dwell and therein let every Soul bathe it self and drink thereof abundantly and therewith be covered that as an Helmet Sword and Buckler it may be unto all our Souls against all Assâ—ults of the Enemy and a sure Hiding-place from Storm and Tempest And the Lord God of Glory upon this Rock of Ages you all preserve that living Water and living Bread even the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ your Souls may here feed upon and be perfectly nourished with it up into the Fullness of Life and Perfection of Peace for ever more That so upon the Wing of this living Spirit and Power of our God in Christ we may be all continually carried and under the Shadow thereof be warmed and caused to grow triumph and rejoyce over all Weaknesses Wants and Powers of Darkness whatsoever For greater is he Dear Hearts that is in us and for us the glorious God in Light and Righteousness Ruling and Saving than he that is in the World the Power of Darkness raging and destroying And the World with its Strength Joy and Glory which deceiveth and is deceived is to be trampled upon and kept under foot as a thing that perisheth and passeth away with the Fashion Trouble and Remembrance of it But the Glory of our God and Goodness of his Love with the Power of his Truth Fatness of his House and Peace and Fullness of his Christ and Kingdom endures for ever dearly to be prized of us Praises Praises everlasting Praises to his Holy Glorious Arm of powerful Love for evermore And let every Creature in Heaven and Earth Praise him and all his wonderous Works in us and for us where these shall come and in all his redeemed Ones every where glorifie him in Pureness in the Immortal Mansions of Light and Love that cannot change nor be taken from us for ever and ever So again all Dear Hearts Brethren and Sisters in the Covenant of Life Children and Servants of the Most High God in the Life and Strength of God and his everlasting Light of Truth manifest dwell and walk in it indeed grow over all the World and Powers of Darkness and Wickedness whatsoever that the Seed of the Promise inheriting and the Seed of the Serpent and Transgression cast out you may indeed be true Witnesses of to the Glory of the Lord God and Good of your precious Souls for ever For he that Believes and in the pure Faith truly waits hath and knows the Witness in himself the Spirit which he hath of God for his everlasting Comforter but the Witness of God and his Face is against him that doth Evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But the Love of God and Glory to such as continue Faithful and Patient in the Well doing bearing the Cross and enduring it to the End And Blessed are all that keep the Commandments of Life that they may witness a daily Access and Freedom to the Tree of Life and Throne of Mercy to feed thereon and Live for ever For now is the Life arisen and the true Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World appeared and of his Fullness have all we received even Grace for Grace and his Commandments are not now to us Grievous Praise to his Name for ever And our Rock is not like the World's Rock even many of themselves already being Judges all Holy Praises to him that hath not cast us off for former Ignorance and Unbelief but hath in this his day of endless Mercy stretched out his Arm of Power for us and his Wing of Love over us even to everlasting Salvation So be it Thomas Taylor From the place of my outward Bonds here at Appleby in Westmoreland in the first Month 1658. Let this be Communicated amongst the Faithful of the Lord in their Meetings or otherwise as Freedom within and Movings are TO FRIENDS IN Warwick-shire and Stafford-shire c. MY Dear Friends in Christ Jesus in Warwick-shire Stafford-shire Worcester-shire and Hereford-shire with the parts thereunto adjoyning where my service in the Lord hath been my tender Love in the Bowels of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ doth dearly Salute ye all Praying in the Spirit for you all and for all Saints that as ye have received the Truth of God through the Persecutions and Reproaches of the present times so you may all with the abounding of the Grace Mercy and Peace of the Everlasting God amongst you be found therein Continuing and Walking to the Glory of his Name to the End to the receiving of a full Reward and finishing the Testimony of Christ amongst you to all Joy and holy Rejoycing in the Spirit and to the full assurance of Faith in the sight of God our Father Blessed for ever who hath chosen us and called us out of the Death in the Powerful Word of Truth to be his Children and Servants to bring forth Living Fruits of Righteousness to his Glory and to bear his Name thro' the daily Cross and Sufferings of his Son before the People of the World that he in all things may be Honoured who is the Head Christ Jesus and we his Members through the Operation of his Power in us may be given daily to feel the Glory of his Love which shed it self abroad in every part of the Body by Vertue of Union with him and Fellowship in the Eternal Spirit of Life And this is the Portion of the Living Branches who Faithful in his Work of Faith are found and abide not looking back at the Glory of Egypt nor murmur at the hardness of the way but pressing forward to the Mark set before them in Righteousness which is of God where the man of the Earth comes not but is shut out for ever So God Almighty your Hearts keep clean and your Understandings always open to discern the things that differ and to chuse the things of the Spirit of God which will be to your Everlasting Peace and Glory in the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father to whom be all Glory and Honour for ever Amen And now dear Friends as for my outward Condition you may hereby know that it was so ordered that within two or three Days after I was got to my outward Being in the edge of York shire here was an Assizes to be at this Town called Appleby in Westmoreland some Fourteen or Fifteen Miles North of it whether I had movings to come not knowing my service in particular until I came there and therefore when I was come to the Town after pretty Service in the Town amongst the Country People I was ordered to go into their Steeple-house at the time when the Sermon before the Judges as they call it was in hand and there waiting in the Will of God and hearing unsound Doctrine delivered I was moved in Spirit Publickly upon a Seat amongst them all immediately after the Man had done to declare against it for which they pu'lld me down and to fulfil the Scripture hawled me
that we are sufficient of our selves to think a good Thought but our Ability is of God who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter kills but the Spirit gives Life And that which the Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entred into the Heart of Man or Humane Heart to conceive hath God reveal'd to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the Deep Things of God and which Things we Preach or Speak not in the words which Man 's or Humane Wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2. But this R. B. comparing Spiritual Things with Carnal is not wise who because Old Men and long Students in Arts and worldly Sciences are most Wise or likely to be so therefore they that Labour and Study most in Books of Divinity so call'd get most of the Spirit 's Teaching O sad that ever the Minds of the Children of Men should be so cover'd with Darkness and yet read the Scripture of Truth which witnesses to no one thing more than to the Free Teachings of the Spirit of God without Humane Helps For all the Help that is Humane or that Man who is ab humo that is from the Earth can afford is but Natural and of this World which comes to nought therefore is it said That none of the Princes that is the Chief Men of this World knew the Mystery of Christ and his Kingdom then which made them so Band against him see the 2d Psalm And the Natural Man with all his Natural Means discerns not the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discern'd So every one that would know the Mind of the Spirit of God must come to feel through the Most Holy Faith a measure of it in themselves For after ye believ'd ye were Seal'd with the Spirit of Promise saith Paul And the Word is nigh thee even in thy Heart and Mouth O thou that hast an Ear to hear hear what the Spirit speaks even the Word of Faith which we Preach Therefore go not forth from the Anointing of God in thy Heart to hear the frothy and false Doctrine of such as R. B. who have run and set up themselves by their Humane Helps in the Place of Teachers and God never sent them and therefore they cannot profit the People at all but lead them about like silly Women laden with divers Sins and Lusts yea in their Prayers and best Performances as is manifest and so not being sent and enabled by God's Spirit they can never lead you to it but from it as is manifest Also R. B. in Page 6. before-mention'd saith The Objection hath much Confusion in it And how proves he that But by saying 1. It confoundeth the Spirit 's teaching us by inditing the Scripture with the Spirit 's teaching us the meaning of the Scriptures 2. And it confoundeth the Common Knowledge of Divinity with the Saving Knowledge of it No Man cometh to a Common Knowledge fit for a Teacher of others without the Spirit 's teaching by the Scriptures for that was the first part of the Spirit 's teaching us to inspire the Prophets and Apostles to deliver a Teaching Word to the Churches by which we might all be taught of God through all Generations But many Men have Excellent Common Knowledge by this Word and by the Common Help of the Spirit without that Special Help which begetteth Saving Knowledge And all Knowledge requireth Time and Labour to obtain it though the Spirit giveth it and though it may be sanctified to us in a little time but that may be a means of saving others which saveth not the Man that hath it And in Page 114. farther saith Take them not for no Ministers that want Grace totally And marvel not that Gifts are more necessary to the validity of Ministration than Grace is he may perform the Office of a Minister to the Benefit of the Church that hath no Saving Grace at all Thus far R. B. O! What Sorcery and Egyptian-darkness is here to make void the New Covenant and Free Gracious Teachings of the Spirit of God in these Days and to Establish the Letter in the room and stead thereof which only witnesses to is and is a Declaration concerning what the Spirit of God did in them and in the World before Christ's coming in the Flesh and what was done during his being in it and what the Spirit would do in the Believing Souls and in the World after that time But this the Hirelings do that they by their trading with and giving their false meanings upon the Scriptures they may keep the People in Blindness and so from the Anointing and Teaching and Enjoyment of that Spirit that was in them that gave forth Scriptures that they may not see their deceitful Doctrines and Merchandizes lest they should buy no more of them For no Man that knows the badness of Babylon will buy them any more and then will the Merchants of Souls mourn For they that know the Lord and his Spirit 's Teaching in them which is the Good Old Way yea and the ever New Fresh Profitable and Living VVAY will follow no more such Men as would bring in and establish a Graceless Ministry as this R. B. doth here to his Shame But such Graceless Priests the Lord will have none of nor his People neither For my Sheep hear my Voice saith Christ and a stranger they will not hear Surely a Graceless Man is this Stranger They to wit graceless Men saith John 1 Epist 4. are of the World and the World hear them we are of God Stewards of the manifold Grace of God 1 Pet. 4.10 And they that are of God hear us And so Ever Bless'd and Prais'd be the Great and Glorious Name of the Lord Jesus who hath restor'd to them that Obey him the Glorious Doctrine of the Spirit 's Teaching as was in the Apostles Days according to his true Promise where all in the Truth of which we the People of God in Scorn call'd Quakers are Members is done in and by the Holy Spirit prais'd be God and nothing own'd amongst us but what is so done Here is Praying in and by the Spirit and Preaching in and by the Spirit and Singing in and by the Spirit of our Holy Lord God and so the Head being Spiritual and the Members of the Body every one Spiritual for we are all Baptized by one Holy Spirit into the one Heavenly Body our Food is also Spiritual Heavenly Bread and Heavenly Wine and the Water Spiritual that sanctifies us and makâ—s us clean to God in all our Sacrifices and Services For Christ gave himself for his Church which is his Body that he might wash it and present it spotless to himself and without all Deformity by the washing of Water even the Water of Life in the Word of Life the Creating Word of the
And as for the danger the Apostle reasoneth in his Epistle to the Hebrews quite contrary to this T. H. for saith the Apostle Heb. 12.25 See that ye refuse not him to wit Christ that speaketh for if they escaped noâ— that refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven Also see Heb. 2.1 c. See what thou hast chosen Tho. Hall How thou hast chosen the Earthly before the Heavenly the Killing Letter before the Heavenly Spirit of the Lord Jesus which giveth Life and the Shadowing Law of the Servant before the Living Law of the Master Jesus Christ who was counted worthy of more Glory than Moses in as much as he that Builded the House is more worthy than the House See Heb. 3.3 But when we say that Moses's Law is a killing Letter and made nothing perfect this T. Hall like a wicked Man is ready to cry out of us as though we broached some new or strange Doctrine when as it is no other than the plain downright Doctrine of the Holy Apostles and Servants of the Lord Jesus set down in Scripture as you may read without our adding or diminishing any thing at all And to this purpose see 2 Cor. 3. where are these words Verse 6 c. Who also hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life But if the Ministration of Death written and engraven in Stones was glorious Mark this though he calls the Law glorious in its time yet he calls it the Ministration of Death so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the Glory of his Countenance which Glory was to be done away How shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather Glorious For if the Ministration of Condemnation be Glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in Glory For even that which was made glorious had no Glory in this respect by reason of the Glory that excelleth For 〈◊〉 that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious Seeing then that we have such hope we use great plainness of Speech And not as Moses which put a Vail over his Face that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished But their Minds were blinded For until this day remaineth the same Vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament which Vail is done away in Christ But even unto this day when Moses is read the Vail is upon their Heart Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the Vail shall be taken away Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty But we all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Here this T. Hall might as well have condemned Paul as us for I say that here is more spoken for a Jewish Spirit to catch at than in our Writings for I say nothing comparable to this can be brought out of our Writings for a seeming denial and making void of Moses's Law for here he calls it not only a killing Letter but even a Ministration of Death and Condemnation done away and abolished and never able to remove the Vail of the Heart from any in reading of it And so whereas this Hall is used to bring Psal 19 4 7 c. for establishing his Dreams about Moses's Law where it is said The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul He might easily see it was not Moses's Letter Ministration or Law which Paul here says was Kâ—lling and Condemning to all that came under it to get Life by it But David speaks there of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which opened the blind Eyes of his Mind and wrought the Holy Fear of God in his Heart and so converted his straying Soul to follow the Lord through Faith in his Name as it is with the Faithful at this day as the Apostle saith Rom. 8.1 c. There is now therefore no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of Sin and Death For that which the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh Christ doth in us and for us And that the Law of Moses made nothing perfect it is the Apostles express words also Heb. 7.18 19. For there is verily a disanulling of the Commandment going before that is as he reasons all along in this Chapter the Law of Moses in the Letter for the Weakness and Vnprofitableness of it suitable to that before mentioned in Rom. 8.3 For the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better Hope did by which we draw nigh unto God Now if any be ignorant of what this Better Hope is which makes perfect and by which Believers draw nigh to God they may know it is Christ Jesus the Lord of Life and Glory that quickning Spirit also by which the Vail of the Heart is rent away in them that believe which the Old Covenant made with the Jews at their coming out of Egypt could not do because it was weak through the Flesh as is said before And so thou T. Hall and all the Unbelieving World going out from the Spirit into the Letter in your Fleshly Minds and Wills which is Enmity to God and is neither subject to the Law of God nor indeed can be as Paul saith Rom. 8. you bring in nothing but Condemnation to your poor Souls for you are so proud in Heart that you will not come to Christ that meek lowly Lamb to be taught by his Light and Spirit which shineth in your Consciences reproving you daily for your Unbelief But you think by your exercising of your selves in your own Wills and Times in some outward Observations of your own devising called Religion to get Acceptance unto God in them though to his Son you are utter Enemies But truly instead of Life you bring Death for the Wages of these your sinful Doings and defiled Worships is Death And that thou T. Hall art an Enemy to Christ and his Blessed Spirits Teaching thy words in thy Papers will still fully and more abundantiy shew which are these which I shall now set down for thou T. Hall in Page 11. wickedly sayst Be it known unto you Quakers God and Christ had no such an intention to answer the Question of the Man in the Gospel in any such like manner to seek to the true Worshipping of God in Spirit and Truth but Christ instead of directing the Desire of the Man for the good of his Soul and Glory of
precious Faith Grace Mercy and Power from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be abundantly multiplied in you and the Blessed Arm of his Power support you and carry you through all the present and future Tryals for the Gospels sake on Earth for us hath the Lord drawn out of the many Waters and set our Feet upon the sure Rock of Ages the tryed Foundation and brought our Souls into the unmoveable Rest Glory to his Name for ever that we might be to his Praise and Glory and Honour for ever that he might dwell in us and we in him for ever and so be safe for ever under his Wing where the Wicked cannot come because of Unbelief and that great Violence whereby they have stopt the way of all good from their Souls But now Dear Hearts and Beloved in the Lord you who have loved the Light and received the Power which makes all manifest and cleanseth from all Sin you are Blessed even the Blessed of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who loves your Souls with a perfect Love and fills your Hearts day by day with his Infinite Goodness Therefore as a Recompence for all his Mercies give up your selves to his Holy Will in all things and love the Lord the same our everlasting God and Father with all your Hearts Souls Mind and Strength and he will do abundantly for you and us all even his whole Israel in every place beyond all that we can ask or think Look not out at the World nor their Love nor Hatred for they are Men and not Gods but keep in the Sanctuary of God the Spirit of Christ and there is Safety with him is the Well of Life which refreshes our Souls continually and makes all things easie and possible to us through Faith in his Name and Patience So let Patience have its perfect Work for we have daily need of it that we may continually see and feel the Love of the Lord in the Land of the Living and not be clouded with the Spirit of this World which gendreth to Bondage in any thing For if Lot's Wife look back she is presently turned into a Pillar of Salt and if the Israelite turn back but in his Heart into Egypt he is snared in Unbelief So my Dear Friends look up to the Lord in Spirit and Truth and wait continually to feel his living Presence in you to keep you open and single to him that of the powerful Spirit of his Holiness which slays the Sin and quickens the Soul to God you may be Witnesses and so come to possess the Immortal Kingdom where Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost only reigneth So with the Dear Salvation of my Love unto you all I commend you to the Lord to bless keep and water with his Goodness continually to his Glory who only is Holy and gives us freely every good thing to enjoy both for Soul and Body who is near to the Righteous in every Necessity to Help and Save to the uttermost To whom be Glory and Immortal Praise Even so rests with you in the full Assurance of his Tender Mercies in Christ Jesus your Dear Brother Thomas Taylor TO FRIENDS TO the Called and Chosen of God the Dear Vessels of Life and Glory in all the Earth doth the Tender Salutation of me your Dear Brother reach who as a feeling Member in the Holy Body of the Lord Jesus do daily partake with you of the Blessed Joys of Life Eternal and of the present Sufferings for the same who therefore cannot but continually through the pure Love and Lifes Motion breathe out amongst you the Happy state of our Innocent Souls because of Truth upon every Occasion to the stirring up and refreshing of the tender good thing the Heavenly Mind in all to the joint Praising Blessing and Magnifying of the Lord 's great Name for his abundant kindness towards every Particular Faithful Ones for Ever and Ever for he is good to Israel unspeakably unalterably true to them for Ever And now Dear Friends seeing God hath been so gracious to us above all the People of the Earth as to set his Name upon us in Righteousness to the Amazement and Astonishment of many and hath caused our Rod that was dry even as others to flourish and bear Fruits in the midst of the Earth to the Praise of his Living Power as a Token of his Acceptance and Choice And seeing God hath so graciously performed his Promises to us his Seed made to his Israel of Old in bringing up our Souls from Death and our Life from the devouring Sword and hath unloosed our Tongues to speak of his Wonders in the great Congregation why shall we not then speak good of this the Name of our God the true Everliving God in Comparison of whom the whole World with their many Idols Gods and Lords are nothing We may not be hindred by the Adversary from breathing forth our pure Life given us of God for his Glory in a continual mention of his Holiness for if we should be silent the very Stones would do it for now is the Lord Jesus arisen indeed and ascended far above all Heavens Principalities Powers Names and Greatnesses whatsoever and come again to our Spirits according to his Blessed Promise that of his unspeakable Fulness we might all partake in abundance to the causing of our Cup to overflow with all Holy and Heavenly Consolations and Praises for the perfect Salvation of our God to the watering of every tender holy Plant in Israel that waits for the same For as the Dew to the tender Herbs so is thy Blessing O Immanuel to the Garden of thy own planting thy Beloved Plants that waits for thee amongst whom the pourings forth of thy Name is as sweet Ointment And Blessed are all that wait for thee who hast inclosed thy Beloved People in the Arms of thy own Almightiness and filled them with thy own Blessed Kingdom and Righteousness who hungred after thee even so Father of Life be it for Evermore to thy own unspeakable Glory who alone art worthy So now Dear Friends into the Unity of the Holy Life Power and Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ let every Soul of us gather and retire it self to be nourished up thereby and preserved to a daily and perfect Victory over all Temptations and Provocations whatsoever that upon the very Head of the Serpent we may tread and let us not look at the seen things for therein lyes the Wiles and Temptations but let us eye and feel the Blessed Invisible Life and Powerful Heavenly Spirit of our God to carry us through and over all to his Glory who hath said That he will never leave nor forsake his tender breathing Seed that waits on him so Blessed are all that are found in this his Covenant and follow him as Dear Children and Obedient Servants in the sure and safe way of the daily Cross and Self-denial to a perfect mortifying and subduing of the fleshly
Christ which they be freely inlightned withal which shines in their very Hearts and Consciences which searches their very Hearts and Reins and makes manifest to Man his Thoughts and from which none can hide any thing but all things are naked and bare before him the Light Christ Jesus who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Jew and Gentile one and other who searcheth the most hidden things of Man and brings them forth to the Judgment of his Righteousness for though the Night may hide the Adulterer and the Thief from Man it hides them not from God there is one nigh in the Heart and Conscience that tells Man and Woman all that ever they have done and do daily do even their secret Thoughts is not this the Christ of God the true Messiah that was to come and is come and dwells amongst us and we look not for another And of his Fulness have all we received and do daily receive who believe in his Light which shines in our Hearts according to the Scriptures of Truth And this the Fulness of our Blessed God and Saviour Jesus Christ the Light is it which filleth all that come to him with all Spiritual Blessings and Heavenly Good Things and without whom all is Darkness Emptiness Death and Desolation as all the poor deceived lost Sons and Daughters of the faln Adam do sooner or later know and are made to confess But Blessed are they that consider of things in time and lay things to Heart before it be too late for there are but Twelve Hours in a Day in which Men may work saith Christ and then the Night cometh in which none can work but the Door will be shut upon all who have slighted and neglected the Day of their Visitation O England England and all Lands far and near that you had known or could yet believe the things that belong to your Everlasting Peace before they be hid from your Eyes therefore turn ye turn ye at the Reproofs of God's Wisdom and Spirit of Light and Truth which sounds through all and lets you see the Vanity and Evil of all your Works and Frailty of all your Lives how soon the Thread of your Life is cut off And then where is the great Emperors and Kings with all their Crowns And where is the great Captains and Commanders with all their Bloody Victories And where is the Wise Achitophel's and Cunning Counsellors of the Earth with all their Admirers And where is the Covetous Oppressors with all their Houses full of the Spoils of the Innocent Yea in that Day where is all the Glory and Lusts of the World with all the Lovers of it Surely in Darkness and Misery shall they lye down together and Death shall have Dominion over them even all who have not believed in the Light Christ Jesus and who have not followed him in the Regeneration that they may be saved but have spent their Days in the Pleasures and Lusts of the present evil World to Destruction Now therefore O all People hearken to the Counsel of the Lord in this your Day and learn of the Lamb the Light who calls you to Repentance from all your grievous Ways How long shall the Spirit of the Lord strive with you When will you cease learning War and Destruction and Oppression and Spoil O when will you beat your Swords into Plow-shares and your Spears into Pruning-hooks O when will you go and say one to another one Neighbour to another and one Nation to another Come let us all be humbled before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who made us all of one Blood to dwell together upon the Face of the Earth in Truth Goodness and Love to serve one another and so as Branches of one Tree to receive Life and Vertue and Power from our God into our Souls to strengthen us unto his holy Work who came not to destroy Mens Lives but to save them whose Kingdom is not of this World and therefore is not set up or maintained with Carnal Weapons Violence and Spoil but by the Eternal Spirit of our God whose Fruit is in all Goodness and Righteousness and Truth and let not the wicked Devil the Destroyer deceive us any more by his Lies and Delusions but let us all with one Heart and Soul resist his Temptations when he perswades us to seek to be great in the Earth and be avenged on them we count our Enemies let us not hearken to him but let us overcome their Evil with Goodness and not to seek the Destruction of their Persons or Spoil of their Estates as the Heathen do that know not God but let us follow the Example of Jesus Christ God manifested in Flesh who when he was reviled reviled not again but pray'd for such as despitefully used him O come let us follow this meek Lamb in Righteousness and Truth and let us learn of him in our Hearts who is meek and lowly that we may find rest for our Souls who rebuked his Disciples who would have had Fire to come down from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans who would not at that time receive Christ for what knowest thou O Man but the Samaritans may in time come to a better Mind and then thou wilt see it was thy Will and not God's that desired their Destruction in their Sins for Christ would have all to be Saved and to come to the Knowledge of his Truth but many will not come to him that they might have Life and so their Destruction is of themselves and their Condemnation just And who are now therefore those that withstand the Doctrine of the Truth which saith Love your Enemies and seek not the Destruction of their Persons and Estates but seek them by good Doctrine and good Life to bring them out of their Sins And if they will not but rather hate thee for thy Good-will be content thou hast quitted thy own Soul and art clear of their Blood and so thou becomes a Sufferer with Jesus Christ and shalt Reign with him in due time I say who are these now on the Earth that are against the good Self-denying Doctrine of Christ and continue in the hateful destroying ways of the old Jews and Gentiles but such as will not be counselled by the Lamb of God the suffering Seed who said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly of Heart but ye are Men of corrupt Minds and account Gain and worldly Honours and Promotions more than Godliness who cry Peace Peace to themselves in their Sins And that same Spirit in them which creates that false Peace in them is the same that stirs them up to kill destroy oppress and spoil one another for selfish and worldly Ends but the Lord is arisen to Judge all these Evil things and to redeem a Seed to serve him as in the beginning of the Gospel before Antichrist the Murtherer got up amongst them that professed Christ in Words but denied him in Deeds and so had a Name
Scripture and yet is to be believed To which I answer If the Apostles Creed so called either be not in Scripture in so many words or do not wholly agree with it in nature we are not to believe it But the reason why we believe it is not because the Pope saith it is Apostolical but because rightly Expounded or understood but not with the Popish or other wrong Exposition we find it for Substance agreeable to Holy Scripture But saith he If a Man shall deny or obstinately doubt of one Point of Faith Would he thereby lose his whole Faith Yes saith he because true Faith must always be entire and be that faileth in one is made guilty of all by discrediting the Authority of God revealing it Then say I Neither to Pope nor General Councils need People be beholden for their Faith but to God only according to Christ's words John 6.45 They shall all be taught of God But now mark People under these seeming words of this Sophister what a World of Wickedness lyeth hid For though he use the words of God's revealing Faith for a Cloak yet he intendeth nothing so indeed For if I or another Man should come and truly say God hath revealed this and the other thing to be his Will I should believe and that by his Spirit I am able to make it manifest that it agrees with the Scripture of Truth yet if the Pope and his Councils do not approve of it it shall be no Faith with them but I shall be accounted an Heretick and fit to be Burned where they get Power as hath been manifoldly proved in England and other places And again this Wickedness lyes hid under his words That if a Messenger of the Pope as Jesuit or other Priest or Teacher of them say to the poor People that do in general too much believe their False Doctrines and Practices yet if they do not in particular believe all their Superstitions then they have lost all their Faith and so consequently are Damned If they be told I say that they must say so many Ave Maries so many Pater-nosters do such Penance observe such and such Saints-days so called and their Eves and Ember-weeks and receive such and such for their Ghostly Fathers though they see and right-well know them to be Sensual and meer Carnal-minded Men and what not that these Priests commend unto them for Holy Doctrines and Catholick Practices tedious to relate If they do not believe all then by this Man's Doctrine they have lost all their Faith And why Because say they the Pope and his Councils which they account God's revealing for no other God they look at to teach them as afterwards in this his Book appears have said it must be so O the miserable Slavery of all such as are under this Hellish Egyptian Yoke The Lord deliver all simple Hearts from it And for his Worshipping and Praying unto Angels as also Saints which here and elsewhere he mentions and brings some Scripture wrested as their Custom is seemingly to prove it That one Scripture I say instead of many others which might be brought shall serve for ever to dash in pieces the Head of that Venomous and Idolatrous Doctrine and Practice of Bowing and Praying unto Saints and Angels where it is said That to God in Christ every Knee in Heaven Earth and under the Earth must bow and every Tongue confess And when he brings in his only begotten into the World he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him And therefore the Angel in Rev. 22.8 9. utterly denied John's worshipping him saying Worship God And in Rev. 7. The whole Company both of Saints and Angels fell down according to their Duty and great Engagement and did worship God So that if the Saints and Angels were as ready and as well pleased to receive Honour as these Superstitious Men are to give it them they would lose their Holy Place and be like them for saith Christ How can ye believe that receive Honour one of another and seek not that Honour which comes from God only John 5.44 But truly Holy Saints and Angels are better learned than so and therefore abhor all Honour but that which comes from God only and for that they return to him alone as his due all Honour Glory and Praise saying as in Rev. 4 last Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created And so true Heaveny Brethren and Fellow-Servants and Keepers of the Commandments of God as all true Saints and Angels whether in Heaven or Earth are look not for Worship one from another but gives all to God their Maker and Saviour to whom it 's due But it 's the Devil that would have God's Honour from him to himself as Matt. 4.9 10. but none but the Wicked will give it him And then if the Saints and Angels themselves be not to be worshipped much less their Pictures Also I say If such living Images of God and Christ as Holy Saints and Angels are are not to be worshipped much less dead Images of God and Christ invented by Man's Brain and framed by Man's hand are to be adored but to be trampled upon as Nehustan that little piece of Brass was which the Children of Israel Idolized And this Popish Book speaking of the Necessity of the Incarnation saith If it had not been scarce one of a Thousand and those great Clerks only would have known God to any Saving Purpose or so because of his Spiritual Sublimity c. By this it appears how perfectly this great Clerk is ignorant of Truth and in this how diametrically opposite to the Apostle's Doctrine 1 Cor. first and second Chapters for there he makes the World's Wisdom in general Foolishness with God and in particular the wisest sort of them farthest from the Saving Knowledge of God And so attributes all Saving Knowledge to the alone Revelation of the Spirit of God and that to Babes and Sucklings Matt. 11. But this Sophister imagines great Clerks can do something more than others in this matter And it were well if all Protestants were well purged of this bad Disease In his Fourth Article of the Greed he asks Is it lawful to honour the Cross Yea saith he with a relative Honour Because saith he it is a special Memorial of the Passion and is called the Sign of the Son of Man Matt. 24 20. he would say it 's like Verse 30. To which I say It 's a meer Dream and Falshood to call an outward Cross the Sign of the Son of Man for in that Scripture there is not the least Intimation of a Cross for the words are these Then to wit as in the former Verse when the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven And then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man
Christianity for saith Christ to his Followers when they were telling of who should be greatest of them he Convinced them of their Error by setting before them a little Child and saying who will be greatest of all must be Servant of all and least of all and that not in Words only but in Deed and Truth say I. But what is any thing that is said of Peter in the Scripture to the Pope O yes saith he he is his Successor To which I say it is as false as any thing is true for Peter was a Holy Man of God of Christ's sending but the Pope an unholy Man of the wicked World's sending chusing and setting up witness the Men chusing him and the manner of their chusing and setting him up the very relation of which in all the Foolish and Antichristian Circumstances of it would even make a truly Honest Spiritual Man's Heartake to hear or read it Again Peter was a Humble Man clothed with Humility as he exhorted others not a Lord over God's Heritage but an Example to it of Faith and Goodness as he exhorted others but the Pope is a Proud Man set up at Rome like a Worldly Prince Ruling and Lording it over God's Heritage not only with his wicked Curses and Excommunications of all that will not bow to his Superstitions and Abominable Idolatries but even Persecuting to Death with worldly Power and Force where he can do it either by his own or others whom he can stir up and perswade to act his wicked Will all such as deny him and against him bear withess though otherwise they be never so dear and near to the Lord God and so instead of being an Example of Goodness to any he is become an Abhorring to Nations and therefore is the Wo come and coming upon him and his Seat and Upholders and Lovers from him who is a Consuming Fire and this Babylon with all its Strength and Glory shall be burnt in his Fire and Zion shall not take one of her polluted Stones to put in her Holy Building It is so Thomas Taylor There is more by me of this kind as in Answer to more Passages of that Bad Book herein mentioned which in due time may come forth and it is this Again as concerning the Pope's succceding Peter and all Successions relating to the Church of God truly so called I say it is meerly Spiritual as the Lord said concerning his Prophet The Spirit that I have put upon thee and the Word which I have put into thy Mouth shall not depart from thee nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seeds Seed from henceforth and for ever And so we finding both the Spirit and Word of the Pope to be quite of another Nature than that which was in Peter and the other Apostles we deny him and his Succession together with all other Pretenders to the like Succession who want that Heavenly Spirit Life and Doctrine that they were in In the Ninth Article this Bad Book saith But why may not a well-meaning Man be saved in any Religion He answers First from Ephes 4.5 and Heb. 11.6 where mention is made of one Faith and that without Faith it is impossible to please God Then I say well meaning in the Popish Way without true Faith will not save no more than in any other But then saith he Secondly because as in a natural Body that part which hath not a due Connexion to the Heart or Root presently dies for want of Continuity So in the Church the Mystical Body of Christ faith he that Part or Member that hath not a due Subordination and Connexion unto the Head and Commen Councils thereof that is the Pope and General Councils thou shouldst have said Christ as in Ephes 4.15 16. from whence under Christ we have our Spiritual Life and Motion as we are Christians must needs be dead nor indeed can be accounted a Member of that Mystical Body O Profound Antichristian Doctrine indeed For here thou hast pulled off thy Vizard with thy own Hand and any one of a very mean Understandstanding may see that by this Popish Doctrine Christ the Living Fountain is thrust out of Doors for it must not by this be known what saith Christ and his Spirit to my Soul but what faith the Pope and his Councils to mine Ear. And afterwards this Pleader for Baal to wit the Pope and his Councils accounts them Novelists Hereticks and Idle Brains that will not submit to this Tribunal of Christ he should have said Antichrist on Earth to wit the Pope and his General Councils and makes this alone to be the Cause of all Heresies and Sects as he calls them whether Protestants or other For saith he they will not be tried by this Tribunal but by their own idle Brain and the dead Letter of the Scripture To which I say God will judge this Man and all such for their Wickedness in coupling an idle Brain and the Letter of the Scripture together for though the Scripture be but as a dead thing to them that will neither understand nor believe it yet to an Inlightened Understanding Believing Soul it is of such Service that the Apostle is not afraid to say That the Scripture is given for our Learning upon whom the Ends of the World are come And the Scripture is of such force in the Hand of such Inlightned and truly Understanding Ones that Christ made use of it against the great Wrester of Scripture to wit the Devil and by the right use of it in the hands of the Faithful through the Spirit which gave them forth all the Mud-walls of Popery and Paper Bullwarks of the whole Antichristian Kingdom of False Professors both have and daily are beat down and therefore doth the wicked Popedom keep the Holy Scripture from the poor Slaves under them But the great King Christ Jesus upon his Heavenly Tribunal is bringing his great Work to pass in these latter days against the Beast Whore and False Prophet under what Name or Notion soever and by his Spirit according to Scripture to pour Judgments and Plagues upon all their Tribunals Glory to his Name for evermore Again this Popish Book asks Is not this to wit the want of a Popish Tribunal the reason why the Protestants and other Sects are so divided c. He answers Yea a principal reason For how can different Fancies says he upon different Principles be united I answer No The want of this Tribunal is not the cause And ask What was the Reason of Differences amongst the Jews that had their Tribunal of the Law outward and High Priests and Sanhedrims or great Councils for ordering Matters of Religion Yea and what was the reason that there was Divisions and Dissentions amongst the first Christians when even Peter and other Apostles were living Yea saith the Apostle There must be Heresies among you even you that all profess Christ and he gives a Reason that these that
true Standing and ever Continuing Worship of God which is in Spirit and Truth For saith Christ God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must do it in Spirit even in his own Spirit and Truth So then they that are in the Flesh the Carnal Mind cannot Perform this Worship and so cannot Please God but a Carnal-minded One can observe your Days whether Fasts or Feasts and say all your Prayers and do all your Devotions which you are outwardly Exercised in from the one end of the Year to the other and so get a Name yet this avails nothing to the Kingdom of God Nay Paul the Apostle speaks further If I give all my Goods to Feed the Poor and my Body to be Burnt and have not the Love of God the true Charity Understanding within to Purge thy Heart from Sinful Self in the matter it is nothing For true Christians do not do good Works noâ— suffer for well doing that they may merit Salvation thereby but being saved freely by Grace through the Redemption which is in Christ Jesus they do good Works from the Heavenly Nature of that Holy Root that bears them and brings them forth as good Trees to Glorifie God in their Bodies and Souls which are his Tit. 3.8 And the Apostle Charging Titus to Exhort Believers to good Works was not because they were Saviours but because they were Profitable to Men as well as the Prophets And as for our Religion which the World and all the outside Professors of it look so slightly at and speak so Contemptibly of we would have you as well as the rest to know that it is truly Ancient Catholick Christian and Apostolical as having its Rise and Foundation in and from the Eternal Word which is Christ in us the Hope of our Glory whom the Apostle to the Colossians Preached as a Mystery formerly hid but then Revealed to the Gentiles even Christ in the Flesh the Hope of their Glory through Faith in his Name and this is God's Foundation the Foundation of Christ's Church another Foundation can no Man lay than this which God hath laid and this is the Rock not Peter but Christ who Peter by the Revelation of the Father Confessed unto And so through Faith in this Word Christ the Foundation and Rock of all the Righteous that ever were or ever shall be do we deny all the false Faiths and Works of all who have gotten the Name but want the Nature of true Christian People and so in the true Faith which gives Victory over the World and in the Name of Christ which is above every Name do we separate from them and meet together to Worship God in Spirit and Truth as he Requires us and his Blessed Presence in the midst of us according to Promise do we abundantly feel and witness to the great Rejoycing and Establishing of our Souls in Righteousness when thus met together And therefore do we Exhort all that Name Christ whether call'd Papists or Protestants to have Fellowship with us because our Fellowship is thus truly with the Father and the Son Therefore Awake Awake stand up from your Dead Faculties and Dead Worships that Christ who is the true Everlasting Way you may walk in and Worship in where no Uncircumcised or Unclean in Heart can come and if this you do not believe and bow your Heart accordingly to obey let me tell you as one who hath received Mercy to be Faithful you can never be Established with the Establishment of the Righteous for this is the Day that burns as an Oven where in all the Proud Wicked and False Professors and Confessors must be as Stubble and neither Root nor Branch must be left them because they will not have him the true Promised Seed and Heir of all things to Reign and Sway his Righteous Scepter in them and on them O! Look up to the Lord in a Trembling Soul and True Contrite Spirit to find Favour in his sight before the Door be shut and you stand without saying Lord Lord open to us And he Answer you in his Wrath because of your Unbelief and Disobedience saying Depart from me I know you not Workers of Iniquity for all are Workers of Iniquity in their highest Performances and greatest Conceits of themselves whose Works are not wrought in God that Spirit and Holy Power that Cleanses the Heart from all Sin and so brings Life to Light for God to be Praised in for the Dead cannot Praise him So consider what I say and be not Proud lest your Bands be made strong and your Feet stumble and then Fall upon the Dark Mountains where you have been too long Wandering Neither be so Foolish as to say This is but a Quaker who hath gotten some new Upstart Religion or so for in good Earnest I tell you the Truth which will stand when all Deceit and Devices of Men of corrupt Minds will come to naught for in the true Poverty of my Spirit hath the Lord according to Promise manifest his Blessed Kingdom in me and the pure Hunger and Thirst of my Soul which was after him and his Righteousness that he Graciously satisfied And therefore am Constrained in pure Love to your Souls to invite you as well as others to come out of the Prodigal State into the Heavenly Fathers House Christ Jesus as himself said My Father is in me and I in him and as the Apostle said It pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell in him for in this House and no where else is there Bread enough true Living Bread for the Hunger of the Immortal Soul as he said of himself in John 6. before any thing was spoken concerning the Bread and Wine at his last Supper I am the Living Bread the Heavenly Bread and when the Hearers Carnally Questioned How he could give them his Flesh to Eat he told them The Flesh Profiâ—ed nothing it was the Spirit that Quickened So come away Come away from your Carnal Conceivings of a Heavenly Man the Lord from Heaven to be Comprehended in a little Earthly Bread or Wine seeing the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens contain him not much less outward Temples and outward Elements of Bread or Wine For unto his Light that is night you which shineth in your Dark Hearts though your Darkness Comprehend it not must you come and there wait for the Day to dawn in you or these Mysteries of his Kingdom you can never truly Know but in your Darkness grope and stumble for ever as People without Eyes and though this Heavenly Seed the Word the Light appear little in you yet despise it not for in it is the Blessing and if you receive it and in it abide you will know all this and it will work in you as Leaven in Meal till your whole Lumpâ— ' Heavenly Sweet and Pure and so as Christ said If thy Eye be single to wit single in and to the Lord in his Light to Believe and Walk then thy whole
