in G. W's Name I have also closed my Discourse with the Prophecy of Sam. Fisher which you need not doubt of but will come to pass it may be sooner than you are aware of c. only for the present we must be content to stay and patiently bear For as yet we cannot think we shall be made to handle the Sword But when the time does come I have shewed you the Testimony of two of our Prophets and early Champions what we shall do how we shall kill cut off and destroy and bathe our Swords in the Blood of Amaleck and lay waste fenced Cities and tread down the Honourable of the Earth and spare neither Old nor Young p. 126. Observe his evil Design by inventing and framing this in my Name as part of my Sermon as if I prophesied that we should be made to handle the Sword kill cut off and destroy c. and spare neither Old nor Young c. Which he would have understood in a literal Sense to make me and our Friends as Obnoxious and Criminal as he can which bespeaks not only an evil Design but premeditated Malice and Injury And I am apt to think the Man Sinneth knowingly against Light and Conviction in taking up and representing such words in a literal Sense as are in Sam. Fisher's Prophecy to O. Cromwel in 1656. and in Fra. Howgil's and E. B's in the same Year S. F. having these words I will beautifie my Meek Ones with Salvation and I will put my High-Praise into their Mouths and a two-edged Sword into their Hands and they shall execute Vengeance upon the Heathen c. And the other have these words viz. Out of thee i. e. the North of England Kings Priests and Prophets did come forth in the Name and Power of the Most-High which uttered their Voices as Thunders and laid their Swords on the Necks of their Enemies c. Gird on your Sword upon your Loyns put on the tried Armour c. My beloved Brethren and Fellow-Soldiers make all plain before you Thresh on with a Threshing Instrument which hath Teeth beat the Mountains to Dust let the Breath of the Lord scatter it c. p. 124. Now that F. B. renders these and such like Passages in a literal Sense observe his Notes in the Margent i. e. Are not these Fifth-Monarchy-Men Retract these bloody Books and horrid Principles Hereupon I would ask him and those Priests who abet him 1. If the Psalmist meant Literally in Psalm 149. 5 6 7 8 9 Let them read it at large and therein Samuel Fisher's words concerning the Saints High Praises of God in their Mouths and a Two-edged Sword in their Hands c. and the Honour they have And Isaiah 41. 15. Behold I will make thee a new sharp Threshing Instrument having Teeth thou shalt thresh the Mountains and beat them small and shalt make the Hills as Chaff 2. If he really thinks our Friends meant that God's Prophets in this Gospel-Day should go forth with outward Swords of Iron and Steel and with an outward Threshing Instrument having Teeth of Iron or Steel and that they were therewith to beat down and lay level the great Mountains of Stone and Earth some of them a Mile or Two high as they are in the North of England and other parts No I cannot think that Francis Bugg believed thus Literally either of the Prophet David Isaiah or of our Friends in the places recited by him for part of my Sermon p. 122 123 124 125. Therefore the more fallacious and deceiful he to represent them in such a literal and gross Sense to make us Obnoxious to the Government as a People of Bloody Principles Whereby he hath shewn what a Bloody Persecuting Spirit lodges in him against us There are many more Forgeries Lyes and perverted Quotations in the said Romance falsly stiled G. Whitehead's Sermon which for Brevity's sake are here pretermitted and waved And this Point concerning S. Fisher's Message to O. Cromwel and other Passages relative thereto quoted by F. B. is more fully spoken to in the Answer to the Three Norfolk-Priests Entitled Truth and Innocency vindicated p. 36 37 38 39 and p. 62 63 64. THE Rambling PILGRIM EXPOSED PART II. AFter F. B. has made such a large Confession to the Light of Christ within and to the Dispensation of God to Mankind and to the comfortable Presence of the Lord our God attending our Meetings it is very ill-becoming him now to speak so slightly and contemptuously of both as he doth in his Chap. III. p. 5. where he saith All were exhorted to adhere to the Light within to obey the Light within and to follow the Teachings thereof as a Guide sufficient to lead us to Salvation yea above Scriptures above Fathers above Councils and above Churches This I now confess quoth he was a Paradox not Orthodox but absolutely Heterodox This Confession of his is since he disobeyed the Light and turn'd his back of it otherwise he would still confess that Christ the true Light the Head and Lawgiver to his Church is above Scriptures Fathers Councils and Churches and was before them and is the Light of