George Fox Digg'd out of his Burrovves Or an Offer of DISPUTATION On fourteen Proposalls made this last Summer 1672 so call'd unto G. Fox then present on Rode-Island in New-England by R. W. As also how G. Fox slily departing the Disputation went on being managed three dayes at Newport on Rode-Island and one day at Providence between Iohn Stubs Iohn Burnet and William Edmondson on the one part and R. W. on the other In which many Quotations out of G. Fox Ed. Burrowes Book in Folio are alleadged WITH AN APENDIX Of some scores of G. F. his simple lame Answers to his Opposites in that Book quoted and replyed to By R. W. of Providence in N. E. BOSTON Printed by Iohn Foster 1676. TO The KINGS MAIESTY Charles the IId c. Whom the King of Heaven long and eternally Preserve Royal Sir THE Most High hath adorned you with an High Birth with a gallant Temper and Endowments of Nature with Princely Education and rare Experiences c. The Crown of all the Sanctifier of all must be L'esprit de Djeu or else all that is under the Sun in fumum abeunt Touching this most holy Spirit and other heavenly Points in difference between the Protestants and the Quakers I present your royal eye with a Lantskip of a Battle fought this last Summer in your Majestyes New-England between some of the eminentest of the Quakers and my self three dayes at Newport on Rode-Island and one at Providence on the Main in the same Colony I am humbly bold to present it to your Royal Hand 1. That your own precious Soul infinitely more precious then thousands of Brittains or Worlds may see the Grounds and Roots of these Protestant Disquisitions 2. That your Majesty may see what your New-English Subjects are doing under the gracious Wing of your wonderfull Favour to us c 3. Because your Majestyes Name is often mentioned and concerned in these Concertations 4. Because it was affirmed by some of my Opposites in publick that there were scarce any of their Books came forth but the King had one I thought it some obligation on me to present the Protestant Truth thus publickly and solemnly asserted more justly then my Popish and Arminian Opposites to offend your Royal eyes with Smoak out of the Deep Pit Gracious Sir I know your precious Spirits and Minutes are exhausted in managing your Warrs abroad and in preserving your Dominions in Peace at home I cannot therefore hope for one glance of your eye upon any more then this poor Epistle Charles the Great was one of the greatest Princes of that name in the world And Charles the fifth both Emperours had his wonderfull Trick at Helm also but both and all turn into the Cabbin Pit of Rottenness Charles the 5th in his 58th year Charles the Great in his 72d year But were every drop of water between your Old-England and New a million of years yet Mors ultima linea and t is but Momentum unde pendet Eternitas By Gods most wise and righteous Permission the Pope and Quakers pretend their Enthusiasmes and Infallibilityes I know and have detected much of both of their Impostures and I beseech him who is the eternal Pater Luminum to preserve your Royal Spirit from both their Cheatings that is from the Oracles of Hell in their mouths And I humbly importune your Majestyes continued Grace and Patience to this poor New-England which though a miserable cold howling Wilderness yet L'eternel hath made it his Glory your Majestyes Glory and a Glory to the English and Protestant Name and if the most High please Old and New-England may flourish when the Pope and Mahomet Rome and Constantinople are in their Ashes Providence in N-England March 10th 1672 3. ut Vulgò Your Majestyes most loyal and affectionate Orator at the Throne of Grace Roger Williams To the People called Quakers Friends Country-men 1. THe occasion of these Discourses you may see in the first Page the 14 Proposals in the second Page and the occasion of the Title in the 34. 2. The truth is as Edmund Burroughs and others of you say of your selves from my Childhood now above three-score years the Father of Lights and Mercies toucht my Soul with a love to himself to his only begotten the true Lord Iesus to his Holy Scriptures c. his infinite Wisdome hath given me to see the City Court and Country the Schools and Universities of my Native Country to converse with some Turks Iews Papists and all sorts of Protestants and by Books to know the Affairs and Religions of all Countries c. 3. My Conclusion is that be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee Mat. 9. is one of the joyfullest sounds that ever came to poor sinful Ears how to obtain this sound from the mouth of that Mediatour that spoke it is the great dispute beween the Protestants and the bloody Whore of Rome this is also the great point between the true Protestants and your selves as also in order to this about what man is to the utmost now by nature what the true Lord Jesus Christ is and all other controversies discussed in this Book not unworthy this your serious weighing as Mary did in the hearts and spirits c. 4. Bear with me while I say that as the Iesuites pretend to deifie the Pope but it is known the end is to deifie themselves under the cloak of the Popes Name so Satan pretends to exalt and deifie you under the name of God and Christ and Spirit c. but his end is as Peter tells us to exalt himself and fill his hellish Paunch with Souls 5. I endeavoured but could not procure a Short-hand writer so that I am forced to recollect Transactions from my Memory and I believe as in the holy presence of God that I have not failed to present the true substance of passages without advantage to my self or disadvantage to my Opposites 6. I have used some sharp Scripture Language but not as commonly you do passionately and unjustly I sometimes call you Foxians as Nicolaitans from Nicholas because G. Fox hath appeared the greatest Writer and the greatest Preacher amongst you and the most deified that I can hear of sure it is that here he subtly run for it he ordered that my Letters to our Deputy Governour Captain Cranstone in which my Proposals to G. F. were should not be delivered to the Deputy until G. F. was some hours under sayle that he might say he never saw my Paper though it is as clear as noon-day that he knew all matters by Copies Letters and Relations perfectly many dayes before his departure 7. My disadvantage in our Contests especially at Newport were great and many for though I. Stubs and I. Burnet were more civil and ingenious yet W. Edmondson was nothing but a bundle of Ignorance and Boisterousness he would speak first end all though all three were constantly on me at once no man might speak at all in
very unhandsome Clout of a grievous Interruption so that sometimes I was forc't to play the Moderator and to protest that such practises were against the sober rules of Civillity and Humanity It pleased God to help me with such Patience to weather them that Iohn Stubs openly confest twice that though some others had given them some interruptions yet that I had not done it I took my Seat at the other end of the house opposite to them and began telling them that the most High was my witness that not out of any prejudice against or disrespect to the persons of the Quakers many of whome I knew and did love and honour nor any foolish Passion of pride or boldness for I desired to be sensible of my many decayes of my house of Clay and other wayes nor any earthly or worldly ends I had that occasioned this trouble to my self and them I was first commanded this work from Heaven Why should not this Argument be good for mee and for others as well as the Quakers they say their commands are immediate for Interpretations are immediate but I say they herein suffer Satan to cheat them for they say they pray they fast they wait they listen they judge of the motions that arise within them and so have I done The great maker and searcher of all hearts knowes that none but his holy Majesty was privy to the Conception of this business 1. My end was the vindicating his most holy Name which my Soul saw was trodden in the dirt by Sathan clothed with Samuels Mantle and the bright garment of an Angel of Light which once he was but pride deceived him 26 2. I had in mine eye the vindicating this Colony for receiving of such persons whome others would not we suffer for their sakes and are accounted their Abettors that therefore together with the improvemeut of our Libertyes which the God of Heaven and our Kings Majesty have graciously given us I might give a publick testimony against their Opinions in such a way and Exercise I judged it incumbent upon my Spirit and Conscience to doe it in some regards more than most in the Colony I may also truly say that 3. I had also in mine eye that this exercise might occasion some Soul Consideration in many I told them that we had a dolefull Alarum and instruction lately we were taught what Salvation and saving was in the late death and drowning of a person so known to us and all N. England Nicholas Davis I told them our case and the case of all mankind is his in Spirituall and Soul matters Oh a world for an Oar a Rope a Plank Only it must be to all of us our work to try whether our Saviour our Salvation be reall and not failing in so great a Straight Some of these blessed ends it hath pleased God to propagate by this occasion all this Colony over and all of us round about have put forth our selves in Disquisitions and Searchings after the true grounds of the Christian Religion and Worship I had many thoughts of beginning such an exercise with Prayer unto God for his Presence but I knew I could not joyn with them nor would they owne my Prayers I had thoughts as Eliah among the Baalites to have prayed in the singular number But some Considerations made my spirit content with this kind of Petition unto God For not only in my Closet and my heart but publickly before them all I said I doe humbly hope and beg of God the Father of Spirits so to order and direct our Spirits in these our Agitations that his holy name may receive glory and the Soules of all of us some Soul-profit and Advantage I began with the first Position which I think W. Edmunson also read out of the Paper viz. That the People called Quakers are not true Quakers according to the Scriptures 1. I said I knew they did not owne that name Quakers as imposed on them by God or taken up by themselves but given them in scorn and derision as G. Fox Ed. Burrowes and I had heard Iohn Stubs who joined with them declared and that 27 one Gervace Bennet a Iustice in Derby first so called them in the year 1650 And yet I had cause to judg that the name was given by Iustice Bennet and others to them from that strange and uncouth possessing of their bodyes with quaking and shaking of their Bodyes even in publick Assemblyes and Congregations which extraordinary motions I judged to come upon them not from the holy Spirit and Power of God but from the spirit and power of Sathan for diverse Reasons First Although they pretend that Moses and David and Habbacouck and Daniel were Quakers yet as to the Christian Profession and the dayes since our gallant fore-Fathers in Germany at Spiers protested against the whore of Rome and from that Prostestation by the Papists they were called in scorn and wrath the Protesters or Protestants about 150 years since unto this day I say as to the Protestant Professors and Confessors the Quakers are but a new upstart party or Faction risen up little above 20 yeares since in the northern parts of England Lancashire c. T is true t is probable they are the Offspring of the Grindletonians in the same Lancashire about two yeares before who held those two grand Points though many wicked paths of Doctrine aud Practice were amongst them viz. 1. That God doth all 2 They could not sin taking it according to the Letter These Grindletonians were the Offspring of the late Nicholaitans as all of them are in truth justly so called from Henery Nichols who put forth his Books of the same Poison in K. Iames his time which long since I read and were confuted by many and by Mr Ainsworth and Mr Robinson precious and powerfull Witnesses of Christ Jesus H. Nichols aud his Nicholaitans were the Litter of those Spirittualls and Libertines which spread in Germany and France in Calvin's dayes against whome that heavenly soul gave his powerfull and heavenly witness in his Book against the Libertines These Libertines Satan raised up about the Protestant Reformation from the ruines and rubbish of the old Manicheans and Gnosticks and other blind Guides who swarmed in the first third and fourth Christian Centuryes until the Pope swallowed up all the lesser Serpents and so became a Dragon with seven Heads and ten Horns forcing all with fire and Fagot to deny Christ Iesus and to martch under Anti-Christ the Anti-christ the man of sin his Colours Some of these Particulars I could not then express but think 28 fit here to remember the former dayes for Information of such as doe desire it These People came from Lancashire and other northern parts to the Southward of England and to London I spake with some of their Chief then in London I knew it was the old proud spirit which had appeared in so
Soul Summond to Death and Judgement looks to Relations c. they all Answer they are in the same Case c. It looks to Wordly Estate c they tell us they will go with us as far as the Grave and provide a Coffin and a Sheet and a Burial c. 3. The old friend is Conscience who will go with us but can be a thousand witnesses against us c. It follows then clearly that the young Prince is the true Lord Iesus Christ not vanished away into a Light in every dark dungeon in the World but Conscience saith he is litterally ascended up into Heaven and will as literally make his speedy Return again to Iudgement The third Instance G. Fox pag. 12. brings in the same Author saying the Light doth not shine in the Consciences of them that be lost The Answer But Iohn saith he Light shines in darkness but the darkness cannot comprehend it and there is that of God in the Children of Disobedience and Reprobates as in Rom. 1. and 2. Chapters I Reply G. Fox is here in his Burrough and takes not the word Light in the same Sense his Opposite doth the Common trick of Cheators His Opposite takes it not for the heavenly Lights Sun Moon nor Earthly Light of Fire Candles precious Stones nor the Metaphorical Light of mens minds differing them from Beasts Birds Fishes Nor the Light of peace joy and Prosperity call'd in Scripture Light c. Nor the Light and Evidence of witness or Reason in Cases depending Nor the Light of the holy Scriptures and the preaching and offering of a 5 Saviour to poor lost Sinners But for that awakening saving Light convincing all mens Condition to be miserable and damnable of Grace and mercy offered and applied to a Soul by the good News of a Saviour someway heard of and the holy Spirit the finger or power of God G. Fox saith this saving Light is in mankind only persons don't mind it and so Christ Iesus is Crucified and slain in them and God and Christ and Spirit and Light c. are all captived hindred from working yea altogether killed slain in them because a Soul doth not mind them and hearken to Christ in them Ah poor simple bruitish Imagination that ever it should enter into the thoughts of Men professing to be Christians c. or of men professing to know more than the Wolves and Foxes in the wilderness I have spoke to this before therefore a word only to G. Fox his proof Rom. 1. and 2. Chapt. From these two Chapters he proves that there is that of God in the Children of Disobedience and Reprobates who denies it For there is something of God that is from the power and wisdome of God in the Fallen Spirits the Devils themselves But I know by that of God G. Fox means God himself prest down as a Cart with sheaves the holy Seed Christ Iesus under the Clods the holy Spirit in prison for the Soul is a part of the Essence or Being of God himself But that there is here a word or title of Colour to any of this dirt and filth flung in the face of the Majestie of Heaven This Scripture speaks of the work or working of the Law written in their hearts but what is this to a second writing of the holy Scriptures or writing inspired into the heart by the most holy Spirit yea what is this to a third writing of their Names written in Heaven in the Lambs Book of Life yea what is this to fourth writing the writing of the new Covenant Consisting of Sin and a new heart a heart of flesh in which his Law is written as formerly in Tables of Stone and yet we poor men of Iabesh Gilead must leave the Testimony as Gilead imports and suffer Nahush the Serpent to put out our right eyes and believe that every man hath the new Covenant Christ Iesus and the Kingdom of God c. with the Pharisees in every mans heart and yet he never knows of it 4. Instance In the same pag. 12 he brings in the same Author saying It is a Counterfeiting of the new Birth for men to 6 follow the Light wherewith men coming into the world are inlightned G. Fox Answ. which none comes to the new Birth but who come to the Light which every man c. in which believing is a Child of the Light c. I Reply G. Fox runs round agian and again like the windmil Sails It is saith he no Counterfeiting of a new Birth why because it is no Counterfeiting none comes to the new Birth but who comes to the Light c. As to the words in Iohn 1. Hitchcock at Newport alleadged that it was not in his Bible enlightneeth every man but lighteth every man c. John Stubs lockt in his greek Testament and confest it was Photizes which is not inlightneth but Lighteth 2. As to the Light We know there are two Opinions how Christ lighteth every man c. First as God in the Creation 2. As God man and Mediatour and that the Greeks word Erchomenon doth not relate to the word anthropon the man or every man that cometh into the world but phoce Light and that it must be read in this Sense viz that Christ Iesus the true Light cometh into the world lighteth every man that is in the world freely that will receive him Even as many whomsoever look up to him as Iohn 3. the stung Israelites to the brazen Serpent and that Christ Iesus is the Light of the world John 8. and 12. to as many as receive him according to 1 Iohn 12. and that the meer phrase imports no more then a Light held forth to all in the world as the Sun in the Heavens and Christs Followers Math. 5. are called by Christ Iesus the Light of the World Thus the word all and every man as I hinted before is used not absolutely but Comparatively and is figuratively taken in many places and four time in that one ver 1 Col. 28. viz. warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that we may present every man perfect in Christ Iesus which literally cannot be true Now G. Fox runs into his Burrough of the many significations of the word Light and the word all and the word inlightneth willingly ignorant that Christ Iesus as Mediator of the new Covenant inlightens none but those whom his Father gives him unto whom he gives Repentance to whom he opens the door of Faith and gives them to believe and suffer c. So that G. Fox Confounds the Elect and the World together and brings in a Counterfeit new Birth a Counterfeit Christ and at last a Counterfeit Salvation 7 5. Instance G. Fox pag. 20. brings in Henock Howet saying It is a fancy to say the Covenant of God is to all men in the world and the grace of God hath appeared to all men c. He Answ.
favour of my Positions any might freely speak against them they sat in the midst of the Governour Magistrates of their Opinion and the whole Assembly of their way W. Edmundson though I. Stubs twice said in publick that I had not inter-interrupted them yet W. Edmundson would frequently and insolently interrupt me so that I was not only forced to bear patiently through Gods only help but to suppress my thoughts which here I have added in some places 8. I know that a great weight of your Opinions and Actings lye upon your believing your selves guided by the immediate Spirit of God but I believe that I have proved that it is no more the holy Spirit of God that speaks and acts in you then it was the true Samuel that spake such heavenly words in the appearance of Sam. Mantle amongst a cloud of other witnesses you shall never perswade Souls not bewitched that the holy spirit of God would perswade your Women and Maidens to appear in publick streets assemblies stark naked c. of which I have spoke more particularly in our disputations 9. It is hard to perswade a Fox or a Wolf that he is so c. or that he doth Rob or Steal or Murther it is hard to perswade a man while he dreams that he is in a Dream yea though he be a filthy Dreamer as Gods Spirit speaks In our Dreams we believe lyes and impossibilities to be true as that we are many thousand miles of that we talk with dead men c. that we are at Marriages or Burials and are Kings and Queens c. 10. All that I can hope for without Gods wonderfull mercy is to give my Testimony in my generation for as Solomon speaks of the Whore few or none of you return Yet I know Gods foundation is sure he knows who are his amongst you as amongst other perswasions I have proved and will prove if God please that spiritual Pride that is Pride about spiritual matters is the Root and Branch of your whole Religion and that the King Eternal who did cast out proud Angels out of his Palace will hardly open his Gates to proud and scornful Dust and Ashes Providence March 10. 1672 3 so called I am one of your best Friends R. W. To those many Learned and Pious Men whom G. Fox hath so sillily and scornfully answered in his Book in Folio Especially to those whose Names I have been bold to mention in the Narrativt and Apendix Mr Richard Baxter Mr Iohn Owen c. Sirs THrough your sides the Devil by the Clawes of this wily Fox hath tore at the heart of the Son of God it is no wonder then if he tear at the Heart of his Love-Letters and Institutions and the true Professors of his name who are innumerable in Abrahams Bosome and the rest travelling uprightly thither For Brevity sake I was forced to omit many excellent Passages selected by Fox out of your Writings to select short Sentences of yours unto which he gives short Answers As to matters in Difference between yourselves and me I willingly omitted them as knowing that many able and honest Sea-men in their Observations of this Sun one picture of Christ Iesus differ sometimes in their Reckonings though uprightly aiming at and bound for one Port and Harbour Eternally praised be the Father of Lights and mercyes that we are one in that most glorious ever fixed Cynosura about whom his true Prophets Messengers ever have and doe and shall move and he holdeth them in his right hand I humbly beg of you 1. That you will more and more earnestly candidly and christianly study the things that differ without reflecting upon Credit Maintenance Liberty and Life it self remembring who it was that said it He that loves his life shall lose it 2. More and more to study the Prophesies and the Signs of the Times You know when it was that sive Bishops twenty-two Ministers almost three hunared other precious Believers in the true Lord Iesus were sacrificed in the Flames for his ever blessed sake against that monstrous Man of Sin and bloudy Whore of Rome These Foxians fancy is but a feather to to those high Pico's and Tenariffs the Pope and Mahomet whom some of you may live to see flung into the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone Were it not that the infinite Compassions of Heaven had made our gracious Sovereign the Breath of our Nostrills the fiery Fornace had certainly burnt seven times hotter against Hananiah Mishael and Azariah Surely as for Conscience sake we ought to obey so sor Conscience sake we ought to be Instant and Constant at the throne of Grace for his Royal Preservation and Salvation Prov. March 10 1672 3. I am unworthy to be yours R. W. A Narration of A CONFERENCE OR DISPUTE This last August 1672 so called in the Colony of Rode-Iland and Providence Plantations in N. ENGLAND between Roger Williams of Providence who Challenged Fox by writing which followes and all his Friends then met on Rode-Iland and G. Fox withdrawing Iohn Stubs Iohn Burniat and William Edmundon three of their ablest Apostles on the other that is on the pretended Quakers Party HAving long heard of the great name of G. Fox a man cried up by the People called Quakers and having read his book in Folio some years since against as I think above six score Books and Papers written by pious and able pens against them and now this Summer hearing of his coming into these Parts of N England and the poor cheated Souls the Quakers with joy expecting his coming as the coming of an Angel of light from Heaven I read over his Book afresh as in the holy presence and eye of God with a single Eye and Heart and more clearly finding his Answers so weak and silly so Anti-Christian and Blasphemous and yet so Imperious and Scornfull so Cursing and Censorious 2 Damning and Reprobating all that bow not down to their new Upstart Image my Spirit rose up within me and I believe the holy Spirit of God in answer to my poor Petitions and Meditations resolved and quickened my Spirit to the present Undertake and Service And therefore for his most holy Names sake and the name of his most holy only begotten the true Lord Iesus the God-Man and Mediator c And for the honour of the most holy Spirit of God so horribly torn in pieces by this foul Spirit of the Quakers For the vindicating of many of the precious Truths of the old Christian purity and for the sake of so many precious Souls lying slain and bleeding before me I made this Offer following to G. Fox and any or all his Followers or Associates then together at New-port on Rode-Iland T is true G. Fox was at Providence some few dayes before and spake publickly and it was free for me publickly to have heard him and opposed him But going the last year to one of their general Assemblyes at New-Port
being President Also what I have spoken against W. Harris touching his firing the Town and Colony I thought so and therefore contended against him but I never sought his life note that R. W. Thou sayst 17 thou art not conscious of any recoyling in thy spirit so much as in a thought Here thou manifest's an impious spirit that seekes to murther the Innocent what Fury possesseth thee to talk of the God of peace yet retainest a murtherous mind not having repented of thy wickednesse how is thy heart hardned in seeking the lives of such as thou thy self hast confest to be the Children of God Oh murtherous man that hath not any Remorse for thy long-liv'd Wickedness I am sorry for thee though thou slight all my writings counsells take all in the worst sence yet I beseech thee to consider thy latter end my desire for thee is that the Lord would awaken thy Soul give thee Repentance unto life In the last place thou writest how highly I esteem of G. Fox and thou desirest to think as low of thy self How will this agree with thy boasting of great Education great Experiences great struglings and strivings within to bring out thy Positions and Conclusions which all my loving Testimonyes against as issuing from a diabolicall spirit did no more take place with then a Feather against a Rock Call to mind the preaching of Jonas to Ninive yet forty dayes and Ninive shall be destroyed a short speech yet they repented and the Lord pardoned And so I desire thou mayest repent and find mercy with the God of mercy Thy Neighbour I. T. THus Reader it pleased the Infinite Wisdom of the most holy and only Wise to pierce through my heart with the thrusts and stabs of a of a foul-mouth'd slanderous spirit by the hands of long professed friends and lovers yet pretending the name of God and of Scripture as wel as my self How doth it behoove us then to make sure that we can in truth say as Ieremiah Lam. 3. Thou art my portion saith my Soul O Lord Thou and none else Thou alone without Health Strength Beauty Honour Lands Goods Friends .c. How should we make sure that with Thomas we may say unto the Lord Jesus my Lord and my God for whose sake we ought joyfully to bear what false Christs false spirits and their Souldiers can dart from Earth or Hell against us My Answer was as followeth MY ancient Friend it pleaseth the most High to give to all mankind his Children also and them especially many bitter Cups and that oftentimes by the hands of dear friends and 18 dear Relations that we might fall more in love with himself then ever who isinfinitely more sweet and even Holiness and Power and Wisdom and Love it self Your Lines in this your third Fury against me being full of Bitterness in themselves are more bitter to my Spirit upon diverse accounts But the most High and only Wise will have it so and your judgment and Conscience and mine will have it so yet that will not acquit us we both say we must come to another Barr and there stand or fall eternally In this First You tell me you willingly omitted the Particulars I mentioned as not concerning the matters in handling I am not of your mind it is an Easie yet a Suspicious way of answering and implyes not only unwillingness but a willing Ignorance and Guilt also For is it not concerning the matter in hand especially when so personally provoked to vindicate our selves and friends our Teachers and Apostles our Spirits and Religion also 2. Next you blame my subtle spirit for not answering by Scripture or Reason your loving Admonitions I gave you my Reason shewing how simple it was for you to give fire upon me and tell me my Paper was Scurrilous full fraught with impudent Lyes and Slanders and yet give me not one Scripture nor Reason to prove any of them to be so 2. I shewed you how irrationall it was for you to think that I should so suddenly renounce my understanding and Conscience and Positions upon the sudden sound of your Outcry Repent Repent 3. You tell me it is childish bruitish and irrationall to say that you are worse then Barbarians Answ. I said not so in generall you and all the world ought to abhor the particular case viz. the stripping Naked of your Women and Maidens a case worse then Savage and Barbarous only practised by the Bruites and sometimes by Indians and Whores in their drink when all Modesty and Reason is overwhelmed with more then common Drunkenness Who can but abhor to think of such whorish and monstrous Immodesty such an hellish Incentive to filthy Lusts and that under the most holy name of the Spirit of God 4. As to my first Position you now tell me that it is childish and foolish for G. Fox to prove I suppose you mean for me to desire G. Fox to prove what he and all friends disown and thou in scorn callest Quakers Answ. I know the Quakers say 19 that name is given them in scorn and yet we also know it it hath its denomination from those great bodily Shakings which have been believed to have come in mightily upon them by the power of Devillish spirits for many Reasons of which afterward However G. Fox in 370th page of his Book in Folio writes thus in the title of each page The Quakers answer The Quakers Answer I know what may be said and I know may be said and justly to that excuse and what shall be said in the Dispute following 5. As to my 12th Position of Suffering of the Quakers and you say it is a Brat of mine own and that is an evidence against me and all os my Persecuting Spirit Answ. I shall by Gods assistance prove that you doe make it an Evidence of your Religion and then it must be your one Brat and Bastard As to my persecuting spirit the most High hath been a holy witness to my Travels and losses and hazards and other sufferings in my vindicating and procuring Soul-liberty and I humbly hope in his mercy he will preserve me from being like many Quakers fouly fallen from their former Christan Religion 6. You say How darest thou blame me for not giving Scripture or Reason against thy railing and impious Positions when thou challengest and assignest another to doe it G. Fox .c. Answ. I only blamed I. T. for being so fierce and furious so hot and hasty in crying out a scurrilous Paper fraught with lyes and impudent slanders and yet gave me not one Scripture or Reason against any one of them common Modesty and humane Sobriety would have taught a little Patience till G. Fox had answered or untill you had answered something of Scripture or Reason your self 7. Nextly you tell me of my Serpent-like spirit in witnessing against my neighbour secretly To which I lay before the most High I
know not what you intend 2. I know it not to be any Crime much less a serpent-like spirit as your railing pen phrases it to give a true testimony and witness in private and publick even against the highest and dearest in the matters of God and Truth which ought to be only High and only Dear unto us 8. As to Womens preaching in the Church you tell me that I know not what that Woman is Answ. I know the allegoricall Interpretations given of both those Scriptures to the Corinths and Timothy But where the holy Scripture is plain and agrees 20 even with Nature it self where the holy Spirit of God gives Reasons why Scripture should be fo expounded which is an extraordinary signification of Gods soveraign will and pleasure where else one part must be Literall and an other part Allegoricall which is most improper and not suiting to the Majesty and Purity of Gods Spirit what can be soberly in the fear of God and with any sober reason collected but that the most High the God of Order and all Order and Wisdom it self is pleased there to set down the Order of his Worship in the Christian Congregations 9. Concerning W Harris you tell me I shift of the matter for you meant not W Harris his last Imprisonment You prove it by my taking Oath against your Wife upon an other mans word on purpose to allay my furious spirit against W Harris These are your words which may be taken three wayes but neither of them can I call to mind God knowes I truly desire to See Lament and forsake every Idle word or thought which my soul may be satisfied is so for I dare not goe beyond as you proudly doe that Direction of the Lord Iesus dayly to cry Forgive us our Trespasses I dare most confidently deny that simple Charge viz. that I should cry out Treason Treason against your Wife and others labouring to bring them into the same guilt with W. Harris whose facts and courses others of no small Authority and Prudence amongst us with whome I advised saw to be desperate high Treason against the Laws of our Mother England and of this Colony also When W Harris sent his writings or Books to the Main and to the Iland against all Earthly Powers Parliaments Laws Charters Magistrates Prisons Punishments Rates yea and against all Kings and Princes under that Notion that the People should shortly cry out no lords no masters and had in open Court protested before the whole Colony assembled that he would maintain his Writings with his Blood Was it my Fury as you call it or was it not Honesty and Duty to God and the Colony and the higher Powers then in England to act faithfully and impartially in the place wherein I then stood Centinell And it is not true that I sought his life as you upbraid me much less theirs who purposely as the most high God is witness were presented that some prudent course might be taken by the Court for the preventing of their greater danger and the Colonyes also By your reason the Kings Majesty his Iudges yea all Iudges 21 yea the King himself yea the most High and King of Kings shall be condemned as Blood-thirsty bloody seekers of the lives though of high handed wilfull and dangerous Transgressors as though Iustice and Mercy true Pitty and just Severity might not harmonize and make up the blessed concord of Peace together 10. You mind me again of my Books against Persecution and yet my self a Persecutor of my peacable Neighbours to the Death murthering the innocent yea that I still retain a Murtherous mind and you cry out against me Oh murtherous Man .c. To which I say I am not better than David nor in this case are you better than Shimei who rak't up Stones and Dirt and flung them with Railings at David crying out Come out thou bloody Man and this in the name of the holy Spirit also As to W. H. I never appeared In Town or Colony against him for any private matter although many wayes extraordinarily provoked and wronged by him but alwayes in Witness as I humbly appeal unto God I say in witnessing against his running down and destroying the Publick as at this day for his Private Covetous and Contentious Ends. And for your self who cry out so much of Blood and Murther for my being impartiall to God to the King and the Countrey I heartily wish that your hands were washed from the bloody trade of Liquours to the Indians which even the Quakers have practised telling the Indians that the Quakers only know God and therefore would sell them Powder and Liquors cheaper and they would not mix water with Rhum as others did so that by many sudden deaths what by Consumptions and Dropsies the Barbarians have been murthered hundreds if not thousands in the whole Countrey and more in this Colony than in any part of the Countrey beside that I have heard of against which I have witnessed from Court to Court in vain 11 You ask me how I can think as low of my self as you high of G. Fox when I boast of Education Experience .c. I answer I boast as Paul did who confest himself the least of all Saints and the chiefe of Sinners and yet reckons up the Priviledges end Favours which God had vouchsafed to him against the foule Clamours of his malicious and envious Opposites the false Apostles 12. You conclude with advising my Repentance and you propose to me the case of Nineve telling me that forty dayes is a short Speech 22 Answ. I humbly beseech the Lord to help you and me humbly and faithfully to examine our true laying of that Foundation of a true Repentance which is a totall turning of our Soul or Spirit unto God not out of Fear or self ends as Dissemblers do but in Mariage-love with God that it might be said unto us thy Maker is thy Husband As to your special Hint to me of forty dayes I can say it through infinite mercy that more than forty or fifty yeares I have been acquainted with Death and have not seldom familiarly discoursed with the Grave and Pit of Rottenness I have desired to be ready at a minutes warning waiting for a wind to transport me as Paul speaks unto Christ Iesus in Abrahams Bosome which is best of all I pray you to know that I believe there is a black Familiar that haunts the Quakers it may be he whispers to you that within forty dayes you shall be ridd of me except I repent he may see into the crazy temper of my house of Clay These Dog-dayes not to continue and abide a little of that time Or God may suffer him by some immediate Revelation to employ some malicious soul to Murther me that this foul Lyar and Murtherer may extoll and predicate himself in print by your Pens that he was a true Prophet applauding and triumphing in the righteous Judgment of God
Christ Iesus in all Humility self-denial Love Charity Tenderness in bowels of compassion in Gospel Peace and Unity only unto your Masters praise and Glory that the Auditors may receive the plain naked Truth of the Lord Iesus unto their Souls Edification even the real Truth as it in Iesus and not as words of man which is only Vanity and vexation of Spirit under the Sun of eternal and universal Righteousness whose infinite glory is witnessed by Robert Willams Newport August 6. 1672. THis was that poor Letter condemned unheard by these high Saints who now keep Judgement day to the fire and everlasting silence this was the two edged Sword which smote in the honest upright intentions of the Author every way reproving me reproving them and yet having so much Sugar with his Vinegar and Honey with his bitter Powder that had it been unsealâ—d and read at Newport or read at Providence whose taste could it have offended but theirs only who like the men of China judge all the World to have no eyes but themselves excepting the Men of Europe to whom they will grant one eye and that is more then our proud Pharisees will do to any that bow not down to their most grosse Phylacteries But from this finger of God this providential Letter appearing upon the Wall before us I return to the work of the day which was the Discussion and Probation on my part of the other five Proposals remaining I therefore after the Letter was put up unread into my pocket requested their Patience while I produced my Proof of the third Position which was viz. That the Spirit by which they were acted was not the true Spirit of God T is true I had many things in my mind and memory some of them I here express but I was forced to pick and chufe and lay by for I told them that according to my promise and their expectation I would present them with the Substance of my proof of this Position in the compass of about a quarter of an hour 76 I reminded them first of the nature of the Word Spirit in Latine Spiritus in Greek Pneuma in the Hebrew Ruch and Ruach signifying sometimes Breath sometimes Wind and from thence applied unto God himself unto Angels unto Men as denoting a spiritual powerful invisible fine Substance distinct from flesh and earthly Bodies Hence God was said to be a Spirit not properly but that his Being was pure powerful invisible c. 1 Whether God was properly a Spirit as the Quaker affirmed we had some controversie at Providence of which hereafter 2. Concerning Spirits I observed two great Sects 1 Those of the Pharisees who were accounted the most Orthodox Sound and right holding such a Spiritual Substance in Angels and Spirits and a Resurrection 2. The Sadduces which held neither Angel nor Spirit nor Resurrection as at this day c. 3. It is clear there is a two-fold Spirit 1. Holy and pure such a Spirit is God himself and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father by the Son such are the Spirits of the Angels the Spirits of Gods Children in part and the Spirits of just men made perfect the Quakers say here we say in the life coming The other Spirit is a wicked Spirit a lying and a murtherous Spirit in Sathan and his Children yet often counterfeiting the Holy and pure Spirit like the Oile and Ointment which God prescribed and forbad the like of it to be made on pain of death Therefore we are commanded not to believe every Spirit but to try even the very Spirits not only of men but of Doctrines Churches Religions pretending the Name of God as do the Turks Iews and Christians and of the Son of God as do all the Antichrists and Antichristians extant 4. The Holy Spirit of God being the seven Lambs of Fire the seven Eyes and seven Horns Rev. 5. he is pleased to work variously First in an ordinary way of Regeneration and Sanctification c. common to all the lowest and youngest of Gods Children Iohn 3. that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Hence we read of the Spirit of Prayer and of Holiness wrought in the Soul by the finger or power of God so that the knowledge of God the fear the love the trusting to and in God the calling upon God is natural to all Gods Children Gal. 5. Abba Father c. 77 The second is extraordinary and immediate such as was pour'd upon the Lord Jesus Isai. 11. such as Christ breathed upon the Apostles and by the Apostles hands upon others when they spake with Tongues fortelling things to come and penning the Holy Scriptures or Records as did the Prophets of old and the first Messengers the Apostles of Christ Jesus I told them I had many things to say as to the false Spirits of the false Christs and false Prophets the Spirits of Devils as well as the Spirits of God in the Revelation and the three wayes of deceit mentioned 1 Thess. 2. by Spirit by Word or by Letter but I would contract my self I say that their Spirit by which they were acted was not Gods Spirit 1. Because the Holy Spirit of God was given by means but the Quakers pretended all along in G. Fox and other Books that their Spirit was immediate or without means I said in the 8th of the Romans was a Golden Chain of Gods Order or Method of Working from Predestination to Glorification In the 10th to the Romans was a Golden Chain of the Means appointed c. How shall a Man be saved by calling upon God How shall he call on him except he believe in him how shall a Man believe in him except he hear of him how shall a Man hear of him except some Preach how shall a Man Preach except he be sent c Hence Peter Preaching Christ Jesus to the first Converts they were some thousands brought to Christ when they were pierced to the heart and cried out what shall we do Peter sends them nor to a light within them but bids them Repent and be Baptized Act. 14. Paul so spake that many believed Act. 16. while Paul spake the Lord opened Lydias heart and I appealed to the Consciences of those called Quakers at Newport there present whether in a contradiction this Spirit they now professed descended immediately upon them from God as they spake or was not conveyed unto them by the Ministry of the former Preaching Quakers that came unto them so that these now are but the waterers and confirmers of this Doctrine of the Spirit in them 2. As Believing and Conversion comes by hearing c. so these extraordinary gifts and powrings forth of Gods Spirits was generally by means also Christ used Breathing upon the Apostles the Spirit of God descended Act. 8. 19. in the laying on of hands in Peters Preaching Acts. 10. the miraculous Spirit of 78 Tongues and Prophecy descended upon Cornelius and his
the Scriptures within their Teacher within They stil say The Scripture was not the Word of God the Scripture is but a dead Letter they have no need of Paper-Teachers having the spirit that gave it forth Yea as the Papists say if the Scriptures were lost and burnt out of the world the spirit within them could give new Scriptures T is true the Quakers in this Dispute professed to be tryed by the Scriptures which the first Quakers among us wholly denied but only by the Spirit within them But what avails this Confession Is it not but a subtle trick of Equivocation when stil they profess to owne G. Fox all along and he professeth the Soules of all men to be a part of God and the divine Essence and that their is no distinction between God Christ and Spirit and themselves what should hinder but that the Scripture is but a dead Letter and compared with their spirit a weak and needless Paper unto them that hath such a light and Spirit within to guide them I told them before and now that there was an Irish Papist in the late warrs that spoke the very heart and soul of Iews Papists and Common Protestants and the Quakers themselves as to the holy Scriptures In plundering and rifling a Protestants house he found a Bible and flung it in the Kennel and kickt and trod upon it saying The plague of God take this Book it is the cause of all these Quarrels My Opposite said they owned the Scriptures in their place as a Declaration of the Saints Conditions Iohn Burnet took a Bible and read publickly that Passage in Luke 1. where Luke calls his Writing a Declaration I urged that this will of God for this Declaration of what Christ said and did and of all the rest of the Scripture was a Declaration and Revelation of Gods Will to his People and to the whole World this written and revealed 90 will of God I said was the Judge and Decider of all Questions the tryer of all Spirits all Religions all Churches all Doctrines all Opinions all Actions They answered they did owne the Scriptures and would be tryed by the Scriptures which is a new trick meaning according to their own not to be questioned Interpretations I urged that they set up their Spirit above the Scriptures fathering all their Revilings Cursings and Abominations upon the holy Spirit I asked whether they owned the Scripture as the square Rule or Guide according to whose sentence all the Knowledge of God and of our selves the Knowledge of Gods Worship and Service and our own Blessedness and Salvation was to be determined yea and the Spirit within them to be tryed determined approved and condemned also They still fled to this Burrough the Spirit that gave forth Scripture is greater then the Scripture the spirit is in us that Spirit only opens the Scripture the Spirit is immediate and infallible and they only who have this Spirit know the Scriptures I answered that I maintained the inward breathing of the holy Spirit more than themselves for I quoted before Luke 11. viz. that we ought in all our Preachings Hearings Readings Prayings c. to beg the help of the Spirit called the Finger and Power of God and yet I also maintained that this Record this Word Will or Mind of God written and pen'd by chosen Pen-men as Pens in the hand of his holy Spirit and so miraculously preserved from the Rage of the Devils fiery Instruments Babilonian Assyrian Romane and Popish Tyrants and that much among the Jewes and Papists and much by their meanes also though they hate it I say this Record is the outward and external Light Lanthorn Iudge Guide Rule by which God witnesseth himself and his Truth in the World comforteth and feedeth his saints in their Dispersions discovers and reforms the defects and wanderings of his People as in Iosiah his finding this Record and Ezekiel Iohn eating the Book out of which the holy Spirit inspired them to prophesie to Kings and Peoples c. T is true who doubts it but that God and the Spirit were before the Scriptures and so he was before the Creation before Christ Jesus was born and his Redemption actually accomplished are the works of God therefore and the several Dispensations and Institutions and Instruments of God in their several times and 91 places of any whit less power or esteem because the most holy God and his most holy Spirit were before them Iohn the Baptist saith that Christ Jesus was preferred before him for he was before him and he was not worthy to unloose the Shoe-latchet of Jesus the Lamb of God and yet for the fulfilling of all Righteousness the Lord Iesus must come to Iohn to be baptized of him and the holy Spirit of Light will declare himself to be true by the holy Scriptures and discover all other Spirits to be spurious false and Bastards and notwithstanding their cracking and prating of Light if they slight this outward standing Record and Witness of God in the World it is because there is no light in them One of these two must be done either we must subscribe to the Papists and by their pretended Spirit and Church find out and authorize the Scriptures just as the Foxians say or else we must with Luther and his Associates Calvin and his followers maintain Learning study the Scriptures search the Originals Copyes and Translations and vindicate their Purity and Perfection their Authority and sole external Direction how to judge of all pretending Christs and Prophets and Doctrines Churches and Spirits While we were thus discoursing W. Edmundson propounded this Similitude if I should write a letter to a friend and subscribe my name W. Edmundson doth it follow therefore that the Letter is W. Edmundsons I answer that the Quakers do affirm that the Scripture is within them what is the english of that but that the Light which they and every man in the World hath within them the Christ the Spirit which every one hath is Scripture and in a sence I said it was a Truth that W. E. his letter to his friend was W. Edm. not only a Declaration of his word mind or will to his Friend but in a respect his mind and will it self that he sent in Writing to his Friend and so the Scripture in a Sence is Gods mind and Will to us Upon this occasion I told them that the Scriptures were the Love Letters of Christ Iesus to his Church as the Love-Letters of some mighty Monarch to his Betrothed Queen or Empress they are dear not as common Paper and Ink but as the Good-Will the dearest Love and heart of the King and Emperour himself and thus are holy Scriptures highly prized and embraced and laid up in the heart and bosome of the true Children of God 92 believed listned to and followed as the voice of Christ Iesus to his true sheep and Spouse the Bastard Children and
