Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	heart_n	spirit_n	word_n	12,735	5	4.2755	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56305	The church of Christ in Bristol recovering her vail out of the hands of them that have smitten and wounded her, and taken it away. Being, a just and necessary vindication, from a false and scandalous imputation cast upon her by Dennis Hollister, formerly a member of her, but now an apostate from, and an opposer of those waies, truths, and people, which once he seemed zealous for. As appears by a late pamphlet put forth by him, called, The skirts of the whore discovered. With some particular words, from some particular persons whom he hath by name abused and reproached. Likewise a word by Thomas Ewen, unto what concerns him in the said pamphlet, and also to the later part of another book, called, Satan enthroned in his chair of pestilence.	Purnell, Robert, d. 1666. aut	1657 (1657)	Wing P4232; ESTC R213966	65,602	90

that blessed Spirit of the Lord Jesus in any of its Offices operations effects or different administrations in and among the People or Church of God I say I should advise them to take heed lest when God sets the solitary in families the rebellious dwell in a dry land and whilst some are like trees planted by the waters never ceasing to yeild their fruit others be like the Heath in the Desart that should not see when God cometh but inhabite the parched places in the wilderness For all the Trees of the field shall know that the Lord can bring down the high Tree and exalt the low Tree he can dry up the green Tree and make the dry Tree to flourish yea and by the pouring forth of the Spirit from on high can make the Wilderness become a fruitful Field and the fruitful Field to be counted for a Forrest as Ezek. 17. 24. Isa 32. 15. He layes it upon some as a reproach page 62. That we teach by the Spirit c. I desire humbly to acknowledge and attribute it unto the blessed Spirit of Christ that I have at any time been or now am enabled in any measure to speak or publish any truth of God either to the conversion of sinners or to the edification or consolation of the Saints and People of God and truly if this man do not lean and depend upon the help of the Spirit in his work of preaching I shall not much wonder if his Ministry prove as I have sometimes said or feared many mens have done as a miscarrying Womb and dry breasts notwithstanding all their great learning of which they seem to boast He further demands page 62. whether all that have the Spirit can teach publickly c. First if by teaching publickly he mean preaching and publishing what God hath done for them and likewise declaring to others what the Lord hath taught them c. Then I answer it is the duty of all Christians so to do 1 Pet. 4. 10. As every man hath received the gift so let him minister the same c. as Eldad and Medad did Numb 11. though one man envitd and another complained as some do now yet Moses the man of God he approved of it c. But secondly if by preaching publickly he mean a publick and solemn undertaking the work of preaching c. Then I answer I do not think that every one that hath the Spirit of Christ in him or the work of grace in his soul is fit to be a publick Preacher for there are diversities of gifts and differences of administrations as appears 1 Cor. 12. 4. to the 11. Yet where the Spirit of God hath fitted any and the People of God that know them well do see them fit and judge them fit and approve of them publickly calling them thereunto these may be fit to teach publickly at lest to their own Nation as the 70 Disciples were Luke 10. 1. though they had no gifts of Tongues as we read of no more than the twelve Apostles had during the time of their preaching to their own Nation before the Assention of Christ and that they were to preach to all Nations according to their second Commission Matt. 28. Mark 16. yet I do not in the least slight despise or undervalue learning nor learned men that have grace with it and do not scornfully trample upon them that want it but to say that no man may preach without it is to make a law where Christ hath made none for the seventy Disciples and twelve Apostles did preach long before the day of Pentecost c. He likewise demands who will step forth and tell him and not lie that the Spirit doth teach them to understand the meaning of the word Justification or Adoption c. I answer if none but such as can speak Greek and Latin can understand what Justification and Adoption is c. how then can any that have not Greek or Latin believe they are justified or adopted seeing that it is another Maxim in the Schools that no man can believe more than he doth understand But surely those Souls that have been first enlightened by the Word and Spirit of Christ to see and know their lost condition while under sense of condemnation and hath also been led by the same Spirit through the Word of grace to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ with all ther hearts and by his pretious blood to see themselves freed from condemnation and in his righteousness to be made righteous aod so to find the comfort of it in some measure in their own souls they can speak of it to the praise of God and to the edification of others and that by the help and assistance of the same blessed Spirit yea perhaps more sensibly feelingly plainly and profitably than the most learned Doctor in the world that knows it onely speculatively by learning reading and studying As for that scornful word unlettered which he doth so often use and cast as a reproach upon some men c. I answer truly some of us do know our Letters as well and can put them together into Syllables and Sentences as right and pronounce them as distinct and plain perhaps as himself but I shall not ad to this onely conclude with Prov. 3. 