World even as I am not of the World Do you call this Blasphemy Then why do you thus seek after my Life and publish Books to set the Magistrates and Ignorant upon me but I will stand to my Tesitmony of my Lord and Saviours Words though you call his Words Blasphemy it is which I desire all People to read and see whether the Spirit of Christ be the Guide of these Men's Actions or the Spirit of Envy for they that have not the Spirit of Christ are none of his but the Spirit of Christ Jesus and of the Lamb which is in G. F. and the Holy Brethren the Heirs of Eternal Life will fall heavy upon these Men yea this Stone which they reject and set at naught will grind them to Powder Mat. 21.44 And farther Christ faith in the same Chapter I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the World but that thou wouldst keep them from the Evil Jo. 17. and mark J. P. and Baptists and the Spirit of the Hat Hyproscrise Tyranny detect who would tyranize over Christ's Testimony concerning his Saints and Followers then and now as your Fore-Fathers did In the 16th Verse Christ saith They are not of the World even as I am not of the World c. which I keep the Testimony of Jesus and know the Truth that he speaks and do not give Titles to none of his Saints to G. F. nor none beyond what Christ hath spoken and therefore be ashamed who profess your selves Christians call Christ's Words Blasphemy And farther Christ sayes That they all may be one as thou Father art in me I in thee that they may be all one in us And the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one as thou Father and I am one I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in One. And moreover John saith in his 1. Epistle Chap. 4. Ye are of God little Children and have overcome because Greater is he that is in you then he that is in the World They are of the World therefore the World heareth them We are of God he that knoweth and heareth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error Beloved let us love one another for Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God and he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love And it is very like John the Divine had such Spirits as L. Muggleton J. Pennyman and the Baptists and other to deal withal as I have now And Christ my Lord saith to his Saints and Apostles If the World hate you you know it hated me before it hated you If you were of the World the World would love its own but because ye are not of the World but I have chosen you out of the World therefore the World hates you Jo. 15. Remember the Words that I said unto you The Servant is not greater then his Lord Mat. 40.24 but Christ saith Every one that is Perfect shall be as his Master Luke 6.40 If they persecute me they will also persecute you if they kept not my sayings they will not keep yours Here you may see how that you are not the Keepers of Christ's Sayings but the Persecutors of them that do Ye are my Friends saith Christ if you do what I command c. and saith Christ henceforth I call you not Servants but my Friends for the Servant knoweth not what the Lord doth but I have called you Friends c. Jo. 15.14 You have chosen me but I have chosen you and have ordained you c. And again you say in your Tyranny and Hypocrisie detected that I should say Blessed be the Man that came out of the North Blessed be the Womb that bare him the Paps that gave him suck As to the Former Words I might speak them but the Latter Words once applyed to Christ I do not remember I spake them But herein ye shew your Malice for had a Cursing Man like Muggleton come out of the North such a one would have fitted you J. Pennyman Baptists but Blessed be God I can say He is Blest for God hath Blest him And I can say He is Blest though you do speak Evil with Muggleton against him and others Curse them whom God hath blest and Christ doth bless his People Mat. 5. Glory to the Lord and you cannot curse that which God hath blest and Christ and the Apostles say Bless Curse not and you are offended for my Obeying Christ's and the Apostles Command manifesting What Spirit you are of And was it not Christ which Saul persecuted and thou you Saul like persecute him now yea that true Christ by whom the World was made in his Saints and Holy Ones under a Pretence of following the Lord faithfully but it is manifest that it is the Worlds God you have followed out of whose Mouth comes forth such Envy and Malice But it had been better for thee John Pennyman and thy Confederates that a Milstone had been hanged about thine and their Neks Luk. 17.2 then to have lifted up Tongue or Pen against God's Truth People who art in Muggleton's Spirit speaking against the Truth who art like an old Apostate twice dead pluct up by the Roots if so then how canst thou grow but art gone out amongst the Dogs Vomiting Biting and Devouring And J. Pennyman thou boasts in some of thy Papers of speaking the Word of the Lord suppose it were so Balaam had the Word of the Lord and after was cut off And was not Judas and Apostle Partaker of the Ministry And art not thou turned a Judas and now seekst to betray the Innocent yea to Death if thou couldst according to the Sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ A Brother shall betray a Brother to Death Mat. 10.21 as thou hast done as much as in thee lies like a False Brother in sending thy Papers to Barbodoes where the Baptists and Professors running up and down with them to the Justices of Peace who would have tryed me for my Life Blood-thirsty Men And one Justice of the Peace said that if S Eccles were not hanged he would be hanged for him their Rage was so high against me by Reason of thy Pamphlets but I stayed at the Bridg Town where the Court sat waiting looking every day to be called to my Tryal but the Court broke up and I was not called nor medled withall in the least so the Blood-thirsty Baptists and others their Consederates J. Pennyman's Correspondents mist their Ends. Though the Baptists themselves did confess to the same things here which thou and the Baptists call Blasphemy now yet it is no marvel for Christ our Lord was called a Blasphemer who said that which I testified to in Jo. 17. And as for all J. Pennyman's unsavory Speeches in his Abusive Pamphlets and
