nor from the light within me but from the power and authourity of a Commission received from a God without me which spake by voice of words to the hearing of the ear and this is that curse that shall remain and be remembred by all those Quakers and others that are under it both in this life and to eternity 3. Thirdly I did say truely in that I said you deny both the Father and the Son to be a Person in the form of a man and that you deny the same flesh and bone of Jesus which suffered death was laid in the grave which rose again which was seen afterwards by his Apostles and others which ascended up into heaven in that same flesh and bone that he suffered death in In your Answer to this above-mentioned you charge me to mention the man and the place of his abode that denied this and is a Quaker There are some other words in this Letter of yours that is to be minded and it is this where you say Christ Jesus is the express image and substance of the Fathers person and you own the Holy Ghost and you own the Father and know them And as touching Christs flesh you are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and you have the minde of Christ and so you call me a Lyer and say let my mouth be stopt Answ This same is riddle me riddle me what 's this What a fiâ—e distinction have you given of the Trinity and whaâ— solid Arguments do you think that you have given to prove me a liar in what I have said First according to your charge I shall tell you both the place and some of the persons which did deny this The place where this was denied was in Eastcheap at a Butchers house the persons who did deny those things aforesaid one was the Butcher himself I think his name was Richard Whitpan or such a like name the Quakers Downfal doth name it right another of them was Fox the younger which is now both dead and damned to eternity another of them was John Harwood as for the other two I do n t remember their names but one of them was a great lubberdly fellow perhaps you may know him better than I these five did all of them deny that flesh and bone or body of Christ wherein he suffered death which same body is now living which they did deny for which the just Sentence of Condemnation is passed upon them as is publick in the Quakers Downfal Nay it was not onely these five Quakers that did deny these things aforesaid but all the Quakers that ever I talked with both men and women have done the same And I know that if I should but discourse with you I should finde you to do the like for it doth not stand with a right Quakers principle to believe that the same flesh and bone of Christ which suffered death was laid in the grave rose again and is now living in heaven in that same body neither can that body be in heaven without the soul or spirit for where his body is there is his spirit also for they both lived together they both suffered death together they both rose again together and are both in heaven together if so how is it possible that the Quakers should get Christ within them For if Christ be a distinct person of himself of substance flesh and bone though a spiritual body now in heaven how comes Christ to get his spiritual body into every Quakers body and every mans body else For the Scripture saith that the heavens shall contain him until the restitution of all things meaning that body of flesh and bone so that the person of Christ or his Essence cannot be in this world at all much less in the Quakers bodies nay he is not in mine though he hath chosen me to be his Messenger to declare what he is in his form and nature as hath been abundantly declared in our Writings Therefore do not you say that it is a slander and a lye for me to say that you are the very absolute spirit of Antichrist that doth deny both the Father and the Son for though you talk of a Christ and of his being the express Image of his Fathers person and of a Holy Ghost because you read of such things in Scripture which were other mens words so you reading of them have jumbled the Father Son and Holy Ghost together and so in stead of one person you have gotten three persons and yet never a person For I am sure when I talkt with John Perrot about God he could finde never a person but an infinite Spirit without a body or person at all All the Quakers that ever I have had to do withal which have been a great many I could never finde any Quaker to own God to be a person in the form of a man but an infinite Spirit that fills heaven and earth and all places and all things and so doth the Pope and all other Opinions that are which doth shew the darkness of the Quakers and the Pope and all others For if God be a person in the form of a man as I am sure he is for I do acknowledge no other God but the Man Christ Jesus who is a distinct body of flesh and bone of his own how then can he fill heaven and earth with his presence and get into the Quakers bodies and all other peoples bodies too and yet he is in heaven above the stars which heaven must retain him until the last day From this body of Christ which is the onely God have I power over all other gods or infinite spirits whatsoever I could shew in what sense it may be said that God fills heaven and earth but it would be too large to unfold besides it is declared already in our Writings There is one blasphemous saying of yours through your ignorance of the Scriptures in this Letter of yours You say that you do own Christ according to the flesh he was of Abraham Which is blasphemy to say it being quite contrary to the Scriptures for those Jews that persecuted Christ were according to the flesh the children of Abraham therefore it was they said We have Abraham for our father and never were in bondage to any for indeed all those that are the children of Abraham according to the flesh are the children of the devil or of the serpent but all those that are the children of Isaac or the children of the Promise which is the seed of Faith which are the children of Abraham according to the Spirit and so according to the faith of Abraham of which Christ came and so the Seed of Faith may say truly they are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh because the seed or spirit of Faith which Abraham the father of the faithful had in him liveth in our flesh and bone and we may be said indeed to be bone of his bone and flesh of his