34. Surely the Lord scorneth the scorner and giveth grace to the lowly And I desire seriously to weigh and to commend to all sober Christians those words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. from 19. to 29. and Chap. 2. from 1. to 15. and Chap. 3. 18 19 20. by all which it appears the great Apostle of Christ was of another mind than this man seems to be He demands page 65. what an unlettered Teacher or Ignoramus would say if he were to discourse with a Papist or an Adversary about Justification c. Truly I would say this if any should out of pride curiosity and vain confidence run without a call to discourse with an Adversary Papists or others about that or any other point of Christianity c. he might expect that the Lord might justly leave him to himself and so he might betray or shame the truth and so might it be with the most learned Teacher in the world But secondly if a godly man were providentially or clearly called to maintain or defend that or any other truth of God against an Adversary Papist or others he going in the fear of the Lord and in a sense of self-insufficiency in faith and hope of the presence and assistance of the grace and Spirit of Christ he might expect according to his promise Matt. 10. 9. Take no thought for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak And verse 20. For it is not ye which speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you And how truly was this fulfilled in the Martyrs both in plain Country-men and also Women yea young Youths and Mayds who discoursing about points of Christian Religion

godly men I did sometimes hear expressions to this effect That there was a two-fold coming of the Spirit of Christ into the hearts of Believers The first was that by which the eyes of mens understandings are opened and they turned from darkness to light Faith and Repentance wrought in the Soul conversion regeneration or the new birth effected and so he that was once a dead sinner becomes a living Saint or Believer though as yet but weak a babe in Christ c. The Second work or coming of the Spirit is that by which the Soul is sealed confirmed established filled with joy and peace in believing and fitted and furnished to every good work that God calls them whether doing or suffering c. Now this put me upon the search of the Scripture as first Ephes 1. 13. After you believed you were sealed which Scripture relates to that Acts 19. 2. Have you received the holy Spirit since you believed c. So Acts 8. 14. to 17. Samaria having received the Word of God and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ were baptized by Philip the Deacon the Church at Jerusalem or rather the Apostles sent forth Peter and John that they should pray that they might receive the holy Ghost for as yet he was not fallen upon any of them c. Another Scripture I find Joh. 7. 37 38 39. In the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified So Luke 11. 9. to 13. such as God is a Father unto are bid to pray to ask to seek and to knock c. with assurance by many Arguments that they should receive the holy Spirit So in the 14 15 16 Chapters of John our Saviour speaking to such as did believe in him love him and keep his Commandments c. he promiseth to send the Comforter unto them even the holy Spirit which the world could not receive c and to this agree many of the Prophecies both in Isa Jer. Ezek. Joel Zach. and others Now then as to the first work or coming of the Spirit namely to make a man to become a Saint a Christian a Believer a new Creature c. I never denied but alwayes affirmed that whosoever did believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or had the least beginning of a work of Grace in their Souls it was by the Spirit of God and they had the Spirit of Christ in the first sense according to Rom. 8. 9. now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his c. But in the second or latter sense namely to seal stablish fill with joy and comfort c. with many other glorious effects which the Scripture speaks of and which the Saints in the primative times did enjoy in this sense I have often said that I did question Whether I then had or whether many others in the Church had received the Spirit and to this you did then assent c. And therefore I did often press it in the Church that we might pray more for that blessed Spirit according to the command and promise of Christ Luke 11. 9. 13. as before and this is that which I have often called the great legacie of the new Testament and as Jesus Christ was the great promise of the first or old Testament so this blessed Spirit is the great promise of the second or new Testament which all believers are to wait pray and long for as the believers under the first Testament were to wait and long for the Messiah and this was my meaning when I have sometimes said That a man may be a Christian a Believer a converted Soul or a babe in Christ and not as yet have received the Spirit I mean still in this latter sense in respect of sealing establishing c. yet I neither did nor do expect the Gift of tongues or working Miracles c. neither do I find that the great promise of the Spirit was principally to that end though that was accomplished by it when and how the Lord pleased as Heb. 2. 