Scriptures for proof as Acts 1. says he These Scriptures must needs be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake Again Verse 20. saith Peter This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel Again St. Peter in proving that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and that he was risen says of David Seeing he i. e. David was a prophet c. Again Chap. 3.18 says he The things which God had before shewed by the mouth of his prophets that Christ should suffer he hath fulfilled c. and in verse 24. says he All the prophets from Samuel and thenceforth as many as have spoken have foretold of this day even of the Sufferings Rising and Ascending of our Lord Jesus whom says he the heavens must contain until the time that all things be restored which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began Also Acts 10.43 Peter Preaching that Jesus whom they had hanged on a tree was ordained of God to be judge both of quick and dead saith to him i. e. Jesus of Nazareth gave all the prophets witness that thro' this man all that believe in him should receive remission of sins Thus it 's evident from Scripture that 't was St. Peter's Method to prove his Doctrine by or from the words of the Prophets and not by directing them to a Light within them and as it was his former use in his Sermons so also he continued the same method in his Epistles and the reason or cause seems plain forasmuch as the Priests and Rulers of the Jews could perswade the People to believe that Jesus was not risen but that his Disciples had stolen him away notwithstanding so many witnesses of his Resurrection as is mentioned 1 Cor. 15. And was seen forty days as in Acts 1. I say notwithstanding such evident demonstration if the Jews could perswade the People it was false much more might the Apostles expect they would contradict and not believe them three Persons Peter James and John's Testimony also considering it was not known to any others until after his Resurrection as by our Lord's command Matth. 17.9 Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead Also Paul preaching at Antioch he prov'd out of the Scripture that Jesus was the Christ and said Because they knew him not nor the voice of the Prophets read every sabbath day c. And Acts 15. saith James To this agree the words of the Prophets And Acts 17. Paul reasoning with them of Thessalonica out of the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ and Apollo he mightily convinced the Jews shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ Acts 18. and Acts 26. Paul says he said None other things then Moses and the Prophets did say should come King Agrippa believ'st thou the Prophets I know thou believ'st Here also it was not a Light within but the words of the Prophets Paul appealed to And in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus Christ himself prefers the Scriptures saying They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them if they will not hear them neither will they be perswaded altho' one rose from the dead Here our Lord does not direct to a Light within but the Prophets and Moses's words in conformity to which I suppose Peter did the same and did not in this place mean a Light within them but the words of all the Prophets in Scripture was more sure or less questionable than their three Testimony of that Voice that they heard I mean not as to themselves but as to other as to proving the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to convince and stop the mouths of gainsayers and false Prophets which Peter said should come and therefore it was needful for the Apostle to endeavour to strengthen his Testimony and their Faith by the Words of the Prophets as also further appears in that he says Whereunto you do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day Star arise in your hearts Hereby making the sure word to be something else besides or more than a Light within them or then the dawning of the day or the day Star in their hearts and the Apostles giving the preference to the words of the Prophets before his own is a sign of his great Humility and Obedience to our Lord's Doctrine Luke 18.14 Therefore as the Apostle said seeing we are so compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses for the Authority of the Scriptures also for this expounding this Text as intending the words of the Prophets and not a Light within them Then how much are they to blame who oppose this Exposition and make a contrary one and undervalue the Scripture and prefer their own Writings before the Scripture as the Foxonian Quakers do who say it's Blasphemy to call the Scripture the Word of God and yet term their own or G. Fox's the Word of God and give many contemptible Names to the Scripture as Carnal Letter Dust Serpents-Meat c. and say the Scripture is not his i. e. God's Voice c. But Title their own idle seditious Pamphlets The Voice of Wisdom c. as G.W. does What is not the Scripture as much God's Word or Voice as these Blasphemers Fox and Whitehead's seditious Pamphlets be which they command and charge their Subjects to read in their Meetings But let them shew me where-ever they enjoyned the reading any one Chapter in the Bible to confirm their undervaluing of the Scripture Say they the Jews had the Scripture and Crucified Christ and by their own Doctrine the Jews had the Light within them also therefore their Argument they bring to undervalue the Scriptures is as much in force against the Light within as against the Scriptures But in