the World which whoever follows shall not abide in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life Consequently this Light of His is a Guide sufficient to lead us to Salvation and to Understand Believe and Practice according to Holy Scripture and not to oppose it It is a wicked Calumny against our Silent Meetings to say That they were designed to wean us off from so much as the Remembrance of all External Religion and also to prepare us to receive the false Notions of Quakerism p. 5. Our Externally Meeting together to wait upon God and our living Experience of his Presence and Power and Spiritual Ministry to our great Comfort and Edification in those our Meetings do testifie the contrary to F. B's Aspersions against them and us He has unjustly quoted me about the Authority of the Spirit and the Scriptures p. 6. as the Three Norfolk-Priests did as I have shewn p. 16 17. of my Just Examination of their two Books Entitled Truth and Innocency vindicated leaving out the very Explanatory Words relating to the Spirits Immediate Teaching being of greater Authority or Efficacy than the Letter of the Scriptures as divided into Chapters my Explanation being viz. As Christ's Words were of greater Authority when he spoke than the Pharisees reading the Letter and they in whom that Spirit speaks not are out of the Authority of the Scriptures c. See the Matter further explained in my said Examination referred unto For here we own the Divine Authority and Efficacy of the Holy Scriptures as spoken by Christ but the Division of Chapters and Verses and the bare Letter thereof not to be of the same Authority and Efficacy I deny his Consequence That any little Pamphlet of Our's is of greater Authority than the Bible or of as great for I never asserted the holy Doctrine in
Of Sam. Fisher's Prophecy and F. B.'s Malice and injurious Construction p. 14 15 16. PART II. Of the Light of Christ the Spirit 's Authority the Holy Scriptures Ten Commandments Silent Meetings p. 17 18 19 20. Of F. B's offence against Light and Conviction and his Self-Contradiction about the Light Lawgiver and Head of the Body the Church c. p. 20 21 22. Of his notorious Abuse about the Ten Commandments p. 22 23 24. How to charge F. B. if he will not behave himself quietly p. 24. Of his Falshood Envy Contradiction and Insolency against the Light and the Ministers thereof p. 24 25. Of his Calumnies and accumulated Lyes and Perversions against the Quakers compaering them to Jesuits to be distrusted in all they say p. 26 27. A Certificate on G. Whitehead's behalf against F. B's idle Detractions p. 27 28. Of his Trumpeting out his Hospitality and upbraiding our Ministers p. 28 29. Of his blasphemously comparing the Pope of Rome and the Quakers Light and of our Meetings c. p. 30 31. Of his Fallacy and Abuse in a Quotation out of G. Keith's Way cast up p. 31 32. Of Praying for the King and our plain Testimony against Plots and Conspiracies c. p. 32 33. Of F. B's exposing in Print a Passage of Two Clergy-Men's against the Liberty granted and Legally confirmed p. 33 34. Of his Pillory and Cage idle Mockery Contempt and Folly p. 34. Of his horrid Calumnies about a most Damnable Plot charg'd against our Meetings c. p. 35. Of his Hypocritical Asseveration and presuming to dictate to Authority unjust Restrictions and Limitations to prevent the Growth of Quakerism as he calls it p. 35. 36 37. Of his silly and insolent Boasting and Challenging and of our Discourse in the presence of the Bishop of Norwich and some Members of Parliament p. 37 38. His Spirit of Envy Falshood and Persecution still appearing in other things p. 38 39. A Catalogue of my Answers to F. Bugg's Books extant in Print p. 39 40. A Brief Answer to Francis Bugg's Book falsly stiled A Modest Defence c. p. 41. THE Rambling PILGRIM EXPOSED PART I. THE principal Notice I am concerned to take of Francis Bugg's Pilgrim's Progress from Quakerism to Christianity as he falsly terms it is of his Chap. XIII Entituled The Quakers Conversion G. Whitehead 's Sermon explaining their ancient Testimonies of above two printed Sheets which G. Whitehead utterly denies and in good Conscience solemnly testifies against as a Sermon never preached nor owned by him and which Fr. Bugg also knows in his own Conscience is a Fictitious Romance presumptuously contriv'd and invented by himself to ridicule defame and scandalize both G. W. and the People called Quakers and their Yearly Meeting which he calls their Convocation and The Quakers Synod also calling it a Sermon for G. W. to hold forth at their Convocation He is positive in his first Title that it is G. W's Sermon and as idle self-contradicting and false in the other that it is For him to hold forth consequently not G. Whitehead's Sermon but F. Bugg's Forgery And as the said fictitious