and so Christ dwells in true Believers hearts by faith according to that saying Eph. 3.20 that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith And so when men have true faith in Christs Death Resurrection and Ascension without them they may be said to have Christ in them the hope of glory for the faith of Christ or faith in Christ without them gives hope to the minde that they shall behold that glory Christ without them is in and so by faith a man comes to know that he is no reprobate For a man that hath true faith in Christ without him may be said to know that Christ is in him and that he is no reprobate And this is that great Mystery Christ in you the hope of glory for it is a great Mystery to understand God manifest in flesh and to become very man in one single person even the Man Christ Jesus and he to die rise again and ascend from whence he came this is a great Mystery indeed and few can comprehend it but Faith doth see it and understand it and where ever it is truly believed that man may be said to have Christ in him the hope of glory and to know that he is no reprobate because the Seed of Faith which is Christs Seed is in him and that Seed acts it self forth to lay hold of that person of Christ without him and so gives assurance of everlasting life in a man and so Christ may be said to be in a man For the Seed is counted sometimes for the thing it self so that if a man doth not really know in himself that he hath the Seed of Christ in him and that is known by actual believing him that is sent that man is a reprobate to himself and hath not the hope of glory in him and so Christ is not in his heart by faith This is the true Interpretation of those Scriptures and of the Apostles minde CHAP. XII 2. I Shall open the Quakers Cheat concerning their bodies being flesh of Christs flesh and bone of his bone and those Scriptures interpreted they ground that Conceit upon First Rom. 12. and 5. Paul saith So we being many are one body in Christ So 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the body is one and hath many members of that one body so also is Christ So Eph. 5.30 For we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bone So Col. 1.21 And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minde by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death These be the chief places of Scriptures the Quakers do prove themselves to be flesh of Christs flesh and bone of his bone and for want of explaining these words making no distinction they cheat many ignorant people of the peace of their minds and of the knowledge of the true body of Christ without them Let the Reader but minde the words of Paul before and they may easily see that Pauls minde was quite contrary to the Quakers for the Apostle speaks of Believers being Christs body and members of Christs body no otherwise than he did of Christs being within the Saints as I said before that is by the union the Saints have with Christ by faith in the true Preachers of the Gospel they come to be members of Christs body and so called the body of Christ the Head as you may see Rom. 12.5 and 1 Cor. 12.12 and Eph. 5.30 and Col. 1.21 These places all prove that the Saints being true Believers are counted the members and body of Christ in respect of that union they have with Christ by faith in his Death Resurrection and Ascension knowing that Christs body lives for ever and that his blood hath redeemed their souls from eternal death and knowing he is ascended to possess a personal glory and to prepare Mansions of personal glory for his Saints and those that are truely united to him by faith may be said by Paul to be members of Christs body and to be Christs body but this body is but by the union of faith in Christ and by the way of comparison for this body hath never a head but the whole Body and Person of Christ without the Saints is the Head of this Body so that if Christ had never a body of his own but the Saints bodies as the Quakers do vainly imagine he would be but a sad Christ And because you may see that the Apostle did mean no otherwise than I have said For saith he in Rom. 12.4 5. as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office so saith he we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another So that all true Believers though some be Prophets Apostles or any other gifts of the Spirit that any man hath it is given for the good of others who are members of the same faith with him and so all that are partakers of the same faith with him if they be ever so many they all make up but one body of Christ even as all the members of a mans body makes up but one body But all this while these members that makes up one body what will this body signifie without a head Now those natural members that makes up a natural body what will this body signifie if it hath never a head So it is with true Believers if there were never a Head of this Body of Faith without men even Christ Jesus where then should the motions and acts of Faith in a man repair to have union and communion with their Head Christ Jesus Must they go into themselves to finde Christ their Head there Surely no but the motions and acts of Faith that doth arise from thâ— Seed of Faith which is the Seed of Christ in every true Believer whereby he comes to have union with Christ their Head and so he is made a member of Christ and so all the Believers that have been from the beginning and shall truly believe to the latter end of the world they make up but one body of Christ and this body is called Christs Body but by vertue of union of Faith and not by Christs being essentially in men as the Quakers do vainly imagine The Apostle sufficiently clears this thing in those places afore-mentioned so that I need speak no more of it here But I shall give the Reader to understand the difference between that body that is called a body by union and that body that is so in it self As for example A woman is said to be flesh of her husbands flesh and bone of his bone as Adam said concerning Eve his wife So Eph. 5.31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joyned to his wife and they two shall be one flesh Here the Reader may see that a man and his wife are made one flesh by vertue of union and institution now they are not really one flesh but
