of hell and thus men and women have known good and evil by eating of the forbidden fruit of lust This many Ranters were guilty of to my knowledge neither is your Quakers people free for I know of those that have fallen to the Quakers thinking to finde ease there but they will finde the Quakers Principle but a broken Reed These things concerning the Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge of good and evil are opened more at large in The Interpretation of the Eleventh of the Revelation so I shall conclude this point 2. I am to make good by Scripture that the Soul of man is mortal This is one of the easiest points that is to prove by Scripture and experience These are the words that George Fox doth ground the Immortality of the Soul upon as followeth Saith he For God breathed into man the breath of life through which he became a living Soul And then George Fox asketh Is this breath of life by which man became a living Soul mortal And saith Is this thy knowledge as if it were impossible for me to answer or to make good by Scripture CHAP. VI. ANSWER THis point hath been proved by Scripture in all our other Writings as aforesaid and that Book of the Mortality of the Soul the chief subject it treats upon is to prove the Soul mortal but all these things will do Fox no good nor convince him of his ignorance in this point Fox had hard luck that he could see none of these Writings for nothing might have better informed him in these things but the Book of The Quakers Neck broken onely that makes Fox so ignorant of all things for that Book doth but name the Heads of these things but in the other Writings aforesaid they are more largely expounded But to give a little further answer to this point here First I shall prove that breath of Life God breathed into Adam to be mortal and doth die Let the Reader minde I do acknowledge that Breath of Life God breathed into Adam which made him become a living Soul it was immortal when it came from God but it was breathed into an earthen vessel Adam being of the earth he was earthly and so capable to be overcome by temptation from a heavenly body viz. the Serpent Angel now Christ being the Lord from heaven therefore he was not capable to be overcome by the temptations of earthly bodies viz. the Serpent Angel his seed in mortality Minde also this Breath of Life which God breathed into Adam wherein he became a living Soul it was immortal so long as he stood in obedience to God and no death could have touched him but this I must tell the Reader Adam could have had no other heaven than this world he being made of this earth he should never have gone higher to the place where God is the holy Angels and all spiritual Bodies are there Adam should not have come But this I say Adam should have been freed from all sickness diseases and death and should have lived a Paradisical life of peace upon this earth for ever if he had kept that state he was created in I confess this was a state that I was always desirous to get into and I did endeavor much after it but could not attain unto it but when the Revelation of Faith did arise in me the Spirit of Faith which I call the Spirit of Christ or God shewed me what the state of Adam was in the state of innocency and the Paradisical heaven here upon this earth but when the Spirit shewed me the Form of God Angels and other Creatures in a Celestial state in the Celestial Heavens in all glory I thought then that this earthly Paradise though it had been for ever very inferior and below that which I am sure I shall possess But to the matter in hand I shall make it appear that Adams Soul did die though it was the breath of God made it live yet by disobeying the command of God this Life must die as in Gen. 2. and verse 17. For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Is not this plain that Adams Soul did die notwithstanding the breath of Life God breathed into him this became mortal and did die If you Fox shall say the soul departed from the body and the body died this is the opinion of most people but it is an ignorant dark opinion contrary to Sence Reason or Faith for if the Soul slip out of the body or depart from it that cannot be said to die but to part one from another for a season besides the body is a dead lump fit for no use without a soul Also the Scripture saith The soul that sins shall die The Scriptures doth not say the soul shall slip out of the body that sins but shall die it is that which sins that must die And did you Fox ever know a body commit sin without a soul if you did not methinks you might be convinced of your ignorance and teach the people no more that lie Where do you read in Scripture that ever any bodies were condemned to die We read in Scripture in many places of souls that shall die and souls that shall be cut off from the land of the living but never of bodies Again it is said that Christ poured out his soul unto death Will you Fox be so wicked to say that Christ did not die He poured out his soul unto death Death took Christs soul into it self that is death swallowed up his soul It is not said he gave his body for a Ransom for sin but he gave his soul a Ransom for sin How should any man be saved from eternal death if Christs soul did not die But I know the Quakers look for no benefit from the blood of Christ all their happiness it must come from the Law written in their hearts that they call the light of Christ in them for they know no other Christ neither within them nor without them For this I say they that cannot believe that their own souls shall die cannot believe that the soul of Christ did die and so they can receive no benefit by the death of Christ The Reader may see the innocence in the Quakers Writings Fox saith He doth believe in Christ that suffered rose again and ascended and yet Christs soul did not die according to the Quakers faith for if they do acknowledge that Christs soul did die they must needs acknowledge their own souls must the also And if Fox had believed the one he would have believed the other and never have put me to this trouble to answer that difficult point as Fox thinks to prove from Scripture that the soul of man is mortal if there were no Scripture at all experience would prove that every day we see it with our eyes Also I would ask Fox or any other where the soul of Lazarus was those four days his body was in the grave I believe Fox
