A PREMONITION TO THE Bishops and Priests OF ENGLAND, etc.  
With Twenty Reasons why the People of God in Scorn called Quakers do Refuse to hear them.  
GOD Almighty at sundry times and in divers manners, hath appeared to warn you of his Wrath and sore displeasure, which hath several Years hung over your heads; even ready to be revealed from Heaven upon you for your manifold abominations and Oppressions, the Cry of which hath reached to Heaven; and therefore hath the God of mercy (who delighteth not in the destruction of the wicked) put his word in the Mouths of his Servants and Messengers, who early and late in word and writing, Year after Year, and Time after Time, have exhorted you to cease to do Evil, and learn to do Well and to break off your abominable Wickednesses and cruel Oppressions (under which the Land mourns) by speedy and unfeigned Repentance, but you have hitherto despised, evil-intreated and Persecuted his Messengers, and rejected his Word, till even now the wrath of the Lamb is kindled against you, from which none can deliver you; for you have provoked him (who delighteth in mercy) to wrath and jealousy days without number, your Pride, Covetousness, Drunkenness, Whoredoms among you, Lying, Swearing, Oppression, and lording it over God's Heritage, and forcing Thousands to walk in the broad way to destruction with yourselves (whom you can prevail withal) is Recorded as with a Pen of Iron, and point of a Diamond: Oh! my Heart is Rend because of the misery and sore destruction which God, will bring upon you & your Posterity if you and they still harden your Hearts against him, and my wrestle are often with the Lord, not to pour forth the vials of his wrath upon your Head, but rather give you penitent Hearts, if you have not sinned out your Day: Oh! that there were such an heart in you as would strip you out of your Pharisaical long Robes, and  you with Sackcloth and Ashes upon your Heads, and cry mightily unto God, as the Men of Nineveh did, that God may turn from you his fiery Indignation and sore displeasure, that is ready to flame in fury against you; for your Repentance and not your Destruction is the earnest desire of my Soul: Oh! that you knew in this your day, the things that belong to your Peace with God, but the Day is very near wherein they will be hid from your Eyes, for God's Spirit will not always strive with you, as it hath hither to done, neither will the place of Repentance be always in your sight, which when hid, you shall seek Death and shall not find it, and shall say in the Morning, would God it were Evening, and in the Evening, would God it were Morning, for the dread and horror that shall compass you on every side; then shall he that sits in Heaven laugh at your Calmity, and stand far off from you when your fear cometh, even as pain upon a Woman that travaileth, for you have over-passed the deeds of the wicked; the Land even stinks through your abominations, you have long fed yourselves with the Fat of this Land, and clothed yourselves with the Wool, that you are more like Sodomites than Christians, but you have killed, and cruelly Persecuted those that God hath fed with Bread from Heaven, like the false Shepherds of Israel, whom God by the Mouth of Ezekiel cried woe against, Ezek 34.2, 3, 4. Oh! what will you do in the end of these things, when the God of Righteousness shall require his Flock at your Hands? What hath People profitted under you this many Years? Do not both them and yourselves grow worse and worse, you deceiving, and they deceived? but if you had stood in the Counsel of God, & had been Authorised by him, & had caused People to hear his word of Faith in their Hearts, than had you been as so many lustrous Stars in the Firmament of his power forever, but now you are left as Wells without Water, Clouds carried about with a Tempest; for a little Storm will drive you East or West, North or South, yea, wand'ring Stars, to whom (unless you speedily Repent) is reserved the blackness of utter Darkness forever.  
For the Light of the glorious day of God's power you have woefully hated, and have loved Darkness rather, by reason of your Evil deeds; and you have shut the Kingdom of Heaven against many, yea, even all whom you can prevail withal, by hating, slighting, and setting at nought the Key of David, which should open the Door of entrance unto it, and yet would take it by the force and strength of your earthly Wisdoms and brain. Knowledge, but this know, that neither Fornicator, nor Adolterer, nor Idolater, nor the unclean hath any part or portion in it, 1 Cor 6.9, 10. Ephes. 5.3, 5. but the Darkness which they have loved in their lifetimes shall be their lot and portion forever, with the word UTTER annexed to it, unless they Repent and turn unto the Light with which Christ Jesus hath enlightened them, and love it, and walk in it in your lifetimes, which hitherto many of you Priests have most wretchedly despised and blasphemed against.  
