"felf to him. This Man then feeing thy fair "Dealing (as he judges) gives thee good Profit. "And here thou gaineft on both hands alfo; for "that which thou tookest forth before,was fuffici"ent for thee to get, and the other that thy "Chapman gave thee was clear gains (with a wit"nefs.) Thus I have known a very good Friend "do. And if ever thou thinkeft to be a good "Friend, thou must imitate the best.

Thus far mine Author. I now return to proceed.

And is not Religion come to a fine pass, amongst these men, all this time think you, that Hypocrifie, and Interest must thus guide, and steer all its Votaries?

And are not we of the Church of England wife, Men, who confide in the Honefty of thefe Men, ar bove thofe of our own Communion? And contribute to make them Rich and our felves Poor; helping to fill their Shops, whileft their honefter Neighbours, may (for us) ftand Empty? For my part, if ever the Law called Lex Talionis deferved to be put in Execution, I think it ought most properly to be fo here. If thefe Men will not buy of us, why should we buy of any of them? Especially fince thofe of their own Party know they are no honefter than their Neighbours. But my Province is of another nature. I have written enough on this Topick already, and therefore fhall only touch it hereaf

ter.

My great.Defign in the enfuing Treatife, I confefs is, to uncafe thefe deceivers, and to pluck off their difguife Yet am I not altogether unconcerned with their Errours, to confute them; but take most of them (more or less) into confideration: Efpecially when I treat of thofe Sublime Doctrines

4

Doctrines, which concern the Holy Scriptures, their Authority, Interpretation, Infallibility and the neceffary Dependances thereon; in which I have been defignedly copious: Partly because on them we build our Confent unto, or Diffent from all Doctrines propofed to us: And also Partly, becaufe I concluded, that all wife men would perceive that the Scriptures fhould be thought to make most for them, who contend most for their Authority: and those who moft Vilifie them, put leaft Confidence in them, to have their Caufe, and Doctrines tried by them.

I have throughout the whole Difcourfe, ufed the plaineft expreffions, that I might become intelligible to the meanest capacities. For indeed my great defign is to convince all Men [that wilfully fhut not theirEyes againft theLight] that Duakers are not what they appear, Caemtes to the Church of Rome. But that on the contrary, they are what they appear not, nor would willingly be thought to be; even its true, and faithful Servants: And many of them, fuch as do warmly endeavour its re-establishment among us. And yet for that end Artificially ufe fuch means and methods as feem moft oppofite thereunto. And (by confequence) leaft patent to be fufpected by us.

But this is a Truth not fo througly fcanned as it ought. For thô many Men have declared their Belief thereof, yet all Men have not duly weighed the reafons of that Belief. For whofe fakes, and all others, who defire to be confirmed in the Truth, I have fent abroad thefe Papers; least by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his Subtilty, fo their mind's fhould be corrupted from the Simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.

And if herein I have added any thing to former Convictions I have ming End. And let God

have the Glory.

I confess I have attempted a task which deferves the hand and skill of an abler Undertaker. Yet how mean foever my performance is, I hope it will not prove altogether infignificant and fruitless. If it will but waken others to the work who are abler Work-men, my labour is not then quite loft, nor my defign utterly fruftrate. If I can hereby but prove a whetstone to sharpen others, I fhall rejoyce at fo happy an effect of fo mean an undertaking, and that I undertook it.

I have to deal with a Sect of Seducers who are the last born of Hereticks. Poftremus Diaboli conatus, and faculi Excrementum: the laft Vomit of the great red Dragon with feven Heads and ten Horns, Rev. 12. 15. The very Excrement of the prefent Age: who efteem all our Proteftant Doarines [fo far as they are Proteftant, and oppofite to Popery] as

Rumores Vacui, Verbaque inania,
Et par follicito Fabula fomnie.

Seneca.

as mere falfities, and idle dreams. And therefore exert their uttermoft Skill and Rage to decry them, and defame us. And yet o faculum infipiens &infacetum! as Catullus exclaims, fuch fools and madmen are we of this giddy headed Age, that we will not easily be convinced of our danger, nor prevailed with fpeedily to prevent it.

The Church of Rome are not to be inform'd what advantages they gain by our Divifions: and yet how stupidly infenfible are too many of our ableft Champions of the progreffes they have already made therein? Not duly weighing, that Nulla firmior Amicitia, nullaque Difcordia major, quam que à Religione fit. As Montanus obferves in જે his Comment upon Micah.

There is no greater Concord, or Discord, than

that

that which proceeds from Religion. O the flaughters, Murders, Mallacres, Depopulations, and Ruines which have flowed from this fatal Caufe; we have had fo many bloody inftances of this, in our own days, that never was more caufe to complain in the Words of the Poet,

Tantum Relligio potuit fuadere Malorum?

Lucr.

And who I pray have died their Tongues fo much in the blood of the Saints as the Popish Cannibals? And when do you think will they have fatisfied their cruel Thirft? To be fure not while one Proteftant is left to breath in their Air and. among them, and to oppofe them. Nihil aliud nifi Imperium fpirant. If they be at all [if they can they will be Abfolute. And are their Off-pring, the Quakers, of a milder difpofition?

Ille finiftrorfum, hic dextrorfum, unus utrique
Error, fed variis illudit partibus omnes..

They differ but as right hand and left handed Butchers bothagree in Slaughtering, but difagree in the manner thereof. One fes one way and Method, and another, another;

Mox daturi Progeniem Vitiofiorem...

Horat.

Every age growing more cruel than the former. Do but read over the Defcriptions given of the Quakers tender heartedness to all that diffented from them in Penfylvania, Whileft Mr. William. Pen was their Governour, their mild and gentle Treatment of the Members of our Church living among them; and of Mr. Keith and his Followers; with what meeknefs they, managed their Government, there; and how free and far diftant from Cruelty, Rage, and Perfecution. And you will then be convinced That the' here in England they

have the fmooth Tongues of Jacob, yet there in Penfylvania they had the rough hands of Efau: ---Defavit omnes. Dum fe poffe putat---Claud. No Men more Malitious, more Outragious, and more Cruel in their Perfecutions; nor more Partial and more Unjuft, in their Courts and Judicatures, whiles they had the power. Cruel Sons of cruel Parents?

---Nec enim feroces

Progenerant Aquila Columbas.

Do Men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thiftles? Mat. 7. 16.

For my own part, I have been a long time grieved to fee the unwearied industry of thefe Enemies of the Truth, to scatter their Poisonous Doarines in all the Corners of our Kingdom. And withall, how little notice by our Ecclefiaftical Guides and Governours has been taken thereof, and how few of our Chieftains have entred the lifts against them. I am Confident, fuch was the Zeal of our first Reformers that they would never have fuffer'd fuch Herefes to breath in their Air; nor fuch horrid Blafphemies to infect the fame; but would have crush'd the Cockatrice's Egg ere it could be able to hatch to Poisonous a Serpent.

The Truth is, this Sect was too much Neglected, when it firft brake the fhell: and few Men would believe, that what Pliny writeth of the Crocodile, could be ever applicable to this defpicable Generation of Men [as they truly were, at their first appearance] Non aliud (faith he ex minore origine, in majorem crefcit magnitudinem. There's nothing fo big at the laft, which was fo little at the firit. But Wisdom would have Taught us better and it was a Precept long fince given by Ovid

Opprime