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
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
as are the Papists Iews and Quakers Allegations to a Venemous and poysonous End He brings in Henoch Howet saying The Scripture to be the only Weapon whereby Christ overthrew the Devil He Answers who bruiseth his Head and was before Scripture was yet the Scripture is for Correction and Doctrine furnishing the man of God in his place and Christ the Seed was before the Scripture was And all them that hath Scripture and not Christ cannot overcome the Devil you and the Papists doing his work for they that overcome him that is with the Power and those have the Scriptures of Truth which the Devil is out of 101 I Reply How doth Christs bruising of Satans Head and being before Scripture was disprove Fox his Opposites saying viz. the only weapon whereby Christ Jesus overcome the Devil was the Scripture what is this to the point of the Compass may not half and Eye see what a simple Sophister this is to make such Yawes as not to come near the Ships Course and point in hand 2. Who sees not Fox in his Burrough of the divers Acceptation of the Word Christ For in the Sense of his Opposite that man Christ Jesus who fought the Devil and Fox Confesseth died at Ierusalem was not before the Scriptures But his Birth and Life and Death were Proppesied and declared by the Scripture long before he was born 3. As for this saying They that have the Scripture and not Christ can not overcome the Devil What News doth Fox tell the World which no Body denies and how doth this deny that Christ Jesus overcome the Devil by the Scripture 4. Is all Scripture or writing given by Inspiration of God and is profitable though Fox alleadgeth this Scripture by halves for Correction and Doctrine c. then it clearly follows that as Christ Jesus overcome the Devil by the Scripture so by the same Weapon this subtle Fox and all other of Satans Foxes must be Corrected Confuted Catcht and destroyed except they repent for ever But what is this Confession that the Scripture is profitable for Correction c. but a kind of grant to his Opposite that Christ did overcome the Devil by this Weapon for he Confesseth it profitable for Correction c. though yet all this running about in and out into his holes in this Answer is a whispering and yet loud enough to be heard viz. that Christ did not overcome the Devil by the Scripture 5. As for the Quakers Power here pretended in Opposition to the Scripture as being those that have Scripture within them and so overcome the Devil How doth the Devil deal as one that pretends to Fight with Children who lies down and Cries as if those poor Childish Souls had Overcome him Thus sometimes a Devil of Drunkenness of Swearing of Stealing runs away from the Sermons of the Quakers as a naughty Devil sometimes at the Chiding and Conjuring of a good Witch That he may get the faster hold by spiritual pride hypocrisie 102 self Conceit and Contradiction to the Scripture by will worship and Superstitious Inventions against the holy Institutions and Commands of the true Lord Jesus Christ. Pag. 289. He brings in Francis Duke saying When Christ told the Devil that man should not live by Bread alone but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God that was believing the Scripture And this Word of God in the Scripture was the Ground of Christs Faith and so to all that are his He Answers Many may have the Scripture and never hear the voice of God as the Jews in the fifth of Iohn and they said they believed the Scriptures though they were out of the true belief But receiving the Word from God is as they that gave forth the Scriptures which man lives by and not by bread alone and so knows him who was before Scripture was given forth And for saying that the Scripture was the Ground of Christs Faith he was afore the Scripture was writ and so fulfils their Words and is the Author and the Finisher of the Saints Faith which was before the Scripture was given forth him by whom the World was made and is the Author of the Saints Faith that bruised the Serpent under his feet which was before the Scripture was 1. I Reply How Notorious for Tautologies are these brutish Clamours Thrice in this small Answer have we of Christ which was before Scripture was who was before Scripture was c. shall we believe their Notorious Lyes viz. that the Light within them gave forth Scripture and that they speak and write as they are moved by the most holy and Infallible Spirit when their writings are so weak lame and Childish just like the talk of Aged doting Women and so full of Idle Repetitions 2. What Answer is this how brutish and Impious viz. that a man may have the Scripture and yet not be in the belief therefore the Word of God was not the Ground of Christs belief so again the Devil and wicked men may have the Scripture and yet believe not in them therefore Christ Jesus and his saints believe them not neither this Inference is clear you say Christ was before Scripture was c. I Reply He was and he was not But let Heaven and Earth Hear and abhor the Sophistry of these Deceivers they would fain 103 have no such Christ as man a Christ without an out-side Christ but a Spirit and God only and that in their Flesh yet again for shame of the world they are forct to Confess that there was such a man or person c. and yet to Cloak and Cover that Confession from Crossing their Principle they say that before Scripture was Christ bruised the Serpents Head that is Christ that made the World Christ the Light the Word But this again we say is false also for the Promise is Gen. 3. that the Seed of a Womau which was Christ in his Manhood born in the Fulness of Time Gal. 4. And let G. Fox or any of their Iuglers Answer If they speak honestly and bona fide if there was really such a man called Jesus at Ierusalem c. as there was such a man called G. Fox lately in New-England was there not such a man called Jesus after the Scripture was written or penn'd was dot this man forty dayes tempted of the Devil and did not this man called Jesus Christ Overcome the Devil by the Weapon of the writing or Scripture and was not the holy Scripture the Ground of his Faith as he makes the Will or Word of God declared in this holy Writing or Record the Ground of his saints Faith also He brings in Iohn Timson saying The Scripture is the Rule of Life He Answers Contrary to Christ who said the Spirit should lead them into all Truth And they that are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God and the Churches was to hear what the spirit said
who hath seen Sin as Sin the sin of his Nature his chief sin c. will see how far from the Doctrine of true Repentance true Faith c these mens Teachings be and for all their boasting what need they have to Examine themselves whether they be in the Faith and whether there be any other Christ Iesus within them then a Countersiet and painted Messiah and whether their Countersiet and painted Faith Repentance and Hope will yield them another Fruit then a dolefully Counterfieted and perishing Salvation At last by Gods merciful held I come now with their glad Consent to the seventh and last Position propounded to be discust at Newport viz. that their Religion was nothing else but a mixture of Popery Arminianisme Socinianisme Iudaisme c. Herein I knew I was not to exceed my quarter glass and there fore I take liberty now a little to inlarge to remember the Reader of the old Proverb that where God hath his Church the Devil will have his Chappel And that where Christ Iesus hath his Field of good Seed while the Servants sleep the Enemy will sow the Tares of rotten Doctrines and rotten Professors who like Windefals and Revolting Rebels fall from the holy Truths they have professed being loose aud weak believers or only affrighted and Terrified Hipocrites by Gods righteous Iudgement delivered over to listen too and believe Lyes as the only heavenly Truths of Iesus I had purposed to have shewed how in matters concerning God the Son of God the Spirit of God c. the Quakers have followed the Cerdonians the Priscillians the Valentinians the old Gnosticks and Manicheans but I Confined my self to the Terms of the Position and declared that the Quakers were downright Papists in many points some I then Insisted on and the rest 128 intended I shall now mention First In magnifying the rotten strength and Arm of dead and rotten Nature when it is Objected to G. Fox in his book that by Nature we are all dead in sins and Trespasses G. Fox Answers by d viding all men into three sorts Some are born holy from the wombe as Ier. Some the Saints that is only their Children born holy without any sinful corruption Thirdly the wicked who will not turn to the Light within them and they are only the Unbelievers dead in sin But the Protestants David and his Followers Confess their Natures Births and Conceptions to be all defiled with sin and with a sinful proneness to all Iniquity though miraculously some are Sanctified or set apart to God from the wombe as Ieremiah Iohn the Baptist c. Some after a more peculiar and miraculous manner as the Lord Iesus Some by New Birth and the wonderfal Supernatural Power of the holy Spirie Changing Regenerating and as it were New Creating the Soul and Spirit in Everlasting Unchangeable Holiness and Righteousness after the Image of his first and second Creatour It is true that the Papists come nearer the Truth as to Birth Corruption and Defilement then the Quakers acknowledging all â— be Conceived and born in Sin not that the Devil or the Papists care to acknowledge this Truth but that they may use it as a Cridge over which they may pass to the Necessity of Baptisme on pain of Damnation on which they may also build many other Superstitious Fanciee as to the holy Ordinances But the Quakers although they hold only their own Children to be Conceived and born holy without Sin yet they jump into one step with the Papists as to the Power of Nature in Spirituals ane that every man and woman in the world hath a sufficient Light within him to see God and Christ c. and to turn themselves unto them to Eternal Life Contrary to the Protestants who from the holy Scriptures maintain mans Natural Blindness and Darkness Ephes. 5. Mans Natural Deadness Ephes. 2. and that our wisdome can not difcern any Spiritual thing that is Spiritually 1. Cor 2. That our Quintessence of Nature our very wisdome is Enmity to God He hates us as we hate him and are at deadly fewd and mortal Hatred like two men of War 129 giving Fire one upon another we resolving to sink by Ejods side rather then to yield to God but God in Infinite pitty seeing our weakness and madness and certain Destruction hangs out a white Flag and offers a Parly on purpose to save us from our desperate minde Ruine which by many heavenly means of Free mercy he Effecteth The Papists speak more like Men and at last yield that men and Women have left them since Adams Fall power to listen too and obey Moral Perswasions and offers which God makes The Quakers talk only like Bruits of no means no means but Immediate Revelation of the Spirit and yet in Contradiction to themselves they make the Spirit an inward means and their Apostles or Messengers an outward means or else they make themselves idle Embassodors in vain and to no purpose The Protestants affirm from 2. Cor. 3. that we have not one good Thought but from God that it is God not we that turns the will Phil. 2. that when the Word of Faith is preached Rom. 10. and Faith or Belief is wrought by hearing yet is it Gods free Grace that makes the difference 1 Cor. 4. when several Hearers are Assembled and God opens Lidiahs heart and not others Acts 16. the learned Academians mock and only Dionisius and Damaris and a few believe because God sheweth mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth The Papists and Quakers both maintain that dolefully uncomfortable and desperate Doctrine of falling away from true and saving grace The Truth is neither of them seem to know Experimentally what true and saving grace is It is true they differ the Papists make Saving Grace the Property only of the Regenerate The Quakers say it is in every man and Woman in the world they have it though they know it not and will not turn to it and believe in it yet both agree that they loose it whereas the true Protestants though they grant great Failings and Falls and Desertions of Gods Children yet they hold the Seed of God the holy Spirit and Word of God Isai. 59. and 1 Cor. 3. that Incorruptible Eternal Seed of which they are begotten never Final 130 ly nor Totally to be Ecclipsed and they justly account that Doctrine of Intercession viz. when Son-ship or Childship is cut off by Sin and Renewed by Repentance to be a simple Fantastical Notion as if David were a Child of God to day a Child of the Devil to morrow a Child of God this hour and a Child of the Devil the next c. only they fix this impiously upon mortal and great sins only as if Adam Eating of an Apple were not sufficient to his and our Destruction as well as Davids sinning with Bathsheba and Uriah c 3. I must be briefer
So saith G. Fox and all our Fantasticks out of weakness and madness not weighing what a person the holy Records describe Christ Jesus to be but as foolish Children and Anticks in the Lord Mayors shews they cry out Christ and the Spirit only for a shew and colour I know it that the true Lord Jesus his holy Father and Holy Spirit is as odious both to Iesuits and most Papists Quakers as the Devil yea infinitely more then the Devil himself as with Gods help I have and shall make it as clear as the Noon dayes Sun O you considering Protestants see you not how the Devil would rob you of that Sword with which Christ Jesus overcame him The Holy Scripture under the colour and cloak of the Spirit in the mouths of the Quakers how if the Holy writings must yet live why he hath Fisher and Stubs and Pennington and Bishop and others that skill Tongues and yet own the blockish Spirit of the Quakers how if you blame the Popish Devil for a Blockhead he can puff up his Bladders the Iesuites to a late wonderful swelling of Tongues and Histories and all kinds of Knowledge as in Bellarmine and his Associate and Followers and of late in those great Writers Petavius and Morinus The eternal Word and Son and Sun of God the true Lord Jesus will more and more discover who are his true friends his true Loves that love Alexander more than the King that are true Christians true Iesuites and that truly love and pity poor Souls he will discover who are the great Farmers who having a minde to the Farm themselves consult and say come this is the Heir that is Christ Jesus in his true Messengers let us kill him kill him with Tongue and Pen and Sword c. the Inheritance of Heavenly and Earthly Glory shall then be ours c. and to this end only they talk of Souls c. We now descended to the fifth and sorrowful point of suffering which they read viz. That the sufferings of the Quakers are no true evidence of the Truth of their Religion At the reading of this they told me that although their Sufferings were great in all places whither the Lord had sent them yet they made not their Suffering an Evidence of the truth of their Religion therefore I might have been better advised then to 175 put this in among the rest of my Lyes and Slanders as not considerable and now not worth the mentioning c. I Answered that I understood what they said and I undestood mine own affirmation also and desired their patience also while I offered my Proofs to two Particulars 1. That in their Books and Writings c. they do make their Sufferings a great Evidence to themselves and others of the truth of their Way and Spirit 2. This their Suffering is not valid as to the proof of their Religion Way and Spirit to be of God So then they bid me prove it if I could I told them that I could find no Iewes no Papists no Protestants that did so magnifie and so exactly insist upon their Sufferings as the Quakers did T is â—rue that Paul did more particularize his Sufferings then other Saints in Scripture but it was also true that they were so exceeding great that Paul seemed a None-Such but beside that it was upon some great Insultings of the False Apostles against not only himself but against the Truth of Christ Jesus neither of which is the Quakers case Beside the Quakers Sufferings generally were not to be compar'd with Pauls and yet they set down such exact accounts of every hour in prison every Stripe in Whipping every pound lost and this published to the world in print as if it were a Sign hung out with this Inscription Loe people these are the Evidences of Gods holy Truths and Gods holy Spirit of our Persecutors wickedness and our Christian Faith and Patience who for his Truths sake can endure all this I said it was not rational to think that men professing such high Wisdome and Conscience should declare such Lysts and Catalogues of Sufferings as G. Bishop doth to the world of the Quakers Sufferings in N. England in his first and second History only in a childish Vapour Ostentation and Vain-Glory much less in hopes of Reparation or any worldly advantage either in England old or new Scotland or Virginia c. and therfore Reason perswades that these Sufferings are held forth as the holy Spirit speaks of the Sufferings of the Thessalonians 2. Thess. 2. as a manifest Token of the righteous judgment of God rendering Tribulation to their Persecutors and Rest to themselves suffering for the Kingdome of God As I remember Iohn Stubs said they did not boast of their 176 Sufferings but bare them patiently for the Truths sake which they preached and professed I said I did not charge them to say in express terms We have lost so much outward Gain Favour Friendship Worldly Advantage for the Name of Christ within us can you say the like for the Christ without you We have endured Imprisonments Whippings c. have you done the like only this I say that as all Religios Iewes Papists Protestants c. are confirmed in their Perswations by their Sufferings and do predicate them to others as Arguments and Signs of the truth of their Doctrines and of Gods presence and Assistance with them so do the Quakers and that with more Particular and exact Accounts then most of all the rest have done I told them I had observed much to this purpose in G. Fox E. Burrowes in the Book by me They bid me alleadge what I could out of them I took up the Book and they theirs I directed them to the 12th Page of Ed. Burrowes his large Epistle to G. Fox his Book in Folio where I read this passage viz. And this we did with no small opposition and Danger yea oftentimes we were in danger of our Lives through beating abusing punishing haling casting over walls striking with staves Cudgels and knocking down to the ground Beside Reproaching Scorning Revilings Hooting at Scornings and Slanderings and all abuse that could be thought or acted by evil hands and tongues and oft carried before Magistrates with grievous Threats and sometimes put in the Stocks and whipped and often imprisoned and many hard dealings against us the worst that tongues or hands could execute sparing life Of this all the North Countreys can witness And all these things are sustained and suffered from People and Rulers because of our Faithfulness to the Lord and for declaring against the false Deceivers For nothing save only the hand of the Lord and his power could have preserved us and carried us through all this neither for any Reward outward whatsoever or advantage to our selves would we have exposed our selves to suffrings violence and dangers which befel us daily But the Lord was our exceeding great reward
notoriously false against Moses as the Charge of the Quakers against such blessed Instruments which God hath used like Moses to bring the Protestants out of the Egypt of Popery viz. a Charge of Pride and Ambition wilt thou make thy self a Prince over us a Charge of which the Foxians are notoriously guilty 5. I observe their horrible Ingratitude both unto the most holy God himself and unto Moses and Aaron Gods Servants by whom he had wrought so many wonders for this people in so many wonderful and miraculous Directions Preservations and Deliverances 6. Their Impatiencci and Unbelief c. Thou hast not yet brought us unto a Land flowing with milk and hony as if God and Moses had only fed them with Sugred and honied Words and no Effects and performances 7. I observe their subtle and false pretences and Suggestions Is noâ— all the Lords people holy every one of them and the Lord is amongst them just the Quakers Language who so advance every one of the people of the Lord as they call their Proselites viz. that they are just now born of God and Literally can not Sin are Immediately Inspired need no Teachers no Scriptures c. 8. I observe and I humbly beg of the Father of mercies to cause these poor Foxians to observe the Conspiracy of the two Elements Earth and Fire to Consume and devour these Famous proud Conspirators I spare Applications begging mercy from the Father of Lights and mercies for their Humiliations and Salvation Only I Remember that every Plant the Heavenly Father hath not planted flourisheth it never so green so high so long shall be plucked up and cast into the Fire c. The 46th Instance is in pag. 262. Where he brings in George Iohnson sâ—ying The Americans were never ordained for Grace and Salvation and the Grace of God never appeared to the Americans 93 G. Fox Answers which is contrary to the Scriptures which saith the grace of God which brings Salvation hath appeared to all men c. and I will give him for a Light and for a Covenant to the Gentiles a new Covenant to the House of Israel and Iudah and that he may be my Salvation to the ends of the Earth and many in America have received Truth and Salvation I Reply 1. To the Covenant or Bargain of God with Man first and secondly I have spoke as also to the figurative calling of Christ Jesus the Covenant to Iews and Gentiles and that this blind Soul taking it litterally he runs upon the Rocks of the Arminian general Redemption and the Universalists general Salvation and that with a known Contradiction against their own Foundation of none having any benefit of Christ that own not their Light c. as also with a known Contradiction to all Expeiience which saith the whole World lies in Wickedness and this America in Barbarisme and Barbarous Wickedness of all sorts 2. I have said Christ is the Light the Covenant the Brazen Serpent the Bridegroom held forth as the Sun in the Heavens to all the World So Christians are the Salt the Light of the World and the Church the Pillar and Firmament of Truth holding it out to all the World is therefore all the World seasoned enlightened converted saved yea doth he not only deny the Americans but the Europeans Asians and Africans also any Salvation though never so holy Professour of Christ except they bow down to their new black Image of Light within them 3. It was a large effusion of the Holy Spirit of God upon so many precious Leaders and Followers who ventured their All to New-England upon many Heavenly Grounds three especially First The enjoyment of God according to their Consciences Secondly Of holding out Light to Americans Thirdly The advancing of the English Name and Plantations These three ends the most High and Holy God hath graciously helpt his poor Protestants in a Wilderness to Endeavour to promote c. And as to these Barbarians the Holy God knows some pains I took uprightly in the Main Land and Islands of New-England to dig into their Barbarous Rockie Speech and to speak some 94 thing of God unto their Souls and surely God hath stirred up the Spirit of my ancient dear Friend Mr. Eliot to gain their Language to Translate them the Bible and many other wayes to bring the sound of a Saviour amongst them which I humbly beg of God to perfect and finish for the Glory of his Great Name c. 4. What G. Fox means by saying some in America have received Truth and Salvation I can but guess at It is known he owns nothing of God in Indians or English until they bow down to their Idol and that he intends none but such English in America as he and others have Poysoned and Bewitched with Helish Sorceries 5. This last Year a Paper was sent me from the Quakers desiring me to turn it into Indian that so it might be Printed in England and so dispersed amongst them it contained two things First That they had a Light within them which told them that it was evil to Steal c. Secondly That if they did hearken to this Light it would lead them to God c. I returned the Paper and my refusing in Writing affirming it not to be Truth c. and I questioned the Quakers themselves for a false Christ false Light and Spirit which they would infect the Indians with The 47th Instance is in pag. 263. Where he quotes Iohn Owen saying All Truth concerning God and our selves is to be learned from the Holy Scripture the Word of God G. Fox Answers There was Truth learned before the Scriptures were written and the Scriptures of Truth are the Words of God which ends in Christ the Word and there is no Truths learned but as the Spirit doth lead into all Truth And many has the Scriptures but know not Christ and the Truth c. so he hath thrown out Christ and the Spirit I Reply 1. I have more then once before Answered this Childish Answer There was Truth and the Spirit and Christ and Light before Scripture as also that which no true Protestant denies viz. that the Scriptures nor preaching nor Baptisme nor the Supper nor Afflictions avail except the Spirit the Fin 85 ger or Power of God set them home upon us As also that many have the Scriptures yet know not Christ which who questions So that his Answers are so loose and Childish that none but Fools and Children and Frantick persons can find any Savour and tast in them 2. I therefore further Answer to this Quotation pray the Reader to read some former passages but especially those publick discourses of this excellently learned and pious Author wherein he hath admirably both in Latin and English maintained the Authority and perfection of this Inestimable Iewel the holy Scripture both against Atheists and Papists and Iews and Quakers
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
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
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
us Did not W. Harris when in place more than justifie us by judging himself bound to hurry your self and about twenty more to Newport to answer for Contempt of the Kings Authority though but in an accidentall peaceable and by his Covetous violence occasioned Meeting Was not Mr Clark though favourable to W. H. so amazed at W. Harris his desperate Presumptions that he readily acted with us in Examination and Commitment Yea did not W. Harris upon the point Confess that we could not but Commit him and therefore provided beforehand his Bedding and other Conveniences for a Prison 8. It is not true that either in Word or Writing I cryed out Treason against him But it is notoriously known that he and his Complices lay in Wait and at Catch at every word as Foxes and Lyons for Mr Greens Blood and mine as Traitors against King Charles for our pleading the Colonyes proceeding against W Harris in the time of the Parliament and Oliver Cromwell Oh Friend whither will thy poor Soul next be hurried Is not the Gap and Gate now left open for W. Harris or any man to Dispute openly against the Kings Prerogative and tell him that he knowes not nor his Councill nor Iudges the Laws that he cannot dispence with penall Laws on the Consciences of his Subjects Papists or Protestants at Home or Abroad But see the Finger of the most High the Kings Majesty as if he knew all our proceedings against W. Harris his presumptions debasing the Kings Power and Prerogative in the present juncture of these Affairs sent forth his Royall Declaration to the World asserting his Supream Power and Authority in such matters and by virtue of many Statutes and Acts of Parliament 9. In the last place that your self and others may admire your new spirit how much and how often and how long hath your own Mouth and Hand and Capt. Fenner and diverse with you declared and remonstranced to the Generall Assembly against W. Harris which Assembly therefore fined him and outed him as the restless Fire-brand of Town and Colony and who hath with all his power now kindled and blown this Fire between 15 Conecticut Colony and our selves Yet now in your and the Quakers bosom must W. Harris be hug'd as an innocent and peaceable Soul and the Kings faithfull Officers reproached and threatned as Blood-thirsty and cruel Oppressors 10. You bid me mind my Books and my being for and against Persecution But through Gods mercy I can look at them with humble Thanksgiving and peace without any recoiling thought to Persecution as you falsly intimate from them 11. As to G. Fox his Armour Sword and Cuttings with which you threaten me I desire to think as low of my self .c. as you or G. Fox can think high of himself It is infinite mercy that I live and as a Living Dog may wait for Crums of mercy clearly to See dearly to Love uprightly to Follow and constantly to Maintain the eternall Crown and Glory of the true Lord Iesus Christ and his most holy Spirit and Scriptures with whose gracious Assistanee I hope to prove that the Quakers spirit and Christ have no Communion Roger Williams THe Ingenious and upright Reader might now well suppose that the Contest were over but it is not the Light of Truth or Reason or Scripture or Experience or the Testimony of the Prudent or their own Consciences that will satisfie this white Devill of this pretended Light and Spirit within them and therefore must I crave the Readers Patience while I produce I. T. his third and last Letter to me and my Answer to it Neighbour COncerning the mistaking the Date of my Letter as thou writest which could not be seing I sent it thee the same day I writ it but thine I heard of it some dayes before I received it As for my passing over many particulars which did not concern the matter in handling I willingly omitted them discerning thy subtil spirit in no respect answering by scripture or reason my loving Admonitions to thee But in thine own words is it not bruitish irrationall childish to affirm we are worse then Barbarians which thy sordid Positions do hold forth How childish yea how foolish dost thou shew thy self in thy first Position for G. Fox to prove what he and all friends disown and in scorn thou callest Quakers And in thy 12th Position dost affirm That our Sufferings are no Evidence of the truth of our Religion Thou mightest have spar'd thy paines in bringing 16 forth this Brat which is of thine owne begetting But we are sure it is an Evidence against thee all other of thy Spirit which persecute that they have drunk deep of the Cup of Fornication upon whom the Violls of Gods wrath are powred forth in spirituall Fornications How darest thou find fault with me in not alleadging scripture nor reason in declaring against thy impious Charges mentioned in thy railing impious positions Would'st thou have me to take the matter in hand which thou challengest G. Fox to answer to give like a fool scripture reason for what thou assignest another to doe Oh what Serpent-like spirit dost thou act by that dost not own my plain dealing with thee in owning the scripture wrestest foistest in as I meant not nor writ If thy spirit were reall as before men thy words seem to import thou wouldest not then shew a smiling Countenance when War is in thine heart in witnessing against thy Neighbours secretly against that Golden rule Doe as thou would'st be done by Thou countest it open violence for a Woman to speak in the Church but if thou knewest what Woman that should not speake thou would'st have spared me these lines writing have eased thy selfe of thy great struglings strivings within thee to bring forth on Abortive Thou chargest me in making a great Out-cry against thy Blood-thirsty spirit concerning W. Harris as though thou didest at no time cry out Treoson Treason Answ. how dost thou shift of as one that is guilty and dare not mention the case I writ upon shufling it to be his last imprisonment which I know not the ground of but as I had it related by thee But the Circumstances considered it cannot possibly be paraleld as my Letter declareth with this last Case of W. Harris First thy taking Oath against my wife upon an other mans word on purpose to allay thy furious spirit against W. Harris he not thinking thou wouldest have prosecuted against her as also against sixteen of thy peaceable neighbours Can thou deny that at that Court thou cryed not out Treason Treason making all as guilty as W. Harris Thou sayest I bid thee mind thy Book written against Persecution and yet thy self a Persecutor of thy peaceable Neighbours even unto death Answ. How canst thou in peace through the God of peace as thou sayest look upon thy wicked Travels to murther the Innocent as thou didest at Newport crying out Treason
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
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
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
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
in their Holiness as God is though their Holiness be not so much As if they were perfectly Gods though but little Gods as God himself being a great God and so are forct to show their Contradictions and wheel about to Perfection of parts as a Child is mankind though not a perfect man and a drop of water is true water and may be as Salt as any drop in the Ocean having the Quality of but not the Equality with the Ocean As otherwise G Fox foolishly blasphemouâ—ly speaks of God in this Book Moreover since these high minded Souls dare to say that they are as pure as God and some say what they think that they can no more sin against God then God can sin against them c. I Ask them whether there be any Measures and Degrees in God whether his Perfection in Holiness be not Holiness it self Wisdom it self goodness it self unto which there there can be no Addition or 110 growth as we are Commanded to grow in the grace and knowledg of Christ Iesus To talk therefore of Measures Perfections is as silly as for G. Fox when he hath begun to sow a Shoo and hath as yet taken but a few stitches yet to boast Confidently that the Shoe is perfect We deny not but a Dram Cup may be as perfectly full of wine as a Pipe or Butt and so Iohns little Children as perfectly that is as truly Gods Children as his strong men or Old men But to say this Cup or Spoon is equal in quantity to a Pipe or Tun a Child is equal to a strong man much more for a poor Potsheard to say he is equal with his Porter and a Worm of the Earth equal to his Maker what is it but a bloccish and blasphemous Fallacy and Contradiction and a wheeling about to a Perfection of parts which none deny In 222. He brings in the same Author saying Christ is without his Saints in respect of his bodily presence He Answers How are they of his Flesh and of his Bone and how do they eat his flesh and drink his Blood And how have they his mind and Spirit And he with them and they with him and sit in Heavenly Places And he is the Head of his Church and how then is he absent yea poor Apostates from him feels not Christ but he is with the Saints and they feel him I Reply and Ask is this Eating of his Flesh and drinking of his Blood after a Corporal Bodily manner visible and real as to other Senses Or is it Miraculous and Spiritual Or is it Spiritual Mistical by Faith and by believing as the Protestants say After the first Corporal way the very Papists affirm not After the second way you will not say it is Nor would you be thought to be so gross Papists as to hold Transubstantiation and therefore must it be the third way whichis by believing and then you poor Iugling Souls what is it to a Bodily presence that you Eat him by believing 2. Whereas you say you fit with him in Heavenly Places you are one wâ—â—h him c. he is Head of the Church c. Here I must Ask you you hold him to be such a Visible Head of the Church as the Pope saith He is and if you say yea I then Ask you where will you direct us to such an Individual Man or person as the Pope is and may be directed to as we know from so great Art all the World over If you say No what is this then to talk of a bodily 111 presence of Christ which is the point and then Flap me in the mouth with a Fox Tail and tell me in a Childish and Equivocating Contradiction that you mean not a Bodily presence but a Spiritual 3. As for the poor Apostates and your feeling of Christ which the poor Apostates do not I Reply An Adulterous Wretch Accused Ioseph of Whoredome who was a pattern of pure and holy Chastity For whom do this Whorish Brood of Foxians thus brand for Apostates and sling among them Firebrands Arrows and Death Are they not all the Children of God that are or ever were or shall be called Are they not the Souls under the Altar who have been slain Thousands and Ten Thousands for the Testimony of Iesus against these horrid Delusions Are they not the very first Churches and the Apostles of Christ Jesus from whom Christ in his Bodily presence was departed as he often Forewarned them and as the holy Scriptures abundantly Recordeth is Fulfilled For see the Jugling of these Deceivers when this Bodily presence is Examined they mean no such Individual Man and person but a mind and Spirit and such a Christ as hath no Individual Bodily Presence as we and all men have If G. Fox when he is in New-England should say he is in London in his Bodily Presence and that his Friends feel as he speak his Bodily Presence there because they feel his Love and his Affections in their minds and Spirits What Hocas Pocas and Iugling Christianity is this All the Saints and Children of God must all be Apostates fallen from God and Christ and Grace that cannot Skill and Feel this Horrible Egiptian Canting Language I will turn my Thoughts higher O thou most glorious Sun of Righteousness Truth and Holiness shine forth and let it be seen how the Devil called the Lord Jesus Beelzehub The Treacherous Revolters and Apostates from thee they call thy self and thy Saints Revolters and Apostates They boast with the bloody Papists and other Traitorous Rebels against thee of their Right and Interest in thee of their possessing and feeling of thee feeling thy Scriptures and thy Bodily presence within them Oh let thy glorious Light declare who these poor Apostates and Revol 112 ters are who break down thine Altars burn thy Temples scoff at thine Institutions Cry up a false and Hellish Christ within them Christen him with the Name of Light though he be thy Conquered Slave the Devil telling us he is thine Angel of Light who with his Counterfiet Souldiers of Light Crucisie thee and pierce thee and mock and Curse thee the only true Son of God and Son of man as ever Herod and Pilate the Preists and Iudas the People and Souldiers did In Page 259 he brings in Iames Browne saying the Kingdome that is in the Saints is not in the Pharisees He Answers That is in the Saints is in the Pharisees in a Measure though it be but as a Grain of Mustard Seed which is like to Leaven little I Reply 1. What If I should send you to some of your Margents where the Greek word Entos is rendred amongst you that is unto you upon you as Luke 11. If I by the Finger of God cast out Devils surely the Kingdome of God is Come upon you The Pharisees expected and so did all the Iews and Christ Disciples were not free I
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
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.
