and no fear of God is before your eyes And to you may I return your own words that I stand almost amazed to think unto what an height of impudence and wickedness ye are allreadie come and whether may not poor fallen creatures run if God stop them not since ye arâ—â—â—â—eady so hardened 〈◊〉 Simson saith Thirdly your extream censoriousnesse and rash judgiâ—â—â—…nely of men abroad but also of the Church Mat. 7.1 Rom. 14. 〈◊〉 the Church of Christ an Harlot And ye say Thirdly your extream â—…tiousnesse and rash judging not onely of persons abroad but also of the â—â—urch contrary to Mat. 7.1 Rom 14.3 also your calling the Church an Harlot leaving out the word Christ in which the strength of all did lie But why were these words left out being ye say ye inserted them verbatim the Reader may take notice that after I had received the copy from Robert Simson of what ye had charged upon me viz. rash judging and calling the Church of Christ an Harlot I replied the charge was false and from the father of lies for I never called the Church of Christ an Harlot but do own it dearly but the Harlot is an Harlot and not the Church of Christ and so demonstrated by the spirit that acted you that ye were not the Church of Christ but an Harlot from which ye not being able to vindicate your selves betake yourselves again to this refuge of lies and say ye insert the charge verbatim when ye did it not but left out the main thing therein contained without which your charge hath little weight for though I never called the Church of Christ an Harlot yet I have both said and proved that ye who call your selves a Church are an Harlot and not the Church of Christ and do again plainly say and declare it so and might farther prove it were it needful which it is not since my former proof stands good and not controlled by you nor you giving proof that ye are a Church of Christ And I do once more say and affirm that your charge is false and from the father of lies who was a liar from the beginning And your labour might be saved in using arguments to prove that I said ye were an Harlot and not a Church I had so plainly published it But here ye would perswade the Reader I came in with mental reservations and ask is it honestie or any thing but deceit and hypocrisie because I said I did not call the Church of Christ an harlot but the people in Bristol c. To which I say were ye not quite blind and full of deceit and subtiltie ye might easilie see and know that I spake plainly and truly without your mentals and other carnal stuff when I said and manifested that I dearly owned the Church of Christ which were all living stones c. and did clearly bear testimony against you that ye were not so but an Harlot and herein I appear both just and honest towards the Church of Christ and towards the Harlot in hearing testimony to the former and against the latter in which no deceit nor subtilty appears but just dealing and all your equivocations and mental reservations as ye call them together with your shamelesse unchristian-like practises in which ye appear one with the black spirit of Ralph Farmer is denied together with all lies and the father thereof but the Church of Christ is lovely c. Robert Simpson saith Fourthly your asserting in the Church principles contrary to Truth as first That faith is an eternal thing Secondly That Christ and saith is all one Thirdly That Christ Jesus is not the object of faith And ye say Fourthly Your asserting in the Churches doctrines contrary to truth as first that we did not know what faith was and that faith was an eternal thing Secondly That Christ and Faith is all one Thirdly That Christ is not the object of faith Fourthly Your speaking reproachfully of the blessed scripture affirming they were blind and a plaâ—â—â— to souls and further saying that they were not the word of God nor the rule of life and this ye say is verbatim and therefore must be examined And first I find that the copy saith principles contrary to truth and ye say doctrines contrary to truth and that 's not verbatim But I take notice that I having given true answers to each particular aforesaid contained in the copie and published it in The skirts of the Whore c. which stands in sound and wholsome words unanswered by you by which your shame appears of which being sensible ye labour to recover your vail to hide your falshood and having given heed to lying spirits ye again betake your selves to your wonted refuge and say having the copie by you ye publish it verbatim And say First That we did not know what faith was every word of which is forged and feigned and not in the copie delivered to me and therefore well might ye say whether may not a poor fallen people run if God stop them not And it is no wonder ye began your book pleading for the kingdom of the Devil saying that as in the natural body there may be many infirmities so the mystical body by which its like ye mean your selves who are not a spiritual bodie as the Church of Christ is may be subject to distempers and among many other things make mention of windy humors of pride and high mindedness and giving heed to lying spirits c. It s like ye had some sence what spirit ruled you to which ye intended to give heed and with what filth and falshood ye intended to fill your book and the lying refuge to which ye intended to betake your selves before ye drew such false conclusions in the beginning thereof But this is not all