words here are quite contrary to his words before so that it may be clear to those that are not stark blind that the Quakers do not believe that Christs flesh and bone is now in Heaven above the Star without them for saith Fox can Christ be distinct from the Saints So that Fox looks upon the Quakers bodies to be members of Christs body of flesh and bone and so all the Quakers bodies which they count members they make up but one body of Christ Christs Spirit in them they count the head and the Quakers flesh and bone to be Christs body of flesh and bone so that Christ can not be distinct of himself nor have flesh and bone distinct both in body and spirit This is the Quakers imaginary Christ which is the absolute spirit of Anti-christ and this spirit of Anti-christ it doth reign more in the Quakers people then in any people whatsoever Here people may see what the Quakers Christ within them is a meer allegory a spirit without a body and their flesh and bone of their bodies they count Christs body and so when their souls slips out of their bodies and goes into God as they imagine their bodies goes to the Earth and so Christs body goes to the Earth and his spirit that is in them goes into Gods vast spirit that taketh all things into its self And according to Squire Pennington's saying unto John Reeve but it was when he was upon the Ranting Principle but since that he is turned Quaker for the Quakers principle is but the Ranters refined into a more civil kind of life For the Ranters were so grosly rude in their lives that spoyled their high language and made people weary of them but the Quakers that were upon the Rant are the best able to maintain the Quakers principle of Christ within them than any other Quakers that were not upon the Rant as William Smith and Squire Pennington and others as I know so that people may plainly see that the Quakers are led and guided by the spirit of Antichrist that will not allow Christs body of flesh and bone to be distinct from his Saints but would have the Quakers bodies to be Christs flesh and bone This is that spirit of Anti-christ that denied Christ come in the flesh as John in his Epistle saith for who ever denies Christ come in the flesh and that flesh he is come in to be distinct of it self from all other flesh and from all other Creatures both in Heaven and in Earth I say is the spirit of Anti-christ which I am sure the Quakers are and do more than the Pope so that the spirit of Antichrist reigns in the Quakers people more than in the Pope and his people the Pope indeed is more superstitious than the Quakers but the Quakers are for more Anti-christian than the Pope in their doctrine 16. Page 15. Muggelton saith this body of Christ is the only God This Fox calls darkness and saith God is a Spirit and God is in Christ who prepared Christ a body there cannot be saith he Christ without God and saith Fox the Quakers do know Christ in the flesh and saith he feels me CHAP. XXI ANSWER THat is as true a saying of mine as ever was spoken with tongue that the body of Christ is the onely God and they are reprobates who dares denit yet this devil Fox the Quaker calls it darkness and saith God is a Spirit and God is in Christ what ignorance of God doth this Fox manifest if God be in Christ and that body of Christ was Gods body which was prepared for the spirit of God to be in then must Christs body needs be the only God For if God was in Christ and Fox saith there cannot be Christ without God than that body of Christ had the Spirit of God in that body then I say Christs body must needs be the onely God for God and Christ saith Fox cannot be one without the other then I say where Christs body is there is Gods body For if the spirit of Christ and the spirit of God be all one spirit as I think no man dares denie then I say if the spirit of Christ and the spirit of God be all one spirit then I say one body was prepared for this one spirit even the body of Christ his own flesh and bone so that this body of Christ and the spirit of God is in that body so that body of Christ being God and Man that body may be called and is the onely God and who ever prayeth to any other God he prayeth to a God of his owne imagination as all your Quakers do yet Fox calls this darkness to say Christs person body and spirit is the onely God yet he saith God and Christ cannot be one without the other but he will not acknowledge Christs body of flesh and bone to be so honored as to be called the body of the onely God how confused is this Fox in distinction concerning God and Christ they must be both one and they must not be both one one of them must have a body prepared but the other must be a spirit without a body this is the Quakers confused non-sence But I know Fox his juggle he means as I said before that the Quakers bodies are Christs body so Christs Spirit and