Therefore, oh ye Bishops and Priests, and all your Judges and Officers, whose proceed are corrupted, who have taken the sheaf from the hungry, and have not bound up the broken hearted, nor relieved the OpPressed, if ye will not hear nor lay these things to Heart, the Lord will spread Dung upon your Faces, and will make you a Hissing, and a Byword of of Reproach to Generations to come, for your Iniquities are almost full, and you are daily heaping up Wrath against the Day of wrath, they who work Wickedness are set up and Countenanced among you, and they that tempt God every day are even delivered, and counted your great Church-Members, and Communicants; but they who reprove Iniquity in the Gate, are grievously drawn before your Judgement Seats, and made a Prey upon, both in their Persons and properties, which was never Christ's, but Antichrist's way of Convincing gain sayers.  
And how do you lead many blind to Destruction, by forcing them under the penalty of Excommunication to eat and drink their own damnation; if it be matter of Damnation to eat at your table without Faith in it, how many have you drawn before your Judgement Seats, because they come not to your Sacrament, are you certain they have examined themselves according to the Apostle's command, 1 Cor. 11.28. or do you know them to be worthy, or discern the Lord's Body? or do you discern it yourselves, without which, whosoever eateth or drinketh, doth it unworthily to his own damnation, verse. 29. And how can you ever stand clear before the Seat of divine Justice, who force men under severe Penalties, contrary to the persuasion of their own Hearts after Examination (by which many have found their unworthiness) to eat and drink their own Damnation, or else they must be cursed out of your worshipping Houses, and cast out of the Society and company of their Friends and loving Neighbours? Oh! the Cry of these things is loud, was this ever Christ or the Apostles way and manner towards them who opposed them? did not Christ command his to bless their very Persecutors? And did not the Apostle forbidden the Saints to Curse? Rom. 12.14. And did not the Apostle James say, that out of one Mouth should not come blessing and cursing? James 3.10. And was ever any forbidden to buy or sell, or have Society amongst men, but only by the Power of the Beast spoken of by John, Revelation 13.16, 17. who made War with the Lamb and the Saints; now let the wise Judge who is your example in your Court-proceedings, whether Christ or Antichrist according to your professed Rule, viz. the Scriptures.  
And if you prevail upon any, who through Fear of your Whip do outwardly conform to your Worship, contrary to the Persuasions of their own Hearts; do not you thereby make them Hypocrites, and twofold more the Children of the Devil then before? God hath turned the Hearts of many from you, and hath commanded them to offer a Sacrifice to him out of the Borders of Egypt, even in the Wilderness, which is towards the Red Sea, in the Way to the Land of Canaan, and your Pursuit of them here, will be to your own overthrow, as it was Pharaoh's. Oh consider what you are a doing by your Courts and Proceed; is it not to draw them into Egypt again, whom God by the Cords of his infinite Love hath drawn into the Land of Goshen, where they enjoy and possess Light in their Dwellings, and have forever turned their Backs of Egypt's Land, having set their Faces Zion-ward, and are come to the Father's House (i e.) The true Light) where they have Bread enough, yea, of the living Bread which is come down from Heaven, by which they are nourished up to Eternal Life, so that your Husk they utterly refuse, which you sell at a costly Rate, with which no weary Soul can ever be, nor never was satisfied.  
