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
Judas and the Jews Combined against Christ and his Followers BEING A Re-joynder to the late Nameless Reply called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected made against a Book entituled The Spirit of Alexander the Copper-Smith Rebuked c. which was an Answer to a Pamphlet called The Spirit of the Hat In which Truth is cleared from Scandals and the Church of Christ in her Faith Doctrine and just Power and Authority in Discipline is clearly and fully vindicated against the malicious Endeavours of a Confederacy of some Envious Professors and Vagabond Apostate Quakers By a Member and Servant of the Church of Christ William Penn. To which are added several Testimonies of Persons concern'd He that Dippeth his Hand with me in the Dish the same shall betray me Mat. 26.23 They went out from us but were not of us 1 Joh. 2.19 In Perils among false Brethren 2 Cor. 11.26 Nevertheless the Foundation of God stands sure 2 Tim. 2.19 Printed in the Year 1673. Judas and the Jews Combined against Christ and his Followers The Introduction THe Just Defence of our so much Reviled Principles and Persons is so ill resented by our Enemies that instead of publickly Recanting their Injustice They repute us more Criminal for so doing then themselves in first Traducing us It is become a sort of Petty Treason to Reprove them they are grown almost incorrigible and to Controle them though in a Lye is hateful so much more do they prefer our Destruction then the Truth it self or their own Reputation Strange That it should be reputed Innocency to Accuse the Guiltless and Guilt to Defend them Are we of God then shall we stand maugre your Assaults if not we shall fall without them What need this Clubbing for Mischief and Caballing to our Ruin The Jews I believe never studied the Crucifying of Christ more vehemently then you vigorously combine and plot the Massacring of our Names Credit and Principles out of the World yea and we have Cause to suspect our Persons too or else this Socinian-Defender of the hat-Hat-Spirit would never have told the World in almost so many words that Blasphemers were to dye by the Law of God and the Quakers are Blasphemers every Man can make the Conclusion that understands what a Conclusion is see pag. 23. It s a Work becomes Darkness for such I call your Nameless Pamphlet in which you have abused Vertuous and Good People by Name not daring to stand the Test of putting your Names to your Abuses against which can be no Fence but Innocency and that remains Unshaken by all your Blustering Epithetes That rests with God who will quell your swelling Rage and speedily Rebuke that great Herricane your Envy has raised to over-set us in our Voyage to Eternal Rest But he that said to Moses in an Hour of Straight Stand still and thou shalt see my Salvation has once and again Comforted us under all these Discouragements Neither are your Combinations Terrible No though Evil Spyes have been your Informers Our greatest Trouble is your own Hardening and we are sorry to see you make so much haste to old Jerusalem's Portion For us we know in whom we have believed And as he that feedeth the Fowls of the Air and clotheth the Lillies of the Field preserves us so that your Buffettings may prove our Tryals but in the End your own Judgments For however you buoy your selves up by the Acceptance you find with some Airy or Prejudiced Spirits God will certainly enter into Judgment with you for your Envious Proceeding who not being able to carry on your own Controversies now list your selves Combatants for a few stragling Apostates not out of Love to true Quakers but Hatred to such as are so What Sense is there in believing you only intend a False Quaker who have writ and abetted those Writings that are against us as Quakers at all But what shall I say It is an Age grown to that Degree of Impiety that there is no Friendship so Strait no Relation so Near no Truth so Evident nor Life so Innocent that some Men are not hardy and wicked enough to Break Violate and Slander to Avenge some supposed Wrong or gratifie an Emulous Spirit Controversie End upon Socinian Principles c. is risen now in one about the Hat on in Prayer What Variety of Shapes do our Adversaries put on to compass their Ends It has been their Practice first to Abuse our Principles and then Rail at our Defences and for Vindicating our Religion to fall foul upon our Persons and those chiefly who are most active in that Service There needs no other Demonstration of this then the Scurrilous Libel now to be considered which with me carries so Mischievous an Aspect that the Parties concerned in these Undertakings do by it proclaim they only want as much Power as Will to send us and our Principles to New-England for a Venture God deliver us from those Magistrates that are as Angry in Government as these Men are in Religion But this is our Joy That these Enemies speak all manner of Evil against us falsly for our Lord and Saviour's sake We maintain our Principles that angers them Miscarriages joy them whatever they pretend And if they can bring some Writers and Preachers out of Request they think they do their Business But we cannot believe that Sober and Judicious Persons will think the worse of us or our Cause for these Malicious Endeavours against it We have only to do with some old Adversaries new Vampt with the Slanderous Stories of some modern Apostates Had not Judas helpt the Jews had been to seek A few Vagabond Quakers are their Intelligencers it s all but a piece of Treachery and Envy And truly 't is fit we should be tryed as well by False Friends as Professed Enemies that in all things we may approve our selves compleat Conquerors through the Invincibe Power and to the alone Honour of that Eternal Truth professed by us And so we enter upon the Libel it self VVE are told in the Title Page of the Libel That it was writ in Defence of a Letter entituled The Spirit of the Hat and against the Deceitful Defective and Railing Answer called The Spirit of Alexander c. Indeed it is wonderful strange that to Reprove an Apostate should be reputed Railing and that this Secretary to this New-founded Cabal should Practiâ—e it in censuring it He cannot forbear it in his Title Page He begins with â—YRANNY AND HYPOCRISIE DETECâ—ED which Four Words he explains to us thus Or a furtheâ— Discovery of the Tyrannical Government Popish Principles and Vile Practices of the now Leading Quakers In all which if there be no Reviling there is no such thing in the World for these Words reach to the End of all Villany Meek Man that he would be thought who seems to engross Railing into a Company and seems not so Angry at it in us as that we use it Unlicenced of his Cabal for he exerciseth it at such a rate in
Shepherd and a Stranger will they not hear Who is this Stranger Not alwayes False Doctrine but a False Spirit covered with True Doctrine They shall come in my Name that is pretending Authority from me and speaking my Words not having my Spirit Christ's Spirit within is his Voice within and 't is that alone gives to discern the Strange Voice let it come with never such True Words Had Christ left his Churches destitute of this Touch-Stone they had been imposed upon by every False Spirit and his Flock devoured by every Wolf in Sheeps Cloathing Sheep know Sheep not only by Sight but Instinct and Wolves too For if Shepherds be of Authority they tell us that if a Wolf be near though out of Sight the Sheep will bleat their Antipathy So do the Sheep of Christ know each other by the Instinct of that Divine Nature they are mutually Partakers of and by it do they discern the Wolf within notwithstanding the Sheep's Cloathing without It was for this end they were to have Salt in themselves the Anointing and Spirit in themselves that they might see relish and discern thereby who were so Salted Anointed and Spirited which in the ground could never be visibly discerned 2ly The second Question I also take in the Affirmative and for which there is both express Scripture and Unanswerable Reason This is seen in the very case of Alexander the Copper-Smith who was denyed and rejected notwithstanding that he made Profession of Christianity And there is cause to believe that the Difference began from his emulous Spirit 's taking Occasion against the Apostles Authority and the Power of the Elders in the Church It was doubtless for something not unlike to this that Paul complained of him to Timothy Alexander the Copper-Smith did me much wrong of whom be thou ware also for he hath greatly withstood our Words Which is the very State and Character of the present Apostates Who pretend with Alexander not to withstand Truth or Christianity but a Lordly Paul Timothy or such like eminent Labourers They pretend to own the Churches but deny some of their Leading Ministers That this was Alexander's Disease the next Verse proves At my first Answer no Man stood with me but all Men forsooke me I pray God it may not be laid to their Charge Who was this People but the Church for of the Heathen it could not be said And what was Alexander's aim besides Ambition I mean to discredit the Apostle that he might gain the Repute and being him down from that Authority God had given him in the Church that he might usurp it to himself What did the Apostle do in the like case shrink No Hear him For though I should boast somewhat more of our Authority which the Lord hath given us for Edification and not for your Destruction I should not be ashamed 2 Cor. 10 8. But no more of this at present That Christ as well gave his Church Power to reject as to try Spirits is not hard to prove That notable Passage Go tell the Church does it to our hand For if in case of private Offence betwixt Brethren the Church is made absolute Judge from whom there is no Appeal in this World how much more in any the least Case that concerns the Nature Being Faith and Worship of the Church her self The Judgment Christ passeth in the matter is sufficient to the Resolution of our Question But if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen and a Publican This I say on the Account of those Apostates who