callest formal Preachers we see thy Sting blessed be God though we do not feel it Thy scornful Spirit reaches not our Life which is above the stroke of Envy But Leonard thou shouldst have regarded to have written Truth which herein thou hast not done for though it be true that thy Queries were delivered to us some time before they were made publick which how long it was and why we did not answer them then we have given the Reader account before yet that the Observations which make up a great part of the Pamphlet were ever delivered to us before they were made publick is utterly untrue as thou thy self well knowest And therefore in saying Some Observations and Queries made publick that was long since delivered to some formal Preachers in Reading thou hast publisht a plain Falshood which perhaps is worse than to be a formal Preacher So that thy Work has but a bad beginning and therefore thou canst not well expect it should have a good end Thy first Query is Was not Peoples going from the Light and Spirit in their own particulars many Ages since the cause why so many forms of Prayers were made to be said by the Church of England Answ This Query most properly concerns the Church of England what and how many forms of Prayers they have for what cause and upon what occasion made the Church of England is fittest to answer Yet this we say and you may do well to take notice of it that the Form used in the Church of England of publishing their intentions of Marriage three times and having a Certificate if either party live in another Parish out-does and condemns that loose liberty which some of thy Spirit have contended for and appeared in But since thou mentionest Peoples going from the Light and Spirit in their own particulars we tell thee It was they that went from the Light and Spirit of God in their own particulars many Ages since tht went out from the true Apostles and Church of Christ into vain Janglings Strife and Opposition as thou and others of thy Spirit have done And if thou hadst not first gone from the Light and Spirit in thy own particular thou hadst never published this your envious dark Pamphlet the Work of a formal Apostate Qu. 2. And did not their Compelling and using Violence to those that were otherwise minded proceed from the Spirit that made the Form Answ This Query as well as the former relates to the Church of England who may answer for themselves Thy Snare is therein seen and we may truly say of thee what B. C. in page 2. suggests of some as he says asks Questions to no purpose except to stander and abuse men Such is this Query of thine concerning the Church of England's using Violence which concerns not us more than to suffer it while others shrink from it If thou dost not intend hereby to insinuate that the Quakers use Violence then are thy Queries to no purpose And if thou dost so intend then are thy Queries to an ill purpose viz. to accuse and not prove to slander abuse and bespatter as R. C's words are Yet we do say Persecution and Violence proceed from that Spirit that is out of the Truth which Spirit as Jude testifies wrought in some in the Apostle â—â—â—s that went in the way of Cain in Envy which is the ground of Persecution as thou and thy Company have done in Printing and spreading your spiteful envious Books a means to raise up Persecution against Friends and in the way of Korah to cast stumbling Blocks through your opposition and gait-saying to the Work of Truth and orderly Proceedings thereof in the Church of Christ which hath so corrupted the Minds of some that they have appeared in a light airy scoffing Spirit which is both out of the form of Godliness and contrary to the true Liberty which is in Christ Jesus Qu. 3. Did not the Presbyterians with their Church-Faith and Directory that they had made do like the Church of England when they had Power Excommunicate and cast into Prison such as could not bow to their Image which they had set up Answ What the Presbyterians have done hath been manifest but what thou and thy company have done are doing some simple-hearted do not yet clearly see but the day hath in a great measure to many and we believe will more and more discover of what sort your Work is and what the tendency of it is and what Spirit you are of who endeavour to fill weak and unstable Minds with evil Surmizes jealous Thoughts which you with subtilty and craft insinuate into them to disaffect them to the work of Truth and beget in them first a slight esteem thereof and then an open opposition thereunto in which your Enmity against Goods Truth and faithful People is no way short of the Presbyterians However we observe you here explain the Violence used by the Church of England to be Excommunicating and casting into Prison of which some use may be made hereafter Qu. 4. Did not the Baptists with their Form which they did cry up do like the former And hath not all the Lo here 's and Lo there 's arisen when the People in every Generation have gone from the Spirit 's Teaching Answ Whether the Baptists did do like the former that is Excommunicate and cast into Prison we cannot certainly resolve but we think thou hast little Reason to reflect upon the Baptists about their Form considering how formal