of all the Ministers in England without exception and did pretend that himself together with his fellow speakers were the onely true Ministers and Messengers of Christ that we desired to know his Faith and to hear from him if we might the summe of that Doctrine of the Gospel which he came to preach I told him further that our selves and the Countrey in general did look upon him and his fellow speakers as seducers such as preached another Gospel and another Jesus then we had preached and that therefore for the clearing of himself and the satisfaction of the Countery and our selves there present it was but meet that he should give us them desiring it some account of his saith And to do that I told him I hoped he would not be unwilling seeing the Apostle Peter exhorts all Christians to be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in them to every one that asketh To this he replied nothing but stood as one that had nought to say I then asked the people there present if they did not generally desire to hear something from him touching his Faith in some of the main principles of Religion To which many of them said it was their desire Whereupon I intreated Nayler to answer plainly to a few questions which I desired to propound to him The first Question I propounded was whether he believed the Holy Scripture to be the very Word of God To this he answered there was no word but Christ which he would have proved out of Iohn 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word c. I told him we did not deny Jesus Christ to be the Word but did believe him to be the Essential Word of his Father I further told him according to that distinction of the Word into Verbum Deus Verbum Dei That the Word was twofold The Word that is God which is Iesus Christ and the Word of God which is the Holy Scripture Then altering the former question a little I asked him whether he did believe the Holy Scripture to be the written Word of God To which after many words to no purpose being pressed to answer positively he said It is not the Word of God there is no written Word The next question I asked him was Whether he that speaks or teaches that which is directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture is to be lookt upon as one speaking from the immediate inspiration of the Spirit though he pretend to do so To this be replied The Word and the Spirit are one What said I do you understand by the Word when you say the Word and the Spirit are one He said by the Word he meant Christ. I told him we did believe Christ and the Holy Spirit to be one God and that if that was the matter of his answer That Christ and the Holy Spirit are one it was impertinent to my question I then put the case touching my self thus If I said I should pretend to preach from the immediate assistance of the Spirit and preach that which is repugnant to the Holy Scripture whether would your self believe that the Spirit of God spake by me or no To this he answered as before I say saith he The Spirit and the Word are one I told him he did not answer like a rational man and pressing him to answer plainly and not so cloudily and darkly as he did indeavour to do that those were Auditors could not understand what he meant divers of his followers that were there present said altogether almost the devil spoke in me the Serpent spoke in me I told them that was a pure Language that became a Quaker better then a Christian. His Disciples there present desired he should propound some question to my self I told them upon that condition he would answer me plainly to some questions I further desired to put to him I would answer him to any Question of his as plainely as I could He then asked me how I could prove my self to be a Minister of Jesus Christ. I told him that-I had been called and ordained to the work of the Ministery by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery and that the Lord had been pleased mercifully to furnish me with some though very mean abilities for the discharge of that work and that it had been my endeavour to preach the Gospel sincerely and that I desired and as farre as the Lord assisted laboured to walke as became that Doctrine He told me I did not live as became a Minister of Christ. I asked him wherein he could accuse me He said I preached for hire and suffered my self to be called Master contrary to the command of Christ. To the first I replied that for the terms hire or wages they were used in Scripture that our Saviour speaking of those that labour in the Gospel saith The workeman is worthy of his hire And that the Apostle scrupled not to say he received wages Accordingly I told him I tooke hire or received wages for Preaching of the Gospell But did not preach for it did not make that the end of my Ministery And for being called Master I told him that I was not ambitious of that Title That my name was T. H. and that it would please me very well to be called by that name I said further when our Saviour saith Matth. 23. and 10. Be not ye called Masters he doth not simply forbid them to be so called no more then in the foregoing verse he forbids children to call an earthly Parent Father but that he there forbids such proud and ambitious affectation of Titles of respect as was in the Scribes and Pharisees Away Away saith Nayler with your Expositions of Scripture The Scripture is not to be expounded and God will adde to such as Expound them all the plagues written in that Book I replyed that the Apostles knew the meaning of this Precept of Jesus Christ and were obedient unto it and yet suffered a Title superior to that of Master to be given to them Iohn 12. 21. and Acts 16. 30. and that they reproved not them that so called them which they would have done if it had been unlawful for them to have been called Master and that Iohn 20. 15. Mary Magdalen called our Saviour Sir supposing him to have been the Gardiner The Greek word translated Sir is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth properly signifie Lord and is as Linguists know a Title of greater respect then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the term used Matthew 23. 10. The next question I asked him was not as he saith Whether Christ was ascended into Heaven as Man that was in another place about 5 dayes after which yet some of their speakers have denied and argued against but whether he did believe Iesus Christ to be true God and true Man also in one Person And first said I whether dost thou believe Iesus Christ to be true God The question I asked because I
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
