not very many which we that have kept the Power of God and our Habitations in the Truth of Christ did judge it the Ranters that would have imposed the same thing upon us so we have been kept as we were all along from the first and because we could not own such and J. P. carrying his Books to burn them at the Exchange because we coâ—ld not be conformable to them therefore come these Out-rages Nick Names Jeers and Mockeries against us who have kept in the same Power of God that we were first convinced by which they malitiously call Tyrannical so they are gone out from us and it is manifest they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us But as it was it is Deceitful Workers and False Apostles there are and the true Prophecy is come upon some of them The Dog is turned to his Vomit and the Sow to the Wallowing in the Mire that they thus bite and cast their Vomit out against us and who cannot tell how to worry us themselves but have others that consent and Confederates with them and these are their Abilities and Endowments they boast of but to all the Godly and sober People it savoureth that their Books are but as a Raging Wave of the Sea wherein they foam out their own Shame And as for the People of God called Quakers Conformity It is to be made conformable to the Son of God and as for the Vniformity it is in the Gospel the Power of God And whereas you say in pag. 12. the Papists say They believe as the Church believes so likewise sayes G. F. but the Spirit of the Hat sayes Nay This is known to all the People of God called Quakers to be a Lye against G. F. for G. F. his Words are and have been to believe in the Light as Christ commands who is the Head of the Church and as for the Hat-Man's Nay we dare not believe him who puts Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness But these Hat-Men are now turned into the Spirit of Wars and Fightings against the Believers in the Light and our Vncovering our Heads when we pray to God c. is by the same Spirit and Power as the Apostles did who commanded Men to pray Vncovered And whereas the Spirit of the Hat enviously saith The Spirit of Anti-Christ in G. F. would wrest from me what I am not willing to part withal to wit my Conscience What is not that concerning Wearing thy Hat in time of Praâ—er which I said before is contrary to the Apostles Order And yet this is the Hat-Man's Conscience who going from the Apostles Order and Excommunicates thy felf and casts out thy felf and your selves for Our Fellowship is in the Power of God the Gospel and we cast out none for they cast out themselves when they go from the Power of God and our Work was and is to seek to bring in again from under the Power of Antichrist by the Power Spirit of Christ as is sufficiently made manifest and not to wrest the Spirit of the Hats Conscience from him but that his Conscience and all others might have Liberty in the Gospel the Power of God and I leave it to the Lord to Reward thee according to thy Words which will be thy Burden for terming G. F. as a Pope and as the Spirit of Antichrist with such like Malitious Words for we nor he own no Head but Christ Jesus over our Church who exerciseth his Office amongst us and the Law that G. F. and others the People of God called Quakers own and are bounded with in which they have Liberty in the Order of the Gospel is the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus in which we have been kept from the beginning though you have a Liberty to speak and write what you please and complain and murmur against such that cannot bow and have Fellowship with you who will have a Liberty for your Conscience but not in the Power of God And the Hat Spirit sayes He is informed of a Meeting appointed by G. F. and other Elders to Judge and Condemn several Men and Women of Good Report and to Shelter and Cover the Wanton Practices of others and to Discourage Persons from Discovering the Wanton and Vnclean Ministers Answ This is another Forgery of the Hat-Spirit for Uncleanness and Wantonness blessed be the Lord they are strange things among us but if any Unseemly thing hath at any time been done such were dealt with according to the Order of the Gospel without Respect to Persons And this we have further to say That none have been more Notorious then some of the hat-Hat-Spirit but we shall not run into such Trash nor have we any such Ministers And whereas the Spirit of the Hat speaks of giving Nick-Names and they put themselves We were called Quakers But do these of the Hat-Spirit now Tremble at the Word Nay if they did they durst not utter forth or speak forth such Nick-Names against the People of God called Quakers nor father such Envious Malitious Language against the Power of Christ and his Spirit in the Quakers as they do And another Filthy Lying Scandal the Spirit of the Hat and his Company casts upon G. F. and sayes He was in such a Rage that W. G. thought he would have struck S. N. Which thing is false there was no Appearance of any such thing as the Meeting can testifie and I am a Witness who was at that Meeting And thus with your Lyes and Slanders you think to feed the Airy Minds and make them a Feast And as for W. G. he hath been heartily Sorry for Unadvisedly Speaking such words And G. F's Books to the Lawyers and Judges did not contradict what was then acted or spoken in the Meeting and therefore the 46th page of the Spirit of the Hat 's Tyranny and Hypocrisie is full of Lyes And also the same Slander and Lye is mentioned in page 42. of the Spirit of the Hat That some there present thought that G. F. would have struck S. N. and thus you add Lye unto Lye to stuff up your Paper which as is said before there was no such thing but the Man that did report it is heartily Sorry for it But it seems you Hat-Spirits torment your selves and are vext about G. F's Marriage but why did not the Hat-Spirit reprove J. P. for his Voluptuous Marriage with his Venison Pasties which were pulled about to the spoiling of the Creature and making a Scramble for the Multitude Oh Shameful Doings In pag. 19 20. of the Spirit of the Hat 's Tyranny and Hypecrisie and in page 32. in all those pages is mentioned John Whitehead's Paper and G. F. is charged with opening J. Whitehead's Letter which was writ by him which is a Lye and a Forgery for G. F. did not open the Letter but it was sent Open only Enclosed to another and left to G.
F. and other Friends to dispose of as J. W's Testimony under his own Hand before going doth testifie And therefore here you may see what sort of Men these are that forge such Lyes upon G. F. And that which he left to G. F. and others to alter was the Matter concerning Wearing the Hat in Prayer for that was the Matter then in Controversie and not Other things which he wrote to you For the Spirit of the Prophets is to be subject to the Prophets And as for George Bishop's Paper mentioned in your Tyranny and Hypocrisie about the time that you would have thrust your Spirit of the Hat in amongst us he did give it a sufficient Blow in Bristol which you might have done well to have printed with his Paper but it is like that made against you who feed upon Condemned Stuff Actions which many have been sorry for running into in the time of their Ignorance wherein they beguiled the Simplicity but now returned to Christ their Shepherd and feed amongst the Flocks of his Pasture but God's Words are true The Serpent must feed on Dust who is out of Truth Dust is the Serpent's Meat Your Sting Venum and Poison is felt and savoured And as for John Bolton's Reproving the Slit in the Woman's Coat which you stuff up your Book with and G. F's Paper against Fashion and Images c. You may feed on such Stuff who live in the Vain Fashions which therein are declared against and which shall stand over you and your Images And as for all your Aggravations and Nick Names which proceed from your bitter Gaul and Envy Simon Magus like we shall leave to God to judge of for there are few sober People but see your Books are a piece of Envy Malice Hatred and Spight and to be a Spirit that seeks Blood and you would not have been so served your selves And you make a great Clamour against our Law Government or Order I say as before Our Order is the Gospel Order and our Law is the Spirit of Life which we received which is in Christ Jesus the Heavenly Man by which the Old Adam's Actions are judged And further The Spirit of the Hat saith That G. F. and some others the Elders had a Meeting to Judge and Condemn several Men and Women of Good Report Answ Why might not William Mucklow have said That he was one of them that had reported that Slander to a Lass upon a Woman that was Innocent who was judged for it And this is another Lye in your saying That G. F. and others endeavour to subvert the Royal Law of Liberty pag. 38. For had you owned it and kept in it you would not have done that unto us as you have done Neither did God or Christ ever teach you to utter forth those Scoffing Expressions against G. F. and the People of God as may be seen in the 40th Page of the Hat-Spirit and it is the Hat-Spirit indeed for it is not the Spirit of God And in pag. 3 4. of your Tyranny and Hypocrisie there it is said Our Principles are far different from what we profess openly and that we act upon the same Principles as the Court of Rome Oh Lyes and Malitious Men All these are your invented Lyes for you and the Court of Rome we deny your Spirit and Power who are of the same Spirit that would murder us as the Papists did formerly your Spirit is favoured How we invite People to Christ both in publick and private the Lord knows to whom we leave you for him to deal with you according to your Works And in the 7th page of your Hypocrisie and Tyranny it is said For if every Man upon pain of Sin walk according to the Light in his own particular then he cannot without Sin walk according to the Light in G. F. or others when that is diverse or contrary from his own As for your Light as Christ said It is Darkness your Works and Words do manifest it who are condemned with the Light which G. F. and we and others walk in which is the Light of Christ Jesus which makes you to Rage and then we know that you cannot bear our Judgment nor G. F's and therefore such as pretend the Light of Christ and are Haters and Persecutors with your Tongues of them that walk in the Light we have no Unity with you as before But you often with Aggravations and Malice quote G. F. and scoffingly say your Elders throwing Dirt at them to make them Odious amongst such as your selves putting your Bear-Skins upon them that you may set the Dogs upon them And we and G. F. do know the things of God by the Spirit of God and the Scripture doth not reveal the Scripture but the Spirit of God is it that leads into all Truth and it is the same that is revealing the Father to us And whereas you make a great Complaint in the 16th page of the Quakers not letting some of you Bury in their Burying-Ground Indeed when some of you Hat-Men have come with Railing and Abusive Terms against us with Abusive Language and called us worse then the Priests and when his Child has dyed then the Father of such a Child has come to us to have a Grave not out of any Conscience but to save his Money we have bid him then go to the Priest whom he counted better then we with whom he had Fellowship And such Loose Persons that live not in the Truth We cannot be Witnesses of their Marriages for we Marry none but are Witnesses and well might J. B. deny William Mucklow who Ranter-like kept on his Hat in Prayer we have no Unity with such Uncomely Practices And J. Osgood and others may praise God that they see your Folly and have given a Sufficient Testimony concerning your Spirit It seems you are tormented because G. F. sent for two Kings and the Emperor which came to hear him in America and were tender you wanted something to stuff up your Book withal had they been Malitious it would have pleased you And whereas you Scoff at our Order of Marriage page 21 22. and call it G. F's Order We must tell you It is the Order and Practice of the Holy Men of God mentioned in Scriptures who took one another before Witnesses And whereas you Wickedly say We Contradict one another in the Light and Spirit This is all like the rest for such as you we can savour You Hat-Men who have pretended to lean upon the Lord but have and some have had a Bitter Cup for it And G. F's words were true in time of J. P's Wearing his Hat in Prayer if all be left to the Free Spirit of God there had been no such Reasoning about the Hat in Prayer which you should have printed the rest of G. F's words how that we denyed the Wearing the Hat in Prayer in the Ranters in the time of J. N. and also in the time of J. P. and did
