knew no visible Man But Christ he was the Son of David by generation from God he being begotten by the Spirit of God in the womb of the Virgin and this was the flesh of David and this was David's Lord. Now let all that read and understand consider whether this is not a true Declaration according to the Scriptures concerning the Flesh of Christ and of his Generation also Again you say That I and my Brethren are Judges of wholesom Orders and commendable Forms in the Church Now both Rome and those that are called Priests in England they say that they are the true Church and that their Forms are both in Order and commendable But now the Quakers in the days of their first Convincement they in the Light did see an evil in all invented Forms both in their own as well as others and in obedience to the Light they denied the Form that was acted by others and their own also Now that Spirit that sets up the Form of Prayer or that acts the Form and requires People to bow to the Form that is acted that is the Spirit of Antichrist Now the Spirit of God being in all God requires all to bow to the Spirit and to worship him in the Spirit and not to worship the Form that is acted although it may be performed by the Spirit of God There is no such Scripture that I know of And in pag. 14 of your Book you say that I have been a shame to you But if those words be true that I have been a shame to you then why did W. D. R. D. G. W. G. B. and others of the Quakers labour so much with me to keep me still among them And you do also accuse me as if I were an Hypocrite Now If I had given up my Faith to your Church and to have believed as those called Elders and Ministers believe then I must have been an Hyprocrite For then I must have believed what your Image or Paper of Orders saith that is that I must be reconciled to the Church and that I must also be justified by the witness of God in Friends the which I cannot believe Wherefore I have disowned both you and that Doctrine and also other of your Doctrines likewise And you also write against me because I am for marrying with the Nation and for my saying that God hath made all Nations of one blood But you say in your Book that the Nations have polluted themselves and are gone from God's make But I will ask you one Question and answer me Hath King Charles polluted himself by his marrying of a Portugal Woman Or did Moses pollute himself by his marrying of an Ethiopian Woman Or did the two Sons of Naomi pollute themselves by marrying of a Moabitish Women And had not Moses God's universal Spirit within him to be his Rule for him to walk by when he took the Ethiopian Woman to Wife And was not the Law Spiritual greater than the Law Moral or the Law Ceremonial And hath not King Charles a measure of the same Spirit given him for a Rule for him to malk by as Moses had before he received the Law outwardly And is not the Spirit of God in all the Sons and Daughters of Men given them of God to be their Rule and Guide to walk by And had not King Abimelech the Spirit of God as well as Abraham and did not he obey the voice of God concerning Sarah Abrahams Wife And was not the Law Moral and also the Law Ceremonial ended And doth not the Law Spiritual remain in all the Sons and Daughters of Men to this day And again you say That you are Witnesses to the Matches in the Land of Israel Now was there ever a more wicked Match in the Land of Moab than there was in the Land of Israel than the Match between David and Vriah's Wife And the Prophet in the Spirit of God was a Witness against it So that your Witness and God's do not agree And in pag. 15 of your Book you say That God is raising up Judges and Counsellours as at the beginning Men fearing God and hating Covetousness Now if Buyers of Corn to sell again and Transporters of Corn and Managers of great Brew-houses and Men entring into other Mens Trades and Men being greater Maulsters than ever they were before if these be the Marks of Men fearing God and hating Covetousness then some of the Quakers Ministers are the Men. And you say I do not understand my own Queries because I said the Book of the Scriptures is part of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledg Now I knew that the Book of the Creation was before the Book of the Scriptures but if you own what I say that the Book of the Scriptures is the Fruit that the Tree of Knowledg bears then why do you feed so much upon them as you do For let all that read your Book and also the Letter that was given me which I disowned which Letter is printed in my first Book and they may easily perceive that the Line of your Testimony is in the Letter and Book of the Scriptures and not in the Light and Law written in the Heart from which Law or Light within which was before time was and from which in time the Scriptures came And is not this Light Gods universal Spirit the only Rule for we Gentiles to walk by And was not the first Testimony that was sounded by the Quakers to direct People to the Light within And they told us that was the only Rule But now your Images Dictates and Orders and comely Forms as you call them they must be the Rule for King Charles's Subjects to walk by But as Paul saith in his Epistle Col. 2. so say I to the People Touch not taste not handle not And they were Gentiles as well as we And because I said in my Book I was an Informer therefore you write against me and say I may take my Place among the Informers But now I desire no greater place among the Sons of Men than to be an Informer against Antichrist in his Ministers For God Himself was an Informer for he informed Moses against Israel because of their wickedness and would also have destroyed them because the People had made a Calf and worshipped it and they also danced about it And there was also a Man of God who in the Word of the Lord was an Informer against both the Altar and the Calves that Jeroboam had set up both at Dan and Bethel for the People to worship at And was not Paul also an Informer when he wrote to the Corinthians and told them that Satau was transformed in his Minister into an Angel of Light And John also in the Spirit of the Lord was an Informer against the Churches of Asia when they were gone from God and fallen into Apostacy then he in the Spirit wrote both against them and their Ministers and told them that they were grown lukewarm