A Looking-Glass FOR GEORGE FOX THE QUAKER And other QUAKERS Wherein they may see themselves to be Right Devils In ANSWER to George Fox his Book CALLED Something in Answer to Lodowick Muggletons Book which he calls The QVAKERS Neck broken Wherein is set forth the Ignorance and blindness of the Quakers Doctrine of Christ within them and that they cannot nor doth not know the true meaning of the Scriptures neither have they the Gift of Interpretation of Scripture As will appear in those several Heads set down in the next Page following Written by Lodowick Muggleton one of the two last Prophets and Witnesses unto the High and Mighty God the Man Christ Jesus in Glory Printed in the Year 1667. THE CONTENTS CHap. 1. Of a Catalogue of damned Quakers Chap. 2. Sheweth the ignorance and foolishness of George Fox Chap. 3 How the Quaker people are altogether ignorant of Heavenly Secrets so become the greatest despisers of them Chap. 4. A discovery of the Quakers blindness which cannot discern whether a man that preaches the Gospel ought to have his Commission from Christ without him or from a Christ within him Chap. 5. Sheweth how ignorant and dark the Quakers people are in the knowledge of the right devil and of the serpents seed Chap. 6. How the soul of man is mortal and doth die yet Fox thinks it impossible to prove by Scripture Chap 7. How it was no lie to accuse the Quakers of sin and blasphemy Chap. 8. The right devil proved Chap. 9. How the Quakers are mistaken in the flesh and bone of Christ Chap. 10. How God hath made the Witnesses of the Spirit Judge in his stead Chap. 11. Sheweth that the body of Christs flesh and bone is distinct of it self and not in the Quakers bodies neither are they members of his body Chap. 12. Sheweth by Scripture how Christ dwelleth in his Saints and how it may be said they are flesh of his fl sh and bone of his bone Chap. 13. How Fox is proved a devil because he cannot give a reason that he is no reprobate Chap. 14. An Explanation how George Fox and other Quakers may be said to appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ Chap. 15. A further Interpretation concerning the Judgement-seat of Christ Chap. 16. How the Sentence and Curse hath subdued those Witchcraft-fits in the Quakers Chap. 17. How spirits cannot assume what shapes they please neither can there appear any spirit without a body Chap. 18. How the true God is no bigger than the compass of a man and no spirit without a body as the Quakers doth vainly imagine Chap 19. How the Quakers may see themselves to be right devils Chap 20. How the Quakers are more Antichristian in their doctrine than the Pope Chap. 21. How the body of Christs flesh and bone is distinct from the Quakers bodies Chap. 22. That which killed the righteous and just it was the spirit of reason the devil in man that always did it Chap. 23. A difference between reasonable and unreasonable men and a further discovery that reason is the devil Chap. 24. How the soul of Christ died and the ignorance of the Quakers discovered in the death of their own souls Chap. 25. It is proved that Christ the onely God is not in this world at all in his person or essence Chap. 26. How men cannot worship God in spirit and truth without bodies and how Muggleton never was in the spirit of Solomon nor never shall be Chap. 27. A great stir the Prophet Muggleton hath to keep the Quakers spirits out of Christ Chap. 28. How Fox justifies the Magistrates persecuting of me in Darbyshire Chap. 29. How the Curse of Muggleton shall remain upon Fox to eternity Chap. 30. How the Curse and Sentence of Muggleton shall be over and upon the spirits of the Quakers to eternity Chap. 31. How the Law written in the Quakers herats is that Christ they could have spoken in had they never seen letter of Scripture nor man that professeth it Chap. 32. How their confidence will fail them in the day of trouble Chap. 33. How Fox shall see no other God or Judge but that Sentence Reeve and Muggleton hath passed upon him Chap. 34. A reproof the Quakers for rejoycing in my sufferings and being sorry the Magistrates did not punish me more than imprisonment Chap. 35. How it doth belong unto mortal men that are chosen of God to interpret Scripture and not unto Christ himself Chap. 36. How every true Prophet and Minister of Christ hath power to open the Book of Conscience In the last place I shall say something as to the Quakers Principle and Practice A Looking-Glass for George Fox the Quaker c. CHAP. I. GEorge Fox I saw a Pamphlet of yours Entituled Something in Answer to Lodowick Muggletons Book which he calls The Quakers Neck broken You said well in that you said something in Answer to that Book of the Quakers Neck broken for it is a very little something indeed it is so little a something that wise men will hardly discern any thing in it as a direct Answer but how comes it to pass that you make no mention of your own damnation in your Answer you know John Reeve and my self gave you the Sentence of Damnation a matter of fourteen years ago when we were prisoners in Old Bridewel there was you Edward Borroughs and Francis Howgel you three were counted the Chief Speakers of the Quakers at that time and you three were the first Speakers of the Quakers that were damn'd by us the Witnesses of the Spirit but since that there hath fallen a many more of your brethren under this Sentence but you have been Fox-like as is your name so is your nature you have lain still and kept your damnation to your self from the knowledge of others because you would not be upon publick Record as a damn'd Devil and yet a Speaker of the Quakers Also you read of your name in that Book you say you have answered something but you take no notice of your self but take other folks parts and if your brethren William Smith Samuel Hooton Edward Bourn Richard Farnsworth had not written to me there would have been no occasion for the Fox to come out of his hole and now the Fox is come out he will be catcht and made manifest to Generations to come who pretended to be a means of salvation to others and yet he himself a cast-away a reprobate a son of the Devil one that shall be recorded amongst the damned Crew to the worlds end and I am sure your Damnation is written in the Tables of Heaven even as the Law of Moses was written in the Tables of Stone that is these men were written the seed of the Serpent in Heaven in the Reprobate Angel his nature before he deceived Evah for you Speakers of the Quakers doth act forth the Serpent Angel his nature thinking your selves wiser than God as he did he thought if he had
and so Christ dwells in true Believers hearts by faith according to that saying Eph. 3.20 that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith And so when men have true faith in Christs Death Resurrection and Ascension without them they may be said to have Christ in them the hope of glory for the faith of Christ or faith in Christ without them gives hope to the minde that they shall behold that glory Christ without them is in and so by faith a man comes to know that he is no reprobate For a man that hath true faith in Christ without him may be said to know that Christ is in him and that he is no reprobate And this is that great Mystery Christ in you the hope of glory for it is a great Mystery to understand God manifest in flesh and to become very man in one single person even the Man Christ Jesus and he to die rise again and ascend from whence he came this is a great Mystery indeed and few can comprehend it but Faith doth see it and understand it and where ever it is truly believed that man may be said to have Christ in him the hope of glory and to know that he is no reprobate because the Seed of Faith which is Christs Seed is in him and that Seed acts it self forth to lay hold of that person of Christ without him and so gives assurance of everlasting life in a man and so Christ may be said to be in a man For the Seed is counted sometimes for the thing it self so that if a man doth not really know in himself that he hath the Seed of Christ in him