The Athenian Society unvaild: or, Their ignorance and envious abusing of the Quakers detected and reprehended

THE Athenian Society Unvaild : Or , their Ignorance and Envious Abusing of the QUAKERS Detected and Reprehended .

THE Prediction of the Blessed Apostle , 2 Tim. 3.12 . All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution , has been the perpetual Experience of the Church of Christ in all Ages ; only with this variation , that their Sufferings have been sometimes after one manner , and sometimes after another ; one while Life , another Liberty ; and very frequently Estates have been the Prizes that an innocent and harmless Life have cost their Owners : The Truth hereof is attested , not only by History very Ancient , but also by some so very Modern , that it is not yet past Memory . But when all these in good measure have , by God's Providence and a Government 's Favour , been stopped , then the same Spirit , frequently in the same Members , and sometimes in others , hath laboured to blacken and misrepresent those they could not destroy under the Pretext of Law . This is the present Case ; it is but a little while since , that Liberty and Estate were the common Rates which we call'd Quakers ( with many others ) were made to compound at ( if I may so speak ) for our Innocency and Conscientious Scruples . But the mildness and gentleness of the present Government , has so signally gone beyond that of some of their Predecessors , that they have not only recommended these excellent Qualities by their particular Example , but also by the Authority of a Law , which is remembred by us , with true Gratitude and Thankfulness . Now the Advantage of so Noble an Example , one might think should have been sufficient , if not to sweeten , yet to chill the most virulent Spirits , and more especially yours , who call your selves the Athenian Society ; and have made so many Offers at a Reformation , by the pubick Pretences you have made , to encourage some and advise all to the furtherance of it : These , 't is true , have been your Pretensions , but your Practice is no other than the Transcript of the * * Preface to the second Volume . Jesuits Maxim ; who you say were they , that by their Disguises and false Pretences were the first Promoters of the many unhappy Differences that are now among us , both in Church and State . Now what is odious in them , can it be lovely in you ? Or what is against the Peace of Government in them , can it be otherwise in you ? Surely no : For Crimes lose not their Nature when they only change their Agent , nor is Satan at all the more Holy for being in an Athenian , or in one called a Christian : The Truth of this you have sufficiently evinced by the Falshoods and Abuses which you have so liberally bestowed both upon Communities and particular Persons . And yet you are the Men , who at your appearance by this Name , promis'd to use in your ensuing Design , much Christian Candor and Modesty ; and not to * * Preface to the second Volume . widen the Breaches , but to avoid either Practices or Disputes that might tend thereto : And further , that you would answer no obscene Questions , nor any whose Answer should be an Abuse to particular Persons : With more to the same purpose , which I could here recite , were it as necessary as it is easie . But I shall here pass it over , as well as your other Contradictions and Nonsense , of which we have generally notice once a Week by the London Mercury ; for my Design is , herein chiefly to instance in those Answers of Questions , which were the cause of the Letter I sent you , ( which I shall set down anon ) to which , tho' you promis'd an Answer , yet have not given one , unless Queries and Impertinency may deserve that Name ; by detecting your Falshood and Lies , and also something concerning John Whitehead , whom by Name you have abused in your Buffoonry . But I have observed that in defiance of your Rules , in breach of your pretended Charity , and contrary to Morality and to true Christianity , you have seemed glad of an opportunity to be abusive towards us in particular , as will plainly enough appear , by your Answer to a Question in Vol. 3. N. 8. q. 6. Whether it be lawful for a Christian to Swear ? To which you , not content to deliver your Answer in the Affirmative only , have stigmatiz'd all as silly Enthusiasts who believe the contrary . Now as this Answer of yours did cause , so your Promise that you would fairly Answer any Objections that were made to your Answers , did encourage the sending of a Letter to you soon after ; wherein among other Things , were the three following Queries .

1. Whether since the very end of Christ's coming into the World ( as is testified ) was to take away Sin and finish Transgression , he did not thereby supersede the very use of all Oaths ? 2. Whether if Men did cooperate with the Assistance that Christ Jesus lends , and obey the Precepts he has given , they might not thereby attain the end of his coming ? 3. Whether there is any positive Command in the Gospel , enforced by words more comprehensive , full positive and pertinent , than this of Swear not , &c.

