Papist and a Quaker The Doctrine of Perfection or a Sinless State began among the Pharisees who thought mental sins nothing therefore Christ reproves them convinceth them that a Wrathful thought is Murther an Unchast thought Adultery a Covetous thought Theft for these are contrary to the Divine Law and stain the Heart of Man The greatest wickedness that ever was acted by the most Profligate man in the world was at first but a Thought and his greatest sin virtually therein The greatest Oak was once no bigger than an Acorn the Fire that Burnt London but a Spark I trouble not the Reader with the usual distinctions among the Learned of a Perfection of Parts and a Perfection of Degrees Not that I think them unuseful but not so intelligible to all Capacities He sinneth in his highest acts of Love to God that cannot say I love God so well it is not my duty to love him more neither have I reason to bewail the want of it So I might enlarge about Time Prayer c. Now as this Doctrine began among the Hypocritical Hereticks in the Church of the Jews so it was taken up by such in the Church of Rome and carried on by such in the Protestant Church I affirm and am able to prove it The Quakers borrowed their Expositions and Arguments out of Popish Authors Let any man compare Kellison the Jesuit his Survey of the New Religion and Barclay's Apologia pro Theologia vere Christiana together and speak his mind in this point I could never get any of our Perfectionists for so I often call them as detesting them for this worst of Doctrines to Answer this first Question They desire no Pardon of God for any Imperfection in the end of a Day For fear I think God should take them at their word few of them now pretend to it or talk so much of it for fear it may be they should be laught at so many living and conversing with them see so much pride passion unfair dealing neglect of all Family and secret Duties I remember one of Bristol a Scholar who tells us in Print his outward name was Lawrence Steel a Novice lifted up with Pride and so fell info the Condemnation of the Devil he once said to the Reverend Mr. Fairclough of that City Not that I am Perfect would I were yet going on in Disputing or rather Prating he urged that much mistaken and abused place He that committeth sin is of the devil then you are so said Mr. Fairclough to him on your own confession according to the wrong gloss you give of the words Instead of an argument for an answer he fell into an angry fit and so into angry words Question 2. Whether George Bishop of the City of Bristol a Scholar writing a Book call'd A Looking-Glass for the Times was not a most deceitful Writer though then their grand Champion He saith in the Title page That the quakers were most like to the ancient Christians as was proved in the Book out of Eusebius Socrates Scholastieus Evagrius and Dorotheus Yet in the Folio is so far from such a proof that he doth not attempt it But to do him right he gives a true account out of those Authors but such a description of Ordination by Laying on of Hands Singing of Psalms Swearing against the Arians and all other things that prove them to be altogether unlike the Quakers and like us It is true by the ble in a few leaves he speaks of Jerom and it may be some others who were against taking of Oaths which if true is not material for I knew one worthy Minister against it and some private Christians and would to God this were all the Controversie between us and our Perfectionists The Book cur'd me of the temptation which I confess induc'd me to read it Tell me Was there ever such a cheat since Writing or Printing were known in the world Did he think we would look no further than the Title Page and take his word for all the rest One of these Books for this rare admirable Discovery was sent to every Doctor in the University in my time which was twenty seven year since for their Conviction and Edification If any say the Quakers were like them for Sufferings so were the Protestants much more in Queen Mary's days the Papist in Queen Elizabeth's days the Nonconformists in the Reign of King Charles the Second that Papist in Masquerade as he confessed on his Death-bed No he pretends likewise in Principles and Practice Since the Reading of his Book I could never think of the Author without great detestation as the greatest piece of Falshood and Impudence that ever appear'd in the world Yet our Perfectionists never testified against this man have call'd me a Persecutor for thus telling the truth I could name other Quakerish Writers of History but will not Question 3. Whether the Quakers in the time of the violent Proceedings against Dissenters begun about almost Fifteen years since and continued about Five years leaving the Places of their Publick Worship for fear of Confiscation of Goods Imprisonment or Banishment were not either Notorious Impostors or Notorious Apostates acting on our Principles after the severest Censure of them They have asserted in many many many of their printed Books Speakings and private Conference That it was unlawful for any to leave the Place of their Publick Worship for any Persecution whatever That they were moved by the Holy Spirit sent by the Ever-living God to testify to