in which ye make sore complaint people will rather continue than remove to you since your skirts are discovered 5. That ye are offended with me for using bitter and violent expressions towards you in which ye say nothing of the spirit of Christ appears but the contrarie And that ye are otherwise taught then to render evil for evil and railing for railing but rather to blesse having the example and precept of Christ for it yet notwithstanding your book abounds with â—ayling reviling and evil speaking And where ye cannot amongst your selves frame and make up enough ye endeavour the best ye are able to take up something from others whom ye do not name and perhaps I never saw and cast the reproach of it upon me telling me of Luciferian pride folly impudencie malignity untruths c. All which is the proper fruit of the corrupt fountain from whence it came to which it is again returned But by this the sober Reader may take notice how directly ye are found in the steps of your fathers the Scribes and Pharisees who crucified the just one and said and did not c. And what use it is ye make of Christ his precepts and examples that is to say to make them a veil or covering under pretence of which to hide your selves in your ungodly and wicked practices whiles in words ye would seem to condemn it just â—e the harlot whose words are smooth and pleasant but her pathes lead to the chambers of death and how can ye say nothing in my book appears like the Spirit of Christ when so much of it is the very words of Scripture which ye say is the word of God and the Scripture saith the father the word and holy Ghost are one are they one and not a like are they one and yet contrary or are not ye rather in blindness and confusion understanding neither what ye say or of what ye affirm To your Reader ye expresse your trouble and griese that I a man once famous for professing the truth did upon the coming of the people called Quakers own and plead for them and by so doing drew many a poor soul out of the wayes of Christ as ye say into the wayes of those miserable deluded people To which I reply that I did upon the first publishing of the glad tydings of salvation by the Ministerie of righteousness obtain mercy to own and embrace the same and by it was turned to God out of the wayes of miserie delusion and deceipt in which ye yet abide is true But that I drew any out of the wayes of Christ is false and from your father by whom the eyes of your minds being blinded ye wander and by him are led in the dark and blind pathes of lying deceipt and delusion towards death and destruction And therefore ye tell the Reader I prepared a letre with this inscription for the people called independents and by my subtilty engaged two of your brethren to present it to the Church which is an absolute lye at which ye could not but blush had ye not a whoores forhead for no such inscription at all was upon any letter of mine But for the hands of Robert Simpson and Robert Purnel c. Neither do I know any subtilty used to engage them farther than in plainnes and honesty to read it in their hearing and demand their freedom to comunicate it to those who sent the charge by them to me and this ye term subtility and deceipt when the subtilty and designed deceipt is among your selves who kept my defence from being communicated to those for whom it was intended fearing as ye confesse it might draw away more from amongst you And this was no disappointment at all of my ends neither was I enraged at it as ye say But it is another lye and your torment thereby is encreased because opportunity was thereby administred to discover your skirts and lay open your shame which otherwise its like had not been And whereas ye tell your Reader ye cannot without being guilty of my sin let my folly go unreproved but have set forth these plain words of truth and sobernes c. This is like the rest a refuge of lyes for neither true nor sober it is but full of lyes and deceipt of which I know no page free And so ye need not trouble your selves with the guilt of my sin ye have enough of your own And it is plain and true that the lyers are without and for the lake c. which is your portion from him who will clear the innocent c. with whom ye are not companions in tribulation nor are grieved for the afflictions of Joseph nor sensible of this day of Jacobs trouble nor know the welfare of Sion nor the faith of the Gospel nor the testimonie of Jesus which is the Spirit of prophecie And so I come to your book it self In the first line of which ye demand Did I never read that the Church of Christ in Scripture is resembled to a natural body wherein are many members united each to other and most of them to one head and by one Spirit and say that as in the natural body there may be many infirmities so in the mistical bodie c. I answer nay I never read such a thing in Scripture but can read you who put this queston as blind as the men of Sodom that saw not the way for where in Scripture is the Church of Christ resembled to a natural body I say a natural bodie in which are many infirmities Again where doth the Scripture say that in the Church of Christ there are many members united each to other and most of them to one head and by one spiritâ— Is there any unitie in the Church of Christ and not by the Spirit And are not all who are by the Spirit united together by the same Spirit united to the head And