flesh and so called his Brethren because we are born not of the will of man nor of the flesh but of water and of the Spirit which Spirit doth lye secretly hid in the water is the motions of peace that doth arise from the seed which is called the Spirit But on the contrary the Quakers Christ is according to the flesh of Abraham and so indeed they are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh for indeed they know no other Christ but according to the flesh that is according to the seed of Reason For in Scripture the seed of Reason is called the Flesh from whence the motions of sin doth arise which are called the motions of the flesh which I have largely unfolded in The Interpretation of the 11th Chapter of the Revelations for the Scripture taketh no notice of the outward bodily flesh but as the two seeds doth operate and work in man Reason is called the Flesh and Faith is called the Spirit wherefore it is said Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith And so every one that doth truly believe in that flesh and bone of Christ to be now living doth eat his flesh and so Christ dwells in his heart by faith and not in his person and essence as the Quakers do vainly imagine For they make no distinction between the person and essence of Christ and the light of Christ which light of Christ is one thing and his person another as the body of the Sun is one thing and the light that shines from it is another and so according to the flesh that is according to the seed of Reason the Quakers are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh And they being the children of Abraham according to the flesh as their imaginary Christ is for all Abrahams children according to the flesh are the children of Cain who is the father of most part of the Quakers and in this sense they may say that they have the minde of Christ in them 4. You say I write if you should own Christ to be a person then that light of Christ you so much talk of would vanish like smoke and come to nothing In your Answer to this you upbraid me with my ignorance and darkness as not knowing Christ nor the Holy Ghost nor the Father nor Christs nor the Apostles doctrine and for which purpose you quote Solomons Writings which is no Scripture with some Scriptures to shew my ignorance and that my Doctrine should flie away like smoke as I said by yours with many more sayings that would be too tedious to write Answer If I were as ignorant and as dark in the knowledge of Christ and of the Holy Ghost and of the Father and of the Apostles doctrine as you are it would be no matter if my tongue should cleave to the roof of my mouth for your ignorance and darkness is plainly discovered in that you quote Solomon to prove your Scripture light and knowledge of Christ that which is no Scripture no more than the Apocrypha is but I perceive it is as good Scripture to you as any for you are but like a Parrot that speaks other mens words for it is nothing to you what Christ or the Apostles said at that time You ought to have heard what the Commission of the Spirit saith now in these last dayes for none can interpret Scripture truly but my self neither doth any man in the world truly know Christ nor the Father nor the Holy Ghost but my self and those that believe in this Commission of the Spirit for it is not with me as it is with you for you are to be judged by the letter of the Scriptures but God hath made me the Judge of Scriptures and of you also For my Commission and the Doctrine of it is as true as the Prophets and Apostles Commissions were in their time nay it is of a more higher nature than theirs were For we the Witnesses of the Spirit do know more than Moses the Prophets or Apostles did things of more higher concernment As To know the form and nature of the true God before he became flesh The form and nature of the right Devil before he be aâ—e flesh The persons and nature of Angels The rise of the two Seeds What knowledge can exceed or go beyond the knowledge of the true God and the righâ— Devil many other deep Secrets which hath been declared by this Commission of the Spirit which the Prophets and Apostles were but dark in in comparison of the Witnesses of the Spirit If so how should you Quakers come to understand any thing concerning Christ the Father and the Holy Ghost who have nothing but the dead letter of other mens words whose light was but dark in comparison of that light that comes by this Commission of the Spirit so that you can never know Christ nor the Father nor the Holy Ghost by the words of the Scripture nor by the light of Christ within you without an Interpreter there being none in the world at this day but my self Can your light within you make these three you speak of Christ the Father and the Holy Ghost to be but one person and particular body of flesh and bone in the form of a man if you can then may you truly say that you know the Father Christ and the Holy Ghost which I know no Quaker or other doth or can know at this day but this Commission of the Spirit onely Neither can any man by the light of Christ within him come to know these things aforesaid but by believing of him that 's sent by voice of words from a God without him But the Quakers were never sent from a God without them but onely from a Light within them and though it be the light of Christ yet will it not give a man the knowledge of the true God but will perish and he that hath it except it be grounded by faith to believe that God spake to such a man to the hearing of the ear and then the light of Christ in a man being grounded upon that voice he shall come to know the Father Son and Spirit to be but one personal Glory in the form of a man which no Quaker in the world doth therefore cannot know the Father Son and Holy Ghost by that light within them which they talk so much of for a childe that answers from his Catechism-book would have said as much from the Father Son and Holy Ghost as these Quakers do for a boy could have rehearsed these places of Scripture and have made as good a Confession of his faith as any Quaker doth But let that pass and come to the next 5. You say further that I have written The Quakers will have no person at all The words in your Letter to this is not worth a Reply for there is little in it but the repeating of Scripture words and what the Apostle saith of Christ being the express image of the