in the copie delivered to me in this fourth branch were inserted but three particulars which are before mentioned to which ye adde a fourth viz. your spâ—aking reproachfully of the blessed scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls and farther saying they were not the word of God and ru'e of life and this ye say is verbatim notwithstanding that which here ye make as a fourth particular in the fourth general is in the copie a fifth general including three Particulars and so do your selves afterwards reckon it notwithstanding in the wisdom of God ye are lest to ensnare your selves and manifest it to all the world saying it is verbatim when ye have left one of your five things mentioned but the line next before It s like the pangs of a traveling woman are upon you who have so long cryed peace and safety to your selves that the sword of the Lord is upon you and your eyes utterly darkened that ye cannot see But the blind have so long led the blind that ye are all fallen into the ditch and under pretence of recovering a veil have manifested your shame and published things which ye endevoured to perswade the
to you again the day of the Lord is upon all the. Heathen and as thou hast done it is done unto thee and thy reward is turned upon thy own head Lock back call to mind and remember how over your high places and in your meetings before these whom ye call uncircumcised Prophane Philistines with which your assemblies are filled ye have not spared to blaspheme and to speak evil of that ye understand not some of your mouths being full of cursing and bitterness equal with others of Jacobs enemies with whom ye became as one in the day of his calamitie when he appeared small and descised foaming out your owne shame greatly provoking and enraging the evil spirits in the mindes of your evil hearers against the innocent and harmles who dwelt peaceably in their Tents amongst you moving onely as the Lord moved them for which mount Esau where the prophanenes is the Philistines uncircumcised in heart both Rulers Priests people of all sorts and sects combined to repreach abuse persecute and devour with whom ye have joyned as if your tongues had been your own and no Lord could control them But being a little rebuked by the power and spirit of the living God ye begin to crye out and say who hath his tongue unteid and doth not speak to vindicate the undeceived innocencie c. As if in one hour your glorie becautie and costly attire were laid in the dust and that if it had been a Turk a Heathen or an open enemy that had done this ye could have born it and so tell of sifting up my heel against Christ crucifying him a fresh and putting him to open shame c. All which being your own conditions uttered forth from your fountain of blindness and arrogancie I shall onely return it into your own bosomes from whom it came who cannot look the Lord in the face nor stand in the least of his appearings but with the rest of the untoward generation have set your selves and taken Counsel together against the Lord of life and glory Ye say Little did ye think I would have acted so well like Judas as first to betray you with a kiss calling you friends and then deliver you into the hands of your enemie to scourge you with the tongue c. Reply Did I therefore act like Judas and betray you because I called you friends and in faithfulness told you the truth Know ye not that it was the word of Christ to Judas who was the betraier and never the word of the betraier to the betrayed one And do ye not by this justifie the guilty betrayer and condemn the innocent betrayed one How well may the passers by as ye say clap their hands and wag their heads and say is this a Church that men call an assembly of Zion And are these your gathered Churches about which there hath been so much contending Truly the very heathen amongst you may easily discern you as far from an assembly of Zion as is betwixt Zion and Aegypt And how much more seen and known are ye by the Children of Light who never can believe your self separation to be the way of God nor the Separated Congregations as ye call them the Churches of Christ but the harlot whilest they are only in the outward Separation not separated within the precious from the vile and from that which makes a separation between God and them living in pride and high mindednesse receiving and embracing untruth and rejecting and not closing with truth but give head to lying spirits to which with the rest of the World the heathen who know not God ye are subject Ye seem offended that I stile you the mingled people and call you the Independent Baptized c. To which I say I stiled you as ye were and if ye count it a reproach to be termed so is it not a greater reproach to be so But is it not manifest you can be in covenant with that which is truly a reproach to any people But it is as death to have it published which is the harlots property who sports and pleaseth her self in her evil wates but shames to have it known Ye seem to bewail my condition and labour to perswad the Reader that I spake reproachfully of some blessed institution of Christ which he in his own person practised when he was about thirty years of age and left as a standing ordinance of the new Testament to all generations till his comming again Reply By it I suppose ye mean a commanded or an appointed thing and then I take your meaning to be that your outward washings in rivers of