Spirit and committing of Disorder in Christian Assemblies as in Matter of Doctrine or any other essential part of Worship V. The generality of the Friends in the Nation renounced it where I cannot but take an Opportunity to defend a Passage in a private Letter writ by me upon the Entreaty of one of John Perrot's Disciples in much Kindness to satisfie and reclaim him and cited by the envious Author of Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected pag. 25. W. P. saith that God hath given greater Judgment to his Church then to the individual Members of it is a true Position and the Church of Rome errs not in that but in accounting themselves a True Church These are not my very words a Disingenuity if I am not mistaken this Author wrote once almost a whole Book against however I abide by the Passage For if Christ bid individuals tell the Church yet the Church has no more Discerning or Judgements then they had themselves before such Appeal which can't be better'd by it away with Reason If in the multitude of Counsellors there be safety respecting Worldly Matters why not respecting Spiritual Matters supposing as we ever did that Gods Power Spirit presence preside in any such Church Body or Assembly This is more then the Cavil deserves but I was willing to express my mind more fully for the Readers Satisfaction VI. This Innovation brought with it Division instead of Unity Confusion instead of Order Heart-burnings instead of Love and diverted the minds of some from the more weighty things of God's living and spiritual Law VII Had it been never so Innocent it cost more then it was worth and their insisting so much upon it to the Disturbance of the Church's Concord was no small Evidence of the Wrongness of that Spirit which introduced and maintained it This shall sufficiently rebuke and judge both it and them that it added nothing to Life and SalvaÌ„tion nor to the Edification of the Body of Christ which is the End of every true Motion for it carryed neither interiour nor exteriour Homage Service or Benefit in the least either to Persons in their own Particulars or to the Church in general And whereas they frequently have accused the Body of our Friends which still remains as they once confest the Body of Christ of being guilty of Popish Customs in not being guilty of their Irreverence and that the Minds of People were not yet inwardly and spiritually exercised in Worship it is evident that their new-fangled Practice Dissent about it and continual Defence of it did more draw out the Minds of some people and exercise and perplex them about Postures and Gestures then ever they were before so that what they falsly charge upon the Church is their own proper Character Our Friends prudent Stop to this troublesome and endless sort of Innovation deserves none of those Hard Names these scurrilous Libels give both them and their Proceedings But they object something G. F. and my self have writ against Hat-Honour as that we should repute it an Earthly vain and mean thing minded only of Men in the Fall that if pulling off the Hat were true Honouring or Respecting Vile Persons would be the most Civil Real Respect is a more substantial Thing manifested by Obedience This our Adversary quotes out of G. F's Book called True Honour among the Jews and mine intituled No Cross no Crown But they forgot to be so ingenuous or on purpose would not be so just as to tell People that we writ against the fallen Honour of the Hat to Men. Because we deny it to Men must we therefore deny it to God No but we therefore deny it to Men because we give it only to God as one of those Gestures which outwardly distinguishes Worship to God from Ministry to Man But this is their Drift Ground of their citing those Passages that if it be so Mean and Earthly a thing to pull off the Hat to Man how comes it so Eminent a Gesture in Worship and why not esteemed as earthly and empty a thing in respect to Worship as Civil Honour I think I give the Force of their Objection and shall as easily answer it That which gives Weight to any Gesture is the Reason inducing to it and both the End and Frame of the Mind in using of it God's Spirit has required this before ever J. Perrot was born into so much as the Profession of our Living Way as a Testimony against the Ranting Spirit that was then very rise in this Nation and hath continued it amongst us as a Gospel Decent and Reverent Expression or Token of the Vnvailing of our Spirits to God in Prayer Now strip this Gesture or rather empty it of this solid Reason inducing and both take away that End and remove that Frame of Spirit in which that Gesture is used and truly we may then very well repute it a mean and beggarly thing for the Sons of Men to bluster about To have it in the Sence it is given to God they can not To have it without that Sence is to have an empty insignificant Gesture And should we allow of it what Distinction could be found to save us from performing that to Man which we do to God since the Gesture denotes none neither can and our Adversary denyes a Way to judge the Meanings of an Inward Spirit by Besides Man's requiring it upon an earnest Thirst after Honour that Posture which we only give to God in his own pure Worship makes the Doing of it Sinful if there were nothing else in it and therefore we deny it to Men at what time in the Reverence and deep Humility of our Spirits we give it to God out of which Sence it is nothing but in it acceptable and requisite We also â—now that Men in the Fall can give but Fallen Honour an◠〈◊〉 Gestures are invented or practised by a Fallen and Earthly Spirit the Respect they set upon them is not the true Honour and Respect but Fallen and Earthly In this Sence it is we call it Fallen Earthly and Vain More Substantial things may be so reputed as Prayer c. when not proceeding from a right Ground much more a Gesture relating to it Our Adversaries do ill to conclude so general They should have weighed that as we can give it to God only in the Restoration out of the fallen Wayes and Worships of Men so the Use of it in that Estate must needs render it a Fallen Mean Earthly and Empty Thing as indeed are all their Worships who stand not in the Power and Spirit of God much more when any the like Practice is used to Mortal Man But they further object a Passage in a Letter to Je Perrot from R. Hubberthorn Then no such Reasonings had we had if so be the Free Spirit of the Lord had been minded which is not to be limited neither to the keeping on the Hat nor off the Hat in time of
Moderate and basely Treacherous to their Ancient Friends If being Base to God and Men can render Men Christian then they deserve to be so accounted of But till Religion cometh to be read Backwards let them go for Enemies to Christianity and Murderers of Natural Affection To conclude OUr Ministry is of God it stands in the Power of the Living Spiritual Gift of God to testifie against all Ungodliness And if any Particular has ever slipt and brought Dishonour to the Truth such hath been Reproved in Righteousness and only Received upon Unfeigned Repentance which is God's Way But to Publish Proclaim and Aggravate Miscarriages of Any to the World who profess Religion committed many years ago Examin'd Judg'd and they Forgiven upon Repentance by the Lord and therefore Received again by us and all this done with Design to Blast our Credit Disgrace the Way we profess though they were no way concerned to meddle or interpose To do all this I say is not to be acted by the Spirit of God but That of an Accursed Ham and Treacherous Judas and the Lord will avenge our Cause we doubt not in due time But an Hainous Blasphemy is laid to the Memory of Josiah Coale by this Angry Agent in behalf of these Apostates and that is a Passage in a Letter writ anciently by him in his Life-time to G. Fox viz. That G. F. was the Father of many Nations But what Blasphemy is in this Is it any more then to say That by him as an Instrument in the Hand of God People of many Nations have been by him begotten to God Was not Paul a Father of many Nations who begot the Corinthians that were Greeks and the Romans that were Latins But further Whose Life hath reached through us thy Children even to the Isles afar off to the begetting of many again unto a lively Hope for which Generations to come shall call thee Blessed Very well And what Blasphemy lodges in these Words Is not that which is the Life of one Good Man the Life of another Were not the Christians of old by One Spirit baptized into One Body What Life G. F. had was from Christ Jesus and it was no other Life J. Coale writ of And I hope The Life of Christ is one in All and who can limit it And Josiah Coals with others were Children in the Sense afore-mentioned and that Life through those Children by him instrumentally begotten did reach to those Isles afar off unto which he and others went to preach the Everlasting Gospel Paul reached to the Churches though afar off 2 Cor. 13 10. He was Present in Spirit though Absent in Body for I verily as Absent in Body BUT PRESENT IN SPIRIT have judged already as though I were present In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered and MY SPIRIT in the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ cast forth and taken in too upon Repentance without going to the Lord Major and Aldermen 1 Cor. 5.3 4. His Life and Hope was through Timothy Titus and others extended unto many And why shall not Generations to come call an Apostle Blessed and bless the Name of the Lord for him respecting the Benefit any such one might be in God's Power to a People Is not the Memory of the Just Blessed Prov. 10.7 And did not the Lord by his Prophet say of Israel his People I will make thee an Eternal Excellency and the Joy of many Generations Isa 60.57 What if J. Coale had so spoak of G. F. and God's Israel now Would it have been Blasphemy But these Err not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God like the Jews of old But yet again whose Being and Habitation is in the Power of the Highest And so is the Being and Habitation of every Child of God or else he is in the Power of the Lowest the God of the World whose Habitation is in Darkness Are we not to turn away from such as stand not in the Power of Godliness And did not the Apostle go to turn People from the Power of Satan unto the Power of God which is the Power of the Highest And is it notwithstanding Blasphemy to stand in it or testifie of one that doth stand in it that he doth so stand Oh the Idle Opposition but great Envy of our Enemies They seek nothing less then the Blood of this Upright Man as the next Words and their Aggravation of them prove In which Thou Rulest Governest in Righteousness and thy Kingdom is establisht in Peace and the Increase thereof is without End Upon this our Adversary takes frequent Occasion scoffingly to call him King George suggesting him to be so vile an Impostor as to assume unto himself the Compleat and Peculiar Dignity Dominion and Authority due to Christ See Pag. 53 54 55. Which Blasphemy I am of the Mind our Adversary thinks deservedly Punishable after the Severest Sort of Death But he unworthily traduceth that Good Man and layes the Harmless Scripture-Expressions of a departed Servant of the Lord upon the Tenters or Rack that he may stretch them to his own Vile and Bloody Purposes Hath this Man forgot that there were ever such Passages writ as these The Good Seed are the Children of the KINGDOM Mat. 13.28 The KINGDOM of God is within Luke 17.20 The Saints shall JUDGE the World 1 Cor. 6.2 3. But ye are a ROYAL Priesthood 1 Pet. 9.2 And thou the Lamb hast made us unto our God KINGS and PRIESTS and we shall RAIGN on the Earth Rev. 5.10 And I appoint unto you a KINGDOM as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may Eat and Drink at my Table in the Kingdom and JUDGE on Thrones the Twelve Tribes of Israel Luke 22.29 30. It is the Father's good Pleasure to give you a KINGDOM Luke 12.23 who hath translated us into the KINGDOM of his dear Son 1 Col. 13. the Untranslated therefore Rage Wherefore we have received a KINGDOM that cannot be shaken Hebr. 12.28 they then had it I beheld and the same Horn made War with the Saints and prevailed against them untill the Ancient of Dayes came and JUDGMENT was given to the SAINTS of the Most High and Time came that the SAINTS POSSESSED THE KINGDOM WHOSE KINGDOM IS AN EVERLASTING KINGDOM Dan. 7.21 22 27. By all which it is manifest that it is the Priviledge of every Saint and Child of God to be a King a Royal Priest to bave a Kingdom and to Rule Govern and Raign in Righteousness and Peace without End So that Josiah Coale and every Heir and Co heir with Christ Rom. 8.17 doth as well Raign in an Everlasting Kingdom of Righteousness as G. F. doth or shall do for we have One Faith One Baptism One Power One Lord One Kingdom Where let it be noted that by all these Titles and Priviledges we only mean and understand Dominion over Not Bodies nor Souls Not Flesh nor Blood but in the Sense of the Apostle Ephes 6.12
