Christ at the Door the Way the Truth Life the Rock the Elect Stone and all these are but One Here again quoth he is One added here is Octo Personas in the unity of their Essence Hence observe by the way what rare Syntax he makes viz. Here is Octo Personas instead of Here are Octo Personae but chiefly how he has defined Person which is not our Term for those Names given to Christ for to make so many Persons of Christ as Names are given to him as those in Metaphors Parables and Similitudes which are numerous in Sacred Scriptures may he not then by such Logick or Dofinition render Christ to be an Hundred Persons in One Essence What silly Conceits float in this Man 's giddy Head What think his Friends of the Clergy of him Is he a fit Champion to undertake to defend both Theml their Church and the Protestant Religion Moreover I do confess That altho' I have often seen it my Duty to explain some of our Christian Friends Meanings when mistaken or perverted by our Adversaries I really believe I have truly Construed their Intentions and that I have cause to understand the same better than our Adversaries or Enemies And as for my own part I have learn'd that Humility and Self denial that I am not Conscious of being Pertinacious against Light true Conviction or holy Scripture Testimony And I hope also this Advertisement may satisfie every Charitable and Ingenuous Reader having been Sincere and Consciencious towards God from my Youth upward to this day according to the Measure of Light and Understanding he hath bestowed upon me humbly hoping and verily believing he will so preserve me in Christ unto the End 'T is observable how insulting and boasting this F. Bugg is in his Dedication to the Parliament comparing himself in his Work of Darkness against the Light with Daniel his bursting in sunder the Baby lonish Dragon Even so quoth Bugg have I been instrumental and burst in sunder the Quakers great Idol their Darkness within which they call the Light within Thus presumptuously he Boasts and Blasphemes contrary to his former Confession to the Light which we called Quakers profess according to John 1. 4 9. There is a Wo to such as put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light He proceeds in his empty Boasting and Insulting thus viz. I have cut down the lofty Weeds and tall Cedars Pref. p. 27. The Sting of Quakerism being taken out and the Bowels thereof ript up and their Inside turn'd outward Part 2. p. 31. And having taken this Snake Quakerism out of the Grass and laid her on the Table and taken out her Sting Ibid. p. 27. But Reader I have not done with this Snake but must have the other blow at her and smite off her Head lest she get into the King's High Court of Parliament to do mischief for she is a mischievous Beast and full of deadly Poison and begins to stink all the Nation over Ibid. p. 30. Thus far F. B. Now let the serious Reader judge what a presumptuous reviling Boaster this is as if the High Court of Parliament were much beholden to him for his Defence of them by thus shamefully Reviling the Quakers But how helpless mean and indigent does he Imply the Parliament to be to have need of such a Physitian to prepare them Antidotes And then what lofty Weeds and tall Cedars has he cut down among the Quakers What great Execution has he done by his bitter Invectives Scorn Railery and Profanation of the Sacred Name of God and Christ as before is manifest Have not his mischievous Attempts tending to a New Persecution made him stink in the Nostrils of all Moderate Serious and Unprejudiced Readers and Observers of his Works of Revenge and Malice thereby making himself and Abettors Infamous while he seeks to make himself Famous But God will debase his Pride and Presumption Altho' he would render himself an Eminent Champion as having Cut down and slain Quakerism yet eagerly endeavours to Influence both King and Parliament against us he presumes to Dedicate his bitter and scurrilous Invectives against us to the King 's High Court of Parliament superlatively stiling himself Your Honours most Humble and most Obedient Servant and arrogantly presumes to write an Address to his Majesty King William the Third therein also stiling himself One of the Meanest yet most Dutiful Subject Francis Bugg therein notifying G. Whitehead in particular and in pretence Most humbly Praying in the Name of the Church of England and other his Dissenting Protestants that Care may be taken to suppress the same i. e. the Quakers Doctrine and Books viz. such as he writes