waters which ye call Baptism is a blessed appointment of Christ practised by himself and left a standing Ordinance of his and of the new testament to all generations till his coming again To which I reply Baptism with water was Johns Ministry who came to prepare the way of the Lord and said he shall Baptize you with the holy Ghost I come baptizing with water and how then doth it appear that it is a blessed command of Christ and left by him as a standing ordinance of the New Testament to all Generations it is true Christ was Baptized of John and so it became them to fulfiill all righteousnesse I say to fulfill it and did he by that leave it a standing ordinance of the New Testament to all Generations c. Christ was circumcised and fulfilled the Law and did he by that appoint and ordain Circumcision the Law of Moses to be a standing Ordinance of the New Testament to all generations And Paul who was a Minister of the new Testament made after the death of the Testator when the new Testament was in force said Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel c. But ye do alwaies eâ—re not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God But friends in the four and twentieth page it is said it was signed in the name and by the consent and appointment of the whole Church by Robert Purnel Thomas Ewine Robert Simpson Richard Moon John Andrews and Bryant Hanson Now if they signed it not by the consent and appointment of the whole company then have they recorded themselves a company of liars who say and publish that which never was But if they did it by the appointment and consent of the whole â—hen are many if not the greatest part of your company recorded to all Generations a company of hypocrites and deceitful workers of rebellious and disobedient Children who knowing the institutions as ye cal it of Christ which ye say is bles'd which he practised and left as a standing Ordinance of the New Testament to all Generations do neglect and disobey it and are out of the practise thereof To which give ear O earth and hear O heaven and be ye astonished what a people professing themselves the Church of Christ boasting of their abilities in giving account of their faith and of walking
up to the commandments of Christ in obedience and conscience and yet be found so rebellious and stiff necked neglecting and disobeying that which themselves have published to be the institutions of Christ Yea those institutions which are blessed which he in his own person practiced and left as a standing ordinance of the New Testament to all Generations c. Know ye not that rebellion is as the sin of witch-craft and to hearken is more acceptable than sacrifice and if he that knowes not his Masters will is worthy of stripes what will your portion be who profess ye know it and can admonish others for neglecting it and yet your selves be found in the utter disobedience I know in this ye will need a vail but it will never hide nor cover your shame And for me to tell such a people they are not a Church of Christ but a harlot a Synagogue of Satan c. is not to blaspheme God and his Tabernacle of both which ye are ignorant and in your blindness worship ye know not what neither is it a writing contemptuously as ye say against any who in conscience are obedient to Christ but it is for your advantage and profit if to it ye give ear And for the accompt ye can give of your faith of which ye boast I say that where true faith is it purifies the heart from lying hipocrisie and deceit and is a mistery held in a pure conscience And Thomas Ewine acknowledgeth in the 52 53 54 pages he doth very much question as I know he hath cause whether ever himself or many of you have received the spirit to establish and confirm or to open and reveal the misteries of the Kingdom or to beautifie and adorn you with gifts and grace to purge purifie cleanse and sanctifie and make you holy or to fill you with the spirit of faith and prayer and when all this is wanting amongst you ye are sure in a very bad condition such as the Church of Christ under the new Testament was never in and so might forbear boasting either of your faith or obedience till another spirit from the Lord is powred upon you And ye might forbear so much washing the outside of your vessel in rivers and brooks tel your infide comes to be cleansed sanctified and made holy In your fifth page ye seem again displeased that I call you a mingled people c. and say if some with me had been faithful to their light and practized baptism they might he mingled too and that but one of those that haue practised that Ordinance as ye call it with you are fallen away Reply It seemeth then ye acknowledge there is a light which convinceth to which people ought to be faithful how dare ye then to reproach and speak evil of it and are not obedient when by it your evil deeds are reproved And if it be the light as ye grant it is that convinceth of the need of your water Baptism how comes it to pass ye were once so near casting out of Hannah Taylor as aforesaid for embracing it and what great glory is it that but one of your Baptists are convinced of truth and turned from darkness to the light c. Know ye not that Christ Jesus the light of the world said Publicans and harlots shall enter into the Kingdom before the Hypocrites And what advantage was it to the priests and their generations when Christ came a light into the world that but few of them believed