wondered that such a Blunderer should be such a Blusterer 2. That I have heard from Good hands and his Son yet alive knows the truth of it That Fifty Ministers who knew Dr. Crisp and his Doctrine here set themselves against him These were no Arminians sure but Calvinists Baxterianism if conceiv'd was not then come to the Birth Did not these Fifty Orthodox Men break the Heart of this Doctor However I doubt not This Plea or Covering is too thin for Dr. Crisp was no Fool. For those who acknowledge his Piety It is well observ'd by some the Power of Grace That a Man should have so many Poysonous Principles continually about him and yet not corrupt his Vitals Whether he declin'd long before he dyed I meddle not with I wonder if it were not so Others plead But did not Luther himself and other Divines use Expressions as bad No. He call'd Christ indeed Maximus Peccatorum which I will not censure nor justify and be sure I never will as I never did use such a phrase tho imputatione tantum he clapt to it The worst words I ever find Luther to use and wonder the Papist that mention other things do not this Coll. Mensal The best Book bearing his Name I ever saw yet this great Flaw Were I as our Lord God and should the World despise my Son as they do his I would set it on Fire O vile supposition and desperate Talk For what Kellison and other Jesuits charge on him that Luther should say Si non vult Vxor veniat Ancilla it may be justified If a Confessour charge a Wife not to Lye with her Husband or to yeild him due Benevolence because a Protestant or Heretick abominable if the Wife will not Cohabit if She will depart let her depart saith Paul I leave no Man in Bondage Let the Maid be made the Wife and Mistriss too The Story of Galeacius Caracciolus is too well known and the Judgment of the Divines he consulted to be mention'd here Others plead Oh Dr. Crisp got me out of my Legal Spirit c. 1. Were you ever in that Spirit you call thus If so 2. Were you not got out too soon Was not the wound skin'd over that should have been more searcht and heal'd 3. Hath he gotten some Men that thus talk out of their Lying Spirit or Dead Spirit What a horrid shame is it for Men to make a Noise I cannot sit under such a Mans Preaching he is no Gospel Minister And yet be found in Notorious untruths telling Lyes so Contradictory for a Crispian and against their Accusers I could be very particular were it meet to talk with such pieces of Impudence who like Men in Bedlam think the Spectatours to be what they themselves indeed are 4. Some plead But Dr. Crisp doth confess That if a Man lead a vitious Life after his Eccho c. He is not a believer I know he doth thus acknowledge but yet I was greatly furprised to see 1. How faintly he comes to such Assertions as a Man that must say so rather then would 2. He knew had he not so done he had past for an Old Gnostick or an Arch Ranter and no more need to be said 3. Yet I pray Let us reason together If Faith be such An Eccho of the Soul Answering the Call I come without any change in Man and this must not be tryed by the Word for it is a disparagement to the Spirit to be so try'd the very Dregs of Quakerism I am sure if a Man know he hath given that Eccho I profess I cannot see but he may be a Debauchee after and be loved by God with a Complacential Delight as before the Eccho given and yet all well Now having consider'd the best or chief Pleas I could ever hear for the Doctor I will ask his Advocates a few Questions What think you of those that shall say 1. That it is a comfortable thing to hear that unconverted Men may come to God as a Reconciled God! I care not to name particular Persons for Reasons I have more than once given in some Books but I am ready to prove if occasion be Others 2. That they were never guilty of Sin nor condemn'd by the Law and being ask'd Whether they never confess Sin answer No When they are in a good Frame Others when diswaded from worldly business on a Lord's Day say Christ bath kept the Sabbath for them c. 3. Can these find their way to Heaven Not the old one and if their own new one will do as they conclude let them not be too confident till they see the end of it These and such as these are the Men I would ferret out of their Holes my Work lies not with Men a little leavened for I question not the Piety of many call'd Antinomians who know not the depths of Satan nor the natural Consequence of their Opinions tho very corrupt How common is it in the Country for some Preachers to tell the People Sirs God loves you as much with a Complacential Love when in your Whoredoms and other Sins as the Saints when praying or performing any Religious Duty Is it indeed the Pride of Min's Heart to deny God to be the Author of Sin must your own learned pious Brethren be ready to wring their