God By Christ or righteousnes H. N. sayth he meaneth the being like Christ not any ceremonial Christ so he seemeth to esteem the playn doctrines of the gospel to be but ceremonial that wheras we read there of one Jesus to be crucified for our syns c. this he couÌ„teth but a ceremonie shadow or figure such it may be as was the ram that Abraham offred or the beasts that Aaron killed or perhaps the parable that Jotham told for the true Christ that saveth men is the Lovely being that is in the Familists themselves this idol hath their god H. N. out of his prudency according to his fleshly mind set vp And this is a great secret or mysterie of iniquity H. N. 5. Herevpon my beloved mought ye or som other say we learn not or ther is not any thing taught vnto vs then out of the clear scripture which may not lie Yea my beloved the scripture lyeth not but al those which ar not instructed through the spirit of Christ they lie are beguiled signify or expouÌ„d the scripture which is spokeÌ„ through the holy Ghost shewed out in the spirit of life Iohn 6. vpon an earthy or elementish foundation wherthrough the man can not obteyn or get any renewing of the hart Even like as in the witnessing of the scripture ther is witnessed sufficiently to those that can vnderstand the same Who is ther without the word of the Lord which is spirit life Iohn 6. that hath atteyned vnto the salvation or who hath I beseech you in any world brought forth any true witnes vnlesse that he through the Spirit of the Lord which is his word become altogether born anewâ— H. A. UUE are sure the sacred scripture lâ—â—th not but H. N. which abusâ—th and falsifieth the scripture and denieth Jesus to be the Christ making Love and the Lovely Being in himself and his familie to be Christ as we have heard is by the Apostle condemned for a Liar and an Antichrist 1 Ioh. 2. 22. and he not being instructed through the Spirit of Christ hath taught an earthly and rotten foundation to the ruine of true religion The scripture cannot rightly be vnderstood or opened but by the Holy Ghost that is the gifts of the holy Ghost But some have the gifts of the Spirit which yet are not themselves altogither born anew as had Balaam the Scribes and Pharises Caiaphas Judas the traitor and others many which as the Apostle sayth Heb. 6. 4. were once lightned have tasted of the heavenly gift were made partakers of the holy Ghost Therfore it is false which H. H. writeth that none in any world brought forth any true witnes vnlesse that he became altogither born anew Againe he here brocheth another error in expounding the Spirit of the Lord to be his word which H. N. in his grosse vnderstanding perversly gathereth from Christs words Iohn 6. 63. the words that I speak vnto you are spirit wherby our Lord meaneth that his words were spiritual not that they were the Holy Spirit it self For he vseth the like phrase of a spiritual and regenerated man saying Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Iohn 3. 5. 6 Now seing H. N. describing his Communialty of the Love sayth Whosoever cometh into this good city he becometh altogither born anew in the spirit he may by like reason conclude that himself and his Nicholaitans are also the holy Spirit and so be a blasphemer against the Holy Ghost as he is against the Father and the Son The Scriptures teach vs playnly to distinguish between the word and the Spirit of the Lord this latter being cause and author of the former as it is written 2 Sam. 23. 2. The Spirit of the Lord spake in me his word was in my tongue and of al the prophets it is witnessed that they spake as they were moved by the holy Spirit 2 Pet. 1 21. The Apostle sayth this is the word which is preached among you and how they preached it an other sheweth when he sayth that by the spirit of God they knew the things given them of God and spake those things not in words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the holy Spirit teacheth that al men may see how ignorantly if not worse H. N. hath confounded the word and the Spirit of the Lord as if they were one thing H. N. 6. Note wel or consider of fellowship the estate or manner of the Apostles how that they although they went about so long tyme with Christ wer alwayes with him whiles the power of God was wrought through him vnderstood not what the mind of the Lord was concerning the godly causes before that the day of Pentecost or Whitsontide when that they received the holy Ghost was come vnto them Even like as there standeth written how that they sayd at the tyme when Christ was crucified among them we had hoped or supposed that he should have delivered Israel and it is now the third day and ther cometh nothing of it we wil goe a fishing For they supposed that Christ should have set vp a fleshly kingdom H. A. HEre H. N. to magnify himself as a spiritual and godded man spareth not to wrong the holy Apostles as if they before Pentecost Acts. 2. vnderstood not the scriptures nor preached the word truly wheras it is evident that they were sent and had preached the word long before Luk. 9. 1. 2. which word Christ had given them and they received Iohn 17. 8. 14. and were made clean by it Iohn 15. 3. and he had opened their vnderstanding to vnderstand the scriptures Luk. 24. 45. though afterward at Pentecost they received more plentifull graces of the spirit when Christ was gone from them Act. 2. 1. 2. 4. c. Again H. N. as if he delited to falsify the scripture sayth there standeth written how that they sayd when Christ was crucified we hoped that he should hav delivered Israel c. wheras these words were spoken by Cleopas and an other disciple which were none of the Apostles as appeareth Luk. 24. vers 18. 21 33. and to make vp his patcherie he addeth that they sayd it is now the third day there cometh nothing of it we wil go a fishing Wheras those two spake not at al of going a fishing but other men at an other time Ioh. 21. 3. By this the reader may mind what credit is to be given to H. N. his allegations of scripture who careth not to profane the holy word for maintenance of his lies and setteth things down as they come in his idle head But why say I so of this godded man seeing men ought not to distrust him nor suspect any manner of evil or vnwisdom by this Oldest Father whose eysight as himself sayth was clearer then Chrystal his vnderstanding brighter
as H. N. sayth according to the heavenly truth Wheras that which he meaneth by heavenly truth wil be found indeed to be hellish error he teaching such things of God and of Christ and of mans righteousnes as the prophets and Apostles have every wher condemned which anon will appear H. N. 3. Because that the same miserable doctrine and false wisdom of the flesh which gendreth her own righteousnes mought be made known and even so then to be forsaken therfore hath God now in the same last day showed his grace mercifulnes on vs poor wretched ones and hath declared vnto vs through his holy spirit his service of Love for to declare vnto al good willing ones through the self same service which is the true way to the everlasting life Therfore let everie one now through the same service of love be warned that he look wel hereto that he boast not himself in any of the works of righteousnes or take on the same to salvation neyther to condemnation before that he in the spirit of Christ through the love of the Father be renewed in al righteousnes of life Not that I mean in the elementish ceremonial righteousnes which the man setteth forth or occupieth out of his owne prudencie but I mean in that righteousnes which according to the heavenly truth is in the being of Christ and is set forth through the spirit of God For the Father is not honoured but through the Son that is no man may know eyther serve God but that he must be born out of the spirit of Christ even like as ther standeth written Ther availeth before God neyther circumcision nor vncircumcision but onely a new creature in Christ Iesus wrought through the Love Gal. 6. Therfore shal Christ in the day of judgements accuse and find faultie a flesh in their righteousnes even like as he saith I shal reprove or rebuke the world of their righteousnes Ioh. 16. That this is al what the man out of his first birth hath set vp for a righteousnes which is an enimy vnto God even like as he sayth Ioh. 10. They are al theeves and murtherers which are come before me that is whosover letteth himself think that he is a Christian before the spirit of Christ be born in him that same is a theef and a murderer For whosoever hath not the spirit of Christ the same belongeth not vnto him Rom. 8. Even like as Paul hath witnessed wher he saith I durst not speak any word vnlesse that Christ had spoken the same in me or through me Rom. 15. yea no man sayth he in an other place can name Iesus to be the Lord but through the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. A natural man sayth he testeth not the spirit of God 1 Corinth 2. My children saith Paul to the Galathians with whom I travel agayn in birth vntil that Christ be fashioned in you 1 Gal. 4. Here may we mark that without the Spirit of Christ ther is no knowledge of God And vvher God is not knovvn ther can ther not any doctrine be occupied to the mans salvation It is verie true H. A. THe author pretending to deal against that which he would faynest establish to weet the miserable doctrine and false wisdome of the flesh which gendreth her own righteousnes first draweth the readers to himself and his familie and the service of Love as being the declarers of the true way to the everlasting life now in the same last day But this is like the cariage of the whorish woman who caught the yong man and kyssed him and with an impudent face sayd vnto him I have peace offrings this day have I paid my vowes therfore came I forth to meet thee c. and H. N. hath no better warrant then his predecessor Mahomet who before him boasted himself to be the Teacher of the nations That the reader may discern the frawd of this falser I wil first briefly shew what doctrine he hath taught cōcerning God and Christ And then I wil proceed in answering this his Letter The God which H. N. treacheth to the world is not as the scriptures declare the true God vnto vs One eternal everliving infinite incomprehensible almighty vnserchable and vnchangeable Being who onely hath immortality and dwelleth in the light that none can attayn vnto whom never man saw neither can see vnto whome be honour and power everlasting Amen 1 Tim. 6. 16 Exod. 3. 14. Rev. 1. 4. Iob. 11. 7. 8. 9. 36. 26. Psal. 90. 2. 93. 2. 102. 26. 27. 145. 3. Act. 17. 25. Iam. 1. 17. But H. N. telleth vs of a God that was in the beginning as a light af life of one substance with the manly creatures For as he saith after in this letter God had created the man that he should be of one life one Being one Spirit and of one nature with God Now the manly creature we know was finite comprehensible not from eternity but had his beginning in the sixt day of this world and soon was changed from his estate and became like to the beasts that perish How then can it without highest blasphemie and dishonour of God be sayd or thought that God was of one substance with the man yet H. N. to bring his blasphemie to a higher degree if he may hath further manifested his mind thus See and mark ye beloved in the beginning when God made al things wel then was the Lord one Lord of his kingdom one God of his works ther was also no more but one God and one man and they were one and had in al one order being and nature for God was al that the man was and man was al that God was The Divil when he had the Serpent for his instrument the subtilest beast of the field durst not vtter such abomination vnto Evah as to say she should be of one substance with God or al that God was but only that she should be like vnto God knowing good and evil but here having gotten a new instrument H. N. which mystical letters may rightly be read Ha Nachash that is The Serpent who now is weren more old in evil more bold in falshood he shameth not to teach that God and man were one substance and being God al that man and man al that God was By this doctrine H. N. leadeth men at once from God to the Divil and deifieth the Serpent For the Serpent was too subtile for the manly creature the Divil deceived and overcame the man with al that he was his body sowl and spirit Now seing God the creator and man the creature had al one substance and being and the one was al that the other was it wil folow vpon this blasphemers doctrine that the man had as much power wisdom wil and ability everie way to withstand the Divil as God himself had but the Divil was too strōg and too wise for the man therfore also he was
