Armies or Navies or any Commanders in chief signifie their minds by Speech by Writing yea by sign at a distance this Word or will which was before in the Kings breast and internal is now outward or external Hence Christ Jesus above all other wayes of Gods manifesting himself externally or outwardly is called the Word of God and the Word which was God Hence in common speech we call our Thoughts our selves So I think c. this is my Word my Vote or Mind And as it is the Field If a General himself who first gave the external Word from his own internal Thoughts if he forget the word in the night a common Sentinel will make him stand or fire upon him and shall men be so careful in these transitory businesses and shall we suffer open Enemies to the true Lord Jesus presumptuously to pass without the external word or mind of God and audaciously to deny such a word at all to be When Christ Jesus Luke 4 spake out of the Prophet Isaiah and when Paul disputed three Sabbath dayes out of the Scriptures and when Apollos mightily convinced the Iews from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ did they not use external audible Expoundings and Applyings of that written word or mind of God as the external and outward manifestation of his internal and eternal holy Pleasure A tenth Instance is in page 32. where G. Fox brings in Ellis Bradshaw saying The Quakers Spirit doth teach them to honour no Man He Answers That is a Lye for it teacheth them to have all Men in esteem and to honour all men in the Lord yet they are convinced by the Law to be Transgressors if they respect Mens persons as you doe I Reply I have spoken of their proud and lofty behaviour toward all men the Highest the Eldest the Holyest upon the 10th Position of their Pride c. and therefore briefly say 1. That all men may see how truely they honour and esteem all men in the Lord and what Lord and honour it is that they mean when G. F. his first word to his Opposite is in that most provoking Term viz. That is a Lye in his very pleading and the very first words of it It is true Christ Jesus and his Servants the Prophets and Apostles used sharp and bitter Reproofs Similitudes c. but thus suddenly at the first dash to give fire Thou Lyest That is a Lye c. It shews neither Religion nor Civility but a Barbarous Spirit for they that know the Barbarians know how common that word is in all their mouths T is true of late divers of Fox his followers have followed him in courtesie 200 looking toward you taking you by the hand bowing and half uncovering the head more or less c. But this is but a Revolt and Apostacy from their first Rigid Spirit and Cariage as Humphrey Norton rightly maintains against them Yea. 2. it is against all Foxes and their first Writings and this very place of Iames here urged viz. they are convinced by the Law if they respect mens Persons Again t is true in Christ Jesus there is neither Bond nor Free Male nor Female and consequently no Master no Man no Father no Child no King no Subject but all are one in Christ Jesus and the second Birth as all are of one kinde in the first Adam and the first Birth 1. Yet first how full is the Holy Scripture of Commands and Examples of Gods Children giving respective Words and Titles and Bowings even to persons that knew not God 2. Fox grants difference of gifts and saith that some in comparison of others of them not so grown c. are Elders sure this is some respect of persons according to that of the 1 Cor. 12. Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers c. Therefore how ever they Hypocritically lye and pretend to honour all men in the Lord yet the most Holy and only Wise knows how proudly and simply and barbarously they have run into uncivil and inhumane Behaviours towards all their Superiours the eldest and highest how that they have declared by principle and practice that there are no Men to be respected in the World but themselves as being Gods and Christs T is true our English Bibles and Grammar as Fox his great Learning often objects makes thou to a single person and Thou in Holy Scripture is used in a grave and respective way unto Superiours unto Kings and Parents and God himself But 1. As I have said the Hebrew and the Greek signifie no more Thou then You and so may be truely turned 2. Every Nation every Shire every Calling have their particular Properties or Idioms Speech which are improper and ridiculous with others Hence these simple Reformers are extreamly ridiculous in giving Thou and Thee to every body which our Nation commonly gives to Familiars only and they are extreamly and insufferably proud and contemptuous unto all their Superiours in using Thou to every body which our English Ideom or propriety of speech useth in way of familiarity or of Anger Scorn and Contempt I have therefore publickly declared my self that a due and moderate restraint and punishing of these incivilities though pretending Conscience is as far from Persecution properly so called as that it is a Duty and Command of God unto all mankinde first in Families and thence into all mankinde Societies 201 Having thus through Gods mercifull help gone through the 13th Position in publick and this private supply of some few Instances of their Lame writings of out G. F reserving the liberty if God please of presenting the Reader with a further Apendix or Addition of some few further Instances out of G. Fox his Writings I hasten to the 14 Proposition the last of the seven at Providence They read it publickly viz. the spirit of the Quakers tends mainly to the reducing of Persons from Civility to Barbarisme to an Arbitrary Government and the Dictates and Decrees of that sudden Spirit that acts them 3. To a sudden cutting off of People yea of Kings and Princes that oppose them and 4. To as fierce and fiery Persecution in matters of Conscience as hath been or can be practised by any Hunters or Persecutors in the World I told them I could adde more Branches to this Head as unto the peace and civil Societyes of Mankind in the world but I remembred my promise of Brevity and W. E. was often remembring me sayinge Is this thy Quarter of an hour for I believe they stood here upon Coals and were not willing that I should insist upon it my full Quarter and they hasted me on to prove that their spirit tended to Barbarisme they said one and an other that their spirit was an Holy Spirit the Spirit of God and the Grace of God had appeared to all men and had taught them to deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts and to live soberly righteously godly
being President Also what I have spoken against W. Harris touching his firing the Town and Colony I thought so and therefore contended against him but I never sought his life note that R. W. Thou sayst 17 thou art not conscious of any recoyling in thy spirit so much as in a thought Here thou manifest's an impious spirit that seekes to murther the Innocent what Fury possesseth thee to talk of the God of peace yet retainest a murtherous mind not having repented of thy wickednesse how is thy heart hardned in seeking the lives of such as thou thy self hast confest to be the Children of God Oh murtherous man that hath not any Remorse for thy long-liv'd Wickedness I am sorry for thee though thou slight all my writings counsells take all in the worst sence yet I beseech thee to consider thy latter end my desire for thee is that the Lord would awaken thy Soul give thee Repentance unto life In the last place thou writest how highly I esteem of G. Fox and thou desirest to think as low of thy self How will this agree with thy boasting of great Education great Experiences great struglings and strivings within to bring out thy Positions and Conclusions which all my loving Testimonyes against as issuing from a diabolicall spirit did no more take place with then a Feather against a Rock Call to mind the preaching of Jonas to Ninive yet forty dayes and Ninive shall be destroyed a short speech yet they repented and the Lord pardoned And so I desire thou mayest repent and find mercy with the God of mercy Thy Neighbour I. T. THus Reader it pleased the Infinite Wisdom of the most holy and only Wise to pierce through my heart with the thrusts and stabs of a of a foul-mouth'd slanderous spirit by the hands of long professed friends and lovers yet pretending the name of God and of Scripture as wel as my self How doth it behoove us then to make sure that we can in truth say as Ieremiah Lam. 3. Thou art my portion saith my Soul O Lord Thou and none else Thou alone without Health Strength Beauty Honour Lands Goods Friends .c. How should we make sure that with Thomas we may say unto the Lord Jesus my Lord and my God for whose sake we ought joyfully to bear what false Christs false spirits and their Souldiers can dart from Earth or Hell against us My Answer was as followeth MY ancient Friend it pleaseth the most High to give to all mankind his Children also and them especially many bitter Cups and that oftentimes by the hands of dear friends and 18 dear Relations that we might fall more in love with himself then ever who isinfinitely more sweet and even Holiness and Power and Wisdom and Love it self Your Lines in this your third Fury against me being full of Bitterness in themselves are more bitter to my Spirit upon diverse accounts But the most High and only Wise will have it so and your judgment and Conscience and mine will have it so yet that will not acquit us we both say we must come to another Barr and there stand or fall eternally In this First You tell me you willingly omitted the Particulars I mentioned as not concerning the matters in handling I am not of your mind it is an Easie yet a Suspicious way of answering and implyes not only unwillingness but a willing