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
sayes he vail to W. Penn but as one recalling himself probably he writ by Revelation But what Answer do all these words give O but 't is all one for two Negatives sayes he make an Affirmative in English What if there be but one for two I can not find but he at last like a Dim-sighted Man has fumbled out the Matter as he thinks to wit That we require not Men to leave off to practise what they have practised Cujus Contrarium veâ—um For shame What! no more Understanding and yet pretend to write Books Are not my words expresly otherwise But I say again 'T is one thing to introduce a Practice not at first known when our Adversaries spoak such Glorious Things of our Faith Worship Order and Ministry and require the Conformity of any of the Church to it and quite another Business for any of the Church to dispractise as a Romish Tradition and Tradition of Men or leave off any orderly Custom God brought his Church first forth in and which all once own'd and were in the Practice of But I begin to dispair of making this Caballistick Libeller any honester towards the poor Quakers § 2 But the Author of this Libel hath so little Conscience as yet to say That the Quakers allow no Liberty to Presbyterians Independents and Baptists because they are not in the Power of Truth but sayes he W. P. never wants a Salvo for George let him say what he will he means it sayes W. P. not of Outward but of Inward Liberty and yet W. P. knew it was spoken to one who pleaded for Liberty of Conscience about his Hat But thou Libeller was he a Presbyterian Independent or Baptist or does this prove that I would defend G. F. Let him say what he will Art thou a Man pretending to Truth or Honesty that art so Untrue and Dishonest to thy Opposer But I know no such thing that it was spoken of a Hat-Man this I know from G. F's own Mouth and what I have frequently heard him say on this Subject That the Conscience were within and nothing could give it Liberty from the Thraldom of Sin but the Power of God within He thus Distinguisht from the common Use of the Word which is the publick Exercise of Conscience so that what he meant of the Inward State of the Conscience to God they pervert to the outward Exercise of publick Worship Now because the Presbyterian Independent and Baptist generally deny that ever the Conscience can be Free or at Liberty from Sin he queried What! Liberty to the Presbyter c. answered thus No Liberty out of the Power of God Christ Jesus â— and such as have Liberty but not in Christ Jesus the Power of God it is in old Adam and are to be turned from No Man that is not eaten up with Prejudice and a Party with these Traducers can think that G. F. ever intended any other Liberty then what was internal as the Conscience is I could desire that both sides in this very Instance might be the Measure of the Truth or Dishonesty of either for I am in no one thing of this kind better satisfied then in the Wilful Abuse of our Adversaries and our own Vnblemisht Innocence God will Reward all according to their Works Amen § 3 He tells us There was a Complaint against me of divers Lyes Calumnies and Abuses committed by me in my Book intituled The Spirit of Truth c. carried to the Bull and Mouth to the Body of the Quakers then sitting there by half a Score of Citizens and others but they were not admitted Answ 'T is true that I writ such a Book and that they came with such a Complaint but a Lye a Calumny and Abuse that God will Revenge if not Repented of to call any part or parcel of it either Lyes Calumnies or Abuses H. Hedworth was nipt for his Nameless Scurrilous Letter Dull and Angry Man he could never Answer it therefore strove how he could Defame its Author Notable Controvertists indeed first write Books against Persons and instead of Answering cry out for Justice as if I had committed some Enormious Fact in Confuting his Libel But what Non-sense is it for People to come to a Body for Justice which they so manifestly disown and these Nameless Authors constantly vilifie Indeed they are grown so Angry at our honest and quick Defences that some are fallen to Personal Criminations and others to downright Menacing us with Judges Courts of Justices and Corporal Punishments A Crew of Petulant Disputants and Bloody-minded Adversaries Well but what Reception found they G. Whitehead sayes he told them He would shew it to W. Penn if they would set their hands to it And was not this Reasonable Should Men Complain and not Subscribe the Complaint Such Dark-Lanthorn Acts become not good Men. But it was shewn to Stephen Crisp also and left signed in his Hands who told them that he had shown it to me and that I had answered it in Print And was not that the best Way that what came by Print should go by Print They know their Malice is ready and they think their Wits are so too and all know they have their Presses open What! must we not defend our selves without being brought upon Tryals Before what Court did we endeavour to bring them for beginning with us The World may by this see what a Way such Peevish Persons would take to be uncontroled in their Writings had they so much Power as they have Pride and Passion But this is not all For upon my Saying in my Winding Sheet that Anabaptists came to Bull and Mouth to demand Judgement against W. P. for ALL being in the Place of MANY and asking whether they were not well employed at which he cryes out in the Strain of some Great Don. What Penn Is this the Custom of G. Fox's Court to Jeer the Poor Petitioners No Libeller 't is neither G. Fox's Court as thou scoffingly calls it nor did I Jeer nor were they that came Petitioners we neither Scorn nor Bely them as is falsely charged upon us And though there were more particulars yet that the Printers putting All instead of Many was one of them is granted and that I never said They came with no more what I did say will sufficiently clear therefore this Libeller hath both scorned and bely'd me and Abus'd and Jeer'd G. Fox c. which indeed is most times the Work of a concealed Author Well but 't is for this he is pleased to confer upon me the Knighthood of the Post which I thus far accept of that I stood my Post when he ran away but be it as it will his Reeling upon it hath broken his own Head against it whether I would or no. But one Reason why he so entitules me is my Swearing the Truth of what I either know to be False or do not know to be True This I suppose may startle every Reader that remembers I