Hands to hear such Stories proved upon Men of Repute But because it is often pleaded that God loved the Elect before Conversion with a Complacential Love for it is impossible God should hate at one time and love at another the same Person if he do he is a changeable God And here we are often told what Dr. Twisse said about this That Justification was an Imminent Act in God c. I shall omit what others have said about this particularly Mr. Williams in his Gospel Truth stated and vindicated a Book magnified by the Athenian Club by my worthy Friend Mr. Giles Fermin now dead a sound Calvinist and others How as we all the Snake in the Grass as an unanswerable Piece against the Quakers not for Passages mistaken of others which prove him to be better acquainted with the History of the Quakers than Presbyterians and other Dissenters I justifie not this Gentleman for such he is in his Deportment as much as becomes a Minister and no more a happy hit in his Particularities but in his main Design Is not the Contexture curious the Notions deep the Arguments solid and the whole a work of Art I vindicate his censure of Dr. Crisp his Extravagancies Are base little Stories a Reply They who have thrown dirt in his Face have daubed their own Hands What a shameful thing is it for London Ministers who should be a good Example to us in the Country to be worse than we That they cannot contend about a Cause but they must seek for little false Tales to revile the Persons an Error on all Hands I declare I think once is enough to answer the Doctor his Harrangues and
charged George Fox among other things with this Story That he saw the Blood of Martyrs in the Streets of Litchfield and waded thro their Blood William Pen for declaring as sure as the Lord liveth Thomas Hicks should not go to the Grave in Peace c. Solomon Eccles with Prophesying in the name of the Lord to John Story That he should dye that â—ear because he had set himself against George Fox the Apostle of Jesus Christ c. who lived above four Years after I shall now acquaint you with Objections I have met with from sober Quakers and others and it being so late I hope not to detain you half an Hour 1 Objection Many things they Prophesyed of did come to pass I answer It is enough That many things also did not What if I should now declare in the name of the Lord That Man shall Dye this Year and that man also What if one of them dye will that prove me a true Prophet No the continued Life of the other will prove me a false one What 〈◊〉 I should say Thus saith the Lord To morrow there shall be Rain but the next day none If their be Rain to morrow I am no true Prophet if it Rain also the Day after Many things Muggleton said came to pass but all what the Prophets of the Lord said did so 2 Object Did not the Prophet prophecy falsely when he brought back the other Prophet to Eat and Drink at his own House in the Reign of Jeroboam No Man doubts but a Prophet of the Lord â—â—ay sin and fall before a Temptation as well as other men but he recalled his false Prophecy c. Yet what he was and how far a Prophet dwelling in that Idolatrous place I shall not determine 3 Object George Fox meant he saw Bâ—â—od Visionary and when Edward Burroughs said God could soon Arm thousands of his Saints to destroy the Wicked but for the present it must not 〈◊〉 c. he is to be understood Spiritually and that Friends were to blame in Printing it as they did Then it follows George Fox in the writing that Book and Mr. Pen in the Publishing this stor there did not intend it should be understood Visionary neither saâ— I will the words bear it He put of his Shoes he run thro the Streets of Litchfield and cryed Wo to the looâ—ly City c. These things were not Visionary Hundreds saw him neither therefore could his wading thro their Blood to the warming of his Feet be so Were not the Saints to have their spiritual Arms on for the present according to E. B. 4. Object If all this be true G. Fox W. Pen and others were Deceivers What is this to the Principle their Opinions may be right 1. This will go far 2. Whoever goes over to them must pretend to be Inspired and Infallible How can they then joyn with them proved to be Imposters and false Prophets These Men surely will play their Infallibilitys and Inspirations lustily one upon another 3. These Men have been even Adored by the Spirit of Discerning too Glory be to thee Let me feel thy Vertue 4. Their Letters have been the Quakers Directories their Dictates the Quakers Oracles 5. Spiritual Courts were set up by these Men from the Lord. 6. Can any of them say they were convinced Baptism and the Supper were nothing An Oath was unlawful by their Inward Light and not by Fox their Outward Light Before Igo any further I must remove a Difficulty that lies in my way Croese a