AN EPISTLE To the PEOPLE called QUAKERS Emitted by Mr. ROBERT RICH Who arrived at LONDON from the BARBADOES the Ninth day of September 1679 and departed this Life the Sixteenth of November following LONDON Printed in the Year 1680 to be sold by Francis Smith at the Elephant and Castle in Cornhil a little below the Royal Exchange An Epistle for the most pure Amity and Vnity in the Spirit Life and Love of God in all sincere-hearted Souls amongst the People called QUAKERS And as to them so unto all or any other Sort or Sect of People that own and follow the Light of Christ Jesus wherewith every one is enlightened ROBERT RICH sendeth Greeting in our Lord God Everlasting Allelujah IN the Year 1666 feeling the Babe of Grace the Word in the Heart to wax strong in the Love of God shed a broad in my Heart I sent to the Poor of your People Thirty pounds which after some of your Leaders had received to wit John Bolton Gerard Roberts and Amos Stoddard and given under their hands accordingly 't was denied to be received and about a Year after returned to me again with many evil opprobrious Names which makes me say That I went to my Own but my Own would not receive me but sold me into Aegypt by their many false Reports And poor Joseph found no greater Enemies than his Brethren were Nevertheless the Lord my God did not forsake me but found me out in the Innocency wherewith he had cloathed me and appeared to me in all my straits and was my Strength my joy and Crown of Glory and at length brought me forth of Prison to stand before Princes assisting and carrying me with much Courage and through great Opposition to bear and finish my Testimony to Christ in the Saints And being cast out from my Brethren the Lord my God took me up and became my Teacher under whose Teachings I felt more of the Love of God and increased more in knowledg of the Things of God than when I sat under the Teachings of Men by whose Teachings I grew in Wisdom and in Stature unto the measure of a perfect Man in Christ Jesus then I came to know that out of Egypt God called his Son to whom he hath given not only the Heathen but the whole World for his Possession and Inheritance In which Spirit of the Son I call to mind the sweet Union and Communion I had with the Quakers when they preached Christ the Light in every one that cometh into the World the way to God the Father of Lights which Light sprang up so strongly in my Heart that with St. Paul it struck me down to the Ground where I felt the Root of the Matter in my self so that I needed no Man to teach me but as the Unction that small grain of Mustard-Seed grew to a great Tree on whose Body did hang all my Sins my Weaknesses and Infirmities which Seed of the Kingdom begot in me a new Heart and Placed within me a right Spirit the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding fill'd with the Love of God Allelujah In the day when the People called Quakers were small in their own Eyes I dearly loved them who did not only preach Christ the Truth and Light in every one but with much boldness and courage and through great Persecutions defended the same living in much Love and Amity one with another which to me was a most lovely sight to see till there came to be a difference between J. N. and George Fox then G. F. by reason of his Enmity and Self-exaltation envied and persecuted J. N. and begat a most bitter wrathful Spirit in all his Friends against J. N. and all that stood by him in his sufferings Thus G. F. was the Father that begat all those Divisions Rendings and Tearings that were then amongst the Quakers and since to this very day which with great violence lasted till J. N. took all the blame on himself and made himself of no reputation who was circumcised in Heart and Soul in which Circumcision he lived and died a true Israelite indeed But G. F. and his Party continued acting in another manner of Spirit for I have seen those pull hale and carry out of their Synagogue at the Bull and Mouth one Richard Freeman and the chief in this work was John Bolton with divers others At this time I perfectly saw that God had divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel and that a separation was making betwixt the Precious and the Vile amongst the Quakers And was it not the same bitter persecuting Spirit in G. F. that writ against J. Perrot's Book called Vnity and Amity for did not G. F. say This Book was writ with Cain's Spirit crying against his Sottishness and Ignorance affirming That a Cloud had compassed him that he went in the way of the false Prophets that his Spirit would give up the Children of God to Persecution Further alleadging that J. P. is one of Ham's Stock and that his gross Lies proceeded from a devilish hellish Spirit and that none that are in the least Truth will believe him and that he is a Liar and Deceiver And the great Offence G. F. takes at this Book is that J. P. owns the Spirit of God's Grace and Light to