pretend to be the Men they ever were For this Man that works with their Tooles is upon his own Principle as much an Heathen and a Publican as any thing else and tells us to boot that it is dangerous to be of any one Party Therefore not of the true Churche's Party I omit any particular recital of the Apostle Paul's frequent earnest Dehortations from so much as keeping company with perverse Disputers about needless Questions or any that infested the Church and disturbed her Peace and that Practice in which she was at first setled with unprofitable Novelties under what Pretence soever They that can read may find in his Epistles enough to this purpose 'T is true They used no corporal Violence or any civil Power to punish such obstinate Dissenters nor is that Unchristian Practice so much as any part of the Question But first to reprove and admonish and in case of Persistance then to disown and reject which is a part of the Question and a part of the Scripture too And indeed it is most reasonable that as a Civil so a Christian Society should have this Power to preserve it self from the Taints Infections of hurtful Spirits for such tend not to further Knowledge Increase in Holiness or Peace but Strifes and Divisions Animosities and Rents Backbitings and Revenge to the laying waste of God's holy Heritage 3ly The third Question we also accept in the affirmative That men may believe confess and subscribe to the Truth of the Doctrine of the Vniversality Sufficiency and immediate Teachings of the Light as to Faith and Worship and yet be declined from the living Sense Power and Ordering of it so as to be acted by a wrong Spirit to Divisions and notwithstanding plead his Following of the Light within against the Judgment of the Church who reproves him for so doing In short that a man may follow a Wrong Spirit when he thinks he follows the Right and though he ought to follow the Light and Spirit yet is to be judged when he does not act thereby though he may think he doth by such as walk thereby In this the Scriptures of Truth are very positive The Jews owned the Law at what time they rebelled against it and thought they acted according to Scripture when by their Traditions they made it of none Effect There was a certain Generation that were pure in their own Eyes That is believed themselves to be of a Right Spirit whom the holy Ghost reproved for being guided by a Wrong one It was no other State then this that Christ spoke of when he said If therefore the Light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness Some doubtless acted by Virtue of this Darkness not as Darkness but as Light Was it therefore Light because they thought so When it is manifest that they were against Christ the true Light as you are now Or would the Plea of such an one be so valid against the Body of a Church walking in the true Light as to disengage any from her judgment Or must we therefore conclude that the Light is not a Rule for Men to walk by because some mistake or swarve from it Or that he who calls his dark Imagination a Motion of Light is therefore not to be condemned because it is every Man's Duty to follow the True Light Shall this Position I say
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
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
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-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
also deny the Practice and Principle and directed People to keep in the Power and Spirit that the Apostle was in who said Men should Pray Vncovered as they did in the Apostles dayes And whereas you liken us to the Church of Rome pag. 25. scoffingly It is no matter to us if the Pope profess God and Christ and put off his Hat when he prayes we shall not deny God nor Christ nor keep on our Hats when we pray because of that And in pag. 29. you make a great Out-Cry because we said in our Declaration We alwayes paid our Taxes and then you say An Honest-hearted Woman paid none We know she was a Whimsical Woman and whither her Whimsies carried her viz. Mary Boreman now called Mary Pennyman And whereas you say they are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities G. F. and his Adherents and such as exalt themselves This is Spight and Malice and much such Stuff is in the 30 th page not worth taking notice of for Dignity is the Power of God which G. F. and we own and they are the Body of Christ that are in it You cannot exalt your selves above it nor the Doctrine of Truth that is in Ancient Friends which the Devil is out of who are made God's Free Men and Women by it and God has given us Power and Spirit to judge such Envious Spirits as this Book comes from and so we have no Unity with such that be out of the Truth neither can we have any hand in publishing their Books and we have a care of them that are printed on the Truth 's Account And whereas you say that none may be permitted to publick Business but these that seek the Good of all that is submit to the Body of G. F. and his Party Here is Envy and Lyes again Where were there ever such Words spoken to submit to the Body of George Fox and his Party may not the least feel the Devilish Spirit in these Words for we would have all to submit to the Body which Christ is the head of and such in Christ's Power and Spirit are fit to do Business in the Church that seek the Good of all and we limit not the Lord but would have all obey him in his true Light in which there is Fellowship And whereas you say some of our Hearers have been weary of our long Preaching Answ It is like they were such as John Pennyman and othe Apostatet who come crying against us in a publick Meeting like the World And as for John Perrot who is gone we do very well know what he was and what Imaginations he went into though he and you lay it falsly upon the Lord and we contradicting him and his Practice in Wearing his Hat and Covering his Head in Prayer was not only from G. F. but the Apostles and if J. Perrot and his Party did speak against G. F. and us because we could not own your keeping on your Hats when you prayed upon his or your pretended Motion but then and now make these Out-cryes against us who have kept our Habitation and you are found in another Spirit then the Apostles were in who said Men should be Vncovered c. And you scoffingly say if J. Perrot he condemned Fox cannot stand Why because Perrot pretended a Revelation to do that which the Apostle forbids but poor People you have manifested your selves and thus you are angry because G. F. and others cannot change like you to your Hat-Spirit And whereas thou speaks to a Declaration and Scurrilous Paper pag. 37. thou shouldst have printed the whole Declaration that People might have seen what it was which Declaration was against Wickedness Uncleanness and Scandalous Books and Papers against us And for John Pennyman I never heard any one say otherwise of him but that it was a mad and wicked Action to which the Devil lead him when he followed his Motions to the Exchange to burn his Books and what did he carry the Bible and the Book of Martyrs there for think you And whereas you make a great Business of Tho. Ibbit of Huntingtonshire Friends were tender to him and though he had a true Prophecy and a Sight of the Fire yet he afterwards confest the exceeded and saw himself And why do you mention G. F. who was above 100. Miles off at that time this doth shew the Venom of your Tongues And you say you have seen the Forgery of G. F. in the Name of the Lord contradicted the Elders but this is like the rest And though J. Pennyman and his Company have been scraping up this many Years these things which they have published in Print where did they ever go to admonish any one or to speak by one or two or three to them according to Christ's Doctine but this are the Doings of False Brethren and as for John Swinton he saw his Errors when he leaned towards you which his condemned Stuff is Meat for such Envious Spirits as you are And in their 43. pag. they jeer and scoff and call a Meeting at Bull and Mouth G. F's Court or Murderously call it King Fox's Court when G. F. never had been at Bull and Mouth Meeting since it was burned down and many Scoffing Words are in the said 43. page scarce worth mentioning And in page 44. you say that J. Pennyman complains and tells the World in his refusing to sign a Certificate of Wm. Sparrorow's he received a Check from G. F. and for advising that others should not subscribe to that which they were ignorant of We never put any to subscribe that which they were not willing to for that was but a civil thing concerning Wm. Sparrow's Certificate and this is many Years since that J. Pennyman has kept this in store in his malicious Heart And in Pag 46. the Paper which R. D. sent up of R. Wâ—iâ—'s to advise Friends upon his Death-Bed was not contrary to G. F's Doctrine and Practice he was not advised to any thing beyond his Freedom and therefore G. F. is clear of that Aspersion For the Man was advised by me and nothing was imposed upon him but the matter was declared unto him and left to his Freedom to do as he would and he was well satisfied till Mary Boreman and such as she put Doubts and Fears into his Mind and made him question that he had done and Judge himself to have done wrong which indeed it was not so And whereas you say in your Tyranny and Hypocrisie He will not count himself Obliged to keep off his Hat by Vertue of G.F. his Law Answ Here is more of your Wickedness for we do it from an Inward Principle of Truth and from the Power Spirit of God as the Apostle laid down in Reverence to God and thou mayest call it the Apostles Law yet some of the Hat-Men have pretended Motion and some in Opposition in their Wills and there are many Lyes in that page which are not worth mentioning 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
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
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