and that is known by actual believing him that is sent that man is a reprobate to himself and hath not the hope of glory in him and so Christ is not in his heart by faith This is the true Interpretation of those Scriptures and of the Apostles minde CHAP. XII 2. I Shall open the Quakers Cheat concerning their bodies being flesh of Christs flesh and bone of his bone and those Scriptures interpreted they ground that Conceit upon First Rom. 12. and 5. Paul saith So we being many are one body in Christ So 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the body is one and hath many members of that one body so also is Christ So Eph. 5.30 For we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bone So Col. 1.21 And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minde by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death These be the chief places of Scriptures the Quakers do prove themselves to be flesh of Christs flesh and bone of his bone and for want of explaining these words making no distinction they cheat many ignorant people of the peace of their minds and of the knowledge of the true body of Christ without them Let the Reader but minde the words of Paul before and they may easily see that Pauls minde was quite contrary to the Quakers for the Apostle speaks of Believers being Christs body and members of Christs body no otherwise than he did of Christs being within the Saints as I said before that is by the union the Saints have with Christ by faith in the true Preachers of the Gospel they come to be members of Christs body and so called the body of Christ the Head as you may see Rom. 12.5 and 1 Cor. 12.12 and Eph. 5.30 and Col. 1.21 These places all prove that the Saints being true Believers are counted the members and body of Christ in respect of that union they have with Christ by faith in his Death Resurrection and Ascension knowing that Christs body lives for ever and that his blood hath redeemed their souls from eternal death and knowing he is ascended to possess a personal glory and to prepare Mansions of personal glory for his Saints and those that are truely united to him by faith may be said by Paul to be members of Christs body and to be Christs body but this body is but by the union of faith in Christ and by the way of comparison for this body hath never a head but the whole Body and Person of Christ without the Saints is the Head of this Body so that if Christ had never a body of his own but the Saints bodies as the Quakers do vainly imagine he would be but a sad Christ And because you may see that the Apostle did mean no otherwise than I have said For saith he in Rom. 12.4 5. as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office so saith he we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another So that all true Believers though some be Prophets Apostles or any other gifts of the Spirit that any man hath it is given for the good of others who are members of the same faith with him and so all that are partakers of the same faith with him if they be ever so many they all make up but one body of Christ even as all the members of a mans body makes up but one body But all this while these members that makes up one body what will this body signifie without a head Now those natural members that makes up a natural body what will this body signifie if it hath never a head So it is with true Believers if there were never a Head of this Body of Faith without men even Christ Jesus where then should the motions and acts of Faith in a man repair to have union and communion with their Head Christ Jesus Must they go into themselves to finde Christ their Head there Surely no but the motions and acts of Faith that doth arise from thâ— Seed of Faith which is the Seed of Christ in every true Believer whereby he comes to have union with Christ their Head and so he is made a member of Christ and so all the Believers that have been from the beginning and shall truly believe to the latter end of the world they make up but one body of Christ and this body is called Christs Body but by vertue of union of Faith and not by Christs being essentially in men as the Quakers do vainly imagine The Apostle sufficiently clears this thing in those places afore-mentioned so that I need speak no more of it here But I shall give the Reader to understand the difference between that body that is called a body by union and that body that is so in it self As for example A woman is said to be flesh of her husbands flesh and bone of his bone as Adam said concerning Eve his wife So Eph. 5.31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joyned to his wife and they two shall be one flesh Here the Reader may see that a man and his wife are made one flesh by vertue of union and institution now they are not really one flesh but
Sun and Moon to run their course in their season appointed Also he hath placed by the power of his word a Law in the Stars and Planets and in all the Host of Heaven on this side the Firmament nay he hath set the Law of bounds to the Sea and great Waters all these things and a thousand times more hath he done by his wisdom and power and all these things which he hath made by the power of his word here below upon this earth they declare his handy-works and doth shew forth the wisdom power and glory of God their Creator every thing in its kinde shews forth the glory of God and so God hath filled the earth with his wisdom power and glory in that he hath placed a Law in every thing according to his pleasure to set forth his praise here on earth And in this sense God may be said to fill the heaven and earth and yet his person but the bigness of a man as aforesaid and he may be called the Great God in respect of his great power but not in respect of his person for a King may be called a great King in respect of his great power as Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon was of great power as in Daniel 4.20 He was as a Tree which reached up to heaven So likewise his dominion is said to reach to the ends of the earth as in verse 22. So that it was the greatness of his power that reached up to heaven and to the end of the earth that is as far in the earth as his Power Decrees and Laws would reach yet the person of this great King was no bigger in stature and compass than another man So it is with God though his power wisdom and glory fills heaven and earth in that he hath given Laws and placed Bounds to all his Creation as I said before yet he himself is no bigger in bulk nor in compass than a man as the Scriptures doth in many places prove and as I have said before and in this sense the Scriptures doth mean that God fills heaven and earth But Fox and the Quakers looks upon God to be so big in his Essence and Spirit without any body that he fills heaven and earth the Air and all things else with his great big Spirit without a body this is the Quakers God and Christ so they can get God in to them as they think and then when they part out of the body they now have then their spirits goes into God again so that the Quakers God and their Spirits doth so whip into one another so that no body can tell where to finde either of them This is the Quakers Principle and their