the Concurrence of the Generality should suffice of which I have already spoken to wit Charity Justice and Concord against which Conscience never can be warrantably pleaded Here he became an Advocate for them in the Name of Christian-Liberty that having since seen the Mischief of making that Plea in the wrong Place would sooner perish than become One for him in his abusive and Self-condemning Practices against us He then had no Scruple concerning our Belief of the Trinity that it was not full or Express enough nor about our owning or disowning either the Divine or Humane Nature of Christ nor the Vertue and Benefit of his Death and Sufferings to Justification nor what we hold of the Resâ—â—â—ection of the Dead or about the Use of the Sacraments nor lastly of our Judgment about Ministry and Worship Not one word of these things as the Pretence or Reason of his Dislike of us or Separation from us did he ever object And he knows very well it is not one way to define these things in our Ministry or Writings otherwise than as they are left in the Scriptures of Truth that so we may avoid the Dangerous Evil of Curiosity and Supersining upon the Text which does not only set the Head at Work instead of the Heart unto Regeneration the great Requisite in Religion but hardly ever fails to occasion Controversie and Division if not Hatred at Last even to Persecution it self as all time witnesseth against that Practice Nor was our dissatisfaction about these things as he well knows the Ground of our Separation from the National or other Churches but the Work of God's Grace and Spirit in our Hearts which alone can make the Living and right Christian and Christian Churches And such as we are sensible have their Eyes opened and their Hearts touched and affected with this holy Spirit we receive and have fellowship with as we dissent from those that make not the Work of God's Spirit the Ground of their Ministry Worship and Communion according to that known and weighty saying of the Apostle 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having a Form of Godliness but denying in Practice the Power thereof from such turn away So that notwithstanding the Bustle he now makes against us in reference to the aforementioned Doctrines they were Unconcerned in the Reason of his Separation For it is not Credible as well as Reasonable that he should then palliate his Dissatisfaction with us if any he had in reference to them since he shews himself so ready now to Create Occasions against us As it is very Probable that had he been Conscienciously doubtful about any point of Faith he would often have earnestly endeavoured our better Information or his own by Consciencious Conferences with us to that Purpose which we can boldly say he never did What a Sort of a Convert then must this Man be and what a kind of Conscience has he Carried to the Church he now embraces However he carried Prejudice against us and has found Indigency and some of them have Imploy'd the one and Supply'd the other and Doubtless while they pay him well they shall have him a ready and Confident Tool against their Peaceable Neighbours Nevertheless we find it has fared with him as with Gamesters sometimes get and sometimes lose for his hand has been out a great while and waste Paper will not pay for Printing Which we have reason to believe is his Case since his London-Factors have sadly complained of the Dulness of the Market For tho his Cargo was large they could get but 50 Shillings for him And to give them their Due they desired him to stop his hand for they had more already than they knew what to do with This doubtless put his wits to work for a fresh supply and we see with the help of the Bp. of N's Contribution the effect of it And yet when his new Cloths Horse and Pocket-Mony for the Expedition are discounted with the many Books and Papers that were given away at the Lobbies of both Houses his Harvest must fall short of his Expectation as Thanks be to Almighty God did the Design some had against us by those endeavours So that it may be truly said of him he hath sold himself to do wickedly if the most malicious and abusive Treatment may be called so He is indeed in some Respects our Excercise but it is our greatest Trouble that in the End he will bring upon himself Destruction if he repent not We are sorry too that some Men of note in the Church doubtless not altogether of their Own Inclination should turn Brokers for the Books of so Unconsciencious a Convert in Order to supply him in his ill Practices against a Body of Sober People and that are by Law indulged But that the B. of N. should give himself the Trouble of mis-leading People with an Apocriphal Story of this Man 's having been Instrumental to turn several Quakers from their Errors as appears by his Recommendatory Alms-Letter to the Clergy of his Diocess c. in Favour of this Deserter seems to us in no wise to become his Better Character For besides that the Fact is not True it