give forth such Orders who ever oppose them they oppose the Power of God and thereupon call us Men of an Opposite Spirit I say take a special view of what is said and then impartially peruse this following Advice of Friends in the Case of Marriage which was amongst many other things in the Beginning given forth by the antient Labourers in Gods Vineyard whose Care and Skill was manifest and then see if we govern our selves upon our first Principles That is to say The Elders and Brethren sendeth unto the Brethren in the North these necessary Things following to which if you in the Light wait to be kept in Obedience you shall do well Fare you well c. 7thly ' That if any one moved of the Lord and in his Light called to take a Brother or Sister in Marriage Marriage being honourable in all and the Bed undefiled let it be made known unto the Children of Light especially to those of the Meeting to which the Parties are Members that all in the Light may witness it to be of God let them be joyned together in the Lord and in his Fear in the presence of many Witnesses according to the Example of the Holy Men of God in the Scriptures of Truth Recorded which were written for our Example Here is true Humility and Learning and that no Scandal may rest upon the Truth nor any thing done in secret but all things brought to the Light that Truth may triumph over all Deceit and that they that are joyned together in the Lord may not by man be put asunder whom God hath joyned together that there may a Record of the Time and Place in Writing witnessing the Time and Place of such Things be kept within the Meeting of which the one or both are Members under which Writing the Witnesses present may subscribe their Names or so many of them as may be convenient for the stopping of the mouths of Gain-sayers and for the manifesting the Truth to all who are without Now observe the Conclusion of the said true Christian-like Epistle Dearly Beloved Friends these Things for there were many besides Marriage we do not lay upon you as a RVLE or FORM to walk by but that all with the measure of the Light which is pure and Holy may be guided so in the Light walking and abiding these Things may be fulfilled in the Spirit not from the Letter for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life c. Now consider I pray thee First our Primitive Principle and Institution Direction and Christian-Liberty and see if the late Orders and Imposing them and Compelling a Uniformity to them have not doe violence to them see thy own words and how our Practice contradicts them Addr. to Prot. pag. 149. 150. c. That is to say For all Societies are to govern themselves according to their Institution and first Principle of Vnion where there is violence upon this part Tyranny and not Order is Introduced Now since Perswasion and Conviction began all true Christians Societies all Christian-Societies must uphold themselves upon the same free Bottom or they turn Antichristian Thus saist thou and I say the same pray consider on it and endeavour a Reformation I could further paraphrase hereupon and many other Places of thy Address c. Some Pages whereof with some others I may quote and leave to thy perusal being loth to be too tedious concluding with thy Address Pag. 221. That 't is base Coyn that needs Imposition to make it current but true Metal passes for its own intrinsick value Oh miserable Imposition and the mischief of it What Censuring Sentencing Recording Judging Yea What Superstition Formality Idolatry and Hypocrisy hath it begotten And what Animosities Heart-burnings Persecution and Bloodshed hath it been the Cause of Which had People been left to their Christian-Liberty had never been As these following pages shew Address to Protestants pages 122. 156. 143. 67. 68. 77. 93. 94. 95. 97. 98. 99. to the 104. 141. 148. 142. 144. 145. 146. 185. 190. 192. 193. Francis Howgils Works pag. 534. 617. 620. 236. 625. Richard Hubberthorns Works pag. 188. Josiah Coal's Whore Vnvailed pag. 71. 72. Coloss 2. 16. 17. 18. Eccle. 12.13 Joh. 14.15 Mat. 5. Mat. 28. Christs Sermon 5.6.7 Phil. 8.15 Rom. 14.5 Indeed thy Book alone is so full of matter against Imposition against Force and compelling a Conformity to Outward Rules Cannons and Prescriptions of Human Invention and for Christian-Liberty that I know not well how to leave it I pray God keep thee steady and with a continual Dependency upon the Divine Revelation of Gods holy Spirit which is the Rock upon which the true Church is built and every Member of it that so an Understanding of thy Duty may every day be received and a necessity therefrom come upon thee to perform it that so thou mayst not look one way and row another a thing some suspect by thy disputing on G. F. his Part when he some think was ashamed to appear himself But for my part when I consider thy Labour and Service in the Truth therein spending both thy self and Estate together with thy Zeal in vindicating Truth against all Opposers I cannot have any Suspition Object But perhaps thou mayst say to me How is it possible that a Composure of this Controversy can now be c. Answ If I may not be too tedious I will give thee my Answer thus Let there be a present Cassation of all Controversy for three Months proclaimed on both Sides and a Day set and Place appointed Mutually by G. and W. to have a Meeting equally constituted with ten or twenty Friends more or less on each Side by them respectively chosen and when this is agreed upon let them exhibit their Charges in Writing by way of Declaration and send it to each other a Month or more before the said Set Day that they may both know what to plead to and how to make their Defence and what Witnesses to bring to prove their several Charges so exhibited And then where either of them are found guilty let them make that Satisfaction which is suitable to the nature of their Crime and wherein clear let them be acquitted This on W. R's Account I dare Engage shall be performed and that this is both a just and reasonable Method I dare appeal to all Judicious Persons in the World Why then shall this intollerable Controversy be continued Why should there be occasion ministred for those grievous Animosities Rents and Divisions which every day increase And taking all Advantages against each other by Printing Preaching or otherwise as if the one Side were infallibly all Christians and impossible for them to Err and the other Side Heathens Infidels and Pagans and that by Predestination too without any Recovery by that figure of using no Endeavour Oh dreadful Work But if any shall say to me no George shall never be thus brought upon the Stage or be thus made publick for he cannot
his People was our Principle the very Foundation Principle and Corner Stone in our Building there are yet many Living Witnesses and our Work and Labour in that day was to turn Peoples minds thereunto as to the more sure Word of Prophesy whereunto as many as took heed did well and that there was Sufficiency in it being obeyed to lead to Salvation And as our Minds came to be turned to this Inward Teacher And as we came to experience the Vertue and Excellency of this Holy Vnction so we held a publick Testimony thereof to others that they might thereby be provoked to make tryal thereof that so they might have the Witness in themselves and see for themselves and tast for themselves and to this Word nigh in the Heart were we committed and recommended suitable to the Doctrine and Antient Prophesies of Christ Jesus our Lord and his Blessed Apostles and Prophets and in that Day How did our Harmony sound in our Assemblies And how did our Love abound one towards another And our Zeal for the Holy Name of our God In this stood our Unity in this stood our Fellowship even in that Inward Testimony which God committed to us to bear for his Names sake here was the moving Cause of our Love to God one toward another even the Inward Testimony or Manifestation of his Spirit which God in his Infinite Love hath given us to profit withal persuant to his former Promises to our Fathers by his Prophets saying I will give Him for a Light to the Gentiles and to be my Salvation to the Ends of the Earth I will give him for a Commander and a Leader to my People Israel And as we came to believe this Report and to experience the fulfilling of these Promises and to be Witnesses of the Vertue of this his Blessed Appearance so we declare to others that they also might believe and have Fellowship with us therein and the more we came thus to be Spiritually-minded and Spiritually-exercised and the more we came to take delight therein and to meditate therein the more the Lord manifested his Love unto us and his pure Power amongst us and became a Hedge about us and a Wall unto us and gave us Favour in the Sight of the People Blessed and Praised be his Holy Name for ever And in that Day when others would boast of their Church Authority and Church Discipline Vseful Ceremonies Comely Orders and Decent Vestments c. We told them the Spirit of God was the Foundation of our Church as well as the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles That Christ Jesus the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven who is a Quickning Spirit was Head of our Church Lawgiver to our Church on whose Shoulders the Government and Authority of our Church is laid yea the Hedge and Pale of our Church and able to preserve our Church and in this Faith we lived and walked in pure undefiled Love If any said to us Lo here is Christ in this Ordinance or in that Observation We told them Nay Christ is within and there they must wait to know Him except they were Reprobates for the Kingdom of Heaven is within and there they must wait to receive the Earnest of it for it comes not by Outward Observations This we told People this we proved to the People out of the Holy Scriptures This upon all occasions we testified to all People Professor and Prophane Bond and Free Noble and Ignoble When they told us of their Articles of Faith and how many they had and of the Scripture being the Rule c. We told them That Faith was the Gift of God and to be waited for and that Faith was the Evidence of things not seen and that although in the World there were Faiths many and Lords many yet to us there was but one Faith and one Lord Jesus Christ who was the Author of that Faith And that although the Scriptures were good and a true Declaration of those Things which were most surely believed by the Apostles and by us ought to be believed yet not the only Rule But still the Spirit of God which was the First Principle the Foundation Principle the Palc and only Hedge of the Church and Sanctified People of God so likewise it was the Rule of Life Practice first and before any other Rule and always had the Preheminency in our Testimony from the Beginning And if any question the Truth of what I have here affirmed then for Proof thereof I refer them to the Testimonies of Isaac Pennington Edward Burrough George Bishop c. Published by T. Crisp together with the Writings of Francis Howgil Richard