in the truth and were obedient to that which the world with themselves opposed and said it was the Devil But if ye were able truly to manifest that but few of your company were proud cocovetous envious back-biters oppressors extortioners unjust dealers c. living in the customes and manner of other Heathens but by the power of God were turned from it this had been something and so had not ye been mingled as now ye are Ye say Hath not Christ called and owned you his Church and that I can testify ye were at first rightly constituted and have profest that Christ hath manifested his presence amongst you c. To which I say That ever Christ called such a surfeited bodie as yours a Church of his is denyed and testimonie is born against it But that his presence was amongst you and manifested to many who by the power of it are drawn and separated from amongst you is granted though ye have neither known nor received him but cast him off and were not obedient but have rebelled and vexed his spirit so that by the weapons of his power is he fighting against you with whom it is but the beginning of sorrowes and if ye turn not he is whetting his glittering sword and his hand takes hold of vengeance c. And if as ye say ye were at first rightly constituted then are ye your selves not I nor others with me Apostates and backslidden from that in which at first ye were gathered For then ye did disown those called Anabaptists and their practices in which ye were so zealous that ye did often admonish and reprove and were near the casting out Hanna Taylor as I have said now called Hanna Packer because she owned it But now ye do own the Anabaptists and their practices and ye your selves become Practizers thereof as ye confesse and do admonish and reprove others who in conscience and obedience to the light of Christ cannot conform to your customes and traditions but by his power reproves them standing in that by which at first they were convinced and gathered out of the world and all its pollutions so far as to them it was made manifest And therefore all your feigned words of backsliding and back-sliders Apostatizing and Apostates both in your title page and other places in your book is clearlie turned upon your selves who are the Apostates and back-sliders of which ye speak and to whom belong all the reproofes and admonitions ye pretend to others who are obedient to the light by which the deceipt of your will-worships and inventions is made manifest and denied as was that of Parishes and other assemblies before And as for the Churches of Galatia and Asia Alas what have ye to do with them in whose life ye are not and are shut and cast out an◠〈◊〉 the cursed ground where the briars and thornes grow and the beasts of prey feed and with the persecutors of the life of God which they witnessed are ye joyned against the truth and proudly have ye laboured to trample upon and cast it to the ground but all in vain for over your heads it is exalted and life and immortality is brought to light and reigns for ever more Ye say Those who were stiled a synagogue of Satan were a company of proud boasters that said they were Jewes and Apostles and were not but did lye I answer just so are ye who boast your selves the Church of Christ but are not and his commands to observe
will dispute your power but are proved an Harlot But I must tell you ye must prove your selves a Church of Christ by other manner of Arguments and Demonstrations of power then your meer saying it iâ— so or else no child of Light who walks in the Light and by it is guided can believe it whiles your fruits manifest the contrarie And what if ye that the Scripture may be fulfilled do hate reproach and separate me from your Companie and cast out my name as evil for the Son of mans sake who is the light of the World and hath enlightened every man that cometh into the World Is not this a blessing to me and am I not in that day to rejoyce and leap for joy my reward being great in Heaven Your fathers in like manner dealing with the Prophets Luke 6. And truly ye may spare your labour and save your threat'nings for your powerless pretences are to me as light as vanitie and not worth the mentioning And by the powerful arm of the good shepheard whose voice is heard am I eternally separated and gathered from amongst your ignorant and crooked waies never to return to Egypt again nor have fellowship with you in your unfruitful works which by the light are reproved Ye confess it is a sad sentence and spotted garment with which ye are cloathed and say ye durst not proudly boast as do others and presently justifie your selves and boast that ye never observed so much of the eviâ—s before mentioned in those now together as ye have seen in me and some of those that went away c. To which I say are ye not then wâ—ful hypocrites to profess your selves a Church of Christ and to walk according to his rule and boast of your faith and obedience and yet acknowledge ye saw pride hipocresie slandering envie back-biting railing lying c. which 〈◊〉 the evils there mentioned to break forth more in us then it did in any of you which truly is too too much and never reprove it nor manifest dislike thereof tell now that we are absolutely by the power of the Lord separated from amongst you and have born witness that your works and waies are evil and now ye tell the word those things which are but your lying accusations else why had ye not put