To these you have not returned any Answer , as by your fore-mentioned promise you were obliged , but still proceed further to abuse and belie us , in such Instances as your own Eyes and Ears , if you ever imployed them to read or hear our Principles from our selves , must needs convince you of ( for you say you have used them herein : ) From whence the Inference is very easy , that your Disease is Malice , because your Assertions are directly contradictory to what has been at all times Spoken and Written by our Friends : But if you have not read or heard from our selves , what you have asserted to be our Belief , then what Abatements are to be made from the Malice of your Charge , must be added to the Impudence of it , in that you are of those , who said , Report , and we will Report it ; which shews you to be neither more Christian nor less Wicked ; this will best appear by the Charge it self . Where in Vol. 3. N. 23. q. 4. you affirm the Quaker's Opinions to be dangerous and detestable ( as indeed they were , were it true , that you afterwards affirm ) that they speak contemptibly of the Bible , and will by no means allow it to be God's Word ; that they have turned the most Sacred Truths therein contain'd , into jejune Allegory ; that they speak not very Honourably of our Saviour , deny the Trinity , and many , if not all , embrace the other Socinian Dream , of the Soul 's Sleeping till the Resurrection : And afterwards in Vol. 4. N. 30. q. 1. The Quakers have been e're since their rise , look'd upon as the Jesuits , By-Blows of the Jesuit ; that they deny the plenary Satisfaction of Christ , and rest on their own Merits ; that Fanaticism , Enthusiasm and Infidelity together , make up the Creed of the Quaker , they being a Compendium of almost all sorts of Heresies ; who deny the Satisfaction and Divinity of Christ , as also his Humanity ; nay , deny Angels , Spirits , Heaven and Hell , and the Existence of Souls after Death .

Here is the Complex of your Lies and Slanders , freed from the profound Nonsense and palpable Ignorance , wherewith you have formally interlarded each of the above cited places ; but of each I shall give an Instance . First in the 23. N. q. 4. where you say — But if there be any of 'em who have left their first Principles , and are degenerated into Christianity . What! think you Christianity to be worse than our Principles ? For Degeneracy is , I think , to go from better to worse ; or if this be to Frolick with Words , it 's a very odd way of doing it . Of your palpable Ignorance , let this be an Instance , where , in N. 30. q. 1. you ask , How they have the Face to pretend to what they never had , Christianity , when they were never Christen'd ? Now , if by Christning you mean Sprinkling a Face with Water , I am sure it is contradictory to that of the Apostle , who signifies , That true and saving Christianity consists , in having the Conscience sprinkled from dead Works , to serve the Living God : Which cannot be purged by any such external Operation , but only and alone by the Spirit of God in Man . By this time , I suppose , it will be thought sufficiently reasonable that we clear our selves , or that you should prove these your Assertions , which that you might do the last , was the occasion o th' Letter , which ( in that you call your Answer , in V. 5. N. 29. and which I shall consider anon ) you call an angry one , and not agreeable to the Precept of Turning the other Cheek ; to which I must tell you , that it is sufficiently known to have been our constant Practice , to bear the Smitings , the Buffetings , the Wastings and the Plunderings , which Men of your Spirit and Temper have inflicted upon us under the pretext of Laws , whilst in use . Under all which Sufferings , God did by the Sheddings forth of his Spirit , so comfort our Spirits , that we can say in Truth , we took joyfully the Spoil of our Goods and Imprisonment of our Bodies , for his Name sake , and can also forgive them that did it ; only desiring for the worst of them , as for you , That you may come to see the Evil you have done by these your Lies and Scandals , and turn from them by a sincere and hearty Repentance ; that so your Sins may be forgiven , when the times of refreshing shall come from the Lord's Presence . But notwithstanding all this , should we be silent to these your Lies , it might be construed a joyning with you against that Holy Truth , of which we are Professors , which we cannot do ; but must herein clear it from your Calumnies . And the Jews might have told John the Baptist he was angry , when he calls them a Generation of Vipers : The like they might have told Holy Stephen , when in Act. 7.51 , 52. he calls them , Vncircumcised in Hearts and Ears , Resisters of the Holy Ghost , Persecutors of the Prophets , Betrayers and Murtherers of the Just One. They both speak Truth , and its warmness was justified by its occasion . And now to shew that the warmness of this Letter , bears no proportion to the occasion you have given , and that I have not requited you with Vineger for your Gall , I shall here give the Copy thereof ; but without your frothy and abusive Parentheses : Which is as follows .

The Copy of the Letter I sent them . Athenians ,

AT , and since , your appearing in the World ( by this Name ) your repeated Protestations of Christian Candor and Modesty , in answering such Questions , as were fit to be answered , and total Silence in such as were not ; did make the Ingenuous of either Sex ( however distinguish'd ) willing to further what might be of Service to the Publick : But your notorious Prevarications have sufficiently shewn , that what was intended for your Encouragement , and others Service , you have only made use of as a Ladder to climb higher than others , whereby you might have the hateful opportunity of abusing what , and whomsoever agrees not with you ; and that by Aspersions so palpably gross and false , that it needs not the Judgment of an Athenian to Vnvail you .