and envious thou art thy self for there was a time when some of them were tender and conscientious to God-ward in the Practice of their Form but thou and thy Company are found in the Practice of a part or piece of a form which one of your company compared to your Marketting in Strife and Opposition and whilst you are crying against all Forms for have not some of your company preached That the Way of Truth is without Track like the way of a Ship in the Sea and like the way of a Young man with a Maiden Did not one of them say If there were no impression of Form left behind he liked in well And another That he consented to a Paper tht had some such words in it And on the contrary have not some of you preached That God is a God of Order as faith the Apostle in all the Churches of the Saints And hath this Order in all the Churches of the Saints no form Had not the Decrees that were sent by the Saints from Jerusalem by which the Churches were established a Form And were they not of Gods Order Doth not the Apostle say to Timothy Hold fast the Form of sound words which thou hast heard of me 2. Tim. 1.13 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses the same commit thou to faithful Brethren who shall be able to teach others also 2 Tim. 2.2 Doth not the same Apostle write to the Thessalonians Therefore
that was set up in the dayes of Daniel which the Lord did and will confound Answ This being a long Query had need be answered in several parts First thou sayst Now it is come to the formal Quakers turn The Formal Quakers are in reality your selves but we understand thy Speech and know whom thou meanest by formal Quakers even the Antient Brethren and Labourers in the Lords Vineyard with all the faithful Friends that having held fast their Integrity to the Lord have stood and do stand VVitnesses in Gods Power against the deceitful creeping Spirit that hath got an entrance and habitation among and in you and by and through you endeavours to draw back the Lord's People from the true Order of the Gospel and from their diligent Care and Watchfulness over themselves and one another therein into a false Liberty and a licentious Loosness These are those thou Stigmatizes with the brand of formal Quakers And now thou sayest It is come to the formal Quakers turn What is this It that is come to their turn to use Violence Excommunicate east into Prison This is and must be the sense of thy Words if thy Words have any sense in them This String thou hast harped on all along This is it thou taxest the Church of England with in thy second Query Compelling and using Violence In thy third thou queriest Whether the Presbyterians did not do like the Church of England which thou explainest to be Excommuncating and cast into Brison In thy fourth thou askest Did not the Baptists do like the former which was to Excommunicate and cast into Prison In thy fifth thou askest Hath it not been so with all other Sects which still relates to the same thing Excommunicating and casting into Prison is come to the formal Quakers turn This is a false suggestion Leonard and of an high Nature Where 's thy proof Whom have those thou callest the formal Quakers cast into Prison Whom have they used Violence to You and your Company 's shutting Friends out of their Meeting houses and nailing up the Meeting house Door looks somewhat like an act of Violence on your parts to wards those you call formal Quakers But what act of Violence have they done to you Whom of you have they cast into Prison Is not this suggestion of thine an horrible Slander Is not this Libelling What else is this but as B. C. says in your Pamphlet to have an unbridled Tongue tht will accuse and not prove and ask Questions to no purpose except to slander and abuse men Besides we cannot but take notice how slily thou dost link together Excommunicating and casting into Prison as if they were alike evil alike to be avoided and condemned This savours of a loose Spirit that would tolerate all disorderly and scandalous Persons in the Church have none cast out how corrupt soever which is the design of the wicked One against which God's faithful People in all Ages have watched and warred and at all times under every Dispensation as occasion hath offered and need required have used and exercised that just and necessary Power which God hath alwayes invested them with of disowning and casting out and testifying against whatsoever was hurtful and scandalous to the Body and this how grievous soever it be to you alwayes will be as it alwayes has been in the true Church And whereas thou askest Are not they whom thou scornfully caâ—lest formal Quakers with all their Strength and Might c. setting up the Form that they have made c. and giving it higher Names then any that have gone before We answer Nay there is in these Words of thine a base Insinuation For neither have Friends made a Form nor are they setting up any Form but what the Power of god leads into nor do the use Strength and Might outwardly muchless are they getting all the Strength and Might they can in most places as thou most falsly and enviously suggests to set up any other Form but tht the Spirit of the living God in and through his People hath set up as to his