Fathers person which if it were but opened it would utterly destroy their own principles of the light of Christ within them which they are very angry with me for saying that the light within them will vanish like smoke which they will finde to be true but I shall go to the next 6. You say I write that a great part of you are of those wicked Ranters that have been given over to blood-shed with a sword of steel or else to all manner of lusts of the flesh and now I say you think by a precise and exactness of life to recover your peace with God and yet deny the very person of God without you Your Answer to this Sentence of mine is something large but most of it rayling and rehearsing the same words as were spoken before for you make a great deal of do about knowing the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and keep a stir about Christs being the express image of the Fathers person and yet all this while you cannot finde out any person of God at all onely you have gotten Pauls words and run away with them as a dog doth with a bone for the letter of the Scriptures is cast down as a bone by the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself for how would Quakers have done to have found out these words That Christ is the express image of the Fathers person if Paul had not said so I marvel how they would have known that Christ enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world if they had not found such words in Scripture But those men that spake the Scriptures know what the light of Christ was these can onely speak of it but know nothing truely what the light of Christ is nor from whence it doth arise There is one expression in this part of your Letter which would make one laugh which is this Doth the devil rage in me because some who have been Ranters and used outward weapons formerly now they are turned from these things and turned unto God and Christ the express image of the Fathers person As for those Ranters that are turned to God and Christ in the Quakers way they had better have kept themselves where they were for before they were in the wilderness but are now turned back into Egypt and so are further off from entring into the land of Canaan that is a place of rest for their souls than they were before So that the state of the Quakers is more uncapable to be saved than the Ranters for if they turn a right Quaker after they have been at the Rant there is no possibility for them to be saved for they are two-fold more the children of the Devil than they were before For if such a Quaker should give his goods to the poor and his body to be burnt for that light within him it will avail him nothing for there are but these three states in man Egypt the Wilderness and the land of Canaan But by faith in a Commission and they that truly believe in a Commission are the Saints that Christ dwells in and not the Quakers for they are for the most part of them as I said before the children of Cain who was of that wicked one which always was in bondage and there shall remain to eternity So much in answer to your railing Letter Now I have given you answer to your cursed blasphemy and railing speeches against those Truths which I have said concerning you Quakers it remains that I should give answer to your Queries which are many There are Queries enough if answered to make a Volumn bigger than the Bible for there hath been greater Volumns than the Bible made of one of those Texts of Scripture which you have propounded by wise men in reason But this seemeth to be a marvellous thing that you Quakers that are guided by the light of Christ within you and knows the minde of Christ and the Apostles doctrine and knoweth the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and Christ the express image of the Fathers person in that you should be ignorant of the knowledge of these things which you propound unto me to answer else I must stop my mouth for ever Ce tainly if you had known them your selves you would not have propounded them to me to answer neither is it the propeity of him that hath true knowledge in him to put questions to another which he cannot answer himself It is a thing I never did to any since I came to know the truth I never did propound any question to any man that I could not answer my self though I have been asked many questions by several sorts of people yet never any went empty away without an answer some satisfied and some unsatisfied because they could not question any further nay there hath not been that question that could arise out of the heart of man let it be what it would concerning spiritual things with relation to God Devil Heaven Hell or any other spiritual thing but I have given answer to it Nay some have gone so far as to ask who made God and I have given answer to that also N thing hath been too hard for me in spiritual things if it hath been propounded in English words When I say spiritual things I speak with relation to the knowledge of the true God his form and nature before he became flesh and what he is now in himself And what the right devil was before he became flesh and what he is now in himself and how Heaven and Hell doth depend upon these two with the knowledge of the persons and nature of the Angels and the mortality of the soul On these six Principles depend all spiritual and heavenly knowledge with many other heavenly secrets which floweth as a river of living water from those six heads which no Quaker doth or can know in that state of being a Quaker nor any other Opinion or Religion whatsoever but those that do believe in this Commission of the Spirit And as for those eighteen Queries that you have propounded those that are of the most highest concernment they are answered and opened at large in our Writings already And some of your Queries are of such a long nature that they are not worth the labor to answer neither would there be any great edification to any that should know them yet I shall give a word or two to the first part of your third Querie For what end did Christ come Answ Christ came into the world for this very end for to destroy him that had the power of death which is the Devil which Devil is the seed or spirit of Reason in man of which spirit of Reason which is the Devil most part of the Quakers are of his seed and Christ came into the world for to destroy that is to destroy the seed of the Serpent with an eternal death and to raise the seed of Adam up to a more happier estate than that