Ignorance and Guilt also For is it not concerning the matter in hand especially when so personally provoked to vindicate our selves and friends our Teachers and Apostles our Spirits and Religion also 2. Next you blame my subtle spirit for not answering by Scripture or Reason your loving Admonitions I gave you my Reason shewing how simple it was for you to give fire upon me and tell me my Paper was Scurrilous full fraught with impudent Lyes and Slanders and yet give me not one Scripture nor Reason to prove any of them to be so 2. I shewed you how irrationall it was for you to think that I should so suddenly renounce my understanding and Conscience and Positions upon the sudden sound of your Outcry Repent Repent 3. You tell me it is childish bruitish and irrationall to say that you are worse then Barbarians Answ. I said not so in generall you and all the world ought to abhor the particular case viz. the stripping Naked of your Women and Maidens a case worse then Savage and Barbarous only practised by the Bruites and sometimes by Indians and Whores in their drink when all Modesty and Reason is overwhelmed with more then common Drunkenness Who can but abhor to think of such whorish and monstrous Immodesty such an hellish Incentive to filthy Lusts and that under the most holy name of the Spirit of God 4. As to my first Position you now tell me that it is childish and foolish for G. Fox to prove I suppose you mean for me to desire G. Fox to prove what he and all friends disown and thou in scorn callest Quakers Answ. I know the Quakers say 19 that name is given them in scorn and yet we also know it it hath its denomination from those great bodily Shakings which have been believed to have come in mightily upon them by the power of Devillish spirits for many Reasons of which afterward However G. Fox in 370th page of his Book in Folio writes thus in the title of each page The Quakers answer The Quakers Answer I know what may be said and I know may be said and justly to that excuse and what shall be said in the Dispute following 5. As to my 12th Position of Suffering of the Quakers and you say it is a Brat of mine own and that is an evidence against me and all os my Persecuting Spirit Answ. I shall by Gods assistance prove that you doe make it an Evidence of your Religion and then it must be your one Brat and Bastard As to my persecuting spirit the most High hath been a holy witness to my Travels and losses and hazards and other sufferings in my vindicating and procuring Soul-liberty and I humbly hope in his mercy he will preserve me from being like many Quakers fouly fallen from their former Christan Religion 6. You say How darest thou blame me for not giving Scripture or Reason against thy railing and impious Positions when thou challengest and assignest another to doe it G. Fox .c. Answ. I only blamed I. T. for being so fierce and furious so hot and hasty in crying out a scurrilous Paper fraught with lyes and impudent slanders and yet gave me not one Scripture or Reason against any one of them common Modesty and humane Sobriety would have taught a little Patience till G. Fox had answered or untill you had answered something of Scripture or Reason your self 7. Nextly you tell me of my Serpent-like spirit in witnessing against my neighbour secretly To which I lay before the most High I
know not what you intend 2. I know it not to be any Crime much less a serpent-like spirit as your railing pen phrases it to give a true testimony and witness in private and publick even against the highest and dearest in the matters of God and Truth which ought to be only High and only Dear unto us 8. As to Womens preaching in the Church you tell me that I know not what that Woman is Answ. I know the allegoricall Interpretations given of both those Scriptures to the Corinths and Timothy But where the holy Scripture is plain and agrees 20 even with Nature it self where the holy Spirit of God gives Reasons why Scripture should be fo expounded which is an extraordinary signification of Gods soveraign will and pleasure where else one part must be Literall and an other part Allegoricall which is most improper and not suiting to the Majesty and Purity of Gods Spirit what can be soberly in the fear of God and with any sober reason collected but that the most High the God of Order and all Order and Wisdom it self is pleased there to set down the Order of his Worship in the Christian Congregations 9. Concerning W Harris you tell me I shift of the matter for you meant not W Harris his last Imprisonment You prove it by my taking Oath against your Wife upon an other mans word on purpose to allay my furious spirit against W Harris These are your words which may be taken three wayes but neither of them can I call to mind God knowes I truly desire to See Lament and forsake every Idle word or thought which my soul may be satisfied is so for I dare not goe beyond as you proudly doe that Direction of the Lord Iesus dayly to cry Forgive us our Trespasses I dare most confidently deny that simple Charge viz. that I should cry out Treason Treason against your Wife and others labouring to bring them into the same guilt with W. Harris whose facts and courses others of no small Authority and Prudence amongst us with whome I advised saw to be desperate high Treason against the Laws of our Mother England and of this Colony also When W Harris sent his writings or Books to the Main and to the Iland against all Earthly Powers Parliaments Laws Charters Magistrates Prisons Punishments Rates yea and against all Kings and Princes under that Notion that the People should shortly cry out no lords no masters and had in open Court protested before the whole Colony assembled that he would maintain his Writings with his Blood Was it my Fury as you call it or was it not Honesty and Duty to God and the Colony and the higher Powers then in England to act faithfully and impartially in the place wherein I then stood Centinell And it is not true that I sought his life as you upbraid me much less theirs who purposely as the most high God is witness were presented that some prudent course might be taken by the Court for the preventing of their greater danger and the Colonyes also By your reason the Kings Majesty his Iudges yea all Iudges 21 yea the King himself yea the most High and King of Kings shall be condemned as Blood-thirsty bloody seekers of the lives though of high handed wilfull and dangerous Transgressors as though Iustice and Mercy true Pitty and just Severity might not harmonize and make up the blessed concord of Peace together 10. You mind me again of my Books against Persecution and yet my self a Persecutor of my peacable Neighbours to the Death murthering the innocent yea that I still retain a Murtherous mind and you cry out against me Oh murtherous Man .c. To which I say I am not better than David nor in this case are you better than Shimei who rak't up Stones and Dirt and flung them with Railings at David crying out Come out thou bloody Man and this in the name of the holy Spirit also As to W. H. I never appeared In Town or Colony against him for any private matter although many wayes extraordinarily provoked and wronged by him but alwayes in Witness as I humbly appeal unto God I say in witnessing against his running down and destroying the Publick as at this day for his Private Covetous and Contentious Ends. And for your self who cry out so much of Blood and Murther for my being impartiall to God to the King and the Countrey I heartily wish that your hands were washed from the bloody trade of Liquours to the Indians which even the Quakers have practised telling the Indians that the Quakers only know God and therefore would sell them Powder and Liquors cheaper and they would not mix water with Rhum as others did so that by many sudden deaths what by Consumptions and Dropsies the Barbarians have been murthered hundreds if not thousands in the whole Countrey and more in this Colony than in any part of the Countrey beside that I have heard of against which I have witnessed from Court to Court in vain 11 You ask me how I can think as low of my self as you high of G. Fox when I boast of Education Experience .c. I answer I boast as Paul did who confest himself the least of all Saints and the chiefe of Sinners and yet reckons up the Priviledges end Favours which God had vouchsafed to him against the foule Clamours of his malicious and envious Opposites the false Apostles 12. You conclude with advising my Repentance and you propose to me the case of Nineve telling me that forty dayes is a short Speech 22 Answ. I humbly beseech the Lord to help you and me humbly and faithfully to examine our true laying of that Foundation of a true Repentance which is a totall turning of our Soul or Spirit unto God not out of Fear or self ends as Dissemblers do but in Mariage-love with God that it might be said unto us thy Maker is thy Husband As to your special Hint to me of forty dayes I can say it through infinite mercy that more than forty or fifty yeares I have been acquainted with Death and have not seldom familiarly discoursed with the Grave and Pit of Rottenness I have desired to be ready at a minutes warning waiting for a wind to transport me as Paul speaks unto Christ Iesus in Abrahams Bosome which is best of all I pray you to know that I believe there is a black Familiar that haunts the Quakers it may be he whispers to you that within forty dayes you shall be ridd of me except I repent he may see into the crazy temper of my house of Clay These Dog-dayes not to continue and abide a little of that time Or God may suffer him by some immediate Revelation to employ some malicious soul to Murther me that this foul Lyar and Murtherer may extoll and predicate himself in print by your Pens that he was a true Prophet applauding and triumphing in the righteous Judgment of God
