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A64257
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Ignorance and error reproved being an answer to some queries that one John Reynolds wrote to two of the people called Quakers / by Thomas Taylor.
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Taylor, Thomas, 1618-1682.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing T577; ESTC R3441
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33,896
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37
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denied it as nothing in comparison of the All-sufficiency of the Grace of God and the Word thereof to which only at best he was but a Servant But if it could be manifest that any under or amongst you were Convinced of the Evil of their Ways in some measure and so in their Dark Minds set upon a seeking after the unknown God which is the most can be found amongst you and that rarely neither this is no warrant either for them to stay with you who are Ignorant of the Way out of Sin unto God neither is it any proof for you to be Gospel-Ministers nor your Ministry to be a Gospel-Ministry For the Gospel-Ministry is not only Convincing but Converting and Perfecting Eph. 4. 11 12 13. which work ye have utterly denied and so shut out your selves for ever from the Gospel-Ministry and amongst the Priests of the Letter Law at best must you be reckoned which made nothing Perfect and hence it is that you are such bitter Enemies to the Spiritual Ministration or New Covenant mentioned Rev. 8. And such earnest Contenders for the outward Shadows outward Law Tythes Temples Days Priests c. as is now every where found But for the True Power and Gospel-Ministration it is risen above all your Languages and Tongues and hath darkened the Glory of all your Fleshly Forms and Likenesses And the Babes of God are in Obedience to God turned and turning from you unto this his Power that perfects to God for ever And Pharoah and all his Host will not now be able to hinder Praises to the Lord God for ever Qu. 13. In this next Query thou goest on seeking false Covers to hide thine and your Nakedness asking How can the Quakers Condemn your Congregations because of some Wicked Unprofitable Hearers when Christ himself say'st thou did not Convert all his Hearers And for this thou bringest Mat. 11. 20. and Mat. 23. 37. and Isa. 49. 4. I say all this will not cover your Nakedness Oh ye Teachers nor your Congregations for what have you to do to compare your selves with Christ and his Holy Prophets You that deny the Immediate Revelations and Teachings of God's Infallible Spirit in these Days and instead thereof set up Schools of Humane Learning to make Ministers by O Hypocrites When will you give over perverting the right Ways of the Lord and leading the Blind into the Ditch You that love to be called of Men Master Greetings in the Market uppermost Rooms at Feasts chief Places in the Synagogues as the Pharisees did all which Christ dis-allowed What have you to do to compare your selves with Christ and his Prophets They are not Hirelings and Fighters and Pleaders for the Worlds Gain as you are And so tho' all that heard the outward Declaration or Sound of Christ or his Prophets Words were not Converted yet that makes nothing for you who have only a Sound and so Convert none to God But as I said before beget them into your own Images making them more able to Dispute against the Life of Truth than some others and so greater will be your Condemnation But now your Sheeps-Cloathing being pull'd off the Lord will be Glorified in his Power in the Conversion of many to himself without you For he hath rejected your Confidence and laid waste your Mountain and the Mountain of the Lords House is on the top of all your Mountains in this great Day of the Lord wherein in all the Children of the Lord are taught of the Lord and walk only in his Light which comprehends and teaches to avoid all the cunning crafty Ways of the Serpent and now not in your Congregations but in that Holy Assembly is the Swords beaten into Plow-shares and the Spears into Pruning Hooks and no War any more learned but under the Vine and Fig-tree all sit eating their pleasant Fruits and taking the Cup of Salvation and both Praying unto and Praising the Name of the Lord. But thou say'st we have Drunkards Fornicators c. among us as well as you and that they are with us at our Prayers if we have any and that they are not so severely dealt withal as yours are for thou say'st some of yours cast them out which we do not Answ. Yea thou false Accuser such are cast out from us and from the Church of God and with us they can neither Eat nor Pray but with such as are Ignorant of Christ and the Sufficiency of his Light and know no Light nor Teacher but a Letter without as thou hast manifested in thy Queries they may both Eat and Preach and Pray and when you cast out Drunkards and Fornicators from amongst you you must cast out your selves for in that Nature you and all Hypocrites are and so some of you are Drunk with Wine and strong Drink and some with the Cup of the great Whore some in the outward Fronications others in the inward and some in both so that your Tables are full of Vomit and every Bed defiled amongst you And for the outward Drunkards and Harlots and such like though we cannot but reprove and cast them out in that State yet this we say of them that they may sooner enter into the Kingdom of God than you that judge your selves free and are not for you are so Painted and Conceited that it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of Needle than for you to enter in and this makes your Wound more Uncureable for you neither enter in your selves nor suffer others And for those words in thy Parenthesis whereby thou questionest Whether we have any Prayer amongst us shows thee to be a great stranger to us and our Practice for Prayer with the Spirit and with Understanding we allow and are taught to practice and say with the Apostle Pray continually but the wicked Hypocrites the Lord rejects whose Prayers to God are Abomination and so it would have become thee to have said less of us and to have judged more soberly and moderately of us until thou hast known us better than thou hast done for thou hast little knowledge of us it seems by coming into our Assemblies but only judgest by Here-say and false Reports which brings thee under Condemnation and Shame when the Light now searcheth all things but your Ways and Practices are well known to such as are now come from amongst you and so in that they cannot be deceived And now John Reynolds to proceed I see much of the Wisdom of God in bringing thee forth thus to manifest thy self in thy Queries and the next three Queries that follow do with those already mentioned fully manifest thy great Ignorance of the Reformation of things brought to pass in Christ for the Law had but a Shadow of the good things and yet thou stickest not to plead for it and so thou hadst need learn the first Principles of the Christian Religion which thou remainest Ignorant of before thou be a Christian thy self much more seeing thou takest
