incense the Civil Government against them and he being therein often Refuted I am concern'd herein to take notice only of a few of his notorious Abuses Misrepresentations and Perversions viz. 1st In his Dedication to the High Court of Parliament p. 10. he tells them The Quakers tell you They own the Scriptures to be given by Divine Inspiration but mean not a word of it like other Christians 2dly They tell you they own a Scripture-Trinity but mean not a word of it and that Your Honours will find it as difficult a thing to gain the true Meaning of the Quakers touching the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures and their Belief of a Scripture-Trinity as Constantinus the Emperor found it in the Examination of Arius the Heretick to get his true meaning touching the Faith of one Substance And he would have them believe The Quakers are such Enemies to the holy Scripture as that they say It is a rotten Foundation Ibid. p. 11. And that with them it is Beastly Ware c. part 2. p. 29. And that they render the holy Scriptures to be of no more Authority than Aesop 's Fables part 3. p. 40. Such abominable Falshoods this Incendiary presumes to Dedicate and Present to the Parliament expresly contrary to our sincere and publick Confession to the Divine Authority of the holy Scriptures as Eminently given by Divine Inspiration and our Estimation and Preference of the Bible to all other Books extant in the World though many of them may be given by a Degree of the same Divine Inspiration yet the holy Scripture contain'd in the Bible have not only the Priority but more Eminently and Signally Confirm'd by Divine Authority more Comprehensive and more Generally accepted than other Books or Commentaries thereupon the holy Pen-Men of the Scriptures of Truth having also a higher Degree of Illumination and Inspiration in many things than other Writers in after-Ages And Christ himself whose blessed Testimonies are from him Recorded received the Holy Ghost or Spirit not by Measure but in Fulness and to be sure we are bound in Conscience highly to prefer the Authors of Holy Scripture i. e. Christ his Apostles and Prophets above our selves or any other Writers whatsoever therefore we have cause to allow the Bible the Preference as well as Priority before other Books But our embittered Adversary to render us the said People Incredible or not to be Believ'd and such a difficult thing to gain the true Meaning of the Quakers he thus treats us with his wonted Course of Defamation and Calumny giving this pretended Relation viz. That the honest Quakers for some such there are amongst them have suspected G. Whitehead to be a Jesuite at least like them This Witness is true quoth F. B. Pref. p. 18. And farther he proceeds with this Out-cry viz. By which Evidence we may know that the Quakers like the Cretians were always Lyars evil Beasts slow Bellies but not only so but Lyars Forgers and to speak comparatively Knights of the Post Jesuits and dangerous to the Government c. Pref. p. 19 20. Thus furiously he runs on and clamours like one without Eear or Wit he is Accountable for such odious Defamation and the Righteous Judge of all I doubt not will rebuke him for such his Folly and Outrage He strives in his Persecution against us as if it were for Life even for our Lives in not only defaming G. Whitehead for a Jesuit but the Quakers in General and yet some of them Honest Quakers too Such Confusion Envy produces But who these Honest Quakers are that suspect G. W. to be a Jesuit at least like them we are to seek he tells us not who is his true Witness in this Case G. W. utterly denies the Defamation against himself and the rest of his Friends called Quakers being known to be as wholly and absolutely Averse to Popery as any People in Christendom and more than all Persecutors whatsoever Persecution being a principal Prop and Pillar of Popery commonly raised by such Clamour and Outrage as Away with them Hereticks and Schismaticks they are Seditions and Dangerous to the Government and then Imprisonment Havock Exile or Death must follow c. To his other odious Calumny viz. That the Quakers Church agrees with the Papists That our Bible is a Brazen-fac'd Book an unjust corrupt and perverse Bible part 1. p. 4. Oh Horrible The righteous Lord rebuke this Lying Spirit which possesses this Poor Creature How like a furious Incendiary in his boundless Outrage does he Defame and most unjustly Asperse the Innocent Are not the Bibles we frequently use in our Houses and Families the same used by other Protestants and allow'd by Authority Pray let this be observ'd and further inquired into that the notorious Lyes of this Adversary may more manifestly