THE Throne of Truth Exalted over the POWERS OF DARKNESS.  
FROM WHENCE IS JUDGED, The Mouth of Ralph Farmer( an Unclean and Blood-thirsty Priest of BRISTOL) opened in Blasphemy against God, and his Name, and his Tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven; in a late noisome Pamphlet of his, entitled, Satan enthroned in his Chair of Pestilence; or, Quakerism in its Exaltation.  
And in the Light and Power of which is comprehended, swept away, and overthrown the filthy matter, and mischievous design of Satan in that heap of falsehood; and his Confusion, Dishonesty, lies, Slanders, Scoffs, Blasphemies, and other Polluted Stuff with which it is filled, made manifest, and turned back into his own bosom, the Lake from whence it came; and the Truth fully vindicated, & made to appear clear, as to all that's endeavoured to be cast thereon by him, either as to I. N. and that Companie's late coming to Bristol, their Papers, &c. or upon occasion thereof in that his Book.  
For the sake of the simple-hearted in this great hour of Temptation, and Power of Darkness.  
By a witness of the Truth, even of that Christs appearing the second time without sin unto salvation, who is the light of the world & lighteth every man that cometh into the world; who was crucified at jerusalem by Herod, Pilate, the Chief Priests and Elders of the Jews, and the whole multitude of them, above six●●en hundred yeers since, who was numbered amongst transgressors, whose blood cleanseth from all sin ( which the Priests deny) them that walk in the light. Geo. bishop. 〈◇〉  
He 〈…〉 into Captivity shall go into Captivity. He that killeth with the S 〈…〉 all be killed with the Sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints, Rev. 1●. 10.  
LONDON, Printed for Giles Calvert, and are to be sold at his shop at the Black-spread-Eagle near the West end of Pauls. 1657.   

To the sober Reader.  
WEre it not that Ralph Farmer in his Relation of I. N. coming into Bristol, &c. and the publishing thereof, had bent his bow, and shot his poisoned arrows at the Truth, it's like it had not been replied unto by me, it being such an apparent lake of loathosme Filth, so much unlike a man, muchless one who calls himself a christian, that even the very looking thereon is enough to nausceate the serious Reader, and to render this Priest abhorred and abominable to all men of sober understanding. But seeing in this day of the Lords controversy for Sion, this son of Falsehood hath made a wide mouth, and drawn out the tongue to reproach & blaspheme the Ttruth of the living God, and his servants, and sport himself therein. Necessity is laid upon me from the Lord to put pen to paper; not ●s to mine own particular, as if I were troubled( for he reacheth not me in the least, nor can he come at me, though at me he so spitefully spiteth out his gangrened Ven●m) but for the clearing of the Truth, that all who will may see in this Vindication the menstruous apparel in which he hath purposely clothed it to make it vile and odious, wholly taken off, his Snare discovered, and his Design broken, and the Truth standing clear, single and innocent, as touching any thing charged thereon, or thrown at it by him in that his Narrative, or upon occasion theteof; and that those who shall notwithstanding shut their eyes, may be left without excuse in the day that God shall judge the secrets of all hearts by the Man Christ Jesus, of whose blood I shall then stand clear in the presence of God and his holy Angels.  
C. B. Bristol, the 12. day of the 11. Mon. 1656.   

Pag. Line Errata. Correct. 7 15 at as 10 5 an effect such an effect. 31 32 Aplications Appellations. 34 24 briefly to( briefly.)   26 thy Magistrates the Magistrates. 35 18, 27 thy Magistrates the Magistrates. 36 20 38 33 39 10 42 1 thou though. 45 16 wonder wander. 47 6 is was. 48 31 look us upon look upon us. 55 28 Cams Camm. 61 15 but Be. 63 Mar. John 28, 29. John 10. 28, 29. 66 10 the crooked, the steps of the strange woman, are the are the crooked, the steps of the strange woman the   20 same) error same) of error. 70 25 Make himself make in himself. 71 11 because we because they. 72 16, 17 workmanship in Christ workmanship created in Christ. 78 13 Confusion Conclusion. 81 9 Covenant Testament.   17 ye are we are.   Ma g 2 Cor. 12. 14. 2 Cor. 12 chap. 82 12 r they pretend we pretend. 84 33 spake speak. 85 10 root root of either, so is that which proceedeth from it.   18, 19 grieved in spirit turned grieved turned.   24 to be preached to be practised.   28 worldly wisdom world by wisdom.   32 viz. the principle of life earthly the principle of life, viz. earthly. 88 8 heard of God heard of God, this did not Abraham. 89 15 and not according not according.   28 they did not they do not. 90 20 then any then many. 93 8 so and to do so to do. 94 27 now on G. F. nor on G. F.   

THE Throne of Truth EXALTED OVER THE Powers of darkness, &c.  
THE greatest design of Satan enthroned in Ralph Farmer his Chair of Pestilence, upon occasion of J. N. late coming to Bristol, &c. and of his Narrative, entitled Quake●ism in its Exaltatior; and of all the stuff of the bottonles Pit heaped up therein, and of his publishing the same, is to reproach the Truth of the living God, witnessed by those whom he and the World in scorn calls Quakers, and to render it most vile and odious; that so the simplo hearted in these Nations to whom his envenomed Sheets shall come, looking on the Truth in the horrible disguise in which he hath presented it, may at unawares suck up his deadly poison, and be set in opposition to this day of their Gracious Visitation, which is come from the presence of the Lord and the Throne of his Power; well knowing that whilst he can beguile the mindes of the simplo with such Vizors, and fill their hearts with Rage and Madness, his possession in such will remain sure, and their ear sufficiently stopped against the voice of the Charmer, charm he never so wisely.  
For discovery whereof, and that the foot of the simplo may be delivered from this Snare of the Fowler; I shall first wipe away what he hath cast on the Truth in a Reply to the sum of that part of his Book, which he makes to relate to the People called Quakers, as it is wrapped up in this Confusion( for we must take it as he hath put it) viz. 1. That they are one; then, That they are divided; and when that is finished, this Priest and what he hath wrote shall be somewhat more particularly examined from his Title-Page unto the end of his Relation.  
The first and greatest part of his Book is a Narrative or Relation of J. N. coming to Bristol, and of the Examinations of him and that company, and of the Papers found about him, and of other passages, and his Observations therefrom, which having set down as he thought fit, and spoken of as he pleased, and made as abominable and blasphemous as he would, he contracts all together, and spi●'s it out at the face of Truth and its Friends, in this reproachful term Quakerism, and that in its Exaltation. And thus to blemish it and them upon that occasion, as being one, is his great Design, as hath been said; and here the Vipers Teeth are fastened, and the Foundation laid▪ of his Fortification against the Truth.  
In answer whereunto To thee Ralph Farmer, I say, in the Power and Dread of the Eternal God, The Lord rebuk thee O Satan, even the Lord, who hath chosen Jerusalem, and is gathering the outcasts of Jacob.  
And to those, and for their sakes, whom thou seekest thereby to deceive, and to draw into thy Snare, I reply.  
subtilest I. N. walked in the Light, and in it ruled▪ he was indeed exceeding precious and honourable amongst the Children of the Day; and in the Authority of the living God( whilst so) he did stand over this Priest( who then dared not to appear in a Paper against him) and all his Generation, the Magicians of egypt, and wise men of Babylon; over all Sects, Judgements and Opinions. What mouth was there( then) opened against him that he did not condemn? What Pen replied again when he had answered? What Arm was stretched out against him that he did not chain down? What weapon formed against him prospered? How did he tread upon the high places of the Earth? How was he raised up from the North? And from thence how did he come upon the Princes of all sorts as mortar, and as the Potter treadeth day? And what he( then) wrote, and what he( then) spoken, and ministered of the Eternal Life shall abide for ever, and shall have an Eternal Witness in that of God in every man's conscience. But when his hour of Temptation came,( which the Lord out of the depth of his Wisdom and council permitted to prevail upon him, to try the men of this Generation, high above any in Profession; high above any in declaring, in fighting for liberty, for liberty of Conscience; high above any in deliverances; whom he hath now tried through occasion of him, and who upon trial have brought forth the same spirit that burned in Queen Maryes dayes; that Prison'd, Pillor'd, whipped, Stigmatized, in the dayes of the Bishops; that drew the Sword, and sought to destroy all in these Nations and Dominions that came not to its foot in the times of the late Wars▪ whom God destroyed: For what Law hath it been made to appear to the Nation that he hath broken? Or, what offence against man that he hath committed? Or, whom to have wronged in word or dead? A man, a valiant man in the Wars from first to last, whose sword the Lord prospered, and whose life he preserved; yet, how hath he suffered? What eye ever saw the like? or ear heard? or president of it afforded a parallel? How doth the ears tingle of all that hear it? 〈…〉 ike down and pierce to the bottom of hard 〈…〉, 〈…〉 ven of Enemies and draw up from thence relent●ngs and compassions?( but is matter of joy to this Priest and his Generation) Yea, how doth it call to mind the former days, and beget great thoughts of heart?) I say, his hour of Temptation being come, and Darkness getting about him quick and sudden, his state was seen in the Light by Friends at London, before he was brought thence to Bristol; and being at Bristol the later end of the fifth month,( the time of the Fair) it was seen by Friends there how it had encompassed him; and that spirit which had darkened him, was then denied by them, and also the Woman from whom it had entred him, and the other two with her, and all their Filth( whom not so much as one Friend owned of those thousands in that City, and the Country about it, as we have heard, or have known) from whom, after he had been some hours separated, he began to see, and to have some sensibleness of his condition, and of his loss, and to see the spirit which lead out from God, and in that he continued during his journey to Exeter, towards Lancaston, whither he was going to visit his Friends there in Prison; and also in the Prison at Exeter( into which he and his Friends were cast for no other cause, but for being found traveling on the high-way to visit those their suffering Friends) This tenderness in which he was drew forth, love in divers, and bowels after his Recovery, and was the occasion of writing some Letters particularly by John Audland, and Margret Fell( which this Priest doth so much abuse and wrest in his Relation; of which more hereafter) and in tenderness did he remain, till that some came to him thither, who tempted him again, and so he became again darkened; which being also seen in the Light, many Papers were sent to him, discovering that spirit, and that Woman, her company, and their imaginations, and judging of both; as there were also those who whilst he was in Prison, did to him and them bear the same witness as they were moved of the Lord; but the hour of temptation being strong upon him, and the Powers of Darkness, those things prevailed little: And being delivered out of the outward Prison, he was lead captive in the inward by it, and that Woman and her company to Bristol; in which condition Friends at Bristol seeing him( as they had before in the fifth month) they denied( as they had before) that spirit which had so lead him, and that Woman and her company, with all their filthiness in their deceit, with which having no fellowship in the Light, but the contrary, with the Light, they it, and them, and their deeds did reprove, and judge; and for that cause only stood clear of either owning or visiting them; yea, that Spirit, and Woman, and her company, and their actions did they publicly disown, not out of subtlety and deceit, as if so be something was brought forth which we did secretly like, but would not have them to be manifestd, or in that person, but some other( as this Priest doth wickedly invent and suggest) but that the Truth might( as it was) stand clear over all, in the Light of which that Spirit, and Company, and their actions were seen, denied, and testified against, both then and at first, and out of which are both it and them. And this is the plain and naked truth in the presence of the living God, of whom I am moved( being also an eye and ear-witness of many of these passages) thus to writ, that this great stumbling-block may be removed out of the way of the simplo: And that this is so, that of God in every man shall be my witness, in the measure of whose Truth I stand, & in whose dread and fear I do bear this Testimony, which shall abide for ever.  
But this is not all; For the Wisdom of God foreseing what hath come to pass, and how greedily this Generation would catch at this opportunity, to strike at the Truth and Lambs, and how ready they would be to turn away from any thing( as that which they would not have) how ●ust and true soever that should be said by any of us hereafter in this thing, so ordered it, that amongst the Papers taken as aforesaid, some should be, wherein expressly is discovered and judged, that Spirit, Woman, Company, and their Practices, which 〈…〉 doth) stand a full and undeniable Re 〈…〉 in the behalf of Truth and its Friends for ever; one of which from George Fox, followeth in these words, viz.  
For james nailer, thus:  
JAMES,  
THou must bear thine own burden, and thy Company with thee, whose Iniquity doth increase, and by thee is not cried against. Thou hast satisfied the World, yea their desires which they looked for; and thou and thy disciples is, and the World is joined against the Truth, it is manifest through your wilfulness and stubborness. And this is the Word of the Lord God unto thee.  
Martha Simmonds, who is called your Mother, she bad me bow down, and said I was Lord and King, and then my heart was rotten; and she said, She denied that which was head in me. And one of them said she had stopped * Francis Howgil▪ s mouth, and silenced him, and turned my words into a lie, and into a temptation; 
But it was a ly, for his mouth was never stopped by her, but always open to declare against her, and their deceit.  and she came singing in my face, inventing words. And Hannah boasted and said, If they were Devils make them to tremble: And she boasted what she would do and cry against.  
Many did not expect that thou wouldst have been an encourager of such as do cry against the life and power of Truth, but wouldst have been an encourager of Truth, and not have trained up a Company against it: And what is that which doth fulfil the Worlds prophesy and their desires? Therefore consider, and search thyself, if this be innocency. The light of God in you all I own, but this I judge.  
G. F.  
This Letter was wrote by me out of George Fox his own hand-Writing,( which Hand-Writing of his I have by me) and sent as it was written by me from Reading to Bristol, to Dennis Hollister, with Directions for him to sand it thence to Exeter, which he sent by a Messenger on purpose; and to I. N. it was delivered whilst he was at Exon a Prisoner; which being found amongst the rest of the Papers about him, so wrote, and so subscribed, and so full every way, for the clearing of Truth, and for the striking aside all that which was, or might be cast upon it by reason and occasion; as hath been said; for which thing sake such an opportunity was longed for, and greedily embraced: I say, the seeing of all that suddenly struck aside by that Paper, was that which tormented the Devil, and plagued this his Minister of Unrighteousness, and is the ground of his foaming up such a filthy deal of Mire and Dirt against G. F. and myself, and of his making such a sottish, confused stir and ado to render it packed, feigned and false, and us the vilest of men, yea worse then those whom he therein affirms to be so abominable blasphemous; we being the men against whom he pours out his indignation and murderous desires, and shoots his poisoned Arrows at those whom he thirsts to strike rather then the others, who by occasion of that Letter, and other things have been made instrumental in the hand of the Lord, for the putting by his barbed Javelin, steep't in Aspine Venom, and hung out by the Powers of Darkness at the very heart of Truth.  
And before I go any further, it will be necssary to give the Reader one short instance, by which he may presently see of what a false and mischievous spirit this Priest is, and how unfaithful in his Relation.  
In the Copy of the Letter aforesaid, in the last line, he hath thus put it, The Light of God in ye all I am, but this I judge; whenas in the original Letter it is, The Light of God in ye all I own, but this I judge: By which foul and dishonest dealing he holds him forth to the Reader, as saying that of himself which is onely said of Christ Jesus, by whom the World was made, who is the Light of the World, and so( consequently) as a Blasphemer under his own hand( which is what he would fain make him, and have him to be if he could, that in his blood he might wash his hands, and strike at the Truth which he witnesseth.) What difference there is between I own, and I am, especially in this place; and what a devilish wickedness it is to forge in such a word, as for it, were it truly so, he would take away his life; and what credit there is to be given to what such a one saith, affirms or records( who saith of his Narrative( in which he so unfaithfully deals) in the Title-page, That it is a[ True] Narrative and Relation: And in his Epistle, That he can and doth faithfully assure the Reader, That there is nothing there b●th of the one and the other, but what is real truth, as will be made good upon any occasion) I leave to the sober to judge upon this one Instance of those many of his unfaithfulness in his Relation, which hereafter are produced. And is it not manifest that this his act is wilful? For if indeed he had so wrote, would not this Priest( think ye) who hath breathed forth such slaughters against him and us( as his Narrative witnesseth) now that he had got such a plain word under his hand, to prove him to be what he endeavours to make I N. for which he expresseth, and hopes the Parliament will give him Execution by some cruel 
Narr. pag. 2. 30.  Death; I say, Would not this Priest( had this Word been truly so) instead of sending his Pursevant-Post to Damascus( as he did to pursue after the blood of I. N.) have posted up himself to have made the Information, procured some unheard of Judgement; and, rather then fail, have been himself the Executor of him, against whom he expresseth more bloodiness then against I N. that so he might have made an end of both the chief Leaders and Apostles( as he scoffingly calls them) of those people who witness the Seed of the Woman, which so intolerably plagues him and his Generation, the Seed of the Serpent; whose head it is come to, and shall bruise. Is not he that can do this past blushing? Is there any wickedness so great that such a one may not be well conceived to be ready to act? Is such a one a Minister of the Gospel? Words need not further to express such an Act, which in its very face is so manifestly Wicked and Abominable, a wickedness not found in the Roll of those evils which the Apostle mentions should make the last dayes perilous. Furthermore over against the line aforesaid, his Marginal-Note is, Obscure. Obscure indeed! Blackness of darkness in such foul Forgery. Was it because he was so blind he could not see or understand what was in that Word, who keeps such ado about Blasphemy, or to turn the Reader to mind that black Work? which had it not been to do, and had not that word been forged, the Reader may assure himself how much both the margin and the Book would have rang thereof as the most horrid Blasphemy. And whether what hath been said herein, be not what this thing speaks naturally, let the understanding Reader judge, who may also take notice, that this Priest hath in five several places of the Letter aforesaid, left out Words,( several of them considerable) and one material part of a sentence, which in this place I shall not particularly mention, because of hasting to bring this Reply to the great design, End, and Title of his Book to a short period.  
Unto what hath been said might be added what this Priest hath set down as the Examination of that Woman through 
Narr. p. 10, 11.  whom this hour came, who is made therein to confess, and he to publish that which of itself is enough to demonstrate and evince the Truth of what hath been said, viz. That with that Spirit and Company( who are from the Light) & practices we have no fellowship but the contrary; & also to prove this Priest, and his design, & Title, and Book a lie by his own Record; and many other pregnant-Testimonies of Truth could be produced in this case; but there being no need of such( what hath been said being full) I shall spare the sober Reader, who upon serious consideration of what hath been declared and produced, may find enough already alleged and said in this matter; and also plainly perceive how these things have been Arrows in this Priest's Liver, sensibly in himself piercing through, and overthrowing his great design of fixing all the filth, upon the occasion aforesaid, on the Truth; the witness and sense of which having sorely plagued and tormented his malicious Breast, hath constrained him( for a little ease) to bring it forth in his Narrative,( to the cutting off, with his own hand and pen, his wicked design, and End, and Title, and Suggestions of that his Book, and the giving the lie thereunto, and to himself) and being so constrained, he casts it up covered with his loathsome Vomit and detestable poison, thereby to turn from it the eye of the Reader, lest the serious consideration of those things when they should be presented, should work in himan effect.  
But this Vomit and poison is swept aside, and turned into his own Bowels, the Lake from whence it came; his smoke into the bottonles Pit; his Mire and Dirt into his raging Breast; his poisoned Arrows into his own heart; his mischief on his own head, and his violent dealing on his own Pate.( Take it to thee R. Farmer, for in the hand of the Lord there is a Cup of his Indignation, and of the Wine of the Wrath of God, which is poured forth without mixture into it, shalt thou drink; and this shalt thou know when these things which thou hast done shall rise up in thee a Worm that never dyes, and a fire that never goeth out; the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it.) and the Truth stands clear and single, and its Throne exalted over the Powers of Darkness to every eye that sees, and heart that doth understand; and without having felt the least harm, hath it shook off this venomous Beast into the heat and fire out of which it came; and overthrown and razed down this Fortification of Satan, and pull▪ d up its very Foundation by the Roots, viz. The Name, Design, and End of this Priest▪ s Narrative, and all that he hath built thereupon to reproach and blaspheme the Truth of the living God, and those who fear before, and worship him in Spirit, as that whereby it is not reached in the least. And whereas thou hast name that thy Sepulchre, and all the Pests lodged therein, satan enthroned in his Chair of Pestilence, or Quakerism in its exaltation; take it home to thee R. F. in these Words, Satan enthroned in R. F. his Chair of Pestilence; or, Hell in its Exaltation; and what hath been said as the reward of it, is the portion of thy Cup which thou shalt receive at the hands of the Lord God Almighty: Thy design is discovered; thy Bow is broken to him who reads and understands.  
Well, be it so,( saith this Priest, pag. 37, 38.) Nay, but it is not feigned; and yea, they are truly angry with them; yea, they are in good earnest; they are really divided, and they do disclaim and disown them. Well be it so( saith he) And so is not the matter granted? What needs any thing further to be said? himself yields it;( but whether he had done so or no, that it is so, is sufficiently made manifest) What then? Why then what is become of his Book, and its Name; and all that he speaks in it, and draws from it upon the sum of his whole matter, and his great design to brand the Truth with that whole matter, which he calls Quakerism; and the Friends of it, whom he calls Quakers?( What is become of it R. F.) All is a lie; it is so; and this Priest is a lie; the people called Quakers, and this Company are not one, they disclaim, and disown them, the Priest grants it. But hath he nothing in his eye of advantage wherewithal to comfort himself over such a hurt? Hopes he not to pull out two eyes by losing one of his own, and his principal one too? Yea: Whats then the mischief? He tells ye▪  
Well, be it so; but then are not all your high flying pretences( like the Work of the Masons and Bricklayers, and such like Trades, your fellow-workmen of old) become a Babel, a Bawbl●, Confusion? God was one; and Christ was one; and the Spirit was one; and Truth was one, and we all were one, say you; true, the Priests did differ, and disagree, and were divided both in judgement and practise; but we all spake, and wrote, and did from that One, altering, infallible Spirit, Pag. 39. Reader, one thing more I'll point you to, and that is▪ That you shall here find the quakers Confusion, and their high-flying brags of unity; here thou shalt see J. N. and G F. their two chief Leaders, and their followers, at Daggers-drawing one against another, which is a sufficient discovery of that cheat of theirs, that they were all lead by that one, true, and altering, and infallible Spirit. Epistle to the Reader.  
Blasphemous sot! The one, true and infallible Spirit is a dread and terror to thee and thy Master, his Instruments, and all the Powers of Darkness. How glad art thou to have the torment of it a little eased in thy heart, whilst thou art blaspheming it with thy tongue? how dost thou please thyself with the Imaginations of the Confusion, &c. of those who witness it, and are lead by it? They are no more one( faist thou, pag. 37: 39.) th●n the poor Priests and their followers, who differ, and disagree, and are divided both in their judgements and practise. These thy created Fancies and Dreams( poor wretch) how art thou overjoyed with, and huggest in thy bosom, runnest a●ay with rejoicing( not in the Truth, but iniquity against the Truth?) How dost thou comfort thyself in the overthrow of thy design and Work? And how art thou content it should be so; whilst this thy fancy raised up by thyself may take place? Content to be confounded and broken, whilst thou dreamest Truth is so:( Is not this the very Image of thy Father? May one not know the Father by the Son, and the Son by the Father?) And now thou art mounted aloft with thy Prince, flying in thy Airy-Imaginations, contradicting, blaspheming, boasting and scoffing; and thou sayest, Why then, whats the matter now? how went the spirit from J. N.? and when was it? and how shall we know whether ever we had it? or whether G. F. hath it, or ever had it? with such like stuff. And thou goest on to vaunt it in thy conceits, and scoffs, Alas poor quaking Proselytes! how have ye been deluded and deceived by a pack of quaking, lying Mountebanck●, who pretend to talk to you from the immediate Spirit,( as they phrase it) and now you see 'tis no such matter, nor can ye well tell which of these two( your two chief Apostles and Prophets) to believe and follow after. And being quiter drunk, and starkmad, thou demandest, What can you( with any colour of Reason) say to these things? And concludest; Will any people in the world that are not infatuated and judicially given up of God to believe lies, follow such for their 
* The living God is our Guide and Teacher.  guides and teachers( especially as infallible ones) over whom the Devil may have so much power? pag. 39, 40.  
But stay Friend, thou must come to reckoning yet, the battle is yet to be fought, and the Argument to be disputed of this thy other great conceited business, wherein appears the confusion of the sum of thy Book, viz. They are divided▪( the first was, That they were one.) And weighed must and shalt thou be in the balance of Truth, and with the sharp two-edged Sword thereof shall thy Wings be cut off, and thy carcase fall, Thine own must thou have returned to thee, and the Pit sealed upon it, that thy torments may never have end; the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it. Thy joy is but as the crackling of Thorns under a Pot, and thy hope as the giving up of the Ghost,  
And in answer to thy Boastings, Railings, and Blasphemies, I say to thee R. Farmer from the Lord, The Virgin, the Daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: The Daughter of jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, & lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy ●ne of Israel.  
But to the sober Reader, and for the sake of such, I Reply.  
How doth the Confusion, &c. of the people called quakers appear? Why here you shall see,( saith this Priest) Their two chief Leaders and their followers at Daggers-drawing one against another, which is a sufficient discovery of that Cheat of theirs, that they are lead by One, True, unerring and Infallible Spirit.  