this Relator But if they have neglected hitherto to accuse any of us in particular of such wrongs as they complain to have bin done in general why do they not apply themselves to those in authority and charge him or them by name that did infer the injury and prove it by witnesses that they may bring such to condign punishment Or if the Justices have done them injustice why doe they not Petition to their Superiors for remedy If any man shall yet mistake the commitment of Nayler for persecution it were good if he have bin a stranger to his sufferings he were acquainted with the greatest heat of it It was no more but his confinement to the Goalers house where he had as good accommodation as I think his own house would have afforded him or he did desire and better surely then he did deserve and from whence he is now gone well amended both in body and rayment and in purse also For his incomes from the contributions of his Proselytes as is reported by some that have reason to know were not inconsiderable nor would he have had much cause to complain but that he wanted liberty to range the Country if it had lasted as long as he had lived An answer to the false and unfaithfull Relation of the examination of Iames Nayler at the Sessions at Appleby January 1652. Reprinted verbatim in this Book as it is micrepresented in Sauls errand to Damascus REader I suppose thee in this Book at least to have porused that untrue and halting narration of Naylers examination procured by him or some of his friends to be printed and spread abroad for no other end is to us it appears but to bely slander wrong dishonor and bring an Odium upon both the Magistracy and Ministry in this County of Westmerland that have any way appeared against the wickedness of that man and his Faction and to render them concemptible in the eyes of the people of this Nation and those that fear God in it that are strangers to that business if it were possible Thus they give their mouths to evil and their tongues frame deceit against them that never merited it at their hands or pens and desired nought to them but good But the Lord will one day examine and reprove them and set this sin among the rest in order before them except they yet become convicts which from our souls we wish on their behalfs To wipe off that dirt wherewith they have aspersed the Gentlemen that then sat on the Bench I must first inform my Reader that whereas he saith he was indicted for Blasphemy for saying Christ was in him and that there was but one word of God it is a notorious untreth known to all the Country then present I cannot but wonder at their impudence in Printing so well known a lie It easily discovers to him that will see of what spirit they are They would make the world beleive 〈◊〉 Gentlemen were Ignorants indeed that had no better skil then to take those words for Blasphemous T is true these words were contained in his Indictment which he spoke in the hearing of an hundred people that he affirmed Christ was in him as man and that the holy Scripture was 〈◊〉 the Word of God which last words though they may be truly said to be Blasphemous taking Blasphemy in a larger sence as it is used Act 6. 1. Tim. 1. 6. Tit. 2. 5. Yet that he was indicted for Blasphemy at all is utterly false what was the cause of his confinement I have in another place informed my Reader But further to discover the falshood and wilful omissions and imperfections of their Narration I shall give my Reader a true account of the examination of and discourse had with Iames Nayler at the Sessions in all the material passages of it which was as followeth After the Iustices had spoken something to Nayler concerning his refusal to put off his hat in the presence of Authority which he then and there denied to do and had put some question to him concerning the place of his birth and habitation his Profession being a Souldier Col. Brigs demanded of him the cause of his coming into these parts To which Nayler If I may have liberty saith he I will declare it I was in the fields at the Plow in Barly seed time Meditating on the things of God and suddenly I heard a voice saying unto me Get thee out from thy kindred and from thy fathers house and I had a promise given in with it whereupon I did exceedingly rejoyce that I had heard the voice of that God which I had professed from a childe but whom before that day I had never known So I went home and stayed there a good while and not being obedient to the Heavenly Call I was in a sad condition as my friends know and those that knew me wondered at me and thought I was distracted and that I would never have spoken nor eaten more Hereabouts as he was going on Coll. Brigs interrupted him with this question Friend said he Didst thou bear that voice thou saist spoke unto thee Nayler answered Yea I did heare it 〈◊〉 Briggs questioned him again thus Were there not some others besides thy self at plow with thee Yea faith Nayler there were two more besides my self And did not they said the Coll. hear that voice as wel as thy self No friend saith Nayler it was not a Carnall voice audible to the outward care O then said Coll. Briggs I know what voice it was Nayler then proceeded thus after I was made willing to go I gave away my estate and cast out my mony and I began to make some preparation as apparel and other necessaties but a while after going agateward with a friend from my own house having an old suit without any mony having neither taken leave of wife or children nor thinking of any journy The voice came to me again commanding me to go into the West not knowing whither I should goe nor what I was to doe there but when I had been there a litle while it was given me what I was to declare and ever since I have remained not knowing to day what I am to do to morrow When he had finished this Relation touching his call Coll. Briggs put this question to him Friend you said you gave away your estate and cast out mony before you came forth to whom did you give your estate and mony Nayler said I gave it to my wife Coll. Briggs replied doest thou call that a giving away of thy estate and casting out thy mony I should not much care if all my estate were so given away But what was the promise which thou saidst was given in to thee Nayler said That God would be with me which I find made good every day Said Coll. Briggs I never heard of such a call as thine in our time To which Nayler replied he believed to M. Pearson then asked whether Christ was
True it is so said but that Face of God which Moses saw is not spoken of as that full vision of God which we cannot have till we be changed but of a more extraordinary appearance of God in his outward discovery of his Glory And therefore when afterwards Moses desired to see Gods Face he shewed him but his back parts Dost thou then believe said Nayler to see God with thy carnall eyes Master Coale answered in the words of Iob Yea with these eyes shall I see Him Onely said he friend understand That though these same eyes shall see Him yet they must be though not in substance yet in quality changed He shall change this vile body saith Paul and make it like unto his own Glorious body Saith Nayler Had I said so I had been charged with Blasphemy though it be Truth Master Coale answered he would then have had a great deale of injury done him but said he though we shall be made like unto him I doe not understand it thus that we shall be made equal to him there is a vast difference betwixt likenesse and equality Nayler after this speaking of the life of Christ said he lived by the life of Christ and Christan him Master Coale told him it was true that a Christian lives by the life of Christ but that life saith he which I live is a created life and t is I am quickned and I that am made alive 〈◊〉 saith Nayler by an uncreated life True said Master Coale A Christian doth so but he must make a difference between living the Essentiall life of Christ and living by it The uncreated life of Christ said he is the cause of my life but not the matter of it For they were the influences of that life upon me that did beget a life in me but that life that is in me is a created life for which he quoted Ephesians 2. You hath he quickned and 1. Cor. 15. The last Adam is made a quickning Spirit or a life