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book_n	people_n	read_v	scripture_n	3,073	5	5.7739	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77781	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.	Bullock, Jeffery, of Sudbury.	1677 (1677)	Wing B5426A; ESTC R201448	24,117	31

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