told me that it was known that they preached the Doctrine of Repentance and of turning from all sin unto God c. I Answered that the Papists and they made a shew and Colour of Repentance but it had not the Life and Substance of Repentance in it It was no more but an empty Title and shadow of Repentance we know the Papists define their Repentance by these three First Contrition Secondly Confession and Thirdly Satisfaction or Restitution But I said the Protestants protested against this Repentance of the Papists and so against the Quakers for who knew not the sorrow and Confessions of Saul and Ahab and Pharaoh and the Philistins and Iudas yea and also the Restitution which Iudas made not daring to keep in his hands that which he had unjustly and wickedly gotten and yet who can truly ascribe unto these mens Repentance the Character and blessedness of a true Christian returning and coming home to God 2. I said it is known in daily practice that when some times 116 Notorious and openly Flagitious Persons profess to be Quakers for all their craking of fear and trembling and Quaking there hath appeared no Sense of godly sorrow of godly Contrition and brokenness of heart in them for their sinful Nature and Life against so Infinitely pure an Holiness and Majesty but immediately upon their bowing down to Satan and owning him as a Light and Christ and Spirit within them they are having less Prophaneness now pure and holy as God is they can no more sin then Christ can the Mistery of godliness is God manifested in their Flesh I know some of them say they come to perfection by degrees yet they say the least of their new-born Quakers can not sin and what is that but Perfection yea they are Christ and God and therefore why should they give respect to any King or Kings c. why should they not Thee and Thou the Aged Learned holy and High why should they not sit silent even scores and hundreths of them possessed with a dumb Spirit as in a Form and Order of Christian worship waiting for this Spirit and then be perfect Christians 3. The Protestants both English French and Dutch c. have manifested against the Papists and therein against the Quakers that Repentance is a turning of whole Soul from all sin as sin to all of God as God from the sin of Nature and that Heart filthiness which we bring into the world with us and from whence even from within as Christ Jesus tells us what ever Satan and the poor Quakers prate proceed our evil thoughts Adulteries Fornications Murthers Thefts Covetousness Wickedness Deceit Lasciviousness an Evil Eye Blasphemy pride Foolishness Mark 7 c. 4. I urged that their Proselites and Converts are but like the Pharisees of old though oftentimes dearly bought by Sea and Land I say but tâ—rned from one sin to another from one Image to another from one Devil of Drunkenness of Swearng c. to a Devil of Pride horrible pride the worst of all prides in Earth or Hell to wit a Spiritual Pride swelling with the Dropsies and Tympanies of their Conceited knowledge Conceited Repentance Conceited Faith Love patience joy holiness Iustification Sanctification Mortification and Salvation 2. How horribly do they despise the true broken hearted Pub 117 licans who can see nothing but sin and Damnation in themselves and cry out for mercy and Forgiveness How do they Superciliously and Pape-like belch out as from Hell God I thank thee that I am not like these Publicans 3. How bitterly do they Instantly raile and revile Condemn and Curse breathing out Fire of Damnation as Fire and Brimstone from the Mountains in Sicily or else Hell it self against all that oppose them as far from the Teaching of Christ and his first Messâ—ngers as Lambs and Doves are from the Ravenous popish and Devilish Lyons and Eagles 4. To name no more at present How doth the Devil of worldliness and Covetousness domineer over many of them By a strict Profession all persons are taken off from Drunkenness Whoredome Swearing c. und put on Theiftiness and Industry and if their hearts Centre and fix not on Christ Jesus and the Heavenly Records of Christ the Scriptures and on the Life to come but upon Self Exalting self a self Christ and Spirit and Heaven and Resurrection c. which is the Truth and bottom of the Quakers Religion what can the most of them run in but a Course of greedy gaping after and getting and raking and gathering the muck and dung of this present Life It is true that many that hold the same Fanciful Notions with the Quakers yet are of Ranting jovial spending Spirits but the Spirit that haunts the Quakers most is a soure proud and Melancholy Devils and his Commission is to turn such persons into the Gadarens Swine rooting up all that ever they come at for their own Ends and Belly How many are the Instances even in this Colony in some especially as able and as active Souls as any in this Colony or Country and as guilty of murthering the Natives by the Liqour Trade as any and as suddenly and strangely snatcht away by the hand of Gods Power and Iustice as any usually can be but being departed I will touch no more upon this string From their Doctrine of and their Heresie or Obstinacy in a false Repentance I touch next npon their false Faith I said it was true they spoke much of Faith and Justification c. as the Papists did and as G. Fox in his Book by me did yet if they pleased I would demonstrate by Instances out of his Book all along that he Confounded and made all one both Faith and Ju 118 stification yea and Sanctification and made believing in Christ Jesus but a meer Babel and Chaos of Nonsence and Cnnfusion For although which is Foxes Common Burrough he that Faith hath Repentance hath Justification Sanctification and all Christian graces yet to Confound and make them all one is as to go into a fair Garden and say a Rose is every Flower in the Garden or to say that the Letter A or O is every Letter in a Printers Box or Book Or to say that a Rebels receiving the Kings pardon that is the King himself his receiving it is the pardon it it self that is the Rebels Conviction Conversion Condemnation Execution Resurrection Acceptation Exaltation and Adoption into the Favour and Communion with the King for the Future All this Monstrons and Nonsensical Language is the Tongue or Speech of the Quakers and G. Fox especially 2. I told them that although with the Quakers and Papists G. Fox talkt much of Faith in Christ yet I had proved and further should that the Quakers put out and obliterate the true Christ or Object to be received and believed on as before in the matter of Faith they put out the true living Eye of
Their great Blunderer Humphry Norton he deals as plainly and roundly as G. Fox his aemulous Corrival falsly and fraudulently when that holy Scripture If in this Life only we have Hope c. was here objected to Humphry Norton he clapt his hand on his Breast saying He had it there already that is opposing it to and denying the Hope in the Life to come especially as to their Bodies which are not raised up they say Spiritual Bodies being though of late more subtly and hipocritically all one with those deceived Souls that said the Resurrection was past already It is true they will pretend to owne the Scriptures Christs humane Nature the Resurrection and Judgement and Faith and Hope ahd Repentance c. as true and sound as any Protestant but still it is no otherwise but as G. Fox and Ed. Burroughs say in this Book that is as I have and shall open in a most Iugling and deceitful Sense and meaning It is reported that some of them at their Death have used those words Lord Iesus receive my Spirit some have Charitably thought that they intend thereby their going presently into the presence of Christ Jesus but as the Truth and bottom however they blind the world and the weakest of their Followers until they be fit to wean and fall to strong meat others of them Covertly say write and others of them more plainly say viz. That they believe no more Rising of their Bodies then the rising of a Dog and as to their Spirits they believe Souls are 122 patts of God and go unto God and into God and therefore their saying Lord Iesus receive my Spirit is no more then Lord Jesus receive thy self according to some of their plain Expressions To whom should I pray my self to whom should I give Thanks my self wherein their woful black and filthy Spirit Contradicteth it self amongst themselves though they agree in the Devils Bait which Catcht himself and with which he Catcht our first Patents and all his Posterity viz. Ye shall be as Gods live as God know as God be Gods and Christs for Evermore I shall now crave the Readers patience to hear some few Quotations out of G. Fox which my quarter of an hour would not then permit declaring thâ—ir Apostacie and Heresie in the matters of Repentance Faith c. In Pag. 127. he brings in Iohn Bunyan saying It is a Counterfietlng of the New Birth for men to follow the Light wherewith men coming into the World are enlightned G. Fox Answereth which none comes to the New Birth but who comes to the Light wherewith every man c. which believing in is a Child of the Light believing and receiving comes to receive power to be the Sons of God I Reply none are truly Converted born again c. but in a true Sense they come to Christ Jesus For the Scripture saith he gives Repentance to Israel He is the Author and Finisher of our Faith But that Jesus Christ as God so the Quakers owne him and as man for so they also owne him should be in every man and Woman and Child in the World I have proved and shall prove it to be a blockish and Devilish Fancy 2. If this Light this Christ the Mediator between God and man be only a Spirit and not man why do the Scriptnre why do the Quakere madly say there was such a man though they cannot tell now what is become of him except he be as they say within c. 3. If this Light this Christ this Mediator be in every man what should be the Reason that so many Thousands and Ten Thousand of Millions see him not Only a few persons Cursing and Reviling all the rest and that say all but the Quakers are deceived Can the Sun be in a Chamber and persons not blind but 123 seeing and awake and using his Light and yet not see it Certainly it is but a painted Sun that doth not shine equally on all it is but a painted Fire that doth not burn and the Quakers are but Pictures of Christians and pictures of men to argue aftet such a Rate that Christ not only as God and Creatour should be in every man but also as the Mediator as the Spirit and yet not operate according to the Nature of the Sun and Fire It is true the Lord Jesus came into the dark world and their darkness comprehended him not to be He that was to come the true Messiah but when Christ Jesus as Mediator the true or only Light shall dwell in the Understanding and Will and Memory and Affections of a man or Woman and those persons be savingly inlightened by him as you write and yet not Converted and saved by him it can be the Language of none but those that peep and mutter Isai. 8. but have no true Light but a false and painted Light within them Lastly saith Fox this turning to the Light within is the New Birth But the Holy Record saith that till the preaching of the Word or Gospel or glad News come to the mind of a man ordinarily by the Ear and hearing and preaching Rom. 10. there is no Faith nor Covenant nor Christ nor God in the Soul Ephes. 2. and we are not only in darkness but darkness it self Ephes. 5. and only by the holy Word and Spirit preached the blessing Isai. 59. God shineth in our hearts and not by any such Immediate Fantastick Faith or Spirit as the Anti Christian Quakers dream of yea against the Light of a twofold Experience in their own Souls 1. That many of them being enlightened and formerly Convicted by the reading or preaching of the Doctrine Word or Will of God revealed in the holy Scripture 2. That of their new Light as they falsly and foolishly prate pretended to be brought unto their Ears and knowledge by the means of these new Apostles Preachers and Ministers so pretended of Christ Jesus When God hides that is by Spiritual Iudgements the Light of Scripture of the Spirit of Reason and of Experience c. who can find it out No man no nor Devil can subsist one minute without the power of Christs Eternal Power and God-head 124 but when Christ Jesus comes into the Soul as Mediator of the new Covenant and be thus idle and not operative in all mankinde in the World and not to Convert and work belief in them which must be either because he cannot or because he will not as the Leaper said is as black and blasphemous a Fancy as any Atheistical or AntiChristian Soul can harbour He brings in George Willington saying He is Iustified by Faith alone without good works He Answers What without Faith that works by Love I Reply In this passage and in many others this subtle man clearly discovers what he makes true Justifying Faith to be viz. not one hair breadth more then the Faith that may be to God in the first Covenant the Covenant of
mankind of many due respects and favorable glaunces of Gods care of order and prudent distinctions and differences amongst the Sons of men in Families Cities Nations Armies Navies c. 3. Sure he can not but remember and his own and all the Light in the Quakers if seriously minded will tell them that 54 in robbing all the world of their several due moderate and sober Titles and Respects they do but by a jugling Hocas pocas a back dore c. rob all others of their points Ribbons and Laces wherewithal only to adorn and trim and trick their foolish selves Just as the Popish party practice to cry up their Pope servus servorum Dei and yet be Domine fac totum your holiness c. and yet the Pope and Papists herein out shoot the Quakers for the Papists give all men their Civil and Courteous different Respects and Acknowledgements which the dogged and scornful Quakers are far from their Spirit being prouder then the Papists 4. G. Fox knows how others of his Adversaries have in print told him that the English word Master Answers to many words in the Greek Kathegerese Didarkalos c. and that these words Rahbi and Pateer all shew that the Lord Jesus only Condemned the Pharisaical Popish and Foxian Itch of being called Masters Fathers Leaders Teachers in Religion undervaluing and slighting others c. Thus amongst the Papists their Magister noster their Patres c. their Irrefragable Seraphical and Angelical Doctors thus among the Foxians Iames Naylor Hosanna c. and G. Fox at this Town of Providence called the Eternal Son of God Christ Iesus 5. Half a Humane and sober Eye may see that in all his Declamations against the Pharisaical or Popish or Foxian Rabbies the Lord Jesus I say comes not near in a Title the Civil and Natural Respects of Inferiours to Heads of Families Cities Kingdomes c. all of which the very nature of man being von politikon a sociable Creature and the holy Scripture is all over from end to end full of most frequent Examples yea Commands and practices 6. How Childishly doth Fox Answer his Opposite viz that although it be unlawful to call Master yet it is not unlawful to call Father for there is a Birth which his Opposite is ignorant of c. I ask if G. Fox mean not their Immediate Birth of Light which for a Cover they call Spirit and Christ c. in Opposition to that true Christian Regeneration and Change which it pleaseth God ordinarily to Effect by means as Paul said though you have ten thousand Teachers yet I have begotten you c Sure it is their Immediate denies the mediate 55 7. Where there no Ordinary means appointed by God for Natural or Spiritual procreation yet how simple is that Consequence that because God is an Extraordinaâ—y Father therefore I may call men Fathers but not Masters when God is both Father and Master and both Titles are forbidden in a true Sense by one and the same heavenly Breath at the same time A 28 h. Instance is pag. 106. where G. Fox brings in W. Thomas saying Men are saved but not by Christ within us He Answers How is mans Salvaâ—ion wrought out but by Christ within How is the Iustification fels but by Christ wit in And the Seeds we manifest that suffered without is made manifest within there is Redemption and Life He that hath the Son of God hath Life Redemption to God out of the first Adam and who feels Christ within feels Salvation and who doth not are Reprobates though they may talk of him I Reply This subtle Fox is in his Burrough Confounding under the Terms Christ the person of Christ and the Love and Spirit and Grace or Favour of Christ as if they were all one As if where the Name and Authority and writing of G. Fox comes there of necessity must G. Fox in person be Or to rise higher wherever the Name and Authority of a King General or Admiral is there must their persons also be This Popish Ubiquitary Fancy all sober Reasons have long since laught at and justly as being most Fancyfull and Frantick what 2. What is this but to make the Kings of men yea the King of Kings poor Mechanicks yea lower that can do nothing by any Means Servants Ministers Legates Embassadours c. except they be personaly present 3. The Spirit of God resolves the Question Ephes 3. He dwels in the Heart by Faith or believing in him and Gal. 2. I live by believing or Faith in the Son of God This Faith is given of God to some and not to others This Faith or Belief is wrought by Christ Jesus and â—inâ—shed by him and may with as good Sense be called Christ himself as a shoo which G. Fox hath begun and finished be called G Fox himself 4. With what Colour of Reason or Sense is it that if I believe King Charles the second to be the King of English Men and my King I must of necessity because of my belief which He by gracious 56 means hath wrought in me I believe that K. Charles is personally present Ubiquitarily present in person in all his Dominions and all the world over where ever his Loving Subjects have their Residence 5. I grant if we as some Quakers and Humphry Norton by Name resolve Christ only into a Spirit and God only he is Ubiquitary But as man why may not the General of an Army say to his whole Army and every Individual Souldier as Paul to the Corinthians though I am absent in Body yet am I present in Spirit Christ Jesus is in his Command and Courage and Example in every Regiment every Squadron every Band and Troop and every Souldier of the mâ—ny Millions that have and shall believe in him and that in a Sense both as God and man 6. The Hinge and pinch of the Difference lies in the Opposition which the Quakers make against the Manhood of Christ Jesus to be yet Extant many of them alleadging why stand you gazing Acts 1 c. as if it were but gazing after a Manhood and all now were Spirit and Light within 7. Who ever questiond but that the Spirit or power of Christ Jesus worketh in the Souls of his Elect the great saving change or regeneration gives Repentance opens the heart to Believe and makes the heart of this Believer a Palace for three Kings yet but one the Father the Son and the Spirit in Holiness Love Meekness Patience c. and all these Royal Attendants 8. Who questions but Christ Jesus as the Sun in these Heavens inâ—luenceth all parts of the World in several respects and nothing is hid from his heat He is felt in the bruised Reed and smoaking Flax in the poor in Spirit in the hungry and thirsty after Righteousness sometimes in the hope of Glory to come
a dumb Devil in their dumb meetings and stand still and listen and lie upon their beds of laziness for Revelations and Notions c. 8. As for G. Fox his scornful sling against old Authors what is it but pride and Ingratitude pride to undervalâ—e much more to scorn my Progenitors and Ancestors Ingratitude to God for so many helps c. and to them who have laboured and broke the Ice and left their Labours behind them for the benefit of after Commers yea what Injustice when I disregard and slight their writings and reproach them calling them Old Authors compared with their new Fancies as W. Edmundson did me frequently at Newport Old Man Old Man c. The 33 Instance is in Pag 206 where he brings in Iohn Burton sading It is a Scripture of the Devils making to apprehend Christ within He Answers If there be any other Christ but he who was Crucified within he is the false Christ and the Scriptures hold forth this and the Devil never made it but he and his Messengers are against it And he that hath not this Christ that was risen and 66 Crucified within is a Reprobate though Devils and Reprobaes may talk of him without I Reply This is the great dispute between the Christians and the Pagans the Christians and the Iews the Christians and the Mahumetans and the Christians among themselves so called viz. Who is the great Prophet 2. To what purpose should I alleadge the whole history of the Birth Life Death c. of the Lord Jesus since the Quakers acknowledge all true c. 3. Why should I alleadge the Sermons and Preachings and Writings of the Apostles or Messengers of Christ Iesus after his Ascention all harmonizing with the four Evangelists writing his Life and Death c. 4. Certain it is that he that shall turn over all the former Relations and Histories and all the writings and Sermons of the Apostles since and predicate a Christ that was risen within Crucified within in Opposition to that Iesus of Nazareth without he must have the Forehead of a Reprobate and Devil as G. Fox phrazeth it 5. G. Fox knows the Protestants predicate in Life and Death the believing in Christ Jesus so born so living and dying And the applying of the price of his Death and merits unto God for Propitition And the Applying of the Promise and new Covenant and Bargain in that Blood for a new Heart a new Spirit c. 6. What shall then become of G. Fox his believing in a Christ that was Risen and Crucified within in Opposition to this Lord Jesus so Promised so Prophesied of so prefigured so brought forth so living and dying so preached so believed on and what a Forehead of Hell must he have that calls all those Reprobates and Devils that talk of Christ without The 34th Instance is in pag. 214. where G Fox brings in the Elders and Messengers of several Churches of Ilston Abergevenny c. saying We are Conceived in Sin and brought forth in Iniquity c. He Answers David doth not say you who were Conceived in Sin but I and W. saith Iohn was sanctified from the Wombe and the Scriptures speaks of such as were sanctified from the Wombe and Children that were clean And so you do not speak as Elders and 67 Messengers of true Churches or Men dividing the Word aright but you are one against another though you are all against them you call Quakers that be in the Truth I Reply 1. In the passage G. Fox discovers to any Intelligent and Savoury Spirit not only a weak and deluded Soul but a Popish and Arminian poyson about the Estate of all mankinde in their first Birth a strong presumption that he never felt what the woful Estate of all mankinde by Nature is and what to Cry out in his own particular with David I was Conceived in Sin and brought forth in Iniquity which Cry is one of the first Soul Cries of every Child of God 2. About 120 years since the Father of Spirits stird up the Spirit of his Famous Servant Calvin to batter down the Babel of a Franciscan Frantick who maintained that God from the first Created both Devils and wicked men in the same Condition of wickedness wherein we now find them Contrary to the holy Scriptures Testimony as that Excellent Soul proved declaring their pure Creation their Fall and their respective future Estate and condition to Eternity 3. In the Reign of our late Royal Sovereign K. Iames it pleased God to let loose this Devil of Pelagius who rowzed up the wits of Arminius and his Followers in the low Countries during their twelve years Truce with Spain so that the Civil Discord about this point and other Pelagian and Semi-pelagian Doctrines had almost ruined Holland c. but that the Lord mightily assisted them First By the personal presence and Forces of the Prince of Orange and Secondly By the Famous Assembly and Disputes of the Synod at Dort 4. To follow the Fox into his Burrough what if David say not you but I why should the Papists and Arminians or Foxians have a more holy Birth then David Wherein could holy David Father Iesse and his mother be charged Is not the English of the word Devil Accuser Reproacher Slanderer Is not Nature that Law and Order which the most Infinite Creator hath set in the propagation of all his Creatures though the choicest of them Man be degenerated into the soure Vine at first a sweet Vine Nature or Gods Order goes on though mankinde be Corrupted from the Womb and the Imagination of the Thoughts of mans Heart be only evil and that continually Gen. 6. and millions of 68 Experiences all the world over Confirm it what the Trade of all mankinde is from the Birth The Spots of the Leopard and the Blackness of the Neger comes not by Accident c. 6. The perversness and Crookedness of the motions of Nature may continue though Nature and the Course of it run on as we see in Rivers turn'd out of their Chanels in Clocks and Watches and Dâ—al and Lutes and Harps when out of Tune they give their Natural and Artificial though distempered Sounds and operations 7. Beside the holy Testimony of Moses Gen. 6 and David Psal. 51. and the Lord Jesus declaring what the heart of man is Mark 7. How doth Paul Rom. 5. and 7. declare the Entrance of Sin by the first Man until by the second Man Sin and Death and Hell be Conquered and at last Sin in Gods Children fully dissolved and abolished 8. I end this passage with Appellation to all that knâ—w what Children are all the world over the sweetest and the fairest born of the holiest and sweetest Parents how froward how proud how Revengeful against their Fathers Mothers and most tender Nurses 1. These rotten and crooked Dispositions in every Childe bring forth wilde Asses fruits in Youth
of God For what man knows the things of a man save the Spirit of a man c. now we have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things which are freely given to us of God In ver 6. the Spirit of God speaks of a twofold wisdome first the wisdome of this world and the Principles of this world which come to nought Secondly the wisdome of God in a Mystery even the hidden wisdome which God ordained before the world unto our glory Again ver 12. God tells us of two Spirits The Spirit of the world Secondly The Spirit of God Now this woful Cheator finding the word Spirit Confounds as his Course is all together and because Gods Spirit regenerates the Corintâ—ians and opens to them a glimpse of the Godheads power and wisdom and Goodness by Pauls preaching and opens their hearts to it therefore he must also enlighten the world with the same Light whereas that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit and that of Flesh is Flesh This Change and renewing of the Spirit by the Holy Spirit I fear G. Fox and most of his Foxians never Experimened 74 though they enjoy in common a Light of Nature though God hath endowed him and many of them with excellent Natural Parts yea with a Light from the holy Scripture yea with a Light of Experience and common Motions from Gods holy Spirit and have been lifted up by their own thoughts and others as Capernaum up to the Heaven and therefore my Soul fears as to most of them that God will bring them down to Hell with the greater Condemnation The 38th Instance is in Pag. 222. where he brings in the same Author saying Salvation and Faith are the gifts of God distinct from Christ He Answers They are all of him and from him and with him And how is he the Author of Faith in whom it ends and from whence it comes I Reply as Potiphars wife cries out against Ioseph and pretends Chastity so doth this subtle Whoremonger pretending that all is pure Christ the Light is Christ their Hope is Christ their Faith their Spirit is Christ himself yea the Saints are Christ No distinction between Christ and them for they are all of him from him and with him In short I pray the Reader to mind with me the first Chapter to the Colossians where ver 1. The Spirit of God declares how Gods Children poor slaves at first in Sathans Clutches are Translated from the Kingdome of Darkness into the Kingdome of his dear Son In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sins I know the Foxians turn Christ yea his Blood also into a Spirit a God How admirably doth the holy Spirit of God declare the Godhead or Divinity of Christ Jesus and his Manhood or Humanity unto ver 21 out of both which I shall select two or three Attributes of the Lord Jesus 1. The State of Christianity amongst many other high Expressions in the Scripture is here called the Kingdome of Gods dear Son which argues a distinction from all other Kingdomes and a distinction from his Saints as a King is not his Subjects nor their Gifts and Honours and Estates and peace and Ioy though given by him to them and procured by his great wisdome and love for them Oh poor Ungrateful Monsters not content to be taken from 76 the Kingdome from the Dungeon of Darkness and Hell and that by the Ransome and price paid and Blood and Death of his only Beloved the Prince of Life but we must be the King of Heaven and Prince of Life our selves 2. I observe The Instrumental and purchasing Cause or price is said to be his Blood which argues the Infinite value of his Sufferings in which Respect only it is called the Blood of God I know the slight esteem that some of these Foxians have of the Blood of the Lord Iesus saying that wicked men the Souldiers shed it that it was spilt upon the ground that there was no difference between that Blood and the Blood of another Saint That by Gods blood is only meant godly and heavenly power and Spirit by which God applies Mercy and pardon Iustification Righteousness c. I have read the Blasphemous Discanting of the Iesuit concerning Maries white Milk and Christs Crimson Blood in the close his preferring the Milk of the Mother before the Sons Blood I have heard also the foolish Blasphemy of one of my own Neighbours saying That the Blood of the Quakers and by name of W. B. was Saving and Salvation to the World 3. But I pass on The Lord Jesus is here called the Image of the invisible God If this should respect the Godhead only which is invisible how could Christ be a visible Picture of Invisibility If the Manhood only is God a Man and Man his Image or Picture as the old Heretick and late in London Reeves and Mugleton fancied The Truth is as Christs Blood is but figuratively for an Antitipe and fulfilling of all the Figures foregoing him and for all his Sufferings and many Blood-sheddings both of Minde and Body so this Image or Picture this Blessed Lamb of God consisting of the Godhead wonderfully assuming such a none such Manhood both which the Papists and Quakers are forced to confess I say it is clear he was the brightest Image or Picture of God to the World that ever God appeared in and therefore called the Word of God the fullest and loudest of all the Words of God in which ever he spake c. 4. Many more I might insist on but I must abbreviate and only mention ver 18. where the Lord Jesus is made the Pallace of 77 the Godhead that in him as the Head of the Body his Church should all fulness dwell reconciling and making peace through the Blood of his Crosse c. Iohn tells us that of this fulness in him we receive all the World receives the Mercy and Patience of God by him all his Followers receive his Grace and Spirit Converting Sanctifying Comforting c. so that his most holy and glorious Manhood visible amongst us c. was as a fair and spacious beautiful Conduit into which the eternal and inconceivable Counsels of the eternal Power and Godhead flowed and from whom by all those blessed means and Ordinances as by so many Cocks turned and let loose flow and run into poor empty Souls as Pails and Tankards all sorts of mercies to the whole World and especially to the Elect and Chosen his Church and Body that believe in him what poor Children and Frantick Souls are we then that cry out poor Pots and Pails and Tankards that we are the Conduit it self yea we the Well-head Fountain and Spring and as this frantick Fox in his Book once and again affirms no distinction between God Christ his Saints yea
c. and proved as clear as at Noon-day the holy Scriptures and every Tittle of them to be the holy Word or Will or Declaration of the holy mind of God The 48th Instance is in Pag. 264. where he brings in Samuel Palmer saying The State of the Soul in this Life is threefold Creation Corruption and Regeneration G. Fox Answers In Regeneration the Life is changed from the Life which is in the Fall So Regeneration and Corruption is not one in the new Life I Reply who saith they be who saith that Regeneration and Corruption are one in the new Life what a foul Trick is this of a false man to impute that to his Opposite which he abhorreth I guess or he means that in Regeneration there is perfection and no Sin or Corruption left c. Hence the plea of some of their Spirits for Adams nakedness being come to the State of Innocency Hence the poor frantick Souls cry out that the Protestants preach for Sin for Tearme of Life c I Answer questionless the Devil deals with the Foxians as the Pirat doth with Ships he makes no Opposition against such he hath taken and is possessed of So that no question but the Quakers may be freed from many Transgressions and Temptations to them which others are assaulted with 2. These poor Souls foolishly and extream simply Answer Pauls Complaints and Cryes and bewailing himself Rom. 7. with Pauls giving thanks for his sudden victory in the last words as if just then the Battel had turnâ—d and Paul had not spoke of the Constant Battel and Warfare which all the Saints of God in about four thousand years together throughout the holy Scripture 96 Experimented Noah Abraham David Peter Iohn Barnabas c. 3. It is a mistery which neither Iews nor Turks Atheists or Papists or Quakers know viz. how the Seed of all grace may be in the new born and yet the Seed also of all sin except the sin against the holy Spirit remaining in them Therefore when they hear of the Falls of the Saints in Scripture and so great Some question the Truth of the Scripture others make a sport of them and pretend a Cloak for their sins saying none are perfect why may we not as well as they Others as the Foxians say We are come to a more perfect and pure Estate then Paul at first was in or Iohn who saith If we Confess our Sin or Iames who saith In many things we offend all or the Father that cried help my Unbelief c. But the Papists and Quakers are so perfect and Superperfect that though they be full of pride Ambition Unbelief Unthankfulness Intemperancy Covetousness full of rash Anger bitter Railings and dreadful Blasphemies against Heaven yet they can with the Whore wipe their mouths and say they are pure from all uncleanness The 49th Instance of G. Fox his lame writings is in Pag. 275. where he quotes Richard Meyo saying To say the Gospel is the Power of God is but a Metaphorical Speech G. Fox Answers The Apostle doth not say so for the Apostle saith the Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believes in plain words Rom. 1. I Reply 1. As before and as thousands know that the word Gospel is in all Languages glad News the same which the Angel brought to the Sheepherds of a Saviour born and laid in a manger at Bethlehem this is the News the placid good News though set forth and beautified in the holy Scripture with variety of Figures and Metaphors 2. The great Fox the Devil who thirsts after the Blood of the Quakers and of all mens Souls he whispers viz. the Gospel is Christ it is the Spirit the Light and God himself why talk you of a written Gospel of a preached Gospel the Scriptures are within you the Gospel is within you Translations Interpretations within you why gaze you upon pen and Ink and after a man c. 3. As if the glad Tidings or Gospel to a dying man of a par 97 don of Life c. sounding to his Ear were not by the External Dore of his Ear conveyed by that Dore to the inward dore and Closet of his mind who but Frantick Souls in Bedlam will say what need you mind the Kings Declarations or Proclamations of pardon or Liberty The King himself is the Gospel the Declaration and the Librty the King is within you the Gospel or glad News is within you 4. The Devil hates the glad News of Christ Jesus as much as Darkness hateth Light therefore he hath two sorts of Souldiers 1. Some that say what tell you us of Reading and praying and preaching mind the Kernel within while the second sort are all for the outside which without the In-side are but Shels and Husks and Shadows 5. How commonly doth the holy Spirit in the Scriptures speak Ridles and Figures that they that see not may see and they that say they see Papists Quakers c. may be blinded why is the Lamb called the Passover Christ the Temple the Cup his Blood the Bread his Body c. There were many hundreds brought before King Henry and Queen Mary after him c. for Insurrections with Haltars about their Necks These Princes and others pronounced their inward mind by word External the Heralds and Proclamations and Trumpets were in a Figurative Sense all glad News and Gospel and yet the substance of the glad News or Gospel was the pardon offered and vouchsafed to them 6. Mine Eyes have seen a Condemned Soul turned off at the Gallows a Post comes galloping all drive waving his hat which being espied Execution is staid the people cried a pardon the Post cried a Reprieve The Sheriff cried neither no Reprieve c. until he saw the Kings hand or Authority from him the Post delivers to the Sheriff a bit of paper which the Sheriff reading He Commanded the Halter to be taken off and the Prisoner to be delivered to the Post the Prisoner with joyful lips bid Death and his Fellow Sufferers Farewel and with joyful Legs leaps up behind the welcome Messenger of his Deliverance for afterward he had his pardon under the broad Seal of England I ask here how many passages and particulars may Figuratively be stiled Glad News or the Gospel to this dying man 7. I ask whether the glad News or Gospel which this Post 98 Messenger or Preacher brought might not Figuratively be called his Gospel or glad News as Paul Rom. 2. calls it his Gospel and 2. Cor. 4. our Gospel if hid it is hid to them that be lost It is hid two wayes 1. When not by writing or preaching it is preached or declared as it is not as yet discovered to innumerable millions in the world 2. When the Power or Spirit of God opens not as he did Lidiahs the Ears and Hearts and Spirits of men to
Pag. 326. where he brings in the same Author saying The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man in the Church to profit withal and not to every man in the World G. Fox Answers The manifestation is given to every man to profit withal without distinction I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh For the Spirit of Truth shall lead the Saints into all Truth And he shall reprove the World and that which doth reprove the World is manifest to the World I Reply I spake to this Text before in Answer to the Letter of my Neighbour I. T. as is to be seen in the Letters before our Disputes who declared himself satisfied with my Answers but G. Fox like a Cow with a Kettle on her head giving every one warning to stand clear he boldly slanders on and tumbles Heaven Earth and Hell together c. 1. This 1 Cor. 12. expresly declares three things 1. That it pleased God to appoint in his Christian Church and Worship the Ministry of Apostles Prophets Teachers c. according to Rom. 12 Ephes. 4 c. 2. He bestoweth several Gifts and Endowments on such persons whom he pleaseth to call unto such Ministrations 3. He vouchsafeth to give a gracious Concurrent Operation of his Spirit unto these his Gifts Ministrations what now is this gracious promise of the Father of Lights to the Garden of his Church Saints the howling Desart of the whole world from whence the Garden is taken in inclosed and separate Because a Queen is a Woman must therefore all the Honours and kindneffes of a glorions Prince due to his Royal Consort be dispensed in Common to all the Women in his Kingdome or Dominions The Garment in which the Queen is brought is a Garment of Needle work richly and most curiouâ—ly embroydered with the graces and Operations of the holy Spirit doth it therefore follow that those Heavenly Embroyderies c. belong to every nnclean and Lousie Begger 102 Yea but this prophane Mouth hath something to say for it self three things he saith full of Prophaneness and Simplicity 1. I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh. But 1. Was this as he speaks without all distinction done actually was it Universally so with all the Individuals of mankind in the world at that time 2. Was not there a wonderful Wall of separation between the Iews and all other Nations which the Lord promised by the Prophets to break down and at the coming of the Lord Jesus and ever since hath more and more broke down and abolished Is not Gideons Floor which was dry the poor Gentiles and we English among them now wet with the Dews of Heaven while the poor Iews which were only wet at first are dry and barren 3. What is that Extraordinary Promise of Gods Extraordinary pouring out of his Spirit in Fiery Tongues and Prophesyings fitting some to go unto all Nations to carry the glad News or Gospel had others and all Believers those Gifts least of all with any shew of Reason belong they to all the Men and Women in the world who have never seen and heard of any Glimpse of the Sun of Righteousness 4. Again I observe how vainly and wickedly this deluded and deluding Soul cheats himself and others with this Tearme All Flesh Every man All the World and so with the Terms Light Christ Spirit his proud Fancy playeth c. not dividing the Hoof by just and holy distinguishing a Crime that he often upbraids his Opposites most odiously with in his Book not dividing c. but is most notoriously guilty as ever was filthy Camel in this world or any of the unclean Beasts c. G. Fox his second Answer here is The Spirit of God shall lead the Saints into all Truth I observe here how like a Skittish Jade this wild Soul runs in and out and cannot keep to one steady Affirmation Before he brings in the Spirit of God poured out upon the Common of the World now he brings in the spirits leading the saints Gods Garden and Paradice Yet again in his next words he concludes every man in the World to have the spirit because saith he The spirit reproves the World and that which doth Reprove the World is manifest to the World I Answer The holy spirit testifies that he is the Comforter of the saints but a Reprover of the World that he Comforts the 103 Saints in the Promises Assurances c. that he Reproves the world in his Threatenings and Judgments That the world knows not sees not the Spirit but mocks at receives it not but banisheth imprisoneth murthereth such in whom the true Spirit of God appeareth Hence it is that because of this Spirit of God in any soul three are against two two must be against three in the same house the Parents against the Children and the Children betray their Parents unto Death yea two in a Bed and two in a Belly and yet he whom Gods Spirit chooseth shall be mockt and murthered by the other and yet this lying Peor tells us that all the world without distinction have the manifestation of the Spirit of God to prosit withal 5. There have been persons professing the Order of the holy Ghost yet far from the favour of the holy Spirit there hath been a great Ship in the world full of Sailors and Souldiers called the holy Ghost and yet scarce one man in it known to have any Acquaintance with Gods Spirit Alas what are the Babilonish Orders of these pretenders to the Holy Ghost or Spirit what are they but a poor Ship full of Resisters of Gods Spirit and Enemies to the greatest Enjoyers of him in the World the true Protestant Witnesses whom they professedly oppose under the Name of Professors I hope as I have often said that many of them are of the two hundred that followed Absolom in honesty and simplicity 6. But Oh what Reproofs of Gods Spirit hath G. Fox and others of their Leaders had in and by so many excellent Opposites and Scriptures and Arguments which G. Fox here proudly tramples under his prophane feet without any savour of the holy Spirit of God! It is true it pleaseth God as I said to strive with men by preachings by writings by their own Readings by publick Iudgments and private and also by publick mercies and private for Acts 14. every Drop of Rain is Gods voice word or witness c but what is this Common grace to that Regenerating and changing Spirit John 3. to the opening of Lidiahs and so of all saints hearts by his free and holy spirit or Finger what is this to the same Power that raised Christ Jesus from the Dead Ephes. 1. that raiseth any poor sinner unto a new and holy and spiritual Condâ—tion 104 7. Excellent and most heavenly is that similitude Cant. 1. Because of the savour of thy good Ointments therefore do the
