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Show 53 APPENDIX. APPENDIX. vaging our coafls. and to all the murdering mifcreants who are ailing in authority under HIM whom ye profefs to ferve. Had ye the honeft foul of * Barclay ye would preach re- pentance to your king ; Ye would tell the Royal Wretch his fins, and warn him of eternal ruin. . Ye would not {pend your partial inveélives againfl the injured and the In. fulted only, but, like faithful miniflers, Would cry aloud and flare none. Say not that ye are perfecuted, neither endeavour to make us the authors of that reproach, which, ye are bringing upon yourfelves ; for we tefiify unto all men, that we do not complain againfl you becaufe ye are anherr, but becaufe ye pretend to be and are NOT (bag ltets. Alas ! it fecma by the particular tendency of fame part of your tefiimony, and other parts of your conduct, as If, all fin was reduced to, and comprehended in the at? ofhearing arms, and that by the people only. Ye appear to us, to have miflaken party for confcience ; becaufe, the general 59 The quotation which ye have made froml'roverbs, in th° third page of your tcflimony, that, " when a man's ways pleafe the Lord, he maketh :ven his enemies to he at peace with him"; is very unwifely chofen on your part ; becauf e. it amounts to a proof, that the king's ways (whom ye art: {0 defirous of fupporting) do not pleafe the Lord, other wife, his reign would be in peace. I now proceed to the latter part of your teflimony, and that, for which all the foregoing feems only an introduction, viz. " It hath ever been our judgment and principle, fince " " " " we were called to profefs the light of Chril't Jefus, manifelted in our confciences unto this day, that the fetting up and putting down kings and governments, is God's pceuliar prerogative; for caufes belt known to himfclf; " And that it is not our bufinefs to have any band or con" trivance therein ; nor to be bufy bodies above our fla" tion, much lefs to plot and contrive the ruin, or over- tenor of your aélions wants uniformity : And it is exceed- " turn of any of them, but to pray for the king, and fafety ingly diflicult to us to give credit to many of your pretended {cruplcs ; becaufe, we fee them made by the fame men», " of our nation, and good of all men : That we may live who in the very inf'tant that they are exclaiming againft the mammon ofthis world, are neverthelefs, hunting after it with a fiep as Ready as time, and an appetite as keen as Death. The " " Thou her/l ta/ledo/‘pro/perity andaa'ver/ity; thou browefl who! it it to he hani/hed thy native country, to he over-ruled a: well a: to rule, and/it upon the throne ; and being opa pulled thou hafl reafon to brow how hateful the opprefror i5 hoth to God and man : [fa/ten allthrfe warning: and art'- verriflmmtr, rhou do]? not turn unto the Lord with all thy heart, hut forget him who remembered thee in thy dylrefl'. and give up thy felfro follow lie/l and vanity, fun/y great will be thy condemnation--/!gainjt which fnare, a: well a: the temptation: of theft who may or da/eed thee, andprompt thee to evil, the mall excellent and prevalent remea'y will he, ' reapply thyfelf to that light of Chri/l which fltineth in thy con/richer, and which neither can, nor will flatter thee, rm" H hr the: to he at cafe in thy fins." [fl Barclay's Addicts to Charles 11, " a peaceable and quiet life, in all godlinefs and honcf‘ly 5 " under the government whichGod i: pleafld tofor over ru"'-- If thefe are really your principles why do ye not abide by them ? Why do ye not leave that, which ye call God's \Vork, to be managed by himfelf t" Thefe very principles inflrua you to wait with patience and humility, for the event of all public meafures, and to receive that event as the divine will towards you. [Mine/are, what occalion is there for your political tejlimony if you fully believe what it icontalus? And the very publiihing it proves, that either, ye do not believe what ye profels, or have not virtue enough to praaife what ye believe. The principles of Quakerifm have a dircft tendency to maln a man the quiet and inoflienfive fubjeét of any, and every government which irfet over him. And ifthe letting up and putting down of kings and governments is God's ' peculiar prerogative, he mofl certainly will not be robbed thereof by us; wherefore, the principle itfelf leads you to approve ofevery thing, which ever happened, or may hap- pen to kings as being his work, OLIVER, Crtomwur. thanks |