is not the Lord that Spirit in which the vail is removed But Babilon is your Citie your first building is confusion and had ye not thus exprest your selves ye had not so clearly manifested your gross ignorance both of the true Church her members the head and the Spirit But having thus done ye apply your selves to your blind mistaken conclusions drawn from what before ye had ignorantly propounded And say that as in the natural bodie there may be many infirmities so the mystical body also may be subject to distempers c. To which I say In your tittle page ye stile your selves the Church of Christ though ye never proved it but your language is the harlots and not the Churches In Scripture I read of a natural bodie and a spiritual bodie but never of a mystical bodie so exprest that comes from the Harlot But if by mystical bodie ye mean your selves then I easily grant it is indeed subject to destempers enough which ye number up and say is undigested humours want of closing with truth and receiving untruth windie
that if ye returned an answer ye take care it be to some purpose and not a parcel of weakness and confusion c. yet I find the conception and birth which by you who call your selves a Church of Christ is brought forth into the world is the same in which you have given so much advantage to lay open your shame and discover your skirts beyond and above others yea many of the Parish Assemblies of which you speak that I know not how to let it pass without rebuke 2. I take notice that that little book entituled The skirts of the Whore discovered hath been made effectuall through the power of the mighty God of Jacob so that the dart is struck through the liver and the arrowes of the Almighty stick fast in the hearts of the Kings enemy and torment is upon you on every side because your skirts are discovered that passers by see the shame of your nakedness and that instead of turning unto the Lord who hath smitten and wounded you whose tender mercies are towards you and therefore hath often warned you with foolish Ephraim of old you are running to the Assrians for help and into Aegypts land a place of darkness are ye gone seeking to recover a vail to hide your selves from the face of the Lamb who is the Light of the World and of the Temple in whose light ye are seen and comprehended and the deceit of your Religion and powerless profession known and manifested against which the hand of the Lord is lifted up though ye see it not nor are ashamed but under your traditional and deceitful forms and waies seek to hide and cover your selves as with a vail making lies your refuge and under falshood hiding your selves bringing the wo and the wrath more and more upon your selves who cover with a covering but not of Gods spirit rebeling against the light not knowing its wais nor abiding in its paths 3. That notwithstanding according to the prophesies that went before the true light is now come and the glory of the Lord is arisen and the children of the Lord are walking in the light of the Lord and calling others thereinto yet darkness hath covered the earth and gross darkness the people and therefore thorow the blindness of your minds whilest ye go about to vindicate your selves from the stroak of that which was justly and truly declared of you in The skirts of the Whore discovered ye manifest and prove your selves to be the same that is to say no Church of Christ but an harlot c. And this ye do in the very Title of your book which is The Church of Christ in Bristol recovering her vail out of the hands of them that have smitten and wounded her and taken it away a practise never heard of among those that were the Churches of Christ in whom the vail is done away Col. 2.19 for the Churches of Christ were all baptized by one spirit into one body and united to one head even Christ from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred encreaseth with the encrease of God And where Christ is witnessed the vail is removed and done away I Cor. 3.13 14 15 16 17.18 yea though it was over the heart in the reading of the old Testament that the people could not see to the end of that which is abolishëd yet in Christ it is done away and his Church who witness him their head and from him have nourishment ministred comes with open face to behold the glory of the Lord and by it are changed into the same image c. But to this are you strangers and aliens who are recovering the vail out of his hands that hath taken it away that with it ye may be covered Gen. 38.14 like Tamar the harlot sitting by the way whiles the witnesses of Christ and Ministers of the new Testament do not as Moses cover their face with a vail that the people may not see to the end of that which is abolished but use great plainness of speech directing the minds of the people to the light to the annointing to the unction which is in them which guideth them into all truth shewing the father and things which are to come to which agreeth the Prophet Isay who speak as he was moved of the Lord and said The mountain of the Lords house shall be exalted above the mountains c. and in this mountain the Lord will destroy the face of the covering cast over all people and the vail which is spread over all Nations c. and to this also do agree those that speak as they were moved of the holy Ghost Isa 25.7 But ye who know not that one spirit nor the Baptism nor the body nor the