creating Spirit as he told him the word signifies Also 2. Cor. 5 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature And you are his workmanship created in Iesus Christ unto good works To these he replyed nothing but said I do witnesse Christ is in me and is persecuted in me this day Master Coale told him he persecuted him not but came to crave Protection The foregoing discourse produced some words about Justication touching which Nayler said he was justified by Christ in him To which Master Coale replyed thus Christ in me is my sanctification but Christ fulfilling the Law for me is my Justification Justification is an Act of God for Christs sake acquitting me and absolving me from the guilt of sinne not done in me but without me in the Court in Heaven Onely the Manifestation of it is in my Conscience Nayler said nothing to this but that which is without is without Being asked whether the Scriptures were the Word of God he answered he knew no Word of God but one Being asked again whether he believed the written Word to be the Word of God he said I know no such thing Master Coale told him That it was true that Jesus Christ is the Eternall Word but in the ordinary sense a word is as much as the Declaration of a mans mind He asked him therefore whether he beleeved the Scriptures did declare to us the Minde of God and so whether that which they deliver to us is the very minde of God He answered I do believe it This is the substance of all those Passages ANd now good Reader compare this faithfull Relation which may be attested by many judicious and observant witnesses with their foolish and scandalous stories and you may find them full of such grosse abuses and pernicious suggestions and falsehoods as are apt to proceed from a spirit that premeditatech mischief and abhorreth not evil I think none of us that are traduced in Sauls Errand to Damascus should have made any thing publick in this kind in respect to our selves We know t is as easie is common for Christs Disciples indeed to beare the lying accusations and reproaches of his Enemies But knowing again how Errour may strengthen it selfe and get a party by lying reports and the Cause of God contract an Odium by misrepresentations and Religion sometimes suffer through silence especially when Satan labours to speake so like the Language of a complaining Saint and Truth it selfe is under prejudice and disadvantage we were moved in Spirit to speake what we have heard and know and to testifie what we can witnesse though the world should not receive it That Mystery of Iniquity which doth so Energetically work against the Gospell in this Nation and that designe of Satan which now appears with open face in Multitudes of his Agents to overturne the Ministery of the New Testament and roote out the Soule and Life of Christianity from among us the despised Servants of the Lord in these parts are hopefully encouraged that the Lord will ere long crush to pieces and make it as the untimely Fruite of Summer and as the grasse upon the House top of which the Mower filleth not his hand nor hee that bindeth Sheaves his bosome Yea we see already some probable Symptomes of Death upon these New born Principles and the markes of Vengeance from Heaven upon them The hollownesse and unholynesse of their fanaticke Notions which as blazing Starres doe dazle the weaker or delight the more wanton eyes of many The fruit of our Prayers in the returning of some who were esteemed Godly The Divisions of the rest Their visible palpable Atheisme And the Lords Eminent leaving of them both living and dying in either the most despairing or most bruitish Condition ever heard of which though sad as to their persons yet wee cannot but looke upon them as Signall Testimonies of GOD against their Heresies and Impieties O that Men would receive the Truth of God in the Love thereof that those Glorious Beams of the Eternall Word might ravish the affections of all that know them Least otherwise as is the sad condition of this poore Country the Lord doe in his just Judgement send them some strong Delusions to believe a Lye and plunge their Soules from their Imaginary highest Elevation of Spirituall Knowledge into the lowest depth of Atheisticall Heathenish or Popish darkenesse In this Prayer I hope good Reader we shall have the Communion of your Spirit and the joynt compassion of your Soules for a misguided Generation The Lord inable us to contribute what strength wee have for the Gospels Interest FINIS Nayler saith to this Question he could get no answer
that there should especially in the last Ages of the World I do as verily believe and know them to be such as if they were marked in the Forehead so exactly do they answer the Characters and Predictions of holy Scripture concerning this sort of men And your selves may easily discern them to be such by their Fruits viz. by their Blasphemies by their damnable Heresies by their lying Doctrines by their professed disobedience to Iesus Christ in casting off all his Ordinances and teaching others to do so also by their resisting the Truth as Jannes and Jambres did Moses by their Diabolicall Trances and Raptures by their Superstitious unholy Fastings by their railing Language by their speaking great swelling words of vanity their boasting of Perfection and Voices and Revelations and immediate Inspirations from the Spirit by their will Worship by their unchristian immodest unhumane Incivilities and Impudencies by their bearing witnesse to themselves as that woman Jezebell did Revel 2. 20. who called her selfe a Prophetesse by their creeping into houses and their successe in their Seductions in subverting whole houses and overthrowing the faith of so many and drawing them to follow their pernicious waies It hath been ordinary with the Divell in all Ages of the Chuch especially when he fancies or feares a time of Reformation approaching because he cannot abide the light of the Truth to excite men that make som profession of religion as his Agents to lend them his assistance in stirring up Tumults to hinder the successe and propagation thereof and to bring it into contempt and hatred in the world And therefore it is not now to be look upon as strange that the Divell hath raised up his Instruments under a vain-glorious Profession of a new and more spirituall Religion to oppugne the true Doctrine of the Gospell of Iesus Christ and all obedience both to it and him Beare with me yet a little and I will tell you plainly what is our duty in respect of these Deluders It is the duty of all Christs faithfull Ministers who are set for the defence of the Gospell to contend earnestly for the faith against them I mean not by carnall but by those Spirituall Weapons of our Warfare which are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds It is their duty to endeavour to stop the mouths of these Gain-sayers from the word of Truth and to warn and exhort all men to avoid them as ravenous Wolves as the very Pests of the places where they are or come And for all that desire to appeare before the Iudgment Seat of Iesus Christ with comfort and your selves it is your duty to beware of them to turn away from them to with-draw from their Society and have no common familiarity with them Heare to this purpose the Command of the Lord in his holy word Math. 7. 15. Beware of false Prophets Matth. 24. 