THE Quakers Pedigree: OR, A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A QUAKER, AND A jesuit, Who at last become Reconciled, as( holding in a great measure) the same Principles; WHEREIN Is shown how the Mystery of quakerism was first hatched by the jesuits: By what Arts, and for what Design it was set on foot in England; And by what means it hath been propagated since, and is still defended.  
With their Contrivance for the Carrying it on for the Future.  Nimium ne creed Colori. 
London, Printed for Benjamin Harris, at the Stationers Arms in Swithins Alley, near the Royal Exchange. 1674.   

A Dialogue BETWEEN A QUAKER, and a jesuit.  Jesuit. 
SIR! You are happily met; perhaps you may have forgot me, 'tis some year since you and I were acquainted abroad; however I am glad to see you well.  Quaker. 
Plainly Friend, I do not as they say, remember thee very well.  Jes. 
I had the happiness, formerly to be in your Company, when you were in flanders; Do you not remember me, in the English college there?  Qu. 
Yea, I do remember it now; But I am not glad to see thee here, for thou art a Jesuit, one of the Locust of the bottonles Pit, a Pimp to the Whore of babylon; and I defy thee, and thy Acquaintance.  Jes. 
Come, come, keep the Old-man down, and be not so passionate, let us Discourse a little calmly; what have you to say against our Religion?  Qu. 
Say? I say thy Religion is Sorcery, Abomination, and Witchcraft; the Light Eternally condems thee, and thy Generation: I witness thee to be the Beast, to whom the Plagues of God are due, and upon whom the wrath of Divine vengeance will fall: Thy Rome is Sodom, babylon, and Gomorrah: Thy Doctrines, Doctrines of Devils, and full of the subtlety of the Serpent, which must be destroyed with everlasting Flames.  Jes. 
I know thou art liberal enough of thy Canting rhetoric of Railing, and you do well, very well, to make use of it to others: But, William! we are more your Friends then you are ware of; we have a kindness for you, hold the same Opinions for the most part, and indeed are your very Fathers, and the Tutors that first taught you your Principles.  Qu. 
Thou, hold! thou teach us? Thou are a drunken Slanderer, a malicious Conjurer; 'Tis a wicked lie, spawned by the Devil in the very Abyss of Hell.  Jes. 
You may say, or think what you list; But if I do not evince it to be a real Truth, let me never come to be Provincial of our Order, but be Indicted at the Old Bailey, and hanged at Tyburn, as an unparrallel'd Example of Jesuitical Ill-lucke: And first of all, pray tell me seriously, what think you of the Scripture?  Qu. 
They are a dead Carnal Letter, mere Paper, ink, and Writing; and those that make them their Rule, walk by their own Fancies, and Imaginations.  Jes. 
Why, la you there now? we say the same to a very tittle: 'Tis a dumb Guide, Atramentarium Evangelium; a dull Inky Gospel, we call it; And therefore since we both agree so well in this first point, to deny that to be the Rule, let us hear, where you do place the Judgeship, or determing Power, in matter of Faith?  Qu. 
In the Light, which is the Spirit, from whence all our sayings, and writings, about Religious matters, proceed.  Jes. 
Very well; But how shall any thing pretended to proceed- from this Spirit, in any individual person, or more that seem disagreeable to the mind of others, be tried?  Qua. 

* See a Testimony from the Brethren, signed by Whitehead, & 8. more of their chief Men.  By Judgement given by the Spirit, in the Elders and Members( or general Representative) consistent with the Doctrine of Ancient Friends, whose Determination is Infallible; and if any refuse to obey, and requiesse therein, they are to be reputed as Heathens, and Infidels.  Jes. 
