concourse were attended by them, denouncing false weights and
measures, drunkenness and villany, with the curses of the Almighty,
calling upon the people, frequently with furious and fearful energy
and powerful eloquence, to repent, and cry unto God, that his mercy
might be extended to the salvation of their immortal souls. their
zeal led them to many breaches of good manners. They would enter
churches, and after the service, when the quiet folks were thinking
of gratifying their bodies with a substantial dinner, they were
arrested by the violent declamation of a man or woman, frequently
denouncing the priest as being the blind leading the blind.
This naturally led to a scene of riot and confusion, in which the
Quakers were in many cases handled with great barbarity. among these
disturbers were mingled persons of bad character. The violence of
sectarian feeling in the churches thus disturbed, made no discrimination
between bad and good; they were equally subjected to the roughest
treatment. Bunyan attacked those who denied that Christ had appeared
in the world as Emmanuel, God with us 'in fashion as a man,' that
by the infinite merits of his life and death imputed to believers,
they might be made holy. His attack was also directed against those
who refused obedience to the written Word, or who relied upon inward
light in contradistinction and preference to the Bible. The title
to Burrough's answer is a strange contrast to the violence of his
language--The Gospel of Peace Contended for in the Spirit of Meekness
and Love. In this spirit of meekness he calls his opponents 'crafty
fowlers preying upon the innocent'; and lovingly exclaims, 'How
long shall the righteous be a prey to your teeth, ye subtle foxes;
your dens are in darkness, and your mischief is hatched upon your
beds of secret whoredoms.' The unhallowed spirit of the age mistook
abuse for argument, and harsh epithets for faithful dealing.[186]