A LETTER SENT TO THOMAS TAYLOR Quaker In the Year 1664. In Answer to many blasphemous Sayings of his in several pieces of Paper and in the Margent of a Book Amongst many of his wicked ignorant Sayings I have given an Answer to some of the chief and main things of Concernment for the Reader to know The particular Heads are seven I. That Christ could not make all things of nothing II. That earth and waters were eternal and out of that matter God created all living creatures III. That there was a place of residence for God to be in when he created this World IV. How all children are saved though the seed of the Serpent if they die in their childhood V. Of the difference between the fruit of the womb and the fruits of the flesh and how they are two several trees and two several fruits VI. How the Seed of Faith the Elect Seed did all fall in Adam and therefore made alive in Christ and how the reprobate seed did not fall in Adam so not made alive in Christ and what it is that purifies the Quakers hearts VII How Adam and Eve were not capable of any kinde of death before their fall and how their fall did procure but a temporal death to all the seed of Adam but the fall of the serpent did procure an eternal death to all his seed who live to men and womens estate and more especially to those that doth deny the person and body of Christ to be now living in heaven above the stars without a man as all the Speakers of the Quakers do By Lodowick Muggleton Printed in the Year of our Lord. 1665. Thomas Taylor I Understand that Thomas Barnet and others that are Well-wishers to this Commission of the Spirit have lent you a Book of our Writings who are the chosen Witnesses of the Spirit namely John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton I suppose you have had it some time to peruse else you would not have scribled and defaced the Book so much as you have besides your Papers within the Book yet nevertheless I could have wished those Friends had lent you The Quakers Neck broken rather than that it being the most fittest Book for Quakers to look into the other being too heavenly and divine for Quakers to look into But in The Quakers Neck broken I have met with such Antichristian spirits as you are who have rayled and blasphemed against the Doctrine of the true God and the right devil and the Commission of the Spirit as you have done neither have I let them go unrewarded for their paines as you may see in that Book Neither shall you go unrewarded for your wicked and hard speeches raylings and blasphemies against the Doctrine contained in that Book for your wickedness is so much and your blasphemies and revilings so many that it would be too tedious to relate yet for the satisfaction of others that shall come to see this Writing I shall relate some of them and speak a little to a few of the main things of most concernment You say Thy Christ that could not make all things of nothing is a false Christ 1. Here you have blasphemed against the true Christ for John Reeve doth own no other God or Christ but that Christ that was put to death by the Jews and judged by Pilate to be crucified By him the Worlds were made but not of nothing for God never did say neither doth the Scriptures affirm any such thing that God made the earth and waters of nothing so that you shew your self a blaspheming devil 2. We do know and affirm that earth and waters were eternal and that darkness was over the face of the deep and in the Creation the Spirit of God moved upon the waters so that waters were before the Creation else how could Gods Spirit move upon the face of the deep had there been no deep waters before And so likewise if the earth were not eternal why is it said by Moses That the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep The meaning is this that the earth was in being before God did create it and darkness was upon the face of the deep so that there was deep waters before Gods Spirit did move upon them And as for the earth being without form and void the meaning is this the substance being and matter of the earth it was eternally so but it was void of all form and beauty not fit for any of Gods creatures to live in it until God in the beginning created it For when Gods Spirit moved upon the waters the meaning is this he commanded the waters to be gathered into one place and the dry land did appear So likewise God made two great Lights the one to rule the day and the other to rule the night that is the Sun should rule and govern the earth and give life to the herbs and trees and fruits of the earth and the Moon should give life to the waters and rule them And in this manner God created the earth and the waters but all this while God had matter to make these things of for earth and waters were before 1. He did not make the Sun Moon and Stars and the host of heaven of nothing for of nothing comes nothing though you say it is an heathenish saying let it be the saying of a heathen man it is a true saying a saying that no Prophet nor Apostle doth deny none but such Antichristian devils as you Quakers are that will have God to make all things of nothing else you wil call him a devil as you have done in your Writings 2. Furthermore where do you blinde Quakers think this vaste earth and waters were before God created them which according to Moses relation is not six thousand years and we can know nothing of the Creation of the world but it must be grounded upon Moses his words I say where do you think these great substances of earth and waters were before Certainly you Quakers do believe that they came out of Gods belly for your God is so big a God that he can fill heaven and earth and all places and be in every Quakers body and make all things of nothing besides So that the Quakers God is so big that he cannot be comprehended yet they get him within them and when they die then he gets them into him again So the Quakers God and their Souls gets one into another so that no body else can tell where to finde either of them both But my God the Man Christ Jesus who is a distinct person in form of a man by whom the Worlds were framed he will finde you out when your souls are rotted in the dust of the earth think of your self what you will it will be as I have said Furthermore if earth and waters were made of nothing then I say they shall turn to nothing again and if your God did speak them out of