Prophesie to the person of the Lord Iesus that God-man in one person whome Moses and Stephen preached the great Messiah or Christ the anointed Prophet Priest and King unto all that receive or believe in him Now diverse observing and publickly expressing how unsuitable it was that three of the ablest Speakers amongst them should Consult openly and whisper and utter themselves one immediately after each other and somtimes all together as one man against me W. Edmondson answered and excused it saying that it was mine own Paper which he often produced which exprest my Offer to make good my Positions against all Comers But I replyed once and again That as God is a God of Order and doth all things in Number Weight and Measure in most admirable Order and Method so I had thought that according as I writ and spake to them they would have had so much Ingenuity to conceive that nor I nor any man was so simple as to offer to Dispute with to oppose and to answer twenty or thirty or one hundred at once But thus like subtle and impudent Foxes and Iesuites they pleaded and practised from the beginning of the Conference unto the end of the 4th day resolving to make use of and like dying men by drowning to catch at any ridiculous Advantage though unchristian and uncivill But the truth is this and many other Discouragements and Disadvantages and Difficultyes the Lord Iesus graciously and faithfully 37 For his name sake enabled me to cut through otherwise I saw the Debate would not have held on so many Hours as it did Dayes I knew they had as much mind to this work no nor any guilty Soul in the world as Bears to be tyed to a stake to be baited and I must humbly declare and predicate it to the praise of the Father of mercyes and for the incouragement of others to be Patient for Christ Iesus sake that an hand from heaven caried me through to the end of each day and to the end of the whole business Sometimes I offered to proceed to an other Point but all this first day was spent upon the first Point of true and false Quakers For though many upon a sudden spake as Mr. Coddington Mr. Easton then Governour who spake sharply VVilliam Dyer VVilliam Harris and others against me yet I minded closely what my Antagonists vented who were placed on high in their Desk against me Iohn Stubs and Iohn Burnet were more sober and manly but VV. Edmundson who was the junior of three would speak all like Solomons foolish woman loud and clamorous simple and knowing nothing being in truth nothing but a flash of wit a Face of Brass and a Tongue set on fire from the Hell of Lyes and Fury One Instance here fell out for when I urged that it was not what man had within him already and brought into the world with him that made a true Quaker but the Spirit of God accompanying and blessing the Reading and Hearing of the writings of God preached and opened I said the Heart of man was shut up lockt and barr'd up in willing Ignorance and darkness until the finger of God in the use of those and other blessed meanes pick open in a more gentle way or break open by great afflictions and and terrours the Soul and Spirit of man I said that Paul preached the word by the River side but the Lord opened the heart of Lydia and while I was saying that It was not Paul nor Pauls Preaching nor the word that he preached at this word VV. Edmondson clamour'd out He speakes Blasphemy But it pleased God to move the heart of our Deputy-Governour Capt. Cranston justly and seasonably to witness against this Interruption saying Let him have liberty to make out his mind So I proceeded and said it may be VV. Edmnndson is offended as thinking I spoke against the word Christ but Christ Iesus knowes that I had no such thought but of the words which Paul spake And I added that it was not Lydia nor all her Light within her nor Paul nor 38 his Preaching nor the word nor words that he uttered but the Finger of Gods Spirit according to Election that set the word or words of Paul home opening her heart and not every heart shewing what free grace is against the Popish and Arminian and Foxians exalting of Cursed Nature and then it was that she being by the Lord turned she turned to attend apply to her soul the words which were spoken by Paul as a poor Rams-horn made use of in the hand of God Toward the end of the day VV. Edmondson fell into a long Invective how I had falsly slandered the People of God not only in this place but the whole Body of the People of the Lord called Quakers in all parts For said he we are a great people many thousands in England many thousands in London besides in Virginia and Barbadoes and other places and N-England And he and they said hast thou any more to say to make out thy Lyes against them I Answered as at other times that the Papists the common Protestants the Iews and the Mahumitans and Pagans c. fited the world with their Numbers and yet we jointly opposed them in Religious matters notwithstanding their innumerable numbers And as for more proof that they were not True Quakers and so truly Feariug and Trembling before God I told them I would produce an Argument that they were so far from being Christians that they were a to be exploded and abhorred of all Mankind as being fallen beneath the common temper and nature of the Humanity of men and women yea of the Savage and Barbarous in the world viz. their stripping stark naked their Men and Women and Maidens and passing along in publick places and Streets unto the Assemblyes of Men and Youths and so were beheld and gazed upon by them and this under a pretence of being stirred up by God as a Service or Worship unto God as an act of Christian Religion proceeding from the immediate moving of the most holy Spirit of God most glorious in purity and purity and holiness it self At first W. Edmundson seemed to make strange of the matter as if it could not be proved that any of their women should so appear in the Assemblyes of People I told them the matter of fact was so notorious that it would be loss of time and Impudence to question it being so fouly and openly practised both in Old and New England 39 Also I added further that G. Bishop of Bristow one of themselves in the second part of the Persecutions of New-England relates in print the names of two women in N-England that did so practice and he complains of N-England Persecution because those women suffered Whipping for those actions by the Courts and Officers of N-England Iohn Burnet said that the People called Quakers were a People known to abhor all Impurity and Uncleanness and the
Appearance of it and if any of their women should so practice they should condemn it in them yet nevertheless if it should please the Lord God to stir up any of his Daughters so to appear as a Sign and Testimony against the Nakedness of others they durst not condemn it Iohn Stubs said that they did condemn all immodest Appearances in women both in Behaviour and Gestures But if God stirred them up and commanded them to this service to discover the Nakedness of others they could not but acknowledge Gods hand and submit to it And he further added that it was a great Cross to a sober womans spirit so to act as well as an affliction and suffering to her body Iohn Stubs likewise alleadged the Prophet Isaiah as also did W. E. and the Sign of the Prophet Ezekiel and Iohn Stubs read the 20th of Isa. where Isaiah was commanded to goe naked for a Sign to the Egyptians and Ethyopians to prophesie and denounce that they also should go naked with their buttocks uncovered as the words are and this is said they a proof that the People of the Lord might be stirred up by God to such actions for Signs unto others I Answered that this was in the dayes of Figures and Signs Shadows and Ceremonyes And though this was G. Fox his Answer in his Book which I had there by me yet G. Fox throughout all this his Book in Folio turns of the Allegations and Arguments of many of his Opposites with this Answer to wit The Substance is come the Body is come Christ the End of the Law the End of the Command the End of the Scriptures the End of the Prophets and of all Signs and Shadows and Figures 2. Although it were so threatned that the Ethiopians and Egyptians should so goe totally and stark Naked and that Isaiah did so which is much questioned yet it is not to be questioned but that the Egyptians and Ethiopians in their flight would cover 40 their Secret parts with the first cloaths or raggs they could get as it is no question but the Prophet Isaiah did 3. The difference of Nakedness of Mankind and Womankind is very great in all Nations The Sex of Women is more fitted and framed by God for a Covering for Retiredness and keeping at home and for Modesty and Bashfulness nor do we ever read that ever God commanded such a thing to Women or that ever it came into his heart or that ever any Godly Woman did so practice there is no shadow or colour of Proof from the holy Scripture nor from any Civill and sober People no nor from the naked Barbarians themselves who though they suffer their Male Children to go naked till about seven years old yet cover they their Females from their birth T is true it is said in Brasil and other bruitish places some Savage bruits go so but they are Canibals Men-eaters c. and other Barbarians do not so except in Drunkenness and Madness They still answered that they would not Countenance any such Practice but if the Lord God so commanded his Sons and Daughters it must be obeyed I demanded of them how it should be known that it was the voice and command of God the God of Holiness and not the command of the unclean spirit for I told them that under that Cover that one