ground it comes from thy own Knowledge which is Earthly And Christ took upon him the seed of Abraham and David according to the slesh and this is Scripture-Language 151 I reply in the former part of this Narrative I have shewn how simple irrational G. F. his clamour is against that word Humane and that the bottome is their impious unchristian and hypocritical denying of Christ Jesus to be a man one individual person as every man is therefore Humph. Norton G. Fox his Corrival is more plain and down right saying is not Christ God and is not God a Spirit and chiding us for gazing after a man c. I ad to the former page 293. where G. Fox brings in one Fergison saying that Christ and the Father and the Spirit are not one but are distinct c. G. Fox answers this is a denying of Christs Doctrine who saith I and my Father are one and the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son and he was conceived by the Holy Ghost and they are all one and not distinct but one in unity that which comes out from him leads the Saints into all Truth that ever was given them from the Spirit of truth and so up unto God the Father of truth and so goes back again from whence it came Again the same Author saith it is Blasphemy to say the Son is not distinct from the Father c. G. Fox Answers the Father and the Son are one the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father so that which is in him is not distinct from him and they Blaspheme which say the Son is not in the Father and deny Christs Doctrine I reply G. Fox all along his Book calls that blasphemy which the most holy and eternal Lord calls heavenly Truth He hath like some Witches and other notorious wretches so inur'd himself to poyson that it is all one to him to swallow down the most sensual and sensless Dreames even concerning the fearfull mysteryes of the Father Son and Holy Spirit when the holy Scripture tels us concerning these Mysteryes that in this life we know but in part as through a glass darkly c. 2. For his Proof it is the Childs song in the streets they are one and therfore not distinct I fear he knows but will not know the nature of several respects and accounts viz. that in one respect Christ Iesus saith I and my Father are one and in another respect my Father is greater then I thus in one sence a Father is one with his Children an Husband with his Wife a Captain with his Souldiers a Skipper with his Sea-men a King with his Subjects And yet in another respect the Son is not the Father the Wife is 152 not the Husband the Master is not his Servants the Captain is not his Souldiers the Master is not his Sea-men and the King is not his subjects And thus though GF and MF be one in mariage and one in a spirit of notorious railing yet she her self will not say but she is the Woman and he is the Man she the wife and he the husband and this Distinction God in Nature the Law of our Countrey and all Nations will force them will they nill they to acknowledge otherwise like the man possessed in the Gospel I fear no Chains of Humility nor Modesty would hold them from throwing off all Chains of Conscience and from flinging all upon heaps of confusion without all due respective respects and distinctions There are four great points of the Christian Belief 1. The Doctrine of the Father Son and Spirit and these they will not distinguish but make all one and all to be in man 2. The Doctrine of the Fall Redemption Justification Sanctification c. and these are all in man by their Tenents 3. The Doctrine of the Church the Officers Baptisme the Lords Supper and these say they are all invisible and within man 4. The Resurrect on eternal Judgement Eternal Life Heaven and Hell Angels Devils these their Professions and Printings proclaim to be in Man also yea so within him that they are only within him and that without there is no God no Christ no Heaven nor hell c. In Page 38. G. Fox brings in Tho. Collier saying The Kingdome is not come nor the refreshing from the Spirit of the Lord. G. F. Answers which shews they are unconverted gadding here and there And Christ tells them the Kingdome was in them And they that are not turned to the Light which comes from Christ the Refresher whereby refreshing might come and so are not come to Repentance yet Reply Who sees not that G. F. speaks not here of the Kingdome of Christ so often promised in the future and to come and the time of refreshing Act. 3. but that he cuts off all future hopes and expectations to come and appropriates aud confines and fixeth and stakes down all to the present moment of this vanishing life and to what is in this moment in the minds of Men and Women 153 The Holy Scripture tells us and Experience tells us that Hypocrites have no solid peace and joy here nor solid hope of joy or glory to come and yet to still the deen and clamour of Conscience abhorring the thought of a judgement and reckoning to come they foolishly and atheistically please themselves with a childish Dream of no Heaven nor refreshing no Hell nor torment but what is now within us Pag. 101 he brings in Iohn Clapham saying To witness Heaven and Hell and Resurrection within is the Mystery of iniquity G. Fox Answers which shews thou never knew Heaven in thy self nor hell there nor Christ the Resurrection and the Life which they are blessed that are made partakers of the first Resurrection on them the second Death shall have no power and the Scriptures do witness Heaven within and if Christ that was offered up the Resurrection and the life be not within thee thou art a Reprobate I Reply If G. Fox would speak of Heaven and Angels and Hell and Devils and of the Resurrection and Life to come by way of allusion and similitude or by way of first Fruits or Tast of them he might profitably do it but to speak of them in opposition to a rising again an Heaven an Hell c. to come what is it I say what is it but to proclaim their Revolt from and their Rebellion against all the Christian Faith and Religion and their wonderful hardening against whatever is yet to come either here or in the eternal State approaching Pag. 214. He brings in some nameless saying To say Heaven and Glory is in man which was before man was they are sottish and blinde He Answers There 's none have a Glory and a Heaven but within them which was before man had a Being Unto this I adde Thomas Pollard saying for a perfection of Glory to be attained to on
through all these things and kept us in the hollow of his hand and under the shadow of his wings and gave us dominion in Spirit over all our enemies and subdued them before us and though Rulers and People were combined against us and executed their violence and in 177 justice against us yet the Lord made us to prosper and grow exceedingly in Strength Wisdome and Number and the hearts of the people inclined to us and the Witness of God in many stirred for us for to that in all Consciences Words and wayes we did commend our selves to be known and approved Hereto they suddenly said What canst thou make of this but that Edward Burrowes said the truth that the Sufferings of the people called Quakers were very great that he acknowledged the powerfull hand of the Lord toward them in supporting and delivering them But this was far from boasting or making it any Evidence of the truth of their Religion and Principles I replyed I prayed them to consider why pious and conscientious Souls as they would be reputed should give so large a Catalogue of their Sufferings 2. Profess it was only for their Faithfulness to the Lord. 3. Declare that it was the hand of the Lord that kept them 4 That he only could do it I sayd the Weaving and inter-weaving of these Particulars speak plainly that for their Faithfullness to the Lord and his Truth in declaring and suffering for it the Lord had been faithfull to them in supporting them and comforting them in all these Sufferrings for his Name sake Why should wise men use all these words but to this end of Evidencing their Faithfulness to God and Gods Faithfulness to them After some words had about these kind of passages in Ed. Burrowes and other of their Writings I told them that we must come to that ancient and true Maxime Causa facit Martyrem not the Suffering of Burning it self that is the evidence of a true matter I therefore told them that as it was in the case of Signs Wonders Deut. 13. though they be Signs which false Prophets give which come to pass yet God commands his Children not to be moved from his written word and his holy revealed and recorded Ordinances and Institutions I told them that I had other places which I had turned down in Edward Burrowes to produce but these I had suppressed in my thoughts for expedition sake and would if they pleased pass on to my proof of my next Position to this they readily assented but being now out of my Shackles of a quarter of an hour to which I wink'd to draw them on I crave the Readers Patience and leave to hear me say something now which then I could not say 178 First To what I have said before of E. Burrowes insisting so largly on the Sufferings of the Quakers and yet my Antagonists denying them to make their Sufferings an Evidence of their Truth I present the Reader with a witness of G. Fox his words in his Pag 64 And there is a Proof to thee that the Quakers are sent of God who speak to thee of the Scripture right as they are He that reads the place shall see that G. Fox useth these words against his Opposite Ieremiah Iewes because that his Opposite had said viz. That the Word of God was contained in the Scripture and G. Fox checks him for it and saith if he had said the word which it speaks of he had spoken right c. And this G. Fox makes an Evidence of the Quakers being sent of God that they only can speak properly How much more is what I have produced and have much more to produce a Proof that they do roll their Souls upon their Sufferings as an Evidence and Confirmation that they are sent of God 2. It is wonderfull what the Iewes and Papists have suffered for their Lyes and Blasphemyes What a wonderfull Story doth Manasseh Ben-Isrel relate of a Noble man a Portugal turned Iew burn'd in Portugal for the Iewish Faith What Devotion and Zeal have many of the Popish Party shewn at Tiburn Sure it is that a natural Valour and Magnanimity a natural Melancholy and Stoutness a natural Pride and Vain-Glory will give wings which fire and Burning cannot scorch and conquer 3. I doubt not but that t is possible for not only Christians but also Iewes and Papists c. like Paul in his mad Conscience to be zealous for his Conscience and to put others to death for their Consciences and yet neither of them to sin against their Consciences but ignorantly as Paul did 4. I believe that not only Paul and such as he in Unbelief may so practice but even the true Saints and Children of God He that shall ponder the Fathers Poligamy the best Kings of Iudah suffering the High places Davids slaying Uriah Asahs imprisoning the Prophet Peters rash using the Sword Davids and Nathans unadvised Advise to build God a Temple the Disciples calling for Fire from Heaven and shall see cause to reprove the Quakers for their rash damning of others from whome they have suffered For 5. As t is possible for Gods own Children to hold and that 179 obstinately false Principles so it is possible for other of Gods Children as obstinately to afflict and punish those others to Death and so bring Affliction and Destruction one upon an other which is that the Devil aimes at 6. Because the Quakers do so abundantly glory in their Sufferers and in comparison of them slight the Saints under the Altar in our Book of Martyrs as Iames Parnel impiously calls it casting all that differ from them into the Satanical Delusion and Serpentine nature as Fox doth Pag. 5. and 253. and 99. Who forbids to receive into their Houses no not Kings and Princes nor to bid them God speed that are not in their Light I think it fit to observe at this Turn some Differences between true Sufferers and false both pretending the Name of Christ Iesus First The Persons whome the heavenly man Iohn Fox describes they were men and women known to be of holy and heavenly Spirits towards God and of low and meek Spirits towards all yea their very enemyes I would I could say so of the Quakers though no question but a a gold Ring may fall into the Channel and Iewel into the Dirt of worldly and Antichristian errors But for the Quakers I have cause to fear that generally they are Proud ambitious and Worldly-minded Wretches Some of them have literal Knowledge of the Scripture and some stirring Affections with the stony Ground others with the thorny Ground have suffered formerly but the Cares and lusts of this world have drild them into this way of Antichristian Worship others are Fierce Pragmatical Discontented c. and they must travel and be Apostles to preach and bring in Proselites The Cause of Iohn Foxes and G. Foxes Martyrs differ as much as Day from
c. and the Bargain of flying out of our selves and only to Gods mercy in the Mediation of Christ Jesus And then again to render our selves to be so holy so righteous so obedient so loving so Chast so meek so patient so Temperate that in thought word or deed we Sin not and this our Holiness is Christ and God and Spirit and Justification c. I know the writers of the Quakers make this high Obedience to be the Crown of some high Saints amongst them as the Papists do and that others come not so high are taken by the sleshly Spirit and repent and Confess and be more watchful as they say in a Contradiction of I. Naylor but this is Contradiction to their general grant viz that every Saint every one even the least that is born again he can not Sin and I know also that they have a foolish Salve or plaister for this sore too and Contradict their denying of meanings given to the Scripture and come to the meanings of the Protestants saying they cannot Sin willingly and so and so And yet again in a horrible Mystery of 31 Iniquity they exclaim against the Protestants for saying a Child of God can not fall from true grace Finally or Totally 4. Here is a Mystery of hellish Iniquity in that they Confess such a man Christ to have been and his blood shedding the Types and real predictions and figures of him a real Death Resurrection and Assention and yet upon the point by a Devilish Chymistry evaporate all these and leave nothing but a Christ within as God and as Man whose Name is now Light and our Obedience to the motions of this Light within this is Justification Righteousness Salvation God Christ Perfection perfect holiness c. 5. It is a Hellish Mystery of the Devil to Cozen poor Souls with a Notion of the Difficulty and height of their Profession and of worshipping God in Spirit and Truth which they say no Body in the World do but they c. and yet the Truth is as I told them in publick there is an Image in the Bed but David was gone yea and that their Religion was one of the easiest Religions in the world For as I have seen pluck but forth a small pin or peg in a Harpsycon and that wonderful Instrument will delight your Ear and mind with curious and various Tunes of Musick So if once a poor Soul gives way an Inch and sets in one thought of yielding to the voice of a Spirit within them they are filled and ravished with curious Notions of Justification Holiness God and Christ and Spirit within them they can now Thou the King himself they need no Scriptures nor Teachers and thus as in a dream their great Debts of Thousands and Millions are paid and discharged The Cage door flies open and they are delivered as a Bird c. from Sin and Devil and Hell c. yea Rapt up into Paradice and see and hear and speak unutterable Ioyes c. I Confess as I said in the Case of the two hundred following Absolom I hope there is many a precious Soul sincerely aiming at God and as precious Diamonds and Jewels fallen in the dirt c. As I hope in the Parishes of Protestants and Papists also who being only ignorant as the Disciples were of main points of Christianity yet aim uprightly at God truly love him and labour to increase in the knowledge and grace of Christ Iesus A 17th Inst. is in ag 63. where G. Fox brings in his Adversary Ieremiah Ives saying There may be a Light to Convince of Sin and yet not within man He Answers there is no people 32 Convinced of Sin but they are Convinced within themselves and with the Light within them It is the Light which makes manifest to a man when he is Convinced It Answers to something and reacheth to something in their particulars though the words be spoken without them from the Light I Reply First it is a doleful Business to read and hear how Satan in his Chains of Darkness yet hath Liberty to appear abroad as an Angel of Light from Heaven thus vapouring and swaggering under the Cloak and Colours of Light the Light which is Christ the Light by which all things were made the Light that was glorified with the Father before the World was the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World the Light within you c. the Light which will guide you up to God up to Christ up to Salvation and Eternal Life and yet all this vapourings and Crakings are but Cheatings from the God of this World whose eyes being beat out by Gods most righteous Sentence he labours to keep all in blindness or to beat out the eyes of those whom God hath truly enlightned 2. As I have said before and I said truly the word Light is a Similitude from Light and darkness though my Opposites in the dispute affirmed that God was Light in a proper and not figurative Sense and it signifies and intends Truth of all Sorts whether Natural Moral or Heavenly The natural Truth or Light is received within by a natural Light or understandings The Civil and moral Light or Truth suits and agrees with those moral and Civil Convictions of the natural Light and understanding Hither to Natures Light will reach But when we mount up to Divine and Supernatural Truth here these very Foxians Confess that the Natural Man perceiveth not the things of God Only they say that beside Natural Light Natural Reason c. there is the holy Seed God and Christ c. within every Son and to this Spirit and Seed in Prison they preach and Fox in our discourses alleadgeth and affirmeth God in every man to be a Cart loaden with sheaves prest under and as it were in Prison c. blasphemous wretches if they keep not but go beyond Similitudes and Comparative Expressions to make â—s poor worms creep up to Heaven 3. All Light or Truth Natural Civil or Divine it comes from without and is received by the Internal Faculty according 33 to the Capacity Nature and measure of it All Truth or falshood Light or darkness is first espied by the watch or Sentinel Fancy or Comprehension c. From thence it is conveyed to the Court of Guard where Captain Reason or his Lieutenant common Sense and Experience taketh Examination and Memory keeps a Record of proceedings which go on by degreen to Actions c. 4. When I say it comes from without I intend not that Truth or Light comes any other way from without as by force and ravishment c. I say any other way then there is a door Room and Receptive Faculty within willing to receive and to make it welcome This G. Fox urgeth there must be a receiver and something that Answers I Answer Natural Truth or morals Civil matters are soon
so high so wise so learned so holy to entertain thoughts of being the Eternal and boundless Infinite power and Godhead The blessed Lord proclaime his Infinite Power his Infinite Wisdome his Infinite Greatness and Goodness and Patience to poor sinners as he did unto Iob out of the Whirlwind and then for all Iobs Perfection and their own which so simply as well as proudly they prate of they will with Iob see cause to abhor themselves in Dust and Ashes 6 Such is the inconceivable Infinity in God beyond the reach of all Creatures that he is not only Infinite but Infinity it self 51 Eternity it self Omnipotency it self Wisdome it self Goodness it self Justice it self in all their eminences and perfections 7. Therefore notwithstanding most gracious and most glorious Appearances to and influences from Infinity upon poor finite Worms below sure it is not so sober a Language as that of Birds and Beasts who keep their Native Tongues and Tones Only men honoured with so high Naturals above their Fellow potts the Irrationals and in many respects above other Rationals yea in pretence and some really dignified with Spirituals in the Minde Will and Affections by Priviledges by Promises Mankinde I say so honoured and degenerating we are not only like to but Infinitely as I may say worse then the wildest Beast that perish The 26. Instance is in Pag. 93. where G. Fox brings in Robert Simson c. saying The mystical Body may be sometimes subject to Distempers and Humors and Wants He Answers Are you Judges can you judge of the Mystical Body which the Saints are Baptized into is there Humors Wants and Distempers in the Body which the Saints are Baptized into is not the Wants Humors Distempers in your Body do you here in this divide the word aright distinguâ—sh things in the Ground and speak aright of things and yet you would not be judged and say Iudge not and is not Mystical Spiritual I Reply In our late Dispute at Providence Io. Stubs and W. Edm affirmed that God was a Spirit litterally and properly in which for all his boast of Learning it may be as he said above my self he shewed but little Philosophy or Divinity and William Ed. affiâ—med that properly and really that Scripture of Wolves coming in Sheeps cloathing was to be understood litterally without meaning and expositions but sober men and aware know how to unfold Parables and Similitudes and Metaphors and Allegories they know God is called a Son and a Rock and a Father and a Husband c. and so is Christ Jesus and they know how such Similies are to be expounded They know that Believers in Christ Jesus are called a Body an House a Flock a Friend a Center an Army and ye are no such properly and litterally but by similitude 2. The Papists tell us of an Universal or as the Greek a 52 Catholick Body of Christians Amongst them are two great Factions The one maintaing this Catholick Church to meet in the Representative of an Occumenical or General Council of the whole World The other in the Assembly or Conclave of the Pope and his Cardinals and in the Pope himself while he sits in Peters Infallible Chair The Protestants build also a Catholick or Universal Body of true Believers in Jesus scattered over the World c. the more Reformed affirme this Unâ—versal and Catholick Church to be visible in the Assemblies and Congregations of Christian Worshippers separate from the Church of Rome and her Abominations The Devil seeing the Protestant Witnesses contending about the matter and Form of the true Churches and Congregations He by Gods most holy and wise permission sends out his old and known Spirit of pure Invisibles pure Immediate pure Worshippers in Spirit and Truth c. This Spirit being Cozen German to or sworn Brother in hellish equivocation with the Iesuits when it serves their turn maintain a Church Invisible and Ministers and Officers Invisible and yet when it serves their turn practice as well as Papists or Protestants visible Churches and Congregations visible and audible Apostles preachers Ministers with audible preachings prayings singings Admissions Excommunications more or less professed and Explicite The Qukaers Churches they are as they childishly vapour Bodies without wants or distempers fair as the Sun clear as the Moon terrible as an Army c. 1. But this contrary to the nature of all our Natural Bodies which turning upon the two hinges of Sins and Sorrows are full of wants and distempers until the dashing of all in pieces by sudden or lingring Deaths 2. Contrary to all Figurative or Metaphorical Bodies domestick in Families Political in Cities Nations Armies Navies c. 3. Contrary to Experience of the Bodies or Churches of Worshippers in the Scripture Iewish or Christian who gave up the Ghost through distempers into the hands of Mahumet who brags he hath Conquered Moses at Ierusalem and Iesus at Constantinople c. 4. Contrary to the Experience of the World in their daily observing of the Quakers Bodies and Worships beside the Char 53 ges against them for their wild Doctrines and Disciplines what known Divisions and Passions about I Nailors and others Cases what Envyings Cursings Apostacies and moral Idolatry as that of Covetousness in this Colony known notoriously But since G. Fox speaks so Rationally to his Opposite Do you distinguish things in the Ground I shall remember them of the fairness of my fourteenth Position against them viz. that according to the Principles Roots and grounds of things I have fairly Collected that the Spirit of the Quakers tends to Incivility and Barbarisme and to sudden Assacinations murthers and Persecutions c. The Eternal Father of mercies I believe that I have and can further make it good stops millions of mischiefs in the world daily which the Natures grounds and Principles of men and the Quakers Spirit also now to overrun and overwhelm the World withal A 27 th Instance of G. Fox his lame Answer is in pag. 103. where he brings in Ionathan Clapham saying Men may be called of Men Masters and it is but a Cavil to deny it and they may deny to be called Fathers as well as Masters He Answers Thou hast in this denied that Doctrine of Christ and slights it who saith Be not ye of Men called Masters for you have all one Master which is Christ and you all are Brethren and thou hast show'd thy self out of the Brother-hood And there is a Birth to be born which can call no man Father upon Earth which thou art ignorant of I Reply 1. Amongst other foolish passions and Affections haunting all men and the Quakers especially these two are notorious viz. pride and a lazie Ignorance Those two are the Sire and Dam of most of these wild monsters 2. For doth not this proud man know how many of his excellent Opposites have laid open their Foxians scornful pride in robbing all
