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
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
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
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
who are in their own Wills doing the Will of the Flesh which is Enmity to God And so Wo to the Climbers over the Door who are gotten into a Prosession of Christ without his Cross without the Lord's Law which is Spiritual without the knowledge of that Flaming Sword to cut down the Man of Sin that in the Birth which is Holy one may come to the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Garden O ye People harken a while who have been feeding upon the Tree of Knowledge and never came through God's Judgments the Flaming Sword to the Tree of Life your Food is Death your Works will burn and your Fig-leaf Covers will fall off and you be left naked and bare to the Shame of your Nakedness as in the day that you were born For what is any Covering worth unless it be that of the Spirit of Christ The Lord God who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity will bring your Deeds to the Light of his Judgment and before him will nothing stand but that which is pure your defiled Preachings Prayings Singings Hearings Readings will all be rejected and cast out as Dung from the Presence of the pure holy God that consuming Fire You have multiplied Words without Knowledge you have not been neither yet are ye Doers of God's Will to God's Witness in your Consciences I speak therefore in vain do you say Lord Lord and he will not hold them Guiltless that take his Name in vain Your Garment is not of the pure white Linnen which is the Saints Righteousness but Linnen and Woollen is your Covering the Linsey woolsey Garment a thing forbidden by God's Law Your Field is not sown with the one Heavenly kind of Grain the good Wheat but another Seed have you mingled with it and the Mixture is so great that the Earthly hath almost covered and quite choaked the Heavenly in you If you will work you must into God's Vineyard and be exceeding Diligent and Laborious in plucking up the Weeds by the Roots in you the Light of Christ in the Conscience waiting in it will give the Understanding But Wo will be to them that call Light Darkness and put Darkness for Light and so suffer the Good in them to wither and nourish the bad part which is like the Grave that never hath enough always Learning but never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth But both Teachers and Hearers all in Sin and laden with divers Lusts all their Lives long And Wo to the Fleshly and Selfish Workers on this Holy Sabbath day of the Lord wherein he hath given his People Rest from all their weary Labours and Burdens The outward day the First day of the Week shall not cover you nor be a Sabbath to you but in the Breach of God's Holy and everlasting Sabbath you being found you must bear his Judgment And you feed upon the airy Words of Man's Wisdom raised up by the Crafty Spirit to please the Itching Ears of Fallen Man and whose Faith stands in the Wisdom of these Words and not in the Power of God a day of Scattering cometh upon you it cometh and a grievous Whirlwind from the Lord and though a Famine of the Word of the Lord is upon you already yet you will not know it nor he humbled for it but the pleasant Breasts of Mystery Babylon which you so much delight in will be dried up that you will get no Suck nor Food for that unsatiable Mind in you that is like the Grave that can never have enough always learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth which sets free from Sin and the Songs of your Temple shall be Howlings in that Day because of the Vine of Sodom that will bear no more Grapes for all the Earth hath drunk so deep of the Wine of the Fornication of the great Whore that the Nations are Mad against the Appearance of the Lamb who is arisen to set up his Kingdom over all for the Lamb must have the Victory and Reign so be it for Evermore And you that talk so boastingly of your Faith and Suffering Mind you know not what Spirit you are of for the same Mind that you think to suffer in is it which hath formerly caused Sufferings to the Righteous and would do the like at this Day if Power were in your Hands and so if you could give your Bodies to be burnt in this Uncharitable and Persecuting Nature it would profit you nothing at all Thomas Taylor To the Presbyterians O Ye People called Presbyterians you have fully manifested your selves this Day to be of the Spirit of Cain the first Persecutor of God's Righteous Seed and as for your threatning of me and hawling me out of your Synagogue towards the Mayor because in Obedience to God I came to speak in his Name to let you see your Sins and to warn you of the Judgments of the Lord God that will certainly come upon you for them if you speedily Repent not and humble your selves for all your Pride and Hypocrisies and false Accusations and Persecutions of the Righteous Seed of God which he hath raised up this Day in the Earth to witness for him against all the false ways of fain Man that so all may come to the Power Christ Jesus to know him in them to be their Light and Life and alone Teacher to Salvation And this is my Witness for God this Day that except you come hither you will never be Established Thomas Taylor But what are you grown so high already that one must not come amongst you though in never so peaceable a manner to speak a word though in the Name of the Lord This is not only contrary to the Order of the true Church in the Apostles Days but also contrary to the King 's Late Declaration which saith That the Places of Toleration must stand open for all to come into But this Persecuting Spirit is but the same that hath been in you of Old notwithstanding all that hath come upon you in these Late Days To the Blind Teachers WO to the Teachers that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not and Hearts that will not understand who can put no difference betwixt the Precious and the Vile but give the things they account Holy to the manifest Unholy Wicked and Prophane and so dishonour the Lord and deceive the Souls of the People and so they not discerning the Lord's Body nor the Members thereof which are holy they speak Peace to the Wicked who are Members of the Wicked One for his Servants and Members People are to whom they do Obey so Wo is to this present evil and wicked World who in words profess Christ but in their deeds do grievously dishonour him the Day hastneth wherein the Scripture must be fulfilled upon you who will not that Christ should Reign rests a Mourner in Zion for all the Abominations that are done amongst you Thomas Taylor For
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
Lord and the Honourable Marriage O Blasphemous Men how dare ye so Blaspheme the glorious Name of God shall you never be judged for these things yea verily the Lord will require a strict Account for it is now Day time and you Sin in the Day after Warning and so your Sins are the greater and the Judgment will be accordingly And as you begin with the People so you lead them on with their corrupt Seed bringing that also into your cursed Covenant by sprinkling with earthly Water which washes away the Sin but the Lord God is separating ye all to the Sword and you shall be a Prey to his Wrath and his Servants who now Mourns for you and thus Warns you shall rejoice for ever even so Lord Jesus Amen and Amen Thomas Taylor To the Children of Men. O Ye Children of Men doth not the Eye of the Lord God behold all your Doings and doth he not see all your studyings how to satisfie and fulfil the Lusts and Desires of your own evil Hearts Is not all your Gaming 's Sportings and Mispendings of your precious Time known to him And when he beholds your Cock-Pits your Bowling-Allies your Play-Houses and the like places of Vanity doth not his Soul abhor them that spends the Creation in making and setting up such things and that lets forth his Heart in delight after the things there practised O how is the Lord dishonoured by such doings Did Christ come into the World to hold up such things or to pull them down and will you profess Christ and keep up those things which he came to destroy O blush for shame and lay your Hand upon your Mouth and never boast of your Religion more until you leave off your Vanities and Iniquities For because of the Evil of your Doings will the Lord plead with you and all the Children of Vanity And the Wicked shall not be able to stand before him in this day of his Wrath that is come and coming upon all the Earth to consume the Sinners out of it For the Lord hath a Controversie with the whole Earth and by the Fiery Sword of his glorious Mouth will he get himself the Victory And not by the Sword of either Great or Mean Men shall the Earth be purged from her Dross He that hath an Ear let him hear and repent of the Evil of his Doings For he that goeth on in Sin after the Admonition of Truth shall not prosper saith the Spirit Thomas Taylor To the Fencers O Ye Fencers and Sword-Players vain Men How will you Fence off or defend your selves from the Judgments and Wrath of God that is to come upon you for your Sins O what a Company you gathered together Yesterday for your own filthy Lucre sake to the Dishonour of God and wounding of all your poor Souls in the sight of God! O the Wickedness of these Times and Evils of these Evil Days And what O ye People the Lovers and Beholders of these Vanities will you not see the Evil of your Doings one Day gather together into that you call your Church in a presence of Worshipping God and the very next Day found assembled together with Drums into the County House to see the Heathenish Actings of Two vain Men with Naked Swords which amongst Christians should be put up into their Sheath What Abomination is this to see a Town and a Country gathered together and that not of the Meanest of the People to give their Money and spend their Time to see Two vain Men Fight for a Wager as they pretend and yet in Hypocrisie too to get the People's Money and especially in these hard Times when many poor Souls have not a Penny to buy them Bread withal Will not God Judge for these things Will not God's Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Yea sure he will and plenty in abundance of Drums and Naked Swords may you hear and see to your astonishment And that in earnest to waste and cut down a Proud Wicked Gainsaying and Hypocritical People Howl ye Priests the Head of all this Vileness who have taught the People to be Heathens and to delight their Hearts in things which God's Soul hateth Howl ye Magistrates who have born the Sword in vain and have not withstood the doings of the Wicked but have suffered them to act their Abominations in the chief Places of your Towns even before your Judgment-Seats Howl all ye People high and low who are Upholders of and Delighters in the vain Inventions and Heathenish Works of all sorts of Wicked Men and your Hearts are secretly departed from the Living God so that your delight is not in any of his Ways The Lord's Controversie is with you and he will certainly ease himself of you and all his Adversaries as saith his Spirit in his Servant Thomas Taylor Concerning Sprinkling HEAR O ye Priests and harken O People for the Lord hath a Controversie with you because of the Evil of your Doings your Gatherings together are for the worse and not the better and the Lord can smell no Sweet Savour in your Feasts because of his Name which is Holy which you so much take in vain at such times as these For when you tell of Christning a Child and Regenerating it and making it an Heir of God's Kingdom by such your Doings you deceive your selves and the Infant greatly And so when in words you seem to give Thanks to God for doing that which he neither doth nor never promised to do by such a means Do you not greatly dishonour him and take his Name in vain The Apostle Peter saith It is not the washing away of the filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good Conscience in the Resurrection of Jesus that Savâ—s But what answer can the little Child have at present who is sensible of no such thing And for your selves your own words do daily bear witness against you to be an Unsaved People for you say You do that you should not do and leave undone what God commands and that there is no Health in you And this not only in such Doings as this at this time but also in the whole Course of your Lives you make good For the Lord I say that he never required this at your hands to wit To take a little Water and sprinkle it on a little Infants Face and then to say that thereby it is made a Member of Christ a Child of God and Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven And the Scripture no where saith any such thing and so you have no ground in the Truth for such a thing nor for your Godfathers and God-mothers as you in your Blindness call them to promise that for the Child which you never did perform for your selves to this day as is manifest for to that of God in your Conscience I speak When did you forsake the Devil and all his Works Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts and Desires of
is gathering his Lots from amongst them into his happy Fold of Truth and Rest that the Judgments of God may hasten upon the wicked Sodom and Egypt who burden the Just that God's righteous Soul may be eased of them Even so come Lord Jesus for thou art worthy to reign saith my Soul Thomas Taylor Richard Baxter's BOOK ENTITULED The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D and CONFUTED And he PROV'D to be a Physician of no Value Who hath Manifested his Folly and Weakness in Undertaking a Work which he hath so little Understanding in By THOMAS TAYLOR For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to Covetousness c. They have Heal'd also the Hurt of the Daughter of my People with sweet words saying Peace Peace when there is no Peace Jer. 6.13 14. But ye are Forgers of Lies ye are all Physicians of no Value Job 13.4 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. Richard Baxter's BOOK ENTITULED The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D and CONFUTED RICHARD BAXTER a Man who through a shew of Learning and Religion had gotten in Oliver Cromwell's Days a great Esteem in the Minds of the Ignorantly Zealous Professors of Religion in this Nation and especially in the Parts of Worcester-shire about Kidderminster where he then resided hath since the Change of the Times and coming in of the Old Common-Prayer-Book-again much manifested his Nakedness Confusion and Unsoundness to every Eye that in any measure is open to see the difference of Truth and Error in the ground of it as by his Works appear And that it is so amongst other things that Book of his fasly call'd The Cure of Church-Divisions which I have now under-hand to Answer doth plainly manifest For instead of Curing Divisions he hath shew'd himself to be a Physician of no Value and so instead of Curing hath struck at under a Judas Kiss of Unity and Concord the very Life and Foundation of all true Christian Unity and Amity to wit The Free and Perfect Teachings and Gifts and Work of the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of the Father and Son in his Believing Members whereby they cry in a spotless Mind Abba Father and freely and powerfully declare the Glory of his Kingdom to the Children of Men and instead thereof would bring in and establish that Soul-deceiving and Church-dividing Doctrine of Humane Learning and Humane Helps as absolutely necessary to the procuring and engaging as it were the Holy unlimited God to give unto the Creature his Holy Spirit and the Knowledge of the Mysteries of his Eternal Will and Kingdom for the same as in Answer to an Objection in the 6th Page of his Book in his first Direction so call'd is to be seen The Objection against his Carnal Reasonings for Old Men's Knowledge is in Page 5. where he saith I know those that I have to do with will say That Divinity is not learn'd by Labour and Men's teaching as other Sciences and Arts are but by Teaching I add yea and most free Gift of the Spirit of God and therefore the Youngest may have as much of it as the Eldest And to this R. B. there thus Answers Answ There is some Truth saith he and some Falshood and much Confusion in this Objection But let us hear how this R. B. proves that that there is either Falshood or Confusion in the Objection It is true saith he that the Saving Knowledge of Divinity must be taught by the Spirit of God but it is false that Labour and Humane Teaching are not the Means which must be us'd by them who will have the Teaching of the Spirit Reply But O the Darkness yea rather Enmity that is in R. B's Heart against the free Teaching of God's Spirit That he would find any thing against so plain and manifest Truth as is in this Objection But what will not Flesh do that is lifted up with Conceits of his own Wisdom to keep up its Honour before the People rather than the Purâ— Undoubted Truth of the Gospel and Self-abasing Spirit of Truth should Reign and have the Preheminence But to this I say that a Child of Light in the least Measure doth easily see the Falshood of that Spirit by which this R. B. is acted in this his Answer For the Wind of the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof thou natural Man but neither knows whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that is Born of God And without this Birth all thy Knowledge is Damning not Saving John 3.7 8 c. And Job 32.7.8 I said Days should Speak and multitude of Years should Teach Wisdom But there is a Spirit in Man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding And saith God It shall come to pass in the last Days that I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh and they shall all know me from the least to the gâ—eatest Yea and Young-men shall see Visions and Servants and Hand-maids shall Prophesie And ye have received an Vnction from the Holy One And ye know all things saith the Apostle John and ye need not that any Man teach you This is the Day of the Lord wherein these things are fulfill'd prais'd be God And the New Covenant abundantly witness'd in the Children of Light whom this wicked Book of R. B's strikes at but his Wickedness turns upon his own Pate and his own Iniquities shall slay him For he by his Carnal Wisdom would darken Knowledge and shut the Kingdom of Heaven against Men as his Predecessors of Old the Pharisâ—es mention'd Mat. 23. did But the Lord hath open'd a Door to the Believing Souls this Day which all the Powers of Darkness shall never be able to shut Glory to his Name for Ever But what is that Labour and Humane Means that People must use for getting the Spirit of God or Saving Knowledge of Divinity as he calls it Is it tumbling over a Ruck of Books stuffed with Art and Humane Wisdom or Learning from below as this R. B. hath long done to the darkning of his Heart from the Knowledge of God and Way of his Spirit so that he knows nothing of it after all his long lost Labour but what he knows naturally as a Brute Beast and that 's plain for it sanctifies him not as by his confessing That his best Duties even his Prayers are not without Sin and affirming That no Man prays without Sin As in his Book is to be seen Page 195. and in his Preface And so the Prayer of Faith and Preaching by the Spirit he is ignorant of yea Preaching by the Spirit is become a Mock and a Derision to him and his Brethren at this Day But Paul and all the Ministers of Christ Magnifie the Free Grace and Infinite Gift of the Spirit of God according to that 2 Cor. 3. saying Not
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
unsound unchristian and ignorant Sayings it fully appears that this Bryan is one of them who have neither seen nor known Christ seeing he would bring in the Heathen into the Temple without the Word And so Who is more Ignorant and Prophane than this Priest Bryan himself as also his Brother R. B. who is not ashamed to make such a one a Tutor or Father of Ministers who is ignorant of the very Door and Entrance into the Church and of Christ's second Coming Nay who is ignorant of his first Appearance which was for Judgment even to whip the Buyers and Sellers and all Prophane ones out of his House as he said himself For Judgment come I into this World What Pastors or Teachers can such Tutor as are so ignorant of Christ's Kingdom and so admit the Ignorant and Prophane into their Church or Cage of unclean Birds for the Church of Christ which is visibly seen and known by the Spiritual Eye to be his Body is Holy and into it can no unclean thing enter as saith the Scripture Rev. 21.27 but into the World's Church may both Ignorant and Prophane enter and dwell But at such dishonest Gain as is gotten by such Doctrines as this of Bryan and R. B. hath the Lord long shaken his Hand Is this your Ware that you sell to the People at so dear a Rate Is this your Straw and Stubble that you seed them with But no Man of any Understanding in Heavenly Matters will buy any more of your Merchandize For God is come to teach his People himself and the Spirit of God is felt and witnessed amongst us praised be God yea and in our very Hearts to teach us and by which we feel Christ come again the second Time without Sin to Salvation according to his Holy Promises and by whose all-powerful Word of Faith and Heavenly Presence in us are we joyned together unto him in one Holy Body Glory to his Name over all for he is worthy And for that Saying That Christian Princes have not less Power to abolish Idolatry and by Law and Penalties to compel the Subjects in Matters of Religion where there is a parity of reason than the Jewish Kings under that Law had I answer and say That all are not Christians who are so called and this crying up the Worldly Magistrates Power in Matters Spiritual is the only In-let into Persecution of the Tender-hearted People of God who cannot bow to every thing the World sets up yea though it come under the name or shew of Christian Religion and if the Image be of Gold never so goodly yet wanting Life and Power they cannot bow to it I say They who Preach up the Worldly Princes under what Name soever to have Power over the Consciences of People in Matters purely Spiritual as the whole Body of Christian Religion is are Antichristian and the great Enemies of that Liberty which Christ hath purchased for his People and which the Apostles sealed unto with their Blood saying in such cases Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Heart And who art thou that judges much less forcest and compellest as Bryan and R B's Doctrine would have it another to his own Master to wit God the Judge of all he standeth or falleth see Rom. 14. at large but what account will those Daubers give to the Lord for all the Innocent Blood they have caused to be shed these many hundred Years is Sad to consider For though such Magistrates as are evil inclined are not free yet the False Teachers who by their Lies stir up yea and bring forth that evil Inclination into real Actings against the Good shall receive the greater Condemnation And yet notwithstanding all the Evil both in the one and in the other the Lord will certainly carry on his great Work to his own Praise which he hath begun Glory to his Name for ever And the Beast Whore and False Prophet shall alive together be cast into the Lake prepared for them and into the Pit which they had digged for others Also whereas he saith That it sufficeth that we have Examples in the Old Testament for the Magistrates Power in Church matters though none in the New Testament I say It is no more true than if we should reason for an outward worldly Temple Sacrifices and Circumcision now because there is Examples of these things in the Old Testament and for Revenge and Retaliation now because it is mentioned in the Old contrary to Christ For though it hath been said of old saith Christ an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth yet I say to you my Disciples under the New Covenant If any Man smite you on the one Cheek turn to him the other and the Apostle saith Dearly beloved avenge not your selves butif thy Enemy hunger seed him c. and so Christ being come and all Power in Heaven and Earth given him Is not he in these Spiritual Matters relating to the very Soul and Conscience the only Lord Law-giver and King and Supreme and ought of right to rule in his own House and Temple which is in Man and those that will not that he should Rule must bow before him and be ashamed before his Face So that now the Son of God being come and seated by right of Inheritance the true King and Heir upon David's Throne to Rule in Righteousness for ever in the Hearts of his Children he commands the true Seed of Israel to obey his Heavenly Voice Law and Doctrine spoken and written within as those outward and typical Kings did command the fleshly Seed of Abraham to keep Moses's Law written without and as those that obeyed not that outward Law of Moses were lyable to the Punishment of that Law so they now that obey not Christ's Spiritual Law written in the Heart and Conscience by his Holy Power are lyable to the Eternal Judgment of Jesus Christ the Judge of Quick and Dead as he saith The Father judges no Man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son And as for the worldly Magistrate he is to Rule in outward things betwixt Man and Man to see that every one as to the Body and outward Estate be well behaved one towards another and not to bear the Sword in vain as hath been too much in use even amongst many called Christian Magistrates as well as others from whence it hath come to pass that for the sake of the Poor whom the worldly Powers have oppressed as well in Temporals as Spirituals the Lord hath overturned them one Sort after another as they were found in the Abuse of that Power and Trust which was put into their Hands for the Protection of and Encouragement and Praise of the Good and Punishment of the Evil doers but not the contrary according to that of the Prophet I will overturn overturn overturn till he come whose Right it is And so until Truth Righteousness Goodness Equity and Justice rule both in the Hearts and Lives of
