THE SEAT OF THE SCORNER Thrown Down OR Richard Hobbs his Folly Envy and Lyes in his late Reply to my Book called A Looking-Glass c. Manifested and Rebuked Whereunto is annexed my Call from the BAPTISTS to walk in the True LIGHT And a True Testimony to the Light and Power of Christ in the Heart With a few QUERIES to the said R. Hobbs By Luke Howard To which is added a further Answer by T. R. He that is first in his own Cause seemeth Just but his Neighbour cometh after and searcheth him out Prov. 18.17 The Lip of Truth shall be established forever but a Lying Tongue is but for a Moment Prov. 12.19 Printed in the Year 1673. TO THE READER Reader INto whose hands this may come for your sakes who are so much troubled that there should be so much contending and as you say striving betwixt People professing Religion this know that we called Quakers are forced thereunto and that for Righteousness sake for the Lord knows it is so because the Baptists began first with us as soon as the King gave Liberty they fell on us as David said laying to our Charge things we knew not of Lying Stories of seven Years old out of Lincolnshire of one Richard Anderson of Panton which never was at a Quakers Meeting in his Life but at many Baptists Meetings as appears by their own Writing and so in Hypocrisie would cloath him with a Quaker by Name who was rather a Baptist and only because he at some times after his own manner would speak of the Light Within against them which Light these Men so hate that for a little spoken from a Man which was never one of us neither in Reality nor yet in Formality they should make so much a do and such a Cry of to the World as they have done and would have the World judge of the Light of Christ which we say every Man is lighted with by the Carriage of him who was so near themselves And now mark because our Friends gave an Answer in plain Truth to their false Charge Richard Hobbs Pastor of the Baptists in Dover as he calls himself in Envy undertook to write a Relation of one Charles Bayly of his Miscarriages Ten or Eleaven Years old and because a deal of his Mad Actions were true for which he must bear his own Burden therefore they thought that that should crown their Lyes in their former Story from Lincolnshire and so they Printed them together but his spirit to wit C. B. and his Work we did and do deny as by the Looking-Glass for Baptists doth at large appear unto which I refer the Reader So that I am thus constrained for Righteousness sake to appear in Print once more by way of Reply unto this Scoffer's Night-Labour a Work which he hath been Sixteen Years exercising in and of late he hath began in Print to shew the Fruit of his Labour against the Light Within and snarling at the Heels of those who believe in it and although he reads in the Scriptures which he calls his Rule That many are Called and few Chosen yet is his Eye so watching for Evil that the Fall of one Called and not Chosen is to him a rich Feast as appears by his first and second Printing of the Miscarriages of one Charles Bayly and if his last had not been redoubling of his Evil in Envy in his first by Lying Scoffing and Mocking I might have rested at this time in Silence knowing right well that my first Answer to his Envious Charge against the Light of Christ Jesus is clear enough without Rubbing as he scoffingly calls it to his first and might have served for this second also to all Impartial Minds Luke Howard THE Seat of the Scorner Thrown Down c. ANd now Reader because I am accused in pag. 9. of this Night-Watch-man's Labour of my leaving the Ordinances of God as he calls them I shall here give a brief Account of my leaving the People called Anabaptists in their carnal Water-dipping and elementary Worship where I with many more were as now many are looking for the Living among the Dead and in our meeting in those dayes and performing our Work and Duty as we then thought in that which we call'd Gospel-Faith even then would God's Witness the Light arise and shew me that we were not in the Gospel-Faith which we so much professed and that we were not Baptized by the One Spirit into the One Body Here the Lord in the Light put me to a stand and set me spiritually to commune with my own Heart in a weighty Sense of my own Condition and then in the Light I saw That we were all ignorant of the One Baptism and One Faith as well as of the One Lord and one Body into which that Baptism gives an enterance It is true we were dipped in Water in Hope of Life and Peace and call'd Brothers and Sisters by Water-dipping but that Formality satisfied not the Cry of my Soul which was still in me after spiritual Knowledge and Acquaintance with the Lord which by the Light shining in my Heart I saw was not to be had in carnal Water notwithstanding Men do so much quote Mat. 28. for Water-dipping unto which in the Baptists Looking-Glass I have spoken fully in pag. 12 13. unto which I refer the Reader But to return Then I became very much dissatisfied and constrain'd to for sake those things People in their Observations and that for good Conscience sake which I once practiced while the Vail was over my Heart in a Day of great Reproach here I was willing to forget those that things were behind in the Death and press forward after Life which they in their dayes were Shaddows of and that is all they ever were but now there is but one Lord one Faith and one Baptism At that time one of the Preachers asked me when separated Why I would not walk with them My Answer was Because neither they nor I was in the Gospel Faith and that if ever I should know it that it would be as plain to me as I saw the Door with my Natural Eye And now hath the Lord sealed that Faith unto me in the Light by which I then saw my self out of it everlasting Praises be unto his Name forever Then my Life became as it were alone and like a Wanderer seeking Rest for the Cry continued and the Witness attended but I knew it not to be the Gift of God's Grace and that the Reproof of Instruction given by it was the Way to Life and so took little Warning by it more then to live a kind of a desolate Life for want of Peace of Conscience with the Lord and in this State would I Weep and Cry in secret for want of true Bread to give Life to my Soul which lay in Death yet would I not return again to those empty Shaddows though importuned thereunto but the Father's House I sought where
