lusts you shew where your hearts is without pitty or compassion who wilt not cover thy own flesh but it is that you may be made manifest and you have shewed that you are out of the doctrine of Christ you have been pleading for your interest in the earth there is your God and with the doctrine of Christ you are judged and your community we abhorre but the communion of the Saints we own and servants in their places diligent serving the Lord and children obeying their Parents in the Lord and forsaking all for the Lord and he that doth not is not worthy of him This we witness Whereas you are slandering and saying We are breaking marriage bonds and wedlock because we question what Scripture the Priests have to marry people and take money for it O ye enemies of God where do you read in all the Scriptures that the Priests are to take money for marrying of people such trades we deny if you call that wedlock Marriage is honourable in all things where the the bed is undefiled and that we own but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge and such we deny and all the Priests practises which they have no Scripture for and therefore we question them with authority and deny them both Whereas you are speaking of some that are not free to be Tenants Is the Lord drawing his people from under you taskmasters as from under Pharaoh which are proud and oppressors which you Priests have been examples of and taught the people And this torments you now you Priests because you are against it who have been the oppressors of the creation and are but the Lord is gathering his people from under you now as he did from under Pharaoh and doth proud Pharaoh begin to rage if this torment you you shall see more come with everlasting songs upon their heads singing over Pharaoh and his host The song of Moses and Lamb is begun to be heard in our land and the children of Israel which had their land-marks What 's that to you Egyptians proud and covetous who are for destruction as your father Pharaoh was who was an oppressor proud and a taskmaster Therefore wo to you bloody Cains which are compast under the wo you are of the stock of them that build Babel who are Babylon harlotted from the living God and your Mother hath sit as a Queen deckt with her colours but now the time of her widowhood is come and loss of children and she hath lost many children and that many Kings and Merchants of the earth laments crying Alas alas Whereas you are speaking of tumults and attempts put this not far from you for this may be seen in some of your generation this shall stand for your selves as it is made manifest what tumults are in your congregations And your boasting as giving up your bodies and estates But let these words return upon your selves again and see where your bodies are where your lives and estates are for many lies in prison because they will not pay Priests Tythes which is contrary to the Lord Jesus Christ and his doctrine which the Apostles ever lived in for he never sent you for you confess you are not sent immediately as the Apostles were You say There is not a prophesie in all the Scriptures that takes away all outward teachers Here I am full of the Spirit and power of the Lord to declare against you for in John he saith Ye need not any man téach you There is mans teaching outwardly denied and in Heb. 8. he saith Ye shall not teach every man his neighbour saying Know the Lord for all shall know him All who are in the new Covenant witnesseth this and who witness the new Covenant witness the Son of man and Jeremiah prophesied That they shall no more teach every man his neighbour saying Know the Lord And here you enemies of the God are raced out of the Covenant and are ignorant of the Lord And Ezekiel saith Thus saith the Lord I will deliver my sheep from their mouthes that hath devoured them such as you that have sought for the fleece and for the wool and I will search out my sheep and finde them out and feed them upon the top of the mountaines saith the Lord of hosts he that hath an ear to hear let him for he feeds upon the top of the mountains of Israel And Isaiah saith All the children of the Lord shall be taught of the Lord and much peace shall they have and in righteousness shall they be established And here let this prophesie judge you to be out of the new Covenant and contrary to the Prophets and Apostles which say You are not sent immediately as the Apostles were so how can you witness their conditions so here you have brought your selves under the chain And Jeremiah saith The Lord speaks in him Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new covenant not according to the covenant I made with their fathers but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those daies saith the Lord I will put my laws in their inward parts and in their hearts will I write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people And all these Scriptures I charge you all ye Priests of England to have laid waste and have brought none into the new Covenant neither are you there your selves who stumble at the light and denies the first principle They that need no man to teach them such you write against and speak against and so deny the new Covenant