each other and the Presence and Power of the Lord sealed to it and she was a Blessing to him to whom the Lord gave her all her days And I was so far from the Exercise of Authority in that Matter that I know not that I Invited one to the Marriage much less Commanded and J. O. used no Interest in that Matter that I know then what he gained by Love and had these Accusers come to and kept in this Love they had been kept out of that Spirit of the Accuser that now from time to time acts them to seek Occasion against the Brethren and the Truth and then whether False or True as those that Rejoyce in Iniquity they publish it that they may Murder in the Way And if any Righteous Soul grieved and burdened with their Bringings forth in Mischief Write or Answer them sharply they imagine they get Strength by it and shew it to Adversaries of Truth as if the People of the Lord did Amiss in Clearing the Truth and throwing back the Dirt on them from whence it comes but let all take notice that the Prophet Elijah was Justified in his Reproaching of Baal's Priests in their Blind Worships and Mad Fury for the True God appeared to him for his Justification as be doth unto us that abide in his Power unto this day But for the Taunts and Mockings of Samballat Tobiah they are recorded for their Infamy forever For what is the Chaff to the Wheat saith the Lord And I did not nor do not intend to Controvert or Answer the Writings of these Enemies of Truth having not so much as read them through only a few Lines which being False Truth required to come over and upon the Head of the False Worker is it set and I did not then cry out as they say in my own Concern nor do I now write to serve my selfe but the Truth and the End hath and shall declare the Ground of all Actions And as the Fighters against God have and do scatter from him and gather into the World with the Vain Customs thereof so those that have and do contend earnestly for the Truth have no other End or Aim but to preserve in and gather to the Grace of God which Teacheth to Deny all Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and many Thousands they are that to this day are preserved thereby out of the Net that these Subtil and Deceitful Ones have laid and are laying But Sufficient is the Grace in which we have believed and thereby we receive Power over all Spirits which are gone out and hatch Mischief and bring forth Lyes But Praises be to the Power that hath brought many into the One Mind that above and before all they seek the Encrease and Enlargement of Truth and these have the Mind of God and know he is on their side and laughs to Scorn all his Enemies And our Communion and Fellowship is Holy and within the Holy Place where the Unclean and Inventers of Evil could never come for the Unfeigned Brotherly Love gives an Enterance thereunto but they out of it not seeking after this grow in Envy by lusting thereto and offering Despight to the Spirit of Grace in themselves they bring forth the same against all us that are guided thereby And I am bold in that Spirit that cannot Lye to say to all in this Gainsaying Spirit as I did many Years since to some in the same Spirit and some of these Evil-Workers did hear it and are Witnesses it is fulfilled on them of whom it was then testified J. P. and C. B. and others if they return not they are and shall assuredly be swallowed up of the Earth and link into it cast again into the Sea from whence they were taken as bad Fish indeed out of the Net But Holy is the Lord and his Name shall be Magnified of all the Upright Ones for their Redemption is sure and these are daily coming forth with Songs of Thanksgiving and the High Praises of the Lord are in their Hearts and Mouths forever and for evermore Amen Friends that are plain-hearted and love Righteousness and though but turned Sion-ward and you that for the Truth have sold All you are all very dear unto me as I know I am and must be to you for as we are all of one Begetting and are come to the one Hope and are nourished at the one Breast where the Milk of the Word causeth to grow into the Oneness of that Spirit which sets free from Sin and Death here we have Unity and bear one another's Burdens and in the Life of the Head are affected with the Suffering of every Member that hath Life therein and with his Compâ—ssions come to be filled and having Fellowship in his Suffering are grieved and oppressed with the Works of the Adversaries every where and at all times that ever since the Entrance of the Night of Apostasy to this time are as truly Persecuting Christ Jesus in his Members and Slaying him in the Streets of the great City spiritually called Sodom and Aegypt as Paul persecuted â—â—m when he got Letters from the high Priests to take Men or Women that were of that Way and bring them bound to Jerusalem And as sure as the Apostle John saw his Crucifying in the Spirit of Prophecy so certainly with all the Contenders and Gain-sayers and Resisters of the Testimony of Jesus which Testimony is the Spirit of Prophecy be found Fighters against God who mischievously have taken up all Miscarriages and Mistakes and with their Misunderstandings and own dark Imaginations adding Lyes of their own making whereby some have been weakened and others turned out of the Way and the Truth come to be questioned by the Ignorant whereby the End of these Revolters is made manifest And though I have not so much as said in my Heart I would they were cut off from the Lord yet sure I am they have gone about as much as in them lies to pervert the good Way of the Lord by making the People believe the Quakers allow Vcleanness or Vnrighteousness in that some professing it have gone out as they and practised those things that the Light testifieth against and yet when in good Order by Men loving Holiness there is a Meeting to reform or divide such far from us in the outward this offends them also So may not all see the Restlesness of this Spirit that would throw the Guilt of those that have offended on those Innocent ones that are travelling for the Removal of all Evils But there are many Thousands to the Praise of the Power of God be it spoken that are kept not only out of Uncleanness and all Unrighteousnes but are in the true Religion which keeps from the Spots of the World and their Communion stands where the Blind could never see Another Stumbling-Block that these that are making the Offences lay in the Way of the Simple is as if we honour and set up Man in the Place of God or