that all Men ought to follow the Light in themsâ—lves deprive the Church of the Power of Judging that for a dark Imagination which from the Savour and Sense of God's Light and Truth she feels to be so because some Person or Persons plead that they therein follow the Light This opens a Door to all Licentiousness and furnisheth every Libertine with a Plea What might have been said in this Case against the ancient Christians Every Man ought to walk in the Spirit and to be led by the Spirit Shall therefore any Man's Pretence to be led by the Spirit that is not secure him from the Judgment of those that are really led by the Spirit Or shall the Judgment of those who are led by the Spirit against him that pretends to be so led be reputed Tyranny and a going from the Leadings and Judgment of the Spirit to the Leadings and Judgment of Men Or because of granting the Light to be obeyed in all its Leadings and its Leadings to be waited for in order to Faith and Worship that therefore there is no way left to judge which are in the Wrong of the Two that equally say they are led by the same Light For if Men would come to the Salt Grace Truth and faithful Witness in themselves which only gives to discern and savour True Spirits from False ones they would hereby arrive at certain Knowledge in the Matter but where People stand they can never distinguish because they are from under the Conduct of that Spirit which alone reveals the deep things of God In short as no Man's saying he is in the Right ought to conclude him to be in the Right so neither can that hinder that he should not be found out by such as are in the Right Spirit to be in the Wrong if in it He that sayes he is ruled by the Scripture may err as well as he that sayes he is led by the Light therefore is he not to be censured Or is there no certain Way of knowing him to be in the Wrong It is the Spirit of Truth that opens the Truth of Scripture much more can it only give to relish Spirits Which leads to the last Question Whether the People called Quakers or those few stragling Followers of John Perrot are this True Church and acted by this Divine Light and Spirit yea or nay To answer this Question I shall keep very close to the Concessions of these present Apostates For it is not so much my Business at this time to prove us a True Church to them that never had any Relation to us as against those who acknowledge themselves once to have been of us but now decline us That God sent forth a Spiritual Ministry that many were gathered by it and setled in the Way of Everlasting Peace and called by the World Quakers the Author of the Spirit of the Hat fully confesseth pag. 9. That it was then the Church of God four lines after undeniably prove And the Lord did daily add â—nto the Church and raised up many to go forth in the Power to preach the Everlasting Gospel whereby the Church multiplyed and increased to the Astonishment of the Nations By this we see it was then the Church in their Opinion without dispute I would fain know it comes now to be no Church Has Her Refusing to conform to John Perrot's Innovation of the Hat on in time of publick Prayer unchurched Her I have hitherto thought that a Society's going from or adding to what it was when truly called a Church was that which only did Unchurch it and not its continuing as it was And if this be good Arguing The People called Quakers remain still the same Chruch but their Adversaries not the same Members In short where the first Occasion of Offence was given there was the first Breach of Unity Had the Church imposed upon them there would be some reason for varying of her Character and condemning her as Fallen But the Innovation being their own she is not accountable unto them but they to her for such unwarrantable Novelties so that the Question is not Whether the Quakers impose but Whether they did not innovate All was well till this Imagination was hatched The Spirit of Judgment and Burning had its course Their Vessells were filled with Refreshment Springs of Life broke out in their Bellies and Bread of Life dwelt within them They wanted no good thing as that Letter of the Hat relates If this may be credited How comes so sudden a Revolution that in a Years time the Mighty should be fallen the Stars ceased to give their Light the Poor distressed the Young Ones bruised and Conscience imposed upon by a Law Which wretched Deciet me-thinks should be obvious to every impartial Reader There is no Wisdom to believe Men so inconstant to their own Apprehensions and who of all times in which to prove this great Alteration should make Choice of that in which was so great a Persecution and so Noble a Testimony born for the Truth viz. 1662. But the Truth of the matter is this John Perrot who if he had been as faithful as his Companion might with him have been hanged at Rome as we have been informed to his own Comfort the Truth 's Honour and the Churches Peace came home as filled with Conceit as he pretended his Body had been oppressed with Sufferings which kindling so great a Love in the Hearts of some Tender Friends as they unwarily became Incouragers of his Ambition in their too high exilting and lamenting his Sufferings Which having rendered him Master of their Affections they most of them easily became Embracers of his Invention We had reason to believe it had almost been impossible for him ever to have made one Proselyte had not the noise of his Forreign Tryals disposed the Hearts of some affectionate People to receive his Impression He that will please to consider the improbable Account he vainly gave of his own Sufferings saying that since Adam's Day none had ever undergone the like his singular Style Proverbial Chapters in imitation of Solomon his Toyish conceited Rhymes his Title page of the Wren in the burning Bush waving her Wings of Contraction c. his peculiar Subscription which was generally JOHN and could not be so because there was no more of that Name amongst us but because he would be the JOHN of JOHNS and which is yet more ridiculous in a Letter to several grave Women your dear SISTER JOHN with his absurd new fangled bodily Greetings his most Papal Salutations to G. Fox E. Burroughs others by them rejected himself reproved as if he had spent his time in Learning all the Superlative Complements of Rome I say he that pleases to consider these things must needs think that the Man had lost his Guide and was dangerously elevated above the holy Fear of God and heavenly Life of the Truth and his Standing being soon discerned by several Weighty Friends he was