that they might avoid persecution that in Christ Iesus neyther circumcision avayleth any thing nor vncircumcision but a new creature meaning that such as were graffed into Christ by faith vnto salvation from their syns they need not care in this estate for having or wanting the outward Jewish signe of circumcision but labour for that which it signified namely to become new creatures dying dayly vnto syn and living vnto righteousnes which fruits ar vndoubted testimonies that they ar in Christ. But H. N. corrupteth the words first saying Ther avayleth before God and then adding in Christ Iesus wrought in the Love meaning that a new creature in Christ which Christ is wrought in the Love for so he thinketh Christ to be the Lovely Being in vs as before is shewed this new creature avayleth before God for righteousnes and safe-making from our syns as his words elswhere are Thus careth he not how he wrest or what he add vnto the scriptures so as they may seem to serve his turn That the reader may see his deceit I wil shew what is his veyn and manner of reasoning Two things are given vs of God through Christ. 1. justification and 2. sanctification Justification is by the forgivnes of our syns for Christs sake and for the death that he once suffred for vs himself alone on the crosse whervpon followeth our blessednes and salvation and this justification we apprehend by faith alone After which foloweth the work of Christ in vs by sanctifying our bodies sowles and spirits and making vs conformable to his death burial and resurrection and furnishing vs with fruits and graces of the Spirit which being fruits of faith in Christ following the same are no cause of our justification or blessednes for that we have freely before given vs of grace Now coÌ„meth H. N. and he taketh this latter point of Sanctification and al such scriptures as speak therof and putteth it in place of the former to weet our justification making this our new birth and these fruits of faith to be the very cause of our happines righteousnes it self yea and Christ himself Which deceitful reasoning of his may further be manifested by a type and shadow of our redemtion shewed to our fathers traveling towards their outward rest in Canaan as we do now travel towards our eternal rest in heaven They in their journey were stung by fyrie serpents and many of them died To save them from this death a serpent of brasse was set vp on which who so looked was without any other salves or medicines healed of his deadly wound Then being thus healed they went forward on their way fought against the Amorites and other enimies and won the promised land and this they were to doe before they could have possession of the same If H. N. had then lived and should have perswaded the people that not the looking vp to the brazen serpent but their after journeyes and battel 's against the Amorites did heal them of their stings should he not haue belyed the work of Gods grace who without any work or war of theirs did heal them freely even so doth he in this The venim of Synn by the fyrie serpents the Devils tormenteth men and bringeth them to death Jesus Christ is lifted vp vnto vs as was the Serpent in the wildernes vnto whom we looking vp by faith are throughly healed After this God unployeth vs in a holy life and Christian warfare to subdue our lusts and affections and bring forth fruites of the spirit in sanctification Now coÌ„meth H. N. and telleth vs this holy life this Christian warfare is our righteousnes our safemaking from our syns and is Christ himself Thus is he an enimie vnto the grace of God and hinderer oâ—â—mans salvation seeking to procure it by the works of the law by which no flesh shal be saved and in stead of Christ would give vs an idol of his own fiction After this as vnsavourly and to as little purpose he alledgeth an other scripture wher Christ as he sayth in the day of judgemeÌ„ts shal find faulty al flesh in their righteousnes as he saith I shal rebuke the world of their righteousnes Ioh. 16. First it is to be observed that Christ spake these words of the Comforter the Holy Ghost which he being gone away would send to his Apostles Ioh 16. 7. as after came to passe Act. 2. 33. and sayth when he is come he will reprove the world c. but H. N. allegeth this that Christ himself should do it and falsifyeth our Lords words putting I for He the reason wherof seemeth to be for that H. N. holdeth not a distinctioÌ„ of the three persons in the Godhed as we professe according to the scriptures but ignorantly shuffleth and confoundeth al. Secondlly he addeth to the scripture saying their righteousnes wheras Christ sayth onely that the Holy Ghost should convince the world of righteousnes which may as wel if not better be vnderstood of Christs righteousnes then of the worlds especially seing the reason therof is rendred thus Of righteousnes because I goe to my Father Now though one may vnderstand it otherweise of the worlds feighned righteousnes yet is it overmuch boldnes in H. N. to put his own vnderstanding in sted of the text it self for this is the meanes to corrupt Gods pure word even as the mans hart is most corrupt Thirdly he referreth this to the day of judgements which is far from Christs meaning for he promiseth the efficacy and power of the Holy Ghost in his servants whiles he is absent from them before the day of judgemeÌ„t as the text sheweth to any wise hart But wherfore doth H. N. put in this may we think Doubtlesse to draw men vnto himself for he is the Comforter promised yea he is Christ himself and this day and time of his preaching is the day of judgements This is evident by his own words otherwhere For in his First Exhortation he thus writeth According to al the testimonies of the holy spirit of Love this gracious word and his service of Love is the Light and the day of the true judgement wherwith God with his holy ones accomplisheth and wherwith also he wil accomplish his judgement vpon the earth according to the truth In the Gospel of H. N. it is also thus written For behold in this present day the glorious coming of our Lord Iesu Christ with the many thowsaÌ„ds of his Saincts becommeth manifested which hath set himself now vpon the seat of his majesty for to judge in this same day which the Lord hath ordeyned or appointed the whol world with equity and with faithfulnes and truth according to his righteousnes And agayn in the same book Behold and consider my beloved how wonderfully God worketh in his holy ones and how that now in this day or light of the Love the judgement seat of Christ
fal down before idols wil deny their God of Love and wil worship the Papists God of bread in the Masse yea wil cōfesse or deny any point of doctrine and submitt vnto any Gods-service or religion And if they wil thus doe in things concerning God how much more may we think they wil so doe in things concerning men That if any Prince should be so wicked as to forbid al mariage on payn of death and cōmand or permit a community of womē or whordome these mē rather thē y e māly creature should perish would not spare to defile their bodies as wel as their sowles in al manner filthynes Yet syn they not as they perhaps think if their God of Love have their hart in hold and they be obedient to the requiring of the service of the Love for as H. N. sayth They know not of any other religion or godservice then of the service of Love But let vs further see if we can comprehend what H. Ns. position here doth imply If it be Gods wil that the manly creature should live and this be absolute and without restraynt then may not the Magistrate put any to death for any crime or make warre vpon any occasion for H. N. wil tel the magistrate he made not the natural man wherfore he cannot belong vnto him but vnto God his wil is that al shaped creatures should live and that it mought goe wel with them This Anabaptistical error is built on H. Ns. rotten ground and that the Familists doe indeed deny the vse of the sword vnto the Magistrate contrary to Pauls doctrine Rom. 13. and al vse of warrs may appear by H. Ns. words otherwhere complayning of the Land of ignorance which is every where but in his Familie that they make there many swords halberds spears bowes arrows guns pellets powder armor or harnesse c. for that the tyrannical oppressors and those that have a pleasure in destroying should vse warr battel therwithal one against another And because the taking away of the sword is the frustrating of the magistrates office for wherfore serveth he if not as for the wealth of the good so to take vengeance on them that do evil therfore it followeth necessarily that they condemne al magistracie in the church as do also the Anabaptists for H. N. sayth of his lovely city that no man reigneth over an other and that pleaseth God wel namely that the one man of God reigneth not over the other Thus vnder a colour that Gods creatures al should live he would abolish Gods ordinances who hath commanded that some malefactors should die and not live and bring confusion vpon civil polities as he hath vpon Christian religion Agayn in that he sayth al shaped creatures should live and then the manly creature so wel as any other wil it not folow also herevpon that Beasts must live may not be killed for the food of man For they are shaped creatures and made by God not by vs and so by H. Ns. learning cannot belong vnto vs and therfore may not be killed for our sustenance though God do playnly permit it in his law Gen. 9. 3. Deut. 12. 20. 21. 22. And so here is another doctrine of Divils as the holy Ghost caleth it comprehended in this Oldest Fathers deep head whiles by consequence he commandeth to absteyn from meates or els his ey-sight fayled him when he set down this reason But the Apostle gathereth quite contrary to this man as namely because The earth is the Lords and the plenty therof therfore we may eat al flesh 1 Cor. 10. 25. 