them into your pretended admonitions It is like ye are hard put to it that to vail your selves ye must so commonly betake your selves to those refuges of lies And how can one believe a word ye speak who will seem to speak so solemnly and profess as ye say ingenuously things so absolutely false and untrue that by it ye may be vailed c. Truly ye want a bridle for your tongues and the pure fear of the Lord placed in your hearts which might prevent these distempers windie humours and Lying spirits c. In page twelve ye come to the five things in your admonition a coppy of which 〈◊〉 having by you therein ye insert verbatim and yet in numbring ye forget one and make but four In page twenty four ye say ye doubt not of the faithfulness of your Messengers and in page ten do commend Robert Simpson who was one of them for his integrity and godliness and in page thirty four Robert Simpson saith he did engage himself to write out a coppy of what ye did by them charge as sin upon me which he did truly and deliver to me so then since ye say ye insert it verbatim according to the copy and he saith he writ out and delivered to me a true coppy If what ye published and what he writ out and delivered agree not in every particular then is he or you or all together proved not the Church of Christ the pillar and ground of truth but an Harlot and a company of Hypocritical lyers and false asserters But what ye have published and what he writ out and delivered do not agree in many particulars Therefore are ye no Church of Christ but an Harlot For besides some small difference in the first particular which I shall not mention Robert Simpson saith Secondly your contemning and neglecting some of the Ordinances of Christ and this he saith is a true copie c. and ye say Secondly your contemning of some and neglecting of others of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ and this ye say if ye could be believed is verbatim c. And yet how much it differs let the Reader judge one saith your neglecting of some and contemning of others c. which is much different the one saith of Christ the other adds sayings of Jesus Christ But how comes this to pass that one saith it is a true copy and the other that they insert it verbatim and yet no better agreement The Reader may understand that after I had answered Robert Simpsons copie in my former book and manifested and laid open the deceit and Hypocrisie of this people and reproved them faithfullie and sharplie for pretending to admonish me for that of which themselves are guilty they betake themselves to the refuge of lies to be vailed publishing to the world another thing and say its verbatim And that they sent not to admonish me for neglect of water baptism but for speaking contemptuously against it and that I spake falsely and did them wrong in calling them hypocrites c. for charging me with neglect of water baptism which they say they did not but onely for contemning of it when under the hand of their messenger it appears as before that they sent to admonish me for neglect and and contemt of some of the Ordinances of Christ which said their Messengers were baptism in water and breaking of bread so that it appears evidently to be a plain and studied untruth and feigned thing and not verbatim according to the coppy and yet so impudent and void of the fear of God are they that they dare say they shall leave it to the God of Ordinances to judge c. O horrible falshood and deceit Oh impudent and hard-harted people not onely to speak and publish lies under your own hands one contradicting the other but to entitle the Righteous God to judge c. Thereby thinking to vail themselves and hide their shame but all in vain for the Lord is destroying the vail and the covering cast over all faces c. And ye are seen and comprehended who may read that he that speaketh lies cannot escape and that the lying lips and double tongue cannot stand in the presence of God And how dare ye then contrive and publish such filthie faise things and leave it to God to judge Do ye think he is altogether such a one as your selves c or is the scripture fulfilled upon you and there be none amongst you that understand it c. but are all gone out of the way the throat being an open Sepulchre and their tongues using deceit destruction and miserie being in your waies who the way of â—â—ace have never known
c. And so he goes on to manifest how Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists c. are all vailed with the same veile And therefore saith he what I say to one Sect I say to all ye shall speedily receive a totall rout Yee have gathered your selve together but ye shall be scattered yea yee shall be broken in pieces Ye all have built your outward house of externall discipline upon the sand and it must fall because it is not grounded upon the Rock Christ Ye have made your communion the ground of your union and that must fall because it is not the Lords but mans building And himselfe puts the question how he knew Presbytery Independency Anabaptisme and the rest of the Sects must down and answers if Abraham by faith did see the day of Christ coming in the flesh many years before he came why may not I saith he and others see the day of Christ coming in the spirit to destroy all fleshly forms some few years before it be finished And again saith he I have by faith seen all these opinions fall and have heard from many others that they have seen them