24 25 26. There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great Signes and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect. Behold I have told you before wherefore if they should say unto you behold he is in the Desart go not forth behold he is in the secret Chambers believe it not Rom. 16. verse 17. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offenses contrary to the Doctrine which yee have learned and avoid them 2 Thes. 3. 6. Now we command you Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you with-draw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly and not after the Tradition which he received of us 2 Tim. 3. 5. 6. From such turn away of this sort are they that creep into houses and lead Captive silly women c. 2 Ioh. verse 10 11. If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God-speed For he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evill Deeds Except you obey these Commands of the Lord Iesus you will not you cannot be his Disciples O repent therefore of your former disobedience to him and your revoltings and wandrings from him who is the Bishop and Shepheard of Soules Return to embrace that Truth from which you have turned away your Eares and to attend upon the Lord in those his holy Ordinances upon which you have turned your backs and from those crooked by-waies into which you have been seduced through the subtlety of Satans Messengers And do this speedily while you have time before you and before it be too late It will be ere long too late to repent and impossible for you to return You know how ready the Lord is to extend his mercy to the Penitent If this and such like faire warnings will not prevaile with you but you will still obstinately proceed in your Enmity to the waies of God and his Gospell I will and I hope all that feare the Lord will together with me set themselves more earnestly then we have yet done to sollicit the Lord to appeare and plead from Heaven against your Heresie and to extirpate it from off the Earth Though I have not satisfied my selfe in this my plain addresse to you nor spoke me-thinks what I would yet that I may not be tedious I will add no more but this Prayer for you That the Lord the Sun of Righteousnesse would please to rise unto you and chase away that night and darknesse that lyes upon your Understandings and grant unto you Repentance to there acknowledgment of the Truth and powerfully recover you out of the Snares of the Divell that so being turned from the power of Satan to God you may receive an Inheritance among those that are Sanctified through faith in him This is the desire of his Soule to God for you who is Your loving Friend F. H. A BREIFE Relation of the Irreligion of the Northern QUAKERS Wherein their horrid Principles and Practises Doctrines and Manners as farr as their Mystery of Iniquity hath yet discovered it selfe are plainly exposed to the view of every Intelligent Reader THE last Summer there came or rather crept unawares into the County of Westmerland and some parts of Yorkeshire and Lancashire adjacent to it George Fox Iames Nailer one Spoden and one Thornton all of them Satans seeds-men and such as have prosperously sowed the Tares of that Enemy in the forementioned fields as shall be with Gods assistance in this ensuing Relation manifestly declared These men together with some others who being affectors of novelties in Religion more then Verity were quickly made their Proselytes have powerfully seduced multitudes of people in these parts from the Truth and true worship of God to imbrace their Doctrines of Devills and follow their pernicious wayes This sort of people are vulgarly and not unaptly distinguished from others by the name of Quakers the reason of which Appellation I shall shew you hereafter Now to the end it may be as apparent as the day
All that study to raise a living thing out of a dead to raise the Spirit out of the letter are Conjurers and draw Points and Reasons and so speak a divination of their own brain they are Conjurers and Diviners and their teaching is from Conjuration which is not spoken from the mouth of the Lord and the Lord is against all such and who are of God are against all such for their Doctrine doth not profit the people at all for it stands not in the Counsell of God but it is a Doctrine of the Devill and drawes people from God 5. They affirm that the Letter of the Scripture is carnall 6. That he that puts the Letter for light is blind 7. That the word is not the Rule whereby to try their Spirits they will not allow of comparing of that Watcher they say they have within with the written word in Scripture 8. They call the written word of God the Worlds word the Worlds light Touchstone Rule and say our outward Scriptures and glorious Gospell is dust Some of them have affirmed it was no great matter if all the Bibles in England were burnt 9. It is a Doctrine generall with them that the Soule is a part of God or of the Divine Essence and was actually existent long before it was conveyed into the Body This wicked Opinion of the Priscilianists and other old Erronists now reviv'd by this Sect some of the most eminent of them have endeavoured to maintain against Mr. Cole a godly and learned Minister living in Kendall 10. The deniall of any distinction of Persons in the God-head is common with them Fox Sauls Errant Page 12. affirmes that it is but a busie mind to enquire whether there be one Individuall God distinguished into Father Son and Holy Ghost 11. They hold that Christ hath no body but his Church 12. That Jesus Christ is come into their flesh that he is in them as man that the man Christ dwels in them 13. That Christ his coming in the flesh is but a figure and all he did is nothing else but an Example the exploded Doctrine of the Socinians denying the efficacy and virtue of his Blood and Sacrifice by which in his own body he purged away sin which Principle stands cleer in the Lancashire charge against them and nothing evaded by what is layed down under the name of an Answer called Sauls Errant Page 8. 14. They hold that Christ is a light within every man and that every man must mind that light and teacher within and follow no Teacher without Nailer when Mr. Cole had some discourse with him at Kendall affirmed to him that Christ was in all men even in Reprobates and that in them he is held under Corruption 15. They hold that all men in the world have in them a light sufficient to Salvation Turks Indians yea such as never had or ever shall have any outward means to reveale Christ to them 16. Some of them have argued that the man Christ is not ascended into Heaven 17. They hold that we are justified by Christ alone without Imputation 18. They hold Prayer for remission of sins a needlesse thing 19. They hold that that Righteousnesse which Jesus Christ fulfilled in his own Person with us and before we were born is not the matter of our Justification 20. Some of them and those no meane ones among them neither hold the Popish Doctrine of Justification by works or inhaerent Righteousnesse which Christ in him inables them to perform 21. They hold that in Conversion there is no new nature no habit of grace or Seed of God infused but that Christ that was in man before is then raised up in them out of Prison 22. They hold that there is fulnesse of Glory in this life that they enjoy God here and Christ here the Resurrection Judgment Angels Glory and all they look for they enjoy in this life and mock at those that speak of another World or life to