Law which is righteous and do witness the justness and goodness and holiness of it but if you make a Law in your own wills and judge by such a Law then you will make the Innocent suffer and oppress them who walk in the Law of God and in the exercise of a pure Conscience Christ was put to death by such a Law and the Saints in all Generations were persecuted by such Laws which were made in the will of man contrary to the Will and Law God Therefore take â—eed to your selves lest God hew you down and your Law together and condemn yoâ— by his righteous Law eternally which Law of God needs not to be made but iâ— made already and to be witnessed by the Light in every mans Conscience to Justification or condemnation and is revealed in all that love Righteousness So take heed what you do and know your place and the length and breadth oâ— your law which is committed to you which is to keep the outward man in good order and the Nations in peace and truth and from Theft and Murder and Adultry and Fighting and Quarrelling and Drunkenness and Wronging one another and such like such who acts these things walk contrary to the Light and so brings themselves under the penalty of the law but over the inward man you law which is outward hath no power to bind to limit or to tie too or from any way of worship in Religion but let Religion defend it self and lay not your laâ— upon the Conscience to exercise dominion over it for it is Christs Seat in whoâ— he will rule lest you be found Tyrants and numbred for destruction nor liâ—â—â— not the Spirit of the Lord how when where and by whom it must speak for the Holy-men of God in all Ages ever cryed against such laws as were contrary to the Law of God and did limit the Spirit of the Lord and against such Rulers as did judge false Judgment and for Gifts and Rewards and against such Priestâ— and Prophets as preached for Hire and divined for Money and sought for their Gain from their Quarter and made a prey upon the People and through Coveteousness made merchandize of souls Therefore be ye warned if such you uphold by a law which act those things which the Scripture declares against which the Holy-men of God gave forth by his Spirit the Scripture which you profess shall stand a Witness against you and the Law of God will condemn you and God will lay your honour in the dust and cast you out of the Seat of Judgment But judge the cause of the Poor and Needy of the Widow and Fatherless and joyn Mercy with Judgment and lay your Swords upon oppression and all tyrany and wrong dealing that the Land may cleansed of evil Doers and Equity and Righteousness may flow down and the Nation in good order may be kept iâ— Peace and Righteousness and so God will establish you among his Children who are taught of him alone and are far from oppression To the Light of God in all your Consciences I do speak which if you make laws contrary to it and judge contrary to it it is the eternal Condemnation of you and of your laws and judgment And remember you are warned in your life time and my Conscience is cleared to you and in the Day of the Lord you shall witness 〈◊〉 to be truâ— and this to be the Word of the Lord to you whether you will hear or 〈◊〉 â—ear Written to you by a Friend of Righteousness and true Iudgment from the Spirit of the Lord as moved of him in love to all your souls to go abroad among the Heads and Rulers and Iudges in Dublin and elsewhere through the Nation of Ireland from one who is called a Quaker by Scorners whose name in the flesh is Edward Burrough Written at Dublin the 23d of the 8th Moneth 1655. And now Oye Heads and Rulers happy had you been if you had taken the counsel of the Lord and submitted to have obeyed his Word which came to you as moved of him but in that you have neglected and have made laws in your will and exercise lordship over the Conscience and have limited the Lord and have purposed to â—e a â—error to good and strengthened the wicked and have not regarded the Will of God but have persecuted and imprisoned the Innocent and â—udged 〈◊〉 your own hearts therefore according to the Word of the Lord your blood will be upon your own heaâ—s for you have not taken Warning and I am 〈◊〉 hereof for ever An Exhortation sent to the chief Commander and his Council and the just Cause of the Innocent laid at their door WE who are Servants of the Lord of Hosts who is the Protector of Heaven and Earth we who stand in his Fear and know his Coâ—nsel are moved of him who lives for ever who is I Am and there is none besides him to clear our Consciences and our Lords Truth from the Lyes and Slanders which are cast upon us and the Good Way of the Lord which envious spirits whâ—â— are proud and know nothing that cannot abide sound Doctrine do reproach and slander us and by false 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things to our charge which we never knâ—w therefore we being innocent and clear cannot but deny and 〈◊〉 witness against all those proceedings which are â—ot according to the Law of Righteousness and equity and lay thâ—… at your door whom it nearly concernâ— Unto thee Henry Cromwel who is Commander in chief for the Affairs of Ireland and to thy Council we write We have seen two several Warrants â—â—der your 〈◊〉 dated at Dublin and in them both you say You have received information at your board of great disorders and disturbances of 〈◊〉 in the Couâ—… of â—â—rkâ— and Places adjacent by Francis Howgill aâ—d Edward Burrough This we say unto you your Informer hath declared an â—â—truth at your Board and we deâ—â—re that you may make it appear where in we have made any disturbance or disorder all these things in your Warrants we deny and do charge you in the Name of the God of Justice to send for them that so informed you that have so abused you and are so bold and impudent as to declare unto you any such thing and so have caused you to bring guilt upon your selves in sending ouâ— your Warrants to bring the Innocent before your Judgment-seat and caused us to be dragged a hundred Miles from place to place as Mâ—lefactors and as though we had done some criminal act and when we have dome before yoâ— you had nothing to lay to our charge but have endeavoured to give Sentence of Banishment of us out of your Nation who are free-born English men nor have we been burthenfom to your Nation nor transgressed any known Law of the Nation and you have judged us before our 〈◊〉 came and herein you do us great injustice and you act contrary to the Law of Equity and
cry up as Oracles of God I answer The most high God judge between thee and us whose wrath is kindled against thee thou enemy of righteousness and Child of wrath thou hast belyed the Lord of Heaven and Earth for to this he moved thee not for he moves none to utter lyes and slanders as thou hast done but the spirit of enmity and of the Devil hath moved thee and to the Truth thou bears no witness but against the Truth and against the Innocent and charges us with fleshly mindedness and spiritual pride O thou Lyar and false Accuser the Lord who takes our part against thee will plead with thee and render upon thy head according to thy deeds prove what thou speaks that we are fleshly minded and spiritually proud or else let thy mouth be stopped and shame cover thee forever Sorceries and witchcraft and drawing from the simplicity of the Gospel we do deny but the plain single Truth we do declare by which the eye of the blind is opened in many to see your deceits who call your selves Churches and Preachers of the Gospel which is not the Gospel that the Apostles preached but an adding your own Imaginations upon their words who witnessed the Gospel and it shall stand for thy own condition thou art in the sorcery and witchraft who draws people to observe an outward visible thing from the Light of Christ within them which leades to the simplicity of the Gospel which is inward and not outward and thou art in thy fleshly and corrupt thoughts crying up the Ordinances and Oracles of God which are but carnal and beggerly rudiments of the world which passeth away and here thou art seen and made manifest in the Light of Christ to be a Hypocrite who falsely accuses others of that which thou art guilty of thy self the same Gospel as ever was do we declare and not another which we received not from man neither was taught it by man and as the Oracles of God it shall stand forever for a witness against thee and all the world who doth not believe for even the Father beares witness of us and therefore our witness is true and the righteous God will plead with thee thou Lyar and false Accuser and here be a witness against thy self that the Lord moved thee not but the Devil acting in thy own imaginations and in the vanity of thy own mind and in thy one fleshly and corrupt thoughts And whereas thou sayest to us thou directs thy speech from the Lord Thus saith the Lord to thee O Quaker thou art fleshly minded I answer It is not the voyce of the Lord to us that speaks in thee but the voyce of the Devil and the Serpent which speaks from thee fleshly minded we are not but are redeemed out of it and our mindes are changed and are Spiritual and 't is the Spirit of the living God seals unto us and witnesses in us and here thou art of thy Father the old Dragon and Accuser of the Brethren but it is God that justifies and who art thou that condemns and this thy speech is seen and comprehended which thou hast directed to us and it is judged by the Spirit of true judgment to be a false Accusation and a Lye and not the Word of the Lord and into the Lake amongst the false Prophets thou art to be turned who useth thy tougue when the Lord never spake to thee And thou sayest we look upon the Iustitution of Christ Supper with a fleshly and carnal eye because we say that the bread and wine which Christ commanded his Disciples to eat and to drink is carnal I Answer The bread and wine is visible and carnal and fleshly and not Spiritual nor Eternal and in the eternal Light by the Spiritual eye of God opened in us we see them and do own that it was a command of Christ to stand for its time and no more but a carnal figure of a spiritual thing and the spiritual thing being the Substance bearing witness the figure is denied and declared against and thou and thy Generation who art acting in those things by tradition tying and limitting God to a visible thing that without it no salvation art in the sorcery and witchraft and an enemy to the substance for Christ never since he was sacrificed brake of the Bread or drank of the Cup with his Disciples but new in his Fathers kingdom and thou who art in the â—arnal figure acting those things without the injoyment of Christ art sensual and by the Light of Christ art to be condemned and judged with the world who art without God and without the injoyment of Christ in the beggerly rudiments of the world Thou sayst O fleshly minded men whom the god of this world hath blinded because you believe not and thou sayst thus saith the Lord and speaks the Prophet Malachic words To which I answer this again I do deny the god of the world is cast out and the eye is opened through judgments and our fleshly minds are judged and in the Name of Jesus we do believe and our belief in him hath purified our hearts to the praise of the Living God who hath wrought all our works in us and foâ— us do I speak without boasting and here again I charge it upon thee that thou art a slanderer and a false accuser and let shame cover thee who professes thy self to be a Teacher of others who thy self is not taught of the Lord but steals Malachis words and speaks them to us in thine own imaginations and calls it the word of the Lord the Lord is against thee thou false Prophet who prophesies lyes in his Name and that which thou speaks to us is thy own condition and that which shall come upon thine own head for a child of disobedience thou art and thy eye is blinded by the god of this world And whereas thou sayest we are spiritually proud that give forth our selves to be some great ones and we say we are Apostles and are not but are found Lyars proud Pharisees Hypocrites that say we are Iust Holy Humble and the poor sinful Publicans are more justified then we I answer proud we are not our God shall judge between thee and us in this thing for we have nothing but what we have freely received from him and that we give forth our selves to be great ones here thou art a Lyer and a false Accuser again this we have said and do yet again declare that we were moved of the Lord of Heaven and Earth to come to declare his mind and his Truth in this City but this is no boasting and by that same spirit which was in the Apostles were we moved and are guided and by no other but who hath found us Lyers since we came I challenge you and all thy Sect to prove one lye that we have uttered or else let shame cover thee and let thy mouth be stopped and let thy own heart condemn thee to be
found the lyer thy self and this we testifie against thee and all the world that by Jesus and in him are we made Holy Just and Humble he is made these things in us and for us and the Publican state is witnessed by us who have passed through the figure and parable into the life and substance And whereas thou sayst we that boast of our light within and faith thus saith the Lord and brings Christs words I answer this is another lye we do not boast of our Light within but we witness it to be within us and to have enlightned every one that comes into the world which thou and thy Generation denies and so would make Christ a Lyer and the Scripture a Lye but against you all with all the world we bear testimony the Father bears witness with us that every man that comes into the world is enlightned by the Light of Christ which teacheth righteousness unto all that loves it but condemn them that hate it whereof thou art one who utters forth thy lyes and Slanders and false Accusations against the Innocent and that Scripture Ioh. 9. we own and do witness to be fulfilled in us by the coming of Christ he which did see is Blind and he which was Blind now sees and while we did see our sin remained but being Blind we have no sin but this to thee and to thy spirit is a mystery sealed and never to be known in that nature and wisdom and here again thou hast used thy tongue false Prophet like and must receive a false Prophets reward And whereas thou sayst if Christ had not spoke to us in his word we had no sin but now we have no cloak for our sin I answer Christs words we own but here thou art made manifest to all to add to the Scripture in his word this thou hast added false Prophet like and therefore the Lord will add his plagues unto thee as the Scripture saith be ashamed and blush thy folly and wickednesse is made manifest who is not ashamed to carry on thy designe to add to Christs words And whereas thou sayest we do not only neglect the weightier matters of the law but tâ—… law it self teaching men so to do for we said that the Scripture is not the rule of faith and conversation as one of us taught Sept. 27. in thy hearing and many others that will witness it I answer here I challenge thee to prove that thou hast spoken and all thy witnesses which thou speakes of oh thou Lyer be ashamed to forge such Lyes and declare them in writing for Truth we neglect not the weightier matters of the Law nor the Law nor teach any so to do all that ever heard us will bear witness against thee and they though our Enemies shall witness for us and against thee in this thing for we declare the Everlasting Gospel which is the fulfilling of the Law and this we declare that the Law must have its thorow operation before the Gospel be witnessed and one of thy own society said to us we had preached the Law and brought men to understand 〈◊〉 from Grace now let all take notice of the confusion you live in and let your own hearts condemn you and the light in your own consciences convince you that you are in Babylon and in confusion and are no true Church of Christ where all are oâ— one heart and one mind and this again I affirm as before I did in thy hearing that the Scripture is not the Saints rule but the Spirit which gave forth the Scripture as the Scripture it self witnesses Rom. 8. Faith was before the Scripture was and therefore the Scripture is not the ground of it but a Declaration of it and no other faith we own but the faith which Abel had and which Moâ—â—â— had which was when no Scripture was written and that we own to be the Rule of our Conversation which they walked by the immediate Spirit of God which was before the Scripture was written and all you who profess the Scripture to be your rule your own rule shall testifie against you when the eternal God judges you and they who witness that to be their rule which gave forth the Scripture walkes up in the life of the Sdripture more then you all and you are proved to be but the Iew outward who boasts of the Ordinances from the Letter but persecutes them by slanders and false reproaches who witness the Substance and your praise is only of men and not of God and the same woe which thou pronounces upon us will fall upon thy own head for this thy grievous slander that we neglect the Law and teach men so to do And whereas thou brings many Scriptures and saith thus saith the Lord. I answer the Scriptures we own and by that spirit which speaks them forth we witness them to be true and they are ours and though you say they are the savour of death to us that perish yet thou art found a Lyer for we are saved out of the perishing state and death is destroyed through death through faith and thou hast diminished from that Scripture 2 Tim. 3. 15. false Prophet like again and so art both an adder and a diminisher and thou mayst read thy portion in Rev. 22. 18 19. And whereas thou sayest know this thou perverter of the right way of God thou shalt be judged by the word that Christ spake I answer here thou sets the Scripture in the room of Christ and art the perverter of the right way of God thy self for the Scripture saith all judgement is commited to the Son and the Scripture is not the Son and thou didst say and now again writes that the Scripture shall judge the world and so I charge it upon thee that thou art a Blasphemer who exalts the Scripture above the Son of God and shalt be judged by the Son into utter darkness and into the pit from whence thou art come yet this I testifie he that receives the Son rejecteth not those words which was spoken by him though thou and thy Generation Pharisee-like may make a profession of the words which Christ spoke and yet reject the Son and all to whom Christ speaks which receives him not shall be judged by the word which he speaks for he speaks eternally which shall stand eternally but when did he speak to thee For this I do declare thou mayst have those words which he spoke and yet never have heard his word nor voice as the Pharisees had those words which God spake by the Prophets but never had heard his word nor seen his shape Iohn 5. And thou sayst quake and tremble at this that word which you reject and dispise shaâ—â— judge you at the last day and sayst thus saith the Lord and bringst Christs words and the Apostles words I Answer The Lord rebuke thee thou Scorner here thou hast made the filthiness of thy heart known for out of the abundance thereof
laid their swords on the necks of their Enemies and never returned empty from the slaughter Though I be as by the waters of Babylon in a strange Land and as a Pilgrim and Stranger destitute but not forsaken as dying but behold I live yet if I forget thee let my right hand forget her cunning and let my Name be blotted out of the Book of Life O how I love the holy Seed which in my eye is precious No man can hinder my boasting of thee for I am sealed among you in the Record of eternal life to be read among you in the light where I am known to you and where my unity stands with you in the love and life which never changes and you are my Mother and my Brother and Sister who doth the Will of my Father Our God is a consuming fire and his Habitation is compast about with dread and terror The Heathen shall see and fear and the Inhabitants of the Earth shall tremble oâ—â— God is everlasting burnings and it is tempestuous round about his Throne and he reigns for evermore and though thou be despised and set at nought and counted as the off-scouring of all things and the scorn of the Heathen yet thy King reignâ— upon Mount Sion and if he utter his voice all flesh shall tremble and before him thy Adversaries shall fall and thy Persecutors shall be confounded for thoâ— shalt never be forgotten of thy God but with his arm will he defend thee and compass thee about and thy seed shall be increased and thou Ierusalem shalt be made the praise of the whole Earth for among you is laid the sure foundation and the tried stone Christ Jesus the Light of the world in whom you have believed which unto the Nations is a stumbling stone but unto you precious bring in your testimony and set to your seal is there salvation in any other but in him who is the Light of the World Nay there is no redemption wrought but by him nor no deliverance but through him his is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory and he is become all in all and you are no more of this World but are of the chosen Generation and of the royal Priesthood a people Redeemed unto whom there is none like among the thousands of Israel and Iudah whose God is the Lord whose Saviour is the Prince of Righteousness who covers your heads in the day of Battel and smites your enemies in the hinder parts and wounds them in the fore-head And now my beloved let his Name be had in remembrance for evermore and let his praises be declared throughout Ages to come and walk you worthy of his everlasting love wherewith he hath loved you more then your brethren let his Name be exalted by righteousness by purity and by a blameless life and bring forth the fruits of righteousness and peace and let your light shine forth into the world and your good works abound plentifully for you are as a City set on a hill and as a lighted candle to shine abroad and are created unto good works Let faith hope love and unity be increased among you and let mercy and judgement and equity flow down and be established for ever never to be removed Let joy and long-suffering and meekness and temperance spring out and be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Stand upon your watch Tower and be not shaken nor drawn aside to follow any other gods nor to bow to any other Image nor joyn your selves to strangers and mingle not your seed with the adulterous Generation nor take not nor give not in marriage with them but keep your selves from the Idols of the Heathen be not defiled with them but abide in your strength you know where it lies by which you may work good and be perserved from evil and you need not that any man teach you for you are taught of God and are far from oppression Ye Children of Light worship your God for ever who is light and in him is no darkness at all who is the same and changes not whose mercy endures for ever Be Followers of the Lamb as undefiled Virgins and let your soul scorn the glory of Babylon and Aegypt for ever for you are not your own but are bought with a price no more to serve your selves but the Lord of Israel forever Put on your Armour and gird on your Sword and lay hold on the spear and march into the field and prepare your selves to battel for the Nations doth defie our God and saith in their heart Who is the God of the Quakers that we should fear him and obey his voice Arise arise and sound forth the everlasting word of war and judgment in the ears of all Nations sound an Alarum and make their ears to tingle Our Enemies are whole Nations and multitudes in number of a rebellious people that will not come under our law which arise up against us and will not have our King to reign but trample his Honour under foot and despise his Law and his Statutes and count his Subjects as Slaves and Bond-men Stand upon your feet and appear in your terror as an Army with banners and let the Nations know your power and the stroke of your hand cut down on the right hand and slay on the left and let not your eye pitty nor your hand spare but wound the Lofty and tread under foot the Honourable of the Earth and give unto the great Whore double and give her no rest day nor night but as she hath done so let it be done unto her and give her double into her bosom as she hath loved blood so give her blood and dash her children against the stones and let none of the Heathen Nations nor their gods escape out of your hands nor their Images nor Idols but lay waste the fenced Cities and tread down the high Walls for we have proclaimed open War betwixt Michael our Prince and the Dragon Your Captains are mighty men and your leaders are skilled to handle the Sword and they are riding on before you Arise worm Iacob and fear not but thresh the mountains to dust for God hath given thee the power of thy enemies to tread upon and they shall fly before thee and shalt fall by thy sword there is none to strong for thee nor no inchantment against thee but thou art blessed blessed world without end Therefore all ye Lambs of my Father and ye Camp of the Lords Host wait upon him to fulfil his Will for he hath put into your hearts to make war in righteousness against the beast and the false Prophet and cursed be every one that riseth not up to the help of the Lord against the mighty the Beast is mighty and the false Prophet is great and they keep the Nations under their power But O thou Beast and thou false Prophet you shall be tormented together thou Beast upon which the false Prophet sits whom thou upholds by
such cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 〈◊〉 enter to within the Gates of the City but are to be troden in the Wine-Press of the Wrath of God for ever and ever Therefore Awake awake ye Careless and Unbelieving and fear and tremble ye Children of disobedience who hate the Light and love your evil deed and upholds your false Prophets whom God never sent and will not own the Lord to be your Teacher the Light in your Conscience is your condemnation for this is the Condemnation of the World That Light is come and men hate it So be you warned all People the Day of the Lord is at hand and now he calls therefore hear his Voice and hearken to his Light which is of Christ which only is needful to Salvation and there is no other Name given for Salvation And if you will not hear and receive thiâ— Day of visitation which in love appears unto you you shall hear in the Day of visitation of Vengeance and behold the Lord comes quickly make straight his Path the Light is your Teacher if you love it and your condemnation if you hate it Written from London to go abroad in the Nation of Ireland as a visitation to all sorts of People and is the sealing of the Lords Testimony unto that Land 〈◊〉 moved of the Lord in love and pity to lost souls by E. B. An Information to the Heads and the Ground of the Law laid down to the Iudges and Iustices and to all that handle the Law in that Nation ALL ye Heads and Rulers and Judges and Counsellors and all you that â—it in Council together in the Seat of Justice and Judgement from whom the Law do go forth into the Nation and all you that handle the Law take heed to your selves for the Living God of power is Judge of you and over you all to you all I speak the Word of the Lord without respect to any of your persons but is a Lover and Respecter of Righteousness and true Judgment and Justice that I may stand clear of your blood for God hath laid it upon me to give you warning which if I do not your blood will be upon me and if this you refuse to hear and obey your blood be upon your selves for ever Christ Jesus is the Light of the World the true Light which lightneth every man that comes into the World and by which every one of you is lightned which Light if it you love and be guided by it will lead you out of the Worlds way and nature and unrighteousness and will give you an entrance into Etetnal Life and Peace and an assurance in Christ when this World ceases to be and in this World it will teach you how to serve God in Righteousness in your Generation and to give righteous Judgments and Councels among your Brethren without respect of Persons for the Law of Gods respects no mans Person nor Justice regards not the Person of the Mighty the Light of Christ Jesus in your Consciences and in all mens Consciences is just and one with Christ and one with the Law of God in its measure and condemneth the unjust and all works of wickedness who against it do act by which Light every one of you being guided your own Consciences in particular will be exercised towards God and towards men and by him you being ruled and judged will know how to rule and judge for him in the World among men who are required for God to rule and judge in righteousness and equity and none can rule for God but who are ruled by him with his Light that shines in the Conscience by which you being governed will by it govern in the Earth righteously You are not to judge for Gifts and Rewards for if you do you judge not for God but for your selves and you and your Judgment is to be judged and condemned with the righteous Law of God which is free but such who fear God and hate covetousness and gifts and rewards are to bear rule and such will handle the Law righteously and will be a terror to evil Doers who do not fear God but act contrary to the Light of Christ in their own Consciences and so transgress the just Law and brings themselves under the guilt and so under condemnation and such a Government will stand for the praise of them that do well and encouraging of the Upright but if such bear rule and handle the Law which know not God nor is not ruled by him these will abuse the Law and will be a terror to righteousness and good works and will strengthen the hands of Evil-doers and will let Vice and Wickedness escape unpunished This I speak in love to all your Souls to the informing of all your minds that you may know your place and how to exalt Justice and Judgment the Light of the Son of God by which every man is lighted is but one in all just righteous and equal the same in him that hates it and transgresseth the righteous Law as it is in him that loves it and judges all transgressions And this Light of Christ by which all men are lightned is the Seat of Justice and true Judgment and the Ground of all good wholsom Laws and every Law that is contrary to it is for condemnation by it Therefore I say wait in the Light by which you are lightned to receive the pure Law of God to judge all Causes by and make no Law in your own wills nor act not in such Laws made by the will of man for such Laws are oppression and tyranny lodges in them and false judgment and such God hath and will cast out who act from that ground So be ye warned by their fall and judge not after your own thoughts nor sensual carnal wisdom nor follow not your own wills nor the counsel of your own hearts but stand in God's Counsel and fear his Name and tremble at his Presence and wait to be guided by him in his holy Law which all unrighteous counsels and vain affections and false judgments will condemn in your own hearts and then you will truely know how to judge your Brethren in Equity and Righteousness how to reward well Doers and how to punish evil Doers according to the measure of their transgressions and according to the Light in their own Consciences by which they being convinced from your Law of the evil of their transgression will confess your Law and Judgment to be just and equal and you to be righteous Judges here you judge for God and bear not the Sword in vain but are a Terror to Transgressors and to the Disobedient and Lawless against which the Law was only added to slay unrighteousness but it was not made for the Righteous whose Consciences are exercised towards God and towards man by the pure Law of God written in the heart and upon such and over such your Law hath no power for they are one and in union with that
stand in the Fear of the Lord your Sword will be a terâ—… and dread to them that fear him not but live contrary to the Light in their own Consciences which Light if you love it is your Command to march by and your Rule to judge by and Weapon to fight withal and your chief Commission for duty And now you have all time take heed to your selves go not on in your course of evil nor take not your pleasure in unrighteousness but to thâ— Light in your Consciences take heed it is your Teacher to God if you love it or your Condemnation from God if you hate it And this is yoâ—â— Terms with the Lord prize the acceptance of his Love to your souls and the Day of your visitation lest you perish in your rebellion eternally Written in love to your souls Edw. Burrough Written in Ireland at Caterlough A Warning from the Lord to you the Natives of the Nation of Ireland who are made a Curse and a Prey to be destroyed of your Enemies REpent repent ye that remain from being devoured whose dayes are 〈◊〉 stretched forth that you may return to the Lord from whom you are grievously degenerated into filthiness and uncleanness being a cursed Brood and are become unhuman in your impudent shameless practices of ungodliness and are brazened in your filthiness and cannot blush when you have done evil the Plagues of God and his Wrath waits to consume you from off the face of the Earth you are shut up in blindness and covered with darkness which may be felt and you are as deaf Adders void of understanding and past feeling and given up to work all unrighteousness with delight counting it your glory to work wickedness having sold your selves to commit sin you have wholly slain Gods Witness and are become wilde and brutish as the Beasts of the Field and untamed as savage Colts the Indignation of God is against you who are as dead Trees and withered Branches and scorched Heaths not sensible of good nor evil but as wild Asses who neither fear God nor regard man To the Light in your Consciences wherewith Christ hath lightened you do I now speak Gods murdered Witness shall answer me by which you are inexcusable for with the Light you know Lying Swearing Stealing Murder Drunkenness and Whoredom are Sins and Transgressions the Light will let you see these abound among you by which you are reproved and eternally to be condemned if you do not repent of these your grievous abominations And if you love the Light and turn to it it will lead you out of sin and out of your vain foolish Traditions and Immitations and Sorceries and Witchcrafts which deceive your souls And this Light in your Consciences will change you into Soberness and Humanity and will lead you into the Way of Life and Salvation out of the way of Death and Hell wherein you walk to eternal misery Therefore prize your souls and the dreadful God fear and tremble before him ye prophane Wretches and cease from your filthy nasty poluted wayes of Idolatry Lying Swearing Stealing Drunkenness and such like God forbideth with the Light in your Consciences and he that doth these things shall eternally perish in condemnation for ever And this to you is a Warning in pity to your lost souls whose hearts are desperately wicked and set to do mischief the Vengeance of God is against you the Light in your Consciences shall witness me and justifie the Lord in the Day of recompence when every man receives according to his deeds the Righteous unto Life the Wicked unto eternal Wrath. Now you have time prize it the Light is your Teacher loving it and your Condemnation for ever hating it By one who suffers for the Seeds sake waiting for the building of destroyed Sion EDWARD BURRUGH A Trumpet of the Lord Sounded forth of SION Which gives a certain sound in the Ears of all Nations and is a true noise of a fearfull Earthquake at hand which shall shake the whole fabrick of the Earth and the Pillars of its standing shall fall and never more be set up again Or fearfull Voices of terrible Thunders uttered forth from the Throne to the astonishment of the Heathen in all the Quarters of the Earth who are not sealed in the forehead And is an Alarm and preparation for War against all Nations where Gog and Magog resideth And sheweth the wounding Sword of the Mighty God from whose blow the Kings nor the Captains nor the mighty men cannot flee to escape Declared and written by a Son of Thunder as a Warning to all the Inhabitants of the Earth where the great Image is standing or any part of it worshipped speedily to meet the Lord by Repentance that in the day of his fierce Wrath they may be hid With a Salutation to the Seed who are gathered into the Fold and with the Children of the King The Tongue that was dumb sings a joyfull Song of Sion in an unknown Language which none can understand save the Redeemed of the Lord. BY Order and Authority given unto me by the Spirit of the Living God King of Kings and Lord of Lords the One and thirtieth day of the tenth Moneth in the Year of the Worlds account 1655. about the fourth hour in the morning when my Meditations were 〈◊〉 my God upon my Bâ—d in Kilkenny City in the Nation of Ireland at that time the Word of the Lord came unto me from the Righteous Iudge of Heaven and Earth who was 〈◊〉 is and is to come who sitteth on the Throne of righteous Iudgement judging Nations and Kindreds and Tongues and Peoples equally saying Write my Controversie with all the Inhabitants of the Earth unto all sorts of People as I will shew thee By this same Authority and Commission declared this I send unto you the Tribes of the Earth and this upon your heads shall stand for ever to be witnessed by the Light of Christ Iesus in all your Consciences in the dreadfull day of Vengeance which upon you O Inhabitants of the Earth is coming Prepare prepare to meet the Lord O Nations Tongues and People unto you all hereby a Warning is come and a Visitation from the Presence of the Living God which you are straitly required to put in practise as at the terrible day of dreadful Vengeance you will answer the contrary Given under my hand and sealed by the Spirit of the Eternal God who livâ—â— for ever Through a Servant of the Lord. E. B. O Earth earth earth hear the word of the Lord and awake awake awake all ye Inhabitants thereof and give ear give ear unto the controversie which the Lord hath with you Noble and Ignoble listen unto the Word of the Lord men of high degree and men of low degree be not stout-hearted nor stop not your Ears for the Lord hath spoken People of all sorts and men of all conditions the Word of the Lord is towards you even from the Princes and Nobles that