4. with divers miracles and gifts or distributions of the holy Ghost according to his own will but I find rather that the great promise of the Spirit is for such glorious ends as these c. 1. To open and reveal the hidden Mysteries of the kingdome of heaven as Matth. 13. 11. to you it is given to know the Mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven c. So 1 Cor. 2. 9. to the 14. we read that those things which the eyes of men as men have not seen neither can the natural man perceive yet God doth reveal by his Spirit c. So it is promised in John to lead and guide into all truth therefore Eph. 1. 17. the Apostle prayes for believers that they might receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation c. 2. To comfort and chear up poor drooping believers filling them with all joy and peace consolation and refreshment which is one main end for which it is promised as in 14 15 16 Chapters of John to which agree many of the sayings of the Prophets c. 3. To heighten and strengthen the Saints with boldness courage constancy and resolution in their Spirits to do or to suffer for God as Acts 4 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said c. so to the 19. vers So Acts 5. 41. And they rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer c. which thing neither they nor Peter could do a little before as Mark 14. 50 66 to 71. But observe they had not then received the Spirit so Acts 16. 25. Paul and Silas sang in prison 4. To purge and purifie clense and sanctifie believers and make them holy as Isa 4. 3 4. so Ezek. 36. 25. to 29. Joel 3. 17. then shall Jerusalem be holy that is when the Mountains shall drop new wine and the hills flow with milk as vers 18. And the fountain come forth of the house of the Lord to water the valley of Shittim 5. To make poor dry barren empty souls to become fruitful to God and to grow in grace Isa 32. 5. until the Spirit be poured from on high and the wilderness become a fruitful field Isa 44. 3 4. I will pour my Spirt upon thy seed c. and they shall spring up c. so Hos 14. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel and he shall grow c. 6. To fill the Saints with meekness and love yea with end cared love towards Christ and bowels of pity towards men as we see it was with the Saints in the primitive times but is much wanting now 7. To unite

we have seen in you and in some of those that are gone away with you and we are perswaded there is no judicious Christian this day in Bristol that hath known and observed you and us but will say the same thing so that there being so many such persons with your self gone from us we hope there is some Reformation in the Church but if there should still remain any such among us as we hope there doth not surely we shall be ready to deal with them as we have done with you and others onely we must know they are such for we must not take the railing accusations of our imbittered enemies for a sufficient proof Thirdly you say notwithstanding there is that in some of us after which your soul doth greatly long that the salvation of God were come out of Sion c. We do believe there is many a soul in this Congregation that doth long and groan day and night after more of the blessed Spirit of Jesus Christ that so they might know him better believe on him more love him more and live more to him and yet we trust there is never a soul in this Congregation but seeth sufficient ground to stand at a distance from your Principles and waies so that you may cease hoping for any of them to come unto you the Lord preserving them by his grace We come now to the five things in your Admonishing a Copy of which we having by us do here insert verbatiam First your leaving the Church which hath three sad consequences in it as we judge First the drawing of many away from the faith and waies of the Gospel Secondly the offending grieving and stumbling of many weak souls Thirdly the opening of the mouths of many to speak evil of the waies of Truth as 2 Pet. 2. 2. Secondly your contemning of some and neglecting of others of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ Thirdly your extream sensoriousness and rash judging not only of persons abroad but also of the Church contrary to Matt. 7. 1. Rom. 14. 3. also your calling the Church an Harlot Fourthly your asserting in the Church Doctrins contrary to Truth As first that we did not know what Faith was and that Faith was an eternal thing Secondly that Christ and Faith is all one Thirdly that Christ is not the object of Faith Fourthly your speaking reproachfully of the blessed Scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls and further saying they are not the Word of God nor the Rule of Life Now because you say these are studied Accusations and from the Father of lies c. we shall therefore prove every title of these things to be true First that you have left the Church is true and that your so doing hath drawn away some grieved others and opened the mouthes of many to speak evil of the waies of Christ this is clear and plain and not a studied accusation but a real thing and that which hath been matter of grief and sadness to the Church and therefore we did send to admonish you of the evil of it Now in that you reply all judgment is given to the Son whom you say we are ignorant of and enemies to c. and therefore what is our judgment worth c. and then you go on to heap up fourteen dreadful Sentences against us such as the Spirit of God doth in Scripture give to Reprobates and cast-awaies and so conclude with that 2 Thes 2. 