Light wherewith you are lightned even by so much you are short of the true way of the Kingdom of God John 14.6 John 8.12 John 1.9 For be it known unto you of a truth That the way is but one the truth is but one and that one is Christ the Light of the world which lighteth every man that cometh into the world Ephes 4.4 5 6. 1 John 1.5 James 1.17 Wherefore be ye not ignorant that there is only one true body one spirit one hope of the true calling one Lord one Faith one Baptisme and one communion of the Lords body one God who is Light the eternal Father of all who are children born of the Light wherewith they are lighted which cometh from God the Father of Light unto life everlasting This then is the witnesse to the whole world and the message to the whole world and the tryal of the whole world their wayes their words their works and their worships all whose deeds are wrought in the Light they in the Light have peace and their hearts doth not condemn them but such who professe God and the Truth in Christianity and yet are Swearers and Lyars Thieves Whores Whoremongers Cheaters Covetous Proud Envious Hard-hearted Mockers Scorners Drunkards Gluttons Abusers of themselves with mankind who in worse nature than the beasts nature change the naturall use of the creature into that which is against nature these walking working and acting contrary to the Light in all their consciences with the Light are judged and condemned and this is the condemnation of all the wicked world John 3.19 That Light is come into the world and men love darknesse rather than Light because their deeds are evill And such are not an honour unto God nor a praise unto Christ whose life savours not of the Truth nor of the nature of Christianity their profession shall in no wise be unto their Justification But in how much they have professed the name of Christ who is the Light and made the profession of his name the Cloak of their unrighteousnesse even by so much the more will the Light in all their consciences be the aggravation of their misery through judgement unto condemnation Unto this one therefore must all come to be made partakers of the everlasting inheritance of salvation even unto the Light which cometh from Christ by it to be led unto Christ who is the Life and Light of men John 1.4 Isa 42.6 Isa 49.6 Luke 2.32 who is the salvation of the Prophets whom they prophesied of saying I will also give thee for a Covenant of the people for a Light of the Gentiles to open the eyes of the blind to bring out the Prisoners from the Prison and them that sit in darknesse out of the Prison house that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth On whom also the Apostles believed who through Faith in the Light and obedience to the Light wherewith they were lightned were made partakers of the purchase of the blood and promise of the Covenant to wit the salvation of their souls And behold this is the Ensign and Standard of the Lord which was set up for the fall and is now setting and set up for the rising again of many in Luke 32.34 35. Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against by whom shall come the revelation and ripping open of all thoughts and hearts Ye people all upon the face of the whole earth unto that in all your consciences which revealeth unto you all unrighteousnesse and the prophanesse and rottennesse of your own hearts and the wickednesse of your own thoughts words and works which also is the revelation of the terrible indignation and of the wrath of God against all the ungodly and workers of iniquity even unto that light in all your consciences must ye all be joyned your hearts must be given unto it to be led and to be ordered and guided by it that you may come to witnesse a new Life begotten by the Light in you John 3.3 for except a man be born again he cannot see nor enter into the Kingdom of Heaven As your minds come therefore to be joyned to the Light wherewith you are lightned you by the witness of perfect subjection and obedience to the pure motions of it will come to know the true and everlasting testimony of the Lord and be made partakers of the hope of the heavenly calling and your confidence not as in the dayes of vanity sin and death will be gathered into the one substance of the spirit of Life in which you will come to see what is the glory of the living body which liveth by the faith of the Son of God Your baptisme will not be as in the dayes under the power of the Elements For as much as the Testimony of the life of Jesus is the fulfilling of Scriptures John he said that Christ who was the substance should increase but he who baptized with the Elements as the figure should decrease Math. 3.11 signifying also the baptisme of Christ that it should be with fire and the Holy Ghost which he testified concerning him John 1.26 27. of whom he said There standeth one among you of whom ye know not he it is who cometh after me is preferred before me the same also is he which hath been in the world John 1.11 as a stranger upon the earth who came unto his own but his own received him not whose life is manifest through the Revelation of the light wherewith the whole world is lightned which leadeth unto the knowledge and witnesse of his Baptisme Eph 4.5 Crosse Death Resurrection Life and Communion of his eternal body and this is the baptisme which the Apostle testified is only One even the baptisme of the Holy Ghost and with fire which John said should encrease through the decrease of the water Flesh and blood revealeth none of these things concerning the Kingdome of God which is a mystery unto all the world how great therefore is the ignorance of the world to administer those things which they call Ordinances unto Infants which things are Parables and altogether hidden things in the substance from the wisdome of the world which if the Revelation and Life of the substance be not unto the elder what profiteth then the Traditional washings or sprinklings which neither is by commandement or manifest example in the Scriptures unto the infancy of the younger and what can their Infancy through the figures reach fathom or feel concerning the substance let the worlds Fathers answer this for them Unto the crosse therefore of the Lord Christ Jesus ye ought to come which neither is gold nor silver nor brasse nor iron nor any other mettal nor wood nor stone nor Image of bone or any other dead creature but this is the everlasting testimony of the Crosse of Christ Jesus Luke 22.42 Father not my will but thy will be done he that hath