Hubberthorn and many other Antient Friends c. And in that Day if any Brethren gave forth a Letter of Advice and Counsel for the Help and Information of the weak and lately Convinced It was so worded as that Christian-Liberty was preserved and the People not Impos'd upon beyond their Freedom And that it was so I shall prove by an undeniable Instance in a Letter of Advice from the Brethren in the North about twenty Years since containing twenty particular Things wherein Advice and Counsel is given yet SO as to leave them to their Freedom and not to impose them further than Friends to whom they wrote could receive them or see a Service in them as is evident both from the Title or Direction of the said Paper and also from the Closure and Conclusion of the said Letter both which I shall here insert as also that Clause or particular Advice about Marriage which is the seventh particular thing wherein Counsel is given in the said Paper or Letter of Advice That is to say The Elders and Brethren sendeth unto the Brethren in the North these necessary Things following to which if you in the Light wait to be kept in Obedience you will do well Fare you well This is the Title or Direction of the said Letter of Advice now follows the 7th Particular which is about Marriage c. That as any are moved of the Lord and in his Light called to take a Brother or Sister in Marriage Marriage being honourable in all and the Bed Vndefiled let it be made known to the Children of Light especially to those of the Meeting of which the Parties are Members that all in the Light may it witness to be of God and being in the Light made manifest to be of God let them be joyned together in the Lord and in his Fear in the presence of many Witnesses according to the Example of the Holy Men of God in the Scriptures of Truth recorded which was written for our Example and Learning and that no Scandal may rest upon the Truth nor any thing be done in secret but all things to the Light brought that Truth may triumph over all Deceit and that they who are joyned together in the Lord may not by Man be put asunder whom the Lord hath joyned together That there may
the Gospel and Christs wisdom in these things as that Church will be most pure as having nothing of humane make in it so it will perfectly annihilate all those pretended necessities for the interposition of humane Authority about such things If the Magistrate hath likewise a farther power to suppress all Errors and Heresies and to establish by force the Orthodox Truth the Rule of which must needs be what he thinks to be so this will inevitably follow that there can be never any such thing as Liberty of Conscience in any case or upon any terms in the world under a Christian Magistrate he sins if he suffer to tolerate any thing but what he thinks punctually right If he be the proper Judge entrusted first to judge and then to execute his Judgment with the Temporal Power all Liberty to whosoever is not of his mind is perfectly gone This is no other than to make the Magistrate's Power a meer Inquisition And by this means a Christian Magistrate will prove a marvellous hurt to much of the Church where he governs for unless you will suppose all the Truth and all sound Christians to be included in what he establishes for Orthodox if there be any Truth or true Professors of Christianity amongst all the other Opinions he persecutes they are sure to be sufferers and it will ever fall out that all those that are not of the Magistrates Opinion had better live under one of Gallio's temper than under a Magistrate so practising These large positions about the Magistrates Power have no visible ground for themselves in the Gospel and when 't is said the reason of it is because there was no Christian Magistrate till long after and so little mention is made of his Authority in these things there is nothing said that can be any way satisfactory because what Power soever any shall exercise in or over the Gospel Church to the end of the world must have its rise and derivation from what was then established by Christ and his Apostles However they are sure of a popular acceptance 1. Because they bring us to a visible Judge and a humane certainty which most men had rather be at than a laborious inquiry after divine Truth in the way God hath revealed it in the Scriptures And 2. Because they are positions that land us in a very safe harbour and free us from any danger of suffering about those things he that thinks it his duty to be alwayes of the Magistrates Religion is so secured in that duty that no Religion can possibly ever hurt him and whoever thinks the Magistrate is Gods substitute to determine all matters of Religion as he pleaseth must needs think it a duty to be of his mind The second Extream about the Magistrates Power is in asserting the Magistrate to have ample concerns about Religion and a power sufficient entrusted to him but the manner in which it is to be exercised is in a punctual suberviency to the Church that is they are to determine and he is to execute they are to be his eye and he is to be their hand As the first Extream debaseth the Church and all Ecclesiastical power under the Magistrates feet and makes him the sole Lord of all so this in another extream makes the Magistrate a Slave to the Church this is an unreasonable Imposition upon him and gives him less liberty than each private Christian ought to have to oblige him to put a civil Sanction and execute by his Authority whatever the Church decrees whether he judge it to be right or no this is only to make him a Sword-bearer to the Clergy This is the great Engine by which the Church of Rome has inslaved so much of the World Antichrist could never have been setled in his Throne if Kingdoms had not thus given up their power to him How shamefully upon this pretence that the Civil power must be subject to the Ecclesiastical have the Popes of Rome brought Kings and Emperors not only to employ their power as they pleased but to suffer all the scorns and indignities from them imaginable The story of what Hildebrand did to the Emperor Henry and many others do abundantly shew this The truth is the carnal Conjunction of the Temporal Power with the Spiritual is that which has made all Ecclesiastical Regiment odious and unsavoury in the nostrils of the world in all Ages and hath had no other effect but to enable the Clergy under a pretext of the power of the Gospel to trample by the power of the World mankind under their Feet That the Civil Magistrate ought not to employ his power in such a sub-ordination let these things be considered First This is to suppose either an insufficiency in that Spiritual Power which Christ did at first leave in his Church or else that he fails in that Promise of being with them to the end of the World and continuing his Presence to make his Laws effectual for the end they are intended Christ hath appointed the means of Converting men to the Gospel to be the preaching of it to them If you will compel men by the Civil power to become Converts it plainly intimates we judge Christs way insufficient and use the other as what we judge a better As Christ hath appointed Preaching the Gospel as the great means to bring men into the Church so he hath appointed Excommunication as the great means to cast offenders out of the Church and force is as unreasonable in the one as in the other The outward advantages a man has by becoming a Christian lies in the enjoyment of all Christs Institutions and the punishment of all Gospel-crimes lies in being cast out from those priviledges and undergoing the weight that Christ shall lay upon the Conscience thereby When a person is excommunicated to deliver him over to the Temporal power to be corporally punished must either be because we think Christs punishment in that case not enough or else because our own animosity prompts us to go farther Chrysost Serm. de Anathem hath a pious and prudent saying Dogmata impia quae ab Hereticis profecta sunt arguere Anathematizare opertet hominibus autem parcendum pro salute eorum orandum that is We must confute and pronounce Anathema to the wicked opinions of Hereticks but we must spare their Persons and pray for their Salvation Secondly This way alters the manner of Christs rule under the Gospel which is in the Spirits and Consciences of men 'T is much of Christs glory to rule his Subjects under the Gospel by a Spiritual power 't is that power makes a man a Christian 't is that power in all Gospel Institutions that keeps men in their due obedience unto Christ and 't is that power carries the sting of the punishment when men are cast out of the Church 't is indeed that power does all under the Gospel and to bring in the Temporal Sword is to make the weapons of the
forcing men to perform Gospel-Duties in Hypocrisie Moral Actions are positively good and evil in their own nature Gospel-Duties performed are only so as they are circumstantiated And therefore the two Instances of Ahab and the Ninevites will no way fit this matter What was done by the Ninevites for ought appears was well done with all the circumstances that should make it to be so for our Saviour saith They repented at the Preaching of Jonah What Ahab did will be clearly differenced in two things First it was a voluntary action And Secondly it was only a Moral action 'T was voluntary for it arose from the dictates of his own Conscience upon what the Prophet Elijah said to him And Secondly it was purely a Moral act his Humiliation was no other He himself was an Hypocrite and his Service was hypocritical and abominable in the sight of God yet the outward act of his Humiliation was in it self good and God rewards it with an outward blessing That men may be compelled about actions Morally good and evil is out of doubt and that God does likewise with outward blessings and judgments reward and punish Moral good and evil is also plain But herein lies the difference of forceing men in things Moral and things Divine In things Moral the action in it self however circumstantiated is positively good or evil Things of Divine Institution are quite otherwise there the manner of the performance makes the action good or evil He that sacrificeth an Ox is as if he killed a man he that killeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck Where the manner of performing the command is not observed as well as the bare outward act of performance And so in all Gospel Duties the Institutions of Christ as Baptism the Lords Supper and the rest the actions themselves in those things are not simply good nay they are accidentally evil unless they have all the due circumstances attending them the goodness of those things depends wholly upon Institution and there the manner as well as the matter must be punctually observed Nay the manner of doing such things determines the matter of them for if they be performed in their due manner the Action is good if not the Action it self is sinful Having thus far endeavoured to establish this Truth That the exercise of force by the hand of