Excellent right! Now we begin to come within Ken of one another; For this upon the whole matter, and at bottom plainly amounts to as much as our Resolving, all Power into the Pope, and a council: For we suppose as well as you, the Light, that is, the Spirit of God to be present with our Pope, and his council; and that thereby He, and they, have Power Infallibly to resolve all Religious Controverses: Wherefore, since with you each particular Quaker, is to submit to the Light of the Body, though his, or her, particular Light, dictate otherwise I see not a hairs breadth difference between our implicit Faith and yours; But conceive it altogether as reasonable to say, I believe so, or so, because the Pope, and the Church believe so; As because G. fox, and the Ministry or our Friends believe so, or so. Nor do I doubt, but our Traditions are of as good Authority and signify as much as your Doctrines of Ancient Friends.  Qu. 
Thou reasonest absurdly in the Spirit of Flesh, and confound'st thyself in the Eternal abyss of Creaturely Darkness; for besides this particular, thy Church is an Idolatress, worships Images, uses Crosses, says Prayers in a Language People do not understand, &c.  Jes. 
Come, come, the business here too, will prove as broad, as long between us: for if she set up Material external Images: you set up an idea, or an Internal Image to Idolise, and attribute Divine Honour to a Created natural Light: If she useth Crosses, you use more Crossness, and no less Superstition, in placing Religion in little Garbs, and sullen Phrases, &c. But as for praying in an unknown Tongue, I wonder you should be offended, since not long ago, when one of your Friends, a Dutch Woman, that could speak no English, came over, you admitted her to speak publicly amongst you; and declared, though none of you understood what she said, that yet you received great refreshing by it. Our Prayers are directed to a Power that understands not only all Languages, but the desires of each individual Heart, before they are formed into words: but certainly the Clatter of a Paper-mill, or a fit of music on the Gridiron, and Tongs might have been; if your Friends had thought fit so to fancy, altogether as Edifying, and refreshing, as this silly Fro's Canting, in Hogan Mogan Gibber sh.  Qua. 
Alas! poor Ignorant Man! The Divine Light, Power, or Spirit inwardly manifested, is the one Tongue to the Children of the Light; But thou saidst, that we received some of our Doctrines from thy Church, wherein dost thou mean?  Jes. 
Your opinion of Justification by works, your Conceit of perfection attainable in this Life, and many more, are but Arrows borrowed from our catholic Quiver, only a little disguised, that they might not be discovered: In brief, since you seem ignorant of the Pedigree, and Original of your own Party, I will snuff thy Light a little, and give thee a true Account of it.  Qua. 
I will endeavour to have patience to hear thee, if thou wilt not be tedious.  Jes. 
I will dispatch as compendiously as I can: 'Tis to well known what endeavours we have used, eve since the Reformation, to Re-establish our Religion in England; To this end we found it necessary to unsettle all things in Church, and Estate, and therefore having by our Intrigues, and Agents, involved three Nations in Confusion, towards the end of those unnatural Wars: when Religion was all the talk, and every man new modeling it according to his fancy, you may think we were as busy as any, but knowing if we should appear in our true Colour, and pled for down-right Popery, we should be universally hated or contemned; we therefore assuming the habit of Laymen, and professing several mechanic Trades, which we had learned for the purpose, we subtly insinuated into the Army, and in several Parts of the Nation( especially in the North, as not willing to come at first too near London, lest any that had known us beyond Sea, should discover us.) Here we took up several Forms of Religion, and run through the various Professions then in Fashion, but still pretending to a stricter Holiness, and more refined Notions; we at last began to Breath the wonderful Knack of quakerism, Composed in some measure of the thriving subtleties of our own Society, and the nasty Austerities of other Orders, bottomed upon contempt of the Scripture, before mentioned; As the best preparative Blew to lay a true Roman Scarlet upon, when we should think fit; withal Blended with several odd crotchets, and Heresies, so long since exploded, that they now seemed fresh Discoveries, and Virgin Beams of this new Light; And that it might be taken notice of, and reverenced by Credulous well-meaned People, we ordered it to appear, in the greatest show of Meekness, Innocency, and honesty, an affencted sauciness in Apparel, and resolute humour of denying Civil respects.  