plunged or overwhelmed in Outward Water If yea then tell us upon what Scripture Proof your Faith is grounded seeing there is no Water there mentioned And if some were then Baptized in Water a second time why then may there not be as much Necessity now unto such as have not received the Holy Ghost at their first plunging into Water to be Baptized again in Water a second time And why was the Name of the Lord Jesus there only used and not the Form of words which you use and plead for seeing it was after that Commission Mat. 28.19 Let us know your Faith concerning these things and whether the most Orthodox amongst you be of one and the same Judgment concerning them 6. Why do you call you Dipping or Plunging People into Outward Water Sacred Baptism What Scripture President and Rule have you for that Tearm Did John the Baptist call his Baptism Sacred Or did Paul call it so Acts 19.3 4 Or was it not the Pope of Rome in his Decretal Epistle that called his Baptizing in Water Sacred Baptism and the Water in which he Baptized Holy Water And do not you use the same Tearm for yours But tell us plainly whether it be your Act of Dipping in Water that you call Sacred or the Water in which you Dip or Plunge People Or where you had that Tearm to call your Water-baptism Sacred if not from the Pope of Rome 7. Wherefore are you offended at us for calling your Baptizing in Water Dipping or Plunging seeing that we understand to be the import or signification of the Word in plain English 8. When you Dip or Plunge People into Elementary Water whether do you Dip or Plunge them in reality of Truth in or rather into the Name of Father Son and Holy Spirit yea or nay For if not do you not deceive them in making them believe that you Baptize or Plunge them according as Christ commanded his Disciples into the Name of Father Son and Holy Spirit when in reality you do but only Dip or Plunge them into Outward Water 9. Do you believe that the Name of Father Son and Holy Spirit is Elementary Water seeing I find in that Scripture Mat. 28.19 so often quoted by you to prove your Mission to Baptize in Water that Christ gave his Disciples Commission to Baptize in or rather into as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit but nothing said of Baptizing in Water Or do you believe that the Father the Word and the Spirit are one Is not his Name Spiritual representing his Nature yea Spirit Power and Life If yea why then do you seek to introduce and impose your Baptizing in Water from that Scripture And why do you presume beyond what is there written especially seeing that you your selves Confess that the Scriptures are the Ground and Rule of your Faith Why do you seek to impose a Faith upon us from that Scripture beyond what is there written What Ground and Rule have you for that And what Ground and Rule have you for your Baptizing in Water from that Scripture seeing Water is not in the least mentioned in it Tell us plainly 10. Did not Jesus Christ who gave that Commission Mat. 28.19 Command his Disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until they were Endued with Power from on High Luke 24.49 And whether did they go forth to Baptize all Nations before they had waited at Jerusalem and received that Power Answer plainly 11. Have all you that go forth to Baptize in Water under pretence of that Commission Mat. 28.19 obeyed Christ's Command Recorded Luke 24.49 Acts 1.4 And have you received that Promise and Power If yea what is it A Book or Books or Writings without or the Spirit Power and Life of Christ revealed within But and if you have not obeyed Christ's Command as aforesaid but run before you have received that Power are you not therein manifest Transgressors of the Doctrine and Command of Christ even in that which you pretend to be the Ground and Rule of your Faith and Mission And if so are you not thereby plainly manifested to be Intruders and false Apostles who are not to be owned nor received but to be denied and judged by all that live in the Power of God and true Gospel Fellowship 12. Was the Apostle Paul any whit inferior or behind the very Chief Apostles And was not that Commission Mat. 28.19 as much his as yours And did not he know the Mind of Christ in it as fully as any of you the Counsel of God being revealed to him Notwithstanding which did not he expresly testifie that Christ sent him not to Baptize 1 Cor. 1.17 but to Preach the Gospel Now if you have a Mission or Commission to Baptize in Water which belongs not to him as fully as to any of you tell us plainly who gave it when you received it and your Scripture for it 13. Do you believe that Paul was Called and fully Endued for the Ministry And was his Commission Acts 26.17 18. Evangelical and Full for the Gathering and Planting of Churches according to Gospel-Order seeing we find nothing in it of Christ's sending him to Baptize Or do you think his Commission insufficient for the End aforesaid because he was not sent to Baptize in Water and that yours now is more Full and Evangelical If you do tell us what Scripture have you for the Ground and Rule of your Faith in that Matter 14. Whether do you believe that the One Baptism spoken of Ephes 4.5 be that of John's in Water or that of Christ's in the Holy Ghost seeing both John Christ and his true Apostles did distinguish betwixt them as aforesaid Now if you say that that One Baptism there mentioned is the Baptism in Water then I Query whether you do believe that the Baptism of or in the Spirit is now ceased or not of such Absolute Necessity as that in Water seeing the Apostle speaks but of One Lord even so of One Faith and One Baptism And whether you do believe that any now are or can be really made Members of that One Body and true Church of Christ by Water-baptism or any other way than by being Baptized by that One Spirit into that One Body Answer plainly Thomas Taylor Christ Exalted above Moses and the Spirit above the Letter MANY are and have been in all Ages the Enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Blessed Truth and Life Immortal which he hath brought to Light by his Appearance in and through his Servants both in the Days of his Flesh and since his Ascention by the pourings out of his Spirit according to his Holy Promise whereby it hath come to pass that many simple Minds have been greatly hindred from receiving the Truth for a time until it pleased the Lord by the Arm of his Mighty Power to Consume the Adversaries of his Glory and so to remove the Stumbling-blocks out of the
way of the Simple and Upright in Heart that all Pure Holy Praises in a Living Obedience of his Gospel might be given to him And amongst those Enemies of God thou Tho. Hall hast risen up in great Malice and Wickedness through the hardness of thy Impenitent Heart heaping up Wrath against the Day of Wrath upon thy own Soul and doing despight against the Spirit of God's Grace that hath sought by all means possible to win thee to Repentance but thou hast closed thy Eye and stopped that Ear in thee that should see and hear the Things of God and so instead of believing in and following the Lord Jesus and his Gospel thou hast in pretence chosen the Killing Letter of Moses's Law to thy own Confusion and hath set at naught the Son of God by Mocking and Scoffing at his Light and Spirit in these Days as the Rebellious Jews did at him of Old who derided him and his Doctrine saying They were Moses's Disciples but as for that Fellow Christ as they Blasphemously called him they knew not whence he was So thou would'st be accounted a Disciple of Moses and Pleader for his Law and Ordinances which never did nor never can make any thing perfect as the Apostle sheweth at large in his Epistle to the Hebrews but as for Jâ—sus Christ he is of little Value to thee nor hath any room in the Inn of thy Corrupt Heart but thou wouldst make him a Drudge to thy unclean Will that when thou hast done him and his Spirit and Light all the Despight thou canst thou would'st have him to Save thee for a feigned Profession sake which stinks in his Nostrils for from the Lord I do here again declare unto thee that all thy Prayers Performances and Pleadings are Abomination in his sight And as I have often said his Hand is lifted up against thee and will assuredly in his own due time fall heavy upon thee and will grinde thee to pouder except thou speedily Repent for in the Wages of Balaam thou art in the great Captivity wandred far away from the Everlasting Gospel of the Son of God and a meer Stranger to the Law and Covenant of his Peace not knowing neither what thou sayest nor whereof thou affirmest when thou Talkest and Writest of Moses Law and Ordinances and would'st set them up as the Jews did and do to vail and hide Christ the End of the Law from the Minds of the People For even as the Apostle said of the Opposing Jews in his Day so I may truly say of thee That even to this very Hour for want of Faith in Christ the Vail of Darkness and Ignorance is upon thy Heart for all thy Reading and Talking of the Letter of Scripture for thou wanting Faith in Christ the Light who hath the Key of David in his Hand which is his Light and Spirit thou gropest like a Blind Man for the Way and canst not find it nay though it be most plainly witnessed unto in the Scriptures and declared of to thee by us the Servants of Christ in these Days yet for all that can be said or writ to thee thou though the Wickedness of thy Unbelieving Heart remainest as Ignorant of Christ and his Covenant and Spiritual Law of Life as if thou hadst never heard nor seen any thing thereof as by what now follows I know to every seeing Eye will most plainly and easily appear And now to his purpose God willing I shall set down some of thy Errors as I find them in thy last Papers which are so gross and manifest that little more than the bare setting of them down will be needful to discover that filthy Puddle of Enmity and deep Sink of Sin that lyes hid in thy Corrupted Heart against the Lord Jesus and his Blessed Spirit of Truth the only Guide of all Believing Souls in these Gospel Days And first thou T. Hall says See whether a Man ought not to give his Ears and Heart and Soul and Body and Eyes to harken to and believe as duly to the Moral Law as to Christ the Prophet Nay there is more Charge and Command lyes upon the Observation of the Law than for the Gospel as by Moses 's several places of Warning and in respect of several Dangers though it be said He that harkens not to the Prophet Christ shall be cut off there is as much spoken of the Law I Answer Who but an Unbelieving Jew could ever thus have gone about to Undervalue and Dethrone the Lord Jesus Christ as this Tho. Hall doth who lays more weight upon the Observation of Moses's law which had the Shadow than upon the Everlasting Gospel of the Son of God and so he neither believes Moses nor the Prophets nor Christ and so he is captivated in the great Captivity of the Spiritual Assyrian the Devil who hath blinded his Mind lest the Light of the Glorious Gospel should shine unto him See 2 Cor. 4.3 4. For Moses writ of Christ saying Deut. 18. The Lord thy God shall raise thee up a Prophet like unto me him shalt thou hear in all things c. Now the Lord Jesus being this Prophet when he appeared in the Days of his Flesh he made manifest to such as believed in him what was necessary for them then and the rest of the Fathers Mind and Will after his Ascention by his Blessed Spirit as he said John 16.12 c. I have yet many things to speak unto you but ye cannot bear them now howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will shew you things to come He shall glorifie me for he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you So by this it 's evident that this T. H. speaks not by the Spirit of Truth for he would set up Moses the Servant above Christ the Lord of all and so instead of glorifying Christ dishonours him exceedingly And as Moses had so plainly writ of Christ and â—â—ected all to harken to him when he appeared upon Pain of Eternal Death so did also all the Prophets write of the Glory of Christ's Day and pointed to him as the Sum and Substance of all over all God Blessed for Evermore And so in the Transfiguration when Moses and Elias the Servants were gone Christ only was left with an Eternal Witness of God out of the Bright Cloud saying This is my Beloved Son hear him Mat. 17.1 c. And so this Tho. Hall is a grievous Liar who says There is more Charge and Command for hearing Moses than Christ for even then when the Law was in use amongst the Jews yet Moses as from God doth Charge all upon Pain of Death to hear and obey the Voice of Christ in his Appearance as is said before
God Christ dees not send him or bid him go to the Spirit of Truth and wait for it Had Christ done so he might then have sent or directed the Man out of the way to get Life Eternal and so further from God than before for then the Man had not come through the Father to him according to John 6.44 45. And Page 15 further erroniously thou say'st You Quakers cannot find as that Christ the Prophet did give any Command to any People as was in ignorance of the Ways to Salvation or Life Eternal that they should leave off to be taught of Moses or his Law or Precepts and go to learn of the Spirit of Truth and let that teach or lead them God forbid O miserable Blindness and Ignorance That ever any Professing God or Scripture should thus belch out their Enmity against the Spirit of Truth The glorious Promise of the Father without which all Knowledge and all Profession is a meer Nothing but a heap of Darkness and Confusion and without which there had never been any true Prophet nor Scripture of Truth for Holy Men of God spoke not in their own Wills or Times but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth without which never Man did nor never Man can come to any Saving Knowledge of God or Christ or the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God and Christ and therefore saith Paul after many Years zealous Profession of Moses's killing Letter That which the Eye hath not seen nor the Ear heard nor hath entred into Man's Heart to conceive God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the Spirit of God that Spirit of Truth searcheth all things even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.9 10. And therefore saith the same Paul 2 Cor. 3.6 God hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life And therefore saith Christ John 16.7 It is expedient for you that I go away that the Spirit of Truth which leads into all Truth may come who is the Saints Comforter And this is that means by which the Father draws to Christ even the Spirit of Truth and not as thou ignorantly Dreamest the Letter of Moses's Law John 6.44 45. And so T. Hall thou art not far from that unpardonable Sin of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost who says That if Christ had directed the Man in the Gospel to go to the Spirit of Truth and wait for it he had directed him out of the way of Life O sad that ever such a Monster of Men should appear in these days when the Lord is so graciously arising with his Healing Wing of Light Life and Spirit to save his Israel out of the Hands of their Souls Enemies And thou T. Hall say'st farther God forbid that Christ should send or direct People that were in Ignorance of the ways of Salvation to go and learn of the Holy Spirit of Truth to be taught of it and not at Moses 's Law I say again This proceeds from the same bitter Root of Error and Blasphemy in thee that the former did and so Wo Wo Wo to that Nest that hatches such Venomous Birds and Cockatrice Eggs as thou dost And if that People of whom thou professest thy self a Member should see these things and not deny thee for them they would be as much to blame as thy self who hast plunged thy self so deep into the Pit of Destruction that no less than a Miracle of Mercy can help thee to see and acknowledge the Truth of God whom thou hast Blasphemed For O thou full of all Unrighteousness What must ignorant People come to know the things of God by but only by the Spirit of Truth as Paul says No Man knows the things of God but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 And saith Paul Gal. 3.2 to some of like mind with this T. H. concerning Moses's Law This only would I learn of you Received ye the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the Hearing of Faith And Verse 3. Are ye so foolish having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the Flesh Thus he shews That the Spirit of God is received into the Believing Soul through the hearing of Faith preach'd and not by any fleshly conforming to Moses's Letter of that Law for saith he in Ver. 10. of that Chapter As many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse For it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them See T. Hall what thou hast done for thy self and wouldst do for others by pleading for Moses's Letter of the Law to be over Christian People thou hast brought thy self under the Curse for they that come under that Covenant of Works must not only do all things written in the Book but they must continue therein without Sinning or Offending against it otherwise they are Cursed as the Apostle James in another place saith He that keepeth the whole Law and sinneth in one Point is guilty of all And so as I instanced to thee in that of the Sabbath day for though in thy blind Mind thou wouldst be a Teacher of the Law yet thou neither knowest what thou say'st nor whereof thou affirmest for the Sabbath-day which Moses commanded to the People under that Covenant was the Seventh day of the Week which thou neither keepest thy self nor any of thy Fellows and so you are guilty of breaking the whole Law and so under the Curse And whereas you think to save your Heads by saying You keep the next day being the First day of the Week for a Sabbath that will help you nothing at all for the Law admitted of no change of the day which was the Seventh from the Creation into another day And so the Apostles meeting together on the First day of the Week was so far from establishing the legal Sabbath that it was on purpose done to shew that Christ the end of the Law and everlasting Sabbath of Rest to his People was come And so to thee T. Hall and all of like mind with thee I say as Paul to the Galatians Chap. 4.21 c. Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law Do ye not hear the Law For it is written Abraham had two Sons the one by a Bond-woman the other by a Free But he who was of the Bond-woman was born after the Flesh but he of the Free woman was by promise Which things are an Allegory for these are the two Covenants the one from Mount Sinai which gendereth to Bondage which is Agar For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and is in Bondage with her Children But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all For it is written Rejoyce thou barren that bearest not break forth and cry thou that
the Law was in its Childhood but when the Fulness of God's time came for the Manifestation of his Christ and the Pourings forth of his Glorious Spirit according to Prophesie and Promise then came the Church to be like the Heir at full Age entering into the Blessed Possession of the Father's Kingdom the Inheritance of Saints in Light And therefore saith Christ the Law and the Prophets were unto John since which time the Kingdom of God is preached and People press into it And amongst them that are Born of Women there hath not a isen a greater Prophet than John Bâ—pâ—â—st but he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greate than he Therefore Wo is unto thee Tho. Hall and all such Jewish Spirits that would shut up this Blessed Kingdom of God from Men and you will neither enter into the Kingdom of God your selves nor suffer others Obj. But what then was the Law for Answ Paul answers The Law was added because of Transgression till the Seed which is Christ came to which the Promise was And so saith he before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith afterwards to be revealed Gal. 3.23 Then saith he Verse 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law was our School-master unto Christ but never a word of bringing us to Christ by Moses's Law but a shuting up We were shut up schooled saith he or hard kept to our Task and Whipped But he that reveals Christ to the Soul and draws the Soul to Christ is the Father by the Living Power of his own Eternal Spirit whom the Fleshly World knows not Obj. But must not the Soul be humbled in the sight and sence of its Sin before it can receive Christ for Salvation Answ I say yea but this is the Work of Christ also who by his own Eternal Spirit which ministers his Fiery Law doth Convince the World of all their Sins of Unbelief and mighty Transgressions whereby they have dishonoured him and slighted all his Love and so that which now makes all the Sins of People so Damnable is their Sin of not believing in and receiving Christ the Light of the World into their Heares to dwell guide and rule there and so he that believeth not is Damned already saith Christ and this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men believed it not And ye search the Scriptures saith Christ to those Jews that boasted of being Moses's Disciples for in them ye think to have Eternal Life and they are they that testifie of me but ye will noâ— come to me that ye may have Life Also consider that Paul for all his Zealous Profession of Moses's Law and Letter-knowledge was never truly sensible of nor truly humbled for his Sins until Christ appeared from Heaven and struck him down See Tho. Hall how Christ here sets forth the Nature of Carnal Professors of the Letter of Scripture and Boasters of Moses's Law they are dead from God because they will not come to Christ in whom only is Life They thought to have had Eternal Life in the Scriptures which test fi d of Christ but they sticking in the Form and dead Profession of the Letter without Christ the Living Power of God to Salvation they could not have Life Eternal Foâ— he only that hath the Son of God hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life but the Wrath of God abides upon him For you being under the Law as is said before are under the Curse and the Law worketh Wrath saith Paul and that is the reason that the Carnal Professors of the Letter are Persec tors of the Life of Christ where-ever it is made manifest in Son or Daughter in all Ages as Paul saith in that forementioned place Gal. 4. He that was Born after the Flesh Persecuted him that was Born after the Spirit even so it is now But the Lamb shall have the Victory and the mouth of all Iniquity shall be stopped Glory to the Lord our God over all for Evermore Another Piece of thy Enmity Tho. Hall against Christ and his Spirit is manifest in thy Paper where thou sayest That there is no Scripture that warrants Peoples going from the Law as Moses taught though it 's a Law written in the Letter to hear and learn at any other either a Christ Called a Law-giver or the Spirit of Truth as you call it Answ So here all may see that thou art so full of Enmity against Christ that thou canst not endure to have him honoured with the Title of Law-giver and thou art so full of Darkness that thou knows not nor wilt believe that God's People have any such thing indeed as the Holy Spirit to guide and teach them but comes forth with thy scornful Words like the Jews that Crowned him with Thorns and Spit in his Face saying A Christ called a Law-giver or the Spirit of Truth as you call it So it 's high time for all People to take heed of falling into the Error of these Men to wit Tho. Hall and his Fellows who have chosen the Killing Letter of Moses's Law and denied the Son of God and his Blessed Spirit and so have Builded the Babel of their Rotten Profession upon a Foundation of Sand to wit their own Righteousness which in the Day of God will utterly fail them for every Man's Works must be tried by Fire And so all such as have not Christ for their Foundation must Perish For other Foundation can no man lay than that which is laid even Christ who is our ALL and will Reign over all his Enemies for Evermore And so let no Man trouble us any more for we bear in our Bodies the Marks of the Lord Jesus And Ever-praised be his Name who hath given us an Understanding to know him the Salvation of God to be in us and we in him and so to be Witnesses for him before Men that the time of the fulfilling of his Scriptures is come which saith Jer. 31.31 c. Heb. 8. Behold the Days come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Judah and with the House of Israel after those Days not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers in the Day when I took them by the Hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they broke although I was an Husband to them saith the Lord but this is the Covenant that I will make with them after those Days saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People And they shall not teach every man his Neighbours and every man his Brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest For I will be merciful to their Vnrighteousness and their Sins and their Iniquities will I remember no more Now in
TRVTH 's INNOCENCY AND SIMPLICITY SHINING Through the Conversion Gospel-Ministry Labours Epistles of Love Testimonies and Warnings to Professors and Profane With the Long and Patient Sufferings of that Ancient and Faithful Minister and Servant of JESUS CHRIST Thomas Taylor Who finish'd his Course in the Year MDCLXXXI 1 Thess 2.5 6. For neither at any time used we flattering words nor a Cloak of Covetousness God is Witness Nor of Men sought we Glory c. LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle next Door to the Meeting-house in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-street and at the Bible in Leaden-hall-street near the Market 1697. AN EPISTLE TO ALL Friendly and Impartial READERS THE Ensuing Collection is Recommended to your Serious Perusal Charitable and Tender Considerations wherein expect not to find either Empty Flourishes Curiosity of Speech or Acquired Eloquence but Plainness and Simplicity wherein the Substantial Truth is sincerely aimed and pointed at The Author by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ being Converted from a Literal Worldly and Mercenary Priest tho' one of the Better Sort to be a Spiritual Minister of Christ and Free Preacher of Righteousness in Life and Doctrine knowing that Gospel-Ministers and good Preachers must be good Livers none being meet to Convert others to God or Christ but who are first truly Converted themselves by his Power This Innocent and Upright-hearted Man Thomas Taylor seeing the great Corruptions Pride and Covetousness and other Enormities among too many of the Worldly Teachers Priests and Hearers was the more Fervent in his Testimony against them who pleased themselves and others with good Words whilst they lived Bad Lives This our Deceased Brother and Servant of Jesus Christ when Sufferings or Storms approached or Wolves appeared to Devour did not Flee with Hirelings nor Flatter with Temporizers nor Admire Mens Persons for Advantage but as one having a fixed Confidence in the Lord and true Zeal for his Glory was Valiant for his Truth on Earth and used much Plainness in his Ministry Testimony and Warnings both to High and Low Professors and Profane not sparing Disguis'd Hypocrites or Deceitful Workers no more than Open and Gross Offenders but as a Partaker of the same Spirit and Life the Primitive Ministers of Christ were in according to his Measure was Exercised in the like Sincerity Uprightness and Self-denial intimated in 2 Cor. 2.17 For we are not as many which deal deceitfully with or make Merchandize of the Word of God and 1 Thes 2.3 For our Exhortation was not of Deceit nor of Vncleanness nor in Guile Ver. 4. But as we were allowed of God to be put in Trust with the Gospel even so we speak not as pleasing Men but God which trieth our Hearts Ver. 5. For neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a Cloak of Covetousness God is witness Ver. 6. Nor of Men sought we Glory neither of you nor yet of others c. In like manner this Faithful Servant of Christ whom we now speak of did not sooth up People in their Sins nor sow Pillows under their Arm-holes like False Sin-pleasing Prophets but in Tender Love and Pity to their Poor Souls Faithfully Warned them and Perswaded them to Repentance as one knowing the Terrors of the Lord and Revelation of his Righteous Judgments against all Unrighteousness of Men being also sensible when the Lord had spoken who can but Prophesie And when he saith Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy Voice like a Trumpet and shew the People their Wickedness Abominations and Transgrâ—ssions What Faithful Messenger dare be silent He was a true Encourager of Vertue and Witness against Vice and Profaneness and the Lord was with him in his Christian Labours Mâ—â—â—stry and Deep Sufferings Wherefore Friendly Readers let not the Simplicity of his Stile nor his Plainness Sharpness or Zeal against Hypocrisie or Deceit offend you in the following Collection or any Passages therein we hope there is nothing in them justly offensive or that may not bear a Charitable and Just Construction with the Impartial and Unprejudic'd if any thing should seem Dubious Though where Prejudice or Envy is against Persons or Things how Just soever it will carp and quarrel at the Clearest Truths as hath appeared both from Envious Apostates and other Enemies to Christ and his Followers The Holy Scriptures themselves not escaping the Causeless Cavils of Irreligious and Atheistical Persons This Faithful and Zealous Servant of Christ was Divinely endued with a gospel-Gospel-Spirit and Ministry and was of a True Christian Gentle and Humble Disposition and his Judgment was mix'd with Mercy and Compassion to poor Souls and his Company and Society was Sweet and Acceptable to all the Faithful in Christ who had a True and Spiritual Knowledge of him and Acquaintance with him He sincerely affected Christian Humility Poverty of Spirit and Simplicity in Christ beyond all Artificial Painting and Humane Acquirements And seeing the Vanity of all Airy Notions Scholastick Craft and Self-righteousness he laid it all aside and was Refin'd from all that Dross esteeming the pure Gold the Heavenly Treasure the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord above all therein asserting his Sincerity and Innocency when a Prisoner in about 1665 in Praise to the Lord God who supported him in his Sufferings Patience and Innocent Condition Concerning which please to observe his own Testimony inserted here as followeth viz. This is my Confidence in the Sight of the Lord God and my Clearness before all People that though I have been hated and persecuted and evil spoken of by many these many Years yet it hath altogether been without Cause I praise the Lord. For I can truly say That I never sought the Hurt of any Man living upon the Earth though in Matters of Religion or otherwise he was never so contrary to me or against me Yea the Terrors of God and his Truth did preserve my Heart from seeking my own Revenges but taught me still to commit my Cause to God and he according to his Word did still bring forth my Righteousness as the Light and my Judgment and Just Dealing as the Noon-day Psal 37.5 6. to his Holy Name 's Praise and my Soul 's great Rejoycing and did still let me see that the patient abiding of the Meek is never forgotten of God And so though I have been kept here a Prisoner above four Years for my pure Conscience sake to God yet to the King and the People under whom I Suffer have I done no Harm nor can think or intend them Evil but have endeavoured in all things in the Power of God as a true Christian to live peaceably with all Men as those that have known me from the beginning can witness For I never drew Sword nor Plotted against any nor could ever perswade any others so to do but have still lamented the Misery of Mankind to see them instead of Loving and Helping one another contrariwise Hating Biting Devouring and
People of England to Weep Page 64 To the Comers and Goers by the Prison-Window of both Sâ—â—â—s Page 65 To King Charles the Second concerning Persecution c. Page 67 To Informers Page 69 Some Serious Considerations concerning the Priests of the High Places called Churches their Sprinkling Infants Marrying People and Bâ—rying their Dead c. Page 70 To the â—ury-men of Appleby Page 73 To 〈◊〉 and Rulers Page 74 A Testimony of Truth Page 75 To all that are Worshipping in the Outward Court without God in the World in diverse Forms Page 78 To William Thornton called Justice at Hipswell in York-shire Divulged for the Information of other Moderate Enquirers after the Lord Page 81 To the Presbyterians so called Page 88 To the Presbyterians Page 90 To the Blind Teachers Page 91 For the Great People of the Earth who love the Pleasures of Sin these ib. Concerning Bread and Wine Page 93 The Indignation of the Lord upon all Nations Page 94 To Loose and Wicked Professors Page 108 To Protestants Page 109 To the Sons of Vanity Page 110 Who they are that only Rejoice in the Birth of Christ Page 111 A Testimony against Persecution to King Charles the Second and his Magistrates Page 112 Wo to the World because of Iniquity Page 114 An Apology from the Harmless against the Vnjust And to the King and his Magistrates against Plotting ibid. Against May-poles Page 116 To a Dancing-Master Page 117 To the Fruitless Vineyard of England Page 118 To the People of England Page 119 God's Controversie with England declared Or a Warning-word by way of Reproof to the Inhabitants thereof even to such as forget God and are adding one Sin unto another Page 121 A Faithful Warning to Outside Professors and Loose Pretenders to Christianity of all Sorts Page 123 Something as it came to mind of what passed at the Assizes in Stafford betwixt the Judge and the People of God called by the World Quakers But the Reproach of Christ is to us great Riches and the Scorners God will judge Page 131 To the Jury-men of Stafford that brought him in Guilty Page 138 To King Charles the Second Page 139 Against Lotteries Page 142 To Stafford Page 143 To the Mayor of Stafford Page 144 For them that Rule in Stafford ibid. To the Kings and Rulers Page 145 Concerning his being taken Prisoner of Seven Years Continuance Page 147 To the Mayor and Priest of Stafford Page 148 Concerning the Fallâ—n Christians Page 149 To the Vain People of the World Page 150 An Exhortation to all People Page 150 To the Teachers and Magistrates of Tamworth Page 151 To sinful People Page 152 To the Children of Men Page 154 To the Fencers ibid. Concerning Sprinkling Page 156 Concerning Burying and Churching of Women c. Page 157 A Testimony against Bull and Bear-baiting Page 159 A Testimony against Sporting and Playing Page 160 A Loving Exhortation to all Kings Pri ces Potentates Bishops and People in the whole Christendom Wherein is a distinction betwixt the True and False Teachers Page 162 A few Necessary Questions and Conclusions for the Present Parish-Teachers of England c. Deeply to Ponder and Answer in God's Fear for the Good of their own and the Peoples Souls that are under them for the Lord is arisen to call all things into Judgment Page 171 A Strong and Terrible Alarm Sounded out of the Holy Mountain against all the Wicked Inhabitants of the Earth Page 179 Watching for Sin Page 181 A Warning to the Nations to lay aside all Prejudice and Enmity the Ground of Strife and Wars and to come and Embrace the Light of Christ Jesus that they may see themselves and come to be Saved and Healed and Vnited in the Love of God Page 182 To People whose Hearts are turned from the Lord Page 189 To the Magistrates Page 190 To the Generation of Fleshly Fallen Christians not worthy the Name of Christians Page 192 To the King Page 193 An Exhortation to remember the Judgments of God Page 195 To the Vnclean Communicants Page 196 God's Virtue and Goodness Extolled ibid. Richard Baxter 's Book Entituled The Cure of Church-Divisions Answer'd and Confuted Page 201 Some more of these strange Sayings of this Richard Baxter in his Book Page 232 Some Gentle Remarks on a Book Entituled A Discourse concerning the Idolatry Practised in the Church of Rome Page 249 The Day is Dawned that makes all Wickedness manifest Page 255 To some of T. Hicks 's Friends Page 257 Something concerning that called the Common-Prayer Page 258 A Testimony for the Lord the good Shepherd and true Minister of the Sanctuary and true Tabernacle which God hath pitched and not Man against all the False Shepherds and Hireling Ministers and Teachers of the World under what Name or Notion or Form soever who have run and God never sent them and therefore cannot profit the People at all Page 273 The true Fast from the False Page 283 Something in Answer to some Passages in that naughty Book called A Looking-glass for Ladies Page 284 Thomas Taylor who was ten Years and an half in Prison at Stafford writes a Letter to a particular Adversary Page 293 To the People at and about Stafford a Testimony for God and his Truth and against Deceit and Deceivers especially the Hireling Priests as a Warning Information and Instruction in Righteousness to them and all People elsewhere concerned by the Spirit of the Lord in his Suffering Servant Thomas Taylor Page 294 Something in Answer to some Passages in that Wicked Antichristian Book written Catechism-wise by some Popish Stickler for his Master the Pope the Romish Antichrist and his Followers Printed at Douay and subscribed H. T. Page 299 A Warning to the Papists at Stafford Page 314 Something in Answer to a Paper from a Nameless Author directed to be left at Joseph Holt 's in Okeham Page 317 A Copy of Verses writ upon occasion of a Visitation so called Page 326 Certain Queries Propounded to the People called Anabaptists especially to such as believe and hold forth that Water-Baptism is an Ordinance and Command of Christ Jesus the Door of Entrance into the true Church and so of such Absolute Necessity as that there can be no True Gospel Church-Fellowship without it Page 333 Christ Exalted above Moses and the Spirit above the Letter Page 337 A TESTIMONY Concerning our Dear Friend and Brother Thomas Taylor Who was Convinced of the Lord's Everlasting Truth and Received it in the Year 1652. HE had been an Eminent Parish Priest and of Note among the Professors and other Priests and also a Lecturer in several Countries Preaching Sermons on the Week-Days And he coming to Swarthmor in Lancashire with some other Priests I ask'd him and them before Judge Fell Whether he or any of them could say that they ever heard a Voice of God or Christ from Heaven that bid them go to Speak to any People as God and Christ did to the Prophets and Apostles And Thomas
said before them all that he never heard any such Voice or Command And I ask'd him what he Preach'd to the People then and he made Answer and said His Experiences and I told him his Experiences might not reach to every Condition but he that had the Word of the Lord might Preach it whom God sent and that would Reach all Conditions who knows all Conditions And so the Lord's Word and Power struck him that he was Silent But the rest of the Priests were High and Opposed and came to nothing And Judge Fell wondered and was astonished at what he heard Thomas say that he had never heard the Voice of God nor Christ to Command him to Preach to any People and the said Thomas Taylor being look'd upon a High Priest and above the Common Priests and a Sober Man and Beloved among the outward Professors and so I went along with him that Day to a place called Newton in Lancashire where he used to Preach sometimes and he was very much down and sad and groaned that Night And the next Day we went to a Meeting which we had in the Steeple-house-yard but he would have gone into the Steeple-house but the Priest would not let us and I told him it was no matter And there came another Priest from Vnder-Barrow and several others and Thomas sitting still at last a tender Spring of Life Sprang up in him and he Spoke very well in it to the People both of his own Condition and the People's and where they had been and now how they must turn to the Lord Jesus Christ And the Vnder-Barrow-Priest and some other Professors were Offended and Opposed him but the Lord's Power came over them all For he was look'd upon in the time of his Priesthood above them And Thomas Taylor grew in the Grace and Truth of Christ and came to know the Word of the Lord and Preach Christ Freely as then he had Received Freely and forsook his Parish-steeple-house and his old Parish-wages and the rest of the Priests that Preach'd for Hire and he Travelled up and down in many parts of England Preaching the Word of the Lord and his Gospel freely as he was Commanded who had Received it freely And likwise his Brother Christopher Taylor who had been a Publick Preacher to a People was also Convinc'd and Preach'd Christ freely And many Disputes Thomas had with the Priests and Professors and continued still in his Confession to God and his Truth and People and what their Conditions were and had been formerly And so from that time he continued in the Truth and the Grace of God and grew mightily in it and boldly Preached it and saw where the Priests and Professors were and by whom they were made and sent not of God so that the Priests and Professors grew in a Rage against him and Persecuted him And he having been a Lecturer at Richmond in Yorkshire was made to go there and Turn his Back to the Priest and put his Hands to both his Ears and stop them as a Sign how God had stopt his Ears unto their Sacrifice and Service and Offering And then after he was cast into a Prison at Appleby in Westmoreland for the Truth 's Sake under a cruel Goaler and a very bad Prison being a sad smoky place by the Smoke that came out of other Rooms enough to Choke him But he continued Faithful in the Life and Power of the Lord and the Lord delivered him thence And afterwards he Travelled up and down Preaching to Priests and Professors and warning all both Small and Great to Repentance and Amendment of Life turning many to the Lord. He was after a while cast into Prison at York for Truth and after some time the Lord there delivered him And so when he was at Liberty he still continued Labouring in the Work and Service of the Lord Preaching the Everlasting Gospel and Turning People from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to the Power of God And also his Life and Conversation Preached being a Man of a Sober Life and Sound Judgment and a good Understanding in the Truth And after he had Travelled much up and down in several parts of this Nation he coming into Staffordshire was there Imprisoned and Premunired for refusing to Swear in Obedience to the Command of Christ who says Swear not at all and there he was kept Prisoner Ten Years and a half in the Town of Stafford under cruel Goalers and a sore tedious Imprisonment he had and great Sufferings by those Magistrates as his Letters will Testifie and a wearisom Imprisonment he had through the wicked Prisoners which burdened and grieved his Righteous Soul And when he was at Liberty and Travelled up and down in the Power of the Lord in the Lord's Service being a Man of a Tender Spirit and Conscience sometimes he met with Bull-baiting Bear-baiting Plays and Shews and Cock-fightings and Mountebanks and Ringers of Bells c. which burdened and grieved his Righteous Soul that People should spend their pretious Time in Sports and Vanities and such as professed Christianity which were more like the Heathen-Romans than Christians who was made to Admonish such and Reprove them as his Letters Testifie and not to spend their time so Vainly The Lord was with him and did assist him who was an Elder indeed and Partaker of the Glory that is to be Revealed who sought to Establish such as he Convinced and were Convinced in the Truth and Gospel the Power of God who was Beloved of God and all his Faithful People And many bad Prisons or Goals he was cast into for the Lord Jesus Christ and his Truth 's Sake And he had a Dispute with Doctor Owen at Oxford and the very Scholars could say That Thomas was too hard for him for the Lord with his Eternal Arm and Power did Support him And he was a Faithful True Upright Man in the Lord's Truth to the last and turned many to the Lord Jesus Christ that they became Hearers and Followers of him who Speaks from Heaven And he loved the Government of Christ and his Spiritual Heavenly Order among his People And when he had fulfilled his Ministry and finished his Course who was a harmless and blameless Man in his Conversation he laid down his Head in Peace and Died in the Lord and is Blessed and his Works follow him Much might be writ of this Honest and Faithful Servant of God Thomas Taylor 's cruel Hardships and Sufferings that he went through for Christ and his Truth 's Sake He finish'd his Days at Stafford with his Wife in 1681. after he had been an able Preacher of the Gospel from about 1652. And is at Rest with the Lord And Blessed is he that Dies in the Lord yea saith the Spirit his Works follow him Precious 〈◊〉 in the sight of the Lord is the Death of all his Saints Psal 116.15 George Fox Edmonton in Middlesex the 24th of the First Month 1681.
