spirit of the Lord or from thine own private spirit doest thou in all this rule well and over thine own will What judging and condemning for thou knowest not what Where 's thy ruling well now what like the world observing and scraping up every thing which thine own fancie makes an abomination and then charging this upon the seed of God Surely thine heart is like a City broken down and without walls and therefore nothing almost comes from it but clamouring bitternesse and evil speaking and what 's thine end in all this but to make thy self righteous and another wicked thou sounding brasse that keepest a tinckling where 's thy charity in all this love covers a multitude of sins but thou makest a multitude of sins where they are covered by love and so thou condemnest thy self not to be the Elder that rules over thine own spirit and therefore fie upon all thy profession thou who pretendest to be a Lamb an holy man of God and yet still found in Ismaels generation Quest 5. What is that provision every one ought to make for his own family seeing he who provides not for them of his own house denies the faith and is worse than an infidel Answ That provision every one ought to make for his family is to fly idlenesse ranting and waiting the creatures of God upon his own lusts and not to live on the sweat of other mens brows which who denies denies the faith and is worse than an infidel Repl. Here the Quaker is seen and known and judged out of his own mouth as one who through his lightnesse denies the faith learning under a pretense of preaching to be like the wanton widdow idle wandring about from house to house and not onely so but a tatler also and a busie body speaking things he ought not neither understanding whence his spirit comes nor whither it goes not labouring at all in the thing that good is but creeping into silly peoples affections with his shew of wisdom and humility and will worship clamouring against Magistrates Ministers Tythes Customes damning men for wearing Ribbons Cuffs Lace Rings Pins Bands Hoods Veyls Points c. and for using the civil expressions of humanity in pulling off the Hat shewing some respect love honour duty unto fathers mothers masters superious friends comers and goers about these and the like ceremonies and toyes they make a great noise and win here and there an Athiest a Ranter or some discontented people to feed upon their dregs and then to feed their hungry bodies this is their great businesse thus to add unto their fathers Kingdom by railings lyings flatterings and all that come in are cried up for Saints and Children of the Kingdom but such as receive not their Doctrine and vanities and put not into their mouths must be ipso facto excommunicated for Dogs Devils Beasts Swine Belly-Gods Bulls of Boshan Whores Antichrist Witches Sorcerers behold thy model and thy spirit friend and see thou thy self in this Looking-glasse of thine own making how wanton thou art waxed in the midst of all thy framed gravity refusing thy Saviour to be married unto a delusion in all which thou hast denied the faith and art worse than a Pagan and all that regard thy pride superstitions works of superarrogations instead of making provision make destruction for their own families forsaking usually Fathers Wives Children Families callings occupations and so cloath themselves with rags and ruine and woe But thou sayest robbery for provision the Lord hates and so say I all that use a deceitfull way to get provision by the Lord abhors but surely friends the Office of a Minister anointed and called of God is good for others they are thy forefathers strikers and railers I dare not plead their cause and the preaching of the Gospel by men sent of God is no idle imployment and maintenance from the people to whom we preach is no robbery for provision seeing it is a provision due to the Lord out of all mens substance and so no deceitfull way to provide for our families and yet the murmurer must still be wiser than God that made him Further thou sayest I run unsent to provide for my family aiming at lucre this is robbery to which I say he who sent me is the Lord by his will and power am I anointed to preach and that which he aimes at in me and by me is to catch men and to make his word a savour of life or death and what he has reserved and taken and kept for my use is no robbery to take though thou prate neither will the Lord lay this to my charge as dishonest gain as the accuser do's or tell me I sell his word for money which is not bread as thou who knowest not the word for the word is life and substance and though it take not such effect upon many as it ought they may thank thy father for it for he has stollen it away from their hearts all that I can do is to commend it to the conscience and he that has an ear to hear will hear Further thou sayest many infidels will labour painfully for their families but I live on the sweat of others mens brows and what do the Quakers then who run up and down without callings without labouring at all the thing that good is wandring up and down to foam out their own shame making it their work to sow discord among brethren living wholly upon the sweat and charge of other men deluding the people with their moderation in eating and drinking that they may the better insinuate their ceremonies and delusions and in all this they have