was a lyer from the beginning is now cast out of heaven into the earth and he hath great wrath with the woman and the remnant of her seed who keep the word of God and testimony of Jesus but the arm of the Lord is stretched out over us and in his fear are we preserved from the rage of our enemies yea a pillar of fire to give us light goeth before us which is a cloud and darkness to our Egyptian like enemies that follow after us Truly my soul pitties you and my bowels hath even yerned on you for many dayes oh that you had an ear that you could hear and an heart that you could understand you have played the harlot and are departed from God and you have joyned your selves to another besides the Lord you have run a whoreing after your own Inventions and you have worshipped the works of your hands and your Pastours hath deceived you for the Lord doth not smile upon you but his jealousy burneth against you as a fire yet return and he may have mercy and whilst the Spirit of the Lord strives answer with obedience for he hath said his spirit shall not alwayes strive with man and while you have the light believe in the light and bring all your deeds unto the light that they may be proved and tryed whether they be wrought in God And now friends in the fear of the Lord deal honestly with your own selves and let us reason together and in the light of Christ Jesus weigh and try all things and see with the light which will deal plainly with you whether you are indeed such as you profess your selves and whether the ordinances you so much talk of be indeed the ordinances of Christ or but shadowes whether water baptism or the baptism of the spirit be the baptism of Christ since there is but one baptism whether you have heard the voice of Christ or seen his shape at any time that hath commanded you in the particular to take up those ordinances or a perswasion in your own minds from the letter when as the letter killeth or whether such a thing as water be commanded in the letter or your own Imaginations from the letter Whether the bread you break be the body of Christ or the cup you drink be his blood since it doth not cleanse you from sin whether the prayers you make be in the spirit and you can say in the presence of the Lord you lift up holy hands have them that teach among you the spirit of infalibility and revelation of the mind of Christ or they speak a devination of their own brain and hath not received the word of the Lord from his mouth but boast in anothers line and what themselves have invented and whether this be the spirit of God or the spirit of errour which is not of God and whether the Covenant and ordinances which doth not make the commers thereunto perfect be not that which is to be done away as weake and unprofitable whether your faith and preaching be not also vain forasmuch as you believe you shall never overcome sin while you live and your faith doth not purifie your hearts and since that as a tree falleth so it lyeth and as death leaves you judgment finds you and that there is no repentance in the grave whether you must goe and that nothing that is unclean or that worketh abomination or that maketh a lye shall ever enter the City of our God Therefore once more in the name of the Lord I warn you come out from among them all ye that are tender-hearted and that desires salvation to your soules come out from among them and be ye seperate and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you saith the Lord for whosoever cannot witnesse Christ Jesus a Saviour from sin in the particular shall never witness him a Saviour from condemnation refuse not to walk with a pure perfect people as T.C. saith we be and follow us no farther then as we follow Christ for we have the mind of Christ therfore own the light which convinceth you of sin for as living witnesses for the name of our God do we stand that the light which convinceth of sin is the true light that leadeth out of sin all them that walks in the light as he is in the light they witness the blood of Christ to cleanse from all sin which joyns us to Christ as members of his body whereby we receive the spirit of the Father to lead and guide us to do his will which is our sanctification which spirit revealeth the Son Christ Jesus the light who worketh all our works in us and for us whose work is perfect for we are no more our own but bought with a price so are we baptized by one spirit into one body and made conformable to his death who hath raised us to life glory be to his name for ever here is the Church in God the Father where the true Church Ordinances and fellowship is known and the true worship in spirit and in truth in which onely the father is worshipped lived in yea and we bear testimony according to the Scriptures that there is no other name given under heaven by which men can be saved but by Christ Jesus who is revealed in us our hope of glory this is he that hath told us all that ever we have done is not this the very Christ who was in the beginning with God whose day Abraham saw whom the professing Jews when made manifest who had the Scriptures of the Prophets who prophesied of him read every Sabbath day yet their voices they knew not but crucified the Lord of Life and put him to open shame as it is at this day Him hath God raised and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow this is he whom we bear testimony to Christ Jesus the same yesterday to day and for ever therefore take heed least ye be found fighters against God and no longer believe lyes but cast out the lyar from amongst you for the lyar is of the Devil and whilst you join with him you are one with him and must partake of his plagues Therefore hear and fear before the Lord for the Lord will rain snares upon the wicked and pour out shame and contempt upon his adversaries and go on speedily with your promise which you have promised the Lord in your Epistle That you will cast out sin or sinners out of the house of God so may the Lord have a Church free from sin upon the earth for he is come whose right it is and the Kingdom and the Government shall be his who will rule the Heathen with a rod of iron and break them in pieces like a Potters vessel And now have I eased my spirit and cleared my conscience towards you whether you will hear or forbear and the Lord will be clear of you when he cometh in ten thousands of his Saints to execute the judgements written this honour hath all the saints From him who was once owned as a Brother amongst you and since owned a brother by you whilst walking in the vanity of my mind running to the same excess of riot with you but since the Lord in mercy visited me and called me out of darkness into his marvellous light I have been hated and despightfully used by some of you who am known to many of you by the name of I. C. FINIS