Christopher Taylor 's TESTIMONY Concerning Thomas Taylor MY deceased Brother Tho. Taylor was a Man who in his tender Years had a Sence of Sin upon him and saw a Necessity of coming and attaining to a State of Righteousness and Faithfulness to God that he might please him so that for several Years he was exercised under the Spirit of Bondage and great Fears lest he should miss of Eternal Salvation and so come to be a true Seeker and Inquirer after the best Things and the Lord was Good unto him in a preparative Work as I may say before he came to know the Sabbath of Eternal Rest in Christ Jesus And as Light and Life appeared and sprung up in its Measure in the Land of his Nativity the Lord in Mercy gave him a Share in it and a Fear came upon his Heart to preserve him in a State of Integrity and Simplicity which kept him very Sober in his Conversation and Restrained him from many Evils others fell into so that he was accounted by many in those days who were Honest-minded to be a Religious Consciencious young Man And the Lord gave him Sights and Openings of good Things at hand and opened a Door of Hope unto him that he should see the Lord's Blessed Day of his Heavenly and Powerful Appearance and with Cornelius waited and longed for God's Kingdom and Powerful Appearance unto his Soul And when that blessed Instrument in God's Hand George Fox came into the North to preach and declare the Everlasting Gospel of Glad Tidings to Mankind and to such who were waiting to be delivered from the Bondage of Sin and Unrighteousness this Dear Man was glad and was convinced of the Truth which was demonstrated in the Evidence of God's Spirit and Holy Power unto him and many others So that the Light and Truth broke up in him to the breaking of his Heart before the Living God and the making of his Soul tender in Humility and the Dispensation of the Spirit of true Judgment and Burning seized on his Inward Man and pure Tremblings before the Lord seized upon him and Judgment did so effectually take place in the Operation of the Authority of the Mighty God that his Inward Man rejoyced that now he was come to know one of the Great Days of the Son of Man And the Work of the Lord was begun in his Heart so that his Soul cried mightily to God for Judgment to Judge and Condemn for ever all that was Contrary to the Word of his Pure Power And the Lord heard his true Cries which himself by his own Grace had raised up in him and extended his Mercies to him and fulfilled that Saying A bruised Reed shall be not break and smoaking Flax shall he not quench until he send forth Judgment to Victory So Victory he came to know and Deliverance to his Soul through the Exercise of Faith and Patience in the way of Righteousness and the Lord raised him up to be a living Witness to his Heavenly Power and the breaking forth of its Blessed Day of Light and sent him forth to Preach the Everlasting Gospel and to turn many to Righteousness and he became a Faithful Labourer and Servant of Jesus Christ in his Harvest and Vineyard and many are his Witnesses how Faithfully he served God and how truly he cared for the Flock of Jesus Christ where-ever he came and laboured in the Faith as one wholly given up to Spend and be Spent in that Work the Lord had committed to him Many and Great were his Sufferings from Wicked Men who sometimes lay in wait for him to have taken away his Life and tedious it would be to repeat the Hardships he underwent and great Sufferings he endured by the Malicious instruments of Satan But the Lord delivered him thorow all the Scourgings Buffetings and Evil Treatments of Unreasonable Men. As to Imprisonment he suffered much in several Prisons in this Nation as at Appleby in Westmoreland at York Leicester and Coventry and last of all above ten Years Imprisonment in Stafford and was there Premunired because he could not Swear He was a Faithful Prisoner of Jesus Christ and kept his Blessed Testimony over the Heads of Wicked Brutish Savage and Unreasonable Men he met withall in his Imprisonments It is hard to utter what he passed thorow in those Evil Dens amongst such Savage Beasts but the Lord upheld him blessed him and delivered him out of all and Dear and Near he was unto his God who upheld him Everlasting Honour be unto his Name Deeply am I affected when I read him in the Sence of Life how Safe the Lord kept him so that the Course of his Life was Eminently Exemplary so Grave Tender and Humble he was and Self denying Well it is and will be for all who are so truly preserved to God as he was I am perswaded none can justly tax his Life and Conversation or present a Spot or Stain upon his Garment whilst he lived after he was called to the Lord's Work and Service Oh! have I said in my Heart What Happiness is it to those who are so kept and safely preserved to Honour God and Preach his Gospel as well in Life and Conversation as in Words and Doctrine And as to his Testimonies in Writing which are here given forth to be read they are plain and easie to be understood by every unprejudiced Person that reads them in Simplicity with the Light of Christ there are various things testified against the Sins and Evils of the Times for he laboured much for the Nations and Peoples Good that they might be kept out of Debauchery Wickednesses Games Sportings and Evils of all sorts that if possible such Evils as too much abounded in our Nation might not have that Liberty or Pestilential Disposition as to Leaven and beget People further from God and as a Leprosie to spread over the Nation Also he was tender over the Lord 's Innocent People lest they should fall on the right Hand or on the left and so lose their Habitations in the Truth He was right spirited to discern the Wiles of Satan and to instruct and give Warning to such as might be misled into any Evil Condition under the Pretence of Truth to fight against it I believe he was never known since he preached the Everlasting Gospel committed to him to turn his Back of any Enemy to give way to him of what Size or Sort soever he was or how Subtle soever the Devil could make him the Lord gave him a Sight beyond the Subtlety of Satan and when he was Spent in the Service the Lord had called him unto in a good old Age he departed this Life and finished his Course with Joy and Everlasting Rejoycing to the Praise and Glory of the Everlasting God who for ever is to be admired of all his Saints honoured and magnified for ever and for ever more World without End Amen Christopher Taylor Thomas Taylor 's TESTIMONY Concerning his FATHER A Short
to Unity and Concord amongst Friends which while he lived he was Careful to preserve he had a great Delight in it and laboured much for it In a word he was a Man of Peace and as he Delighted in it now is a Possessor of it and of that Joy that is Immutable in which he lives with his God a Possessor of that Blessedness and Reward which through the same Faith and Patience we that are yet behind shall assuredly obtain as therein we keep in the Lord's time Many good things he wrote in his Day if thou read this Book thou wilt perceive and meet with good Exhortations in it which will I hope tend to thy Strength and Incouragement William Fallowfield A short TESTIMONY Concerning that Faithful Servant of the Lord Thomas Taylor Whose Memory is Blessed DEAR Tho Taylor he was a Man who loved the Truth with a sincere Mind and sought the Honour thereof and not himself He was ready at all times to speak a word for God as there was occasion to inform the Minds of People to that which would stand them in stead when time here shall be no more He was a very good Instrument amongst us and a blessed Example in his Conversation which did bespeak him to be the Servant of Christ Jesus He loved the Prosperity of Truth more than all other things whatsoever and for that was he given up in Soul Body and Spirit to serve the Lord and his Generation Faithfully Travelling from Place to Place for that end and as he lived in the Truth so he finished his Testimony in the same And though his Body be removed from us and gone to the Earth from whence it came yet his Spirit lives amongst us and his Life shall never die Truly I am not without a living Sence upon my Spirit what a Loss we have of him amongst us who was always ready to serve the Truth and the least in it and Sorrow is ready to seize upon me in the Consideration thereof yet when I consider that it is according to the Will of the Lord I am therein well content knowing that he hath this Advantage of us that are left behind viz. Is freed from Danger of falling into the Snares of this World which we are liable to whilst in this Body except we keep in that which is only able to keep us whilst we remain here And I do believe that the Lord will raise up the same Life in others to Testifie to the same Truth which he lived in and that the Testimony thereof shall never fall This is great Comfort to me and all who love the Lord to whom be living Praises Honour Glory and Obedience given for ever and for ever more from my living Soul which he hath quickned to himself by his Living Power and Heavenly Life to him I say be all the Glory given now and always Amen Mary Comberford The 26th of the First Month 1681. Thomas Taylor 's EPISTLES TO FRIENDS MY Dear Friends and longed after in the Lord whose Minds are turned in by the Light of Jesus Christ from the Worlds Worships and Ways in measure to wait upon God that you may learn by the Teaching of his Spirit in you how to worship him in Spirit and Truth who is the Fountain of all your Soul's Happiness prize his great Love to your Souls every one of you in particular and wait to receive the Law from his own Mouth to the quickning and reviving your Souls out of the Death and for the daily watering and refreshing that which lives of himself in you for if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he shall by that Spirit quicken your Mortal Bodies for all whose Hearts are purisied through the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ are in the Covenant of that Everlasting Love of the Father which gives to all that waith on him a full Possession of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light but Wo and Misery from the Lord to the Unclean in the Earth And therefore mind your Soul's Guide which is pure Light of Jesus Christ and be Faithful unto the Lord in whatever he makes manifest in you to be his Will and let not the Worlds Frowns or Smiles cause you to draw back from the Truth in any thing which the Saints have so great Recompence of Reward in but be simple be pure be harmless be innocent be Lambs and walk as Lights amongst a Generation of crooked and devouring Minds and think not strange concerning any Trial but imbrace the Cross which is the Saints Rejoicing and in Patience wait to see the Fleshly Mind Crucified with it which would have ease below God and do all things in the fear of God and let not the Ear be open to the Enemy but mind that which shows you the strait way continually and learn to love one another more and more for Love is of God but none can love as Brethren of Christ but those that love God and keep the Commandments and as you follow Christ in the way of his Cross and Sufferings you will Delight in one anothers Fellowship but as any depart from the Light and Iniquity abounds in any the Love in that Person waxeth cold So God Almighty Bless you with his Everlasting Mercy to set free your Minds from all your Sins to run the way of his Holy Commandments so rests Thomas Taylor TO FRIENDS AT Stickland-head DEAR and precious Friends of God who into the Fellowship of the everlasting Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God the Light of the World that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World are called and who have tasted of that Heaventy Gift and upon that true Bread do feed Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be among you and in you all every where in every place multiplied with the Increases of the eternal Power of the Holy Spirit in all your Hearts Amen Thomas Taylor your Brother and Companion in the Patience Sufferings and Kingdom of Christ unto you all sendeth Greeting and by the Spirit of the Lord God doth hereby give you all to understand That it is the true Grace of God and Power of Life into which you are called and which you have received and wherein you stand and whereby you are inlightned and have been given to see the old dead way of Sin and Formality to avoid it and the good and living way of Truth and Righteousness in Spirit to embrace and follow it to the Praise of our Holy Heavenly Father World without end And this Grace of God that hath thus brought Salvation to us and is our Teacher and Guide in the good Way is the same that would teach all and would have all Men to be Saved and to that purpose hath appeared to all Men to leave all without Excuse So Dear Hearts all in the Light and Power of this Pure Truth of our God made manifest in us
our Heavenly Treasure to the pure in Heart who hunger and thirst after Righteousness as we have received them even so doth the same Love and the Wisdom thereof engage us to do as our Heavenly Father doth who hides the things of his Kingdom from the Serpent's Seed the Wise and Prudent of the World and so the Cross is the safe way and so as we stand in the Cross our preaching is to the Jew outward a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness as in former Times 1 Cor. 1. And so in all our Disputings and Reasoning with the World about the Things of God's Kingdom we must mind the Cross lest for want of a Hedge the wild Boar of the Forrest get in and hurt the tender Plants of God Friends strive not in your Wills for Victory but wait in the Light to feel the Spiritual Weapon the sharp Two-edged Sword of the Spirit of God to cut down the Adversary There came one to Christ and said Are there few that shall be saved And he said Strive thou to enter in at the strait Gate so his Answer was in the Cross and he minded more the Edification of the Man's Soul than to please the busiebody's curious Mind so we must dwell in his Wisdom and that will lead into Christ's Work Another asked him What he must do to enter into Life He answered What readest thou So to such as profess Scripture to be their Rule or so to bring them to the Obedience and Judgment of their Rule and if they cannot believe Scripture which they acknowledge to be true how can they believe our words whom they look upon to be as Hereticks and Deceivers The Servant of God saith the Apostle must not strive but in Meekness instructing them that oppose themselves to the Truth must seek to bring them to the Truth that thereby they may be delivered out of the Snares of Satan whom their Ignorance are led Captive by him at his Will Now the Servant of God in this weighty Matter may consider what manner of Opposers these are whether they stand in a lower or higher place of wickedness for some are wicked in a high measure who will neither enter into the Kingdom of God themselves nor suffer others as Elimas the Sorcerer Acts 13.9 10. who withstood Paul seeking to draw the Deputy from the Faith These may be more severely reproved as was thereby the Apostle but still with this Cantion that all be done by the pure Sword of God's Spirit and not by the Wrath of Man for the Wrath of Man works not the Righteousness of God And such Opposers as this had Christ to do withal against whom he pronounced so many Woes declaring their wicked Root by calling them Vipers and Serpents and Children of their Father the Devil Mat. 23. throughout and John 8.44 But to others who are not so high and strong in their Wickedness much Wisdom Tenderness and Patience must be used that if God may at any time give them Repentance that from the Darkness to the Light of God they may be turned as Jude saith in his Epistle Ver. 22 23. Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the Fire hating even the Garments spotted by the Flesh And all my Dear Friends in Christ Jesus who are at any time called forth by the Power of the Lord God to Encounter your Spiritual Adversaries the Disputers of this World who Goliah like are so wise and strong in their own Conceit and have so armed themselves with their Carnal Weapons that they are not afraid to defie Israel yea Israel's God I say keep in the Power of God and trust not to Saul's Armour but wait to feel the little Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands to hit the Enemy in the Forehead and to bruise his Head and to strike at his Feet that the false Foundation whereon he standeth may be removed and so the Image may fall into nothing at once And in this great Business to wit the Lord's Controversie my Friends always mind your own Standing and Foundation to keep close to it and not to be driven from it by any means for the Enemy will seek to draw you from your sure Ground the measure of Life and Experienced Truth in you into vain Janglings and fruitless Disputes to gratifie their Corrupt Minds wherein is no Edification to the Soul which the Servant of God must wait in all things to edifie and though for our Work herein we may be accounted as Fools by the World who cannot judge but by the outward Appearance of things yet with God shall we be accepted because Doers of his Will and our Jay in his Sight and Presence shall abide and none shall take it from us as thus we abide in God's Will Work and Covenant who is over all Blessed for Evermore And Friends of Scorners we must beware for their Root is Rottenness and their Ground Accursed and the good Seed in them hath no place to grow And of such as Professing Scripture and Wisdom and neither can nor will believe that Christ lighteth every Man that cometh into the World with sufficient Grace or Light though John saith expresly That in the Word Christ Jesus was Life and that Life is the Light of Men and the Light of that Life shineth in Darkness to wit in Men lighting every Man that cometh into the World and that such as received him in that his Appearance to them he gave Power to become Sons of God John the first Chapter I say of these Unbelievers before-mentioned it may be truly said they are Children of Darkness and so much is not to be said to them but even to bring them to Christ's Light in them to know it and learn of it for till then they will never understand Also such Professors as have been long Reading Scripture and have heard the like Testimony of the Kingdom of God from the Spirit of God in his Servants in these Days and yet plead for outward Shadows and Sounds and things that perish with them to be the Way and Means of the Kingdom and are Ignorant of the Mystery of it in Man and so deny the Word and Power of God nigh in the Heart and yet in this their Darkness separate themselves in Profession from others thinking themselves to be something when indeed they are nothing these are to be turned away from and judged As also such as deny sinless Perfection and so know not the Birth of God in Man but will plead for Sin yea in the Regenerate during term of Life as though Christ were a Minister of Sin and could make nothing perfect like the weak Figures of the Law Though the Scripture saith expresly The Birth of God sins not and he that abides in Christ sinneth not and that Christ the better Hope makes perfect See Heb 7.19 and 1 John 1.5 6 7 8 9 10. Now the Reason why the Law could make nothing
to the end perfecting Holiness in the fear of God and so working out their Salvation with fear and trembling knowing it is God of his own good pleasure that worketh in us to will and to do O Friends how true we find it in God's Light that it is not of him that willeth nor runneth but of the Mercifulness of our God in Christ Jesus to them that believe and in pure Holiness and Simplicity of Heart wait upon him at all times and this puts to silence all Flesh and keeps down all Boasting and fleshly Confidence and Conceitedness to the unspeakable Glory of the Pure Eternal Holy Name of the Living God our Father who siâ—s upon the Throne and is worthy of all Honour Submission and Obedience for Evermore For now is the Lord God suckling the Babes of his Love with the pure Milk of his Living Word and feeding the Men of his House with the strong Meat of his overcoming Truth and giving them the well-refined Wine of his Kingdom to make glad their Hearts over all the Trials and Tribulations of this present Life so that through the Overcoming Love of our God we are more than Conquerors and shall never be ashamed abiding in his Love for the Righteous are bold as a Lion and through the help of our God we shall for ever leap over all the Walls of Opposition that the Enemy makes to hinder us in our way for it 's the Fearful Unbelieving and Disobedient in Heart that cannot enter that cannot come into and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God this Day But Praises to the Lord in the height of Heaven for all his unspeakable Goodness who over all gives us the Victory by Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be Glory Everlasting and Kingdom for Evermore And so Dear Friends into the Arms of the Lord 's unspeakable Love committing you all rests your Dearly Loving in the Truth of God a Friend and Brother Thomas Taylor Also Friends you may know that my Wife hath her very Dear and Tender Love remembred unto you all and is dearly affected upon every remembrance of you considering what sweet Refreshment she hath sound amongst you in your Holy Assemblies where the Presence of the Lord hath been abundantly witnessed by many and I hope Ever will be meeting together in his Fear to wait upon him as you do And as for our Condition here praised be the Lord it is well for though my Bonds for the Gospel in this Place be yet continued yet some little Liberty of being with my Wife and Family sometimes at her Hired House in this Town through the Tender Mercy of our God is granted me and so we are made content and all is good in the Good-will of God and so our Souls are at rest in his Love where we pray that yours and all the Holy Ones of God in every place may rest for Ever and be abundantly satisfied Amen and Amen And so we shall be glad to hear of all your Welfare in the Lord as he makes way TO FRIENDS Richard Boothman and Robert Clough DEARLY Beloved in the Lord and his Everlasting Truth which hath redeemed our Souls and doth daily Comfort our Hearts as we abide in it my very Dear Love and tender Affections Salutes you and all the Dear Flock of God about you giving you all to know of my Health in the Fountain of Health where in the midst of all these Bonds Tryals and Afflictions which in Common with all Saints for the Gospels sake on Earth is ordered for us my Soul is more than a Conqueror Praises to our God for ever And we may not let fall our Holy Hope and trust in the least for any thing that Flesh can do against us but by all means let us keep fast in our Hearts the living Faith of the Lord Jesus which in God's blessed Sight is of greatest Esteem for thereby we may effectually in all things overcome yea and be well able also to quench all the fiery Darts of the Devil For upon our Watch must we needs stand in all things clothed with the whole Armour of Light that no Enemy at all may come between us and our God to deprive us of his precious Life or hinder our Fellowship with his Holy Spirit in the least The living powerful Presence of his Glory in the Face of Jesus Christ be with all your Spirits to Sanctifie Bless Keep and Preserve you all my Dear Friends in Body Soul and Spirit Pure Spotless and altogether Blameless before him in Love Rests yours in the Dear Fellowship of God's ever blessed Truth Thomas Taylor Stafford the 20th of the Eighth Month 1668. And thus Dear Friends I could not but thus in a few words breath out of my true and tender Love amongst you desiring also as opportunity is to hear of your State THE Day of the Lord Is DAWNED THE Ever-blessed Day of the Lord God is dawned let all the Children of the Night fear for they are now fully to be made manifest and brought to Judgment and now where will the Workers of Iniquity hide themselves from the Lord's Justice Rocks nor Mountains will not cover them they must come forth this Day to the Righteous Judgment of the Great God the Just Judge of Heaven and Earth of Quick and Dead Rotten Raggs and Fig-leaves of empty and filthy Profession must now be stripped off and the shameful Nakedness of all Hypocrites and unclean outside Professors and Professions must now be laid open to the Glory of that Powerful God who hath long waited upon People to teach them and to do them good but they would not and therefore Desolation upon Desolation Overturning upon Overturning will come upon Thee O thou Corrupted Earth with thy Inhabâ—â—ants who are crying Lord Lord but never come to do the Will of the Holy Lord God in Earth as it is done in Heaven nay nor have so much as a Mind thereunto but are angry with such as do it And therefore because these Inhabitants of the Corrupt Earth rebel against the Light some under the Name of Papists and some under the Name of Protestants and yet say in their Hearts We shall have Peace and be Established in our way the Lord hath said They shall have no Peace nor be Established in their defiled Ways for God's Establishing of People is now manifested to be in Righteousness and in nothing else The Lord Jesus Christ is now to Reign and the Scepter of his Kingdom is a Scepter of Righteousness and the Kingdoms of this World must be the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ and he must Reign whose Right it is for Ever and Ever according to Prophesie And now it is of the greatest Concernment for Kings and Princes Priests and Prelates High and Low Rich and Poor to Kiss the Son lest his Anger which they have kindled against themselves by their sinning against his Light and grieving of his good Spirit by their manifest
there be any such Company of False Teachers now-a-days in England to be found as this Scripture speaks of who as Troops of Robbers wait for a Man so wait to Murther in the way by consent And who they are and what and who they Murther and with what they Murther and how these Murtherers may be known what be their Fruits For by their Fruits ye shall know them saith Christ And ask them further Whether these False Teachers which the Prophet Hosea here calls lewd Murtherers be not the same in Nature with those which Isaiah in the 56. Chap. and 10 v. of his Prophesie calls greedy dumb Dogs that sought their Gain from their quarter and could never have enough And the same that Jeremiah spoke of in Chap. 5. ver 1 2. 23. Chap. of his Prophesie throughout That stole the word from their Neighbour and used their Tongue and said he saith when the Lord never sent them and so could not profit the People at all And whether they be not the same that Micah the Prophet Mic. 3 5 c. speaks of who preached for Hire and divined for Money and spake Peace to the Wicked for the Gift sake but if any put not into their Mouths they prepared War against them and yet like all Hypocrites would lean upon the Lord in words and say Is not the Lord amongst us No Evil shall come unto us And whether these murtherous Priests were not one with those that Christ Jesus cried Woe against in Matt. 23. Who were Sayers and not Doers who loved to be called of Men Master and bound heavy Burthens upon the People and touched them not with one of their own Fingers but shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men and would neither enter in themselves nor suffer others And finally ask them whether such Men now as stand over the People for Teachers though under another Name and making another Profession in words yet if they be found in the foresaid steps doing the foresaid Deeds of those forementioned False Teachers are not to receive the same Judgment and to be cried against and denied and forsaken by all the Children of Light now as formerly Yea or Nay And now Hosea thou Holy Prophet of God thou hast said and laid down these two Doctrines or high Charges against the People in general and against the Priests in particular The first That the People in general are polluted with Blood The second That as Troops of Robbers wait for a Man so the company of Priests Murther in the way by Consent How dost thou prove and make these good for the Gileadites are deeply concerned in it and they will have thee to make it good or suffer for default Yea by the Spirit I make it good thus Gilead is a City polluted with Blood because they are such as work Iniquity and the Priests Murther in the way by Consent because they commit Lewdness And this is witnessed not only by the Scriptures but also by the same Spirit of Truth that gave it forth in all the Children of Light to be so But Hosea thou must not be tried per pares that is them of like Condition or Quality with thee to wit the Holy Prophets and Children of God who are Witnesses with thee against the Abominations of their Times and Sins that rules in Priests and People for that will not satisfie nor serve the Gilâ—adites turn for so the great Men of all sorts in City and Country would be sound faulty But these Priests and People think it fit according to their Nation-Law to have a Judge and Justices sit upon the Bench and to have a Jury of Inquest summoned and to have a Bill of Indictment found against thee and then if thou plead thy Innocency and say thou art not guilty of doing them any Wrong but only thou spoke as thou was moved by the Spirit of God then thou must have as they pretend a fair Trial for thou must know that the Gileadites cannot believe thy Witness nor any for thee from that Spirit only but this fair Trial must not be by Spiritual Men who only are able to judge of Spiritual Things for the Gileadites know not their Voice no more than thine Oh Prophet but it must be further by another Company of these Men whom thou hast said are Workers of Iniquity and polluted with Blood and so are Parties and these must judge of thee and these says the World are a Grand Jury a Company of substantial Men of the Country Sworn Men Mark out of the Doctrine of Christ for his Yea is Yea and his Nay is Nay without an Oath And these Men the Grand Jury must bring in their Verdict as they call it against thee for they have found thee Guilty for thou hast nothing on thy side but plain Truth without Man's Testimony or an Oath and the Judge of the Court one of the chief Men among the Gileadites that is versed in Law-matters thinks it fit thou should be fined to pay a Sum of Money for thy Offence Oh Prophet thou Man of God! and be kept in Prison Summer and Winter that matters not until thou pay it But what Oh Prophet if thou hast neither liberty in thy Spirit nor outward Ability to pay thy Fine What course must be taken with thee Well for that O Prophet Gilead matters not but imprisoned thou must remain for so Gilead will be quit of thee and thou cannot come into their Synagogues Markets nor other Assemblies to cry against their Sins and disturb them for the People and Priests would live quietly in their Sins and they would not be disturbed neither in the time of their Service nor otherwise And Hâ—sea that thou mayst have no occasion to find fault with the Jury or the Judge one of these Priests whom thou hast by the Spirit declared to be Murtherers and lewd Men have taken an Oath in open Court against thee and dost thou think that though they be a lewd and murtherous Generation that they will also Swear falsly and so what by one means and what by another oh Prophet thou art fair to come into Bonds for thy Testimonies sake But what oh Court will you not hear the Prophet's witness Speak No no they will not Swear but they will have their Yea and Nay to stand for Truth without more ado as their Master Christ they say hath taught them and they are Disturbers of our Peace as well as thy self oh Hosea And unless some such course as this be used with you Gilead cannot Sin and be quiet neither can the Priests Murther by consent but be told of it and therefore to Prison must thou go and be numbred with the Transgressors as the Disturber of the Wicked's Peace Christ Jesus thy Master was But what Care do these Priests and People that have put thee in Prison take for thy Lodging and Diet in the long cold Winter-time O! for that they matter not for they are as careless over
their own Members them of their own polluted Church who divers of them are left in Prison upon other accounts as well as over thee And so unless thou be provided for otherwise thou mayst remain there in Misery and Want or Perish there as well as they for any Care they will have of thee for thou must not look that they that hate their own Flesh can love thine But the Righteous cannot be forsaken for their Keeper is the Lord God of Truth and Love So O Prophet be content and wait in the Will of God in thy Condition for Blessed are they that Suffer for Righteousness sake and the Scripture must be fulfilled which saith They shall hawl you out of their Synagogues and many other ways evil intreat you yea some of you they shall put to Death and think therein they do God Service And so wait to see the Sins of Gilead full and then in the Judgment shalt thou O Prophet of God and all thy Suffering Brethren rejoyce and all the Workers of Iniquity be Confounded with all that Thirst for Blood and into the Holy City shall none such enter but the pure in Heart who have come through the great Tribulation and have washed their Garments white in the Blood of the Lamb shall only enter and alone inherit to the Glory of the eternal righteous God for evermore to whom all Honour and Glory is due for ever and ever Amen and Amen And now for the Use of these Doctrines oh Priests and People that make a Trade of talking of the Scripture of Truth and Uses from it now and then in your high Places but make none of walking in the Truth in your daily Conversation it is to let you see That there were Wolves in Sheeps Clothing formerly and so to find such now is no new or strange thing And That under a Profession of God People may be found Workers of Iniquity and full of Blood And That a whorish Spirit in a Teacher is a murtherous Spirit and will draw others from God into Wheredoms and Death and so by all means to be taken heed of And it is to let you see oh all People what evil use the Priests and Leaders of you the People in these days as formerly make of the Scripture for whereas as you may see here it was given forth by the Holy Men of God a Witness against the Enemies of God and for the Servants of God such People and Priests as formerly so now abuse and wrest it from its proper Mind Use and End going about what in them lieth to make it speak for Deceit and its Upholders and against Truth and its Followers as is manifest For whereas the Scripture speaks of no Worship now nor Worshippers to be acceptable to God and Christ but that which is in Spirit and Truth they wrest and force the Scripture for carrying on a Worship which stands in outward Ceremonies carnal Ordinances Types and Shadows and a Kingdom to come in outward Observations as Lo here lo there like the Jews which a Man of Flesh a Câ—in or an Ishmael or an Esau or a Haman or a Dives or a Judas may conform unto and be accepted with them just contrary to Scripture and so in effect deny Christ the Substance to be come and as the Scribes and Pharisees which came to Christ and said Why dost thou and thy Disciples break the Traditions of the Elders in eating with unwashen hands To whom Christ said Why do you make void the Law of God by your Traditions mentioning in particular their Corban So when the Priests the Teachers heaped up over the People in this Age say unto us whom God by his mighty Power and out-stretched Arm hath delivered out of Mystery Babylon yea Sodom and Egypt Spiritual where the Witnesses lay flain and where our Lord also was Crucified to worship him in Spirit and in Truth I say When they object and say unto us Why do you not observe but transgress the Tradition of the Elders in not bringing your Infants to Baptism in not frequenting the Meeting at the Steeple-house called the Church And why pay you not the Priest now called Minster his Tythes Easter-Reckonings and other like things called his Dues And why observe you not the Customs of the World in Swearing at Courts and bowing the Hat and Knee and giving flattering Titles to Men Job 32.21 22. and bidding God speed to the Wicked and the like 2 John v. 9 c. Our Answer to all such is Why do you break the Commands of God by your Traditions teaching for Doctrine these and the like things which are meerly your own Commandments and evil Customs and not the Commands of God For we put you all Teachers and People to prove by Scripture where we are commanded these things you put upon us to do and if you do not which we know you cannot then I say your gathering together in Companies and going about to establish such things by a Law for any People to observe which Christ hath not commanded See how you can free your selves from the Charge which the Prophet here lays upon the People of Gilead and the Priests thereof and therefore why may not the words be turned upon you and applied to your Condition with the Names only changed after this manner that is England is a Nation of them that work Iniquity and is polluted with Blood and as Troops of Robbers wait for a Man so the Company of Hireling Teachers called of Men Ministers and Masters murther in the way by consent for they commit Lewdness And therefore high time for you all People who love your Souls and would not be murthered to look about you and in the Light which-Christ hath lighted you with to watch and take heed that you be â—ot robbed and spoiled of the Heavenly Treasure by these Layers in wait as you would be careful to avoid a Troop of Robbers that wait for a Man so all having time prize it and come out from among them and know Christ in you to be your Teacher for he is the true Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World that all in him should believe and he is come to teach his People himself and to deliver them by his Power and Spirit from the Hands and Mouths of all such as have made and would still make a Prey upon them according as he promised of old by his Servants who spoke and wrote from his Mouth of these things as you may read in Scripture all abroad and namely in Deut. 18.15 c. Isa 54.13 Ezek. 34. throughout Jer. 31.33 34. Heb. 8. John 6.45 1 John 2.20 27. Rom. 8.14 Rev. 21. throughout And the Scripture cannot be broken For behold the days come saith the Lord that I will perform the good thing which I have promised to the House of Israel and to the House of Judah Jer. 33.14 Now all People know that these are the days of fulfilling these Scriptures
and the Destruction of Antichrist and the setting up of the Kingdom of Christ not by might nor by Power but by the Spirit of the living Lord God believed and witnessed by and amongst us who are reproached by many for the Truth 's sake under the name of Quakers but the Reproach of Christ is to us great Riches and the Scorners God will judge And again all People when you see the Company of Priests the Parish Teachers gather together on heaps upon every occasion at the Foot of the Great Men of the Earth to get their Conclusions and Doctrines Established by a Law for binding under Darkness the dark People who are Ignorant of their Wiles and unacquainted with their Ends and for the Ensnaring of Tender Consciences who are come to the Teachings of Christ and his Spirit and so have found the true Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls and so through Grace have escaped the layers in wait I say when you now see them gathering together by Troops for these evil Purposes and the like Self-ends marvel not at the matter for it is no new thing but one of the old things under the Sun as you see here for the World's Teachers set up in the Will of Man have always been many and evil kept up by the evil Power but the true Prophets not so but rather few and faithful and those preserved by the Power of God yea often found that the Prophets of Baal are Four Hundred and Fifty and the Prophets of the Groves Four Hundred which eat Meat at Jezebel's Table for one Elijah the Prophet of the true God who feeds upon the true Bread and ministers it forth as he hath received it freely to others without Self ends See 1 King 18 Chap. Ezek. 34. Jer. 23. 2 Tim. 4.3 1 John 4.1 And so the false Teachers under Antichrist are set forth bâ— an Army of Locusts the sound of whose Wings was as the sound of Chariots and of many Horses running to Battel Rev. 9. from 1 to 12. Ver. when the true Witnesses are set forth under a small number even two Rev. 11. And so those many Locusts and Frogs the false Teachers are the unclean Spirits of Devils working in his Servants his Ministers going forth unto the Kings of the Earth and of the whole World to gather them to the Battel of that Great Day of God Almighty being thereunto fitted in a Miraculous manner being trained up in the Wisdom of the Serpent and Sorceries of Egypt for that purpose so that none can avoid following them but such as are in the holy Anointing whose Names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life see Rev. 16.13 14 2 Tim. 8.9 1 John 2.20 27. Rev. 20. last And of the truth of this to wit of the great number and swarms of Locusts false Teachers of all Coats Black c. and of all Names and Orders Popes Cardinals Bishops Deans Deans and Chapters Prebendaries Priests Parsons Vicars Curates Rectors Ministers c. let thy many Thousands of Soldiers of this kind fighting daily against the Lamb and his Army under Satan's Banner and in constant known Pay as Hirelings in thee O England Scotland France Ireland Spain Germany Italy and other Lands be witness And therefore O whole Earth and World How art thou Corrupted How great is thy Misery What Lamentation shall be taken up for thee A wonderful and horrible thing is committed all abroad in thee Thy Prophets Prophesie falsly and thy Teachers are Lewd and Treacherous Men bearing Rule by their means over thee fleecing thee in that greedy Mind that seeks the Gain from the Quarter and can never have enough crying Peace Peace to thee when the Lord hath not spoken it and preaching unto thee a Vision of their own Head and Heart and not from the Mouth of the Lord and so strengthning thy Hands in thy Wickedness and stirring thee up to Wrath and Persecutions against the Innocent and thou lovest to have it so and what will ye all do in the end of these things Will not the Lord invade you with his Troop Will he not come upon ye O Princes as Clay And tread you down under his Glorious Power Oh People as Mire is trodden down under Foot in the Streets And who of all the false Spirits and Teachers that you in your Rebellions against God have followed shall deliver you out of his Hand So all be warned and repent and return to Jesus Christ the one Head Shepherd and Bishop of the Soul and as was said before know him in you to be your Teacher that out of the Hands of all Devils you may be delivered And now having time prize it for this is assuredly the Day of your Visitation and after that the Judgment upon you all for Wo Wo Wo both is and will be more upon you all who puts the Day of the Lord afar off and who love Darkness rather than Light because your Deeds are evil and your Head and Leader is not Christ but he that came up out of the Bottomless Pit and shall go into Perdition with all his confounded Followers the Children of Darkness And therefore on the other hand all ye Servants of the Lord my Brethren and Sisters in the Truth of Jesus Christ every where who are Sufferers for his Names sake be encouraged for stronger is he that is in us than he that is in the World and there are more with us than them though we be not known to the World nor our aid 1 John 3.1 2 Kings 6.16 c. for little Children we are of God and the whole World lyes in Wickedness and so one single Elijah and two Witnesses being God's Troop are well able to encounter with all the Troops of the Wicked for Truth shall prevail for ever and ever and all Iniquity shall stop her Mouth and so shall the due Praises be sung from off Mount Zion our Holy Hill unto our God the Holy One of Israel World without end for his Goodness to us even for evermore Amen and Amen For now is the Day of the Lord appearing and Fire goeth out of his Witnesses wouths and who of all the Adversaries can stand before him who is a consuming Fire and to the Wicked everlasting Burning Isa 33.13 14. Given forth for the Good of all People by the Spirit of Truth in a Servant of the Lord who for witnessing forth Truth as he was moved of God in the publick Assembly of all sorts of People at Appleby Steeple-house in Westmoreland in the Assize Week there in the sixth Month 1675 against the Deceit there uttered though not until the Priest had done his Oration or Sermon as they call it yet was hawled out of that Synagogue and so being hurried along into the Streets and declaring the Day of the Lord and warning them all and calling them all to Repentance was sent from thence by command from some it's aike by an Officer to the Common Goal for my good Will and