and had also left their first Love And hath not God in the Ages and Generations past discovered the Sins of his own People witness Adam and Israel of old and also David whose Sins are left upon record And further you say in the end of your Book You have omitted many gross Absurdities Confusions and Follies But I think that you should have done well to have made both my Error gross Absurdities and Follies manifest in your Book that People might have known them else how can people believe what you say to be true And so here followeth some Queries for you Elders and Ministers so called by the Quakers to Answer First Whether the Light in every Quaker be not sufficient to justify them although you say it is the Light in you that condemns them 2. Whether the Light in any Man or Men be able and sufficient to save or justify any other Men but themselves 3. Whether Men cannot be reconciled to God except they be reconconciled to the Church called Quakers and whether a Man may not be reconciled to your Church and yet not be reconciled to God 4. Whether the Light in one Man or Men hath power to open the Understanding of another Man seeing that God hath placed a measure of his own Spirit in every Man 5. Whether there be not both Darkness and Light in every one that is called a Quaker as well in those called Elders and Ministers as any others 6. Whether the Light and also the Darkness hath not been and also is in all the Sons and Daughters of Men ever since the first Man Adam's Transgression 7. Whether the Light in every Man be either the Soul or Spirit of a Man or whether the Light is not a distinct Being by himself 8. Whether People are not wholly to depend upon the Light or Spirit or Christ within for Life and Salvation 9. Whether the same Light or Spirit was not in the Gentiles in those days when Christ was in the World in that Body which the Father had prepared for him although the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ's body 10. Now where was that Flesh and Blood and what was it that Christ told the People in the days of his Flesh that they must both eat and drink or else they could have no life in them 11. Whether the Visible Man Christ who was Crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem whether his Body or Temple which was like unto ours Sin only excepted was dissolved or changed into a Spirit and that Spirit now manifested in the Gentiles or where do you believe that Christ's Body now is 12. Or whether there was any Visible Church so called or separation among the Gentiles which have not been bewitched and also led into error by their heaps of Teachers 13. And whether those heaps of Teachers by gathering of themselves together and by their Consultations and taking Counsel one of another have not brought in Errors and False-Doctrines in and among the Separations of our Churches of the Gentiles ever since the Night of Apostacy even to this very day 14. And whether those heaps of Teachers who have had a sight given them from Gods Spirit to see the Errors of other Teachers among the Gentiles that were before them and yet have not themselves also run into Errors as well as others But yet they would not believe it the Devil had so blinded their Minds and Understandings and that with a zeal too even as he did the Jews of old 15. And hath not all Persecution risen from a blind mad Zeal both as to Words and Actions in matters of Conscience under a Notion of Profession of both God Christ and the Scriptures 16. Whether Men must come to the Scriptures and outward means first before they can know their duty towards God And whether they must not first come to the Light and Manifestation of the Spirit within them before they can learn their duty towards God or what God requires of them to do 17. Whether God be changed or the way of his making known himself be changed And whether any Man or Men can come to the knowledg of God as to Life and Salvation but in and by the Spirit of Revelation Or whether Men did not know God before the Scriptures were 18. Whether any of your Writings although they should be given forth in and from the Spirit of God are an Instrumental Means to bring People to the Knowledg of God as to the Souls Salvation in these days any more than the Scriptures did bring the Jews to the knowledg of Christ in the days of his Flesh or Paul in his days Or by what outward means did you at first come to see beyond others or was it not the Light or inward Manifestation of the Spirit as a free gift from God that gave you to see beyond others and not by any outward Writings But yet one of your Ministers so called said that Friends Books were Instrumental to bring People to the Knowledg of God But if that be true what he said then is the way of God's making known himself to the Sons of Men changed For Men knew God before there was either Scriptures or Writings by any Man Neither do I read that ever the Scriptures brought any Man to the Knowledg of God So that your Writings must have Authority in them beyond the Scriptures For Man at first never knew God by the Scriptures but God hath ever made known himself to the Sons of Men by his Light or Spirit that was in them that is by revealing himself unto them Wherefore I would have all People that read my Book take notice of these following particulars which are owned by the Quakers which I do disown First That none can be justifyed by the Light or Witness of God in those called Ministers and Elders amongst the Quakers but all must be justified by the Light in their own particular or else they are condemned Secondly It is neither the Light God Christ nor the Seed that is to be quickned and raised up in the Sons and Daughters of Men but it is the first Man Adam that is to be both quickned and also raised up by the Arm of God's Power revealed Thirdly It is neither the Soul nor yet the sensible part or Understanding of Man that is either to Pray or Preach in a Meeting but it is the work of the Holy Ghost to speak in every Man Therefore what do you minister from and what do you minister to in the Sons and Daughters of Men Or what is that which is to attend your Declaration in those that hear you Therefore examine your selves by the Light what Spirit it is that speaks in you I have written this to the Elders and Ministers of the Quakers because there is nothing to be put to print amongst them without their approbation as their Image or Paper of Orders saith And also because your Book is written in the vindication of the Practice
