The IMPOSTOR Dethron'd OR The Quakers Throne of Truth Detected to bee SATANS Seat of LYES By way of Reply to a Quaking and Railing Pamphlet written by Capt. Bishop entituled The Throne of Truth exalted over the Powers of Darknesse Wherein is briefly hinted the rottenness of the Quakers conversion and perfection in general exemplified in this busie BISHOP in special instanced In his Practises against the Estate of the LORD CRAVEN Life of Mr. LOVE By occasion whereof this Truth is asserted viz. If we may judge of the Conscience Honesty and Perfection of Quakers in general by this man in particular A man may bee as vile a person as any under heaven and yet a perfect QVAKER Come down and sit in the dust O Virgin daughter of Babylon sit on the ground there is no Throne O daughter of the Chaldeans Isa 47. v. 1. Thy nakedness shall bee uncovered yea thy shame shall bee seen v. 3. By Ralph Farmer a servant of that Jesus Christ who was Crucified at Jerusalem above sixteen hundred years ago and whose Blood the Quakers trample under foot as a common thing Published according to Order London Printed by R. I. for Edw. Thomas and are to bee sold at his House in Green-Arbour 1658. The impudent and daring Protestation and Appeal to God of George Bishop concerning the business of the Lord Craven whereof as hee confesses hee had the whole mannagement I Do declare in the presence of the Lord before whom I fear who searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and bringeth every work to judgement that I am clear and innocent therein nor have I used nor do I know of any indirect proceeding in that whole business of Craven and Faulconer To the Right Honourable William Lord Craven Baron of Hampsteed Marshall in the County of BERKS IT 'S usual my Lord you know in publishing books to prefix the name of some worthy and considerable personage and I now apply my self to your Honour upon several accounts First Tua res agitur much of the matter ensuing concernes your self Secondly I never heard but that you were a lover of your Country alwayes with much respect and honour treating and entertaining your Countrymen that came over into the Low Countryes the place of your residence for many yeares together and hee that loves my Country I love him and him I honour As for your Adversary the man I here deal with his tongue is no slander for who will believe a common lyar which whether I have made him appear to bee or no judicet mundus Thirdly I understand the present Parliament hath taken cognizance of your cause and intend to consider it next Session and I am come in the mean time to bring you good newes your Adversary quakes which if it bee a symptome of true Conversion there is hopes that confession an ingenuous confession of the whole design and an endeavour of satisfaction if it can bee will follow but fearing it may prove but a false birth I have put manum obstetricalem in intima search'd his bowels for a real discovery that the world may no longer bee deceived with a windy conception Truly my Lord your case is hard but what shall wee say 't is the fortune of the wars and there you know as in a common scuffle many an honest man that stands by and means no harm gets a knock as well as those who begun the quarrel and this your Adversary himself who confesses to have had the mannagement of the whole business against you seems to me clearly to acknowledge as the ground of your Sequestration For in answer to an objection made on your Honours behalf by your friends in the Narrative by them published hee your Adversary doubting of the weight and validity of the testimonies produc'd against you sayes in the fourth particular answer page 22. of his book that the time when your estate was sequestred was when the Commonwealth was deeply imbroiled in wars And then goes on and sayes in the next page that in such times and cases they have many considerations as the reason of their actions which those who are without doors that is your Honour and your friends who were not of the Parliament neither know nor apprehend nor are to take upon them so to do So that here you see is Club-law you must bee sequestred because the Commonwealth was imbroil'd in wars and your Honour being out of doors must neither know nor apprehend 't is too far above your reach the reason why nor are you to take upon you 't is presumption so to do For hee tells you page 2. that true Englishmen have used to have Parliaments and their Acts as being the judgement of the whole Representative of the Nation in more veneration and esteem than to bee put into the ballance with the contradictory assertions of any private or byass'd spirits And truly my Lord upon this ground we may well question whether you bee a true Englishman or no who being swayed by your own private interest and byass'd with a desire after your own estate again should dare now to move any thing against the actions of that Parliament which as he tells you in the same page answ 6. upon the proofs by him alledged and because they were not full enough for reasons best known to themselves in time of general imbroilments order'd your estate to bee confiscate So that still my Lord you must take the fortune of the wars and though your Honour and all out of doors know no reason for it yet they did it sayes hee for reasons best known unto themselves But will your Honour give mee leave as a true Englishman to say something for that Parliament and indeed for all Parliaments and Courts of Judicature you well know that the manner of their proceedings in administration of Justice is much according to that Aeconomico-Political process of nature in man himself wherein the apprehensive deliberative and conclusive faculties which in a word wee call common sense which is the great Judicatory in man doth determine all things with a common and equal respect as they are represented Now the outward sences are the Spies and Intelligencers of the Soul who bring in several objects according to their respective natures and faculties to bee judged of and determined by the understanding And hence wee say nihil in intellectu quod non sit prius in sensu Now if these senses either by any defect or vice in the organ faculty or medium which wee might follow with an exact and elegant Analogy but I will avoid prolixity If I say the senses either by deficiency or redundancy under or over-doing make a false report unto the Court the common sense false judgement must proceed accordingly and yet the Court blameless But some men tell us of inferiour faculties even in the soul it self which do corrupt the superiour and so obstruct Justice and pervert judgement If this bee so it is within doors and I who am
