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
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
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
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