advised the said George Keith to make Application to the Yearly Meeting in this Case as divers of us can witness and the said George Keith and the rest concerned laying their Complaint before us and the said Thomas Lloyd and the rest concerned not appearing though again desired several times our Expectations and Desires with respect to that effectual and absolute healing the said Breach is in some measure frustrated Notwithstanding whereof having heard the Papers on both sides read and having weightily and deliberately considered them do give it as our Sence and Judgment That the said George Keith and his Friends concerned in the said Paper of Condemnation are not guilty of the Charges and Censures therein contained and that therefore for the Honour Prosperity and Welfare of Truth and Peace and Quietness of the Churches of Christ in these Parts and elsewhere the said Thomas Lloyd and the rest of the said Twenty eight Persons forthwith Re-call their said Paper of Condemnation and that they condemn the same by a Writing under their Hands directed to all the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings whereunto the said Paper was directed and that they forbear offering to speak by way of publick Testimony in Meetings till they have so done And we do also give it as our Judgment That those Publick Friends who are charged with Misdemeanours and Ill Behaviour in their Lives and Conversations do forbear speaking in Publick Meetings by way of Testimony till they clear themselves and make Satisfaction to their Brethren And that all Publick Friends on both sides forbear all Railing and Reviling one another either publickly or privately which hath only this tendency to dishonour Truth and lay Stumbling-blocks in the Way of the Weak but that in such Case they observe the Primitive Churches Order established by Christ and his Apostles and practised among Friends Signed by Us in behalf of Our Selves and many more Friends who are one with us herein Robert Turner Elias Burling John Reid Charles Reade Thomas Coborne Harmon Updengraves Thomas Powell Nathaniel Fitzrandal Joseph Richards Edmund Wells Thomas Kimber John Neall Anthony Woodward Andrew Smith William Hixon John Panceast Henry Burcham Thomas Hearse John Jones Joseph Willcox Thomas Godfrey John Budd Roger Parke Caleb Wheatly Edward White Thomas Gladwin Thomas Rutter Edward Smith Benjamin Morgan Joseph Sharp William Thomas John Bainbridge John Snowden William Black William Snowden Abraham Brown John Hampton Daniel Bacon Joseph Adams Edward Guy Barnard Devonish Samuel Ellis Thomas Cross James Moore Thomas Jenner John Harper Robert Wheeler Nathaniel Walton Robert Roe Peter Boss Thomas Bowles William Budd James Silver Samuel Taylor Griffith Jones William Righton Thomas Kendall Samuel Houghton Emanuel Smith Peter Daite Richard Sery George Willcox William Wells Isaac Jacobs van Bibet Cornelius Scevers William Snead David Sherkis John Carter Henry Paxon Thomas Tindal FINIS BOOKS lately Published viz. ☞ THE TRYALS of Peter Boss George Keith Thomas Budd and William Bradford Quakers for several great Misdemeanours before a Court of Quakers at the Sessions held at Philadelphia in Pensilvania the Ninth Tenth and Twelfth Day of December 1692. Giving also an Account of the most Arbitrary Procedure of that Court. ☞ An Account of the Divisions of the Quakers in Pensilvania ☞ A further Account of the Divisions of the Quakers in Pensilvania ☞ The Principles Doctrines Laws and Orders of the Quakers ☞ 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 by the said George Keith c. to the Yearly Meeting 1692. With a full Account of the said Yearly Meeting signed by Seventy Quakers All Five sold by R. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-lane 1693.
