hands to Chastize those whose Iniquities were then full And thus he can use those who are not yet come in and under the Administration of the Gospel of his Peace to pull down set up afflict scourg and punish one another as also Vespasian in the Destruction of the Jews And God can make known his Mind and Will concerning these Turnings and Overturnings Afflictions and Punishments by such of his Servants as he has redeemed out of that State War and Destruction which they are made to Proclaim Thus the Evangelical Prophet proclaimed a Summons All ye Beasts of the Feild come to Devour even all the Beasts of the Forrest Isa. 56.9 And for the Iniquities of the People he again denounces 65.12 Therefore will I number you to the Sword and all you shall bow down to the Slaughter Thus also the Prophet Jeremiah proclaim'd Set up the Standard in Zion prepare to flee and stay not for I will bring a Plague from the North and a great Distruction Jer. 4.6 and in like kind have very many of the Prophets and Servants of the Lord been made the Messengers of those Wars and Bloodshedings because of Wickedness which they were not called to have any hand in Thus far I have briefly shewn thee sober Reader our Sentiments with respect to Fighting and Wars and the Messages concerning it which may have been delivered from the Lord by those his Servants who were or are redeemed out of that State which was and is the ground and occasion of these Messages which was and is Sin I shall now as briefly hint concerning Loyalty as it is commonly call'd By which Word I understand a faithful Performance of the Duties of Subjects to their Governors and in this faithful Discharge of Duty in all Godly and Peaceable sort it is impossible that they should be wanting who do in the first place give unto God the things that are God's Because that in the Discharge of such their Duty to God they are also taught by his Spirit to keep a Conscience void of offence towards Men. And this has been our Practice from the first in that we have always since a People been clear of all Plots Contrivances and Combinations to subvert Governments or Governors and in the many Changes which have been in the fifty Years last past we have been peaceable and quiet waiting to see the Hand of God in and through them all For as it pleaseth him he sets up and he can and hath pull'd down when those whom he hath set up have not answer'd his Good Pleasure And when Kings Princes or Governors have disobey'd the Lord God in Mercy to them hath often laid it upon his Servants to warn them in the day of their Visitation that so they might repent and be established Of this sort we shall have many Instances in this Section which the Snake does diversly pervert according to the Purpose he would falsly draw them to Tho' after all his Perversions an irrefragable Proof of our Loyalty or Faithfulness is That under none of the several Changes in Government which have been since we were a People were we ever found guilty of any Practices against any of them yet have suffered under them but in some more than others Not as Offenders against the Rights of Men but for our Consciences towards God in matters relating to Eternity and always patiently endur'd those our Sufferings And in the feeble Instances of the Snake to the contrary which will hereafter be examined it will appear that there is nothing more of this sort in them but his Falsity Of which now in order Ibid. P. 203. I put these two together because all their Fighting has been chiefly against the King A Solecism All includes chiefly chiefly implies not all But it is no wonder that he should begin with a Solecism who ends with a Lye Ibid. Yet they have fought too upon other occasions of which there is a pleasant Instance in the printed Trials of G. Keith and others What they were those who fought If 〈◊〉 means Quakers it is false for we fight not But what adds to the Ambiguity of the Snakes Assertion is that it is a pleasant Instance of Fighting Then surely nothing tragical attended as Blood and Death Ibid. P. 204. They were in great pain how to save this Principle of not Fighting and their Sloop too But that was impossible Great Pain cannot consist with the Terms of Pleasant Instance The Snake as he contradicts himself must be a Lyer in at least one of these But the Quakers were at no such strait as he does falsly suggest For as it is not impossible to take Offenders Prisoners without fighting so there is not any necessity that they who do so take them should have great Pain for the distinction And thus it was in this Instance of the Sloop which was taken by Privateers for there were Persons who did follow them and overtake them among whom were some Quakers none of which did bear Arms yet did retake the Sloop and also some Prisoners and that without any Bloodshed or Wounds Ibid. P. 204. Therefore they coined or borrow'd a pretty Distinction and said that they did not use the Carnal Weapons as Quakers but as Magistrates They needed no such Distinction for if there had been fighting it does not follow that the Fighters were Quakers There were other Persons not only Inhabitants but also Magistrates who were no Quakers but Men of professed fighting Principles That 's well known and himself says p. 203. the Government there is chiefly managed by Quakers who are Justices of the Peace and in other Commissions there Chiefly not only The Government is managed by others besides and that not only in Commissions of the Peace but other Commissions also So that the Coining or Borrowing is likely a Fiction of his own and may serve for the counterpart to his beloved Distinction de Jure and de Facto Ibid. P. 205. And their Principle is that such viz. as oppose their Church may be resisted by Arms whether their own Kings or any others This as apply'd to the Quakers is as false as malicious And it is a strange degree of to use his own terms Impudence and Boldness must be in a Fellow to make him run with so greedy assurance into the most contradictory Lies It is but just now that he says the Quakers were in great Pain how to save their Principle of not fighting and here he says their Principle is to fight But not only this Contradiction but also our Practice hath shewn the Falsity of his Charge In that for Conscience sake we have always refused to take Arms nor did ever own the carrying of Arms since we were a People as we have frequently testified And after our being cleared from fighting Principles by his own words and by our Practice as is above observed I may here fitly retort upon him to own abet and practise a Principle of resisting by Arms such as
travelling Friends that went abroad c. It is not good manners to name Names upon such an occasion Yet if the Friends will plead Ignorance something may be done for their Satisfaction That Women as well as Men may forsake the Guidings of the Spirit of God and run into Wickedness is very true but that any who have so run into Wickedness are Preachers or as such Travelling Friends as he in scoffing Mood calls them and intimates is very false and I dare him to name any that are such I come now to his 6th Head of Distinction which is a continuation of Stories of particular Failings VI. But we may make a little more bold with the Mens Infallibility And I will not go to mean Ones The Great James Naylor was brought upon his knees before their Church where G. F. presided to acknowledge his Failings This James Naylor suffered himself to be Hosannah'd into Bristol as Christ was into Jerusalem Of this Adversaries Boldness and Scoffing we have great Proof but of his Honesty and Truth we have none of his Lyes here is also fresh Proof For it never was the Practice of any Church or Meeting of ours to bring any Transgressor upon their knees nor did G. F. ever preside in them or any other Person We neither have nor own in our Assemblies any Headship of Man or Men the only Head of them being Christ Jesus who dignifies whom he pleases with fit qualifications by his Holy Spirit for the Service of his Church and they that continue faithful in their Gifts such we with the Apostle esteem worthy of double Honour But now as to James Naylor of whom the Snake often makes mention I shall here at once speak concerning him J. N. was a Man who had been highly favoured of God with a good degree of Grace which was sufficient for him had he kept to its teachings For while he did so he was exemplary in Godliness and great Humility was Powerful in Word and Doctrine and thereby Instrumental in the hand of God for turning many from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to the Power of God But he Poor Man Became exalted above Measure through the abundance of Revelations And in that Exaltation did depart from the Grace and Holy Spirit of God which had been his sufficient Teacher Then blindness came over him and he did suffer himself to be accounted of above what he ought Here he slipt and fell but not Irrecoverably For it did please God of his Infinite Mercy in the Day of his Affliction to give him a sight and sense of his outgoings and fall and also a place of Repentance And he did with the Prodigal weep bitterly and humbled himself for his Transgression and he besought God with true Contrition of Soul to pardon his offences through Jesus Christ God I firmly believe forgave him for he pardons the truly Penitent His People received him with great Joy for that he who had gone astray from God was now returned to the Father's House and for that he who had separated himself from them through his Iniquity was now through Repentance and Forsaking of it returned into the Unity of the Faith and their Holy Fellowship in the Gospel of Christ. And I do hereby testify that I do esteem it a particular mark of God's owning his People in bringing back into Unity with them a Man who had so dangerously fallen as did James Naylor And here let none Insult but take heed least they also in the hour of their Temptation do fall away Nor let any boastingly say Where is your God Or Blasphemously suppose his Grace is not sufficient for Men in Temptation because the tempted may go from and neglect the teachings of it David and Peter as their Transgressions came by their departing from this Infallible Guide the Holy Spirit So their recovery was only by it And for the Reader 's further satisfaction concerning James Naylor's Humiliation and Repentance I here subjoin his own Testimony Glory to God Almighty who ruleth in the Heavens and in whose Hands are all the Kingdoms of the Earth who raiseth up and casteth down at his Will who hath ways to Confound the Exaltation of Man and to Chastise his Children and to make Man to know himself to be as Grass before him whose Judgments are above the highest of Men and his pity reacheth the deepest Misery and thâ—s Arm of his Mercy is underneath to lift up the Prisoner out of the Pit and to save such as trust in him from the great Destruction which vain Man through his folly brings upon himself who hath delivered my Soul from Darkness and made way for my Freedom out of the Prison-house and ransomed me from the great Captivity who divides the Sea before him and removes the Mountains out of his way in the day when he takes upon him to deliver the Oppressed out of the Hand of him that is too mighty for him in the Earth let his Name be exalted for ever and let all Flesh fear before him whose Breath is Life to his own but a Consuming Fire to the Adversary And to the Lord Jesus Christ be Everlasting Dominion upon Earth and his Kingdom above all the Powers of Darkness even that Christ of whom the Scriptures declares which was and is and is to come the Light of the World to all Generations Of whose coming I testifie with the rest of the Children of Light begotten of the Immortal Seed whose Truth and Vertue now shines in the World unto Righteousness of Eternal Life And the Saviour of all that believe therein Who hath been the Rock of my Salvation and his Spirit hath given Quietness and Patience to my Soul in Deep Affliction even for his Name 's sake Praises for ever But condemned for ever be all those False Worships with which any have Idolized my Person in the Night of my Temptation when the Power of Darkness was above all their casting of their Clothes in the way their Bowings and Singings and all the rest of those Wild Actions which did any ways tend to dishonour the Lord or draw the Minds of any from the measure of Christ Jesus in themselves to look at Flesh which is Grass or to ascribe that to the Visible which belongs to Christ Jesus all that I condemn by which the pure Name of the Lord hath been any ways blasphemed through me in the time of Temptation or the Spirits of any People grieved that truly loves the Lord Jesus throughout the whole World of what state soever This Offence I confess which hath been sorrow of heart that the Enemy of Man's Peace in Christ should get this Advantage in the Night of my Trial to stir up Wrath and Offences in the Creation of God a thing the simplicity of my Heart did not intend the Lord knows who in his endless Love hath given me Power over it to condemn it and also that Letter which was sent me to Exeter by John