accounted the Church of Christ in these dayes though imperfect Secondly Against the being of the seed of God and light of Christ within men thirdly against the Saints attaining to perfection and freedom from sin whilst in this mortal estate which is the very end for which Christ Jesus gave gifts unto his Ministers ordaining some to be Prophets some Apostles some Pastors and some Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the spiritual body till we all come in the unity of the faith unto a perfect man in Christ Jesus in whom the whole building fitly framed together groweth to an holy temple in the Lord and the Apostle saith know you not that your bodies are the temples of the holy Ghost i 1 Cor. 3.17 and if any man defile the temple of God him will God destroy k 1 Thes 1.1 and the Church is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ where nothing that is unclean can enter and the tabernacle of God is with men as he hath said I 'le walk in them and dwell in them though T C. have affirmed that God never had yet a Church in the world free from sin and so hath laid sin to the charge of Gods Elect for l John 3.8 he that commits sin is of the Devil and a servant of sin and so free from righteousness and this is the cause he hath undertaken to plead In the front or enterance into his paper he hath cited this Scripture to the Law and to the testimony if any speak not according to this rule it is because there is no light in them Now in regard he hath put in his declaration and goes about to plead a title or propriety that the man of sin hath and must have in the Church of Christ whilst here on earth and hath here cited the Law and Testimony which I own for a rule to try by I am constrained as Defendant to join issue and plead with him according to the Law of Truth in the presence of our Judge and Law-giver whose judgement is true and whose testimony is sure But first it is to be considered what the Law and what the Testimony is and where they are according to the Scripture Thy law is light Prov. 6. The law is spiritual Rom 7.14 The law gives the knowledge of sin Rom. 3 20. And behold the daye come saith the Lord Jer. 31. that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers which Covenant they break but this shall be the Covenant that I will make with them after those dayes I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts And again Heb. 10. I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more and this is the Covenant that makes the comers thereunto perfect and the Law which makes free from the law of sin and death and he that believeth hath this witness in himself and so hath set to his seal that God is true and the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesie and this is that sure word spoken of 2 Pet. 1.19 And we have also a more sure word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts mark In your hearts the Law in the heart the light in the heart the testimony of Jesus the sure word of prophesie in the heart the word of faith nigh in the heart And now to come to the matter he saith pag. 2. Christ was sent to save his people and not to save onely the oppressed seed or light within to which I say he was sent to set the oppressed free and to save his people from their sins and to open the eyes of the blind m John 9.39 that those that saw not might see n Mat. 18.11 and the son of man was sent to seek and to save that which was lost and the Lord of hosts hath left us a seed else o Rom. 9. we had been as Sodome yea like unto Gomorrah and this seed is within and we know that the whole Creation travelleth together in pain until now and not onely they but our selves also that have the first fruits of the spirit even we our selves have groaned within our selves for the redemption of the body which God hath prepared to do his will p 1 Cor. 15 who giveth unto every seed it s own body and he that is begotten of the immortal seed and born again of water and of the spirit is saved from his sin and he sinneth not neither can he because the seed of God remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3. Mark he cannot sin because he is born of God and because the seed remaineth in him But T.C. saith pages 2 3. It is language besides the Gospel of truth that Christ came to save the oppressed seed within and farther that he dare say it is such a salvation as never came into the heart of God nor was ever known to Prophets Apostles or Christ himself to save the oppressed seed of God in men with which his Covenant is made Here he hath contradicted the Scriptures of truth above-mentioned with many others that might be instanced likewise he hath contradicted himself for he with others of his brethren directs their Epistle from Tiverton to such as are called to be Saints through the immortal seed which dwelleth in them now if it be language besides the Gospel of truth to mention the oppressed seed within why doth he make use of the expression and if it be according to truth why doth he suggest that those who use such expressions are poor deluded people and because I said in the beginning of my Epistle to them I am constrained with compassion to the oppressed seed in you which groans to be delivered from the bondage of corruption c. he seems to render it an offence by false constructions arising from an evil affected mind wresting and perverting my words and then calling it a mear cheat to please children and sools as if it were a language not fit to be spoken of or once named among them that are grown so strong in the state of imperfection And because my Epistle was directed to the Anabaptists Churches so called and then I denied them to be the Church of Christ and told them that their presumption was seen that called themselves the Church of Christ and were not as their blasphemy was known that called themselves q Rev. 2 9. Jews and were not He calls this contradiction and confusion but the confusion is in himself as may appear to the impartial Reader of that
