of sinne and shame then praise for any Companion of the Apostle Paul when he preached on Mars hill in Athens to have denied to hear him preach there because his Auditors were Epicureans and Stoicks and all save Pauls Associats Idolaters But this is made use of onely for advantage by reason of that Odium that he knowes lies upon parochial Constitutions The whole Nation almost knowes that most of the Congregations in Lancashire are reduced to a narrower compasse then that of parochial And we are assured that Iames Nayler one of their Leaders deserted a gathered Congregation in Yorkeshire whereof he was and had continued a good while a Member And however they deny any benefit received by the publique Ministery yet we believe what ever reliques of sound knowledge are in any of them they owe them to it and for what imaginary knowledge or unsound Principles they have learned otherwise from their new Teachers cursed had our condition been if we had given these stones in stead of bread such poysonous deadly Scorpions in stead of fishes We must confesse the major part were never savingly wrought upon by the Gospel whereof we have the Ministration It was our great Masters case His combats in the time of his Ministery on earth were but few Acts 1. 15. The Apostles case sometimes when they preached the glad tidings of salvation by Iesus Christ to crowds of people some one or two onely believed their report and rejoyced in it And though it be our case yet it is our complaint to the Lord continually And as some godly persons have out of their own experience as far as they could discern professed the greatest part the generality of these of this way in Westmerland are of that Number viz. Such as have had no saving work of God upon their Spirits by the Ministery of his Word but such as have been ignorant of or erred from the Truth and whose Religion consisted in the praise of Opinion and floatings of their own fancies and who have been carried with great zeal and heat of spirit through all forms of Religion as some call them In so much that scarce a knowing Christian among us but could have easily pointed at those whom theseFoxes were like to deceive before they came and whose spirits would be ready to strike in with any principle might subvert the Truth of the Gospel In the mean time the seals of the Ministery of those that have been faithfull to Christ in their stewardship such Christians as have lookt in themselves stand still and are rooted faster then to be removed to another Gospel by the blasts of such delusions as have their descent written in their foreheads In the Title Page he compares the peaceable Petitioning of some Ministers in Lancashire to the Councel of State to Sauls errand of Damascus and a little after saith their Petition breaths out threatnings and slaughters against a peaceable and godly people by him nicknamed Quakers In the second and third Epistles also the Author hath divers insinuations of charges against some Gentlemen and Ministers in Lancashire as that they make none but the Lords Disciples the object of their indignation That they never did proclaim war against drunkards swearers common blasphemers enemies to the Lord and his people That their high-flown contending spirits are gone beyond slender wrestlings and they scorn to encounter with any below the degree of a Saint Other wickednesses he point blanck layes to your charge as that those sons of Levi as he saith they call themselves pretend a jus Divinum to persecution That they troubled the Councel of State with abominable misrepresentations of honest pious peaceable men That the Quakers have been more faithful to the interest of the godly people in this Nation then any of the contrivers of the Petition That they exalt themselves above all that are called Gods People in these parts Reply I Wonder much at the Spirits of these men and what eyes they see withall They would make the world beleive they can espy the Spirit of Saul while he was unconverted in the breasts of others comminations and persecution blood and slaughter where they can see nothing but Christian Modesty and the words of Truth and Sobriety Surely blood and slaughter are the Objects of their Meditation by day and their dreams in the night are dreams of cruelty Otherwise the humble innocent sober Petitions of Christians jealous for the Glory of God and the welfare of his Church and studious to prevent the enemy from making such havock of Souls as he hath done of late in some parts would not so presently put them in mind of them And where he saith in this your Petition they troubled the Councell of State with abominable misrepresentations c. It is it self an abominable untruth and I do verily beleive that Epistoler Conscience tels him so There was indeed such a Petition prepared and intended to be presented to the Councel of State but as I am certainly informed it never was presented to them Nor did that Petition contain the least tittle of any misrepresentation but a brief and true relation of some of your Abominations which are too famously and evidently known to the whole Countrie to be denied O the impudency of that lying spirit that hath entred into this generation of men To all the other false and railing accusations of this man brought against I do verily believe for some of them the faithfull Ministers and servants of Jesus Christ I shall onely answer as Michael to the Devil The Lord rebuke thee I could have rather desired that some of these Ministers in Lancashire would have answered this Calumniator and made him ashamed of his falsities Some of them are known to us and we are confident are as clear from all those charges as the new born child and such as according to that precept Isay 51. 