if you could Preach freely that is without a set or forced maintenance in the state where you are that would not at all commend you to God or his People For you have run and God never sent you and therefore you remain so ignorant of him and profit not them that follow you for when did Christ bid you go to the Universities of the World to learn him there And when did he bid you go to such a place and such a place and there sit down and Eat the Fat and Cloath with the Wooll and Preach the Thoughts of your vain Hearts as you have done and would do and be guarded by the Magistrates Power that none should speak to you in your high Places nor going nor coming from thence O call to mind the day of your fulness and of your Pride the same measme you mete to others is God measuring to you you must be broken to pieces because you turn not to the Lord for all this And to the despised thing the Light in your Conscience you must come and how before it as others have done before you be healed and if it give you a word to speak you may speak it otherwise you must be silent or you perish The Lord is arisen and so if indeed you can kiss his Rod you may find Mercy but if you still go on justifying your selves in his sight you shall certainly moulder to nothing the Lord hath said it who is daily gathering his Lambs out of the Mouths of all Devourers Glory to his Name for ever But what Testimony of Jesus can you either give or suffer for who have so Vilified and Reproached the Spirit of Prophesie in Sons and Daughters in Servants and Handmaids in these Days For the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophesie And now all People I shall lay before you a little more the Condition of this John Reynolds and such like boasting Men who now thus cry up themselves for suffering Ministers of Christ as to this particular thing In the former times before the Wars when the Bishops had Rule there were some such that could not conform to all the Fooleries of those Days and so could not enjoy their fat Benefices though they loved them well enough and so instead of suffering in Old-England fled into New-England to avoid the Cross and so in process of time it came to pass that they got the Magistrates on their side there and then their Old Wolfish Hearts being still in them they fell on Persecuting the Servants of God that came amongst them to witness to Truth insomuch that of late years they have sucked the Blood of several of our Dear Members in Christ Three they hanged on a Tree cut the Ears of others Tortur'd the Bodies of many with cruel Whippings spoiled the Goods of many and Banished others for no other thing but for owning the Truth as it is in Jesus and meeting to wait upon him Qu. 8. The Eighth and next Query is such a vain and empty one that the very setting of it down will be in great measure an answer to it and it is this If there be no honest Men in the World that are not Quakers then is it not certain that no honest Men ever turned Quakers Then is it not certain that none but the Wicked ever turned from us and then where is our shame Again if all are Graceless Persons that are not Quakers then how can any Man turn Quaker if he will not first acknowledge himself a Wicked and Graceless Wretch Answ. O Crooked Twining Twisting Serpent How Cunning and Crafty wouldst thou here appear in thy vain Philosophy and false Science to cast a Mist before the Eyes of the Simple Yet Praised be the Lord the least Child of Light sees thee well and the Seed of the Woman shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt not proceed far but thy Folly shall be manifest to all as the Sorceries of Jannes and Jambres thy Fathers were for the Lord is already at work the second time to deliver his Israel out of Egypt and no Weapon formed against his Seed shall ever prosper but the Horse and his Rider shall fall and the Beast and False Prophet shall be taken alive and cast into the Pit and Everlasting praises shall be Sung to the Lord God Almighty by the Lambs of his Holy Fold as it is in Zion this day But let us see how this reaoning of thine would have helped the Jews and the Gentiles in the first times of the Gospel against the Christians and so setting down thy words for them only instead of Quaker putting in the word Christian thus If there are no honest Men in the World that are not Christians then is it not certain that no honest Man ever turned Christian and if so where is their Glorying And if all are wicked that are not Christians then is it not certain that none but the Wicked did ever turn from us and where is our Shame Again If all are Graceless persons that are not Christians then is it not certain that none but the Wicked did ever turn from us then where is our Shame Would this have been good Reasoning either to have disproved the Christians Doctrine withal or to have kept the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles in a safe Condition where they stood Nay all must bow to the Son of God in his rising and going forth for his going forth is prepared as the Sun in the Morning who rejoyceth as a Gyant to run his Course and to this Just One must every Knee bow and Tongue confess for his Way is in his Light Shining more and more until it be high Noon and perfect Day And the Gentiles though as honest as Cornelius Acts 10. and the Jew though as blameless concerning the Law as Paul in his first state was Phil. 3. must bow to him Yea further Let all the Angels of God Worship him But as for the Worlds Inhabitants both Honest and Wicked we know that the whole World lieth in Wickedness And so before you turn such Christians as quake and tremble at God's Word and work out their Salvation in Fear and Trembling you must be content to own your selves to be little less than Dishonest Wicked and Graceless Wretches though into the Truth Sinful Flesh and Blood cannot enter and though you will not now own the Grace of God to be your Teacher and so in that respect may be called Graceless yet you will one day know that the Grace of God which brings Salvation and would have taught you did appear unto you all and so God will be clear of all your Blood and your Destruction will be of your selves and so because you have not received this manifest Truth the Grace of God to be your Teacher therefore me you given up to believe Lies as is manifest Qu. 9. Thy Ninth and next Question is about Ordination and then Queries To what purpose did the Apostles Evangelists and Presbyters