Doctrines and in her worships and ordinances in her orders discipline and government from what the true Church of Christ was in the Apostles dayes before the Apostacy 2. That the constitution of your Church and the chief part of your worship and ordinances and the way and maner of your discipline and Government are of man and set up and standeth by the will of man and are not after God nor according to him but are after the traditions of man learned and practised therein which is Idolatry and are not in the commandements of Christ nor in the example of his Apostles nor according to the Scriptures but without the spirit of God being set up since the dayes of the Apostles and since the Apostacy came in which hath over-shadowed the whole world 3 That there hath been over the world for generations and many ages since the dayes of the Apostles and true Churches a generall declination and falling away from the true faith and doctrines and from the worship and ordinances and from the discipline and Government that was amongst the Apostles and practised in the true Churches of Christ in their dayes and your Church is in that declination and falling away 4. That Antâ—christ the Beast and the whore and false prophets have reigned over the world for generations the Antichrist that hath opposed Christ and been exalted in the Temple of God and been worshipped as God The Beast that hath killed the Saints and warred against them and had power over Kindreds and tongues and the world hath wondred after him The Whore whom the Beast hath carried she hath sat upon peoples multitudes and Nations and drunk the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs and she hath corrupted the earth and caused all to drink her cup of fornications And the false Prophets have overspred the Nations and deceived them and you and your Church are of the peoples the multitudes and the kindred that the Beast hath received power over and the Whore hath sat upon and the false Prophets deceived 5 That the true Church of Christ the Lambs wife the eleâ—â—ed spouse and the beloved City who brought forth him that was to rule the â—ations hath been fled into the Wildernes been fled into the place of mourning dissolation for a thousand two hundred 60 dayes the Gentiles feet have troden down the holy City the Lambs wife and had power over her for forty and two moneths and though she hath not been prevailed against nor overcome so as to be extinguished from having a being yet her being hath been the Wilderness in mourning and disolation and she hath not appeared in the glory and excellency which once she had but hath lost her garments and her attire and her heir and husband separated from her and caught up to God and to his Throne and in this time of the disolation and treading down of the holy City the Lambs wife and the reigning of the Beast and the Whore hath your Church been extant in her glory and power which hath been of the false woman and not of the eleâ—t spouse that is married to the Lamb 6. That forcing and compelling of persons by any outward Law and Authority to be of such or such a Religion and to conforme to such a way of worship is the worship of the Beast and of the Whore and not the worship of God and to kill and persecute persons for the exercise of conscience and because they will not be of such a Religion and cannot conform to such worship is of the Divill and the Dragon and not of God nor according to him and that your Church herein is not successor of the Apostles and the true Church of Christ but is of the Beast and the Whore which Iohn saw was to come in his time and which we see are come in our dayes and have ruled for generations and I affirme that persons so made conformable by force and violent Laws to such a Religion and worship are but two fold more the Children of the Divill and are not at all converted to God thereby but becomes Idolaters whom God will Judge 7. That none upon earth are true members of the true Church of Christ having a portion in the inheritance of eternal life but such who are gathered out of the world by the preaching of the Gospel and are changed and renewed by the power of the Lord God in the heart and are led by his spirit within them into all truth and are joyned unto Christ the head and gathered into the eternall unity of the infinite body by the same spirit and anointing dwelling in them and of such onely doth the true Church of Christ consist now in this present time as it did in the Apostles dayes but of such members doth not your Church consist in this present age neither is it in the order and Government of the spirit of truth but in the forme without the Power therein was its beginning and is its standing at this day 8. That the time is at hand and the day of the Lord draws