there was Bread enough without which I should have perisht forever yet for all this the Spirit of the World prevailed carrying me captive to the Law of Sin and Death but never into Lewd Ranting as falsly accused by this Night-Watch-man in which Day of Distress and great Loss came in the Year 1655 two of the Servants of the Lord preaching the Everlasting Gospel which was as Lightning arising out of the East and shining unto the West even through all in me to the very Thought in the Heart by the Word which is the Searcher and Discerner of them to the reaching unto the Seed of the Kingdom and declaring of a Body of Death standing notwithstanding Men's Profession of Religion unto which the Witness answered so that now I knew He that believeth the Gospel hath the Witness in himself and out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Waters this spake he of the Spirit as it is written in the Scriptures of Truth which are to be read believed and fulfilled Reader this is pretious to read in the Eternal Light and Life and though this was in my Mouth sweet yet afterwards it became very bitter in the Daily Cross to my own Will and a Day of Sorrow and weeping I knew over him whom I had pierced so when it was Day I wished for Night and when it was Night I wished for Day this indeed was a Day of great Distress in which I saw the Abomination which made desolate stand where it ought not Then was I to understand what it meant what God's Will was in it in making of it manifest by his Grace the Light whose Will in the Light and Grace I saw was my Sanctification throughout in Soul Body and Spirit and here we leave the World that lies in Wickedness and the Professors of the Saints Words with all that have a Form of Godliness without the Power behind us in and amongst the many Opinions and Voices of Lo here and Lo there is Christ and so we come to know the Voice of the true Shepherd whose Voice we heard inwardly and abiding with him do forever hear in the Light the Word of Faith in the Heart that we may do it So that now I say By the Grace of God and Light within I am what I am and therefore is my Testimony amongst many Brethren to the Grace and Light within through a living Experience of the good Effects of it and against all these Baptist Watchmen of the Night who plead for Sin term of Life and are Backbiters Slanderers and Persecutors of the Innocent and there will he have his Ministers conclude their doctrine and his Servants their Work who must all be paid off with his own Reward of Torment with him and his Angels forever which will be also the State and Condition of all Hypocrites and Rebellers against the Light if they repent not And this my Testimony agrees with the Testimony of the Servants of the Lord in Ages past But to return to that which was to me bitter when the Lord had lighted my Candle and with it searched my innermost Parts then the Body of Death out of which ariseth all Unrighteousness appeared indeed like a Mountain of Blackness and Darkness So that I saw no Way how to get over it and was ready to faint in my Mind but the Lord whose Love is great and also hath Respect to the bruised Reed and smoaking Flax and will it neither break nor quench until he bring forth Judgment unto Victory supported me by the more sure Word of Prophecy unto the which I did well to take heed as to a Light which shined in my dark Heart untill the Day dawned and the day Star did arise therein and then sprung a secret Hope in God and the Word of his Grace whose promise rise in my Heart That he would cleave the Rocks and the Mountains that the Redeemed of the Lord might come to Sion and now Glory be unto his Name his Promise is fulfilled in a good Measure and all along unto this Day and still is it a support unto me in the midst of all my Troubles and Tryals in my Travels from Death to Life in which my Temptations have been many yea very many both within and without in the Daily Cross but still was and is the Lord in the Light a God at Hand making good his Promises unto his own Seed in whom they are all yea and amen saith my Soul in a living Experience in which I have a Testimony to bear for the Lord to the Grace Spirit Light and Life of Christ Jesus and that it is sufficient for me and all Men in this Age as it was for Paul in that Age and Time of his deepest Exercises for every true Believer hath the Witness in himself by a living Experience and he who hath not hath no just Claim to the Promise of God in Christ Jesus declared of in the holy Scriptures for the Scriptures were given forth in the Light by the Motion of Life in the holy Men of God as in them it moved for after Ages to read and believe and in the Light to wait for the fulfilling of them and not for Men to make a Trade and a Gain of nor yet for Men to live in the Profession of take up a Rest short of the fulfilling of them as all the Night-Watch-men and Children of the Night do who plead against the Light and for Sin term of Life and so can be no true Witnesses for God in their Generation though their Profession may be large of the Prophets Christ and the Apostles words with varieties of Voices and Opinions crying Lo here and Lo there is Christ but he said Believe them not for as the Lightning ariseth in the East and shineth unto the West through all even so shall be and so is the Coming of the Son of Man the Second Adam the Quickening Spirit the Lord from Heaven who according to the Flesh is declared to be the Son of David but according to the Spirit the Son of God by the Resurrection from the Dead which we called Quakers believe and live in the Hope of witness against all the Night-Watch-men and False Accusers which say we deny it and herein according to the Spirit must all come to know him yea and him worship serve fear and obey that ever receive Peace by him And this is a true and Faithful Testimony against the Watch-men of the Night and the Opposers of the Light of Jesus Christ within born through a living Experience to the Light of Jesus which we make mention of and no other in whom is Life and his Life is the Light of Men to lead all into Salvation that follow it and to condemn all the Disobedient unto it for this is the Condemnation that Light is come and Men love Darkness rather then Light because their Deeds are Evil and he that loves the Light brings his Deeds unto it that he may know