divine Wisdom seemed most advantagious and serviceable for his Truth and People and by the strength and might of his own eternal Arms of Power he hitherto hath maintained and will maintain and preserve it against all the poysonous Darts of every envious Tongue Thou sayest Some have had the Confidence to say and Preach penly That what * We neither set up nor contend for any Form but what the Spirit and Power of God leads into and justifies in THEY had set up was to keep things sweet and clean Notwithstanding many things thou sayest have happened amongst them in many places which is a Stink and a shame to mention c. In this we believe thou slanderest those Some thou speakest of Who-ever said or preacht openly or privately that what THEY had set up was to keep things sweet and clean this sounds like Truth but like one of thy slanderous Suggestions We own no Form or Order of Mens setting up any further then men are or may be Instruments in the Lords hand The holy God by his holy pure Spirit hath set up his own holy Order in and among his People and the end of it is to keep things sweet and clean and that 's the Reason the unclean Spirit in you rages so against it and them that stand up for it And it any thing hath hapned which is a shame to mention thou Leonard if thou hadst not been past Shame might have been ashamed to have so much as hinted it knowing whom it will gratifie and also considering how it hath been aâ—d is with many of that Party thou appears an Advocate for Thou goest on and sayest Yet calling them holy Orders c. 'T is thou and you that in your scoffing flouting Spirit use to talk of holy Orders c. We say God is an holy God and he is the god of Order and the Order which he is the God of and hath set up in his Church is an holy Order They that love Holiness love it They tht are for Unholiness and Looseness contend against it And Leonard had not Envy blinded thy Eye and strangely clouded thy Understanding even as a Man thou wouldst not have publisht thy Weakness and Folly as thou hast done in this matter If any thing hath happened amiss among those that profess the Name of the Lord doth that prove either tht the order of Truth establisht amongst us is not Holy or hath not a tendency to keep things sweet and clean Is the Scripture of Truth or the Spirit of God e're the less holy because some unholy Professors of it don't observe it but walk contrary to it Did not the holy Ghost in the Apostles dayes set up an holy Order in the Church of Christ Was not the intent of it to keep things sweet and clean and from running into Disorder Yet too many things happened among them that bore the Christian
to us whom thou call'st so mal Preachers in Reading thy Queries were first directed and sent before they were printed as thou sayst in pag. 3. And in the written Coppy thou sentest us they are directed to be answered by any in Reading so that it seems as if thou hadst thought the Packets had been sent by some of us in Reading But if so thou wert out for we sent no such Packets nor do we think any body would send Packets by the Post on purpose to put honest men to charges as thou B. C. often suggestest without any other reason But were not the Packets you speak of your own Books that you have printed and spread about the Countries And have not you and W. R. and others of your Company expended a great deal of Money in printing and spreading your malicious spightful and conceited Books And although you have been at so much pains and charge to do Mischief we never heard you thought much or complain'd of that so that we may well think your clamour about the charge of Postage is rather to vent your bitter Minds against those you call formal Preachers than for parting with your Money which at the highest Reckoning you have set down amounts not to above 3 s. 8 d. But it is most likely it is your state and condition open'd unto you in what was written upon those Books or in those Packets you speak of that hath so much disquieted you tho now you go about to place it upon the charge it may be thinking that may have the fairest shew in it to carry off your work with a shew of Justice in your Complaint but that Covering is too narrow Qu. 10. And are these the Fruits of a Christian Spirit or from them that are apostatized from it Let any that have any understanding of the things of God judge Answ We don't think it the fruit of a Christian Spirit for any to send great Packets by Post on purpose to put honest men to charge neither is it at all likely the Packets you speak of were sent on purpose to put any of you to charge To us it seems far more probable that whoever sent the Packets you mention had a better end and purpose in sending them than to put honest men to charge But you should do well to consider what Fruit of a Christian Spirit you have shewed in taking occasion from this 3 s. 8 d. charge to publish your envious and scandalous Pamphlet to the World thereby as much as in you lies making the Truth a Scorn and the Professors of it a Reproach and a By-word to the Ungodly and Prophane whom you have feasted with your own Folly Is this the Fruit of a Christian Spirit Let any that have any understanding of the things of God judge whether you