against In which he would also encourage the King to Judge who is in the Wrong and to punish accordingly And in this Case saith he let not the King respect Persons in Judgment c. Hence observe the Presumption of this silly Creature thus to presume to be the King's Dictator and that in the Name of the Church of England and other Protestant Dissenters too to Influence and Incense him against his Peaceable Subjects called Quakers as if nothing short of Punishment Persecution and Suppressing would pacify his Revenge against us But how comes F. Bugg thus confidently to Address King William in the Name of the Church of England and other his Majesty's Dissenting Protestants as if they had set him on Work so bitterly to Inveigh against the People called Quakers as he hath done Seeing in his Dedication to the Parliament he tells them He can with good Conscience say That from first to last no Clergy-Man in the Kingdom ever asked or desired him to write one Book Page or Line against the Quakers nor have any one Man Clergy or Laity seen this Book till printed If this be true then both the Clergy Laity and all others are so far Excusable as to this Book of his unjustly stiled A Modest Defence But then hath he not wronged the Church of England and Dissenting Protestants too by his Addressing the King in their Names against the Quakers seeing they neither asked nor desired him to write one Book Page or Line against the Quakers no not one Clergy-Man in the Kingdom c. If none of the Church of England nor any other set him at work how durst he Address the King expresly in their Names If he writ Truly to the Parliament how could he so write Truly or Honestly to the King What an officious Agent was he then so peremptorily to Address the King against the Quakers their Doctrine and Books in the Name of the Church of England and other Dissenting Protestants and that for Punishment too He seeks to Incense both King and Parliament and Church of England and other Dissenting Protestants against the peaceable People called Quakers as if he aim'd at their sole Ruin and Destruction For which End they shall not want his Exclamations of Heresie and Blasphemy Cheats Impostors Jesuits c. ay to Incense the World against them if he could But God's Power is above the Devils Glory to our God and to the Lamb that sits upon the Throne for Ever and Ever I conclude with this Scripture as applicable to our Persecuting Adversary Psalm 36. 1. There is no Fear of God before his Eyes v. 2. He flattereth himself in his own Eyes until his Iniquity be found to be hateful v 3. The words of his mouth are Iniquity and Deceit v. 4. He deviseth Mischief upon his Bed c. FINIS
solemn Testimony how expresly contrary it is to his present Treatment of us the said People as it is in his Book stiled The Quakers Detected c. printed 1686. about Two Years after his leaving our Communion and Conforming to the Church of England as 't is in his own words following viz. The first Point under Consideration is how I came to be a Member of their Society c. i.e. of the Quakers In the beginning they taught That all Men were enlightned according to John 1. 9. and that this Light wherewith Christ had enlightned them was sufficient if obeyed to lead to Salvation and that it was the Work of the Ministers of Christ to turn the Peoples Minds from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God Affirming That this Light was a sufficient Teacher Leader and Guide to every Believer without the help of outward Prescriptions Forms Orders and Decrees of Men Upon these and the like Notions I became perswaded to make Trial of their Doctrine and when I came to see and observe their Practice Conversations and Deportments in the Beginning and what Simplicity and Plainness attended their Ministry I was still more Confirmed that it was a Dispensation of the Love of God sent as a Visitation to Mankind And being thus perswaded I was resolved to bear the Cross and did utterly despise the Shame that attended them and their Message and was not behind any of my Equals both in doing and suffering for the Testimony thereof as some amongst them can still bear me Witness And in this manner we went on for many Years and loved one another with Love unfeigned and doubtless God blessed our Meetings with the Comfortable Enjoyment of his Presence p. 3. From which solemn Confession thus made by Fra. Bugg after he forsook our Communion and went to the Publick as he saith it follows naturally that he did not forsake us because of our Christian Principle or Profession of the Light or because of our Doctrine Conversation Communion or Meetings or any Dislike had thereof but because he deem'd us guilty of Apostacy from our first Principle and Profession and that by his own Confession he did not thereby make his Progress from Egypt into Canaan appears by his applying to himself the words of Joseph when in Egypt viz. But I can say as Joseph did to his Brethren Gen. 50. 