God to an enjoyment of God who is Invisible and these are the Members of the Church in God who are only known to God and not Man and such are the Members of the true Church that is in God And in every Nation Those that fear God and work Righteousness are accepted of God and those that are accepted of God such are at Unity with the Spirit of God in their own particulars and those are the Members of the Church in God let them be either Barbarians Sythians Bond or Free for the Church of God is Universal as the Spirit of God is Universal so that in every Nation People Language or Tongue those that walk according to the Law written in the Heart such are at Unity and Peace with God But now there are many Visible Separations in the World which are called Churches who do not know whether they be in God or no and these are the false Churches who make a Profession of him and yet know him not And Gods appearance to them is as their Judg and Condemner Now Friends Christ he is the only Head of that Body or Church that is in God and I am sure that those only attend upon the Spirits teaching that is within them for God is able to teach his Church that is in him better than you can although there were a thousand times more of you then there are Now many of you have been Watch-men of the Night to inform People of their Darkness and also to direct them to the Light But remember what Solomon saith who was but a little past the Watchman of the Night and then he saw him whom his Soul loved Now the Church in God they are past all Visible Counsellors and all Fathers yea all Judges for they are come to God the Judg of all And to the wonderful Counsellor the everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace Now I owne my self a Member of that Church in God that gives all Authority and Superiority and Subjection both to God and Christ her Husband For the Church in God is compared to a Woman cloathed with the Sun and the Church is also compared to a Mans Wife that lives in Subjection to her own Husband and is willing to owne him to be her Head and so doth every true Member that lives in God Now the Church consists of Souls and Bodies who are truly subject to the higher Powers as Paul saith Now your Image and Paper of Orders that may serve those Quakers who are unstable and delight to gad abroad from God and Christ their Husband within but it can never be owned by the Church in God by such who are faithful to God who as a chast Virgin delights to keep with her Husband at home Now Friends I would desire to know what People or Congregation of these called Quakers it was that did impower you or set you at work to make them a Paper of Orders or a Rule or Guide for them to walk by or was it not a thing of your own Invention and if some had not seen an evil in your carved Image and so put a stop to it before it came to its Journeys end it had not lain hid so long as it hath done already if you could have found out a way to have set it up sooner for you intended that it should have gone to all the Quakers Meetings but now your work goes on apace the words that run round about this Image are these They that are unreconciled to the Church are unreconciled to God and also those that are not justified by the Witness of God in Friends are condemned of it in themselves And about this Image here danceth those that call themselves wise Men and Prophets Judges and Counsellors Fathers and Sons of God Elders and Ministers who are at work to set up this Idol upon its Feet But if it be true what those say who call themselves Elders and Ministers and Sons of God and that they are the only true Church in God and that none are like to be justified of God or reconciled to God in their own particulars but those who own them to be the only true Church in God and so bow down and Worship their Image which they have set up and they are resolved shall stand upon its Feet Then it will be sad for all the Sons and Daughters of Adam who do not owne and Worship this Image For if it be true as you say then it will be a thing of necessity for all People to enquire after this Image that so they may come and worship it because those that have set it up say that God hath given his Power to the Church and the Power that they say they have received from God it is both to justify and also to judg of Errors then this Church must needs be as Infallible as God is So that there is no People shall need to fear their being led into Error if they believe as the Church believes and own the Image which they have set up which is their Paper of Orders and the rest of their Inventions then such by them shall be admitted to Preach according to the Faith of the Church and this is Pope-like who hath set up his Image the Mass-book for the Kings and Princes and their Subjects as a Rule for them to walk by Now every breaking forth of the Light or dawning of the day of God within those in whom this day have dawned they in the Light that hath appeared have seen many of the Errors that were in the World among those called Churches both as to their Doctrines and Practices but their Souls not abiding