of Rebellion against Superiours and of wicked desires of Wine and Women and fighting and pleasures in persons of greater growth this rotten Nature appears in their rooting like Swine for earthly profits or preferments or fighting like Lions Tygers in Wars and Law-conttntions and oppressing of Inferioâ—rs especially if they dare to reprove or witness their Idolatries Superstitions and Abominations 2. The experience of all the Saints of God in the Holy Scripture who maintained a Battel between the Flesh and Spirit all their dayes accord-to Gal. 5. A Battel within them sometimes the Spirit or new Man the new Creature or the Grace of Christ prevailing sometimes the Corruption or Rottenness of Nature like the two Houses of Saul and David the old Man getting the victory as we see generally in Abraham Isaak Iacob Moses Aaron Eli Samuel David Solomon c. till we come down to the highest Saints Paul and Peter the one shamefully again and again vanquished and the other Paul crying 69 out that the good he would do he did not and yet when he did evil he had two men within him the Law of his Spirit Heavenly and the Law of sin which dwelt within him â—tc they that know not and feel not this they are either dead or rotten and so feel nothing or if there be any life of God in them and yet say in the litteral sense they sin not their weakness is such that like very low and far gone weak bodies their Filth and Excrements come from them but they know nothing of it nor will believe or acknowledge any such matter The 35. Instance is in Pag. 217. where G. Fox brings in Iohn Iackson saying False Prophets and Christs and Deceivers many should come if it were possible to deceive the very Elect. He Answers Yes Christ said they should come to the Apostles which before their Decease they did come and went forth from them which Christ said should inwardly Ravin and get the sheeps cloathing which since the dayes of the Apostles all the World went after them as thou maiest read in the Revelations and now are People but coming from them to the Rock and now shall the Everlasting Gospel be preached to them that dwell upon the Earth over the heads of the Beast and their false Prophet and they shall be taken and the Lambe and the Saints shall have the victory I Reply 1. As that great Fox the Pope of Rome and his Foxians the Worshâ—ppers of that Beast maintain that Antichrist is not yet come that so he may scape a scouring or rather a burning or dashing in pieces so doth our little Fox G. Fox and his Foxians cry out another Lurry Antichrist why he is come and gone long ago c. As if false Christs might not be then and now too as if there were no more greedy Wolves to be found then in Act. 20 and no more Sheep-skins for them in Matthew 7. c. The Spirit of God proclaims 1 Cor. 11. that there must be Heresies and Peter tells us 2 Pet. 2. that there must be false Teachers false Prophets and Damnable Heresies for the trial of the sincere c. And were all the Foxes hunted out and destroyed in the Apostles dayes and none left since Iohns time to our times to be hunted after and digd out of their Burroughs 70 Are there none sound sincere and chaste to be tried at this day to the Lord Jesus the Heavenly Bridegroom and to his Eternal King and Father God blessed to Eternity 2. The Protestants maintain that the Pope or Papacy is the great Antichrist the Man of Sin with seven heads and ten horns c. why should not the Devil be able to raise besides the Pope the Ceredonians Valentinnians and the Arians Manicheans Gnosticks c. and since or at the beginning of the Reformation the Quintinians and Munsterian Mousters why should he not be able to raise in our time the Nicholaitans and Foxians 3. It is true that in the times of warm peace c. many Vermine breed whom the cold winter of Persecution utterly destroyes I know also that in the late times of Freedome to mens Opinions in England Many Opinions and promoters of them arose Sharp times God hath to make discovery I know some say that Iudas and Theudas and Barchochas and Rabbi-Iudah c. were the false Christs the Lord Jesus spake of I know also that amongst the Professours of the Christian Name false Christs and false Prophets Apostles Preachers c. must pretend to the Christian Name also 4. I know some affirm that though the Pope be Antichrist yet that he that letted was not the Roman Emperour until he was taken out of the way but that he that letted was the Holy Spirit to which the Quakers now pretend which Spirit being taken away the Popes arose But in the dayes of Iohn when those gifts did most flourish yet then there were many Antichrists and the gift of the Holy Spirit did not hinder their rising so that all ages are full of false Teachers 5. What Ignorance doth this little Fox yet great Boaster discover in saying Now are People coming forth from them c. doth he proudly look over all those Glorious Protestant Witnesses of Jesus before and since Luther whose Names many of them God commanded that Heavenly I. Fox to make Record of 6. Do the Foxians just now about twenty years preach the everlasting Gospel Now saith W. Edm. in our discourse we preach the everlasting Gospel to you that you shall be free from sin c. But Gods Spirit tells us in Peter and Iude of pretenders to liberty while themselves are the Servants of Corruption or Rottenness 71 7. Both Jews and Gentiles have done by the Name of Christ as the Jews and Romans with Christ Jesus before they murthered him they mockd him c. and then Murthered him that so they might be the Heir and Messiah themselves Just as the great Fox the pope and these little Foxians pretend to be the sole great Heir apparent to the Crown of Heaven and all other Rebels and Reprobates against and from their Heavenly Majesties The 36. Instance is in page 218. Where G Fox brings in the same Author saying I hope you will not condemn the Generation of the Righteous because they are vot perfect He Answers That which condemneth is Righteous it condemns that which is not perfect and the Generation is Righteous and not to be condemned I Reply He Answers four things First that which Condemns is righteous Secondly That which is Righteous Condemns that which is not perfect Thirdly That which is righteous is perfect Fourthly The Generation is Righteous that is them selves being perfect and not to be Condemned the Summe of his Answer is Himself and his Foxians are Gods as pure holy as God is and therefore now keep the Eternal Sessions and Assizes at the Tribunal of their high
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
willing I would produce some Instances I took up the Book and read in the 3d. page where he brings in his Opposite Samuel Eaton saying The Saints have not Christ in the Flesh G. F. his Answer is Contrary to Christ and the Apostles Doctrine who said they were of his Flesh and of his Bone and should eat his Flesh and they that eat his Flesh have it in them Whence I affirmed that Christ Jesus had such a Body as might be really and materially in the Saints and ii was clear that they were one with the Papists in their Sayings and Doctrines denying the Flesh Body and Person of Christ Jesus For as the Papists in stead of a Spritual feeding upon his bloud and Merits they substitute and bring in a Real Material and Carnal in their horrible and fantastical Transubstantiation so do the Quakers professing to eat Christ spiritually wholy destroy his material and fleshly being I proceeded saying in the 4th Page G. Fox brings in the same Opposite saying The Saints do not see Christ the Heavens contain him And G. F. Answers And the Apostle saith they sate with Christ in heavenly places so he is contrary to the Apostle and Christ was in them and walked in them and God dwelt in them and Christ in you except you be Reprobates I said that as the Papists were up ridiculously odiously with Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body c. so they with The Light within you the Light that enlightens every man Christ within you except you be Reprobates c. 48 For if the Heavens do contain that Man Christ Jesus bodily as they grant in word saying They believed he dyed rose and ascended then in that same sence and respect the Saints cannot now sit bodily with Christ in heavenly places and therefore to alledge Christ within and their sitting with Christ in heavenly places was but irrational Nonsence and Jesuitical Equivocation The truth is they were gravel'd with these Considerations and they were willing that G Fox his book and his Answers should answer for them and although the oppositions of G. Fox his Opposites were mighty and G Foxes were meer simple barkings of dogs or foxes compar'd with the rational and prudential Answers of a man yet when I began to open and compare the Assertions of the Opposite and Fox his answer they would cry out especially W E. like a galled horse winching Why dost thou make thy Observations upon G. Fox his words G. Fox his words need not thy Expositions let G. Fox his words alone they are able to speak for themselves I told them it was a senceless business for me to alleadge and they to be willing I should G. Fox his sayings and his Answers and we should not debate and discuss the Sence and I make out my Proof out of G. Fox his words and his Adversaryes compar'd together when they had spoken they knew their liberty to take of my Answers with their own and leave what was spoke to every ones Conscience in the sight of God They were Obstinately that is in Greek Heretically resolved to avoid this Course therefore I was glad to hale my Tacks Bolings close home and make my best of a bare Wind and now and then loof up into the wind and get liberty to say something and omit abundance of my Thoughts Once I was forced to say to W. Edmondson Friend yesterday you quoted the 9 of Nehem. how it pleased God to send them his good Spirit to guide them I pray remember now a word in the 8 of Nehem. They read and gave the Sence and caused the People to understand the Reading Without this searching for the Sence and meaning the Pith and Marrow of the holy Scriptures or any other Scriptures or Writings we make use of what are our Readings but the Papists Latine the reading Ministers the pratling of Children and Parrets yet notwithstanding all that I could say and urge it is known to all the Audience the Song was let G. Fox words alone to speak for themselves if thou hast any 49 more to bring forth let us have them so that as before I was forced to wave my Observations and Intentions and pass on to new Allegations Though now I shall crave liberty to touch and point at as with the finger the Opposites Assertions of Truth and G. Fox his unsavoury and rotten Answers In Page 8. He brings in Iohn Bunyan c. saying The Lord Iesus Christ is afar in his bodily presence and G. Fox answers And yet he saith the Lord is at hand and the Apostle said he was in them and Christ said he would dwell with them I here observe and reply the holy Scripture abundantly tells us of a twofold presence of Christ 1. His bodily visible Presence which Iohn Bunyan speaks of and the Quakers in words grant The 2. His Spirituall invisible Presence of which many Scriptures speak and that most clearly Eph. 3. 10. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by believing c. Concerning this visible bodily presence of which the Question is First G. Fox his impertinent and silly Answer is not to the Point no more then the East and the West is to one point of the Compass 2. He fallaciously most unchristianly and impiously denyes the body of Christ Iesus to be any where and as Conjurers do Hocas Pocas that which all now see is gone vanished so that with the ancient enemies of Christ Humane Nature the Manicheans they say and unsay and at last affirm a Christ only God and Spirit dwelling in them and in all mankind also About this time these subtle Foxes minded to spin out Time and wave the close Fight of examining Particulars concerning Christs humanity G. Fox his Book was brought forth the same with mine Iohn Burinat took it and went along with me in the Quotations I read and alwayes endeavoured to make my proof out of the Allegation But W. Edmundson kept strict watch and stood Centinel that no Observations of Sences or Meanings should pass resolving to keep out the Fire and Light of Christ Jesus with Stand or I le let fly a Fire from Hell upon you Well I knew what froward Children and bruitish Spirits I dealt with resolved to go softly and to speak softly and as I could gain ground by inches at least for liberty to give my witness for the Lord Iesus In Page 9. He brings in Iohn Bunyan c. affirming that the Son of Mary God-Man is absent from his Church G. Fox answers but never touching Scripture about it contrary to 50 Christs words I in them and they in me and I will be with you to the ends and Christ the Head of the Church where two or three are gathered c. and the Saints are bone of his bone and flesh of his slesh I Reply here half an eye may see as before how he gives
Interruption as he twice openly confest that I had not interrupted them but when he had finished his Sermon and I had gained a little calm and liberty of Speech immediately before I could finish one Sentence that Pragmatical and Insulting Soul W. Edmundson stopt and Interrupted me so that I openly complained of incivility and inhumanity that hearing patiently their two Sermons they were set down and common Reason said that it was my turn to speak and every body desired what Answer I could frame to hear it that then I should be disturbed and stopt was no way befitting the Societies of Civil and Morral men I then Answered that those very Sermons or Orations which they had now made to the People were so far beneath the merit of an Answer to them that they ministred and afforded to me a mighty and invincible Argument that the Spirit of God 64 was not the Author of them For we all knew that the Spirit of God was most purely Rational and a Spirit of pure Order and did not prompt or move men to break Hedges and leap over one Ordinance into another We were engaged in a mutual Conference and Disputation we were in the midst of it how came we then to fall into Popular Orations and Sermons is it comely when persons are Disputing to fall upon our knees and Answer an Argument with a Prayer as it is a frequent practice with the Quakers is it proper to break off Prayer and fall to disputing or out of Disputation into Preaching But I said my Opposites Spirit was far from the Holy Spirit of God and his movings are far from the Motions with which my Antagonists were acted for they had neither power to keep civil Order nor to be patient for not being able to answer nor bear my words W. Edmundson said expresly what should we sit here and suffer him to vent his Blasphemies and Lies he hath kept us here two dayes and have proved nothing c. I took a little boldness and told them that if Paul himself were present or Iesus Christ himself in their bodily presence which they confessed he died in at Ierusalem yet they would say unto them even unto Christ himself thou hast falsely charged but thou hast proved nothing Paul himself should be an Enemy and Jesus Christ should be a Blasphemer and a Beelzebub because he brought glad news of the Truth from Heaven to them I further said that I had more to offer in the name and in the cause of the true Lord Jesus Christ and after I had got liberty of speech I said that as they which denied the person of the true Lord Jesus denied the true Lord Iesus himself so they which denied the Offices which God the Father had invested him with and designed him to fulfil the denied the true Lord Iesus Christ. They demanded of me wherein they denied the offices of Christ Iesus I Answered I had many things to declare in which they denied the Offices of Christ Iesus as well as the Papists for which we seperated from them as Antichristans not holding the Head the true Lord Jesus the Sacrifice and Sacrificer the only Prophet Apostle and Messenger bringing in the last times the last Dispensation and Will of his Father contrary to the Papists who set up some of them the Pope and some of them the general counsel above the Lord Jesus declaring his mind in the Holy Scriptures and con 65 trary to the Quakers who set up a voice or motion within them over topping and over pouring the voice of Christ Jesus in the Scriptures some of them maintaining that this Light within them is that great Prophet that was to come which Moses Prophesied of Deut. 18. I said I would contract my thoughts and speak at present only a little of his Kingly power and Office and I plainly denounced that they were all notoriously guilty of High Treason against the King of Kings the Lord Jesus yea as far as in them lay they robd him of his Crown and Life and All. In particular I told them I had abundant proof there ready to bring forth from G. Foxes Book that he and his Associates denied yea all of them that visible Kingdome and Church and Institutions which he as King over all his Subjects hath Sovereign Right unto and most faithfully and wisely ordained to continue until his coming again I told them that G. Fox his Book and all their Books and Professions denied any visible Church of Christ at all and though they maintained and kept up Congregations of pretended Christan Worships and Worshippers in a direct contradiction unto their own Tenents yet they maintained the Church was in God and so not visible the Officers of the Church were invisible and immediately made by the immediate and invisible Spirit The Baptisme was within and only the Baptisme of the Spirit and of Fire The Lords Supper appointed by the Lord Jesus to be a Spiritual Feast remembring him until his coming was with them nothing else but Spiritual joy which they have one in and with another which they have by the second coming of the Lord Jesus to them who they said was come again to the Apostles the second time and unto themselves also Upon this as I remember there fell out some words between my Opposites and some of the people called Baptists But some of them especially Iohn Stubs demanded of me why I thus charged them and was my self so guilty not living in Church Ordinances my self I Answered that it was one thing to be in Arms against the King of Kings and his visible Kingdome and Administration of it to turn off all to Notions and Fancies of an invisible Kingdome and invisible Officers and Worships as the Quakers did Another 66 thing among so many pretenders to be the true Christian Army and Officers of Christ Jesus to be in doubt unto which to associate and to list our selves After all my search and examinations and considerations I said I do profess to believe that some come nearer to the first primitive Churches and the Institutions and Appointments of Christ Jesus then others as in many respects so in that gallant and heavenly and fundamental Principle of the true matter of a Christian Congregation Flock or Society viz. Actual Believers true Disciples Converts Living Stones such as can give some account how the Grace of God hath appeared unto them and wrought that Heavenly Change in them I professed that if my Soul could finde rest in joyning unto any of the Churches professing Christ Jesus now extant I would readily and gladly do it yea unto themselves whom I now opposed But Thirdly Not finding rest they themselves knew there is a Time of purity and Primitive Sincerity there is a time of Transgression Apostacy there is a time of the coming out of the Babilonian Apostacy Wilderness there is a time of many Flocks
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
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
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
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
case being my self then in London whatever Fox the Quakers impudently affirm to the contrary 95 It is true that Iames Parnel and Fox and all of them sometimes miserably and after the Devils Method make use of Scripture as a Shield or Buckler to fence themselves against the Scripture and as a Sword to run through the Heart and Bowels of the Scripture the Saints and Christ and God himself they make use of it as Stirrops and Ladders and Scaffolds for their counterfeit Christ in pretence but in reallity themselves to mount up into their Saddles and Thrones of the Eternal power and Godhead that so the Earth may be theirs by Authority So that as the Lord speaks of the Iews Sacrifices that they were not his and of Iehoiakim that he did not know the Lord Jer. 22. and of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11. that they did not eat the Lords Supper though they did eat it so I affirm from all the premises alleadged the Quakers do not own that is truely and Christianly as they say Bonâ fide and in reality but slight and villifie and abominate and nullifie the holy Scripture that their unwritten Lies and lying Spirits may be exalted We have a great word in use amongst Merchants and others to wit the word Effects they desire to see effects of money or Goods for want of a real and effectual prizing and loving obeying and magnifying the holy Scriptures The Iewes Pharises the Papists and Quakers do not owne the perfection Authority of the holy Scriptures but set up their Traditions and Popes Councils Spirits above them and therefore the Iewes Papists and Quakers do not owne the holy Scriptures I freely acknowledge that many of these Particulars I could not then express because of my Confinement to a quarter of an hour and sometimes the Interposure of my Opposites I remember I urged that dead and rotten esteem that both Papists and Quakers fling as dirt in the face of the holy Scriptures calling it a dead Letter a Nose of wax a leaden Rule which may be pincht and bow'd to every mans Opinion But First They horribly bow and pinch that holy Scripture 2. Cor. 3. which meddles not with all the Scripture but with the Covenant of the Law and Iustice opposite to the Covenant of Grace Mercy calls the Law a killing Letter compar'd with the Grace Mercy of an offended God now reconciled by Christ Iesus But Secondly These poor Foxes fly to their Burroughs and confound the matter of the Scripture or Writing being Paper 96 and ink c. with the contents the purport and as I may say the matter contained in the matter we use to say what have you to shew for it what evidences have you what Records and sometimes when no Witnesses are living or can be had an old poor Record is produced which proves the life and spirit of the business what Simpletons do these only wise ones shew themselves in affairs of men that know not that as Solomon sayes of the Tongue Life and Death is in the power of the Tongue so Life and Death is in the power of a piece of Paper what hath an Executor yea many thousand Executors to shew for their Estates sometimes of hundreds yea thousands years but a little paper and ink and wax from the Testators what gives life to a condemned soul but a Pardon or Reprieve in a piece of Paper who knowes not that a Writ or Paper signed by his Majesty the Lord Chancellour the Lord ceief Iustice hath Death in it and fetcheth off the heads of many yea the highest Offenders The Quotations out of G. Fox which then I could not insist on I shall present a few and then pass on to the fifth Position In the 47th Pag. G. Fox brings in Ios. Miller saying It is an Errour if not damnable to say Christ is the meanes and that there is no other meanes of Salvation He Answers And Christ saith no man comes unto the Father but by me and he is able to the uttermost to save and he shall be my Salvation to the end of the Earth saith the Lord and saith the Apostle God is in Christ reconciling the World to himself and he that hath the Son hath Life and the Father and the Son are one and there is no salvation in any other I reply I shall now freely declare to the Sence of this Allegation though in the Dispute my Adversaryes would not suffer me to meddle with the Sence of G. Fox his words contrary to our Covenant in my Writing viz. that each Party should speak as long as they pleased which Liberty they enjoyed without my Interruption and first I doe not think that Ios. Millers words run so loosely in his own Book I do not think that a man of Wisdom would call it an error to say that Christ is the meanes of Salvation But to the second part to which G. Fox opposeth I believe it is an Error and a damnable Error and a Doctrine of Devils to say there is no other meanes of Salvation for this wretched Iugler subtilly confounds the Instrumental Causes of Salvation with 97 the Efficient in God the Father and Meritorious in God the Son Christ Jesus 'T is true there is no Redemption and Forgiveness of sin but in his Blood Ephes. 1. though I know this Iugler as before means not a Christ nor his Blood nor Death as we do mean but Imaginary within c. And yet as Means and Instruments Christs Messengers are said to save themselves and others The holy Scriptures are said to make wise to Salvation A man may be Gods means or Hand to save his Wife and the Wife her Husband We are saved by hope saith Paul and saved by Baptisme saith Peter yea Women are saved by Child-bearing as God blesseth those painful Curses to be blessed means of bringing to or growing up in Christ the Saviour All these subtly and wickedly G. Fox sets at variance with the Meritorious Salvation by Christ Jesus between which there is an Heavenly Union and Concord as between a man saving his Brother by throwing a Rope or Oar or Board unto him c. or a Midwife saving both Woman and her Birth in Child-bearing by the Means of Women and Helps which her Skil and Labour administreth to her To talk of this Immediate Christ and Spirit without Scriptures without Preaching and other holy means is as silly as Impious as Blockish as Blasphemous and as Bedlam and Frantick as wicked and Anti-Christian Would not every body laugh at G. Fox if he should say that because the Kings Majesty graciously pardons Condemned Rebels at the Mediation of the Prince his Son therefore the Composing the writing the proclaiming of the pardon the bring of it to the Rebels hands written and sealed with the Kings broad Seal are no means of their Salvation and Deliverance In Pap. 221.