against those as Persecutors that obtained their Peace by Thrusting and Carrying us out But I will tell him first that our Paper against John Pennyman was as necessary to clear us from that Instigation of the Devil that led him to give up to burn the Scriptures of Truth and the Writings of Friends which were some of those Papers this Apologizer fitted for all turns of Deceitful Evasion calleth Wast pag. 37. under the Pretence of the Motion of God's Spirit as for an Innocent Man in Sight of a Murder to clear himself from being guilty of so heinous a Fact We delighted not at his Imprisonment for we were wounded by the Cause of it and had great Reason to deny that Action which brought a Reproach upon our Principle and Practice that never belonged to either God's Spirit hath hitherto lead us to Read Believe Obey and Witness the Scriptures and not to tare them as did our Adversaryes Orthodox Elizabeth Bâ—rens p. 52. in the height of Rage before mine Eyes and offer to burn them as did his so much Commended and Defended John Pennynman I perceive this Socinian Author denyes our Testimony by his Dislike of it and consequently owns that Wicked Position that the Spirit of God may lead a Man to burn the Scriptures of God against which our Testimony was mainly directed For his ancient grave Gentle-Woman as he calls her she hath been so Unhappy as through her Excess of Affection to J. Pennyman to be a Sharer with him in his perverse Out-Cryes against us yet I can scarcely think that she will attest any such thing But if it were true as I believe it to be false it can be no Valid Argument against the Faith Worship or Actions of the Body of the Quakers But why MOVED me-thinks here and in J. P's Case he hath learned to pronounce Moved as if he believed the Spirit in these Dayes used any such thing Is he angry with us for resisting Ann Mud's MOTION who himself p. 32 33 71. denyes the Certainty of any such thing but Envy blinds Men. We shall also grant that we are the Men whom the Eternal God from time to time raised to testifie against the Hireling Teachers that took Money for that which was not Bread but were like Wolves in Sheeps Cloathing devoured the Flock and made a Prey of the People and God hath blessed us in that Service for before a Gathering there was to be a Scattering And God made us Instrumental to turn People from Darkness to Light from the Power of Satan unto God by directing their Minds to the Gift of his Holy Light and Spirit which discovers the Deeds of Darkness convinceth the World of Sin revealeth the Mind and Will of God and gives Power to the Creature that believes in it to obey and do it For this Testimony in the â—irelings Synagogues did the False Jew or Christian Hale Tere Beat Bruise Knock down Stock Whip Imprison with many such like Horrid and Inhuman Actions which became not our Adversaries Interest though an Impartial Historian to mention But have we been no otherwise disturbed or have we so used our Disturbers Our Faithful Chronicles of the Bloody Tragedies of that Professing Generation will tell future Ages other things O the Partiality of this Socinian Apologizer for our Disturbers But to close this Either our Adversary condemns our former Testimonies against the Priests in their Steeple-Houses or he does not if he does he cannot justifie the Senseless Bawlings of Proud and Envious J. Pennyman Francis Chadwel and the like Disturbers of our Assemblies upon his own Comparison If he justifies their Disturbances of us especially those given by his Prime and Singular Witness F. Chadwel with what Face can he censure our Serious Solemn Admonitions or Reproofs in the National Synagogues Let it be as it will with him we expect an higher Judgment and to that shall we gladly yield And for those two or three Stories of the Wantonness Uncleanness of some particutar Persons among us though it is spoken to in some following Testimonies yet I have thus much to say J. W's Name is Basely and Falsly used by the Libeller though he could not have mentioned it but upon Information from some of these Defaming Apostates whom God will judge for endeavouring to Murder the Reputation of an Ancient Solid Faithful Labourer in God's Work Shall Ifs and may be 's conclude Men Guilty It is not the first Mistake W. M. if he be their Informer hath committed whose Jealous Surmising Soul can scarce do any thing else in Cases relating unto us as I have experienced His Worth is lighter to the Man his Name is brought in t to slander then the Chaff to the Wheat For the Two Young Women concerning whom M. Y's Information is cited they were examined Childish Toyish and Unseemly Carriages were with much Contrition confest but for any such gross Wickedness as was and is suggested by these Men they said it was false if there was a God in Heaven For M. Y. we shall say no more till we have a more express Account of his Concernment in that Libel or Information mentioned therein We see no Name to it and might as well suspect that with other things however our Friends behaved themselves in that Matter as became God's People to do For T. M One Story is cleared by the Woman's Testimony and W. M's Malice discovered For his common Uncleanness under Pretence of Physick c. We know not how to allow it for several Years since dealt withal by our Friends and in particular by a Physician about it and what there was any just Ground to Condemn him for he was judged his other Unwatchful Carriages denyed and his Conversation turned form by our Friends Lastly Suppose these Enemies of God and his Work and People could Say and Prove Ten Times as much shall those Miscarriages bring many Thousands of People out of Request and go for an utter Blast upon their Faith or Way Vain Men Should we tell the Stories of the Abominable Practices of both such Apostates and some Envious Professors what of Sin could we not find several that have profest their Way guilty of But we will make no Musick for the Atheist Has not every Miscarriage as Known been Reproved Yes Every Unfruitful Work of Darkness as by the Light within when known only to the Party Offending so by the Light in our Friends as a Church when known to them Is not this Gospel-Order Or must some raw Slips of Unwatchful Persons Antichrist our whole Society Reader These Things and Persons objected have been several Years since examined who were Innocent Acquitted and who were Guilty Condemned according to the Righteous Law of God And upon this old Condemned Stuff it is our Enemies feed with this they Arm themselves against us and upon this Quagmire as their best Foundation they stand In short They have been False to God Abusive to his People Hurtful to the
Principalities and Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and Spiritual Wickednesses in High Places which center in the Invisible Dark Power of the God of the World that since the Beginning hath drawn and acted Man out of God's Counsel and Power in which the Kingdom stands For though we walk in the Flesh or Body we do not War after the Flesh for the Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal but Mighty through God to the pulling down Strong Holds casting down Imaginations and every high Thing that exalts it self against the Knowledge of God 1 Cor. 10.4 5. And as our War and Weapons so our Kingdom is not Carnal but Spiritual not of this World but that which is without End and of this we are not ashamed It may not be unseasonable to take Notice of that Passage in his Book so often mentioned eagerly insisted upon and aggravated to the height of Ananias's Belying the Holy Ghost viz That G. Fox this Great Prophet as he in Abuse calls him should break open and alter the Contents of John Whitehead 's Letter which as he said was writ in the Name of the Lord and that to a quite contrary Sense making the Letter to judge those that kept the Hat on whereas J W. therein justified both those that kept it off or on Thus saith our Adversary doth G. Fox belye both John Whitehead and the Holy Spirit of God and that knowingly He proceeds Oh Prodigious Impudence He that counterfeits any Man's Name in a Matter of any Concernment deserves to be exposed on the PILLARY AND TO LOSE HIS EARS HOW MUCH GREATER PUNISHMENT DOTH HE DESERVE that Counterfeits both the Name of God and Man in a Matter of Religious Concern This sayes he is the Course that G. F. took to make his Injunctions to be observed But this is the Course more truly to make the Impiety of this Adversary more Notorious For first G. Fox never opened his Letter nor made any Alteration in it at all that I dare affirm in so many Words much less that he belyed the Holy Spirit and least of all that he did it willingly I perceive by his Conclusion he acknowledges that the Holy Ghost as really moved in J. Whitehead as in Peter contrary to his own Principle Any thing will they All grant that they may Slander or Injure us in the Minds of the People How knows he it was a True Motion Doth he not deny it may be known If so then how dare he be so positive in the Censure of G. Fox Will he make the Motion Uncertain and yet certainly judge G. F. for a Forger who was yet Innocent I leave it to the Reader what to call this part of his Tale. Secondly J. Whitehead gave Power by Letter at that time to the Brethren of London to supervise and alter it as they should see convenient and no otherwise was G. F. concerned in it then as one assenting with other of our Friends that according to Power given and their best Understanding did alter it for the better and herein did J. W. testifie his Unity and Fellowship for the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets So that what was done was no more then what J. Whitehead left Power to do and which the Scripture justifies Wherefore Prodigious Impudence belongs not to G. F. but this hardy Adversary and Prodigious Cruelty Persecution if not Murder too is he guilty of that would have him not only Pillary'd and lose his Ears but his Life too or something very near a kin to it This is confirmed page 33. where he charges us to be Blasphemers and that such ought to Dye by the Law of God in former times The Consequence is plainer then his Power to execute it Oh the Mercies Oh the Forgiveness of these exceeding Meek Suffering Bruised Little Ones as they would have as think But Oh Deceitful and Blood thirsty Generation who have endeavoured what in you lies to betray with your Treacherous