imaginary God Christ and this is that Spirit they call the Spirit of Christ in them this is that Christ they are members of and bone of this Spirits bone and flesh of this Spirits flesh for they abhor such a God that is a person and can be confined to one place of residence but they must have a great infinite Spirit who fills all places and all things which cannot be known nor understood what he is such a God as this must the Quakers have that their spirits may slip into him when death doth approach for Quakers thinks their souls cannot die they look upon that to come from God therefore immortal so they think to slip out of those bodies they have and so creep into that infinite Spirit again from whence they came as they suppose for they are of Solomons opinion the body to the dust and the spirit returns to God that gave it but Solomon was ignorant in this point though he was a wise Man in things of nature and you Quakers will find your thoughts and conceit in this thing frustrated and that your souls shall die neither shall your souls slip out of your bodies neither shall it go into God again as you doe vainly imagine but as your souls doth die a natural death here even in the sight of others so many of you shall die an eternal death hereafter in your own bodies so that God shall be no hiding place for you but he will say Depart from me ye workers of iniquity for you have been the greatest despisers and blasphemers against a personal God and them whom I sent of any CHAP. XIX AGain it will be necessary to give Fox the Quaker a little to understand the bigness of the right Devil Fox may remember that I have shewed before that Cain was the first Devil in flesh and the right Devil and that the spirit of the Devil is not body less as the Quakers doth vainly imagine and this Cain the first and right Devil was a Man and of the same stature and bigness as the Serpent Angel was who beguiled Eva who was Cains Father For Adam was none of his Father as I have said before but I perceive that Fox and other Quakers are unacquainted with the right Devil so that they wonderfully strange at my words to call the Devil a right Devil they never heard the Devil called a right Devil before I have received Letters from Quakers before desiring to have it proved by Scripture but I perceive the Quakers are unacquainted with the right Devil and altogether ignorant of the wrong Devil for they know neither right Devil nor wrong Devil but if Fox the Quaker will but follow my advice he shall see a right devil let George Fox but take a Looking-glass and look into it and he shall see his own face and then he will see a right devil and he need go no further to see the right devil and all other Quakers that are ignorant of the right devil let them look into a glass and there they may see themselves to be right devils and not wrong devils 15. The same page Muggelton saith that Christ hath a distinct body of flesh and bone of his own To this Fox saith Is Christ distinct from his Saints then how come they saith Fox to be of his flesh and bone CHAP. XX. ANSWER HEre people may see Fox hath manifested his deceit and how he carrieth the Principle of the Quakers in an Allegory to deceive the people for their Christ they so much talk of is a meer Allegory For saith Fox in another place of his Pamphlet we own the Son of God and his flesh and bone and blood who was Crucified and laid in the grave and rose again and sits at the right hand of God Here Fox seems to owne Christs Body without him but it is in a mystery for he doth not believe that God hath any right hand or left hand either for infinite spirits hath no hands there is no need of spirits without bodies to have hands but the Reader may plainly see that Fox hath a mystical meaning or else he grossely contradicts himself For saith Fox is Christ distinct from his Saints then how came they to be of his flesh and bone so that Fox his
they are made one flesh by union and institution as aforesaid for when a man lieth with a harlot he makes himself a member of a harlot by that union and so the harlot is made one flesh with this man Now this man is none of her flesh nor she his not really so for some men do abhor it should be so yet by union with a harlot many times men come to be flesh of her flesh and so are become diseased with her disease even with the Pox so that these are become double flesh of one anothers flesh by that union they had with each other these things I have known by Ranters and others Now minde the distinction a childe that a man begets of his wife is more flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone than his wife is why because the childe is indeed flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone because children came out of the mans loyns as the twelve Patriarchs came forth of Jacobs loyns now these were really flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone naturally so and not by union as a man and his wife that were two are by union made one flesh So likewise the Scriptures speaks of two sorts of bodies as that in 1 Cor. 15.44 there is a natural body and a spiritual body a celestial body and a terrestrial body now these bodies cannot go one into another but mortal bodies may be made spiritual bodies and spiritual bodies may be made mortal bodies by the power of the Creator as it were by the Serpent Angel he was a spiritual body when he deceived Eve but when he was made mortal he was called Cursed Cain So the Lord from heaven was a spiritual body before he over-shadowed the Virgin Mary but afterwards this spirit al body was a pure mortal body and that mortal body was caned A Blessed Jesus This is the great Mystery to the world and this Jesus is that God that prepared a pure mortal body for himself that he might be capable to be put to death in this body to redeem the lost Seed of Adam And this is that body I say is not in the Quakers neither are the Quakers of Christs body by union nor flesh of his flesh nor bone of his bone not by union and those Believers were the Apostle writ unto for the Apostle was chosen of Christ without him and had a Commission to preach Christ to others and those that did believe his Commission were one in faith with him and so they by faith might know that Christ was in them except they were reprobates that is except they were unbelieving for if they had faith in the true Christ which he had taught them then Christ did dwell in their hearts by faith and they should know by faith in themselves that they were not reprobates and by the union they should have with Christ by faith they should become members of Christ yea they should be counted flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone This is the true meaning of the Scriptures But the Speakers of the Quakers have no Commission from Christ to preach as the Apostles had neither have the Believers of the Quakers any true faith in Christs person or body without them and so the Speakers and Hearers are both in the state of reprobation neither doth Christ dwell in their hearts by faith for true faith they have none but the faith of devils And that which they call the Light of Christ in them is nothing else but the Light of the Law written in their hearts