he brings in the Author of Hosannah to the Son of David saying The sure Word of Prophesie the Apostle speaks of is the Prophesie of Scriptures He Answers Doth the Scripture shine in a dark place until the Day dawne Are they them them that must be taken heed unto as to a Light Can any see the Scripture and know the Scripture but with the Light within Can not a Cain a Baalam a Core bring Scripture that is gone from the Spirit of Prophesie within and then put the Letter for it 98 I Reply 1. I know that Fox makes their Idol within called Light to be the more sure word of Prophesie and his usual proof is The Testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of Prophesie But first why must all the Prophets or Messengers of God who from the beginning of the world were Gods mouth and Pens Concerning the Birth Life Death Burial Resurrection Ascention and coming to Judgement of the Lord Jesus be here cast out from the Word of Prophesie Is it nothing Luk. 1 that God spake surely Gods speaking is his word God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the World began And Heb. 1. God spake sundry times and in divers manners in Time past unto the Fathers but how did God thus speake or utter his word but by the Prophets And Rom. 16. But now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment c. Therefore how oft is it written concerning the Lord Jesus These things were done that the Scriptures might be Fulfilled in which regard as to our satisfaction and belief the written word of Prophesie of the Prophets are a more sure Word and Evidence to us concerning the Lord Jesus then the Miraculous Appearance from Heaven of Moses and Elias and the voice from Heaven of which Peter here speaketh though in it self a true Testimony yet not so sure so firm and pregnant as the Word that God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets from the beginning of the World c. Hence the Answer of Abraham and indeed of Christ Jesus If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe though one should rise from the Dead 2. How sure is the Quakers Light their Word of Prophesie A sober mind can not but admire that Face and Forehead of Brass and Adamant with which God the Righteous Judge of the whole hath plauged Satan and his Followers so that they blush not to prefer such a simple Image a meer Babie and Childs Puppet of their Immediate Word of Prophesie before the Word the mind and will of God by the mouth of all the Prophets For is it not known in the holy Scripture in all Histories in all Ages in all Nations what Cursed Opinions horrible Uncleannesses Bloody Murthers and Slaughters have been Conceived and brought forth from the Spirit within and Revelati 99 on s from Divilish Lights and Spirits and the horrible End that generally the Authors and Promoters of such Spirits and Inspirations have come to 3. This Scripture Revel 19. The Testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of Prophesie what is it but Goliahs Sword to fetch off the head of this proud Philistin for doth not the Angels forbid Iohn worshipping of him upon this ground viz. that the Angel was his Fellow Broker Fellow Servant Fellow Worshipper Fellow Witness Is not this the Argument whereby he prohibits him viz. that one Testimony of Jesus was the work of Gods Spirit in the Angels in their way as well as in Iohns and Peters in theirs c. and shall we say that the Angels too are Quakers and Christ hath enlightened them also as well as every man that comes c And Revel 22. Doth not Christ threaten the Adders to and Diminishers from the word of this Book of this Prophesie what Affinity hath a written Book a written Prophesie with Immediate whisperings and Inspirations 2. Why should G. Fox here mention Cain Balaam Core what Scriptures could they bring what Scriptures were written in their times I think it no breach of Charity to guess that the Quakers and G. Fox are so used to Cursing and Censuring their Opposites at the first dash for Cains Baalams Cores that they could not well tell how to miss them Such persons no question and the Foxians and the lying Spirit the Old Fox and Serpent bring Scripture But doth the Divel cordially prize and love the word of Prophesie the Testimony and Witnesses of Jesus However he plainly here Confesseth that the holy Scripture is so powerful that the very Counterfeit the picture and Name of it will do him good Service with such whom he desires to cheat and Ruine And yet secondly this shews the Quakers horrible wickedness that although they love the holy Scripture for the general of them as well as doth their lying Father yet turn they the Truth of God into a lye and with the ugly Spider sucks that which he turns into poyson even from the same Flowers of Paradice the holy Scriptures from whence the hony Bees the true Believers suck the pure hony of Eternal Truth and Comfort 3. Again what madness is it for this blind Dreamer to ask his Opposite whether the Scripture shines in a dark place until the 100 dawne whether they must be taken heed unto as to a Light For how often is the holy Scripture even the very Law before the Gospel or glad News was preached adorn'd and beautified with the Illustrious Title of Light and all the subtle Foxes in the world must know that if they attend unto whisperings and peepings Isai. 8. and leave the written Law the Word and other Prophesies of Scripture or written Prophesies Words and Oracles of God! For all their Childish Vapourings and pratings of their Light the Eternal Father of Lights proclaims them to be Children of howling darkness and that there is no Light within them I speak it with horrour and Amazement and also with sorrowful Confidence that he that shall find a spark of true Light either of the knowledge or grace of the true Lord Jesus in this their Fantastick Light he shall find the Living among the Dead he shall prove the Prophets that spake and the Lord God of the Prophets whose word was spoke to be Lyars for saying there is no Light within them But Fox again demands Can any know the Scripture but with the Light within And I ask him what Light have the Papists and Iews and the Divel himself when they and he bring Scripture to Christ himself I know very well what he means in his Iesuitical Diabolical Reservations by the Light within and by knowing the Scripture his meaning is known and Common viz. except he be one of those dark Souls called Quakers But did not the Devil bring a pertinent Scripture and promise to Christ Jesus as ever Papist or Quaker could have alleadged though pointed and directed
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
They could not sin were perfect c. 2. They did nothing said nothing but God and the Spirit did all 7. The Papists and Quakers are great Friends in their Notions practice of Revelations Visions Dreams Impulsions and Inspirations He that hath known so much as I have known of both their Spirits this way and hath read their Legends as I have done and can Instance in particulars as I can will say it is a foul Popish Devilish Spirit that haunts them both under this fine pretence to turn both off from the words of Iesus Luke 10. How readest thou 8. What Cart Loads of Traditions and Ceremonies have the Papists and I believe if the Quakers have opportunities and means as the Papists have had they will not be behind them what a noise is made about uncovering or bowing the Head Knee for Courses of wearing of Lace yea Bands and Hatbands by some of them Of saying you or Thou of using Musick Carving painting of sitting silent some hundreths together of sighing and shaking of the Body all which as relating to Religion and Christians c they are but simple Insignificant and Idle popish Trash and Trumpery 9. The Papists and Quakers are Bâ—ethren in Iniquity in their Affirmations that the Pope is not Anti-Christ and that 135 the Church of Rome is not the great Whore The Papists Affirme that Anti-Christ is not yet come and that he shall come just in the end of the world and shall finish all those wonders in the Revelations in three years and a half The Quakers though they hold Papists and Protestants all except the Quakers to be Anti-Christians as Fox doth cast back all the Prophesies of false Christs false Prophets and Anti-Christ to the time of the Apostles themselves yet the great Whore and the Devil and sin upon the point they simply Confound and make all one as may be seen in Fox his Title to this great Book and other of his and their writings 10. It may be wondred why the Popes when made or created by an hâ—mane Devilish Fiat they change their Name and why the Quakers guided by the same Hellish Spirit and Fancy are so dainty and tender about owning their Old names The Histories say the Original with the Popes was with him who was Os porce or Swines snout by Name and was not thought fit being raised so high to bear so low and fordid a Title If it were so then yet it is nothing now but their horrible pride being in their Conceits so high so Infallible so perfect to scorn to be like other men that are but Hogs Snouts c. 11. The Papists and Quakers are led by one Spirit of feigned holiness Devotion monkish Solitariness c Their Monks and Friers and Nunns must be sequestred from the world medle with no faecular and worldly business which is no more but the Beggars Life and therefore justly called Fratre Mendicantes Begging Friars and the Indians Life formerly the men laying all Labour upon the women and all this is no more than hunger and Ease the Dogs Life also It is true the Apostles by a true Light ought to have worldly maintenance but Paul wrought day and night with his hands which I never read of any of these lying Apostles Quakers in all their Travails to have done 12. The Papists and Quakers tongues are both spitting and belching out Fire from one Fire of Hell All that have 136 not the Church their Mother our Church say the Papists have no God to their Father the Protestants hope and speak Charitably of the Salvation of many among the Papists but the Papists have no Charity for any that bow not to the Image and the Quakers as G. Fox for the rest Judge all that differ from Christ that is themselves to be in the Delusion in differing from them and if they dare to oppose them Dogs Serpents Reprobates Vipers Cains Pharisees Devils c. 13. The Papists and Quakers are Firebrands both in the matter of Persecution or hunting such as differ from them It is known that the Papists cry out that they persecute none but the Tares the Lottards the Hugenots the Wolves the Hereticks c. That the Quakers as do all Papists and Protestants cry out against all Persecution when it is their own Cases I say the Quakers most vehemently cry out against violence against Creatures but against their Corruptious and Corrupt Principles And yet as for the Papists let it be considered whether there be any one Religious state known in the world that Answers that woman drunk with the Blood of the Saints and Witnesses of Iesus Comparably so near as doth the Estate of the Romish Church and Profession And for the Quakers two things I say 1 Their Tongues are the most Cutting and bitter of any that I can hear of professing the Protestant Reformation and it is certain where the Tongue is so that the Heart is so first and where the Heart is so the Tongue and Hand do never part Company and therefore they will be as bitter and Cutting in Hand also where God pleaseth to permit a Sword to fall into it 2. I have proved and shall prove in this discourse that G. Fox Ed. Burroughs and Iohn Stubs c. maintain in their writings not only a Magistratical Power in the Quakers and in none else rashly not only to punish by the Material Sword Transgressions against men but also sins against 136 God his Church his Christ his worship and Religion 2 As for the Agreement between the Arminians and the Quakers I told them that the Papists and the Arminians the Pelagians and Semipelagians and the Quakers were so Confederate and one that in naming one I named the other 1. As to the Power of Nature and Free Will in heavenly and Spiritual matters 2. As to the loosing of true Saving Grace 3. As to Election and predestination in time upon Obedience Rejection and Reprobation upon Rebellion and Disobedience Contrary to the true Protestant Doctrine of a Certain Number of Gods Elect or Chosen drawn by mercy out of the Lumpe of Lost Mankind according to Gods Appointment from Eternity by his Call in Time by his holy Word and Spirit and all from this Grace and Spirit of Regeneration or New-Birth it was not it is not possible that David or Peter or any Child of God be un-Childed can Finally or Totally depart and Fall 3. The Quakers are Brethren with Socinas and the Socinians following him in making Christ a Type and Figure a pattern and Example how Christians ought to walk Not that the Blood which he shed upon the Cross at Ierusalem was a sufficient price and Satisfaction unto God for the sins of the whole world Thus all the Quakers more Explicitly or Implicitely speak and Humphry Norton in print viz. Can one mans Obedence and Suffering pay a price to God for another mans sins It is
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
of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures can yoke with such rude Bablings and Repetitions of simple ignorant Praters T is true the Lord Jesus and his Embassadors were not all traind up as Paul was at the feet of Gamaleel yet had they before the whole World the miraculous effusions of Fiery Tongues and heavenly Oyl upon them which these poor Simpletons ridiculously like Puppets in a Shew pretend too Beside the Commons among the first Christians were as learned if not more then our primest Academians the Hebrew being their Mother Tongue and the Greek and Latine familiar by the Greek and Romane Conquests over them all which Helps the most of the Leaders of the Quakers want only pretending to understand supernatural and miraculously in a trice and immediately what is to be gotten by honest and faithful labour and industry the holy will and mind of God from the true Original Copies 160 Thirdly I do admire that any sober modest Woman made so by nature and much more by Grace should ever dare to come into their Assemblies it is certain that the Ranters is a Sister or Daughter of them though they quarrel and fight and scratch one the other The Ranters more plainly according to their Principles make the Nakedness of Men and Women a part of worship unto God unto which they say they are restored by Christ Iesus the second Adam This Adamites Fowle spirit is no New-come spirit I have know nit almost sixty year and what a motion was made and urged by some whome I can name for Plantations in warmer Countreyes where they might practice that Ordinance of God viz Of Nakedness of men and women in Gods worship These our Adamites are led by a more Savage and Barbarous and Monstrous Spirit the which under the vizird and mantle of Religion deceives them and of being a sign to others And this very bruitish practise have kept some Women too much inclin'd to them from falling into their filthy puddle and of returning some which were left by Gods Justice to go too far amongst them sure we are the holy spirit of God all along abhors the appearance of uncleanness and commands the vailings of Women especially in Christian Meetings I have been too long upon the easiness of their Religion and of the agreement of it with corrupt and rotten Nature which slides into it as easily as Brooks and Rivers slide and run down into the Ocean There be two other causes of falling into false Religions or ways of worshipping God 1. Hope of Gain which was the Sechemites Bait the sweet Musick propounded by Nebuchadnezzar c. 2. The fiery Furnace c. These moderate times have not driven the Quakers to bow down to their Spirit for fear of persecution and the fiery Furnace but Sathan knew well enough that the Corruption of Nature and the hope of Gain and Glory would cheat to purpose as all may see it hath done Sathan knows that some have a moving and travelling Spirit and cannot rest in a sedentary or quiet life Some are of a rising aspiring Spirit though neither from Birth nor Breeding nor abilities and therefore cry down all Honour or respect to be given to any but themselves some are false and 161 rotten in their Profession and ready to fall and tumble when any strange wind of Temptation blowes upon them 7. Some may be Sincere and upright to God in the Root but Weak and not so rooted in the Holy Scriptures as the Disciples themselves who wondered for a time what the Rising from the dead should mean and had need of their Lord and Masters Take heed and beware of the Leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees and Sadduces c. Some truly fear God but have neglected the purity and chastity of Gods holy Worship and have reserved in a weak Conscience a liberty of playing the Whore against a jealous God and Husband But generally they that are taken by the Quakers Bait are such as never loved Christ Iesus in Sincerity as the Scripture speaketh neither within nor without and therefore suckt in Nicolds and Nailors and Foxes dreames of a Christ within them opposite to Christ without of a Christ a Light a Spirit within which had no Humane Body or if he were humane or a man they know not now what is become of him The Lord Iesus tels us that some will plead with him at the last day that they have heard him Preach that they have been at his Table that they have prophesied themselves cast out Devils in his Name and in his Name done many Wonderfull things should not this make every Soul that calls it self Christian startle and look about them especially when they hear Christ Jesus say depart from me I know you not ye workers of Iniquity I told the Quakers that their Theora Iohn pretended to write after the Spirits Dictate a volume in Hebrew Greek Latine Arminiack c. which he confessed he understood not what if it should please Gods infinite Wisdom to suffer the Quakers or others to speak and understand all Languages to work great Miracles yet if they come under the Note Christ gives them of Workers of Iniquity they fulfill the termes of my Position and prove but False and Reprobate This is the true and infallible distinguishing Character between the true Legitimate and the Bastard and false Christian The soul of the True is broken for Sin as Sin as opposite to God as filthy in his eye The soul of the False is broken for Sin as bringing temporal Loss or shame or pain and beside temporal Eternal The soul of the true is broke off from Sin from the least Sin 162 from the appearances of sin from the occasions of Sin from the thought of Sin as worse then all the Afflictions of this life or the Torments of Hell to come The soul of the False hath secret Friendship and Correspondence with Iniquity as Church-Papists with Popery c in the secret chambers and Closets of the heart at which they willingly wink and to find it when they are put to it yea and seem to doe it they are willingly remiss and negligent Hence it was a famous Principle of the first New-English Reformers viz. to be Christianly carefull that their Members gave Christian Evidence so far as godly eyes of Charity could reach of the truth of their Conversion and turning unto God which for ought I know is not changed by their Successors It is dolefully true that many seemingly Elect prove Reprobate and many truly Elect fall into many great Sins and Sorrows How black and dolefull then is their Condition such as the Papists the Quakers and others whose Religion Principles and Practices arise no higher then what a Reprobate may attain unto We came to the tenth Position the third in order to be discussed at Providence which they read out of their paper viz. That the Popes of Rome do not swel with and exercise
a greater pride then the Quakers have exprest and would aspire unto although many truly humble Souls may be captivated amongst them I have here two mighty Fields to expatiate and walk in viz. The pride of Christ Iesus his pretended triple-crowned Vicar and the pride of the new Papists pretending to be Christ himself of which the holy Spirit speaketh There is a Generation oh how lofty are their eyes and their eye lids are lifted up In publick Discourse I knew I was but to take a short turn of a quarter of an hour I am now at more liberty of inserting what I intended but was forced to abbridge wlth all possible brevity at that time I told them there was a pride in outward and external things in Parentage in Person in Beauty Strength Wit Aparrel Houses Money Shipping Land Cattle Offices Relations c. this I now past by All these like Diogenes on Platoes carpets the Quakers say they tread on c. There was 2. the devils pride and the devils Condemnation a pride in Spiritual Knowledg spiritual Gifts spiritual Priviledges and Excellencies This was the Devils Break-neck and will be 163 of the Popes and Quakers and of all that aspire to the Eternal power and Godhead for God or they must fall to all eternity I named then diverse Parallels between the Popes and Quakers I will now name all I can remember I named and will name some more at this present First The Popes have exalted themselves above all that is called God above all Civill powers Kings and Princes riding upon their backs disposing of their Crowns making them lead their horses hold their stirrups kiss their toes yea lye down under their feet bodyes and souls and submit their neck to this abominable foot of pride as the Scripture calls it As to the Quakers they know it is not yet time to put on the Lions and the Eagles but the Sheeps and the Foxes Skin but no man need question that if God should please to let loose the Quakers spirit to the full length of its tedder as he hath done that of the Popes the spirit of the Quakers would scorn to come behind the pope For who sees not how at the first fledging and creeping out of the Shell how they boast and vapour of their numbers We said W. E. to me in publick at Newport are a great People many thousands in England many thousands in London besides Virginia Barbados N-England and other places what would they say and doe if they had the popes Universality and could boast of the many Waters Peoples Nations Tongues and Multitudes upon which the Whore sitteth Beside W. E. a man fit to make a Bonefacius or a Hildebrand Iohn Stubs also though of a more prudent and moderate spirit was up with the same boasting of their Numbers and all of them are ready to cry up their Diana whome all Asia and the world worshippeth But 2. In their first creeping like Hercules out of the Cradle how doth this Spirit dare the Spirits of Kings and Keyfars and Popes themselves under the pretence of Translations and acceptations of words to Thou and Thee to the faces of mighty Monarchs with what Brasen Faces have they addrest the Royal presence of our Gracious Dread Soveraign without either bowing the knee or baring the Head signs of English reverence and civility and this out of an horrible and lying pretence that Christs amity even in Civil things respecteth no mans person that they may trample as Gods on all man-kinde c. 164 3. I can say what mine eyes and ears have seen and heard viz. our Honoured and Aged Mr. Nicholas Easton Governour of this Colony under his Majesty offering to speak once and twice in our late Contests at Newport and no question would have spoke for the Quakers against me yet Pope Edmundson put forth his hand imperiously toward the Governour saying Whist Whist which whisting and silencing Language if they use to their Friends in Authority what will they say or Thunder to their Enemies if ever they get up into the Papal Chair 2. The Pope sits in the Temple of God as over the Churches and Consciences of the Christian Name and Worship giving Canons and Decretals to be observed by all Christian People on peril of loss of Earth and Heaven c. And do not their new Popes not regarding as the Apostles and Bereans the Holy Scripture lay on the common Quakers Consciences and Congregations their Decrees t is true G. Fox in his Book in Folio gives the immediate Spirit of Infallibility to all his Saints yet must they in a ridiculous contradiction sit still possest with a Dumb Devil except some He or She Apostle come amongst them who send word of their coming to call the Country in many dayes before and seem to have a Command of their Diabolical Spirit more then other Quakers have though they as I said before in a ridiculous Contradiction ascribe it unto all their Saints and Quakers Thus did Humphrey Norton a Pope in his day in these parts overtopping and rating W. Brand at Newport he confirmed the Decree for the weekly Meetings not only on the first dayes but on the week dayes at Newport and Providence he ordered their sitting and departing Dumb unless a He or She Apostle came amongst them he left in writing which I can produce an overthrow of all civil Order and Government except in the hands of his Saints entituling his Paper thus the Saints Law and the Sinners Law as G. Fox his decree under the title of the Law G. Fox succeeds as Pope Humph. Norton in these parts and being angry with his Predecessour as some Popes have been he lets loose the Dumb Devil and gives Liberty to all to speak as the Spirit gives them utterance this shews what a lying Spirit of Unity they boast of such an one was in Nailors business though they most proudly deny Unity to all but to themselves as 165 the Papists do G. Fox also gave forth his Decree of loosing them from that bruitish and doggid Behaviour which W. Brand and Humphrey Norton left them in and by Word and Example commanded them to be more sociable and manlike so that many of them will speak in Salutations and shew some reverence by bowing the Heads or uncovering it as Fox himself did after his Sermon at Providence uncovering his Head and bowing to the People and passing through the midst of them his Hat in his hand with much respect and civility And he blames those as I hear which violently and madly have flung themselves upon unnecessary temptations and dangers whence follows in the eyes of the whole World that either the latter or the former Spirit was not Gods and perfect and the Spirit of Unity of which they childishly so crake and vapour as the chiefest Flower in their Crown of Pride 3. The Pope lifts up himself as God over
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
as a Merit or Desert for the pardon of their sin for though they both Sophistically and Hypocritically mention the Blood of Christ yet they count the business of this Christ as the Pope said but a Fable and indeed and truth through the Pride of their high spirits they think God is beholding to them I have spoken to this already and of that devilish Pride of their being without sin yet in this Doctrine of perfection the Quakers exceed the Doctrine of the Papists for generally the popes attribute this purity but to some of their rare Saints And 2. Generally the Popes themselves confess themselves to be sinners 3. They give respect and civill honour to all estates although in Spirituals and Civills too they overtop them But the high and lofty Devill of the Quakers pride transcends all this G. Fox makes all his Saints born of God that literally expounded they cannot commit sin yea G. Fox tells us that the Saints that is his Foxians are as holy and perfect as God not only like to God in quality but in equality also They have the fulness of the Godhead in them bodily That the mystery of godlinefs is God manifest in their flesh Hence he saith there is no distinction between God and Christ and the Spirit and themselves Hence it follows that they are the Father Son and Holy Spirit which by Devilish Chymistry they can prove and that they are the Three that bare Record in Heaven and the Three that bare Record in Earth The Scripture is within them They made it and all that they say and do is Scripture what they say God saith what they advise God adviseth what they do God doth c. It is true this is not believed no not by some Novices among them but this and more many of their lying Foul mouths Books express which may make a Soul that is truly humble to quake and 169 rend his heart at such Blasphemy the first Perfectist in these parts was one H. B. who came from Boston to Providence who affirmed that what he spake God spake what counsel he gave God gave c. It pleased God to leave him though a subtle man to ridiculous Folly amognst us and at Barbadoes and London since to worse practices as commonly God punisheth such height of Pride even in this present life before Death seize upon them I remember while we were declaring their proud Disrespect to all men Iohn Stubs said That it was their practice to pay tribute to Caesar and to give Honour to whome Honour belonged And I answered to this effect that it was against their Principles and practices to shew respect to any mans Person in the World As for tribute they paid none but what necessity and policy forced them to and notoriously backward here But they knew that I and G. Fox knew and all the world might know out of Fox his Writings that the Quakers are the Higher powers the Dignityes the Most High God and ought to have all Honour and Tribute paid to them by all the whole Creation T is true there seems to be a Change and some relenting and Giving of the Weather in G. Fox his own practice of Courtesie and others from him but while they own what G. Fox hath written and that he writ it with a perfect spirit I say untill they do make some Recantation or Retractation or shew the Reasons why they doe not H. Norton who keeps more plainly to his Principles is to windward of them and the Foxians do but strip themselves naked to be more derided and scorned as the more notorious Iuglers and Dissemblers We came easily with their Good-will to the 4th Position of the latter seven which they read out of the Paper as willing to be out of ther pain viz The Religion of the Quakers is more obstructive and Destructive to the Conversion and Salvation of Soules of People than most of Religions that are at this day extant in the World I said for the proof of this it was requisite to take a short view of Religions and Worships in the world We knew that the Sons of Men were justly divided all the world over into two Sorts First The wild and Pagan whome God hath permitted to run about the world as wild Beasts all this great fourth Part of the World and in some of the other three 170 They acknowledge a great supream God and Deity Maker of all things yet they acknowledge as other famous Civilized Nations formerly have done that there be many other Petty-Gods and Deityes in Heaven and Earth yea within their own Bodies yea whatever is extraordinary excellent or strange to them they are presently apt to ascribe a Deity unto it though it be but Beast Fowle c. and say it is a God It is commonly known that as their garments hang loose about their Bodyes so hangs their Religion about their Souls So that to my knowledge they are so far from hindring any to come to God that when they have seen the grave and solemn Worship of the English they have often said of themselves and their own that they are all one Dogs in comparison of the English The second sort of men are the Civill brought to Cloaths to Lawes c. from Barbarisme these also the infinite Wisdome of God have pleased to leave to variety of wayes of Worshipping the Heavenly Majesty Amongst others we find four most known and eminent First The Iewish Worship famous from Gods own appointment by Moses c. 2. The Turkish famous for spreading from Mahomet to most of thirteen parts of thirty in the World 3. The Popish famous for spreading over Europe and other western parts of the world 4. The Protestant famous for so wonderfull a Revolt and Seperation from the Popish All these four profess one God and supream Deity but they differ in two things 1. In the Prophet or Meanes by whome God speaks to man the Iews cry up Moses the Turks Mahomet the Papists the Pope the Protestants Christ Iesus in the Scriptures The second great difference is in the Form of Worship which every one of these four great Partyes practice in various and different wayes as they are perswaded Our selves the Protestants are divided into two Partyes The first is entituled Episcopal and Presbyterian in Parochyal or Parishional Assemblyes The second is Seperate from those National and Parochyal Assemblyes some more some less and those are now known to be First the People called Independants 2. The people called Baptists We that pretend the Christian Name against the Iewes and the 171 Mahumetans we mainly differ 1. In matter of Doctrine as Repentance Faith c. 2. Of Worship Discipline c. And we generally agree that as the Mahumetan and Iewish Worship have little in them to tempt a Soul to turn into them compar'd with the Christian so those Christians that differ each from other in point