the civil Power is ho means appointed by Christ either for setling or regulating the Churches of the New-Testament and is a thing in its own nature altogether unreasonable so to be And that Princes and Magistrates under the Gospel should imploy their care to see the Laws of Christ's Kingdom put in execution in the way and manner he himself hath appointed and ought to rest themselves satisfied therewith as that which his infinite Wisdom hath provided and to leave things that are purely Gospel-offences to Gospel-punishments as most adaequate and proper knowing well that if after such punishments inflicted Errors and Heresies shall continue in the Church Christ will over-rule the Being of them for holy ends and purposes acccording to that of Paul There must be Heresies that those that are approved may be made manifest which though it be no good ground to indulge Heresie from any punishment Christ hath appointed for it yet 't is a very good ground to satisfie our selves upon after all Christs means used and to stop us from all violent and irregular proceedings when we consider That Christ will extract good out of such evil and turn such things to his own Glory and the good of such as are sincere I say having endeavoured the proof of these things that the plainest Truths of the Gospel ought not to be enforced upon men much less those more doubtful and obscure concerning Discipline and Order of the obscurity of which there needs no other evidence than that the holiest wisest and most impartial men have in all Ages differed about them How may we lament over the present Imposition of the Ceremonies now enjoyned amongst us in England which are no part of Divine Truth nor any of Christs Institutions but things perfectly Humane in their creation and yet are enforced by the civil Power upon the practice and Consciences of men If Christ did not appoint his own Laws to be inforced upon the Church but to be received and executed by the influence and operating power of the Holy Ghost concurring with them How little pleased will he be to have Laws and Rules made by others to be so inforced If it be neither reasonable nor warrantable for a Magistrate to inforce the Truths of the Gospel in his own sense of them How much less is it so to enjoyn things in the Worship of God wholly framed by men and of their devising Those as being Divine are in their own nature infallible and certainly true These as being Humane are lyable to all Error and Mistake How unmerciful a thing is it and how unlike the Primitive Christians to make such Ceremonies a Rule of the Churches Communion which used to be nothing but the Creed That a man now only out of Conscience to God and without a just imputation of either Faction or Folly or any other designed end may very well become a Non-Conformist to these present imposed Ceremonies hath been often evinced These things may afford us some prospect into those grounds upon which Liberty of Conscience ought to be asserted and also the due and natural bounds of it When men discoursing of this Subject are enumerating what parties may be tolerated and what not What Fundamentals are necessary to be believed to make a man a capable Subject of this Liberty and how far the punishment is to be inflicted upon men for matters of this Nature are to proceed and where to be terminated they do but lose themselves and come to be involved with inextricable inconveniences and do usually little more then discover their own particular inclinations and interests and at last often end in this Determination That none are fit to be Indulged but such as are punctually of their own belief and perswasion The general Laws of Nature and the general Laws of the Gospel are the best Umpire in this Case As the first renders it a thing unreasonable so the other makes it unlawful to tolerate any thing upon any pretence against the common Light and the common Interest and natural good of mankind And so on the other hand 't is equally as unreasonable and as unlawful to force men about things wholly Supernatural and purely Spiritual and so are all the matters of the Gospel which lie seated in mens Belief and Perswasion in reference to their own Eternal Condition and as they have no proper relation to Humane Concerns so they are in Aliena republica and are only cognizable there and only to be dealt with by such Spiritual means and punishments as Christ in the Gospel hath appointed for that end Hear the Opinion of the Learned Alsted on this subject at
Friend in Europe than Vniformity in England As Liberty of Conscience here is that they fear above any thing so it would insensibly more weaken them than all the Victories we have obtained over them 2dly Men will never trade freely where they do not live and converse freely Where a man is afraid to be watched to a Conventicle and most of the time he serves God is fain to hide himself no man will chuse to live so if he can avoid it Every man that cannot conform to the publick Religion lying under the lash of the Law will prudently shun both Business and Company will never lay out his Estate where 't is in any mans power to do him a mischief A man conscious to himself that he cannot comply with the Law will avoid medling with any thing and chuse privacy as his best security This we have had a sufficient demonstration of in the Papists who for many years ever since they lay under the lash of the penal Laws have been of little use to the Nation have retreated from all publick Commerce amongst us kept their Money by them sent their Children abroad and disjoyned themselves from all the publick concerns of the Kingdom 3dly 'T is the King of England's true Interest to become Head of all the Protestant party in the World and he will never do that but by first making himself a common Father to all his Protestant Subjects at home That 't is his Interest to head the Protestant party abroad is plain because being the greatest and most powerful of all Protestant Princes and States he will necessarily draw them into a dependance upon him and desire of Protection from him by which not only the Protestant Interest in it self will be much secured by being so united and conjoyned but the King of England also will receive a great Accession of Power by the Influence he will have on so great a part of Christendom which he may make use of not only to secure the Protestant Religion against the common Enemy of it but to advantage himself every way by the great respect and interest he will have in all Protestant States To bring the Protestants into an Union amongst themselves will be of advantage to every Protestant-State but to none so much as England First Because England naturally becomes the Head of such a Union And secondly Because the Designs and Practices of the Popish party ever since the Reformation have lain and will lie more united against England than any Protestant-State as supposing that the chief Support of all the rest and therefore England can never be truly safe nor secured in its proper Interest but when 't is inviron'd with all Protestant-States adhearing to it and depending upon it How sadly England has miscarried when it has espoused any other collateral Interest but the Protestant has been too obvious ever since the first Reformation England has been always greatest at home when it has been the greatest Defender of the Protestant Faith abroad Now if the King will thus rightly state his Interest abroad he must begin the work at home if he persecute and keep under any of his Protestant Subjects at home those of their Opinion abroad will never put themselves under his protection As he must make no distinction in Christendom but Protestant and Papist so he must make no other amongst his Subjects at home He that imposeth any one Opinion amongst Protestants and will tolerate no other makes the distinction to be still between Protestant and Protestant and makes himself but Head of a Party amongst them and will never so head the Protestant Interest as to oppose the Popish party with it or unite the Protestants so under him as to make them acknowledge him for their Head Whoever would be Head of all the Protestant Interest must have no common Enemy but Popery and concenter all there Imposing Conformity to the Opinion of any one Protestant party upon all the rest is but to make himself so much the weaker by every Dissenter and is indeed totally destructive to the very being of such a thing First Liberty of Conscience is the best way to secure us to the Protestant Faith and to prevent a relapse to Popery the Protestant Religion will be fastest rooted by exerting fully the Principles of it and a throughout adhearing to them By our practice in dealing one with another to deny those Principles by which we justifie our Separation from Rome is the ready way to make them return thither again Teach men that there is no man nor men under any one denomination since the Apostles time that are infallible in delivering Divine Truth Teach men that the Scripture is the only Rule of Religion and let them read it Tell them they are to follow no men farther than they follow that Rule and that every man is Judge according to the best Light he hath of that Rule and how far other men comply with it and differ from it And that every man is bound to behave himself towards God according to the Judgment he shall so make within himself All which are Protestant Principles and Eternal Truths And then collect the sense which these Principles issue themselves into and how unreasonable will it then appear to force men to comply with the belief of others contrary to their own And when you have bid them use their Light and Reason to punish them because they will not oppose it and go against it How can we otherwise justitie forcing men where such Principles are avowed but by a flat denyal of them and recurring to those Popish Weapons of the absolute Power of the Church and her uncontrolable Authority And so by condemning others that upon the exercise of their own Light and Reason now differ from us condemn our selves who upon the same at first departed from Rome When we oppose the Church of Rome we justifie our selves upon the very same Arguments by which Dissenters now amongst our selves make their defence against us And when we dispute against them we take up the same Arguments the Papists use against us There is scarce any considerable Argument urged of late for Conformity and Imposition but if you trace it to the Seat you shall find it in Bellarmine or Suarez The truth is he that cannot indure to have any differ from him in Opinion about the supernatural Truth of the Gospel and will have no toleration of several perswasions of that kind and thinks it destructive to mankind and the being of every State to suffer any so to be That man is a Protestant by mistake and will find himself at home in his Principles no where but at Rome The farther we remove in our Reformation from the Practices and Principles of the Church of Rome and live upon our own the less like we are to return to it If we make use of their Arguments and Principles at one time we may come to use them at another and at last espouse