a Quaker's Book Intituled The Sword of the Lord drawn p. 5. viz. Your Imagined God beyond the Stars your Carnal Christ is utterly denied That Christ is God and Man in one Person is a Lie To which he saith G. Whitehead does not deny the Quotation but says p. 145. We do not affect the Terms Then he adds Was not this a Terrible Rebuke a full Condemnation of the Author and such damnable Heresie p. 357. See how grosly Abusive and Partial this Snake Author is as if we do not affect the Terms were my whole Answer to those fore-going Expressions quoted by him wherein he appears as in many other things very unjust and injurious for I call them offensive Words in my Answer i. e. as quoted by him saying As to those Offensive Words your Carnal Christ your Imagined God c. we do not affect the Terms neither are they proper to the True Christ or Omnipresent God Antidote p. 145 146. but his Falacy in the Quotation I refer to the fore-going Treatise p. 204. I further add That an Imagined God and Imagined Christ is not the true God nor the true Christ which all meer Imaginations fall short of and of the true Knowledge thereof However I neither liked the said Offensive Words nor the Person that wrote them i. e. C. A. for he neither writ all he did in true Reverence toward God neither did he abide in His Fear or Council but was disown'd by us Therefore the Snake's Insinuation against me That he was a Friend in saying of them and had a good Intention as if I would so excuse him and his said offensive Words is utterly false for I never design'd to excuse or plead for him therein or in any other rash or irreverent Expressions And the Snak's Inferences against the Quakers in general As that all the World cannot excuse them from being the most Outragious and Blasphemous Heresie And that all Men must look upon the Quakers as Monsters and no Christians and their Ancient Friends with Blasphemies Heresies Treasons and damnable Doctrines c. p. 368. Thus concluding with a Storm of Railery when he has taken occasion to Calumniate and Condemn us all by Whole-sale from a few rash and offensive Expressions of one Person and perhaps from some other Words or Passages which many Thousands of us were never concerned in besides his many foul Perversions and partial and false Quotations and Citations And lastly he makes this Apology He must not surfeit the Reader with a Breakfast lest he lose his Stomach to his Dinner But should the Reader be so unwary as to make his Breakfast of such Cookery as the Snake's Railery Foul Abuses and dirty Stuff as he has Cooked against the People call'd Quakers 't would be enough not only to Surfeit but to Poison the Reader Now that I would not seem to conclude with harsh but mild Expressions as well as Matter of Moment I may a little farther take notice of his Profound Questionary Test to try if we are sound in the Faith viz. Whether they i. e. the Quakers believe in Christ as without them without all other Men Seeing our Adversary and his Confederates so much Insist upon the words without us Christ as without us and sometimes gives him the Character of an Outward Christ as if he were not an Inward Christ Inwardly Anointed I may take leave a little to follow them in their terms yet with a real Respect and Honour to the True Messiah the Very Christ the Anointed of God of whom all his Holy Prophets gave Witness Acts 10.4 namely we believe and confess that this very Christ of God the Only Begotten Son of God was conceived by the Holy Ghost and Born of the Virgin Mary without us that he was Born in Bethlehem of Judea without us that he liv'd an Innocent Sinless Life preached most Blessed and Excellent Doctrine without us that he wrought most Eminent and Wonderful Miracles without us that he went about doing Good without us that he was Crucified and put to Death by wicked hands without the Gates of Jerusalem without us that by the Power of God he revived and rose again the third day without us that after he was raised from the Dead he shewed himself Alive after his Passion by many Infallible Proofs unto his Disciples without us being seen of them forty days after which he Ascended into Heaven being seen to Ascend without us and a Cloud received him out of their sight who beheld him Ascend Unto whom it was said by the 2 Angels present This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Acts 1.3 9 10 11. and doubtless when he so comes and all his mighty Angels with him it will be in great Glory and open Triumph and he will in that day be greatly glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe 2 Thes. 1.7 8 9 10. But now I must not stop here we must not leave this same Jesus Christ all without us we must humbly consider and own him as He is within us also As Christ is the Word of God that true Light which enlightens every Man coming into the World John 1.9 He is within us As in Him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men He is within us his Life as the Light of Men is within us John 1.4 As Christ is the Light of the World given to lead Men out of Darkness and to give the Light of Life to all who follow him John 8.12 He is within Men within us to lead us out of that Darkness and Corruption that was in us As Christ is given for the Light of the Gentiles and for a Covenant unto the People and to be God's Salvation to the Ends of the Earth Isa. 42.6 49.6 Acts 13.47 He must be known as such within them Seeing his coming was that we might have Life and that we might have it more abundantly John 10.10 This Life we must have within us Jesus said If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and We will come unto him and make our abode with him John 14.23 which must be within us Abide in me and I in you saith Christ as the Branch cannot bring forth Fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me John 15.4 Therefore if we abide in Christ he abides in us The Branches must abide in the Vine to partake of the Life and Virtue thereof in them to cause Fruit. John 14.18 I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you said Christ. Ver. 20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Therefore we must know Christ within us if we be his true Followers John 17.22 23. Where Christ saith And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me And Ver. 26. And I have declared unto them thy Name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them What 's more clear than Christ's own Testimony for his Being within us i. e. within all his true Followers especially 2. Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the Faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates Therefore they who are not Reprobates but in the Faith know that Jesus Christ is within them Colos. 1.27 To whom God would make known what is the Riches of the Glory of this Mystery which is Christ in you the hope of glory Therefore the Saints know Christ within them to be the Hope of Glory to them Gal. 4.6 And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father The Son of God is therefore by his Spirit within us who are Sons of God Galat. 4.19 My little Children of whom I Travail in Birth again until Christ be formed in you Rom. 8.29 For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born in many brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In multis fratribus Therefore the Son of God is within them Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any Man hear my Voice and open the door I will come In to him and will sup with him and he with me Was not this the Son of God the Faithful and True Witness who thus spake ver 14 And where is that Door that must be opened unto him Many more Instances might be shewn for the nearness of Christ with and In his Faithful Followers and Members And Blessed are they who truly Believe in his Name and follow him in the Regeneration FINIS Ibid p. 6. Acts 5.36 37. Josephus p. 426 532. Printed 1683. Great Mystery p. 224. Snake p. 31. John 10.3.14.6 Luke 22.28 Mark 1.13 Mat. 4.6 7. John 7.49 Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae p. 21. art 51. Foot yet in the Snare Printed 1656. p. 6. Jam. Nayler Vid. Hierom. Apol. adv Ruff. ad Pammach Marcel Ep. 141. ad Marcel
that he is not Almighty Yet when Man does fall it is no plain Conviction that he could not have stood by an Almighty assistance We have never placed Infallibility in Persons otherwise than by the assistance of the Holy Spirit to which if Men are obedient it will infallibly guide them to Heaven and so safely protect them that as our Saviour saith John 10.29 No Man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand But when Men depart from the Grace of God They may as Samson when he had lost his Strength Judg. 16.20 say I will go out as at other times and shake my self And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him But their weakness will soon discover they are gone from their Guide Thus it was with the People of the Jews and thus with all those Persons whose failings the Holy Spirit has recorded in the Scriptures when they departed from the Lord they left their Strength and fell some very fouly Yet what less than Blasphemy is it to say That the Holy Spirit had they been obedient could not have preserved them as well as there are Instances it did restore several of them And it is no breach of the Oath of God made to Abraham and his Seed nor any argument of the Shortness of his Arm as the Prophet's phrase is That they are become a Desolation because they refused to hear and obey And should it which God forbid come to pass that the Defection of the People called Quakers from the guidings of the Holy Spirit should be as general as is now that of the Jews who sometime were the People of God Yet the Holy Spirit of Christ were not at all the less infallible or sufficient in it self to be the Author of Salvation to all that do obey it His first Story p. 44. is of one Christopher Atkinson who he calls in ridicule p. 43. a Precious Brother in p. 44. a Bright Lamp with other such marks of Scorn insulting over his Miscarriage in the Lust of the Flesh And this Story the Snake makes a twofold use of one to reproach the Memory of the Person who fell and the