The present Ease and Felicity which we , called Quakers , do with others , find under the happy Influence of a mild and generous Government ( which Happiness , we do with all Duty and Gratitude thankfully acknowledg and remember ) has so far buried the late Distractions , Waste and Plunderings , that they are hardly now to be met with but in History . And that this Peace and this Felicity might be perpetual , the Wisdom of the Nation has been so Latitudinarian ( to use your disdainful Expression ) that among other Things , in an Act for that very purpose made , they have framed what they there Call , and what truly is , a Christian Profession or Confession ; the Owners and Subscribers of which , as they are the King and Queens Lieg-Subjects , so they are Christians in Belief , notwithstanding all your Buffoonry and wilful Lies .

I shall only at present enumerate the Heads of your several Scandals and Abuses , which in your Preface to the 3. Volume , you say you took so much Pleasure in Composing : The first is Vol. 3. N. 8. q. 6. where you tax the paying of Obedience to a positive Command of Christ with Enthusiasm ; but this being Language too kind , you do with the next opportunity , in N. 23. q. 4. of the same Volume , assert upon your own Knowledg , our believing a number of portentous and monstrous Opinions , you there number up , and which here we do utterly deny , and ever did , declaring such your Assertion to be False , Scandalous and Malitious ; hereby requiring you to make your Assertions good , or to be accounted , what you truly are , that is , the worst of Incendiaries ; which Title , to convince the World , does peculiarly belong to you , you have in another of your Mercuries , Vol. 4. N. 30. q. 1. pretended to draw a Parallel between Quaker and Papist ; but with such known Falshood , that there is now hardly any Person , who pretends to much less Reading than your witty selves , but knows it to be no other than a Malitious Lye ; which plainly shews , that notwithstanding the noisy Offers , which you in your Mercuries make at a Reformation , your selves have not advanced the first Step towards it : And in the last-mentioned Question , where you pretend to consider them asunder , you have done it so unlearnedly , as well as falsly , that perhaps it needs not the strength of a Champion to foil you , who have fallen from the forms of Civility as well as Christanity , in that you have falsly belyed and accused your Neighbours .

You are not to suppose that this comes in the manner of a Question , which you may not think fit to Answer ; for it is hereby declared , That if you do not , within some reasonable time , give the World clear Proofs of your Assertions , in the Places and Answers above-noted , you shall be exposed , and your Falshood and Baseness detected , not only by the Verbatim hereof in Print , but by a more particular Answer to each of your many Lies ; I call them by this Name , which you affirm to be the detestable Opinions which we hold , and indeed do not , nor never did .

Decemb. 22. 1691. By one who is in Scorn called a QUAKER .

By this it appears that its end is , either that you would prove your Assertions or retract them ; but instead of doing either , in that which you call your Answer , you have only shewn a little more ill Nature , and a great deal of Impertinency , in running so very wide from the Mark as you have done ; by making your foolish and false Harangues , without proving any thing ; and all this with a design ( to use your own words ) to preserve those of your Communion , by shewing them what Principles you say we really hold . But if you have no better Preservatives , than these palpable Lies , you need not wonder that People , coming to the Knowledg of that self evident Principle , of the Light , Grace or Spirit of God in their own Hearts , do then leave you and your refuge . And here I must observe , that to evade the proving your Charges and to prevent any closer Answer , you endeavour to amuse the Reader and frighten us , by asking 10 Questions ( if at least they all deserve that Name ) in which you think there is so much Acumen , that they touch us to the quick ; and all these to be answered Catagorically , or else the worst is to be taken pro Confesso . Now to Questions , on which so great stress is laid , the Reader will very naturally suppose , they ought to be very pertinent and very weighty ; but I must inform him that in this present case it 's far otherwise , as will appear plain enough by repeating them ; and which are as follows .