of them might be so commanded and sent of God in such a posture and behaviour amongst men why might not ten or twenty yea all the women in this present Assembly be so stirred up as it were by the Spirit of God to the horror and amazement of the whole Countrey yea of the whole World They seemed to me to be Confounded with this Argumnet and weary to hear of it and not willing to speak to it I therefore took occasion my self to say that it was true in former Dispensations The Command of God came to Abraham to kill his own Child his son Isaac and this fact enjoined him did seem as horrible unnatural and cruel as this Nakeduess of the Women unwomanly and unnatural But 1. It was in the day and dispensation of such wonderfull Signs and figurative teachings unto men And 2. I said God did furnish them with a Spirit of discerning the true dream from the false the true voice from the false the voice of God from the voice of Sathan But in our day wherein God had altered his Dispensations and Revelations which he 41 used to the Fathers and had spoken to us by his Son and had left his mind both in the old and new Scriptures or Writings We have the example and President of the Lord Iesus that is to attend to the holy Scriptures only and to use the weapon of It is written it is written against Sathans immediate Inspirations and temptations Here W. Edmondson fel into a great heat against me and said that I spoke Blasphemy in saying that Abraham and the Saints then had a way and Spirit of discerning the Spirits which we had not implying that Gods Spirit was not the same He added that I had kept them long and had proved nothing and yet we had not done with the first Position I replyed that I had produced such Grounds as should never be shaken and that I presumed did appear to the Consciences of many and I heartily desired might also appear unto their Spirits Soules and Consciences Some of the Auditors spake to this Purpose especially W. Hitchcocks who insisted upon the Water Baptisme And thus by Gods Mercy and Patience the Discourse of the first day ended which very day was notable and significant as to the created Sun in the Heavens who in the midst of our Contest was eclipsed and hid his Face remarkably and preached aloud to us that although the true Lord Iesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness do suffer in his infinite wisdom and and Patience false Christs and false Prophets and Herod and Pontius Pilate and his enemies of all sorts Iewes and Gentiles to cloud his Face and Glory a little from the World and his own People yet he will break forth again in his eternal brightness splendor and glory When that heavenly young Martyr or Witness of Iesus Christ William Hunter was burnt at Burntwood in Essex it was a close and gloomy day but this gallant young Champion of Iesus Christ crying out aloud at the stake Son of God look on me Son of God shine upon me immediately that most wonderfull Light Fire of Heaven the Sun tore the clouds and brake forth and shined gloriously aud remarkably upon the face of this blessed Witness at the suffering of the flames of fire for Iesus his truth sake against the whorshi Principles of both the Papists Quakers and thus do the holy writings tel us that this most glorious light the Sun of Righteousness visibly appeared in his glorious and glorified Form and Shape to the visible eye of his servant Steven while he
patiently suffered for the true Lord Iesus sake the murthering Stones to lay him down to sleep 42 THE second day of our Spiritual Contest Battle being come being the tenth of the sixth Moneth August so called I heartily wished that I might rather have kept my Bed then have gone forth to a whole dayes fresh Dispute with such reputed able and noted Champions Not that the most high Lord Iesus whose cause and Name I was that day to manage for the next point was about the true Lord Iesus Christ not that I say he faild me in my Resolution to march on against Men and Devils for his Name sake nor that he faild me in my cheerfull Confidence that he would carry me in the everlasting armes of his Power and Goodness through that dayes Conflict as he had done the day before but that he was pleased to try me with more than ordinary Weakness and mouldring of my house of Clay that so my strength might be in a great respect immediately from Heaven considering my great unfitness for this dayes Service for thus it was My continued loud Speech all the day before had left an impression of Hoarsness upon me and much rain falling that afternoon after the Eclipse I took some wet in my feet that evening so that my Hoarseness increased and all that day my Head was afflicted with pain and my voice with a painfull Hoarsnefs I lookt up to heaven and desired to wait as a Begger at the Gate and as a Dog under the table of Mercy and my Spirit was chearfully resolved not to give occasion of Reproaching the name of God to them who I knew waited and watched for it nor any Disappointment to such as were resolved to attend the Meeting This day I chose a middle Seat neerer to the Seat of my three Antagonists I. Stubs I. Burnet W. Edmondson that so I might be heard the better with less straining of my Voice and Breast I began and stood up and said the holy Scriptures by the Prophet Ieremiah told us of certain Bow-men some that bent their Tongues as Bowes for Lyes and complain'd that none were Valiant for the Truth I told my opposites that they and I were met as Bow men and I could heartily desire that all our Arrowes might fly one way to wit in the defence of the true Lord Iesus Christ against the false But since I had charged them in my second Position to have set up a false Christ in stead of the true Lord Iesus I should address my self to make probation of my second Position Yet before I enter upon it I pray the Readers Patience to be acquainted with some Particulars 43 First Though my head was ill and my voice speech hoarse and painfull yet the Lord graciously carried me through the the whole day with little hindrance in my self and little disadvantage to the understanding of the Auditors Secondly This dayes Discourse was but accidental and additional for they and I desired to have finished the the whole first seven Positions in one day at Newport only in my paper I added that if the whole seven were not finished in one day the Conference might continue some few hours the next day following on this second day therefore was a great Assembly the Governour Magistrates Inhabitants and strangers Men and Women c. And this dayes Contest also held unto the Evening Thirdly As I had beg'd of God a Spirit of Patience to bear all their Censures Reproachings Revilings Vapourings and Insultings so it pleased God to exercise me with one notorious though private That I was Drunk and could not speak that day as I had done the day before But my Daughter Hart at whose house I lodged and Iohn Trip sen. who lodged with me can testifie that I complained of Illness and eat but a few spoonfulls of milk with Mr. Trip at Breakfast and though my daughter kindly offered me a Dram for my Illness but I refused it knowing it might curdle the milk I had taken and so increase my cold and Obstruction this the most holy God knowes and these Witnesses know was all I took that morning which might conduce to that foul Slander of being so Drunk that I could not speak plainly that day Fourthly This day also I encountred with that Disadvantage of all the three aforesaid Disputants at once with all their might fighting for their Idolls and Images against me I spake of it and so did others again and again But W. Edmundson still bruitishly pleaded that it was mine own Offer to undertake all Comers I answered as before that I took them to be rational Men and by all Comers not to understand ten or twenty or an hundred confusedly at once but in a fair and equal way one after an other it was grievous often exprest by some of the Audience But as beâ—ore on the first day I resolved not to lose time or suffer a Breach and the Lord was pleased to make my Yoke easie and Burthen light Now to the proof of my second Position which was That their Christ was not the true Lord Iesus Christ. 44 Here I prayed their patience to suffer me to tell them that they were not Christians nor Professors of Christian Religion They might with Iewes Turks Papists profess one God yet Christians they could not be but as the true Lord Jesus told us many false Christ and false Prophets should come who like Mountebanks instead of true Physitians and false and counterfeit Money instead of true should with Satans power and policy pass up and down and deceive Peoples and Nations so I must affirm and declare that for their parts they had cut of the head of the Christian Religion the true Lord Iesus Christ and they had set up a false Christ a false King an Usurper in his stead they had like Michal put a wooden Image upon a pillow of goats hair in Davids bed but David himself was gone the true David the true Lord Jesus Christ was not to be found amongst them this I spake expresly and they did hear me awhile My proof was First Because the Description and Character which the holy Scripture gives to the true Lord Iesus no way agrees with the Image which they have set up I told them that it was known that the word Christ was a greek word signifiing anointed as the word Messiah in the Hebrew did I said this true Lord Iesus was one Person made up of two Natures God and Man united into one person I said one Individual person whatever S Fisher blasphemously utters against it That as to his humane Nature or being Man all the Figures and Ceremonyes al the Priests and Sacrifices pointed to him as the great Prophet the great anointed King and Governour c. 2. As to his humane Nature and being a man and One Man Moses and the Prophets wrote of
