Stablishing Against Shaking, Title page – To the reader
STABLISHING AGAINST SHAKING: OR, A Diſcovery of the Prince of Darkneſſe (ſcarcely) transformed into an Angel of Light, powerfully now working in the deluded people called, QUAKERS:
WITH A ſober Anſwer to their railings againſt Miniſters for receiving maintenance from their people.
Being the ſubſtance of one SERMON preached Feb. 17. 1655. at Shalford in Eſſex.
BY GILES FIRMIN (Paſtour of the Church there) upon occaſion of the Quakers troubling thoſe parts.
LONDON, Printed by J. G. for Nathanael Webb, and William Grantham, at the black Beare in St. Paul's Church-yard neer the little North-dore. 1656.
To the Worſhipfull DƲDLEY TEMPLER Eſq. Juſtice of the Peace in ESSEX.
SIR,
I Should be very ungratefull, now this Sermon comes to be read, if I ſhould forget you, without whoſe aſsiſtance it had ſcarce been *Twice I was interrupted, as I was preaching.heard. I wiſhed much for your preſence, though I did not requeſt it: but what I feared your ſelf apprehended, and ſeaſonably coming in, ſtopped thoſe mouthes by your Civill power, which neither reaſon, nor the ſolemnity of the Ordinance would have ſilenced: had you been an Anabaptiſt, an enemy to the Miniſtery and Learning (as ſome have unjuſtly reported) you might have ſpared this care: if this act will not clear you, let my pen anſwer for you; (for I think no Minister hath more inward acquaintance with you than my ſelfe) I never heard him ſo much as question his own Baptiſme, but I have heard him diſapprove of perſons for being Re-baptized, and two of his Children my ſelfe have baptized; how then is he an Anabaptiſt: When a Miniſter was nominated to ſucceed his deceaſed Paſtor, becauſe it was told him, that he was a Miniſter that would admit Tradeſmen into his Pulpit, he told me he ſhould never come there; and for Learning, ſuch an enemy he is unto it, that I have heard him ſay, Take away Learning, and England becomes a dunghill: This I am ſure, be a Miniſter Claſsicall, or Congregationall, ſo he be learned, able, and godly, holding to the old ſound Divinity, he makes no difference, but can embrace both, beteaming them not onelyonly amaintenance, but an honourable maintenance. How then men will prove their reports, I know not, unleſſe thus, He is a Souldier; Ergo: but it is eaſily anſwered, Non ſequitur, unleſſe this Propoſition be true, All Souldiers are Anabaptiſts and enemies to the Miniſtery, &c. which I am ſure is falſe of ſome, though true of too many. Goe on then, good Sir, let not theſe reports trouble you (though I know they have done) God will in time clear up your innocency more by your actions than by my pen, and give his Church as much cauſe to bleſſe him for your faithfulneſſe to it, as the Common-wealth hath cauſe to bleſſe him, for the unbyaſſed integrity, and painfull diligence, which you have manifeſted in the execution of your Office as related to it: What I have here preſented to you I pray accept, as a teſtimony of that honourable reſpect I beare unto you, ſubſcribing my ſelfe,
Feb. 28. 1655. Your ſervant GILES FIRMIN.
To the READER.
NO man, I think, was more reſolved againſt medling with this Sect than my ſelfe, inſomuch that though they came into divers Towns about me, yet I let them alone, judging ſilence to be beſt, and was apt to blame other Miniſters that kept Faſts againſt them, being a generation not worthy the taking notice of: but I ſaw at laſt, when I would not trouble them, they would trouble me, ſent divers of their Books into our Town, invited my people to come and heare, and prevailed with ſome to hear; now I was forced to change my reſolutions, Dury calling upon mee now to ſpeak: twelve of their Books were brought to me, (beſides Toldervy's, who ſaid, his foot was out of the ſnare, but I could not ſo judge of him, and what I ſaid of him is ſince come to paſſe) which when I had peruſed, I made one Sermon to diſcover this generation, and I bleſs God for the good ſucceſſe I found of it. Some people deſired my Notes, but my Sermon being very long, it was too tedious to write over my Notes; and ſome friends counſelling me to print them: I choſe this as the eaſieſt way: ſome paſſages I have added, which I would not uſe in a pulpit: when will the bleſſed God remove theſe ſpiritual judgments from this poor Nation?