and setting some on Fire in order to burn them was prevented in this his Work of Darkness and being by me and others dealt with for this and other Mad Actions intreating him to come to Repentance and no more follow the Imaginations of his own Brain but he being too high for Counsel or Intreaty returns us Hatred for Love and goes on in Impenitency and Malitious Practices unto this time as all the High-minded and Despisers of Counsel ever did and therefore no marvel that he presents me as one doing Amiss in saying I should subject to one in Christ before me in any Case So all the Honest and Plain-hearted will come to see their End and Spirit and beware thereof And I have Justification with God in giving Honour to whom Honour is due and have no Man's Person in Admiration and know G. F. did never seek for Honour nor hath been trusted in or bowed to as a Man but who seeth him that is sent of God must hear and obey him and if any have or do exalt or worship any but the Seed Christ to whom all Honour Worship and Obedience is due they have another God and practise another Doctrine then G. F. hath been the Messenger of for unto him the only Begotten of the Father he came to gather and as he hath received hath given unto us that in the one Everlasting Covenant testified of by him and all sent of God we may know the Father and the Son whom he hath sent And many through believing can say He is ascended and lives for evermore But such as are out of the Faith Reprobate from God could never see the Descendings not the Ascendings of the Son of God who is to be Honoured as the Father And they that are without Guile may see the Heavens open and the Angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man But all out of the Spirit of Truth are Wonderers and Despisers thinking and speaking Evil of those things they know not We read of one that came to Christ in the outward and said unto him Good Master What may I do to have Eternal Life Christ answered him with a Question Why callest thou me Good None saith he is Good but God This was a Parable to me when out of the Faith but in the Faith it is given to know the Deep Things of God And I only mention this Scripture to throw back the many Accusations that these Carping Spirits do cast on us as if we Idolize Man or Men when all in the Faith know all Power all Good is of God manifest and revealed in the Son by that Eternal Light and Spirit in which we worship And none ever come unto the Father but by the Son nor none ever come unto the Son but whom the Father draweth And all those that are in the Dark prophane that Name whereby we are saved but our Peace they cannot Break nor the Purpose of our God Hinder for it must be accomplished The full Time is come and coming in which all things shall be put under his Feet in whom we believe And so I shall Conclude with minding J. Pennyman and that though I have Cause to believe He Tauntingly calleth me A Great Prophetess yet I would have him call to Mind what I writ to him when he was a Prisoner at Bishops-Gate and as it hath in part been fulfilled the full Truth thereof shall come upon him and be made manifest to many and if not the Lord hath not spoken by me Rebecca Traverse Ellis Hooks's Testimony OF late there have been two Scurrilous Books published against the People of God called Quakers one entituled The Spirit of the Hat and the other called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected or a further Discovery of the Tyrannical Government Popish Principles and the Vile Practices of the now Leading Quakers Which Books are full of Taunts Jeers Lyes Scoffs and Scorns which indeed are scarce worth answering for God and all sober Men know us to be otherwise and our Neighbours that are not prejudiced But some thing has been answered and is answered for the sake of the Moderate and Simple that they may not feed with them upon Lyes Scoffs and Jeers and their Condemned Stuff and such that have been amongst them and have seen their Errors and have Condemned and been heartily Sorry of and for those things while they were amongst them that is Meat now for the Vagabond Quakers like the Vagabond Jews which they publish to the World to help them that deny the Principle of Truth it self and have made them a Feast with Lyes and nevertheless they boast of the Parts of the Hat-Men as in page 71. and those that Consent with them of the Abilities and Endowments and then Scoff and Jeer at the People of God and call them Foxonians Will this be taking think you with People that love Peace and Quietness But truly their Endowments and your Abilities are manifest to all the Peaceable People and Sober-minded The Hat-Men have been Raking and Watching these many years for Evil and Failings and give it you to publish which manifesteth your two Parties opposite one against another for one pretends to stand for the Principle of Truth but the other clearly denies it But Pilate and Herod were agreed against Christ and so here is Pilate Herod and Judas agreed against Christ's Members and so against him the Head And these Vagabond Quakers that have been Watching for Evil Corrupt Members these many years and you that Consented with them say The People of God called Quakers are fallen in their Principles But they are the Hat-Men that are fallen for the True Quakers ever stood against the Hat-Men as they call them in the time of them and the Ranters and we say They are fallen And you that take their Part and Consent with them should publish your Names and be ashamed of your Doings in the Dark but bring forth your Names to the Light and not work in the Dark nor challenge in the Dark without Name and great Boasts for we can appear before the King and the King of Heaven concerning our Actions And as for the Hypocrisie and Tyranny of the Hat Spirit which would thrust it self in among us which never was of us from the beginning we alwayes judged it by the Power of God to be of the Ranters who would have thrust in amongst us before it was born And as for Popish Practices we deny and Tyrannical Government but own the Order of the Gospel the Power of God And there is none of all them that are mentioned in these Books that hath done any Uncivil thing but hath been dealt withal according to the Order of the Gospel and what has been Amiss they have acknowledg'd and been heartily Sorry for and have Turned from the Evil of their Doings but these Hat-Men or the Spirit of the Hat that have not Repented and Some did make Confessions like Pharaoh and in Words seem'd to Repent are now turned
that all Men ought to follow the Light in themsâ—lves deprive the Church of the Power of Judging that for a dark Imagination which from the Savour and Sense of God's Light and Truth she feels to be so because some Person or Persons plead that they therein follow the Light This opens a Door to all Licentiousness and furnisheth every Libertine with a Plea What might have been said in this Case against the ancient Christians Every Man ought to walk in the Spirit and to be led by the Spirit Shall therefore any Man's Pretence to be led by the Spirit that is not secure him from the Judgment of those that are really led by the Spirit Or shall the Judgment of those who are led by the Spirit against him that pretends to be so led be reputed Tyranny and a going from the Leadings and Judgment of the Spirit to the Leadings and Judgment of Men Or because of granting the Light to be obeyed in all its Leadings and its Leadings to be waited for in order to Faith and Worship that therefore there is no way left to judge which are in the Wrong of the Two that equally say they are led by the same Light For if Men would come to the Salt Grace Truth and faithful Witness in themselves which only gives to discern and savour True Spirits from False ones they would hereby arrive at certain Knowledge in the Matter but where People stand they can never distinguish because they are from under the Conduct of that Spirit which alone reveals the deep things of God In short as no Man's saying he is in the Right ought to conclude him to be in the Right so neither can that hinder that he should not be found out by such as are in the Right Spirit to be in the Wrong if in it He that sayes he is ruled by the Scripture may err as well as he that sayes he is led by the Light therefore is he not to be censured Or is there no certain Way of knowing him to be in the Wrong It is the Spirit of Truth that opens the Truth of Scripture much more can it only give to relish Spirits Which leads to the last Question Whether the People called Quakers or those few stragling Followers of John Perrot are this True Church and acted by this Divine Light and Spirit yea or nay To answer this Question I shall keep very close to the Concessions of these present Apostates For it is not so much my Business at this time to prove us a True Church to them that never had any Relation to us as against those who acknowledge themselves once to have been of us but now decline us That God sent forth a Spiritual Ministry that many were gathered by it and setled in the Way of Everlasting Peace and called by the World Quakers the Author of the Spirit of the Hat fully confesseth pag. 9. That it was then the Church of God four lines after undeniably prove And the Lord did daily add â—nto the Church and raised up many to go forth in the Power to preach the Everlasting Gospel whereby the Church multiplyed and increased to the Astonishment of the Nations By this we see it was then the Church in their Opinion without dispute I would fain know it comes now to be no Church Has Her Refusing to conform to John Perrot's Innovation of the Hat on in time of publick Prayer unchurched Her I have hitherto thought that a Society's going from or adding to what it was when truly called a Church was that which only did Unchurch it and not its continuing as it was And if this be good Arguing The People called Quakers remain still the same Chruch but their Adversaries not the same Members In short where the first Occasion of Offence was given there was the first Breach of Unity Had the Church imposed upon them there would be some reason for varying of her Character and condemning her as Fallen But the Innovation being their own she is not accountable unto them but they to her for such unwarrantable Novelties so that the Question is not Whether the Quakers impose but Whether they did not innovate All was well till this Imagination was hatched The Spirit of Judgment and Burning had its course Their Vessells were filled with Refreshment Springs of Life broke out in their Bellies and Bread of Life dwelt within them They wanted no good thing as that Letter of the Hat relates If this may be credited How comes so sudden a Revolution that in a Years time the Mighty should be fallen the Stars ceased to give their Light the Poor distressed the Young Ones bruised and Conscience imposed upon by a Law Which wretched Deciet me-thinks should be obvious to every impartial Reader There is no Wisdom to believe Men so inconstant to their own Apprehensions and who of all times in which to prove this great Alteration should make Choice of that in which was so great a Persecution and so Noble a Testimony born for the Truth viz. 1662. But the Truth of the matter is this John Perrot who if he had been as faithful as his Companion might with him have been hanged at Rome as we have been informed to his own Comfort the Truth 's Honour and the Churches Peace came home as filled with Conceit as he pretended his Body had been oppressed with Sufferings which kindling so great a Love in the Hearts of some Tender Friends as they unwarily became Incouragers of his Ambition in their too high exilting and lamenting his Sufferings Which having rendered him Master of their Affections they most of them easily became Embracers of his Invention We had reason to believe it had almost been impossible for him ever to have made one Proselyte had not the noise of his Forreign Tryals disposed the Hearts of some affectionate People to receive his Impression He that will please to consider the improbable Account he vainly gave of his own Sufferings saying that since Adam's Day none had ever undergone the like his singular Style Proverbial Chapters in imitation of Solomon his Toyish conceited Rhymes his Title page of the Wren in the burning Bush waving her Wings of Contraction c. his peculiar Subscription which was generally JOHN and could not be so because there was no more of that Name amongst us but because he would be the JOHN of JOHNS and which is yet more ridiculous in a Letter to several grave Women your dear SISTER JOHN with his absurd new fangled bodily Greetings his most Papal Salutations to G. Fox E. Burroughs others by them rejected himself reproved as if he had spent his time in Learning all the Superlative Complements of Rome I say he that pleases to consider these things must needs think that the Man had lost his Guide and was dangerously elevated above the holy Fear of God and heavenly Life of the Truth and his Standing being soon discerned by several Weighty Friends he was
soberly secretly and frequently dealt withall his Condition represented his Danger shewn and a Station of Safety pointed to him It was the daily Travel of many who sought his Wel-fare and the Churche's Peace to bring him to a Sence of his own Condition But no Argument or Entreaties could prevail no Sighs or Tears could soften him but resolved he was for a Sect-Master and his Mark must be the Hat on in time of Publick Prayer That which yet whetted many simple Hearts to follow his Example was with his Sufferings his Pharisaical Pretences to a higher Dispensation but instead of shewing them a readier Way to an higher State of Holiness he diverted their Minds from the more weighty things of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus to contend for that rude and unprofitable Practice of the Hat on in time of publick Prayer an Invention to no Edification but to the great Disturbance of the Church Thus began what rent he sought to make amongst us Before this we were at Peace our Sion prosperous and those Apostate Adversaries allowed us to be God's Church his chosen People I appeal now to the whole World of moderate and impartial People whether we acted herein unlike Christian sober and prudent Men And if any of our publick Enemies who pretend to own a Church-Authority some of them also being Members and Leaders would not have done the like Must we suffer for that which they justifie We rejected a Practice we had no Authority for neither without nor within We saw Who brought it in and What acted him with the bent and tendency of it And it was as much our Duty to withstand the Entrance of that wich was Wrong as to continue in the Practice of that which was Right and setled in the Power of God long before among us We might invert their Plea much more truly The Light within enjoyned us to disown them had we not then sinned to have declined Or is our Light Darkness because they call their Darkness Light In short the Church never knew it when so much admired by her present Enemies And because when it came she rejected it therefore are they become her Enemies which proves Them and not the Church to be changed But supposing we had nothing of this to our Defence What is become of the once acknowledged Blessed Church and her Powerful Ministry If we have lost both who has found them If due to any Body in case our Adversaries be in the Right it must be to them But I know of no Church nor do I hear of any Ministry they have nor the Power of God manifest among them either for the Building up of themselves or the Gathering of others What! Is the Church already returned into the Wilderness