by their Number outgrown the Political part of Persecution For the Second Consideration of Liberty the giving it so as will naturally produce several Principles and Opinions in men he that would prevent that must give no Liberty to the Protestant Religion must not let the Bible be read by the Vulgar There is no way to keep out several Opinions in Religion but an implicit ignorant Subjection to an imposed Infallibility and to do as the Turks do who will not have any Learning or Discourse amongst them of Religion for that very Reason because they will have no Religion but Mahomet nor no Learning but the Alcoran Such Policy to Murder mens Souls is hatcht in Hell The Art of Printing was at the first thought dangerous because it was looked on as a thing like to introduce several Opinions in Religion Cardinal Woolsey in a Letter of his to the Pope hath this Passage about it That his Holiness could not be ignorant what divers Effects the New Invention of Printing had produced for as it had brought in and restored Books and Learning so together it hath been the occasion of these Sects and Schisms which daily appear in the World but chiefly in Germany where men begin now to call in question the present Faith and Tenents of the Church and to examine how far Religion is departed from its Primitive Institution And that which particularly was most to be lamented they had exhorted the Lay and Ordinary men to read the Scriptures and to Pray in their Vulgar Tongue That if this were suffered besides all other dangers the common People at last might come to believe that there was not so much use of the Clergy for if men were perswaded once they could make their own way to God and that Prayers in their native and ordinary Language might pierce Heaven as well as in Latin How much would the Authority of the Mass fall How Prejudicial might this prove unto all our Ecclesiastical Orders Lord Herberts History of Hen. 8. Liberty of Conscience lies as naturally necessary to a Protestant State as Imposition to a Popish State he must be a good Artist that can find a right middle way between these two 'T is the Glory of Protestant-States to have much of the Knowledge of God amongst them and that variety of mens Opinions about some less weighty and more obscure matters of Religion as it much tends to a discovery of the Truth of them so it no way breaks the Bond of Protestant Union where men generally agree in the same Rule of Religion and in all the chief and necessary Fundamentals of Salvation Liberty of Conscience in such States as it is their true and genuine Interest and without which they will but deny themselves those advantages they might otherwise arrive at so with the forementioned Boundaries can never prove hurtful or dangerous there being always a just distinction to be made between those who desire only to serve God and such who pretend that to become injurious to men And thus we have seen that not only Religion but Reason not only Duty but Interest do invocate Princes and States in this particular To whom it may fitly be said in the words of the Psalmist Be wise now therefore O ye Kings and be instructed O ye Judges of the Earth FINIS De Christiana Libertate Or the Mischief of Impositions amongst the People called Quakers Made Manifest Shewing The Inconsistency betwixt the Church Discipline Order and Government erected by G. Fox and those of Party with him and that in the Primitive Times Being Historically treated on WITH A Word of Advice to the Pencilvanians And is the First Part of Naked Truth By FRANCIS BUGG GAL. 6.12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the Flesh they constrain you to be Circumcised c. GAL. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not again intangled in the Yoak of Bondage GAL. 5.2 Touch not taste not handle not c. London Printed for the Author 1682. An EPISTLE Dedicated to the Noble BEREANS Of this Age. HAving by the Book prefixed laid before the Magistrates and others concerned a clear Demonstration and many weighty Arguments for Liberty of Conscience to all Protestant Dissenters who desire to live a peaceable Life under the Government I am now come to treat on the Religious Differences amongst us the People called Quakers and therein to vindicate the Christian-Quakers who retain their Primitive Principles and defend their Plea for Liberty of Conscience from the Calumny and Reproach which the Innovators have put upon both it and the Pleaders thereof as if the Tendency thereof was to introduce Loosness Ranterism or the like sort of Abominations all which we detest and deny And in the Introduction to the Accus c. they have Sentenced William Rogers to be no Quaker by which they mean no Christian for if I may be in their account a true Christian and yet no Quaker then what damage is it to be no Quaker So that as the Baptists and others about the Year 72. by their Dialogues and otherwise rendred us no Christians because our Creed lay not litterally in their 8th Article of Faith So doth the Apostate and Innovator endeavour to Unchristian the true Christian-Quaker And the two principal Reasons that can be alledged against us are First our Nonsubmission and Nonconformity to the New Order of the Women Erected by G. Fox and Confirmed by a London Yearly-Meeting And Secondly That their way of compelling and Antichristian way of Proceeding to bring to and force a Uniformity is by us slighted and contemned and published in Justification of our Plea for the Liberty of the exercise of our Conscience in Matters Spiritual I say these two are the grand Reasons for which they render us no Quakers as I said consequently in their Esteem no Christians Whereupon we the Caluminated Abettors of the Cause of Truth can do no less than call to you the BEREANS of our Age not to believe every wandring Book that is put forth against us but read and examine the Matter and before you pass Judgment see what we can say for our selves in Defence of our Christian-Plea for Liberty of Conscience and for which Reason I choose to Dedicate the Ensuing Tract in the first Place to you expecting your Impartial Examination c. For as William Penn very well says in his Epistle to you the Noble and Examining BEREANS who usually hear both Sides in the Front of the Book Entituled the Christian-Quaker and his Divine Testimony Vindicated c. So we find it Experimentally viz. The Insatiable Thirst of men after Religious or Civil Empire hath filled almost every Age with Contest There is something in Man that prompts to Religion and such as stand not in the TRADITIONS of Men nor any meer Formality But Man that he may not loose the Honour of a Share with an unwarrantable Activity so Adulterates by
hopes that things might yet be amended c. But you will not hear you will not have any regard to the distracting Contentions and dividing Contests we have in the Country about your New Orders so that a necessity is upon me to undeceive the World and such as have their Eye too much to you for notwithstanding things are as I have laid them down and you will not condiscend a hairs breadth yet the Author to the Accuser hath the face to tell the World in p. 127. And having these things in our Eye we can the more easily concur and accord as to Circumstances and Outward Methods and in the Wisdom of God so condiscend one to another and accomodate Matters as not to divide about them and therefore we do seriously profess we see no real Cause or valid Reason our Opposer meaning W. R. shews for the great noise and rumble he makes about Outward Laws Prescriptions Edicts Innovations Impositions c. For my part I marvel that the Author of the Accuser which is said to be G. Whitehead should have the confidence thus to appear in Print when his own Conscience tells him the contrary nay it is not a year since himself was at our Quarterly-Meeting where the said Orders mentioned in the Third Chapter are Recorded as a Rule and prescribed Platform under the Notion of Orders when one Robert Smith of Coline in Huntingtonshire came to publish his Intention of Marriage with Ann Oliver in the Isle of Ely and because he would not go into the Womens Meeting and perform the Ceremony in Manner and Form he was not taken notice of as others are that do conform nor yet admitted to have his Wife and the grand Opposer was G. VV. Albeit the Man brought a Certificate with him from their own Meeting which although it be a Digression from my present Matter yet I shall recite it that so it may the more evidently appear how far G. W. was from Accomodation or Condiscention which he in the Accuser fallaciously pretends to the World in order to deceive them to cover their Deceit and Hypocrisy and Arbitrary Church-Government Dominion and Lordship c. To the Quarterly-Meeting in the Isle of Ely These are to certifie all concerned that Robert Smith of Colne in this County meaning the County of Huntington Widdower hath at several Meetings published his Intentions of taking to Wife Ann Oliver of Aldred in the Isle of of Ely but grieved some Friends perhaps Richard Jobson and Tobias Hard-meat G. Fox's two principal Studs in that Country by rejecting their Counsel and refusing to acquaint the Women Friends therewith according to the good and wholsom Practice of Friends in the Truth But however we whose Names are Subscribed know nothing but that he is clear from all other Women Jasper Robins Edward Neel Wil. Whitehead James Parris Thomas Bundy Richard Taylor Thomas Bagly Natha Cawthorn Nathanael Neele But to return to make some Observation upon the antient Doctrine of G. Fox to the Professors which the Professors may justly turn upon him and say Come G. Fox and thy Adherents hear what we can say for we remember thou didst not only tell us That our Rule was without us our Touchstone without us our Guide without us and that in the Traditions of Men which lead from God but in the Year 1669 thou told us in thy Epistle to the Presbyterians and Independants and their rough Hearers in a Book wrote by G. W. Entituled The Divinity of Christ c. That we must not Shuffle for thou wert resolved that the Scripture should buffet us about As if thou hadst been resolved to throw the Bible at our Heads adding That we should be WHIPPED about with our Rule For thou wert resolved to have plain Scripture yea nothing less than plain Scripture would serve thy turn as if thou hadst loved the Scripture very well and valued it far above thy own Prescriptions which we now perceive was but meer Mockery since no Scripture is recorded in the Isle of Ely's great Book of Records as a Rule but instead thereof a large Epistle or Church-Directory of thy own writing and now we must whip thee a little with thy Rule of Ceremonies and Needless Traditions with which many of your peaceable People the Christian-Quakers have been long vexed and burthened and do begin to throw off thy Yoke and to come out with true Testimonies against thee and thy Adherents and in order to buffet