The English Rogue: Continued in the Life of Meriton Latroon, and Other Extravagants: The Second PartHead, Richard
General
The English Rogue: Continued in the Life of Meriton Latroon, and Other Extravagants: The Second Part
Head, Richard
Rogues and vagabonds -- England -- Fiction
Much more he writes against the Quakers, and is as absolute in his
sentence of Damnation against these two, being almost in the same words
as the former. His writings in general are filled with many strange
Opinions, and he is now the greatest Enemy of the Quakers, telling them,
that they are but some of the melancholy sort of Ranters, and by falling
from Ranting to Quaking, are now worse then before; for before they were
in the Wilderness, but are now returned back into _Egypt_, and so the
further off from entring into the Land of _Canaan_: and in one place he
is pretty pleasant with the Quakers, for saith he, The greatest things
that ever I heard the Quakers do, is to find fault with a piece of
Ribbon, Gold-button, or a Bandstring, and such like, and to possess
themselves with a melancholly spirit of Witchcraft, and so fall into
Witchcraft-fits, to lie humming and groaning, which doth fright the
beholders; so instead of those merry-Devils which they had upon the
Ranting-score, where all was good, lying with their Neighbours wife,
deflowring Virgins, cozening and cheating, and destroying every one in
their outward Estate which did entertain them, and now that Devil is
cast out, now they are grown in as much extream on the other side; for
now they are grown so precise and exact for Apparel and for words, no
words must be placed out of joynt, so that no man can almost tell how to
deal with them; and this melancholly Devil hath cast out the Ranting
Devil, which makes them so proud and stiff-necked, thinking themselves
that they are better then other people, when as they are worse; for they
are possessed with the Spirit of Witchcraft, which makes them two-fold
more the children of the Devil then they were before; which none can
discover but this Commission of the Spirit; neither did I ever hear by
any which heard the Quakers speak, that they did ever preach any sound
Doctrine, but only exhort people to hearken to the light within them,
which is a very low & easie thing for every ordinary understanding to
comprehend; and this is the cause there is such a multitude of men and
women fall into it, _&c._ And thus did he proceed, his whole writing
being to pull them down, and set himself up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account