cannot be Charity to support and encourage a Spirit of Envy and Persecution He that can reconcile F. Bugg's Work with Charity must read the Gospel Backwards and turn Turk in order to be a Christian And this sort of busie and vexatious Work in such Church-men at this time a-day but too plainly shews they are grown weary of Liberty of Conscience how much soever they boasted themselves to us of allowing it at its being settled by Law to lessen the Kindness and Security of the Liberty we enjoyed before For they that are as troublesome as the Law will permit them to be want only more Power to be more troublesome And we hope we shall take the Aim by it the thing gives us since of some Men it may be said Can a Black-a-moor change his Skin or a Leopard his Spots There must be a Miracle in the Case or it can never be done But how any Person of that Coat can heartily be Friends to the Present Government and Spit in the Face of the Liberty that is as it were an Article of its Original Contract is another Dilemma I will not say Premunire that some of them have of late at best unadvisedly run themselves into We are very far from Concluding and Condemning all that wear it as too many treat us by their Unkindness and plain Violation of our Lawful Quiet who too palpably encourage some Renegades to roar out their Anger at us while we are quiet in the Land and least of all to suspect the Inclinations of the Government that has with so much Humanity as well as Regard to Natural Right added Law to Liberty But at the same time we would willingly believe these active Incendiaries that are thus flinging their Bombs among us which is indeed a plain Disturbance of the Liberty and at
and applied yet owned by us the true Scope of the Context and Intention of the Author considered V. His fith Reason for the Suppression of our Principles and Practices is That W. Penn in his Defence against the Bishop of Cork p. 38. and 79. means by these words That where the Quakers seem to differ least from the Church of England they differ most viz. touching the English Government thereby representing us Enemies and consequently exposing us to it Whereas it is very plain that not only the Drift but the very Words of W. Penn shew quite another thing for as he had explained himself as to what he meant where he said As to what we are thought to differ most we differ least viz. about the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity So when he says Where we are thought to differ least we most of all differ He plainly expresses his meaning in those words to wit about the Nature and Quality of a true Gospel Ministry and Worship Civil Government of any sort or kind not so much as being express'd or meant by him upon that Subject An Abuse not only gross but aggravated by his Impudence and which is such a measure of the Man that no Person with whom Honesty or Charity have any Reputation can Patronize his Work VI. His sixth and last Reason he makes to be an Inconsistency in our Books about Government that in one sort of our Books we seem to own Love and Honour the King yea to pray for all Men for Kings and all that are in Authority but in other of our Books that we tell People That Kings and Emperors sprang up in the Night and among Apostate Christians and that we are against the English Government c. Answer But he gives us here neither Book nor Author and unless he can prove it is our Principle to excite People against the Civil Government we live under of what Form or in what Country soever it be he says nothing to the purpose for that only can render us unfit for Protection which makes Governments unsafe from our Principles and such we have ever denied but these things are fully answered by G. W. in his Truth and Innocency vindicated and Jos Wyeth in his Anguis Flagellatus Or A Switch for the Snake in the Grass and we think with submission to better Judgments that it no way becomes the present Profession of this Man and those that countenance him to reflect upon us as Temporizing about Principles of Civil Government Thus much as to his Reasons for his procedure against us The Title of the remaining part of his Sheet proposed to the Parliament for our Suppression is this Touching the Quakers Government within the Government and opposite to it as can be proved from Matters of Fact and Practice And the truth of it is were he as ready at proving as at calling Names he would not only deserve the Consideration but the Reward of the Government but his performance will prove very short of the encouragement he gives because he founds it upon his Forgery just now detected his words are these Having obtained the Key to open the Mystery of W. P 's Mysterium Magnum that where we are believed to differ least we most of all differ I am of W. P 's mind that where they are believed to differ least there they differ most of all namely touching Government Answer His Key must be very Fantastical as is his Mystery for it is plain there is none