his Vials Seven times Seven Upon the Seat of that proud Beast and Whore Who hate his Truth and would his Lambs devour And would set up that Worship which he hates And all that Bow unto it Desolates And will not suffer Light and Life to Reign But Preach and Pray and all for filthy Gain God shakes his Hands against you for such things And He 's the Lord of Lords and King of Kings Who will not be o'er-top'd by Mortal Birth Whose Origin and Root is from the Earth But will be Honour'd as a Heavenly King Or else his Judgments through the Earth shall Ring With Terrors great he will his Foes Confound Who have wrought all their Works as under Ground And in their Hearts have said Tush none doth see But we shall Rule and Reign and only we O turn your Ears and listen then a while Let not the Serpent always you Beguile He that deceiv'd the simple one at first Doth after all your Souls and Spirits thirst He leads you out to love the Perishing things Which swiftly fly away with Eagles Wings Which answer not the Heavenly Minds desire But leaves your Spirits scorch'd as with a Fire You seem to Eat and sumptuously to Fare But when awake you Lean and Hungry are You spend your Money for poor empty Shells And go to Drink at Springless empty Wells And when your Minds with Wind and Air are fill'd And you a little in School-Learning Skill'd Then do you Jude your selves fit Guides to be Unto the poor Unskilful Commonalty Who do not know the difference 'twixt the Wheat And Chaff which to the Soul was never Meat But hark what is it now my Mind doth see Sad Oaths impos'd on Men that should be free That should their Office do as Christians did In former times as great Jehovah bid And not as Worldly Men whose Will 's their Law Who with their Fines and Threats still kept in A we The silly Multitude which knows not God But are more Fearful of the Tyrants Rod And are in Earthly-mindedness so deep That they will lose the Soul before their Sheep And are so Ignorant of things Divine That they will part with Truth before their Swine And what Religion is it that such Men For Worldly Ends will not Profess but when The Tide of Times doth turn and changes Face Then they will leave you all unto Disgrace And that which now seems as an Iron Post Will then forsake you and be gone and lost For it 's their Bodies that by force is gain'd When as their Souls i' th' change of Sin 's detain'd So that a perfect Man you cannot bring Of all your Number unto God to Sing And Sound forth Holy Praises ' mongst the Choire Of Holy Ones who burn in pure Desire Of setting up the Lamb upon his Throne Of Highest Glory and all Sorrows gone Then what 's your Work and where will you appear When you have Slept and Slumb'red Year by Year And in mean while have suffer'd Souls to Pine For want of Heavenly Bread and Spiritual Wine And would them neither Feed nor suffer such As God hath sent to Feed them but do grutch That any but your selves should have a share I' th' Work of Feeding such as to God precious are But this be known unto you all this Day That Israel's Holy One none limit may If Christ an Amos or a Peter will Have in his Vineyard Work his Word 's their skill By which without Book-Learning they do know ' Gainst Satan's Kingdom how to bend their Bow And if proud Scribes and Pharisees Disdain Their mean Appearance and their Language plain Then doth their Master plead their Innocent Cause And soon delivers them from Tyrants Jaws And makes the Earth to know that maugre spight He 's able to secure the Harmless Wight Who trusts unto his Strength and walks the Ways Of Truth and Holiness unto his Praise And that the Earthly Man with all his Power Shall not secure himself from Heaven's sharp Shower Of Hail-stones which upon the Wicked must Be Rained down as thick as any Dust But stay a little to the present Work A Word or two in Love that does no hurt A Visitation's talk'd of in these Towns Wherein the Priests must come with Long Black Gowns To make Appearance but whose Will to do They best can tell who perfectly do know Then I demand in plainness that you may Prove by the Scripture what you do this day Why doth your Bishop Ride in so great State As if to Kings and Princes he were Mate And yet will say to others they must Dye To Worldly Pomp and Earthly Vanity Why are you Teachers now call'd Masters when Christ saith Be ye not Masters call'd of Men And why your Courts which Spiritual are by Name Do Trouble Men for carnal Things O shame That you should Read so long the Scripture Letter And yet your selves and Business do no better Why is your Maint'nance forc'd when th' Gospel's free And God's pure Day is dawn'd that all may see That those that dare not trust the Lord for that Are such as Minister they know not what For such in the Beginning that did Preach The Everlasting Gospel and did Teach Men to observe Christ's Doctrine knew not how At all by outward force to make Men Bow But said Our Weapons are not of the Earth But Spiritual Powerful from that Heavenly Breath That Fans and Winnows and doth not beguile But separates the Precious from the Vile And so into Subjection they did bring By force of Truth unto their Holy King They sought not Earthly Honours nor did crave The Earthly Riches but the Soul to save You have received freely freely give Saith Christ who took the Care how they should Live And be maintain'd and did not bid them take Wages of Heathens who the Truth do hate But now you have a Custom sad to see To force your Wages both from Bond and Free You force your own Disciples yea and those That are as Heathens Judged by your Laws Which if your Spirit were not over-base You would soon reckon it a foul Disgrace Can any Man that 's Noble in his Heart Take Hire of such as from the Lord depart And not Require it only but compel Them to Maintain you Judge is this done well May not such truly say You Love your Pride More than the Gospel and all things beside For sure a little will serve Natures turn But what can satisfie where Lust doth Burn For when in Pride and Fulness Men will Live Then comes the Horse-leach Daughters crying Give Give give yea which is ill yea worst of all We 'll have it or we 'll bring you into Thrall We 'll have your Tythes we 'll have your Easter's Dues We 'll have them all you's neither Will nor Chuse And thus old Eli's Sons are still alive Which in this World nor that to come will thrive What! Preach the Gospel and yet Sue to such For Maintenance as
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
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
How could the Word of God be called a Mystery hid from Ages and Generations but now is made manifest if the Light within be sufficient And then quotes Eph. 3.9 Col. 1.25 26. Mat. 11.25 I answer That it was within and sufficient when it lay hid as a Mystery till God's full time came of revealing it and therefore Christ compares it to many Powerful and Precious though hidden things and of little account to the outward view as to a Grain of Mustard-seed in the Earth to a little Leaven within much Flower to Treasure hid in the Field and Christ said to the Pharisees that God's Kingdom was to be found in Man he excludes none and those Scriptures thou sett'st down prove for this Truth and against thy roving Mind which is in the outward observings thinking to find the Kingdom there when Christ saith it cometh not that way see Luke 17.20 21. What wilt thou conclude it was not because it lay hid What Logick is this Doth not Paul there say that the Mystery which was so hid and which he by the Spirit now Preached which was Christ in the Gentiles the Hope of Glory And Christ was Light and to this Light he warned every Man to take heed but the little Children not the Masters obey the Voice and so are led into the Understanding of the Mystery Qu. 2. In the next general Query thou askest Are not the Scriptures the Words of the Lord whose Words are they And why is the Scripture so often called the Word of God and the Word of the Lord And for this thou brings many Scriptures as Exod. 24.4 2 Kings 20.26 27 28 29. Psal 12.6 Jer. 36.4 6 8 11. Acts 19.10 2 Cor. 2.17 1 Thes 1.8 Answ To this I say First That the Holy Scriptures were given forth by Holy Men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and so they may be called the Words of God or of the Lord not that Spirit and Living Word but that those Scriptures prove what thou bringest them for to wit that the Scriptures or Writings without is there called the Word of God is not true it is said indeed in that of 2 Kings 20.16 That Isaiah said unto Hezekiah Hear the Word of the Lord and Hezekiah said Good is the Word of the Lord and in other places of Scriptures that the Word of the Lord came to the Prophets and that in the fore-mentioned place of Acts and Corinthians and Thessalonians mention is made of the Apostles Preaching the Word of God all this is true but of Exodus and Psalms and Jeremiah mention is made of Words but what doth all this prove but only that the Word came to Holy Men this Word was God and as this Word moved in them and gave them Wisdom and Utterance they writ or spoke forth Words as a Declaration of what was in the Mind or Word of God or what God was and what though the Scriptures may be thus called The Words of the Lord or his Prophets or Apostles Acted by his Power which we never denied this is nothing to the Hypocrites who use their Tongues to say The Lord saith when he never spoke by them but make a Trade of the Scriptures for filthy Lucre and by their much pressing the Declaration to be the Word of God have quite clouded the Word it self Christ from whence true Words come from the Peoples Minds so that scarce any have any true Living Feeling after God in his Word Christ for in the beginning was the Word before all Declarations and shall be after all the Peaceable Life of all that Believe for ever So that the Lord saw it good to stir up a People in these days to be True and Living Witnesses of the Word for the stopping of the Mouths of all such as have gotten the Words as Thieves from others and so kept People in the form with themselves always Professing but never Possessing the Power which the Scripture Witness unto and so the Letter and empty Words kill'd and do kill but now the Living Spirit and Living Word being Witnessed the Scriptures is owned in its place and Resurrection to Life being felt the Crown is set upon the King's Head whose Name is called The Word of God who was and is and is to come over all God Blessed for evermore and it is considerable that the Ministers of Christ are never called Ministers of the Letter or Words but of the Word and Spirit 2 Cor. 3. and that Christ and his Apostles mentioning the Prophets Words usually called them Scripture and not The Word of God as the custom of Hypocrites is now All Flesh is Grass and all outward Sounds and Signs vanish but the Word of the Lord that endures for ever and this is that Word which by the Gospel the Power of God is Preached and by nothing else savingly which when understood People are One but not before for it is the weakness which is like the Womans speaking makes Dissention so let the Scripture have its due and the Word of God its due and all is Beautiful in its place Query 3. In thy third thou askest How shall we know whether the Spirit that speaks in us be the Spirit of God or an evil Spirit but by trying them by the Scriptures And for this thou bringest 1 John 4.1 Isa 8.19 20. Acts 17.11 John 5.39 then thou replies and as it were says If you say we know the Spirit to be of God because it convinceth of Sin then I ask how do you know that to be Sin but by the Scripture For this thou bringest 1 John 3.4 Sin is a Transgression of the Law and afterwards says If we say that Spirit tells us it 's of God or that we know it but by its Fruit how do we know it not to be a lying Spirit or how do we know the Fruits of the Spirit but by Scripture Answ Now I say by all this it plainly appears that thou art no Gospel-Minister no Minister of the Spirit of God at all but art a meer talker of the Letter and Law not knowing what it faith nor whereof it affirmeth for doth not the next Covenant run thus I will put my Law in their Hearts and in their Minds will I write it Jer. 31.31 and Heb. 8.8 and the Apostle that said unto his Brethren Try the Spirits in that place 1 John 4 1. did not say you have a writing without by which you know all things but you have an Anointing from the Holy One and this abides in you and by this they know all things 1 John 2.20 27. according to what Paul in 1 Cor. 2.15 16. saith The Spiritual Man judgeth or discerneth all things but is judged or discerned of none for the Natural Man knows nothing aright though he may have all the Scriptures to talk of without him and though he may cry up in appearance even as Isaiah said to the Law and to the Testimony yet he never goes to the Law
be hated of all men whether Professors or Prophane who are out of that Life and Holy Worship even for Christs very Name and Life's sake because it is a Cross and Offence to all the World who are in their own Wills under what Form or Profession soever who are gotten into a Profession of Christ without Christ and the daily Cross which his Followers bear Therefore all who are climed up into the Tree of an outward Profession without the true real seeling and Spiritual acquaintance with the daily Cross and fiery Law of the Lord and flaming Sword which Guards the Tree of Life which is in the Hand of the Angel of the Covenant for the cutting down of the Man of Sin that the Birth Immortal which is Holy may onter in and possess the Inheritance must come down again I say they must come to the beginning from which in their fallen Wisdom they are wandred to learn of him in Silence who speaks from Heaven whose Word is nigh in the Heart before ever they be established for except you become as little Children not in Talk but in Truth ye cannot enter God's Kingdom O ye People hearken awhile whether Teachers or Hearers You who have been feeding upon the Tree of Knowledg and never came through Gods Judgments the Flaming Sword to the Tree of Life Your Food is Death your-Works will Burn and your Fig leaf-Covers will fall off you and you be left Naked and Bare to the shame of your Nakedness as in the day that you were Born For what is any Covering unless it be that of the Spirit of Christ The Lord God who is of Purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity will bring your Deeds to the Light of his Judgments from which you cannot flee and before him will nothing stand but that which is Pure Your defiled Preachings Prayings Singings Hearings Readings will be rejected and cast out as Dung from the Presence of the Pure Holy God that is a consuming Fire You have multiplied words without Knowledge Ye have not been neither yet are ye Doers of Gods Will to the Witness of God in your Consciences I speak therefore in vain do you say Lord Lord and he will not hold them Guiltless that take his name in Vain Your Garment is not of the Pure White Linnen which is the Saints Righteousness but Linnen and Woollen is your Covering a thing forbidden by Gods Law Your Field is not sowen with the one Heavenly kind of Grain the Good Wheat but another Seed have you mingled with it and the mixture is so great that the Bad hath almost choaked and covered the Good in you If you will work you must into Gods Vineyard and be exceeding Diligent and Laborious in Spirit in plucking up the Weeds by the Roots in you the Light of Christ in your Conscience waiting in it will give thee Understanding But Wo will be to them who call the Light Darkness and put Darkness for Light and so suffer the Good in them to wither and nourish the Bad Part in them which is like the Grave that never hath enough but is always learning at Man without and not at Christ within and Ministring from the outward Dead Spirit of the World and not from the measure of the Living Spirit of Christ and so not taking heed to the Word of Faith which is nigh in the Heart the Word of Christ which is Spirit and Life they never get Victory over their Sin as is manifest but go laden Teacher and Hearer all their Life long with divers Sins and Lusts as was said before So Wo to the selfish Workers who speak their own words and think their own thoughts on this the Holy Sabbath Day of the Lord God wherein he hath given his People rest from all their weary Labour and Burdens The outward Day the first Day of the Week shall not Cover you nor be a Sabbath to you but in the breach of Gods Holy and Everlasting Spiritual Sabbath of Rest you being found you must bear his Judgment Behold all ye that kindle a Fire this Day and that compass about your selves with Sparks walk in the Light of your Fire and in the Sparks that ye have kindled yet know that your reward from the Lords Hand is to lie down in Sorrow I say all you who feed upon and whose Faith stands in the wisdom of Vain Mans words raised up in the subtility to please the itching Ear and not in the Power of God which washeth the inside a Day of Scattering cometh upon you it cometh and a grievious Whirl-wind from the Lord and the Pleasant Breasts of Mystery Babylon which you so much delight in shall be dried up for the Lord hath rejected your Confidence because you have rejected his Good Word and Counsel and chosen your own Delusion and evil entreated his Servants whom he sent rising up early and sending them time after time to warn you to come out of all your Dead Forms and Dead Faith into the Living Virtue and Power of his eternal Spirit of Truth to Worship him there and to know it in you but you would not therefore the Lord will yet do that Great Work and Wonder amongst you he will confound the Wisdom of your Wise and bring to nought the understanding of your Prudent Men and they shall be as Women weak and feeble the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and the Songs of your Temple shall be Howlings in that Day because of the Vine of Sodom that will bear no more Grapes but so many as have drunk of the Wine of her Fornication must Drink of the Cup of Gods Wrath. And all you who talk of your Faith and suffering Condition and yet Live in your Sin you know not what Spirit you are of for the same mind that you think to suffer in is it which by Transgression grieves the Spirit of God and stands against the setting up of his Kingdom in your selves and the Testimony thereof in his redeemed Ones this Day And so if you could give your Bodies to be burnt in this your Unsaved and Unsanctified Condition it would prosit you nothing at all Wherefore come out from amongst them all you that would be happy and touch no unclean thing but give your Hearts to the Lord to know his Light in you to teach you and he will receive you and hide you from the Wrath that is to come upon all that are not in him as saith his Spirit in his Servant This is a Message of Truth to all you in and about Stafford and those of like Spirit with you elswhere who go under the Name of Presbyterians Teachers and Hearers to Read and Ponder in the cool mind that you may know what the Lords Mind is concerning you in this his day wherein he is manifest with his Fan in his Hand to purge the Floor that he may gather to himself the good Wheat and burn up the Chaff For we knowing the Terrors of the Lord
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
Testimony lives with me to bear for my Dear Father Thomas Taylor that True and Faithful Servant of the Lord who was Born near Skipton in Yorkshire and was brought up a Scholar and sent to the University and in process of time he came to be a National Minister and so continued for some Years but in those Days he had not many Equals for he was a Man of a Tender Spirit seeking after a further Attainment of the Knowledge of God and his Holy Way whom to know is Life Eternal which the Lord in his own due time made known unto him After he had heard the Word of Life declared in the Demonstration of God's Holy Spirit through his Faithful Messenger George Fox he was then evidently Convinced of the Blessed Truth as it is in Jesus he never after turned his Back upon it many Days and Nights of great Sorrow and Anxiety of Spirit he underwent until the Old Leaven was purged out by the Spirit of Judgment and then he became a Vessel of Honour fit for the Lord's Service and left his Benefice which he then had at Richmond in Yorkshire not consulting with Flesh and Blood what he should do for a Livelihood but trusted the Lord that he would provide for him and his Family he having then a Wife and Five small Children whom he afterward through the good Providence of God lived to see brought up to be Men and Women Now this Faithful Servant of the Lord not distrusting of the Mercies of God gave up freely whatsoever was Dear and Near unto him that the Lord required of him that he might win Christ the Lord who had Visited him with his Day-spring from on high and Ruled him by his Grace and gave unto him the Word of Life to declare unto the Sons and Daughters of Men Warning and Admonishing them to turn from their evil ways and to seek the Lord whilst he might be found and great was his Labours and Travels in those Days being moved often to go into Market-places and Steeple houses to declare the Word of the Lord to the People where he often met with great Opposition and Sufferings from the Hands of Unreasonable Men but the Lord by his Mighty Power delivered him wonderfully out of their Hands and many long and tedious Imprisonments this good Man underwent in his Day but with great Patience and Contentedness of Mind knowing it was for his bearing his Testimony to the Lord's Blessed Truth and not for evil-doing And this I have further to say for this Worthy and Honourable Servant of Christ who loved not his Life unto the Death that he might serve the Lord in his Day who was a Faithful and True Minister of the Everlasting Gospel and laboured mightily in Word and Doctrine and many in this Nation were Convinced by that powerful Word of God that run through him and they have great Cause to Bless and Praise the Name of the Lord even as I may say on his behalf for he was a Zealous Man for the Truth in his Day and was one of the Worthies in Israel who went through many Combates both with Professors and Prophane and by the Assistance of God's Holy Spirit oftentimes put them to silence and the Truth prevailed over all Blessed be the Name of the Lord for Ever And now not being willing to be too tedious to the Reader else I could mention many more things concerning my Dear Father who was a Faithful Follower of the Lamb wheresoever he led him through good Report and bad Report for he valued nothing so much in this World as the Propagation of the Truth for his Life was hid with Christ in God at whose Right Hand there is Joy and Rivers of Pleasure and that for Evermore And a little before my Father's Departure out of this World as he lay upon his Sick-bed several Friends that came to Visit him standing by him he being very sensible to the last spoke on this wife I am going to my Father and your Father to my God and your God and so departed like a Lamb and is gone to his Everlasting Rest to receive that weighty Crown of Glory that is laid up in store for all them that loves the Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ and keeps their Garments unspotted of this World Thomas Taylor Jun. Middlesex the 3d Day of the 3d Month called May 1697. A short TESTIMONY OF Hannah Taylor Concerning her Dear Father Thomas Taylor THis I have to say concerning this dear Servant of the Lord who followed the Lamb through many Tribulations and wash'd his Garmens white in his Blood That he served the Lord with a perfect Heart and that he was endued with the Spirit of Wisdom and of Understanding in the Truth which he did value above all the World and all the Preferments thereof For he counted all as Dross and Dung in Comparison of that Pearl of Price which he Laboured for both Night and Day Yea for Sion's Sake he could not rest and for Jerusalem's Sake he could not hold his Peace Because the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and he had Anointed him to be a Preacher of Glad-Tidings to the House of God's Israel But he was a Reprover of the Vngodly yea his Testimony was against all Wickedness and Evil-doers Yea he was clad with Zeal as with a Cloak and with the Righteousness which God had put upon them as with an Helmet Yea he was a Valiant Soldier indeed he fought a good Fight he kept the Faith and from henceforth for him was laid up a Crown of Life which at the time appointed he did receive with all the Redeemed of the Lord who rest from their Labour and their Works follow them Hannah Taylor Robert Barrow's TESTIMONY Concerning Thomas Taylor HE being a Man with whom I was Acquainted and Conversant for the space of Thirty Years some part of our Acquaintance in the time of our Notion and Outward Profession of Religion in the form thereof but the most of our time was after God in Mercy had opened our Understanding and revealed his Son in us by the Word of Life and Spirit of Truth to know Christ in us the Hope of Glory He was Educated and Bred up at one of the Colledges of Oxford and became a Parish Preacher and had a Place in the County of Westmoreland yet in those Days he was a Seeking Man having Real Desires to understand the Things of God and the Mysteries of his Kingdom and was a Man of an Honest Life and Clean Behaviour and in his Preaching and Judgment was more Refined than the rest of his Neighbouring Priests and many of his Hearers were a People commended of the Common Hireling Priests of the World which Priests Nick-named his Hearers Roundheads and Puritans and many of those so called came frequently from the next Parish and Town of Kendall to hear him amongst whom I was one and he used to let John Audland and Francis Howgill sometimes Preach in his