To which we added at first a Phrensical practise of Raving, which served like Mahomets falling Sickness, to stamp the business with a pretence of Inspiration: A few unintelligible Notions of Jacob Behmen, and insignificant expressions of some melancholy Doctors of our own; about Abstractedness of Life, Mental Prayer, and silent waitings for pure Actuations in the depth of the Spirit, &c. Together with endless Repitions, of minding the Light, served excellently for the furnishing the first spreaders of it with long Harangues, that were therefore admired because they were impossible to be understood.  
The Design being thus laid, and quakerism sown in the North, It began to spread gallantly; though it was like to have miscarried in swaddling Clouts, by the too open Imprudence of Nailor: but that Sore was soon salved, and ever since it has thriven amain, to our great Comfort: Who have always in our thoughts, reckoned those of your Party, our own. Well knowing, that if we can but once unsettle Peoples Faith from a reliance on the Scriptures, and engage them in such truly Athistical Opinions, our business was half done. For then we can as soon as we see a fit opportunity, tell them that the Light they have acknowledged, must be the Sole Rule. Is not any particular but a general Light: which is nothing else but the catholic Tradition of the Church; witnessed unto by good Ancient Friends in all Ages that have been found in the Faith. And this Light being thus Infallible whatever it proposes, All must acquiesce therein: And so a Door is opened to let in Popery in gross, and then your Formalities will easily vanish, being almost worn off already; and you will be in all points fit to be received into the bosom of our Mother Church; and to be publicly owned for her Children.  quake. 
Plainly, if the Pope believes as thou sayst; I do not see but he has great manifestation of the Light. And though I do not believe all thou hast laid down, yet there may be something in the thing; and perhaps our Friends, Parrot and Fisher, went to Rome, not so much to Convert the Pope, as to fetch Instructions: However, tis not convenient to let any thing of it be known abroad.  Jesuit. 
Not for a World; writ and Rail still as furiously as any Pen can teach you: 'twill give it the better Colour, and keep up your Credit with the People.  Qu. 
And plainly there was never more need, for our Opinions of late have been so pried into, and exposed, that most sober People begin to have very strange thoughts of them.  Jes. 
You may thank your own Imprudence for that, heretofore if any did oppose or contradict, 'twas held a sufficient Confutation to Curse him; and cry, silent flesh: but now of late, some of your Flashy hot-headed Leaders, will needs in confidence of their abilities, ●all a Disputing & Reasoning; and so expose the tender Cause to the hazard of a Baffle: Whereas you might have continued impregnable, as in an enchanted Castle, if you had but kept that good Resolution, of one of your Party, delivered some time since in these words; 
(†) See Smith Catech. p. 93.  They that would be satisfied concerning us, or our way; m●st find us and know us in the Principles of Life, where we are, and not in their own Reason, where we are not. Therefore let none reason about us; for there they can never know us, nor come unto us.  quake. 
Plainly that had been the best course, but since we are already Engaged, what is best to be done.  Jesuit. 
e'en bear it out with Huffing; affirming or denying any thing as may make most for your Repute: never stand upon Yea, and Nay, when your Honour is at Stake, but be sure do it with the highest Confidence, though never so untrue, some body or other will be so good natured, as to believe you. He that tells a lie faintly, bespeaks himself to be suspected. At the same time vilify your Adversaries, fling Dirt enough, some will stick; Let your words be like the Devils Oracles, capable of two or three Senses: The Art of Equivocation is absolutely necessary at a pinch, and a neat way of Legerdemain no less useful, to pervert an Authors words, and make him speak what you list; and then fall upon him like Lightning for the Absurdity.  quake. 
All these are stale devices, our Friends are already grown as ready at them as any of your Society: But if thou hast any new Minted Sophistries or Evasions yet never heard of: Thy assistance I judge will come very seasonably.  Jesuit. 
I have no other at present in my Head, but doubt not but within two or three days to furnish you, for I shall be very glad for the Reasons aforesaid to serve you: and so Adieu.  Quaker. 
I sha●l acquaint our Friends with thy Love.  
Fare thee well.  
FINIS.