come or a better Kingdome 23. They deny many of them the Resurrection of the body 24. They hold that there is no Locall Heaven or Hell 25. They hold many of them that they have attained to a state of Perfection and that they neither do nor can sin 26. They hold that the calling of the Ministry of England without any exception is Antichristian 27. They affirm that there is no such thing contained in the holy Scripture as a Mediate call to the Ministry by man 28. They hold the Office of teaching to be utterly uselesse in the Church of God and tell the most ignorant people where they come that they have no need that any man should teach them and therefore disswade them from hearing any of our Ministers what ever telling them they shall be damned if they do so and that all that go to the best houses to heare them shall be turned like Chaff and Stubble and charge people not to believe a word that any of them speak And for themselves when they speak they say they do not teach or preach but onely declare the Revelations of God in them 29. They hold that Fox and all the rest of their Speakers are immediately called Sauls Errent Page 4. Fox saith they were moved to come into those parts by the Lord and the Lord let them see he had a people here before they came Nailer also at the last Sessions at Appleby Ian. 1652. affirmed in the face of the Court that when he was at Plow in Barly Seed time meditating on the things of God he suddenly heard a voice commanding him to go out from his Country and from his Fathers house and had a promise given in with it And being demanded whether he heard the Voice he said he heard it himselfe but those that were with him heard it not Being asked again whether it was an Audible Voice he answered no friend it was not a carnall Voice audible to the outward Eare. A little after going on in his relation he said that going agateward they are his own words with a friend from his own house the Voice come to him again commanding him to go into the West not telling him whether he should go or what he was to do there but when he had been there a little while it was given him what he was to declare If my Reader please to be detained with another short Story to this purpose he shall have it Fox with one or two other men his Companions as I heard it came to an Honourable Gentlemans house in Cumberland One of the house came to them to the door to know their businesse They asked if the Gentleman of the house was within calling him by his name for they give no title of respect to any man whatsoever they were answered affirmatively Being called in the Gentleman took them aside to know what they would with him they told him they were sent to him from God He enquired of them how they certainly knew it they
some that pride idlenesse and fulnesse of bread the sins of Sodom are the fruits of their preaching They acuse them of being brought up at Oxford and Cambridge they say they know nothing but naturall Books and naturall things the Scripture Letter Hebrew and Greek which is all naturall That the ungodly unholy proud Priests add Professors must be scorned who know not the Power of the word Reader I coine or add no expression of mine own I repeate onely their own words which such Books and Papers of theirs as I can produce are full of They apply all that is spoken to Idolatrous ignorant idle prophane persecuting Priests and false Prophets either in the old or new Testament to the Ministers of England but we know that though one syllable or tittle of such abused Texts of Scripture doth not pertain to any godly faithfull Minister of the Gospell yet that very many of them do as properly belong to themselves as the Skin that is upon their flesh They exhort people not to heare them to cease from them and not to hold them up and tell them they will never be profited by them And indeed as soon as any man turnes their Proselite he becomes as pure a Recusant as any Papist in England And not content to raile against them in Prose they compose Songs or Ballads rather which their Disciples magnifie and look upon as Spirituall Songs that they may revile them in Meeter also One of their Speakers said not long since that the Priests had deluded the people this sixteen hundred yeares borrowing this peice of Divinity or Devility rather from the Almanack-maker Their Writings are full of Threatnings Prophesies against Ministers for which also they are beholding to the Astrologers They say the Lord is coming to beat up their Quarters the Son of Thunder is coming abroad to sound Trumpets to call to Battell against the great day of the Lord and there Kingdome must be taken from them and that their downfall is neer at hand Some of them have said they hope within a yeares time to see never a Minister left in England They exhort one another in the words of Coliier out of whose Pit they have drawn much of their black Religion to overturn overturn overturn Thus one Instrument of the Divell helps another Reader I do very believe that if these wicked men had power in their hands there would be no Toleration of any true Minister of Jesus Christ in England and that one of the first things they would endeavour would be if not to raise a tempest of Persecution by raining blood yet at least to raise and extripate the Sacred Callings I say Sacred calling of the Ministry being the Institution of Jesus Christ in his Church One principall reason why they do thus shew their teeth against Ministers I imagine to be this they look upon some of them as those that do mainly stand in their way as those that are able to detect their Errours to manifest their folly and unsheath the Sword of the Spirit the word of Truth against them They cannot for them so freely proceed in the propagation of their Delusions as they would Hence they are their greatest eye-sores Also if I may without offence speak what I think and partly know they presume to take this liberty to themselves because they are apt to conceive that Ministers are now almost friendlesse that Authority will not appeare for them and that they are the Object of the wrath of divers Soldiers in the Army whom they foolishly suppose to incline to their as to them unknown Sect. But I hope yea I am confident that when the Hypocrisie of these men shall be unmasked and their madnesse and iniquity which hath already begun in some places to lift up her head shall be better known and appeare they shall then proceed no further And that those Worthies that by divine Providence do or shall sit at the Stern to guide the Ship of the Common-wealth and the godly Officers of the Army will not onely disowne and detest but also manifest themselves to be Enemies to all their Impieties and Enormous Practises of this turbulent Faction But in the mean time while they are so injurious to the Soveraigne Majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ the Prince of the Kings of the Earth by their Hellish Blasphemies and eager opposition of the Truth well may they contemne and rage against such Earthen Vessels as are his Ministers here on Earth Of their Censoriousnesse Lying instability in their own Errours and enmity to Learning NEver did Hereticks speak greater swelling words of vanity and more exalt themselves and throw down others then those who are of that Synagogue do They commend themselves up to Heaven they give themselves the title of Saints they boast themselves to be equal to the Apostles to speak from the