Judas and the Jews Combined against Christ and his Followers BEING A Re-joynder to the late Nameless Reply called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected made against a Book entituled The Spirit of Alexander the Copper-Smith Rebuked c. which was an Answer to a Pamphlet called The Spirit of the Hat In which Truth is cleared from Scandals and the Church of Christ in her Faith Doctrine and just Power and Authority in Discipline is clearly and fully vindicated against the malicious Endeavours of a Confederacy of some Envious Professors and Vagabond Apostate Quakers By a Member and Servant of the Church of Christ William Penn. To which are added several Testimonies of Persons concern'd He that Dippeth his Hand with me in the Dish the same shall betray me Mat. 26.23 They went out from us but were not of us 1 Joh. 2.19 In Perils among false Brethren 2 Cor. 11.26 Nevertheless the Foundation of God stands sure 2 Tim. 2.19 Printed in the Year 1673. Judas and the Jews Combined against Christ and his Followers The Introduction THe Just Defence of our so much Reviled Principles and Persons is so ill resented by our Enemies that instead of publickly Recanting their Injustice They repute us more Criminal for so doing then themselves in first Traducing us It is become a sort of Petty Treason to Reprove them they are grown almost incorrigible and to Controle them though in a Lye is hateful so much more do they prefer our Destruction then the Truth it self or their own Reputation Strange That it should be reputed Innocency to Accuse the Guiltless and Guilt to Defend them Are we of God then shall we stand maugre your Assaults if not we shall fall without them What need this Clubbing for Mischief and Caballing to our Ruin The Jews I believe never studied the Crucifying of Christ more vehemently then you vigorously combine and plot the Massacring of our Names Credit and Principles out of the World yea and we have Cause to suspect our Persons too or else this Socinian-Defender of the Hat-Spirit would never have told the World in almost so many words that Blasphemers were to dye by the Law of God and the Quakers are Blasphemers every Man can make the Conclusion that understands what a Conclusion is see pag. 23. It s a Work becomes Darkness for such I call your Nameless Pamphlet in which you have abused Vertuous and Good People by Name not daring to stand the Test of putting your Names to your Abuses against which can be no Fence but Innocency and that remains Unshaken by all your Blustering Epithetes That rests with God who will quell your swelling Rage and speedily Rebuke that great Herricane your Envy has raised to over-set us in our Voyage to Eternal Rest But he that said to Moses in an Hour of Straight Stand still and thou shalt see my Salvation has once and again Comforted us under all these Discouragements Neither are your Combinations Terrible No though Evil Spyes have been your Informers Our greatest Trouble is your own Hardening and we are sorry to see you make so much haste to old Jerusalem's Portion For us we know in whom we have believed And as he that feedeth the Fowls of the Air and clotheth the Lillies of the Field preserves us so that your Buffettings may prove our Tryals but in the End your own Judgments For however you buoy your selves up by the Acceptance you find with some Airy or Prejudiced Spirits God will certainly enter into Judgment with you for your Envious Proceeding who not being able to carry on your own Controversies now list your selves Combatants for a few stragling Apostates not out of Love to true Quakers but Hatred to such as are so What Sense is there in believing you only intend a False Quaker who have writ and abetted those Writings that are against us as Quakers at all But what shall I say It is an Age grown to that Degree of Impiety that there is no Friendship so Strait no Relation so Near no Truth so Evident nor Life so Innocent that some Men are not hardy and wicked enough to Break Violate and Slander to Avenge some supposed Wrong or gratifie an Emulous Spirit Controversie End upon Socinian Principles c. is risen now in one about the Hat on in Prayer What Variety of Shapes do our Adversaries put on to compass their Ends It has been their Practice first to Abuse our Principles and then Rail at our Defences and for Vindicating our Religion to fall foul upon our Persons and those chiefly who are most active in that Service There needs no other Demonstration of this then the Scurrilous Libel now to be considered which with me carries so Mischievous an Aspect that the Parties concerned in these Undertakings do by it proclaim they only want as much Power as Will to send us and our Principles to New-England for a Venture God deliver us from those Magistrates that are as Angry in Government as these Men are in Religion But this is our Joy That these Enemies speak all manner of Evil against us falsly for our Lord and Saviour's sake We maintain our Principles that angers them Miscarriages joy them whatever they pretend And if they can bring some Writers and Preachers out of Request they think they do their Business But we cannot believe that Sober and Judicious Persons will think the worse of us or our Cause for these Malicious Endeavours against it We have only to do with some old Adversaries new Vampt with the Slanderous Stories of some modern Apostates Had not Judas helpt the Jews had been to seek A few Vagabond Quakers are their Intelligencers it s all but a piece of Treachery and Envy And truly 't is fit we should be tryed as well by False Friends as Professed Enemies that in all things we may approve our selves compleat Conquerors through the Invincibe Power and to the alone Honour of that Eternal Truth professed by us And so we enter upon the Libel it self VVE are told in the Title Page of the Libel That it was writ in Defence of a Letter entituled The Spirit of the Hat and against the Deceitful Defective and Railing Answer called The Spirit of Alexander c. Indeed it is wonderful strange that to Reprove an Apostate should be reputed Railing and that this Secretary to this New-founded Cabal should Practiâ—e it in censuring it He cannot forbear it in his Title Page He begins with â—YRANNY AND HYPOCRISIE DETECâ—ED which Four Words he explains to us thus Or a furtheâ— Discovery of the Tyrannical Government Popish Principles and Vile Practices of the now Leading Quakers In all which if there be no Reviling there is no such thing in the World for these Words reach to the End of all Villany Meek Man that he would be thought who seems to engross Railing into a Company and seems not so Angry at it in us as that we use it Unlicenced of his Cabal for he exerciseth it at such a rate in