in the Pages he quotes of W. Penn's and his abuse of his Words can be no Mystery since the Perversion is so plain But he that has violated the Ties of Conscience for Revenge can make no scruple of lesser points Our Destruction is the Mark he aims at and though our Practice for above Forty Years proves not only our Consistency with but Usefulness to Civil Government Yet as if he were in Earnest and Religious too he breaks forth in this Expression If God be not Merciful to us and Inspire our Governours with a Godly Zeal to stop the growth of the Quakers Government it may prove like that of Mahomet who stuck at nothing till he had over-run the Eastern Churches Answer Yet he would be thought no Persecutor but 't is well he is not to be believed For in one place of his Paper he urges our Suppression because of the Inconsistency of our unsighting Principles with the Preservation of the Civil Government and here as well as in other Paragraphs he presses it from a supposition That we like Mahomet and his followers should overthrow the Government by force So that 't is plain to such as will give themselves the trouble of observing the Method this Man takes to render us both odious and dangerous that he dare give himself the latitude of saying any thing against us tho it carry the grossest as well as most absurd Contradiction to it self For the Import of what he says is plainly this Suppress the Quakers lest they beat us and take the Government from us Secondly Suppress them because they will not Fight at all We bless the Name of God the Experience of those to whom he had addressed his Books and Papers is on our side and consequently gives the Lie to his unworthy Insinuations against us and 't is because Time and our Conversation have worn out the froward and false Impressions some angry and interested People have made upon them and that we are less bug-bears to the Vulgar and more acceptable with the better sort that he and other Persons are set at work by some private Incendiaries against us As for his first proof That we are a Government within the Government and therefore against the Government which is begging the Question it is not matter of Fact but matter of Prophecy viz. That God will overturn overturn King Princes and States of this World for Sin and Ungodliness till Righteousness take Place and prevail with them by the Ruling of Jesus Christ in their Hearts This he applies to us in respect of our disowning of the English Government whereas it relates to no particular Constitution or Form of Government which in all Countries to be sure aims at Justice and Virtue in the General but intends the Evil administration of all sorts of Governours and Magistrates every where This is so far from being a fault that it is the Promise of God and the Expectation of all good Men and was writ by way of Caution to the then ruling Authority His Second Third Fourth and so to the end of his Twelfth Instance which he gives for proof of our being Enemies to the Government are his Remarks upon our proceeding in our Yearly-Meeting which he performs with as ill a Mind and just as much Truth as he makes W. P. to mean Civil Government in p. 97. of his Defence against the Bishop of Cork his Key by which he opens that great Mystery of W. P's in saying Where we are thought
that he has thrown off all Consideration of Conscience or Shame he could inform the World much better of the Reason and Motive of our Proceedings But in his 8th Instance he would have it believed That when the Nation was actually ingaged in a War with France even then we took care that our Friends should not be assistant nay not so much as to carry Guns in their Ships Answ The Insinuation is plain as if it were only then our Principle to serve a Present Turn of Disaffection and not our former and constant Practice But all that have known us from the beginning must vindicate us from his Insinuation And for this Story of Pennsilvania as if our Friends there were of another Mind or Practice 't is an effect of Prejudice as hath been already made appear In his 9th and 10th Heads he suggests Intelligence Foreign and Domestick to be one part of the business of this Meeting Answ He might as well except against the Martyrs upon the Reformation who corresponded with the Protestants of France Switzerland and Germany and no doubt of it but he would have done it then as well as Doctor Story and for the same Motives Our Correspondence is of Church and not of State Matters and though foreign sometimes yet not Foreign from our Obedience to the Civil Magistrate intermeddling with nothing relating to temporal business We are glad to hear of our Friends Wellfare and usually do at these Meetings But unless it be Scotland the Low-Countries and Germany we know no Occasion of Correspondence that is not within this Kingdom and the Dominions thereunto belonging We would conclude these Instances here but for this extraordinary passage of his which we will barely repeat