he writes one thing and meanes another which shews a Tongue without a Bridle and his work to be with two Faces and by the Scriptures which he calls his Rule is he found in the vain Religion My last Testimony it needed no Rubbing for I here testifie again it is clear Truth and clear enough to manifest the Deceit of him and those concerned with him in it and it is here offered again for him with other hypocrites to see their Faces in and also to the unbyassed mind and to answer both his pieces of Envy Lyes Scoffs and Mocks and were I not constrained for the Light and Truths sake I should rather chuse Silence then to Answer either of his pieces of dirt which at best is but Food for the Serpent and his Seed to feed upon Again in Page 9. he accuses me with being a lewd Ranter in Dayes past Now behold his Envy for I have believ'd in the Light of Christ and have been called a Quaker about Seventeen or Eighteen Years and known to my Neighbours from my Childhood which is above Fifty Years and therefore the less Answer may serve this Man's Envy who is a fierce Accuser and a worse Judge and my answer is by Way of Challenge to him and all his Abettors in Envy To prove in Dayes past any thing against me more then the foolish Course of the World which the Men thereof through Profession take a Liberty in yet short of bodily Vncleanness Murder and such like gross Enormities but if I had been as bad as he renders me and worse also to wit If seven Devils Mary Magdalene's State had been my Condition why should his Eye or any Man's be evil because the Lords is good She loveth much because much was forgiven her And now from sensible Experience to our own Souls we can testifie for God That his tender Mercies is over all his Works and reaches to the end of the Earth follows Man calling to him in his vile Estate yea in the high-Wayes and Hedges when the proud Pharisaical Professor refuseth the Wedding-Dinner though bidden and invited as this Nights Watch-Man with many more have been and have done Then he goes on in his former Manner in battering against his own raised up Bulwark saying I contradicted my self in the Relation of Nicholas Woodman in Page 9. because I said Many were baptized by William Kiffin This is not Contradiction at all to my saying Nicholas Woodman was the first Baptist Preacher raised up in the County of Kent and so I say again for they are my Words in my Book to which I refer the Reader and then Judge who is the Two-Fac'd Man and a Perverter of Words and compare my Testimony to his and then judge whether he hath answered singlely or may not be justly called a Watchman of the Night by his vailing of himself with his Night-Garments under a Hood with two Faces and then Harlot like wipe his Mouth as if all were well and lays his Lyes to my Charge of which I could make a large Bundle and of slanderous Aspersions and scoffing Language which his untimely Birth is filled with I have been short considering the large Advantage I might and could have taken as for Lyes I can prove at least Six or Seven more then I have answered unto And then his slanderous Words of Woodman's being my Brother and plucking out mine own Bowels to besmier them as for Woodâ— an I deâ—iâ—d him in Time past before I lest the Carnal Baptists and their Carnal Worship and beggerly Elements which he continued in long after preaching up and down so no Brother of mine but theirs Root and Branch And as for the plucking out of my Bowels an Inhuman or Unchristian like Word to besmeer them in saying That he was the first Baptist Preacher raised up in the County of Kent for they were my Words which I still affirm for Truth though by this Night-watch-Man Perverted into another Sence now wherein are they besmeered by me by calling him their Root more then they have fouled themselves by continuing in his foot-steps only in this they differ he was for the Particular Election and they for the General as more at large may be seen in my Looking-Glass And as for my being a lewd Ranter as he slanderously and maliciously accuses me if it were true as it s notoriously false that would not now help his bad cause for what saith the Apostle such were some of you but now ye are wash'd but ye are sanctified and you who were sometimes Darkness are now Light in the Lord c. Yet this blind Watch-Man thinks in his dark Heart that his accusing me for Time past for want of present matter to accuse me now of or ever since I have been call'd a Quaker will help his bad and dark Cause and Pharisaical Profession or crying out I thank thee O Father that I am not as this Publican is or once was c Tedious would it be to answer all at large but this day is this Scripture Isa 28.21 22. fulfilled upon this Mocker God is a doing of his Work his strange Work and bringing to pass his Act yea his strange Act now therefore be ye not Mockers lest your Bands be made strong And all whose Eyes are in their Head may clearly see this Man's Bands of Darkness made strong indeed that dares so Presumptuously Preach and Print against the Life and Light of Christ Jesus and this is all he hath to cover himself with and Hole this Fox hath to creep into to wit in calling it the Quakers Erroneous Light and the Dark Light of the Quakers but that Cover is too narrow to hide him under and that Bed is too short to stretch himself on and will be so found in the Day of the Lord when his Blasphemy shall be charg'd upon his own Head But now I shall return to his three Particulars in pag. 1. to prove C. B. in Fellowship with the Quakers and led by their Spirit saith he First Bayly Prophesied saw false Visions and pretended to Miracles 2dly He was then in Fellowship with the Quakers 3dly He was led by their Spirit Now if his last be false as it is on which his whole Building depends and by the Truth being removed then must all his Work and Labour fall as dirt cast into a Dunghil And that his last is false take this Answer as followeth Christ Jesus prophesied That false Prophets should arise and deceive many who transform themselves into many things like the true Prophets to deceive as their Father the Devil did those whose Minds are outward yea and if possible the very Elect whose Minds are inward yet who dare charge the true Apostles to be led by the same Spirit the false were except Cain and Ishmael's Off spring and the false Prophets under the Law that stole their words from their Neighbours and they ran and prophesied when the Lord never sent them and therefore they profitted