Humble and Low in the Spirit of God which appeared in their Understandings and gave them a true sight of things but having gone out from God in their own particulars and then those heaps of Teachers they have set up an Image of their own invention as you have done and their Souls have been so blinded and their Understandings so darkned by the Spirit of Error that they could never discern any evil that there was in their own Image that they have set up by their own inventions Let this thing be taken into Consideration by those that call themselves Ministers and Elders Now your Book saith in page the seventh That these that are unreconciled to the Church are unreconciled to God but the Scripture saith that God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself And again your Image or Paper of Orders declares That he that is not Justified by the witness of God in Friends is Condemned of it in himself But the Scripture saith He that believeth hath the witness in himself And if Gods witness in a Man justifies a Man his Witness and Justification is greater then yours so that the words of your Image are false and contrary to the Scripture and form of sound Words Friends you should do well if you can to vindicate both your Doctrines and Practices
A TESTIMONY Against the QUAKERS False-Doctrine And the IMAGE they have set up Being a Defence of the Book called Antichrist Transformed In Answer to a little Book published By Giles Barnadiston And for better Information the IMAGE is hereto annexed Verbatim with the Subscribers thereof Published by Geoffery Bullock LONDON Printed for the Author and to be sold by Francis Smith at the Elephant and Castle in Cornhil near the Royal-Exchange 1677. A Testimony against the Quakers false Doctrine and the Image they have set up A Testimony against those Quakers and their false Doctrines who call themselves Elders and Ministers and also their new invented Image and all that joyns with it and owns it because that those Elders who call themselves Ministers look upon themselves and their Image to be equal in Power and Glory both with the Father and the Son This Book is given forth in Answer to a little Book given forth in the name of Giles Barnadiston which I look upon to be but a pretended Answer to my first Book Friends When Israel had forgotten God their Saviour then Aaron the Priest with their Jewels made them a Calf and they danced about the works of their own Hands Psal 106. Exod. 32. But you say in the beginning of your Book that Antichrist's Transformation within is setting it self above the Light within in J. B. Now that is impossible that ever that Spirit which fell from God and so lost its Habitation in God should ever have Power to exalt himself above God again in the Sons of Men. But now this agrees with the Doctrine you Preach for you say that the Seed must be raised and God must arise and none can keep him down and that the Seed must come up and take its Dominion So that according to your Doctrine then both Man and the Darkness too have Dominion over the Light who in himself is God blessed for ever but the Devil both was and is the Author and Father of this Doctrine of yours For Adam in the day of his first Creation was above in Eden and the Garden was in God then might Adam see what was in his Temple or Tabernacle for there are four distinct things or Beings to be seen in the Temple that is the Light and the Darkness the Tree of Knowledg and also the first Man Adam who received a Command from God that he should live in Obedience to God and not feed upon the Tree of Knowledg but in the day that he broke the Command of God then he fell from God and lost his Habitation in God and so the Power of Darkness took Dominion over him wherefore it is the first Man Adam that came under the Power of Death Wherefore it is the first Man Adam that is to be both quickned and raised by the Spirit of Life as the Scripture saith The same Spirit that raised up Jesus shall quicken you and the Apostle saith you hath he quickned who were dead So it is not the Seed God nor Christ that is to be quickned and raised but the first Man Adam who dyed from that immortal life wherein he was at first created And you say that I am making War against the Light page the fourth and that I am pushing at it but this Lye remains upon your own heads and my first Book is a witness against you wherein I have already declared that all Sovereignty Dominion and Glory belongs to the Light that is in every Man but I do declare and disown all such who look upon themselves to be equal both in Power and Glory with the Light And Friends you say in your Book page the fifth that you are able to judg of Spirit as well as Flesh Now this I have seen and known by my own Experience that in one of our Quakers Meetings that one of those called Quakers hath both Preached and Prayed and that some of those called Elders and Ministers have publickly disowned the Testimony as not having Unity with that Spirit that Preached and Prayed And at another time the same Party hath been exercised in Preaching and Praying and several of those called Ministers have been present and they have both owned the Testimony and also had Unity with the Spirit that spoke and have incouraged the Party to go on in the work of the Lord not fearing the Face of Man nor regarding their Censures nor Judgments and is not this confusion in Babylon you tryers of Spirits who so plainly contradict one another in your Censures and Judgments And you say that I am angry because that Judgment is gone forth against me and yet in the beginning of your Book you say that I went from you Now that is very true that I first left you and I also at the present time gave forth a Testimony against you what were the reasons that I left you the which reasons and grounds are Printed in my first Book And you say in page the seventh of your Book that I have made use of my knowledg to serve Lucifers Interest and that he is become my Teacher and Leader