as you do neither did one go from the Command which had been given to another using anothers words and excercising themselves in anothers practises when the Lord had not commanded but such they bare witness against which did use their tongue and transform themselves into the likness of true Prophets and Apostles as you have done and are in the love of the World and only separated in the appearance and not in the ground You stumble at the â—ight and therefore know not the Door of entrance nor where the Commands of Christ are to be received and the Will of God to you is to be known and so your obedience is the conformity in your own wills to that which was the Will of God to another this Sacrifice is also lame and blind and God saith to you Who hath required this at your hand For if you have observed and done all those things which the Declaration of the Law and Gospel doth require you are unprofitable Servants and yet one thing do you lack the dying with Christ and the Sufferings and Cross of Christ is not known but in the liberty of the flesh you are and not in the condition of the Promise to Life Eternal Friends you have ruâ— into the form of Godliness without the Power into a Church which is not in God but of the World into a Baptism which doth not wash away sin for you live in sin and plead for it while you live upon Earth into a Communion which is not with God which no unclean thing can enter into for the Proud and Coveteous partake with you and while some of you have said they that preached for Hire have been Antichristian you your selves are fallen into the same abomination taking Gifts and Rewards and large somes of Money and upholding such who do it Here you are unjust to your own Principle and are for condemnation with the Light in your Consciences Let shame cover your heads ye Hypocrites your covering will not hide you nor your high talking of Christ without you so long professed by you will not justifie you while you are found disobeying this Light in your Consciences which Light is one with God with Christ and with the Spirit in its measure and it doth convince you of sin and is a command to you and would lead you if you walked in it from all iniquity which is the Will of God to you and to that mind which is carnal which ruleth in you the Commands of Christ which are Spiritual are not given nor can be received but say Lo here and Lo there Christ is to be found with the Light you are comprehended which if the least measure of it you did own it would lead you to the Baptism inward of the heart and to the Church which iâ— in God whereof Christ is the Head in every Member and into the Communion with God and to follow the Lamb of God wheresoever he goeth and out of your imitations and liknesses and strife and contention about the words given forth from the Spirit who are in your own unity in Division and several Meanings and divers Constructions and Judgments and several wayes of Obedience and Worships and Belief which by your imaginations you draw from the Scripture which is the Declaration but of the one God and one Truth of one Obedience and of one Faith and thus you exalt the great Image of many mixtures your selves being a chief Member of his body You say the Scripture is your Rule but are divided into Opinions and Conceits contrary to the Scripture every one worshipping that which you imagine from the Scripture not being in the Unity of the Spirit which gave forth the Scripture which is one and not divided in Obedience Worship or Faith and while you say the Scripture is your Rule your lives are squared by the spirit of the Divel and hewn out into Pride and Hypocrisie and love of the World And to you who are called Free-willers who say Christ died for All. HErein you affirm that whereof you are ignorant which may be true in Christ but a Lye unto you for you are not dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the World but are alive against him in the World they for whom he died are dead and they who yet live put him to death Free-will unto the wayes and fashions and vanities of the World stands in you you know not the daily Cross of Christ which is unto man's will nor what it is to follow Christ and obey him which is contrary to man's will You say He that is condemned it is because he will not believe this is true in Christ but not in your carnal apprehensions of the natural man in whom there is no power to believe He that hath an ear let him hear There are some true desires among you but your minds are not truly informed to the fulfilling of your desires and your minds are outward and apply peace to that which is for condemnation Your reason and wisdom is corrupted and cannot receive Truth but call it error and this is your sin Death over you hath passed and reigns over you as over all men and your knowledge is in time and you cannot hear of things which were before the World was your wisdom is sensual and your comprehension is strong and the little simplicity in you is betrayed by the subtilty which hath dominion in your Governour Your Crown must be laid down and Fools must you become before you be truly wise or can be crowned with the Lamb. And among the rest Remember you had warning and a Day of visitation before you were destroyed and this shall be by you witnessed in the day of the Lord. To all you who say you wait and believe for the Coming of Christ to Reign in Person upon Earth HEre you the Lord's Controversie which he hath against you The Way of his coming is not prepared but Rocks and Mountains are standing and Valleys are not filled up and rough and crooked is your present way your hopes and expectations in that ground wherein they spring will wither and fade away as the Grass for your hope of his comming hath no whit purified you as he is pure for you are in the flesh and in the liberty of it which is Rebellion to his Reign and Christ is kept in Prison in exile with that mind and the Divel is yet at liberty working in your earthly members and leads you captive into his covenant in his government in seeking your selves and to strengthen your selves in the Kingdom of the World and murmur that any should be above you and that is he which put Christ to death and will not have him to reign in his Power over the Earth and to you what purpose is it to desire the day of his coming for with wrath will he come and with vengeance will â—e appear and will break your Kingdom like a Potters vessel for suddenly will he come but your
in your own time and the Lord is not all and in all among you for your Mother is not the Lords wife but married unto a Harlot and your seed is mixed with strange Children A Prophet was your Father and a Whore brought you forth and your Profession will wither as time passeth away and your covering is too narrow and your righteousness no more regarded then your sin for the Spirit convinceth of it as of sin with the Light everlasting your height and depth is comprehended And this to you is a Warning for a Preparation to meet the Lord and to put away your other Lovers The Beast which all the World wonders after but they whose names are written in the Lambs Book of Life hath many Heads and many Horns ANd the great Image set up in the Earth worshipped by Nations and People is of many mixtures and it shall fall before the little Stone which strikes at the Bottom All your several Forms and divers appearances outward and different Judgements and Opinions will stand you in no stead in the dreadful day of the Lord which upon all flesh is coming and hastning in its glory Wo wo will be the end of all profession when Christ comes in his own way contrary to all your divided expectations and groundless hopes He was before the world was and doth and shall reign for ever when it is not and in this his day will the Lord God set up an everlasting Kingdom of whose Government and Dominion there shall be no end but it shall abide for ever and your divided Kingdom of the Beastly power and authority shall be dashed to pieces never more to be found and your Mountains shall be burned and your righteousness and your sin shall meet in the Pit of everlasting Wrath receiving the Sentence of eternal Judgment from him that sits upon the Throne of infinite Power and Glory and your rich Treasures shall be spoiled in a Day and your sun and light shall be darkned at Noon-day and all your goodly Buildings shall be thrown down and shall become the Habitation of Dragons I have viewed you all in the eternal Light and you are weighted in the Ballance of Equity and all your wise Builders stumble at the Foundation and at the Corner-Stone and Christ Jesus is become an offence unto you in his Light by which he hath enlightened every man that comes into the World of which you are unbelieving and therefore shut up in darkness and confusion groping as blind men being many Branches of one Root planted in the barren cursed ground of enmity And though you are divided as Herod and Pilate yet do you joyn your selves in one Body to war against the Lamb and his Followers who cannot bow to your great Image and you are listed in the Records of Gog and Magog against whom the Lamb is risen and his Followers come forth having the Bow and Sword conquering and going to conquer and will make you a Desolation for ever All your Sacrifice is corrupted and the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is weary with your Oblations and Offerings your hearts are far from him and your hands are full of blood and the Just lyeth slain in every corner of your Streets and the Earth covereth the blood of the Innocent and the Slain cryeth How long Lord how long But he hath heard in an acceptable time and will come forth in his Might and will slay and his Hand shall not spare and will wound and his Eye shall not pity Awake awake ye Careless and Slothful that have laid at ease in the dark night of Slumber and Come out come out ye Upright-hearted and separate your selves and touch no unclean thing nor no longer partake of their Idolatries and Inchantments The Lord is now coming to gather his own and to make up his Jewels of the Despised and his Angels are gone forth to Reap the Earth to bring in the Wheat and to bind the Tares in bundles for the fire of everlasting Fury and Babel shall be thrown down and the great Whore shall be rewarded which sits upon the Nations and Tongues and People and the Dregs of the Cup of Wrath shall be wrung out unto her and the Kingdom of the man of sin shall utterly be laid waste and every Subject shall be utterly driven away into everlasting captivity of Vengeanee and all your Sects and Opinions and many Wayes and Forms and Worships shall become heaps of Confusion for ever And your talking of Christ without you so long and largely professed by you shall not save you nor justifie you in another World who are found Enemies and Actors against his Light present in the World which is but one in you all at which you all stumble and by which you shall all be broken and which shall grinde you to powder and be your eternal Condemnation in this World and forever which Light shines in your darkness and convinceth every one of you of your sin which Light if it you love is your Way to Peace with God Eternal and will lead you into one Truth to be of one heart and one mind and to serve one God with one accord in loving him with all the heart and your Neighbour as your self and this is Sacrifice of the living God only accepted And to you all sorts of People my Conscience do I clear to the Light in all your Consciences which is but One without respect to your Persons whether you hear or forbear And this to you all is a Warning and A Trumpet sounded out of Sion your many gods and Idols to forsake and your Forms without power to turn away from and all your graven Images set up in your hearts to cast away And this is the Word of the Lord to you all which upon you all shall be fulfilled and by you witnessed when the Book of your Conscience is opened and your eternal judgment rewarded by the just Judge that sits upon the Throne of true Judgment judging nations and People righteously TO all you who are in the Light of eternal Life which doth comprehend the World who are born from above of the Immortal Word which doth live for ever who are not of the World nor of the many Opinions in Divisions but of one Heart Soul and Spirit Worshippers of the one living God with whom there is no change nor shaddow of turning who are not known to the World though by it scornfully called Quakers even you doth the Lord also remember with everlasting Kindness and infinite Love of whose beginning and end there is none and whose height and depth measure and limit cannot be found out for you hath he chosen above all the Families of the Earth to place his Name among and to stablish his everlasting Covenant with of Righteousness and Peace forever and Redemption and Salvation to you is come Judgment and Mercy in you is met Righteousness and Peace in you hath embraced each other In the womb of eternal
free from sin and were the Servants of Righteousness They say Christ hath not enlightened every 〈◊〉 the Scripture saith He is the Light of the World and hath enlightened every one c. can they now who live in the same persecuting nature and walk in the 〈◊〉 steps as they did which persecuted them who spoke forth the Scripture as the Teâ—chers and People do own the Scripture in Truth Their professing of the Scripture is as theirs was which made a great profession of it in the outward appearance but put him to death who had the Life and was the Substance of it They then as the Teachers of the World do now denyed the Spirit and Life whicâ— gave sorth the Scriptures And the Ordinances of Jesus Christ we own and witness Preaching Praying Baptism Communion Singing and whatsoever was ordained for his Saints to practise in Life and Power we witness these things in the eternal Substance having passed through the earthly figures which was but to stand for its time by the Eternal have we been led by the Command of it within us and got by tradition from the Scripture without us And we deny all such who have taken up these things in their own wills by conforming the outward man to the outward Letter and have not entred in at the Door True Preaching we own and do witness in which is the Cross of Christ and the Power God unto Salvation or Condemnation it is foolishness to the World and its wisdom now as ever it was and we deny all speaking of imaginations from the Scripture which is in the wisdom of the World and which stands in the will of man limitted to a set time day or place Prayer by Spirit and in the Spirit we own and witness which is not limitted to a time and place And we deny all the Worlds formal customary Preaching and Praying for a pretence Baptism we own and witness which is With one Spirit into one Body into the Death of Christ And we deny all Baptisms which are imagined and imitated by conforming the outward man to the outward Letter which is but a likeness of the the true Baptism Communion we live in which is In the Light by the Spirit which will endure eternally and we deny the Worlds imitation which is in word and declaration and visible carnal things which will pass away Singing which is with the Spirit and with Understanding of the redeemed of the Lord we own and witness but the Worlds singing in Rime and Meeter proud men singing That they are not puft in mind and prophane men singing That the Law of God is dear to them this singing we deny for it must be turned into howling the Lord hath said it And here again I charge it upon the Teachers of the World That they deny the Substance and Power of what Christ commands his Saints to practice by upholding their own imitations and so deceiving the People but where the Substance is witnessed the figure is denyed and the false imitations are discovered and denied And mans free-will we do deny for the will of man shall never enter to God but leads out from God into the lust and into the flesh and keeps in the power of the Devil and man hath free-will unto that which is evil but not to that which is good and all who follow Christ the Light of the World must deny their own wills and take up the Cross of Christ which is to the will and walk in the Light contrary to the will in the strait Way which leads unto Life which is out of the will of man in the Will of God which the will of man doth resist and oppose And I charge it upon the Teachers and Professors who do not witness the daily Cross of Christ that they live in their own free-will and holds it up and are led by it into pride and coveteousness and lusts of the flesh which stand in the will and here they are guilty of that themselves whereof they falsly accuse us living in their own free-will and walk not in the daily Cross of Christ. And Self-righteousness we have denied and have seen it in the same Light which Isaiah did to be as filthy Rags and we declare against it and against them which live in it for self must not be saved it is accursed from God it is wholly unrighteous and makes the best of actions so and is and must be cast out from God Christ Jesus made manifest and revealed in us is our Righteousness and self is judged and condemned by him who is made unto us Righteousness neither do we teach People to labour in their own strength to obtain Life but do direct People to the Light of Christ within them which walking in will be strength to them to lead them to Life the Light which is of Christ to which we direct all to wait in to be taught by it will lead out of self-righteousness and from under the power of self to witness the power of God to lead and to act and to witness Christ Jesus revealed the Righteousness of God And the Church which is in God which is the Body of Christ whereof Christ is Head we witness and are members of it gathered and joyned by the eternal Spirit and not by tradition in the wisdom of man And we deny all the Worlds Churches whereof they were made members by visible things without and gathered by traditions and not by the Spirit whereof the Serpent is head and not Christ and which is the body of antichrist some of which commits Idolatry iâ— an Idols-temple and the ministry of this church we deny for it stands in 〈◊〉 will of man and the Ministers of it are such as all the Servants of the Lord witnessed against the Churches the Ministry and the Ministers are contrary to God but the Ministry which is to the Seed which is out of the will of man we own and witness which ministers Life unto life and Death unto death and divides the Word aright judgment to the fat and to the strong and feeds the â—…gry and looseth the Bars of wickedness and breaks not the bruised Reed 〈◊〉 quencheth not the smoaking Flax this Ministry we deny not but are Friends unto it and who are Ministers here we have union withal but proud men and such as are called of men Masters are cast out of this Ministry and are Miniâ—… to the body of antichrist and know not the Mystery of the Ministry of Jesus Christ which is to the Spirit in Prison Magistrates and Magistracy we deny not but do give respect unto for Conscience sake for who bears the Sword of Justice who use their power to be a terror to the wicked and for the praise of them that do well are Ministers of God and we desire that there were more Magistracy here and that the Magistrate would more use his power to be a terror to Lyars to Swearers to Drunkards to Railers to
I perceive thou hast got a catch by some Scriptures being misplaced and not truly quoted which may be the Printers fault for ought I know But all that ever thou hast spoken proves not the truth of what thou hast asserted let shame cover thy face Thy twelfth Argument is Such is the Quakers light viz. which affirms sound Believers walking Evangelically in obedience to Gods Commandments to be in a state of Condemnation therefore it is the Light of Satan c. Answ. Thou being neer at an end hast left the greatest Lye to the last When wilt thou be ashamed and stop thy mouth thy testimony of Lyes is well nigh finished and thou bindest up the sum with an abominable one yet thou confessest in thy Margent We do not say thi◠in many words but by consequence c. Here let all men take notice of thee who hast accused us with a thing and yet confessest we say not the thing thou hast fully manifested thy self we need go no further to lay thee open but thou sayest By consequence c. Friend if thou mighttest be the Interpreter of our Books its like thou wouldest deal deceifully as thy Generation hath done with the Scripture but we write not our Books and leave them for to be expounded by thee but they are as they speak simple plain Language to the ignorant that thy may be instructed thou hast manifested thy skil in wresting our words sufficiently we allow thee not to be our Interpreter we testifie he who is a sound Believer and walks in obedience to the commands of God is in a justified state in the sight of God but we put a difference betwixt condemning sound Believers and speaking plainly in reproof of sin as if we tell the Lyar his portion will be the Lake and the Proud he shall be as stubble before the fire and the Wicked shall be cast into Hell and that no Coveteous Unclean Whoremongers Drunkards c. shall never enter into the Kingdom of God This Language is not a condemning of the sound Believers neither is it so accounted in the Sight of God though falsly judged by thee and we stand to the Judgment of him and not unto thy false Slanders And thou further sayest and desirest the Quakers But to tell thee of one man in the Word of God meaning the Scriptures who was Holy who embraced the Quakers Doctrines Principle and Practises c. David was holy Moses was holy Ieremiak was holy with many more testified of in the Scripture that were of the same Faith with us and of the same Doctrines and Principles and Practices for themselves were Quakers as their own Writings make manifest and hadst thou been in their dayes thou wouldst have spoken no less evil of them then of us for it was such as thou who spoke evil of them and persecuted them and hence I do conclude thy spirit to be the spirit of Satan and not the Spirit of God Thy thirteenth and last Argument is against our Shaking as thou callest it and it is manifest to every one thou sayest whence it comes c. And railest much against it and shufflest off and kicks against the testimony we give out of the Scripture bringing the like examples of the Servants of the Lord. And thou sayest We abuse the examples of Daniel Moses and David to defend these diabolical actings c. God shall reprove thy lying Tongue and rebuke thee with the reproof of his Judgments yea many more than these named can we bring to witness for us in the same actings of the Power of God which thou most wickedly callest Diabolical and leavest the Reader to observe thy foolish Story to which in its place I may answer Then thou goest on and ramblest over a great deal of stuff from an Author like thy self who wrote a Book against us also and whose testimony is no better then thine as being of the same spirit against the Seed of God with thee and his testimony and thine are both for condemnation thou quotest his Lyes to prove thine as though his words were of authority with the Scripture but wrechedness and subtilty lodges under your tongues and though you be of several Opinions and Judgments in your Worships and Ministries yet are you joyned and against us as Herod and Pilato and if it was not such a things as would make for thy wicked purpose thou wouldest scorn to make use of his words to prove thine but the shift of the subtil Fox which would devour the Lamb is taken notice of in all his actings Then thou sayest No you own no such revolation viz by the foregoing words 〈◊〉 you were taught the Gospel by the revolation of Iesus Christ. And here let all men take notice of thee to be one that was never sent of Christ but one who knows not God for as Christ Jesus saith No man knows the Father nor the Son but he to whom the Son reveals him And thou having denied the Revelation of the Son of God hast shut out thy self from his Knowledge For shame talk no more of the things of God but let thy mouth be stopped from making mention of his Name especially on the account of being a Minister all that know God or the Gospel are ashamed of thee some of thy own Brethren will not own thee herein some of this I have laid open before Then thou goest on saying The pretended revelation of the Quakers do cross an Article of Faith and Rule of Obedience in Scripture This is not the least of thy Lyes I deny the Slander the same Truth and Faith and Obedience as ever was witnessed in the Holy men of God which declared forth the Scripture we own and bear witness of and no other The Revelation of Christ in us in Faith and Obedience is witnessed by Paul who is our Example and thou art the man whose spirit is contrary to Scripture as is clearly made manifest and in thee the man of sin is revealed and the Light which should discover him is vailed and I may truly say of thee as thou falsly hast said of us Surely the Devil is the Authour of thy work Then in thy conclusion thou sayst Much more might be gathered out of their Books whereby it may appear by what spirit these Quakers are led by the spirit of Satan scarce trasnformed into an Angel of Light Now to all the honest hearted unto whom this and thine may come even to thy own Hearers at least unto such who have but moderation in their spirits and to that measure of God in their Consciences I do appeal that they by it may judge whether thou hast more discovered the spirit of Satan in us by any thing which thou hast in all thy Books justly proved against us to be evil or sin or error except thy Lyes and Slanders may stand for a testimony or in thy self who hast slandered us unjustly and wrested our words deceitfully and spoken many 〈◊〉 grievous
of trouble and of your need in the day of your Integrity yet trouble and destruction shall come upon you and no help from him shall you find till you return to him with all your hearts and spirits and lay down your own crowns and exalt him the Lord of Glory who is now appearing in Power And further you say In the midst of Such unequalled and signal Mercies how greâ— hath been and is your ingratitude and unfruifulness To which I answer Truely have you spoken to your own shame for your ingratitude and unfruitfulness exceed many that went before you which justly were cut off for the very sins of which you are highly guilty and more may I add unto your confession How great hath been and is your Oppressions aâ—â— Pride and Vain-glory and Self-exaltings and hypocritical Fastings and Confessions with your mouths when your hearts are far from the Lord yea 〈◊〉 your Mercies have been unequalled so your sins cannot be numbred as thouâ—… you sinned that grace might abound or did evil that good might come or toâ—… liberty to your own hearts lusts from your former Mercies and Deliverancâ— received Then further you say Should the Lord say unto you as once he did unto Ephraim Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone that same Sentence would be your â—â—sert as insensibility is your crime so it might be too justly made your punishment Answer Yea verily the Lord may say so unto you many of ye Rulers 〈◊〉 England are joyned to Idols let them alone and that same Sentence is your â—…sert but insensibility is not wholly your crime for you have had a day of viâ—tation from the Lord in warning of you by the mouth of his Servants and yâ—â— are not altogether unsensible of your crime of great Oppressions and false Worships and Idol Shepherds Oblations which you are joyned unto and your punishment will justly be the same for the time comes that it shall be Darkness aâ—â— Night upon you and you shall seek the Word of the Lord but shall not 〈◊〉 it for God will smite your Idol Shepherds and break down your Idols Altaâ— of vain Traditions and the Lord will leave you to your selves to wallow iâ— Darkness and in the way of Death and the Servants of the Lord shall leâ— you alone and shall no more weary themselves with seeking to reclaim you And further you say Who hath been melted with Mercy Who hath been broken bâ— Iudgments A sinful Nation A People laden with iniquity A seed of Evil-doâ—â—â— Children that are Corrupters They have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the â—…ly One of Israel to Anger they are gone away backwards Why should ye be stricken 〈◊〉 more ye will revolt more and more And further you say As those sad words do Câ—â—racterise us as filthy as those of Judah so if that sad destruction should also be our doom 〈◊〉 could not but acknowledge the Lord is righteous in all his Wayes Answ. Verily few of you have been melted by Mercies or broken by Judgments but are a sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity a feed of Evil-doers and ye have read your own Character fully for you have forsaken the Lord and are Children that are Corrupters and are gone away backward anâ— provoke the Holy One of Israel to Anger and true it is Why should you he stricken any more or warned For you will revolt and turn aside more and more how truly have you numbred up the sum of your own state even to your shame and confusion of face and to the justifying of the Lord when he in Vengeance appears to judge you and even assuredly that sad denunciation will be your doom and the same Judgments shall overtake you when the Seed is gathered out from among you even desolation of Cities and madness of Prophets and God will smite you together with confusion and you shall not bring forth deliverance in the Land neither shall the Nations have peace in your dayes while you revolt when you are stricken and persecute the Innocent when they warn you And in the day of your recompence you shall indeed confess to your condemnation that the Lord is righteous in all his ways and further you say How deeply have you grieved your God in not mourning as you ought for that profainness and bâ—â—â—â—â—ness that is so ripe amongst you even under such means of knowledge and grace and in not being sensible under nor making a sanctified use of those rebukes you have of late received Answ. Yea you have and do daily even in your set days and times of Fasting deeply grieve the Lord God in not mourning and fasting with a heart prepared to the Lord but even in hypocrisie and even for strife and debate indeed ignorance and prophaneness and barrenness abounds among you and you are ripe therein to be cut down for the fire even the more ye are inexcusable because you have neglected the Messages of the Grace of God and means of knowledge from the Mouth of the Lords despised Servants whom you have persecuted even in cruelty some of them unto death and have imprisoned others unjustly while your false Prophets and Diviners have been set up by you who have daubed you with untempered Morter and you have made your hearts unsensible by heardening your hearts against reproof and rebukes which some of you of late have received the Messengers of which rebukes have been evil and shamefully entreated in your Towns Steeple-houses and High-wayes and elsewhere in your Dominions and how should you but be ignorant and prophane and barren while you cannot receive the Message of Light but stumbles at Christ Jesus the Light of the World and cannot believe in the Light wherewith Christ Jesus hath enlightened every one of you which is the way to knowledge and to receive righteousness into your Souls and therein to be fruitfull to the Lord. And you say Every individual man hath helpâ—d to fill up the mâ—â—sure of their sâ—… First in not improving â—ercâ—â—s so fully as might hâ—…e been to â—is glory from 〈◊〉 they were received I answer Indeed I believe not one of you may be excused in the sight of God but are all guilty in filling up the measure of transgression and even iâ— not improving mercies to the glory of God for had you improved the great mercies of your Deliverance and Conquest over your Enemies the Nations had been in peace and rest before this day but you strove to glorifie your selves and sought a Kingdom of Riches and Honour to your selves and who might be the greatest and the highest to the pleasure of some and to the grief of others and you improved mercies to your selves and not to him that gave them and therefore is your Dominions filled with distractions and fears and troubles are on every side and your Dominions are as broken Vessels that cannot be joyned together but are full of wickedness and false Sects and Idol-worships and in your own Councels are
shall the Saints possess and the Gentiles shall be driven out of it according as Iohn said who wrote the last of any of the Apostles and gave fulâ— testimony of these things which I have declared â—f viz. of an Apostacy and reign of the Beast and false Prophet and a Subversion from the Wayes of God and this hath been and is come to pass Also â—e prophesied of the gaining of the holy City in again to the Saints and of a restoration wherein new Ierusalem should be made manifest from Heaven and shoâ—â—d again be adorned as a Bride for her Husband and the Saints should inhabit it and the Tabernacle of God should be with men upon Earth and the Lord would dwell for â—â—er with his People and this day is approaching nigh at the dooâ— for the Fig-tree hath blossomed and we know it is near at hand the Summer wherein the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed unto all Nations and they shall 〈◊〉 that he is the Lord God Almighty that will take Vengeance upon the great Whâ—â—e who hath made all drunk with the Wine of her Fornication And now after the long night of Apostacy and Darkness which hath been vpâ—â— the face of the Earth is the Lord appearing and his Day dawning and his Ligâ—â— breaking forth as the Glory of the Morning and the Kingdom of God is revealed and his Dominion is setting up after the long reign of the Beast who haâ—… had his Power and his Seat and his great Authority from the Dragon after whâ—… the whole World hath wandred and him hath worshiped who hath been saying wâ—… is like unto the Beast who is able to make war with him His mouth for many Generations hath been opened in blasphemy against God and his Name and he 〈◊〉 made war with the Saints and his power hath overcome them Mark overcoâ— them and then himself hath reigned and the reign of Christ for many years 〈◊〉 not been known but over Kindreds Tongues and Nations hath the Beast had poâ—er and over them hath reigned for many Ages and all that dwell upon the Fâ—… have worshipped him whose Names are not written in the Book of Life 〈◊〉 Earth hath been caused and them that dwell therein to worship the Beast and 〈◊〉 his Wonders he deceiveth them that dwell on Earth and as many as would 〈◊〉 worship the Beast and his Image the Beast hath had power that they should beâ—…led and many hath he killed who would not worship him and are persented and both Small and Great Rich and Poor Free and Bond have recâ—…ed the Mark of the Beast and the number of his Name which is the number 〈◊〉 a man he that reads let him understand these things have come to pass 〈◊〉 been fulfilled since the Apostles dayes in this night wherein no man could worâ— which Christ said would come but now the forty and two Monthes which tiâ—… the Beast and his Image was to continue and so long was his Power to remain 〈◊〉 make war and to overcome the Saints I say the time is well nigh expired and finished and the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb is risen to make war against the Beast and his Image who hath reigned over the Kingdoms of the World and the Judgment of the great Wâ—… cometh who hath sitten upon the Beast and drunk the Blood of the Saints 〈◊〉 with whom the Kings of the Earth since the dayes of the Apostles have comâ—…ted Fornication and all the Inhabiters of the Earth have been made drunk 〈◊〉 the Wine of her Fornication and all the Merchants of the Earth have been maâ—e rich through the aboundance of her delicacies and she hath sat upon the scarâ—… coloured Beast and her Cup in her hand hath been full of abominations and 〈◊〉 ness of her fornication and her name is Mistery Babylon the Mother of Harlâ—… and all the Kings of the Earth have given their power unto the Beast and commited Fornication with the great Whore and she hath sat upon people multitudes 〈◊〉 nations and tongues since the Apostles days and even some who have hated tâ—e Whore and fulfilled the Will of God and made the Whore naked yet they giâ—… their power also to the Beast until the Word of God be fulfilled Consider these things you that have an ear to hear but now the mighty Day 〈◊〉 the Lord and the Judgment of the Whore is approaching wherein she shal be rewarded according to her Works and doubble shall be given into 〈◊〉 Cup and as she hath loved blood so shall blood be given her to drink and the Merchants of the Earth shall lament her whom they have waxed rich by who 〈◊〉 glorified her self and lived deliciouslly and hath said in her heart I sit as a Queen and am no Widow and shall not see sorrow but now the one day is dawning wherein her Plagues shall come death and mourning and famine and she shall be utterly burned with fire for strong is the Lord that is risen to judge her and the Kings and Merchants and all the Inhabiters of the Earth shall lament her and cry Alas alas and now are they beginning for the hour is come that her judgement cometh and all her Merchants who have trafficked with the Souls of men shall partake of her Plagues who have partaked of her sins and lived deliciously with her and the fruits that her Soul lusteth after shall depart from her and all things that are dainty and goodly shall depart from her and she shall find them no more at all when her judgement cometh and in an hour all her riches are come to nought and all her Merchants at Land and Sea shall lament her even her that hath ruled over Nations and sat as a Queen for many Generations ever since the dayes of the Apostles until this day yea all that have wandred after her even the whole World shall lament and bemoan her and such as have served her and made Slaves of the Souls of men by Merchandize and Traffick shall bewail her and their gain shall cease for ever for in one hour shall she be made desolate and her glory shall fade and her beauty shall wither and the Beast that hath carried her shall utterly faint and the false Prophet that hath wrought Miracles in their sight and deceived the Nations shall be cast into a bed of torment with her and the Beast and the false Prophet shall be taken and cast alive into the Lake of Fire to be tormented for ever day and night World without end and the Whore in whom hath been found the Blood of the Prophets and of the Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth and the Beast who hath caused all that dwell on the Earth to worship him and his Image for many Ages and the false Prophet who hath deceived the whole world and many Nations and made them subject unto the power of the Beast by his Miracles which he hath wrought in the
