wherefore, or to what purpose, doth the priest preach, or the people pay? Are they not horrible deceivers, in taking people's money for preaching to them, and praying for them, when they can do nothing for them, or add nothing to them, but, according to them, they are predestinated and foreordained, as to their eternal estate, before? And why on the "Quakers' descent," as he calls it, "upon the town of Lynn, where Quakerism," as he says, "suddenly spread at such a rate as to alarm the neighbourhood, that the pastor of the church there indicated a day for prayer with fasting, to implore the help of heaven against the unaccountable enchantment, that the spiritual plague might proceed no farther;" which he pretends had effect:-I say, wherefore did they fast and pray? Were not the people elected or reprobated beforehand, and so could not be any more saved or lost by the one or other? And what then signify their prayers? But did they, not fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness like their forefathers, and as their brethren at Coggeshall in Essex did against the errors of the Quakers as pretended, but sent James Parnell to prison, which cost him his life; yet there is a large meeting there of our Friends at this day? Or cannot they smite with the fist now, but only with the tongue, as some of old did also? And does he think their prayers are of any more effect against the Quakers, yea, the Truth itself, than against the Indians, when they confessed* "that the Lord was angry with their prayers, and He went not forth with their armies"? Or that the Lord does heed their sacrifices, or regard the lifting up of their hands, while they are defiled with blood? Well, however, I am glad that their old weapons of prisons, whips, and gallows are taken out of their hands, and that they are reduced to fasting and prayer; which he confesses "a better method than any coercion of the civil magistrate." Let them pray as long as they will, and cry as Baal's priests did, 1 Kings xviii. 28, we do not regard them, while they that "drank the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus" remain in the same bloodthirsty spirit. The prayer or sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. * Increase Mather's History of the Wars, page 16.

Bring no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths I cannot away with, it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil."-See Isa. i. 13, 15, &c.

So that it is plain that the Lord will not answer them till they come to repent, and appear of a better spirit, let him pretend what he will, and call it enchantment, and spiritual plague, and what he pleases; "speaking all manner of evil of us falsely for Christ's sake," in which we can rejoice; for "the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord." And "if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call those of his household?”—Matt. x. 24, 25.

And that "the Quakers are such enemies to the holy religion, which is the life of New England," is false; they are friends to "pure religion, and undefiled;" which is, "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep unspotted from the world;" whatever they are to New England's unholy religion, that is defiled with blood, which hath been the life of New England; who, instead of visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, make fatherless and widows, and afflict them too, as they have done. So that they can never be holy, till washed from their blood-guiltiness in the blood of the Lamb. And for his story, chap. i., page 101, of "a noted Quaker that caused a paper to be set upon the door of their meeting-house at Salem," that stood near the Globe tavern,—

"Beware, beware, and enter not;

But rather to the Globe, and spend a pot,"

he is so noted for lying, that I cannot credit it; for it looks too idle and ridiculous for any Quaker to do, or an historian to take notice of. But I can tell him of something more certain, and worse too, and that is of his brother, Thomas Vincent of London, who said upon the going of some of his hearers to the Quakers'

Meetings, "he had rather his hearers did go to a bawdy-house, than to a Quakers' Meeting." And his other is like to it, of a Quaker who, in answer to a man that he had reproved for swearing, that asked him, "Whether it was better for him to follow drinking and swearing, or to go and hear Henry (a Presbyterian, it is like), answered, Nay, of the two, rather follow thy drinking and swearing; behold the spirit of Quakerism," says he. Of such foolish ridiculous stories is his History of the Quakers stuffed with. But shall I retaliate? I can tell him of as notable things for him to behold; as the woman that was in prison at Boston for theft,* coming among our Friends, was like to be convinced of the evil of her ways, which their jailer, Salter, hearing of, took her into his house, and told her, "She were better to be as she was before (a thief) than a Quaker," whereupon she stole again, and was banished for it. Behold the spirit of Presbytery! Samuel Parker says, Ecclesiastical Policy, page 54, "It is better to indulge men's vices and debaucheries, than their consciences. A toleration is against the nature of reformation; a reformation and a toleration are diametrically opposite.† A toleration is the grand design of the devil, his masterpiece, and chief engine to work by at this time, to uphold his tottering kingdom. And therefore I hope the Parliament, assembly ministers, city, and the whole kingdom, considering the evil of a toleration, will cry down and abominate the very thought of it. Ye servants of Christ, take heed of yielding to the pretences of conscience; the devil, and not Christ has his throne there. § In a word, [they] overthrow, as much as in them lieth, all religion and piety, setting up a Babel of their own, full of impiety, ignorance, and blasphemy; these are the fruits of the too much liberty, and the effects of reading Scripture by ignorant and malicious spirits."|| Richard Mayo, of Cington, said¶

* See George Bishop's book, Second Part, page 361.