of Doctrine and Worship both as the Papists and the Quakers doe to be farther from the truth of the Profession of Christ Iesus and more obstructive and destructive to the Souls of men then the other partyes yea and the Papists not so much as the Quakers who wildly profess all Ordinances and Ministers to be invisible and yet are hypocritically and ridiculously found to be as visible and open as any If the true Foundations of Repentance and Faith be cast down it is in vain to talk of saving of Soules it is in vain to talk of Worshipping of God The Quakers for all their craking of Quaking and Tremhling their way is more easie of Worshipping God and of bringing persons to their worship of God then the way of Iewes or Turks or Papists who to my knowledge take more paines in Religion then do the common Protestants I confess they all do but paint and guild over natures old and rotten Posts only the real Protestants have and profess the greatest care of any in the world for true Faith and Repentance The Quakers came not neer that care of N-England I am sure at first for the personal true Repentance and Holiness of their Churchâ—s and Congregations For it is notoriously known that if persons notoriously Deboist come but to acknowledge a God and Christ within them that is in English that themselves are God and Christ and can practice Thou and Thee and Cheek by Ioll with all their Betters and can rail at and curse all that oppose them and can come and bow down to a dumb Image and Worship without any great business of Contrition and Brokenness and Godly Sorrow they are enrold and canonized for Saints and Gods c. they are free from Sin born of God and cannot sin they now sit upon the twelve thrones and judge the unbelieving Iews and Gentiles in their heavenly places The wound lyes here as it is with Papists Arminians and indeed with all mankind in the soothing up and flattering of rotten Nature from whence from within the Lord Iesus tells us proceed all the rotten and hellish Speeches and Actions 172 I told them it was in this case as it was with Kings and Princes there were two great Enemyes that haunted the Pallaces of Kings and Princes 1. Traiterous Spyes c. 2. Traiterous Flatterers Just here it was as I remember that W. Edmundson stopt me saying thou hast here been telling us Storyes of Turks and Iewes but what is that to thy Charge against us we are none of those that flatter Kings and Princes we deal plainly with all men I said they mistook me for I did not say they slattered Kings I used a similitude only viz. that as Flatterers c. of Kings and great men were their deadliest Foes so such Religions and Doctrines as most slatter and sooth up our rotten hearts and natures they are most dangerous and destructive to us I intended to add that the Quakers pretended to be as fine Flower sifted out from the common Protestants yea from the Independants Baptists that Sathan was too subtle for the subtlest Foxes of them all for he knowes that by pretence he more easily dangerously conveys the Poyson of exalting corrupt and cursed nature in the room of true Soul-saving Humiliation I did say as the Whore of Rome deceived whole Towns Cities Nations and Kingdomes with her glorious Trimmings and her Golden Cup so that the Painted Quaker as a Drunken Whore should follow the Drunken Whore of Rome drunk with the blood of Jesus c. for the obtaining of the smoak of a Tobacco-pipe the Riches and Honour of this World There are two sorts of godly Soules catcht up a while by the Devils Craftiness 1. Weak and unstable for there are Children strong Men old Men in Christianity 2 The unwatchful and secure The holy wisdome of God discovers in Holy Scripture what the Devil that Sathan an old Serpent is viz. not only a Roaring but a vigilant Lyon David Gods beloved as his Name is he fails in his managing of Government therefore the Devil stirs up Ioab and Achitophel to help the grand Rebel his Son Absolom and afterwards Sheba and all in wonderful Figures in all Ages an in this our age and day A famous Iesuit prints it that all the Religion in the World lies in competition between the Iesuits and Puritants c. About 173 this time Iohn Stubs told me that they and I say so do the Iesuites pretend to do had left the Glory and Pleasure of this world their Wives and Children Friends and Relations to Preach the Everlasting Gospel For the Woman had been 1260 years 42 months in the wilderness and she was now come and coming forth and they were now preaching the everlasting Gospel and therefore they advised me to make haste and dispatch and not to hinder the Lords work I spake what then I thought fit and now adde that the Pharisees the Apostles the Quakers and Iesuites do compass Sea and Land but the Pharisees Iesuites and Quakers will be found at last to be the Apostles Messengers Heralds Envoys Embassadors and Emissaries of Sathan sent out from Hell to predicate the goodness of rotten nature hell and damnation and that false and hellish Gospel or good news of poor rotten Natures Righteousness Satisfaction Penances and to the damning of Souls c. The Devil knows that after the witnesses have done their work against Antichrist and after their slaughters the Lord Jesus will send abroad his Messengers to other Nations Iews Gentiles and New Ierusalem or a new vision of peace shall then come down from Heaven among the Sons of men but for the present he stirs up these Jesuites and Quakers with brave titles and pretences like so many Mahomets under pretence of Diogenes treading on Platoes Carpets to fish for the smoak of this World 's Sodome and no doubt but the Quakers will use the Sword as much as Mahomet or the Iesuites under the cloak and colours of love to Jesus and saving of Souls I confess that Charity hopes and believes all things and yet I say cursed is that charity that puts out the eye of Reason the eye of Experience the eye of true affection to Christ Jesus his Father and his Wife to the Souls of his followers and the Souls of poor sinners Iews Gentiles As to the saving of Souls it was a Thunder from the heavenly mouth of Christ Jesus They that take the Sword shall perish by the Sword as if he should say the Sword is not a saving but a destroying Tool in Soul-humbling and Soul-saving making worlds of Hypocrites but not true Protestants true Christians Followers of the true Lord Jesus and of his Father and of his Holy Spirit 174 The Spirit say the Quakers why that 's our Weapon the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God why that 's the word of God Christ Jesus our Weapon
Night and Light from Darkness For it is known that I. Fox his Martyrs or Witnesses those blessed Souls under the Altar were slain for maintaining the Authority and Purity of the Holy Scriptures as the revealed word or will of the Eternal God against the Traditions and Inventions of men But G. Foxes Sufferers have generally suffered for their Childrens Baubles fantastical Traditions and Inventions for setting up a Dream of a Light and Christ within all Man kind above the holy Scriptures above the Son of God above all Earthly Dignityes and all their Betters endeavouring with the Pope to trample all souls and Bodyes under their proud feet 180 3. The carriage of these two Sorts of Sufferers differ as much as East from West and Heaven from Hell 1. The ground of Iohns Sufferers was that which Iohn so much writes of viz. love to the Heavenly Bridegroom without which Paul slights burning it self this appears in their wonderfull Love to the holy Scriptures the Love-Letters of Christ Iesus and unto all that loved Christ Iesus also The Quakers are known to be Fierce Heady Proud Self-conceited Stout Bold and driven on by an Audacious and Desperate Spirit which G. Fox and some subtle Foxes with him have of late blaâ—â—ed in H. Norton c. No question but some of them have a notion of Wrath yet to come and therefore rather then to endure Hell Fire they will give up their lives to the Flames others of them fast 40 dayes and yet be far from true Virgin Love to the Son of God A Virgin that loves a man for Himself will not slight his Love-letters nor his Near Relations least of all abhor them and sink and burn them as these Foxians doe 2. The carriage of I. Foxes Witnesses though in respect of Gods holy Truth it was couragious and gallant yet their lowliness and humility did shine forth gloriously also 1. As to God being more sensible of their sins then of their sufferings conâ—essing with many tears that although God did turn their sufferings unto his Glory and although ungodly men like Foxes and Wolves hunted them like innocent Lambs and Chickins yet they had deserved and calld for this Storm by their unthankfulness for their former peace and liberties by their drowsiness and sleeping upon the Earthen bed of worldly Profits and Pleasures Contrarily it is known to all that although sometimes the Quakers will say we come in love to your Souls yet the Quakers are far from confessing their sins as having no more sin then God hath and according to their Principles and some of them say it they can no more sin against God then God can sin against them As to Men Christs sufferers were meek patient respective contented thankful But as the Quakers hearts have an insensible brawniness and hardness like frozen Rivers come over their hearts in matters of God so as to men 181 1. Was there ever a People Men and Women professing such an height of Christianity so fierce so heady so high-minded and though generally not hardned so censuring reviling cursing and damning and so savage and barbarous as in the stark nakedness of men and women c. 2. As to Revenge how patient and pitiful and praying for their Enemies were I. Foxes Martyrs or Witnesses and G. Foxes how spitting Fire Brimstone witness the second part of N. England judged by G. Bishop because Christ in them is come to judgement wherein he pronounceth Destruction to Bodies and Souls of N. England men saying in his Epistle that their judgement lingreth not nor doth their damnation slumber T is true some of their Predictions have and may come to pass as do many also of Conjurers Witches for the Devil knows the Complexion of persons and things and what is like to come to pass as in Sauls case and in other events and still the poor Quakers and other his Captive Slaves with such Bables as these I told you what weather it would be I told you where the Wind would blow I told you what would come to pass and yet as blessed Mr. I. Dod used to say though the Devil was up early God was still up before him for the Proverb is here true God hath sent curst Cows short Horns his infinite Wisdome Power and Goodness is pleased to put an Hook into the Jaws of Sathan he shews himself the pitisui sparer and preserver of men When the Devil is a Fisher longing for troubled and bloody waters yet God hath graciously proved many of the bloody prophesies of his waspish Prophets and Prophetesses as I can prove to be lying and false already We now descended to the thirteenth Proposal the sixth to be discus'd at Providence which was read by them and is this viz. These many Books and Writings are extreamly Poor Lame and Naked swelld up only with High Titles and Words of Boasting and Vapour I told them that I had not shun'd as in the presence of the most High to read any of their Books or Letters I could come at but the truth is I could never pick out any Wheat of solid rational and heavenly Truth out of their heaps of Chaffe and Dreams and Fancies of new Christs new Spirits c. It is true that W. Edmund said that the Word of the Lord 182 was a Fire and a Hammer c. But I said the word they meant was but a painted Fire and a painted Hammer and that never broke nor burned up sin as sin Let a man read the Works of the Papists Lutherans Arminians and amongst our selves the Episcopal and Presbyterian Writings a man shall have wherein to exercise his Judgement Memory c. he shall have Scripture proposed Arguments alleadged yea he shall read Answers and Replies whereby to satisfie a rational Soul and Understanding But in the Quakers Books Writings Peter Iude tells us what I have found clouds high of an imaginary Christ and Spirit high swelling words strange from the Holy Scripture Language and all sober and Christian Writers and Speakers Let Io. Chandlers Writings and the Writings of Theora Iohn that Monster of Delusion be viewed whose bodily Raptures and frantick Writings of the Quakers Principles and of the Iews in Hebrew Greek Latin Arminiack Writings which he confest he understood not and let the rest of their Writings be brought to the Touch-stone and see if an honest Goldsmith can find ought else but the Dross Dreams and Fancies in stead of the solid Gold of Heavenly Scripture I have read Nichols and Nailor and Howgel and Burrows and Parnel and Farnworth and Fox and Dewsbury and Pennington and Whitehead and Bishop c. And I could readily and abundantly prove my position out of all of them but my desire and intention was as by my Paper to G. Fox appears to have made it good to G. Fox himself and to all Christians how poor and lame and naked G. Fox his writings are who seems
to be as Pighius and Echius amongst the Papists and as Bellarmine the greatest Writer amongst them I told my Opposites I would therefore Answer this Bellarmine and I would not say Bellarmine thou liest but I would by Holy Scripture shew G. Fox and his deluding Foxians how the old Fox the old Serpent was too crafty for them all and had brought them and their Followers to the brim of the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone First then I said let who will that understands true English and are able to read and write true English though he know no more take G. Fox his Folio Book in hand and tell me whether 183 through his whole Book he writes like an English-man And though he upbraids all his Opposites scornfully and ridiculously as poor Children that know not the Bible nor their Accidence in saying you to a singular c. whether in many scores of places in his Book he confounds not the singular and the Plural I confess when I urged this in publick my Opposites desired of me no proof of this out of Foxes Book and therefore remembering my quarter hour Glasse I fpared Quotations but now through Gods patience and my Readers my Tedder being longer I shall give one or two brief Proofs and Instances In page 282. in G. Fox his second Answer he saith You where you are sees him nor where it should be the Plural see him not if this Proud Bruit had known either his Accidence or the Bible In Page 300. he saith The Scriptures is able to make wise unto Salvation which should be are able c. In Page 16. The Churches was to hear for were to hear In Page 110. As thou doth which should be as thou dost And abundance more of this Boyes English all his Book over which I cannot impute to his Northern Dialect having been so long in the South and London and read and answered as he dreams so many English Books nor to the Printer the faults of that kinde being so numerous but to the finger of the most High and most Holy whose property it is and therefore delights to run thwart and cross the shins of proud and insulting Souls and Spirits 2. I observe throughout his Book a Devillish Black Line of despising those that are Good as the Scripture speaketh He counts none Godly but himself and his Foxians yea there is no God no Christ no Spirit but what is in him and them feelingly though they say he is in every man and woman in the world and Christ Iesus the Sun of Righteousness and the Holy Spirit and the Kingdome of God which they confess consists in Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirits and yet as they impiously and simply speaks these Inhabitants and Hosts to all these Guests know nothing of their lodging and dwelling within them G. Fox gives a shrewd suspition that he never knew what the true fear and love and peace and joy of God mean if he did is it possible that he could puff at so many Writers excellent for great Knowledge and godliness denying any thing of God or 184 Christ or Spirit or Grace to be in them some of them eminent servants of God I have known of others of them I have smelt the sweet Odour of an Heavenly report from the mouthes of others and in their Writings But as G. Fox will be found to adore an Image Crucifix for the true Lord Jesus so whatever he say of others will his Faith his Love his Spirit of Discerning and Hope of Glory and Salvation prove without Repentance dolefully false in the latter end For doth not this Proud Censor know that men may be true Saints in their persons and yet be subject to sudden Epileptical Falling Fits may not David walk with God with a perfect heart and yet in the matters of Bathsheba and Uriah and many other particulars fall down like a Jewel into the Dirt that Christ Jesus owns Peter and his Confession c. and yet in another case get thee behind me Sathan That Peter resolves to dye for Jesus and yet denies with Cursing and Swearing that he never knew him and after Christs Resurrection and Ascention even Peter plays the Hypocrite Dissembler Yea did not the high Fathers in Godliness famous Kings in Gods Church live long in the incivility of many Wives and the impiety of Worshipping in the High places c. to what purpose doth the Lord inspire his holy Pen-men to write these holy Histories was it to shame his Saints departed or to shame his own Holiness and to cast a stumbling block and a protection for after sinners and transgressors or amongst other holy ends to teach us like Moses to distinguish between an Egyptian whom he slew and the Israelites whom he chid for wronging each other since they were their Brethâ—en so that he is a poor Christian Goldsmith that knows not to discern the Gold of Holiness and the Copper of Hypocrisie yea and to give the best Gold in the World its due allowance with which it will pass currant in Earth and Heaven with God and such who truly know and love him But with G. Fox in all this great Book the most humble and able godly and conscientious are with him but Vipers Serpents Cains Iudasses false Prophets Pharisees dumb Dogs Sorcerers Witches Reprobates Devils c. 3. In this Book of G. Fox all along he denies the Scripture to be the Word of God and he said that every man in the world hath that Spirit that gave forth Scriptures and that all Saints are 185 acted by the same Spirit immediately that moved the Prophets and Apostles and holy Pen-men of the holy Scriptures all tending to vilifie and nullifie the Holy Scriptures Besides his Impiety in these Assertions which half an eye of Mahumetans Iewes Papists Protestants will see I note his Simplicity for a Fox though he be crafty is but a Beast still For out of his Piety he grants the holy Scriptures through all his Book to be the Words of God though not the Word of God and for this his Grant he quotes Exod. 20. God spake all these Words and the four Books of the Revelations which I nor my Opposites could tell in publick what to make of But if they are the Words of God and fome of them fearfully written by the inconceivable Finger of God once and twice then every particular word of these words must needs be the Word or Will or mind of God every grain of gold is gold and every drop in the Ocean is Water and Salt too as I urged to them before concerning every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God else the Words of God when brought to particular examination they are not the word of God but of Angels or Men or Devills How sweet are not Words but right Words every man shall kiss his lips that gives
a right Answer how dirty then how filthy and bloudy are those Lips that in so many places debating with so many wise and learned and pious men drop not Honey and Milk but Wormwood and Gall the Venome and the Poyson of Asps to them that lick up such deceitfull and destroying Doctrines 4. In G. Fox his Book I observe that all along he notoriously nibbles ar VVords and quarrels at VVords which he saith are not Scripture as that wicked word Humane relating to the Person of the Son of God and man Also the word Trinity and Sacrament Oh how zealous is this Fox for the purity of Language Why may not the word Humane be used as well as the word Sabboth and Sabbaoth and Bethlebem and Ierusalem which are Hebrew words and as well as the words Baptisme and Iesus Christ which are Greek words Scribes and Scriptures and Pretorium which are Latine words That word Humane is odious c. for Christ Iesus sake and therefore the more I love and honour it as expressing the appearance of God in Flesh in that personal Individual Flesh of Christ Iesus the 186 Mediator petween God and Man the Man Christ Iesus 5. I observe the loose and wild Spirit of G. Fox in dealing with so many heavenly Champions the Leaps and Skips like a wild Satyre or Indian catching and snapping at here and there a Sentence like Children skipping ore hard places and Chapters picking and culling out what is common and easie with them to be paid of and answered 6. Any sober Soul may read in most of their Books and in G. Fox his Book such Tautologies and needless Repetitions that may even Turn his Stomach and make him abhor to touch a Quakers Book more How many hundred times have you Christ is within you except you be Reprobates Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone c. and I presume neer a thousand times if not a full thousand times repeated That lightens every man that comes into the World that lightens every man that comes into the world c. G. Fox had many Bullets flying about his eares and therefore at every turn like a man fighting for his life he is forced to hold out a Pretence a Buckler a Breast-plate simply called Light and at every turn to cry Oh the Light the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World 7 Through all his Book like some great Commanders or Generals by Land or Sea yea like the Emperors or Dictators among the Romanes so doth this wild devouring Soul give forth his high and haughty Sentences this proud Bladder is big with Simon Magus his thoughts of being Some Body I shall preâ—ent one Instance Pag. 253. His Opposite Henry Haggar saith you call all men Dead and Carnall in the Serpents nature in what form soever they differ from you this proud Soul Answers All that be not in the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the World which is the way to the Father differeth from us such be dead such be carnal in the nature for none comes to the life but who comes to the Light in what form soever they be and such as differ from us differ from Christ for none comes from under the Satanical nature but who comes to the Light what Iulian the Apostate what Duke D' Alva what Wolsey could have spoken more imperiously insultingly bloudily then this wild Fox hath done against all the true Servants Witnesses of the Most High that ever have been or shall be to the end of this world they differ from Fox therefore are Devils c. 187 8. I observe that G. Fox all along his Book powres forth a flood of Fire Brimstone against all his Oppsites and tells us that it is not Railing c. for his chief Adversary the holy Scripture gives Instance of Christ Jesus himself giving such Language and also it is no other then the Opposites to the Quakers give unto them but Godly and Sober Souls will consider 1. That Moses and the Prophets and Christ Iesus and his Apostles do not universally absolutely and promiscuously fling out Fire-brands and shoot Arrowes and Death into the Sides and Souls of all that differ from them as here G. Fox doth We may observe in the holy Scripture that generally they were high handed hypocritical and hardned Sinners against whome the holy Spirit thundred out such Titles threatnings and Judgments But Fox in this place makes no Distinction but as boldly as Blind Bayard saith all that differ from us c. 2. This is no rare business but Fox and his Foxians common Language and Barkings Thou Cain thou Serpent thou Devil Devil Devil Devil as one of their She-Apostles have said amongst us 3. It is G. Fox his bruitish and ridiculous Song in the close of his Answers and sometimes in the beginning without any Truth Humanity or Modesty to cry out saying And as for the rest of thy Lyes and Slanders they are not worth the mentioning when he hath pickt out a few Sentences or pieces of Sentences easie for himself to carpe at c. his conclusion and Burthen of his bruitish ridiculous Song is As for the rest of thy Lyes and Slanders instead of holy Scripture or solid Arguments with Answers to his Opposites Reasons and Replyes and Rejonders that an humble soul may see some footing to rest on 4. As we say in the death of the Martyrs or Witnesses of Iesus it is not the Suffering but the Cause Spirit Cariage is to be considered So in bitter Language it is not lawfull to call every Prince or King Fox as Christ called Herod nor every Opposite Viper Serpent Fool and Blind and whited painted Wall and Sepulchre c. They seemed to speak Reason to Christ upon his Cross Thou that savest others thou that destroyest the Temple c. come down now save thy self c. and yet Gods Spirit calls this Reviling and Railing at him 9. All may see what a simple Craking Sound of vapouring and 188 boasting runs through all this Foxes Book Doubtless Sysera and his Mideanites Goliah and his Philistines Rabshekah and his Assirians were types of these Children of Pride whose Vapours whose Prophesies so me notoriously false already proved whose promised Victoryes Spoils Threatnings lye like black foul Blots of ink or grease over all his Papers and the Papers of most of them far from that Closet Content and Sincerity of the true Saints who are content with the eye of God alone in secret 10. For a more full proof of the Lameness and Stark nakedness of their Writings I shall select and mention some Particulars out of this Grand Alcoran of G. Fox 1. His Opposites Words then his Answer And 3. My Replyes c. Page 1. He brings in Sam. Eaton saying He doth not believe that there is Substantial Essential or Personal Union between the Eternal Spirit and Believers
G. Fox Answers Though the Scripture saith the Spirit dwells in the Saints 1 Cor. 6. And he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Joh. 1. As though the Saints had not Union with God which the Scripture say they have I Reply concerning the Essence or Being of the Immortal Invisible Infinite Eternal Omnipotent and Omniscient and only Wise we know no more then a Fly knows what a King is and therefore 1 Tim. 9. He dwells in the Light that no man can approach to how fully doth the Holy Spirit in the Book of Iob and especially in that dreadful Word or Voice of God in a Whirlwind knock out the brains of all these proud Fancies let this proud Fox or any of the stoutest Lions or Lionesses amongst them look but a few minutes upon the glorious Sun in the Heavens and then tell us how their eyes do and yet thus like proud and pratling Children do they make a noise about their Bibs and Aprons and Muckingers and how they are one with God his Being and Essence c. Is it not enough for Sun Moon and Stars and Men to be enlightned by his Infinity but they must be God himself and Light it self in the highest sence because God is Light c. What impudence would it be in a Wife because she is one with her Husband in Relation to say She is the Husband himself and not to keep her just distinction and distance or in a Subject because the Subjects and the King are Relatives and in a sence one 189 therefore to say that they are the King himself Again we know that the word Spirit is taken in Holy Scripture for a Spiritual Nature Hence it is said that God is a Spirit not that God is properly a Spirit no more then he is Light though my Opposites in our Dispute affirmed he was but of such a Heavenly and Spiritual Nature For the Devils also are Spirits though defiled with sin and wickedness thus Ioh. 3. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit not that Spirits beget Spirits and that a new Creature is a young holy Spirit or God himself as I told one of the chief of the Quakers at Newport And that 1. Cor. 6. shews us in what respect he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit For know you not saith Paul that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Spirit and Ephes. 2. For an Habitation of God through the Spirit Thus God dwelt in his Temple of old as a Man in his House and a King in his Palace not that a Mans House or the Kings Palace is of his Substance or Essence no more then an house is of the Suns Essence c. and no more was Gods Temple of old nor his Temples his Saints now after the blockish and blasphemous nonsence of the Quaker In Page 2. He brings in Sam Eaton saying The Scripture is to be judge of Doctrines and Manners G. Fox Answers The Iews had not the infallible Iudgement that had Scripture but stood against Christ the Light and judged him to be a Devil that judgement was not infallible and that Doctrine and Manners of theirs was not right which goes against Christ the Light I Reply as the Sun in the Heavens is the Epitomy or Center of all Natural Light though some eyes are sore look a squint or are stark blinde And as the Rule or Canon though Fox simply bogles at that as not a Scripture word is the same for it is in the Greek though millions know it not and millions as the Pharises pervert and misapply it The Holy Scripture is granted by G. Fox to be Gods Words though in a subtle fancie not his Word but if it be every word of their Gods then is every Word as Dâ—vid saith a Light to our feet and a Lanthorn to our Paths though we despise it and wilfully refuse it as some sometimes do Lanthorns and wilfully stumble 190 into the Ditch Eternal and other poor Souls after us Thus the Heavenly Sun-Dial is one and constant in its guidance and direction to us poor Travellers though we neglect to look on it or be ignorant of the figures and lines of it and be willingly ignorant c. We are not only commanded to read and meditate in the Holy Scriptures and to search them as the Bereans did but we are commanded to try all things to try the very Spirits The Papists slap us in the mouth with the infallible Spirit of the Pope and that he is not to be judged the Quakers say the same of themselves which is no more then as I said in the Dispute when W Edmund interrupted me crying out Blasphemy for a Man to go for Counsel to an arrant Cheater and Jugler then cheating most when he calls all others Cheaters In Page 3. He brings in the same Author saying That God did not intend immediate Teaching nor to give out an immediate voice in after ages which should direct and guid men in the way of Salvation He Answers which is contrary to the Scripture which saith All the people of the Lord shall be taught of the Lord and he that is of God heareth Gods word and that is immediate and living and doth endure for ever there is no fallibility nor delusion in the Revelation of God but all fallibility and delusion is out of it I Reply it is granted that God speaks mediately unto us by the light of Nature within us doth not nature teach you that it is a shame for a man to have long hair c. 2. By his works of Creation 3. His Providence without us in his mercies and judgements so that every drop of Rain and crumb of Bread and grain of Corn is Gods word and witness And 4. The pains of the Body and Dreams in the night have much of Gods word and voice in them Iob 33. God speaks once and twice but man hears it not and is not Gods speaking his Word And 5 All grant that the words of Scripture are the words of God And 6. The teachings of men Ephes. 4. are granted to be means c. both for the gathering of the Church as Apostles and for the Governing of the Flocks as Pastors and Shepherds c. 191 7. The Water the Bread the Wine c. are appointed by Christ Jesus to be means while profession of Christ Jesus is made on earth to hold forth a remembrance of him until his second coming 8. The private Prayers and Fastings and Meditations of the Saints day and night are holy Meanes in and by which the Eternal God speaks Peace Instruction Reproof and Comfort to to them that fear him 9. Sometimes it pleaseth God by the Ministration of his Ministring Spirits the invisible Angels to work by unknown and unseen wayes to us thus in Pauls Light and Voice and Blindness and the Iailors Earthquake but afterward in Ananias his sending
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