denied the faith and are worse than infidels as for my part God has set me in my calling I act in commands me to keep in it to preach the Gospel to break his bread to the hungry and to give water to the thirsty and in this work of the Lord I finde abundance of recreation being never better satisfied than when I have occasion to preach the Gospel and this I shall do with cheerfulnesse still though many mad ignorant folk be offended at preaching and many offended at me that I live upon that allowance of Tythes which God has sanctified for my use and given me freedom to take with thanks-giving Quest 6. What is that Election and Reprobation the Scripture speaks of and whether they have relation to persons or things or both Answ That Election is Christ Jesus and all that receive him wherein the Election is in him are Elected and the rest abide under the power of darknesse where all are Reprobated who are out of the light in their own wills and know not Christ and to such persons they have Relation Repl. Christ indeed is the stone dis-allowed of men but chosen of God Elect and precious but Christ without his Church do's not comprehend all the Election the Scripture intimates but Christ together with his Church makes up the Election of God and so
against me Repl. Oh thou hard-hearted one how darest thou utter these things and not be pricked in thy heart who livest in the old and the new not known Is thy conscience seared with an hot iron Thou art he who calls evil good so the woe is upon thee Isa 5. 20. Answ Behold thou despiser and wonder and perish thou who deniest the Lord that bought thee and so art ordained for condemnation and learn if thou canst what this means I will have mercy saith the Lord and not sacrifice Salvation shall be of grace not of works lest man should boast David shall be a man after mine own heart notwithstandinding all his blemishes and errours which I see him bewailing I 'le accept of the will for the deed where I finde the will real and true And thou furious evil mind know that old things are passed away and all things become new there in Gods estimation where new and old are fighting one against another no sooner is this fight begun but the Soul presently begins to taste of Canaan or rest because it findes the house of David waxing stronger and strongerâ— and the house of Saul weaker and weaker and so the elder stoops to the younger Esau to Jacob flesh to spirit and though it rage furiously yet its head is broken its strength decaying and its spirit goes out more and more And here I am wrestling with the beast and false Prophet with all the powers of darknesse and Hell and so my conscience is not seared though I say old things are passed away and all things become new If thou look into thine own heart with a single eye thou wilt finde old things enough there to manifest thou art not yet at full rest in Canaan where thou must meet Gyants mighty enemies to fight with which will be as goads and pricks in thy side to keep thee humble sober and watchfull all thy life long and yet if thou wert in the good land thou wouldest have rest though not in fulnesse here And so this tedious war in Canaan is no bringing up an evil report of the good land because there the people of God have more with them than against them and so are more than Conquerours in the Lord which gives them some rest and peace and joy in the midst of all their warres and so cause of singing and triumphing in the God of their salvation All this I know is a riddle to thy fancie of perfection in thy self and actings and so the passing away of the old life and the springing up of the new is not truely known of thee Repl. Thou sayest I am ghessing what the veyl is between the holy and the holiest and tellest me neither in the holy nor the holiest am I found for who own the light that comes from Christ into the holy it leads them and in the holy who are that is bridled which leads into sin which in me is at liberty as thou sayest as my fruits and the fruits of my Ministery make it manifest Answ What I declared about the veyl thou neither understandest I see or art able to gain-say and therefore after thy wonted manner I finde thee scoffing But to thee I say the revelation of the Son in me by the Father hath led me into the holy place where I finde the Lord perfecting strength in weaknesse and sweetly delighting in me and in his own works wrought in me by himself in the midst of all mine infirmities And here I finde a dispensation of light and power from the new man which bridles the old and so Satan bound by a stronger than he that he is not at liberty in me as before though thou strongly take his part And as concerning my Ministery taxed by thee know that Paul may endeavour but it is God who gives the increase All that I can do is to commend the truth and grace of God to every mans conscience and he that hath an ear to hear let him hear And that my Ministery hath awakened some and shewed them their wounds and shame it matters not whether thou believe or not and that it hath been a faithfull witnesse against the many delusions and traditions of men it matters not whether thou believe or not and that it hath been a light to some that since are turned Atheists Quakers c. it matters not whether thou believe or not Onely this concerns thee and others that through your lying railing