thee soundly we now ask thee for plain Scripture and resolve to have it too or else reckon thee a very Hypocrite and will prove thee so too as amply as the Christian-Quakers have proved thee an Innovator we say shew us plain Scriptuer for your Womens-Meetings to be set up Monthly about the 10th Hour of the Day apart and distinct from the Men to get a little Stock by them And when so Assembled What Scripture have you to compel all that intend Marriage amongst you to go and present the Publication of their Intention before them at two several Meetings come do not shuffle with us for we are resolved to have plain Scripture for these your Proceedings or else we shall conclude thou hast found Austins Knap-Sack and stollen out one of the Ceremonies that he used to bring the Rome since we never heard of any Proof for these your Womens Jurisdiction save only by thy Learned Friend R. Richardson who in his ill compos'd Ingredients p. 11. said In like manner there remains in their Nunneries some Imperfect Footsteps of Womens Services c. And again What Scripture have you for Recording out of the Vnity such as will not Conform to these your Innovations since thou hast told us about fourteen Years ago in thy Book Entituled Gospel-Liberty and the Royal Law of Love p. 23. saying And therefore to bring People to that which is not of Faith is to bring them into Sin and to make them make Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience c. Come Is it not so still Why then do you allow in your felves the Thing you condemn in others Why do you Build again the Things you have destroyed or thinkest thou thy self execusable Oh Man Come Give us Chapter and Verse for your Womens-Meeting distinct from the Men to be constantly set up unless a little cold Weather intervene Montly about the tenth Hour to get a little Stock we suppose thou meanest a little Mony for certain Select and Holy Uses it being a more private way than the Bason and Platter which our Nonconforming Ministers it seems by thy Discourse were glad to receive their Mony in publickly but the Matter is the less in regard we never pretended to preach for nothing c. And as for us we grant we are for an Outward Rule but it is the Scripture of Christ his Apostles and Prophets which was wrote for our Example and Learning but you deny the Scriptures of Christ and his Apostles to be a Rule and yet
own Hand would neither Answer the Letter nor so much as Discourse me but when I had given them the Letter C. T. bad me be gone All which shews the Author to the Accuser his Pretentions to an Accommodation Condiscention to be fallacious Deceitful and Hypocritical Object BY this time some may be ready to object and say It is true these Things as Stated cannot be denyed but to have used a more private way might have been as convincing and not have ministred that occasion to such as are Enemies to all Religion as this way of Proceeding perhaps may especially since the Author of the Accuser says p. 127. We can the more easily concur and accord as to Circumstances and Outward Methods and in the Wisdom of God so condiscend one to another and accommodate Matters as not to divid about them Answ That I with many other have used private meanes for about the space of four years without any Redress nay not so much as a Christian Answer and that the Pretence of the Author of the Accuser to Condiscention and Accommodation is fallacious and false and a meer piece of feigned Hypocrisy to amuse his Reader and delude the World I shall make evidently appear before I pass this Chapter especially considering what meanes I used at our Quarterly-Meeting in the Case of J. A. made mention of in the third Chapter both by Letters and Queries First then see a Letter that eleven Friends belonging to our Meeting in Milden-Hall sent to our Quarterly Meeting who were so far from Condiscention Accommodation as that they refused to have it read amongst them but said We were all deluded A Copy whereof followeth To Friends at the Quarterly Meeting in Hadenham the 4th Mo. 80. Dear Friends THese Lines are to put you in Mind that many Friends belonging to our Meeting as well as in divers other Places are offended and burthened by reason of the continued Record against John Ansloe which exclude him what in you lye out of the Unity of Friends which is nothing less than Excommunication to the utmost of your Power whereby we are constrained to visit you in this manner entreating you to race out the said Record out of your Quarterly Book Indeed had J. A. denyed Marriage the very forbidding of which is a Doctrine of Devils you might justly have thrown him out for Marriage is Gods Ordinance But the Controversy is not here but about manifesting his Intention to Marry Behold the Crime as you account it and consider of it we beseech you for Peace sake and lay not such a Stress where Christ nor his Primitive Followers laid none And that thereunto you may be encouraged ponder the saying of W. P. in his Address to Prot. p. 77. I beseech you Protestants by the Mercies of God and Love of Jesus Christ ratified to you in his most precious Blood FLY ROME AT ROME Look to the Enemies of your own House have a care of this Presumption carry it not too high lay not Stress where God hath laid none The Impositions of such Opinions is the Priviledge of Hypocrites and the Snare of many honest Minds And p. 93. If we consider the Matter well I fear saith W. P. it will be found that the occasion of Disturbance in the Church of Christ hath in most Ages been found to lye on the Side of those who have had the greatest Sway in it And Pag. 94. If the Spiritual Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with needless Supersluities there were far less danger of Schism and Superstition And Pag. 144. Nay Christ himself to whom all Power was given in Heaven and Earth submitted himself to the Test He did not require them to believe him because he would be believed he refers them to the Witness that God bore of him saying If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true He also sends them to the Scriptures but an Imposing Church bears witness of her self and will be both Party and Judge require Assent without Evidence and Faith without Proof therefore false But Christian Religion ought to be carryed on only by that way by which it was Introduced which was Perswasion If any Man will be my Disciple let him take up his Cross and follow me Pag. 146. For if I believe what the Church believes only beause She believes and not because I am convinced in my Vnderstanding of the Truth of what She believes my Faith is false though hers be true I say 't is not true to me I have no Evidence of it And Pag. 141. The Apostle became all unto all that he might win some but this is becoming all unto none to force all he therefore recomends the utmost Condiscention that can be lawful he stooped he became all unto all that is he stooped to all Capacities and humbled himself to those Degrees of Knowledge that Men had and valued that which was good in all These Allurements were all his Injunctions nay in this Case he makes it an Injunction to use no other Let us therefore saith he as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you you shall not be Imposed upon Stigmatized or Excommunicated for want of full satisfaction or because you do not consent before Conviction Thus far William Penn. Now let us a little animadvert upon this Noble Mans Words Lay no Stress saith he where God hath not laid Stress as if he should have said Friends God never laid any such Stress about publishing the Intent of Marriage Why then do you Have a care of this Presumption carry not things too high neither Smite Record nor Excommunicate one another about such Things which are at best but Mens Traditions and Impositions which may prove a Snare to the Honest and Conscientious but a seeming Priviledge to the conformable Hypocrite for you see that such as have the greatest Sway in the Church are evermore the cause of these Disturbances who pretending themselves Fathers and Spiritual Guides are not sparing of cumbring the Churches with needless Superfluities and such Orders as Christ never commanded nor his Apostles ever practised which had they been so useful as you pretend they be surely Christ and his Apostles would not have been so forgetful of Prescribing such Outward Observations nay but on the contrary they have told us in Holy Writ The Kingdom of Heaven comes not that way neither consists in such things You also may perceive that Christ was such an Example of Meekness and Self-denyal and so far and free from Force and Imposition that he only said If any Man will be my Discipie let him take up his Cross and follow me but an Imposing Church bears witness of her self and though She sets up such Orders as Christ never commanded yet She requires assent without Evidence and Faith without Proof for She will be both Party and Judge
be in such Fault as is surmised I say that Time will manifest such to be his greatest Enemies and I pray let such consider that if they thus resolve to keep him behind the Curtain as if he were ascended above the reach and out of the the Sight of his Breathren although it be the occasion of never so much Contention Debate and Strife I say let such consider if this be not more indiscretion than the World which we say lyes in Wickedness in their open Wars do at any time produce As for Example Suppose there was a very great Army laying Siege against a City and resolved to Raze it to the ground and to leave neither Man nor Woman alive except the Citizens would deliver up such a Captain to them who had betrayed his trust pretending an extraordinary Commission Yet acted in his own Name only and by Vertue thereof had been the chief Cause of that War and Bloodshed and upon Delivery up of that Imperious Arbitrary Captain all Wars should cease pray What City would be so sottish and so stupid as to hinder such a Malefactor from being brought to condign Punishment for his criminal Offences rather than run the hazard of so many thousands of innocent well meaning People on both Sides Oh William Let these things be considered on and let not the Wedge of Gold nor the goodly Babylonish Garment be thus hid any longer in the Camp but let a Search be made upon that very Consideration that something is amiss something is the Cause of all these things and let none say to me in disdain or out of Prejudice as Eliah said to his Brother David who came up to the Camp of the Lords Host though he was but a Stripling for if they do I will say unto them as David did i. e. Is there not a Cause 1. Sam. 28.29 and conclude with the Apostle Every Man ought to bear his own Burthen without respect to Persons That was once our Principle I have much to say and yet have said enough to shew my Desire and to clear my Mind whether thou wilt answer my Request yea or nay And Rest thy Friend Francis Bugg Address to Protestants Pag. 152. Principiis obsta sero Medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras Resist betimes that Medicine