save from Sin and the power of Darkness and Death which rules more or less in the Hearts of all the Children of Disobedience to the Light and those be they that rebel against the Light they know not the Way thereof neither do they abide in the Path thereof for to him that believes it is a Path shining more and more unto the perfect Day and in it doth the Lord meet with Man thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh Righteousness in thy Way and he that is the Light of men is the Way to the Father and he that knows him knows the Father also for he reveals the Glory which none of the Princes of this World by their earthly Wisdom can come to behold or ever could but we behold his Glory say they which had believ'd in the Light and were Children of it which by the wise Men were accounted Accursed and that they knew not the Law and so it is now To you it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to others in Parables To you which believe in the Light and so receive the Power to walk in it and know the Way of it the Just Man's Path which is a shining Light and rebels not against it To you is the Father become a Fountain unsealed to you iâ— the Wel-spring of eternal Life opened to you is the Power given tâ—â—ec-me the Sons of God now are we the â—on of God but it doth not yeâ—â—ppear what we shall be now can we call God Father and cry to biâ—â— in â—iving Sense of his bâ—getting Power for dayly Bread that we may be strengthened with might in the inward Man and that his Kingdom may come which comes not by Observation as lo here and lo there neither doth it stand in Words but in Power and consisteth of Righteousness Peace and Joy in the holy Spirit And that you may have Fellowship with us herein is the Travel of our Souls and that you may know him whom the Father hath given to be a Leader and a Commander to all that receive him the Light and quickning Spirit and him that hath this Hope purifies himself as God is pure and hath the Witness in himself by his continuing believing and Walking in the Light where the Spring of Eternal Power is witnessed to become the Sons of God without Rebuke and now if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light then have we Fellowship one with another mark that and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sins and this is the Fellowship which the Saints in Light have with God in the Church which is in God and one with another by one Baptism which is our entrance by the one Spirit into the one Body of which Christ Jesus is the Head World without end And this is a Plain Faithfull and True Testimony born through living Experience to the true Light of Christ Jesus which we in scorn called Quakers believe in and declare of to all men in the Love of God and of no other saith Luke Howard Here followeth a few Queries for this Night-Watch-man to Answer according to Scripture before ever he be by his Neighbour searched out the third time and found again as he hath twice been already a raking in the Bottomless Pit to fetch up Matter against the Light of Christ Jesus 1. VVHether the Light of Jesus be not the Light of Men and a Measure of the Spirit of Truth given to every Man as a Talent to profit withal and whether it doth not convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment and is not the Condemnation of all that believe not in it seeing that the Condemnation is that Light is come into the World and men love Darkness rather then Light because their Deeds are evil II. Whether ever we called Quakers ever declared of or testified to any other Light then that which John called the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World we saying with Paul That God hath shined into our Hearts with it to give us the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ and if we or any People else believe not in it then isâ—t not the Condemnation of all such but if we do believe in it we have the Witness in our selves even the Light Life according to the Scriptures which we do believe are to be fulfilled III. Whether all that oppose the Light in the Heart be not Opposers of the Life of Jesus seeing that in him is Life and his Life is the Light of Men and whether all that gain-say and oppose this Light of Jesus be not Fighters against God and Blasphemers against his Temple and the Worshippers therein and so have no part of the Inheritance with Saints in Light IV. What is the Word in the Heart that Man may hear it and do it and what is that Word which is said to be the Name of Christ Jesus the Power and Wisdom of God by which Word we may come to know him who is from Everlasting to Everlasting the same yesterday to day and forever V. What is the Manifestation of the Spirit which is given to every man to profit withal if it be not the Light within and what is the Light which lighteth every Man if it be not the Light within and what is the Quakers Light if it be not that which every Man is lighted with seeing thou makest a Difference crying out The Quakers Light and Wo be to him that walks by the Dark Light of the Quakers VI. What is the Grace of God and where doth it appear which brings Salvation that hath appeared unto all Men mark unto all men if it be not the Light of Christ in the Heart and whether thâ— Quakers have not a share in that Common Grace as well as others seeing it is to all Men then what difference between the Quakers Light and all mens in the first Gift to man VII What is that Leaven which the Woman took and hid in three Measures of Meal until the whole was leavened and what is the Grain of Mustard-Seed which a Man took and sowed in his Field the least of all Grains and grows the greatest of all Hearbs and what are the Fowls of the Air which lodge in the Branches of it And what is the Pearl hid in the Field and what and where is the Field and who is the Merchant Man and what is that he parts with for the Field and how and with what doth he dig deep to find the Pearl And what is the Groat the Woman lost and found again when she had sweeped her House and what is the House and Broom with which she sweeped And what is that Talent the Housholder gave to his Servants and then himself went into a far Country for a time and then at his return again called them to an Account And what is the Draw-Net cast into the