Enemies until Faith G. Fox Answers So they have denied their School-Master which is until faith which will keep them out of the Alienation which is the Law I Reply with Ioseph Kellet and the rest of those excellent men whom Fox useth as Dishclouts that by nature our Alienation from God is so great that the finest and sweetest nature in the World is so alienated and opposite unto God that it resolves like some Ships against a Turk or other Enemy we resolve to kill or be killd yea and to sink by his side before we will yield to be taken by him therefore doth the Holy Spirit so often speak of mans hating of God and Gods hating of him yea of mans abhorring of God and Gods abhorring of him and Rom. 8. that not only mans wisdome is at enmity but enmity it self against God Hence it is few Kings few Counsellours few Nobles few Schollars few Merchants c. who use to be the wisest of men relish the Doctrine of the Manger and the Gallowes for the more natural Wisdome the more aversation from the foolishness of the glad news to poor lost drown'd and damn'd Mankind 197 2. Again I say as Solomon the legs of the lame are not equal c. for how doth it follow that we deny the Law to be a School-master pointing unto Christ because we deny the Law can bring us to Christ which is so indeed in the English Gal. 3. but is not fo in the Greek yea how could the Law of Ceremonies pointing out the Lamb of God or the Law of Do this and live keep out of the Alienation do they more then the Law of Creation leave any converting Impression from the Soul until Gods hand open a door of Believing The Dyal points to the Sun c. but who receives benefit by it but he that skills it and looks upon it c. and yet the Dyal is not the Sun c. but points as all the Proyhecies Ceremonies Commandmenâ—s before his coming unto that God Man the Sun of Righteousness Christ Jesus As to the rest of his Answer viz Which will keep them out of the Alienation which is the Law it is a piece of bruitish Nonsence as are not a few more in his Book and it may be taken like the Answer of the Devil at Delphos many wayes for it may be taken that Faith will keep them out Alienation or the School-Master will keep them out of the Alienation or whether the Alienation is the Law or Faith is the Law is doubtful and if his meaning should be that thy Law either of Ceremonies c. should keep them from being Alienated from God and so being actually to God how not only will all the Holy Scriptures but all Mankinde Iews and Gentiles call him a simple ane destroying Lyar An eighth Instance of Foxes poor lame Answer is in Page 27. where he brings in Richard Baxter saying To say that any is perfect and without sin is the Devil speaking in man G. Fox Answers contrary to the language of the Apostles and Christ who bid them be perfect and the Apostle spake Wisdome among them that be perfect and â—aid they were made free from sin and it is the Devil speaking in man that speaks for sin while Men are upon the Earth for the Devil holds him up that makes men not perfect which Truth makes men free again from the Devil speaks in Man and says be perfect I Reply whether this willingly ignorant Soul knows or no I know that the Devil knows that there is a Fallacie in this word Perfection 1. Sometime in Scripture it signifies no more then Sincerity Uprightness and so is translated sometimes Compleatness Fulness in its kinde though but in a small Vessel sometimes Fortified Strong Armed and sometimes the Fulness of the Godhead to whose incomprehensible Ocean not one Drop can be given nor one Drop taken from him In Mat. 5. Be ye Perfect c We are not exhorted 198 to be equal with God in Holiness for that is to be God our selves and being set down in the throne of the Godhead to thrust the Eternal God out for there can be but one in the Throne of the Godhead But we are commanded to labour to be like unto God who not only is kinde to his Friends but his Enemies also As when we are bid to be like the Sun to shine upon the Bad as well as the Good will a sober Soul imagine that we are bid to be as Pure as Glorious as Vast as Swift as the Sun is but the Spirit tells us of a Generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed from their filthiness Yea but saith Fox Paul spake Wisdome amongst them that were perfect Phil 3. I answer what if the Translators had turned that word among them that be strong intelligent capacious as the word often and there signifies why doth Paul also speaking of such a strength or capacity as the Saints may attain to in this life profess that he was yet as it were but clambring up the Hill this is the vote of all the highest Saints in Scripture lamenting their Brethren and Inabilities and the Battle between the old Man and the new Of which Battle G. Fox and his Foxians know not for Sathan having Possession all is in peace It hath been ever known that all Gods Children are like high and glorious Queens Empresses who wittingly endure not as the Holy Scripture speaks that such an ugly Fiend as the Devil should touch them no not in an evil thought 3. They are like Fields Gardens in which the Husbandman and Gardiner allows not nor endures not a Weed but with grief and endeavour of their extirpation 4. And this is far from being Proctors and Advocates for sin as G. Fox most simply and impudently urgeth for the known truth is that Fox and his Foxians fall most foolishly and fiercely upon such as profess most holiness most sincerity and most Mortification most love to God and his only begotten the Spirit of Holiness the Holy Scriptures or written Will of God A ninth Instance is in page 28. where G. Fox tells how the same Author preached an external word Which the Scripture speaks not of but of the word that lives abides and endures for ever and of the Scriptures of Truth that cannot be broken and of Gods words and Christs words and that is not external this is not agreeable to sound words that cannot be condemned but that is like his Doctrine that knows not the Eternal but the Ministers of Christ did not tell of an external word but you being made by the will of man speaks to the People of an external word I Reply The word whether external internal or eternal is a 199 similitude for we know God hath no Mouth nor Tongue nor Words as we have but as Kings and Generals of
Armies or Navies or any Commanders in chief signifie their minds by Speech by Writing yea by sign at a distance this Word or will which was before in the Kings breast and internal is now outward or external Hence Christ Jesus above all other wayes of Gods manifesting himself externally or outwardly is called the Word of God and the Word which was God Hence in common speech we call our Thoughts our selves So I think c. this is my Word my Vote or Mind And as it is the Field If a General himself who first gave the external Word from his own internal Thoughts if he forget the word in the night a common Sentinel will make him stand or fire upon him and shall men be so careful in these transitory businesses and shall we suffer open Enemies to the true Lord Jesus presumptuously to pass without the external word or mind of God and audaciously to deny such a word at all to be When Christ Jesus Luke 4 spake out of the Prophet Isaiah and when Paul disputed three Sabbath dayes out of the Scriptures and when Apollos mightily convinced the Iews from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ did they not use external audible Expoundings and Applyings of that written word or mind of God as the external and outward manifestation of his internal and eternal holy Pleasure A tenth Instance is in page 32. where G. Fox brings in Ellis Bradshaw saying The Quakers Spirit doth teach them to honour no Man He Answers That is a Lye for it teacheth them to have all Men in esteem and to honour all men in the Lord yet they are convinced by the Law to be Transgressors if they respect Mens persons as you doe I Reply I have spoken of their proud and lofty behaviour toward all men the Highest the Eldest the Holyest upon the 10th Position of their Pride c. and therefore briefly say 1. That all men may see how truely they honour and esteem all men in the Lord and what Lord and honour it is that they mean when G. F. his first word to his Opposite is in that most provoking Term viz. That is a Lye in his very pleading and the very first words of it It is true Christ Jesus and his Servants the Prophets and Apostles used sharp and bitter Reproofs Similitudes c. but thus suddenly at the first dash to give fire Thou Lyest That is a Lye c. It shews neither Religion nor Civility but a Barbarous Spirit for they that know the Barbarians know how common that word is in all their mouths T is true of late divers of Fox his followers have followed him in courtesie 200 looking toward you taking you by the hand bowing and half uncovering the head more or less c. But this is but a Revolt and Apostacy from their first Rigid Spirit and Cariage as Humphrey Norton rightly maintains against them Yea. 2. it is against all Foxes and their first Writings and this very place of Iames here urged viz. they are convinced by the Law if they respect mens Persons Again t is true in Christ Jesus there is neither Bond nor Free Male nor Female and consequently no Master no Man no Father no Child no King no Subject but all are one in Christ Jesus and the second Birth as all are of one kinde in the first Adam and the first Birth 1. Yet first how full is the Holy Scripture of Commands and Examples of Gods Children giving respective Words and Titles and Bowings even to persons that knew not God 2. Fox grants difference of gifts and saith that some in comparison of others of them not so grown c. are Elders sure this is some respect of persons according to that of the 1 Cor. 12. Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers c. Therefore how ever they Hypocritically lye and pretend to honour all men in the Lord yet the most Holy and only Wise knows how proudly and simply and barbarously they have run into uncivil and inhumane Behaviours towards all their Superiours the eldest and highest how that they have declared by principle and practice that there are no Men to be respected in the World but themselves as being Gods and Christs T is true our English Bibles and Grammar as Fox his great Learning often objects makes thou to a single person and Thou in Holy Scripture is used in a grave and respective way unto Superiours unto Kings and Parents and God himself But 1. As I have said the Hebrew and the Greek signifie no more Thou then You and so may be truely turned 2. Every Nation every Shire every Calling have their particular Properties or Idioms Speech which are improper and ridiculous with others Hence these simple Reformers are extreamly ridiculous in giving Thou and Thee to every body which our Nation commonly gives to Familiars only and they are extreamly and insufferably proud and contemptuous unto all their Superiours in using Thou to every body which our English Ideom or propriety of speech useth in way of familiarity or of Anger Scorn and Contempt I have therefore publickly declared my self that a due and moderate restraint and punishing of these incivilities though pretending Conscience is as far from Persecution properly so called as that it is a Duty and Command of God unto all mankinde first in Families and thence into all mankinde Societies 201 Having thus through Gods mercifull help gone through the 13th Position in publick and this private supply of some few Instances of their Lame writings of out G. F reserving the liberty if God please of presenting the Reader with a further Apendix or Addition of some few further Instances out of G. Fox his Writings I hasten to the 14 Proposition the last of the seven at Providence They read it publickly viz. the spirit of the Quakers tends mainly to the reducing of Persons from Civility to Barbarisme to an Arbitrary Government 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 that oppose them and 4. To as fierce and fiery Persecution in matters of Conscience as hath been or can be practised by any Hunters or Persecutors in the World I told them I could adde more Branches to this Head as unto the peace and civil Societyes of Mankind in the world but I remembred my promise of Brevity and W. E. was often remembring me sayinge Is this thy Quarter of an hour for I believe they stood here upon Coals and were not willing that I should insist upon it my full Quarter and they hasted me on to prove that their spirit tended to Barbarisme they said one and an other that their spirit was an Holy Spirit the Spirit of God and the Grace of God had appeared to all men and had taught them to deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts and to live soberly righteously godly
in this present world I told them that in our Native Countrey and in all civilized Countreys the civility Courteous Speech Courteous Salutation and respective Behaviour was generally practised opposite to the cariage of Barbarous Unciviliz'd People This I said was according to the command of the holy Spirit in Paul Eph 4. and in Peter 1. Pet 3. Be pitifull be Courteous c. Such a Spirit was Christ Jesus of even to his greatest Opposites and to the greatest Sinners insomuch that for his Courtesie Gentleness Sociableness with open Sinners the dogged proud and sullen Pharises counted him a Drunkard and Glutton a friend and Companion of Publicans and sinners We English were our selves at first wild and savage Britains Gods mercy had civilized us and we were now come into a wild and savage Countrey without Manners without Courtesie so that generally except you begin with a What Chear or some other Salutation you had as good meet an Horse or a Cow c. And hath not the Quaker â—pirit been such a Spirit amongst us have we not known persons formerly loving courteous c. and as soon as this Spirit hath come upon them have not our eyes seen them pass by their Familiars their Kindred 202 their Elders and Superiours and though kindly spoken to not give a Word or a Look toward them as if they were not worthy of a word or a look from such High Saints c. How like indeed have they been to the Popish Saints in a Procession they See not Hear not Speak not c. or like these very Barbarians and therefore I said 2. G. Fox in his book affirms that the Conversation of these very Barbarians in many things were better then his Opposites c. I mused in my self being much acquainted with the Natives what G. Fox should mean he not having been in N. England when he wrote that passage but since I have heard that the Quakers have commended the spirit of the Indians for they have seen them come into English Houses and sit down by the fire not speaking a word to any body But this cariage of the Indians proceeds from a bruitish spirit for generally they have boldly come in without Knocking or asking of leave and sit down without any respect in word or gesture to the Governour or chief of the Family whosoever just the Quakers general fashion and Spirit Further I told them that in some respect the spirit and cariage of the Quakers was worse then that of the Indians for if they were sd by the English in the high-way or coming into an House they are very ready to receive your Salutation kindly and return you another But commonly we know that it is not so with the Quakers bruitish spirit 2. The Indians morning and evening and upon all meetings they give a respective and proper Salutation to their own Superiours and sometimes in gesture as well as speech 3. Although the Indians are bruits in their Nakedness both men and women yet they never appear no not in private houses stark naked as the Quaker men and women doe yea they so abhor such a bruitishness except it be in their mad Drunkenness for then they will be stark naked that as to their Female kind they will carefully from their birth keep on some modest covering before them W. E. rose up and said they did abhor Uncleaness as well as our selves or any their women were sober holy and Modest and would not endure some of them to have a Toe to be seen naked but he said if the Lord God did stir up any of his Daughters to be a Sign of the nakedness of others he believed it to be a great Cross to a Modest womans Spirit but the Lord must be obeyed Iohn Stubs immediately seconded him and quoted again the Command to Isaiah Chap. 20. to go naked he added whereas I said at Newport that it was in the time of Signs Types Figures c. He would now prove that all Signs were not abolished by the coming of Christ for Agabus Act. 20. took Pauls 203 girdle and bound himself I replyed that was indeed one of my Replyes at Newport and I was yet far from binding the sweet Influences of the holy One by Dreams Visions immediate Impulses Revelations Signs c. but withall I said that before the coming of the Lord Iesus and at his coming was the time and season of such Appearances from God now he hath fully declared his mind to us by the Personal and most wonderfull coming of his Son out of his Bosome who had commanded his Pen-men to write his Birth his Life his Life his Doctrine his Miracles his Death Resurrection Asscension and promise of Return to us he had also preserved these holy Writings Records most wonderfully that Ioh 20 We might believe in him follow him and live with him But 2. I said what did this concern the monstrous stripping their women naked of which we never heard a tittle either at coming of the Lord Jesus or in those proper seasons of such Administrations before his Appearance Iohn Stubs said he had been a Quaker 19 years and yet had never seen a woman Naked and some of the Quakers said to me aloud when didst thou see any of our women Naked and another of them said We did not think that thou wouldest have been such a wicked man These two though of the Quakers spirit yet of long time had been Loving and respecttive to me but now they were enraged so that I said unto my Antagonists seeing some Heat is risen about these matters I will if you please go on to the second Branch of this 14th Position I told them the 2d Branch was That the Spirit of the Quakers tendeth to bring in an Arbetrary Government I said we all knew how it had cost the blood of thousands ten Thousands this matter of Goverment Lawes that the Most High only Wise choosing one People and Nation of Israel to be his own he wrote them Laws some with his own inconceivable finger written and some by Moses his inspired Pen-man it pleased him not to leave their Wisest and Holyest Kings Governours without written known Lawes with Rewards and Penaltyes annexed But I argued if that were true that all the Quakers were guided in all they said and did by the immediate Spirit of God as I proved Fox maintained then if they obtain higher or lower Governours of their Spirits Surely it shines cleer that there is no need of Laws for them to rule act by for they had no need of Scripture and seing the Immediate Inspirations of God would not suffer them to erre in Judgment for as they said of the holy Scripture they had no need of it for they had the holy Scripture within them their Teacher within them and all that they spake was Scripture and the voice of God c. So
offer Eternal Praise by and in the Eternal Son of God the true Lord Iesus Christ whome I desire joyfully to expect to return from Heaven as literally and personally as all true Christians hold Act. 1. he is ascended AN APENDIX OR Addition of Proofs unto my thirteenth Position Viz. That the Quakers Writings are Poor Lame and Naked not able to defend themselves nor comfort the Souls of others with any solidity I could produce most of their chief extant but I have been occasioned to deal with G. Fox their great Goliah in some Scores of Passages of his Book in Folio in the Narrative aforesaid Unto which I judge fit to adde the Scores following faithfully presenting his Opposites Words as he quotes them his Answers and then my Reply let him that Readeth understand I Have chosen out the short Assertions of G. Fox his Opposites as he quotes them and his short Answer for brevity sake c. 1. The first of this Addition I name is in pag. 6. of G. Fox his Folio Book where he brings in Samuel Eaton saying The Apostle faying to the Saints You know all things it is 2 an excessive speech G. Fox Answer contrary to Iohn and would make him a Lyar the Minister of God so he is in the false spirit gone out into the World contrary to 1. Ioh. 2. Who know all things I Reply 1. I cannot learn that they litterally hold that they know all things knowable as God though G. Fox writes that they know all things as God yet I can not think them so gross as to imagine that they know all things past present and to come as the Devil pretends he doth and offers to reveal so much to some Conjurers but I judge they must come to some figurative meaning as their opposite writeth For 2. What hinders as before but if the Quakers be Omniscient and know all things but they should be also Omnipotent and do all things for so Paul writes Phil. 4. I can do all things I know they say they are one with God and Christ and they know all things and can do all things and yet this sense which litterally is so Proud and Blasphemous must be made out by a meaning and by a figure which they cry out against in others 3. Therefore doth not the Spirit of God in Prov. 28. open this to us saying Evil men understand not Iudgement but they that seek the Lord understand all things that is God answers their Prayers and inables them to know and do all that he calls them to when the proud and scornful are rejected 4. Therefore I believe it is that the most Holy and most just and wise Lord leaves these poor proud and scornful Souls to seek wisdome and not to find it to be ignorant knowing nothing as Gods Spirit speaketh and to discover their Ignorance in so many Fundamentals of Christianity and in so many practices immodest irrational and more then savage as I have proved against them 2. In pag. 11. G. Fox brings in John Bunyan c. saying The Scripture plainly denies that Conscience can justifie though it may condemn He Answ. which is contrary to Scripture where the Apostle saith Rom. 2. their Consciences either accusing or excusing And again herein do I exercise my self to have a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward Men and the Light condemns which you call Conscience c. I Reply Conscience in greek Latine and English c. signifies a Knowing together a Reâ—lexion or looking back of a mans mind or Spirit upon it self in point of Iustification or pardon of sin 3 Conscience looks upon a cursed rotten Nature then upon millions of sins of Omiâ—â—ion and Commission which how to satisfie an infinite Justice for and to attain a new heart and nature is the high business and out of the reach or thought of that poor Conscience which every man Iew or Gentile Civilized or Pagan comes into the World with In the great Tryal of the three greatest sinners that ever were in this World the Devil and the first Man and first Woman two of them their Consciences condemned them and they confest the Fact though with extenuation and Excuses could this their condemning Conscience especially with mincing of sin as all mens natural Consciences do I say could this Conscience or Consession pardon their sin reniew their hearts and be their Justification or clearing and Salvation T is true Abimelechs Conscience justified him from the Fact of lying with Abrahams Wife as well as Iosephs Conscience justified him from the falsly imputed guilt of lying with his Mistress or attempting of it But was this the Pardon of Abimelechs sin his Justification and Salvation after the Canting Language of this poor Fox and all the Foxians that I have seen and I have read all I could come at c. Oh how little do these poor Beasts seek what infinite Justice infinite Punishment infinite Payment is what Conscience truly pacified is upon the Pardon of Sin and true peace of Conscience Sprinkled with the Blood of that only Lambe of God Christ Jesus Amongst the Indians I have known some falsely accused of stealing English Mens goods of killing English Mens Cattle yea of Murther and I have heard them say that Manit that is God and their own Souls know they are Innocent This Innocency who questions but that it is their plea and excuse and discharge from that guilt falsly charged on them If this be all that G. Fox saith he beats the Air and hath no Enemy No no It is a Conscience Justification within a Christ shedding his blood within in a subtle fly opposition to the pardon without us from the K. of Heaven for the sake of his Son without us this is the business which these Traitors to the K. of Heaven aim at Now they will be perfect and never more admit a sinful thought and this their present Honesty shall pay the old score of a Cursed Na 4 ture and millions of Treasons and Rebellions in Commissions and Omission against the God of Heaven It was a pertinent Similitude used before Q Elizabeth A King sent for his Lord Deputy of a Province to come home and give account c. The guilty Deputy goes to a great friend desires his Company c. he said He was sent for also himself and feard his own Issue He goes to others desires their Company c. They make excuse and promise to have him or the way c. Then goes the Deputy to an old friend who promised to go with him and what he could speak for him only if the K. asked he must speak the Truth and that will be said he your Destruction and therefore adviz'd him to make the young Prince his Friend and Mediator for whose sake the King would deny no Favour no pardon no Honour c. The Application may be large and useful but in short A
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.
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
ever the Servants of God when they inveighed against the Customariness the Carelessness the pictures and the meer 13 Formality of the Worshippers Jews or Christians inveigh against the worship it self and the Appointments of God and of his Son Christ Jesus 3. Did the Servants of God ever labour to bring and hale off Gods people from the worship it self but only from the dead and meerly formal using of them until the time appointed by God himself for their withdrawings disappearing and abrogation What a shameless falshood is it that any of Gods Messengers brought Gods people off from those heavenly Fabricks which God erected by their Ministry or Service all the World over 4. May not Gods Messengers now Cry out against the apish Imitations Formalities of the Papists so horribly and bloodily abusing Prayer preaching Baptisme the Lords Supper Excommunication c. but like the Assyrians or Babilonians Psal. 74. All these Christian Appointments must be broken and tumbled down with Axes and Hammers c. 5. This is Treason and Rebellion in any Atheists or whomsoever but more abominable Hipocritical in these Pharisaical Foxians who Cry out against the apish Imitators and yet themselves practice preaching praying Congregations or Churches singings Conventings and implicite though real Addings to Castings out c Full well as the Lord Iesus speaks abrogating the word and Appointments of God that they may set up and establish their own Traditions c. 6. T is true the Protestants have made separation from the Church of Rome as whorish and Bloody in order to the Return to the first Primitive purity from which the whore of Rome hath departed 7. G. Fox Cries out against all Scripture and Common Sense against all Forms that is wayes and manners of Gods Worship Cries up a Christ within Scripture within Church within Ministers within Baptisme and Supper within yet practice they most of these so many as their Idol requires and will serve his turn as outwardly and visibly as any in the world 8. I know it is the observation of one of G. Fox his Opposites a man of excellent knowledge piety industry M Baxter viz. that the Churches of the Independents Baptists have been the source and Spring whence have flown the Generation of the Quakers For my self I have observed the contrary in these parts 14 and that although some rotten Professors or weak Souls though true have been bewitched by those Soul-witches yet generally where they have any Liberty the National Church fills up their nuâ—bers My Reason I gave them in publick when W. Edm. Boasted of their Numbers viz. their Religion is so easie never coming near the Roots of rotten Nature but so wonderfully agreeing with it and changing one Devil for another as I have before instanced so that I told them I adored the Infinite Power wisdome and goodness of God that they were not ten thousand fold more and I say Millions more then they are For I can demonstrate that if G Fox for all their hypocritical prating against Carnal Weapons get a Sword as Mahomet did most of the Popish and Protestant and pagan World will easily be brought to dance after him 9. As to the point of Separation I pray Mr. Baxter and others of G. Foxes learned and godly opposites who are yet in their Judgement and Conscience perswaded to the National Worships to hear me patiently four words 1. I pray them to remember what the word Nazarite is in English The word Nazareth and the word Iesus of Nazareth and in plain English 2. Was there ever Child of God in this world but he was a Nazarate separate from worldly persons worldly practice and worldly worships as he comes to see them c. and endureth not that the evil one should touch him 3. Is not Gods name Iealous in this end of the World not the west-world as well as since he first proclaimed it in the East 4. Hath not his Jealousie raged against the Iewish whoremongers who defiled his first Bed and will he wink at the Christian Adulterers and Adulteresses either in Worship or Conversation 5. With what good Conscience can I a national Protestant separate from my Father the Pope and my mother the Church of Rome and my Brethren and Sisters the Papists and yet it must not be Christian for other Souls to see further degrees of that Separation necessary and I must bring up the foot of every mans Light and Sight and Conscience to my Laste 6. This is the main ground of my Controversy with the proud Quakers they stir up in their Illuminations in themselves and 15 Condemnations against others but they magnify with the Papists and Arminians Cursed rotten Nature their Converts and Proselites have but a painted formal Repentance Faith c. Only if they can come to their Church c. and Thou and thee and disrespâ—ct all Superiours then are they high Saints cannot Sin c. 7. This as before I hinted was the heavenly Principle of those many precious and gallant Worthies the Leaders and Corner Stones of these New-England Colonies viz. they desired to worship God in purity according to those perswasions in their Consciences which they believed God had lighted up 8. They desired such for their Fellow Worshippers as they upon a Christian account could have evidence that to be true and real Worshippers of God in Spirit and Truth also But I forget this is but an Appendix and therefore I return to another Instance of G. Fox his poor and lame and naked Answers c. A 9th Instance is pag. 32. where G. Fox brings in Ellis Bradshaw saying The Spirit of God doth not teach to judge before the time and he adds that others of them say The Saints shall not Iudge while they be upon the Earth To which he Answers But the Spirit did teach the Apostle to judge and his Time was come And he tells some that they were of old ordained for Condemnation and their Damnation slumbred not and they went on to Eternal Judgement and it is high Time not to judge I Reply Some of this his Answer is some of his wonted Nonsence or the Printers oversight c. But to the point the great Jugler hath taught G. Fox and his Foxians a trick to outface Death and Indgement They now keep the great Sessions and call all the world to their Bar and Judgement Thus did the poor cheated Souls in London lately Reeves and Mugleton thunder out their eternal Sentence of Damnation upon the Souls and bodies of their Oppoâ—ites that with such Seriousness Confidence Majesty that I have known sollid Christians put into a fright by them It is true there is a lawful judging not according to rashness or pride as the Quakers is but according to righteous Judgement It is true the spiritual man judgeth and discerneth all things that is looks into the Causes and Natures of things
fit to be thought on as to pretence of the Christian Name and Religion 9. At the coming of the Lord Jesus there were two great Com 19 petitours for preaching First the Pharisees who by Laud and Sea sent abroad their Emissaries to make Converts to the God of the Jews and their own Traditions Secondly The Apostles or Messengers of Christ Jesus sent abroad with the glad news of a new Bargain or Covenant of God with the Sons of men viz. this second sort It pleased the God of Heaven not to be thrown out as this Fox frantickly barks but to go out wonderfully miraculously yea also with the private labours and preachings of private Christians scattered by Persecution as the holy Scripture recordeth 10. For the slighting of this inestimable Pearl of this glad News or Gospel published by God to the World by writing preaching professing Suffering c. It hath pleased his Infinite Justice to plough the World with Popery a Religion a bastard Christianity suited as the Quakers is to rotten nature and fit to carry the world after them as Mahomet and the Pope have done 11. In this day the two greatest wonders in the world pretending to be Christs Messengers or Apostles to the Nations are the Jesuits and the Quakers Their Faces look divers but they both carry Firebrands in their Tails to burn up the holy Scripture all truly holy Christians yet all the world before them Gods Infinite wisdome hath suffered them to be like Absolom beautiful and plausible and fit to play Soul Thieves and steal away the hearts of thousands and ten thousands from the true David the Lord Jesus Christ. Beside they are so fortified with the Faces of Men and hair of Women like the Locusts Rev. 9. such pretences such Illuminations and Appearances such Assurances and Confidences such feelings of Experiences that it is Gods Infinite Power and wisdome and goodness to preserve the holy Scripture a standing Record of what the first Messengers and first Churches and first Doctrine and Christians were or else the world would fall down and adore the Images which the Lord hath suffered the Devil in them to set up 12. I know the Counsels of the Father of Lights are very deep yea the Revelation needs a Revelation the Prophecies and Canticles and Daniel need Heavenly Messengers and the most holy Spirit or finger of God to untie such knots Sure it is that Millions 20 of Jews and Gentiles must yet enquire with tears of blood after the Blood of a Saviour Sure they shall not awake out of their pits of Rottenness without some means Messengers sent from Heaven to rouze and wakâ—n them Sure their shall be no other words in their Mouths then what were in the mouths of the first Messengers according to the Prayer of the Lord Jesus on his Death bed to his Father through whose Word all that have believed the report ever since have believed Ioh. 17 and with which blessed word the Spirit of God will be in the mouths of all true Christians Isai. 59. 20. c. Surely the true Messengers of Jesus will say no other word then what Moses and the Prophets foretold and wrought Act. 26. therefore Fox and his Foxians that tells us they have all by the Spirit and need no Record are Thieves and Robbers whom Moses and the Prophets and Paul and the Apostles abhor'd to think of A 11. Instance is in Pag. 40. where G. Fox brings in I. Deacon saying The enjoyment of Immortulity is not till they have put off the Body He Answers Contrary to the Apostles Doctrine who saith Immortality was brought to light through the Gospel this was when they were upon the Earth and the Word of God was in them which was Immortal 1. I Reply First G. Fox affirms an Immortality that is a not dying of the Soul and Body As for the Soul all true Protestants affirm that the Soul once raised up to Spiritual Life never dyes no more than Christ Jesus Rom. 6. as for the Body Papists and Protestants and the Quakers and all the World grants that all Flesh is as grass c. and the Sentence of Death by sickness Age or Casualty is impartially executed upon the Foxians as well as other Câ—ttel As to the Soul who of sober Papists or Protestants questions the Immortality of it and of the Body also in joy or Sorrow to Eternity As for the Body the Quakers say when the Soul is gone into God yea the Soul of Iudas as well as the Soul of Peter as some of them say and all of them by Argument will be forced to say the Body returns to Earth and Rottenness never more to be raised and no more then Bodies of the Beasts Birds and Fishes though we know who holds the Bodies of Beasts Birds and Fishes shall live again as the Soul mortalists do what is it then 21 that G. Fox sputters out for Immortality or a not dying in this Life If he speak of the Soul who denies it If of the Body he speaks a Beastly Contradiction to the doleful Sense of all mankind and their own also who die and rot as well as them 2. It is true 1 Tim. 6. God only hath Immortality dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto what ever these Foxians bruitishly fancy of no distinction between God and themselves their Light and his It is true yet also that Iesus Christ 2 Timâ— 1. hath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel But what is this but the joyful Condition of the Souls Bodies of the godly their Souls and Bodies raised up with Jesus to a Spiritual holy Life in this World their Souls going to Jesus and their Bodies sleeping in Iesus and the rising of their Bodies and uniting to their Spirits in a Life Eternal 3. As to this Immortality of G. Fox all that can be known of his mind is old H. Nichols and the Nicolaitans mad fictions and fancies of their becoming God and Christ. I hope charitably of many of them that run in their Simplicity Ignorance and weakness with a true Love to the true Lord Jesus as some did with Absalom who truly loved David but as for Absolom himself the Polititians the subtle Plotters and Ahitophels who love not the true Lord Jesus in sincerity I fear instead of their fancied Immortality before the Grave they will meet with a dreadful Mortality or death of Soul and Body to Eternity A 12. Instance is Pag. 47. where he brings in Ioseph Miller saying The wise heathen Philosophers had a greater Measure of Light in them which is the first Adam then I can think any man hath now G. Fox Answ. which shews that he knows nothing of Christ the second Adam the quickning Spirit He knows no New Creature for who are in Christ are new Creatures nor none of Christ the Covenant of God of Light