Gods Spirit being all one the spirit of Christ is in the Quakers bodies whom he calls Saints and the Saints bodies are called by the Quakers the body of Christ that is prepared for the spirit of Christ and God which is all one to be in And this is the Christ the Quakers own to have within them this is the Quakers mystery of iniquity to shufle off the belief of the body of Christ without them distinct from them even at such a distance as Heaven and Earth for his body of flesh and bone is in Heaven above the Stars but the Quakers bodies are hereon Earth and must rot in the Earth but Christs body doth live for ever and ever So that the Quakers bodies are neither members of Christs body nor the body it self which is prepared for the spirit of Christ the spirit of the onely wise God to dwell in for in Christs own body of flesh and bone did the fulness of the God-head dwell bodyly in him that is all the fulness and spiritual substance and essence and being of the Godhead spirit dwelt in Christs body of flesh and bone when he was upon Earth and in no mans body else and this body who had the fulness of the Godhead in it I call the Godhead Spirit and that body together the only God and this body and spirit of Christ is both distinct from the Quakers bodies and all mens bodies else So that the Quakers Christ within them is a meer imaginary Christ which the spirit of reason the devil the Anti-christian spirit hath produced in them and not the true Christ So that the Quakers knoweth no other
and that light of Christ within you also and look what Judgement I have given upon you Quakers and others it will surely come to pass upon you neither can you nor your Christ within you deliver you from it And as for that saying of Christ who said to his disciples Bless and curse not this will not deliver you Quakers at all from what I have said But for the Readers satisfaction I shall open those words of Christ more plain hereafter 9. Page 7. Fox is very angry with me because I say that Cain was not begotten of Adam but was begotten by the Reprobate Angel but I have sufficiently opened and proved this thing by the Scripture before so I shall say no more of it here 10. Page 10. Fox after he hath railed at me because I say the Quakers Christ hath never a body and Fox knowing it to be true thought he should bring himself into a premunire if he should deny Christs body without him the Scriptures being so clear for it Fox doth confess Christ hath a body for saith he that which descended ascended And saith he the Quakers are of his body and as the Scriptures saith A body hast thou prepared CHAP. XI ANSWER HEre Fox shews himself a meer Juggler for he confesses Christ hath a body but never confesses that this body of Christ is at a distance from the Quakers neither doth Fox acknowledge that Christs body is in a distinct place by himself for saith he that which descended ascended And saith he the Quakers are of his body as the Scriptures saith A body hast thou prepared me Minde Fox doth not say that which descended was a body nor that which ascended neither for Fox his meaning is mystical and so he thinkes the Quakers are flesh of Christs flesh and bone of Christs bone of Christs mystical body as they conceive so Fox owns Christ to have a mystical body and so the Quakers comes as they say to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and so that body which was prepared for Christ the Quakers believe their flesh and bones is that body which the Spirit of Christ doth dwell in and that is that body the Scriptures saith is prepared So that the Quakers do deny that Christ hath a body of flesh and bone distinct of his own at a distance from them for if they should acknowledge as I said in The Quakers Neck broken that Christ hath the same flesh and bone that suffered still distinct of himself though glorified flesh and bone yet it is a distinct thing of it self even the person of a man and cannot nor is not within any man whatsoever I say if the Quakers should own this indeed their Principle of Christ within them would vanish like smoke For this flesh and bone of Christ his own person was that body prepared for the God-head life to dwell in as the Prophet speaks and that which the Apostle saith the fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in Christ And this flesh and bone of Christ was that body prepared for the God-head to dwell in Now will any man be so sensless to think this body of Christ to be within a man for he that can get Christs body of flesh and bone into him he will get the fulness of the God-head also into him so that he that can do this will be a God and not a man so that I have told no lie but truth when I said the Quakers Christ hath never a body for which Fox is very angry with me and calls me Liar Yet let the Reader but minde Fox his words when he doth seem to own a body of Christ his words are so dubious and so dark that none but the Spirit of Truth could finde out the cheat of these Quakers what could any man that hath not the true knowledge of the true God and the right Devil and the knowledge of the Scriptures say to these things this Allegorical Cheat and Deceit it being so coucht under the words of the Scriptures For this is to be minded by the Reader that the Quakers never gives no Interpretation of Scriptures neither in writings nor speakings This Fox hath spoken of several places of Scripture to prove me a Liar but hath given the Interpretation of none Onely he hath named the words and rayled against me and so he hath left the Scriptures and the Apostles words and me together to dispute out the Quakers Principle of Christ within them And because Fox hath not opened those Scriptures he quotes to prove Christ within and that the Quakers are of Christs body I shall unfold those places of Scriptures which the Quakers ground upon Col. 1.27 It is thus written To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory This is one of the Quakers chief Scriptures to prove Christ within them So Rom. 8. 10. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin So 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the faith approve your selves how that Christ is in you except ye be reprobates So Galatians 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me These are the chiefest places of Scripture the Quakers have to prove that Christ is in them Let the Reader minde the Interpretation as followeth and you may see that the Quakers are mistaken both in the thing it self and in the person and persons to whom these words were spoken First the person that spake these words it was Paul who had a Commission to preach Christ unto the Gentiles and this Commission to preach Christ was from Christ without him as I shewed before and the persons he directs these speeches or words unto they were to such men and women that did seem to receive Pauls doctrine and doubtless many of them did truely believe that Christ which suffered rise again and was ascended up to Heaven according to the preaching of Paul and the rest of the Apostles was the Christ the Savior of the world and that this Christ was without them in his person though by faith Christ may be said to dwell or be in a man Also Paul and these Believers he preached unto did believe the blood of Christ which was poured out unto death that the believing of this would purge their consciences from dead works to serve the living God for Paul expresseth as much in the same verse For saith he I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me So that it may be clear to those that have any true faith in them that Paul and the rest of the Believers had Christ in them no otherwise than by faith in the Death Resurrection and Ascension of that Christ without them
Sun and Moon to run their course in their season appointed Also he hath placed by the power of his word a Law in the Stars and Planets and in all the Host of Heaven on this side the Firmament nay he hath set the Law of bounds to the Sea and great Waters all these things and a thousand times more hath he done by his wisdom and power and all these things which he hath made by the power of his word here below upon this earth they declare his handy-works and doth shew forth the wisdom power and glory of God their Creator every thing in its kinde shews forth the glory of God and so God hath filled the earth with his wisdom power and glory in that he hath placed a Law in every thing according to his pleasure to set forth his praise here on earth And in this sense God may be said to fill the heaven and earth and yet his person but the bigness of a man as aforesaid and he may be called the Great God in respect of his great power but not in respect of his person for a King may be called a great King in respect of his great power as Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon was of great power as in Daniel 4.20 He was as a Tree which reached up to heaven So likewise his dominion is said to reach to the ends of the earth as in verse 22. So that it was the greatness of his power that reached up to heaven and to the end of the earth that is as far in the earth as his Power Decrees and Laws would reach yet the person of this great King was no bigger in stature and compass than another man So it is with God though his power wisdom and glory fills heaven and earth in that he hath given Laws and placed Bounds to all his Creation as I said before yet he himself is no bigger in bulk nor in compass than a man as the Scriptures doth in many places prove and as I have said before and in this sense the Scriptures doth mean that God fills heaven and earth But Fox and the Quakers looks upon God to be so big in his Essence and Spirit without any body that he fills heaven and earth the Air and all things else with his great big Spirit without a body this is the Quakers God and Christ so they can get God in to them as they think and then when they part out of the body they now have then their spirits goes into God again so that the Quakers God and their Spirits doth so whip into one another so that no body can tell where to finde either of them This is the Quakers Principle and their imaginary God Christ and this is that Spirit they call the Spirit of Christ in them this is that Christ they are members of and bone of this Spirits bone and flesh of this Spirits flesh for they abhor such a God that is a person and can be confined to one place of residence but they must have a great infinite Spirit who fills all places and all things which cannot be known nor understood what he is such a God as this must the Quakers have that their spirits may slip into him when death doth approach for Quakers thinks their souls cannot die they look upon that to come from God therefore immortal so they think to slip out of those bodies they have and so creep into that infinite Spirit again from whence they came as they suppose for they are of Solomons opinion the body to the dust and the spirit returns to God that gave it but Solomon was ignorant in this point though he was a wise Man in things of nature and you Quakers will find your thoughts and conceit in this thing