answered a Voice came to them commanding them to come to him He asked them again where this Voice came to them they replyed T F his Garden in Lancashire he demanded again what that Voice commanded them to say to him they answered it was not yet given in to them The Gentleman then told them if they knew not what they had to say to him he knew not what he had further to say to them That night being towards Evening they were entertained in that Gentlemans house and being desired by the Servants to Supper they refused to eat but called for a little water onely The next Morning also they refused to eat any thing but offered to one of the Servants money for their Lodging he told them they did not well to come thither to abuse his Master he kept no Inne In the return towards their old Randezvous a few miles from this Gentlemans house they called at a little Alehouse that stands alone where desiring the Hostesse to provide for their Breakfast they eat and drank heartily The poor woman a little after told one of the aforesaid Gentlemans Servants that had occasion that way that two or three notable Trencher-men had been at her house who enquiring what manner of men they were knew them to be the same men that had been at his Masters 30. They deny all Ordinances and their practise is sutable to this their wicked Tenet An honest Minister in Westmerland discoursing with Fox asked him whether he did believe Prayer Preaching the Sacraments Meditation Holy-conference to be Ordinances of God No saith he away with them I deny them all 31. They call the Worship of God used in our publick Assemblies a beastly worm-eaten form a Heathenish way and Worship fleshly carnall c. 32. They hold that the sprinkling of Infants is Antichristian and their Baptisme the mark of the Beast spoken of in the Revelation which those that worship the Beast recieve in their foreheads 33. They affirm that there is not one word in Scripture that speaks of a Sacrament and that they are unlawfull that a little bread and a little wine in a Sacrament is the Worlds Communion and that in the true Church of God there is no talk of such carnall things A Minister in Westmerland having some conference with Fox and knowing him to be against the Baptisme of Infants asked him if he did not own the Baptisme of water to be an Ordinance No saith he I deny it there is no such Ordinance 34. They hold it unlawfull to sing the Psalmes of David and call them the Worlds Psalmes carnall Psalmes and say we sing Davids quakings and tremblings and that we put Davids Conditions into Rhime and Metre and sing them to the dishonour of God 35. They deny the Lords day to be the Christian Sabbath and say the Sabbath is a Mystery which we understand not 36. They hold it unlawfull to worship God in our Churches commonly and metonymically so called and tearm them Idols Temples beasts houses where God is not worshiped but the worship of the Beast is upheld and that the Beasts of the field meet there Night-birds Screech Owles 37. For the Office of the Magistracy though they do not yet openly declaim against it fearing they should be quickly called to account for such an attempt yet their Opinions which some of their lavish Tongues have manifested touching it as also this rude irreverent sawcy deportment towards Magistrates wherein they shew not so much as any common respect to them their bold impious Predictions of the ruine of all in Authority whatsoever and railings against them do easily evidence them to be none of the best friends to it The ensuing words are the words of a godly learned Minister to a friend of his However saith he the advice of some of late hath made them wiser There was no Doctrine more ordinary at their first entring into these parts at which time they spoke their hearts more freely and plainly then they have done since sense of danger and some little opposition having made them more politick then that we owe no Obedience to any Magistrate and that we ought not to own them with any honour or subjection Mr. Cole severall times endeavoured the Conviction of some of them from that abundant Testimony the Gospell gives to that distinction of Magistrates and Subjects Superiours and Inferiours but in vain And in his discourse with Nailer at Kendall when Nailer told him he accused him in this point falsely Providence so ordered it that one of his followers was there present who having before maintained the said Doctrine to him confessed then he had recieved it from Iames Nailer One Leonard Till of their way in Lancashire affirmed that one man ought not to have power over another Another principall man of the Sect in our County affirmed to a Justice of Peace there would be Quakers in Westmerland when there should be never a Justice of Peace in it for which words he was Indicted at the Sessions Ian. last How those of this Sect at York now Prisoners there railed against the Judges ealling them Scarlet coloured Beasts c. while sitting on the Bench is not unknown Such Justices of the Peace that appeare against their way they call Justices so called 38. They hold that all things ought to be common and teach the Doctrine of Levelling privately to their Disciples Those that know the Leaders of this Sect best judge them to be down right Levellers and that feare of suppression keeps them for the present from teaching that Doctrine openly Severall of them have affirmed that there ought to be no distinction of Estates but an universall parity one above the rest denyed the property of Estates a third affirmed that whersoever Christ came he came to destroyal property 