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
time the Ship bound for England they were set upon by the Dutch and though these Women animated the Seamen to fight and Prophesied that not an hair of their head should perish yet they two were both slain as afterward came certain Tydings of the whole matter I own that it may please the Father of Spirits in cases extraordinary he may please to alter his common course of Naâ—uâ—e as in Abrahams case with Isaak but we must not tempt God but if God hath powred forth the gifts of Knowledge and Utterance upon some Women more then other they have three large fields to walk in mentioned by the Holy Scripture viz. of their instructing their Children c. 2. As occasion justly calls them from home of instructing other women especially the younger 3. Of confessing boldly the Name and Truth of Christ Jesus 28 when he suffers Tyrants to bring Persecution on them c. A 15th Instance is in pag. 56. where George Fox brings in Thomas Higinson saying The sight of the Godhead without Faith in Christ is the Foundation of all false worships He Answers Can any see the Godhead have a siht of the Godhead and â—ot see Christ and have Faith in Christ And who hath Faith in Christ do they not see the Fulness of the Godhead dwels in him Christ And was not their mind turneh from that of God in them which declared the Invisible things of him from the Creation of his Eternal Power and Godhead which the Apostle found fault withal Let all Examine and Judge and read the Scripture Rom. 1. and try I Reply In former years I have Conversed with all the Indians of this New-England by Land and Seas and I have read the 1. of the Romans often and now once again at G Fox his motion and I find that First there is generally in all mankind in the World a Conviction of an Invisible Omnipotent and Eternal Power and Godhead 2. That this Conviction doth arise from the Creation though some of the wisest of the World as Aristotle c. though Confessing a Godhead yet hold the world an Eternal Deity it self and never to have been created 3. I find not that ever any man or men by all their natural Light or wit or Christ within could find out how the World or himself Man or Woman were created Though Iames Nailour told us in print that if never a Letter of Scriptâ—re had been written yet their Spirit could tell them all things 4. I find all men confess that the will or Word or mind of God is pure and as they could come to know it is to be adored kept and observed and that it was ever and is wickedness to Sin against it 5. All mankind having the Law or without it are perswaded that some actions are naught and against Gods will as to steal to Murther c. 6. None for all the Light and Spirit in every one could ever find out how Sin how Sorrow and Death came into the World Nor how such Inclinations and Dispositions to Sin came into themselves c. 7. I find in all mankind a Conviction that God is just and 29 powerful and doth bring plagues and punishments upon persons and Nations for those gross Sins of Adultery Murther c. 8. I could never leaâ—n for all that Christ in every man Fox sings of that ever any man living or all the Counsels of men could ever know or learn four things but as revealed by God by extraordinary wayes of Dreams Visions c. or the ordinary of his holy Records and the Doctrine of them opened preached c. 1. How to pacifie Gods Justice 2. How to resist the Devils Tyranny 3. How to worship God 4. How to get true Blessedness here and in the World to come 9. Hence according to Foxes Opposite all mankind have invented so many false Gods false worships c. all the world over yet out of no more Love to God then the Lamb bears to a Lyon but out of Fear as the old saying is primos in Orbe Deos c. Fear made the first Gods Hence the Philistins sends the God of Israel a present and offering with Ark or Chest Hence the Samaritans with the Sechemites for fear of Lyons or hope of gain will be of any worship or Religion as most this day in the world will be yea all and every Soul except to whom in and from the holy Scriptures the holy Spirit reveals that Incomprehensible Mystery of a Mediatour A 16th Instance of Foxes lame writings is pag. 56. where he brings in the same Author saying The Iustification and Redemption by obeying the Light within is the Mystery of Iniquity He Answers He that believeth is justified from all things and comes not into Condemnation and he hath the wietnss in himself and that lets him see the Redeemer the Saviour the Light which walking in it he is cleansed from all Sin and so no Mystery of Iniquity For the Mystery of Iniquity is out of the Light None sees Iustification and Redemption but with the Light within which comes from Christ who hath enlightened him I Reply This is subtle but being examined it will be a mystery of hellish Iniquity and lighter then vanity it self For 1. He usually and here as before I have opened confounds Justification and Light and Christ and Faith and obedience after his Babylonish wont all in a Juglers box within together So that the English of Faith is Christ Obedience is Christ Justification is Christ Light is Christ c. It is true sometimes it pleased Gods Spirit to speak figuratively and to 30 call Christ sometimes our Justification and sometimes a Curse for us Sometimes Sanctification and sometimes Sin for us But it is a mystery or subtle trick of Hell to call Faith Obedience and Obedience to the Light Justification and Redemption and yet mean Christ. So that Fox his words may be in plain English thus rendred None sees Christ and Christ but with the Christ within which comes from Christ who hath Christed him The true Sense as Mony Answers all things but it is a Mystery of Iniquity to darken any much more heavenly matters with Confounding and not distinguâ—shing aright when matters are in Examination 2. It is another Gospel or glad News yet not another but is a dream and dead picture of an Image or Idol to put in our Obedience and working though I know they Father this Bastard upon the most holy God himself saying it is his Obedience his Righteousness his working in the Room of the Death and blood shedding the Sufferings and merits of the Lord Jesus 3. It is a Mystery of Iniquity subtly and yet churlishly and selfishly with Laban to change wages and the Covenant or Bargain so often to pretend with the Papists great abhorring of the Iewish worship and Iewish Covenant the Bargain of Do this and live the Bargain of saving our selves
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
Overseers to be Invisible for they saw with an Invisible Eye and so they was in the Spirit which is Invisible and not in the Flesh else they could not be Overseers in the Church of God and you are the visible apostatiz'd from them I Reply This is one of the most impudent Fooleries that either Fox or as the Proverb is any Dog could be impudent in For First 42 1. He acknowledgeth a publick Assembly of Christians as well as of other pretending Worsh ppers Turks Iews c. Also he acknowledgeth the Ministers Officers and Overseers of their Assemblies 2. His Reason is notoriously silly and impudent viz. because the Church is in God and the Overseers are made by the holy Spirit For are the secret works of God alwayes secret and never revealed The Child in the Wombe the precious Stones and Minerals when brought forth are no more Invisible then the Sun in the Firmament 3. The Christian profeâ—â—ion and professours however they were wrought and prepared and by divers means by Gods Spirits yet the Lord Jesus compares them to the most visible Conspicuous and glorious things and persons To the Sun and Moon in the Heavens and the Heavens and Stars also to Mountains and Cities on those Hills or Mountains To Kings To their houses and Palaces yea to Armes with Banners c. 4. Although the Lord Major of London and the several Officers of the City are not made and ordained in the public Streets nor Generals and other Officers appointed by his Majesty c. are they not therefore visible because their making and appointing was not Solemnized and performed in Cheapside c. 5. It is most true and most sweet that the Church is in God c. and is it not also true that in one Sense we live in God and move in God have our Being in God and yet the whole Creation is gloriously visible in another Sence the Saints their Assemblies and Officers are in God visible to the world abundantly though in an heavenly and spiritual Sence transcending the Being of the first Creation 6. G. Fox denies not but that although the first Churches were in God and the Officers of the Church and some of them were appointed immediately yet they were visible and audible by those with whom they Conversed 7. Yea G. Fox and his Foxians for all their being in God and some of their proud and silly Answerings in Courts that they live in God and dwell in God yet they disowne not their own visible Congregatings and Assemblings their visible Teachers Overseers or Bishops their visible and audible performances and Worships praying preaching singing c. and wâ—y then doth this 43 poor notoriously visible Cheatour thus prate of Invisibilities especially in times of peace and not in Elias Case The 22 Instance is in pag 84. where G. Fox brings in his opposite Magnus Byne saying The Scriptures may be understood by the help of Tongues He Answers All Scripture was given forth by Inspiration and so without the same Inspiration it is not understood again Pilate had the Tongues yet did not understand the Scripture nor Christ the Substance of it And this you have set up since the Apostacy your Tongues you Raveners from the Spirit I Reply First I make use of G. Fox his Confession viz. that all Scripture is inspired c. therefore say I he Consesseth that every word Syllable and Tittle in that Scripture or writing is the Word or immediate revealed will of God against his and his Foxians common Song hath God any more words but one 2. As to the Scriptures the understanding of them is threefold First Literal who understands not Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not Steal c. The second is Metaphorical as I am the Dore I am the Bread c. The third is saving and Spiritual when it pleaseth God to set home the heavenly Commands Promisâ—s c. in particular Soul Application 3. I observe the End of G. Fox and especially of the old Serpent and Fox that acts him It is to destroy the coming of Gods holy Records and writings to poor lost men to their Salvation that he may foist and whisp in what his hellish malice pleaseth to their Damnation For if no knowledge of the Tongues in which the most wise and most holy Lord pend his Letters or writing to us then no preaching of the Doctrine in them to the world witout some new miraculous way then no translating and reading of them which is that the Devil in all Ages and at this day aims at with all his might 4. I therefore charge upon this proud Ignoramus and all his blind Disciples and Followers the horrible Crime of Unthankfulness and Ingratitude for were it not for Tindal burnt to ashes and other heavenly Spirits set on work from Heaven to dig out the knowledge of the Hebrew and the Greek and to turn it into French Dutch English and now praised be God into the very 44 Indian Language of this Country how would these Seraphical Doctors know whether there were such a Creation of Heavens and Earth or of man and his wife which we now so talk of I put this question once to a Soul in this Country who told me although they had no English Scripture Gods Spirit would teach them Greek and Hebrew but I can declare to any that ask me the dreadful End of that party 5. I Charge upon this Foxian party the horrible Crime of a proud Laziness for not studying the Original Languages themselves It is a shameful Trade and deceitful when persons have mony in their hands to take up all on trust I have known very Eminent Men and Women Independants and Baptists give themselves up to serious study of the Hebrew Language I never knew any of the Foxian Spirits so inclind but according to the Lazie fool under the Fig-Tree which I have seen in an Embleme almost threescore year since they lie down and cry Sweet Figs drop down in yielding wâ—se For Lazie will not let me rise 6. I Judge that G. Fox and his wild Spirit can not prove that Pilate had the Hebrew Greek and Latin for though he caused by an heavenly finger of God such a Title to be set up in the three then most known Languages Hebrew Greek and Latin yet he himself might have no knowledge of any more then the Latin which was his Mother Romane Tongue As a Book seller may deal in Books of Hebrew Greek Latin French Dutch Italian Spanish c. and yet understand no more then his Mother English 7. I know the Devil abounds with Tongues and can speak all Languages and I know and have seen his Inspirations and three thousands verses in shâ—w very heavenly inspir'd by him in an English woman of this Country who had no such skill ex tempore They were taken and written from her mouth and I have read them and
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
yea in present joy unutterable and glorious Sometimes the Lambs Wife is visibly asleep though her heart wakes sometimes she is Alarmed by his knocking and is sluggishly unwilling to open to him sometimes she rises and opens but he is gone and she seeks for him by day and night and cannot find him 9. There is also a false feeling of Christ Jesus as I spake before of a false Conception in a Woman How many are bold to cry Lord Lord open for we have prophesied in thy Name c and yet I will not say as G. Fox here saith of his Feeling that all that have not my feeling or working of Christ are Reprobates yet 57 this I say as Solomon A Whore is Loud and Clamorous not so the Chaste and Sober and Modest Women and the Devil spake as Holy and Heavenly words as Angels could have spoken yet it was but the Divil in Samuels Mantle The 29th Instance is in pag. 117. where he brings in Giles Fermin saying Paul Swore after Christ and the Angels Swore I wonder Paul should so forget himself and sin so fearfully in Swearing so the Quakers Light that denies Swearing is of Satan and not the Light of Christ. He Answers Christ the Light which Satan is out of which is the Oath of God ends all Oathes Sworn by Prophets or Angels whatsoever and who Swares be fallen into the Condemnation of the Devil And it is no where said that the Apostle Swore but such as thou art matters not what thou speak so that Spirit that Preacheth for Swearing is not the Spirit of Christ but is the Spirit of Anti-Christ c. I Reply first G. Fox dares not deny but that the Angel and Paul Swore after Christ only he keeps his old Song viz That Christ put an end to Swearing and that it is not said that Paul Swore But 1. He waves that Sweareng of the Angel or Christ himself Rev. 10. for there he knows the very term of Swearing is used 2. As to Paul if the attestation of the Name of God be the formality of an Oath then if ever any Man Swore in this World Paul did saying to the Corinthians I call God to Record on my Soul that to spare you I came not as yet to Corinth c. Secondly It is true that all Nations have used to Swear by or Appeal to the Gods they owned and worshipped It is true also that they have used to put Creatures into the room of God and Swear by them as the Iews did and som write out of a Superstitious Reverence in forbearing the Name of God and indeed the Reasons Christ Jesus gives Mat. 5. look that way Thirdly It is true also that for abuse of Swearing by and Prophaning the Holy Name of God a whole Land may mourn as Ieremiah speaketh Fourthly There seems to be a very fair colour put on a universal Prohibition of Swearing by Christ Jesus and by his Apostle Iames Swear not c. 58 This Conjuror hath taken with many precious Servants of God former and latter even with many of those called the Fathers and with those Famous Protesters against the whore of Rome the Waldenses and with Famous Usher who doth more then seem to vindicate their not Swearing when Convented and Examined by the Popish Inquiâ—itors 5. Notwithstanding this and more which may be granted and though I should humbly motion to all higher Powers for Christian tenderness as to the holy Majesty of Heaven his Name and to the Souls of any making Scruple yet I must proclaim against G. Fox his lame and simple Return to the Objection of his Opposite concerning Paul and the Angel For why may not Paul and all the Apostles and Christ and all the Angels of Heaven and all the Saints of God upon the Earth in the words of Paul call God to Record upon their Souls that this or this was the Cause and Truth c. Considering 1. That neither the most holy God nor the Lord Jesus who I think is the Swearing Angel Rev. 10. nor the heavenly Spirits the Angels nor Paul nor any of Christs Apostles or Messeâ—gers would have practiced a Ceremony or a Shadow like Circumcision or the Passover at the time of the Day c. 2. Swearing or appealing unto God immediately in Oaths or Vows or Lots or Fastings though higher and above the practice of ordinary Invocations Supplications Thanksgivings c. were never accounted Ceremonies or Types of Substances to come but Real and Substantial Services and Addresses unto the most holy and most high Creatour written in the hearts of all mankind before ever Ceremony or Moses was born and therefore as the fear of God is put for the whole worship of God so also is swearing in the holy Scripture and we may as well deny all worship and Service visible and all External Acts of Homage and Devotion of the Body unto God yea and all the fear of God is there in the mind Soul and Spirit or in any External Obeysance or Reverence as this Service and worship of calling upon God and appealing to his holy Majesty as Witness and Iudge in some Cases c 3. Whereupon it follows that this high point of Gods worship is as real as moral as holy and perpetual as Prayer it self as preaching yea as Baptisme and the Lords Supper and no more Ceremonial though I know the Foxians make Baptisme and the 59 Lords Supper but Ceremonies for a time and ere long if they continue to hearken to Samuel within them they will account Prayer and Preaching whether Apostolical or Pastoral but Types and Shadows also 4. It is a most simple and un-Christian and Atheistical whimsie that Christ was the end of Oaths the end of the Prophets the end of the Scripture the end of Reghteousness in their Sense though as Mediatour he was the End or Perfection of and fulfilling of the Law of God which never Soul beside the Lord Jesus ever kept in thought word and deed what ever the proud Pharisees and Papists and Foxians prate c. 5. It is a gross Fancy to imagine that the Lord Jesus in the 5 of Math. gave new Commands or Contradicted the holy pleasure of his Father concerning Revenge Adultery Oaths Prayers Fastings but opened his Fathers Law in the purity and Spirituality of it against the rotten Expositions Traditions and practices of the Pharisees 6. In particular let all the Reasons be expended and carefully weighed which the Lord Jesus so wonderfully exactly gives why they should not swear by Ierusalem nor the Temple nor their Head nor any Oath to wit of such a Nature and half a sober eye may see that the Lord Jesus intends only to reduce them to an holy Swearing only by God in Gods way c. and in their Common Converse to use yea and nay c. 7. I have read a sober and man like Answer of F. H. called
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
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
though he often acknowledge that Christ is the Author and Finisher of Faith So that the Gift of God the words of God which are his Tokens Love Tokens and Love Letters they are God and Christ themselves the heavenly Father and his Son the heavenly Bridegroom John the Baptist cried out to all such proud Souls I am not He I am not worthy to untie his Shoe Latchet He it is that Baptizeth with Fire He is the Lamb of God c. He even that man upon whom he saw the Spirit descending like a Dove c. and blessed Paul with Iob abhors himself and counts his Holy Life his Prayers his Fastings his Righteousness Dung and Dirt compared with that of Christ Iesus in Opposition to that of the Law c. In which mud still the most zealous Papists and Quakers stick and talk idly of their fulfilling of the Law now by Christs Righteousness Grace and Spirit in them which they will at last find to be no more but the first Bargain or Covenant let them pride themselves never so much in their filthy menstrous Clouts and Rags of Holiness that is their Christ within them The 39th Instance is in Pag. 223. where he brings in the same Author saying The Light which discovers Sin and Iniquity 77 in Mans Heart is not Christ the dore He Answers The first Adam was the Dore whâ—reon all Sin and Transgression entred Christ the Light the second Adam which doth inlighten every man c. saith I am the Dore the Way and the Life which finish Sin and Transgression and brings in Everlasting Righteousness and the way of Dife out of Death which Light discovers Sin I Reply Edmund Burroughs in his large Epistle to G. Fox thiâ— hâ—s Book he tells us that this Light which they thus boast of shews mans threefold Estate before Transgression in Transgression and what he is by being saved out of Transgression It is true Christ Jesus doth this by many gracious means but not Immediately nor to every man that comes into the world For the World lies in wickedness and Darkness We are not only bleeding in our wounds but we are lost in the Wilderness We are stark dead in Sin and know no more that we are dead then a dead man knows of his Condition what do then these poor deluded Souls tell us of a Light and Christ within every man in the world discovering his pure Estate his foul Estate and his raised Estate which no man or woman in this world that I have read or heard of by Nature had any Spark or shine of such a Light no nor these proud Ignorants neither but they have read or heard of these things more or less from the holy Scriptures and Records 2. It is granted that Natures Light discovers a God some sins a Judgement as we see in Indians Education and preaching discovers more as in Saul Achitophel Iudas The Word and Afflictions makes Pharoah cry out I have sinned Miracles make Nebuchadnezzar and Darius cry out There is no God so great as Daniels and to make dreadful Laws against blasphemers of him though themselves continue in their old Idolatries yea doubtless Natures Light is able in self deceitfulness wonderfully to Counterfiet true heavenly Light and the Devil seem an Angel or Messenger of Light from Heaven 3. What is this to a saving Conviction which Gods Spirit worketh in those that shall be saved when they cry out as the wounded Iews what shall we do to be saved and as the Gaolour what shall I do to be saved until this saving Sense of my Condition and Gods Justice what is Christ a Physitian a Saviour a Redeemer Bread Water Wine and oil to me All is needless yea loathsome though an bony Comb to a full Soul what talk 78 you of a pardon to an honest man or if a Rope or Barr to save a secure Epicure in his downe Bed 4. Again how poor a plea is this Adam was the dore to sin therefore Christ is the dore to the discovery of sin For look upon Adam in his Fall 1. He saw his sin 2. He had horrour of Conscience 3. He run from God 4. He hides himself 5. He He fals to mincing end excusing his sin All this is revealed to us and not a word yet heard of Christ the promised Seed or a Light Christ Jesus to Convince him of sin That was another work a saving work which we may hope the Spirit of God wrought in him upon the preaching of Christ Jesus the Seedâ—nd â—nd Mediatour to come 5. I know the Song of the great deluder is Turn to the Light hearken to the Light thou seest it chides thee for thy Stealing for thy lying c. Is not this the Christ c. listen to him be still sink down obey him he will teach thee save thee c. But the Bottom is the English and meaning is hearken to Sathan the God of this world be ruled and taught and guided by him The Scripture is but a dead Letter the true Christ is within thee he will turn thee from these sins and make thee perfect as God is perfect c. Christ is come now in us the second Time without sin to Salvation He is come in us Ten thousand of his Saints to Judgement He within thee is the word of God the Christ of God the Light of God the Spirit of God God himself and He seeks Worshippers in Spirit and Truth for the visible things are temporal c 6. But what is there in all this but the noise of Fenny bitter in hollow Canes c What is here but that common Businesses may reach to 1. The Conscience of good and evil which every favage Indian in the world hath 2. The whisperings the blâ—ndings and cheatings of the Devil in Samuels mantle pretending vowing and Swearing to be the word of the Lord to be Christ Jesus yea that to your feeling c. 7. But what are these to Christ Jesus a dore of Hope to poor wounded and damned sinners God by his Law and Justice by outward hearing or reading and inward Convictions of Natural Conscience hath passed Sentence of Eternal Death and Hell on them They feel it they cry out now the Gospel or glad news of a Saviour a Jesus is Hony in the mouth c. Now Luke 4. he 80 heals the broken heart he sets free the Prisoners ho gives Light to them that see themselves blind and Cry to him as the blind man did Christ medles not with sound persons who have no need of his Bloud Righteousness and Merits c. The 40 Instance is in Pag. 224. where G. Fox brings in Ellis Bradshaw saying There is more words then one He Answers God is the word and the Scriptures are the words which Christ fulfil I Reply 1. As the designe of the bloudy Pope and Iesuits are to kindle wars between the Protestants
teaching in the Hebrew applied from the new Prophets Isaiah and Ieremiah is the teaching of the new Covenant and that is the promise of Grace and Mercy to so many as are predestinate and called c. 2. That is no Immediate Extraordinary and miraculous business for this is common to all that repent or turn to God 3. Many had and may have the speaking with Tongues and working with Miracles and yet not know what the teaching of the Spirit in a new Birth is 4. In the Ordinary Teaching to Conversion the Lord owns his Servants as Fellow Labourers Workers Builders Husbandmen Fathers c. wherein he is pleased to open the hearts of one Thousand and Ten Thousand as he did in the first preachings of that glad News and I hope will do so again 5. The great Promise to Christ Jesus and his Seed is that there shall be a gracious Continuance in Christs mouth the mouth of his Seed of both the word that is preached and the holy Spirit more or less accompanying and Teaching Isa. 59. 6. What is there in G. Fox his wild Notion Can that which brings Salvation be outward Against all the Proofs before I mentioned and so many others concerning the Foolishness of Preaching c. Object He saith The grace of God teacheth every man to deny ungodly Lusts c. And I ask 1. If every man in the world hath this Immemediate work on them what 's the Reason we find none in the world no not the wisest until they have the Scripture or the Doctrine thereof some way opened to them that have been able to give us the least Tidings of any such business 2. What 's the Reason that so few in the world have any shew of Repentance c. much less a sound and and saving turning of the whole Soul unto God 87 Why do the Quakers make such adoe about their Apostles Men and Women as if that glorious Light the Father Son and Spirit in every man were not able to teach Effectually by his Extraordinary and miraculous power without their outward speaking to the Seed that is to God within them 4. If they themselves teach by such an Extraordinary and miraculous power as the Prophets of old and the Apostles of Christ Jesus did what should be the Cause why we see no such miraculous deeds done by any of them The Truth is God is pleased to chain up Sathan otherwise the Foxians would have their longing which it may be some shall after them But if they shall be permitted by God and assisted by the Devil to do as the Magicians did yet if their Doctrine be other then what is written as I have abundantly proved it to be while they cry out Light Light there is none as Isaiah speaketh not a Spark of Light within them The 43. Instance is in Pag. 247. where G. Fox brings in Christopher Wade saying The written Word is the Sword of the Spirit And he makes another Rule beside the Scripture false He Answers which we say is the Spirit which gave them forth whereby Peace is known upon the Israel of God And the Pharisees had the Scripture but had not the Sword of the Spirit the Scriptures testifies of the Sword of the Spirit I Reply 1. With all humble Reverence to the most holy Spirit of God who is God himself I affirme the Spirit or God can not here be the Sword intended For 1. This Spiritual Furniture being a Similitude taken from warlike and Military Provision and Artillery from Head to Foot the Helmet Breastplate the Shield the girdle the Shoes and every one applied to gifts and means flowing from Gods Spirit as Faith Hope Sincerity c. it were most improper then to bring in God or the Spirit to be the Sword or any of the other pieces 2. For there is no more Reason to make the Spirit or God to be the Sword then the Shield or any other piece 3. It seems too low to the holy Spirit and God to be here in this Similitude resembled to a Sword or Instrument in the hands of men to be drawn and brandished and fought withal for Offence and Defence at mens pleasure though in some Sence God 88 4. This was the Sword the only Sword is called a Sword with which the Lord Jesus fought and vanquished the Devil Gegraptas Gegraptai It is written it is written and we may well say of it as David of the Sword of Goliah by which Davidâ—nt â—nt off his head there is none to that c. The holy Spirit Christ and God are Authors of all these heavenly Gifts and Graces the Beginner and Finisher of Faith and therefore not Faith nor Hope nor any other piece of the Artillery themselves no more then the Armorer is the Helmet or the Cutler the Sword c. 6. In Revel 1. Christ and the Sword with two Edges which cometh forth of his mouth are distinct and can not be the same as G. Fox usually Confounds and mixeth all together Hence the the Word of Christ Col. 3. can not be Christ himself but that which cometh from him and tendeth to him 7. These great Interpreters are Confounded in themselves for here in Ephes. 4. the Spirit must be the Sword and Word of God But in Heb. 4. Christ must be the Sword with two Edges being the Word of God and not the Spirit So like Iuglers do they shift from one hand to another to Confound and beguile the Beholders Object But the Spirit saith G. Fox was before the Scripture and gave forth the Scripture I Answer what then G. Fox is before his Book and gave it forth is it not therefore G. Fox his word writing but G. Fox himself Or is it not the Kings Majesty before his Declaration or Proclamation to the world Is it not therefore the Kings word or is it the King himself This Immediate Inspiration of the holy Scripture from the Spirit makes it a Word so powerful a Magazine Store-house so full of Treasury so rich a Standard Touchstone or Weights so perfect for the trial of all Spirits all writings all Doctrines all Religions Worships Actions c. Object But the Pharisees saith G. Fox had the Scripture but they had not the Sword of Gods Spirit I Answer The Iews had and have and so the Turks have had much of it the Papists and the Quakers and other Blasphemors yea and the Devils themselves may have the Scripture the word of God in their Hands and mouths for may not a true Sword a choice Sword be in a mad mans hand whereby he may 89 mischief and wound and kill himself and others Hence men make merchandize of it sophisticate and Adulterate and turn it into a Lie c. On the other hand the Spirit of God is promised to Gods Children Gods Spirit and Word are promised to go together in the mouths of all true Christians Isa. 55.