8. Now we desire any sober Christian to consider of this your Answer which you call your defence to our charge of which you complain you had much wrong because your Letter of defence was not read whether this be a Christian-like answer to the Admonition of a Church you not giving us herein one word or reason of your departing from us but onely heaping up 16. or 18. dreadful Sentences against us The second thing you were admonished of was your contemning of some and neglecting of others of the Ordinances of Christ First that Ordinance which you contemn is Baptism in Water which you utterly reject and cast away neither using it to your Children nor allowing it to Believers but calling it as you have often done that ugly thing of Baptism with other bitter and violent expressions against it to the grief of some of us Now we did not send to admonish you for not practising of it for we knew your judgment was against it but to admonish you of your great sin in speaking so contemptuously against it calling some of them that practised it ugly Anabaptists as you have done in some of our hearing Now whereas you call us hypocrites c. because as you say we sent to admonish you for not practising Baptism by Water you speak falsly and do us wrong for we did not so but onely for your contemning of it which we shall leave to the Lord of Ordinances to judge The second Ordinance which you neglect is the Lords Supper and such other Ordinances as are practised and to be practised in the Churches of Christ which that you do neglect is clear by your practise c. And whereas you demand whether we had medled in any such thing for some years past and then fall a threatning of us again as hypocrites with deceit and hypocrisie c. To which we answer you speak false again for the Church never neglected that Ordinance of the Lords Supper any years it is true that through your means and some others the Church did forbear the practise of it about a year together but it is one thing for a Church upon occasion to forbear an Ordinance and another thing totally to neglect it or deny it as you do but for your flying out as you do in the first part of your Reply to this particular against Inventions Traditions Imaginations of mens carnal wisdom c. We answer we use no Ordinance but the Institutions of our Lord Jesus Christ which he hath commanded to be observed in his Churches till his coming again in the mean while all men may see we had ground to admonish you for the contempt of some and neglect of other of the Ordinances of Christ so that this is no lie nor studied accusation as you call it and whereas you say in the close of this Reply that Baptism and the Lords Supper you own Oh! how durst you to publish such equivocation to the World when in your conscience you know you own neither of those two Ordinances neither Baptism by Water nor Breaking of Bread why then do you use such mental reservations deal plainly that men may know what you are did you not say in the words preceding that God requires truth in the inward parts and then presently write an abominable untruth is there any fear of God before your eyes c. The third branch of your Admonition is for your extream sensoriousness and rash judging not onlie of persons abroad but also of the Church calling it a

Harlot the truth of which sensoriousness the whole Church can testifie yea we could give many particular instances were it necessary but what need we go further than your present Letter where in your Reply to this third particular you call the Church a Harlot c. and page 20. where you rehearsing what you had said amongst us before you left us confess that you did at last say our Church was but a Harlot and yet now you say this charge is false and from the Father of lies and that the Church of Christ you do own dearly c. Now here you come in again with your mental reservation saying you did not call the Church of Christ so but the People in Bristol which you say is a Harlot now is this honesty or any thing else but deceit and hypocrisie did not we send to admonish you for calling this Church in Bristol a Harlot which you confess you did and yet you say this charge is false and from the Father of lies we wonder who is your Father in this thing and what appears in you but meer deceit and subtilty equivocation and mental reservation O! for shame lay aside these unchristian practises and here we desire all Christians to consider whether this were a studied and false accusation as you say The fourth branch of your Admonition is your asserting in the Church Doctrins contrary to truth three of which are mentioned many more might have been c. First you asserted at a Meeting in your own house that as Christ was the great light of the World so he was the great Faith of the World and that Christ and Faith was all one and that Christ was not the object of Faith Our question was not about the oneness or nearness that there is between Christ and Faith but whether the person of Christ and the grace of Faith were not to be distinguished and whether Jesus Christ in his person as God-Man be not the object of Faith as him whom man is to believe in for Salvation Your assertion was we did not know what Faith was and that Faith was an eternal thing alleging that Scripture 2 Cor. 4. last But the things which are not seen are eternal This occasioned many Scriptures to be brought to prove that Christ and Faith were to be distinguished and that Christ was the object of Faith and though the word object be not used in Scripture in that sense yet we are often bid to look unto Christ for Salvation as Isa 45. 