us in the Name of the Lord That we were Hypocrites Carnal Persons Lovers of the World more than of God for not appearing openly So Pen and others Though we declared we so far were from thinking such an open Appearance to as they phrase it bear our Testimony to be Duty that it was Folly Either say I when they themselves lest their Meetings which they generally did all England over where the then Rage was fiery and burning their Minds were changed about this thing or not If they were not they were Notorious Apostates to live in the sinful omission of open Duties so many years as many did going up and down about their business till not Conscience but King James's illegal deceitful Toleration brought them to those Places again They observ'd not their own Message from God to us And if we through ignorance must be damned they much more for acting against their Light and that after thousands of Protestations to God and man of the contrary If their Minds were changed as Richard Vicarr confessed privately to me he believed they were then were they Notorious Impostors to bring us a Message from the Devil in the Name of the Lord. Then have they blasphemed the Name of the Eternal God and belied the Holy Ghost Then have they defamed slandered the Generation of the Righteous and reprobated and damned them for an innocent lawful justifiable Action Know Reader that we ever asserted That it was lawful to flee in a
shall signifie such a thing is not that sufficient Quem penes arbitrium est jus norma lequendi Barclay's Objection is vain What if Apol says he a â—cholar should say to his Master Vos amas Vos legis I say we put the Verb al 's in the plural number in English we say not You lovest you readest but You love you read I put it to their Conscience Is it Sinful thus to speak If not Why then trouble they the world about nothing I am not willing to run out much into other things that many have written well of Read Faldo's Quakerism no Christianity who hath done his work like a Workman and the aforementioned Tract which will commend it self and to which little need be added And now tell me Reader What thinkest thou Was there ever such a giddy Generation upon Earth As great Apostates from Reason most of them are as from Religion It is true some few Men among them have shap'd their Notions for them and made them more intelligible than once they were When such a Question as this hath been under Consideration Whether it were Lawful for their Women to Speak in their Meetings I have been Answer'd That Jesus Christ was Crucified and that the Priests accused him and Pilate condemned him c. I remember I have read Where dost thou read thou Hireling that ever any of God's Messengers stood on a Carnal Pulpit When that Scripture hath been urged 8. Nehem. 4. And Ezra stood on a pulpit of wood and read the law and gave the sense the Answer hath been What hast thou to do with Ezra Ezra was a Holy Man and thou art an Hypocrite Or when the Question hath been about Swearing and that Scripture hath been urged 10. Rev. 6. The Angel swore by him that liveth for ever and ever Time should be no more the Answer hath been But to which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son to day have I begotten thee Some say That Ministers must not be paid because it was said The Priests bear rule by their Meant 5. Jer. 31. That Ministers must not use helps in Reading for Paul would not meddle in another man's Line Some have asked one another Hast thou experienced that Scripture in thee The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood The Answer hath been Yea The Spirit was in them and the Spirit was not to be tried by any thing Scripture nor Man's Reason So that a Man had almost as good go into Bedlam and talk with the Wise Men there as with many of our Inspired Quakers I advise any that engage with them to get a Promise of Two things 1. To end one Argument before entrance be made on another 2. To have as much time allowed you to speak as you allow them So have I understood some of them and there hath been some coherence or consistency in our discourse When they have multiplied words and crack'd many of them and run on to things nothing to the Question they go away and say That such Ministers could not say a word to them or could not resist the Spirit by which they spake that a She Friend should silence any Priest of them all though they have talk'd such prodigious Nonsense that might make any Man sweat to hear them If I knew such glorious nonsense among their Leaders by my little and yet too much converse with them I may easily imagine how much they that hear them often meet with such triflings May what I have said be an Amulet to prevent infection from their poisonous Doctrines especially such as are incompatible with true Grace As the Doctrine of Perfection of a Christ within in opposition to a Christ without This word Outward is in great Contempt with them The outward word the Scriptures the Outward Christ Christ Crucified and some an Outward Heaven that Glorious State above Baptism and the Lord's Supper were Outward Ordinances But why do not these Men Contemn Outward Meats and Outward Drinkâ— and Outward Cloathing If they did the Controversie would soon be