† Edward's Antapologia, page 185.

Gangrena, Part I., chap. 123, page 121.

Dissenters' Sayings, Part I., page 2.

|| Rosse's View of all Religions, sixth edition, page 384.

¶ George Fox's Great Mystery, page 274, &c., and Edward Burroughs Works, page 377.

that "the devil was the power of God; that Christ was made manifest to destroy the power of God, and to destroy him that That if one man murder another, he did

was the power of God.

That

it by the power of God. That the Gospel was no more the power of God, than the rose cake that lay in the window. That a man may be a righteous man, and not a godly man; that a man may be justified by God, and condemned by his own conscience, and, è contra, that every believer hath not the witness in him.* a man may persecute Christ in His saints, and be a righteous man; that he did believe in a Christ that died at Jerusalem, but not in a Christ within. That the light which Christ hath enlightened every man withal, is carnal and darkness." That "the Gospel itself is but a dead letter; that it was no matter to him, if the devil was the original of tithes, if the law of the land would give it him, he would have it."

George Larcum, priest of Cockermouth, in Cumberland, said to a Friend, "I would to God I had power, thou shouldst be severely punished." And Priest Warwick came to a meeting of those called Quakers, and struck Joseph Grave, and plucked him off the green, and his wife struck and beat him sore, and drew blood of Friends; and the same priest said, "If the law were rightly executed, thou mightest not stand there. It would cut off all your necks." Thomas Dentham, priest, called the said Joseph Grave out of the meeting, saying he "would stand to prove his practice;" and then went his way, and bid the people, "Take him away, and hang him;" and at his words the people did beat and pull the hair off his head.

Page 2. Hugh Archball, priest of Stravan, in Annandale, said § that "Christ hath not enlightened every one that cometh into the world;"' contrary to Jno. i. 9.

That "it is blasphemy to say that the true light doth enlighten and condemn the world;" contrary to Jno. i. 9 and iii. 19.

* Contrary to 1 Jno. v. 10.

† Contrary to Calvin, "That Christ is not without, but within." George Fox's Great Mystery, page 262.

Doctrines and Principles of the Priests of Scotland, 1657, Signed by six.

That "to say that which reproves for sin is from heaven, is blasphemy;" contrary to Jno. xvi. 8.

Page 3.-Henry Foreside, priest of Lingian, in Dumbartonshire, said, that "if they had any Christian zeal, they would stone them whom they call Quakers."

Page 22.-That "God commands all everywhere to repent, to the end that they should not have it to say, but they were warned, but not that He would give them grace to repent."

Page 24.-That "God, before the world was, had ordained one little part of the people for eternal life, that, sin or do all the evil they could, they could not lose that which was ordained for them."

That "the greater part of the world was ordained for hell, that, repent or do all that they are commanded to do, they could not obtain salvation, because God had ordained them to hell." Then he was asked, "Wherefore he preached?" His answer was, "To save the elect." He was answered again, "If it was so, there was no need of it, seeing they could not be lost." Then he was asked, "Wherefore he preached to them that were ordained to hell?" He answered, "To make their damnation hotter." It was answered them again, "That they had small friends of them,* and they could not make it hotter, seeing they were ordained before." And was asked, "Who had the blame that men went to hell?" His answer was, "Seeing ye desire to know, I shall tell you: there is one part of the blame in man, and another part of the blame in the Almighty, that men went to hell."

Page 32.-Being asked, "What he would do with the Quakers?" he said, "If he had been a civil magistrate, he would have thought it good service to have cut off all their heads," like them spoken of Jno. xvi. 2.

Page 33.-It was asked him of a "foreordained number to destruction," and "for what Christ wept over Jerusalem?" He said, "As he was human, he mourned, and his Godhead decreed them to hell." A lying doctrine, for afterwards many of them came to be converted, as in Acts ii.

* And little cause to pay them so dear for their preaching, say I.