26. Accordingly should H. N. if he had savoured the things of God have reasoned and concluded The Lord made our bodies and our sowles therfore it belongeth vnto vs to look that with both we glorify him The body is for the Lord therfore not for fornicatiō the body is the temple of the holy Ghost therfore it may not be prostrate before idols for what agreement hath the temple of God with idols the body is the Lords therfore it may not sit at the table of Divils and whatsoever the hethens or Antichristians offer they offer vnto Divils and we cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Divils Thus should H. N. if any Christian wisedome or grace had been in him have collected and inferred and not as now he doeth perswade the two daughters to communion with the church of Rome which the holy Ghost caleth the habitation of Divils because their bodies or lives are the Lords and it belongs not vnto them to lay down their natural lives for the testimony of Jesus at any time But if H. N. had known in any world what the true life meaneth he would not so have disswaded from suffring temporary death for the Gospels sake This present life which he so much estemeth is a dying dayly as the Apostle teacheth the true life is when the body having been sowen in dishonour shal be raysed in glory Of which raysing vp this Sadducee H. N. is vtterly ignorant as after shal be shewed and in his ignorance perverteth al religion and even reason it self for to maynteyn a momentany natural life though it be to the perpetual damnation of body and sowl in hel His conclusiō what the man must forsake that he may be recōciled to God not any thing els but his own life that is the man of syn c. is like his premisses ful of guile and errour and what truth is in it is against himself Erroneous it is to say or to insinuate that we may be reconciled to God by any thing that we can forsake be it syn or what els For our reconciliatiō to God is wrought by Christ alone not by ourselves when we forsake synn of which poynt we have before spoken Guileful it is to say or insinuate that Christ in willing vs to forsake our lives for his sake meant that by so doing we should be reconciled to God or that we do so esteem of any martyrs death The man doth by it as Christ signified of Peters death glorify God vnto whom he was before by Christs death reconciled False it is to say a man must not forsake any thing els but his own synful life for Christ telleth vs further of forsaking howses brethren sisters father mother wife children lands for his names sake and these I trow are not also the Man of syn that lieth hid in mans hart But it was farr from H. Ns hart to forsake any of these for Christ he loved his sensual life so wel Erroneous it is that our synful life is that man of synn spoken of 2 Thes. 2. of which poynt is to be spoken in the next place And this onely truth that we should forsake our own synful life overthroweth H. Ns doctrine and his disciples practise For syn it is and a continual synful
creator who is blessed for ever Amen To al then that H. N. can say for his own Godhed or his disciples let al true Christians answer as Jeremy taught the Jewes to answer the men of Babel The Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shal perish from the earth and from vnder these heavens Ier. 10. 11. By this the reader may perceive what a poysoned religion this Nachash H. N. hath brought into the world concerning God Now for his Christ H. N. teacheth vs not according to the scriptures of one particular man of the stock and generation of the Jewes born about xvi hundred yeres agoe in Bethlehem who himself alone being God equal with the Father before the world was and in that fulnes of time took vnto him our humane nature bare in his own body the syns of al his elect and by that once offring of himself vpon the crosse hath purged them al from al their syns c. No H. N regardeth not as after in this Letter sect 11. he sheweth this knowledge that in times past ther was one Christ in Israel which was born amongst his own c. but telleth vs of a Lovely being and a holy life this is his Christ. For in his First exhortation he sayth walk with your spirit in the Lovely and vertuous Being Fasten your mind therto and build your righteousnes theron For that is an eternal and fast standing foundation wheron al Gods prophets and holy ones have builded and is Christ himself Agayn in the same book he sayth After a little time of your distresse and anguish or heavines the Lord wil bring his Christ that is his best beloved and most holy being in power and glory vnto you In this his Epistle to the two daughters he expoundeth Pauls words 1 Cor. 13. though I had al faith c. if I had not love it were nothing that is sayth H. N. whosoever hath not Christ he is with uâ— God thâ—rfâ—re also in an other place he caleth Love the vpright Being of Christ himself And because this Lovely life and being appeareth dayly fresh and new in those that come to the family of Love therfore they professe to beleeve not that Christ was but that he Iâ—â—â—â—â—eived of the holy Ghost through the power of the most highest born of the H. virgin Mary And wheras the scriptures teach that Christ suffred for vs and for our syns H. N. 〈…〉 Christ beareth in vs our syns The scriptures teach that by the obedience of one meaning Christ many are made righteous he hath washed vs from our syns in his blood he was once offred to take away the syns of many and with one offring hath he consecrated for ever them that are sanctified H. N. teacheth vs that Christ vnder the obedience of the Love of his Father is gone before vs therin for that we should in like manner follow after him vnder the obedience of his Love in his death of the crosse to the safemaking of vs from our syns Thus must we save our selves by our own suffrings and Christ set forth vnto vs in the scriptures is but an example to teach vs what we must doe But what should I stand longer vpon this point for the Familists hold and professe that an obedient and godly life is Christ Iesus and so their doctrine of Christ agreeth with their former doctrine of God both being wretched and blasphemous Having thus opened the groundwork of H. Ns. religion it shal be the easyer to discerne his frawd in this Letter which I now wil particularly answer Let every one now through the same service of Love sayth this author be warned that he boast not himself in any of the works of righteousnes or take on the same to salvation neyther to condemnation before that he in the spirit of Christ though the love of the Father be renewed in al righteousnes of life In that H. N. sayth before he be renewed he playnly intimateth that his deadly error that after men are renewed they may boast in and take on their works to salvation contrarie to Pauls doctrine who sheweth that not onely the vncircumcision the vnrenewed Gentiles but also the circumcision the renewed Jewes should be justified of God by faith which faith excludeth mans rejoycing or boasting and al works of the Law He confirmeth it also by Abrahams example who though he were renewed in righteousnes of life had nothing to rejoyce of with God but was justified by faith alone and as he so we al shal have faith not works imputed to vs for righteousnes But H. N. speaking of the 10. commandements given on mount Sina caleth that law God 's eternal true living righteousnes that he would have to be erected through his people Israel vpon the earth and wherin al the children of men generations and heathen should live Wherin his doctrine is quite contrary vnto Pauls who sayth if ther had been a law given which could have given life suerly righteousnes should have been by the Law but the scripture hath concluded al vnder syn that the promise by the faith of Iesus Christ should be given to them that beleeve Now the way of life the Apostle had before shewed in the same chapter saying it is evident that no man is justifyed by the Law in the sight of God for the just shal live by faith and the Law is not of faith but the man that shal do thoâ—e things shal live in them H. N. therfore teaching contrary to the Apostle as we have seen even a miserable doctrine and false wisdome of the flesh which gendreth her own righteousnes is by th' Apostles commandement to be holden accursed Gal. 1. 8. And this gift of his hath no witnesse of the holy prophets or Apostles to confirm the same but by his predecessor Mahomet is wel approved for eveÌ„ so did he teach the Turks That the Law of God is not impossible and intollerable howsoever the Apostles say the contrary Rom. 8. 3. Act. 15. 10. and that they which keep the the Law are joyned with God saved After this H. N. sheweth that he meanes not the elemetish ceremonial righteousnes but that which according to the heavenly truth is in the Being of Christ for this we had heard is his heaveÌ„ly truth that every man should have the Being of Christ or be Christ himself His proof herof is The Father is not honoured but through the Son that is sayth H. N. no man may knowe or serve God but that he must be born out of the spirit of Christ. And thus he leadeth the daughters by degrees to their own new birth for their righteousnes and salvation and to maynteyn this heresie he corrupteth and abuseth the scripture Gal. 6. 15. wher Paul sayth against such as vrged Christians to be circumcised
then the Sun H. N. 7. The whiles then that the Apostles which dayly went about with Christ and had the word of the Father dayly among them vnderstood not the Spirit of the Lord how should then the multitude of these which now say that they are Christians yet neyther have nor know spirit nor word but go on with their fleshly prudencie in the literal scripture and set forth the same with their fleshly harts before the simple people as it seemeth best vnto them and say even so very stowtly we have the word of the Lord wheras it is but their own word wherin that they through their own prudencie are gendred or begotten feel eyther perceiv the same H. A. THe application of this invective belongeth to H. N. himself and his Nicholaitans who out of his fleshly hart as seemeth best vnto him though against the literal scripture setteth forth his forgeries to the simple people yet boasteth very stowtly that he is anoynted with the holy ghost in the old age of the holy vnderstanding of Iesu Christ godded with God in the spirit of his Love made heyr with Christ in the heavenly goods of the riches of God illuminated with the spirit in the heavenly truth the true light of the perfect being elected to a minister of the gracious word c. so that in him and his sect the prophesie is fulfild which foretold how in the last dayes men should be lovers of them selves boasters proud cursed speakers c. 2 Tim. 3. 1. 2. But if the Apostles as he sayth vnderstood not the spirit of the Lord how should then he that is sold into syn and given over vnto heresies which are works of the flesh feel or perceiv the same H. N. 8. It is true they have the scripture and the same giveth witnes of the Lord and of the word but is not the word it self Iohn 5. neyther yet may any man vnderstand the witnessing of the same vnlesse that he hath first inherited the spirit of the Lord in the second birth H. A. ONe evil and heresie draweth on another wher God restreyneth not men by his grace Here H. N. denieth the scripture to be the word of the Lord saying that it giveth witnes of the Lord and of the word Which he would gather from Christs speech Iohn 5. 39. Serch the scriptures for they testifie of me but he abuseth the scripture and concludeth amisse as if because it giveth witnes of the Lord Iesus therefore it is not the word the contrarie wherof is true it giveth witnes of him therfore it is his word For Christ playnly calleth that which is written in the Law the word Iohn 15 25. and so doth Paul Rom. 9. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 54. and Peter 2 Pet. 1. 