under corruption 13. That Christ was a man had his failings for he distrusted God upon the Crosse J. Nailor See perfect Pharisee p. 7. Rob. Collison See Gilpins Book p. 2. 14. That we are not justified by that righteousness of Christ which he in his own person did fulfill without us And that whosoever expects to be saved by him that died at Jerusalem shall be deceived For Christ in the flesh was in all that he died and suffered a Figure and nothing but an example 15. That we are therefore to be saved not by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us but by the righteousness of Christ inherent in us See both these in the perfect Pharisee with their Testimonies p. 9 10 11. And Howgill and Burroughs Answer to Bennet Q. 9. And another to the same purpose saith That the faith and justification which stands in the comprehension of Christ without will stand us in no stead Fr. Gawler to Mr. Miller of Cardiff 16. That God and man cannot be perfectly reconciled till he be brought into the state of the first Adam and able in his own power to stand perfect And that holy workes and lives of Saints are not excluded from justification Howgill c. Answer to Bennets 11 12 Quaeries 17. That no man that is not perfectly holy or commits sin can ever enter into the Kingdome of Heaven except there be a Purgatory And there is no Saint but he that is so perfectly holy in this life without sin 18. That to Preach the impossibility of such a freedome here on earth is to Preach up sin while the world stands and to bring men into Covenant with the Devill for tearm of life Nailor perfect Pharisee p. 11 12 13. See also J. Parnell Shield of faith p. 29. to both these Nailor in his answer to Mr Baxter p. 28. 19. That Christ took not humane flesh upon him at any time otherwise then he daily doth and that Christ is now conversant on earth among men since his ascension as he was in the Apostles times It is the summe of Howgills and Burroughs answer to two Quaeries of Mr Bennet See Howgill c. in their answer to Bennets 18 and 19 Qu. 20. That the Scriptures are not the Word of God This is their constant judgment though they dare not profess it for fear of the Law as one of the most eminent in these parts confessed before the Magistrates here in the hearing of one of us asking Whether if the Bible were burnt the Word of God were burnt or words sully to this purpose See the proof perfect Pharisee p. 23. T.C. Parnells book p. 10. saith He that saith the Letter is the Word is a Deceiver 21. That they had a light in them sufficient to lead them to salvation if they had never seen or heard of the Bible The substance of this was affirmed before some Magistrates of this Town and one of us by the same party And this light extended to Heathen Indians by him Suitable to the assertions of James Nailor in a discourse of his in the Book quoted here And he that saith the Letter is the Rule and guid of the people of God is without feeding