of sinne and shame then praise for any Companion of the Apostle Paul when he preached on Mars hill in Athens to have denied to hear him preach there because his Auditors were Epicureans and Stoicks and all save Pauls Associats Idolaters But this is made use of onely for advantage by reason of that Odium that he knowes lies upon parochial Constitutions The whole Nation almost knowes that most of the Congregations in Lancashire are reduced to a narrower compasse then that of parochial And we are assured that Iames Nayler one of their Leaders deserted a gathered Congregation in Yorkeshire whereof he was and had continued a good while a Member And however they deny any benefit received by the publique Ministery yet we believe what ever reliques of sound knowledge are in any of them they owe them to it and for what imaginary knowledge or unsound Principles they have learned otherwise from their new Teachers cursed had our condition been if we had given these stones in stead of bread such poysonous deadly Scorpions in stead of fishes We must confesse the major part were never savingly wrought upon by the Gospel whereof we have the Ministration It was our great Masters case His combats in the time of his Ministery on earth were but few Acts 1. 15. The Apostles case sometimes when they preached the glad tidings of salvation by Iesus Christ to crowds of people some one or two onely believed their report and rejoyced in it And though it be our case yet it is our complaint to the Lord continually And as some godly persons have out of their own experience as far as they could discern professed the greatest part the generality of these of this way in Westmerland are of that Number viz. Such as have had no saving work of God upon their Spirits by the Ministery of his Word but such as have been ignorant of or erred from the Truth and whose Religion consisted in the praise of Opinion and floatings of their own fancies and who have been carried with great zeal and heat of spirit through all forms of Religion as some call them In so much that scarce a knowing Christian among us but could have easily pointed at those whom theseFoxes were like to deceive before they came and whose spirits would be ready to strike in with any principle might subvert the Truth of the Gospel In the mean time the seals of the Ministery of those that have been faithfull to Christ in their stewardship such Christians as have lookt in themselves stand still and are rooted faster then to be removed to another Gospel by the blasts of such delusions as have their descent written in their foreheads In the Title Page he compares the peaceable Petitioning of some Ministers in Lancashire to the Councel of State to Sauls errand of Damascus and a little after saith their Petition breaths out threatnings and slaughters against a peaceable and godly people by him nicknamed Quakers In the second and third Epistles also the Author hath divers insinuations of charges against some Gentlemen and Ministers in Lancashire as that they make none but the Lords Disciples the object of their indignation That they never did proclaim war against drunkards swearers common blasphemers enemies to the Lord and his people That their high-flown contending spirits are gone beyond slender wrestlings and they scorn to encounter with any below the degree of a Saint Other wickednesses he point blanck layes to your charge as that those sons of Levi as he saith they call themselves pretend a jus Divinum to persecution That they troubled the Councel of State with abominable misrepresentations of honest pious peaceable men That the Quakers have been more faithful to the interest of the godly people in this Nation then any of the contrivers of the Petition That they exalt themselves above all that are called Gods People in these parts Reply I Wonder much at the Spirits of these men and what eyes they see withall They would make the world beleive they can espy the Spirit of Saul while he was unconverted in the breasts of others comminations and persecution blood and slaughter where they can see nothing but Christian Modesty and the words of Truth and Sobriety Surely blood and slaughter are the Objects of their Meditation by day and their dreams in the night are dreams of cruelty Otherwise the humble innocent sober Petitions of Christians jealous for the Glory of God and the welfare of his Church and studious to prevent the enemy from making such havock of Souls as he hath done of late in some parts would not so presently put them in mind of them And where he saith in this your Petition they troubled the Councell of State with abominable misrepresentations c. It is it self an abominable untruth and I do verily beleive that Epistoler Conscience tels him so There was indeed such a Petition prepared and intended to be presented to the Councel of State but as I am certainly informed it never was presented to them Nor did that Petition contain the least tittle of any misrepresentation but a brief and true relation of some of your Abominations which are too famously and evidently known to the whole Countrie to be denied O the impudency of that lying spirit that hath entred into this generation of men To all the other false and railing accusations of this man brought against I do verily believe for some of them the faithfull Ministers and servants of Jesus Christ I shall onely answer as Michael to the Devil The Lord rebuke thee I could have rather desired that some of these Ministers in Lancashire would have answered this Calumniator and made him ashamed of his falsities Some of them are known to us and we are confident are as clear from all those charges as the new born child and such as according to that precept Isay 51. 