spirit and in the truth I say The Spiritual Man with his Ordinances and Administrations which are spiritual stands over the man of sin and over these his carnal weak unprofitable Ordinances beggarlie rudiments vain ceremonies and traditional imitations which although you call them the Ordinances of Christ yet they are but your own fancies and imaginations And thus by a just and a lawful Trial it plainly and evidently appears that you are neither Churches nor Ministers of Jesus Christ but in all the particulars before-mentioned you are found very much to differ from them and because you are not the church of Christ and that his Spirit doth not lead you to and guide you in the practise or performance of those things which you plead for and follow therefore those things by you pleaded for are not the Ordinances of Christ but the Ordinances of the man of sin and so the Spiritual Man with his Ordinances and Administrations are exalted above the man of sin with the weak and unprofitable Ordinances that doth not make the comers thereunto perfect according to the truth asserted by Thomas Salthouse which is hereby vindicated and fully confirmed And now I shall return to speak to some particulars in thy Paper wherein thou saist Because in the Tiverton Epistle there is a complaint against the sins that are remaining in the Churches T. S from hence suggesteth that they are no Churches of Christ I answer T. S. had sufficient ground from your own confession in the said Epistle to conclude that you are no churches of Christ as was by him fully proved and is now again more at large confirmed For the church of Christ which is his bodie is in all things answerable and proportionable to him who is the Head Now you will all confess that the Head is holie harmless undefiled seperate from sin and sinners and if the Bodie be unholie full of abomination and defiled with sin and iniquitie then is Christ the Head of a defiled polluted unclean sinful Body and this is not proportionable for as is the Head such are the members and they said As he is so are we in this present world 1 Joh. 4. 17. But in that Epistle you do not onely complain against those sins that are yet remaining in the churches but you there say that abominations are reigning in your churches and in your souls Now these expressions in thy Paper where thou speakest of sins remaining c. might seem very much to alter the case and to lessen the crime in the judgement of those that have not seen your Consession in the said Epistle and such might begin to think that T. S. had dealt something uncharitably with you to exhort all that fear God to seperate from you and to come out from among you because some sins were yet remaining amongst you for to speak of sins yet remaining might seem to imply that some sins were mortified and put off and as if you were warring against and waiting to receive power to overcome those that remain and such a condition as this we could own though we cannot own those for a church of Christ who live in sin for we own and witness a spiritual warfare which all must know before they can be Members of the church of Christ and had you been found in such a condition as this to be armed with the power of God and so to stand in the war against sin and Satan we could have owned you in such a state as a people whom the Lord was purging and cleanslng and sanctifying for himself sitting and preparing you to be a habitation for the Lord to dwell in that your bodies might become the Temples of the Holy Ghost and so you might be married to the Lord in righteousness become the Spouse of Christ which is his Church but it is far otherwise with you for sin is not onely remaining in you but reigning in you and apparently written upon you and where sin and abomination reigns it hath the sole dominion power and preheminence and as a strong man armed keeps the house and is at peace and the stronger is not come that should dis-possess him and make the keepers of the House to tremble and the strong to bow that should enter in and break his peace and spoile his goods neither are you in a condition to war against sin for you confess that all weapons are wrested from you with which you should maintain war against it so that sin abomination hath quiet peaceable possession in you hath got both strength weapons to defend it self upon all occasions And so you are altogether servants to sin slaves to Satan under Aegyptian darkness this is much more then to say Sins yet remaining in you and as I have said doth very much alter your case from what these expressions of thine might seem to render it And saist thou that which T. C. saith is That the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as are mentioned in that Epistle and yet were the true churches of Christ owned of God as is fully proved c. to which Scriptures thou saist T. S. gives no answer To this I say It is a very light thing with T. C. to lay sin to the charge of Gods elect and to condemn the generation of the Just and also to plead Justification for those in whom abomination reigns and in whose fore-heads iniquitie is apparentlie written but T. C. will one day know that he which justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord Yet by all that T. C. hath said though he hath quoted so many Scriptures perverting them and even wresting them to his own destruction it doth not appear that ever the church of Christ was guilty of these or the like abominations as in the Tiverton Epistle is exprest neither doth any one of those Scriptures at all prove any such thing therefore it was needless for T. S to give any answer thereunto but forasmuch as thou seems to vaunt thy self because T. S. hath not spoken particularly in answer to those Scriptures which thou call'st T. C. his Cloud of Witnesses and that both in thy Paper and also in T. C. his Answer to T. S. his Epistle the perverting of the Scriptures especially what is written to the church of Corinth is made use of as a Stirrup whereby you may mount you selves upon the Throne of Iniquitie taking occasion from what the Apostle writes to them concerning such as had sinned to boast your selves to be the church of Christ notwithstanding your great abominations and apparent iniquities confest and exprest in Tiverton Writing I shall therefore speak something briefly to some of those Scriptures thereby to discover thy blindness and ignorance of the things of God of which the Scriptures of truth declares And first concerning the Church of the Romans chap. 13.