frustrated and that your souls shall die neither shall your souls slip out of your bodies neither shall it go into God again as you doe vainly imagine but as your souls doth die a natural death here even in the sight of others so many of you shall die an eternal death hereafter in your own bodies so that God shall be no hiding place for you but he will say Depart from me ye workers of iniquity for you have been the greatest despisers and blasphemers against a personal God and them whom I sent of any CHAP. XIX AGain it will be necessary to give Fox the Quaker a little to understand the bigness of the right Devil Fox may remember that I have shewed before that Cain was the first Devil in flesh and the right Devil and that the spirit of the Devil is not body less as the Quakers doth vainly imagine and this Cain the first and right Devil was a Man and of the same stature and bigness as the Serpent Angel was who beguiled Eva who was Cains Father For Adam was none of his Father as I have said before but I perceive that Fox and other Quakers are unacquainted with the right Devil so that they wonderfully strange at my words to call the Devil a right Devil they never heard the Devil called a right Devil before I have received Letters from Quakers before desiring to have it proved by Scripture but I perceive the Quakers are unacquainted with the right Devil and altogether ignorant of the wrong Devil for they know neither right Devil nor wrong Devil but if Fox the Quaker will but follow my advice he shall see a right devil let George Fox but take a Looking-glass and look into it and he shall see his own face and then he will see a right devil and he need go no further to see the right devil and all other Quakers that are ignorant of the right devil let them look into a glass and there they may see themselves to be right devils and not wrong devils 15. The same page Muggelton saith that Christ hath a distinct body of flesh and bone of his own To this Fox saith Is Christ distinct from his Saints then how come they saith Fox to be of his flesh and bone CHAP. XX. ANSWER HEre people may see Fox hath manifested his deceit and how he carrieth the Principle of the Quakers in an Allegory to deceive the people for their Christ they so much talk of is a meer Allegory For saith Fox in another place of his Pamphlet we own the Son of God and his flesh and bone and blood who was Crucified and laid in the grave and rose again and sits at the right hand of God Here Fox seems to owne Christs Body without him but it is in a mystery for he doth not believe that God hath any right hand or left hand either for infinite spirits hath no hands there is no need of spirits without bodies to have hands but the Reader may plainly see that Fox hath a mystical meaning or else he grossely contradicts himself For saith Fox is Christ distinct from his Saints then how came they to be of his flesh and bone so that Fox his
like to have bin killed by unreasonable men forty of them had bound themselves in an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul yet by the power of the Centurion who had a commission from the Magistrates to keep the peace would not suffer these men to do such unreasonable deeds to kill a man and not condemned by the Law of reason for all Laws are made by the reason of man to govern people by So in other places in the Acts you may read how Paul was abused by unreasonable men so that Paul had cause and all Saints else to desire to be delivered from unreasonable men for all men have not saith Paul knowing that those men that have faith dares not persecute men for consciences though he hath reason so to do much less to persecute men for conscience against Law and reason as the rude multitude doth and envious men doth having not Law of their side but are punished as evil doers by the law of reason for doing things contrary to the Law therefore called unreasonable men And in this sence Paul desired to be delivered from unreasonable men for he knew men that had faith in their hearts would not persecute nor abuse him nor kill him though he should give them cause This I my self knoweth by experience to be true for I have fallen sometimes into the hands of unreasonable men for I have bin pull'd out of the house by head and shoulders and beaten with their fists and knocked down in the garden and when they were affraid to do me more mischief in another bodies house they consulted to lay in wait in all the Alleys to catch me as I came out that they might do me some further mischief and no body know who did it they thought to break my bones if not kill me but they were somewhat prevented for we passed through a mans garden a private way so that the layers in wait could not catch us untill we came in the fields but when they heard we were past the corners of the Alleys which were four they run and the boys run to see the men run that the dust and gravel did flye about with the sound of their feet to overtake us so two of the men of the most desperatest of them overtook us in the fields and they both smote upon my head and neck with their fists a while and then run to John Reeve and struck up his feet and he fell upon the gravel which made his hands bleed so he lay upon the ground and people came thick about us to know what was the matter but the woman came in whose house I was pulled out of and she knew these two men that pursued us in the fields so they left off and slank away lest she should have had the Law of them for abusing us in her house There was about a hundred of them in her house and garden