near and the fulness of time is approaching wherein great Babylon shal be thrown down and fall to the ground and the Lord will be avenged on her and will render Judgments unto her and the Beast and whore and false prophets unâ—o whom the Kingdoms of the world hath been subject shall be taken and cast alive into the lake and the devil and Satan shall deceive the Nations no more but the Kingdoms of this World shall be changed and become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ whose Kingdom shall be revealed in power and great glory in the hearts of his chosen and the Church of Rome and all the false sects and Churches upon the earth will the Lord God overthrow and his true Church shall be gathered out of the Wilderness and the beauty of new Ierusalem of the holy Church the Lambs wife shall be as glorious as before she fled thither and before she was troden down of the Gentiles and the Lord God Almighty shall be known and his â—abernacle shall be with men These things I assert to you in the Name of the Lord and the truth thereof is certaine and should be ready to argue and dispute these things with any sober person amongst you upon equall tearmes and to prove the infalibility hereof by the spirit of the Lord and according to the Scriptures wherefore consider of them in patience and meekness and believe in the light of Christ which is in your consciences which Christ hath lightened every man that commeth into the world withall that you may come to the knowledge of the truth and out of all false wayes and if any of you will returne an answer hereunto in behalfe of your whole body and can be able to clear your selves in writing from what is charged upon you it shall be gladly received by me and a reply in meekness returned to you for
veniâ—tis unquam est pars ista in vobis subacta necne ab quâ—m addite fuit lex Dei venistis ad Christum ad ipsum cognoscitis sicut fuit ante Abrahamum ante Mariam Et quammodo fuit Davidis Dominus Et quammodo ejusdem filius utrum natus est Christus in vobis vobis Revelatus per quam mundus fuit factus expectatis necne perfecte liberari a paccato adeo ut in hac vita terrestri non amplius illud committetis 5. Quid est anima quinam fuit status conditio ejus ante transgressionem quaenam in transgressione potestne aliquis per Adamum secundum restitui manens adhuc in terra in statum eundem quem amisit in primo etiam vel non Amici in nomine potentia Domini Dei a vobis requiro ut per atramentuÌ„ calamum de hisce mihi respondeat aliquis vestrum subscribantur nomina vestra ut reddam itidem vobis responsum ulterius queramus de vobis a Domino enim missi sumus ad visitanduÌ„ explorandum vos si in perfecta veritate sitis alios ad religionem vestram covertere desideretis tum candide nobiscum agite in zelo vestro optimis utamini armis vestris spiritualibus ad defendendum causam vestram contra nos pro Deo veâ—tro appareatis sine vero de vestris ipsorum viis observationibus dubitatis nec ad Religionem vestram defendendam sufficientes sitis tum obtaretur os vestrum divertite ab idololatria nunc enim orbus est Dominus ad judicandum vos juste etiam ac universum orbem Sum animarium vestrarium amator sed testis contra quascunque falsas vias Antichristi ac meretricis qui diu valde in mundo regnavere quin etiam sum Servus Domini Edvardus Burrough per derisores mundi vocatus Aglice A Quaker The English of these Queries followeth The English is this To all ye that Professe your selves devoted to the service of God and separation from the world and mortification in your lives who are called by the name of Fryars and Nunns in and about Dunkirk THe mighty day of the Lord God is come and coming upon you and all the world Awake awake ye that sleep in in the earth for the dreadful God is arising to plead with you and to give unto all the world the cup of his fierce indignation because of your idolatries and hypocrisies and abominations which hath corrupted the earth is come up before him and hath provoked him and the cry of the just who hath been smitten and laid slain is entred into the ears of the most high and his sword which is the words of his mouth is awakened to wound and slay all his enemies and the day of your visitation is now come wherein the Lord is searching you and trying you that he may recompence you and this is the word of the Lord to you Wherefore I am moved of the Lord to propound some few Qâ—eries to you for the tryal of your spirits and wayes to which I demand your answer that all things may be brought to light and true judgement and that you may be Judged justly and by the spirit of the Lord cleared or condemned according to your deeds 1. Whether there was such orders of men and women in the true Church of Christ in the Apostles dayes and where did Christ give Institution