soberly secretly and frequently dealt withall his Condition represented his Danger shewn and a Station of Safety pointed to him It was the daily Travel of many who sought his Wel-fare and the Churche's Peace to bring him to a Sence of his own Condition But no Argument or Entreaties could prevail no Sighs or Tears could soften him but resolved he was for a Sect-Master and his Mark must be the Hat on in time of Publick Prayer That which yet whetted many simple Hearts to follow his Example was with his Sufferings his Pharisaical Pretences to a higher Dispensation but instead of shewing them a readier Way to an higher State of Holiness he diverted their Minds from the more weighty things of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus to contend for that rude and unprofitable Practice of the Hat on in time of publick Prayer an Invention to no Edification but to the great Disturbance of the Church Thus began what rent he sought to make amongst us Before this we were at Peace our Sion prosperous and those Apostate Adversaries allowed us to be God's Church his chosen People I appeal now to the whole World of moderate and impartial People whether we acted herein unlike Christian sober and prudent Men And if any of our publick Enemies who pretend to own a Church-Authority some of them also being Members and Leaders would not have done the like Must we suffer for that which they justifie We rejected a Practice we had no Authority for neither without nor within We saw Who brought it in and What acted him with the bent and tendency of it And it was as much our Duty to withstand the Entrance of that wich was Wrong as to continue in the Practice of that which was Right and setled in the Power of God long before among us We might invert their Plea much more truly The Light within enjoyned us to disown them had we not then sinned to have declined Or is our Light Darkness because they call their Darkness Light In short the Church never knew it when so much admired by her present Enemies And because when it came she rejected it therefore are they become her Enemies which proves Them and not the Church to be changed But supposing we had nothing of this to our Defence What is become of the once acknowledged Blessed Church and her Powerful Ministry If we have lost both who has found them If due to any Body in case our Adversaries be in the Right it must be to them But I know of no Church nor do I hear of any Ministry they have nor the Power of God manifest among them either for the Building up of themselves or the Gathering of others What! Is the Church already returned into the Wilderness and is the Power lost which they acknowledge was once amongst us and to God's Eternal Praise we daily witness in the City and Country to attend our Travels But as they were not of God in their Dissensions so neither have they stood We suffer as we did The World loves them more then it did They are Friends but both Enemies to us Their Sect Master returned with the Dog to the Vomit to Swearing Fighting fine Cloathes Cap and Knee to Men who could sit on his B with his Hat on his Head when he prayed to the most high God Some of his Followers run into Looseness and Rantism others into Enmity and Earthly-Mindedness but far the more considerable returned to their first Love and Workes whom God hath since frequently blest with his heavenly Presence and sealed to them the Comfort of the holy Communion of the Brethren To sum up what we have been saying First The True Church of Christ by the Gift of the holy Spirit from Christ the Head is enabled to try savour and relish Wrong Spirits under never such Right Appearances as that without which she could never be preserved from the Wolves that are in Sheep's Cloathing nor the Deceivers that come with Christ's Words out of Christ's Power and Life Secondly That this Church hath as well Power to reject the false Spirit as to try it Thirdly That men may be in the Words and not the Spirit of Truth that notwithstanding it is the Duty of all Men to act by the Light and Spirit within that hinders not that such as walk not according to the Light within though they may pretend to do it should be known and judged of them that really do so Fourthly That we were this True Church of God by our Apostate Adversaries own Confession And we have proved that not we but our Adversaries have altered since the time that large Confession mentions by giving the Offence and making the first Breach of Vnity notwithstanding the many Christian Courses that were taken to restore them and preserve Concord among Brethren Therefore our Judgment of them is not that of a Dark Dead Body but a Living Spiritual Society and in the Gift Discerning and Authority of God's holy and unerring Spirit which they acknowledge we once had and cannot prove when and by what we lost it And blessed be the Lord God of Heaven and Earth his Living Power is with us be owns our Ministry and Fellowship in the Hearts of Thousands yea Ten Thousands have bowed to the Righteousness of his Scepter since the day that perverse Core first troubled our Israel No Tryals have scattered us nor Sufferings worn us out but to the Honour of the blessed Name of the Lord we have been by it kept to this day whose Goodness renews with the Morning and whose Mercies endures forever Blessed are they that fear him such will he alwayes keep in perfect Peace But the Author of the Spirit of the Hat and his Tyrannical and Hypocritical Defender in his Libel called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected cry out This is arrant Popery But I will tell such Licentious Spirits That it is plainly Scriptural What if a False Church assume the Priviledge of a True one does that make the True Church a False one for pleading that Priviledge The Papists say God ought to be worshipped must we not therefore worship him because they say so 'T is just as good as to say That because one Man cheatingly calls himself by another Man's Name therefore that other Man must renounce his own Name Prove Discerning and Judgment by the Holy Ghost in any Body or Society to be the Mark of a False Church and ye do your Business otherwise you must acknowledge it to be the Priviledge of a True Church but deny it to be ours as we do that it is the Church of Rome's But we have proved out of your own Pamphlets thâ—t you acknowledge us to have been the True Church and in our own Discourse that we have continued that which we ever were And that God's powerful convincinâ—â—nd converting Ministry remains amongst us Therefore thâ—â— Priviledge upon their own Principles does belong to us But perhaps they will both endeavour