appear to the World to his own and his Abettors shame and disgrace And as I have often urg'd plain Proof from him that the Quakers call the Scriptures Beastly Ware but never yet could obtain it So I now demand Proof that they say The Scripture is a rotten Foundation as before Ded. p. 11. For Proof of this Lye he has quoted a little Pamphlet or Book which he has rak'd up and Reprinted Entitled Ishmael and his Mother cast out first printed in 1655. Upon the Margent on the 14th page he repeats the same gross Lye again thus viz. The Holy Scriptures they say are a rotten Foundation This is their ancient Testimony from which they have not varied This is F. B's Annotation against the People called Quakers but where is his Proof still 'T is upon these words viz. With the Light thou art seen to be a Wrester of the Scriptures and thy rotten Foundation being ready to fall thee c. Here is no such word as the Quakers saying The Holy Scriptures are a rotten Foundation but the contrary viz. Against that Adversary for Wresting the Scripture and that he was judged thereby And that the Scriptures of Truth proceeded from the Life and Power of God were spoken by holy Men as mov'd thereby as also a true Declaration of God the Words of God who with his dear Son Christ Jesus and Holy Spirit and the Baptism thereof are also confess'd in the said Book quoted but falsly noted on the Margent as before quite contrary to these Confessions unto the Truth and Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures They that writ the said Book Ishmael c. did judge that pretended Pastor S. Townsend their then Adversary neither to be built upon Christ nor upon the holy Scriptures and that therefore neither of them was his Foundation but a Spirit of Enmity when he enviously writ and aspers'd those of us that were then Prisoners for Conscience sake in Norwich Goal which was in the year 1654. being 45 Years ago He then more like a busie Incendiary than a Minister of Christ with his envious defaming Pamphlet did Persecute us by Reproaches to add Affliction to our Bonds which
in G. W's Name I have also closed my Discourse with the Prophecy of Sam. Fisher which you need not doubt of but will come to pass it may be sooner than you are aware of c. only for the present we must be content to stay and patiently bear For as yet we cannot think we shall be made to handle the Sword But when the time does come I have shewed you the Testimony of two of our Prophets and early Champions what we shall do how we shall kill cut off and destroy and bathe our Swords in the Blood of Amaleck and lay waste fenced Cities and tread down the Honourable of the Earth and spare neither Old nor Young p. 126. Observe his evil Design by inventing and framing this in my Name as part of my Sermon as if I prophesied that we should be made to handle the Sword kill cut off and destroy c. and spare neither Old nor Young c. Which he would have understood in a literal Sense to make me and our Friends as Obnoxious and Criminal as he can which bespeaks not only an evil Design but premeditated Malice and Injury And I am apt to think the Man Sinneth knowingly against Light and Conviction in taking up and representing such words in a literal Sense as are in Sam. Fisher's Prophecy to O. Cromwel in 1656. and in Fra. Howgil's and E. B's in the same Year S. F. having these words I will beautifie my Meek Ones with Salvation and I will put my High-Praise into their Mouths and a two-edged Sword into their Hands and they shall execute Vengeance upon the Heathen c. And the other have these words viz. Out of thee i. e. the North of England Kings Priests and Prophets did come forth in the Name and Power of the Most-High which uttered their Voices as Thunders and laid their Swords on the Necks of their Enemies c. Gird on your Sword upon your Loyns put on the tried Armour c. My beloved Brethren and Fellow-Soldiers make all plain before you Thresh on with a Threshing Instrument which hath Teeth beat the Mountains to Dust let the Breath of the Lord scatter it c. p. 124. Now that F. B. renders these and such like Passages in a literal Sense observe his Notes in the Margent i. e. Are not these Fifth-Monarchy-Men Retract these bloody Books and horrid Principles Hereupon I would ask him and those Priests who abet him 1. If the Psalmist meant Literally in Psalm 149. 5 6 7 8 9 Let them read it at large and therein Samuel Fisher's words concerning the Saints High Praises of God in their Mouths and a Two-edged Sword in their Hands c. and the Honour they have And Isaiah 41. 