Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A28923
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The Quakers cruelty, deceit & wickedness presented to the King and Parliament / by Thomas Boyce ; with a copy of the paper the Quakers put forth against me ; also my neighbours testimony, and Sir Richard Ingoldesby's certificate concerning me.
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Boyce, Thomas.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing B3902; ESTC R23391
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7,449
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14
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THE Quakers Cruelty Deceit Wickedness Presented to the KING and PARLIAMENT By Thomas Boyce With a Copy of the PAPER the QUAKERS put forth against me Also my Neighbours Testimony and Sir Richard Ingoldesby's Certificate concerning me The Bees may gather Honey out of a seeming Weed London Printed in the year 1675. To the King 's Excellent Majesty Most Noble Worthy BE pleased to hear the Complaint of a poor man whose name is Thomas Boyce dwelling at Horsly-Down in Southwark having complained to some of your Majesties Justices of the Peace concerning some wrong which I have received by some of the People called Quakers Whereupon some of the Chiefest of them have as I understand secretly signified to the Justices as well as to others That I am infected with the distemper of Madness and Distraction but have left out the cause and by reason thereof have stopped as much as in them lieth the very current and stream of Justice Now forasmuch as they have told the Distemper be pleased to give me the liberty to tell your Majesty something of the Cause For it is possible that it may be an infectious Distemper and if I should conceal it I may conceal Treason unawares I having heretofore exposed my self to the displeasure of my former Acquaintance and Relations to be a Quaker and was one of them above ten years then believing their ways to be the best during which time I was true to what I profest But finding some of the Heads as well as others of them contrary to their Principles I was willing to tell them of their Error who fell upon me by way of threatning with great and terrible words which caused a trouble upon my mind and about June last was twelvemonth I was taken in a strange manner to the amazement of them that saw me it being amongst several hundreds of the people called Quakers Whereupon some of them cryed out Deceit and it was said that I was made a publick sign for my wickedness After which time my speech was taken from me and I continued speechless 33 weeks together only some few words I might speak for a week or two which they that were with me could not tell what I meant and for five weeks together I could eat no food at all only drank Water neither was it perceived that I had any sleep during that time neither do I know all the 33 weeks I was at all sick The cause of which I humbly conceive is your Majesties conern to inquire into Wherefore I am willing to lay this before you and it is without the advice of any to signifie my duty towards God my obedience to your Majesty and my love to my Neighbour which duty is faithfulness that the Lord requireth He that is not faithful to his God cannot be faithful to his King nor true to his Neighbour And if I should prove some of the Heads of the Quakers to be guilty of Unfaithfulness in the matter aforesaid then I hope your Majesty will not blame me Now as concerning my own Distemper it is Poverty which they have brought upon me by taking away my good name who before did help relieve them but now I am not able to help my self Concerning which distemper one William Pen George Whitehead and Thomas Rudyard did promise upon Condition to cure which Condition I am not willing to perform but if I do I believe I should be an undone man for ever And therefore I had rather be as I am than betray my trust Now I do beseech your Majesty would be pleased to grant That those persons called Quakers or such of them as are chiefly concern'd either in violating your Laws by Threatning or otherwise broak the Commands of God whose Minister I am satisfied you are and have or shall pretend in the Name and Authority of Him who is God and Lord over all the whole World contrary to your knowledg privity or consent take upon them to give Judgment in any cause matter or thing whatsoever may come before such as your Majestie shall think fit and allow of to answer the same and I with them may be face to face and be permitted to declare my knowledg without any interruption and what Evidence concerning the same may be brought also and then your Majesty may know whether these high-talking Quakers are in the Error or not and then you may have an understanding who is the Seer and who is the Blind and so it may be known who is most mad my Accusers the Rich called Quakers or the Poor man by name and your Majesties poor Subject Thomas Boyce The Copy of the abovesaid was delivered by me into the King 's own hand the 25th of April 1675. To the Honorable The Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament IN Obedience to his Majesty I did signifie to him my Duty towards God whose Minister I am satisfied he is a Title indeed worthy of double honour I mean no other God than he who is GOD AND LORD OVER ALL THE WHOLE WORLD The reason why I use such expressions is because there is a people called Quakers some of the heads of them have got an Imaginary God in their own Comprehension which goeth about to dethrone him the true God before mentioned if it were possible so to do and thereby may deceive the whole World Now I am both willing to signify my Love to my Neighbours and lay it before you who are cheifly concerned therein in their behalfe which Love as aforesaid is the Command of God NOBLE WORTHIES be pleased to hear and take notice of the words of a poor Man I speak not in flattery nor by way of insinuation but the plain and naked truth of my heart I have been under great Affliction for some years past and not freed yet the reason whereof is best known to the Lord by which Affliction I have gained some understanding of his ways that I was ignorant of before which understanding I would not willingly lose neither would I hide any thing from you which I apprehend is my Duty to make known These people called Quakers who pretend themselves to be the SEERS and all others that are out of their form and manner of dress to be Blind I would willingly prove them liars out of their own mouths who tell people they must be perfect as God is perfect which State of Perfection say they must be witnessed before they go out of this World And all that preach against this Doctrine of Perfection they say are the Devils Ministers Now be pleased to inquire whether or not these men or any of them which preach this Lesson to others have such Perfection and whose Ministers they are for say they the Tree is know by its Fruit. Now such as are esteemed the best of these called Quakers some particular of them have threatned to vex me and called me Knave Traitor and Judas and would have had me turned headlong down Stairs and at another time