stays too long Which comes when Age has made the grief too strong And I wrote another Letter much to the same purpose on the 22d of the 6th Mo. and sent it to G. W. which for Brevities sake I here omit and the rather because it is amongst other things incerted as I understand in the latter End of the 7th Part of the Christian Quaker Distinguished c. put forth by W. R. in Answer to the Accuser c. And after I could have no Answer but instead thereof G. W. came to our Quarterly Meeting the 7th of the 7th Month 1681. and instead of healing Breaches was an Instrument and a great one too against Robert Smith of Colne his Proceedings in Marriage except he would go and Publish his Intention before the Women they being in number about five or six in a cold back Room by themselves according to G. F. his Order as heretofore I have treated on Insomuch that it came into my Mind to send him a few Queries a Copy whereof here follow Viz. The Letter as Prologue to them c. George Whitehead I Wrote to thee not long since to desire thy Assistance in a Composure of the late Differences but in thy last Journey I was loth to say Circuit this way thou hast shewed me and others thy Resolution It is reported that Nicholas Lucas told thee Thou wentest up and down to cheat the Country I reckon he meanes not of Money but the People of their Liberty they have right to Truly thy Behaviour hath manifested the Truth of his Words in a great measure as I am able to make appear not only by thy Advice in Huntington-shire but also by thy Erronious Doctrine amongst us if G. F. said true in his Gospel-Liberty pag. 23. And therefore to bring People to that which is not of Faith is to bring them into Sin and to make them make Shipwrack of their Faith and of a good Conscience But I believe the time is hastning that such as thou shall be oftner called in question than yet thou hast been for we begin to see the Truth of W. P's Doctrine who says in his Address to Protestants That the neglect of questioning our Ministers is the Cause both of Superstition and Schism However at present I desire and expect an Answer from thee touching these Things queried Viz. Either of thy Approbation of my Answer or an Answer of thine lest I spread them before thee in fairer Characters than my hand can write for thine and others Practices have brought you into suspition with the People for we see how you seek to usurp Authority over the Conscience and contray to your Pretentions exercise Dominion Gentile-like over your Brethren as if you were resolved to turn Monopolizers and Ingrocers of all Power Rule and Dominion over Consciences into your own Hands But your Authority is coming into Question and by the Holy Scripture which is by you so slighted must you be examined tryed and proved and the less you value the Scripture or Direction therefrom the less will you be valued and the more you magnifie your Directory Orders and Cannons which have no relation to the Scriptures or the Primitive Christians Example the more will your grow despised and turned from Wherefore consider your ways and wherein you can see and perceive your selves INNOVATORS and APOSTATES let there be a Return to your First Love Viz. when you loved both to give and receive Liberty in Matters Spiritual And do your first Works and do not think to heal your selves by calling others what you really are your selves for that will not now do By your Fruits you are manifest and we know you by them Oh! the Discord Contention and Debate which entred and doth dayly increase by reason of your Ceremonies and your forced Conformity to them and the chief Cause hereof lyes at your Doors for now as in Ages past the Leaders of the People cause them to Err who have greatly increased the Differences instead of healing the Breaches and that you may see as you are seen I have drawn before your view your Practices and thereby shewed you your Errour yet in as much as thou art more especially concerned I derect them to thee for a more immediate Answer Who am a Lover of Truth F. Bug. The 7th of the 8th Month 1678. A few Queries propounded to such amongst us who are crying up Holy ORDERS CHVRCH-GOVERNMENT and are adding new Ceemornies and Outward Observations whereby we thwart and contradict our avowed Principles and so are building again the thing we once destroyed and cryed out against Condemning in others the things we allow in our selves THROUGH which
to discover it if he perceives such things entring the Church Answ That both the Reading of the Scriptures and the care of Religion belongs not to the Pasture of the Church ONLY But that every one that would be Saved ought to make deligent Search whether any Corruption be already or is for the Future like to be Introduced and this to be done no less carefully I hope I shall perform this Duty than if he was perswaded that all besides himself were asleep Now forasmuch as the Profit will be small If some private Man shall observe that an Errour is Introduced unless he discovers the said Errour and lays it open Address to Prot. p. 163. Read pages 93. 94. 95. 144. 146. 141. 142. c. Query IX Whether the Barbadoes Order upon Record which is To give up our whole Concern if required both Spiritual and Temporal to the Judgement of the Spirit of God in the Mens and Womens-Meetings See Babels-Builders p. 5. And the Isle of Elyes Orders upon Record in our Quarterly Book which says Thath for time to come no Friends may permit or suffer Marriages without the consent of Friends at two Mens and two Womens-Meetings being distinct and apart each from other Be not Innovations and the Setters of them up and confirming them Innovators and do they not do violence to our First Principles of Union Answ Yea Whosoever brings in or Sets up other Precepts Constitutions Orders and Practices in Point of Worship and would set up other Traditions than the Apostle delivered either by Word or Writing such are manifest to have the Spirit of Errour and are Innovators See Francis Howgil's Works p. 236. And that he begun to see the Evil Effects of Councils See his Works p. 534. where he quotes Dr. Paraeus Gregorius Theologus and Gregorius Nazianzenus c. Who complained of the Lordliness of the Ministers and Bishops and that seldom any Good came of Councils as he there at large sets forth c. George Fox See if thou hast not as much Need of a Battledoore as the Scholars and Professors had Who art as much Apostatized from they former Principles for Liberty of Conscience as the Scholars and Professors were from the single Language viz. Thee and Thou to a single Person And therefore to bring People to that which is not of Faith is to bring them into SIN to make Shipwrack of Faith and a Good Conscience Gosp Lib. p. 23. wrote 1668. by G. F. And in his several Papers given forth for detecting Deciet 't is thus said The Worlds Guide is without them in the Traditions and Precepts of men which lead from God p. 5. c. But now Conform to Hadenham Orders or Record him out of the Unity c. As at large in Cap. 3. These Orders were made the 1st of the 10th Month 1675. This I set here not to Adore Because I do well understand He that gave forth the Battledore Now brings Grapes of another Land Which Sower be because not free From Force and Impositions Although as yet he will not see Them like Old Romes Traditions These Queries or the Substance of them I sent to G. Whitehead but never received any Answer from him only there came an obscure Letter to my hands from R. R. but who it was or where he dwelt he did not acquaint me and whether the said Letter may be accounted any thing of an Answer or whether he doth not rather manifest the obscure Author to be a Man full of Contempt Scorn and Disdain and Abuse in that he calls and accounts me Conceited Befooled my Ignorance blinded Lyes perverse Lyer and yet doth not particular one Instance to prove me to be such an one c. I shall leave with the Impartial Reader to weigh and consider when he hath read the said Letter and my Answer to it a Coppy of both hereafter follow Francis Bugg I Know thy Name and Nature though not thy Person A mean Sight may discern it through thy own Spectacles plainly enough to be Abusive Vnworthy and Foolish though conceited in this Matter at present I could be glad to know 't were otherwise now so would others If not I believe G. W. will send thy Papers to the Quarterly Meeting who I believe will see and disown thy Abuse both of this Meeting at London particular Friends and themselves and especially the Truth wherein they are concerned and wherein they Labour and Travel though therein thou abusively comparest them to the Abuses of Bishops Orders Constitutions Decrees Cannons Cheating and other Terms I cannot now remember nor thou understand else thou wouldst write them in truer English and better sense This I mention to meet with and abate thy Concietedness to help thee with Spectacles to see how unfit thou art to undertake to be a Judge of Learning in that kind as well as to be a Judge of such Friends in Truth and such Meetings of Friends in an incomparably higher in imperiously and menacingly requiring them to advise and consent to the altering the Quarterly Meeting Book in your Parts as if thou hadst both this and that Meeting at thy Devotion either to bend to thy hand at thy pleasure or else to undo by thy Publication The Bishoprick thou speakest of and the Promotion aspired to by the Bryar and Thistle in Lebanon which can but prick and rake the Skin cannot destroy as it would that within and that Nature thou art in can but blister it for a time and must in the end be crushed So turn from it in time and signifie it to those thou hast wornged is my Advice to thee they Lyes and Revilings are not worth Answering to be like thee they are so gross vain Thy Queries differ in the Principle from which they proceed and the End to which they tend from the thou makest thy Answer from Friends and that which is defective in two Principal Causes is far from Good which is from intire Cause Conceit hath so blinded thee thou canst neither see Beginning nor End If I did not see thy perverse willful gross Lyes I should answer to thy Ignorance But thus much at present is meet thou shouldst know how it hath befooled thee From him that hath learned so much from the Truth though by thee despised and belyed R. R. For Francis Bugg The Queries are before and the Letters wrote by me and other Friends which I suppose he takes the Imperiousness and Menacing from shall follow after the Answer I sent him for which he accounts me so foolish befooled blinded my Ignorance not wrote in true English c. To which I refer the Reader First then my Answer I sent him Viz. F. Bugg his Answer to R. R's Letter R. R. I Have received a few Lines from thee bearing no Date nor yet acquainting me who thou art otherwise than by R. R. nor yet where thou dwellest by which I perceive thou lovest Obscurity If these Lines of mine chance to find thee out