15. Behold I will make thee a new sharp Threshing Instrument having Teeth thou shalt thresh the Mountains and beat them small and shalt make the Hills as Chaff 2. If he really thinks our Friends meant that God's Prophets in this Gospel-Day should go forth with outward Swords of Iron and Steel and with an outward Threshing Instrument having Teeth of Iron or Steel and that they were therewith to beat down and lay level the great Mountains of Stone and Earth some of them a Mile or Two high as they are in the North of England and other parts No I cannot think that Francis Bugg believed thus Literally either of the Prophet David Isaiah or of our Friends in the places recited by him for part of my Sermon p. 122 123 124 125. Therefore the more fallacious and deceiful he to represent them in such a literal and gross Sense to make us Obnoxious to the Government as a People of Bloody Principles Whereby he hath shewn what a Bloody Persecuting Spirit lodges in him against us There are many more Forgeries Lyes and perverted Quotations in the said Romance falsly stiled G. Whitehead's Sermon which for Brevity's sake are here pretermitted and waved And this Point concerning S. Fisher's Message to O. Cromwel and other Passages relative thereto quoted by F. B. is more fully spoken to in the Answer to the Three Norfolk-Priests Entitled Truth and Innocency vindicated p. 36 37 38 39 and p. 62 63 64. THE Rambling PILGRIM EXPOSED PART II. AFter F. B. has made such a large Confession to the Light of Christ within and to the Dispensation of God to Mankind and to the comfortable Presence of the Lord our God attending our Meetings it is very ill-becoming him now to speak so slightly and contemptuously of both as he doth in his Chap. III. p. 5. where he saith All were exhorted to adhere to the Light within to obey the Light within and to follow the Teachings thereof as a Guide sufficient to lead us to Salvation yea above Scriptures above Fathers above Councils and above Churches This I now confess quoth he was a Paradox not Orthodox but absolutely Heterodox This Confession of his is since he disobeyed the Light and turn'd his back of it otherwise he would still confess that Christ the true Light the Head and Lawgiver to his Church is above Scriptures Fathers Councils and Churches and was before them and is the Light of the World which whoever follows shall not abide in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life Consequently this Light of His is a Guide sufficient to lead us to Salvation and to Understand Believe and Practice according to Holy Scripture and not to oppose it It is a wicked Calumny against our Silent Meetings to say That they were designed to wean us off from so much as the Remembrance of all External Religion and also to prepare us to receive the false Notions of Quakerism p. 5. Our Externally Meeting together to wait upon God and our living Experience of his Presence and Power and Spiritual Ministry to our great Comfort and Edification in those our Meetings do testifie the contrary to F. B's Aspersions against them and us He has unjustly quoted me about the Authority of the Spirit and the Scriptures p. 6. as the Three Norfolk-Priests did as I have shewn p. 16 17. of my Just Examination of their two Books Entitled Truth and Innocency vindicated leaving out the very Explanatory Words relating to the Spirits Immediate Teaching being of greater Authority or Efficacy than the Letter of the Scriptures as divided into Chapters my Explanation being viz. As Christ's Words were of greater Authority when he spoke than the Pharisees reading the Letter and they in whom that Spirit speaks not are out of the Authority of the Scriptures c. See the Matter further explained in my said Examination referred unto For here we own the Divine Authority and Efficacy of the Holy Scriptures as spoken by Christ but the Division of Chapters and Verses and the bare Letter thereof not to be of the same Authority and Efficacy I deny his Consequence That any little Pamphlet of Our's is of greater Authority than the Bible or of as great for I never asserted the holy Doctrine in