22. Zach. 12. 10 Heb 12 2. which Scriptures were then alleged against what you asserted Now in your Reply you allege 1 Tim. 1. 9 you say faith is a Mistery held in a pure conscience hid from al ignorant and vulturous eyes c. in which Reply of yours you shew your weakness in abusing the words and sense of the Apostle as any judicious Christian may perceive by comparing your Book with that Scripture c. but upon the matter you do now say as much as we did then admonish you of And whereas you demand why we did not then question you and that if it be for conscience sake why had we not done it sooner and why had we not disproved you by the Scripture and why would we suffer things contrary to truth to be asserted among us without rebuke c. We answer you were presently opposed and blamed for asserting such things as you were at several other times for asserting such things which in the 20 page of your Book you call some manifestation of truth that was breaking forth in you some years past at which some were offended and contradicted it c. though for a solemn dealing with you we did not till you left the Church which perhaps was our sin and your misery but considering your spirit and the state of the Church we knew not how to set about it though some saw ground enough to do it c. The fifth branch of your Admonition which was for speaking against the Scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls and that they were not the Word of God nor the Rule of Life c. For the first part of this branch you did at a Meeting again at your own house affirm which many took notice of as well those that were not of the Church as those that were whereby the thing was publickly known in the Citie and became a reproach to the Church an eminent person of the Citie enquiring of one of us about it and that you did speak these words is as certain as ever you did speak word in your life some of us sitting over against you do well remember with what kind of passion you spake it clapping your hand upon the Book or Table saying that that Book or Scripture was one of the greatest blinds and plagues to mens souls this day in England and these words became a reproach to the Church upon which we did admonish you and though now in your Book you say that this charge is utterly false and from the Father of lies and invented by his instruments yet we do again affirm and will set our hands to it that you did speak these very words Secondly for that expression that the Scriptures are not the Word of God c. did not you at the red Lodge in the Gardenhouse before near twenty people say so when one of us being by bid you for shame not to speak so it is true you did at a Meeting a little before you left us propose it to consideration as a thing wherein we had been mistaken yet so as your very proposing of it did imply the negative other instances also we could give at private conferences that some of us had with you about the same thing but what need we say more do you not demand in your Book page 19. where doth the Scripture call it self the Word of God to which we answer we shall give you four plain places instead of many Jer. 30. 2 4. Rev. 17. 17. Prov. 30. 5. Mark 7. 8 9 13. But what should we go to light a candle to the Sun have not many judicious and godly Writers long ago proved against former Athiests and Hereticks that the Scripture is the Word of God though neither they nor we deny that glorious Tittle that God the Father hath put upon the person of Jesus Christ that his Name should be called the Word of God Rev. 19. 13. And thirdly whereas you demand to whom was the Scripture the Rule of Life We answer to all the People of God to whom they were given Deut. 4. 8. and 5 31 32. Mat. 5. 6. 7. chap. Rom. 12. All which containeth Rules and Directions for Christians to walk by but it is the character of wicked men that they cast the Law of God behind their backs And thus we have proved every tittle you are charged with in your Admonition to be true and clear so that we are no liars

to and fro or at the least word of yours sent to me to desire it and I judge I should not have denied it But I conceive you had not spoke when you did but that you were heared by that fire that is sure from beneath by my contesting against that held out by you which I desire to war against by the Spirit and spirituall weapons so long as I have any being and not otherwise as being fully satisfied Rom. 6. 13. 2 Cor. 10. 4 5 6. that onely such a war of that kind and nature is to be maintained the wrath of man and carnal weapons not being appointed of God and so not under a promise of 2 Thess 2. 8. 2 Tim. 2. 24 25 26. 1 Tim. 1. 18 19. 1 Sam. 17. 45. 47. 50. Rev. 12 7 8 9 11. a blessing from him to bring down and to naught such wickedness And indeed I am clearly and in some measure satisfied by God from that most sure word of prophesie whereunto we do well to take heed that one main cause why the Lambs Warriours and Souldiers gain no more ground than they do against the Lambs and their enemies and opposers both those enemies within and those enemies they combat withall without is because such contests and combats with them the war is so little maintained by the Spirit and spiritual weapons which if it were sure they would she and fall before them And immediatly after you have subscribed the Letter you sent me in the third line of the next page you say concerning your Letter that you sent me you have received no answer of me this is true but did I promise to send you an answer If so