19. The scriptures for we speak not here of the essential word of the Father which is Christ himself are the word of the Lord written even as the lively preaching of the prophets and Apostles was the word of the Lord spoken The beginning of their books sheweth this as Hos. 1. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea Ioel. 1. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Ioel and many the like It is sayd Exod. 20. 1. God spake al these words and in Exod. 24. 4. it is said Moses wrote al the words of the Lord. If then that be Gods word which is spoken that also is his word which is written and H. N. is but an instrument of Satan to teach otherwise that he may bring his own word in the place If the scripture be not Gods word because it is a witnesse then the Holy Spirit which H. N. made the word before in sect 5. is not so seeing that is a witnesse also 1 Iohn 5. 6. yea Christ is a witnesse Rev. 1. 5. God the Father is a witnesse 1 Iohn 5. 9. 10. the Apostles also were witnesses Luk. 24. 48. If then that which is a witnes is not the word then none of these but H. N. and his dreames must be the word to weet of the Serpent and he indeed is no witnesse of God neyther do his writings bear testimony to the truth but seek to destroy it H. N. 6. Oh my beloved look into the same a little with me what vncertayn witnessings that we out of an earthly or a natural Being have followed after even vntil this day We may wel say with the Prophet it is altogither lies what the scripture learned preach eyther teach for asmuch as they do reject the word of the Lord Ier. 8. Here giveth the prophet a distinction or diversity betwixt the word of the Lord the witnessing of an vnregenerated man which he bringeth forth out of the Letter of the scripture H. A. THe more we look the more indeed we see what vncertayn witnessings you H. N. out of an earthly Being have followed after even vntil this day This stil more and more appeareth in your abusing of the prophets and Apostles Here you would father a distinction vpon Jeremy as if the word of the Lord and that which is written in the scripture were not one and the same the Prophet teacheth no such thing but blameth the Jewes for rejecting the word in truth and deed whiles they boasted to be wise and to have the law with them Ier. 8. 8. 9. He denyeth not the written law to be the word for I have before proved that it was Gods word Exod. 20. 1. 14. 4. but sheweth how vnregenerate men wil abuse it and yet boast of it as your self H. N. are found to falsify the word and yet vaunt your self to be a godded man and minister of the gracious word Every jod and title and consequently every Letter word and sentence of the scripture is Gods vndoubted word though yow and al Divils should deny it the false glosses and heresies that yow and other vnregenerated men gather from it are the word of Satan which the scripture it self by help of Gods spirit evidently doth disprove and so the word of the Lord endureth for ever and that is the word which the Apostles preached 1 Pet. 1. 25. and what they did preach is recorded in their writings H. N. 10. Oh if these men which now so boldly or freemindedly doe say that they are Christians and wil alwayes confesse Christ with the mouth had eyes to see the right spirit for to vnderstand then should they surely cease or leav off for to walk in the strange or erring wayes 11. There is read in the scripture that Christ should be confessed or acknowledged which is a very true witnes but the mind or meaning of the Lord therin do verie few vnderstand And many suppose whiles they have read in the scripture of one Christ likewise through their industry or prudencie they know that in times past ther was one Christ in Israel which was born amongst his own that the same when they know it confesse it with their
vs to be our own saviours we our selves must conquer the death divil and hell for as wee have heard our own Lovely Being that is H. Ns. Christ. And wheras the Apostles teach vs that forgivnes of syns is by Gods imputation of Christs righteousnes and death and not imputing our syns vnto vs and that our fayth in Christ is imputed vnto vs for justice Rom. 4. 6. 8. 24. 25. 2 Cor. 5. 19. H. N. hath put imitation in stead of imputation saying that through the dayly God-service and offring in the Holy in the taking vp of our crosse in the Imitation of Christ in his death we obteyn the remission of syns Therfore he willeth vs to follow after Christ in his suffring for those are the dayes of affliction heavines and death wherin Christ hath gone before vs in the Holy for to prepare vs throuh the same death of the crosse the everlasting forgivnes and redemtion of syns Agayn in his book called The spiritual land of peace he telleth vs of an Instrument wherwith all enimies be overcome This instrument of victorie is the crosse of Christ not that which Christ of whome we read in the scriptures died himself on and triumphed in the same over the principalities and powers Col. 2. 15. but that which we bear in imitation of Christ it is named patience or sufferance such as is mentioned Heb. 12. 1. Iam. 5. 7. and it sayth H. N. is the true altar in the Holy vpon the which the true meat offring is that is given to the faithful beleeving travellers to eat and also the true drink offring that is given them to drink which meat offring is named the flesh or body of Iesu Christ and the drink offring is named the blood of Iesu Christ. And the same body and blood of Iesu Christ is vnto the constant faithful traveiler in the proceeding on in his pilgrimage a true mediator to lay away the syn in the flesh to establish the promises with him that are made to the Fathers Thus the things which are spoken of Christ and his oblation of himself and of our partaking therof by faith this man perversly applyeth to our own patient suffrings and maketh Patience to be our victory contrarie to the evident doctrine of the Apostle who sayth that it is Faith 1 Iohn 5. 4 5. Agayn the scriptures teach not that our Christianlike nature but that Christ himself in his own person for vs by death destroyed him that had the power of death which is the Divil and so delivered al vs his children which for feare of death wer all our life time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14. 15. but H. N. teacheth that Christs death is our like suffring as appeareth by his First exhortation where he sayth that the man ought in his yongnes to learn to take vp his crosse on him to follow after Christ his Saviour in his like suffering and death of the crosse and to shew forth patience with Christ against all the assaultings vntil that all the enemies or adversaries of the Lovely life through the death of Christ that is in maner of suffering be vtterly vanquished By these wordes and the scriptures which he quoteth it is playne that he meaneth our own suffrings in imitation of Christ to be our vanquishing the enimies and our salvation which heresie he every where out of his own carnal wisdome vrgeth and perswadeth to the dishonor of our Lord Jesus and magnifying mens own sufferings and merits And if we look further what H. N. meaneth by his Death Divil and Hel we shal find these also to be idols and fictions of his own that in deed his victory is like his Christ even erroneous fabulous and blasphemous The holy scriptures teach vs of a death in syn when men are wholly given over therevnto Ephe 2. 1. contrary to which is a death to syn by sanctification of life Rom. 6. 2. They teach vs also of a death for syn that is a reward of eternal punishment in hel Rom. 6. 23. Gen. 2. 17. Iam. 1. 14. called the second death Rev. 2. 21. 20. 14. Vnto which the Divils and all reprobate men shal be condemned for ever and ever for their syns at Christs appearing Mat. 25. 41. 46. Now H. N. playing the part of the old Serpent which perswade Evah that she should not die perswadeth his disciples that here in this present world and life is death and hel so the judgement the fyre the condemnation threatned in the scriptures he maketh fantastical imaginations or humane affections For as with him the Love and to walk in the Lovely vertuous Being is Christ himself so on the other hand inveighing against them that speak evil by the service of Love and the minister of the same he sayth their false Being is the Divil the Antichrist the wicked Spirit the kingdome of Hel and the Majestie of the Divil himself Now the punishment for this is the Sentence which H. N. who as we have heard vaunteth that he sits on the throne of Christ to judge the world pronounceth his condemnation of the false Being is eternal death and hel fyre as appeareth by his Crying voice where he calleth al men to himself to Come al and cōfesse their syns and make known vncoveredly the inwardnes of their harts to the end that they may become justified or purged from all their synnes and received into the holy Communialty of the Love when as now in thissame day the wicked world becommeth judged with the Lords mighty hand Which wicked world sayth he is reserved or kept in store til vnto this same day of the Love to the fyre of hell for to be condemned in the self same day of the Love for evermore to her eternal cursing judgement of the fyers cruel vehemencie And a little after he addeth Verily now in thissame day when as now all vngodly and all selfwise with al vnrepentant persons and false harts of the scripture-learned c. inherite with much smart and grief in the vehement crueltie of the fyre of hel the terrible condemnation then shal the people of God namely the whol communialty of the Love of Iesu Christ c. rejoyce them in all Love c. And that this their joy is like Epicures in this present world and life and in their counterfeyt regeneration and godded estate he elswhere playnly confirmeth saying that in their citie of Peace there is a watchman on the wal therof that hath a trumpet named After-this-time-no-time-more and that the watchmā foūdeth out of the same last time as out of the last trumpet the sound of the everlasting life after the which there is no life more to be wayted for for the same life continueth for evermore Therfore in the conclusion of his Crying voice when he had bidden all Come now hither to the Love and her service he addeth Come now al hither to
