you Oh horrid and dreadful not onely bee a common lyar but to forge to put in and to add words on purpose to insnare men no marvel you catcht at Faulconers words but once spoken and put them in hastily to take away ones estate when you forge and put in words many words whole lines in a short examination which were never spoken and this to take away mens lives And here ex ore tuo serve nequam out of thine own mouth from thine own words shalt thou bee judged Look back and minde thine own expressions in thine own book pages 7 and 8 where you charge mee with forgery in one word and which yet was not forgery but a mistake and that not in mee neither and yet see your outcries and loud exclamations You may here see say you of what a false and mischâ—evous spirit this Priest is and what a devillish wickedness it is to forge in such a word as for it were it truly so would take away his Foxes life What credit is to bee given to what such a one saith And again Is not hee that can do this past blushing Is there any wickednesse so great that such a one may not bee well conceived to bee ready to act Is such a one a Minister of the Gospel Words need not further to expresse such an act which in its very face is so manifestly wicked and abominable a wickednesse not found in the Roll of those evils which the Apostle mentions should make the last daies perillous I 'le say no more I need not Read the words and remember your own actions and apply But let mee ask you were these all whose blood you thirsted after Did you not write a letter to a friend of yours in Bristol from White-Hall that until Calamy and some other of the Priests were dealt withal as Love was it would never bee well I hope I shall one day get that book of yours which you writ against him mentioned before viz. A short Plea for the Commonwealth Those who have seen it tell mee it most fully sets forth the fierceness and bitterness of your spirit not only against him but that you shew your rancour and malice therein against many of the servants of Christ whose names are yet precious in the Churches and the memory of whom will live when your name shall rot and perish or if it bee mentioned or remembred it shall bee with abhorrence and detestation as infamous as poor Faulconers is I cannot but remind that passage of yours in your Throne page 34. where because I said the Magistrates had their spots and failings you say they are no Magistrates of God but men of sin and the born of the devil If spots and failings do in your judgement render them thus Oh! what are you mind that Rom. 4. beg Therefore thou art inexcuseable O man whosoever thou art Jew or Gentile Ranter or Quaker that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things nay infinitely worse But wee are sure the Judgement of God is according to truth against them which commit such things and thinkest thou this O man that judgest them who do such things and doest the same that thou shalt escape the Judgement of God But Reader in this poor wretch you see what a dreadful thing and what a heavy judgement it is for a man to bee given up of God what wickedness so abominable that hee will not then commit So Rom. 1. ver 24. to the end And see also how the Lord doth punish hatred and contempt of his Ministry and servants and Apostasie from the truth with hardnesse of heart and blindnesse of mind giving them over to believe lyes 2 Thes 2. 10 11 12. What a sottish piece is this poor man become to turn Quaker But 't is most true Shipwrack of faith and of a good conscience are seldome severed 1 Tim. 1. 19. But yet Countryman come there is hope in Israel concerning this thing there is still balm in Gilead the blood of Jesus Christ shed at Jerusalem though above sixteen hundred years ago is as efficacious as prevalent as ever Come man leave quaking don't trample upon and despise the price of thy Redemption I see thou art in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity but come repent of thy wickednesse and pray to God perhaps the thoughts of thy heart and the wickedness of thy hands and the blasphemies of thy pen and tongue may bee forgiven thee Don't despise the riches of Gods goodness and forbearance and long-suffering towards thee know that the goodnesse of God in this patience of his in not cutting thee off is to lead thee to repentance Consider friend there is a day coming wherein the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest all secret plots contrivances and under-hand counsels Repent whiles 't is called to day lest thy heart bee more and more hardened through the deceitfulness of sin treasure not up wrath by impenitence and hardness of heart one true repentant tear will avail more now than millions of yellings and howlings then our Jesus is able to save perfectly and to the uttermost all those who come unto the Father through him meet him whom thou slightest and make him thy friend And for a close know and consider that if you go on in sin wilfully and impenitently after you have received the knowledge of the truth and that you despise the blood of Christ there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a fearful looking for of judgement and of fierce indignation which shall devoure the adversaries And now from henceforth let none of these Quakers trouble mee I have done with this generation but if they will bee troubling let them know I will not bee troubled And as for any further answers replies contendings or debatings with them or him being well assured that my ground work on which my discourse and discovery is founded will stand firm I declare this as my Coronis my farewel to Quakerisme As for their doctrines or opinions in this or any other of their Pamphlets I think them not worth the reading much less the answering by any serious Christian especially that hath publick imployments indeed