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
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
agree to set at naught The living Virtue by which Saints are taught And so at large the wicked Mind is left In Vnbeliâ—vers to make up by theft And stealth in their out-side and vain Profession What they of Truth do want in true Possession But Babes of Zion feed upon that Bread The real Substance Jesus Christ their Head Which came from Heaven and thither hath them led With him to rest in his Eternal Bâ—d They feed upon him in the Mistery Hid from the Raven and the Vulters Eye For where the Body is the Saints Resort And there are kept secure as in a Fort Of Brass or Iron where the Table 's Ready All day full fraught with Dainties for the Needy Yea for the Needy and the Hungry Soul To take and freely Feed without Controul When false prophane Professors in the double Mind Much seem and dream they Eat but all 's but Air and Wind. Of Prayers WHen as a tuned Instrument my Mind is in the Lord Well set and with his Power Assist O then I can Record The mighty Acts and wonders great of him that Rules on High And of his great Magnificence from whom the Heavens do fly And Earth also when he is pleased to make his Power known In Mercies and in Judgments deep for such as are his own When â—â—e an Arm of Help doth reach unto the needy Soul When he the daring Power of the Enemy doth Controul O then I say what Treasure can before his Presence stand Before his Glorious Face who is the Lord of Sea and Land Where Kings and Princes are as Dust and nothing in his sight Yea all who in their carnal Minds against his Glory fight Yet he doth make his Residence with every humble Heart That loves his Name and from his Truth by no means can depart His presence is their perfect stay and they in him can say He is our Rock that nothing shall our Spirits much dismay Yea though our Troubles for a Night or so upon us lye Yet in the Morning we are Saved as we to him did cry So be it Concerning ZION IF I Jerusalem forget a People sav'd from Pride Then let my Skilful Hand forget the warbling Harp to guide And if Mount Zion in my Joy I do not still set up Then let my Tongue cleave to my Mouth and taste of Sorrows Cup. said David So shall the Seed of David now in Heart and Pen endeavour The Praise of Zion to Record and of her God for ever And Blessed are those Men on Earth that with us now take part In this our Work of Innocence when all the rest must smart For how can Israel 's Kingdom be the Portion of such Wights As will not have God's Truth to Raign but still against it Fights The Life more than Cloaths and Meat O Lord God my Life is in thy Service and my Soul 's Everlasting Peace and Satisfaction in thy Love all the Things of this World are of an empty fading Nature and yield not the least true Content unto the Immortal Soul but only answer a Mortal Necessity as the Apostle saith Meat 's for the Belly and the Belly for Meats but God will destroy both iâ— and them so Cloaths for the Back and the Back for Cloaths but God will destroy both it and them and so for other things of the World they serve but only for Worldly and Temporal Necessities but now Man made in the Image of God breaths after a more Excellent Good than this World hath to give for in the Soul which is Mortal there abides an Immortal Desire and from that an Immortal Cry after that Holy and Heavenly Food of Life which is in the full Hand of God to give and so when that is received and digested in the pure Mind then goes forth Praises and Thanksgivings to the Lord the pure and fall Fountain of all Everlasting and Eternal good Things and so happy they who come through the Obedience of the Truth to have their Hearts seasoned with this Heavenly Salt of the Word of God the Living Word which abides for Ever For in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and that Word was God and is the Lise and Light of Man and all places in Man which is not filled with this Living Light is full of Darkness and the dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Unrighteousness and Cruelty and there is engendred all the Ravenous Birds and Beasts of Prey all the fiery stinging Serpents and every Venemous Thing which annoys hurts and disquiets the Living Plant which God hath planted in the Paradise of his Pleasure and seeks to devour the Man-child as soon as it is Born but into the Arms of the Eternal Power of Life is the Babe taken and by the Choicest Angel is the Plant watered and defended and so the wicked is disappointed of his Prey and therefore doth he retreat into his Den of Darkness gnawing his Tongue because of his Plagues So be it O Lord our Strength and mighty Joy How Glorious is thy Name within our Hearts We cannot cease to Preach thy Truth Though for it at us Satan shoot his Darts Though Hell be broken loose upon the Earth To vent its Malice for a little time And make the Righteous Man his Butt to shoot at Yet God will Plague them for their mighty Crime The greatness of their Evil passeth thought Their Sins in number far exceeds the Sand And therefore will the Lord against them plead With all his Judgments in his Wrathful Hand And though great Trials be to try the Faith Of pure and upright hearted People now Yet that pure holy Power will us defend Who makes the very Devils fear and bow To the Unsatiable Devourers of Strong Drink WHat Hellish Spark is that in your Inflamed Brest Which neither suffer's God nor Man to Rest But doth disorder even the whole Creation Bringing God's Judgments thick on every Nation Ye will not hear nor learn the thing that 's good But eat and drink up Sin your daily Food Be filthy still ye filthy Ones and when Your Measure is full your dreadful Doom comes then Thomas Taylor HE that to Glory would attain And many Happy Days would see His Tongue from Evil must refrain And eke his Heart from Sin keep free He must both watch and ward in Heart And persevere in that good deed Lest Satan wound him with his Dart As he doth all that take not heed Such must not promise to themselves Great things on Earth as Sinners do Who build and plant and root therein As from it they would never go But he that to the Heavens would come To dwell in that which never fades Must not in the World set up his Rest Nor shelter under Mortal shades TO MY Dear Friends every where O My Friends and Faithful to God whose Hearts are Tender and Zealous after the Lord and his Honour in this day of the Tryal of our most
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
much longer for it is a very fearful thing for thee thus in thy Sins to fall into the Hands of the Living God So whilst thou hast time prize it and say not within thy self that thou shalt have Peace though thou continue in this thy Hard-heartedness for certainly there is no Peace from the Holy Just and Merciful God to any abiding in the Paths thou walkest in So if thou hast an Ear hear what the Spirit of Truth saith unto thee in his Servant Thomas Taylor To those that Rejoyce in Bells and Bonefires WO Wo from the Lord to this Heathenish manner of Rejoycing with Bells and Bonefires Have you not learned it from those Wicked People called Papists for Deliverance from whom you seem to Rejoyce And so instead of honouring God with your Mirth you greatly grieve and burden his good Spirit And therefore your â—ins remain and Judgment after Judgment still waits for you until you turn to God with your Hearts which yet to this day you have not done O People of Stafford and of all England who delight in such vain things yea though Mercy after Mercy you have been tried with yet still you are doing what you should not do and leaving undone what God wills you to do and so indeed have no Spiritual Health or Soundness in you but all full of Putrifying Sores you are and so unfit to enter God's Holy and Heavenly Temple And that which makes your Wound uncurable you cannot endure to have your Wounds searched to the bottom but such as can dawâ— you over with their untempered Mortar and call you good People and good Christians when your Lives loudly witness the contrary those you account your Friends And therefore will the Lord judge you according to your Deeds and according to the Fruit of your Doings will he reward you if you speedily return not to him with your whole Heart for a short Work will God make upon the Earth when neither one Name nor another nor one Profession nor another shall be able to hide the Wicked from his Stroke for it 's in the Truth it self as Truth is in Jesus that the safe Hiding-place will be and â—o where else as saith his good Spirit in his Servant Thomas Taylor To them that plays the Fool upon the Stage THOU that plays the Foolish Man upon the Stage and invents all the Lyes and vain things that ever thou canst to move Laughter in the Rude Multitude which is Madness as Solomon speaks and all this for filthy Lucre I demand of thee whether thou believest that there is a God that will call into Judgment all Mens Words and Deeds yea to the very Thoughts and Intents of the Heart and whether Christ's words are true which say that for every idle word that Men shall speak they must give account thereof in the Day of Judgment And if this be true as most true it is then how wilt thou stand in thy multitude of vain idle unclean and corrupting words before the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth whose Wrath is kindled against all such as have even thus sold themselves to do Iniquity And his Judgment is near and the Judge even at the Door therefore in love to thy Soul I write this that if possible thou mayst repent and not Perish Eternally O ye People whose Eyes are abroad and whose Minds are in the Vanities of this World wandered from the Lord How can ye behold such Men as these doing such Foolish things upon the Stage without all fear of God and care what any one that fears God can say against them and yet profess themselves to be Christians How can ye forbear to reprove them Doth not the Apostle say to Christians Have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness but rather reprove them And this is a Work of gross Darkness for People to profess Christ to do these Deeds of the Heathen who said their Tongues was their own and they may use them at their pleasure But God will call into Judgment every vile vain and unclean Word and account must Men give for them and then Wo to the Wicked and all that love Lyes and such vain Inventions as this Foolish Man upon the Stage for filthy Lucre doth practice So People fear God and repent of your Deeds for the Lord God is at the Door ready to judge the present evil World for all their Iniquities Thomas Taylor Against Mass-Times WO to this degenerate World of People called Christians What shall be said concerning you and who shall declare your Misery For as you have multiplied your Transgressions as the Sand of the Sea so will the Lord multiply his Judgments and Plagues upon you for you have violated the Laws and broken down the Bond of that everlasting Covenant that should have redeemed and kept your Souls to God and you have wholly suffered the Spirit of this wicked World to carry you away Captive by Millions and Multitudes into the Land of Darkness and Wickedness which is Spiritually called Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was Crucified and is at this day trodden under foot by you where the Abominations of the Heathen and Superstitions of the Jews are kept up by you and practiced in the face of the Sun and many of them held up by force of a Law and such as depart from the Iniquities thereof even become a Prey to you So that the Lord hath dashed you together for many Generations like a Pot-sheard one against another and will yet dash you together for your great Iniquities and grievous Idolatries and will raise up his Plant of Renown from amongst you and become the Teacher of his People himself and they shall no more be a Prey to the Teeth of the Dragon Wolf nor Fox but shall feed in the good Pasture as in the beginning before Antichrist was and the Temples of Antichrist with the False Worships therein shall be a Desolation for evermore Wo Wo to all ye observers of Mass times and Tides and Seasons of the Year wherein the Spirit of this wicked World which is called Satan God's Adversary and Antichrist Christ's Enemy sets you at liberty to do all those Evils and abominable Works wherewith the Spirit of the Holy Lord God that made you is so much burdened and gâ—ieved from one end of the Year unto the other so that he can smell no sweet Smell in any of your Sacrifices that you offer up unto him because of the gross Darkness of your willfully deceived Hearts and the great Filthiness of your polluted Hands O how the Lord and his good Spirit in all is pressed under the weight of your Iniquities as a Cart under her Sheaves And therefore hath the Lord rejected your Confidence and called you Loruhamah not Beloved and Loammi not his People for as the Plant of a degenerate Vine are you to him a Field over-grown with Weeds and your Spot is not the Spot of his People and therefore into the great Captivity are
laid to Heart and not at all to be slighted And therefore I say unto you O People even you that love your Souls and are not yet come to the true Rest Christ Jesus in Spirit but are wandering from Mountain to Hill after the Hireling-Teachers one day after another and yet are not satisfied with their empty Words but are dead dry and barren in Heart as to the Power of Godliness after all your Money spent and Labour taken I said Is not this an evident Sign that it is not Bread that hath by them been ministred to you but the Chaff of Mens Inventions For saith the Lord Does not my words do good to them that desire after me But alas People the Hireling's Words which he sells you for Money are not the Word of God but only what he hath gathered and conceived from the Letter of another Man's Line and so cannot profit you though you should hear never so much of it no more than Chaff can feed And so do not say the Fault is not in our Teachers but only in us For I say unto you in the Spirit of Truth the Fault is now in you both for the Day of God is dawned and now you are both warned and so are left both without Excuse There was a Time of Darkness and Ignorance which God winked at but now the Life is manifest and the true Light that enlightens being broken forth through the Clouds you are hereby warned and all every where exhorted to Repent So harken to the measure of that Light that shines in your dark Hearts which convinceth you of Sin and Unbelief and would lead you from them this is the Word of the Spirit of God that is nigh you where-ever you are and from whose sight you can hide nothing though never so secret Here is your Guide to God and Life eternal if you love it and here is the Door that shuts you out from God and his Glory if you hate it so prize your time and while you have time learn to know this Light of Christ in your Consciences to be your Teacher and only Guide For why will ye die why cease you not from Man whose breath is in his Nostrils that broken Cistern Time will come when Fools will wish they had been wiser and when God's Witness will be remembred and when such as now Suffer for Righteousness sake will be had in Honour Rests as always your Friend Thomas Taylor And you that go carelesly by this Window and do not regard the Word of the Lord Hear the Word of the Lord ye Careless ones ye go and come from the Steeple-house and in your Minds secretly conclude that you shall have Peace and no Evil shall come upon you when the Lord God hath spoken no Peace to you for there is no Peace to the Wicked and there you are even in the Wickedness under the Wrath of God for the Wrath of God abides upon all the Children of Disobedience And verily the Lord is arising in mighty Power to Judge the World by Jesus Christ whom ye have Crucified and whose Counsels you have set at naught and have chosen rather to follow the Hireling-Teacher and his ways than the way of the Lord God So consider what is here said and run not head-long to your own Destruction for what account can ye give to a pure God in the day of his fierce Wrath who are not yet at all cleansed from your Unrighteousness Will your crying Lord Lord Save ye who are found doing your own Wills and satisfying your own Lushs without Repentance To that in your Conscience I speak which in the day when the Book of your Conscience is opened will justifie the Truth of these things against you all who in the broad way are found at that day to Condemnation and the Day is at hand and the Judge is at the Door and Wo will be to such as put it far off Rests the Lord's Servant still in this Prison but the Truth cannot be bound Thomas Taylor To King Charles the Second concerning Persecution c. IT is in my Heart as from the Lord God of Heaven and Earth to warn thee to stop the Current of that grievous Persecution which is raised up against us the Harmless People of God in Scorn called Quakers for our pure Conscience sake at this day For of a Truth the Lord God hath raised us up in his eternal Love to be his People to bear his Name in Righteousness before the Children of Men and so to exercise our Consciences in a pure Love and true Good Will towards God and all Men as he hath taught us and doth teach all that come to him And therefore weigh things well in thy Heart in the cool of the day and be not a means of injuring us for this the Exercise of our pure Conscience for truly the Lord Jesus Christ is highly displeased already for what is done against us O consider consider Doth not his Holy Eye behold and his Heavenly Heart consider the great Wrongs that are daily done us for his Names sake our Bodies imprisoned our Estates spoiled our Meeting-houses pulled down yea whole Families ruined as to the outward World for no other cause but because we cannot cease to meet together in his Name as he requires us and required his in a most harmless and peaceable manner as his People in former Ages did and as we have always done since we were to God a People And never let it be said that Charles the Second disappointed the Good People of the Land under his Government of their Expectations for behold we looked for the Continuance of Good Things from thee because of some words passed out of thy Mouth but behold great Evil hath ensued O let not the Evil Counsel of thy own Heart or of others cause thee to go on in that which will certainly bring God's Judgments upon thy Soul and Body and the whole Nation if it be persisted in as this present undertaking against us will do We desire not your Ruin no more than our own but this we know certainly and the Scripture of Truth abundantly witnesses it That never did any Prosper who did or suffered to be done so great Injury against a Harmless and Innocent People as we are known to God to be O let not the King believe any longer the vain and false Suggestions of evil Men against us If we had had any Mind against the King's Welfare we should not have had that Boldness that we have in God's sight and thine but now knowing in our Consciences that all our Endeavours have been from the beginning how to gloâ—ifie God and to serve all Men in Love to this day therefore are our Hearts in God's Truth greatly strengthened and emboldened to hold forth our Innocency before thee and all Men For the Righteous are bold as a Lyon praised be God for ever And why should it seem strange to thee or any at this day that