an ear to hear let him hear and he that understandeth not nor knoweth this is yet under his own hour and power of darknesse Understand therefore that the manifestation of the will of God is in and through the Light wherewith you are lightned which cometh from Christ the true light of the world which lightneth every man that cometh into the world unto which Light in all your consciences your minds must be subject you must wait upon God with your minds in the Light your hearts turned to it that you may witnesse the power of it ruling and reigning in you and working through every Member of your mortal bodies bringing your wils under it and subduing and subjecting your affections to it this is the true Crosse of Christ Jesus to take up the Crosse and to walk in Crosse unto your wills and affections which take up Images and take delight and pleasure in Pictures and imaginary likenesses of the Crosse of Christ Jesus and to walk as quickned Members in crosse to your whole life as it now stands in the nature and lust of uncleanness sin and death in the enmity to the Life and power of God and mystery of Godlinesse in crosse to your foolish airy childish vanities of Beads Bracelets and other Traditional Superstitions and Idolatries which things are but the signification of folly and childishnesse in the first nature which receiveth not the knowledge nor things of God the Light also wherewith you are lightned Eph 5.4 must guide your minds and stay your hearts and thoughts upon God and lead you also in crosse unto the Lightness and wickedness of your lives which stand in the pleasure of vain jesting and idle foolish talking Rom. 13 13. in surfeiting and drunkennesse in chambering and wantonnesse strife and envying in the ground of all manner of sin iniquity and mischief which produces and yields the fruits of lying swearing pride covetousness cheating and defrauding adulteries and whoredomes dissimulation robberies and desperate murders even in that evill and cursed ground where man is droven from the presence of God under the power of the agreement of Hell and death alienated and estranged from the Covenant of Life yoaked under blindness and chayned with the blackness of darkness shut out of the Garden of pleasure and Paradice of God where nothing can restore the losse which came by transgression but the power of the Cross of Christ Jesus which worketh death to the disobedient and carnall There is none other entrance now unto the tree of Life which he that eateth not thereof dyeth in and perisheth unto everlasting death but through the flaming sword which is set at Edens gates Gen 3.24 to keep the way of the Tree life Can your eye read or your ear hear for your hearts to receive this ye vain scoffers at the Saints entrance into the holy City and Paradise of God You are witnesses to your selves that your Inheritance is not in the Kingdome of Heaven which is like unto a grain of Mustard-seed Math 13.31 which also is likened unto an Onion seed whose perfect fruit being taken out of the natural earth yet quickly perisheth not but prospereth yielding growth from the body of the root more than all roots of the earth This is the work of Life the Cross which neither is likeness imitation nor Image of the things or nature of death but the mighty power of God which bringeth death unto death which hath passed over all men Rom 5.10 12. and reigneth over all men from Adam unto Moses even over all that have sinned who have not known Moses although their sin hath not been after the similitude of Adams transgression from lost Adam therefore unto Moses you must come to witness an entrance into Moses his house in whom was revealed the hope of the promise that should come to passe which also is come in power Rom 8.4 in the substance to them In whom the righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit who have seen the Prophets day and are come through the work of Johns cry in the wilderness Math 3.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. who are no more of the flesh as in the flesh working the works of the flesh but through the death of the Crosse are buried in the separation from the worships words and works of the first nature risen and born unto Life unto the inheritance of Redemption and Justification into the unchangeable Kingdome of the word of the Covenant where he that is least is greater then John the Baptist Math 11.11 who was the greatest Prophet borne of women and thus being passed and translated from death to life not as any longer under the power of sin are partakers of the Elements or subject unto the carnall Ordinances are altogether under and one with the power of the ministration of life in the communion of the Eternall body of the Lord and from your superstitions and Images and nature of iniquitie and transgression by the power of the Crosse of Christ Jesus ye must be changed through obedience to