to Contain not the Combate of the Saints but of the unregenerate within themselves But the true Protestants have proved from the Scripture and the Experience of all true Saints that sin and grace Flesh and Spirit the Law of the Spirit and the Law of sin may and do continue Combating in the Regenerate or New born Contrary to that proud perfection of Papists and Foxians in this Life is more clear then Pauls Argumentation and upon that his Conclusion viz. That with his mind that is his Spirit will Affections renewed by Gods Spirit he served the Law of God But with his Flesh which must be his sinful Desires and Dispositions yet remaining in him he served the Law of Sin This was the Reason of his Cry O wretched man c. and G. Fox his silly shifts saying that in the End of the Chapter Paul was perfect and gave thanks for victory it is like that Fantastical saying of the Generalists being forced to Conâ—ess Repentance necessary to Salvation viz. In a moment in the Twinkling of an Eye wofully abusing that holy Scripture about the Resurrection 4. The same 7 of the Romans and other holy Scriptures and Experience prove that the Sin of the Regenerate whether of Ignorance as the Fathers many wives c. or of unwatchfulness as David and Peter's c. It is as an honest man taken prisoner or as Souldiers and Seamen wounded and carried Captive or as a Virgin by force deslowred and crying out whom therefore both Law and Reason and the holy Scripture in a holy Figure declare to be clear and Innocent 5. Hence Paul shews the Sincerity of the Chast Will and Affections unto the Heavenly Bridegroom saying I delight in the Law of God in the inner man Delight we know is the Top and Flowre and Cream of all the Affections and the siercest hatred flies in the Face of that which takes away our delight from us The wicked may desire and may act heavenly things for his own self Ends for his Credit his profit his Salvation but he can not make God to be himself and delight in God 6. What Confusion is it to affirm that the Saints of God though they see Christ fulfilling the Law of works for them which none in the world could ever do but He yet they ought to strive after perfect holiness and Righteousness to love the Lord with all their Heart soul might strength c. as a Child going after his Father the Scholar or maiden following their Copies and Samplers 108 though they never come near the full Exactness and perfection of them The 55th Instance of G. Fox his simple and soul Answer is in Pag. 338. where he brings in Iohn Nasmith from Scotland saying Tha the Evil Spirits are both sinful and Reasonable He Answers This is a lye for Reasonable is not sinful and unreasonable is sinful 1 Thes. 3. they have not the Faith And if the Evil Spirit be Reasonable and the Good Reasonable they are both one who is then unreasonable thou puts no difference between the precious and the vile Thou hast the mark of a blinde guide and of a false Prophet in thy Forehead 1. I Reply and observe First the filthy rash Fury of his mind and Pen Beginning with that 's a lye and after a silly Line and Answer Thou hast the Marck of a Blind guide and of a false Prophet in thy Forehead 2. This proud Pharisee will appear to be a Sadducee also and to hold no Angels nor Spirits It is true as they pretend to owne Scripture and a Christ and Resurrection They with Iesuitical Equivocations name Angels and Spirits but the bottom as some of them and that in print discover is they hold there is but one Spirit which is in All and into which All Return and the Soul of Iudas is as happy as the Soul of Peter 3. G. Fox runs into his Burrough of the various significations of the word Reasonable A man is a Reasonable Creature as Opposite to Wolves and Foxes c. and yet he may be unreasonable in in his Actings as Wolves and Foxes who though unreasonable in their Natures yet are not sinful though a plague to man since his Fall Oh happy were it for G. Fox that he had been of the wild Foxes in the Woods and had not been so sinful by so horribly abusing so great a Talent of Wit and Reason which the Father of Lights hath given him 4. We know the Admirable Wit and Reason as well as the Power of those unclean Spirits the Lord Jesus cast out they did believe and Confess the Lord Jesus and made their Request unto him This their knowledge and Ability is from God though their sinful hardness by Gods just Sentence runs them upon such mad and desperate Courses as it is with the Sons of men when the most holy and Righteous Judge delivers them up to the Councels 109 and Projects of their proud and deceitful Hearts and Spirits The 56th Instance is in Pag. 345. where he brings in Henry Foreside from Scotland saying Concerning those words of Ezekiel 18. 28. If the Righteous turn away from his Righteousness his former Righteousness shall be no more remembred and he said the meaning of that Scripture was They thought they had been Righteous but were not but supposed it had been so He Answers Herein thou art a Minister of unrighteousness thou goest about to make God a Lyar and the Prophets and perverts the Scripture For if he forsakes his Righteousness and commits Sin and Iniquity and Trespasses he shall dye and not live in the Righteousness But if he â—o sakes his Sins Trespasses and Transgressions in the Righteousness that he hath done and doth he shall live So Gods wayes are equal Ezek 18. And thou sayes they thought they had been Righteous but it was not so And the Lord by the Prophet saith it was so that they should live in their Righteousness and die if they did depart from it and Transgressed Here thou art a diminisher from the Prophets and Apostles words whose Name is diminished out of the Book of Life read Rev. 22. 19 I Reply The Question is about Falling away from saving grace and Righteousness wherein it is notorious as I have formerly proved that the Quakers joyn their Forces to the Standards of the Papists and Arminians though herein the Arminians though highly abusing an high wit as the Papists and Quakers do yet are they not so guilty and Insufferable as the Papists and Foxians are because they pretend not to such an Infallible Chair as the Papists and Quakers do which is the more wonderful and monstrous because the Papists are forced to grant that the Head of their Church the Pope may Himself fall away and be a Reprobate and the Foxians are forced to Confess as much even of divers of their Heads and Teachers some getting Saving Grace again as they say
c. 6. Yea as to those three whom G. Fox boasts of Iohn Paul and Peter Doth not Iohn cry out 1 Iohn 2. If we Confess our â—ins he is Faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Doth not Paul Confess and bewail his coming short when he cries out that the good he would do he did not but did the Evil he would not and with his flesh did serve the Law of sin though it was not Paul that sinned but sin that dwelled in him A Mistery which I more then fear the most High hath hidden from this poor Foxes Eye And as to Peter to say nothing of his stupendious failing of his 116 Master c. even after his awakening after the Lords rising and Peters seeing and talking with him his bold profession and preaching of him to the Conversion of hundreds and thousands yet how is he charged by Paul for coming short of his Duty for Gross Weakness and in a kind Hipocrisy and Dissimulation so that such a cloud of witnesses o'rewhelming these new Gods Papists and Quakers how Righteous is it with God to make their Faces ashamed with the filth of their own nakedness in the highth of the pride of their conceited Deities The 60 Instance of G. Fox his lame Answer is in pag. 372. where he brings in Thomas Hodges saying The Scripture speaks of God after the manner of men He Answers The Scripture speaks of God after the manner of the Spirit and to the Spirit whereby men may receive him and know him by the Spirit which natural men can not 1. I Reply This bewitched and bewitching Soul hath all along his Book been picking out sweet Flowers out of his Opposites Gardens from whence he hath suckt turned the sweet juice of Heavenly Truths into the poyson and Venome of his proud Conceits So here he denies this Heavenly Mystery of Gods revealing himself to us after the way and manner of men having Head and Hair and Eyes and mouth c. wherein his Incomprehensible Goodness is pleased to stoop to us even the highest and proudest Souls as Nurses do to Children or as Physitians to weak and Crazy and distempered persons 2. But what shall we say to all those holy Scriptures which not only liken God to a man a man of war a Sheepherd a Warfaring man an Husband man c. but also to a Shield and other Insensibles Natural or Artificial as a Sun a Tree a Rock an House a Fort a High Tower c. When God revealed himself to Abraham Gen. 15. I am thy Shield c. will this foul mouth say that this similitude of a Shield was not a Familiar Metaphor or Figure wherein God speaks to Abrahams weak Capacity Or will he say that God speaking so to Abraham spake not also in the way the Spirit Or that God is Literally a Shield 3. It was a late Speech of one of the best Philosophers and of the best Christians that Old England or New ever had Then shall we know to wit in the next life in the Heavenly State to 117 Come how to answer that great Question What is God But this poor wild Asses Colt G. Fox he can resolve the Question he can gather up the Ocean in the hollow of his hand he can weigh the Everlasting Mountains and Winds in Scales and Inclose not only the Sun c. but also the Incomprehensible Sun of Glory and Purity within his Iuglers Box c. 4. For what would this little Thief and Fox or the great Thief and Fox the Devil have but blow out the Candle and Torch and Sun of the holy Books and Records that so the Father of Lies and Murthers may be heard as he hath been heard in the Grecian Oracles in Mahomet and the Mahumetans in the Pope and the Papists so by his whisperings in the Foxians as if he were the most holy Spirit of the Eternal God himself Immortal Invisible and only Wise. 5. For is it not the Devils Trade to play the subtle Hunter as do also his Iourney-men who ly in wait to catch men and to trim his Pits and Gins and Snares with green leaves and Boughs and Twigs viz fair pretences of the Spirit the Spirit the Immediate Spirit the Infallible Spirit the Teachings of the Spirit the manner of the Spirit speaking to the Spirit and Christ within you Christ within you except you be Reprobates Christ within you the hope of Glory c. These are fair Leaves and sweet heavenly green Boughs on which the Old Serpent twineth and from whence he uttereth even Scripture it self and the sweet Names God and Christ and Spirit in a frantick purpose to stab for he knows he can not the holy Scriptures and God and Christ and Spirit also 6. More particularly what doth he mean that God speaks not to us after the manner of men but by the way of the Spirit after the manner of the Spirit He grants that the holy Scriptures were given forth from the Immediate Inspâ—ration of the Spirit He knows that we maintain from Isai. 59. the great Promise of the Word and Spirit together to the mouth of Christ Jesus and his Seed and his Seeds Seed And also that we affirme that no Reading no Hearing no Meditation no Afflictions c. can do a Soul any good until God by the Power or Finger of his own self or Spirit makes the means Powerful and Effectual All this serves not but that which Sathan drives at and which alone must serve his Ends is Immediate Immediate Inspiration with a damning or changing the means by the most Holy and only Wise God Appointed 118 7. It is one of the Proverbs of the Ancients Sus Minervam docet The Sow teacheth the Goddess of Wisdome It is most Infallibly true here this filthy Sow that seems to be washt from Common vices and yet wallows in the mud Dunghils of Mystical Filthiness He must teach wisdome it self how to speak and appoint him his way and by wresting and racing out what he can the Holy Records how to reveal himself unto the Sons of men 8. It is pertinent to Consider the ground of this his only owning the manner of the Spirit viz. This Immediate Spirit speaks to the Spirit within What is the English of this Ridle The Immediate Spirit within speaks to the Spirit within But their Spirit will tell us that God and Christ and Spirit and Light and New Covenant and Faith and Holiness c. are all in prison within in every man until the Immediate Spirit without means perswade a person to hearken within to him as to Christ Light and Spirit which will bring him to God and Christ round in a Conjuring Circle Christ brings to Christ the Spirit brings to the Spirit which though it be true after Conversion and in growth and Increase of the Grace and Knowledge of Christ by the use of
book if such had proved desirable These alterations will all be noted in this reprint and will be designated as Roger Williams ' Manuscript Annotations The seconâ— Position Concerning true false Christs Traitors Rebells against the King eternaâ— Murtherers of him The true Lord Iesus Christ His humane nature which G. Fox alâ— night long so barks against The Quakers Christ allegorical and meerly Fancy destroying the History Humphrey Norton deales plainly against the Person of Christ The Equivocation of the Foxians Eph 3. 10. The true Union that is â—etween Christ Iesus Believers The Quakers painted Christ. Christ winhin and Christ without Two Questions to Quakers G Fâ—x his Book in Folio produced Page 3. The Papists Quakers destroy the Person of Christ. The being of Christ in the Heavens The Quakers endure not trying but are willingly ignorant Willing Ignorance Nehem 8 they gave the Sence The Quakers nonsensical Spirit Iohn Bunyan Christs twofold Presence The Quakers Conjure with Christs Body The Quakers endure not Sences or Meanings just as the Papists and yet talk all of light The old question of Christs Presence Fox Bonnet no difference The Quakers pretend to ownâ— Christs Bloud yet in truth allow him no Bloud to shed Enoch Howet The divine and humane nature of the Lord Iesus Nicholas the Deacon and Nicholas Fathers of the old and new Nicholaitans 1 believe R. W. Ms. Ann. So Cristopher Houlder he boggles at the word Manhood The word Humane considered Used in the Scripture 1 Cor 10. Dan. Grudry Christ not seen as he is until the day of Iudgement The personal coming of the Lord Iesus A visible and in visible eye and object Christ â—ithin Christ without The Papists and Quakers Christ is no where Christoph Wade The Author whome G. Fox opposeth and in Pride and madness rageth against The Quakers Christ but a whimsical Christ Hosanna to the Son of David 1 Ye poor Apostates R. W. Ms. Ann. The Spirit of the Papists the Quakers but one The Quakers notoriously dissemble for they do own and not own the Christ that dyed at Ierusalem Humph. Norton more plain in words then other Quakers Christ yesterday and to day The Quakers endure not to be searched temer of false and thievish spirits 1 Interline be R. W. Ms. Ann. The Quakers Apolloes Oracles the same Iohn Burton If ever there Equivocating Iesuites in the world the Quakers are The Quakers wonderful jugling about the true Christ John Burton The Quakers Traitors Rebels against the true Lord Iesus I have known the poor Lobsters catch the Foxes The wonderful blindness and hardness of my Antagonists 1 the plain Evidences R. W. Ms. Ann. Frances Higginson The Quakers endure not the word Humane Acts 13. Opened of Christs Humanity Tho. Collier The second coming of the Lord Iesus The Everlasting Fathâ—r Christ Iâ—su how The Quakers wonderfully changed yet but in Dissimulation as to learning the Scriptures W. Edmund leaves the Dispute is hurried into Preaching W. Edmund his story concerning Benefices And his vain extolling of their Idol Light John Stubs his sermon The Quakers unruly and rash interruptions A short Answer to 2 Sermons The motions of Gods spirit not those of the Quakers Tâ—e Quakers not orderly nor patient The Offices of Christ Iesus The Kingly office of the Lord Iesus The visible Christian Church Ordinances Touching the several Churches extant Churches nearest to Christ Iesus This was and I hope is the principle of the N English Church The various appearances of Christ Iesus 1 their R. W. Ms. Ann. My offer in the end of the second dayes conference Lying pretenders to Gods service The Authors just Apologie agaiâ—st the unjust clamors of the Quakers A mutual agreement for a third dayes conference A quarter of an hour much canvased The Quakers spirit policy The Quakers would not dispute on the first day and why The third dayes conference at New-port A Letter sent in to all of us The Letter refused to be opened by the Quakers The Sum of the Letter My self reproved in the Letter in 3 particulars The dâ—fference of the Quakers Sharpness sometimes a duty The Letter it self True librety infringed Quenching of the Spirit The insulting Spirit of the Quakers The true cause of our long discourse at Newport The modesty of this letter The third Position against the Quakers spirit Discussed The word spirit The quality of Spirits All spirits must be tried Gods Spirit given by Gods means The Spirit of God working by means The Quakers at Newport appealed too publickly Samuel Eaton Henoch Hoâ—vet G. Fox ignorant of the true spirit of God Tho. Moor. The use of means Fox and the Quakers above all Kings and Princes Popes Emperors Saints and Angels The Mahumetans Quakers considered and found one The Quakers Gods upon Earth all other Beasts Reprobates Devils The leading of the Spirits debated The tryal of Revelations Reason sanctified and rightly improved The Spirit gotten of prayer The Quakers Spirit The omnisciency of the Quakers Their in humanityâ— and cruelty Knowing and doing all things The Light within 2 Cor. 4 God hath shined in our hearts The darkness within An Evidence that the Quakers spirit and a deceitful Heart are one The testimony of the Deputy Governour Câ—pt Cranston and others against W. E. slanderous rashness The great Cheater who cheats all Cheaters The great Magna Charta xi Iâ—a 59. The true Seed The railng spirit of the Quakers Their Cursing Mens and Womens Nakedness Their Womens Preaching Dumb Meetings The monstrous Singing of the Quakers The true Spirit willing to be examined by the Scripture and every mans Consceence The false and Iuglers endure not searching The Quakers cry is Light but they dare not come to it The two pretended Witnesses Reeve and Muggleton The Quakers would set the Spirit and Scripture at odds The 4th Position concerning the Scriptures A twofold owning of any scripture or Writing The Iews and Papists and Quakers all of them in effect deny the holy Scriptures The Quakers slighting the holy Scriptures in many horrible Particlars A dissembling Show of Quakers respecting the Scriptures An Irish Papist confessing the Truth The Scriptures miraculously preservd to be Gods standing outward Record witness The holy Scripture the only outward standing Rule Record like the Records in the Tower The Holp Scriptures are Gods Love-letters The admirable excellency of the Scripture Luthers Light Ioh 20. 2. considered A famous vision in Turkey The two Witnesses eat up the book of Script Tindal the first heavenly Translator burned 1 nail up this R. W. Ms. Ann. The Iews outward reverence to the Script The first Protestants affâ—ction to the Scripture The Scriptures put both Papists Quakers to flight Christs Martyrs or Witnesses love to Scriptures Iames Parnel his horrible sin Iudgment How the Quakers own Scripture 2. King 17. the Samaritans feared the Lord and yet feared him not
and having begun to present to them some Considerations about the True Christ and the false the True Spirit and the False and being cut of in the midest by sudden Prayer of one and the Singing of another and then by the Prayer of another and the sudden dissolving of the Assembly I resolved to try another way and to offer a fair and full Dispute according to Ed. Burrowes and therein G Foxes Offer in his large Epistle to Foxes Book To this Purpose I drew up my thoughts into fourteen Propositions and knowing that New-Port was the chief Town on Rode-Iland and Providence on the Main and that G. Fox had spake at both places and bewitched many with his Sorceries I sent this Paper following to G. Fox at Newport viz TO G. Fox or any other of my Countrey-men at New-Port who say they are the Apostles and Messengers of Christ Jesus In humble Confidence of the help of the Most High I offer to maintain in Publick against all Comers these 14 Propositions following to wit the first seven at New-Port and the other seven at Providence For the time When I refer it to G. Fox and his Friends at New-port Only I desire 1 To have three dayes Notice before the day you fix on 2 That without Interruption or many speaking at once the Conference may continue from Nine in the morning till 3 about four in the afternoon and 3 That if either of the seven Propositions be not finished in one day the Conference may continue and goe on some few hours the next day 4 That either of us Disputing shall have free uninterrupted liberty to speak in Answers and Replyes as much and as long as wee please and then give the Opposite the same Liberty That the whole may be managed with that Ingenuity and Humanity as such an Exercise by such Persons in such Conditions at such a Time ought to be managed and performed the Propositions are these that follow First That the People called Quakers are not true Quakers according to the holy Scriptures 2 That the Christ they profess is not the True Lord Jesus Christ. 3 That the Spirit by which they are acted is not the Spirit os God 4 That they doe not own the holy Scriptures 5 Their Principles and Professions are full of Contradictions and Hypocrisies 6 That their Religion is not only an Heresy in the matters of Worship but also in the Doctrines of Repentance Faith c 7 Their Religion is but a confused mixture of Popery Armineanisme Socineanisme Judaisme c. 8 The People called Quakers in effect hold no God no Christ no Spirit no Angel no Devil no Resurrection no Judgment no Heaven no Hell but what is in man 9 All that their Religion requires externall and internall to make Converts and Proselites amounts to no more than what a Reprobate may easily attain unto and perform 10 That the Popes of Rome doe not swell with and exercise a greater Pride then the Quakers Spirit hath exprest and doth aspire unto although many truly humble Soules may be captivated amongst them as may be in other Religions 11 The Quakers Religion is more obstructive and destructive to the Conversion and Salvation of the Souls of People then most of the Religions this day extant in the world 12 The Sufferings of the Quakers are no true evidence of the Truth of their Religion 13 That their many Books and writings are extremely Poor Lame Naked and sweld up only with high Titles and words of Boasting and Vapour 4 14. That the Spirit of their Religion tends mainly 1 To reduce Persons from Civility to Barbarisme 3 To an Arbetratry Goverment and the Dictates and Decrees of that sudden Spirit that acts them 3 To a sudden cutting off of People yea of Kings and Princes opposing them 4 To as fiery Persecutions for matters of Religion and Conscience as hath been or can be practised by any Hunters or Persecutors in the world Under these forementioned Heads if the Spirit of the Quakers dare civilly to Argue will be opened many of the Popish Protestant Jewish and Quakers Positions which cannot here be mentioned in the Dispute if God please they must be alleadged and the Examination left to every persons Conscience as they will answer to God at their own Perills in the great day approaching Roger Williams THis Paper above-said I sent inclosed in a Letter to my kind friend Capt. Cranston Deputy Governour of the Colony that being such a publick person he might timely be informed of such a publick Assembly and as also might vouchsafe as afterwards he carefully did to afford his Countenance and Assistance to such Peaceable and Pious Exercises But before the Boat went down with the Letter aforesaid from Providence to Newport I sent a Copy of my Positions to a Neighbour I T. whom I heard was inclining to them He takes a Copy of them and reads them in their Meeting before Iohn Crosman Master of the Boat one of them also who presently the same hour called me Blind Sot in the open Street upbraiding me how I durst send my 14 Lyes to such a man as G. Fox one of them called him the eternall Son of God so that before my Letter went to Newport which Crosman carried by Letters Crosman his and other Relations all was known even long before my Letters were opened or delivered to the Deputy Governour For in the Iunto of the Foxians at Newport it was concluded for Infallible Reasons that His Holiness G. Fox should withdraw seeing there was such a Knot of the Apostles of Christ Jesus now at Newport together especially Iohn Stubs a man knowing the Greek and Hebrew Therefore that it might appear that such a Nehemiah as he would not fly it was 5 agreed that my Letters should not be delivered to the Deputy Governour untill G. Fox was gone so that it might be truly said that he never saw the Paper which I sent unto him I had a touch of this Leger de main trick in our Dispute at Newport and the Deputy Governour did publickly testifie that my Letters to him were dated the 13 of Iuly which he said he wondered at but were not brought to him untill the 26th of the said Moneth and untill G. Fox was some hours departed Iohn Burniat profest that that he knew nothing of the detaining of the Letters only he knew that G. Fox never saw my Paper G. F. supposed I would be forced to be as plain in my Proofs as I was in my Positions He knew that I was furnished with Artillery out of his own Writings He saw what Consequences would roll down the mountaines upon him from his proud and Insolent yet poor and bald Writings and how far some of his present practices were fallen out with his Writings and therefore this old Fox thought it best to run for it and leave the work to his Iourney-men and Chaplains to perform in his absence for him
Before I come to Transactions between those three left behind him Iohn Stubs Iohn Burnet William Edmundson and my self I think fit to tell the Reader what a preparatory Conflict the most holy and only Wise Lord was pleased to exercise me with before I came to the Publick My former antient Neighbour and friend I. T. being bit by such infectious Teeth himself fell on me as a man would fall upon a Toad or Serpent and sent me this following Letter notwithstanding he was but newly bitten by them and for forty yeares pretended no small love and respect to God and me He first gave fire upon me in this following Letter Providence 18. 5. 72. Roger Williams THy Scurrilous Paper in thy Propositions to G. Fox and others who in scorn are called Quakers I advise thee to refrain any further publishing thereof and as it is written keep thee far from an evill matter thy paper being full fraught with impudent Lyes and Slanders with high flown airy imaginations which if thou shouldst live the dayes of Methuselah thou couldst not perform In Love to thy Person and Name 6 which ought to be precious I advise thee not upon a sudden motion as thou termest us to act by but from the spirit of Truth and tender love unto thy soul which Spirit by thy writing appears thou art a stranger to Consider thy latter end least with Cardinal Mazarin thou cry out in a dying hour Oh my poor Soul what will become of thee whither art thou a going And said if he should longer have lived he would leave the Court and be a Capuchin Time is precious Repent Repent and mind the manifestation of the Spirit which is given to every one to profit withall and knocks at the door of thy Heart for entrance which being rejected will be thy Condemation If thou rejectest this my faithfull witness for the Lord I then say with John in the Revelation let him that is filthy be be filthy still and so remaines thy friend and Neighbour I. T. Having read this Letter and knowing this my Neighbour of late to have declined much from his former profession of Godli ness and many wayes by his Loosness had grieved my Soul I wondered not much at his Lines though now much unexpected of him as knowing the Quakers spirit to be a ready Ditch or Gulfe that readily sucks and draws into it Soules afrighted easily to skin over their Sores Proud and Self-conceited ones who gladly close with the Spirit of and Children of Pride and Loose fading Professors of which sort the Quakers Meetings do much consist as not being able to walk close with God not daring to turn wholy Profane or Atheists and so daube up the breach with untempered Morter the wild and foolish notions of the Devils Whisperings under the cloak of the immediate Inspirations of Gods holy and heavenly Spirit Many thoughts I had to pass by his Affronts and Insultations But considering that it was not my Name not worth the while but the most High Eternall Majesty and his most holy Spirit thus fouly pierced and debased I return'd this Answer following My ancient loving Friend IF you pluck out the eyes of your Understanding Profession and Experience yet through the mercy of the Father of Lights and Mercyes I cannot do so with mine You tell me my Paper to G. Fox is Scurrilous c. full fraught with 7 Impudent Lyes and Slanders c. And you say you write in Love from the Spirit of Truth to which you say I am a stranger You mind mee of Death c. and bid me Repent Repent or else be filthy still and be damned To which I will not Answer as G. Fox answered H. Wrights Paper with a scornfull and shamefull Silence Thus I say in generall you are my Witness that I have long said with David and I humbly hope have made it good I hate and abhor Lying but thy Law do I love for which I have lost in my time something c If I had not loved his Law and abhorred Lyes I had long ere this bowed down against my Conscience yea I had fired the Countrey ahout this barbarous Land as some in this Colony have done I had murthered the Indians and English by the Powder and Liquor trade to which you know I had Temptation as much as your self or any others in N. England but I loved the Name of God For your self if the God of heaven have terrified your Soul which I believe is the case of most Quakers and of the Devils themselves and made it tremble at the Wrath to come you must not think to run from his flaming Eyes and Hand as Adam amongst the Thickets you cannot talk of Mercy without a way of Satisfaction to an insinite Justice Who payes the Old Score It is impossible that all created Powers in Heaven or Earth can discharge for one sinfull Thought There must be an Equivalent discharge not by filthy Rags and menstruous Clouts of our own Holiness which must he thought of before we can say We can sin no more against God than he can sin against us as you know who Blasphemously and Horribly maintain it In your lines I pray you to Consider First Your Irrationality for how can you imagine that a serious Christian in humble Considence of the of the mercifull Presence and gracious Assistance of Gods holy Spirit and of no little Afsliction and Suffering should be so easily stird as a Rock with a Feather by your bare crying Repent Repent or be Damned hearken to the Light within thee c. 2. Can Reason imagine that after much strugling within my self and the Birth of my Propositions and Resolutions that I can so suddenly strike Sail and bear up and immediately 8 Stifle and Smother and Burn my Conceptions and Resolutions as soon as I hear your simple and childish spirit Countermand me 3. Is it not unmanly Childish and effeminate to cry out a Scurrilous paper Lyes Lyes impudent Slanders .c. and yet give me not one Reason or one Scripture against any one of them Is it not too like the irrationall and brutish Answer of Humphrey Norton to a sober and Sollid Paper of Thomas Olnys sen. crying out Lyes Lyes 224 Lyes without any serious Examination of Particulars 2. I charge your Lines with Impiety where you infer that the most holy Spirit from that Scripture The manifestation of the Spirit .c. is poured forth upon every Individuall person in the World Did the Oyl most precious and holy the holy Ointments and the Blood in the Law respect the whole world or the Messiah the anointed and his Members Christians or anointed also Was not 1. Cor. 12. written to the Christians or Saints gathered into the Christian slock or Congregation at Corinth unto whome the Father of Spirits as in that place vouchsafeth those three heavenly Favours 1. Gifts which he shews there to be different 2. Administrations
Ministeryes or Offices 3. Operations Works or Successes all wrought in the Saints by the holy Spirit for the Glory of the same Father Lord and Spirit the mutual comfort and edifing of the Saints yea and for the Convicting and drawing of other poor Sinners out of the World to God The Lord mercifully awaken your Souls to the Love of God and the Love of his holy Truth for the not beleiving of which but the profane playing with it the most high and righteous Judge of the whole world in a way of Iudicial Sentence delivers up poor Souls to believe Lyes and that so strongly as to give their bodyes to be burned for them The Papists catch hold upon a Letter This is my body You as simply as doe the Generalists catch hold upon the Letter All every man that comes into the world .c. whereas the Scope and Connection in all writings and in all matters in the world are rationally to be minded The Sence and Meaning is in all Speech and Writing in our own and other Languages the very Speech or Writing it self These Words All and every one in our own and other Tongues 9 are often used figuratively it is so all the Scripture over and thrice in one verse Colloss 1. 28. where Reason cannot imagine that Paul did literally and individually admonish every man teach every man and present every man that comes into the world perfect in Christ Jesus which could not cannot possibly be true without another Sence and Exposition then the words literally hold out 4 Again you are dangerously bold to say that you write from the Spirit of Truth wherein you Father these your childish Irrationalityes your profaning of the holy Majesty of God his holy Scriptures and writings and your rash Judging and Examining of others upon the holy Spirit of God But I do humbly hope to evince that the Spirit you boast of is so far from the Spirit of God that it falls beneath the foot of a sober and well grounded Humanity At present I only Instance in that whorish and monstrous act of your Women and Maidens stripping themselves stark naked by your Spirit and with a face of brass coming into the open streets and publick Congregations of Men and Youths This Spirit though defended by G. Fox and others is such a piece of unnaturall and bruitish Impudence that I cannot hear of the like amongst Jews or Gentiles yea not amongst the most Savage Base and Barbarous of them all all Circumstances considered 5. In the last place I observe your Fickleness and Inconstancy what and how often have I heard you speak of the Chief of the Quakers now at Newport How lately and how much have you uttered of John Crosman his Cross and froward spirit even since he pretended the Spirit yea how inhumane and injurious to your self in the way of his Calling now all on a sudden for I heard but little untill I saw your Lines you are got up into the lofty Chair of Judging and ready to say God I thank thee I am not as this Publican I beseech the Lord to make you savingly to remember that Word God resisteth that is sets himself in Hostility against the Proud but he giveth Grace unto the Lowly so prayes your old unworthy Friend R. W. Providence 18th 5th 72. I had hoped that I had Conjur'd down at least for the present that Waspish spirit but he flyes out against me within a few dayes in this second Letter following 10 Providence 23. 5. 75. ANcient Friend and Acquaintance I read thy Note four dayes after the subscribing it that so thy Councellors might throughly be informed of thy continued Zeal in a dangerous Case What I write to thee in Love hath a contrary effect in thy Spirit being so prejudiced against us according to the Proverb Nothing is well spoken that is not well taken Upon Discourse thou didst say the Quakers could not be believed on their Words or Writings having a secret Reservation within them which gives me to conclude that wee are Iudged before wee Speak For my charging upon thee Slanders and Lyes Examine but thy Positions which will make manifest what I say As for the Terror which thou speakest of c. I leave it to thee to consider what thou art about least thou be called to Account for it before thou art ready As for charging me with Irrationality for not alleadging Scripture for what I write yet I alleadged three Scriptures one of which thou wrestest adding what I wrote not so that if I had urged more I should have had the like Catching But we both must come to give an Account of what is done in the Body In this my Letter thou mayest see my witnessing against most of thy Slanderous Propositions Concerning the Spirits manifestations 1 Cor. 12. 13. I freely consent that they were the Saints by Calling who are there Considered As thou alleadgest the Papists Catch at a word This is my body so we catch at a word All and misapply Scripture so that I perceive thou hast not a Guide to thy mind but utterest thine own Conceivings John 3. 16. The Promise is to them that Believe and not to All. Again Thou findest fault with my rash judging thee and abusing Scripture Take it to thy self for the word Damning thou foistest in thy self neither dare I pass Sentence of Damnation upon any For Iudgment belongeth to the Lord and we must stand or fall to our own Master As for my Fickleness and Inconstancy Lay thy hand upon thy mouth and Consider thy Windings and Turnings in thy Iudgment and Practice how thankfull thou wast to J. Burnet whome thou highly commendest after thou camest home and now reproachest the Truth which then thou assentest to and in thy 14 Positions thou hintest by thy wicked Surmises what the sudden spirit of the Quakers is to take away the Lives of Kings .c. but I told thee in my first Letter thou art a stranger to that holy Spirit we act by But further thy Malice appeareth in going to one thou saidst that 11 if the spirit of the Governour were to cut of his head he must doe it Call to mind what thou didst to thy peaceable Neighbours seeking their Blood crying out Treason when the Court discerned thy Blood-thirsty spirit which thy friends at Newport were ashamed of and thy Accusations proved Invalid How childish didst thou act to swear against One when another told thee of somewhat spoken to allay thy fury against William Harris Call to mind thy Books written and see thy Fickleness wanting a Guid to thy mind being for and against Persecution Thou chargest me to have gotten into the Chair of Iudging thy two Scripts I return upon thy self Physitian heal thy self The Wisdom of man puffeth up but the Wisdom of God humbleth that God may be all in all I desire thee to look back to thy Lines and where thou mentionest the Satisfaction of infinite
Justice who payes the old score .c. Also to consider my Irrationality that thy great Education great Search .c. as also thy great Travels and Struglings to bring forth thy Positions all being in thine own will and in the Apostacy wherin the great Whore hath made all Nations drunk with her Fornications which the Lord will in his Time consume with the breath of his mouth I know thou hast undertaken a great Burthen in Challenging G. Fox to answer thy Positions I wish thee to provide thy Armour of Proof as Golias that defied the Army of Israel G. Fox is furnished with that Armour that thou hast no skill to make use of having also the Sword of the Spirit to cut down all thy airy Imaginations Therefore cease from further troubling thee a Word to the Wise is Sufficient if thou haue a heart to make use of it thy Friend and Neigbour I. T. To this Second Letter I Replied in this following NEighbour in this your second Letter misdated as well as mine you pass by many Particulars which I wrote concerning G. Fox Hump. Norton your self and the stripping your Women Stark naked in publick c. you insist upon my Irrationall dealing 2. For your charging my Positions to be Lyes and Impudent Slanders without giving me one Scripture or Reason to prove them so and here you say For my charging upon thee Lyes and Slanders examine but thy Positions which will make manifest what I say But is this any more Rationall or Manlike or is it not bruitish to say you are a Lyar because you are a Lyar 12 Or you are a Lyar because you say these Positions are true and offer to prove them It is a Man-like spirit to lead a Beast with an Halter but a Man with Reason but to lead or drive a Man with an Halter or Cudgel and not with a Reason in Naturalls and Rationalls most of all in Spirittalls is not the Spirit of God nor of Humanity For what will my Chargings and Censures and Clamors and Cursings and Damnings effect and beget upon a rationall Soul without a proof of Reason but an Opinion of my wicked false bruitish and irrationall spirit 3. T is true in your Exhortation to me you bid me hearken to the Manifestation of the Spirit which is given to every man c. This I acknowledg Scripture You say I wrested and added to an other Scripture but you mention it not so I am in the dark what you mean And for this of the Manifestation of the Spirit your self now consent to me that it was spoken to the Saints or Christians at Corinth and therefore I spake true in saying that as to my Positions by you call'd Impudent Lyes and Slanders you gave me not then nor now any one Scripture or Reason to prove any one of my Positions to be so 4. As to Iohn Burnet I said before him and afterwards that he delivered many Truths yet withall I then at the same time in their Publick Assembly at Newport I told them that it lay upon them to manifest to their own Souls and others 1. That their Christ was true 2. That their Spirit was Gods and the rather because they were charged with denying the Institutions of Christ Iesus and with the setting up of many Will-worships as Preaching of Women c. And I went on purpose to Discourse of these matters this being the time of their Generall Assembly and a great Concourse I was stopt by the sudden praying of the Governour 's Wife who also told me of her asking her husband at home meaning Christ which I had toucht upon I rose up and said if a man had so alleadged I would have answered him But I would not Countenance so much the violation of Gods Order in making a Reply to a Woman in Publick Hereupon I. Nicols stood up and said In Christ Iesus neither male or female c. I was Replying to him and to I. Burnets Speech also concerning their Spirit but I was stopt by Iohn Burnets sudden falling to Prayer and dismissing the Assembly I resolved with Gods help to be Patient and Civill and so I ceased not seing a willingness in them for me to proceed which experience made me not to trouble 13 G. Fox and the Assembly at Providence but rather to make a fair and Solemn offer of Dispute about these matters so that it is notorioufly false that I Owned or Countenanced any of their Opinions 5 You tell me of my foisting in that word Damning and I tell you that those words of Condemnation and Damnation are all one in your Greek and Latine and English and other Languages So that in your telling me if I hearken not to you it will be my Condemnation you all one tell mee it will be my Damnation There are two Damnations one which all Mankind is under He that believeth not is condemned already the other that finall Sentence Goe ye Cursed my Charity bids judge that you meant not the latter But my Knowledg tells me amongst Iews and Turks Papists and Protestants and Pagans with all of which I have conversed I never met with such a Judging Censuring Reviling spirit as is the spirit of the Quakers 6. As to my saying in my 14th Position that the spirit of the Quakers tends to a sudden Cutting off of people yea Kings and Princes It lyes upon me to prove it and you do only upbraid me with it but offer no disproof nor can you or any other evade it when the Roots of Affairs and Actions are dig'd up and examined 7. Next you cry out against my Blood-thirsty spirit in William Harris his Case and I answer that it is not the sign nor the part of Loyall and gratefull subjects having received such wonderfull Favours and Priviledges from so mighty a Monarch so to Slight and damn to Null and make void such Royall Grace and Favour Is it not high and monstrous abominable Presumption for any man to quarrel with Soveraign Majesty for granting Favour and Mercy to the Souls and Bodyes of their Subjects which he ought to doe even in Conscience to God and for dispensing with Laws made for Superstitions and Oppressions I think you have been an Officer your self in a Corporation in England I question how you durst then or durst now omit to take Cognizance of such Actings against your Corporations safety and the Honour and royall supream Authority of his Majesty I was in place and ingaged more than others to maintain the righteous splendor of the Kings Crown and Majesty and Prerogative and the Colonyes safety peace and Liberty and yet I acted not without the Counsel and Concurrence of all the rest of the 14 Magistrates who did no more but what belonged to our Duty and Alleagiance as faithfull Officers to his Majesty and this Colony under him nor did we any more then Necessity and common Prudence compeld us to for who knoweth what after Reckonings may befall
against a Blasphemer of your gods and godesses I believe that every Hair of mine head and every Minute of my Life is in the mercifull hand of the Father of Spirits I doe not simply and blasphemously think as G. F. that my Soul is a piece or part of God nor can I as the unbelieving Quakers slight the Rising of my body Steven fell asleep and so among Stones or whatever his holy Wisdom pleaseth I humbly hope shall I and rise again in the Morning R. W. Prouidence July 30. 1672. so called HItherto gentle Reader have been the Skirmishings of my Forlorn-Hope I hasten now to the relation of the main Battle for after this my third Letter and Answer I heard no more of that foul and slanderous spirit I should rejoice to be instrumentall to his casting out of my ancient friend I T. however he pluckt in his horns as G Fox himself did and I have yet heard no further Within some few dayes after that our Deputy Governour had 23 delivered my Paper to them the strange Quakers as was agreed with G. Fox came to Providence Iohn Stubs Iohn Burnet and others and came to my house six or seven together their Salutations were like the meetings of their dumb spirit in silence I bid them welcome .c. Iohn Stubs began and said they had received a Paper from me and they came to me to tell me that they accepted my Offer and that they had appointed according to the liberty given them by my self in my Paper the 9th of the present August to be the day at Newport I told them they were welcome and the more welcome because they brought me tidings of their Resolution for I longed for Opportunityes of such Exercises to which I thought the most High invited us by our precious Libertyes .c. I added that my Paper was in the first place directed to G. Fox but they suddenly catcht at my word and Iohn Burnet told me that G. Fox was departed before my Letters were opened and that G. Fox never saw my Paper and probably as afterward in the dispute he spake honestlie not knowing the Mistery Iohn Stubs added that my Paper gave liberty to G. Fox or his friends I saiâ— therefore I would not fail if God pleased to meet them at the place and by nine in the morning on the day they had appointed They departed after drink offered and accepted by some but the next morning being the first of the Week I sent them word in writing that diverse of our Neighbours were grieved that the Conference should be carried away from Providence to Newport wholly as some of them had also spoken I told them that the accepting of my Proffer necessarily included the Conference about the latter seven at Providence I told them their Consciences and Credits lay on it and therefore desired them to six on a day for the dispute of the latter seven at Providence before their departure hence This Paper was delivered to one of their Company in the room where they were together but whither on purpose or as t is possible by mistake they say the Paper was lost so receiving no Answer from them I late in the evening sent them another writing signifiing that I could not hold my self ingaged to meet them at Newport about the first seven without their promise of discussing the latter seven at Providence Then they wrote to me that I had seemed willing and that they had given notice and the Countrey would come in therefore they challenged me to appear and prove my malicious 24 and bitter charges against them and withall promised that upon the finishing of the first seven at Newport some of them would give me a meeting a Providence .c. Upon the receipt of this I sent them a third writing signifiing that I rested in their Promise and therefore if God pleased I would not fail to be with them at the time and place appointed And God graciously assisted me in rowing all day with my old bones so that I got to Newport toward the Midnight before the morning appointed Then I sent them a fourth Paper with a Copie of my first that miscaried as they said and signified to them that it would be convenient to agree about some Order of Transition or passing from one position to another as also since they were many and I but One I presumed their Reason told them that I expected but One at once and that if another desired to speak the first should hold his peace as also I signified that some were scrupulous of going into the Quakers Meeting-house and therfore I desired some thoughts about it they thought it convenient to send H. Bull to request me to goe to his house to them I went they urged the Capaciousness and Conveniency of their house and I told such as scrupled that it was one thing to goe into a Iewish Synagogue or a Popish Chappell to worship or countenance their Worships another thing to Profess and Contest against them in which respect Paul disputed many dayes in the Iewes Synagogues against them and I could freelie goe into the Popes Chappel to dispute against the Pope and his Worship I knew our aged Governour Mr. Nich. Easton other Magistrates of their judgment would be there so the Civill Peace maintained I had a strange assurance given in to my spirit from God in answer to my poor requests .c. viz that by Moderation and Patience I should conquer their Immoderations and impatiencies I therefore thought it in vain to spend time about a Moderatour T is true they gave me no Answer either by Speech or writing concerning their coming on me one at once but to their seeming great advantage they constantly fell on me all at once and one of them William Edmundson with grievous Language and insulting When I came into the place aforesaid I found three able and noted preachers amongst them viz Iohn Stubs Iohn Burnet William Edmunson sitting together on an high Bench with some of the Magistrates of their Judgment with them I had heard 25 that Iohn Stubs was learned in the Hebrew and the Greek and I found him so as for Iohn Burnet I found him to be of a moderate Spirit and a very able Speaker The third W. Edmundson was newly come as was said from Virginia and he proved the Chief Speaker a man not so able nor so moderate as the other two For the two first would speak Argument and discuss and produce Scripture but William Edmundson was very ignorant in the Scripture or any other Learning He had been a souldier in the late warres a stout portly man of a great voice and fit to make a Bragadocia as he did and a constant exercise meerly of my Patience he would often Vapour and preach long and when I had patiently waited till the Gust was over and began to speak then would he stop my mouth with a