Reply: The People called quakers have denied that Spirit that lead into temptation, and that Woman, Company, and their Actions, as being gone forth, and out of the Truth▪ as hath been already declared and proved, and this Priest hath granted it. And the People called quakers, who abide in the Truth, are one in the Truth, where there is no division. Where then is that which he calls the quakers Confusion? Doth any thing but his own Confusion appear? To name a a Book, as hath been said, and to writ so many Sheets of Paper to prove them one in Principle and Action, and then to grant and affirm that they are divided; and then without fear or wit, to run away with it, as if he had gotten some great prise. One, and yet divided: What Confusion is here! what sottish contradiction! Is not the Confusion, the Babel, the Bauble, like the Work of the Masons and Bricklayers, thy fellow-Work-men, &c. thine own R. F.? Tis so, take it to thee, and the Cheat, the Deceit, the Imposture, who hast made a show of one thing in the Title, and greatest part of thy Book to deceive the Reader, and now hast brought forth another quiter contrary; the later part fighting against the former, and the former against the later; and these two are contrary, and in such vehement opposition, that the one cannot stand but in the destruction of the other( and they are both fallen together by the Sword of Truth.) And here take home to thee the Daggers-drawing, page. against page.; Line against Line▪ and the Cheater and Imposture is thyself; & the vaunts, and confident Boastings, and high flying Pretences are thine own.  
And here I might end this Reply; but something yet lies upon me to declare and open further for the sake of the simple-hearted, to remove this other great stumbling-block, which the Enemy by this occasion doth cast in the way, viz. That the quakers are divided; and to manifest what a high Blasphemer this arrogant Priest is by his own Argument, unto which I shall thus speak.  
Was that which lead Israel out of egypt, and gave forth the Law, false, erring, deceiving, fallible? Was the Law of 
Exod. 32.  God, and the true Worship of the Israelites Confusion, a Babel, a Bauble? Was Moses who brought them out of egypt through the Red-Sea, saying, I am hath sent me; thus saith the Lord, Let my People go: Hear O Israel; the Lord thy Goa is one Lord; an Imposture, a Cheat? Was what he so affirmed of the Lord, and what he said in his Song, and what Aaron and all Israel boasted of the Lord and of his Wonders, High-flying Pretences, bragging Vaunts of unity? Because whilst Moses stayed in the Mount with God, receiving the Law, Aaron made a melted Calf of the peoples Ear-rings of gold, and fashioned it with a graving-Tool, and built an Altar before it, and made proclamation, and said, To morrow shall be a Feast to the Lord; And because the People said of the Calf so melted and fashioned, These are thy gods that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt; and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt Offerings, and brought peace-offerings, and sate down to eat and drink, and rose up to play? Was Moses saying to Aaron hereupon, What hath this people done unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? Was his standing at the gate of the Camp when he saw that the people were naked( for Aaron had made them naked unto their shane amongst their Enemies) and saying, Who is on the Lords side, let them come to me; and all the Tribe of Levi's gathering together unto him, &c. I say, Were these things which passed between these two( who were once their chief leaders) & their followers, to be termed Daggers drawing one against another? Was this a sufficient discovery of that Cheat( as thou saith of the people called quakers) of theirs, that they were lead by the one, true God, because of this? Were they all stark nought because of this, and a pack of cozening impostors lying Mounteban●ks( as this Priest in all these particulars hath charged upon the Truth and its Friends, because of what hath been before mentioned?) Yea, all that hath been said must be so by this Priest's Argument.  
For if his Argument be of force to prove( the People called quakers) confusion, and that the one, true infallible spirit by which they are lead is a Babel, Bauble, Cheat, and I●postor, and that all their bearing witness both by word, and writing, and doing, their being lead by that one, true, &c. spirit, are but high-flying pretences, &c. and that they are both starknaught, &c Because G F. wrote so to I. N. as hath been said, & the People called quakers disowned & denied them: And if this writing so, and denying them( which he in the words of a swaggering Companion calls Daggers-drawing, &c. be( as he affirms it is) a sufficient discovery of that their Cheat, that they were all lead by one, true, unerring, infallible spirit, &c.( which is this Priest's Argument, he that runs may red it.)  
Then Moses and the Israelites who kept faithful with God and the Law, and worship of the one true God, the Rock which followed them, which was Christ, and all their gloryings in the Lord, &c. must be such as hath been said; and that it is so, Moses speaking so to Aaron, who had turned out from the Truth, from the true God, and set up a Calf, and the Tribe of Levi's gathering to Moses, in the denying those who had worshipped it, must be thereof a sufficient discovery.  
For Moses, and Aaron, and all the children of Israel had been one, witnessing one, and the same true God, and were brought together out of Egypt through the Red-Sea; yea Aaron was the mouth of Moses unto pharaoh; stood over the Magicians of Egypt; executed the Plagues on pharaoh; was lead by the Angel, and the Pillar, and the Cloud; was in the Mount with Moses, and saw God. And the Israelites saw the wonders of God, were brought out of Egypt, through the Red-Sea; feared the Lord; believed Moses; eat Manna from Heaven; drank of the Water that gushed out of the Rock; went out of the Camp to meet God, heard God speaking out of the Mount to Moses; a people whom God said to Moses, he bare on Eagles-Wings, and had brought unto himself; yet Aaron made a Calf, and the people worshipped it, as hath been said. He that reads let him understand. Had an Egyptian seen this, would he not have said( as this Priest) It's a Cheat, &c. what thou Moses hast said of the Lord God, to whom that ye may hold a feast in the sourness, thou hast demanded all Israel to go with their Wives, little ones, Flocks and Herds, not a Hoof to be left hehinde; and now that ye are in the sourness ye are worshipping our Gods: It was but a cheating pretence; ye are not one, but are divided, nor is it one Lord that ye serve.( This made Israel naked amongst their Enemies.) Had this Priest been there, would he not have cried out to Moses to have put Aaron to some cruel death for this? or to have whipped and burnt him, worse then death itself.  
To conclude this particular, and to bar the door against this Priest, the Apostle saith, They were all under the Cloud, and all passed thorough the Sea, and were all baptized unto Moses 
1 Cor. 10. 1, 2, 3, 4.  in the cloud, and in the Sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink of the same spiritual drink; for they drank of the same spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ; but with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the Wilderness.[ All] were under the cloud;[ all] drank of the same spiritual Rock, &c. yet with many of them God was not well pleased, &c. yet the Rock was the same, and the cloud, &c. and it was true, and no cheat, that they were all under it, and drank of it. The thing is so plain it needs no further demonstration. And the time was when these people whom we now deny, and we were one in the Truth; and therefore even on that foot, it is a truth what we said, That we were lead by one Infallible Spirit, and no cheat; but the cheat is this Priests.  
And as in the instances of Moses and Aaron, and the Israellites, so the same( by this Priests Argument) may again be said of Moses, &c. because of Corah, Dathan and Abiram, 
Numb. 16.  who took men, even two hundred and fifty princes of the Congregation, men of Renown, and gathering themselves against Moses and Aaron, to whom they said, Ye take too much upon ye, seeing the congregations are holy every one of them, and the Lord is amongst 
Levit. 10. 1 Kings 11.  them; and ye lift up yourselves against the congregation of the Lord. And the same of Aaron & the Priesthood, because of Nadab & Abihu's offering strange fire, who also had seen God. And of the Temple, & the glory between the cherubims because of Solomon's hearkening to his Women, and worshipping stocks and stones, the gods of the Heathen, and building Altars unto them, to Chemosh: the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem; and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And of the true Worship at Jerusalem, because of ten Tribes sacrificing to the Calves set up by Jeroboam at Dan, and at Bethel, and Ahijah's declaring against the Altar in the presence of Jeroboam, and the Princes and the people, who 
1 King. 13.  put forth his hand, and said, Lay hold on him, and his hand was dried up. And of the return from the Captivity, and the second Temple, because of some of the peoples having taken Wives, and having children by the people of the Land, Moab, Ashdod and Ammon, and Nehemiah's testifying against 
Neh. 13.  them. And of Christ Jesus and his Doctrine, because of his saying to Peter, Get thee behind me Satan; and of Judas, whom he said should betray him: And of the Doctrine of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and of the Apostles, 
Gal. 6. 11. Acts 15. 1 Cor. 11. 19.  because Paul withstood Peter to the face at Antioch, for that he was to be blamed; and for that Paul and Barnabas contended so sharply about John, whose surname was Mark, so that they departed asunder one from the other; and for that Paul said, There must be Heresies also among ye, that they which are approved may be made manifest among ye. Yea, the same may be said of the Truth and of the Prophets and Apostles, and holy men of God from the beginning; for from the beginning in all ages were there some who turned out of the 
* Truth is the same, & changes not.  Truth, because of whom the Truth was blasphemed, against whom those who were in the Truth testified, and that sharply: Yea, by this Priests argument, there was never such a thing as Truth on the earth; And whether this be not to blaspheme God and his Name, and his Tabernacle, and them who dwell in heaven; And( to give thee R. F. thine own words again) A just hand of God upon this Priest in his infatuation, who is come to such a high measure of Blasphemy as this, even him who takes upon him to writ against, and decry Blasphemy, let the wise in heart judge. Not that this Priest, or his Generation, have hereby any advantage, for which I know they are gaping, for they are not come so far as to be in the Letter of the Truth, much less in the Truth, and therefore cannot be said to be turned out of it, nor that when any turn from them, they turn from the Truth, but from a lie.  
But though many have gone out of the truth in all Ages, making shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience, and have set themselves against it, and have been denied and testified against by such as have abode in the Truth; Nevertheless the Truth remaineth one, and changeth not, Yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever: For there is no lie of the Truth, nor in it is there any division; but out of it there is the Schism, the Division, the Confusion, and every evil work; and though an hour of darkness is come, for a trial to try the Inhabitants of the Earth, many of whom hath been tried as hath been said, and others who have looked for a snare and a Stumbling block, have it now to purpose, that the hypocrite may be swept out of the Land, and some who have the Faith of our Lord Iesus Christ with respect of persons, which stands in the wisdom of words, and not in the power of God; are drunk, but not with wine, and stagger, but not with strong drink; and though there be that are turned out of the Truth, by reason of whom the Truth is blasphemed, which this Priest hath done, and reproached, upon occasion thereof, so that is become a day of trouble, rebuk and blasphemy, yet Our God is One, and Christ is One, and the Spirit is One, and the Truth is One, and we all( who abide in the Truth) are one; and as we abide in it▪ we writ and speak, and do( according to our several measures) in, and from that One, unerring, Infallible, and Vndeceiving Spirit; this as we have, so do we still own and witness; nor hast thou R. F. made it to appear to the contrary in any one particular, but hast blasphemed the Spirit, and God and Christ, and Truth, which we say is one, God is one, and Christ is one▪ and the Spirit is one, and the Truth is one, and we all in the Truth are one, and thou hast confessed that we have so said;( and we all in the Truth witness it so to be:) But thou sayest what we have so affirmed of God, Christ, &c. is a Babel, a Bauble, Confusion,( so take it home to thee, and its portion) I say this as we have, so we do still own and witness; For as many as are the Sons of God, are lead by the Spirit of God; and the Spirit of God is 
a Rom. 8. 14.  one, true, unerring, undeceiving, and infallible; And if 
b Rom. 8. 9.  any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his: Now 
c 2 Cor. 3. 17.  the Lord is that Spirit; And 
d 2 Cor. 13. 5.  Know ye not your own selves how that Christ Iesus is in you except ye be Reprobates; And if Children, 
e Rom. 8. 17.  then Heirs, Heirs of God, and sapphire with Christ. All 
f 1 Cor. 3. 22, 23  are yours, and ye are Christs, and Christ is Gods; 
g joh. 17. 23.  I in them, and they in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. And the Sonship we who are in the Truth, in our measure, do witness, 
h Col. 1. 26, 27.  Even the mystery which hath been hide from Ages and generations, now made manifest to the Saints, to whom God hath made known what is the Riches of the glory of this mystery amongst the Gentiles, which is Christ in us the hope of glory. And as the truth of Christ is in us, no man shall stop us of this confident boasting, nor make this our glorying voided;( And ye that say to the contrary, produce your cause, and bring forth your strong Reasons.)  
And not by man, nor the Son of Man that must perish; but by the Spirit which is true, unerring and infallible,( for such is the Spirit of God, and the spirit that is not so is of the devil) are we, as we abide in it, lead into all Truth; and the leading of this Spirit we know, and the voice and teachings of him who is given for a Covenant of Light to the Gentiles, the Law written in the heart, the anointing which we hear and follow, which shows us when any go to the right hand, or to the left; in whose Light we saw when darkness came about him, and when those others went out of the Truth in which light we believe, and which light we follow after, not this man, nor that man, nor Paul; but as they follow Christ the Light; and where any follow not Christ the Light, such in the light of Christ we see, and from such we turn away, and so do we turn away from this Priest, and the men of his Generation who are out of the truth.  
Nor are we at a stand which to choose in the following of either, as this Priest impudently belies us, pag. 39.[ They are thine own words R. F. take them to thee, and thy lie:] And this unto all who are sober, is an undeniable testimony in the behalf of Truth, and it shall stand for ever, That Friends in the Truth are not fickle or unstable, running after this man, and after that; or that their Faith stands in the wisdom of words, or is had with respect of persons, but in the power of God; for had it been so, this trial which is now come would above any thing that hath fallen out, or could have been desired by the enemy to have fallen out, for such a trial, have made it manifest  
Nor let any man be deceived with that suggestion of the Enemy, viz. That to such things as have been found on that Woman and Company they will all come, for such things are come, and they are seen, and denied by the children of Light, and the Spirit from whence they proceed, which is the Spirit of Darkness, as their fruits make manifest, which is this Priests great torment, having not so great occasion hereby against the truth as he thought, or would make of it.  
Thus is the sum weighed and measured of this Priest's Book, which refers to the people called Quakers, as it lies in this confusion, 1. That they are one. 2. That they are divided. whilst on them he vomits up his Filth and poison: He will needs have them to be one, so saith his Title, and the greatest part of his Book doth manifest it; when he can no longer dispute that with the witness to the contrary, then he saith they are divided; unto both of which the sober Reader hath a full Reply, and the Truth stands clear. But which of these two is it that thou wouldst have R. F.? canst thou tell? Or wouldest thou have both? Wouldst thou have the first, viz. That they are one? Then they are not at Daggers-drawing one against another( as thou sayest) nor is that a cheat which they have said( as thou sayest) that they were all lead by that one true, unerring, and infallible spirit; nor is what thou hast said of their being so a sufficient discovery of that their cheat( as thou dost term it) and what they have said thereof are not high-flying pretences, &c. nor are they become a Babel, Bauble, confusion like( as thou sayest) the Work of the Masons and Bricklayers, and such like Trades, &c. Wouldst thou have the later, viz. That they are divided? Then they are not concerned either in the name, or first & the greatest part of thy Book, or in thy Design in all; and then what is become of that and thee? and what hast thou fought against? and whose shane and nakedness hast thou uncovered but thine own? and there's enough for thee, twere well if thou couldst blushy: What hast thou been doing man? or knowest thou what thou dost? Or art not thou in a Dream? a dream that thou eatest? a dream that thou drinkest? a dream that these people are one? A dream that they are divided? A dream that thou canst hurt the Truth? so it is maniifest of thee, and shall be of all the multitude of the Nations that fight against Ariel, against Mount Sion, even all that fight against her, and her M●nition, and distress her. Wouldst thou have both? then take to thee thy Confusion, Babel, Bauble, high-flying pretences, bragging, vaunts, like to the work of the Masons and Bricklayers, and such like Trades, thy fellow-workmen of old, the Cheat, the Impostor; Thine they are, who dost affirm they are one, and then arguest, that they are divided; then which, what greater contradiction can there be? Thou raisest up thine own shadow, and then fightest with it, and destroyest thyself and it. A pitiful Workman thou art; the Instruments of a foolish Shepherd are in thine hand; who hast cause enough to be ashamed, and all they to be ashamed of thee whose cause thou hast managed to the overthrow of it, and thyself, and to the advantage( against thy will) of the Truth. Which of these( to return thee thy own) canst thou or thy Disciples tell to choose or follow? Or hast thou enough of Reason given thee yet to what thou demandest?  
And now to turn the residue of the Work of thine own hand upon thine own head; Alas! Are not they in a pitiful condition who are lead by thee, and such as thou art as their Guides and Teachers, who art proved manifestly to be a hardened, lying mountebank( 'tis thine own word, and tis no wrong to turn the child to the Father) who pretendest to be a Minister of the Gospel, the knowledge of which is not of man, nor by ●he will of man, but by the will of God, and the revelation of the Father, and yet dost deny that thou hast, and scoffs at 'tis thine own phrase) the immediate spirit, and there is no gift for the Ministry of the Gospel but by the spirit. Who affirmest of I. N. such horrible blasphemy, and G. F. to be worse, both stark nought, a pack( as thou sayest) of cozening Impostors; and yet( to show thyself of what Generation thou art, and to have a fling at the Spirit which thou art not afraid often in thy Book, blasphemously, & with scoffing to mention, for which thou shalt have thy reward of the righteous God) dost demand( as did the false Prophet Zedekiah of Micajah, when he had smote him on the face) How went the Spirit from J. N.? and when was it? and how shall we know whether ever he had it? Or whether G. F. hath it? or ever had it? Who sayest, Will any people in the world, that are not infatuated & judicially given up of God to believe lies, follow such for their guides and teachers( especially as infallible ones)( this infallible still torments thee) over whom the devil may have so much power: And yet sayest of thyself and Brethren, the Priests, We confess we may be deceived, and may err, pag. 34. And are not those who may be deceived, and may err, such over whom the Devil may have so much power as to deceive and cause to err; for it is not possible that the Elect should be deceived, saith Christ. And so in plain English, sayest thou, not to them who follow thee and the Priests as their Guides and Teachers, Will any people in the world, that are not infatuated, and judicially given up by God to believe lies, follow us for their guides and teachers,( especially as deny infallibility) over whom the Devil may have so much power as to deceive and cause to err, which we confess is true of ourselves. And if poor people you will follow this Priest, or his Brethren any longer after you have heard him so say( and so his own words speak without the least wresting) Are you not infatuated, and judicially given up by God to believe lies, as saith this your Priest? Heardst thou ever( Reader) of the like Sot, who sees not how he wounds himself with the Weapon he draws forth against another? Or, hast thou been  told of the like mad man, who desparately runs his sword into his own bowels to strike at others? and in his bowels his own Sword is turned, and sticks, Truth is free. How blind is rage and envy? how sottish is madness.  
Thus much of the sum of this Priest's heap of Confusion, lies and Blasphemies, and of the deep and double design of Satan therein against the Truth of the living God; first, To render it most vile and abominable, by holding forth as one the people called Quaker, and those of whom he makes a Relation, whilst on them( through that occasion) he casts up, and unloads his filthy poison. Then to blaspheme the Spirit of Truth by which those people are lead, as false, erring, deceiving and fallible, by affirming them to be divided; both which though so contrary as hath been demonstrated, yet having covered them over with the smoke of the bottonles Pit, through the opportunity of what he makes the matter of his Narrative, he lays as great stumbling-Blocks in the way of the simplo. But in the Light and Power of Truth the Filth is struck aside, and the smoke scattered, and both discovered and removed, and the Truth appears single and clear from it all, to him who reads & understands; for whose sake what hath been said is written, that being not ignorant of these devices of the Enemy, his foot may be preserved from the Snare, and his soul from the Jaws of the Devourer, which is the end( as hath been said) of this undertaking: And now he that will be deceived, let him be deceived. The Truth is clear, and I am clear of the blood of all men in this thing.  
And here I might end; but as the great design of Satan in the Narrative aforesaid hath been discovered and made to appear so loathsome, that thereat the Passengers will be constrained to stop their Noses; so this his Minister must be further made manifest, and the remainder of his polluted Bones scattered therein must be preached out, and a sign set at each, and be bundled up together and thrown into Tophet, that so the Land of them may be cleansed; which I shall pass through briefly.  

Now to thee R. F. is much of what I have further to say chiefly directed.  
THou hast name thy heap of Confusion, lies, Reproaches, 
T●e Narr.  Scoffs, Blasphemies, &c. satan enthroned in his Chair of Pestilence; and it is so: It plainly appears by this thy Book, That in thee he is enthroned, and that thou art his Chair of Pestilence: But as thou hast applied it to the people called Quakers, and hast cast upon them that thy mouthful of slander, viz. Or, Quakerism in its Exaltation; and hast declared what that is, viz. Being a true Narrative and Relation, &c. That is a lie, for they are not concerned therein, as it hath been made to appear; and thou hast both granted and affirmed it to be so, viz. That they and those of whom is thy Narrative, are not one: And so the Name of thy Book, and thy Book, which is called after that name, and thy design therein, and thyself is a lie, even out of thine own mouth. Therefore bethink thyself, and see how thou art mistaken in the casting of that upon others which is thine own, and to thee properly pertaineth. And a lie is of the Devil, he was a liar from the beginning, and abode not in the Truth; and when he speaks a lie, he speaks of himself; and all liars are for the Lake which burneth with fire and Brimstone, there to be tormented with the Devil and his Angels. So see thy Father and thy portion.  
Thou sayest in thy Title-page, That thy Narrative & Relation 
Title-Page.  is a true Narrative and Relation; & in thy Epistle thou putst thy faith and assurance( such as it is) to pledge for it, & sayest to the Reader, But this I can, and do faithfully assure you, that there is nothing here of the one or the other, but what is real Truth as will be made good upon any occasion.  
Reply. What hath been already produced in the case of one Letter, and of the foul Forgery and dishonest dealing in such a matter of weight as his life, and the name of the Truth of the living God, which he and thousands more do witness, might suffice for the making manifest of the contrary, and the proving of thee to be a most impudent liar, and such a one as to Faith and Honesty art reprobate. But in regard on this Hinge doth turn the whole of thy Reputation, especially as to thy Narrative and the contents thereof, I shall bring forth more Instances as to this thing, full and ample, which to debar me from hath been out of the power of thee and thy Master's, who contrary to all that's ●ust and equal, have so kept up all the Examinations and Papers, that so much as Copies of them we could never obtain. Unto which I shall proceed.  
Amongst the Papers taken from I N. there was one to him from M. Fell, wife to judge Fell of Lancashire, dated the 18. of the 6. Month, 1656. in which of the hour of Temptation which she had first seen, and then heard to be come upon him, she thus writes; I have heard something which hath made my heart to ache; I would hear of thee in particular, and then I should be more satisfied; before I heard any particular concerning thee, I saw in the Eternal a veil of Darkness over thee; then after I did hear of thee, it did confirm that. This thou didst know to be so wrote, nevertheless to abuse her( who is known to be a wise and honourable Woman in the Truth) and the Reader; 
Nar. pag. 30.  and I. N. thou bringest in a story by hear-say 
* This is a lie.  of the coming of two with Papers in their hands into the Meeting at the Bull and Mouth, London( where it is sufficiently known, many such sons of belial usually come to abuse and disturb) & asking for I. N. and he not appearing,( for he was then a Prisoner at Exeter) said they could tell where he had a Bastard, or a Wench with child; and then dost apply it to that passage aforesaid in her Letter, of the aching of her heart, in 
Pag. 31.  these words, It may be she had heard of that Bastard; purposely omitting those her words( and that whole Letter) wherein she expresseth what it was that madeher heart to ache, viz. Before I heard from thee ●n particular, I saw in the Eternal a veil of Darkness over thee; then after I did hear of thee, it did confirm that. And not onely so, but wickedly dost thou mingle-mangle and mingle her tender Expressions, wrote in a sensibleness of his condition, and of what the Truth might come to suffer, as it doth at this day, with thy filthy words, proceeding from the spawn of thine unclean spirit, making them to speak according unto it, in such a manner as is not fit to relate. And when thou hast so done, thou art not afraid blasphemously to close it up with such words of the Scripture spoken from the Spirit of God, the very consideration of which, were not thine heart more hard then an Adamant, would strike dread and horror to thee, who impudently bringest them in to serve that thy wicked design, and se●st not( so blind art thou) how those very words do manifestly condemn thee, and this thy practise and Work of Darkness, and clear the innocent, viz. The eternal life and unity of the spirit, where no unclean thing can enter, nor he that maketh abomination, or maketh a lie. This instance is so foul and odious, and so filled with Scoffs and Jeers( as such discerning Folks cannot easily be mistaken, &c.) that thy Wickedness therein is hard to be expressed. Art thou assured[ Ralph] that such a discreet grave man as Justice Fell, one of the Judges of the Nation, and Chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, will put up such an abominable abuse?  
But this is not all, thou pretendest to a deposition of laurence 
Pag. 44.  Raymund, taken before the Magistrates of Bristol, to prove that and Audland should say at a Meeting in that City, where were near two or three hundred people, viz. That whosoever doth think to be saved by that Jesus Christ that dyed at Jerusalem, should be deceived; Which thou settest down him to have deposed, that he heard her say at the Meeting aforesaid, those very words, without any qualifications or expositions thereupon, as he remembreth. Whenas it is well known from the Boys own mouth, who was sworn in the open Tolzey, that he mentioned in his deposition the place where the meeting was, at which he swore she should so speak, viz. The Orchard, so he deposed, and so was it recorded in the deposition, which thou, who didst solicit him thus to swear, couldst not but well know; yet it thou hast omitted. Now at the Orchard Anne Audland never spake in any Meeting, this hundreds can testify; which rendering the Deposition false, thou hast left out that Word, but hast published the rest, to show what thou wouldest have them to speak, who say no such thing; and how thou wouldst have them accounted of, how manifestly false soever are thy Testimonies in that particular. O abominable Wickedness! Butto clear this thing from all manner of Scruple to the sober Reader, Anne Audland never spake such Words, nor hath any other that is called a Quaker, or to such effect, at any of the Meetings of those People at Bristol, but the contrary, of which hundreds are ready to bear witness; For we know and witness salvation in and by that Iesus Christ which was cracified at Jerusalem, which lighteth every man in the world; and in and by no other; even in and by him whom the Seribes, Pharisees and chief Priests preached of, ye● put to death, and those who him did witness, and his Resurrection, as it is at this day. And is it not well known, that thou wast he that didst procure him to swear for such a purpose as thou hast now brought it? which is thus false as hath been declared, for which thou must answer( swearing being also out of the Doctrine of Christ, and so thou showest thyself to be none of his Minister) and for his blood, who whilst one who was called a Quaker( though young in yeers) found that which limited his wild and evil courses in which he had before his Conversation, and into which he is returned, since thou wast Instrumental in turning him from the Truth.  