be in Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Seekers and others also that he hath Unity and Amity with all that walk therein the which G. F. denying and calling it a Lye c. plainly shews he is an Enemy to all that will not bow down to him and call him Master or Father of their Spirits and that he is turned from the Faith once delivered to the Saints and that he is removed to another Gospel than what at first himself had preached and also writ against J. P. that he was like a Dog snarling and biting such as are in the Life of Truth and so like a Dog thinks he will die This and much more hath G. F. writ against J. P. pursuing and hunting him as Saul did David like a Partridg on the Mountains from Country to Contry from Region to Region and from City to City whithersoever he went these venemous Arrows were shot against him At this time I perfectly saw a Star fall from Heaven called Wormwood or the Dragon's Tail with which he drew to the Ground a third part of the Stars of Heaven then I saw a War in Heaven a Religious War the Dragon against the Lamb Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and his Angels Which bitter Spirit of the Dragon did write or indite John Bolton's Book printed 1670 intituled Judas and his Treachery c. In which Book he saith The thirty pounds Robert Rich sent to the Poor amongst the Quakers was the price of Blood and Judas his Treachery That Robert Rich is a Vagabond on the Earth one that hath not an Habitation in the Living God That he is a Contender against God's Blessed and Holy Way the Way of Life with whom
Robert Bacon is joined That they were Idolaters and judged them to be the Whorish Spirit and that the Mystery of Iniquity in R. R. and R. B. was brought forth to open view And all along his Book is full of the like Expressions not only against R. R. and R. B. but the same Railing Accusations are also against Innocent J. N. and J. P. and for no Evil said or done against any one of them as in their own Consciences they well know To all which Railing Accusations R. R. saith The Lord rebuke thee About the same time another Book was writ against R. R. and R. B. by Ger. Roberts Geo. Whitehead and E. H. intituled Impudency and Ranterism rebuked in which they call the Spirit of R. R. which sent Thirty pounds to their Poor A drunken ranting Spirit a fained Love and the Gift they call Cain's Sacrifice Balack's Reward and Balaam's Wages Judas's Oblation and a Superstitious Idolatrous Gift Also that R. R. is a wandring Star a raging Wave of the Sea that he is a Sow wallowing in the Mire a Dog casting up his Vomit that he is that Fool which saith in his Heart there is no God and bray a Fool in a Mortar and he will never be the wiser and that this folly hath bin with him ever since the days of J. N. All this and much more for nought else than for R. R. his Gift to the Poor of their People Which Language let G. F. and his Friends well consider whether it proceeded from the Spirit of the Lamb that loves Enemies or from the Dragon that casts his Floods after the Man-Child to devour Him who is the only begotten of God in the Saints He must rule and reign though G. F. and his Men of War never so much rave and rage I say that the only begotten of God by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost in the Saints the Virgin Daughter of Sion whose Name is Immanuel must surely rule and reign Even so Amen Allelujah What had you against J. N. more than that God had taken away his Judgment from him and then led him into the Wilderness to be tried and tempted by G. F. and others and to suffer by that Spirit that then ruled in the Children of disobedience who in all meekness and patience did bear and suffer the enmity and cruelty of all his Persecutors as a good Example And what had you against R. R. more than that he stood by J. N. in his Sufferings and for pulling off his Hat at the Command of the Lord as a sign of Love to them that understood that sign better than if he had saluted after your mode and fashion in giving the Hand Also that he pulled off his Hat which was to testify that the Hat might be made an Idol hoth in keeping it on and in pulling it off And what had you against J. P. more than for owning the Light of Christ in Presbyterians Independents Baptists Seekers and others even in all that believed in it and followed it And is not the Light of Christ in every one the Ensign to gather together all of every Sect and Nation those that follow it into Unity with the Lord and Amity one with another And why was G. F. so bitter against J. P. for declaring that no such beggarly Element as the Hat off or on is any part of God's Worship And if G. F. must be obeyed in these things rather than the Light of Christ in our selves whether then G. F. and his prescribed and imposed Forms be not the greatest Idol that ever was set up by a Professing People let the Witness of God in every one be Judg. I have lately read