not of any one that hath ought else to do but to make a long voyage to Tarshish to fetch only Apes and Peacocks I conclude therefore with holy Augustine Tales judices velim c. I desire such Judges of my writings that will not alwayes require an answer when they shall finde what I have written to bee spoken against those things which being matter of fact have clear testimonies and being matters of doctrine have clear arguments and authorities It were a prejudice and disparagement to either to agitate them alwayes upon the cavils of ignorant or contentious persons therefore I end FINIS Books lately written by William Prynne Esq a Bencher of Lincolnes-Inne and sold by Edward Thomas in Green-Arbour Iâ—s Patronatus Or the Right of Patrons to present Vicars to Parish Churches c. The first and second part of a seasonable legal and historical vindication of the Fundamental Rights and Laws of England The second Edition in Quarto A Declaration and Protestation against Excize in general and Hopps a native incertain commodity in particular A PIECE WORTHY PERUSAL A Polemical Desertation of the Inchoation and Determination of the Lords Day Sabbath An old Parliamentary Prognostication for the Members there in Consultation The Quakers unmasked and clearly detected to bee the Spawn of Romish Froggs c. A new Discovery of Free-State Tyranny The first Part of a Short Demurrer to the Jewes long discontinued Remitter into England The second Part of the Short Demurrer c. A Legal Resolution of two important Queries concerning Ministers giving of the Sacrament to their Parishioners A new Discovery of Romish Emissaries Pendennis and all other standing Garrisons dismantled Also all the former works of Mr. William Prynne both before during and since his Imprisonments are sold by Edward Thomas in Green-Arbour More Books printed and sold by Edward Thomas in Green-Arbour REynolds Of Gods Revenge against Murther Folio Festivous Notes on Don Quixot Folio Phioravants Three Pieces in Quarto A Rich Closet of Physical Secrets in Quarto Bakers Arithmetick in Octavo Crumbs of Comfort in twenty fours Private Devotions by D. Valentine in twenty fours Lillies Grammar in English by R. Robinson The School of Complements in Twelves A Little Handful of Cordial Comforts by Rich. Stardfast Master of Arts the third Edition in Twelves Railing Rebuked or A Defence of the Ministers of the Nation against the Quaker by William Thomas Minister of the Gospel at Ubley in Quarto A Vindication of the Scripture and Ministery by William Thomas Minister of Ubley in Quarto Practical Husbandry Improved by G. Platts in Quarto c. Satan Inthroned in his Chair of Pestilence wherein the whole business of Ja. Nayler his coming into Bristol and his Examination is related by Ralph Farmer Minister of the Gospel in Quarto A so the Life of James Nayler with his Parents Birth Education Actions and Blasphemies is exactly set forth by William Deacon in Quarto Hypocrisie Unmasked or the Definition and Characters of the Natural Moral Civil Praying Hypocrite and how they differ from the sincere Christian by Mr. Samuel Crook late Rector of Wrington in Sommersetshire The true Christ falsly applyed discovered 1. How far his person 2. The expectation of receiving Christ in the Spirit 3. The operation of Christ received 4. The Predestination And 5. His Merits and Free-grace are not truly apprehended from whence some conclude to cast off all Ordinances pretend and expect to Prophesie and work Miracles all which with twenty more false Applications of the true Christ are discovered by W. Kaye Minister at Stokesley
Calf and the young Lion and the Fatling together and a little childe shall lead them c. So tame and gentle shall they be walking lowly and meekly under the sense of former vileness with humble acknowledgements of their own unworthinesse of such grace they have received not boasting exalting or Pharisee like lifting up themselves above others with a stand further off I am more holy then thou Whereas the Quakers change is of a quite contrary temper whatever they were before How meek how milde how gentle soever they now become fierce and heady and raging running up and down like mad dogs and tygers barking biting suarling raving and railing at all others nay even women and maidens the ornament of whose sex is a meek and quiet spirit changing their natural temper 1 Pet. 3. 4. become not spiritual but unnatural uncivil and immodest lifting up their voices in the very streets and publike Congregations So that had that conceit of those Phylosophers of Transmigration of the souls of men and women into beasts been true we might have thence fancied another and that is that the souls of beasts had transmigrated and shifted themselves into the bodies of women and maidens and informed them it being otherwise almost impossible sure not imaginable that that more modest and milder sex should so far forget themselves but not to seek after such uncertain light indeed false for the ground of this miscarriage The true light of Scripture tells us Rom. 1. 25. 