immediate Revelation of the Spirit impudently impiously affirming more of themselves then the true Apostles of Jesus ever did or durst do touching their freedome from sin and perfection in holinesse c. and threaten that they shall be the Judges of the World but they will readily censure all others to Hell tell them they are damned that they worship the Beast that they are possessed with the Divell yea with many Divels that the Divell speakes in them and that they see him in their eyes and faces c. This language of Divels indeed is as ordinary with them to dissenters from their way that oppose them as to talk with them Many of them will be as ready to say and unsay any thing as if lying was a Vertue They make no conscience of raising false Reports against those especially that do any way oppose them Witnesse that lying Pamphlet Sauls Errant to Damascus wherein there are a hundred untruths as may be proved by a hundred Witnesses It is the Testimony of a faithfull Minister of Christ concerning them Not in halfe an houres discourse saith he with most of those I have discoursed with but you shall finde plain and down-right lyes Some of them saith he have commed to my house and said they had a Message from God to me upon my speedy demanding it they have point blank almost in the same breathing time denyed it When some that have been in some measure able from the word of Truth to manifest their Errours have discoursed with those Wells without water though themselves have stood like men inwardly convicted and ashamed utterly unable to gain-say or darken those cleare Evidences of Scripture brought against them and sometimes totally silenced and as mute as Fishes Yet when these Champions of Errours have gone away they have boasted of their Conquests and how gloriously they had foiled and stopt the mouths of their Adversaries Thus wholly by Lyes Lying Doctrines lying Revelations lying Wonders lying Reports they do endeavour to build up the Kingdome of the Father of Lyes among us Their inconstancy to their own Errours is also very remarkable They
have left the Truth and the good waies of the Lord which are alwaies like themselves and as unalterable as the courses of the Stars of Heaven And now they fluctuate like the Waves of the Sea they have unbottomed themselves and now they know not where to fix they are removed from that Religion that is true to another Gospell and now they have both the Credenda Facienenda the Doctrinall and Practicall parts of their Irreligion they have taken up to seek and settle It is not to be expected that they will be a yeare or two hence what they are now new Visions new Revelations they daily look for Unstable Soules whither will your Fancies go whither will he drive you that sets you on work One in Kerbylonsdale Parish that had been of their Society a while fell sick of an Ague and was by it detain'd at home a Month after recovery going to their Assemblies again he professed that he found them so altered from their Principles in that Months time that he could onely know them by their faces to be the same men not by the constitution of their mindes Divers others that were a while agon of their way perceiving the instability of their Opinions and Impiety of their walkings are now fallen off from them and frequent the publike Assemblies as before The Profession of some of the tallest of this Sect that afford shadow to the rest hath had almost as many faces as the Moon before they turned Promoters of Quakers The world hath seen them zealous for Episcopall Policy and Ceremonies hot for Presbytery all for Independency and after all for Antinomianisme Anabaptisme and now beyond all onely for Foxes new Irreligion which is above all Formes and Ordinances Most of them that steer their course according to the direction of these wandring Stars were heretofore noted men for their Singularity and unsoundnesse of their Tenets such as ever affected to put on the newest Fashion of Religion A Taylor at Grayrigge that while there was no Minister there used to speak publikely every Lords day delivered them openly many dangerous and Hereticall Doctrines and what ever his Doctrine was true or false he was wont daily as his Hearers said to pawn his Soule on the truth of his Assertions and bid if they were not such to take him for ever for a false Prophet Yet this man after Fox and Nayler came into these parts having been their Auditor a little while was perverted by them and became a Quaker left his former Principles and came to Grayrigge where he had taught long before and told the people he had formerly deluded them and taught lyes and false Doctrine among them but he had now found the right way indeed with other words to that effect The Builders of this Babell of the Quakers which they as impiously as vain-gloriously call the Temple of the Lord will have no Tooles taken out of the Shops of humane Learning to work withall and indeed I think they have not except what the Learning of Winstanley and Collier have afforded them If any of their way of of the Countenancers of them be learned indeed as some of them are held to be I look upon their owning and admiring at it and those empty Clouds their Speakers as a very sad Judgment of God upon them sending them strong delusions to believe a lye They hate a Library Cane pejus Angue all Expositors of holy Scripture they call Heatheninsh Commentators the Reliques of those pious Learned men that were great Lights in the Churches of Christ in their Ages such Books I mean as Students in Theology use as good helps to attain to that excellent Knowledge of the Doctrine of the holy Scriptures they tearm heathenish Books and the Compilers of them heathenish Authors Languages and Arts and such like Ornamentall Qualifications are ulcerous Deformities in these mens eyes A methodicall discourse is an Odium all distinctions they say are the Seed of the Serpent they savour too much of solid Knowledge They deny it to be needfull to bring up Children in any Learning and some of them have taken their Children from Schoole Their Books and Papers which they disperse abroad the Country with these or such like absurd frothy Sefle-contradicting Quaeries Whether the Lord made use of any as Ministers of his minde unto the people that were bred idle at Sdhooles and Universities all the daies of their lives without a calling as the Priests of England but rather the contrary as Moses a Shepheard Amos a Heardsman Christ himselfe a Carpenter Paul a Tent-maker Peter a Fisherman Whether ever Universities or Schooles of Learning were in holy Scripture called the Well-heads of Divinity Whether ever Christ and his Apostles did make use of those great Bugbeares so common in use with the Priests of England to prevent the Saints from preaching the Gospell and the world from hearing them As first the Approbation and Ordination of the men of the Earth Secondly humane Learning and the Language of the Beast without which men are in their account altogether unmeet to meddle in the things of God Whether ever Christ and his Apostles did confirm the Truths they delivered by the power of the Magistracy Authors and Fathers Whether the Spirits teaching be not sufficient in the things of God Whether it be not the work of Christ and that which is to be expected in the latter daies to overturn overturn overturn all these waies so contrary to his own minde What do they mean in the last Quaere what Spirit is this