and his Councell which needs no long answer For whereas I had said nothing against them hee would make mee criminous by way of inference and insinuation and the like concerning Major General Desborow to whom for advantage hee will afford a title of honour whom hee sayes I intimated to have been easily and mischievously instrumental to wicked ungodly and unchristian practises 't is wonder hee did not directly charge mee But let any man read what I have therein written and say wherein have I abused him And thus much I say as to that as I hope the Major General and others in power did not by their lenity intend to countenance such practises before So now seeing what their lenity may produce they will not bee so easie to bee intreated for the future which was that and all I aimed at and the like envious dealing hath hee in the matter of Colonel Scroop and there hee charges mee with flattering him So that let mee speak how I will I must it seems bee concluded an offender But hee alledges I had spoken against him why what of this Because I deal plainly with a man when I finde hee doth ill may I not therefore commend him when hee doth well Is not this an argument of ingenuity I hope hee will pardon mee this offence And truly had I not apprehended him really to have disclaimed these Quakers as I then believed hee did I should not have made that honourable mention of him And I confesse had hee been still here in power over us I might well have been thought in so doing to have flatter'd him but it is well known when hee was here I did it not and lesse reason to do it now in that he is absent But I must here observe what George sayes concerning him which very much tends to the justifying of my Narrative concerning the rise growth and setling of the Quakers among us by the over-topping and over-bearing of our Magistrates and making them Cyphers by a forraign power so that they could not reform things though they had a will to it for page 106. George sayes hee Col. Scroop was so far from denying the Quakers to speak publikely that hee said to Dennis Hollister by name that if the Magistrates did put them in prison one day hee would put them out the next which no doubt Dennis acquainted them with for their incouragement which very likely made them so bold and daring and to out-face as they did the Magistrates and not to care for their commands to depart the City How will revenge and malice blinde a man to tell all which hee had better forborn As for the remainder ejusdem farinae which follows it is a further discovery of the same spirit which I shall passe over intending as the Lord shall give time and opportunity to give a full and distinct answer to the particular of Thomas Evens for as for Morgan Lloyd whose doctrine he sayes I had reproached and concerning which hee sayes hee sent mee a sober note to reason with mee publikely in my Steeple-house as hee calls it which I refused To that I say it 's not so I did not reproach his doctrine for I knew not what it was nor heard it that I took offence at and justly was that any man should intrude and thrust himself yea force himself into my Pulpit upon a day and at a time which was not assigned for Publike Lecture whereas himself and Erbury had not long before made a kinde of a publike contest to the disturbance and unsetling of the people in another Congregation Erbury at that time being sufficiently known to bee tainted with unsound opinions and Lloyd himself much disliked And truly to speak my minde in this matter if Morgan Lloyds note had been or were to that purpose I suppose that Minister that in these brawling and heretical times shall entertain motions for publike contests with such as run up and down and make it their businesse to wrangle and contend in things doubtful and uncertain shall not provide for his own peace nor the peoples establishment in the truth by giving them entertainment If the doctrines wee teach were unsound or our selves not able to discharge our duty it would bee a favour for some to come and help us when orderly and peaceably sent or called but otherwise for men of unquiet and rambling spirits to impose themselves upon us is neither Christian nor civil And I conceive those who are careful to preserve the people from infection do not well to encourage much lesse to invite them Nor are the people competent Judges in doubtful matters and are as I said before much swayed by the impudence and confidence of a bold and daring Opponent I have now but two or three things more to speak to and so I shall come to deal by way of charge upon my Adversary wherein I shall have so much matter as that I must of necessity avoid all debates and altercations with him in matter of doctrine and this upon a double account First because their doctrines judgement and way of arguing are sufficiently known and answered already and I am not willing to draw the same Saw of contention everlastingly not caring for the last word in the quarrel And secondly lest by taking up too much time in those things of which the reader may be else-where better satisfied as in Mr. Thomas of Vblegs most sober and Christian answer Mr. Baxter Mr. Ford and others I bee prevented of what I principally intended which is to discover the hypocrisie and unsoundnesse of a Quakers conversion and to exemplifie it in this man in particular which you see I have in part performed by discovering his railing lying and malicious dealing in which trade hee still continues and therefore page 47. hee charges mee that I would have joyned my self as a member of Hollisters Congregation but finding by discourse with him that there was no place for my imperious proud and pragmatical Mastership over them they heard no more of mee in that particular till the state of things were changed and then I became an adversary to separated Churches and to that in Bristol especially this is the full of the charge This story I assure my self hee had from Dennis But how doth hee know that Dennis sayes truth To this I oppose this true relation when Thomas Evens came first to this City I desiring to know him fully had a purpose to invite him to my house to dinner and understanding that hee would bee at the house of Robert Purnil in an evening went thither where I met him and most I think of that Congregation at an exercise of Religion where I continued Mr. Evens being the man that then exercised wherein something being delivered unsound and erronious I forbore for divers reasons to speak to it till most of the company were dismissed when conceiving it convenient I told him of that erronious doctrine which hee had delivered and spake fully to