many foul lyes in their former deceived and deceiving Leaders and I was the more confirmed in my thoughts when I saw their foul spirit so transport them not only in lying Doctrines but lying Quakings and Tremblings lying preaching through the Streets Repent Repent and lying and abominable Nakedness of men and women untill their ugly Child and Daughter Rantisme rose from their Bowels and practised Nakedness of men and women in the Streets and in their religious Meetings as Adamites when it is notorioufly known they fell into many uncleannesses and Adulteryes To my face and to the world in print they maintaind there were no sins in them Saying That the Saints could not sin and God did all and was all and they were as pure as Adam and God himself this is known by the Writings extant c. 2. Again I said unto my Antagonists that the manner of these quakings and shakings were not as of those quakings and tremblings of David Moses and the Corinths receiving Titus with Trembling or the working out Salvation with Fear and Trembling for that may many wayes be proved to be the Soul and Spirit out of a holy Aw and Dread of the Majesty of Heaven with whome we have to deal who only can pitty and help us in our deplorable and forlorn conditions Hee it is who worketh the Will and the Deed and therefore with deep impressions of Aw and Dread we ought to attend upon all his holy meanes appointed wherein as of old in the Tabernacle and Temple he hath promised to come to us Beside as it is naturall for the Body to tremble when the mind doth as we see in many Persons in the beginning of a Battle or going over a deep Water or going to suffer Death or looking over a high Clift into the sea c. So when the Bodies of those holy men or any now doe so tremble Experience proves it that it is no ordinary motion but extraordinary and upon extraordinary occasions and those holy and heavenly Occasions as may be instanced But the quaking and shaking motions of the Quakers as I shall prove they proceeded not from those holie Affections 29 proper to Gods Children so also they were horrid and monstrous casting their bodies into horrid and monstrous motions and Gestures which mine eyes have seen Besides the abundance of notorious Instances what strange horrid motions are those which Theora Iohn as he madly calls himself and Iohn Toldervy were tost and tumbled up and down with which cannot be imagined to proceed from the holy Spirit of God but from Sathan to delude and cheat poor sinners with To this purpose I told them at the first coming of this spirit to London and Westminster some Parliament men told me that themselves went to one of the Quakers Meetings about Charing Cross but were so affrighted with the shaking of their own bodies and of their Chairs and Stooles under them that they could never again be got into their Assemblyes I added that such Shakings Motions Extasies c. were known to be the frequent workings of Sathan upon his Servants in all ages Such were the furious motions of Baals Preists the motions of the Possessed mentioned in the Gospells and other Historyes and known to be amongst the Barbarians our Neighbours about this time Iohn Burnet and William Edmunson rose up and said that I had laid many deep and heavy Charges upon the people of the Lord which I should never be able to prove I had denied them to be Christians and so had wronged the good Spirit of God in them and their Profession of worshipping God in the Spirit Yea I had taken away their being as men out of the World as a dangerous People to Nations and Kingdomes Common-weales yea to Kings Princes and so not fit to live amongst men in the World These Speeches were often uttered and enlarged by one or other of them and that with Zeal and Passion in W. Edmunson I waited patiently till these Gusts of their angry Spirit was over and then I told them I had not wronged them in a tittle But by the help of the most High I would make all good against them toen leave it to every mans and womens Soul to judge at their own Perill About this time Iohn Stubs alleadged that of Paul Phil 2. Work out salvatson with fear and Trembling I replyed I in no way opposed the awfull and most serious impressions of Gods Majesty in all his appearances ordinances upon the Soules and Spirits yea and Bodyes of Gods Children 30 But I denied that those places to the Corinthians and Philippians concerned any such bodily shakings and quakings as we now debated Beside I said if Quaking and Trembling were a Command and an Ordinance and institution of God to be practised then was it constantly to be practised as the Iewes say of Cain that the Mark which God set upon him was a constant Trembling Or if not alwayes yet alwayes in Worship or if not alwayes in Worship yet at some certain times But the plain truth is the Devill will be Gods Ape in most things He subornes and substitutes a bastard Quaking and Trembling of the body in Imitation of David Moses c. on purpose to thrust out the true Fear and Trembling which ought to be constantly in us raising up all our Affections and all within us to a due sence of the Terror of the Lord the dreadfulness of our Danger and the wonder of our Deliverance which we can never make too sure from sin and wrath to come to all eternity I also declared that the most High and holy one was free as he pleased to cause the trembling of the Soules of his People to over flow with influence upon their Bodyes also asin Moses David Daniel Habakkuk Paul c. this is like to be in some extraordinary cases and Conversions or turnings to God as Paul's was and that especially in bringing of great Sinners or old Sinners unto himself c. There were some few Speeches some from the Governour and his Wife and some few others that spake some in favor of and some against the Quakers but neither did my Opposites nor I so far attend them as to engage with them excepting some Turnes that were between William Edmunson and William Hitchcock an Inhabitaut of Newport who as others did witnessed against their upbraiding me with my age Old man Old man c. as also for their Interruptions Mine own Brother Mr Robert Williams School-Master in Newport desired to speak nor he nor others dissenting from them could be permitted except they would set their hands to my Paper My Brother unknown to me put in a paper to them which he took the liberty to read desiring that two things might be answered by the Quakers 1. The matter of the true sence of Sin as Sin 2. Of the Materiallity of such a Person as the Lord Iesus
Christ and the materiallity of his 31 Bloudshedding This Paper they took but waved it W. Edmunson openly charged me with breach of Covenant viz. That if any would speak on my behalf they should set their hand to my Propositions T is true it was desired by one of them at my house at Providence that if any joined with me they should subscribe to my Paper But I answered that I was alone in the Business I had not consulted with any others but the God of heaven himself so that I denied vehemently that there was any such agreement or any colour for it Besides it was ridiculous to put either such a Bar and Limit upon any mans spirit and least of all upon Gods Spirit viz that no man should desire leave to object or querie c. except first he would subscribe my Proposalls But I took the boldness justly to charg them with palpable and gross Partiality viz. that W. Hitchcock and others opposing or dissenting might not speak but W. Harris W. Dyar or any favouring of them might speak without exception because all that speak for their ptetended light it must be supposed that they speak from the Spirit of God himself others out of Ignorance Malice and Envy this will appear more afterward However there were these few debates about the liberty of speech in the Auditory and By-standers and the Quakers deniall and enjoining of Subscription yet the most High Father of Spirits did so compose all spirits that it was wonderfull that such Opposites should goe through such a work and Conslict all day untill night without more Interruptions and Disturbances I was ready and waited to put forth my third Reason to prove they were not true Christian Quakers it was from Isai. 66. To this man will I look that is poor and contrite and trembleth at my Word I told them that G. Fox in his Book all along was so far from trembling at the Word of God in the holy Writings or Scriptures that he could not endure they should have that name or be once called the Word of God T is true I know his pretence that Christ Iesus is called the Word of God Rev. 19. But I know t is true also that he grants the Scriptures to be true and inspired from the holy Spirit of God and to be Gods words though not his Word Well to pass by the simplicity of the Distinction and let us take what he grants and is it not prodigious and monstrous Contempt that these holy Words this holy Book and Writing of God should be so undervalued and slighted yea vilified 32 and nullified if compar'd with their pretended new found Light within them which was say they before the Scriptures and gave forth the Scriptures and therefore was above the Scriptures and gave forth the Scriptures and therefore was above the Scriptures and therefore is not judged or tried by the Scriptures but they by it Yea and this light must be in every one of mankind in the whole World Hence it was that these holy Writings were so disused in their own private Readings in their Publick Worship and in their Families I told them God was little beholding to the Pope and the Quakers for their humble Reverence and great Affection to his holy Letters Declarations and Proclamations The Pope had his Infallibility as well as they his immediate Inspirations as well as they They both owned and yet did not owne the holy Scriptures the Pope and they only must interpret Scriptures they only give the Sence they only judge all Controversies yea they dispence with the Scriptures and if they were quite lost and burn'd and not a Copy of them left in the World yet there were no loss but a good Turn a good Riddance for then the Pope and the Quakers Infallible spirit and its immediate Inspirations would be more esteemed and set by I produced an Instance of one Thurston an Apostle of theirs who came to Providence with extraordinary long hair hanging over his shoulders It was so long that an aged Soul captivated for present amongst them the wife of C.S. demanded of him why he ware it so long since Nature it self did teach it to be a shame for a man to wear long Hair as the holy Scripture affirmed He would not say He car'd not what Nature or the holy Scriptures said but he said as much in effect as she told me her self and may with true fear and trembling still think on it viz. when that God that bid me wear it bids me cut it off the will I cut it off As if he would say what tell you us of the teachings of Nature as we see in that monstrous case of their womens Nakedness or what tell you me of Scripture I have a Light within me that made that Light was before it gave it forth is above it This mans hair was so offensive and odious that meeting of me and saying Fear the Lord God I could not but answer him in these words viz. What God dost thou mean a Ruffians God alluding to that of Paul to Titus They profess to know God but in their Works they deny him 33 I told them the rage of the Devill in all Ages had been most fierce against these heavenly Records in which the most gracious God and King out of the infinite depths of his Wisdome and Goodness had provided for the Ages and Generations to come the glorious Appearances of the eternall Invisible King in the former Generations of mankind from the Creation of the World as also the Wonders yet to be finished till time should be no more all which were in the holy Scriptures I remembred them of a profane bloudy Wretch in Ireland who in the late horrid Massacre hunting among other bloudie Wolves after the Goods and Lives of the Protestants found a Bible and with Indignation the same which I believe is in most Papists and Quakers he flung it into the Kennell and stampt upon it with his feet saying A Plague of God take this Book this hath caused all the Quarrels among us Whether I spake all these Particulars at one individuall time or Turn I cannot clearly remember only I am certain thus I spake and more My Opposites once and again had Turnes of Speech but still the only sum of all was that they owned the Scripture but yet the Spirit that gave it forth was above it withall they urged that I could not prove where in the Scripture the Scripture was called the Word of God I Answered That many things were infallibly so and true although not in so many Terms and Words mentioned But yet there were abundance of Scriptures wherin the Prophets did expresly say Thus saith the Lord The Word of the Lord came unto me and Hebr. 1. The Lord spake diverse wayes and at diverse times in the Prophets but now he hath spoken by his Son Sure his Speech is his Word
Hence the Word of God is the Word preached as Paul 2 Thess. 1. Not as the word of man but as it is indeed the Word of God Act. 19 which preaching of the Word growing of the word were not competent and proper expressions to be affirmed of the perfon of the Lord Iesus especially I told them I would use the words of the Lord Iesus when he fought with the Devil that famous Combate Math. 4. No other Weapon did he use against him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is written and again It is written It is written here Christ Iesus quotes Dut 8. Man shall not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God where Moses and Christ Iesus affirm 34 that God hath many words contrary to what some Quakers hath affirmed to me saying that God hath no more words but one and Christ Iesus here affirmeth That every appearance and providence of God is a word proceeding out of the mouth of God as well as this holy Scripture he alleadged Though yet it is true that Christ Iesus is the Word or declared Mind of God incomparably above all his spoken or written or providentiall Words and Expressions He came out of the Bosome of the Eternal Father and brought the brightest Revelations of his eternal God-head Councels and therefore is most justly and eminently stiled the Word of God I urged that the Word or Words of God were Figurative Speeches for properly God had no Mouth nor Tongue nor Lips nor Heart nor Brains c. but as our Kings Majesty his Declaration touching Religion his royal Charters his Letters from Breda are often insisted on and urged by the Quakers as the word of a King though his writings contain many hundred words so it is with the King of Heaven his Scriptures and writings c. I had oft occasion to mention G. Fox and Ed. Burrowes their Book in Folio called The great Mystery c. upon which W Edmundson reproved me for speaking of G. Fox and E. Burrowes in scorn and derision so his words were I guest he took me as if I had scornfully intended G Fox in his Burrowes but I had openly purged my self protesting before the Lord that I had no such thought yet this Passage was the occasion of the Title of the Book For the finger of Gods most wise and holy Providence is often wonderfully seen in small unexpected inconsiderable Turns and Occasions In such poor shells oftimes may be found the Kernels of rich and usefull Observations Sure thought I Gods holy Finger is in it that G. Fox and Ed. Burrowes Men so qualified and named should so notorioufly conspire against the true Lord Iesus Christ in their dark and subtle hellish Contrivings and Imaginations It was also Gods overruling hand that VV. Edmundson should so upbraid me and first put the Conceit and thought of such a Consideration into me which I apprehended as Digitus Dei the finger of God directing and pointing me to so proper and pertinent an use and Application Thus the only Wise and Righteous King catcheth the craftiest Foxes in their own Burrowes and turns their proud Surmises Censures upon their own Pates This occasioneth me with Amaze 35 ment and Astonishment to cry out O God how deep are thy Being thy Attributes thy Providences thy Self and all thy wayes beyond our thoughts and finding out To proceed I had observed and prepared many Quotations out of G. Fox his Book but they desired not to hear them read as in the following dayes of Conference they were read by my continual importunate Urgings I say at first I could not get oportunity to insist upon some Particulars a Tast whereof I think now fit to present the Reader with In Page 155. of G. Foxes aforesaid Book he brings in one I Stallam their Opposite saying To say the Light in every man gave forth Scripture and will open Scripture to us is palpable Darkness and contradicts the Scripture G. Fox answers All be in utter Darkness and know not the Scripture untill they come to the Light that every man was in that gave forth Scripture for the Light lets them see to what it was spoken and Christ the end of them The english of that Answer is That every man that is all Mankind Men and Women if they will can give forth Scriptures or write holy Scriptures I know they call this Light God and Christ and Spirit the Covenant of God the Life Truth and Grace of God I asked them in publick Since this Light comes into this World in and with all Mankind whether it comes into them at the Conception or at the Birth or when else Whether it was in all Mankind before the coming and death of Christ Iesus or whether to those that are in the world since his coming or both Whether it be in the Understanding Will Memory Affections in any of them severally or lodgd in all of them jointly For it was a prodigious Fable to imagine such a Sun to shine in every Room of an house and yet none of the Inhabitants nor any that come into the house discern and see it Christ Iesus saith as the mouth is the heart is and before a true turning unto God we are in darkness we are darkness we hate the light of God and endure not to see it but wish there were no God no Father of Lights to discover and plague us for our dark Courses yet our Hearts are so cunning and cheating that they will tell us that we have Light and Christ and God within us and that we can speak and write holy Scripture not remembring that as Christ Iesus said of the Temple our hearts are Dens of Thieves and like painted Tombs full of dead mens bones and rottenness 36 untill a second Birth by the VVord and Spirit of Christ Iesus Again in the same Page G. Fox brings his Opposite saying And to say every mans Light is the true word of Prophecy is an old Fable no man shall be able to spell out a syllable of the Gospel by all that is written in a mans Heart This subtle Fox answers The Light that enlightens every man is Christ and the sure Word of Prophecy to him he shall find it In this Passage who can but see their horrible and simple profaning and wresting of plain Scripture Is it not clear as day to him that is not willingly blind that this word of prophecy in Peter is the Word which the Prophets spake and writ of Christ Iesus unto whome the spirit of God in Peter sends us as being a more sure and convincing word to us then that voice which Peter and Iohn affirmed that they heard from heaven in the Mount of Transfiguration But thus profanely and simply do others of them affirm this Light to be that Prophet which Moses wrote of Deut. 18. whereas the holy Spirit in Stephen Acts 7. applyes expresly that
Prophesie to the person of the Lord Iesus that God-man in one person whome Moses and Stephen preached the great Messiah or Christ the anointed Prophet Priest and King unto all that receive or believe in him Now diverse observing and publickly expressing how unsuitable it was that three of the ablest Speakers amongst them should Consult openly and whisper and utter themselves one immediately after each other and somtimes all together as one man against me W. Edmondson answered and excused it saying that it was mine own Paper which he often produced which exprest my Offer to make good my Positions against all Comers But I replyed once and again That as God is a God of Order and doth all things in Number Weight and Measure in most admirable Order and Method so I had thought that according as I writ and spake to them they would have had so much Ingenuity to conceive that nor I nor any man was so simple as to offer to Dispute with to oppose and to answer twenty or thirty or one hundred at once But thus like subtle and impudent Foxes and Iesuites they pleaded and practised from the beginning of the Conference unto the end of the 4th day resolving to make use of and like dying men by drowning to catch at any ridiculous Advantage though unchristian and uncivill But the truth is this and many other Discouragements and Disadvantages and Difficultyes the Lord Iesus graciously and faithfully 37 For his name sake enabled me to cut through otherwise I saw the Debate would not have held on so many Hours as it did Dayes I knew they had as much mind to this work no nor any guilty Soul in the world as Bears to be tyed to a stake to be baited and I must humbly declare and predicate it to the praise of the Father of mercyes and for the incouragement of others to be Patient for Christ Iesus sake that an hand from heaven caried me through to the end of each day and to the end of the whole business Sometimes I offered to proceed to an other Point but all this first day was spent upon the first Point of true and false Quakers For though many upon a sudden spake as Mr. Coddington Mr. Easton then Governour who spake sharply VVilliam Dyer VVilliam Harris and others against me yet I minded closely what my Antagonists vented who were placed on high in their Desk against me Iohn Stubs and Iohn Burnet were more sober and manly but VV. Edmundson who was the junior of three would speak all like Solomons foolish woman loud and clamorous simple and knowing nothing being in truth nothing but a flash of wit a Face of Brass and a Tongue set on fire from the Hell of Lyes and Fury One Instance here fell out for when I urged that it was not what man had within him already and brought into the world with him that made a true Quaker but the Spirit of God accompanying and blessing the Reading and Hearing of the writings of God preached and opened I said the Heart of man was shut up lockt and barr'd up in willing Ignorance and darkness until the finger of God in the use of those and other blessed meanes pick open in a more gentle way or break open by great afflictions and and terrours the Soul and Spirit of man I said that Paul preached the word by the River side but the Lord opened the heart of Lydia and while I was saying that It was not Paul nor Pauls Preaching nor the word that he preached at this word VV. Edmondson clamour'd out He speakes Blasphemy But it pleased God to move the heart of our Deputy-Governour Capt. Cranston justly and seasonably to witness against this Interruption saying Let him have liberty to make out his mind So I proceeded and said it may be VV. Edmnndson is offended as thinking I spoke against the word Christ but Christ Iesus knowes that I had no such thought but of the words which Paul spake And I added that it was not Lydia nor all her Light within her nor Paul nor 38 his Preaching nor the word nor words that he uttered but the Finger of Gods Spirit according to Election that set the word or words of Paul home opening her heart and not every heart shewing what free grace is against the Popish and Arminian and Foxians exalting of Cursed Nature and then it was that she being by the Lord turned she turned to attend apply to her soul the words which were spoken by Paul as a poor Rams-horn made use of in the hand of God Toward the end of the day VV. Edmondson fell into a long Invective how I had falsly slandered the People of God not only in this place but the whole Body of the People of the Lord called Quakers in all parts For said he we are a great people many thousands in England many thousands in London besides in Virginia and Barbadoes and other places and N-England And he and they said hast thou any more to say to make out thy Lyes against them I Answered as at other times that the Papists the common Protestants the Iews and the Mahumitans and Pagans c. fited the world with their Numbers and yet we jointly opposed them in Religious matters notwithstanding their innumerable numbers And as for more proof that they were not True Quakers and so truly Feariug and Trembling before God I told them I would produce an Argument that they were so far from being Christians that they were a to be exploded and abhorred of all Mankind as being fallen beneath the common temper and nature of the Humanity of men and women yea of the Savage and Barbarous in the world viz. their stripping stark naked their Men and Women and Maidens and passing along in publick places and Streets unto the Assemblyes of Men and Youths and so were beheld and gazed upon by them and this under a pretence of being stirred up by God as a Service or Worship unto God as an act of Christian Religion proceeding from the immediate moving of the most holy Spirit of God most glorious in purity and purity and holiness it self At first W. Edmundson seemed to make strange of the matter as if it could not be proved that any of their women should so appear in the Assemblyes of People I told them the matter of fact was so notorious that it would be loss of time and Impudence to question it being so fouly and openly practised both in Old and New England 39 Also I added further that G. Bishop of Bristow one of themselves in the second part of the Persecutions of New-England relates in print the names of two women in N-England that did so practice and he complains of N-England Persecution because those women suffered Whipping for those actions by the Courts and Officers of N-England Iohn Burnet said that the People called Quakers were a People known to abhor all Impurity and Uncleanness and the
Appearance of it and if any of their women should so practice they should condemn it in them yet nevertheless if it should please the Lord God to stir up any of his Daughters so to appear as a Sign and Testimony against the Nakedness of others they durst not condemn it Iohn Stubs said that they did condemn all immodest Appearances in women both in Behaviour and Gestures But if God stirred them up and commanded them to this service to discover the Nakedness of others they could not but acknowledge Gods hand and submit to it And he further added that it was a great Cross to a sober womans spirit so to act as well as an affliction and suffering to her body Iohn Stubs likewise alleadged the Prophet Isaiah as also did W. E. and the Sign of the Prophet Ezekiel and Iohn Stubs read the 20th of Isa. where Isaiah was commanded to goe naked for a Sign to the Egyptians and Ethyopians to prophesie and denounce that they also should go naked with their buttocks uncovered as the words are and this is said they a proof that the People of the Lord might be stirred up by God to such actions for Signs unto others I Answered that this was in the dayes of Figures and Signs Shadows and Ceremonyes And though this was G. Fox his Answer in his Book which I had there by me yet G. Fox throughout all this his Book in Folio turns of the Allegations and Arguments of many of his Opposites with this Answer to wit The Substance is come the Body is come Christ the End of the Law the End of the Command the End of the Scriptures the End of the Prophets and of all Signs and Shadows and Figures 2. Although it were so threatned that the Ethiopians and Egyptians should so goe totally and stark Naked and that Isaiah did so which is much questioned yet it is not to be questioned but that the Egyptians and Ethiopians in their flight would cover 40 their Secret parts with the first cloaths or raggs they could get as it is no question but the Prophet Isaiah did 3. The difference of Nakedness of Mankind and Womankind is very great in all Nations The Sex of Women is more fitted and framed by God for a Covering for Retiredness and keeping at home and for Modesty and Bashfulness nor do we ever read that ever God commanded such a thing to Women or that ever it came into his heart or that ever any Godly Woman did so practice there is no shadow or colour of Proof from the holy Scripture nor from any Civill and sober People no nor from the naked Barbarians themselves who though they suffer their Male Children to go naked till about seven years old yet cover they their Females from their birth T is true it is said in Brasil and other bruitish places some Savage bruits go so but they are Canibals Men-eaters c. and other Barbarians do not so except in Drunkenness and Madness They still answered that they would not Countenance any such Practice but if the Lord God so commanded his Sons and Daughters it must be obeyed I demanded of them how it should be known that it was the voice and command of God the God of Holiness and not the command of the unclean spirit for I told them that under that Cover that one of them might be so commanded and sent of God in such a posture and behaviour amongst men why might not ten or twenty yea all the women in this present Assembly be so stirred up as it were by the Spirit of God to the horror and amazement of the whole Countrey yea of the whole World They seemed to me to be Confounded with this Argumnet and weary to hear of it and not willing to speak to it I therefore took occasion my self to say that it was true in former Dispensations The Command of God came to Abraham to kill his own Child his son Isaac and this fact enjoined him did seem as horrible unnatural and cruel as this Nakeduess of the Women unwomanly and unnatural But 1. It was in the day and dispensation of such wonderfull Signs and figurative teachings unto men And 2. I said God did furnish them with a Spirit of discerning the true dream from the false the true voice from the false the voice of God from the voice of Sathan But in our day wherein God had altered his Dispensations and Revelations which he 41 used to the Fathers and had spoken to us by his Son and had left his mind both in the old and new Scriptures or Writings We have the example and President of the Lord Iesus that is to attend to the holy Scriptures only and to use the weapon of It is written it is written against Sathans immediate Inspirations and temptations Here W. Edmondson fel into a great heat against me and said that I spoke Blasphemy in saying that Abraham and the Saints then had a way and Spirit of discerning the Spirits which we had not implying that Gods Spirit was not the same He added that I had kept them long and had proved nothing and yet we had not done with the first Position I replyed that I had produced such Grounds as should never be shaken and that I presumed did appear to the Consciences of many and I heartily desired might also appear unto their Spirits Soules and Consciences Some of the Auditors spake to this Purpose especially W. Hitchcocks who insisted upon the Water Baptisme And thus by Gods Mercy and Patience the Discourse of the first day ended which very day was notable and significant as to the created Sun in the Heavens who in the midst of our Contest was eclipsed and hid his Face remarkably and preached aloud to us that although the true Lord Iesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness do suffer in his infinite wisdom and and Patience false Christs and false Prophets and Herod and Pontius Pilate and his enemies of all sorts Iewes and Gentiles to cloud his Face and Glory a little from the World and his own People yet he will break forth again in his eternal brightness splendor and glory When that heavenly young Martyr or Witness of Iesus Christ William Hunter was burnt at Burntwood in Essex it was a close and gloomy day but this gallant young Champion of Iesus Christ crying out aloud at the stake Son of God look on me Son of God shine upon me immediately that most wonderfull Light Fire of Heaven the Sun tore the clouds and brake forth and shined gloriously aud remarkably upon the face of this blessed Witness at the suffering of the flames of fire for Iesus his truth sake against the whorshi Principles of both the Papists Quakers and thus do the holy writings tel us that this most glorious light the Sun of Righteousness visibly appeared in his glorious and glorified Form and Shape to the visible eye of his servant Steven while he
humble Soul may see how this subtle Traytor under the golden name of Christ and Christ within in the heart he stabs at the heart of the true Lord Iesus who suffered for poor Mankind in mans own nature at Ierusalem 2. I observe his virulent and venemous Mind and Pen stabbing damning and reprobating all that truly believe in the true Lord Iesus whome he confesseth to have been a real man dying at Ierusalem c. except they can believe that he is now no where to be found but in every mans heart that cometh into the world that is no where 53 In Page 246. He brings in Christopher Wade saying It is whimfical to say Christ God and Man Flesh and Spirit is in them He answers Contrary to the Apostles Doctrine who said they were of his flesh and of his bone and Christ in you and he would walk in them and he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and they are of his slesh and of his bone and Christ in you the hope of Glory In the same Page he brings in the same Author saying Flesh and bone cannot be a measure in one and a measure in an other He Answers wheras the Apostle saith we are of his Flesh and of his Bone here thou art contrary to the Apostle and that was more then one that had the Flesh of Christ and his Bone and his Spirit In Page 248. He brings in the same Author saying It is a false thing to say Christ Person is in man He Answers which is as much as to say none are of his Flesh nor of his Bone nor eat nor had not his Substance And Page 249 The Saints bodyes are not Christs body He Answers How are they Christs How dwels he in them and how are they of his Flesh and of his Bone then and how bruitish are you bâ—come in Knowledge hath he not bought them with a price and are they not his And in the same Page he brings in the same Author saying that neither Gods Essence nor Heaven nor Christs Person was in Peters holy body He answers but the Apostle said God will dwell with you and walk in you and again our conversation is in Heaven And once more in the same page There is not whole Christ God and man in men Answ. Then how must men grow in the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ and Christ and God will dwel in man and walk in man God that made all things and Christ by whome all things were made I Reply this Author Christopher Wade I know not many of his opposites living and dead whome he here vapours to answer in his Book I know were worthy of Christian esteem and honour for the grace and Knowledge of Christ Jesus in them and for other worthy respects and whither this Opposite or any other whome he pretends to puffe at or Answer have thought this audacious Quacksalver worthy of any Reply I know not For certainly as he commonly concludes his Answer in his Book Thy many notorious Lyes and Slanders and Blasphemyes are not worth the mentioning however for the proof of my Position I am occasioned 54 to follow this Fox into his holes and Burrowes and to hale him out before God Angls and Men as a most greedy audacious Fox and Wolfe not sparing the Son and Lamb of God nor his precious Lambs and Sheep Now to all these last Quotations I say as the Opposites to Fox said that this Notion of Christ wit hin opposite to Christ without is a most Frantick and Whimsical Gross and Blockish Fancy For though he grant Christ Jesus to be a Man which died at Ierusalem yet making him only Spiritual and such a Christ as is whole Christ God and Man in every man in the World he makes Christ Jesus to be but Whimsical Christ and that Man that died at Ierusalem but a Babylonian Fancy In Pag. 221. He brings in the Author to a Book called Hosanna to the Son of David saying Christ is without the Saints in respect of his Bodily presence He Answereth They are of his Flesh and of his Bone and eat his Flesh and drink his Blood and how have the Saints his Mind and Spirit and he with them and they with him and sit with him in Heavenly places and he is the Head of the Church how then is he absent the poor Apostates from him who feel not Christ with you but he is with the Saints and they feel him I Reply I observe this Viperous Tongue saying to the unknown heavenly Author and Fox his other Oppositee Ye poor Apostates c. what is it but a heighth of Devilish Pride going before destruction and condemnation this proud swelling Bladder puft up with a Timpany of Wind and Vanity what a huge swelling shew he makes what a breadth of confident boldness and bruitish impudencie he carries before him what a gross Frantick Papist is he become that cannot will not distinguish between Christs Spiritual presence and his bodily that cannot will not consider the difference between Spirits and Bodies a Spirit that hath no Flesh nor Bones and a Body which hath both as Christ his Body had that cannot will not distinguish between their sinful Flesh and Bones and the sinless Flesh and Bones of that Man Christ Jesus that cannot will not distinguish between God manifested in the Flesh and Bones of that Man Christ Jesus and manifested in the Flesh and Bones of Believers in him O most Holy and Righteous are thy Judgements O thou most High Judge of the World who art a devouring fire and Justice it self who thus castest down the Proud and Self-conceited into the Dungeon of such Black and Hellish Ignorance 55 Pag. 217 Out of a Book mentioning the Quakers Cause saying To say Christ within is never to mention Christ without He Answers There is none knows Christ within but he knows him without the same yesterday and to day and for ever And there is none knows him but they know him within revealed of the Father which is beyond Flesh and Blood I Observe This foolish Fox for all his hiding Craft is here found out He professeth against his Will and Heart a Christ that died at Ierusalem and therefore is he forced to name a Christ without but when the Hole and Burrough is Digged the Fox is found For Examine what is this Christ without is he that litteral real and material Person the Son of Mary as all professing Christs Name generally agree Is this he whom the Quakers acknowledge to have lived and died at Ierusalem and do they intend a Material Crosse a literal Death a literal and real Ierusalem some of them will say yes but therein give the lye to others of themselves and also to the rest of their own story in acknowledging no other Christ but such as is in every man such a Christ as really and bodily died at Ierusalem they
their obstinately continued Advantage of three constantly engaged against me beside their accidental speakers who had liberty when others were forbidden I say notable and Chief men in their way and Sect and having just then read a Letter as I sate there directed to my self and all of us to be read in the Assembly I begun with presenting the Letter to them and told them that just now it was delivered to me c. I knew not certainly from whome it came nor of one Tittle of the Contents of it only I judged it to be my Brother Robert Williams School-Master of Newport his hand I read the Superscription and offered if they pleased to unseal and read it or I would deliver it into their hand so to doe W. Edmundson answered that they came not thither to hear Papers but to hear how I would make out my false Charges against them and this he speaking none would whist against it and this he did speak because my Brother beyond my expectation and thoughts spake some words the first morning against their Insulting and domineering over me as also delivered a paper to them which was with much adoe handed and delivered to them but never read containing these two great Points in every true penitent Converts eye viz. the sight of Sin as Sin And 2. The sight of the material Lord Iesus as the true Messiah or anointed these were the two Daggers which they knew stab'd at the heart of their feigned Christ and Light within them I knew my Brother patiently waited there the two first dayes and was with others silenced and now I guessed he had sent them his mind and would trouble them no more I told them 70 the whole Assembly had Interest in the Letter as directed to us to read to the rest W. Edmundson and the rest desired the Auditors to speak if they desired to have it read some of the Quakers said it might be read when the business was over so I to make no breach put it up and in the end of the day offered it again claiming their Promise but they regarded it not so that after the Conference ended we of Providence being called away by a Boat preparing to depart I stept to my Brothers house and acquainted him with Passages who said that not only the Superscription was his hand but the Letter also and I might open and read it and if it might be present it to the intended Assembly at Providence of which we shall hear when it pleaseth the mercifull hand of the Lord to bring us to those Transactions In short it was refused there also therefore I have judged it fit since it was so solemnly flung out both at Providence and Newport that it should have as solemn a Publication to the whole world and the rather because it is a witness of Truth as to the two first dayes transactions impartially reproving my Opposites and me also where he conceived we were failing It is true I am not of my Brothers Conscience as to the Discipline of Christ viz. that I ought to have admonished the Quakers in private before I had so publickly c. since they proclaimed their sin like Sodom on the house top and it is preposterous to run from House-top-sins to closet Concealments and Admonitions 2. Nor can I own the Quakers in their wayes and worships to be Servants of the Lord as my Brother calls them any more then the greedy Wolves devouring the souls of the Ephesians Act. 20. were the meek and innocent Lambs and sheep of Christ. 3. Nor doe I think I charged them too deep or too sharply as my Brother speaks I knew the Foxes and Wolves the able Leaders amongst them do not run away with Pigs and Worldly Swine only but that some Lambs and Chickens of Christ Iesus are carried away in their Soul bloody jaws also whom I beseech to remember themselves and I humbly beseech the God and Father of mercies to pull them out and help all that love his Name to help pull them out as Brands from the Eternal Burnings As for the Wolves and Foxes the Blind Leaders the Chapmen that by feigned words make Merchandize of Souls 2 Pet. 2. their 71 mouths must be stopped and the Prey rescued from their Jawes and because we ought to save what is saveable and to recover poor sinners Leaders and Followers from their corrupt and rotten Profession we ought to use Sharpness Tit. 1. Reprove them sharply Apotómoce cuttingly that they may be found or recover in the Faith of Iesus These three words I thought fit to say as to my self let the Quakers answer for themselves who I fear will answer to my Brother as they did to me Lyes slanders false Accusations c. However the Reader is here presented with the Copy of it The Superscription To his Loving Friends Roger Williams and the Quakers now assembled at Newport deliver Humbly desiring the reading of it to publick Audience for the Truths sake of Christ Jesus LOving Friends though the Lord in his Wisdome hath denied me from Nature the gift of utterance yet in his infinite mercy he hath vouchsafed to me his free gift as to writing whereby the private motions arising between God and my own Soul without knowledge unto any may be declared being moved hereunto out of a sensible sadness which is upon my Spirit in beholding the Cloudings and Vailings of the most precious Truths of my Lord and Master Jesus Christ But Loving Friends herein mistake me not at first This is no charge nor discharge but an appearance unto my Soul even unto the moving of my Bowels within me For my Beloved at his putting in his hand at the hole of the door when all my Lovers Priests and Elders gave up the Ghost in the City for gladness is taken away and joy out of the pleasant field and in the Vineyard there is no true singing and the Treaders tread out no pure Wine for the Lord hath made the Vintage shouting to cease But to avoid Prolixity I write not to charge nor admonish neither for contending Argumentation it being against my understanding and as the taking of a Dog by the ear But â—incerely unto edification in signifying the appearances unto my Soul in what I have gotten from these your so earnest and tedious Debates 72 Therefore I am humkly bold to speak unto all the contending Disputants in the plainness of my heart And First unto the Complaining Disputant it appears unto my Soul that you have not dealt as a faithful Servant of the Lord Iesus with your fellow Servants for you should have admonished them both first and second time in private and if they would not have heard you then to have told it to the Church the great Congregation of God 2. It doth appear unto my Soul that you have assumed and presumed too much being so large and high proposals which do appear unto me not as charges