opposition to this afore Expounding of this Scripture may be objected the words in James 1.21 Receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your Souls that this may refer to the Eternal Word in the beginning I will not oppose but it may more particularly relate to him as he became Incarnate or made Flesh born of the Virgin and was the Son of Mary even that Person Jesus of Nazareth for so he was united or ingrafted into our Nature like unto us except Sin and as the Children partook of Flesh and Blood so likewise he himself took part of the same as the Children make it So that I think it is the receiving him in meekness i. e. the Seed of the Woman made under the Law made of a Woman Jesus of Nazareth by Faith as the Christ of God and Saviour and as such relying on him alone for Justification as well as for Salvation is the receiving with meekness the ingrafted Word as the Apostles says We are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Again Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith So that by this ingrafted Word is not meant here the common Illumination in all Mankind but the peculiar Gift of Christ to those who thro' Faith in his Blood receive him into them and so altho' the Word or Belief be within yet Him the Person or Object of that Faith is in Heaven a place without Men and which must receive him until the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets since the world began Acts 3.21 which time I think is not yet for as says the Apostle Hebr. 2.8 We see not yet all the things put under him But altho' I have here testified against these Quaker's Revilings and Envy to the Ministers yet I do not justifie them in all thing many of them being blameable and I wish they were generally more mindfull of the good Advice of the Apostle Paul and did not give encouragement to others to be conformable to this World for example generally hath more influence on People than Doctrine and we are more apt to fault the mote in another's Eye than the beam in our own But People being generally too quick-sighted to spy their faults I would not aggravate them But these Quakers Defamations being so general affect all even the Bishops also who are eminently concern'd in the Civil Government being Members of the House of Peers some of them the King 's Privy Council Therefore these Quakers are very arrogant and I have Warrant from Scripture and their own Doctrine and Practice for my thus shewing them their wickedness which is great that they may repent THOMAS CRISPE
Lyar night Owl wicked Lyar and as I can find the cause of all this nasty and rabshake Language from them was because he disputed against them about the Light in every Man and published something about it now if you can shew me such nasty Words from J. P. and he to have been the Devils Porter to spread fetch or forge false Intelligence from the Pit of Damnation and the Papists in Defamation of the Protestant Religion and Ministers as I have produced of yours then I grant his Spirit as nasty and as much rabshake as yours but in case it be so that will not clear your Spirit from being a nasty and rabshake one but if you cannot smell this your Foxonian Spirit to be a nasty one you have lost your senses else you may follow this nasty Foxonian Spirit by the smell and herein your Chief Priests be proved to be the Devils Porters and which they wrongfully charge on others without proof and this your matchless Pride and Insolency in accusing the Protestant Ministers to the King for being for Ol. Crom. when you were more guilty caused J. P. to write out the Quakers Unmask'd c. and send to you privately to make you sensible of your Error but your Pride cannot bear reproof but threatned him F. B. and T. C. for mentioning it but it s now in Print but I think that which encouraged you so to defame the Protestant Ministers was because you was as sure of encouragement and countenance if not reward in that Work from some then great in power as your Fathers Fox c. formerly they having many of the chief in the then Army who countenanced them then as W. Penn c. lately And I say in case you do not as publickly testifie against these Wickednesses of your Chief Priests as you did against the Christian Quaker D. S. then all you Foxonian Quakers are chargeable as guilty of them and your pretended counterfeit new Confessions ought no more to be believed or clear you than a Thief when he is convict of Theft his saying he really believes the Ten Commandments may clear him but the Foxonians falsly accusing the Protestant Ministers and endeavouring to render them odious prove its true as they themselves say that Runnagadoes are the violentest Enemies against them they have deserted for none are more implacable Enemies to the Protestants than Fox Whitehead c. who once professed the same this their own Doctrine is proved true in them Foxonian Chief Priests G. W. c. For I think if all Algier were searched that of all the Runnagadoes that have been there this Hundred Years there cannot be found so many Defamations and Contemptious Expressions in Print of the Person of our Lord Jesus of Nazareth and his Blood shed on the Cross as there is of these Foxonian Quakers in their Printed Books in London its pity that this Protestant City should be the only Garden of the World to breed and nourish such Plants and send or sell the Seed of such degenerated Plants of a strange Vine what must London out-do Algier in defaming the Christian Religion especially the English Protestant Ministers to encourage loose