they speak from but let these Quaeries go as they are for me Of their Idlenesse Savage Incivilities and their Irreligious bloody barbarous and turbulent practises TO what hath been hitherto related of their Impieties and disorderly walkings it may be added that they are many of them notorious for Idlenesse in their Callings working not at all sometimes for whole weeks and months together Some of them leave their Wives Children Families Vocations and turn all Journy-men Speakers Others regardlesse of all at home wander after them compassing the Country from place to place and live upon those of their Fraternity where they light to their Excessive charge They are degenerated also to such Incivilities as are in few places of the World to be found among the Heathens having departed from the Doctrine of Christ and practise of Civility both together Reader I have been an Eye-witnesse of more courteous behaviour in the Indians of the West and Natives of the East Indies and Moores of Africa then these men will afford to their neerest Relations or those they ought most to honour A Son if turned a Quaker will not use the usuall Civility of the world that is christian in putting off his hat to his Father or Mother will give them no civill Salutations to bid him Goodmorrow that begat him or her Good night or farewell that brought him forth is with them accounted a wickednesse None of the
paper may be kept as an evidence either with or against me A large Petition being read wherein was something against Quaking and Trembling Just. Pears How comes it to pass that people Quake and Tremble Jam. The Scriptures witness the same condition in the Saints formerly as Dauid Daniel Habakkuk and divers others Just. Pears Did they fall down Jam. Yea some of them did so Coale David said all his bones were broken but they were whole Iam. So are these now Coale Moses trembled for he saw the face of God and all Israel Iam. Did all Israel see the face of God that crosseth the Scriptures Coale They saw his Glory I shall see the Lord with these eyes putting his fingers to his eyes Iam. They must first be made spiritual he cannot be seen with carnall eyes for he is a Spirit and no flesh can see God and live Coale That light by which I am justified is a created light Iam. That light by which I am justified is not a created light Coale That is true Just. Pears To the Word What sayest thou to the Scriptures are they the Word of God Iam. They are a true Declaration of the Word that was in them who spoke them forth Higginson Is there not a written Word Iam. Where readest thou in thy Scriptures of a written Word The Word is Spiritual not seen with Carnal eyes but as for the Scriptures they are true and I witness them true in measure fulfilled in me as far as I am grown up Just. Pears Why dost thou disturb the Ministers in their publicke worships Iam. I have not disturbed them in their publick worships Just. Pears Why doest thou speake against Tythes which are allowed by the States Iam. I meddle not with the States I speak against them that are hirelings as they are hirelings those that were sent of Christ never took Tythes nor ever sued for any wages Just. Pears Dosh thou think we are so beggerly as the Heathens that we cannot afford our Ministers maintenance We give them it freely Jam. They are the Ministers of Christ who abide in the Doctrine of Christ. Just. Pears But who shall judge how shall we know them Jam. By their fruits you shall know them they that abide not in the Doctrine of Christ make it appear they are not the Ministers of Christ. Just. Pears That is true A reply to the Title of that lying Relation called Diverse particulars of the Persecutions of Iames Nailer by the Preists of Westmerland THus is the second part of this Pamphlet ushered in with such an Inscription as if Iames Nayler had been a real Martyr of Jesus Christ and not an open Enemy to him and his Gospel might well have served for the Title page of his Martyrdome You see Reader their language and how bloodily they charge us in the very entry of their Relation The term Priest which they give us here and all over by way of contempt may discover to the world what is the rancour of their souls against us However it be grown the common reproach against us in the mouths of those that know not God yet we hope the Lord will teach them better language in his season I am credibly informed that a little while ago one of them railing with that and other language against a Minister went from him home and died presently What ever scorn they intend to heape upon us by that word we do not own it nor ever did as a Title proper to the Office of the Ministers of the New Testament or to their persons further then as they are Christs Disciples who hath made all whom he hath loved and washed from their sinnes with his blood Kings and Priests to God his Father Rev. 1. 5. 6. And in this sense if themselves do but once become Priests they will become companions of Devils for ever And for Persecution the Lord forbid that we should be persecutors as they render us to the world to be while our selves are designed as the Objects of it by some if their power answered their wills and do already suffer the persecution of the Tongue in as high a degree as ever did Ministers of Christ in any Age. The Lord forbid that we should lift up our hand or open our mouth against the least of Saints We know what reward our Saviour hath promised to him that shall give to drink unto one of his little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a Disciple Matth. 10. ult and on the other hand what severity of judgement he hath threatned to those that do offend them Matth. 18. 6. We do not therefore pretend a jus Divinum to persecution as one I heartily believe most falsly and maliciously accuses the Ministers of Lancashire to do but do from our souls rather wish to be sufferers of it our selves then defiled with the least tincture of the guilt of that red sin of persecuting others If to be stedfast in the profession of the Truth to warn and charge those that are committed to our charge who we hope shall be our crown and joy in the day of the Lord to take heed of seducers if to labour to keep them from being robd of the salvation of their souls if to satisfie the desire of some of our people whom we heard continually wishing that we would have some conference with these men if to contend for the Faith against those men that are the open enemies of it and to petition for their liberties when they are consined If this be persecution then we must confess our selves persecutors and deserving blame for it but if these actings do not savour of a spirit of persecution we can then challenge the whole World to prove us guiltie And for Naylers sufferings which the unfaithful Relator calls persecutions he knows or might as well as we that that little restraint onely which he suffered as an evil doer was by the Order of the Justices and we know that we did not so much as desire his sufferings in the least and that we sought and desired nothing but the preservation of Religion and Peace among us and that those Authours and Fomentours of the disturbances of this poore Countie might return to their habitations and callings and there according to the Apostles rule study to be quiet and do their own businesse And must we upon this account stand charged with Persecution But the Lord the righteous Judge though we should alrogether hold our peace will one day plead for us against those that have hated us without a cause and are our enemies because they see us friends to Truth and Peace The Lord lay not this sin to their charge A Reply to that part of the Relation which concerns Master Coales discourse with Nailer near Kendall THe relator in Sauls Errand to Damascus saith That Iames Nayler meeting at a house near Kendall the Priests in the Town having notice raised the Town of Kendall against him but being long in
