A Dialogue, Containing Some Reflections on the Late "Declaration and Remonstrance" - 14
To the Protestant Dissenters called
PRESBYTERIANS.
My dear Countrymen and Brethren in Community,
AS I have been a Member of your Congregations for more than twenty years, and am yet so in a good Sense, tho’ I must confess I cannot so readily fall in with your new-gangled Doctrines and Manners, nevertheless I must love and with wish you well.-- -- I do most humbly beseech and intreat you to sit down and seriously consider what Spirit you are actuated by: Why are the Quakers, your good Neighbours, so falsely and slanderously abus’d by you? Why do you endeavour to vindicate or lessen the Crimes of those lawless Rioters, more fatal to a Commonwealth than Thieves and Robbers? Why do abet their tottering treasonable Cause, while you sling Dirt and Mire on Government and your worthy peaceable Neighbours? Why do you shake your Heads and grin with your Teeth, as tho’, if it were in your Power, you would bite and devour them up, even as a Morsel of Bread?
But as a Word to the Wise is enough, let me intreat you, my dear Brethren, to say aside all Malice, Revenge and Evil-speaking, and to cultivate that sweet, amiable and happy Temper of loving one another for Christ’s Sake, that we may prove ourselves to be the Children of the Day (and not the Night) by all Acts of faithful tender Love and brotherly kindness, speaking the Truth every one to his Neighbour.