Yea is the Yea and the Nay is the Nay Such I say of you who found the Bill and brought in the Verdict as it is called against me for a Disturber of the Peace because in Obedience to God I witnessed against Deceipt publickly amongst you Consider Do you know what you have done Do you know what Verdict signifies a Verdict sounds in your Language as much as a true Saying or conclusion upon consideration of things in question and is yours brought in against me so to that of God in all your Consciences I speak which if you had taken Counsel at and not your own Wills you would not have called Good Evil nor brought in your own words against the Innocent for by judging this which was done in me to be a Crime do you not condemn the Holy Men of God mentioned in Scripture who were often commanded of God both contrary to their own Wills and the Wills of all the World to declare against the Sins both of Priests Rulers and People in the most publick Places and greatest Meetings yea and most solemn Assemblies as you may read in Scripture and by this your Judgment do you net justifie those in those Days who Persecuted the Prophets and Holy Men of God for their Witness sake and so do what in you lies to bring the Judgments of God upon your own Heads as those in those Days did who took Counsel and not at the Spirit of God So consider what I say and make your Peace with God for it is your own Sins and not the words that were spoken through me which have disturbed it and broken it and do no more so wickedly for the Day of the Lord is upon all the Unrighteous of the World and in him have I Peace who breaks no Peace but that of the Wicked whose Peace God will break for ever and so you having time prize it for this is the Day of your Visitation and a warning to all your Souls rests Thomas Taylor From Appleby Goal And further consider how durst you say or how dare you say that what was done by me was done maliciously and wilfully is there no fear of God abiding in your Hearts Awake awake to Righteousness for herein you have not done according to the knowiedge of God I speak this to your Shame To Judges and Rulers HEar O Judges and Rulers and hearken O all People the Lord hath a Controversie with you your Teachers have deceived you and you that have followed them are destroyed You are full of Strifes and Debates your Iniquities are increased your Assizes are full your Fat overflows your Pride and Vain-glory with your Profession is grown high and in the open Sun are these things manifest and you are grown a heavy Burden so that the pure God will speedily ease himself of you for the Soul of the Righteous is grieved with hearing and seeing what is daily done amongst you Therefore while you have time all prize it for this is the day of your Visitation and in this day shall no Hypocrite nor Worker of Iniquity be able to stand As witnesseth the Spirit of the Lord God in and by his Servant Thomas Taylor A Testimony of Truth MANY are the Enemies of the Glory of Christ in this his day who through their wilful and affected Ignorance would set up a Faith in the People that purifies not their Hearts to God nor presents them Spotless and without Sin in his sight carrying the poor People in hand that they may be Christians and abide in Christ though they Sin and do Evil directly contrary to the plain Doctrine of the Scripture 1 John 3.3 6 7 8 9. which John saith And ye to wit the Brethren know that he to wit Christ was manifested to take away our Sins and in him is no Sin Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him And amongst these Enemies of Christ's Kingdom and Glory are found even many who highly profess him in words who therefore would be accounted better than others yet upon true Search and Tryal are as Ignorant of the Mystery of God and Christ as any as was yester day manifest by two of their Teachers one whereof affirmed That even the Perfection wrought by or in Christ was not Sinless And the other denying and going about with all his might to prove That this plain Scripture here set down must not be understood literally as it speaks nor that other Verse 9. of this forementioned Chapter which saith Whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot Sin because he is born of God But it must saith he be understood some other way than the letter speaks otherwise saith he it would make People go out of their Wits What none born of God that Sins Can People live and not Sin or to this purpose I will bring a Scripture saith he to prove That these words of John have some other meaning and not to be understood literally as they speak Yet H. Osland in one of his Papers says They follow the Lamb in all his ways Which Profession of his though it be most False as is manifest yet from his words I demand Whether such as follows the Lamb in all his ways or whithersoever he goes do Sin Yea or Nay Is not the Lamb's way undefiled And they that walk in that way are undefiled are they not Are not these the Called and Faithful and Chosen And then he turned to the Book of Ecclesiastes Chap. 9.3 which saith Yea also the heart of the Sons of Men is full of Evil and Madness is in their heart while they live and after that they go to the Dead To which was answered This shews only the State of Man by Nature in the Fall and so under the Law and Curse and doth not at all concern the Gospel-Dispensation which Ministers Righteousness and Life to the Soul and gives a new clean and wise Heart according to the Blessed Promise that saith I will give them a new Heart and Circumcise their Hearts that they may sear me saith God According to that blessed Doctrine of the Apostles which saith To such as really believed in-Christ and so were not under the Law but under Grace ye are God's Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath ordained you shall walk in them What will this Contender go on in his Blindness Blaspheming and saying That Madness is in the Hearts of these while they live and that these new Creatures in Christ Jesus are full of Evil in their Hearts while they live and so go to the Dead O Sad that ever such should take upon them to be Teachers of others and be so Ignorant of the Gospel-Mystery themselves And therefore Woful and Miserable must needs the Condition of all such be that follow them for as Christ said If the Blind lead the Blind they must both fall into the Ditch and in
the Ditch they are both in this day of God manifested to be and that which makes their Sin out of measure sinful is their Unwillingness to come out of it though one do reach never so loving a hand of help unto them Also by this we know that they are no Messengers of God who cannot put a difference betwixt the Precious and the Vile to wit between such as are under the Curse of the Law and such as are under Grace to wit betwixt such as are born after the Flesh and such as are born after the Spirit But here the Apostle John a true Minister of Jesus put the real difference when he said in the forementioned Epistle and Chapter Ver. 7 8 10. Little Children let no Man deceive you He that doth Righteousness is Righteous even as he to wit Christ is Righteous He that commiâ—teth Sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil And in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil Whosoever doth not Righteousness is not of God So Wo to all evil Doers and unclean-hearted hearted ones who believe not the Truth nor receive the Truth as it is in Jesus but in your Hearts suffer Madness and Folly to rest and in your Hearts continue full of Evil while you live and so with the Dead lye down in Sorrow But on the other hand Blessed and Happy for ever are all you who have believed in the Light Christ Jesus and abide in him with Thanksgiving your Cup daily overflows with Heavenly Blessings from his Heavenly Fullness and ye are Compleat in him who is the Head of all Principality and Power and in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge and in him abiding you daily witness his Circumcision in you which is made without Hands in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh and not keeping on you the Body of the Sins of the Flesh as the Hypocrites do who only talk of Christ but in his Life do not walk So all Dear People who love your own Souls and would know the Salvation that is in and by Christ Jesus come out from amongst them that plead for the Devil's hold which is Sin Folly and Madness to be in Peoples Hearts while they live as though the Son of God were not come to destroy the Devil's Work which is Sin and so to cleanse the Heart Soul and Conscience to God from Sin And being come out from amongst these Blind Guides you will come Savingly in the Light of Jesus that leads forth from them all you that follow the Light to know daily more and more the things that belong to your Eternal Peace Also to set forth the Fruits of these Teachers how little they prosit them that follow them because they have run and God never sent them I shall mention one Passage which I had with some of these Nonconforming-Priests Followers at Stafford for I being moved of the Lord to go amongst them they did not only violently hawâ— me forth with their hands and threatning Persecution to me from the Mayor but also opposed the Blessed Doctrine of Sinless Perfection by Christ with an Argument directly one in nature with that which Priest Osland one of their Teachers yesterday brought to the same end as is said and it was this Rom. 3.10 c. There is none Righteous no not one There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God None that doth good nor knows the way of Peace nor have any fear of God before their Eyes but Destruction and Misery are in all their ways c. Now when they had brought this I could not but somewhat wonder to see such gross Ignorance of the Gospel in such a Professing People for who could so have abused and wrested Scripture as to bring the wretched State of such as are manifestly declared by their Works to be under the Law and Curse to prove against the Happy State of such as by Christ are delivered from both and stated into the Holy Life of God's own Righteousness And so these Professors who know not God nor Christ are laying all these heavy Charges upon God's Elect whom he justifieth What have Christ's Members no fear of God before their Eyes And do not they know the way of Peace but Destruction and Misery in all their Ways like the wicked World whose Mouths must be stopped yea yea praised be the Lord for Ever the Day-spring from on high hath vilited us that sate in Darkness and the true Light now shineth that hath led the Zion of God out of all those Condemnable Things before-mentioned into the Way of Life Truth Holiness and Peace Glory to his Name for Ever And so by this it appears how like these Priests and their Followers are all sucking at the Breasts of that Mystical Whore and Dragon that opposes the Lamb and his Followers but the Lamb shall always have the Victory as he hath this Day Glory to his Name over all For a Voice came out of the Throne saith John Rev. 19.5 saying Praise our God all ye his Servants and all yet hat fear him small and great And I heard as it were the Voice of a great Multitude and as the Vâ—ice of many Waters and as the Voice of mighty Thunderings saying Alleluja for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white for the fine Linnen is the Righteousness of Saints And is not this Garment sinless and without spot Yea yea And blessed are they that are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Amen Thomas Taylor To all that are Worshipping in the Outward Court without God in the World in diverse Forms THE ETernal Truth of God is now making iâ—self manifest in Sons and Daughters Servants and Handmaids according to Scripture and the Lord God of Heaven and Earth to his own Glory is raifing up his own Seed by his own Power and in this Day of ours working that Work and Wonder which the Children of the Night cannot believe though it be told them And now is the Searcher of Hearts appeared and the hidden things of Esau are in searching up and Judgment bâ—gins to take hold upon Old Ely's House and the Vengeance of the Almighty upon his Prophaâ—e Sons And now that these things are in doing the Powers of Darkness band themselves together to keep out the Judgment but all in vain for the Consumption decreed must overflow in Righteousness and the Hall shall sweep away the Refuge of Lies in Priest and People and all Fellow ships and Communions of People whose Hearts are in the Earth and who are covered but not with the Spirit of
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
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
that they lived but were dead from that true Life that was in Christ Jesus whom in words they Professed And though the passage we feel 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 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 good News and 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 and others will come and take our Place and Nation I say that they would consider that the very course which they to wit the old 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 fall'n Wisdom and Earthly Reasonings 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 Christ 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 turns the World upside 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 Plenty within thy Borders until thou believe 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 such Doctrine as this which is a Cross and stumbling Block to all 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 nor 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 thereto are made willing to Suffer with him shall Reign with him for evermore But all others whether they be called Christians or Turks or whatever else shall be as the Dust or Chaff before the Wind to be scattered as the Lord by his Spirit from the beginning hath said and at this Time speaketh in his Servant Thomas Taylor To Loose and Wicked Professors HOW long O ye People will ye sleep and slumber in a dead Form of Religion without the Life and Power of Godliness How long will ye dote upon the shews and appearances of Things where the Substance is wanting Can the Soul of Man live upon that which perishes and passes away with the using as the things of this present time do How long shall the Trumpet of the Lord be sounded in the Land before the People prepare themselves to serve the Lord and worship him in Spirit and Truth as he requires How long shall the Judgments of the Lord be in the Earth before the Inhabitants thereof learn Righteousness O the hardness of the Hearts of the Children of Men this day upon the Earth how past feeling are the Men of this Generation grown and without Understanding Never was Sodom more secure The Day is dawned and the Sun is up and yet they lye fast locked up in the deepest Sleep of fleshly Ease and carnal Security And because the Lord suffers not his whole Displeasure to arise at once upon them therefore they go on to harden themselves in their Sins as the People of old did whom the Lord overthrew in his Wrath And so because Judgment is not speedily executed upon their Evil Deeds therefore they set their Hearts to go on in their old ways of Sin Vanity and Uncleanness and so cover themselves but not with the Spirit of the Lord nor any of the pure and Holy ways thereof but take Counsel one at another and strengthen themselves in the Arm of Flesh Wo wo unto you O wicked and evil People who harden your Hearts against the Lord who shall sufficiently bewail you or what Lamentation shall be taken up for you With the Mourning of them that mourn for the Dead slain by the Sword cast out into the High-ways to be trodden under Foot shall you be lamented Thomas Taylor To Protestants OYe poor People called Protestants in the sence of the Love of God to my Soul and pity to yours do I write these Lines It is many Years now since it pleased the Lord to deliver you from the bloody Conspiracy of them called Papists in that Powder Plot and you have kept a Yearly Remembrance of it in an outward Day in an outward manner Acclamations Organs and other bodily Exercises but alass your Souls lies still in the Death Ignorant of that Heavenly Deliverance and Resurrection from Sin which the Saints in Light witness to the everlasting Praise and Glory of his Grace daily and hourly to be remembred and at no time to be forgotten And for want of this your Offerings cannot be accepted of the pure God who looks for Spiritual Obedience from the very Heart of all that receive any Blessing Mercy or Deliverance from him either for their Souls or Bodies But truly the Lord God is not pleased with your Organs Ringing of Bells and Singing and shouting on the top of a Steeple or any vain words of Thankfulness for an Offering to him and you still remaining in that nature which grieveth his Holy Spirit And so you dishonour the Holy Lord God the Creator of all things by your base and low thoughts of him judging his Thoughts to be like your
you have greatly provoked the Lord God against you by these doings And the old Heathens did never more manifest their evil inside in setting up their Idols than you have done in setting up this dead Stick and adorning it with Garlands or so and sometimes Dancing and Rejoycing about it as your Brethren in the Wilderness did about the golden Calf And now upon this particular Stick what may be judged by the Flag that stands on high upon it but that you have bid defiance to all Good O the Pride O the Self-willedness O the Naughtiness of your blind deceived Hearts How long will you strive against God with your Doings How long will you provoke the Eyes of his Jealousie against you A sad day is coming upon you from his provoked Throne O Repent Repent the dreadful and terrible Day of the Lord God is at hand And what will you do in that day Will you cry to the May-pole which you have so long danced about for help O the Blindness and Wretchedness of your deceived Hearts when will you a wake when will you consider and when will you remember your latter End This dead and dry Stick is a true Figure of your dead and barren Hearts to God and Goodness So whilst you have Time prize it for this is the Day of your Visitation from the Spirit of the Lord in his Servant Thomas Taylor To a Dancing-Master TO hear a Dancing-Master plead for his Kingdom because of the evil Gain that he reaps from his evil Work is no strange thing but to see him plead for it from the Example of Holy David's Dancing or Rejoycing before God's Ark in Ravishment of Joy for its return is abominable in thee and the same which the vain Fidlers and Pipers of the Country condemned by the Law do who will plead David's Musick to bolster themselves up in their unholy Work and so there is no more Agreement betwixt David's Dancing and thine than there is betwixt David's Musick and the Fidlers If David's Dancing before God's Ark were seen by your Eyes who plead for your Heathenish Herodian Dancings in these days it would be accounted no less than Madness and Folly to you as it was by Michael in the former days O the Blindness of thine and all such Hearts who are not afraid thus to wrest â—cripture to your Destruction And whereas thou wouldst excuse Hecodias thou shouldst have said Herodias's Daughter her Dancing Heel from being a cause of the Baptist's Death to cover thy Work withal thou maist know this Cloak is too short for though Herod's Heart was evil not only for marrying Herodias but also in Imprisoning John for reproving him for it as many in these days both do Evil and Imprison the Servants of the Lord for telling them of it I say though Herod's Heart was evil and temptable yet her Dancing Heel as thou calls it was as a Devil to tempt him to that rash Vow at that time for it 's manifest by his Unwillingness of answering her Demand for John's Head that he had no desire of his Death at least at that time though he had put him in Prison And so my Exhortation to thee in Truth and not Hypocrisie is to give over thy Dancing work for as I said before so I say again it is not of God and so it cannot prosper nor that Gain or Pleasure that comes to thee or any others from it And hate good Counsel no longer for it will be hard for any to kick against the Pricks of God's Reproof Thomas Taylor To the Fruitless Vineyard of England OH ye Blood-suckers which hunt after Blood which lay Tracks and Snares to slay the Righteous Oh what a Profession is this that you live in that are so full of Fury and Rage some Mocking some Beating some Stocking some Stoneing some Plotting and laying wait to shed the Innocent Blood and yet you do make a Profession of God and Christ which Christ never taught that Doctrine and there you shew your selves to be as Bloody Persecutors as ever the Jews were who Crucified Christ and sought to slay the Apostles Oh England England Is this the Fruit of thy Ministry Is this the Vineyard which thou hast planted Howl ye Vine-dressers Oh how is the Vineyard full of Briars Oh how is the Vineyard full of Thorns Oh how is the Vineyard full of dead Trees which cumber and bring forth no Fruit Oh how are the Springs stopped that should Water it with the Philistines Oh how full is the Vineyard of Serpents Oh how is the Vineyard full of Thistes Oh how is the Vineyard full of Weeds Oh how full is the Vineyard of Nettles Oh how full is the Vineyard of wild Beasts and of Trees that bear wild Grapes and sour Grapes which sets the Childrens Teeth on edge A time hath been and is that the pretended Dressers and Lookers to the Vineyard are blind and do not know one Tree from another and cannot distinguish a Lamb from a Dog a Sheep from a Goat a Dove from a Kite full is the Vineyard of Wolves strong Horses neighing and the Horses of Pharoah and his Chariots whirling up and down And the Vineyard is full of Thieves and Robbers and the pretended Watch-men are blind and cannot discern betwixt a True Man and a Thief but they call the Thief true Man and the true Man Thief they call Light Darkness and Darkness Light They call them who have come in at the strait Gate to Life and so come in at the Door these they call Thieves and Robbers and those who have never received the Word of the Lord from the Mouth of the Lord but are climb'd up another way and live in the broad way Pride and Covetousness and the Lust of the Flesh these they call the Messengers of God Oh how full is the Vineyard of Drunkards Drunk with the Wine of the sour Grape The Land is full of Oaths and mourns because of such that their Flesh is defiled the Land is full of Respecting of Persons which is a Transgression of the Law of God But now the Lord is risen and rising who respects no Man's Person and lays the Axe to the Root of the Tree Every one that brings not forth good Fruit must be hewen down and thrown into the Fire For now is the Lord sending Sons and Daughters and Servants into the Vineyard Spears are broken and turned into Pruning-hooks and Swords into Mattacks and Plow-shares Some are Plowing up and some are Hacking up and some are Pruning and some are dividing the Sheep from the Goats and the Lambs from the Dogs making a distinction and putting a difference and some are bridleing their Horses which have been wild and some are distinguishing the Kites from the Doves and putting a difference betwixt the Precious and the Vile betwixt the Holy and the Unholy Tremble Tremble Tremble ye Mountains and Hills before the Lord for out of Sion doth the Lord utter his Voice Wo Wo unto all
And so the same Spirit that so committed me could not be satisfied until it had seen me run to a Premunire as they call it for not Swearing though the Man called Judge Tirrel who did it confessed before all the Country I spoke or confessed the Substance of that Oath called the Allegiance yet premunired me for want of kissing the Book or saying I Swear I Swear or so which are but light Matters compared with the Substance For I told him and the rest that Popery I was against but not against the King or good Government of this Nation And therefore as the Lord hath so will he ever judge Righteously betwixt me and my Persecutors and bring the Wheel of his Judgments upon the Wicked his Enemies Thomas Taylor To the Mayor and Priest of Stafford WHAT Is the Mayor and Priest of Stafford both in a dead Sleep that neither Heart Hand nor Tongue is left either to punish or reprove open Wickedness and Prophaneness committed in the open Sun amongst them though both the Law of God and Man forbid the same What! Are not Players Bear-wards and such lewd and wicked Persons going about the Country and practicing their Wickedness as this day not only condemned by the Law of God the Light in all Consciences according to Holy Scripture but also in express words forbidden and punishable as Rogues and Vagabonds by the Laws of England see the Statutes 39 Eliz. 4. 1 Jac. 7. 1 Jac. 25. with 3 Car. 4. And yet for all this no stop put to them but even openly tolerated and cried up by the Multitudes of People in open Streets to the great Dishonour of God and Shame both of the Town and Nation when the Servants of the Lord cannot be suffered so openly to cry Repentance and declare God's Judgments against them and the like Abominations that are in the World And therefore may it not be well said of you as it was by Jeremiah the Prophet of old Chap. 10.21 The Pastors are become Brutish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all their Flocks shall be scattered And Chap. 11.9 And the Lord said unto me a Conspiracy is found amongst the Men of Judah and among the Inhabitants of Jerusalem they are turned back to the Iniquities of their Fore-fathers which refused to hear my words And Isaiah 59.14 15. Judgment is turned away backward and Justice standeth afar off for Truth is fallen in the Street and Equity cannot enter Yea Truth faileth and he that departs from Evil makes himself a Prey and the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no Judgment So awake and arise and consider well of things and repent lest the Lord God come upon you in his fierce Wrath and Judgment for these and all your Sins whereby you have dishonoured him and the King and suffered your Neighbours to be unhelped when it was in the Power of your hand to have done it And what Christian Heart can endure to see one Creature tear and spill the Blood and torment one another and that for no cause but only to satisfie the Lusts of ungodly and lewd vain and cruel Minds of the Multitude Will not God punish for these things and his Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this as have even corrupted the Earth with their Abominations He that hath an Ear let him hear and fear Thomas Taylor Concerning the Fallen Christians BLUSH O Heavens and fear thou Earth for the Lord God will certainly bring forth his Judgments and plead the Cause of his Truth in Vengeance and Righteousness against an Hypocritical People and Wicked Generation scattered upon the Earth in several Countries who call themselves Christians and yet none more contrary to Christ in Heart and Life than they For they strengthen the Hands of the Wicked in all the World with their lewd Practices and cause the Name of Christ to be Blasphemed by their evil Doings They surpass the Deeds of the Wicked and exceed all the Heathen that ever went before them for they Eat and Drink to the highest Excess of Gluttony and Drunkenness and Apparel themselves to the greatest Measure of Pride and Vanity that ever was Their Inventions how to please themselves and satisfie one another's ungodly Lust are innumerable and the Burden of their Covetousness Unreasonableness Oppressions Uncleannesses Prophaneness Superstitions Foolishness Sports Pleasures Pastimes and Unchristian Doings is too heavy for God long to endure yea and that which serveth to fill up yea to make the Measure of their Iniquities to overflow is their Hatred and Persecutions of the Righteous that are amongst them And therefore now again doth the Lord God say the second time Ah! I will ease me of mine Adversaries and be avenged of mine Enemies and will cause the Arm of my Power to rest upon them and the Power of my Jealousie and Wrath to consume them until they know and acknowledge their mighty Sins and be unfeignedly humbled and repent before me for them For their Iniquities are Grievous and I am weary with forbearing saith the Lord of the whole Earth God over all to be dreaded for ever who will shiver in sunder the Hearts of the Stubborn Wicked his Enemies and they shall fall and never rise again So be it O glorious Lord God for the raising up of thy own Dear Seed out of the great Captivity faith my Spirit Thomas Taylor To the Vain People of the World TO all the vain People of the World of what sort soever that go up and down the Country with their Vain Shews Tricks and Foolish Inventions to deceive the People for filthy Lucre by drawing their Minds from God A warning from the Lord unto you all howl howl the day of your Captivity and Scattering and Desolation is at hand the Lord will be terrible to you for you have long grieved his good Spirit burdened his Seed and deceived the People so that you are grown fat full and most careless and forgetful of God and all Goodness but the Lord will thin you and empty you and judge you in his Wrath as a Company of deceived and deceiving Men whose Minds the God of this World hath blinded that you see not the Gospel of God nor the good things thereof which so much concern the good of your Immortal Souls but you have chosen the God of this World that wicked One who Rules in all the Children of Disobedience to be your Guide and Teacher and the Gain of Sin before Goodness you have preferred and chosen to your great hurt and the Lord hath often called you to Repentance but the Custom of Sin and the filthy Lucre coming thereby hath so blinded your Minds and hardned your Hearts that you have not set your Hearts to seek the Lord unto his Day but cries Peace to your selves in your Sins where there is no Peace so if things of you that can hear and believe consider and lay things to Heart before it