other to reproach the Principle and Practices of those with whom the fallen Person had walked To both I shall say somewhat To the first I know of no good use which can be made of raking in the Crimes of the Deceased unless for Cautions to the Living But then their Crimes are not to be dressed in the Scornful Garb of a merry Andrew Because tho' that may raise more Vanity yet it can raise no Reformation on such as are guilty or be any means of Preservation to those that are not yet so And therefore we find that the Holy Spirit in recording the failings of Noah Lot Moses David Solomon Peter and others hath done it in Language proper to these purposes And there is not a truer mark of a mean and base as well as an unchristian Spirit in a Man than only for the Glory of Insult and Liberty of Ridiculing to call back to the minds of the Living the Crimes of the Dead To the Second it can be no fault in the Holy Spirit of God that Men are disobedient to it nor is it any argument that the Infallible Spirit of God does not preserve any because I or another may fall but it is certain the Holy Spirit will teach and will preserve all who will keep in Subjection and Obedience to it and they who do so keep have a Godly Jealousie and Care that the Practice of those who make Profession of the Guidings of the Holy Spirit be according to it in all the Fruits of it and accordingly Richard Huberthorn and some others who were then at Norwich did wait for the Counsel of God that in his Wisdom they might search out this evil which C. A. had wrought and by their dealing with him did bring him so to a sense of his Naughtiness that he did confess it and condemn it And further that it might not be supposed that such Naughtiness was tolerated and allowed by a Society professing Christianity it was communicated to the Publick that the guilty Person might bear his own Iniquity and the Holy Truth he had made profession of be cleared The like Laudable Practice tho' call'd by the Snake p. 45. A not regarding the Sacredness of the Seal of Confession was practised by the Prophet Nathan towards King David and the Apostle Paul towards his Brother in the Apostleship and also by others recorded in Holy Writ and yet the Holy Spirit is not at all the less Infallible Ibid. p. 46 47. There was much more tender regard shewed to some Young Women who had given a Confession in Writing to John Bolton of their frailty in the Flesh as is told in the Spirit of the Hat but it was hush'd up because it touched many eminent Ones in the Ministry who from day to day resorted unto them and giving them these appellations Innocent Lasses and Daughters of Sion This Charge and Story upon nameless Persons is Reader another Instance of the Injustice of this Adversary in that he hath taken it out of a Book written against us and Printed Anno 1673. and which was answered in the same Year as the Snake well knows and hath not been since reply'd to and what is an aggravation of the Snake's Injustice herein is that in the Answer to it there is a Certificate under the hands of John Bolton and Sam. Newton testifying to the contrary of this very Charge and of this the Snake could not be ignorant because he makes Quotations from the same Book and in or near the same Page in which this Certificate stands which I shall here set down as answer sufficient to this nameless Charge Whereas the Author of the Spirit of the Hat Insinuates that our Ministry is guilty of Vncleanness Whoredoms and such like beastly Practices under a feigned commendation of us under written as prosecutors of such Persons that they may be brought to Judgment We do declare in the Fear of the Everlasting God that tho' we abhor with our whole Souls such unrighteous Practices and if such things were we should we hope clear our Consciences for God and His Living Truth and People Yet we do declare in the Uprightness of our Hearts that we know of no such nor can acknowledge any such to be either of our Ministry or our Body much less eminent among us as hath been wickedly suggested by the Author of The Spirit of the Hat whom we have found painful and faithful to God his Truth and People Therefore to say we were hindred from bringing them to Judgment whom we never went about to charge neither can we is a wicked envious and false suggestion of the Adversaries of the Truth and this in God's Fear we testify to the World John Bolton Sam. Newton Ibid. p. 47. Instances can likewise be given of some of their She Preachers whom they call
Works of the Devil let the Snake's Charity be as it will to excuse them Ibid. 96. But if hard words are a Natural presage and shew an inward Disposition to come to blows Then none can shew a greater inward disposition to come to Blows Imprisonments Premunires and the whole Train of Persecution than this Snake has done Ibid. p. 96. For it is a very convenient Principle to be protected by other Mens Swords without running any of the hazard our selves to enjoy the Benefits of Peace equally with others and to be freed if not from the Charge at least from the Slavery and Dangers of War Why should the Snake envy this to us the Priesthood have the same Ibid. p. 97 98. The Snake gives from an Adversaries Book according to his usual injustice A Story and two or three Quotations without so much as mentioning any Answer that was given to it It is too tedious to follow him always thus through the Laborinth of his Lies and Injustice And to repeat several Answers to the same thing as they are repeated in this Libel Wherefore for what relates to Government in the Church as owned and practised by us I refer to p. 135 c. where it is particularly treated of as shall also be in their proper Sections these with other his Objections concerning Tythes and Fightings and doubt not therein to prove him no less injurious than hitherto he doth appear to be till which I dismiss these particular things and proceed Ibid. p. 98. Enthusiasts have no Principles They have no Rule but their own Fancy which is Strongest in Mad-men and this they mistake for Inspiration c. How shall we then be assured that the Inspiration and Enthusiasm which the Snake says the Church of England allows is not Fancy c. This is contradictory to what he hath said as quoted p. 10. foregoing Ibid. 99. No Quaker can deny but that the Principles of Quakers is all Enthusiasm Enthusiasm when meaning a good Inspiration we acknowledge and own it and have very good Authority for it for the things of God knows no man but by the Spirit of God as saith the Apostle And this is the same Infallible Spirit which the Holy Men of Old had by which first they were inform'd of the Will of God and then thereby enabled to do it Ibid. p. 101. They know very well that the giving of vile and contemptible Names to any Writing can be for no other end but to render the Contents of such Writing contemptible Did the Prophet Isaiah then render the Contents of the Ceremonial Law contemptible when as I have shewn p. 154. he compared the Jews Sacrifices to slaying a Man and cutting off a Dogs Neck and their burning of Incense to Blessing an Idol Ibid. p. 102. As to themselves they scorn the Titles of Elders Popes or Bishops or that their Meetings should be called by such contemptible Names as Courts Sessions or Synods The Reason why in the Yearly Meeting Epistle Slight and Contemptible Names and Expressions concerning either Mens or Womens Meetings or the Testimonies given forth by the Spirit and Power of God through faithful Friends or such whom the Lord hath made Elders in the service of the Church are blamed is because they do strike at the Spirit and Power of God by which those things were appointed and are designed by them that use them to bring those Things Persons and Services into Contempt But no Expressions have been used by us concerning the Doctrines or Holy Instructions contained in Holy Scriptures to that end or with that intent But whatever has been said of the Scriptures that is by our Adversaries thought mean has been only intended to reprove and bring back to the Spiritual use of 'em those that have almost deify'd the Letter Ibid. p. 104. But in all their Preachings and Writings before 1660. where-ever they had occasion to name the Holy Scriptures they seldom or never gave them that Epithet of Holy or Sacred Both before and since the Year 1660. Our Friends have frequently given as Distinctive Epithets denoting the true and just Value and Esteem due to the Scriptures as the Snake can do And if in his or other our Adversaries occasions to name them it is Emphasis sufficient to say as he and they most frequently have done The Scriptures why is it not so in us Do our Adversaries do greater Honour to them when they falsly say we undervalue the Seriptures than we do when we say we do Highly Value The Scriptures Hath not the word The as great an Emphasis from our Mouths or Pens as from theirs I think it has But if the word The hath either no Emphasis or not sufficient then the Snake as well as all former Adversaries doth seldom either give them any or sufficient Emphasis Because they have most frequently only said the Scriptures But further Our Friends have frequently said before 1660. The Scriptures of Truth The Holy Scriptures c. of which for I spare not time to turn over Books for this purpose there occurs at present R. Farnsworth and T. Speed without trouble of Seeking who have so expressed them So that this false Insinuation of the Snakes is refuted Ibid. p. 104. And other Quakers did justifie this Beast and said That he might as well come into the Church with that Filth in his Hands as the Minister with a Bible If S. Eccles had as Isaiah a Command from the Lord to Go Naked c. and the Lord hath no where bound himself by promise that he would give no such Command to any of his Servants in the Gospel Dispensation he had in that his obedience his reward But for what the Snake hath last alledged I demand his proof and then that may be considered if he can shew any P. 105. Vpon the 10th of August 1681. at the Quaker Meeting-House in Grace-Church-street one who had a greater reverence than the rest for the Holy Scriptures brought a Bible with him and before the Meeting was gathered or their Preachers come he being in the Gallery read part of a Chapter which so much mov'd their Indignation that one of the Chief of them snatch'd the Bible out of his hand and thrust him all along the Gallery down several steps Rich Smith was present and did attest it The Person Richard Smith said to be the Attestator as above the Reader will I think with me conclude to be one of our Friends or who does at least frequent our Meetings Now I know but one of that Name and I have enquired of him and he declares as follows Whereas Richard Smith is said to have attested the Story above and it seeming to me that the Relator The Snake in the Grass does thereby intend the said Richard Smith to be a Quaker I do Declare First That I know no Person a Quaker named Richard Smith in London or the Suburbs but my self Secondly That I did never in my whole Life see any such