a Manuscript subscribed George Fox writ to all that would know what those People called Quakers are and shewing their Experiences which they have seen and gone through to Priests and Professors Which Paper contains fifty Paragraphs In the first and second G. F. saith We thought it a hard thing for Cain to kill Righteous Abel but when we look'd within our selves we saw that envious wrathful Man that slew every appearance of God within and ready to slay the Righteous without Then G. F. goes on speaks against Adam's Fall and against Joseph's Brethren for selling of him into Egypt c. and tells Priests and Professors That if they look within they shall find this Nature in themselves And I tell G. F. that he need not go so far to seek this evil Nature in Priests and Professors Let him look but within himself and consider his own Actings against his Innocent Brethren and he will find Cain's Nature there and Cain's Sin to lie at his own Door and will know him that sold Joseph into Egypt c. And this Spirit was the cause of G. F's own Fall who was once an Angel of Light and had a place in Heaven but is fallen from thence like Lightning and is now become an Angel of the Bottomless Pit where he rules and governs over all that have not their Names written in the Lambs Book of Life continuing their forms of Godliness their long Preachings and long Prayers from the Comprehension of Truth but not with the Life and Power thereof Thus ye suffer that Woman Jezebel which calls her-self a Prophetess by good words and fair Speeches to seduce and deceive the Innocent among you keeping them always learning but can never come to the Knowledg of the Truth as it is in Jesus unless they cease from Man's Teachings and come to the Teachings of God in themselves which alone truly teacheth the way to Life and Salvation Allelujah I have also read a Testimony from the Brethren met at London the third Month 1666 subscribed by eleven of your Ministery Also from a Meeting at Bristol the 27th day of the 7th Month 1669 subscribed by 36 Persons Also from a Meeting at Ellis Hooks the 12th of the 4th Month 1677 against John Wilkinson and John Story subscribed by 66 most of the Ministery All which in general contain very bitter Censures and high Condemnations against many of your own People who have divided from the Body of Friends so called by your selves wherein you testify That those ingaged in the Spirit of Separation ought not to have any Rule or Dominion in the Church of God whereof the Holy Spirit that was poured forth upon you as you say hath made you Overseers But your Fruits will make you more manifest than your Words Also That all that are joined to that Spirit of Separation who stand not in Vnity with your Ministry their Judgments ought not to be regarded amongst Friends And further You declare your selves the Witnesses and Ambassadors of the Vnchangeable Truth and the Elders of the Church of God who of right having kept your Habitations in the Truth ought to judg of things which differ and this your Judgment to stand good and valid amongst Friends against all that oppose it Also that if any pretending to be
of your Membership will not admit to be tried in case of Controversy by the Elders and Members of this your Body but oppose it as the Judgment of Man you then testify in the Name of the Lord against them that he or she with all those that countenance these Refusers are to be rejected as joined in one with Infidels and Heathens These together with G. F's Paper in vindication of Prescriptions dated the 4th Month 1678 imposing upon the Consciences of Men as also the particular Invectives against John Wilkinson and John Story both importing the same Spirit of Dominion and Rule over the Conscience which is the proper Heritage of God I have both seen well-weighed and considered and while I contemplate your present State by comparing it with the Principles with which you were first inspired I cannot but take up that Lamentation concerning you which the Prophet of old did concerning Israel How is the Mighty fallen How is the Gold become dim the fine Gold how is it changed Even the Sea-Monsters draw out the Breasts and give suck to their young Ones but the Daughters of my People are become cruel like the Ostrich in the Wilderness O let it be timely considered by you how degenerate you are grown from that Love Meekness and Simplicity to which you at first pretended Are not you the Men that have in your Doctrine exalted the Measure of God in all Men as the only Guide and Director in that to abide and by it to be led and not by any outward Prescriptions or Impositions whatsoever And are not you the Men that now not only impose and prescribe on others but also condemn and censure your Innocent Brethren as Heathens and Infidels because in Conscience they cannot subject themselves under the Yoke of your Prescriptions Are you so presumptuous as to conclude all Knowledg and discerning in