Tryal before you And let these particular things be discoursed of and come to a Publick Hearing and Tryal at the said Meeting and what other things they and we shall agree to viz. 1. Whether George Keith hath been proved guilty by these Twenty eight Men his Accusers of reviling ungodly Speeches and false Accusations Or whether he hath given Names to any of them as alledged in their Paper that they did not deserve and did not belong to them And whether it be not false that they say This Meeting having tenderly and orderly dealt with him 2. Whether they who have signed that Paper against him are not guilty of giving him Names that did not belong to him but may be justly accounted Names of reviling ungodly Speeches and false Accusations And whether Samuel Jenings particularly is not greatly to be blamed for calling G. K. Worse than Prophane and Apostate seeing we know not wherein G. K. is in any one particular gone from Friends Doctrine or Practice or what thing or things he is guilty of so as to be worthy of having his Ministry denied 3. Whether it cannot be proved that that Faction which have sufficiently shewn their opposition and prejudice against G. K. and have signed to that Paper against him are guilty of cloaking more damnable Heresies and Errors than any Protestant Society in Christendom while it can be proved against them that they have not only cloaked W. Stockdale for above Eighteen Months in saying To preach Faith in Christ within and in Christ without is to preach Two Christs and Tho. Fitzwater in saying The Light is sufficient without any thing else and that he owned no Man Christ Jesus as Mediator in Heaven but the Grace of God within him and saying in his Prayer O God that dy'd in us and laid down thy Life in us c. and saying That he had not learned that Lesson whether the Godhead was crucified on the Tree of the Cross or somewhat that he took of the Virgin c. But they have cloaked divers other Persons in their vile and gross Errors as can be sufficiently proved and particularly Sam. Jenings in saying To do our own Business as Men we needed not a supernatural Power And Tho. Lloyd in arguing some hours That we might be Christians good enough without the Faith of Christ as he died for our sins and rose again without us And Arthur Cook and J. Simcock in their charging G.K. for imposing Novelties upon them when he affirmed Christ was in Heaven in the same Body for being in which he suffered and J. Simcock denied that Christ rose in the same Body in which he suffered And Rob. Young in saying That he read not in all the Scriptures of Christ without and Christ within and that Christ was separated from his Body in the Cloud And Rob. Owen and Will. Southbe in denying any general Day of Judgment and the Resurrection of the Dead but only what every one witnessed within here Whether these with many more that can be proved were not cause enough for G.K. to say More damnable Heresies and Errors were cloaked among the Quakers here than in any Protestant Society in Christendom 4. Seeing their Paper signed by the Twenty eight mentioneth a main Matter of Controversie betwixt G. K. and them which they say they proffered to refer to one of his own Books or to the Yearly Meeting here or to the Yearly Meeting at London let them shew what that main Matter of Controversie is and wherein his present Doctrine doth contradict any of his former Books which he saith they can never prove 5. Whether the Act of the Monthly Meeting at Philadelphia the 26th of the Third Month 1692 is according to Christian Doctrine That the Light is sufficient without any thing else thereby excluding the Man Christ Jesus without us and his Death and Sufferings Resurrection Ascention Mediation and Intercession for us in Heaven from having any part or share in our Salvation and thereby making him only a titular but no real Saviour as one zealous for that side lately called the Difference betwixt them and us concerning Christ An empty Barrel and another great Zealot said He did not believe to be saved by that which died at Jerusalem 6. Whether it be necessary to our Salvation to believe That Christ died for our sins without us and rose again and is gone into Heaven without us and there doth make Intercession for us And whether it doth not belong to sound Christian Doctrine to believe That Christ will come without us in his glorified Body to judge the Quick and the Dead and that there shall be a general Day of Judgment and that there is a Resurrection of the Dead to be that the deceased Saints have not yet attained generally but wait for it until Christ's coming And whether there is not to be a Resurrection of the Body that is not the Resurrection or Quickning of the Soul only as some falsly imagine Let them clear themselves in these things they having given us just cause to suspect them Unbelievers therein 7. Whether every true Christian is not taught and led to believe in the Power and Spirit of Christ and his Light and Life inwardly revealed and by the help of