reviling and condemning one who loves you all dearly in the Lord by this as much as in you lies you have sought to make void my Ministery and to make it an offence to those who are setled upon their lees therefore woe unto thee from whom the offence comes Repl. But the light thou sayest which comes from Christs guides into the holy shews the veyl and in the patience rents it and lets into the holiest whither the High-priest alone enters even Jesus Christ and one High-priest over the house of God we witnesse in our measures come who put an end to Tythes c. Answ Your murmuring impatience and want of meeknesse and love to the weak ones of Christ is a strong witnesse that the light that is in you is turned into utter darknesse even darknesse that may be felt Hence your folly and nakednesse is seen of all and judged of all even those who have the least light appearing in them Further if the light have truely shined in you led you into the holy place rent the veyl and led you into the holiest whither the fore-runner is for us entred What mean ye then like other earthlings to be thus exalting and admiring one another seeking honour one of another though ye deny it to the world But your drift is fame you would be in the Heavens in the Holiest nay above all that is called God and Worshipped and this ye are led into by the light within and all must believe it not at all question it upon pain of being accursed by you But stay friends Hope indeed enters within the veil Heb. 6. 17. and this hope keeps the Soul groaning and longing and waiting all the while we are in this earthly Tabernacle after a full possession of our inheritance Rom. 8. 23 24 25. If thou art in the highest possession of God now thine hope is out for that which is seen and enjoyed is not hoped for But stay let the light of Jesus first enter thee into the holy place and there make thee a Priest which name thou so deridest before thou fondly conceit to be in the holiest and in this holy place thou wilt learn to despise thy self and all thine own righteousnesse Till Job came hither he had a great conceit of his own goodnesse and worth but now he abhorres himself and so will ye I know ye put your selves into a posture of suffering and reviling yet all this ye may suffer not for conscience towards God but in reference unto the idoll that ye have made
judged out of thine own mouth to speak contrary unto thy own light And though thou wouldest infer from the Apostles words 2 Pet. 1. 19. That there is a light which shines in the creature before Christ come yet that light thou art faine to acknowledge doth proceed from the Son and lead unto him so that Christ is still the Fountain and first cause of light and by the light of Christ within we come to see and know that the Scriptures are the sure Word of God and so we are led into the pure Religion according to what is written in the Scriptures of truth and the end of this Scripture is again to turn us unto Christ who is the spirit and truth of the Scriptures and so Christ is still the first and last in all the discoveries we have of God he is all the light we have by night and day and though the Scriptures are a precious light yet all the light that is in them is but borrowed from the Son and if we see them not know them not in his light and through his light they may shine long enough before the day will break in our hearts but when Christ leads us into the meaning of Scriptures and brings us to live in the power and truth of them which is himself then by degrees it becomes day with us and this day still leads us into the pure Religion according to what is written within and without and when we wander in the least is as a voice behinde us saying this is the way walke in it this is the old way And this voice of Christ alone hath such power in it both to begin and perfect us in Religion that without it all we do is not well done and so is but the sacrifice of the wicked which is an abomination And so to sum up this know 1. That ye cannot know the meaning of the Scriptures without Christ 2. Ye cannot live the life of the Scriptures without Christ lead ye into it 3. Ye cannot be in the pure Religion without Christ first work it and bring it into being and light in the heart 4. Ye cannot be in the volume of the book in a clear reading of what is written much lesse in the life and body of the book which is Christ the substance without Christ himself manifested in you And so thou who seemest to be Religious learn to bridle thine own tongue otherwise thou doest but deceive thine own heart and all thy Religion is vaine and learn to know thine own light who in thine answer to my ten queries about the light that is in heathens and the light that is peculiar to the Saints of God sayest that the light of Christ is the only guide to them that follow it and besides it there is no guide to Jew or Gentile And so if this light of Christ be the onely guide surely it must be the onely guide into all pure Religion and so the first principle of that which is pure And thou who criest out O shame art judged out of thine own mouth to be shamelesse impudent in scoffing at the first principle of pure Religion to be the Son of God dwelling in us Repl. In mine answer to thy second Question thou deniest the Fathers work and will to be the yoke of Christ and tellest me That I who am a stranger