go any further because you had examined him before in one part was it unjust that my Lord Craven should examine him or cause him to bee examined on another part to cleare himself Doth or should your examination take him off from being examined by others They did not examine him of secrets or mysteries of State but of Faulconers perjury and your mysteries of iniquity Well but then you were a man in power and hereupon you say that Drury shewing you the Subpena you asked him whether hee told them that hee was under the warrant of the Councel of State and under examination of their Committee of Examinations As to that particular amongst others but I must tell you hee was not under their examination to that particular of Faulconers perjury hee answered no. Then you say you asked him why hee had not acquainted you with the Subpena before hee went to Guild-Hall and was sworn yea there was his fault since hee was a prisoner under examination and under Parol To which as you say hee giving no reasonable answer but that hee knew not what the business was and such like when as as you say the Indictment could not have been drawn without the consent of and converse with Drury yea still there was the sin and who you say was the chief witnesse upon which it was grounded it being prepared and found that day and had hee not been committed by you Faulconer had been convicted that Sessions of that perjury which was afterwards proved and himself confessed But you go on and say That you perceiving thereby how hee did prevaricate and how things were done in design and combination against the State But stay Was it a design against the State that the Lord Cravens innocency should bee cleared Oh base Yes now I remember my self it was for then the design against the estate of the Lord Craven in all likelihood of Justice might have proved ineffectual But you go on and say further that you not knowing what other inconvenience might come to the State by his Druries further liberty since hee had made that use of it aforesaid reproved him therefore with that high language against him and the Lord Mayor as before which you do not deny received the Subpena from him and taking of his Parol returned him into custody from Munday evening to the Friday following And was it not to Friday evening following as well as from Munday evening before which you reckon up with a four nights and no longer and I say four dayes too so long that no proceedings could bee expected that Sessions against Faulconer The last day of the Sessions being no time for such prosecutions but calling over the Goal and concluding former businesses and then you say upon information of the poverty of Drury and that hee had no money to pay for his diet and lodging which you knew well enough before and have acknowledged when you gave him money for his supper and would not commit him lest hee should perish And now you say in meer charity when there was no opportunity for him at Sessions hee had his liberty upon his Parol again and enjoyes it Charitable wretch And did you in charity commit him Fie upon such base hypocrisie And then you go on with a company of blinde supposals to argue the improbability of your committing of him to the end to obstruct the proceedings against Faulconer which are so childish and coming in but by way of additional aid to your former answer which is your chief buckler but a silly one I shall not trouble my self and the Reader with which if you think any thing worth print it and I 'le bee your bondman if it any way help you nay if it don't further discover your folly and I would have writ it but that 't is as long as impertinent and this is enough And your main answer which how it clears you let all or any man of common reason judge And say is George Bishop innocent in this matter And one thing more I finde charg'd against you George which I suppose is an unjust and indirect practise Narr page 40. and used by you in the matter of Craven and Faulconer And in the Margin of the Narrative where this matter following is spoken to there is written Observe and 't is observable 't is short but home and therefore printed in another Character in these words By way of digression observe that Druries and Briscoes informations which Captain Bishop had taken above twelve moneths since and which tended to clear the Lord Craven hee concealed till this hour that hee produc'd the same in Court and never transmitted these two mens examinations to the Parliament though before the Bill of Sale did passe hee did transmit Bardseys and Kitchingmans re-examinations taken by himself and which hee apprehended made against the Lord Craven Here now is a heavy charge and certainly these proceedings if true are very indirect and hee cannot bee innocent But hear him speak for himself and I 'le give you every word And thus hee begins page 44. of his own book What Captain Bishops imployment was is already spoken his duty was to take and to keep such informations as concerned the Committee and to do with them according to their or the Councels or the Parliaments orders but neither the Council nor Committee ordered him to transmit them to the Parliament though they were not ignorant of them and several times shewed by him to some of the members of the Councel and to the Committee nor did the Parliament call for them or what papers concerning the Lord Craven were in the custody of the Councel or Committee nor take the depositions into debate after the first vote of confiscation and whether those examinations advantage the Lord Craven let the reader upon consideration of what is already mentioned and argued thereupon judge Nay but George let mee put in a word or two by the way it had been very honest and fair for you to have put down their examinations themselves that the reader might judge upon them for wee can't see them nor must wee take your word But you go on Nor were any papers at all transmitted by him meaning himself G. B. to the Parliament either for or against the Lord Craven for Bardseys examination when hee had taken it hee sent it in to the Councel for Bardsey to make oath thereof which after hee had made it was put presently into the hands of one of the members viz. Mr. Gourdon to report to the Parliament who received it and lodged it with Mr. Scobel it being not returned to Captain Bishop and for Kitchingmans re examination hee transmitted no such thing nor was any such taken whilst the Committee for examinations was in being Kitchingmans information being deposed by him at Haberdashers Hall Now I pray what 's all this to the purpose doth this excuse you will you give mee leave to interrogate you If you will not