unity nor ever came to witness the head from which nourishment is ministred to the body and in which the vail is removed and taken away but are recovering it out of his hands who hath smitten and wounded you I sâ—y ye are hereby manifested and proved no Church of Christ but an harlot a Synagogue of Satan a cage of unclean spit it s upon whom the Lord hath stretched forth the lines of confusion and stones of emptiness and made you an habitation for dragons and a Court for owles in which the wild and cruel beasts of the earth who have no habitation in God inhabit 4. That notwithstanding you would seem to reprove me for vain boasting c. though ye know in your own Consciences I speak very soberly of my self without boasting and far beneath what I was in yours and centers account till I told you the truth yet have ye published a book and a pretty big one too mostly to commend your selves and on the other And although ye seem among other things to boast of your stability c. yet let me tell you I well remember the time when but few amongst you stood stable to your own principles of Churches and ordinances as ye call it but were like children tost to and fro with winds of doctrine embracing a Religion which consisted in great swelling words of vanity without power At which time Robert Purnel as stable as he is undertook to prophesie the down-fall of Independency Anabaptism c. and said by faith he saw it full by the comming of Christ in spirit and this he published in his book entitled Good tydings for sinners Great joy for Saints And besides if ye were indeed so stable as ye would have the world believe how commeth it to pass that at this day ye are so rossed with blasts and winds and know no stability but so many of you are of late turned Anabaptists which formerly was so odious and so sad a principle that Hannah Taylor was near casting cut from amongst you for entertaining it But it is true ye hold fast deceit and refuse to return in which ye are as stable as most that I ever knew and equal with those Parish Assemblies
humours of pride high-mindedness and giving heed to lying Spirits violent headiness in stead of well tempered zeal for God and godliness c. All which it's like ye speak from good experience and if ye had added much more of that kind to which ye are subject I know and bear testimonie that it is true But if by mystical bodie ye mean the Church of Christ of which he is head and hath washed from all her sins in his own blood and redeemed from all iniquitie and presents holy and unblamable without spot or wrinkle then do ye speak falsely and wickedly blaspeming the bodie of Christ which is holy in which dwell no lying spirits nor windie homours as ye call it of pride and high mindedness c much lesse is it subject to those things but is more than Conqueror over it and is subject onely to Christ who is the head where other Lords have not dominion but being made free by the Son of God is free indeed while such as you are subject to such distempers and wicked spirits and humours by which ye are overcome and in bondage and never came to witness redemption and freedom by the Son of God who gave himself for us as Paul saith that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people Now if Pauls words be true as indeed they are then is your mystical distempered surfeited windie humorous proud high minded feavorish bodie which gives heed to lying spirits no Church of Christ but an absolute Harlot And so have ye your selves manifested your own bodie as filthy as ever I declared it And so what wrong have I done ye ye say in my former book there is contained many things too low and beneath you to read peruse or answer thereby manifesting your Pride for his soul that is lifted up is not upright And the Harlot sits as a Queen and counts it beneath her to answer what is spoken to her in truth But I perceive ye are making good the title of your book covering your selves with such filthie stuff where ye cannot answer and yet he that reads and understands would think ye little regard what ye say or into what confusion ye run so ye can but think to hide your heads for notwithstanding ye said but now it was below and beneath a Christian much more a whole Church to read or answer my book yet presently ye say ye shall take the Lords Counsel and answer the Author Is it beneath and too low for you to read or answer and yet doth the Lord Counsel you to answer or doth the Lord Counsel you to answer what is beneath you to read Why should ye thus take the Lords name in vain to cover and hide your deceipt Know ye not that ye cannot be by him held guiltless But this is pitiful stuff to come from a whole Church as ye call your selves need enough ye have to seek a covering to hide your folly Ye say my Pamphlet is stuâ—t in the middle and both ends with many unsavoury and unchristian like expressions and speak of vain boastings absurdities and untruths but mention not the particulars nor make it appear and so I shall let it pass as one of your lying refuges Ye say how sadly is that Scripture Acts 20.30 fulfilled both on us and you c. I answer nay not on you who are far from the condition of the elders of the Church of Ephesus to whom Paul spake whom the holy Ghost had made overseers of the flock of God which he with his own blood had purchased and they did feed who were turned from the darkness to the light but I say this