1. Whether they all generally own the Scriptures to be the Word of God ? 2. Whether they own Jesus Christ to have been God equal with the Father from all Eternity ? 3. Whether they own the Holy Spirit to be God ; and that in the Holy Trinity , there are three Persons and one God blessed for evermore ? 4. Whether they hold their boasted Light within to be this very third Person , or only their own natural Reason ? 5. Whether they partake of either of the Sacraments in their Congregations ; or whether they do not absolutely neglect both Baptism and the Supper of the Lord ? 6. Whether they believe Angels , or any Immaterial Spirits besides the Soul of Man ? 7. Whether they believe the Existence of the Soul after Death and Resurrection of the Body , and Reunion of the Soul thereunto at the day of Judgment ? ( Now the terrible ones ) 8. Who was your first Founder ? 9. Did they Quake and Tremble or no when they first came into England , and the reason thereof ? 10. Where may we find their Creed or an Act of their Religion ? And whether it is not altered in several particulars since their Rise , tho' but of so few Years standing ?

These are what you vainly and falsly set to measure Christianity by , but they cannot do it ; because some of them are Antiscriptural ( which yet you call your Rule ) and others so ridiculous that they could not be asked , by a Man truly Christian ; so that if I should not refer you to any Answer to these ( for you would not have it now done de Novo , but by the Testimony of our Authentick Writers ) your mighty Threaten would signifie nothing ; for it remains for you to prove your Assertions , they being denyed by us ; and tho' at pleasure you throw by your own Rules , yet you must not pretend to do so , by the continual Rules of Debate and Discourse . But the trouble hereof being as small , as your expectation can be great , I shall for this once do it ; when I have first acquainted you , That tho' you pretend to be more Athenian than the Senate of the Nation ; yet it will hardly become you to pretend to be more Christian than it : And if so ; then , since Malice or some such Humour has spoiled your Memory , I will take leave to acquaint you , that in an Act made 1689. Entituled , An Act for exempting their Majesties Protestant Subjects , &c. there is something which upon the Authority of Holy Writ , as well as their own , is call'd a Christian Belief , and was made on purpose for us , call'd Quakers , as by the Act appears ; and is as follows .

I A. B. Profess Faith in God the Father , and Jesus Christ his Eternal Son the true God , and in the Holy Spirit one God blessed for evermore ; and do acknowledg the Holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration . This having been at all times ( as it now is ) our hearty Belief , you might have spared your three first Queries , which are not so Scriptural : To your fourth query , read Geo. Keith of Immediate Revelation not Ceased : To your sixth and seventh , read Sam. Fisher , in a Treatise , Entituled , [ Some certain hidden Spiritual Verities revealed : ] And likewise for Answer to many of them , you may read The Christian Quaker , written by Geo. Whitehead and Will . Penn : And lastly , both to these and the rest , read Rob. Barclay , in his Apology for the true Christian Divinity , in which you will find a distinct Account of our Principles , and that they are consonant to Holy Writ , right Reason and pure Antiquity ; for which reason it is , that our Principles are not chang'd nor indeed can be , they being preserv'd by the Spirit of God in us , with which there is no Variableness nor Shadow of turning : And many more ( would I be prolix ) I could number up , but here being enough , and more than is needful in this occasion , I shall stop . Now in these cited Authentick Writings you may find ( as I have said ) not only more than enough to Answer your Queries , but also the Truths therein contained , so clearly delivered , that were ye honest enough to confess it , you would say there is much less of the Jesuit in them , than there appears to be of their Nature in you , as is evident by your gross Lies and Abuses ; which that I may not forget and you run from , by that Evasion which you pretended to fear in us ; I shall here put you in mind , That whatsoever you shall say hereafter , cannot be look'd upon to have any Weight , unless you either prove or retract these your bold Affirmo's ; which are hereby returned upon you as your Lies , viz. You affirm , 1. That the Quakers rest on their own Merits . 2. That they deny Heaven , Hell , Angels and Spirits . 3. That they believe the Soul to sleep in the Grave until the Resurrection . 4. That they deny the Divinity and Humanity of Christ . 5. That they deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God ( or given by Divine Inspiration . ) And 6. that Fanaticism , Enthusiasm and Infidelity , do make up the Quaker's Creed . If you pretend to prove them , it is expected that you do it from our Selves , or our own Writings ; but if you cannot , let it hereby appear how fairly you have merited the Title of Incendiaries , which yet you 're loath to own ; but it being your due , you must be so accounted , in that you 're Disturbers of the Publick Peace , which never had more mortal Enemies , than those , who under the mask of Religion have laboured to foment civil Broils , by the mutual Aversions which their false and noisy Clamours have too frequently procured . But in this Instance , the Peace is thus far secured , that if you do neither retract , nor prove your Assertions , your Abuses being cast upon a People , who return not Evil for Evil , are not therefore bound to return an Answer to every impertinent Scrible , this not being written either from Humour or mercenary Interest , is not design'd to be repeated whereby to trouble my self or others , who will hereby sufficiently understand your baseness , in your general Lies and Abuses , as now they shall your abusive handling of John Whitehead , who is belyed by your Querist ( if at least it were not your selves ) and both abused and belyed by you in Vol. 4. N. 30. q. 2.