the motions of the Light in all your consciences into the Image of the glory of the second Adam who is the Lord from Heaven if ever ye shall come to witnesse a hope which will not wither to be Joyned unto the heireship of the promise of the Inheritance of the kingdome which Covenant was made only with Abraham and with the seed of Abraham born of the free-Woman Gen 22.16 which by the one Everlasting Oath of God is confirmed unto all that by the blood of sprinkling are entered into the City Heb 12.22 Rev 22.15 where not any thing that is defiled can come for without is the curse even over as many as stand in the ground without the compasse of the fence of the Paradice of God where are dogs and sorcerers and whore-mongers and murderers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Repent Repent therefore the mighty day of the Lord God is at hand wherein he will sift the Nations as with the five of equitie and fanne the Inhabitants of the earth with the winde of his wrath and through all Nations will make an equall separation in Righteousnesse the Chaffe from the Wheate the Drosse and Reprobate from the refined Silver the just from the vile him that feareth God from him that feareth him not A day of woe to the wicked and of vengeance to the workers of iniquitie in which cometh to passe the Revelation of the Wrath and Indignation of God which is even ready to be revealed in flames of burning fire against all the ungodly A day of howling to the sonnes of Sodome and of everlasting lamentation to the daughters of Gomorrha Strength shall not defend you nor Art deliver you where then will you run for a refuge ye want the wings of the Sunne of the Morning to fly unto the ends of the earth
prophesie falsly and their Priests bear rule by their means Even them which do lead them and cause them to erre Isa 3.12 and destroyeth the way of their path and the people love to have it so but what will ye do in the end thereof Mark this ye people Hosea 4.9 Behold I will punish them for their wayes and reward them their doings You that have already tasted of Gods vengeance shew ye the Cup to your brethren that if peradventure they may repent and not taste of that indignation which hath passed over your heads as a stream of fury reaching unto your present woe and misery As concerning the reading of the Scriptures by the people of severall of your Nations although it be such unto whom the Priests give licence yet are they not without the limit of the black chain of your Fathers Annotations whose imaginations drew Inferences and conclusions and have alledged constructions and meanings to hold forth their opinions and the draught of their Traditions through their abuse and perverting of the Scriptures that as they have brought themselves under that promise so they tye you with themselves under the condition thereof which John writes Rev. 22.18 For I testifie unto every man that hears the words of the Prophesie of this Book if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book Under this promise and condition without controversie you are holden who are bound under the frame and fashion of your fathers constructions whose inventions have the dominion over your faith and that of God in you hid under the covert of the product of the iniquity of their life Wherefore all ye simple souls be awakened and feel that in you which with all that ever you have yet heard your breathing souls are not satisfied in secret feel the languishing desire which no mans meanings concerning the Scriptures could fill or preach life unto Feel your hunger that you may come to witnesse the blessing unto that state and condition understand also that if you or your Fathers were in the life of that by which the Scriptures were spoken forth they could not have written meanings upon them neither could your eye be turned to read them or your hearts inclined to receive them for the Prophets and all the Holy men they did mean the same thing which they spake they were far from corruptions in their declarations and spake not words but such as were punctually according to their intentions without any Equivocations and therefore if ye were but in the Life ye would understand the doctrine and so your fathers have erred in the order of their Instruction they have begun at the wrong end and therefore they cannot perfect or bring you to a good end This principal matter concerning your salvation they have neglected they never touched the feeling part of your heart whereby the vail thereof should be rent that you might see with your own eye and hear with your own eare and understand with your own heart but alwayes they bound your sences in the womb of conception of death and never brought you forth unto life and the choycest of your Members are but as dead stocks and Images and how could they lead you unto that where they themselves never entred They are not passed through the vail which is the flesh of Christ as Paul writing to the Brethren who after the manner of men knew not Christ according to the flesh saith 2 Cor. 5.16 Yea although we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more I say your Priests and Pastors they never passed through his flesh to the witnessing of the true entrance into his body as Members joyned unto the one Head which is the new and living way which Jesus by the power of his coming Heb. 10.20 hath consecrated for us who are Redeemed by the purchase of his blood which sprinkleth our consciences from every evil and dead word and work from the world and the unrighteousnesse of their way then how far short think you are ye in the life and practice if your Doctors Priests Pastors and Teachers are ignorant of the Scriptures and of the Gospel