39. They hold to quote Fathers and Authors in preaching is Antichristian 40. They are of Opinion that it is unlawfull to call any man Master or Sir 41. They hold it unwarrantable to salute any man by the way 42. They account it unlawfull to use the Civility of our Language in speaking to a single Person in the Plurall number I do not lay all the Tenets above recited to the charge of every one of them nor do I believe that all of them hold them all some of them are defended by some certain men of them onely Others of them are maintained by them all in generall Of the wicked Practises of the QUAKERS and first of their Meetings and Speakings HItherto of their Errours that are come to our knowledge I shall now go on to present my Reader with a briefe view of their black wicked Practises the naturall Fruits of such corrupt Principles as are above mentioned In doing of which I shall principally take notice of their Meetings Speakings Quakings Fastings Revellings Censoriousnesse â—â—ings Inconstancy in their own Opinions enmity to Learning Idlenesse Incivilities bloody barbarous and turbulent Practises for their wayes have
that the Guides of this Sect notwithstanding their faire pretensions of an immediate call and extraordinary Mission and the great Opinion their followers have conceived of them are not the servants of the Lord Jesus but in very deed the Emissaries and Ministers of Satan and that their way is not the good old way the way of God but as contrary to it as darknesse to the light I shall take some paines to acquaint my Reader 1. With the cursed Blasphemies which George Fox the Grand Master of this Faction and some others have uttered 2. With some of those Doctrines of Devils damnable Heresies and dangerous Errors which their speakers have disseminated and wherewith they have infected their unhappy Disciples 3. With the bitter and rotten fruits of their Doctrine such of their strange impious seditious suspicious insolent and Barbarous practices as have come to my knowledge some of which doe in the judgement of the most sober and intelligent Christians strongly savor of sorcery and the immediate co-operation of the Devill Of the horrid Blasphemies of the Quakers against God and his Christ. George Fox the Father of the Quakers of these parts hath avowed himselfe over and over to be equall with God being asked by Doctor Marshall in the presence of Master Sawro Colonell Tell and Colonell West Justices of the Peace in the County of Lancashire at a private Sessions in the Towne of Lancaster whether or no he was equall with God as he had before that time beene heard to affirme his answer was this I am equall with God This Blasphemy hath been attested upon Oath by the foresayd Doctor Marshall and Master Altam Schoolmaster of Lancaster before the Justices at the last Sessions held at Appleby Ianuary the 8. 1652. and before Judge Puleston at the last Assizes held at Lancaster March the 18. 1652. This Fox in a Booke intituled Sauls Errand to Damascus endeavours to purge himselfe of this and other such cursed speeches layd to his charge but he doth it so woodenly and ambiguously that if there wanted sufficient witnesses his owne bungling answers would to a rationall man declare him guilty And well may he affirme himselfe to be equall with God when he in the foresayd Booke Page eight Line nine and ten layes downe this blasphemous Proposition indefinitely Hee that hath the same Spirit that raised up Iesus Christ from the dead is equall with God The said Fox hath also avowed himselfe to be the Christ yea to be the way the Truth the life George Bickett Isaac Bourne witnesseth At the last Assises above-mentioned at Lancaster Mr. Sawro a Justice of the Peace in that County and an honest Gentleman told Judge Puleston in the open Court that he could produce many would witnesse that Fox had affirmed himselfe to be the Christ. The same also he said in the hearing of an honest Minister in Westmerland who will be ready to attest it when called to it This Fox hath also professed himselfe to be the Judge of the World George Bickett Adam Sands Nathaniel Atkinson witnesseth Yea the Eternall Judge of the World George Bickett witnesseth Iames Nailer another of Satans Nuntioes and principall spokesman in these parts affirmeth that he was as holy just and good as God himself This was I heare attested at Kendall by two witnesses There is a man of good Repute an Inhabitant of Underbarrow in the Barony of Kendall who sayeth many heard this Blasphemy besides himselfe but he thinks being all followers of this Nailer and Fox they will be unwilling to testifie it Iames Milner one of Foxes Disciples in the County of Lancashire professed himselfe to be God and Christ. Thomas Shaw Gerard Shaw George Inman witnesses This mans Advocate I mean that Pamphleteer that took the pains to put forth and procure the printing of that Book called Sauls Errant to Damascus or he that undertook to answer in his behalfe to Salve this his execrable Blasphemy and some wretched Prophesies which are already turned into lyes hath minted this miserable Excuse As for Iames Milner saith he though his mind did run out from his condition and from minding that Light of God which is in him whereby the world takes occasion to speak against the Truth and many Friends stumble at it yet there is a pure Seed in him It seems if a man be of their way though a Blasphemer and false Prophet by their own confession yet with them he is excusable One Williamsons Wife a Disciple of Milners when she came to see him at Appleby said in the hearing of divers there