sorry for thee under a Sense of the Lamentable Desperate State How darest thou thus proceed to Sin against Light and Knowledge to Invent such a Scurrilous Sermon in above two large Sheets in Print and Call it George Whitehead's Sermon when thou knowest it is a Defaming Counterfeit Device and Romance of thy own having also given thy self the Lie by saying 'T is a Sermon for G. W. How binding are God's Commands to thee viz. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him Guiltless that taketh his Name in vain Thou shalt not bear false Witness against thy Neighbour Exod. 20. Yet thou audaciously proceedest in thy Forgery and False-Witness-bearing against me and our Friends and in my Name as thus Preaching viz. Forgery You know that we our selves to be seen of Men do make a kind of Prayer to our Light within when we are at their Tables when Company is present but if alone either at home or abroad we seldom give Thanks for our Food and seldomer with our Eyes towards Heaven as Christ did as Stephen did or as the Martyrs did no you know we are of another yea of a different Faith and Practice from all the ancient Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and holy Confessors and all Christian Churches to this day being exalted above them for we sit in heavenly Places singing the Songs of Sion in the Beauty of Holiness without Sin or any Imperfection p. 117 118. Obs. I challenge F. Bugg and all his Abettors and other Adversaries in the World to prove when and where ever I or any of us preached such a Sermon as this importing such Dissimulation in Prayer publick or Neglect of it in Private or any such Self-exaltation above the ancient Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs or all Christian Churches c. No I abhor such vain Ostentation foolish and false Boasting and Professing or Preaching up a Faith and Practice different from theirs And 't is as notoriously false That we pray to be seen of Men and seldom give Thanks at home or abroad if alone and that we so make Prayer to our Light within as having our whole God within us as safely as the Papists have their Crucifixes in their Pockets p. 117 118. This also is an ignorant contemning Scoff and Flout as well as Forgery and a Slight also put upon the Light within which though God and Christ is our Light Life and Salvation yet we do not limit nor confine him as the whole God within us only he being an Omnipresent and All-seeing God whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Forgery My very Doctrine shew it to be the Ten Commandments first by telling the Priests they might as well carry the Ten Commandments to Christ the Consequence of which is that Christ had as much need to learn them as we p. 118. Obs. Though he unjustly makes this a part of my Sermon 't is none of my Doctrine or Preaching neither are the Words mine as cited He refers to Truth Defending the Quakers printed 1659. p. 18. but falsly quotes the Words I did not tell the Priests They might as well carry the Ten Commandments to Christ much less that Christ had as much need to learn them as we I disown such Blasphemy But the Question being put Is the Moral Law or Ten Commandments a Rule to the Christian's Life The Answer was Thou might as well ask if the Moral Law be a Rule to Christ For the Christians Life and Rule is Christ who is the End of the Law for Righteousness who came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it Therefore my Intent was not to make void or to break the Moral Law or Ten Commandments but to refer them to Christ the true Christian's Life Way and Principal Rule and that Christ is their Life who live to him is Evident see Col. 3. 4. For ye are dead and your Life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory Now this Divlne Life of a Christian which is Christ cannot be under the Law as a Rule to him though the Law was our School-Master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith but after that Faith is come we are no longer under a School-Master Gal. 3. 24 25. And if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law Gal. 5. 18. Therefore being in the Faith of Christ their Life their Lord and Master they were grown past the State of such Children who were under such a School-Master as the Law being no more under the Law but under Grace For what the Law saith it saith to those who are under the Law that the wholé World may become Guilty before God which his Children are not Forgery That we never recommend the Ten Commandments to our Hearers that they should teach them to their Children c. This therefore may confirm you in our ancient Testimony which hath been to lay them by as a dead Letter Dust Death Serpents Food and beastly ware c. p. 118 119. Obs. This is not only a gross and repeated Forgery as 't is made a part of my Sermon but also in it self containing two gross Lies 1. That our ancient Testimony hath been To lay by the Ten Commandments 2. As Beastly-ware Serpents food c. Where did I or we ever give such Testimony of the Ten Commandments as to call them either Beastly-ware Serpents food c. I utterly deny with abhorrence any such Testimony concerning the Ten Commandments being all comprehended in that great Commandment of Love And for me or any of our Friends preferring the Spirit before the Letter the Gospel above the Law and the Ministration of the Spirit and Life above the Ministration