IT's unto you, into whose Orders I am now Admitted, and by whom I am Owned, since the Quakers have denied me, that I make my Com­plaint of the Quakers; that cast on me such Aspersions, that its evident and demonstrable out of my Books, what I have said of you, as these following evince, viz. That you Ran, and the Lord never sent you; and that you were Covetous and Ambitious, seeking how to please Men, for your own Ends; and it's true, That I cried against your Philosophy, and your Uni­versities, saying, They are the Stews of Antichrist, out of which comes your ignorant, profane, scandalous Ministry; and that the Generality of you have not the True Faith; and that in process of Time, your whole Ministry will consist of ungodly Men; the Wicked being still preferr'd by the Wicked: And so, they say, I am preferr'd among the rest; and by contrivance and design, now I am so Old, as to have so much Natural Wit, as to see I must make some shift how to live; having cast my self out from among the Quakers, and seeing it is the far easiest of many or most Trades, to be a Preacher, to get Money, and become one of the Man-made Ministry, where All is done for Money: Therefore, Learned Brethren, I come among you; for you know, No Money, No Preaching; as the Old Proverb is, No Penny, No Pater Noster. And the vile Quakers slan­der me in these, and other matters of Truth, by saying, You (and I may now say, We, Brethren) Preach not Christ; but say contrary, That is not Christ which convinceth every Man of his sins, and tells him all that ever he did; it is but a Humane Principle, and not Divine: And to Read Set-Forms of Prayers out of a Book, which to read, whether in private or publick, and call that Reading Prayer, is not (I affirm) any part of Gos­pel-Worship; neither was it known in the Church, either in Justin Mar­tyr, or Tertullian's Time, who lived above 300 Years after Christ.

[Page 3]And, Learned Brethren, these Heathens, as I call the Quakers, in my late Sheet, Reproach me with another thing that I said of them, whilst I was one of them, concerning such as you (and I) that now oppugn the Qua­kers with gross and horrid Lyes, and false Calumnies, and meer Abuses, like unto the ways that ever the worst of the Adversaries of Truth have used against the True Witnesses of it; and yet said I, It never yet hath been pro­ved, nor never will, that the Religion professed by the sincere and faithful People, called in scorn Quakers, is either Paganism, or any other thing than Real Christianity; and notwithstanding I have so said, I do Retract, Dis­own, and Deny whatsoever is to be found in any of my Books, contra­ry to the Holy Scriptures. Yet these Heathens, Learned Brethren, do not forbear to Reproach me with what I have truly said, concerning the Sa­craments Christ hath ordained in his Church, viz. Two only, as generally necessary to Salvation, as we profess; that is to say, Baptism, and the Sup­per of the Lord. Viz. As for Infants Baptism, and Sprinkling a Child of Eight Days Old more or less, on the Forehead, and call it Baptism, I said hath no footing in all the Scripture, neither of Precept nor Practice; neither was it in use for an Hundred Years and more after the Apostles days, among Professors of Christianity; and that we cannot Prove it, altho' we Practice it, and get Money by it, but do it by a bare Imitation, and a meer pretended Call, which is great Presumption, yea, Superstition; altho' we call it Christ's Ordi­nance, and say, It's Commanded by Christ; yet he hath given us no Command; but we set up the Commandments of Men in the Room of God's Commands, like the Pharisees, as they shew in their late Sheet, entituled, The Christianity of the People called Quakers asserted by (me) George Keith; and in their Book, called The Creed-Forgers detected, they shew, that I said, Tertullian was against Infant Baptism, and that we cannot (as true it is) give any Evidence in Church-History, that Christ commanded those Words to be used, which we use in Baptism; and Zuinglius is against us in this Case; and that 1 Cor. 11.23, 24. proves no Institution of the Lord's Supper at all; and that we, Learn­ed Brethren, own (as you know we do) and acknowledge, that there is no absolute necessity of using that called the Supper, so as that none can be Saved, but such that partake of it: And that whatever Outward thing God Commands, brings along with them a real Advantage to Men's Souls; and you know, we hold this to be an Outward thing, and Visible Sign. And for my part, I still adhere, as I said in my Retractations, to my former Advice, that nothing be required by one sort (i.e. by us, or any others) from another, as an Article of Faith, or Doctrine, in common to be Believed, but what is expresly delivered in the Scriptures, in plain express Scripture-Terms.