7. Fear not the reproach of man nor are affraid of their revilings If the Author of theseEpistles prefixt to Sauls errand c. lives in Lancashire as it is supposed he doth he cannot but know that there is more real worth Truth of Godlinesse Christian simplicity and white Innocency in some of them then in 160. such Foxes as now spoil the vineyards He might have considered whose work it is to accuse the Brethren and who hath from thence deserved the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Me thinks he manifests himself to be of that Generation Prov. 30 14. Whose teeth are swords and whose jaw teeth are knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men While his words are smoother then butter and softer then oyle to those of his way war is in his heart against others and his words are drawn swords and the breathings of a spirit possest with malice The Apostle describing the men that shall make the last times perillous saith among other Characters of them they shall be false accusers fierce dispisers of those that are
A BRIEF RELATION OF The Irreligion of the NORTHERN QUAKERS Wherein their horrid Principles and Practises Doctrines and manners as far as their Mystery of Iniquitie hath yet discovered it self are plainly exposed to the view of every Intelligent Reader Together with a Brief Reply to some part of a very scurilous and lying Pamphlet called SAULS errand to Damascus 2. Pet. 2. 1. 2. But there were false Prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction And many shall follow their pernicious wayes by reason of whom the way of Truth shall be evil spoken of 2. Tim. 3. 9. But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be made manifest to all men LONDON Printed by T. R. for H. R. at the signe of the three Pigeons in Pauls Church-yard 1653. To my Christian Readers I Here present you with a brief Relation of the execrable Irreligion of a sort of people lately started in some parts of the North commonly called Quakers When you have read it you will be ready to dream if you be acquainted with the History of the last Century that you behold the turbulent Exorcists of Germany redivive in England and acting their old Tragick parts over again though on another Stage and you will plainly see what ill use these men make of that Libertie permitted to dissenters in Religion pleaded onely for and I believe intended to be conceded only to tender Consciences and that is not Liberty but Libertinisme that some men seek after viz. That they may be as wicked as they will without controul In the mean while the uncurb'd Licentiousnes of many evil men and blasphemous heretical Seducers through the Nation makes many honest christians now look upon the present times as ill boding times who a few years ago were raised in their expectations to see better dayes then any age ever produced since the time that our Savior Christ and his Apostles were living on earth But to add no more to this purpose I will only put you in mind what use every Christian that reads or hears this or such like relations of the crying Evils of these present times ought to make of them The more therefore the blasphemy against the God of Heaven abounds among the Apostates of this Generation the more we should and if we fear God indeed we shall labor to glorifie him the more we should be grieved for the dishonour done to his soveraign Majesty and the more earnestly should we pray that this bloody sin may not be imputed to the Nation The more lightly they esteem of the written Word of God and the more contemptuously they undervalue and deride the sacred Ordinances of Jesus Christ the more should we love and reverence and prize them and the closer should we cleave unto them The more Heresies spread themselves and eat like Cankers and the sweeter they are to the Pallats of deluded multitudes that are gredy after them the more should we labor to decline the contagion to ballast our vessels and settle our selves in the Truth so that if an Apostle from the dead or an Angel from Heaven or all the Seducers on Earth should preach unto us another Gospel they may not be able to remove us from that which we have already received which is preached to us in the Word of God The greater the number is of those that fall away the more should we that think we stand take heed least we fall The morre violently the teachers of fals doctrines and their supporters do oppose the Truth and labor to exalt and propagate their Opinions the more earnestly should we contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints against all the Adversaries of it and to add no more the more tumultuous factious impious and barbarous the spirits and practises of these men are that have entertained the Errors of the times the more they curse and rail and threaten and intend mischief the more holily and humbly and peaceably ought we to demean our selves and the more watchfull ought we to be over our Conversations that we may be as unlike to them as the children of the day are to those that are of the night The Lord grant we may make this good use of the impieties of those that fall away If any of those honourable Gentlemen that are in Authoritie or that it shall please the Lord in his providence to call to the Government of this Nation shall vouchsafe to read over the lines of this Book I humbly beseech them to look upon them not as lying lines but such as do plainly and faithfully relate the Truth and if they shall doubt of the veritie of this Narrative I humbly request of they think it expedient that by them Authoritie they would cause the truth to be brought to light The God of Heaven make us all willing and able to move in our proper Orbes for the interest of his Sonne Jesus Christ and his glorious Gospel To the Seduced Followers of George Fox Iames Nayler c. living in Westmerland and some adjacent parts FRIENDS