26. that those who change the truth of God into a lie the Lord in justice gives them up to vile affections and passions so that even women change the order of nature into that which is contrary to nature as this people do So that from the manner of the Quakers conversion the matter and the end and term we may well conclude their change is not true conversion but unsound and rotten and then they are not perfect Thus of the Quakers in general And now to deal with my quaking friend in particular And first as for the person of the man I profess I do not hate him and should the Lord be pleased to humble him to give him a sight of his sins and the grace of true repentance that so he might be truly converted I shall notwithstanding all his unworthy dealings with me gladly receive him into my bosome but for the present and as yet he appears to be I look upon him with a heart full of trembling and beg of God that he would never leave mee or any good man to fall into the like condition For truly as I look upon Francis Spira as a dreadful instance of a poor despairing creature so I look upon George Bishop as a fearful example of a poor wretch whose heart is judicially hardened and his conscience seared and both for sinning against the light of the Gospel revealed to them for the Lord hath several wayes to deal with Gospel-despisers and contemners who receive not the truth with a love of it When I read my opponents Pamphlet oculo currente as we say Throne of Truth page 100. and with a superficial eye I met with his Protestation concerning the matter of the Lord Craven with the iniquity whereof I knew he had been highly charged I made a stand and seriously observed it and I do confess I was somewhat astonished at that bold and daring Appeal which he therein makes unto the all-discerning eye of the Almighty of his innocency and integrity which made me considering the notoriousnesse of the fact and of his being charged with it to read again and to consider whether there might not be some equivocation in the language and expression which not appearing to me I then began to think that possibly he might not be guilty this being an age wherein many things are charged upon many men very slightly and ungroundedly and sometimes very falsly But when I more closely and with a more observant eye read again his writings and took notice of his practises and devices his juglings wrestlings prevarications and pervertings of my plain sense and meaning his putting of blindes and fallacies upon his Reader which artifice possibly he learned of his Master the Jesuite whom he served till he was discovered And when I observed his railing and reviling language with his malicious and revengeful tendencies I then saw that as he had dealt with a shameless forehead in this matter so he had done in that also and that he was a person of a profligate spirit and that there was some mental reservation in his protestation or that which I most incline to believe he is a man of a most supernaturally and God-forsaken-harden'd heart and seared conscience And I affirme that if we may judge and take an estimate of the Conscience honesty and perfection of the Quakers in general by this man in particular we may safely say that one may be as vile a person as any under heaven and yet be a perfect Quaker For certainly he that shall dare to make such an appeal to the all-seeing eye of God of his innocence and shall be guilty will dare to do any thing But the Proverb is verified She that will dare to play the Whore will dare to deny it Custome is a second nature So that in what a man is accustomed unto it is a hard matter for him to do otherwise Can the Ethiopian change his skin Jer. 13. 23. or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Frequent and reiterated acts beget a habit and hard and much working doth not more harden the hand than often sinning hardens the heart 2 Pet. 2. from 10. to the end So that as S. Peter sayes they cannot cease from sin who as S. Paul describes them Eph. 4. 18 19. through the darkness of their mindes and the blindness of their hearts being past feeling give themselves over to work all manner of wickednesse even with greedinesse 1 Kin. 21. 20. And with Ahab who by wicked practises got away Naboth's vineyard sell themselves to work evil even in the sight of the Lord. And when they have perpetrated their leudness with the Whore in the Proverbs eat and wipe their mouthes Pro. 30. 20. and say I have done no wickednesse Nay so prevalent is Satan with such persons that they will pretend to God Religion and the publick interest to promote their evil practises So did Ahab but the devil is never a worse devil than when a Saint Dissimulata Sanctitas est duplex iniquitas Dissembled counterfeited Sanctity is double iniquity none so dangerously tempting and taking 2 Cor 11. 14. and therefore doth Satan himself transform himself sometimes into an Angel of light 1 Thes 2 9. coming with greater power than ordinary and more specious shewes of holinesse he comes as an immediate messenger an Angel from heaven with great light when 't is but a new Gospel if it be
estate by it either in land or money for what I earned I expended in their service and this will appear to the world when my God shall take mee hence of whom it will or may be said as once was spoken of one I well knew who lived in an imployment by which many others grew rich Hee was an honest man for hee died poor This I speak in respect of any addition to my estate since that imployment No George I have neither Bishops or Deans and Chapters Lands nor King or Queens or Delinquents lands And as for moneys I am beholding to my friends to provide for my wife and children so little have I been grasping after the world whatever else may bee mine infirmities otherwise and whether you George can say this doth appear to the world by your manner of living without your trade which you would not do before and by what will bee declared afterward and therefore to go on Whereas you charge mee page 100. with light scoffing and slanderous stuff and that by dark intimations of the business of Faulconer of set purpose to wound your reputation and to reproach the truth which you witness I shall now therefore to do you right speak no longer darkly and by way of intimation but expresly plainly in words at length and not in figures by which I suppose every one that runs may read what a Saint you are and what a truth you witness But the Proverb is here verified Like lettice like lips a truth and witness well met and because I would do you all the right I can and for that possibly some may read mine