Sermon is compos'd of base Forgery ridiculous Romance foul Perversions gross Lies idle and sordid Stuff with many curtail'd and abused Citations out of our Books besides his presumptuously Profaning the sacred Name of God and Christ and the Light within in his said Forgery And that it may evidently appear such I may recite some Passages out of it under the Title of Forgery and shew 1. His invented Cut of Pictures about a Table to represent the Quakers Synod as he calls it some having their Names over their Heads and others Deputies And on the Table two Books Pictur'd the one stiled The Journal of G. Fox and the other Church-Canons on the outsides Which is a meer Fiction of his own And in the same Cut or Figure which he entitles The Quakers Synod he feigns G. Whitehead to say Are the Doors shut And W. Bingley to answer Yea the Doors are lock'd And he feigns W. Penn to say Call over the List Are none of Truth 's Enemies here Then over one he has set B. Bealing the Scribe Which are fictitious Inventions of his own And yet I heard this Cut has been of a considerable Charge to ridicule us with such a piece of lying Vanity 2. He feigns me G. W. to Preach a Sermon in the said Synod some Passages whereof do follow with brief Observations thereupon viz. Forgery Beloved You see what great Mistakes are happened to this People of England who by following the Doctrine of their blind Guides have taken Matthew Mark Luke and John for the Gospel that is Glad-Tidings No no 't is Beastly Ware yea Dust and Serpents Meat And this I can prove by two Books wrot by our Apostle George Fox c. p. 108 109. Observe This is a horrid piece of Forgery I never preached this Doctrine in my days nor do I own it but abhor calling either Matthew Mark Luke and John or their Gospel-Testimony or holy Scripture Beastly Ware c. nor did I ever read those Expressions in any of G. F's or other Friends Books And for this gross Lye and Calumny Fra. Bugg has been several times reprehended in Print and yet still persists in the Repetition thereof see my Sober Expostulation p. 104 105. and p. 67 98 137. and other Answers to him c. Forgery Moreover the Scriptures are so uncertain that it is questionable who was the first Pen-man thereof whether Moses or Hermes yea either or neither p. 109. Observe I deny this to be Part of any Sermon of mine or ever so asserted by me There is not only Forgery against me in this but also a Perversion and Abuse against some other Friends The Questions were not their own but arose from some others as evidently appears in their Book entituled The Quakers Refuge c. p. 17. and 't is Answer'd in my Antidote against the Venom of the Snake in the Grass pag. 83 84. Forgery I still affirm the same and do tell you That it is according to our ancient Testimony and you know we cannot change nor alter being as Unchangeable as our Light within p. 109. Obs. I utterly deny that I did so tell them in any Sermon of mine That we are as Unchangeable as our Light within This is not only a Forgery but also a scurrilous Abuse of the Light within Forgery We our selves use many words not Scriptural as these of calling the Scriptures Death Dust Beastly Ware c. The Reason why we call them so and translate the Words of Christ John 5. 22. from the Son of Man to the Light within c. is because we believe there is no other Son of Man than the Light in us p. Ibid. Obs. Thus he falsly feigns me to Preach and to repeat his own gross Lye over and over of calling the Scriptures Beastly Ware and as if we used so to call them
the Bible not to be first given forth from one and the same Spirit of Truth from which we have given forth Writings and Religious Books which contain many Doctrines in the Bible and by referring thereto they prefer the Bible and the Divine Authority of the holy Scriptures contain'd therein And we still prefer the Bible before all other Books extant in the World For even the Statute-Book is of greater Authority than all the Abstracts made of it how true so ever And whereas he takes Occasion against me about an Answer given to a Priest's Question viz. Is the Moral Law or Ten Commandments a Rule to the Christians Life The Answer is Thou mightest as well ask If the Moral Law be a Rule to Christ For the Christians Life and Rule is Christ to which F. B. adds Meaning their Light within And suppose I meant so as I did mean That Christ was and is the Christians Light and Life Col. 3. 3 4. 't is not Christians Lives and Conversations in the Question but Christian's Life in the Singular to which the Answer was adapted that the Christian's Life is Christ when Christ who is our Life shall appear Col. 3. 