Now Friends I was a Son of Adam by Generation in the Fall and also a Son of God by Creation and I was also a Childe of wrath being under the Spirit of degeneration then was the Serpent in many things my Teacher and Leader but now I think that in my measure I am made partaker of the Spirit of Regeneration But Friends I shall forbear declaring any state that is to be injoyed in the Spirit of God least the Boaster should get up as I fear he is gotten up in those who call themselves Elders and Ministers who say they sit in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus But Friends there is none sits there with God and Christ but those that are free from Sin as God is Again you say in page the fifth of your Book As the Father sent the Son into the World so hath the Son sent you that ye may be one as the Father is one and the Glory which the Father gave him he hath given them and hath Sanctifyed them through the Truth that they may be one with the Father and the Son O you high Boasters how is it possible that ever any Man who is begotten by Generation from Adam in the Fall to be equal with him who never fell in whom dwelt the fulness of the God-head bodily And he was begotten by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin and so he was the Son of God by Generation from God and so it was impossible that ever he should Fall and all his days he was a Man free from Sin But all you who call your selves Elders and Ministers have been under the Dominion of the Man of Sin as well as I but Christ never came under that Spirit nor Power Therefore remember what the Prophet saith That the Lord's Sword is drawn against the Man that is his Fellow So Friends I fear you are exalted upon the
have rendred themselves unworthy and so put a stop to their proceedings therein And if they submit not to the judgment of the Spirit of Christ in his People then ought they publickly to be declared against and warning given to the Flock of Christ in their several Meetings to beware of them and to have no fellowship with them that they may be ashamed and Lambs and Babes in Christ preserved 5. And if any man or woman which are out of the Unity with the Body of Friends print or cease to be printed or published in writing any thing which is not of service for the Truth but tends to the scandalizing and reproaching of faithful Friends or to beget or uphold Division and Faction then we do warn and charge all Friends that do love Truth as they desire it may prosper and be kept clear to beware and take heed of having any hand in printing republishing or spreading such Books or Writings And if at any time such Books be sent to any of you that sell Books in the Country after that you with the advice of good and serious Friends have tried them and find them faulty to send them back again whence they come And we further desire from time to time faithful and sound Friends may have the view of such things as are printed upon Truth 's account as formerly it hath used to be before they go to the Press that nothing but what is sound and savory and that will answer the Witness of God even in our Adversaries may be exposed to publick view 6. We do advise and counsel That such as are made Overseers of the Flock of God by the Holy Spirit and do watch for the good of the Church meeting together in their respective places do set and keep the affairs of it in good order beware of admitting or encouraging such as are weak and of little faith to take such trust upon them for by hearing things disputed that are doubtful such may be hurt themselves and may hurt the Truth not being grown into a good understanding to judge of things Therefore we exhort That you who have received a true sense of things be diligent in the Lord's business and keep the Meetings as to him that all may be kept pure and clean according to that of God which is just and equal We also advise That not any be admitted to order Publick business of the Church but such as have felt in a measure of the Universal Spirit of Truth which seeks the destruction of none but the general good of all and especially of those that love it who are of the Houshold of Faith So dear Friends and Brethren believing that your Souls will be refreshed in the sense of our spirits and integrity towards God at the reading of these things as ours were while we sate together at the opening of them and that you will be one with us on the behalf of the Lord and his precious Truth against those who would limit the Lord to speak without Instruments or by what Instruments they list and reject the Counsel of the Wise-men and the Testimony of the Prophets which God sanctified and sent among you in the day of his Love when you were gathered and would not allow him liberty in and by his Servants to appoint time and place wherein to meet together to wait upon and worship him according as he requireth in Spirit and calling it Formal and the Meeting of Man We say believing that you will have Fellowship with us herein as we have with you in the Truth we commit you to God and the Word of Life which hath been preached to you from the beginning which is neither limited to place nor time nor persons but hath power to limit us to each as pleaseth him that you with us and we with you may be built up in our most holy Faith and be preserved to partake of the Inheritance which is heavenly amongst all them that are sanctified Richard Farnsworth Alexander Parker George Whitehead Josiah Coale John Whitehead Thomas Loe Stephen Crispe Thomas Green John Moon Thomas Briggs James Parkes This Book is given forth from one who hath born the Name of a Quaker this twenty years and more who was a Son of Adam by generation in the Fall but now an Informer against Antichrist in his Ministers and also a Member of the visible Creation amongst the Sons of Men wherein God dwells called by the Name of Jeffery Bullock This Book was given forth by Jeffery Bullock whose outward Being is in Sudbury in Suffolk in the Year 1677.