Atheistical Persons in the same Work for reprinting these their wicked Works with such high commendations on the Authors affixed before them tends to the Destruction of the Protestant Religion as the Gun-Powder-Treason did and the chief Actors therein no more deserve commendations than them and these Quakers have approved of those wicked Actions in their Ancient Printed Testimonies now under-hand injoyn'd their Subjects to hold them up for these of theirs were from the Spirit of Truth or the Spirit of Error if from the Spirit of Error its needful they testifie against them as publickly as they did against the Christian Quaker D. S. for owning Fox and Whitehead Guilty therefore in case they do not disown them its Evidence they do own them as the Testimony of Truth and so are confirmed and injoyn'd by their 1696. White-hart-court Conclave to be maintained and held up as some part of the Testimony of Truth Now consider you Quakers who be honest minded although deceived by your Priests G. W. c. who are so wicked as to accuse this Man as endeavouring to have them destroyed nay crucified too because he justly and truly complaining the Protestant Religion was in danger by them to be rooted out and yet they in the same Pamphlet are so wicked so early as in 1660. to accuse the Ministers in general as dangerous to the King and for being against him and for the former Governments although they themselves were guilty of the same in a higher degree for says they to the King Friends then called Cavaleers you are become cursed in all your endeavours the purpose of your hearts have been known to be always against Truth it self and though your Kings c. have been cut off in wrath and says except you repent of endeavouring to re-establish the King and that Government you and your Kings c. and lordlly Power by which you have thought to exercise Lordship over my Heritage shall be inslaved by the Devil in the Pit of Darkness where he i. e. the Devil shall Reign your King and Lord for evermore this they say was from the Lord and sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God Yet these Forgers the Foxonians could leave the whole Message out and great part of these Citations again says E. B. to O. C. of the King's Friends I know the Lord hath cursed them and what thou hast done unto them and their King should not be reckoned against thee by the Lord if now thou wert faithful c. i. e. take away the Ministers and their Maintenance for that was one of the sins they counted O. C. c. then guilty of for say they to O. C's Council the same false Prophets Protestant Ministers you establish by a Law which deceive the Nations again says the same E. B. to the Parliament and that in 1659. but about 6 Months before the Restoration while thus it hath been in our Nation that our Kings have attained to the Throne of Government Hereditary and by the Succession of Birth as hath been the custom in our Forefathers days that knew no better whereby the Inhabitants have been always suffering and liable to great Oppressions being under such a Government falling from Parents to Children after the manner of the Heathen Nations again p. 3. the Lord hath begun to appear and shewed us the bondage our Forefathers lived in and we our selves been subject too by reason of the Government standing in a single Person successively now our Eyes are opened to behold better things and pag. 6. say to the Long Parliament it s on me to lay it before you even as the Contenders for England's Liberty whom the Lord honoured in the Beginning to remove Tyranny c. But this whole Libel and other Treasonable Ancient Testimonies of theirs is left
be happy under you It is high time to lay aside say they that Interest of this oppressing Clergy You know the Spirit of the Romish Clergy was in the late Bishops whom you cast out for their Wickedness and the very Spirit of those Bishops is entered into these Priests And there is the remainder of her Murders in these Mens i. e. the Ministers Breasts and at every opportunity it breaks forth as of late in this Rebellion you have full Testimony it was Sir Geo. Booth 's appearing for King Charles the Second in the North 1659. And these Quakers they go on and say to the long Parliament If you do not curb it i. e. the Spirit of the Bishops speedily it will grow over you to your undoing And in page 524. Says to the Parliament Cast them the Ministers off and let them not lurk under your Wings but leave them to be worried by the Quakers for one day they will rebel against you and another day flatter you and shew love in hypocrisie even while they are hatching Mischief against you even to bring the Nation into Blood It appears to many of you a thing hard to forsake your Godly Ministers Was it not the same concerning the King and Bishops Was it not as terrible to him and his Lords to think of the Overthrow of the then called Godly Fathers and Bishops But better had he cast them off and saved himself than to have perished with them And better were it for you to lay them aside and save your selves than to perish with them and one of these will come to pass It 's decreed of the Lord if you uphold them Ministers and oppress Peoples Persons and Estates and Consciences on their behalf and in their evil Cause for Tythes and Wages ye shall fall with them and none shall be able to deliver you nor them For the Spirit of the old Idolatrous Bishops is entered into the hearts of these Men and there is a great measure of Tyranny Injustice and Abomination on these as was on the Bishops and