be needed; for frequent perusal of the scriptures had made Bunyan fully competent to state what those doctrines were which the Quakers impugned; he was ready with the scriptural proofs; and in a vigorous mind like his right reasoning naturally results from right premises.

An ill judgement might be formed of Bunyan's treatise from that part of its title which promises "profitable directions to stand fast in the doctrine of Jesus the Son of Mary, against those blustering storms of the Devil's temptations, which do at this day, like so many Scorpions, break loose from the bottomless Pit, to bite and torment those that have not tasted the virtue of Jesus, by the Revelation of the Spirit of God.' Little wisdom and less moderation might be expected in a polemical discourse so introduced! It is however a calm, well arranged and well supported statement of the scriptural doctrines on some momentous points which the primitive Quakers were understood by others to deny; and which in fact, though they did not so understand themselves, they frequently did deny, both virtually and explicitly, when in the heat and acerbity of oral disputation they said they knew not what; and also, when under the same belief of immediate inspiration, they committed to writing whatever words came uppermost, as fast as the pen could put them down, and subjected to no after revision what had been produced with no fore thought. "I would not have thee think," says Bunyan, "that I speak at random in this thing; know for certain that I myself have heard them blaspheme,-yea with a grinning countenance, at the doctrine of that Man's second coming from Heaven, above the stars, who was born of the Virgin Mary. Yea they have told me to my face, that I have used conjuration and witchcraft, because what I preached was according to the scriptures. I was also told to my face, that I preached up an Idol, because I said that the Son of Mary was in Heaven, with the same Body that was crucified on the cross; and many other things have they blasphemously vented against the Lord of Life and Glory and his precious Gospel. The Lord reward them according as their work shall be!"

A reply to this, (published originally like the treatise which provoked it, as a pamphlet,) is inserted among " the Memorable Works of a Son of Thunder and Consolation, namely that True Prophet and Faithful Servant of God and Sufferer for the Testimony of Jesus, Edward Burroughs.. Published and Printed for the good and benefit of Generations to come, in the year 1672." This answer is entitled " the True Faith of the Gospel of Peace contended for in the spirit of meekness; and the mystery of Salvation, (Christ within, the hope of Glory,) vindicated in the spirit of love, against the secret opposition of John Bunyan, a professed minister in Bedfordshire." Words soft as dew, or as the droppings of a summer cloud; but they were the forerunners of a storm, and the Son of Thunder breaks out at once: . . "How long ye crafty Fowlers will ye prey upon the Innocent, and shoot at him secretly? How long shall the Righteous be a prey to your teeth, ye subtle Foxes who seek to devour? The just One against whom your bow is bent, cries for vengeance against you in the ears of the Lord. Yet you strengthen your hands in iniquity, and gird yourselves with the zeal of madness and fury; you think to swallow up the Harmless and to blot out the name of the Righteous, that his generation may not be found on earth. You shoot your arrows of cruelty, even bitter words, and make the Innocent your mark to prey upon. You despise the way of uprightness and simplicity, and the path of craft and subtlety you tread: your dens are in darkness, and your mischief is hatched upon your beds of secret whoredom.-Yet-you are found out with the searching eye of the Lord,—and as with a whirlwind will he scatter you, and your name shall rot, and your memorial shall not be found, and the deeper you have digged the pit for another, the greater will be your own fall.-And John Bunyan and his fellow, who have joined themselves to the broken army of Magog, now in the heat of the day of great striving, are not the least of all guilty among their brethren, of secret smiting the innocent, with secret lies and slanders, who have shewed themselves in defence of the Dragon against the Lamb, in

this day of war betwixt them." In this strain the Son of Thunder roars and blazes away, like a Zɛvç vißpeμerns in prose. "Your spirit is tried, and your generation is read at large, and your stature and countenance is clearly described to me, to be of the stock of Ishmael, and of the seed of Cain, whose line reacheth unto the murthering Priests, Scribes and Pharisees.-Oh thou blind Priest, whom God hath confounded in thy language,-the design of the Devil in deceiving souls is thy own, and I turn it back to thee.-Thou directest altogether to a thing without, despising the Light within, and worshipping the name Mary in thy imagination, and knowest not Him who was before the world was, in whom alone is salvation, and in no other.-If we should diligently search we should find thee, through feigned words, through covetousness, making merchandize of souls, loving the wages of unrighteousness and such were the scoffers whom Peter speaks of, among whom thou art found in thy practice, among them who are preaching for hire, and love the error of Balaam, who took gifts and rewards.-The Lord rebuke thee thou unclean spirit, who hast falsely accused the innocent to clear thyself from guilt; but at thy door guilt lodges, and I leave it with thee; clear thyself if thou art able. And thy wicked reproaches we patiently bear, till the Lord appear for us: and we are not greater than our Lord, who was said to have a Devil by thy generation: and their measure of wickedness thou fulfills, and art one of the Dragon's army against the Lamb and his followers; and thy weapons are slanders; and thy refuge is lies; and thy work is confused, and hath hardly gained a name in Babylon's record; and by us, ( so much of it at least as is against us) is cast by as our spoiled prey, and trampled upon in all thy reproachful speeches, who art unclean."