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
your Flesh Nay nay it is most manifest in your Lives as your words before set down prove against you to be otherwise So in God's fear give over Mocking of God and deceiving your own Souls and the little Infants and turn to the Lord in Spirit that he may teach you lest his Wrath break forth upon you as it did upon the People of old who went on in their Sins and there be no Remedy Thomas Taylor Concerning Burying and Churching of Women c. AT the casting Mold upon the Corpse in the Grave the Priest shall say in the Burial these words For as much as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great Mercy to take unto himself the Soul of our dear Brother here departed we therefore commit his Body to the Ground Earth to Earth Ashes to Ashes Dust to Dust in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal Life c. And now lest any should say they do not here say this in a particular Application of these words to that present Dead in the Collect afterwards in the same Burial they say That when we shall depart this Life we may rest in him as our hope is this our Brother doth And that at the general Resurrection at the last day they may be found acceptable in his sight c. In their Churching of Women There is read the 116 Psalm or the 127 instead of that which in former times was read wherein The Sun shall not burn thee by day nor the Moon by night But still to understand the Woman whatever she be must be considered of the same Heart and Soul as David was when he wrote these words which is very often as contrary as Light is from Darkness for afterwards they say without fear Save this Woman thy Servant and answers which putteth her trust in thee And afterwards pretend to give Thanks for the Delivery of that Woman whoever she be which they call God's Servant from the Pain and Peril of Child-birth c. Then the Woman must offer the accustomed Offering now what these are I know not but the Priest it seems doth But why do they not enjoyn them the Offerings of Moses seeing you have your Pattern from thence For in all the New Testament I never read of a Priest Churching of Women In their Weddings they Swear c. saying both the Man and the Woman and that after they have promised before all to live together as Man and Wife which one would think were sufficient but what can be sufficient where Truth is wanting they must say And thereto I plight thee my Troth and yet not content with this neither It is there said Then shall they again loose their Hands and the Man shall give to the Woman a Ring laying the same upon the Book with the accustomed Duty to the Priest and Clerk O here is the Business this is that Wheel that carries all on to wit Money and all is for Money amongst the Hirelings And the Priest taking the Ring shall deliver it unto the Man to put upon the fourth Finger of the Womans left Hand what Sorcery is here and the Man holding the Ring there and taught by the Priest it may well be said such a Priest as this that 's blind for it 's certain God never taught such a thing as this shall say With this Ring I thee Wed with my Body I thee Worship and with all my Worldly Goods I thee endow And this they must pretend to do In the Name of the Father c. Thus taking God's Name continually in Vain in their vain and uncircumcised Lips Visitation of the Sick And in this the Priest of the Parish be he never so Notorious a Sinner himself yet he must say coming in Peace be to this House and why because Christ said to such as he sent in the Power of his own Spirit that they going upon the Message of the Gospel might say where they entred Peace be to this House or so But really God will not be mocked for what have Hirelings and wicked Men who abide not in Christ's Doctrine to do with Peace What because Paul by the Power of Jesus cast out Devils out of People must therefore the Exorcists the Sons of Seva though he was chief of the Priests do so Nay but must be given to know through Judgment their bold Presumption see Acts 19.13 c. And here must the Sick Man though never so bad be prayed for thus O Lord Save thy Servant which putteth his Trust in thee c. But what O bold Priest if the Lord should even then call thee to Judgment and say to thee How dost thou know he is my Servant and putteth his Trust in me What signs of this hath he given in his Life and Conversation or since thou came in for the Tree is known by his Fruits Would not the Priest be struck Dumb Yea as surely as ever the Man was who dared to come to the Wedding without a Wedding-Garment O what dawbing with untempered Mortar is in all heir Doings The Lord will ease himself of all such Burdens as these Men and Things are to his holy Soul and ever blessed pure Spirit But some may say it 's left to the Priest's liberty whether he will so Pray for him before he have Confessed him or nay Grant it be but what then O may the People or Priest say the Creed was read to him and he asked punctually whether he did believe it or no and the Sick Man answered That all that he did stedfastly believe I answer Did he so Then see in the Book how that came about even by their own means for the Book saith That after the Priest hath asked the Sick Party whether he believe those Articles of the Creed that the Sick Person shall answer All this I stedfastly believe Then it seems he must say so right or wrong O these Men made Forms and Customs of Praying Confessings and Professions what Havock they have made in the World And afterwards it 's so that if the Party feel himself burdened with Sin and confess it and desire Absolution the Priest shall Absolve him in these words Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left Power in his Church to Absolve all Sinners who truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thine Offences And by his Authority committed to me I Absolve thee from all thy Sins In the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And yet in the next words called the Collect Pray for the Forgiveness of his Sins as though nothing were done as indeed there is not O Confusion The last thing in the old Service is the Commination or Denouncing of God's Judgments against Sinners to be used on the first day of Lent or at other times as the Ordinary shall appoint Thomas Taylor A Testimony against Bull and Bear-Baiting O Ye Magistrates of Stafford my Heart was grieved for ye and your Town to see and hear Bulls
and Bears led about your Streets with a Drum and a multitude of People in order to more Vanity and Wickedness and that at such a time as this wherein you pretend to be more Servants of God than ordinary by your Communicating together in your Eating and Drinking the Signs of Christ's Body and Blood But alas for you What will all this avail you so long as Bull and Bear-baitings are tolerated amongst you with such full Allowance as this to the Grief of God's Spirit which abhors all such Cruel Sports and Heathenish Customs Do you not publickly profess in your Church-Service Repentance and Amendment of Life for all that 's contrary to Christ And do you not yet see that to delight in seeing Bulls and Bears and Dogs tearing and tormenting one another without cause is a grievous Sin in the sight of God and therefore not to be tolerated by you Besides the great hurt it doth in the Minds of your young ones who are led away from remembring their Creator in the days of their Youth by these things Surely the Lord is grieved with you will you not see the Evil of such Doings for I know if you would come to the Light of Christ in your Consciences you could not but see them and stand against them with all your might and so discharge a good Conscience towards God and his Creation And how do you know but the general Liberty for these Evils to act upon the Stage of these Nations is one cause of the present Judgment of the Sword amongst them Rests God's Servant who hath been a Mourner in Spirit for ye almost this Ten Years because of the Evil of your Doings but as yet you have not laid things rightly to Heart which shows your Misery to be great Thomas Taylor A Testimony against Sporting and Playing NOne can rightly rejoice in the Birth of Christ but the Spiritual New-born in Christ Those that think to please Christ with Eating and Drinking and Sporting and Playing are Carnally-minded and the Carnal Mind is Enmity to God and those that live in the Fleshly Mind cannot please God Rom. 8.6 7 8. So its manifest that the Service and Kingdom of God stands not in Meats and Drinks and Worldly Delights but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 For Meats for the Belly and the Bâ—lly for Meats but God will destroy bâ—th it and them saith the Apostle But God will never destroy such as Serve and Worship him in Spirit and Truth all the days of their new and redeemed Life And so it is manifest the more Spiritual that any one is the more are they dead and separated from that foolish Mind and vain Customs that the Evil World loves and lives in And on the contrary those that make most Provision for the Flesh to satisfie it in the Lusts thereof let the Time be what it may are the greatest Enemies to Christ and their own Souls so let things be well weighed and considered and it will appear to the open Eye that God is not more dishonoured many Twelve Days of the Year than in these that People pretend most to Honour him in which to a Godly Heart cannot but be matter of great Sorrow as saith the Apostle Phil. 3.18 19. Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even Weeping that they are Enemies to the Cross of Christ whose end is Destruction whose God is their Belly and whose Glory is in their Shame who mind Earthly things And this is the miserable and woful Condition of the most part of People that in these Days bear the name of Christians over whom the Spirit mourns Thomas Taylor A Loving Exhortation TO All Kings Princes Potentates Bishops and People in the whole Christendom Wherein is a Distinction betwixt the True and False Teachers To be Read over in Meekness and the Fear of the Lord. OYE Kings Princes Potentates and Rulers of the Earth we desire not your Thrones Honours Places or Dignities neither do we envy you for them for we have enough in God our Father who hath made us Kings and Priests to himself by Jesus Christ Spiritually to reign over the Evil in the World and to offer up our selves in Righteousness to his Glory and this is our Crown and that which we strive after in a pure Conscience for we are not of those that fight with Flesh and Blood and with Carnal Weapons for an Earthly Crown but such as in the Strength of Almighty God are taught with Spiritual Weapons to War only against that Mystery of Iniquity and Power of Darkness that captivates the precious Soul of Man and keeps it short of the Glory of God desiring from the Truth of our Hearts that neither the Soul nor Body of any may perish but that this Wicked one which is the Enemy of both may be destroyed out of the Earth in this day of Christ by the Spirit of his Mouth and Brightness of his appearing that so the whole Creation of God may be delivered from Bondage to stand in its Holy Order to the Glory of the Creator as in the Beginning that so he may take delight in the Children of Men and make his Abode with them as at that time when the Morning Stars sung for Joy and all was full of Beauty and Sweetness and no Death in them And O ye Bishops and high Teachers of the World we desire not your Seats neither do we envy you for your great Promotions but do desire that you may know with us the true Shepherd and Bishop of the Soul Christ Jesus the good and true Shepherd and Bishop who gave himself for the Sheep that he might Redeem them from all Iniquity and deliver their Souls from the hands of all Oppression to serve him in his own free Spirit where none can come to make afraid And as this Saviour you come to know and receive your knowledge of Men and Things according to the Flesh will cease and the Love of the World and the Worlds things will die in you and a Love to the Seed that breaths after Righteousness will arise in you and you will know what God requires of you and how you may do that which will commend you to God in the great Day of his Judgment which is nigh at hand and apply your Hearts thereto Therefore awake awake arise arise for the great Day of the Lord is indeed nigh at hand yea the Sun is already arisen and his bright Glory shineth upon the Sons of the Morning and the true fearching Light from which nothing can be hid is felt and known in the Earth and before it the Workers of Iniquity are as Chaff and before it can no mortal Man stand in Judgment though he glister never so much in outward Glory in the Worlds eye for in the presence of this Light the Judgment proceedeth not according to Person or Worldly Appearance but according to Truth Equity and Righteousness and
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
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
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
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
as their Hearers are save only their gross Hypocrisie and self-seeking Nature and double Mind as was hinted before For they have carried the People in hand that they would suffer yea what would they not suffer rather than Conform And now behold how this Teacher of Teachers R. B. hath bewrayed their Nakedness O People People who have been long deceived by such double-minded ones who are unstable in all their Ways that you would turn your Minds from them to the true Light of Jesus Christ in your Conscience that with it you might first see your selves and so growing up in that true Light you might come to see Jesus Christ who never fell nor never changeth to be your Teacher and Minister and so come from off the Barren Mountains whether these and the like deceitful Men R. B. and Bryan have led you and left you for now is the Lord making unto all People a Feast of Fat things of Wine on the Lees well refined ever praised be his Name for it And now if after all the Light that the Lord hath set up in this day you will not be warned to come into the Liberty of the Sons of God and so accept of God's Freedom in his Son freely tendered you what remains But if you be fastned more in the Pit of Darkness with all Unbelievers it is just But whereas this R. B. tells of his Brother Bryan's silencing formerly for not Conforming it had been well for him that he had been silent still rather than have opened his Mouth thus to the dishonour of God and strengthening Deceit in the Deceitful and so to the Shame and Confusion of his own Face and all his raking up something here and there as he could get hold of it in his dark Imaginations for Parish-conformity it is so nothing to the purpose and so well seen to be so by all that are not wilfully blind that it serves only to discover his own Nakedness and rotten in side as not only by what hath been already said but by what also now follows doth further appear as in Page 295 is set down where he faith It is no sufficient Warrant to separate from a Church because it is guilty of such Sins and Corruptions as deserves God should forsake and for which he hath threatned in his Word that he will forsake it Here by the way take notice that this Bryan here considered not that he fully makes manifest the Hypocrisie of his Brother R. B. who talks of his Hearers forsaking the Corruptions of the Times and yet is one with this Bryan in perswading them to joyn with such a Body as is so corrupt that deserves that God should yea and hath threatned that he will forsake them But to go on Bryan saith Yet People should not forsake that bad Company till it appear that God hath put in execution that which he justly threatned we ought to acknowledge it and receive it as his House and not refuse to dwell with him in it for shall Man be Holier than God and hate Câ—rruption more than he And we may not communicate with it by consenting to any Corruptions that are or shall be detected or proved to be in it Answ To which strange Doctrine of this Bryan to which R. B. in his Epistle says Amen I say in the first place it is absolute Blasphemy against the Holy Name and Nature of God either to say or imagine that God dwells with such a People as are guilty of such Sins and Corruptions as this Bryan here speaks of and how far unlike this Bryan's Spirit is to the Spirit of the Prophets who said God is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity and your Sins have separated betwixt you and your God And the Apostle saith expresly That those that would have God to dwell in them and it 's certain God dwells with none but as he dwells in them they must be separated and touch no unclean thing 2 Cor 6.16 17 18. And doth the Lord command us to come out from amongst the Unclean And will he himself the Holy One of Israel dwell with the Unclean yea with such as are guilty of such Sins and Corruptions as deserve that God should forsake them for them yea for which God hath threatned in his Word that he will forsake them And certainly there can be no Way nor Means to stay or hinder the Execution of God's Judgments threatned and deserved but by forsaking those Sins and Corruptions which such People are guilty of which the People of England that this Bryan would have us and others to joyn with are far from for O England England thou and thy Parishes are polluted that will not come to Christ that they might have Life but persecutes them with unreasonableness and cruel Usages that the Lord hath raised up to forewarn thee of his Judgments And so thy House being destitute of God's Fear and Goodness we are not more Holy than God nor hate Corruption more than he in our separating from thee as this wicked Man Bryan would have thee falsly believe but in our separating from thee we do the Lord's Command and follow his blessed Example and so we cannot receive that for God's House which he dwells not in And so thou art a False Witness O Bryan and a Blasphemer of God and his Tabernacle for the Temple and Tebernacle of God is Holy which Temple are his Holy Members and Body the True Church not Babylon the False Sinful and Corrupted Church which R. B. and Bryan pleads for And if any defile the Temple of God saith the Apostle him will God not call his House and Dwelling-place but destroy 1 Cor. 3.17 Again How shall this gross Contradiction which this twisting twining Serpent makes be salved For this Bryan one while says It 's to be Holier than God to separate from such a sinful corrupt Sort as deserves God's Judgments And yet with the same Moutli saith We may not Communicate with them by consenting to any Corruptions that are or shall be detected or proved to be in such a People What joyn with a manifest Corrupted Body whose very Prayers by their own Confession are not without Sin and not so much as consent to any of their Corruptions What a Joyning is this when it must not be a Joyning no not so much as in the Consent What gross dark Contradiction is here and now to bring this a little home to the business of England a Doctor so called and Pleader for Conformity and Communion with the Parish worshippers of England which are detected and manifestly proved yea and not only by their words but by their own Confession also to be miserable Offenders against God yea so guilty and full of Sins and Corruptions from the Crown of the Head to the Soles of their Feet as that they have no Health nor Soundness at all in them would have us conform to them and yet he saith We may not communicate with them by consenting
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
