to the Work of the Gospel as degenerating thereby from the Guidance of God's blessed and peaceable Spirit in their Hearts from whence proceeds the effectual New Testament Ministry and being turned from the peaceable Fruits thereof are gone to Uncharity and Contention And now all you who have walked in Fellowship and Communion with us and are drawn aside through Inconsideration or otherwise into this Spirit of Separation and Prejudice against our Meetings orderly established and wherein we have been often and mutually refresht together we cannot but in the fear of God and in love to your Souls admonish you also of the Insecurity of your present State and that therein we cannot have Unity with you and unless you return from under that Spirit Dryness and Barrenness from the Lord will be your Reward And so dear Friends we exhort you all to behave your selves in the Spirit of Meekness and peaceable Truth upon all occasions but more especially upon any Discourse or Conference with any of them who are discontented among you or started aside from you and avoid all Heats and Contentions in Matters of Faith and Worship and let not the Salt of the Covenant be wanting in your Words and Actions for thereby the Savour of your Conversation will reach the Witness of God in them The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen Given forth by the Meeting of Publick Friends in Philadelphia the 20th of the 4th Month 1692. Samuel Jenings John Delavall William Yardly Joseph Kerckbridge Walter Faucet Hugh Roberts Robert Owen William Walker John Lynam George Gray John Symcock Griffith Owen John Bown Henry Willis Paul Saunders John Blunston William Cooper Thomas Thackray William Byles Thomas Loyd John Willsford Nicholas Walln William Watson George Maris Thomas Ducket Joshua Fearne Evan Morris Richard Walter Here follows Two Answers to the said Judgments To all faithful Friends in Pensilvania East and West-Jarsey and to all every-where else in all parts of the World to whose Hands this may come The Salutation of Love WE in behalf of our selves and many Brethren who are falsly called the Separate Meeting at Philadelphia having taken into our serious and weighty Consideration Three several Papers given forth by them of the opposite side who have opposed us and continue to oppose us in our present Testimony to the Truth of Christ and his blessed Gospel and Doctrine viz. The first given forth by the Monthly Meeting of the opposite side the 20th of the 3d Month 1692 wherein they clear T. Fitzwater of his falsly accusing G. K. for denying the sufficiency of the Light saying expresly in their said Paper That Four credible Witnesses giving their Testimony That they heard G. K. say He did not believe the Light was sufficient without somewhat else the Meeting saw no reason to give Judgment against T. Fitzwater in this particular the said Thomas condemning the rash Spirit that he spoke these Words in though the Charge in itself was true And G. K. having both at Quarterly and Monthly Meeting preceding sufficiently proved and which was confessed by T. Lloyd as the Mouth of these Meetings That by that somewhat else G. K. had frequently declared he did not mean Humane Learning nor the Scriptures nor outward Preaching altho' the Scriptures and outward Preaching are instrumental in God's ordinary way of working together with the inward Operation of the Spirit to Mens Salvation as absolutely necessary but the Man Christ Jesus and what he did and suffered for us on Earth and what he now doth for us in Heaven and the fulness that dwelleth in him By which it plainly appeareth the said Monthly Meeting hath excluded the Man Christ Jesus our blessed Mediator and Saviour from having any part or concern in our Salvation and therefore we do unanimously and with one Heart judge and condemn their false Judgment in clearing Tho. Fitzwater that hath this tendency not only to condemn G. K. for his sound Christian Doctrine but is a plain denyal of the Man Christ Jesus and the great Merits and Value and Efficacy of his Suffering Death Resurrection and Ascension and his Mediation for us in Heaven All which are somewhat else than the People called Quakers commonly understand by the Light to wit the Light in every Man's Conscience And by this rash and inconsiderate Act of their Monthly Meeting proceeding from great Ignorance Error and Unbelief in them they have sufficiently declared themselves to be no true Believers in the Man Christ Jesus and therefore No Christians and for this cause we cannot own them to be our Christian Brethren nor joyn with them in any Religious Worship until they condemn themselves for the said Act and give us some Evidence of their unfeigned Repentance and sincere Faith by their open Confession and Declaration of the Truth of Christ which now they have denied The Second Paper is given forth by a Meeting of these called Friends of the Ministry signed by Sam. Jenings as Clerk of the said Meeting wherein they give too partial and defective Judgment against William Stockdale not blaming him for any Offence to God or Christ nor convicting him for his Sin of Blasphemy whereof he was guilty in charging G. K. for preaching Two Christs because he preach'd Faith in Christ within and in Christ without us wherein he plainly denied Faith in Christ without us that we judge Blasphemy against the Son of Man Also the said Meeting hath falsly judged and blamed G. K. for