Therefore touch them not I charge you by the God of Heaven, nor offend the least among them; for they are near and dear unto the Lord, and he tenders them as the Apple of his Eye; and no Weapon form against them shall ever prosper; are you still so blind, as not to consider your ill Success in this Undertaking this many Years? methinks you should have as much Wisdom as Gamaliel had, to say, Let them alone, if they be of God they will stand, if not, he will overthrow them, lest happily you be found Fighters against God, Acts 5.34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 And you should consider the Parable of the Wheat and Tares, how that the Lord of the Household of Faith would not suffer his Servants to pluck up the Tares, but commanded that they should grow among the Wheat to the End of the world, though he declared them to be the Children of the wicked one, Mat. 13.18. to the 44th verse. He was not of your Mind, to root them out from the Earth, though he infallibly knew them to be sown by the Enemy, which you do not pretend unto, and therefore cannot discern between the Children of God and the Chidrens of the Devil, but call Good Evil, and Evil Good; and put Light for Darkness, and Darkness for Light, as your Forefathers did in the Days of old; But if you fall upon that Rock you have so long stembled at, you will be broken; but upon whomsoever it falls, it will grind him to Powder: Therefore dread the Majesty of the great God of Heaven, at whose Rebuke all the Mountains of the Earth tremble and are moved; and howl all ye idle Vinedressers, whose Vineyards are overgrown with Weeds; the Lord of the Vineyard is come to look for Fruit, and behold▪ there is little among you, but bitter, four and ill-tasted Fruits, your Vine is the Vine of Sodom, and your Grapes the Grapes of Gomorrah, and the Lord of the Vineyard will cast you out as unprofitable Servants, and idle Shepherds, unless you weed out all the Briars and Thorns, and then, which of you can escape; for the best among you, who are guilty of Persecution, are as a Briar, and sharper than a Thorn-Hedge, from which no pleasant Grapes can be expected, so that by your Fruits you are known, and not by your Words, Mat. 7.2, 3. for you have got the good Words & the fair Speeches, by which you deceive the Hearts of the simple; and if Covetousness be Idolatry which none questions, then, who are greater Idolaters than yourselves? of whose covetous Practices the whole Nation is full, having a Cloud of Witnesses in every parish. And how can you call yourselves spiritual Persons, when you so much resist the Spirit of Truth, and contemn those who own and witness it to be their Guide and Leader into all Truth? for none can truly be spiritual Persons, but who by the spirit of Truth are made so; for all men naturally are carnal, sold under Sin; and none can judge for God, but they who are led by his Spirit.  
Now if you were led by the Spirit of God, you would let People alone to be persuaded by it, in things relating to another world, whose Fruits have no bad Aspect on the affairs of this, and especially they who desire nothing more than to live a quiet and peaceable Life, in all Godliness and Honesty; but by oppressing such, you not only seek the Destruction of their Souls, but of their Bodies also; and if such be not ravening wolves there was never any in the world.  
And as your Fore Fathers did, so do ye begin at the wrong End, instead of being a Terror to Evil doers, you make yourselves such to them that do well, and let Drunkards, Liars, Swearers, Whoremongers and Adulterers go free, which God will judge, and because of these and many mroe Abominations the Land now mourns; and there is but a small Remnant that fighs and mourns for all the Abominations that are committed therein; but the great Number lives wantonly upon the Earth, and kill the just one, and cruifie afresh the Lord of Glory, putting him to open Shame, and give Occasion to the Adulterers of Foreign Nations to blaspheme the Name of the God of Israel, which he will require at your Hands.  
And why do you suffer Foreign and other Cheats to come in and set up Stageplays in open Streets of Cities and Towns, whereby the Name of God is dreadfully blasphemed, & youth and old ge woefully corrupted and debauched. Oh! what will you do? or where will you appear when God ariseth to take Vengeance for these things? My Soul is even bowed down at the Consideration of these things, and often mourns in secret for the Abomination of Desolation, which now stands where it ought not, therefore let him that reads understand.  
And Nation is now appearing against Nation & Kingdom against Kingdom, & Famine's, Pestilences & terrible Earth quakes in divers places, yea, many Signs in Heaven, and Wonders in the Earth-beneath, of the breaking forth of the wrath of the Lamb, whose Patience and Long-suffering being slighted, you are not led to Repentance; but they wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived; even heaping up Wrath against the day of Wrath, and the revealing of the righteous Judgement of God.  