of Christ Jesus and his Cross which unto as many as have received is in the true life of the understanding of the truth that is to say the Gospel of Christ Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 1.18 and the Crosse of the Lord Christ Jesus is the power of God unto salvation which if they were Ministers of the true Church and you Members also thereof then would you be all in one Life to wit in Christ John 14.6 who is the Life which if you were in Christ who is the Life then need you not another thing besides the Life to confirm your understandings in the reading of the Scriptures which by the Life were given forth Can your nations therefore look a little way before you that you may consider it in your hearts and ponder it soberly in your secret meditations however I know the Heathen will kick against and the high obstinate-hearted will desperately resist even such in whole sight the soules of the simple are not of any account neither the glory of the Lord their delight whose praise through criticall Arguments and Sophistry is in gaining dominion and obtaining such mastery thereby to make a boast of their vaine victory yet there is a seed which can receive my testimony which is the Remnant of the Lord which under the iniquities of your Leaders hath been held in Egypt under miserable bondage and cruell captivitie I say look a little way before you with diligence into that which I write concerning you You are not come unto the life of the first principle which leads to the understanding and knowledge of the oracles and mysteries of God and of his kingdome of salvation and so are farre short of receiving partaking and enjoying of the pure life and power of the Spirit of life in the power and the life in your hearts which in the particular unto every true member of the Church of Christ Jesus gives the infallible witnesse and testimony that they are born of the undefiled wombe and incorruptible seed of promise unto life everlasting By which also the Gospel of Christ Jesus was preached to the Spirits in prison and the Scriptures and Prophesies of old 1 Pet 3.19 were given forth and spoken 2 Pet 1.21 which came not by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Which no minde nor heart of man or understanding of mankinde without the same Spirit can read aright No lyar swearer proud envious thiefe covetous nor Idolater ungodly or prophane person can read them except their own portions from them Mal 4.1 Psal 9.17 viz. The lake is the portion of the lyar the proud shall be as stubble in the day of the
the word of the Lord upon the Mount of the Lord in the face of all the Nations of the earth Oh people let this be a testimony unto you either for you or against you that either your Priests and Prophets have deceived you in prophecying and declaring smooth things unto you or that they have alwayes taught you Righteousnesse and instructed you in the Everlasting Precepts of the undefiled and un-erring path of truth and holinesse Heare therefore this ye Priests and give eare ye Teachers of the people hide not hide not your faces but come forth come forth that we may try the feeding of your Pastures that the blinde may feele with what they are laden Have not they given a price for wheate and have not you laden them with the stubble of the reaped and gleaned fields and the chaffe of the wheate Was not the price of their money for the cleare running water of the Rock and have not ye fill'd their vessells with the setled lees of your own Cisterns Behold I have seen the deep workes of your hands even the deep wells which ye have digged with your own hands and the breadth length heighth and depth thereof I have measured and the foundations thereof I have discovered You Doctors of Athens Remember my rod which touched your bottome wherewith your dreggs were stirred up which cast a stinke in my nostrills at which time ye could scarce cover your loathsomnesse in the presence of your Disciples I have not forgotten the strength on which you took hold which appeared and proved as a ravelled String of a broken Bow which could not carry forth so as to send home the shaft You aymed at my birth to have trodden upon the simplicitie and tendernesse of my youth yet could not your broken speares reach to the hurt of my life Now therefore search ye further even unto the uttermost end of the Records of your Books to finde out the first day of my life which although I am after the account of the manner of men but as a seed of the second or third generation of this age brought forth yet never the lesser is mine age in a just account more ancient and honourable then the dayes of your birth your age must yet be borne unto Infancy if ever you come to the possession of the promise of Gods Everlasting kingdome and the glory of your Antiquitie must come unto great contempt and your eyes and your hearts which have boasted in vanitie must passe through the flames of the consuming fire of Gods Jealousie before ye shall enter the Paradise which you made a mock of in ignorance and so bare witnesse unto the curse of your kingdome as a people remaining in the ground where blessing hath not raised the encrease of the earth Furthermore heare this ye Priests Teachers and Instructers of the people The cry of the earth is grievous in the eare of the Lord against you blood hath touched blood in your Lands the soules of the simple have uttered their groanes through the crevisses of the graves the slaughters in your Cities and the murders in your streets the blood which plague hath devoured and which famine and drought hath consumed even for these and more then these the earth lifts up her voyce against you Have not you cast away the bread and given stones