Calm so that in their Root to wit Baptizing into the Faith of Particular Electioners they being false neither Branch nor Fruit can be true but a confused Breed Increase and Body is the very best state they can lay claim unto by their own Rules if the General Opinion and Practice of Lamb and Barber be true of whose Opinion these Baptists in Kent profess now to be of though they did arise from the particular Root and devoutly preach't it up as if they were Naturaliz'd into the Root of the General by Baptism and so make Proselites to themselves in that which they know not whereof they do affirm not being Spiritually Baptiz'd into the Vniversal Love of God and so you Leaders of this People cause them to err and they that are led by you are destroyed for where the Blind lead the Blind all must needs fall into the Ditch and when they are proselited to hold Truth in Vnrighâ—eousness they are made two-fold more the Children of Hell then they were before because they are now covered with a Profession without Life which God's Spirit leads not to but mans Traditions as before proved by their false Baptism And here many simple Ones think themselves in their state to be Rich and Full because they can now say something for their Opinion as they have leavned of their Leaders when as they are Poor Blind and Naked and as empty of the Spirit of Life to lead as ever they were in dayes past and as ignorant of the One Lord and One Baptism by One Spirit into the One Body whereof Christ Jesus is the Head as ever they were because the Root and Foundation of their standing is rotten and laid in Babel and Confusion and all this appears sufficiently unto those whose Eyes are opened by the Eye-salve of Jesus who counsels all to buy of him Eye-salve that they may see to wit themselves in the Fall and him who is the Light a Quickening Spirit to redeem up to God out of the Fall and all such behold and understand things which differ and can see the Ground and Root of you and of the Bitterness which remains in you Carnal Baptists against the Spiritual Apâ—eatance and Light of Jesus and the Truth professed in it by the People of God called Quakers Oh! the height of Enmity and Abomination of Cruelty which lodgeth in the Hearts of some of your proud Leaders who call the Scripture their Rule and yet walk so contrary to it for doth it not say Do unto all Men as you would they should do unto you which in many things you do not as in your Printing and Publishing Forgeries and Falshoods and the Miscarriages of some who never were established amongst us but since denied by us do you not hereby seek to cast Dirt upon us all in your Pamphlets as if it were a thing of yesterday and allowed of by us at this time Cannot you see your Envy and great Hypocrisie in this thing For do not you know who are the Authors of that Story that it is about Ten Years ago that Charles Baily was a Prisoner in Dover And do not you know in your own Consciences that he hath been by us call'd Quakers deny'd for many Years And is he not then to us as a Stranger or Heathen man according to the Scriptures And what is that in you that lays his Miscarriages to our Charge now is not that against the Scriptures which you call your Rule And besides you belye him too in some things as bad as he was and so you shew your spirit to all men and especially to the Wise in Heart who will forever conclude you to be as you are and that he is not to be accounted of us nor his Actions laid to our Charge as you envious People have done you were moved to do it but surely you were so moved in Envy as were Josephs Brethren when they sold him into Egypt it was a Murdering Motion at the best of it but God was with him to their Shame and Confusion of Face in due time and so is he with us and I do believe though you do not now Blush yet you shall Blush and be Ashamed when the Fruits of your own doings shall correct your Folly For what have you to glory in but your own Shame If we should look back among your Society as you deserve what might be said as many of you well know and some pretended Leaders too Thou that saith another should not Steal dost thou Steal here read your selves but for the sake of the Simple I shall not here inlarge yet suffer a little to be said concerning N. Woodman aforesaid who was the first Baptist-Preacher and Dipper reared up in this County of Kent from whence your Rice is whose Evils I will not lay to the charge of the Vnconcerned in this matter but to speak a little to inform you which know not your Root and Rice which before is call'd Babel and Confusion and rotten and now judge your selves if it were not so for there be many yet living which know the Truth of this following Discourse and much more This Woodman took to Wife and honest sober widdow Woman in Dover named Katherine Brown who lived in good fashion in the Town and for his Profession's sake married him who in idleness spent her Means and then abused her Body with many Blows when he had her in the wide Fields in the Wilde of Kent then would he leave her there to shift for her self and himself go from Place to Place to preach up Water-baptism of whose with more since his time filthy unheard of Abominations both in spirit and practice there might be more said then you can say of C. Baily as some of your selves well know which we are not willing to relate in Print except provoked to it by your hereafter Carriages Now C. Baily we are as clear of as we are of you in the sight of God and Wise Men and as clear as the Churches were of them denied by them in the Primitive Times of which the Scripture is a full Witness for us and against you in this Case unto your great shame in putting forth this your Folly in Print of Ten Years conceivings Now this Man your Root and from whence you rose was not in his day inferior to any of you in preaching the Scripture words without Life as you do and in getting Disciples to him as you do but his Folly was made manifest as yours in due time will also be who through feigned words deceive the Hearts of the Simple and make them two fold more the Children of Hell then they were before they came amongst you as said Christ Jesus to the Pharisees in whose steps you are found with the Sheep's Clothing but in the Wolves Nature inwardly ravening and so your Righteousness doth not exceed theirs because the Ravening and Murdering Nature is standing in you as in them which can look seven eight or ten