at an end And now William Penn I once more declare to thee and all the world that I am ready to meet with thee at an open Disputation when thou wilt to deâ—â—te the Questions before us or the main Question which is this Whether your putting in practice our Principles by you condemned as you say from the Lord in the time of Persecution doth not most certainly and evidently prove you to be either Notorious Impostors or Notorious Apostates There is nothing more evident to me and I suppose to thee that so it is Then is the Mask fall'n off thy Forehead and let me ask thee or rather thou thy Conscience a few Questions Question 1. Art thou not ashamed to hear Folly Falsehood Ignorance father'd on the Holy Spirit by thy Followers Question 2. Dost not thou frequently do what they condemn us for use Philosophical Terms and Distinctions in thy Writings which they say is from the Serpent Question 3. Couldst thou understand any Physician or Lawyer speaking of Physick or Law in that way these do of Religion Here for a diversion will I present thee with a Paper given me above twenty years since and which lately I saw in Print and tell me how much like hath been the old common way of the talk of our Perfectionists A Welsh Letter Good Cousin A Coording to my promise I am to let you understand the unkind dealing of Edward towards Marmaduke when Thomas was arrested by Henry at the Suit of Leonard Charles came in with Robert to entreat Richard to go to John to certify William who was sorry that Jeffery had been at variance with Anthony considering that Matthew had done so much for Bartholomew when old Father Timothy was contented to take wrong of Gregory notwithstanding his Kinsman Ralph was abused by Rowland sending for James without the consent of Cuthbert when Edmond for the love he bore to Silvester gave warning to Hugh that in case George should make much of his Vncle Peter little thinking that Simon had play'd the knave with Nicholas in causing of Walter to give Clement knowledge how that Martyn had invited Humphrey to Bernard 's house to Breakfast Now cunning Roger perceiving by Godfrey what was told by slie Ambrose that if Alexander was not reveng'd upon Lawrence for the Love that he bare to Oliver whereas Erasmus had it not been for Jarvase had like to have slain Nathanael which Jasper perceiving had certified Luke that Tell-tale Francis was the cause of all their falling out and all this was for Adam 's White Nag which was left in Erastus 's Stable by Andrew and because Hopping Giles would not believe him without Philip would bring him some money whereupon Barnaby and Christopher sent for Arthur who by the help of Felix brought the same to a general Conclusion and was thus ended VALE St. Taff'y's Day I declare such kind of
there is no Name given under Heaven by which men can be saved but the Name of Jesus There is no Salvation in any other Acts 4.12 If it be asked Why I am sometimes Comical and Reflect so severely on some of their Leaders I answer Quacks and Jugglers and foolish Pretenders to any thing are not to be treated as wise and sober men Answer says the Wisest of Men a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit Prov. 26.25 Says the serious Worshipper at Mount Carmel that approached the Altar of God with all imaginable Reverence and not as a Stage player when he saw the Priests of Baal seemingly most devout cut themselves and leap upon the Altar Cry aloud 1 Kings 18.27 either he is talking or in a journey or sleepeth and must be awaked A goodly God! For my severe Reflections on some Men I lived nigh them knew them well they were some of the great Advocates for their Cause talk'd of all England over for their Zeal among the Quakers who spared not the most Learned Religious Ministers and People in the world for want of self-denial which little appeared in the Accusers for leaving the Places of their open Meetings the Ministers were Hirelings 10. John 12 13. who did flee when the wolf came that cared not for the sheep and that because the sheep were not their own As if to flee from a Place were to flee from an Office And after they had call'd them and the People Hypocrites Children of the Devil Haters of Christ Lovers of the World that should be damned for ever for this their great open Sin and Wickedness they did the same thing themselves when their Fund failed Either what I have Charged them with is True or False if it be False let me be accounted the greatest Defamer upon Earth a Persecutor or what they please If it be true as I call Heaven and Earth to Record it is and can justifie the Charge before God and Man I do say it on mature Consideration and with great Composure of Mind That Pen and the Quakers are Impostors or Apostates Know Reader I have made no use of Books nor Men to help me in this Work tho it is said by some it were impossible I could thus describe them without help from some Man that had been a Quaker I have not troubled you with some stories of Quakers upon common fame though I doubt not the truth of them yet cannot prove them if required as that one Friend came to another and said The Lord hath sent me to thee to tell thee thou must lend me Twenty pound It was a lying Spirit sent thee said the other for the