Kiss of pretended Love to our Souls our Faith Reputations and Lives too into the Hands of some Bloody-minded Jews who are not of the Circumcision in Spirit but lust against those that are that they may be stirred up against us But God will reckon with you and them too for these things This Adversary takes an Occasion to fasten a Lye upon a Paper set forth in the Name of the Quakers but he sayes writ chiefly by G. F. and G. W. in saying That we have paid our Taxes and other Dues more then any People according to our Abilities When sayes our Adversary their Neighbours know all over England there are at least some Taxes or Assessments which they have peremptorily refused But why must we be branded for Lyars because of that Saying or our Adversaries base Aggravation I do affirm That we have been oversest more then any and Paying those Extream Assessments gives good Ground for Saying what we did But indeed some Hat-Spirits perhaps could not say so but why Because some of them are so leavened into another Spirit that they almost question the Payment of any as M. Boreman now called M. Pennyman did I must not be plainer least the Cabal further represent me one that exposes Person to the Lash of Government Wherein we can pay we do what ever they come for and in some Cases wherein we cannot answer their Demands for Christ's Peaceable GOSPEL sake They commonly Take three times the Value seldom if ever Returning any again But this our Adversary calls no Paying Sure I am it is Loosing more then our Adversary dare adventure for if I mistake not he can send out all those things rather then suffer though perhaps against his Conscience also Well but if we will believe him there is such an Arrogant Imperious and Audacious Paper given forth by R. Farnsworth A. Parker G. Whitehead J. Coale J. Whitehead T. Loe S. Crisp T. Green T. Moon T. Brigs and J. Parks as he thinks was ever given forth by Mortals A Charge too great and a Reflection so sharp that it had need be one of the worst Papers that was ever writ Now let us hear what it is 1. They allow not such to have Dominion in the Church who exalt themselves above the Body of Good and Ancient Friends Now what hateful thing did they deliver in this wholesome Christian Saying It seems this Enemy of God and true Righteousness would have liked us better if Bad Friends had been suffered to exercise the Dominion over the Body of Good and Ancient Friends But he starts out thus That by the Body of Good and Ancient Friends is meant G. Fox and his Adherents which sort of Interpretation well becomes such a Caballistick Writer for after those Allowances I will misrender the best Cause Pretences or Actions in the World It is an arrant Falshood He was then far from them Neither had they him in their Eye in doing it but God's Honour and the
Man There is little Reason that I should believe that this Man hath Courage enough to question my Honesty to my Face who was afraid to put his Name to his Slander I Envy not M. Pennyman her Honesty and am very well contented with mine own however it may be represented by mine Enemies who are too Partial to be Judges and instead of Confuting can only Revile me which shows no great store of Honesty in this Slanderer My Reflection upon M. Pennyman's Apparel was Just and Righteous I knockt her own Spirit with her own Weapon Were our Ministers Degenerated because they wore better Cloathes and was M. Pennyman more Regenerated in leaving off her mean ones Yes for she sayes that having come through her Sorrow the Out-side is little to her Would not the same Excuse serve us It seems it is no hard Matter for her to endure Richer Apparel that is of her own Back but not upon another's Ranterism is lodged under this Liberty which leads to what she once judged as unbecoming Truth But me thinks her higher Attainments might allow her Equals and Betters to wear Camelit whilst she wears Silk they are all I know good in their Places but Hypocritical Self-Righteous Pretences are not to pass without Rebuke But I cannot imagine what should induce this Libeller to reflect upon my Intimacy with Gulielma Mar. and that in such suspected Terms as if she were another then the Party he represented me to be married to a little before for he presently reflects Dishonesty upon that said Intimacy telling us at the Tale of it That M. P. is better known for Honesty then I am as if that Intimacy rendered me as culpable as if it had happened between M. Pennyman and my self It were well if he had been so cautious else-where in telling of Lyes as he is here in speaking the Truth But do what we can the Folks of this Man's Strain will make that a Ground of Reflection upon a Quaker which is very allowable in themselves He tells you above I was married and had a Child and a little below that I WAS SAID to be INTIMATE with G. M. that is with the Person that is my Wife as if it were to render a Man suspect to be intimate with one's own Wife Whether there be most of Folly exprest or Slander intended in this way of Writing let the Moderate Reader judge But because the Reflection as well extends it self to her as to me I will only say thus much in her Defence She needs none and to be questioned from so foul a Mouth is a great Addition to her Credit but his own Guilt His Comparison of her with M. Pennyman that formal Piece of Hypocrisie giveth but such as know both the better Mean to judge of either The well known Innocence Meekness and Faithfulness of the one more lively setting out the Deceitfulness Pride and Treacherous Apostasy of the other In short Who would be well spoken of by such that choose Vertuous Persons to speak Evil of and Apostates to Commend But all this and many more Rude Defaming Speeches must I and mine expect from this Perverse Generation who have rewarded us Evil for Good What Scurrility Railing Nick-Names Mocks and Jeers are vented against us with other Servants of the Lord But in all these things our Eye is to him for whose sake alone he is Record we are become Marks for Furious Men to shoot their Arrows at But the Lord is our Pavilion and his Strength our Fortress He covers our Heads in these and all other Battels at what time these Creeping Judasses and Envious Libellers lurk and hide so that we are not moved We recommend our selves to his peculiar Care and Providence that in his Holy Truth we may live and rather then relaps for it constantly dye that whether we Live or whether we Dye God may be Magnified in the Eâ—â—th and that shall be our exceeding great Recompence of Reward And for these Apostates who once dipt with us into the same Dish and fed at the same Table who have tasted of the Word of God and the Power of the World to come but have betrayed the Spirit of Truth to the Spirit of Delusion in themselves and given him his Motions into the Hands of the False Christian of this day to Deride and Scorn and who have had so little Regard to the Profession as to bring it under Reproach and to the Common Law of Friendship as Treacherously to divulge the Secrets of some of their ancient Acqaintants and finally who have endeavoured the Disgrace and Hazard of the Lives and Liberties of some of the Servants of God because of their Faithful Testimony against their Apostasy I must tell tkem and do in the Counsel of God Their Bands shall be made strong and that Eternal Power at which they strike reigns over their Dark Dividing Envious Spirit in the Hearts of that Peoplâ— they have called by so many Scoffing Names and more then a Mill-stone will it be about their Necks and the Weight of all these Wicked and Treacherous Doings will God bring upon them in a Day and an Hour when they shall not be able to escape the Rod of his Fury Ah! Poor Men What have ye been doing Verily your Damnation slumbers not and the God whose Name you have caused to be blaspheamed amongst the Heathen will one Day require these things at your Hands and Recompense Vengeance in Flames of Fire for all your Hard Speeches and Sinful Contradictions against the Holy Spirit of Truth and those who are led by it I am not in any Rage God knows but I am grieved for you I could wish a Place of Repentance might be found if the Lord saw good though I rather fear your many and grievous Provocations have shut the Door against you For as Core and his Associates were outwardly swallowed up of the Earth so hath the Earthly Sensual and Devilish Spirit of the World received you into the Bowels of it and you are become as really One against our Lord and his Anointed in this Generation as ever Pilat Herod Judas and the Jews were combined against Him and His in the Dayes of his Flesh Who have strengthened the Hands of the Mocker and Scoffer greatened the Envy of Professors and made the Atheist glad But may this Lamentable Course your Disobedient Watching-for-Evil Slippery Backbiting and Exalted Spirit hath brought you into with the sad Consequence of being hardened therein be a perpetual Warning upon the Minds of all who make Profession of God's Eternal Truth that they be not high-minded but fear minding their own Conditions and their Growth and Increase in the Work of the Lord that so Love and Unity may be preserved and all Watchings for Evil Distrusts Surmisings Emulations and whatever makes for Discord or Dis-affection may be judged out and the Sowers of that Spirit that leads thereunto turned from and rebukt in the Power and Authority of God who