of Richard Scoryer's And we do also certify that some Part or Portion of the Old or New Testament is daily Read in the said School beginning at Genesis and so Reading on in the said Scriptures untill both the Old and New Testament are Read throughout Wansworth 22 d August 1698. Law Ball Edm. Phillips Tho. Darking Steph. Webb Nich. Lesow Sam. Webb Thus Reader thou here hast this Story to a Demonstration proved a Lye as is also done in divers others foregoing and may be hereafter done in other Instances And if this our Adversary had not a natural propensity to tell Lyes he could not thus err from Truth For hiding and sculking as he generally does in the City he might with small pains have gone by Water to Wansworth 5 Miles or with less cost have sent a Penny-Post Letter to many Persons of that Town who could have better inform'd him herein if he had not been both Hypocritical and Unjust in that he pretends care to our Souls while he wilfully tells Lyes with purpose to destroy us This his practice leads me to observe of him that he is fitter to all the purposes of Destruction and Hate than to that one great purpose to which he falsly pretends viz. to promote the Vnity of the Church 〈◊〉 indeed pretends Great Charity Real Kindness and Good Wishes for the Generallity of us yet tells Lyes of us which in their end and design are to raise Persecution by influencing the Government against us if they would but take the Alarm from him But as it hath pleased God who hath the Hearts of all Men in his hand to incline the Government to give us some security against the evil practices of ill designing Men by affording us a Toleration in the matters of the Worship of our God so we are truly thankful to God and the Government herein and are at no time backward to give an account of the Faith which is in us and our agreeable practice however misrepresented by this Incendiary in Religion Ibid. p. 148. I will end this Section with shewing that the Quakers have in their Blasphemies against the Divinity of Jesus and Humanity of Christ only lick'd up and improv'd the Ancient most Anti-christian Heresies And I may fitly end this Section with shewing that whatsoever the Marcionites Manichees Eutychians and Saturnians might hold as to the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ yet we have always said and believed according to Scripture that Jesus so fore-named by the Angel and born of the Virgin in Bethlehem of Judea was truly and properly Man and in all respects Sin only excepted like unto us and that in this Man Jesus the Godhead dwelt Bodily and that through the Power of the Godhead in him he did open and consecrate a New and Living Way for Men to Salvation and Eternal Life through the Veil that is to say his Flesh And this Truth the Apostle does not deny when he allegorizes Eph. 5.30 The Spiritual Union and Fellowship of Christ with his Followers under the terms of being Members of his Body Flesh and Bones and in a like acceptation are very many other such expressions in Scripture to be understood yet is it not thence to be concluded unless falsly as this Snake does that they are Heretically agreeing with the Cerdonites the Eutychians and Manicheans Ibid. p. 149. But lastly because I must not stay here to deduce and compare all their Heresies those Ancient Heretickâ— the â—bonites and Naâ—areens from whom our Modern Socinians and from them the Quakers do derive their Doctrine did mightily undervalue the Scriptures Some of them pretended to mend the Scriptures and did boldly Adulterate them and set up other Scriptures against those received by the Church And this the Quakers have done beyond any that went before them The Snake does p. 336. Demand Reparation in the Name of the Church of England insinuating his real or assumed Power and if I should now do the like for or in the name of the People called Quakers I may be as much to seek for Reparation from him for this his abuse as I am to seek for proof in this Charge However I do at least demand a proof where ever the Quakers pretended to mend the Scriptures or did boldly Adulterate them or did set up other Scriptures against those received 'T is no Proof of this Charge to say p. 150. We have cannonized our own Writings If that were true it 's no proof but it is false We may have said and said truly that Writings given forth from the movings of the Spirit of God in any are given forth from the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures But we have always readily offered and submitted our Words and Writings to the Testimony of the Holy Scripture because tho' the Spirit of God in his People at this day is the same Holy Spirit which was in the Holy Apostles yet they had greater Manifestations of it So that tho' it is both now and then the same in kind the Degree of Manifestation differs But to return I do as above demand proof where ever we have pretended to mend the Scriptures or have boldly Adulterated them or set up others against them As Euseb. Hist. l. 5. c. 28. Theod. Haerit Fab. l. 2. c. 5. do mention instances of some that did and as he says we have beyond any that ever went before us yet gives not one instance The Snake's Ipse Dixit is no Proof and if he cannot give better it will at least be a fresh Proof both of his Impudence and Lyes SECT X. Concerning the Satisfaction of Christ in Opposition to the false Charges of the Snake herein IN the Section immediately foregoing the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ is largly treated of and I have therein shewn that we own and believe both as declared fully and truly in the Holy Scriptures and also that our Books rescued from the perversions of this our Adversary do speak according to that acknowledged Rule It remains that in this I now shew that we have always owned in like Scriptural sense that Jesus Christ in Life Doctrine and Death did fulfil his Father's Will and did offer up himself a most Satisfactory Sacrifice for the Sins of Mankind in opposition to the false Insinuations of the Snake herein who says p. 151. Herein the Quakers are direct Socinians for they positively deny the Satisfaction Under which cloudy Charge he insinuates as if we did deny what the Scriptures do declare herein Which is false and he might with equal Sincerity have said the Church of England do deny The Satisfaction For to come nearer The Satisfaction which is positively denied by us is as positively denied by the Church of England which is that rigid and strict Notion of Satisfaction which some had Doctrinally but unscripturally laid down in the terms following viz. That Man having transgressed the Righteous Law of God and so exposed to the Penalty of Eternal Wrath it 's
Quaker-Spirit No it can't because it is not only Cloudy but it is Dark and False to say that words are Furious Venemous or Nonsensical and not give any Proof that they are so It is no help to the Snake to say as he does There needs no Argument to Discern betwixt Perfume and Stench Because that if the Nose can Discern as his Philosophy expresses it without Argument yet the Mind is not established but by Arguments drawn from true Judgment and Reason and none such nay none at all does the Snake offer The Snake for Conclusion to this Section has brought in two texts from the Psalms which he does improperly apply to the Quakers as he has before falsly charged them with Venom Fury Spite Envy and Nonsense And till he can prove that the words spoken by our Friends which whether these quoted were so or not remains to be proved being only taken from Adversaries were in their Original from Fury Spite and Envy and in their delivery Nonsense The Texts of Scripture are but abused by him as a Text in the same Book Psal. 91.11 was by the Devil when he repeated it to our Saviour Luke 4.10 and it will be answer sufficient if after the Example of our Lord we answer in the words of Scripture Psal. 101.7 There shall no deceitful Person dwell within my House he that telleth Lyes shall not remain in my sight SECT XVI Of Fighting and Loyalty I Have hitherto shewn the falsity of the Snake's Charges and his perversions of our Words Doctrines and Principles and how Unduly and Unrighteously he would endeavour to inferr from them Meanings and Consequences which neither are nor ever were ours but which we Abominate as destructive of and contrary to those Doctrines and Principles of the Christian Religion which the Spirit of Truth teacheth and leads into and which we do sincerely Believe And what is thus already in the foregoing Sections made appear will be further manifested in this and the following Sections for that in these as in those he hath not shewn what we are but what he would have us appear to be under the disguise which himself has put upon us In the pulling off which disguise there is at least this accidental Help and Advantage that the disguise in which he has represented us is exceedingly unlike our true Features I call it an accidental Advantage because if his Malice could have been satisfied in accusing us with only an abundance of improbable things they might have found some unthinking People who might have been misled into a too easy belief of them But as that could not be satisfied but by charging us with a number of Absurd and Impossible things So all that shall consider the ground and nature of our Principles and the nature of his Charge will with little difficulty be satisfied of their Contrariety and Inconsistency And tho' from this Consideration the sober Reader might and would have ground sufficient to determine the Question in this particular Yet for the detecting his particular Charges Perversions and Abuses I shall as in the former follow him through them And for his more full and plain Confutation herein I will briefly hint our Principles as Influencing Men with respect to Fighting and Loyalty The first of which the Snake most falsly does Charge us to approve and use and that in the last we are short and defective And first as to Fighting We say the end of the coming of our Lord Jesus as is prophesied of him Dan. 9.24 was to Finish the Transgression and to make an end of Sin And in the Room thereof to establish Truth and Righteousness in the Earth And as many as do witness the Power of his Coming by the Operation of his Holy Spirit in them do know that the work thereof is to take away and cleanse from all the Fleshly Lusts that War against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 which the Apostle makes to be the ground of Outward Wars and Contentions James 4.1 and as the Holy Spirit in all those in whom it does effectually work does destroy and purge away the very root from whence unjust Wars do proceed so it prevents in them the occasion of all outward Wars And this our Saviour did Teach in that Sermon of his upon the Mount Matth. 5.21 22. Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time Thou shalt not kill c. But I say unto you whosoever is angry with his Brother c. vers 38 39. Ye have heard it said an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth But I say unto you that ye resist not Evil but whosoever shall Smite on thy right Cheek turn to him the other Vers. 43 44. Ye have heard it hath been said thou shalt love thine Neighbour and hate thine Enemy But I say unto you Love your Enemies c. And if Anger Resistance and Hate be taken away What then can remain to occasion Wars Surely nothing From a sight of this Gospel Dispensation it was that the Prophet in the Holy Vision did foretel the peaceable practice of those who should come under the peaceable Government of Jesus Christ They shall beat their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more Isa. 2.4 And they who thus are redeemed out of the Grounds and Occasions of Wars by the workings of the Holy Spirit in them Such if they continue obedient cannot any more take the Sword into their hands Hitherto with respect to those who are in and under the Administration of the Gospel of Peace concerning whom we have from the first since we were a People declared that God hath taken the Sword out of their hands But tho' God hath thus disarm'd his peculiar People of the outward Sword that he might bring them to have a full and entire Dependance upon him for their safety Yet he hath never disarm'd himself of the outward Sword and as he is as well Soveraign of the World as of the Church and ought to have the command of all Mankind so he may put the Sword into the hands of those who are not yet brought under the Administration which I have above spoken of and he can make them Instrumental in his hand to Chastize his and his Peoples Enemies Thus Cyrus who many years before he was born was by name foretold of by the Prophet Isa. 44.28.45.1 is there called in the Word of the Lord Cyrus is my Shepherd he is the Lord 's Anointed These Titles were given with respect to the Services which God had fore-appointed he should do viz. be instrumental in the delivery of Jacob his Servant his Elect. In like manner and to the like purposes the Prophet Jeremiah in the Word of the Lord does in three places call Nebuchadnezzar the Lord's Servant but neither of these were of the peculiar People of God but it pleased him to appoint the Sword into their
