To the Seduced Followers of George Fox, Iames Nayler, &c. living in Westmerland, and some adjacent parts.

FRIENDS, for so I call you since our blessed Saviour hath commanded us to love you, though you be our Enemies, to bless you, though you curse us, to do good to you, though you hate us, and to pray for you, though you despightfully use us, and persecute us as for as lies in your power. Believe me, I pray you; I have writ∣ten nothing in this ensuing Relation to discover your nakednes. The Lord knows, & the whole Country wher you live knowes, that you have done this for your selves too much already. Nor have I said any thing out of any inward hatred I beare to any of you. Your Persons I love, but your wicked Principles, your Er∣roneous Opinions, your Irregular, Exorbitant, vn∣christian Practises, those I hate; And the Lord make me to hate all Impiety in my selfe, more then in any o∣ther in the world besides. Nor have I inserted any thing to irritate you, to exasperate your Spirits. Alas the Spirits of some of you, seem to be already as rough as the waters of the Sea in a grown Tempest, and stand in need of healing rather then further Exulcera∣tion. But to be plain with you, the main end I pro∣pounded to my selfe in this Narative, was the Glory of Page  [unnumbered] God, and the good of some poor Soules in the discove∣ry of the wickednesse of your way (if it please the Lord to prosper it to that end) that those that hate your way may go on to hate it still, and that your selves that have been seduced to walk in it, through the craf∣tinesse of those that have lain in wait to deceive you, and have in part affected it, may come to see the Im∣piety of that new Superstition, rather then Religion which you have lately taken up, and that seeing it, through the good hand of God upon you, you may be re∣claimed from this way of Perdition. Look upon your way, I pray you, which you (poor Souls) think is true Religion, in the Glasse of this Relation. Behold here the Errours and Enormities of the chiefe of your Sect. Are they not their Blasphemies, their Tenets, their Practises that are here mentioned? Do you not know, and many others of your Sect to be guilty of some, of most of them? and are they not Abominations also? are they not works of the flesh, and deeds of darknesse? If the Candle of the Lord be not wholly put out in you, and that light within you, you so much talk of, be not alto∣gether darkness; I appeal to that light. And for my plain dealing in the ensuing Narration, I hope you of all men wil not be displeased. The Leaders and •autors of your Sect have taken a sinfull liberty to themselves in their printed books, as in Sauls Errant to Damascus, Rich. Farnworths Cal out of all false Worships, and in ano∣ther Page  [unnumbered] book intitled the three-fold state of Antichrist, and in another Pamphlet, called false Prophets, and false Teach∣ers, described by the Prisoners at York, &c. In these printed Libels, and in your Manuscripts that flye as thick as Moths up and down the Country; the ablest of your party, the Authors of them, have said, and railed, and censured, and slandered, and at a venture predicted his pleasure. Let me now repeat a little of what they have said, and tell some part of the World some of the wickednesse that is contained in them. I have not mentioned the personall failings of any of your Society, except such practises as are notoriously known, and have been defend∣ed, and wherein your Religion is partly placed Nor have I ag∣gravated any thing, or made a Mountain of your Mole-hil; those that are well acquainted with you know, that what is here said is rather a Mole-hill to your Mountain. For the Errours of your Sect mentioned in this book; it is not my intent in this discourse to debate them with you, or to undertake a confutation of them. To those that are not Children in knowledge, the very nomi∣nation of them is a sufficient confutation: such cleer opposi∣tion is there between them and the word of Truth. And for your selves, I suppose private and moderate reasonings (if you would admit of them) would be more praevalent to reclaim you, then Writings: Yet if you would deale so ingenuously with us, as to let us know under your hands, wherein you go alone, and dissent from the Generation of the Children of the most High, and desire our answer to it▪ a little time I hope would produce it from some abler Pen then mine, to what should cleer∣ly appeare to be Erroneous.