Dutch Divine hath written a large Book of five Shillings price called The History of the Quakers much in favour of them But I do declare it is a 〈◊〉 false History but to do him right he confesseth he haed his Accounts from the Quakers Writings sent to him Therefore be was so credulous he tells us of G. Fox 's Fasting ten Days c. It is well known in Amsterdam long since a Woman pretended she should fast longer than Christ fifty Daâ—s a great Concourse all wonder at this Miracle the Lords at last caused the place to be narrowly searcht and under the Chair was a Trap Door where was all Necessaries for Life They Strangled her and as I hear her Statue was made in Wax in the same Chair representing the Cheat yet to be seen in the same Cloaths I doubt not if G. Fox kept a ten Days Fast it was such a Fast as the Amsterdam Gentlewomans Croese also tells us whâ—â—â— Barbarities were used to the Quakers not fit to be named in Bristol in the last Persecution in their Meetings which I then a Bristol Man never heard one word of and how the Quakers persevered to the last when I aâ—rm for years they left their Publick Meeting place as one Man This false Historian tells us That in New-England The Quakers were so cruelly whipt that many Swooned in the Streets to see it and that the Whip was such That the Executioner was forced to put both Hands to hold it I doubt not but Friends are made to believe that the whipping of Dr. Oats was not worse or as bad as theirs He says little of these Mens Blasphemies about Scripture and the man Christ Jesus c. It is well known the last time I thus appeared in this place a Quakor to divert me from my Charge against Pen and other Impostors and false Prophets said Did not the Presbyterians Persecute in New-England What sayst thou G. Keith dost thou not know it But might not I have return'd did not the Quakers Persecute in Pensilvania What say you M. Keith Do you nor know it Yes surely he knew it too well and felt it to purpose for they so Persecuted him that had not the King sent a new Governour there when Mr. Pen absconded as a Jacobâ—â—e we had not had him now with us but the Quakers in his Grave long since Ye this Croese is forced to acknowledge against them among other things there That George Fox put his name to a Book sent to John the III. King of Poland for Toleration full of excellent Latin Greek and French Sentences out of Learned Writer s as if he had been acquainted with those Authors This Book was so curious it was Translated into many Languages and call'd Fox's Book When it is notorious he never well understood his Mother Tongue Croese crys out against this pride of Fox Ahorrible Cheat say I. I my self Sirs have long since read Histories bearing Fox's name which I and others then thought to be his but he sent as I am well informed to the two Lyd 's in Wales and other Schollars to make such Books and he would put his Name to them He also says That the Story of one Brown that Fox say s had Visions and Revelations concerning him what he should do Was only the Man's Opinion about him when Dying And that it was Customary with Fox to write down such Stories as Prophesies from the Lord c. That
remarkable Story which it may be none here have known which I had from a Minister of known Learning and Piety whose worthy Friend told him he had it from the Minister to whom the doleful Subjest of the Story belonged A Gentleman in Oliver 's Days passing by a Church-Yard where was a great Concourse of People and a Fryar whom he knew in Spain preaching to them when the Fryar had ended this Gentleman came to him and desired to Drink with him a Glass of Wine at the next Tavern Away Man said the Fryar with those unfruitful woâ—â—â— of Darkness Pray Sir Replyed 〈◊〉 Do not thus Cant with me for I know you and at Madrid you and I had a Disputation about such a Question else I will discover you upon which the Fryar promis'd to go with him to a place appointed then said the Fryar I saved you from the Inquisition when I could have sent you there I pray give me no trouble as I gave you none He promis'd he would not if he would faithfully answer him a few Questions which the Fryar promis'd him The Gentleman askt him What he did there He answered The Nation is now in a Ferment about Religion and we always serve our own turns on such occasions and if you please I will make you to do as the Quakers one Day and afterwards you shall be as now you are the Gentleman consented perhaps doubting the thing the Fryar after some tricks put the Gentleman in a raving Fie out he runs in the Streets crying Repent Repent c. At the time appointed the Gentleman came to himself and piâ—fest he had in that Fit a strange extention of all his Nerves c. and his Fancy strangly rais'd but on the Review of his thus tempting of God and