scorn and hate and fly from as the Devils did crying out What have we to do with thee Iesus thou Son of the most High God art thou come to torment us hesore the time Hence the former Arch-deacon or Arch-bishop of these parts Humphrey Norton he mocks at an outward Christ he asks what Countryman he was and shall be He reproves the Fools that have their Eyes abroad and gazing after a man into Heaven he jeers at the Crosse aud asks what manner of wood it was made of seeing we must take it up dayly And Fox saith this Jesus Christ without and within is Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever therefore in the Logick or Reason of this Bruite Christ had no body that was born at Bethlehem or died at Ierusalem For he was born yesterday and to day and he is born forever he dyed yesterday and he dies to day and he dies forever which is a most Heavenly Truth relating to Gods purpose Christs Merit and to Forefathers our present times and such as yet must be born and follow after us But such Mystical and figurative Scriptures which are in themselves like Sampsons Lion and Riddle through Satans Policy and the proud simplicity of these simple Foxes are made the common Holes and Burroughs where you may be sure to find them just like the Iesuites whose Cosens if not Brethren of one belly of Hell 56 they are who usually confound clear Scriptures with Spiritual and Mystical Illusions and sly from Distinctions and openings necessary in places more dark figurative and allegorical In pag. 211. He brings in Iohn Burton saying That the man that was crucified his body is now in the presence of his Father absent from his People as touching his bodily presence He Answers Doth not the Apostle say he is the Head of the Church and doth not the Apostle say they are of his Flesh and Bone and sit it heavenly places with Christ and Christ saith they must eat his flesh and he is in them As I remember at the reading of this Quotation I urged that herein G. Fox did plainly deny as indeed in all the rest I have quoted Christ Jesus to have had such a body as could be born of a woman wrapped in swadling Cloathes c. as could be hungry weary sleep discourse apprehended buffeted whipped nail'd to the Gallowes die be buried arise and ascend up visibly into these visible Heavens now in the presence of his Father and absent from his People on Earth as touching his bodily presence But one of my Opposites I think two of them bid me not wronge G. Fox by my Observation for his words were not so I Answ. In effect and Substance they were for G. Fox here and in all his Answers maintains the Negative to what his Opposites Affirm And 2. As to the grounds of his deniall it is clear that sometimes they are most plain and clear and sometimes most subtle and commonly such as will bear a twofold Sence on which they commonly ground some Iesuitical equivocation In Pag. 210. He brings in Iohn Burton saying Christ went away into Heaven from his Disciples and so not within them He Answers Did not he say that he would come again to them Did he not say he was in them I in you And did not the Apostle say Christ was in them except they were Reprobates the hope of Glory was he not revealed to the Apostle and so in him and did not the Apostle Preach Christ within and you preach Christ without Again in the same Page Those Believers that are in the body at this day are absent from the Lord He Answers again Doth not the Aposte say Christ is in them except they be Reprobates and he is in them the Hope of Glory and they have fellowship with God and God will dwell in them and walk in them and he that believes believes in him and Christ and so notabsent Again in the same Page they say He is absent from them as touching his slesh He Answers Doth not the Apostle say they 57 are of his Flesh and of his Bone and he that eates not his Flesh hath no life in him and they sit in heavenly places with him and he that eates his flesh hath it in him And again in the same Page they say There is not any Heaven within into which the Man Christ is ascended or can any man contain a man four foot long He Answers Christ is a Mystery and is he not to be revealed within who is a Mystery He who did descend to be revealed and made manifest in his Saints in slesh and Spirit that did descend which is now manifested that the World wonders at that is ascended far above the Heavens who is the Saints life living Bread and Drink and where ever used the Ministers of Christ any such expression as thou doth which shews that Christ to thee is a Mystery Reply In all these four Passages G. Fox expresly denies that Christ is ascended into Heaven from his Disciples That Believers now in the Body are absent from the Lord that he is absent from Man as touching his Flesh that there is a Heaven into which Christ is ascended and that Christs Body is not containable in a place according to his stature and proportion 2. In his Answers he notoriously jugles and equivocates as if he maintained Christ in Truth he that lived and died at Ierusalem and visibly ascended into Heaven though the whole scope and the plain open faced meaning of his words with loud cries tend altogether to another business to wit to set up himself by setting up the Image and Picture this Imaginary Christ which he calls the Light within them The same Author saith Pag. 206. A false Christ hath a new false Faith to apprehend this Crucified Christ within He Answers Which is contrary to the Faith of the Apostles which Preached Christ that 's Crucified within and not another Him that was raised from the dead was risen that Lord Jesus Christ within the same yesterday to day and for ever by whom the World was made glorified with the Father before the World began it was he that was manifest in the Saints that was and is not another for the other is Antichrist Again in the same Page it is a Sceipture of the Devils making to apprehend this Christ within He Answers Now I say if there be any Christ but he that was crucified within he is a false Christ and the Scripture holds forth this and the Devil never made it but he and his Messengers are against it And he that hath not this Christ 58 that was risen and Crucified within is a Reprobate though Devills and Reprobates may talk of him without This Quotation was read again in their own Book by Iohn Burnet and they magnified the Christ within but they would not suffer me to observe the sence and argue from
it saying G. Foxes Words were plain concerning the true Christ And so indeed I say they are to any penitent Soul truly like Paul unbottom'd from weak and filthy self and his own Dunghil Righteousness and burning with sincere Affection to the true Lord Iesus For these subtle Foxes and their Words discover as the Sun at noon day that as plainly as ever Absalom Achitophel Shimei Sheba rose up in conspiracy and Rebellion against David c. as plainly as ever Iudas and Peter for a time and Alexander the Copper-smith and Hymeneus and Iulian the Apostate denied Davids Antitype the true Lord Iesus so under the Cloak and Colour of Christ Crucified within do their Rebellious Traitors bear Arms against the Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus For although it be Scripture Phrase that we are Crucified Dead and Buried and Risen with Christ yet what a poor proof is this that Christ was Born and Crucified c. yesterday and to day within us and there is no other Birth nor Life nor Death nor Grave but what is within us and all are Reprobates and Devils that bow not down to this painted devouring Monster Still my Opposites were catcht in their own Craftiness they seemed well pleased that G. Fox should be heard in his Answers to his Adversaries and I restrain'd and stopt from making out my Proofs from the Sense and Scope and Meaning I was yet glad that so much was discovered that I had by Catches liberty to give fire sometimes and intended to make use of this present Advantage which I from the first intended when I saw I should be stopt and they would not afford me the liberty I gave to them without the least Interruption as Iohn Stubs confessed Page 135. He brings in Thomas Moor saying Christ is absent from us while we are in this Mortal Body He Answers contrary to the Apostle who saith the Life of Christ is manifested in their mortal Flesh. And Page 136. The same Author saith Christ is distinct from every one of us and without us in our particular persons He An 59 swers The Apostle said Christ was in them except thed were Reprobates and they were of his Flesh and of his Bone and they eat his Flesh and drank his Blood then it was in them and he is distinct from none but Reprobates who hates the Light Reply I wondred not so much at this Thunder and Fire and stinking Brimstone from this Foxes mouth and that all are Reprobates with him that bow not down to his Carved Image but I wondred at my Opposites who declared publickly as before that they would not follow G. Fox but in the Truth c. and yet when I read all their plain Evidences to them of Foxes denying the true Lord Iesus God and Man and making only a Spiritual Christ a Mystical Inviâ—ible Iesus c. that yet they should be so blinded and hardened as to cover excuse and plead for G. Fox in all particulars and stop me from drawing the Curtain and letting in the Light by Opening and Arguing from the Sence and Meaning I do not remember that any one of my three Opposites gave any positive answer to any of my Observations on Foxes Principles Answers and Evasions All their work was to keep themselves within their Trenches or Burroughs and to cry out Thou must keep to Foxes Words or Wilt thou go on to another In Page 71. He brings in Frances Higginson saying Christs Humane