This man would have God to do that which he cannot do as I said before so he would have God to be more cruel then he is to condemn children who have done neither good nor evil which the Scriptures doth no wayes justifie for though God doth say He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated before they had done good or evil And that saying The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head And of that saying The election of God stands sure All these places of Scriptures doth not reach that children should be damned although the seed of the serpent is For this is to be minded that the Scriptures were spoken to men and women capable of understanding for God did not say to children I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy it was to men that understood what Moses said Likewise the Apostles spake to men and women and not to children else why should the Apostles exhort the people to make their calling and election sure It would have been a vain thing to give exhortation to children And as for the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent it is in relation to men and women for doth not men and women that are the seed of the woman who have faith in their hearts by their patient sufferings break or bruise the head of the serpentine men and women who are the seed of the serpent who doth rage and rail and persecute the innocent so that children have nothing to do in this matter And as for that saying of Jacob and Esau the one being loved of God and the other hated when they were both in the womb To that I say though Jacob was in Gods decree beloved and Esau in Gods decree hated or reprobated yet this I say they were decreed and appointed to live to mans estate so that they might both be capable of election and reprobation and not to die in their childehood And this I say further that if you T. T. had died in your childehood you should have been saved though I know you are of the seed of the serpent but you being appointed to be damned to eternity you were appointed to live to despise the living God and blaspheme against the Doctrine of the true God declared by those Messengers whom he hath sent And as for that saying of yours As the tree is so is the fruit Your meaning is if the serpent be damned the children that are his seed must be damned also Here you shew your gross darkness and ignorance in the Scriptures because the Scripture saith A good tree bringeth forth good fruit and an evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit therefore you conclude that children are fruits of the serpent he being that evil tree 5. To this I answer That the meaning of the Scriptures in those words aforesaid is not meant that children that are begotten and born I say they are not counted the fruits of the serpent for we see by experience and by the Scriptures that sometimes reprobate men and women who are both of the seed of the serpent yet the childe that is begotten by them is of the elect this I know by experience since I came to know the Scriptures and could distinguish between the two Seeds Likewise it is clear by Scripture that a faithful man and woman they being both of them the Seed of Faith that is the Seed of the Woman for there is but two Seeds spoken of in Scripture that hath begotten reprobates as that of Isaac and Rebecca they being both of the elect Seed yet they begot Esau which the Scriptures brands for a Reprobate So that sometimes two reprobates may get an elect childe one or more and two of the faithful seed may beget one or more reprobates so that children are not called in the Scriptures fruits of the Serpent tree for children are trees themselves if they live to maturity of age 3. But those motions and actions which these trees bring forth in their lives and conversations are called in Scripture fruits of the tree if good motions and actions then called a good tree if evil and sinful motions then called an evil or corrupt tree for the good tree bringeth forth good fruit even the fruits of the Spirit which is patience meekness love and faith in God and such like fruits which good trees which are men and women do bring forth So likewise the evil tree is men and women also and they bring forth evil fruits even the fruits of the flesh which is envy unbelief persecution blasphemy against the true God these and such like fruits proceed from the evil tree of the reason in man and the good fruits proceed from the good tree which is the faith in man for there is but two trees spoken of in Scriptures to wit the Tree of Life signifying the Tree of Faith and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil signifying the tree of reason so that all men good and bad are ranked under these two trees and those men that bring forth fruits of Faith as aforesaid may be said to bring forth good fruit and those men that bring forth fruits of reason as aforesaid may be said to bring forth evil fruit as you have done So that what fruits man or woman bringeth forth in their life being come to age is counted by the Scriptures good or evil fruit and so said to proceed from a good tree or an evil tree and not with any relation to the fruit of the womb that is generated and begotten as children Therefore when John Baptist said The axis laid to the root of the tree he meant wise and prudent men who were wicked persecutors he did not mean that their yong children should be hewen down and cast into the fire So likewise when the Apostle speaks of the fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of the flesh he tells what they both are so that children are not called the fruits of the serpent-tree though they be of the same seed for seed is one thing and fruit is another so you erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God for I never knew any Quaker give any Interpretation of Scripture but speaks the words as they lye which is the cause of their gross mistake of the meaning of the Scriptures and run into those and such like errors that God fills heaven and earth from these words they believe God is so big as to fill heaven and earth And of that saying Know you not that Christ is in you except you be reprobates From these words they ground their faith that Christ is within them and so will admit of no body or person of Christ without them nor in heaven above the stars and so of other sayings in Scripture As that that Christ enlightneth every man that cometh into the world but will admit of no interpretation themselves because they cannot but are angry