according to Scriptures the Man Christ Jesus who shall judge the world in righteousness whom God hath ordained and we own that according to the flesh he was of Abraham and the same that suffered rose and ascended into heaven and remains in the heavens until the restitution of all things and we sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus who is the express image and substance of his Fathers person and we own the Holy Ghost and we own the Father and knows them And as touching Christs flesh we are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and we have the minde of Christ and so thou lyer let thy mouth be stopt Thirdly Thou sayest If we should own Christ to be a person then that light of Christ which we so much talk of would vanish like smoke and come to nothing Answer To this we answer That thou hast manifested thy darkness and ignorance not knowing Christ not knowing the Holy Ghost not knowing the Father not knowing Christs flesh his blood and bone nor Christ and the Apostles doctrine nor the Law for first The Law is light saith Solomon and the law is in the heart and with the light they saw Christ yea his flesh Secondly John he bare witness to the Light that enlighteneth every man that comes into the world which is Christ And Christ saith I am the Light and believe in the light while ye have the light that ye may be children so there is no becoming children but by the light of Christ And the Apostle saith God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give us the â—ight of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus and that was the treasure in earthen vessels So first thou art ignorant of this treasure and both thee and thy doctrine and thy principle flies away like that smoke thou speaks of and the light remains which is thy condemnation the witness in thy conscience shall answer it which thou in thy uncleanness hast long rebelled against Secondly thou that so rebels against the light of Christ we speak of knows not Christ his flesh nor bone nor the Father nor the Holy Ghost As first thus the light that shines in the heart gives the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ and so without this light they have no knowledge of him and this we say to thee and all upon the earth that none knows the Father none knows the Son none knows the Holy Ghost none knows the Flesh and Blood and Bone of Christ but by the light of Christ for that reveals him and not Flesh and Blood for thou art like to the Jews who stop'd their Ears and closed their Eyes to that of God within them and therefore heard not saw not so was not converted and such professed a Christ was to come but persecuted him when he was come as thou doest now where he is made manifest in his light Fifthly Thou sayest That we will have no person at all Answer This is false though thou hast layed it down general for Christ is the express Image of the Fathers person we say as in Hebrews But thou art the man who wilt have no person at all that denies the light for they that was in darkness could not see God nor Christ nor the Holy Ghost that hated the light and the Apostle said he in the person of Christ which many doth witness now Glory to the Lord for ever for if thou doest profess them in thy words yet again in thy words thou that denies the light denies them and so Babylon and blasphemously terms it to smoak and for thy work the Lord will reward thee Sixthly Thou sayest A great part of us are of those wicked Ranters that hath been given over to blood-shed with a sword of Steel or else to all manner of lusts of the Flesh and now thou sayest we think by a more precise and exactness of Life to recover our peace with God and yet deny the very person of God without us Answer Here again thou adds lie unto lie but who is the father is known by us the children of the Most High and what doth the Devil rage in thee because some that hath been Ranters and used outward weapons formerly now they are turned from these things to God and Christ the express Image of the Fathers person and comes to live in Christ and serve him in a new life therefore doest thou rage they do not own their former principles that comes amongst us but doth judge them and deny them and all the lusts of the flesh and doth their exactness of life and good conversation judge thine that makes thee so fret and chase thy self and scoff and calls it precise and to this thou addes a lie and saith we deny the very person of God without us but to this we say God fills Heaven and Earth and Christ the express Image of the Fathers person is manifest within us and thou who railes at this doth manifest thy self a reprobate one in whom God and Christ is not and an Antichrist and a false witness and a lying spirit for Christ saith he would dwell in the Saints and God would dwell in them and walk in them and hath the devil made thee so blind and ignorant of the letter of the Scripture who art given up to believe lies and who makes lies thy refuge and hast thou no other refuge but lies who by this manifests thy self to all sober people what thou art and from whence thou comes and is not repentance hid from thy eyes it is manifest by thy spirit yet we must say this to thee thou art in the unclean flesh and hath an unclean body thy flesh burns with thy heat of thy lusts and therefore thou hast uttered forth thy ruine nevertheless here is some queries for thee to answer in writing else for ever stop thy mouth 1. Is there any such thing as sin and what is sin in it self and whether thou canst act any sin and express what is a sin to thee 2. If thou doest acknowledge sinne then shall a man while he is upon Earth be made free from sinne and come into the state that Adam and Eve was in before they fell while they be upon the earth and come to Christ a state that shall never fall while he be upon earth 3. For what end did Christ come doth Christ enlighten every man that comes into the world with a saving light and a condemning light yea or nay Is there any true Prophecy Knowledge Revelations or Witness seen or known but by the light of Jesus Christ 4. What is the Soul is it mortal or immortal What is Conscience and where is it seated in man What are the Angels and the worshippers of Angels What is the worship of the Beast and the Dragon And what is the Whore that sits upon the Beast which all nations drink her Cup and