have not preferr'd your 3 s. 8 d. before the honour of god and the Prosperity of his blessed Truth Had you been of a Christian Spirit you would have valued the honour and Reputation of Truth above Three Shillings and Eight Pence But your opposing the good Order of Truth your Writing Printing Publishing to the World your Malicious Scandalous Books and Pamphlets your shutting Friends out of their Meeting-house and denying them their Rights and Properties are such Fruits as sufficiently demonstrate to all that have an Understanding of the things of God what Spirit you are of Qu 11. And have not you according to your Power been like them before mentioned considering your standing in giving bad Names both in your Prayers and also Preaching calling such dark Spirits that could not joyn with you about your Forms and that they were gone in the way of Cain c. when you know in your Consciences that many that you so brand are blameless both in Life Conversation and Doctrine Answ If by them before mentioned thou meanest the Church of England Presbyterians c. thou shouldst remember thou chargest them in thy second and third Queries with using Violence and casting into Prison which thou knowest in thy Conscience we have not done and therefore not like them And whether they give bad Names in their Prayers and Preaching we know not but we know whom thou art like in thy fly Suggestions of Slander and Falshood What those Forms are that thou hast so o ten reflected upon us for thou hast not yet particularly mentioned so thy general Clamour does but beat the Air Thou seemest to run against all Forms without distinction as some others of thy company have done one saying The way of Truth is without Track and another said It was like the way of a Young man with a Maiden And if there be no Impression of Form left behind one liked it well though it be contrary to the Scriptures of Truth where the Apostle bids Timothy hold fast the form of sound Words And if such of you as have 〈◊〉 these things and the like be called dark Spirits we think you have no cause to be offended thereat for none but dark Spirits would ever have broached or held such dark things as these nor do we know or believe such to be blameless in Doctrine to say nothing of their Conversation that hold such dark Doctrines as these Dost thou think him blameless in Doctrine that holds the Way of Truth to be like the Way of a Ship in the Sea and the way of a young Man with a Maider which the Scriptures compare to the way of an Adultrous Woman Is this blameless Doctrine or the Doctrine of dark Spirits Dark Spirits indeed you are who are gone from the Light of Christ Jesus in your selves and are joyned to the Spirit of Darkness which hath prevailed over you So that what the Apostle said with joy to the Ephesians Ye were sometimes Darkness but now are ye Light in the Lord may with grief be turned backward upon some of you unto whom it may be as truly said Ye were sometime in some measure Light in the Lord but now Darkness is come over you again and your Spirits are become dark And though ye retain a Notion of the Light and Spirit to talk of and deceive by yet the Work thereof you resist and set your selves in your dark Minds to oppose and revile what is brought forth thereby And the ENVEY you have manifested plainly shews you are going into the way of Cain And the calling such Dark Spirits is not giving bad Names but giving suitable Names to bad things But surely if you had intended to charge others with giving bad Names you should have forborn to have given so many bad Names your selves as your Pamphlet in almost every page is stuft with Qu 12. And was it not the Elders of Israel in days that are past that gave unrighteous judgment and did condemn the Innocent And hath it not been so in our days witness the Paper that was signed by sixty six against their Innocent Brethren in the North And may not the same Cry be sounded
Name then which were a shame to mention What! then doth it therefore follow that they fault was in the Order or in the setting up of the Order Nay rather is it not manifest and certain that the Fault was in those loose disorderly spirits that like thee and thy Party would not be subject to Truth 's Order but rejected it and walkt contrary to it Thou persuest thy evil suggestion and sayest That this which thou hast mentioned of setting up Forms calling them holy Orders c. is too much like the golden Image that was set up in the dayes of Daniel which the Lord did and will confound But Leonard was that which thou in derison callest the Quakers Form and Holy Orders ever set up under the Penalty of being cast into a fiery Furnace or under any outward Penalty as the Image was in Daniel's dayes Hast not thou herein shewed thy self to have too much Ignorance as well as too much Envy Besides they that set up the Image in the dayes of Daniel were such as had not believed on nor known the true and living God But they whom thou abusest under the Name of formal Quakers do both know him and are led and ordered by him even in those things that relate to Godliness and Christian Charity among them as a Religious People So here they Comparison is Lame as well as Malicious And it is not thy crying