And, Learned Brethren, you know, we hold the Lord's Supper as an Ar­ticle of Faith, or Doctrine, to be believed; and yet cannot we prove it by what is expresly delivered in the Scripture, in plain and express Scrip­ture-Terms. What, Brethren, shall I do with this Gang of Quakers? Altho' [Page 4] I charge them not either upon the Generality (pray mind that) far less the Universality of all them called Quakers; yet I must confess, I have posi­tively said in my late Sheet, That I have proved the Quakers (without Ex­ception) Heathens; notwithstanding those that have but a little sound Judg­ment may easily find, I do not contradict my self in any thing, nor do I continue to hold palpable Contradictions; for I have declared in Print, Those that continue to hold palpable Contradictions, all Ingenious Persons will conclude great Hypocrites, for none but stark Mad and Crazed in their Un­derstanding, will hold perfect Contradictions, for what I hold is agreeable to Holy Scripture; therefore these Quakers that I have charged with the Gangreen of their Vile and Gross Errors and Heresie, that is, a Complex of the worse sort of Errors and Heresies, Demand of me to prove by plain Scripture, and in Plain and Express Scripture Terms, that the Bap­tizing Infants, and Signing them with the Sign of the Cross, and the Sacra­ment of the Lord's Supper, as used by us, and our set Forms of Prayer, and our taking Tythes, and pleading for the Divine Right thereof, and our requiring they should be paid to us (the Ministers of the Nation) as Mi­nisters of Christ, and that as such we should receive Tythes and Stipends; to prove all this, and much more, from plain Scripture, and in plain and express Scripture Terms, they do demand; because I still say, I adhere to my former Testimony.

Again, If I believe these things to be Articles of Faith, or Christian Do­ctrines to be believed, and many other things that we Hold and Practice; these Quakers would have plain Scripture for all such things, and in plain and express Scripture Terms they would have it proved; is not this unreasonable, Brethren? I have indeed declared, in publick Print, That I have been above 30 Years among the Quakers; and since I left them, have publish'd to the World, that I Reverence Divine Providence that I became a Quaker: And have Affirmed, That they held the Fundamentals of Christian Doctrines, and that I knew the Quakers and their Principles, having been Conversant with them in their publick Meetings, as well as private Discourses, with the most noted and esteemed amongst them for 30 Years; yet have said, to Excuse my self since I left them, If I had known they had such Errors among them, I would as soon have put my Head in the Fire, as have owned them: Yet in my Retractations, I declare, I am of the same Faith as I have been above 30 Years. Thus they say, I say and unsay, and pretend Ignorance when I well knew, and vindicated those Doctrines stoutly, and in the Name of the Lord, which I now chargeas Errors upon them, many of which were writ before I was a Quaker; and therefore as to my pretence, that if I had known the Quakers had such Errors, I would as soon have put my Head in the Fire, as have own'd them; which the Quakers esteem an idle Story, for they will not believe I was so Ignorant, as not to know them, because I vindicated them; and be­sides, they account there is no need for me to put my Head in the Fire, because [Page 5] they think me too hot-headed already; and that if what I have said be true, That I am of the same Faith still, that I was when a Quaker, and that I have been for above 30 Years past; then I must be a Quaker still; and if I never was a Quaker, then they pretend they do not understand what reason I had to publish to the World, That I reverence divine Providence that I became a Quaker; thus they reflect upon me, and endeavour to ren­der me in palpable Contradiction, and to shew that by my own Saying, I prove I am an Apostate, a great Hypocrite, Crazed in my Understanding, and stark Mad: But, Learned Brethren, seeing I meet with these things, I make my Complaint to you, to whose Service, for my Wages, Stipend, or Reward, I am now Devoted.