Glorying in the Murther of the King Pray Reader consider whether he does not bring this Charge upon his Son Charles the Second who in his Declaration Given at his Court at Dunfirmlin the 16th day of August 1650. and in the Second Year of his Reign as it is there dated hath in the Second Section of that Declaration there said Though His Majesty as a Dutiful Son be obliged to Honour the Memory of his Royal Father and have in Estimation the Person of his Mother yet doth he desire to be deeply humbled and afflicted in Spirit before God because of His Father's heakning to Evil Councils and his opposition to the Work of Reformation and to the Solemn League and Covenant by which so much of the Blood of the Lord's People hath been Shed in these Kingdoms and for the Idolatry of his Mother The King doth here acknowledge very grievous Crimes Evil Council Bloodshed and Idolatry for which with all the Sins of his Father's House he there Craves Pardon as he says himself But in the Language of the Snake thus to object Wickedness to his Father's House and to remember the the Judgments that came upon it because of the above-said Evils is to approve of the Murther of His Father and Glory in it I question not but the Sober Reader will have another sense of this Matter for that remembrances of the Evils that have befallen Princes and denunciations of Evils that should befall them because of iniquity are most frequent in the Prophets of which I shall have occasion to mention some And here it may be fit to ask the Snake whether Elisha the Holy Prophet did Approve of and Glory in the Murther of Ben-hadad King of Aram when he told Hazael the King's Servant who did afterwards commit the Murther 2 Kings 8.10 Go and say unto him thou shalt recover howbeit the Lord hath shewed me he shall surely Die Ibid. They fought as Rome with Double Arms the Spiritual Thunder as well as the Carnal Sword If by the they the Snake speaks of he means the Church he claims Membership in It is then too true that they Fought as Rome with Double Arms viz. Excommunicato's Capiendo's as well as the Carnal Sword and by both we have deeply suffer'd But if by they he means they the Quakers it is notoriously false as hereafter in his particular Instances will be found I come now to the Snake's Instance p. 206. from E. B's Trumpet of the Lord in the first Edition of which Book there is as the Snake says a Part thus directed To all you who are and have been always Enemies to the very Appearance of Righteousness who are call'd Delinquents and Cavelliers And out of this as if it were allowable for him an Enemy to Quote and Mangle as he pleases He leaves out all the Explanatory Part and gives the rest by piece-meal yet not but under the direction and explanation of his Perverse Expositions and i. e's In which whether he has done justice to E. B. herein We will first see and examine by giving the place entire as it is and next it may be consider'd from the Nature and Matter of it whether it be Hellish Thundrings from a Cursed Spirit and like the very opening of the Infernal Pit as the Snake has very Imperiously and as I hope to shew Falsly Asserted The words are as follows Thus saith the Lord My Controversie is against you even my Hand in Judgment is upon you already and you are become cursed in all your Hatchings and Endeavours and from time to time my Hand hath been against you in Battle and you have been and are given up as a Prey to your Enemies for the purpose and intents of your Hearts have been known always to be against the Form of Truth and much more against my Powerful Truth it self And because you attempted to take my Throne Conscience therefore I rose in Fury against you and will have War with all your Followers herein for ever And tho' my Hand hath been evidently against you yet to this day you remain in Rebellion in your Minds in hatching Murder and Cruelty in your wicked Hearts and tho' your Kings and Princes and Nobles have been cut off in Wrath and your cruel desperate Inventions and Plots of Wickedness conceived in your Cursed Womb have been broken and you cut short in your Desires yet you repent not nor will see how you are given to be a Curse and a Desolation and a Prey in Houses and Lands and Persons to them whom I raised up against you and gave Power over you yet you are hardned and your Cruelty in the persecution of my Servants cannot be measured where you have any Power you smite with the Fist of Wickedness and count it your Glory to despise my Name In the Vallies of vain Hopes you feed and on the Mountains of Foolish Expectations and conceive in your Cruel Womb of Tyranny the overthrow of the Nations but in the bringing forth your selves are overthrown and it is not for well-doing that you suffer but my Hand is against you and my Judgments are upon you and except you repent shall continue upon Earth with you and follow you and persue you to the Lake of Destruction where there is no Repentance and you and your Kings and Lordly Power by which you have thought to exercise Lordship over my Heritage shall be enslaved by the Devil in the Pit of Darkness in Everlasting Bondage where he shall reign your King and Lord for evermore Thus E. B. who in this place does not otherwise speak than against those same evil practices which King Charles the Second in the Declaration forementioned did desire to be deeply humbled for and by means of which the Judgments that did overtake were brought And where E. B. saith You are become cursed in all you Hatchings and Endeavours It was not as the Snake falsly Glosses with his i. e. to Restore the King But as E. B. saith himself because you have attempted to take my Throne Conscience And this is so true a saying that all who shall attempt to take the Throne of God viz. the Consciences of Men will sooner or later find that those their attempts will be rewarded with manifest oppositions and overthrow from the Hand of God But further E. B. in this Book did not speak only or chiefly against the wickedness of that Party No but he also speaks against the same Wickedness in Oliver Cromwell and tells him as plainly from the Lord Thou hast broken Truce with me and now thou suffers grievous and Heinous Oppression and Cruelty And to the Generals Colonels and Commanders and Officers he speaks as plainly concerning their Wickedness and tells them You are abundantly waxed fat and exalted through Victories and Deliverances and now you kick against the Lord that hath handled you as Instruments in his Hand to do his Will and many of you who have been raised out of the Dust are set down
in your high Nest of Liberty in the Lust and Pride and Filthiness of the Flesh. And in like manner he goes through many of the then Parties into which the People were divided and faithfully tells them their Trangression and admonishes to Repentance that so their then impending Destruction and which did come might have been averted And this is so far from being the effects of a Cursed Spirit or Hellish Thundrings and the opening of the Infernal Pit that it hath many Examples in Holy Writ in which God by his Prophets hath denounced and foretold grievous Desolations and Destruction which should come because of Transgression Thus the Prophet Amos 8.11 Jeroboam shall die by the Sword and Israel shall be led away Captive out of their own Land And the treatment he met with was much such as the Snake gives for we read in the 10th vers Then Amaziah the Priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam King of Israel saying Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the House of Israel the Land is not able to bear all his words Thus Amaziah and our Snake are of the same Mind who when a Prophet from the Lord declares his Will concerning the Disobedient these will have such a Prophet to Approve of and Glory in their Destruction Which horrid Imputation cannot appear in any thing to be more false than that these same Men with many of the Prophets of the Lord who have been concerned in like Messages have called in the Word of the Lord to Repentance and Amendment by which the Impending Judgments that they foretold should come might have been turned away and that there was need of Repentance King Charles in the Declaration before-mentioned has abundantly testified but of that I care not to be more large at present The Snake p. 208. next carps at a Book Entituled Good Council and Advice but mentions no more of the Title lest it should betray and destroy the purpose he quotes it for and testifie that the Writers of it were true Prophets it is thus Rejected by Disobedient Men. And the days of Oliver Cromwell 's Visitation passed over and also of Richard Cromwell c. Printed 1659. From which Book p. 27 36. the Snakes quotes thus and begins Oh Oliver arise and come out which is an abuse and false Quotation for these words in that Book do stand twelve Lines assunder and begins thus Oh Oliver hadst thou been Faithful And of this the Snake declares they did blow the Trumpet to Oliver effectually But it is very false for from the Title of the Book their Visitation passed over and from the event viz. Oliver's Death and Richard's being Cast out it appears otherwise Ibid. p. 208. And he further charges Oliver not to turn Sober Men and True Hearts out of his Army And a very good Charge it was Ibid. So it seems they esteem'd Fighting a Lawful and a Good Thing in a Good Cause because they thought it consistent with Sober Men and True Hearts According to what I have before observed p. 138. God not having disarmed himself of the Outward Sword he may and often hath for Causes seeming Good in his Sight put the Sword into the Hands of such whom he hath appointed to be the Ministers of his Anger against wicked Men and among these his Ministers we believe there very often is and hath been Sober Men and True Hearts according to those Discoveries of the Will of God which they have had And this we also know that if Sober Men and True Hearts who have been raised up by the Lord and made Instrumental in his Hand by the outward Sword to Castise His and His Peoples Enemies do humbly wait upon God to have further discoveries of his Will and thereby come into greater degrees of Obedience to the Holy Spirit of Christ the Peaceable Saviour they may at length come to see concerning them against whom God raised them up as Joshua in the word of the Lord recounts to Israel concerning their Enemies Jos. 24.12 And I sent Hornets before you which cast them out before you even the two Kings of the Amorites and not with thy Sword nor thy Bow For it is certainly true that those 〈◊〉 do come to that Spiritual Marriage with the Lord spoken of by the Prophet Hosea 2.9 they will witness the compleating of that Prophecy mentioned in