and is the Power lost which they acknowledge was once amongst us and to God's Eternal Praise we daily witness in the City and Country to attend our Travels But as they were not of God in their Dissensions so neither have they stood We suffer as we did The World loves them more then it did They are Friends but both Enemies to us Their Sect Master returned with the Dog to the Vomit to Swearing Fighting fine Cloathes Cap and Knee to Men who could sit on his B with his Hat on his Head when he prayed to the most high God Some of his Followers run into Looseness and Rantism others into Enmity and Earthly-Mindedness but far the more considerable returned to their first Love and Workes whom God hath since frequently blest with his heavenly Presence and sealed to them the Comfort of the holy Communion of the Brethren To sum up what we have been saying First The True Church of Christ by the Gift of the holy Spirit from Christ the Head is enabled to try savour and relish Wrong Spirits under never such Right Appearances as that without which she could never be preserved from the Wolves that are in Sheep's Cloathing nor the Deceivers that come with Christ's Words out of Christ's Power and Life Secondly That this Church hath as well Power to reject the false Spirit as to try it Thirdly That men may be in the Words and not the Spirit of Truth that notwithstanding it is the Duty of all Men to act by the Light and Spirit within that hinders not that such as walk not according to the Light within though they may pretend to do it should be known and judged of them that really do so Fourthly That we were this True Church of God by our Apostate Adversaries own Confession And we have proved that not we but our Adversaries have altered since the time that large Confession mentions by giving the Offence and making the first Breach of Vnity notwithstanding the many Christian Courses that were taken to restore them and preserve Concord among Brethren Therefore our Judgment of them is not that of a Dark Dead Body but a Living Spiritual Society and in the Gift Discerning and Authority of God's holy and unerring Spirit which they acknowledge we once had and cannot prove when and by what we lost it And blessed be the Lord God of Heaven and Earth his Living Power is with us be owns our Ministry and Fellowship in the Hearts of Thousands yea Ten Thousands have bowed to the Righteousness of his Scepter since the day that perverse Core first troubled our Israel No Tryals have scattered us nor Sufferings worn us out but to the Honour of the blessed Name of the Lord we have been by it kept to this day whose Goodness renews with the Morning and whose Mercies endures forever Blessed are they that fear him such will he alwayes keep in perfect Peace But the Author of the Spirit of the Hat and his Tyrannical and Hypocritical Defender in his Libel called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected cry out This is arrant Popery But I will tell such Licentious Spirits That it is plainly Scriptural What if a False Church assume the Priviledge of a True one does that make the True Church a False one for pleading that Priviledge The Papists say God ought to be worshipped must we not therefore worship him because they say so 'T is just as good as to say That because one Man cheatingly calls himself by another Man's Name therefore that other Man must renounce his own Name Prove Discerning and Judgment by the Holy Ghost in any Body or Society to be the Mark of a False Church and ye do your Business otherwise you must acknowledge it to be the Priviledge of a True Church but deny it to be ours as we do that it is the Church of Rome's But we have proved out of your own Pamphlets thâ—t you acknowledge us to have been the True Church and in our own Discourse that we have continued that which we ever were And that God's powerful convincinâ—â—nd converting Ministry remains amongst us Therefore thâ—â— Priviledge upon their own Principles does belong to us But perhaps they will both endeavour
to avoid the Dint of these convincing Arguments thus We deny not the Body of the People called Quakers nor as they act in the Light that they have true Judgment But we complain against your Foxonian Vnity which consists of certain Ministers and Elders which lift up G. Fox for a Bishop a Pope and a King making his Papers Edicts then entitle them the Judgment of the Body whereas indeed 't is but the Mind of a Cabal of Foxonians the Leaders are the Men we strike at See Spirit of the Hat pag. 11 12 13 14 15 16. Tyran Defend But should we allow this to be True as we reject it for a Slander 't is granted to us that the Body of the People called Quakers is not their Aim but some few particulars that make not up the hundreth part of the Church and who will in the things objected sufficiently clear themselves so that the Judgment of the Body is not denyed because of the Judgment of some few Elders that displease them the Question then will be whether the Body in all Places concerned has given its Judgment against that innovating Spirit of John Perrot yea or nay The Determination of which Question gives a great In-sight into the present Controversie In order to which I offer two things to be considered First That in all Places where Jo. Perrot's Spirit and Practice made any Appearance through the Churches in this or other Nations there has been a two-fold Judgment given 1. That of the Church in the Fear and Presence of the Eternal God she worships according to his free Spirit and that Discerning which was given her of him concerning which if there be any Scruple in the publick canvas of this Matter we can readily produce a multitude of Certificates to verifie it 2. The Judgment of many considerable Persons against themselves and their own Practice whose Simplicity was betrayed by that dissentious Spirit But it so happens that some of them of how good Report soever are now not to be credited because it crosseth the Humor of these Envious Authors and their prejudiced Adherents What Name shall we call this Partiallity by who praised their Honesty when they espoused the Hat and now question their Conscience in declaring their Mistake And such is the Fool-Hardiness and Vanity of this Socinian Apologizer in the Defence of the Hat on in Prayer That in a great Marginal Note he cryes out What 's become of John Osgood ' s Integrity that he should put his Name among such Men as these As if we had committed all the Infamies prohibited in the first and second Table of God's Law rather then seasonably given check to the boundless Novelties of an Imaginary Innovatour This is your Vniversalian that tells us how dangerous it is to be of a Party who has bestowed a whole Pamphlet in Defence of one built upon no better Foundation then the irreverent Practice of the Hat on in time of publick Prayer But his own Revilings and injustifiable Officiousness have proved it dangerous to be of such a Party indeed But why must not the rest be credited Are they deceived in Returning Shew it Was it imposed upon them as they suggest Prove it John Pennyman if he has not lost all Conscience and Memory can tell them another Story For as became the People of God for the Decision of this Controversie a very great Meeting was desired and appointed unto which both sorts willingly resorted So that it was not Imposition but Choice In which great and earnest were the Desires and Travels of those who had opposed the Spirit of John Perrot that the Lord himself would please in some signal manner to break forth amongst them that the Judgment which should pass among them in order to a Reconciliation might not be accounted the Judgment of Man but the Judgment of God These faithful Cryes entered the Ears of the God of Peace whose Compassions fail not That with an high Hand and an out-stretched Arm he rent through the Meeting that both Sorts were greatly broken and humbled before the Lord. In which deep and tender Sense J. P. J. C. though never in the Practice of the Hat J. O. J. C. W. P. W. G. G. W. and John Pennyman himself with very many more not now to be mentioned in Fear and Trembling great Brokenness of Spirit to the Astonishment of all Beholders plainly and fully testified against the Spirit and Practice of J. Perrot to be out of the Life of the Truth Vnity of the Body And who wâ—â— more Express Earnest Frequent in the Judging that Spirit 〈◊〉 Envious Apostatized J. Pennyman Did he not say of those 〈◊〉 â—â—â—posed J. Perrot's Spirit You are more Righteous then we And if you had not stood we had perisht And did not he call that Spirit of J. Perrot that led to keep on the Hat in Publick Prayer THE SPIRIT OF WITCHCRAFT AND OF THE DEVIL and to that Purpose And is he not now in Defence of that Spirit What shall we say then upon his present Distance and Enmity Hath he not pronounced his own Character and Sentence hereby What heed is to be given to such a Changeable Self-Contradicting Person Now that the Government of our Christian Body should be called Tyranny and the Confessions of these Men Hypocrisy tell me thou that art my impartial Reader what sort of Conscience our present Enemies have thus to treat both the one and the other How evident is it that these great Enemies of Imposition would have been the Task-Masters themselves who are Insolent and Uncharitable enough to censure these Men in pulling off their Hats again to be guilty of Hypocrisie who in Fear to God and the Sense of his Spirit condemned the keeping of it on Deceit Oh how unworthily have they dealt with us and how ill an Use have they made of all wholsom Counsel to reclaim them That little Yielding that our Friends at first shewed to re-gain them they made use of to confirm them and their Obstinacy leading us to more Severity like Bastard Children they run away with open mouth bauling into the very Ears of some Envious and Busie-body Professors Imposition Popery Tyranny Arbitrary Government and these are become Theames for such prejudiced Persons as this Adversary to declaim against the poor Quakers upon Where it may not be unseasonably observed That if we should as ill bestow our time in gathering up all the Villanous and Impious Miscarriages of many professed Members of the several Religious Ways within this Kingdom I doubt not but we might cut them out more Work then they would be willing to have Had we thus begun with them how Condemnable would they have thought it But it having been their Practice towards us we must not chide them for Injustice lest we be reputed Railers For so big is the Beam in their own Eyes that the Vilest buses against us pass for Innocent and Justifiable things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second thing
Prayer But what adds this to their Cause in Defence of which they brought it Who go about to limit the Spirit and not we as R. H. also sayes for our Business is to be limited by the Spirit and not to limit it or to out-run it I hope none will infer from thence that Men ought to keep their Hats on Or that the same Spirit would lead to those contrary Gestures as say some of J. Perrot's Followers For R. H. meant nothing less but he was sure if they had kept to that free Spirit that had already limited to and confirmed the pulling it off there would not have been such Reasonings about keeping of it on or off and why because they would have felt a Pre-conclusion which would have setled them out of the Reach of the Bondage that Spirit of Delusion had brought them into For the Liberty of the Spirit stands not in being moved to contrary things that is Ranterism but in being freed from every high Thought and exalted Imagination to abide in the Order of the Gospel But our Adversary who can at times and for his own Ends engage for any Cause tells us J. Perrot's Defence that he did not enjoyn the Practice for he left all to the Free Vniversal Spirit pag. 24. But after this our Adversary if he would have defended J. P. to Purpose he should not have told us pag. 32 33. that J. Perrot had received Command against it from the Lord God of Heaven and Earth in his Captivity at Rome to testify against the Custom and Tradition of Taking off the Hat by Men when they go to pray to God And the Truth is he did at other times call it a Romish Tradition But what follows from these two Passages that so greatly justle at one another Does not the first imply that a Man may Lawfully pull off the Hat in Prayer and the latter expresly judge it as a Tradition of Men Either his Command was False or he was Deceitful in his Answer to our Friends For that a Man may be left to his Liberty whether he should practise the Traditions of Men in the Worship of God upon J. Perrot's Pretences to Divine Motions altogether in Worship is the height of all Contradiction yet this is the Doctrine of J. Perrot as we have it delivered to us by his Apologizer To give Liberty to pull it off or put it on as it was with People to do and yet that he was commanded of God to testifie against it positively and generally as a Tradition of Man As if People might use nay be moved of God to perform in his Worship any of the Traditions of Men which God himself had given express Sentence against It is not short of Blasphemy it self And for Our Friends that is G. F. G. W. and others which this Man sayes owned J. Perrot's Motion for Rome and counted him a good Friend p. 32. They do aver that they denyed that Motion and never so reputed him However it be this Apologist vowed to our Disgrace bestirs him self not a little in Defence of J. Perrot and his Followers as if first he loved the Hat on in Time of Prayer which he denyes in it self Secondly as if he believed and allowed of Motions which he both denyes and scorns Thirdly as if he liked a true Quaker and was not so much displeased at the Light as at Peoples Leaving or Confining it in its Leadings and