for so I call you since our blessed Saviour hath commanded us to love you though you be our Enemies to bless you though you curse us to do good to you though you hate us and to pray for you though you despightfully use us and persecute us as for as lies in your power Believe me I pray you I have written nothing in this ensuing Relation to discover your nakednes The Lord knows the whole Country wher you live knowes that you have done this for your selves too much already Nor have I said any thing out of any inward hatred I beare to any of you Your Persons I love but your wicked Principles your Erroneous Opinions your Irregular Exorbitant vnchristian Practises those I hate And the Lord make me to hate all Impiety in my selfe more then in any other in the world besides Nor have I inserted any thing to irritate you to exasperate your Spirits Alas the Spirits of some of you seem to be already as rough as the waters of the Sea in a grown Tempest and stand in need of healing rather then further Exulceration But to be plain with you the main end I propounded to my selfe in this Narative was the Glory of God and the good of some poor Soules in the discovery of the wickednesse of your way if it please the Lord to prosper it to that end that those that hate your way may go on to hate it still and that your selves that have been seduced to walk in it through the craftinesse of those that have lain in wait to deceive you and have in part affected it may come to see the Impiety of that new Superstition rather then Religion which you have lately taken up and that seeing it through the good hand of God upon
you you may be reclaimed from this way of Perdition Look upon your way I pray you which you poor Souls think is true Religion in the Glasse of this Relation Behold here the Errours and Enormities of the chiefe of your Sect. Are they not their Blasphemies their Tenets their Practises that are here mentioned Do you not know and many others of your Sect to be guilty of some of most of them and are they not Abominations also are they not works of the flesh and deeds of darknesse If the Candle of the Lord be not wholly put out in you and that light within you you so much talk of be not altogether darkness I appeal to that light And for my plain dealing in the ensuing Narration I hope you of all men wil not be displeased The Leaders and â—autors of your Sect have taken a sinfull liberty to themselves in their printed books as in Sauls Errant to Damascus Rich. Farnworths Cal out of all false Worships and in another book intitled the three-fold state of Antichrist and in another Pamphlet called false Prophets and false Teachers described by the Prisoners at York c. In these printed Libels and in your Manuscripts that flye as thick as Moths up and down the Country the ablest of your party the Authors of them have said and railed and censured and slandered and at a venture predicted his pleasure Let me now repeat a little of what they have said and tell some part of the World some of the wickednesse that is contained in them I have not mentioned the personall failings of any of your Society except such practises as are notoriously known and have been defended and wherein your Religion is partly placed Nor have I aggravated any thing or made a Mountain of your Mole-hil those that are well acquainted with you know that what is here said is rather a Mole-hill to your Mountain For the Errours of your Sect mentioned in this book it is not my intent in this discourse to debate them with you or to undertake a confutation of them To those that are not Children in knowledge the very nomination of them is a sufficient confutation such cleer opposition is there between them and the word of Truth And for your selves I suppose private and moderate reasonings if you would admit of them would be more praevalent to reclaim you then Writings Yet if you would deale so ingenuously with us as to let us know under your hands wherein you go alone and dissent from the Generation of the Children of the most High and desire our answer to it a little time I hope would produce it from some abler Pen then mine to what should cleerly appeare to be Erroneous Lend me your Patience a little longer while I speak yet something more freely to you of your way your selves that walk in it and your Speakers that have seduced you to it Your way may challenge the Christian world to shew one more wicked I must confesse to you I do not detest Popery it selfe more heartily then I do your Irreligion Papists are open Idolaters and the Propagators of your Superstitions are more horrid Blasphemers most of your Errours may throw down the Gauntlet to the worst of theirs besides many that you hold in common with them They worship God according to the fancy of the Pope and his Conclave You according to the fancy of Fox and those others that have deluded you or according to your own imaginations or rather you worship not the Lord at all having cast off all his Ordinances without exception your Soule loatheth that light Bread Besides your Spirits are more impetuous your practises Tenets as nay more destructive to humane Societie and civill Peace and Government then those of the Iesuites Proselytes or are you one jot lesse if not more Antichristians then they Your way also leads to Ranting and if the Lord in mercy do not reclaim you it is easie to predict that before a few months or yeares be gone over you will be ascended to that height and precipice of Impiety And for your selves while in this way if you be compared with the prophane people of the world you are the worse They when they revile and curse and drink and sweare and live in uncleannesse will be easily convinced of and confesse the evill of their way But you when you turn your backs upon Gods word and Ordinances and