hindred the Growth of Truth in his own particular which he signified caused the Love of Brethreng to wax cold and a manifes Decay of that that was good in which our Joy Rest and Peace daily abound In solemn Meetings with Tears I believe unfeigned and true Contrition of Spirit as many are Witnesses gave Judgment against that Spirit which led into Separation through means of which he as well as others had suffered loss as with respect to the Good Presence of the Lord in the daily Sence thereof as before that Spirit entred was enjoyed and with what Openness of Heart did we even in the first Love raised by the Power of the Lord in which alone doth our Unity stand did we embrace one another and met oft with one another to our mutual Joy and Refreshment But now is he not found beating of those with whom he was a Fellow-Servant and taking of them by the Throat and as I may say speaking all manner of Evil against them even them who in a Sense have laid down and can their Lives to save him Surely he who rewards Evil for Good Evil will not whilst in that Spirit depart from his House And how hath Enmity entred him in that that which is a Strength a Joy and a Comfort to us Vexations to him to wit to see Brethren together in the pure Truth in that which neither speaketh nor thinketh Evil to dwell and so seek one another's Good are kindly affectioned one to the other serving one another with Love And so though by Complying with G. F. as the Author of or Assistent to that Wicked Heap of Stuff which is for the Fire scoffingly saith He is now become a Preacher To Comply with Truth and such whose Labour and Service is for its Promotion is my Joy and true Satisfaction and Quiet to my Soul and therein as the Lord shall open my Mouth and minister Occasion I shall preach down their Pernicious and Soul-hurting Practices desiring to be found to the End of my Dayes a Lover of that which is Good and in it a Witness against that which is Evil though found in those who have been my Familiars for whose sake I have not suffered a little William Gosnell Henry Stout's Testimony FIrst They Excuse me with the other two Friends and within few lines Contradict their own Excuse in saying H. S. being rebuked he Acknowledged the Paper but there was no such in it Why could they not as well have said by whom he was rebuked But this is like some of the rest of their Matter and would fain cover it if any could So that the Answer already is over their Heads as to the Paper To this I further answer That to the best of my Remembrance I never saw that Paper signed by the Eleâ—ven at Hartford in my Life about two Moneths since I saw it at London and I do affirm there is no such Tendency in it as asserted in the Spirit of the Hat That there is any Admission in it for any Men or Body to oppose the Light but 't is possible to this purpose may be found in it That if any have any thing upon them or are moved to write that they lay it before the Body that so the Body may be satisfied that they are indeed moved by the Light or Spirit which is one and then the Body cannot but have Unity because all that are in the Light are in Unity and One in All and this for the Prevention of all False Motions and those that say they are Jews and are not for Greater is the Wisdom of him who is amongst his People then the Wisdom of Solomon who give the true Bearer her Child though the Harlot would have had it divided But what is the Matter with you Professors that you are working in such Muddle so many years old as confessed in the Pamphlet Is the Spirit of your Brethren the Pharisees so far entred you that you are acting your part as they of old did who joyned with an Apostate a Traytor a Judas endeavouring if it had been possible to have destroyed the Heir Christ Jesus Root and Branch who did outwardly put him to Death Read your selves Are not you joyned with an Apostate or Apostates in all manner of Lyes and Slanders as instance John Faldo and Thomas Hicks which I fear have done it against their grow Knowledg especially Thou T. H. who sayest in thy first Dialogue That our Sufferings may be to satisfie our Lust Will any one but who are filled with Enmity like thy self thus conclude that Lying in Nasty Holes and Prisons and Losing our Estates and Lives Limbs and Banishment is to satisfie our Lust Well Thomas my Judgment of these is Thou wilt never satisfie thine in that manner but these are both answered already who I desire may come to Repentance and find Mercy But what are you doing Professors if you should with your Assistents the Apostates accomplish your Brethren Cruelty from New-England Our Blood would be upon you and your Children For your Works which you have lately done have the very Tendency though I am perswaded there are some amongst you hate the very Thoughts of such a thing yet I question not but some of your Leaders do very much desire it or else they would never hazard the very Loss of their own Souls in Lyes and Slanders against us if they believe them to be Sins Now consider what is the Cause of this Great Difference between us and the Professors Certainly it is about Worshipping of God and the Occasion of the Enmity is the same as was in dayes past for the first Worshippers that we read of the Enmity arose in him whose Sacrifice was not accepted with God Professors read your selves and the Cause of your Enmity for those who are accepted with the Lord there is no Cause of Enmity but Pitty arises in their Hearts towards those who are not accepted and so Christ when he came it was not to destroy Men's Lives but his Gospel was Peace on Earth and Good-will towards all Men but Enmity is from the Devil and he the Father of it So for your whole Work let it return from whence it came even the Bottomless Pit And whether the Matter in it be True or False I am a Stranger to it The Intent is Wicked and I do not much look what those have been who are chiefly named in Your Pamphlets by reason of Tender Age in the Truth or otherwise but now I know them to be Men of Integrity and Fearing God which is Satisfation to me and so it s a Sign that when Men grow in Grace and are better they are the Beloved of God to such Grace is not in Vain but when Men grow Worse and Worse and lose their Tenderness once they had and abound in Pride and Envy this is an Evident Token of Perditon notwithstanding their pretended Election for it is not Words only God looks for but Fruit from a Clean