fall also Therefore that which I have heard and seen declare I unto you that ye might have fellowship with the father and the son in the spirit for then saith he and not till then ye will give over saying as in effect ye do I am of Paul I am of Apollo Then ye will not so much cry up the forme but endeavour the power of godlinesse These with many more are his words as the Reader may see in his foresaid book Now therefore if it be true that all these formes are fleshly and are not built upon the Rock Christ but upon the sand are not the Lords but mens building and therefore must fall and be broken to pieces and scattered and speedily receive a totall rout And that he by faith hath seen it all fall and hath both heard and seen what he declared that is to say Christ Jesus coming in spirit to destroy them that people might have fellowship with the Father and the Son in the Spirit Then are Robert Purnell and you found directly in the steps and practice of your Fathers the Scribes and Pharisees who when Christ came in the flesh according to the Prophecies that went before said It was the Devil a blasphemer a friend to publicans and sinners c. For ye now that Christ in spirit in life and power is appeared mighty in dispensations glorious in revelation and very strong and powerfull in operation making great alterations changes and desolations in the earth and revealing himself from heaven breaking down and scattering what he hath not built nor gathered destroying and breaking in pieces those Forms and Sects of yours which he saith are fleshly not built by the Lord but men not upon the Rock but upon the sand and speedily receives a total rout c. I say since Christ is thus appeared against all those Forms that his people may have fellowship with the Father and the Son in the spirit and not cry up the Form but endeavour to know the power of godliness according to the very words himself hath said both Robert Purnel and you agree to call it the design of the Devil asking if I be not joined with all the Papists Atheists Ranters and ungodly rabble of the world in this one great design of the Devil to break in pieces the Churches of Christ And say hath it not been the attempt of one power after another to rent break and scatter the Congregations in England under the names of Independents Anabaptists Sectaries c And hath any party gone so far in this wicked practice as you c Nay say you was there ever any partie in England or the Nations adjacent that have offered the like violence to the Lord Jesus Christ his person in his Word in his Gospel his Ordinances his Saints his wayes c. as you and your partie have done c Notwithstanding it be the very thing and no other which he in his said Book saith By faith he saw Christ in spirit coming to perform a few years before it was finished which few years its like are now accomplished it being about eight years since the said Book was published so then that which Christ cometh in spirit to perform ye call the great design of the Devil and a wicked practice and those who with Christ in his work are joined bringing to pass his determinations ye say are joined with Papists Athiests Ranters and the ungodly rabble of the world But why do Robert Purnell you now call Independent â—nd baptized Assemblies the Churches of Christ when he had before declared them fleshly Forms and Sects not built by the Lord upon the rock but by men upon the sand and must fall and be broken and scattered and receive a total rout and that he saw Christ in spirit coming to destroy them that his people might have fellowship with the Father and the Son by the Spirit and that what he declared he had both heard and seen manifesting to all the world against your wills that that which ye call and cry up as the Churches of Christ and Assemblies of Zion are indeed but fleshly Forms and Sects not built by the Lord upon the Rock Christ but by themselves upon the sands which Christ comes in spirit to destroy and therefore must fall and be broken routed and scattered and that notwithstanding among your selves it is known and manifested to be so by a spirit of faith as R. P. sayes by which it was seen Yet ye hold the truth in unrighteousness and do erre from the spirit else might ye know that the Churches of Christ which are in God the Father are not fleshly Forms and Sects like yours but is a spiritual house an holy habitation for God by whom it is built upon the rock of ages the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Christ being the corner-stone against which all the gates of Hell and powers of darkness shall never prevail to break scatter destroy or cause to fall but as mount Zion shall it stand and a burthensom stone shall it be against all fleshly Forms and Sects that fight against it in this day of the Lords appearing in the power and glory of his spirit to break in pieces scatter and destroy all your fleshly Forms and Sects which he never built upon the Rock but your selves have built upon the sands and so are no Churches of Christ but the strong holds of Satan in which he having blinded their minds keeps his goods in peace and under pretence of beating up the form the power of godliness is there denyed and not known But the desires of the flesh and of the mind are there served equally as among other people and this I do see and know otherwise had I not declared it unto you And so into the pit that ye have digged are ye fallen and