in that nature which is to be famished and glories in what hath been done by it as though it had not received power from the Lord and is exalted as though it bare the Root not knowing that it is born of the Root and that spirit spends its Treasure which it received in the Fathers house amongst Harlots and despises the poor and seeks occasion to glory over the weak that it may be renowned beware of that spirit I charge you all for it is not of the Father nor to be followed but to be condemned and resisted unto death Again believe not that spirit neither follow it which preacheth not from the measure of God received and to be manifest to it in you and approved by it only but speaks above the measure and reaches not to the measure of the Grace of God that spirit leads after words and outward shews and cries peace to the Rich and judgment to the Poor and the Word of God is not divided aright but heals up falsly and daubs with untempered morter and cries peace where God speaks war and cries war where God speaks peace and that Spirit is a Deceiver and a Betrayer and feeds but the Ear and not the Life and darkens the Counsel of God by words without knowledge and is not of the Father but of the World and to be denied and condemned Again Believe not that spirit neither follow it which is not subject to rule and order and is not meck and diligent and long suffering but heady and high and untoward seeking occasions against the Just and Watcheth for evil that spirit will not bear reproof but is idle sloathfull and careless and surmising evil and backbiting and conforms in appearance making a fair shew but is not unto God as appearing unto man and that would go and is not called and will not go when it is called and seeks for the praise of men more then God and that is fruitless ground and brings forth Bryars and Thorns in secret which choaks the Seed of God beware of that spirit it is a Lover of this World have no fellowship with it for it is not of the Father but a Deceiver and is to be a denied Again Believe not that spirit neither follow it which is tossed and unsetled and is given to change and is not established with Grace that is an Adulterer and hunâ—s for the precious Life and seeks by flattery to beguile the Innocent that spirit is zealous for a moment but is soon overcome and is stony ground and brings not forth fruit to perfection but withers and its latter end is worse then the beginning That spirit is exalted into presumption in peace and cast into desperation in trouble and the double minde lodgeth in it and it is unstable in all its wayes and is a ground for the Seed of Satan and to it there is no peace from God and beware of that spirit for it is not of the Father but to be condemned Again Believe not that Spirit neither follow it which is more zealous then knowing whose zeal is without true knowledge and stands in that which is corrupted that flourisheth for a moment but cannot endure for ever it hath no root in it self but is furious and passionate and not long-suffering that spirit knows not its self but would devour its Adversaries with bitterness and not gain by long-suffering that is not the spirit of the Father but must be denied in all Again Believe not that spirit which draws back into the World into its lusts and liberty and fashions which passe away that spirit forgets God and draws back for his Soul hath no pleasure in it but is vexed with it where the Cross is made of none effect and the false liberty is walked in which murders the Life that spirit is of the Devil and is to be condemned And now all Friends of God every where who knows him and are known of him whom he hath gathered out of this untoward Generation be diligent in your Callings and keep your Meetings in faithfulness waiting upon the Lord that you all may receive of his fulness to be filled with it and may be nourished up unto himself as trees of righteousness the planting of his own right hand to spread forth his Name and Glory as a people saved by him and to whoâ— there is none like besides And this know and understand that spirit is not of the Father which confesseth not the Son to be come in the Flesh who destroys the works of the Devil and takes away sin and that Spirit believe and follow whiâ—â— condemns sin and destroys it and takes it away and so gives peace with God iâ— your own Consciences and leads you into all Truth and keeps you from all evil and you that witness this the Son you know and the Father you know to dwell with you and in you and this is the first and the last believe in him and follow him and look not for any other and in this the Father of Life and Glory whose Dominion is without beginning and end establish you and preserve you Amen and Amen I a beloved Brother and a Companion unto all the Saints in suffering and in rejoyciâ—â— who have received this Testimony from the Father do with it in this Epistle salute tâ—â— whole Church in the Love of the Father as moved of him by his Eternal Spirit whiâ—â— beareth witness to me that we are of God and the whole World lieth in wickedness 〈◊〉 that all that are of God heareth us And this Testimony I give of the Father 〈◊〉 of the Son and of the Truth and of the Salvation of which I am made a Witness and against all that ever shall deny it or turn from it And this is thus far the 〈◊〉 of my Testimony by the Spirit of the Father not knowing when the time comes it 〈◊〉 be finished and the night may come when no man can work E. B. To all that suffer for the Testimony of Iesus and foâ— his Name sake THe glorious God of Truth hath appeared and made known his Way aâ—â— Truth perfectly in this our day and hath chosen unto himself faithfâ—… Witnesses to testifie of his Name and of his Truth before Rulers and People and hath brought forth a Seed which is not of this World which cannot boâ— to the Devil but is Heir of Gods Inheritance though a Sufferrer in this World under the Powers thereof and many in this Generation who are called and faithfull and chosen bear witness unto the Name of the Lord in Sufferings and Tribulations whom he will honour because they honour him who is exalting his Truth and his People through Sufferings And now all Friends who are called to suffer for the Testimony of Jesus and foâ— the exercise of a pure Conscience which you hold be valiant for the Truth upon Earth and faint not but finish your Testimony with joy for the Lord aâ—â— against all your Enemies and look
of all men yet is the Lords Presence amongst them and his Fear in their â—earts and his encrease is unto them and his Power with them till all their â—nemies be vanished as a Cloud for they are of the true Seed and of the true â—irth which the Lord will bless though they be accounted as thy Slaves and â—ondmen yet are they free in the Lord and this is the very fulfilling of thy â—ickedness and the height of the Transgression of thy Rulers Teachers and â—eople in that some of them that fear the Lord and walk with him are perseâ—uted in thee even they are made a Prey unto the Wicked to the Slanderers to â—he Drunkards to the Scorners to Unjust and Cruel men the People of the â—ord are become a very prey in thee even as meat for the Devourers Oh what â—ilt thou do in the day of thy Visitation when the righteous Judge numbreth â—p these things against thee Thy staff shall fail thee thy Phisitians shall be of no value ' and all thy Comforters shall be miserable at that day I have truly â—onsidered thy condition and measured thy state and I have often seriously â—eighed thy wickedness and pondered what would be the end thereof there is no â—ision of Peace unto thee but even the day of desperate sorrow a recompence â—or all thy works from the Hand of the Lord. I have often truly lamented thee and seriously hath thy condition entred into â—y heart thy iniquities have often pressed my soul and my Spirit hath been â—rieved within me when I have viewed thy great abomination and how Thouâ—ands in thee wholly perish for lack of Knowledge and even resists and will not be â—nstructed despitefully using such as do warn them even loving and delighting in â—heir Abominations These things have often made my Heart sad who have walked in thee as a Stranger and measured thee with the line of true Judgment and this is thy Height and â—ength and Depth Iniquity lodgeth in thee and Iniquity covers thee and Inâ—quity â—â—mpasseth thee about And this is a Warning to thee from the Lord in faithfulness declared unto â—hee whether thou resist or receive thus far I am clear of the Blood of all men in â—hee who seeketh not any thing in thee for my self but seeketh and hath often â—o the Lord for thee that thy People might know him and worship him alone â—ho giveth unto them all good things and hath caused the fulness of all good Creaâ—ures to abound and hath given plenty of all things aboundance of which is â—pent vainly upon the lust to the dishonour of God who giveth it How much â—s vainly spent upon Vanity in Meats Drinks and Apparel It s hard to be â—eclared what aboundance of the good Creatures of God are vainly destroyed in â—hee upon the lust in the excess more then what satisfies pure Nature your gluttonny and high minds devour in aboundance the good Creatures which God gives and he is thereby grieved with you who hath taken notice of this your sin which is not the least of your Transgressions and he will plead with you for it even in all things great is your wickedness and the Lord hath numbred it And above all things that is done in thee thy deceitful Profession and Pretence of worship of God is the Lord most grieved with who hateth all your Meetings of gathered Assemblies which are not gathered by his Spirit he will confound yoâ— wisdom and overthrow all your buildings Wherefore repent ye and cease from Idols and all Idolatry and cease for ever to warm your selves at your own SPARKS for this shall you have at the Lords hands Ye shall lie down is Sorrow A WARNING to you all sorts of People YE Merchants and Traders and Trafickers and all ye that Buy and Sell bâ— plain and upright hearted and Lye not Swear not Dissemble not for gaiâ— unto your selves for that is cursed of the Lord and the gain that is thereby received but speak the Truth every man to his Neighbour flatter not such with whom you deal by feigned words of guile whilst secret over-reaching lodgeth iâ— your hearts to make a Prey upon your Neighbour or Brother for this is evil in tâ—… sight of the Lord but speak the Truth in all things and let your yea be yea aâ—… your nay nay in all your common occasions for whatsoever is more is evil aâ—… what is advantaged unto you through Deceit or Lying or multitude of vaâ—… Words it shall be a Curse unto you and not a Blessing unto you or to yoâ—… Children Let the Truth guide you in all your dealings one with an other aâ—… let the Fear of God be in your Hearts in all your Enterprizes both by Sea 〈◊〉 Land I Warn you all seek not by any evil means to enrich your selves neithâ—… oppress one another in any thing wherein you deal for you know not how loâ—… your time shall be upon Earth nor how soon the day of account will coâ—… wherein every word and every work shall be brought to Judgment yea for every Idle word shall ye give an account and all those words are idle which are not spoken in the Fear of the Lord therefore live and act in the Fear of God that yâ—… may be blessed in all that you do And all ye whom the Lord hath blessed with Riches and Encrease see that yâ—… abuse not that which God hath blessed you withal but in all things that it be 〈◊〉 to the Glory of the Lord and not wasted in excess upon the lust of your oâ—… minds for the Creation is the Lords and all things are given by him and takâ—… away at his Pleasure and he maketh rich and he maketh poor whomsoever he will Therefore every man be content with his own and covet not one anothers nor defraud one another to enrich your selves for it is cursed of the Lord. And all ye Handicrafts People and Labouring People fear ye the Lord continually and use no deceit nor craft nor pollicy in what you do in Labour seek not to blind mens eyes by fair outsides neither to cozen and cheat the Simplâ— by slighty work but let the Truth Guide you and that will teach you to dâ— for all men as ye would they should do for you and this is acceptable in the Sight of God Let your Commodities be just and right and let all your laboâ—… be with a single heart and do all things as in the Sight of the Lord and theâ—… you cannot do evil if the Fear of God be before your eyes and the evil in all things will be denied and the corruption that is entred into in all Callings anâ—… Trades will be judged out and be Examples one to another of Truth and Righteousness and cozen not nor cheat not one another nor use not many words not vain jestures but own the Lord to be your Teacher which will teach you Truth to do it and to speak it in all things And
coming to take an account Your sins cry for vengeance against you and though your hands and tongues have been strengthened to speak and act ungodliness by the evil example of your Rulers yet your own iniquity shall you bear in the day of the Lord and though your Rulers and Judges have been strengthened in their unjustness and mercilesness by the false lying Teachers and Diviners of false visions which have seen vanity yet their own iniquity shall they bear and every man shall die for his own sin Wo unto your Teachers they have eaten up the sin of Rulers and people and covered iniquity and transgression by flattering and lying words they have daubed with untempered morter and healed up the wound deceitfully and cryed peace peace to the wicked that have walked in the imaginations of their own hearts when unto such the Lord never spake peace And now whereas the Rulers and people have stretched forth their hands to vex the Lords people have through unjust judgment and grievous oppressions and unmercifull dealings troden the Innocent under foot and made them a prey to their mouth and divers ways have persecuted in cruel manner the Followers of the Lamb yet also have the wise men of this World even the Priests and Teachers who have led the people and have caused them to err and have set themselves as in battel array against the Lord and his way and people How have you hardened your hearts and made your fore-head as brass against the Word of the Lord and you have been as the fountain of all this wickedness acted against the Just and strengtheners of the hands of ungodly men the Heads and Rulers you have strengthened in their cruelty of false judgments by your arguments of strife in subtilty you have been as nursers of all this Persecution and Wickedness and have interceded for oppression to cause the Just to groan whom the Lord hath raised to testifie against you the Judges they have given regard unto you and the people they have taken you for examples who have been cursed presidents to the Rulers and people who have followed your cruel steps of malice and envy and from the head to the tail they have drunk in your poysonous Doctrines and made themselves drunk therewith and out of reason in their furious zeal of madness and all have taken council together to slay the harmless from off the face of the Earth some by false judgment and oppression and others by cruel abusings as beatings and stonings unheard of or unequalized in Generations of late O ye Priests and Teachers and Wise-men and Scribes how many of you in this Nation joyned hand in hand to betray the Innocent by your false Doctrines and lying Divinations and have filled and sought to do so the mind of the people with slanders and false reproaches lying imaginations and many conceptions and jealousies against the people of God many of you have made it your study-work to bring forth evil by cunning Arguments to suggest into the hearts of people that they might not enter the Kingdom and even so have you been shutters of the Kingdom of Heaven against men and would not enter your selves nor suffer others that would Wo unto you you have taken away the Key of Knowledge and lost it and multitudes of false Aspersions and lying Assertions have you brought forth without fear by wicked consequence and lying productions that you might take away the key of knowledge thereby and hide it from men and lay stumbling-blocks of Iniquity before the people to stop the way of the Upright and you have travelled to seek occasions of evil against the Just and watched for the halting of the Innocent that you might glory and rejoyce in their fall and without any occasion by words or actious you have taken offence and made offences by evil surmisings to blind the eyes of people that your Idolatry might not be discovered nor the Way of Righteousness shine forth O be ashamed and repent for to account must you Come and the sin of Rulers and people whom you have blindy led will be charged against you who have given them wicked examples of cruelty in your Pulpits you have spent time in Railing and Slandering and Lying to infuse evil into the minds of men against the Truth and many books have you given forth and sent abroad from your lying Pens outof your vain studies of false prophesie and mens hearts have been filled with your damnable Doctrines of Devils wherewith the Simple have been poysoned and the Innocent betrayed even great numbers of Books and lying Scroules have gone through the Nation from some of you filled with false Divination and intents of evil against the Way of the Lord and his people and worse than Balaam and far exceeding him have you been you have sought eâ—chantments to curse the people whom God hath blessed altogether and some of you have done it to your evil reward of your evil work and you have not known that there is no divination against the holy Seed Oâ— what will become of you when the Lord is arisen to plead with you 〈◊〉 these things the cruelty and oppression of the Rulers shall be added 〈◊〉 your account and the sin of the people which you have swallowed down it shall be laid to your charge for you have strengthened the hands of Evil-doers so that none could turn from his evil way but have by yâ—… been hardened therein and from you prophaness have gone forth to the ends of the Earth Woe woe is approaching what account will yoâ— render in the day of the Lord you will all be speechless in that day whâ—… the swift Witness doth arise therefore to all you I am moved to write who have set your selves to gain-say the Truth and to write against the people of the Lord whom you call Quakers who walk in the Truth and have received the Truth from the Lord whom you have reproached and slandered in secret and also in open print in the face of the World and have laid many cruel and false Charges and Accusations against them and to all that hath or ever shall hereafter bend your tongues and pens to utter wickedness and falshood by writing or otherwise Repent and cease your wickedness for the wrath of the Lord is kindled against you and take this for an answer in full to all your Books and false reproaches we are of God and he that is of God heareth us and the whole World lies in wickedness and we have the Testimony that we please God and he is our God and we are his People and he hath Chosen us and we have Chosen him and the Name of the Lord is our strength and his Covenant of Life is with us and among us hath he fullfilled his promise and his Spirit is poured forth and sons and daughters do Prophesie and one King reigns upon mount Sion and the night to us is far spent and the day is
have I not spoken the truth and have I not said well herein for you are joyned with all the wicked in the Nation and as Lyars and Swearers and Drunkards persecutes with violence and as the proud and wanton are filled with scorning and singing wicked rimes in the streets even so also are you come in Print and all of you against them called Quakers the Drunkards and Swearers they beat them and abuse them and cast them as for dead into Ditches with stoning in the high wayes and in the streets beating down with Staves and the wanton they sing there rimes in scorn in Ale-houses and Taverns against them and thou and thy Fellowes and Generation appears in open Print slandering and reviling them yet in pretence of zeal for God and all this you do against us who have the witness that we are of God and that the whole World Lyes in wickedness and now are not you all joyned as an Army and do you not shew your selves in the defence of the Draggon what wrong I have done you let the upright in heart judge whether I have given false testimony against you or no and though you have noted it for a Lye in the Margent yet the Lye is thy own who hath gain-said the Truth herein and called it a Lye and I have dealt justly with thee in the sight of God and all that know him and when the Book of thy Conscience is opened thou shalt also confess to this thing when thou standest condemned with them with whom thou art now joyned against us who have the testimony that we are of God and worshippers of the Father in the Spirit and Truth and my words were spoken by the Spirit of the Lord and that in thy Conscience shall witness them in the day of the Lord though now thou opprobriously sayst they are flung into the wind And whereas thou seemest to be greatly offended that I should say part of the first Book is a Corrupted grain of Babylons treasure c. But have not I spoken the Truth herein also when I say I have numbered 〈◊〉 part of your work and this is the sum thereof that part which I have numbered viz. your Lyes and false Reproaches against the Quakers is a corrupted grain yea and of Babylons treasure too I am not ashamed of my words though thou wouldst defend your work by saying Your discourse was of the Birth Righteousness Death Blood c. And of the second coming of the Son of Mary c. To which I say these things and the knowledge of them by the Spirit of God is not counted by me Corrupted nor of Babylon though now I answer as in my last the words I own but thy voice I deny and knows it to be the voice of the stranger and for this saying have I not nor never shall have any burthen upon my Conscience though thou wouldst say it but 't is cleared in the sight of God even though I say all that thou speakest I deny or thy speaking of any thing of the Kingdom of God with thy lying spirit And whereas thou art offended that I should say you are described to be the Flock of Ishmael and of the seed of Cain whose line reacheth to the murdering Priests c. And thou sayst I am very sensorious and utterest many word without knowledge c. Reply Yea your words doth describe your nature for by your voice I know you to be none of Christs sheep and accordingly I judge in just judgement and in true knowledge and doth not falsly sensure nor utter words voi◠of knowledge and my words shall be witnessed by you in the day of the Lord Envy is of Cains nature and seed and in that you are and Lyars are of Ishmaels stock and you are guilty of that let the sober Reader try and you are among the murdering Priests party and close joyned to them in Doctrine and practise especially in writing against us Now no wrong have I done you that thou needest to be troubled and seek to cover your selves by thy fair words in thy answer as if you were righteous but all will not hide you your works make you manifest to be no less then what I have said of you Then farther thou art hot against me in that I say you are found Enemies to Christ revealed in his Saints and this thou hast noted it in the Margent for false but thou dost not well to be angry it is true what I have spoken thy own words do prove it in saying there was nothing in thee to be taken notice of this was a denying of Christ within and such as deny him are found Enemies to him within So the Lye is thy own who hast denyed Truth let the wise Reader judge and thy many words in a pretending Answer will not cover you from the guilt of what I have charged upon you and not falsly and what I have said hitherto is true and not false though thou feigningly say Thou marvels I should be so overseen as to utter so many false things in so little a space nay my understanding was open when I wrot forth that Book at which thou art so tormented that it hath caused thee some Moneths travel in anguish to clear thy self and yet cannot be at rest and thou art over-seen who resists the reproof of thy Wickedness Then thou goest about to justifie thy Brother Burtons words who wickedly laid it down as thou impudently goest to justifie it who joyned in his Accusation and slanders Quakers with Ranters and this wouldst thou justifie we are one against my just Answer which denied them in the fourth page of my first where I said Between Quakers and Ranters there is no more union c. then betwixt Light and Darkness Good and Evil and that Answer stands untouched by thee and is true and in justifying Iohn Burtons wicked Slander thou art more wicked in comparing the Principles and sayst it will appear they agree in one c. Viz. That the Quakers deny Christ to be a real Man Secondly that they fancy him to be God manifest in their flesh Thirdly that they make his humane nature with the fulness of the Godhead to be but a type of God these thing were charged upon us But what a wicked course hast thou taken to clear him by adding thy own wickedness let all consider that reads for doe not I desire in plainness in my first in these words if thou darest lay the Charge only upon the Quakers write in plainness and bring testimony of thy Accusation and thou mayst receive a farther answer but not a word in plain answer to this is returned though soberly desired neither time nor place nor witnesses evidenced to clear your selves of your first Slanders which had been more honest then to have slandered afresh passing over your first but it seems you cannot clear your selves in honesty and so fulfill your wickedness by adding to your Lyes and Slanders as
thou art in their steps and among them that act such things as further may be proved and the wisdom of God so fore-saw to keep me clear and my words to be defended though I expected no less from thee as to this thing then is come to pass but the Lye is of thy self who would deny the Truth The next thing that thou wilt charge upon to be a Lye I pass here the Reader may expect it in its place and though thou sayst the Rantors and I and my Fellows are of the same mind in many things c. To which I Reply Their practices I deny and the ground in which they stand and their false doctrines yet dare we not deny any truth as it is in Christ though they as thou mayst profess it in words which is seldom they do for we have respect unto the Truth for the truths sake only but how uncharitable art thou in thy measure and judgement consider as if he should say Iohn Bunion is of the same mind with the Pope in many things the Pope holds Christ was born of Mary and was crucified and raised again and ascended c. And this holds I. Bunion and is of the same minde with the Pope in many things and therefore must partake of the same plagues with the Pope as thou said of us though thou hast by unequal measure thus judged us yet I render not evil for evil but in love to thy soul shews thee thy folly and weakness Then thou goest on having passed by the two slanders cast upon us by I. Burton in your first Book which I charged you withall in mine to which not one word as to evidence your slanders but hath slippen it over as a foul guilty man which charge stands upon you both that you are Slanderers herein and my first answer I am not ashamed of though you snarle much about it and would taint it or undermine it but thy subtilty is to weak Truth confounds thee and thy simple policy which is that we prize the Lord Jesus Christ God man to be precious unto us and hath owned him alone to be the Foundation whom God hath laid and in his Light we are saved c. As I said in Page 7. against which words thou canst not justly except nor yet prove the contrary and yet as a man that loves to hear thy own tongue thou lays down many things impertinent as to the cause in hand But it had been more honest to have helped thy brother Burton from under my true Charge and cleared the Truth if thou hadst been able but thou hast left â—im in the dirt under the Charge of a Slanderer and are unfaithfull to him â—nd goes about to inquire what it is as thou sayst to lay Christ for a Foundation thou confesses what I have said is fairly spoken and yet thy envious minde â—nd unbelieving heart seems to be offended at my words and to them that can believe I speak plainly and doth not beg thy belief nor any mans but commends my self to every mans Conscience in the sight of God and knows no other Jesus the Saviour nor Foundation then he that Iohn was sent to prepare the Way before who was and is and is to come who said I am the light of the World and now my words are defended to be truth in the sight of them that are spiritual and thou and such may hear but must not understand who have hardened your hearts least you should believe and therefore is given up to Gainsayings till the Wrath of God break out against you and let Iohn Burton remember my words where I said he is fallen into the pit which he digged for another and he undervalues the Lord Jesus whose Doctrine is to speak Truth but he hath lyed and slandered and so is out of Christ the Foundation and undervalues him who keeps not his sayings but is a Worker in Darkness and not in the Light And as to that where I say thus much is the mind of the Penmans spirit of the first Epistle of the first Book secretly smiting at the Doctrine of true Faith and Salvation to wit Christ within I have said the truth in righteousness and do own my words though thou sayst I have done him a great deal of wrong c. But I leave it to be judged by them that are spiritual and not unto thee to give false meaning of my words and doth not he say in that Epistle of some that have been depending too much upon some thing they call Christ and the Righteousness of Christ within them c. Let the wise in heart judge whether this be not as I said even a secret smiting against Christ within without which as I have said there can be no Salvation for he that hath not Christ in him is a Reprobate and this I speak not in opposition but as a testimony of Christ Jesus that dyed and rose again and ascended who is within and without also and if any preach another Jesus let him be accursed and repent thou who art in the wrong doing thy self falsly charging me noting in the Margent with speaking falsly when I spaâ—… the truth and the false speaking rests at thy door and is driven thither with the power of truth Then whereas thou wouldst justifie thy former wickedness in charging the Quakers to be Deceivers against my just Answer in page 8. of mine whicâ— stands free from any of thy vain Argument and uncontroled though resisted but it appears my words sticks close unto thee and torments thee and thou sayd with much confidence it will easily be proved that we are Deceivers but thy Arguments we shall try And sayst thou First the Quakers deny the man Christ Jesus without them and own Christ no otherways but as he is within c. Reply How impudent art thou in forging Lye after Lye and building them up in thy Work one upon another and a wicked course thou takes to clear thy former Slanders truly charged upon thee in my first even by laying another upon it Friend By this thy deceitful Slander while thou hast thought to prove us Deceivers hath proved thy self one even a false Accuser mayst thou not blush to say we own Christ no otherwayes then as he is within we own him which was is and is to come who is within us and without us as I have said in my first we own him as the Scripture speaks of him and it is known 〈◊〉 the Lord and in his sight we are approved whether thou believe it or not fâ—… I beg not beleif of thee but leaves thy double Slanders to be read and judged of by all honest people and in the interim know it is a bad way to prove us Deceivers by thy Lyes this the rather is a Witness to us that we are of God and against thee and thou to be of the Devil who was a Lyer from the beginning and 〈◊〉 his Child succeeds him in
this if thou canst that all men may see thy Folly for there is not many Christs but one Christ which is not only within but without not only without but within but is all and in all let him that readâ— understand Then thou sayst the Light wherewith Christ as he is God lighted every one is the Soul of man which is the Life of the Body and is a Creature and hath one faculty of its own Nature called Conscience Reply Now le ts try this Doctrine and consider what thou hast said it amounâ—… to thus much that Conscience is of the nature of the Soul of man and the soul is the Light of Christ as God Therefore thou hast said the Conscience is the Light of God which must needs be without sin this is more then I have or dare say I might here fitly ask thee if thou knowst what the word Conscience signifies in true understanding and yet though thou hast uttered this that Conscience is a Faculty of the soul which thou sayst is the Light of Christ as God which Light of God must needs be of the nature of God pure and not impure yet in the next page thou sayst Conscience is a poor Dunghill Creature in comparisâ—… of the Spirit c. and in another page calls Conscience poor so empty beggerly things c. What now Iohn Bunion is that which thou hast concluded to be the Light of God but a dunghill-Creature and low and empty and beggerly in comparison c. For shame cease such Divinity lest all thy Fellows reprove thee O how doth thy ignorant zeal lead thee into Snares and trape thy own feet And to confound thy self thou sayst Conscience which is the Light of God is Nature it self then it must needs be that every mans nature which is sinful say I it the Light of God O what horrible Doctrine this proves in its explanation Blush and be ashamed when thou considers then thou cries out in reproof O wonderful sayst thou That men should make a God and Christ of their Consciences I know none that doth it nor that ever spoke so highly of Conscience 〈◊〉 thou hast here done yet we say our Conscience bears us witness in the holy Ghost and this is our rejoycing the testimony of our Consciences 〈◊〉 if our Consciences condemn us not then have we confidence towards God and yet makes not God and Christ of our Conscience as thou secretly wouldst charge us withall Then thou goest on and wouldst seem to prove but canst not that somthing besides the Light of Christ convinceth of sin but thy reach is too short thoâ—… thou wind abroad and lets thy thoughts into the pit of thy own reason to bring up a thing to confound Truth but cannot for this is thy proof where they were all convinced by their own Consciences Iohn 8. Now all these I say weâ—… men come into the World and therefore according to Iohn 1. 9. were lighted with the Light of Christ and thou hast confessed that Conscience is the Light of Christ as God which is no less then I have affirmed then wherefore hast thou waded so farr when at the end thou art forced to confess my position thy words being explained that it is the Light of Christ that doth convince of sin and can find no other thing besides that then thou sayst here is somthing besides the Spirit of Christ that doth convince of sin c. But yet I say nothing besides the Light of Christ as thou hast confessed and that was that only which I affirmed in the tenth page of mine about which thou hast made all this stir and to no purpose as to prove any thing convinceth of sin but the Light of Christ and in that I said he that convinceth of sin against the Law leads up into the fulfiling of the Law which still I own though thou wouldst contradict it but canst not and I clearly see thou hast not reached the understanding of my words but answered thy own conceiving and not my words for I do not say or think that righteousness comes by the Law yet that is righteousness which condemneth that which breaks the Law if thou hast an ear thou mayst hear and as I said it is the Word of Truth the Righteousness of the Law must needs be fulfilled in Judgment upon you all and by Christ Jesus in you if ever you receive the Salvation to your Souls and thou hast not yet learned what I mean and though thou sayst that for justification thou lookst beyond the Law to the Son of Mary but I say thou must not look beyond it for condemnation who art in transgression and not reconciled to God through condemnation in the flesh for it will reach you to condemnation and thou sayst Thou understandst that I do in all my discourse disown Christ without by pretending to a Christ within To which I say thy understanding deceives thee who it may be feared blinds thy own eyes that thy Conscience may not condemn thee for slandering but while I am approved in the sight of God of those things whereof thou accusest me falsly and wickedly I matter nothing what a Lyers Judgements is of me my Answer to thy Query shall prove me clear and thee a Lyer herein that we own Gods Christ as the Scripture declares of him as I have said and the darkness of my words is to blind the eye of subtilty and not to deceive the hearts of the simple though thou wouldst say it see if thou now canst tell what I say And whereas thou art offended that I say many more things in thy Book I pass by as being not pertinent to the thing in hand my words are true for the thing in hand was proving us Deceivers and that was the most of which I medled withal or purposed to oppose and to other things that thou speakest of in short my answer was and is the words or of some of them I own and thy voice I deny without any blaspheming or error in the view of all the World though thou wouldst say it for whatsoever a lying spirit speaks I deny it to be the voice of Christ though it may be some of his words and thy spirit is a lying spirit And though thou art offended that I should say Fools loves to be medling yet its true enough is not he a Fool who is a Lyer and a Slanderer that understands not betwixt before a time and since a time judge in thy own Conscience and thy fair words as that it must needs be sayst thou That the Saints of God must be called Fool I say never presume the name of Saint but clear thy self of thy Lyes and Slanders and perverting Scriptures and learn the First principle of Religion Even that which Condemns thee And as to that which I say 〈◊〉 true that the Pope can speak as much of Christ without as thou I own it and may add I believe he can speak more then thou