scoff at them and speake evill of the way of Truth and cease not with Elymas to pervert the right waies of the Lord and revile the Ministers of Christ and mock at his Messengers you make it your Religion and applaud and justifie your selves in it as though you did God good Service in so doing Yet this Iniquity of yours is I am assured of it a greater and purer peece of Profanity then if you should in the sight of the Sun lye down and wallow in the Mire of any of the common Vices and Pollutions of the world If there was that order and discipline established among us which Christ hath appointed in his Church such as you should bee cut off from the Lords people by Excommunication be solemnly delivered up to Satan and declared to be as Heathens and Publicans Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick saith the Apostle after the first and second Admonition reject But however men on earth deale with you if you live and dye without repentance in the sinnes above mentioned it is no presumption to say the sentence of Excommunication will be passed upon you in Heaven and that the doores of the Kingdome of God will be shut against you for ever You heare the word of Truth telling you 1 Cor. 6. 9. 10. That no unrighteous Persons And particularly that Revilers shall not inherite the Kingdome of God and Gal. 5. 20. 21. That Idolatry Witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions Heresies are manifest works of the flesh and that those that do such things shal not be the Inhabitants of that upper Region and Revel 21. 8. and 22. 15. That the unbeliving and all lyars shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death And you know how Christ wil deale with those at the last day that obey not his Gospel Many of these sinnes specified in the Texts above cited are the naturall Fruits or rather essentiall parts of your new Irreligion and I am sure also they have been hitherto in very many of your way as the iâ—â—â—rable Adjuncts of it The Lord the Father of mercies open your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see the evill of this your way and reclaim you from it for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 path of life but one of the rodes to Hell and a way that goes downe to the Chambers of death And for your Speakers if ever there did arise false Prophets Seducers since Christs time and since the Apostles fell asleep as they have told us in their Sacred Writings
that there should especially in the last Ages of the World I do as verily believe and know them to be such as if they were marked in the Forehead so exactly do they answer the Characters and Predictions of holy Scripture concerning this sort of men And your selves may easily discern them to be such by their Fruits viz. by their Blasphemies by their damnable Heresies by their lying Doctrines by their professed disobedience to Iesus Christ in casting off all his Ordinances and teaching others to do so also by their resisting the Truth as Jannes and Jambres did Moses by their Diabolicall Trances and Raptures by their Superstitious unholy Fastings by their railing Language by their speaking great swelling words of vanity their boasting of Perfection and Voices and Revelations and immediate Inspirations from the Spirit by their will Worship by their unchristian immodest unhumane Incivilities and Impudencies by their bearing witnesse to themselves as that woman Jezebell did Revel 2. 20. who called her selfe a Prophetesse by their creeping into houses and their successe in their Seductions in subverting whole houses and overthrowing the faith of so many and drawing them to follow their pernicious waies It hath been ordinary with the Divell in all Ages of the Chuch especially when he fancies or feares a time of Reformation approaching because he cannot abide the light of the Truth to excite men that make som profession of religion as his Agents to lend them his assistance in stirring up Tumults to hinder the successe and propagation thereof and to bring it into contempt and hatred in the world And therefore it is not now to be look upon as strange that the Divell hath raised up his Instruments under a vain-glorious Profession of a new and more spirituall Religion to oppugne the true Doctrine of the Gospell of Iesus Christ and all obedience both to it and him Beare with me yet a little and I will tell you plainly what is our duty in respect of these Deluders It is the duty of all Christs faithfull Ministers who are set for the defence of the Gospell to contend earnestly for the faith against them I mean not by carnall but by those Spirituall Weapons of our Warfare which are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds It is their duty to endeavour to stop the mouths of these Gain-sayers from the word of Truth and to warn and exhort all men to avoid them as ravenous Wolves as the very Pests of the places where they are or come And for all that desire to appeare before the Iudgment Seat of Iesus Christ with comfort and your selves it is your duty to beware of them to turn away from them to with-draw from their Society and have no common familiarity with them Heare to this purpose the Command of the Lord in his holy word Math. 7. 15. Beware of false Prophets Matth. 24. 24 25 26. There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great Signes and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. Behold I have told you before wherefore if they should say unto you behold he is in the Desart go not forth behold he is in the secret Chambers believe it not Rom. 16. verse 17. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offenses contrary to the Doctrine which yee have learned and avoid them 2 Thes. 3. 