Christian baptisme consisteth of an outward washing with water by Christs Minister and of an inward washing with the holy Ghost by Christ himself Ioh. 1. 33. Act. 8. 38. and 10. 47. The outward washing of the flesh without the inward clensing of the hart is not avaylable to salvation 1 Pet. 3. 21. Yet may not the outward action be despised or neglected For as the true circumcision was of the hart in the spirit yet if any had not circumcision also in his flesh he was to be cut off from his people as having broken Gods covenant so is it likewise for baptisme come in place of circumcision Act. 2. 38. Colos. 2. 11. 12. The outward baptisme many do rightly receive which have not the inward as did Symon Magus Act. 18. 13. 20. 21. The inward none have in deed and truth that do despise the outward we teach that these both must be joyned togither according to the scriptures and labour for both The Familists therefore which boast of their inward baptisme and administer not the outward among themselves but present their children to be baptised of Papists or any other Antichristians so offering their children vnto Molech and perswading others to do the like shew themselves to be farr from true Christian baptisme which defile their bodies and sowles with such hypocrisie and idolatrie And H. N. which laboureth here to disswade these two daughters from suffring and witnessing against Popery bewrayeth himself not to have known Christ in any world nor can he shew Christs shape to be in him whiles vnderhand he teacheth grosse impietie pretending inward baptisme and spiritual regeneration But the drift of this man is by his invective against others to allure men to himself for when he concludeth with his exhortation that every one should humble himself before the might of the Lord and trust vpon his grace his meaning is as elswhere he explaneth himself Let your selves now in all your being nature minde and disposition become renewed through the Love in her service and give all your vnderstanding captive vnder the obedience of the Love and humble your selves even so vnder her service to the end that ye all may become washed in the Love with the pure water of the Love For to become washed in the Love with her pure water is the vpright washing and the true Font of the regeneration or new birth Now seing thus harlot-like he allureth all men to his stollen waters within his lovely Family for th'vpright washing let vs see what manner of washing and baptisme that is which he so boasteth of In this Letter he coucheth his heresie in a word namely that Being of Christ wherby the meaneth that the man or the lovely Being in the man baptised is Christ himself as before is manifested and after shal further appear This error he would ground on the Apostles words Gal. 3. 27. For all ye that are baptised into Christ have put on Christ which place this author thus allegeth so many of you as are baptised have put on Christ. Where first as his maner is he corrupteth the text it self by taking away those words into Christ and saying onely baptised wherby he would intimate that none are rightly baptised but such as have put on Christ contrary to the scriptures which shew that Symon Magus and many others were rightly baptised as touching the Ministerie of man which yet had not put on Christ because they were not baptised into Christ as the Apostle here addeth but H. N. omitteth Agayn he gathereth that which the Apostle strowed not namely that to put on Christ is to have the Being of Christ in vs but this H. N. fansieth to himself for the spirit of God speaketh not so yea the Apostle meant farr otherweise as his former words shew wher he sayd for ye al are the sonnes of God by faith in Christ Iesus So Christ is put on by faith as also elswhere he is sayd to dwel in vs by faith not by a real or essential Being such as the Familists feign to themselves by the spirit of error Now to Beleeve in Christ and to have the Being of Christ that is to be Christ himself are farr differing things as all men know And as wel might the Familists plead that Abraham was God because he beleeved in God and that the multitude of Israel were the Lord because they beleeved in him as that men are Christ or have the Being of Christ because they beleev in him and by beleef have put him on Neither can our imitation or following of God or of Christ in the likenes of his death and resurrection make the Being of God or of Christ to be in vs any more then our following of the Apostles which also we are exhorted vnto can make vs of one Being with them How absurd these things are any reasonable man may see Yet such absurdities many ar the groundly documents of this oldest Father H. N. touching Baptisme and other mysteries of religion as is more playnly to be seen in his First exhortatation For there treating of Baptisme and having described God to be a might Spirig a perfect cleer Light and a true Being he addeth that the same Being is God the Fathers name meaning that Name of the Father into which we are baptised and his Love it self No word of God telleth him this but he forgeth it out of his fleshly hart The Being of God as we may learn by the Scriptures is such a thing as neyther men nor Angels can know or comprehend how then should they Be the same 1 Tim. 6. 16. Isa. 6. 2. Psal. 145. 3. Iob. 11. 7. 8. and 36. 26. But the Name of God is that wherby in some sort he hath made known and manifested himself in his word and works Exod. 3. 15. and 6. 3. 33. 19. Deut. 12. 8. 11. Psal. 9. 11. After this having discoursed of the Fathers plucking vs to the Love of Christ and so baptising vs into the name of the Father and this by the Familists in the administration of the holy word vnder the obedience of the Love with the Law of the Lord and with his correction c. H. N. telleth vs that God the Father with the discipline of his Law manneth himself with vs and we become likewise Godded with him to the end that we through his own Being should bear as men of God his holy Name vnder the obedience of his Law c. Wherin this heretik vttereth double blasphemie first that God the Father manneth himself with vs by which doctrine Athâ—an like he spoileth God of his true Being his simplicity immutability infinitenes and the like which the scriptures shew to be in God Deut. 6. 4. Iam. 1 17. 1 King 8. 27 Secondly in saying that men become Godded with him he wretthedly extolleth corruptible man into the throne of the incorruptible God confounding heaven and earth the
his shadow and figure Howbeit herein he was overseen to gather his pedegree frō the Papacie which he enought much better have fetched frō the holy scriptures but that he is an enimy to scripture learning as he oftē bewrayeth For H. N. the greatest in the Family who is as himself sayth Godded with God in the spirit of his Love Because The God of heaven as the Father himself is come down bringeth in the service of his Love himself with his Christ his holy Ghost with al that which with him is Gods vnto his obedient man H. N. Godding the same with him he hath manned him with the same This new God of the Nicolaitans is described in scripture thus They have a king over them which is the Angel of the bottomlesse pitt for so also H. N. sayth he was raysed vp from the death whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek he is named Apollyon in al languages The destroyer The doctrine taught by this H. N. corrupting and darkning al the holy scriptures was figured out by the smoke of the botomlesse pit which darkned sun and aier And the ylluminated Elders of this Family ar pourtrahed out by Locusts that came out of the smoke of H. N. his heresies with stings in their tayls like scorpions to wound mens cōsciences by their deceivable doctrines This had ben a directer and playner pourtrature of the Familists then that figure fetched frō the Papists And thus we may perceiv it was not without cause that H. N. cried out Oh oh no the Antichrist is neerer vnto vs wer it wel knowen when in deed so great a monster of Antichristianity was hatched in his own bosome who thus hath Deified hmself and blasphemed God Neyther is he a friend to Popery onely and a Lover of the whore of Babylon but of Judaisme also that he may appear to be quite abolished from Christ. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrewes proveth at large the abrogating of the Levitical Priesthood and sacrifices by the coming of our high priest Christ Jesus and sacrifice of his own body according as was prophesied of him that he should cause sacrifice and oblation to cease and for the Jewes that would stil continew their figurative worship he sheweth them to have no part in Christ when he sayth We have an altar wherof they have no authority to eat which serv in the Tabernacle But H. N. teacheth vs that the services of Aarōs priesthood are yet necessary for some in these words Oh alas how grosly hav then certayn wise of the world and scripture-learned overreached them herein which have without diversity forsakē the law the service of the Elders Testamēt and of the Priests office after the ordinance of Aaron and set back the same as a thing vnneedful not once distincting vnto whom the service after the ordinance of Aaron is yet necessarie nor yet with whom the same at th' appointed time ceaseth or leaveth off Thus H. N. sheweth how good a friend he is to Jewes and Papists But his enmity agaynst Christ and his Gospel can not easily be opened it is in so many particulars He thrusteth himself into Christs throne and maketh himself the Judge of al the world For behold sayth he in this present day the glorious coming of our Lord Iesus Christ with his many thowsands of his saincts which hath set himself now vpon the seat of his Majestie for to judge in this same day which the Lord hath ordeyned or appoynted the whol world with equitie c. with many like speeches as before is shewed wherin the scriptures which foretel of Christs comming to judgement at the worlds end H N. applieth to himself and so the playn doctrines of the gospel are made but fabulous by this blasphemers allegorie and he sheweth himself to be the Father of those mockers that wer foretold should come in the last dayes which walking after their lusts should say where is the promise of his comming c. Now because at Christs comming must be the resurrection of the dead therfore that one errour necessarily draweth on another namely that the resurrectiō is past already which was the kanker wherby Hymeneus and Philetus in the Apostles dayes destroyed the fayth This heresie hath H. N. published in his Gospel saying Behold in this present day is this scripture fulfilled and according to the testimony of the scripture the raysing vp the resurrection of the Lords dead cometh also to passe presently in this same day through the appearing of the cōing of Christ in his majestie Which resurrection of the dead seing that the same is come vnto vs from Gods grace we doe likewise in this present day to an Evangelie or joyful message of the kingdome of God Christ publish in al the world vnder the obedience of the Love In which resurrection of the dead God sheweth vnto vs that the tyme is now fulfilled that his dead or the dead which ar fallen a sleep in the Lord rise vp in this day of his judgment appear vnto vs in Godly glory which shal also from henceforth live in vs everlastingly with Christ and reign vpon the earth Thus hath this Sadducee overturned that mayn groūd and principle of Christian religion without which our fayth were but vayn and we were of al men the most miserable And that his religion might be even a sink of synful errors he hath taught that in their Lovely societie they do not vow or bind themselves in the matrimony of men nor yet suffer themselves to be boūd therin but are like the Angels of heaven to verify the Apostles words that in the latter times some should teach and give heed vnto doctrines of Divils forbidding to marry c. Now seeing he sayth in another place that they commit not any adultery for they are honest chast of life and clean or pure of hart what may we think is among them but a cōmunity of al men and women yet without syn as they suppose so long as it is not with them of the World especially seing he sayth also further There is no man that claimeth any thing to be his own as to possesse the same to his own private vse For no man that out of every ones good disposition can desire any thing to be his own or yet to make any thing proper to himself from an other but also whatsoever is there is free is there left free in his vpright form Ther is also no man denyed to vse any thing in freedom of al what is profitable and needful for him for they stand all in the equitie as one in the Love and again That they know not of any other religion or God-service then of the service of Love and to love one an other and so to keep themselves pure and vnspotted of the world Which writing of H. N.