of Christ without and with as good or better understanding though both a like far from the Kingdom of God yet in thy Answer thou askest me if I put 〈◊〉 difference betwixt the speaking of and beleeving in Christ without Yea I do a great deal for he that believes in him hath the Witness in himself of him and his heart is purifyed and he is a new Creature which thou art not but thou I suppose wouldst be reckoned a Believer nay for I think the Pope hath both more words and more good works and makes as much Conscience of lying and false accusing as thou for ought as may be understood of a tree by the fruits which is our way to judge as Christ hath given us example then is that I said thou hast answered thy self a question deceitful thou art offended and boasts thy self against me Charging me to be an Enemy to the truth and the liâ—â— in that I did not manifest thy deceit but now I shall therefore to stop thy proâ—… boasts in that answer thou calls it a sad doctrine which saith follow the Light which Christ hath enlightned every man withall and other such like things following that question which are deceitful and wicked and thou thereby art proved the Enemy to truth thy self and thou and thy words are both deceitful and therefore boast not thy self Then thou answers my Question which was doth not the Scripture witness that all who have not Christ are Reprobates the Question is sound and of worth to be noted and in thy answer thou sayst yet it is true to which I soberly Reply then what a condition are all in that hath 〈◊〉 Christ within nor no knowledge of him but what they have of him as he is without by the letter without do thou consider this and whether it be not of the chiefest prize to Life and Salvation to wait for him and seek for him within seeing all that have not him within are Reprobates But farther thou wouldst seem to manifest a great deal of folly in me when as the folly lies in thy own bosome and by thy confused words I understand thâ—… groundst thy Answer upon alye and false understanding and therefrom bringâ—… the false reproof as if I should hold forth that every man hath received Chriâ—… or the Spirit of Christ in him This I have never said but that every man hath the Light of Christ giâ—… him which I say is one in union with the Spirit of Christ and I say Christ 〈◊〉 given to all but all receives him not and I see thou understands not my forâ—… words that I write in answer to one of thy Queries thou canst not distingâ—… betwixt a thing being given of God and a thing being received by man so 〈◊〉 the folly is fallen back on thee take it who understands not my words 〈◊〉 opposes thy own conceivings and false understanding and though I might 〈◊〉 truly apply this word folly in that extent then thou applyed the like word 〈◊〉 thy self in this same page yet I leave it to the judgement of the serious Reader and say thy folly is want of wit in the World and not for Châ—… sake Then thou wouldst defend thy first wickedness in that thou saidst the Devil deceives Souls by perswading them to follow the Light within which all men have but my answer to it thou hast not reached in that I said 〈◊〉 that comes to Life eternal must follow the Light within which Christ haâ—… given which stands over thy head for ever to be truth but yet how bliâ—… art thou in confessing the Light within even Conscience to be the Light 〈◊〉 Christ as God and yet sayst the Devil deceives souls by bidding follow the Light within O abominable doctrine what doth the Devil deceive souls by bidding foâ—… the Light of Christ as God so Iohn Bunion's doctrine is let it be noted 〈◊〉 see thou thy folly how it is manifest and thy pittiful evasions are weighed 〈◊〉 stead of contradicting my former sufficient answer which thou could no 〈◊〉 reach to wrest or otherwise to answer it askes a question which I may ansâ— assoon as thou hast sufficiently replyed to my former answer and this is in 〈◊〉 an answer to it it is heresie to say that the Light of God or any Light of 〈◊〉 or Christ can or doth deceive the Soul and though thou stumble at it I said 〈◊〉 in saying that thy whole purpose is a secret smiting against the Light within 〈◊〉 the Reader judge And now to manifest thy ignorance fully thou hast confessed the Light witâ—… even Conscience is the Light of God hast not thou cause to repent of 〈◊〉 absurdities and blindness who holds forth that the Devil deceives Souls by the Light of God seeing thou canst find no Light within man but that which thou confessest is the Light of God Then thou sayes Thy whole design was first to shew Souls where Salvation is to be bad namely in Christ without and yet hath confessed all that hath him not within are Reprobates and such have not salvation by him without Consider therefore without Christ within no Salvation as I have said and thou hast confessed it Mark it then to clear thy self from contradiction which I charged thee with thou wouldst cast a confusion upon me in that thou says I would make a defiled Conscience the Law and Spirit of Christ to be all one This is falsly spoken I have never said nor thought that a defiled Conscience is the Law and Spirit of Christ a Lyer thou art to be noted and this Lye adds to the number and yet consider thou hast said several time that Consciences is the Light of Christ as God and now calls Conscience defiled Is the Light of God defiled Iohn Bunnion saith so O horrid read thou thy confusion and grievous Error which is brought to thy Door and there I leave it thou mayst Blush and all thy Witnesses at this and in that thou callst my Answer Scoulding against thy Epistle and persumptuously sayst The truth of which thou couldst be willing to seal with thy Blood Reply Scoulding I deny but I have reproved thy Lyes in the Authority of the Lord and be not so proudly pust up in boasting what sayst thou shall thy Blood go for this that the Quakers are Deceivers and that the Devil deceives Souls by bidding them follow the Light within which thou sayst is Conscience which thou confesses is the Light of God and that the Blood of Christ was shed before the World was and that the Scripture say so and that we deny that Salvation was compleatly wrought by the man Christ Jesus with several other things noted for Lyes what sayst thou Iohn Bunnion art thou so desparte as that thou wilt hazard thy Blood upon this account if it be so sure the Devil hath great power over thee cease thy boasting lest the Lord make thee an Example and though thou wouldst exhort me thy spirit I deny
and so thy words I judge and cannot receive good from an evil Spirit Then thou comes on falling on thy own foul ignorance again and wouldst fain clear thy self but by thy stirring thy own wickedness herein thou makes it cast an odious sight to all that pass by we may follow thee a little seeing thou art not yet weary and fain wouldst thou make it appear that the Blood of Christ was shed before the World was and sayst it was in Gods account but to this I have spoken and largely shewed thy blindness to all men and adds this upon thy head thou art a Lyar and Perverter of Scripture to say That the Blood of Christ was shed before the World was And further thou art a Lyer to say That God accounts a thing for Truth which is a Lye a sad error and wicked And further thou art a Lyar to say that I corrupt thy woods for I had not laid open thy nakedness so fully if thou hadst not persisted in thy blindness as now I am forced to do but enough of this and more then ever thou canst clear thy self of honestly and yet to cover thy own shame charges me falsly with folly to speak evil of things I know not or else with madness c. Reply Friend be not so confident I know the difference betwixt before and since or from and know that God accounts not a Lye for Truth as thou holds out thy own folly and madness behold who commits iniquity in lying on the Scripture and on God and on me and yet persists after a sober reproof and resists the Reprover with opprobrious words let confusion of face cover thy impudent forehead while I forgive thee and seeks not vengeance against thee then through thy mistake of my words thou hast falsly gathered a subject to oppose and fights with thy own understanding mightily and thinkst thou confoundst me and its thy self for however thou understands my words either for want of wit or otherwise it never entred into my thoughts with charging thee to believe that Christ is a tipe only I charge thee that thou saidst so of others So that I think this is a mistake in thee for want of knowledge to understand my rehersal of thy words being transcribed as the shortest not to fill volumes and through thy own misunderstanding of my laying down the words thou heavily yet vainly charges me with corrupting thy words which God is my witness I have not done though thou be guilty herein But further I deal plainly and slanders not in secret as thou dost we do not look on Christ to be but a shadow and tipe if thou affirm I shall answer further and as to that thou sayst I say Jesus is the substance to that answer I stand though thou sayst Thou doubts I do not spâ—… plainly c. Reply As I have said I seek not a proof of my faith of thee nor any man not do I beg thy belief while I am approved in the sight of God herein I matter not what a lying spirit doubts of me so that what vain Arguments or Queries thou raises from thy own false doubt I pass by being by the present thing branching out in things on the by if I should examine every particular I might fill a vollume And whereas thou hast answered my question which is did Christ put an end to the Law for them who yet live in the transgression of the Law or doth he justifie that which the Law condemns before the work of the Law be finished In thy Answer thou sayst Christ did put an end to the Law for Righteousness for all that the Father hath given him This is little to the Question I say that Transgressors of the Law are not Christs but Children of Disobedience and Children of Wrath and such God hath not given to Christ who are his Enemies nor Christ to them is not given but to condemn them is that estate and thou sayst there are many given to Christ who yet lives is their sins the Apostle Iohn saith he that sins is of the Devil and hath 〈◊〉 known God and such as are of the Devil are not Christs and in that I saâ—… doth Christ justifie that which the Law condemns before the work of the Law 〈◊〉 finished and not one tittle of the Law shall fail till all be fulfilled thou hast 〈◊〉 reached the understanding of my words for while disobedience stands and the Transgressor lives the work of the Law is not finished nor fulfilled but to that is Condemnation and not Justification if thou hast an ear thou mayst hear for he that transgresseth the Law is an Enemy to Christ and Christ fulfills not the Law for his Enemies they must bear their own burthen and though this thou cannot understand now yet in the day of Judgement shalt thou feel it and when the burthen of thy own Inquity is upon thee then shalt thou confess to what I have said and read me in what now thou canst not understand and in the mean time I deny that Christ hath put an end to the Law for thee who art a Lyar and breaks one and so is guilty of all Many of thy words might be weighed and searched but I am no picâ—… of quarrels but to my last Query thou sayst little to the purpose which is what assurance have any that the Law is fulfilled for them who 〈◊〉 yet Transgressors of it in themselves but sayst Assurance comes thâ—… believing and obedience to the Law is a fruit of believing c. Saying 〈◊〉 one that hath the hope of the Son of God purifies himself as he Christ 〈◊〉 pure Reply Then he that hath not the fruit viz. obedience to the Law 〈◊〉 may judge by the fruit or for want of fruit is no Believer and he that is 〈◊〉 purifyed as he is pure Christ hath not the hope of being the Son of God but is without hope now see where thou art who yet breaks the Law and 〈◊〉 without thy own noted fruit of believing neither is purifyed as he is pure and so is without hope this is according to thy own affirmation if thâ—… canst not bear it blame thy self for laying down such a position as hath proâ—… thy self to beâ—an Unbeliever and without hope and so without God in the World one that is for condemnation and to be judged in the state where now thou standst And whereas thou sayst I would lay assurance on obedience to the Law thou lyest in this also my words are the Law must be fulfilled in you by Christ in Judgement and in Righteousness if ever you receive Salvation and these words are true against all thy opposition neither do I affirm that by the deeds of the Law any flesh living shall be justified but the contrary though thou wouldst falsly yet secretly cast it upon me and wickedly callst this my forthy argument where I said the Law convinceth and is a School-master to bring to Christ c. But the
confuted thine c. Do not boast but hear what I say thou sayst in that answer that Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father in your Nature Mark now thy Nature and your Nature who are one with thee is sinfull and wicked and of the Devil for so all Lyars are and it is Blasphemy to say sinfull wicked divillish Nature such as Iohn Bunions is and his Fellows is at the right hand of God in Heaven O horrible consider of this and see what thy begging an answer hath brought upon thee I deny though thou affirm it that thy and your Nature which is wicked or a man in that Nature is ascended into Heaven and therefore boast not thy self another time This nakedness of thine might have been covered but for thy own boasting and thou sayst Asts 1. proves it let the Reader search If he can find that Christ ascended in sinful wicked Nature such as theirs is who are one with Iohn Bunion and this is another Lye of the Scripture and though thou with much impudent confidence affirm the Quakers to be Deluders c. I say from that we rather love dispraise then praise and are as our fore-Fathers were counted Deceivers and yet are true and thou art deceived in thy own heart in that thou understandst my words that I should say as though there were no false Prophets now because I said they were in the Apostles dayes which is true and yet are they now too even it s witnessed by thee and thy Fellows who are in their steps who through coveteousness making merchandize of Souls and your people are ever learning and not able to come to the knowledge of the truth and goes for gifts and rewards and are false Accusers and such like Nay but understand me better for I say thou art a false Prophet and thou art now though thy root sprang forth in the time of the Apostles of which thou are a Beanch and thy Fellows And though I said that Antichrist was in the dayes of Iohn and this was before a Quakers was heard of my words I own pâ—…rs that that the Christians were called Quakers at that day if thou canst 〈◊〉 I allow not thee to be my Interperter except I found thee more honest 〈◊〉 doth condemn thy meaning upon my words and though thou sayst instead of moving our selves no false Prophets we prove our selves no Christians because I said that word Quaker was not heard of in those dayes Now consider are they no Christians now whose title or name without was not gives or heard of in the Apostles dayes then Protestants are no Christians nor Independants are no Christians nor Anabaptists are no Christians because they were not called so in the Apostles dayes and whilest thou hast thought to prove us no Christians hast cast out thy self also then thou art no better then we and what poor Arguments and vain consequence these are 〈◊〉 the wise consider I did not say there were no Quakers then but not a Quakers heard of viz. by that name for there were thousands of Quakers who trembled and quaked at the Word of the Lord Moses and David Iereâ—… Isaack Paul with many more Quakers and Tremblers though not then 〈◊〉 called but as I said such as thou hast such thou bringst and thy Master will accept thee Then thou sayst I fling durt in thy face because I said if we should diligently search thee we should find thee in their steps through feigned words through coveteousness making merchandize of Souls loving the wages of unrighteousness And further I said among them thou art found who art preaching 〈◊〉 hire and loves the error of Balaam who went after Gifts and Rewards oâ— Now thou seemest to be grieved and calls this a false Accusation But le ts try the cause admits dispute Art not thou in their steps and among them that do 〈◊〉 things ask Iohn Burion with whom thou art joyned close to vindicate 〈◊〉 and call him Brother hath he not so much yearly 150. l. or more except tâ—… hast some of it which is unrighteous Wages and Hire and Gifts and Rewards What sayst thou Art thou not in his steps and among and with him and then that do these things if he be thy Brother and thou so own him what is 〈◊〉 in him whom thou vindicates I lay upon thee but tell me who have 〈◊〉 thee deny him and the rest of the Independants in these things which 〈◊〉 knowst he doth act and in thy answer I cannot find thee fully clearing thy 〈◊〉 by denyal but sayst That spirit that lead me out of this Way is a lying spirit 〈◊〉 or what Way I say out of the way of preaching for Hire dost thou mean â—y it s a lying spirit in thee that goes in their steps and among them that goes in 〈◊〉 way and though thou bid me have a care of receiving by hear say what I bâ—… said and received in this is truth though thou evade it never so much As to that of some bidding thee throw away the Scriptures c Indeed upon such terms it might be spoken so as to be owned a Lyar and a Slandereâ— is an unfit Fellow to meddle with the Scriptures or to take the Name of the Lord or of the man Christ Jesus in his mouth and I may say truly what hast 〈◊〉 unrighteous person to do to take his Name and truth in thy mouth hateâ—… to be reformed And in that I say of thy crying against Christ within this is true who said there was nothing in thee nor any man without exception to be taken not in of as we may prove by witness though thou deny it then was not Chrâ—… within and what less is this then to cry against him when as thou deayd him within or else concludes he is not worth taking notice of And thoâ—… thou say I falsely speak of thee in saying thou callst the Doctrine of Christ waâ— in false opinions and take in hand to discover it but the falseness is in the who hath uttered that which is untruth and contrary to the Gospel and 〈◊〉 denyes it or would hide thy wickedness for thou having framed an objectiâ—… and speaks of some that are for a Christ within c. and then thou sayst the wilt discover the falsity of such opinions Now thou dost here reckon the Doctrine of Christ within a false opinion or among them at lest let the Reaâ—… judge and be thou silent for shame but all thou sayst clears thee not froâ— what I said of thee God shall judge thee thou lying tongue and deceâ—… heart Then thou chargest me with folly and to eat my first words and to be 〈◊〉 ble in judgement and to fight against the Truth c. From my question aâ—…e doth not the Scripture say Christ is within except you be Reprobates aâ—… not this thus much all are Reprobates but they in whom Christ is within a yet because I said the measure or manifestation of the
that they should not always be deceived and alwayes learning and never able to come to the knowledg of the Truth and hath no other end to our selves God is our witnesse but that people may be converted to the knowledg of God and as I said before though the Papists may hold some truth in words and cry against some sort of people out of a wicked end yet may not we therefore deny the truth as it is in Jesus neither must be silent is declaring against sin and wickednesse and let him say what he will concerting any advantage the Devil reaps by us it will but be the overthrow of his very kingdom Why but saith he If we do but unchurch all the reformed Churches the Papists will give us a fee I say it is a hard thing to unchurch them that never were truly churched and that we seek to unchurch such as are the Churches of Christ this is utterly false and the Papists fee and his reproach we trample upon them both together and let him take the Papists fee as he pleads for it for it was they first that took tythes for a fee and it is he now that strongly pleads for them to be maintained in his Ministry by them 13. His thirteenth Reason Saith he the Doctrine and practice of the Quakers is contrary to the experience and holy nature of the Saints why saith he they have sound a renewed light and life by the Scriptures and Ministry which the Quakers make so light of c. To this I answer this is as false as the rest for with all the Saints that ever were upon earth both in Doctrine and Practice we agree with them and as 〈◊〉 the peoples sakes of England I wish his words were true and that they haâ—… indeed found a renewing light and life by this Ministry but though he may boast of it now in the day of Gods righteous judgments it shall be found otherwise when it shall be tryed that the renewing hath been but in form and appearance from one likenesse to another and not a renewing from death to life and though there hath been sometimes appearing a zeal and a desire after him in the Ministry of England in times past yet from this day hath the Lord forsaken them and such as were sober and sincere in what was made manifest are now become Revilers and Reproachers Slanderers and Persecutors of the People of God and from hence-forth shall they not boast of many being Converted by them from sin unto the way of Righteousness But further he saith We tell the people that their Ministry doth the people no good and none are the better for it If we do we tell them true And though he saith The experiences of many thousands doth confute this yet say I the experiences of ten thousand times so many more shall confirm it It is true there may be thousands like himself which will not stumble to belye their own souls as he hath done of us yet betwixt him and I in this matter God shall be our Judg who hath not sent this Ministry and yet it hath run therefore it doth not nor shall not profit the people at all He saith It is quite contrary to the nature of Saints to damn and reproach the Saints and call them the children of the Devil This is true but it is not contrary to the nature of the Saints to reprove Hypocrites such as profess that which they do not enjoy and speak that which they have not received from the Lord but steal from other mens words such are many of the Teachers of England and it was the way of Christ and his Apostles soundly to reprove such And this is our way and we do not reproach the Saints nor damn them and yet to the wicked which are not Saints we dare not cry peace but do say The wicked and such who forget God shall be turned into Hell And for this David is our example 14. His fourteenth Reason He saith The Quakers are unlikely to be better then other men seeing they are so notoriously proud and thus this pride doth appear Saith he It is the supposed Spirit of God and the extraordinary holiness and inspiration and abilities that they are proud of and saith he They proclaim themselves perfect without sin And this is the pride he chargeth us with c. To which I answer We say that in Christ we are compleat as the Apostles said to the Churches and do not boast of it neither are proud of it more then the Churches were but in the Lord we will glory and in him rejoyce again and again and it is that which we press after and exhort all to press after to be perfect in him who takes away our sins and gives power over the temptations of the Devil And he saith We pretend to know mens hearts Yea we do know that the heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things and by mens words and works we do know their hearts to be evil that acts and speaks wickedness For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if we should say we do not know mens hearts that acts and speaks wickedness we should be Lyars but as I said What we are it is by grace in Christ and we boast not of it in the flesh but our glorying is onely in the Lord in Spirit that our names are written in the Book of life And as for our crying against Deceivers which he so much stumbles at it is but the practice of Christ and his Apostles as may be read through the Scriptures and yet we do it not no more then they did in self-exaltation though he would charge us with it 15. His fifteenth Reason Saith he They plainly discover a persecuting spirit Why saith he what man can in reason think but that they run up and down the World to bring Ministry into hatred c. To this I answer Little of this doth appear that our spirits are persecuting spirits for we pray for our Enemies and do forgive them that do evil intreat us and renders to no man evil for evil for if we had sought vengeance or prosecuted the good Laws of England against those that had wronged and robbed us and unjustly caused us to be put in Prison many might have deeply suffered by true Justice before this day if we had not forgiven our Enemies and blessed them that hated us Such hath been the cruelty acted upon us that many might have been arraigned for felony if we had sought the prosecution of the good Laws and not forgiven our Enemies Why but the main thing is because we are moved to go up and down the World and declare against the false Ministers and holding forth that Ministry and truly applying it to many of the Teachers of England But let all the World know this is not from a persecuting spirit not more then Isaiah did it and Micah and the rest of
all works for it is the ground from whence all works do spring and the end unto which they are brought forth that makes all mens works good or evil to be justified or to be condemned and where the Measure of the Spirit and Power of God is the Ground of and Leader in a work that work as I have said is done in the Fear of the Lord and in uprightness of heart and in love and tenderness and meekness and patience without seeking or exalting self but the Glory of the Lord is only sought by that man in all such his works But on the contrary where an evil heart and mind brings forth works to an evil end and to the wrong of others such works are maliciously and wilfully and enviously and peevishly done in forwardness and headiness and not in the Fear of God nor in uprightness of heart but with a double mind and in secret or without the Counsel of God seeking himself in his works and not the Lord and such works are wicked and wrought by wicked men who transgresseth both the Law of God and of men and must receive according to their deeds and the Law that is equal must pass upon them which the Light of Christ in their own Consciences may answer to when they are condemned for their ungodly works against which Light they act and that is the reason and cause wherefore their works are evil and to be condemned by the Law for who acteth according to the Light of Christ and is led thereby fulfilleth the Law or it is fulfilled in him and his works are wrought in God and are the testimony unto men that he is of a good conscience and for a good Conscience sake his works are done and such men and works are not to be condemned but justified And this is for Instruction to all them that bear Rule who are Magistrates and Governours and Judges of the people that they may now be wife and learn wisdom how to judge righteously and justly among people that they may fulfil the Will of God in what he hath called them unto even that they may cherish and defend and strengthen such as do well and all whose pure Consciences are purely exercised may live in peace and rest under such a Government and all Evil-Doers may be bound limitted and judged and may stand in awe and be afraid and thus Justice and true Judgment would be advanced and Equity would run down as a mighty Stream and the Nation would be blessed and yeild content and satisfaction to her Inhabitants and hereby might the Rulers and Judges gain unto themselves a good report and an honour and renown would the Lord crown them withal in Generations to come Wherefore all ye Rulers and ye that are set to judge the people be now awakened to just Judgment and to a sound discerning and put on the spirit of true Judgment even the Spirit of the Lord that you may receive it to be taught in all things how to walk with God that you may answer his call and the End of your Authority in judging justly all sorts of men rendring to every man according to his Deeds even Condemnation and Judgment to Evil-Doers and a Praise and Defence to all that do well And this is written in love to you all shewing you how to put a difference betwixt the Precious and the Vile between the Just and Unjust that you may be the more happy if this you observe not leaving your names a Reproach and a Scorn to after Ages which is the effect which doth follow all such as pervert Justice and turns true Judgment backward with Misery and Destruction upon themselves and Posterity for evermore A True and Faithful Exposition of some part of the Laws of ENGLAND ALL ye Magistrates Justices of the Peace Mayors and all other Ministers of the Law and all ye to whomsoever the Law is committed I warn you all to take heed to your selves that ye fulfil the Will of the Lord in judging Righteously and executing true Justice and Judgment and let not Envy nor false Suspitions nor Jealousies have any place in you but with a single Eye try all things and with an upright Heart judge for God and not for man and beware of causing the Innocent to suffer whose Consciences are exercised towards God though they be contrary to the World in their Wayes and Judgments for if you cause such to suffer you do not execute true Judgment but subvert the Law and the Lord will require that Suffering of his People at your hands Now consider The Law was not made for a Righteous Man but for Transgressors such whose Consciences are not exercisd towards God and such your Sword is to be laid upon to be a Terror to them and not to the Innocent for they should have Praise that do well And you must take heed lest you abuse your Power to another End then wherefore God hath ordained it for the Law was added because of Transgression to slay the Transgressor and that is the End of the Law Now you must take heed of causing any to suffer upon bare Suspition or Evil Jealousies when as no Transgression is truly charged nor justly proved against them before you And you are not to be both Accusers and Judges of any one in any Cause You have a late Act for the taking up and punishing of idle lâ—â—se and dissolute Persons such as are Vagrants and wandering Rogues Vagabonds and sturdy Beggars Now this Law is good if it be duly and justly executed upon such as are truly guilty herein and it is right that sturdy Beggars and Rogues and idle and disorderly Persons should be taken up from wandering and set on work in some good Imployment in the Creation which may maintain themselves and prevent them from worse things But now you must take heed of judging any to be such who are not really so for many of the Servants of the Lord now as it was in Generations past are moved to leave their own Country and Dwellings and Relations and go abroad in the Nations to preach the Gospel of Christ and to bear witness of his Name in the World to the turning of People from the wayes of Sin and Death to the Way of Righteousness and Truth and it may be such cannot give you an Account or sufficient Cause of their travelling abroad so as to satisfie you For that is lawful in the sight of God which you may not judge to be so for God's Wayes are not man's wayes neither are his Thoughts as man's thoughts Therefore I say unto you If you cause any such of the Servants of the Lord to suffer by that Law you abuse your power and subvert the Law for such are not Vagabonds nor idle dissolute Persons nor Rogues nor sturdy Beggars no more than Christ was who had no where to lay his head and the Prophets and Apostles were some of which had no certain dwelling place but left
thereof and in this same Spirit is the Father alone worshipped and by it God is known and his Promise is fulfilled it witnessing in all things unto the Father and is the Earnest of the Inheritance which fadeth not away and by it know we the deep things of God which the World by wisdom knoweth not and thereby are we seal'd and bound up in Covenant with the Father This is known to you that are Children of the Light and hereof you have the Witness in your selves and of God you are approved and not of men And all ye my Brethren who are call'd into the Work and Ministry of the Gospel unto whom the Word of the Lord is come and the Gospel of Christ to you committed Dwell in the Life of God and feel his Power and Authority and live in the same Life of which you minister to others that you may bring People to God and may effectually turn them from the dominion of sin unto the Dominion of Christ Jesus People may be guided out of Darkness in the marvellous Light Cry aloud spare not proclaim the Mighty Day of the Lord in all the Earth and fear ye not neither be ye dismay'd at the Face of any man but be bold and valiant for the Truth upon Earth and give your Testimony as you have receiv'd from God and preach Christ Jesus the Light of the World unto all People that they may receive him and be converted and live For Blindness and Darkness hath cover'd the whole Earth and all have gone astray from the Lord as Sheep without a Shepherd Therefore awake ye them that sleep and cause the Deaf to hear and the Dead to rise that such as have been stray'd may be gather'd for this is the fulness of time he is now seeking his Sheep that have been lost and bringing them Home that have been stray'd and you as Instruments in the Lord's Hand hath he chosen into this Work Therefore get on the Strength of the Lord and preach the Gospel of Peace even the Power of God that Sinners may be converted and the Wounded healed and the Weak may be strengthned and they that are ready to dye may be restored to Life and Salvation This is the Work of the Lord whereunto you are called therefore all who unto it are called be faithful unto the end and not only by word but by Life and Conversation also hold forth the Way of Life For you must feel that in your selves of which you minister to others and you must hold forth the Life the same which you minister in words and thereby shall you be made manifest to that of God in all People and God's Testimony shall answer for you And see that in all things you divide God's Word aright not crying Peace to the Wicked nor healing up the Wound falsly but that true Judgment in all things may be brought forth by you to all people Judgment to the Fat and Bread to the Hungry they that are Naked must be clothed and they that are falsly covered must be made bare Improve the Gift which God hath given you to him only and not unto your selves Be not hasty to utter words before the Lord but wait for Power from on High that the Way of God unto Salvation may be faithfully and truly held forth by you unto all people And faint not though your Burdens and Tryals be many but bare all things patiently love not your lives unto death that the good Work of the Lord may be accomplished which he hath begun by us and made prosperous and powerful in our hands unto this very day you have the Witness of this Our Cause is good we seek Truth and Righteousness that it may be established in the Earth and people may be brought unto God unto this God hath called us and hath owned us in it and will never forsake us for the Work is his and the Power is his and whatsoever he will he bringeth to pass and therefore why should we doubt or be weary For we shall see the Travel of our Souls the Scattered shall be gathered and a Remnant of the Seed shall be brought in which is scatter'd in every Nation as dry Bones unable to live How shall we hide that Treasure which God hath given us from them that perish for want thereof Or How shall we rest satisfied till the scatter'd Sheep be brought Home to the Fold Our Hearts are troubled to see so many Thousands walking in thick Darkness and to see the Seed of Israel devoured by the Destroyer Therefore my Brethren let us put on strength the Lord is with us let us make War in Righteousness for the Lord against all the Powers of Darkness let us continually be armed to do and to suffer all things for the Name of the Lord that People may be instructed in the right Way we know no man can have power over us but what is given them from above and all that which comes to pass against us is not worthy to be compared with the Crown of Glory and that Inheritance of which we have already received the earnest and sealed with the spirit of Promise and the Fathers Name is written upon us therefore in all things unto which he hath called you be faithful and obedient that his Work may be accomplished And all ye Children and Babes in Christ that are begotten of God and are thirsting and seeking after him in Truth and Righteousness he whom ye seek is coming to raign amongst you and his Dominion shall be set up and enlarged and the desire of your Hearts shall be fulfilled Righteousness and Truth shall meet in one and Judgment and Mercy shall be exalted Wait upon the Lord and feel his Power and his Presence continually that you may grow as Plants of Righteousness and may partake of the Heir-ship with Christ being crucified to the World and become dead to all its Wayes and no more you to live but Christ to live in you through the Light which he hath lightned you withall hath he given you an entrance into the Inheritance of the Father And as you walk in the Light you grow into Fellowship with the Father and with the Son Abiding in the Son you cannot sin for he keeps you from the wicked One and he hath no power over you that abide in Christ who is the Power of God which is the Salvation of all that believe and a Condemnation of all that believe not therefore all you that are convinced everywhere hearken to the Voice of the Lord that your Souls may live and mind the Power of God and the workings thereof in your Hearts which conquereth Hell and Death and subdueth all the Powers and Wayes thereof and every one be obedient to the Lord as Children of one Father that of his fulness you may receive and be filled therewith and meet together in every Place and as the Day approacheth exhort one another that you may grow up in Unity as