The Neck of the QUAKERS BROKEN OR Cut in sunder by the two-edged Sword of the Spirit which is put into my Mouth First In a Letter to Edward Bourne a Quaker Secondly In Answer to a Letter to Samuel Hooton and W. S. Thirdly In a Letter to Richard Farnsworth Quaker Fourthly In an Answer to a printed Pamphlet of the said Richard Farnsworth Entituled Truth Ascended Or The Anointed and Sealed of the Lord defended c. Written by Lodowick Muggleton one of the two Iust Prophets and Witnesses unto the High and Mighty God the Man Christ Jesus in Glory AMSTERDAM Printed in the Year of our Lord God 1663. And are to be had in Great Trinity-Lane over against the Lyon and the Lamb. Lodowick Muggleton 's LETTER TO Edward Bourne I Saw a Letter of yours which you sent to Dorothy Carter wherein I perceive she did lend you a Book of ours of the Two Witnesses of the Spirit which you have perused not for your good but for your eternal hurt for you have discovered in that Paper what seed and nature you are of which is the reprobate Angels seed and nature which is called in Scripture A Serpent or Devil of whose seed or childe you are one which you have plainly expressed in your Letter by speaking evil of the things you do not know in which Book or Books you were not worthy to look into But many more besides you of the Serpents brood have stumbled at this stone even the Commission of the Spirit to their eternal condemnation which we the Witnesses of the Spirit have denounced upon them which no infinite Spirit or Light of Christ within them shall take it off from them nor deliver them in the day of trouble I shall shew in some particular places in your Letter wherein you have sinned against the Holy Ghost a sin that will never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come And so I shall proceed to the sentence of eternal death upon you First you say that you perused the Book till you was weary with looking into it for it was one of the dirtyest and confusedst piece of work that ever you saw Also you do advise Dorothy Carter to consider of it and let the witness of her own conscience answer whether it was given forth from the Spirit of Truth or from the spirit of error and deceit or not This I would have you to know though it be too late for your good that it is neither the light in her nor in you nor no man under heaven at this day that can or ought to judge of the Doctrine or Declaration of a Prophet that hath a Commission from God but ought rather to submit and yield obedience to their Doctrine for there is no eternal life to be had but in the faith of it For whosoever receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophets reward which reward is no less then the assurance of eternal life So on the contrary he that despiseth a prophet Doctrine despiseth him that sent him and shall receive from that Prophet the seal in his conscience of his eternal damnation The first thing that you take offence at is that we say that the reprobate Angel had the womb of a woman to clothe himself with flesh also to bring forth Gods design From which you do ask whether that which is the Devils work can be Gods glorious design seeing God hath manifested his Son to destroy the works of the Devil To which I answer That the reprobate Angel clothing himself with flesh in the womb of a woman it was Gods design that the reprobate Angel should do so for this very purpose that there might be a generation of men and women of his seed brought forth here in this earth in the state of mortality being horn under the Law it being written in their seed and nature and by the not fulfilling of that law which is written in the serpents seed it is made capable to suffer the pains of eternal death which is the second death and this was Gods design that he might destroy the seed of the serpent with a second death And as for Gods destroying the works of the Devil he doth destroy them two ways that is he that is God did lay down his spiritual and heavenly glory in the womb of Mary the Virgin and so clothing himself with flesh and bone so that he might be capable to suffer the pains of death therefore it is said in Scripture that this Jesus which is called the Son of God but in other places of Scripture he is called the Very God as the Epistle of John where he saith This is the very God and Eternal Life And Isaiah where he saith To us a Childe is born to us a Son is given attributing to that Childe Jesus the Title of Everlasting Father Mighty God and Prince of Peace There might be more places of Scriptures named to prove this thing as that saying that the fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in him and that saying in the Revelation I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last he that was dead but am alive and behold I live for evermore And as the Angel by taking flesh upon him by entring into the womb of Eve brought sin and death into the world unto the seed of Adam so God by clothing himself with flesh in the womb of a Virgin that he might be put to death in that flesh and by his spirit quickning again in that flesh he will destroy him that had the power of death which is the devil and the devils works He destroyed the works of the devil in the seed of Adam by their having faith in the death of God which faith purifies the heart and is justified in the sight of God and in their own conscience and so the works of the devil are destroyed in the seed of Faith which is the seed of Adam by believing in the blood of God they having their hearts sprinkled by faith in his dâ—â—â—… and this did God procure to his own seed by clothing himself with flesh So on the contrary he by his design of clothing himself with flesh hath procured the eternal destruction to that reprobate Angel and his seed and you being one of the devils sons I know by your words for by your words you shall be condemned for you have plainly shewed unto me by your Letter what seed you are of and who your father is even the same as was Cains father you and he have all one father for you were begotten of that wicked one even that reprobate Angel which God designed him and his seed unto that endless misery as is spoken of in that Book which you call a Confusion and a Lie And not onely so but you have called many heavenly Mysteries the Bottomless pit of Confusion as that God created the person of the serpent more glorious than the rest of the holy Angels Also you