this in the inwards of my Spirit I smote upon my Thigh and said What have I done and was willing to take Shame upon my self and to give Glory to the Lord. How hard it went with me inwardly none knows And he that knows how easie it is to let in a Snare and Temptation and to have the inward Eye blinded thereby will not wonder nor think too hardly of me but his Bowels will rather rowl in the Sense of the Misery I underwent God knows I did not mistake willingly Nay truly The Power was upon me when I wrote those Queries but I did not understand the Signification thereof which would rather have led me then as it hath since against that Spirit which brought up that new Vnprofitable and Vnseemly Practice of keeping on the Hat in time of Publick Prayer in the Assemblies of God's People Now the making use of this against the Infallible Teachings of God's Spirit and the Infallible Way in which he leads his People is not Just True and Equal What! Was I never Infallibly led because the Enemy once blinded my Eâ—e and deceived me Did not the Apostle Peter receive the Infallible Spirit and was not he led thereby And did he not walk in the infallible Way because once he did that which was justly to be blamed and doubtless erred in Judgment concerning the Practice Gal. 2.11 I do not desire that Men should judge me Infallible or hearken to me as to one Infallible but this I desire that I may alwayes understand and follow the Voice and Guidings of God's Holy Spirit and then I am sure I shall alwayes walk in the Certain Vnerring Infallible Way besides which indeed there is no safe Way And I desire also that others with Ears and Eyes opened by the Lord may hear that Living Sound and Testimony which cometh from the Spirit of the Lord in those whom he sends that the Gathering may be to him and the Walking with him in the Spirit of his Son in the Light which is Eternal which ever was and ever will be Infallible which is the Path of the Living in this Day of the Breaking forth of God's Pure Power and Love in the Heats of many Oh Glory Oh fresh living Praises to his Name forever Isaac Penington John Crook's Testimony Having seen a Pamphlet intituled Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected in which is printed a Paper of mine writ by me about Eleaven or Twelve Years since about Gestures and Postures c. it is thus in my Heart to write MY Desires and Breathings from my tender years have been after the Living God and since I have tasted of his Goodness and Mercy I have had a Love for and Longing after the Eternal Welfare of all that in any Measure sought after him in Truth and Righteousness knowing the Enemy's Devices to be many and various seeking by all Means to devour them And from a deep Sense of the same I writ the Paper about Gestures and Postures c. many years since knowing how busie the great Enemy of Man's Soul was at that juncture of time to draw out the Minds of some into the Observation and Innovation of Keeping their Hats upon their Heads in the time of Prayer in the publick Assemblies of God's People hoping that those Lines at that time might have been Successful to stop that Practice in some of them at least and also have allayed any thing in any others which might be of tendency to hinder their Information and Recovery But it was never in the least in my Heart or Intention to Encourage or Strengthen that Spirit and Practice which my own Judgment and Practice was against Neither did I intend any other Liberty then what was in the Lord and the Maintaining Love and Vnity amongst Brethren And truly in these various or contrary Practices of some keeping on their Hats and others putting off their Hats my Heart was affected desiring that the Lord would put a Stop to whatever tended to Discord which since hath appeared manifestly to arise from that Spirit which first brought in that Innovation Therefore in Good Conscience I cannot but bear my Testimony against the Author of this scurrilous Pamphlet for endeavouring not only to fasten such a Sense and Imputation upon me but also for his Attempt and Industry what in him lies to render God's People Odious and his ever-blessed Truth Contemptible to the World and thereby himself becomes a Murderer of Souls in perverting the Right Way of the Lord for which the God of Heaven will undoubtedly rebuke both him and all his Confederates in this wicked Vndertaking and in his time bring them to open Shame if they Repent not of this their Wickedness and Sin For the Epistle subscribed by Edw. Burroughs John Perrot and My Self it was writ when we were Prisoners together in New-Gate where John Perrot forbore the Wearing his Hat on purpose as we supposed to avoid Offence and also at that time be writ a Paper which was Satisfactory concerning the Matter of the Hat and had he made it publick at that time it might have prevented what afterwards befel him At this very juncture when there was such a Compliance and Hopes of his Recovery was the fore-mentioned Epistle writ Now let the Impatrtial Reader judge whether the Author of this Envious Libel hath shewed either Ingenuity or Humanity in his recital of the fore-mentioned Papers to the End for which he hath made them publick John Crook Solomon Eccle's Testimony FRIENDS I Give my Testimony for the Lord and for this blessed Truth this Day The Lord is amongst us and through the Riches of his Love towards us hath he made himself known unto us by his Eternal Light which shines in our Hearts And this Light is exceeding pretious to all that receive it in the Love of it for it is Pure and Divine and to be admired in all that do believe The Life is the Light of Men Jo. 1.4 and to know this is the excelent Knowledge And by believivg in this Light and walking in the same We have Fellowship one with an other 1 Jo. 1.7 and Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ But some are gone out from us and gone from their own Mercies and are turned against the Truth yet pretend to follow the Lamb They would Exclude us that the World might Affect them Of this sort is John Pennyman who hath sought Occasion against me and G. F. and hath printed and caused to be printed three times against me that never did him hurt first in his own Pamphlet next the Baptists called the Spirit of the Hat 3lY the Tyranny and Hypocrisy detected But in this he hath not done any wayes like a Servant of the Lord as he stiles himself nor a Follower of the Lamb for he never came to me in a Brotherly Way according to Gospel Order Mat. 18.15 first in secret by my self to shew me wherein I had done amiss if I had done amiss Nor was he so