and bring the conditions of those that were not come to the Covenant to oppose the new Covenant them that are in it And for quoting many Scriptures of the Epistles and bringing the conditions of the Saints written in the Epistles and not knowing what condition they were written to let the readers of the book examine the Scriptures which you bring in your book and then they will see how you wrest the Scriptures to oppose the truth and how ignorant you are of the Scriptures You are bringing the Apostles which said If we minister unto you spiritual things it is least if you minister unto us carnal things This was spoken to them that denied the Priests the Saints and would not hold up such Priests as you Priests of England which seek for your gain from your quarter and have Balaams wages which is a horrible filthy thing and which the wo is upon and seeks for the fleece and makes a prey upon the people and if they will not give it you sue men at the law did ever the Apostles so Here O England let thy teachers who are in their whoredom from the life be witnessed against by all the Prophets and Apostles life and let all thy whoredoms testifie against thee in thy face for with the eternal life of them all thou art judged eternally You are speaking of Christs sending forth his and say
you call Quakers that they bring an odium upon the glorious affairs of Christs kingdom Reply This shall stand for your selves who live in experiences which the Minister of Christ taught to forget the things past and to press forward and there you do shew that you are raced out from the life of the Apostle and layes waste his words Priest Another of your lying slanders is that you say They lay waste Churches Graces Scriptures Principles Reply And in these I charge you Joseph Kellet John Pomrey Paul Glisson to be lyers for the Churches of the Saints Graces Scriptures Principles we own but you slander us because we deny the Steeple-house to be the Church and the Grace of God we own which teacheth to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and so it is in the first lesson That they do come to see with the light of Christ to deny your Church your Principle your Experiences and so are not to taste of their doctrine which perish with the using of it for you have been the proud and coveto us that have led silly women captive which have been ever learning but never able to know the truth of you And some are moved to come and cry against you therefore slander them not Priest Another lying slander you bring saying They hinder the progress of the Gospel by weakening the hands of faithful teachers Reply These are more of your lyes for the progress of the Gospel we own and the faithful teachers we own but such as you Priests who say you are not sent immediately as the Apostles were we deny Priest You are making a Pharisees confession you Priests and are learning your lesson how you are apt to slumber and how you should be stirr'd up and doth confess that your people are in deadness of their hearts occasioned by formal duties Reply Here you have uttered where you are which makes people forsake you and where one doth ten shall and see your prayers empty without the Spirit and this is to your Pharisees confession of your selves and the people and many doth see that the Lord is gone out of your publick assemblies and that Ministery he doth not own for you are such as the Lord cried wo against as stood praying in the Synagogues c. Mat. 23. and there you are all openly shewed to be none of Christs sending neither your Church none of his Body for when the Lord hath moved some to come to speak after the order of the Saints Churches and the Scriptures Some have been stocked some stoned and beat and prisoned And how can you say This is a Church of God but blaspheme God but it is as the Scripture saith Become a cage of unclean birds And as touching the Saints conditions Hope Faith I charge you let them alone and meddle not with them for them you know nothing of for your Faith is vain and your Hope shall perish and to you this is the word of God who stumbles at the light Priest And again you say Take heed of judging Ordinances as unnecessary or indifferent things Reply And here I charge you to keep people in blindness who put no difference between the Ordinances of Christ and the Ordinances of Men Priest And again you cavil because they say Minde the light in you which is Christ and is pure and that it discovers every evil and your Answer to this is Whether makes not this the Scripture unncessary and casts off all outward teachings Reply O you blinde guides this light which is to be minded which is Christ stablisheth the Scriptures and it doth bring to deny all outward teachers which is made by man for What is the chaff to the wheat Priest And again you Query Whether this brings not down the glorious mystery of the Scriptures and from every rule of duty Reply Here you have declared you know nothing of the mystery of the Scriptures but are in your own duties for the light within which shews him sin and every evil it doth teach him how to pray and watch and oponeth to him every mystery of the Scripture and without it you are all blinde and know nothing of the mystery