Furthermore, pag. 30.( scoffingly speaking to I. N.) thou 
Pag. 30.  sayest, They called, and pulled you and Martha Simmonds into a House, and there[ beat] and sorely used you, to the endangering of your lives. Herein thou belyest Martha Simmonds, as thine own Record of what thou sayest is her Examination, testifies against thee, for even therein is no such Word as[ beating] and yet thou art so brazen-fac't, as to say in the next words, As M. S. said in her Examination before our Magistrates: And so givest the lie unto thine own Record, as thou belyest her. Is not thy conscience seared? Art not thou past blushing? But thus wickedly to lie doth not satisfy thee, but( pag. 39.) thou jeeringly bringst us in as belying and reproaching 
Pag. 39.  ourselves, as thou hast M. S. and thine own Record, for sayest thou,( speaking as in our persons) If we were not so, why should so many of us together assault and beat them, to the endangering of their lives, and throwing good M. Simmons, that precious creature( what defiled Stuff flows forth of the corrupt Treasure of thy heart) down the stairs, as we did at James-Tide last, after our Meeting aforesaid. Had we a true Copy of Martha Simmonds Examination, which was taken here, and delivered into the Committee of Parliament, it's like we might find those Words set down by thee relating to their usage at the House near the Orchard, viz. insomuch that I. N. did sweat exceedingly, and we were in danger of our lives, and they threw me down the stairs, to be thy Forgery; for they were neither beat there, nor were they sorely used to the endangering of their lives; nor was M. S. thrown down the stairs, for there were none in that place, it being on the ground; nor was he otherwise entreated there by us then with love & tenderness; nor was Captain Beale at bristol at that time; nor was I with them in the White Hart: What a heap of rotten Stuff is here! What a Load of Wickedness! Who is there that is not even tired to pass through it, and holds not his Nose at the stench thereof? And all this thy Vomit and poison is to cover over what lay in her Examination, as a Testimony out of her mouth, that we denied her, and that Spirit and Company at the very first, which was that which tormented thee, as checking thy hopes by the occasion aforesaid, to reproach the Truth, which thou wouldst have, and endeavourest to make to be one with, and the Root of that of which thou relatest; therefore when thou hast thus thrown it up, thou sayest, this testimony they still bear against you; p. 30. All thine own notorious lies and forgeries; as it is the reason why thou dealest so wickedly 
Pag. 30●.  with G. F. and M. F. and myself, because of the Witness those Letters bear in the behalf of the Truth, against thee and thy design in that thy Book  
And as thou hast thus Wickedly wrested and abused some of the Papers & Examinations, so hast thou wonderfully omitted Samuel Caters Examination, and hast past it over with this slight, viz. there was not much in the Examination of Samuel Cater of the Isle of Ely, and therefore I shall pass it over, p. 17. Hadst 
Pag 17.  thou been a faithful Narrator, thou shouldst have set down all the Examinations and Papers as they were, and have left it to the Reader to judge; but something is in the matter wherefore thou thus dost juggle, and shall by and by find thee out; for I am fully assured by some who was present, and punctually observed those passages, that he being demanded whether he heard I. N. termed the Prince of Peace, he answered to this effect, viz. That they who wrote those Letters, wrote not to flesh and bones, for flesh and blood could not inherit the Kingdom of God; but to that spirit did they writ by which he was guided. And, I do not say that he is the Prince of Peace▪ but the Prince of Peace is Ruler in him. Also, That the motions of God tend to purity and holiness. Was not this that which made thee to pass this over, as having( as thou sayest) not much in it? Indeed not much, nay not any thing at all in it to serve thy wicked Design, but much against it, for it gives the lie to what thou hast concluded upon the rehearsal of their Papers and Examination, pag. 19. viz. By all this you 
Pag. 19.  may see how far these miserable people are bewitched and deluded, as to give and ascribe those Titles and Applications that are due onely to Iesus Christ, to a[ mere] man, and then sayest, Thou shalt not need to aggravate the Crime, every understanding and Christianear will abhor to hear it, and tremble at such Blasphemies. Indeed, every such ear will abhor to hear of this thy foul dealing, and tingle at thy blasphemies laid open in this Book.  
One thing more I am assured as aforesaid, That Timothy Wedlock( one of that Company, and yet a Prisoner at Bristol) declared to the Magistrates expressly, That he owned that Iesus that dyed at jerusalem, and no other; which thou hast left out of his Examination; whereby is further manifested thy wicked unfaithfulness and abuse of the Reader, thou being not ignorant how such a passage gives the lie to what is the drift and design of thy Book, viz. Of setting up a new Iesus, giving and ascribing the Applications and Titles due only to Iesus Christ, to a[ mere] man. And so I have done with these Instances, being abundantly sufficient to manifest to the understanding 
〈…〉 19.  Reader how abominablie false thou art, and in what thou hast affirmed and related not to be believed in the least.  
And now R. F. what is become of what thou callest A true Narrative and Relation? What is become of thy Faith and Assurance, and real Truth, which thou holdest forth so boldly to the Reader, that thou sayest, thou couldst & didst faithfully assure him, that there was nothing of the one or the other therein but what was so, and that it should be made good upon any occasion? I say, thy faithful Assurance publicly held forth to engage and deceive the Reader, what is become of it? and of thy word? thy Book? and thee? All is proved Reprobate, Forgery, Dishonesty upon Dishonesty; lies upon lies; Unfaithfulness upon Unfaithfulness; words and time are wanting to express the villainy thereof; the like hath not been heard. This thou knewest was so, and thy cursed end was before thee when thou didst compass it; and yet so seared wast thou, past feeling, and impudent, as to call that which thou knewest was thus false, forged and corrupted, & that designedly by thee, A true Narrative; and so much without the least sense of the fear of God wast thou, as to make proclamation, and to pledge thy Faithful Assurance( as thou callest it) thereupon, That there was nothing therein but what was real Truth, as would be made good upon any occasion; purposely to deceive the Reader, and to reproach the innocent. O desperate iniquity! Dreadful Presumption! and horrible hardheartedness! Art thou a Minister of the Gospel? Get thee gone to thine own place. Art thou fit to speak to men? Art not thou a shane to all that are civil and sober? Will any serious man believe thee henceforth? He that will believe thee let him. What can be said worse of a man then this bespea●eth thee? And yet no less then five of the Servants of the Lord have been abused and imprisoned, and that for a long time,( all of them, except one, having Families depending on their Liberties) for testifying from the Lord against thee. But thou hidst this thy work in the dark, and didst think no eye should see thee; and the Papers and Examinations being barred up from us of thee,( thou mightest conceive) in these things we could not make a Discovery; but we have been otherwise provided, whereby thee and thy Works of Darkness are thus brought to light, and made manifest to purpose. By these few Instances the sober Reader may judge of the rest of thy Relation; for whose sake, that he may be disabused, I have been thus particular.  
And as thy Title, and that which thou callest a true Narrative, and thy faithful assurance of the real Truth of all that is in it, both of the one or the other, is proved a lie; so let him who reads and understands, judge whether what thou sayest of a Vindication of the Magistrates of this City be not of the same nature?  
For thou sayest( therein) of them, pag. 45. Though they cannot be excused a toto, yet they may be a tanto, and that very 
Pag 45.  much.  
Reply. What is this but in plain English to say, That they are guilty men? who though they are not so bad as some do make them( nay not by very much, as thou sayest; but who will believe thee; who as to faith and honesty art proved reprobate?) yet bad men they are, and cannot be excused. They cannot be excused, why? who accuseth them? Where is their Charge, that thou thus pleadest them guilty? dost thou fight with thine own shadow? Or doth not thy thus affirming of them, and recording their Names as evil in thy Roll of those thou callest most horrid and abominable blasphemers and Impostors, make it to appear that thou hast a mind to abuse them under colour of a vindication? What makes thee thus to bring them on the Stage? What occasion have they given thee to draw on them so black a Character? Canst thou let none alone, Friend or Enemy? Or knoweth not thy rage how to spare, or thy madness to put a difference? They cannot be excused, how comes this in? Where's that unto which it doth relate?  
And indeed( sayest thou) what men are there( Magistrates or others) that have not their[ spots] their defects, failings?( What fine words have the Ministers of Satan got, wherewithal to cover over transgression, that it may neither look ghastly, nor sound dreadfully, to the awakening of those who are in captivity to the Devil.  
Reply▪ Hast thou now mended the matter? Men that have their[ spots] spotted men are evil doers, and the Magistrate 
Rom. 13. 1 joh. 3▪ 6.  of God is a Terror to evil doers, not an Evil doer. Defects and failings are out of the Truth; and that which is out of the Truth is in the Transgression, and he that sinneth hath not seen God, neither known him; and so in the number of evil doers, and such as are out of the Truth, who have not seen God, neither known him, dost thou place thy Magistrates. What men are there( sayest thou)( Magistrates or others) that have not their[ spots] defects, failings?  
Reply: Thou who art in the Transgression, neither seest nor knowest any other of men or Magistrates then Transgressors, spotted men, Evil-doers; thou canst not see where thou hast not an eye, and so mayest well ask the question, and minister for the Kingdom in which thou art, and uphold sin by demanding who are them that are not sinners. But the Sword of the Magistrate of God is to pass upon thee and thy Magistrates, who are men of[ spots] Evil-doers, Transgressors, and ye will one day find it, whether to salvation or eternal Wrath.  
This then is the English of this thy Vindication; Evil-doers they are of the generation of Evil-doers, no Magistrates of God, but such to whom the Magistrate of God is a Terror. And what couldst thou record worse of them whom thou callest Magistrates?  
Yet thou hast one Argument more for them of the like nature, and another for thy Master, Look upon( sayest thou) the best Kings and Governors, whose Praise are in the Scriptures, and ye shall find that they were men, and so were( in divers things) defficient and imperfect.  
Reply: The record of evil-doing is a Curse; the name of 
Prov. 10. 7. Rom. 13.  it( the wicked which transgresseth) shall rot, which is the man of Sin, so saith the Scriptures. Well-doing is that of which the Scripture is a Praise, and them are the best Kings and Governors who are well-doers; and a Praise to them that do well is the Magistrate of God, who is the man of God, whose memory is blessed; and of such only the Scriptures 
Prov. 10. 7.  are a Praise. So where the Curse is, there hast thou recorded thy Magistrates of Bristol, and so of them thou leavest a curse to be the Name and Memorial, and of thyself too, who to encourage Iniquity, hast thou not blasphemed both the holy men of God and the Scriptures? The Holy men of God, in affirming that the best of Kings and Governors were men, and so were( in divers things) deficient and imperfect; that is to say, Men of sin, Evil-doers, for there is the deficiency, the imperfection. Now the best of Kings and Governors were Holy Men of God; and the Holy Men of God are the born of God, and the born of God sinneth not. The Scriptures, in saying, 
1 joh. 3. 9. 15. 18.  that the best Kings and Governors there on Record, of which they are a Praise, ye shall find to be men, and so were( in divers things) deficient and imperfect; that is to say, Men of sin, Evil-doers, the born of the Devil, of whom he is that sinneth. 
1 joh. 3. 8.  So that the best of Kings and Governors on Record in the Scripture must be Evil-doers, and the Scriptures must be a Praise to such, to serve this thy Record of the Magistrates, whose Name thou hast registered a Curse unto Posterity.  
But to come( briefly) a few particulars.  
Thou settest forth thy Magistrates in thy Book, First, as weak 
Epist. to the Reader.  men, insufficient even to take an Examination. So thou dost pass Sentence, I have not( sayest thou) inserted all the Examinations, because many of them were frivolous, Epist. to the Reader. If the Examinations were frivolous, what were they then that took them?  
Secondly, As insignificant men, Idols, Nothing, for so( sayest thou) The Magistrates standing but as[ ciphers] in matters 
Pag. 48.  of Rule and Power, pag. 48.  
●. As Heartless men, men without courage. For so thou declarest, Be he what he will for trade and calling, and how rotten and unsound soever in judgement, Arian, Arminian, Enthusiast, Anabaptist, Anti-Scripturist,( or whatever) preach they may, yea, and shall too, do the Magistrates( or Ministers, there's the sorrow) what they[ can] or[ dare] to the contrary, pag. 48.  
4. As Faithless men, yea in such a matter of moment( as thou makest it) as the keepiug of the Keys of thy Church, when thou being in pitiful distress, and hard bestead because of the riding on the Pews, to the nastiyfing( as thou sayest) of the place for a long time after, and the rendering of the Ordinance 
Pag. 49.  of Preaching base and contemptible, didst carry the Keys to them, desiring their Protection, &c. and they let them go, though they[ promised) thee the contrary; for so sayest thou of them, pag. 49. And when I had carried the Keys to our Magistrates, defiring their Protection, and the securing of my people from lying and destructive vanities; these men left no means unattempted till they got the Keys in their possession to the purpose aforesaid, though the Magistrates had[ promised] me to the contrary.  
And this is the Vindication of thy Magistrates, and the service thou hast performed them for the ten pounds a year, and the many large Dinners and Feastings thou hast had of them( as Chaplain, so called; a new-raised Office in this City) to bless them twelve times a year, and behold thou cursests them altogether, and enrollest their Name a Curse upon Record for ever; and when thou hast so done, dost tell them and the world it is a vindication. In what a pitiful condition are thy Magistrates, whom so large a Contribution of many and good creatures( such a feeling Argument) with which thou upbraidest Thomas Ewens, pag. 52. and thereby in effect 
Pag. 52.  reproachest thyself and all thy Brethren, the Generation of Priests) to entitle thee their Friend and Servant) and so many fair words and respects cannot dissuade from such deep gashing of their Reputation, who knowest not how to 
Prov. 26. 18.  forbear any that please not thee, but, as Solomon saith of the mad man, thou scatter'st thy Fire-brands, Arrows and Death; and at every one tur●st thy slanderous Tongue; like a sharp sword, as this City abundantly witnesseth; yea the very Pulpits( chiefly) where thy constant course is to pour on● thy Venom of Asps that lies under thy Tongue,( thy Gospel which thou ministrests, in whose paths Hell and Destruction is, and the way of Peace thou hast not known) and of this thy Magistrates have not had the least portion, whom to their faces before the people thou hast endeavoured to make vile and odious, one while likening them to Jupiters Logs, which Aesop in his Fables feigns to be the King of Frogs, and Frogs the Citizens must be, if the Magistrates are the Logs, and Jupiter the God of both. So see your Preferment Magistrates and People from your Priest) and to the Picture of George on Horseback, threatening to strike, but doth not. Another while reproaching them with the Abilities of TOM pain,( one voided of the natural understanding of a man) To walk with a Ruff, and to have a Sword carried before him to the Tolzey. Such Heathenish Stuff as is loathsome to mention; and this with thee is good Doctrine: Yea, happy do many reckon themselves to be if by any means they can escape thy Railings and Abuses. How strange a thing is it that thou wilt neither become a kind Master, nor a dutiful Servant? And in what a case are thy Magistrates, that the offering up of their Consciences, Names, Persons, Money and Victuals to thee, and all their fair words and advisings, doth not altogether render them free from the condition the poor Indians are in under the Dominion of the Devil? Would not all these abuses suffice thee, but thou must record them as aforesaid? In honesty( knewest thou what it meant) thou shouldst have returned them their money first, and other benefits, before thou hadst turned thy Pen upon them. If they like such services, they may go on to give more liberal Wages, that of the like they may have a more liberal Return, and of any man thou art he who art most like to give it. This is thy Vindication.  
To draw to a conclusion of this particular; Thou of any man( indeed) art best able to charge the Magistrates home, as having[ spots] as spotted-men, because thou hast not only been privy to their counsels, but at thy restless solicitation hath it been( much of thy time being spent at the Tolzey, buzzing in their ears for that purpose, and telling of News) that such unwarrantable and cruel actions have been done by them against the Innocent, as have rendered them so foul and culpable before God, and man, and their Government; so base and contemptible, for which they have a sad and dreadful reckoning to make with the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth( if with some of them it be not begun already) should it be so that they escape the Judgement of man. In which that they have not been more fierce, violent, and unrighteous, is thy Torment, and that wherein thou dost endeavour to have them excused, after that thou hast recorded them spotted men. Deep spotted( indeed) with the spots of cruel persecutors of the innocent people of God, which the people of the Lord never were in any age, but were persecuted in all Ages and Generations.  
Finally, to bind up all; Christ so loved his Church, and gave 
Eph. 5. 25, 26, 27. 2 P●t. 3. 14. Ca●t. 4. 9. Iude 23.  himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish, saith Paul to the Ephesians. Be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot or blemish, Saith Peter. Thou art all fair my love, there is no spot in thee, Saith Christ of the Church. Hating even the Garment which is spotted of the flesh, Saith judas. This is the Church of Christ, and such are the born of God. But the spotted and blemished, who count it pleasure to riot in the day-time,[ spots] they are, and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings, having eyes full of Adultery, that cannot cease from sin▪ beguiling unstable souls, having an heart exercised in covetous practices; that as natural brute Beasts, made to be taken and destroyed; speak evil of the things they understand not; are cursed children, and shall utterly perish in their corruption, and shall receive the Reward of unrighteousness, saith the Apostle Peter, 2 Epist. cap. 2 ver. 13, 14.  
And let him who reads and understands, judge, whether 
Title-Page.  what thou sayest, viz. A Vindication of the Inhabitants of the City of Bristol, be not the same as of the Magistrates, viz A lie; for such( to say nothing in this place of the falseshoods with which it is intermingled) may find the sum of it to be thus in thine own words, viz. That there was a high Tumult, 
Pag. 57▪ 58. V●z. John And land and John Cam.  wherein they did seize on them( some of the People called Quakers) on a week-day, as they were going towards a Quaking-Meeting in the Country( so thou reproachfully callest the Meetings of those who fear the Lord, to show thyself of what Seed thou art) and with strong hand endeavoured to b●ing them before the Magstrates: For which riot some of them being had before the Magistrates the next day,( thou sayest) The rest perceiving, came up into the middle of the City to a great number, declaring( indeed) this Resolution, That if one were committed( upon that occasion) they would all go to prison: And thou sayest, The City was set in an uproar, and very near to blood and confusion; and( sayest thou) as we never knew the like before, so we have not, and trust in Gods goodness we never shall see the like again here in this City, although we have no Souldiers immediately over us. These are thine own words, which I shall leave to the understanding Reader by them to judge( without any thing said by me in aggravation thereof) whether this be a Vindication, or a high Record of notorious Infamy on the Inhabitants, whom( as the Magistrates) thou thus dost serve for following thee, who raised and exasperated them thereunto, and dost confess them in such a high manner guilty, when nothing appears of an occasion administered, for thee of them thus to speak; and so with them how comest thou to meddle? And this if they like it, they may take as a Vindication from thee their Leader, as to such high and insufferable Tumults, riots and Insurrections, in such a season of which the Records of this Nation afford not a parallel, as doth appear at large in the Declaration of the first yeers Persecution in Bristol, entitled, THE CRY OF BLOOD; wherein the Fruits of thy Magistrates, being guided by thy Spirit, and some of thy Works of Darkness are particularly set down, and a true Relation of those Tumults; In answer whereunto, though it be above a year since the time of its delivery to the Magistrates, this that hath now been said is all we have received, which indeed is a large Plea, and a confusion of the truth of one of the foulest passages charged therein, and that wherein thyself is concerned. And further thou hast not said, but that it is a Fiery flying Roll, penned by me full of Ra●●ing against the Magistrates and Ministers of this City, pag. 37. but show ' not wherein, nor givest so much as one Instance or word more then hath been expressed which to wise men is a demonstration that the Truth of the foul matters contained and charged therein, as to the Inhabitants, thy Magistrates, and thyself, cannot be contradicted. But Railing we deny, and thee and that thy false Accusation. If thy Magistrates and the Inhabitants like such an Advocate as thou art, who pleadest them guilty, and yet callest it a vindication; who confessests their offence when none accuseth them; who recordest Transgressors in the Roll of them, whom thou callest most horrid and abominable Blasphemers and Impostors, when no occasion so to do is administered( whether through sottishness, or in design, or both, let the wise consider) they may continue so, and go on to follow such a Master who sets them about their Work, and after they have done it, doth thus reward them.  
And what a ridiculous pack of sottish, confounded, frothy, railing Stuff, and how filled with lies, Abuses, Impertinences 
Title-Page.  and Contradictions is thy Declaration( as thou sayest) 
Pag. 15. to the 60.  of the rise and growth of them in this City, contained in 15. pages, viz. from the 45. to the 60. I should particularly make manifest as it doth deserve, and thee by this very one thing to be the slightest of men, who have undertaken a Relation, were it not a task too heavy, and too sore an exercise for the serious Reader to undergo and pass thorough; but at some particulars I shall touch, and so pass along.  
How thy Design and Expressions in this thy Declaration can be brought to agree and correspond, I suppose is out of the reach of most, if not of all men of sober understanding. For, if thy design be( as thou sayest it is) A Declaration of the rise of them, what meaneth thy ravelling thorough Garrisons, Officers, Petitions, Churches, so called, Parliaments, Committees, Magistrates, Governors, ridden Pews, and thy nastyfied-Steeplehouse, with such like, to found the occasion thereof in 1645. several yeers before that name was known or heard of in this City.  
If their growth: What meaneth thy throwing of such heaps of Reproaches, Persecutions, Tumults and Imprisonments upon them to cover and bury them? In the last of which, that they were relieved with necessaries, and visited, thou( like thy Masters Minister who cast them in) dost express thy 
Pag. 57.  Torment, pag. 57.  
If to render them mean and Inconsiderable, as of them thou declarest, That none( except one) and that is as many as 
Have any of your Rulers believed on him? Pag. 59.  the council of the Jews had when they consulted against Jesus) are, or were thought fit or worthy to bear a share in the Government, p. 59.( Is that a worthy government indeed to bear a share of, where such a spirit as thine is Leader, which bears such fruits, the chief men whereof thou likenest to IV PITERS's LOGS; the Picture of a George on Horseback, and upbraidest with TOM pain; and which is become so mean and contemptible, that many of the more sober and discreet even of your Generation, have divers of them refused it when chosen, and others put themselves out after some time of continuance; but was it because they might not, or the contrary?) I say, if to render them such be thy design, what meaneth thy taking so much pains, and spending so much Ink and Paper to present them considerable; yea, even the only men of Power, of whom thou sayest, That they were enthroned( as it were) in the Government; carried all before 
Pag. 48.  them; had so high an Empire, that no man who was chosen a Magistrate in that city, could be sure of his standing without their liking; bearing the greatest sway in all things, that the Magistrates stood but as ciphers in matters of Rule and Power, further then it had the stamp of their Approbation. And for matters of Religion, none must preach without their good liking; and if they had a mind to set up any man to preach, be he what he will, or whatever, preach he may, and shall too, do Ministers or Magistrates what they can or dare to the contrary; yea, such was their Power, that there was no withstanding of them; and thus were they constituted; 
Pag. 49. Pag. 50.  the Power of the life and death of all mens preferments lying much in their hands.  
If to revile and reproach those People of whom thou expressests thyself, as if thou couldst not speak of them too wickedly( for which thou shalt assuredly give an account) What meaneth thy meddling with, and abusing of mayor General Skippon, Coll. Scroop, Tho. Ewens, the Magistrates and Inhabitants of this City; Morgan Lloyd, William Erbury; John Tombs, of Lemster; the Parliament in the year 1653. The Protector and his council; the People called Independents, and Baptists; yea thy self, and all the generation of thy Brethren, the Priests? of which in particular more hereafter. 
Pag. 45.   