and folowed his corrupt counsel then were they led captive as the Apostle sayth being simple women laden with synns and led with divers lusts From which estate God keep al his people direct their feet in the wayes of life peace AN EPISTLE Sent vnto two daughters of Warwick From H. N. THe wisdome of the Father through the Love of Christ in the power of the holy Ghost in the second birth out of the new life of the heavenlie being be vnto every one which with an vnpartial hart seeketh the godlynes in Iesus Christ to a harty salvation Because that every one which seeketh God with hart mought know the right diversitie betwixt the heavenly and the earthly betwixt the spirit the flesh betwixt the light and the darknes betwixt the death the life and betwixt the righteousnes of the spirit and the righteousnes of the elementish things and then to love the same That grant vs the Almightie God through his love Amen 1. Because ye mought through the spirit of Christ inherit the same gift and meere affection or goodwillingnes to the godly life I do bear or cary the same gift God is my witnes before al men But now am I compelled through the love of Christ severally to open the same gift vnto two yong daughters of a certayn place named Warwick The Lord give his prosperitie and grace thervnto for that his righteousnes which is wrought through the Spirit of Christ mought be knowen of them and that the life of Christ which by many is sought after the flesh might be knowen and inherited of them according to the spirit even like as God which is blessed is a Spirit Ioh. 4. 2 Cor. 3. H. A. OUr saviour Christ the wisdome of the Father hath warned vs to beware of false prophets which come vnto vs in sheeps clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves The Apostles through the love of Christ in the power of the holy Ghost have foretold vs that in the latter times some should depart from the faith and give heed vnto spirits of error and doctrines of Divils speaking lies through hypocrisie and having their consciences burned-with-a-hot-yron and therfore counselled vs not to beleev everie spirit but to trie the spirits whither they ar of God because many false prophets were even then gone out into the world The evil that they should enterprise is privilie to bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that hath bought them the maner of their cariage should be to vse feighned words fayr flattering and good speech swelling words of vanity promises of liberty and the like The effect of their doctrine should be deceiving of the harts of the simple even of many yea if it were possible of the verie elect and by those many that follow their damnable wayes the way of truth should be blasphemed The end of al which touching themselves is that because such reprobates receive not the love of the truth that they mought be saved therfore God sendeth them strong delusion that they should beleeve lies and they al may be damned which beleeve not the truth but hav pleasure in vnrighteousnes These things considered it standeth vs vpon to look wel to our selves least we be caried away with the error of the wicked This author H. N. beginneth as was foretold not onely with fayr and flattering speech but also with swelling words of the second birth out of the new life of the heavenly being and sondry the like He boasteth of the gift of the godly life which he beareth before al men and here severally openeth vnto two yong daughters and of this he taketh God to witnesse He telleth them in the 2. section folowing that the Christ of God was not yet declared vnto them according to the heavenly truth Thus promiseth he great matters and seemeth to be a setter forth of a new Christ and consequently of a new God Very needful therfore it is to attend vnto his doctrine and if it be true for to receive it if false for to abhorr it and to hold the author therof accursed And herevnto the Lord inable and guide vs by his grace 1. First where he vaunteth of the gift borne before al men in his other writings opened to these daughters in this Epistle let vs bring it to the trial by the word of God who he saith is his witnes For we read of some that have given gifts vnto their lovers that they might come vnto them on every side for fornication and whither this writing and other pamphlets of H. N. be not gifts sent abroad for such evil purpose let the godly reader judge If his gift have wytnes of God it hath witnes of his written word as the prophet saith to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because ther is no light in them Is H. N. willing to come to this trial it seemeth farr otherweise for in al his writings he much inveigheth against scripture-learning contrary to the true prophets and Apostles who highly commended this as being able to make men wise vnto salvation and profitable to teach to improve to correct to instruct in righteousnes and never did any of them entwite the learning or knowledge of the scriptures as the reader may see H. N. to doe in this Epistle and his other pamphlets Our saviour Christ willed al men even his adversaries to serch the scriptures for they testified of him If they testified likewise of H. N. and his doctrine doubtlesse he would not despise as his manner is the scripture-learning of others especially whiles he wil seem to rely vpon the testimonies of the same for himself But if we may not learn the truth of religion out of holy writt how then may we attayn it H. N. telleth vs in his First exhortation to his children thus My beloved children like as the true Communiality of holy ones and Elders of the house of Love confesse vnder the obedience of the Love the beleef in Iesu Christ and the Christian baptism and like as I expresse the same here vnto you and confesse or acknowledge it before al men to be the true faith and the vpright baptisme even so ground with fast beleef your harts likewise therin So then the doctrine of H. N. and his folowers must be the groūd of our faith as they confesse and beleev so must we And herein the Familists religion accordeth wel with the Turks whose great prophet Mahomet in his law or Alchoran to draw disciples after him saith thus They that worship God let them if they be good beleev his Messenger Mahomet and again O ye good men be followers of God and of his messenger never wittingly depart from them But may we not our selves by the light and grace that God giveth vs make trial of H. N. his religion by the word of the Lord
No for in his First exhortation he saith no man can rightly according to the truth of the holy scriptures nor according to the spiritual vnderstanding of the godly wisdome deal in or vse the true God-services nor the services of the holy word it becometh not likewise that any man should take in hand to busy himself therabout but onely the illuminated Elders in the godlie wisdom which walk in the house of Love But what if H. N. with his coelders be but deceivers of mens sowles seduced themselves and seducing others for be they not men as others are and subject to error He telleth vs no for they have received the word of life through the power of the most highest out of his holy heaven from the living God and are even so through the same word Godded with God Therfore in an other place of that book he saith men ought to beware that they distrust not the Eldest in the Familie of Love nor suspect any maner of evil or vnwisdom by him nor yet also in anywise perswade themselves y t the exercises documents instructions which ar taught or set forth before them by the Father of the Familie of Love or oldest elder are too slight too childish or too vnwise for them to follow after or to obey But with perfect harts humbly and single-mindedly even as good willing children vnto the Obedience to receive the same instructions proceeding out of the wisdom and counsel of the Eldest And must we needs put out our own eyes that H. N. may lead vs may we trust him that he himself is not a blind guide and false prophet such as Christ foretold should come in this last time For this matter he hath given vs his warrant thus My loving children and thou Familie of Love give ear to me your Father and live according to my doctrine that it may goe wel with you For the Lord wil have the Father honoured of the children and what the mother biddeth or commandeth the children to doe that wil he have kept Take heed to my doctrine and all what I out of Love do set forth teach and exhort you vnto that print to a seal of life or a witnes of the truth in your harts For it is your life By this we may see what a good ground H. N. hath layd for himself and his cause that men should receive his word and doctrines for Oracles of God He saw that his brother the Antichrist of Rome had much prevailed in the foolish world by making men beleev that he and his church could not err he minded also perhaps the glorie that Mahomet hath among Turks by perswading them that the Alchoran his law-book is without all falshood therfore H. N. wil sayl by that compas and make that the foundation of his work And coming as an enemy to warr against Christians he is much more malicious then Nachash the Ammonite who would have thrust out but one ey of the Israelites wheras this tyrann would thrust out both and that not of the body as Nachash would but of the mind and vnderstanding that having bereft men of their wits he might keep them prisoners vnder his heresies For in his Crying voice he hath proclaymed saying Let your selves now in all your Being nature mind and disposition become renued through the Love in her service and give al your vnderstanding captive vnder the obedience of the Love Thus H. N. wil be gaoler and keep in captivity the minds of al men til they bow vnto him and say as he hath taught his children or rather his sâ—laves in his First exhortation O my father in the Love I submit my self and al myne vnderstanding vnder the wisdome of thy doctrine And when he hath gotten mens minds thys captived he may lead them whither he lyst though it be into the deepest dungeon of hel We find in Christs Testament the Beraeans commended that tried the Apostles doctrines by the scriptures dayly Act. 17. 