His limitless Nature to a creatural Form like thy self as the Wicked do who know him not And so of that Beast and mysterious Babylon thou art who this day with their many Heads and Horns and Forms of False Knowledge and Worships and Churches so called do all with one Consent push and fight against the Lamb the Light and Son of the Incomprehensible and Infinite Father and his Faithful Followers but the Lamb both hath and ever shall have the Victory and the Mouth of all Iniquity shall be stopped saith my Soul And so well had it been for thee if thou hadst continued Faithful amongst us but a Wanderer and Unfaithful in Heart hast thou been many a day and so the Whore that watched in the Evening for the unwary young Man hath caught thee in her Net and there thou art a Slave in the Bands of Darkness to the great Wounding of thy poor imprisoned Soul Thomas Taylor TO George Ward And those that had Fellowship with him GEorge Ward to thy self and those in Fellowship with thee whether Speakers or Hearers a few Words from the Movings of God in my Heart You are weighed in the Ballance and are found wanting and the Glory of the Holy Kingdom of God you are fallen short of in your Unbelief and have not a Heart as yet to walk in the strait and narrow Way that leads unto it You have not suffered your Minds and Souls to be guided by the pure Light of Jesus Christ that hath Visited you in great Love in these Days but have rather chosen to follow your own Thoughts and wrong Expositions of Scripture to your great hurt And because you have Preached and Professed that washing the outward Water is the only Gate in the Christian Fellowship you are both to loose your Credit amongst Men by owning the more Excellent and Everlasting Way though it be most plainly declared and by the Spirit demonstrated to you in these Days And so you go about to Establish that which makes nothing perfect in Opposition to the Power of God which only makes Perfect And so you resemble them of old who stuck in the Shadows of the Law in Opposition to him that was the End of the Law and came to fulfil it Christ Jesus over all God Blessed for ever And so if I could have found in you a true Desire after God's Kingdom may be I might have gotten a little Liberty to have Reasoned with you at this time of the things thereof But seeing there hath been so many Endeavours and Desires in us after your Eternal Good and ye will not come to Christ to know him in you that you may have Life for this time I thus rest in Peace with my God the Righteous Judge believing that in his own Way and Time he will Silence every Tongue that moves against his Blessed Truth the Light and those that love it and follow it in the Regeneration in this Day of his Power wherein the willing People are brought up through the Death of the Flesh to serve the Lord in the Land of the Living in new Jerusalem as our Souls do this Day ever Praised be his Name the Arm of his Holiness for it is worthy And now where is the Disputer of this World who pleads for seen things which Quicken not the Souls and will not have the Invisible God who is the Resurrection of the Life to Rule in them but are glad when they can get any thing seemingly that makes for them in their perishing Way But our Work is Praised be God to hold the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints in a pure Conscience and in the Ability that God giveth us to help to bring People to God where is the true Rest for ever And those that will not submit their Minds Hearts and Souls to the Light of the Eternal Word which is nigh in the Heart shall never be Established in Righteousness and Peace but shall weary themselves in the very Fires for Vanity and this we have Learned through many Tribulations Blessed be God for his Unspeakable Gift and so if you be Wise be Wise for your Souls and Learn with us to sit in Silence at Jesus Feet to know what he requires of you and cease your running and doing without him for you have spent too much time in Vain already seeing the Spirit of the World is unfallen in you Rests your Souls Friend and a Lover of the whole Creation of God being become a willing Sufferer for the Holy Seeds Sake And whereas you or some of you seem Offended that Widdow Cock hath left you and come amongst us and say she hath done it and yet given you no sufficient Reason and Satisfaction for her so doing I say that Reason I suppose she hath shown sufficient to some of you but to give Satisfaction to you in it that is hard seeing you Speak Evil of the Good Way of God which she hath tasted of amongst us for of a Truth the Lord and his Power and Presence is with us Blessed be his Name for ever And she stayed too long upon the barren Mountains where your Flocks Feed Thomas Taylor TO A Plundering Priest YOUNG Man all thy Prayers Preachings and Praises are Abomination to God so long as thou keepest the Just in Bondage Thou being but newly as it were come on to the Stage of the World begins thy part very badly if thou hadst been as an old over-grown Tree in Customs of Covetousness less could not be expected from thee than what some in Swaledale have sound But thou being as I hear a young Man under the Notion of a Schollar nay more of a Minister of the Gospel to fall on a Suing People at Law and putting in Prison upon account of Hire quite stains all thy Glory and blasts thy Reputation with the Odium of a Hireling and Fersecutor Thou might consider if the God of this World had not blinded thy Mind what thou daily as it were reads in the Scripture Whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you even so do unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets And if thou be not come so far as the Law and the Prophets thou art most unfit to take the Gospel into thy Mouth For without all question if thy Condition had been Michael Râ—w's thou would have accounted it hard Measure to have been so dealt withall as thou hast dealt with him A Man with a Wife and ten or eleven Children depending much upon his Labour for their Maintenance and this Man to be put into Prison and there kept from year to year for nothing at all but because for Conscience-sake to God he cannot put into thy Mouth What a Cry this hath and will have in the Ears of God it concerns thee deeply to consider for he is well known not to with-hold Right from any where it is due But though his Sufferings for time be long yet thine if thou repent not will be very
ye gone and there are amongst the Heathen worshipping the Works of your own Hands and falling down to that which your Fingers have framed and you delight in a thing of naught and the Lord the Light that made you you are become Strangers unto and is accounted by you as a weak natural thing that cannot help And his Day Power and Kingdom is put far away from you and instead thereof the Seat of Violence is drawn near to you and in the Seat of the Scorners and Mocker of the Last Times have you placed your selves saying Where is the Promise of his Coming when as him Christ Jesus the Light in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen is rejected by you even by your Builders Thomas Taylor To the Bear-ward UNTO thee O Man who art called the Bear-ward do these words come Fear and tremble before the Lord God who is against all such wicked and ungodly Men as thy self is who contrary to the Law of God and the Nation goest up and down the Country keeping this great Evil of Bear-baiting on foot to the Corrupting of the Country for thy own filthy Lucre and abominable Covetousness which is the Root of all Evil And the Lord's Hand hath been long stretched out against all such Lewd Men but you go on in your Wickedness and repent not and therefore nothing can you expect as a Reward of your evil Work but everlasting Wo and Misery And to all you Foolish and Heathenish-minded People who are the Upholders and Spectators of these Brutish Customs of Bear-baiting yea and can spend your precious Time Strength and Money in the thing the Lord is against you also and his Soul is greatly grieved and burthened with you and will assuredly visit with his Wrath these and all your lewd and wicked Practices So if there be in any of you any Heart left for the Good repent lest you Perish in your Sins with such as hates to be reformed Rests the Lord's Servant who cannot but Sorrow to see you thus from time to time go on in your Sins without Remorse Thomas Taylor To the Dancers on the Ropes WO to the Dancers upon the Ropes and Tempters of God with their wicked Inventions and Wo to the Man that maintains and upholds such for filthy Lucre to draw the Peoples Minds from God O Repent Repent the Day of the Lord is at hand a Day of bitter Howling and Lamentation to all such Workers of Iniquity will it be Did ever any Child of God or any that had any Fear of God in them go up and down the Country with vain Fellows at their heels disfiguring themselves and playing Tricks upon Stages and Ropes like the Heathen that knew not God and all meerly to draw the Minds of the Multitude after them for filthy Lucre. O Cursed Covetousness What hast thou done in all the Earth the Root of all Evil well may it be called and Idolatry which whosoever follows do separate their Souls from the Glory of God and all the Good that is in his Kingdom And then O ye deceitful and vain People What will it profit you to gain the whole World and lose your Souls Rests God's Servant and a Witness in his Power against all vain and wicked Inventions of Faln Man Thomas Taylor A Warning to all People WEEP not for the Dead but Weep for the Living even for those that remain in the Body upon the Earth because of the Miseries Plagues and Judgments that are come and coming upon all the Wicked Sinful and Unholy People in all Lands for the Lord hath a Controversie with all Nations and great will be the Desolations because of Iniquity and Violence that is grown up to so great a height that it hath even as it were filled the whole Earth and the Lord seeth all your Doings O People and your secretest Workings when in your Minds ye Plot against the Lamb's Life which would redeem out of all the many Snares of the Devil whereby the Ungodly are kept fast at his Will But the Men of Nineveh shall rise up in Judgment against the Impenitent in the whole Earth for they repented at the Preaching of Jonah but behold a greater than all is come into the World even Jesus Christ the Righteous and they believe him not neither repent of their evil and violent Doings but harden their Hearts against his Holy Spirit 's Reproof to their own Destruction Thomas Taylor For the People of England to Weep WEEP thou England Howl Howl ye People for the Dreadful Day of the Lord God is at hand it is at the Door as an armed Man coming swiftly upon you to break down and tread under feet thy Pomp Glory Pride and Strength Thou hast exceeded in thy Sins and art grown monstrous in thine Iniquities so the Lord will be exceeding Terrible unto thee Thou hast suffered the Wicked in thee to have liberty and to take their Fill of Sin when the Voice of the Righteous cannot be endured in thee but he that departs from Iniquity and would perswade others so to do also is even made a Prey of by ungodly and unreasonable Men their Bodies imprisoned and banished and Estates spoiled and many sorts of Injuries done them for thy Name and Truths sake O Lord God And therefore will the Lord God arise to take Vengeance for these things yea his Soul will certainly be avenged on such a Nation as this saith his Spirit in his Servant Thomas Taylor And moreover because you have said in your Hearts We have compassed them about with an Act and now none shall worship God but as we please Therefore will the Lord the mighty God compass you about with his Terrors and you shall find no place to hide your selves in from his Wrath because of the Pride of your Heart and Evil of your Doings O all ye People of the Land who are guilty in these things saith the Lord God To the Comers and Goers by the Prison-Window of both Sorts ALL simple-hearted People who have any thing of the true Fear of God moving upon your Hearts and whose Desires are in any measure purely after God and Goodness and are not altogether hardned against the Lord and Good of your Souls Consider and ponder a little and unbethink you well as in the Presence of God what hath been from time to time declared to you and all People out of the Prison-Window Hath not the Witness of God in his Servant declared amongst you the Dreadful Day of the Lord God which will assuredly come upon all the Wicked and such as are covered and not with the Spirit of the Lord whether Priests or People And hath not the same Voice in great Love and Tenderness freely proclaimed Peace and Good Will to the Penitent and the most acceptable Day of the Lord to the Broken-hearted and such as Mourn under the Sense of Sin and Burthen of Unrighteousness without respect of Persons And are not these things to be
a Reformation is this If this be not amended surely God's Hand will be stretched out against you still But you present Parish-Teachers that practice this thing Answer this sober and necessary Question Do you believe this your own Doctrine and Practice to be good or you rather do it because this is the way to please the Times and so to get Money If the former then are you blind Guides indeed If the latter then are you Covetous indeed And Covetousness saith the Apostle is Idolatry And then let all judge whether either of these be fit to guide and teach others And next in their Marrying of People besides their manifold taking of God's Name in vain as in their other doings and besides their evil Custom of the Ring do not they teach the People to swear and commit Idolatry in saying With this Ring I thee Wed with my Body I thee Worship and with all my worldly Goods I thee Endow and at the conclusion of their Work must plight their Troth one to another Is this sound Doctrine These Priests use to say the Scripture is their Rule But no Scripture is there for certain for such doings as this but against it if this be an Oath for Christ saith Swear not at all but these Priests not only break this Commandment themselves but teach others so to do also and so as Christ saith are least in the Kingdom of Heaven And Christ saith Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God only but these teach People to Worship one another And doth the Priest examine whether this be true which he teacheth the Man to say to the Woman With all my Worldly Goods I thee Endow Or they matter not what they do so as they can stubber over the business and get Money But that which makes all this the worse is that it must be declared to be done in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost though never so unscriptural and corrupt And therefore will the Lord visit for this thing also But from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelations I do not find that there is any Command from God either for Priests under the Law or Ministers under the Gospel to Marry People nor so much as an Example that they did it But the true Gospel Minister keeps himself pure to Christ out of the World 's Evil Customs and Self-Ends lest he come under Condemnation for partaking with them in their Sins For now is the Cry gone forth from the Lord Come out of Babylon my People lest partaking with her in her Sins ye partake also of her Plagues And therefore when People that pretend much run into things without the Heavenly Call it 's no wonder to see so much Evil attend their doings And Lastly when they come to Bury People having begun so badly they continue so to the end for having ushered in the dead Body in their Superstitious Surplice to the Grave they must say Earth to Earth Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust in sure and certain hope of Resurrection to Life Eternal of all they so Bury Is not this a sore Evil to conclude so directly against Christ's words who saith John 5.29 That some not all shall come forth to the Resurrection of Life and some to the Resurrection of Damnation But you say all at least all that come under your hands thus to be Buried though they live and dye never so badly Nay these Buriers profess that they have a sure and certain hope of it too though oftentimes it so falls out that they have no knowledge of the Party so Buried neither of the Person Life nor Death But what shall be said to such Priests and People whose Eyes are so blinded with Evil Custom and Covetousness that they heed not much what they say or do but heap up Wrath against the day of Wrath against their poor Souls But the true Spiritual Man the true Christian who is a new Creature in Christ Jesus sees all these things and judges them and avoids them And now as for the Sermons Prayings and Preachings of such corrupt Men as these what are they good for or what benefit hath or can your Souls O People expect to reap from them Can a corrupt Tree bring forth good Fruit can Chaff Feed Peoples Souls And he that hath not the Word it self which is Spirit and Life and as a Hammer and Fire though he may have and run with the Words that declare of it as the False Prophets of old did for filthy Lucre yet he is but a Dreamer and a Deceiver of his own and others Souls Jer. 23. And though for Witnessing against such as these do I suffer Imprisonment yet herein is my Joy that the Lord hath deliver'd my Soul from the trouble which they lye in and that I am accounted worthy to speak for God against Deceit So all People consider what you have to do for this is the day of the Revelation of all things reprovable and so whatever hath been hid in Darkness is now by the true Light to be made manifest And though the Wicked in their several dark Forms dig as deep as Hell and think to hide their Counsels and their Doings never so deep in the Dark yet to this Day of God which is already Dawned and in great Power arisen must they all come forth to be judged and to receive every one a Reward according to their Doigns without respect of Persons or Professions as testifies his good Spirit in and by his Servant Thomas Taylor And what also shall be said to that one thing amongst many in your Communion where it is said to the Receiver of the Bread and Wine when the Priest delivers it The Body or Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy Body and Soul unto Eternal or Everlasting Life Is this holding the Form of Scripture Words or of sound Words as the Apostle Exhorts Do you pray in Faith when you say these words O Priests or may it not be said rather to you who hath required this at your Hands And do you consider what Bodies and Souls these People have that you would have thus preserved are they clean are they pure perfect and Holy For such as are preserved unto everlasting Life must first be such because no unclean thing enters God's Kingdom And the Church that Christ presents to himself is such as are Sanctified and throughly Washed by his Word from all Spot and Stain of Sin Ephes 5.25 26 27. But what have you to do here you miserable Offenders who by your own daily and customary Confession have no Spiritual Health in you So as Israel's outward Lepers were shut out of the Camp by the Law so out of the Fellowship of God's Spiritual Israel must the inward and Spiritual Lepers be kept this day It is so To the Jury-Men of Appleby ALL ye of the Jury which is by Interpretation Swearers or Sworn-Men who are not yet come to Christ's Doctrine where the
form or way of Religion so called whatsoever that are disobedient to the Light But dear Heart so long as thou judgest of Spiritual things in thy Natural Reason as here thou dost how many seeming Contradictions will there be in the Writings of the Holy Prophets and Apostles which never can be reconciled to that fall'n Wisdom but are all in Unity only to those that are new Born in God from before whose Eyes the Veil is done away in Christ who is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God to all that receive him in Love but a stumbling Block and Rock of Offence to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks who stumble and are offended at the stumbling Stone the Light within through Disobedience as saith the Scripture And therefore here will be thy Wisdom even to cease from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils and all the Wisdom of his Words and Teachings which are without and which stand in the Will of Man and as was said before to hearken to the alone Teachings of the Spirit of God the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned thee within which stand in a daily cross to thy own Will and Reason and of all Men and cast off every weight and burden of Sin that hinders thy Soul from running the ways of God's Commandments as in that Light they are discovered to thee and so the Beam being removed out of thy Eye and Judgment brought forth into Victory in thee thou wilt see clearly into the Mystery of Truth as it is in Jesus which yet truly the Veil of dark Flesh being unremoved in thee hinders that thou canst not and therefore in the Fear of God sink down into the deepest Humility and willingly become a Fool that thou may'st be wise for to Repentance thou must come which yet thou hast not come unto before thou enter the Kingdom to that in thy Conscience do I speak which will show thee this to be true hearkening to it though the Enemy at present in thee it seems whispers otherwise Oh! the Serpent is more subtil than any Beast of the Field and hath deceived the whole Generation of the first Man and doth and therefore his Head being not yet bruised in thee causeth thee to cover but not with the Spirit of the Lord and so the Woe will meet thee till his Head be bruised in thee by the Seed of the Woman which way soever thou turn thy self Therefore must thou pass a strait Gate as all the Children of God have and do before thou come to Feed on the Tree of Life even the fiery flaming Sword must thou pass which is in the Hand of a Cherubin which yet thou hast not passed and therefore thy own Life and Strength yet remain which yet must go or thy Soul Perishes for ever for that Sword must cut down the Subtilty that that which hath led out from God may not lead to God for it cannot but the Simplicity through the destruction of the subtile Serpentine Wisdom must enter which breathes after God to do his Will that must enter by Jesus Christ And for that thou presses the necessity of a search by what Spirit I was acted in Writing and that because as thou say'st these are Times of strong Delusion wherein Multitudes are Captivated c. Thou may'st know that though it be true that many are Captivated by Satan now as at other times and strongly deluded yet neither in these Times nor any other were any Captivated in those Delusions but such only as received not the Truth in the Love of it but have Pleasure in Unrighteousness even such as turn the Truth of God into a Lye and holding it in Unrighteousness becoming vain in their Imaginations worshipping and serving the Creature more than the Creator And such God in Justice doth indeed give up to believe a Lye and to be strongly deluded by thinking themselves to be of God and Christians when old things are not passed away from them much less all things become new and such are they also that the God of the World hath blinded the Minds of such who are minding Earthly Things who live in the Lust of Uncleanness turning the Grace of God into Wantonness having indeed a form of Godliness but denying the Power the daily Cross loving the Friendship of this perishing Evil World and the things thereof as the Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life making it hereby manifest they know not the true God in his Power and his Purity within them but Worship they know not what a God at a distance far away from them and a Christ by hear-say And now Friend consider seriously and lay these things to Heart for to thy Conscience in the sight of God I speak Dost not thou love the things of this World Art thou in Soul indeed seperate from them Dost thou not love Fineness in Apparel Fineness in Dwelling Fineness in Meat and Drink Fineness in Speech and Conformity to the World in their vain Fashions and Customs in many other things I say unto thee in tender Love God is no respecter of Persons and dost thou respect Persons Art not thou more afraid to Offend some than others and more careful to please some than others and that because of the Person Friend let me speak plainly to thee hath not thy fear of displeasing thy Carnal Relations now at Hipswell been a cause of thy strangeness to us I know it is not altogether as thou writest that because thou thinks us deluded that thou art so estranged from our Fellowship which once thou seemed to Love but some other thing the Light in thy Conscience will let thee see what it is Ah! the Cross the Cross thou must bear if thou should'st now own us will be I fear found in the Matter though I know it will be heard to confess it if thou hearken to the Serpent and not to the pure voice the Light of God in thy Conscience Dear Heart consider it is not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of God as the Scripture saith and thou wilt I know acknowledge but those only that do the Will of the Heavenly Father which is Perfect and Holy and though thou look at it now as something harsh to be told of Dissembling with the Lord within yet I know through the Revelation of Jesus Christ in me if ever thou come to see in Truth the deep Deceitfulness of the Heart of Man thou wilt see a dissembling Nature lie lurking within thee under many Vails which now thou seest not and though thou say now Lord let thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven yet then when God comes to set up his Kingdom in thee and so to advance his Son Jesus Christ in thee in the destruction of the Kingdom of the Devil and of all thy own Wisdom Glory and Idols and so to do his Will in thy Earthly Heart
in shaking its Foundations and burning it up with the Increase thereof thou wilt find something in thee strongly Gainsaying yea even Fighting and Opposing to Death which yet thou art not acquainted with and secretly wishing that the way were not so narrow but that thy Ishmael might live before him how much more in the swelling of Jordan will it be hard when Isaac is called for also but thou must witness a forsaking of the World and the Religion thereof before thou see thy Isaac Born as did Abraham the forsaking of his own old Country and the rejection of his fleshly Begetting his Bond-Child Ishmael before the promised Seed appeared now if thy Ear be opened thou wilt this also hear And for so many being besotted with the lofty Notions and Expressions of some refined Monks thou speaks of thou had dealt Ingeniously if thou hadst told wherein either I or others with whom I have Fellowship in the Gospel of the dear Son of God are found Guilty for if the Scripture Expressions be such we cannot deny them though a Monk should say the same but I know thou canst not from any sound Ground in thy self believe that we have Intimacy with such as are called Monks but thou art cousened into this Conceit by the false Reports of the envious and blind World who do what they can to hinder the pure Truths progress as they ever did by all means possible together with what thy own misapprehension of us hath suggested to thee But herein is our Joy that Men speak all manner of Evil of us falsly for the Names sake of Jesus Christ whom alone through Grace we own for our Saviour and Guide and not another and therefore it is that the World hates us because we cannot follow them in their Obedience to the Spirit of this World as they do And therefore as I said before so in love I advise thee again not to trust in that vain Religion that thou art yet unseperated from which stands in outward Observations which hath not so much as a promise of Perfection in it where there is yet lo here and lo there is Christ where there is a Temple made with Hands and a mention of Sins untaken away continually as in the time of Moses's Law which was a shadow for a time and could make nothing perfect seeing perfection was to be brought to Light in Jesus Christ the substance of all Shadows Types and Figures And they that were Preachers of the Gospel preached Perfection in him And where Christ the Substance the Lamb of God was manifested in any it was for the taking away of Sin and perfecting in Holiness and so they could direct others And â—rith the Scripture Eph. 4 10 c. He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all Heavens that he might fill all things and he gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers he himself gave them and not Men for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying the Body of Christ till we all come to the Vnity of the Faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ And this being so it is something strange thou shouldst so far forget as to say thou knew not of any Text in the whole Book of God which doth promise to the People of God Perfection in this Life For though as in Heb. 7.19 The Law which stood in outward Observations made nothing perfect yet the bringing in of a better hope which hope is Christ in the Saints a hope of Glory did by which they draw nigh unto God Having their Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and their Bodies washed with pure Water Heb. 10.22 And therefore there was a necessity of disanulling of the Letter Commandment going before because of the weakness and unprofitableness of it as in the 18. ver of that 7. cap. And so Friend the reason of thine and all the World's Imperfection is unbelief and disobedience to the Spirits teaching within whereby the Soul is kept in the outward Court and Temple and so not coming through the Vail the Flesh which only is rent in the Death of Christ the Holiest of all is not come into where there is Perfection which Perfection indeed is not known in the Life and Glory which is of the first Man which stands in the Law of a carnal Commandment but in the Power of an endless Life without begining or end of Days which also if thou hast an Ear thou may'st hear and the Lord give thee understanding that thy Soul may live and not remain in Death for the Letter Killeth but the Spirit gives Life And for my own Attainments which thou calls Imaginary Transcendent thou knows I said nothing of my self in particular and therefore be advised to beware of that Spirit that pats off wholsome Advice by evil Judgings and Surmisings concerning the Advisers For for my own part I acknowledge my self to have nothing of my own to boast of but to be by the Grace of God what I truly am and that Grace is my Sufficiency and rejoyce in this to see the strength of Christ perfected in my Weakness but Wickedness he Destroys and will not allow of any work of Iniquity in any and so in my Condition am I pressing forward to the Resurrection from the Dead through the daily Death and though I have not fully attained yet I see every Gift of God to be perfect and those that rest in Christ rest from Sin and there are perfect and so whom the Son sets free are free indeed from Sin and that where Christ is received there is Power received to become a Child of God and there the work of the Devil is destroyed which is Sin seeing he that commits Sin is not born of God but is a Servant of Sin and so a Child of the Devil And therefore it is time for all to hast out of the Spiritual Sodom and Egypt of Sin and separation from God lest the Wrath that hangs over fall on and there being no Remedy nor Escape And for that thou entreats me to beware of the confused Notions and great words of Jacob Bewman and such like frothy Scriblers as thou in disdain art pleas'd to term them who thou say'st may hereafter prove broken Reeds to those who now admire them thou may'st know that those who follow the Light of Jesus Christ wherewith he hath enlightned them in Spirit which leads them orderly up out of the fall'n Estate of Sin and Separation from God into the Kingdom of perfect Righteousness and Fellowship with himself and lean not to any Man that can Deceive but have all one Master and Teacher which is Christ in them all the Head and they need not that any Man teach them but as the Anointing leads them they are safe and this the Scripture witnesseth And by the
Holy Anointing in them as also saith the Scripture they try all things both Men and Writings Words and Works and do separate the Precious from the Vile and know therein what to chuse what to refuse as the Mouth tryeth Meat and yet are not Wise as Men count Wisdom but Fools to the World and their Wisdom is in their Head hid from the World which is Christ the Mystery their Eye and so the truly wise Man's Eye is in his Head and so their Guide and Teacher is not Men or Means as they are called without them but their Teacher is within in the midst of them and not removed into a Corner and if any speak not according to that Word within it is because they have no Movings in them And if thou be'st humble-minded indeed thou wilt in Self-denial bearing a daily Cross to thy own Will and Wisdom wait with these simple Children and Babes of God in silence of Spirit to hear what the Spirit and Light of Christ it self alone and not another speaks within thee and this thou wilt find to be a straiter way than ever yet thou walked in when thy Mind must be kept in the Cross and not have liberty to feed upon any visible or audible created Word Writing or Thing but only upon the pure immortal and increated eternal Word of God within then will the Serpent Rage and the earthly Mind Famish when it can come by no earthly Food And for thy light Expressions of Jacob Bewman the rest thou names not and so I can say nothing punctually of them I know in most things he speaks a Parable to thee yet and so his Writings may well be lightly esteemed of by thee but there is that in his Writings which if ever thy Eye be opened will appear to be a sweet unfolding of the Mystery of God and of Christ in divers particulars according to his Gift And therefore beware of speaking Evil of that which thou know'st not lest thou come under Judas Reproof But dear Heart thy poor Soul not yet freed as I said before from the guidance of Self-Wisdom thou travelest in a Satisfaction with that which therein only thou canst comprehend and not only so but therein also takes upon thee to judge that which is beyond it which is very dangerous but if Christ and his Kingdom were so known it were no Mystery And for that thou questions what I mean by my exhorting thee to come up to the Feast of Tabernacles if thou know'st the Scriptures which thou readest thou may'st see what it is to come up to the Feast of Tabernacles it is not to come up to any Man's Tenets or painted Novelties as thou too scornfully miscallest the Truth we in our measure desire to walk in but it is to keep a Feast with the Israel of God in the Wilderness as tho' come out of Egypt into the Travel and Warfare towards the Promised Land having not for the present a City to dwell in and so to be separate from thy first Mother's Womb which is from below and is in Bondage with her Children that thy feeding may be upon the Heavenly it self which yet is a Mystery to thee and all who cannot witness an Implantation together into the likeness of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ if thy Ear be open thou wilt hear And for that Scripture in the 7th of Matth. thou concludes with thou may'st know that it doth not forbid the Judgment of the Spirit of Truth in any but it truly and plainly shows to the Pharisee and Hypocrite his own Condemnation who judgeth that in another which he is guilty of in himself much more And therefore every one is to wait to see the Beam cast out of their own Eye and so Judgment brought forth into Victory in the particular and so the true Spirit of Judgment set up in the Heart in particular true Judgment according to every Spiritual Man's measure goes rightly forth upon the general so as Christ there saith there is so a clear seeing how to cast out the Mote out of the Brother's Eye the Beam removed out of ones own And now Friend if I should seem tedious to thee consider it is my Love and desire of thy Souls Information that if possible thou may'st be delivered from every Snare to serve the Lord in the truth of Spirit being taught of and guided by that Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned thee lest otherwise it be thy Condemnation as it is and ever hath been to all the Children of Disobedience So rests thy poor Soul's continuing Friend Rich. 18th Feb. so called Thomas Taylor To the Presbyterians so called WO to the Teachers of the People who daub with untempered Mortar and cry Peace Peace when the Lord hath not spoken Peace for the Lord speaks Peace to none in their Sins but they teach for Doctrine That none can live without Sin whilst on this side the Grave and so they Minister for Antichrist the Man of Sin and not for Christ who is without Sin God's Righteousness and he that is born of Christ sinneth not for the Heavenly Holy Father of the unspotted Generation of the Righteous is he And the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against such as abide in Christ The Root is Holy and so is the Branches but the Old Adam or Fallen Man is not so nor his Children for the Root being Corrupt the Branches must needs be so and so they that are in the Flesh cannot please God but they who love the Light Christ Jesus and walk in him please God for this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear him saith God and know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates So the Voice of Christ the living Word is to be heard and waited in which is nigh in the Heart and the pure in Heart walk in the Light of his Holy City and to such there is no occasion of Stumbling but such as walk in the Darkness of their own Imaginations stumble and fall into the Pit of Sin and Condemnation But to such as are in Christ Jesus the Sinless Man to them there is no Condemnation for by his Spirit are they led and preserved out of Sin which is the cause of Condemnation and come to witness Justification through his Blood for if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light then have we Fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin How beautiful is the way of the Just they do not Iniquity that walk in God's undefiled way the Light for by the Light are they led out of Sin and Evil and so come through the true Door Christ Jesus the Light into the Sheep-fold which is the strait and narrow way indeed for whosoever walketh in Christ and holdeth forth his Life before Men shall be hated of all Men for his Name and Lifes sake for it is a Cross to all the World
