Quaker Women

Dorothy White: A Diligent Search amongst Rulers, Priests, Professors, & People (1659)

The Lord. . .moved me to go into your steeple house,. . .foreseeing the great misery and desolation that is coming upon you. . .But before I could deliver what the Lord want me to deliver, they set hands on me, and put me forth. . .But when I came up again, the Lord let me in again, and many strived against me, and put me out again before I had done delivering the message of the Lord; Again the word of the Lord came unto me, Go and say the Lord of hosts hath sent thee to bear witness against the idol shepherds; But many strived against me, but woe from the Lord God unto them that strive to hinder the messenger of the Lord: Again the word of the Lord came unto me: Go cry against the foolish prophets that preacheth lies in my name. . .which word is like a fire, and like a hammer: But two fierce spirited me. . .came and haled me forth, and said it was the Devil's work, and that I looked like the Devil."

Elizabeth Bathurst: Truths Vindication,. . . (1683)

"[Puritans] are so narrow-spirited as to shut out the greatest number of mankind,by absolute predestination; not sticking to affirm, that God nor Christ never purposed love nor salvation, to a great part of mankind, and that the coming and suffering of Christ never was intended, nor can be useful to their justification, but must and will be effectual for their condemnation. So being void of universal love themselves, they fondly imagine the Lord to be like themselves."