to the children Have not you eaten the uncleane fish and spued out Serpents in the faces of the daughters Oh how many are the thousands of thousands whom you have caused to erre and which have perished through your lyes and lightnesse and will not God avenge himselfe on the heads of his enemies As ye have gloried in the dayes of your pleasure and made your selves fat with the joy of your laughter and wantonnesse even so shall Gods time of visitation be as a snare unto your life in unrighteousnesse even as a snare unto the Priest and a ginne unto the Prophets and as a trap and cleane Instrument to take hold of the heads of the Churches of your Nations yet shall it end as the houre of Everlasting mercies if ye Repent which if ye resist behold time shall not bring end to your torment when God shall stretch your bodyes upon the bed of endlesse trouble and misery A warning therefore and a word of Awakening even the utterance of life sounding through your black doores of the darknesse of death to you Priests Pope and Patriarke of the Lands who say that you sit in Peters seate to pardon the iniquities of the people and to forgive them their sinnes and to binde and to loose things answerable to your pleasures on earth saying that this is your Authoritie in the place and roome of the Disciples according to the Scriptures Joh 20.23 Math 16.19 It is not the seede nor the off-spring of your roote but the children of another generation which in the nature of the life of the holy Apostles are their true successors you are deceitfull hearts and wicked sinners you are men in the flesh and your bodyes are lumps of sinfull flesh your generation is of the wombe and seed of corruption and your life in the changable nature heare ye therefore God never gave his Everlasting Authoritie of Righteousnesse for the Remission of sinnes Joh 20.22 unto deceitfull hearts and sinners Christ breathed on his Disciples and gave them the Holy Ghost by which breath even by the vertue thereof and the power of the gift of the Holy Ghost their Authority stood in the worke and will of the Lord But Christ on you nor on your Pope or Patriarke hath not in this manner breathed nor in like manner filled either you or them with the Holy Ghost and therefore being without the true virtue and effectual authority you sit but as deceitful shadows and Images in your wicked wilful presumptuous resemblances making a reall mock of the true power and substance Oh how presumptuous are you in your abominable works of iniquity and as a people setled in the hardnesse of the ground of your fore-fathers Apostacy I have already shewed your root Dan 9.9 how in the degeneration you are departed from the Rock which in all ages was the ground of the forgivenesse of sins which unto the Lord only belongs Acts 5.31 and Christ only is this day the Prince and Saviour granting unto his people repentance salvation and forgivenesse of sins Eph 1.7 and this was Pauls testimony to the Ephesians In whom we have redemption through his blood Mark the order of Pauls witnesse the redemption through the washing of his blood goeth before the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Read this ye people according to the riches of his grace how then is it of works or by the words of your sinfull Pope Patriarch and Priests and Teachers Seeing therefore ye have turned the riches of the grace of Christ Jesus into an abominable habit of blind shews of unrighteousnesse deluding the
for as all things and deeds which are done and wrought out of the Light are reproved by the Light even so also that which maketh manifest is light and the Light wherewith you are lightened is the measure of the gift of God which he hath given unto all men and the grace of God which hath appeared unto all men which taught the Saints to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts through which that is to say by the Light being Judged as men in the flesh they became Justified with God in the Spirit the Light will lead you unto life if you love it and obey it according to the voyce of it Isa 8.20 therefore to the Law and the Testimony take heed speaking alwayes according to this word Ye Greekes in all quarters and parts of the earth read this commandement as the quick sharp and short message of the Lord unto you even of the Righteous God whom your fathers provoked unto wrath through their Idolatrous superstitions and all manner of abomination for which cause he brought their necks under the miserable yoak of bondage to draw under the cords and chaine of the same Instrument of cruelty of the Jewes captivitie and this came to passe if peradventure in the time of trouble they might early seek and cry unto the Lord with unfained hearts but from generation to generation even to the evill dayes of this present generation he hath not found Repentance in your Land and therefore could not your Land finde nor feel the day of deliverance and breach of the bowes of your yoaks by his hand of Redemption Repent therefore lest ye be made an utter spoyle even unto the determination of time and there come no end of your misery and desolation Remember the declaration of the dayes of old and the sayings concerning the times which are already past there were a people unto whom the sure testimonies of God were given but they forsooke the mercy and through hard-heartednesse and self-conceitednesse departed from the fountaine to aske councell of their own wills in the house of Rimmon Isa 49.6 they expected the Covenant in their way wherefore when Christ the Light came contrary to their conceptions they rather resisted unto death then chose to be gathered unto life they once had the Law and the Prophets and the testimony of the