7. Fear not the reproach of man nor are affraid of their revilings If the Author of theseEpistles prefixt to Sauls errand c. lives in Lancashire as it is supposed he doth he cannot but know that there is more real worth Truth of Godlinesse Christian simplicity and white Innocency in some of them then in 160. such Foxes as now spoil the vineyards He might have considered whose work it is to accuse the Brethren and who hath from thence deserved the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Me thinks he manifests himself to be of that Generation Prov. 30 14. Whose teeth are swords and whose jaw teeth are knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men While his words are smoother then butter and softer then oyle to those of his way war is in his heart against others and his words are drawn swords and the breathings of a spirit possest with malice The Apostle describing the men that shall make the last times perillous saith among other Characters of them they shall be false accusers fierce dispisers of those that are
that the Guides of this Sect notwithstanding their faire pretensions of an immediate call and extraordinary Mission and the great Opinion their followers have conceived of them are not the servants of the Lord Jesus but in very deed the Emissaries and Ministers of Satan and that their way is not the good old way the way of God but as contrary to it as darknesse to the light I shall take some paines to acquaint my Reader 1. With the cursed Blasphemies which George Fox the Grand Master of this Faction and some others have uttered 2. With some of those Doctrines of Devils damnable Heresies and dangerous Errors which their speakers have disseminated and wherewith they have infected their unhappy Disciples 3. With the bitter and rotten fruits of their Doctrine such of their strange impious seditious suspicious insolent and Barbarous practices as have come to my knowledge some of which doe in the judgement of the most sober and intelligent Christians strongly savor of sorcery and the immediate co-operation of the Devill Of the horrid Blasphemies of the Quakers against God and his Christ. George Fox the Father of the Quakers of these parts hath avowed himselfe over and over to be equall with God being asked by Doctor Marshall in the presence of Master Sawro Colonell Tell and Colonell West Justices of the Peace in the County of Lancashire at a private Sessions in the Towne of Lancaster whether or no he was equall with God as he had before that time beene heard to affirme his answer was this I am equall with God This Blasphemy hath been attested upon Oath by the foresayd Doctor Marshall and Master Altam Schoolmaster of Lancaster before the Justices at the last Sessions held at Appleby Ianuary the 8. 1652. and before Judge Puleston at the last Assizes held at Lancaster March the 18. 1652. This Fox in a Booke intituled Sauls Errand to Damascus endeavours to purge himselfe of this and other such cursed speeches layd to his charge but he doth it so woodenly and ambiguously that if there wanted sufficient witnesses his owne bungling answers would to a rationall man declare him guilty And well may he affirme himselfe to be equall with God when he in the foresayd Booke Page eight Line nine and ten layes downe this blasphemous Proposition indefinitely Hee that hath the same Spirit that raised up Iesus Christ from the dead is equall with God The said Fox hath also avowed himselfe to be the Christ yea to be the way the Truth the life George Bickett Isaac Bourne witnesseth At the last Assises above-mentioned at Lancaster Mr. Sawro a Justice of the Peace in that County and an honest Gentleman told Judge Puleston in the open Court that he could produce many would witnesse that Fox had affirmed himselfe to be the Christ. The same also he said in the hearing of an honest Minister in Westmerland who will be ready to attest it when called to it This Fox hath also professed himselfe to be the Judge of the World George Bickett Adam Sands Nathaniel Atkinson witnesseth Yea the Eternall Judge of the World George Bickett witnesseth Iames Nailer another of Satans Nuntioes and principall spokesman in these parts affirmeth that he was as holy just and good as God himself This was I heare attested at Kendall by two witnesses There is a man of good Repute an Inhabitant of Underbarrow in the Barony of Kendall who sayeth many heard this Blasphemy besides himselfe but he thinks being all followers of this Nailer and Fox they will be unwilling to testifie it Iames Milner one of Foxes Disciples in the County of Lancashire professed himselfe to be God and Christ. Thomas Shaw Gerard Shaw George Inman witnesses This mans Advocate I mean that Pamphleteer that took the pains to put forth and procure the printing of that Book called Sauls Errant to Damascus or he that undertook to answer in his behalfe to Salve this his execrable Blasphemy and some wretched Prophesies which are already turned into lyes hath minted this miserable Excuse As for Iames Milner saith he though his mind did run out from his condition and from minding that Light of God which is in him whereby the world takes occasion to speak against the Truth and many Friends stumble at it yet there is a pure Seed in him It seems if a man be of their way though a Blasphemer and false Prophet by their own confession yet with them he is excusable One Williamsons Wife a Disciple of