calling W. S. an ignorant Heathen for seeing he denied Faith in Christ without us we judge it was his proper Name and he was not worthy to be accounted in the Truth having discovered his so great Ignorance and Unbelief in one of the great Fundamenals of the Christian Faith Also they falsly accuse G. K. for not giving W. S. Gospel Order whereas upon due Examination we find that he had given him sufficient Gospel Order The Third Paper is signed by Samuel Jenings John Simcock Thomas Lloyd and others in Number 28 all pretended Preachers wherein they have passed a most false Judgment against G. K. for his sound Christian Doctrine and Godly Zeal in sharply reproving gross Antichristian Errors that he had detected them guilty of partly by the open Confession of some and partly by the Connivance of others and seeking to cloak and cover and defend the Guilty and the said Three Papers and the Matter contained in them being sufficiently answered in a late Book called The Plea of the Innocent c. which we having read and well considered do approve of and allow to be given forth by our unanimous Consent and Approbation the particular things in matter of Fact therein contained being all known to some of us and the most principal to most of us And we of this Meeting deliver it as our unanimous Judgment that all these who have given Judgment in the said Three Papers above-mentioned have given a false Judgment in them against the Truth
THE JUDGMENT Given forth by Twenty Eight Quakers AGAINST George Keith And his FRIENDS With Answers to the said Judgment declaring those Twenty Eight Quakers to be No Christians AS ALSO An Appeal for which several were Imprisoned c by the said George Keith c. to the Yearly Meeting Sept. 1692. With a Full ACCOUNT of the said Yearly Meeting Signed by Seventy Quakers LICENSED Octob. 28th 1693. Dan. Poplar Printed at Pensilvania and now Re-printed at London for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1694. An ADVERTISEMENT by George Keith THat divers Papers stufft with Lies and Calumnies against George Keith our Opposers hand about from one to another and some from Meeting to Meeting which we cannot yet procure Copies of as one of Rob. Owen's which he Read in a Publick Meeting at Philadelphia and tho' he expresly promised G. K. a Copy of it yet now detains it pretending he did not limit a time Another Paper of James Byles they carry about from Meeting to Meeting and another Paper that was sign'd by many at their Yearly Meeting which G. K. occasionally hearing read at their Quarterly Meeting at Philadelphia desir'd a Copy of it which they most unjustly refused And thus like all Evil Doers they seek to hide their Evil Deeds and smite at the Innocent in secret And for all their hypocritical Pretences to the Light they are such that are not willing to have their Deeds brought to the Light as Christ said The evil doer hates the light and will not bring his deeds to the light lest they should be reproved If they had Truth on their side they would not so smite in the dark but would openly and face to face appear and make good their Charge but this they cannot for they have no Covering or Refuge but Lies and Falsehoods which GOD in his due time will sweep away to the clearing the Innocent Amen The Printer William Bradford's ADVERTISEMENT THat notwithstanding the various Reports spread concerning my refusing to Print for those that are George Keith's Opposers these are to signifie That I have never refused but often proffered to Print any thing for them and do now again signifie That if John Delaval or any of his Brethren have any thing to Print I am most willing to do it for them not that I want to beg their Work I need it not but to leave them without excuse that if they be any way wronged or falsly charged by what is Published to the World they may have equal priviledge to vindicate themselves as publickly tho' I have little cause to make this offer to them considering their many Abuses to me W. B. Printed in Philadelphia in Pensilvania 1693. A true Copy of Three Judgments given forth by a Party of Men called Quakers at Philadelphia against George Keith and his Friends With Two Answers to the said Judgments The First Judgment AT a Monthly Meeting in Philadelphia the 26th of 11 Mon. 1691. Thomas Fitzwater charged George Keith for denying the sufficiency of the Light which G. Keith denying T. Fitzwater insisted that he could prove the same and being examined concerning his Proof thereof several Friends present stood up and said They heard the said George Keith say That he did not believe the Light was sufficient without something else namely Thomas Prichard William Harwood Benjamin Chambers William Southbe and several others And after the matter in Debate had been throughly heard the aforesaid Credible Evidences giving their Testimonies as above-said the Meeting saw no reason to give Judgment against Tho. Fitzwater in this particular above-mentioned but the said Thomas very readily left the matter to this Meeting and condemned the rash Spirit that he spoke those words in although the Charge in it self was true This is a Copy of what passed at a Monthly Meeting in Philadelphia the 26. of 3. Month. 