whose names might be here inserted if it was needfull that she was the Eternall Son of God And when the men that heard her told her that she was a woman and therefore could not be the Son of God She said no you are women but I am a man These last words I insert that the Reader may see how strongly the Spirits of some of these people are transported and how ready they are to affirm any thing how ever impious or absurd Of the Erroneous Opinions of the QUAKERS HItherto of their Blasphemies Now for the Doctrines which the Leaders of this Sect have avouched and taught and the Principles they have instilled into their credulous Adhaerents They are some of them Errours of the first Magnitude Fundamentall Errours Others of them though of a lesser size in their own nature yet the understanding Reader will censure them to be such as tend to the disturbance of the Civill Peace as well as that of the Church Others of them again are such light stuff as shewes them to be meer triflers in Religion I shall heare mention such of their Errours onely as I can bring sufficient proofe for either from those that have been Ear-witnesses and are well acquainted with their way or from their own printed Books which are owned and admired by their Disciples 1. They hold that the holy Scripture the Writings of the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles are not the word of God and that there is no written word of God But they say using a foolish distinction of their own coining that they are a declaration of the word onely in those that gave the faith 2. They hold their own speakings are a declaration of the word Christ in them thereby making them though they be for the most part full of impiety and non-sense to be of equall Authority with the holy Scriptures 3. They hold that no Exposition ought to be given of the holy Scripture and that all expounding of Scripture is an adding to it and that God will add to such a one all the plagues written in that Book Opening and applying the Scripture is one thing they mainly declaim against where ever they come 4. They teach poor people that whosoever takes a text of Scripture and makes a Sermon of or from it is a Conjurer and that his preaching is Conjuration Fox in his printed answer to this Sauls Errant Page 7. saith thus
All that study to raise a living thing out of a dead to raise the Spirit out of the letter are Conjurers and draw Points and Reasons and so speak a divination of their own brain they are Conjurers and Diviners and their teaching is from Conjuration which is not spoken from the mouth of the Lord and the Lord is against all such and who are of God are against all such for their Doctrine doth not profit the people at all for it stands not in the Counsell of God but it is a Doctrine of the Devill and drawes people from God 5. They affirm that the Letter of the Scripture is carnall 6. That he that puts the Letter for light is blind 7. That the word is not the Rule whereby to try their Spirits they will not allow of comparing of that Watcher they say they have within with the written word in Scripture 8. They call the written word of God the Worlds word the Worlds light Touchstone Rule and say our outward Scriptures and glorious Gospell is dust Some of them have affirmed it was no great matter if all the Bibles in England were burnt 9. It is a Doctrine generall with them that the Soule is a part of God or of the Divine Essence and was actually existent long before it was conveyed into the Body This wicked Opinion of the Priscilianists and other old Erronists now reviv'd by this Sect some of the most eminent of them have endeavoured to maintain against Mr. Cole a godly and learned Minister living in Kendall 10. The deniall of any distinction of Persons in the God-head is common with them Fox Sauls Errant Page 12. affirmes that it is but a busie mind to enquire whether there be one Individuall God distinguished into Father Son and Holy Ghost 11. They hold that Christ hath no body but his Church 12. That Jesus Christ is come into their flesh that he is in them as man that the man Christ dwels in them 13. That Christ his coming in the flesh is but a figure and all he did is nothing else but an Example the exploded Doctrine of the Socinians denying the efficacy and virtue of his Blood and Sacrifice by which in his own body he purged away sin which Principle stands cleer in the Lancashire charge against them and nothing evaded by what is layed down under the name of an Answer called Sauls Errant Page 8. 14. They hold that Christ is a light within every man and that every man must mind that light and teacher within and follow no Teacher without Nailer when Mr. Cole had some discourse with him at Kendall affirmed to him that Christ was in all men even in Reprobates and that in them he is held under Corruption 15. They hold that all men in the world have in them a light sufficient to Salvation Turks Indians yea such as never had or ever shall have any outward means to reveale Christ to them 16. Some of them have argued that the man Christ is not ascended into Heaven 17. They hold that we are justified by Christ alone without Imputation 18. They hold Prayer for remission of sins a needlesse thing 19. They hold that that Righteousnesse which Jesus Christ fulfilled in his own Person with us and before we were born is not the matter of our Justification 20. Some of them and those no meane ones among them neither hold the Popish Doctrine of Justification by works or inhaerent Righteousnesse which Christ in him inables them to perform 21. They hold that in