this in the inwards of my Spirit I smote upon my Thigh and said What have I done and was willing to take Shame upon my self and to give Glory to the Lord. How hard it went with me inwardly none knows And he that knows how easie it is to let in a Snare and Temptation and to have the inward Eye blinded thereby will not wonder nor think too hardly of me but his Bowels will rather rowl in the Sense of the Misery I underwent God knows I did not mistake willingly Nay truly The Power was upon me when I wrote those Queries but I did not understand the Signification thereof which would rather have led me then as it hath since against that Spirit which brought up that new Vnprofitable and Vnseemly Practice of keeping on the Hat in time of Publick Prayer in the Assemblies of God's People Now the making use of this against the Infallible Teachings of God's Spirit and the Infallible Way in which he leads his People is not Just True and Equal What! Was I never Infallibly led because the Enemy once blinded my Eâ—e and deceived me Did not the Apostle Peter receive the Infallible Spirit and was not he led thereby And did he not walk in the infallible Way because once he did that which was justly to be blamed and doubtless erred in Judgment concerning the Practice Gal. 2.11 I do not desire that Men should judge me Infallible or hearken to me as to one Infallible but this I desire that I may alwayes understand and follow the Voice and Guidings of God's Holy Spirit and then I am sure I shall alwayes walk in the Certain Vnerring Infallible Way besides which indeed there is no safe Way And I desire also that others with Ears and Eyes opened by the Lord may hear that Living Sound and Testimony which cometh from the Spirit of the Lord in those whom he sends that the Gathering may be to him and the Walking with him in the Spirit of his Son in the Light which is Eternal which ever was and ever will be Infallible which is the Path of the Living in this Day of the Breaking forth of God's Pure Power and Love in the Heats of many Oh Glory Oh fresh living Praises to his Name forever Isaac Penington John Crook's Testimony Having seen a Pamphlet intituled Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected in which is printed a Paper of mine writ by me about Eleaven or Twelve Years since about Gestures and Postures c. it is thus in my Heart to write MY Desires and Breathings from my tender years have been after the Living God and since I have tasted of his Goodness and Mercy I have had a Love for and Longing after the Eternal Welfare of all that in any Measure sought after him in Truth and Righteousness knowing the Enemy's Devices to be many and various seeking by all Means to devour them And from a deep Sense of the same I writ the Paper about Gestures and Postures c. many years since knowing how busie the great Enemy of Man's Soul was at that juncture of time to draw out the Minds of some into the Observation and Innovation of Keeping their Hats upon their Heads in the time of Prayer in the publick Assemblies of God's People hoping that those Lines at that time might have been Successful to stop that Practice in some of them at least and also have allayed any thing in any others which might be of tendency to hinder their Information and Recovery But it was never in the least in my Heart or Intention to Encourage or Strengthen that Spirit and Practice which my own Judgment and Practice was against Neither did I intend any other Liberty then what was in the Lord and the Maintaining Love and Vnity amongst Brethren And truly in these various or contrary Practices of some keeping on their Hats and others putting off their Hats my Heart was affected desiring that the Lord would put a Stop to whatever tended to Discord which since hath appeared manifestly to arise from that Spirit which first brought in that Innovation Therefore in Good Conscience I cannot but bear my Testimony against the Author of this scurrilous Pamphlet for endeavouring not only to fasten such a Sense and Imputation upon me but also for his Attempt and Industry what in him lies to render God's People Odious and his ever-blessed Truth Contemptible to the World and thereby himself becomes a Murderer of Souls in perverting the Right Way of the Lord for which the God of Heaven will undoubtedly rebuke both him and all his Confederates in this wicked Vndertaking and in his time bring them to open Shame if they Repent not of this their Wickedness and Sin For the Epistle subscribed by Edw. Burroughs John Perrot and My Self it was writ when we were Prisoners together in New-Gate where John Perrot forbore the Wearing his Hat on purpose as we supposed to avoid Offence and also at that time be writ a Paper which was Satisfactory concerning the Matter of the Hat and had he made it publick at that time it might have prevented what afterwards befel him At this very juncture when there was such a Compliance and Hopes of his Recovery was the fore-mentioned Epistle writ Now let the Impatrtial Reader judge whether the Author of this Envious Libel hath shewed either Ingenuity or Humanity in his recital of the fore-mentioned Papers to the End for which he hath made them publick John Crook Solomon Eccle's Testimony FRIENDS I Give my Testimony for the Lord and for this blessed Truth this Day The Lord is amongst us and through the Riches of his Love towards us hath he made himself known unto us by his Eternal Light which shines in our Hearts And this Light is exceeding pretious to all that receive it in the Love of it for it is Pure and Divine and to be admired in all that do believe The Life is the Light of Men Jo. 1.4 and to know this is the excelent Knowledge And by believivg in this Light and walking in the same We have Fellowship one with an other 1 Jo. 1.7 and Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ But some are gone out from us and gone from their own Mercies and are turned against the Truth yet pretend to follow the Lamb They would Exclude us that the World might Affect them Of this sort is John Pennyman who hath sought Occasion against me and G. F. and hath printed and caused to be printed three times against me that never did him hurt first in his own Pamphlet next the Baptists called the Spirit of the Hat 3lY the Tyranny and Hypocrisy detected But in this he hath not done any wayes like a Servant of the Lord as he stiles himself nor a Follower of the Lamb for he never came to me in a Brotherly Way according to Gospel Order Mat. 18.15 first in secret by my self to shew me wherein I had done amiss if I had done amiss Nor was he so
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
all unsavory Words in the Spirit of the Hat and their Tyranny and the Hypocrisie detected I can say the Lord lay them not to their Charge as knowing our Lord and Master's Words They shall speak all manner of Evil of us falsely for his Names sake And whereas you say in pag. 18. of your Tyran and Hypocr detect That G. F. did approve of those Words both before and after they were Printed by S. E. Which is utterly False and a Lye of your own forging for G. F. did not know what I writ before they came forth for I must clear the Innocent from this Forger of Lyes and they that have gotten these Lyes from him daub him and boulster him up as an Honest Man that they might get Lyes to Print and to make Money of them and feed themselves with such Lyes of which there are many in their books which they have from the Father of them who is out of the Truth and the Saying of the Apostle is come to pass The Wicked grow worse and worse and love to make a Lye and others make Lyes their Refuge and others are given up to believe Lyes And take heed that you be not all Damn'd together and the Lord doth not render Vengeance from Heaven in Flames of Fire upon you for be sure it will come if you do not Repent And do not boast your selves you Hat-Men of the Abilities and Endowments who are inventing and forging Lyes and publishing them like a Ballet-Singer to get a Penny against the Innocent yea to the taking away their Lives for all that are sober may see it is their Blood you seek after For Men that have an Esteem of Christianity and their own Reputation would not be sound in such Works and Actions and be a Companion among them nor give Ear to them but all these things shall work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.38 and the Secrets of all Hearts will God reveal and judge by the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 For did ever I or G. F. do any Hurt to J. Pennyman or ever give him an ill Word who thus hath abused us and published these things behind our Backs But I leave him to the Great God the Judge of all who Jusifies and Clears the Innocent and Condemns the Guilty For the Lord knows that I and I believe G. F. had nothing but Good-will for his Eternal Good and Prosperity inwardly and outwardlv though he has thus ill requited us who never spake a Syllable to me before he printed against me neither have I seen him nor know not where to find him since I came to England nor never spake he to G. F. as I understand although I know G. F. sent for him and he would not come But as I said before I will leave all to the Righteous Judge who will render to every Man a Reward according to his Words and Works And my Desire is That all sober People might not feed upon Lyes published by Apostates and Back-sliders nor lend their Ear to them but to Christ Jesus and feed upon him the Heavenly Bread that comes down from Heaven by which they may have Life But truly as the Scripture saith The Children of this World are Wiser in their Generation then the Children of the Kingdom Luke 16.8 For I had challenged L. Muggleton and the Papists and the Baptists to Fast with them Seven Dayes and Seven Nights not to â—at nor to Drink for a Tryal of their Faith which was a Sober thing for Fasting and Watching are Ordinances of God But L. Muggleton and the Baptists have agreed with J. Pennyman to get something against S. E. to save their Bellies and so J. Pennyman as a Captain of Cowards endeavours to strenghthen the Enemies of God against me behind my Back but he should first have answered my Challenge in Muggleton's behalf but contrary-wise he sends to Barbadoes a piece of my Paper writ to that Cursing Man when he knew I was out of his reach Ah poor Man the Lord forgive thee for truly I do with all my Hart also all the Baptists here beyond Sea And I desire also with all my Soul that if it were the Will of God Poor J Pennyman might yet find a Place of Repentance if his Day he not over The 24th of the 7th Moneth 1673 S. E. James Claypole 's Testimony HAving perused a Pamphlet called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected c. I find it a very Envious Reproachful Piece and that the secret Design of the common Enemy in the Authors and their Informers and Abettors is to root out Truth and Righteousness from the Earth and to bring People into Atheism