such imperfect Ministers denyed But John Pitman and Jasper Batt did declare That they had received the gift of God vvhich is perfect and the Apostle said When he ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry And such who ministers from that gift of God which is perfect their Ministry is not an imperfect Ministry Thou saist Thou supposest T. S. will not own two Churches the one perfect and the other imperfect least there should be room for you To which I answer T. S. can truly allow you the title of an imperfect sinful church or Synagogue of Satan who are going on in the broad way to destruction where you have room enough to commit very great abominations and apparent iniquities by your own confession in Tiverton Epistle but in the Church of Christ there is no room for such For the church of Christ is a chaste Virgin without spot and cannot join to any thing that is unclean neither can any person or any thing that is unclean be joyned to it For although the Gates of the holy City New Jerusalem stand alwayes open yet there can in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth or that worketh abomination or maketh a lye but they that are written in the Lambs Book of Life And the church of Christ hath no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of darkness for they vvalk in the light of the Lord and what communion hath light with darkness Or vvhat fellowship hath righteousness vvith unrighteousness Therefore whilst your abominations reigns and you are drawing iniquity and bears the mark thereof on your Fore-heads so apparently according to your own confession there is no room for you in the Church of Christ neither can you have any fellowship vvith them For vvhilst there is no room for Christ in your hearts nor in your affections there is no room for you in his Church And you confess that the World as a canker hath eaten out your affections to the Lord Jesus and your minds are much yea too much alienated from him but it seems by your Tiverton Epistle that you vvill leave no room for your selves in the church of Christ for there you promise to take some effectual course to purge sin or sinners out of the House of God Now to purge out sin vvould be to make such a church as T. C. saith God never had in the World For he saith God never had yet any church in the world free from sin And vvould you go about to make such a church as you have not so much as a pattern or president for You say in your Tiverton Epistle That whosoever beholds you may say What singular thing do ye But now it seems you think to do something that is singular indeed if you make such a church for God as T. C. saith he never had the like before But are not you hypocrites by T. C.'s Words if you should make such a church For he saith None durst say that God had ever a church in the world withous sin but hypocrites And if you purge away sin out of your church then yours vvill be a church vvithout sin which if you should confess then you fall under the notion of hypocrites but if you cannot purge out sin then you fall upon sinners for you promise to purge out sin or sinners Now if you purge out sinners do not you then exclude your selves from having any room there And yet this is not all that you do onely to exclude your selves if T. C. his words be true but you will leave no church for God at all for he saith God never had a Church in the world without Sin and if he never had a Church without sin in the World and now you are promising to purge sin or sinners out of his Church is not this to leave him no church at all neither with sin nor without sin Oh read your confusion and blush thereat you sottish children What a strange piece of Work have you promised to undertake who say that God never had a church in the World without sin and yet now you will undertake to purge sin out of his church And so you who are as vile as the worst of them with whom you intend thus to deal are going about to do that which according to T. C.'s account none of the faithful servants of the Lord or Ministers of Christ could ever do that is to purge sin out of his church and if you cannot do that then to purge out sinners and so exclude your selves amongst the rest who are abominable ones by your own confession and when sinners are purged out os that church which did onely consist of sinners For T. C. saith They that say they are without Sin are none of the church of Christ And if they that are without sin be none of his Church then all that are of his church must be sinners I say When all those are purged out what becomes of that church Or where will the place of any one of you be found Or whereof must the church of God consist Or must he have no church at all Therefore mind what you are going about left whilst you are supposing T. S will leave no room for you in going about to purge out others you leave no room for your selves Thou saist T. S. hath past sentence upon all the churches that ever was in the world to be the churches of the Devil and that he hath likewise sentenced all the Prophets and Apostles in their Doctrine and the Scriptures to be all the Doctrine of Devils and they the Ministers of the Devil c. Because T. S. hath said That for any to perswade men to joyne themselves with and to be members of a Church that is sinful and imperfect is no better then a Doctrine of Devils I answer Thou art sentenced for an impudent lyar and a false accuser and I am sure that lyars are of the devil but neither Prophet nor Apostle Scriptures nor church of Christ are at all concerned in his sentence nor comes not under it For none of them did ever perswade men to joyne with or to be members of a church that is sinful and imperfect which they must have done if T S. had sentenced them for preaching a Doctrine of Devils but on the contrary they did exhort the church of Christ to seperate from such and to have no fellowship with them but to come out from amongst them and not to touch the unclean thing and the Prophet of the Lord did complain against those that did not put a difference between the clean and the unclean between the holy and the prophane between the precious and the vile And those that do perswade people to joyn themselves to a church that is sinful they are the Devils Ministers and not Christ's and they are adding to the Devil s church or to Satan's Synagogue and are not adding