when they pulled me out these were unreasonable men such as Paul met withall which he desired to be delivered from Several times hath John Reeve and my self been in danger to be abused and spoiled by unreasonable men and it was upon the same account as Paul was For he was served so for declaring Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and that he was a messenger to declare it and we for declaring Christ Jesus to be the onely God and our selves to be commissionated from him to bless the Seed of Faith and curse despisiing spirits to eternity So that I am not unacquainted nor ignorant of Pauls words For it hath been always my desire ever since to be delivered from the rude multitude who doth not go by the Law of reason but doth act as bruit-beasts who have no reason in them therefore called unreasonable men This is a true distinction and interpretation what the devil is even the spirit of reason in man and how reason always killed the just and righteous Seed of Faith and what the Apostle meant when he desired to be delivered from unreasonable men and who may be said to be unreasonable men Much more might be said in this point but I suppose there is enough written to satisfie and inform any man that hath true light of faith in him or hath but moderate reason Onely this may be minded by the Reader that the Scriptures never called distracted men nor mad-men nor fools nor distempered brained men are never called Devils though these men are possest with Devils that is with distempers of nature these are Devils that are produced through accidents of nature through some extraordinary grief fright or losses and such like hath broke the brain and so the seat of reason is quite out of order and makes them more strong then when their reason was in order and so come to be possest with devils these devils are produced by accidents in nature as I said before So not those devils the Scriptures speake of we never read that any Prophet Apostle or Christ himself did ever condemn or judge such persons but rather pittied them and healed them and cast those devils out as may be read in Scripture nay the civil Magistrate doth not regard what a mad-man saith whose reason is out of order therefore it may be clear that the most wise prudent men who have the greatest measure of reason in them are those Devils the Scriptures calls devils therefore more fit to be politicians both in Church and State neither could unwise man in reason govern this world as it is at this day So that it may be clear to those that are inlightned that the spirit of reason in man is the devil that killed the righteous and the Just for Cain was a high pitch of reason when he killed righteous Abel for Cain had the fulness of the reprobat Angels spirit of reason it dwelt in Cain bodily and Esau had much reason and Judas and that devil that tempted Christ was a man had a great measure of the wisdom of reason in him and those Chief-priests and Elders that Christ called Serpents Devils that tempted him were indued with a great measure of reason they were wise sensible sober learned men yet devils and the spirit of reason in them was the devil that tempted Christ persecuted him and killed him that was the just One even the Savior of the world of the elect Seed so that the spirit of reason in man is the devil the Scriptures condemn which commits murder for conscience sake or other ways and is that devil that is to be damned to eternity c. so that the Devil so much spoken of in Scripture and condemned by Christ it was sensible wise prudent men indued with a high pitch of reason and not unreasonable men nor mad frantick distracted men as people do vainly imagine as Fox and most of the Quakers do 18. Muggleton saith it was the Godhead life that suffered death Fox calls this darkness also For saith he Christ he
in the world in his person in the Apostles time therefore the world persecuted them and put them to death for witnessing that Christ was in the world and they with wicked hands had slain the Lord of Life even Christ Jesus the onely God the King of Heaven So that John and I am both of one minde and of one faith that though Christ the only God and King of Heaven was in this world before he suffered death this John the Apostle and I both do believe and know but since Christ rose from the dead and ascended up to heaven John and I do believe and know that Christ the only God and King of heaven is not in this world at all in his person and essence yet Fox calls this Lies But the Reader may see if he hath any light who it is that lies Fox or I. Also he saith The true Prophet saith God the King of Heaven fills heaven and earth but saith he the false prophet saith God the King of Heaven is not in this world at all It is a small thing to be called a false prophet by the Seed of the Serpent especially by a damned devil for I know Fox would have said so by those prophets he calls true had he lived in that time and this John and Christ he so much talks of would have been counted all false a false Christ a false Witness what will any Quaker believe that to be a Christ a Savior that comes in likeness of man nay is a man sin excepted No no we will have a Christ that is a Spirit that may creep into our spirits when he will and whip out again when we commit sin and displease his Spirit such a Christ we own that hath never a body of his own but is all Spirit that fills every Quakers body with his Spirit and heaven and earth also What will you perswade us to believe that Christ is a man Christ is God and admits of no form so thou John