by endeavouring to render some of the People of God called Quakers guilty of the foulest Evils acted by the Sons of Men and the rest of them mentioning those they account the Leaders and Chiefest amongst them to be Connivers at and Coverers of such Evils as if they did secretly allow thereof and that their preaching up a Good Life was but a Decoy to gain Proselytes and not only so but rendring the Righteous Principle of Christ Jesus which is the True Guide the Way and the Life which God has revealed in the Hearts of Thousands to be Fallible Insufficient Vncertain or but a pretended Guide because some that have professed it have walked contrary thereunto wherby it is evident that the God of this World has blinded the Eye of their Minds and that through Envy Malice and Desire of Revenge their Understandings are become darkened that they cannot discern things that differ but in Conclusion jumble all together Just and Unjust he that Loves and he that Hates a Lye the Motions of God and of the Devil being in Enmity against that in themselves which makes the Separation and gives the Discerning between the Pretious and the Vile And so these Judasses some whereof have been almost accounted as Disciples have endeavoured as much as in them lies to betray the Just into the Hands of Sinners and to cause the Truth of God to be Evil-spoken of by those that watch for Iniquity and hate to be Reformed And for our own Vindication from these Reproaches we do appeal to God who knows the Secrets of all Hearts That we do not Own or Countenance any Iniquity in our selves or others but according to our Dotrine and Principles do desire and endeavour in that Ability that God hath given us To approve our selves in all-things in Sincerity and Vprightness both to God and Man and that we had rather Dye outwardly then sin against God wherein we have been tryed these many yeares God's Witness in the Hearts of our Enemies will plead for us And farther As to the part which doth more immediately concern me wherein I am brought in as an Hypocrite and John Boulton as a Tyrant He for Reproving an Vncomely Fashion and Invention and my self for Denying that in Publick which in Private I Owned I answered it
in a former Book and it might have been sufficient to Reasonable Men For as I then said I did not Deny what I had spoke at the former Meeting but being Mis-understood I Explained it which gave Satisfaction We pretend not to be above Mis-hearings and Mis-apprehensions though above Wilful Evils It s well they have no greater Crime to accuse me of who are so Envious as to make use of such Trifling Inconsiderable Matters as this to Discredit us Well this I have further to say concerning the siad book That Hell hath opened her Mouth and the Dragon hath cast out Floods against the Church that is coming out of the Wilderness which the Lord our God is building upon the Rock Christ Jesus and the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it And many hath the Lord established upon this Rock who are Inhabitants thereof and can sing for Joy in the midst of all Tryals and Excersises Storms and Tempests knowing that our Foundation stands sure and as there we abide we can never be moved having Salvation for Walls and Bulworks and being kept as in the Munition of Rocks where our Bread is sure and our Waters never fall Praises to the Lord forever James Claypoole John Osgood's Testimony I Having seen a Pamphlet called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected in which my Name is inferred in pag. 17. saying That whilst I in general terms deny all I do in particular deny nothing at all I say My Answer stated the Matter truly as it was and many are the yet Witnesses that know it to be so and to J. P. at his House it was so proved to be since the said Answer was printed And as to his Query in pag. 28. What is become of the Integrity of J. O. that he should put his Name among such Men as these I answer As for these Men I believe they would not affirm a thing with Pen or Toungue that they knew to be Untrue as this Pamphlet basely insinuates nor did I so much as in the least know of their Answer till I saw it printed And as for my Integrity it is known unto the Lord and to him have I approv'd my self in faithfulness even in Reproving the Extravagancies of him that I believe was the Grand Informer to him or them that made this Pamphlet and Sorrows many the Lord knows I have and had for him and oh that he had not been above Counsel then had he not been found Running the Race of Core nor Furnishing with Spears the Goliahs of Gath that this day Defie the Host of the Living God How have they made the Haerts of the Uncircumcised Glad How doth Askalon Rejoyce and Atheism say Ah! ha thus would we have it How is this Pamphlet furnished with Scoffs as Foxonians King Fox and Ironically Oh Innocent Holy Harmless People Well the Righteous Terrible Dreadful God will Avenge for these things What thought the Apostle said There where those things amongst the Corinthians that were not so much as to be named among the Heathens what must be their Portion that unto the Heathens made known this and thereby the God of the Christians Blaspheamed and the Way of Truth Reproached as it is at this day But with this sad Difference some of them that now are Agents in this Work have Tasted of and Witnessed unto theat Immortal and heavenly Power that was and is manifest amongst us and have gone from it and given heed to Fables Being Heady and High-minded they have stumbled and caused others to stumble they have Offended and treasured up the Offences of others unto their own Hurt John Osgood William Gosnell 's Testimony This is my Faithful Testimony for God his Truth and People and the Clearing of mine own Conscience As also given forth for Information of the Sober Enquirer and for'Condemnation of J. P. and his Confederates against whose Works I am and hope shall terminate my dayes in Judgment against that Spirit they serve Warning all to take heed of them who tender the Good of their Souls knowing their Ways and Works lead unto Death by Means whereof the Way of Truth is Evil-spoken to the Dishonour of God and Strengthening of the Wicked in their Doings FOr that my Soul loves the Truth and such who are the Faithful Servants thereof I do therefore reckon my self concerned with my Brethren as also for their sakes who have any Desires in their Hearts after the Way of Truth as it is by a Remnant Despised of Men in this our Day made known and testified unto to write something in Answer to what is charged against me in a Libel called TYRANNY AND HYPOCRISIE DETECTED which to the truly Sober and Unprejudiced Reader can be accounted nothing less then impious Railing and from an Ishmaelitish Spirit and from the Enemy of all Good in his Instruments manifested against such who are Resisters of Tyrrany and in the Uprightness of their Hearts Denyers of Hypocrise and in that give my Testimony against the said Pamphlet believing that whosoever is the Author thereof or Contributory thereto shall receive of the Lord our God the Just Judge of all who hath pleaded and will plead the Cause of his Truth and People the just Recompence of Reward according as their Work hath been which unto them who walk in the Light are seen to be Evil and They the Workers thereof bound in Chains of Darkness reserved to the Judgment of the Great Day nevertheless my Soul's Desire is if possible the may find a place for Repentance In Pag. 45. called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected are these words When I first saw Gosnell ' s Name in the Spirit of Alexander I expected nothing less then a Denyal of what is related to have been said by G. F. viz. Friends Although I have not told it you I do now declare That I have Power to Bind and to Loose whom I please In that thou didst nothing less then expect a Denyal c. doth manifest what Spirit thou art of viz. That which watcheth and waiteth for Evil and expecteth nothing less Why didst thou not set thy Name to that which thou hast heaped up that so we might have known ther and made some Enquiry after thee It s written That Fear surprizeth the Hypocrite Were thy Works such as would bring Honour to thee it may be we might have had thy Name at large but thy Works are manifest to be Evil and of the Flesh as are Railings Envious and Scoffing Speeches Slanders and Evil Suggestions So though thou concealest thy Name yet by thy Fruits thou art manifested to be an Evil Tree For an Evil Tree bringeth forth Evil Fruit. And why thou shouldst Expect a Denyal whilst sayest thou it seems is true let the Sober judge And so thou goest on as one of Ishmael's Brood with a Scoff saying How can it be otherwise that so Great a King and Prophet as G. F. should not have Power to Bind and Loose That there is a Power to Bind and