doubt and cannot receive these things and believe that these particulars are damnable Doctrine and Error as they are laid down in themselves and if what is spoken already be not sufficient I may upon any just Opportunity prove unto you and unto all men in the sight of my Enemies That these particulars held forth by Richard Mayo and alledged by me before you are damnable Doctrine and Error And if I could be convinced to the contrary by him or any man in sober Arguments according to the Scriptures and if he shall be able to prove that these things are true and found and saving Doctrines then may I confess That I have wronged him which never can be done Therefore can I never confess without lying against my Conscience that I have wronged him but God justifies me and just Men and my own Conscience excuses me from all wrong in this matter and here or hereafter shall you and he know it also that I am without Offence to him in this Cause And if I suffer be it upon you that are my Judges and the Guilt of my Sufferings will be upon you one day For for the Truth 's sake am I not afraid nor ashamed to suffer whatsoever you lay upon me And whereas it is chiefly pleaded by my Adversary and his Council That he is damnified and much endangered by the speaking of my words And because I said He held forth damnable Doctrine Therefore say they he is in danger to lose his Place and so He and his Wife and Family cannot tell how to live c. These things they plead and upon this account beg Judgment against me because he is or may be in danger to be damnified To this I reply and Friends I would have you to consider He hath not yet proved to you the Dammage of the value of Two Pence nor is he in any outward Estate worse by loss of any thing outwardly by any thing that I have spoken and it is unjust to condemn me in an 100 l. upon supposed Danger and Dammage which may come while as he hath sustained none at present And further I say unto you I have had no Intentions of Evil against him nor Purpose in my heart to endanger or damnifie him in any outward thing God is my Witness but that nakedly and simply I spoke the Truth of him And if speaking the Truth to him doth endanger him and damnifie him according as they plead then is he a bad man and an evil person and not well worthy of your taking part with him if you be just Men as yet I kâ—…w nothing to the contrary nor worthy of giving your Judgment against me for him If the speaking Truth to him can so endanger him then consider you what a man he is for speaking of the Truth can never hurt an honest Man nor damnifie a good Man for honest Men rejoyce in the Truth and the speaking of it is an Honour to them But the speaking the truth may indeed damnifie a bad Person as to discover his Wickedness and to prevent him of more Wickedness which he may intend but speaking the truth cannot damnifie a good Man And if it be so that Richard Mayo because of his badness be damnified by my speaking the Truth to him must I therefore be condemned for speaking Truth or ought you to do it Let that of God in you answer Will you justifie his false doctrines and condemn me for reproving him Did ever any good Men or just Iudges of old condemn any man for speaking the Truth Or will you shame your selves in the sight of Wise-men by acting contrary to a good Conscience Which if you do condemn me for speaking the truth I do and must tell you while I live That your Iudgment is Unjust and you act contrary to a good Conscience and are Unrighteous Iudges and that you commit the great Abomination in justifying the Wicked and condemning the Righteous And is it not a Shame to him that professeth himself to be a Minister of Christ to plead The Loss of his Livelihood and of his Calling and the Poverty of his Wife and Family c. because of my speaking the Truth to him Never any of Christ's Ministers pleaded any such thing Were not they reproached and much spoken against And they were called Deceivers and Seditious Men and such like And did they proceed on this manner as he hath done against me Nay They forgave their Enemies And if I had spoken falsly of him as I have not he ought not to have done thus if he had been a Minister of Christ as he professeth And doth his Livelihood and his Place and his Maintenance of himself and his Family depend upon my forbearing to speak the Truth For he pleads That he is damnified and endangered in all these by what I have spoken And I still testifie and all good Men know that I have given no Offence saving then speaking the Truth And rather then he shall be damnified by my speaking the truth of him will you unjustly damnifie me for speaking the truth Is this the Way of JUSTICE to condemn the Truth that I have spoken to save the Guilty from supposed Danger Consider of this and save your selves from Unjust Iudgment lest the Lord justly judge you and condemn you This I shew in short and much more I might as to the Unjustness of the Action prosecuted against me and now I come to shew something of the unjust Proceedings in this matter against me in the time of my Tryals and other times and some part thereof I here lay before you that you and all may see I have had as unjust Proceedings against me in the matter as an unjust Action at first brought upon me At my first appearance in my first Answer I demurred to the jurisdiction of your Court and shewed That your Court and Judicatory being Temporal you could not in that Court take Cognizance of this Cause being of a Spiritual Dependancy and ought only to be try'd in spiritual Jurisdiction by spiritual Judges if there were any such and shewed out of the Laws of England reasonably that your Court had no power to try this matter But one of the Bailiffs Iohn Forth said which should have been my equal Judge They would over-rule that and they would try the matter without shewing any just Reason out of the Laws against my Argument grounded upon the Laws and they did over-rule me in that And the Court-day before the Tryal when the Jury-men were to be chosen and nominated I told them That the Jury-men should be such as had the Gift of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost in them or else they could not try the Matter because it was Doctrine that was to be try'd which none could try but by the Spirit of God neither could I cast my self into the Determination of any in this Cause but such And the Bailiffs Obadiah Wicks and Iohn Forth answered If they were men that
the contrary that I have no malice in me against any man and I love your Souls better then that you should endanger them to destruction and to everlasting burning by giving Iudgment upon your Oaths against me upon this Verdict in this Cause which is thus unjust and unequal in it self and in its Proceeding also for if the Jury had tryed whether I had spoken the truth or whether I belyed Richard Mayo then it would easily have been known whether I spoke maliciously for if I belyed him and if his Doctrine be true and sound and not Error then may it be easily judged that I spoke maliciously because I spoke not the truth but if his Doctrines alleadged by me be not true and sound Doctrine but damnable Doctrine and Error then I have not belyed him but spoken the truth in love and not maliciously for Truth and Malice goes not together and till this be tryed to wit whether I have spoken truly or falsly who shall be able upon their Oathes without forswearing themselves to give it upon their Oathes that I spoke maliciously nay how shall any men lawfully swear that one speaks malitiously it is a hard cause to swear that any man speaks in malice for who enters into the heart of another man to know the thoughts save God and his Spirit And this I say at least and safely too that that Jury which gave into the Court upon their Oaths that I spoke my words maliciously against Richard Mayo have greatly endangered the forswearing themselves and the breach of their own Oaths and some of them know before this day that they did transgress therein against God whom God suddenly after cut off with Judgment and took off the Earth by death and though they that are yet living may be insensible of their own wickedness yet let all good men fear to dye out of this Body with that burden upon their Consciences as some have and others of them may have in this particular for breach of Oaths and though they have given it to you upon their Oaths that I spoke maliciously yet â—wo will be unto you if you shall upon your Oaths justifie they have done well and condemn me falsly upon their false Verdict and if you do condemn me it is upon their false Verdict because I spoke maâ—iciously against Richard Mayo and you cannot do that but you forâ—wear your selves and act contrary to your trust who are set in place to â—udge justly by what doth appear to your view and cannot nor dare not I know upon your Oaths say that I have spoken falsly and maliciously against Richard Mayo but and if you do one day you will feel that you have spoken against your own Oaths and Consciences and against God and against your own Souls And this is all that I can lay before you as to this Particular to warn you that you do judge justly and that you condemn not the innocent and just Cause of the Upright but that you may save your selves from the anger of the Lord who will be avenged upon all false Swearers and Unrighteous Judges that judges not in righteousness the Cause of the Poor and of the Stranger and the Cause yet remains before you to shew your selves just or Unjust Righteous or Unrighteous Judges in this Matter And whereas Richard Mayo and some of your selves spake to me to confess I have wronged him and would have me to acknowledge that I am in a fault and that I have spoken wrong of him yea it was said to me if I had not wronged him could I not confess that I had to preserve my self c To this I must answer Nay I cannot confess contrary to a good Conscience and contrary to Truth that I have wronged him if my life stood upon it as it is but my liberty at most for God hath given me to make Conscience of my words and to keep it void of offence towards him and all men and to confess that which is false to be true would stain a good Conscience in the sight of God and his People and that I may not do no not for my own preservation and the Lord deliver me from the Judgment of such who would have me confess that which I am not guilty of for that is all one to say I am clear when I am guilty as to say I am guilty when I am clear and I rather chuse to suffer what may be imposed upon me then to transgress the Truth in my own Heart and if I should say his Doctrine were sound and true Doâ—â—rine and not Damnable and Error I do believe the Witness in your own Consciences would rise against me and many more would say I then spoke falsly then doth now for I hardly ever heard any no not your own selves say that his Doctrines alledged by me against him are sound and true Doctrine neither can you in good Conscience say it So I say I cannot lye against my Conscience what ever comeâ— of it for to walk with the Lord and to have his Peace and not to lose his Presence is of more worth to my Soul that is immortal theâ— all the Sufferings that you can lay upon me can be dammage to my mortal Body for my life and soul you cannot touch but therein am I free though outwardly entangled amongst Bryars and Thorns which woâ—… pierce me and seek to catch me and if there be no other way for me to be preserved but by confessing contrary to my Conscience that I have wronged Richard Mayo I freely give up my self to suffer rather then to be preserved by such means and you do evil in putting such a thing upon me and expecting it from me which I cannot give bâ—… transgress the Law of God and offend him and my own Conscience and if you defer the determination of the Matter upon such hopes that I may confess that I have wronged Richard Mayo I desire you would not defer it one moment longer but let me be quitted of your Temptation for it is your Temptation and not true love for I cannot confess any such thing though I do acknowledge it hath now depended in your Court and at your door near two years and I should be glad that it were ended justly because I am not a man given to Suits of Law neither do I love it though it be so that I am fallen into it to offend any man or be offended in that way by any yet may I not use any unlawful means or any indirect way to obtain an end of this business but the rather I am content with what the Lord suffereth to come to pass though it be the very greatest Malice of my very devouring Enemies and because I would have Peace with all men and have all men reconciled to God and one to another to live in love and unity one with another upon that account I would this business were ended and though I do not doubt my Cause nor am
faint of it but can freely receive the determination thereof in the Court be it for me or against me yet I would have it ended and have sought it in justice and once did to my Adversary say I could refer it to any sober men and another Friend being with me Oliver then Protector or Charles Fleetwood or Col. Pride all these were mentioned and to any of these I could have referred my Cause and though before he seemed willing and said That if any sober man in the Nation that was no Quaker would say that his Doctrine was not sound and that he had not wrong c. But when these men were mentioned he was unfaithful to his word and would not refer it And also not long ago a day and time was appointed by his own advice and consent by a Friend of his own to bring the Cause before Alderman Tichburn to which I was willing and that he with some other man might hear determine the Matter and the time appointed we met at the Alderman's House and the Alderman with some more of us waited for Mayo's coming till near the 9th hour in the evening and he never came so ungaretful and unjust was he to his own Friend to Alderman Tichburn and to me that we waited all for him some hours and he came not at all though his own Friend by his own consent and desire did bring that appointment about and thus I would have you to know that I seek peace with all men and with him upon just and equal means and can refer it to honest men to hear and determine for who are truly just towards God cannot condemn me nor my Cause and likewise ye may see how unwilling my Adversary is to bring his Business to hearing and determining by wise and discreet men and how unfaithfull he is to his own words and desires only he thinks he hath gotten a Verdict that will do something for him and upon that he depends waiting also for your unjust Judgment and because he hopes alwayes for your Judgment which I say is unjust if you condemn me in this matter Therefore he will not bring his cause to be heard and determined by any other because he supposes you will proceed according to that unjust Verdict which if you do not you offend him and lose his unjust cause and if you do you offend God and condemn the guiltless cause of the Just and whatever ye do this follows upon ye and if you offend God and despise the cause of the Innocent and the Truth ye must bear your own burthen in the sight of God and Just men And if his cause were good he need nor thus shrink and faulter to let any man hear the matter but his hope of your unjust Judgement nourisheth his heart in his unrighteous cause And these things were in me to lay before you that it may not be said by you we know not these things for I would have you to know them and take notice of them and to compare all things in equality and to Judge according to the Law of God and the good Law of this Land I am not careful at present to answer or say more to you about this matter onely this remains with me the Lord God can deliver me from the Teeth of the wicked if he will but if he will not I cannot bow to the Devil but hath given up my life to live to him or to suffer for him and this Testimony remains for ever not as I will but as he will who brings all things to pass according to his pleasure I am a Lover of your Souls and a Sufferer for the Elect seeds sake and a witness against the malice and injustice of evil men E B To all that are Moved to go into other Nations ALl ye my Brethren and Companions in the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ unto whom the Word of the Lord is come who have received power from on high even from the Father to bear witness of his Name and of his Kingdom in the Earth unto Peoples and Nations and all ye that are Anointed with the Holy Ghost and that are moved with the Power of the Lord to go into other Nations to manifest the Way of Life and the Word of the Kingdom of God which you have handled tasted seen and felt in the Name and Power of the Lord God Almighty go ye on in faithfulness to preach the Power of God the Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation to every Creature under Heaven without exception of Nations or Peoples that Sinners may be converted unto him from the power of Satan to the Power of God the Creator of all things and that such as are lost from his Presence may be brought home into the Covenant of Life and that such as are out of the way may be turned into the Way of Peace and Salvation In the dread and fear of the Lord God go ye on and prosper in your way proclaim the Name of the Lord and declare his Majesty unto all People sound forth the Word of his Power in the Ears of all Nations shew forth the Light of the Glorious Gospel in the whole Earth preach Christ and hold him forth unto all the Children of Adam who is given of the Father into all the World and he hath lighted all Mankind without exception that cometh into the World and is given for a Covenant and for a Light unto all people that he may be Salvation unto the Ends of the Earth and may bring Salvation and Life Eternal unto as many as do receive him Cry aloud and spare not and shew this unto all people set the Way of Life and the Way of Death before them cause the Deaf to hear and the Blind to see and the Dead to arise lift up your Voice and spare not that all Nations may know the Salvation of our God which to us is come and may be Witnesses of the same Power and Deliverance of which we partake ye are sent forth as Lambs amongst Wolves and as Birds among Fowlers Snares be ye therefore wise and innocent And I charge you all dwell in the secret Counsel of God and enquire of him in all things that his Wisdom may defend you from the subtilty of men and his Power and Authority thorow you may bind and chain the Uncircumcised and reach to the Witness of God in every Creature and to it in all people you may be made manifest that you are the Servants of the Lord be bold and valiant to give your Testimony unto all Nations fear not man whose Breath is in his Nostrils nor be afraid of high looks but lay your Sword on the Neck of the Uncircumcised and spare not the Proud nor pity not the Children of Babylon and lay the true Measure upon all People that they may see themselves how they are all drove from God and in Transgression and Enmity against him Children of Wrath and Heirs of Destruction
upon whom the Wrath of God abideth and are subject to the Curse every moment and this is the state of all Mankind And the Light in every one shall answer this Measure and witness you and your Word to be the Word of the Lord which Light if they love it will bring every one to know the Power of the Creator to reconcile them and to bring them into Fellowship with him and to receive his Blessings and his Inheritance being changed by the Power of God into his Image But if they hate the Light and deny the Power of God and his Covenant and will not have Christ who hath lighted them to teach them and to rule them but do continue Enemies in their Minds to the Lord and will not receive your Message then they perish forever and you are clear seal your Testimony against them and the Lord shall be justified when he arises to Condemnation against them all who cannot own this Message and receive you in the Name of the Lord. Be bold and valiant and spare not to shew all people this Message and to Declare unto them in the Name of the Lord by whom you are sent And I warn you all Let the Fear and the Judgments of the Lord be in your Hearts and stand wholly in his Will and be obedient to the moving of his Power in all things that you may be armed against all the Swelling and Roaring of the Proud Waves of the Sea which will beat against you put on the whole Armour of God that you may withstand all the powers of Darkness and may overcome all the Temptations of the Devil Look beyond your life and your liberty and beyond all things of this World and the Life of God know and feel in you to give you Dominion over all and with his Word and Power to reach to his Witness in all that you may leave a Testimony behind you for him Thick Darkness you will find covering all people their Ears deaf and their Eyes blind and the Ground wholly barren and untilled you will find overgrown with Cursed Fruit and wild Branches which must be cut up and cast into the Fire and aboundance of Idolatry and vain Superstitions and great Hardness of Heart you will meet with and find all People in the Degeneration ignorant of God and without him in the World and abounding in all Unrighteousness and Unbelief worshipping their Idol godds which will grieve your spirits but be you Patient and Long-suffering and be not offended at any of these things but Plow in Hope and Sow in Hope and Thresh upon the Mountains and beat them to dust ye Children of Sion and bring all people to know the Fear and Judgments of the Lord in them You are sent forth to beget People unto him and to turn them to his Knowledge to till the Ground to pluck up the wild Branches which cumber the Ground and the tender Grape must be spared Therefore let the Word of the Lord dwell in you and divide the Word aright and cry not Peace to the Wicked neither cry Judgment to such as are of a Broken Heart feed the Hungry with Bread and feed the Fat with Judgment Be ye good Stewards of the Lord's Treasure cover the Naked but make bare the Harlot and discover her Abominable Whoredoms let all the World know how they have committed Whoredom with the great Whore who hath sate upon Nations Kindreds Tongues and Peoples And proclaim unto all Nations That the Lord God is risen for the Deliverance of his Chosen and he will make War in Righteousness against all his Enemies and they must lick the Dust of his Feet and bow under his Scepter And openly declare unto all the World That God is setting up an Everlasting Kingdom and the Dominion thereof shall reach over all the Earth and the Kings of the Earth must bring in their Glory to it In the Name and Power of the Lord God go ye into all the World with this Message and Testimony which shall be answer'd to be the Message of the Everlasting God with the Light which he lightened every man withal that you may bring Glory and Honour and Dominion unto him who hath called you to bear witness of his Name in all the World This I was moved of the Lord to give forth unto all that are moved to go into other Nations by a Companion unto all that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes E. B. A General Epistle to the SAINTS To the Seed of God Elected and Chosen of him before the World began and now called by his Word and Power into the Kingdom of Peace and Righteousness to be Heirs of the Inheritance of Eternal Life that never fades away DEarly beloved Friends who are called and sanctified through the Grace of God that hath appeared unto you and in you be mindful of your Calling and make your Election sure that you may feel it the Seed of God and the Heir of Life born and brought forth in every one of you that the Promise may be fulfilled in you and you may sit down in the Kingdom feeling the immortal Crown of Life as the Reward of all your Sufferings and Tryals and Patience for the Inheritance of an endless Life is the Portion of the Righteous who have followed the Lamb through his Sufferings and laid down their Crowns at his Feet and now his Feet are treading down and will tread down all mortal Crowns and stain the glory of all Flesh and bring it into contempt and set up his Kingdom to have Dominion over all And so Friends you in whose hearts the Day-Star hath appeared of Light and Life feel the growth of the good Seed in your selves which must rise in you all over the contrary part and over that nature which is related to the Kingdoms of this World that must be kept down in you all and all must be subject to the Lambs Power and to his Dominion every Work Word and Motion must be brought in subjection unto him that he who is Light and Life and Righteousness and Truth and all Vertue and Goodness may alone reign in you and over yâ—â—avâ— and the contrary may be kept in the subjection and the Body of Siâ—â—â— and Death may be wholly put off and Immortallity brought forth in you all by the Gospel which hath been sounded forth amongst you in Power and Life and not in the words of man's wisdom and this Gospel which we have received and you have heard hath wrought its effect wherefore the Lord sent it and many are turned from darkness to Light and from Satan's power to God and the Lord hath gathered his Jewels and is gathering of them and he hath planted his Inheritance with a pleasant Plant of Righteousness and Renown and his Arm hath wrought great deliverances in the Earth and hath raised up the Poor and exalted the Meek and Lowly and he hath brought down the Mighty from his Seat and these things hath
winnow some and to try them and to draw the hearts and minds of others into a Snare out from the obedience to Christ Jesus which do become Mockers and Despisers and Subverters of the simplicity of the Gospel of Peace and of the Ministers and Ministry thereof which is the Power of God unto Salvation and there is no other though some harden their hearts through unbelief and blind the Eye till they be past feeling through rebellion against the Truth which they hold in unrighteousness and not in the Power of God having made the offence of the Cross to cease yet boasting in the Liberty of Christ while they are unmortified having run from the Judgment and not truly came thorow it in the finishing of Condemnation and that spirit that goes out of the Cross is subverted and seeks to subvert others from the Truth as it is in Jesus and that spirit is denyed fellowship with though it have the conformity in the Hypocrisie Wherefore this is the Word of the Lord God unto you that err after that spirit Be awakened be awakened and remember and repent and come to your first work to that which condemneth you lest the Lord by his hand of Wrath and Judgment upon you make you an Example and of Misery and Destruction to all that shall hereafter deny the Lord and his Truth Hear and consider to the Light in you all I speak have you another Truth then that which hath been known and declared from the beginning is there any other way to Life then which we have been Witnesses of who have not handled the Word of God deceitfully amongst you nor sought yours but you nor preached our selves but Christ Jesus and hereof we have the witness in our Consciences in the Holy Ghost and is there any other Salvation then that which God hath manifested which is Christ Jesus the Light of the World Be awaked and consider Wherefore then do you separate your selves disoderly and resist the Word of Life which once begat you towards the Lord Consider what you are doing and whither you are walking the End of your way is Perdition and that is accursed which preacheth another Gospel How do you dishonour the Lord in the sight of the Heathen before whom you discover your Nakedness and your Shame doth appear having put off and cast aside the Armour and Weapon of Truth whereby you might have been defended But Scorners and Fools take occasion through your disorders and confusions to blaspheme the Name of the Lord and it is through you Be stirred up and consider and search your hearts and come to the tryal ye that vex the Lord's Soul and grieve his Spirit lest it cease to strive with you and you be wholly given up to fulfil wickedness till there be no place nor time of repentance found and this is a warning to you all in the Presence of the Living God that you may return to your first love to fear before the Lord and to walk in his Truth if there may be mercy and to fulfil his Will which is the Light which you are lighted withal by Christ Jesus who is the Lamb of God the Way the Truth and the Life the Author and Finisher of Faith and there is not another And know this ye that deny him that is given yea unto you all he will deny you before his Father and of all your Blood I am clear thus far whether you resist or receive who am the Lover of your Souls sometimes loved of you while you were Lovers of the Truth and am now a Witness for the Lord and his Truth and against that spirit which leads you in the Rebellion against the Government of Christ which is Order and Peace out of which you have erred to the piercing of your own Souls and though you now exalt your selves against me and the Truth and boast your selves as though you reigned yet in the day of the Lord shall the Light in you all which is now darkned bear witness to me and of my faithfulness in reproving you and the Truth is for ever dear to me and my soul delights no less in it though you rebel against it in the heady exalted presumptuous high wilful spirit which is not subject to the Government nor Authority of the Ministry of Christ but Truth is over you all and the Mountain of the Lord is established above you all and all your words and works and boastings and feignedness and disorders are denied and in them we have not fellowship but the contrary and do in the Authority of the Lord even by the same Authority which hath begotten us unto God and called us and carried us in his Work unto this day deny you all in the ground and state wherein you stand till repentance and turning from whence you are fallen to the Light which Christ hath lighted you withal And all faithfull Friends this is the Word of the Lord God to you hear and fear walk in the Truth which you have heard and learned and received of the Father in it dwell and live and know there is no other then that which is made manifest which is sure to you all and cannot deceive nor be deceived and be not shaken in mind nor troubled though some deny the Lord but let their fall be a Warning to you to be more watchfull to be kept to the Lord lest you be tempted and dwell in the Mountain of Holiness which no Beast can touch where is a hiding place to preserve you in the time of tryal And I charge you all in the Presence of the Living God of Life let your minds be setled and hearts staid in the Truth which is the Foundation of God and know the Armor of God to gird you up to God where no offence is taken against Christ nor against the Way of Truth but the Power of God doth remove that which would be offended and tramples upon that which gives the offence and in this you will be preserved until the day of Salvation and beware of that spirit that boasts above the measure and of that which makes the offence of the Cross to cease for there hardness of heart and unbelief enters and so another is followed then the Light and another joyned to then Christ Jesus and there is the way to perdition who goes from the Light within them they deny God and his Truth and follow the imaginations of the soolish heart and runs in rashness and in the forwardness and that ground receives the unclean spirit in again with seven worse and the latter end is worse then the beginning and this Truth doth not change which is the begotten of the Father but is the same for ever So in it all be faithfull and fruitfull to the Father in your Places and Callings shewing forth in all wisdom and pure conversation among yoâ—… Enemies to the putting them to silencâ— when they speak evil of you and be Examples of Holiness one to another that
the Lord God may dwell amongst you and may never have cause to with-hold his presence from you which is Life and Peace and Rest for ever And believe not every spirit but dwell in that which discerns spirits and if any say Lo here or lo there is Christ go not after them without you for you have not been so taught but know the Christ of God the Lamb of God within you and follow him and obey his voice and be established all of you on this sure Foundation whom God hath laid and no man can lay any other and if you build thereupon and thereby you sâ—…ll never suffer loss but your Work shall abide the Fire and in the Fathers House your Bread you shall receive and never shall hunger noâ— Thirst but the Life will be refreshed and increased daily and you Lamps will alwayes shine and you shall never be darkned not stâ—…ble for that which stumbles is out of the Truth and the ground stands to receive the seed of Satan who is a Devourer of the Simplicity and the Betrayer from the Truth Therefore I charge you all in the Presence of the Living God that you hold fast the Faith and Hope which you have received through the Gospel that you may never be moved 〈◊〉 the Grace of God and from the Love that hath abounded in you â—…t may be found watching in the Door with your Light shining when the Bridegroom cometh and behold he cometh quickly and his Rewâ—…d is with him blessed are they that tarry for him This is the Testimony of my Love unto all the Seed of God who am as a Deceiver and yet true and as not known yet well known unto the â—…d E. 〈◊〉 To such as have Backslided from the Truth WHEN the Life in you all doth arise it shall witness me and answer the Word of the Lord unto Life or unto Death Friends all you to whom the Word of the Lord came and â—…n whom the Way of Truth was made manifest hear and consider How â—…t hath the Love of the Father been unto you How many and infinite have been his Mercies from day to day often visiting you with his Power and with his Presence yea when you sate in Darkness and in the shadow of Death his marvellous Light appear'd unto you and when you were held captive in the covenant of Sin and Death he stretched forth his Hand to redeem â—… he loved you while you knew him not and he brought Deliverance out of a â—…nge Land where you were strayed among Devourers and scatter'd and gâ—â—e aâ—â—ray as Sheep without a Shepherd yea when you were dead in Transgression he said unto you Live and he also bound you up when no eye pitty'd you even then when you were Enemies to him walking in the Vaâ—â—tâ—en of your own hearts and knew not him who lives forever who had been sougâ—â— by you but not found in that very day he sent to visit you with his Eâ—… Gospel of Peace and Truth to gather you unto himself I am a 〈◊〉 and he caus'd his powerful Voice to be heard and his Name to be 〈◊〉 among you and his Truth was declared in the Demonstration of the â—…rit and the Power of the Lord was made manifest in you to the bringing of you from Darkness to Light and from Death which had reign'd over you 〈◊〉 know a Measure of the Life of God Yea the Way of Life Eternal was set 〈◊〉 you that you might not perish but live and his Witness in you all 〈◊〉 iâ— but one the Word of the Lord reacheth unto you by the Mouthes of 〈◊〉 â—…ts to the revealing of Sin and judging it by his Righteous Law 〈◊〉 in your hearts causing his Terror to be known among you and his â—udgments reached your hearts and in that day beautiful was his Presence 〈◊〉 you and precious was his Truth among you in your first Love and his Liâ—â—t and Power and the Knowledge of his Ways were pleasant to you and the Sâ—…l of the Kingdom of God which you receiv'd with Joy grew up in you and â—…per'd at that day and the Lord loved you his Presence was with you â—…g his own Children whom he begat by his Everlasting Word that you 〈◊〉 be a Praise unto him forever And when the fear of the Lord and his Jâ—â—gâ—â—nts were placed among you and your Hearts were broken and while you were of a hungering Soul and thirsty after the Lord then was it well with you and the Day of Peace dawn'd unto you and the Word of the Lord was â—weâ—t unto you and he was gladly receiv'd that came in the Name of the Lord. Bâ—t O how have some of you lost your first Love and are again darkened and ready to faint and to turn aside for a thing of nought And how do such grieve the Spirit of the Lord and vex his Righteous Soul and are become a Sâ—â—deâ— to him in dishonouring his Name the envious man having entered â—nd sown his Seed in some of you and brought forth Strife and Divisions and Disorders among you which are not of the Father nor of the Truth and Prejudice and Evil-Surmisings and secret Jealousies one against another is risen in you all which is to be condemned with the Light for the Fire I judge it all under my Feet in the Power of the Lord God and am in that which reigns over it all and through these things Unity is decay'd and Love is waxed cold and there is fainting in the way and the Zeal for the Name of the Lord perisheth which ought to be among you and Rendings and Tearings Biting and Devouring one another and striving for Mastery there is which ought not to be which the Wrath of God is against all this is out of the Light out of the Wisdom and Counsel of God My Spirit is vexed and my Heart is troubled within me because of these things not for my self but for you and for the Glory of the Lord over whom I am jealous with a Godly Jealousie that you may not perish nor his Glory be dispised among the Heathen What mean you thus to deal against the Lord in dishonouring his Name in the sight of the Enemy even to the wounding of your own souls and to the piercing of the hearts of the Faithful who have watched over you and been Messengers of Glad-tidings unto you from the Lord Every one of you in particular be awakened and stirr'd up and fear before the Lord and come to the Light which the Son of God has lighted you withal and search your own hearts and try your selves that the ground of these things may be seen and condemn'd and remov'd and Love may yet spring amongst you to the Lord and one to another O Friends Consider It was one Father that begat you into the Truth which is but one by one Word of Life which is not divided and you were begotten unto him and not unto your selves And Christ Jesus which is