Milners when she came to see him at Appleby said in the hearing of divers there whose names might be here inserted if it was needfull that she was the Eternall Son of God And when the men that heard her told her that she was a woman and therefore could not be the Son of God She said no you are women but I am a man These last words I insert that the Reader may see how strongly the Spirits of some of these people are transported and how ready they are to affirm any thing how ever impious or absurd Of the Erroneous Opinions of the QUAKERS HItherto of their Blasphemies Now for the Doctrines which the Leaders of this Sect have avouched and taught and the Principles they have instilled into their credulous Adhaerents They are some of them Errours of the first Magnitude Fundamentall Errours Others of them though of a lesser size in their own nature yet the understanding Reader will censure them to be such as tend to the disturbance of the Civill Peace as well as that of the Church Others of them again are such light stuff as shewes them to be meer triflers in Religion I shall heare mention such of their Errours onely as I can bring sufficient proofe for either from those that have been Ear-witnesses and are well acquainted with their way or from their own printed Books which are owned and admired by their Disciples 1. They hold that the holy Scripture the Writings of the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles are not the word of God and that there is no written word of God But they say using a foolish distinction of their own coining that they are a declaration of the word onely in those that gave the faith 2. They hold their own speakings are a declaration of the word Christ in them thereby making them though they be for the most part full of impiety and non-sense to be of equall Authority with the holy Scriptures 3. They hold that no Exposition ought to be given of the holy Scripture and that all expounding of Scripture is an adding to it and that God will add to such a one all the plagues written in that Book Opening and applying the Scripture is one thing they mainly declaim against where ever they come 4. They teach poor people that whosoever takes a text of Scripture and makes a Sermon of or from it is a Conjurer and that his preaching is Conjuration Fox in his printed answer to this Sauls Errant Page 7. saith thus
not been altogether in the Clouds nor their deeds of darknesse alwaies done in corners For the truth of this relation let me say thus much before-hand for the praevious satisfaction of my Reader the particulars of it are most of them so notoriously known to the whole Country where these degenerated people live that no sober man can deny them Many of them are and will be owned by themselves for they make some of these horrid Practises hereafter mentioned a part of their Religion and glory in them And there is I think few particulars contained in it which we shall want witnesses to attest if need be upon Oath And first for their Meetings and the manner of them They come together on the Lords Dayes or on other dayes of the week indifferently at such times and places as their Speakers or some other of them think fit Their number is sometimes thirty sometimes forty or sixty sometimes a hundred or two hundred in a swarm The places of their Meetings are for the most part such private houses as are most solitary and remote from Neighbours scituated in Dales and by-places Sometimes the open fields sometimes the top of an Hill or rocky hollow places on the sides of Mountaines are the places of their Randezvous In these their Assemblies for the most part they use no Prayer Not in one Meeting of ten and when they do their Praying Devotion is so quickly cooled that when they have begun a man can scarce tell to twenty before they have done They have no singing of Psalmes Hymnes or spirituall Songs that is an Abomination No reading or Exposition of holy Scripture this is also an Abhorrency No teaching or preaching that is in their Opinion the onely thing that is needlesse No Administration of Sacraments with them there is no talk they say of such carnall things not so much as any Conference by way of question is allowed of That which askes they say doth not know and they call propounding of any Question to them a tempting of them They have onely their own mode of speaking that is all the Worship that I can heare of which they do not call but deny to be preaching nor indeed doth it deserve that more honourable Name If any of their chiefe Speakers be among them the rest give place to them if absent any of them speak that will pretend a Revelation sometimes Girles are vocall in their Convents while leading men are silent Sometimes after they are Congregated there is altum silentium not a whisper among them for an houre or two or three together This time they are waiting which of them the Spirit shall come down upon in Inspirations and give utterance unto Sometimes they onely read the Epistles of Fox and Nayler which according to their Principles are to them of as great Authority as the Epistles of Peter and Paul They exceedingly affect Night meetings which are usually of both Sexes very lately and not infrequently continued all Night long Their Holyes they think are best dispensed while others are asleep these unseasonable dark Assemblies of theirs much like the Night-meetings of the Anabaptists in Munster which afterward proved fatall to that City in a time of peace and liberty considering the Constitutions of the Spirits of this people have been in some places a just cause