4. Can we suppose this Life or Light to be under the Law which was added because of Transgression till the Seed came or under those Prohibitions in the Ten Words or Commandments Or is it meet or proper to apply them thereunto and say to Christ or his Light in Christians Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain Thou shalt not bear false Witness c. Or is it good Doctrine to suppose True Christians in Christ to be literally under the Law of those Prohibitions and thereby only restrained from Idolatry from taking the Name of God in vain from Killing from committing Adultery from Stealing and bearing false Witness against their Neighbours Or are they not rather redeem'd by Christ from that Depravity and corrupt Inclination from whence those Evils proceed and consequently under a higher Restraint from those gross Inormities prohibited even by his Light and Grace dwelling in their Hearts than only the Letter of the Law as outwardly written The Substance whereof God first writ in Man's Heart and after writ it in the Two Tables Exod. 31. 18. Deut. 9. 10. Exod. 34. 1. before Moses writ the Law And Christ the true Light and Lawgiver writes his Laws of the New Covenant in Men's Hearts and he it is who came not to destroy the Law but fulfils the Righteousness of the Law in them that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. Christ being also the End of the Law for Righteousness not for Transgression to them that believe This Point is spoken to before though here farther Explain'd And further F. B. bitterly inveighs against our Silent Meetings which in Derision he calls Silent Universities tending only to empty the Mind of all true and solid Notions of the Christian Religion and only to prepare them to the wild Notions of Quakerism and this he affirms from an Experimental Knowledge he saith p. 7. and calls them Schools of Ignorance and that they had strange Effects upon us and how we thereby became not only levened into a Temper to throw off all Instituted Religion but to a degree higher even to throw Contempt both upon the Scriptures Ordinances and Ministers and all things Sacred p. 8. And by their Silent Meetings weaned and drawn off from the Principles and Practices of the Christian Churches in all Ages p. 10. Answer Whither art thou now run F. B Thy own Confessions condemns thee and shall rise up in Judgment against these Envious Evil Reports of thine against those Meetings of our's for which thou hast confessed even since thou left them That God blessed our Meetings with the comfortable Enjoyment of his Presence Which could not tend to any such ill Effects as before rehearsed as either To Empty our Minds of the Knowledge of the Christians Religion or To make our said Meetings Schools of Ignorance or To Throw Contempt upon the Scriptures or To draw us off from the Principles and Practices of true Christian Churches How hast thou herein blasphemed against the true Light against the comfortable Presence of God wherewith he blessed our Meetings And how hast thou Given thy self the Lye and bely'd thy own Conscience in thus contradicting thy own solid Confessions made to our Doctrine of the true Light Ministry Dispensation of God's Love our Sufferings Love unfeigned blessed Meetings c. As also that We told People That the Scriptures were Good and a true Declaration of those things which were most surely believed by the Apostles and by us ought to be believed yet not the only Rule but still the Spirit of God which was the first Principle c. As more largely thou hast confessed in thy Book De Christianâ Libertate Or Liberty of Conscience upon its true and proper Grounds asserted and vindicated printed 1682. Part 2. Chap. 1. And thy Offence against Light Conviction and Conscience and thy Self-contradiction and Condemnation may farther also appear 1st From thy own Account and Consideration How thou camest to be a Member of our Society The Reasons thereof thou hast given in thy Quakers Detected printed 1686. two Years after thou left us and Conformed wherein thou hast given solemn Confession to the Truth of our Principle the Light and the Sufficiency thereof our Ministry Conversation Love Society blessed Meetings c. 2. And then placing the Cause of thy being Weary of our Society and turning to the Church of England upon the Quakers Apostacy as thou judgedst i. e. from our first Principles of Union see thy Quakers Detected p. 3 4. 3. Now to go round again Thy Great Work is to Expose our ancient first Principles and Testimony to as much Derision and Contempt as thy loose Invention can Produce Witness thy idle Romance and false Fiction which thou falsly termest George Whitehead's Sermon detected but especially thy profane Contempt against our Testimony of the Light within or in Man which now instead of owning it to be that True Light testified of in John 1. 9. wherewith Christ hath Enlightened Men the Treatment and Characters this Light meets withal from thee is That 't was a Parodox not Orthodox but absolutely Heterodox to exhort to the Light within to obey the Light within and to follow the Teachings thereof as a Guide sufficient to lead us to Salvation c. Pilgrim's Progress p. 5. opposing their i. e. the Quakers Light within to the Christians Life which is Christ p. 6. to the Man Christ as if Christ being Man without us hindered him from being our Light as he is the Word in us which were Ignorantly to suppose him divided And F. Bugg perverting Josiah Cole's words on John 5. 22. All Judgment is committed unto the Son i. e. the Light J. C's Works p. 93. This say'st thou Is a bold Attempt this is most Horrible