6. Now we command you Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you with-draw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly and not after the Tradition which he received of us 2 Tim. 3. 5. 6. From such turn away of this sort are they that creep into houses and lead Captive silly women c. 2 Ioh. verse 10 11. If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God-speed For he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evill Deeds Except you obey these Commands of the Lord Iesus you will not you cannot be his Disciples O repent therefore of your former disobedience to him and your revoltings and wandrings from him who is the Bishop and Shepheard of Soules Return to embrace that Truth from which you have turned away your Eares and to attend upon the Lord in those his holy Ordinances upon which you have turned your backs and from those crooked by-waies into which you have been seduced through the subtlety of Satans Messengers And do this speedily while you have time before you and before it be too late It will be ere long too late to repent and impossible for you to return You know how ready the Lord is to extend his mercy to the Penitent If this and such like faire warnings will not prevaile with you but you will still obstinately proceed in your Enmity to the waies of God and his Gospell I will and I hope all that feare the Lord will together with me set themselves more earnestly then we have yet done to sollicit the Lord to appeare and plead from Heaven against your Heresie and to extirpate it from off the Earth Though I have not satisfied my selfe in this my plain addresse to you nor spoke me-thinks what I would yet that I may not be tedious I will add no more but this Prayer for you That the Lord the Sun of Righteousnesse would please to rise unto you and chase away that night and darknesse that lyes upon your Understandings and grant unto you Repentance to there acknowledgment of the Truth and powerfully recover you out of the Snares of the Divell that so being turned from the power of Satan to God you may receive an Inheritance among those that are Sanctified through faith in him This is the desire of his Soule to God for you who is Your loving Friend F. H. A BREIFE Relation of the Irreligion of the Northern QUAKERS Wherein their horrid Principles and Practises Doctrines and Manners as farr as their Mystery of Iniquity hath yet discovered it selfe are plainly exposed to the view of every Intelligent Reader THE last Summer there came or rather crept unawares into the County of Westmerland and some parts of Yorkeshire and Lancashire adjacent to it George Fox Iames Nailer one Spoden and one Thornton all of them Satans seeds-men and such as have prosperously sowed the Tares of that Enemy in the forementioned fields as shall be with Gods assistance in this ensuing Relation manifestly declared These men together with some others who being affectors of novelties in Religion more then Verity were quickly made their Proselytes have powerfully seduced multitudes of people in these parts from the Truth and true worship of God to imbrace their Doctrines of Devills and follow their pernicious wayes This sort of people are vulgarly and not unaptly distinguished from others by the name of Quakers the reason of which Appellation I shall shew you hereafter Now to the end it may be as apparent as the day
some that pride idlenesse and fulnesse of bread the sins of Sodom are the fruits of their preaching They acuse them of being brought up at Oxford and Cambridge they say they know nothing but naturall Books and naturall things the Scripture Letter Hebrew and Greek which is all naturall That the ungodly unholy proud Priests add Professors must be scorned who know not the Power of the word Reader I coine or add no expression of mine own I repeate onely their own words which such Books and Papers of theirs as I can produce are full of They apply all that is spoken to Idolatrous ignorant idle prophane persecuting Priests and false Prophets either in the old or new Testament to the Ministers of England but we know that though one syllable or tittle of such abused Texts of Scripture doth not pertain to any godly faithfull Minister of the Gospell yet that very many of them do as properly belong to themselves as the Skin that is upon their flesh They exhort people not to heare them to cease from them and not to hold them up and tell them they will never be profited by them And indeed as soon as any man turnes their Proselite he becomes as pure a Recusant as any Papist in England And not content to raile against them in Prose they compose Songs or Ballads rather which their Disciples magnifie and look upon as Spirituall Songs that they may revile them in Meeter also One of their Speakers said not long since that the Priests had deluded the people this sixteen hundred yeares borrowing this peice of Divinity or Devility rather from the Almanack-maker Their Writings are full of Threatnings Prophesies against Ministers for which also they are beholding to the Astrologers They say the Lord is coming to beat up their Quarters the Son of Thunder is coming abroad to sound Trumpets to call to Battell against the great day of the Lord and there Kingdome must be taken from them and that their downfall is neer at hand Some of them have said they hope within a yeares time to see never a Minister left in England They exhort one another in the words of Coliier out of whose Pit they have drawn much of their black Religion to overturn overturn overturn Thus one Instrument of the Divell helps another Reader I do very believe that if these wicked men had power in their hands there would be no Toleration of any true Minister of Jesus Christ in England and that one of the first things they would endeavour would be if not to raise a tempest of Persecution by raining blood yet at least to raise and