God's Appearance from the beginning thereof and by such as came to see the Glory of Truth and heard gladly for a Season as they that receive the Seed in the high way where it was either lost or carried away by the Fowls of the Air and these could never fell All for the Kingdom nor take up the daily Cross so mist the Life and came to be carried about with Winds and missing of the Righteousness of God have gone about to establish their own and blindly Zealous have watched others Vineyards and neglected their own so Withering and Fruitlesness hath come upon them until they are twice dead These were and are known by their Murmurings and Complainings yet listed up in their Minds by their own Righteousness which as sure as God's Righteousness layes low and makes to grow in Love so Man's begets Envy and watcheth for Evil and feeds upon it and is filled with it So as they living in Love can think no Evil so they out of it can imagine no good of them from whom by Pride and Envy they are divided and so exercising their Minds in the Evil. Never did hungry Beasts more earnestly seek their Prey to devour it then these Back-sliders have and do watch to catch the Miscarriages of any such as do profess the Faith and if they can find a little they make it a great deal by Whisperings and Back-bitings and large Intimations more by much then the Substance and in all pretending to be in an Hatred of Evil and to cry to others Stand farther off for we are Holyer then these So after a doing some years Threatnings to make the Lord's People Odious in what they would publish and bring forth and having done what they can to the utmost that way and that not accomplishing their End now they lay their Stress on the severe Government of the Quakers which some of these Revolters once knew was set up in the Wisdom of God to hinder such Evils as they were used to speak against and to reform and gather nearer unto the Truth of God but this Order being like to smite some of them they strike hard at those that are exercised therein their End being in all to present the People of the Lord and their Way Worthless and Bad that so they themselves might not be so manifest in the Forsaking and Withstanding the Good Way of the Lord and that they might shut up that Kingdom to others into which they themselves would not enter And tha◠to all they may be manifest their Works declare them for every Lye is of the Devil and how many they have publisht in their late Books of Darkness to which they have been ashamed to joyn a Name can I tell nor am I covetous to know for who in the Faith stands wars not with Flesh and Blood but with Spiritual Wickedness in High Places and I have had and have as sensible a Feeling of that Spirit from whence it comes and whither it must go that brought forth that called the Spirit of the Hat and that called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected or an Answer to Alexander the Copper-Smith and it is the same that the Prophet Micha had a Sight of that Lying Spirit which went into the Mouthes of the Seduced Prophets and though I never read the last of these Pamphlets in that my time not being like to be long on Earth I was not willing to Mis-spend so much of it but one reading the Title to me a Renewed Strength I found against that Spirit that brought it forth and that it did with Re-doubled Strength strike at W. P. as one whose Pen had hit them and had he never writ a Word he judgeth them in Denying the Glory of this World the Vain Hope of which hath bewitched some of them to draw back And another read to me that Lye made of me in the last of these two Books which I must speak something to that little part that was read to me of my Son J. O. and I. I need not say much of my Son J. O. for he through Grace is made able to display and resist them only this I would have all the Simple take notice of their Scornful Taunts and Willingness to render him and I as Speakers Falsly or being like unto them and indeed in this they much resemble God's Enemies in former Ages as in other things and to his Judgment are they left I having not a Purpose at this time so much to answer them for whom my Hope is near worn out as to hold out my Hand with many Brethren that the Honest-hearted might be delivered from those Perdicious Wayes they walk in and are alluring to by their Subtility and False Speeches And by Question they ask How could this accute Man say The Meeting would not hinder his Marriage To this as a Witness I answer I heard with many more J. B. whom they most accused to hinder say That they had nothing against his Marriage and this some of their Confederates know And for what they say of me as being a Great Mother and Governess among these People is but to set me on high that the Dîrt they fling may the more come upon me for some of them that are so Miserable as to contribute to this Work of Darkness in Fighting against Truth know that I have Gladly and Long been a Servant to this People of the Lord and no more Government have I coveted or gained but by Love and in Love possess And for the Charge writ against me it is utterly false in Matter and Words as these Accusers have stated it for those words they say I cried out no Man nor Woman that was present in that great Congregation will witness it if they fear to Lye and there are may many Witnesses of what I said and though I was permitted to speak a few words at that time that one or more of their Informers heard me say I had condemned as not expedient to have been spoken there but they being in the Dark have altogether mist it and placed a Lye of their own making in the stead of what I spoak But I unfeignedly desire that they may find a place of Repentance for this and all other their Evils But it is followed with another Falsity for say they By her Authority and J. O 's Interest they proceeded te Marry without's License As to License from any Man or Woman to Marry I have often publickly as called to it born my Witness against and with the rest of the Lord's People declared We make no Marriages nor break no Marriages nor Marry any but every True Man and Wife should known their being joyned of the Lord and so were these Couple yet did not nor durst not go brutishly together as some pretending more Holiness then others have done but this prudent Couple according to the Example of Holy Men and Women had many Witnesses of the People of the Lord and in an Orderly Solemn Assembly took
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
we were Worshippers of Angels which is indeed Idolatry To which I am called to say something as being presented with others whom I am bold to say believe all Obedience Honour and Thanks-giving belongeth unto him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore and are not guilty of what this malitious Spirit would present them to be But being acted by the same Spirit that they were that said this Man sayes he is the Son of God and therefore ought to dye So they not being in the Spirit that revealeth the Son of God thinks we worship Man for him but he that knew Christ revealed in him bids follow him as he followed Christ and that if I forgave any I forgave it saith he in the Person of Christ This I speak to the Simple and Upright-hearted that they may be delivered out ot the Snare of the Cunning Hunter that seeks the pretious Life and to such it will be given to know what is hid from the Serpent that is still blind and on Dust feeds and the Children's Bread I nor any in the Faith dare give unto them But that every honest Heart may see what Spirit acts in these Purposers of Evil I take notice of another Passage where this Libeller names my Name and indeed I knew not of it when I writ the former Part but an honest young Man in the Street told me of it and then I looked on that which they accuse me with some times before that and after it I read and being by the Power of the Lord whom I serve in my Spirit made as willing to remove any Offences as these by whom the Offences come and on whom the Wo must come are to lay Stumblings and I shall freely confess to that which is true in their Charge and deny the Falshood in this as the former and I shall begin with that in the 19th Line pag. 44. It 's not unusual say they with the Quakers to give as much Credit to one another as is the setting their Names to things they know not Answ Friends take notice how Ignorant the Carnal Man is of the things of God and not knowing that Nearness and Strength of Love that is among the Disciples of Christ he brings it among the rest of the Rabble of his Accusations that the Quakers credit one another in such matters as indeed no Money-Lover nor Unbeliever could never do for every Deceiver is afraid to be deceived but who out of the Deceit is brought into the Faith and Love that is unfeigned cannot fear that a Brother will deceive or hurt him and had rather bear the harm of a False Brother if it should so be suffered to be then mistrust or think Evil of him that is the Faith But the Accuser of the Brethren with all his Adherents are out of this Faith and are Strangers to this Love by which it works And though I never knew such a Practice among the Quakers not in one President ever offered to me or any to put their Hands to what they know not but this here rehearsed and is this only by what he himself and my Maid said some of which I know to be true and some false but I had Joy that all should know in this Pack of Falshoods this Truth That the Quakers have and do still credit one another But whether it was so or no that G. F. sent to our House to have J. P. and my Husband put their Hands to such a Paper as they knew not all I know of it I may speak of My Maid-Servant then living with me many Years since told me in a Morning when I came down that there was a Man with a Paper to have some Friends put their Hands to and that J. P. was a wise Man because he refused it and this I upon some Occasion told J. P. of for I do not believe he ever heard my Maid say so to him but he being affected with his own Commendations hath repeated it before me more then once that my Maid should say he was a Wise Man What was said was said to me and from me he had it and to my Knowledge I never heard my Maid to say Nor did I ever tell him or hear him speak those words That she believed her Master would have done it until now I see it in Print so I cannot but take notice of their adding that which is False to make their Matters hold together nor do I remember that Time or Day or Week that I said any thing of George Fox these words that he repeats as though I spoak them at the same time but that I did at some time speak those words to J. Pennyman and it may be to some others I deny not for in the Love of the Lord I travelled for him and some others of them that were in Danger by their Imaginations to fall into the Pit of Perdition and so as one that lived in the Love of God I according to the best of my Understanding endeavoured their Return and Safety by imparting to them what I had found to be my Profit and Safety and bowed to him and several of them in telling them that in the Light none errs yet that I was such a Child as for many years I might not know my Right-Hand from my left and if there were a Motion or Revelation did arise in me that I might think was true and we that are in Unity in the Spirit of God may and do speak our Motions one to another for the Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets and the Order of the Church was that they might Prophesie one by one and the rest might Judge yet if G. F. should deny it to be of the Lord I should be subject to his Judgment therein as one in Christ before me This or to this purpose I spoke and deny it not But that this Despiser of Dignities may attain his own End to pervert the Good Way of God by giving them to know what I was he said A Great Prophetess Now if he did believe what he saith though it was then a young time with me being nigh Ten Years ago he should have followed my Example and have brought his Motions to some in Christ before him to have tried his Motion and so by Counsel have been delivered from those Wanderings and Runnings and Mad Actions that he ran into when he brought that Truly-Valued Book called the Bible that I and many are come to the Comfort of and know that it hath been the Mighty Power of God that hath preserved it from the Hands of those that would have utterly Extinguished or Destroyed it to be burned But Praises be to the Lord that hath preserved iâ— unto this Day to give Testimony to the Light and Spirit which gave it forth though J. P. may be reckoned among the Intenders that would Destroy the Bible who brought it to the Exchange with other serviceable Books in their Places