the great People of the Earth who love the Pleasures of Sin these TO you that are great in the Earth and in the Glory of the World exalted the Word of the Lord God is to you come down come down to the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ in your Consciences which shows you Sin and Evil and it will let you see how you have spent your time and how your Hearts are taken up with the Love of the World and the Lusts thereof that the one thing necessary is not so minded by you as the worth of your Precious Souls requires but you eat and drink and sport your selves with the Pleasures of Sin and feed your minds with the vain Delights thereof so fat and so full of Self love are you that there is no place empty for Christ in you wherein to lodge or whereon to lay his Head but as a Stranger in you and in your Families is the pure Son of God found and an empty Profession of him that is heavenly in your earthly Minds is all the Food that he can find amongst you Alas Alas For you poor Careless People what will ye do in the Day of the Lord when an Account is required of you of all that ever hath been done in your Body Is not Christ a Stranger amongst you and not taken in Sick and in Prison and ye visit him not Read within Oh how often hath the Lord knocked at your Door and he is not yet in Love entertained in the Heart 's full of other Lovers he cannot Sup there with you and so you Sup not with him but you eat your own Supper and prefers that before his and so discerns not the Lord's Body and so Condemnation is near Do you not to that in your Conscience I speak Do you not I say sit down to eat and drink and rise up to play Is not all Places where you are found Witnesses against you that you serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but your own vain Minds and perishing Lusts rather Doth not your Houses your Diet your Changeable Suits of Apparel and your daily New Fashions with your manner of going abroad whether upon Horse or in Coach and your many unnecessary Attendants and their Attire show you to be so far from Christ's Doctrine and out of his Life that scarce any thing of the true Christianity is to be found amongst you For where is the daily Cross to your Wills and Lusts taken up by you Or where is the Crucifying of the World to you and you to the World witnessed amongst you Or any such thing as the pure Worship of God which stands in Spirit and Truth wherein he only delights But this poor Soul doth mostly satisfie you to wit to get a Carnal Man who loves to be called of Men Master to say over a few devised words or so which he calls Praying and Preaching to please your itching Ears but neither he nor you doing the things which Christ Commands you nor do you live the Life of what in words you profess and so to your other Sins you add that great Sin of Hypocrisie which is in words to profess the Knowledge of God but in deeds to deny it But better it were for you all to mind the Fear of the Lord and to consider what end the Lord made you for and not to pass away your precious time so without the Fear of the Lord God in your Careless Minds as you do for this you should know that the Lord of Glory who respects no Man's Person will not be mocked neither can the respecters of Persons who love the Praise of Men and seek the Worlds Glory live with him for such are Unbelievers as receive Honour one of another and seek not that Honour that comes from God only See John 5. toward the end And now that you have time prize it and lay aside your vain Thoughts a little and in the cool of your Minds consider and let that of God in your Consciences speak if it be not the greatest Folly in the World to Gain the Lusts of the World with the Loss of your Precious Souls And are you not in great danger of being found in this state so long as the true Prophet Christ Jesus whom God hath sent a Light into the World that all through him should come out of Sin is no more regarded by you So now having time prize it and know this Day of your Visitation and what indeed belongs unto your Eternal Peace Rests Thomas Taylor Concerning Bread and Wine THE Lord Jesus never ordained that the unbelieving evil World should eat Bread and drink Wine in remembrance of him when they daily deny him in their Life and Conversation for that were Abomination Carry such an Offering to the Governour and see if he will accept thee will he be pleased with thy words when he sees thy deeds daily contrary to his Mind and Will And how much less then can the pure God accept thee or thine Offering whilst thou only in thy words seems for him but in the whole Course of thy Life art directly contrary to Him and his Holiness O thou that art in the state of Sin and Corruption whose Fruits manifest thy Nature and Inside to be evil how canst thou endure the Trial of this Day of God which is as Fire wherein all that are proud and do wickedly are as Stubble to be burnt up Root and Branch he that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith Thomas Taylor The Indignation of the Lord upon all Nations THE Indignation of the Lord is upon all Nations and his Fury upon all their Armies he shall greatly distress the Inhabitants of the World he will now plead the Cause of his Covenant against all those that withstand his Glorious Appearance and Work of Restoration in this the Day of his Mighty Power wherein he is Restoring the Kingdom of his Everlasting Peace to Israel's Seed under the whole Heavens who fear his great Name and tremble at his Almighty Word of Life which shakes not only Earth but Heaven also And now is the Lord God Almighty bringing forth his Glory to light and Creating the New Heavens and New Earth wherein dwells Righteousness according to his Promise Isa 65.17 c. wherein the People beat their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks never to learn War any more but every one now that believes in the Truth Christ Jesus the Light and true King of Righteousness and Peace shall sit under him the true Vine and none to make them afraid Isa 2.2 c And now even now is the Lord God Almighty got up into his High Throne of Majesty and Everlasting Glory to Reign and of this his Peaceable Kingdom which he hath begun to set up in his Trembling People there never shall be end The true Israel of God is now coming up out of the Spiritual Egypt indeed to possess the true Land of Promise the Inheritance and
Christ's Lambs it cannot be well with you Your Teachers may tell you of Sin in the general to be the cause of these Plagues but they tell you not nakedly and truly for what the Hand of the Lord is lifted up against you neither indeed can they because of the Blindness of their Hearts and the Spirit of deep Sleep that is fallen upon them So Friend these things are on me as from the Lord to advertise thee and you all of in love to thy Soul and you all and to desire you in the Name of the Lord to lay them to Heart and ponder of them and not to pass over them slightly as too many have done because they come from such a one as I who am as a Man rejected by you Yet the Lord loves my Soul and cares for me praised be his Name and in the Patience and Joy and Strength of the Peace of God's Blessed Spirit am I kept and preserved in these continued Bonds and Sufferings for his Names sake and the Love of Christ constrains me to seek all your Good and Welfare in the Lord though the more I do this I be the more hated and persecuted of some for my Good Will but this I impute not here to thee but desires that thou maist more and more keep thy Heart and Hands clean from the great Offence to wit the Hatred of Goodness and good Men which hath sunk Nations and Kingdoms into the Pit And my desire is That the King and all in Authority may timely know and consider of these things as things of most Concernment to their Immortal Souls Rests God's Servant Thomas Taylor Wo to the World because of Iniquity WO to the World because of the great Iniquity that lyeth upon it O how are the People of this present time wholly loose in their Hearts to all manner of Vanity The Lord seeth and well pondereth of these things though you O poor deceived People will not see it For O how the Enemy of your Souls through long Custom hath blinded your Minds so that the Good which God hath commanded you you like not at all but the Evil which your own Hearts have devised you call Good and so bring your felves under the Wo Wo Wo to the cursed Customs of the World which are many Your Races both by Men and Beasts where Multitudes meet together to spend their precious Time and to satisfie their Vain Covetous and Drunken Minds the Lord is against it and Judgment from Heaven lingreth not you will not be warned until you feel it Rests God's Servant and Witness against all vain Inventions Thomas Taylor An Apology from the Harmless against the Unjust And to the King and his Magistrates against Plotting WE who are of the World called Quakers do testifie as in the sight of the Blessed Lord God of Heaven and Earth that we are clear in our Hearts from all Plottings or Contrivings of Evil or Mischief against the King or any of his Subjects and that our Meeting apart from the Steeple-house Worship is meerly in Obedience to God and at his Command who saith Come out from amongst them who live in Sin and plead for the continuance of the Body of it Yea in the Regenerate themselves during tearm of Life And so while we touched the unclean thing with you we could not be accepted of God and therefore the Lord called us out that we might meet together as we do and have done these many years in his holy Name and Fear to worship him in Spirit and Truth not in a Pretence but in the real Truth of the thing And we have found his Heavenly Presence with us and his Holy Promise fulfilled amongst us which saith Where two or three are gathered together in Christ's Name he will be in the midst of them Praises to him for ever And now as concerning those People called Monarchy-Men who are Fighters with Carnal Weapon and it seems did rise up to disturb the Peace of the Nation by outward Force we do utterly deny and not only them but all others who think the Kingdom of Christ can be set up with a Carnal Weapon or that his Church can be preserved and kept clean by worldly Force for God hath given us graciously to see beyond all such things and hath manifested in us that Blessed Heavenly Power and Spirit of Christ by which his Church which is his Body is raised up and preserved and builded up for evermore and the Sword of this Blessed Spirit of Jesus which is the Word of God we know for the cutting down not of Persons but Sins Praised be God and so to the outward Fightings and Warrings our Hearts are dead and we dare not avenge our selves as the wicked World doth but to God to we commit our Cause in Well-doing for he is the Avenger of all Wrongs and Pleader of the Innocent Cause of his People in all Generations Glory to his Name over all And therefore it cannot be but a most unjust thing that we should suffer by a Law that was made against Plotters and Seditious Conventiclers I say we who through the Grace of Christ are made to witness against all such things from our very Hearts and therefore it concerns all who are in Authority to see what they do and to distinguish rightly of Matters lest they cause the Innocent to suffer as some to their own Hurt have done and so bring God's Judgments upon them for not the greatest that ever were upon the Earth could escape God's Judgments who wronged his People witness Ahab's House and all the great Kings of the Nations in all Ages who touched God's People who were as dear to him as the apple of his Eye Do you not remember what they did to Daniel for the Worship of his God and how the Lord delivered him and the Pit devoured his Adversaries with the Informers and false Accusers Daniel could not worship but according to the Law of the God of Heaven and so we cannot worship but according to the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus Must we therefore suffer well we are helped by the Love of God to rejoyce and bear patiently the Will of the Lord until he plead our Innocent Cause and judge in Righteousness betwixt us and our Adversaries for in his Judgment is our Boldness Glory to God for ever but the Haters of the Good cannot stand before him The Jews said They had a Law and by their Law Christ ought to die Was that a good Law which condemned the Innocent So whatever Men pretend as a Cloak to cover their Doings from Men yet God sees the Hearts of all Persecutors of the Righteous and will judge them as such Rests Thomas Taylor Against May-poles O People of Penkridge and the Places thereabout who had a Heart or Hand in the setting up of these Heathenish May-poles especially this second time you have shamed your selves and your Religion thereby in the sight of all and
caused me to be first called up and spoken to as being all along accounted the greatest Offender because God had pleased to make use of me in his Service more than of some others Judge He to wit the Judge asked me If I had considered of things Ans Yea and it 's my daily Work in Christ to keep my Conscience pure to God And I perceive what is purposed by you if I yield not to Man's Will contrary to that in my Conscience in this thing even the loss of what is called mine in the outward World c. But that Law was made against Papists c. Judge But not only against them And so caused that Stat. 7 Jac. to be read Ans But I look at the words of the Oath and it appears plainly it was made against them Yet I do not hear that it is executed against any of them now though they be the Parties thereby intended Judge You may be Jesuitical or so Ans Concerning Popery I have truly declared against it before and I have it under their own hand that we called Quakers are accounted by them their worst Adversaries And I have also by me to shew in seventeen main Particulars wherein we are made by the Truth to oppose them in their Way or Religion And so I say what thou dost against me consider and fear the Lord God for if thou be a means of taking that from me which my Wife and Children should outwardly live on and put it into the King's Treasures it will not be a Blessing there but a Curse for I openly declare that if I Suffer now upon this account or so it is for the Truths sake And so do what thou dost in the fear of the Lord. Judge Here he said faintly I hope I do and I am loath to do it Ans Mind that which makes thee loath to do it and it will never suffer thee to do it Yet notwithstanding this he broke through all and gave Sentence against the Innocent and so filled up his measure adjudging me to the loss of outward Estate Liberty or so and all this as is said meerly for Truths sake Then it came through me The Lord gives and the Lord takes away Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Then being spoken unto to go away from the Bar as I was going down it was fresh in me as from the Lord God to exhort them on the Bench c. to Repentance and to take heed of such Doings as these for which and the like a great Cloud of Judgments hang over the Land And so staying amongst the rest of the Prisoners till they were all dismissed and sending away it was further upon me from the Lord in the Peace of my Spirit and pitty to their Souls to look upon the great Multitude of People there present and to speak to them to mind the Fear of the Lord God and the Day of their Visitation and to turn to the Lord whilst they had time or so And for this Work of the Lord the Judge and some other great ones there were all so troubled and so I was commanded and carried away and down out of the Hall into the Street towards the Goal And then the Word of the Lord arose in me in great Majesty Dread and Power and went forth amongst the Multitudes of People there and to all People in the way to the very Goal door to let all Workers of Iniquity know of the dreadful and terrible Day of the Lord that is risen and arising and come and coming upon them to leave all without Excuse And to let those also that fear God know of the Love of God to their Souls And so I was received into Prison where I rest a Free-man of the Lord Jesus Christ Blessed for ever more The other three of my Brethren were Fined two of them Five Pounds a piece and the other Twenty Shillings because they had been together with some other Friends of the Truth at a Meeting to wait upon the Lord to hear his Voice and to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem according to Scripture Something might be said also of the Nakedness and Wretchedness of their Judges and Prosecutors in their Proceedings against them in this Matter but hoping of their Repentance it may be let alone here The Fine for not putting off our Hats mentioned in the beginning it seems fell and came to nothing for we heard no more of it Thomas Taylor To the Jury men of Stafford that brought him in Guilty YOU that are to be the Jury to bring in that called the Verdict concerning the Servant of the Lord Thomas Taylor I say before you conclude any thing consider in the Fear of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth what you do You have heard things Debated and you may know and that in your Consciences will also tell you that I am not really Guilty of the Breach of that Law concerning that Oath called Allegiance For it was made as you may see expresly against the Papists who hold it seems such wicked things against Kings as is there expressed But you might or should hear that I declared against them yea and my Declaration was from the Truth of the Heart the Searcher of Hearts knows it And I also expressed my real Innocency and good Desires concerning the King and all Men Insomuch that the Judge himself confessed I had as it were confessed to the thing in the Substance And so you may see if I Suffer it is for Formalities and not for Substance For I believe that that Custom of Swearing upon and Kissing a Book was first invented in the Dark Time of Popery when Mens Minds were wholly as it were alienated from the Life and pure Knowledge of God and gone into Idolatry And so be not ye guilty of Sinning against God in this Matter Neither let any of you have a hand in Oppressing a Man and his House a Man and his Family For if you be wise you will see that taking that which God hath lent me in this World for the Service of my Outward Man and Family will not be a Blessing in the King's Treasures For it 's Righteousness upholds the King's Throne and nothing of the contrary So rests in the Will of God Thomas Taylor To King Charles the Second On the Third Day of the Fifth Month One Thousand Six Hundred Sixty and One in the Morning the Movings of God were in me to the effect following to Write AND now O Charles Stuart King in these Islands whose height is grown great and who art in the Heart of a Multitude as if thou wert some Deity unto thee and to thy Nobles thy Councils thy Parliaments thy Judges and Justices and all under Officers of that Nature Thy Bishops and Clergy so called and all Officers and under Officers of that Nature And to thy Captains of Hundreds and Thousands and all under Officers of that Nature unto you all saith the Son of God who is King
of Kings and Lord of Lords and dreadful over all whose Eye is as a flame of Fire who came not to send Peace on the cursed Earth but a Sword and whose Sword never returns empty from the Battle unto you all I say saith the Holy One the Lord Jesus Christ Do not I see your ways and your doings both what you have done and what you do yea do not I search and see your Hearts and Reins and know what you would do O! consider consider do you know that I am near when you sit in Council and work all your Works even your darkest Works and take notice of them and treasures them up in my remembrance to give to every Man according to his Ways and the fruit of his Doings Do not I know that you all in Words profess me and call me Lord Lord and say I am your Saviour but alas alas you will none of me to Rule in you and over you nay nay you ask not Counsel at my Spirit and so are not for my Honour in what you bring forth Only sometimes when my witness is reached in you a little is done by some of you for my Babes but then your Goodness stays not but passeth away like the early Dew and then your evil Hearts turn back again from me and then you take Counsel one at another how to establish your own Kingdom Wills Glory and Greatness which is of this World and regard not my Honour my Glory my People who fear before me and with Moses and all my Saints do quake and tremble at my Word but suffers them to be a Prey to many and lets mine Enemies go free amongst you What shall Drunkards Sweaters Morrice-Dancers Stage-players Gamesters of all sorts and Hypocrites of all sorts have liberty to meet together to dishonour my Name without danger and fear and my Babes only who meet together to wait upon me to glorifie my Name sand to edifie one another in the most Holy Faith be threatned stocked and haled before the Judgment-Seats and be Imprisoned as though they only were the burden of the Land Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation and People as this O! how hath the Enemy of the Soul deceived you in making you believe that you are setting up my Kingdom and Gospel when you are fetting up your own Nests on high and going about to establish your own Traditions My Kingdom is not of this World but that which you set up is of this World My Worship stands in Spirit and Truth yours in Form and Shadows and outward Shew which the Hypocrites for self-ends can fast enough run into My way is in a daily cross to all Flesh yours in the Will and Liberty of the Flesh O the burden the burden that I bear of you O the weight that you are unto my Spirit O the cry the cry and deep Groans of my oppressed Seed amongst you because of your Iniquities O! consider consider what is lately come to pass concerning Oliver Cromwel and his House and his Friends and Flatterers and shall not my Hand find out you if you be found in their Ways or worse Did I visit amongst other things for the several Excesses committed about him in the time of his Life and Greatness and especially for that at his Death and shall I not visit for the several Excesses and Wastings of my Creatures about thee O Charles Stuart in these late Months especially about that of thy Proclamation and Coronation saith the Lord God Lay things to Heart ye forgetful and stout-hearted Children What can you say that was Evil and Oppressive in their Days and is not as yet amended in yours I the Lord look for Judgment and Righteousness from you I look that you should make use of my Power for the encouragement and help of them that love me and fear my Name in the Lands and not of their Oppressors I will call you and all Nations quickly to account for all things I will not be always saith the Lord as one that sleepeth or winketh I will arise I will come in mine eternal dreadful Power amongst you O Sinners and Hypocrites in these Islands and in all the Earth I have been long as a gentle Lamb and little oppressed Child amongst you I will now arise I will put on Zeal as a Cloak and will cloth my self with Garments of Vengeance and will roar from my Holy Hill and will be as a Lyon and as a fierce Lyon amongst you to take a Prey And all your false Shepherds and pretended Watchmen with their false Instruments shall not frey me nor in the least dismay me nor deliver the Prey out of my hands Neither will I hear their false Cry and Prayers nor regard their deceitful Fastings to do them good who now in this day of my Visitation will none of my Counsels but at naught set all my Love and evil entreat my dear Servants who mourn amongst them and in much tenderness warn them to Repentance But oh oh ye Muâ—â—â—de of tall Cedars ye strong Oaks I will raise up a strong Wind amongst you and your high tops shall dash against and split one another and with your fall shall the great multitude of Bramble Bushes Briar-Trees and low creeping Shrubs who admire and adore your Height and Greatness and tremble at you but not at me saith the Lord shall be crushed down together with you in your Fall But Israel shall do Valiantly and your Fall shall be as a Resurrection to my dear Seed and I will do Valiantly saith the God of the Spirits of all Flesh for all that wait for me and love mine appearance For Time is mine and Place is mine and I will not be limited saith the Lord and my Servants shall serve me World without End and that which hath not been seen shall be known in the Earth and Iniquity shall stop her Mouth And Israel's Liberty shall be proclaimed over all the Earth And all Holy Praises by the Lord's Redeemed and Ransomed ones shall be founded forth unto his Name for ever as it is by the living in Jerusalem at this day Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly saith my Spirit Thomas Taylor Thus much the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who desireth not nor delighteth not in the Death of Sinners but rather that they might amend their Lives and live was willing to have the King and his Servants to know which might according to its date have come sooner to your hands if it had been so ordered but if it yet be ordered to come I beseech you in the Bowels of Love as a Servant of God not to slight it but weigh it well in the true Love and Light that searcheth all things and it may be yet serviceable to you for truly Wrath from the Lord is gone out against you and how can it be turned back but by a speedy Repentance of those Evils for
be too late for this is the day of the Visitation from a Servant of God and Lover of your Souls Thomas Taylor An Exhortation to all People O People where is your ascending with Christ who are not yet arisen up out of your earthly and vain Conversation What benefit can you have by any thing of Christ whilst you remain Strangers to the Life of Christ in the broad way of the World Are you not in the broad way of the World whilst your Lives are wholly fashioned to the course of the World Your observing of a Day and calling it Holy will do you no good so long as you abide in your old wonted Unholiness and Sins So seeing Christ is not only risen and ascended but also come again by his blessed Spirit as he promised to gather his Saints to himself Arise consider see where you are and fear the Lord and repent of all your false Ways and Worships lest you be eternally shut out of his blessed Kingdom withall Hypocrites who in Words profess Christ but in Deeds deny him rests a Lover of your Souls Thomas Taylor To the Teachers and Magistrates of Tamworth O Ye Magistrates Teachers Fathers and Masters of the People of this Town of Tamworth How is it that in all this long Profession of Christian Religion you are not come to a better sence and feeling in your Hearts than to suffer if not to countenance this vain and foolish Custom of Ringing and Jangling of Bells and especially in your House of Worship to the grief and burdening of the good Spirit of God and the tender Souls of God's People who are redeemed from such Vanities O! consider consider how you will give account to God for your Selves and the People especially the Young-Men who are so greatly Corrupted and kept from God by such Practices for they seeing you that are Rulers over them suffering of them if not delighted with it they go on perswading themselves that they do no Evil in spending their precious Time and Strength upon such Vanities For it 's manifest that all such as are exercised in such Vanities spending several Hours in them and that so often delight in them and are Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God and so no Friends but Enemies to the Gospel of Peace so Repent all and turn to the Lord 's tender Spirit of Light and Life and suffer it to have Place and Rule in in you and it will not suffer you to live in such things as these which not the true God but the Evil Spirit of this wicked World hath set up and keeps up to the Dishonour of God and Blemish of the Profession you make Rests a Lover of your Souls and a Witness for God against all vain Inventions Thomas Taylor To Sinful People AH sinful People who in the blindness of your Hearts and unbelief are scattered upon the face of the whole Earth from God's Way into the ways of Destruction whose Delights is not at all in the Law of the Lord neither are you afraid of the Judgments of our God the pure and holy One who Dwelleth in unspeakable Glory and powerful Majesty whose Voice is uttered amongst you and of whose terrible Judgments for Sin poured forth upon the Generations of the Wicked from whose Loyns you are sprung you cannot be wholly Ignorant you are a corrupt Seed a People in whom the Lord God of Heaven can have no delight for in the ways of God which are Holy you delight not but in your own ways which are altogether Corrupt you daily defile your selves Hear the Word of the Lord God ye Rebellious ones the Day of the Lord 's fierce Wrath is nigh to come upon you his Soul loaths all your Meetings yea your best Works are Abomination to him your Prayers and Praises of your Temple are Sin your Weddings Joy and Mirth is brutish as your Lusts are from which they proceed you Buy and Sell and Marry and Meet together to Worship and all in the Accursed Thing the Nature of the wicked One which Christ came to destroy and yet you are not ashamed to say Did not Christ Institute our Marriages and our Religion Ah foolish People when will you learn Wisdom When shall Folly depart from ye When shall the pure Voice of God and his Wisdom be heard which cries to you for Repentance in the Streets in your Hearts and in all your Meetings What will you make of Christ Was he or is do you judge such a one altogether as your selves are Does his Spirit delight in your Pipings Dancings Drinkings Ramblings Fooleries unbridled Tongues vain Religion Is there any Time now left by him for such Things Nay verily ever since he suffered upon the Cross and ascended into Glory the Times of the World's Mirth he hath put to an end and for ever condemned it and your Glory is no more neither shall ever your sinful Hands find that any more that shall help you but now you are called into the Cross of Christ to deny your selves and forsake the Vanities and Wretchednesses ye delight and live in and ye are exhorted to enter in at the strait Gate and so to follow Christ in the Regeneration and new Life where the Vanities of the World are judged and put off with its false Flattering Religion and double Tongue that would deceive God with the Lord Lord in the words when the Heart is after every evil Lust and the works of the Devil daily brought forth amongst you to his Dishonour Now you are again warned to remember it and now you have time to Repent in prize it lest the Door be shut And unto you O wretched Men the Teachers of this People who have caused them to err by your Lies and by your Lightness and by your destroying wrestings of Scripture who have received here of this vain People and who receive Honour from this wretched Multitude and they call you Masters and you receive it and indeed their Masters you are and lead them Captive at your Will after your blind Doctrines and Practices to where they are even Strangers with you to the Life Food The Piper or Fidler brings you a couple of Carnal People to the Steeple-House and they come in to you to be Wedded and in a few deceitful Words you join them together for filthy Lucre and says Whom God hath joined together let no Man seperate and then you send them forth again with their Train and the vain Man the Fidler or Piper or Waits who brought them to you receives them again and goes with them to the place of Feasting Drunkenness and Sportings where the great God of Heaven and Earth and Jesus Christ his Son is most highly Dishonoured with old and young all the Day and Night after if not longer and thus Lust begins the Match and Lust carries it on and finishes it and you are all but dead Men in God's sight with all your doings and will you call this a joining in the
so every Evil doer hates this Light because his Deeds are Evil and the Light reproves him to his Face and in his Heart without respect to his Person And therefore none but they whose Deeds are wrought in God can willingly come to this Light with their Deeds or endure that this Light should pass Judgment on them for it 's the Righteous only that hath Praise in the Presence of this pure God the Light who lighteth every Man that cometh into the Word and is come a Light in the World that all through him might believe and come out of Darkness and the Deeds thereof and be saved So if any of you perish it is in your love of Darkness and your Destruction is of your selves for God would have you to be saved and to that purpose holds forth his Love in his Light to your Consciences daily that you might be warned and not perish And if this Gospel of his Love and Grace the Light be hid from you it is because the God of this World with his deceitful Allurements hath blinded your Eye Mark The God of this World hath blinded your Minds that Old Sepent who is called the Devil and Satan and Prince of the Power of the Air which works in the Hearts of all Disobedient ones hath captivated your Understanding if this Gospel of Light you perceive not to Love and Obey it And consider how the Power of Darkness deceives Man it begins with him betimes and works subtilly with him in his Mind when he is tender and young carrying him forth eagerly after Childish Vanities and Youthful Lusts if by the Light that secretly Checks for these things he be not resisted The World tells the Youth that by going forth into some Form of Religion and conforming to that is God's way by which Man may be helped against his Sin but God the Truth saith I have laid help upon One that is mighty Christ Jesus the Light who is to be known in Man a present help against Sin And by what means saith David may a young Man cleanse his way save only by taking heed according to the Word of God And the Word is nigh in the Heart saith Paul discerning the Thoughts and Intents thereof And the Light shineth in Darkness saith John in Man yea in every Man that cometh into the World making all things in secret manifest and who can bide their Deeds from it So if the young Men come not to this Light then they abide in Darkness and grow up in Darkness and covering themselves but not with the Spirit of God so long until there be no Remedy but the Wo and the Curse must needs come upon them But he that followeth me saith Christ the Light shall not abide in Darkness Sin nor Evil but shall have the Light of Life and shall not come into Condemnation So He that hath an ear let him hear and mind the Light of Christ in you that lets you see all that ever you have done and sets before you your Sins in order and brings Judgment and Condemnation upon your Souls for them And love the Light and its righteous Judgments for Zion must be redeemed through Judgment and bring all your Deeds Words and Thoughts to this Light of Christ and hide not any thing from it for he that hideth his Sins from the Lord shall not prosper But he that in this true Light sees his Sin and forsakes the Sin and turns to God in his Light and abides therein shall be Blessed But Wo is the Portion of such as turn not to him that Smites them but instead of owning the Pricks and Reproofs of Wisdom kick against them These are the Ungodly whose Sacrifice the Lord could never accept but they abiding in their Sins all their Prayers and Performances were still returned upon them from the pure God as Dung upon their Faces Therefore go not forth saith Christ for the Kingdom of Heaven which he compared to many little things is within you And when they shall say Lo here lo there saith Christ go not after them For those that draw People from the Light and Spirit of Christ that Holy Anointing within in Man were always Antichrists And in John the Apostle's Time many of these were come and they went out from us saith the same John the beloved Disciple of Jesus From us understand such as were in the Anointing of God which taught all things and they neeved not that any Man should teach them abiding in the Anointing wherewith their Souls and Spirits of God were anointed for that was true perfect and sufficient to lead them into all Truth according to the Promise it was in them a Spiritual Unction a Free Gift from the Holy One in Christ the promised Seed with whom through Faith the right Holy Faith they were become one Spirit and so became Heirs of the Promise and true Witnesses of the New and Everlasting Covenant which saith And they shall all be taught of God These are not outwardly anointed as those under thâ— Law the Figure were but these were and are Spiritually Anointed of God himself in Christ and so were and are true Heirs of the Gospel the Substance and true Children of the day walking in that Heavenly and Eternal Light wherein they could and do in truth say Our Fellowship is with the Father and the Son So here in this Holy Body there was no Antichrists but those that went out from these into the Worlds Ways Worships Customs Traditions and Inventions these were Antichrists And now being gone forth from the Lord and his Spirits Teaching they become one with the World using their Tongues to talk of the things of God in the Worlds Spirit without God And so they being of the World saith John herefore the World hears them 1 John 4.5 But he that is of God saith the same John heareth us even us that abide in the Holy Anointing of God in us And my Sheep hear my voice saith Christ and follow me but a Stranger they will not follow So there are two Spirits the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of the evil World And two sorts of Teachers accordingly the one hears the Voice of God in Christ and in the strength of this Spirit goes forth with the Word of God and Gospel of Truth in their Heart and Mouth in Obedience to God and pure Love to the Soul of Man and not for filthy Lucre nor any worldly End whatsoever And these the true Seed God's Little Ones Lambs and Sheep hear love and are one with meerly for the Truths sake which is one and endures for ever But now contrariwise the other sort of Teachers who are rightly called Strangers because they are Strangers to the Life of God and Holy Motion of his Spirit they go forth in their own Wills according to the Motion of their own earthly Spirits without God for Self-ends in the allowance of the earthly Power Name and Authority not to build up the Body of
Christ or â—o minister to his in any for to that they are Strangers but to commend themselves to fallen Man's Wisdom for Self-advantage and to gather People into several Forms and out side Professions and Observations where all sorts of Sinners are taught to say Lord Lord but never a one to do the Will of God perfectly from the Heart and so they build up Babel the City of Confusion where there is like Priest like People the Teachers living in Sin and the People that follow them living in their Sins always learning never learned to worship God aright For the Teacher being blind through his Ignorance of God and Christ he must needs lead them that follow him from God into the Ditch And of this sort were they in Christ's time that loved to be called of Men Master fair Sayers but evil Doers who loved the Praise of Men and their Greetings in the Market and their chief and high places in their Feasts and Synagogues and loving for this end to go in long Robes and costly Apparel outwardly appearing beautified to the Worlds eye but inwardly full of Pride Covecousness Vncleanness the Spirit of Persecution and all manner of Vnrighteousness as one may read in the 23d Chapter of Matthew and other places of Scripture where Christ had to do with the false spirited Rabbies in his day whom he compares to Graves painted Tombs Serpents and Vipers who shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men and neither entred in themselves nor suffered others but did what they could to hinder those that were entring And of such Christ gave his Disciples warning to take beed in time to come and told them though such Wolves should get the Sheeps cloathing on them to wit the good words yet they should not trust them but should know them by their Fruits And so the Tree that is by Nature a Thorn and a Thistle hath manifested its Fruit and by their Fruit the Children of Light now know them and according to Christ's will avoid them And of this sort are they that not only in the days of Christ withstood him but even the same that in all Ages withstood his Spirit and Work as at this day For with such earthly-spirited Teachers it was that the Prophet Jeremiah's Heart was so broken in his day as one may read all along the 23d Chapter of his Prophesie and of whom in his fifth Chapter he so grievously complains saying A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the Land The Prophets Prophesie falsly and the Priests bear rule by their means and the People love to have it so And therefore Destruction from the Lord came upon them all And these Teachers said still in their lying earthly Spirit that Jerusalem though sinful should have Peace and that no Evil should come upon them People though they walked every Man after the Imagination of his own evil Heart Jer. 23.17 And of this sort were they that the Lord sent his Prophet Micah to cry against saying Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets that make my People to err that bite with their Teeth and cry Peace and he that putteth not into their Mouths they even prepare War against him Therefore Night and Darkness came upon them and the Vision ceased from them in the just Judgment of God For a self-end was in all their Work and the dead Fly of Covetousness corrupted all As one may read at large in the third Chapter of his Prophesie Verse 5 c. And of this sort are they that Isaiah the Prophet of God in his time so grievously complains of also as one may read in the 96th Chapter of his Prophesie saying Verse 9 c. All ye Beasts of the Field come to devour yea all ye Beasts of the Forest his Watch-men are blind greedy c. all looking for their own way every one for his Gain from his quarter c. And against this sort of earthly-spirited Teachers it was that God sent his Prophet Ezekiel to cry Wo against saying Wo to the Shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves should not the Shepherds feed the Flock Ye eat the Fat and ye cloath you with the Wool ye kill them that are fed but ye feed not the Flocks And so the God of this World through Pride and Covetousness had so blinded their Eye and corrupted their Hearts that they had neither Will nor Skill to help nor heal the poor diseased sick broken scattered Souls of their Hearers and therefore the Lord was glad to put them aside as Physicians of no value and became the Teacher of his People himself as one may read in the 34th Chapter of his Prophesie throughout Glory to the Lord who hath fulfilled his Promise to his Israel this day and is become the Teacher of his People himself whereby they come to be truly profited as it is written I the Lord thy God teach thee O Israel to profit But the fore-mentioned Teachers who have run in their Wills for Self-ends and the Lord never sent them could never profit People at all And as Christ Jesus the Lord and his true Prophets in former times were trouble and opposed by such Hirelings So also the true Apostles of Christ did not escape the Trials and Oppositions of that deceitful Spirit by which they were acted For such saith Paul are false Apostles deceitful Workers Satan's Ministers transforming themselves into the likeness of the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. Some of these were already come in his day And I know saith he that after my departure grievous Wolves shall come in among you not sparing the Flock Also of your own selves shall Men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Acts 20.29 c. And as the Kingdom of Antichrist grew these perverse things were established for Doctrine by a Law For the very Name of Antichrist holds forth a Spirit opposing it self to every appearance of Christ and of his Holy Spirit and Anointing in Man The true Apostles and Ministers of Christ drew the Soul from Men and self unto Christ and his Anointing in them to know that to teach them But these and all other False Teachers draw from Christ and his Anointing within to look at Flesh and Form without which perfects not at all to God And of this sort also are they saith the same Paul which creep into Houses understand the great stone Houses called Churches as well as others and lead captive silly Women laden with sins led away with divers Lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth 2 Tim. 3. Of this sort saith Paul as shall come in the last perilous times even Lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters Proud Blasphemers Vnholy who say they are Christians but are not so in truth Fierce c. having the Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof and these he exhorted true Believers to turn from and so in Obedience to God those now who