extripate the Sacred Callings I say Sacred calling of the Ministry being the Institution of Jesus Christ in his Church One principall reason why they do thus shew their teeth against Ministers I imagine to be this they look upon some of them as those that do mainly stand in their way as those that are able to detect their Errours to manifest their folly and unsheath the Sword of the Spirit the word of Truth against them They cannot for them so freely proceed in the propagation of their Delusions as they would Hence they are their greatest eye-sores Also if I may without offence speak what I think and partly know they presume to take this liberty to themselves because they are apt to conceive that Ministers are now almost friendlesse that Authority will not appeare for them and that they are the Object of the wrath of divers Soldiers in the Army whom they foolishly suppose to incline to their as to them unknown Sect. But I hope yea I am confident that when the Hypocrisie of these men shall be unmasked and their madnesse and iniquity which hath already begun in some places to lift up her head shall be better known and appeare they shall then proceed no further And that those Worthies that by divine Providence do or shall sit at the Stern to guide the Ship of the Common-wealth and the godly Officers of the Army will not onely disowne and detest but also manifest themselves to be Enemies to all their Impieties and Enormous Practises of this turbulent Faction But in the mean time while they are so injurious to the Soveraigne Majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ the Prince of the Kings of the Earth by their Hellish Blasphemies and eager opposition of the Truth well may they contemne and rage against such Earthen Vessels as are his Ministers here on Earth Of their Censoriousnesse Lying instability in their own Errours and enmity to Learning NEver did Hereticks speak greater swelling words of vanity and more exalt themselves and throw down others then those who are of that Synagogue do They commend themselves up to Heaven they give themselves the title of Saints they boast themselves to be equal to the Apostles to speak from the immediate Revelation of the Spirit impudently impiously affirming more of themselves then the true Apostles of Jesus ever did or durst do touching their freedome from sin and perfection in holinesse c. and threaten that they shall be the Judges of the World but they will readily censure all others to Hell tell them they are damned that they worship the Beast that they are possessed with the Divell yea with many Divels that the Divell speakes in them and that they see him in their eyes and faces c. This language of Divels indeed is as ordinary with them to dissenters from their way that oppose them as to talk with them Many of them will be as ready to say and unsay any thing as if lying was a Vertue They make no conscience of raising false Reports against those especially that do any way oppose them Witnesse that lying Pamphlet Sauls Errant to Damascus wherein there are a hundred untruths as may be proved by a hundred Witnesses It is the Testimony of a faithfull Minister of Christ concerning them Not in halfe an houres discourse saith he with most of those I have discoursed with but you shall finde plain and down-right lyes Some of them saith he have commed to my house and said they had a Message from God to me upon my speedy demanding it they have point blank almost in the same breathing time denyed it When some that have been in some measure able from the word of Truth to manifest their Errours have discoursed with those Wells without water though themselves have stood like men inwardly convicted and ashamed utterly unable to gain-say or darken those cleare Evidences of Scripture brought against them and sometimes totally silenced and as mute as Fishes Yet when these Champions of Errours have gone away they have boasted of their Conquests and how gloriously they had foiled and stopt the mouths of their Adversaries Thus wholly by Lyes Lying Doctrines lying Revelations lying Wonders lying Reports they do endeavour to build up the Kingdome of the Father of Lyes among us Their inconstancy to their own Errours is also very remarkable They
Quakers will give the common respects to Magistrates or to any Friends or old Acquaintance If they meet them by the way or any stranger they will go or ride by them as though they were dumb or as though they were Beasts rather then men not affording a Salutation or Resaluting though themselves be Saluted They do not give any Title or colour of respect to those that are their Superiours in Office Honour Estate such as Master or Sir c. but call them by their naked name Thomas or William or Gervase or Dorothy and ignorantly mistake it to be disagreeable to the word of Truth They go to their Meales for the most part like the Heathen without any Prayer or thanksgiving When meat or drink is set on the Table the Master of the house if he be any thing skilful in their way invites none of his guests to it but they fall to one after another as their appetite serves them when they go to bed when they rise in the morning when they depart from a house they use no civil salutes so that their departures and going aside to ease themselves are almost undistinguishable It is the opinion of many honest men that have observed the wayes of this society that there are none professing Christianity more irreligious then they are Ranters excepted Those that formerly used prayer in their Families have now laid it aside as uselesse They observe no day by vertue of Gods command And for the Lords day those that are far from their Speakers spend it in lying long in bed sitting at home and mere idlenesse If any go to the publique Assemblies as some few of them