1692. A. M. The Second Judgment WE being prevented in our Meetings of late to proceed orderly in business by reason of a turbulent and unsubdued Spirit which has much disquieted us but having respite at this time have considered seriously and duly of a Charge exhibited several Months past by George Keith against William Stockdale many if not most of us being present at several Meetings where the Allegations of each side were heard and as the Friends then present concluded on a Judgment in this matter but were prevented of publishing the same by reason of George Keith's unruly Behaviour and extream Passion which abruptly broke up the said Meeting we declare our concurrent sence as followeth That whereas Proof was made by two Witnesses That William Stockdale should say That George Keith 's preaching Christ without and Christ within was preaching two Christs which W. Stockdale denied the words so spoken and alledged That George Keith called him an Ignorant Heathen and gave him several vilifying Expressions Our Judgment is That William Stockdale is reprovable and blame-worthy for uttering the said Words they being an Offence to many sound and tender Friends and that he condemn the same And as for G. Keith's manner of proceeding against him we cannot own the same to be pursuant to Gospel Order the said G. Keith having not alone dealt with him in private before he had further prosecuted his Complaint neither can we hold him excusable for his undecent Expressions to W. Stockdale he being elder in Truth and in Years Given forth by the Meeting of Publick Friends at Philadelphia the 4th of 4th Month. 1692. A True Copy by Samuel Jenings The Third Judgment and Condemnation against G. K. To the several Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in Pensilvania East and West-Jarsey and else-where as there may be occasion BEloved Friends In tender Love and with Spirits bowed down before the Lord is this our Salutation unto you earnestly desisiring your growth and daily preservation in the ancient Truth and in the simplicity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Hope and Breathings are that no insinuation or wiles of the Enemy shall prevail to turn you aside from your Steadfastness or to cause you to esteem lightly of the Rock and Way of Gods Salvation unto you but that you be kept in the Light and Life which was and is the Just Mans Path to the end of our Days Amen Now dear Friends it is with Sorrow of Spirits and Grief of Souls that we signifie unto you the tedious Exercise and vexatious Perplexity we have met with in our late Friend George Keith for several Months past With mourning and lamentation do we say How is this Mighty Man fallen how is his Shield vilely cast away as tho' he had not known the Oyl of the holy Oyntment How shall it betold in Gath and published in the Streets of Askelon Will not the Daughters of the Philistines rejoyce Will not the Daughters of the Uncircumcised triumph when they hear that he is fallen upon the sooring Mountains and from the High Places of Israel Oh! how are we
And also they have judged a whole Meeting without ever admonishing of them If this be not Partiality Injustice and Unrighteous Judgment tell us what is And clear your selves of these things if you can Signed by us in the behalf of the rest of our Friends by order of our Meeting the 18th of the Fifth Month 1692. Thomas Budd Richard Hilliard John Hart Thomas Paschall William Bradford James Cooper Elizabeth Keith An APPEAL from the Twenty Eight Judges to the Spirit of Truth and True Judgment in all faithful Friends called Quakers that meet at this Yearly Meeting at Burlington the Seventh Month 1692. WHereas Twenty eight Persons called Friends of the Ministry have publisht a Paper of false Judgment against George Keith and the rest of his Friends and Brethren without any Hearing or Tryal We in behalf of the rest do make this our Serious and Solemn Appeal to the Spirit of Truth and true Judgment in you all that by the help and guidance of the same ye may enquire and search into the matter requesting and beseeching you to do Justice in these things for the Vindication of the Truth and Honour of Christ the Peace of your Consciences and the Credit and Repute of our Holy Profession and making up the Breach that is among us if possible and answering the expectation of our faithful Brethren in England and other places of the World who will be greatly concern'd with us that Justice and true Judgment may take place impartially and without respect of Persons And Friends Think it not strange that we appeal to you universally that by the Spirit of Truth ye may give true Judgment in these Matters concerning Us and these Twenty eight Persons and others of the Ministry who are joyned with them therein for tho' upon a pretence of their being Ministers they claim a Superiority over you the Lord's Heritage and People as if ye were not capable nor qualified to judge them but that they have Authority to judge you and on this pretended Authority too like the Roman Hierarchy they have sent their Paper of Judgment against us to you tho' they were no Yearly Meeting nor any true Representative of the Body of Friends in these three Provinces but a Party or Faction of prejudiced Men against the Truth and us the defamed Witnesses of it many of whom we can prove guilty of great Ignorance and Error in Doctrine as well as some of them are guilty of evil and scandalous Practice repugnant to our Holy Profession and some that have been too busie to comply with their usurped Authority over you have read the said Judgment in divers Monthly Quarterly and other Meetings