and the turning of the peaceable Assemblies of the Church of Christ into the grossest confusion That their deportment is such and with so continual violence against the most godly of our Ministers in all places in their travels in the streets abusing them with rayling language scornfull behaviour walking usually in Markets with such great numbers together and scarce passing by any not of their judgement without abusive words that it cannot but shew us as no small Symptomes of bad designes so no small reason to provide for our security That it is their great Designe to stir up the spirits of people against the Ministery of England in generall without distinction setting such and sending abroad daily libels and slanders against the Office as needlesse and them as or under the names of Antichrists Antichrists Merchants Tithemongers robbers deceivers Ministers of the world Priests murderers Conjurers Divels and attempting to make Proclamations in the open Markets to the said effect That their main drift is to ingage the people against the Ministery by reason of Tithes crying out with open clamors against Tithes as unlawfull Antichristian to the necessary overturning of the Lawes to that purpose bringing an Odium upon the Government and tending to stir up Sedition in the people to withdraw their due obedience from the Lawes and Government of England That besides what others perhaps may know of the Blasphemies of them we doe plainly see and know that their practices do exceedingly savour of Sorcerie the quakings swellings roarings foamings Such as never we heard of but such as were possessed of the Divell of persons at their meetings and especially of little children giving a sad suspition of it and the more by reason of the known suspitions upon George Fox to deal with the Devil before ever be came to us in these parts That we know the Principles of some of their followers are against Propriety against subjection to Magistrates against distinction amongst men and the practises of the most such that there is a ceasing of relations children prosessedly refusing subjection to their Parents and servants to their Masters That we are sensible what confusions divisions tumults and parties made by these disturbances and cannot but with sadnesse of spirit remember that such small beginnings have in other Nations grown to eat out their peace and stagger the foundation of their states as also we lay it before you what advantage it gives to the common Enemy how it weakens the Parliaments interest in the peoples hearts to see such people unrestrained creates discontents and layeth a clear foundation for civil wars or at least advantage to the Hollander or French now in Arms against us to carry on their wicked intentions with greater facility As you are therefore Christians and English Magistrates we as free-born Men of England and discerning something more as instruments under God with others of our present Peace doe beg and challenge from you 1. Your timely looking unto the Peace of England that is seeming too evidently to be endeavoured to be rent asunder 2. The protection of our selves and our Ministers from violence disturbance in our worship of God and suppression of offenders 3. Execution of the Statute against Sabboth-breakers and such as under pretence of Religion are in no Religious Assembly that day 4. Charge to all differing Iudgements to meet together such Lords Dayes peaceably and not to spread themselves to severall places for disturbance suppression of persons being without any calling 5. And your witnessing against all Blaspemies of the Name of God especially such as are contained in the Act of Parliament And if the Application of an effectual remedy lie not within your Power that you will please to joyn with us in this desire and transmit the case to the knowledge of the Right Honourable the Councel of State as a case so nearly concerning the Peace of England And we shall ever pray When this last Petition was read Mr. Coale was called for and examined what disturbances he had received or could witnesse He told the Justices he came thither to beg the States Protection and not to endeavour the prejudice of any mans person and that the Petitioners did challenge protection as their Native right and purchased due and as what he knew was the mind of the Parliament and that he desired no more for himselfe in this respect then he did for those of differing judgements onely craved that we in our severall Congregations might worship God without disturbance and affronts It is known to the whole Bench and present Multitude that he perswaded with the Justices that he might not instance in any of these particular publicke disturbances by naming the persons till they had promised to pardon what was past which was done Upon which Master Coale instanced in severall men and women whose uncivil unchristian boysterous carriages in publicke Assemblies and turbulent spirits fully speake what freedome might be expected to be given to our Congregations if they might sway the Nation according to their wills And that the spirit of Persecution rests indeed in their brests what ever strang nesse they pretend to it and notwithstanding their untrue complaints of suffering of it Orders being given by these Gentlemen that then sate in the Bench for the peaceable preaching of the Gospel Master Pearson asked Nayler this question How comes it to passe saith he that people at your meetings doe sometimes fall unto such horrid quakings and tremblings The Scriptures said Nayler witnesse the same condition in the Saints formerly as in David Daniel Habakkuk and others Master Coale replied that David also sometimes saith His bones were out of joynt and broken yet notwithhanding his bones were sound Nayler then instanced again In the trembling of Moses and Habakkuk and Paul Master Coale told him it was true yet he might understand that in Scripture these words of quaking and trembling were not alwayes taken in a litterall sense but did signifie that trembling of Spirit and horrour of Conference 〈◊〉 God did bring upon the soul in the sense of sinne and his displeasure the breaking of the bones of our comfort and shaking of the souls strongest confidences Sometimes again he said they were to be taken literally as in Moses Paul c. But then they were upon occasion or a more extraordinary Manifestation of the Majesty and Glory of God appearing to them which was an Act of Extraordinary Providence and not the Lords ordinary work Nayler replyed that they viz. that fel into the quaking fits among them also saw the Glory of God but saith he did they Moses and Paul c. see it with their bodily eyes Yea said Master Coale Moses did see the Glory of God upon Mount Sinai with his bodily eyes and not onely he but also the whole Host of Israell and desired they might not see that sight any more Nayler said How then is it said Who can see the Face of God and live Master Coale answered