to you but ye have turned from it and despised it and except the churches of Galatia did and the churches of the Anabaptists do return to that Gospel from which they were removed the Peace of God neither did nor doth belong to them nor you neither could they or can you be accounted the churches of Christ He saith So likewise the church of the Philippians many so walked of whom the Apostle saith I have often told you and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to the cross of Christ Phil. 3. 18. Yet saith he they were owned to be a Church with their Officers To which I say That those who are enemies to the cross of Christ are not the church of Christ for the church of Christ did glory in the cross of Christ and were not enemies to it Gal. 6. 14. and the preaching of it was to them and it is to as many as believe the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 13. And the Apostle tells what is the end of such who are enemies to the cross of Christ he saith their end is destruction and that is not the end of the church of Christ But though the Apostle writes to the church of the Philippians of such who were enemies to the cross of Christ yet he doth not say that the church of the Philippians were enemies to the cross of Christ nor that any of them in particular were so He also bids them beware of dogs and of evil workers c. Doth he therefore say that the church of the Philippians are dogs and evil-workers But this is some of those Scriptures which are called T. C. his cloud of Witnesses to prove that the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as is confess'd in the Tiverton Epistle Now though T. C. be a noted lyar yet the Scriptures are true and cannot be broken And although by perverting and wresting the true sence thereof thereby endeavouring to make the Scriptures speak what he would have them to abuse the simple minded and deceive ignorant people he hath drawn this wicked conclusion from the whole That they are may be owned to be the churches of Christ notwithstanding their great abominations confess'd in their Tiverton Epistle Yet now these Witnesses being honestly examined without wresting or perverting they are found to witness against T. C. and the same Witness which he brings to prove his assertions doth witness against him and proves himself to be the lyar and this is usual that if the Witnesses which T. C. offers for proof of any thing be the Scriptures of truth they surely testifie against him and prove him to be the lyar and instead of witnessing for him they witness against him And when he affirms a thing that is so notoriously false and wicked as that he cannot any way wrest the Scriptures to make them seem to prove what he asserts he useth to say That this is true Is so evident that it needs no proof or That this is true is so evident that he that runs may read and such like words witness his Looking-glass as is at large discovered in a Book call'd Truth vindicated by John Pitman and Jasper Batt Some other Scriptures are by him mentioned whereby he hath endeavoured to prove the churches of Christ in former ages to be sinful thereby to make way for themselves to be owned as a church of Christ but all that he saith is to no more purpose then that which hath been already answered could as easily be answered his folly thereby made manifest as it hath been sufficiently by what hath been answered to those Scriptures by him quoted But he saith of those before mentioned that they were called to repentance What were they then a church of Christ or the churches of Christ before repentance that he makes use of this to prove them churches of Christ because they were call'd to repentance Simon Magus was call'd to repentance was he therefore a member of the church of Christ And the Apostle said that God commanded all men every where to repent Are therefore all men every where the church of Christ Oh gross darkness and ignorance to use that as an argument to prove them to be the church of Christ because they were call'd to repentance And so are you call'd to repentance and to repentance you must come before you can be owned as a church of Christ for we say Christ came to call sinners to repentance and his Ministers were sent to turn people from the darkness to the light and to bring them from under Satan's power unto God but though you have been call'd to return from your wickedness and live and have been invited to come to him who is the way to the Father who gives eternal life to all that come unto him yet you have refused to return and have rebell'd against the light Neither is it onely the calling to repentance that makes them or you the churches of Christ but it is them who answers that holy call and comes to repentance even to that repentance which is never to be repented of that is to repent and forsake it is such shall find mercy and acceptance with the Lord and they shall be his and accounted members of his church in the day when he makes up his Jewels but as for such as have been call'd to repentance and have not answered that holy call by obedience to him that hath called them his call and his loving invitation shall stand as a witness against such for ever and because the Lord hath called and they would not hear therefore when they call and cry there shall be none to deliver them Thou saist That T. S hath manifested abominable hypocrisie and deceit in that he saith that T. C. instanceth the Saints infirmities in former ages to encourage in a state of sin c. when