that will not read yours I will here set down in your own words all you say for your self in this matter in your page 100. and 101. and then consider it Georges protestation in the matter of the Lord Craven For the stopping of thine and all slanderous mouths say you and the satis of such as desire not nor delight in the defaming of others I do declare in the presence of the Lord before whom I fear who searcheth the heart and tryeth the reines and bringeth every work to judgement that I am clear and innocent therein nor have I used nor do I know of any indirect proceeding in that whole business of Craven and Faulconer nor done otherwise than in the faithful discharge of my duty And further that during the time of my publike ingagements which have not been a few and my whole conversation as I have received mercy to have a witnesse so have I born my testimony against unrighteousnesse and dishonesty especially such as thou dost intimate in whoever as I have had opportunity or have been called thereunto neither fearing the face of any man nor preferring my life or outward concernments to the clearing of my conscience therein as is well known unto which I have also the witness of him who is greater than all and a large time of Tryal I have had wherein I have neither wanted enemies for the sake of truth nor thy malice and opportunity to lay to my charge could they finde or were there any thing to bee found to the contrary and thus much to say thou hast compel'd mee Thus hee Here is you see Reader a bold high daring confident appeal of his innocency in the matter of the Lord Craven and of his honesty and uprightness in all other particulars in the time of his publike ingagements Now what if it shall appear notwithstanding all this that hee George Bishop who made this dreadful protestation did not only know of indirect proceedings in that matter but that hee also was one a chief one that used them and that as to this matter Faulconer who died in prison for perjury was in comparison of him an honest and innocent person If I say all this shall appear will you believe that hee doth believe there is a God that searcheth hearts and tryes reines and brings every work to judgement Or can you bee perswaded that hee rightly entertains that Article of the Resurrection though hee seems to do so And before I give you an account of what I have to deliver unto you that you may know the daring spirit of this man and how little respect and reverence there is in him of the Almighty and that it is an easie and light thing with him to make such appeals to God as this is Let mee minde you of the like in that his Pamphlet which I think few men in the world besides himself would offer and by that judge of this Whereas in my Narrative I charge him and Hollister and other of their relations and adherents that they joyn'd themselves to the wretched Quakers upon faction humour and discontent In page 44. hee makes this appeal and protestation Another of Georges protestations I do here for clearing of my conscience and the satisfaction of all the sober-minded to whom this may come and for the stopping of thine and all slanderous mouths in the dread and presence of the living and eternal God who is Judge of heaven and earth before whose Judgement-Seat thou and wee must all appear that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that hee hath done good or bad In my own and the name of those servants of the Lord whom thou reproachest declare and affirm that neither faction discontent disaffected humour pride affected-singularity which are all of them thy slanders nor any other thing was the cause of our joyning unto them But having many of us c. And so goes on speaking of waiting in the use of outward means c. how God had now visited them by the Ministery of these men and how hee had reach'd by his Eternal Power to that of himself in them and so they became joyned to the Lord and to the immortal word c. And seeing him who is invisible c. they hunger no more nor thirst nor wonder as heretofore c. speaking highly of their high attainments as if they were now perfect so that neither faction humour pride c. nor any other thing but the mighty and pure work of God was the ground of their becoming Quakers so sayes George But now if hee were to bee cleared by Compurgators viz. such as should upon their consciences affirm that what hee here sayes they are perswaded is true he would finde very few if any besides Quakers that would dare to do it For suppose hee might bee believed for himself who or what man in the world that truly fears God and knows what it is to make appeals to his most glorious Majesty and with what righteousness and judgement it ought to bee performed would or can dare to make such a protestation in the behalf and in the name of others as hee here doth If hee had said hee had believed or been perswaded or the like that they did it not upon such grounds or motives but upon a pure account which