Lord knows I am not worth half the Money Neither have I troubled you with their denying such a sense of Scripture when writing against us and asserting the same sense to serve their own turn and all from one and the same Infallible Spirit Penn is a notorious instance who in a Book call'd Judas and the Jews said on those words Tell the Church 18. Matt. 17. That the Church was to judge of matters of wrong between Man and Man but not of Faith or Conscience yet in another Book to all Protestants asserts The Church had Power about matters of Faith and Conscience when he pleaded for the Church-Quakers Nor much of what I have read of some of them many y s since I remember in the time of a long continued Drought about Twenty year since when many fear'd and talk'd of a Famine out comes Fox and tells us What reason we had to expect a Famine That before the Plague he saâ— the Angel of the Lord with a drawn Sword over the Court. See the Cheat. Rain soon pour'd down You false Prophets tell us your Prophecies before not after their accomplishment I must recommend to you the aforementioned Book The Snake in the Grass If you are Dissenters pardon some warm passages proceeding from intemperate Zeal for Bishops and Liturgies In the Book may you be informed of The Authority of the Church-Quakers for so Penn's Faction are call'd who often Assemble at London and assume to themselves power over the Light within especially in the Separate Quakers for so are the Followers of George Keith call'd a Scholar once Master of Arts who owns Faith in an outward Christ crucified him that died at Jerusalem The Resurrection of the Body Defects to be bewail'd The insufficiency of the Light within without Scripture and speaks favourably of Baptism and the Supper All this George Keith hath printed and told me He proves George Fox their Great Apostle to be a Blasphemer and impostor That he said before some Governors That he said he was equal with God and Judge of the world He receiv'd the Title and Worship of Christ from many who lay prostrate before him he smoothing them on the face and blessing them So did Sabbata Sevi his deluded Followers and Nathan the Prophet in the Year 1666. till he turned Turk to save his Neck Penn pleads for this Fox attributes his abuse of many Terms to his Ignorance What! and yet inspired and sent of God! That he call'd on the Army to fight against Rome and the Turks That Balaam must be slain and all the Hirelings turn'd out of the Kingdom He bad them pull down Mass-houses and Colleges Give the Priests Blood to drink for they are worthy said Burroughs The Blasphemy of many of their Leaders who said they were as holy as God not only in quality but equality and that the preternatural distortions of their Bodies and their Quakings at first were of the Devil Though the Numen that then inspired them hath now left them Though Solomon Eccles a Quaker before the Fire of London went up and down with a Pan of burning Coals yet he was proved to be a false Prophet in other things That the Quakers moved not their Goods believing it was a Delusion and knowing that almost every Week one Quaker or another would go up and down the Streets in London and cry Thus saith the Lord Fire Pestilence Sword c. And if Solomon Eccles prophecied of the Burning of the City all know so did Oliver's Porter That Muggleton hath his Prophecies too to be printed How soon Josiah Coal died after he testified against him That Muggleton a Taylor and Fox a Shoemaker set up for Inspired Persons together Though Fox at first condemned all outward teaching by Man till he had gotten men from the Ministry then he set up Preaching but Muggleton doth not but keeps to the old Principle He saith The Father to whom Christ pray'd was Elijah who governed in Heaven when Christ was on Earth because in his absence there was no God there And such Blasphemous stuff They pretended to the Spirit of discerning Persons and Things and could tell what Men were on the sight of them They now Damn one another the Muggletonians and Quakers call one another Sorcerers Serpents and say
a better diversion to shake off Melancholly THou scoffing persecuting Ishmael thou blaspheming Devil thou Limb of Antichrist I testify to thee in the Name that thou hast belied the People called Quakers yea I say unto thee the People called Quakers hast thou belyed They are an innocent people and to that do I bear witness Therefore thou Devils Bloodhound thou Thief and Robber that never didst come in at the door but didst climb up some other way Thus saith Thou art not able to judge for thou art blind Thou Beast thou Sot thou Incarnate Devil I am full of Zeal yea with Zeal I am filled ready to burst in testifying against thee thou scarlet-colour'd Beast thou canker'd Apostate thou Son of Belial Thou greedy Wolf in Sheeps Cloathing thou Dog thou dumb Dog thou barking Dog thou Emissary of Satan thou Beelzebub the Chief of Devils Repent and know that this People whom thou hatest and dost not love are dear precious ones To this will I set my Seal and do I bear witness Hear O thou Serpent fiery Serpent biting hissing Serpent thou unclean Spirit thou Devil-driven Sot I am sent to thee to declare against thee I am sent as Mary Fisher was to