reverence be it spoken must acquit the man though in himself ungodly for payment being made satisfaction given by the surety it is but just that the debtor be acquitted and discharged shall not the judge of all the world do right yea God is just and will declare his righteousnesse by justifying him that believeth in Jesus Now God the Father having thus reconciled the world unto himself by Christ for the farther carrying on of this work commits the ministery and service of this reconciliation to his Apostles and Ministers in their successive generations who as Heralds and Ambassadors authorized and commissionated by him should publish and in his na e preach the glad tydings of salvation this everlasting Gospell And to let all men even the Gentiles see what hope there is of their fellowship and participation of the blessings and benefits of this mysterie of godlinesse which from the begining of the world have bin hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ no nation people or person being now excluded or shut out the partition wall of Jewish ordinances being broken down and both Jew Gentile bond and free male and female all may come drink freely of that well of salvation which Christ hath opened for all persons that will come unto him whereof for his part he is so free being no niggard of his blood and merits that he intreats all to come and partake of And by his servants making a full tender of himself as Priest Prophet and King to all that will receive him And to as many as thus receive him giving them right power and just claime to become the sons of God and heires of the kingdome which he had purchased But now man by his fall being dead in the dark yea darknesse it self and so in his natural state and blindness unable to receive and comprehend this glorious and gracious mysterie of being righteous by anothers righteousness and of being saved by anothers sufferings all men Jewes and Gentiles doting and being fruitlesly set upon seeking life and happiness by their own doings and performances Therefore together with the revelation of this mysterie by the ministry of his servants sent for that purpose Christ over and above that common work of the Spirit by which he enlightens every man that comes into the world gives unto those who are given him of the Father and who are to be called according to the eternal decree and purpose which he purposed in himself and whereby he surely knowes those that are and shal be his to them he gives a mind and understanding to know him and to receive him and to be in him and to be one with him who is the true God and eternal life And now a believer having Christ who is eternal life hath eternal life in and by Christ whereas those who thus have him not sc by believing have not eternal life because what in them lies they make God a liar not entertaining and closing with that testimony and record that he gave of his son which was that in him he was well pleased not onely with him for so he could not but be in justice forhe had never offended him But in him he was well pleased being in mercy and loving kindnes satisfied for the sins of all those who come unto God by him who therefore are received as sons and daughters by free grace and adoption And now that those who thus believe in Christ might have the witness in themselvs of their Sonship because they are sons God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts whereby they are imboldned to call upon God as Sons crying Abba Father being thereunto the more imboldned because by the same Spirit they are sealed and marked out unto the day of redemption And which is given to them as a pledge and earnest in hand for an assurance to them of their full inheritance when their adoption and son-ship shall be compleated by the redemption of their bodies from the power of Corruption as now their soules are from the reign and power of sin The same spirit also in the meane time leading them into all saving truth comforting them in all their troubles and helping them in all their infirmities And thus hath a Believer in himself the testimony both of blood and of the spirit witnessing to and with his spirit that he is a son and child of God But then as there are three in Heaven that bear record and give testimony to this great mysterie of godliness sc The Father the word the holy Ghost So there are must be three witnesses on earth i. The heart of a true believer before the work can be compleated which are three the Spirit Blood and Water For Christ came not by blood alone for justification nor by water onely for sanctification but by water and blood both which Sacramentally flowed forth from his precious body when he hung upon the Crosse a Sacrifice for our redemption thereby shewing forth the end of his suffering viz. both the justification sanctification of his people And therefore he that hath not the witness testim within himself of all three hath not the witness of either he whose heart conscience cannot witnes to him his faith believing in that blood of Christ shed for his justification cannot have the witness of this blood as water for cleanâ—ing and sanctification For Christ sanctifies none but whome he justifies he whose heart cannot witnes to him his faith operating on the blood of Christ as water for sanctification canot have the testimony of blood and his interest in it for justification For Christ justifies none but he also sanctifies the n. And he that hath not the testimony and witnesse in himself of his intrest in blood and water for justification sanctification cannot have the testimony and witnesse of the spirit sealing for these three agree in one all beare witness to one the same truth sc Christs comming dying to redeeme us from sin and all iniquity both in the guilt and in the filth of it both from the condemnation and from the domination of sin For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teacheth us that denying ungodlinesse and world y lusts we shâ—ud live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar and choice people zealous of good works And for asmuch as no uncleane person can enter into the Kingdome of Heaven where the inheritance is For know ye