is impossible in this business it had been tolerable but thus expresly fully unlimitly as fully for them whose hearts hee cannot know as for himself to call the living and eternal God to witness in this manner argues him to be one of a presumptuous spirit And for a further discovery of his Atheistical impudence in this kinde do but read the report and judgement of those who were familiarly acquainted with Hollister for whom this daring man doth thus protest hee being by mee charged in special for turning Quaker upon faction and discontent before ever I saw their book which was but lately published it is a book published by and in the name of that Church as they call themselves whereof hee was a member or rather Master till hee fell away to the Quakers and drew away from them as they say in their Epistle to the Reader eighteen or nineteen with him in the tenth and eleventh page of which book they say they did observe in what height of discontent hee came home from that thing call'd a Parliament and continued in that posture viz. of discontent till a new Religion came which was the Quakers which say they presently within few daies or weeks hee imbraced So that I can nor I think will any considering man look upon him no otherwise than as one of those Knights of the Post as they call them who will say or swear any thing and this to let you see the spirit of the man And now to proceed hee professes and as you see boldly protests his innocency in the matter of the Lord Craven and Faulconer nor hath hee used nor doth hee know of any indirect proceeding in that whole business Now that my Reader who is a stranger in this matter may go along with mee with understanding I shall as briefly as I can lay the whole business before him The Lord Craven having been for many years long before the troubles in England resident in Holland and imployed in their service having a command under the Prince of Orange the Scots King going to Breda the Lord Craven came thither in attendance upon the Prince of Orange during the Scotch Kings residence at Breda divers officers souldiers formerly in the service of the King his Father being in great distress and like to perish drew up a Petition for relief of their necessities Now Faulconer aforesaid having been a souldier a Major in the Parliament service and being as upon his death-bed hee confest in a poor desperate condition and going over to Breda as a Spy strikes in with these Cavileers as one of them and was intreated by them to draw the aforesaid Petition which hee did in drawing whereof Faulconer moved that they might Petition the Scotch King that they might bee entertained by him to fight against the Commonwealth of England by the name of barbarous and inhumane Rebels but those honest Cavaleers answered that they were souldiers of fortune and it was uncivil language and they would not have it in and so the Petition being drawn up by Faulconer according to their minde was delivered to the Scotch King who it seems promised to consider them About three weeks after the Scotch King being to depart from Breda next morning these Cavaleers not finding answerable relief according to the former Petition and the Kings promise they drew up another short Petition to put him in minde of his promise and meeting the Lord Craven there who they knew to bee a friend to souldiers they entreat him to further that their Petition hee knowing nothing of the former nor did it appear that the Lord Craven promoted this second Petition which if hee had there was not any thing offensive but the Scotch King went away next morning without giving any relief to the Petitioners as Captain Brisco one of them sweats at Faulconers tryal insomuch that Faulconer being discontented that hee got no moneys said as hee was going into the Town This is a horrid thing that wee should bee in this case to follow a thing they call a King Goddam me I will go into England and do all the mischief I can as Col. Drury another of the Petitioners informed at Faulconers tryal of which afterward Now that you may better know what a manner of person this Faulconer was and how fit for any desperate undertaking it was at his tryal sworn against him that hee drunk a health upon his knees to the devil in the open streets at Petersfield and that then hee used these words I have spent my brothers estate and my own I will never want money for whilst there is any in the Nation I will get one way or other and I will doe something of infamy to bee talkt of that the name of Faulconer shall never die One James Greham swore against him that after the siege of Exeter in a Cellar there hee the said Faulconer put into Grehams hand a two and twenty shillings piece of gold swearing Dam him blood and wounds hee would bugger his soul to hell Another swore that dam him and sink him were his usual expressions One Bradley testified that hee heard Faulconer say our Saviour Christ was a bastard and a Carpenters son and carried a basket of tools after his Father Mr Thomas Dyer of Bristol being produced as a witness did declare that Faulconer confest to him that hee had ten pound of a man by procuring one to personate Captain Bishop Thus a Citizen desiring Faulconer to get Captain Bishop to do a business for him hee promised Faulconer twenty pound ten pound in hand and ten pound afterward Faulconer got one to personate Captain Bishop and to go along with him to the Citizen which man so personating Captain Bishop promised the Citizen upon the account of Major Faulconers good services for the publike to afford him his best assistance in effecting what was desired in his Petition and so Faulconer got the ten pound It was also proved that Faulconer was committed to Goal in the County of Middlesex for suspition of felony and thence by order from the Lord Chief Justice Rolls to Newgate and that hee had been committed to Ailsbury Goal upon suspition of felony robbery and murther Now this Faulconer having been over at Breda as aforsaid and returning into England George Bishop being Clerk to the Committee for informations has to do with him from whence hee receives information of divers plots and designes of the adverse party to the Parliament But to come to the business the Lord Craven having a great Estate in England of Land besides brave houses one in particular that cost twenty thousand pound the building besides brave and gallant woods and timber being thus beyond Sea and never acted against the Parliament in armes a long time after Faulconer had been over and given in his informations of enemies actings and having said nothing of or against the Lord Craven an information is drawn up against the said Lord Craven in Faulconers name as the informant