art a false witness to perswade us to believe in a man to be Christ or God the Savior of the world this I know would Fox and the rest of the Quakers have said by those he calls now true prophets they being dead and by Christ and the Apostles as he doth by me For when they were alive on earth as I am now they were counted by the seed of the Serpent such as Fox is Blasphemers Deceivers Liers and such like but now who so zealous for the dead letter of the Prophets and Apostles as the seed of the Serpent are but when they were alive they were hated and persecuted for speaking that which the seed of the Serpent doth now honor so is it with me now I am alive I am hated and persecuted by the seed of the Serpent as well by Quakers as others for my doctrine and commission now while I am alive but when I am dead many of the seed of the Serpent in the next generation shall have respect unto my Writings and shall say had we lived in those days that Fox and other Quakers lived in we would never have blasphemed and spoken evil of so pure a truth as Fox the Quaker hath done to incur eternal damnation upon our own heads as Fox the Quaker their father hath done these things will come to pass as it hath done in the other two Commissions namely the Law the Gospel Page 22. Muggleton saith the Quakers hearken to the light within but they despise the body and person of Christ without them and so they are Antichrist 20. To this Fox saith Here are more Lies of the false prophet for saith he Christ that died at Jerusalem his person we own without us who is manifest within us the light of Christ Jesus by which we have seen of his glory and speak in his person And Fox saith Solomons Books in the Bible are good Scripture though Muggleton saith they be not Scripture he being not in the spirit of Solomon that gave them forth CHAP. XXVI ANSWER HEre Fox hath shewed his Allegorical Juggle who dares not deny the person of Christ without them not in plain terms because the Scriptures are so full to prove Christ a person and it is the Faith of all Christendom as we call it but any man that hath any true light in him may see that Fox is a meer Juggler to deceive the simple and ignorant whose doctrine makes the people more dark in their mindes than they were by nature For saith Fox we Quakers own the person of Christ without us who is manifest within us There is such a great stir with Gods Messengers to part Christs person or body from the Quakers and their bodies from him that Christs body might stand single of it self and the Quakers bodies might stand single of themselves at a distance from Christs body but the Quakers will either get into Christs body or else Christ must get into the Quakers bodies so that no man can tell how to part them one from another but I know death will part them And Christ will say to Fox and other Quakers Depart from me you workers of iniquity you pretended that you were my Saints and that I was in you and you in me but I know you not neither did I send you to preach for I never was in you by my Spirit to assist you in your preaching you should have let preaching and praying in my name alone for you have done more hurt than good in that your doctrine hath blinded the eyes of many people and have led them as sheep to the slaughter and hath caused many to suffer extreamly in this life even to the loss of their natural life besides the punishment hereafter For you should have hearkened to my chosen Witnesses and Prophets who can declare the true Christ God and man in one single person in the form of a man with the right devil his form and nature but your non-knowledge of the right devil is the cause of your gross darkness in the knowledge of the true Christ What are you Quakers the better for your Christ within you he yields you no true peace and what are you the better for being in Christ for the true Christ denies you and will not be in you by his Spirit neither will he suffer you to be in him because you and a great part of you Quakers are of the reprobate Seed which have no part nor portion in the true Christ for you are and the Quakers people but the devil transformed into the likeness of an Angel of light because you are something more precise in your life as to outward appearance but your preciseness is very much broken and withered of late years your darkness and ignorance is discovered by the light of this Commission of the Spirit for you are not like the people you were formerly neither doth your Witchcraft-fits catch any now as it did heretofore Your Witchcraft-fits can hardly be produced now of
when we came out first sixten years ago were very high in their elevations in seeing of visions and going forth as Prophets and Prophetesses and stripping themselves naked for signs as you Quakers have done I can make it appear in some particulars that this commission hath had great power over Ranters and Quakers for the heads of these two were John Robins and John Taney Robins was the head of all false Christs false Prophets Prophetesses Shakers and Quakers and you Quakers are but the spawn of John Robins and that Christ you own within you being a false Christ John Robins was the head of that principle also his believers had those witchcraft-fits upon them as you Quakers had very strongly at that time when John Robins was in power also John Taney was the head of the Atheistical Ranters those Ranters were very high in their language and vile in their practise as to oppresse one another deflower Virgins commit whoredome with mens wives and counted all the wickedness they did to