Nature He Answers Where doth the Scripture speak of Humane the Word Humane where is it written that we may search for it Now we do not deny that Christ according to the Flesh was of Abraham but not the word Humane And Christs Nature is not Humane which is Earthly for that is the first Adam Reply This ignorant and simple Cavil as I have before proved it to be from 1 Cor. 10. is often brought by G. Fox in this Book in an horrible equivocation to overthrow and destroy that Humane Nature that Flesh and Body of the Lord Jesus who yet had such a Body they say that died at Ierusalem These Traiterous Jesuits or Iudasites tell us Humane is of the Earth or Earthly and that is the first Adam but Christ Jesus is of the Seed of Abraham according to the slesh that is in their mental Reservation according to their slesh God in their flesh Christ in their flesh suffering at a Mystical Ierusalem within them They are Abrahams Seed Isaaks Seed in whom all Nations by this Christ the Light within them must be blessed And all that are not this Seed this Flesh 60 this Christ which they are are in the Serpents Nature and Reprobates But amongst all the most full and heavenly Scriptures for the Humane Nature of the Lord Jesus I shall touch but one at present Act. 13. at Antioch Barnabas and Paul in a Synagogue of the Iews made the Humane Nature of the Lord Jesus as also in other places the great Subject of their Discourse and Preaching and concludes ver 38. Be it known unto you therefore Men Brethren that through this Man is Preached unto you the Forgiveness of sins and by Him all that Believe are Iustified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses By the meritorious Sufferings Death and Blood-shedding of this Jesus literally in the History born at Bethlehem as the Quakers say c. is only forgiveness of sin and justification c. and not by a Chimical and Diabolical Christ and Fancy within us begot by the Devil on a proud and lazie Ignorance Let therefore as it follows the Proud Despisers wonder and perish believing not in him the true Light of the World the true Brazen Serpent to all that look up unto him In Page 37. He brings in Thomas Collier saying If the very Christ God Man be within those called Quakers he cannot come down from Heaven He Answers Here he stands against the promise of Christ that he shall come and dwell in you and walk in you I will come again unto you And he hath revealed his Son in me saith the Apostle and know you not that Christ is in you except you be Reprobates and the Spirit of the Father speaks in you and see how contrary thou art to the Prophets Christ and the Apostles I urged that here G. Fox did plainly deny the expected personal coming of the Lord Iesus but they charged me to give none of my Sences and Meanings to G. Fox his words but now I have leave by Gods merciful hand here to say that their Hypocrisie and Deceit whereby they cheat themselves and others is so much the more gross and abominable because they pretend in words to own Christ Jesus Humane descending or Ascending as a Man into Heaven and Christs there abiding until the time of the Restitution and Christs return the second time They know also that all those
yea in present joy unutterable and glorious Sometimes the Lambs Wife is visibly asleep though her heart wakes sometimes she is Alarmed by his knocking and is sluggishly unwilling to open to him sometimes she rises and opens but he is gone and she seeks for him by day and night and cannot find him 9. There is also a false feeling of Christ Jesus as I spake before of a false Conception in a Woman How many are bold to cry Lord Lord open for we have prophesied in thy Name c and yet I will not say as G. Fox here saith of his Feeling that all that have not my feeling or working of Christ are Reprobates yet 57 this I say as Solomon A Whore is Loud and Clamorous not so the Chaste and Sober and Modest Women and the Devil spake as Holy and Heavenly words as Angels could have spoken yet it was but the Divil in Samuels Mantle The 29th Instance is in pag. 117. where he brings in Giles Fermin saying Paul Swore after Christ and the Angels Swore I wonder Paul should so forget himself and sin so fearfully in Swearing so the Quakers Light that denies Swearing is of Satan and not the Light of Christ. He Answers Christ the Light which Satan is out of which is the Oath of God ends all Oathes Sworn by Prophets or Angels whatsoever and who Swares be fallen into the Condemnation of the Devil And it is no where said that the Apostle Swore but such as thou art matters not what thou speak so that Spirit that Preacheth for Swearing is not the Spirit of Christ but is the Spirit of Anti-Christ c. I Reply first G. Fox dares not deny but that the Angel and Paul Swore after Christ only he keeps his old Song viz That Christ put an end to Swearing and that it is not said that Paul Swore But 1. He waves that Sweareng of the Angel or Christ himself Rev. 10. for there he knows the very term of Swearing is used 2. As to Paul if the attestation of the Name of God be the formality of an Oath then if ever any Man Swore in this World Paul did saying to the Corinthians I call God to Record on my Soul that to spare you I came not as yet to Corinth c. Secondly It is true that all Nations have used to Swear by or Appeal to the Gods they owned and worshipped It is true also that they have used to put Creatures into the room of God and Swear by them as the Iews did and som write out of a Superstitious Reverence in forbearing the Name of God and indeed the Reasons Christ Jesus gives Mat. 5. look that way Thirdly It is true also that for abuse of Swearing by and Prophaning the Holy Name of God a whole Land may mourn as Ieremiah speaketh Fourthly There seems to be a very fair colour put on a universal Prohibition of Swearing by Christ Jesus and by his Apostle Iames Swear not c. 58 This Conjuror hath taken with many precious Servants of God former and latter even with many of those called the Fathers and with those Famous Protesters against the whore of Rome the Waldenses and with Famous Usher who doth more then seem to vindicate their not Swearing when Convented and Examined by the Popish Inquiâ—itors 5. Notwithstanding this and more which may be granted and though I should humbly motion to all higher Powers for Christian tenderness as to the holy Majesty of Heaven his Name and to the Souls of any making Scruple yet I must proclaim against G. Fox his lame and simple Return to the Objection of his Opposite concerning Paul and the Angel For why may not Paul and all the Apostles and Christ and all the Angels of Heaven and all the Saints of God upon the Earth in the words of Paul call God to Record upon their Souls that this or this was the Cause and Truth c. Considering 1. That neither the most holy God nor the Lord Jesus who I think is the Swearing Angel Rev. 10. nor the heavenly Spirits the Angels nor Paul nor any of Christs Apostles or Messeâ—gers would have practiced a Ceremony or a Shadow like Circumcision or the Passover at the time of the Day c. 2. Swearing or appealing unto God immediately in Oaths or Vows or Lots or Fastings though higher and above the practice of ordinary Invocations Supplications Thanksgivings c. were never accounted Ceremonies or Types of Substances to come but Real and Substantial Services and Addresses unto the most holy and most high Creatour written in the hearts of all mankind before ever Ceremony or Moses was born and therefore as the fear of God is put for the whole worship of God so also is swearing in the holy Scripture and we may as well deny all worship and Service visible and all External Acts of Homage and Devotion of the Body unto God yea and all the fear of God is there in the mind Soul and Spirit or in any External Obeysance or Reverence as this Service and worship of calling upon God and appealing to his holy Majesty as Witness and Iudge in some Cases c 3. Whereupon it follows that this high point of Gods worship is as real as moral as holy and perpetual as Prayer it self as preaching yea as Baptisme and the Lords Supper and no more Ceremonial though I know the Foxians make Baptisme and the 59 Lords Supper but Ceremonies for a time and ere long if they continue to hearken to Samuel within them they will account Prayer and Preaching whether Apostolical or Pastoral but Types and Shadows also 4. It is a most simple and un-Christian and Atheistical whimsie that Christ was the end of Oaths the end of the Prophets the end of the Scripture the end of Reghteousness in their Sense though as Mediatour he was the End or Perfection of and fulfilling of the Law of God which never Soul beside the Lord Jesus ever kept in thought word and deed what ever the proud Pharisees and Papists and Foxians prate c. 5. It is a gross Fancy to imagine that the Lord Jesus in the 5 of Math. gave new Commands or Contradicted the holy pleasure of his Father concerning Revenge Adultery Oaths Prayers Fastings but opened his Fathers Law in the purity and Spirituality of it against the rotten Expositions Traditions and practices of the Pharisees 6. In particular let all the Reasons be expended and carefully weighed which the Lord Jesus so wonderfully exactly gives why they should not swear by Ierusalem nor the Temple nor their Head nor any Oath to wit of such a Nature and half a sober eye may see that the Lord Jesus intends only to reduce them to an holy Swearing only by God in Gods way c. and in their Common Converse to use yea and nay c. 7. I have read a sober and man like Answer of F. H. called