but in this first Appearance as Proposals until they are maintained as charges by sufficient proof wherein they may be molified But in truth herein I am at a stand for against whom were the true Apostles more bitter than against the False which if the Defendants be so which in charity I have reason to hope otherwise your Conscience will be more cleared in your Lord and Masters service yet know there may be a zeal without true knowledge therefore let true zeal appear that is not in persecution but for the Glory of God and truths sake as it is in Ieâ—us 2. Unto the Defending Complainants the loving Quakers which I pray take not as a charge but as appearances unto my Soul in that you never dealt faithfully in your Lord and Masters service for both Complainants and Defendants are all but Servants unto one Lord and Master and you must do that service which is ordained by your Lord and Master to do in your several stations either in truth or falshood there is no hindring of it and when you have done all you can you are but unprofitable Servants falling short of your Lord and Masters infinite Glory and in the end of your service you shall as the Grasse wither and as the Flower fade but unto our everlasting comforts the word of the Lord shall stand and for ever First That you have not done your Master faithful service by assuming and presuming beyond the bounds of Moderation and Christianity but as I said before take not these as charges but as proceeding from your own Expressions and Behaviours in your late actings which have not been for that solid edification of the Auditors which was expected but for defending and advancing of self which appeared 1. By your limiting the Holy one of Israel contrary unto your Lord and Masters Commission 2. By breaking an Apostolical Command so far as in you lay as not to quench the Spirit 73 3. You have not dealt faithfully and Christian like with your elder fellow servant and then what would you do with the Heir To the first appearance you would not begin before you had stated by forced Covenant that none should speak though with leave in modesty and sobriety but those that would joyn issue with the complainant and that under hand writing And herein loving friends you have infringed upon those great Liberties and Mercies which God hath bestowed upon these parts and which you do enjoy and cannot enjoy else where And will you now shut up your common Wine-presses that we can have no fruit nor refreshing but what comes from your private Presses Know Loving Friends this is a sad grievance that lies upon us Yâ—a you do infringe not only upon our Souls but upon our Temporal Liberties For in our Courts of Iudicature there is a fundamental liberty stated for any to speak freely for Conscience sake in any Cause in the Bounds of Sobriety and Modesty But this appears against the Rules and Practises of all Christianity not practised by the Judicial Convocation nor by the high Commission Court in our Native Couutry where often I have been and the Metropolitan with the rest of the Bishops in Gravity and Christianity though their pleadings were by Proctors yet gave liberty especially for Relations to speak As in one Instance of a person whom you all have heard of when he was to come upon Examination his wife being big with Childe came with him the Arch-Bishop though otherwise he might be improper yet herein shewd great civility by considering the Womans condition and gave liberty for speaking to the full with replying no discomfortable Words yea in Christianity delayed further prosecution until she was delivered though afterwards they acted their improper persecution But into what a condition shall we be brought I hope not into an high Commission nor Inquisition Court if this Imprimator goes on that none shall speak no not so much as suffered to desire to speak though they are great with Childe with the Man Christ Iesus But I hope the People will see their Liberties and your selves know this was not the true Apostles practises 2. Your sad quenching of the Spirit when the motion of it arose in any for Soul-satisfaction in any to speak you would not suffer them to be expressed but stifle them in their coming forth O dear Friends consider you would not be so dealt with For what did you know but 74 the Lord might bring forth from any of the Auditors for witnessing his Eternal Truth and Glory therefore as your Heavenly Master is bountifully free be not you Niggards in shutting up his Bounties and suffring none to pass but through your own Purses I speak as the Apostle did after the manner of men 3. Your Indecorum Behaviours both in words and gestures unto your elder Fellow-Servants aged Father complaining as not performing your duty as young men according unto Rule of honouring gray hairs 1. But by unseemly smiles of Derision saying often for a time Thou old Man thou old Man thereby appearing to provoke to passion 2. When that would not move his exceeding great patience then charging of him with Blasphemy and to prove his Blasphemy 3. Again not Apostle or Gospel like seeking and taking advantages against the Aged and contrary to Covenant by three or four baiting him at once unto the confounding of his memory or stopping of his utterance under the pretence of challenging all comers when reasons considers of coming in Order But your defence was that you were but one Man then you should have been but one Mouth Again your improper charging of the complainant with mispending of time when in Truth it was your selves in not suffering of him orderly to proceed But by your often Iterations Tautologies Indecorum Behaviours and Expressions with improper Preachments at that time and yet lay the defect upon the aged and would not be satisfied with his substantial Proofs divine Reasons and Argumental Demonstrations And herein your Conscience if unsatisfied had liberty in timely Order to have made your substantial Desence if patience had been suffered to have had her perfect work It is acknowledged by Auditors that as the Complainant brought substantial proof for so far as he proceeded so you the Defendants also brought substantial defence in what was substantial but now who shall judge ye will not suffer the Gospel rule that the standers by the Spirits of the Prophets shall judge Then both of your own private Interpretations doth aim to be judges and so will be endless and true judgeless And by proceedings the cause of Christ Iesus being now at stake much dishonoured unto the sadness of my Soul and unsatisfied Conscience and also the expectation of the Auditors which was for Soul-edification frustrated and unto publick shame as yet only self contendings hath the supream Appearance Therefore Loving Friends 75 pleading and defending for your Lord and Masters sake shew your selves faithful Servants of
company and not before yea and what is that waiting in silence used in private and in the publick Assemblies of the Quakers but a confessed means in which they wait for the Spirit of God as poor Souls they think descending on them I was then forced to omit the Allegations out of G. Fox his book then by me and ready but I will now recite a few of them In page 6. of this Book in Folio G. Fox brings in Samuel Eaton saying The Prophets and Apostles drew people to an outward Word He Answers Now is that which lives and endures forever outward and did not they bring them to Christ the power of God which is the end of words which is immediate Again in the same Page Samuel Eaton Is not the Gospel an External way He Answers No the Gospel is a Living way which is revealed within and is the power of God to Salvation In the same Page Samuel Eaton Are not they seduced who are drawn off from the External means by which the Spirit is given and Faith wrought to wait for the receiving of the Spirit without any Word to convey it to them which Spirit when they have it is not the Spirit of Truth but of delusion For Answer The Spirit and Faith is not conveyed to any Man without the Word and they are seduced which rests in the External from the Eternal and the Spirit is not given by Eternal means neither is Faith wrought I Reply and observe how the wisdome of Men is enmity against God and how witty this Fox is to catch himself and others in the Traps of eternal Howling how doth he here confound the audible words or preachings of Gods mercy in Christ Jesus with the inaudible invisible mystical and metaphorical word Christ Jesus himself 2. Who sees not his gross and impudent denying of the Spirit and Faith to be conveyed by means from God unto us In Page 15. G. F. brings in Henoch Howet saying There is nothing in Man to be ministred to but man He Answers How then ministred the Apostle to the Spirit and Christ spake to the Spirits in Prison and Tim. was to stir up the Gift that was in him and the Spirit of the Father speaks within them and the Light shines in the Heart and the Son of God is revealed in me saith the Apostle that which may be known of God is manifest in man for God hath shewed it unto them Rom. 1. and the Apostle was 79 manifest to every ones Conscience in the sight of God and that was of God which the Children disobeyed I Reply 1. As in his late Book exalting his Heathen Light above the Holy Scriptures he simply and prophanely joyns the Philistian Priests and Egyptian Conjurers with Holy Iob and his Friends c. so here he confounds and jumbles together the natural powers and faculties and Humane Light in all Mankinde with the Grace and Spirit of God both ordinary and extraordinary as may be seen at the first view 2. His Scope is abominably and horribly to make the holy Spirit of God capable of being preached unto to be converted and turned unto God yea to refuse and be damned for it is not Man he saith that is preached unto 3. How Sottish and Blind doth this Deceiver proclaim himself in the Christian Doctrines of Preaching Conversion Faith and the Grace and Spirit of God confounding Gold and Drosse Pearls and Pebbles Harps and Harrows as all one altogether In Page 136 137. He brings in Thomas Moor saying Nor are we to wait for a further Revelation to be given forth then the Scripture for the Word of God came not first immediately to the Gentiles but to the Apostles He Answers The Apostles that Preached the Word of God it was immediate to whomsoever they preached it for they had read it immediately for the Word it self is immediate with more that follows to the same senceless and absurd purpose Reply As if all that receive G. Fox his Book simply pretended to be from the Spirit of God receive it without G. Fox his Brain and Hand and Pen or Paper Printing and Letters or because a King delivers his minde to his Secretary and commands him to Pen it in a Proclamation Declaration c. therefore the Kings Word or Will comes to every man immediately without any such means as the Secretaries composing his Clarks Transcribing the use of Printing Letters Paper c. to talke after this sort what is it but to talk Frantick and Bedlam and without the guidance of a common rational Spirit In Page 5. he brings in Samuel Eaton saying Though all the Saints have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them which is Eternal and Infallible yet that this Spirit should do all which Saints do and should say all that Saints say and should judge for them both persons 80 and things after an infallible manner and that they should neither say nor do any thing by any understanding of their own but the Spirit all this we deny He Answers Which is contrary to the Apostle who saith as many as are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God and Christ acts all in them and for them and the fruits of the Spirit c. and the Spiritual man judgeth all things And that is it which leads the Saints to divide and discerne all things both temporal and spiritual the spiritual Wisdome of God which gives them a spiritual understanding which men must rule withal but not with their own which comes to nought and you that have not that which is infallible to judge in you know not the Spirit of Christ neither can you judge of persons or things that have not the infallible judgement nor have the Spiritual man neither have you the Word of God in your hearts nor Christ which is eternal and infallible all which the Quakers have to judge persons and things I Reply Mahomet the Grand Segnior or Elder and Prophet transcending Moses and Christ as he and his followers Mahumetans say he pretended that he had the mind of God by immediate Revelation and that by Revelation of the Holy Spirit in the shape of a Dove he wrote the Minde the Word or Scriptures of God the Alcoran But poor silly Souls were Mahomet and all his Disciples compared with the Seraphical Doctors the Foxians who neither say nor do any thing with any understanding of their own but the immediate and infallible Spirit of God says and does all in them who are fit to be Kings and Princes Governours and Judges Masters of Ships and Families c. indeed of any place of power or trust but these walking Gods and Christs and Spirits even the meanest of the Quakers May not the meanest Youth or Wench if but a pretended Quaker according to this rule or rate of being immediately inspired in all they do or say transcend all other Teachers Translators Interpreters Kings and Counsellors Navigators
Historians Geographers Rulers and Iudges c. It is true that Thomas Munster and Becold and Knipperdoling and Fifer pretending immediate Revelations and so have other Leaders of these Nicolaitans in France and England c. but none were so large and open hearted as to communicate so freely and bountifully to all their followers the immediate Inspirations of their pretended holy spirit as these 81 foolish and filthy Dreamers do for so saith Fox All the Quakers say or do is by the infallible and eternal Spirit but how horribly their Spirits Principles Divisions Miscarriages in many sinful practises and Apostacies amongst themselves give the lye and contradict this their infallibility is notoriously proclaimed on the house top and I may say something more to this Head afterward At present I return to my Antagonists who while I was Arguing against their immediate Spirit could not hold until my quarter of an hour and this Head about their Spirit was finished but brake silence and they said especially Iohn Stubs doth not the Scripture say if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his And as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God and ye have an unction and need not that any man teach you and you know all things I then answered that there was a leading of a Beast by an Halter or Bridle and there was a leading of a Man with a Reason when his understanding and judgement is satisfied and if so I presumed they intended that the leading of the Spirit did not lead them as Beasts but as Rational satisfying their Reasons and Judgements and if so Reason grants that there are false Spirits lying Prophets Seducers and Deceivers c. Reason therefore further saith that every Soul must be satisfied whether this Leading or Anointing or Teaching of the Spirit be by means of Praying Preaching Reading Meditating Conferring c. or immediate without the use of these if motions without the use of these be pretended Reasons tells us that a Rational Soul must be able to try whether the Spirit pretending to be true or lying Spirit and that it must have some Rule or Touch-stone to make their Tryal by that the Rule must be my own Reason or some Testimony of unquestionable Witnesses satisfying my Reason or some heavenly inspired Scripture or Writing which my Reason tells me came from God Reason also tells each rational creature that it is very suspicious to be a false lying and develish motion which slights the Holy Scripture and other holy means wherein the Holy Spirit Presence and Power of God hath appeared to Gods People formerly Reason tells me that if I finde my self weak as who doth not to fight against the Devil the roaring Lion and old Serpent and I am bound to seek out for help and what help more powerful 82 and proper then that of the eternal and all powerful Father of Spirits and that it is best to take Iames his Counsel if any Man wants wisdome let him ask of God who gives to all Men liberally and upbraideth not if so then Reason tells us that except we suffer our selves to be led as Beasts by Sathan as the poor Quakers are we must come to the use of Means or a mediate leading and teaching and then what is become of these hellish fancies of only immediate Teachings and Inspirations I told them that beside this Counsel and Command of God in Iames the Lord Jesus tells us by an admirable similie that the holy Spirit of God is given in the use of means Luk. 11. If you who are evil give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him and that is Isa. 11. the Spirit of Wisdome the Spirit of Knowledge the fear of the Lord and all Graces of the holy Spirit It is clear that the Pen-men and holy Scribes of Gods will unto us in whom God did speak and by whom he wrote immediately and infallibly those blessed chosen pens of his were not infallibly guided by an immediate Spirit in all that they said and did about this Scripture as these poor Dreamers say of themselves and therefore must necessarily dash against the Holy Scriptures and all holy means formerly used by the first Christians yea and all rational means to pieces for all that they say or do is the immediate Spirit and Christ and God himself as Fox here affirmeth I answered further that if that Scripture alleadged by Iohn Stubs To know all things be to be expounded litterally and as G. Fox in this Book viz. that the Saints know all things as God then why are not the Quakers Omnipotent and Almighty as well as Omniscient yea as it is said of the Pope if he can deliver all Souls out of Purgatory if he please without Money surely he is very inhumane impious and cruel that he doth not so I said what impiety is it what cruelty and inhumanity is it in the Quakers said I so insallibly knowing all things as God not to reveal unto Men and especially in their publick Assemblies so many deep points of the Godhead of Creation of the Holy Three in Heaven and Earth which they confess and all the deep Mysteries and Prophecies in the Holy Scripture especially in Iohn and Daniel their Revelations c. the Most Holy Omniscient and Eternal Iehovah knows that the Pope and his Purgatory the Quakers and 83 their Omnisciency are but Childrens and Frantick Persons Dreams and Phantasies and that the Saints knowing all things is the same with their doing all things through Christ which strengtheneth them that is not all things litterally for that were ridiculous and blasphemous to affirm it but all things figuratively and Comparatively which his holy Wisdome thinks fit to require them to know and do in order to his Glory and their Salvation But Iohn Stubs insisted how they knew the Mystical number of 1260 dayes the 42 Months the Time and Times and half a Time and that the Woman was come and coming out of the Wilderness in them and that now they were Preaching the Everlasting Gospel to them that dwell upon the Earth I Replied it is notorious how many excellent men have been bewildred and missed in the opening of these Mysteries I said that if their infallible and their all-knowing Light could open all things and was now the Everlasting Gospel or Glad News the Word Eternal c. and that it was not only in the Quakers and their Saints but in all Mankind I desired to know what they meant by this Word within whether they meant in the understanding the eye of the Soul or in the Will or in the Memory or in the Affections or in all of these joyntly for Light is only seen with the Eye not with the Tongue nor Ear nor Hand it is true in the 2 Cor. 4. it is said
that God hath shined in our Hearts but there the heart must be understood the Understanding the Minde which is properly and nextly the seat of the Light and Knowledge of God and this shining though Fox make it to be natural or born with every Man is said to be by Pauls Preaching as is there abundantly proved where it is as clear as the Noon day shining that God shined Christ shined and Paul shined before the Light or Notice of the glad news of a Saviour come to the heart or ears of poor Sinners and so thereby are turned from their natural hellish Darkness to a Supernatural Heavenly Light Who knows not with Ieremiah the heart of Man to be naturally dark deceitful desperately evil and wicked Gen. 6. the imaginations of the heart of all men to be only Evil and that continually and that it may be said of all men as it is said of the holy God in him is Light and no Darkness so in them is Darkness and no Light so that to hearken to to turn to to listen to any voice or motion within in heavenly things in matters of supor 84 natural light is as proper as in matters of law to go for Counsel to a cheating thief or rogue in matters of health to a known cheating Mountebank as to turn within to a mans heart which was the arrantest Iugler and Cheater in the world At this word W. Edmundson cryed out Blasphemy He speaks Blasphemy I conceived he meant I called their immediate holy spirit which they pretend to the arrantest Iugler Cheater in the world My heart was warm and my tongue breaking silence and longing to shew him his willing mistake and that I mentioned not nor thought of the Holy Spirit but every mans own deceitful heart though clearly I have thought and proved their holy Spirit is no other but Sathan himself and every Man 's own deceitful Heart but I was prevented for some of the Auditory spake aloud that he mistook me and amongst others our Deputy Governour Capt. Cranston openly said that W. Edmundson mistook me for I expresly said that the Heart of man was the arrantest Iugler Cheater in the world This did not satisfie W. Edmundson but he replyed let the words be read then by him that took them in short-hand so they cal'd upon one of theirs to read what he wrote now I knowing what short-hand could doe as well as most in England from my Childhood and that it is impossible for any to write Verbatim so fast as I then spake with vehemency I concluded he had not exactly my words yet I am confident in a faction and partiality he seemed to read some words favouring my calling their spirit the arrantest Iugler and Cheater in the word extreamly contary to my certain knowledg of my intentions and of what I uttered beside the sâ—dden and quick exception of our Deputy Governour and others but alas this was a small business but I was about to say as before I did say from the holy Scripture Pro. 28. He that trusteth to his own heart is a fool and till a spirit of Regeneration and Conversion change the heart of man there is no other Christ nor Spirit within but the spirit of Sathan which is the spirit by which the Quakers are acted and is the arrantest Iugler Cheater in the world This Iugler is so cunning that he out-jugles the Iuglers he catcheth the craftiest foxes that catch so many others he takes Captive and leads away in chains the Wise and Prudent the High and Mighty til the holy Spirit of Christ Iesus discover and break his snares and lead him Captive also 85 2. I was adding another Argument from Isai. 59. and I did mention the place where the great promise Grant or Charter is given by God the Father to Christ Iesus and his Posterity viz. that his word and his Spirit should be in Christs mouth and in the mouth of his Seed and in the mouth of his Seeds Seed from thenceforth and for ever I said that that blessed Son of God and Son of Man the man Christ Jesus lived and dyed a Batchelour he never had any natural Seed or Issue Believers are his Offspring his Seed his Children and Grand-Children and so downward to as many as the Lord shall call And that Fox should not say the Word and the Spirit are all one as commonly G. Fox doth and that the Father and the Son are one without Distinction as boldly and Babilonically he doth Here is most distinctly and exactly distinguishing 1 The Father promising 2. The Son the Mediator receiving this Promise 3. The Promise it self which is of a Word to the Son though that blessed Son is also called the Word viz. of the revealed Doctrine Will and Mind of God recorded from and by the holy Scriptures viz. that this Word should be in his mouth and in the mouth of all his Seed or Christian Children after him especially his Messengers and Preachers to the end and Consummation of all things I told them it was notoriously known how they slighted this holy Charter how they joyned not the holy Word and Spirit together but trod upon the Word of God under a cloak of advancing the Spirit c. But of this I shall speak in the next Position following I was also mentioning a third Argument against their spirit from the Irrationallity and Unruliness of it contrary to the Wisdome and Rationallity and Order and Holiness of the holy Spirit of God this is apparent from their bitter Reviling and often senceless and frantick Reviling in some of them Devil Devil Devil The devillish Inquisitors Monks and Fryers c. exceed them not in spattering out Diablo Diablo against such as dare to oppose them indeed they are both Possessed by one spirit of blasphemous Railing and Reviling against the Witnesses far from the holy Spirit of the Gospel who in Meekness instructeth those that oppose themselves Was there ever fouler Language given by any poor Oister-woman at Billingsgate than is given by M. F. 86 against Capt. Wiggan to be seen in print to the shame of the Quakers Spirit of all their womanhood What is all their notorious common censuring and cursing even of eminent and learned and holy persons for Cains Iudases serpent Pharises dumh Dogs Witches Blasphemers Reprobates Devils but a fruit of wicked and rotten flesh deny and defying the holy Spirit of God It is true the Holy Spirit of God in Scripture is pleased to use Censures Curses but not to every one nor in such a manner as this foul-mouth'd Spirit doth I mentioned before their Impudency which stinks up to Heaven and cries for vengeance in the stripping stark naked of their Women and discovering of themselves in the Assembly of Men and Youths under the Cloak and Cover of the Spirit of God as also the unnatural Preaching of their Women in publick Assemblies
and Congregations contrary to so many Reasons from Nature and Grace so positively expressed by the Holy Spirit in Scripture What Spirits are their Dumb Spirits in their Dumbe Meetings but those foul dumbe Spirits mentioned in that Gospel which the Lord Jesus will cast out and tumble down to Hell whence they came in his holy season What is their monstrous way of Singing and Toning and Humming many at once as they often do and notoriously did at Portsmouth on Rhode Island this last year when no man is edified nor understands what they say and it may be not themselves and this under colour of singing in the Spirit what is it I say but rendring their Tongues which should be their Glory and the Glory of God their scorn and shame and the holy Name of Gods holy Spirit contemptible also 4. I did also mention a fourth Reason against their Spirit and had prosecuted it but I knew that by reason of my Adversaries interposure I had exceeded my quarter of an hour It was taken from the Holy Spirit of God subjecting it self to be tried commanding all men to search the Records commending the Bereans for examining Pauls Preaching and Spirit by the Holy Scriptures and this is the true meaning of the Spirit of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets not that a true Prophet or Messenger of God can subject the truth of God which he believes so to be and will rather suffer many deaths then relinquish to be sentenced by all the Prophets in the Church to be false and he acquiess or rest in 87 or subject his Spirit and Conscience to that Sentence but that the true Prophets of God are willing to have their Teachings questioned examined and made clear by the holy Records to the Souls and Consciences of all men Hence it pleaseth God to give Rules for the trial and discerning between the true Spirit and the false 1 Iob. 3. 4. chapters On the contrary I would have shewed which indeed all men know that the thief endured not searching the galld Horse endures not rubbing the guilty Debtor endures not Reckoning the false and jugling Spirits escape in a Mist and by the help of dark Lanthorns and under the covert of the night who may not see this in G. Fox all along his Book running into the Thickets and Burroughs of Words of divers significations Scriptures notoriously wrested general and sometimes uncouth and barbarous Language which hath been the trade of the false and lying Murtherous Spirit in all ages and will be until that short time be finished wherein the Lord will tread him under the Saints feet and cast him into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone How oft have I been visited by the Quakers crying Repent Repent hearken to the Light within thee c. And I never could perswade them to sit down and examine their sayings by the Holy Scriptures but when their Cuckoes note and song was over and their Fools Bolt shot then fell they to Cursing and pouring out the Thunder-bolts of Gods Iudgement and so be gone no less then Reve and Muggleton pretending to be Gods two last Prophets and Witnesses about twenty years since in London whose Cursings were notorious But to return while I was beginning to urge the tryal of the Spirits W. Edmundson said the Spirit of God was above the Scriptures and not to be tryed by them for it gave out the Scriptures c. And I said and say it is easie to boast of the Spirit but the true Spirit in a Sense and the holy Scriptures are one as the Father and Son are one and therefore can not but be willing to be examined by the holy Records as every man or author will stand to his own scripture work or writing for the Writers were but Pens of Heaven writing and used by the hand of the holy Spirit And I remember that I said to W. Edmundson Friend You yesterday in your long Sermon alleadged that holy Scripture viz Men will not come to the light least they should be reproved 88 because their deeds are evil This is the true cause of your quarrel against the Scriptures and of exalting the Spirit above them that is upon a true ballance your own Spirit yea the Spirit of Sathan to be God and Christ and Spirit and all After some few interchanges and altercations we descended to the fourth Position which they read out of the Paper as they did all the rest which was this viz. That the People called Quakers did not own the Holy Scriptures In one Copy it was written Really own viz. They did not really own the Holy Scriptures I said there was a twofold owning the Holy Scriptures or the Writings of God as there is a twofold owning the Scriptures or Writings of men the Proclamations and Declarations of Kings and Princes The one is verbal and literal viz. that such a writing or Declaration or Treatise is extant and that it proceeds from the Kings Authority and Command The second is real and actual when the Authority of it is in all humble obedience submitted to and obeyed when the Justice and Equity and the excellency and goodness as well as the royal Authority is embraced and magnified I said the Iews owned verbally and wonderfully that Writings of the Old Testament and the Papists owned both old and new but it is known that in many particulars they do in effect deny and damn them 1. They both set up their rotten Traditions their unwritten Verityes as they speak of equal authority with if not in cases above the holy Scripture 2. They set up the Papists by the authority of the Council of Trent a most defective Translation notoriously false in many places all over above the first Copyes of the Hebrew and Greek whence all Translations as Counterpanes and secondary Copyes or Duplicates ought to flow 3. The Papists set up the Pope as the only infallible Judg Interpreter in all Questions about the Scriptures and the Jews make their Rabbies as so many Popes also 4. Their Interpretations are so forraign and strange and many of them so absurd monstrous from the genuine proper Sence of the Scriptures and adulterated with Wresting and allegorizings c. that is truly said of them that they bring not their Doctrines Disciplines and Conversations to the Scriptures but force the 89 holy Scriptures of God to attend and wait upon their Abomination as a Negro Slave and Lacquey I said the Jews and Papists did not more disowne the holy Scriptures upon the account of their Popes and Traditions and Interpretations than the Quakers did upon the account of their Light and Spirit and Interpretations also Who knows not that in the beginning of their Profession they generally fell from the reading of them by themselves or in their Families or in their Publick Assemblyes only crying up the Light within the Spirit within
for the spirit lead them to speak forth Scripture I Reply If among the seven things that God hates he is an Abomination that soweth Discord what is he that would Oppose and set at Odds the most holy spirit against the holy scriptures Inspired by him and in Effect declares that Gods Children are not to attend to the voice of God in these his holy Inspired writings but to a secret Voice or whispering within them Contrary to the scriptures Voice both before and since Christs coming as I have and shall further manifest 2. As to the spirits leading into all Truth and the sons of God are led by the spirit of God Is not Fox here in his Burrough not distinguishing between the Extraordinary leading of the holy Apostles Appointed to be the Eye Witnysses of Christs Death 104 and Resurrection c. and the first Messengers or Apostles to the Nations in which Respect the one Author of those three Gifts Administrations Operations 1 Cor. 12. peremptorily asks the Question Are all Apostles are all Prophets have all the Gifts of Miracles and yet all Gods Children are Regenerated are sanctifiâ—d are guided and built up an habitation of God through the Spirit and yet also the gracious presence and working of the holy Spirit may be hindred and quenched by neglecting of the holy Fuel of the holy Scriptures and other holy means appointed And therefore the Lord Jesus Commands us to pray for the Spirit and Daved cries out Thy Spirit is good lead me c. and take not thy holy Spirit from me And this is the Devils the Old Fox his Devilish Subtlety to make the Cloak of the Spirit Extraordinary Assistance and the Angels Extraordinary protection a ground of Christ Jesus and his Servants flinging themselves down from the Pinacle of the Temple and this I say from the God of Truth will be the Breack neck of the People called Quakers without Repentance every Soul of them We now descend to the proof of the fifth Position with their Consent which was their Principles and Professions are full of Contradiction and Hypocrisies I told them that they knew well that the Spirit of God had given us abundant Warning against false Gods false Worships false Christs false Spirits false Prophets He Commands us in Scripture not to believe them c. but to try them to try all things as we do with Touchstones and with Ballances yea with Fire it self For some Counterfiet Coyne hath been so like pure gold so double guilt in the middle and the Ring round about pure gold that it hath deceived the Touchstone The Devil himself as black a Fiend as he is the Spirit of Darkness yet he knows how to wear Samuels Mantle and the white Robe of an Angel of Light c. I told them it was Common for Spanish Turkish or any other Enemy in Time of Warr to hang out English Colours the more easily to deceive Catch the poor Merchant man and Iudas the Traitour gave no other signe to the Iews in his betraying of his Lord and Master the Lord Jesus but God save my Master and a Kiss 105 Most of this I Remember I spake and then I told them that Paul tels Timothy of some that should speake Lyes in Hipocrisie I told them of these there were two sorts 1 Such as knowingly for wicked and Devilish Ends of Profit or Preferment take the Leading Staff in hand as 't is more then probable that the Misleader of so many Millions of Mahumetans did and as one of the Popes in Merriment to his Cardinals Confest it saying Quantum Lucri fecimus ex hac Fabula Christi What gain have we made of this Fable of Christ Thus Iudas knowingly for his Gain sought Opportunities to betray Christ Jesus Thus the Schechemites and Millions are their Successors as they are to Nebuchadnezzars Idolaters underwent that painful and shameful Ordinance of Circumcision partly to please their Princes and partly for that hope as Schechem told them that all that Israel had should be theirs A second Sort of Soul Deceivers that are and yet know not in their Consciences that they are blind Guides or blind Followers but for not loving Truth God hath given them up to believe Lyes for Truths false Christs and Spirits for true Christs and Spirits yea and with Paul to think that they verily ought to do many things against Iesus of Nazareth yea and as the Lord Jesus Positively Foretold they shall think to do God Service to kill himself in killing his Servants I told them my Charity bid me hope that the Quakers and themselves present were not of the first but of the second sort and I prayed them to be as patient as they could while I must prove that their Principles and Professions were full of Lyes and Contradictions and of Hipocrisies and Dissimulations I wondred that my Opposites and Auditors bare all this Load so silently But at this word W. Edmundson and the rest brake out saying We regard not what thou thinkest and sayest of us nor do we need thy Charity but go on to thy proofs c. I then said that their many Books and G. Foxes that thereby me and their Professions did so exceedingly Clash one with another and some of their latter Books as Christopher Houldsworths and some of theis latter Professions and Practices were such that many of their Observes Conclude that either they had altered their Religion in many of their Principles 106 and Practices and were turned from what they formerly held and were amongst us Or else their Hipocrisies and Dissimulations were more and more prodigiously Abominable I came to Instances and told them that when they were Charged to deny that man Christ Jesus they profess and preach they are wronged for they believe in that Christ which was born of a Virgin and died at Ierusalem and yet for all this it is but in Truth a Spiritual and Mistical and Allegorical Christ which under boord and in the bottom which they hold For in New-England before G. Fox came H. Norton and others say is not Christ God and is not God a Spirit and is there not a Spiritual Virgin a Mistical Bethlehem an Heavenly Ierusalem And do not G. Fox and Ed. Burroughs all along hold out such a Christ whose Body is not now to be found and such a man as is in every Saint or Quaker and in every person in the world except he be a Reprobate Again 2. They say they hold the Christian Church the Christian Ordinances the Christian Ministry the Christian Baptisme Supper the Resurrection the Iudgement the Life Everlasting but search their Books Examine their preachings and professings and you shall see and may admire their Juglings and Dissimulations Do not Fox and Burroughs all along disclaim any Church Ministers Baptisme c. but what is Immediate and Invisible Do they really own any Supper but Christs inward
say look for a glorious Temporal King that should make his Ingress with Pomp and Meta pur oteresio as the Scripture speaks with Observation but he came in as some Kings in disguize and as they speak Incognito and yet his Kingdome was among them in the midst of them by his perâ—onal presence his power sulp eaching and his glorious Miracles 2 Since in Opposition to Christs Visible Kingdome his Church you predicate a Kingdome within Consisting of Righteousness peace and joy in the holy Spirit do you think indeed that the Hipocritical Cursed Pharisees were snch Righteous peaceable and joyful Souls as your selves As sure as God is Light They and their Successors your selves will find your selves when you wake in horrid Quaking and except you repent Hell Flames about your Ears as the Lord Jesus told those whited Walls and painted Sepulchres 3. Must you take Measure of the Pharisees and tell us that the Pharisees in a Measure as a grain of Mustard Seed and Leaven are the same with your selves Do not you Cry out that you are perfect not in Measures and Degrees but that you are all one in Quality and Equality of Power and Glory with God and must 113 this must be the same with Christ Jesus and his Saints and you and the Pharisees all together Can two walk together live and love together board and bosome together and not be agreed together no other wayes then Light and Darkness Christ and Belial Righteousness and unrighteousness What stinking work do these provd Pharisees make of Christianity How justly doth the Son of God give them their proper Titles Ye Fools and Blind 4. If it be the same Kingdome in Christ Jesus and in Saints and in the Pharisees and every wicked man in the world though but as a grain of Mustard Seed and Leaven what is the Reason this Mustard Seed grows not up this Leaven spread not in them Can a Nation be subject to the King of England of Spain or any osher Ptince or Monarch and yet not know how nor have no knowledge nor feeling of it at all Can there be such a God such a Spirit such a Fire yea but such a Mustard Seed or Levven such a Teacher and yet not grow not prevail not prosper nor be perceived ye Fools and Blind are all your Mustard Trees stunted all the world over no Shelter for the Heavenly Birds your pure flowre of Holiness and sincerity mixt and-blended with the black Weeds Cockle and darnel of open Idolatries and prophaneness and Pharisaisme and Hipocrisie What abominable Contradictions and Lyes in Hipocrisie are here The Pharisees have Christ and his Kingdome of Righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit within them and yet live in pride and Covetousness and Extortion and Excess and Cruelty and Hipocrisie and Blasphemy and all this Rottenness and Dead mens bones stinking and ruling all within notwithstanding all the white and paint and garnishing without your selves their Hipocritical Off spring have and live in you say this Kingdome of Christ Jesus this Kingdome of Righteousness and Ioy in the holy Spirit as perfect and pure as God himself all one with us Infinite in Majesty Holiness Power and Glory not only in Quality but Equality c. as this wretched G. Fox affirmeth And yet within and withont Idolatrous and Superstitious Inhumane and uncivil passionate and sierce Censorious and Cursing and most Impudent and worse then Barbarous in some of your Impudently monstrous and avowed practices Having dispatched our Agitations about the fifth Assertion 114 and the Quotations out of G. Fox which I could not then Insist on in publick I descended to the sixth Position which was viz. The Religion of the Quakers is not only an Heresie in the matters of Gods holy worship but also in the Doctrines of Repentance Faith c. This Assertion hath two main Branches First that the Quakers Religion is an Heresie and themselves Hereticks in the matters of Gods worship 2. Not only so about the Circumstances of which Gods own dear Servants themselves greatly differ but also which is more Lamentable and dangerous in the Doctrines of Repentance and Faith and the rest of the graces of Christ Jesus I told them first that the word Hairesis Heresie in Greek from whence the word Hairetikos an Heretick signified an Opinion or Opinions chosen and stood in by one or more against the Christian Religion I said the matter mighâ— be aggravated and a ugmented from the Greatness and Vitallity of the matter of the Opinions but the Formality and Nature of it lay in the will and obstinacy thereof Iohn Stubs stood up and said that Heresie was defined by some to be an Opinion obstinately stood in against the first Christian Purity I Answered yea and the Opinion of some was that Heresie was an Error in the Foundation obstinately stood in But I said we had not time to enter upon a Dispute about the word or thing at this time the Substance of my Affirmation was that their Religion Sect or way was false and gone from the Institution and way of the Lord Jesus delivered by himself and his Apostles or Messengers 1. As to worship they denyed the Converting and gathering of the Saints into visible Assemblies or Congregations affirming the Chnrch to be Invisible the Ministers Invisible the Baptisme and Supper Invisible c. The second which was aur Position was in those two great Fundamentals the Beginning or A. B. C. of the Christian Religion viz Repentance from dead works and Faith towards God As for those two Doctrines of laying on of hands and of Baptismes they concerned the Church and worship concerning the Circumstances of which God is pleased to permit his 115 Children to be lovingly differing and discussing the other four Repentance Faith Resurrection and Iudgement in which generally Gods Children agree in these also as well as in the matter of worship these wandring Souls are Hereticks that is obstinately maintaining Notoriously false and Anti-Christian Abominations In so much that the many Sects amongst the Protestants yea and the Papists themselves do not so differ from a true Protestant and true Christian as do these wilful ignorant and wandring Souls 1. Then as to Repentance I said it was the first heavenly and saving work of God upon the Soul wherein he turned back home again the whole Soul unto himself being revolted and run from him into the Arms of Rebellion in the Fall of our first Parents This was the great point preached by Moses and the Prophets and more expressly by Iohn the Baptist and by the Lord Jesus himself and when he sent abroad his Apostles or Messengers into all Nations they were to preach the Gospel or glad News of the Forgiveness of sins according to Luke 24. viz. that Repentance and Remission of sins should be preached in his Name unto all Nations beginning at Ierusalem Here about I remember they
though not so brief as I was forced to be in our publick probations I told them that the Papists and the Quakers were great Confederates in their Endeavours to raze the Records of Heaven and to rob the Saints and the world of this Inestimable Iewel and Treasure of the holy Scriptures 1 The Papists own it not to be all the word or will of God revealed but that there be unwritten Verities that is Gods mind revealed from Father to Son by Tradition The Quakers will not vouchsafe it the Name of the word of God out of a simple pretence because Christ is the word of God that is he isindeed the chief manifestation of all the Appearances of God 2. The Papists horribly abuse it calling it a Nose of wax a Leaden Rule a dead Letter c. and so do the Quakers triumphing over it with base Insultations as over a deed Letter a Carkass c. 3. The whole world of Papists assembled in eighteen Years Labours Chymical Laboratories at Trent at last thundred out their Anathamaes and Curses against all that should not prefer the Vulgar Latin Copies before the Hebrew Copies and the Greek in which it pleased the holy Spirit of God first to write his mind and will or word unto us And do not the Quakers as simply and bruitishly bind themselves to the bare Letter of the Common English Though they know the Hebrew and Greek Copies are the Foundation and Touchstone of all other though millions of Translations Though they know there be more English Translations then one Though the English Translations wonderfully 135 differ Though Ravius that Famous Oriental Hebrician c. proclaims above a Thousand Faults and some gross in our last Translation though some of them as Iohn Stubs boast of their humane Learning produced his Hebrew Bible in our Conference yet will these Ephesians cry out like Frantick mad great is our Latin Translation great is our English Translation Yea one of them boasted to my self that the Spirit of God would teach them Scripture without the Hebrew and the Greek or the English either 4. The Papists set up a Judge in Controversies above the holy Scriptures who can dispense with Scriptures and do all that God can do And say not the Quakers the same of their Spirit which is above the Scriptures for it gave forth the Scriptures and is in every man 5. The Papists though they will not deny to make the Scriptures the Rule and profess to be tried by it yet their Church and the head of it the Pope must Interpret And do not the Quakers herein the same concerning themselves though some think more bruitishly for they will allow no Interpretations nor meaning at all but you must take the words as the Translators have given them us right or wrong and you must not enquire either into the meaning of words or the meaning of mind of God in the place Oh what a black deaf and dumb Lazie Spirit hath possessed the Souls of these great pretenders too and Monopolizers of the holy Spirit of God both Papists and Quakers 6 The Papists generally use not nor have the holy Scripture no not in their Devotions in their own Tongue but in the Latine the Whores Tongue of Italy therefore no wonder they prize it not but even the Lights or Luminaries so pretending amongst them disuse it Care not for it read it not c. many have it not So that Luther tels us that in Thirteen years or more he saw not a Bible in his College at Erford until by Gods merciful providence he came to see one to his own the Comfott of Thousands Luther tels us that at one great Assembly of the Emperour and Princes the Protestants of Germany had Conveyed a Bible on the Table The Cardinal being first come he opened the Book and read here and there in it it is like he had not seen 132 it before in his Life In comes one of the Popish Princes and askt the Cardinals Eminency what Book he had there He Answerred I know not but I am sure it is agaiust us and it is laid here for that purpose Oh the Infinite mercies of God to us in our times and our Infinite Debt to his Infinite goodness and our Infinite guilt in neglect of it The Quakers at first took off themselves Families and Assemblies from any use of it Their Spirit they Crake that made the Scriptures supplies all c. The Papists and Quakers both have said and printed that if the Scripture were consumed quite taken out of the world there would be no Loss so long as they have the Spirit The Truth is I could by Arguments many make it appear that the Papists and Quakers love the holy Scriptures no better than Goliah loved Davids stone and sling nor no better then the Devil loved Christs Gegraptai It is written It is written for the Papists and the Quakers and the Devil knows that if the holy Scriptures be Exalted as the revealed will or word or Declaration of the mind of God down-falls their pretences of Traditions and Revelations whereby the Devil deceivs themselves and himself also 4. The Papists and Quakers shake hands in the most hellish Doctrine of Justification by what is within us by what Christ works within us in short by what is called Sanctification put for Justification and the forgiveness of sin in and for the merits of the Lord Jesus freely imputed and given to us The Papists use the word Inherent Righteousness but the Quakers bogle at the word not finding it in the English Bible yet they agree that by the works of Obedience yea and also by the Acts of their own Inventions and Superstitions they can make a pardon under a hedge to themselves and Crake that they have received a pardon and Justification sealed under the Broad Seal of Heaven to them but it is against the glory of the King of Heaven and against the glory of the Son of God and his glorious Sufferings and their own Salvation 5 The Quakers are Papists in that Spirit of Infallibility which they arrogate to themselves pretending that the holy Spirit shall lead them into all Truth speak Immediately in 133 them c. though herein they differ the Pope infallibly expounds Scripture but the Quakers speaks Scripture and his word is Gospel c. yea all men have this Spirit and need no Teacher and yet what an horrible Contradictious noise is there of the Quakers Apostles Messengers Ministers Preachers He and she sent into Old-England and New-England Scotland Ireland Turky Italy to bid people hearken to the Immediate Spirit within 6. The Quakers are Papists in that high lofty Conceit of their Perfection when Calvins time this Spirit came from Hell under the name of Spirituals and when of latter years in Lancashire under the Name of Grindletonians all their Religion turned chiefly upon these two Hinges 1.