hindred the Growth of Truth in his own particular which he signified caused the Love of Brethreng to wax cold and a manifes Decay of that that was good in which our Joy Rest and Peace daily abound In solemn Meetings with Tears I believe unfeigned and true Contrition of Spirit as many are Witnesses gave Judgment against that Spirit which led into Separation through means of which he as well as others had suffered loss as with respect to the Good Presence of the Lord in the daily Sence thereof as before that Spirit entred was enjoyed and with what Openness of Heart did we even in the first Love raised by the Power of the Lord in which alone doth our Unity stand did we embrace one another and met oft with one another to our mutual Joy and Refreshment But now is he not found beating of those with whom he was a Fellow-Servant and taking of them by the Throat and as I may say speaking all manner of Evil against them even them who in a Sense have laid down and can their Lives to save him Surely he who rewards Evil for Good Evil will not whilst in that Spirit depart from his House And how hath Enmity entred him in that that which is a Strength a Joy and a Comfort to us Vexations to him to wit to see Brethren together in the pure Truth in that which neither speaketh nor thinketh Evil to dwell and so seek one another's Good are kindly affectioned one to the other serving one another with Love And so though by Complying with G. F. as the Author of or Assistent to that Wicked Heap of Stuff which is for the Fire scoffingly saith He is now become a Preacher To Comply with Truth and such whose Labour and Service is for its Promotion is my Joy and true Satisfaction and Quiet to my Soul and therein as the Lord shall open my Mouth and minister Occasion I shall preach down their Pernicious and Soul-hurting Practices desiring to be found to the End of my Dayes a Lover of that which is Good and in it a Witness against that which is Evil though found in those who have been my Familiars for whose sake I have not suffered a little William Gosnell Henry Stout's Testimony FIrst They Excuse me with the other two Friends and within few lines Contradict their own Excuse in saying H. S. being rebuked he Acknowledged the Paper but there was no such in it Why could they not as well have said by whom he was rebuked But this is like some of the rest of their Matter and would fain cover it if any could So that the Answer already is over their Heads as to the Paper To this I further answer That to the best of my Remembrance I never saw that Paper signed by the Eleâ—ven at Hartford in my Life about two Moneths since I saw it at London and I do affirm there is no such Tendency in it as asserted in the Spirit of the Hat That there is any Admission in it for any Men or Body to oppose the Light but 't is possible to this purpose may be found in it That if any have any thing upon them or are moved to write that they lay it before the Body that so the Body may be satisfied that they are indeed moved by the Light or Spirit which is one and then the Body cannot but have Unity because all that are in the Light are in Unity and One in All and this for the Prevention of all False Motions and those that say they are Jews and are not for Greater is the Wisdom of him who is amongst his People then the Wisdom of Solomon who give the true Bearer her Child though the Harlot would have had it divided But what is the Matter with you Professors that you are working in such Muddle so many years old as confessed in the Pamphlet Is the Spirit of your Brethren the Pharisees so far entred you that you are acting your part as they of old did who joyned with an Apostate a Traytor a Judas endeavouring if it had been possible to have destroyed the Heir Christ Jesus Root and Branch who did outwardly put him to Death Read your selves Are not you joyned with an Apostate or Apostates in all manner of Lyes and Slanders as instance John Faldo and Thomas Hicks which I fear have done it against their grow Knowledg especially Thou T. H. who sayest in thy first Dialogue That our Sufferings may be to satisfie our Lust Will any one but who are filled with Enmity like thy self thus conclude that Lying in Nasty Holes and Prisons and Losing our Estates and Lives Limbs and Banishment is to satisfie our Lust Well Thomas my Judgment of these is Thou wilt never satisfie thine in that manner but these are both answered already who I desire may come to Repentance and find Mercy But what are you doing Professors if you should with your Assistents the Apostates accomplish your Brethren Cruelty from New-England Our Blood would be upon you and your Children For your Works which you have lately done have the very Tendency though I am perswaded there are some amongst you hate the very Thoughts of such a thing yet I question not but some of your Leaders do very much desire it or else they would never hazard the very Loss of their own Souls in Lyes and Slanders against us if they believe them to be Sins Now consider what is the Cause of this Great Difference between us and the Professors Certainly it is about Worshipping of God and the Occasion of the Enmity is the same as was in dayes past for the first Worshippers that we read of the Enmity arose in him whose Sacrifice was not accepted with God Professors read your selves and the Cause of your Enmity for those who are accepted with the Lord there is no Cause of Enmity but Pitty arises in their Hearts towards those who are not accepted and so Christ when he came it was not to destroy Men's Lives but his Gospel was Peace on Earth and Good-will towards all Men but Enmity is from the Devil and he the Father of it So for your whole Work let it return from whence it came even the Bottomless Pit And whether the Matter in it be True or False I am a Stranger to it The Intent is Wicked and I do not much look what those have been who are chiefly named in Your Pamphlets by reason of Tender Age in the Truth or otherwise but now I know them to be Men of Integrity and Fearing God which is Satisfation to me and so it s a Sign that when Men grow in Grace and are better they are the Beloved of God to such Grace is not in Vain but when Men grow Worse and Worse and lose their Tenderness once they had and abound in Pride and Envy this is an Evident Token of Perditon notwithstanding their pretended Election for it is not Words only God looks for but Fruit from a Clean