of Death and exalting it above the Letter of the Scriptures I know no spiritual Christian will blame us for that or for any such Doctrine which is so evidently agreeable to the holy Apostle Paul's Testimony and Distinction in that Case as between the Letter and the Spirit between the Ministration of Death written and engraven in Stones and the Ministration of the Spirit which was much more Glorious As more largly he distinguishes 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8 9 10 11. The Apostle using the very words The Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life and if the Mininistration of Death written and engraven in Stones c. which could neither be in Contempt of the Holy Scriptures or Ten Commandments much less to lay them by as Beastly-ware c. Now F. Bugg repeat these Lies no more and you of the Clergy concerned encourage F. B. no more in 's work against us Forgery Beloved I cannot but allow that if the Scriptures were of greater Authority than our Sayings or that the Words of Matthew Luke and Paul were of greater Authority than are our Sayings I should be on the Christians side c. But Friends
if not Blasphemy thus to subvert the Gospel to serve their Corrupt Ends. How wary then had People need be of receiving the Quakers Doctrine Is it so that People being thus caught in a Snare and brought over to their silent Meetings c. thus thou p. 10. Thus contrary to thy former solid Confession to the Light hast thou appeared against it instead of Christ the Light or the Light of Christ the true Light which enlightens Men now with thee 't is Their Light the Quaker-Light p. 46 48. Thus and much more in Contempt of the Light like that profane Great Lying Libel The Snake in the Grass whose Pupil thou F. B. appearest to be in this thy Dark Enmity against the Light and the Children of the Light as also in thy high Commendation of the Author of that Snake as having been and still is a Gentleman a Man of Great Learning and Piety cloathed with Zeal as with a Garment for the Christian Religion and well accomplished every way c. p. 31. but thy Contempt and Profaness like his against the Light as well as thy gross and horrid Ignorance and Scorn in this Point is plainly detected and justly reprehended by Edmund Elys though one of the Church of England in his late half Sheet in Print entituled Some Reflections upon Francis Bugg 's Book entituled The Pilgrims Progress c. F. Bugg his opposing the Light in the Body to the Light in the Particular p. 12. is such a blind Contradiction as well as Contradistinction as is neither Scriptural nor ever allowed by us the Light Christ being but one pure Indivisible Light in himself and in every Member and in his whole Body nor do we know of any Council held in London either in the Month of May 1666. or any Time else of our Friends who decided That the Body should govern and the Light in the particular should submit to the Body as F. B. falsly relates But Mendacem oportet esse memorem A Lyar hath need of a good Memory which this seems to want For in Contradiction to himself herein he other-whiles accuses us with saying All Power in Heaven and Earth is committed to our Light p. 10 and That the Light in every Man is the higher Power to whom all must submit and obey and that this Light is one in the Male and in the Female p 23 24. and their President i. e. the Quakers President in their Convocation being their Light within p. 38. How then should the Body govern the Light Or how should we make any such Decision as he has told us That the Light in the particular should submit to the Body and the Body be without a Head like a Monster as F. B. Scoffs blasphemously For Christ the true Light is our Light and he is the Head of the Body and the Government is laid upon his Shoulders who is Lord of Lords and King of Kings And none can truly Perswade Counsel Judge or in such Gospel-way Rule or Govern for Christ in his House and Family but in and by his Light and Power for no other is allowed among us so that Christ in all things must have the Preheminence It is also an Impudent Falshood that any Council among us Resolved That G. Fox must be the Head of the Body and not the Light in the particular p. 11 12. Where have we ever so Concluded or Asserted But ever the contrary namely that Christ is the Head of the Body the Church the Light and Lawgiver thereof Again F. B. perverts my words and wrongs me over and over in saying p. 16. So Proud is G. Whitehead that he tells you The Jews might as well have carried them to Christ in the days of his Flesh viz. the Ten Commandments for him to learn observe and obey them as for the Christians to carry them to the Quakers to learn them