poor man Must I be judged upon thy own meaning nay or must thy interpretation be the judge upon my words We have no such law my words stand true as I have laid them down to be received by such as are Spiritual and such as love to raise constructions falsly where there is no just ground their judgment I do deny and Charity will teach P. T. to judge upon the best sence and so let him own my words as truth and judge himself for his false construction of true and upright words onely this I take notice of saith P. T. A perfect Conformity to the Law of God in our own Persons though not wrought in our own strength but in the Strength and Power of Grace the Spirit working all in us and for us is no other then the Righteousness of the Law I need not much strive to confound this black Doctrine by many Arguments or multitude of words for the thing as laid down in his own words is vile and abominable to the understanding of any spiritual man for say I if it be the Spirit working in us and for us not in our own strength then is it God that worketh in us both to will and to do and the fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law in us and not the Righteousness of the Law wrought by us and if it be in the strength and power of Grace and not in our own strength then it is the work of Christ in us and the Work of God's own Righteousness in us and any man that knows the least of God in Truth will witness to this and against his imagined Doctrine held forth by P. T. I might demand a Proof of him from Scripture where it is said or signified That the working of the Spirit all in us and for us and the working of the power of Grace in the Creature is reckoned to be our own righteousness the Righteousness of the Law and my words stand true from which he draws his false Consequences and layes down his dark Assertions and my own words I do own which are Such as are taught by Christ and guided by him in all the Wayes of Righteousness are justified by him and none else not in any word or work whatsoever but in what they are led to fulfil by him and in these words there is neither Contradiction nor unsoundness though he hath ignorantly charged them with both but the words shall stand for a Testimony against him and all his false deductions and he and all shall know That God justifies the Righteous and condemns the Wicked and that it is the New Man that is justified and not the Old And let Righteous Men judge what can be in such a mans heart who can draw so bad Consequences from such upright words But further he goes on and hath transcribed more of my words as Christ Iesus the Son of God is the Light and Life of the World and hath enlightned all mankind that cometh into the World with the true Light c. now saith he How do these agree with man's State in the first Adam In transgression is a State of perfect Enmity and Death reigns in every man and he is possessed with blindness and unbelief c. I say these do very well agree and they are both true for Death reigns in every man and he is in Unbelief and Ignorance and in a State of perfect Enmity against God as he is in the first Adam yet Christ hath lightned him and the Light of Christ shines in Darkness in him and the Darkness comprehends it not and he is enlightned that he may be changed from Death to Life and from Ignorance to Knowledge and though he walk in Darkness and is in Blindness and in a State of Enmity it is because he does not walk and believe in the Light which Christ hath lightned him withal and in my words there is no disagrement nor contradiction the Darkness is in his own Mind who cannot comprehend the Light nor the words that proceed from it Further he questions upon my words of having the Witness in themselves of being restored again First whether none are restored again but such as have the Witness in themselves I answer all that are restored again and do believe hath the Witness in themselves and none do believe nor are restored but they have the Witness of it Secondly he queries whether all are restored but some want the Witness in themselves I answer All are not restored nor do believe and such want the Witness in themselves that are not restored to God but them that are restored want it not And again he queries whether the Light which is in all is sufficient without any thing of further Grace superadded to bring up every Man to believe in Christ c I answer The Light which every man is lightned withal by Christ is sufficient to bring up every man to believe in Christ that loves the Light and walks in it and unto such is Grace added and increased daily for as every man improves the Measure of the Gift of God so it is increased the Light is increased Grace is increased Faith is increased but still the Light of Christ in it self is sufficient Again from my words to wit The Spirit is given to be the Guide and Rule of Life to the Children of God from whence he queries whether the Spirit is so given to be a Guide and Rule of Life to the Saints that they have no more need to attend upon the Scriptures I answer It is promised that the Spirit shall lead into all Truth and such do own the Scriptures but not as their Teacher for the Anointing dwells in them and they need no man to teach them but as that Anointing teacheth all things and they have no need of the the Scripture to teach them for all the Children of God are taught of God and need not any other Teacher nor need not to say one to another know the Lord and yet all such do own the Scriptures to be the Testimony of that which they believe and have received Again from my words to wit The Light of Christ in every one shall give testimony to the truth of what I speak unto which I do commend my self from this he queries can these be Witnesses to me and of the Truth in me who are ignorant of the Life and Power of the Creator c. who are following the counsel of their own hearts which are evil c I answer Yes the Light of Christ in such shall judge one day and to it I commend my self and by it one day shall be approved though now the Wicked hate the Light yet doth it witness against them and for us that we are of God though its true they cannot judge between Light and Darkness between Truth and Error yet the Light in them which shines in their darkness does judge and put a difference and when the Book of Conscience is opened it
the Waters are dried up which have been the Seat of the great Whore Now though all those Churches and Sects of People are said to be and known to be the Seed of the Whore and not of the Virgin as I have declared and though Nation and Peoples and Multitudes have been all running to Fornication and been deceiv'd and made drunk yet this I have to say In all sorts of People and amongst all those Sects amongst Papists and Protestants and all Sects risen out of them in thousands of people notwithstanding the Darkness and all the Apostacy that hath rul'd in the general yet in some of all Sorts and Sects there hath been a Sincerity and Simplicity and a Desire and Zeal for God and of God in them and amongst them yet the Sincerity Simplicity and Desire which hath stirr'd in some of all Sects it hath no sooner appear'd but it hath been smitten and betray'd by the wicked without and so by the error of Judgment within For even amongst the worst of Sects we know there are some in whom there is Simplicity and Sincerity and Zeal and yet err in Judgment for this is possible and we know it is so with Thousands and ten Thousands at this day There may be a Simplicity and Zeal and Sincerity of Heart and yet err in Judgment and the Judgment not truly guided by the Spirit of the Lord but a false spirit and a false thing even the spirit of Whoredom it self ruling the Judgment and be chief there and this destroys and murders and betrays the Zeal and Simplicity and this is and hath been ever since the dayes of the Apostles great error in Judgment and the Judgment of all those Sects have been mis-guided and misled and a false thing and not the Spirit of the Lord has guided the Judgment and thereby the true Sincerity Zeal and Simplicity hath been enslav'd and held under by reason of the erring in Judgment And the State of such is truly to be lamented where Simplicity is devour'd and Sincerity betray'd and held captive by the Whorish spirit that sits Ruler in Judgment I do not speak of all people of all Sects that they have Zeal and Simplicity but of some people in all Sects and through all these false Churches and so the spirit which hath guided the Judgment that has abased the Zeal and abused the Sincerity and betray'd it so people have been a running running after the Form and blind in Judgment and lost Sincerity and Simplicity that has been betray'd in them though sometime appearing and stirring and so the wrong part in people has fed upon the Form and Appearance and the Seed starved and the Sincerity eaten out and so one Sect hath made this the Rule of their Judgment and another Sect another thing the Rule of their Judgment one cries Tradition another Scriptures another cries The Practice of Saints before us and none of all have been guided in Judgment by the Spirit of the Lord where the Spirit of the Lord is not the only rule of Judgment guiding the Judgment in all things that people that man are in Error and the Sincerity in them has not its free course but bound under with a spirit which is Bondage leads into Bondage And when people come to be turn'd to the Light of Christ in them and receive a measure of the Spirit of the Lord to guide the Judgment then the Sincerity Simplicity Zeal will grow and thrive and be encreased but till then the Good is eaten out that lies under and is oppressed and ever and alwayes the Desire quenched the Sincerity lost the Simplicity betray'd by the spirit of Whoredom which rules the Judgment and these things are manifest in our Age. Therefore all people come out of your Sects and false Churches for the Woman is return'd and returning out of the Wilderness and the Seed shall spring forth as in the dayes of old E. B. THE True State OF CHRISTIANITY Truly Discribed and also Discovered unto all PEOPLE What it was in its Beginning and Purity and what it now is in its Apostacy and Degeneration And here by true Testimony is declar'd to the whole World how and wherein in divers particulars the Christians through all the World so called now are fallen and gone backward and revolted from what the true Christians once were And this sheweth unto all the World the woful State and Condition wherein them that are called Christians now stand being departed and revolted from the Spirit of Christ and from his Teachings And this is given forth that all People may understand concerning the Times and the changing of Times and concerning what hath been what now is and what suddenly cometh to pass in the Earth BEhold and hearken give ear and listen diligently all ye People through the whole World that are called Christians All you I say that go under that name and that bear that name and are named Christians from one end of the Earth to the other through all Nations and Countries whither you are scater'd upon the face of the whole Earth Behold and take notice what the Word of the Lord is unto you and what the Testimony of Christ is towards you all for the Line of true Judgment is laid upon you and the Measuring-Rod is put forth to reach over you and the Servant of the Lord hath viewed your State and Condition and what you were in your beginning and increase and what you now are in your Decrease and woful Apostacy into which you are fallen and degenerated from the Life of Christianity Oh! let your Ears be open to Instruction and regard well what I through the Lord do say unto you even all you and every particular of you under Heaven that make a Profession of Christ in words and are known through the World by that name of Christians hearken I say and consider and remember from whence and into what you are fallen and return and repent The Lord hath with you a Controversie and he will plead with you because of your Back-slidings and Revoltings for you are gone away backward and you are turned aside from the Life of Christ and from his Spirit and are now without that which was the Reason and true Ground of your Name Christian and you have lost the true Character of the Name and now have only the Name without the Life and Power thereof and are dead to Christ and his Life and have a Name to live but are dead and having lost that which gave you a true title to the name of Christian you deserve not that Name nor to be called by the Name of Christ because you are departed from his Spirit And this is to be declared to you in the Name of the Lord that you may take a view of your own estate to the end that you may be awakened to return from whence you are degenerated The Lord had a People in all Generations unto whom he
there should false Teachers arise among the Christians who should bring in damnable Heresies and many Christians should follow their pernicious wayes by reason of which the Way of Truth should be evil-spoken of And the Apostle Iohn saw That many false Prophets were gone out then and many Antichrists were then come in among the Christians Now all these do shew and declare of a Degeneration and falling away of Christians from the Life of Christianity and we see these Prophesies fulfilled and Flocks of Christians are devoured from the Life of Christ by devouring Wolves which have entred among them who have led them into pernicious ways and into damnable Heresies whereby the Name of Christianity is become reproachful amongst the Heathens that never were called Christians and many Thousands are departed from the true Faith from that Faith which did purifie the hearts of the Saints and many Christians have given heed to seducing spirits and have the Form of Godliness but deny the Power thereof and they are led of divers Lusts and are become men of corrupt minds and are reprobate and without the true Faith And the Apostles prophesied of the Degeneration which we see fulfilled in these our dayes and even while some of the Apostles were yet living they saw the Christians Apostatizing and falling away and the Spirit of the Lord spoke through Iohn Rev. 2. 3. to the Christian-Churches in Asia who were already departing from the Christian-Life some of them were departed already from their first Work and some of them were given to the doctrine of Balaam and to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing the Lord did hate and others of them were seduced by Iezabel and taught to commit Fornication and to eat things sacrificed to Idols and others of them had a name to live but were dead and others of them were neither hot nor cold and the Lord said he would spue them out of his Mouth Now here the Christians were falling away you may see and as before it had encreased so now the true Christian Life began to decrease and the glory thereof became darkned through all Asia And also Rev 13. 11. 1. 16. Iohn saw one Beast arise out of the Sea and another out of the Earth which set up a Kingdom over the whole World and caused all people upon Earth to worship the Beast and the Beast hath been great in his power and he hath ruled over the World in great dominion and all that would not worship him he hath had power to kill and hath killed them so that the true Christian Life and Religion as the Apostles received it and practised it hath been extinguished for many Generations and People have had the Form of Godliness but denied the Power and lived under the Name and Profession of Christianity but have been without the Life and this is to be considered of and diligently searched into by all you that go under the Name of Christians through all the World for unto you only I direct my words And now it remains to be shewed what the state of Christians is at this day and wherein particularly they are apostatized and degenerated from the true Life and Practice of the Apostles who were the first Christians for wherein the Christians now are contrary and not agreeable to the Apostles in Faith in Practice in Worship in Ministry and in the entrance into Christianity and in any other thing whatsoever I say wherein they are contrary and not agreeable to the true Christians of old to wit the Apostles therein are they degenerated and fallen from the true Life of Christianity and this shall be the Rule of Judgment to try all you that are called Christians upon the face of the Earth wherefore awake and come forth to Judgment for the measuring Rod is laid upon you all whereby you shall be truly measured and compared with them that where the first Christians upon Earth and the Heathens shall see your nakedness and your shame and his at you when they behold how wofully you are fallen from that Life in the Purity thereof of which you do profess the words and shall not they rise up in Judgment against you who never had the name of Christians who are not faln nor degressed from what they have profest in any measure comparable to you who now retain only the name of Christians and are departed from the Life of Christ. First concerning the entrance into Christianity and the way and means whereby people are now made Christians and receives that name In this will your fall and degeneration appear For the Apostles and first Christians upon Earth before they were Christians or were called so they were first converted and changed and translated from Death to Life as you may read 1 Iohn 3. 14. and Col. 1. 13. and they first received Christ and became followers of him and received his Spirit to teach them and to guide them For the Apostle said If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8. 9. to wit no Christians and the Apostle said as many as were the Sons of God were led by the Spirit of God and also it was promised by Christ to all that were his the Comforter should come the Spirit of Truth and he should lead them into all Truth which promise all that were Christians did receive and they were led into all Truth by the teachings of the Spirit of Christ which dwelt in them for all that were Sons God sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts which Spirit sanctified them through the obedience thereof Now these were Christians and were truly so called For they had the mark of Christ and his Image upon them and he dwelt in their hearts by Faith Ephes. 3. 17. These I say were truly called Christians and none but such at that day of their Original were called Christians or had Fellowship in the Christian life nor were any looked upon by the Apostles to be Christians but by them that were such But look back all ye Christians upon Earth and see your fall and wherein you are contrary and not agreeable to the true Christians in their first and pure Estate I say look to your Original and see how you are Apostatized from them in your entrance into your profession of Christianity for though you have the name of Christians yet you were not made so nor received that name by being first converted and changed and translated from Death to Life and from being the Children of disobedience to be the Children of God through the work and operation of the Spirit of God in you for hereof are Thousands and Ten Thousands of Christians now wholly ignorant and altogether without the feeling of the Spirit of God to change them to convert them and to translate them but are accounted Christians by tradition or natural education and because of being sprinkled with a little water upon the face being Infants or by a
brought forth in the Earth and all that do well will have Praise and live in Rest and Peace and all Evil-doers whatsoever may stand in awe and be afraid of God and just Men and the Execution of Iust Laws Concerning Religion we believe That it is only the Spirit of the Lord that makes men truly Religious and that no man ought to be compell'd to or from any Exercise or Practice in Religion by any outward Law or Power but every man ought to be left free as the Lord shall perswade his own mind in doing or leaving undone this or the other Practice in Religion and every man of what Profession in Religion soever ought to be protected in Peace provided himself be a man of Peace not seeking the wrong of any mans Person or Estate And we believe That to oppose false Opinions and unsound Doctrines and Principles seeking to convince them that oppose themselves by Exhortation or sharp Reproof by word or writing ought nor to be counted a Breach of the Peace or to strive about the things of the Kingdom of God by men of contrary Minds or Judgments this ought not to be punishable by the Magistrates and their Laws for we believe the outward Laws and Powers of the Earth are only to preserve mens Persons and Estates and not to preserve men in Opinions neither ought the Law of the Nation to be laid upon mens Consciences to bind them to or from such a Judgment or Practice in Religion And we believe that Christ is and ought only to be Lord and Exerciser of mens Consciences and his Spirit only must lead into all Truth And we believe That Obedience and Subjection in the Lord belongs to Superiors and that Subjects ought to obey in the Lord those that have Rule over them and that Children ought to obey their Parents and Wives their Husbands and Servants their Masters in all things which are according to God which stands in the exercise of a pure Conscience towards God But where Rulers Parents or Masters or any other command or require subjection in any thing which is contrary to God or not according to him to such causes all people are free and ought to obey God rather then man and we believe That herein God will justifie them being guided and led by his Spirit in all that which is Good and out of all that which is Evil. Again We believe concerning Election and Reprobation That there is a state of Election and a state of Reprobation a state chosen of God and a state rejected of God and that all Man-kind are in one of these states all that are elected are elected in Christ and all that are out of him are in the state Reprobate bringing forth fruits of Death and Darkness being Children of Wrath and Disobedience in the alienation and separation from God in the Transgression unreconcil'd to God the Enmity ruling in the Heart being in the Fall and not restor'd to God again but ignorant of his Power and of his Wisdom having the Understanding darkened that they cannot see nor perceive the things that are Eternal and in this condition his best Works are Sin and whatsoever he doth he cannot be accepted of God for he is dead to God and alive to all evil bâ—inging forth all his works out of that Ground which is cursed This is the condition of all Mankind upon the face of the Earth in the first Adâ—… and this is the state of Reprobation and all that abide herein are rejected of God and â—…ll never inherit eternal Life but go inâ—â— Perdition yet have all such a Day of Visitation that they may return out of the state of Reprâ—…tion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ledge and desâ—…sing the Love of God â—â—ey conâ—… iâ—â—he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wrath of Gâ—…d abides upon them â—…t they tâ—…t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wrath for they believe in the Light and becâ—…â—…ldren of the Light and are renewed in Mind and Hâ—… and receiâ—… the Love of the Father and become planted into Christ the second Adâ—… 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him to bring forth Fruit â—nto the Father and â—ll their Fruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—om 〈◊〉 grâ—…d which is â—…ssed for they are led by the Spirit of thâ— Faâ—…r and â—…ch are in the state of Election who are â—ade Heâ—rs with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eveâ—… Inheritance that never fades away And this we faithfully believe That â—…cy is not shewed to the Reprobate nor Judgment to them that are chosen of God And this is to go abroad in the World that all pâ—…ple mâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whâ—◠〈◊〉 have receiv'd of God and they that believe this and walkâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Father shall be saved but they that belieâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be condemned because they do not believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be â—…tten 〈◊〉 in â—…rt this is given forth by one that hath believed and received the Knowledge of thâ—se things from God A Friend unto all People E. B. Some of the PRINCIPLES OF THE QUAKERS Scornfully so called by men VINDICATED And proved Sound and True and according to the SCRIPTURES In Opposition to the False Charges and Lying Reports given forth against the Truth in two Printed Books put forth by one Philip Taverner a supposed Minister of the Gospel in Middlesex near Uxbridge And hereby Truth is Manifested and Discovered and the Controversie determined by the Judgment of Truth between Philip Taverner aforesaid the Accuser and Edward Burroughs Defendant of the Truth who contends for the Faith of the Gospel and for the Word of God in the Heart against all such Gainsayers as have the Form of Godliness but deny the Power and many such are in this Age. WHereas P. Taverner one of Truth 's Opposers whether throâ—… Ignorance or Subtilty I now determine not hath again appear'd against me and the Truth in Print as in Vindication of himself and his former Work who about four Moneths ago gave a false Relation of a Dispute but instead of mending the matter he hath made his own cause the more vile as may appear to such who take a perfect view of the Proceedings from the beginning to the end thereof Now the intent of this my Reply is to clear the Truth further and to take off his false Aspersions which he hath cast upon my innocent words in my former Book in answer to his first And as for the rest of his Book which hath no relation to mine nor to the Dispute I shall pass it by The Title of my first Book was Something of Truth Made Manifest c. To which sayst thou A plausible Title to cover a Railing and Bitter spirit under that it may walk in the World less suspected c. Reply My words are truth for in 〈◊〉 â—â—ok Truth was made â—â—â—ifest to â—…y in relation to the former Dispute to the Satisfaction of many and as 〈◊〉 â—…ing anâ—â—â—â—â—erness of spirit I do deny only I am zealoâ—â— for the
Truth so well agreed that it is possible to wrong us both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. pag. 4. Rep. That he wronged me it appears in his not relating all that I said 〈◊〉 the Dispute the Ground of this Quarrel not by half and more I kâ—… and in relating more then himself spoke by far And let sober men judge â—…ther he did not here wrong me in relating a thing that passed between us 〈◊〉 relating much more then ever he spoke and much less then I spoke if the truth of that Matter were it wrong or right Matter and my self also be not by this kind of Doctrine wronged I appeal to all honest People whilst both he and I 〈◊〉 silent so the False-Dealing and Wrong in his first Book is upon him still according to my Charge unremoved And the Lye in this his last Book in that he saith I say Falsly when I have spoken the Truth which is a Lye in the highest degree in saying when I spokâ— the truth That I spoke Falsly and his Proof in that the Truth and I do not agree is because I said in my first The Saints have no need of Scriptures to teach them but the Spirit of the Father leadeth and teacheth into all Truth Rep. My words are justifiable for It is the Spirit that leadeth into all Truth John 16. and the Saints need no man to teach them but they have the Aâ—â—inting within them and they know all things by the Unction 1 John and the Spirit of the Father is given them by which the Scriptures were given forth And the Lord is the Teacher of his People and they need not any to say to them Know the Lord Ier. 31. Ye they that witness this do not make the Scripture of none effect but own it in its place yet not as their Teacher for then they should deny the new Covenant Ier. 31. and then something besides the Spirit leads into Truth and they have something to teach them besides the Anointing but if this be all the Proof that can be given against me That I and the Truth do not agree I doubt not but â—ll Spiritual men will see the Emptiness and Weakness of the Witness against me and will be more confirmed rather then shaken that I and the Truth do fully agree though P. T. speaks otherwise falsly against me and as if I had contradicted the Apostles words which he quotes against me who saith Whatsoever things were written afore time were written for our learning which Scripture I do own and no way contradict it s the Error of his Judgment which so judgeth for even they for whom the things that were written were for their learning yet they were led into all Truth by the Teachings of the Spirit and they were taught of the Father and what was written to them was not written because they knew not Truth or to teach them Truth 1 Iohn 2. 21. let him learn what this means The next thing he notes is whereas I said I then proved meaning at the Dispute bâ—… Scriptures That some were perfect in this life 1 Cor. 2. 5. even perfect without sin John 1. 47. 1 John 3. 7. And to gainsay this he hath brought 2 John 1. 8. If 〈◊〉 say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us and saith he Who speaks truth in this E. B. or the Apostle as if I had spoken contrary to the Apostle Solomon also saith he tell us There is not a Iust Man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not which also he brings as a Witness against what I have affirmed Rep. It s true I held forth a state of Perfection to be waited for and attained â—â—to upon Earth and I am not ashamed of my Principle neither is it found too light For that Scripture 1 Cor. 2. 5. doth testifie that some were perfect upon Earth in the dayes of the Apostles and if they were so the same is to be waited for and witnessed in this Age for the Hand of the Lord is not shortened And that Scripture 1 Iohn 3. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not and 〈◊〉 is born of God doth not commit sin vers 6 9. doth clearly manifest there is a â—â—â—te upon Earth free from sin wherein Power is received and felt over all Temptations and over the Devil even such an estate That the Wicked One canâ—…â—â—ch such that are born of God and this was the thing I held forth and do vindiâ—…e against all Opposers That the Saints may wait for and witness upon Earth to have power over sin and over its Temptations and free from the committing of sin by the Power of the second Adam living and dwelling in thâ—â— And thus must thou believe P. T. or else thou believest not Scripture â—â—â— that any are born of God or abide in Christ if thou believest not that tâ—… confess thou errest in Judgment who art unbelieving of what the Scriptâ—… bears witness of Therefore tell me plainly if thou believest That there â—…y that are born of God and abide in Christ then must thou believe 〈◊〉 do not commit sin elâ—e thou deniest the Scripture And what I held forth herein I do not contradict the Apostle nor Solomon's words for its true the Apostle said If we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves but art thou so blind that thou dost not see he speaks there of a state before Confession of Sins and the words saith the Apostle If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us 〈◊〉 Sins and to cleanse us from all Unrighteousness so I do agree with the Apostle's words and do not contradict them For I do say If any say they have no sin before they do confess their sin and forsake their sin and be cleansed from it I do say they are Lyars and the Truth not in them and I also say If that after a maâ— hath confest his sin and be cleansed from it and hath his sin forgiven him and witnesseth that he is born of God and does not commit sin I say he 〈◊〉 the Truth also and the Truth is in him And though Solomon did say There is not a just man upon Earth that doth good and sins not yet is my affirmation true notwithstanding for Solomon forgat the Lord and his Heart went after many strange Women and became a Transgressor and in that state did not know the Birth born of God which doth not commit Sin for he was but under the Administration of the Law which doth not make perfect as pertâ—… to the Conscience and peradventure in that state he being erred from God he did not see any that did not sin These things will be plain to some though perhaps thou mayst shut thine eye against them and Solomen was not our Example in Conversation I am sure nor hardly in Doctrine And thus I 〈◊〉 weighed thy Text which thou seemest to say before I have not weighed and my Principles are proved sound and
thou and thine too light and the 〈◊〉 the Lord will scatter them And P. T. confesses Every Real-hearted Christian may be and is in 〈◊〉 called Perfect Rep. Then wherefore doth he oppose me who testifieth the same thing and he now confesseth even That every Real-hearted Christian may be and is called Perfect in Scripture And is not he here guilty in that he charged me falsly in pag. 21. of his last With going Rounds like unto a Horse in a Mill who sometimes denies Perfection and sometimes confesses it to be attained in this life but he is forced in the end to confess to the Truth and to iustifie me And also the Scripture doth testifie The Saints were already perfect and compleat in Christ while they were in the Life upon Earth Col. 1. though there be a time wherein all the Saints do complain of the Body of Sin in their Warfare and Travel yet there is a state also wherein they have put off the â—…doy of Sin and are the Servants of Righteousness and free from Sin Rom. 〈◊〉 22. But P. T. shews little Experience in those states as of the Travel under the Body of Death and also of the Victory over it and so what he speâ—… is but by guess from other mens words and then it is no marvel if he errs in â—udgment and bring one Scripture to contradict another not having the infâ—… Spirit that gave it forth nor feeling the States nor the passing thorow these Conditions declared therein for there is a time of Travelling and complaining under the Body of Sin and its Burden and a time of Freedom from it and Victory over it yea even in this life upon Earth And whereas I said in my last Many of the Saints daily received more and 〈◊〉 of God's Wisdom and of his Power and Life revealed in them wherein they grow in to God from strength to strength Now saith he But whether he doth not own some to have attained so high that there can be no Addition is a Query my soul saith he 〈◊〉 not been able to enter into his secrets in this thing because my words were Mary of the Saints c. Rep. My first words it seems he cannot contradict but owns them to be the so I need not defend them only he supposeth a Question in which there is not much Edification to be answered and I have no secrets in what I speak for to the the Children of Light my words are plain though to P. T. and such they may be Parables and Secrets But as for my own particular I now here answer 〈◊〉 Question and further reply I do grow up in Wisdom and Knowledge daily and never knew so much of T 's Deceit as now I do since and at the Dispute the Ground of this our Debate so I thought good to let him know that I do grow in Truth which doth daily discover more and more Deceit in him and them that oppose Truth and so also grow in the Knowledge of his Error of Judgment and Ignorance that I may condemn it and judge it And whereas I said The Light which everyman is lightned withal by Christ is sufficient to bring up every man to believe in Christ that loves the Light and walks in it and unto such is Grace added and encreased daily as in page 16 of my first more appeareth In opposition to this to overthrow it as he supposeth he hath nominated that Scripture 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of â—… 〈◊〉 Now my words are true and no Contradiction to the Apostle's words 〈◊〉 to such as are blind that cannot discern between Light and Darkness 〈◊〉 will judge falsly and out of an evil mind make an appearance of seeming 〈◊〉 where there is none for the Light that lighteth every man that 〈◊〉 the World is Christ Iohn â— 9 and that Christ the Light that 〈◊〉 every 〈◊〉 that comes into the World is sufficient to bring every man 〈◊〉 loves the Light and walks in it to believe in Christ these are my words 〈…〉 mind and would any man that were not stark blind make 〈…〉 this Doctrine or bring a Scripture to prove the contrary 〈…〉 I own and do no way contradict For the 〈◊〉 Man doth 〈◊〉 the things of God nor know 〈◊〉 yet this is not Contrary to what I say 〈◊〉 Christ Jesus lighteth every man that comes into the World 〈◊〉 Light 〈◊〉 is sufficient and he changeth men from Natural to 〈◊〉 so they 〈◊〉 to believe in Christ that hath lightened 〈…〉 say or hold forth That the natural man 〈…〉 God and that the natural man hath Faith 〈◊〉 never 〈…〉 to my mind to say so he hath drawn 〈◊〉 evil Consequence 〈…〉 and then confounded his own 〈…〉 for my saying and intent is that 〈…〉 the World and his Light is 〈…〉 natural to spiritual and to give 〈…〉 things of God and of his Spiri◠〈…〉 is no Contradiction to the Apostles worâ—â— though 〈…〉 understanding I suppose rather than 〈…〉 Principle is proved sound and the Title of the 〈◊〉 a Lye And whereas I said That Christ wrought Righteousness perfectly 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Righteousness in all that believe and 〈…〉 or that hath not the other pag. 12. of my first He saith Whâ—ther I do 〈◊〉 Iustification and Sanctification he leaves all rational men to judge c. 〈◊〉 That Christ wrought Righteousness without us is not denyed by him 〈…〉 the Righteousness of the Law in the 〈◊〉 he cannot well deny 〈◊〉 read Rom. 8. 4. and that no man is justified by the Righteousness that 〈◊〉 wrought without who believes not nor is converted to God but in the 〈◊〉 of Satan This all the Children of God believe and know That none 〈◊〉 justified by Christ's Righteousness without 〈◊〉 who are convertâ—â— to God 〈◊〉 received Christ and he is in them 〈◊〉 else they are 〈◊〉 and not justified And so I am not ashamed of my Principle 〈…〉 to be too light for he that hath not Christ 〈…〉 is a Reprobate and not justified by anâ— Righteousness without Neither 〈◊〉 found Iustification and Sanctification which be 〈…〉 are one in Christ for he is made unto us Sanctification and Iustification and 〈…〉 that is in the Pollutions of the World unsanctified is not justified 〈◊〉 condemned so none are justified by a Righteousness without them but 〈◊〉 in the same corrupt 〈◊〉 with him must not I be judged 〈…〉 justifie If any Work be 〈…〉 in the Strength and Power of 〈…〉 strength then 〈…〉 and that no Work or Word is justified but what the â—… And though P.T. ignorantly commenceth 〈◊〉 these words yet are they words of 〈◊〉 and Righteousness and all that he saith 〈◊〉 nothing to the 〈◊〉 And whereas I did ask him which he had Ignorantly affirmed in his 〈…〉 that Righteousness which Christ works â—… in his Strength and 〈…〉 is called Our Righteousness which he seeâ—â— to answer but 〈…〉 my words for I
