vindicator of all (will he of some, then?) the severities with which the zeal of some eminent men hath sometimes enraged and increased, rather than reclaimed, those miserable heretics." Obs. Eminent enough they were, I confess, for persecution, and zeal enough they had, too, without knowledge, like those spoken of, Jno. xvi. 2, and, if he cannot vindicate their severities, why then will he vindicate the authors of those severities, as he does this Norton and Priest Wilson, that bloodthirsty persecutor who cried, when the Court paused on the sentence, "Hang them," and reviled them so at their death, as noted before, page 124; and his pretending not to vindicate the severities against them, and yet at the same time calling the innocent sufferers "miserable heretics," is but like some among the Papists, who would seem to condemn those severities against the martyrs, and nevertheless at the same time count them heretics, which is but a poor amends. And I would ask him, if they are heretics, whether he is not of his master Calvin's mind, that they should be burned? At this rate they have lost some points of their faith, indeed, (as he said but now,) but they can say and unsay at their pleasure, as it suits their present interest. And for his wish, "That they may be treated as Queen Elizabeth directed the Lord President of the North to treat the Papists,-to convince them with argument, rather than suppress them with violence;" though this is quite contrary to their former practice, yet if they are reformed, and he is real in it, I wish they may keep to it for time to come, if ever they have power in their hands again; which I wish they never may, for it is hard trusting them that have been false so often; but for their arguments we fear them not, let them produce them and convince us as soon as they can.

Chap. ii., page 75.-"The first outbreaking of that prodigious and comprehensive heresy, Quakerism, in that very place, and a multitude of the people being bewitched thereunto, it was a great affliction unto this worthy man, Priest Higginson; but it occasioned his writing the first book that ever was written against that sink of blasphemies." Answer. The first breaking forth of Quakerism, *Kirbysteven in Westmoreland.

as he calls it, was not at Kirbystever, in Westmoreland, but in Leicestershire;* and not in the year 1652, as that at Kirbysteven was, but in the year 1644, though they were not called Quakers till the year 1650, so that there he is wrong in his history. And Book VII., page 22, he says, "The first Quakers that ever were in the world were at Salem in New England;" and here he says, "The first outbreaking of Quakerism was at Kirbysteven in Westmoreland;" so which shall one believe? Is not this a notable historian? As for his calling it "prodigious heresy and sink of blasphemies," this is but railing, without any argument to convince us, as he told of, or proof; so he may return that to Rome from whence he had it. But is it not strange he should still tell of people being bewitched, when they have been so punished with witches as they have been by some of themselves in New England, and when he can never prove one witch among the Quakers, or one Quaker that was ever a witch? Which if he can, I do here challenge him to do it; how base then is it in him to revile at this rate! Is it not yet time, Cotton, to leave off thy devilism, as thou callest it? And hadst thou been in the apostles' days, wouldst thou not have been as ready to say they were bewitched, as some of thy generation did, that they were drunk, and when there is no token of any such thing by the Quakers now, more than by them then? And whether Higginson's book was the first that was written against the Quakers, I cannot positively determine; however, the substance of it was answered by George Fox, in his Great Mystery of the Great Whore Unfolded.

Chap. i., page 151.-"But of all the errors, he, Thomas Thatcher, discovered an antipathy unto none more than that sink of all errors, Quakerism." Obs. Here is more railing, without any proof or argument to convince us of error; but Truth was always called error by such as he; and no wonder the priests' greatest antipathy should be against the Truth, which tends most to the spoiling their trade by turning people to Christ, the free Teacher. "It was in his time," says he, "namely, about the year 1652, that there appeared a new sect of people in the world, which from the

*See George Fox's Epistle, page 2.

motions that attended their bodies, especially their first perversion, were called Quakers." Answer. But it was before the year 1652 that they appeared in the world, though not as a sect, but as a people raised of the Lord to revive the ancient testimony of Truth, lost in the night of apostasy, of being taught by the grace of God, and walking in the light, and worshipping God in spirit and truth; yea, long before his time several appeared that, by the motions of their bodies, quaked and trembled at the Word of the Lord, who were our predecessors, as Moses, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Habakkuk, and others, as he may read in the Scriptures in the margin; yea, there is one scripture that Cotton Mather himself useth, Psa. cxix. 120, "My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee; and I am afraid of Thy judgments." And yet will he mock at quaking and trembling, and call it perversion, oh, perverter! and that "it was not long after their first appearance that New England began to be troubled with them." Answer. The true prophets were always counted troublers of Israel, but I may answer, as Elijah did to Ahab, 1 Kings, xviii. 18, "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord."