observe and obey them And to this effect he has many times over perverted my words quoting Truth Defending the Quakers p. 18. Where did ever I say The Jews might as well have carried the Ten Commandments to Christ for him to learn observe and obey them as for the Christians to carry them to the Quakers to learn them observe and obey them I deny the words and Comparison and they are not in my Answer he refers unto wherein my saying The Christians Life and Rule is Christ who is the End of the Law for Righteousness who came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it I neither make void the Ten Commandments nor render Christ to have as much need to learn them as the Quakers Oh for shame F. B. repeat these Lyes no more I cannot but observe what a Habit of Perversion and Abuse this Adversary is arriv'd unto Again 't is a notorious Abuse and Forgery in F. Bugg p. 16 18. to Accuse the Quakers with making the Commands of God of none Effect setting the Ten Commandments of Moses and Ten Commandments which he has fram'd patch'd up and number'd in G. Fox's Name opposite one to another in two Columns his Design therein being to make the People call'd Quakers as ridiculous absurd and silly as he can He feigns Ten Commandments in the Quakers Language instead of the Ten Commandments of God by Moses and places them in Opposition thereto to make the Commands of God of none Effect Though the Man's perverse Invention against us herein deserves not Repetition yet that his profane Forgery in this may appear I here give the Reader some Instances of the Method he has Invented against us viz. The Commandments of God by his Servant Moses c. Exod. 20. The Commandments of G. Fox the Quakers Second Moses c. I. Thou shalt have no other Gods but me II. Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold them guiltless that taketh his Name in vain I. Thou shalt not pay Tythes to the Covetous Priests nor to the Antichristian Impropriators II. Thou shalt not Marry by or with a Priest III. Thou shalt not put off thy Hat in respect to thy Superiours These F. Bugg forms in Opposition to the other to shew that the Quakers make the Commands of God of none Effect wherein his idle Impertinency as well as Injustice appears as also in the following VII Thou shalt not commit Adultery VIII Thou shalt not Steal IX Thou shalt not bear false Witness against thy Neighbour X. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's House thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Wife nor his Man-Servant nor his Ox nor his Ass nor any thing that is his c. VII Thou shalt not wear Lace nor Ribbons nor Skimming-dish Hats nor short Aprons c. VIII You shall have a Woman's Meeting distinct from the Men c. IX Thou shalt call the Days of the Week first second third and fourth Day c. and the Months first second and third Month
then were severe and we under Hardship in the depth of Winter wherein my self with the rest had my share Though I then was but weak and young being but about 18 Years of Age yet was in my Heart truly tender and sincere to God and his Presence I often felt to strengthen me in that and divers other hard Imprisonments in Cromwel's time and by his Special Divine Providence I was supported in his Work and Service blessed be his Name for ever Who also hath made me to Triumph in Christ over Reproaches and Aspersions of This and all other my most Implacable Adversaries F. B. may think he has found out a deadly Weapon against me by his raking up and reprinting the said Ishmael c. printed in 1655. But he does very ill and very dis-ingenuously in upbraiding me and my Friends with some unwarrantable Expressions which I have positively disown'd and disclaim'd in Two Books as he knows And yet from thence he unjustly asperseth the Quakers That they dissemble the Doctrine of the Trinity when they pretend to own it whilst in their Books they damn it to the Pit and Lake Ded. p. 11. And part 2. p. 22. Margent This is their ancient Testimony to damn the blessed Trinity to the Pit of Hell the like in Part 3. p. 35. I say This is not true 't is neither the Quakers Ancient nor Modern Testimony and the passage upon which he makes this Note in the Margent though never intended against either God his Son or Holy Spirit or this Scripture-Trinity as I may say Yet I say as to the said Passage noted upon on the Margent I have positively disown'd those offensive Expressions publickly in Print in Two Books The 1st Entitled The Christianity of the People called Quakers Vindicated 1690. p. 28. The 2d Truth and Innocency Vindicated 1699. p. 51. Besides many Years since I corrected them where I met with that Answer And though I writ some Passages