because it doth so exactly shew the Man both in his Temper Understanding and Design viz. I say when this united Confederacy viz. out of Maryland Virginia Barbadoes Jamaica East and West-Jersie Pensilvania New-England North-Carolina Road-Island Long-Island Antegoa Mevis Ireland Scotland Holland Port-Royal Dantzick Hamburgh Brandenburgh Saxony Germany c. I say says he when this united Confederacy are moved either by their Light within or by a motion of their inspired Prophets to call to their Assistance Two or Three Regiments from each of those places what will become of poor England Then tho too late we may experience the Truth of W. Penn's words viz. Where we believed the Quakers differed from us least there they most of all differed This Reader is such a Demonstration of the Author that there seems left no room for us to say any thing upon it He concludes by way of Apology for his Undertaking That tho the Quakers have the Confidence to dictate in the Name of God to Kings and Parliaments what they are to do he hopes he shall not follow their Example but when he has discharged his Conscience as an English-man and a Christian he shall submit all to the Wisdom of his Superiours not doubting but to make proof of what he has said either out of our Books or by his own Experience Answ We are glad to hear he will submit to any thing but especially to the Wisdom of his Superiours and thence hope he will be quiet provided he remembers what he says for their Great Wisdom having neglected to take any notice of his Attempts he is obliged to acquiesce in their Silence All things do not deserve an express Sentence and to such silence is ever one And if he has any respect for that Example he would do well to follow it However we can have no Apprehension of the Consequence of what Evidence he can produce from our Writings that have so much to shew of his abusing of them But for his Experience he must excuse us if we except against it since ours has taught us that he is a corrupt one by clipping our Writings and Coining other Sense a Forgery as Obvious as Gross and most reprovable with Men of Truth For his accepting of G. Whitehead 's Offer to meet him with Six Ten or Twelve competent Witnesses to prove that he hath grosly and wickedly abused and perverted our Writings and wronged us in Charge Citation and Observation We doubt not if it proceed to a Conference our Friend G. W. who hath so often detected him of gross Perversions both by Writing and Conference in the presence of several Eminent Persons will not be wanting to make good his Charge but not for the sake of this virulent Deserter but those who are or may be imposed on by him We are come now to his Postscript which begins with a great deal of Rant at a Pamphlet against him and his Partners written by a Member of the Church of England while he hath reason to believe he says the Author was a Real Quaker Answ If so 't was more than we knew as it is that F. B. had any reason to think so for he hath taken care to give us none and perhaps it is because he had none to give unless it should be this That no Member of the Church of England would shew so much dislike to any of the same Communion for challenging and exposing the Quakers be it with never so much Heat or Injustice Tho we hope and upon very good grounds too that the generality of the Sober and Discreat of them have better thoughts of us and that upon Experience too But he tells us Our Teachers are Men of design and have Ends to serve being generally speaking Men of no Fortunes as Journey-men Carpenters Taylors Shoemakers Combers Weavers c. Answ We would think that such People of all others should be the most likely to be free from Design or having Ends to serve But if that be a good Reason which he alledges both Jews and Heathens must have been much in the right in objecting Meanness against Christ and his Followers as also the Roman Doctors who threw Textores and Sutores in the face of many of the first Reformers who were just such Mechanicks as those he intitles us to for our Ministry And he knows in his Conscience that such Poor Men amongst us whom God hath qualified by his Spirit to speak and press their Knowledge and Experience for the Conviction and Edification of others are conscienciously concerned in the Exercise of those Gifts and that they labour hard to maintain themselves and Families after the Example of Primitive Teachers that they might not be burthensome to the Church Nothing short of the worst of minds one would think can make this our fault and it must be one of the weakest that can reconcile the Talents and Education of these Mechanicks with the Jesuitical Crafts and Ends he supposes against them But he says this Pamphlet suggests that F. Bugg is Judas The Church of England the Jews and consequently that the Quakers are Jesus Answ We will not believe him for those that abuse Mens words may very easily abuse their meanings However there is no necessity that the Quakers