as you make it appear and you slanderers do not incense the people that we deny the Scriptures for the Scriptures is ours Priest And in your p. 2. whereof you are tormented and saith We sit inthe chair of judgement I answer Reply God hath given us an understanding and judgement that we are able to distinguish praises to his name We were in your state and kingdom but the Lord hath brought us out of it therefore we are able to judge it and you who hath no judgement but what is false Priest And you are querying Whether leaving you to be guided by the conscience and to have no standing rule whithout you you say Whether this be not to establish Heathens and Philosophy and you conclude that the Light is not pure before Faith Rep. Here you have declared that you neither know Faith nor Light and are afraid that that in your consciences should give you that standing rule which all the Prophets and Apostles had we have Christ Jesus saith I am the light of the world and enlightneth every one that cometh into the word and you conclude this light is not pure And Christ saith He doth enlighten every one that cometh into the world and one he loves the light brings his d deeds to the light and doth not stumble and the ohe hates the light and stumbles at noon as you do which stumbles so much at the light of Christ which enlightens every one that cometh into the world But it is that you might appear that you are them that hate the light and so hates Christ and that you might be judged with all the children of light and you that stumble at this light you neither know God nor Christ nor Faith nor Hope and cannot preach the Gospel nor the Gifts nor the Words but onely death hears a fame as Job said and destruction for â—n your p 4. you leave it to the spiritual to judge and here you conclude you are not spiritual and here you are concluded to be judged by the authority that gave forth the Scriptures for the spiritual man judgeth all things and the Saints shall judge the world and you that deny this light denies the Father of lights and the Apostles exercise who exercised his conscience towards God and man and you deny the Scriptures and growth and the watching and waiting upon God for you question Christs words do you who stumble at the light wherewith Christ hath enlightned Priest For you say If every one that cometh into the world hath a light sufficient to salvation that makes the Scripture the Testimony of God unnecessary a revelation of his minde and love which are nowhere to be found but there Reply And here I charge you again to set up the Scriptures before Christ who is the love of God to
present world and rejoyce evermore and they sung Hallelujah and the kingdom of God stands in righteousness joy and peace in the Holy Ghost Here I charge you in the Spirit of the living God to be lyers And you say That the children of God are found groaning all their life long under the burthen of sin Now I take all the children of the light to judge you and may see the Scripture to witness against you and see that your experience is contrary to the Saints in Scripture and as touching the second coming of Christ as you speak silence flesh who stumbles at his light for you that stumbles at his light stumbles at him But blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath given us an understanding with his light which you stumble at You Priests have been looked on to be the props and pillars of the truth but now the truth hath discovered you to be the props of Antichrists kingdom having the form as the Pharisees had And again you are speaking of the Apostles faith and the seed and the promises and of Abraham Isaac and Jacob All these are our witnesses who witness the promise of God to the seed but as for you that stumble at the light you have but the form as the Pharisees had who saith you are found all your life time groaning under the burthen of sin Here you shew your selves to be them that lead silly women captive led away with divers lusts ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth that the Apostle spoke of but lies groaning under your sins who said They haâ— put off the body of sin and was made free from sin Here your experiences are tried again to be contrary to the Scriptures and the Saints lives so we have weighed you to be contrary to the Scriptures and the Apostles you that say you lay groaning under the burthen of sin bound under the temptations and snares of the divel who are without God in the world And whereas you say That whosoever bids man take heed to the light within which the eternal Word hath enlightned which enlightens him which enlightneth every one that cometh into the world in attendance thereto puts man besides the way of life and saith This assertion puts men quite besides the way of salvation to attend upon that light which comes from the eternal word If this put men aside from the way of life and put men quite beside the way of salvation to wait upon the light which comes from the eternal Word Here again I take all the children of light to record how you are confused and are beside the way of life and salvation for none knows the way of salvation life peace and righteousness but who owns this eternal light