SOME REASON'S WHY Robert Bridgman, and his Wife, And some others in Huntingtonshire, Have left the Society of the People called QUAKERS, AND Have joined in Communion with the Church of ENGLAND.  
And some Passages contained in a Letter of George Whitehead to R. J. and R. Bridgman's Reply to the same.  
By ROBERT BRIDGMAN,  
LONDON: Printed for Brab. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over-against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, and Char. Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Paul's Churchyard. MDCC.   

ROBERT BRIDGMAN's REASONS For Leaving the QUAKERS.   

SOME REASONS WHY ROBERT BRIDGMAN, and others, Have left the QUAKERS.  
IT has been matter of Sorrow and Shame unto me, and many others, that have now left the Quakers Communion, that we so long professed the Christian Religion, whilst we remained so ignorant of the fundamental Principles of it, the Doctrine of the Trinity, or three Persons of one Nature and Substance in the Godhead.  
The Incarnation of the second Person or Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ.  
The Satisfaction and Atonement made unto God the Father, by his Obedience and Death upon the Cross.  
The Resurrection and Ascension of his Body and Person into Heaven.  
His remaining in our Nature at the right hand of God, in the Glory of his Father, our Head, Highpriest and Intercessor.  
The Faith and full persuasion of his second, last, and outward appearance and coming again to raise the Dead bodies of the Saints, and of all Men in the great Day and solemn Assize of all Nations, in which an Infallible and final Sentence will be passed upon all, according to the Deeds done in the Body, agreeable to the plain and positive sense of divers Texts in Holy Scripture.  
These Doctrines and the Faith of them, wrought by the Operation of the Holy Ghost, the third Person in the Blessed Trinity, are Essential or Fundamental Parts and Principles of the Christian Religion, without which, in the true Faith of them, we cannot be saved in this or in the World to come.  
And therefore 'tis of great Weight and Consequence, yea of the greatest Importance, to every one under a Christian Profession, to be duly Instructed and rightly Informed, in these great and necessary Truths of the Christian Religion, and without which, in some good measure, no Man can be rightly denominated a Christian Man or Believer.  
The Faith of God as a Great and merciful Creator and the Seal of his Power and Providence in and over all his Creatures, is indeed a necessary work, and our Love and Obedience to the Law and Light with which he instructs and enlightens our Nature, is a precious and necessary condition on our parts, to sit and prepare us for the due reception of the Christian Faith; and indeed without some experience of this sort, 'tis in vain to pretend to any Religion, much more to the Christian Religion. Yet the order and progress of our Faith and Hope ought to be duly distinguished, for to reduce all Religion and Faith towards God, under a Profession and Experience of Light and Truth, without any distinction of common and special Illumination or Grace, is dangerous to the Soul and very destructive to the real Foundation of the Christian Religion. How far the People called Quakers in general, and some of their most noted and approved Authors and Ministers in particular, have Ignorantly and Blasphemously opposed this work of Faith and Reformation (begun and carried on in the Souls of many, by hearing the Word and Doctrine of the Gospel declared in the Holy Scriptures, from Men qualified to Read and Expound the same) is now become so evident to such whose Eyes the Lord in Mercy hath opened, that to contradict or deny it, must bespeak very great Ignorance or Obstinacy.  
How far they have withstood and rejected the Institutions of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, in the due administration of them, and the sincere and faithful practice of such as are convinced of their Duty and Profit in receiving them, is also as evident to such as have had occasion to deal with them, or peruse their Writings constantly published from their beginning. And how under pretence of higher Attainments and farther Glory, a Spirit of Pride and great Uncharitableness hath possessed them, is sufficiently manifest by its fruits, in Censuring and Reproaching all other denominations of Professed Christians, whom they set to a great distance, and account as the World which yet lieth in Wickedness. And by a show of Spirituality, Simplicity, Humility and Patience, have deceived themselves, and many of the most ignorant and inadvertent Professors, who inconsiderately and rashly conclude, they are the most holy and reformed People and Church of God, because they appear in a more sedate, retired, and self denying manner, as a Society and Body of People, than generally is observed of other Societies.  