the great Turk who could speak nothing but English when she came to him as honest Friend G. Bishop is forced to confess in his New-England tryed Now I speak to thee in the same Language she did to him If any of you intend thus to set upon me I wish it may be when I am so costive that no other Physick would make me soluble I am sorry for the Dishonour that such bring to Religion and the Wrong they do themselves and the scandal they give to the Prophane but as for me I find nothing more easy than to forgive them pity them and love the Men though not the Quakers I must despair of understanding any thing or of proving any thing if in this little Book I have not sufficiently proved and that ex abundanti That William Penn and the Quakers are either Impostors or Apostates which they please from their Avowed Principles and Contrary Practices BUT methinks I hear some say We see what it is for men to talk of the Spirit which is nothing else but a warm Fancy following a deluded Judgment What may we think of Prophets of old and their Inspirations and Prophecies so much talk'd off We doubt all were such as these of the Quakers Stop Reader if these thoughts be in thee let us reason together Though I doubt not but that this giddy People have contributed very much to the increase of Scepticism and Atheism and Contempt of Religion Yet why Because there is so much bad Coin adulterate Coin Case-Pieces Clipp'd-Money is there therefore no Good Money or Money of full Weight Is it all alike Because there is so much False News going and so many Mistakes and idle Stories pass for Truth is there therefore no True News or True Relation of things Because we are so often mistaken in men who are often said to be good-natur'd wise and pious whom in our nigh approaches to them we find ill temper'd half-witted and scandalous are there therefore no good-natur'd no wise no pious Men in the World To talk of the Spirit is a Cant among some Men almost a Community of Men who own Scripture and read Lessons out of it They will talk of God and of Christ but nothing or next to nothing of the Spirit I desire them to read Neh. 9.20 Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts Rom. 8.9 He that hath not the spirit of Christ is none of his John 3.5 6 8. Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the Spirit is spirit Rom. 8.16 The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God Psalm 51.11 After David sinn'd so foully he prays Take not thy holy spirit from me Consider their abuse of such Phrases should not take us off from the use of them Because the Papist have abused the words of Christ This is my Body by their monstrous Doctrine of Transubstantiation and so to worship a Wafer for a God we are not therefore to deny the Bread the honourable Name Christ gave it The Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is not so call'd from his Essence and Nature for so we might as well say The Holy Father or the Holy Son as the Holy Ghost but from his Office Whom the Father elects the Son redeems and the Holy Ghost sanctifies and makes holy Now a skilful Physician is not to be despised ridiculed because of some Quacks nor a good Lawyer because of some ignorant Pretenders nor a Spiritual Man because of some sensless vain Talkers of the Spirit Though I have written more already than I intended when I begun yet give me leave to add some Directions to cure this Malady which we find occasion'd for want of these things you are now prest to and that our Perfectionists little mind Direction 1. 1. Keep up a due Veneration for the Scriptures and their Authority He that cannot see a God one would think could see nothing Infinity and Eternity must be lodged in somewhat Some Cogitative Being which word with Mr. Lock I like better than Intelligent suited means to end Read him in that excellent Chapter of Human Vnderstanding Mr. Perkins's Cases of Conscience of the Being of God Is the Soul of Man made for God to serve and injoy him Not to say any thing of the Reflex Acts of the Soul That Matter cannot act on it self The tip of my finger that toucheth thousands of things cannot return upon it self touch it self But my Understanding that understands other things reflects on it self and understands it self and therefore the Spirit of a Man is not as the Spirit of a Beast The Poet could say Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Pronaque cum spectant No Creature but Man can turn up his eyes to Heaven for Man hath a Muscle more than they to help to look up to God Doth it not convince you Good Readers as well as this Pagan Ovid Met. That though Man was made in this world yet not for it Are not some men designed for the Recovery of the Lost Love and Favour of God That is hoped by all What then will follow That there must be some Rule whereby Man may know this God and serve him Now this must be either by Revelation or there must be some standing written Rule The former we see is gone and our giddy Pretenders to it prove it Therefore the latter Then say I The Scriptures must be the standing Rule or some other thing But no other thing Therefore the Scriptures If any thing What is it Mahomet's Alcoran I need not confute it None plead for it Nay It is worthy observation