the 18th verse of this Chapter And in that Day will I make a Covenant for them with the Wild Beasts and with the Fowls of the Heavens and with that that creepeth upon the Earth And I will break the Bow and the Sword and the Battle out of the Earth and will make them to sleep safely Ibid. p. 209. But since 1660. it is an Antichristian Doctrine Before and since 1660 even ever since we were a People it hath been our Principle and Practice not to use the outward Sword Ibid. One of the Orders given forth by their Yearly Meeting 1693. Commands that none should carry Guns in their Ships Our Yearly Meeting did never give forth any Commands but in Brotherly sort hath caution'd against those things which are not consistent with our Holy Profession of which this is one Ibid. p. 209. They presented G. K. as endeavouring to Subvert the Government which by their Law is Death because that in the 9 th and 10 th Articles of a Paper there Published called an Appeal from the 28 Judges c. he queried whether it was consistent with their Principle against using the Carnal Sword c. That it was not Because he Queried c. as the Snake falsly says he was presented but because of his indecent and tumultuary Behaviour the Declaration of the Sessions it self will best shew which I shall here quote from S. J's State of the Case p. 50 51. Their words are these Therefore for the undeceiving of all People we have thought fit by this Publick Writing not only to signify that our Procedure against the Persons now in the Sheriffs Custody as well as what we intend against others concerned in its proper place respects only that part of the said Printed Sheet viz. The Appeal which appears to have the tendency aforesaid that is Sedition Disturbance Subversion of the Government or aspersing the Magistrates and not any part relating to Difference in Religion c. Ibid. p. 210. But it is plain that they are not against Force of Arms when they like the Quarrel for they did not only encourage Oliver c. but they fought themselves against the King if you will believe G. F. who complains of many Quakers being Disbanded out of the Army and that for being Quakers tho' they were good Fighters It is false G. F. does not complain that any Quakers were disbanded much less that they were disbanded for being Quakers That which G. F. does here complain of is the Pride and Haughtiness of them to whom he writ and as an instance of their Apostacy from that tenderness towards Religious and
Parliament deviated and thereby Justifies the Committee of Safety against the Parliament And so every thing that is uppermost to the end of the Chapter They too have stumbled upon the Doctrine of Success No such matter we have not so stumbled for tho' we know that God can and will bring his own works to pass and he will cause to succeed that Work which he doth appoint Yet every matter which doth succeed according to the desire of those who are Instrumental in the accomplishing of it is not therefore approved of God As to the Deviating of the King I need not trouble my self to say more than what his Son King Charles the Second hath declared in his Declaration from Dunfirmling before quoted p. 327. viz. Sect. 2. Tho' his Majesty as a Dutiful Son be obliged to Honour the Memory of his Royal Father and have in Estimation the Person of his Mother Yet doth he desire to be deeply humbled and afflicted in Spirit before God because of his Father's hearkning to and following Evil Councels and his Opposition to the work of Reformation and to the Solemn League and Covenant by which so much of the Blood of the Lord's People hath been shed in these Kingdoms c. Now if the Snake will answer this Declaration and shew that the King did not Deviate I shall not engage to reply to it no more than the Snake would to those Tracts of the Royallists which do affirm that that Parliament deviated As they are Questions which concern us not in our private Capacities so I shall not pretend to meddle in them further than under the good Authority of what is given under the Hand of a King as is the Testimony above And in this I had been wholly silent had not the necessity of shewing that the Snake had no cause to Cavil and Misrepresent Francis Howgill for using the word Deviate while there was such publick Allegations of it For with respect to States and the unhappy differences which have sometimes happened in them we do continue to say with Edward Burroughs as before quoted Neither are we for one Party or another nor do we side with one sort and rebel against another neither do we joyn our selves to this sort or the other nor do we War against any by Carnal Weapons neither shall we over provoke the Nation against us otherwise than by our Righteous and Holy Walking c. But now we come to a very Grievous Charge which the Snake in his Romantick Method calls p. 219. A formal Association the Quaker Solemn League and Covenant wherein they bind themselves under their Hands their Lives and Estates to Extirpate the Church and the Laws and Government which support it c. Which most Scandalous and Impudent Assertion will vanish when I shall have Informed my Reader both of the Nature of that which he so Intitles and the Ground and Occasion of it which are briefly these In the Year 1659 the then Parliament had among other things under their Debate The Maintenance of Church-Ministers And upon this occasion there were different Endeavours of the People in this Question according to their different Liking and Belief by Petitioning by Remonstrating or otherwise for it being a Question then handled de novo as to the manner of their Maintenance it appears each side did suppose they had an equal Right to express their Sense of the Matter and to endeavour their ease and safety in the Conclusion of it And when for this purpose the Clergy c. found themselves so nearly concern'd as to procure and send up Petitions in the Name of Six Thousand or more to pray The Parliaments Establishment of Tythes and had thus lead the way by Solemn League and Covenant into a Formal Association as the Snake will have it then others found it their Season to Remonstrate the contrary and to shew that great Spoil and Havock that had been made by the Clergy upon their Conscientious Neighbours and particularly by Means of an Act which they had before obtain'd for the Recovering of Treble-Damages for they love an abundance upon the Refusers of them And under that grievous Oppression the Women who did find themselves included in their several Capacities did speak their Sentiments of the Matter then in Question Some might be sensible of the Oppression in their own Persons others as Wives of those who did so and some as the Children of Parents whose Estates were impaired by that means and as Sufferers they from their several Counties did send to the Parliament And if a Petition from Six Thousand or more Men might then be offer'd as Reason why that Parliament should determine the Question to their Sense Pray why might not the like be offer'd from Seven Thousand or more Women shewing their past Grievous Sufferings which they or some of them had lain under and therefore desire that the Question might be determin'd to their future ease This Reader is what the Snake calls a Solemn League and Covenant but that it 's vastly differing in Nature from that which his Country afforded the fore-going brief Account does truly shew And as it was no such Association as this Adversary doth falsly Suggest so neither was it in its Nature or Terms binding under their Hands Lives and Estates to Extirpate the Church and the Laws and the Government c. For while a Question is yet undetermin'd and is under the Cognisance of Superiours as this then was I cannot see that they who Petition against it do more bind themselves Lives and Estates to Extirpate the Laws c. than they who Petition that that might be Enacted viz. the Establishment of Tythes which was then a Question whether it should be so or not But that these Papers Subscribed by the Women were an Association for the Extirpating of the Government the Snake gives himself the Lye because they were delivered to those whom I doubt not he will acknowledge were Vsurpers And he hath said as I have observed P. 326. fore-going that we Joined with all the Vsurpations from our first Rise And I think they give no great mark of Joyning with a Usurpation who bind themselves under their Hands Lives and Estates to Extirpate it Yet thus Contradictory is the Snake Ibid. P. 220. They Exult That Strafford 's Head was cut off and Canterbury 's and Charles Stuart 's as Traytors for endeavouring to Subvert the Fundamental Laws For these and many more Scraps pick'd here and there a Line he quotes The West Answering the North Printed 1657. But that there is no such Exulting as the Snake does Suggest will soon appear both from the Form and Occasion of the Words First to the Occasion This Book West Answering the North was Writ to lay open the Illegal Practices and Grievous Persecutions which some then in Authority did do and use against many of our Friends in the Counties of Cornwal and Devonshire which was by the way no Mark of Joyning with them as
Bread or Perish'd for want for any Care or Pity these Priests who call themselves the Clergy of the Church of England took of them or shewed to them Ibid. p. 250. They did not think it sufficient to Preach and Print against Tythes but they went about and got Subscriptions of many Thousand Quakers throughout all England against Tythes and sent them to the Parliament in a Humble Threatning Manner By this he must mean That this was Subscriptions of Men For he adds And as if this had not been sufficient the Women too must be Assembled And they too must sign the like Subscriptions Yet this Subscription of the Men which he says they sent up in an Humble Threatning Manner he confesses in the next Page he had not seen I have not yet seen the Subscriptions of the Men p. 251. So that he throws out his Scoffing Lye of an Humbling Threatning at a venture on hear-say from others or his own bare Surmise of which when he brings truer Proof it may be further considered And for the Subscriptions of the Women I have already spoken to it p. 345 346 fore-going Yet for further Discovery of the Malice and Falshood of this Adversary herein I will Remark upon his Quotations from those Papers of the Women's Subscriptions against Tythes concerning which he says p. 251. The Women do positively declare for Annulling of Tythes if the Parliament wou'd not alter the same He begins his Quotation thus The Commands of Men say they p. 3. must be Annulled that takes Tythes and not be obeyed by them that live in the Covenant of God Here he stops and dashes out what follows as he left out what went before these Words The Commands of Men must be Disannulled How By the Covenant of Life which Abrogates the Levitical Law that gave Tythes And if the Covenant of Life hath Abrogated the Levitical Law that gave Tythes which Law was given by God Shall it not also Annul the Commands of Men upon that Abrogated Law I think it must But how Must it be as the Snake says If the Parliament wou'd not alter the same Insinuating that they then wou'd Rebel which is a most false Insinuation Yes if they wou'd not it must be Annulled to as many as are in the Covenant of Life because such Witness as the Words in p. 3. immediately foregoing the Snake's Quotation are the End of the Command of God to the Jews that gave Tythes Thus much for the Words left out at the beginning which sufficiently shews the Malice of the Snake Now for what he hath dash'd out at the end of this Quotation which is this Now if you the then Parliament act in the