20. But as for you ye thought Evil against me but God meant it unto Good And Chap. 45. 5. Now therefore be not griev'd nor angry with your selves that you sold me hither Quakers detected p. 8. How came F. B. to apply these words to his State when turn'd from us to the Publick if he did not think himself then in Egypt or turn'd from the true Light into Darkness But we sold him not thither he fled in Winter when he had let in Unbelief and Fearfulness because of Suffering and Persecution which he had felt something of but fell into Impatiency and Quarreling under it and having lost Sincerity and Truth turn'd Envious Temporizer And because he has so frequently and falsly charg'd the said People with denying Jesus of Nazareth and Contempt of holy Scripture I may acquaint you with One or Two Passages more which concern himself as recited in my Answer to his New Rome Arraigned entitled Innocency Triumphant over Insolency and Outrage printed 1693. p. 25 26. as followeth viz. And to his saying The Names Jesus and Christ are given to the Mediator c. True but what follow Therefore quoth F. B. 't is no Absurdity to say It was not Jesus Christ for whom the Body was prepared it was not Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh but the Word John 1. 1. Apol. Introd p. 3. And yet he has confessed it was the Son of God that took the Body p. 4. What Confusion and Self-contradiction does the Man blindly run into And how contrary to the Apostle John's Testimony is his Doctrine herein See 1 John 4. 2 3. Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God and every Spirit which confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God but this is the Spirit of Anti-Christ What Spirit is this in our Adversary which saith It was not Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh Who was it then It was the Word the Son of God As if Jesus Christ were neither the Word nor the Son of God O horrible Anti-Christianism And contrary also to that Martyr Dr. Barnes his Confession as cited by F. Bugg himself p. 4. 5. viz. I believe that without Man's Will or Power Christ Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost and took Flesh of the blessed Virgin Mary Acts and Mon. p. 610. Now If Jesus Christ took Flesh of the blessed Virgin Mary then it was Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh But it was Jesus Christ that took Flesh Therefore 't was Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh. Consequently F. Bugg's Doctrine That it was not Jesus Christ that came in the Flesh is Anti-Christian Anti-Apostolical and Contradictory to the said Martyr's Doctrine In his Book stiled De Christianâ Libertate Part 2. Chap. 1. he confesseth in the Name and Person of the People called Quakers That we told them i. e. the said People that the Scriptures were good and a true Declaration of those things which were most surely believ'd by the Apostles and by us ought to be believ'd yet not the only Rule but still the Spirit of God which was the first Principle c. And many more Confessions he has given to the Truth of our Principles both with respect to Jesus Christ his Light and the holy Scriptures Now I recommend you to the faithful Witness of Truth in all your Hearts which will Judge Righteously and desire you seriously to peruse the following Treatise and hear us in our Answers and Defence as well as our Adversary in his Accusations remembering that common Maxim To Condemn no Man before he be heard By a Servant of Jesus Christ and real Friend to your Immortal Souls G. Whitehead London the 30th of the 4th Month 1699. The CONTENTS of this Treatise PART I. OF Francis Bugg's Fictitious Profane Sermon in G. Whitehead's Name From Page 1 to p. 16. Of our Yearly Meeting p. 1 2. Of the Scriptures p. 2 3. Of one only God the Father Son and Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures p. 3 4. Of Confession of Sin and Prayer to God p. 5 6. Of the Ten Commandments and Moral Law p. 7 8. Of his gross Fiction against the Holy Scripture and the Light within p. 9. Of his resembling the Mockers Psalm 35. 21. and 40. 15. p. 9. His Forgery against William Bingley and Ben. Bealing's Certificate p. 10 11. His repeated Forgery about G. Fox touching the Branch the Star c. p. 12 13. Of his Counterfeit Court and Condemnation p. 13. His Forgery and Frofaneness about our Light and Exaltation p. 14.