these are as nigh ripe for Vengeance as the other i. e. Bishops were c. By these and what follows the Church of England may see that these Quakers Ancient Testimony of their Truth was as much against them as against the Dissenters and more however they may to deceive forbear to treat them now with such hell-fetch'd Names in express words as formerly But the Quakers go on saying in page 477. The Lord is risen to confound this Church and this Ministry which is Idolatry And P. 477. For you who worship God in Steeple-houses God will confound this Church and Ministry c. P. 499. We are punished for bearing witness against the false Prophets and Hirelings of these days And we see and know that they c. shall perish Their downfall hastens greatly and all the Powers of the Earth shall not be able to support them and with them shall fall their Tythes Now this their Rage and Envy is from the Mouth of the Lord or else these Foxonians G. Whitehead c. were Conjurers by their own Sentence And altho' I have afore proved they do expect Obedience to their Laws as the Laws of Christ altho' they to deceive pretend they be but Advice or Counsel yet for further proof thereof observe that for disobeying their Advice against carrying Guns in Ships they say It 's injurious to their own Souls and therefore it must be a Law of high Concernment that the not obeying or breaking of it is of such ill consequence to their Souls And these Foxonians will not suffer nor permit their Papers to be called Mens Edicts nor Sinful no not the very Papers how sacred then do they think their Ancient Testimonies therein written be Surely as aforesaid they deem them Laws of Christs making especially that wherein they Unchristian all who pay Tythes altho' freely and record and mark rhem for Antichrists and Deniers of Christ come in the Flesh Now hear also their own Doctrine Say they Any Party of Men under a Government to make Laws not lawfully Authorized for binding others and thereto requiring obedience be the setting up themselves above the Law and treading it under their feet and rendring them whom they so bind their Slaves and so is TREASON This is worthy of Notice by all Rulers and People And to O. Cromwel page 557. say they This is the Word of the Lord to thee The Ministry of England for which thou seem'st to stand generally it 's not of God but of Antichrist and the Lord is against it and it 's the ground of the greatest Oppression of the Poor in its Maintenance as any one particular Abomination this day in the Nation and if thou settest thy self to uphold them thou shalt fall into Perdition with them And to R. Cromwel p. 578. Say they of the Publick Ministry As it is now we testifie from the Lord it is wholly degenerated in all things from what the Ministry of Christ was c. And much more against the Ministers which they have Re-Printed at large But in this same Letter page 574. where they put the words Grievous Cruelty it was by him Grievous Tyrannies Also in the same Letter p. 580. just before the four last Lines they leave out this following Sentence As concerning the Armies abroad let faithful Men i. e. Quakers be put in trust for the Army is of great Concernment to thee to stand or fall through them as to Mans Account and the War against Spain be faithful to God in it the Lord may accomplish something by it to his honour and thine There is something in it known to the Lord a cunning Gypsie Prophet And altho' they say this was from the Lord yet they thus alter and leave out to hide their hypocritical Pretence after the Restoration that they were against fighting with outward Weapons for any end whatsoever But this shews their Hypocrisie as well as their Malice which they continue foaming out against the Protestants in their Message as they say by especial Authority from the Lord by his Embassador E. B. In his Works p. 591 Say they Tho' he i. e. the Lord did in some measure free this Nation from much Tyranny in casting out Popish Authority yet the Nation in a few years was near as much violated by Injustice Tyranny and Cruelty under the Prelatical Power as ever it was once under the Papal Power But altho these forging Wretches the Foxonians give this as a Message from God by his Embassador E. B. yet they leave out this word Tyranny and change Prelatical into Succeeding Either they are self-condemned Blasphemers or else deserve the Plagues of adding and diminishing from and to the Word of the Lord. But altho' they leave out their Treasonable Testimonies yet their Sedition against the Protestant Ministers they have to the full put in well knowing there was them great in Court they thereby pleased and would and could
they have to excuse Fox's Blasphemy That it was not Fox but Christ said I am Christ c. in or by Fox as they say in one Book Must we deny him the Mouth to speak by But surely by this Figure John Baptist need not when he was asked to have said I am not he for he had the Light iâ— him But what Blasphemy can be spoken but may be excused by such Quibbles as they use to excuse the blasphemous Ancient Testimonies their Truth taught them in the beginning But by the same Rule every one of them may say as Fox did and take the same blasphemous Titles and they may be given to any Quaker as well as to Fox Also in page 242. Great Myst they cite one saying The Apostles were Eye-Witnesses c. In the Answer says Fox All may see what you have received not received the Gospel by the same means the Apostles did who are not Eye-Witnesses as the Apostles were hereby implying the Quakers