the said measure to believe in him who hath the fulness even the Man Christ Jesus without us glorified in Heaven And whether by true Faith in the Man Christ Jesus without us as it is wrought by the Measure of the Spirit and Light of Christ in us we receive not a daily supply and increase of more Grace Light and Life and a further Measure of the Spirit from the Man Christ Jesus And whether they who have not this Faith in the Man Christ Jesus without them are worthy to bear the honourable Name of Christians 8. Whether it is not a great and necessary part of Christian Doctrine necessary to be preached in order to bring People to an inward knowledge and enjoyment of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit to Preach Faith in Christ without us even the Man Christ Jesus as he died for our sins and rose again and is ascended into Heaven and there maketh Intercession for us as well as Faith in Christ in us as he doth inwardly enlighten us And whether it can be said that the Man Christ Jesus is in us otherwise than by a figurative Speech of giving the Name of the whole to the measure or part as when the Sun is said to be in such a House the fulness of the Sun's Light is only in the Body of the Sun and but a Stream of Light cometh from the Sun into the House 9. Whether the said Twenty eight Persons had not done much better to have passed Judgment against some of their Brethren at Philadelphia some of themselves being guilty for countenancing and allowing some call'd Quakers and owning them in so doing to hire Men to fight and giving them a Commission so to do signed by
distressed for thee thou as a Man slain in thy High Places Whilst thou walked in the Counsel of God and wert little in thine own Eyes thy Bow did abide in strength thy Sword returned not empty from the Fat of the Enemies of God thy Bow turned not back his Enemies were then vile unto thee and his Followers honourable in thy esteem Oh! how lovely wert thou in that day when his Beauty was upon thee and when his Comliness covered thee Why should his Ornaments exalt thee which were given to humble thee before him and how thou art fallen from thy first Love and are become treacherous to the Spouse of thy Youth Consider where thou art fallen and repent and do thy first Works But so it hath happen'd Friends lest any Flesh should glory but become silent before the Lord that this once Eminent Man and Instrument of Renown in the hand of the Lord whilst he kept his first Habitation and knew the Government of Truth over his own Spirit and witnessed the same to be a Bridle to his Tongue was then serviceable both in Pen and Speech to the Churches of Christ but now and of late it is too obvious and apparent that being degenerated from the lowly meek and peaceable Spirit of Christ Jesus and grown cool in Charity and Love towards his Brethren that he is gone into a Spirit of Enmity Wrath Self-Exaltation Contention and Janglings and as a Person without the fear of God before his Eyes and without regard to his Christian Brethren and letting loose the Reins to an extravagant Tongue he hath broken out into many ungodly Speeches railing Accusations and passionate Threatnings towards many of his Brethren and Elders and that upon slender Occasions and when some in Christian Duty have laid before him his Unsavoury Words and Unchristian Frame he hath treated them with such vile Words and abusive Language such as a Person of common Civility would loath It hath been too frequent with him and that in a transport of Heat and Passion to call some of his Brethren in the Ministry and other Elders and that upon small Provocations if any Fools ignorant Heathens Infidels silly Souls Lyars Hereticks rotten Ranters Muggletonians and other Names of that infamous strain thereby to our grief foaming out his own Shame And further his Anger and Envy being cruel against us and not contenting himself with his harshness against Persons but he proceeded in bitterness of Spirit to charge our Meeting with being come together to cloak Heresie and Deceit and publishing openly several times That there were more Doctrines of Devils and Damnable Heresies among the Quakers than among any Profession among the Protestants He hath long objected against our Discipline even soon after his coming among us and having prepared a Draught of his own and the same not finding the expected Reception he seem'd disgusted since He hath often quarrell'd with us about Confessions declaring That he knew none given forth by the Body of Friends to his satisfaction and often charg'd most of us of being unsound in the Faith We have offered in several Meetings for his satisfaction and to prevent Strife among us and for preserving the Peace of the Church to deliver a Confession of our Christian Faith in the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Author of the Christian Faith and in the words of the Apostles and Disciples his faithful Followers or we would declare our Belief in Testimonies of our ancient Friends and faithful