Requirings Who by his great Envy to our Persons shows his Hate to True Quakers and by his base Conclusion from the Pretences of both Parties to have been led to a Contrary thing by the Light within That the Light is a kind of Miserable Uncertain Thing and waiting to be ordered by it a very Dubious piece of Business to the Disgrace of Christ's Light Reviling then as well the one Sort as the other and bringing his Blow well nigh as hard upon the Hat-Men as upon us see pag. 23 24 25 71 and ult In which the Drift of his Business is to drive People off from the Leadings of the Light instead of Pleading on the behalf of these Apostates being led into that Practice by it as he vainly doth p. 32 33. Let Disingenuous W. Mucklow and Furious J. Pennyman see to what pass they have brought their Affairs who under the Pretence of proving the Quakers Apostacy from the Teachings of the Light have furnisht a Man with Complaints against us who could so little dissemble his Dis-like against the Principle it self as to conclude Vncertainty Confusion and Blasphemy to attend that very Assertion about the Light 's Teaching which the People called Quakers in the beginning made and is by this Adversary in other places on these Apostates account seemingly pleaded for Let them glory in this Man's Endeavours if they will Their wicked Hypocrisy and great Trachery are herein manifest beyond what may at this time be said by us They loved the Motions of the Principle at an odd rate that set a Man to defend them that is an Enemy to them His Conclusions prove what I said in mine Introductoction that it was against the True Quakers and their ancient confest Principle he chiefly levelled his Scoffs Nick-Names Reflections and gross Perversions and not meerly against us as False Quakers or Persons gone from our first Principle To prove this behold how and why he triumphs That our Principle admits of no Means whereby to discern one immediate Teaching from another Perrot sayes one thing and Fox another Who is in the right or to that Purpose It would have done well if W. M. and J. P. had answered this Objection before they furnisht him to plead their Cause and defend them to be in the Right from those Motions their own Apologist denyes any Certainty to and I may now take Occasion to ask him why he is so peremptory in his Censures of us to be in the Wrong who denyes any Certainty of Judgment of either side How comes he so Certain in Condemning and Justifying Partial Man But no greater Evidence can well be given of the Wrongness of J. Perrot's Spirit then has been already related viz. The Disturbance of the Church The Vnprofitableness of the Thing The Scandalous Laps and Apostasy of himself and several of his Followers and the Judgment others Zealously past against themselves whose Simplicity had been betrayed The Fruits testifie what Spirit it was though upon our Adversary's saying That there is no inward Test or Tryal of Spirits at least implying so much he contradicts Scripture and undervalues the Gift of God For he had as good to say That a Wrong Spirit covered with fair and undeniable Pretences is not discernable by the Light and Spirit of God within A Man may be Wrong within and Right without have the exact Form but not the Power of Godliness What can try Spirits but the Spirit No Writing can tell me a Wrong from a Right Spirit in the ground though it may
describe good and bad Fruits and from such Actions Men may by a Writing describe the Right from the Wrong But what gives to relish tast or savour a Wrong Spirit in Sheeps Cloathing beside the Heavenly Instinct of the Divine Nature As People are turned to that they can discern as saith the Apostle The Spiritual Man judgeth all things that is of right he may and is judged of no Man that is not discerningly of the meer Natural Men And as the Spiritual Man's Discerning is from the Spirit that searcheth out the deep things of God so is God the Judge and Law giver to his People under this Dispensation If the Gospel-Fellowship be in Spirit True Christians must have an Inward Tast and Sense of one anothers Spirits and what gives to savour aright at the same time gives to relish a Wrong Spirit The same Objection he makes against the Light may be made against the Spirit which is but another Name for the same Principle and I hope he will not dare to say that any Confusion can follow upon holding that Men under the Gospel ought to be led by it Yet this granted suppose Men pretending to be led by the Spirit to be gone from the Spirit or that two equally pretending to be guided by it differ as Paul and Barnabas and Peter what should determine No Writings of the Old Testament could at least without Meanings and the same Difficulty lyes about the Meanings of Scripture as about being led by the Spirit In this Case what shall be done Surely the Spirit must not be upbraided nor branded Neither will it follow That there is no Judge for Christ is the great Judge appointed of God the Spiritual great Prophet that speaks from Heaven and in his own time will give Judgment to the View of all Men. In the mean while he satisfies the Minds of those who are truly led by his Spirit and Withering Decay Murmuring Complaining and finally Apostasy will follow upon the Pretenders as is fulfilled in the present Judasses This hath been largely argued elsewhere yet I was not willing to let this Passage of our Enemies pass unconsidered which indeed is the Strength of his Book and what the ablest of our Adversaries can say against us an this account I have proceeded thus far more particularly in Defence of the Church against the Apostate Adversaries and their Apologist about the Argument by them made about the Hat and those Discords that issued In which I hope I have not exceeded the Bounds of Truth and Moderation For the latter Objection which is directed not so much against the Body of our Friends as a select Number of Ministers and Elders devoted as he falsly and scoffingly suggests to the Promotion of G. F's Authority and Interest I can with all Clearness and Sincerity and that in the Name of many Brethren give this following Testimony G. F. I would have all to know seeks not Himself but Christ and as becomes a true Apostle and Servant of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ Early and Late in Season and out of Season with incessant Pains and Care not being Burthensom unto any endeavours to promote the Work of God in the Earth and is so far from Lording it over any that he daily serves all for the Truth 's sake thinking no Labour too great nor Condescension too mean whereby he may be Serviceable to any in what concerns their Eternal Well-fare and this some of these Apostates must needs know He has approved himself and still doth among us to be a Man of God and a True Prophet of the Lord and as such we do Value him and the Rage of Men shall not Dis-settle us from our Sense and Regard of him who seeks not himself nor his own things but the Things of God that Christ and his Power alone may be exalted in the Hearts of all People and all Flesh humbled and for this alone are all publick Labourers of Value with our Friends and no otherwise Respected or Regarded then in the Lord which is not Tyranny but Duty Wherefore those Terms of Foxonian King George Fox Foxonian Leaven G. Fox and his Party or Adherents are with many more Words of Scorn and Abuse he has no such intended Lordship nor are we of his Party buâ— God's Free-Men and True Christians being with him Baptized by One Spirit into One Body the Unity of which these smiting Apostates and their abusive Libeller can never break I shall touch upon their Aggravations about not Marrying Burying c. before I come to those other Reflections made against G.F. our Ministry and My self and all before I end my Share in this Re-joynder First He is pleased to say That we deny them Trading Marrying Burying and all Ecclesiastical Civil Priviledges to those that dissent from us p. 7. These were the Aggravations I before promised to observe But alas What shall we say to a Man thus Hardy and resolved to be Wicked that he may render us so Did we even forbid Men Trading or endeavour to take People off from Trading with them J. Pennyman can say no such thing without Lying for several have lovingly frequented his Shop since he Enviously visited and disturbed our Meetings And how many do we daily trade with that are not of us in Love and full Assurance of their Honesty For Marrying I referred the Author of the Spirit of the Hat to the Apostle's Dehortation Be ye not Vnequally Yoaked together It seems if we cannot own Persons to be of us that are not of us we must be abused This made the present Apologizer if I am not out of my Guess Angry and Enraged with us at first 'T is not meer Talking of Christ and hammering out a few Notions in the meer Strength of Man's Will and Wisdom that makes a True Christian therefore we could not receive him for our Sect-Master that angers him And for Marriage we cannot have Unity with any in that solemn Performance of Marrying who are acted by a Wrong Spirit and so gone out of the Union of the Body of Friends We do not deny them that are so Married to be Married at all as this Enemy would conclude though to be Married in the Unity we can never own them As to our denying of Burial unto such Apostates my words in the Book called The Spirit of Alexander the Copper-Smith Rebuked carry no such unnatural Sense Two things I denyed 1. That we therefore denyed them a Burial because we should alwayes refuse it as of us whilst they continued in that Dissenting Spirit from us 2. That we Vsurped their Property To the first sayes our Adversary The Quakers would not suffer such to stink above Ground but he should be buried not among the Catholicks but as Hereticks in Spaine or Italy p. 19. Behold the Candor of this Interpreter What a strange Improvement has he made of my Saying much more resembling the Carriage of that sort of Catholicks he likens us to against
is able to keep us and preserve us unto his Heavenly Kingdom to whom be Everlasting Glory and Dominion Amen Now The Just shall live by Faith but if any Man draw back my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him Hebr. 10.38 And because Iniquity shall abound the Love of many shall wax cold But he that shall endure unto the End the same shall be saved Matth. 24.12 13. And THIS GOSPEL of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the World for a Witness unto all Nations and then shall the End come Verse 14. Several Testimonies Of Persons Reflected upon in the Pamphlet before answered added in Truth 's and their own Defence Thomas Brigges 's Testimony WHereas in page 22. thou or ye say The poor Man was transported into such an Angry Zeal that I told the Opposers It was of the Lord and they Opposed the Mind of the Lord But the Man was so far say thou or ye from knowing the Mind of the Lord in that Matter that he did not know who the Persons were of whom he spake Ans The Mind of the Lord I do know who am in the Truth and walk in it and the Testimony that I had to bear for the Truth and God's Power which thou art out of in which I did then bear testimony in the Blessed Power and Presence of God that I felt in that Meeting That that Marriage was to be permitted among Friends and it was permitted among Friends and accomplish'd And whereas thou or ye say The poor Man was transported into such an Angry Zeal that he knew not who the Persons were of whom he spake Ans I was not Transported out of Truth but in the Truth but thou art Transported out of Truth into a Lye and into the Enmity and into Cain's Way and into Core's Way and of thy Father the Devil who is the Father of Lyes For I have known Elizabeth Bayly this Nine or Ten Years as she can witness and the Man of lesser years and I have no Shame upon me of this Matter but Shame will come upon thee or ye whatever ye be that are gone from the Truth and turned from the Truth and Power of God and the Truth and Power of God in which I live is over all False-Accusers and Lyars and will be your Condemnation who are found in a Lye and False Accusation who hide your Names in the Dark This Testimony I do bear against all Lyars My Name is Thomas Brigges John Whitehead 's Testimony WHereas the Author of the aforesaid Pamphlet doth charge that Faithful Servant of God G. F. with the Opening and Altering a Letter written by me against my Consent I declare That both he and his Author have Malitiously Slandered G. F. in that Case for I ordered W. Kerby by a Letter wherein that Letter was Inclosed and UNSEALED to shew it to George Fox and the rest of the Brethren in Town that he or they might dispose of it as they saw a Service for Truth And it was written as a Testimony against that Spirit which would have brought in the Wearing of the Hat in Prayer and not to Justifie that Unheard of Practice in the Church for I ever Condemned it in my Heart and bore my Testimony against it knowing the Spirit of the Lord did not lead into it though I had a Tenderness to those who intended well and had their Simplicity betrayed by the subtil Workings of that Spirit of Error which I witnessed against and Laboured not in Vain to pluck them as Brands out of the Fire of Contention that with the Light of Christ they might see whither they were going and several did see the Error of their Way and Returned And if any have been so bad as to Mis-apply my Words and Harden their own Hearts through my Tenderness the Hurt will be their own and I shall be Clear in the Day of God though now I am Evilly Requited by those whâ— to their own Hurt give and receive Information agaist me as if I Acted or Lived Wantonly like those which said Come let us Smite him with the Tongue Report and we will Report it But my Innocency in that Case without further Defence is my sufficient Refuge from