for such worships practices and manner of life and slothful idleness and unprofitableness to God and men as ye hold forth And whether any are bound to believe you and follow your Religion and practices except you can prove by the Scriptures the words of Christ or example of his Saints and Apostles your Religion and lives and practices and worships and whether you do admit of tryal in all your whole Religion by and according to the Scriptures and writings of the Apostles yea or nay 2. Whether the world in your hearts and the worlds nature even the root of lust the root of pride covetousness and the love of this world and its vanities and the root of Idolatry is subdued in you to the light in your consciences I do speak and what is the root of all these things and what is it that subdues it is it an outward abstinence by the force of locks and doors and bolts or self-separation and secret places that subdues the worlds nature in men and women and is iâ— by such means that Christ gives victory over sin and overcomes it in his people or is it not by the power of God in the heart onely And whether is it not damnable hypocrisie in you to appear outwardly holy and free from these things while yet the nature and root of all these things are alive in you and boiling up in the motions of them and is any outward thing the Crosse of Christ and Christ crucified which mortifies to the world which the Apostles Preached and rejoyced in 3. Whether is it a true denial of the world in you to deny it in one manner and place and to run into it and imbrace it in another way and place it doth not appear to me that you have denyed the world as the Apostles did for answer me where had they any such â—eats in the finest and fattest places of the Cities and Towns as ye have such great fine houses and Gardens and such revenues by the year as ye have staying all their dayes in a great house and spending their time in sloth and idleness as ye do they went up and down the world Preaching the Gospel and had no certain dwelling place but followes the Lamb of God in the spirit and did not settle themselves in fat places of the earth continuing all their dayes as ye do therefore we judge that you are out of the life and not in the spirit as the Apostles were in but are in the form of righteousness and holiness without the power So I demand an answer to clear your selves if you can and to prove that you are of the true Church and tâ—at your wâ—yes and practices are in and by the spirit of God and according to the Scriptures 4. What is that death that hath passed over all and reigned from Adam to Moses and whether it doth not reign yet in and over you and what is Moses Ministration and whiâ—her ever through it you yet truly came and whether that part be subduâ—d in you which the Law of God was added upon and whether are you come to Christ and knowes him as he was before Abraham and before Mary and how was he Davids Lord and how his Son and is Christ within you born and reveâ—led to you by whom the world was made and do you expect to be perfectly freed from sin that ye shall not commit sin in this life upon earth
Gentibus bibit sanguinem sanctorum Martyrum corrupit Terram secit uâ— omnes biterunt ex poculo Scortationum suarum Pseudoprophetae supervenerunt in nationes deceperunt eaâ— Deinde Ecclesia vestra est de populis turbis tribubus in quos Bestia potestatem recepit quibus insedit meretrix quosque pseudoprophetae deceperunt 5 Quod vera Christi Ecclesia uxor Agni electa sponsa urbs illa dilecta que peperit eum qui Gentes erat Recturus fugit in solitudinem alita fuit in loco luctus desolationis mille ducentis sexaginta diebus calcaverunt Gentes urbem sanctam uxorem Agni dominium habuerunt in ipsam mensibus quadraginta duobus etiamsi haud fuerit ipsa separata seu victa adeo ut omni existentia penitus privari in deserta solitudine tamen exstitit in luctu ac desolatione in illa gloria excellentia quam olim habuit nequaquam apparuit sed amisit plane vestimenta ornatus suos haeredem suum maritum ab ea separatum raptum ad Deum thronum ejus in hoc tempore divastationes conculcationes Civitatis illius Sanctae uxoris Agni Regni Bestiae meretricis Ecclesia vestra quae est ex muliere falsa non ex Electa sponsa quae Agno nupra est exhibita fuit in potentia sua gloria 6 Quod coactio compulsio personarum per externam aliquam legem potestatem conformes esse hujusmodi vel istius modi Religioso Cultui est Bestiae meretricis non Dei Cultus Quinimo trucidare persequi Conscientiae ergo propter abnegationem hujus aut illius Religiosi Cultus est a Diabolo Dracone nequaquam a Deo nec secundum eâ—m quinetiam Ecclesia vestra quae per istius modii media cogit ad suum cultum in hoc non succedit Apostolis Ecclesiae verae sed est de Bestia meretrice