Checking it as if he might do it cum Privilegio But it right-well agrees with the Advocate of an Apostate Cause I complain of nothing in this kind more then that we must not Rebuke Ill-Language without being guilty of it Nay such is the Peevishness of our Adversaries that to mention theirs is Criminal But we shall run the hazard of their Frowns rather then be false to the Truth or wanting to our selves in its proper place Let it suffice that the Title manifestly speaks what the Libel vainly condemns This Secretary I suppose in the Name of the Cabal begins his Libel thus How dangerous a thing it is for a Man to engage himself publickly for any singular Party upon the Account of Religion is greatly manifest in the Leading Quakers and especially in W. Penn from whose Parts and Education one would expect more then ordinary Candor and Ingennity By which I perceive he is from a Rageing Socinian become an Vniversalian But why then so bitter against us Sure he is a Party in that and how Dangerous a thing it is Time will more fully shew However he declares himself of no Party by which I suppose he excludes the Christian for the Prophane of that Time reputed him a Sectary and all must acknowledge him to be of a Party How I came to be of this Way is best known to God But thus much I must say that nothing short of the Divine Word of Life and Power has worked that Alteration upon me from what I once was to what I now am The Tryals Travels Tribulations and Exercises that from Fourteen Years of Age have attended me but more especially since I was brought to own and abet this Holy Way I now profess are too many to be related And from the Hour I was first convinced of this Eternal Truth to this of Writing this Discourse I can with Boldness declare to all the World I have had no other Aim nor End then God's Honour the Good of others and my own Salvation in the Day of the Lord. In short I have learned to turn my Back to the Smiter and my Cheek to the Plucker off of the Hair And it is not for any Adversary at this time a day under any Pretence of Parts and Education to Dis-ingage my Affection from this Right Way o◠the Lord Remembring my Lord made himself of no Reputation and that the Prophet was accounted Mad and the Apostles Drunk But he sayes I having imbarked my self amongst those People and having obtained a high Repute among them I betook my self to such pittiful Shifts Scurrilities and Bravings he is pincht to uphold their Detected Cause and Tottering Kingdom 't will stand forever as one would think could not proceed from any Man professing Christianity witness my late Controversal Writings especially my Winding-Sheet and Spirit of Alexander c. ibid. But I cannot expect to be Well-spoken of by mine Enemies especially when they declare themselves to be such because of that Way I so earnestly defend But this Man is not so Ignorant surely as to imagine I imbarkt my self among this People to obtain Repute or Grandeur who lost all with Men when first I came amongst them I would have my Implacable Enemies know that had no more Durable and Eternal Things been in my Eye I might have had my Share where more was to be got then amongst this Despised People but Envy is Blind and Rage Foolish For my Controversal Writings they stand Unanswered among the rest my Winding-Sheet and Spirit of Alexander c. the former being Unmedled with and the Strength of the latter fouly over-looked as we shall anon have occasion to shew perhaps it might have concerned him to clear himself of the Former before he had so weakly engaged himself in the Latter still Controversie is not Ended though Changed He tells the World That notwithstanding we call the Spirit of the Hat Lyes Forgery Defamation with abundance of Terms of the like Foxonian Leaven a scornful Nick Namer yet when we come to Particulars we either first confess what we deny with an idle Distinction except some few things or secondly acknowledge them by Silence or thirdly use some Deceitful Terms of Denyal which the Reader cannot discover or fourthly take an Occasion from some Circumstances perhaps not rightly set down to deny the whole Matter which doubtless are very bad things if true He has hereby rendred us not only no Christians but the worst of Men. All I can say at present is this It has never been my Practice to palliate that which cannot be justified or to treat any Adversary so deceitfully But 't is expected he should prove what he sayes or else we must invert the Character upon himself He tells us I suppose in order to prove what he hath said That W. P. doth in the Name of the Quakers acknowledge That the Complaint made in the Spirit of the Hat is true namely That we required him to yield to our Determination against his Conscience because the Body would have it so saying that was yielding to the Power And that I undertake in Opposition to the Author That his not so yielding but persisting is Dissension but our Disowning Excommunicating and Depriving of a Liberty of Marrying Burying c. any Person for that Cause is no Breach of the great Gospel-Charter This he sayes I Labour to do with the same Arguments Papists use against Protestants who pretend to no such Power and that they may be found every-where answered in Protestant Writings A mean Answer bu◠a notable Go-by in case I had so exprest my self but most forgedly does he deliver my words and tendency of them Was this Man chosen for your prime Tool of Controversie who can only tell one big Lye and then run away My Arguments forsooth are Popish there 's Confutation enough but with whom Ignorance and Prejudice An easie way to brand Reason and render the clearest Truth suspected in a Nation as abhorrent of Popery as this we live in a shameful Injustice that Sectaries should traduce us with that which was once their own suffering from others But what if I had us 〈◊〉 any Argument for the True Church which is employed by the Papist in Defence of a False one must Truth not be Truth in it self because Misappled And suppose the Protestant has answered the Papist Is that any Answer to me How great an Untruth has he told in his Title Page when he calls his Pamphlet A Defence of the Spirit of the Hat against the Spirit of Alexander who in four Pages after tells us he intends not to medle with the Arguments of it But Perhaps he will fault me for these People are very full of finding Fault though they mend none in themselves in that he has referred us to Protestant Writers A Defence boldly begged but never to be accepted of by me Does he think I must turn over Melanchton Chemnitius Oecolampadius Jewell Whitaker Reinolds and others