Man as the Author to the Accuser did in Expunging the Doctrines and Opinions of those Books c. I could also tell you the Story of the cruel Sufferings of Thomas Green for spreading Books in Queen Marys Reign but you may read it at large in p. 218. of the Sp. Mar. Revived c. Object But some may perhaps say That though the Papists were against the spreading of these kind of Schismatical Books yet they allowed or at least permitted wicked Books and that doth not G. Fox or his Party c. Answer This I confess was an Objection which had some place in my Mind But being in London in the Month of February last after I had seen the Excommunication against J. B. I was resolved to try the Truth of the matter and so I went to Benjamin Clark who is a great Man for G. F and his Party and sells the Answers to W. R. his Book but I suppose 't is against his Conscience to sell one of W. R. his Books although it hath more Divinity Truth and Reason in it than all the Books extant against it yet inasmuch as G. F. is therein Detected their Church-Government reprehended and R. B. his Book of Government Anatomised the said B.C. will not sell one of them However I went to his Shop as a Country-man and Stranger and asked if they sold no pritty Books for Children no pritty Play-Books or Papists Books in short I had all sorts brought to my view and as wicked Books yea such as I never saw that I remember which if they desire a Proof of their Badness I may for ought I know afterwards have occasion to produce one out of them Oh gross Deceit and manifest Hyppocrisy Were ever more vain Pretences amongst the Papists than are now entred this sort of New Church-Governours Oh! How did G. Fox Buffet Thomas Vincent who had rather that his Hearers should go to a Bawdy-House than to a Quakers Meeting in his Epistle to the Book Entituled The Divinity of Christ c. Put forth by G.W. yea the whole People saying How now Presbyterians High Priests What Is this your Doctrine that you Preach up for your Hearers to go to a Bawdy-House c. Over and over they are pelted as if that kind of Wickedness the Presbyterians had been Principled in because T. V. in his over hot Zeal might use such an unjustifiable Expression and now may they say to G. F. How now G. F. What Hadst thou rather that B. Clark and J. Bringhurst should sell Papists Books Play-Books Jesting-Books nay 〈…〉 Books rather than that Book of W.R. because it discovers the Naked Truth of your New-Model of Church-Government c. Object Perhaps some may object and say as B. A. or J. F. or one of them said to me Viz. Well but suppose all that you say or suggest be true admit that were granted yet to publish it that is abominable and wicked Or words to that purpose c. Answ Indeed if things were not true and that what we suggest had no bottom but barely our own Apprehension and Suspition then to publish things of this nature thereby to Expose and falsly Represent a People this would be very wicked and such a Practice is and ever was hated of God and good Men but admitting they be real Truths and no Fictions which I hereby expose as that I stand ready to make appear then upon that Foot and upon that Bottom I do account it both Just Reasonable and a Christian Duty in three Respects First To reprove the Erronious by shewing them their Errours if not then were the Apostles Martyrs and the whole Line of Protestants in the wrong and under Blame greatly Secondly To undeceive the World and the credulous People therein who are very apt to be led aside by the Flourishes and fair Pretences of Men and not like the Noble Bereans search the Scriptures in Order to examine things relating to Life and Salvation and the Doctrine and Discipline their Teachers lay down to be indispensibly obeyed Thirdly To manifest the right Way both to the Erring Persons and the Ignorant World of Implicit Professors and this to be done for the Good of Souls for the Increase of Knowledge and Gods Glory and that this is my main End and peculiar Intent I appeal to God the Searcher of all Hearts and knows the Intents thereof c. A Word of Advice to the Pensilvanians FRiends you have the Advantage of those that went into New-England Barbadoes and other Plantations formerly you may perceive the Rock upon which they have miscarryed what hath been an Impediment to the Increase of Love and Charity amongst them to wit Impositions on the Consciences of those that differ from them in some Religious Point of Church-Discipline or other How hath New-England that fled from hence under a Complaint of the Bishops Tyranny made their Little-Finger as heavy as their Loynes Witness the Sufferings of our Friends to Death under their Tyranny And Secondly Enquire and see how sweetly our Friends lived in Barbadoes in Love and Charity one towards another until G. F. his Law came to take place there Insomuch as that at length at a Quarterly-Meeting at Ralph Fretwells House in Barbadoes the 23d of the 10th Month 1680. Where the Sum of their Testimony amounted to a Choice to be made Viz. Whether Friends would cleave abide to theVniversal Spirit Viz. in the Mens and Womens-Meeting c Or Whether to their particular Measures c. A strange kind of Proposition And after many Testimonies given to the further Opening the Question the Judgment underneath was written and voluntarily Subscribed by both the Men and Women c. That is to say I Desire to give up my whole Concern if required both Spiritual and Temporal unto the Judgment of the Spirit of God in the Mens and Womens-Meetings as believing it to be more according to the Universal Wisdom of God than any particular Measure in my self or any particulars with which the Mens and Womens-Meetings have not Unity Subscribed by 39 Men 43 Women Total 82. Thus Implicit Faith and Blind Obedience for the magnifying of G. F. his Laws and Orders began to spread far and near but this Papistical Judgment and Erronious Opinion stands Answered by T. C. in a Small Tract Called Babells-Builders Unmasking themselves c. Also you have the Advantage of seeing the Effects of G. F. his Laws here in England Wherefore in short this is my Advice to you Keep the Holy Scriptures in Esteem amongst you and if any would lay a Foundation for Church-Government that is not warranted by the plain Text thereof and would compel you to a Conformity to the same slight it and never submit to such an Yoak neither be intangled thereby though there may be a Shew of Wisdom in them as the Apostle said Gal. 5. Heb. 9 10. Isaiah 29.13 Mat. 15.9 I say keep the Scpipture in great Esteem if your Teachers
bid you observe any particular Thing or Duty that Christ Commanded do it with a Reverend Regard but if they begin once to extol their Written Traditions above the Holy-Scriptures you will have good and warrantable ground to testifie against their Innovations and if for this they call you Hereticks or Schismaticks answer them in the words of St. Augustine Errare possum Hereticus esse non possum In an Errour I may be but an Heretick I cannot be for there are three things necessary for just Proof of Heresie First That it be an Errour that I hold Secondly That it be an Errour against the Truth of Gods Word for otherwise every Errour maketh not a Man a Heretick And Thirdly That it be stoutly and wilfully maintained otherwise an Errour against Gods Truth without wilful Maintenance is not Heresy There is the Sixth Branch of the Grant and Confirmation mentioned in the Second Chapter about Sufferings which as Stated is not warrantable which for brevity sake I pass by until an Opportunity offer it self and then I may unriddle the meaning and perhaps discover the Effects thereof Effectually And thus I rest your Friend Milden-hall the 9th of the 1st Month 1682. F. B THE Post-script AS it was the manner of the Pharisees to propound Insnaring Questions to Christ Jesus in the Day of his Flesh tempting him endeavouring to entangle him in his Talk when otherwise they were not able to Confute him Even so hath it been the manner of some amongst us to come to me since I sent the forgoing in Manuscript to the Press Questioning me in order to insnare or intangle me in my Talk instead of proving their Proceedings Apostolical and their Force and Compulsion in their Church Procedure warrantable WHEREFORE my further Advice to the Reader is To frequent the Holy Scriptures and read them diligently as also the Works of R. Hubberthorn F. Howgil other Antient Friends and the foregoing Tract and then see and consider whether there be not Violence done to our first Principles of Union whereby Tyranny instead of Order is introduced For it is a Protestant Principle to read all Authors to search out the Truth of Things in Controversy to endeavour after a right Understanding to prove all things and hold fast that which is good and hereby will Implicit Faith and Blind Obedience be excluded Knowledge increased and true Conviction become the ground of our Conformity and the Bereans Example become our daily Practice But it is a Popish Principle To believe as the Church believes barely because She so believes to take all for granted our Leaders say without any further Examination to read no Books but what are Licenced and approved on by this General Council or that Second-Days Meeting to Pin my Faith on their Sleeves to see with their Eyes instead of my own Oh this Implicit Faith this Blind Obedience this Idolizing the Wisdom and Conduct of the Multitude and refusing the use of our own Reason Sense and Understanding is no less than the Product of a Popish Principle and ought to be avoided Object But some may object and say That although things be thus which being upon Record cannot without great Impudence be denyed yet to publish them we think very hard measure c. Answ If no private meanes had been used then indeed this Objection had been of some weight but in regard so many private Endeavours have been used for four Years together and all avail nothing it is but just and equal as for Example Let any of the Hearers be found guilty of Misdemeanors although no other Crimes than the Leaders and Teachers themselves are guilty of it is usual to go to such and admonish them if they persist in the Evil then admonish them again and if after all private Meanes they will not be reclaimed then it hath been usual to give out Papers of Condemnation against them that the World may see we do not own them in their evil Practices c. Even so it is but just and reasonable that if our Leaders and Church-Governours as they count themselves who pretend to see for the Body shall Erect such a way of Church-Government and Discipline as neither Christ nor his blessed Apostles never commanded nor Practised and bring in and set up other Traditions than the Apostles delivered and then compel according to that little Power they have a Uniformity and Conformity to them then it is but just to call these Leaders to account and admonish them again and again and shew them their Errour and the Mischief of their Impositions and if after all private Endeavours for three or four Year together these Church-Governours will not be reclaimed nor in any wise perswaded to make void such Edicts such vain Traditions and useless