for true faith in Christs person they have none so they call the Light of the Law in them the Light of Christ because the Law convinces them of sin Now this Law written in the Quakers hearts is the light of Christs Creation and this light of the Law that Christ hath written in the heart of man it is written in the heart of every devil and so in the heart of the Speakers of the Quakers and they teach their disciples to harken to the light within them and saith Christ is in them but this is no saving light neither is Christ within them neither are the Quakers members of Christs body nor bone of his bone nor flesh of his flesh for they have no faith in his person without them so that Fox his Cheat and Deceit is made manifest by the Scriptures being interpreted 11. Page 11. Fox is very angry with me for saying Reason is the Devil and yet saith he thou givest a reason for what thou doest and because I give a reason of my doings therefore saith he I am judged out of my own mouth to be the Devil Reason CHAP. XIII ANSWER HEre Fox the Quaker hath shewed himself an ignorant devil that cannot give a reason of the hope that is in him but for fear he should be counted a devil takes up other mens words and the Scriptures must give a reason for Fox how that he is no reprobate because the Scriptures saith to Believers in that time Know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be reprobates And be ready to render a reason of the hope within you But Fox himself hath no knowledge but that he is a reprobate but I perfectly know that Fox is a reprobate and I can give a reason why he should and will be damned to eternity though Fox can give no reason for it What would Fox have done if he had not had other mens words to prove Christ within and to give a reason of the hope they had in Christ for Fox hath no interest in the Scriptures But I shall open this point something more hereafter where he speaketh of Reason in the 19th page of his Pamphlet 12. Page 11. And Muggleton saith he rejoyceth in his Cursings and them that he doth Curse and Sentence shall never see any other God or Judge But saith Fox how now Muggleton art thou become God and Judge Must not all appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ to have their sentence and reward from him whether they have done good or evil CHAP. XIV ANSWER DO you Fox and the Speakers of the Quakers indeed believe that you shall appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ to receive the reward of deeds done in your bodies whether good or evil If you do I shall say this unto you that when you do appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ John Reeve and my self shall be there also and look what Sentence and Judgement we have given upon you and others here upon earth the same Sentence will Christ give when you appear before his Judgement-seat and look what blasphemy against the Holy Spirit you have committed in this natural body you now have you shall have the punishment of that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost that sent us punished in that spiritual dark body you shall have when Christ doth raise you again and then you shall know that you did appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ
in the world in his person in the Apostles time therefore the world persecuted them and put them to death for witnessing that Christ was in the world and they with wicked hands had slain the Lord of Life even Christ Jesus the onely God the King of Heaven So that John and I am both of one minde and of one faith that though Christ the only God and King of Heaven was in this world before he suffered death this John the Apostle and I both do believe and know but since Christ rose from the dead and ascended up to heaven John and I do believe and know that Christ the only God and King of heaven is not in this world at all in his person and essence yet Fox calls this Lies But the Reader may see if he hath any light who it is that lies Fox or I. Also he saith The true Prophet saith God the King of Heaven fills heaven and earth but saith he the false prophet saith God the King of Heaven is not in this world at all It is a small thing to be called a false prophet by the Seed of the Serpent especially by a damned devil for I know Fox would have said so by those prophets he calls true had he lived in that time and this John and Christ he so much talks of would have been counted all false a false Christ a false Witness what will any Quaker believe that to be a Christ a Savior that comes in likeness of man nay is a man sin excepted No no we will have a Christ that is a Spirit that may creep into our spirits when he will and whip out again when we commit sin and displease his Spirit such a Christ we own that hath never a body of his own but is all Spirit that fills every Quakers body with his Spirit and heaven and earth also What will you perswade us to believe that Christ is a man Christ is God and admits of no form so thou John art a false witness to perswade us to believe in a man to be Christ or God the Savior of the world this I know would Fox and the rest of the Quakers have said by those he calls now true prophets they being dead and by Christ and the Apostles as he doth by me For when they were alive on earth as I am now they were counted by the seed of the Serpent such as Fox is Blasphemers Deceivers Liers and such like but now who so zealous for the dead letter of the Prophets and Apostles as the seed of the Serpent are but when they were alive they were hated and persecuted for speaking that which the seed of the Serpent doth now honor so is it with me now I am alive I am hated and persecuted by the seed of the Serpent as well by Quakers as others for my doctrine and commission now while I am alive but when I am dead many of the seed of the Serpent in the next generation shall have respect unto my Writings and shall say had we lived in those days that Fox and other Quakers lived in we would never have blasphemed and spoken evil of so pure a truth as Fox the Quaker hath done to incur eternal damnation upon our own heads as Fox the Quaker their father hath done these things will come to pass as it hath done in the other two Commissions namely the Law the Gospel Page 22. Muggleton saith the Quakers hearken to the light within but they despise the body and person of Christ without them and so they are Antichrist 20. To this Fox saith Here are more Lies of the false prophet for saith he Christ that died at Jerusalem his person we own without us who is manifest within us the light of Christ Jesus by which we have seen of his glory and speak in his person And Fox saith Solomons Books in the Bible are good Scripture though Muggleton saith they be not Scripture he being not in the spirit of Solomon that gave them forth CHAP. XXVI ANSWER HEre Fox hath shewed his Allegorical Juggle who dares not deny the person of Christ without them not in plain terms because the Scriptures are so full to prove Christ a person and it is the Faith of all Christendom as we call it but any man that hath any true light in him may see that Fox is a meer Juggler to deceive the simple and ignorant whose doctrine makes the people more dark in their mindes