If to Declare of the ground, rise, and occasion of the increase and growth of those Impostures( as thou reproachest them) amongst ye; what meaneth all those stories how and when the Committee was first constituted here, and of whom it did 
Pag. 45, 46.  consist; and how the then 
a M. G. Skippon,  Governor was one of them, and what he did, and what a good correspondence he maintained with the Magistrates, and how their Authority( thou sayest) held in a fair Equipage, until such time as( divers of them being ejected as disaffected to the Parliament) the public Affairs of the City came to be managed by other hands. And what another 
b M. G. Harrison.  M. General did; & how the last 
* Coll. Scroop. Pag. 46.  Governor joined with the Church, of which( thou sayest) Dennis Hollister was Master, as the only Church amongst ye,( so sayest thou, pag. 46.) carrying the name and face of the godly, and well-affected to the Government, being voted the choice Congregation, with exclusion of all others, having( thou sayest) at that time with them a godly, learned, and able Preacher, and an ordained Minister, who preached to them, and did participate with them in the Ordinance of the Lords Supper; yet affirmed, That none that 
Pag. 47. Pag. 49.  knew them would take the charge of them. And how this Governor, being a person serious in Religion,( as thou sayest of him, pag. 46.) yet by his Power got the Keys of thy Church from the Magistrates to whom thou hadst carried them for protection, thou he promised W. Erbury should not speak there; but( thou sayest) promises are one thing, and performances another? What meaneth thy Talk of Soldiers, and Officers, and Garrisons, 
Pag. 47, 48.  and the upholding and dismantling of them; of well-affected and dis-affected in the time of the late former Parliament; and of the sway of these People that[ then] did domineer in spirituals[ as thou sayest] and temporals over all; and of their putting by, and hindering Priest Wells, of laurence jury London, who[ thou sayest] came to visit his Relations from supplying thee one Lords day in the Afternoon, though he had promised thee to do what he could not perform; and of the pitiful condition thou wast in, and the pews that were ridden on; and thy Church which was nastyfied; and thy Ordinance of Preaching which was rendered base and contemptible by reason thereof; and of the Keys of thy Church, which were endeavoured[ first] to be fetch't from thee by Threats and Menaces, & then got from the Magistrates after thou( being so distressed) hadst carried the Keys to them, desiring 
Pag. 49.  their protection, and the securing of thy people from lying and destructive vanities, which they promised thee, but did the contrary. And of Vniversityes, and human Learning, and Ordained Priests, and their settled Maintenance; & of unchurching all your Churches; and of Consolidation, and mechanic Preachers; and of Dry Baptism, and Wet Baptism; and of Dry Breasts; and of two children that were able to go hand in hand; and of another that was carried in Arms; and of Midwives, and Nurses; and of the independents, and Baptists( so called) in Bristol, and out of Bristol; and of the Schismatical Spirit, which( thou sayest) is intolerable; and of thy going out of the way, with such like, in which thou spendest many 
Pag. 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, &c.  pages; and of the Parliament in 1653. And of Officers, and Soldiers, and Garrisons again, well-affected, and dis-affected, and of contests and debates with the Magistrates and Citizens 
Pag. 55, 56.  on several occasions. What doth all this rambling disjoined Stuff concern the People called Quakers, which[ as thou thyself sayest, & hast dated it] was all before any such name was heard of in that City, much less any one in it, on which it was cast?  
If to vilify Dennis Hollister, at whom thou vehemently disgorgests thy rancorous poison, and strik'st at chiefly as a particular person throughout those 15. pages; and on set purpose to reproach him, rak'st thorough the Transactions of 
Pag. 56.  divers yeers, and that thou mayest have thy full at him( who treadeth under his feet all thy Railings and Revilings as not worthy the minding, and weareth thy Reproaches for the Truth as his Crown) thou sparest not highly to abuse the Parliament of which he was a Member▪ What meaneth thy sore Industry and travail through all thou hast packed up together of near eighty yeers time, to record him as bearing a chief sway in that Rule and Power in this City, which( thou sayest as aforesaid) had the Throne of the Government, and the height of the Empire; and further as a Member of Parliament, and( as thou margin'st it) of the Committees of highest Concernment? What couldst thou say more( as to those things) in honor of him, or of the considerableness of the People whom thou despisests; and whom to reproach and vilify thou writest a Book, yet therein dost thus set them over all, in the eyes of such men as are of an impartial understanding, who know how to distinguish and make a difference, who will easily pierce through thy Railings and Abuses, and by what thyself hast recorded of them, plainly see that they are another manner of People then thou dost seek to represent them; also, That thou hast with thine own Pen struck through the heart of thy design. Art thou who thus dost writ, compos mentis? Will any wise man judge thee so, who thus blindly turnest thy Weapons backward, and in rage and madness runnest them into the Bowels of thy cause & self, yea, even in the behalf of those against whom thou dost so furiously contend? Hast thou not in this thy Declaration sottishly laid open thy nakedness and folly? How is the Scripture fulfilled on thee, He frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh the Diviners mad?  
But I have not yet done with thee, as to this thy Declaration.  
Whereas thou hast falsely and wickedly accused us, pag. 59. That we, and our Relations and Adher●nts, are such as upon 
Pag. 59. Pag. 56.  Faction, Discontent, and disaffected humour have been seduced; and that Dennis Hollister and myself, and divers of that party with us, did join ourselves with those( whom thou in scorn callest) Wretched Quaker●s which came from the North,( but we the Ministers of the Lord, and of his everlasting Gospel, whom we witness so to be, and therefore are not ashamed publicly so to own and bless the Lord for, and confess ourselves to be( with hundreds more) the Seals of their Ministry) as the end of Pride, Faction, Discontent, and affencted singularity. I do here( for the clearing of my conscience, and the satisfaction of all the sober minded to whom this may come, & for the stoping of thine and all slanderous mouths) in the dread and presence of the living and Eternal God, who is judge of Heaven and Earth, before whose judgement-seat 
2 Cor. 5. 10.  thou and we must all appear, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad; in my own, and the Name of those Servants of the Lord whom thou reproachest, Declare & Affirm, That neither Faction, Discontent, Dis-affected humour, Pride, affencted singularity( which are all of them thy slanders) nor any other thing was the cause of our joining unto them; but having many of us all our dayes been honestly seeking to know the true and living God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, whom to know is eternal life; and having for that purpose along time gone from Mountain to Hill; that which had put us upon looking after the Lord, and had often refreshed us, and kept us in his fear,( though we knew it not) and had made us serviceable in the Work of our Generation, and to have our Conversation honest amongst men, remained unsatisfied, till( whilst we were waiting for the Promise of the Father, it pleased the Lord, who is rich in mercy to all that call upon him, in the fullness of the dispensation of times, to visit us with the Day-spring from on high, and with the Word of Eternal Life, through the Ministry aforesaid, to p●erce through to that of himself in us, which had so set us upon seeking after him, and had refreshed, and kept, and made us serviceable as afore said, and preserved us, waiting for his Promise, which opening the eye in us, we came to see him whom we looked for, and to find that after which we had so diligently sought without us, even the Mystery which hath been hide from 
Col. 1. 26, 27.  Ages and Generations, but now is made manifest to the Saints, Christ in us the hope of Glory. And so the Lord having reached by his Eternal Power to that of himself in us, we became joined to the Lord, and to the Immortal Word by which we were begotten again unto a lively hope, and to those by whom we were begotten, and to all who were begotten into the same lively hope, by the same immortal Word; and even to all in every place, who call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours, who are one Spirit. And thus coming to see him who is invisible, and to know him in whom we believe, and that we are in him who is true, and that the whole World lies in wickedness; we hunger no more, nor thirst, nor wonder( abiding in it) as heretofore, receiving the end of our Faith, even the salvation of our souls; Glory and eternal living Praises be unto the Lord for ever. And this is that of which we witness, and for the testimony of which we suffer by thee and the spirit which is of this world, and for which we cheerfully lay down what hath been accounted dear to us, and are content, and do choose to be made as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things( as they were who went before us) and a spectacle( as we are by thee) unto the world, and unto angels, and unto men, knowing in ourselves that we have in Heaven a better and enduring Substance.  
And as to what thou hast herein charged us, all who are sober may consider what thing should move us( who have some of us tasted of as much, yea more of the Power and Glory of this world as any in this City▪ and might still have it, could we bow down and worship) to join unto such a persecuted and despised people▪ who are every where trodden upon, and delivered up as a prey to unreasonable men; who are laid as the ground to pass over, over whom all pass, and who are ourselves with them passed over, and made a byword, and a gazing-stock, the Song of the Drunkards, a mock and derision all the day-long, were it not that we had( as Moses) an eye to the recompense of reward.  
Furthermore, As to those people whom thou wouldst make as the dirt in the Streets, and pourest out upon what filth thou pleasest( in this your day, ye Blasphemous Rabsheka's, who are let loose for a season) they are( say thou, and the mingled people with thee, what ye can to the contrary) such as have been faithful to, and have stood by the Common-Wealth in all its straits, against those who sought to have destroyed, or would have betrayed it; and have been Instrumental in the hand of the Lord towards the preserving of it safe in this City, and the parts about it, when thy place[ R. F.] was not there found, who art now( in this day) found to be the foul mouth of all that mingled people, whom for the Common-Wealth sake they opposed, contended with, and overcame, casting forth upon them thine and their malice and revenge, who are become thy well-affected, and for whom thou pleadest( to show thyself what thou art) and those the contrary. But over all thy filth and rage, and the unrighteous and unworthy Returns of this Town & others, for their faithfulness and service do they stand, bearing all things, and suffering all things in the patience and long-suffering of him who made them faithful and active to encounter with, and pass through all in the other. And for no other end made they use of their power in their day, then for the Common-Wealth, and the general good of all, even of their Enemies, so far as the Common-Wealth was not thereby prejudiced not to set up themselves to serve their private ends and advantage( let who can charge and make good upon them one particular) as is the maner of some. And all they then did, & the contests they then had with thy mingled people was for the Common-Wealth, which thou slanderest with faction, discontent, disaffected humour, pride, & affencted singularity; but the answer of a good conscience they have with God in these things, and are able( through his strength) herein, and in any other particular whatsoever, to stand before the face of the chiefest Authority, or men of Power and Moderation in these Nations. And this those who[ then] sate at the Stern well knew, and found the effects answerable to the Trust and Power committed to their hands; therefore they Commissioned them as to all things wherein the safety of the Common-Wealth is concerned. And in that day who but thou[ R. F.] seemed one with them, and a hot Adversary to these people, both Aldermen and others, of which some of us are Witnesses, to whom thou hast very much cried out against them. But that very Generation turning up, thou plyest thy Weapon set on fire of Hell, in their behalf( who are not, but the times are changed) against the others, who though the times are changed, yet are the same; and if another day should be, there thou mayest be expected, who appears to be guided by Times, not by Principle. And then who but thou[ R. F.] came to confer about joining thyself, and others with thee, to that Church as aforesaid, and to discourse about Officers and their Power; but when thou didst perceive by Dennis Hollister, with whom thou didst converse about those things, that there was no place for thy Mastership over them, no more was heard of thee in that particular till the state of things changed, & then thou haddest thy black Teeth against separated Churches, so called,( of one of which thou art said to have been a Member at Canterbury) especially against that at Bristol( of which thou saidest have been one) & at Dennis Hollister chiefly, whom thou hast reviled as thou canst, both in Print( as this thy railing Pamphlet witnesseth & otherwise, & termest it the Church of which he was Master, because he shut the door against thine Imperious, proud, and pragmatical Mastership( to give thee thine own Words back again) that it could not enter in.  
Not that our life is in these things do I thus speak & rehears, it is another where,( we who are in the Light) out of strife & contention, & things which wax old revolve with times, and perish with the using; nor that our Peace is touched, for it ye neither have nor can reach with all your blusters, for we are enabled to bear, in the will of the Lord, the undoing of that, which to carry through and perfect, we bore our part in the heat of the day; and the letting loose of thee and this generation upon us, whom we overcame by the Sword, as it is at this day, without distraction, till the measure of Iniquity be fulfilled; and that which enabled us to overcome without, makes us more then Conquerors of ye all, and your usages within, where we lie down in peace, and rest in our beds, whilst these Hurryings, and Tumblings, Perplexities and Distresses, Rage, and Revilings abide the outward face of these Nations, which us doth pass over, though us they would hit, and at us they strike: I say, Not that our life is in these things, do I thus speak; but in regard we have a Witness of Innocency, as to the things wherewithal thou dost so highly charge us; and for that the Work of our Generation, which we have received mercy to serve, was( in its place) of the Lord, and the Price of much blood and sufferings, unto which he hath regard; I could not let it pass without this Testimony unto it now, and the wiping off thy Black Calumnies with the Reply of soberness and Truth.  
And whereas thou sayest, pag 56. That during this distracted, 
Pag. 56.  broken, and divided Government, in come some of the wretched Quakers( as thou revilest them) amongst us.  
Reply: In pag. 59. thou affirmest, That( except one) there 
Pag. 59.  are none of those who are, or were thought sit or worthy to bear a share in the Government, that are lead away by, or inclined to these( as thou reproachest them) wicked persons. And this( as soon as thou hast craved the excuse, and bespoke them their pity, upon consideration of the former) thou sayest, Let the World abroadknow, that they may not look us upon as wholly tainted with this sour leaven of Wickedness, and so fit to be cast out, or unworthy of Christian society; and art not afraid to entitle the Name of the dreadful Gad, and his goodness thereunto. How do these things agree? enthroned( as it were) in the Government: Bearing the greatest sway in all things: The Magistrates standing but as ciphers in matters of Rule and Power, further then it had the stamp of their Approbation: So high was their Empire in Temporals and matters of Religion: Distracted, broken, and divided Government: And yet, Let the world know abroad, that( except one) there are none of them that are, or were thought fit or worthy to bear a share in the Government. And with this and such like is the close of thy long and confounded Declaration: dost thou mind what thou sayest? Is not thy Work like that of little children, making day pies, and then breaking them; scrambling up heaps of stones, and then not resting whilst one of them is left upon another? Art not thou found pulling down in one part of thy Book, what thou hast raised up in another; and destroying in one page. what in another thou hast builded up? and so as to line and line in many places, with the Instances of which, and their Exemplifications, I could fill a Book of itself; but I spare the serious Reader, who may easily discern it without further demonstration. So like a besotted mad man dost thou behave thyself in the management of this thy false and lying Declaration.  
But to be short( for I can only touch, and that but at some things, the full Examination and scanning of all that's in thy Book, requiring a Volume rather then a few sheets of Paper.) Whereas thou seemest to insinuate, as if the distracted, broken, and divided government( which thou raisest in the air for that purpose) was the In-let of those people into this City, and the occasion and cause of their settling amongst us. I Reply; That the distracted, broken, and divided state( were it so as thou sayest) of the Government, was not that which was, or gave the occasion of their coming hither from the North; for they neither knew the place, nor any person in it, nor had intelligence in the least( as to the outward) of the state of its Affairs; nor had any in this City any Information[ so] of their coming, or of this thing; but in obedience to the Lord they came, who commanded them hither, who hath largely accomplished & is accomplishing his Work for which he sent them; glory be unto his name for ever. Nor was it Faction, discontent, disaffected humour, pride, or affencted Singularity( which are all thy false Accusations and Slanders, as hath been declared) that which joined us to them, or gave them and their message footing in this Town; for he who is Lord of Heaven and Earth, who giveth unto all men life and 
Act. 17. 24, 25, 28.  breath, and all things, and therefore needeth not any thing, or the help of any man, took hold on us, by that their Word of his Power, which he hath caused to take deep Root downward, to the praise of his Name; so that it's out of the Power of thee, or thy Time, or thy Generation, or what thou callest good counsel, or earthly Thrones to grub up, as thou sayest, pag. 59. or overthrow; therefore thou mayest despair R. F. on this point of thy Expectation, ever wholly, as thou 
Pag. 59.  sayest, to be freed of them. Nor was the becoming of the two Commanders of the Fort & Castle, viz. Capt. Watson, and Capt. Beal, or of one, or both their Wives convinced of the Truth, whom thou callest their Proselytes; or their, or the Soldiers discharging of their Trust in keeping the Peace, endangered by such high Tumults and Insurrections( as hath been, and is to be said) that which settled and rooted Truth here, or that unto which they looked; for he who is greater then all founded it; and to him did they look, and against it the gates of hell neither have nor shall be able to prevail, nor any Power to pull them out of his hand; who hath caused its establishment( through all the rage of Persecutions, Temptations, and trials) to be and appear more firm and unmovable, since the Garrisons have been removed, and they left( as to the outward) to the Lusts and Fury of cruel and unreasonable men,( their former Enemies on the account of the Common-Wealth) then when there was an outward power as a check to the overflowings of the insatiable bloodthirstiness of thee, and the men of thy Generation, though the design and travail of this thy long and perplexed Declaration, consisting of near 15. pages, be to lay the ground, rise, and occasion of the increase and growth( as thou sayest) of it amongst us, on these three Pillars and Foundations, to deceive others as thou art deceived thyself, with pretended, outward, lying causes, and ascribing unto them, not knowing the Truth, or the Power thereof. Which Pillars and Foundations are thus false, rotten, broken down, overthrown, and confounded, together with what thou hast brought in to make them up, and hast built upon them, as hath been made manifest.  
And now should I sift and weigh thee Line by Line, and Word by Word, as to the Truth of what thou hast set down 
Pag. 59. Pag. 45.  within the compass of this thy false Declaration, and be particular in the demonstration of each, as it deserves, who of it sayest in the close of the whole, I have been careful to give in the substance in truth and reality, pag. 59. And in the Preface thereunto sayest, I shall briefly, as the matter will bear,( yet truly) lay the whole m●tter before the World, and in this I shall have the Testimony of the generality of our Inhabitants to what I shall discover, whether Truth or falsehood, therefore it concerns me to be a faithful Relator. I should far exceed the conveniency of mine own time, or the patience of the Reader, it being such a thronged pack of complicated lies and falshoods, that in some places there are more lies then lines; therefore I am constrained to pass by the narrow disquisition of them, and therein with the sober shall be well understood; forasmuch as I have already proved thy Narrative and Relation false, though thou hast in thy Title called it true; and thee as to Faith and Honesty Reprobate; and so what is to be believed that comes from thee? Besides the foundations of thy Declaration, and thy design therein is already overthrown and confounded together, and thy falsehood and folly at large made manifest; nevertheless, that I may not seem too general, I shall further lay thee open in a few Instances. Because thou hast so spoken of thy Declaration, and that thou shalt have the Testimony of the generality of the Inhabitants, whether Truth or falsehood, and that therefore it concerns thee to be a faithful Relator.  
Thou sayest, pag. 56. That the Insolent Disturbances of this people growing higher and higher, incensed the spirit of the Inhahitants to see their Ministers so abused, and the Magistrates fearing what it might come unto,( as well they might) convented two of their Talkers( so sayest thou of them who say and do: who sayest, but dost not) before them, &c. and a little before thou sayest, That by their lies, Monkish Profession, Reproaching our Ministry, and crying down tithes, they so far prevailed with some of their Proselytes, as to disturb our Congregations; whenas no one Friend had been at any of your Congregations when the Magistrates so convented those two Servants of the Lord, Edw. burrow, and Francis Howgil; nor was the Spirit of the Inhabitants incensed to see their Ministers so abused; nor could it be so, since( even what thyself declarest, as) the cause was not, nor could they see that which was not; nor be incensed by that which they did not see; nor could that be a ground for the Magistrates to fear what it might come unto which had not a being, though thou sayest( so drunk art thou with rage)[ as well they might] and so manifests thy sottishness: Nor was it the ground of the conventing those two before them. What a heap of lies, senselessness, and confusion is here? And so what thou sayest of the Insolent Disturbances of this people growing higher and higher, and the incensing of the spirit of the Inhabitants to see their Ministers so abused, is all false; and so is what thou sayest, That by their lies;[ prove one lie; lies, and lying, and liars, and thee they do deny.] Monkish Profession;[ theirs is the Profession of the true Faith, which they hold fast without wavering; but thine is in the Monkishness, which they deny.] Reproaching our Ministry,[ they reproach none, but give right measure and just Weight to all, and that is no reproaching.] and crying down tithes,[ they cried not down tithes for that end thou appliest it; but tithes they have cried down in declaring against the Priesthood that exacts them, as changeable, and so down they must.] so far prevailed,[ itis false, they prevailed with none, nor sought, nor spoken that any should so do; that which hath brought forth the Testimony against ye, was onely the movings of the Lord] with some Proselytes,[ they who are gathered into the Truth, are the Children thereof; Proselytes is thine own, and thy Generation, who( as your forefathers the Pharisees) compass sea 
Matth. 23. 15.  and land to make one, & when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of Hell then before.] to disturb your Congregations.[ They have disturbed none, unless the speaking in the Name of the Lord is a disturbance, which the Prophets, and Christ Jesus, and the Apostles and Holy Men of God did in all Ages, before the Altar, in the Temple and Synagogues; in the times of, and against the Worships, yea which God had once commanded, who were therefore accounted Disturbers and Troublers of Israel by thy Generation then, as these are now by thee; and this was and is used in the Churches of Christ.] And all this thou puttest in thy 
1 Cor. 14.  Order immediately in the very next words after thou hast spoken of the coming in of those from the North amongst us, who( sayest thou, being the very next Word) by their lies, Monkish Profession, &c. Whenas it was the 10. day of the 10. 
Eliz. Ma●shall.  Month, 1654. before any one had testified against ye in your Steeplehouses, and thou wast the first: And the first coming in of those people from the North, was the 12. day of the 5. Month before; and when those two were convented before the Magistrates, it was the 30. day of the 8. month, preceding the time that the Friend aforesaid testified against thee. Much more could I say in this, and make several other lies to appear to be in the following lines of the same page., as there are in the foregoing, with other demonstrations of thy wretched Spirit, but what hath been said( being as to the contents of but nine of thy lines in one page.) is a sufficient proof of what I have said, and manifestation of thy Declaration to be otherwise then thou hast said of it as aforesaid, and thee to be a liar.  
Again, thou sayest, pag. 57. The Disturbers being persons 
Pag. 57.  of a mean condition, which was something observable, and they being all acted( as they say) by one and the same spirit, it should move the small ones, and not the great ones; and so in their quakings and spewings, &c. which( I wonder they have conjured down that spirit) is now quiter out of fashion. Of those whom thou callest great ones there were, who in obedience to the Lord restified against ye Priests in your Steeplehouses, whom thou callest Disturbers, but are not; so thy observation is a lie and the ground of it. And as for spewings, that▪ s found among ye Gluttonous, and Wine-bibbers, who devour the Creation, and spend it upon your Lusts, on whose glory shall be shameful spewings, not among them, that's a lie. But thou who dost thus profanely scoff at the Power of the Lord in his Servants, who is a great God, and terr●ble, who shakes the Earth, and makes the Pillars thereof to tremble; and wickedly flout that Spirit which made Moses and the holy men of God( who witnessed it) to quake, and shake, and tremble, as these do now; Thou blasphemest the Holy Ghost, 
Mark 3. 28, 29, 30.  and the Power of him thou shalt know, whose Power thou hast blasphemed, when it shall grind thee to powder, and that day is not far off. I could speak a word to thee with Tears, but thou art past that state, and the things that are coming upon thee make hast. And whereas thou sayest, Which is quiter out of fashion, That's a lie, quaking, and shaking, and trembling in the presence, and with the dread of the Lord is still witnessed, not as a Fashion,( thou scorner) yea, all who are fashioned after this present evil World, and the Fashions of the World are denied, but in and by the Power of the living God. And Conjuring is thine own, who art in the engraffed, as Paul spake of those who were out of the Truth.  
Furthermore, thou goest on, and sayest, Still their quakings and disturbances increase, by the coming of more and more Teachers; but they not begging, and being lodged in private houses, 
Pag. 57.  the Magistrates knew not well how to deal with them as Vagrants, as they deserved. And indeed they were discouraged and disheartened by some, who should have had the wit( or honesty) to give them better Counsel. Here thou manifests thyself to purpose; Beg thou sayest they did not; and the Magistrates knew not well how to deal with them as Vagrants( viz. A Whip and a Pass, that is it thou hast solicited earnestly, and whip'st thy Spirit night and day, because thou canst not lay it on them.) And yet though they did not beg( who have outward sufficient Estates of their own) and so were not Vagrants by the Law; and though the Magistrates knew not well how to deal with them as Vagrants, as thou hast confessed, in the Punishment, because the Law they had not offended; yet thou sayest, as they deserved; What! deserve the punishment and not commit the offence!( How dost thou show thy black Teeth, and fell talons, where thou canst not reach with thy blood-thirstiness?) And further dost revile some( whom thou namest not, but itis known whom thou secretly shoots at) for disheartening and discouraging the Magistrates from exercising that cruelty and injustice on innocent men, contrary to the Law, and what thou hast confessed thyself as to fact; and of the Magistrates, that they knew not well how to deal with them as such,( and which might turn, should they have inflicted it, to the Magistrates exceeding cost and damage) of whom thou sayest( to show how thou art given up to villainy, Hellishness and Blood, and how thou art not ashamed so to manifest thyself) Who should have had the Wit( or the Honesty) to have given them better counsel: In whose Vindication, and for whose honor there need no more to be said then those thy very Words, among all men of sober understanding, who also sayest, still their quakings increase; and yet in the words immediately foregoing, sayest itis quiter out of fashion.  