the Slanderous Tongues of these Ungodly Men And through the Grace of God whereby I am taught Sobriety and Godliness in this World I can and do say The Lord forgive them John Whitehead Isaac Penington 's Testimony A brief Account concerning the Queries relating to Keeping on the Hat in time of publick Prayer mention'd in a Book called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected pag. 61. AFter it pleased the Lord to give me a Sense of his pretious Truth in the Inward Parts and to turn my Mind thereto I met with great Opposition both Inward and Outward and how hard and long my Travel was God only fully knoweth Every day the Lord visited me and the Enemy was daily tempting me and I felt the Bitterness of his Temptations and was often sore wounded through my not understanding the Appearances of the Lord and through Unbelief God knoweth I did earnestly desire to know the Motions of God's Spirit from the contrary Movings and Stirrings of the Enemy of my Soul who moved in the Reasoning Wisdom out of the True and pure Simplicity but was many times filled with Doubts and Fears till the Season of the Service was over and the Opportunity of keeping out the Enemy was lost When the Business of the HAT fell out I being acquainted with several of them and looking upon them as tender to the Lord and that they did scruple it only in Conscience to him was perswaded in my heart they were to be born with and thought the positive Testimony against it in others too severe and that a thing of that Nature was not to be contended about but every one left to their Liberty yea and somewhat farther did I go in the Sense of my Heart as if possibly the Lord might require such a thing of them In this Frame of Spirit did I give forth those Queries not at all intending the Lord knows to strengthâ—n that Practice thereby but that no tender thing might be hurt but the Unity of Life kept unviolabe notwithstanding such an Outward Difference But at that time I did not discern that the thing came from the Enemy nor was I sensible that the Ministers of the Truth and such as stood in God's Light and Authority and saw the thing coming from the Enemy with the Evil Hurt and Dangerous Consequences of it to many yea and the Grieving the Church of God I say I did not then see and seriously consider that they were Watchmen appointed by God and had Discerning given them for the Good of the Body and that by those Queries I did weaken the Testimony of God's Spirit through them as to others and give Strength thereby to that Spirit which had prepared and was drawing this Snare over many So soon as ever the Lord shewed me
World even as I am not of the World Do you call this Blasphemy Then why do you thus seek after my Life and publish Books to set the Magistrates and Ignorant upon me but I will stand to my Tesitmony of my Lord and Saviours Words though you call his Words Blasphemy it is which I desire all People to read and see whether the Spirit of Christ be the Guide of these Men's Actions or the Spirit of Envy for they that have not the Spirit of Christ are none of his but the Spirit of Christ Jesus and of the Lamb which is in G. F. and the Holy Brethren the Heirs of Eternal Life will fall heavy upon these Men yea this Stone which they reject and set at naught will grind them to Powder Mat. 21.44 And farther Christ faith in the same Chapter I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the World but that thou wouldst keep them from the Evil Jo. 17. and mark J. P. and Baptists and the Spirit of the Hat Hyproscrise Tyranny detect who would tyranize over Christ's Testimony concerning his Saints and Followers then and now as your Fore-Fathers did In the 16th Verse Christ saith They are not of the World even as I am not of the World c. which I keep the Testimony of Jesus and know the Truth that he speaks and do not give Titles to none of his Saints to G. F. nor none beyond what Christ hath spoken and therefore be ashamed who profess your selves Christians call Christ's Words Blasphemy And farther Christ sayes That they all may be one as thou Father art in me I in thee that they may be all one in us And the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one as thou Father and I am one I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in One. And moreover John saith in his 1. Epistle Chap. 4. Ye are of God little Children and have overcome because Greater is he that is in you then he that is in the World They are of the World therefore the World heareth them We are of God he that knoweth and heareth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error Beloved let us love one another for Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God and he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love And it is very like John the Divine had such Spirits as L. Muggleton J. Pennyman and the Baptists and other to deal withal as I have now And Christ my Lord saith to his Saints and Apostles If the World hate you you know it hated me before it hated you If you were of the World the World would love its own but because ye are not of the World but I have chosen you out of the World therefore the World hates you Jo. 15. Remember the Words that I said unto you The Servant is not greater then his Lord Mat. 40.24 but Christ saith Every one that is Perfect shall be as his Master Luke 6.40 If they persecute me they will also persecute you if they kept not my sayings they will not keep yours Here you may see how that you are not the Keepers of Christ's Sayings but the Persecutors of them that do Ye are my Friends saith Christ if you do what I command c. and saith Christ henceforth I call you not Servants but my Friends for the Servant knoweth not what the Lord doth but I have called you Friends c. Jo. 15.14 You have chosen me but I have chosen you and have ordained you c. And again you say in your Tyranny and Hypocrisie detected that I should say Blessed be the Man that came out of the North Blessed be the Womb that bare him the Paps that gave him suck As to the Former Words I might speak them but the Latter Words once applyed to Christ I do not remember I spake them But herein ye shew your Malice for had a Cursing Man like Muggleton come out of the North such a one would have fitted you J. Pennyman Baptists but Blessed be God I can say He is Blest for God hath Blest him And I can say He is Blest though you do speak Evil with Muggleton against him and others Curse them whom God hath blest and Christ doth bless his People Mat. 5. Glory to the Lord and you cannot curse that which God hath blest and Christ and the Apostles say Bless Curse not and you are offended for my Obeying Christ's and the Apostles Command manifesting What Spirit you are of And was it not Christ which Saul persecuted and thou you Saul like persecute him now yea that true Christ by whom the World was made in his Saints and Holy Ones under a Pretence of following the Lord faithfully but it is manifest that it is the Worlds God you have followed out of whose Mouth comes forth such Envy and Malice But it had been better for thee John Pennyman and thy Confederates that a Milstone had been hanged about thine and their Neks Luk. 17.2 then to have lifted up Tongue or Pen against God's Truth People who art in Muggleton's Spirit speaking against the Truth who art like an old Apostate twice dead pluct up by the Roots if so then how canst thou grow but art gone out amongst the Dogs Vomiting Biting and Devouring And J. Pennyman thou boasts in some of thy Papers of speaking the Word of the Lord suppose it were so Balaam had the Word of the Lord and after was cut off And was not Judas and Apostle Partaker of the Ministry And art not thou turned a Judas and now seekst to betray the Innocent yea to Death if thou couldst according to the Sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ A Brother shall betray a Brother to Death Mat. 10.21 as thou hast done as much as in thee lies like a False Brother in sending thy Papers to Barbodoes where the Baptists and Professors running up and down with them to the Justices of Peace who would have tryed me for my Life Blood-thirsty Men And one Justice of the Peace said that if S Eccles were not hanged he would be hanged for him their Rage was so high against me by Reason of thy Pamphlets but I stayed at the Bridg Town where the Court sat waiting looking every day to be called to my Tryal but the Court broke up and I was not called nor medled withall in the least so the Blood-thirsty Baptists and others their Consederates J. Pennyman's Correspondents mist their Ends. Though the Baptists themselves did confess to the same things here which thou and the Baptists call Blasphemy now yet it is no marvel for Christ our Lord was called a Blasphemer who said that which I testified to in Jo. 17. And as for all J. Pennyman's unsavory Speeches in his Abusive Pamphlets and
Heart Henry Stout Rebecca Travese's Testimony A Testimony in the Spirit of Love against that Malitious Spirit that in certain Apostates and their Abettors exercises Tyranny and Hypocrisie every where TO you Friends is my Love who are in the Enquirings after the Lord and his Truth that you may come to be Partakers of the same Inheritance of Life and Glory that many are made Witnesses of through Believing And the Power thereof we cannot but testifie of as by the Effectual Working and Operation in our Hearts we feel not only to set us free from that which imbondaged us in times past as well as others but hath brought us to the Liberty of the Seed of God which above and before all seeks the Glory of God and this hath enriched us with Grace and enduring Mercy whereby we feel all our Iniquities taken away and Transgressions blotted out in and for the Name and Power of Christ which in us is become the sure Hope of endless Glory and this hath made us Us That hold the Faith willing to proclaim the good Will of God unto all that others with us might come to set down in the Heavenly Places with Christ our alone Head and Life and be delivered from those Runnings Strivings and Inventions Tossings Tumblings and Turmilings that all Image-Makers are in not being possible to find Rest but in and by the Light which from the Rest comes and to the Rest gathers into which many are entred and cannot be disturbed or made afraid and it is Everlasting And the Satisfaction and Peace of this true abiding Love rests upon us and constreins us to call and invite them afar off as those near to come freely to the Fountain of Living Water without Money and without Price For a Remnant are come to know that there is and shall be a daily adding of them to us that shall be saved for the Work of the Lord must prosper notwithstanding all the Force and Subtility of them that contrive against it The Building must be finished all things are prepared and preparing thereunto and the House of the Lord shall be established upon the Top of that that resisteth it and the Foundation is already laid sure and steddy and every Stone hewen and fitted thereto is pretious and the Command of our King none can reverse for he is Almighty and works according to the Counsel of his own Will 't is Counsel indeed close hid from all Sorts of Workers in the dark So they fret and are angry the Heathen rage but theirs is a Fury that consumes it self and soon goes out if not added to by new Fewil And these of all Sorts have manned their Weapons to the utmost and done what ever they can to hinder the Increase of this Work yet these are not the worst Enemies for it is the People that imagine vainly that ever withstood the Appearance of God in the World search the Scriptures Christ came unto his own them that profest a Waiting for him and they rejected him they crucified him yea he that walkt with Christ and sometimes cryed Hail Master he and these Pretenders are the Betrayers in all Generations and Hinderers of the Work of the Lord here the Power of Darkness in all Generations wrought mind Scriptures through all that desire to be kept from resisting the Just and Holy One. Though many Enemies Nations and People Withstood the Servant of the Lord Moses in his great Work whereunto God had called him yet none did like Mischief as that gain-saying Spirit in Korah Dathan and Abiram and Balaam that was for and against Israel who had been a Prophet and loving the Wages of Unrighteousness becomes a Tempter and layes the Snare that they might Sin against God and be divided from The Blessing And so mind who hindred the Building of the Temple of the Lord in the time that Deliverance drew nigh when the great and noble Travil of the Holy Servants of the Lord that were Zealous for the Restoring of the Captivated to their former Liberties and Rights in the Place that then was owned and appointed of the Lord and ever to be remembred was and is the Courage Boldness and Constant Watchfulness of those Worthies Ezra Nehemiah and Zerubabel that discerned the Falseness and Treachery of those pretending Friends that did not only seem to approve their Works and offer to build the House of the Lord but to assist them saying Let us build with you for we seek your God as you do and that they had done it for a long time but they being discerned and refused by Zerubabel and the other Worthies of Israel then they manifested themselves to be Hinderers of the Work of God and hired Counsellors against them to frustrate their Purpose whose Work a little before they pretended to be assistent to and after write against them with great Accusasations Ezra the 4th and the 14th and Nehemiah the 4th and the 1st Sambalet and Tobiah they mocked taunted and scoffed to make ridiculous and little Worth the then Endeavours and good Orders that these Noble Men put in Practice for the Restoring of the House of God And so to you Friends to whom my mind is directed that are weak in the Faith I writ that you may be warned that you may be strengthened against this Treacherous Spirit Do not these Scriptures run parallel with them that have brought forth such Accusations whether false or true Is not their End one who have joyned with and taken Counsel of such whom they know were and are contrary to the People and Truth that they formerly seemed to be of and for to make Odious and Ridiculous in the Sight of all Men with their Orders And though some of them under Pretence did act with them and would have Lorded it as much as any until discerned and dealt with for their Unorderly Practice and Unsubjectedness to them that in the Spirit serve the Lord continually So Friends This is it I would have you observe in all things and at all times that that Spirit that professeth Truth and talkes of Truth and seems for it and yet is against it is not of God though it seems so for here first sprang and is continued that monstrous Anti-Christian Brood that hath filled the Earth with Darkness Blood and Cruelty and with these shall those be judged that in this our Day have given and taken Offences to lay Stumblings in the Way of the Simple But Glorified be the Power that hath broke forth before which they must all fly yet here and there a few crawle up to use their Strength against the Increase of his Power the Word of whose Mouth shall destroy them and the Brightness of his Coming shall utterly consume them for they are such of whom the Apostle complained had done him much Wrong for they hindred as much as in them lay the Purpose of the Lord in the Earth And this hath been the Work of many in this our Day of