For what one Sin O ye People Teacher or Hearer that you were guilty of Seven or more Years since is there which you are not actually in at this Day he that was Drunken or Proud or Covetous or Lustful or Pleasurable or Unjust or the like in times past is found so still no Amendment no Washing of Sin away by all your Doings from amongst you for indeed Words and outside Performances could never do away Sin And so in vain is your Worship whilst your Fear is taught by the Traditions of Men and not by the Power of the Spirit of God according to Scripture for the Kingdom of God stands not in Words but in Power And the Redeemed of the Lord Worship in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Heb. 7. Col. 1. for the Letter-Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of the better Hope doth which is Christ in Man the hope of Glory And so you wanting the Humble Penitent and Obedient Heart your Confessions are in vain and are rather a Mock-service than any true Sacrifice to God And so for want of a pure Heart you can neither see God nor approach to the Throne of his Heavenly Grace but stand Self-condemned your own words being witness against you And so you go on saying after your blind Guides That you are all your Lives long Miserable Offenders following too much the Devices and Desires of your own Hearts Offending against God's Holy Laws doing what you should not do and leaving undone what you ought to do till you are so full of the Leprosie of Sin from Head to Foot that there is no Health nor Soundness in you And then thus continuing from Year to Year to the end of your Days what Sacrifice can God accept at your Hands for the very Prayers of the Wicked are Abomination to the Lord. And therefore whereas in this State you so often call God Father you lie and do not the Truth For he that doth Righteousness is born of God but he that committeth Sin is of the Devil both Christ and his Apostle John being Witnesses see John 8.44 and 1 Epistle of John Chap. 3. and Verses 6 7 8 c. And so for the Words of that called the Absolution which follows wherewith the deceitful Priest would doub himself and you over I declare for the Lord they are no 〈◊〉 fit to either of you whilst you continue in your Sins as it 's manifest o◠do yea those very Words in that same Absolution where it is said He Pardoneth and Absolveth all such and I may add none but such as do truly repent and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel shuts you all out from the Benefit of God's Absolution and Pardon For such as truly repent and unfeignedly believe the Gospel are healed of the Sickness of Sin and so have Health and Soundness in them and are not Miserable Offenders as you are but blessed Believers yea a chosen Generation born of God as Scripture saith John 1.13 And he that 's born of God Sinneth not for his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot Sin because he is born of God 1 John 3.9 Then certainly such Holy Ones as these Live not in a Continual Breach of God's Commandments as you do And so for the Lord's Prayer it belongs not to you whilst you continue doing the Deeds of the Wicked One for it was taught the Disciples and Followers of Christ who had God indeed for their Heavenly Father because they were really Born of him even of the Immortal and Incorruptible Seed of his Living Word which abode in them and they in it and so were Disciples indeed But alack for you who instead of forgiving as you would be forgiven are seeking your own Revenges and are learning of the Men of this World who know not God nor his Kingdom no nor so much as the Door nor entrance into it For the Heavenly Kingdom is still uncome to such as believe not in the Light which Christ the Door hath Inlightned them withal but love Darkness more than Light because their Deeds are evil For such as love to be called of Men Master and are Proud and Covetous and live in the daily Breach of God's Commandments could never love the Light nor bring their Deeds to be tryed by it because it is an Everlasting Reprover of all such And therefore saith Christ the true Light Therefore doth the World hate me because I witness against their Deeds that they are Evil. And so your most Hypocritical Proceeding to say O Lord open thou our Lips and our Mouth shall shew forth thy Praise shews plainly you heed not what you do for both the Priest and you have opened your Sinful Lips times without number without God's Spirit of Regeneration opening them for that as yet you never waited for and therefore your Sinful Mouth could not nor cannot shew forth God's Praise for the Dead Praise him not For it 's only such as Live in Christ as the Saints do not in Sin as you do that Praises him Glory to his Name that hath Abolished Death from amongst his People and hath brought Life and Immortality to Light in them in this his Glorious Day wherein he is Judging the great Whore which hath defiled the Earth grievously with her Fornications and the Day of God is Glorious which thus brings forth all the hidden things of Darkness to Light And Blessed are they and they only that walk in the Light of God's Holy City into which no unclean thing can ever enter So all ye People of the Earth who are thus found only in the Confession but not in the Forsaking of Sin shut your Mouths and cease taking God's Name any more in vain For certainly the Lord will not hold such Guiltless as take his Name in vain And take heed of applying those Scriptures to your selves whilst you live in Sin which belong only to such as witness Redemption from Sin as those words in that 95th Psalm following do which say O come let us sing unto the Lord let us heartily rejoyce in the strength of our Salvation for he is the Lord our God and we are the People of his Pasture and Sheep of his hands c. O stand in awe of God O People and do no more so presumptuously for his Sheep you are not who are so Deaf to his Voice and so Rebellious to his Word as you have and do daily every way manifest your selves to be O what Salvation can such witness as are so deep in their Sins for Christ Saves his People from their Sins from their Disobedience from being miserable Offenders and is the Saving Health of his Heavenly Anointed ones he leaves them not in the Darkness where the Sin is committed but brings all his Followers to the Light of Life where the ever Blessed and Holy and perfect and acceptable Will of God is both known and done and then of such it is truly said They are
thou wilt not follow nor be led by them And then these Ignorant Sureties of what sort soever being fore-instructed by the Priest must Answer I Renounce them all What! People are ye all Dead or fast asleep that ye never consider such things as these but rush like a Horse into the Battel without fear into such weighty Matters as these Were it not fit that such who promise so boldly so great Matters for others were first looked into whether ever they did half nay the hundredth part of so much for themselves but where the Blind leads the Blind what less than such Pits can be expected And further these Bold Sureties on the Child's behalf being asked concerning his Belief of the Articles of Faith called the Creed go on and being taught of Man are not afraid to say any thing and affirm That all that they stedfastly believe though in their Heart the Knowledge of God is not And being further asked Whether be will obediently keep God's Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the Days of his Life The Answer is without stop or lett without asking Counsel of God at all I will O what a thing is Man left to himself What a heap of Confusion and Contradiction is he O what Task-masters of Egypt are these Blind Guides to bind that on others which they will not touch with one of their Fingers for they themselves neither forsake the Devil nor his Works as is manifest nor believe in God nor Christ stedfastly for how should they trust God for their Souls who dare not trust him for their Bellies as their Covetous Practices shews And how can they be said to keep God's Holy Will and Commandments all their Days who are doing what they should not do by their own Confession all their Lives long And when the Priests have thus far taken God's Name in vain and deceived themselves and the Parents by making them believe that they are what they are not by this their sorry doing they proceed to give Charge to the God-fathers and God-mothers so called that they bring the Child when it can say for it must be noted that their Religion stands in saying the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments in the Vulgar Tongue that they bring it to the Bishop to be Confirmed by him O sad O sad that ever Men should thus dare to trifle with Holy Things For Regeneration is a Holy Thing but is neither wrought by outward Washings nor vain Mens Words nor Promises nor their Prayers but only by Jesus Christ the great and true Baptizer according to the working of his Heavenly Power and Spirit of Life in the Will of God as he saith The Wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that is Born of God's Spirit John 3.8 And to shut up this Business that none may be ignorant of the grosness of Darkness that goes all along in this thing and so ends it they say It is certain by God's Word that Children which are Baptized dying before they commit Actual Sin are undoubtedly Saved Understand thus Baptized as aforesaid Now to this I say that if People can be wrought into such Darkness as to believe this and to rest satisfied that it is according to the Word of God when it is a meer Invention of the Nations in the Apostacy and so no Scripture of Truth at all for it it 's no wonder if they can get them into the Belief of lesser Errors And also it 's no wonder to see the Poor People thus deluded make such haste to get their Infants to the Priest when they perceive them in any danger of dying For these that lay so much stress upon this outward Sprinkling or Baptism as they call it must needs have dismal Thoughts concerning such as Die without the same to wit that they are little less if not altogether Damned And as also may easily be gathered from the Words before their Burial of their Dead which runs thus Here is to be noted say they that the Office ensuing to wit of their manner of their Burial of the Dead which they call Christian Burial is not to be used for any that Die unbaptized to wit unsprinkled by the Priest as aforesaid or Excommunicate or have laid violent Hands upon themselves O what Darkness what Destruction and Misery is in all their Ways who account not People worthy of Christian Burial who are either Excommunicate by these Wretched Men and that may be for not paying a Groat or two for Repair of their Steeple house or high Place Or will not nay cannot for Conscience-sake come under their Sprinkling But as for the Man they speak of who hath laid violent Hands upon himself what if it prove one that they say has been made Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven yea confirmed in it by their Office and was never Excommunicated by them must not he have Christian Burial neither O strange confused doings Then it seems the Gates of Hell may prevail against such as are of your Faith though they be confirmed in it never so much And by this it also appears that you are such Sinners as God hears not as was said before for you prayed after your wretched Fashion in your sprinkling of them that the Old Adam might die in them but lo here he lives and hath laid violent Hands upon the Body you prayed for Power over the Devil for them but lo here the Devil hath overcome them you prayed that those Dedicated by your Ministry might be Everlastingly Rewarded with good but lo here your Child is become a Man and a Self-murderer and not thought worthy of Christian Burial as you call it But the Lord sees all your grievous doings your End is come and coming and the Lord Jesus Christ himself the Everlasting High-priest is at Work Baptizing with his Holy Spirit and Fire O! his Fan is in his Hand throughly to purge the Floor But you Mer-made Priests who have presumed to speak and he never sent you you are not as his Mouth or Messengers for you put no difference neither know ye how to put difference betwixt the Precious and the Vile You bring in the uncircumcised and unclean you matter not what you do you weigh not your Doings nor Words in God's Ballance but the Love of Money the Root of all Evil hath so blinded your Eyes that you will see nothing at all of Truth for your Eye being Evil your whole Body is full of Darkness as Christ saith your Skirts are discovered the Books are opened and now will the Lord give you according to your Deeds as you have grieved and burdened his good Spirit so will he burden you with his Plagues and Terrors And though you may cry to the Rocks and the Mountains yet nothing shall hide you from his Wrath as Truth hath said it is so Some have been lopping
at the Branches but now Christ's Axe is laid again to the Root of the Evil Tree Glory to his Name to cut it up Root and Branch that the right Heavenly Root and Branch of his own planting may bring forth Fruit to his Glory and Endless Praise who is worthy who is over all God Blessed for Ever So be it The next thing after the Children are grown up to Men and Women at least to Sixteen Years of Age or upwards and have passed the Bishops Hands as is before-mentioned they are invited to the Communion which they call the other Sacrament wherein they eat Bread and drink Wine in remembrance of Christ's Death as they say until he come But here you must understand a great Mystery of Deceit which hath crept in amongst the People called Christians since the Apostles time in the Apostacy and great Darkness of Antichrist to wit that though they tell of remembring Christ's Death till he come yet they do not believe nor would have any others ever to believe that this coming of Christ shall be whilst People are in this Body upon the Earth but they must be eating Bread and drinking Wine as a Sign and never come to see it fulfilled to them in the coming of the Substance to wit Christ in Life and Power to dwell with them and in them as he promised to them that looked for him as Christ said concerning the Fruit of the Vine that he would drink it new with his Disciples in his Father's Kingdom And as Christ taught them amongst other things to pray that the Father's Kingdom might come and is not this to be known in People whilst here Yea yea and so to feel Christ supping with them and they with him and being unto them their daily Bread as he saith in the sixth of John I am the Bread of Life thus I say they remain out of the Faith of Christ and so without Faith it 's impossible to please God Also here is to be noted another grand Deceit of the Enemy in this their Sacrament so called in that he makes them believe the Bread and Wine is not holy enough and sufficient for that Business unless the Man-made Priest have said some words over it which they call Consecration and so Consecrated it as they speak with his unholy Hands unholy I call them and that appears from their own Confession for they daily say they have no Health in them by reason of their grievous Offences but if they had not in words confessed it yet their Lives makes it manifest that they are of unclean Lips and defiled Hands which whilst so are not fit to meddle with Holy Things no more than the Lepers under the Law were fit in their Leprosie to enter into the Temple or meddle with any Holy Thing And for those words they use unto all that Communicate Hand over Head which say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy Body and Soul unto Everlasting Life It is demanded where they had them for I never read any such in Christ's giving that Bread and Wine at his last Supper nor in Paul's words to the Corinthians afterwards speaking of it where then had they them Surely they have either Invented them out of their own Heads or had them out of some Popish Book or the like For it is certain from the Lord Jesus they came not seeing they are such a Burden to the Souls of his Redeemed Ones this Day But again these words Preserve thy Body and Soul signifies the Blind Priest takes it for granted that all that he gives this Bread unto are in a good and safe Condition at present though the Lord knows and they themselves confess they remain Miserable Offenders and have no Health in them O what sad work is here amongst them O what grievous daubing First they tell them that by their sprinkling they were made so and so as is before-mentioned and in their Bishoping confirmed in it and now therefore by this eating and drinking they are preserved though to the Grief of the Spirit of God they live in their Sins and in the broad way of the Old and Evil World where the true sprinkling of the Blood of Christ is not known for saith the Apostle If we walk in the Light as he to wit God is in the Light them have we Fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.6 7. Then it must needs be that such as walk in Darkness know not Christ nor the cleansing of his Blood for he is only the Author of Life to all that obey him but the unclean World eat and drink Damnation to themselves whatsoever to the contrary they may Imagine But whence came this Custom of Consecrating Bread and Wine if not from those of Rome who falsly imagine the Real Presence as they call it to be after their Consecration For Christ's giving of Thanks at his last Supper before his giving of Bread and Wine is nothing to your Custom Also seeing you pretend to give all the Vertue to the Thing signified and not to the Signs you spoil your own Doctrine of Consecration But Popery is easilier gotten out of the Profession than out of the Heart It would be long to tell of all the bold and strange Passages they have in this their Communion as in the other of their Observations But this one more only may be mentioned and so pass on and it is this Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the Company of Heaven say they we laud and magnifie thy Glorious Name Evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Now all People whose Minds are tender towards God I Appeal to God's Witness in you whether such words as these do any way suit or agree with the Condition of the Parishes of England who thus use them For what Fellowship have such Miserable Offenders and Unhealed Souls with Angels and Archangels and all the Heavenly Company Nay nay no more than Light and Darkness hath But here the Whore that fits upon many Waters which by Exposition of the Spirit are Multitudes of People hath lifted up their Minds into a Conceit that they are Real Christians and so of the Heavenly Company because of Words when Alas they are for the most part such as the Apostle wrote unto weeping Who so walk as that they are Enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their Bellies and glory in their shame minding earthly things Phil. 3. And what shall I say of their Ring and plighting of their Troth and Worshipping one another in their Form of Wedding when they say With this Ring I thee Wed and with my Body I thee Worship but even take up a Lamentation for the People whose Eye is so blinded by the God of this World that they will not see the things that belong unto their Peace in this the Day
of the Lord wherein he is so lovingly caâ—â—ing them out of their Darkness into his Marvellous Light And as for the Visitation of their Sick and Churching of their Women as they call it that Mosaical Rite there is such bold calling of every one who can but say a few words by rote the Servants of God and putters of their Trust in God and the like it even burdens the Spirit of the Lord to bear it And to hear a poor wretched Man who hath run and God never sent him to say That by the Authority of God given him he Absolves the Sick Man from all his Sins Such had need take heed lest the Judgments of God fall on them as it did upon those Presumptuous Jews the Priests Sons mentioned Acts 19.13 c. And for their Burials as they do in the rest so do they in this and are most grievous Daubers and Takers of God's Name in vain and they are not afraid to say indifferently of one as well as another that they have a Hope yea a sure and certain Hope of their Resurrection to Life Eternal though they have been never so Notoriously Evil in this Life yea though they have said but a little before in their Commination Cursed are the Vnmerciful Fornicators and Adulterers Covetous Persons Idolaters Slanderers Drunkards and Extortioners and both Prieft and People said Amen to it And though they be found living and dying such yet now at their Burial all must be daubed over with a Resurrection to Life Eternal But here is the Device by which the Hireling lives for what by their Doctrines and Words in their Sprinklings in their Confirmations in their Communions in their Burials yea in all their Doings there is such a Bewitching of the People and strengthning the Hands of Evil-doers that none returns from their Evil Ways but all lyes in Death and Darkness without remorse none smites upon his Thigh and saith What have I done But with Death they make a Covenant and with Hell are they and their Multitude at Agreement but with the Over flowing Scourge of his Wrath will the Lord sweep away all Lying Refuges and the Lord is begun to make a Blessed Separation between the Precious and the Vile Glory to his Name for Ever So be it so be it O! the set Wages and Hire in every Parish seconded with an Outward Law to compel it and the many stinted Forms of Words and Actions in their Services made ready to their Hands and Enjoined upon them upon Pain of being uncapable of the Wage and Hire appointed for those Doings is such a Bait to the Mercenary Minds of the Men of this World that it even draws and drives by heaps into the Ministry such as God never sent nor would never come of themselves but for the sake of that filthy Lucre. But God is shaking his Hand against such Dishonest Gain and the Lord hath and is restoring to us the Ancient Ministry as in the Apostles Days where all was done by the Ability of God's own Spirit in such as had freely received the Gift thereof and therefore could and can freely give Glory to his Name for Evermore Amen and Amen Thomas Taylor 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 HEAR the Word of the Lod God that is gone forth against you like a Flame of Fire in this the mighty Day of the arising of the Almighty Power of the Lord God Almighty who is jealous of his Honour and who is tender of the poor Souls whom you have deceived and do daily make a Prey of for filthy Lucre your End is come 2 Pet. 2. 2 Cor. 3.13 Dan. 5.26 27. the Day hath Revealed you and in God's Ballance are you weighed and found altogether wanting and therefore is your Kingdom departed from you and now the Lord God is setting up his own most Heavenly and Everlasting Kingdom in the Hearts of his People Dan. 7. who in the Leadings of his Light are come out from amongst you and who through the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of their Testimony have gotten Victory over the Beast the Whore and false Prophet who have desiled the Earth with their Abominations Lies and Lewdness Dan. 7. and he will yet gather more from amongst you And now the Kingdom under the whole Heavens is and shall be for ever the Portion of the People of the Saints of the most High God whose Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him who liveth for ever who is arisen in this his Glorious Day not only to reveal but even to destroy to the uttermost the Man of Sin that Son of Perdition in all the Earth 2 Thess 2. which hath sate in the Temple of God as God saying he was God and hath long Exalted himself above all that was called God which alone ought to be Worshipped but the Lord is arisen to dethrone him even that Wicked One who would not suffer the true Seed the true Heir Christ Jesus the true Light to Reign but hath always like an enraged Beast pushed with his Horns against the Lamb in every Appearance whereby the tender Buddings of Truth in many People have been often hurt and the Growth of the good Seed often hindered and some of the feeble Ones even in their comings out of Egypt have been out off by this Spiritual Amaleck the Dragon upon which the Whore the false Priesthood and Ministry Rides whom God will have War with for ever and will destroy him to the End for now is the Ancient of Days upon his Throne and the Thrones of the Wicked are cast down and One like unto the Son of Man Acts 9.10 11. to wit the Lord Christ Jesus in and with his numberless Number is come with the Clouds of Heaven for as sure as he went up so is he certainly come again and broughâ— near to the Ancient of Days Dan. 7.26 27. and is in the actual Possession of that Kingdom Glory and Power given him of the Father that all People Nations and Languages should serve and obey him for his Dominion is an Everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and now the Judgment is set and the Books are opened Glory to the Lord for ever and now is the Revelation of all Things Rev. 16.19 and fulfilling of all Things which hath been spoken of by the true Witness since the World began And now the Tything Hireling Priests and Merchants of Babylon who by their Works deny Christ come in the Flesh run to the Powers of the Earth and Cry out Rev. 18.15 16. and