Even as it was in the Days of Noah, so is it now in the coming of the Son of Man; for the Earth is filled with Violence, and is corrupted by Iniquity, and the dark Corners thereof are full of the Habitations of Cruelty, but an Ark is prepared, and a small Remnant are gathered, and more gathering daily into it, at the Command of the Lord; the like Figure, whereunto Baptism now saveth us, not the putting away of the Filth of the Flesh, but the answer of a good Conscience, by the Resurrection of Jesus; and now it is fulfilled, that as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, so is the Son of Man lifted up in the Hearts of his People in this his Day, of whose Government there shall be no End; and all are and will be accounted his Enemies, that will not suffer him thus to reign.  
But he gives Caesar his due at this Day (viz.) the Government in outward things; for his Kingdom is not of this world, neither do his Servants fight, but are made perfect through Suffering, as their Lord and Master was in the Days of old.  
Therefore awake, awake all you who have long laid in Security; for the great and notable Day of the Lord is dawning, wherein all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be as Stubble and the Day that cometh shall leave them neither root not branch; but unto them who fear the Name of the Lord, and departed from Iniquity, and hate every evil way, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with Healing, and shall give them Beauty for Ashes, and the Oil of Joy for the Spirit of Heaviness, under which they have walked many Years; and the Cup of Trembling shall be taken out of their Hand, and shall be given into the Hands of them who oppress them.  
And God's Arm is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his Ear heavy that it cannot hear the cry of the Poor, and complaint of the Needy, who are even at this day groaning under the burdens of an oppressed Conscience, through the cruel unnatural impositions of men, having assumed that to themselves, which is proper and peculiar to God alone, (viz.) The Government in spiritual matters relating to another world, this is his honour which he will not give to another, and if all Judgement be committed to the Son, what place is left for the Bishop's Judges? What Judgement is to them committed? And who gave them Authority to set Judges over men's Consciences in matters of Faith and Worship? do not the Scriptures say, that Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin? Rom. 14.23. And without Faith 'tis impossible to please God, Heb. 11.6. Now do not you greatly dishonour the Son, who is the only Author and Giver of Faith, who would impose a Worship contrary thereunto, upon his Servants? is not he only spiritual Judge of Heaven and Earth, whose Judgement is just, and according to Truth and Righteousness altogether? & how can you judge of spiritual Things, if you have not the infallible Spirit, and so not sure of your own standing, nor of the way you walk in to be Right; and yet Persecute others even to Life, Liberty and Estate, because they will not walk in your uncertain way? you presume higher than did the Scribes and Pharisees of old, (though short of their Righteousness) for they were said but to sit in Moses' Seat, who had a Legal ministration; but you pretend to sit in Christ's Seat, who hath an everlasting Spiritual Priesthood, and is only Judge of quick and dead: Therefore down with your pretended spiritual Courts whereby you would limit God in his Worship, and prescribe his Servants a way, which yourselves do not certainly know to be true, to worship God contrary to the measure of Faith they have received from God, and let sound honest Judges in Temporal matters between a Man & his Neighbour be set up in all Cases of difference in temporal things, and let them be a terror to Evil-doers under what Name and Profession soever; for the Law was made for such, and not for righteous men, have you any precedent in the Scriptures, in all the days of the Ministration of Moses, in the days of Abraham, in the time of the Prophets, or in any of the Gospel-dispensations, that ever any outward Law with an outward penalty, was made against them, who did not Worship God in that way & manner, in which he had appeared in those days? If you cannot, you must either judge them deficient who had the ministerial Offices in those dispensations, or yourselves to take more upon you, than you have either precept or example for in the holy Scriptures.   

Here followeth some of the weighty Reasons why we who are called Quakers, do deny the Bishops and their Priests to be Ministers of the Gospel, and do refuse to hear them.  
Reason 1. YOU being made Ministers by the Will and Wisdom of Man, and what you have received being from man, and taught you by man, and not by the Revelation of Jesus Christ, contrary to the true Ministers in the Days of old, having not entered in at the Door, but climbed up some other way, therefore we cannot own you to be ordained of God, nor to be true Shepherds.  