Page  [unnumbered] Lend me your Patience a little longer, while I speak yet something more freely to you of your way, your selves that walk in it, and your Speakers that have seduced you to it. Your way may challenge the Christian world, to shew one more wicked. I must confesse to you, I do not detest Popery it selfe more heartily then I do your Irreligion. Papists are open Ido∣laters, and the Propagators of your Superstitions are more horrid Blasphemers: most of your Errours may throw down the Gauntlet to the worst of theirs, besides many that you hold in common with them. They worship God according to the fan∣cy of the Pope and his Conclave; You, according to the fancy of Fox, and those others that have deluded you, or according to your own imaginations; or rather, you worship not the Lord at all, having cast off all his Ordinances without exception; your Soule loatheth that light Bread. Besides your Spirits are more impetuous, & your practises & Tenets as, nay more destructive to humane Societie, and civill Peace and Government, then those of the Iesuites Proselytes: or are you one jot lesse (if not more) Antichristians then they: Your way also leads to Ran∣ting; and if the Lord in mercy do not reclaim you, it is easie to predict, that before a few months or yeares be gone over, you will be ascended to that height and precipice of Impiety.

And for your selves, while in this way, if you be compared with the prophane people of the world, you are the worse. They, when they revile, and curse, and drink, and sweare, and live in uncleannesse, will be easily convinced of, and con∣fesse the evill of their way: But you, when you turn your Page  [unnumbered] backs upon Gods word and Ordinances, and scoff at them, and speake evill of the way of Truth, and cease not with Elymas to pervert the right waies of the Lord, and revile the Ministers of Christ, and mock at his Messengers; you make it your Religion, and applaud and justi∣fie your selves in it, as though you did God good Service in so doing. Yet this Iniquity of yours is, I am assured of it, a greater and purer peece of Profanity, then if you should, in the sight of the Sun, lye down and wallow in the Mire of any of the common Vices and Pollutions of the world. If there was that order and discipline established among us which Christ hath appointed in his Church, such as you should bee cut off from the Lords people by Excommunication, be solemnly delive∣red up to Satan, and declared to be as Heathens and Publicans, Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick (saith the Apostle) after the first and second Admonition reject. But however men on earth deale with you, if you live and dye without repentance in the sinnes a∣bove mentioned, it is no presumption to say, the sentence of Excom∣munication will be passed upon you in Heaven, and that the doores of the Kingdome of God will be shut against you for ever. You heare the word of Truth telling you, 1 Cor. 6. 9. 10. That no unrighteous Persons, And particularly, that Revilers shall not inherite the Kingdome of God, and Gal. 5. 20. 21. That Idolatry, Witch∣craft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, Heresies are manifest works of the flesh, and that those that do such things, shal not be the Inhabitants of that upper Regi∣on: and Revel. 21. 8. and 22. 15. That the unbeliving, and all lyars shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And you know how Christ wil deale with those at the last day, that obey not his Gospel. Ma∣ny of these sinnes specified in the Texts above cited, are the naturall Fruits, or rather essentiall parts of your new Irreligion; and I am sure also, they have been hitherto in very many of your way, as the i•••∣rable Adjuncts of it. The Lord the Father of mercies open your 〈◊◊〉 see the evill of this your way, and reclaim you from it; for it 〈◊◊〉 path of life, but one of the rodes to Hell, and a way that goes downe to the Chambers of death.

Page  [unnumbered] And for your Speakers, if ever there did arise false Prophets & Sedu∣cers, since Christs time, and since the Apostles fell asleep, as they have told us in their Sacred Writings, that there should, especially in the last Ages of the World; I do as verily believe, and know them to be such, as if they were marked in the Forehead; so exactly do they answer the Characters and Predictions of holy Scripture concerning this sort of men. And your selves may easily discern them to be such by their Fruits; viz. by their Blasphemies, by their damnable Heresies, by their lying Doctrines, by their professed disobedience to Iesus Christ, in casting off all his Ordinances, and teaching others to do so also, by their resisting the Truth, as Jannes, and Jambres did Moses, by their Diabolicall Trances and Raptures, by their Superstitious, unholy Fast∣ings, by their railing Language, by their speaking great swelling words of vanity, their boasting of Perfection, and Voices, and Revelations, and immediate Inspirations from the Spirit, by their will Worship, by their unchristian, immodest, unhumane Incivilities, and Impuden∣cies, by their bearing witnesse to themselves, as that woman Jezebell did, Revel. 2. 20. who called her selfe a Prophetesse; by their creeping into houses, and their successe in their Seductions, in subverting whole houses, and overthrowing the faith of so many, and drawing them to follow their pernicious waies.