Now here had been a fit opportunity to have put in practice that Rule of yours , which was , not to Answer any Question , whose Answer might be an abuse to particular Persons . But you , considering it was a Quaker , did dispence with it , tho you exposed your selves by rallying upon a Lie , in which there is so much obscenity , that it puts me in mind of a certain Altar which was at Athens , erected to * * Rous Archaeologiae Atticae , lib. 1. p. 34. Injury and Impudence , and upon which I find not only the Ancient , but also the Modern Athenians , do sometimes Sacrifice , as will sufficiently appear by the fulsom Stuff with which the last cited Answer is fill'd . But first , your Query is false in fact , and John Whitehead did never so boast , as that affirms , of his Fatness ; nor was he ever forced when in Prison , to feed on Bread and Water , nor was he ever 3 yards about the Waste , nor is his Wife near that size : Now before you went thus to rally , and be merry with the reputation of a Family , sure you should have taken as good Caution not to have been deceived , as you have sometimes required to the Attestation of an Experiment in Art , or Casualty in Nature , in which you have sometimes required more than the Name of the Relator ; which if you cannot produce in this Instance , let it be supposed your selves were the Querist , and so guilty both of the Lie and the Abuse ; which being so particular , take John Whitehead's Answer as followeth .

A few Questions for Answer , to the Authors of a Scandalous , Impertinent Paper , Entituled , The Athenian Mercury , Vol. 4. Numb. 30.

1. WHether such Persons as by their Words or Actions , say , Come let us Smite him or them with the Tongue , Report and we will Report it , do not as much as in them lies , indeavour to stir up a new Persecution ? And whether herein they do not symbolize with the worst Heathens and Papists , who used to cloath the ancient Christians in ugly Shapes , and painted Devils upon them , that they might be the readilier devoured by wild Beasts , and burnt to Death by the wicked Hands of cruel Men ?

2. Whether great blindness of Mind hath not happen'd to such Men , as do look upon the People of God ( in scorn called Quakers , who are at the greatest distance from Popery of any People in the World , professing Christianity ) to be the By-Blows of the Jesuits , and Symbolizers with the Papists ; for which if ye have no better Proof , than that heap of Lies and Slanders which follow , in your Answer to the first Question , then consider if Justice and Truth do not require you to repent of your Wickedness , and acknowledg you have followed blind Guides to your own hurt , and thereby wronged both your selves and your Neighbours ?

3. Whether we have not by the Word of our Testimony in open and publick Assemblies , and the many Books spread up and down the Nation , sufficiently clear'd our selves from those foul Imputations ye would cast upon us ; so that we need not multiply Answers to every vain impertinent Scribler , our Principles and Practice being manifest to the Witness of God , in the Consciences of sober People that know us ; which is a Refuge sufficient for us , against such silly Blasts of Envy ?

4. Who is the Man , and where doth he dwell , that dares affirm , he heard John Whitehead boast of such a Miracle as your 2d Question affirms ? That when he was fed in a Prison with Bread and Water , he fatned on it so as that he was 3 yards or more about the Waste ; for I do positively deny that ever I made any such boast as your Query affirms ; and I further say , that I was never under those Circumstances in a Prison , as to be confin'd to Bread and Water ; and that I was never of that bigness , but that a Girdle of less than 4 foot would have met about my Waste ; and therefore that monstrous prodigious Lie , of my being 3 yards about the Waste ( there being many hundreds of Witnesses to the contrary ) is turned back upon you , with that false suggestion , that his Wife is near as spacious as himself ; and all those Slanders and scornful frothy Insinuations that follow thereupon , in your Answer to your second Query , which are as the Smoke of the bottomless Pit , and thither must descend , and into the Lake must be cast all those that love and make Lies , except they repent : Therefore prize your time , and do no more so wickedly : This Friendly Admonition is given you by one that can love his Enemies ,

John Whitehead .

This is his own Letter , which you are desired to Answer ; with which I shall end , when I have told you , That plain and positive Proof must make good your Charge , Repentance must make you honest Men , and the continuance in your Crimes , will make you as Incorrigible as those Beasts , which serve for Emblems in your Buffoonry : If you cannot do the first , the way to avoid the last is by the middlemost ; which that you may , is the desire of him who can forgive Enemies , and is in scorn call'd a

Quaker .