c. X. I charge you all in the Presence of the Lord God That you Judge not one another i. e. Those that be in the Unity of the Ministry and Elders in the Church lest you fall into the Condemnation of the Monthly Quarterly Six-Week Second-Day or Yearly Meeting Amen Thus F. B's invented Method of forming Commands how Idle and Impertinent does the Man appear herein And how does he Profane and take the sacred Name of the Lord God in vain For which God will not hold him guiltless And when F. B. will not demean himself quietly towards any of our Friends but be Challenging of them in the Countries or else-where and will be Charging them out of Books they may Charge him First To prove his Trial and Condemnation of our Friends to Perjury and Pillory as in his New Rome Arraigned to be a Real and True Trial and Condemnation Judicial and Warrantable by the Law of God and of the Nation Secondly To prove his Sermon which he calls George Whitehead's Sermon in his Pilgrim's Progress from p. 107 to p. 126. to be a Real Sermon preached by G. W. Thirdly To prove where G. Fox or the Quakers did ever endeavour to make the Commands of God Exod. 20. of none Effect by those or such positive Commands as he has impudently form'd in opposition thereto in his Pilgrim's Progress p. 16 17 18 Now if F. B. will not learn to be quiet towards our Friends c. that he might the more quietly go to his Grave now he grows Old they may very well Charge him on these Three Forgeries last propos'd as many more I could charge him withal and have proved against him upon his own Calumnies and Occasions so manifestly given by himself and let him be held to the point in Charge or any other who dare undertake to Advocate for him therein which I could never yet find if he and they are not minded otherwise to study to be quiet And now that F. B's Falshood Envy and Contradiction may yet farther appear to his own Condemnation seeing he hath given plain Testimony and Confession to the Truth of our Doctrine and Ministry First With respect to the Universality and Sufficiency of the Light of Christ in all Men. Secondly To our Ministry that it was a Dispensation of the Love of God sent as a Visitation to Mankind Thirdly To our bearing the Cross and suffering for the Testimony thereof Fourthly To our Love unfeigned one to another Fifthly To our Religious Meetings as being blessed with the Comfortable Enjoyment of the Presence of God According as the said F. Bugg is more fully before recited out of his Book stiled The Quakers Detected printed 1686. being Two Years after he had left our Communion and joyned himself to the Church of England in 1684. So that his Conviction and Testimony for the Truth among the Quakers even when he had deserted them pursued him into the Church of England But now being grown more hardy and so far hardned against Conviction and Conscience he can out-face both and give himself the Lye in his fore-cited Solemn Testimony and Confession as appears in his envious Contradiction following in his own words viz. Having by this time shewed first how our Teachers in order to bring us over to them and to decoy us told us The Light within was a sufficient Guide Teacher and Leader even sufficient to lead to Salvation yea above Scriptures above Fathers above Councils and above Churches I have in the last Instance shewed the Fallacy of their so early and smooth Pretences and that from the beginning they have been a false perfidious and treacherous Tribe of Deceivers as ever the World produced Pilgrim's Progress p. 15. To such a degree of Hardness and Insolency is this poor Creature now arriv'd that he can now thus scribble in Opposition to the Sufficiency of the Light within and Contempt of the Ministers thereof expresly contradictory to his own Testimony for the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned Men and to the Sufficiency thereof if obey'd to lead to Salvation without the help of Decrees of Men And to his own Testimony also for the Simplicity and Plainness which attended our Ministry which did not import any Design to decoy or deceive Men nor any Falshood Perfidiousness or Treachery as F. B. has falsly and treacherously Scandalized Us and our Ministry and thereby notoriously given himself the Lye and shamefully