Mark of the Romish Whore and have her Symptoms and Characters remaining upon them unto this day as it is manifest Object And though some may object and say That God commanded a Temple to be â—â—ilded for the worship of his Name and Ordinances to be practised in the time of the old Covenant To which I do say yea it was so a Temple was builded by Solomon for the Seed of the Iews to worship in and to come to Sacrifice to the Lord in and there was an outward Worship and Ordinances but it is many hundred years since this Temple was destroyed and Worship and Ordinances thrown down which God once commanded and his people once practiced and Christ the Life the Power and Wisdom of God was the Substance thereof and unto whom he was made manifest and in whom he was revealed in the Spirit they utterly renounced and denied the Temple and the worship therein though once God had commanded it and the Saints after the manifesting of Christ to them in Spirit and after that the Holy Ghost was given we do not find through all the Churches of the Saints that they worshipped in the Temple of the Iews but witnessed against it and said That God dwelt not in Temples made with hands neither was he worshipped in Temples made with hands but in the Spirit and in the Truth their Worship consisted and therefore were persecuted but they bare Testimony against the Temple and the Worship and those Ordinances which God once had commanded and which once his People practized though it was to the peril of their lives But as for these Temples and these Ordinances and this Worship which are now on foot they were never brought forth by any Ordination or Commandment of God but the Foundation of them is the Inventions of Men and Mens Traditions taught them and not the Spirit of the Lord and therefore against those things those Temples and those Ordinances and Worships much reason have we to cry against them all as being neither Sign nor Substance of good but wholly Inventions of men The Iews Temple and Ordinances were Signs of good things to come and when the Substance was come the Saints deny'd the Shaddows and the Figures but as for these they are deny'd wholy as being Idolatry and Abomination from the beginning to the end of them for as I have shown These things which are the matter of which your Worship and Ordinance doth consist had their rise and beginning in the dayes of Darkness and Ignorance since the Apostacy came in and so in the Name and Authority of the Lord we do declare against them even against your Temples and whole Worship to the intent to bring you to the true Worship that is in Spirit and in Truth and that you might know your bodies the Temples of God and that he might dwell in you and walk in you according as be hath promised in the New Covenant Wherefore all people awake and come out of your Idolatry and idolatrous Worships separate your selves touch no more of it that the Lord may receive you and that you may come into his Covenant which is Life and Peace for your souls for in those Worships and Temples and all your Practices therein you have not true peace with the Lord nor the Refreshments from his pure Presence but Sin and Death reigns amongst you and great ignorance is over your hearts and Idolatry corrupts your minds and the Lord hath been forgotten by you dayes without number God is not well-pleased neither hath any delight in your Worship for your worship of him and fear towards him is but taught by the Precepts of men and by the Traditions of the Fathers in the dayes of Popery and if ever he opens your Eyes you will see it for it is with the humble and contrite in heart that the Lord dwells him that trembleth at the Word of the Lord whose heart is right in his sight and hath learned his Judgments and Fear and such as are changed and renewed and born of the Seed of God and begotten by his powerfull Word such are the true Worshippers whom the Lord is seeking and such will he find to worship him And whereas there is a great cry amongst you and among many people at this day about Deceivers and being deceived you say and your Cry is one to another Take heed you be not deceived by false Teachers and false Doctrine This is the Cry of Parents to Children and Children to Parents and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sters to Servants and of Servants to Masters and chiefly it is the Cry of 〈◊〉 Priests to the people Take heed yoâ—â— be not 〈◊〉 c. Now to all this I do say That there are many Deceivers and many are 〈…〉 ved this is certainly true and plainly manifest But now to shew 〈…〉 Deceiver is and what it is to be deceived and who they are that ar◠〈◊〉 ceived First That is a Deceiver that Person that spirit or that thing that 〈…〉 eth or inticeth the Minds of people into something to do or practce 〈◊〉 speak something which the Lord by his Spirit doth not lead to I say That which leads the Creature to take up a Joy or a Delight 〈…〉 Happiness in something of this World which is under the Sun to place 〈…〉 fidence or felicity in such a thing that which thus leadeth or draweth the 〈…〉 whether it be person or spirit it is a Deceiver and deceiveth the Soul 〈…〉 or they that do follow this and give up themselves into the obedience 〈…〉 to do or speak something that is contrary to God or which his Spirit 〈…〉 not lead unto nor guide in this person is deceived of the Presence of the 〈◊〉 and of the Comfort and Joy and Happiness that is in him and hath pleâ—… and joy in something of the Creation that is not of him but besides 〈◊〉 and this Person is deceived and in Deceit who hath placed a Joy and Happiâ—… and Confidence in some Creature or thing that is not perfectly the Lord 〈…〉 another spirit besides the Spirit of the Lord hath seated it self in the 〈◊〉 and taken possession of the Mind and the Mind and Heart is thereby caâ—…ted by that way in the works and pleasures of this World and this is a â—…ved estate and thus much of a Deceiver and Deceiving in the ground in 〈◊〉 declared But now You that are crying one to another Be not deceived be not 〈◊〉 Are you not such as are deceived already and lie wallowing in the Deceit and Vanity and Evil of this World For while sin hath power over you and that Spirit that is not of God doth lead you you are deceived and thus it is with you being unchanged and unrenewed in Mind and Heart are not you deceived For you want the feeling of the Presence and of the Comfort of the Lord God and you are deceived of that for that you have not and another thing possesseth your minds and the
God and none knoweth the things of God saving by the 〈◊〉 of God and that revealeth God and teacheth to worship God and to serve him And the Scriptures they declare of the Rule and of the Revelatiâ—… 〈◊〉 God and are a Declaration of all things which are to be believed and 〈◊〉 by the Children of the Lord so that the Scriptures are not the 〈◊〉 Rule neither do they teach to worship and serve God but the Spiâ—…â—â—ve forth the Scriptures that is the standing Rule in and through â—…tions and the Spirit doth reveal the Knowledge of God and how 〈…〉 〈◊〉 worshipped and served And thou sayst The Scriptures are the Word of God given by immediate Inâ—… 〈◊〉 God and that they are given to all men to be read And the Scripâ—…â—…cient to make the Man of God perfect and throughly furnished and 〈◊〉 〈…〉 〈◊〉 â—nto Salvation And the Scriptures are plain and easie to be 〈…〉 â—y the simplest and there is Milk in them for Babes and strong Meat for 〈◊〉 grown up â—… Christ is the Word of God and his Name is called The Word of 〈◊〉 and the Word of God was in the Beginning and shall endure forever and this Word is not the Scriptures and the Scriptures are not the Word but the Scriptures are words of God given forth from the Word 〈◊〉 was in their Hearts that spake forth the Scriptures which were wrote 〈◊〉 the Holy Men of God were moved by the Holy Ghost and given by the Inspiration of the Spirit of God And the Scriptures are a Declaration and a â—…tise of the WORD that was in the Beginning and shall endure forâ—… but the Scriptures are not the Word And some of them were giâ—… to one sort of Men and some of them to another and some of them â—… But as for the Threatnings and Judgments propounded and the Reproof of the Wicked that part was not given to the Saints nor spoken to â—…em and so not given to all and the Promises to the Children of the Lord and the Epistles to the Saints and them that were sanctified that part was not given and spoken to the World and to the Wicked who are unâ—…ted and so not spoken to all though all may read them yet none can understand them but by the same Spirit that gave them forth and who have not the same Spirit to guide them they cannot understand the Scriptures for they were given forth by the Eternal Spirit and the carnal â—…dom that is from below and sensual cannot understand nor receive the â—…gs of the Kingdom of God which are declared of in the Scriptures And so the Scriptures are not easie to be understood but are sealed from the World â—â—ither are the Scriptures without Faith which thou hast left out sufficient to make the Man of God perfect but the Scriptures through Faith are able to make the Man of God perfect and throughly furnished this we know and â—…re and do set the Scriptures in their right place and give them their right Hâ—…our and Respect And as for thee and thy Generation who are erred from the Spirit of Truth You know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God for Christ is the Bread of Life and the Water of Life in him is the Milk for Babes and 〈◊〉 for strong Men and not in the Scriptures who testifie of Christ the Life and in them the Pharisâ—â—s thought to have Eternal Life but would not come 〈◊〉 Christ the End of the Scriptures that they might have Life and this is the self same state with yours of this Age who think to have the perfâ—… of Salvation and the Milk for Babes and the Meat for Strong Men in the Scriptures but will not receive Christ who is the perfect Salvation and 〈◊〉 Bread and Water of Life for all the Children of the Lord who are 〈…〉 the Spirit And so thy Doctrines and thy Principles of thy Religion 〈◊〉 not sound nor agreeing with the Scriptures but contrary and by a 〈…〉 spirit and therefore we cannot be of thy mind but do truly 〈…〉 unlearned of the Father and knowest not the Way of Salvation and so 〈◊〉 canst not truly inform nor direct others And thou sayst Men are under a Necessity of multiplying Transgâ—… 〈…〉 3. 12. Ephes. 4. 17. 2. Pet. 4. Answ. In this thou hast erred and spoken contrary to sound Dâ—… 〈◊〉 there is no Necessity laid upon any to commit any sin much less a Neâ—… multiplying Transgression if there be a necessity who layes it 〈◊〉 〈…〉 and why is that Necessity Transgression is of the Wicked One and 〈…〉 is of the Devil and there is no necessity for that upon any account 〈…〉 sin destroyes the Soul and is a Veâ—ation to the Lord God and a Câ—… 〈…〉 lasting Misery and for to act that there is no Necessity which hath 〈…〉 fects And thou hast perverted the Scriptures quoted by thee to prove 〈…〉 Assertion which I have set down for the Reader to peâ—…se that all â—… thou hast perverted them for they prove no such Doctrines as that 〈…〉 a Necessity of multiplying Transgression which thou hast affirmed and 〈…〉 the Scriptures to prove it which is first false doctrine uttered by thee it 〈◊〉 also a perverting of the Scriptures to maintain it and this two Evil◠〈◊〉 thou hast committed in one Work and because thou hast done Evil 〈…〉 at thy Door and there I will leave it And thou sayst To be justified is not to be really â—lâ—ansed from all Sin 〈…〉 take of real Righteousness and Holiness but it is to be accounted and reputâ—… Holy and not to have Sin reckoned c. Answ. There are none justified but who are in Christ and are chanâ—… and renewed and born again and such are cleansed from sin For he 〈…〉 of God sinneth not and it is he only that is justified and not the Old Man that is unchanged and commits sin he is not justified and who are born of God and are justified are really cleansed and do partake of Righteousness and holiness even of the Righteousness and Holiness of the Son of God and in that Righteousness he is accounted Righteous and in no other nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other way then by receiving Christ and his Righteousness and being made Partâ—kers of it in their Hearts for the Apostle said If Christ be not in you 〈◊〉 are Reprebates and such are not justifieth nor accounted just and holy who have not Christ within them and his Righteousness but who have Christ within the Hope of Glory and are accounted Just and Righteous in the sight of God the Body of Sin is put off for if Christ be in you the Body is dead because 〈◊〉 Sin and such are really cleansed and if he be in you you are made Partaâ—… of real Righteousness and Holiness and this is the Truth of the Gospel of Christ which confounds and condemns thy false doctrine for no man it accounted and imputed just and holy but who are cleansed from Sin
was come to search them and try them and would hew down their Idolatrous wayes and worships and works c. And in order to a fair proceeding with them the next day I was moved to write this following Paper to them by way of Queries as to lay some ground of Opposition hoping to have received their Answer that I might have joyned tryal with them for it was in my heart to search and oppose their Wayes and Practices and their whole Religion And these Queries were delivered to them in Latine though from them I have received no Answer to this day but the Queries stand upon them and my Charge they lie under charged upon them in the Name of the Lord. To all ye that profess your selves Devoted to the Service of God and Separation from the World and Mortification in your lives who are called by the the name of Fryars and Nunns in and about Dunkirk THe Mighty Day of the Lord God is come and coming upon you and all the World Awake awake ye that sleep in the Earth for the Dreadful God is arising to plead with you and to give unto all the World the Cup of his fierce Indignation because of your Idolatries and Hypocrisies and Abominations which have corrupted the Earth and are come up before him and have provoked him and the Cry of the Just who hath been smitten and laid slain is entred into the Ears of the Most High and his Sword which is the word of his Mouth is awakened to wound and slay all his Enemies And the Day of your Visitation is now come wherein the Lord is searching you and trying you that he may recompence you and this is the Word of the Lord to you Wherefore I am moved of the Lord to propound some few Queries to you for the tryal of your spirits and wayes to which I demand your Answer that all things may be brought to Light and true Judgement and that you may be judged justly and by the Spirit of the Lord cleered or condemned accorto your Deeds 1. Whether there were such order of Men and Women in the true Church of Christ in the Apostles dayes and where did Christ give Institution for such Worships Practices and manner of Life slouthful idleness and unprofitableness to God and Men as ye hold forth And whether any are bound to believe you and follow your Religion and Practices except you can prove by the Scriptures the Words of Christ or Example of his Saints and Apostles your Religion and Lives and Practices and Worships and whether you do admit of tryal in all your whole Religion by and according to the Scriptures and Writings of the Apostles yea or nay 2. Whether the World in your Hearts and the World's nature even the root of Lust the root of Pride Covetousness and the love of this World and its Vanities and the root of Idolatry is subdued in you to the Light in your Consciences I do speak and what is the root of all these things and what is it that subdues it Is it an outward abstinence by the force of Locks and Doors and Bolts or self-separation and secret Places that subdues the World's nature in Men and Women and is it by such means that Christ gives Victory over Sin and overcomes it in his People or is it not by the Power of God in the Heart onely and whether is it not damnable Hypocrisie in you to appear outwardly Holy and free from these things while yet the Nature and Root of all these things are alive in you and boyling up in the motions of them and is any outward thing the Cross of Christ and Christ crucified which mortifies to the World which the Apostles preached and rejoyced in 3. Whether is it a true denial of the World in you to deny it in one manner and place and to run into it and imbrace it in another way and place it doth not appear to me that you have denyed the World as the Apostles did For answer me where had they any such Seats in the finest and fattest Places of the Cities and Towns as ye have such great fine Houses and Gardens and such Revenues by the year as ye have staying all their dayes in a great House and spending their time in slouth and idleness as ye do they went up and down the World preaching the Gospel and had no certain dwelling Place but followed the Lamb of God in the Spirit and did not settle themselves in fat Places of the Earth continuing all their dayes as ye do therefore we judge that you are out of the Life and not in the spirit as the Apostles were in but are in the Form of Righteousness and Holiness without the Power So I demand an Answer to clear your selves if you can and to prove that you are of the true Church and that your Wayes and Practices are in and by the Spirit of God and according to the Scriptures 4. What is that Death that hath passed over all and reigned from Adam to Moses and whether it doth not reign yet in and over you and what is Moses's Ministration and whether ever through it you yet truely came and whether that part be subdued in you which the Law of God was added upon and whether are you come to Christ and know him as he was before Abraham and before Mary and how was he David's Lord and how his Son and is Christ within you born and revealed to you by whom the World was made and do you expect to be perfectly freed from Sin that ye shall not commit Sin in this Life upon Earth yea or nay 5. What is the Soul and what was its state and condition before Transgression and what is its state and condition in Transgression and whether may man come to be restored by the second Adam into the same estate while upon Earth as he lost in the first Adam yea or nay Friends I demand of you in the Name and Power of the Lord God to answer me these things in writing some of you and to subscribe your names that I may return you an Answer and query further of you for we are sent of God to visit you and to try you and if you be in the perfect Truth and would convert others to your Religion be plain with us and use your best Spiritual Weapons in your Zeal towards us and defend your Cause and appear for your God and if you doubt of your own Wayes and Practices and be not able to defend your Religion then let your Mouthes be stopped then turn from Idolatry for now is the Lord God risen that will judge ye and all the Earth righteously I am a lover of Souls but a Witness against all false Idolatrous Wayes of Antichrist and the Whore that hath reigned in the World and I am the Lord's Servant E. B. By the Scorners of the World called a Quaker These queries were sent to the Fryars in Latine ANd we were with
and sober Dealing may be amongst us and the Fear of God And to this we expect thy speedy Answer concerning Time and Place Edward Burroughs Samuel Fisher. The Propositions were writ as short as could be for to stop all Advantages against us that right be taken by our Adversary in case he had met us and agreed to dispute but upon enlargement in Discourse we might have laid open the truth of every on of these Particulars at large to the satisfaction of sober Minds that might have been doubtful hereof and sâ—ewed by the Scriptures the truth of all of them AN Epistle to Friends IN LONDON Dearly beloved Friends and Brethren WHom the Lord hath called with his Heavenly Call and made you Eye-Witnesses and Feeling-Witnesses of his Power and of his Truth my dear Love in the Lord falutes you all for the Lord's sake without respect of Persons and I Greet you with a holy Kiss Dearly Beloved I bare you witness That some of you have loved the Lord above all things and for his Truth the Glory of this World with its Vanities have been denyed by you and now I wish in the Lord the abounding and enlarging of the Love and Life of God in you and amongst you all And my Dear Friends In that the Lord hath blessed you in the Knowledge of the Truth and of his Wayes and called you to serve him and to live unto him and not unto your selves now this remains unto you all to be done by you even that you be Faithful and Careful in the Great Work of the Lord which he is doing amongst you and in the World at this day And first of all See that every one of you stand in God's Counsel and that ye do his Will in all things as the Lord maketh it manifest to you and watch over your own Hearts and keep your selves clear from the Evil of this World I am moved of the Lord to write to you in particular and to warn you in his Name who hath begotten you to himself That you be mighty careful and circumspect in all your wayes and that you walk as Patterns and Examples to all the tender Babes of God in the Flock and that by your wise Conversation and Faithfulness in the Truth the Weak may be strengthened and the Hungry may be filled and they that are of the World who thirst for the Lord may be won into the Truth My God knoweth and ye know also the Care and Burdens which I have had in that Place and seeing I am thus ordered of the Lord at this present I do beseech you all for the Truth 's sake That you unto whom God hath given Grace and Strength and Wisdom and Knowledge that you take the Care upon you to watch with the Flock and over them that are Weak And I say again You must be mighty careful in the Lord that you may walk in all things to his Glory so as there be no turnings back from the Truth by any nor no occasion given to the Heathen to Reproach Truth therefore not any Service of your own must you equal with the Lord's Service But at all times be armed with the Lords Armour to do and to suffer for the Truth And this seems Good unto me in the Fear of the Lord That you in particular do keep a Meeting among your selves once in Three Weeks or a Moneths time as ye see meet that in the Counsel of God you may consider of all things in relation to the Truth and that you may advise one with another in the Fear of the Lord of things amongst you that in good Order all things may be kept And if any Disorderly Persons who profess the Truth be known to any of you let it be presented to all and Two or Three of you as you are moved may in the Fear of the Lord and in his Wisdom reprove such Persons and Things by which in the least Truth is Dishonoured and if such resist Reproof then account them as out of the Body and the Life can have no Fellowship with such but first reprove Offences and Failings in Secret and in much Wisdom also lest you destroy the Righteous with the Wicked And I lay it upon you that you judge nothing but what is for Judgment and when any thing comes before you to be tryed or judged of be tender of the Simplicity and take heed of Rash Judgment and Forward Words be mighty considerate in the Fear of God that nothing be judged wholly in which there is any thing of God but dwell in that which doth discern and distinguish and separate the Precious from the Vile that you may divide Judgment a right in all Causes and the Pure may be Strengthened and the Deceit Confounded For such a thing may be and come to pass which cannot wholly be Justified nor altogether Condemned and in such things in Friends you had need be mighty careful that the Right Way may be spared and the Wicked cut off And if any of you be moved to Minister among the Flock let it be done in the Fear of God and in his Wisdom to the refreshing of the Weak and to the building up the Body and if you do it in the Power of God then you will be answered by the Witness of his Spirit in every one and you and they will feel an Increase from God And if any Minister amongst you with which the Spirit of the Lord hath not Fellowship but is an Offence to the Just bare such in Patience for a season and shew them in Meekness and Love their Fault that they may be restoed rather then cast out And if any amongst you be over-taken with a Fault and found faulty in the sight of the Lord in any Particular reprove and convert and instruct such privately in Meekness and if they rebel and resist then reprove them and let them be judged openly And charge all that in all things they keep to their own Measures of Christ and that they act nothing nor speak nothing without the Leading of his Spirit and that will bind under deceitful spirits And as for those Rebellious and Treacherous and Deceitful Lying spirits amongst you which may trouble you as they have formerly done to the great Dishonour of the Lord I wish they were cut off as for the Truth 's sake yet I exhort you to bear them with Patience and not to heed them nor be troubled at them but account of them as Disorderly and out of the Body and freâ— not in your selves because of the Wicked such things be but for a time but Truth is forever and they that walk therein their Fruits shall never wither And let Friends keep their private Meetings on the First-days with Diligence and none to run abroad without Foar but as they are moved of the Lord and then there will be a Service in it for the Lord and as any of you are moved be faithful to exhort Friends hereunto and with a
moved of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth to be written for thy Instruction from Him THere is a Great and Mighty and Innumerable People come and coming up out of Egypts Land travelling towards the Land of Rest promised of the Lord 〈◊〉 them to be obtained and enjoyed by them and they do and have sojouâ—ned Strangers in these Nations over whom thou are called to Rule and appointed â—â—ief Governour this seven years and greatly are and have they been afflicted and oppressed and even trodden down through unjust Judgment and unrighâ—… Dealing by the Rulers and Inhabitants of the Land and all the dayes of thy Father the late Protector they were held in great Captivity and Bondage and unrighteous men made them a Prey and laid heavy Yoaks of cruel Sâ—â—â—â—rings upon them and daily increased their Task and something thy Father did for them in their Journey of great Distress yet but a little of what the Lord required of him and what the Lord looked for that he might have done for Pâ—â—er was in his hands given him of the Lord but he was not fully obediâ—â—â— and therefore was the Lord's Hand stretched out somewhat against him 〈◊〉 his Family and he was smitten of the Lord and suddenly taken away in Judgment for he hearkened not to the Counsel of the Lord concerning that People neither did fully relieve them from Oppression but slighted many Warâ—â—â—â—â— from the Lord and the Day of his Visitation passed over and Death took 〈◊〉 away in Disobedience while this People were yet under great Oppressions for he left above a hundred of them in Prisons unjustly suffering for right eousness sake and not for Evil-doing and in this he fulfilled not the Will of God but left his Name and Glory somewhat stained because of these things and though the Lord chose him and shewed Love unto him gave him Power over his Enemies and made him an Instrument in his Hand to break down great Oppressions yet he was not obedient to the end to do my Will saith the Lord but left something â—â—â—one which he was truly called unto Now this innumerable People that is come and coming up as aforesaid are them called Quakers and this Egypts Land is that great Darkness Ignorance and Wickedness and false Wayes and worships in the Apostacy and fleshly bondage to sin and death which all the World and Kindreds and Multitudes that are unconverted to God live and walk in and that Land of Rest promised to which they travel is the peaceable and quiet dwelling with the Lord free from the heavy oppression of Sin and Iniquity and cruelties of men and free in the exercise of their pure Consciences by the Spirit of the Lord as it shall move and lead them into all Truth and their sojourning as Strangers is their denying and despising the World and all its glories and walking in the daily Cross of Christ whereby they are crucified to the love and respect and renown and honours of the world and are come â—â—t of Kindreds Tongues and People counting the reproach for Christ great Riches not respecting men but the Lord altogether in all things and also their suffering unrighteously false imprisonment and spoiling of their goods for Righteousness sake this is their sojourning as Strangers And that something that thy Father did for them is he released many of them divers times out of Prifons where they were unjustly cast and he signified sometimes his displeasure against them that made them suffer and shewed love to them in hearing their Innocent Cause with some respect thereunto and that which he did not which he might have done is He took not away Tythes that Cause of great Oppression to many nor the Unrighteous Laws wholy as he ought to have done and as the Lord required of him And know thou from the Lord That this same People are the People of the Lord and beloved of him and as dear to him as the Apple of his Eye and his Presence is with them and he leads them as a Flock by his Spirit into all Truth and who shall Bless them shall be Blessed but he that acts against them shall not prosper but be smitten of the Lord for their Cause will the Lord plead in his Judgments and avenge them of their Enemies and the Dread of the Lord God shall fall heavy upon the heads of their Persecutors and though they are hated of all men and under great Afflictions yet are they a Just People and Innocent seeking the Good of all men and are Peaceable towards all and receiving all manner of Wrongs and Evil and Speakings against them by Ungodly Men but they render to no man Evil for Evil but bless them that curse and do good to their Enemies and bear all things from all men in Long-suffering and Patience for they are learned in the Practices in doing and suffering of the Holy Apostles and Prophets and are of the Seed of Abraham who was the Friend of God and they were thy Father's Friends and are not Enemies to thee nor to righteous Government but wish well unto thee in the Lord and that thou mayst not be destroyed in Wickedness but be established in Righteousness and Peace in thy Government to rule in God's Authority over all Wicked Men that may seek thy hurt And we desire for thee that the Lord may give thee Wisdom and a perfect Understanding and the Spirit of just and sound Judgment to judge Righteously in all things and to settle the Government in true Judgment that the Principle of God in every man may answer to it in defending preserving and protecting all that walk in Truth Righteousness being a Terror to all Evil-doer for for that end is Rule and Government ordained of God amongst men to be a Praise to all that do Well and a Terror to all that do Evil. And now the Lord having suffered it to be brought to pass that thou art set up in thy Father's stead to be chief Ruler amongst men this the Lord God Almighty requires of thee as thou hopest to prosper and be blessed in this Life and to enjoy Life Eternal when this World is passed away and this is the Word of the Lord God unto thee Be Humble Meek and Lowly in Heart and exalt not thy own Horn nor seek not this World's Honour but seek the Lord with thy whole Heart and let Justice and true Judgment and Righteous Government which is according to the Law of God be set up and exalted in the Nations and come to know in thy self the Dominion and Authority of the Lord God over Sin and Transgression and to keep down and condemn all that which is contrary to God in thy own Heart and that will make thee a Dread and a Terror to Men and Nations and then the Lord will be thy Crown and his People will rejoyce in thee and lift up their Hearts to God for thee If thou throwest down and abolishest all Unrighteous
Laws and Decrees which have been set up in the days of Ignorance and yet stand whereby the Lord 's dear Children are afflicted and oppressed at this day and establishest such a Government which is justly according to God in which Righteousness and Truth Justice and true Judgment may run down and all the contrary may be stopped and chained and limited and confounded and then that which thy Father leâ—t undone the Lord will fulfil through thee And doing these things the Lord would make thee truly Honourable and Happy and Blessed in this life and in the Life to come but in doing the contrary the Lord will make thee a Curse and take thee away in his Judgments and thy Name shall be left a Reproach to Ages forever And if thou Rulest in Oppression and Cruelty and sufferest the Innocent to be Destroyed for want of True Judgment then shall thy Dayes be Fewer then thy Father's if thou be Disobedient to him the Lord shall cut thee off and thy Memorial shall Roâ— and this is the Word of the Lord God to thee And as for this Afflicted and Sojourning People They desire nothing to thee but Truth and Peace and Righteousness and no more of thee but Justice and true Judgment and that they and their little Ones which to them are brought forth may sojourn in Peace and quietly pass through the Nations till they come to the Land of Promise and they may not carry of the Glory nor Riches of this World with them nor seek great Places of Honour from thee nor be hurtful to thee nor the People nor to Mankind in their sojourning only what the Lord Commands them that they must do and what he forbids that they must not do For they have chosen the Lord to be their Leader and to give him their Obedience in all things and thy Government so far as it is according to God they will not destroy nor rebel against but are true Friends thereunto and subject in all things And if thou walkest with the Lord and chusest him for thy Councellor and abasest thy self and altogether exalt him and preserve his People that fear him then shalt thou prosper and thy Name shall be greater then was thy Father's and the Numberless Number of this now distressed People will be unto thee a Strength and stand by thee in thy Day of Trouble and defend thee and thy just Government and their hearts shall cleave to thee and thou shalt prosper for their sakes and none of thy Enemies shall have power over thâ—e to Destroy thee though many may seek for thy life Wherefore my Friend Awake awake and now consider The Day of thy Visitation is present and thy Father's is past and now thou hast a time to gain unto thy self Everlasting Honour and Renown or otherwise to leave thy Name a Curse and a Reproach for evermore Do thou hearken to the Voice of the Lord and fear his Dreadful Name and bow before our God that made Heaven and Earth who rules in the Kingdoms of Men and pulleth down one and setteth up another at his Pleasure and as he will and he will make thee know that he lives and reigns over all and doth whatsoever he will and if he smites thee none shall heal thee and if he wounds thee none shall comfort thee Therefore take him for thy Councellor and beware of the wicked Counsels of men for thou hast may Enemies and they would rejoyce to see thy Fall and if the Lord be not on thy side thou canst not long stand but if thou be obedient to him and preservest his People and breakest down all Oppression then thy Enemies shall fall and thy Foot shall tread them down and the Terror of the Lord shall be upon all that hate thee but thus shall it be done unto thee if thou be disobedient to him and rejectest his Counsel by his Servant I am thy Friend and a Lover of thy Soul and seek thy Happiness in this World and in the World to come known to many by the name of Edward Burroughs The Original of this was delivered to him a few dayes after he was proclaimed Protector To thee Richard Cromwel chosen to be Protector and chief Magistrate Governour of these Nations of England Scotland and Ireland a faithful Presentation and Salutation by a Servant of the Church WE are rightly and truly sensible in all things of the Mighty Hand of the Lord God who brings all things to pass by his own Power and according to his Will and in Heaven and Earth and over the Kingdoms of men he ruleth and reigneth he buildeth up and breaketh down he planteth and plucketh up and he pulleth down one and setteth up another and who may say What dost thou or Why dost thou it for he is a Great God and Mighty and his Majesty is terrible and all things in Heaven and Earth and all the Sons of Men are at his disposure whose Dominion is from Everlasting to Everlasting and he may be feared and had in Reverence by all Creatures that have Life and Breath And in particular we are sensible of his Great and Mighty Power who hath of late Years in these Nations once and again overturned and overthrowed and changed at his Pleasure Times and Powers and Authorities and Dominions and he hath brought down the Mighty from their Seats and stained the Crowns and Glories of the Honourable and broken the Stout-hearted and the Oppressors of their Governments as Potsherd one against another and made the Highest of Men of no respect before him for he hath pulled down and set up whom he would according to his Will and in all these things hath his Hand been the very Doer and Accomplisher thereof that he might be known and feared amongst all people through the whole Earth who is the Dread and Terror of Men and Nations And as for thy Father the late Protector Great things and Honourable did the Lord do for him in raising him up and casting out his Enemies before him and giving him Victory and Power and Renown through Nations and we know the Lord shewed Favour to him and gave him Strength Wisdom and Valour and a right Spirit and he was called of God into that great Work to subdue the grievous Cruelty once ruling over tender Consciences and to break down the great Oppressions which for Ages had caused the Just to groan and the Lord was with him in Victory and went before him and was his Defence and preserved him from great Dangers and from the Wills of all his Enemies and made him prosperous against them all but yet we know to say no more of him He did not wholy fulfil the Will of the Lord nor the Work which he begun but became Disobedient and abused his great Deliverances and Authority and did not set free the Oppressed altogether but left Mountains of Oppression and grievous Yoaks of Bondage unbroken down and unsubdued and the Lord smote him and took him away