c. X. I charge you all in the Presence of the Lord God That you Judge not one another i. e. Those that be in the Unity of the Ministry and Elders in the Church lest you fall into the Condemnation of the Monthly Quarterly Six-Week Second-Day or Yearly Meeting Amen Thus F. B's invented Method of forming Commands how Idle and Impertinent does the Man appear herein And how does he Profane and take the sacred Name of the Lord God in vain For which God will not hold him guiltless And when F. B. will not demean himself quietly towards any of our Friends but be Challenging of them in the Countries or else-where and will be Charging them out of Books they may Charge him First To prove his Trial and Condemnation of our Friends to Perjury and Pillory as in his New Rome Arraigned to be a Real and True Trial and Condemnation Judicial and Warrantable by the Law of God and of the Nation Secondly To prove his Sermon which he calls George Whitehead's Sermon in his Pilgrim's Progress from p. 107 to p. 126. to be a Real Sermon preached by G. W. Thirdly To prove where G. Fox or the Quakers did ever endeavour to make the Commands of God Exod. 20. of none Effect by those or such positive Commands as he has impudently form'd in opposition thereto in his Pilgrim's Progress p. 16 17 18 Now if F. B. will not learn to be quiet towards our Friends c. that he might the more quietly go to his Grave now he grows Old they may very well Charge him on these Three Forgeries last propos'd as many more I could charge him withal and have proved against him upon his own Calumnies and Occasions so manifestly given by himself and let him be held to the point in Charge or any other who dare undertake to Advocate for him therein which I could never yet find if he and they are not minded otherwise to study to be quiet And now that F. B's Falshood Envy and Contradiction may yet farther appear to his own Condemnation seeing he hath given plain Testimony and Confession to the Truth of our Doctrine and Ministry First With respect to the Universality and Sufficiency of the Light of Christ in all Men. Secondly To our Ministry that it was a Dispensation of the Love of God sent as a Visitation to Mankind Thirdly To our bearing the Cross and suffering for the Testimony thereof Fourthly To our Love unfeigned one to another Fifthly To our Religious Meetings as being blessed with the Comfortable Enjoyment of the Presence of God According as the said F. Bugg is more fully before recited out of his Book stiled The Quakers Detected printed 1686. being Two Years after he had left our Communion and joyned himself to the Church of England in 1684. So that his Conviction and Testimony for the Truth among the Quakers even when he had deserted them pursued him into the Church of England But now being grown more hardy and so far hardned against Conviction and Conscience he can out-face both and give himself the Lye in his fore-cited Solemn Testimony and Confession as appears in his envious Contradiction following in his own words viz. Having by this time shewed first how our Teachers in order to bring us over to them and to decoy us told us The Light within was a sufficient Guide Teacher and Leader even sufficient to lead to Salvation yea above Scriptures above Fathers above Councils and above Churches I have in the last Instance shewed the Fallacy of their so early and smooth Pretences and that from the beginning they have been a false perfidious and treacherous Tribe of Deceivers as ever the World produced Pilgrim's Progress p. 15. To such a degree of Hardness and Insolency is this poor Creature now arriv'd that he can now thus scribble in Opposition to the Sufficiency of the Light within and Contempt of the Ministers thereof expresly contradictory to his own Testimony for the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned Men and to the Sufficiency thereof if obey'd to lead to Salvation without the help of Decrees of Men And to his own Testimony also for the Simplicity and Plainness which attended our Ministry which did not import any Design to decoy or deceive Men nor any Falshood Perfidiousness or Treachery as F. B. has falsly and treacherously Scandalized