years backward to smite with the Fist of Wickedness and persecute the Innocent with your Tongues for want of power in your Hands to effect your Wills whose Opinions we well know and much more then is here said and what is here said is not there a cause for it let the Unbyassed in Heart and Mind judgâ— in the Case and let the Lord judge who judgeth not as man in the Fall judgeth but will judge Righteous Judgement But to return Now this Man your Root is gone and many which knew him not are gotten into his Form crying up your Water-Baptism as the Jews did Circumcision and a Temple with other things which God commanded in its Day as was Baptism to John which was to decrease but the one Baptism of Christ by the one Spirit into the one Body was to increase as John testified of him and stands a Witness in the Holy Scriptures against you all And so we say There is one Lord one Faith and one Baptism to be contended for and to be lived in by all who are of the Church which is in God of which Christ Jesus is the Head World without end when all things which are seen shall have an End And this Testimony lives in my Heart for God That it is neither Baptism nor not Baptism in Water that availeth any thing no more then Circumcision but a New Creature here read yourselves and as many as walk according to this Rule to wit of the New Creature Peace be unto them and to the whole Israel of God and now Wisdom is justified of her Children and every Tree is known by its Fruit so are you to all whose Eyes are open to see your Folly and Envy in raking Ten Years back as if you had sate brooding the Cockatrice Egg all this time to hatch forth the Serpent's Seed of Envy to come behind and bruise the Heel of an Innocent People which have deny'd and do deny and all along our Principle hath been against such spirits as C. Bayly's was of Ten Years since and is of now But Richard Hobbs who takes to himsâ—â—f the name of Pastor of the Baptists in Dover sâ—â—th in pâ—gâ— 7. of their Hatcht up Envy That â—f the Quakerâ— should deâ—â— Charles Bayly to be owned a very eminent Man amongst them at the time of his Imprisonment that then they will render themselvâ—◠〈…〉 Persons that ever professed Religion Thus Caperaâ—â—◠〈…〉 exâ—lts himself as it he spoke Truth and knew all the Qâ—â—â—â—â—s Minds at that time but his Anger over-ruliâ—g his Knowledge 〈◊〉 to seek of his Proof although he seems to provâ—â—t by his comâ—â—â— on Lords Day after as he saith to the Prison and there saw C. B. and most of the Quakers in Town with him and he Pray'd and some of them kneeled A poor Proof He there neglects relating That several of he Men Friends were then Prisoners in Dover Castle and besides amongst them at Liberty there were some which did not own C. Bayley so much as R. Hobbs reporteth of though to him it was not declared and besides Anne Howard my Wife I being then a Prisoner in the Castle did so far disown him that she sent up to London to the Elders of Friends and gave them an Account of his mad Actions who sent down two Friends to look after him and they testified against him when they saw him this Friends did not acquaint the Baptists with who we knew waited for Mischief but Friends Care was of him to preserve him if possible and to restore him in the Spirit of Meekness and Love as our Duty is according to Scripture but when no Recovery can be then deny'd as he was and is to this day And how can be charge the Principle or Body of our Friends with him save Envy it self And besides those Friends which chiefly were with him in the Prison were young Convinced and tender and could not easily discern and afraid to judge not knowing what to say but to us in the Castle Prison when they came up to us they would speak as it was but this did not we see meet to acquaint the Baptists with but rather endeavoured to get him to London which was done in order to his Recovery so that Friends are clear of him in the sight of God and according to Scripture although the Baptists in envy seek to lay Stumbling-blocks in the way of the Simple by it so do transgress the Law of God and Scriptures which they in words call their Rule which say Thou shalt not lay a Stumbling-Block in the way of the Blind but shalt fear thy God But they shew their Spirit to the full and the Lord judge between us and them for his Seed's sake And surely if these men had been in the dayes of Christ and the Apostles they would have done as the Jews did lay blame to the Life and Doctrine of them because of Miscarriages in Judas and others of which the Scripture declares much and that through them the Name of God was blasphemed but surely the Blasphemers were to bear their burden from the Lord as well as the Cause-givers and so musâ— all now for the Lord will not be mocked but as every one sows so must he reap even the fruits of their own doings and so must you for all your Blasphemy against the Light of Jesus which we declare of which every man is lighted withal according to the Scriptures though you presumpuously sometimes call it Natural and scoffingly and enviously the Quakers dark Light with many more blasphemous words as the Jews of old did in whose steps you are found walking and whose works you are found doing in the spirit of envy which said This is the Heir come let us kill him that the Inheritance may be ours now he that envyeth is a Man-slayer or Murderer and we know that no Murderer hath Eternal Life abiding in him and we may justly desire of the Lord to be delivered from such unreasonable men which so shew your Teeth as very ready to bite if you had but power crying out in a publick Assembly of Baptists in Dover That he which answered your false Accusations of eight or mine years Envy deserv'd to have his Ears nail'd to the Pillory for only his setting two Letters for his Name which shews your spirit to all wise men sufficiently And therefore let your Profession be what it will the body of death is standing in you in which the Persecutor and Murderer lives for how unlike a true Christian are your works in raking for matter ten years back to beget in people an evil Opinion of the Quakers and what will you get by it amongst the wise in Heart but shame and contempt for our Rock is not as your rock is as late experience hath shown our Enemies themselves being Judges and now you shew what seed you are of by biting at our Heels and smiting us with the Fist of Wickedness and persecuting us with your Tongues