its evident saist thou that he instanceth those examples to stop the mouths of lyars and deceivers c. and to discover the simple and vain notions of those who would suggest that the churches of Christ are none of his because there is sin in them To which I say I have answered some of those Scriptures call'd T. C. his Cloud of Witnesses which may also serve for answer to all the rest thereby to discover the folly and ignorance sottishness and blindness of those who would suggest that Fornicators and unclean persons Drunkards Railers Revilers Extortioners Thieves covetous persons Idolaters and such like are Members of the church of Christ and also to stop the mouths of such lyars and deceivers who say the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as are mentioned in Tiverton Epistle and yet were the true churches of Christ notwithstanding And although according to thy wonted manner thou railest at T. S. accusing him with hypocrisie and deceit because he saith T. C. doth encourage in a state of
to the church of Christ and the Doctrine which such do preach is the Doctrine of Devils and not the Doctrine of Christ as T. S. hath truly said And because T. S. saith You follow cunning devised fables Thou saist He calls Gospel Ordinances cunning devised fables and that in sum he saith our Lord Christ and his Apostles were cunning devisers of Fables To which I say Deceit and Falshood hath summed up the matter and by the falseness of the account the wickedness of the Accountant is discovered and he is thereby manifested to be a notorious lyar and a false accuser but if honesty had cast up the sum the account would have appeared otherwise And I have already proved That whilst you remain in that state where you stand at present as appears by your confession in your Tiverton Epistle that all that you do or perform in imitation of others whilst you are not thereunto led by the Spirit of God but your rule is without you abomination reigns within you though you may call it the ordinances of Christ or great Gospel-Ordinances yet it is but Fables and Fancies of your own devisings and such things as Christ nor his Apostles did ever ordain or devise for you to follow or practise and you might as well charge all the rest of your abominations and apparent iniquities upon Christ and his Apostles and say they were the devisers of them as to say that Christ or his Apostles did devise those Fables Fancies and imaginations which you follow plead for practise and call Ordinances of Christ For that which you account the best of all your doings is as great an abomination in the sight of the Lord if not greater then the very worst action or most apparent iniquity which you confess your selves to be guilty of For the very prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord and nothing will sooner or more certainly bring desolation upon you then the setting up of those abominations in the stead of the Worship of God and the Ordinances of Christ and those Exorcists who adjured the unclean spirits in the Name of Jesus whom Paul preached might as well say that our Lord Christ had devised those Exorcismes which they used because he had commanded unclean spirits to come out of people as you to say that Christ and his Apostles devised those Fables which you follow and plead for and call Gospel-Ordinances because you imagine that such things were practised in the church of Christ for it 's possible that those Exorcists were as much in the words of Christ and Paul as you are and I am sure you are as great Enemies to the iife and power of Christ as they were And after thou hast thus wickedly and salsly accused T. S and so impudently and grosly belyed him Thou saist Thou must have done with Salthouse at present and thou thinkest for ever unless there were more truth and honesty appearing in him Oh wonderful that such a notorious lyar and such a vile dishonest person as thou hast manifested thy self to be partly by thy own confession and fully and largely proved both by thy practise and by thy principles should be so impudent as to accuse another for want of truth and honesty But although thou mightest have hopes to shelter thy self and to escape undiscovered by accusing the innocent of the same crimes whereof thy self art guilty yet know that thy covering is too narrow for thy skirts are discovered and thy shame and nakedness doth appear and thy refuge of lyes cannot hide thee and it had been much better for thee if thou hadst ended sooner or that thou hadst never begun this work of darkness and wickedness wherein thou hast so desperately hazarded the loss of thy precious soul to satisfie thy cruel envious blood-thirsty desires against the innocent Lambs of Christ Onely thou saist take this Interpreter with you and T. C. his Answer to his Epistle and this together and you will find them to be a choice pair of Spectacles to help you to see into and understand what you read in T. S. his Books To which I answer The truth as asserted by T. S. in his Books are so plain and clear as they stand that whoever looks on them with a single eye and a mind not stuft with prejudice may easily read them and understand them without an interpreter and all who are not quite blind and given up to believe lyes may easily see and discover thy hypocrisie and deceit thy railing and false accusing thy lyes and thy confusion without the help of a pair of Spectacles But although thou hast done with T. S. I have not yet done wth thee for I have yet to question thee concerning a most horrible false accusation twice charged in thysheet of Paper where thou saist Would not these men as truly judge and condemn Saints and Churches in former ages that were subject to the like failings and passions were it not because they know it will not be born Else what meant the Answer of a Preaching-quaker in a publike meeting of them in Bristol one presenting something concerning the Scripture to him he