of affrightment to the Neighbouring Inhabitants that are not of their way who have professed they could scarcely sleep in their Beds without feare These Night-meetings were therefore forbidden by the Justices at the Sessions at Appleby Ianuary last where one of them pleaded stiffly for this liberty of the Subjects as he called it For the manner of their Speakings their Speaker for the most part uses the posture of standing or sitting with his hat on his countenance severe his face downward his eyes fixed mostly towards the Earth his hands and fingers expanded continually striking gently on his breast his beginning is without a Text abrupt and sudden to his hearers his Voice for the most part low his Sentenses incohaerent hanging together like Ropes of Sand very frequently full of Impiety and horrid Errours and sometimes full of sudden pauses his whole Speech a mixt bundle of words and heap of Non-sense his Continuance in speaking is sometimes exceeding short sometimes very tedious according to the paucity or plenty of his Revelations His admiring Auditors that are of his way stand the while like men astonished listening to every word as though every word was oraculous and so they believe them to be the very words and dictates of Christ speaking in him Sometimes some of them men or women will more like Phrantick people then modest Teachers of the Gospell or like the Prophets of Munster or Iohn of Leydens Apostles run through or stand in the streets or Market-place or get upon a stone and cry Repent Repent woe woe the Judge of the World is come Christ is in you all believe not your Priests of Baal they are Lyars they delude you Kendall and many other Townes in these Norihern parts are witnesses of these mad Speakings and Practises The matter of the most serious and ablest of their Speakers is quicquid in Buccam venerit and for the most part of this Nature They exhort people to mind the light within to hearken to the Voice and follow the guide within them to dwell within and not to look forth for that which looketh forth tendeth to darknesse They tell them that the Lord is now coming to teach his people himselfe alone that they have an Unction and need not that any man should teach them that all their Teachers without the Priests of the world do decieve them away with them that they speak the Divination of their own brain and every one seeks for gain from his Quarter that they take Tithes which are odious in the sight of the Lord. That they teach for Lucre and for the Fleece and live in Pride Covetousnesse Envie and in great houses that they sit in the Seat of the Scribes and Pharises go in long Robes are called of men Masters that they scatter people and delude them with Notions of fleshly Wisdome and waies of Worship according to their owne wills and not according to the Mind of the Lord. They call them out of all false waies and worships and formes and false Ordinances so they call all the Ordinances of God used in our publick Assemblies Such stuff as this all their speakings are for most part stuffed with Something also they speak of Repentance of living under the Crosse against Pride in Apparell and Covetousnesse But the main Subject and Design of their Speakings is to invey against Ministers and Ordinances to bring ignorant Country people to hate or forsake them to mind onely their light within for teaching which they tell them is sufficient to Salvation Reader I do verily believe that if the Deceiver of the Nations should come visibly abroad cloathed in flesh as a Speaker he would
be yet more of them he quickened his Horse with his Spur and declined to the other side of the Lane At the turn of the way were two more Muskets discharged upon him where in all probability he could not have escaped the intended mischiefe had not the Lord mercifully frustrated the bloody Intentions of those his unknown Enemies These men fled immediately the darknesse of a long Winter night which they had before them it being then about the end of December helping to conceale their persons That these men that attempted this Murther were of this Sect is not certainly known but it is strongly presumed and concluded that they were none other by all the Country for these reasons 1. He was generally reproached and threatned by the Quakers for sending Nayler to Prison some of whom were not long before heard to say they would pick his Skin full of holes 2. That very day before there were many of that malicious Sect in Appleby that came to visit Nayler who might take notice of his being there and be invited to take that opportunity of executing their bloody purposes 3. This Gentleman is of such known honesty and Ingenuity that he is generally beloved in the Country and hath not I dare say an Enemy in the world one quarter so cruell as to thirst after his blood except among that Rabble That multitudes of Scurrilous Libels against Ministers and private persons have been fastened to their doores thrown into their houses pinn'd on Pulpit Cushions on the Lords daies and on the Church doores without any name affixed by those Pretenders to Christianity is a thing well known For satisfaction of the Reader I shall give him a true Coppy of one that was affixed one Lords day about the beginning of Ianuary last unto the Church-door at Lancaster which Dr. Marshall openly read to the people there assembled that they might perceive the strange temper of the Spirits of those men by such their unsavoury Eructations A Copy of a Scurrilous Paper affixed to the Church Doore at Lancaster THis is the Idols Temple where the worship of the Beast is upheld down with it down with it Revel 15. 