Reas. 2. After this wrong Beginning you have been inducted by men into great Benefices, in every Place, as you could obtain them; and have preached for Hire, and have spoken a Divination of your own Brain-study in your carnal Wisdoms, and not from the Mouth of the Lord, as he hath taught you, and therefore have you remained, some Ten, some Twenty Years, more or less, in a fat Benefice, and have not profited the People at all, Jer. 23.21, 22.  
Reas. 3. You like the false Prophets of Israel have every one sought your own Way, every one for his Gain from his Quarter, Ise 56.10, 11. And moreover, have run from Quarter to Quarter where was most Gain, and so have made Merchandise of People through Covetousness, as they did whom Peter testified against, 2 Pet. 2.1, 2, 3. This hath manifested to us and all sober People, that you have the Spirit of Error.  
Reas. 4. You have run and the Lord hath not sent you, therefore have you turned none to Righteousness, nor profited the People at all; but if you had stood in the Counsel of God, and had caused People to hear his Word, which is Christ, than you should have turned them from the Evil of their Ways, Jer. 23.  
Reas. 5. You have fed yourselves with the Fat, and clothed yourselves with the Wool, and like Drones have lain within, and have eaten up that which many have laboured hard for, and have persecuted and killed them, who are fed by Christ the true Shepherd; therefore is the Hand of the Lord turned against you, and he will wipe you as a man wipeth a Dish, turning it upside down.  
Reas. 6. You have born Rule by your Means, and have been called Lords and Masters, and them who could not give you those flattering Titles, you have hated and persecuted; and you have loved and strove for the chiefest Places in the Assemblies, and the uppermost Rooms at Feasts, and have gone in long Robes; and for a Pretence have made long Prayers, being directly such as Christ cried Woe against, Mat. 23.  
Reas. 7. You have come to People in Sheep's Clothing, and through your Good Words and Fair Sperches have deceived the Hearts of the Simple, but inwardly are Ravening Wolves; you are known to the whole Nation by your Fruits being written in great Characters upon your Foreheads (viz.) Pride, Covetousness, Luxury, Drunkenness, Whoredom, Lying, Swearing, the Abominations of the Heathen, and therefore are Evil Trees, which have no Promise, but to be hewn down.  
Reas. 8. You have cried Peace to every one that would put into your Mouths and feed you with Tithes, Gifts and Rewards, but they who have denied you these, you, like ravening Wolves, have devoured many Widow's Houses, and tender Lambs; and have far exceeded (in making Spoil of People's Goods who have received nothing from you) all the false Prophets that ever I heard or read of, either in the Scriptures, or any History since the Foundation of the World; and therefore we cannot own you as true Shepherds, but as ravening Wolves.  
Reas. 9 You have not been content with Christ's Wages to his Ministers (viz.) into whatsoever House ye enter, eat and drink such things as they set before you; for the Labourer is worthy of his Meat, Luke 10. therefore never truly sent forth by him, but have gone in the Way of Cain, and after the Error of Balaam, Judas 11. who erred from the Spirit of God, and then was more blind than the Ass he road on.  
Reas. 10. You have followed your own Spirits, and have mocked and derided those that possess the infallible Spirit of Truth, and therefore are Ministers of the Letter which killeth, and not of the Spirit which giveth Life; for the least Measure of the Spirit of Truth is infallible, and never deceived any who were guided by it, but the whole Body of the Spirit of Error is fallible, and worketh with all Deceivableness of Unrighteousness, its Fruits being such as are mentioned in the nine foregoing Reasons why the Quakers deny the Priesthood of England.  
Reas. 11. You, when you have seen the Wolf come, have fled, and left your Flocks to be devoured by him, when the Arm of Flesh turned against you; and therefore are you manifest Hirelings, and not of the true Shepherd, who laid down his Life for his Flock, John 10.12, 13.  
Reas. 12. You have not turned People from Darkness to the true Light, wherewith Christ Jesus hath enlightened every man that cometh into the World, John 1.9. nor from the Power of Satan to the Power of God, whereby they might witness Remission of Sins, contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of Christ and the true Ministers of the Gospel, Acts 26.16, 17, 18. but you have kept people in Darkness, and under the power of Satan; and have preached and made people believe they must remain under Satan's power all the Days of their Lives, and consequently have made the Death, Suffering and Blood of Christ of none Effect, and the Second Covenant of no more Force nor Virtue than the First, nor the Blood of Christ no better than the Blood of Bulls and Goats, which could not cleanse from Sin; and therefore you and they die in your Sins as Christ said to the Jews, John 8.21.  
