The 9th of the 6th Mo. 78.
Thomas Gouldney, William Ford, and William Rogers, with the rest of John Story’s and John Wilkinson’s Party, who are known or unknown.
I understand that you had a Meeting with G.F. and others at Bristol, at Winter Fair last, and Articles and Covenants were drawn and agreed on both sides, That no Papers were to go forth without the Consent of both Parties: and contrary to all Covenants, Engagements and Contracts (when G.F. and the rest were gone from Bristol) you have drawn up papers concerning the Meeting, Manuscript Books, some thirteen, sixteen, or twenty four sheet {Fifth Part 13} (as it’s said) and have sent them into the North, Bukinghamshire and Barkshire (as they say) and also you sent them by Lewis Landy into Hartfordshire, and Bedfordshire, and Huntingtonshire, and ride up and down to disaffected and loose raw people; but this work hath got no Credit in the Nation, but hath manifested you to be Covenant-breakers, and not Men of Truth, nor Credit; for many Friends being at Bristol Fair, and knowing of the Contract and Covenant, that no Papers should go forth without both sides seeing them, and yet your contrary, secretly, in an underly and treacherous way, sent Papers behind the backs of them that were concerned, and (as they say) you never sent to them. This practice of yours is more wicked and worse than the Priests; and so in this presumptuous, willful Work of yours, to defame others, have defamed your selves, wherever your Papers come, and make your selves of no Reputation nor Credit amongst Men, nor as to the Truth; for who can trust or believe you, until you call in your Papers again by Judgement and Condemnation, wherever you have sent them? for such works as your spirit manifests, are not fit for the Society of Men; for all judicious civil men would abhor your Practice and Doings, and do abhor it, except some few Airy Notionists here and there, that cannot live under the Cross of Christ: And is not this Scripture come upon you? which Christ saith, When the unclean Spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh in dry places, and returns again with seven other Spirits worse than himself; and the latter end of that man is worse then the beginning. And would not some of you have been ashamed to have broken Covenant and Promise, as you have done now, before you were convinced of God’s Truth? but as the Apostle saith; The wicked shall grow worse and worse. Surely had there been any tenderness towards God and his Truth, that doth not change, and had there been any regard to your Reputation as men, then wilfulness would not have hazarded all; but in that wherein you have sought to defame others, and {Fifth Part 14} make them of no Credit, you have defamed your selves and made your selves of no Credit in all Countryes, where your Books have come amongst sober honest Friends, that keep their Integrity, which indeed Friends at the General Meeting were surprised, could hardly believe it, when they heard that you had sent your Books into the North and Esum, &c. and into the East by Lewis Landy, and other places; and though you do degenerate from Truth, yet to degenerate from common Civil Men, in breaking Covenants and Engagements, before so many Witnesses; but many that have heard of it, do testifie against it, in all Countryes where it comes, and say, That will not do your Business. And if these by your Weapons to set up John Story and John Wilkinson with, these are very shallow ones; and if this be the Spirit that cries against Forms, that run quite out of Form and Truth, that can break all Covenants and Engagements so easily: but this is like John Story’s creeping Spirit’s work, which hath led you to act both contrary to Truth, and below Natural Civil Men, and to be Covenant-breakers, and fierce despisers of them that are good: and so these Papers and Doings of yours have given much Satisfaction to the Country, to see your Treacherous Spirit, and of John Story’s, that you promote your Sect-Master, and the Fruits of his Separate Meeting; and this Spirit doth manifest itself to be contrary both to Truth and sober Men in all Countryes where your Papers have come to your Proselytes, which indeed are not very many; and them that are, they are so ashamed of your Work, that we cannot get a copy; but Lewis Landy has promised a Copy, as it’s said: and what you and John Story and John Wilkinson do sow, that will you reap when God’s Judgements come upon you, and you rewarded according to your Works; and when Grim Death seizes upon you (whose Works you are doing in Wilful Darkness) then remember {Fifth Part 15} how you have Justified the Wicked, and Condemned the Innocent; and your latter end (as Christ saith) is worse than the beginning. But I desire that you may Repent, and condemn all that has been done by you on this wise, and bring John Story and John Wilkinson to condemn it also, and so come again into your first Love and into Unity with Friends; for at present we see and take notice in our Countryes, that none, but who are loose Spirits, are affected with your Works, for common, honest men abhor them.