word in Gen. 2. might be viewed which he turned to and read viz. God breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living Soul About this time Sam. Gorton sen. desired to speak and said If it be affirmed that God can be divided that man was a Part of God the God-head was destroyed and the Soul of man and upon this Basis all the rest would follow which was asserted in this Position And whereas Iohn Stubs read it as it is in our Translation viz. God breathed into him the breath of life Mr. Gorton said it was Lives in the Margin the breath of Lives which Iohn Stubs acknowledged It is frequent in their Books when they will speak plainly for them to confess that God breathed forth himself into Adam and that ther fore mans Soul or Spirit is a part of the Divine Essence that the Soul is an increated substance that as for the Body it comes from the Earth and returns to the Earth and dust and rottenness and however they sometimes preach and print hat the Body shall rise again yet others again of them speak plainly that as the body of a dog or beast so it vanisheth But as for the Spirit they say that returns to God that is into God And although they talk to blind our eyes of a Resurrection and Iudgment and of Souls being punished with the Devil and his Angels yet others of them affirm that all Souls return into God and that the soul of Iudas is now as happy in God as the Soul of Peter yea others of 146 them speak plainly that they are Christ God therefore one of them being desired to give thanks at dinner asked roundly to whome should I give thanks to my self and Calvin relates how long ago one Quinitinus in his time a Leader this way being demanded how he did resolutely answered How can Christ doe but well and yet at that time he was very sick About this time W. E. said what dost thou tel us of storyes what this man said and that man said we will not believe thee But just here rose up a neighbour Ioseph Iinks who said he had no prejudice against the Quakers yet he could witness to the truth of these speeches of the Quakers for one of them had spoke as much to his face lately at Newport on Rhode-Island but I still laboured to keep down heat and therefore I told them I would not trouble them with Proofs from elsewhere but from their own writings and from that of G. Fox there present and therfore I prayed them to turn to Pag. 39. where G. Fox brings in Magnus Bine saying The Saints are neither in the fulness of the God-head nor part away with this Blasphemy which saith this is c. Fox answereth The work of the Ministry was to bring People to the Knowledg of the Son of God to a perfect man to the unity of the Faith to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and Christ will dwell in the Saints and God will dwell in them and thou sayest they have no part of the Fulness of the Godhead and Iohn saith of his fulness have we all received in whome dwels the Godhead bodily and ye be all in the Blasphemy that be out of this part of the Fulness I said that G. Fox rose up contrary to what Magnus Bine affirmed to wit That the Saints are not in the fulness of the Godhead But W. E. bid me let G. F. his words alone his meaning alone and keep to the words I told them the substance of my proof lay there in the substance of G. Fox his answer to his Adversaryes I took Fox his own word for the Quotation out of his Adversary which may be thought to be taken with as much Favor and advantage to himself as may be and therefore if they stopt me from opening and comparing the words in a rational and just way they stopt me in the bringing forth of my Proofs and Arguments I think here it was that W. E. said further If thou goest on to make out G. Fox his Sence and meaning we tell thee that we will stop thee c. 147 But since our business is with G. Fox as well if not more than with W. E. especially because of his Book we shall now more freely inlarge upon the words c. and Sence and Meaning also For the Fulness of the Godhead is one thing and another thing our and all his works and Creatures partaking of that Fulness in some mercifull likeness and coformity as Moses and we behold his Back or dark Resemblance and by Reâ—lection as we behold the Sun take in some weak low thoughts and conceits of the Eternal and Invisible incomprehensible and inconceivable Power and Godhead Thus to partake of some drops of the Ocean of his Wisdom Power Goodness Holiness c. is not to become an Ocean of Power Wisdom Goodness Holiness yea Wisdom it self Power it self Goodness it self Holiness it self as God is This devilish Pride was the Sin of the Devils or wicked spirits this was the Sin of our first Parents unto which the Devil beguiled them and this is Sathans bait still to catch all Wise Rich High and especially Holy People with viz. to be as God to be in the fulness of the Godhead to be God himself 2. However this Iugler speaks here of the Fulness of the Godhead bodily in Christ yet if he be examined and searched it is clear that by Christ he meanes the Body the Quakers and every one of their Bodyes is Christ in whome the Godhead dwels bodily and the great Mystery of which the Holy Scripture speaketh 1 Tim. 3. Is God manifest in their flesh and therefore Sam. Fisher useth in his Writing Christ Iesus as Peter did in his denying of him saying that Person whome you call God-Man is as high Treason against the King of kings and King of Saints as hath ordinarily been acted since God most wonderfully gave life to a lump of Clay which now perks up to the eternal Power and Godhead Pag. 90. G. Fox brings in the same Author saying There is a kind of Infiniteness in the Soul and it cannot be Infiniteness it self He answers Is not the Soul without beginning comeing from God and returning into God again which hath it in his hand which hand goes against him that doth evill which throws down that which warrs against it and Christ the Power of God the Bishop of the Soul which brings it up into God which comes out from God hath this a beginning and ending and is not this infinite in it self and more than all the World 148 I Reply in these few lines let him that hath his sences make common sence and English of some of them However this is express that the Soul is without beginning or ending coming out of God and returning into God Hath this saith Fox a
beginning or ending and is not this infinite in it self and more than all the World I know I have had better Opinions and better Reasons from these poor Natives of America then this poor self conceited God and Christ. G. Fox expresseth concerning the Soul and Spirit of Man what is here but a bruitish notion of the Spirit of man and a bruitish notion of the Eternal Power and Godhead Among the six or seven Opinions of the Soul of man this is one and one of the grossest viz. that Mans Soul is an efflux efflation that is a flowing or breathing out of the Essence of eternal and infinite Godhead This worst and most Blasphemous Opinion of the rest the old Serpent hath taught these Foxians in so much that these bewitched Souls say and print that this World is God and the Godhead manifest no variety of appearances and returning all again into the center of the Godhead in which they shew horrible ignorance and Blockishness in heavenly or earthly matters for reason tells us that Finites be innumberable and yet numerable in time but Infinite is but one The Quakers and Manicheans are but one in many particulars Manicheus held two infinite powers or princes One infinitely good the other infinitely as bad which they say is the reason in some Disputes I have had with them why God nor the Devil good nor evil gets the final victory one over another in this World But this notion of two infinite or boundless Beings is soon found simple and bruitish for an infinite or boundless Being cannot possibly receive a Neighbour a Competitiour or second infinite or boundless for then the second would terminate and bound the first and it self also and so not one infinite at all be granted Beware of Dogs saith Paul the Holy Spirit saith Cant. 2. beware of Foxes take us the foxes sure it is we are to sly from bruitish fellowship with them in these bruitish Fancyes so also to fly from these their brutish Barkings and Blasphemings against the infinitely Glorious and inconceivable Excellencies of God and among the rest his incomprehensible patience which could not bear such horrible provocations were not his patience himself infinite and incomprehen 149 sible Alas poor lump of clay and dust and ashes poor finite vapours we are that are so far from being infinite that in a sence we are infinitely Blocks and Beasts and not able to give a guess at what Infinity and an infinite Majesty and Godhead is I quoted Pag. 67. where against Fr. Higinson he saith Again thou makest a great Puddir that one should witnes he is equall with God G. Fox answers that the English Divines in their Catechisme say that Holy Ghost and the Son are equall in Power and Glory with the Father yet if any one come to witness the Son of God revealed in him or come to witness the Holy Ghost in them as they that gave out Scriptures to witness the mind of Christ and witness that equality with the Father that equality which you speak of you Priests destroy that which you have put forth to the Nation and cry out horrible Blasphemie I Reply let these horrible Blasphemous lines be examined and when the black and hellish juyce is prest out of them will it not be this viz. The Quakers say that they are equal in power and Glory with God the Father Son and Holy Spirit Pag. 182. I will adde to this Pag. 282. where G. Fox brings in Daniel Gaudry saying surely they cannot be perfect here nor hereafter in equality but in quality G. F. answers Christ makes no distinction in his words but saith be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect and be you Merciful as he is and as he is so are we in this world c. I Reply whether it be G. Fox his Ignorance of the difference between Quality and Equality or whether it be his flinty Impudence or both sure I am there is an horrible monstrous Brat of hellish Blasphemy hatcht amongst them viz. that poor dust and ashes may not only by infinite Grace be like the King of Glory in Holiness c. but he may be and the Quakers are cheek by joll with him as great a King Prince and Monarch as he equal in Power Wisdome Goodness Iustice Holiness Mercy and all these Eternal Infinite and Incomprehensible G. Fox would not endure this in his own stinking Dignity and Preheminence for although he suffer his Inferiour and petty Saints to be like him in his pretended Holiness Goodness c. yet he is so great a Diotrephes and so jealous of his Crown that Humph. Norton himself must not dare to touch that simple Bable but himself and blind followers must all adore the Godhead and 150 none must dare to be equal or Corrival with him Unto this I adde Pag. 248. where G. Fox brings in an unnamed Author saying To say that God is substantially in man and essentially one with him can be no other but the Man of Sin the Devil himself hath transformed himself into an Angel of Light and if it were possible would deceive the very Elect. G. Fox Answers That God will dwell in man and the Saints had unity with the Father and the Son c. In which Answer it is plain 1. That G. Fox maintains that the Godhead is essentially and substantially in man 2. That his Proof is only some Mystical and figurative Expression as viz. of Gods dwelling in Man and walking in man c. whence he impiously ignorantly confounds that relative union by believing in the Son of God into an Essential or Union of Beings with the eternal Creator himself a Union of finite and temporal shadowes with the most Infinite and Eternal Creator of visible and vanishing and foolish dust with the invisible immortal and only wise God which no truly humble Soul can but tremble to hear and think of It is clear in these Passages 1. That the Quakers make themselves Father Son and Holy Spirit 2. They make no other work of Redemption on Iustification c. but what is wrought in their spirits minds and fancyes called within them 3. They make no other state of Heaven Resurrection Iudgment or Life to come then is in them and their Bodyes at present Now concerning their bold and blasphemous ascending into the Throne of God we shall hear a little more in G. Fox making no Distinction between the Father and the Son with that known Heretick Sabellius and 2. In his making no distinction between Christ Jesus himself and his Saints or Believers in him In Pag. 246. He brings in Christopher Wade saying God the Father never took upon him humane Nature G F. answers God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself And art ignorant of the great mystery God manifest in the slesh and his name is called the everlasting Father As for the word Humane which is from the
take from us or bring upon us I said and say that neither the teachings of the Papists or Quakers will help them to get up one Step of this heavenly Ladder for by the utmost strength and activity of Nature no man can advance and climbe higher then to love God and Christ and Heaven for it Self and Self-ends which is no more but Flattering of God base and dog-like Fawning and Hypocrisie I cannot call to mind ought that was opposed by my Antagonists against these Considerations but Iohn Stubs said Dost thou count our Religion an easie Religion for my part said he we have not found it so easie to forsake all the glory and pleasure of this world to forsake wife and children c. to goe about the work of the Lord in strange Countreys c. 157 And W. E. said thou sayest our Religion is an easie Religion For my part said he I have not found it so I have not found it so easie to forsake all the glory and honour and pleasures of this World and to expose our selves to hardships to forsake our Wives and Children Friends and Relations and to goe about in strange Countreys c. And W. E. further said in that thou saist our Religion is an easie Religion it is a plain evidence that thou that talkest so much of Religion and of the Religion of the Quakers thou yet never knewest what Religion is with more to this effect and they according to their wild spirit insisted vehemently on the wronge which I did them and the People called Quakers and that as for themselves they were but a few but the people called Quakers were a great Body they were many thousands all over England they were many thousands in London as also in Barbadoes and New-England and Virginia and other places I replyed that my time would not give me leave as they knew to say much to their greatness and number yet I said their Religion like the Papists was easie and agreeable with Nature they had the wind and tyde of natural corruption to joyn with their spirit which knew this well enough 1. It was easie to perswade the Quakers to change one fowle Spirit and Devil for an other a Devil more gross and ugly for a Devil more refined painted and guilded their pride in Cloathes and fantastical Fshions to pride in self conceit and fantastical Opinions their Drunkenness and Gluttony with Wine and Flesh to Intoxications with high and proud Vapours How many millions travel on the broad way to Destruction and yet prate of a strict and narrow Path What wonderfull hardships doe both Turks and Papists endure in their religious Pennances How doe they macerate and whip themselves even till the bloud of their tender Women hath streamed down upon the ground from them Yea how zealously in the cause of their Religion have the very Iewes themselves cast away their Lives as Spain and Portugal can witness Besides I told them it was a poor lame thing to talk of numbers when the Council of the only Wise was so clearly revealed concerning his Little Flock opposed to the vast and monstrous Herds both of civiliz'd and wild Nations 158 I put them in mind of the innumerable multitudes that followed after that stupendous Cheater Mahomet even thirteen parts of the world divided into thirty as very knowing Cosmographers or Describers of the World have computed And if so be that the Pope and Church of Rome be the eight Head the great Whore that sits upon many Waters Kingdomes and Nations what a poor Slut is the Quakers Fancy compar'd with the Baals Priests the Romish Proselites the Beast whome the whole world wonders after 3. Again it is to me and may be to all men wonderfull that since the Religion of the Quakers is so easie c. that ten thousands more of people in old and new England Scotland Ireland and other parts have not lifted themselves under this new Mahomet pretending so much from the Dove from Heaven as Mahomet did T is true G. Fox and Foxians pretend the two horns of the Lamb and that their weapons are not Iehues nor Baals Priests but that they have forsaken all Carnal Weapons but this I shall shew to be an horrible Lye when I come to the last Position The Devil and the Papists and the Quakers know that the Quakers only want a Sword to subdue as many Proselites as either Mahomet or the Pope hath done The Quakers some prate subtilly others childishly against Carnal Weapons Carnal Weapons c. but I shall shew if God please in my 14th and last Position what a Devil of Pretence this is At present the Devil knowes they want but a Sword not Hearts nor Hands nor Principles whereby to subdue as maâ—y Proselytes as the Pope or Mahomet hath and literally and materially thrash the Mountains with Flails of iron and make the Nations turn in an easie Hypocrisie and Dissimulation Dissembling Quakers I wonder and adore the Councels of the Eternal that any of these three should be Cheated by this spirit First Any of those truely fearing God for their Principles spirit and practices being so notoriously opposite to the meek and patient Spirit of true Purity and Holiness and evidencing them to be lead by a dumb and dogged Spirit 1. Their high and shameless Pride and Vapouring is notoriously known of which in the next Position 2. Their mouth full of Cursing and Railing above any or all that profess to march under the Christian Name and 159 Colours 3. They spit not out their Venome so fiercely against any as against the most conscientious Preachers and Professor of the Protestant Faith as appears all along in this railing of Fox in Folio against them 4. They easily fall in with openly profane and ungodly persons and with carnal and luke-warm Laodiceans who can swim with the tyde sail with every wind If they can but say Thee and Thou c. 5. It is wonderfull how their spirit professing to be Protestants can so wickedly strike in with the bloudy spirit of the Papists against the Witnesses and Martyrs of Jesus compiled by that heavenly I. Fox in the Book of Martyrs which this bloudy spirit in Iames Purnels Watcher upbraidingly calls Your Record as if it were none of theirs nor the bloudy Papists against whose bloudy practises under their Popes and the old proud Romans the Romane Gods and Emperours that heavenly Book shews how those heavenly Martyrs or Witnesses over came by the Bloud of the Lamb the word of their Testimony and not loving of their Lives unto the Death 6. That most Savage and worse then Indian Spirit of their stripping their women stark naked and so to enter into the streets and Assemblyes of men and youths which Piety Christianity and common Womanhood and Modesty abhor to think of Secondly As I wonder how any godly Soul so how any Learned Soul who hath studied the primitive Copyes
the Holy Scriptures He is the sole Judge and Interpreter of them and the sole decider of all controversies in Religion about the expounding of them yea he hath power to dispence with Peter and Paul c. yea what Christ and God can do that gave forth Scripture that can the Pope their Lieutenant do hence all this Dispensations of Oaths of Marriages c. Do not the Quakers also tread this Holy Scripture this inestimable Jewel of Gods Writing and Book under their proud feet as formerly I noted upon the fourth Position of their not owning the Holy Scripture Do they not upon the point say that they made they wrote and gave out the Holy Scripture and though in our late Conference they said they would be tryed by the Scriptures yet as the Papists they admit no Interpreter but themselves for the Spirit within them they say gave forth the Scripture and is above the Scripture and both they and the Papists have said that there would be no losse if they were gone out of the World for the Papists say their Traditions and their infallible Spirit would supply the loss and the Quakers say the Scriptures is within them in effect they say that all that they do and say is Scripture so far are both Papists Quakers from a Christian and Candid Profession of being tried by the Holy Scripture that they most Horribly and most Hypocritically trample it under their proud feet 166 4. These Romanists or Proud ones as the Hebrew signifies both Papists Quakers most insultingly lift up themselves against the Servants and Children of God all the world over that bow not down to their Images be a Soul never so humble and penitent never so holy and mortified believe the Scriptures c. and give his life for the truth of of them yet he is damned if he believes not the Pope to be the head of the Church and say not the Quakers the same of all that believe not in their pretended Lights your Repentance is nothing your Holiness nothing your Zeal Praying Preaching Fasting Suffrings nothing and they think they have reason to say so because you believe not in the true Christ and therefore you are in Cains Nature in the Satanical Delusion Reprobates c. so that all the blessed Souls under the Alter calling for vengeance against the shedders of their blood the Roman Emperour or since the Roman Popes they are all branded with a black cole of damned Souls and Reprobates by G. Fox because they professed preacht and died for a Christ without them though that Christ without them dwelt in their hearts Ephes. 3. by believing and for his sake they loved not their lives to the Death I told them that the Pope and they were one in the great point of the Infallibility they both pretended the Spirit of God as did the Apostles c. but I have proved their pretence is as true as that of Apollo's Worshippers by whose Priests the Devil gave Oracles Extripode from their threefold stool and that so subtilly and cunningly that whatever Oracle or Voice it was and whatever the event were yet the Devil would save his own Apollo should be the true God of Wisdome and Apollo's Priests true Prophets At last when Christ came Apollo being consulted and failing to give answer the Devil was forced to answer that there was an Hebrew Childe borne that stopt his mouth I am sure this Hebrew Childe the true Lord Jesus Christ hath often also stopt the mouthes in one sense of Pope Quakers for their Predictions have not come to pass though some which the Devil could guess at have and he will shortly stop their mouths forever It was truely said of that long eighteen years hatching Devilish Junto of Trent that the Holy Ghost that is the Popes Holy Ghost came every week from the Pope at Rome c. to his Legates at Trent in a Cloak-bag and do not G. Fox his Books 167 and all their writings declare for their corrivality and competition with the Pope for this their pretended Holy Ghost do they not upbraid all other Ministers and People for being out of the infallible Spirit Do they not say their Ministers and their Commissions are invisible because immediate and infallible do they not assigne this to be the cause of all the Sects and Divisions among the Protestants because they have not the infallible Spirit as the Quakers have Here as I remember Iohn Stubs stood up and alleadged that place in 1 Iohn 4. Hereby we know that we dwell in him because he hath given us of his Spirit And again you have the unction and know all things And W. Edmondson boastingly and proudly said that they had the same immediate and infallible Spirit which the Apostles had and that Iohn Peter were but their elder Brethren Unto which I answer Peter I know and Iohn I know but who are you For 1. They were Eye-Witnesses of the Lord Jesus his Life and Death and Resurrection 2. They were immediately endowed with fiery Tongues and fiery hands to preach in all Languages and to pen from Gods mouth his holy word and Pleasure and to work real Miracles not metaphorical ones only as G. Fox said at Providence the Quakers did that is open the eyes of the Blind by Conversion c. I added that it might please the infinite Wisdom of God to send higher Pretenders to Apostleship then the Quakers who should speak all Tongues doe Miracles But as Gods Servants had a Rule Isa. 8. the written Law and Testimony and were not to believe their Dreames though they came to pass Deut. 13. So have Gods Servants now viz. The Doctrine of Christ Iesus both concerning Faith and Order and to strive earnestly for the Faith once delivered The Pope like Baalam sayes he is the Mouth of God whome he blesseth they are blessed and whom he curseth c. therefore sendeth he his Curses like Thunderbolts yea among Kings Kingdomes in other Nations and our own as K. Henery 8th K. Edward 6th Queen Elizabeth experimented c. and is there any People bearing the name Christian so like the pope their Father as these whose Mouth saith David is full of Cursing and Bitterness like Floods out of the Dragons Mouth and fire-brands arrowes and Death crying out against the most Humble and Con 168 scientious Cain Saul Iudas Viper Serpent Reprobate Dragon Devil yea one of their Shee-Apostles Devil Devil Devil all at once to one that opposed her amongst us and such foul stinking exprefsions like the Quakers in London about the Dung of Mankinde that modesty especially the bashfulness and modesty of Women would have been far from A seventh is that great point of horrible Pride in both Pope Quakers exalting the Dung and Dirt of their own Qualifications Excellencies Graces Labours Fastings Satisfactions Believings Suffering as a price and satisfaction to Gods Justice
to Paul as Peter to Cornelius and Paul to the Iailor it pleased God to use his holy means and instruments of Men to men Gods sweet and familiar way to men the immediate Teachings of God by Dreams by Vision by Voices by Motion the Holy Scripture mentions many before and since the coming of the Lord Jesus the Question is not whether it may not please the most Holy and infinite Prerogative of the most High so to teach where and when and whom he please But whether it be Christian obedience or Diabolical laziness to fling off all means as Fox all along teacheth to sit still and listen to immediate Teachings that is say I to the Devils whisperings I believe the Papists and Quakers would give much to be rid of the Scriptures I know also that notwithstanding their pretence of Spirit yet both of them are forced to use means Praying Preaching Congregating and in stead of the holy means by Gods Spirit have appointed many Inventions and Superstitions from a Satanical Spirit G. Fox saith there is no Fallacy in the Revelation of God Ans. True but will he say these seven things 1. That all the pretended Revelations are the Revelations of God 2. That Revelations may not pretend Angelical Light and yet be Diabolical Darkness 3. That we may receive any Revelations and Teachings as Children and Mad Folks do without chewing and rational weighing consideration 4. That God hath not appointed his old Scripture and Writing 192 new since Christs coming as a Standard Rule or Touch stone to try all our own and others Inspirations by 5. That Mahomets Inspirations are not one of the most prevailing Snares Traps and Engines whereby he hath catcht whole Nations and Kingdomes and the greatest part of this poor world at this day 6. That when God reveals his word or will in writing which G. Fox grants to be the words of God and they are slighted it is not common and most righteous with God to deliver up proud lazy Souls to strong Delusions to believe Lyes as at this day it is most wonderfull 7. Whether there be any way in this world to escape the snares of Sathans Whisperings but by humble attending to the search and Meditation of the heavenly Records by humble cryes to the Father of Spirits for his holy Spirit and help in all the Meanes by himself appointed in Love and Pitty to the Souls of men A 4th Instance of G Fox his lame stuff is in Pag. 4. Where he brings in the same Author Sam Eaton saying The Gospel is the Letter c. He Answers And the Apostle saith it is the power of God c. and the Letter kills and many may have the Form but deny the Power and so stand against the Gospel which is the Power of God I reply we all know that the word Gsopel from the old Saxon is as strange to us English as the word Evangelium or Euangelion the Latine and Greek are but we all agree that it may be turned according to its meaning Glad Newes This wise cunning man tels us the Glad Newes is not the Glad Newes ' Why so Because it is the Power of God who sees not here the simple subtelty of this Deceiver The Gospel or Glad Newes preached is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth c. Rom. 1. Therefore this Glad Newes told written printed preached is not the Glad Newes would he now perswade himself and us that Moses and the Prophets that wrote of this Glad Newes and those four heavenly Pen-men or Pens which by the finger of God his immediate Spirit wrote the History of the Life and Death of the Lord Jesus c. wrote nothing of the Gospel or glad news for the glad news is the power of God 2. I know the trick of these old Cheaters and Juglers to hide 193 themselves and their cheating in the Bushes and Thickets of words of diverse Significations or figurative Speeches which all honest Reason teacheth carefully to distinguish I know it is Fox his trick and all their tricks in his and their Writing to make God and Christ and Spirit Gospel Covenant Iustification as before I proved to be all that one cheating Fancy called Light in them and in every one that cometh into the World These bewitched souls will not owne a figurative speech when it makes not for their Idols 3. Is it not that the Lord calls the preaching of the Glad Newes the Power of God because of the wonderfull effect of it to him that believeth this Glad Newes which few or none believe as being a foolish thing to believe as the Iews and thousands others say to believe in a beggars brat laid in a Manager and a Gallowes-Bird c. 4. Paul calls this Glad news his Gospel or Glad news Rom. 2. Will the Foxians therefore say that either Paul lyed or else it is not Gods Gospel nor Christs but Pauls although it is most true that as Paul had charge of it as a Shepheard of another mans Flock or a Mariner of an other mans Ship it may be common Phrase of Speech though not literal but figurative be called Pauls or any other Messengers of Christ Glad news or Gospel 5. There is a wild beast called a Fox a subtle and pernicious creature there was a famous heavenly Man a famous writer of the Book of Martyrs Iohn Fox and there is this poor deluded deluding Soul G. Fox to whome I am now replying ought not these to be distinguished Is there not such a mischievous subtle Beast called the Fox because G. Fox bears and that most justly and by a finger of Gods providence bears it the wild Beasts name or was not such a learned heavenly wonderfully deligent zealous man as I. Fox because G. Fox bears that name also 6. But further If the Glad news may not be called the Glad news when t is Scripture that is written or preached then not Glad news when spoken 7. The Law denounceth Sentence of Death against a Traitor c. this Sentence is written in a Sence may be called a Killing Letter the King pardons this Traitor and this Sentence of Pardon is written this gracious word of a King is not less his Word because it is Written then it was when first spoken by him and this word or pleasure of the King written may be called Gospel or Glad news the Glad news or Gospel of his Temporal Salvation will any sober man say as G. Fox impiously and frantickly that the writing of the Pardon and the Broad-Seal is a Dead letter a Killing letter c. because Paper Parchment c. If G. Fox from hunting after Souls by Sea and Land arrive at 194 any Port in England and send a Letter Post to his Wife Friends containing his many Deliverances many Experiences his safe Arrivail and his Purpose
and Hope shortly to see them shall now this Glad news or Gospel though but a few raggs made Paper be stiled a Dead letter yea a Killing letter though it contain nothing as the Christian Gospel or Glad news doth not but glad news or Tidings 8. Hence it is that we read so often of Preaching the Gospel of Believing the Gospel and that as before Paul calls it his Glad news or Gospel because it was his work to tell it Yea but saith this Deceiver throughout his Book A man may have the Letter and Form without the Power and Life c. I Answer Who knows not that and that a Form picture is not the man himself who knows not that Iudas notwithstanding his pretended Love and Kissing of Christ Iesus that yet he had not the Life power of true Love and heavenly affection but doth it follow that living and moving Bodyes have not Souls Spirits within them because that pictures have not That none preach Christ Iesus truly because that G. Fox preacheth an immaginary and Allegorical Christ in order to establish himself the only true Christ and the Eternal Son of God as many bewitched Souls call him 9. What is this but to cheat poor Birds with the Chaff Falacy of dividing the Body from the Soul the Letter from the Meaning the Instrument or Tool from the Workman or Husbandman using it the Gospel or glad news from Believing of it Ah poor cheated Souls called Quakers all of you why do you willingly out of pretended Enlightnings Experiences shut your eye of common Sense and Reason not daring to call good news good news because some or the most will not Believe it was it not so with the women preaching or telling the good news or gospel although few or none were found to believe that Christ was risen 10. The truth is search your cheating Familiars narrowly you will find that your selves and the Papists would make an Holy Day of that Day in which all the Bibles in the world were burnt that you may establish your infallible spirits Traditions I know I wronge you not I have too much proof of it which you would se if the heart were not the arrantest Cheater in the World and your selves not willing to be cheated T is true Antiochus attempted the burning of Moses and the Prophets out of the world some of the bloudy Emperours followed on in Antiochus his bloudy Steps raging against the Scriptures also the Romane Popes in theirs and common reason may tell all men and the Quakers themselves 195 that if the same power come into their hands as Antiochus the Romane Emperours had the holy Scriptures shall not if they can effect it trouble them or others one day in the world longer But of this more in the next and last Position A 5th Instance is pag 10 where G. Fox brings in Iohn Bunian saying It is not Faith and works that justifie in the sight of God but it is Faith and good works which justifie in the sight of men only c. He answers Abraham was not justified to men only by his Obedience but to God and where is Faith there is Iustification which works by Love and the Saints Faith works were not only to justifie them in the sight of men for the Work of God is to doe what he saith his Will which who doth not are not justified in so doing but to be beaten with Stripes who seek to be justified by their Faith and Works in the sight of men are Dead Faith Works both I Reply In this great business of justification Pardon of Sin which Luther called the great Wall of Seperation between us and the Papists I humbly hope to shew how lame this Fox is and that he his Foxians agree with the Papists Arminians Socinians against the true Protestants in this fundamental business For what is Iustification but a Pardon written and sealed and declared from the King of Heaven to poor condemned Traitors That this Pardon may be merited by any Price that we or all the World can offer is denied by true Protestants but affirmed in effect by the proud unbroken Souls of Papists Arminians Socinians and these Foxians called Quakers It is true after a condemned Soul hath received a Pardon or Iustification from his King freely without Desert upon the Princes Mediation he declares his loyal and thankfull Obedience c. but is this his Pardon Iustification as our subtle Simpletons imagine Again that Abraham was pardoned or justified it is all one for his Work sake as this blind Soul â—aith how doth Rom. 3 4. and the Epistle to the Galathians cry out and the experience of every true broken Heart cry out Lyar against such proud and Popish Blasphemies Further If all the Righteousness of the best of men that is their good Thoughts good Words good Actions Aims Prayers Preachings Sufferings be but as Womens Menstruous filthy Clouts as the Most High calls them what Popish and frantick Madness is it in Fox to talk of Iustification before God by works or by Obedience A 6th Instance is Pag 16. where he brings in Henoch Howet saying It is an Expression of a dark deluded Mind to say that God is not distinguished from the Saints G. Fox Answ. But God and Christ is in 196 the Saints and walks in them and he is is a Reprobate and out of the Apostles Doctrine I reply to this Canting Gypsie in Pag. 74. He denyes the Position of Ralph Farmer viz. That God the Creator is eternally distinct from all Creatures and that Christ being God only in one Person remains a distinct person from all Men and Angels Also in the same Page that God is distinct in his Being and Blessedness from all Creatures I Answer is it not Sufficient that poor Dust and Ashes poor Chaff and Stubble may be admitted to a Parly with the Heavenly Majesty and receive Smiles of his Countenance in the Face of the only begotten Prince Mediator to be cloathed with the Virgins diverse Collours and heavenly Affections but with the Devil and our first Parents we must aspire to the throne of the Incomprehensible Majesty and Godhead also Besides Let mans Common Sence be Umpire is there no Distinction between Infinite and Finite between the Infinite Ocean of Majesty power goodness Wisdom c. and the poor Dross of which Men Angles are Partakers The King dwells in White-Hall and in other of his Royal Palaces is therefore no Distinction between the King and his Houses though some may be braver then others And yet Fox saith his Opposite is a Reprobate I ask why The only Reason Fox gives is because he licks not up the filthy and hellish poyson of Foxes childish and hellish Blasphemy against the Eternal Godhead A 7th Instance is Pag. 22. where he brings in Ioseph Kellet saying They be all alienated from God and
I said much more 204 might it be said of Mens Laws Writings that surely they had no need of them for what could be more just and equal more pure holy in all Cases Controversies Businesses then the immediate Voice of God W. E. said what dost thou fill peoples ears with strange Notions as if the People of God called Quakers were a lawless people and would bring all Government and all Laws to nothing We are for righteous Goverment and righteous Lawes we are not for any to rule by Force and more he spake to this purprse I Replyed that he mistook me by an Arbetrary Goverment I did not intend a Goverment ruling by Force for there could be no Goverment in the world without the Sword but Arbitrary I said came from Arbitrium which signified Will or pleasure and so my Argument was that Persons immediately speaking from God it was impertinent and profane to clog and cumber them with Lawes for the Voice of God the Law of all Laws proceeded out of their mouth then which there could be none more Just more Wise more Holy Here stood up an Aged man and as able as most in the company T. A. though much of late adhering to the Quakers and said Methinks there is Weight in Mr. VVilliams his Argument He being a noted man and his voice very audible and so heard by all VV. E. was forced to take notice of his speech and said wherein is there any weight in it T. A. Answered why if a Magistrate be immediately inspired by God and speaks Gods Laws Sentence sure there seems to be no need of any other Laws They saw they were in a Pound and I perceived it and yet not being willing to grate upon them but watching my time as I was glad all along to pass handsomly from one Point unto another I said unto them if they pleased I would pass on to the Third Branch viz. That the Quakers Spirit tending to the sudden cutting off of People yea Kings and Princes that oppose them I here told them that I must crave their patience whiles I must profess my fears least that Spirit by which they were guided might run them upon their own and others temporal Destruction I told them I thought they had no such thing in their Thoughts or Eye at present but if power of the Sword come into their hand it was easie to imagine that whom their Spirit infallible decreed to death Peasant or Prince if it were possible he must be executed c. W. Edm. said Thou here makest a false and lying charge against the People of God who are peaceable and quiet and yielding to Magistrates c. I Replied I charge them with no matter of Facts but I charge them and their Spirit with a tendency c. For why 205 might they not say that Abraham with an impulse was killing Isaak Moses the Egyptian Ehud killing Eglon the King of Moab Samuel hewing Agag the King of Amelech in pieces and Paul Ananias and Saphira c. and why not Sathan stir up his Instruments to pretend the like Spirit as we know he hath done both in former latter days My Antagonists joyntly bid me shew when any of the Quakers had done so I Answ. They spake not to the point c. for I did not charge them to have done so but that their Spirit tended to it I was saying that Faubord at Grindleton was killlng his Son in imitation of Abraham if his Sons crying out and the breaking open of the House had not prevented and that Iames Parnel moved by this Spirit to Fast forty dayes c. perished the eleventh day c. but perceiving more than ordinary heats and that W. Edm. charged me that I had a false heart of mine own and would measure others by my bushel I told them of the wonderful actings of Tho. Munster and I. Becold and Fifer Knipperdoling c. in Germany and of their Pretences Murthers Poligamies and all by the Spirit c. I told them that our Royal Sovereign his Grandfather Henry 4th of France that famous and wonderful Man he was stab'd to death by a Frier pretending a Vision of Angels on Christmas night who commanded him from God to dispatch and kill the King which he most desperately effected W. Edm. interrupted me and spake to this effect why should we suffer this man thus to wrong the innocent people of God we will measure him with his own Bushel For thy Book declares thy approving of the killing of the Kings Father and said where is the Book At which word W. Harris a Fire-brand of Town and Colony Country rose up and carried a Book which they said was mine to W. Edmundson I perceived that W. Edm. W. H. who was for any Religion and a malicious mortal enemy to all good had been a plotting and I said openly I knew what malicious bloody counsel had been between W. Har. and themselves but they would finde themselves befooled for there was nothing in the matter but ridiculous malice for all of us knew that W. H. loved the Quakers whom now he fawn'd upon no more then he did the Baptists whom he till now fawn'd on but would love any as a Dog for his Bone for Land which he had a long Suit for as was known to all the Country and their cost Hereupon Capt. Green of Warwick Magistrate desired that such matters might be forborn and others spake to the same purpose and I Stubs and others are said to speak to W. Edm. to forbear so that the Book was laid aside and delivered again to that 206 malicious bloody Soul W. Harris I challenged them again and again to read and improve what possibly they could which I knew was no more then fome words applauding the Parliaments Iustice and Mercy which these Bloody Sophisters would like Wolves Foxes construe as my approving the Kings Death which God knows I never approved to this day Upon this Occasion I may now inform the Reader how easily the malicious Spirit of W. Edm. W. Har. met in one formerly no man amongst us had spoken more scornfully of the Quakers then W Harris now he extreamly privately and publickly fawns upon them seeing them my Enemies who had ever been his Friend and never his Enemy but in his outragious practises against Town Colony Country He was a Pretender in Old England but in New my experience hath told me that he can be one with the Quakers yea Iesuits or Mahumetans for his own worldly ends and advantage He is long known to have put Scorns Ieers upon the eminent Inhabitants of Town and Country He hath been notorious for quarrelling and challenging and fighting even when he pretended with the Quakers against Carnal Weapons so that there stands upon Record in the Town-book of Providence an Act of Disfranchisement upon him for fighting and shedding Blood in the street
contrary to the Apostle who saith the grace of God which brings Salvation hath appeared to all men contrary to the Prophet who saith I will give him for a Light unto the Gentiles a Light to the people Salvation to the ends of the Earth and a new Covenant to the house of Israel and Iudah and they that do not believe this are Condemned I Reply in these Considerations presented to the Conscientious 1. All mankind being fallen from God He graciously gave the Word or call to Abraham and made Promises both to his Natural and Spiritual Seed hence came the distinction of Jews or the Children of Abraham and the Gentiles as we English it 2. It pleased God to make two Convenants or Bargains with mankind 1. that of Justice and due debt to any man that yielded obedience in all things c. Rewards according too yea above desert This Bargain was made with our first Parents and with all mankind to this day yea even with the most savage and barbarous The second is of mercy and pity c. The Labans of the world change Covenants and Bargains ten times and still for the worse c. but the Father of mercies pitying Mans Misery and Inability offers a New and Infinitely easier and sweeter Bargain upon the Terms of only Mercy and free grace and pity 3. It is one thing for God to offer this Covenant or Bargain wherever the sound of this Gospel or glad News comes and another thing to embrace and receive it as all the Elect of God do and another thing to work freely and give freely the Means and Power to fulfil this Covenant as God doth by the Merits of his Sâ—n and his own powerful working of Repentance and belief in the hearts of all his Chosen 4. It is Common with the holy Spirit to speak Figuratively in the holy Scripture To call the Sign the thing signified and the Instrument or Means the work done Thus the Lamb is the Passover the Bread is Christs body the Cup is his Blood God and Christ is called the Hope of his people and Christ Iesus the Mediator of the Covenant called the Covenant it self The King pardons Rebels for his Sons sake his Son may in a Sense be said 8 though not literally to be the pardon it self A man drives a Bargain between two Chapmen that are absent and distant drives on a marriage between a Man and a Woman absent each from other and may in a Figurative Sense be called the Bargain or Covenant and yet not literally and properly as the poor Quakers would their Christ to be 5 The grace and mercy of God the Gospel or glad News is many wayes offered some are invited gently to come to the heavenly Wedding and Supper other Messengers more vehement even force persons in and the Kingdome of Heaven is taken by force many seek to enter many run It is not in him that willeth nor runneth but in God that sheweth mercy and the rest he justly hardeneth that God may be All in All. For as God walketh in the midst of his most wonderful Creation with his two feet of Mercy and Justice so he hath his two fingers and with one he wrote the Covenant of Justice in the Tables of Stone and with thâ— fingers of his Mercy and Grace he freely writes his Mind and Will in the Tables of Flesh and Hearts of his Chosen Many offers of Bargains and Marriages are made which never are embraced c. but in the new-Covenant God gives a new heart to his Chosen and gives not and is not the Covenant to any but his Chosen all the World over even to the ends of the Earth 6. For is it not a monstrous Dream of the Quakers to say that God and Christ Spirit and Covenant is in all Mankinde and that in a Gospel sence t is true as I said if G. Fox mean that the Knowledge of God in a sence is offered to each mans Conscience in the World though more expresly and gloriously where he sends his Messengers Wisdomes Virgins c. G. Fox beats the Fire I oppose him not but to say the Covenant or Bargain the Mediatour of the new Bargain and the Applyer of it the Holy Spirit is in every of Mankinde and if they will turn to it â— and yet persons know no such thing nor never heard of it and none ever had it so as to be saved by it but these Foxians is as wise as for a Man to have Fits of the Stone or Gout or a Woman have Pangs of Child-bearing and yet neither of them know any such matter no nor how she had any such Marriage Covenant or Husband nor ever any Word or Thought of it 7. The Bottome is this G. Fox cares not for the Iews nor 9 Gentiles no more then the Fox cares for Lambs and Chickins but to make a Prey of them he pretends Love to all Man-kinde and tells them they have Christ and the New Covenant and the Spirit within them yea he tells them he means not the Covenant of works but the Covenant of Grace he means that Christ that dyed at Ierusalem but when it comes too they mean no other Christ but a Spirit as Humphrey Norton more plainly then Fox confesseth and this Spirit will be found to be an Evil Spirit by Gods most wonderful wise and righteous hand as one saith upon them A 7th Instance G. Fox brings in pag. 24. Ioseph Kellet c. saying The Scriptures are the means of Faith He Answers and have thrown out Christ the Authour of it and God the Giver and the Scripture is but a Declaration of the Saints Faith and men had Faith before the Scripture was as Instance Abraham and Enoch I Reply G. Fox Answers three things First That his Opposites throw out God if they make the Scripture the means of Faith Secondly He slights the Scripture with a But it is but a Declaration of the Saints Faith Thirdly He slights the Novelty of it saying There was Faith before there was Scripture I reply I have had many Occasions to speak of the Scriptures already I shall therefore briefly say it is wonderful what an aking Tooth against the Holy Writings of God The old Serpent and all the Wolves and Foxes of this World have had who hath more or less damned and cursed it and longed to have it out of the World The Iews the Turks the Papists the Common Protestants the Quakers c make use of it for their ends but none can rightly use it but as a blessed Candle Lanthorn or Torch sent down from Heaven into this dark Dungeon of the World to guid us out unto the Saving Knowledge of God and Eternal Bleâ—â—edness with him For how doth this follow that if God hath appointed the Holy Writings as means that God and Christ are thrown out can there not be an Harmony between the first and all