there is no eternal life to be had but in the faith of thy Doctrine because thou sayest there is no eternal life to be had but in the faith of the Doctrine of a Prophet who hath a Commission from God And there neither is nor shall be any such Prophet thou sayest but thy self whilest the world endureth And also sayest That neither Dorothy Carter nor no man upon the earth can or ought to judge of thy Doctrine because thou sayest that neither she nor no man upon the earth can or ought to judge of the Doctrine of a Prophet who hath a Commission from God And sayest there neither is nor shall be any such Prophet but thy self as aforesaid And to exclude Dorothy Carter and all men upon earth from judgement in point of Doctrine is to exclude them from reception thereof and so from the reward if any be due which is contrary to the Doctrine of Truth which saith Prove all things hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 And try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world 1 John 4.1 And how can doctrines be proved and spirits be tryed if none he capable to judge thereof who are to receive By this it is apparent that thou art unwilling to have thy doctrine proved and spirit tryed lest upon tryal and proof thou be found out to be a false prophet which thou art as is apparent enough 6. That there is no eternal life to be had but in the faith of thy Doctrine and that none upon the earth can or ought to receive the same because thou hast excluded them all off from judgement in order to reception thereof by which its apparent that under pretence of thy Commission thou labors to exclude Dorothy Carter and all men upon earth from salvation which makes it evident against thee that thou art a messenger of Antichrist and not of Christ 7. That thou presumes under pretence of thy Commission of the Spirit to rob Christ of his Office which his Father hath committed unto him as Chief Judge ordained of God because thou sayest thou art chief Judge in the world ordained of God to give Judgement upon men and women spiritual and eternal and what shall become of them after death which is but thy presumption pride and false doctrine Rev. 1.5 For Christ Jesus who is the faithful Witness and Prince of the Kings of the earth he hath all Judgement committed unto him because it is written concerning him That the Father hath committed all Judgement unto him John 5.22 And hath given him Authority to execute Judgement because he is the Son as it is written John 5.27 But it is no where written in the Scriptures of Truth concerning thee Lodowick that all Judgement either is or shall be by the Father committed unto thee to pronounce the Sentence of eternal death and damnation upon the souls and bodies of men to eternity as thou hast done Whereby it appears thou wouldest exclude Christ from his Office in point of Judgement which the Father hath committed unto him and are thereby discovered to be a false witness and messenger of Satan Lodowick thou art not the chief Judge in the world at this day ordained of God as aforesaid Thy Message and Testimony is false and not true because the â—rue Witnesses of the Spirit and Ambassadors of Christ who were Anointed and Sealed of God have declared and said That God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness not by thee but by Jesus Christ whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead as may be read Acts 17.30 31. And because God hath ordained Christ Jesus to be Judge of all men and hath given them assurance of the same in that he hath raised him from the dead thou Lodowick art not that Judge ordained of God because thou art not Christ Jesus which was raised from the dead neither hath God given that assurance to all men of thee that he gave of Christ by raising him from the dead as aforesaid Here I charge thee to be a false judge and a false prophet that ran but never was sent of the Lord. Thy judgement and doctrine is very erroneous and false as is plainly manifest against thee and is therefore reversed They who were the true and faithful Witnesses and Ambassadors of Christ who were anointed and sealed of God and had a Commission of God they did not presume to take the Office of Christ as Judge ordained of God from Christ and assume it to themselves as thou most unjustly hast done whereby thou hast appeared to be a false prophet and messenger of Antichrist For they who were anointed and sealed of God who were the true Witnesses of the Spirit and had a Commission from Christ to whom all the Prophets gave witness they witness against thee by testifying on the behalf of Christ that he commanded them to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he who was ordained of God to be Judge of the quick and the dead Acts 10.42 First by their Commission they were to preach to the people And secondly by the same Commission they were to testifie to them that Christ was ordained of God to be the Judge both of quick and dead Therefore thou art not Judge because thou art not Christ as aforesaid And whereas thou accusedst the Quakers to be of the nature and seed of the Serpent and gave judgement against them accordingly thou hast cleared them from the same by thy self-confutation and self-contradiction wherein thou sayest That the Quakers do preach from the Scriptures and light within and that devils are cast out and much good is done by them First the Quakees so called do preach from the Scriptures and light within Secondly because they so preach they are sent of God for how shall they preach except they be sent Thirdly That by vertue of their preaching and the power which they have received of God devils are cast out and much good is done by them and such are not of the nature and seed of the Serpent Thou hast cleared them from the same by thy self-confutation and then to what purpose is all thy false Judgement and what ever thou hast laid against them in thy presumption pride and imagination It is but error in judgement and is therefore undone as I said and holden for nothing Written by Richard Farnsworth Quaker and sent to Dorothy Carter to be directed to Lodowick Muggleton Lodowick Muggleton's ANSWER to Richard Farnsworths Letter Richard Farnsworth I Received a Paper from you entituled False Judgement reversed and against testified in Answer to Lodowick Muggleton In answer to this Paper of yours I shall first commend you in these two things first in that you have set your name to it for I have a Letter from a Quaker in Lancashire which hath