you might charge me home which I know you would not spare But I did not neither indeed could you groundedly expect any answer from me of it if in a sober mind but yet that had been done but that the bearer by whom you sent the Letter to me by some thing that he proposed to me which had weight in it did perswade me not to meddle in such vain fruitless janglings as to that effect some of his words was to me by which I was detained from writing to you and indeed his counsell in that was sound and savourie And whereas you mention that Festus a Heathen Roman Governor was so noble that he heard Pauls defence as to the accusation made against him by his own Countreymen and King Agrippa said Thou art permitted to speak for thy self but say you you are falsly accused condemned and refused to make your defence First I say you are not falsly accused condemned and refused to make your defence that is but your own saying it is a meer a rie vapour Secondly were you not desired nay intreated to come and appear and so if you had any thing to say to speak and make your defence Do you not wel know that libertie was never denied unto you but what ground I pray you hath one in your case to expect the making his defence that way you would do by a Proxes as I may say with refusing to come face to face as Paul did before Agrippa and Festus that you know you were intreated and desired to do and therefore in your naming of them in order to that you name them for you speak nothing at all you were permitted to do it as they were and might have done as Paul did and I hope that groundedly an evener Rule and another kind of dealing had you found than what Paul was tried by or he found from them though I know you are more than apt to conclude otherwise of all that is not of your stature but I fear sense of guilt lay so open upon you as that if you speak truth that was it that kept you away from making your defence in that way that was clear by that Rule we are to go by in the managing of the things of Gods House and so not any would have denied or excepted against you in a warrantable way which you had free liberty to do and then before your self it not falling down under the sins charged upon you all in every particular had been proved so as that you could not justly have excepted against the Charge in no part of it and I believe that would have been done by some of those if not all for whose sakes as you say you made that you sent and was not read visibly So simple honest hearted they were and so remain as that they to save you out of the snare of the Divel would have in soberness of Spirit in conscience of their duty to God and in love to your soul witnessed before you that which was charged upon you But I forget my self now a true Answer you have of all that Letter which in particular you sent to me with a small Isal 43. 2. 1 Pet. 4. 19. 1 Pet. 2. 15. 3. 1. 16. Psal 37 5 touch upon some thing that in order to the not sending you an answer you speak to me afterward I confess I have more words in my answer than I would or intended But I could not tell how plainly to answer it so as to satisfie the Reader in a briefer way It is probable a flood you will cast after me but I pass not such floods shall not drown me nor such fire burn me I resolve in the strength of Christ in the way of wel doing to commit my self to him who in this I know will bring forth my righteousness as the light and my judgement as the noon-day and so to labour by well doing to put you to silence in this as not knowing any way otherwise better to do it And for your self I have if my heart deceive me not no coar at all against you but could be glad I might be of any use unto you and could rejoyce to see God recovering of you out of the snare of the Divel by giving of you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth the which I am sure you are departed from which is the groans of your Friend who is a lover of your Soul though a Witness against your falshood and deceit Robert Simpson A WORD to DENNIS HOLLISTER BY THOMAS EWEN Dennis Hollister I Have of late met with a Book put forth by you in which there is a Letter formerly written by you to me which Letter I acknowledge I received above a year since and having read it I laid it by intending never to have Answered you lest as Solomon saith Prov. 26. 4. I also should be like unto you but now you having published it with your folly to the world I take my self bound to Answer you lest as Prov. 26. 5. you should be wise in your own conceit c. In the second Branch of your Title page you say That I have before several witnesses often denied my self to be a Minister of the Gospel in which you deal like your self though not like a friend nor like

hath been since laid aside for scandall and insufficiency by other Committees and Commissioners appointed for that purpose yet I think England hath cause enough still to mourn for complain of and pray against a great part of the Ministery thereof I do not speak this of all nor intend it to all for I doubt not to affirm against the Quakers that God hath many pretious servants in the Ministery both among those called Presbyterians and them called Independents and the Baptized and some that are of or under none of these names yea both learned and unlearned c. who yet are faithfull to the Lord Jesus and do prefer the conversion and salvation of pretious souls before all the treasures in the world and who do rejoyce to see that work of God carried on by any either learned or unlearned as men now speak and I trust that as the