God's Appearance from the beginning thereof and by such as came to see the Glory of Truth and heard gladly for a Season as they that receive the Seed in the high way where it was either lost or carried away by the Fowls of the Air and these could never fell All for the Kingdom nor take up the daily Cross so mist the Life and came to be carried about with Winds and missing of the Righteousness of God have gone about to establish their own and blindly Zealous have watched others Vineyards and neglected their own so Withering and Fruitlesness hath come upon them until they are twice dead These were and are known by their Murmurings and Complainings yet listed up in their Minds by their own Righteousness which as sure as God's Righteousness layes low and makes to grow in Love so Man's begets Envy and watcheth for Evil and feeds upon it and is filled with it So as they living in Love can think no Evil so they out of it can imagine no good of them from whom by Pride and Envy they are divided and so exercising their Minds in the Evil. Never did hungry Beasts more earnestly seek their Prey to devour it then these Back-sliders have and do watch to catch the Miscarriages of any such as do profess the Faith and if they can find a little they make it a great deal by Whisperings and Back-bitings and large Intimations more by much then the Substance and in all pretending to be in an Hatred of Evil and to cry to others Stand farther off for we are Holyer then these So after a doing some years Threatnings to make the Lord's People Odious in what they would publish and bring forth and having done what they can to the utmost that way and that not accomplishing their End now they lay their Stress on the severe Government of the Quakers which some of these Revolters once knew was set up in the Wisdom of God to hinder such Evils as they were used to speak against and to reform and gather nearer unto the Truth of God but this Order being like to smite some of them they strike hard at those that are exercised therein their End being in all to present the People of the Lord and their Way Worthless and Bad that so they themselves might not be so manifest in the Forsaking and Withstanding the Good Way of the Lord and that they might shut up that Kingdom to others into which they themselves would not enter And tha◠to all they may be manifest their Works declare them for every Lye is of the Devil and how many they have publisht in their late Books of Darkness to which they have been ashamed to joyn a Name can I tell nor am I covetous to know for who in the Faith stands wars not with Flesh and Blood but with Spiritual Wickedness in High Places and I have had and have as sensible a Feeling of that Spirit from whence it comes and whither it must go that brought forth that called the Spirit of the Hat and that called Tyranny and Hypocrisie Detected or an Answer to Alexander the Copper-Smith and it is the same that the Prophet Micha had a Sight of that Lying Spirit which went into the Mouthes of the Seduced Prophets and though I never read the last of these Pamphlets in that my time not being like to be long on Earth I was not willing to Mis-spend so much of it but one reading the Title to me a Renewed Strength I found against that Spirit that brought it forth and that it did with Re-doubled Strength strike at W. P. as one whose Pen had hit them and had he never writ a Word he judgeth them in Denying the Glory of this World the Vain Hope of which hath bewitched some of them to draw back And another read to me that Lye made of me in the last of these two Books which I must speak something to that little part that was read to me of my Son J. O. and I. I need not say much of my Son J. O. for he through Grace is made able to display and resist them only this I would have all the Simple take notice of their Scornful Taunts and Willingness to render him and I as Speakers Falsly or being like unto them and indeed in this they much resemble God's Enemies in former Ages as in other things and to his Judgment are they left I having not a Purpose at this time so much to answer them for whom my Hope is near worn out as to hold out my Hand with many Brethren that the Honest-hearted might be delivered from those Perdicious Wayes they walk in and are alluring to by their Subtility and False Speeches And by Question they ask How could this accute Man say The Meeting would not hinder his Marriage To this as a Witness I answer I heard with many more J. B. whom they most accused to hinder say That they had nothing against his Marriage and this some of their Confederates know And for what they say of me as being a Great Mother and Governess among these People is but to set me on high that the Dîrt they fling may the more come upon me for some of them that are so Miserable as to contribute to this Work of Darkness in Fighting against Truth know that I have Gladly and Long been a Servant to this People of the Lord and no more Government have I coveted or gained but by Love and in Love possess And for the Charge writ against me it is utterly false in Matter and Words as these Accusers have stated it for those words they say I cried out no Man nor Woman that was present in that great Congregation will witness it if they fear to Lye and there are may many Witnesses of what I said and though I was permitted to speak a few words at that time that one or more of their Informers heard me say I had condemned as not expedient to have been spoken there but they being in the Dark have altogether mist it and placed a Lye of their own making in the stead of what I spoak But I unfeignedly desire that they may find a place of Repentance for this and all other their Evils But it is followed with another Falsity for say they By her Authority and J. O 's Interest they proceeded te Marry without's License As to License from any Man or Woman to Marry I have often publickly as called to it born my Witness against and with the rest of the Lord's People declared We make no Marriages nor break no Marriages nor Marry any but every True Man and Wife should known their being joyned of the Lord and so were these Couple yet did not nor durst not go brutishly together as some pretending more Holiness then others have done but this prudent Couple according to the Example of Holy Men and Women had many Witnesses of the People of the Lord and in an Orderly Solemn Assembly took