is a Parliament what is a Protector and what is a Council or any other sort of men while the Presence of the Lord is not with them and while his Spirit and Authority is wanting to them What can any of these bring forth none of all these whatsoever if the Lord be not chief in them and amongst them and his Counsel their only Guide shall be any otherwise unto this Nation then as a broken Reed to lean upon and no more then a Shaddow which shall not save the people from the heat nor from the storm this we know and this we declare in the Name of the Lord. And we are not for Names nor Men nor Titles of Government nor are we for this Party nor against the other because of its Name and Pretence but we are for Iustice and Mercy and Trust and Peace and true Freedom that these may be exalted in our Nation and that Goodness Righteousness Meekness Temperance Peace and Unity with God and one with another that these things may abound and be brought forth aboundantly such a Government are we seeking and waiting for wherein Truth and Righteousness Mercy and Iustice Unity and Love and all the Fruits of Holiness may abound and all the contrary be removed cast out and limitted And we are not for such and such Names and Titles of Government that promise fair things and perform nothing but if a Council if a Parliament if any one Man or a number of Men whatsoever shall have the Spirit of the Lord poured on him or them and shall be anointed of the Lord for such an End and Use to Govern this Nation under such only shall the Nation be happy and enjoy Rest from such men fitted of the Lord and called by him and under such a Government of Truth and Righteousness shalt thou O Nation enjoy Rest from all thy Travels and under such a Government shall the Righteous rejoyce and the whole Land sing for Joy of Heart when Tyranny and Oppression shall be clean removed Strife and Contention and Self-seeking utterly abandoned and when Peace and Truth flows forth as a Stream and the Lord alone rules in thy Rulers and he the Principal amongst them and under such men and such a Government only and not under any other shalt thou O Nation be happy and thy people a free People Wherefore O Nation when wilt thou begin to look to the Lord when wilt thou begin to set up Him and not man when wilt thou mind his Power and Presence in and through men more then any men themselves when shall it once be O ye people of our Nation that ye will seek after him to be the principal and chief Power among you Oh! let your eye be turned to the Lord alone that he may deliver you and bring Salvation and Freedom and look no more at men but only as they are in him guided by his Spirit only expect good from men as they are guided by the Lord and then shall you not ever any more be deceived as long you have been with Parliaments with Councils with Armies nor any others for in these have you trusted and not in the Lord from these have you expected great Things without him whenas alas what shall men accomplish or what can they bring forth while they reject the Counsel of the Lord and his Word as hitherto they have done and therefore hath he broke them and confounded them yea and he will break them and crush them under his Rod even till they come to learn his Judgments and know him the alone Power and give Honour to him that doth whatsoever he will and he will overthrow it once and again even till he comes whose Right it is to Rule and he is at work in this his Day and because of Iniquities doth he visit with Tribulation and through great Tribulation and overturning of Men and Powers will he advance his own Kingdom and Government and the end of all these things shall bring forth his Glory and men that will not honour him by dealing Righteously in their Day upon Earth they must honour him in their destruction at their Latter-end and let not men glory one over another while some are put down and others set up but let them all know they have but each sort their hour and their end will come even as others for an everlasting Kingdom and Government will God setup that must rule over all and this is the hope of a poor dispised people though for present hated of all and sought to be destroyed by all yet our Souls are anchored and staid even in the sure Promises of our God in this the day of the Nations trouble and though we are poor and rejected of all and have nothing to glory in among any party or sort of people but even in our Reproaches and Sufferings which we sustain from all yet have we perfect rest in God and satisfaction over all these distractions we know him in whom we have believed and we trust in the shadow of his Wing and we are not of a doubting heart concerning what can come or whomsoever do rule for this we know though all seek after our blood yet he can deliver us if he will we know him that can do all things and if he save none can destroy if he bless none can curse him we know and in him we rest and we give our power in all things to him not unto mortal man whose breath is in his nostrils who must perish as the dung we cannot be afraid of their horror nor can we be drawn by their love but we trust in his Name and under his defence shall we be saved we give our power to him to be defended and preserved by him alone and we are well content with our Sufferings and murmur not our Sufferings are our present Crown but yet Wo unto that Authority which maketh us to suffer and wo 〈◊〉 the men upon whom God shall charge the guilt of our Oppressions and wo unto that Spirit that is found acting against Gods Anointed Behold ye Mountains of the Earth behold ye Rulers and ye People the Lord hath blessed his People and every Tongue that riseth up in witness against them shall be condemned and every Weapon that is formed against them shall be broken this is our hope in this gloomy day and the hope of a Kingdom of Righteousness and Peace which must be set up is our refreshment in this day of trouble and let not our Enemies glory over us forthough we be very poor yet shall we be made rich and though we have no carnal weapon yet shall we conquer and thus have we declared our selves in much plainness and sincerity to our Nation whom we love and whose present condition we pitty and and lament over and we are Friends to an appearance of good that may come forth in Truth and Sincerity and as Righteousness do appear in any we are ready to joyn with
Charles Stuart who is Proclaimed King and to all You that are called and known by the Name of Royal-Party and Cavaleirs and who have Suffered in your Cause and for your Principles Friends THe Lord God who is greater than all that doth whatsoever he will hath given you a Day and you are raised up again out of your Suffering State Oh that you would consider the end of it and wherefore the Lord hath done and suffered it to be done and that you would make right use and improvement unto God and this Nation of this your Deliverance and Promotion for certainly there hath been an absolute purpose in the Counsel of the Lord that these things should be thus and his hand hath even suffered it to be accomplished even in a strange and marvellous way through the confounding of your Enemies and giving of them up to the folly of their own hearts in their Councils that they should destroy themselves and bring in you over their heads and make you a Mountain and break down their Mountain and make it as a low Valley and certainly these things are in the Justice of the Lord's hand and it will be well for you if you can consider it and acknowledge it You have been a suffering People it is true for these divers years and Originally your suffering was partly just as from the Lord for there was a great measure of Iniquity and Oppression fulfilled in this Nation on the part of Kings and your Sins were great against God wherefore the Lord was Just in bringing Affliction and Tribulation upon you to humble you and he might justly raise up others to reprove you and to subdue you before them for a season and thus far even because of your Iniquities which were great in the sight of God your Sufferings and Afflictions were Just But as for those that the Lord made use of in the Execution of your Afflictions they are not justified in all what they did towards you but they went beyond in Violence and Cruelty upon you what the Lord called them unto and thereby they brought a great measure of guilt of Injustice and Cruelty upon their own Consciences in proceeding towards you beyond Justice and Equity Though some of them might be more sincere and upright in the beginning of these things when they began to War against you yet it too well appears that many of them soon lost the Just Cause and began to have respect to your Estates and Titles of Honour more than to free the Nation from Oppressions and Vexations though they pretended much thereunto yet so it was that they became fouly corrupted in their way and though they Subdued you yet did they not free the Nation but became Oppressors themselves no less than others before them and they possessed your Riches and Titles yea and in great measure Unjustly and then were exalted in Ambition and Vain-glory and began to strive amongst themselves who should be the greatest and set up this and the other and some cryed one way of Government and others another and they pulled down and set up as they would and cast down and exalted whom they would and thus they continued for some years rowling up and down in Confusion and yet the Nation under very great Oppression and Vexations each one crying his Burden was the greatest while they were exalted in their Pride and Riches and lived at ease not remembring the end wherefore they were first raised nor keeping to sincere Principles but caused them to suffer deeply that were faithful to the Lord and walked with him in sincerity and all this while you were as asleep and not thought upon by them as if ever you should call them to an Account but they thought that their strength was great and their number many and therein they gloried having no true respect unto the Lord and because thereof the Lord justly confounded them in their Counsels when their measure was full and made them weak as Water and you are now justly raised up to reprove and correct them even those that have abused Gods Mercies to them and that have forgotten God and sought to exalt themselves forever and had no respect unto the Lord and his People though these things are not said of them to upbraid them nor to kindle your Fury against them to add Misery upon their Affliction but they have already been told of their Treachery and what would come to pass And Oh that they could now humble themselves before the Lord and confess to the justice of this their Affliction they might yet partake of his Mercy through great Judgments And as for you Oh that you would consider these things and by whose purpose you are restored and from what cause and for what end it is accomplished Oh that you would mind what your Work now is and that you would not exceed your permission for you are raised up for an end and there is a Work for you to do Oh that you could do it with respect unto the Lord it should be the better for you Oh those men that have long sate as Princes in this Nation and pretended and vowed and promised Reformation in Church and State but they have not done it as they ought but as great Oppressions and Injustice as great Superstitions and Idolatries both in Church and State were continued and carried on in their dayes as in dayes before them Oh how abominable have these things been multitude of words might demonstrate but now their Reproof and judgment is come and their Fall is just upon them who should pitty them or mourn for them seeing they have deserved all this and much more which has yet happened unto them as some of them may confess and those things their Treachery Unfaithfulness and Oppressions I mean must needs be avenged one way or another How often hath it been foretold them yea it hath been often said unto them That God would bring them down and destroy their Power they have been told that these things were not right neither could they escape unavenged and it now appears as if the day were come and if you must be their Executioners and must execute the Wrath upon them who shall prevent you or say unto you stay your Hand Or rather who of them that see these things shall not be patient while you take vengeance for the Lords sake and for the sake of his People whom they have long vexed and oppressed Nay who of the Lords People shall not say Let the Lord's Will be done and his Justice executed upon his Enemies If this be your work that you are called to must it not go on till it be finished They have been hard-hearted and Oppressors towards others and by a hard-hearted People may not the Lord justly deal with them and be a Plague unto them in that very manner that they have sinned against him for this is usual with the Lord even to destroy Oppressors by the Wickedness of
Matter and Manner of it and by the Effect that would follow if the Author's Aim and Purpose were fulfilled By all which I must in true Judgment conclude from the Appearance Disposition Temper and Constitution of the spirit of the man and from all Causes and Effects pertaining to the said Semper Iidem That the Author thereof is indeed chiefly a Member of the Church of Rome to wit mostly a down-right Papist holding forth the Principles of Antichrist in perfect form and manner for the perfect End and Cause of Persecution even Burning again in Smithfield and else-where and killing and destroying even all sorts of people under the scurrilous reproachful name of Phanaticks that are in Iudgment and practice of Profession contrary to this man's Way and differing from the Papists Religion This I say I truly find to be the current and disposition of the Nameless Author and his Proceedings in his Method and Matter of his Semper Iidem c. and I have taken in hand at this time to answer him a little and to unfold some of the dangerous Intents towards England which may inhabit and secretly lodge in that spirit of the Church of Rome according to the current of the said Book and from which I have just cause to suppose the thing that I partly assert even that the spirit which hath Indicted the said Book waits its Opportunity to effect its end and to revive and renew Fire and Faggot again to the extinquishing and destruction of all that differ and are contrary minded in Principles and Practices of Religion and Worship from themselves for the Fury and Reproach of the said spirit that indicted and published Semper Iidem reacheth not only to others whom they call more Phanatical as Quakers Anabaptists c. but to the very Protestants themselves even to all whatsoever that differ from the Church of Rome for such by the Nameless Author are no less termed and vilified by that scornful term PHANATICKS distinguished by the Name of Ancient and Modern as hereafter I shall make it appear And First I shall shew a little concerning the Signification of the Term Phanatick as of late used and the first use of it in these late Dayes and the exchange of the word from one Sort to another and in whose mouthes it now remains and who are now so accounted 1. NOt to discuss the Etimology and signification of the word Phanatick in it self and what its Original is and from whence derived this I shall not now proceed to do as being not needful to my Occasion though there is difference of Judgment amongst some in this matter and some say the original and root of the word is from Phanos a false Godd and some say otherwise and they are not in unity among themselves that do most of all use the word concerning the Derivation and Signification of the word in it self Neither shall I spend time to seek out a Judgment and to give it in this case as counting the recompence that can be obtained not answerable to such a work but the signification of it as now used at this day among People is this All that differ in Iudgment and Practice of Religion and Worship from the generality of People and cannot conform unto such Way of Religion as generally practiced in the Land such are called PHANATICKS and this Signification the word beareth among People as now practiced Such as meet together to Preach and Pray out of Publick Places and cannot either out of Knowledge or Conscience conform to the Publick Way of Worship held forth such are called Phanaticks and Reproached by that Name from the Mouthes of Scorners and Revilers of the Wayes of God Numbers of whom do now abound and also Such who make Conscience of their Wayes and cannot run on in the Wayes of Iniquity in Lying and Drunkenness and such like but have been and are more sober and do walk more in Meekness and the Fear of God and have separated themselves from the Evil Company of men and from all Evil Wayes and could not run into the same excess of Riot with the Multitude such have been called of these late dayes Phanaticks by the Scorners Generation And thus much in brief of the signification of the word as used of these late dayes 2. As for the first use of the word Phanatick in this Age it is but of very late use for till within these two Years or less we had very little or no use of the word Phanatick until about the time of then General Monk's Army coming out of Scotland to London when the Army was new model'd and many of the Sectaries so called were turned out of Places about the Eleaventh Moneth 1659. then began the common use of this word Phanatick and the Anabaptists and such as were turn'd out of the Army and called all by the Name of Sectaries that were different from the publick Way of Worship then held out which was for the most part of it Presbyterians these were called Phanaticks and then the use of the word so common began about this time as I have said as now practiced in our dayes For the Rage and Indignation of the then Presbyterians so called and that Party was such against the Anabaptists and such as differed in Iudgment and Practice from them that scornfully they called them in Derision Phanaticks And so far as I know this was the Time and Occasion of the first use of this word as of late Practiced or at least it was the first Time and Occasion of my Observation of the common use of the word Phanatick 3. And now as concerning the exchange of the word from one sort of People to another and how it hath been used by divers sorts of People against others that have differed from themselves this is also observable That the word Phanatick hath not so much proper relation to any one sort of People as that it is only perfectly true to one sort of People more than to others but the properness of the word Phanatick is only as Scorners and Revilers will wickedly use it and as they will turn it to this sort of People or to the other to scorn them by it whom they have an Emnity against and whom they list to abuseby reproaching And this is the end of the use of the word to this day and not of any truth or verity in it to any People but only it s used as a Term of Reproach and Scorning by the Mouthes of ungodly men against such as differ from them and their Wayes though they are better in Practice of Life and Conversation than themselves And the Term hath been changed divers times and divers sorts of People reproached by it by others since its first use as first The People called Presbyterians as aforesaid they used it towards such as were otherwise-minded than themselves and reproached the Anabaptists and others that differed from them in Iudgment and Practice of Religion by the
not doubting but he is sufficient to say something in the Case only may mind him with many others of his Principles and Familiarity how they have cryed out Phanaticks against such as have differed from them and this not long since and now themselves are under the same Reproach by others as they have reproached others and now he and they are reckoned the Modern Phanaticks and no better 3. What can possibly be the Author's Intent in his proceedings First in relating of the burning destroying and martyring of the Martyrs whom he wickedly calleth Aâ—â—ions Phanaticks And then Secondly in intimating the Protestants now living to be Phanaticks by this Paralel the purpose and end of the man must needs be That he would have Fire and Faggots up again Burning and Martyring up again in England and all that shall differ from that Man's Way whom we find by Calculation to be chiefly a Papist should be burnt martyred and destroyed now again as in the dayes of Queen Mary this effect would follow and this Semper Iidem is but a little Item or Intimation before-hand cryed up and down London to prepare its own spirit where it shall meet with it into Fary and Rage even to the destroying of all the Protestants And as this 〈◊〉 â—â—dem may possibly work such an effect among the People of that spirit 〈◊〉 love to murder and burn for difference in Religion It may also and ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an effect in the other Party to be considerate and diligent and to reâ—…d the signs of the Times even the sign of Semper Iidem which seems to be â—…tle Black-stur predicting a bad Effect if the course of Heaven alter it not again And Semper Iidem is indeed to be taken notice of in London because the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 for above an hundred Years nor any one ever durst to appear 〈◊〉 such a publication of villifying the Protestant Martyrs with Reproaches and 〈◊〉 of Rebels Seditious men and Phanaticks as this Nameless Author 〈◊〉 done which gives us cause to say The Times are changed and may yet 〈◊〉 further if the Effects of Semper Iidem be not diverted for the Effects of his work is to bring all to the Fire Faggot and Martyrdom that shall differ from the Church of Rome of whom the Author is a Member as by all signs â—â—d tokens doth appear Thirdly I shall now shew how this spirit in the Papists that burnt the Martyrs which is the same spirit that endited Semper Iidem that is again moving its Countenance now adayes I shall shew how that spirit was not nor is of Christ but of Antichrist and the Devil 1. IT was not the way of Christ and his Apostles neither did they give Command or President for it to kill burn or destroy their Enemiec and such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hereticks as the false Christians 〈◊〉 and as the Papists did in Queen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who burned and destroyed many hundreds of the Protestants who 〈◊〉 them in their Profession and Practices of Religion and this was not 〈◊〉 way for he commanded To love Enemies and not to kill them and it was 〈◊〉 He did Good for them them did Evil 〈◊〉 him and so did his Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was no such thing in the Churches of Christ in the Apostles dayes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 burning of Hereticks and putting them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Crâ—â—â— Torments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his Apostles did convince 〈◊〉 sâ—…rs by Love and 〈◊〉 Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk peaceably towards all their Enemies and did not sâ—â—k their 〈◊〉 not to be revenged 〈◊〉 their Persecutors but the Papists and 〈◊〉 contrary to Christ's Doctrine and Example do burn and kill and destroy their Enemies such whom they judge to be in Error though yet their Iudgment be utterly false and their killing and burning grounded upon such Iudgment and this hath been the Papists way of proceeding as is related in Semper Iidem wherein is mentioned the burning and destroying of a great number of such as they then called Hereticks whom Semper Iidem now calls Antient Phanaticks and he hath justified their Martyrdom to be Right and condemned the Martyred as Phanaticks and this is published in London 2. All Persecution about Religion and killing and burning for difference in matters of spiritual things hath been and is of the Devil and Antichrist both in the Papists and other false Christians though it hath long been practised in the World for to destroy the Workmanship of God the Persons and Creatures by Fires and Cruel Torments This is not of God but of the Devil especially when it is done upon such an unjust occasion as to destroy mens Persons by cruel tortures for the Error of their Minds This is of the Beast and Dragon spoken of in the Revelations For the Beast killed all that would not worship him Revel 13. for it was the Dragon that persecuted the Woman the true Church and made War with the Rèmnant of her Seed and cast floods out of his Mouth after the Woman had brought forth the Man-Child and he persued her into the Wilderness and then he gave power to the Beast his Seat and his great Authority as you may read and then that Beast to whom the Dragon gave Authority forced all to worship him and killed all that would not worship him and made War against them and overcame them And so it is manifest that this Practice which the Papists and false Christians have used of burning and killing all such as will not worship after their manner is of the Devil the Dragon and Antichrist and hath no foundation in God but is of the wicked One to all Intents and Purposes And thus I have shewed the Papists Practices in Queen Maries dayes and at all times before and since of burning and destroying of such as differ from them in religious Matters are of the Devil and Antichrist though the Author of Semper Iidem seems to justifie the Death of the Martyrs and hath reproachfully villified them about an hundred years after they are dead by the scornful Name of Phanaticks Fourthly I shall now shew something concerning the Cause of the Publication of Semper Iidem which the Author saith is from the late Insurrection in London and comparing them with their Predecessors he thought fit to publish the same as in his Epistle NOw in answer to this As for the Insurrection in London I shall not justifie it nor speak a word in vindication of the said Persons Proceedings but shall leave them without giving my Judgment upon them further than this That it was an Evil Occasion administred against such as were no way guilty thereof who are deeply suffering this day Imprisonment and Persecution and their Peaceable Meetings broken up and they violently dealt withal in many particulars and onely upon the occasion of that Insurrection aforesaid And how Unjust it is let all the World judge that any should suffer for the Faults of others And how Unequal it is that many should be Imprisoned
Scriptures but rather such as inflict Sufferings upon us And for any of our Principles and Doctrines that we hold we deserve no punishment nor persecution because hereof for we testify before God Angels and Men That we hold and maintain no principles of Religion nor practice of Worship nor Doctrines of Gospel but what are according to Scriptures of Truth And we are ready to be tryed and proved in that case and to bring the matter to Issue in fair proceedings with any man that shall object the contrary And thus the Judgment of Scriptures are for us as we suppose at least and if we are in Errour either by denying any thing on the one hand or affirming any thing on the other we have not been hitherto well Proceeded against in order to our Conviction Secondly We are accused as for a great Crime and Imprisoned because we meet together in the Name and Power of Iesus Christ to wait upon him and to Worship him in Spirit and Truth in Prayer to God and Exhortations one to another to Righteousness and Holiness But what Iudgment doth the Law and Gospel and holy Scriptures give and our Neighbours also between us in this Case Le ts come all to their Barr and receive Iust Sentence Plea First The Judgment of God's Law Christ's Gospel and holy Scriptures are not against our meeting together but on the contrary do command us and Exhort us with promises of blessings to meet together in the Worship of God and to wait upon him And it was the practice of the primitive Christians to assemble themselves together in that form and manner as we do at this day to wit in a private manner and separate from the multitude and all the Iews Synagogues as in Acts 1. 17. The Saints and Disciples both Men and Women to the number of one hundred and twenty which were far more then five went into an upper Chamber being a private place and no publique Synagogue and their waited upon the Lord in Prayer and Supplication according as we do at this day Thus the Scriptures justify the way and manner of our Meetings and condemns them not Again in Acts 20. 8. the Saints and Disciples were gathered together in an upper Chamber and Paul Preached unto them until mid-night Here was a private Meeting far above the number of five and out of any Publick Synagogues and Christ Iesus said Where two or three are met together in my Name there I am in the midct of them And He and his Disciples often met together in private places apart from the Jews publick Worships sometimes in a Ship and sometimes in Desarts and on the Mountains and in particular Houses and Preached and Prayed this the Scriptures Prove And also in Heb. 10. 25. we are expresly commanded not to neglect the Assembling of our selves together but to exhort one another and so much the more as the day approached By all which Scriptures with many more that might be quoted it is Evident to all the World That our meeting together for the Worship of God in that form and manner as Practised by us is according to the Law of God the Gospel of Christ Jesus and the holy Scriptures And all these give Just Judgment for us and Justify us and therefore consequently condemn such as do violence to us for this practise of Meeting together for the Worship of God And thus though we are Accused and Imprisoned as Evil doers yet such our practise of meeting is manifestly according to the Law of God Gospel of Christ Scriptures Example of Saints and President of primitive Christians all which give Judgment for us Secondly What Judgment do our Neighbours give in this Case they say concerning our Meetings That they have known us to meet together in such manner for diverse years in their Towns and Villages and never knew nor understood of any harm or danger herein nor ever were any way prejudiced either in their Persons or Estates by our meetings The very witness of God in all our Neighbours do Testify and give Iudgment that our Meetings have alwayes been peaceable and quiet and that we come together in peace and good order and parted in the same and no person hath been harmed by such our Meetings enquire of the Nighbourhood and they will tell you they believe in their Consciences our Meetings are for good and have good effects and are not evil nor brings forth any evil to any And as for the manner of our Meeting and and sitting together it 's orderly and decently and of good report among men and for any Doctrine that ever was there held or heard by any none can truly accuse it to be either Error or Heresie or Sedition but on the contrary they know it witnesseth against all Sin and Iniquity and tends to the turning of people from Ungodliness and Unrighteousness to Truth and Holiness And many can tell this is effected by our Doctrine Preached in our Meetings and our Neighbours can witness that we part again in Peace and Good order and in convenient time and they can shew you they are not terrified nor the peace of the Land disturbed on our part by our Meetings which are in God's fear and to the Glory of his Name which all sober men know are according to the Law of God and Gospel and primitive Christians Example And thus our Neighbours give Judgment for us and in their Consciences do not Justify them that Imprison us for this matter of meeting together which Gods Law Gospel Scriptures and our Neighbours do thus clearly justifie Thirdly We are Accused as guilty of a heinous Crime and Imprisoned Because we refuse to Swear at all or take any Oath in any Case Plea First The Judgment of the Law of the New Testament of God and Gospel of Christ and Scriptures in this case is clear on our behalf As in the express Command of Christ in his Law and Scriptures Recorded Mat. 5. where he saith Swear not at all by Heaven nor Earth nor by Ierusalem nor by the Head but let your yea be yea and your nay nay for whatsoever is more comes of Evil. And again Iam. 5. the Apostle commandeth the Saints in these words Above all things my Brethren Swear not by Heaven nor Earth nor any other Oath And many holy Martyrs since the Apostles dayes did deny all Swearing Thus you see the Judgment of Christ Jesus and of the Gospel and of the Apostle and of Scriptures are so far from Condemning of us to Imprisonment and Banishment for our refusing to Swear that we are Commanded and Exhorted by them not to Swear at all and therefore consequently justify us in our refusing to Swear and thus give not Judgment for such as do Imprison and Persecute us for not Swearing Come to the Judgment of Christ his Gospel and holy Scriptures Let you and us appear together be fore their Judgment Seat whether they give judgment against us that deny all Swearing or
against you that Imprison us for that Cause And let the Lord God Angels and just Men give their Judgment in this Case we a poor Afflicted people do appeal to you for just Sentence of Judgment between us and our Opponents Secondly Let our Neighbours give their Judgment though we do refuse to take any Oath because of the Commands of Christ and his Gospel as aforesaid yet what harm hath this ever yet been to any of our Neighbours let them speak or what detriment ought this to be to any of them they will tell you Though we cannot formally take an Oath yet we are ready at all times to do the Truth and to speak it on all good occasions as much as if we did Swear upon a Book and they can trust us upon our words as much if not more then they can do any that Swear upon their Oaths and therefore they shall give judgment that according to their best knowledge we ought not to be Imprisoned and Banished though we cannot Swear formally upon a Book being the Truth is not suppressed nor yet the administration of justice ought to be obstructed for our refusing to Swear Thus the Neighbourhood bears witness for us and against such as deal hardly by us and Persecute us because hereof Fourthly We are accused as Heinous Offenders and imprisoned because 't is supposed We do not submit to obey the known Laws of the Land but break them and will not conform to the Church pay Tythes take Oaths leave meeting together c. though we know the Laws of the Land command these things Plea First As to submitting to all known Laws of the Land this is known to God and our Neighbours that our Principle and Practice is and ever hath been to submit to every Government and to submit to all Laws of men either by doing or by suffering as at this day we resist not the greatest of Afflictions and Tribulations that can be imposed on us and this is well known to our Neighbous and all People that we are submissive to all Laws of Men by patient Suffering without Resistance even when any Law requires any thing of us which we cannot perform for Conscience sake that Law we fulfil by patient suffering resisting no man noâ— rendring Evil for Evil to any And the Judgment of the Scriptures which are according to both Law and Gospel and the Presidents of Saints justifie us in this Case in chusing patiently to suffer the greatest Penalties of the Law rather than to obey by doing any such Law as requires things contrary to our pure Consciences as in the Example of the Three Children Dan. 3. who were commanded To fall down and worship the Golden Image at what time soever they heard the sound of the Musick upon the Penalty of being cast into the midst of the burning Fiery Furnace which Commandment they could not obey nor could Truth fall down to worship the Image but rather chused to suffer the Penalty of being cast into the midst of the burning Fiery Furnace which accordingly was done unto them Again in the Case of Daniel chap. 6. who was commanded To make no Petition to any God or man for Thirty Dayes save to King Darius upon the Penalty and Affliction of being cast into the Lyons Den But Daniel did rather chuse to suffer the Penalty to be cast into the Den of Lyons than to obey the Commandment and was cast into the Lyons Den. By these Examples of holy Men with many more that might be given out of the Scriptures 't is evident That Righteous Men will rather chuse to suffer than to obey any Law of Men contrary to their Consciences So the Law of God and Example of Saints and holy Scriptures give Judgment for us in this Case of rather chusing to suffer than to obey Laws contrary to our Consciences and consequently must needs condemn such that Persecute and Imprison us because they require Obedience of us in Things against our Consciences Secondly Though we do disobey Laws and cannot actively obey every Law of man when it requireth and commandeth things contrary to a good Conscience yet herein also are we justified by the Law of God Example of Saints and holy Scriptures and they give Judgement for us and consequently against our Enemies in this Case and in particular in the two Examples before mentioned in Daniel the Three Children were expresly commanded To fall down and worship the Golden Image and Daniel was also required by the King's Decree Not to pray to any God or Man save to King Darius yet all these Holy Men of God did absolutely disobey the Law and Decree so requiring of them and did contrary to the Commandment for the three Children did not how nor Daniel cease to pray to his God but prayed as at other times and yet were justified of God in so doing Also the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 4. 18. were commanded To Preach no more in the Name of Iesus but the Apostles did disobey their Commandment and went on and preached in the Spirit and Power of Christ contrary to the Commandment of the Rulers and appealed to them Whether it were not better to obey God than man Many Examples we might collect out of the Scriptures that the Servants of God did disobey the Commands of Kings and Rulers and could not obey by doing any Command contrary to God but rather choosed to suffer Afflictions and Death it self than to obey such Laws and Decrees as required any thing contrary to a pure Conscience and this is our case at this day we cannot obey by doing any thing against our Consciences but must break the Laws of men and disobey their Commandments rather than break the Law of God and sin against their own Consciences whatsoever we suffer because hereof and yet the Examples of Saints and Scriptures justifie us in this behalf And let all our Enemies cease to cry out Rebellious and Disobedient to Laws and Government for we are not such as do wilfully and obstinately disobey any Laws of Men but for Conscience sake and that we may not sin against God nor offend his Witness in us therefore we cannot obey Laws contrary to our Consciences whatsoeveâ— we suffer which we resist not nor rebel against any in this Case So that our Principles and Practices are to obey every Law and Government either by Doing or Suffering And though we disobey such Laws as are not according to the Law of God and rather do chose to suffer yet herein we are justified by the Law of God and the holy Scriptures Thirdly And as for our Conversations among men in respect of our daily walking and converse with them in our dealing in respect of Honesty and Faithfulness and Truth and Justness in Works and Words our Neighbours shall give Witness for us We will not justifie our selves 't is God that justifies us and the Law of God Gospel of Christ Scriptures Examples of Holy Men our