to the first principle of pure Religion from me is the yoke of Christ and the burden of Christ hid and so I am coming about the thing in words but the thing it self is hid from me c. Answ The Pharisees were full of questions and in their fastings disfiguring their faces sad countenances outside holines great abstinence vain repetitions striving and contending against every thing but what themselves did or spake were a fit figure of this questioning generation Thou dark Pharisee thou lookest so much upon thy questions thou canst not look at all upon the answer If thou speak of the Person of Christ the Mediator which thou deniest his work was to glorify his Father on earth to finish the work which he gave him to do If thou speak of Christ the manifestation of the Father in his Children his work is there likewise to do the will of his Father by subjecting the creature to the yoke or will of God that God may be glorified so that the Fathers work and will is Christs yoke which he was contented to be subject unto And this is the Christians yoke that Christ teaches the soul wherein he lives to put his neck under and be subject unto And so the yoke of Christ what was it and what is it but to be subject to his Fathers will Not to be his own but his Fathers I came not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me But what was the work of God which Christ had to do Answer It lay in two things 1. To bear our griefs and carry our sorrows to be smitten wounded and grieved for our iniquities to bear our sin and all the sorrow grief and Hell due unto us for them 2. His work was likewise to make reconciliation and peace manifest unto the World and to work mens hearts into a belief of what he hath done and wrought for them to bring about their deliverance and salvation Wert thou rightly acquainted with this work and the meeknesse and lowlinesse of the person who wrought it thou wouldst soon see this to be a great yoke and taske to come under and do But this is History and to shew thy self wise this is trampled under thy feet and of no account with thee and so thou deniest the Lord that bought thee and in thy dark fancie leapest into the mystery and sayest I see not that which turns the creature into the work and will of God Here thou art upon the light within and thâ—s thou art still dreaming of though thou know not what it is nor whence it comes for this would never move thee to slight the letter the History the bloud of Christ without but would bring thee into a rejoycing in all the Fathers work and will which the Son lived in Repl. Further thou sayest The yoke of Christ is where the work and wil of the Devil is lived in for Christ is the true light Answ And so say I too The work and will of God ought to be lived in by that man who wrests his neck from the yoke and scorns to be subject unto God as his father And thus the light tells me it is with thee thou livest in the nature which spurns off the yoke living in pride and high conceit of thine own worth in haughtinesse envy and strife and this makes thee fancy thy self to be a Christ and God and so instead of judging thy self and confessing thine own vilenesse and nothingnesse thou must speak evil of thy brother and condemne all besides thy self Nay God and Christ and Scripture and light within must all concurre
the Creatour who is blessed for evermore For this cause God hath given thee up to vile affections to burn in your lust one towards another and to make gods and saviours of one another and so it is just with God seeing ye acknowledge him not above you to give you over to be filled with envy murder debate deceit malignity to be as the world are whisperers backbiters haters of God boasters inventers of evill things disobedient to Parents without naturall affection towards Wives Children Parents Friends and the Church of God implacable men that can be reconciled to none but your own form party way In all which though ye professe ye know God yet by your works ye deny him These are some of the four-footed beasts and creeping things that are in the Leopards Denne within in your earthly sensuall hearts and the prints and spots of these you 'l finde to your wo when God shall bring you to judgement Repl. But thou sayest I am wilde and untame Answ I am so indeed by nature but God hath subdued my wildnesse and made me according to his grace in me tame and of a willing minde to receive more of that light which guides out of the world And so I cannot despise that which reproves me inwardly for my too covetous practices but am ready through my Fathers grace to be as the Lillies and the Sparrowes without care and fear of food and raiment in the world This speech thou wilt be angry at yet it is no matter seeing thou art alwayes angry at other mens experiences Repl. But I scoffe at such in whom tendernesse grows Answ And yet I tell thee I scoffe at nothing but the evill beast in thee He is so plainly discovered that if I should give thee flattering Titles as some simple ones do I might fear my Maker would soon take me away this evill one I cannot chuse but speak against not against the tendernesse of truth that grows up in any Repl. But I am crafty thou sayest and to maintain my self in pride and fulnesse have got the Tythe of two Parishes bring in one colour after another to maintain the wages of unrighteousnesse so