and many hundreds of their believers besides are those tares which this Commission of the Spirit hath cut down by the edge of this Sword which shall be as bundles of tares fit for nothing else but for that eternal fire because they have dispised that their fellow creature should have power to bless and curse though God will have men and women justified and condemned no other way but by man like themselves for it was always Gods practice to give authority to men that are mortal to Judge and Condemn according to the tenor of their Commission whether it be for a temporal death or an eternal death and this power hath God given unto me and in this regard I am the onely and alone Judge what shall become of men and women after death neither shall those that are damned by me see any other God or Judge but me or that sentence which I have passed upon them but the blessed shall see that God face to face which hath set me as an Ambassador in his room and this power I know God will never take from me whatsoever you Quakers deny or testifie against 5 There is little in this particular also but my words repeated onely this there is something concerning Dorothy Carter whereas I neither say that Dorothy Carter nor no man upon the Earth can or ought to judge of the doctrine of a Prophet that hath a Commission from God there being none in the world at this day but my self Answer Who do you blind Quakers think should be the Judge of a Prophet that hath a Commission from God is not a true Prophet the Law giver and ought not every one to submit unto his Laws hath not a Prophet a prerogative power as a King hath doth not a true Prophet stand in the King of Heavens room as an Ambassador doth in the place of an earthly King and shall those that are to be subject to the Laws of the King go to try whether the Kings Laws be good or just nay those that are the Kings Friends ought not to try whether the Kings Laws or Declarations be just because his friends hapiness lieth in yeilding obedience unto it and if his Friends ought not to try the King much less his enemies so I say though Dorothy Carter be a Friend to the Prophet of the Lord that it lieth not in her power neither is it for her to try the Doctrine of a Prophet but to submit unto the Doctrine and power of a Prophet for therein lieth her and all others safety And whereas you say that I have excluded Dorothy Carter and all other men upon Earth from salvation I do here testifie that she is one of the blessed of the Lord with many others in the world at this day though I will not allow Dorothy Carter nor no other to have power to try a true Prophets Doctrine though they be believers of it that doth not exclude them from salvation but gives them the more assurance of it in that they suffer themselves to be try'd by a Prophet and his Doctrine therefore I do exclude Dâ—rothy Carter and all men upon Earth in point of tryal or Judgment of the Doctrine of a Prophet that hath a Commission from God as I have and if those of the same Truth with a Prophet may not try a Prophet how will you do that are enemies to try his Doctrine for it is not your quoting of the letters of the Scriptures as you have done in two places nor the light of Christ within you that can try me for I being one of the last Witnesses and Prophets by Commission from God I am made Judge of the Scriptures and Judge of the light of Christ within you and how will you do or by what will you try my doctrine and me seeing I am made Judge of the Scriptures and of your light of Christ and your light of nature and all that is within you and without you both it is all to be condemned by me by which way then can you come to try me and to make me appear to be a false prophet as you say is apparent enough The sixth and seventh things that you upbraid me with that I say there is no eternal life to be had but in the faith of this Doctrine And that I do presume under pretence of my Commission of the Spirit to rob Christ of his Office which the Father hath committed unto him as chief Judge ordained of God with many other sayings of mâ—ne which hath been exprest in a Letter of mine unto Samuel Hooton and W. S. Answer That there is no eternal life to be had now in these days but by faith in the Doctrine of this Commission of the Spirit that is truth and many there is that can witness the same I mean in those that have heard the sound of it and it will be found to be so by you Quakers and many hundreds of other Sects besides And as for my saying that God hath made me the chief Judge in the world at this day that is true also notwithstanding Christs having all Judgement put into his hands by the Father for that is nothing to you what is spoken of in Scripture that will do you no good for this Christ which the Scriptureâ— speaks of is God the Father and this God hath chosen and ordained me to be the chief Judge in spiritual and eternal things Also he hath made me Judge of the Scriptures as I said before neither have I taken the Office from Christ but he hath given it unto me and hath invested it upon me neither will he take it away from me and that you and such as you are shall finde to your eternal sorrow make as light of it as you will you shall not be delivered The latter part of your Letter hath little in it but repeating of Scripture-Texts and some passages or words of mine which you do invade against me there is one thing would make one smile and that is this because it is not written in the Scriptures of truth that I Lodowick Muggleton art ordained of God to be the chief Judge in the world in these last days will it follow therefore that I am not the chief Judge because my name is not recorded in Scriptures If you had lived in the days when Christ was upon earth you would hardly have found his name recorded in the Law and the Prophets nay it is the more probable that I am ordained the chief Judge because my name is not recorded in Scripture for if there had been such a name written in Scriptures that should be the last Prophet in the world many men would have named their sons Lodowick Muggleton and that is the cause there is so many Johns and Thomasses and Jeremiahs with many other Scripture Prophets and Apostles names but there is never a Lodowick Muggleton in all the Scriptures and yet God hath ordained him to be the Judge of Quakers and all other