quas in deil us suis Iohannes vidit venturus esse nos in nostris venisse videmus Regnasse per praeteritas generationes affirmo etiam cuicunque Religoso cultui Conformes se praebentes non sponte sed coacte per vim violentiam legum esse duplo magis quam antea Diatoli filios nec per hoc conversos esse ad Deum sed sieri Idololatras quos Deus judicaturus est 7 Quod nulli pro totum terrarum orbem sunt vera membra de vera Christi Ecclesia veb jus habentes ad haereditatem Eternae vitae nisi qui e mundo Collecti sunt per praedicationem Evangelii sunt transfigurati itidem Renovati per potentiam Domini Dei in Corde per spiritum ejus in ipsis docti in omnem veritatem ad Christum Caput agglutinati aggregati in eternam unitatem infiniti Corporis per eundem spiritum unctionem in ipsis habitantem ex hujusmodi consistit vera Christi Ecclesia nunc temporis quemadmodum in temporibus Apostolorum de talibus vero membris non est Ecclesia vestra in presenti hac aetate nec est in ordine regimini spiritus veritatis sed in forma absque vi in illa fuit origo est status ejus in hunc usque diem 8 Quod oportunitas dies Domini plenitudo temporis praestituti appropinquat in quo Babylon illa magna dejicietur cadet dominus in illam vindictam inferet judicia reddit comprehendentur Bestia meretrix pseudoprophetae quibus subjiecerunt se Regna terrarum orbis vivi conjicientur in stagnum Diabolus Satanas non amplius seducent nationes sed Regna mundi hujus mutabuntur facta erunt Regna Domini Christi ejus Cujus Regnum revelabitur in Cordibus Electorum Suorum in potientia multa gloria Et Ecclesiam Romanensem etiam omnes falsas Sectas Ecclesias per Vniversam terram subvertet Dominus Deus vera ipsius Ecclesia recolligeturâ—e deserto pulchritudo Ierusolymae novae Ecclesiae Sanctae vxoris Agni aeque gloriâ—fa faerit ac ante fugitum ejus illuc conculcationem suam per Gentes Dominus Deus Omnipotens dignoscetur erit cum hominibus Tabernaculum ejus Haec Testor vobis in nomine Domini veritatem eorum quae certa est probaturus sum de hisce caeteris paribus cum quocunque vestrum Sobriae mentis disceptaturus eademque per spiritum Domini nec non secundum scripturas infallibilia esse demonstraturus Qua propter consideretis ea in mansuetudine patientia credite in lucem Christi in vestris ipsorum conscientiis qua cum unumquemque qui venit in Mundâ—m Christus illuminavit ut ad agnitionenâ— veritatis ab omnibus viis obliquis perveniatis si vestrum aliquis in gratiam totius Corporis hisce Responsum Reddet si possitis per atramentum calamum vindicare vos met ipsâ—s de hisce quae vobis imputantur hoc erit per me Candide receptum etiam in levitate cum Responsione revertetur in ordine adulteriorum manifestationâ—m veritatis ut veritas Iustitia Clarissime appareat â—mplectatur delusio omnis Anti-Christi impostura confundatur abnegatur qui sunt in veritate in eadem stabiliantur qui in errore Commone fiant in hoc die visitationis Mundi Dominus venturus est ad judicium qui omnium Cordium Secreta Iudicabit Vniversum mundum in Iustitia Dun. 20.3d mon. 1659. Per Amicum Justiciae omnium animarum Amatorem EDVARDUM BURROUGH The English of these propositions is as followeth To all ye Iesuits Priests and Friars and to all you in generall of the Romish Church in and about Dunkirk FRiends in dear love to all your immortall souls I am moved to lay these things before you that you may read and consider them in the fear of the Lord God for as much as for some dayes I have been in this Town according to the will of God and having rightly observed your Religion in its originall and in its present standing and in its practises and having truly examined some part of your faith and Doctrines and the manner of your worships and your ordinances and the orders and discipline and government of your whole Church and in the spirit of the Lord having laid all things to the line of true â—udgment and equally measured them hereupon I do from the Lord and by his spirit propound and assert these things unto you First That your Church is not the true Church of Christ the Lambs wife and elected spouse but is degenerated in her faith and in her