this holy Spirit is to be praid for Luke 11. and is therefore powerfully present with Gods true Messengers while they Translate Expound Preach as Paul did Acts 26. No other things but what Moses and the Prophets wrote of The 44th Instance is in Pag. 253. where he quotes Henry Haggar saying You call all men dead and Carnal in the Serpents Nature in what Form soever if they differ from you G. Fox Answers All that be not in the Light that inlightneth every man that cometh into the world which is the way to the Father differeth from us such be dead such be Carnal in the Seepents Nature For none comes to the Life but who comes to the Light in what Form so ever they be And such as differ from us differ from Christ For none come from under the Serpents head and Nature but who comes to the Light I Reply 1. As David said of some whose Teeth were as Swords and Solomn saith there is a Generation c. of such whose Teeth are as Swords and if ever there were a Generation of such in the world the Papists and these Foxians are the Generations here intended For it is in vain to tell them of Christ the Foundation and of building Wood Hay Stubble c. If you come not roundly to the Pope with the Papists Or to the Light within c. nothing remains but Fire and Brimstone Damnation c. 2. It is true in some of their writings and in Edmund Burroughs himself there seems to be some charitable hopes of some having something of Sincerity in them and of breathing after the Lord but I observe they fall in with G. Fox again viz. except that those persons owne their Idols called Light within them 3. The Protestants overcome the Papists not only by Scripture and Argument but in Charity also for they profess to have Hope of many among the Papists as they do also of many amongst the Quakers But the Papist and Quaker like Fire-ships burn and blow up all that bow not down to theis Image c. 90 4. How far are these from the Spirit of Christ Jesus toward the poor Woman the Syrophenician who by her worship was a dog and he told her so yet believing in him and content to gather up Crumbs as a Dog under his Table he grants her Suit and magnifies her personal Excellency Thus dealt he with the Centurion and Cornelius and with every poor Reed if truly bruised for Sin and every Lock of smoaking Flax reaking in truth of Love to God and the Lord Jesus He proclaims the Kingdome of Heaven to the poor in Spirit who see themselves dead and lost and damned and seeing no help no Grace not a penny nor a patch of any good in them but waiting as Beggars at the gate the beautiful and glorious gate of mercy He proclaims Blessedness and Promises to the bleating Lambs as the fruitful Sheep to the Infants and new born Babes that hunger and thirst for the milk of Righteousness that by the Patience and Comfort held forth in the writings or Records they may have hope although yet they cannot be Consident of any work of God in them and are not so bold to Confess Christ Jesus openly and kiss him in the Streets but steal to him by night as Nicodemus and Ioseph until they saw him bleeding on the Gallows He bare with his Disciples though foolish and slow of Heart hard-hearted ignorant of his Death and Resurrection and loath to hear of such metters The 45th Instance is in Pag. 259. where he quotes Iohn Brown saying And them that bring people to look at the Light within them are as Korah Dathan and Abriam G. Fox Answers All that go from the Light within them are as Korah Dathan and Abiram amongst the Lords Prophets Exalting themselves and Persecuting 1. I Reply and Examine unto whom this Famous History may most properly be Applicable for sure it was a Type and word of God 1. Then that which the Spirit of God chargeth upon Korah is a rising up a Revolt and Rebellion against the Lord his Appointments and Ministers or Officers Moses and Aaron c. I know G. Fox chargeth this upon all that pretend to any Ministry and Ministration and have not the Immediate Spirit of 91 God as the Apostles had but as he speaks simply are Ravened from it and are still Apostates c. But I Answer the Protestant Religion is a Religion protesting against the abominations of that bloody man of Sin the Pope both in his Doctrines and Worships and Conversations These Protesters have been since the Waldenses in France and Germany and low Countries and England Scotland Denmark Swedland Polonia Transylvania Norway Ireland c. Conflicting Contending with their Tongues their pens and their Blood against the Bloody Whore and Church of Rome according to many passages in the Revelations most wonderfully and miraculously fulfilled upon them From these all their holy Doctrines and Endeavours after Gods pure worship are the Quakers Revolted and set up a Flag of Defiance against all but pretended Immediately Inspired persons Invisible Worships and Ministers and a sullen proud and dogged Conversation for the general of them 2. As Absoloms and Shebahs Conspiracies were notable and Signal against King David the Prophetical and Kingly Type of the Lord Jesus so was Korahs and his Conspirators very Considerable and Eminent against Moses and Aaron Types of the Prophetical Priestly and Kingly Office of the blessed Lord Iesus Christ It is said Numb 16. that Korah the Levite and Dathan and Abiram the Sons of Reuben and two hundred and fifty Princes and Notable Men of Fame in the Assembly thus kindled the Coals of this proud Conspiracy which had broke forth into devouring Flames except that the Sheepherd of Israel who never slumbers nor sleeps had most graciously and wonderfully watcht for the timeous and early Extinguishing of it As to the pretending Quakers it is known that they are not Sons of Obscurity as Bull and Farminton Reeves and Mugleton but for Estate and parts for Education and Learning some of them for pretences of Piety Conscience patience Zeal and Mortification yea and also for their Numbers all which they predicate in their Books and in my dispute with them with loud Trumpets they are known to be Considerable and as like to spread as did the Arrians Papists or Mahometans 3. Korah and Dathan c. they were by Gods righteous Judgement so fixed and setled and hardned in their Perswasion 92 and Confidence that they Contemned all Moses meekness and Answered stoutly We will not come up when he Cited them before the Lord yea say they wilt thou pluck out the Eyes of these men and they daringly and desperately brought their Censers to offer Incense and Worship to God as may be applied to these proud and Confident and desperate Foxians 4. Their Charge was
Virgins love thee Oh how many prate of this spirit or Ointment and yet hate the true Lord Jesus hate his Love Letters the holy scriptures and would be glad to see them in a Bone fire hate his poor true Quakers that desire to fear before him and tremble at his Word and to mourn that having received such manifestations of the holy spirit of God they have profited others so little and glorified God in their Generations 8. I might Insist upon the End which G Fox insisteth on viz. to profit withal and ask why David Psal. 53. Complains that all the Children of men not one excepted are unprofitable good for nothing yea abominable that is to spiritual matters heavenly things the world to come All even the sweetest Natures the fairest the wittiest the wisest the learnedst the devoutest untill the spirit of God come and truly change the heart and whole Frame of Nature Till then we as profitable as Hogs as Moles in a Garden as Water or Fire breaking into a ship and as devouring Foxes amongst the true Lambs and Chickens of Christ Iesus The 53d Instance of G. Fox his lame Answer is in pag. 328 where he quotes Hugh Archbal saying Christ doth enlighten none but them that do receive him He Answers Contrary to John 3. which speaketh of them that hate the Light and are enlightened and will not come to it because the Light will reprove them so he that hates the Light is enlightned and will not receive Christ. I Reply though I have spoken much of the Light and of receiving Christ Jesus c yet since this proud Boaster drags his Opposites out of Scotland also I pray the Readers patience while I tell him of a manifold Light which the Holy spirit mentions under a Metaphor or Figure of Light 1. The Natural perceiving of Natural things as Christ Jesus saith The Light of the Body is the Eye 2. The Light of peace and joy whether Corporal or spiritual Temporal or Eternal The Iews in Hamans down-Fall and their own Deliverance had Light and Joy c. and Light is sown for the Righteous c. 105 3. The common offers of the Gospel as Light whence some have observed that the word so cried up in Iohn 1. is not inlightneth but lighteth but the word Photizei may signifie both and yet be no more then the Common offer preaching and sound of the glad News or Gospel The people that sate in Darkness saw great Light c As the Light of a candle coming in lightens or enlightens the Walls and Room but being taken away again leaves no Impression or change upon the Wall or as the Sun shining or guilding the Earth being clouded leaves no Impression of shining on the Earth behind it So is it with the Common offers of Trading or marriages in the world and so of the heavenly Offers of Merchandize and Heavenly Marriage c. 4. There is yet a higher Light which some are affected Tinctur'd and enlightened and yet not the true and saving Light that in Heb. 6. where some persons as the pretended Quakers and G. Fox especially have seen much of the Nature of God his holiness his Iustice c. and had a Tast of the Ioyes of the next world but proudly turned from the holy Scripture from the true Lord Jesus and the true holy enlightning humbling and saving Spirit of God 5. The true Lighting or Enlightning of which the holy Scripture speaketh is that of 2 Cor. 4 a place fouly and simply abused by G. Fox to prove the Light in every man where Paul shews how by the preaching of the glad News or Gospel God had shined in their hearts not in the hearts of all the men in the world nor in the hearts of all the Corinthians and had given them a sight of the glory of God in the Face or from the Reflexion or means of the face of the Mediator the man Christ Jesus Hence all those Heavenly Appellations or phrazes or Names Children of the Day Illuminated or Inlightned Ones You were Darkness but now you are not only Inlightened but Light in the Lord that is become not as Fox pretends Christs and Gods and no distinction but of a bright Spiritual Nature longing humbly and mournfully in the use of the holy Scripture and all other means more to come out of Darkness into the Light of holiness and likeness unto God Object G. Fox alleadgeth Iohn 3. They which hated the Light were inlightned I Answer No question but with the general Offer of mercy 106 as of the Candle or Sun to the Eyes of a blind man which is yet their Condemnation because if they had power yet their wills and Lusts and Resolutions refuse and abhor it and abhor their eyes should be opened to see it Whereas the Gospel or glad News is published or preached there is a twofold Effect of it as Acts 13. and Acts 17. and Acts 28. and through all Experience in all Ages and in all parts of the world some mock some demur some persecute others the Spirit or Power of God opens their hearts to fear to believe to submit and in Gods time to rejoyce for ever in a Saviour The 54th Instance is in Pag. 330. where G. Fox brings in Iames Dorram saying The Believer is not in sin as the Unbeliever is he sins not as the Unbeliever doth and in another place he saith the Law is the same to the Believer that it is to the Unbeliever G. Fox Answers Here any may read thy Confusion but I say unto thee He that believeth doth not commit Sin but the unbelief is Sin Rom. 11. 20. And Christ is the End of the Law to every one that believes for Righteousness sake Roms 10. 4. and yet thou puts both Believers and unbelievers under the power of the Law I Reply The Devils no question know Sin they see Sin but not in the true glass of the holy Scripture They see sin as Saul and Iudas c. in the fire of the Coal as dreadful in the punishment but not in the blackness of the Coale as against their new Life and Nature and the purity of the Eternal who hath begotten them unto holiness The Robber and Murtherer bewails his offence at the Gallows though yet his heart is not changed but could he he would murther the Judge and all that had a hand in his Condemnation and Execution The Drunkard hates his Sin as a Tyrant over him only as it brings Discredit to him so is it with the unclean person and every other sinner But it is not so with the Regenerate or new Born who can no more unless deceived and Circumvented touch Sin then the Devil the Father of it nor then Fire can delight in Water nor Light in Darkness 3. It is true that 7 of the Romans is contended for by the Papists and Arminians and in a great measure by the Quakers 107
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
and some never The Quakers yet are more gross in this point because they maintain that the least that hearken to the Light are born again That they which are born again cannot Sin that they which can not Sin are pure as God is pure and therefore they Falling away from them they must necessarily hold that which is blasphemous of all to be abhorred that God himself may fall from Grace also and is kept down as the 110 as this barking Fox speaks as a Cart laden with sheaves perverting the Scripture by wickedness wicked spirits which are too hard for God and Christ and Spirit in all the Men and Women in the world that do not hearken to their feigned Light and let loose the Imprisoned Cart and Seed c. Wee may make a stand here and observe three things 1. The horrible abuse of Gods Excellent Gifts of Reason and Acuteness which these men so grossly desile in handling the Misteries and Parables of the holy Scripture 2. Gods Infinite Patience in bearing with such a rotten stinking thing as man is 3. What kind of Grace it is that so easily persons Fall away away from and part withal 2. As to Ezek. 18. How doth it follow that because the word Righteousness in which Fox in his wonted Burrough signifies divers things that therefore in this first place it must signify the Imputed Righteousness of God in Christ from which a man really Invested with it may really Totally and Finally depart And Secondly the Sanctifying Righteousness of Christ Jesus adorning a poor sinner Justified and pardoned and of that true Righteousness a truly sanctified Soul and member of Christ Jesus may make shipwrack But is there not beside these a very thirdly Indian Rigâ—teousness when a Barbarian is Innocent and free from Crimes falsly charged on him 4. Is there not a Civil Righteousness when men are free from Gross and Barbarous Courses and live Civilly soberly and justly among their Neighbors 5 Yea is there not a Pharisaical Righteousness which Paul prided himself in viz that concerning the Law he was blameless and yet saith the Lord Jesus Except your Righteousness go beyond this Righteousness you shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven 6. Again Is there not a Righteousness of the foolish Virgins who hath a shew and Lamp of Profession and make as brave a shew in building as the house upon the Rock it may be fairer and yet no true work of Conversion of the Soul to God nor the Oyle of Gods Spirit in the heart for all their boasting of it The most High and holy will be clear when he is Judged Adam shall live if he keep his Bargain and so shall all his Posterity if they keep the first Covenant 111 If any shall say God knows the Bargain is too hard for us Our first Father did not how shall we c. I Answer what will become then of the Papists and Quakers who say they can and the Papists more also then God commandeth 2. Christ did not mock but meekly and savingly teach the young man when he Answered If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments nor doth he mock the Iews dealing with them upon the Terms of Iustice Obey and live Transgress and die It is a pertinent question why was the holy Law of God written and given so many hundreds of years after man was Fallen and not able to keep his Bargain The Spirit of God Gal. 3 tels us that four hundred and Thirty Years after the Promise to Abraham the Law was written by Gods own Immediate Finger to shew unto man his Sin and Judgements and need of a Mediator promised 3. As to G. Fox Cursing his Adversary as a Diminisher from the holy Scripture I Answer Doth this Face of Brass who hath so horribly slighted the holy Scripture now adore them Is he now zealous for them and against the violation of them Doth he regard the adding to or Detracting from them or the Plagues and Curses therein denounced against the Adders to or Detracters from them Doth he not throughout all his Book and all of them in word and writing deny the holy Scripture to be the word of God and only that Frantick Light or Christ imagined by them to be in all mankinde to be the only Word of God yea is it of any use or more availe to them that have the Scripture in their heart as they say then a dead Letter and an Old Almanack c. O hear O Heavens and give Ear O Earth did ever the Devil vomit out more poyson against God and the Souls of men by the mouths and pens of Iews or Turks or Anti-Christans then these Foxians do in their undermining the holy Scriptures Some know it not Some of them speak Reverently of it The very Papists Confess it to be the very word or Speech of God But the Devil and the Quakers abhor to hear them Verbum Dei the Word of God These bewitched Soules affirme they have a higher Teacher yea 112 every man in the world hath him in them then the Scriptures are and yet they say in horrible simplicity and hypocrisy that they are the Words of God The 58th Instance of G. Fox his slight Answer as in Pag. 356 where he brings in a Book from Holland saying That God hath put out the Remembrance of your Sins and of your Corruptions within you wherein you must fight all your Life Time G. Fox whilst the Sins you are fighting withal are not blotted out in your own particulars this is not the Life of the Saints They are not fighting all their Life Time but come to the Kingdome of God witnessing sin and Iniquity blotted out and the Everlasting Covenant of Peace and Life with God I Reply This subtle Mountebank having gotten a Scaffold he acts Tricks wonderful in the Eyes of the simple yet as in all his Books he shews no knowledge of the Hebrew and the Greek whence our English Scripture comes as a Daughter from the Mother so falls he short of most English writers who scorns to disgrace their Mother English by so much bastard and false English as this poor Mountebank hath done in all his Books If ever any poor empty Soul have talkt of God without God Of a Christ and the holy Spirit within without them or any true Savour of them of the holy writings of God without any true Reverence and love to them Of Light without any Spark of true Illuminations of sin without any true Sence of the Exceeding Sinfulness of it This Empty Cask this loud Boaster and Censurer is one of them 1. His Answer saith three things in Effect 1 That no sin is blotted out until there be no more Root nor Seed of it in the Soul to fight against I Reply to this I have spoke much before and shewed how clear it is against so much holy Scripture against the Counsels and
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 Quak. dig up the root of al Christianity in the 4 great Doctrines thereof 1 Interline man R. W. Ms. Ann. Tho Collier The Quak. hold no Heaven nor Hell to come John Clapham The Pollard The epicurian Philosophers the Quakers one Sect. 1 Change to err R. W. Ms. Ann. The 9th Position proved Mâ— Perkins saying of the Papists and mine of the Quakers Neither Papists nor Quak skil â—ow to pay Gods justice The Character of a Quaker 1 Interline or R. W. Ms. Ann. What true turning to God is Iacobs Ladder of true Christianity The Quakers â—nd most mens Shipwrack The Quakers Minâ—sters and â—heir Plea A close fight as to Religion The easiness of the Quakers Religion One Devil changed for another yea sometimes one for seven The Quakers simple boast of numbers The carnal weapons The Quakers Spirit far from purity and Holiness The Spight og the Quakers Spirit The ignorance of the Quakers The abominable Spirit of the Quakers nakedness Quakers driven on by the old Spirit of the Adamites The rising of the Quakers Diverse Sorts suffered by God to fall into the Quak Ditch But especially for Male and Female Protestants The great distinguishing Character of true and false Pretenders The 3d Position debated at Providence Two great Competitors the Popes and Foxians Spiritual pride the devils pride The Popes Quakers pride compared The Quakers hoast of their number The audncious impious faecs of the Foxians Pope Edmond commanding silencing the Governour A second Paralel between the Pope Quakers 1 these R. W. Ms. Ann. The Pope and Quakers usurp over the Souls of all men Humph Norton G Fox compared G F. a subtler Fox then Hum. Norton A third parallel between the Pope Quak. Both Papists Qukers their Pride above the Scriptures The Pope aad Quakers horrible revilers Slanderours cursers of the Righteous The 5. parallel The infallibility of the Popes and Quakers Oracles The Holy Spirit in a Cloakbag at the Councel at Trent The Pope and Quak the two great pretenders and corrivals for the pretended Holy Ghost The Quak pretending to be Apostles F F his Counterfeit mirrcles 1 Interline and. R. W. Ms. Ann. A 6 Parallel between the Pope the Quak. A 7 parallel between the Pope and Quakers 8 Parallel as to the sinless condition of the Quakers G F his proud Blasphemy as to God himself H B the first Perfâ—ctist in these parts and most notorious for Imperfections The difference amongst the Quakers as to these things The 4th of the seven last Positions The Indians Religion A Deity or higher Power acknowledged by Indians The four chief Religions of the World The religious Diffâ—rences among the Protestants Fundamental Differences The Quakers easie Conversion and Churches not comparable to the way of N-England Flatterers of Kings The whorish Quakers and whore of Rome The Devil a roaring Lion The Quak pretences to outgo all pretending Preachers True Preachers or messengers The Earthly Heavenly Sword A great mystery amongst Papists and Protestants A word to the Protestants The mystical Farmers The 5th of the last 7 positions The suffrings of the Quakers Pauls and the Quak suffrings The Quak. sufferings in Hystory of G. Bishop recorded E. Burrowes his Epistle quoted The Quotation weighed What true Suffering is 1 Interline and R. W. Ms. Ann. True Scripture Language The wonderfull Sufferings of Hereticks Great failings of Gods Children in this life True and False Sufferers for the Name of Christ. The Quakers described 1 Interline a. R. W. Ms. Ann. I Fox G Fox their Martyrs the contrary causes of their Sufferings Heavenly love carried on G Foxes even felf God and Christ Spirit Virgin love to God c. The humility of Christs sufferers Devilish pride The predictions of the Quakers A blessed saying of blessed Mr. Dod. The 13 position discusd The Quakers and other Authors compared G. F. his Writingâ— poor and lamâ— G F his book in folio considered G F his ignorance of common English Horrible contradiction 1 Holy Spirit R. W. Ms. Ann. The excellent men Whom G F in his book in folio trampleth â—n as Dishclouts Dogs Devils A difference of Sinners G. Fox no true Goldsmith Fox his subtilty and yet simplicity in granting the Script to be the words of God The word Humane abominable above all words to the Quakers The simple tautologyes of the Quakers The injuâ—â—ing wild imperiousness of G. Fox Hen. Haggar Bloudy and devillish Pride of the Foxians Fox his horrihle railing Fox his bruitish and ridiculous Song What Railing is Instances out of G. F. his Book Sam. Eaton 1 1. Tim. 6. R. W. Ms. Ann. Gods being out of our reach The nature of Spirits How God and Christ of is in us Sam. Eaton The Scripture the Rule The Holy Scripture a Lanthorn Try all things Sam Eaton Gods mediate teachings his word voice manifold and specified Pauls wonderful mediate and immediate conversion Immediate teachings Revelations considered in 7 particulars The great business of Revelations Sam Eaton What is the Gospel The horrible Cheat of the Foxians Why the Gospel is called the Power of God How it is called Pauls Gospel 1 by R. W. Ms. Ann. Three Foxes The Scripture the word or glad news from Heaven written Counterfeits destroy not true â—eirs and owners for ever A word to all Foxians Gods wonderful preservation of his word or wil to poor mankind John Bunian The great Position of Iustification Iustification what it is The proud Quakers affirm no distinction between God themselves 1 Drops R. W. Ms. Ann. Ioseph Kellet Our natural Alienation from God Few excellent men saved 1 Ye R. W. Ms. Ann. Our alienation from God Richard Baxter The matters of perfection Phil. 3. about perfection 1 Erase Brethren and. R. W. Ms. Ann. The estate of Gods Children upon Earth Richard Baxter The great consequence of a word Ellis Bradshaw The honor which the Quakers give to others Civil respect Thou Thee Incivilities ought to be moderately punisht The 14. Position debated W E. c standing upon coals Civility and Courtesie N. Eng. one work to civilize a Barbarous People The Quakers monstrous Incivility The Indians and Quakers of one Spirit The Quakers again maintain their womens Nakedness Signs and Figures discussed The Quakers spirit enraged The Quakers spirit tending to Arbetrary Government The Quakers have no need of Scripture much less of the written Laws of men The Quakers none else in the World fit for Gonrnment as they judge T A his Testimony The 3d. Branch Immediate impulses The Kings Grandfather H. 4. of France murthered upon pretence of a vision of Angels W. Edm. W. Harris their mallice towards me W Harris his character and practise W H the Q the higher powers as they simply affirm W Edm. his ignorant and impudent zeal and upbraidings The point of persecution So many Quak. so many Popes The pretended meekness of the Quakers
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