then impose it on all the Meetings in these Three Provinces when most of the Friends thereof are great Strangers to the Matter in Controversie not knowing which Party is in the right but they must take the said Judgment upon trust from them without enquiring into the Cause and Verity thereof and where they think their said Judgment will not readily be swallowed down they will follow it from Meeting to Meeting clothed with their Magistratical Robes and if any Friends shew their dislike of having it imposed on them without their own consent and consideration of the matter presently threaten to bind them to the good Behaviour and to the Peace and call out for a Constable thereby endeavouring to trample us down by their Magistratical Power and Authority as Samuel Jenings Sam. Richardson Thomas Lloyd John Delavall and Anthony Morris did lately at a Monthly Meeting near Frankford as is well known to many Oh! whither do you think these things will run Will it not give People just cause to say The Quakers are turned Persecutors but our Trust and Confidence is in the Lord alone who hitherto has pleaded the Cause of the Innocent and carried his People through all the Powers and Oppositions that have hitherto risen up against them in all Ages and we doubt not but he will do the same for us as we keep faithful to him and to the Guidance of his Holy Spirit Light and Life in our Hearts But are these your Proceedings Christian or Protestant-like Or do they not rather relish of rank Popery for the Clergy or them of the Ministry to impose their Edicts on the People without their enquiring into the matter Is not this blind Obedience Is not this believing as the Church believes in order to bring in Ignorance the Mother of Devotion Oh! who but ignorant and blind Men but can see these things And yet now will ye stand in them O ye Unjust Judges will ye not be willing to answer our just Complaint for a Hearing Will you come short of the Justice of the Baptists who admitted of another Meeting for a Hearing But perhaps you will say The Act of that Meeting was Infallible being made up of such a Body of the Ministry as Arthur Cook said lately in the House of G. K. That a Yearly Meeting could not err But we desire to hope that some of you will better consider of it and answer our just Complaint and not lurk in Holes and Corners but come openly and defend your selves and repent of the Error and false Doctrine you have run into and let a Time and Place be appointed and agreed on by both Parties for a Publick Hearing If you have Truth and Justice on your side come forth and let it appear before the World and say not That such and such things are false but prove them to be so and bring things to the light and let not Christ's words be fulfilled on you viz. You hate the Light because your Deeds are evil c. Say not that we are bold and daring thus to challenge you for it 's not writ in a presumptuous Spirit as relying on our own Strength or Parts but on the Lord alone on whom is our Dependance and who knows the Innocency of our Cause and therefore we are not afraid to bring it to the Test but willing to appear openly as hitherto we have done in Print and not as your Practice is to report false things secretly abroad which we know not whom to fasten upon but what we publish in Print remains to be the Author's whether true or false If false why don't you refute it the Press is free and open for you as for any But the matter in our late Printed Books is true and stands over your Heads and which you will never be able to refute But next let us enquire What have you condemned G. K. for Some of you say Partly for matter of Doctrine and partly for hard Words But as for Doctrine you have not mentioned what it is and as for the hard Names you mention it is made appear in The Plea of the Innocent c. that they were justly given by G. K. to them that deserved the same But have his Opposers given no hard Names no unjust and false Reflections Yea many But why only then must G. K. be condemned and not they also who have given hard Words and false Names to G. K. When G. K. complained against them for not giving Judgment against W. Stockdale's Blasphemy Samuel Jenings could excuse it by bringing the Example and Practice of worldly Courts saying George thou hast reviled thy Brethren and in Court we allow of Discount So that according to S. Jenings W. Stockdale's Blasphemy must be discounted against G. K.'s reviling his Brethren as they account it but can never prove But if Discount be allowable in this case why are not G. K.'s hard words discounted against those that have been given to him so far as they will reach And that it may appear what hard Names have been given we think fit here to mention viz. They say G. K. has called them 1. Fools 2. Ignorant Heathens 3. Infidels 4. Silly Souls 5. Lyars 6. Hereticks 7. Rotten Ranters 8. Muggletonians They of the other side have called G. K. 1. Brat of Babylon 2. Accuser of the Brethren 3. Apostate 4. Worse than Prophane 5. A Troubler of the Church 6. A Person that no one could have difference with but he was in danger of the Life of his Soul 7. A Preacher of two Christs 8. A Teller of an old St. Andrew 's Story 9. Pope 10. Father Confessor 11. Lyar. 12. Devil 13. Muggletonian 14. Compared him to a Wolf Tyger c. 15. One that always endeavoured to keep down the Power of Truth 16. A more vexatious Adversary than Hicks Faldo Scanderet or the worst of Enemies 17. One that is fallen upon the soaring Mountains c. 18. As a Man slain 19. Become treacherous to the Spouse of his Youth 20. Fallen from his first Love 21. Gone into a Spirit of Enmity Wrath Self-Exaltation Contention c. 22. Foaming out his own Shame 23. A Person without the Fear of God before his Eyes 24. Letting loose the Reins to an extravagant Tongue 25. Broken out into many ungodly Speeches railing Accusations passionate Threatnings being Cruel c. like an unwearied Adversary With many more that can be proved Now let the impartial Reader judge which have exceeded in hard Words and whether they are not very partial to pass by all that hath been said against G. K. and condemn him for what he hath spoke in its right place as is made appear in the Book called The Plea of the Innocent And yet when G. K. was the Complainer for many Months for Justice to be done to Truth they could plead for Discount and put Blasphemy against Christ Jesus in the Ballance against Reflections upon themselves and yet now will not discount for hard Words
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