And I say, and do what I can, by calling the Quakers Heathens, Deists; their Divinity, mad Divinity; their Religion, the Religion of Julian the Apostate; and render them Stoicks, Platonists, and what not; and assert I have proved them Apostates, telling them in my late Sheet, That I think not at present to take particular Notice of the Pamphlets which charge me with some Passages in my former Books, particularly the Account of a National Church, &c. the Animadversions thereon, the Portraiture of G. K. and the Broad-Sheet, cum multis aliis: But they still call upon me to prove that those Principles which I have formerly vindicated in the Name of the Lord, are contrary to Scripture; and the Quakers tell the World most truly, I Deny and Retract what's contrary to the Holy Scriptures, that is to be found in any of my Books; by which they conclude that I do more Retract what I have lately writ and done, than what I writ or did formerly; because they suggest, that according to their Opinion, I Writ, Preached and Practised, more agreea­ble to the Scripture then, than I do now; and when I had more Charity for them, I was better than now I am, and less envious, and more like a Christian indeed: Therefore in my late Sheet I say, I do Retract, Disown and Deny whatever is to be found in any of my Books contrary to the Holy Scrip­tures, or the 39 Articles of the Church of England; which, I say, I sincerely believe are perfectly according to the Doctrine of Holy Scriptures: And now they would have me prove that the Quakers hold any Fundamental Doctrine that is contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and the 39 Articles of the Church of Eng­land. And what Fundamental Principles or Doctrines of the Christian Faith to be believed, they, i. e. Quakers hold, that are contrary to the holy Scrip­tures, and 39 Articles.

Seeing that I say, I am of the same Faith, and have not changed in any Fundamental Principle, nor indeed in any one Principle of the Christian Faith, nor varied therefrom to this Day; for all the while I was a Quaker, I was Orthodox, or Sound in the Christian Faith, although I have, to render the Quakers odious, asserted them to be Erroneous. And although I now say, Those Texts of Scripture, relating to Baptism and the Supper, I was mistaken in; and when I did particularly Assert, Water [Page 6] was not meant; and since affirmed that it is meant in Mat 28.19. yet I have not varied in any one Principle of the Christian Faith, nor contradicted my self; neither doth this prove, when I held otherwise than now I do, that I was not then found in the Principles of Christianity, or Doctrines of the Christian Faith, or that I held any thing contrary to the 39 Articles, by no means, for then I should be an Apostate, stark Mad, and Crazed in my Un­derstanding, (if I contradicted my self;) according to my own Saying, and was unsound in the Principles of Christianity, or Doctrines of the Chri­stian Faith; or that I held any thing contrary to the 39 Articles.

And, Learned Brethren, you are not Ignorant how we have encouraged some to write against the Quakers, altho' it hath cost some Scores of Pounds: and there hath been a Complaint made, in the Quakers Names, against me, humbly presented to the Clergy of the Church of England; therefore my Letter-Learned-Brethren, that are as False and Conceited as I am, and think you can split Hairs, strain Sentences, quibble about Words to raise Strife, use Sophisms, draw wrong Conclusions, make undue Inferences, to Wrong the Living, and Desame the Dead, that you may render both Errone­ous, the living Ignorant, and your selves Wise and Knowing, when it's well known (to them that are truly wise and knowing) we are otherwise: There­fore such of you that have more Passion than Patience, Pride than Humility, empty Conceit than sound Judgment, Folly than Wisdom; that are more taken with Lyes and Railery, than Truth and Reason; to you I do Address my self, as being nearest Related to me, and with whom I am in abundant more Unity, than with the Patient, Humble, Wise, Judicious, and sober honest Men; for they may think, that ‘I might better Imploy my Time, and my Parts, and Zeal, to much better pur­poses, in furthering the Reformation of Men's Lives, and of the Manners of the Nation, than by raising or keeping up with an Unchristian Temper, to the manifest Injury of the Christian Religion, which is an Institution of Love, dangerous or unnecessary Controversies or Divisions;—all Re­ligions being, I think agreed, that bad Men are a Scandal to the best Religion;’ and that they cannot, if they continue so, be saved in any, as is said, p. 27. of that Book, said to be published with the Approbation of a considerable number of Lords Spiritual and Temporal: This Advice being contrary to my Practice, I rather chuse to make my Address to you; and it's to such that all along I intend my Complaint: And this I may add.