of Life of Peace who was glorified with the Father before the World began which is beyond the first Adam and hath shut himself forth not to be as high as his heathen Philosophers And many witness Christ in them in this Age as in the dayes of the Apostles which is above the heathen Philosophers I Reply 1. I know it pleased God in all Ages to stir up the Spirits of some Men as the Philosophers amongst the Greeks 22 Socrates Plato Aristotle to improve that excellent Light of Reason which he had given them as Men and in so great a measure above other men 2. This wily Fox he runs to his hole and Confounds this Common Light of Reason with Christ and God himself who also are called Light by Similies from the Creature 3. The Question then follows If this Light of Knowledge were Christ as God and King and Mediatour why is it that none of these excellent Men knew nothing of God nor Christ nor Spirit Name nor Thing but only of the first Creation Can such a Court be kept a Palace furnished and such Royal and heavenly Guests be entertaind and no Body know any thing of it nor themselves neither when Christ Jesus came into Ierusalem though but in a poor Contemptible way all Iorusalem was moved at his coming and shall this most glorious King now Infininitely more glorious make his Ingress into the Souls of such wise and Excellent Men and neither they nor others hear of it until just now twenty years since Some cheated Souls dream of it 4. The utmost of Reason in these Excellent Men it is known I say that the Activity of the highest Reason in this World falls short in two grand particulars 1. As to the Creatures For some of them must needs fall short when Plato granted a Creation and a kind of Father Son and Holy Spirit in the Creation of it Aristotle pretends to see further then his Mr. Plato and all his Arguments and asserts the World to have no Beginning nor Ending c. Some of them maintaind the Soul of man to be procreated by the Parents others as the Quakers that it was part of the Divine Essence others that it is created and infused by God c. Some that the Center of the World is the Terrestrial Globe and that the Sun and heavenly Bodies move about it others that the Ceuter of the world is the Sun and that this Terrestrial Globe moves about the Sun and many other such natural Mysteries 2. However that Paul tells us Rom 1. That by the Creation some come to know there is an Eternal Power and Godhead yet 1 Cor. 1. he tells us that the World by wisdome knew not God which must be expounded or else swallow a Contradiction as the Quakers guise is viz. that by the highth of their wisdome 23 they could not see God so as to make him alone their Summum bonum and Blessedness so as to glorify him as God So as the holy Scriptures and the most holy Son of God from his Bosome hath revealed him so that in the highth of Reasons Reasonings the Spirit of God concludes that the natural man can not reach or perceive the things of God and yet this foolish Man makes every mans heart in the World the Court of Heaven a thing which every Kingdom and all men may abhor to think of but men are vain in all their Reasonings and their foolish heart is darkned yea their wisdome is Enmity hating God himself as the Scripture concludes c. It is true We re read of Noah Ark of Moses his Tabernacle Solomon his Temple and we see many glorious Fabricks and Works of the Sons of men in his world which argue excellent Gifts of God to them both of wisdome Prudence Fortitude Patience Temperance c. but do they all amount in the Total to more then Natural parts good Education and Industrious diligence can reach too What are all these to the enlightning of my Soul with my natural undone and damned Condition to a sight of Sin as Sin to a sight of my utter Inability to pay or all the whole Creation for me one farthing to Gods Justice or to work my desire to have any thing to do with him What are these to the changing of and a total turning of my whole Soul unto God to an humble sight of my Infinite necessity of the alone Sufficiency and Excellency of the Lord Jesus the great and only Mediatour and of my becoming one with him in Loves Eternal Beside what a single Consequence doth this high Illuminiated Doctor give to his Opposite viz. that because I magnify the Gifts of God to many yea thousands of Excellent Men whom I nor G. Fox are worthy to hold the Candle to therefore I shut my self out from Christ and those wise men too It may be his Opposite had somewhat more in his Assertion but this is all this high wise man in his own eyes prints and Answers to Who knows not how full the World is of admirable Men and Women that are not Christians And yet what a base esteem hath this proud Spirit of all men yea of all Christians too that dance not after his foolish pipe c. A 13th Instance I mention though Instances are as Leprosie spread over his whole Book is in pag. 48. where he brings in the 24 same Ioseph Miller saying The Prophets are more certain then any other Revelation He Answers was not the Son of God revealed the end of the Prophets Did not God reveal him which came in the Volume of the Book to do the will of God And so the Prophets and the Law and Types and shadows which they that had the Law and Types and shadows knew not the Son of God that was revealed that was their End spoken of in the Prophets end Epistles who is now revealed I Reply G. Fox to pass by his un-English Nonsence obvious to any that understand publick writings I say G. Fox either ignorantly or willingly knows not that the Question is not here whether Christ be the End of the Law and the Prophets in a true sense or whether Christ was not more revealed at his coming in the Flesh then before in the Prophecies c. But whether the written word of the Prophets of which Peter speaks and I have spoke before be not a more sure word of Command and Comfort to us then any now to be expected yea then that Revelation which we have upon that holy Testimony of Peter and Iohn themselves As it is with an Anchor strong enough to ride a Ship in most weathers yet some are as the Seamen spake second and third Bowers and one the best and Sheet Anchor and as it is in Witnesses some speak the Truth and Substance of the matter and yet others speak more plainly and fully c. So speaks Gods Spirit in Peter of the Infinite Fulness of the
Prophecies of Scriptures or the written foretellings and utterings concerning Jesus Christ. Thus the God of Heaven most holy and only wise stoops to our weakness and calls his mind his word his works his word his Providences of mercy or Judgement his Word the Lord Jesus his only begotten his word his writings his Word and this in a way of Condescention to our Capacity seeing that all the World over Kings and Rulers Fathers Masters of Families of Ships c. give the word that is the manifestation of their mind and will and this as the Spring in Clocks and watches turn about all other wheels and motions Hence it is that if ancient Records and Deeds with Hands and Seals be produced at the Bar of Trial all mouths are stopt at such Evidences Thus the Word of God in the mouths of the Prophets written for after Generations is Comparatively beyond the Report of Peter 25 and Iohn themselves is in all Religions The Iews have their Talmud the Turks their Alcheron the Pope his Decretans and the Protestants the Written Word or Scriptures When therefore a Pardon is written and Sealed with the Board Seal of a King or State what a fancy is it for a condemned Wretch to hearken first to a Pardon revealed within to a voice within to a King within to a Writing within a Seal within and so slighting the true pardon in the Kings way to be conveyed from without to the Mind and Spirit within to lose his Pardon and Deliverance as thousands of such poor cheated Souls must do A 14 Instance G Fox brings in Pag. 49. his Opposite Ralph Hall saying It is against the Light of Nature for Women to Preach c. G. Fox Answers Contrary to the Apostles Doctrine and the mind of God and the Prophets who said God would pour out of his Spirit upon all Flesh and his Sons and Daughters should Prophesie So that he is a limiter of the Holy one a quencher of the Spirit and in the Darkness and this is above the Light of Nature I Reply First What is the Light of Nature but the Light in which every man comes into the World with as the Foxians speak a Light differing from that Light which Beasts wilde and tame and Birds and Fishes have And a Second Light differing from what is Supernatural as that Light revealed from Heaven in the Holy Scriptures and infused into the Souls of Men by the Holy Spirit or Power of God 2. What is the Light of Nature in Man but that Order which the most Glorious Former of all things hath set like Wheeles in Clocks or Watches a going in all his Creatures Some have observed that in the Insensible Creatures to which the most High hath only giving Beings that there may be observed a Male and Female amongst them This is more observable in Vegetables or growing Creatures as in Plants Trees Herbs Flowers c. More yet in Sensitives as Birds Beasts Fishes Most of all in Rationals Men and Women whom the most High hath so wonderfully distinguished It is true that in Religious and Christian Matters there is no 26 respect of persons with God as of Man before the Woman otherwise than to order Natural and Civil The Woman is Predestinated is Called is Justified is Glorified and wears that Golden Chain as well as the Wisest and Strongest of Mankinde And it is true the Wisdome of God perfers some Women before thousands of Men in their being born of Nobles in excellent parts as is observable in the Lady Iane and Queen Elizabeth c. in some special favour as Christ Jesus first appearing to Mary Magdalen and other Women and sending them to carry the first Tydings or Gospel of his Resurrection to his Apostles yea in effusions or powrings forth of an extraordinary measure of his Spirit before Christs coming as on Miriam Deborah Anna Huldah c. and at his coming according to Ioels Prophesie on his Daughters as well as his Sons so that as my opposites alledged to me in publick Philip the Evangelist had four Daughters thus extraordinarily endâ—wed yet this favour of God toward Women destroys not the order which the God of Order or Nature hath set in those Bounds and Limits and Distinctions between the Male and Female the Man and Woman though the Holy Scripture were silent yet Reason and Experience tell us that the Woman is the weaker Vessel that she is more fitted to keep and order the House and Children c. that the Lord hath given a covering of longer Hair to Women as a sign or teacher of covering Modesty and Bashfulness Silence and Retiredness and therefore not so fitted for Manly Actions and Employments Therefore because of Ioels Prophesie or because we must not limit or quench the Spirit as G. Fox saith there is no ground in Gods ordinary course of Nature to permit Women to pretend to be Apostles or Messengers to the Nation or Preachers and Teachers in the Publick Assemblies 1. Because we finde no such Commission given by Christ Jesus or any such Practice amongst the first Believers 2. The Lord hath set as Seamen speak a preventer to such an unnatural boldness by express Prohibitions with the Reasons and Grounds to the Corinthians and to Timothy and to answer those Scriptures with a flam viz. that Eve the Transgressor and Women that be Tatlers are forbidden and the Woman Iezebel 27 c. is all one to tell us that Paul was not a Man nor Timothy a Man nor the Teachers Men nor Corinth a City but all signifie Metaphorical and Mystical Business 3. Why may not Women much more be Lord Majors and Bailiffs and Sherriffs and Iustices and Constables Captains Colonels Generals and Commanders by Sea and Land 4. That Reason the Spirit gives to the Corinthians for the vailing of Women in publick Assemblies makes much more for their vailing and silence in matters of Prophesying Preaching and Praying viz. Because of the Angels I know not any fair and sober Exposition of this Scripture except as the blind Quakers who swallow down a fly Camel too but that of the Heavenly Angels and Spirits attending on and guarding the Assemblies of true Christians and rejoycing in the comliness order and beauty of their publick Administrations Some few years since there came to my House two Maries it is said they came from London they bid me Repent and Hearken to the Light within me I prayd them â—o sit down that we might quietly reason together they would not then standing I askt them the ground of their such Travel and Employment they alledged Ioels Prophesie I answered that was fulfilled that was not every dayes work besides their business was not Prophetical but Apostolical c. they regarded not my Answers nor Admonitions but powred the Curses and Judgements of God against me and hurried away to Barbadoes they went and being War
Jesus have sitten down with him in those Heavenly Mansions and glories into which he is entred bodily and gone to prepare for their Reception and coming 4. The third Heaven the place of Pauls Rapture and Vision the place of Joy and Blessedness and Glory when these Heavens and Earth are burnt up and consumed It is like G. Fox hath been occasioned to these thoughts by the Papists Fables about Heaven and Hell and Purgatory and their curious Questions as whether the Torment of Hell be as real and terrible as this Elementary and Kitching Fire Whether the pain of Hell transcend not all pains of Childbirth Stone gout Collick Burning c. Whether it be possible for a Creature to Continue in such Torments perpetually without Intermission Whether there shall not be some end after some millions of years as well as of the pains of Purgatory G. Fox knows how the Papists get a world of Mony by these Notions of Heaven and Hell which the Atheistical Foxes amongst them count but Fables as the Pope speaks of Christ The Devils have a more real Faith or Belief of these things and tremble They cried out to the Lord Jesus why art thou come to torment us before the Time c. But G. Fox not believing as they think these Fables he fancies that Hell is some apprehensions in the mind of wrath to come and that is Hell and wrath it self and having had slashes of Pride and Peace in their minds these are the Joyes of Heaven whereas the Lord Jesus tells us that beside the hundred fold of Spiritual Ioyes viz a hundred Fathers Mothers c. there remains for his Followers in the World to come Eternal Life They are but short Flashes of Hell and Heaven which some of these poor Cheated Souls dream of I know they allow time more or less before they come into the perfect and heavenly State of Necessity Death prevents some from coming to it and makes the reign of the rest whom Satan has ticed into these 37 proud Vanities but short as Experience hath declared only they have a mad Fancy of their Souls going into God and becoming more God and yet this some of them grant to the Souls of all men to Iudas as well as Peter The true Protestant believes these three things First that there is a State Eternal of Joy to the Righteous bodies and Souls after this Life and a State of Eternal Misery of Soul and Body to the ungodly Although the exact knowledge of particulars exceed the present sight of our mortal eyes the hearing of our Ears and the Capacity of our Hearts c. 2. The first Fruits and a Tast both of the heavenly Ioyes and the Torments of the damned are given by God in this Life to the first in that Solid Peace and Ioy which they have in God To the other in that Horror and Despair and Enmity against God c. 3. Three Sorts of men especially will seek there is an Hell to come above other Sinners First The Volnptuous and Luxurious whose God is theii Belly and their Sences c. Ars. potenter 2. The Devourers of the Poor and helpless potenter c. 3. The proud puft up with foolish Confidences boldly Crying Lord open to us for we c. also the Contrary to these three I might inlarge on and not Impertinently but let him that readeth understand is in pag. 64. where G. Fox brings in Ieremiah Ives saying The Phariseel were far enough from having the Kingdom of Heaven within them He Answers contrary to Christs words who said it was within them I Reply G. Fox his Tutor and Teacher within him knows that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Huaven signifie but one and not divers things and yet also he knows that both of them signifie in a Christian Sense First the Kingdome of Government of God and Christ in the Soul Secondly The Government of God in his holy Providence in the World 3. His Government in the Congregation or Churches of his Saints called out the World Fourthly the glorious State to come afâ—â—r this Life He knowes that his Iourney man G. Fox is fit Instrument to destroy all these and to erect in their stead a dull proud dogged Confusion or Babel within under the Name of God Christ Spirit Light Faith Righteousness Resurrection The Lord Jesus knowing that not the Pharâ—sees alone c. but the Iews generally also and his own Christian Followers were leavened 38 with a worldly notion viz. thar their Messiah should be a glorious temporal King that he should make his Entrance and Exalt his Throne with great Pompe Solemnity c. The Lord Jesus tells them their mistake and saith that his Kingdome was not such a Kingdome but that it was within them Of which words I find three Expositions First that the Kingdome of Heaven is a Spiritual inward and Soul Kingdome concerning God and the Soul and Spiritual matters according to the saying of Christ Jesus my Kingdome is not of this World c. 2. From the word Entos within you or amongst you as certainly it was then amongst the Iews and in the midst of them in their Temple Streets and Houses Hearts and mouths by the most wonderful speakings of the Lord Jesus as never man spake amongst them and the wonderful power and gracious works which never man wrought amongst them nor in the whole World beside 3. The Kingdome of God that is God and Christ and the Spirit were literally in the Pharisees and so Consequently in every hypocrite in the World and every wicked and prophane Sinner though they know it not yea in all Creatures But this is against a former fair Exposition from the Greek word Entos which cannot be refused since so agreeing with the Truth except Reasons more prevalent c. 2. The Spirit of God asks what agreement between Christ and Belial Light and Darkness Righteousness unrighteousness c. And whereas it is most Improperly and Impiously Objected that the Light shines in darkness c. I have said that it can not be in the same Subject or part predominate the mind or will or Affections but the Light is at the window and the Eye and the knock at the door by all the wayes and means by which God visits poor men but the Eye the door is shut c. and the man within is not only asleep but dead and rotten in Natures silthiness and actual Transgressions and Abominations 3. It is against all Colour of Reason to Imagine that the Lord Jesus should tell the Iews the Pharisees and the rest of his bloody Enemies who some weakly some maliciously opposed his Kingdome and coming to Rule by his Grace over them viz. that his grace was King within them what ever their Heart or Tongues said or Hands hid c. 4. It is notoriously contrary to
what G. Fox and his so often 39 Clamour that the Kingdome of God consists in or its Nature is in Righteousness and Peace and Ioy in the holy Spirit as opposite to the Kingdome in the Pharisees and all Hipocrites and prophane c. as Hell to Heaven 5. The thing is so notoriously childish and ridiculous c. that a King should affirm he was an actual King in his Enemies Country where the whole is up in Arms against him Or for a Lamb to say he was amongst the Wolves and held his Government in them Or that a man pretending Love to a Woman in way of marriage should boldly affirm though she abhord to hear of the motion yet that he was in her Heart and Affections as an Husband Lord c. It is true the motions of War and Love are made and offerd from the King warring and the man suing but that their motions and Commands that is Government and Kingdome should be in them is nothing but impious and impudent and childish prating The 20th Instance is in pag. 75. where G. Fox brings in Thomas Weld c. saying How clear the Scripture is that Faith comes by hearing and not by minding the Light within He Answers Doth any man know Christ but by the Light within And is not Christ the Word And can any see without Christ the Word Doth it not make â—anifest Nay doth it not give the Light of the knowledge of God in the face of Iesus Christ read 2 Cor. 4. 1. from whence Faith comes and so Fâ—ith comes by minding the Light within Christ the Author of it and brings to look at him and hear him I Reply mine eyes have seen a poor distracted aged woman walking in State boasting of her Majesty Iewels and Crown with a Straw in her hand for her Scepter c. and thus doth this poor mad Soul walk even like Nebuchadnezzar upon his Babel All is Christ and he is Christ Christ is Faith and all c therefore 1. He slights this so known and unquestionable Record Faith comes by hearing and that heavenly Chain of Diamonds Rom. 10. concerning true Salvation true worshipping true praying true believing true preaching true sending which holy writing or Record Fox dares not seriously and impartially and in the fear of the most High consider as to the various means and wayes of Gods sending unto man 2. For all G. Fox his Scepter of Straw his mad fancy of a 40 Light that works Faith c. I ask what Faith is and if it be not First a believing the Gospel or Glad News to be true Secondly a receiviving of it and believing in it mine own particular As First that a pardon is certainly come Secondly that my Name is in it my deliverance and Salvation is wrapt up in it The great King of Heaven like Ahashuerosh his Angeâ— is evâ—r now he hath thoughts of marriage Loves and Ioyes and Secondly I though a poor Captive Iew poor Esther I am she his Eye hath fixt on and his Soul delights in 3dly I askt what preaching is but the publishing or divulging telling or declaring what the Word or mind or will of the King Eternal is which he hath revealed or declared to the Patriarchs Moses and the rest of his Prophets or Messengers from the beginning of the World And what said the Apostles or Messengers of Christ Jesus declare but what Moses and the Prophets did say should come to pass Act. 26. which all was Scripture Was not this Proclamation of Good News or a pardon to be made over all the World and the first proclaiming of it to be at Ierusalem Luke 24. And was there not to be four sorts of Hearers of this glad News 4. That receive and believe with a false and overly and loose and sandy Belief A fourth only with a deep and rockie Belief closing and uniting to God Thus the men of Samaria told the woman that they did not believe because of her word that must be taken Comparatively for the Hearing from her this glad News was he first means of their believing but because they had heard Christ themselves 5. I know these poor Foxians do hear a kind of Motion within them but it is but as poor women that go with false Conceptions with Tympanies of wind and water or with the mola that will resemble the Motion of a true Child but after all their thoughts and fancies by day and night after all their seeming feellings perswasions Experiences and preparations this false Conception false Faith false Christ false Light shall vanish in shame and grief as did Queen Maries after the Thanksgivings and Ringings for her deliverance 6. For my self I dare these self Confidents to particularize any one Scripture where the Spirit of God directs any poor Soul to listen and hearken to a Light and voice within him affirming that 41 this is the Hearing by which Faith is wrought I dare them to clear Candidly and solidly this 10. to the Rom. wherein as in the 8th is the Golden Chain of Election c. so in this 10th Chap. the Golden Chain of the means of praying preaching c. 3. I ask for some sollid Instances where Souls have been truly Converted the whole Soul unto God by any such Notion and not by some External means and outward hearing of this glad News and Gospel 4. I ask if it be not a ridiculous Contradiction in them to fill the World with the sound of their new and only preachers He Apostles and she Apostles c. 5. I ask if this Light within without and opposite to the hearing without which is the question be the means of Faith how is it possible that so many serious Enquiring men in all Ages should not perceive a breath of this wind no not in their own bosomes and that famous Paul should be Conscientiously and fully perswaded that he ought to do many things against Christ Jesus c. If it be said Paul had not only the Light within him but he had heard of the Doctrine of Christ and of his Followers he heard Stephens Sermon and yet he believed not and therefore it is Grace doth all I Answer this is something but reacheth not home for if all the men in the world have this Light which is sâ—fficient without hearing why should not some especially the wise and Enquirours c. perceive it or something of it as Paul did not until he had heard something and because God had a purpose to make Extraordinary use of him an Extraordinary hand from Heaven humbling and preparing him to publish or preach unto the Nations The 21 Instance is in pag. 80. where G. Fox brings in Tho. Pollard saying To say the Officers of the Church are Invisible It is plain of their Father the Devil He Answers The Holy Ghost made the Officers of the Church Overseers and that made the Officers the
do believe from many Reasons which I have to shew they were from Satan yet I know also that Ignorance is shameful and that it pleased God miraculously to infuse the knowledge of Tongues to his first Apostles or Messengers to the Nations and what he will further do in this kind 45 before this Worlds glass is out who can tell only I am sure these Foxians talk like little Children in their grave Consultations without the least knowledge at all genrally of any thing but their mother English and yet as proudly and imperiously vapouring and triumphing c. like Theora Iohn proclaming to the World his mad Quaking Revelations Inspirations writing of Languages many which he Confest he understood not but Mysteries Mysteries 8. G. Fox is no wiser in affirming that Tongues came in place of the Spirit since the Apostacy For before the Apostacy the Lord furnished his Servants with understanding of several Languages miraculously with the Apostasie those heavenly miraculous gifts ceased In the Apostacy the Father of Spirits gave to his two witnesses power Authority Ability to prophesy preach declare witness to the Truths of Jesus against the Popish Inventions with the rising of Luther Calvin c. The Lord raised up the study of the Hebrew and Greek Tongues in many heavenly Witnesses who brought to Light the truth of the first Copies in Opposition to the Corrupt Latin Translation bruitishly settled under a Curse by the Counsel at Trent This mighty work of the Lord in his Protestant Witnâ—sses drove the Popish Foxes into their holes and hath driven for shame the Iesuits to study the Hebrew and Greek and by a new Stratagem partly made up of the pretence of their Spirit and partly of the pretence of Corruptions and Variations in the Copies to assault the Camp of the Protestant Witnesses 9. I despise not yea I praise God for and honour the helps and helpers we have in English yea I would not discourage the weakest English man or woman in Christian humility to sound forth the praises of God in writing speaking and printing in English what they have Experimented of the Son of God No though they should not write or print or speak true English as G Fox hath not done But when they lift up their Horns on high or their bruitish Ears as Foxes do in stead of Horns then I must tell G. Fox that although he prat le amongst the English and they be cheated with his dying Spirit yet if he go to other Nations as they simply pretend to do to Turks and Pope they must either be furnished with the Gift of Tongues miraculously or they must fling of their lazie Devil and study the Tongues of those Nations to whom they carry their pretended glad News or Gospel 46 The 23. Instance G. Fox in pag. 86. brings in the same Author saying Notwithstanding thy passing through the first and second Resurrection as thou saith there remains a Torment so thee at the last day and Woe He Answers They are blessed that have part in the first Resurrection The second Death have no power over them but are made free from Wrath that is to come and are passed from Death to Life and are translated into the Kingdome of the Son of God and are in union with the Son of God and the Father both and so thou utterest forth Lies I Reply G. Fox here Arrogates to himself and his Foxians 1. A Passing through the first and second Resurrection 2. He triumpheth in their Blessedness pronounced to their first Resurrection viz. of Communion with God and Freedome from Wrath to come 1. The Truth is G. Fox is in his Burrough of Words of divers â—ignifications He wrests and winds what is for his wicked ends but you shall never take him in Distinguishing and Defineing what the first and second Death is and what is the first and second Resurrection 2. The Truth is as soon as they hearken to this familiar Spirit they are so Elevated that they be in the heavenly glory the Resurrection is past and with K. Agags dream the Bitterness of Death and Wrath is past for ever with them 3. But no such grapes will be gathered of these Thorns nor Figs of these Thistles For if we talk of escaping wrath to come and of enjoying Blessedness we must prove to others as well as to our selves that the Expectation of the Iews and Mahumetans expecting a Carnal Blessedness to come is false We mâ—st prove the Papists and Common Protestants for all their Prayers and Alms c. are under that Sentence Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity 4. The Lord Jesus being questioned about the great point of Salvation he seems to Answer two things 1. That the most will hang their Souls upon the Hedge and venture like the high ways and hedges 2. Others will fear and look after Redemption Deliverance Salvation c. and of these two sorts First Some that will endeavour and seek to enter I Judge both 47 of Pagans and Mahumetans and Iews and Papists and Protestants and shall not be able The second is of such as sensible of the Narrowness of the way straightness of the dore and the Infinite necessity incumbing and the Infinite Excellency inviting fling away Preferments Profits and Pleasures and choose to enjoy the Mediator as lost and damned in our selves and follow him from his Cradle and Manger to his Cross and Gallows and labouring to draw other poor drowning Souls out of the pit of Eternal Rottenness howling with us 5. The Spirit of God tells us of three sorts of perisht Souls First Those without Law of which are Millions of Millions innumerable Secondly Such as had the Law or Word or will of God revealed to them in the Covenant of works Obedience or Iustice of which sort were Millions of Millions also A third is of such to whom Infinite pity hath vouchsafed the joyful Tidings of the Son of God his Mediation Interposition and Intercession Amongst these the Papists and the Protesters against the Papists are chief of the Papists the Iesuits of the Protestant thereso called Puritans run for it of these the Quakers pretend the highest but no otherwise then O thou Capernaum which art Exalted Exaltest thy self unto Heaven thou shalt be brought down to Hell c. For Tyre and Sidon Sodom and Gomorrah c. the poor Iews and Mahumetans yea the Papists and common Protestants shall have an easier Cup to drink off then the Foxians c that are so high pure and lofty and yet abound with Luciferian filthiness The 24. Instance is in pag. 89. where G. Fox brings in the same Author saying The Saints are neither in the Fulness of the Godhead nor in part Away with this Blasphemy that saith this is He Answers The work of the Ministry was to bring people to the knowledge of the Son of God to
a Quaker against A. S. called a Doctour concerning Oaths not like G. Fox his bruitish barkings against all his Opposites and any that prate may see F. H. yields to A. S. that himself and I presume he speaks the mind of all the Quakers could yield to give a Testmony in weighty Cases by the Name and in the Name of God as in the presence of God and attest or call God to witness c. And he saith that they had offered so to give a Testimony and that his Opposite Doctour Snalwood and I think Bishop Gauden so called assented that this was Substantial and Formal Swearing only the Ceremonies were enjoyned by Law to which the Quaker could not yield but suffer as indeed they have done upon this Account most lamentably in London and Bristol and all England over 8. I have much to add both as to that Fancy of Christs end 60 ing Oaths as Ceremonies and of Cases that have beâ—allen my self in the Chancery in England c. and of the loss of great Sums which I chose to bear through the Lords help then yield to the Formality then and still in use in Gods worship though I offered to Swear as F. H. mentions they have done and the Judges told me they would rest in my Testimony and way of Swearing but they could not dispence with me without an Act of Parliament I believe this highly concerns the high Assembly of Parliament and all Law makers to search well and to appoint a Committee of Searchers to Examine if the Laws upon new appearances from Heaven have not need of rectifying and some of cancelling for sin against God or the Souls of men established by Law is like Iereboams making Israel to sin and most commonly after much patience of God brings double punishment in the end The 30th Instance where G. Fox brings in Tho Moor saying It is not properly nor in a full sense that God is manifest in the Flesh of his Saints He Answers The Saints are the Temple of God and God dwells in them and they come to witness the Flesh of Christ. And they glorifie him in their Souls and bodies And the Lord is glorified in their bringing forth much fruit And the witness is the Seed the one offering for sin to be manifest within and such are not Reprobates yet witness the one offering Christ Jesus and them that have not Him within they are Reprobates I Reply a great Designe of the Devil in all Ages hath been to Cavil at and hinder Gods love tâ— mankind Hence he plotted and effected Mans Fall from God God Infinite in wisdome and mercy out-shoots and out-plots him and designes a Reconciliation and a Marriage between the Son of God the Prince of Life and lost mankind He promised his coming in our Flesh prefigured Him prophesied of Him and in the Fulness of Time sent Him c. Against this Lord Jesus this old Serpent hisseth and rageth before his Birth at his Birth after his Birth and in all Ages ever since as fearing the crushing of his Brains and the downfall of his Throne if the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus stand Hence not long after Christs Assention he stirred up many Anti Christs 61 Simon Magus and his Followers the Arrians the Gnosticks Cerdonians Manicheans c. the great Anti-Christ of Rome and since the Reformation the new Manicheans those in Luthers and Calvins time called the Spirituals and Libertines and in our times the Adamites the Ranters the Quakers and all in order to his Dragons war against the person of the Arch-Angel Michael the word of God the Individual person the Man Christ Jesus and after him all that should dare to follow him Some as the Arians c. have denied him to be so but Man and not God some as the Manicheans c. deny his Manhood affirming him to be God and a Spirit but with Christs manhood and the Scriptures the Devil and the Papists and the Quakers for most of them could with all their hearts make an Everlasting parting The Devils and is to destroy this Saviour and Salvation to poor lost man The Quakers pretend their end to be the Exalâ—ing and glorifying of God in the Flesh of his Saints therefore some of these Manicheans render his Birth Life and Death to be only Imaginary and Allegorical a Figure of what should be done in and by Christians others of them say it is real but he only lived and died for an Example others that he was really so born he so lived and died but he is now only within c. and after his Flesh no Inquiry G. Fox here plays upon the various meaning of the word Flesh. Also he plays upon those holy Scriptures viz. God is glorified in the Souls and Bodies of his Saints c. This subtle Ionadab he knows also that the Protestants maintain that the Godhead and the Spirit of God so dwels not in the Souls and Bodies of his Servants as in that Soul and Body of the Lord Jesus It is true he was not born of a Woman but against their wills they are forc't to Confess that he was not born of a Wife but a Virgin though many Fancies are Coyned about that They Confess that no man was Father of his fleshly Nature He knows also that the Protestants hold that the Godhead dwels in him and dwels in him as the great Mediator and Propitiation surety and Undertaker so as not in any of the Bodies or all the Bodies of his Saints besides and after a more high Transcendent and Inconceivable manner G. Fox knows that his Opposite intends such a manifestation of God in the Flesh that renders the one single person Christ 62 Jesus the Head of his Church c. And that they hold that there is as much difference between that one Individual person Christ Iesus the Head and his Followers as between our Heads and our Bodies the King himself and his Body or Subjects yea every one singly in particular yea as between the Foundation and all the building thereon raised Now how poor and lame is it that because the Saints are Gods Temple therefore they must be God himself because 1 Tim. 3. Christ dwels in his Saints by believing Ephes. 3. therefore they are Christ himself Because God in an holy Sense became Flesh Therefore our Flesh is God and Christ therefore will they find those heavenly particulars 1 Tim. 3. affiâ—med of that man Christ Jesus to be inverted and dreadfully turned upon their proud and divilish Flesh in this manner viz. The Devil is manifest in their Flesh Condemned of the holy Spirit of God Abhord of the heavenly Angels The world shall abhor their memory and except Repentance they shall descend with all the Enemies of the true Lord Jesus into the Lake that burns with unquenchable Fire and Brimstone The 31st Instance is in pag. 136. where G. Fox
brings in the same Authour saying Christ is distinct from every one of us and without us and our particular persons He Answers The Apostle saith Christ was in them except they were Reprobates and they were slesh of his slesh and of his Bone and eat his flesh and drank his Blood then it was within them and he is distinct from none but Reprobates who hate the Light I Reply 1. This and the former look face upon face as in a Glasse and yet G. Fox herein carries two faces under one hood A Face for God and a Face for the Devil one Face for Christ another for Antichrist For is it not known by all that there be divers wayes of eating Christs Flesh and drinking his Blood Although there be a Mystical and Spiritual feeding upon Christ Jesus his Love his Passions his Merits c. which we maintain against the bloody Transubstantiators of Rome and Hell yet can ought but Hellish Bewitching and Impudence conclude that litterally the Flesh profiteth nothing and therefore their Flesh is as good as the Flesh of Christ and their Blood as some of 63 the Quakers have Printed is of as much virtue as the Blood shed of the Man Christ Jesus Hence so many of them contend that Gods Blood Act. 20. and Gods Flesh Redeems us c. and their Blood and Sufferings are Gods Flesh and Blood Redeeming Saving c I know what one of their chief said He is a Fool that speaks all at once and I know also that in the Bottome which their Herods and Apostles know better then I these Foxians are God and Christ and Spirit and Resurrection and Life and Heaven c. 2. But for true Believers in Jesus it is enough for them to believe Ioh. 16. That for a little while he must leave them and after a little while he would come again to them even the same Man that left them that God man and the Man Christ Iesus 1. I know these poor Foxians say that he did come again to them and I know also that a Man may feel this Lye with a pair of Mittins For I know that the Comforter came not to them upon his Resurrection for then he was forty dayes with them but after his Assention 2. Who knows not that the Foxians maintain Christs second coming to be Spiritual and count all gazing Fools that look after a Man for he is come anto them in Spirit and in them he maintains his great Assizes and now passeth Judgement upon all the Children of Men by them 3. If these poor filthy Dreamers lived without Food and Evacuations without Physick which some of them cry down and no Physick but Faith without Procreation and bringing forth of Children without the filthiness and stinks of Nature yea without the many thousands of Holy Words and Thoughts and Actions omitted and the many thousand passionate impertinent unreasonable discontented Words and Actions c. then might we say as the men of Iconium touching Paul and Barnabas The Gods are come to us in the likeness of Men till then we must look upon the Foxians eating so Christ his flesh c. until they become Christ himself as Simple and Monstrous and Blasphemous as the Papists in their Foolish Monstrous and Bloody Transubstantiations 4. Alas these are old tricks plaid by the Manicheans in former times by Quintinus and Pocqueius c. in Luther and Calvins time Did not some thousands of this frantick spirit 64 then say is Christ in us how is he Distinct from us what need you ask me how I do can Christ be sick can Christ do but well speaking of themselves But I observe Gods strokes in the World most just wonderful upon three sorts of persons 1. Voluptuous 2. Oppressors and Tyrants 3. Ringleaders of Blasphemies Opinions Let every Soul consider I can give abundance of Instances of former and later times had I here time and season for it and were not all Hystories full c. The 32d Instance is in Pag. 186. where G. Fox brings in Samuel Hamond saying What warrant have you to go out to the Quakers shall a Man go hear the Iews and Popish Masse because Paul bids try all things No No. G. Fox Answers Paul bids us quench not the Spirit and where the Spirit is not quenched they may try Papists Iews Protestants who quench not the Spirit But who quench the Spirit and draws people from the Light within they draw from that they should see withal then you stuff them up with old Authors and lying stories as you permit abroad I Reply 1. And ask of G. Fox and all his Foxians Have the Papists the Iews or any Idolaters the Holy Spirit of God amongst them whom we may go to hear God speaking in his own holy Promise Ordinance and Appointment unto us 2. May I hear a Papist or Iew or any other False Worshippers or Idolaters to try them when I am convinced and satisfied already that they speak not by the Holy Spirit c. 3. May I go to Worship God with them who either as I believe Worship a False God or Worship the true and living God in Wayes and Worships of Mens Inventions and Appointments 4. May I hear a false Prophet or be present at any false worship but with actual reproving of them and labouring to reduce them to the true God and his most holy Institutions and Appointments Upon this Reason I went to the General Assâ—mbly of the Quakers at Newport the last year I queried with them about the true Christ and the true Spirit but I was stopt by a sudden Spirit of Prayer in a Woman and the unseasonable Spirit of Prayer in a man which forced me to stop and occasioned me to take this 65 way of offering an appointed and solemn discourse and disputation with them 5. I ask may any Soul out of Curiosity go to hear a strange Preacher in whom I have not Faith that he is sent from God c. especially if there be not a free liberty for my Queries and Objections and searchings as the Bereans did 6. Are there not two great Cautions given us by the Spirit of God! Take heed whom you hear Take heed how you hear and both of these in reference to Gods worship and mine own Salvation 7. What do these Foxians mean by the Spirits quenching Can the Spirit of God be really quenched or put out any more then the Sun in the Heavens by all the water in the Ocean Is the Spirit of God Metaphorically quenched any other ways then by withdrawing the means or fuel which were to keep the Fire burning that came down from Heaven upon the Altar why then do these proud lazie Souls so horribly slight reading studying Books yea Gods Book as one of their chief said to me laying his hand upon the Bible of Iunius c. art not thou past these yet And why do they worship
Court must all the Generations of the World receive their Eternal Doom and Sentence I know they know this is the bottom 1. But stay this Fox is in his Burrough of Equivocation for Iudgement is twofold First Iudgement Righteous Secondly According to Appearance as the Lord Jesus distinguisheth How many are declared by Appearances to their Eyes Clouded pride malice Envy Lasciviousness Covetousness Ambition c. And therefore away with the Son of God hang him and give us Barrabas though a Boutefeau and Murtherer c. 2. It is not true that all that is not perfect in the Foxians Sense is not Righteous For 1. as hath been before observed the words Tam and Tomjin in Hebrew and Telos and Teleios and Teleion in the Greek have divers significations and accordingly must be and are translated and expounded Contrary to the proud Ignorance of these Cheators 2. The Generation of all Gods Children in all the holy Scrip 72 ture have ever acknowledged their weakness folly pride and many Transgressions with true Quaking and brokenness and bitter weeping c 3. In a true Sense that which is Righteous is perfect Iustification or Remission of Sin for Christ Jesus sake is perfect it admits as they say of no magis minus more or less the truely humble Ethiopian is as truly and perfectly pardoned and Iustified as David himself and the blessed Mother of the Lord Jesus the Virgin Mary 4. We maintain though pardon of Sin and Justification and Acceptation with God before Angels Men and Devils be perfect and though a poor Child of God be born of God be past from Death to Life can not Sin in a Sense nor suffer the Devil to touch him yet there remains till Death a Combate to be fought between the Law of the Spirit and Law of the members the old Man and the new Man the Flesh and the Spirit c. 5. Hence in an holy Sense Paul saith it is not I but Sin that dwels in me that is in my Flesh wherein dwels no good thing So that David might say in one Sense It was not I that committed Adultery and Murther and Peter say It was not I that denied my Master with Swearing and Cursing c. but the rotten old man and Sin dwelling in me He that knows not to untie these Knots and yet prates of Righteousness and perfection He is proud and foolish and ignorant and he will proudly and foolishly sooner or later commit these five great evils 1. He will not discern what the Generation of the Righteous is 2. He will say Sin is nothing but Imagination 3. He will cast wickedness upon God and say God doth all and what God doth that is good therefore no Sin 4. He must call David and Peter fools for Confessing their Guilt and weeping bitterly c. 5. That it is in vain to watch against Sin and to cry Lord lead us not into Temptation c. In the last place I Affirm and have made it good that the Generation of the Papists and Quakers though so pure in their own eyes yet they are not cleansed from their filthiness The Papists are justly charged with Superstition and Idolatry with drinking the Blood of Saints And have not the Generation of the Quakers 73 their Images and Idols also as I have manifested their pride and Ignorance Idleness in not using means and their passionate Railings and Cursings and I believe if their Spirit get a Sword what ere they ignorantly prate they will drink the Blood of all their Enemies as Hereticks Idolaters Reprobates and Devils The 37th Instance is in Pag. 220. wherein G. Fox brings in the Author of Hosanna to the Son of David saying Man is not able to discern the things of God till he be born again He Answers the Scripture speaks of discerning the Eternal Power and Godhead and that was a thing of the Spirit of God and the Apostle saith not that they were born again And yet I say that none knows the things of God but the Spirit of God and that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewd it to them For that of God in them was of the Spirit who is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh which brings them to discern the Eternal Power and Godhead 1 Reply 1. With Amazement at the dreadful Justice of God hardening this daring Soul for playing away his own Light and the Name of God and the Light which the Lord hath sent him from so many Excellent pens out of which he hath raked nothing but handfuls of Reproaches to fling in the Faces of his best Friends and turned Truth into Lyes and poyson to murther himself and others 2. It is clear that as in all Answers to the Quotations of his Opposites which he picks out that he holds the Contrary to his Opposite so here viz. That a man may be able to discern the things of God before he be born again 3. He proves his point from two Scriptures Rom. 1. Cor. 2. As to the first I will not repeat what I have before written as to the Nature of the holy Spirit his Godhead his Operations seven Eyes seven Horns and seven Lamps his Common workings in all men his special working in the Elect Regenerating Iustifying Sanctifying quickning Comforting c. Nor will I repeat matters concerning the power of Nature in the Philosophers and all mankinde Only from this Rom. 1. I observe 1. That the Eternal Power and Godhead cannot be seen by mortal Eyes 2. We may reach some mental Light of this Eternal Power 74 and Godhead by a serious pondering of his works 3. All mankinde are bound by the Law of their Nature to put forth their utmost in searching after God 4. We may gain a great sight of the Godhead and yet not see him nor glorifie him that is love him as Paul 1 Cor. 8. 5. Natural men until changed and born again of Gods power and Spirit doe but prate as the Devils do and tremble their imaginations are vain and their foolish hearts are darkened 6. Yet this sight of God which men and Devils may get of God by their own Remainders of natural Abilities will leave them without excuse whatever Papists Arminians and Quakers talk of Gods requiring no more then he gives for in Justice God is not bound to give Sampson his Locks or his Eyes when he hath willingly suffered Dalilah and by her the Philistims to cut them off and pluck them out 2. Beside our wils and wisdome are now become Enmity against God and no man spends equal Care and pains for God until Gods Spirit in free grace châ—nge and quicken him with what he does for these temporary Dreams and Shadows The second Scripture is 1 Cor. 2. viz. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things
World knows not written in the Book of Life Here is the new Man known after God in Righteousness and true Holiness Now who is the New Man and this new Name the World may call him by the old so it is not a mystery of iniquity to say the World calls him so I Reply 1. As to Christian or Christen Names or Things bearing or pretending to bear the Name Authority or an Uniting of Christ Jesus as we know the word Christian signifies it is incumbent on every Christian Soul to search into the Root and Rise and Practise and Warrant of them with holy fear and trembling in the presence of God 2. But to the mystery of Iniquity here insinuated against them Is it not a proud trick of a Pharisee thus to scorn the poor Heathens and Publicans as not worthy to know the Foxians high Names or take up such sacred Names and Mysteries upon their Lips yea is it not a ridiculous Fancie thus to prate and like Pharisees to scold about washing of Hands and Pots and Cups therein placing invented Holiness c. For 1. VVhat are the Heathen this Heathenish Soul here strikes at doth he mean the wilde Savages who give Names to their Children and oft times full of Reason and Significance c. Or doth he account all Nations Savages and Barbarians that give Names to their Children and consequently themselves Savages and Barbarians also for they give Names unto their Children also 2. It is true that by the word Heathen the Goj in the Hebrew and Ethne in the Greek the Nations or Gentiles were signified as distinct from the Holy Nation or Church of God the Iews but so it is not common in our English Phraze to call all the Nations Heathen that are not of the Iewish Nation 3. Did not the Saints before the coming of Christ give Names to their Children did not Leah and Rachael by Iacobs leave give all those significant Names unto the twelve Patriarchs and 84 have not the Saints of God as well as all Nations still so practised 4. Doth Christian Regeneration or New Birth destroy Natural Births or Marriages or Procreations or Names and Educations Only as Diamonds in Gold-Rings and Aples of gold in pictures of silver Christianity beautifies and adorns all these Natural and Civil Actions with an heavenly Spirit Carriage in Earthly matters 5 Can there be any Instances given of any Servants of God before or since the coming of Christ Jesus disowning or slighting the Names which their Parents had given them yea though there were some seeming honour to false Gods in them Fortunatus Apollo Phebe c. 6. Why may we not though we are for his Heathens call the Foxians by the same Names by which they call themselves for in this great Book we find G. Fox and Edmund Burrough subscribed It is a Query why they so plainly subscribe and yet defend them that do not Have they a Priviledge Or do they thus quarrel with us poor Heathens about straws or things Indifferent and yet so weighty as the New Name and new man created in holiness c 7. But what is this new Creature and new Name they speak of How shall the world call them by it if they know it not Such are their Nonsensical Fancies of giving no Respect to any in word or gestures Such are their Fantastical Conceited Answers when being asked where they dwell they Answer they dwell in God and where they live they Answer They live in God c 8. Are not these Foxians a kin to the Popes in this Fancy also when raised to the Devils Pinacle to the Popedome they throw down their old Names to the world and though they be as subtle as Foxes yet now they will be called Leones Lions though they be as fierce and Cruel as Lyons they will now be called Clement and though they be as Impious as swine even as Os pores they must be called pius In the last place as the Pope cast away his net which he used as the Remembrance of the Fisherman Peter when he had catcht the Popedome so G. Fox having made his Fortune as it is prophanely called having attaind a great Marriage His new Carriage and Courtesie and Civility condemns Humphry Nortons 85 and his own former Rigidity as I am sure they will do most of them for worldly Advantages For as they abuse that Scripture The World is in their Heart I may truly use it and affirme the world and the pride and Advantage of it though they deny it as the Pope and Cardinals and Iesuits do is in their Heart and is the Body and Soul the Root and Branch of all their whole Religion The 42 Instance is in pag. 243. where G. Fox brings in Richard Sherlock saying We must not look for an Immediate Extraordinary and miraculous Teaching from the Lord. He Answers Yet he saith all men are taught of God what Confusion is here The grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men and this he calls an outward Teaching by the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that which brings Salvation outward All in the Truth may judge this and try thy Spirit And the Teachings of the Lord is not mediate but Extraordinary above all yours which are men got up since the dayes of the Apostles I Reply 1. Although I have spoken before of their Immediate Inspirations yet seeing how greedily and boastingly this deluded Soul with scorn and Contempt of all his Opposites sucks in the poyson of Devilâ—sh Inspirations in stead of the pure wine and milk of Christian Truth and milks out this poyson into the mouths of his poor bewitched Followers I shall add a few words G. Fox here affirmeth that the Teachings of the Lord are not mediate but Immediate Extraordinary and miraculous Contrary to the whole stream of Scripture and Experience 1. Contrary to the Ordinary and daily and mighty preaching of the whole Creation Psal. 9. The Heavens c. 2. Contrary to the Teachings of God in every mans Nature and making being taught of God above Gods Teaching the Fowls of the Air and Beasts of the Field Doth not Nature teach you 1 Cor. 11. as to long hair 3. Contrary to Abrahams Teaching of his Children and the Command of God to all Parents 4. Contrary to Ordinary Teachings of the Priests and Levites Commanded by God in so much that Christ Jesus Commanded the Scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses Chair to be heard and attended 5. Contrary to the Ordinary and Constant feeding by Sheep 89 herds and Teachers in the Christian Flocks and Assemblies 6. Contrary to the Teachings of the holy writings or Scripture written by Immediate breathing of God for our Instruction and Consolation c. Ob. Yea but saith this great wrester of holy writings They shall be all taught of God I Answer 1. Who or how shall they be all taught of God that