his own bulk or belly as aforesaid then I say he will speak them into his belly again so that no man need to fear damnation for all that came out of God shall go into him again and if they were made of nothing they shall turn to nothing again I speak these things that whosoever shall read this Writing may see the vanity of the Quakers doctrine and be ashamed of it 3. John Reeve doth say That God must have some place of residence when he created this world In your answer to this you flap your hand in the mouth and say God abides in himself and is what he is And further you say To create is most properly to bring something out of nothing by the powerful word of God Answ I marvel what satisfaction any man can have in his minde in believing in a Quakers God to tell a man that God abides in himself and is what he is but never tells what he is nor whether he be any glorious substance or form or whether he have any nature which to know God in his form and nature is life eternal But to say a thing abides in it self and is of its self and not to tell what that is that abides in its self it is Riddle me Riddle me what is this But it is like all the rest of the Quakers points of doctrine for they are mistaken in every true point of doctrine which are but six 1. Of the form and nature of the true God 2. The form and nature of the right devil 3. The place and nature of heaven 4. The place and nature of hell 5. The mortality of the Soul 6. The persons and natures of Angels These six Principles are the ground of all true knowledge in relation to eternal life but the Quakers doctrine is ignorant of every one of them First they are grosly mistaken in their God both in his form and nature for they say he is so big that no place neither heaven nor earth can contain him when as the Scriptures saith he made man in his own image and likeness and he calls himself a man for when the man said to Christ when on earth Good master what shall I do to inherit eternal life Christ answered and said Why callest thou me good there is no man good but one even God So that Christ did acknowledge God to be a man for he was God himself 2. The Quakers are as much mistaken in the right devil for they know not how the devil came to be nor what will become of him hereafter though many of them their own souls is the devil And so of Heaven and of hell they are ignorant of any places where they are for they know no other places of glory nor pain but what is within them 5. They have got no mortal Souls that can die 6. And as for persons and natures of Angels they know not what I mean by it so that God and devil hell and Heaven immortal souls and Angels are all within them and when they die they deliver up all this within them it goes into God again and so are no more sensible of joy nor sorrow than they were before they had a being For I perceive by this Thomas Taylor that the Speakers of the Quakers go all in one strain onely some of them are more subtile than others to hide themselves with the words of the Scriptures carrying the sense of the Scriptures in an Allegory and so gets Christ within them and so keeps his body from going up to heaven above the stars But that Christ in a body above the stars hath given me power that am but a mortal man over that Christ within you and that you shall know to your eternal pain and shame Furthermore you say To create is most properly to bring something out of nothing by the powerful word of God Answ 1 In this you shew your self to be one of the serpents seed indeed for that was the Serpent-angel his sin in heaven above the stars which you so much slight I say it was his sin before he was thrown down from heaven for be thought in himself if he had been God he would have made all things of nothing he would have created all living creatures without substance or matter that is to say of nothing This was the Serpents sin and nature when he was in the state of immortality and glory And you being of his seed you shall speak and act the same sin in the state of mortality and shame which is a clear testimony to me that you are of the Serpents seed for you will have God to do that which he cannot do to make earth and waters and all other things of nothing else you call him a devil or a false God For I must tell you that God never said so himself that he would or could make living or dead substances of nothing neither did any Prophet or Apostle or Saint believe any such thing but it was always the devils nature to look upon Gods power to be greater than it is or else to be less than it is for the devil is always mistaken in Gods Infiniteness but the Seed of Faith knoweth by faith what Gods power is so far as to the saving of the soul to wit that God did make living creatures of dead sensless matter and living forms of formless substance and that God could aâ—d did die and that he can and will raise the seed of Adam to eternal happiness and the seed of the serpent you being one to endless misery though both Seeds be asleep in the dust of the earth until the day appointed This is true faith in Gods power and that which Moses the Prophets and Apostles and us the Witnesses of the Spirit did and doth witness unto against all the seed of the serpent whatsoever for though by faith we understand the World was made yet by faith we understand and so did the Apostles that the World was not made of nothing but by the word of Gods power it was made of something to wit of earth and waters which were eternal 4. You call these wicked sayings because we say no children damned though they be the seed of the serpent if they die in their childhood To this you say That the serpent was cursed from the beginning for say you certainly all his seed young and old must be so for say you as iâ— the tree so are its fruits Answer Here you that have any light of Faith in you may see the gross darkness of this man for he cannot abide such a God that hath not power to make things of nothing and now he is angry because God doth not damn children if they be of the seed of the serpent for he is angry with John Reeve for saying all children will find mercy as aforesaid for saith he all young and old must be damned of the serpents seed and this is his ground as is the tree so are its fruits