was high time it had been buried long since that it might have been rotten before now but now to Print such long-past things shews thy spirit and thy self to be but a Woolf in the Sheep's Clothing and so a very unfit Pastor to over-look a Flock and especially the Flock of Christ when thou art alwayes a snarling at our Heels as the Serpent's Nature is bringing back Blows of Ten Years old and of that which we are no more to be charged with then the Saints of old as before declared might be with the false spirits which were once amongst them and then went out into the World as C. Baily is gone Now all had a beginning of the Work in themselves before they went out from the Church and at the first appearance of that spirits working in the Mâ—stery of Iniquity and transforming of it self as an Angel of Lâ—ght for to â—udge a whole Body and Church of People to be all led by that spirit is not this to be the Accuser of the Brethren and especially when that people deny testifie against that spirit in due time as you Baptists know in your own Conscience we have done is not this Wickednesâ— and Envâ— drunk in by you as an Ox drinks in Water and surelâ— if you had not made your selves drunk with the Whore's Cup of Abominations you must needs have been Wiser Men but having drank deep the dreggs so stick in your Throats that makes you thus vomit up your own shame and that Nature nothing will clense you of short of the Divine Name of Christ Jesus which leadeth to God but you in the Old Man's Nature and Envious Holiness can get the words to talk of and profess in the Ravening Nature feâ—ching up such old Matter against the Quakers of Ten Years standing and Print it as if People should believe it were now our Principle Spirit and Practice against which with the Pastor and his Flock which have a hand or consent to it we have a Testimony for the Lord to bare in the Truth which is Christ Jesus our Light and Life For he that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life he which hath the Son hath the Father also unto whom be Everlasting Praise And blessed are they which are not offended in Christ Jesus the Light of men who is the Foundation that God has laid and chief Corner-stone of this Age as in Ages past though the wise Master-builders refuse now to build thereon as the Generations of old did but now is the Lord a taking of the Wise in their own Craftiness with the little Foxes which destroy the Vineyard from and by whom Offences come but We be to them by whom they come because if they do not fall on this stone Christ Jesus and so be broken to pieces it will certainly fall on them and grind them to powder when there shall be none to deliver Therefore the Wise in Heart will prize their time whilst it is called to day and whilst they have the Light to believe in it that so they may be the Children of it lest darkness comes upon them and so their feet stumble upon the dark Mountains even at noon day for Light was in Goshen when Darkness was and is in Egypt even such darkness as may be felt of Sodom and Egypt spiritually so called where our Lord was and is Crucified he that can read let him understand and prize his day and live to God and not to himself that so in all things God may he glorified in all and through all and over all who is Blessed forever and forever Amen saith The 14th of the 5th Moneth 1672. Luke Howard THE Water-Baptists Reproach REPELD Being A further REPLY Answering a Defence of R. Hobbs to his pretended Impartial Narrative of one C. Bayly hereto a pretended Quaker A Story of 11 years standing IN Defence of an Answer to the said Narrative clearing the People call'd Quakers of the Water-Baptist's Calumny and Abuse blabbed out against them By T. R. Printed in the Year 1673. TO THE Impartial Reader HAving lately read a Pamphlet whose Epistle to his Reader is subscribed Richard Hobbs weighed the Arguments and consider'd the Tendency of that Discourse I could do no less then write a few Lines as reasonâ—ble Remarks upon it The Piece is averred by the Author to be a Sober Reply to Luke Howard which had the Author perform'd he neither had thus abused thee nor occasion'd me this Trouble And truly Reader I must tell thee I have not often met with more Impertinency or Abuse wrapt up in so small a Fardle which confirms me that the Promise of a Sober Reply in the Front of his Pamphlet was to Gild the Poyson-Pill to swallow the more glib without which Artifice I doubt not but he 's sufficiently sensible the Palate of this Age would not easily touch much less take his Potion How considerable Richard Hobbs is amongst his Brethren I determine not but as a Prâ—acher and Water dipper at Dover amongst them of his Perswasiâ—n he is exercised and has been for some years past and writ a Supplement to a strange Prodigy or Miracle pretended to be wrought by his brother R. James a Preaching Dipper or Water-Baptist in Lincolnshire The first piece of Abuse I mean that out of Lincoloâ—shire presentâ— the World with a Miracle and I must say a strange one too a Leprosie and diseased Family miraculously cured by them whose known and owned Belief and Principle are that Miracles are ceased which exceeds the very Power of Christ's Apostles that could not so much as cure the Lunatick having not Faith Mat. 17.16 17. And gain that they should he so kind to a Quaker and his Family as to cure them whom of all Persons they hate and which of all Persons they say have not Faith is beyond all Bounds of Romance And this usher'd in as a late piece of strange Providence and Finger of Heaven of few days or weeks standing before publication although the Cheat was Eight or Nine some say Twelve Years past acted by those Water-Baptists and now brought to light to their Shame and their Sophistry discovered by W. S. in Answer to Ralph James his Subterfuge c. to which I refer the Enquirer But to return to R. H. whose Sober piece as he would insinuate it to be I have now under hand and shall as a Friendly Reader to whom he directs his Defence of a pretended Narrative formerly publish'd concerning Charles Bayly sometimes a Prisoner in Dover make such reasonable Remarks and Observations as may give thee to understand the Author's Drift and Depth in his former and renewed appearing in Print against us and by which the Impartial and Vnprejudiced may judge Whether it be a Sober Râ—ply or an Envious Retort to his Opponent whether writ in Love or in â—â—â—roach whether in solid and sound Judgment or an airy and corrupt Mina And I affirm the Matter will