for an Answer to the Spirit of Alexander the Copper-Smith After this rate it were far easier to Answer then Accuse I am of Opinion that D. Stillingfleet's Adversaries would look upon their Cause as little injured by any bare reference to ancient Protestant-Writers how excellently soever they acquitted themselves at that time of day Fresh Opposition requires fresh Vindication If I had been Popish the man should have shewn me in what and when he had done have soundly confuted it and not in the midst of his Exclamations against Shifters give such just occasion to say thou art the man I am willing to forgive him at this time But let him be better instructed of his Cabal against the next time and see if he can learn more Truth then to call his Libels Answers whilst they prove themselves Evasions For Truth will work through all odious Names And it is not pinning the Pope upon our Tail and crying Popery Popery that will confute our Principles However till we are better known it may disrepute our Persons But let his base Constructions be considered Our Reproving Men for going out of the decent Order and happy Unity of the Body he calls Requiring Man to set down by our Determination against their Conscience And our Disowning that Breach upon persistance Excommunication from Burying and Marrying They ejected themselves by their Novelties and we are not ashamed to repute such as Publicans and Heathens as will not head the Church of Chris t Mat. 18. Had they Faith they might have kept it to themselves and not have disturbed the Church's Peace with their new Practices indeed Institutions for what was it lâ—â—e then to require our not practising of the Hat off in 〈◊〉 who called pulling it off a Popish Tradition unless men 〈◊〉 not to leave off Popish Traditions so that they and not we were to blame as the Sequel will further prove But I could not pass by this part of the Disingenuity of this Libeller As the Libel so our Discourse will consist of matter of Argument and matter of Fact I shall begin with matter of Argument which shall consist of a further Defence of what is asserted in my Book entituled The Spirit of Alexander the Copper-Smith revived and rebuked The grand Cause of that Dissension which was begun by Jo. Perrot long since happily ended among our selves though renewed divulged and aggravated for the Strengthening of the hands of our common Enemy by certain Perverse Apostates as delivered in the Spirit of the Hat and Defence of the same they must with me grant to be this The Quakers reach that every Man is enlightened with a sufficient Light to Salvation And that all Faith in and Worship to God ought to stand upon the Convictions and in the Leadings thereof yet we are oblieged by their Body unto that which we have no Motion for but rather against and upon our Refusal of such Compliance as they expect we are disowned as not of them So that the Sufficiency Convictions and Leadings of the Light must vail to the Body and not the Body to the Light wherefore not the Light but the Body is become the Quakers Rule Thus Tho. Hiks's Con. Dial. p. 63 64 65. Spir. Hat p. 11 12 13. Defence of it p. 5 6 7. Their Common Aggravations especially of the two latter are these That they are denyed Marrying Burying Trading that they are distracted and so deprived of all both Ecclesiastical and Civil Priviledges The Aggravations we shall consider in their place And first to their Objection or Argument as I have fairly fully and faithfully laid it down 'T is a Truth and as true that we urge both the Universality and Sufficiency of the Light to Salvation and that every Man ought to follow only the Teachings of it about Faith and Worship This is granted on all hands even by the Cabal to credit their present Work and obtain their envious Ends upon us and our Principles Therefore no part of the Question to be controverted The matter in difference strictly lies here that is by resolving these four following Questions the Objection will be fully and plainly answered 1. Whether Christ has given to his Church consisting of faithful Believers and obedient Walkers by the Light or Spirit within such a Sense Tast Relish and Savour of the Nature of Spirits as upon all Occasions the great Enemy of Christ and his People may take under never so seeming innocent Appearances and Transformations to condemn any thing by his Church practised or innovate any thing by the Church never practised but condemned Yea or Nay 2. Whether such a Society Body or Church after due Admonition given to any dissenting or innovating Person may not Lawfully and Christianly deny their Communion in Testimony against that wrong Spirit such Person or Persons may be acted by 3. Whether such Person or Persons may not hold this granted fundamental Principle of the Light c. before recited in the Vnderstanding and yet be acted by a wrong Spirit to Divisions and then plead against the Church under the Pretence of acting by the Light within and consequently whether he can or ought to be judged by any for so doing because every one ought to act according to the Light that is within them And lastly 4. Whether the Body of the Quakers or their present Opposers be that Church Yea or Nay The first is so evident in the Affirmative That to reject it is nothing less then to deny Scripture it self It was the express Promise of Christ to send the Comforter the Spirit of Truth to lead into all Truth which the Apostle John assures us was made good not only to the Disciples but the then Churches of Christ to whom he writ these unanswerable Passages Ye have an Vunction from the Holy One and YE SHALL KNOW ALL THINGS Again But the Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and you need not that any Man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of ALL THINGS and is Truth and is no Lye And even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him By which it is evident that the Church of Christ had an Infallible Spirit by which to discern the Spirit of a Sheep from the Spirit of a Wolf though he came in Sheeps Cloathing This Doctrine Christ himself taught us when he said Beware of False Prophets which come to you in Sheeps Cloathing Again Take heed that no man deceive you For many shall come in my Name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many Whence it follows that there should be False Prophets yet in Sheeps Cloathing which is a deceitful Spirit acting under refined Appearances and to compass its Deceit the better shall palliate it with the Pretence of being led by the Spirit or Light of Christ within So that as Deceitful Spirits were foretold the Way to know them was both promised and enjoyed My Sheep hear my Voice said the great