bespotted am I so acted by the beast like unto a Leopard Answ Friend it was not my craft which got me my Tyth of two Parishes neither doth my craft maintain me in them I am very unskilfull in craft guile hypocrisie all that deal with me finde me plain and faithfull neither can I dissemble to deceive as many do But stay hast thou not heard of a providence Surely this gave me my Tyth of two Parishes and this wronged none when it gave me Tythe and this providence maintains Tythes for my use and tells me I wrong none whilst I take it with moderation not with oppression and rigour And this is that even providence thou hast murmured against in this businesse of Tythes And thou shalt know to thy sorrow that God hath heard thy murmurings against himself and will bring thee to a due account for them For who are wee Your murmurings are not so much against us as against the Lord and that which he gives us ye have prophanely called the wages of unrighteousnesse And therefore he will stop the mouth of the evill beast in thee Repl. Further thou sayest I am telling what the beast is which all the world wonders after saying the Pope is the beast in an eminent figure Answ â—ain thou wouldest hide thy self and the beast in thee and therefore thou leavest all out in mine answer which discovered the beast which thou wandrest after but look again friend and read what is there said and compare thy spirit with it and see whether in all thine anointing thy self with the office and place of Christ and in all thy departing from God and living in thy self below thou be not guided by the beast But thou lettest all this alone runnest to the Pope which indeed I brought in as the sense of some to be the beast but thou hearest me speak of another thing to be the beast in truth and yet seeing thou hast named the Pope let us see whether the Pope be not alive in thee 1. He is infallible so art thou 2. He is Christ so art thou 3. He is master and Father of all mens faith so art thou 4. He is spotlesse sinlesse perfect so art thou 5. He questions and condemnes all for Hereticks cursed Hereticks and Heathen that wear not his mark either in their hands or fore-heads so doest thou 6. He makes a nose of wax of Scripture sometimes for the history sometimes for the mysterie alwayes for his meaning and interpretation of all and so doâ—st thou 7. He is much for the naturall light the light which is in every man which by improvement becomes saving so art thou 8. He is for his own merits so art thou 9. He sends up and down the world his Priests and Friars to convert unto his holy Catholick Religion so doest thou to convert to thy Religion And 10. Lastly to name no more a great honour it is to kisse his to so a great honour it must needs be to kisse thy feet to come under the least degree of thy holy spotlesse orders and dreames Surely methinks by all this it appeares that the Pope hat left his holy Chair is come from Rome to live neerthee and in thee and yet thou dreamest surely this beast dwels at Rome But to save thy self Repl. Thou tellest me the beast hath his chiefest room in me and bears rule in my body and leads me out into wickednesse pleasures scorning wayes and customes of the world Answ Friend that he hath done this in me I deny it not but that his power is broken and that he leads me not out as formerly to take pleasure in unrighteousnesse this is that I glory in and so can sing and triumph in God who hath given me victorie over the beast And so take the beast for me for by thy wrangling and jangling it plainly appears that thine own conscience tells thee thou art under his power and so thou tatlest on and sayest Repl. There was a time when I was in trouble and torment and sleep departed from me and in that time was the wounding of the head of the beast in the first of his colours but from the sword I fled and again am healed and the sâ—me head cured yet in another aâ—pearance and now I am ten times more crafty for the Kingdom of darknesse than before Rev. 13. 1 2 3. Answ Thou wretch how long wilt thou regard lying vanities and forsake thine own mercies How many lies hast thou told about my scrupling Tythes And yet thou must be perfect without all sin All this doth but add unto thy heap of wrath As touching the reviving of the beast in me who was wounded as thou sayest know that he lies still wounded and condemned in me and though I deny not some remnants of him for if I should
Scripture mentions I own knowing that the body is destroyed and dead and my Soul as a bird delivered from the snare Answ Further the second birth sins not 1 Joh. 3. 9. and 1 Joh. 5. 18. the second birth is without guile and spot Rev. 14. 5. and Christ is manifest to take away sin and he that abides in him sins not 1 Joh. 3. 5 6. Repl. All this I own rightly understood but 't is much besides the question for the question is not whether the new man sin but whether the man in whom this new man is manifested sin or not seeing that which is born of the spirit is spirit and that which is born of the flesh is flesh the spirit cannot sin but the flesh can do nothing but sin Rom. 7. 17 to the end and Gal. 5. 