Belyed his own Conscience and solemn Confession and Testimony in his Quakers Detected aforesaid And the Light now so much slighted by him will pursue him as it did Judas and other Apostates to his great Vexation and perpetual Torment if he persists in his Enmity Perfidiousness and Treachery against the Light and the Children of it Oh F. B If I may yet perswade thee Repeat thy Lyes and Scandals no more His Accusation against W. Mead That he said to one W. Harris I will give thee one of George Fox 's Journals it is a very good Book yea better than the Bible Which Accusation he has many times over p. 22 23 24 25 29. but various in it viz. That 't is better than the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles p. 23. This Accusation W. Mead positively denies as contrary to his Principle which is to prefer the holy Scriptures before all other Books in the World For I asked him seriously about this matter And I am sure it is a base and shameful Abuse of F. Bugg that It is the Heart of Quakerism in saying G. Fox 's Journal is better than the Bible p. 23. This I must tell him is a foul notorious Lye and Calumny against the Quakers so called 'T is neither the Quakers Mind Heart nor Mouth so to speak but the contrary i. e. To prefer the Bible to all other Books extant in the World as hath been often testified Wherefore F. B. repeat this Lye no more against us Again as 't is F. Bugg's common Course to add one Calumny after another and to accumulate Lyes and Perversions upon us he falsly saith The Quakers stand upon the same bottom i. e with the Jesuites and therefore they ought to distrust them in all they say as the Protestants did the Jesuites We do not expect he will trust us who has belyed his own Conscience Conviction and Testimony as before evinced And to add to his Iniquity and aggravate his Calumnies against me he saith Many of their Hearers of the honest sort begin to think G. Whitehead little better than a Jesuite already he hath been so False in Fact such a Glosser and Defender of every Error the Quakers hold I have quoth he a Letter by me which my Cousin Ann Docwra sent me dated 26. 12th Month 1682. viz. G. Whitehead has sent me one of his Books c. I was asked by an honest Friend If he was not a Jesuite I answered Nay it is not solid enough for them to own especially when they write to a solid People
among thy manifold Repeated and Refuted Forgeries Lyes and Falshoods is an ill Sign and bespeaks an ill Omen against thee and that thy Day hastens Thou hast almost run thy Rope-length the Lord shall laugh at thee for he seeth that thy Day is coming the Pride of thy Heart and thy abominable Presumption and wicked Designs of Contempt and Persecution against His Heritage has reached unto Heaven and for thy great Iniquity and Apostacy thou hast got a secret Wound which is not cured if cureable but will increase to greater Anguish under a Gnawing Worm that will never die but Augment thy Torment if thou persistest in thy Impenitency to defame and make Lyes and Forgeries thy Refuge Remember thou hast been often warn'd in thy Life-time and thou shalt witness me to have been thy Soul's true Friend when thou shalt not be able to make me the Subject of thy Reproach nor the Object of thy Malice and Fury Forgery You may conclude Friends that he i. e. G. Fox was the Branch the Star the Sun of Righteousness spoken of in Scripture but mark This Epistle it is only to go among Friends p. 123. Observe again This Forgery which he now makes part of my Sermon has often been detected and charg'd upon him as it is a very foul Abuse and Calumny that either I or our Friends did so call G. Fox the Branch the Star the Sun of Righteousness or preach any such Doctrine as here he represents me O Abominable Forgery I yet challenge him and his Abettors to produce that Book or Epistle of any of our Friends which so terms G. Fox the Branch the Star the Sun of Righteousness For though I have found the words the Branch the Star the Sun of Righteousness in E. Burrough's Epistle To the Camp of the Lord in England in his Works p. 66 67. yet not apply'd to G. Fox nor his Name so much as mention'd in that Epistle And Bugg knows he has been told of this over and over in Print and particularly in my Sober Expostulation p. 5. p. 54 55 56. but never had Answer or Reply from him to clear himself in this Point and many other Lyes but a Repetition of the same Forgery over and over like a wilful impertinent scornful Scribler that will be still Imposing the same Refuted Calumnies and