11. and other Christians also that took heed to the most sure word of the Prophets as to a light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 1 19. Howsoever therfore H. N. would extinguish the seven lamps of the golden candlestick of Gods law that men might see by the smoke of the fyre which he hath kindled we mean not to trust his pretended light but to bring to the trial both his spirit and his gift For the serpent by his subtilty brought Evah vnto death whiles he took away Gods playn word and set his own in the place like may be our end if we submit our selves and all our vnderstanding vnder the foolishnes of this mans doctrine H. N. 2. See my beloved in the Love of Christ I must speak vnto you even like as Paul spake vnto the fleshly Israelites where he saith I bear Israel witnes that they stand fervently minded towards the lov of God but not according to knowledg for they seek to set up their own righteousnes Rom. 10. So is now the witnes of God in our spirit with the holy Paul towards you that yee likewise stand fervently minded towards the love of God but not according to knowledge because that the Christ of God is not yet declared vnto you according to the heavenly truth but wel according to mans wisdom or industrie which to the literal scripture add their own prudencie and even so goe forth withal or occupie their own righteousnes without the spirit of Christ which is a miserable doctrine being taught without the spirit of Christ. H. A. SOlomon warneth vs of an heretik vnder the figure of a foolish woman that calleth vnto her them that passe by the way yea such as go right on their way saying who so is simple let him come hither And in this her cal she counterfeiteth Wisdomes words for even so had her maidens spokeÌ„ before to the sons of men that went astray The Apostle Paul found fault with the Israelites that for want of knowledge did seek to set by their own righteousnes by the works of the Law neglecting the righteousnes of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. H. N. here cometh like the troblesom woman and calleth these two daughters which went right on their way even in the true path beaten by Paul and the other Apostles And the more to allure them he vseth Pauls words and pretends his affection but his drift is to draw them quite awry from the true way of righteousnes which Paul did preach vnto a false righteousnes by the works of the law a miserable doctrine which H. N. in his writings hath taught without the spirit of Christ. These two daughters of Warwick did as I have heard so know and beleev in Christ and in God and seek the true righteousnes which is by faith as other true Christians of our English nation have done and doo But the Christ of God was not yet declared vnto them
the Paradise of your Lord and God c. Come in now all hither to the Paradise of the Love and pluck in her garden the tender Olives Become drunken with the wine of her soon-ripe grapes and embrace her to al concordable friendlynes Thus like an harlot he allureth men to his religion and imitateth the whore of Babylon which made the inhabitants of the earth drunken with the wine of her fornications For his vaine conceyted Lovely Being with the toyes and pleasures that men imagine in that estate is a fooles paradise wher men become drunken and besotted in syn and drowned in perdition This is H. Ns. heaven and they that are not here he thinks they are in hel yea playnly sayth in his new gospel that the second death is come and beareth dominion over the world and all vnbeleevers By this the discreet reader may see what a Christ and salvation H. N. doth teach and what a Death Divil and Hel the Nicholaitans or Familists doe subdue This wretched man seemeth to have written his books in scorn of al true religiō that Atheisme and Epicurisme vnder shew of religiō mought reign in the earth H. N. 13. Herevpon mought some men say ye would have the man perfect No my beloved no I speak not of the perfection of the man but I speak of the perfectnes which Christ ought to have with the man before he can be confessed or acknowledged The man in his vnregenerated spirit is vnperfect I speak not thereof but what he is that is he out of grace without cause of boasting 14. Therfore let every one look wel vnto it that he be not self-minded in his vncertayn forecasts or preconceiving but that he take heed or be wel advised whither he be worthy to receive the same grace of God H. A. THat which David sayth of the wicked man that his mouth is ful of deceit and frawd vnder his tongue is mischief and iniquitie is verifyed of H. N. in his deceitful writings He seemeth here at first as if he would not have the man perfect no my beloved crieth he at it no but presently from vnder his tongue floweth out mischief and iniquitie when he speaks of the perfectnes which Christ ought to have with the man before he can be confessed This is a depth of Satan to bring men into misery vnder colour of perfection and to abolish them from Christ whiles they may imagine he is perfectly with them Though Christ I mean the true Christ whom we professe not the idol which H. N. feighneth of the Lovely Being be in himself perfect yea perfectiou it self and though the work that he hath done for vs be also perfect because with one offring he hath consecrated for ever them that are sanctified and his blood hath clensed vs from all syn yet his work in vs is yet vnperfect even in the best men that ever confessed Christ whiles they lived on earth who therfore were taught every day to pray that their syns might be forgiven them and the Apostle Paul after he had long confessed and preached Christ truly sayth of himself Not as though I were already perfect and agayn I do not the good thing which I would but the evil which I would not that do I and agayn we know in part and we prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shal be abolished now wee see through a glasse darkly but then shal we see face to face c. But H. N. by an other spirit which perswadeth him that he is like God yea Godded with God writeth of his citie or communialtie and those that are come vnto it that as then there is no more evil nor evil suspition nor yet sight of evil in them for within the same one doth neyther see nor think any thing els but all good joy rest and peace in the everlasting life Such a societie hath yet never been heard of on earth since Adams fall neyther doth the historie of the bible shew vs any such church onely it telleth vs ther is a generatiō y t at pure in their own eyes which yet ar not washed from their filthines Pro. 30 12. If the Familists be this generation they may rejoyce in the sparks of the fyre that they hav kindled til they shal lie down in sorow As for vs we have learned of a better teacher that there is no man iust in the earth that doeth good and synneth not but in many things we syn all for syn yet dwelleth in vs and if we should say we have no syn we should but deceive our selves and the truth were not in vs. Yet know we that our confession of Christ is acceptable vnto him because he pardoneth all our iniquities and healeth al our infirmities hath washed vs from our syns in his blood and wil not impute them vnto vs. Wheras H. N. to help the matter sayth The man in his vnregenerated spirit is vnperfect he followeth but his wonted course to deceive the readers for none are so grosse as to think the vnregenerated man is perfect neyther is this the question between him and vs but whither the regenerated be perfect or no which H. N. erroneously holdeth but cannot prove we contraryweise have proved that the Apostles and other Christians were regenerated but not perfect whiles they lived here on earth among men Phil. 3. Rom. 7. 1 Cor. 13. Iam. 3. H. N. 15. Now mought ye say we encline or endevour our selves therafter so much as we may for we have given our selves to the Christian-like baptismey and supper of the Lord. 16. Oh my beloved that were very wel if it were even so in the truth for ther ar many that boast themselves of the baptismey of Christ and they have not known him in any world For were they baptised in Christ then should they have put on Christ even like as Paul sayth to the Galathians 3. so many of you as are baptised have put on Christ. 17. I would gladly now ask of al those which say they have received the Christianlike baptismey how or after what maner Christ hath a shape or fashion in them I am verie sure that they all for the most part should be deceived and should find themselves vnmighty or weak in that Being of Christ wherin many should make manifest themselves that they have not received the baptismey of Christ but their own baptismey 18 Everie one therfore that is vpright of hart and seeketh the truth in Christ vnpartially let him prove himself how he hath put on Christ according to the spirit And if he then finde not the stirring of the holy spirit of Christ in him then let him advisedly look sharply yea sharply herevnto that he boast not himself of the Christianity but let him humble himself before the might of the Lord and trust vpon his grace H. A. THe
c. to the forgiving and releasing of their synns Where agayn he perversly applieth that to obedience and mortification which is due vnto faith For when the Eunuch would be baptised Philip required nothing of him but to beleeve and Paul sayth to him that worketh not but beleeveth in him that justifyeth the vngodly his faith is counted for righteousnes Although therfore obedience to the faith must be given by all true Christians and they which are baptised into I. Christ are baptised into his death and buriall yet is not this done to the forgiving and releasing of their synns as H. N. Pharisaically inferreth but to shew forth the fruit and force of faith wherby the just doe live and lay hold on Christ whom God hath set forth for a reconciliation though faith in his blood to declare his righteousnes by the forgivnes of synns that ar passed through the pacience of God Wheras therfore H. N. doth gather from the premisses that this which he hath set down is the vpright Christiā baptisme in the name of the Son is the true forgivnes purging of our synns through Iesu Christ he is found a false witnes against God and Christ and would give vs a synful sink of error even a vayn perswasion of our own obedience righteousnes and sanctification to wash our selves in and hath royled with his feet the pure fountayn of Christs blood which clenseth all beleevers from all syn That vpon himself his own words may justly be retorted he boasteth himself of the baptismey of Christ and he hath not known him in any world Of like leven is H. Ns baptisme in the name of the holy Ghost which he maketh to be also the second birth out of the holy Ghost the true love of God Christ. And this even as the former of baptising in the name of the Father and of the Son we must not vnderstand of any outward action by the minister of Christ washing with water as did John the Baptist nor yet to be done at one and the same time with the former but as H. N. sayth in the oldnes of time when the dayes of the patience of Christ in the obedience of the holy and gracious word his service of Love are fulfilled that is when men have walked long ynough in the Familists religion