answers I came not to tell you of Paul and Barnabas and Timothy the serpents of old but we were sent to direct them to look to the light within c. And thou saist The same person at the same time spake the same language of Samuel and the Prophets and this thou saist thou hadst from credible testimony who was present and heard him and proposed to query to him Whether he did own the Scriptures to be a rule for Christians to walk by Now to this I say The righteous Lord God of Heaven and Earth is witness for us against thee in this thing that we the Servants of the Most High God who are in scorn call'd Quakers do from our hearts abhor and detest any such words or thoughts concerning the holy men of God either Prophets or Apostles as thou most falsly from thy envious heart and slanderous tongue hast cast upon us and we do likewise utterly disown any such to be of us or to have any fellowship with us or to be permitted to speak amongst us without reproof who should declare or hold forth any such wicked damnable unsound unsavoury words as to say that either Paul or Barnabas or Timothy or Samuel or any other of the holy Prophets or Apostles were the Serpents of old for of them and of their words we have a more high and honorable esteem we being made partakers of the same eternal life and have obtained like precious Faith in which they lived and by which they obtained a good report and have received a measure of the same spirit by which they spoke and from which the Scriptures of truth were given forth and so we have the witness in our selves of the truth of what they declared and I do with confidence affirm That it cannot be proved that ever any person who is
to judgement where thou must give account for all thy ungodlie deeds which thou hast ungodlie committed and all thy hard speeches which thou hast spoken against the innocent and for all the lies slanders and false accusations which thou hast from the pride and naughtiness of thy malicious heart uttered against them Thou saist Note this one thing how John hath learned to abuse the Scriptures because he saith speaking of Christ When he cometh in ten thousands of his Saints Whereby I note how little thou knowest of the being of Christ in his Saints that seems to be offended with J. C. for speaking of the coming of Christ in his Saints maist thou not as well have accused Christ and his Apostles for abusing of Scripture for saying I in them and thou in me Ioh. 17. 23. And Christ liveth in me Gal. 2. 20. And Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. And Christ in you except you be reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. And if in them why not in ten thousands of them But what Scripture is it that J. C. hath abused Hath he quoted any Scripture particularly Or doth he say It is thus written in such a place Or must he be limited by thy imagination who thinks he thus speaks because Jude saith The Lord comes with ten thousands of his Saints as thou saist the Scripture reads it But glory to his Name for ever we know that he cometh in his Saints and that he is admired in them though you like not to hear of it nor believe it as T. C. affirmed at Glaston that he believed in a Christ that was in heaven and not in the Saints and all such reprobates who know not Jesus Christ in them must know that the day is come in which the Lord cometh in thousands and ten thousands of his Saints to execute the judgements written and to take vengeance upon all ungodly sinners for all their abominations wherewith they have provoked the Lord to jealousie and therefore if you are not wholly given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind but that there is in any of you any tenderness or breathings after the Lord to such I say Heare and give eare and no longer harden your hearts nor stiffen your necks nor no longer rebel against the light but depart from the Tents of those wicked men with whom you walk and come out from amongst them and be no longer partakers with them in their Sins their reigning abominations and apparent iniquities wherewith the Lord hath been long provoked nor partake not with them in their vain ceremonies and invented Will-worships which they call Ordinances of Christ wherewith the Lord hath been so often mocked but prepare to meet the Lord by speedy repentance least his wrath break forth against you and while ye have light believe in the light lest the Lord turn it into darkness and when ye look for light it be turned into the shadovv of death and into gross darkness And this in love is the counsel of him vvho loves your Souls but hates your Sins R. W. POSTSCRIPT SInce the writing of the greatest part of this we have received information from some of the People call'd Anabaptists that Thomas Collier did write the said sheet of paper and so he is the Author of that wickedness also as an addition to his account which is exceeding great who even hastens to fil up his measure that he may be rewarded according to his doings and indeed I verily believe amongst all the enemies of God who hath in this day of his Sons appearing listed themselves as soldiers of Gogs army and joyned themselves in the war with the Dragon against the Lamb and his followers none hath more desperately hazarded himself in the service of the prince of darknesse then this man Thomas Collier who hath as it were set himself in the fore-sront of the battel hath bent his tongue like his bow for lyes to shoot at the innocent and yet is so impudent as to say If he could or dare to lye as fast as we he might quickly be as perfect and as free from sin as we when as those very Books that he hath written against and concerning the people call'd Quakers we can justly account above 150. Lyes that he hath uttered and it is high time for all people who hitherto hath owned and followed him to beware of him and not to partake with him in his sins least they also be partakers of his plagues R. W. The End