George Fox Digged Out of His Burrows, Account of dispute 1 · Letter 5
Neighbour,
COncerning the mistaking the Date of my Letter as thou writest,I. T His third and last Letter to me. which could not be, seing I sent it thee the same day I writ it, but thine, I heard of it some dayes before I received it. As for my passing over many particulars (which did not concern the matter in handling) I willingly omitted them, discerning thy subtil spirit, in no respect answering by scripture or reason my loving Admonitions to thee: But in thine own words, is it not bruitish, irrationall, childish to affirm we are worse then Barbarians, which thy sordid Positions do hold forth? How childish, yea how foolish dost thou shew thy self in thy first Position, for G. Fox to prove what he and all friends disown, and in scorn thou callest Quakers. And in thy 12th Position dost affirm, That our Sufferings are no Evidence of the truth of our Religion, Thou mightest have spar'd thy paines in bringing [16] forth this Brat,a Whore is as bold in her whoredoms, as a Chast Wise in her Inocency. which is of thine owne begetting: But we are sure it is an Evidence against thee, & all other of thy Spirit, which persecute, that they have drunk deep of the Cup of Fornication, upon whom the Violls of Gods wrath are powred forth in spirituall Fornications.
How darest thou find fault with me in not alleadging scripture, nor reason in declaring against thy impious Charges mentioned in thy railing & impious positions? Would'st thou have me to take the matter in hand (which thou challengest G. Fox to answer) to give like a fool scripture & reason for what thou assignest another to doe? Oh what Serpent-like spirit dost thou act by, that dost not own my plain dealing with thee in owning the scripture & wrestest & foistest in, as I meant not, nor writ: If thy spirit were reall (as before men thy words seem to import) thou wouldest not then shew a smiling Countenance when War is in thine heart, in witnessing against thy Neighbours secretly, against that Golden rule, Doe as thou would'st be done by. Thou countest it open violence for a Woman to speak in the Church: but if thou knewest what Woman that should not speake thou would'st have spared me these lines writing, & have eased thy selfe of thy great struglings & strivings within thee to bring forth on Abortive. Thou chargest me in making a great Outcry against thy Blood-thirsty spirit, concerning W. Harris, as though thou didest at no time cry out Treoson Treason. Answ. how dost thou shift of as one that is guilty, and dare not mention the case I writ upon, shufling it to be his last imprisonment, which I know not the ground of, but as I had it related by thee: But the Circumstances considered, it cannot possibly be paraleld (as my Letter declareth) with this last Case of W. Harris. First, thy taking Oath against my wife upon an other mans word on purpose to allay thy furious spirit against W. Harris, he not thinking thou wouldest have prosecuted against her, as also against sixteen of thy peaceable neighbours, Can thou deny that at that Court thou cryed not out Treason Treason, making all as guilty as W. Harris? Thou sayest I bid thee mind thy Book written against Persecution, and yet thy self a Persecutor of thy peaceable Neighbours even unto death. Answ. How canst thou in peace (through the God of peace, (as thou sayest) look upon thy wicked Travels to murther the Innocent as thou didest at Newport, crying out Treason being President.
Also what I have spoken against W. Harris touching his firing the Town and Colony, I thought so, and therefore contended against him, but I never sought his life,If there were any Colour for any of these horrible Outcryes, I should have heard of them from W. Edmunson who rak'd up all he could against me both in the Dispute at Newport and Providence. note that R. W. Thou sayst [17] thou art not conscious of any recoyling in thy spirit, so much as in a thought. Here thou manifest's an impious spirit that seekes to murther the Innocent: what Fury possesseth thee to talk of the God of peace & yet retainest a murtherous mind, not having repented of thy wickednesse, how is thy heart hardned in seeking the lives of such as thou thy self hast confest to be the Children of God? Oh murtherous man that hath not any Remorse for thy long-liv'd Wickedness, I am sorry for thee, though thou slight all my writings & counsells, & take all in the worst sence; yet I beseech thee to consider thy latter end, & my desire for thee is that the Lord would awaken thy Soul & give thee Repentance unto life.
In the last place thou writest how highly I esteem of G. Fox. and thou desirest to think as low of thy self: How will this agree with thy boasting of great Education, great Experiences, great struglings and strivings within to bring out thy Positions and Conclusions, which all my loving Testimonyes against (as issuing from a diabolicall spirit) did no more take place with, then a Feather against a Rock. Call to mind the preaching of Jonas to Ninive, yet forty dayes and Ninive shall be destroyed (a short speech) yet they repented and the Lord pardoned: And so I desire thou mayest repent and find mercy with the God of mercy.
Thy Neighbour I. T.
THus Reader it pleased the Infinite Wisdom of the most holy and only Wise, to pierce through my heart with the thrusts and stabs of a of a foulmouth'd slanderous spirit, by the hands of long professed friends and lovers, yet pretending the name of God and of Scripture, as wel as my self. How doth it behoove us then to make sure that we can in truth say as Ieremiah, Lam. 3. Thou art my portion saith my Soul O Lord; Thou and none else, Thou alone without Health, Strength, Beauty, Honour, Lands, Goods, Friends, &.c. How should we make sure that with Thomas, we may say unto the Lord Jesus, my Lord and my God? for whose sake we ought joyfully to bear what false Christs, false spirits and their Souldiers can dart from Earth or Hell against us.