is death by their law while murder is tolerated and here is nought but tyranie and oppression abounding even great mountains which must be thrown down and for which the sword of the Lord must come upon them and God will make their riches and their falsely consecrated vessels and treasures even a spoil and a prey unto you if you be faithful unto the Lord wherefore all you officers fear the Lord God and be not ambitious nor vain-glorious nor seek not your selves to gain unto your selves Kingdoms to exalt your own horn for if you go in this way and if this be your end then your end shall be frustrated you shall not prosper for the Lord will lay you aside with shame unto you but let it be your work your aime to require and demand the disanulling of their Inquisions and cruel Lawes both in their Church and civil State and that Christ alone may exercise the peoples consciences neither be ye as Lords nor Tyrants over your poor Souldiers but be ye loving and meek towards them I say unto you Officers and to all you that bear Rule in the Army be loving and kind and gentle unto all under your authority be not as tyrants nor oppressors over your poor Souldiers but be examples of all goodness unto them and give them no evil examples in your lives and conversations but lead them in the fear of the Lord and know a measure of his wisdom in you whereby you may walk before them and they may possesse their freedoms in their conditions and may not be as slaves â—o you but as servants to the Lord in their places and herein shall you be blessed as you fulfill that which the Lord requires And likewise unto all the Souldiers I say that ye may be sober and moderate and faithful to the Lord and not go in the excess and superfluity of this creation but may be all kept low in your hearts and tender towards God and obey them that have power over you in all things which are just and be not deboist nor given to vanity But all of you both officers and soldiers live in that which keeps your consciences void of offence and that you may be clear and free in your own spirits from the abominations of the Nations and then you will be a terror to the evil in all people wheresoever you come and being clear and free in the sight of the Lord having no sin lying upon your consciences then shall you face your enemies with courage and not fear death but shall be ready to lay down your lives for a testimony of Jesus in a good cause and upon good engagements and if the Lord be your fear then no man can make you afraid but you will be in that which overcometh the unrighteous power within you and without you also and here is the true honour and in this it doth consist in victory over all that which is contrary to God and here is the true way to happynesse and prosperity in this life and in the life to come by seeking his glory and not your own and all of you come to the light of Christ that Christ hath lighted you with all and that will teach you all things what you ought to do and what you ought not to do for that light of Christ within you ought to be the guide of all the children of men in every state place and condition and upon this you are to wait for counsel to receive it from the Lord by that of him made manifest within you and as for all your outward teachers that hath used their tongues amongst you and said the Lord saith it when God hath not spoken to them nor sent them and that preach for hire and sums of mony and these are them that cannot profit the people nor ever bring you to the knowledge of God nor give you counsel from the Lord and if you seek to uphold them and defend them against the power of the Lord and his word which is gone forth against them then shall you not prosper but fall with them and if you do enterprize any work in that spirit that doth oppose the spirit of Christ Jesus in his people you can never have good success but the Lord will confound you before your enemies And so now that you may all come into the new covenant to be taught of the Lord and to be far from all oppression this is the thing that you are all to wait for and to know the power of the Lord and to go on in that against unrighteous men and unrighteous lawes which are set up in the Nations that they may be destroyed and brought under and yet though such a victory would be honourable unto you yet there is a victory more honourable to wit the victory over sin and death and the Devil in your selves and that you are to mind and there is a kingdome which is not of this world which cannot be obtained by an outward sword and this kingdom are you to wait for that you may know it and feel it in your own particulars and this is the doctrine of the Gospel of peace unto you and the glad tidings held forth unto all of you come into the power of the Lord and minde it that you may be lead of it and then may you be fit instruments for the Lord to work by and take heed how you oppose those whom the Lord hath sent and is sending abroad in the nations to proclame the mighty day of the Lord they are no enemies to you nor to any mans person and therefore be tender over them for they go about the Lords work of this I warne you all in the presence of the Lord And so you dwelling in the power of the Lord there is nothing shall destroy you nor confound you but you shall have victory over all your enemies within you and without you and the Lord will make you a dread and a fear to the Nations and so this is a warning