Blaspheming his Name he pined away a long time and Dyed I know his Name and the place where he dwelt If it be thought hard that Ionce compar'd Fox's Lying Winders with those of Father Cressy I do declare I believe from my Conscience Cressy to be much the Honester Man He may be blamed for his Credulity for he pretends not he saw much less wrought the Miracles he mentions as this Deceiver did He says That Christ appeared to St. Denni and told him in a Dream he had Dedicated a Church in Glassenbury to his Mother in his own Person long since and that having thus said he pierced his Finger through the Bishop 's Hand and told him that the next Day in reciting the Canon of the Mass peripsum c his hand should be made whole many saw the wound the next Day And as luck would have it at the Reciting those words in the Mass the Bishop was he all'd Protestants he says are not willing to believe this Antiquity of the Mass or that our Lord dignified it by mentioning it and working a miracle at the Celebration Cres Hist. of Brit. pag. 26. chap. 7. But Friend George tells you of a Miracle worth a Thousand of these He waded through the Blood of a Thousand Martyrs slain in Dioclesian's time was led through the Flaming Sword c. The Vertues and Operations of the Creatures were open'd to him O depth c. When George Fox said He fasted ten Days all may wonder but I that know the Quakers Juggles Fallacies and Equivocations can tell you how many ways Friends can get him off 1. He did not say he fasted the ten Nights also George might Eat and Drink and he poor Shooe-maker smooth his Paunch after this self-denial it is well known the Turks hrve such Fasts 2. George did not say he fasted ten Days successively one after another Now George might fast one Day at one time a month after another when perhaps he could not get Bread by making Shooes for I have reason to believe he never made one good pair in his Life and that no Man of repute would imploy him 3. Friend George did not say he fasted the whole Day But it may be he fasted till Dinner and then began his new Fast till Supper 4. George might mean no pleasant Meat came into his mouth as Daniel is 〈◊〉 thus to fast Yet the Quakers tho so apparentiy vile and false are always boasting of then Holiness Mr. Pen tells us No Words of ours can get out of Mens minds the Notions of the Quakers holiness For my part I profess no words of his can get out of my mind the Notions of his and their Unholiness Lying and Hypocrisie This mighty man of theirs when in Discourse he knew the Charge of his Adversary true as that he wrote That Imputed Righteousness was the Doctrin of Devils There give a Cant for an Answer Oh if thou felt these things Mr. Bugg hath lately made a good Proposal That our Senators would cal for him and the chief of them and demand which Confession or Declaration ' they own either the late Dissembling one to them or their former contrary Blasphemies If they say their last let them renounce those But this would make void Inspiration and Infallibility I desire you Reader to take notice this man Mr. Bugg hath Corrected gross and foul mistakes of that false Historian Croesius Hist of Quak. If some think I have been too severe upon G. Blockhead I pray consider that speaking from those words 9 Job 20. which I have proved to militate against their Doctrin of Perfection He reads I would know my own Soul and tells How perfect men should endeavour to know their own Soul when nothing is so and the sense quite otherwise I acknowledge Fisher Barclay and Mr. Pen and others Adversaries worth Coping with but not such Fellows as this G. Whitehead once Printed the Story of Baxter Baptiz'd in Blood half a year after Parker the first Publisher had recanted it as a Fable at the command of K. C. the 2. Yet this vile man when told by Dr. R. and others who came to his House about it to desne him in his next Booâ— to contess his mistake he said He would not bid them begon or he would use violence c. Mr. Pen's quibling is intolerable the Scriptures are not tho word of God but the word of the word Quakerism a new nick Name for old Christianity If it be said that in my last I declared I intended to trouble my self with this Cattle no more 1. It was but an Intention not promise 2. New Occurrences and I assure you unexpected ones have since befaln me which makes my Apology for me The Story is this A Quaker of Note especially for Ignorance and Mr. Penn's Intimate sets upon me in the Coffee-House That I was a Lyar and a Slanderer to say Mr. Penn said Christ was born in Nazareth That he would pay me Fiver Shillings if I could prove it the next day before many and competent Witnesses The Book was produced the Thing proved and the Money paid soon after he published every where and at â—â—â—st to me That a Church Friend of