in them for by your own Confession you are miserable Offenders all the Days of your Life and have no Health in you and so cannot endure to hear of Perfection or perfect Soundness on this side the Grave Eph. 9.11 12 13. Yea though you read in Scripture That Christ's Ministry perfects to God Epâ— 4. Yet there is not so much Faith amongst you as a Grain of Mustard seed to believe any such thing for if any come to be healed by Christ and so made perfectly found to God and witness forth the same they are not for your Company even you who have no Health in you but are miserable Offenders Oh you that cry out against Separatists and Separation Jude 18.19 what a woful Separation have you made you are of them who have separated your selves from the Lord in Unbelief and are sensual not living in God's Spirit but in the broad Way of the World Oh when will you be weaned from the Breasts of Mystery Babylon and learn to suck at Truth 's Breasts Zach. 13.1 Rev. 22.1 c. and draw Water out of God's Well which in the Light and Life of Jesus Christ is opened to the true Hungerers and Thirsters after Righteousness this day But you have transgressed the Everlasting Covenant and offered Violence to the righteous Law of the Lord Jesus and miserably wrested and perverted the Holy Scriptures 2 Pet. 3.16 which witness of him and his glorious Appearance in these latter days and this you do that you may establish your own Traditions that you may keep your selves up in the Earth in the Glory of this World and esteem of Fallen Man John 5.44 who knows not Christ nor his Kingdom and therefore hath the Lord already discovered your Skirts and will yet daily more and more 2 Thess 2.8 by the bright shining forth of his Light make you so manifest naked and bare that every Eye shall see the Shame of your Nakedness Isa 66.24 And to the Nations of them that are Saved who walked in the Light of the Heavenly Jerusalem shall you be an abhorring for ever and the Redeemed of the Lord shall daily flock to Zion out of your Frozen Land to offer their Spiritual Sacrifices to God upon his Holy Altar and shall see the Smeak of your defiled Sacrifices go downward as Cain 's did Gen. 4.5 which God had no Respect to And the Smoak of your Torment shall go up for ever and ever Rev. 14.11 for strong is the Lord that judges you because you have given his Lambs Gall and Vinegar to drink Rev. 16.19 and have pushed them with Side and Shoulder and therefore a bitter Cup will God give you to drink Oh how hath the Lord borne with you How hath his Voice uttered it self amongst you in your Streets in your Assemblies saying in your Ears O Repent repent Give Glory to God by giving over to deceive your own and the poor Peoples Souls which are precious to God O ye that have exalted your selves into the Place of Teachers and are untaught your selves into the Place of Bishops and Overseers of others and have not looked into your own Hearts and Souls to see what grows there Mich. 3.6 7. O the deep Sleeps and Slumbers that you are seen to be in this day even all you who have ran and God never sent you and therefore you have not nor never can possibly in that State profit the People at all Oh all you that love to be call'd of Men Master and Doctor and Lord Bishops and Arch Deacons and such-like worldly Titles which Christ Mat. 23.10 11. the meek Lamb and lowly in Heart did always forbid and his Spirit is against for ever and ever and saith It shall not be so amongst his but he that is greatest must be least and Servant of all not in feigned Words and deceitful Shews Mat. 20.25 26. Mat. 15.13 but in Deed and in Truth Glory to the Lord who is arisen to root up the false Ministry and to bring in his own as in the Beginning That the Earth may be covered with the Knowledge of God Isa 11.9 Hab. 2.14 and Jesus Christ our Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Amen and Amen O ye Priests and Parish-Teachers When will ye consider of the Entrance of your selves into your Offices and the People into your Church You have laid another Foundation than Christ hath laid Christ said to his Messengers and Ministers John 20.21 22. Heb. 7.16 As my Heavenly Father hath sent me so I send you But Christ was not made a Minister by the Law of a Carnal Commandment but by the Power of an endless Life And so you that are Ministers of the Letter and made Ministers thereof by the Law of a Carnal Commandment and your Fittedness for the Work is gathered not from the Holy Spirit 's Ability 1 Cor. 1.20 21. Rev. 3.18 19 20. but from some Worldly Endowments as Natural Languages Arts and Parts which can only fit a Man for a Heathenish Oratory but could never help in this great and Heavenly Matter of Christ's Kingdom and your Bishops being made by the Humane Powers could never say That by the laying on of their Hands you received either the Holy Ghost or any Gift of it And so you being of the World and impowered by the World how can you claim Audience or Obedience from Christ's Members who know not to follow your Voice which is the Strangers Voice and so you Men of the World are heard 1 John 4.5 upheld and obeyed by the World who are ignorant of Christ's Voice from the Strangers Mat. 15.14 and so being such blind Guides whether can you lead the People but into the Ditch And there you are Isa 55.2 who are always doing what you ought not to do and so have no Health in you and so dangerous to joyn to and are miserable Offenders Isa 56.10 Isa 1.4 5 6. for taking the poor Peoples Money for that which is not Bread and causing them to spend their Labours for your Traditions and empty Sound of Words which are never able to satisfie their Souls John 10.1 And you are very miserable Offenders also in not only coming in by a wrong Door your selves but also in perswading the poor deceived Multitude that you enter them into the Pale of the Church by your Baptizing or Sprinkling of them when Infants for which there is no Scripture Nay more as your common Custom is and as is said before that you regenerate them by it for God never regenerated any by a Means which he never ordained as this Usage of yours is manifest to be So all your Entrances being impure and your Foundations Unspiritual and Unscriptural what Building must needs be builded thereupon the wise in Heart do easily see So you and your Work being Mystery Babylon Mat. 7.26 Rev. 17.15 and 14.11 the Lord God of Heaven is engaged
you but as that teacheth you c. and you know all things And these things saith another Apostle to the Brethren do I write unto you by way of remembrance not absolute Necessity as this Man speaks to stir up your pure Minds And this Doctrine of the Hirelings is only to keep up their Masterly Power over the poor Peoples Consciences and indeed denies the Gift of God's Spirit and coming of Christ in the Flesh and the very End of his Ministry which was for the perfâ—cting of the Saints even in this Life See Eph. 4. at large But the Hirelings Doctrine which perfects nothing but Sin keeps People always learning laden with divers Sins and Lusts but never brings them to the Knowledge of the Truth which sets free from Sin and therefore from such according to Christ's Doctrine ought all People to turn away But what must this Sam. Smith and his Fellows who would be accounted Masters of Assemblies be taught of others Indeed they stand in need of teaching for they have run and God never sent them and therefore they cannot profit the People at all as is here manifest The Reasons of this Smith for denying Perfection saith he is Because the Best of God's Saints and Servants in this Life are not capable of Perfection And is any Child saith he put by his Master into the highest Form the first day he comes to School Or doth he not lead him on by degrees The Apostles themselves that had the Spirit and so in a Capacity of more plentiful Revelation than we are yet Christ tells them he had many things to tell them but they could not bear them then And for this he brings John 16.12 To which I answer That this Man here doth manifestly abuse Scripture and by that the Nature of his Naughty Spirit in all his Discourse is easily seen For here he saith they had the Spirit and yet could not bear Christ's words whereas Christ in that place makes the want of the coming of the Spirit the very Cause why they could not then bear his words and therefore he saith in the very next words in that of John 16.13 Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth and shew you things to come And so this Smith is one of them that abuses and wrests Scripture tending to his own and others Destruction But whereas he saith That the Apostles who had the Spirit were capable of a more plentiful Revelation than they are that 's true for they to wit such Hirelings and Wresters of Scripture as this Smith is are Sensual not having the Spirit and so are far from receiving any Vision or Revelation from God seeing it 's their common Doctrine to deny Immediate Teachings and Revelations from God for that 's ceased say they But for him to say as these his words would insinuate That the Apostles in those Days were capable of more plentiful Revelation than any are in these Days is false for God is the same to his now as then and such as are Faithful in a little now shall be Ruler over much as well as formerly and saith Christ I pray not for these only but for all that shall believe on me through their words that they may be one as we are One. And for his Reason or Proof That the Best of the Best of the Saints and Servants of God in this Life are not capable of Perfection the very Child or School-boy he speaks of may come forth and consute it For what though a Scholar be not perfect in his Book at first doth it follow that he never shall be while he lives He may as well say so as the other for his Comparison doth utterly make void his false Doctrine against Perfection as Experience of all Men both Masters and Scholars proves But what a Mountain of Enmity is risen up in these Deceitful Teachers of these Times who love to be called of Men Master against that Heavenly Doctrine of sinless Perfection is manifest to all in this that though they can allow of a Perfection in all Arts and Sciences in their kinds yea and of a Perfection in the growth of all other Creatures in this kind but cannot endure to hear tell of much less to allow of a Perfection in the Children of the Everlasting Father God over all who is this Day well witnessed upon his Throne Ever Praised be his Name bringing forth his Heavenly Birth and Babes and so making all things new But who ever but this Slanderous Spirit in this Smith said That though People have lived in Drunkenness Swearing and open Prophaneness many Years yet if but once come to be lifted as he scornfully calls it into that Society to wit of such as he and the rest of the World in Scorn call Quakers that presently they are perfect and without Sin And then like the troubled Sea he foams out his own Shame and adds saying in that forementioned Book I Challenge all the Quakers on Earth and in Hell to give a sober answer to these Texts of Scripture Eccles 7.2 1 Kings 8.46 Prov. 20.9 Answer By these words of this Enemy of God and his Perfect Work in his Saints any who judge in the Light of God in the least measure may see the Rancour and Malicious Blind Nature of that Spirit by which he was acted O! that ever Men should take upon them to be Ministers of the Gospel as such would be accounted and yet utter such base words Did ever any Enemy of Truth from the beginning of the World to this Day make such a Challenge What! must People come out of Hell to give thee a Sober Answer What! hath Passion and Envy so blinded thy Heart as to imagine that the Inhabitants of Hell can resolve Questions and that in soberness nay nay they must be Heavenly People that give truly sober Answers in such weighty Matters as these and therefore thy unsober wild words in these Matters shews where thy Dwelling is to wit not in Heaven amongst the Saints and Spirits of Just Men made perfect but in the Earthly Sensual and Devilish Wisdom amongst those who are Enemies to Truth and Perfection and so Ministers of Antichrist who plead for Sin during tearm of Life and not of Christ who came for that very end to perfect his Saints and to present them himself even in this Life without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 5.25 c. And so the Reproachful and Malicious words of this Sam. Smith against the People of God called Quakers and their Holy Doctrine of Perfection put aside I say concerning those Scriptures he mentions and first to that Eccles 7.20 For there is not a Just Man upon Earth that doeth good and sinneth not that Solomon here speaks of Men under the Law and of the Generation of the First Adam in the Fall amongst whom there is not indeed a Just Man that doeth good and sinneth not but this doth not make
void the Covenant of God with his Elect in Christ Jesus the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven for as is the Heavenly so are they that are Heavenly And so whosoever is Born of God and abideth in Christ sinneth not for he that sinneth hath neither seen Christ nor known Christ as the Apostle saith expresly in 1 John 3.6 9. And herein is that saying true 1 John last If we say we have not sinned to wit in the First Adam or Flesh we make God a Liar but now being Translated out of that Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of the Dear Son of God the Light we put on Christ's Nature which is Holiness and Righteousness without which none shall see God Blessed be God for his Unspeakable Rich Gift And so though in the First Man 's faln Nature there is Sin and Death yet in Christ Jesus there is Life Righteousness and Everlasting Peace And if thou wouldst not have Death the Wages of Sin thou must come out of the Flesh into the Spirit of Christ where Life and Everlasting Peace is witnessed This is the Day of the Lord 's Mighty Working wherein he is separating the Sheep from the Goats and making the difference plain and manifest betwixt such as serve God and such as serve Sin And for that other Scripture 1 Kings 8.46 which saith There is no Man that sinneth not it must in like manner be understood as the former to wit of Man in the First Adam or faln Fleshly Nature where all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God and in which state of Sin and Unbelief whosoever abide they do sin daily But this toucheth not at all the sinless and perfect state of the Children of God in Christ Jesus where Sin which is the Devil's Work comes not as was said before for the Prince of this World hath no part in me saith Christ And therefore who art thou that lays Sin to the Charge of God's Elect Thy own words shall be thy Burden but Peace on God's Israel for Evermore And for that third Scripture Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sin I say No Man can say that he hath made himself so though in Christ Jesus he is so for not of our selves but of God's alone Mercy and Free-gift in Christ Jesus it comes to pass that the Elect Vessels are cleansed and made pure in Heart according to that well-known place Eph. 5.25 26 27 Christ gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word that he might present it himself a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Is not here a Company made clean indeed yea clean at Heart and pure from Sin in and by Christ Jesus Therefore let all the Enemies of Christ and his perfect Work be silent for ever So be it But above all it seems strange what he sets down in that Defiling Book called The Looking-glass where he saith That Philpot Bradford and Cranmer confessed That they were vile sinful and wretched Hypocrites even at the State when to be burnt for their Religion I say either he or the Printer or Relator of the History or all of them do greatly wrong them Sufferers or else their Condition is greatly to be lamented who had so much Zeal and Boldness as to Suffer for the sake of their Conscience and yet had so little Knowledge and Understanding of the Mystery of God and Christ as not to know the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost no better But we leave this and so proceed to see what there is in those Scriptures which he saith the Quakers make so much use of to prove Sinless Perfection The first is Psal 37.37 Mark the Perfect Man and behold the Vpright for the end of that Man is Peace The second is Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on to Perfection The third is 1 Cor. 2.6 Howbeit we speak Wisdom among them that are perfect The fourth is 2 Cor. 13.11 Finally Brethren farewel be perfect To all which I say It 's most plain to every pure Eye that these Scriptures with many more that might be brought to the same purpose prove sufficiently a Sinless Perfection otherwise it is no Perfection at all if not Sinless of God's working for every Work of God is Sinless and Perfect for that Perfection which is in or with Sin is the Work of the Man of Sin and is that Perfection which pleaseth his vile sinful hypocritical Members so well And so whosoever marks and beholds this imperfect and unbelieving Generation shall plainly see their End is Trouble and Misery and therefore it is that our words which we speak this day from the Lord concerning the great things of his Kingdom are accounted no better than Folly and Error amongst these sinful Opposers of God's Work of Sinless Perfection in his Saints and so these Opposers are never going on to God's Perfection but backwards from that of God in them which should lead them to God and so their Back and not their Face turned to God they are ever learning but never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth as it is in Christ Jesus which perfects to God all that come to it And so how can they for shame exhort their Hearers to Perfection who are themselves the great Opposers of God's perfect Work in his People above all others To conclude That which remains at present to be spoken to that filthy Looking-glass is to wipe off a heap of Lies and Dirt which he hath falsly charged upon the Innocent and Harmless People of God called Quakers as in p. 249. where he saith That we disown the Ordinances of Christ and his Gospel the Word preached by his Ministers Church-order Baptism and Supper of the Lord Prayer Singing of Psalms the Publick Ministry as no Ministry of Jesus Christ Albeit saith he God hath set his Seal thereto in the Conversion of many Souls To all which in a word I answer and say The Lord both hath and yet will rebuke that Lying Spirit by which this Book was written And in particular to the several parts of this false and notorious lying Charge against us I say That the Ordinances of Christ and his everlasting Gospel we dearly love and own and the Word preached by his Ministers but not the Ministers of Antichrist we dearly own and delight in for the Word of God which the Ministers of Christ which he sends preach is Spirit and Life not the dead Letter for the dead Letter which the Hirelings preach for filthy Lucre we know to be no better than Chaff compared with that living Word which the Ministers of Christ preach for the Letter of the Hireling killeth but the Spiritual Word of the Gospel of Christ gives Life the Word of the
Lord in the Mouth of Christ's Ministers which we own is the Savour of Life to Life and of Death to Death But so is not the false frothy Doctrine of the Hireling and false Accuser such as this Sam. Smith who wrote this Book which we disown is nothing worth and therefore cannot profit the People at all And therefore he tells a great Lye in saying That God hath set his Seal to the Ministry of such as have run and God never sent them as is manifest by this Man who is not ashamed to speak all manner of Evil falsly against whom the Lord hath Blessed for his Name 's sake for those whom God sends are one with and not against such as are of God But because he neither knows the Father nor Christ therefore he thinks he doth well to persecute and revile us with all slanderous words which will be his own Burden in God's Judgment-day And for Church Order it 's manifest by the Walking of our Members who owns it most for they who walk most orderly in Life and Conversation own Church-Order indeed but those that live Disorderly and know not so much as a Bridle to their Tongue are the Disoâ—wneâ— and Breakers of the Good Order of Christ's Church and Spirit But what is that Baptism he saith we disown For the Baptism oâ— Christ which is but one by that one Spirit of Truth into one Body we dearly love and own for in it are we presented Clean to God ever Praised be his Name But that Baptism which the Hirelings use and plead for for which there is no Scripture we cannot own for if we should then should we disown the Light of Christ which makes it manifest to be vain and nothing And for the Lord's Supper we cannot but love and own it with our very Souls for it is our Souls Food and the Lord is known to us and in us daily by breaking of his Heavenly Bread in the midst of us as he said Behold I stand at the door and knock if any Man open to me I will come in and Sup with him and he with me And for Prayer to God both Publick and Private those that say we disown this do plainly manifest that they know little of us or our Practices but are shameless Forgers of Lies against the Innocent for which and for all their Sins God will judge them it is so But for Singing of Psalms what hath this false Accuser of the Brethren to do with Singing For not Singing but Mourning is the suitable Exercise for the Wicked What will ye yet Sing and Rejoyce and make Merry over the Witnesses of God which ye have slain in your Streets and over the Lamb that lyes slain in the Streets of your Spiritual Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was Crucified But the Days of Mourning are at hand to all that now sing in Sin and the Days of Darkness to them will be many But Peace upon the Israel of God in whose Book our Names are Recorded by the ever-blessed Finger of our God ever Praised be his Name who hath put a now Song into our Mouths even Psalms of Salvation to our God and to the Lamb for ever more according as it is written Rev. 14.1 c. And I looked and lo a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion and with him an hundred forty and four thousand having his Father's Name written in their Foreheads And I heard a Voice from Heaven as the Voice of many Waters and as the Voice of a great Thunder And I heard the Voice of Harpers harping with their Harps And they sung as it were a new sâ—ng before the Throne and no Man could learn that song but the Redeemed from the Earth These are they that were not Defiled with Women for they are Virgins These are they that follow the Lamb wâ—eresoever he goeth These were redeemed from among Men being the First fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their Mouth was found no Cuâ—le fâ—r â—â—ey are without Fault bâ—fore the Throne of God And what will not all this perswade our Adversaries that there is singing of Psalms among us and that Sinless Perfection is not the Devil 's but God's own Doctrine and Work and attainable by the Believers in the Light And that this Man who writes this false Looking-glafs was a great Enemy of God and Blasphemer of his Heavenly Tabernacle in charging them with Gross and Absurd Opinions for keeping to Yea and Nay without Swearing in all things and holding forth the immediate Teaching of God's Spirit according to the New Covenant which saith They shall all be taught of God and God is a Spirit and to be known and witnessed in Man immediately to teach him and to write his Heavenly Law and Doctrine in his Heart or he perishes in his Sins and Ignorance it is so Thomas Taylor T. T. who was Ten Years and an half in Prison at Stafford writes a Letter to a particular Adversary J. D. IF the Wisdom of this World which is Foolishness with God had not clouded thy Mind thou couldst not have so juâ—ged as to account it Foolishness in me to abide in Prison whereas thou may'st as well say That to keep a good Conscience to God is â—â—olishness for in Obedience to God and for doing his Will have I suffered amongst you these many Years Also whereas thou tookest upon thee to be an Instructer saying If I did seek unto God he would deliver me out of Prison I say unto thee again as I said then That the Lord God of Life and Truth the True God over all Blessed for ever hath graciously delivered my Soul from the Pit of Darkness and Ignorance Sin and Wiâ—â—edness in which the whole World of Unbelieving People who receive Honour one of another and seek not the Honour that comes from God only do miserably Lye And as for my Body it is offered up to the Lord to do and suffâ—â— according to his Blessed Willâ—â— And 〈◊〉 thee plainly and all People in the Word of the Lord 〈◊〉 for â—oing his Blessed Will in witnessing in his Holy Power against the Wickedness of this present Evil World who in words profess they know God but in Deeds deny him as is too manifest to every one who do not willfully blind the Eye of the Understanding for because of Oaths and Drunkenness and Pride and Covetousness and Oppression and all manner of Uncleanness and Unrighteousness the Land Mourneth and the Inhabitants thereof God for these things will make to tremble and because in Obedience to Christ I cannot join with you in these Things I am made a Prey as it were For I say unto thee and all the World What Evil have I done I praise the Lord I am not conscious in my self neither have my Adversaries made it manifest of doing or intending the least Evil to the King or any Man within his Dominions but have endeavoured to my Power to do good unto you all and so the
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
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
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
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
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
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