〈◊〉 offer in order to a full Determination is this That either the whole Church or that part of it which never was concerned in these Debates particularly the North of England remot from us yet consisting of a very great Part of the Body of our Friends both in Number and Solidity and who have never varyed from their first Station upon any general Proposal the present Hat-Men shall make for the Demand of their Judgment provided it may be conclusive with them at least so far as to clear Particulars from that high Charge of Tyranny and Hypocrisie will we do believe freely declare themselves according to that Sense and Vnderstanding they shall receive of the Mind of Christ therein from him alone who is the Leader and Shepherd of his People IF none of all this will do let them take their course and furnish these Ishmaelites and Uncircumcised Philistians with all they can to our Trouble God will bring us through it all And for that Dishonour they have hereby brought on the Way and People of the Lord in general by putting their pretended Exceptions against some few Particulars into the hands of those Men who do not so much study the Disgrace of a few publick Labourers as the Overthrow of the whole People and Way improving all they can scrape how much soever interlined with Falshood to that very end will God the Righteous and Terrible Judge of Heaven and Earth require an Account and Wo Sorrow and Eternal Perplexity will be the swift Recompence of your Treacherous Doings unless you find a place for Repentance and can yet wipe away all these Scores by true Contrition Some further Ground of our Satisfaction in Proceeding against keeping on the Hat in time of publick Prayer especially as we are now concern'd with these sort of Apostate Adversaries which is not to dispute but further to declare our Belief and the Reason of our Practice in the Matter and so leave all with the Lord. I. AS Man consists of Soul and Body and as the Body is a kind of Form to the Soul so whilst Body and Soul remain unseparated there will and must be some Form suited to the Body whereby to express the publick Spiritual Worship performed by the Soul such are Places Words and Gestures and in the Performance of such Worship the Body can no more be exempted from some Form or Expression then can the Soul in its inward and spiritual Station To deny this is to denote a Man void of Sense and Reason so that though we grant the outward inward Coming of Christ to have abrogated such Types and Figures as foreshewed a further Glory yet Tokens and Demonstrations of present inward Reverence a Divine Honour to God in publick Performance of Worship not only we never denyed but do affirm them to be as adequate or proper to the Body as are the Reverence and Honour to the Soul II. It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us in the solemn and publick performance of Prayer unto the Lord to pull off our Hats to express the Unvailing of our Spirits and that reverent Submission and Supplication which becomes poor Petitioners to come in and offer up their Desires with to the great King of Glory and God of the Spirits of all Flesh and God has made it a Token of inward Homage by the Requirings of his own Truth And it is fit it should be observed that these present Opposers not only acknowledg'd the People call'd Quakers to be a true Church whilst in this Practice which I deny any Church to be that continues in the World's Rudiments and that they have frequently suggested us on this Occasion to be Retainers of But that they have received heavenly Refreshment by those Prayers that have been offered up by uncovered Heads And that God should send forth such a Spiritual Ministry so richly furnished and rarely qualified by the Divine Power and Wisdom of God a few years before as the Author of the Hat confesseth and that in their Performance of Worship to God they should be worldly and vainly Ceremonious can be no wayes consistent And I do here appeal to all sober Persons if after so large a Terstimony given to the People called Quakers as a true Church and her Ministry and Worship as powerful and pure before ever this Imagination came forth it could be any thing solid seasonable or edifying to introduce or trouble the Church with that Practice which they acknowledge She was Blest and Prosperous without III. But again it denotes and signifies the Difference that is between Worship to God and Ministry to Man there is not equal Homage indeed none at all in declaring God's Will to Man but the other is all matter of pure Homage and to discover this Difference by some due and suitable Posture is so far from being unlawful that the contrary is very condemnable IV. It is never to be thought reasonable by People not out of their Senses at least upon our Adversaries Principles that a Man should be moved to Pray and yet in that Motion not moved to shew it What! would they have a Man when he is moved to pray wait for another Motion to be led to discover it But above all the rest how do they that stand with their Hats on testifie their Unity with him that prayes as they confess a Man may by the Spirit of the Lord with his Hat off I say what greater Token do they give of their Joyning with such Prayers then the Publican or Pharisee who by that very Posture testifie their Dislike But yet further suppose a Hat-Man be moved to Pray with his Hat off as they confess he may what becomes of the rest of that Opinion in the Meeting If they pull it off meerly as having Unity with his Prayer then they are gone for that is our Ground who say that Soul and Body Prayer and Gesture must go together If they say it is upon them not to pull it off Two things will follow First The Spirit of the Lord moveth People in the same Meeting at the same instant of time and in one and the same Duty unto two Contrary things 2 dly That they may have Unity with the Prayer and not with the Gesture with one Motion and not the other That they have Unity with the Prayer and give and wrap up their Spirits in the present sense that 's stirring in the Assembly with his that is the Mouth without an extra-ordinary Impulse to pray with him in their own Spirits yet require such a Motion to Joyn with the Gesture so that they can pray with the Man moved but not pull off their Hat with the Man so moved The Confusion Contradiction and Absurdity of this Imagination ought forever to Justifie the Quakers Seasonable Solid and Christian Proceedings against the Introducers and Abettors of it for a Contradiction in Gesture when Gesture stands upon Motion is proportionably as real a Resistance against the