the Things of God and all Spiritual Judgment is given into your Hands that you usurp the Keys of the Kingdom and will let none in but those who stand in conformity to your carnal and literal Impositions Is G. F. and the Body of his Friends of greater Authority than Peter who was an Elder and Pillar of the Church whom nevertheless Paul withstood because he did not walk uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel but endeavoured to compel the Gentiles who had their Law within themselves to live after the manner and form of the Jews whose Law stood much in outward Observation from the Letter as doth G. F's Comely Order And are G. F. and his Friends so bold and daring as to condemn the Generation of the Just that went before you in other past Ages under their various Dispensation and all those Worthies in our-present Time who cannot own your Practices or submit to your Preceps by concluding them none of the Body of Christ because none of your Membership Is the Body of Christ now shrunk and narrow'd into G. F's Tribe of Members and Ministers are these the Lips only that preserve Knowledg are you the only Men that fear God and work Righteousness and must we forsake the inward Testimony to ask the Law from your Mouths Can any thing be more prodigious and destructive to the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus than this Doctrine or present it self with greater horror and amazement to the minds of all rational and sober Men and all that truly fear God that the injunction of a necessary submission to G. F. and his Tribe of Proselytes under the penalty of being no otherwise esteemed than Heathens and Infidels Do not you in these things apparently cloath your selves with the Livery and Character of him who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or worshipped by creating a Dominion over your Brethren and the movings of God in them and claiming a Power to judg of all Differences prescribing Rules and Orders and putting Yokes upon the Necks of your Disciplles to the stifling of their Consciences wounding their Peace and destroying that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free If this be the Spirit which you at present stand in as your several forementioned Papers do plainly import I dare boldly challenge all that have gone before you from the Pope himself downward to all Sects and Opinions extant in the World to produce if they can a greater Instance of swelling Soveraignty over the Minds and Consciences of Men than you have erected And certainly had you a Secular Power but framed and fitted to your Rule Ecclesiastical Supremacy the World would soon feel that the Finger of your Church-Censures would bear an equal weight at least with the Loins of those Persecutors which have bin your Predecessors Now all this considered can you in soberness conceive that this frame of Spirit in that absolute Dominion which you claim to your selves over all others will render you the Healers of our Breaches and the Restorers of our Paths of Peace Can you think that this Arbitrary and Haughty Government will invite the Nations and Languages of all Sects and Opinions to lay hold on your Skirts with desire to be led by you because the Lord is with you Or do they not rather with dread and horror behold you while you so heavily impose upon others in such Circumstances and Indifferencies wherein the Kingdom of God doth not consist and make those Rules and Prescriptions of equal value with Divine Institutions Witness the Hat c. the outward Garb imposed upon your Proselytes Your Set-times when to begin and when to end your Religious Exercises notwithstanding your pretence of the immediate guidance of the Spirit Your manner of greeting one another with many things of the like Nature To all which an exact conformity is required upon the penalty of a Censure from G. F. and his Eldership Now dear Friends can you in the cool of the Day of God upon your Spirits believe that this violent and rigid sort of Practice will render your Feet beautiful upon the Mountains or will attract the Hearts of any wise or ingenuous People toward you No surely your experience may otherwise inform you that since this violence of Esau against his Brother Jacob hath appeared amongst you the Curse of Babylon hath overtaken you Isa 47.9 to the end even the loss of Children and Widowhood which will certainly come upon you in their perfection as the Witness of God ariseth amongst those that you have so heavily yok'd and burthened with your own invented Prescriptions I have done with you when I have told you That the Dispensations in which God administers Himself to the World at this day do most naturally call for a more sober moderate tender and loving Spirit amongst Christians than this wherein you are exercised You cannot but observe how the Lord of Hosts is pleading with the World in the dreadful Manifestations of his Power by Plague Fire Sword c. how He turns the Earth up-side down and makes it reel to and fro