same Power that hath held up Tythes since the Apostles Days which hath taken away many of our Friends Lives that have been Imprison'd till Death in nasty Holes and Corners for bearing their Testimony against that unjust Oppression of Tythes This the Snake Conceals it is not with him worth minding if Quakers are Imprison'd till Death But whether he will mind it or not I think it did very highly concern them who were exposed to such Sufferings for their Testimony against an Abrogated Jewish Law to represent as they did to the then Powers their Case and warn them that they stood not in that same Power by and from which they had known such Sufferings The Snake continues thus And they tell p. 4. That they bear their Testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ in Opposition to Tythes against the Commands of Man set up in Opposition to him since the Days of the Apostles c. which to you say they is the Word of the Lord God In the Compass of this short Quotation here are three Abuses which the Snake was willing to do to this Place that thereby he might twine it to his purpose The first is he gives for our Friends Words Bear their Testimony c. Whereas it is Printed Bearing But that would not suit his purpose therefore it must be chang'd for that wou'd have spoil'd his Connection and given cause to suspect that it was Relative to something that went before which he was very desirous should be conceal'd but now it must out It is this There are many in Prison at this Day in nasty Holes bearing their Testimony c. I find the Snake wou'd have us lye so close in Nasty Holes as neither to be seen nor heard of His Second Abuse is his Parenthesis in Opposition to Tythes which he puts as looking with a better Grace than the Words which really are in a Parenthesis in this Quotation in the Book it self for they are these That Disannulled the Command that gave Tythes But he thought that it was not proper to have it seen that the Reason why our Friends did lye in Nasty Holes was for bearing their Testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ that Disannulled the Command that gave Tythes His Third Abuse is after these Words since the Days of the Apostles c. he adds which to you is the Word of the Lord God Now these last Words stand not thus in that Page but five or six Lines higher and are a Warning from the Lord to that Parliament in these Words Let not the Nation be ruin'd and the People Prison'd to Death and the Blood of the Innocent be drunken as abundance of it hath been within these few Years which lies upon the Heads of some therefore keep it clear from off your own Heads we warn you which to you is the Word of the Lord God c. The Snake now takes for his Quotation from p. 21. these Words The shout of a King is amongst us the Lord God omnipotent And then gives a Dash instead of these Words which follow Who will throw down all that is come up since the true Church went into the Wilderness And it is no doubt a great Truth That when Jesus Christ the Spiritual Head of the true Church comes to take that Power which of Right belongs to Him He will throw down and deliver his Church from all that Deceit and Oppression which hath come up since his Church went into the Wilderness And it is the Duty of all true Christians to bear their Testimony accordingly Ibid. p. 252. He quotes thus from those Papers of the Womens Subscriptions p. 40. This Priesthood which takes Tythes now this was not the Popish Priesthood says the Snake we in the Power of the Lord God deny them And a very good Reason is in this p. 40. given why we do deny them which is Because there was never no Priesthood that took Tythes who was made by the Law of God but what was in the time of the Law c. And if the Priest-hood now taking Tythes are not so Constituted by the Law of God under the Gospel Is there not very great and good Reason why it should be denied Ibid. He goes on and quotes from the aforesaid Papers page 63. We Declare with our Hands and
Understanding and so the Disputer was raised to Life and that which was for Condemnation having darkned the Light of the Sun form'd it self in the shape of the True Light and so Deceit got the Power and led out of the true Obedience in things before related by which the Simple be-became exceedingly deceived But when he was restored by the Clear Light of Life being guided in that Obedience which was professed by those People among whom he was being the Quakers and his Witness Here is a Clear Testimony that the Truth and Light professed by the Quakers leads out of the Works of the Flesh to worship God in Spirit and in Truth And that by this J. Toldervy's Understanding was opened What hinder'd then that the Work of Regeneration did not go on in him Why they say that he being of a hasty and forward Mind it was in part a Covenant of his own which raised a Fiery Zeal by which he lost his Vnderstanding and thereby the Sun was darkned a very natural consequence of that Covenant which was his own and not of the Spirit of God and here it was that that which was for condemnation formed it self in the shape as they express it of the True Light And thus indeed the Enemy of Man the Devil works in a Mystery to drive Men to make Covenants in their own Wills for their Regeneration which as they can never last so according to the various Disposition of the Person so Covenanting are the extreams which they run into Thus they acknowledge in direct opposition to the Snake that that Deceit which was in J. Toldervy was so far from encouraging him in the Principles of Quakerism that it did lead him out of the True Obedience to that Prinliple which they say he learned from the Quakers Ibid. p. 291. He made a sort of a half Vindication and half Recantation not of the matters of Fact of his aforesaid Delusions for these were undeniable but to free the Quakers from the Imputation and Scandal of them and to clear himself to have been and still continue a true Quaker which makes the Cause much worse on their side Supposing John Toldervy did endeavour to clear himself to have been and still continue a true Quaker at a time and in things wherein we had by Word and Writing denied him I pray how shall that make the Cause much worse on our side any more than it makes bad of the side of the Church of England because the Snake a former Scandalous Member does pretend to have been and still continue a True Member in her Communion But to proceed the Snake is here forc'd to acknowledge that J. Toldervy did free the Quakers from the Imputation and Scandal of his Delusions which whether he had or not the Quakers had freed themselves from them by denying of him both by Word and Writing And as he stood thus denied by them so they could not be chargeable with any of his after Actions But if he had sincerely repented of his great Wickedness and thereby found favour in the sight of God to have restor'd to him the Light of his Countenance and had so been received again into fellowship with those from whom he had been separated this would have been far from making the Cause much worse on their side For with respect to their own satisfaction it would make the Cause much better Because the People of God in all Ages did always rejoice when one that had err'd and stray'd from the Fold did by sincere Repentance return into it again Ibid. p. 292. That same Year viz. the 24th of October 1656. all the Good and Evil Spirits entred into Naylor himself Profane Snake why must both Good and Evil Spirits be thus flouted It shews no true Sense of Religion in one who can with so much ease ridicule both the beginning of all true and saving Religion in Man viz. the entrance of the Good Spirit of God and the beginning of all Misery viz. the entrance of the Evil Spirit into Man But with respect to Jame Naylor and his Great Fall and yet greater deliverance from it I have already spoken from p. 111 to 118. and therefore need not enlarge further here The Snake now turns to Quotations again where in p. 295. he quotes Patrick Levingston in a Piece of his Entituled Plain and Downright Dealing with them that were with us and are gone out from us in p. 10 of which Book P. L. makes an Allusion of the Operations of Physick upon the Body to the Operation of the Spirit or Power of God upon the Soul and shews thence what melting into Tears and Shakings he had known upon his own Body and also what some others had known when the Lord did first appear with a mighty hand as he says p. 9. to bring his People out of Spiritual Egypt in this our Age. And he here goes on and shews that these emotions of Body and terrible breakings the Soul were but for a little time and that the Voice of the Lord was not distinctly discerned there they being only preparatory of that way of Peace Stilness and Quietness in which as they continued obedient they came to be established This briefly is the substance of what the Snake hath pick'd and quoted from p. 10. And I will now shew thee Reader his strange perversion of all this Ibid. p. 296. Now here is a Comparison made betwixt the State of the Quakers from 1650 to 1660. and from thence to this time No Snake the Comparison does not lie in any date of Years but in the Progress of the Work of God in Men. Ibid. Their first State was their time of Physick The first State of all who have been Regenerated and Born again may by allusion be called a time of Purging or Cleansing and so it hath been frequently term'd in Holy Writ Our Saviour speaks of this first State in such Pathetick Terms Mark 3.27 as does evidently denote it to be a State of Trouble For the binding the Strong Man of Sin by the Stonger Power of God is not to be effected while the Soul is at ease and secure in Sin Nor can the Strong Man's Goods be spoil'd in Man unless through Obedience he comes under the Workings of the Power of the Holy Spirit and that will not give Deliverance to Man before he sees the great necessity he is in of a Deliverer Ibid. But there was worse than that For as Levingston here informs us The Voice of the Lord was not distinctly discern'd among them the Mind was so Hurried and tossed so that there was not a clear discerning what might be done or left undone in many things This is a very sad Reckning For what will become of the first Quaker Infallibility This is nothing so Sad a Reckning as the Snake is like to make when he shall account for all that Profaneness Injustice and Hypocrisie which he hath delivered under the gilded pretence of advancing the Glory