And pag 43. by way of reproach Thou saist it because the Scripture saith it Nay do they not in page 90 of the same book answer to the second querie call the letter of the Scripture dust And calls him Serpent for asserting the word preacht as the means of Faith Serpent like saith he thou feedest upon dust And in the next page Answer to the fourth query All thy hearing and all thy pratling of that which thou callest the word by it thou shalt never get Faith which is the gift of God but it is all the Serpents meat which feeds thee thou serpent which art curst above all the beasts of the field And do not they say page 104 of that book Answer to querie the thirtieth That their giving forth of papers or printed books it is from the immediate eternal Spirit of God And then what difference between their stinking rotten blasphemous papers and the sacred Scriptures Yea to make up the measure of their blasphemie do they not say the same spirit which gave forth the Scriptures which gives forth now is as true as the Scriptures and not contrary to the Scriptures The charge being against them for magnifying papers equal to the holy Scriptures what damnable hypocrites are these to say they establish the Scriptures If we take their words in every honest mans sense But what mean these hypocrites then in saying they establish and they confirm and they witness the Scriptures Why forsooth it pleaseth their Godship and Christship or rather devilship to speak from their eternal spirit in the Scripture language and so add their Authority to it as the Papists The Scriptures are but as Aesops Fables with them if not allowed of and confirmed by the authority of their Church Or else they establish it by asserting it to be within them in the power of it For I would allow them all fair interpretation But I pray are not the Scriptures truth and the written and sacred Word of God in themselves whether man doth believe or entertain them yea or no Doth mans believing them make them the Word of God more then they were before It s true as to his comfort or advantage that receives them not to him they are not as the Word of God But in themselves they are and will be though all men in the world reject them They speak lies therefore in hypocrisie in saying they establish the word But further to discover their lying hypocrisie they speak not forsooth from the letter of the Scripture i. not as taught by or from the letter i. what they get by reading of the Scripture in the letter No though the Scripture had never been written they could have spoken as they do from and by the eternal and immediate and infallible spirit But oh ye hypocrites I 'le ask you a question did our English Translators of the Scriptures teach the eternal Spirit to speak English Or if you would speak without lying Did you never read the Scripture in our English translation that you speak the very words for the most part except your canting language from Jacob Behmen as the straying of Eves minde and lust into the visibles and being redeemed out of the perishing nature and such like stuffe will any man believe that the spirit which gives the gift of utterance and expression could not have spoken the same truths in other English As every one knows may be done and yet keep the same sense and truth But it must pedantically teach you like school-boys to speak so by rote Fye for shame It smels leave your hypocritical lying and do not so poorly and basely belye the spirit and speak against that light which is within you But once more and a little further to this what leads your Holiness forth to speak in Scripture language Is it not hypocrite-like that thereby you might catch poor simple plain-hearted people in your snares who having a due and reverent esteem of the Scriptures you allure by pretences of establishing the Scripture to insinuate those poisonous doctrines which I have before discovered you to be guilty of As for Antichrists other two Doctrines of forbidding to marry and abstaining from meats I shall not now prosecute I may speak of that when I shall a little open the effects of their teachings But before I speak to that I shall but suggest my apprehensions of the end these men may have in their undertakings and on whose errand they are come I will present them and leave them to thy judgement They may come in their own Anti-christs or the Devils errand First they may come in their own to cheat the people of the money and this hypocritical lying too For though they raile upon Ministers as Preaching for hire which who so doth let him answer for himself yet they themselves do teach That where they have planted and sown there they may reap Which in plain English is this Those whom they have seduced they may take money of and whether they do or no time will discover Sure I am they have necessary supplies for nature which some able Ministers have not and no doubt a large Diocess which these ramble over will yield more then any particular Parish And they plead hard for Community for in their Answer to the seven Priests page 22. whereas it seems they had charged them with reading for it The Quakers there answer and say Here you are against the Spirit of life For say they they that did believe were of one heart and they that do believe are born of God and amongst such there was no oppressor no taskmaster and it s said all things were common and no man said this is my own And conclude thus You who are not come to Christs Doctrine who is not come to give your coat yet who hath two you we deny So that though they come not for money before-hand they can take it afterwards and though with the Fryars they may not touch money they have a poak in their sleeve into which if you put it some can take it out and know what to doe with it So that this may be one end of their coming Secondly they may come upon Anti-Christs errand and not much improbable for Lancashire and those parts is as famous for Papists as Witches and on good grounds we may conceive them to be Anti-Christs factors if we consider their doctrins For any intelligent Reader may easily discover the doctrines of Vniversal grace Free-will Satisfaction by our own sufferings Justification by inherent holiness Ability to keep the Law Perfection Nulling the Doctrine of Original sin and the Popish real presence All which with some other things I intended particularly to evidence from their writings but I fear being too large There are many other wretched opinions of theirs worse then the Papists which others have discovered from other of their writings which I have not seen and I leave it to others who have more strength and leisure if they