Brethren who were generally received by us or we would concur and agree upon a Confession and have it transmitted to the Approbation of the Yearly Meeting here or the Yearly Meeting at London yea it was offered unto him at the same time that a Confession concerning the main Matter in Controversie should be given out of a Book of his own but all was slighted as insufficient The Lord knows the trouble which we have had with this unruly Member and the openness of our Hearts and Well-wishes towards him notwithstanding his Rage and Violence agasnst us and of the Endeavours of many in this place to have gain'd upon him by a Friendly Converse and by other Means not inconsiderable to a Brotherly Freedom but our Labour hitherto seems to be as Water spilt upon the Ground And this Meeting having tenderly and orderly dealt with him for his abusive Language and disorderly Behaviour he hath not only slighted all Applications of gaining him to a sence of his ill Treatments and Miscarriages but in an insulting manner said to the Friends appointed by the Meeting to admonish him That he trampled the Judgment of the Meeting under his Feet as dirt And hath of late set up a separate Meeting here where he hath like an open Opposer not only reviled several Friends by exposing their Religious Reputations in mixt Auditories of some Hundreds endeavouring to render them and Friends here by the Press and otherways a Scorn to the Prophane and the Song of the Drunkards but he hath traduced and vilified our worthy travelling Friends J. D. and T. W. in their powerful and savoury Ministry whose Service is not only here but in most Meetings in England Scotland and Ireland well known to have a Seal in the Hearts of many Thousands of the Israel of God He hath also within a few Weeks appeared in opposition as it were to the Body of Friends by putting on his Hat when our well-received and recommended Friend J. Dickenson was at Prayer and that in a Meeting of near a Thousand Friends and others and so going out of the Meeting to the great Disquiet thereof and to the drawing some Scores into the same Opposition with him by his ill Example and he thus persisting in his repeated Oppositions hard Speeches and continued Separation and labouring like an unwearied Adversary to widen the Breach made by him and so abusing some of the neighbouring Meetings by being as yet under that Cover of being owned by us we are hereby brought under a Religious Constraint and to prevent other Meetings of being further injur'd by him to give forth this Testimony strained as it were from us by his many and violent Provocations viz. That we cannot own him in such ungodly Speeches and disorderly Behaviour or in his separate Meetings and that we disown the same as proceeding from a wrong Spirit which brings into disorder inwardly and leads into distraction and confusion outwardly and until he condemn and decline the same we cannot receive him in his Publick Ministry and would have him cease to offer his Gift as such among us or elsewhere among Friends till he be reconciled to his offended Brethren And as to those few of our Brethren in the Gift of the Ministry who are gone out with G. Keith into his uncharitable and dividing Spirit the miserable Effects whereof many of us have sufficiently known in Old England and other parts our Judgment is That whilst they continue such they become unqualified
And also they have judged a whole Meeting without ever admonishing of them If this be not Partiality Injustice and Unrighteous Judgment tell us what is And clear your selves of these things if you can Signed by us in the behalf of the rest of our Friends by order of our Meeting the 18th of the Fifth Month 1692. Thomas Budd Richard Hilliard John Hart Thomas Paschall William Bradford James Cooper Elizabeth Keith An APPEAL from the Twenty Eight Judges to the Spirit of Truth and True Judgment in all faithful Friends called Quakers that meet at this Yearly Meeting at Burlington the Seventh Month 1692. WHereas Twenty eight Persons called Friends of the Ministry have publisht a Paper of false Judgment against George Keith and the rest of his Friends and Brethren without any Hearing or Tryal We in behalf of the rest do make this our Serious and Solemn Appeal to the Spirit of Truth and true Judgment in you all that by the help and guidance of the same ye may enquire and search into the matter requesting and beseeching you to do Justice in these things for the Vindication of the Truth and Honour of Christ the Peace of your Consciences and the Credit and Repute of our Holy Profession and making up the Breach that is among us if possible and answering the expectation of our faithful Brethren in England and other places of the World who will be greatly concern'd with us that Justice and true Judgment may take place impartially and without respect of Persons And Friends Think it not strange that we appeal to you universally that by the Spirit of Truth ye may give true Judgment in these Matters concerning Us and