than they were by nature For saith Fox we Quakers own the person of Christ without us who is manifest within us There is such a great stir with Gods Messengers to part Christs person or body from the Quakers and their bodies from him that Christs body might stand single of it self and the Quakers bodies might stand single of themselves at a distance from Christs body but the Quakers will either get into Christs body or else Christ must get into the Quakers bodies so that no man can tell how to part them one from another but I know death will part them And Christ will say to Fox and other Quakers Depart from me you workers of iniquity you pretended that you were my Saints and that I was in you and you in me but I know you not neither did I send you to preach for I never was in you by my Spirit to assist you in your preaching you should have let preaching and praying in my name alone for you have done more hurt than good in that your doctrine hath blinded the eyes of many people and have led them as sheep to the slaughter and hath caused many to suffer extreamly in this life even to the loss of their natural life besides the punishment hereafter For you should have hearkened to my chosen Witnesses and Prophets who can declare the true Christ God and man in one single person in the form of a man with the right devil his form and nature but your non-knowledge of the right devil is the cause of your gross darkness in the knowledge of the true Christ What are you Quakers the better for your Christ within you he yields you no true peace and what are you the better for being in Christ for the true Christ denies you and will not be in you by his Spirit neither will he suffer you to be in him because you and a great part of you Quakers are of the reprobate Seed which have no part nor portion in the true Christ for you are and the Quakers people but the devil transformed into the likeness of an Angel of light because you are something more precise in your life as to outward appearance but your preciseness is very much broken and withered of late years your darkness and ignorance is discovered by the light of this Commission of the Spirit for you are not like the people you were formerly neither doth your Witchcraft-fits catch any now as it did heretofore Your Witchcraft-fits can hardly be produced now of
late not in any I marvel how you Quakers can have Christs person manifest in you and how you can speak in his person Let the Reader mind the Quakers Cheat they own Christs person without them yet this person of Christ without them is manifest within them See the deceit of this Fox I have read of Christ manifest in his Saints and Apostles by his Spirit or Seed of Faith but I never read that Christs person flesh and bone was ever manifest within any man that was alwayes without man and will be without man for ever distinct of himself Also Fox saith the Quakers speak in Christs person Here is another Allegorical speech without any distinction I have heard that an Ambassador hath represented the person of a King and his speech by vertue of a Commission from the King is in the Kings stead but the Ambassador is not in the Kings person though he represents the Kings person the Kings person is at a great distance from his Messenger So it is with Christs Ambassadors as Paul saith We are Ambassadors in Christs stead beseeching you to be reconciled unto Christ by our doctrine Now Pauls person and Christs person were at a great distance one from the other for Christs person was in heaven above the stars and Pauls person was here upon earth so that Paul did not speak in the person of Christ that being at such a distance as I said before but Paul and the rest of the Apostles by vertue of their Commission given from Christ were Ambassadors of him and so stood in Christs stead but Christs person was far enough off from them as a Kings person is far off when his Ambassador is in a strange Land who represents the Kings person as aforesaid But the Quakers they will get into Christs person and speak there or else they will get Christs person into them and so Christ must speak there in their persons so as I said before the Quakers will not be separated from Christ nor suffer him to separate himself from them though I know they never were in union together neither was Christ ever in them that I have damned nor never will be neither were they ever in Christ nor never shall be Neither doth Fox own indeed that person of Christ of flesh and bone that died at Jerusalem to be now living in heaven above the stars but Fox and the Quakers Christ they so much talk of is a meer Allegory without substance a Christ that may be blown away with the word of a true Prophets mouth as I said in The Neck of the Quakers broken Also Fox saith Solomons Books are good Scripture though I say they are not being not in the spirit of Solomon that gave them forth Here I perceive that Fox and the Quakers are got into Solomons spirit just as they did get into Christs person I see Fox can get into spirits as he doth into persons but I perceive Fox is got into Solomons spirit and he blames me because I am not in Solomons spirit I do seriously confess that I am not in Solomons spirit and I am glad I never was in his spirit for who ever is in Solomons spirit doth not know the true God nor the right devil for Solomon knew neither of them though he was a wise man in things of nature but ignorant of spiritual and heavenly wisdom for Solomons wisdom hath the Ground-work of much lust of the flesh and idolatry for the Ranters practice was grounded upon Solomons practice who knew so many women so the Ranters thought they might have the same liberty seeing wise Solomons Writings were owned for Scripture-record thus they continued many of them in their practice of lust till many of them were weary of it as Solomon was when he was old and then they left off that practice and turned Quakers and so fell to be the greatest idolaters of any as Solomon did to his Heathenish-Wives drew his heart away from the worship of Moses to worship idols So is it with those Ranters that are turned Quakers they are become absolute Heathen idolaters for when they were Puritanes so called they were zealous for the letter of the Scriptures and did practice a good life as near as they could to the letter but after they fell to the practice of lust being encouraged by Solomons writings they left that legal Worship and civil practice the Law tied them unto and followed Solomons practice of lust And now they being turned Quakers are fallen to heathen idolatry that is to say the Quakers they worship an unknown God a Spirit without a body they adore a Christ within them and never mindes a body of Christ without them at a distance they believe their own spirits to be immortal and cannot die they believe their spirits go to God or into God again according to Solomons words they believe Gods Spirit being an infinite Being without a body and that this infinite bodiless Spirit taketh all things into it self and so their spirits being immortal they go into God when they die they will not acknowledge that life or soul doth die but departs out of the body they know not where notwithstanding the Scriptures are