or Testimony at all for the Law is Spiritual and Inward and the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophesie as saith Scripture Declaration and by that Spiritual Law Paul came to the knowledge of his Sin to Humiliation but while he was but a Professor of the Law in the Letter he was alive without Law but when the Commandment in Spirit came to be felt nigh in the Heart then Sin Revived and he Died And so will John Reynolds dye when the Law indeed he comes to feel but he is yet alive without Law and from that Ground comes all these Queries of his to stop if possible the Holy Seed from coming out of Egypt but the Lord will break all Bonds for his Elect sake so that in a few words take away from this John Reynolds the Letter and by his own words he is as blind as a Beetle for he Questions how a Man can either know the true Spirit or Sin or the Works or Fruits of either good Spirit or bad but by the Letter so that his Eye is in the outward Book and so no Letter no Preacher For John Reynolds did the Apostles hold forth a Letter without them to be an Eye to the World Nay nay they were to turn the People to the Light of Christ within them that thereby they might see the Light out of all Darkness and false Worships For in thy Light saith David we shall see Light O the Riches of the Grace of God that hath delivereâ— John Fince and John Payton from this Blind Guide John Reynolds whose Eye within is yet shut by the god of the World 2 Cor. 4.3 4. Qu. 4. Thou Queriest whether the Saints in your times are more perfect than Saints in Scripture times And the rest of this Query is to plead for Sin and against sinless Perfection and in the Conclusion of it thou say'st we cannot shew you one Man that ever attained it Answ Yea to this I say Through the Lord's great Love we are able to hold forth to thee and all the World one perfect Man yea such a One in whose Mouth there was and is no Guil who did and doth good and sinned not nor doth sin who was in a sinless Perfection and of such a Man will we glory not of Self nor of Flesh but in him who is made unto us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption who is more perfect than Thousands under the Law were Go to then to stop all Mouths the Gospel-day is Witnessed Praised be the Lord and in Perfection of Beauty do true Believers now Worship and the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in such who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit so John Reynolds to thee and thy Company I say Arise stand up from the Dead come out of your own times where there is none perfect for your times pass away into nothing but for Scripture times that 's large it is not as thou would'st Insinuate ended yet for the Scripture is the Lord daily fulfilling and will do it until time shall be no more which he that hath an Ear to hear â—et him hear and not only they but a Hundred Forty Four Thousand sinless perfect Ones are mentioned Rev. 14.25 with many more see also Chap. 7. Vers 9.14 an Innumerable Number Qu. 5. And for thy fifth Query where thou say'st If those that are called Quakers esteem themselves the only true Christians in the World then would I know where hath been their Church this 1600 Years Answ To this I say here thou manifests thy self again what stumbling is here in thy dark Mind This is like the Papists Arguments to Protestants but to this may be easily answered that if it be manifest to the Conscience of any as Praised be God it is to many that we are of God such a one will never ask such a Question as this But now to you who cannot own the Light in your Consciences we cannot be manifest because the World knows us not and then ask where hath your Church been I say it hath been ever where it is at this day to wit the Church which is in God and Christ which when thou comest to the Light of Christ within thee then thou wilt see but till then we must be content to lye hid from thee and all Dark Minds and so to bear Christ's Reproach but to all my dear Brethren in Christ I say Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the Sons of God Fellow-Citizens in the Heavenly Jerusalem with all the Church of God First-born of God whose Names are written in Heaven therefore the World knows us not because it knew not our Head first 1 John 3. Heb. 12. But as for thy telling of Esteeming Self and the name Quaker and the like thou may'st take those words in again from whence they came for Self and Names of Mens giving we deny and Glory in the Cross of Christ where the Name of God is known and as for the rest of thy Queries which tell of our unableness to give a Proof of such People as we before the last twenty Years or so who placed Religion in Thouing and Theeing and refusing to put off their Hats and wear Decent Ornaments in their Apparel and it is such frothy stuff that it Shames thee and thy Profession but thou may'st know that though you may do what you will that are without Law to God yet we are taught to fear the Lord and whatsoever is pure to mind that and so our Religion stands in Christ not in outward Appearances though the outward be all thou canst see and so stumbles at the meanness of it but what are those Decent Ornaments in Apparel thou tell'st on Is needless Points and Laces and Ribonds and such filth Then surely all Saints are one with us here but for that thou say'st we Rail against Priests Tythes Idols Temples and Idols Worship being such as yours I say though Railing we deny yet we can easily prove by Scripture that Holy Men Cried Vehemently against false Worships and Worshâ—ppers who were guided as you are in all Ages but as for that thou say'st We Rail against Baptism and the Lord's Supper and Singing of Psalms thou art found a great and false Slanderer in this for to let pass the word Railing we deny that we so much as speak against Christ's Baptism or Supper or his Singing or that we take upon our selves to condemn any to Hell but this we say That no Vnrighteous One or Hypocrite hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of God or of Christ and he that is not with us is against us which Words will-be hard and heavy for many to bear and as for Christ's Baptism and Supper and Singing in and with the Spirit we dearly own but the Hypocrite and their Leaven we deny Qu. 6. The next Query is something to the former purpose and so that which is said may serve for
Honouring all it must be understood as in some place is mentioned in the Lord and that is not with Cap and Knee and false Flattering Titles and Gestures as the World useth but in Heart and Truth as the Spirit of God moveth So that a Man must first be in the Lord out of the first fall'n false Mind otherwise he knows not at all how to Honour either God or Man but is a Dissembling Wretch making fair Shews outwardly of Love where nothing but War and Self-love is in the Heart See 2 Sam. 20.9 10. Jude 16. Thus Children being in the Lord do through the Lord Honour Parents aright thus Servants in the Lord Honour their Masters after the Flesh aright and so Church-members the Elders Wives their Husbands the Ruled the Rulers Yea thus they Honour their Faithful Brethren aright and in a Word all Men and so the Scripture is fulfilled in them But what Honour do these Faithful Ones look for from Men Nay nay they believe and seek for that Honour that comes from God only and so the Scripture will not help the fall'n Man now to his Honour which is his Life but as the Scripture saith He that would save his Life must loose it And so all you Hypocrites of the World who are giving Honour to Proud Flesh and receiving Honour from it cease your Work and let Christ have his due or verily he will break you all in pieces with his Iron Rod. But in the end of thy Query thy Conscience a little checking thee for this vain Work thou wouldst daub over the matter by telling People the Honour from below which thou hast been pleading for must not be in Opposition to but in Subordination to God's Honour Nay nay I say the true Christ the Son of God is come and all Power in Heaven and Earth is given to him and so all Honour and Glory and Worship is his due and the due of none else to whom be it given of all his Angels and Servants both now and for evermore So all People hearken and hear a word for your good would ye be Honoured Then Honour the Lord by obeying his Voice and he will Honour you in due time though for doing his Will you loose the Worlds Honour as assuredly ye will if once ye be Faithful Qu. 12. The next Query Consisteth of a great Boast of the Ministry as though it were Unrebukeable And thou queriest whether that Ministry can be lawfully Condemned as Antichristian which the Lord hath owned and sealed with the Conversion of many Souls Answ To which I say if your Ministry were such as this thou speakest of then indeed it were not safe to condemn it But where are these Converts thou speakest of to be a Convert is to be turned from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God bring forth the Man that can witness thee to be a Minister of the Gospel this way that he may give us an Account of the true Hope if he have it in him But Men cannot gather Grapes of Thorns nor Figs of Thistles so thou being such an Evil Tree as thou hast manifested thy self in these Queries to be how can a true Convert be expected from such a Ministry But thou say'st it s in Power c. and that many stubborn Sinners have been brought down unto their Faces and to confess that God is in you of a Truth But I say it will be hard for thee to bring forth such a Man for when I use to come amongst you to declare Truth against your Deceit as the Lord ordered me I found a heap of hard-hearted Sinners more like to destroy the Creature than to be Witnesses of Truth O shameless Men that bring forth such bad Fruit And yet with a Whores Fore-head dare take the Scripture which speaks of Prophets in God's Church in God's Power and apply it to your selves who deny the sufficiency of Christ's Light in Man and know nothing but meerly by the Letter without as thou for thy own particular hast made manifest and so are sensual not having the Spirit as was noted in the third Query I observe also in this present Twelfth Query the Ignorance of the Grace of God for when thou hast falsly Boasted of your Ministry what it hath done thou say'st is not this the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation Tit. 2.11 12. I say no your Ministry not being the true is far from being the Grace of God there spoken of But if it were the true Ministry it were not that Grace there spoken of for the true Ministry is but a service to that Grace not the Grace it self for the Grace of God is that which hath appeared unto all Men and that which brought Salvation to Jew and Gentile as God's Gift without Words or Works and which was the Teacher of the Apostles themselves as well as others And so when People would have been setting up Paul for his Ministry's sake he denied it as nothing in comparison of the All-sufficiency of the Grace of God and the Word thereof to which only at best he was but a Servant But if it could be manifest that any under or amongst you were Convinced of the Evil of their Ways in some measure and so in their Dark Minds set upon a seeking after the unknown God which is the most can be found amongst you and that rarely neither this is no warrant either for them to stay with you who are Ignorant of the Way out of Sin unto God neither is it any proof for you to be Gospel-Ministers nor your Ministry to be a Gospel-Ministry For the Gospel-Ministry is not only Convincing but Converting and Perfecting Eph. 4.11 12 13. which work ye have utterly denied and so shut out your selves for ever from the Gospel-Ministry and amongst the Priests of the Letter Law at best must you be reckoned which made nothing Perfect and hence it is that you are such bitter Enemies to the Spiritual Ministration or New Covenant mentioned Rev. 8. And such earnest Contenders for the outward Shadows outward Law Tythes Temples Days Priests c. as is now every where found But for the True Power and Gospel-Ministration it is risen above all your Languages and Tongues and hath darkened the Glory of all your Fleshly Forms and Likenesses And the Babes of God are in Obedience to God turned and turning from you unto this his Power that perfects to God for ever And Pharoah and all his Host will not now be able to hinder Praises to the Lord God for ever Qu. 13. In this next Query thou goest on seeking false Covers to hide thine and your Nakedness asking How can the Quakers Condemn your Congregations because of some Wicked Unprofitable Hearers when Christ himself say'st thou did not Convert all his Hearers And for this thou bringest Mat. 11.20 and Mat. 23.37 and Isa 49.4 I say all this will not cover your Nakedness Oh ye Teachers nor your Congregations for what have you
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
and no better than Offering Swines Blood or cutting off a Dogs Neck and for the endeavouring to keep up your Custom of Praying and Singing in mixt Congregations from the Example of Jews or them that follow Christ I say your Hypocritical Praying and Singing is good no where but Rejected of God and I see thy Pâ—ide all along that would be computing your Congregations to those that followed Christ Nay nay for though there was One Devil yet there was Eleven Saints but when you are searched scarce One of many Twelves that hath any true Fear of God before their Eyeâ— is to be found amongst you Qu. 20 And whereas in thy last Query thou askest Whether those Persons that have Experienced the Operation of the Spirit of God in the Gospels Preaching and Administrations Convincing their Consciences Melting the Hearts Humbling the Spirits and Turning them from Darkness to Light and have afterwards Tasted much Sweetness and have felt Soul-Ravishing Comforts in the Enjoyment of God in Ordinances have not the Witness in themselves that God doth own these and Bless these Priviledges to them I answer Yea it is thus with all that in Truth have the Witness in themselves that God doth own these and Bless these Priviledges to them But those People that go under the Name Quakers have to the Praise of God's free Love the Witness in themselves of such Fruits as thâ—se amongst them from the Virtue of the Everlasting Gospel and its Administration And therefore we can Witness that John Reynolds and all such as Condemn this Ministry and Work of God amongst us as Heresie or so are Deceivers and that they are Strangers to Spiritual Communion with God whatever in words they may Boast who cannot meet with and enjoy God where we to his Immortal Praise be it in Truth spoken do experience that loving Kindness and Goodness which is better than Life it self And therefore how long may this John Reynolds or any other Seducer or painted Sepulchre talk before ever they can perswade these whom the Lord hath so loved not to believe their own Spiritual Senses and Experiencies But to conclude Whereas this John Reynolds in his high swelling Words of his last Query and the 12th boasts much of his own and his Fellows Experiencies of Spiritual things I refer the Reader to the rest of his Queries and especially the 3 5 8 10 11 14 15 16 and to the answers to them all and to weigh all in the Ballance of Just Judgment and it will appear to him beyond words what may be Judged of them and us Thomas Taylor A Testimony to the True and Spiritual Worship And a Word of Consolation to the Children of Light GOD is a Spirit all Pure Holy Just and True and therefore in Spirit Purely Holy and Truly will he be Worshiped of all that come to him and therefore all that Worship which stands in the Impure Unholy nature of the flesh is of no acceptance with him Cain may Sacrifice and Israel may be Circumcised and Judas do something like an Apostle but so long as the Murderous Scoffing Covetous Trayterous Nature of the Flesh stands all is nothing The Lord God Blessed for ever hath in this day of his Powerful Love made manifest himself amongst the Children of Men on Earth and now Sons and Daughters do Prophesie and Old and Young do Sing of his Praise and Sound forth with Joyful Hearts of the worthy noble Acts of his Right-Hand because his Kingdom is come and his Glory in Sion is appeared and the Tabernacle of God is indeed with Men and he himself not a Shadow or a Figure or ontward Representation of him but he himself who is over all God Blessed for ever dwells in and with his People his dearly beloved Sâ—ed who have believed in Light that true Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and have not despised the day of Small Things but have waited in the Light in the Faith of his Holy Power for the fulfilling of his Promises and so through Faith and Patience have received the Promises of Everlasting Life and Salvation fulfilled in them whereby the Mountains are thrown down and Vallies lifted up and all made Plain Pure and Perfect for the Holy God and Father of all Mercy and Goodness to dwell in and walk in Glory Glory to his great Name who hath not left himself without a Witness of his Faithfulness this day nor left the Throne of Davids Kingdom without an Heir to sit upon it to Order and Establish it in Righteousness And now even now in this our Day the Day which the Lord hath made is the Blessed Fountain of the great Depth of the Love of God in Christ Jesus truly opened and the Waters of the Heavenly Temple are so deep that a Man may swim in them and it is not now as sometimes in times past here a line and there a line here a little and there a little but now hath the Lord our God according to his excellent Loving-kindness fully opened to Judah and the Children of the Heavenly Mother Jerusalem the Mystery of his Will and Fountain of his Eternal Goodness in Christ Jesus the Light whereby our Souls are satisfied and Sin and Transgression done away and the Everlasting Righteousness which makes Pure and Perfect the very Heart Soul and Conscience to God brought in ever Blessed be his Glorious Name for his unspeakable Gift Amen and Amen And now are all false Religions seen and by the Light which makes them manifest Judged for the false Births which are of the great Whore Mystery Babilon whose Religions are carried on by the will of the Flesh as by the Fleshly Wisdom they were Invented stand all in the Curse where nothing is perfect but their own Misery and Wretchedness Remains and therefore it is that both Priest and People in this Wretched State do all with one consent cry out against the perfect Work of Jesus Christ in his People saying None can be Perfect here And so do in a Word deny the very End for which Christ came and the End for which the Ministry of Christ was given for Christ gave himself for his People That he might wash them in the Word of Life and so present them to himself a Glorious Congregation without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing Ephes 5.25 c. And thou art all Fair my Love saith Christ to his Spouse And there is no Spot in thee And the Law made nothing Perfect but the bringing in of a better Hope Christ in us the Hope of Glory Col. 1.27 Heb. 7.19 And the very end of the Ministry was for the Edifying and Perfecting the Saints who are Christs Body Eph. 4.12 And we labour to present every Man Perfect to God in Christ Col. 1.28 And John 17.23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made Perfect in one But now the false Ministry which stands in the Flesh in which no good thing
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 Children of Men there will neither be Peace nor Establishment of any good thing but as a Wheel will the whole Earth be from Generation to Generation saith the Spirit who is the sweet Orderer in all things for the Holy Seed's sake Glory to his Name for ever And so in the Love and Kindness of the Lord God have I been thus enabled for the Truth and the poor Peoples sake to lay open something of the Deceits and gross Hypocrisie of these two Men called R. B. and Bryan who have long under a Cover or Vizard of Holiness deceived the unstable Souls of many But now the Covering being rent off their Wolfish Nature is fully manifest Glory to the Lord the good Work-man over all for ever So be it Thomas Taylor Some Gentle Remarks on a Book Entituled A Discourse concerning the Idolatry Practised in the Church of Rome A Book coming to my Hands called A Discourse concerning the Idolatry Practised in the Church of Rome Written by E. S. Stiled D. D. And finding the Man Zealous against that Romish Idolatry which is Commendable in him E. S. in his Book Orig. Sacra Page 4. hath these words God Created the Souls of Men not only Capable of finding out the Truth of things but furnished him with a Sufficient Teacher to discover Truth from Falshood by a LIGHT set up in his Vnderstanding which if he had attended to he might have secured himself from all Impostors and Deceit And also finding in his Principles towards the latter end of his Book such a saying as this to wit his fifth Priciple There can be no other means Imagined whereby we are to judge of the Truth of Divine Revelation but a faculty in us discerning Truth and Falshood in Matters Proposed to our Vnderstandings which if we do not Exercise in Judging the Truth of Divine Revelation we must be imposed upon by every thing that pretends to be so And in Article 13. The Holy Scriptures may be understood Infallibly by all Persons who sincerely endeavour to know the meaning of them in all such things as are necessary for their Salvation This is the Scope of the latter part of that Article And in Article 13. And there can be no sufficient Reason given why that may not serve in matters of Faith which God himself hath made use of as the means to keep Men from Sin in their Lives unless any imagine that Errors in Opinion are far more Dangerous to Mens Souls than a vicious Life is and therefore that God is bound to take more Care to prevent the one than the other And in his Fourth and Fifth Conclusion upon his Articles saith The more absurd any Opinions are and Repugnant to the first Principles of Sense and Reason which any Church Obtrudes upon the Faith of Men The greater Reason Men still have to reject the pretence of Infallibility in that Church as a grand Imposture And so to disown what is so Taught by such a Church is not to question the Veracity of God but so firmly to adhere to it as to what he hath Revealed in Scriptures that Men dare not out of Love to their Souls reject what is so taught Yet finding this E. S. making several Reflections upon us whom the World Scorn under the Nick name of Quakers I say us whom the Lord hath drawn out of the many Waters of Mystery Babylon into the Light of his Son that most inward Principle Faculty and alone Ability in Man to try all Doctrines and Works by I could not but thus write something to him that he might see his Mistake of us and not lose his Reward of standing against Romish Delusions by withstanding or Speaking against the Truth of God made manifest to us in our Hearts and Shining forth in our Lives to the Praise of his Glory and the Good of all who do rightly understand us and receive our Testimony I say that if possible he may understand a little and feel of that inward Principle or Faculty as he calls it which he is aiming at and which he saith must be antecedently supposed viz. necessarily to all Divine Revelation are these things writ Now that part of his Book where he some-what smites at us is that where he Treats of the Fanaticism of the Roman Church As one may see Page 249. where he says Who will not take pains to see how Faithfully I have Translated these Words out of Eymericus would imagine I have borrowed some of the canting Language of the Modern Quakers Look * where he goes on Now What is this some of this canting Language That part of Petrus Johannis's Relation of St. Francis as he calls him runs thus That those who Opposed this Order to wit of that Francis were the Carnal Persecuting Clergy in whom the Seat of the Beast is much more than in the People that in the time of the Mystical Antichrist the Carnal Church shall oppose the Doctrine Life and Zeal of the Saints and burn as it were with Fire against them but it shall be dried up from all Spiritual Wisdom and Grace and the Riches of Christ and be Exposed to Errors and Delusion and as it was with the Jews and Greeks Thus far there To which I Answer What is this kind of Language Canting where it is truly applied in any Age dost not thou Edward Stillingfleet believe that there both was and is a Carnal Church that did and doth oppose the Doctrine Life and Zeal of the Saints c. as is there sâ—t down To let Francis and his Applauders alone we know both the Holy Prophets and Apostles of Jesus Christ mentioned in Scripture as also Christ himself did vehemently Cry against a Carnal Church or Fleshly Company of Professors in those days for he that was born after the Flesh did always Persecute him that was born after the Spirit both before and in the Apostles Days And so it hath been since no question all along downwards and as we for certain find it so in these our days not only by the Papists but even amongst them called Protestants also And was those many Sharp Reproofs and large Discoveries of the False Teachers in the Prophets and Apostles time Canting O Man take heed thou knows not what thou dost when thou judges our Witness against the False Teachers and Carnal Professors of this Age no better than Canting But certainly though some of you may put it off at present as a light thing and look at it Scornfully as no better than Canting as they did who said He is Mad and hath a Devil why hear ye him but the time will come when it will be otherwise even then when the Books are opened and every one receives a Reward according to their Deeds It is strange this Doctor who seems to be so much Read should Read our Principles no better and pretending to so much Wisdom if he have Read our Books that he should no better understand us than to compare us