odious Defamations This is his course of writing and scribbling Books with the same Abuses still over and over without regarding any Answer how plain so ever to his Confutation Which is a most silly bruitish Method he has enur'd himself unto still Idem per idem for Proof and that with a great deal of insolent shew of Confidence And withal he has so much studied the Art of idle Romancing Forgery and Detraction Scoffing Taunting Flouting Boasting Cracking and Insulting that he is arriv'd to a great Heighth of Impudence therein For which I may repeat this one Instance Twelve of our Friends in and about London giving Certificate against four principal Calumnies and Falshoods cast upon the People called Quakers by F. Bugg in his New Rome Unmask'd as they are related in my Charitable Essay p. 8. in 1693. This being one of his four said Falshoods viz. II. That the Quakers Prophets give witness to G. Fox instead of this Christ that they call him G. F. the Branch the Star the Sun of Righteousness and put the North of England for the Town of Bethlehem Epistle to the Bereans and p. 81. Now Observe further For our denying of this and other Calumnies in our said Twelve Friends Certificate the said F. Bugg counterfeits a Court of Judicature feigns a Jury pretends Proof out of Books perverted by him calls the Certifiers against him into Examination then forges their Answers and counterfeits the Jury to bring them in Guilty of Perjury Then has a Form of a Pillory and ugly Pictures to represent the Persons Condemned standing in it and the first Letters of their Names over their Heads and the word Perjury over them as may be seen in his New Rome Arraigned Epistle to the Bereans printed 1693. to the Scandal and Defamation of the Persons thus Reproached and Staged by him By all which it may appear what Proficiency Francis Bugg has attain'd to in his Invention of Forgery to Defame and make Men Ridiculous But when since he met with some Check for such his Audacious Abuse and Scandal and might have cause to fear the Issue then he could slily excuse the Forgery and Defamation and put it off as only a Mock-Trial and a Mock-Pillory and consequently a Mock-Sentence and a Mock-Perjury as if Persons may Defame Scandalize Steal Rob Kill and Murder Men either in their Reputations Livelihoods or Persons and then to excuse themselves from having their Demerits alledge That it was all but in Jest or in Mockery And so F. Bugg may say of his idle and profane Romance which he calls George Whitehead's Sermon that 't is but a Mock-Sermon and consequently that he uses the Name of God and Christ c. therein only in Mockery But this will not Excuse his presumptuous Profaneness no more than his Forgery and Defamation Have not some of the Priests own'd this Man for their Convert even an eminent Convert of their Church And do they not make use of him gratifie and reward him as their Agent and their Tool But will it redound to their Credit or Honour or Promotion of the Christian Religion to abet promote and assist such a profane Scorner to act for them in their Cause more like a Stage-Player a Merry-Andrew or Jack-Pudding than a Person of any Seriousness or Sobriety in Religion Forgery Again in G. W's Name viz. In the Application I have shewed how our Light within hath exalted you above the Prophets Apostles Martyrs holy Confessors and all Christian Churches to this day Our dear Brother W. Bingley hath well remember'd our ancient Testimony against the Hireling-Priests c. Benjamin Bealing hath found out a very suitable Hymn of Praise even a melodious Song of Triumph setting forth our Exaltation and the Downfal of the Christian Churches under the Notion of the False Church c. p. 125 126. Observe Thus he persists Forging such Stuff in my Name and as my Sermon like a silly Scorner playing the Fool against me to make me as ridiculous a Fool as he can What Stage-Player durst ever have adventur'd to profane Religion and the sacred Name of God Christ and the Light in their Interludes or Comedies as this Person has done Who is accountable to God for casting such Contempt upon the Light of Christ as if it led to such Self-Exaltation i. e. of our selves as he has scornfully related For such his Scorn and Contempt against the true Light which we profess he is Accountable to the righteous Judge of all and his own more serious Confession to the Light Recited in the Epistle will rise up in Judgment against him Forgery again in the said pretended Sermon
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