without the Consent of the said Meetings or so much as asking it All which we appeal to you Whether it be not a manifest Usurpation over you and seeking to bring you into Bondage And when we have at several Meetings requested the Friends of the said Meetings to enquire and examine the Matter of Difference between these Twenty eight Men and us some of the said Twenty eight have still refused to suffer the thing to come to any further Examination or Judgment pretending None have power to judge in these Matters but Friends of the Ministry whereof these Twenty eight are the far greatest part in these Three Provinces and most of the rest of the Preachers are joyned with them to uphold and defend them in their Tyrannical Usurpation over your Consciences as if ye were only to see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and not with your own and that ye were to take all things without all due Examination and Tryal by an implicit Faith Papist-like from them But if there remain that Nobility in you and Sence of your Christian Liberty and Freedom wherewithal Christ hath made you free as we hope there doth ye will not suffer your selves to be so imposed upon nor to be thus Ass-rid by them as to take things by a bare implicit Faith from them but every one of you to see with your one Spiritual Eyes and hear with your Spiritual Ears of God's opening and to bring these weighty Things of Difference to the true Touch-stone the Spirit of Truth and true Judgment in your selves which ye have as well as they and which many of you are better taught by and acquainted with than they even as formerly it was that many of the People say beyond the Priests and Teachers in the days of the Prophets and of Christ in the Flesh and the Apostles and also of late many Thousands of the People have seen beyond the Priest and Teachers and have been made able by the Spirit of Truth to judge them for their great Ignorance and Error And that ye may have the better opportunity to examine these matters and impartially and throughly to search into them and judge of them we have procured to be Printed their Three Papers of Judgment viz. The first given forth by their Monthly Meeting at Philadelphia the 26th of the Third Month 1692 wherein they clear Tho. Fitzwater and condemn G. K. for saying The Light is not sufficient without something else Which something else Thomas Lloyd as the Mouth of the said Monthly Meeting acknowledged They knew G. K. held to be the Man Christ Jesus and what he did and suffered for us on Earth and what he now doth for us in Heaven The Second Judgment is given forth by them called Friends of the Ministry concerning W. Stockdale signed by Sam. Jenings as Clerk of the said Meeting the 4th of the Fourth Month 1692. The Third signed by Twenty eight of them of the Ministry against G. K. and his Friends c. Which said Judgments we desire you to compare with our Printed Answer called The Plea of the Innocent c. and another called An Expostulation with Tho. Lloyd Sam. Jenings c. and another by way of Epistle in Answer to their Three false Judgments And we earnestly request and desire of you to procure of these Twenty eight Men that we may have a Publick Hearing with these Men before you all at a Place and Time mutually appointed by them and us before the People be gone from the Yearly Meeting and that an orderly Method be agreed upon betwixt them and us to prevent all Confusion and especially that none but one speak at once and that every one that speaketh who is concerned may have full liberty without interruption in order to which we are most willing that one or two Impartial and Judicious Men may be chosen by both them and us to Preside and have full Power to command and enjoyn Silence to any of them or us as they shall see occasion and whoever of them or us yieldeth not Obedience to the said Command shall be held and declared unworthy and uncapable of further speaking at the said Publick Conference And also we demand that Justice of these Twenty eight Men that they will give us the said Publick Hearing and
Three Justices of the Peace one whereof being a Preacher among them as accordingly they did and recover'd a Sloop and took some Privatiers by Force of Arms 10. Whether hiring Men thus to fight and also to provide the Indians with Powder and Lead to fight against other Indians be not a manifest transgression of our Principle against all use of the carnal Sword and other carnal Weapons And whether these call'd Quakers in their so doing have not greatly weakned the Testimony of Friends in England Barbadoes c. who have suffered much for their refusing to contribute to uphold the Militia or any Military Force And whether is not their Practice here an evil Precedent if any change of Government happen in this place to bring Sufferings on faithful Friends that for Conscience-sake refuse to contribute to the Militia And how can they justly refuse to do that under another's Government which they have done or allowed to be done under their own But in these and other things we stand up Witnesses against them with all faithful Friends every-where 11. Whether it be according to the Gospel that Ministers should pass Sentence of Death on Malefactors as some pretended Ministers here have done preaching one day Not to take an Eye for an Eye Mat. 5.38 and another day to contradict it by taking Life for Life 12. Whether there is any Example or Precedent