each other and the Presence and Power of the Lord sealed to it and she was a Blessing to him to whom the Lord gave her all her days And I was so far from the Exercise of Authority in that Matter that I know not that I Invited one to the Marriage much less Commanded and J. O. used no Interest in that Matter that I know then what he gained by Love and had these Accusers come to and kept in this Love they had been kept out of that Spirit of the Accuser that now from time to time acts them to seek Occasion against the Brethren and the Truth and then whether False or True as those that Rejoyce in Iniquity they publish it that they may Murder in the Way And if any Righteous Soul grieved and burdened with their Bringings forth in Mischief Write or Answer them sharply they imagine they get Strength by it and shew it to Adversaries of Truth as if the People of the Lord did Amiss in Clearing the Truth and throwing back the Dirt on them from whence it comes but let all take notice that the Prophet Elijah was Justified in his Reproaching of Baal's Priests in their Blind Worships and Mad Fury for the True God appeared to him for his Justification as be doth unto us that abide in his Power unto this day But for the Taunts and Mockings of Samballat Tobiah they are recorded for their Infamy forever For what is the Chaff to the Wheat saith the Lord And I did not nor do not intend to Controvert or Answer the Writings of these Enemies of Truth having not so much as read them through only a few Lines which being False Truth required to come over and upon the Head of the False Worker is it set and I did not then cry out as they say in my own Concern nor do I now write to serve my selfe but the Truth and the End hath and shall declare the Ground of all Actions And as the Fighters against God have and do scatter from him and gather into the World with the Vain Customs thereof so those that have and do contend earnestly for the Truth have no other End or Aim but to preserve in and gather to the Grace of God which Teacheth to Deny all Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and many Thousands they are that to this day are preserved thereby out of the Net that these Subtil and Deceitful Ones have laid and are laying But Sufficient is the Grace in which we have believed and thereby we receive Power over all Spirits which are gone out and hatch Mischief and bring forth Lyes But Praises be to the Power that hath brought many into the One Mind that above and before all they seek the Encrease and Enlargement of Truth and these have the Mind of God and know he is on their side and laughs to Scorn all his Enemies And our Communion and Fellowship is Holy and within the Holy Place where the Unclean and Inventers of Evil could never come for the Unfeigned Brotherly Love gives an Enterance thereunto but they out of it not seeking after this grow in Envy by lusting thereto and offering Despight to the Spirit of Grace in themselves they bring forth the same against all us that are guided thereby And I am bold in that Spirit that cannot Lye to say to all in this Gainsaying Spirit as I did many Years since to some in the same Spirit and some of these Evil-Workers did hear it and are Witnesses it is fulfilled on them of whom it was then testified J. P. and C. B. and others if they return not they are and shall assuredly be swallowed up of the Earth and link into it cast again into the Sea from whence they were taken as bad Fish indeed out of the Net But Holy is the Lord and his Name shall be Magnified of all the Upright Ones for their Redemption is sure and these are daily coming forth with Songs of Thanksgiving and the High Praises of the Lord are in their Hearts and Mouths forever and for evermore Amen Friends that are plain-hearted and love Righteousness and though but turned Sion-ward and you that for the Truth have sold All you are all very dear unto me as I know I am and must be to you for as we are all of one Begetting and are come to the one Hope and are nourished at the one Breast where the Milk of the Word causeth to grow into the Oneness of that Spirit which sets free from Sin and Death here we have Unity and bear one another's Burdens and in the Life of the Head are affected with the Suffering of every Member that hath Life therein and with his Compâ—ssions come to be filled and having Fellowship in his Suffering are grieved and oppressed with the Works of the Adversaries every where and at all times that ever since the Entrance of the Night of Apostasy to this time are as truly Persecuting Christ Jesus in his Members and Slaying him in the Streets of the great City spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt as Paul persecuted â—â—m when he got Letters from the high Priests to take Men or Women that were of that Way and bring them bound to Jerusalem And as sure as the Apostle John saw his Crucifying in the Spirit of Prophecy so certainly with all the Contenders and Gain-sayers and Resisters of the Testimony of Jesus which Testimony is the Spirit of Prophecy be found Fighters against God who mischievously have taken up all Miscarriages and Mistakes and with their Misunderstandings and own dark Imaginations adding Lyes of their own making whereby some have been weakened and others turned out of the Way and the Truth come to be questioned by the Ignorant whereby the End of these Revolters is made manifest And though I have not so much as said in my Heart I would they were cut off from the Lord yet sure I am they have gone about as much as in them lies to pervert the good Way of the Lord by making the People believe the Quakers allow Vcleanness or Vnrighteousness in that some professing it have gone out as they and practised those things that the Light testifieth against and yet when in good Order by Men loving Holiness there is a Meeting to reform or divide such far from us in the outward this offends them also So may not all see the Restlesness of this Spirit that would throw the Guilt of those that have offended on those Innocent ones that are travelling for the Removal of all Evils But there are many Thousands to the Praise of the Power of God be it spoken that are kept not only out of Uncleanness and all Unrighteousnes but are in the true Religion which keeps from the Spots of the World and their Communion stands where the Blind could never see Another Stumbling-Block that these that are making the Offences lay in the Way of the Simple is as if we honour and set up Man in the Place of God or
against the True Israel and are publishing the condemned Stuff in their Garth that the Gartbites might boast for mark the words in page 70. of those that Consent with the Hat-Men It seems that they have got a Feast of that Condemned Stuff of which some had done Wrong and were heartily Sorry and Condemned and these Vagabond Quakers the Hat-Men have presented them a Dish of it which they make Musick of but the sober Reader may see there is no Concord in it but Mischief and Envy And as for Benj. Furley's Paper which you Hat-Men and others feed upon who formerly were in that Practice amongst you Has not he Condemned it So that which he hath Condemned is Meat for you Vagabond Quakers And That which Isaac Penington when he was with you Hat-Men favouring you gave forth concerning it Hath not he Condemned it and his Motion therein And That which G. F. gave forth in his Book to the Jews which you Elimas-like bring to pervert the Way of Truth was it not given forth concerning the Hat to Magistrates and not concerning the Wearing the Hat in Prayer to God for which he was fined Forty Pound in Oliver's dayes Nay are not some of those Men Offended at it now that pervert G. F's words which were only putting off the Hat to Magistrates and not concerning putting off it to God at Prayer as before said as the Apostle câ—mmands who was in the True Light and the Holy Ghost who said That Men should Pray Vncovered therefore sayes this Hat-Spirit and those that Consent with them That the Quakers are fallen from their Principles No they are the Hat-Men that are fallen And perhaps some of them are offended at our Hats for not giving them the Hat-Honour for we know their Ambition in other Pâ—wers dayes And we have suffered more in other Powers dayes about not putting off our Hats to Magistrates then we have in these Powers dayes and it may be some of them are ashamed of their Names and dare not bring them forth to Light that have been of that old Persecuting Party But William Penn has answered sufficiently to the Rational concerning this But it may be the Workers in the Dark will murmur and therefore they put their Work upon a Baptist a Stationer to Name it and to get it Licensed and in the mean time they lurk in the Dark But if we should gather up all the Failings of particular Persons among the Baptists and Fifth Monarchy-Men and others in this City and Country and beyond the Seas we might make a Book big enough and we might make a Book of the Hat-Mens Failings which they know well enough but all those things we leave to God and all Good Men to judge as knowing among us the Members of Christ who is the Head of our Body that we do not admit of any Uncleanness amongst our selves nor that which cometh publick to the World but in the Power of Christ Jesus and in his Light and Spirit we do judge such things amongst our selves let them be private or publick to clear the Truth and that no Scandals may lye upon it and the Name of God and Christ may not be Blasphemed God and all good Men know this and according to Gospel-Order they are and have been dealt withal which admits of no Impurity And it is much these Hat-Men and their Companions and those that consented with them did not Clamour against Moses and the Law of God because that so many amongst the Israelites ran into Fornication but these are of Core's Spirit and Dathan and Abiram's Spirit that offered a Strange Fire who will be consumed with it that gainsayes And it was much they did not Rail against Peter and Paul and tell that to the World when Paul withstood Peter concerning Circumcision and yet he circumcised Timothy And it is much that these Clamourers did not clamour against Christ concerning Peter his Cursing and Swearing But these Confederates with the Hat-Men that are those that plead for Wearing the Hat in Prayer Ranter-like seem very much to Commend J. Pennyman and his Wife as though we did not know them but they and their Spirit is known witness his Action at the Exchange and their Voluptuous Doings at Merchant-Tailers Hall which we leave to the Law of God and all good Men to judge And this Spirit of the Hat saith how did the Lord raise many to go forth to preach the Everlasting Gospel in his Power c. pag. 10 70 71. and then these Hat-Men with their Confederates are angry because G. F. speaks of no Liberty but in the Power and pervert his Words as though Conscience should not have Liberty in the Power and now it s clearly manifâ—st to all People what Spirit these Hat-Men are of with their Confederates that they would have a Liberty out of the Power for were not G. F's Words that People's Liberty should be in the Gospel Liberty in the Power of God because G. F stands for the Power of God which was first received and their Liberty therein and the â—iberty in Christ that made them free whâ—ch were his Words and these Hat-Men and their Confederates who are out of the Power of God would have Liberty of their Consciences out of Christ the Power of God therefore you may see from what these Peoples Motions are and in what their Consciences have Liberty for them that plead for Liberty of Conscience and plead for Sin as long as they live and a Purgatory when they are dead and such and these Hat-Men and them that consent to them would have a Liberty out of the Power of God and yet go under the Name of Christians And is not this a plain Contradiction in these Hat-Men and them that consent with them who confess that we the People of God called Quakers went forth in the Power of God in pag. 10. and in pag. the 12. he terms G. F. a Papist because he saith There is no Liberty out of the Power of God But you should have put it in your Book true Liberty in the Gospel and the Liberty in Christ Jesus according to G. F's Words But I must tell you All your Liberty of Conscience out of Christ Jesus the Power of God is Bondage both to the Soul Body Spirit and Conscience Where note that by Liberty of Conscience G. F. did not speak of Outward Exercise in Worship for with such Libertines we have no Unity and all your Liberty out of Truth out of the Power of God the Gospel and out of Christ Jesus with all your Motions is in the Power of Darkness And your Hat-Liberty keeping on your Hats in time of Prayer which you much speak of which was imposed upon us as being Heathenish Romish and in the Curse and â—ursed by J. P. as his printed Paper manifests printed by one of your Company who would have thrust it among us as a higher Glory as some Vagabond Quakers stand for it to this Day and