which sets the Soul free from all Sin for how should People ever come to the Knowledge of the Truth by following such Teachers as are out of the Truth For if the Blind lead the Blind must they not both fall into the Ditch Also seeing you profess the Scripture and not unwritten Traditions to be your Rule and would have People to believe that what you do is according to Scripture therefore it 's demanded in a few words further 1. What Scripture have you for your Sprinkling of Infants and Signing them with the Sign of the Cross and telling People That thereby they are made Members of Christ Children of God and Inheriters of the Kingdom of Heaven when in your own Catechism in Contradiction to your Practice you teach That Children by reason of their Infancy or tender Years then cannot perform the Requests of Baptism to uit Faith and Repentance 2. And what Scripture have you for your Sureties so called which you most unscripturally call the Childrens God fathers and God-mothers which you pretend to make up the Defect in the Infants by and for putting these Pretended Sureties upon such bold Undertakings and unadvised Promisings of that for the Child which they never yet did for themselves nor indeed have Faith to believe that so great Works can be done in any upon Earth to wit To forsake the Devil and all his Works c. seeing that such generally held That none can live without Sin Is not Sin the Devil's Work Yea yea And is there any Undertaker for Man to God-ward but Christ And was there any Surety betwixt God and Man but Christ only who saith Without me ye can do nothing So then this evil Custom of your undertaking being derogatory to the Honour of Christ Who can say that God hath required it at your Hands But if you will yet plead for it shew us your Scripture for it if you would be esteemed to act as Protestants and not as Papists and to own Scripture above Mens Inventions and Traditions 3. Also what Scripture have you for your Surplice Canonical Coats Typpets c. and for wearing Black rather than other Colours seeing the Apostle blamed such as placed Religion in Days Meats and the like surely he would not agree with such as place their Religion in Garments and Colours Blessed be the Lord whose Day is dawned which makes all things manifest and none will hate the Light of it but Evil-doers 4. And what Scripture have you for your Tithes Easter-Reckonings Mortuaries and the like now under the Gospel and for your Laws which you call Spiritual to compel the People to pay you them seeing Christ is come the End of that Levitical Priesthood under whiâ—h Tithes were payable by Law 5. What Scripture have you who profess your selves to be Christians for your Swearing Swearing in your Courts so called Swearing in your Spiritual Courts 〈◊〉 The poor People called Câ—uâ—eâ—-Wardâ—ns grâ—â—an under the Burden of this evil Custom O this is far from following Christ who said and saith unto his Swear not at all but you are grown to that pass that you cannot trust one another without Swearing no not in your Church-matters Is not this a Fruit of Apostacy and departing from that ancient Faith which was once delivered to the Saints 6. And what Scripture have you for giving David's Prayers Prophecyings Roarings Quakings Tremblings and Confessions in Rhyme and Meeter to the World to sing who are of another Spirit than David was and so utterly unacquainted with David's Conditions and so instead of singing with the Spirit and Understanding as the ancient Christians did you sing in a Form without the Power thereby not honouring but rather dishonouring the Lord who is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and Truth 7. And what Scripture have you for teaching People to worship one another and for your Ring in Marriage where you teach them to say With this Ring I thee Wed and with my Body I thee worship Is not God alone to be worshipped How then are such to be accounted Christian Ministers who abide not in Doctrine 2 John 9. And lastly seeing you pretend to be Christ's Ministers and so God's Free-men I ask you these few plain Questions further Gal. 1.10 viz. 1. Why do you limit your selves or suffer others to limit you to such and such Forms of Words and Gestures and Apparel as is in Use amongst you in all your Services Is it from any Excellency you see in those Words or Forms more than in any other Or is it because you are so weak of Judgment or brittle of Memory as that you can do little without Book Or is it not rather for filthy Lucre sake you are willing to be soâ—ty'd because you know that without Conformity to the Wills of the great Ones in this Matter you can get no Power to compel Peoples earthly things from them O what will not the Love of Money compel covetous-minded People unto 2 Tim. 6.10 11. 2. What is that makes you go to the Bishop rather than any other Man or Men for Ordination as you you call it Is it because you know or believe that he is more Holy than any other Or hath more Power to confer any Spiritual Gift upon you by Imposition of his Hands more than any other If you say he hath where had he it And wherein doth it appear Or is it not rather that you go now to the Bishop for Ordination as you or your Brethren went formerly to the Classical Presbytery so called in Oliver's time because this is the Way now as the other was formerly to impower you to come into Parishes and be their Teachers and command their earthly things from them by Force whether you do any Spiritual Work for them or no Yea from such as in the Lord's Light see you to be no Ministers of the Spirit and therefore not able to minister Spiritual things and therefore deny you Oh that ever such a thing should be among such as profess to be Gospel Ministers 3. Whether do you believe that all things in the Church ought to be done and spoken in the alone Power and Spirit of the Lord Jesus And if so then how can you expect but that God will overturn overturn all Things until he to wit the Lord Jesus Christ to whom all Power in Heaven and Earth is given comes to rule in all and over all to whom of Right it belongs So be it And what is the Cause that you are so dark in your Minds as concerning the Mystery of Christ's Kingdom and the Spiritual Saving Power thereof if it be not that mentioned in the third Chapter of Micah's Prophecy verse 5 6 7. where it is written Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets that make my People err that bite with their Teeth and cry Peace and he that putteth not into their Mouths they even prepare War against him therefore Night shall be unto you that you shall not have
Almighty both in their own Consciences and the Mouth of God's Servants and Holy Witness of Truth in the Scriptures which notwithstanding all these their Abominations many of them profess to be their Rule But know O Man whoever thou art or whatsoever Profession thou art of that that 's thy God and Ruler and Father and Teacher and Way whose Commands thou lovest and whose Works thou dost and whose Will in the inward of thy Mind thou clofest with As Christ said to those Lyars false Accusers and Murderers in his Day John 8.44 c. Ye are of your Father the Devil for his Works ye will do he was a Lyar and Murderer from the beginning So thou that goest from the Light of God in thee which shews thee thy Sin and the evil Lustings and Desires of thy Flesh and Mind thou goest from God and from his Fear and from the Way of Peace And so thou going from this and joyning to evil Motions of Sin in thy Flesh and corrupted Mind thou joynest to the Devil and so bringest forth Sin which is the Devil's Work and the Wages of every such Work is Death And so in the very moment of time in which thou dost the evil Work whatsoever it be contrary to God's Light in thee thou dyest the Death and so remainest dead from the Life of God and his blessed Righteousness until the Day of true Repentance and Amendment of Life And then what will it profit thee to have gained the World or Victory over thy Neighbour or Satisfaction to thy Lusts to the Loss of thy Soul's Life Therefore Arise Arise Awake Awake O all Nations and People Come forth to the Judgment of this great Day of God Almighty For now is the effect of every Vision to be known and felt in the Earth and the High Towers of the City of Confusion the Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots shall fall to the Ground and the Mountain of the House of the Lord shall be exalted over all yea the Lord alone and his Righteousness and Truth and Peaceable Kingdom on the Top of all shall stand and no Weapon formed against him and his People shall ever prosper any more And how is it O all Nations Kings and People that ye are not yet willing after so long a time knocking at the Gates of your Cities and Doors of your Hearts that ye will not open to the King of Glory Christ Jesus the Light that lighteth every one that cometh into the World that he may come in and be Judge Lawgiver and King in the midst of you that the Desire of all Nations may come and be Head in all For what is it that the Soul that God hath made in all Nations doth desire but to see it self unburthened of that grievous Corruption which hath defiled it and to be delivered from that Body of Sin and Death which hath and doth so imbondage it from the beginning until the Day of Christ's Power be known within to work the Work of God and to destroy the Work of the Devil and to save the Soul from its Sin and to present it spotless to God which is the true Salvation indeed Now this is my Witness for God amongst the Servants and Redeemed of the Lord this Day whom the World in Scorn calls Quakers who am a Sufferer with them for the Kingdom of God's sake That there is none can thus know the Day of Christ's Power to Salvation but as they believe and receive that Light of God and Christ which they be freely enlightened withal which shines in their very Hearts and Consciences which searcheth their very Hearts and Reins and maketh manifest to Man his Thoughts and from which none can hide any thing but all things are naked and bare before him the Light Christ Jesus who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Jew and Gentile one and other who searcheth the most hidden things of Man and brings them forth to the Judgment of his Righteousness For though the Night may hide the Adulterer and the Thief from Man it hides them not from God there is one nigh in the Heart and Conscience that tells Man and Woman all that ever they have done and do daily do even their secret Thorghts Is not this the Christ of God the true Messiah that was to come and is come and dwells amongst us And we look not for another and of his Fulness have all we received and do daily receive who believe in his Light which shines in our Hearts according to the Scriptures of Truth And this the Fulness of our Blessed God and Saviour Jesus Christ the Light is it which filleth all that come to him with all Spiritual Blessings and Heavenly good Things and without whom all is Darkness Emptiness Death and Desolation as all the poor deceived lost Sons and Daughters of the faln Adam do sooner or later know and are made to confess But blessed are they that consider of things in time and lay things to Heart before it be too late For there are but Twelve Hours in a Day in which Men may work saith Chriff and then the Night cometh in which no Man can work But the Door will be shut upon all who have slighted and neglected the Day of their Visitation Oh England England and all Lands far and near that you had known or could yet believe the things that belong to your Everlasting Peace before they be hid from your Eyes Therefore turn ye turn ye at the Reproofs of God's Wisdom and Spirit of Light and Truth which sounds through all and lets you see the Vanity and Evil of all your Works and Frailty of all your Lives how soon the Thread of your Life is out off and then where are the great Emperors and Kings with all their Crowns And where are the great Captains and Commanders with all their Bloody Victories And where are the Wise Achitophel's and Cunning Counsellors of the Earth with all their Admirers And where are the Covetous Oppressors with all their Houses full of the Spoils of the Innocent Yea in that Day where is all the Glory and Lusts of the World with all the Lovers of it Surely in Darkness and Misery shall they lye down together and Death shall have Dominion over them even all who have not believed in the Light Christ Jesus and who have not followed him in the Regeneration that they might be saved but have spent their Days in the Pleasures and Lusts of the present Evil World to Destruction Now therefore O all People Hearken to the Counsel of the Lord in this your Day and learn of the Lamb the Light who calls you to Repentance from all your grievous Ways How long shall the Spirit of the Lord strive with you When will you cease learning War and Destruction and Oppression and Spoil O when will you beat your Swords into Plow-shares and your Spears into Pruning-hooks O when will you go and say one to another
one Neighbour to another and one Nation to another Come let us all be humbled before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who made us all of one Blood to dwell together upon the Face of the Earth in Truth Goodness and Love to serve one another and so as Branches of one Tree to receive Life and Vertue and Power from our God into our Souls to strengthen us unto his holy Work who came not to destroy Mens Lives but to save them whose Kingdom is not of this World and therefore is not set up or maintained with Carnal Weapons Violence and Spoil but by the Eternal Spirit of our God whose Fruit is in all Goodness and Righteousness and Truth And let not the wicked Devil the Destroyer deceive us any more by his Lies and Delusions but let us all with one Heart and Soul resist his Temptations When he perswades us to seek to be great in the Earth and be avenged on them we count our Enemies let us not hearken to him but let us over come their Evil with Goodness and not to seek the Destruction of their Persons or Spoil of their Estates as the Heathens do that know not God but let us follow the Example of Jesus Christ God manifest in Flesh who when he was reviled reviled not again but prayed for such as despitefully used him O come let us follow this meek Lamb in Righteousness and Truth and learn of him in our Heart who is Meek and Lowly that we may find Rest for our Souls who rebuked his Disciples who would have had Fire to come down from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans that would not at that time receive Christ For what knowest thou O Man but the Samaritans may in time come to a better Mind and then thou wilt see it was thy Will and not God's that desired their Destruction in their Sins For Christ would have all to be saved and come to the Knowledge of his Truth But many will not come to him that they might have Life and so their Destruction is of themselves and their Condemnation just And who are those now therefore that withstand the Doctrine of the Truth which said Love your Enemies and seek not the Destruction of their Persons and the Spoil of their Estates but seek by good Doctrine and good Life to bring them out of their Sins And if they will not but rather hate thee for thy good Will be content thou hast quitted thy own Soul and art clear of their Blood and so thou becomest a Sufferer with Jesus Christ and shalt Reign with him in due time I say who are these now on the Earth that withstand Truth and continue in the hateful destroying Ways of the Old Jews and Gentiles but such as will not be counselled by the Lamb of God the Suffering Seed who said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart But are Men of Corrupt Minds who account Gain and Worldly Honour and Promotions more than Godliness who cries Peace to themselves in their Sins And that same Spirit in them which crieâ— that false Peace in them is the same that stirs them up to Kill Destroy Oppress and Spoil one another for Selfish and Worldly Ends. But the Lord is arisen to Judge all these Evil Things and to Redeem a Seed to serve him as in the beginning of the Gospel before Antichrist the Murderer got up amongst them that professed Christ in Words but denied him in Deeds who had a Name that they lived but were dead from that true Life which was in Christ Jesus whom in Words they professed And though the Passage we seel now to be as hard of coming from amongst the false Christians and Turks as it was for the first true Christians to come from amongst the Jews and Gentiles yet the Almighty Power of our God is able over all and through all to carry us on to the end whom he hath called and saved with a mighty Salvation ever-praised be his Name and who will yet save his Beloved Seed Israel and gather them from the East and West and from the North and South to sit down with Christ in his Kingdom And this is no ill News to any but who are glewed to Deceit and married to Iniquity but it is Glad-tidings indeed to all that love their Souls and the Honour and Glory of Truth more than the things of this perishing World And I could desire that all who are apt to reason as the Jews did when they heard the Declaration of the Gospel of Peace and Kingdom of God which stands in Righteousness and Peace saying If we let this go on then the Romans or Others will come and take our Place and Nation I say that they would consider That the very Course which they to wit the Jews in the Denial of the Truth took for saving of themselves brought utter Destruction upon them and their Nation But what shall vain Man in his foolish faln Wisdom and earthly Reasoning think to be Wiser than God and to have a greater Care and Love to the Creation than God himself who made it hath What! shall Angels at the Birth of Christâ—sing Glory to God on high and Good-will to Men and yet when the way of God in Christ is published for bringing this great Work of Salvation to pass vain Man must come in with his false Mind and say This is the way to confound all Order and destroy all Good And that this Doctrine turneth the World up-side down And that the Messengers of Christ are pestilent Fellows and Movers of Sedition O Earth Earth Tremble before the Lord for thou shalt never have Peace in thy own Ways thou shalt never be Saved by thy own Strength thou shalt never be Established by thy own Counsels thou shalt never have true Peace nor any Plenty within thy Borders until thou believest the Gospel which saith Learn of Christ whose Kingdom is not of this World and whose Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual Mighty through God not for the pulling down of Outward Walls and Bodies but for razing and pulling down and destroying the strong Holds of Sin and Satan in the Hearts and Lives of the Children of Men For after that saith the Apostle The World by Wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the Foolishness of Preaching to wit such Doctrine as this which is a Cross and Stumbling-block to all Corrupt Flesh to save them that believe So lay things to heart ye People of the World and Inhabitants of all the Earth for God's Purpose is not to exalt any Man or Men of this World or to glorifie any Flesh but to exalt his own Son Christ Jesus the heavenly Man the Lord from Heaven the Truth over all of whose Kingdom and Government there shall be no End And all that obey his Voice and for Obedience thereunto are made willing to Suffer with him shall reign with him for evermore But all others whether they be called Christians or Turks
Provision for the Flesh to satisfie it in the Lusts thereof with Meats Drinks Pleasures Pastimes and all manner of foolish Inventions but that People should abstain from Fleshly Lusts because they War against the Soul And did not the Apostle weep for such as made a God of their Belly and Gloried in their Shame and minded Earthly Things and plainly tells them That they were â—nemies to the Cross of Christ and their End was Destruction Phil. 3. And so thou whoever thou art that pretends to Honour Christ by making Provision for thy Fleshly Part to satisfie it in the Lusts thereof thou art no Servant of God and Christ in this but a denyer of his Truth and so instead of following Christ in the Regeneration and daily Cross and Self denlal thou follows Christ's Enemy the great Antichrist and Satan who hath seduced the Minds of People from Christ's Doctrine and Life into the Doctrine and Life of all Unrighteousness and so they that Eat and Drink and Game and Sport after the Custome of the Heathenish World their Professing of Christ in Words will do them no good in the Day of the Lord when God will Reward every Man according to their Deeds for now instead of a Holy Pure Righteous Self-denying Life which God requires thou offers him an unclean Sacrifice of an unholy and corrupt Life which he will not accept And so many shall come in that Day and say Lord Lord Open unto us to whom he will Answer I know ye not depart ye Workers of Iniquity O dreadful Sentence to such as it hits who like Esau sell their Birth-right for a mess of Pottage and chuse rather to follow the Fleshly Sinful World in the broad way to Destruction than the Lambs of Christ in the streight way that leads to Life Eternal So all Awake and Arise from your dead defiled Customs and Practices of Sin to the pure clean Fear and Worship of God for God is a Spirit and Christ is a Spiritual Lord and will be Worshipped and Served in Spirit and Truth and who is this Day seeking such to Worship him who shall bring forth Fruits to him worthy amendment of Life And one thing is needful saith Christ and Mary that sate at his Feet hearing his Word chused that good Part which shall never be taken from her but Martha was cumbred about much in the outward as too many are now and that in a Heart far from that of Mary's Heart to their Souls great disadvantage So he that hath an Ear let him hear for these Words are Faithful and True Thomas Taylor To the King O That the King and all his Councils the Parliament and the Rest would hear and believe these Words for in the Truth of God's Spirit and Uprightness of my Heart are they thus written and sent to them for that purpose Consider of your ways for thus saith the Lord the Holy One Creator of Heaven and Earth Mine Anger is kindled against you because you have not made a Separation betwixt the Precious and the Vile but have numbred my People who tremble at my Word with the Transgressors and will not hear the Voice of my Mouth to let my Israel have their Liberty to meet together in my own free Spirit as I have Taught them to wait upon me and to Edify one another in their most Holy Faith but you will Punish them and Afflict them and evil Intreat them for this and surely if you go on in this Work and think to destroy this my Heritage from being a People upon the Earth and to Root them up from bearing a Testimony to my Name in their Holy Assemblies before the Children of Men I will Work Wonders yea I will Work Wonders and make all the Earth to know that these your Thoughts and your Doings are against the Lord and his People as truly as ever Pharoah and Egypt and the Nations there abouts in that Day of Israel 's Oppressions and Deliverances did know have you no Vnderstanding that you would eat up my People as Bread saith the Lord in whose hand is your Breath Oh! that you could once lay things to Heart what you have done and what you should do and not still take Counsel at a wrong Spirit which hurries you thus on in a way that is not good to the grief of God's Spirit and in the end if continued in your own Destruction have you not Heard and do not you Read what God hath done in former times to great Kings and strong Nations for their Doings against his People and do you not know that the same Evil Spirit which causes you in other things to do what you ought not to do and to leave undone what you ought to do is the putter of you forward in this grievous Work of Persecuting the Seed of God who Fear and Tremble at his Word and work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling as the Lord Commands and who in their Meetings never had nor at this Day have any other end but to Glorifie their God the true God over all in obeying his Voice with a true good Will in our Hearts towards all Men without the least thought of Evil to any as God's true God over all Men without the least thought of Evil to any as God's true Witness in all Consciences where it is harkened unto doth plainly Testifie at this Day as it hath done ever since we were to God a People For from War Bloodshed Wrong and Spoil hath the Lord called and delivered our Souls into his Holy Habitation of Truth Peace and Love that as Lambs we might in the midst of the Earth stand in Christ's Innocency to hold forth the Virtues of God who hath Blessed us in Christ Jesus with the Knowledge of himself whom to know is Life Eternal And so if you hate us because God loves us what will be the end O Consider consider this matter is of the weightiest Nature And so though at present by reason of the Darkness that is upon your Minds you do not see us as we are but present us to your selves as Evil-doers or so yet seeing you know in your own Consciences as in Words also you often Confess that in other things you are miserable Offenders you ought to be more Moderate Sparing and Careful what you do in this present matter concerning us because where Sin is and remains there must of necessity be a want of Ability as to the right judging and discerning of Men and Matters Spiritual as Christ foretold of some that through the Error of their Minds should think they did God Service when they were Killing his Children This was a sad Mistake Therefore let this be upon your Hearts when you lye down and when you rise up and when you sit in Counsel and walk by the Way to keep you from Sinning this great Sin against God for never did any strive against God and Prosper and thus in God's Spirit having given you in a few Words
Everlasting Father which is Spirit and Life the Resurrection and the Life in every believing Soul for we are Redeemed from Death thereby that we might for Ever hereafter serve God in the newness of his own Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter as all such do as know no other Teaching Word but the Letter as this R. B. doth and so they having gotten a little Brain-knowledge by their Humane Helps and not by the Spirit of Truth they wrest Scripture to their own and others Destruction desiring and boasting themselves to be Masters and Teachers of others whilst themselves need teaching what the very Principles or beginning Doctrines of the true Christian Religion is as is plainly manifested by his seeking to bring in a graceless Minister or Wolf into Christ's Fold surely the Wolf comes not but to rob and destroy All that ever came before me saith Christ are Thieves and Robbers and never came in by the Door as its plain the Graceless Man doth not but hath climb'd up another way by his Humane Helps as Baxter speaks and to this purpose see John the 10th and Mat. 23. where Christ at large sets forth such Wolfish Teachers who can perk themselves up in Places of Teachers by the World's help outwardly but will neither enter into the Kingdom of God themselves nor suffer others but shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men by such deceitful Doctrine and Antichristian Inventions as this R. B. hath by saying That Gifts are more necessary to the validity of Ministration than Grace is and that he may perform the Office of a Minister to the Benefit of the Church that hath no Saving Grace at all And all Knowledge requireth Time and Labour to obtain it though the Spirit giveth it which last saying doth directly thwart and contradict the Scripture which saith I was found of them that sought me not Isa 65.1 And Paul sets believing and working in this great Matter of the Knowledge of God and Christ to Salvation one against the other as the way of the Law and Gospel for to him that worketh saith he is the Reward reckon'd of Debt not Gift of Grace but to him that Believeth it is of Grace to the Glory of God's great Love to Man for saith the Scripture God so loved the World that he gave his Son that whosoever on him believe should not perish but have Life Eternal And none can truly say but those are the best knowers and wisest People that have Eternal Life in them though they never laboured for it nor sought for it and so such as this R. B. who looks at all as obtain'd by Time and Labour they are those Spiritual Proud Ones who are swelâ—ed so big with Spiritual Pride that Self-idolizing Sin which as himself saith in his second Direction so called is the great Rebel against God the chief part of the Devil's Image that one Sin which breaketh every Commandment the Heart of the Old Man the Root and Parent and Summary of all other Sin the Antichristian Vice which is most directly contrary to the Life of Christ c. and these Letter-wise Men that have parched together a Garment of Fig-leaves to cover their sinful Nakedness are Proud of meer supposed Spiritual Excellencies for the way of the Blessed Spirit and its free Gifts and free Workings in the Children of Men they are strangers unto and then through their Humane Learning and lost Labour having gotten a little or a great deal of talk from the Letter of the Scripture concerning Religion in their Earthly Spirits which sees nothing of the Kingdom of God they condemn the Generation of the Just whom God teacheth and Blesseth with all Spiritual Knowledge in Heavenly Things and call them Spiritually Proud because they cannot but speak very highly and yet in the truest humility of Heart concerning the great Things that God hath done for their Souls and because they cannot join with the Wicked whom God abhorreth neither in their Worship nor other sinful Customs And so out of that Old Bottel come all those unsavoury Expressions of R. B. before-mentioned against the free Teachings of God's Spirit yea so great an Enemy he is to the wholsom Doctrine of Free Grace that Page 7. he saith Is it not Blaspheming of God's Spirit to make it the Patron of Mens sloth and idleness under pretence of Magnifying Grace To which I answer That pretending we deny and truly say with the Apostle That God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our Hearts to give us yea most freely without our own La-Labour or any Humane Help The Knowledge of the Glory of his Kingdom and those that call this Doctrine either in the Apostle or us a Patronizing of Sloth and Idleness are those that do really Blaspheme God's Spirit which teacheth it But many Texts saith R. B. commands us diligence and sloth is a great Sin To which I say the Scripture indeed commands a diligent Improvement and holy Exercise of the free Gifts which the Spirit hath given the Faithful But the Scripture never said that Humane Labour and Helps are the Means to be used for getting the Spirit 's Teachings and without which no Knowledge in Spiritual Matters is now received Stir up the Gift of God in thee saith Paul to Timothy so say I but he no where puts the Humane or Carnal Man to Work or Labour to get the Spirit for that is quite contrary to this Scripture Gal. 3.2 as also Rom. 9.16 Obj. But this R. B. asks this Question Why hath God setled a Teaching Office in his Church and commanded all to attend and hear and learn if we are taught by the Spirit without Man's help Why were the Apostles sent forth into all the World c Answer Here is the great stumbling of these Unbelievers the Worldly-wise Ones indeed what because God in his free unlimited Spirit did begift Men and in his own Spiritual Power sent them forth to preach and publish all abroad the Glory of his Kingdom and Good Will to Men cannot People therefore be taught by the Spirit without Man's help What Reasoning's this When the Scripture expresly saith That all the Gifts and Abilities Helps and Means of bringing People to God and the Knowledge and Enjoyment of all the Good Things of his Kingdom are meerly solely and wholly from God and his Blessed Spirit 's free Gift in Christ and not from Man at all And therefore when the Corinthians began to look at Man whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas he calls it Carnal and said Christ was not divided signifying plainly it was Christ and the Spirit of his Power that alone did all in all as Christ said Joh. 15. Without me you can do nothing for in the True Church Christ ever was and ever will be all in all and and Man nothing as Paul said of himself Paul is nothing But in the False Church where R. B. is pleading for Man yea Graceless Ministers Man
is all and Christ suffered to have no Rule But those mine Enemies saith Christ that would not that I should Rule bring them and slay them before my Face But what sottishness is this in R. B. to ask such a Question as this when himself confessed in the very last words before it That none are so forward to Preach as these same Men that cry down Mens Teaching VVhereby it plainly appears that we do not deny God's Teachings and the Spirit 's Good and Gracious Gifts freely given for the edifying and building up of the Body of Christ till we all come to a perfect Man to the measure and statutre of the fulness of Christ no more than the Apostle did Ephes 4.11 c. but that which we cry down is that Antichristian Spirit in R. B. and all such Men as by setting up Self and Flesh would draw from Christ and his Teachings in Spirit to look at them and their Painted Words and Love-killing Doctrines who are this Day Goliah-like come forth to defie the Armies of the Living God but the Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands shall dash them and their Images all to pieces Glory to the Lord for Ever And though they with their Humane or Earthly Spirit and Sorceries withstand the Truth and Spirit thereof as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses when he was about to call Israel out of Egypt yet as their Folly was soon seen so are these and they shall not proceed far but Israel out of Egypt shall go and those Faithful Ones that are escaped shall they not with all their Inchantments bring back again into Egypt Glory to the Lord for Ever Amen But wouldst thou indeed know O vain Man R. B. for what the Apostles who had Ability to Preach without Man's help were sent forth Then thou may'st know it was to reprove such as thâ—e that would limit God to vain Man's Help and to call his People from amongst you who lay heavy Burdens on Mens Shoulders but will not touch them with one of your Fingers it is even so But whereas thou addest and said Those are taught of God who are taught by those who are sent of God to be their Teachers it plainly shews the numerous Company thou boasts of who believe thee are not taught of God for thy Doctrine already mentioned shews most plainly that thou wast never sent of God for never did any whom God sent set themselves against the Free and Gracious Teaching and Gifts of God's Spirit to Establish Humane Helps as thou dost But as if that which thou hast said were nothing thou addest Page 8. Advise with the Experience of all the World who was the Man that ever you knew able to Expound one Chapter in the Bible by the inward Teachings of the Spirit alone without any Labour of his own or Help from others by Voice or Writing Where dwelleth the Man who by meer Inspiration can turn one Chapter out of the Hebrew or Greek into the Vulgar Tongue And where is the Man that can solidly unfold any Doctrine of Divinity which he never read or heard of or can Teach that Truth and deny that Religion which he was never taught by Man And afterwards in his Second Direction and Page 16. having led his wretched Disciples into a Labyrinth or Mist of words about their Uncertainties in their Matters of Knowledge and having advised them to Humility as he calls it or not to think too highly of their own Knowledge he there adds and says in that 16th Page especially If you know your Advantages for Knowledge have been less than other Mens that you are young or that it is but a few Years since you entred upon the Study of the Scriptures or that you have not any stronger Natural Parts than other Men that you have not had that Measure of Learning which might further your Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures but that others that differ from you have had much more of all these Helps and Means than you and have Prayed more and Meditated more c. And in Page 17. in his Answer to an Objection which is That the Learnedst Men are not always the Wisest in the Matters of Religion he saith many Men are learned in the Languages and Sciences who are not learned in the Scripture because they applied not their Studies that way and many Men are learned in the Scriptures and Sacred Languages who yet live in Sin though they are able to Teach the Truth for others Here by the way all may take notice what a False Teacher this R. B. is who is not ashamed to say That Man that lives in Sin may Teach the Truth for others for such as live in Sin neither know the Truth which is Christ nor have seen him as John's first Epist Chap 3. expresly saith but this R. B. goeth on and saith But those that well understand the Scriptures without learning the Languages which they are written in and the Customs of those Times and Countries or without much reading and long Study of the Scriptures themselves and the Writings of them that better understand them are so few if any at all that if you will pretend to be one of them you had need of some Miracle or something like a Miracle to make your selves or others believe that you are not deceived I might here add his other false Doctrines immediately following these in that his Book as his Answer to an Objection there set down against Singularity or so the Objection is this The greater Number are not always in the Right therefore why should my Singularity discourage me But because his Answer hath a pretty many words in it I refer it to another place and to what he hath already said do Answer and say in breif thus First That as by his other words so also by these it is most manifest from what Fountain this R. B's knowledge hath proceeded to wit not from the Inspiration of the Eternal Spirit which gave forth Scripture but from his own Earthly or Natural Spirit and Humane Industry and Studies and Trading in Books and Letters without him from which earthly or humane Spirit and Wisdom hath not come nor possible ever can come to any the right Meaning and Understanding of Holy Scripture as such as he would have it For the natural Man as the Apostle saith perceiveth not the things that be of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 But all false Visions and lying Divinations have ever come from that earthly Spirit and all the cruel Wrestings of the Holy Scriptures from the beginning to this Day have proceeded from it to the miserable and woful Undoing of the Generality of that People called Christendom as also the Blood-sheds and all the cruel Usage of Spiritual-minded Men for their pure Conscience Sake have issued from that Fountain of the Earthly Spirits and the false Births thereof from the beginning and that great Whore found Guilty of all for in her was found the
prove the Pope and Papists to be a Church and all them to blame who have separated from him in outward Church-Fellowship upon any Pretence whatsoever So foolish is the World's Wisdom when it is set against Truth But this R. B. having laid his wrong Ground That all that are called Christians are in the right in all Points essential to Christianity and in the certain Way of Life he may easily conclude that to be unwarrantable Separation which goeth from such But then I say How will the Protestants warrant their first Separation from Popery Or how did this R. B. with his Presbyterians in Oliver's time with their Directory excuse their separating from the Bishops and their Common-prayer And how will he salve his old Non-conforming Brethrens Flight into New-England where since they have shed the Blood of certain Martyrs of Christ from the former Bishops But now his false Ground and Foundation being overturned it is most manifest that that Separation is most lawful which is from such who call Good Evil and Evil Good put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light as the Wicked do from whom the People of God in these days separate And so in obeying the Voice of our God who saith Come out of Mystery Babylon my People lest ye partake of her Sins and so of her Plagues we are justified for the Sins of the Wicked who in words profess God and Christ but in Deeds deny all is reached Heaven at this day And doth not the Apostle say If any Man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolator and Covetousness by the Apostle's Doctrine is Idolatry or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such not to keep company no not as to eat with them 1 Cor. 5.11 And doth he not say in another place Have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness nor with the unfruitful Workers in Darkness as before but rather reprove them Eph. 5.14 must we not yet separate from them yea yea in their very Worship-Actions as well as others and when even the greater number are so far defiled and tainted with the Leprosie of Unrighteousness and they are so far from amending that they persecute all that will not be as bad as themselves Surely when the Lord hath spued out a People as he threatned to do luke-warm Laodicea Rev. 3.16 yea and cast them off for their resisting of his good Spirit as he did the Jews 't is no time for his People to stay amongst them then and to continue with them in their Worship-Actions as he calls them but every one to deliver his own Soul by coming out of such Babylonish Worships whose Prayers are Abomination to God as all sinful Prayers are and neither this R. B. nor any one that he knoweth upon the Earth prayeth without Sin as himself before hath confessed and so all of them together do daily and continually that which they should not do and leave undone what the Lord commands them and so have no Health in them And so now that the True Light shines so clear again from under the long Cloud of Antichristian Apostacy it is the Wisdom of all that love God and their own Souls to joyn to the Lord in the Covenant of his Light and Spirit where no Committers of Sin can joyn for Darkness and the Workers thereof can never joyn with the Light and the Workers thereof So now that the Trumpet hath founded all ought to come to the Holy Worship of God amongst the Holy Worshippers that Worship in the Spirit of Holiness and Truth where no Worker of Iniquity nor Hypocrite can come out of all the Defiled Worship of the World whatsoever or under what Name soever in the Fall But this R. B. is in such love of Hypocrisie that he makes a Necessity of the Hypocrites being amongst the true Members of Christ as though they knew not how to do without them as if the good Corn could not grow so well if the Weeds were wanting saying Page 56. It is more for the sake of the truly Faithful than for themselves that the Hypocrites have their Station and Priviledges in the Church God makes use of their Gifts and Profession for his Elect to many great Services of the Church To which I answer That this Language betrays thee further to be of Babylon and not of Zion What R. B. with all his seeming Zeal for Reformation in Oliver's days become now a Pleader for Hypocrites and their great Service in the Church But this is but like his Doctrine of his Graceless Ministers which he pleads for Page 114 of his Book so R. B. and his Hypocrites and Graceless Brethren with their Gifts or rather Thefts void of Grace have been so far from being serviceable to the Elect True Church that they have done it and ever did all the Injury that ever they can by their wicked Doctrines Ungodly Lives and heaps of Lyes and false Accusations and cruel Persecutions insomuch that the Growth of the Heavenly Seed the Lillies of God the true Heirs of the Kingdom hath been and is as a Lilly among Thorns But Christ and R. B. are directly contrary in their Judgment one to the other for Christ would not suffer the Devil in the Man to preach him but commanded him to come out and hold his peace because Christ never had need of Devils or wicked Men or Hypocrites to preach him but saith to such What hast thou to do to take my Laws and Covenant in thy Mouth and hatest to be reformed Psal 50.16 c. and so far are Graceless Priests and Hypocrites from being serviceable in this matter to his Church that he saith My Sheep hear my Voice and they follow me but the Graceless Minister and Hypocrite who is a Stranger to me they will not hear for such come but to rob and destroy read John 10. and see if ever R. B. understood Scripture who talks so contrary to it As did those Pharisees of old whom Christ cried out so many times Wo against Matt. 23. Who would neither enter into the Kingdom of Heaven themselves nor suffer others And those in Ezekiel who sowed Pillows under Mens Elbows making glad the Hearts of the wicked Hirelings by perswading People that they must not disown them from being Ministers though they be totally void of obeying Saving Grace and that Hypocrites have a Station in the Church for great Services with their pretended Gifts to the Elect and by pleading for Games and Fashions of Apparel yea and the Opinions in Religion of bad People yea to such a measure that he is not ashamed to say That many an Error is taken up by going too far from other Mens Faults as is to be seen in Page 224 of his Book with many such like Heathenish Sayings up and down his Book a few whereof I only touch here and there that by those the Reader may see the nature of that wretched Spirit that hath long