Law and the Arke of the Covenant and the Temple which God gave them and yet because of their unbeliefe God spared not the Jewes which were the naturall branches according to the promise Heare this all ye Gentiles throughout the earth Rom. 11.22 If God spared not the naturall branches because of their unbeliefe why boast ye your selves against the naturall branches who are your selves fallen from the Root If God spared not the Jewes who received not the Light which testified for Christ which was and is the Light which shined in all their Consciences Shall he spare you who despise the Light and in Enmitie to Christ who is the Light walke contrary to the Light in all your Consciences Behold the goodnesse and the severitie of God on them which fell severitie but towards the Gentiles which stood goodnesse and unto as many as now continue in the good which cometh from God mercy and peace but as for such as forsake the Light which comes from Christ even they 〈◊〉 fruitfull branches shall also be cut off and with God there is no respect of persons And if the casting away of the Jewes were the reconciling of the world what shall the receiving of them be but your torment Rom 11.13 and the resurrection of the life of the seed from the dead and the redemption thereof from the bondage of the grave to the glory of God Amen Trust ye not therefore in lying words even as once the Jewes did saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these say not in your hearts the wisdome of God is the councell of our fathers such words shall not save you or if you farther say that you have Abraham to your father that shall not profit you but rather read your birth of the bond-woman that you may come to the casting out of her seed and generation of her wombe for be it knowne unto you God can out of rockes raise a remnant and out of stones a seed unto Abraham for not every one that saith Lord Math 7.22 shall enter for many shall say we have prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devills and yet it shall be said â—â—to them depart ye cursed workers of iniquitie and Virgins also loosed the Inheritance even such as were to seek oyle when the Lord came Math 25.12 and these are States beyond the conditions of all your Roman members throughout the earth the Scriptures are true in the declaration as Christ spake although you are false in your words and wayes and interpretations and if the doore of the kingdome be shut against carelesse Virgins how thinke you that wicked lyers drunkards swearers whore-mongers or harlots shall have an entrance therein therefore whilst you have time Repent This is the summe unto the pertaking of the purchase that you follow the Lambe of God Christ the Light of the world which taketh away the sin of the world He is the highest Priest Prophet and King of whom this is the signe and testimony unto Jew and Gentile He hath lightened every man that cometh into the world and this is the message unto the whole world God is light and in him is no darknesse at all Look therefore to your lives for behold this day is set before you death and darknesse life and light chuse you whether if you perish in your sins your blood be upon your own heads henceforth for ever prize your time Heb 12.17 Remembering that Esau had a time but Esau neglected his time so that when he carefully sought a place of Repentance with teares he could not finde it This is the testimony which we that do walke in the light as God is in the light do hold we know that whosoever is borne of God unto the Inheritance of the kingdome of God he sinneth not but he that is begotten of God 1 Joh. 3. 6 9. keepeth himselfe that wicked one toucheth him not and we know that we are of God and we also know that the whole world who are enemies to God lyeth in wickednesse And we know that the Sonne of God is come and hath given us an understanding whereby we know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and Eternall life Oh all ye Nations abstaine from Idolls The Saints by the seed of the Apostated Jewes first in contempt were called Christians and we who have received the same testimony of Jesus by the seed of the Apostated Christians in the Northern Islands are scornfully called Quakers J P SOme Queries propounded
to the Greekes Patriarke and Pope of Rome and to their Doctors Priests Pastors Universities Schooles and Colledges throughout the compasse of the Regions of the rule of their two Catholique Churches in all the earth by them or any of them to be answered for the sake of truth and of soules in how much they are willing to appeare lovers of truth or of soules and are ready to render a reason of the hope that is in them according to the Scriptures Concerning the Word of Faith Query 1 WHat is the faith of Jesus And what is that which begets any into the true faith of Jesus Whether is it mens Imaginary conceptions of Jesus and the training up of a people in the blinde traditions of men or only the word of faith which cometh from Jesus yea or nay Query 2 What is the sure word of faith which gives the true and sound witnesse of the life of Jesus only unto worme Jacob and which word is nigh unto all men upon the face of the earth and yet is that which the sinner cannot receive unto life but resists unto death Query 3 Can any person minister the Word to beget others into the faith of the word of faith who have not themselves received the word and have any received the life of the word who knowes not the word yea or nay And who amongst you is cleansed with the word that is not in the state of sinne under deaths bonds of transgression in enmity to the word Query 4 Whether can any truly know Christ to believe in Christ who never have heard the word