belongs not to you who love darkness and hate the light of which they were children and came to see with open face as in a glass the Lords glorie which condition is witnessed in measure by thousands at this day of those whom ye call miserable deluded people Neither is it fulfilled in me who do not speak perverse things to draw people from the truth which is the light but have declared the truth concerning you Ye say when ye had read the title of my book and considered the people included and intended by me ye could not but stand amazed c. I answer yea and well ye might and be ashamed and confounded that ever a people professing themselves the Church of Christ should be so notoriously found in the Harlots steps without so much as a shew of a true covering in which to hide themselves from the rebuke of what was spoken of them as in your book the Reader may perceive but are driven to so many lying refuges to vindicate your selves and all in vain for your covering is short Ye say Is it not an high degree of Luciferian pride for a poor Creature to set his foot upon the neck of all the assemblies and Churches of the Saints calling them the wâ—ore And then put your silly interpretations upon my words us some of you use to do upon the Scriptures and draw your mistaken meanings thereon and then tell me of Shimei's cursing David and of your resolutions c. To which I reply The assemblyes and Churches of Saints oh how lovely are they unto me because the living presence and power of God is there manifested In which I have chosen rather to be a door-keeper and to suffer reproach with the people of God which was Davids portion than to dwell with you in the ungodly Tent where Shimei that Curser is But the voice of the Lords thunders being heard in the earth and his lightenings gone forth and his just visitations come and coming upon the Harlot or great whore whose judgement is now come I doe according to my measure bear testimony against her your surfeited bodie though she call her self a Church and cover her self with scarlet as with a veil yet upon her neck do I tread and all her glorie do I despise and upon all her pride and Luciferian spirit do I trample for just and true is he that hath judged her And notwithstanding ye begin to wail and lament like them Rev. 18. whose merchandise was destroyed saying O how do the daughters of the Philistines rejoyce and the uncircumcised triumph will not every prophane person that seeth us go in the streets say Lo there goes one of the skirts of the whore one of the synagogue of Satan one of the cage of unclean birds c. And if we reprove them will they not say one of your selves have written and published it And then tell how your enemies will scourge you with the tongue and condemn you c. Reply If this be so and the Philistines and prophane persons in whose nature ye are and with whose spirit ye agree do thus behave themselves towards you yet know and see the Scriptures fulfilled and as ye have loved cursing reproaching or reviling so it is unto you and the measure which ye have meted is measured
and no fear of God is before your eyes And to you may I return your own words that I stand almost amazed to think unto what an height of impudence and wickedness ye are allreadie come and whether may not poor fallen creatures run if God stop them not since ye arâ—â—â—â—eady so hardened 〈◊〉 Simson saith Thirdly your extream censoriousnesse and rash judgiâ—â—â—…nely of men abroad but also of the Church Mat. 7.1 Rom. 14. 〈◊〉 the Church of Christ an Harlot And ye say Thirdly your extream â—…tiousnesse and rash judging not onely of persons abroad but also of the â—â—urch contrary to Mat. 7.1 Rom 14.3 also your calling the Church an Harlot leaving out the word Christ in which the strength of all did lie But why were these words left out being ye say ye inserted them verbatim the Reader may take notice that after I had received the copy from Robert Simson of what ye had charged upon me viz. rash judging and calling the Church of Christ an Harlot I replied the charge was false and from the father of lies for I never called the Church of Christ an Harlot but do own it dearly but the Harlot is an Harlot and not the Church of Christ and so demonstrated by the spirit that acted you that ye were not the Church of Christ but an Harlot from which ye not being able to vindicate your selves betake yourselves again to this refuge of lies and say ye insert the charge verbatim when ye did it not but left out the main thing therein contained without which your charge hath little weight for though I never called the Church of Christ an Harlot yet I have both said and proved that ye who call your selves a Church are an Harlot and not the Church of Christ and do again plainly say and declare it so and might farther prove it were it needful which it is not since my former proof stands good and not controlled by you nor you giving proof that ye are a Church of Christ And I do once more say and affirm that your charge is false and from the father of lies who was a liar from the beginning And your labour might be saved in using arguments to prove that I said ye were an Harlot and not a Church I had so plainly published it But here ye would perswade the Reader I came in with mental reservations and ask is it honestie or any thing but deceit and hypocrisie because I said I did not call the Church of Christ an harlot