Reas. 13. You creep into the Idolatrous Houses which were built by the Papists, and consecrated to Idolatry, and there lead silly men and women captive, laden with Sin and divers Lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth, which is Christ the Light of the World, and so Freedom from Sin, and Eternal Life in Christ is hid from your Eyes, and the Way of Peace neither the Leaders, nor they who are led know; and therefore we call you blind Leaders of the blind, as Christ did those who walked in your Steps, Mat. 15.14.  
Reas. 14. You have a show of Godliness, but deny, hate and persecute the Power of Godliness in all, in whom it is brought forth; and for this Reason also we turn away from you, according to the Apostle's Doctrine, 2 Tim. 3.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.  
Reas. 15. You are Wells without Water, Clouds carried about with a Tempest; for when the Storm came and beat upon your Houses, which you upon the Sand had built, they fell, and you fled at their Fall, and great was their Fall; so you are Hearers and not Doers, deceiving your own Souls, Mat. 7.26, 27.  
Reas. 16. You dip or sprinkle Infants, and cause men and women to promise and vow, that they shall forsake the Devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this world, and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh, which you nor they can never perform; here you are grievous Covenant-Breakers; for neither you nor they in that state you stand in, can keep God's Holy Will, nor his Commandments, one Day in all your Lives; and so lay heavy Burdens upon others, which you will not touch with one of your Fingers, and cause many to break their solemn Covenant with God, which will be charged to you in the Day of Account; and so are the Covenant-Breakers spoken of, 2 Tim. 3.3.  
Reas. 17. You deny Perfection, and Freedom from Sin in this Life, contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Ministers, Mat. 5.48. Rom. 6.18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. Phil. 3.15. 1 John 4.17. and so make void the Gifts given by Christ at his Ascension, which were for the perfecting of the Saints, Ephes. 4.12.13.  
Reas. 18. You have kept people in Doubt of their Salvation, in telling them they must have a Body of Sin as long as they live, and not resolving them where this Body of sin must be done away, seeing the Scripture saith, There is no Remembrance of God in Death, and in the Grave who shall give him Thanks, Psal. 6.5. And again Isaiah saith, The Grave cannot praise the Lord, nor Death celebrate him, and they that go down to the Pit cannot hope for his Truth, Isaiah 38.18. So unless you tell People where or when they shall be made free from Sin, and prove the same by plain Scripture, you will be seen of all to be manifest Deceivers, seeing no Unclean Thing shall enter into the Kingdom of Righteousness.  
Reas. 19 You deny Immediate Revelation, and Inspiration by the Spirit of God at this day, through which the things of God's Kingdom both is and ever was known, Deut. 29.29. Job. 32.8. Mat. 16.17. Mat. 11. & 27. 1 Cor. 2.10, 11. And thereby do keep People from the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, whom to know is Life eternal, John 17.3. this again shows you (in Doctrine) to be contrary to the Apostles and Primitive Christians, who were Sons and Daughters of God, and led by the Spirit of God, Rom. 8.14. So for this Reason also we deny you, and turn away from you, as being Ministers of the Letter that killeth, and not of the Spirit that giveth Life, 2 Cor. 3.6.  
Reas. 20. You love to be called Lord-Bishops, and your Priest's Master such a one, and Master such a one contrary to the Scriptures and the Titles of the Holy men of God therein recorded; for we do not read of Lord Timothy, nor Lord Titus, though Bishops; nor of Master Paul, nor Master Peter, etc. This again shows you to be more like the Gentiles, who exercised Lordship over their Brethren, than Ministers of Christ; but Christ said, it should not be so among his Ministers, but He that would be greatest should be Servant to all, Mark 10.43.  
Southwark, the 24th of the 9th Month, 1676. Your Friend A. R.  
THE END.