wronging of my own Conscience But if I had so done Tho. Padleys words would have proved true and I should have been as he said of me viz. a Knave a Traitor and a Judas and that might have vexed me for ever and for ever But I not answering William Penns desire therein the Quakers dealings to me have been worse then before which may appear if permitted by your Honors to have a hearing thereof in the behalf of him who is not only his Majesties poor Subject but his and your Honors faithful Servant to the utmost of my Power to serve my Generation till Death Thomas Boyce This following is the Copy of the Paper the Quakers put forth against me and dispersed several of them to the Worlds People as they call them VVHereas Thomas Boyce by Trade a Taylor dwelling in Horsy-Down-street hath for some time past come to the Meetings and Assemblies of the People of God called Quakers whereby his resorting to the said Peoples Meetings hath given occasion to some to judg and believe that he is in Fellowship and Unity with them But for the Information of all people by whom he may be so thought and judged We the People aforesaid having had a good sence and discerning of the Conversation and Spirit whereby he is guided that it is not according to the Spirit of Truth and Righteousness but rather of an unsetled envious Ranting Spirit Do therefore give forth this our Testimony that we have not nor never had Unity with that Spirit by which he is led and acted but do now and ever shall declare That we have no more Fellowship with him and such as he is than Light hath with Darkness or Truth with Error unless true and unfeigned Repentance be witnessed which is our desire he may be found in before he goes hence and be no more seen Given forth by the People called Quakers at their Meeting at Horsie-Down the fifth day of the sixth month called August 1674. Some of my Neighbours being sensible the Quakers had abused and wronged me gave forth this following Certificate concerning me THese are to certifie all whom it may concern that Thomas Boyce is an Inhabitant of the Parish of St. Olave in Southwark in the County of Surry and by Trade a Taylor living on the place known by the name of Horsly-Down near the Alley called by the name of Prichets-Alley above the term often years Concerning which foresaid Thomas Boyce we whose names are here under-written do testifie That he is both an honest Man and a peaceable Liver in the place where he dwells and alwayes when able was a laborious man in his Calling taking care to maintain his Family decently according to the best of our observations and makes conscience of what he does and sayes so far as we know Further we the said under-written Witnesses do testifie that the said Thomas Boyce was lately under the afflicting hand of God in a strange manner being taken dumb and could not speak and so continued in a weak distracted condition for some months and all that while uncapable of working whom now the Lord hath been graciously pleased to restore again to him alone be the glory And and all this we testifie by knowledg of the truth hereof upon our words as we are honest men In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names July 1. 1674. Luke Talbut Bartholomew Collingwood John Stacy John Johnson Joseph Mewse Francis Aldwin John Bembridge Samuel Wier William Richardson Richard Tuder Leonard Hoare William Wickins George Hamton Here follows Sir Richard Ingoldesby's Certificate THese are to certifie all whom it may concern that the bearer hereof Thomas Boyce was heretofore a Servant to my Father Sir Richard Ingoldesby Knight so long as my said Father lived and afterwards to my Mother in all about twelve or fourteen years all which time he was honest and faithful so far as I know or believe in the Trust reposed in him which Trust was very great In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 26th of Aprill 1675. Ri. Ingoldesby What hath been done by me in publishing these things I was constrained thereto without the advice or counsel of any for none can give me a better understanding in this my concern than I have in my self The chiefest of all the Quakers viz. George Fox was with me twice in my Affliction who said both then and since he did believe I would have spoke to him if I could and though he had formerly declared he had power to bind and to loose whom he pleased yet could not or at least did not unloose my tongue or help me out of my Affliction Others of their Ministers said I might have spoke if I would in the said time of my being speechless which was not only an absolute untruth but also a contradiction to George Fox aforesaid And since my speech was restored me I complained to some of the Magistrates of the wrong and Injury I had received from some of the said people whereupon Thomas Rudyard told one of the said Magistrates that he believed that I was a Dissembler and pretended my self to be Madd and Dumb and might have spoke if I would and told me since that the Magistrate believed what he said and William Meade also informed them that I was a distracted man and also produced a Letter from one of the said Magistrates to the other which James Parkes one of their Ministers told me he saw which I apprehend was the cause of my then proceedings being stopt Time would fail to relate what I have undergone concerning the things herein contained and I am satisfied whatever these people may pretend against me to cover themselves they know they have done me much wrong and that by these their dealings they have given occasion to other sorts of people as well as their own to believe that I am not only a distracted man but likewise guilty of great wickedness by which false suggestions they have shut up the hearts of most against me and thereby endeavoured and do still what in them lyes to hinder me from having any Food to eat or Clothes to put on or to provide for my Family and one of them lately pronounced the curse of God upon me my Wife and Children as others of them had done to me before However I have been made able to bear it all neither have I fainted yet and doubt not but a time will come when it will be known to all people What and for What and whose wickedness I was made a sign of which is already known to the Judg of all the whole World who is the Right Honorable and ever Renowned Worthy worthy of all praise for ever By me T. B. How I became Dumb or how my Tongue became to be bound that is the Question but how it was unloosed is without Question for I am satisfied it was the Lords doing alone Shall not the Judg of all the Earth do Right THE END