Conversion there is no new nature no habit of grace or Seed of God infused but that Christ that was in man before is then raised up in them out of Prison 22. They hold that there is fulnesse of Glory in this life that they enjoy God here and Christ here the Resurrection Judgment Angels Glory and all they look for they enjoy in this life and mock at those that speak of another World or life to come or a better Kingdome 23. They deny many of them the Resurrection of the body 24. They hold that there is no Locall Heaven or Hell 25. They hold many of them that they have attained to a state of Perfection and that they neither do nor can sin 26. They hold that the calling of the Ministry of England without any exception is Antichristian 27. They affirm that there is no such thing contained in the holy Scripture as a Mediate call to the Ministry by man 28. They hold the Office of teaching to be utterly uselesse in the Church of God and tell the most ignorant people where they come that they have no need that any man should teach them and therefore disswade them from hearing any of our Ministers what ever telling them they shall be damned if they do so and that all that go to the best houses to heare them shall be turned like Chaff and Stubble and charge people not to believe a word that any of them speak And for themselves when they speak they say they do not teach or preach but onely declare the Revelations of God in them 29. They hold that Fox and all the rest of their Speakers are immediately called Sauls Errent Page 4. Fox saith they were moved to come into those parts by the Lord and the Lord let them see he had a people here before they came Nailer also at the last Sessions at Appleby Ian. 1652. affirmed in the face of the Court that when he was at Plow in Barly Seed time meditating on the things of God he suddenly heard a voice commanding him to go out from his Country and from his Fathers house and had a promise given in with it And being demanded whether he heard the Voice he said he heard it himselfe but those that were with him heard it not Being asked again whether it was an Audible Voice he answered no friend it was not a carnall Voice audible to the outward Eare. A little after going on in his relation he said that going agateward they are his own words with a friend from his own house the Voice come to him again commanding him to go into the West not telling him whether he should go or what he was to do there but when he had been there a little while it was given him what he was to declare If my Reader please to be detained with another short Story to this purpose he shall have it Fox with one or two other men his Companions as I heard it came to an Honourable Gentlemans house in Cumberland One of the house came to them to the door to know their businesse They asked if the Gentleman of the house was within calling him by his name for they give no title of respect to any man whatsoever they were answered affirmatively Being called in the Gentleman took them aside to know what they would with him they told him they were sent to him from God He enquired of them how they certainly knew it they
or women or others are by their proselyted friends who desire to make them as bad as themselves brought to heare him speak or discourse with him it is another of his Customes to talk and hold them a while by the hand and it is confidently reported that many he hath thus handled though some of them before their comeing to him did exceedingly disaffect both him and his Impieties even to hatred and though they stayed but a while with him and heard nothing from him that might either morally perswade or rationally convince them of the evill of their former way or if any greater Excellency in his new way yet so strangely have they been wrought upon and altered that they been all on the suddaine earnest feirce impetuous in both for it and him and do now much more violently affect his wicked Religion then ever before they did distaste it Such heady fiery diverters of many Men and Women to their way makes sober Christians think that though there be nothing that is divine either in it or the Propagators of it yet there is much Diabolicall attraction and Art in both Many have profest that having left their society after dislike of their wayes they have been for a while so distempered both in minde and body that their bodyes have been all wett with sweat in their Bedds and they could not get a winck of sleep These and such like accidents especially that faculty which most of their Speakers have to cause their hearers fall into such Diabolicall Ecstasies above described hath induced many understanding Christians to believe that these blasphemous hereticall Impostors are accompanied with the power and workings of Satan Of their FASTINGS THey use also Fastings which are some sometimes prescribed by their Speakers to their Novices and continued by those that observe them for many dayes together but their Fasts are as the Apostle calls the humility of VVill-worshippers A voluntary humility not savouring of Religion not joyned with Prayer but undertaken as a foolish imitation of the miraculous forty dayes Fasts of Moses Elias Christ and the long three weeks abstinence of Daniel and three dayes Fast of the Apostle Paul and as is conceived for the procuring of Revelations and inspirations as they think of the Spirit And they that use such ceremonies to purchase them may have them I beleeve from one Spirit or other Many of them have fasted themselves so weak they could scarse go and till their faces have gathered