of Christ And when and where did any of you ever heare the voyce of the Son of God And is not that the Pharisees and hypocrites state to boast and say that you believe in Christ and have the word of God and yet never heard immediately the voyce of Christ yea or nay Query 5 What is that eare in man which being open cannot heare the voyce of Christ who came to make deafe those that heare and to give hearing to the deafe And what is that eare also which ought to heare and is stopt And that eye which seeth and is to be blinded and that eye which is blinded which Christ cometh to open Shew plainly the five senses of man which are senslesse of the word of God and see if you can answer how that man in sense beyond sense hath the true sense of seeing hearing feeling savouring by smelling and tasting of the good word of God Query 6 By what was it that the word of life was ministred and preached unto the Spirits in prison and what is the Spirit which is the prisoner and what and where is the prison and when did ye ever visit the prisoner in the time of his bondage in prison Concerning the Patriarke and Popes Power Query 7 WHat is the key which openeth the prison doore and who hath that key hath either your Patriarke or Pope that key to open the prison doore and to loose on earth And what is the matter and subject to be loosed on earth And in what manner will that also be loosed in heaven which is loosed on earth Query 8 What is the key of David and who hath the keeping thereof and is there any other key which openeth Heaven or shutteth the door of death or gates of Hell besides the key of David Whether either your Patriarch or Pope whom ye call Peters Successor hath the keeping of that key seeing that the Scriptures say That the first and the last he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth hath the key of David Rev. 3.7 Rev. 1.17 18. Query 9 What is the key of knowledge which the Lawyers took away whereby they entered not themselves and hindered others from entering even such as was entering Did the Lawyers know what that key was then And do your Patriarch or Pope Doctors Priests or Lawyers know what it is now Are you in any other knowledge or wisdome then those Lawyers were who entred not and hindred others yea or nay And wherein you may say that you differ do you shew it forth how you differ in the ground and nature Luke 11.52 Query 10 What is that Book and the Seales and Sealing of that Book which no man in Heaven nor in Earth was found worthy to open And where was Peter then whether was he in Heaven or in Earth or was he neither in Heaven nor on Earth and the Scriptures not saying that Peter was found worthy at that time how then can any of your Catholique Churches with confidence now say that those whom you call Peters Successors the Foundations and Pillars of your Churches are at this time worthy to do that or whether can your Pope or Patriarch do that in these dayes which John saw in his day no man in Heaven nor in Earth could do Rev. 5.1 2 3. Query 11 Your Members have said that Peter is the Rock and Foundation of your Catholique Churches I Query whether that was not the Peter who is the foundation of your Churches unto whom Christ the Rock and Foundation of our Church which is in God said Get thee behind me Satan and whether is the Patriarch at Constantinople or Pope at Rome his successor in his place yea or nay Math. 16.23 Query 12 Doth not the virtue of the key of knowledge open all mysteries and if ye have the key of knowledge of the things of God cannot ye thereby answer all these Queryes or any others concerning the things of God in the clear understanding of the mystery of Truth in the wisdom of God yea or my Query 13 Whosoever committeth sin is of the Devil 1 John 3.8 What then is the ground of the election of your Patriarch and Pope by sinners and impowred to forgive sins And in what standeth their power to forgive sins who are themselves wicked sinners Whether is the manner of this practice any other in the substance then Satan seating Lucifer in the Kingdom of sin falsly to salve up the wound of sin yea or nay Concerning Ordinances and divers corrupt Traditions and Idolatries Query 14 WHat is the one everlasting Ordinance of God which is the seal of the Covenant and assurance of salvation unto every living soul which hath partaked thereof which no Element could give the testimony of which is the sum and substance really come unto every true born Member of Christs Church of all Types Signes and Shadows which figured out the substance before it came Query 15 Whether are your two Catholique Churches or any of the Members thereof partakers of the one everlasting Ordinance of God which is the end of all washing carnall Bread Wine and Water-Baptismes and of all shaddows Types and Figures spoken of in the Scriptures seeing you in contrary manner to all the prophesies doctrines and examples written in the Scriptures do stand in divers invented shaddows vanities and Idolatries in the practice of the