1st The Presb. Indep And Anab. believe that the Father the Son and the Spirit though three Names denoting three Personalities or Subsistences are One Infinite Eternal and Omnipâ—â—â—t God At which the modern Socinian cryes Blasphemy and Idolatry For sayes he Christ is but purely a Man and the Spirit but a Creature Now come in these Apostates against the Presb. Indep Anabapt We deny your Personalities and Subsistences And to the Socinians We own Christ and the Spirit to be of one Nature and Being with God the Father And it is Blasphemy to say that Christ and the Spirit are Creatures Here 's the first Discord or Jumble between our Adversaries Secondly The Presbyter Indep Anab. and these Apostates assert God to be a Spirit At which these Socinianiz'd Followers of John Bidle say There 's no such thing but with J. Reeve and L. Muggleton That he has a Body like to a Man and inhabits a certain Place Thirdly The Presb. Indep and Anab. concerned chiefly against us hold That God from all Eternity elected a certain Number to Salvation and reprobated the residue to eternal Damnation without respect to any Condition of Obedience or Disobedience thereby to illustrate his own Soveraignity and Glory which Principle these Apostates have so much Understanding yet left as to repute pernicious and damnable The like do some of these Socinians we have to do with others of them having wheel'd off a few years since to the Geneva Predestinarian side Fourthly The Presb. Indep and Anab. believe That by Christ's Life and Sufferings wholely without God's Justice was Satisfied for Sins and Justification compleatly wrought for the Elect not only by Forgiving Sins past but reputing them really Just and Righteous whilst actually Sinful which kind of Doctrine these Apostates deny as also doth the Socinian affirming That God needed no such rigid Satisfaction that this is not to make him Righteous but Revengeful and that Christ cannot so properly be said to be the Cause as the Effect of the Father's Love For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. And though such are forgiven who truly Repent and that Remission was sealed by Christ's Blood as a Sacrifice yet Men are not made really Righteous within by any Imputation from another's Righteousness without while they are really Unrighteous within This is the 4th Contradiction Fiftly Presb. Indep and Anab. believe Christ to have now in Heaven an Human Body or one of Flesh Blood and Bones The Socinian and these Apostates say he hath no such Body but that which he hath is more Spiritual and glorified 6ly The Presb. Indep Anabapt and these Apostates affirm the Immortality of the Soul The Socinians deny it 7thly The Presb. Indep Anab. and Socinian deny the Light that shines within to be Christ in his Spiritual Appearance These Apostates though erred from it yet affirm it to be such 8thly The Presb. Indep Anab. deny that it can lead Men that obey it unto Salvation The Socinian with these Apostates affirm that it is able to lead such as follow it to Eternal Life 9ly The Presb. Indep Anab. and Socinian deny the Spirit to be poured out in these as former Ages or that Men ought to wait for the Motions of it to Preach Pray or Praise God These Apostates in words confess to maintain the contrary 10ly The Presb. Indep Anab. and Socinian affirm That the Scriptures are the only standing Rule to measure and try Doctrines and Spirits by under the Gospel These Apostates believe no such thing 11ly The Presb. Indep Anab. and Socinians disown the Practice of Keeping on the Hat in time of publick Prayer These Apostates call the Pulling of it off a Tradition of Men a Romish Tradition c. Yet Reader for our seasonable and due proceeding against them as Innovators upon the Church of Christ and Disturbers of our Peace by this new unprofitable and irreverent Practice denying them in their persistence and rejecting their Motions as not coming from the Spirit of God are we furiously fallen upon by some of each of those fore-mentioned Parties who as Men forgetting their own Essential Differences and that Persecution they have followed one another with for years like the ancient Scribes Sadducees and Pharisees unanimously endeavour our Disgrace Overthrow in the World as if they were all of one Faith in Doctrine who scarcely in any two most weighty Points hit which shews that Men under divers fundamental Differences may be acted by one and the same Spirit of Envy and Bitterness against the Truth and them that live therein What else can I call that which has given these Apostates that place in their Hearts that while Faithful hated them as they still do us who Judas-like have run away from us to inform our Enemies which way they may take us at an Advantage These Men they hug commend and vindicate at so high a rate as if they were the only great Pilgrims on Earth for Righteousness as much as they differ and we a Crew of Tyrants and Hypocrites Their Innovation must be called Gospel-Liberty but our Religious-Government Tyranny They justifie the Motions of these Apostates and condemn Us for refusing them whom themselves both deny Motions and the Way to know them They put me in mind of the Jews of old who were seldom wanting in the Promotion of the Christians Sufferings by the Heathen nay they were glad and improved the least Occasion to set the Infidels upon their backs alwayes the Jew and Heathen said Amen to the Destruction of the Christians yea that very thing for which the Jew in his time suffered from the Heathen to wit That they worshipped an Ass's Head was after abusively made the Reproach of Christians both by Jew and Heathen What others have we received from the Separatists of this Age who make us to inherit that sort of Suffering which they once thought Ungodly in their Adversaries How welcome was a Renegado Christian to the Heathen or a Backslider to the Jew How cheery were they of such an one's Intelligence and how apt to aggravate it to the Wrong of Christianity But if that was nevertheless True because of the Unfaithfulness and Treachery of its Professors neither is our Way to be concluded False nor our Society Criminal because a few stragling Renegadoes have in their Discontents furnisht some common Enemies with a broken imperfect Account of our Church-Proceedings But as this will turn little to their Credit with Wise and Just Men so have we Confidence in God that having brought us through many Difficulties he will continue to preserve us through the Peril of False Brethren and all other Tribulations which do and will but work a far more exceeding Weight of Glory yea of that Glory which was with the Father before the World began and in the Possession of which the now despised Flock of God shall rest with him in that World which never had Beginning and is without End William Penn. THE END ERRATA READER THou art still desired to continue thy Kindness in Correcting such Faults as have through Speed of Work escaped the Press whether they be Words Letters Points or Parenthesis some of the most Considerable are here collected Page Line Error Corrected 4 17 that blot out 9 15 shewn shown 19 time blot out 28 time blot out 33 head hear 18 24 those these 21 15 entitle entitling 25 20 a and 26 12 the Hat the Spirit of the Hat 33 8 Introductoction Introduction 37 Godliness Godliness undeservedly 34 37 an on 35 1 the these 36 21 of in 38 6 and Indep Independents 9 God given God hath given 37 had hath 49 21 ever never 54 14 were was 29 that both that the Intent of both 57 36 Cowardness Cowardize 59 26 upon upon it 62 17 as blot out 71 3 a Paper part of a Paper pag. 4 5. 1 Joh 2.20.27 Mat. 7.15 and 24.4 Joh. 10. 2 Tim. 4.14 15 16. Math. 18.17 Prov. 30.12 Mat. 6.22 Spir. of the Hat p. 10. Tyran Detect p. 5 23 24 25. Spir. of the Hat pag. 13 14. How came this Letter into this Socinian's hand Doth not this prove a Cabal and that Quondam Quakers now Apostates are their Spies was this my Reward for a loving and curteous Letter which kindly invited him to my House for further Satisfaction Treacherous Person to give it up into proclaimed Enemies Hands such Baseness is like an Apostate and not to grapple with one part of its Strength so disingenuous an Adversary Tyr. Hyp. Detect p. 9 60 61 62. * as Dr. Gell. and a certain Person of worldly Quality said That had not the Quakers come the Ranters had over-run the Nation Ibid. p. 24 p. 14 15. pag. 16.17 pag. 51. pag. 50. pag. 19. p. 19 20 21 29. * Blood Blood thou seekest O Envious Man pag. 29. * But is not this to render us Obnoxious to the Government I abhor that Practice But Base Self-Ended Spirits are to be humbled and not think themselves fit to cry down other Peoples Religion that have by Treachery Persecution and Falseness too much reproacht all Religion Let tehm leave Scribling Snarling with their Writings Repent p. 29 30 31 32. p. 52 53. p. 11. p. 13. pag. 43. See Plain Dealing pag. 7. pag. 48 58 59. pag. 55. pag. 56. Rev. 21.27 2 Thes 2.12 2 Thes 1.8 * Spir. Hat Tyran Hyp. Detect