Mixed with these railings were affirmations as honestly made that the Quakers owned all the scriptures which Bunyan had alledged against them, concerning the life, and death and resurrection of our Lord, yet withal bearing witness "that without the revelation of Christ within, there is no salvation." There were many and wide differences between

Bunyan and the Quakers, but none upon these points when they understood each other, and when the Quakers understood themselves. He replied in a vindication of his Treatise, complaining that his opponent had uttered a very great number of heresies, and falsely reported many things; and wishing him to be sober if he could, and to keep under his unruly spirit, and not to appear so much, at least not so grossly, a railing Rabshakeh. He maintained, which was in fact the point at issue, that the opinions held at that day by the Quakers were the same that the Ranters had held long ago, "only the Ranters had made them thread-bare at an alehouse, and the Quakers had set a new gloss upon them again by an outward legal holiness, or righteousness." He dwelt upon the error of the Quakers in confounding conscience with the Spirit of Christ, thereby "idolizing and making a God" of what "is but a creature, and a faculty of the soul of man, which God hath made," which "is that in which is the law of Nature, which is able to teach the Gentiles, that sin against the law is sin against God, and which is called by the Apostle * but even Nature itself."—" O wonderful that men should make a God and a Christ of their consciences because they can convince of sin!" To the reproach of making merchandize of souls and loving the wages of unrighteousness he answered thus. "Friend dost thou speak this as from thy own knowledge, or did any other tell thee so? However that spirit that led thee out of this way is a lying Spirit. For though I be poor and of no repute in the world, as to outward things, yet this grace I have learned, by the example of the Apostle, to preach the truth; and also to work with my hands, both for mine own living, and for those that are with me, when I have opportunity. And I trust that the Lord Jesus who hath helped me to reject the wages of unrighteousness hitherto, will also help me still, so that I shall distribute that which God hath given me freely, and not for filthy lucre's sake. Other things I might speak in vindication of my practice in this thing. But ask of others, and they will tell thee

1 Corinth. xi. 14.

d

that the things I say are truth: and hereafter have a care of receiving anything by hearsay only, lest you be found a publisher of those lies which are brought to you by others, and so render yourself the less credible."

This reproof was so far lost upon his antagonist that he returned thus to the charge. "Thou seemest to be grieved, and calls this a false accusation. But let's try; the cause admits dispute. Art not thou in their steps, and among them that do these things? Ask John Burton with whom thou art joined close to vindicate him and call him brother, hath he not so much yearly, 150£, or more (except thou hast some of it,) which is unrighteous wages, and hire, and gifts, and rewards? What sayest thou? Art thou not in his steps, and among, and with, him and them that do these things? If he be thy brother, and thou so own him, what is evil in him whom thou vindicates I lay upon thee. Though thou bid me have a care of receiving by hearsay, what I have said and received in this is truth, though thou evade it never so much." Burroughs must have examined very little into the truth or probability of what he heard when he could believe and repeat that a poor Baptist-Meeting at Bedford raised 150£ a year for it's minister!" Your words," says he, "describe your nature; for by your voice I know you to be none of Christ's sheep; and accordingly I judge in just judgement and in true knowledge.-Envy is of Cain's nature and seed, and in that you are; and lyars are of Ishmael's stock, and you are guilty of that; and you are among the murdering Priests party, and close joined to them, in doctrine and practise, especially in writing against us.-Thy portion shall be howling and gnashing of teeth, for the Lyars portion is the Lake. I reprove thee by the spirit of the Lord, and so leave thee to receive thy reward from the just God of righteous judgement, who upon thy head will render vengeance in flames of fire, in his dreadful day.-A Lyar and slanderer thou art, a perverter and wrester of the right way of God and of the scriptures, a hypocrite and dissembler, a holder forth of damnable doctrines, an envious man and false