blacknesse One of them of late I could name hath fasted himselfe so weak that he could scarcely speak or go otherwise then by the help of some to lead and support him a servant made that lived in the house with him reports that shee is certaine that for foureteen dayes together he neither eat nor drunk a crum or drop of any thing some that have lately seen him are of opinion he is starved almost past recovery but whether death will be the issue of his Fasting or no must be left to the providence of God and to a little time to determine But where are such ungodly Murtherous Fasts as these prescribed in the Word David George of Delfe a Blasphemous Impostor whom George Fox resembles as much as one Egge another had frequently his three dayes Fasts The Heathen Priests in China use abstinence sometimes for thirty dayes together to procure abilitie to Prophesie The savage Indians in New England that are trained up for Powwowes so they call their Wizards use to fast many dayes before the Devill appeares to them and they make their compact with him And some Maides there are that know what Saint Agnes Fast meanes and Papists we know have their Fasts as well as Quakers All Fasts are not holy Fasts some are Superstitious and some are Diabolicall No more of them Of their Railings THey are also as horrible Railers as ever any Age brought forth a Generation whose mouths are full of bitternesse whose throats are open Sepulchers c. The Billinsgate Oister-women are not comparable to them It is ordinary with them in the Letters they write to other men to call them Fooles Sots Hypocrites vaine men Beasts Blasphemers Murtherers of the just It is a customary thing with this Gang of people in their discourse with others to tell them they are Dogs Heathen c. One of Kendall going to the Buriall of a Minister his acquaintance met a woman of this Sect by the way and asked her if she had seen the Corps go by I saw saith she a company of Heathen go to bury a dead Dog Such language is common in the mouthes of their principall Speakers and none more notorious this way then Fox their prime Oracle If any man in their Meetings speake any thing in opposition to what they deliver or askes any Question wherein he desires to be satisfied not agreeable to their humours or manifests the least disrelish of what they say it is enough to provoke such Tearmes To give one Example Nayler at a private Meeting in Sedbergh asked an honest Christian Samuel Handley whether he was without sin or no Handley replyed he was a Sinner hereupon Nayler called him a Theefe a Murtherer a Cain and justified himselfe to be without sin They raile against the very Aedisicies wherein we meet together to worship God against the Ordinances there practised against the Doctrine there taught but never reason like men or Christians out of the Scriptures against the Corruptions they conceive to be in them Yea they spare not the Pulpit that is they say the Seat of the Pharisee the chiefe place in the Synagogue the high place that is to be demolished and broken down Yea sometimes they spare not the Dignitie of Magistracy but speak evill of them as far as they dare But their hate and spite is specially against the persons of Ministers and calling of the Ministry which they impiously revile with open mouth even all the Ministry of England without exception calling them the Priests of the World Conjurers Theeves Robbers Antichrists Witches Divels Lyars and a Viperous and a Serpentine Generation Blasphemers Scarlet coloured Beasts Babylons Merchants selling beastily Ware whited Walls ravening Wolves greedy Dogs Baals Priests Tithemongers Deceivers Hirelings c. Such Titles as these they give them not onely in their printed Books and Papers but often-times when they meet them in the Streets and in the very publike Assemblies while they are preaching the word that whole Congregations may be witnesses of their Impiety They affirme that all the Ministers in England that preach in Steeple-houses are Lyars of Jesus Christ that they uphold the Kingdome of Antichrist that they do all for filthy Lucre that they run greedily after the way of Cain to envie and murther and follow after the waies of Baalam That they seek to the Powers of the World to guard them in their Pulpits It seemes if they durst they would pull them out so I heare they had very lately dealt with
have left the Truth and the good waies of the Lord which are alwaies like themselves and as unalterable as the courses of the Stars of Heaven And now they fluctuate like the Waves of the Sea they have unbottomed themselves and now they know not where to fix they are removed from that Religion that is true to another Gospell and now they have both the Credenda Facienenda the Doctrinall and Practicall parts of their Irreligion they have taken up to seek and settle It is not to be expected that they will be a yeare or two hence what they are now new Visions new Revelations they daily look for Unstable Soules whither will your Fancies go whither will he drive you that sets you on work One in Kerbylonsdale Parish that had been of their Society a while fell sick of an Ague and was by it detain'd at home a Month after recovery going to their Assemblies again he professed that he found them so altered from their Principles in that Months time that he could onely know them by their faces to be the same men not by the constitution of their mindes Divers others that were a while agon of their way perceiving the instability of their Opinions and Impiety of their walkings are now fallen off from them and frequent the publike