Epistle And this I say farther that although they be called and calls themselves the Church yet were they never owned nor by me called the Church of Christ for as I said before the Church of Christ is as a Lilly among thorns in relation to their condition expressed and confessed under their hands in print and it seems they have refused to return from their wickedness and great abominations if this man may be credited in what he writes concerning them page 8. where he denies not but they are guilty of those sins expressed and confessed in their Epistle from Tiverton but saith He trusts they shall be found so more if this be to be vile we shall yet be more vile Now how can they be more vile then they have rendred themselves in that one Epistle where they confess they have been drawing iniquity with cords of vanity and slavish fear hath stopt their mouths till the mouth of this iniquity hath almost devoured their poor Churches c. and that their affections to Christ are alienated and that the world like a Canker hath eaten out their time their strength their zeal and that the Kingdoms of the world hath bewitched them so that they are become cruel to servants and children exacting all their labours with many other offences by them confessed which may seem to render them vile and uncomely both in the sight of God and men and yet he is so impudent as to say if this be to be vile I trust we shall be more vile Let him that hath moderation judge if this be not to glory in their shame yet they pretend after all this to take some effectual course as they say to purge away sin and sinners out of the house of God which if they do not one of them will be left but to them it seems unpossible to purge away sin and sinners if it be true which is here affirmed by T.C. pag. 7. they that say they are without sin in this mortal estate they are none of the Church of Christ and after he hath reviled against what I wrote concerning the baptism that now saveth and the great salvation that is begun to be spoken of he confesseth it to be a blessed truth and then saith it is such a salvation as never entred into the heart of God Should I but search through his writings and set it in order before him contradiction and confusion would appear eminently therein but that is not my work nor intention neither shall I render unto him or any other evil for evil and railing for railing nor make him an offender for a word nor contend and strive about words for I have not so learned Christ and this I know that there is a witness for God in many of them that shall confess to the truth of what is by me written and it shall stand upon true record for ever though at present he loves not holy things nor cannot receive pearls but turns again to tear and rend him that freely offers them to such as are covering after the best things But now we shall proceed to his doctrine in opposition to perfection and the Saints freedom from sin to which I am called and constrained to make defence for the truths vindication as the spirit gives utterance and first to what he affirms pag. 5. Now to this I say first as concerning the Church or Churches of Christ that God never had a Church in the world free from sin nor were there any durst so to say except the Pharisees and Hypocrites the Quakers excepted Oh from whence is this man fallen and what is become of all those desires and pressing after perfection that once appeared in him see his general Epistle to the universal Church doth he and his followers now think to be made perfect in the flesh that have made so fair a shew of beginning in the spirit and such large pretences of holiness as he hath done how hath he mingled himself among the dishonourable vessels of iron and clay the very feet of the Image what damnable doctrine is this that he holds forth in behalf of the Prince of darkness Surely this will please the man of sin well to let him be exalted above all that is called God to plead his cause and interest in the Church of Christ to exercise Lordship over Gods heritage whilst here on earth for Sions sake I can no longer hold in for if we should keep silence that are called to contend for the faith which purifies the heart and hear the name of God and his doctrine blasphemed the stones out of the wall and beam out of the timber would cry out against this wickedness to say that God never had a Church here on earth free from sin This renders the r Eph. 1.22 23 body of Christ not to be without sin but let T. C. know whatever he affirm to the contrary that the Lord hath reserved seven thousand in England that hath not received the mark of the Beast in their fore heads nor in their right hands nor bowed to his Image nor defiled themselves with women nor with the pollutions of Idols besides a cloud of witnesses wherewith we are compassed about that in their generation fulfilled the will of God and walked before him with an upright heart as doth at large appear in the declaration of truth which agrees to the exhortation of Christ and the gifts given unto men by Christ who said be ye perfect even as your heavenly father is perfect Mat. 5.48 who also ascended up on high led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry till we all come in the unity of the faith unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. And the Minister of Christ whose preachng was not with excellency of speech nor with the enticing words of mens wisdom but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power he saith of himself and his fellow labourers Å¿ 1 Cor. 2. we speak wisdom among them that are perfect and their preaching was to the Churches of Christ whilst in the world though it is here affirmed that God never had a Church in the world free from sin nor none that ever durst so to say except Pharisees and Hypocrites And yet the Apostle saith concerning himself and the Church how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein for sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness Rom. 6. t Col. 2.10 and ye are compleat in him who is the head of all principalities and powers in whom ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with him in Baptisme wherein also you were raised with him