no Commission from God to be the chief Judge of Quakers and other dispising spirits That doth no ways weaken my power but rather confirm and make it the more stronger for I do believe Jesus Christ to be the the onely God both God and Man in one person by whom the world was made and from this Christ God Man am I made Judge and not from the letter of the Scriptures which were other mens Commissions so that I am no Minister of the letter but a Minister of the Spirit and so the chief Judge ordained of Christ by voice of words as Moses Elijah Paul and Peter other Prophets and Apostles were so that though Christ be chief Judge of the quick and the dead in that he hath power to raise mankinde again at the last day and so give possession of eternal happiness to the seed of Faith and possession of endless misery unto the seed of Reason and in this regard Christ is chief Judge both of the quick and the dead yet this doth no ways prove me a false Judge but rather the contrary for all Prophets and Apostles which were ordained of God were Judges and some more chief then others as Moses was a chief Judge Elijah and Elisha and Samuel and divers others were chief Judges they being above all other Prophets at that time therefore chief Judges in the time of their Commissions so likewise the Apostles were all Judges yet Peter was more chief Judge then all the rest so is it now John Reeve and my self being the last chosen Witnesses of the Spirit we are Judges but while John Reeve was living he was chief Judge but he being fallen a sleep I am chief Judge much like unto Elijah and Elisha yet in all this there is no dis-throning of Christ nor diminishing of his honor and power of being the Judge of the quick and the dead And as for my saying that no man knows the Scriptures nor can interpret the Scriptures truly but my self that is a standing truth neither shall any man or woman that I have passed the Sentence upon be delivered from it and as for the interpretation of the Scriptures belonging unto the Lord as you say and not unto my self to this I say God doth not come down from heaven upon this earth to interpret the Scriptures unto men but this was always Gods practice to Commissionate particular men and furnish them with gifts for that purpose and what interpretations of Scriptures they give it is owned of God as if he had done it himself therefore the people of the Jews would have Moses to speak unto them he being a man like themselves they could better hear him then God because Gods voice was so terrible that mortals could not bear it yet Moses words are owned to be the words of God as if God had spoke them himself and so all Prophets and Apostles could say Thus sayeth the word of the Lord so that what declaration or interpretation a Messenger of God doth give it may be said it is from God and so ought to be received by man so that Christ doth not teach every particular man neither by his Spirit nor by voice of words but if any man believe him that he is sent of God he may be said to be taught of God so that the true and right interpretation of the Scriptures it lyeth in those men that God hath chosen anointed and sealed for that purpose and men cannot come to the knowledge of God nor the true meaning of the Scriptures no other way so that I knowing these things to be true that the interpretation of Scriptures belongs unto Commissionated men and not unto Christ himself as the Quakers doth vainly imagine 5. R. F. doth say that the chosen Witnesses of Christ who had a Commission from his blessed Spirit they were anointed and sealed of God 6. Saith he for the Ambassadors who had a Commission to Preach and were anointed and sealed of God 7. He saith the Ambassadors of Christ who were anointed and sealed of God and had the ministration of reconciliation given unto them 8. The Ambassadors of Christ who were anointed and sealed of God and had the glorious ministration of the Spirit given unto them 9. He saith the Ambassadors of Christ and chosen Witnesses of the Spirit who were anointed and sealed of God they were workers together with God 10. He sayeth the true Witnesses of the Spirit and Ambassadors of Christ by the Father of Mercies and God of all Comfort they were comforted themselves in all their tribulations that they might be able to comfort them that were in any trouble by the comfort wherewith they themselves were comforted of God for which purpose he hath quoted abundance of texts of Scriptures which would be too tedious to cite L. M. Reply Here you that have any true saving light in you you may judge whether this man hath proved me a false Witness or not he tells me that the Prophets and Apostles of old many hundred years ago before I was born that they were anointed and sealed of God for the work of the Ministery that is confessed and owned by me that the Prophets and Apostles of old they had a Commission from God to ordain other men for the work of the Ministry but what doth this prove that God hath not given a Commission to John Reeve and Lodowick Muggelton because the Prophets and Apostles were anointed and sealed and had a Commission of God neither will their Commission authorize any Quakers nor no other man for the work of the Ministry but when the Prophets and Apostles were living they had power to authorize any man which they did discern fit for it but the reading of their Commission now they are dead will not impower a man to be a Minister or Messenger of Christ yet this is the course that you Quakers and most men in the world doth take to prove a live mans Commission to be false by a dead mans Commission but you will finde it to the contrary in the end Again though the Prophets and Apostles were anointed and sealed of God for that great work will it follow therefore that you Quakers because you read their writings that you are anointed and sealed of God for the work of the Ministry surely no neither will it follow because they were true Witnesses of Christ therefore I must needs be false For this I say that my Commission is from the same God as theirs was and is as true as theirs was neither have I my Commission from them but from God himself as they had so that it will prove a vain conceit of you Quakers and others that are under the sentence of this Commission of the spirit to tell me that they were that is the Prophets and Apostles were anointed and sealed of God what is that to you what they were their being true Witnesses of Christ will never a whit diminish or weaken that power and authority which God