of God the Unity of the Church and the Good of Souls But to his Flouting Question What will become of the First Quaker Infallibility I Answer Nothing but well because as I have largely shewn in the Section particularly treating of Infallibility neither the First Quakers nor the Present have ever placed Infallibility in any Man or Men but only in the Spirit of God And the Manifestations of this being given by the Mediation of Jesus Christ to lead Men to Heaven it is absolutely necessary that it be able on it's part Infallibly to answer the End for which it is given Well but if it be asked How comes the Voice of the Lord not to be distinctly discerned Since the Spirit of God is Infallible in its Manifestations to Men Why the Answer is ready because when the Mind is Hurried and Tossed and in the deep Exercise and Affliction because of its condition it cannot yet come to have so clear a discovery and so distinct discerning of the Voice and Will of God as afterwards in its further Growths in his Grace and Truth And the different attainments of such who are turned into the Way of the Lord the Apostle hath exprest by going on from one Degree of Grace unto Another Ibid. p. 297. It seems these Hurryings and Tossings did not come from the Holy Spirit of God The Effects of the Work of the Power and Spirit of God binding the Strong Man and purging out the Old Leaven does much agree with that which is described by the Prophet 1 Kings 19.11 12. and hath sometimes been as with a Great and Strong Wind sometimes as with an Earthquake sometimes as with a Fire before the Still Small Voice hath been heard And the Rage of the Enemy as P. L. saith is not small against the Soul which is redeeming from under his Captivity but endeavours to raise Hurryings and Tossings whereby the mind might be so darkn'd as not distinctly to discern the Voice of the Lord. Now again for Stories And there the Snake bestows 3 Pages about a Story bearing date the 19th of the 8th Month 1654. related by one whom he is contented pro hac vice to call a Minister because his Narration is against the Quakers But when that is over then with all the rest of the Dissenters he is with the Snake but as the Spawn of the Viper But to take him in his Character of Minister He was a Seventh-Day Baptist named Tho. Tillam sometime Resident in the County of Durham where he was Pastor to a People but they because of his Wickedness and Filthiness did cast him out and deny him This same Minister such a one in many respects as the Snake came up to London and wanting Induction to some place he apply'd himself to the then Commissioners for approving and giving Induction such as they then used to Ministers this T. Tillam from them gets a Place in Essex about Colchester and here it is that he spreads this Report This Report one Gyles Firmin another such Minister takes up and puts at the end of a Book of his which he writ against the Quakers and printed 1656. To this Edw. Burroughs did writ an Answer printed the same Year wherein he does positively deny both this Story of Tillam's and that other of Firmin's which the Snake mentions and says it is a Lye Then it was Incumbent upon the Snake's two Ministers Tillam and Firmin to have brought out their Testimonials of the Truth of what they had said but no such thing came nay indeed one of them could not stay for that purpose for he Scandalously run away from his Charge here in Essex to which he had been Inducted as before he was thrown out of his Charge in Durham because of his Scandalous Carriage in it As Witnesses yet living do testifie Snake p. 304. Since the Publishing the 1st Edition of this Book there has been published an astonishing account of some Quaker Witches who prosecuted one Henry Winder and his Wife for their Lives accusing them of Murder from the Mouth of the Lord. And since the Publication of the Snake an Answer hath been published thereto entituled An Old Apostate Exposed manifesting the great Wickedness and Uncleanness of the said H. W. to his lasting Shame and Confusion of Face and had he not been under strange Delusions and hardness of Heart he could hardly have been drawn by his abettors to have given such occasion to make his abominable Actions publick But so great is the Malice of the Snake and such like envious Men that even their own Shame will not deter them from venting their Malice but let them reap the Fruit of their doings and let 's hear the Snake further Ibid. One of them being examined how this Revelation came to her said she could not tell but she was sure it began in her Feet See what Idle and Ridiculous Stories this Snake licks up surely if Satan's Delusions had not began in his Malicious Heart he had never been brought so to vent it with his Pen. Ibid. But the Snake goes on to give an account of matters notoriously infamous of which the said H. W. was by these two Women accused Wherein whether the Women were altogether Wrong and how far the said Winder was Guilty God knows However for some satisfaction to the Moderate Reader hear the said Winder and his Wife what they said then viz. about 1674. under their hands as it is related by T. Cam in the aforesaid Answer p. 6. We acknowledge and confess that we have sinned and transgressed against the Lord God and against his People who have born grievous Burthens for us we must needs confess before you But this know dear Friends that the Enemy wrought in a Mystery in us to the persuading of us that we might do such things and yet live Then through the weakness of the Flesh Sin took occasion and overcame us then Sin being finished it brought forth Death to the Innocent Life which we once lived in Here it 's plain from H. W's own Confession he had been about some foul piece of Work then though now a fit Tool for the Snake's turn However let 's a little further view the account of H. W's matter as we have it in the Old Apostate Exposed page 9 10. I shall now add what is so notoriously known in the Neighbourhood that though the said H. W. be greatly hardned yet I presume he cannot have a Face to deny relating to their great Uncleanness for which they were denyed of us c. So that it seems before H. W. was fit for this Snake's Communion he was fit to be expell'd ours But since the Snake has him let 's shew him further what he has got Old Apostate Exposed p. 10. The said H. W. had her that is now his Wife so great with Child in his first Wife's days that there was but about Six Weeks betwixt the Death of his first Wife and the Birth of that Child However
in Christ as without them without all other Men Ibid. Not to be Critical upon his Variation and Uncertainty as to the Terms I Answer to both states of the Question First Yea Secondly We believe in Christ both as he is without us and all other Men and as he is within us Thirdly And that though He our High-Priest is set on the Right Hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens He is a Minister of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which the Lord Pitched and not Man Heb. 8.1 Such an High-Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the Heavens Heb. 7.26 Quaery 6. Is Christ now at this day and for ever to come truly and really a Man in true and proper humane Nature without all other Men. Answ. 1. To the first part Yea I Believe Jesus Christ is now at this Day to come truly and really a Man as he is the Heavenly Glorified Man without all other Men even the Man Christ Jesus the great and only Mediator between God and Men. 2. And no doubt his coming will be in his own proper Nature in whose else should he come but his own When as the Son of Man he cometh in his Father's Glory and all his Angels with him 3. But to the Words in the Question Is Christ for ever to come c. How shall we say Yea to this For if we should say Yea he is ever to come truly and really a Man might not some Reflect and question us and say Do you believe he will never so come then For how is that ever done that 's ever to do But this Man can impose Questions in what Terms he pleases and if we don't Answer directly Yea or Nay then it must with him be Falacious Dodging and we insincere and unsound in the Faith such is his Test and he and such Quaerists caâ— scarce fix or please themselves in Wording their Quaeries or Tests as they are not content with the Question Is Christ to come truly and really a Man So as to accept our Yea to the same but also they must add In true and proper Humane Nature As if he might come truly and really a Man and yet not in his true and proper Nature as Man if by Humane they mean proper to Man What sincere Christians will be bound to have these Men's Quaeries the Test of their Faith or Sincerity Men may spend their time in doting about Questions and strife of Words and be far remote from proving themselves in the Faith of Christ thereby And though we as well as many others believe and own the Man Christ as without us and all Men yet how can we or any else know or prove that we are in the Faith but by truly knowing Jesus Christ as he is in us they being Reprobates that do not so know Christ in them 2 Cor. 13.5 Yet Christ is but one and not divided though both without us and within us But I cannot see any Pretence for these Men so much to Question our Belief of Jesus Christ as without us and all Men unless they imagine that we do not believe the Man Christ who was Crucified to be in Being or that they think we suppose Him Annihilated which was ever far from us so to imagine of Him who is our Glorious Head and High-Priest But let 's draw towards a Conclusion passing by many of the Man 's bitter Smitings Aspersions Drolls and Jeers VIII I must tell him again 'T is a great and gross Untruth That the Quakers damn all the World to Hell all since the Days of the Apostles but themselves He has minced this his false Aspersion and my Answer I told him 'T is Men's own wickedness in hating the Light which carries them to Hell and that we believe there were many good Men and Saved since the Apostles Days Antidote p. 59. In my Answer to this Scandalous Charge of taking the very Attributes of God to themselves i. e. the Quakers there 's more to detect the Falshood thereof than only Retortion as he minces the Matter had he been so honest as to have given the Reader a true Specimen of my Answer to that and other Aspersions he might have seen how fairly his Author F. Bugg and himself were Answer'd and Detected of Falshood in this their black Charge as in others as in my Antidote p. 99 100 101. But instead of clearing himself and Brethren from what he says I Retort as the Titles of Your Grace and my Lord given to Bishops leaving out their going down upon their Knees to them as their Reverend Fathers in God And to my asking thereupon Do these import Divine Honour and Divine Attributes or Earthly pray He puts me off with Scoffs Flouts and Detraction as Some Charitable Body help this poor Petitioner in this difficult Point which puzzles his Vnderstanding I would advise thee George to go to thy Friend William who understands Courts better than thee c. p. 378. And further upon the same Point before about their Homage to the Bishops I asked Where did ever Christ's Ministers or Apostles do such Homage to Timothy or Titus or call either of them My Lord Timothy or My Lord Titus or Your Grace c. And what thinks he of God-Fathers and God-Mothers Are not these Divine Attributes and very high ones too To all which I have no sober or rational Answer from the Snake but a sort of Hissing Contempt and Scorn under a feigned Pretence of Pity in such Expressions as these viz. The Lord help him and restore him to his Wits Reader What shall I do with such a Man as this Greater Extravagance is not in Bedlam And Men may be mad secundum quid p. 367. But Reader his pretence of Praying in Compassion for me as a mad Man does not hang well together with his Reproaching and Vilifying of me as he has often done nor yet with his Intention to follow me by Reply through every single Point that I touch c. as he pretends p. 358. What! by reply follow such a Mad-man as he renders me what Reputation will he gain by that upon his own Proposition trow he I hope his black Charge of Idolatry and Transferring Divine Attributes and Worship to themselves i. e. the Quakers p. 379. As it is utterly rejected by us 't will be farther detected and the Malice thereof I supposing 't is already Answer'd by another I do at present forbear Publishing a Full and Particular Answer I have to his Eighth Sect. about that Point as I have so many others at large besides he being a Lurking Adversary that lies hid smiting in the dark I am not willing to spend over-much time about him he being also fallen into another hand to deal with who I doubt not has traced the Snake in his crooked Windings and Turnings IX In this last Article of his Specimen he recites these Words as he saith out of