Us and our Ministry and thereby notoriously given himself the Lye and shamefully Belyed his own Conscience and solemn Confession and Testimony in his Quakers Detected aforesaid And the Light now so much slighted by him will pursue him as it did Judas and other Apostates to his great Vexation and perpetual Torment if he persists in his Enmity Perfidiousness and Treachery against the Light and the Children of it Oh F. B If I may yet perswade thee Repeat thy Lyes and Scandals no more His Accusation against W. Mead That he said to one W. Harris I will give thee one of George Fox 's Journals it is a very good Book yea better than the Bible Which Accusation he has many times over p. 22 23 24 25 29. but various in it viz. That 't is better than the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles p. 23. This Accusation W. Mead positively denies as contrary to his Principle which is to prefer the holy Scriptures before all other Books in the World For I asked him seriously about this matter And I am sure it is a base and shameful Abuse of F. Bugg that It is the Heart of Quakerism in saying G. Fox 's Journal is better than the Bible p. 23. This I must tell him is a foul notorious Lye and Calumny against the Quakers so called 'T is neither the Quakers Mind Heart nor Mouth so to speak but the contrary i. e. To prefer the Bible to all other Books extant in the World as hath been often testified Wherefore F. B. repeat this Lye no more against us Again as 't is F. Bugg's common Course to add one Calumny after another and to accumulate Lyes and Perversions upon us he falsly saith The Quakers stand upon the same bottom i. e with the Jesuites and therefore they ought to distrust them in all they say as the Protestants did the Jesuites We do not expect he will trust us who has belyed his own Conscience Conviction and Testimony as before evinced And to add to his Iniquity and aggravate his Calumnies against me he saith Many of their Hearers of the honest sort begin to think G. Whitehead little better than a Jesuite already he hath been so False in Fact such a Glosser and Defender of every Error the Quakers hold I have quoth he a Letter by me which my Cousin Ann Docwra sent me dated 26. 12th Month 1682. viz. G. Whitehead has sent me one of his Books c. I was asked by an honest Friend If he was not a Jesuite I answered Nay it is not solid enough for them to own especially when they write to a solid People
Christ at the Door the Way the Truth Life the Rock the Elect Stone and all these are but One Here again quoth he is One added here is Octo Personas in the unity of their Essence Hence observe by the way what rare Syntax he makes viz. Here is Octo Personas instead of Here are Octo Personae but chiefly how he has defined Person which is not our Term for those Names given to Christ for to make so many Persons of Christ as Names are given to him as those in Metaphors Parables and Similitudes which are numerous in Sacred Scriptures may he not then by such Logick or Dofinition render Christ to be an Hundred Persons in One Essence What silly Conceits float in this Man 's giddy Head What think his Friends of the Clergy of him Is he a fit Champion to undertake to defend both Theml their Church and the Protestant Religion Moreover I do confess That altho' I have often seen it my Duty to explain some of our Christian Friends Meanings when mistaken or perverted by our Adversaries I really believe I have truly Construed their Intentions and that I have cause to understand the same better than our Adversaries or Enemies And as for my own part I have learn'd that Humility and Self denial that I am not Conscious of being Pertinacious against Light true Conviction or holy Scripture Testimony And I hope also this Advertisement may satisfie every Charitable and Ingenuous Reader having been Sincere and Consciencious towards God from my Youth upward to this day according to the Measure of Light and Understanding he hath bestowed upon me humbly hoping and verily believing he will so preserve me in Christ unto the End 'T is observable how insulting and boasting this F. Bugg is in his Dedication to the Parliament comparing himself in his Work of Darkness against the Light with Daniel his bursting in sunder the Baby lonish Dragon Even so quoth Bugg have I been instrumental and burst in sunder the Quakers great Idol their Darkness within which they call the Light within Thus presumptuously he Boasts and Blasphemes contrary to his former Confession to the Light which we called Quakers profess according to John 1. 