S.H.
That now the Reader may know what is the pretended ground whereof this abusive Report is so confidently spread we desire the Reader to peruse the *1 Agreement made between ——- and William Rogers on behalf of themselves and Friends concerned, which is mentioned in the last recited relation of passages in the 12. Section, and therein they shall find that each party had liberty to have a Scribe to take passages in the Conference, which to them severally should seem meet, and that when any thing was read and finally agreed by both parties to be recorded, the same should be at the End of every Meeting subscribed by both Partyes, and by at least six credible persons of each side: but not a word intimating that no other Relation should go forth; and the reason of that agreement was not to obstruct any Member of the Meeting (if no Memorials of Passages in the Conference could by Agreement be recorded) to give a Relation of the Truth, for had it been so intended, there would have been an Article to that purpose to be a bond on the persons between whom the agreement was made, and that they should, as much as in them lay, obstruct their Friends on each side from doing otherwise; but the real End was, that nothing but Truth should go forth.
{Fifth Part 16} Moreover, ‘tis necessary to signifie, that the person who signed the aforesaid agreement with W.R. interrupted the orderly proceeding of the Meeting, as appears in the 22d. Section of this second part, which Section we *2 desire the Reader to peruse, and then seriously consider whether the said person doth not justly deserve to be stiled a Covenant-breaker; which if he had not, and that the Meeting had orderly proceeded (according to the intent and meaning of the Articles of Agreement) and so a joynt Narrative had been made, and that those who had agreed therein had desired, that that only might have been sent abroad (for 'twas no part of the Articles, that what was to be agreed upon as a Narrative, should be sent abroad) we are persuaded 'twould never have entred in our thoughts either to have sent or countenanced the sending abroad of any thing else as a Narrative of the Passages.
However, so it happened, that nothing was so read, amended, and finally agreed upon to be a true Record or Memorial of the Conference, nor yet any thing witnessed by the six chosen on each side to subscribe the same; all which being considered, together with this Circumstance, that the Manuscript hinted to be given forth, was the Truth, and (as it relates to the Meetings in pursuance of the said Agreement) is not denied so to be by some, who (being present at the said Meetings) have undertaken to answer a part of the relation given forth (touching which we have more largely treated on, in the *3 22d. Section of this second part) ‘tis notorious Wickedness to render men (who have lived all their dayes in Credit and Repute) Treacherous Covenant breakers and men not of Truth, nor Credit amongst men, of no Reputation, and as if {Fifth Part 17} they were not fit for the Society of men, that all judicious men would, and do abhor their Practice and Doings: and all this on the down right asserting and belief of a Lye, that the very Papers themselves would have manifested, had they but patience to have suspended giving Judgement until they had beheld what 'twas whereon they gave Judgement; for the aforesaid Letter tells us, that they could not get a copy, and renders it to be some thirteen, sixteen or twenty four sheets, when twas not ten sheets in large writing and small Paper.
The Lord rebuke that Lying Spirit that is gone forth, and obtains so much Credit amongst simple people, and give an encrease of his Wisdom; for all this is grounded on this notorious untruth, mentioned in the last recited Letter, That Articles and Covenants were drawn and agreed on both sides, that no Papers were to go forth, without the Consent of both Parties.
Now forasmuch as the Publishers of the aforesaid relation (or a least one of them) are reputed for so doing, Covenant-breakers, and that ‘tis credibly reported, that G.F. is the person who industriously spreads that same amongst Friends (as before is signified) we now think it needful to signifie to the Reader that we have not only sufficient Evidence, that G.F. hath written to the same purpose unto a Friend, but also to such an one as hath suffered one that is no Friend, to have the sight thereof , which is evident by the following lines, attested by Alexander Pyott and Cornelius Sarjant.
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