lurked in him under a Cloak of Zeal for Reformation when the World pretended to such things but now that the World is for a manifest Establishing of their old dark Stuff he turns about and is all for them as it were and against Zeal against Reformation Separation Immediate Revelation or any thing that may manifest People to have a care of their Souls But Oh the Misery the Misery the unspeakable Misery of such as are not yet redeemed from under the Slavery and Egyptian Bondage of such Men But the Lord will break the Rod of the Oppressor as in times of old as in the days of Midian and Egypt where both Jannes and Jambres who withstood the Lord's Servant Moses in his calling Israel out of Egypt were made manifest and their Folly by all clearly seen as this R. B's is by every open Eye Praised be the Lord for his Infinite Love in all things But the Hearts of the Righteous whom God delights to comfort he doth all he can to make Sad by perswading the dark cruel World that the cause of all the Miseries of the late years yea and at present in these Islands is much what if not mostly occasioned by those who in tenderness of Conscience to God could not nor cannot joyn with nor uphold the Popish Customs and Imposition in Matters relating to Religion and the Soul which is more pretious to them that know it than all the World And in the Truth we may say that if we should come amongst the Steeple-house Worshippers or any other Company who are only separated from them in Form and not in Life and Power and their exercise not in the Gift and Heavenly Holy Worship and Service to the Lord Jesus Christ our God we should even Sacrifice the Abomination of the Egyptians before their Eyes and now would you not Stone us or Imprison us or otherwise evilly iâ—treat us even as you do and ever have done Yea yea and as they dealt with the Prophet Isaiah for saying Chap. 66.3 He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dog's Neck c. and Chap. 1.11 c. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of them and who hath required it at your hands to tread my Courts Bring no more vain Oblations c. For which it is said they slew him so they would deal with us And what measure have the dear Servants of God in New-England met withal not long since for the like witness against those Hypocrites but Death and cruel Whippings and Banishment and in old England lately but most Savage and Cruel Usage And would this R. B. yet have us yea and those he counts his Brethren and of his Flock who have any Tenderness in them to communicate with such whose Hands are full of Blood If he were as the Mouth of God he would put a difference between the Clean and Unclean But he being of another Spirit is for leading People back again into Egypt not for bringing them out of Egypt into the Promised Land which Work and Endeavour is rejected of God and of all that know God who are escaped out of Sodom and Egypt and Babylon Spiritual where our Lord was Crucified And to us the Lord hath said Let them return to you ye Saved People but return not you to them For their Pastors are become brutish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all their Flocks shall be scattered Jer. 10.21 He that hath Ears let him hear and he that readeth let him understand for the time is at hand for the Lord is arisen to plead with all the False Worshippers upon Earth and with him is no respect of Persons And now is the Lord God of ever blessed Power and love appeared in the Earth after the long Night of Apostacy to restore all things and now are the Virgins called upon through the whole World to trim their Lamps for behold the Bridegroom is come and coming and now the foolish Virgins who have been long sleeping and slumbering in a dead Profession of Christ and the Scriptures are found wanting in their Faith Holiness Love and all other Christian Virtues and so in their Unholiness shut out yea and though they run to the Hirelings that set all things to Sale to Buy yet still before they come the Door is shut for whilst the Lord stood waiting upon them with his pure free and full Grace and Spirit they would have none of it but rather chosed to go their own ways of Carnal Endeavours and Man-commanded Religion and so like the Jews of old going about to Establish their own Righteousness have not submitted to the Righteousness of God which is by Faith in Christ Jesus But the wise Virgns who are of an honest Heart to fear God and wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to appear in their Spirits to set up his heavenly and everlasting Kingdom in them they receive daily of his Fullness which filleth all in all where the true Oyl of the Kingdom is found in their Holy Lamps to the Praise of the Glory of the unspeakable Love and free Grace of the Almighty Father So be it Again to that part of this R. B's former Answer where he saith That in all Ages God giveth to some few Men more excellent Natural Parts than others and he engageth some in deeper and more laborious Studies and he blesseth some Mens Studies more than other and therefore there are still some few who know more than the rest of the Country or Mankind and it were well for the rest if they knew these and would learn of them Query But how may one know these hard and laborious Studiers as he calls them Oh saith this R. B. They are such as give proof of their Knowledge they pretend to and they are such as imploy their Knowledge to the preserving of the Peace and Concord of Believers and do not proudly make a stir with it to set up their own Names though thereby they set the World on fire To which I answer and say It is still more and more manifest that this R. B. lays the weight and stress upon Natural Parts and hard Studies as though the Kingdom of God were not at all come nor the Promise of God concerning the Free Gifts and plentiful pouring forth of the Spirit yet fulfilled and so a necessity of learning at the feet of Gamaliel and earthly Doctors still But now that the Spirit of Truth according to God's blessed Promise is come and witnessed amongst us that believe praised be God we cannot go to such as this R. B. with all their Natural Parts and hard Studies for the Spirit of Truth leads us and all that obey it into all Truth but this R. B. and such as he leads are in an Error as is manifest for they are of those that lead about a Company of
poor Souls silly as Women laden with divers Sins and Lusts ever learning but never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth which sets free from Sin for that and nothing else is the Truth which sets free from Sin for saith Christ If ye know the Truth the Truth shall set you free indeed But this R. B. and all such teach it for Doctrine That they are so far from being free from Sin that their very Prayers and best Performances are not free from Sin but Sin is in them all Oh Sad that ever they should dare to pretend to the Ministry of the Gospel who preach such a Doctrine as make nothing perfect but leaves them in Sin all their Lives long And no wonder that they and their Doctrine should be void of all good Fruit for saith God They have run and I have not sent them therefore they shall not profit the People at all And yet they would gladly have People know them and learn of them though they can do them no good at all and this is that sorry and bad Proof that the Hirelings make of their great Knowledge they pretend unto which they have gotten with their Natural Parts and hard Studies And so thy own words shall witness against thee Oh R. B. and thy Brethren who have given no good Proof of your Knowledge to this day nor have thereby preserved Peace and Concord amongst Believers but done what you can to break it for that Doctrine that makes not Men free from Sin leaves all the Seeds of Discord and Dissention still in Peoples Minds for as Sin separated Man from God at first so doth it to this day keep them and so keeps them from Love for God is Love and none live or dwell in Love but such as live and dwell in God But such as live in Sin and never Pray without it are out of God as the Apostle said of People in Unbelief They were without God in the World It is not any outward Conformity that will or can make them to be at Peace with or love one another for if it were possible to bring Papist Atheist and Carnal Protestants and Professors of all sorts into one Form of outward Worship as for Time Place Words or the like Yet there would be neither Love Peace nor Concord amongst them for want of Unity with God and his good Spirit the only true Ground and Foundation of all true Love Peace and Concord And so Oh R. B. we have known thee this many Years to be a great Enemy and therefore we may not learn of thee nor any such but of Christ do we learn ever praised be his Name who teaches his People to profit and so it 's only the poor deluded Multitude that knows thee not who learn of thee and suck in such poysoned Doctrine as makes them most uncapable of the pure Word of Life and Doctrine of Salvation so that Publicans and Harlots who make little or no Profession enter into the Kingdom of God before you And as for making a stir with thy Knowledge and striving to set up thy own Name thereby though thou set the whole World on fire by it Who more Notorious than thy self in this R. B as witness all thy lying frothy Words Books and Pamphlets which thou hast spoken and written against the appearance of Christ and his Truth in these late years but thy Studies and such Works God hath cursed for no Child of Light will ever buy any of thy Merchandize nor the deceitful Wares of any other Merchants of Babylon for evermore Blessed be God for his unspeakable Gift Amen But the end of these words of setting the World on fire set down here by this R. B. is easily seen to be this to wit To perswade People that those who are Zealous for God in these days in publishing his everlasting Gospel upon the Earth in a cross to the World are such as set up themselves and would set the World on fire And so he is manifest to be one of the old evil Generation of Priests who accused Christ for a mover of Sedition and Paul for a pestilent Fellow Oh it was that good stirring Spirit of the Lord Jesus in himself and his Followers which did so trouble the World the combustible World in all Ages that made and doth make the Hireling Priests and their deluded Followers so rage and cry out but as for setting the World on fire in a good sence Christ Jesus saith That he came to set Fire in the Earth But for setting the World on fire in R. B's sence that is sowing Discord and Dissention amongst People this is the Work and ever was the Work of the Hireling Priests who loved to be called of Men Masters as this R. B. is witness not only our own Age but the Holy Scripture and the Histories of all Times and Ages as those that read may understand And yet these proud Masterly and false Teachers were ever the first and forwardest that cried against Christ and his Followers for disturbing the World's Peace when as this Doctrine of Christ's Spirit though it did always disturb the Devil's yet it did always tend to the working of the Hearts and Souls of the People into God's Peace and did ever and doth at this day work this glorious and blessed Effect in all that believe Whereof we are Witnesses praised be God though for the Testimony of Christ we are troubled on every side by the wicked World So that even now when the Wicked have no Peace for there is no Peace to the Wicked we whom the World Mock Stone and Persecute under the Nick name of Quakers or so have Peace in all our Dwellings Egypt is full of Darkness that one may feel it yet in our Goshen is plenty of Light ever praised be God And when the World of false Christians are learning War and preparing Weapons we are ceasing from War and not to learn it any more as the Lord hath said And therefore Oh ye Inhabitants of the Earth if ye knew us ye would not hate us and persecute us but love us with your Hearts because of the good Will of our Hearts towards you for our Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual Not for pulling down or Destroying of you but your Enemies your Sins which War against your Souls And the Reason why we cannot joyn with you in your Liturgies and Worship-actions is not because we hate you but because we love God and your Souls for if we should joyn with you in your defiled Worships as your selves confess they are we should strengthen you in an evil Way But by our separating from you because of the Unholiness of your Sacrifices occasion may be ministred to you to question your State and so some of you in time may come out of your Darkness into the marvellous Light of the Lord Jesus with us and praise the Lord in the Land of the Living So be it Another of this R. B's
the Kingdom of his own Son over all to whom every Knee shall how and every Tongue confess for he is worthy The Springs of Life gush out apace from the Presence of the Lord into the Hearts of the Righteous and Righteousness runs down like a Stream through the Valleys of Israel to bring forth the Heavenly Fruits of Righteousness to the Glory and Praise of the Great and Good Husbandman who is over all God Blessed for Ever of whose Holy Reign Kingdom and Government there never shall be end But of the Kingdom of the Man of Sin and all Antichrists there shall be an utter end and Death and Hell shall be cast into the Lake of Fire and the Judgment of the Living and Everlasting Truth of our Heavenly Father shall go forth more and more for the discovering and consuming the false Hope and lying Refuges of all Hypocrites who have covered themselves and not with the Spirit of the Lord the Zeal of the Lord of Life will perform this that his Name over all may be exalted who is worthy whose Appearance in Glory this Day the Children of the Night have greatly withstood and the Dragon hath made great War against the Lamb but praised be the Lord the Lamb hath got the Victory and the Lamb's Followers are this Day with their Feet upon the Holy Mountain where none can make them afraid rejoicing in this that they have found the Lord whom their Souls loved and do love for Evermore So be it Thomas Taylor To some of T. Hicks's Friends YE Hicks's Hearers of Tixall-hall and elsewhere who Read his Defiled and Defiling Book called A Dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker Fear the Lord God of Heaven and Earth for I do affirm in the Truth of Christ that it is a meer Work and Invention of the Wicked One in that Servant of his called T. Hicks who goes under the Name and Profession of an Anabaptist as they are termed I say this Man was put on by the Wicked One who is called the Devil and Satan who was a Lier and False Accuser of the Brethren of Christ from the beginning to Render us the Servants of the Lord called Quakers Odious to the World For the very first Words and Title of his Book is an absolute Lie for never was there such a Dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker but it is a meer Fiction of his own naughty Heart and Head for Rendring us and the Truth we hold Odious and it is a False and Wicked Representation of us and our Religion to the World for the which God will severely Judge him And indeed by this manner of way that he takes who or what kind of Profession is there that he can miss grosly to abuse Seeing he takes upon him like a Prevaricator or Stage-player both to ask the Question and give the Answer so as may serve most for his own wicked End and Purpose and make his Opposite infamous O the Wickedness of such Actors and their Work but Praised be the Lord we are out of the reach of his Malice for under the Holy Wing of God's Power and Protection are our Souls gathered by the Eternal Power of his Living Word in Christ Jesus our Lord And you that Read this Book whether called Papists or Protestants if this Hicks had a Mind to Render you Odious could he not this way he takes do it as Plausibly as against us and so I would not have you hurt your selves so as to strengthen your selves against us and the Truth which we Live in by such bad Books and Endeavours as this Hicks hath come forth in for if that your Minds stand open to receive them you will never want them for the Enemy of your Souls and ours yea of all Mankind will never be wanting to furnish you with Lies for Strengthening his Kingdom in you and hindering you from entring into the Kingdom of God And if you would know the Reason of his thus rising up against us I say it is because through the Grace of God given us we Preach the Mystery of the Kingdom of God even the Wisdom of God in a Mystery as Scripture speaks And that Striking at his carnal Conceptions of things and his Idolatrous Thoughts of outward Water-Baptism hath stirred up the Venom in him which by this his Book he hath Vented but the Lord is the Pleader of his People's Cause which is our Joy and our Armour against all the fiery Darts of all wicked Ones for the Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascention Glorification of Christ and his Coming again to us according to the Scriptures of Truth and Heavenly Promises through the Power of God to our Souls Eternal Salvation and Comfort we Witness Glory to the Lord for ever whatsoever this Book or any thing of like nature can or may say to the contrary so as Christ said to one of our Brethren in times past The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against us And so in the Peaceable Habitation of the Love of God in Christ Jesus do we lye down together with all Holy Souls and Spirits of Just Men made Perfect Hallelujah for the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth in Mount Zion and before his Ancients Gloriously And so let the Mouth of all Iniquity be stopped for ever saith my Soul Thomas Taylor Something concerning that called the Common-Prayer AND Now all People that you may see we do not without cause Cry against the Priests and deny to joyn with them in the present Common Service now in use amongst the Parish Teachers of England which you are enjoyned upon several Penalties to submit unto I shall in the strength of Truth unbowel it a little unto you that you may at least in part see the true inside of it and not be deceived with the outward Appearance any longer for the Lord is arisen in his mighty Glorious Power to scatter all those Clouds of Ignorance and Error that have long vailed and covered the Minds of People and to be himself the Teacher of his People how to Worship him For his Spirit is greatly burdened with the Manners of the People who take his Name so continually in vain as such do as are only Confessors of their Sins but never forsake them but all their Lives long doing what they should not do and so instead of lessening their Sins are daily adding Sin to Sin covering with a vain verbal unfeeling Confession of Sin but not with the Spirit of the Lord. And so in the very entrance into their Work their Foundation is seen for they manifest themselves not to be in the New Covenant of the Spirit of the God of Life but in the Old Covenant of the Letter saying The Scripture moves them to confess their manifold Sins and Trespasses But when will it be seen that the Scripture moves them to forsake them for a Confession of Sin in Words we hear amongst them but the time of forsaking them never as yet come to be seen
so as such are not fit Subjects of God's Kingdom And Rom. 9.6 7 8. the Apostle speaking of such a thing as this saith All are not Israel which are of Israel though outwardly Circumcised Neither because they are the Seed of Abraham are they all Children but in Isaac shall thy Seed be called That is They which are the Children of the Flesh these are not the Children of God but the Children of the Promise are counted for the Seed Ye may as well yea better conclude That all who came of Abraham according to the Flesh and were outwardly Circumcised were Saved because Circumcision was commanded for the Children to which outward Baptism was not as that all Coming of Parents called Christian and outwardly Sprinkled are Saved and that for the outward sake as you in your Doctrine most presumptuously do But here the Apostle gives all such Carâ—al Conceits the check And as he saith in another place It 's neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision avails any thing in this great matter but a new Creature So may we as truly say to all such this day who place no less than Salvation it self upon the outward Baptism that it is neither such Baptizing nor Unbaptizing that avails any thing to God's Kingdom but a new Creature in Christ Jesus for it is said He that Believes and is Baptized shall be Saved But he that Believes not is condemned already But he doth not say He that is not Baptized with outward Water shall be Damned or is Condemned already And we through Grace know there is a Baptism of the Spirit whereby all the Members of Christ are Baptized by one Spirit into one Body Glory to God who hath given us Victory over the Beast Whore and False Prophet But you will say perhaps then What shall become of our Children I say if thou knowest not stay till God make it known unto thee for Secret things belong to God things Revealed tous But it is no where said That all that come of such as are called Christians outwardly and are not Sprinkled after the Custom of England and dye before they commit actual Sin are excluded the Kingdom of Heaven as the Ignorant and Presumptuous may imagine but as they grow capable of Doctrine we ought to instruct them in Christ Jesus and so nurture them up in his Fear to know him in them and what he is to them in their Hearts by Faith as is in part said before so shall no Uncircumcised or Unclean in Heart be brought into God's Church neither shall the Hireling make a Prey upon the People any more but the Church shall be as in the Beginning when it was called the Spouse of Christ a Royal not a Defiled Priesthood a Chosen Generation not the unchosen and unclean World a peculiar People and not the whole World who in their Uncleanness can get into the Talk of Christian Religion to the great Dishonour of God who is burdened with the Manners of such People as cry Lord Lord and leaving continually undone the Lord's Holy Commandments And now that you who read these Lines may ponder a little further of what I say I may here set down somewhat more of the Priest's deceivable words at their Sprinkling of Infants as you may find them in the Book For thus saith the Priest to the People Dearly Bâ—lived ye have brought this Child here to be Baptized ye have Prayed that our Lord Jesus Christ would receive it to râ—lease it of its Sins to Sanctifie it with the Holy Christ to give it the Kingdom of Heaven and everlasting Life Ye have heard also how Christ hath promised in his Gospel to grant all these things which ye have prayed for Stay I say and be afraid for this Boldness for there is no such Promise in the Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ will give Eternal Life to any much less to all that the Hypocrites and open Prophane Sinners pray for for their Prayers sake who do all with one Mouth and Consent daily Confess they have no Health in them but are Miserable Offenders living in the continual Breach of God's Commandments and even angry in their Minds to hear any profess and witness a better State so it was most truly said God heareth not People living in Sin but if any be a Doer of God's Will him God heareth John 9. So People you may see your Teachers frame Deceit and would have you believe their Untruths But the Priest goes on and saith Which Promise he for his part will most surely keep and perform Wherefore after this Promise made by Christ silence Flesh there is no such Promise made upon this account this Infant must also faithfully for his part promise by you that are his Sureties until he come to Age to take it upon himself that he will Renounce the Devil and all his Works and constantly believe God's Holy Word and obediently keep his Commandments So now by this all may see that these Priests for all their great talk of Regenerating by their Baptism it stands only upon a Condition that the Child must perform faithfully what is promised on their part And so they do not believe their own Doctrine when they say in their Catechism without any if or and That the Child was in its Baptism made an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven And so in Unbelief and Blindness of their Hearts do they presume to give Thanks when they say afterwards that they give God Thanks that he hath Regenerated the Infant If they had prayed only that he would do it and so have left it it had been less but to conclude that it is absolutely done only because they have sprinkled it and said a few words over it and the Covenant on the Child's part yet unperformed this is great Presumption and a grievous taking of God's Name in vain And here also is manifest a grievous Error that they cannot stay until the Child can promise for it self if there must needs be sprinkling and promising but they must bring in others without all Scripture and Reason to promise for them For I do positively affirm as before that God never required it at any ones Hand so to do for besides that there is no Scripture for it it is greatly against Christ who is the alone Surety and Mediator betwixt God and Man but it hath been a Custom meerly introduced amongst People called Christians in the dark Night of Apostacy when Popery began which now in the clear shining of the Sun of Righteousness upon People again is done and daily to be done away Glory to the Lord for Ever But the Priest goes on demanding of the Sureties which oftentimes fall out to be some wanton Boy or Girl or some other Notorious Evil-liver of Riper Years Dost thou in the Name of this Child renounce the Devil and all his Works the vain Pomp and Glory of the World with all Covetous Desires of the same and the Carnal Desires of the Flesh so that
Scripture is fulfilled which saith They hated me without a Cause Thomas Taylor To the People at and about Stafford a Testimony for God and his Truth and against Deceit and Deceivers especially the Hireling Priests as a Warning Information and Instruction in Righteousness to them and all People elsewhere concerned by the Spirit of the Lord in his Suffering Servant Thomas Taylor Hear O People and Fear for the LORD hath spoken THE false Teacher the Hireling who hath run and God never sent him but Preaches for Hire and Divines for Money can never profit your Souls O People at all but with their selfe Dreams and lying Divinations and empty Sounds they deceive your poor Souls For what can the dead words of a dâ—â—d Man dead in Sins raise up your dead Souls from Death to Life No they cannot they have no Life in them and such who have no Spiritual Health nor Soundness by their own Confession in them but are Miserable Offenders can they minister any healthful or sound Doctrine to your Souls Nay these cannot for what is their Chaff to the Wheat their frothy Words to the powerful Word of God For sow a Field with Chaff and what a Crop can you expect But as the Prophet saith They sow the Wind and reap the Whirlwind So cease from them you that love God and your own Souls and turn to God for I Testifie for God That the True Ministry the Soul-saving Ministry of Christ Jesus is not with the Parish-Hirelings of these Days for neither their long Black Robes nor long White Surplices nor their Humane Learning nor the Ordination of Man Men of like Nature with themselves doth any more conduce to the making of them able Ministers of the New Covenant the Gospel of Christ the Everlasting Covenant of God than the Grey or Brown Coat of the Plow-man or Artificer or the Skill of the Husbandman in Husbandry or the Cunning of the Cunning Worker in Wood Brass or Iron doth furnish them for Gospel-service for the Vision of God's Kingdom to all the World this Day both Wise and Foolish is like a Book sealed as the Prophet saith which is given to the Worldly-wise to read and he cannot read it because it 's seal'd and to the Foolish and he cannot read it because he is unlearned Isa 29.10 11 12. so though in the World there is a difference betwixt the Wise and Foolish yet as to the Kingdom of God there is none for the Wisdom of this World is foolishness with God 1 Cor. 1.10 c. for that which lyeth hid from all Flesh God reveals to his by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.6 7 8. And People the time of quickning and raising up of many that were dead in Sins is come again after a long Night of Darkness and the Dead this Day hear the Voice of the Son of God not of main Man and they that hear do live John 5.25 So People look to your Souls for though your Parish-Teachers who Preach for Hire and Divine for Money and love to go in their Long and White Robes do boast of their being come out of Popery yet upon the Popish Maintenance of Tythes Glebe-lands Easter-reckonings Mortuaries and Moneys for Preaching over and Burying the Dead and such like things they live and make a Prey upon not willing to come to Christ to this Day as the first Christians did for a thorough Reformation and so not a little but a great deal of the Old Soure Popish Leaven being yet found amongst them both in Doctrine and Practice how should their whole Lump but be very sour As appears by their Fruits and the Fruits of such as follow them And so for witnessing in Christ against them for these evil things 〈◊〉 suffer Imprisonment yet through God's Mercy inabling me thereunto I rejoice and can truly from my Heart praise the Lord that hath deliver'd my Soul from that horrible Pit that these ungodly Men yet remain in and will not be helped out of And ye People of Stafford for your sakes it was that the Lord by my Mouth rebuked the Hireling that you might not always be deceived and kept in Death with such Dreamers but that you might turn to the Lord God from all such to know his Word and Spirit that made you in you to teach you and to lead your Immortal Souls to the Springs of Living Waters for you have too long dwelt in the Wilderness of Sin Ignorance and Vnbelief and now it is high time for you to Repent and come to know the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire which is Christ's proper Baptism Mat. 3.10 11 12. for alas you have but hitherto been carried on by the Pharisees in the outward Shadows and Figures of Things which reach not the Soul to purifie and perfect it unto God and therefore is the Lord come in Mighty Power this Day to break in sunder all the Graven Images of the People whether under the Profession of the Popish or Protestant Religion for the Lord is on his Throne to make all things new again as in the beginning when all the Sons of God in Holiness sung for Joy and rejoiced in the Lord for the Blessed Victory they had got through the Blood of the Lamb over all their Souls Enemies But Wo and Alas for you the Poor People of Stafford and of many other Places who are under the Teachings of Worldly-minded Men Miserable Offenders like your selves always doing what ye should not do and leaving undone what ye should do and so without all Spiritual Health in the Miserable Captivity of Sin my Soul mourns for you and my Sufferings are for you and my Soul prays for you that you may be recover'd out of the Snare of your Soul's Enemy by which ye are led Captive at his Will for many Days and Years hath my Soul mourned for you and been oppressed and the Lord hath called to you early and late to Repent and lay things to Heart but O the hardness of many of your Hearts and the carelesness of the rest O why will ye Die Why will ye linger and remain still in Spiritual Sodom and Egypt where the Witnesses lay slain Rev. 11. So whilst ye have time prize it left the Lord lay you upon a Bed of Sorrows where no Ease is and say unto you in his Wrath I gave them time to Repent and they Repenâ—ed not In the Year 1679. Thomas Taylor HEAR the Word of the Lord all you that fear to offend the Lord and who breathe after Righteousness in any measure and yet in your Ignorance are seeking the Living among the Dead the Living God in Dead Observations which by Tradition you have received one from another and not from the Lord Jesus The Day is come wherein by the Spirit of Jesus it is witnessed in and by his Living Members That he that was dead is now alive and lives for Evermore and is
coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory The Disciples in the beginning of this Chapter asked him What should be the Sign of his Coming And here he answers them Not a wooden Cross or any such thing but the fore-goings of Judgment terrible Judgments as is here mentioned which go immediately before this his appearing And for the outward Cross being a special Memorial of the Passion The Apostles had other ways of remembring Christ's Death than by outward Crosses of Wood Gold Silver or other Metal or Stone or so for they were buried with him into the likeness of his Death and they bore in their Bodies the Marks and Dying of the Lord Jesus and the Vertue of Christ's Passion they felt daily to Crucifie them to the World and the World with all its Evil to them And as they died and were dead to Sin they were made alive and lived to God and so Christ lived in them and they in him How could they forget one another And thus it was not only with the Apostles but with all the true and living Members of Jesus standing thus in the Faith in those Times as Scripture plentifully declares and neither need nor mention made of any outward Cross to put them in mind of Christ's Passion seeing they daily suffered and reigned with him But People retaining only the Name of Christians but falling from the Faith of Christ which the true Saints lived in then came up this Invention of outward Crosses and Pictures and such-like Smoak out of the Bottomless Pit for Memorials and Teachers to the poor Carnal-minded People which were out of the Faith and so at Enmity against God But Praises to the Lord saith my Soul for this day of his which after a long Night of Darkness is restoring to many the ancient everlasting Truth which all Holy Men of God lived by And now Mystery Babylon with all her Lovers must into the Lake prepared for her But says this Dreamer farther The Cross was that blessed Altar on which Christ offered his Bloody Sacrifice And to prove it brings Gal. 6.13 Phil. 3.18 Ezek. 9.4 In which last Scripture he says Such as were signed with the sign Tau which was a Picture or Figure of the Cross were saved from the exterminating Angel and only such Now to this I say it is meer Deceit And adding to the Scripture this Saying of his for there is mention made only of a Mark Vision-wise but nothing at all what Mark it was neither was it needful for to mark them there signifies God's special Care of his in time of Judgment and not an outward Cross as these Dreamers Dream And for those other Scriptures Gal. 6. Phil. 3. they speak not of the outward Cross of Wood or so but of the inward Spiritual Cross the Power of God 1 Cor. 1.17 18. But this Man by calling the Cross the Altar maketh it greater than Christ for saith Christ Matt. 23.19 Whether is greater the Gift than the Altar that Sanctifies it And thus it appears how near unto Blasphemy are all Superstitious and Idolatrous Minds In his Exposition of the Fifth Article of the Creed he saith That his descending into Hell meaneth That so soon as Christ was dead his blessed Soul descended into Limbo to free the Holy Fathers who were there And for proof brings Acts 2.2 24 27. and Eph. 4.8 And then asks Did he not also descend to Purgatory to free such as were there He answers It is most probable he did according to 1 Pet. 3.19 20. I Answer That these dark Imaginations are poor Grounds for People to place Faith and so Salvation on It is probable saith he that he descended to Purgatory And what is it more than probable that he went into Limbo Nay nay it is not so much as probable that he went into either for those Scriptures he brings speaks neither of Limbo nor Purgatory and so there being no such Place as either Limbo or Purgatory as Papists Dream how could he descend into either For the true Place of Purging is through Sanctification of the Spirit in the Belief of the Truth as it is in Jesus in this Life time and not afterwards And the Heil which Christ's Soul was not left in is understood when he said My God why hast thou forsaken me And for his Body it was raised out of the Grave and so the true Christ saw no Corruption as the Scripture there speaks But your imagined Breaden Christ will Corrupt But for this Man's Dream of Interpreting the Prison to be Purgatory which Christ by his Spirit went to Preach to them in in Noah's time that were Disobedient and that not till after he was Crucified is so gross that it needs little other Confutation than the very mentioning of it for Christ by his Spirit in Noah Preached to them in that Day when they were in the Prison of their Sins and by the Spirit that raised Jesus from the Dead have the Wicked been Warned and Preached unto in all Ages And he saith That the print of Christ's Feet are to be seen to this Day upon Mount Olivet from whence he was taken up I say what if it were will you go to Worship it as you do a Wood or Stone Cross But I do no more believe that there are such prints than I do your other Unscriptural Superstitious Imaginations and Inventions But to Discredit this I have very great ground considering that Christ said to Mary that she should not touch him in an outward natural manner or so because he was not yet ascended John 20.17 because there is danger in such things how much less would he leave prints of outward Feet for Superstitious Souls to Idolize And it 's probable for this very Cause was the Body of Moses hid from the Jews lest they should Idolize it Therefore saith Paul a Spiritual minded Man for himself and his Brethren Henceforth know we no Man after the Flesh yea though we have known Christ after the Flesh yet know we him henceforth so no more for he that is in Christ is a New Creature 2 Cor. 5.16 17. When will Christendom so called learn this Lesson And this Book saith That Christ as God is equal with the Father but as Man is in the highest Created Glory I answer the Scripture saith that Christ sitteth or sat down at the Right Hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 Is this Created And he asks Is there any Merit in our Works Yea saith he as in Apoc. 22.12 I say that Scripture doth not say for the Merit of Man's Work but only they shall receive according as their Work is But pure good Works are rather God's than ours and then where is the Merit And he saith The Place of the general Judgment shall be in the Valley of Jehosaphat betwixt Jerusalem and Mount Oliver I answer how knows he that How is it he mentions no Scripture for it So it is meer Imagination But what Must People