17. there you may see the two births the two men flesh and spirit and what their actions are and yet I own a taking away both of the guilt and power of sin where Christ is manifested in the new birth Answ Further but thou takest Tythes and so deniest Christ who takes away sin Repl. By the same argument thou mayest say to a Magistrate Souldier Landlord Labourer thou takest custome pay rent wages therefore thou deniest Christ who takes away sin Answ Further but Christ thou sayest has as much power to cleanse man as the first Adam to defile man Repl. Christ has more and greater Rom. 5. 15 to the end That which defiles do's not come from power properly but from weaknesse or want of power but that which cleanseth comes from the mighty power of God and yet though man be not cleansed God is not to be blamed for who art thou repliest shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Rom. 9. 18 19 20 c. Answ Further I who lived in the wayes customes fashions pastimes and vain recreations of the world it is high time for thee to plead for sin in this life Repl. This is but thy clamour neither do I plead for sin but for the truth of God witnessed both by the Letter and spirit unto all that are not fools and blinde and thy denial of sin Satan and Antichrist to be where they are either in power or part is the old trick of the evil one to hide himself where he is and that too many have drunk in this poison and say with their hearts and practice though not with their tongues Stand by I am holier than thou thou art a sinner a Satan an Antichrist I am none that many are under this sad delusion it appears by their clamouring and condemning all that worship not under their green Tree and whether thou and they are not greater friends to the beast and sin that dream in your hearts you have no sin and so are lifted up than those who confesse they have sin and so are kept humble meek and low which of these are the greatest friends to sin I leave to the light to judge Answ Further if all have remnants of sin when then must man be cleansed seeing as the Tree falls so it lies and no unclean person no unclean thing must enter into the Kingdom when is the time of cleansing is there a purgatory after man be turned into the dust Repl. The time of cleansing is here here we are not in the flesh but in the spirit that we may be comforted and yet in the flesh as well as in the spirit that we may be humbled God beholds no iniquity in Jacob and yet Jacob sees iniquity in himself all his iniquities are covered that he may be blessed and yet his iniquities sometimes appear that he may be lesse than the least of all his mercies Friend there is a purging here a real total thorow eternal purging in Gods account who reckons Saints by his grace and yet whilest the flesh remains it will hanker after the flesh and beget such breathings after self and things below that many times the best will see cause enough to mourn and to long after a dissolution when they shall see their enemies again no more for ever so that here needs no Purgatory after this life sin is here condemned destroyed and in part executed and when the dissolution comes 't is bid farewell to all the Saints of God and left to inhabite here below something here of this thou mayest call a contradiction 't is so unto the blinde 't is not so unto the wise Answ Further all who are led by the light of Christ into his life as they come and abide so are they totally freed from the worlds life and power of sin and darknesse and to lead up to this was the Saints exhortation into the Unity out of the woe into him who is but one in whom is all truth and no sin nor self nor deceivings Repl. All who are led by the light of Christ so far as they come and abide in his life spirit through his light and leading so far no farther are they freed from the life of worldlings and the power of sin and darknesse and the end of the Lords spirit by his exhortations unto others in his messengers and Saints was and is to perswade them more into the Unity of the spirit through the bond of peace that so they might be kept from the woe of sin and darknesse through a dividing from this spirit and might learn to live in him whose light and life is one in nature though not in measure in all the sons of God and he who walks and lives in Christ and Christ in him is so far delivered from sin and self and deceit into all light and truth as he walks and abides lesse or more in a sweet manifestation of his life in Christ so that Christ manifested is still the standard and measure of all our light and truth and redemption from sin and darknesse and if this manifestation were full and compleat in this earthly house what need the Saints groan and wait for a dissolution 2 Cor. 5. 1. to 10. and for the appearance and coming of Christ in glorie 1 Joh. 3. 1 2. and through hope of this endeavour still after the Lords purity verse 3. waiting for a full enojyment and discovery of their adoption or of that unto which they are adopted Rom. 8. 23. Answ Further Paul saith we know but in part we Prophesie but in part 1 Cor. 13. 9. and so say I in the time of Prophesie man sees but in part and knows but it part Repl. Friend why doest thou here in thine ignorance like others to cover their ignorance wrest the Scriptures Paul sayes we know in part and we Prophesie in part and thou turnest it thus In the time of Prophesie indeed man sees but in part and knows but in part Paul do's not say in the time of Prophesie we know but in part but according as our Prophesie or Vision is so is our knowledge both but in