therein yet I still affirm I was not the Author of the said Unwarrantable Expressions nor of divers other sharp ones but C. Atkinson who miserably fell into Pollution and Condemnation after my self and my other Fellow-Prisoners had left him in Prison being discharg'd before him I was sorry my Name was to that Answer without distinction between my own Words and his For though I was then but Young Weak and Low yet I still believe and am satisfied I had a Measure of Understanding given me of the Lord and a Sense of his Power and Presence And I do not deny but I writ some Part or Paragraphs in that Book aforesaid by reason whereof I suppose my Name was to it and the Substance of what I writ I cannot disown to this day namely 1. Asserting the Word which was in the beginning to be God Christ the Light and the Foundation of Faith 2. And that the Word was before the Scripture or Writing or Letter thereof was 3. That Jesus Christ was the true and only Foundation 1 Cor. 3. 11. This was in Opposition to our then Adversary's Asserting the Scripture to be the only Foundation of Faith c. And I cannot in the least believe that there ever could be any Intention of Contempt or Contemptible Expressions design'd against God or his Dear Son or Holy Spirit among us or that we could be so grosly dark and ignorant as to think to confine him in Darkness who is an Omnipresent God and he being Light in whom is no Darkness at all this hath been our Principle from the beginning But to fasten the whole Book Ishmael on G. W. F. B. saith he owns the Book viz. in Truth Defending 1659. 1. From Tho. Smith's calling it G. Whitehead's Book 2. From the words Our Book Part 1. p. 31 32. Answ. How far I then own'd it I have signified 1. As having writ some part of it 2. But not then espousing the very words chiefly objected by F. B. and disown'd by me as before but my own Construction then given partly in these words viz. And he that Dreams and tells Lyes contrary to the Scriptures of Truth which we own he with his Imaginations and Dreams is for the Lake Rev. 21. 8. Yet what the Scripture saith of the Godhead the Father the Word and the Spirit which are one 1 John 5. 7. we own Truth Defend p. 1 2. Tho' I confess I there questioned the Notion of Three Distinct or Divided Persons as not Scripture but an Imagination And in our Disputes at Cambridge in the same Year 1659. My Opponents then Arguing They i. e. the Father Son and Holy Ghost are Three Hees therefore Three Persons and that because Christ was under the Water when baptised and the Holy Ghost then descended upon him like a Dove therefore Three Distinct or Separate Persons I then thought such Arguing as much beside true Scripture-Divinity as good Logick However I cannot call to Mind That at those Disputes I had with Tho. Smith the Library-keeper c. in Cambridge 1659. I either did own or defend that very Passage now objected against us out of Ishmael which I have disown'd and disclaim'd as before If I were now Conscious thereof I should be sorry for it To conclude this Point about the Trinity I refer the Reader 1. To a Catechism in the Words and Phrases of Scripture with this Imprimatur Guil. Sill. R. P. D. Henr. Episc. Lond. â Sacris Domesticis printed 1693. wherein are these Questions and Answers viz. Q Is there any more than One God A. There is none other God but one 1 Cor. 8. 4. Q. What is said of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost A. It is said That these Three are One 1 John 5. 7. Note Here they confine themselves to Scripture-Language 2. 'T is worthy of Observation what Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Sarum in the Life of John Earl of Rochester p. 104. speaking of the Trinity saith Which for want of Terms fit to express them by we call Persons and are called in Scripture the Father Son and Holy Ghost Besides the false Printing and bad English in the said Ishmael as F. B. has expos'd it there 's another Defect after the words The Lake is thy Portion which is the Portion of Lyars the words except thou speedily Repent are omitted there and in some other places The Old Impression I have not seen for many Years nor do I know where to find it tho' it seems F. B. hath industriously sought it out and reprinted it after a fashion with his perverse Annotations in the Margent to reproach Quakers withal And now let 's a little observe F. B.'s Definition of Person part 1. p. 18 19. viz. From the words God Christ the Light the Word the Spirit the Truth the Kingdom of God within me and these are one F. B. infers viz. Reader here is in the Quakers Essence Septem Personas Also from the words Stumble not at the Light for if thou dost thou stumblest at God at