is the seed of the Kingdome of Heaven which is like unto a grain of Mustard-seed and how comes it to grow to a Tree and how come the birds of the Aire to lodge therein and whether is it fruitfull before it be grafted yea or nay Query 32 What and where is the field in which the Pearl is hid and what is the Pearl to the field how are they distinguished and how is the Pearl hid and by what comes the purchase of the field and how comes the Pearl to be found and who are they that have found it and do keep it having found it yea or nay Query 33 What is the seed of God unto which only the promise of God of salvation unto life everlasting is Query 34 What was the Image of God which man lost through the disobedience and transgression against the will and commandement of God and whether all that stand in the disobedient and transgressing state are not still seated in the lost state yea or nay Query 35 How lyes the Image of God now in the dust and what is the dust to the Image of God and what is the Serpent and how doth the Serpent feed upon the dust of the ground and what is that ground which is not at all substantial but dusty and that ground whose substance is mountains stony and rocky and altogether barren and unfruitful Query 36 By what comes the change of the ground Moab also hath been at ease from his youth hath not bin emptied from vessel to vessel what is Moabs seed now which in the nature stands in the same state that Moab was then whether are ye in any other condition or life then as ye were from the beginning as ye have grown in years so you have grown in wickedness whether therefore do ye beleeve that it is possible for you to be saved except the ground be changed Moab emptied ye become begotten born of God unto another life whether doth he that is born of God commit sin yea or nay Jer. 48.11 John 3.3 1 John 3.9 Query 37 What is the salvation of Jesus from what doth he first save his people In plain words shew to all people what is Salvation Redemption and Restauration and from what unto what and when Query 38 What is that life of Christ which is slain in spiritual Sodom which is daily crucified upon the Crosses of your Catholique Churches Query 39 What manner of fruit bare that Almond Tree of which Jeremiah saw a rod what is that seething pot which Jeremiah also did see and what is the flesh which for one day must boyle therein and whether a root and fruit ought to be boyled with the flesh and whether will the Broth of these things be clean food according to the Law yea or nay Query 40 What is that new threshing instrument which is prepared for the hand of worm Jacob to thresh withall how shall he thresh the hills to Chaffe and mountains to dust and with what shall be fan them and what is the wind that shall carry them away and where shall the chaffe be carried and in what quarters shall the whirle-wind scatter the dust of the mountains Query 41 Whether the seed of the woman and the seed of the Kingdom which Christ said is like to a grain of Mustard-seed and the seed of Abraham and worm Jacob are they in the substance one two three or four yea or nay shew plainly without deceit how that two three or all are one in the substance or otherwise make manifest how in the declaration so also they differ in the substance Query 42 What is the new creation of God whether is it now short of the creation of the first man Adam whom God made a living soul do any of you believe that the second is made a quickning spirit and which of these two is the greater and most full of glory are any of ye passed from death unto life from the dishonour of sin transgression to see the beauty of the first Creation and to behold the honour of the Lord from Heaven doe ye beleeve the Revelation of the Son of God yea or nay Shew how Christ hath revealed himself unto any one of you 2 Cor. 5.17 Query 43 What and where standeth the Tree of Life which he that comes to eat thereof shall never taste of death and which he that tasteth not thereof in this life shall never see the day of life have any one or more of you in all your Nations and two Catholique Churches ever seen a leaf of the Tree of Life which healeth the Nations and describe how and by what wind any leaf was blown upon any of your Nations and shew forth those that are healed thereby of your Nations Query 44 Whether do you believe the real substantial everlasting virtue of the blood of Jesus If you answer yea why then in abominable deceit and miserable ignorance do you teach for doctrine an infernal place of purgatory Read the Scriptures Acts 20.28 Heb. 9.12 Rev. 1.5 1 John 1.7 Rev. 5.9 Rom. 5.9 and what advantageth the peoples pennance and the Popes and Priests remission of sins if after pennance repentance and remission they must go into the torment of Purgatory to be cleansed from their sins to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Query 45 What and where is the Sanctuary of God seated wherein the Saints of God do daily worship and what is the equall ballance thereof and the dust of the ballance Declare plainly what is that which measureth justly all words works worships studyes wayes and spirits which reacheth over iniquity and comprehendeth the mystery thereof what is that line which measureth the worlds wayes and the plummet unto which judgement is laid and what is that Reed which John had to measure the Temple of God the Altar thereof and what is that Court which he was not to measure which the Gentiles tread under foot Concerning the studies in Vniversities of Tongues Ministry Astrologie Physick Law and Philosophy Query 46 WHat is the foundation chief corner stone of your Universities Colledges do you not reckon Tongues Rhetorick Philosophy to be precedent steps leading unto Theologie to the compleating of a Ministry as the principle leaders unto the expert practice of Physick Law Astrologie and whether are not these Arts and Sciences the sum substance and end of your studies yea or nay Query 47 Whether only the word of God is not the real substance of the ministry of God the ground of understanding true knowledg of all the natural whether all Tongues Arts and Sciences besides the word are not vanity and whether all that professe the substance yet standing in the naturall and have not the word from God as from the mouth of God are not in vanity and deceit and in utter enmity to the word yea or nay Query 48 Who is he of all your Patriarchs Popes Doctors Priests