It hath been ordinary with the Divell in all Ages of the Chuch, es∣pecially when he fancies or feares a time of Reformation approaching, because he cannot abide the light of the Truth, to excite men that make som profession of religion as his Agents, & to lend them his assistance, in stirring up Tumults, to hinder the successe and propagation thereof, and to bring it into contempt and hatred in the world; And therefore it is not now to be look upon as strange, that the Divell hath raised up his Instruments under a vain-glorious Profession of a new and more spirituall Religion, to oppugne the true Doctrine of the Gospell of Iesus Christ, and all obedience both to it and him.

Beare with me yet a little, and I will tell you plainly what is our duty in respect of these Deluders. It is the duty of all Christs faith∣full Ministers, who are set for the defence of the Gospell, to contend earnestly for the faith against them, I mean not by carnall, but by those Page  [unnumbered] Spirituall Weapons of our Warfare, which are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. It is their duty to endea∣vour to stop the mouths of these Gain-sayers from the word of Truth, and to warn and exhort all men to avoid them as ravenous Wolves, as the very Pests of the places where they are, or come. And for all that desire to appeare before the Iudgment Seat of Iesus Christ with comfort, and your selves, it is your duty to beware of them, to turn away from them, to with-draw from their Society, and have no com∣mon familiarity with them. Heare to this purpose the Command of the Lord in his holy word, Math. 7. 15. Beware of false Prophets, Matth. 24. 24, 25, 26. There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets, and shall shew great Signes and Wonders, insomuch that (if it were possible) they shall deceive the very Elect. Be∣hold I have told you before, wherefore if they should say unto you, behold he is in the Desart, go not forth, behold he is in the secret Chambers, believe it not. Rom. 16. verse 17. Now I be∣seech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Of∣fenses, contrary to the Doctrine which yee have learned, and avoid them. 2 Thes. 3. 6. Now we command you Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you with-draw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the Tradition which he received of us. 2 Tim. 3. 5. 6. From such turn away, of this sort are they that creep into houses and lead Captive silly women, &c. 2 Ioh. verse. 10, 11. If there come any unto you, and bring not this Doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed. For he that biddeth him God-speed, is partaker of his evill Deeds. Except you obey these Commands of the Lord Iesus, you will not, you cannot be his Disciples. O repent therefore of your former disobedience to him, and your revoltings and wandrings from him, who is the Bishop and Shepheard of Soules. Return to embrace that Truth, from which you have turned away your Eares; and to attend upon the Lord in those his holy Ordinances, upon which you have turn∣ed your backs, and from those crooked by-waies, into which you have been seduced through the subtlety of Satans Messengers. And do this Page  [unnumbered] speedily, while you have time before you, and before it be too late. It will be ere long too late to repent, and impossible for you to return. You know how ready the Lord is to extend his mercy to the Penitent. If this and such like faire warnings will not prevaile with you, but you will still obstinately proceed in your Enmity to the waies of God and his Gospell, I will, and I hope all that feare the Lord will together with me set themselves more earnestly then we have yet done, to sollicit the Lord to appeare and plead from Heaven against your Heresie, and to extirpate it from off the Earth.

Though I have not satisfied my selfe in this my plain addresse to you, nor spoke, me-thinks, what I would; yet that I may not be tedious, I will add no more but this Prayer for you. That the Lord, the Sun of Righteousnesse would please to rise unto you, and chase away that night, and darknesse that lyes upon your Under∣standings, and grant unto you Repentance, to there acknow∣ledgment of the Truth, and powerfully recover you out of the Snares of the Divell; that so being turned from the power of Satan to God, you may receive an Inheritance among those that are Sanctified through faith in him. This is the desire of his Soule to God for you, who is