Once more, Concerning the notorious and unparallelled Tumults and Insurrections the 18, and 19. days of the 10. month, 1654. on John Audland, and John Cams, thou sayest, These things so raised and exasperated the mindes of some of the Youth of the City; whenas thou knowest, and it is well known, who 
Pag. 57.  it was that both raised and exasperated the mindes of those Ryoters, who were chiefly of thy Parish, whom thou gently callest some of the Youth of the City, and seekest to cover over the foul fact, as if it arose from their hearing of those men, not of thee; and to excuse their high breach of the Law, and despising of Government, and affront to Justice by their conceiving them( as thou sayest, smoothing it over) punishable by the Magistrates, and their s●ising and bringing them with strong hand,( as thou sayest, and canst not but confess) as they were[ peaceably] going to a Meeting in the Country before the Magistrates to require Justice on them; and that the Magistrates being not at the Tolzey; they let them go; whenas one of the Magistrates was there, through opportunity of whom they 
Pag 58.  were got with much ado into a House near the Tolzey, whither the Ryoters followed them, and stayed before it for some time, threatening to assault it; and this was their( as thou pleadest, but liest) letting them go without harming of them; whenas also they were punch't, and halled, and dragged, and the Cry was, Knock them down, hang them presently. And because the Officers of the Garrison interposed not their Power the first day, though the riot was high, and of some hours continuance, but friendly went to thy Magistrates with another Citizen and acquainted them therewith desiring( if it might) the Peace to be kept by them; & for that the next day they brought to the Magistrates the names of some of the chief of the former dayes Ryoters, and of witnesses also to prove the Fact, which was of so unsufferable and dangerous consequence: Thou art so highly offended with them, that thou sayest, But so great was the Zeal of these Souldiers and their Abettors for these deluding and blasphemous Quakers( so thou revilest the Innocent on whom the Tumults were raised) that the next day they came to the Magistrates with great eomplaints and outcries[ is not thy galled back pinched R. F. that thou thus kickest?] against the Apprentices as Ryoters,( here is what thou accountest the foul crime) with high words, requiring punishment▪ upon them in the behalf of these Deceivers,( so thou reproachest them) who came and continued here with the Affront of Justice,( so thou them belyest.) And though thou sayest, The Magistrates, that they ●ight not( in the least) give countenance to any thing that carried the face of Tumult or riot, sand for some of the Apprentices before them, which the rest perceiving, come up into the middle of the City to a great number; and further, declaring, indeed, this Resolution, That if one of them were committed upon 
☞  that occasion, they would all go to Prison,( then which, what higher 
See the Book of the Bristol Persecution, entitled, The Cry of Blood, for the full Relation of this riot, and the aggravation thereof.  affront could there be to Justice, & of more dangerous tendencie to the subversion & overthrow of Laws & Government? for there were judged to be about fifteen hundred drawn together at, and near the Tolzy, who would not stir, though the Mayor, and Aldermen, and Sheriffs came down to them with the Sword, and made Proclamation for all to depart in the Protectors Name) yet so greatly art thou affencted in the behalf of the riot and the Ryoters, and enraged at those who disliked both, that of such thou sayest, But so high, Impetuous, and violent were these Quakers Proselytes,( the Friends of Truth being so far from it, that they stood in quietness, for had there been but an Arm lifted up, or a Voice amongst them of such an import, it had in likelihood set the City into blood) that they armed their Souldiers with Swords and Muskets, and brought them up into the midst of the City against the People and Apprentices( such are thy dear Appellations of those high Ryoters) and set the City into an uproar, and very near to blood and confusion; such are thy notorious belyings of those Servants of the State who stood to keep the Peace.) Whenas the cause of the marching up of some of the Souldiers near the riot, was upon information thereof, and that their two Commanders, Capt. Beal, and Capt. Watson's lives were thereby endangered, which upon their going down to pacify them at the Magistrates desire; was drawn about them, and the place where they were, they having not so much as a Guard or Servant with them, nor sent for the Souldiers▪ though they saw their lives in danger, nor knew of the Souldiers coming up till they were there. And who were so far from setting the City into an Uproar, and very near to blood and confusion, that they stood and kept at some distance, and neither drew nor fired, but abode in their order, though they were sorely provoked by seeing such a multitude made up of such persons, at such a time, and dared with their waveings of their Hats, and other Expressions.  
And as for the riot, the Vproar, it was some hours before the Souldiers appeared, so they were not the cause;( that's thy impudent lie which thou hast forged to excuse the guilty, and to lay the fault on the Innocent.) And not long after their appearance, the Tumult dispersed at that time; but in the Evening drew together again, waiting the return of those two from their Meeting; and then the whole City was so alarmed, and in such fears of the issue, and in such danger, some Masters appearing in the behalf of what the Servants were acting, and mutterings of Lysting hundreds of men, that a great affrightment there was, yea, even upon the Magistrates, insomuch that they sent their Sword-bearer to divert those two Friends from coming that way, they were expected into the Town, with this Message; for that they could not undertake to secure them, who were preserved with a great deliverance.  
And this is some hint of some of those Tumults of which thou appear'st as Patron and Advocate, which had continued in its Ashes butted, and untouched at by me, but that thou hast raked it up, and necessitated this Reply again to cover it. And even by what hath been said therein, let the wise see and judge whose cause this is which thou hast thus managed, and who it was that raised these Tumults on the Innocent,( such high Works of the flesh) and whose spirit acted it; and whether thou appear'st not, even out of thine own mouth, to be both the Designer and carrier of it on, of which that blood, and a great deal too, was not the issue, was the goodness of the Lord, & therefore( though thou neither knowest the Lord who thus dost act) thou mightest well speak of the Discretion of the Magistrates, and the mediation of some sober persons, 
Pag. 58.  whereby( thou sayest) the Apprentices were dismissed, and the Tumult appeased. And further thou sayest, As we never knew the like before, so we have not, and trust in Gods goodness( which thou hast despised, and his long suffering and patience, which would have lead thee to Repentance) we never shall see the like again here in this City. For if blood had followed, the Inquisition thereof might have reached thee, and then thou knowest what would have been the issue; however before the Lord thou art not clear, to whom thou must answer, and his Righteous Judgements thou shalt not escape. To conclude this particular; Art thou a Minister of the Gospel? or art not thou( to give thee back thine own words) who art thus made manifest, wholly tainted with the sour Leaven of wickedness, and so fit to be cast out, and unworthy of Christian Society.  
Unto what hath been said I shall add what thou affirmest, 
Pag. 49.  pag. 49. of those of whom thou declarest, that they were enthroned( as it were) in the Government, That so Impetuous and Imperious were they, and such was their Power, that if they could not have their wills in a thing even scandalous and unreasonable( which are thy slanders) they threatened the Magistrates that they would turn out a godly and Orthodox Minister out of the City, he differing at that time in judgement in some particulars,( but thou neither namest the man, nor dost instance what was that scandalous & unreasonable thing, nor the time, nor the particulars wherein he differed in judgement, and yet such a blind story thou art not ashamed to bring to entertain the Reader in the Reproach of the men of thine indignation) whenas thou wast the man that didst earnestly solicit some then in power, for the turning out of Nicholas, one of thy Brethren, then of this City, qualified as thou hast said, Constant Iessope by name,( whether he be the man, or another, is known to thee, who namest not who it is) for his differing in Judgement in some parriculars, urging as an Argument to this purpose, That ●ill then the City would not be in quiet;( and what little quiet it hath had since by reason of thee, is well known) into whose place( by diligent seeking) thou didst climb, where thou hast domineered( 'tis thine own word) ever since over his people and him( who for a time was banished the City) as the issue of that prosecution. Now if the man( and Paul saith he is) be Inexcusable, who judgeth another, and doth the same thing, then how much more art thou? yea, how abominable, wicked and detestable, who not only so dost, and more, but that thou mayest reproach, pack'st together a heap of lying stuff, as a ground to draw from thence that thy conclusion: Was it in thy Judgement( and so thou hast pronounced it) Impetuousness, and Imperiousness, in those[ then] in Power of whom thou speakest,( were the things true thou chargest upon them, which is denied) to[ but] threaten the Magistrates to turn out of the City,( but did it not) a man so qualified, so, and in such a manner, and for such cause as thou hast said; what is it then in thee, who wast not in Power, but a pretended Minister of the Gospel, so to endeavour the effectual turning out of his Parish and the City, Constant Iessope aforesaid, such a man, and for that cause, as aforesaid, against the will of the Magistrates and his Parish, who( divers of them) petitioned his stay; whereby thou hadst thy will in a thing so scandalous and unreasonable,( to give thee thine own) as the possessing of his place, and forcing thyself( by procuring an order from above) upon his people to this day, he and his Family living ever since out of, but thou and thine in the City. O ye Parishioners of Nicholas! ye Inhabitants of Bristol, and Magistrates thereof, how long will it be ere your eyes be open to see, and ere you cease from being lead by such an apparent Deceiver? These things had not been raled up, but that thou thyself hast administered the necessity.  
Much more I might add as to particular Instances in that thy Declaration, as to Garrisons, Petitions, and many other things, and draw the Wheel over thee, as in those aforesaid; but what hath been said is enough to manifest thee: and therefore that I may not be too tedious, I shall add no further in this place, as to the Remainder of what thou callest A Declaration of the rise and growth of those people in this City.  
And as what thou hast collected & published in the particulars 
Title-Page.  aforesaid, and what is hereafter made to appear so to be, are lies; so is it a lie what thou sayest of thyself, viz. A Servant of that Iesus Christ who was crucified at jerusalem above 1600. yeers ago. As is sufficiently manifested by what hath been and is said of thee in this Vindication, wherein thou art proved to be such a Servant of unrighteousness, yea, against that Iesus Christ, his Truth and Followers, as this age hath not produced the like; and the Wages of Vnrighteousness thou shalt receive at the hand of the Lord, just weight, and right measure, heaped up, and running over; yea; the Cup which thou hast filled, shall be filled to thee double; and as thou hast glorified thyself, and lived deliciously, so much Torment and Sorrow shall be given thee.  
And thy Hopes to be saved by that Iesus Christ, &c. is a lie 
Title-page. 1 joh. 3. 3. Pag. 48.  too, For every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself as he is pure. But thou sayest, pag. 48. That If this( viz. The pure Image of Christ must be brought forth in us, we must be perfect and free from all sin, and then we are justified, and then we are righteous, and not till then) but the Doctrine that the Churches of Christ truly reformed have received, I'll renounce my share ●n Christianity.  
Reply: The Scripture saith expressly, 
a 1 Cor. 15. 49.  As we have born the Image of the earthly, so we must bear the Image of the heavenly: And 
b Eph. 4. 24.  that ye put on the new Man, which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness: And 
c Col. 3. 9, 10.  ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man which is renewed in Knowledge after the Image of him that created him: 
d Gal. 4. 19.  My little children of whom I travail in birth again till Christ be formed in you: 
e Matth. 5. 48.  Be ye therefore perfect, as your heavenly Father is Perfect: 
f John 17. 23.  I in them, and they in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Howbeit 
g 1 Cor. 2. 6.  we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: Ye 
h Heb. 12. 22.  are come to the spirits of just men made perfect: But 
i 1 Cor. 3. 12.  let as many as be Perfect be thus minded: Whom 
k Col. 1. 28.  we preach, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: That 
l Col. 4. 12.  ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God: He 
m Eph. 4. 11, 12. 13.  gave some Apostles, &c. for the perfecting of the Saints, for the Work of the Ministry, &c. till we all come to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. If 
n james 3. 12.  any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man. Little 
o o joh. 3. 7.  children, let no man deceive you, he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous Because 
p 1 Joh. 4. 17.  as he is, so are we in this World; For 
q Heb. 2. 11.  both he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are both of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren. The 
r Rom. 8. 2.  Law of the spirit of Life, which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and of death: That 
s Rom. 8. 4.  the Righteousness of the Law might and fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit: Being 
t Rom. 6. 18, 20, 22, 23.  then made free from sin, ye became the servants of Righteousness, for when ye were the Servants of sin, ye were free from Righteousness; but now being made free from sin, and become Servants to God, ye have your Fruit in Holiness, and the end everlasting life; for the wages of sin is death: 
v 1 Joh. ●. 7. 1 Cor. 6. 11.  The blood of Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. And such were * some of you; but ye are washed; but ye are sanctified; but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 
x Rev. i. 56.  Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own Blood, and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God, and his Father. Whosoever 
y 1 Joh. 3. 9.  is born of God doth not commit sin, for his Seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. 
z 2 Cor. 5. 17.  Therefore if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; behold, old things are passed away, all things are become new. 
a 2 Cor. 13. 5.  Know ye not your own selves how that Christ Jesus is in you except ye be Reprobates? And if Christ 
b Rom. 8. 10.  be in you, the body is dead because of sin, and the spirit is alive because of Righteousness. For he that 
c Rom. 6. 7.  is dead is free from sin. This 
d 1 joh. 5. 6, 7, 8.  is he that cometh by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water onely, but by water and blood; for there are three that bear Record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one: and there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, and these three agree in one. 
e i Joh. 3. 8.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the Works of the Devil. If a 
f Joh. 15. 6.  man abideth not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is w●thered, and men gather them, and cast them into the Fire, and they are burned. 
g 1 Joh. 3. 6.  Whosoever abi●eth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.  
Now this is the Doctrine which the Churches of Christ truly reformed, have received and witnessed, unto which I could bring a Cloud more of Witnesses, even the Prophets, and Apostles, and Christ Iesus the Foundation of both; and the Holy men of God from the beginning: And this is what the Churches of Christ truly reformed at this day do receive and witness. And those who do not receive nor witness this Doctrine, are not truly reformed, are no Churches of Christ. So get thee gone, thou hast renounced thy share in Christianity, and Christianity doth deny thee; and what can be said more?  
And what thou affirmest, That the( people called) Quakers 
Title-Page.  nullify that Iesus Christ which was crucified at Jerusalem 1600. yeers ago, is a cursed lie; for they witness that Iesus Christ which was crucified at Jerusalem, and his resurrection, and his blood, which cleanseth from all sin, upon which thou hast renounced thy share in christianity, as aforesaid; so it matters not what thou sayest or affirmest; and what thou hast said thou hast not proved, but only sayest so; unto which, in that respect, there deserves no Reply.  
And as thy Hopes to be( who art not by thine own confession) 
Epistle to the Reader.  saved by that Jesus Christ, &c. are a lie; so is thy, and the Religion, Ministers, Ministry, Word, Churches, unity, Order, Peace, Civility, good Manners, which( thou sayest) the Destroyer is tearing, laying wast, and confounding; but Truth itself( thou abominable Blasphemer) cannot be torn, laid waste, nor confounded; who sayest, the Destroyer is tearing, laying waste, confounding Truth itself, and ALL Religion. For 
a job. 14. 6.  Truth itself is Christ Iesus, 
b Rev. 19. 13.  the Word of God, the Rock of Ages, 
c mat. 16. 18.  on whom his church is built; against which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail, nor shall any man 
d Joh. 28. 29.  pluck them out of his hand. The 
e 1 Thes. 1. 1.  church is in God; and Christ Jesus who is Head 
f Col. 2. 10. 15.  of principalities and Powers, who spoyled and made a show of openly, and triumphed over them in his across; is head of his church, and his 
g joh. 14. 27.  Peace he hath given them, which none can take away; and a 
h Luke 22. 29. 30.  Kingdom he hath appointed them, as his Father hath appointed him, that they may eat and drink at his Table in his Kingdom. And this Kingdom which they have received cannot be 
i Heb. 12. 28.  moved. The Rain descended, and the Floods came, 
k mat. 7. 25.  and the winds blew and beat upon that House, but it fell not, for it was founded on a Rock; but He from whom they receive the Kingdom it is, Whose voice then shook the earth; 
l Heb. 12. 26, 27  but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not Earth onely, but also Heaven; and this Word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. So see thy and the M●nisters Ministry, Word, Churches, unity, Order, Peace, Civility, good Manners, and all Religion, that is or can be shaken, confounded, torn, laid waste, or destroyed: I say, see it all a lie; see it all tumbled down together by the terrible Voice of him who is Truth itself, the Mighty God, which in this his powerful day is uttered forth according to his Promise, before his Army, and shakes not your Earth only, but also Heaven; and his Voice shall yet be uttered forth till all be shaken that can be shaken, and assuredly as these things are shaken, so shall they be removed, Conspire, Plot, Persecute, Divine, seek enchantments, do what you can; and therefore are they shaken that they may be removed, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain And this day is come, and this his Promise he hath fulfilled, and is fulfilling, who is the faithful and true witness: Glory be unto him who sitteth on the Throne, and to the Lamb for ever. This thy Master knows well, therefore is he come down with great Wrath, knowing his time is short, and hath sent forth thee and thy Generation, his Factors,( to return thine own) bearing his Name Abaddon, and Apollion, Destroyer, the wildest Bores of the Wood; and 
Epist. to the Reader.  the greatest spoilers, and the uncleannest Spir●ts of Devils, like Frogs( and thou the wildest and most unclean of all) that have in this day gone forth out of the Mouth of the Dragon, and out of the Mouth of the Beast, and out of the Mouth of the false Prophet, to gather the Kings of the earth, and the whole world to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. But down ye are coming, and must all come, removed must all that be Ministers, Ministry, Word, Churches, unity, Order, Peace, Civility, yea all Religion that is tearing, laying waste, and confounding by the Destroyer, or that can be shaken, torn, laid waste, confounded and destroyed. So take thee thy slain, heaps upon heaps, and thy horrid Blasphemy also, who being in the dark and confusion, art not afraid blasphemously to speak of him whose Work is Perfect; who 
a Psal. 33. 9.  spake, and it was done, 
b Psal. 148. 5.  who commanded, and they were created; 
c Gen. 1. 3, 7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30.  who said, Let it be so, and it was so. But thou sayest, 
* Epist. to the Reader.  whilst these Worlds were in their Fieri, there was( as it were) much knocking and hammering( as thou sayest I may say) and changing and altering. O horrible Blasphemer![ Knocking, Hammering, Changing, altering, whilst these Worlds were in their[ Fieri!]( a Philosophical term for any thing that is in making, & not perfected!) the Blasphemy is unutterable, and needs not further to be demonstrated.] And for some of it thou bringst in the words of the Heathen Poet in his Fictions; and all to raise 
Ovid de Metamor.  up a Foundation for thyself and Generation, as fixed Stars in the Church, who have no habitation in God in whom the true 
Epist. Reader.  Church is; but are a Generation( to give thee thine own again) of whom there is no constitution in the Scripture; yet thou having sought to found your station in Blaspheming the work of him who is Perfect, in whom is the breath of thy Nostrils, and who in a moment can turn thee to thy Dust, art so impudent, as what in thee lies, to force the Scripture as so speaking; for so sayest thou in the close of thy blasphemous confounded stuff concerning the Creation, and the Apostles and Evangelists, and settling of Churches, not worthy the rehearsing; If this be not the main scope the Scripture drives at,( as to Church Peace, and Beauty) I know nothing. So be thou concluded.  
And as thy Religion, thy Happiness is a lye, so is thy Way 
Pag. 1.  to true happiness; which though it be but one( sayest thou) yet there is a Latitude, and many Path's, so that we may not say that every one that walketh not in the very same way with us is out of the way.  
Rep. He that is the truth is the way, Christ Jesus, the Way, the 
d Joh. 14. 6.  Truth, the Life▪ I am( saith he) who is one, and 
e mat. 12. 30.  he that gathers not with me scatters abroad. There's for thy Way what it is that is not the very same way. Enter 
f mat. 7. 13, 14  ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the Way that leads unto destruction, and many there are that go in thereat, because straight is the Gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it, saith Christ; there's for thy Latitude▪ And the paths which are not one and the same, not the very same, the 
g Isa. 59. 7, 8. mat. 3. 3. Heb. 12. 13.  crooked, the steps 
h Prov. 5. 5.  of the strange Woman, are the many which led to Hell, and the destruction of the Pit; there's the state of thee and thy Generation. But one way to it, yet true it is, there is a latitude in the way, and there are many paths; so that we cannot say, that every one that walketh not in the very same path with us is out of the way; and yet not the very same; and though not the very same, yet we may not say that he that walketh not in the ve●y same is out of the way. Here's thy sottish confusion and contradiction, who goest out of the way into the by-paths( take thine own, which are not the very same) Error and Destruction. Is Christ divided? Is that which is not the very same, one? Is it Christ who is the way, who is one?  
And whereas in the same page. thou blasphemously flingest 
Pag. 1.  out against the Light with thy slight Expressions, speaking of them thou callest Heathen, who, sayest thou,( as the Scriptures testify) were a long time left to grope in darkness,( having no other Light then that which enlightens every Nation) and to wander up and down in the Imagination of their own hearts, worshipping an unknown God, and seeking after that they did not comprehend.  
Rep. I am the Light of the world, saith Christ, that enlightens 
joh. 8. 12. joh. 1. 9. Acts 4. 12. Acts 17.  every one that cometh into the world,( every Nation) then which there is no other way to salvation. And Paul( speaking to the Athenians) saith of Him that had determined the times before appointed, and set the bounds of the habitation of all Nations of men, whom he made of one blood for to dwell on the face of all the Earth, that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us, for in him we live, move, and have our being, as certain also of your own Poets have said, for we are his off-spring; that he was God that made the world, and all things therein, Lord of Heaven and Earth, who dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life & breath, & all things. And that Him whom they did ignorantly worship, was He whom he did declare unto them. This Paul and the Scriptures testify against & thee, thy slighting Expressions, who sayest of them, as the Scriptures testify; but what other Fruit can be expected from thee, who hast renounced thy share in christianity?  
And as thy and the Ministers, Ministry, Word, Churches, unity, Order, Peace, Civility, good Manners, and all Religion, which is tearing, laying wast●, con●●●nding, thy happiness, and thy way to true happiness is a lie, as hath been demonstrated; 
Pag. 28.  so is what thou hast affirmed of the Doctrine of the People called Quakers, viz. That they are a mixture and medley of Popery, Socinianism, A●●●inianism, Arianism, Anabaptism, and all that's nought. Its ●●ye, a heap of lies and slanders, and the People called Quakers deny it and thee, who sayest, but provest not. And who is there that hath seriously considered what hath been said, will believe thee? But seeing thou hast vomited up thy poison, I shall for the sake of the simple-hearted strike it aside in a brief Reply to thy particular Instances.  
Thou sayest Pag. 28. I need not recount their bold and daring 
Pag. 28.  Expressions; but let me mind you of one passage in one of the Letters of that notabl● Stickler Hannah Stranger, wherein speaking of Iesus Christ, he expre●●es him no other then thus, He who was made a perfect example. Why? what is in that Expression, that thou dost so note it? Now this Expression( saist thou) is not( in the Intention of it) obvious to every Reader( so then Intention must make up what the thing speaks not, and it must be thine own too, such as thou wouldst have it to be, & this is thy manner of judging.) but what is the great mystery hide in this expression,( that in the Intention of it) is not obvious to every Reader? It carries with it( sayest thou) the very soul of Socinianism. The very soul of Socinianism! what is that? Thou immediately dost add, quakerism( as I may call it.) What is quakerism? Thou adjoin'st, For the quakers Doctrines are a mixture and medley of Popery, Socinianism, Arrianism, Arminianism, Anabaptism, and all that's nought( something it was in the matter that thou diggest so deep as Intention to fetch it up) What! a mixture and medley of all these! of all that's nought! of so many millions of souls, & the variety of them, all the bad souls in the world, all thatis nought; and to express of Christ in so many words only, viz. He that was made a perfect Example; carries in it the very soul of Socinianism, quakerism; this flies very high, but it I shall weigh in a few words.  
Rep. The Apostle Peter saith, 1 Pet. 2. 21, 22, 23. For even hereunto were ye called; because also Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps; who did not sin, nor was guile found in his mouth; who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not, &c. And Christ saith, Job. 13. 15. For I have given ye an Example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Was he an Example, and was he not a perfect one? Was he a perfect example, and was he not made so? Do these Expressions of Christ of himself, and Peter of Christ, carry in them the very soul of Socinianism, quakerism? Are they a mixture and medley of popery, Socinianism, Arrianism, &c. and all that's nought? Such it is by thy Argument, as is plain and manifest, he that runs may red it. O unheard of blasphemy! It even wearies and grieves my soul to draw after thy Filth; itis such a load of mixtures and medlies of loathsome Corruption, and the spirit from whence it proceeds so unclean and blasphemous, that I never met with or felt the like, nor hath the like of it been brought forth in this Generation, of which I should have long since have eased the Reader & myself; but, as I have said, necessity lies upon me to pass through thy Book, and to s●t a sign at the remainder of thy putrefied Bones, that they may be gathered up, and cast into Tophet for fuel for thee against the day that the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone shall kindle it, and then thou shalt know against whom thou hast sinned.  
But yet thou hast not done, Its a Doctrine( saist thou) of the Socinians, That our Lord Jesus Christ( what hast thou 
Pag. 48.  to do to take the dreadful Name of our Lord Jesus Christ into thy mouth? Get thee to thy place, who hast renounced thy share in christianity, and it hath denied thee) did not by his death and bloodshed satisfy for our sins, and so purchase Redemption for us; but that he was a perfect▪ Pattern of Righteousness, holiness, Obedience and Suffering.  
Rep. That he is the later, viz. A perfect Pattern, &c. hath been proved out of Christ's own mouth, and the Apostle Peter's, and the people called quakers own it, not as the doctrine of Socinus, but as the truth, & truth is not to be turned from because of a brand set upon it, or on; or because of the persons who have professed it, contradict it who can. But that he did not by his death and bloodshed satisfy for our sins, and so purchase Redemption for us, is a wicked lye; they witness that his Blood  shed( as hath been said) whose blood cleanseth from all sins, and his Redemption of t●em, and they affirm and witness, that without Blood there is no remission of sin; and that there is no other Name given under Heaven by which we must be saved, then his, who by one Offering for ever perfected those that are sanctified, who is the substance of the Pattern of heavenly things. This I am particular in for the sake of the simple-hearted, that such may not be beguiled; for what thou saist herein deserves no reply. For all thou bringst in Proof of this, as to the people called quakers, and of what thou joinest to it, viz. To be justified 
Pag. 48.  by anothers Righteousness is with them Irrational, & therefore rejected and denied, is, That one egg is not more like another, then the Doctrines of the quakers and Socinians, ●s well in this as in other particulars; which is a lye, and a high slander; never such words as thou hast expressed came out of the people called quakers lips, they witness the contrary against thee and thy generation, who are in the self-righteousness, and know not the righteousness of another, of Christ Jesus; only thy design is to reproach, and thou carest not how far thou goest therein; nor mindest how thy words lye before men of understanding, without so much as colour or shadow of Reason. One egg( saist thou) is not more like another, &c. So then, by thine own words, they are not the same, but an other.  