do sometimes it is but one part of the day and they count that enough and too much rather and when they come to their fellows the use they make of what they heard is onely to carp and laugh at it Such dayes of humiliation and thanksgiving as have been appointed by authority of Parliament they as I can learn never observed and called those Ministers that did observe them the States Priests Some have been down right cursed by Fox the Ring leaders of this crue One in the Barony of Kendal that is now fallen off from their society gave this as one reason of his deserting them he had oftentims urged Iames Nayler to pray with him and could not long hale him to it by his intreaty so averse was he to this Ordinance at last prevailing with him he used onely in his prayer 3 or 4 sentences whereof this was one O Lord saith he raise up thy Son from under corruption in us which sentence he distasting together with some other reasons moved him to leave them It was a strange bold peice of Impiety in George Fox in commanding a Criple at a place near Kendal to throw away his crutches as though he had been invested with a power to work Miracles but the Criple remained a Criple still and George Fox impudently discovered his own folly Many of them that had good cloaths as soon as they joyned themselves to this Sect burnt their bravery and some of them as one saith as a part of their first zeal burnt their Bibles To go naked is with some of them accounted a decency becoming their imagined state of innocency better then apparrel the ablest of their way plead for this obscenitie One of this sort in Kirbbymooreside a Market town in Yorkeshire ran stark naked to the Crosse in the view of many and stood in that posture as I heard speaking to the people Two others of their societie a Man and a Woman that called themselves Adam and Eve went for some while as some uncivilized Heathen doe discovering their nakednesse to the eye of every beholder and when they were publikely examined at the Assises for their bruitish practice the man wickedly affirmed that the power of God was upon him he was commanded to do it At Weighton also a little town in Yorkeshire a woman of this Goatish herd came naked from her own bed to another womans Husband a companion of hers it seems of the same sect and bid him open his bed to her for the Father had sent her to him The man had at that time another man lying in bed with him who rose to give place to this woman and left this honest couple to lie together according to the womans Revelation this saith the Authour of a Book intituled The Querers and Quakers case at the second hearing is no lie but fallen under the Magistrates Cognisance a known thing One of their Gang in Westmerland on Friday the Eighth of April last ran like a mad man naked all but his shirt through Kendall crying Repent Repent wo wo come out of Sodome Remember Lots wife with other such stuffe His principall Auditours were a company of Boyes that followed him through the Town I almost wonder what the Devil should mean in sending abroad such naked Bedlam speakers one would think the walls of this Iericho should rather be razed then raised by such pitiful Engineers But to linger no where in particulars This one thing to me doth plainly evidence the way of these Apostates to be of the Devil No sooner is any one become a Proselite to their Sect but he is possessed with a spirit of malice and wrath and turns enemy to all men that are not of their way Especially to those that appear against it To such they use menacing speeches as of a day that is coming wherein they shall be avenged and talk frothily sometimes of levying forces chuseing Collonels and Captains c. And though they speak much against going to law before Infidels so they insinuate all our Ministers of Justice to be yet upon the least affront given to themselves they will procure the Indictment of those they have any colour of charge against Instancies enough might be given There is a credible report and when there is need all Parties may be named of some that attempted to Sacrifice their Children but were through Providence prevented Mr. Burton a well qualified Gentleman and a Justice of the Peace in the County of Westmerland who made Naylers Mittimus a little after riding from Appleby towards his own house which is about a mile distant from the said Town about the mid-way in a place where the narrow Lane he was to passe through disparts it selfe into two was way-laid with foure Musketteers two of whom lin'd the Hedge on one side of the way and two of them where the Lane divides it selfe on the other side when the foresaid Gentleman with his man onely in Company was come over against them one of those Assassines discharged his Musket at him the Bullet flying as he conceived betwixt himselfe and his man who rode a little before him he had not rid five Paces further but a second discharges upon him whose Bullet also he heard sing by him but received no hurt being startl'd at this unexpected Accident and fearing there might