so full to prove the soul that sins shall die and experience shews it doth die So that the Quakers are become the greatest spiritual idolaters of any and the greatest fighters against a personal God of any for as Solomon did fall to worship the heathen womens visible Images or Idols so do the Quakers worship invisible Idols as a Spirit without a body and that their own spirits may subsist without bodies and that spirits may be capable of happiness or misery without bodies this is the Heathen Philosophers opinion they brought into the world that Principle of the Immortality of the Soul and that Spirits might go to happiness or misery without bodies And the Quakers hath got the Heathen Principle to a hair therefore become Heathen Idolaters as Solomon was for the Scriptures declares another thing Where doth the Scriptures say that God is an Infinite Spirit without a body The Scripture saith God is infinite and so he is Also the Scripture saith God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and truth but it is not said God is a Spirit without a body for this I say that if a man may worship God in spirit and truth in this natural body as the disciples of Christ did in their natural bodies and as I my self do in my natural body then of necessity it will follow that God hath a spiritual body whereby I may worship him else I shall worship I know not what as you Quakers do And because Gods body is a spiritual body therefore Christ said when on earth God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and truth he knowing that body of his that was then a pure natural body should by his death and rising again be made a spiritual body and then all true Believers
like to have bin killed by unreasonable men forty of them had bound themselves in an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul yet by the power of the Centurion who had a commission from the Magistrates to keep the peace would not suffer these men to do such unreasonable deeds to kill a man and not condemned by the Law of reason for all Laws are made by the reason of man to govern people by So in other places in the Acts you may read how Paul was abused by unreasonable men so that Paul had cause and all Saints else to desire to be delivered from unreasonable men for all men have not saith Paul knowing that those men that have faith dares not persecute men for consciences though he hath reason so to do much less to persecute men for conscience against Law and reason as the rude multitude doth and envious men doth having not Law of their side but are punished as evil doers by the law of reason for doing things contrary to the Law therefore called unreasonable men And in this sence Paul desired to be delivered from unreasonable men for he knew men that had faith in their hearts would not persecute nor abuse him nor kill him though he should give them cause This I my self knoweth by experience to be true for I have fallen sometimes into the hands of unreasonable men for I have bin pull'd out of the house by head and shoulders and beaten with their fists and knocked down in the garden and when they were affraid to do me more mischief in another bodies house they consulted to lay in wait in all the Alleys to catch me as I came out that they might do me some further mischief and no body know who did it they thought to break my bones if not kill me but they were somewhat prevented for we passed through a mans garden a private way so that the layers in wait could not catch us untill we came in the fields but when they heard we were past the corners of the Alleys which were four they run and the boys run to see the men run that the dust and gravel did flye about with the sound of their feet to overtake us so two of the men of the most desperatest of them overtook us in the fields and they both smote upon my head and neck with their fists a while and then run to John Reeve and struck up his feet and he fell upon the gravel which made his hands bleed so he lay upon the ground and people came thick about us to know what was the matter but the woman came in whose house I was pulled out of and she knew these two men that pursued us in the fields so they left off and slank away lest she should have had the Law of them for abusing us in her house There was about a hundred of them in her house and garden when they pulled me out these were unreasonable men such as Paul met withall which he desired to be delivered from Several times hath John Reeve and my self been in danger to be abused and spoiled by unreasonable men and it was upon the same account as Paul was For he was served so for declaring Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and that he was a messenger to declare it and we for declaring Christ Jesus to be the onely God and our selves to be commissionated from him to bless the Seed of Faith and curse despisiing spirits to eternity So that I am not unacquainted nor ignorant of Pauls words For it hath been always my desire ever since to be delivered from the rude multitude who doth not go by the Law of reason but doth act as bruit-beasts who have no reason in them therefore called unreasonable men This is a true distinction and interpretation what the devil is even the spirit of reason in man and how reason always killed the just and righteous Seed of Faith and what the Apostle meant when he desired to be delivered from unreasonable men and who may be said to be unreasonable men Much more might be said in this point but I suppose there is enough written to satisfie and inform any man that hath true light of faith in him or hath but moderate reason Onely this may be minded by the Reader that the Scriptures never called distracted men nor mad-men nor fools nor distempered brained men are never called Devils though these men are possest with Devils that is with distempers of nature these are Devils that are produced through accidents of nature through some extraordinary grief fright or losses and such like hath broke the brain and so the seat of reason is quite out of order and makes them more strong then when their reason was in order and so come to be possest with devils these devils are produced by accidents in nature as I said before So not those devils the Scriptures speake of we never read that any Prophet Apostle or Christ himself did ever condemn or judge such persons but rather pittied them and healed them and cast those devils out as may be read in Scripture nay the civil Magistrate doth not regard what a mad-man saith whose reason is out of order therefore it may be clear that the most wise prudent men who have the greatest measure of reason in them are those Devils the Scriptures calls devils therefore more fit to be politicians both in Church and State neither could unwise man in reason govern this world as it is at this day So that it may be clear to those that are inlightned that the spirit of reason in man is the devil that killed the righteous and the Just for Cain was a high pitch of reason when he killed righteous Abel for Cain had the fulness of the reprobat Angels spirit of reason it dwelt in Cain bodily and Esau had much reason and Judas and that devil that tempted Christ was a man had a great measure of the wisdom of reason in him and those Chief-priests and Elders that Christ called Serpents Devils that tempted him were indued with a great measure of reason they were wise sensible sober learned men yet devils and the spirit of reason in them was the devil that tempted Christ persecuted him and killed him that was the just One even the Savior of the world of the elect Seed so that the spirit of reason in man is the devil the Scriptures condemn which commits murder for conscience sake or other ways and is that devil that is to be damned to eternity c. so that the Devil so much spoken of in Scripture and condemned by Christ it was sensible wise prudent men indued with a high pitch of reason and not unreasonable men nor mad frantick distracted men as people do vainly imagine as Fox and most of the Quakers do 18. Muggleton saith it was the Godhead life that suffered death Fox calls this darkness also For saith he Christ he