had or did see Christ in the same manner as the Apostles did For the seeing by Faith no Protestants oppose as I know therefore that could not be the seeing the Man intended whom Fox opposes but the Man meant a seeing with bodily Eyes and it 's in this sence G. Fox opposes and banters the Man and does thereby imply he was not Christ but someching in him and so in Fox was the Christ and he i. e. Jesus but the Vessel Garment or Shell that the Kernel Christ dwelt in And hereby the Foxonian Spirit is proved to be a proud self-exalting Spirit as well as an envious and contemptuous one which according to Scripture must be brought down For altho' they give themselves and one another such high Titles yet because a Minister termed another Minister Reverend Man they say Are you not ashamed to court one another with false and flattering Titles Ye shameless and presumptuous ones who durst assume that Title to your selves which is appropriated to the Lord alone c. Now having given some proofs of the Quakers highly exalting themselves and one another I will shew how they exalt their own Sufferings and Blood also above our Lord's in this fierce despiser E. B.'s Works page 273. say they The Sufferings of the People of God in this Age is greater Suffering and more Unjust than in the days of Christ or of the Apostles What was done to Christ and the Apostles was chiefly done by a Law and in great part by due execution of a Law c. Oh horrible Blasphemous undervaluing of our Lord's Sufferings and exalting theirs as above His and justifying or excusing them who Crucified him Also altho' they so contemn our Lord's yet of theirs i. e. the Quakers Blood in print say they to some Magistrates Do not rashly draw out your Swords against those harmless Ones whom your bloody Teachers represent to you as Deceivers be not prevailed on to release Barabbas and give over Jesus to be Crucified to gratifie the murderous Appetites of your Priests Consider altho' you may with Pilot wash your Hands and appear clear from his Blood yet before the pure Eyes of the Lord will the condemning stain thereof be found on you so fresh that you will by no means be from thence cleansed but by the same Blood i. e. the Quakers which you so cruelly shed Here they Answer that Pagan question of Is Pennington's i. e. can outward Blood cleanse c. Yes you see theirs can altho' our Lord's cannot as they imply Theirs is the Blood of cleansing no other means not by the Blood of our Lord outwardly shed but by the same i. e. the Quakers Blood Also I shall further prove these Foxonian Quakers lead by an evil Spirit by their contempt of and undervaluing the Scriptures and exalting their own above them Fox on the Titles of his Pamphlets says To all Friend every where this is the Word of the Lord unto you all And in another Entituled A Message from the Lord c. says three times this is the Word of God and yet says Great Mystery 247. The Scriptures they are not the Word of God as thou blasphemously affirm And in the Scorned Quaker c. page 19. The Scripture is not his Voice but so far as truly Translated A Declaration of what he spake to and by those Holy Men that were moved to write c. Here you see they not only undervalue our Translation but render the Scripture as an old Almanack or Gazette as to its being binding to us the Ten Commandments or Christ's Sermon on the Mount not God's Voice to us Yet I have afore prov'd Fox said his is the Word of God and G. Whitehead Entituled a little Pamphlet of his The Voice of Wisdom c. Now if G. W.'s be the Voice of Wisdom then it 's Christ's Voice Thus you see how they exalt their own Writings above Scripture and yet have the Arrogance to pretend they prefer Scripture before all other Books and Fox says in his Message from the Lord c. Matthew Mark Luke and John is the Gospel c. with the Light all this Doctrine is seen to be false And in News out of the North c. So Dust is the Serpents Meat their original is but Dust which is but the Letter which is Death Their Gospel is Dust Matthew Mark Luke and John which is the Letter And you say says Fox That Matthew Mark Luke and John is the Gospel which is Carnal c. Again says Fox that the Letter is the Word and that the four Books Matthew Mark Luke and John are the Gospel and all your abominations are discover'd Now none means them four Words or Names be the Gospel but the Doctrine in and by them four Books by them four Evangelists is the Doctrine of the Gospel and it 's this Fox opposes for when Fox put on his this is the Word of God it 's not supposed he meant the Paper and Ink but the Doctrine therein or thereby signified as when the Quakers will not suffer their Papers to be called Mens Edicts it 's not thought they mean the Paper abstractly considered but their Laws therein made for their Subjects to obey And therefore it 's the Doctrines of Scripture and not the Paper and Ink Fox undervalues and condemns and his and Whitehead's Blasphemous Imaginations they Blasphemously term the Word of God and the Voice of Wisdom and make their Preachings and Writings to be God's by them but all others to be Man's and outside Teachings carnal Letter even the very Scriptures unless when they as their Fathers did against our Lord use them to contemn the Christian Faith for altho' they so often use some Scriptures as Christ in you except you be Reprobates c. The Word is nigh in the Heart c. thousands of times yet I challenge them to shew me how often if ever they press that 15 Chapter of the 1 of Corinth the first seven verses or the 9 and 10