but the people in Bristol c. To which I say were ye not quite blind and full of deceit and subtiltie ye might easilie see and know that I spake plainly and truly without your mentals and other carnal stuff when I said and manifested that I dearly owned the Church of Christ which were all living stones c. and did clearly bear testimony against you that ye were not so but an Harlot and herein I appear both just and honest towards the Church of Christ and towards the Harlot in hearing testimony to the former and against the latter in which no deceit nor subtilty appears but just dealing and all your equivocations and mental reservations as ye call them together with your shamelesse unchristian-like practises in which ye appear one with the black spirit of Ralph Farmer is denied together with all lies and the father thereof but the Church of Christ is lovely c. Robert Simpson saith Fourthly your asserting in the Church principles contrary to Truth as first That faith is an eternal thing Secondly That Christ and saith is all one Thirdly That Christ Jesus is not the object of faith And ye say Fourthly Your asserting in the Churches doctrines contrary to truth as first that we did not know what faith was and that faith was an eternal thing Secondly That Christ and Faith is all one Thirdly That Christ is not the object of faith Fourthly Your speaking reproachfully of the blessed scripture affirming they were blind and a plaâ—â—â— to souls and further saying that they were not the word of God nor the rule of life and this ye say is verbatim and therefore must be examined And first I find that the copy saith principles contrary to truth and ye say doctrines contrary to truth and that 's not verbatim But I take notice that I having given true answers to each particular aforesaid contained in the copie and published it in The skirts of the Whore c. which stands in sound and wholsome words unanswered by you by which your shame appears of which being sensible ye labour to recover your vail to hide your falshood and having given heed to lying spirits ye again betake your selves to your wonted refuge and say having the copie by you ye publish it verbatim And say First That we did not know what faith was every word of which is forged and feigned and not in the copie delivered to me and therefore well might ye say whether may not a poor fallen people run if God stop them not And it is no wonder ye began your book pleading for the kingdom of the Devil saying that as in the natural body there may be many infirmities so the mystical body by which its like ye mean your selves who are not a spiritual bodie as the Church of Christ is may be subject to distempers and among many other things make mention of windy humors of pride and high mindedness and giving heed to lying spirits c. It s like ye had some sence what spirit ruled you to which ye intended to give heed and with what filth and falshood ye intended to fill your book and the lying refuge to which ye intended to betake your selves before ye drew such false conclusions in the beginning thereof But this is not all in the copie delivered to me in this fourth branch were inserted but three particulars which are before mentioned to which ye adde a fourth viz. your spâ—aking reproachfully of the blessed scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls and farther saying they were not the word of God and ru'e of life and this ye say is verbatim notwithstanding that which here ye make as a fourth particular in the fourth general is in the copie a fifth general including three Particulars and so do your selves afterwards reckon it notwithstanding in the wisdom of God ye are lest to ensnare your selves and manifest it to all the world saying it is verbatim when ye have left one of your five things mentioned but the line next before It s like the pangs of a traveling woman are upon you who have so long cryed peace and safety to your selves that the sword of the Lord is upon you and your eyes utterly darkened that ye cannot see But the blind have so long led the blind that ye are all fallen into the ditch and under pretence of recovering a veil have manifested your shame and published things which ye endevoured to perswade the
and say ye will prove every tittle and now ask me if I did not speak it at the Red-lodge in the Garden-house which was at a meeting of those ye call miserable deluded people who are wandring as ye say in the dark At which time say ye one of us was by So then by your own confession either those ye call miserable deluded people who are wandring in the dark must be the Church or else ye a company of lyars And let me tell you these things are not only aequivocations and mental reservations of which ye speak but downright lying and deceit And because I asked where the Scripture called it self the Word of God ye say for answer ye shall give me four plain places instead of many three of which places have not these expressions in them viz. the Word of God much less that the Scriptures calls it self so and the fourth place saith for laying aside the commandements of God ye hold the traditions of men and full well ye reject the commandement of God that ye may keep your own traditions and again making the Word of God of none effect thorough your traditions Now although in this Scripture the Word of God is mentioned yet doth the Scripture therefore call