unto you all both officers and soldiers that you may minde what the work of the Lord God is in the nations your worke hath been and may be honourable in its day and season but he hath a work more hoâ—ourable to work after you that is to destroy the kingdome of the Devil and the ground of wars and your victorie hath been of the Lord but there is a more honourable victory to be waited for even the victory over sin and so we are the friends of the creation that doth preach this victory and this kingdom and peace which is endlesse and everlasting and which many are come into yet we reject not the state and work and victory and honour of a soldier but hath a respect thereunto in their season and as for the many and divers sorts of worship which is come up since the dayes of the Apostles and are of the whore and not of the true Church they are
all to be thrown down and the worship that is in Spirit and truth to be set up by the Lord and he is gathering people into that worship but if you be out of the fear of God in the rudenesse and wickednesse of the world and seeks your selves and not the freedom of the nations onely then the Lord will lay you aside as a broken potsherd and raise up unto himselfe a people that shall fulfill his work and do it for he hath much work to do in the nations to accomplish in a few years time for he is gathering his elect seed and changing the kingdomes of the world and making them become the kingdomes of Christ and so be low in your own eyes and do not seek your selves but seek one anothers good and seek the glory of the Lord and the freedome of the oppressed and in that you will be blessed and prosper till you have set up your standard at the gates of Rome I am a lover of all your souls and a sufferer in patience under the cruelties of men E. B. ANd some small discourse we had with our English Priests that supplies the place of Chaplains to the Army and in particular one of them which had spoken something behind our backs against us and we did proffer to have some discourse with him but he refused it only to evade the matter at that present he bid us state some of our principles in writing and he would answer them in dispute in some publike place being he was not willing to engage to dispute otherwise we were free to write this following Paper but we had no answer in agreement to dispute with us but shifted the thing from himself by telling us the Governor was not willing but tâ— is was not the same Priest before mentioned that we had discourse with at our first coming into the Town Friend For the manifestation of truth and that the perfect difference between thee and us may be known and who are in the truth and who in the error and that truth from error may be clearly discerned therefore according to thy own proposals and expressed desires thereof before many we do here assert some particulars of that truth which we have received from God and do hold forth and maintain in the world in opposition to thee or any other that shall gainsay them viz. 1. That Christ hath lightened all men with a light sufficient in it self to bring them to salvation if they follow it 2. That God hath given Christ to be the Saviour of all men 3. That none are justified by Christ and his righteousnesse without them but as they have received Christ and his righteousness and witness them revealed in themselves 4. That the Saints of God may be perfectly freed from sin in this life so as no more to commit it 5. That the national Ministers and Churches not only of Papists but of the Protestants also as they now stand are not the true ministers and Churches of Christ 6. That the scriptures are a true declaration given forth from the spirit of God by holie men of God moved by it to write them and are profitable but are not the foundation nor the most perfect Rule of faith and life to the Saints These things we are freelie willing and desirous to discourse upon with thy selfe and anie others that shall join with thee in the presence of sober and wise men who may judge between us in anie publick place that may be procured by thee according to thy engagements in this particular provided it may be in the spirit of meeknesse and moderation and that all fair and sober dealing may be among us and the fear of God and to this we expect thy speedie answer concerning time and place E. Burrough S. Fisher The propositions were writ as short as could be for to stop all advantages against us that might be taken by our adversarie in case he had met us and agreed to dispute but upon enlargement in discourse we might have laid open the truth of everie one of these particulars at large to the satisfaction of sober minds that might have been doubtfull hereof and shewed by the Scriptures the truth of all of them THE END