embrace the Gospel or glad News of a Saviour to them and this outward and inward hearing of this glad News it is the Devils and the Iews and all Atheists and these refined Atheists the Quakers work to hinder The 50th Instance of G. Fox his lame Answer is in Pag. 282. where he brings in Daniel Cawdry saying The Saints were come to the Spirits of just men made perfect but not on the Earth G. Fox Answers The just mens Spirits that led them to give forth the Scripture was the Spirit of God and that was perfect and was while they were upon the Earth The Saints were come to which was Christ the End of all words and so to God the Iudge of all the world I Reply I have spoke before that Spirits are Invisible Beings both good and bad Contrary to the Sadduces who held neither First That of good Spirits there are three sorts 1. The Increated God himself 2. The Spirit of God called because of his manifold operations the seven Spirits of God c 2. Those Invisible holy Messengers or Angels called Ministring Spirits and Flaming Attendants upon Christ and his Heb Opposite to these are the unclean Spirits spirits of Devils c. 3. The Spirits of men first saints as Mary sings my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour c. and opposite to these are the Spirits of the wicked as Peter tels us of the Spirits of the wicked of the old world now in prison c. 2. I observe that in this Heb. 12. the Spirit of God speaks not of the Bodies of the Saints neither Conjoynd nor a-part Nor secondly of the Righteous made perfect but the Spirits of First the Righteous Therefore it seems to hold forth not a perfect State of the Saints in this Life Consisting of Spirits and Bodies 99 which our proud Boasters say of themselves nor that they are perfect Nor secondly of the Estate of the Saints in the world to come where all true Protestants hold that the Bodies and Souls of the Saints shall be perfected and Everlastingly and as to us now Inconceivably glorified But the Estate of the Souls or Spirits of the Elect who are as some Translate perfected some Consummated or finished some grounded or now Everlastngly Established while their visible part the Body sleeps in Iesus until the joyful Resurrection 2. Thus it appears the rather to be because we find in all the holy Records the Spirits Souls and Bodies of the highest Saints in this world defective and subject to great failings c. 3. It is said 1 Pet. 3. the Spirits in prison not the Bodies nor the wicked but those Spirits of the wicked which believed not Noahs preaching c. 4. Doth the Scripture speak of the Spirit of God here at all but of the Spirits of men or of those Penmen of the holy Scriptures or of any present state of perfection in this Life at all which might occasion his Answer 5. What Truth or pertinency is in those words Christ the end of all words Doth he mean that now there ought to be no more words or writings or that Christ ends all Scripture Words and there is no further use of them so they hold out and yet they say and practice the Contrary The Truth is their horrible unclean and foul Spirit would fain be rid of all Scripture Words and all Learning also c. that he may bring the more of miserable mankinde under the cheating sound of Light into his Eternal Darkness The 51th Instance is in Pag. 325. where he quotes Timothy Trevis saying God hath ordained to Eternal Life all that shall be saved before they had a Being in this World But none comes to possession of this Salvation but through Obedience of the Spirit G. Fox Answers The ground of mans belief and obedience is Christ who doth inlighten him to the intent that he might believe and obey the Truth and who knows the Seed knows the Election before the World was made I Reply 1. If he means that Christ is the Ground or Author the Giver of Repentance and Faith to all the Elect whom God 100 the Father hath given him we say so c. But if he put in their Invented Light in the Room of Gods Election and Predestination as the Efficient and first Cause and of Christ as the Mediator and Meritorious Cause according to the golden Chain Rom. 8. and Ephes. 1. and the fifth Chap. He speaks blasphemously of God and of the Son of God and of the glorious work of their Redemption and poor mankinds Salvation 2 He is now in the Burrough of the Arminians who destroy Gods Election before the world was and say that when a man believes he is Elected when he is predestinate or being obedient is Inconstant he is then Reprobated 1 Contrary to all the precious beds of Flowers and Spices in the Garden of the Scripture which these rooting Swine getting in they root and tear up all the ways and methods of Gods Councels and Salvations 2 Contrary to the wit and skill of men who framing a Book an House a Ship a Navie an Army or any Sublunary matters have all in their Thoughts Minds and Councels before they begin their Enterprize they provide their Materials their Agents their means they fit all to their Ends though all may faile all mens Affairs being but Vanity and Vexations But to whom shall we liken the Eternal and Infinite Majâ—sty to whom all his works and Events are known in a most Inconceivable way as to us even from Eternity to Eternity his Iustice his Goodness his Power all being Infinite 3. As to the Seed and Election We know they make themselves the seed and the Election secondly They make Christ the seed that is in the End themselves And thirdly They make God and the Spirit of God the seed the seed in every man which is preached to by them the Imprisoned Seed and when one turns Quaker then God comes out of Prison The Truth is they make no distinction between God and Christ and Spirit and themselves as Fox in this Book as before plainly tels us but when this pretended seed of God or God himself is hearkened to then the soul so hearkning is become Goddified and God with God whose Infinite Being and Essence these poor proud Bruits have not so much sight of as the Devils have who cried out to Jesus I know thee whom thou art the holy One of God knowing that God and the Son of God were Infinitely distinct in them 101 selves and all Created Beings Yet such is the Inconceivable wrath and Iustice of the Eternal God upon these fallen Spirits who kept not their first Habitation as the pretended Quakers many of them have not done that as Pharaoh they can not but lye and slander and kill till the time of their Torment come The 52d Instance of G. Fox his slight dealing is in
purposes of God as to his holy ordering of this present world and his Saints in it and against the Constant Experience of all those high Saints in Scripture and of all that ever went before us All which shews the Devilish pride of these high Pharisees 2. He adds saying the Saints are not fighting all their Life Time I Reply if there be no Enemies no danger of Fleshly Lusts warring against our Souls as Peter speaks 113 2. Why then doth the holy Spirit speak of the Combate of the Flesh and Spirit Gal. 5. and that Paul did not the things that he would and did the Evil he would not of his being taken Prisoner 3. Why then doth Gods Spirit furnish us with all that Heavenly Artillery Ephes. 6. 1. And Commands his Servants even Timothy to flie youthful Lusts if he were past wounding by them 4. And to stand upon the Guard and watch against Gluttonly and Drunkenness and worldly Cares which would lull the Souls of the Disciples asleep except they kept the better watch c. Luke 21. 5. And why then doth the Lord Jesus Command us to pray daily against Temptations yea and to pray daily for the pardon of sin if his Followers be for ever escaped out of the reach of Sinful thoughts words and actions and many thousand sinful Omissions 6. What was the Reason of the Cemmand of Christ Jesus to the Churches to watch to Overcome to repent threatning them with discharging and Excommunication which we see dolefully Effected upon the Asian Professors and which was followed with a rich blessing upon that Ordinance Executed upon the Incestuous Corinthian which brought forth those seven Heavenly Fruits both in him and that Church also 2 Cor. 7. G. Fox his third Answer is The Saints are come to the Kingdome of God witnessing Sin and Iniquity blotted out and the Everlasting Covenant of Peace and Life with God But 1. Take these words in his Sense viz. that all that are in their Fancied Kingdome are thus free from Sin and come to this Peace and Joy why then do themselves still Confess themselves to be subject to quaking and trembling as if they were at the black and burning Foot of Mount Sinai where indeed they are and not upon the bright and shining Hill of Zion 2. Is not this Contrary to the Covenant of God with David concerning Solomon and in the Anti Type with all Christians viz. that if they Sin he will Chastise them with the Rods of men but not take away his mercy as he took it from Saul c. 3. Is there not a false Peace a false Ioy as well as a false quaking a false Repentance a false mortification and Sanctificatio and in Conclusion a false Salvation and therefore the Lord Jesus tels us of the high pretenders Math. 7. yet by him Everlastingly rejected 114 The 59th Instance is in Pag. 365. where G. Fox brings in Robert Tuchin c. saying The most Faithful Messengers of Christ have acknowledged that they have come short of their duty G. Fox Answers They that are Faithful Messengers of Christ have the Answer well done thou good and Faithful Servant where did John or Paul or Peter acknowledge that they came short of their duty Hath not thou slandred the Servants of the Lord thinking them to be like yourselves and falsly accusing them that you may seem Iustified who are false Messengers and come in his Name when you have no Commission from him and you come short of every good work But thus it is not with Christs true Messengers for they fulfil his Will that sent them It is the Lord that worketh in them whose thâ—y are and whose duty they perform by his Spirit I Reply this deluded Soul as it is written must grow worse and worse except the Lord wonderfully awaken him to all Eternity Instead of seeing any failing against God and Christ the Spirit and Servants of God c. he claps his wings upon his Dunghil and vapours that in all these Transactions he hath not faild no not in a sinful word or Thought 1. But he must remember that such was the Infinite Incomprehensible Purity and Iustice and wisdome of God that the Heavens were not pure in his sight and he laid Folly to the Charge of his Angels and I am sure their Natures their Endowments their Employments G. Fox comes short of and yet they came short of their duty and are now fast in Chains of Darkness expecting Iudgement and Torment to come 2. I presume G. Fox will grant that our first Parents were Innocent and perfect as highly Gifted and as highly Employed as ever G. Fox is like to be and yet they came short and We all by them fallen short of the Glory and love of God into the Dunghill of Hellish Darkness 3. After the Promised Restoration by the Son of God what Excellent Gifts had Noah Abraham Lot Isaac Iacob Ioseph Moses Aaron Sampson Iepthe Gideon Eli Samuel Nathan Solomon Asa Iehoshaphat Hezekiah Iosiah and many other glorious Saints what wonderful Assistance and Extraordinary Appearances of God had they in their high Services for God and yet how greaâ—ly some of them wonderfully fouly did they come short of their 115 duty I remember I was once asked by one of these high Boasters whether I would deny the Scripture viz that said David did not sin but in the Case of Uriah unto which I know many full Answers may be given Here only I observe how ready these willingly Ignorant Souls are to Catch at any Word that may Fortifie their proud Fancy though against many other Scriptures and unquestionable Examples c. 4. Until the coming of Christ Jesus we know the Command of the most holy God to private persons to the Princes to the Priests to the whole Assembly to offer up Sacrifice and Expiation for all sorts of failings yea for Sins of Ignorance yea and for their coming short in their holy offerings Hence David cries out Psal. 143. Enter not into Iudgement or Reckoning with thy Servant c. and Psal. 19. Cleanse thou me from secret sins for who knows how oft he offendeth 5. I know G. Fox useth to say all these were Types and Christ is the body â— I Answer There are more Anti-Types then the person of Christ for the Quakers themselves they make themselves Kings and Priests and the Temple as well as Christ c. But come to the time of the Lord Jesus and look upon the Famous first Apostles who had freely left all to follow him who enjoyed his personal preaching and praying his wonderful Miracles his Heavenly Converse his holy and Powerful Spirit in their own preaching healing all Diseases raising the dead casting out Devils c. and yet how doth the Lord Jesus frequently and sharply chide them for their coming short of their duty for their Ignorance negligence unbelief forgetfulness Inhumanity Ambition
means appointed by Christ Jesus yet I deny it ever to be done in the first turning of the Heart and working of Faith that is by any such Immediate Spirit and Christ and God in every of mankind before or since the coming of Christ Jesus especially for they say that he is the true Light of which Iohn spake then Come to Inlighten the World c. 9. I Conclude this Instance and the whole with a Reâ—lection upon Gods wonderful dealing with Iob In the 1. Chap. the Lord boasts of his servant Iob to the Devil to be a perfect man as the Foxians often urge this place But God Schoold him for his pride and Impatience c. by Elihu and by his own Voice out of a Whirlwind and now Iob Confesseth his Pride and Ignorance and professeth his Risolution to prate no more c. but to abhor himself that is as some loathsome Thing in Dust and Ashes G. Fox in this his Book abhors the Term of Dust and Ashes as being Elevatedabove Abraham Iob punies to him with high Fancies of his Immortality though we see they dy stink Rot as well as others But if God please to shew him and me truly what Sin is What Gods Justice is what an Infinite price must pay for the least Evil Thought and Natural Disposition on the Old Score 119 If God please by any of those many gracious means he useth to Imprint these other such Heavenly Considertions upon our Souls We shall then for all our pretences cry out with Peter depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord and with Iob Once have I spoken yea twice c. but no more c. I abhor myself as a loathsome Rotten stinking Carrion in Dust and Ashes But alas I fear G. Fox is so taken up with his sitting with Christ in Heavenly Places with Immediate Dictates of his supposed holy Spirit That Gods speaking thus to his poor Worms after the way of Men and by these outward means stinks in his Nostrils which if so and so Irrecoverably I desire and desire all that love God and their own Salvations to flee from him as from Korahs Pride and Korahs Plagues for his Viol is pouring on him in spiritual Indgements and shall be pouring on him in spiritual and Corporal Torments to all Eternity FINIS The Occasion of the Disputation G Fox his Book in Folio weighed A Spirit of Confusion in the Quakers Meetings My Offer of Disp. on 14 Propositions The sirst usage to the Author his Proposals The deceit fulness of Fox Foxians one of the subtil Tricks of this subtil Fox viz. to steal handsomly from the Dispute yet not to seem at all to run for it A great private Conflict before my publick I T. his Letter to me upon the sight of my Propositions to G. Fox A Note of Card Mazarin Fuel for the Quakers Fire of Hell My Answer to the fore-going Letter from I. T. Crying sins in N. England The infinite Justice of God must be satisfied The Bruitish Simplicity of the Quakers Spirit The Manifestation of the Spirit 1. Cor. 12. Gods wonderful Justice The words All and every one Considered The Impudency and Uncleaness of the Quakers Spirit I. T. his second Letter to me The high Opinion G Fox his Followers have of him yet he saild run for it Unreasonable kind of Reasoning I can give many Instances of their abusing the Ordinance and Name of the Spirit of Prayer for a sudden Silencing of their Opposites W. Harris his late Case of denying that the King hath power to dispence with his Subjects in Religious matters His Majestyes Declaration against W. Haris his presumptious Attempt I. T His third and last Letter to me a Whore is as bold in her whoredoms as a Chast Wise in her Inocency If there were any Colour for any of these horrible Out-cryes I should have heard of them from W. Edmunson who rak'd up all he could against me both in the Dispute at Newport and Providence My Answer to I T. his 3d Assault upon me A deceitfull way of Answ. The horrid Nakedness of the Q Women shews the worse then barbarous nakedness of their Spirits the name Quakers The Quakers Sufferings Womens Preaching W Harris his former practices against all Goverment but that of Saints as the Quakers now speak My Righteousness as to my dealing with W. H. The horrible Murthering of the Indians by Liquors which the Qu have notoriously practised They were the Dog-dayes when these hot and doged barkings were made at me Death and the Resurrection The first Intervenience at Providence of the Qu. and my self G Fox his cunning Departure My care of ingaging them to my whole Offer and of discussing the latter seven at Providence Scruples about meeting in the Quakers Meeting house at Newport the way to Conquer The Persons disputing with me W Edmundson described I Stubs his Ingenuity The beginning of the Dispute The Occasion of it My ends Nicholas Davis drowned at Newport a little before the Dispute What Prayer was used The first Position The name Quakers The Rise of the word Protestant The Grindletonians The Libertines The Ranters are but the Quakers Daughter True Quaking The horrid shaking of the Quakers Satans Counterfeit motions The Quakers Answer Quaking and Trembling No Ordinance of God Counterfeit Quaking and Trembling A Paper put in of two great Considerations The unequall Termes of the Quakers enjoining Subscription their open Partiality The Quakers evill spirit toward the holy Scriptures The Light of each man in the World above the Scriptures The Pope and the Quakers great affection and ownness against the holy Scriptures An Instance of a long-haird profane Qua. slighting Nature and the Scriptures An horible Instance in Ireland against the Holy Scriptures The Scriptures the word of God The Occasion of the Title of this Book G Fox his prodigious Folly and Impiety Pertinent Queryes and unanswerable The tumultuous spirit of the Quakers in Disputing T is hard to hold the Foxians or any guilty disputant to a fair Dispute W. Edmondsoo justly reproved by the Deputy Governor Capt. Cranston The Foxians boast of their Number Two of the Foxian women naked in New England Isai. 20 discussed touching Nakedness The true voice of God and many false and pretended Immeâ—iate Inspirations and Revelations The Eclipse of the Sun in the midst of the first dayes Disputation A Note of W. Hunter burnt in Essex at Burnt wood My great Indisposedness of body to the second dayes Contest Prayer and Patience Spiritual Bow men Gunners The second days Contest 1 though private Vizt R. W. Ms. Ann. A black and senceless Imputation The confused spirit of the Quakers In the copy of this book belonging to the Library of Brown University are many manuscript erasures corrections and annotations in the well-known hand-writing of Roger Williams They were possihly made with the intention of correcting a second edition of the
The word Effects The Papists and Quakers call the holy Script a dead Letter The power of Writing in all Affairs Josh. Miller The Quakers notorious Covenant-Breakers Means of Salvation A Union between the Meritorious Cause and means and the Instrumental and Efficient or worker Hosanna to the Son of David The more sure Word of Prophesie Gods speaking by his Prophets is his Word The madness of leaving the Scriptures and turning to a Spirit within The workings of Satan by Spirits and Inspirations in all Ages The Devil and the Quakers alleadging Scriptures No Light in the bold pretenders to so much the Quakers The pure Scripture filthily abused Pag 14 Henoch Howet By the Weapon of the Scripture only Christ Conquered the Devil The Scripture mosh fit and proper Weapon against the De. The Devil a Fox too Crafty for all the Foxians Francis Duke The Quakers Rieiculous for and in their Tautologies The Quakers mad Fancies as to Christ and the Scripture The Humanity of Christ. Pag 16. John Timson The holy Scriptures the Rule 〈◊〉 leading of the Spir it Gods Spirit given by means The fifth Position The danger of being deceived Depths of Hipocriâ—y 1 In the copy in possession of Brown his autograph across the outside edge of University Roger Williams has placed this page Lies in Hipocrisie Two sorts of Soul Deceivers The Quakers of late have Changed much of their Spirit or else more notoriously Equivocators The Jugling of the Quakers about Christ. About the Church and Ordinances Inward and outward Preachers As to the Scriptures G Fox his last Book Exalting the Heathen As to Magistrates Pag 170 John Stallam The Quakers Principles are for Persecution The Quakers Zealous Persecutors Yet will not own it The Quakers Perfection and yet in Measure Pag. 221. Hosanna to the Son nf David The Old Romans with their Dii Minores or lesser Gods and the Papists and Quakers all one The Perfection of the Godhead The Quakers Fallacious Perfection Hosanna to the Son of David G Fox his Falla-Presence of Christ Visible and Natural or Miraculous and Supernatural Eating of Christ. Christ Head of the Church His Bodily presence The Quakers Count all Gods Children Apostates G Fox his Juglings and dreams about the person of Christ An Apostrophe or Peâ—tion to the Lord Jesus 259 James Brown Christs Kingdom in or among the Pharisees Horrible and hipocritical Chistianity A Monstrous King and Kingdome of the Quakers Abominable lyes in hipocrisie The Pharisees and Quakers hipocrisie wonderful The sixth Position The Heresie of the Quakers Heresy what The Quakers Hereticks against all the Christian Principles and more Heretical against the first Christian Religion then any Protestauts or Papists The Quakers Heresy in matter of Repeutance This 24th of Luke I earnekly Insisted on The Papists and Quakers Repentance The Quakers Converts The Protestants true Repentance The Quakets despiling And Revili others Their Covetousness A sowre Spirit is the Common Spirit of the Quakers The Quakers False Faith G Fox his horrible Confounding of Faith and all other Chistian Virtues and Graces together True Faiah what it is The Quakers Transubstatiarion worse then the Fantastick Tranâ—ubstantiation of the Pepists John Burnet his Sermon And my Answer The Quakers and the Papists general Faith and Repentance The Juglings of the Papists and Quakers The Hope peace and Joy of the Quakers Christ the Hope of Glory 1 Interline it is after world R. W. Ms. Ann. The Simplicity as well as Impiety of the Quakers Hope Humpry Norton his Hope The Quakers Hope of life to come The Quakers bait by which Satan takes them John Bunyan The new Birth of the Quakers The true and false new Birth 1 Interline is after preached R. W. Ms. Ann. The Quakers put out the Eyes of their own Experience Pag 44. George Willington The Quakers meer Jewish and Popish The doleful state of all men till mercy not justice pitty them Pag 47 Joseph Miller The Quakers Justificatson within us Fox his Babilonish tumbling of all in a Croud and Heap together Justification opened The Quakers Popish Justification by works The Papists and Quakers see no need of Christ. The Papists and Quakers know not the difference between the two Covenants Fox his playing with the word Justification The last of the seven Positions at Newport The Quaker Religion pieced up â— many old Heresies Of Natures its Impurity The Papists righter then the Quakers The power of Natuâ—e in Spirituals The way of Conversion both of the Papists and the Quakers The way of the trâ—e Protestants Acts 17. Rom. 9. 2. Falling from Grace The true Protestants Doctrine as to Falling away The Papists and Quakers agree against the holy Scripture The Papists and Quakers Enmity against the Hebrew aâ—d Greek The Papists and Quakers Judge of Scripture Interpretation of Scripture The Papists and Quakers slighting holy Scripture The Papists and Quakers would be rid of the Scripture The Papists and Quakers unite against the Blood of the Lord Jesus The Infallibility of Papists and Quakers The Quakers Popish Perfection The Popish Revelations of the Quakers Popists and Quakers one in Ceremonies and Inventions The Quakers and Papists agree that that hge Pope is not Anti-Christ The Quakers not owning freely their Names The Quakers and Popish Monks and Munns all one The Papists and Qâ—akers Cursing The Persecuting Spirit of the Papists and Quakers The Quakers Tongue and hand The Quakers Oneness with the Arminians The Quakers and Socinians Oneness Christ Jesus but a Fancy with the Quakers The Sabellians and Quakers all one The Quakers Judaisme The Quakers Traditious and Ceremonies Dumb Worship Either none or Immodest Salutations The Quakers disrespect to aâ—l Superiours The Qukers against Musick Fantastical singing Carving painting Ornaments The Conclusion of the Conference at Newport The quickest and last turn about where Christ is An Unexpected yet Seasonable and true Testimony from Elizabeth Williams The Conference at Providenceâ— Passages about Reading the former Recited Letter Thomas Olny About a strange Query put to my Autagonist by Captain Green A Moderator motioned The first of the Positions debated at Providence Alexander Ross G Fox his Non-Senâ—e Quakers blasphemous opinion about Goa and the Sovl About Gods Breath The Quakers Gross conceit of soul body Their high blasphemyes Pag. 89. Magnus Bine About the fulness of the God head Unreasonable Reasoning The great temptation of knowing and holy People The Quakers make themselvs God and Christ. Magnus Bine The Soul of man infinite The Quakers are the old Manicheans 1 Change no to in R. W. Ms. Ann. Municheus his 2 Principles The infinite patience of God The Quakers obstinate in horrible fancies Blasphemies Daniel Caudry The Quakers challenge an equality with God The Quakess make themselves Faâ—her Son Holy Spirit Christ. Wade H. Nortou more plain then G F. Fergison G F against the mystery of Father Son and Spirit The Quak blasphemyes as to the most holy Spirit Tee Quakâ—rs Chaos babel
The tongue of the Quakers is the Vipers what will their hand be The Quakers common language The cheating of mans heart Capt Green his 2 points with my Antagonist Pardon Tillinghast his discourse with my Opposite The Conclusion was ordered by the Father of Mercies with much peace and quietness which had not been if I had ininsulted upbraided as W Edm. did More Proofs of the Quakers lame writings 1 John 2. You know all things About knowing all things The Quakers proud of knowledge yet knowing nothing Pag. 11. Joh Bunyan Conscience condemning not Justifying The Quakers confest their light to be Conscience The great Tryal of the 3 greatest actual Sinners that ever were The excusing of Conscience A fit Simlitude used before Q. Elizâ—beth concerning pardon of sin or Justification which I had from one that heard it being near the Queen Conscience the greatest Friend or Foe Pag. 2. Jo. Bunyan c. The various meanings of the word Light Rom. 1. 2 Nor favouring Christ in all mankind Four writings considered Several Expositions of the Light in Jhon 1. 1 Insert W. R. W. Ms. Ann. The World All Men And Every Man 1 3 times R. W. Ms. Ann. Christ as Mediator enlightens none but the Elect. Henoch Howet Jews Gentiles The two great Bargains of God with mankind Scripture language God offers the Gospel divers wayes Two Feet and 2 Fingers of God 1 Air not Fire R. W. Ms. Ann. The Quakers monstrous Marriages G. Fox and the Quakers pretences of Soul kindness are Soul cruelties Pag. 24. Joseph Kellet God is glorious in the means appointeth The Quakers simple and wild boldness with the eterna power Godhead The wonderfulâ— Revelations of in the Script Wonderful Guids Wonderful faith of the Quakers Gods several wayes of revealing himself The mad fancies of the Quakers as to the Holy Scriptures The word of a King and the word of God Pag. 25. Joseph Kellet c. The word Form debated Gods Ordiances and Institutions The Quakers gross Hypocrisie A passage of Mr. Baxters weighed Whence the Quakers Proselites do arife 1 Add the saviour of the separate R. W. Ms. Ann. Consideration touching separate Churches The Quakers Converts N. E. glory the very top bough of it Ellis Bradshaw The two pretended last witnesses Reves and Muggleton The Jugling of the Quakers to make themselves eternal Judgs A dangerous counterfeit Court Two great Bars to the Quakers high Court of eternal Judgâ— P. 38. T. Collier G. Fox his throwing God overboard and his own Reason and Sense also The Harmony between God and his Messengers 1 Acts not Joh. 14. R. W. Ms. Ann. God doth all yet his meanes must be used by which he is pleased to work The Papists brag of their Conversions The Protestant Conversions The Jeâ—uits and Puritans the two great Corrivals The two great Corrivals in Christs time The Jesuits and the Quakers the two great Corrivals abroad 1 plague not plough R. W. Ms. Ann. 1 yea not yet R. W. Ms. Ann. False Apostles figured by Absolom The holy Scriptures the great Box both to Jesuits and Quakers Great Conversion of Jews and Gentiles yet expected The true Apostles and Fox and his lying ones Compared I. Deacon The Quakers dream about not dying or Immortality The Doctrine of Immortality A Charitable hope of some Quakers 1 Put as some did with Absolom in parenthesis R. W. Ms. Ann. Joseph Miller The Ancient Philosophers Considered The madâ—ness of George Fox his Fancy about them The failing of the highest Reason in this world in many especially in two particulars The drep knowledge of some The greater depth of the Creator himself the Trinity the Fall Redemption Incarnation Resurrection c. The Excellent Gifts of Nature reach not heavenly and Spiritual things Spiritually 1 Simple not single R. W. Ms. Ann. Joseph Miller The Prophets witness of Christ how stronger then the Apostles their own Speeches were Bebaioteron Iogon a more sure Word The Word of God Considered The Sripture or written Testimonie Much more their feigned Spirit of Prophecy the Quakers prate of 1 Erase is in all Religions R. W. Ms. Ann. The Quakers Sandy Quicksauds P. 47. Preaching of Women Ralph Hall The light of Nature discussed 1 Insert there is R. W. Ms. Ann. 2 Erase Super. R. W. Ms. Ann. Male and Female Men and Women compared The kindness of God to women Womens unfitness for manly employments And for being Preachers and postles especially 1 Change the period to R. W. Ms. Ann. A memorable and doleful story What teaching the Lord requires of Women Tho. Higginson The knowledge of God by nature The convictions of nature which the 4 Quakers so foolishly talk of The loss of all men as to God hravenly things Men naturally frame a God as the Devils do but cannot love him Babilonian Jugling Egyptian canting Christs Name horribly prophaned The Old and new Bargain to Love The great Delusion of Quakers as to pardon of Sin and Righteousness The Quakers bewildred as to Perfection The Quakerr devilish Chimistry 1 Insert according to R. W. Ms. Ann. The feined â—ardness but the real easiness of the Quakers Spirit The wonderful Harpsicon The vain dreams of the Quakers and their fools Paradice Jeremiah Jves The Devil in Samuels Mantle An Angel of Light but a Dragon and Devil of darkness Truth and Light the same thing 1 Insert used by the Lord. R. W. Ms. Ann. The way of Truth or Lights goings Where no Receiver no Thief 1 Change any to no. R. W. Ms. Ann. Natural Understanding in Men and Beasts An Instance of a meerly Rational and an heavenly Power and Faculty 1 Change too to to R. W. Ms. Ann. A close Companion between all Faculties and Objects Nothing truly Spiritual in Nature as now degenerate About the light shining in darkness 1 Adds is after Spirit R. W. Ms. Ann. 2 Insert it R. W. Ms. Ann. Gods grrcious workings with and in the Souls of men A wonderful Parrots Religion Jeremiah Ives 1 Infert so did R. W. Ms. Ann. Heaven and Hell to come Fox his Hell and Heaven 2 Erase thirst R. W. Ms. Ann. The Papists Queries about Hell The Scripture Hell and Heaven but Fables with G. Fox and other Popish Foxes The Heaven and Hell to come 1 Erase of necessity R. W. Ms. Ann. The Foxes mad Fancy of the Soul and next Life The Protestants Faith as to the Life to come 2 Erase k in seek R. W. Ms. Ann. Three Sorts will find Hell above others 1 Erase Ars. potenter R. W. Ms. Ann. 2 Erase potenter R. W. Ms. Ann. 3 Change is in to yn. R. W. Ms. Ann. 4 Erase where R. W. Ms. Ann. Jeremiah Ives The Kingdom of God signifying divers things 5 Erase the parenthesis and insert a. R. W. Ms. Ann. The false and true Messiah The Kingdome of God within you Three Expositions The Quakers Exposition The Light shining in darkness The grace of God is offered
to all but embraced by few that are freely chosen The frantick fancy of Christs Kingdome in his Enemieâ— hearts Thomas Weld Faith how wrought A distracted old woman a picture of the Quakers Rom. 10. The admirable Chain of Diamonds True Faith what Heb. 1. Act. 26. The four sort of Hearers The Quakers how cheated by Sathan as Queen Mary was of her Conception Challenges to the Foxians Pauls famous Case 80 Tko. Pollard The Fox like and dog like Impudency of G. Fox c. The visibility of Christs Church and her Officers The Church in God G Fox a most visible and idle prater of Invisibilities Magnus Byne God hath many words The understanding of the Scripture threefold The Devils End in Cavilling against the Scripture Tongues yet J. Stâ—bs vapourd that he understood as many Tongues as I and may be more The horrible Ingratitude of the Foxians The Transltion of the Scripture The Quakers Spirit for all pretences a lazie Spirit The three Languages upon the Cross of Christ. The Devils skill in Languages and Subtlety in Revelations Theora John The Lord raiseth his Witnesses against Babel by his Spirit and blessing upon Tongues and Translations The Papists former Ignorance now their abuse of knowledge English helps a great mercy A close Query 86 Magnus Byne The first and second Resurrection The great Expectation of all the four great Religions The great point of Salvation Two great Sorts of minders Eternal Life Three great sorts of Me 1 Insert and are R. W. Ms. Ann. 2 And lost in themselves but saved by grace R. W. Ms. Ann. Jesuits and Puritans the two great Antagonists pag. 89. Magnus Bine The Quakers in the Fulness of the Godhead of their hellish mouths and pens ay be believed The Quakers grutch Christ the Title of God-man Ephes. 4. The work of Christs Ministers The horrible pride and Haughtiness of the Quakers The Indians base esteem of the Godhead God and the great Adversary to all Proud spirits The Soul of men horribly abused 1 Change best to rest R. W. Ms. Ann. The changes of all things created and their Periods 1 Add in its tendency though not in effect R. W. s. Ann. Two horrible Murthers attempts Mans doleful Degeneracy Robert Simson the body of Christs Church 1 Put it may be as he said above myself in parenthesis R. W. Ms. Ann. The Parables Figurative Speeches of Holy Scripture The Protestant Churches The Quakers and Ieâ—uits Spirit The Foxian Churches 1 Add is R. W. Ms. Ann. All bodies liable to Distempers The sendency of the Quak. Spirit 1 Change now to tend R. W. Ms. Ann. Jonathan Clapham cs The Pope and Quakers compared Of Fathers and Masters The Popish priority anâ— the Foxian is of and in their Doctors Meer Civil Respects 1 Change von politikon to animal politicon R. W. Ms. Ann. The Quakers Masters and Fathers True Regeneration 106. William Thomas The person of Christ and the Grace of Christ distinguished Christs persoâ— Not Ubiquirary Faith not Christ himself K. Charles King yeâ— not personally present in all his Dominions Humph. Norton yields Christ ubiquitary 1 Add by faith R. W. Ms. Ann. Which word the word humane they startle aâ— Christ Jesus in the Soul makes it a palace for 3 Kings c. 2 Change these to their R. W. Ms. Ann. The variety of Christs workings appearances False Conceptions Giles Fermin Paul the Angels Swearing Of Swearing in General 1 Chaâ—ge conjuror to conjecture R. W. Ms. Ann. Famous Usher Moderation as to Swearing 1 Change the to yt. R. W. Ms. Ann. Swearing no Ceremony The fear of God and Swâ—aring by him put by God for his whole worship 1 Erase is there R. W. Ms. Ann. Swearing as real a worship of God as Prayer preaching Baptisme Lords Supper c. Christ not the abolisher of Oaths The fifth of Mathew The Quakers plainly Confess Swearing in Cases lawful 1 Change prate to please R. W. Ms. Ann. Cases of Swearing Sin established by Law is Sin multiplied and multiplied Judgement here and for ever 30. Thomas Moor. The Devils great work in all Ages Sathans Emissaries to destroy Christ Jesus The person of Christ Jesus the Devils great Eye sore 1 Change and to end R. W. Ms. Ann. The Manicheans the great Opposers of Christs Manhood That Individual Man Christ Jesus must have the preheminence of the only Messiah and Mediator 2 Erase not R. W. Ms Ann. The Godhead of Christs Body after a Transcendent way 1 Change the to yt. R. W. Ms. Ann. The six great points Dreadfully inverted upon the Quakers 136 Thomas Moor Eating Christs Flesh aâ—d drinking his Blood The Foxians horrible pride exalting themselves to be God and Christ 1 Erase Herods and. R. W. Ms. Ann. Christs coming again to them 1 Change I to We. R. W. Ms. Ann. The Foxians natural and spiritual Defilements therefore not God but filthy Dreams The Foxians in Calvins time Gods strokes in this world wonderful upon three sorts 1 Change Blasphemies to Blasphemous R. W. Ms. Ann. 186. Samueâ— Hammond About true bearing What the quenching of the Spirit is Old Authors John Burton The gâ—oat dispute about the true Christ. Christ without and within The Protestants belief of Christ. Churches in Wales 1 Change the to this R. W. Ms. Ann. The first Cry of every Chiâ—d of God Whence Devils and wicked men come The low Countries hazard by the Pelagians Davids Conceptions vindicated from G. Foxes Aspersions What Nature is The pureness of the sweetest Infants The rottenness of nature The experiences of Gods Saints in Scripture 217 Iohâ— Iackson The great and little Foxes 1 Ends with a not a period R. W. Ms. Ann. The Heresies of several Ages Concerning false Christs c. Concerning him who letted Antichrists rising The everlasting Gospel John Jackson The horrible pride of the Foxians False appearances 1 Insert with R. W. Ms. Ann. The word perfect in the greek and Heqrew The Saints pardon of Sin and Justification perfect The Saints battel and daily Combate Heavenly Piradoxes Devilsh Tâ—nents of the Spirituals in Calvins time The Papist and Quakers perfection 220 Hosanna to the Son of David G Fox his Judgment from God Kom 1. Discussed as to the Eternal Power and Godhead The natural power of men and Devils 1 Cor. 2. as to Gods Spirit discussed 1 Change Principles to Princes R. W. Ms. Ann. Wisdome The Case of G Fox and most of his Foxians 222. Hosanna to the Son of David Christs Name hotribly abused Colossians 1. Considered The Nature and admirable Mistery and Excellen-of Christ Jesus The Blood of Christ. The Blood of God The Blood of Christ despised by Papists and Quakers Christ the picture of God Christ God and Man Christ Fulness filling all A wonderful Conduit The proud phrenzie of the Quakers The Papists and Quakers Christ 223 Hosanna to the Son of David 1 Change Dife to Life R. W. Ms. Ann. The Estate of mankinde
Convictions of Nature one thing Conversion another Saving Convictions The State of Adam in his Fall Sathans Cunning with the Quakers Christs coming Two common Traps and Engines of Sathan in cheating the Foxians When Christ is welcome Ellis Bradshaw Two great designs of Sathan The Word and Words of God Whether God have any more wordsthen one Infinite millions of millions of Gods word The Voice of Gods works and Providences Gods Spirit in his word Christ the word of God The shameless wickedness of the Quakers against the Scriptures Christ himself The way of dealing with Indians They see infinite Reason in the holy Scriptures The preservation of the Scripture Tho. Weld As to Christen Names Names to Children The Foxians scornful pride Who are G. Fox his Heathen The Words Heathen 1 Insert R. W. Ms. Ann. Christ destroys not but beaufies Civility 1 Change for to but. R. W. Ms. Ann. The new Man and new Name The Popes flingiâ—g to the world their old Names G. Fox his great change 1 Place most of them in parenthesis R. W. Ms. Ann. Eccles. 11. 2 Place as the Pope and Cardinals and Iesuits do in parenthesis R. W. Ms. Ann. 243. Rich. and Sherlock The Teachings of God 1 Erase new R. W. Ms. Ann. 2 Change one to many R. W. Ms. Ann. Outward means Miracles 247. Christopher Wade 1 Place beside the Scripture in parenthesis R. W. Ms. Ann. The Sword of the Spirit 2 Insert from R. W. Ms. Ann. Not the Spirit himself The Immediate Inspiration of the Spirit The Scripture horribly abused 253. Henry Haggar The Papists and Quakers of a damning and damne Spirit 1 Erase s in Idols R. W. Ms. Ann. The true Protestants Charity The Quakers far from the Spirit of Christ Jesus The meek and merciful Spirit of Jesus The differeut state of Gods Children 259. John Brown Number 16. Korah Dathan and Abirams Revolt applied to the pretended Quakers The Protestant Religion Revolted from by the Quakers Conspirators agaiust the Priestly Prophetical and Kingly Office and Power of Christ Jesus The conspiracy of the Quakers 1 Place some of them in parenthesis R. W. Ms. Ann. Against Christ Jesus Korah and the Quakers Confidence fierceness And lying Charges Ingratitude Impatience The Wonderful Judgements of God upon the Korathites in this world 62 George Johnson Thoughts about America Now Christ a Light Covenant N Englands Plantaaion The Indians of N. England The Indians of New England The Quakers desire of perverting the Indians John Owen 263 Owens writings about the Scripture Excellently learned and Spiritual and Invincible 264 Samuel Palmer Mans threefold Condition in this Life The Devil too Crafty for the Foxians A great mistery The Quakers devilish pride 275. Ricard Meyo The Devils bloody Craft The Kings Declaration of mercy and Liberty The Devils two sorts of Souldiers Anti-Christianisme The Figures in Scripture A lively picture of the Gospel Why it is called Pauls Gospel How it is hid 282. Daniel Gawdry The Varity of Spirits Why it is said the Spirits made perfect The Devil would be rid of Scripture and all Learning 325 Timothy Trevis G. Fox destroys the working of the Father and the Son G. Fox and the Arminians one as to predestination Mans wisdome about his Earthly business The Mistery of the Quakers Seed The Foxians gross Ignorance of the Godhead 326 Timothy Trevis The manifestation of the Spirit discussed 1 Change slanders to blunders R. W. Ms. Ann. The Garden of Christs Church and the Wilderness c. of the World differ as Heaven and Earth The partition Wall between Jews and Gentiles G. Fox his not cleaving the Hoof though full of Scripture G. Fox his wonderful Confusion The Spirit of God and the world are extream Contraries Prophners of the holy Spirit G. Fox c. resisting and fighting against the holy Spirit The striving of Gods Spirit The free and powerful working of Gods spirit The whole world unprofitable 328 Hugh Archbal The manifold Light mentioned in the Holy Scripture The Common offers of mercy The true Illumination As the first Christians were called The twofold success of the Gospel 330. James Dorram The sight of sin as Sin The Sins of the Regenerate Whit the Combate between the Flesh and Spirit in Rom. 7. The Sin of the Regenerate as a wound and Captivity The Souls delight in God and Hatred to Sin Sincerity the Crown of the true Quakers 338 John Nasmith The Foxians are both Pharisees and Sadduces An Item to G. Fox The Nature of the Devils 345 Hen. Foreside Ezek. 18 Considered The Spirit of Falling from Grace The Papists Arminians and Foxians one in this point Whab Grace it is that Papists Arminians and Foxians Fall from Necessary Observations The Word Righteousness of many significations God's Covenant with the first man The Law given so many hundreth of years after mans Fall G. Fox making use of the Scripture to Curse his Opposites Their horrible Contempt of Scripture 456 A Book from Hollaed G. Fox his proud Ignorance An Impious unsavonry Spirit against the godly of all Nations The Pharisees Perfection 2 Pet. 22 The Saints Continual warfere Scriptural dangers and spiritual Watch. Christs Discipline with his Saints and Churches The Quakers doleful mistake 365. Robert Tuchin c. G Fox prouder and prouder wo se and worse to the End of his Bookâ— The Fall of Angels Fall of Man Davids sin Sacrifice for Sins of Ignorance Great failing of Christs Disciples Paul John and Peter and all come short Peters great failings former and latter written for our Instruction 372. Thomas Hodges G Fox hath affirmed the Contrary to all the Heavenly Assertions of his Opposites which I have produced God sets forth to us in Scripture by Natural and Artificial things The great Question what God is The Devil Gods Ape in Inspirations The Subtlety of the Devil and his Agents in Câ—tching of men What G. Fox means by the maâ—ner of the Spirit G. Fox his proud Simplicity The Monstrous Ridle of the Foxians Spirit Job a perfect man yet abhors himself for his filthiness The Authors humble desire for himself and G. Fox The Authors fear as to G. Fox his case
the Wolves covered only with the sheepskins they have other Words Letters Spirits 2 Thes. 2. whatever they prate of Scripture and speak brave swelling empty words as Iude speaketh T is true as G. Fox all along in his Book vapours that the Spirit was before Scripture and gave forth Scripture but I proved before that their Spirit their Light their Christ were but hellish Darkness the spirit of Sathan and a false lying Christ c. 2. The Dispensations of God were many and divers as before the Law and after but in this last and third dispensation he hath spoken that is his word mind and will whatever the Quakers as well childishly as Blasphemously prate to the contrary by his Son And as the Son himself the Lord Jesus in his own person when he personally maintained that famous combat with the Devil used no other weapon but Prayer and Fasting and the Holy Scripture so he left written this holy patern and example that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 14. Luther being demanded how he gain'd such knowledge and abilities in such blind Popish darkness he freely confessed that the holy Scripture was his first help the second Meditation the third earnest Prayer to God to vouchsafe his Spirit to bless the two former unto him The Lord Jesus therefore not only ordained his Messenger or Preachers of his glad Tydings to Iews and Gentiles but his Pen-men also Ioh. 20. for those two great ends as to us to wit 1. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ to wit that that individual person and man called Jesus was the Christ the Messiah so long promised and expected contrary to the Blasphemous Fancies of the Quakers And 2. That Believing in him that individual person called Jesus and not in a Fancy within we might have Life and Blessedness It is no wonder therefore that the Devil the great Thief as he compasseth Sea and Land with the Pharisees Iesuites and Quakers to make Proselytes so wherever he comes he labours to blow out the Candle of the Holy Scripture It is the Spirit Breath or wind of the Devil in the lips of Atheists Iews Papists Quakers Ranters c. that puffs and blows 93 against this Holy Light more precious infinitely then the Sun in the Heaven it hath been most wonderfully to amazement preserved like the Sun in the Firmanent and shines most gloriously again and again after the blackest and longest storm and night of Apostacies and Persecution The Turkish Hystory tells us of a Woman appearing in the Heavens with a Book open in her hand some of their Mahumetan Priests dared to say for which one greatly suffered that the Woman was the Christian Church and the Book was their Bible or Scriptures which threatned ruine to their Mahomet and Alcoran Iohn was not commanded and in him the Protestant Witnesses to stand still and listen to a Light to a motion or voice within but to eat up the little Book open once again in the hands of Christ Jesus Rev. 10. and after this eaten up to prophesie to Peoples and Nations to Tongues and Kings Whether this Book be the Book of the Revelation or the Book of the whole Bible or Scripture it is apparent that during the 42 Months of the the Papal Reign and Darkness Christ Iesus hath given Authority and power to his Witnesses to search after the Holy Records in the Original Hebrew and Greek Copies and to bring them forth by Translating and Preaching the Doctrine of them c. for which they have suffered Death and Burning as Tindal and many other excellent men of God The Walls of Rome yea the Gates of Hell have shaken and felt the might of this Heavenly Artillery It lies therefore the Devil and all his Messengers in hand to break to pieces or to nail up their heavenly Ordinance It hath been observed that there never were any more than others famous for Christanity but they first were famous for an admirable Love kindled by God in their Hearts to the Holy Scriptures It is true the Iews to whom the Oracles of God were committed to wit in the Old Testament how studious have they been in it even to every Word and Letter they accounted it a crime for any Book to ly upon it but this alwayes to lye uppermost My self have seen the Old Testament of the Iews most curious writing whose price in way of trade was threescore pound which my Brother a Turkey-Merchant had and shewed me But I speak of an inward love a Soul-love c. It is wonderful what Luther relates of that blessed Duke of Saxony whom 94 God stir'd up to favour and cherish Luther c viz. that he caused his six Pages each of them to read to him daily everyone his hour in the Holy Scripture This was the affection in all the first Witnesses the Waldensians the Bohemians the English French Dutch Scotch c. who together with the Scriptures had mighty Affection to the study of the Hebrew and Greek in which golden Cups and Bowles the King of Kings was pleased to convey the Wine like Ahashuerosh of his Eternal Majesty and Goodness to us It is wonderful to consider how much the study of the Scriptures and of the Hebrew and Greek Tongues confounded and put to flight the Papists and forced them to study the Scriptures and the Tongues also both which the barbarous dark Spirit of the Quakers hate as darkness hates the Light It is no wonder this Spirit of Lying cries out so fiercely against the Schools of Learning in Old and New England it knows that the right and regular propagation of natural of civil and especially of Divine Knowledge scatters the thick Fogs of the Quakers affected hellish ignorance The blessed Martyrs and Witnesses of Jesus in all ages have been ravished with holy delights like David in the holy Scripture in Q Maries dayes that famous Ridley called Bishop of London he had got most of the holy Epistles in Greek by heart even before he left Pembrook Hall in Cambridge and as the fire of persecution grew hotter so did those blessed Witnesses like Jesus with Moses and Elias and Paul at Troas spend hours and nights in Prayer and holy Conference upon the Scriptures and those things which the Lord Jesus should and hath now accomplished according to the Scriptures It is true in print Iames Parnel spake like a Papist an Atheist and a Quaker of the holy Martyrs or Witnesses of Jesus Christ and of the book of Martyrs it self It is no wonder that the most Righteous and jealous Lord left him not to dye the common death of all Mankinde but to Murther himself by a proud presumptuous attempt of declaring himself to be Christ by fasting 40 dayes and 40 nights I believe this to be a Truth from the Testimonies I have seen of Parnels