for it in Scripture or in all Christendom that Ministers should engross the Worldly Government as they do here which hath proved of a very evil tendency Signed by us in behalf of many Friends who are one with us herein George Keith George Hutcheson Thomas Budd John Hart Rich. Dungworth Abrah Opedegraves POSTSCRIPT BY a Warrant signed by Sam. Richardson and Rob. Ewer Justices the Sheriff and Constable entred the Shop of Will. Bradford and took away all the above-written Papers they could find call'd An Appeal c. and carried the said W. Bradford before the said Justices and also sent for John M' Comb who as they were informed had disposed of two of the said Papers and they not giving an Account where they had them were both committed to Prison Also they sent R. Ewer and the said Officer to search the said W. Bradford s House again for more Papers c. but found none yet took away a parcel of Letters being his Utensils which were worth about 10 l. Now the said Papers being seized and a great Rumor spread abroad of Sedition Disturbance of the Peace and Subversion of the Government c. we have tho' with some difficulty procured the said Appeal to be Re-printed that every one that desired might have the Opportunity to read and judge of the Matter contained in the said Appeal and also to signifie that we did not nor do not intend any thing against the present Government or Magistracy but own them in Commission to be Magistrates and account it our Duty to obey them either actively or passively but knowing that it is contrary to the Quakers Principles to use the carnal Sword and finding by Experience that it is impossible to uphold Magistracy without it therefore we proposed it to be duly considered and discoursed of among all Friends at this Yearly Meeting at Burlington A COPY of the MITTIMUS WHereas William Bradford Printer and John M' Comb Taylor being brought before us upon Information of Publishing Uttering and Spreading a Malicious and Seditious Paper entituled An Appeal from the Twenty eight Judges to the Spirit of Truth c. tending to the Disturbance of the Peace and Subversion of the present Government and the said Persons being required to give Security to answer it at the next Court but they refusing so to do These are therefore by the King and Queen's Authority and in our Proprietary's Name to require you to take into your Custody the Bodies of William Bradford and John M' Comb and them safely keep till they shall be discharg'd by due Course of Law whereof fail not at your Peril and for your so doing this shall be your sufficient Warrant Given under our Hands and Seals this 24th of August 1692. These to John White Sheriff of Philadelphia or his Deputy Arthur Cook Samuel Jenings Sam. Richardson Humph. Murrey Robert Ewer From the Yearly Meeting at Burlington the Fourth Fifth Sixth and Seventh Days of the Seventh Month Anno 1692. To our Friends and Brethren in the Truth both in Pensilvania East and West-Jarsey and elsewhere as there may be occasion to be Read in their Monthly and Quarterly Meetings as they in the Wisdom of God shall see meet WHereas there hath been an unhappy Difference of late between our Friends George Keith and the rest concerned with him and our Friends Thomas Lloyd John Simcock Sam. Jenings and others joyned with them which hath tended to the great Reproach of Truth and Friends and Dishonour of our Holy Profession And whereas there hath been a Paper signed by Thomas Lloyd Samuel Jenings John Simcock and others joyned with them being in Number Twenty eight of those who have opposed George Keith and the Friends joyned with him whereby he is condemned as a Person unfit and unqualified to be a Minister of Christ and as a Person without the fear of God before his eyes c. And whereas the said Paper of Condemnation hath been the occasion of setting up many separate Meetings as well as of other Confusion and Disturbance both privately and publickly in these Parts And whereas the said George Keith and others joyned with him being offended with the said Judgment have appealed to the Spirit of Truth and true Judgment of all faithful Friends at this Yearly Meeting and have requested by a Second Paper sent to the said Thomas Lloyd and the rest concerned with him That they might have a fair Hearing and Tryal before impartial Friends who have not taken part to the signing Papers sent to each other on either side the Second Day of the said Meeting about an hour after the breaking up of the Meeting for Publick Worship and we whose Names are hereunto subscribed being extreamly grieved and troubled under a sence of the Reproaches the Truth has met withal by reason of the said unhappy Difference yet having not concerned our selves actually in the said Difference on either side being met at the said Meeting-House with true Desires to the Lord that he would make us instrumental to put an end to the said Difference and truly make up the said Breach before it grow wider according to the Request of the said George Keith and the rest of the Friends joyned with him in their said Appeal And the said Thomas Lloyd and the rest concerned though again desired by two Messengers from the Meeting to appear and they refusing the Meeting adjourned till an hour after the Publick Meeting the next day and then being assembled and the said Thomas Lloyd and the rest concerned still refusing to come although the said Thomas Lloyd had lately before