be righteousness these things and much more did those people do and these two heads were in great power when we came first out and the first man that was cursed by us after we had power was John Robins after that divers of his Prophets were curst and in two months time after John Rob'ins power fell and all his Prophets and Prophetesses fel with him so he and they moultered away like dirt and none durst acknowledge any faith in John Robins neither could they attain any Witchcraft-fits any more so that John Robins and his Prophets and people are layd aside as if they had never been Afterwards it came to pass that John Taney was damned by us because he would not lay down the Priest-hood and his Jerusalem Journey he had witchcraft-fits also and would shut up himself nine days to produce them but could not after he was curst so after few years he fell and all his great matters to nothing so that not one of his hearers can tell what became of him Likewise we did passe Sentence on several of the Ranters Ministers as of them themselves so that they all tumbled down headlong and could not rise again to this day Now do you Fox the Quaker call to minde and see whether this curse Reeve and Muggleton hath not been over the Quakers people nor touched them there hath a many Quakers been curst by us but especially of late years by me have you your self Edward Borrows Francis Hougal you three were the first Quakers John Reeve damned have you three had any witchcraft-fits since have you foamed at the mouth swollen in your belly with the workings of the spirit and as you think as if you had the Falling-sickness have you had any new vision or new revelation in those witchcraft-fits since yea or nay I am sure it hath great power over you Quakers and hath put a stop to those witchcraft-fits for I do not hear of any Quaker of late that hath any though they were never curst by me this curse hath run in the line of the heads of the Quakers so that it doth put a stop to the whole body so that none of the members can produce a witchcraft-fit nay the Quakers are bereft of all revelation now and Messages to the Magistrates they have left off stripping themselves naked and imitating the Prophets of old Do you Fox own that practise of Solomon Ecle the Quaker I perceive by a passage in your book you do because Isaiah did so as a sign to the Jews but your Prophet Solomon Ecle went in a more shameless manner being sent by the spirit of witchcraft then Isaiah did that was sent of God for Ecle went stark naked as is reported at Aldermanbury Church and not onely so but he was shamlesly beshit so that none could lay hands on him onely the Coachmans whip gave him a jerk or two this is he that went with fire upon his head in Bartholomew-fair also he sowed his linings upon the peoples Communion-table to prophane it at Aldermary Church these things were very brief formerly with the Ranters and Quakers people they were much for signs though some of them were very beasty signs yet the Ranters and Quakers were well pleased with them being moved thereunto by the spirit of witchcraft to imitate Prophets of old in a more shameless manner As I could tell you some things of the Ranters practise who would go forth as signs there was one his name was Nathaniel he was the Ranters sign yet pretended to be a sign of the Presbyterian Ministery that as he did stink in the nostrils of people so should they for he went always beshit so he was called Shitten Nat he eat his own dung and stank that none would come nigh him nay mistress Cook a Ranter would lye with him in the fields and make cakes of his dung for him to eat and he did eat his own dung but whether she did eat any with him I cannot tell but it was said she did now this sign goeth beyond the Quaker Solomon Ecle Also this mistress Cook she went to Westminster Church to shew the Minister a sign she stript her self stark naked and went into the Church so some threw a cloak over her to cover her nakedness and she was committed to Bride-well and there she was clothed all in white linnen like the Queen of Heaven these were Ranting signs now for you Quakers to imitate many such things were acted by that sort of people as that John Thomas who danced naked before Sir Richard Brown as he went to the Church and being committed by him was extreamly whipped and when he had suffered and was out of prison poysoned himself Richard Rusel the Quakers wife can witness the truth of his nakedness before Sir Richard Brown for she went on one side and another woman on the other they were both imprisoned with him many more of those Ranters came to a sad end for most of them fell to nothing after their head John Taney did fall and their principle doth stink in the nostrils of all civil people even as he did that was the true sign to that sort of people for he stank in the nostrils of all that came neer him he could hot endure himself nay he killed himself with the wyer of a candlestick thrust it into his belly and so died do you George Fox approve of such shitten shameless Prophets and stinking signs as these how much difference is there in Solomon Ecle his sign being a Quaker then in the Ranters are not you Quakers almost ashamed of your Prophets signs these things hath bin pretty common amongst Quakers heretofore when the spirit of witchcraft reigned in them but now the power of witchcraft-fits is subdued by Reeve and Muggletons commission neither shall you Quakers whom I have cursed get above nor over that curse I have passed upon you for it shall be upon your persons and over the heads of