another revengeful ly and an imputation of unfaithfulnesse to those Gentlemen that were of the Committee for sequestration That the multitude was armed is another horrid falsity or that any was armed save that 2 Gentlemen there had their swords with them which is not unusual with them when they go abroad and 1 Country man And if he brought his sword thither upon that occasion as not using to wear one it was rather for fear of the Quakers then to offend them That any threatned to knock out his brains against the wall to pull down the house that the Priests rushed in violently and tooke him by the throat and haled him out of door That there M. Burton strook off his hat with a pitch-fork or any body else or that any violence was done to him any where are such notorious falsehoods as I think the Father of lies himself would be ashamed to forge seeing there are so many sorts of people that can bear witnesse against them There was no Minister there but my self and if Nayler or any of his lying followers can say that I was guilty of the least incivility towards him either in word or action let them not spare to charge me with it before any authority I shall dare the whole Generation of them to doe it What was done there was not done in a corner but before many witnesses by whom the Truth may easily be made to appear Reader I will not detain thee with reckoning up all the falsities contained in this Relation onely in general I beseech every man fearing God that shall reade these lines to believe that there was no one of those abuses offered to Nayler that are there spoken of in our sight or hearing that were there present If when we were absent any one used any railing language to Nayler or his followers according to their own constant custome towards others I do not here go about to justifie them in that sinfull practise For the Particulars of our conference there if the recital of them might benefit the Reader I would set them down exactly according to Truth While we were discoursing Nayler was answered one question for another and I think to his own conviction seeing his Relation neither mentions those questions he propounded nor my Answers to them I am sure his mouth was stopt then he had nothing to gainsay For that particular which he charges me with that I said Christ was in heaven with a carnal body I shall reply to it by and by in my relation of the Examination of Nayler at the Sessions at Appleby And where he saith his Commitment was for Thou-ing Master Burton and refusing to put off his hat to him it is most untrue though his pride and contempt of Authoritie did thereby sufficiently appear M. Burton as all other inhabitants of these parts had heard much of the blasphemies of these wicked speakers Fox and Nayler c. Of the seeds of heresies they had sowne the damnable doctrines they had broached the distractions and disturbances they had caused in Towns and families in other parts of the Country and of the great number of people they had perverted and lookt upon it as I have heard him say as necessary to give some check to the proceedings of these men for the preservation of the publicke peace This he thought to have done onely by binding Nailer over to the Sessions where he hoped some order might be made for the bridling of the growing insolencies and impieties of this turbulent sect But Nayler refusing to yield obedience to the Law in giving security for his apperance at the next quarter Sessions which were then nigh occasioned Mr. Burton to write a Mittimus and send him to Appleby to continue in the Goals custody till the Sessions should be For Hogils businesse there were three or foure of their speakers or praters rather in the Market place all of them speaking together more like mad men then Ministers of Christ or sober teachers of the Gospel and virulently railing against those that were so indeed and this Hogill amongst them who affirmed for his part that all the Ministers in England that preach in steeple houses were lyars against Jesus Christ. M. Burton being then in the Town sent for him to reprove him for this language When he came in he behaved himself very contemptuously his words were very stubborn peremptory Some present told him M. Burton was a Magistrate and it was meet he should shew him at least some civil respect as that of putting off the hat Hogill denied to do it M. Burton told him in a friendly manner how far they were degenerated from all Civility and common manners and that for himself he did not desire the respect of putting off the hat from him or any man though he knew that such behaviour was due towards a Magistrate as might shew some reverence and respect to him but did much wonder they were so superstitiously scrupulous of it as if it were some great sin Hogil repiyed God had not commanded him to put off his hat and that he did not owe him that respect nor would he give it to him Whereupon one that stood by took it off and layd it upon the end of the Table by him Hogil took his hat and put it on again Another standing by him took it off again and laid it in the fire within his reach He refusing to save his hat himself one that stood by presently took it off the fire before it had received any hurt and gave it to him and he wore it according to his own mind Among other peremptory expressions he used to Master Burton this was one The Law saith he thou actest by is tyranny and oppression For this and other wicked speeches M. Burton desired him to find bail among his friends many of whom were then in the town for his appearing at the Sessions then not far off which when he utterly refused to do he made him a companion to Nayler Where the Relator saith There were 3 large Petitions prepared stuft with most filthy untruths and slanders raised out of the bottomless pit The Reader may know that there were indeed 2 Petitions then presented to the Justicess one of which came from the town of Kendal the other from some other parts of the Countrie Nor will the subscribers be ashamed to owne them being able to make every particular good with advantage But I doubt I have already exacted upon the Patience of my Reader and am even weary of raking in this Relation wherein untruths ly as thick as worms in old dunghils But I am not curious to observe all the material Errataes in it The Reader may be assured of this that if they had had any thing whereof they could have justly accused us we should have heard of it in another manner then out of Sauls Errant to Damascus long before this time and louder complaints would have been made then those of