like a Drunkard and the Foundations of the World are out of Course divided and broken both in their Civil Policies and Religious Practices Fear the Pit and a Snare have laid hold on the Inhabitants of the Earth there is no Establishment in their Paths and the way of Peace they know not Yea this is the day of Jacob's Troubles and for the Divisions of Reuben there are great searchings of Heart God is now pleading in Judgment with the People that have bin called by his Name searching Jerusalem with Candles Zeph. 1.12 c. and Judgment is already begun at the House of God He is about to judg the Spiritual Pride and Exaltation the Cruelty and Oppression the Hypocrisy and Formality that hath mingled it self with all the fair and beautiful Professions of those that have bin called Christians And what will you say my Friends if in Israel's Skirts be found the Blood of the Souls of the poor Innocent Jer. 2.34 c. Now if this be the proper Work of the Almighty at this day as certainly all that are not either blinded with Carnal Interest or lull'd into a formal Security must needs acknowledg Can you yet be so vainly confident as to perswade your selves that nothing of this Evil shall come near your Borders whilst the Arrows of God's Judgments fly so thick in the World and stick so deep in the Hearts and sides of all both Civil and Religious Interests Are you and your Imposing Tribe the only Men that must escape when the whole World is to be set on Fire yea the very Heavens of Professors are to be burnt up and nothing to be left alive in us but what can lie down in those Flames Is there nothing think ye in or amongst your People that is for Judgment Or is this a time for you to build and raise a Name to your selves when God is destroying to contend for outward Rule and Dominion over others when God is pleading his own Royal Prerogative to fit in judgment over the Consciences of your Brethren when the Judg stands at the Door Or are ye so regardless of the prints and footsteps of the Almighty in his present Providences that ye say in you Hearts with that Evil Servant The Lord delays his coming and fall to smiting your fellow Servants with the Tongue and Fist of Wickedness wounding and reproaching them with your bitter and severe Censures thinking with the evil Husbandmen therewith to kill and slay the Heir the Seed of God in Man that must rule and reign Surely my Friends the tempestuous Storms of Wrath and Indignation that you see falling upon the World do earnestly call for a more mild and sober Spirit amongst you than this Let therefore your Moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand If you would be a Blessing to the World in your Generation learn first to judg and condemn your selves Cast off your Judging Censuring and imposing Spirit and give the Witness of God in every one its just Right its due Scope and Latitude and usurp not Authority over it Take not upon you to be Lords over God's Heritage let the Bowels of your Love and Tenderness be drawn out and extended towards the Measure of God in all Men of every Religion in forbearance and forgiveness to the whole World Follow Peace in the Spirit of Love with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see God Give Christ his Prerogative in Spirituals He must and will have it Give Caesar his due in Temporals who may of undoubted right challenge it Thus if you can commend your selves to God and the World ye shall be the Joy of this Generation all good Men will be drawn out in an earnest imitation of your Purity while the violent and wicked shall stand mute and be struck dumb at your modest Patience and Meekness you shall never want either inward Peace or outward Freedom but ye shall enter into Peace and rest in your Beds each one walking in his Uprightness This my dear Friends is the Testimony in which I long to meet you and which will justly provoke the hearty embraces of Your true Friend in Love to serve you R. R. ADVERTISEMENT of some BOOKS lately published of Mr. ROBERT RICH's I. Hidden Things brought to light c. II. His Epistles to the Seven Churches viz. 1. to the Roman Catholick 2. the Episcopal Protestant 3. the Presbyterian 4. the Independent 5. the Anabaptist 6. the Quaker 7. the Church of the First-Born Containing his Testimony to Gods Approbation of the Good and Aversation to the Evil in all Persuasions Sold by Fr. Smith at the Elephant and Castle in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange III. Abstracts of several Letters treating most of Spiritual Matters transmitted to Posterity and recommended to the sober and serious Enquirer for promoting of Vniversal Love amongst all sorts of People without respect of Persons Parties or Sects Together with a friendly Letter of Dr. Jer. Taylor 's to R. R. in Answer to one of his Sold by Benjamin Billingsly at the Printing-Press in Cornhil under the Royal Exchange