of Rebellion against Superiours and of wicked desires of Wine and Women and fighting and pleasures in persons of greater growth this rotten Nature appears in their rooting like Swine for earthly profits or preferments or fighting like Lions Tygers in Wars and Law-conttntions and oppressing of Inferioâ—rs especially if they dare to reprove or witness their Idolatries Superstitions and Abominations 2. The experience of all the Saints of God in the Holy Scripture who maintained a Battel between the Flesh and Spirit all their dayes accord-to Gal. 5. A Battel within them sometimes the Spirit or new Man the new Creature or the Grace of Christ prevailing sometimes the Corruption or Rottenness of Nature like the two Houses of Saul and David the old Man getting the victory as we see generally in Abraham Isaak Iacob Moses Aaron Eli Samuel David Solomon c. till we come down to the highest Saints Paul and Peter the one shamefully again and again vanquished and the other Paul crying 69 out that the good he would do he did not and yet when he did evil he had two men within him the Law of his Spirit Heavenly and the Law of sin which dwelt within him â—tc they that know not and feel not this they are either dead or rotten and so feel nothing or if there be any life of God in them and yet say in the litteral sense they sin not their weakness is such that like very low and far gone weak bodies their Filth and Excrements come from them but they know nothing of it nor will believe or acknowledge any such matter The 35. Instance is in Pag. 217. where G. Fox brings in Iohn Iackson saying False Prophets and Christs and Deceivers many should come if it were possible to deceive the very Elect. He Answers Yes Christ said they should come to the Apostles which before their Decease they did come and went forth from them which Christ said should inwardly Ravin and get the sheeps cloathing which since the dayes of the Apostles all the World went after them as thou maiest read in the Revelations and now are People but coming from them to the Rock and now shall the Everlasting Gospel be preached to them that dwell upon the Earth over the heads of the Beast and their false Prophet and they shall be taken and the Lambe and the Saints shall have the victory I Reply 1. As that great Fox the Pope of Rome and his Foxians the Worshâ—ppers of that Beast maintain that Antichrist is not yet come that so he may scape a scouring or rather a burning or dashing in pieces so doth our little Fox G. Fox and his Foxians cry out another Lurry Antichrist why he is come and gone long ago c. As if false Christs might not be then and now too as if there were no more greedy Wolves to be found then in Act. 20 and no more Sheep-skins for them in Matthew 7. c. The Spirit of God proclaims 1 Cor. 11. that there must be Heresies and Peter tells us 2 Pet. 2. that there must be false Teachers false Prophets and Damnable Heresies for the trial of the sincere c. And were all the Foxes hunted out and destroyed in the Apostles dayes and none left since Iohns time to our times to be hunted after and digd out of their Burroughs 70 Are there none sound sincere and chaste to be tried at this day to the Lord Jesus the Heavenly Bridegroom and to his Eternal King and Father God blessed to Eternity 2. The Protestants maintain that the Pope or Papacy is the great Antichrist the Man of Sin with seven heads and ten horns c. why should not the Devil be able to raise besides the Pope the Ceredonians Valentinnians and the Arians Manicheans Gnosticks c. and since or at the beginning of the Reformation the Quintinians and Munsterian Mousters why should he not be able to raise in our time the Nicholaitans and Foxians 3. It is true that in the times of warm peace c. many Vermine breed whom the cold winter of Persecution utterly destroyes I know also that in the late times of Freedome to mens Opinions in England Many Opinions and promoters of them arose Sharp times God hath to make discovery I know some say that Iudas and Theudas and Barchochas and Rabbi-Iudah c. were the false Christs the Lord Jesus spake of I know also that amongst the Professours of the Christian Name false Christs and false Prophets Apostles Preachers c. must pretend to the Christian Name also 4. I know some affirm that though the Pope be Antichrist yet that he that letted was not the Roman Emperour until he was taken out of the way but that he that letted was the Holy Spirit to which the Quakers now pretend which Spirit being taken away the Popes arose But in the dayes of Iohn when those gifts did most flourish yet then there were many Antichrists and the gift of the Holy Spirit did not hinder their rising so that all ages are full of false Teachers 5. What Ignorance doth this little Fox yet great Boaster discover in saying Now are People coming forth from them c. doth he proudly look over all those Glorious Protestant Witnesses of Jesus before and since Luther whose Names many of them God commanded that Heavenly I. Fox to make Record of 6. Do the Foxians just now about twenty years preach the everlasting Gospel Now saith W. Edm. in our discourse we preach the everlasting Gospel to you that you shall be free from sin c. But Gods Spirit tells us in Peter and Iude of pretenders to liberty while themselves are the Servants of Corruption or Rottenness 71 7. Both Jews and Gentiles have done by the Name of Christ as the Jews and Romans with Christ Jesus before they murthered him they mockd him c. and then Murthered him that so they might be the Heir and Messiah themselves Just as the great Fox the pope and these little Foxians pretend to be the sole great Heir apparent to the Crown of Heaven and all other Rebels and Reprobates against and from their Heavenly Majesties The 36. Instance is in page 218. Where G Fox brings in the same Author saying I hope you will not condemn the Generation of the Righteous because they are vot perfect He Answers That which condemneth is Righteous it condemns that which is not perfect and the Generation is Righteous and not to be condemned I Reply He Answers four things First that which Condemns is righteous Secondly That which is Righteous Condemns that which is not perfect Thirdly That which is righteous is perfect Fourthly The Generation is Righteous that is them selves being perfect and not to be Condemned the Summe of his Answer is Himself and his Foxians are Gods as pure holy as God is and therefore now keep the Eternal Sessions and Assizes at the Tribunal of their high
Virgins love thee Oh how many prate of this spirit or Ointment and yet hate the true Lord Jesus hate his Love Letters the holy scriptures and would be glad to see them in a Bone fire hate his poor true Quakers that desire to fear before him and tremble at his Word and to mourn that having received such manifestations of the holy spirit of God they have profited others so little and glorified God in their Generations 8. I might Insist upon the End which G Fox insisteth on viz. to profit withal and ask why David Psal. 53. Complains that all the Children of men not one excepted are unprofitable good for nothing yea abominable that is to spiritual matters heavenly things the world to come All even the sweetest Natures the fairest the wittiest the wisest the learnedst the devoutest untill the spirit of God come and truly change the heart and whole Frame of Nature Till then we as profitable as Hogs as Moles in a Garden as Water or Fire breaking into a ship and as devouring Foxes amongst the true Lambs and Chickens of Christ Iesus The 53d Instance of G. Fox his lame Answer is in pag. 328 where he quotes Hugh Archbal saying Christ doth enlighten none but them that do receive him He Answers Contrary to John 3. which speaketh of them that hate the Light and are enlightened and will not come to it because the Light will reprove them so he that hates the Light is enlightned and will not receive Christ. I Reply though I have spoken much of the Light and of receiving Christ Jesus c yet since this proud Boaster drags his Opposites out of Scotland also I pray the Readers patience while I tell him of a manifold Light which the Holy spirit mentions under a Metaphor or Figure of Light 1. The Natural perceiving of Natural things as Christ Jesus saith The Light of the Body is the Eye 2. The Light of peace and joy whether Corporal or spiritual Temporal or Eternal The Iews in Hamans down-Fall and their own Deliverance had Light and Joy c. and Light is sown for the Righteous c. 105 3. The common offers of the Gospel as Light whence some have observed that the word so cried up in Iohn 1. is not inlightneth but lighteth but the word Photizei may signifie both and yet be no more then the Common offer preaching and sound of the glad News or Gospel The people that sate in Darkness saw great Light c As the Light of a candle coming in lightens or enlightens the Walls and Room but being taken away again leaves no Impression or change upon the Wall or as the Sun shining or guilding the Earth being clouded leaves no Impression of shining on the Earth behind it So is it with the Common offers of Trading or marriages in the world and so of the heavenly Offers of Merchandize and Heavenly Marriage c. 4. There is yet a higher Light which some are affected Tinctur'd and enlightened and yet not the true and saving Light that in Heb. 6. where some persons as the pretended Quakers and G. Fox especially have seen much of the Nature of God his holiness his Iustice c. and had a Tast of the Ioyes of the next world but proudly turned from the holy Scripture from the true Lord Jesus and the true holy enlightning humbling and saving Spirit of God 5. The true Lighting or Enlightning of which the holy Scripture speaketh is that of 2 Cor. 4 a place fouly and simply abused by G. Fox to prove the Light in every man where Paul shews how by the preaching of the glad News or Gospel God had shined in their hearts not in the hearts of all the men