that then the holy Ghost becommeth powred forth through Iesus Christ vnderstanding H. Ns Christ to weet the Lovely being over them all that have followed Christ in his death of the crosse obediently that is which have saved themselves from their synns by their own fantasticall suffrings and have kept his doctrine with the word of his patience even vnto the end Thus hath this deceiver of minds drawn all Gods ordinance of Baptisme which with men is outward and was by the Apostles admininstred with materiall water vnto a blasphemous imagined Being and conformity with God or regenerated estate and the holy doctrine of Justification by forgivnes of synns through the blood of Christ shed for vs and sealed vnto vs in baptisme he hath wiped away vnder colour of Sanctification or deification by our own following of Christ. Which things he teacheth by the same spirit that the Serpent taught Evah not to fear the outward eating of the forbidden fruit seing she should be like vnto God knowing good and evil H. N. 19. After such a like maner witnesseth Paul of the supper of Christ wher he sayth so many of you as have eaten of one bread are become partakers of one body Hath any man now rightly vsed the supper of Christ the same is then become partaker of the body of Christ according to the mentioning of the scripture 20. Therefore see vnto it yea see vnto it everie one which sayth that he hath fulfilled the service of Christ or would be a disciple of Christ. For those services and ceremonies which are ministred through the comandement of the holy Ghost out of a Christianlike Being they have the promises whiles they are rightly obeyed that should receive the pledge of the godly inheritance which is the holy Ghost And where that cōmeth not to passe vnto them ther is not the Christian service ministred let them make them then so like fashioned to the scripture as they wil. For whatsoever is served without the spirit of Christ it is an abomination before God therein may everie one think freely H. A. That which is here sayd of the supper of Christ if an honest faithful mā had written the same might wel be yielded vnto for in the words ther would lurk no frawd But coming from this old seducer H. N. and being affixed to his former heresies I deny that after such a like manner as H. N. before treated of Bapisme Paul witnesseth of the supper of Christ. For Paul sayth not that we ar one Being with Christ but that we are the body of Christ and that the bread which we break is the communion of his body which body we eat and have communion with by faith not really and essentially as fleshly men imagine and we ar caled the body of Christ not properly but figuratively by way of similitude and in great mystery for as a man joyned to a woman is one flesh so he that is joyned vnto the Lord is one Spirit But as the woman notwithstanding her conjunction is not the man neyther hath the Being of the man so the church notwithstanding her conjunction is not Christ neyther hath the Being of Christ but by faith is coupled vnto him as he sayth by the prophet I will mary the vnto me in faith Now that H. N. hath the like grosse understanding of the Lords supper as he shewed before of Baptisme appeareth not onely by his entrance saying After such a like manner c but also by his words in his Gospel wher speaking of the Passover he sayth Christ gav his disciples to drink out of the cup which is his passion his true blood which is his holy life of the New Testament Thus applyeth he all things about Christ to a holy life even then and there wher it is playnly spoken of death For though blood whiles it is in the body is the life of the same yet when it is shed out of the body as Christ ther sayth his was it signifieth death not the life of the party as also the Apostle testifieth so oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew the Lords death til he come And as David would not drink the water that came out of the well of Bethlehē because it was the blood of the men that fetched it that is because they jeoparded their lives vnto the death to fetch it so we when we drink the wine out of the cup in the Lords supper doe drink the blood of Christ that is his death which for our synns he did vndergoe But H. N. by
the spirit of error that possessed him he takes Christs death for vs to be a holy life in vs as before is more largely shewed Vnsound it is and savoring of a fātastical spirit that he opposeth in the end the services and ceremonies which ar ministred through the comaundement of the holy Ghost out of a Christian like being vnto the service fashioned like to the scripture For ther is no service commanded by the holy Ghost but it is fashioned like to the scripture and hath the ground and warrant therfrom otherweise it cometh from the Spirit of Satan and not from God For Gods Spirit leadeth men into al truth Iohn 16. 13. and it is Gods word which is the truth Iohn 17. 17. The three that bear witnes in heaven The Father the Word and the holy Ghost as they ar in Being so are they also in their testimony one 1. Ioh. 5. 7. As the doctrin of Christ was not his own but the Fathers that sent him so neyther is the doctrine of the holy Ghost his own but the sons that sent him as Christ witnesseth saying he shal not speak of himself but whatsoever he shal hear he shal speak and agayn he shal glorify me for he shal receiv of mine and shal shew it vnto yow Now seing the holy Ghost teacheth no other doctrine then Christ nor Christ then the Father and seing Christ himself sendeth al men to serch the scriptures as they which testify of him and his Apostle hath taught vs that the knowledge of the scriptures is able to make vs wise vnto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus we may veryly deem it to be a delusion of Satan whatsoever any would teach vs towching Gods service that is not warranted by the scriptures and that those are spirits of errour which so disdeyn and scoff at scripture-learning and boast of illumination by the holy Ghost Vnsound also it is and contrary to the scriptures that H. N. here would perswade vs that where it commeth not to passe that the holy Ghost which is the pledge of the godly inheritance is not received vnto them there is not the Christian service ministred For the Apostle sheweth that Israel had the true Christian service ministred to them when they did al eat the same spiritual meat and drink of the spiritual Rock which followed them which Rock was Christ yet received they not the Godly inheritance which is the holy Ghost for with many of them God was not pleased they were overthrown in the wildernes and could not enter into the Rest of God because of their vnbeleef The Christian service was rightly administred to Simon Magus whē he was baptised yet was not his hart right in the sight of God also vnto Iudas when he did sit and eat with the other Apostles yet even then Satan and not the holy Ghost entred into him Even so with vs the true Christian service in the administration of the word seales and censures is set forth and practised though many receiv it into evil harts and vnfaithful to their greater condemnation But the elect of God are edified comforted and confirmed in his grace hereby though these are not many for many be called but few elected Mat. 20. 16 Agayn H. N. hath here set down that which overthroweth the whole scope of his writing when he sayth Those services cerimonies which are ministred through the commandement of the holy Ghost out of a Christian-like Being they have the promises whiles they are rightly obeyed c. If thus it be then ought all Christians to labour and seek for those services and ceremonies as he calleth them that so they may obteyn the promises then also must they shun and refreyn from al false and humane ceremonies or services which have no promise and are but the profaning of Gods name And this is our cause fayth and practise which witnes against and absteyn from the Antichristian services and ceremonies of Popery for which doing the world hateth and persecuteth vs from which profession practise and patient suffering this writer would diswade and allure to communion with wickednes by the vayn pretenses set forth in this Letter as after more playnly foloweth H. N. 21. Oh how wel should they doe which do now extol themselves before the simple and say that they are preachers of Christ if they would first learn to know Christ before they made themselves ministers of him They wil preach the word of Christ and yet they have not according to the Spirit seen the fashion or shape of Christ or heard of the same in any world They say the scripture witnesseth vnto vs that we for Christs cause should forsake our lives the which according to the truth is very true but the most part which speaks so much thereof they themselves vnderstand not the mind or meaning of God in that which the scripture sayth namely how that we must hate and forsake our own life or els we cannot be the disciples of Christ. Therfore mark wel therevpon not only vpon that but also vpon al the witnessings of the scripture 22 Oh vnderstand advisedly what I doe write of the forsaking of our own life When God had created the man then was the man in subjection to the life of God and not to his own life for therevnto God had created the man that he should be of one life one being one Spirit and of one nature with God But when the man desyred in his hart to love some other thing beside the life of God namely the concupiscence of the syn then went he into his own life and contentation and forsook the life of God and lived even so his own life and the life of the Divil 23. The whiles now that the office of Christ hath his ministration for to bring the man agayn vnto God the Father so cannot Christ bring the man to the Father vnlesse that the man forsake his own life which he hath lived so long to the Divel and to himself which is al that same wherin he hath sought loved lived to himself 24. Is not this now a great overshooting or misunderstanding that the children of men can say and teach that Christ meant hereby the natural or elementish man H. A. IT had been wel in deed if H. N. who so extolleth himself before the simple sayth that he is a preacher of Christ yea Godded with God would first have learned to know Christ before he hade made him self a minister of him For now being ignorant of the principles of religion and a meer stranger from the life of God he hath perverted al things to his own and ther mens perdition Witnes this his corrupt doctrine about the forsaking of our own life Wherin he first and generally seeketh to colour his iniquity with deceit and fraud For to perswade that we need not give our lives our natural elementish lives for