7. 8. Revel 1. 2. 5. God that made the World and all things therein dwels not in this Idolls Temple that is made with hands Act. 7. 47 48 49. Act. 17. 21. Neither is he worshipped in this Idolls Temple with mens hands Act. 17. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth for the Father is seeking such to worship him Ioh. 14. 23 24. All the World wonders after the Beast and worshippeth the Beast but those who have found their names written in the Book of life and they that worship the Beast and receive his Mark in their Forehead as sprinckling Infants and worshipping the works of their own hands following the imaginations of their hearts they must drink of the wine of the wrath of the Almighty powred out without mixture Revel 14. 9 10 11 12. This Idolls Temple that is made with hands is a place for Night-birds and Screech-Owles to meet each one to the dishonour of the true God that dwelleth in Temples made without hands at new Ierusalem where the Temple of God is with men Revel 21. 3. Drunkards and Swearers Revellers and Scoffers and Scorners and proud and wanton ones and Hypocrites and Dissemblers Enviors Haters back-biters Persecutors Lustfull ones and contentious Persons and Earth-wormes meets here the fearifull and unbelieving peevish and perverse and contentious ones meets here in their Idolls Temple to satisfie their Lusts and saith the Lord this people draw neer me with their mouths and honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me But know yee not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of Heaven but must be cut down and cast into the fire and have their Portion in the Lake that burneth be not deceived God is not mocked This is a Deceiver that standeth up here to deceive the people every seventh day proud and covetous and speaketh a Divination of his own brain and not from the mouth of the Lord and so makes the people light and vain but the Lord is against him hold him not up All the Children of the Lord are and shall be taught of the Lord Jer. 31. 34 Isa. 54. 13. 1 Joh. 2. 27. Of a long time it was a constant practise of some of the most impudent of them to enter in a scornfull manner with their hats on into the publike Assemblies in some places and to raile openly and exclaim aloud against the Ministers with most reproachfull tearmes in time of the dispensation of Gods Ordinances calling them byars Seducers Baals Priests Deluders of the people and bidding them come down from the high places There is fulnesse of Witnesses for this in Kendall and Lancashire and other places And this not onely before but since the Justices at Appleby ordred the binding of such Disturbers to the Peace but alas what can bind them to Peaceablenesse whose Spirit is tumultuous or what can Law do when Conscience is seared and takes tumultuousnesse for a Duty Mr. Coale who was employed to preach abroad in this County where the most eminent necessity of this County lay viz. Where the Country was destitute of a Preacher hath had much experience of them and hath professed that long it was before he could have any peace or safety but the Lord stood by him Two or three of the ablest of them have dogg'd him from place to place and come severall times to his house with horrible railings And lately not many weeks since two or three at once in the open Street fell upon him with such horrid expressions as might shew to all the world the boyling of a most Hellish Rancour and with such fury that he was beholden to Friends to rescue him from them The next Lords Day three of these wanderers came into the Congregation at Kendall and called to him to come down belching forth such tearms of Baals Priests c. and Hellish reproaches as filled both the Congregation and streets after with Tumult The violence offered by some of this people in an open Auditory to one Master Crosby had proved little lesse then the losse of his life as himself hath affirmed openly if the Lord had not been on his side What was complotted against another Minister as he gathereth from a Letter sent him by one of that confederacy but a friend at that time as God so ordered it I cannot relate but the said Minister could not as he said conjecture lesse then some grosse abuse intended against him as he was discoursing with Fox had not one present prevented it Others have been desired by some friends to keep out of their way for they heard a mischief was intended them What Eye in these parts where this people live is not a witnesse of the tumults and uprores they make in Markets What ear hath
gathering the meeting was done But spies being set on the steeple and other places notice was given which way Iames past from thence and coming downe towards Kendall two Priests with a Justice c and an exceeding great multitude of people following them met him c. 