But whoever arrives to any tolerable understanding of sound Christian Principles, and attends an impartial Examination of what the Quakers preach and publish, shall not only find them very disagreeable one with another, but, in general very opposite to true Christianity. And that which also very much exposeth them to contempt with all True Intelligent and Religious minds, is the liberty they take in their Apologies and Defences to quibble and shuffle with dull and apparent Sophistry.  
'Tis now become their repeated Practice to alter the sense of their own as well as their Opponents writings, by adding or diminishing of words, by Transposing them, by playing upon such as are equivocal, by connecting Matter that lies disjointed, and disjointing Matter that lies connected, by questioning the autography of their own Prints, when they cannot otherwise vindicate or defend them. And thus they inherit the Jesuits practice (' tho through want of their Education they fall short in their skill) and by this very means ruin their Cause, notwithstanding their Zeal and specious Pretences. 'Tis a merciful Providence so many are delivered from the snare of their Spirit, which with soundings and Echoes works on the Imagination and Fancy of the more Ignorant and Credulous.  
Did they regard Truth and Justice, without respecting Persons in Judgement, they would have never declined to be brought to the Test, before any competent number of Sober and Judicious Persons, without making such Pleas and Pretences to excuse, and be excused as they have done.  
Being detected, they became greatly enraged, and breath out their spite in Prophecies and Curses, both in private and public, against such as oppose them; whilst they are blessing and magnifying themselves and their Faction in such flights of Devotion as alarms and amuzes the Ignorant and Unwary. The account given by George Keith in his Books and Narratives of Matter of Fact, so well attested, is such a Load upon them, that they are very uneasy; and not daring to appear to justify themselves, are labouring to abuse and misrepresent him. They have endeavoured to insinuate, that Covetousness, Pride and Envy are the motive of his practice: An Apostate, a Judas, a Renegado, are the Epithets they bestow upon him. And in their Word to the Well-inclined, represent him the Epitome and very Common-place of all the Malice of their preceding Adversaries: And these fine Characters they industriously spread throughout the Nation, to defame and reproach him; having a method effectually to do it, by spreading their Pamphlets according to an agreement of their Yearly Meeting, (which is their supreme Authority in this and in other Kingdoms and Countries where they have any settled Interest.) The Agreement and Order of their Yearly Meeting held in London the first, second, third and fourth Days of June 1691, and directed to the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings in England, and Wales, and elsewhere, was and is. That each Monthly Meeting (of which they had at that time about 150) in England and Wales (and since, no doubt, the number is greatly increased) was to take off two Books of a sort, when both do not exceed the price of a Shilling, and to be sent by the several Correspondents in London (or their Order) to the Correspondents of each County, who are to send up the Money out of their Meeting Stock; which sufficiently encourages both the Author and Printer. And this Agreement and Order was expressly made for the spreading their Books, as is more at large declared in their Yearly Meeting Paper, printed in the Year 1691. And thus they are encouraged to be continually scribbling, and judge it to be (as they say in their Word to the well-inclined) the fairer, more substantial and edifying method.  
But the misery that attends their numerous Proselytes, is the impressions they are under in partiality and prejudice; what is published by their Party passes for Truth, and that not only in Doctrine and Fact, but they conceive a peculiar presence of God is a continual Blessing that accompanies them. The same conceit they have in all they say and do, and are generally so affected with a Relish and Savour of it, that puffs them up with intolerable Pride, even whilst it appears to themselves under a Disguise of Humility. But true Humility is another thing, it submits to Truth wherever, whenever and in whomsoever it appears, enlarging the Heart with Catholic Love, which like the attracting and bountiful Heaven, scatters its Dew on every Soil, and maintains its correspondence with an impartial influence. The Lord in Mercy increase this Virtue, and enable the sincere in all persuasions to let go the shackles of their several singularities, looking up unto Jesus the universal Head and Captain of their Salvation, who by his blessed and Holy Spirit is sprinkling the Nations through the Faith of his Gospel, and that without respect of persons. And therefore let me beseech such of my Friends, as profess their Faith in a Crucified Jesus, and in humility submit to the means he has appointed as the Seals of his Covenant, and Symbols of his Presence, to be very careful in all manner of Conversation, that so the Adversary, who seeks many ways to undermine and lay waste the Foundation and Pillars of the Christian Religion, may be stopped every way in which he appears. The greatest reproach that at this time attends the Christian Church, is a lose Conversation in too many not seasoned with Grace and the fear of God? and this is the Ground and Plea of all Schismatics, as well as it is the Air that infests the Atheist, who secretly concludes, because of such Liberty, there is not a God of such Purity and Power, as the Christians profess in their verbal Confession. But this I can say from a good and comfortable experience, That there are many pious and heavenly-minded Souls, in several places, both Ministers and People, that are as Lights, and as Salt, in their several Stations, though once I could hardly believe it, so much Filth and Dirt having been cast upon them by an ignorant, proud and obstinate Generation of Men; whose feigned Simplicity and Humility, under a pretence of Subjection to a Power above the Magistrate, is very delusive in the Appearance of it, but when duly examined proves chief the Fruit of Education and Humour.  