Ceremonies nor yet be content that as many as have freedom to use them may and that others that are otherwise minded may be let alone and left to their Christian-Liberty whether to Conform or not Conform then it is but just to bear a Publick Testimony against them their Impositions their Prescribed Rules and Cannons their Written Orders their Antichristian way of Church-Procedure that the World may know we do not own them and that G.F. G. W. and those of Party with them have been call'd to account have been admonished again and again Is fully manifest by what is set forth in this Treatise together with what is written by W.R. in his Book Entituled The Christian-Quaker Distinguished In Five Parts c. Milden-Hall the 22. of the 3d. Mon. 1682. F. Bugg The Labouring-Mans Caveat Concerning Womens-Meetings TAKE heed beware of Novelty And of Female Authority That they into the Church ben't brought And thereby such Divisions wrought Through Craft of the Old Enemy Who is profound in Subtilty As may cause Bitterness to Spring Which is a very hurtful Thing And more thereby's defil'd within Than Women can wash clean again But rather take the Good Old Way As God Commanded Paul doth say That Women in subjection be And not usurp Authority Nor in the Church permitted speak Whereby they should good Order break Except to Pray or Prophesy By Power given from on High Otherwise they 'l Confusion make And cause the Hearts of Friends to ake But rather all with one Accord Let Male and Female Serve the Lord That as Partakers of one Grace They meet together in one Place And not distinct as George doth say At the Tenth Hour of the Day Nor yet devided one from th' other Lest that Division breeds another But as the Children of one Father Brethren and Sisters both may gather Together in one Place to see What may to others needful be And helping their necessity May serve each other in Unity And Mens Invented Novelties With Womanish Formalities What ' ere defiles may out be swept And all Things sweet and clean be kept Who first convinc't us by his Light To lead us on may have his Right And following Him as Children Dear
May walk in Love whil'st we are here And all unto him be Subjected That all may in him be Perfected That God o're all may Ruler be And Glorified Eternally But what art thou that art so bold That Womens-Meetings thus Control'd And thus dost seem to lay a Block Against the raising of a Stock Whereas George hath Infallibly Erected them to sit on High And that against their Government None should shew Discouragement Neither Direct nor Indirect Lest out of Vnity they be kept I tell thee I am a Labouring-Man And have been taught to Thresh and Fan And what 's the Chaff unto the Wheat Though it may serve some Beast to eat And to the Wheat may grow so near That both came forth of th' self same Ear And sent forth wrapt in Paper White Wise Men will look ON 'T in the Light And such whose Eyes are in their Head Can see it is not fit for Bread Therefore on it refuse to feed Lest it should ill Humours breed And such Distempers as Blind-Zeal Which noysom are to Common-Weal For when Mens Minds with it are heat Their Fellows they are apt to beat According to their Power and Might They with their Tongues begin to smite And he that is not of their Mind From Truth say they he is Declin'd And Womens-Meetings he doth slight How then can his Spirit be right And then saith one Let 's Mouth be stopt And others cry He must be knockt Another He doth blasting threaten And thus are Fellow Servants beaten From Cross-Bow of their crooked thoughts Which Blind-Zeal bent they shoot their bolts 'T is like I shall be paid with blows For smiting the Image on the Toes That Image of Authority Which Womens-Meetings signifie Although but two or three be there As more seldom do appear When Weather 's cold and Winds do blow I seldom see a bigger Show But I don't mean with them to fight Therefore to keep me from their Sight I 'le to my Refuge quickly fly Even God that Judgeth Righteously And with him also will abide Till he doth Remedy provide That Truth o're all may so prevail As Love to conquer may not fail That as God's one also his Name We all may be one in the same And he may Reign whose Right it is That nothing may be done amiss And then his Saints with Joy shall sing And sound forth Praises to their King Which was his due all times before To him be it given for evermore But now before I go my way Another word I have to say To such as would know my Intent Why this I writ 't is to prevent The further growth of Discontent Rais'd with the Female-Government Although a Charter firm they have And Grant and Confirmation brave Which Strengthen and Corroborate Their Jurisdiction obtain'd of late Yet if the Tree known now may be By the Fruit mine Eye doth see Charter and Confirmation both Are Innovations nothing worth Wherefore I say my Council take And to your selves no Image make Nor to a Likeness now Submit That no Foundation hath in it Now to Gods Grace I all Commend For teaching thereon to depend Which from all Strife can us defend And thus I here shall make an End Who am a Lover of Truth and Peace To all therein wishing Increase A Table of the Contents or principal Matters contained in the Second Part of this Book CHAP. I. Treats of Principles of Truth Received and Believed in the Beginning with an Epistle about Marriage and other Things not as a Form to walk by but as Advice suitable to the Nature and Tendency of the Testimony of Truth Received and Belieed c. Truths Entrance amongst us Pag. 24 25 26 27 28. The 7th Particular in an Epistle of Advice Pag. 29. 30. CHAP. II. Manifesteth an Alteration and Change Shews the Womens Charter for their Jurisdiction Sets forth the Grant and Confirmation made at a London Yearly-Meeting 1675 Viz. G. F. his Platform for Womens-Meetings Pag. 33 34 35 36. 37. The 1st Branch of the Grant Pag. 41 42. 2d Branch of the Grant P. 42 43 44 45. 3d. Branch of the Grant Pag. 48 49. 4th Branch of the Grant Pag. 50 51. Observations upon them Pag. 54. 55 56. CHAP. III. Treats of the Proceedings of G. Fox his Party in the Executive Part of the Charter Grant and Confirmation mentioned in the Second Chapter Their Proceedings against J. Ansloe An Opposition thereunto made by several Viz. Hadenham Orders Pag. 60 61. The Record against J. A. Pag. 63. A Letter to S. Cater by F. Bugg Pag. 64 65 66 67 68. F. Bugg his Protectation Pag. 68 69. Six Queries about G. F. being Head of the Church Pag. 75 76 77 78 79 80. One Query by J. A. Viz. What is Conformity Pag. 82 83. CHAP. IIII. R. Hubberthorns Reasons against Impositions Pag. 88 89. F. Howgils Discovery of Innovators Pag. 89 90 91. G. Fox his Old Doctrine and New Practice Pag. 93 94 95 96 97. A Huntingtonshire Certificate Pag. 97 98. Observations on G. Fox his antient Doctrine Pag. 98 99 100 101 102 103 104. CHAP. V. Shews the Opinion of several of the Clergy both Bishops and Ministers to be against Impositions and the Imposers are the Culpable Dividers and Authors of Schism c. Bishop Dovenants Testimony Pag. 105 106. Dr. Stillingfleets Iron Pag. 106 107. Archbishop Laud against Fisher Pag. 107. Bishop of Heriford Pag 107 108 109 110 111. Alsops Mischief of Impositions Pag. 111 112 113 114. CHAP. VI. Shews the Judgment of Antient Protestants and Martyrs against Forcing a Conformity to Mens Traditions not grounded on Scripture Authority Zanchy's Testimony Pag. 116. W. Tindal about Forms Pag. 116 117. R. Richardson Traced and found fallacious Pag. 118 119. W. Tindal about Services of Women Pag. 119. An Objection answered Pag. 120. Tindal about the Elders erring Pag. 121. Luther about Opinions Pag. 121. Barns against Imposition Pag. 121 122 123 124. Brentious upon Cor. 3. Pag. 124. Dr. Taylor about Liberty Pag. 124 125. Dr. Taylor about Ceremonies Pag. 125. Bishop Hoopers Speech Pag. 125 126. CHAP. VII Shews that my self and others in this Country have used private meanes about four Years and no Accommodation or Condiscention was attainable Neither Answer to Letter Answer to Query no when I went to London with a Letter from Friends of our particular Meeting to the Second-days Meeting in London and delivered it with my own Hand would neither answer the Letter nor so much as discourse me but when I had given them the Letter C. Taylor bad me be gone All which shews the Author to the Accuser his Pretentions to an Accomodation and Condiscention to be Fallacious Deceitful and Hypocritical A Letter from 11 Friends to the Quarterly-Meetings Pag. 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137. F. B's Letter to W. P. about a Composure Pag. 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148. F. B's Letter by way of Prologue to 9 Queries to G. W. Pag. 150 151 152 153. Nine Queries sent to G. W. Pag. 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162. A Battledore and Spectacles for G.F. P. 163. R. R's Letter to F. B. Pag. 164 165 166. F. B. his Answer to R. R's Letter Pag. 167 168 169 170. F. B. his Letter to the Second-days Meeting Pag. 172 173 174 175 176 177. 178 179 180. 11 Friends Letter to the Second-days Meeting Pag. 180 181 182 183. An Answer to Six Interrogatories Pag. 184 185 186. CHAP. VIII Shews that the Severity used by G. Fox and his Party exceeds that of the Judges Justices and Protestant Bishops who have Excommunicated J. B. for selling W. R's Book And if Application be made to them for Redress of Grievances they cry We are deluded and will sometimes refuse to read a Letter but seldom or never answer any And Advice to the Pensilvanians A Letter to Judge Turner Pag. 188 189. Another Letter to Judge Turner Pag. 190 191 192 193. J. B's Excommunication for dispersing W. R's Book Pag. 197 198 199. R. Bayfield burnt for dispersing the Books of Luther Tindal Hus and others Pag. 204. Sir Thomas Moor allowed to read and to answer those Schismatical Books Pag. 205 206. G. Whitehead allowed to buy have possess and read yea and answer W. R. his Book Pag. 205. B. Antribus or J. Fields Objection Answered Pag. 208 209. Advice to the Pensilvanians Pag. 210 211 212 213. A few of the most remarkable Errours corrected the rest are left to the Friendly Reader to correct ERRATA Pag. 4. line 9. for 8th Article r. Articles of Faith p. 5. l. 23. for their r. those p. 17. l. 15. for Woolwick r. Woolruch p. 24. l. 10. for Heavenly Spiritual r. Heavenly and Spiritual p. 26. l. 3. r. declared p 28. l. 22. r. from the Brethren to the Brethren p. 38. l. 16. for Grant or Order r. Charter for Womens-Meetings p. 40. l. 30. for Order r. Charter p. 47. l. 9. for how to r. and how to p. 56. l. 14. for partly r. purely p. 57. l. 3. for Order r. Charter p. 71. l. 16. for the r. their p. 84. l. 17. r. Wâ—tnesses p. 85. l. 20. for lying r. buying p. 93. l. 20 21. r. to wit the Spirit p. 105. l. 16. for Doveman r. Dovenant p. 119. l. 30. f. Little withdrawn r. his Book Entituled p. 125. l. 6. for Increasment and Formnesâ— r. Increment and Firmness p. 153. l. 22. for 1678 r. 1681. p. 206. l. 24. for Clark r. Clarks Shop p 196. l. 17. for discousing r. discoursing FINIS