these Twenty eight Persons and others of the Ministry who are joyned with them therein for tho' upon a pretence of their being Ministers they claim a Superiority over you the Lord's Heritage and People as if ye were not capable nor qualified to judge them but that they have Authority to judge you and on this pretended Authority too like the Roman Hierarchy they have sent their Paper of Judgment against us to you tho' they were no Yearly Meeting nor any true Representative of the Body of Friends in these three Provinces but a Party or Faction of prejudiced Men against the Truth and us the defamed Witnesses of it many of whom we can prove guilty of great Ignorance and Error in Doctrine as well as some of them are guilty of evil and scandalous Practice repugnant to our Holy Profession and some that have been too busie to comply with their usurped Authority over you have read the said Judgment in divers Monthly Quarterly and other Meetings without the Consent of the said Meetings or so much as asking it All which we appeal to you Whether it be not a manifest Usurpation over you and seeking to bring you into Bondage And when we have at several Meetings requested the Friends of the said Meetings to enquire and examine the Matter of Difference between these Twenty eight Men and us some of the said Twenty eight have still refused to suffer the thing to come to any further Examination or Judgment pretending None have power to judge in these Matters but Friends of the Ministry whereof these Twenty eight are the far greatest part in these Three Provinces and most of the rest of the Preachers are joyned with them to uphold and defend them in their Tyrannical Usurpation over your Consciences as if ye were only to see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and not with your own and that ye were to take all things without all due Examination and Tryal by an implicit Faith Papist-like from them But if there remain that Nobility in you and Sence of your Christian Liberty and Freedom wherewithal Christ hath made you free as we hope there doth ye will not suffer your selves to be so imposed upon nor to be thus Ass-rid by them as to take things by a bare implicit Faith from them but every one of you to see with your one Spiritual Eyes and hear with your Spiritual Ears of God's opening and to bring these weighty Things of Difference to the true Touch-stone the Spirit of Truth and true Judgment in your selves which ye have as well as they and which many of you are better taught by and acquainted with than they even as formerly it was that many of the People say beyond the Priests and Teachers in the days of the Prophets and of Christ in the Flesh and the Apostles and also of late many Thousands of the People have seen beyond the Priest and Teachers and have been made able by the Spirit of Truth to judge them for their great Ignorance and Error And that ye may have the better opportunity to examine these matters and impartially and throughly to search into them and judge of them we have procured to be Printed their Three Papers of Judgment viz. The first given forth by their Monthly Meeting at Philadelphia the 26th of the Third Month 1692 wherein they clear Tho. Fitzwater and condemn G. K. for saying The Light is not sufficient without something else Which something else Thomas Lloyd as the Mouth of the said Monthly Meeting acknowledged They knew G. K. held to be the Man Christ Jesus and what he did and suffered for us on Earth and what he now doth for us in Heaven The Second Judgment is given forth by them called Friends of the Ministry concerning W. Stockdale signed by Sam. Jenings as Clerk of the said Meeting the 4th of the Fourth Month 1692. The Third signed by Twenty eight of them of the Ministry against G. K. and his Friends c. Which said Judgments we desire you to compare with our Printed Answer called The Plea of the Innocent c. and another called An Expostulation with Tho. Lloyd Sam. Jenings c. and another by way of Epistle in Answer to their Three false Judgments And we earnestly request and desire of you to procure of these Twenty eight Men that we may have a Publick Hearing with these Men before you all at a Place and Time mutually appointed by them and us before the People be gone from the Yearly Meeting and that an orderly Method be agreed upon betwixt them and us to prevent all Confusion and especially that none but one speak at once and that every one that speaketh who is concerned may have full liberty without interruption in order to which we are most willing that one or two Impartial and Judicious Men may be chosen by both them and us to Preside and have full Power to command and enjoyn Silence to any of them or us as they shall see occasion and whoever of them or us yieldeth not Obedience to the said Command shall be held and declared unworthy and uncapable of further speaking at the said Publick Conference And also we demand that Justice of these Twenty eight Men that they will give us the said Publick Hearing and