as for Vitious Ministers or Strumpets or Wantonness We deny the Lord knows our Hearts and have ever searcht and seekt out and admonished and reproved by the Power of Christ who has given us Power amongst our selves not to suffer such Actors and Actions amongst us and therefore not to trouble the Major nor the Aldermen nor Common Council they see enough of that among your Church every day and let the Baptist and Hat-Men bring out their own of their own Fellowship with the rest of their Confederates as many we might particularize and let their Six or their Dozen of the Aldermen or Common-Council judge them if they cannot judge themselves And as for J. G. D. B. W. W. T. T. and T. M. all these have been dealt withal according to Gospel-Order years ago but it seems these Adversaries and Back-sliders are pleased to bring them up to speak Evil of the Right Way And if W. C. was accused long ago in London and hath condemned his Evil and cleared God's Truth this clears us and condemns your Wickedness And as for T. M's committing Uncleanness when imployed by G. F. to judge Persons and Meetings this is utterly false for G. F. did not imploy him but when any thing was manifest of him that was Uncivil he was dealt withal according to Gospel-Order But as for your Charging him in Commiting Uncleanness we leave him to deal with you for it who it may be you may find like one of your selves that wil soon go with you to an Alderman or Major who formerly charged the Mistres but now you say it is your Mistake it is the Maid and thus your Tongue is your own who matter not what you say but I leave T. M. to deal with you And whereas you say A Minister that is guilty is Judged and Disowned privately when Evidence appears So our Adeversary would have us to Judge or Disown without Testimony this is like his Law page 50. And as for your saying Scandalous Familiarity of the Prophets and Prophetesses or Mistresses before Mariage must go for nothing for I and many more are Witnesses that these things are False And whereas John Boulton is accused that he should say He had the Lâ—sses Papers by him John Boulton sayes he never said that they confest to those Charges charged against them For if those things had been true it had been a Shame for Modesty to speak of them but upon their being Examined they did deny that they were guilty of such things but in some things they were Childish which they were sorry for which Confession of theirs and Answer to the Dirty Papers which you feed upon J. B. hath by him But all these gross things which they charged them with in their Paper were as False they said as God was True and their Brother who is one of the World and Relations said He would not see his Sisters so defamed as may be seen in the Girles Answers but they would Revenge their Cause which they sent up to London about four years since which Answer John Boulton has to this day which if many were but in Shame and Modesty they would be ashamed to mention such things which are abhorred by us and all are judged that are guilty of such things And whereas you say William Mucklow offered to be at the hearing of J. W. upon Information of Wantonness committed by him concerning which W. Mucklow could say something We do believe W. Mucklow was such a prying Man about other Mens Matters as he was about Hannah Salier's Business but J. W. was examined concerning the Matter and the Party that accused him and we have Power so to do by the Power and Spirit of God and it was not found to be as was represented by those Evil Spirits but clear of what they accused him You say John Harwood formerly of their Ministers and while such found guilty of Noâ—orious Vncleanness and the said J. H. accused G. F. but could have no hearing and published his Charge in Print G. F. answer'd those Lyes of J. H. long ago which now may be food for such as you he answered them in Print As for J. H. being one of our Ministers and whilst such found guilty of notorious Uncleanness these are Notorious Lyes for he was one of you Hat-Men then and preacht it up like you and therefore for Shame stop your Mouthes and lay not the Unclean Actions of your Hat-Ministers upon us though we did deal with him as we did deal with you while he would hear according to Gospel-Order And whereas W. Mucklow saith He accused G. F. to be a Respecter of Persons in Judgment But this is false like the rest and some pronounced Woes upon him c. it was thy Portion And at a Meeting after the Plague E. Barnes as the Ministers were exalting themselves cryed out while R. F. was preaching You have Whored from the Lord R. F. said Thou art Whored or the Whore This sayes Miles Stancliffe was an Vnsavory Word in R. Farnsworth but not an Vnsavory Word in E. Barnes But these Men cannot speak without Envy and Lyes they were exalting Lyes But was not this E. B. one of your Hat-mens Spirit and did not she manifest her self to be in the Whorish Spirit in Hampshire and Rose Atkins and the Man they kept Company with what 's become of them which is beyond the Bounds of Modesty or Christianity as it is known to the World in Hampshire Why do not you write down their Carriages M. S. and the rest should have declared it And many Jeering Words there are in your Tyranny and Hypocrisie who would Tyrannize over the Innocent with your Spirit of the Hat who tell jeeringly of G. F's Kingdom and a Peer of it and Foxoniant over and over and King of the Quakers and thus your Devilish Gain-saying Spirit Core-like and Judas like seekâ— the Life of the Innocent And why do you not answer Solomon in his Challenge seeing you have taken part of his words out of his Challenge to Muggleton And you make a great Matter about G. F. Ruling in his Kingdom and Governing in his own Kingdom Must not every True Christian that is born again in the Power Rule in his Kingdom that is begotten again to a lively Hope And doth not Christ say The Kingdom of Heaven is Within you And are not all the true Saints Heirs of the Kingdom that stands in Power and Righteousness and Joy in the Holy Ghost It seems to this Kingdom within you are Strangers like Pharisees and Jews in your Lo here and Lo there and Observations who crucified Christ and so now you would crucifie his Members to whom his Father has given a Kingdom that stands in Power and Joy in the Holy Ghost and is not the Power and the Holy Ghost Everlasting Oh you Mockers and Scoffers Take heed lest you be such as God will make your Bonds strong And is not this Kingdom within that is in Power and Joy
in the Holy Ghost Is not it established in Peace in the Heart and are not the Saints Heirs of the Kingdom and of the Life that hath no End and is not the Power of God Spiritual and Divine And because it is said G. F. has reached through his Children afar off to the begetting of many to a lively Hope And what then doth not the Apostle say many Members yet one Body they were baptized by one Spirit into one Body and though they were absent in the Body yet present in the Spirit and that it did reach one unto another mark reach which was the Spirit and Power of Christ in which was their Fellowship and Union Do you not manifest your dark hat-Hat-Spirit here And the Life of Christ that has begotten G. F. the same it is that doth reach and beget others to God and that Spirit is blest which begets and brings out of the Curse he was blest and is blest in all Generations and who are of Faith are of Abraham who was the Father of many Nations And a great deal of malitious Stuff is in your Book which all that are sober can savour it from what a Blood-thirsty Spirit it is come who would fain stir up the People against us and the Powers but your Envy is seen And if any have gone out into any Uncleanness or Looseness it hath been a Grief to our Souls and a Wounding to our Spirits to see Goâ— his Truth and his People dishonoured and they have not been received amongst us again but by Repentance which is according to the Mind of the Lord and Practice of Christ his Apostles And why are these Apostates so mad that G. F. should inherit the Kingdom of God that is Everlasting Are not Christ's Words Seek the Kingdom of God first and all things shall follow and because he and thousands more have found the Kingdom of God this torments you that are in the Kingdom of Darkness and whosoever will receive the Kingdom must receive it as a little Child but you are too big for it and you that trust your own Riches Inward and Outward cannot enter the Kingdom Luke 18. and was not the Kingdom of God to be preached but you do not love to hear talk of it but you that once set your Hand to the Plough and look back are not fit for the Kingdom of God And is it not said the Kingdom of God is come to you Luke 10. and was it not said to the Backsliding Pharisees like you that the Kingdom was taken from them Is nâ—t this your Condition has not the little Flock a Kingdom but you shall weep and gnash your Teeth when you see Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom and your selves shut out for the Kingdom stands not in Word but in Power and are not the good Seed the Children of the Kingdom and will not God establish his Seed for ever And now John Pennyman and William Mucklow I have a few words to you who like Brethren in Iniquity have joyned together to betray the Innocent It had been better for you that A Milstone had been hanged about your Necks and you cast into the Sea then that you should have done what you have done And as for thee J. Pennyman Thou hast long been full of Envy and though Friends sought to preserve thee if it might be and to keep thee out of the Evil yet I feared this would come upon thee knowing that there was a Murderous Spirit in thee and now thou hast fully manifested it against G. F. and others of the Saints but Wo and Misery will be thy Portion if thou dost not Repent for thou hast set thy self against the Truth and art joyned with the Enemies of Christ to Persecute his Followers And thou hast been a long time a Persecutor of me as thou knowest and now thou vents thy Malice against my Brethren but I can say God forgive thee if it be his Will but I fear thou are wholely shut up in Darkness and so for Destruction And this was upon my Heart to write unto thee who am and alwayes desire to be a Servant to the Truth which thou despisest called Ellis Hooks THus Reader hast thou the Testimonies of several Persons named in that Libel some of whom are more obscure others more known their Truth and Honesty shall speak for them I will not But most of them are too Noted for Worth and Integrity to be doubted upon a Libel stuffed with that Rage Treachery Slander and Scoff We might also produce the Condemnations of three Persons against themselves the first Letters of whose Names are unworthily mentioned by the Libeller but the Truth is sufficiently cleared and their Addition would give the Book too great a Bulk we rather wish It had been many Sheets less knowing that great Books are seldom read in this Careless and Impatient Age only Reader be pleased to Consider the Deceit of this Adversary and how ready he is to stretch any thing to slander and defame both Particulars and a Society The Spirit of the Hat charg'd our Ministry with Whoredoms and Strumpets in the present tense This Apologizer tells the World our Answer was Evasion because we took it so for sayes he the Book meant it of time past that the Book meant no such thing unless a thing means quite otherwise then it sayes read the Passage Next what is that to us if a Judas or Demas that received part of the Ministry fall into the Evil of this World again can we do any more then Condemn it and we did nothing less Is that to prove our Ministry Vitious to tell a Story perhaps seven or ten Years since of any one or two that have at times opened their Mouth in our Assemblies Oh! God the Righteous and Terrible Judge will reckon with this Ungodly Libeller and those Base Murdering Judasses that have furnisht him with this dirty Trash God will clear our Innocency and detect their Envy and Hypocrisie more convincingly to all the World and that dreadful black and Stormy Day that hastens to try and win now the Nations will scatter them and their Mischievous Designs when God will preserve us in his Fear and Counsel by his Power to his Eternal Praise and our Consolation World without End W. P. A Postscript To the READER Concerning the Vnity of our Adversaries against us amidst the great Discord they are at amongst themselves HOw hearty these Men are in their Envy against us and Hatred to the Way we profess is very discernable from their close Confederacy and strict Union who are as remote and differing from and absolutely contradictory to one another in their Faith Worship and Discipline as to the Quakers themselves against whom they have combined They are made up of some Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Socinians and Apostates from us A strange Medley of Adversaries and stranger that there should be such Union to Mischief But let us view some of their Principles