describe good and bad Fruits and from such Actions Men may by a Writing describe the Right from the Wrong But what gives to relish tast or savour a Wrong Spirit in Sheeps Cloathing beside the Heavenly Instinct of the Divine Nature As People are turned to that they can discern as saith the Apostle The Spiritual Man judgeth all things that is of right he may and is judged of no Man that is not discerningly of the meer Natural Men And as the Spiritual Man's Discerning is from the Spirit that searcheth out the deep things of God so is God the Judge and Law giver to his People under this Dispensation If the Gospel-Fellowship be in Spirit True Christians must have an Inward Tast and Sense of one anothers Spirits and what gives to savour aright at the same time gives to relish a Wrong Spirit The same Objection he makes against the Light may be made against the Spirit which is but another Name for the same Principle and I hope he will not dare to say that any Confusion can follow upon holding that Men under the Gospel ought to be led by it Yet this granted suppose Men pretending to be led by the Spirit to be gone from the Spirit or that two equally pretending to be guided by it differ as Paul and Barnabas and Peter what should determine No Writings of the Old Testament could at least without Meanings and the same Difficulty lyes about the Meanings of Scripture as about being led by the Spirit In this Case what shall be done Surely the Spirit must not be upbraided nor branded Neither will it follow That there is no Judge for Christ is the great Judge appointed of God the Spiritual great Prophet that speaks from Heaven and in his own time will give Judgment to the View of all Men. In the mean while he satisfies the Minds of those who are truly led by his Spirit and Withering Decay Murmuring Complaining and finally Apostasy will follow upon the Pretenders as is fulfilled in the present Judasses This hath been largely argued elsewhere yet I was not willing to let this Passage of our Enemies pass unconsidered which indeed is the Strength of his Book and what the ablest of our Adversaries can say against us an this account I have proceeded thus far more particularly in Defence of the Church against the Apostate Adversaries and their Apologist about the Argument by them made about the Hat and those Discords that issued In which I hope I have not exceeded the Bounds of Truth and Moderation For the latter Objection which is directed not so much against the Body of our Friends as a select Number of Ministers and Elders devoted as he falsly and scoffingly suggests to the Promotion of G. F's Authority and Interest I can with all Clearness and Sincerity and that in the Name of many Brethren give this following Testimony G. F. I would have all to know seeks not Himself but Christ and as becomes a true Apostle and Servant of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ Early and Late in Season and out of Season with incessant Pains and Care not being Burthensom unto any endeavours to promote the Work of God in the Earth and is so far from Lording it over any that he daily serves all for the Truth 's sake thinking no Labour too great nor Condescension too mean whereby he may be Serviceable to any in what concerns their Eternal Well-fare and this some of these Apostates must needs know He has approved himself and still doth among us to be a Man of God and a True Prophet of the Lord and as such we do Value him and the Rage of Men shall not Dis-settle us from our Sense and Regard of him who seeks not himself nor his own things but the Things of God that Christ and his Power alone may be exalted in the Hearts of all People and all Flesh humbled and for this alone are all publick Labourers of Value with our Friends and no otherwise Respected or Regarded then in the Lord which is not Tyranny but Duty Wherefore those Terms of Foxonian King George Fox Foxonian Leaven G. Fox and his Party or Adherents are with many more Words of Scorn and Abuse he has no such intended Lordship nor are we of his Party buâ— God's Free-Men and True Christians being with him Baptized by One Spirit into One Body the Unity of which these smiting Apostates and their abusive Libeller can never break I shall touch upon their Aggravations about not Marrying Burying c. before I come to those other Reflections made against G.F. our Ministry and My self and all before I end my Share in this Re-joynder First He is pleased to say That we deny them Trading Marrying Burying and all Ecclesiastical Civil Priviledges to those that dissent from us p. 7. These were the Aggravations I before promised to observe But alas What shall we say to a Man thus Hardy and resolved to be Wicked that he may render us so Did we even forbid Men Trading or endeavour to take People off from Trading with them J. Pennyman can say no such thing without Lying for several have lovingly frequented his Shop since he Enviously visited and disturbed our Meetings And how many do we daily trade with that are not of us in Love and full Assurance of their Honesty For Marrying I referred the Author of the Spirit of the Hat to the Apostle's Dehortation Be ye not Vnequally Yoaked together It seems if we cannot own Persons to be of us that are not of us we must be abused This made the present Apologizer if I am not out of my Guess Angry and Enraged with us at first 'T is not meer Talking of Christ and hammering out a few Notions in the meer Strength of Man's Will and Wisdom that makes a True Christian therefore we could not receive him for our Sect-Master that angers him And for Marriage we cannot have Unity with any in that solemn Performance of Marrying who are acted by a Wrong Spirit and so gone out of the Union of the Body of Friends We do not deny them that are so Married to be Married at all as this Enemy would conclude though to be Married in the Unity we can never own them As to our denying of Burial unto such Apostates my words in the Book called The Spirit of Alexander the Copper-Smith Rebuked carry no such unnatural Sense Two things I denyed 1. That we therefore denyed them a Burial because we should alwayes refuse it as of us whilst they continued in that Dissenting Spirit from us 2. That we Vsurped their Property To the first sayes our Adversary The Quakers would not suffer such to stink above Ground but he should be buried not among the Catholicks but as Hereticks in Spaine or Italy p. 19. Behold the Candor of this Interpreter What a strange Improvement has he made of my Saying much more resembling the Carriage of that sort of Catholicks he likens us to against