"Their spirit of the hat," says he, "and their fopperies of thou and thee, in their language to a single person, were the least of those things that gave our Thatcher a dissatisfaction at them." Obs. What an irreverent adversary this is, to call Scripture language fopperies, and yet pretend the "Scriptures are their rule, and that the Quakers deny them"! But, wherein does it appear, when the Quakers speak according to the Scripture, and they not, but blame the Quakers for speaking in Scripture language? But if this was some of the least to Thatcher, it seems it was not to their rulers; for the "spirit of the hat," as he calls it in derision, lay so near them and tormented them so, (Hamanlike,) that they could hang them for not putting it off, and made that one of the causes in the act of banishment and death, and according to Priest Wilson's words to William Robinson when he was going to suffer, "Shall such Jacks as you come before authority with your hats on?" as if it was for that they put them to death,

as William Robinson bid the people mind, and also in the case of William Leddra.

Ibid. "That which caused him to employ a most fervent zeal against those heretics, was the horrible end of their heresies," -what! nothing but railing still, heretics, heresies, &c.,-"to lead men into a pit of darkness under the pretence of the light." Answer. That is false; they could not lead any into the pit of darkness by turning them to the light; it is the blind guides that hate the light, who do so; but Christ said, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Also, "they annihilate all the sensible objects of our holy religion, under pretence of exalting the spiritual." This is false; they annihilate nothing that is essential to holy religion, but such objects as are rather adapted to the outward senses than to religion, and pleasing the sensual part more than God; therefore they preach the spiritual worship that Christ set up, worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth, and not according to the tradition of men who worship they know not what. And further, to aggravate his charge, he makes his own inference, viz., "So that we must have no Bible, no Jesus, no baptism, no eucharist, no ordinances, but what shall be evaporated into dispensation, allegories, and mere mystical notions." Answer. This is also false, and grossly calumnious; and I require him to tell whoever of us said we must have no Bible, no Jesus, no baptism, &c., or else own his falsehood, and lay his hand on his mouth for time to come. Does he think to lick himself whole, or confute Quakerism with his lies? Or are these the arguments he would have us convinced with? Oh, nay; it will sooner confound himself. The Bible we own, and ever did, and walk more according to it than they; as will easily appear by comparing our principles and practices with it; and Jesus we own, and desire above all things to have Him, and the benefit of His coming, and suffering, and intercession, for without Him we can do nothing; and baptism we own, according to Matt. iii. 11, and the Supper of the Lord we own, though the word eucharist I find not in Scripture; and I query where thou

readest it, in the Bible or the Pope's mass-book? And ordinances we own, and never evaporated these into dispensations, allegories, or mystical notions, nor allegorized them further or otherwise than the Scripture allows the mystery of them under the spiritual dispensation of Christ; though as to baptism and the supper, not so literally as under the law of which Christ was the fulfilling, but more spiritual and inward, according to the nature of Christ's kingdom. Col. ii. 20, 21, &c.

Ibid. "When he saw," says he, "that, quite contrary to the tendency and character of every truth, which is to abase the creature, the main design of Quakerism is to exalt man," that is false; it was to debase man, that the Lord alone might be exalted; "and find that in man himself which may be instead of a Saviour, Scripture, heaven, righteousness, and all institutions unto him." This is an abusive perversion; they set up nothing in, or of man, instead of Christ the Saviour, Scripture, &c., for Christ is within, as well as without, who said, "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you; and you in me, and I in you; and Christ in you the hope of glory and of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption ;" and this must be in us, and "the Word was in the mouth and heart" before it was written; and we have the earnest of our inheritance in this life, the Holy Spirit of promise, by which we are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Ibid. "He could not but adore the justice and vengeance of God, in permitting such a spiritual plague to be inflicted on places where the Gospel had been more eminently sinned against." This you may very well take to yourselves, and adore the justice and vengeance of God on you for sinning against the Gospel, as you have done, for which you have been plagued many ways, and particularly by impostures after you had rejected the Quakers, and the Truth they held forth, of which more hereafter; and that "he set himself with the more of a pastoral diligence to defend his flock from the contagion." Answer. It had been well if they had set themselves with the more diligence to defend themselves against the contagion of their own hearts; for, as he says, "Were