And wherein the likeness is, thou goest on to show in the next words, The pure Image of Christ must be brought forth 
Pag. 48.  in us; we must be perfect and free from all sin, and then we are justified, and then we are righteous, and not till then. And if this be the Doctrine that the Churches of Christ truly Reformed have received, I'●e renounce my share in Christ●anity.  
Rep. Was it not for this end that Christ dyed for all, that 
2 Cor. 5. 15.  they that lived should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that dy●d for them, and ●rose again? Can any live to him and not live his life? and is not his life pure, and his Image Perfect? And is not the New Man his Image? and did he not abolish in his flesh the enmity for to make himself oftwain 
Eph. 2. 15.  one new man, so m●k●ng Peace? And if any man be in Christ, Jesus, is he not a New Creature? And is there any Righteousness but in Christ Jesus? Any Justification but in him? Is that which sinneth in Christ Jesus? Is there Righteousness? Can there be Justification? Time would fail me to be particular in all that might be said; and the Scriptures that might be produced in this thing, many have been instanced already, to which I refer; and let the serious Reader take the one and the other, thy book, and what here hath been said, and upon comparing of both, let him judge whether this( which is to the effect of what thou sayest is the Doctrine of the quakers) and that which thou callest the Socinians, and hast particulariz'd as theirs, be so like, that( as thou saist) one egg is not more like another; or whether there can be a greater disparity? And let such judge whether it be a mixture and medley of Popery, Socinianism, Arria●ism, Arminianism, and all that's nought; and whether it be so horrible that thou shouldst Renounce thy share in Christianity if the Churches of Christ truly Reformed have received it; and whether the Churches of Christ truly reformed have not received it, as aforesaid. And because we thus say and writ, and witness( as those who are conversant in their Writings( and have their eye open in any measure) cannot but aclowledge) let such judge, whether it doth therefore follow, That they are their own Jesus; and bear the greatest burden of the Work of their Redemption; and so have the greatest share in the Honor of their being their own Jesus: Or, that either the thing belongs to them, or the Name; Or, that it belongeth to every sanctified person; Or, that every one is Jesus, as thou hast( O thou Accuser 
Pag. 29.  of the Brethren) most falsely concluded upon them therefrom, as appears in the following words of the same and the next page.. The pure Image of Christ must be brought forth in us, &c. Whose Image wouldst thou have brought forth? Wouldst thou have the Image of the Devil always to be born? Wouldst thou have him to bear Rule? Is not this the English of what thou hast said? O how art thou sunk into Darkness! and into what a desperate condition art thou plunged! who dost thus affirm, who dost thus declaim; How hath the DAY of the Lord manifested thee, and left thee without scrip or covering?  
But saist thou, Pag. 43. We find the drift of their Doctrine 
Pag. 43.  all along to run this way, That, that one single and individual Person, Jesus Christ, &c. is not he who by what he suffered in that one Numerical body of his, that doth justify us from our sins, and procure our acquittal with God at the last Judgement, and so finally save us; but that a Jesus in us, or in our own persons, must accomplish these things for us.  
Rep. It is false; 'tis neither their Doctrine, nor the drift of it; it is thy lie; with which to slander them is the drift of thy Book. But this is that which they Declare and Witness, viz. That there is no Salvation, no Justification, no Righteousness but in Christ Jesus, who by one 
a Heb. 10. 14.  Offering for ever perfected those that are sanctified; who saith, Without me 
b joh. 14. 5.  ye can do nothing; whose Church saith, Thou 
c Isa. 26. 12.  also hath wrought all our Works together in us. Whose Apostle saith, Not that we are 
d 2 Cor. 3. 5.  sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but, our sufficiency is of God. For 
e Phil. 2. 13.  it is God that worketh in ●s to will and to do of his good pleasure. Who 
f Eph. 2. 10.  are his Workmanship in Christ Jesus unto good Works, as he hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. This is that which is their Doctrine, and the drift of it, and no other, which I do here declare for the sake of the simplehearted, whom thou seekest to deceive. But thou who kickest against it, thou kickest against the pricks, which it will be hard for thee to do much longer.  
But how dost thou prove that such is the drift of their Doctrine? it is a high Charge, and it concerns thee to look to it, how thou makest it good.  
R. F. As I have demonstrated in that former Discourse, and which as I have there declared, is( no doubt) that which the quakers have meant, whenas they did at first often say, They had something to deliver to the World, which it was not then 
Pag. 43. & the beginning of 44.  fit for the world to receive, which now appears in this Impostor J. N. That every one that is saved must be their own Jesus.  
Rep. Thou sayest not that it is that which they have said, or that which they have expressed;( nor have they done either) but 'tis that which they have meant, and( no doubt) that which they have meant. Behold, the strength of the Proof of this thy high Accusation, viz. Meanings, and those not theirs, but thine own. 'Tis that( saist thou) which( no doubt) they have meant, w●en as they did at first often say, they had something to deliver to the World, which it was not then fit to receive.  
Rep. When? where? and who were they that did often say, as thou hast affirmed? how provest thou that they so spoken? Why, as I have demonstrated in my former Disc●urse, as I have there declared. Reply; It is so, because I have said so: This is thy proof for the ground out of which thou hast raised thy Meanings to prove what thou chargest upon them as the drift of their Doctrine, as aforesaid; and what is thy word worth? But hath not that thy former Discourse been long since answered? Yea, by Audland( thou saist.) Hast thou Replied unto it? Nay, which I never have, nor ever shall make Reply unto.( These are thine own words, pag. 43.) What! Which I never have, nor ever shall make Reply unto▪ and yet after near two years time dost thou produce that Book of thine in proof of the same Accusations; how dost thou show thyself here voided of shane and understanding? And what greater advantage couldst thou give him whom thou accountest thine adversary, against thyself in such a thing as this, before the People amongst whom thou wouldest be esteemed, and hast vaunted and gloried? He hath laid thee( in that his Answer) on the ground, and concluded thee, as to it, under silence hither to, and thou hast bound thyself under it for ever. Was ever such pitiful stuff spread before the Sun?  
Ay, but thou hast somewhat more to say for thyself in proof, This is no other( sayest thou) then I did foresee, and foretell, as may appear in my BOOK aforementioned.  
Rep. Thou wouldst needs be accounted some great PROPHET. But let me ask thee, By what Spirit didst thou foresee and foretell? The Infallible SPIRIT thou hast not, so thou hast confessed, pag. 34. and the SPIRIT of the Lord is Infallible: Is it not then the Witch, the fallible Spirit that is out of the Truth, that hath divined, seeing that the Spirit that doth foretell, and which is not the Spirit of the Lord is such, hast thou then mended the matter? But further, Is not this thy foretelling a Lying Divination? It must be so, or thy proof is a lie, or both; I shall prove thee presently. In the Title-Page of that thy Book, viz. The great mystery of Vngodliness, wherein thou saist, As may appear, &c. Thou sayest, Which is[ most probably] manifested a little before their time; and here thou saist of it, This is no other then I did foresee and foretell. So that which thou saist here, I did foresee and foretell, is, but most probably in that thy Book, where thou saist, it may appear; and whether foreseing and foretelling, & most probably be the same, let the wise judge? And how thou makest one Book of thine to belie the other, and both to give thyself the lie, and to prove thee a false Prophet; for, Certainty cuts off Probability, and Probability is not Certainty, though in two yeers time thou wouldst have it grown up so to be; and foretelling must be as of a thing Certain, not Probable; otherwise it is not foretelling. And how canst thou expect but to have a false Prophets Reward? how bereft of understanding dost thou manifest thyself, as not to consider what thou sayest in thy Books before thou bringest them one against another, and both against thyself, especially in such a matter as foreseing and foretelling of what thou callest such high Blasphemies▪ If thou thus dealest with thine own quotations of thine own Books in such a business of consequence to thy Reputation as this, what credit is to be given to what thou quotest of others? But what if they had said at first as Christ did, joh. 16. 12. I have many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now; and as Paul said to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 3. 2. I have fed you with Milk, but not with strong Meat, for hitherto ye have not been able to bear it? Doth it therefore follow, that they( no doubt) thereby meant as thou hast affirmed? would not thy Spirit have said to them in that day the same as thou hast to these in this?  
Now thou comest to an instance, and the end thou drivest 
Pag. 44,  at, Which( sayest thou) appears in this Impostor J. N. viz. That every one that is saved must be their own JESUS.  
Rep. What! Every one that is saved must be their own Jesus! And, this we find to be the drift of th●ir Doctrine all along; and, which( no doubt) is what they meant when they did at first often say, &c. and look upon it no other then what their Opinions and Principles carry in the very bowels of them, pag. 43. And all they have said belongs not to J. N. only, but to every justified person; every one is Jesus, pag. 49.( so sayest thou as hath been said.) And yet dost thou say, Which now appears in this Impostor J. N. of whom thou saist in thy Epistle to the Reader, That he dares to personate our Lord, &c. And of his Followers, in the sum of what thou sayest is their Papers and Examinations, pag. 19. By all this you see how far those miserable people are bewitched and deluded, as to give and ascribe those Titles and Appellati●ns that are due onely to Jesus Christ, to a mere man,( viz. to J. N.) And of the Devil, That he should be so simplo as to set up a new Iesus, and so far to prevail as to persuade any to believe him so to be. pag. 2.( More instances could be brought, but I forbear) What contradiction is here? Is one, every one? and that it is every one, doth it appear by one, doth one prove it? How doth thy later give the lie to thy former, and thy former to the later? So that( by thine own words) neither of them are true; neither that I. N. is the Impostor; for, if every one must be their own Iesus, he cannot be it; nor, that every one must be their own Iesus; for, if I. N. be him, then it cannot be every one. So thou hast slain with thine own hands, & overthrown the design, and end, and drift of thy Book, so far as it relates to those People called quakers, which consists in those two particulars: And so what need is there of drawing forth a Weapon against it, or of any more then of showing how each of the Works of thine hands destroys the other, and the intent of thy book? Here is war, Confusion, and Desolation indeed; was ever( before) the like seen or heard of?  
Having thus concluded this sum of falsehood and Confusion in thy Airy Imaginations, charging it hard, but proving nothing, thou seekest to prove it of a more ancient Date then the Transactions thou speakest of; and that thou mayest join thy Rope of Sand together, thou adjoinest, For this is but the product and practise of that old Principle of 
Pag. 44.  which J. N. stands charged with in a Book writ long since, called the Perfect Pharisee, which is this, That he that expected to be saved by that Jesus that dyed at Jerusalem, should be deceived.  
Rep. This is a lie, I. N. said not so; but long since( thou sayest) he was charged therewith; and long since was it not discharged in an Answer thereunto? But it thou dost not produce, nor of it so much as take notice; thatis besides the design of thee and thy generation which is to asperse and reproach the Truth, and the Friends thereof, which to do, ye writ lies, and report them, and bring in one another in proof. So thou bringest the Perfect Pharisee, one of thy Generation, and others bring thee; and because itis found in Print under some of your hands, how false soever, therefore it must be truth, and if it be but so charged, it must be so made use of, though never so fully answered. And thou goest in this Trade a step beyond the rest of thy Generation, for thou writest, and after two Years time accusest again, and bringest thy first in proof, though it was answered, and though thou hast said in this very Book where thou hast so accused, thou neither hast, nor ever shalt reply thereunto These are the poor shifts the Devil is put to( in this day of the Lords appearance) for the support of his Kingdom, of whose sensible tottering this is a plain demonstration. But your Lies shall not effect your Station, when your Measure of iniquity is filled up; yea, this your TRADE is already become nautious to men of sober Understanding.  
Which Principle( saith thou) hath been since handed down 
Pag. 44.  by others, as by one Dring a quaker in London, who spake to an Inhabitant, and a Person of Credit in this City, which upon just occasion is ready to be attested upon Oath; Art thou such a Fool as to hope to be saved by that Jesus Christ that was crucified at JERUSALEM 1600. years ago.  
Reply. When thou hast name who that Dring is, and what Person of Credit it is in this city that( thou saist) will Swear, which is contrary to the Doctrine of Christ, and what is his testimony under his hand, then unto it an Answer may be given; in the mean time it stands as thine own Invention, who art found so notorious a liar, even belying thine own Records, that thou art not to be believed. Was he such a man of this city, and couldst not thou Name him, and have procured it under his hand, were it( indeed) a Truth?  
And hath been since( saist thou) spoken in a 
Pag. 44.  public assembly of the quakers in this City by the Wife of JOHN AUDLAND, as appears by this following Affidavit taken before the Magistrates of this City.  
Rep. That Deposition is already proved false, and thy dishonesty and wickedness therein manifested, who didst procure the boy to Swear, that thou mightst bring it in against the Truth; and now thou hast produced it for that purpose, hast left out the place where he deposed she spake, viz. The Orchard near the Ware, where she never spake at any Meeting, nor any such words, or to such effect at any other place in this city. And the Record of the Deposition taken before the Magistrates, is a testimony against thee in this thing of the Orchard.  
Notwithstanding thou thus concludest therefrom, So that 
Pag. 44.  you see, It is not that Iesus Christ, but some other; for as for that Christ in the flesh, with all he did and suffered therein, he was but a Figure, and nothing but an Example, say they.  
Rep. These are other words then those in which thou hast delivered, what( thou saist) is the Principle, and will bear a different signification. So thy ground is one thing, and thy confusion another; about which I shal not further spend time; but this is a lie, they never said so, but the contrary; nor hast thou proved it in the least, nor any thing that thou hast charged upon the people called quakers in general, nor on any of them in particular, as their Doctrine or Principle, or the drift of either. It is false what thou sayest, Principle and Practise, Ground and Conclusion, Accusation and Evidence.  
Say they! how provest thou that they say so? Thou addest, 
Pag. 44.  Which words stand charged against them in the Perfect Pharisee; and for this is quoted the quakers Book called, Sauls Errand to Damascus, where( as 'tis asserted) it is expressly found, and is agreeable to that Expression before of M. S. in her Examination.  
Rep. Still ye quote one another( as hath been said) for proof of your false Accusations, and if it were not for this, where would a charge be found, or pretence of proof against the Truth? Ye Priests are the men who in this day are found at this Work. The Perfect Pharisee hath been long since answered, as hath been said; but thou bringst him in as others have brought thee, who hast been also answered; and itis like this thy heap of lies will be made by the men of thy generation a ground of blaspheming against the Truth, and be produced as Proof, if this Vindication( happily) prove not a check to some of them who are more considerate and wary. And for that of Sauls Errand to Damascus, all that thou saist is, Where( as it is asserted) it is expressly found, and which is quoted; but by whom thou saist not, or that thou knowest it is so, or that so it is; and this thou wouldst have stand as good proof( if any are so inconsiderate as to take it) of so high a Charge. And as for M S. let the sober red and consider what thou hast recorded as her Examination, and see whether there be any such words therein, or agreeable thereunto.  
Thus have I punctually gone through, and weighed thy high Accusation of the Doctrine and Principle of those People, and what( thou saist) is the Drift of them, and all that thou hast produced in Evidence, as they have lain in thy order; not that any thing thou hast alleged deserves any such thing, or otherwise then to manifest thee, and to be thrown with the rest of thy Bundle into the Lake from whence it came without Reply, but for the sake of those whom thou seekest to possess with strange thoughts of, and prejudice against the Truth, by these thy loud Outcries, clamours, false Charges and Accusations, which are( and thou) thus found faulty in such a foul and gross degree, as the like thereof( I suppose) hath not been made public. The serious Reader may consider of the one and the other( for I cannot further enlarge, being to hasten to an end) and judge whether thou hast not greatly advantaged the Truth in thy thus highly charging it, and yet appearing so manifestly false, slight, and silly in the proof thereof, and whether an unavoidable necessity hath not enforced me to be thus particular.  
And now should I be so in the scanning of the remainder of thy Book relating to those People contained in the 19, and 29. and so forward to the 44. page., I should seem to be but at the beginning of my work, & must crave more sheets of Paper to finish it, then the whole of this Vindication hath required; such a manifest bottonles pit it is of lies, Lightness, Slanders, Reproaches, false Accusations, Scoffs, Jeers, and unclean Language, so gross and noisome, and so irreconcilablie contradictory and opposite each piece with another, without Foundation, or consistency, that the very perusing of it may suffice to make it appear so to the discreet and sober Reader: Therefore I shall only point at a few particulars, and so draw to a conclusion.  
Pag. 34. Thou raisest an Objection, But pray forbear( sayest 
Pag. 34.  thou) will some say, Are they Knaves because they fall out, and differ, and disagree? what are you Priests then? Do not you do so both in Doctrine and Practise? Are ye Knaves and Seducers then? And in reply thou saist, I answer, No; for he inter aliis is a Knave, an Impostor and Deceiver, who pretends to speak and act in all he doth from an immediate, unerring, and an infallible spirit, & that affirms, that what he saith is as true, and certain as Scripture, when 'tis neither so, nor so. Now this( saist thou) we do not; we pretend to no other then( according to practise) to speak from the Scriptures, and while we speak according to that, we are sure we speak according to the spirit whose dictates they are.  
Rep. How ye fall out and disagree both in Doctrine and Practise, is manifest generally through the Nation, I need not therein be particular; and how thy conclusion falls upon ye, is apparent. But to thine Answer and Argument, ye pretend yourselves to be Ministers of the Gospel; now the Ministers of the Gospel had, and have the Spirit of the Gospel; and none was ever on Record in Scripture)( nor can he be) a true Minister of the Gospel, but by, and in the Spirit thereof. Paul saith of himself, That he was an Apostle, not of 
Gal. 1. 1. 11, 14, 15, 16.  man, neither by man, but by Iesus Christ, & God the Father, who raised him from the dead; and that the Gospel which was preached of him was not after man, neither received I it( saith he) of man, neither was I taught it, but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ;( yet he saith, I profited in the Jewish Religion above many of my Equals, being more exceedingly zealous of the Traditions of my Fathers) and when it pleased God, who separated me from my Mothers Womb, and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles immediately, I conferred not with flesh and blood. And he saith 
2 Cor. 3. 6. 2 Cor 12. 14.  concerning his Fellow-Ministers, Who hath made us able Ministers of the new Covenant, not of the Letter, but of the Spirit, for the Letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. And of all the Gifts in the Church, of which Christ is the head; whether the Word of Wisdom, the Word of Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miracles, prophesy, Discerning of Spirits, diversity of Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues, Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, Helps, Government, Prayer, Singing, &c. he saith, all are by the Spirit, by one and the self-same Spirit, dividing unto every man severally as he will; for by one spirit( saith he) ye are baptized into one Body, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. And 
Eph. 4. 4, ●, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14.  there is one body, and one Spirit, and one Lord, who when he ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto men, some Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, some Pastors and Teachers, for the Work of the Ministry, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come into the unity of the Faith, and of the Knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: And they had the mind of Christ, and they spake as the Spirit gave them 
Acts 2. 4. 1 Cor. 2. 10, 11, 12, 16. 2 Cor. 15.  utterance: For what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him: Even so the things of God knoweth none but the Spirit of God; but God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God; and the Lord is that Spirit; the first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. Many more Scriptures of Christ and his Apostles I might add to this, but these are enough. Now this Spirit, the Spirit of the Gospel, is Immediate, Unerring and Infallible; but the Immediate, Unerring and Infallible Spirit thou sayest( of thyself and thy Brethren, who say ye are Ministers of the Gospel) we pretend not to; we confess we may be deceived, we may err; we do not lyingly and hypocritically pretend to an Infallibility: And are ye not then by thine own Argument, a Generation of Deceivers( and to return thee back thine own words) Knaves, Impostors and Seducers? All people who follow these as Ministers of the Gospel, take notice how the Holy Ghost hath concluded such, and how this Priest hath concluded himself, and them all, and be ye warned how ye trust your eternal souls on a fallible Ministry, and follow such a Generation of Deceivers and Seducers; We pretend not to an Infallibility( sayest thou) and yet they pretend to be sisters of the Gospel.  
Moreover, do ye not pretend to, and affirm, that necessary Deductions from Scripture, are as true and certain as Scripture? yea; hath not W. Thomas Priest of Vbley, affirmed it under his hand to Thomas Speed, that they are Scripture? as appears in his Reply thereunto, entitled, Christs Innocency pleaded against the Cry of the High Priests. Is it not that which is generally known to be your Doctrine, and that which ye would have your Deductions accounted? Is not this the very Axle-Tree of your Trade, & the Mystery of your Craft of Divination? Take away this, and what have ye left ye? Doth not the Ground of a great Contest between you and those People lye here, viz. They deny all your Deductions, Meanings, Consequences and Interpretations of the Scripture, who have not the Infallible Spirit, the Mind of Christ, as had they who gave forth the Scripture; and they who have the Mind, have the Meanings: And against it do you not urge your necessary Deductions, Meanings, Consequences, Conclusions? And do ye not bring these to the People to receive from ye as Ministers of the Gospel, in order to the salvation of their souls? And if it be not True and Certain, what is it then? and what then are ye? And what do ye Minister? And is not Christ Jesus the Truth, the Way, and the Life, who is the Word of God, who gave forth the Scriptures? And yet dost not thou sayhere, This we do not? And so are not ye who say ye are so, and so, and yet are not so, and so, a Generation of Deceivers, Seducers, & c? Doth not thine Argument Fall upon your own heads? Hast not thou so concluded it on thyself and Brethren, viz.( to give thee thine own words) Knaves, inter aliis, Impostors, Deceivers and seducers? Art not thou caught in the snare thou hast l●id for others? and fallen into the Pit thou hast dig 〈…〉? Hast not thou raised an Objection to purpose against yourselves? and doth not thine Argument confirm it upon ye, and prove thee a liar, who saith ye do not pretend to what your Doctrine and Practise saith ye to be; and yet ye are neither so, nor so; neither Ministers of the Gospel, nor are your sayings as true and certain as the Scriptures, who have not, and( thou saist) pretend not to the Spirit from whence they came, for all Scripture was given by Inspirati●n, and as hath been said, the Spirit is infallible. Thus are ye tried by thine own Touchstone, and behold what ye are. Thy weapons formed against the Truth prosper not, but are turned in to the Bowels of thee and thy Generation, who are risen up against it; and ye fall by thine own hand. This is the 
Isa, 54. 17.  Heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their Righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.  
But( saist thou) We pretend no other then( according to practise) 
Pag. 34.  to speak from the Scriptures, and while we speak according to that, we are sure we speak according to the spirit, whose Dictates they are.  
Rep. Ye say ye are Ministers of the Gospel; and thou saist, Ye pretend to no other then according to practise to speak from the Scriptures; so then Practise is the ground of your Ministry and thou saist, We pretend to no other. Let all who are sober see your Ministry, & the ground of it, and whose Ministers ye are. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this 
Isay 29. 13, 14.  People draw near me with their Month, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the Precepts of men; Therefore behold, I will proceed to do a marve●ous work amongst this people, even a marvellous Work, and a wonder; The wisdom of their wise m●n shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hide. But to proceed; one Prophet spake not from the Writings of another; but the Prophets spake from the Mouth of the Lord. For the prophesy came not in old time by the will of man, but Holy men of God spake as they were moved 
2 Pet. 1. 21.  of the Holy Ghost. The Apostles spake not from the Scriptures of the Prophets, though they spake some of the same words from the same Spirit from which the Prophets spake them; and the Spirit speaking the same in them, they said, It is written, to the Jews, who owned the Scriptures, but not the Spirit by which they spake, which was the same that gave them forth.( I writ no new commandment unto you, but 
1 joh. 2. 7, 8.  an old Commandment, which ye have had from the beginning. Again a new Commandment I writ unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the Darkness is past, and the true Light now shineth.) I say, the Apostles spake not from the Scriptures of the Prophets, but as the spirit gave them utterance, as it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost, which lead them into all Truth, and taught them all things, and brought all things to their Remembrance again. And Paul said, But we have the 
1 Cor. 2. last.  mind of Christ. And John, That which was from the beginning, 
a 1 joh. 1. 1, 2.  which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of Life; That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, But they that 
b jer. 23. 21, 30, 31, 32.  ran when the Lord sent them not, nor commanded them; and Prophesied, but the Lord had not spoken ●o them; that stolen the Word of the Lord every one from his neighbour, and used their Tongues, and said he saith; they were the false Prophets, and the Lord saith, I am against them, and they shall not profit these People. And those who 
c 2 Tim. 3. 5.  had the form of godliness, but denied the power, 
d Iude 19.  sensual, having not the spirit, were the false Apostles. All who spake the words of Scriptures, and from the Scriptures, or according to the words of the Scriptures, & not in and from the Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures; not in and from the mind 
e 1 Cor. 2. last.  of Christ, who is the Word of 
f Rev. 19. 13.  God, in the Light are denied; and all such in the Light I do deny, and all their Trade and Merchandise there from, which is not from the Root and Principle that is Pure and Eternal, from whence they proceed; for it is not the words that are said, nor the actions that are done, but the Nature in which they are said and done, and from whence they do proceed, that renders them good and accepted before the Lord. And there are but two Natures, the Divine, and that which is in the Transgression: There are but two Principles, the one of Life, the other of Death, as is the root. The Devil spake the 
g Matth. 4.  words of Scripture to Christ, & said, It is written; but he reproved him: He confessed 
h Matth. 8. 29.  him to be the Son of God( which the Pharisees did not) and subjected to him; yet he cast them out. The dansel that 
i Acts 16. 16, 17, 18.  was possessed with a Spirit of Divination, which brought her Masters much gain by sough-saying, met Paul and the Brethren as they went to pray, and followed them, crying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation; and this she did many dayes: But Paul being grieved in spirit, turned, and said unto the spirit, I command Thee in the Name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And there were in the Prophet Ieremiah's daies 
k Jer. 5. 2.  who said, The Lord liveth; yet the Lord said of them, Though they say the Lord liveth, yet they swear falsely. The Scriptures are for the Man 
l 2 Tim. 3. 17.  of God to be red, to be believed, to be fulfilled, to be preached. They are the things of God not to be made a Trade of for so much a Year, to be talked or spoken of, or from & by the 
m 1 Cor. 2. 13, 14.  wisdom of this world; 
n 1 Cor. 1. 21.  for in the wisdom of God it is that the worldly Wisdom knows not God; no, not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth( which must be confounded, which must be brought to nought;( and such is all that which speaketh the words of, or from Scripture, and not in and from the Spirit that gave it forth, viz. the Principle of life, earthly, sensual, 
o 1 Cor. 1. 19, 20  and devilish, and such must be its portion) 
p Jam. 3. 13.  but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; so saith Paul, For 
q 1 Cor. 2. 10, 11.  the spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God; and the things of God knoweth not man, but the spirit of God; but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. And the Law is bound up, and the Testimony sealed amongst the Disciples, 
s Mat. 13. 11.  to whom it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven; but to oth●rs it is not given, 'tis in 
t Luk. 8. 10. See Isa. 29. 1●12 job 29 21 to th● 28.  Parables. And so this your practise is denied, who speak from the Scriptures, and not from and in the Spirit that gave them forth, which is infallible, to which thou saist We pretend not. Nor while ye speak according to that, are ye any more sure that you speak according to the spirit whose Dictates( thou saist) they are, nor do ye, then the Devils or the false Prophets, as aforesaid. And he that Ministers, can Minister no other then that PRINCIPLE from which he Ministers, nor to any other then to that which is of the same PRINCIPLE, whether of Death, or of Life.  