Being taught and persuaded, that Reasoning is dangerous in things of Religion, they stop their Ears and close their Eyes, until by degrees they grow hardy in Imagination and Fancy, in the strength of which they have been suffered to proceed until their own Folly hath corrected them.  
Whoever comes to a sober mind, and attentively, reads over the History given by George Fox and his Delegates, in the Entrance of his Journal, may readily find, that an ignorant Education and Melancholy Temper, impressed and blown up by a Spirit of Enthusiasm, gave birth to his Faction in those Hurricane Times (whilst the Church lay despoiled of her Power and Privileges) and since that inundation of Heresy and Schism, the Breach has remaived too much unobserved: And to my Understanding no better Expedient can readily be proposed to heal up this Breach and recover the Wastes, than a laborious and diligent instruction of Youth, and detecting of Error, by open and free Conferences judiciously managed in divers parts of the Nation.  
'tis a lamentable thing, that in a Christian Nation the public Seals and Badges of its Communion should be so slighted, neglected, opposed and rejected by a sort and number of men that will not be accountable in Matter of Fact for their Mistakes and Abuses. 'Tis a most lame and scandalous Insinuation against the Institution and Practice of Outward Baptism, which George Whitehead advances in his Rector Examined, p. 27. saying, When this Rector (meaning Mr. Merriton) can demonstrate a Probatum est, of such Virtue in that poor Element (as he calls it) of Waterbaptism, as to cure polluted and distempered Souls, as if the Issue or Effect of a means that is prescribed, must determine the right or lawfulness of its Institution and Practice without any Exception; he may at the same rate question the Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles, in their Teaching and Preaching, because many that heard them were not effectually Cleansed. And in the Commission that was given Math. 28. 19 there is no more mention made of outward teaching, than of outward Baptism, and the Quakers may as well reject Teaching with Words as Baptising with Water. But to manifest how liable they are to pervert the True Sense of the Matter, see what George Whitehead says concerning the Supper, Page 35. of his Rector Examined, where he produces some Testimonies out of the Book of Martyrs to favour his Cause, which duly considered are directly against it. The Bread and Wine in the Supper, are Figurative and Symbolical, and as the Eating and Drinking by the faithful Receiver, Entitles him to the Graces and Blessings of the Spirit of Christ, so the breaking the Bread and pouring out the Wine, were Instituted as a means to preserve the Faith and Remembrance of his Body and Blood, that was Broken and Slied for the Remission of Sin and which is now Exalted and Glorified in the Heavens, and he being now in Heaven in his Body out of the reach of our Bodily Senses.  
One end of the Supper is to Receive and Establish the Faith of his Existence, and assurance of his coming in his Body to Judge us; and those Arguments of Dr. Cranmer and Ridley which George Whitehead recites, were at that time advanced to oppose the Erroneous Conceit of Transubstantiation. See the Book of Martyr's page 74. Where 'tis said, that to believe the Wafer and Wine to be Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, [Argument the second] it varieth from the Articles of Faith, He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father, from whence (and not from any other place, saith St. Augustin) he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead. Thirdly, It destroyeth and taketh away the Institution of the Lord's Supper, which was commanded only to be used and continued until the Lord Himself should come, if therefore He be now really present in the Body of his Flesh, then must the Supper cease. For a Remembrance, is not of a thing present, but of a thing past and absent, and there is a difference between Remembrance and Presence, and (as one of the Fathers saith) a Figure is in vain where the thing figured is present.  