are approved may be made manifest He doth not say Heresies come for want of a Pope and General Council And I may add another Reason and that a main and universal one and that is Peoples either not living in the Spirit or not walking in the Spirit and so not keeping the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And so not keeping the Head to wit Christ in whom if the whole Body be coupled and knit together increase of the whole Body to wit the true Church is made to the Edifying of it self in Love and not otherwise Eph. 4. This is the Cause and continual Cause A Second Reason of those Differences saith that Popish Book is because the very Ground work of Protestancy is That all Men even the whole Church of God are Fallible and subject to Err so that they cannot pretend to Certainty or Infallibility saith he for any one Point of their Belief To which I say if any Protestant say the whole Church of God is Fallible and subject to Err if they understand the Church as Paul doth in Ephes 5.25 26 27. and as he doth in 1 Tim. 3.15 or as Christ doth in Mat. 16.18 where it is said The Gates of Hell shall not provail against it they do not well For though all Men as Men in Adam the Earthly are not only Fallible and subject to Err but also really in Deceit and Error yet in Christ Jesus the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven that quickning preserving Spirit of Truth there is no Fallibility nor Error as the Apostle saith 1 John 3. He that abideth in Christ sinneth not Ver. 6. And he that is Born of God sinneth not nor can sin Ver. 9. But what is all or any of this Glory to the Pope or his Synagogue which he falsly calls the Church of God For they do not attribute the Infallibility to the Eternal Spirit which is in every true Member of Christ's Church which is their Leader into and Preserver of their Souls into all Truth but to the Pope and General Councils as though Infallibility were annexed to the Dream of Peter's Chair and not to Christ's Spirit in the Faithful O the Abomination of Desolation that is in this Popish Doctrine But what is there such Unity amongst these Deluded Disciples of the Pope Surely nay for as we read there was amongst the Jews the several Sorts and Sects of Pharisees Sadducees Libertines Cirenians Alexandrians and the like yet all against Christ So in the Popish Hierarchy there are the several different and divided Sorts and Sects of Franciscans Dominicans Jesuits Cappuchins Carthusians and others all agreed this Day as of long time they have been against the Blessed Crown Kingdom Dignity and Dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ But these with all the rest of Mystery Babylon's Merchants have cause to wail because the Light and Spirit of God in Christ Jesus is broken forth in Power and great Glory this Day to judge them all that the Kingdom not Worldly but Heavenly may be given to the People of the Saints of the Most High God for an Everlasting Inheritance as in Dan. 7.27 Here also I may well take notice of some other words that this Popish Pleader hath in his Book Treating of this Matter viz. Since then saith he to be of one Religion is to be of one setled Perswasion in Points of Faith and seeling cannot be without Infallibility or Necessity it is not well possible that any two Protestants or Sectaries to be of one Religion every Man Expounding the Scripture as he lists and no one having Power to Controul the others Exposition of it I Answer and in the Power of Christ do grapple with this Beast that arose out of the Sea and with his Image also and do say That no Humane Conceit nor Natural Man's Exposition with the help of all the World's Wit and Skill whether Pope or other is infallible or binding or controuling But by the same Spirit that gave forth Scripture whether in a Fisherman Tradesman or other now as well as formerly is the Scripture rightly Understood and Expounded So the true Oneness in Religion stands in the Oneness of that Spirit that gave forth Scripture and gives a right understanding of it and of all things as the Apostle saith The Anointing which ye have of the Holy One teacheth all things and by it you know all things 1 John 2.20 And he that hath not this Spirit is none of Christ's Rom. 8.9 And he that is guided by this Spirit is a Spiritual Man and so not to be judged or controuled in his Spiritual Concernment by any Man of this World neither Pope nor other as saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.10 15. It is so But whereas he tells of every Man Expounding the Scripture as he lists I say this is the Pope and all his Priests Fault and of all the wicked World besides who are not in Heart and Life subject to that one Pure and Holy Spirit that is of Jesus that leads Spiritually into all Truth which Truth is one And so though they that are of another Spirit may agree never so much and in never so great numbers in their several Ways of Deceit yet the true Religion of God's Holy Ones in Light they still remain ignorant of And so his Blindness of imagining that Protestants and Sectaries as he calls them cannot be two of them of one Religion doth hereby fully appear For not only they but all the People of the Earth under what Name Notion or Profession soever are either the Children of Light or Children of Darkness and so not only two but all of the same sort may and do agree in the Root in their Religion if it may be called so though we know there is but one true Religion and that is truly and properly the Religion of God's People the Children of his Light even that which in Purity and Holiness binds their Hearts to God And so by this word Controuling which this Remish Agent here useth it is easily seen how the Pope hath set up and maintained his Wicked Kingdom that is to say by a Worldly Controuling Power over Mens Souls and Consciences and not by the Power of Truth For if his Earthly Power with his Worldly Assistants were taken from him his Decretals Expositions Bulls Excommunications and Curses for not obeying his Commands would be of little force this Day in the Earth because of the Light that God hath raised up in the Hearts of People this Day to discover him Glory to his Great Name for Evermore And so the true Judge and Controuler of all Judgments and Controulers is on his Throne this Day judging in Righteousness and on his White of Glorious Power going on Conquering and to Conquer the Man of Sin in all Lands and his Holy Ones in Light His Called Faithful and Chosen follow him with great Joy of Heart Rev. 19.11 12 13. He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit
brought the Children to Christ to have them so Baptized but as the words are That he would put his Hands on them and Pray But it seems you lay all the stress of the Service that can be done to Children on Washing or Sprinkling them with Water for without this all your laying your defiled Hands upon them and your sinful praying over them would do them little service it seems for indeed how should it seeing you never came to witness sinless Duty For it 's the Doctrine of the Highest amongst you that you sin in your best Duties and the words of your daily Service is That there is â—o Health in you And so Christ's Purifying Baptism we own for our selves and our Children but yours we deny for you have run and God never sent you and therefore so little worth are all your doings The other Argument from Mat. 19.14 is Those to whom the Kingdom of Heaven doth belong and the Covenant of Grace to those also the Seal of that Covenant doth belong which is Baptism saist thou but to Infants doth belong this Covenant Gen. 17.7 and Acts 2.39 I Answer To this Argument much might be said to shew the fallacy and gross deceit of it but in a few words it is manifest thus First I deny that part of the first or greater Proposition where thou Expoundest the Sâ—al of the Covenant to be Baptism that is Outward Water-baptism For though Outward Circumcision was a Seal to the Jews of that Covenant yet it doth not at all follow that Outward Baptism or Washing is the Seal of the Covenant of God in Christ to Believers under the Gospel neither doth Outward Baptism succeed in the room or place of Outward Circumcision as you falsly all along suppose but Inward Circumcision of the Heart is that which succeeds that in the Flesh and the Seal of God's Covenant with Man in Christ now is his Holy Spirit of Promise as the Apostle expresly saith Eph. 1.13 In whom to wit in Christ after ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise So that now the Covenant being wholly Spiritual and the Ministration of it Spiritual the Seal of it must needs be so to wit the Seal of the Spirit as it is said in that place which thou saist we omitted John 3.5 Except a Man be Born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven which not at all speaks of Outward Washing or Water but of the Spirit only of God from above as Christ's own words afterwards plainly signifie where he saith Ver. 6. That which is Born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is Born of the Spirit is Spirit And Ver. 8. The Wind bloweth where it listeth c. so is every one that is Born of the Spirit where Christ leaves out the mention of Water as if on purpose to stop such Carnal Conceits of his Work as thine is for the Seed of the New Birth or Power or Means whereby Regeneration is wrought is only of God by the Operation of his Heavenly Spirit and not by Outward Water or any perishing Thing whatsoever as it is said in another place The Children of God are Born of the Incorruptible Seed of the Word of God which lives for Ever And so when Peter had mentioned our being saved by Baptism to stop such Carnal Conceivers as thee he saith Not the doing away or washing of the filth of the Flesh is it but the Answer of a good Conscience in the Resurrection of Jesus saves which if thou hadst an Ear to hear thou might hear And for the Assumption or other Proposition of thy Argument where thou sâ—ist But to Infants doth belong this Covenant and for that brings Gen. 17.7 Acts 2.39 I say there is a gross fallacy or deceit in the Word Infants or Children for it is an ambiguous Tearm and may be either understood of natural or fleshly Infants Children or Seed or of the spiritual But that that Covenant of God with Abraham's Seed was not to the fleshly as such is most manifest by the Apostles Doctrine where he on purpose speaks of it in two Eminent places to wit Gal. 3.8 when he had said In thee to wit Abraham shall all Nations be blessed he subjoins Ver. 7. So then they that be of Faith are Blessed with Faithful Abraham And Ver. 16. Now to Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made He saith not and to Seeds as of many but of as one and to thy Seed which is Christ And Verse the last If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham 's Seed and Heirs according to the Promise Now may it not on the contrary be truly said If ye be not Christ's then are ye not Abraham's Seed nor Heirs according to the Promise The next Scripture is that which I mentioned upon this occasion in my writing to you which thou takest no notice of for indeed it judges your Carnal Conceits of Things and it is in Rom. 9.7 8. Neither because they are the Seed of Abraham are they all Children but in Isaac shall thy Seed be called That is saith the Apostle They which are the Children of the Flesh these are not the Children of God but the Children of the Promise are counted for the Seed Was it not for such Doctrine as this that the Carnal Jews like you Carnal Christians cried against the Apostle saying Away with such a Fellow from the Earth he is not worthy to live as you use to cry against us to the People for witnessing to the Truth of Things against your Gross and Carnal Conceits and Unscriptural Practices These People would Damn your Children Nay nay we Damn none but could wish that all might be Saved and come to the Knowledge of the Truth But say you How can our Infants be Saved if they be not Regenerate And how can they be Regenerate except they be Baptized with Outward Water Poor Souls I pity you in your great Apostasie Doth not the Scripture say in the fore-mentioned place The Wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but knows not whence it comes and whether it goes So is every one that is born of God's Spirit And so Regeneration is not limited to any outward thing whatsoever And for the little unteachable Children thou busie-body let them alone till they be capable of Doctrine and then as any is able let them bring them up in the Nurture and fear of the Lord and so bring them to Christ that he may lay his Hands upon them and Bless them But secret things belong to God not to thee When things concerning the Children are known to thee make good use of it and answer the Lord's Mind in it the Lord knows best what to do with the little Children Souls which are hidden from thee and let God alone with them who made them he will have Mercy on whem he will have Mercy And so let thy Sprinkling of them alone for it neither
Christ his Honour grutch And do not rather such rebuke and say If you 'll not Hear we 'll quickly turn away And shake your Dust from off us we 'll be free From you and yours that all may truly see We are not such as would our selves advance Nor Mens Estates of any sort inhance But seek to set up Christ to be the Head Of all things in all Worlds with Fear and Dread And thus it was with Good and Godly Men In the beginning of the Gospel when The Spirit of the Lord did teach them what to say And Men did walk i' th' Sun-shine of the Day Before I say that Pope and Turk arose Who to Christ's Kingdom are Professed Foes And would themselves set up o're th' Sons of Men To Rule as Gods that neither Tongue nor Pen Might Publish ought but what their Heads devise Whose Wisdom out of the dark Pit doth rise And which for Ages hath spread over all To bring the Souls of many into thrall But now the Lord of Great and Endless Power Is making bare the skirts of that great Whore And giving double of his Furious Cup To such as of her Wine still dare to Sup It 's her strong Poysoned Wine that makes Men mad In Persecuting of the Just O sad That ever any who do Christ Profess In Words should seek his Members to Distress So then if you be Wise you 'll search and see How from that Monst'rous Haâ—lot you are free For if in Hand or Head her Mark you bear The Lord amongst his Enemies will you tear If you your Ways Reform not which are ill He will not spare he will your Glory spill He 'll Fight against you with his Fiery Word Which Kills and Slays as doth a two edg'd Sword Live in Deceit and turn which way you will His Sword will reach you and your Cup will fill With Woes and Sorrows and sad Acclamations The just Reward o' th' Wicked in each Nation Yea tho' the Name of Christians you may bear Yet it 's his Nature must the Lawrel wear For Christ your Persons doth not now Regard But as your Works are he will you Reward If you 'll not give a Reason of your Faith But Trample under Foot what any saith Concerning things that are amiss amongst you And to the Powers cry out they hate and wrong ye And thus with Fig-leaves seek from Men to hide Your Crying Sins of Avarice and Pride And Persecution and instead of mending Still Harbour Evil Thoughts which tend to Rending Then know for certain in a Moment God Will Visit you with his Almighty Rod And you who have not Visited in Love His suffering Servants will his Enemies prove And when his Peoples Sufferings are Compleat Then they shall Feed when you shall pine for Meat So be it And if the Writers Name in Writing you would see A Lover of God a Lover of Man is he This is my Natures Name which shall Remain When Sinful Men are Dead and all Disdain And God the Worker of my Souls Salvation Shall Rule and Reign as Head in every Nation And though the Devil fret yet Truth shall stand Over all and be the King in every Land for evermore Amen And to you called Church-wardens and Sideâ—men how weak is your Hearts and how slavish are your Minds through unbelief become that you cannot withstand and avoid such a manifest Temptation and Danger as to come under and Swear to the Bishops Articles for which of you either do or can or intend to Perform according to what you seem therein to engage your selves unto And that which is sad to consider the more ready you are to Engage and the more observant in the Performance the more Miserable oftentimes are you for thereby you must not only accuse the Drunkard and Swearer your own Mothers Sons but even the People of God also for their pure Consciences sake and so you had need all and every one of you Repent lest the Lord Swear in his Wrath against you that you shall never enter into his Rest as he did against those that had grieved him Forty Years in the Wilderness Thomas Taylor Certain Queries Propounded to the People called Anabaptists especially to such as believe and hold forth that Water-baptism is an Ordinance and Command of Christ Jesus the Door of Entrance into the True Church and so of such Absolute Necessity as that there can be no True Gospel-Church-Fellowship without it 1. WHAT do you believe concerning the Baptism of John the Son of Zacharias the Priest who was sent to Baptize in Water Was he in and under a pure Evangelical Office and Ministration and his Baptism in Water a Gospel Ordinance to continue to the end of the World If yea prove it by plain Scripture 2. What do you believe concerning the Witness or Prophesie of John Recorded John 3.30 I must decrease but he to wit Christ who was to Baptize with the Holy Ghost John 1.33 must increase Did he speak this of his own Person and of the Person of Christ or of the Office and Administrations which they respectively were sent to Execute and Administer If of the Persons then tell us how and wherein the Person of John decreased and how and wherein the Person of Christ increased and whether that saying Recorded Mat. 11. He that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John was spoken of or in relation to John's Person also and not concerning his Office or Ministration 3. Is that Baptism which you Administer and so earnestly press People unto John's or Christ's seeing John himself did expresly distinguish betwixt his Baptizing in Water and the Baptism which Christ was to Baptize in John 1.26 And Christ also and his Apostles did distinguish betwixt John's Baptism and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost Acts. 1.5 Luke 20.4 Acts 13 24 and Chap. 18.25 26. Chap. 19.3 4. into which Christ Baptized Mark 1.8 And are these distinct diverse or several Baptisms Or do you believe that they are but one Baptism and so no distinction to be put betwixt them If yea then tell us upon what Ground and Certainty you would have us believe you seeing therein you agree not in Doctrine with John nor with Christ and his Apostles 4. Is that Baptism which you Administer a Figure of the Spiritual Washing away of Sins by the Blood of Christ and of Plunging into his Name Spirit and Life Or is the outward Water in which you Baptize and your Act of Baptizing that is Plunging or Dipping in it really Sanctified to the doing of it and so consequently doth that Work and so no Sign Type nor Figure Tell us plainly what you your selves believe concerning it 5. Do you believe that those mentioned Acts 19. on whom Paul laid his Hands and the Holy Ghost came upon them who were Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus and had before that been Baptized in or unto John's Baptism who Baptized in Water were they then again
that he saith A New Covenant he hath made the first Old Now that whichâ—d cayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away This is the Apostle's Conclusion from the former words as is to be seen in the last Verse of that 8th Chapter to the Hebrews Now mind whoever thou art that reads these words that the Covenant which here he calls Old was that which God made with the Fleshly Seed of Abraham at their coming out of Egypt which is mentioned in the Writings of Moses as you may read and part of this Covenant was the Two Tables of Stone which the Lord by his Angel delivered Moses for that People to observe and keep with the rest of what Moses had in Charge for them and set down in the outward Book to be done and which the Children of Israel did Promise and Covenant that they would observe and do but they broke Covenant with God as all Flesh ever did and doth at this Day and so the Lord regarded them not for no Flesh can do what the Pure Spiritual Lord God commands them having no more help thereto but what a Law or Letter without can furnish them withal and therefore the Lord God in love to Man's Soul sent Christ into the World to be his own Arm and Power to and in Man to bring forth that Righteousness and Holiness which he required and therefore saith Paul after he saw his own utter unableness to do the Will of God with all the outward Helps that ever he had he concludes that they that are in the Flesh cannot please God let them turn which way they can for the Enmity against the Law whilst in that Principle and in that thou T. H. art still remains against the Spiritual Law of God as he saith Rom. 8.7 For the Carnal Mind is not subject to the Law of God nor indeed can be And therefore as Paul so must all come to Christ the Lord that Spirit to know him in them to destroy the Enmity out of them that so the Will of God and Law of his Mouth which is Spiritual may be done in them and so come to witness as Paul there in Rom. 8.2 did That the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made them free from the Law of Sin and Death And the Ground or Reason of the Lord 's gracious Dealing with Man in the next Verse e sets down saying For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh And the end of all this he shews in the next Verse saying That the Righteousness of God's Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And thus he stops the Mouths of all the Enemies of Christ who with Tho Hall would object That with Preaching of Christ and his Light and hi Spirit in Man to be all in all they make void the Law Answ Nay nay I say By Preaching Christ we establish the Law to the Glory of God in Christ over all And so thou Tho. Hall hast been he which hath not hitherto either truly heard Moses nor the Prophets nor Christ nor his Apostles or his Spirit in these days and so canst not in that wretched Mind believe though one come from the Dead And so for the Truths sake and to stop the Errors and Blasphemies of this Thomas Hall who ceaseth not to pour forth his Ignorance against the Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed Spirit of Light and Life in Man the only Teacher of God's People in these Gospel days have I writ these Lines that the Truth of the Gospel against his and all such Unbelieving Jewish Persecuting Spirits in these days may stand cear over all their Heads and triumph for ever in the Hearts and Consciences of all tender and honest-minded People whose Desires 〈◊〉 continually after the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof whose Kingdom is everlasting and the Righteousness thereof is Pure Spotless and Undefiled of God and endureth for ever And this is our Righteousness and the Righteousness of all Saints Praised be God for ever and for whose Name and Truths sake and for bearing Testimony thereof in this World do we suffer Reproach and Persecutions from the present evil World not only of the Prophane but even of many such unreasonable professing vain Talkers as this T. Hall who would be Teachers of the Law not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm as Paul the Apostle of Christ witnessed of such in his days who would never be quiet from opposing the Gospel with their False Interpretations of the Law until God cut them off and cast them away for their Wickedness But we know saith the same Apostle in that place to wit 1 Tim. 1.5 6 7 c. that the Law is good if a Man use it lawfully I nowing this that the Law is not made for a righteous Man but for the Lawless and Disobedient for the Vngodly and for Sinner c. So say we and so the Law of God we love and honour â—s God's Ordinance for good to restrain limit and condemn such ungodly and unreasonable Spirits as this T. Hall is for those that will not believe nor obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ must be ruled and bruised and condemned with the Iron Rod of God's righteous Law which whatsoever it saith it saith to them that are under it that every sinful Mouth may be stopped and all the World of wicked unbelieving Men may be found guilty before God Glory to his Name for ever who giveth us the Victory by Jesus Christ our Lord who is our Light Life Wisdom Righteousness and Salvation for ever whose Grace alone is able to keep us and preserve us and present us and all that believe in his Light and know him in them unto himself without Spot and Wrinkle and unreprovable in everlasting Peace Rests a Lover of the Soul of Man which is in great Captivity until it come to the Liberty of God's Sons and who in a patient quiet Suffering way do wait to do it good as a Servant of God wherein I may be known amongst Men by the Name of Thomas Taylor but in the New Name which is of God and not of this World which the Father hath given me doth my Soul rejoyce And though I be set a-part for Sufferings amongst the reproached despised People of God called Quakers by the World yet we are Happier than our Persecutors in that the Lord is on our sides and justifies us in his way which is Christ while his Holy Spirit testifies against our Adversaries because they are his Adversaries He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear and give Glory to God by believing for these words are Faithful and True Thomas Taylor FINIS A Testimony for the Lord God and His Work in the Earth HEar O EARTH and hearken ye
hardly afford it on Earth a place to meet in at all And for that thou concludest and sayest What though our Churches have been formerly Abused to Idolatry So were the Temples and Synagogues abused to Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship yet nevertheless did Christ and his Apostles make use of them I answer What use Christ and his Apostles made of the Temple and Synagogue of the Jews is in part before declared To which this may be added As for Christ he was according to the Flesh of the Jews made under the Law and so he was to cleanse the Temple a Figure of his Body and fulfil the rest of the Laws Shadows and Customs and so end them all and through the Gospel bring Life and Immortality to Light and to Consecrate the New and Living Way through the death of all old things for he Nailed them all to his Cross and they died with him but he arose from the Dead and not to bring up the old Dead things again as thou J. R. and thy Generation would have but to make all things New for saith he that sitteth on the Throne Behold I make all things New Rev. 21.5 Glory to his Name for ever but none can see God in his Throne but in the Light that comes immediately from him which Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World which the Worlds Builders did always deny and reject as they do at this day And for the use the Apostles made of the Temple or Synagogues of the Jews it was as is formerly set down to reason with them there of things pertaining to the Kingdom of God the Jews not the Christians being Assembled there as the Servants of God called by the World Quakers do at this day to bring People both then and now from the Shadows unto the Substance Christ Jesus who hath said of his Body Destroy this Temple and I will build it again in three days and so the three days being come and finished the Temple that is Holy was built again and God Worshipped and Glorified in it but nothing that is defiled or loves a Lie can enter into or be joyned unto it But the Jews were more reasonable in one thing than you Priests of England are for they suffered Paul it seems to Reason with them several of their Sabbath-days in their Assemblies quietly but now if any come amongst you upon the liek account that Paul did it 's hard for such to escape your Furious Hands or a Prison in these days Whereby it appears your time is but short you are so unreasonable and full of rage But the use that those Gospel-Ministers the Apostles made of the Jewish Synagogues will not serve your turns O Parish-Masters for unless you may have them in your own dispose to bring the World into them to call you Master and put into your Mouths it will not answer your lustful Mind And so indeed with you that have put the Name of Church and Saints upon the Wild World a great Stone-house Fashioned to Solomon's Temple with an addition of an high Steeple Babel-like with Bells in it seems most convenient though it was not only abused too but even built for Idolatry so much But for the little Flock of Christ in Cities Towns and Villages a less House when they they need one will be as much if not more convenient And to conclude whereas thon intimatest that your great Stone-houses which thou callest Churches though formerly used to Idolatry yet now they are free I say thou wilt want proof for this so long as you continue in the Worshipping and Serving of Creatures and Paul's Doctrine continues true which saith Covetousness is Idolatry unless you repent and bring cleaner Vessels into your Temple than you do Qu. 15. Thy Fourteenth Query was for Set-places now this the Fifteenth is for Set-times and thou askest Had not the Saints in Scripture their Set-times for Publick Worship as well we Answ Yea I say the Saints amongst the Jews had their Set-times for their Worship better than you for they were under the Law and that was their Warrant but you are neither under Law nor Gospel in Truth but ony Carnal Imitators in your Will sometimes of the one Customs and sometimes of the other as your Self-willed and Self-ended Hearts in your blindness Prompts you unto and so for this I say Love the Light which Christ hath lighted you withal and it will lead you to Repentance from all your vain Observings and in the Light wait that God's good Spirit you may know and receive to Teach you and lead you into all Truth according to the Promise and so wait in the Light that lets you see your wants that 's the Holy Place and wait there for him in his Fear that comes in his own not Man's time and be not as the Heathens that think to be heard for their much wording of it nor spread abroad the Sails of your vain Imaginations when you Pray as the Hypocrites do lest Satan Transformed carry you about and fill you with the Wind of his Frothy Spirit making you believe you Pray with Gods Spirit when it is his own lying Spirit as his Custom is amongst you to work Qu. 16. So thou having spent thy Strength in Pleading for your Set-Places and Times in Imitation of the Jews thou goest on in this Query endeavouring to prove your Work on these times in those places from the likeness of them to theirs then And thus as you do so do the Papists for their Customs for they Reason as thou do'st For had not the Jews say they a Temple and Synagogues So we Had not they One High Priest So we who is called a Pope had not they an Altar and Sacrifice outward So we Had not they their Set-Fasts and Musick in their Temples and Quiristers and Tythes and Offerings and such things And so have we say they So saith John Reynold here in this present Sixteenth Query Had not the Saints in former Times the Scriptures Read in their Congregations Acts 15.21 Luke 4.16 and sometimes Expounded Neh. 8.7 8. and Prayed there Verse 6. and Singing David's Psalms there 1 Chron. 16.7 c. and Blessing the People in the Name of the Lord Num. 6.23 c. Well this was so under the Law but what wilt thou infer from this that you may continue the Customs of the Jews in such things that follows not unless you will deny the Ascension of Christ Eph. 4. from 8. to 17. for the Jews were under the Law and so they had a Worldly Sanctuary and a Worldly Service with divers Ordinances of that Nature until the time of Reformation by Christ raised up and come again in Spirit and then says God Behold I make all things New and so he that is in Christ is a New Creature Old things passed away all things become New New Temple New Offerings and Service New Prayers Singings Preachings which no Worldly Man can get into but all with the Holy
dwels keeps People always learning and never brings any to the Knowledge of perfecting Truth of the Lord Jesus for how should it For they have Run and I never sent them saith God therefore they shall not profit the People at all Jer. 23. And under this woful Condition lieth all the World of unbelieving People who believe not in the Truth Christ Jesus but follow their own dark Spirits which see nothing of the Kingdom of God nor the Holy Worshippers therein A long and dark Night of Apostacy hath passed over the World since the Apostles time wherein the Spirit of Antichrist and Devils hath wrought effectually in the Children of Disobedience as was foretold to the blinding of their Minds and hardning their Hearts against the Everlasting Gospel of Truth the Heavenly Light and Power of God unto Salvation and hath so deluded them that they have thought they were doing God service when they were Persecuting his Truth and Members of his Body as many in the same dark deluded state do at this day but now the Lord is lifting up his Standard against that great Whore Dragon false Prophet and their Armies who Gog and Magog like would devour the Lambs of Christ And now no Weapon formed against Christ his Truth and People shall ever prosper any more at all but the Lamb shall have the Victory and the Kingdom Dominion and Greatness of it shall be given to the Saints of the Most High God whose Kingdom is Everlasting and that Nation Kingdom and People that will not bow to Truth will moulder away and come to nothing as the Lord hath said For now is the effect of every Vision fully to come and no more at all to be prolonged And therefore Wo Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth and the Sea who are putting the Day of the Lord a far off crying Peace Peace when there is no Peace for there is no Peace to any who will not have Jesus Christ the true Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World to rule in them and over them for his is the Kingdom Glory and Power and he will Reign for Evermore in the midst of his Enemies Glory to his Name without ceasing Amen and Amen saith my Soul whom thou hast Redeemed O Holy One of Israel to set forth thy Praise amongst the Living in Jerusalem thy Holy Hill so be it So now O all ye that love Righteousness and daily wait to see the Heavenly Kingdom thereof set up in you and in all People I T. T. your Brother in the Joys and Sufferings of the Gospel having had through the Mercifulness of our God and Father perfect knowledge of his Good Way from the beginning of this Day of his Love which hath dawned upon his Beloved Seed in these Islands and in all the World do declare and bear my Testimony for God amongst many Brethren that there is no way to God the Father of Light but by the Light Christ Jesus that true Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World with a Light that is Pure Free Spiritual and Sufficient that all Men through it may believe and so be led out of Darkness Sin and Death the ways of Sin into the Marvellous Light and Life of Righteousness and true Holiness and so into Fellowship with the Holy God without which Holiness none can see him nor enjoy him for ever For this Gift of God the Light is Holy and in all that believe and receive it it brings forth it s own Blessed Image which is Holiness And it is Free and works according to its own Blessed Nature in all that joyn to it setting them free from all their Spiritual Enemies whatsoever and so making them Free-born Children of the Heavenly Jerusalem which is free for evermore from all the false and imbondaging Impositions of the Man of Sin whatsoever And so also because this Heavenly Gift of God Christ Jesus the Light who Lighteth every Man John 1.9 is perfect and shines in the Heaâ—t therefore it doth of its own Nature make perfect every Man that wiâ—h their Hearts receive it and so come to God by it It makes perfect to God as pertaining â—o the very Heart and Conscience of all its Lovers for if you Love the Light you Love God from whence it comes for he that Loves him that is sent â—oveth also him that sent him And therefore I say unto all People upon the face of the Earth that all that Faith Hope Worship Religion or whatever it may be called That stands not in and is not carried on in this Power of God the Light which Lighteth every Man is nothing worth Every good and perfect Gift saith James cometh down from the Father of Light who is Unchangeable and it shines in the Heart of every Man though the Darkness which through the Full hath gotten place there comprehends it not yet the Light is there a sure Foundation a tried Corner-Stone Elect and Precious Blessed are all that fall upon it so as to be broken into Godly Sorrow and Tenderness of Heart and Blessed are all that Build upon it they shall be called the Elect of God Precious Sons and Daughters of Zion and their Building shall never fail them nay the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against their FAITH because it standeth in the Power of God Christ Jesus the Light that ever Liveth to keep them in a good and safe Condition that thus come to God by him The Day is dawned which makes all things manifâ—ll Praised be God forever even the Spirit of Truth which leadeth into all Truth is come and the Holy Anâ—iâ—ting is witnessed in all that believe in the Name of the Living Unchangeable God which Teacheth all things and it abideth in the Faithful Hearts and is sufficient And he called the Light Day and so the joyful Day which the Lord hath made being come we will Rejoyce and be Glad in it though the Children of Darkness be never so Angry For the Lord our Strength will maintain our Cause against all his Foes for evermore so be it And now though the Children of the Night be many and Professors of the Letter of Scripture that want the Life of it come forth as so many Armies to plead for and contend for their several formed Ways and invented Worships against the Children of God this day who Worship God in Spirit and in Truth yet Greater is he that is in us then he that is in the World and so though we are forced to Build in this our Holy City New Jerusalem with our Spiritual Sword in our Hand yet we are all well content finding the Lord still with us in this Day of the Restoration of all things And so though Tobiah and Sanballat with all the Heathen Mock and carry false Reports concerning us to the Rulers of the Earth yet through the Help of our God we are enabled to go on in our Holy Spiritual Work in the Lord 's Holy City
Body shall be full of Light but if you say Nay but we will do and say and Understand as we have been accustomed then know for certain you are of those that Reject the good Counsel of God given you by his Spirit in his Servant Thomas Taylor Something in Answer to a Paper from a Nameless Author directed to be left at Joseph Holt's in Okeham BUT Before I speak in particular to it I cannot but touch a little upon another Paper to that part of it where it is said Perhaps the Man concealed his Name on purpose to try the Man's Skill who said He had an Vnction from the Holy One and knew all things If so be he knows all things he will easily inform thee who it was that wrote it Now to this I say that all People may here take notice what a Scoffing Prophane Spirit lodges in these Men to wit Those Priests and their Auditors Who but a Julian or some Gross Heathen would have made a Mock of the plain words of the Apostle For the Man did not say so of himself but only brought the Apostles words which say 1 John 2.20 Ye to wit the Saints have received an Vnction from the Holy One and ye know all things To prove that the Saints Teacher is the Anointing of God now in them as then And I may say therefore such as have not this Unction are not of Christ But doth it therefore follow That either the Apostles and Saints then or the Children and Saints of God now do know all Natural or Worldly Things I remember it 's said in Scripture that when the Jews and Gentiles had blindfolded Christ they Smote him and wickedly said unto him Prophesie who it is that Smote thee and was not this from the very same ground that this Scoffer speaks reasoning What if thou be Christ and a Prophet thou canst tell all things and therefore thou canst easily tell who Smote thee Those also did it for the very same end that this Man supposes this to be done for to wit To try his Skill But the Lord will Judge for ever all such his Enemies But what if one had gone to the Saints whom John writ to and said A Paper was sent to me this day and there is no Name at it and I desire to know it but cannot surely you can tell me what the Man's Name was if you know all things Or if a Man had had his Horse or other thing stolen from him Would it have been good Work from any especially from a Tempting Scoffing Spirit to have said you Saints know all things therefore what is the Thief 's Name or so O Impiety To what a height Wickedness is grown up in the Unbelievers and Mockers in this Age. But come ye Teachers of the Parishes tell me Do you indeed believe or you do not that John spoke true when he said The Brethren had received an Vnction from the Holy One and they know all things If you do believe that the Brethren then did and that they now do receive such an Anointing I ask you What are those All things that the Unction taught them were they Heavenly or Earthly things If Heavenly even things pertaining to Salvation and Preservation in a Saved State as without all question the Apostle did intend as is plain there and not such earthly things as this Scoffer speaks of Then I say this Scoffer is either very ignorant of the Scriptures or he is very wicked in his Mind in sinning against Light to make God's Children Odious But the Cause of his Truth God will ever defend and the Scorner he will Judge And for those other words in that little Paper where it is said to Joseph Holt When thou dost know me do not pelt me with Reproaches call me not Vnrighteous Priest nor one of the World as your Phrases are nor yet be so rash as that Old Peevish Man at Sommerby was to tell me I am Damned I answer That I am the Man I suppose thou intends by that Old Peevish Man at Sommerby and therefore whoever thou art that says I said thou art Damned it was not so but a meer Falshood in thee to say so for I never said so to any man that I know of but what I said at that time at Sommerby against your Deceit was not Rashness nor Peevishness but pure Zeal for God which caused me to declare for God against you for wresting the Scripture and abusing the People thereby What you are by your Fruits is very manifest he that runs may read what your in free is by your Words and Works the Day of the Lord hath found you out and therefore if you repent not you cannot miss to perish with all the Wicked that are gone before you though we should hold our Peace And so to call you that are Unrighteous as by your Fruits is manifest and who by your own Service-book are tearmed Priests I say to call you as you are is neither False nor Reproachful when in the fear and feeling of God it is so said to or of you But that you should account your selves either wronged or reproached if one tell you that you are of the World is something strange seeing the Course of your Lives is so in the broad way of the World and your Spirits so Worldly as not only by your earnest Pleading for worldly Elements so necessary to Salvation as outward Water that you can hardly be perswaded that any can be Regenerate or Saved without it but also at your very Scossing at the Holy Anointing of the Spirit of God in his People as is manifest but without this Anointing of God none knows Savingly any thing of the things of God's Kingdom but for all that other Understanding which is not of this Holy Anointing of God's Spirit Man may be Brutish And so I come in the Ability I have from the Lord to refute and make void thy Dark Thoughts Arguments and Reasons for and concerning outward Washing or Sprinkling the little Infants with Elementary Water mentioned in that first Paper And first where from Matt. 19.14 thou drawest these Arguments for Infant-Baptism First sayest thou Those whom Christ would have brought unto him it doth not at all become us to stop from Baptism c. To this I answer That by this manner of wild Arguing thou mayst deceive the Simple and lead the Blind into the Pit but none that in any measure are guided by God's Light can be deceived with it For what if I form thy words into a Syllogism your Diana there will no such thing at all as Infant-Baptism arise from them but only this that those ought not to be hindred from coming to Christ whom he would have come to him Unless you will say That Christ Baptized those Children with outward Water which if you should either say or think it would be most Absurd and to be exploded by all Neither was it in the desire at all of them that