suffered in the flesh but he did not die as he was God CHAP. XXIV ANSWER HEre Fox hath discovered his Allegorical Cheat as I have made appear before For saith he in the fourteenth particular of this Book the Quakers owns the Son of God who was crucified and laid in the grave and rose again and sits at the right hand of God yet Fox saith the Godhead life did not die Here Fox hath manifested his great ignorance of life that died also he hath cut himself off from having any part or portion in the death of Christ for God and Christ is all one undividual or undivided Essence Person and Substance so that when Christ died God died and when Christs blood or soul was poured out unto death the soul of God was poured out unto death also Christ being God and Man For no man can truly say Christ was God and Man except he were God as well as Man for if there be another God besides Christ or above Christ then Christ is not God as well as man as people do vainly imagine Now we read that Christ poured out his soul unto death and will any dare to say that the soul of Christ was not the soul of God it is high blasphemy to affirm the contrary besides it cuts a man off from all benefit of the death of Christ for no blood but the blood of a God can speak peace to the soul of man therefore it is the blood of Christ speaketh better things than the blood of Abel because Abel was but a faithful man But Christ was God as well as man yet this Godhead life did die and quickened again by its own power which Abels life could not do being but a man But what should I talk to Quakers of these things for they do not believe that any souls die no not their own they all slip away and leave the body to suffer so Fox saith Christ suffered in the flesh but his soul did not die but slipt out of his body for he doth not own that Christs soul died neither as he was God nor as he was man But this is opened more large concerning the Godhead life dying in The Interpretation of the whole Book of the Revelation But what think you Fox did Cain kill the soul or life of Abel or no or did he onely drive his soul or spirit out of his body Surely if Cain had not killed Abels soul his blood would never haye cryed for vengeance in Gods ears and in his own conscience as it did if his life had not been killed What do you think Fox that Judas did by his soul when he hang'd himself did he onely hang the body that his soul might slip away and leave his body to suffer What do you think the sufferings that all Quakers of late and others have undergone in imprisonment and banishment some have died by reason of those sufferings but you Quakers do believe it was nothing but their bodies that suffered their souls suffered nothing they slipt out of their bodies and went some where you know not where So your persecutors did you no great hurt onely turned your souls out of your bodies before the time as a Landlord doth a bad Tenant turns him out of his house for not paying his Rent he never kills him So the Quakers souls are never killed they are only separated from the body so that there is no great harm done by the persecutors they do but onely separate soul and body one from the other they do not kill life in the Quakers for life cannot die the body indeed may suffer but life cannot die This is Fox the Quakers faith and all Quakers else that I have talked with and were not the Quakers blinded and hardned they would be ashamed to own such a Principle for all true Believers are ashamed of the Quakers faith in this point nay men that are meer moral men that have no light but the dictates of nature do know by experience that the spirit and soul of man doth die for nothing can be capable of pain but life nor nothing can be capable to die but life yet these blinde Quakers cannot believe that life can die as aforesaid 19. Page 21. Muggleton saith God the King of Heaven is not in this world at all Fox calls this Lies also For saith he thou dost confess that Christ is God and John saith he was in the world but the world knew him not Also Fox saith the true Prophet saith he fills heaven and earth but saith Fox the false prophet saith God the King of Heaven is not in this world at all CHAP. XXV ANSWER THat saying of mine is truth That God the King of Heaven is not in this world at all not in his Person and Essence or Substance as is clearly opened in The Neck of the Quakers broken which whosoever doth read that Book may see every one of those sayings of mine more clearly opened than in this Treatise yet George Fox calls them all lies and darkness and such like though what I have written in that Book is as true as any Writings of the Prophets or Apostles and are of as great Authority and will prove as true in the end as theirs But to give the Reader a little light to see the gross darkness of this Fox and his subtilty Fox brings the words of John and saith Christ was in the world but the world knew him not Minde Did I ever deny in all my Writings that Christ never was in the world I always in all my Writings justified more than any man living that Christ the onely God was in this world in the state of mortality which the Apostles did witness unto therefore it is that John saith Christ was in the world but the world knew him not which doth imply that Christ was not in the world in his person at that time when John writ those words if he had John would have said Christ is now in the world but the world knows him not So that it is clear to those that know the Scriptures that Christ the onely God was not in this world at all in the Apostles time he was in the world before he suffered death and the world knew him not but after he was ascended he hath not been in this world never since and this John and the rest of the Apostles knew very well and they preached this Christ that was in the world but the world knew him not therefore they persecuted him and slew him and would slay him again if he were in this world now so John knew well enough therefore he testified that Christ was in the world in his own person but the wicked world put him to death because they knew him not but he is not in the world now for he is ascended for John knew if Christ had been in the world in his person at that time they would have done unto him as they did before and because Christ was not