Assemblies as before The Profession of some of the tallest of this Sect that afford shadow to the rest hath had almost as many faces as the Moon before they turned Promoters of Quakers The world hath seen them zealous for Episcopall Policy and Ceremonies hot for Presbytery all for Independency and after all for Antinomianisme Anabaptisme and now beyond all onely for Foxes new Irreligion which is above all Formes and Ordinances Most of them that steer their course according to the direction of these wandring Stars were heretofore noted men for their Singularity and unsoundnesse of their Tenets such as ever affected to put on the newest Fashion of Religion A Taylor at Grayrigge that while there was no Minister there used to speak publikely every Lords day delivered them openly many dangerous and Hereticall Doctrines and what ever his Doctrine was true or false he was wont daily as his Hearers said to pawn his Soule on the truth of his Assertions and bid if they were not such to take him for ever for a false Prophet Yet this man after Fox and Nayler came into these parts having been their Auditor a little while was perverted by them and became a Quaker left his former Principles and came to Grayrigge where he had taught long before and told the people he had formerly deluded them and taught lyes and false Doctrine among them but he had now found the right way indeed with other words to that effect The Builders of this Babell of the Quakers which they as impiously as vain-gloriously call the Temple of the Lord will have no Tooles taken out of the Shops of humane Learning to work withall and indeed I think they have not except what the Learning of Winstanley and Collier have afforded them If any of their way of of the Countenancers of them be learned indeed as some of them are held to be I look upon their owning and admiring at it and those empty Clouds their Speakers as a very sad Judgment of God upon them sending them strong delusions to believe a lye They hate a Library Cane pejus Angue all Expositors of holy Scripture they call Heatheninsh Commentators the Reliques of those pious Learned men that were great Lights in the Churches of Christ in their Ages such Books I mean as Students in Theology use as good helps to attain to that excellent Knowledge of the Doctrine of the holy Scriptures they tearm heathenish Books and the Compilers of them heathenish Authors Languages and Arts and such like Ornamentall Qualifications are ulcerous Deformities in these mens eyes A methodicall discourse is an Odium all distinctions they say are the Seed of the Serpent they savour too much of solid Knowledge They deny it to be needfull to bring up Children in any Learning and some of them have taken their Children from Schoole Their Books and Papers which they disperse abroad the Country with these or such like absurd frothy Sefle-contradicting Quaeries Whether the Lord made use of any as Ministers of his minde unto the people that were bred idle at Sdhooles and Universities all the daies of their lives without a calling as the Priests of England but rather the contrary as Moses a Shepheard Amos a Heardsman Christ himselfe a Carpenter Paul a Tent-maker Peter a Fisherman Whether ever Universities or Schooles of Learning were in holy Scripture called the Well-heads of Divinity Whether ever Christ and his Apostles did make use of those great Bugbeares so common in use with the Priests of England to prevent the Saints from preaching the Gospell and the world from hearing them As first the Approbation and Ordination of the men of the Earth Secondly humane Learning and the Language of the Beast without which men are in their account altogether unmeet to meddle in the things of God Whether ever Christ and his Apostles did confirm the Truths they delivered by the power of the Magistracy Authors and Fathers Whether the Spirits teaching be not sufficient in the things of God Whether it be not the work of Christ and that which is to be expected in the latter daies to overturn overturn overturn all these waies so contrary to his own minde What do they mean in the last Quaere what Spirit is this they speak from but let these Quaeries go as they are for me Of their Idlenesse Savage Incivilities and their Irreligious bloody barbarous and turbulent practises TO what hath been hitherto related of their Impieties and disorderly walkings it may be added that they are many of them notorious for Idlenesse in their Callings working not at all sometimes for whole weeks and months together Some of them leave their Wives Children Families Vocations and turn all Journy-men Speakers Others regardlesse of all at home wander after them compassing the Country from place to place and live upon those of their Fraternity where they light to their Excessive charge They are degenerated also to such Incivilities as are in few places of the World to be found among the Heathens having departed from the Doctrine of Christ and practise of Civility both together Reader I have been an Eye-witnesse of more courteous behaviour in the Indians of the West and Natives of the East Indies and Moores of Africa then these men will afford to their neerest Relations or those they ought most to honour A Son if turned a Quaker will not use the usuall Civility of the world that is christian in putting off his hat to his Father or Mother will give them no civill Salutations to bid him Goodmorrow that begat him or her Good night or farewell that brought him forth is with them accounted a wickednesse None of the
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