such pretended Hereticks as the poor Waldenses then we do in the Case of Burial I say again That as our Friends intended upon their first Purchase of a Burying Place that their Dead Bodies should â—ie together from the People of distinct Wayes which is warranted from Abraham's Practice in Genesis so do they not desire that such as have been of them and have afterwards run out should lie among them unless it be the Desire of the Deceasing Parties or that they declare their Unity with Friends yet we would not by any means be thought to deny any Person whatever a Buring-Place though we could never allow it to them as one of us since that were most unnatural I would fain know if this Adversary would observe no Distinction in this Case or what Injury there is done in making that Difference when Dead which was observed by the deceast Party himself when alive For the Property that he sayes some of them have 't is true and was never denyed but that we usurpt it we did and do reject as a Slander They never desired their part of the Collection that bought it nor did we ever refuse to repay it but are ready to be quit with them when they will a Perverse Apostatized Generation For Ecclesiastical Priviledges I know not what he means and those Scoffs ill become a Man that pretends to Religion Such Priviledges as are the peculiar Right of every true Member of Christ's Church it must be confest that such Starters aside from the Primitive Fellowship of it do deprive themselves of Church-Priviledges we don't But this sayes he is more then any beside the Papist dare pretend to the Protestant or Church of England challenges no such Power p. 5. But he that has ventured to tell so many False Things of us may dare to bestow one upon her especially when it is considered that he is a Concealed Person and may be False and Base with Security Does not the Church of England both Excommunicate and stir up the Civil Magistrate against such as dissent from her in meer Circumstances Does not the long Difference between her and the ancient Puritans Presbyterians and Independents Baptists and Us more particularly sufficiently Disprove that Bold Assertion But we pretend not to Imitate any but really act according to that Understanding and Sense which God given us in these things and in which we commend our selves to him being herein willing to abide his Judgment To the Rest of those Cruelties he makes us guilty of he doth with the Author of the Spirit of the Hat charge us with Pulling down Haling out of our Meetings and consequently wanted only Power to punish them adding That my Appeal to God's Witness in all Consciences for our Vindication shows me greatly to be lamented as either Blind or Impudent That we have also Pusht Pincht Kickt and Trod upon Feet and Toes sending us to Francis Chadwell for Proof thereof But to say nothing of his Ill-Language my Appeal stands as it did and as before so now I will put it between Impartial and Moderate Men if ever we so used any Conscientious Inquirer or Opposer No nor any else after that manner represented by our Adversary and God will plead our Innocency against him in the Hour of his Rigteous Judgments he shall not go Uncondemned down to his Grave For Francis Chadwell he is a Man of no Conscience nor Credit in what relates to us I my self have known him grosly guilty both of Lying and Tipling No frothy Stager is less to be regarded in Religion then this Man's Witness a Light Scoffing Taunting Tumultuous Person who after an Hundred Solid Confutations One of which had been enough to strike an Ingenuous Man to the Heart has continued to Bawl and Disquiet our Meetings time after time His Aim hath been to raise up an Envious and Scoffing Spirit in People against us Jeering Laughing Houting with such Unseemly Carriages as wholely unbefit him for a Witness against us He had as good as confest that he has been Hired by some Professors to Disturb us and told me If I would give him Five Hundred Pounds he would be a Quaker too yet this is our Socinian Adversary's Serious Conscientious Inquirer or Opposer He also brings in one William King whom he sayes We Haled out of our Gallery in Grace-Church Street with such Violence that he hath scarce felt the Stairs but that he hath often felt our Cruel Hands witness G. Whitehead 's Pinching him in the Arm at Jer. Clark 's House and that We would not suffer him a Prisoner among us though for the same Cause and all this for some Disagreement in Judgment I confess I have no great Acquaintance with the Man but first deny that ever he was Haled out of Grace-Church Street or any where else but it may so happen that he offering to keep the Meeting when ended by our Friends the People pressing out and he speaking might bear him away with a Croud which hath fallen out to many that have been Speakers and not Opposers perhaps some disturbed and hindred of Hearing may on their own Account have shoven him or put him by what 's that to us For G. Whitehead's Pinching him it is like the rest full of Slander He is known to be a Man of more Temperance and Command of himself if he had been provoked 'T is true He took him by the Sleeve to turn him to a Looking-Glass that he might behold his Envious and Passionate Countenance as G. W. avers and others present But had it been true how one Pinch can prove that he had OFTEN felt our Cruel Hands Unbyassed Readers may best judge That he was a Prisoner is confessed that we Refused him to be among us is denyed But that we were not in Unity with him we are not afraid to own I know not that I ever spoak to him but once and that was in New-Gate being a Prisoner my self and if he will speak Truth he can say nothing hard of me For G. Whitehead's Charging Henry â—awson not to entertain him is false For what is it but to suggest that we would Refuse him common Hospitality 'T is true that G. W. as in Conscience-bound warned them of him as one of the Ancient Creepers into Houses Disaffected to the Brethren and Prone to Discords as by his frequent Disturbances in our Meetings is evident therefore not to entertain him as one in Unity with us but if he or any of them want supposing first their Lawful Endeavours to procure sufficient Maintenance I know not one among us who would not readily Administer to their Nceessities But we gave out a Paper against John Pennyman when he was in Prison and would not spare that grave ancient Gentle-Woman Ann Mud who being MOVED to speak a few Words T. Matthews pulled her away by Violence and that we were the People in former Dayes that vexed and disquieted all Sorts of Religious Assemblies and clamoured
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
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