Here you see the Fathers and Martyrs intended one thing, and George Whitehead would make them to intent another; the Supper is a Figure and Sign not only of the Inward and Spiritual Grace, received by the Faithful in their partaking of it, but also of the Body of Christ now absent in Heaven, the Faith of which being lost among the Quakers, and so much denied and opposed by their obstinate pervertion; the reason of the Institution appears the more necessary, and the frequent and due practice of it appears the more seasonable; and 'tis to be hoped that these poor Elements, as they are pleased to call them, with the Blessing of God at the Administration and Reception of them, will prove two such Pillars and Supports of the Christian Faith and Experience, that the Combination of Hell shall not prevail, though her Gates many ways are set open to furnish the Army of Abaddon.  
'Tis a specious pretence the Quakers have made to the Virtue and Efficacy of the Inward Principle, as having therein an Art of Extraction, by which they perform as by one single Still, all that can be proposed from the variety in a Laboratory. This very Comparison and Illustration I heard from William Penn in a public Meeting at Grace-Church-Street, and as much he delivers in his Primitive Christianity, where he Rants at a very unreasonable rate, and as much disparages the Reputation of their Principle by the extravagancy of his Notion, as George Whitehead has done by the Irregularity of his practice. I am sure no Principle of Truth ever taught William Penn to advance such a Notion of the Composition of Man, as he delivers in p. 71. of his Primitive Christianity. Man, (says he) as I said just now, is a Composition of both Worlds, his Body is of this, his Soul of the other World— by the Body the Soul looks into and beholds this World, and by the World it beholds God, the World that is without End. So that the World without End, and God, are with him Terms Synonimous, and of this endless World is [with him] a part of Man's Composition, his Soul is of its Essence, and beholds its being a kin to God, not only by a Relation but in Substance: And in his Book called Judas and the Jews, p. 130. he hath the following Words. The new despised flock of God shall rest with him in that World which never had beginning, and is without end; thus he gives us a Description of God, and of the Soul of Man, its being a part of him. And thus, after all the Shuffling and Cutting about the Soul, and Soul of the Soul, 'tis easy to see how naturally William Pen jumps in with George Fox in his Notion of the Soul, so fully exposed and explained by George Keith in his fourth Narrative, p. 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67. And as in this his Book, entitled Primitive Christianity, he defines the Soul to be part of God, so in his Book entitled, The Invalidity of John Faldo, p. 365. he defines the Nature of the Body and opposes the conclusion of his Opponent, who speaking of the Resurrection of the Body, says, it shall have the same Matter, tho' not the same Grossness; it shall have the same Essential Form, though not the same Accidents. William Penn's Answer will not allow that he ever read in Scripture any thing favourably towards such a Conclusion. His words are, I never read yet of a Body having the same Matter, and not the same Grossness, the same Substance and Essence, and not the same Accidents; by which account we must believe that either William Penn never read the Scripture, or that he believes the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bodies of those that arose after his Resurrection, were changed in Substance. For according to him, if they had the same Substance they must also retain the same Grossness and Accidents; and consequently that the Body of our Lord Jesus, now in Heaven, is a gross and mortal Body, if they believe he has the same Body now, which he had upon the Earth, And yet notwithstanding this sort of Reasoning, the Quakers Objections and constant Clamour against all sorts of Christians, has been to insinuate the Carnality of their Notions. And thus do they raise such a dust of Confusion by their Doctrines and Distinctions, that many poor People are led entangled in a Mist of thick Darkness.  
I could give a large and particular Relation of sundry Conferences I have had with several of Note among them, (appointed to hear and examine my Reasons for declining their Meetings) from whom I could never yet obtain any plain and positive Answer to this necessary and seasonable Question, 
Whether our Lord Jesus Christ is now in Heaven above, or without us, in the true and entire Nature of Man glorified, the same for Substance which he had on Earth, and forever to come united with the Godhead.   
But finding this Doctrine so fully and so safely expressed in the Articles of the Church of England, as also those other necessary and essential Principles of the Christian Religion, inclined me to make a farther Search into the Matter and Manner of her Public Worship; which appearing to me so sound and instructive, I could not in Conscience delay my adventuring to make some Approaches towards her Communion.  