against Forms in general and comparing us with others in their Formality that will cover or excuse thee and thy party in your unbridled liberty Hast thou forgotten how the same Spirit of Opposition in Truth 's Enemies did appear and strive and work against Truth and Friends in the beginning much after the same manner as now it appears works and strives in thee and others against Truth an the Friends thereof For after Truth had been declared and many convinced and made a Profession of it then some turned from it again and run out into a corrupt Liberty and therein brought forth such things as are indeed a shame to mention and a grief to the truly Religious to think on And then the Enemies of Truth appeared against the Work of Truth bringing up those bad Actions which had been brought forth by some that had made a Profession of Truth and stung them at Friends saying These are the Fruits of your new Light c. just as you have done against the Work of Truth now by saying where any have gone into bad Actions These are the Fruits of your new Orders And thus you have judged and condemned the Order because of the disorderly walkings of some as those in the beginning condemned the Light because of the bad Actions of some that professed it And here with Truth 's old Enemies you have joyned and have set up an imaginary false envious Judgment against Truth which God confounded in those before and is also confounding in you And look to it in time before it be too late lest you also be confounded in and with it Qu. 7. And doth not many of the formal Preachers sit with their Hats on when many of the Lord's Servants are moved to Pray Answ No those thou scornfully callest formal Preachers do not sit with their Hats on when the Lord's Servants are moved to Pray but it is when such as are not the Servants of the Lord what-ever they may pretend but his great Enemies take upon them to Pray That those thou callest formal Quakers sit with their Hats on as a Testimony against that envious and contentious Spirit in which such undertake to pray The Lords Servants are such as are ruled by him and are found in his Work and Service which is not a work of Strife and Division as you have been and are found in David saith If I regard Iniquity in my Heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer But have not you regarded that Spirit of opposition and W. Roger's and other pernicious Books brought forth by it works of Iniquity so heeply in your hearts that you will rather deny us all than you will give judgment against those work of Iniquity Nay have not some of your Company been found in the like practice of keeping on the Hat which thou so frowardly condemnest others for And those of you that put off your Hats when such as you call formal Quakers and formal Apostates Pray do not you therein act Hypocrisie Is this the Liberty of Conscience you make such a brawling for to joyn in Prayer with those you have rendred formal Preachers formal Apostates Setters up of Forms of mens making c Are not you herein found bowing at that which you clamour so loud against And is not this vile Hypocrisie and base Dissimulation to seem to own the Fruit to be good even while you are rendring the Tree so bad Qu. 8. And doth not many others imitate them in that ungodly Practice so that it maybe said as it was in times past like Priest like People which is a trouble to many and a stumbling block to the weak that behold it And may it not be said as in times past The Teachers of the People have caused them to err Answ If the weak sees any imitating an ungodly Practice they are weak indeed that will hurt themselves with that they see to be Ungodly And it seems it is those that are in the Imitation that are a trouble to many and a stumbling to the weak not those that are in Reality And so thy secret smiting doth not reach us but if the weak stumble and fall it will lie at your Doors who have joyn'd to and follow'd that Spirit of Opposition and Contention and those in it that hath caused Division and done Mischief And you that have falsly and maliciously rendred the Antient and Honourable in the Truth Apostates Innovators and Incliners to Popery whereby you have corrupted the minds of some and given an occasion of stumbling unto many it is not your telling of Hats nor your sometimes using good Words and fair Speeches to beguile the Weak and Unstable that will cover you much longer And canst thou expect Leonard any should think that thou hast any regard to the Weak who in your malicious Pamphlet in Print hast laid so many Stumbling-Blocks in their way Qu. 9. And do not some of the formal Preachers send great Packets by the Post directed to honest Men in the Country without any Name to them on purpose to put them to Charge Answ If any such Packets have been sent they that sent them best knows the occasion and reason of sending them we are strangers to it How comest thou to suppose they were sent by formal Preachers seeing thou dost not know who sent them Mayest thou not be as much out in being so positive that they were directed to honest men in the Country to put them to charge as thou art in supposing they were sent by some of us whom thou callest formal Preachers in Reading for