to play on it and to dance Whereupon he questioned what power led him to such actions and the voice presently answered him This is not because I love Musick for I hate it but to signifie to thee what joy there is in heaven at thy conversion as also what spiritual melody thou shalt have hereafter Then was he led out of the house and carried through the Town being forced as he went to proclaim I am the way the truth and the life Then went he to his own house and there by the Devil was thrown down and forced to make circles with his hands the voice telling him that he was now putting off the old man His hand also was forced to take up a stone which lay on the floor which he thought to be like a mans heart and the Voice told him that Christ had taken that stone out of his heart and given him an heart of flesh Then holding it forth to the spectators he was forced to say Except you see signs and wonders you will not believe And throwing the stone amongst them he said Lo here is my heart of stone Then was he cast upon his back on the ground and the voice said Thou shalt have two Angels to keep thee and immediately two Swallows came down the Chimney and sat on a Shelf near him whereupon he cryed My Angels my Angels and withal he held out his hand to them expecting they should have come to him but they flew up the Chimney again though the Doors and Windows were open Then was he carried upon his hands and knees out of the doors into the street and when his wife would have stopped him he said he must not be stopped he must forsake wife children and all to follow Christ Thus went he up the Street thinking that he bore a Cross upon his neck till some pulled him out of the mire and dirt and by force carried him into his house whereupon pointing at one of them he said Christ points at thee Thou art a wicked woman and hast hindred the work of the Lord. Then the voice asked him Where is thy Cross upon which he thought he saw a visible Cross hanging in a thred which with his hand he put behinde his neck Thus he continued till the Evening when many of the Quakers coming to him said Be lowly minded and hearken to the voice within thee and so they left him his strength being almost quite spent with his restlessness His wife and family going to bed he remained alone when he began to question whether these strange actions were divine or diabolical whereupon he trembled and his hand was forced to take up a knife which lay by and to point it to his throat and the voice said to him Open a hole there and I will give thee eternal life But he threw away the knife and his wife coming to him at her perswasion he went to bed and all the night after he assured himself That he was possessed of the Devil and in the Morning he roared and cried out Now the Devil is gone out of me at which instant he and his family heard it thunder though no others heard it Shortly after the Devil came to him again and told him That it was Satan that had possessed and seduced him hitherto but now Christ was come and had cast out Satan and told him also That what he had done the day before was in obedience unto Satan and that as he had served Satan the day before in his cloaths so now this day he must undo all that he had done in his shirt in obedience to Christ whereupon he rose out of his bed went into the Street in his shirt but some stopped him whereupon the Devil within told him That he must be carried into the house by four women or else That he should for ever stand there like a Pillar of Salt as Lots wife did Then four women carried him into his bed whereupon he told them That the day before he had been doing the Devils work but now he must do Christs work c. Then he fell to acting in his shirt upon the bed as he had done the day before upon the floor Playing topsie-turvey from one bed to another the Devil biding him not to fear for saith he I will give thee strength Then it told him That the day before the Devil bad him bare his Cross but now Christ bad him lay it aside for Christ takes no pleasure in Crosses nor will be worshipped as yesterday he had done It said further Yesterday the Devil made thee lie all day long on the ground but now I have provided a bed for thee for my yoak is easie He promised also to give him Bread of Life to eat and Water of Life to drink and that out of his Belly should flow Rivers of Living waters Then were his Teeth moved as if he was eating and he thought that he felt in his Belly a flowing up and down of waters He was told also That yesterday the Devils Angels waited on him but now Christs Angels should guard him Hereupon he saw two Butterflies in the Windows and his hand was forced to take one of them and to put it into his mouth which he swallowed down then he was moved to take the other and put it to his Throat and he was told That it should enter in there For saith the voice nothing is impossible to him that believeth Then he was forced to make circles on the bed whereupon he began to suspect that he was acted by Satan and thereupon in great fear cried out Lord what wilt thou have me do But the Devil answered It is too late to cry unto God for sentence is already passed against thee Hereupon he lay down in despair but presently the Devil told him the third time That it was a white Devil that deluded him this second time but that now Christ was come indeed and would cast him out and accordingly he thought the Devil was ejected But then all his members fell on working as if the pangs of death had been upon him the voice telling him That they were the pangs of the New birth and that now Christ was new born in him Thus he continued a whole day and the Devil told him That now he should work wonders and cast out devils in Christs name Then came in two of the Quakers to whom he said I have two Devils cast out of me but now Christ is in me of a truth Then said the Devil to him I was crowned with a crown of thorns but I will crown thee with a crown of glory and bad him set his fist upon his head Which saith he to the standers-by shall appear as a glorious crown When he did this he asked them what they saw they answered nothing Whereupon the Devil told him That they saw the Crown on his head but were so striken with admiration that they could not express what they saw Then the Divell bad