it self the Word of God Or rather do not ye manifest your selves to be those that do erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the Word of God which was before the Scripture was written and from which the Scriptures were given forth who through your own traditions and the traditions of other men do go about to make the powerful Word of God by which all things were made and forever are upheld of none effect And therefore ye say what shall we go to light a candle to the Sun Have not many judicious and godly Writers proved that the Scriptures are the Word of God To which I reply Many men have both said and written it from whose traditions not from the Scriptures ye have received it and amongst others those ye call Popes Papists Priests and Jesuits as well as other ignorant and unlearned men who wrest the Scriptures as ye do have asserted and do affirm it and in their printed books called Catechisms and Christian doctrine have laid it down as principles and fundamentals as they as well as you call it to be learned of all good Christians in which ye may find also the ground of your word mystical body Sacraments and some of that ye call institutions and most if not all your invented and carnal observations used in and about the worship of your God for which no ground being in the Scripture ye and others have by tradition received it from the Popes Cardinals and Priests and other Heathens that know not God But those that knew and ministred of the Word of God which was not a dead letter but quick and powerful commanded that men should not say Who shall ascend into heaven to fetch Christ from above c. for the word of faith which they preached was nigh even in the mouth and in the heart And this is that which against your selves ye have rejected that ye may hold your own and other mens traditions received as aforesaid and so do bear the character of those wicked men of which ye speak that cast the Word of God behind their backs who hate to be reformed thereby And so having in your blind minds without the fear of God rambled thorough what ye had to say in pretence of proof of that ye call your admonition which indeed is but studied accusations and from the father of lyes and invented by his instruments amongst you as before I said In the close ye say Ye have proved every tittle to be true and clear so that ye are no lyars nor false accusers but must turn that back again upon me professing to all the world I have wronged you in what I have written To which I reply I wish ye had been found innocent before the Lord and both true and clear and no lyars nor false accusers then I needed not so to have spoken but instead thereof ye are found more and more guilty adding iniquity to iniquity so that were it needful I could reckon up many more of the lies slanders and false accusations of which ye stand guilty To close this particular for I profess to all the world ye are become such a Synagogue and Cage of false lying and deceitful spirits that to my remembrance I never met with the like nor did believe was to be found upon the earth under the title of a separated Congregation of whom the Parish Assemblies may say as ye say they will they were better to remain as they are then come amongst you except they intend to be made twofold more the children of hell then they are already for instead of proving your selves no lyars nor false accusers and the things ye charged me withal to be true and clear how clearly and truly are ye proved yea have proved your selves by many degrees greater lyars then before so that what is justly charged upon you and said of you in the skirts of the whore stands over your heads in that authority and power of truth that ye shall never be able to return it back nor free your selves of it for it is your portion and ye must bear it and labouring to acquit your selves being guiltie ye have brought upon your head much more of the same righteous judgement so that notwithstanding all your consultations with all those lying spirits to which ye have given heed for whose entertainment in your mystical windie humour'd bodie ye plead the better to recover your veil and hide your shame yet is your vail removed your coveting ript off and your shame manifested more then before and your selves in your imaginations confounded which from God is the portion of those that hate the light and bring not their deeds thereto In pages 18 19. I find a parcel of deceitful stuff scarce worth answering yet can hardlie let pass something without rebuke I find you blaming me for flattering and commending my self as ye say when your selves have published a whole book mostly to vindicate flatter and commend your selves and one anothor in your evil wayes till your iniquity is found out to be abhorred Why had ye not cast the beam out of your own eyes before ye had meddled with motes in mine and better considered the Scripture ye mention viz Let another man praise thee and not thy own lips Again ye say Amaziah was not blamed for the good he did but because he did it not with a perfect heart yet your selves speak contemptuously of perfection and those that labour to attain it Ye say ye knew my spirit and what I did pretend to and observed my gross mistake but were not willing to offend me c. which is deceit and hypocrisie for the true Church cannot bear them that are evil but testifies against them And whereas I had said