And we wait( sayest thou) and pray for ourselves and our People, that what the Spirit hath written in the Scripture, he should writ in our hearts, that we might find the Truth se●led and confirmed in us, by our conformity unto it. And ble●sed be our gracious Father in our Lord Jord Jesus, many of us have ●he witness in ourselves, and in our Hearers( by the means of this Ministration) that we are past from death to life; and in this we trust in him who hath wrought this in us, none shall make our boasting voided.  
Rep. Ye who have not the Infallible Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures, nor Minister in and from it,( and thou saist we pretend not to it) ye know not the Father, nor our Lord Jesus, nor the Truth, nor the Scriptures; nor have ye the Witness in yourselves, nor in your hearers, nor are ye past from death to life; nor is the Truth sealed▪ or confirmed in you; nor are ye brought into conformity unto it; nor hath God wrought this in you; nor do ye wai● on the Lord; nor can ye pray in the spirit, that what the spirit hath written in the Scriptrue, he would writ in your hearts; nor can ye bless God in the spirit; nor is he your Father; nor do ye trust in him; and your boasting will be made voided; and your Ministration is death. For all these things 
u 2 Cor. 12. 11.  work●●h one and the se●f-same Infallible Spirit by which the Scriptures were given, which is One, U●erring, Immediate, & I●fallibl●; & he that hath not the Spirit, hath none of them; and if any man hath not 
* ●●m. 8. 9.  the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And Christ Jesus 
x Rev. 3. 14, 15.  is the faithful and true witness, and the Spirit 
y John 15. 26.  testifyes of him; and he that believeth on the Son of God 
z 1. John. 5. 10  ●ath the witness in himself, Christ Jesus, and the Law 
a Jer. 31. 31, 32, 33, 34. 35.  written in his heart, the New Covenant, where they shall teach no more every one his neighbour, nor every one his Brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me from the lest unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; and such wait upon the Lord, and are 
b Ephes. 1. 13.  sealed with the Holy Spirit, and are past from death to life by the Ministration of the Infallib●e Spirit; and such are of God: But against this Christ 
c Coll. 1. 26. 27.  in us the Hope of Glory; the faitful witness, the witness that he that believeth hath in himself; the Light of the world, that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world; this New covenant, this vopiting upon the Lord, and the Ministry of the Spirit, which is Infallible, and those who witness it art thou( as witness this thy Book, and thy other aforesaid, and thy whole practise) and thy Generation risen up with a rage, reaching to Heaven, crying out against it, as Blasphemy, Witchcraf●, So●cery, Seducing, Damnable Doctrine, juggling, Cheatin, & what not, and Beating, Tumulting, Imprisoning, Stocking, S●oning, whipping, Tearing, haling, dev●u●ing them against Law and natural affection, & soliciting for a Law for death itself, panting after the blood of the poor upon the head of the needy, and nothing will satisfy ye, but to root such and their name from off the ●ace of the Earth; such a Generation ye appear to be, and of such a Spirit, that if ye had what ye could desire, and power in your hands, itis like there would not need the Presiden●s of ●he bloody Persecutors in former and later Ages, to learn you skilfulness in Torments to destroy, and by Cruelties to kill; for your actions show ye likely to become Presidents to future Generations. Yet such is your hypocrisy and wickedness( the same as was the pharisees, Scribes, and Chief Priests, your Predecessors) ye own in words the things, for witnessing the life of which ye persecute in this manner, and would destroy others: Will not these be your Judges? Abraham is our Father( said the Jews to Christ) but he said, If ye were Abrahams children, ye would do the works of Abraham; but now ye seek to kill me, a man who hath  told ye the truth which I have heard of God.  
And therefore( saist thou) we deceive not the People by pretending to stretch beyond our line and measune; we confess we may be deceived, and we may err, and therefore we bid our Hearers try and examine what we say by the Scriptures, and if we speak not according to that Rule, let them reject our sayings.  
Reply. How ye stretch beyond your line and measure, who speak( according to practise, as thou sayest) from the Scriptures, yet have not, nor do pretend to the Infallible spirit which gave them forth, nor witness their Conditions of whom they speak; and so boast in other mens lines, and trade upon that which is none of your own, and yet pretend to be, and call yourselves Ministers of the Gospel, is manifest, and your deceit therein, and abominable falsehood, hypocrisy and Contradictior; and how you are deceived, and dec●ive, and err, and led others into Error, who have not the Infallible spirit which leads into all Truth to guide ye. And the People ye do deceive both ways; for ye say ye are Ministers of the Gospel, and yet thou disownest that ye have Infallibility.[ Poor people, dare ye venture your eternal souls upon fallible Ministry, who disclaims infallibility? Is it not high time for you to look about ye, when ye hear your Ministers thus to affirm?] And ye say, That ye pretend not to stretch beyond your line and measure, when in so stretching beyond your line and measure, is your whole Trade and Conversation; And as for thy particulars( not to speak of thy stretching beyond thine own to the line and measure of the Apostles and holy men of God in the Scriptures,) Dost not thou know the man that did tell the people openly in Thomas Steeplehouse, That he did not preach twice a day, but expounded in the afternoon, because his books were not yet come down to Bristol, or to that effect? And as for bidding your hearers try and examine by the Scriptures what ye say, and if ye speak not according to that rule, let them reject your sayings. Alas! what can they try, or examine? And with what shall they try and examine, who witness not a living measure of the spiritual man, who judgeth all things, but he himself is not judged of no man. Who will not own that Christ the Light is in them, which maketh manifest, and tries; and if any, who witness this, come among ye, and in the power of the Lord deny your sayings, and reject them openly, because[ and not according to, but] contrary to Scriptures, what tumults are there presently, beatings, abuses, and imprisonments, and thou hast called openly to the Magistrates out of thy Pulpit, which hath helped it on. How contrary are these thy words, and thine and your actions? What lying is here, double-dealing, and hypocrisy, and how manifest to all those whose eyes are in the least open.  
Thus is the wheel brought over thee, and the mischief thou intendest on others, returned on thine own, and the pates of thy Generation; and thy weapons still found destroying thy cause and self. But as for those on whom thou wouldst conclude those things[ the children of Light] and for that end didst raise this thy objection. They did not lyingly and hypocritically( as thou dost falsely accuse them, but hast not proved it) pretend to infallibility, and yet witness not the spirit that is infallible; what they pretend to, they witness( in their measures) viz. the Light, the Spirit their guide which is unerring, and infallible, from which they minister, and are a good savour unto God in him, a savour 
2 Cor. 2. 15. 16  of life unto life unto some in them that are saved, and of death unto death to others in them that perish. And the turning of any out of the Truth, doth not render those Truth doth not render those who abide in it, as not lead by an Inf●llible, but by an Erring and fallible Spirit, as hath been at large demonstrated in the former part of this Vindication. But ye are they who Lyingly and Hipocritically pretend to be Ministers of the Gospel, and yet disown yourselves to have the Spirit thereof, which is I●fallibl●.  
And here I might lay open thy foul Blasphemies against 
Pag. 62. ●0 the end.  the Teachings of the S●r● contained in the 62 and so forward to the 68 page. to the end of thy Book; Wherein thou demandest, Doth the Inbeing of the Spirit enable every one to all intents & purposes They will not be so shameless to say so, sayest thou. Whereas the Lord is that spirit by whom all things were created, and by whom they subsist. And thou sayest, He that teacheth Scripturally, teacheth Spiritually; When as the devil, and his Ministers have, and can teach the words of Scripture, as hath been made to appear. And thou dost affirm, That a man furnished with gifts of Learning, and common Grace, is fitter, and better gifted for the Work, thou many who have saving Grace by the Sanctifying spirit: So the devil who is more learned then any, in his Ministers, is better gifted, and fitter for the Work of the Ministry, then he who witnesseth in him a measure of the Spirit of the Living God. And thou sayest; I yet further assert, that he who is gifted, staught( and may be truly said to teach) by the spirit; for who is it( sayest thou) but the spirit that makes a man capable of Learning: So the wise and prudent, from whom the things of the kingdom are hide, For which Christ Jesus 
a Mat. 11. 25.  thanks his Father: and the wisdom of the wise: which the Lord saith I will destroy 
b 1 Cor. 1. 19.  and bring to nought the understanding of the prudent: and the wisdom of the world, and the Princes thereof, by which it hath pleased the wisdom of God, 
c 1 〈◇〉. 1. 21.  that the world by wisdom knows not God: & the natural man who 
d 1 Cor. 2. 14.  receiveth not thethings of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, nor can he know them, they are spiritually discerned, is taught, and may be said truly to teach by the Spirit, and by the Spirit( who ●onfounds, and destroys that wisdom, and brings to nought that Understanding) is made capable thereof: These are some of thy horrible blasphemy, and the rest I should rehearse, and speak to them and thee more largely, but that thou hast directed what thou hast affirmed in those Pages to another People, whom it particularly concerns.  
And much ado dost thou make in 13 Pages to render the letter aforefaid Pack'●, and feigned, and the People called Quakers and G. F. and myself most vile and abominable. But thy Reasoning thereabouts is so Poor, Ridiculous, and Sottish: Thine Expressions so Vain, Spurious and unsavoury: Thy Matter so false, Confounded, and Destructive each to other: Thy Reproachings, and Scoffings even of the Spirit, and thy false Accusations, so fowle, wicked, and malicious: Thy folly, shane, and nakedness in all so laid open by thyself, and made manifest, that the very reading of it is enough to evince what hath been said to the Discreet Reader. It appearing as the Work of a stage Player, or Madman; not of one who pretends to be a Minister of the Gospel: Nor have I so much regard thereunto( it being not worthy) as to give it a Particular, and through Examination. Only Thus.  
Whereas, Thou wouldst needs have that Letter( which hath so much spoiled thy design against the Truth as aforesaid, and what it speaketh) to be packed and feigned, the contrary thereunto is so fully made to appear in the former part of this Vindication, that of it there is not place left for any Rational Ground of scruple. And that it is so, thou thyself dost determine thy own question: For, sayest 
Pag. 34. 35▪  thou upon the summing up of thy Narrative, Here ye have the Two chief heads, and prime and principle leaders of the Blasphemous Crew( so thou reproachest them) of Quakers at opposition, and that in no small matter, one against another, and each of them have their Parties, and followers. Now( sayest thou) ihis Opposition is either real, and in good earnest; or tis Pack'●, or feigned; if the latter, then this follows, they are all of them one and another, a Company of Cheats, and Hippocritical deceivers; and then let their deluded followers ( saist thou) take notice of it: But that it is not the latter, but the former thou dost affirm, and bringest evidence to prove; which will serve against thyself, though the matter of both is false and denied. Wh 〈…〉 s the quarrel( sayest thou) Then thou declarest what it is( as thou sayest) and to prove it is so as thou hast said, brings thy Instances. And this thou hast done( so sottish art thou) immediately upon those very words of thine. viz. And that it may be a Cheat, and feigned quarrel, I shall give ye my Apprehensions, and Grounds: Time will discover whether I am mistaken ye●, or no. And that thou art m●staken thou presently discovers as aforesaid, and that it is not a Chea●, nor feigned, but the contrary; and that they are not all of them one and another a company of Cheats, but thou art the Cheat who hast thus Cheated thyself, and wouldest Cheat the Reader; nor Hippocritical Deceivers, but thou art the Hippocritical Deceiver, who dost pretend to one thing, and yet art and dost another. Was ever the like confounded mad stuff seen? dost thou fight against those people, or thyself? dost not thou( as hath been demonstrated) pull down with the one hand, what thou buildest up with another? Do not these things declare their voice of understanding? Let thy deluded followers hereof take notice. I give but this one Instance of many; that I may draw towards a Conclusion.  
And whereas by Interrogation thou seekest to asperse G. F. and to lay to his charge several things of a high, and Blasphemous nature. They are all lies most of them raised up out of the Lake of the writings of the men of thy Generation, who( as I have said) are driven to this poor shift to uphold themselves against the Truth as those were 
Jer ●1. 10  in Jer●m●ahs daies, Report say they and we will Report it; But that Book is long since answered, and those lies made to appear, and this your Trade becomes so abominable, that there needs not unto it any further reply. And as to what is spoken from thyself, thy very speech bewrays thy mischievous heart, and clears the Innocent: For sayest thou( of Divine honour, Worship, and Reverenc●) But Foxes 
Pag. 36.  Disciples think not yet fit to tender, because the world( as they think) is not yet fit to bear it. So that by thine own words those things they have not done, nor those things they have not said with which thou wouldest accuse them, & because they have neither said nor done them, therefore thou wilt have it to be( O thou false accuser) for that they think not yet fit, so & to do, because the worldas they th●nk is not fit to b●ar when it is not theirs, but thy wicked suggestions to wrong he Innocent And if this may▪ stand for a good charge what Innocent man can be clear of any false Accusation; Again, And Fox[ sayest thou] is not real●y displeased with nailer( or if he be) it may be, he and his are offended that James should manifest himself to the world to be J●sus before him. Thy folly, and wickedness is herein so manifest that it 
Pag. 40.  needs no further demonstration. Furthermore, Thou sayest. Pag. 40. And if nailer be bewitched, how shall we be sure that Fox is not bewitched likewise, or rather tha● Fox himself is not a witch thou canst not say 'tis so. And to show what thou wouldest have him to be, who but askest how ye shall be sure he is not bewitched, or rather that he is not a witch. What? bewitched, or rather a witch, which would est thou have? or art not thou so drunk with mischief that thou knowest not whether, or what thou speakest? thou runnest to the Lake again, of the writings of thy Generation: And then thou sayest I le tell you what I find written of him so that with thee to find it written is enough 'tis in Print. And all that thou canst bring thence, is that he is vehemen●ly suspected to be a Sorce●ey; and that the vehemen●y of t●is susp●●ion is but Presump●ious, and those grounded but upon stories of some of thy Lying spirit of the D●vills discovering him to be one of his Vassals, and Agents( is this likely) w●i●h principally( saist thou) p●ocur●d his aqprehension and imprisonment in Nottingham Castle, ● till he ran away( which is a notorious lye and there's that in your Consciences which witnesseth the contrary, nor hath any such thing been found on any one of choose people, but rather refusing deliverance) and his Keeper with him. For the disproof whereof, see the answer to Samuel Eatons Book. And further that he doth bewitch,( when as before it was but vehement suspicion, presumption) by staring in the face and taking by the hand, and this is thy Witcherie. And after all thou hast said of and charged on J. N. Thy conclusion is but supposition, questioning the thing, not determining it, so that if nailer be under the divel●s power, and after all thou hast said of, and charged on G. F. thou makest it to be but by Consequence, and that Consequence but of the aforesaid Supposition, which is of another man; and if that Supposition be so, yet thou dost not conclude him to be such viz. to be under the devils Power; but sayest, Fox is not much behind him, and to be behind is not to be with; to be short of, is not to be the thing. Yet sayest thou both are bold Blasphemers; though thou determinest neither of them to be under the Power of the devil, and he that is not under the power of the devil, is not a Blasphem●r: And so by thine own conclusion they are not that which thou affirmest them to be. And so are cleared by thyself of what thou hast charged upon them. And thy next words are, Thus 
Pag. 41.  have I finished my narrative. And how thou has finished it, and what a Narrative it is, and what work thou hast made, I leave to men of understanding, by what hath been said to consider and Judge; for time would fail me fully to demonstrate it.  
Now on G. F. and those people whom thou callest his followers. Hast thou proved one Title that is contrary to sound Doctrine, the Scriptures of the Prophets, and Apostles, though thou hast laid many things to their Charge, falsely Accusing, Belying, Reproaching, and slandering of them, and the Truth? Nor by any thing by thee produced, or said, or wrote, or done by I. N. hast thou proved him Blaspheming, or a Blasphemer,( which it concerned thee, hadst thou been able to have done, who hast so affirmed and made it the drift of thy Book, to set him forth as such a one purposely thereby to Blaspheme the Truth and revile its followers But thou sayest, Pag. 40. 'Tis given out, that he is bewitched, 
Pag. 30.  and( thou saist) it may be so: And truly( saist thou) I writ it in Sincerity, I am strongly inclined to believe it; And yet pag. 30. thou saist to him, I know nothing to hinder your execution, and I hope the Parliament will give order for it. And what execution? thou dost intimate pag. 2. in the Margin, viz. to be closed up between two walls, as unworthy to die by the hands of any man; that being the example which thou there rehearsests out of Speeds History, of one so dealt with in the days of Henry the third, by the authority( as thou callest it) of those times which was Popish. So let all people see the unreasonableness, and blood-thirsty cruelty of this Priest, who would have a man thus dealt with, of whom he saith, he is strongly inclined to believe that he is bewitched, which he saith, he truly writes in sincerity: And let them see the root from whence this his spirit springs, and Religion, viz. the papacy, whose act he quotes as a President, and calls it of those times the authority. This, and thy other pantings and breathings after 
See pag. 59▪  blood mentioned in thy book, were never found on the Ministers of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, nor that they put up such Petitions, but Slaughters of them were breathed forth,( as by thee and thy generation in this day) even by Saul when he was more exceeding zealous( as he saith) of the Jews religion, and profited therein more then many of his equals; nor is it the doctrine of Christ Iesus, but the contrary: For, saith 
Luke 9 56.  he, the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives, but to save them▪ And this I say to thee, and to all thy generation of Persecutors: 'Tis the dog that bites, the lamb doth never.  
And whereas thou saist in the summing up of thy Narrative, 
page. 35.  p. 35. And also pure Idolatry, in giving religious Worship,( for it is not upon a civil account they do it) and adoration to the same.  
Reply. Is it pure, and yet is it idolatry? Is it Idolatry, and yet is it pure? If it be Idolatry, can it be pure? If it be pure, can it be Idolatry? Pure Idolatry? What a blind Sot art thou, that canst not distinquish between good and evil! Pure Idolatry is neither Idolatry nor Purity. And this is thy conclusion upon the sum of that part of thy Relation which concerns Religious Worship( as thou sayest) and Adoration, as thou hast concluded upon the sum of the other part of it, viz. of Blasphemy: But saist thou, For it is not upon a civil account they do it; So then if they had said, it had been done on a Civil account, the offence had ceased, it had changed the nature of the thing, it had been pure, not idolatry. But this distinction the Scripture knows not, Thou shalt not bow down to them, no● serve them, saith the Law of God; But if ye have respect to Persons ye commit sin, and are convinced of the Law as transgressors; For whosoever keepeth the whole Law, and yet offends in one point, is guilty of all, saith James. Nay,( saist thou) if it be on a civil account, 
Jam. 2. 9, 10. Mark 7. 9. to the 14. ( it is Corban, said the pharisees of old) but as Christ said of them in that particular, so say I to thee,( who appears to be of the same generation) in this, Thou makest the Law of God of none effect through thy tradition which thou hast delivered; so thou art inexcusable, O man! who judgest another, and dost the same thing; and what thou so concludest on another, falls upon thine own shoulders: If it had been given to your persons,( who are worshipped and adored, and who give worship and adoration to one another, to poor mortal wretches,( as thou termest it) contrary to the Law of God, this had been( by thy doctrine) on a Civill account, and so no idolatry; but doth it not make it more gross, in regard the pretence of it is not to God, but to a mere Tab●rnacle of day, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the dunghill? Do not the Papists who worship Images, Stocks and Stones, say, they worship not them but something through them, which those Images mind them of, the Image of the across of what Christ suffered on the across, &c. Now if this be idolatry,( as it is) and if the bowing to any thing be a worshipping of that thing,[ which is so] and if they that worshipped stocks and stones( whatever were 
Jer. 2. 27.  the intentions of their minds) did set up that as their Father, and as it which brought them forth, which they bow unto. and fall down before, as the Lord saith, Saying unto a Stock thou art my Father, and to a ston, thou hast brought me forth: Then what is it to bow down to Man, and worship Man, without pretending to any thing that beyond man which gave him his being? To conclude this particular, To ye all who bow to, fall down before, and kneel to man, and worship man, and one another, and Respect mens persons, and call one another worshipful, and your Worships, and who cast into prison, and punish those who in conscience to the Law of God which is pure and perfect, and endures for ever, cannot bow to, nor worship, nor respect mens persons, I say unto ye all in the words of Christ to the Devil, when he took him on an exceeding high Mountain, and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve, Mat. 8. 8, 10.  
And whereas thy pages are fraught with such unsavoury expressions, as Baggages, Truils, Cozening impostors, Knaves, Mountebanks, Witches, Wenches, Puncks, your excellent Majesty, and such like, and with scosss and jeers, yea, of the spirit, as when went the spirit from J. N.? what is become of your immediate eternal spirit, infallible Saints, &c. They proceed from the evil treasure of thy heart, and dost show of what Generation thou art; And to Judgement must thou come for them all; and for all thy hard speeches which thou hast spoken against him, and ungodly deeds which thou hast committed, and be judged by that Power which the people called Quakers witness, which makes the earth to shake, and the Pillars thereof to tremble; which thou blasphemously likens to the power of the Devil in Simon Magus, One accompanied 
page. 52▪  with the power( saist thou, as the Quakers speak) and then thou shalt know whom thou hast blasphemed.  
And lastly, Whereas thou saist, pag. 37, & 38. But now behold the Imposture, and the Impostor George bishop, him 
page. 37, 38.  whom they call Cap. bishop; he that was formerly of Whitehall; He that was the great Agent in breaking and tearing the Lord Craven's Estate to pieces, &c. who upon the first coming of nailer and his company, &c. did to those who had occasion to discourse with him about it, disavow and disclaim them, and professed they had done so long before, as you had formerly, and which is testified by his, and his fellow-Foxes Letter, &c. Yet see, he wrote up a Letter to some in Parliament in the behalf of blaspheming I. N. and his party. And thou saist, It was but Christian policy in face to decry them, although in truth( as appears) their hearts were with them; So that upon consideration of these collusions, I do conceive( faist thou) we may conclude( without any sensible error) that their quarrel and opposition is not real, nor are Fox and his party indeed offended with J. N. and his, but that it is packed and feigned. For I  told you before( saist thou) when I expected not this last information, the two Georges knew how to shuffle a business. And thou sayest, If this be so, I then leave it to every one( even their own deluded Proselytes) to judge of them;( for thy light, scoffing, and jeering expressions in those pages, they show thee what thou art, and I neither matter nor regard them.) In Reply whereunto, I shal first cut off thy ground, & then proceed with thee in thy particulars. Thy ground( as it appears) is the Letter, of which thou sayest thou speakest by information: But it follows in these words,  
Friend, Being informed, that a Petition from the Mayor & Aldermen, and Council of this City, and their Ministers, is prepared and intended to be presented the Parliament, upon occasion of what hath lately been found upon, & hath passed concerning J. N. & those few with him; Wherein we who are in scorn by the world called Quakers, & the truth of the living God, which we in our measures witness, is highly charged & accused; And considering how much it concerns the Parliament to take heed of condemning the accused unheard; or to entertain prejudice against a suffering People who fear before the Lord, and have been always faithful to the Commonwealth, & are peaceable in the Land, upon the bare accusation of their adversaries: And how sad a thing it will prove in the end, should they upon any occasion whatsoever, strike against the corner ston, or slay the innocent and the righteous. It hath lain somewhat on me in love to them, and to truth, equity and justice, to signify this unto thee, that( as thou art free) thou mayest mind the reading thereof in the House; and if so be the Parliament shall conceive the matter of the Petition to be Truth, or worthy the minding, to move that a certain day be appointed, wherein the accusers may be required to prove their accusations, and the accused may bee heard in their own Defence face to face, and accordingly let it be to us or them as the truth, or the contrary, shall then appear to that of God in every one of your consciences, which is equal; so will the Parliament quit themselves as men ruling for God, and thereby scatter away as lightning from being brought before them the many false accusations of the innocent; whose presence in doing of right they shall assuredly find, and his reward.  