in the world nor in the hearts of all the Corinthians and had given them a sight of the glory of God in the Face or from the Reflexion or means of the face of the Mediator the man Christ Jesus Hence all those Heavenly Appellations or phrazes or Names Children of the Day Illuminated or Inlightned Ones You were Darkness but now you are not only Inlightened but Light in the Lord that is become not as Fox pretends Christs and Gods and no distinction but of a bright Spiritual Nature longing humbly and mournfully in the use of the holy Scripture and all other means more to come out of Darkness into the Light of holiness and likeness unto God Object G. Fox alleadgeth Iohn 3. They which hated the Light were inlightned I Answer No question but with the general Offer of mercy 106 as of the Candle or Sun to the Eyes of a blind man which is yet their Condemnation because if they had power yet their wills and Lusts and Resolutions refuse and abhor it and abhor their eyes should be opened to see it Whereas the Gospel or glad News is published or preached there is a twofold Effect of it as Acts 13. and Acts 17. and Acts 28. and through all Experience in all Ages and in all parts of the world some mock some demur some persecute others the Spirit or Power of God opens their hearts to fear to believe to submit and in Gods time to rejoyce for ever in a Saviour The 54th Instance is in Pag. 330. where G. Fox brings in Iames Dorram saying The Believer is not in sin as the Unbeliever is he sins not as the Unbeliever doth and in another place he saith the Law is the same to the Believer that it is to the Unbeliever G. Fox Answers Here any may read thy Confusion but I say unto thee He that believeth doth not commit Sin but the unbelief is Sin Rom. 11. 20. And Christ is the End of the Law to every one that believes for Righteousness sake Roms 10. 4. and yet thou puts both Believers and unbelievers under the power of the Law I Reply The Devils no question know Sin they see Sin but not in the true glass of the holy Scripture They see sin as Saul and Iudas c. in the fire of the Coal as dreadful in the punishment but not in the blackness of the Coale as against their new Life and Nature and the purity of the Eternal who hath begotten them unto holiness The Robber and Murtherer bewails his offence at the Gallows though yet his heart is not changed but could he he would murther the Judge and all that had a hand in his Condemnation and Execution The Drunkard hates his Sin as a Tyrant over him only as it brings Discredit to him so is it with the unclean person and every other sinner But it is not so with the Regenerate or new Born who can no more unless deceived and Circumvented touch Sin then the Devil the Father of it nor then Fire can delight in Water nor Light in Darkness 3. It is true that 7 of the Romans is contended for by the Papists and Arminians and in a great measure by the Quakers 107
book if such had proved desirable These alterations will all be noted in this reprint and will be designated as Roger Williams ' Manuscript Annotations The seconâ— Position Concerning true false Christs Traitors Rebells against the King eternaâ— Murtherers of him The true Lord Iesus Christ His humane nature which G. Fox alâ— night long so barks against The Quakers Christ allegorical and meerly Fancy destroying the History Humphrey Norton deales plainly against the Person of Christ The Equivocation of the Foxians Eph 3. 10. The true Union that is â—etween Christ Iesus Believers The Quakers painted Christ. Christ winhin and Christ without Two Questions to Quakers G Fâ—x his Book in Folio produced Page 3. The Papists Quakers destroy the Person of Christ. The being of Christ in the Heavens The Quakers endure not trying but are willingly ignorant Willing Ignorance Nehem 8 they gave the Sence The Quakers nonsensical Spirit Iohn Bunyan Christs twofold Presence The Quakers Conjure with Christs Body The Quakers endure not Sences or Meanings just as the Papists and yet talk all of light The old question of Christs Presence Fox Bonnet no difference The Quakers pretend to ownâ— Christs Bloud yet in truth allow him no Bloud to shed Enoch Howet The divine and humane nature of the Lord Iesus Nicholas the Deacon and Nicholas Fathers of the old and new Nicholaitans 1 believe R. W. Ms. Ann. So Cristopher Houlder he boggles at the word Manhood The word Humane considered Used in the Scripture 1 Cor 10. Dan. Grudry Christ not seen as he is until the day of Iudgement The personal coming of the Lord Iesus A visible and in visible eye and object Christ â—ithin Christ without The Papists and Quakers Christ is no where Christoph Wade The Author whome G. Fox opposeth and in Pride and madness rageth against The Quakers Christ but a whimsical Christ Hosanna to the Son of David 1 Ye poor Apostates R. W. Ms. Ann. The Spirit of the Papists the Quakers but one The Quakers notoriously dissemble for they do own and not own the Christ that dyed at Ierusalem Humph. Norton more plain in words then other Quakers Christ yesterday and to day The Quakers endure not to be searched temer of false and thievish spirits 1 Interline be R. W. Ms. Ann. The Quakers Apolloes Oracles the same Iohn Burton If ever there Equivocating Iesuites in the world the Quakers are The Quakers wonderful jugling about the true Christ John Burton The Quakers Traitors Rebels against the true Lord Iesus I have known the poor Lobsters catch the Foxes The wonderful blindness and hardness of my Antagonists 1 the plain Evidences R. W. Ms. Ann. Frances Higginson The Quakers endure not the word Humane Acts 13. Opened of Christs Humanity Tho. Collier The second coming of the Lord Iesus The Everlasting Fathâ—r Christ Iâ—su how The Quakers wonderfully changed yet but in Dissimulation as to learning the Scriptures W. Edmund leaves the Dispute is hurried into Preaching W. Edmund his story concerning Benefices And his vain extolling of their Idol Light John Stubs his sermon The Quakers unruly and rash interruptions A short Answer to 2 Sermons The motions of Gods spirit not those of the Quakers Tâ—e Quakers not orderly nor patient The Offices of Christ Iesus The Kingly office of the Lord Iesus The visible Christian Church Ordinances Touching the several Churches extant Churches nearest to Christ Iesus This was and I hope is the principle of the N English Church The various appearances of Christ Iesus 1 their R. W. Ms. Ann. My offer in the end of the second dayes conference Lying pretenders to Gods service The Authors just Apologie agaiâ—st the unjust clamors of the Quakers A mutual agreement for a third dayes conference A quarter of an hour much canvased The Quakers spirit policy The Quakers would not dispute on the first day and why The third dayes conference at New-port A Letter sent in to all of us The Letter refused to be opened by the Quakers The Sum of the Letter My self reproved in the Letter in 3 particulars The dâ—fference of the Quakers Sharpness sometimes a duty The Letter it self True librety infringed Quenching of the Spirit The insulting Spirit of the Quakers The true cause of our long discourse at Newport The modesty of this letter The third Position against the Quakers spirit Discussed The word spirit The quality of Spirits All spirits must be tried Gods Spirit given by Gods means The Spirit of God working by means The Quakers at Newport appealed too publickly Samuel Eaton Henoch Hoâ—vet G. Fox ignorant of the true spirit of God Tho. Moor. The use of means Fox and the Quakers above all Kings and Princes Popes Emperors Saints and Angels The Mahumetans Quakers considered and found one The Quakers Gods upon Earth all other Beasts Reprobates Devils The leading of the Spirits debated The tryal of Revelations Reason sanctified and rightly improved The Spirit gotten of prayer The Quakers Spirit The omnisciency of the Quakers Their in humanityâ— and cruelty Knowing and doing all things The Light within 2 Cor. 4 God hath shined in our hearts The darkness within An Evidence that the Quakers spirit and a deceitful Heart are one The testimony of the Deputy Governour Câ—pt Cranston and others against W. E. slanderous rashness The great Cheater who cheats all Cheaters The great Magna Charta xi Iâ—a 59. The true Seed The railng spirit of the Quakers Their Cursing Mens and Womens Nakedness Their Womens Preaching Dumb Meetings The monstrous Singing of the Quakers The true Spirit willing to be examined by the Scripture and every mans Consceence The false and Iuglers endure not searching The Quakers cry is Light but they dare not come to it The two pretended Witnesses Reeve and Muggleton The Quakers would set the Spirit and Scripture at odds The 4th Position concerning the Scriptures A twofold owning of any scripture or Writing The Iews and Papists and Quakers all of them in effect deny the holy Scriptures The Quakers slighting the holy Scriptures in many horrible Particlars A dissembling Show of Quakers respecting the Scriptures An Irish Papist confessing the Truth The Scriptures miraculously preservd to be Gods standing outward Record witness The holy Scripture the only outward standing Rule Record like the Records in the Tower The Holp Scriptures are Gods Love-letters The admirable excellency of the Scripture Luthers Light Ioh 20. 2. considered A famous vision in Turkey The two Witnesses eat up the book of Script Tindal the first heavenly Translator burned 1 nail up this R. W. Ms. Ann. The Iews outward reverence to the Script The first Protestants affâ—ction to the Scripture The Scriptures put both Papists Quakers to flight Christs Martyrs or Witnesses love to Scriptures Iames Parnel his horrible sin Iudgment How the Quakers own Scripture 2. King 17. the Samaritans feared the Lord and yet feared him not