voice of a strange women therefore hearken diligently and be not as the untamed Heifer stuffing up and feeding upon the wind come off the barren mountains where you have been wandering in the cloudy and dark day and turn to the light of Christ Jesus in all your consciences who hath sent forth Pastors according to his own heart to administer freely as they have freely received and to turn people from the darkness to the light Let not a deceived heart lead you aside to heap up to your selves Teachers that cannot profit and so neglect this great salvation to that of God in all your consciences I commend these things to be answered with obedience to him that you may also come to have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and the Son in the light of life which the Scripture is a witness of and the true Christ q Col. 1.27 the hope of glory in us we witness and of him we bear testimony and for that faith r Jude 3. which was once delivered to the Saints which purifies the heart do we earnestly contend and in humility we can say that we have denyed self in obedience to Christ who is the resurrection and the life and he that is wise let him turn in hither for he that is of God heareth us but they that are of the world heareth us not because they have not heard nor known the Father and the Son of whom we bear testimony by whose grace we are saved And now if any among the Anabaptists or any other form whatsoever have but moderation to read this with the spirit and understanding they may have true information without an interpreter wherefore they are called to arise and come out of the state of imperfection and unto whom they must come that they may find rest for their souls and refreshment from Gods presence and let none be so foolish as to think that this doctrine will seduce or deceive them for we have the mind of Christ and Å¿ 1 Cor. 2.6 we preach wisdom among them that are perfect and we press after perfection wherefore I say of truth that you may prove all things and hold fast that which is good T. S. Ivelchecter the 12 day of the 1 Moneth 1658. A Lamentation taken up for the Churchs of the Anabaptists by John Collens with a call and warning for them to come out of the self separation into the foot-steps of the flock and to turn from the darkness to the true light FRiends you who call your selves Churches of Christ Jesus who have separated your selves not having the spirit to lead and separate you from your uncleannes and so are in the self separation out of the power of God which power maketh man willing to deny himself and take up the daily cross which crucifieth him to the world and the world to him where sin is nailed and the power of God received to resist the Devil which leads them captive at his will who live in sin and transgression which is the work of the Devil and all them that are led by him have not received the faith which giveth victory over him nor have not believed the Gospel which is the power of God to salvation nor received Christ Jesus to save them from their sins which all they that do believe do receive even power to become the sons of God and joynt heirs with Christ Friends in the Name and fear of the Lord God Almighty do I warn you and in bowels of love and tenderness do in Christs stead beseech you that in the light of Christ Jesus made manifest which never changeth but bears true testimony for God try and consider whether whilst you live in sin you are not servants to sin and doth the work of the Devil and the wages of sin is death and he that soweth to the flesh must of the flesh reap corruption and he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting you cannot serve two masters neither can you serve God and Mammon verily verily except you be born again you cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and he that is born of God cannot sin for his seed remaineth in him he that sinneth is of the Devil now friends in the cooleness and moderation consider whether you know this birth brought forth in you which cannot commit sin the seed immortal begotten of God which enters the Kingdom of God and try your selves how you stand in the presence of the Lord in singleness of heart and deceive not your selves with words for the gospel is not in word but in power a profession of God and Christ will not save you whilst you deny the power of God by which sin is crucified for whosoever committeth sin is under the Law and he was made manifest to take away our fins truly a lamentation is taken up for you how are you fallen how are your garments defiled how are you degenerated and fallen back to the love of the world with its customes fashioned and traditions with the lusts and vanities thereof renewing again those idolatries which formerly you have destroyed how is your leader and great Apostle amongst you Thomas Collier become an enemy of righteousness resisting the holy Ghost and perverting the right way of God preaching up sin and imperfection for term of life going about with all the strength he can muster up to establish the kingdom of the Devil in the Church of Christ raking up the failings of the Saints recorded to confirm the reign of the man of sin for ever condemning the generation of the just bringing in new destinctions to make the body of Christ an imperfect sinful body how doth be blasphem God his tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven who shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect how doth he slander reproach and falsly accuse the innocent and harmless Lambs of Christ Jesus yea the Lord is witness between him us and we call Heaven and earth to witness against him this day that these things * In his book called a dialogue between a minister and a Christian asserted by him as our principles never entered into our hearts our consciences bearing us witness in the sight of God though he like a whore hath wiped his mouth at a looking glass in which the children of light see much more of his deformity and wickedness having perverted the words in several books as he doth the Scriptures to his own destruction and out of his mischievous heart hath wrested their honest intents and taken pieces of sentences and raised it up a lie out of his own wicked heart upon them and then overturned his own work but that which is written in those books remaineth untouched by him his own lies being but wiped from them as any who are without prejudice may easily see reading over the things contained in those books who will sufficiently clear themselves but the Devil who