4 9. There is a Wo to such as put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light He proceeds in his empty Boasting and Insulting thus viz. I have cut down the lofty Weeds and tall Cedars Pref. p. 27. The Sting of Quakerism being taken out and the Bowels thereof ript up and their Inside turn'd outward Part 2. p. 31. And having taken this Snake Quakerism out of the Grass and laid her on the Table and taken out her Sting Ibid. p. 27. But Reader I have not done with this Snake but must have the other blow at her and smite off her Head lest she get into the King's High Court of Parliament to do mischief for she is a mischievous Beast and full of deadly Poison and begins to stink all the Nation over Ibid. p. 30. Thus far F. B. Now let the serious Reader judge what a presumptuous reviling Boaster this is as if the High Court of Parliament were much beholden to him for his Defence of them by thus shamefully Reviling the Quakers But how helpless mean and indigent does he Imply the Parliament to be to have need of such a Physitian to prepare them Antidotes And then what lofty Weeds and tall Cedars has he cut down among the Quakers What great Execution has he done by his bitter Invectives Scorn Railery and Profanation of the Sacred Name of God and Christ as before is manifest Have not his mischievous Attempts tending to a New Persecution made him stink in the Nostrils of all Moderate Serious and Unprejudiced Readers and Observers of his Works of Revenge and Malice thereby making himself and Abettors Infamous while he seeks to make himself Famous But God will debase his Pride and Presumption Altho' he would render himself an Eminent Champion as having Cut down and slain Quakerism yet eagerly endeavours to Influence both King and Parliament against us he presumes to Dedicate his bitter and scurrilous Invectives against us to the King 's High Court of Parliament superlatively stiling himself Your Honours most Humble and most Obedient Servant and arrogantly presumes to write an Address to his Majesty King William the Third therein also stiling himself One of the Meanest yet most Dutiful Subject Francis Bugg therein notifying G. Whitehead in particular and in pretence Most humbly Praying in the Name of the Church of England and other his Dissenting Protestants that Care may be taken to suppress the same i. e. the Quakers Doctrine and Books viz. such as he writes against In which he would also encourage the King to Judge who is in the Wrong and to punish accordingly And in this Case saith he let not the King respect Persons in Judgment c. Hence observe the Presumption of this silly Creature thus to presume to be the King's Dictator and that in the Name of the Church of England and other Protestant Dissenters too to Influence and Incense him against his Peaceable Subjects called Quakers as if nothing short of Punishment Persecution and Suppressing would pacify his Revenge against us But how comes F. Bugg thus confidently to Address King William in the Name of the Church of England and other his Majesty's Dissenting Protestants as if they had set him on Work so bitterly to Inveigh against the People called Quakers as he hath done Seeing in his Dedication to the Parliament he tells them He can with good Conscience say That from first to last no Clergy-Man in the Kingdom ever asked or desired him to write one Book Page or Line against the Quakers nor have any one Man Clergy or Laity seen this Book till printed If this be true then both the Clergy Laity and all others are so far Excusable as to this Book of his unjustly stiled A Modest Defence But then hath he not wronged the Church of England and Dissenting Protestants too by his Addressing the King in their Names against the Quakers seeing they neither asked nor desired him to write one Book Page or Line against the Quakers no not one Clergy-Man in the Kingdom c. If none of the Church of England nor any other set him at work how durst he Address the King expresly in their Names If he writ Truly to the Parliament how could he so write Truly or Honestly to the King What an officious Agent was he then so peremptorily to Address the King against the Quakers their Doctrine and Books in the Name of the Church of England and other Dissenting Protestants and that for Punishment too He seeks to Incense both King and Parliament and Church of England and other Dissenting Protestants against the peaceable People called Quakers as if he aim'd at their sole Ruin and Destruction For which End they shall not want his Exclamations of Heresie and Blasphemy Cheats Impostors Jesuits c. ay to Incense the World against them if he could But God's Power is above the Devils Glory to our God and to the Lamb that sits upon the Throne for Ever and Ever I conclude with this Scripture as applicable to our Persecuting Adversary Psalm 36. 1. There is no Fear of God before his Eyes v. 2. He flattereth himself in his own Eyes until his Iniquity be found to be hateful v 3. The words of his mouth are Iniquity and Deceit v. 4. He deviseth Mischief upon his Bed c. FINIS