Lord who holds the Stars in his right hand will establish such So the time is near when men shall not wear a rough garment or a propheticall garb to deceive but that the false Prophets and unclean spirits shall pass out of the Land and that God will raise up and give Pastors according to his own heart for faithful is he that hath promised who also will do it And whereas he saith page 68. That you shall know them to wit the ignorant and unlettered Ministers by this Badge or Character they are separating factious and schismaticall c. I remember these were words much in use and cast as brands upon the godly people called Puritans by the Bishops and their Clergie about 20 or 30 years agoe and how it comes to pass that these words are taken up again I know not unless it be that the same spirit that was in the Bishops and their Clergy is again revived and if so then they in whom it is had best take heed that they apply those Nicknames righter than the former did lest c. But I shall give another Badge or Character of those that I mean and that is you shall alwayes know them by their pride envy and covetousness or their scorning reviling and persecuting all those that differ from them and therefore as he commends the caution and counsel of the Apostle Rom. 16. 17. 18. So shall I make bold humbly to recommend the caution and counsel of our Lord Jesus Christ Matth. 7. 15 16. Beware of false Prophets c. for by their fruits you shall know them I do not speak this of any godly man or men for I know no godly men can do so as above Now for his closing word to the Ministers that are lawfully called c. if by lawfully called he mean Pastors or Elders called chosen constituted ordained and appointed to office in Churches and by Churches according to the New Testament and according to the example and practice of the Churches of Christ both in New England and Old then I freely close with him therein for such a Calling and Ordination I own and plead for according to Scripture But if by Ministers lawfully called he mean all the Parish Ministers in England or Bristoll as such then I cannot but wonder how any man pretending to godliness durst so to abuse that pretious Scripture Acts 20. 28. and how he will be able to prove that Parishes are such Churches and that all Parish Ministers are such and by the holy Ghost made Overseers in the sense of that Scripture for my own part I must be silent and so I think might he well have been It is true the 29. verse may in a sense be rightly applied to some men in England that call themselves Ministers who since the Apostles times and the apostasie that followed have like grievous Wolves entred in not sparing the flock c. I write not this of nor intend it to any godly man of any judgement whatsoever But as for the rest of his jerks jeers quibles scoffs derisions reproches and untruths which he hath cast upon me with all the injury and wrong that he hath thereby done to me I shall lay it at my feet looking upon it as the fruits of a froathy brain and the products of a spleenish temper and shall not bestow a pen full of ink or one minutes time to answer it but do rather in my heart wish and desire that he may so repent of this piece of folly and wretchedness whereby he hath hardened the hearts and opened the mouthes of many against me that it may do his soul no more hurt another day than it doth me at present in the mean time I resolve to sit down in silence as to him c. And now I return again to you Denn●● Hollister to close up my answer to your Book and I cannot but take notice as many others do of your shamefull abusing that pretious upright servant of Jesus Christ Robert Simson though I suppose he will clear himself or at least his innocency will answer for him and stop your mouth another day In the mean time I cannot but bear a testimony of his integrity and your impudency in that you do so fiercely and faisly charge him to be a lyar whereas I can testifie that the thing was true which he as messenger of the Church did admonish you of namely that you should say that the Scripture was a blind and plague to Souls which thing you did speak at a publick meeting in your own house as I doubt not but there are more than twenty persons some of the Church and others not of the Church who can also testifie the same Whether your meaning was then as now you write pag. 18 19. I shall not dispute but that you did speak those words is true and no lye invented nor lye prosecuted c. Therefore if there be any lyar in this thing you are the lyar yet I durst nor judge you to the Lake but rather pray hope that God may shew a miracle of mercy in saying you from it and do advise you to take heed how you throw them into the Lake or under condemnation whom Jesus Christ hath by his pretious blood and perfect righteousness graciously freed from it And as for the sin of lying you will do well to east the beam out of your own eye c. For Robert Simpson is a man as well known in Bristoll to be a truth speaker and a just upright conscientious dealer as any of those that do accuse him I shall say no more but let every man prove his own work Gal. 6. 4. But passing by many of those impertinencies in your book I find that after your letter to me there is an answer to 16. Queries formerly sent to you or to the people called Quakers and afterwards printed by that pretious servant of Christ John Pendarves before his death I might commend your wit in putting forth your answer after the man is dead Secondly I observe that these sixteen Queries have been once answered in a fashion