Bristol the 8. of the 10 month, 1656. G. bishop.  
This is the full contents of the Letter, and no other then what is expressed therein, was the occasion and end of the writing thereof, and the sending of it up,( viz. that wee of Bristol, who( as we were informed) were highly accused therein, and those who had accused us might be heard face to face; for we understood that thy hand was in it; and that though it was in the name of divers, yet it was very privately carried among the Council, and subscribed by the Mayor only) which Letter upon this necessity is thus spread before all men; and to that of God in the consciences of the greatest Advarsaries do I appeal, whether there be any thing in it either word or matter, but what is modest, sober, just and equal? And let all who are sober judge, whether there be any such words in it, and to such effect, as thou hast expressed and produced it: And whether what thou hast said in it & of it, & what thou hast drawn there from & concluded, be not a lye? & whether it renders me an Impostor, or, myself, or those other friends in Bristol, such as in face do decry what our hearts in tuth are one with? or whether so to do, be Christian policy as thou sayest? or whether this( as thou sayest) makes it appear that tis so? & whether the thing is an Imposture? or that which thou callest their quarrel, & opposition is not real, but packed & feigned? or that G. F. who knew not of my writing that Letter, & whether he knows of it yet I can not say; & myself by this, may be said( as thou affirmest) to know how to shuffle and pack a business? or whether this be shuffling or packing, or a sufficient ground on which to conclude that the other is packed and feigned? Or, whether without any sensible Error, or the contrary( if ye be not past feeling) ye may( as thou saist thou doest conceive) c●nclude so? Or, Whether myself, or the friends of Truth are touc●▪ t or concerned in the least with any of these things, which upon ground of that Letter thou hast charged upon us as evil; or deserves any of those Reproaches, Slanders, and Abuses, which upon occasion thereof, thou hast cast upon them, and more particularly upon myself? And whether thou art not cut off both in thy ground, and what thou hast built hereupon, and shown thyself in all to be one full of all mischief and falsehood, without fear of God, or regard to what is honest, and of good report amongst men? Yea, I leave it to every one, even thine own deluded Proselytes[ to give thee thy words back again] to judge of this thing, and of thee, who after all thou hast said, and affirmed and reviled, and slandered, saist, If this be so,[ leaving it uncertain] I then, &c. as aforesaid. And as to what thou hast said of my disavowing and disclaiming &c. What I did at first I have done since, and do now,[ as appears in the former Part of this Vindication at large] nor have I done any thing in contradiction of what I then said, and have now affirmed. And thee I do Deny, and the Persecuting, and Blood-thirsty Spirit of thee, and thy Generation manifested by occasion of him, whom thou callest Blaspheming J. N. But as I have said, hast not proved him so, by any Act, or word, or writing of His, which thou shouldst have done[ be he what he will] not to have charged him as such. And let the D●screet, and S●ber Reader take thy Book, and mind it throughout, and see whether it be not as I have declared.  
Thus for thy Ground, and all that thou hast built thereupon, and concluded. Now for the Particulars, which thou seemest occasionally to have brought in, but hast chiefly intended, thereby to asperss my Name, and wound my Reputation.  
Pag. 37. Thou saist, He that was the great Agent in breaking, and tearing the Lord Cravens Estate in p●ices.  
Reply. The estate of him thou callest the Lord Craven was confiscated by Act of Parliament,[ The Supreme Authority of the Nation] even of that Parliament on whose Authority was bottomed the lawfulness of the late war, for the Liberties of England, which the mighty power of God carried on, and prospered; it being near 
* See the Book entitled, The Lord Cravens Case, as to the Confiscation & and Sale of his Estate by judgement of Parliament for this; and Faulcone●, and that whole affair where it is set down at large.  a yeers time from the day of their first Vote, to the engrossing of the Bill, and the passing thereof, having[ during that space] sustained several days Debate. Which Parliament and their Authority and Judgement, thou( to show thyself what thou art) dost( in the behalf of an adjudged enemy to the Commonwealth on the account of charles Stuart by the Supreme Authority) thus boldly arraign and charge with in●ustice, with breaking and tearing his estate to pieces: For the Act thou so arraignest was not mine, but theirs,( as hath been said) whom( to strike me) thou sparest not, but hast thus mist. And as to the Informations that came to my hand, concerning the delinquency of him and others against the Commonwealth, I did( as was my duty to do) faithfully give into the[ then] Council of State( according to my Trust, which was to discover Treason and Traytors) and such of them as the council of State judged fit to be transmitted to the Parliament, were Reported; and what the Parliament saw cause to determine they Enacted; and this was the Order of proceedings in this Case as well as in others. Upon the due consideration of which, how that Act can be charged on me, who had not to do in the passing thereof; and why this only, and no other? and this should be termed breaking and tearing to pieces, more then the whole body of Sequestrations? And what language this is, I leave to such steady and grounded men to judge, who having in judgement and Conscience been engaged in the cause of the Commonwealth, do so consider, and thorough the price of the blood thereof, as not to turn in the behalf of the contrary, and its Abettors. But R. F. let me ask thee one question, Wast not thou a solicitor for Sequestrations in London in the time of, and by Authority of the same Parliament? Dost thou accuse me with breaking and tearing to pieces, who gave into the Council of State what occasionally came to my hands, as I was entrusted, who was never a Commissioner for Sequestrations, nor related thereunto, and dost thou so term it? what art thou then? and what hast thou done, who of Sequestrations hast been a solicitor? out of thine own mouth be thou judged.  
And as to falconer, and what thou hast darkly intimated concerning him, thy design therein doth so manifestly appear to be to slander, and thou art so short in thy words,[ such hath been thy wariness for thine ears] in not giving me the advantage and ground of a rational Reply, that I might pass it over with the rest of thy light, scoffing, and slanderous stuff of me contained in those Pages, without speaking thereunto, being unregarded by me, as they are not worthy the taking notice of: But for as much as thou hast so expressed thyself notwithstanding, as that the Reader to whom I am unknown, may perceive where lies the sting of thy mischief, which thou hast done on set purpose( as I have said) to wound my reputation, and to reproach the truth which I witness; and so my silence with such, may[ possibly] have an interpretaion of Guilt. For the stoping of thine, and all slanderous mouths, and the satisfaction of such as desire not, nor delight in the defamings of others, I do declare in the Presence of the Lord, before whom I fear, who searcheth the hearts, and trieth the reins, and bringeth every work to judgement, that I am clear and innocent therein, nor have I used, nor do I know of any indirect proceeding in that whole business of Craven and falconer, nor done otherwise then in the faithful discharge of my duty. And further, That during the time of my public Engagements( which have not been a few) and my whole conversation, as I have received mercy to have a witness, so I have born my testimony against unrighteousness and dishonesty( especially such as thou dost intimate) in whoever, as I have had opportunity, or have been called thereunto, neither fearing the face of any man, nor preferring my life or outward concernments, to the clearing of my Conscience therein, as is well known, unto which I have also the witness of him who is greater then all. And a large time of trial I have had, wherein I have neither wanted Enemies for the sake of Truth, nor the malice and opportunity to lay to my charge, could they find; or were there any thing to be found to the contrary. And thus much to say thou hast compelled me.  
And whereas thou sayest, pag. 33. For I can tell you, one of 
Pag. 33.  them( if not both) can pack a business, and( if need be) procure witness to swear to the purpose( if we could allow of swearing truly, as heretofore of swearing falsely.) Thou dost not express who they are, otherwise then in the words immediately foregoing, viz. the Georges; and who are they? and which is the one of them, who[ thou sayest] I can tell you can pack a business? Why dost not thou name him, if thou canst tell, and the other also, of whom thou sayest, If not both? and what the business is that thou sayest, I can tell you one of them,[ if not both] can pack? And who are they of whom thou sayest, And[ if need be] can procure witness to swear to the purpose? And to what purpose? And what that swearing was, of which thou sayest, If we could now allow of swearing truly, as heretofore of swearing falsely? I say, Why art not thou plain in these things, were they so as thou hast intimated, and thy design therein not to slander? which that it is to slander, and that mischievously, is plain to every man of sober understanding: For if it be G. F. or myself, or both of Us that thou thus shootest at; and if the things were true and such as thou couldst fix on both, or either of us, it appears We should not have passed without thine utmost herein, since at none more dost thou express thy Rage and Malice; and such things would suit with the Design of thy Narrative, which is to reproach us and the Truth. But if it be either of us, or both that thou meanest, or myself rather( as it seems to be) Thou art a wicked and false Accuser; for as the things which thou dost intimate were never done by either, or both of us; so have we always had such a witness against such deeds of darkness, as nothing can be more then such things have been, and are by us abhorred and detested: And the Lord, who is our witness herein, will require this wrong at thy hands. If it be myself that thou intendest, but art afraid to speak it out, why dost thou wrap G. F in it? as if he were the man, thereby to save thyself from danger, when thou knowst tis not him whom thou meanest. To close this particular, Thou art the man who hast been manifested to have procured laurence Reymund to swear, on purpose thereby to serve thy design in it to reproach the Truth; which Deposition is false, as hath been made to appear at large in the former part of this Vindication.  
And whereas thou hast been careful so to deliver me to the world, as may render it the more public whom it is thou strikest at, and for that purpose hath characterized me of White-hall; thou hast hereby deserved thine, end, and( against thy will) done me advantage. For my service of the Commonwealth, and faithful discharge of my Trust there, is so known to honest men in these Nations, that amongst such, yea, among many who have been enemies on all accounts, have I a witness to the contrary, which( this thy character rendering me known) will stir up to the justification of me, and the loathing of thee, and these the effects of thy malicious and drunken spirit; and my remembrance, as of that place, will have a good savour, when the name of thee, and such as thou art, is rotted in the dust. Nor is it in thy power R. F. to bury my name in the dust, or to cause it to stink, nor is this course thou hast taken the way to do it, but the contaary, yea, to effect it on thyself; for integrity is with it, though my name I have given up, and what things were counted ga●n unto me, those I count loss for the sake of Christ, the light of the world, the light and life of men, the true Light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, for▪ whom I do suffer the loss of all things, and do account them but dung, and do ohoose rather to suffer afflictions with the persecuted and despised people of God, who walk in the light, and are a by-word and the song of the Drunkards, then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Yea, I do esteem the reproach of Christ and his scorned truth grea●er riches then the treasures of egypt. Therefore R. F. thou art mistaken, and mayst mock on; in vain are thine Arrows shot at me, and thy rage cast up; for as I have declared already, nothing thou hast said comes near m, no not a title, nor canst thou touch me, for I have the answer of a good conscience, which thou canst not check, and am e●tred in ●he Rest where thou canst not disturb, and have a name which thou knowest not, neither canst reach; and in th●t have I received mercy to be, which reigns over all your unclean spirits, and learns me to pass through evil report, as well as good report, to be accounted a deceiv●r, and yet am true; Yea, I say ●o thee R. F.( and thou shalt one day know it) thine Arrows shal return into thine own bosom, and thy Vom●t thou must suck up; for the righteous GOD who pleadeth the cause of the innocent, will pled my Cause with thee( as he hath already with some others) in this thing, who is a witness to my innocency, and the uprightness of my heart therein; and knows, that I have neither done thee wrong, nor administered thee any just occasion, wherefore thou shouldst thus take up my name and abuse me, as thou also hast other where in this thing, of which I have well understood from time to time, though I have born it patiently and ●n silence, without his her to letting thee know the fruit of thy doings, who takest the largest liberty of any man that I have know, ●o abuse all that thou likest not, whether Powers or Persons.  
For( to keep myself within the bounds of thy Narrative) 
P●g 37. 50●  the Parliament( commonly called the long Parliament) thou hast abused, as aforesaid, in the cause of him thou callest the Lord Crave●. And also as to Consoltdation, which thou( scoffingly) termest A cutting of ye out new Churches, according to the( their fancied as thou sayest) Pr●mitive fashion; but it was the Act of that Parliament, solicited by him, not by us, whose Son hath been procuring another from this Parliament, in the behalf of ye Priests of Bristol, to make up that, which thou[ diridingly] saist, being marred in the shaping, was never yet made up and put together; See the later end of page. 49. and beginning of page. 50.  
The next Parliament after them( commonly called the short Parliament) which thou callest a Conventicle, that is to say[ as the word is used and understood in England] An unlawful Assembly, though how they were called together is well known, and by them many good Laws were made, which are now of force in the exercise of the Administration of the Governme●t of these Nations, and so thou repro●chest the Laws of the Government under which thou art: for if those which made the Laws be an unlawful Assembly, and such is a Conventicle,[ as hath been said] the Laws must be the same. Those who are concerned may hereof take notice, and how basely thou dost express them with the height of scorn and derision in these words, viz. While these things were with us in this posture, in steps that little thing into the world, which some would call a Convention[ but I think a Conventicle] of parliament. And further sayest, By Gods goodn●ss there were some amongst them who haplie helped to their speedy dissolution, as if they had been created on purpose to come up into the House and see it, to be kicked out, and laughed at. And those among them who[ thou sayest] helped hereunto, thou callest sober and discreet Persons, and good Patriots, and intitlest the goodness of God to what they did, pag. 55. And how thou hast reproached them in the Pulpit, here I shall not rehearse. Was ever a Parliament thus vilified, and the Laws under which are all the People of these Nations? Was ever the like Dispiser of Government heard of, more presumptuous and self-willed, who 
2 Pet. 2. 10. Pag. 55.  is not afraid thus to speak evil of Dignities? This is Ralph Farmer.  
The Protector and his Council of Officers, who summoned those men to sit together in Parliament, and invested them with the Legislative Authority, as saith the Summons he sent to each, and his Speech to them in the Council-Chamber at White-Hall, where they first met; and the Instrument he then gave them. But sayest thou, To be kicked out, and laughed at, and purposely created so. As if they had been created on purpose to come up to the House, and see it, to be kicked out, and laughed at. These are thy words. And whether this concerns the Protector, who summoned and Investea them as aforesaid, I leave it to him to judas.  
The Protector and his present Council, who thou sayest, 
Pag. 57.  left ye without Rem●dy; and that he set forth a Proclamation, which was such, that of it ye could not understand the meaning; for these are thy words, It's true, there came forth a Proclamation, which we thought had been to have suppressed them; but so simplo were we, we could not understand the meaning o●'t, and so were still without ● emedy. Pag. 57.  
mayor General Disbrow, whom thou intimatest to have 
P●g 12.  been easily and mischievously instrumental ●o wicked, ungodly, and unchaistian practices, because he showed Me●cy in be●●king the Bonds of the oppressed, in becoming the means of the Release of J. N. and the rest out of Exeter Prison, who had lain there many Months, being stopped by 
* See for this ●he Relation at large, entitled, The West answering to the North, &c.  armed Guards on the high-way, and apprehended for no other cause, then being found peaceably tr●velling thereon to visit their long and s●re impr●soned Friends at Lanceston in Cornwall, unto which there was no passage but through the County of Devon, as were divers others, one of whom there dyed: Such an unchristian and unlawful Act, as this Nation( before this) vever heard of. And because▪ M. S. w●t●hed ●n night with his wife, who( thou sayest) was sick, and who is( sayest thou, noting the thing as if it followed as the cause) since dead. And not only so, but thou takest occasion by this of him to caution all others, and those honourable persons who procured the enlargement of those who had so wrongfully suffered( as aforesaid) for the future, how they receive into their Houses, and give entertainment to such Scrp●nts( as thou callest them.) And this thou hast done, though pag. 3. thou hast said concerning their R●lease, by what means( saist thou) I think not convenient to relat●. Didst not thou remember R. F. that act of his in coming to Bristol the day before the last Election of Burgesses, as he passed from the West to gloucester, & his yielding to stand for a Burgess of Bristol to those of the Commissioners of the Militia, and of the City, as requested him so to do; and his being put into Nomination; and the cry that was presently among thy Company in the Hall, No Swords-men. and the Speech that was made against him by thy Captain; and lastly, the shutting of the Parliament-House door against him whom ye choose. Was this it which made thee to forget thyself? and to do that page. 12. which thou saidst page. 3. Thou didst not think convenient. And may not M. G. Dis●row take warning hy this how he come in thy way? May it not be useful( to turn thy words on thee) for him and all others?  
colonel Scr●op whom thou flatterest, and seekest to excuse, 
Pag. 46.  as to his joining wtth those people, whom thou sayest, he found as the only Church amongst ye, page. 46. carrying the name and face of the godly and well-affected to the Government, for security whereof( thou saist) he was sent thither, being voted for the choice Congregation, with exclusion of all others; page. 47. And who( thou saist) coming to this city to take the charge of the Garrison, being a person serious in Religion, joined to them: page. 46. And promised, as thou saist thou wast informed, for it was by his power the keys of thy Church were gotten from the Magistrates, that Erbury should not speak there; but promises( saist thou) were one thing, and performances another, page. 49. And thou not onely thus dost, but t 〈…〉 beliest him also in what thou sayest, viz. But this I shall declare for his honor, that when he returned to this City, from which he had been some space of time together absent, and finding these Quakers among us he disclaimed and denied them to speak publicly, whenas he did not deny them to speak publicly,( and publicly they spake after he came as before,) yea, so far was he from so doing, that he said to Dennis Hollister by name, That if the Magistrates did pu● them in prison one day, he would put them out the next. And how abominable thou art in thy flattery of him is sufficiently known in this City, whom thou hast not spared to abuse, and his authority so, and with such contempt of both, that( to give only one instance) upon a public occasion, among numbers of this City, drawn a little out of it on Horseback, thou spakest with so much disgrace of him, and it, as was likely to have made a disturbance; Didst thou never in scoffing sort, call him Castle-keeper, and abuse a Free-man of the Town for owning him as Governor of the City? And didst thou never say, that he and such as he was, deserved to be turned out of the Town, or words to that purpose? And doth such stuff, and what thou hast said in thy Narrative agree?  
The Magistrates and Inhabitants of Bristol as aforesaid. 
Pag. 48.   
Morgan Lloyd of North-Wales, of whom thou revilingly saist, A person known well enough to be hare-brained and fanatike, who is well known to be the contrary; Who was R. F. hairhrain'd and fanatine, either he, in sending thee a sober note, to reason publicly with thee in thy Steeple-house concerning his doctrine, which thou hadst reproached, as thou hadst him abused; or thou, who though thou hadst received such a paper from him, refusedst to appear, to thy great shane, amongst the people to whom it was known.  
Thomas Ewens, whom thou callest the man, for( saist 
Pag. 50. 51. &c.  thou) I know not well how to call his name of Office, page. 51. The learned Teacher[ as thou scoffest him] page. 50. A disingenuous person, as thou intimatest, by what thou saist, of sending for a Traylor ou● of Wales to be their Teacher, an ingenuous person[ saist thou as before] being not able to bear them. And the people called independents, and Baptists, especially 
Pag. 48.  those of this Town, whom thou in derision termest a Reverend Congregation, page. 50. Yea, even their women, pag. 50. yea, all who aclowledge not your Ministry, Churches and Ordinances to be according to Christs Institution, and ye such as with whom they will hold communion; these are thy words, page. 55. All these are in thy account of a schismatical spirit, and this schismatical Spirit is intolerable, saist thou page. 54. and that it is so all such should know, had thou and thy generation power in your hands, as the spirit that rules in thee, hath formerly sought to let all such know, and managed wars for that purpose, being an enemy to every thing that ever bore a testimony to truth: For these things, see at large from page. 46. to the end of thy Narrative.  
Yea, thyself and all thy generation of Priests, tithe and 
Pag. 52. 30.  Augmentatio●-men, Gleeb-landers, all who live by, and have Coercive settled Maintenance, or Contribution; for thou sayest of Thomas Ewens, Then it would lessen his Contribution, which( sayest thou) is a feeling Argument, pag. 52. and if to him, it is to thyself, and all thy Generation, as aforesaid, who have, and live by Contribution, &c. And Black Coats thou call'st them also, to strike at one whom thou canst not reach. pag. 30.  
Finally, William Erbury, whom whilst living thou daredst not to engage, but dost Reproac● him now that he is fallen asleep. It seems nor living nor dead can escape thee.  
And now should I pass without the Limits of thy Book to what this City affords of thee in this thing, Time would fail me to declare what the Pulpt●s, and almost all parts of it do witness; and so well known it is, that I need not to rehearse it: Yea, to such a height of arrogancy art thou grown, that if a Stra●ger come to have a near Relation in this Town, on him are thine Abuses poured forth, if thy froward and crooked will be not the measure of his Actions, as if all Powers, Dominions, Authorities, Governments, Rules, Rulers, Persons, 
Paul was a Tent-maker and wrought at that Craft, Acts 18 3. And( he saith) Ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and them that were with me, Acts 20. 34. Doth this Priest and his generation follow Pauls Example, or reproach it? let England, and this his Narrative testify.  Families, People, and Affairs, whether Religious, marshal, or Civil, ought to be subservient unto it, who hast thus set it above all, but is below, and under all, as this Vindication manifests.  
For as much therefore as thou hast magnified thyself to the treading of all under thy feet, especially such tradesman as preach, whom thou in scorn termest mechanics, &c.( As are thine Expressions, pag. 2.) In such a Nation as this is( sayest thou) wherein every mechanic common Tradesman thinks himself fit( at least undertakes) to become a public Teacher. And pag 50. ●ut if a mechanic & unlettered[ conomine] upon that very account his preaching was from the spirit. And to add no more Instances, pag. 60. To ru● after the ignorant Fancies of Mechanical undertakers; as if thou wert such an one, and so clear of what thou offerest in Reproach of others, that the like hath not been known. I shall( not in the least slighting of any honest calling, or of thee, for that thou hast been exercised any such, how mean soever: But because thou thus despisest, and reproachest) ask thee[ Ralph Farmer] a few questions.  
Was't not thou a Ticket-maker in the Subp●●na-Office? One.  
A Subscriber in the Six Clerks Office? Two.  
One of the Clerks belonging to the Rolls chapel, waiting there▪ Three.  
A Mault-maker at Tewxbury, and under him who is called the Earl of Berkeshire in the Monopoly of Kills? Four.  
Upon the death of one of the Chamberlains of Bristol, camest not thou thither, and by begetting a party there, gotst thou not into that Office of Chamberlain, out of which in about a moneths time wast not thou turned? Five.  
Appliedst not thou thyself to Experi●ents of Chimistrie? Six.  
Wast not thou a solicitor for Sequestrations? Seven.  
Wast not thou a Member of an independent Church, so called, at Canterbury? Eight.  
Didst not thou after all this, come down to Bristol again, and there set up the Trade of Preaching, first at Thomas, and then didst not thou tender thyself a Member of the independent Church[ so called] there, whilst those people ruled, of whom thou saist, the life and death of all mens preferments lay much in their hands; and didst not thou appear one with those people, then so in rule and power,( as thou hast said) and carrying all things before them? and was not thou then zealous against those with whom thou now art, and whose Advocate thou art now become? and hadst not thou to do in the working of Constant Jessope out of Nicholas, who was Leader to those people who were then under, and got into his place, out of Poor Thomas into Rich Nicholas? Nine.  
And when that Interest declined, and so those people were no longer likely to serve thine ends, and the contrary turning up, didst not thou fall in with that unto which when under, thou wast so opposite? and art not thou become the greatest enemy to Independent Churches, so called, those People and their practices, in the behalf of the other, and doth not thy Narrative declare it? Ten. And what is next?  
To conclude, That in this day, and in such a Nation as this, wherein the seed of the Serpent is so fruitful, and grown in many to such a height of subtlety, and wisdom, exceeding former generations; the devil( to return thee thine own words in the end which thou broughtest in the beginning) should be so simplo as to set up su●h a one,( as thou appears to be) to manage this his great opportunity against the Truth, would be a wonder of wonders, but that the Scripture is fulfilled which saith, The wicked is snared in the work of his own hand; 
Psal. 9 16.  And the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth, who is Head of Principalities and Powers, whose Truth is in his hand, maketh every thing to serve it as he pleaseth, who worketh, and who shall hinder?  
Thus art thou measured, and found wanting; thus art thou weighed and found too light; and thus is Christs innocency in his Truth and Members pleaded against the loud outcries of thy railings, slanders, lies, reproaches, false accusations, and blasphemies; and yet the onely one refuge[ as thou lightly expressest and affirmest, pag. 30. but liest] remains unengaged, and free,[ not with snarling at your heels, oblike abusings, lying and flirting descants on your names, as thou hast unmanly dealt with the Author of Christs Innocency pleaded against the cry of the High Priests, but] with open face, and downright demonstration of Truth to pled further, as occasion is administered with thy brother, who gave him that occasion, and thee and the rest of thy generation.  
And when thou feelest what hath been said in this Vindication, to sit very closely on thee,( as be sure it will) take heed of stirring, or of putting forth thy sharp sting of Censure, or that thy spleen be raised( they are thine own words) for thou hast said to the Independents and Baptists so called, as to what thou hast declared of them in this thy Narrative, That whoever shall put a finger upon a fore must expect wincing and kicking; and if thou shalt notwithstanding so do, and thereby manifest thy sore, remember so to step into thy way, as to apply thereunto the plasters thou hast prescribed to them in the case, page. 52, 53, 54, 55. As thou didst crave leave to step out of thy way, p. 52. and didst confess thou hadst digressed, page. 55. when thou didst dispense them unto those people, and let us see what Experiments thine own Prescriptions will have on thyself: And talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of thy mouth; for the Lord is a God of Knowledge, and by him Actions are weighed.   
The End.