which is in the eternal Word and so here all may see it is you that bring men quite besides the way of life and eternal salvation and terms the light of Christ to be the light of nature and not pure And so there you blasphemers are discovered to be the foxes that spoil the vineyards And you say What shall we think of Paul who found the law in his members warring Here you shew you are stangers to Pauls condition when you have learned it you shall know it but them that stumbles at the light stumbles at his condition and here your experiences are tried again to be contrary to the Scriptures You say You grant to walk up to the law or light of nature shall have the light of Grace or Gospel revealed to him and yet you say You never knew the Gospel bestowed upon any such person and say You more then doubt whether ever they stood before the throne of glory Here you are confused let the Reader take notice was not the light of Moses the light of the Gospel who wrote of Christ shall they receive Light Grace Gospel and not stand before the throne of glory you grant they may receive it then here they may fall from the throne of glory which you was accusing them of you call Quakers before they that fall from the light fall from the eternal salvation And so O man thus thy condemnation ariseth of thy self Whereas you say Men taking heed to the light which Christ hath enlightned them withal takes away the ministration of the Gospel and shuts the kingdom of God from men Here you have manifested your selves to be in the generation of the Pharisees who hath the letter to talk of as they had but the light wherewith Christ hath enlightned shuts not the kingdom of heaven from men but you that denies the light shuts the kingdom of God from men and so denies the Gospel and them that hate this light preaches not the Gospel but their own inventions and takes away the authority of the Scriptures who are in the same nature of your fathers that murthered the Prophets Christ and the Apostles and you the children of them now where the life and power is made manifest among the Quakers you act the same part of your fathers which all the righteous blood was shed by Whereas you say Your chief contention is for the Gospel administred by man Here you contend for that the Apostle denied not by man had he received it neither was he made an Apostle by man And here your Spirit is tried to be contrary to the Apostles and the Scripture Whereas you say You know not how any should believe unless they hear the testimony of the Apostles or their words Here you shew you to be in the generation of them who hoards the Apostles words as your fathers read the Prophets and Apostles words but persecuted Christ Blessed is he that believes and sees not And you say You cannot tell how men should believe unless they saw the Apostles conditions Here you shew your selves to be in the Jews doting condition who are Ministers of the letter and your faith is theirs and both is dead he that believes is born of God without Scripture and yet witnessed in Scripture And whereas you slander and say Them you call Quakers aimes to beguile you of Scripture themselves they say this Light or Gospel within you it is the sure word of prophesie Here let all see you to be lyers whether we do not set the Scriptures in the heart of every one for every one having the light within which shews his evil deeds which light is his condemnation that hates it this is Scripture within Here we do not take it from them but that every one might possess it within as it was given forth from within from the life and that they might take heed to the sure word of prophesie till the day-star arise in their hearts as the Apostles exhorts the Saints and that was within And so here again we do not take Scripture from you but it is that you might be seen to be lyers who seek to draw people from the light within from the
Their message required haste two coats would cumber to salute any by the way might occasion derision or delay and they were to go without money to encourage them he intended to send them into the nations afar off Here I charge all the Priests in England how you go about in your own country without bag without two coats without money without saluting any by the way So here in your own words you are judged who makes a derision of them that doth not salute by the way for that some are beat whom the Lord sends without two coats and doth not salute by the way so you are the oppressors of your own nation who go in two coats and money in your purses salute men by the way sue men at the law and imprison them that will not give it you and out of the doctrine of Christ you are for you confess you are not sent forth immediately as the Apostles were You are speaking something for justifying of your particular great houses Stephen for witnessing against the temple was stoned to death who saw the substance and Paul witnessed against the Jews outward temple and was haled out of the Synagogues and was persecuted And for the maintaining of the Pulpit in your great Steeple-houses you bring Ezra who had a Pulpit to read the Law who read the Law to a particular people and the Gospel which is preached by the messengers of Christ is to every creature and the Gospel where it is received they may all speak one by one which is the end of the Law Here you are raced out and Ezra and his Pulpit is ended and the Gospel is preached which you are cleared from who would have Ezra's Pulpit under the law And you dreamers saith Your great idol-houses are clean to you where you meet with your great mixt multitudes and your Pulpit and you that are up which are called of men Masters Let Mat. 23. Christ's words there judge you and all your practices who cries wo against such as you are and the Apostles words who said They sinned against their brethren and against Christ who sit in the Idols temple and there you are judged to be out of the Apostles doctrine and Christs And whereas you would justifie your method and your study first you say The Evangelist exhorted to you such means as are here blamed And these you bring to maintain your study and method You enemies of God was Timothy to study for the word or to divide it was he to study for the gift or to give it forth You bring Solomon who set in order many parables and teaching the people And this you bring for your study and method who speaks a definition of their own brain and not from the mouth of the Lord who confess you were not immediately sent as the Apostles were therefore all is but a definition of their own brain And whereas you are speaking of the Apostles opening the Scriptures and Ezra the law Their conditions shall judge you for that which opened in them was immediate which you confess you are not sent forth immediately therefore you cannot open Scripture as they did so all your method is to be troden under feet who speak a definition of your own brain Whereas you say Learning is to the understanding of the letter of the Scriptures and to help to significant words Here I charge you in the presence of the living God to be them that deny the word that gave forth all words learning is natural and the Scriptures were given forth by the Spirit and can that which is natural open that which the eternal Spirit gave forth Here let all try your spirit and judge your understanding to be bruitish And as touching Magistrates and your outward teaching the Lord hath opened many of their eyes to see your outward teaching to be vanity who witness the law of God in their hearts and so God is coming and is come to redeem his people from among you which witness new Jerusalem come and coming down from heaven so all you corrupt teachers must be trodden under feet which are not sent as the Apostles were they were sent immediately and that you deny to be sent as they were Whereas you are speaking of the deceiveableness of the mystery of iniquity lying Prophets and prophaness Lying Prophets and prophaness is found amongst you it shall stand for your selves for before you are proved to be out of the doctrine of Christ And as you are speaking of voices and being deluded and bewitched with the spirit of lyes This shall stand for your selves again for there you are made manifest to all the children of light who hath long reigned this dark time and where Christ is made manifest the same yesterday to day and for ever There him you call false Christ but in the mystery of iniquity you are which are curst from Christ who hath answered line for line among the simple ones who ensnare the simple ones but now you are taken in your craft and catcht in your guile bound with a chain and the Lord God of might and power is sending forth his sons and daughters and they are amongst you some cutting the branches and some at the roots and amongst you in the wood and drive you foxes out of your holes and shake you fowls out of your nests that are set so high who hath been saying Loe here and loe there but now Christ is within made manifest and all you are seen but you are without who stumble at the light and them that are sent forth without stick or money or two coates such you deride that walk according to the rule that gave forth the Scripture and are brought into Christs doctrine and against such you inform people they are as Satan transformed into an Angel of light but this shall stand for your selves for there you are in the dark eternally we judge you who are not sent forth as the Apostles were immediately as you confess it And what have you to talk of the authority of the Scripture which is immediate and what have you to talk of the Ordinances of God which are spiritual or Communion which is immediate or what have you to do to speak of Faith or Resurrection or of God who are not sent forth immediately as the Apostles were Therefore you I say Lead the people from the authority of the Scriptures and from the Ordinances of Christ and from the Communion Therefore you that are not sent forth as the Apostles immediately your doctrine and Gospel is not as theirs was but are doctrines of devils so we are not as little children now to be tossed with your cunning sleights and windy doctrine you are for ever judged we see your footsteps and know in what path you walk and some of us have learned your language as Moses did the Aegyptians And whereas you are speaking of Germanie In the same nature you are which ever murthered the righteous seed where it