And through a merciful Providence it has pleased Almighty God so to influence and to bless due means of Instruction, that my dear Wife, with several of our Neighbours, who were also in Communion with the People called Quakers, are become religiously affected with the Public Worship; and I hope the Lord will preserve us in the Sincerity of our Intentions, the Insinuations notwithstanding and Reproaches of our Adversaries: An instance of which I think sit here to subjoin, not being likely to obtain any offer of Justice from the Person concerned.  
Upon my Wife and Child's receiving Baptism in the Church of England, George Whitehead writes a Letter of Condolence to my Wife's Father, wherein he insinuates after this manner:  
Dear Brother,  
I have been often sensible of thy Exercise and Affection occasioned by the miserable Backsliding of such near Relations, who have so long professed the blessed Truth among us— The blessed Truth which we have received from the Beginning, in Life and Power, will stand for ever, and outlive all its Adversaries; and they who are approved and stand faithful therein, shall the more be manifest, and shine, when Shame and Confusion shall cover the Rebellious, who reproach God's Heritage and People to excuse their own Revolting and Looseness of Spirit.  
The Letter in which these Passages are, falling, providentially into my Hand, I wrote to Geo. Whitehead, as is hereafter expressed. But being in London a considerable time, and having no prospect of having such a Meeting as I desired, think fit to expose it, as matter of Caution to himself and such others as may be under temptation to practise the like, to disparage and discourage with such Blasts of Reviling.  
Hunt. the 16th April, 1700. George Whitehead,  
In these Passages [which I transcribed to him] are contained a severe Charge by way of Insinuation against myself and my Wife, who are the near Relations mentioned in that Letter: And we being such (had you proved your Charge) the unworthiness of your Disposition, notwithstanding, hath sufficiently appeared, in offering so to aggravate, and by consequence to set such near Relations at too great a Distance. But whereas your Charge and Insinuations remain unproved by you, they ought in Justice to be returned upon you as a Slander. If you think you can make Proof of these miserable, yea and I may add, detestable things upon us, we desire you would do it; and that you may be the more manifest and shine, we care not how publicly you do it. Your writing in such a manner to my Father, without any Premonition to us (had we been really guilty) looks not only like a Deed of Darkness, but (we being innocent) too much entitles you to the Character of those mentioned in the 11th Psalm, Who bend the Bow, and make ready their Arrow upon the String, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.  
Had not your Name and Pretences been what they are, we should have endeavoured to have overlooked your Reproach, (as we have done a great deal from others of a meaner Rank among you) cast upon us, as we verily believe, for our open Profession of the Christian Faith, and practising the Institutions of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in ways most agreeable to our Judgement, upon a serious, deliberate and impartial Enquiry and Consideration; and this we take to be the Reason of your Displeasure, knowing very well how you have slighted, opposed, and rejected those great and necessary Truths, and proper means of Christian Fellowship and Communion, appointed, we believe, for that end by our Lord Jesus Christ, and practised by his holy Apostles and Disciples in the first and purest Ages of Christianity. And you in particular bearing such a Name and Sway (amongst so many deluded, though many of them, I believe, wellmeaning People) and so generally passing under the Character of an honourable and worthy Minister of Christ, 'tis therefore highly necessary to take some Notice of your practice. And I do hereby acquaint you that my Occasions calling me to London in a little time, I shall expect you will give me a Meeting before some sober and judicious Persons, either to endeavour the Proof of your Charge, or to retract what you have in such manner insinuated against us. If you think fit to decline to give me such a Meeting, I shall have reason to take it as a sufficient demonstration that Shame and Confusion is over you, in that very manner, and for the very same Cause suggested against us in your Letter. Thus much at present from your abused Friend and Kinsman,  
R. Bridgman.  
To which Letter I may now add what is written in the 26th Chapter of the Book of Proverbs, v. 26, 27. Whose Hatred is covered by Deceit, his Wickedness shall be showed before the whole Congregation. Whoso diggeth a Pit, shall fall therein; and he that rolleth a Stone, it will return upon him.  
FINIS.   

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