best discover of what spirit the Author is for the Tree is known by its Fruit. Yet it s not my purpose to charge his Disiâ—genuity upon all that may bear that Name for there are lost Sheep whose Innocency and Simplicity is betrayed by such as He who cause them to err whose State and Condition I really pitty and desire their Recovery But with much Plainness to deal with him who Brawles in our Streets and utters a Reproach at our Gates of and from which a though in the Sight of God and good Men we are clear and innocent yet for the sake of the Simple and all such with whom any Doubts of us may yet remain is this as a Seasonable Caution that in the sight of all Truth may be clear and the Slander may lie at the Fool 's Gate London 1673. T. R. THE Water-Baptist's Reproach REPELD c. THis Water-Baptist that he might appear a Methodical Writer presents his Reader with an Epistle as a Key to open the Secrets of his succeeding Discourse But that they are of the least Allyance each to other in that sense I cannot find but both being wrought with Envy and Madness they may pass with a probatum est for Companions It s some difficulty to determine whether the Zeal of our Author run him more into the former or latter but certainly he may claim a considerable share of either And if his Proselites whom he passes through his Watery Element be no better cleansed from their Confusion and Filthiness then his Lines of Controversie he might better spare his Pains and they their Trouble 'T is possible R. Hobbs presuming the Impress passing the hands of the Water-Criticks or Book-Readers of the Town might change its ill shaped Dress and present it more refined to the World so spared a Review of his seven or eight Moneths Pains Yet I 'le not set so little by our Author but own to all that he barks which may be Argument enough for Approbation that hâ—'s fit to go out In his Epistle he thus treats his Reader viz. I do here present thee with a smaâ—l Tract containing a brief Reply to a Book put forth by Lukâ— Howard intitulâ—d A Looking-Glass for the Baptists The Contents of which Book and the Intents of the Author is to obscure the Truth of the Narrative which is hereunto annexed First I answer R Hobbs has not here dealt candidly with me and his Reader referring us to an annexed Narrative when there 's not one Section Chapter or Particular in all his succeeding Discourse or any Piece annexed that imports any such Matter so that the Cause of his Cavil cannot be easily examined he not shewing us what he cavils at an Absurdity had it been by us would have been baited to purpose Yet that I may afford our Adversaries that Assistance and Supplement they ever denyed us I have traced back the Controversie and am willing to allow him the help of any Narrative formerly printed so far as it may clear the Truth of what 's in Controversie betwixt us 1. Then first I find that in the Re-printed Pamphlet relating to the Lincolnshire Prodigy there 's a supplemental Letter and a pretended true and impartial Relation of some remarkable Passages of Charles Bayly As for the Letter it bears date from Dover June 10. 1672. by a Nameless Author and without any Accompt to whom sent stuft full of Calumny and Reproach attended with such Circumstances as might well excuse the naming either the Forger or Fosterer thereof however its Tincture and Complection may well discover who writ it and should Richard Hobbs deny to father it and cast it upon some or other of his Brethren as did his Brother Ralph James when charged with that notorious Lye in the Front of his Pamphlet of Eye and Ear Witnesses of that pretended Miracle wrought upon the Leper by his and his Brethren's Prayers who said it was none of his Composing yet its Language would betray it See his Subterfuge p. 13. See pag. 9. and a further Circumstance Luke Howard has charged it upon him which R. Hobbs denies not by his Reply not much differing from that Dialect in which his pretended true Relation is penned And then 2. The Relation relates to C Bayly who say they acted several things as a Quaker from the 13th of Oâ—tob to the 22th 1667. which really was in 1661. which the Forgers would charge upon all called by that Name which is the Cause of Controversie betwixt Luke Howard and R. Hobbs the first clearing the 2d casting all the Dirt of Charleâ—'s â—ise cringe upon us which R. Hobbs terms in L. Howard obscuring the Truth of the Narrative And that the Impartial Reader may have a just Understanding whether R. Hobbs or L. Howard has been Malicious and Clamarous uttering a Reproach and Slander cavilling against the Truth and abusing his Reader I shall descend in these few Particulars to evince to the impartial Understanding and shall go on I. To manifest the nullity of the Water-Baptists Charge by his Letter and Relation II Our Clearness from its Impositions But previous hereto I would have the Reader take notice that its neither my Work nor Purpose to vindicate C. B. whose Miscarriages long since separated him from us and against whom our Testimony was many years past given out for his Disobedience to that everlasting Light and Truth of God for the Sake of which Truth R. Hobbs is so inraged against us But to clear the Truth and the faithfull Followers of Christ from the wretched Impositions and calumnious Impostures of our Malitious Adversaries Then I. The Nullity of Water-Baptists Charge appears in these particulars 1. It s own Contradictions and most apparent and palpable falsness 2. His averring those things that absolute necessary Consequence doth contradict and deny Which if prov'd will be no hard Matter to determine Whether R. Hobbs his Evidence in this matter be sufficient to prove us guilty of his Câ—lumny and Reproach for which I need to go no further then R. Hobbs contradicting and charging R. Hobbs by his Letter and Narrative in Print 1. R. Hobbs that C. Bayly's Miscarriages mightâ—ly upon us and upon that Truth of God we bear Witness unto he affirms in his said Letter Pag. 17 that C. Bayly did those Actions at the same Time when he was owned by us as a very eminent Man amongst us yea says he After he had acted these things in the Narrative they did own him as aforesaid Here 's the Accusers Charge from which he would evince all call'd Quakers to be guilty of his Miscarriage And to prove his Position he lays down this onely Argument and none other viz. As appears by this says he One Lords day after this Tragedy was past I came to visit my Brethren in Prison and went into C. Baily's Chamber to reason with him in which Time came in most of the Quakers of the Town See the Letter dated June 10. 1672.