we were Worshippers of Angels which is indeed Idolatry To which I am called to say something as being presented with others whom I am bold to say believe all Obedience Honour and Thanks-giving belongeth unto him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore and are not guilty of what this malitious Spirit would present them to be But being acted by the same Spirit that they were that said this Man sayes he is the Son of God and therefore ought to dye So they not being in the Spirit that revealeth the Son of God thinks we worship Man for him but he that knew Christ revealed in him bids follow him as he followed Christ and that if I forgave any I forgave it saith he in the Person of Christ This I speak to the Simple and Upright-hearted that they may be delivered out ot the Snare of the Cunning Hunter that seeks the pretious Life and to such it will be given to know what is hid from the Serpent that is still blind and on Dust feeds and the Children's Bread I nor any in the Faith dare give unto them But that every honest Heart may see what Spirit acts in these Purposers of Evil I take notice of another Passage where this Libeller names my Name and indeed I knew not of it when I writ the former Part but an honest young Man in the Street told me of it and then I looked on that which they accuse me with some times before that and after it I read and being by the Power of the Lord whom I serve in my Spirit made as willing to remove any Offences as these by whom the Offences come and on whom the Wo must come are to lay Stumblings and I shall freely confess to that which is true in their Charge and deny the Falshood in this as the former and I shall begin with that in the 19th Line pag. 44. It 's not unusual say they with the Quakers to give as much Credit to one another as is the setting their Names to things they know not Answ Friends take notice how Ignorant the Carnal Man is of the things of God and not knowing that Nearness and Strength of Love that is among the Disciples of Christ he brings it among the rest of the Rabble of his Accusations that the Quakers credit one another in such matters as indeed no Money-Lover nor Unbeliever could never do for every Deceiver is afraid to be deceived but who out of the Deceit is brought into the Faith and Love that is unfeigned cannot fear that a Brother will deceive or hurt him and had rather bear the harm of a False Brother if it should so be suffered to be then mistrust or think Evil of him that is the Faith But the Accuser of the Brethren with all his Adherents are out of this Faith and are Strangers to this Love by which it works And though I never knew such a Practice among the Quakers not in one President ever offered to me or any to put their Hands to what they know not but this here rehearsed and is this only by what he himself and my Maid said some of which I know to be true and some false but I had Joy that all should know in this Pack of Falshoods this Truth That the Quakers have and do still credit one another But whether it was so or no that G. F. sent to our House to have J. P. and my Husband put their Hands to such a Paper as they knew not all I know of it I may speak of My Maid-Servant then living with me many Years since told me in a Morning when I came down that there was a Man with a Paper to have some Friends put their Hands to and that J. P. was a wise Man because he refused it and this I upon some Occasion told J. P. of for I do not believe he ever heard my Maid say so to him but he being affected with his own Commendations hath repeated it before me more then once that my Maid should say he was a Wise Man What was said was said to me and from me he had it and to my Knowledge I never heard my Maid to say Nor did I ever tell him or hear him speak those words That she believed her Master would have done it until now I see it in Print so I cannot but take notice of their adding that which is False to make their Matters hold together nor do I remember that Time or Day or Week that I said any thing of George Fox these words that he repeats as though I spoak them at the same time but that I did at some time speak those words to J. Pennyman and it may be to some others I deny not for in the Love of the Lord I travelled for him and some others of them that were in Danger by their Imaginations to fall into the Pit of Perdition and so as one that lived in the Love of God I according to the best of my Understanding endeavoured their Return and Safety by imparting to them what I had found to be my Profit and Safety and bowed to him and several of them in telling them that in the Light none errs yet that I was such a Child as for many years I might not know my Right-Hand from my left and if there were a Motion or Revelation did arise in me that I might think was true and we that are in Unity in the Spirit of God may and do speak our Motions one to another for the Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets and the Order of the Church was that they might Prophesie one by one and the rest might Judge yet if G. F. should deny it to be of the Lord I should be subject to his Judgment therein as one in Christ before me This or to this purpose I spoke and deny it not But that this Despiser of Dignities may attain his own End to pervert the Good Way of God by giving them to know what I was he said A Great Prophetess Now if he did believe what he saith though it was then a young time with me being nigh Ten Years ago he should have followed my Example and have brought his Motions to some in Christ before him to have tried his Motion and so by Counsel have been delivered from those Wanderings and Runnings and Mad Actions that he ran into when he brought that Truly-Valued Book called the Bible that I and many are come to the Comfort of and know that it hath been the Mighty Power of God that hath preserved it from the Hands of those that would have utterly Extinguished or Destroyed it to be burned But Praises be to the Lord that hath preserved iâ— unto this Day to give Testimony to the Light and Spirit which gave it forth though J. P. may be reckoned among the Intenders that would Destroy the Bible who brought it to the Exchange with other serviceable Books in their Places