'T is true Mr. Coale met Nailer at the time mentioned near Kendall and there was no other Minister with him then Master Turner the Schoolmaster came to them about a quarter of an houre after But that they raised the Town is a notorious falshood That they set spies on the Steeple is false again That they set spies in other places is another nntruth That any gave notice which way Nayler went is another That they met him with a great multitude is a sixt lie in the Narrative already How easily is that cause discovered that hath a lie in its right hand and falshood for its Foundation Mr. Coale was earnestly pressed by some that feared the Lord in Kendall and whose spirits were troubled to see the disorders of these men to take the oportunity to go up to widdow Cocks to speak with Nayler being a Ring-leader of that way which at last he was though unwillingly perswaded unto All that accompanied him was but Mr. A. and 6 more nor was any more near till meeting with divers of that party coming towards them they were informed the meeting was done Yet lighting so patly on Nailer himself for he was with the multitude that came from the meeting he thought it necessary though not very convenient there to have a little discourse with him Upon occasion of which stay so near the Town the people as is usual in cases of Novelty in an houres time or less were flockt about him in great multitudes but a great part of them was Naylers company that came before him and with him and followed him from their meeting We should admire to find such gross lies against men did we not see their lies against the Lord more shameless and more impudent And we wish Nayler or whosoever else relates such things to tremble before the presence of the Lord that will shut out every lyer from his Kingdome and to false things will give sharp arrows of the Mighty with coals of Juniper But no marvel such lyes may steal forth in press where they may hope to meet with so much credulity from some as may make them currant when Thomas Willen that lives in Town one of that fect had the impudence to tell Mr. Archer that the bell was rung to give notice of Naylers coming If necessity require these slanders may be proved to be such by hundreds of Evidences The Particulars of that conference M. Cole had with him were these Mr. Coale told him the Lord had put it upon his spirit and he had a message from the Lord to deliver to him His best answer was this Hast thou received a Message from the Lord to speak to me and I not know it Mr. Coale was somewhat astonished with such a blasphemous Expression and told him how like he spake to Zedekiah the son of Chenannah 2 Cron. 15 that said to Micaiah Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak to thee but this he wholly passeth over Mr. Coale then demanded of him by what power he did exercise such Tyranny over the bodies of such poore creatures viz. in their quaking fits To which he answered much to the same purpose his Relation hath it Mr. Coale still pressed him with it Nayler said Dost thou acknowledge it to be done by a Power To which Mr. Coale answered not one word which he forgeth as answered to that But said Yes I do well know whose coming is after the power of Satan with all signYes and lying wonders c. This was all the account he could get of Nayler concerning these horrible pangs the bodies of men women and children are taken with at the time of their speaking Mr. Coale told him It was not by the Power of Christ or his saving work in conviction of sin and horror because of it lying in and upon the Soul and Conscience and not the body This the Relator falsly perverts and 〈◊〉 the Priest said When Christ comes he comes to torment souls and not bodies which with his Answer to it are both 〈◊〉 Mr. Coale proceeded becavse he could give no account of it himself to give 〈◊〉 an account thereof and to prove it to him Not to be from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work of God but from the spirit of darkness and delusion which he mentions not at all Amongst other things proposed to convince him of this this was one That the constant Operation of this Quaking in all was immediately to fill their souls with a crowd of all damnable and destructive doctrines and an absolute turning away from Christ in all his Wayes and Truths and Ordinances Amongst others he instanced in what he specifies in his Relation to which Nayler answered as is there expressed and asked him further if ever he heard him aver any of those things M Coale told him he never saw his face before and so could not hear them from himself but he knew them to be the Principles of his follower He said what was that to him And whereas the Relator saith Mr. Coale was not able to prove any one particular is known to the contrary For so the Lord ordered it that to put to silence the foolishness of evil men among Naylers followers present was one Strickland with whom and one Thomson Mr. Coale had had private discourse before who plainly denied to him the use of Teaching of Bibles the duty of children to their Parents and of any man to a Magistrate and that in the presence of many more besides himself When Nayler called for proof Mr. Coale took Strickland by the hand and presented him to Nayler as one of his followers and one that held those principles and had told him he received those Doctrines from Nayler Nayler again said what was that to him but could not be got either to a confession or denial of those wicked Principles Mr. Coale proceeded further to charge him with what he knew to be a Principle with them all and which Nayler had so publickly professed that he thought he durst not deny it and that was this Nayler had affirmed That every man in the World had a Light within him sufficient to guide him to Salvation This Mr. Coale disputed with him till he rnn him to this absurdity That if an Indian were there that had never heard or read of Christ that he knew Iesus Christ as well as any of us At which the people making some noyse and Mr. Coale being partly satisfied as having witnessed to the Doctrine of Truth in these Particulars against those men And the croud increasing their conference ended Now the Relator to adde yet sin to sin saith he charged him for holding out a Light to convince of sin which all have