now cry up another and thus it is very evident that the guilt of breach of Oaths Covenants lies neer unto your selves which indeed opens the mouth of iniquity for the very Cavaliers and Prelates say you were once strict in your way but now you have struck hands with them and are now your selves doing that which you cryed out against in them And thousands in this Nation is abated in their affections from your Church and Ministry as knowing them to be upon a false Foundation and to be of Babylon and not of the Heavenly Ierusalem And what do you mean by severe punishment of professors do you mean to set up Ecclesiastical lawes again and that all must be forced to your Church way and Religion is it in your hearts to drive the Nation by force and if they will not to punish them with fire and faggot and prisons If this be your meaning as may justly be supposed it is the Lord deliver the Nation from you this is not the way to gain the credit of Religion but the further you go on in this way as you have formerly walked in the more will your Profession and Religion stink in the nostrils of all good men Your fourth Evidence is Immensity boundless liberty permitted assumed freely practised by many to write print and publish all manner of blasphemies and opinions c. the sad and woful effects thereof appears in many some being in Apostacy others in luke-warmnesse and much decay in the power of godlinesse c. Answ. As I have acknowledged there are without doubt many errors blasphemies and false oppinions extant in this Nation both written published and maintained but upon whom and what sort of men this can truly be charged this is very doubtful to many and your charge being onely general no particular answer can well be given only it appears you would have none to write print and publish but your selves or by your consent and you would tye the Nation up in the bondage of your own spirits and you would be the only Judges of blasphemies and errors but that we allow not for enemies must not be Judges and it is very possible that such is your darknesse that you may call truth error and error truth in some particulars but if you shall instance any particular Doctrines Blasphemies Errors and Opinions published and maintained in my next I shall freely give my witness against them if they be really so and against the people that holds them as well as your selves more particularly I cannot now say and there is indeed woeful and sad effects of errors brought forth in this Nation and many are in the Apostacy from the truth and in the luke-warmness also and the power of Godliness is decayed and they have the Forme and holds that without the Power your selves may do well and your Congregations also to search your own hearts by the spirit of the Lord in this case that the guilty may see and turn unto the Lord that his wrath come not upon them Your fift Evidence is Sabbath Prophanation both in Opinion and Practice grown to a greater height than ever formerly the Iewes Sabbath cryed up instead of the Christian Shops opened upon the Lords day yea some working the works of their ordinary callings in knitting and sowing of garments in our Assemblies even in the Pulpits in the time of Gods publike worship c. Answ. This remains doutful to many what the true Sabbath is and whether the Lord doth require of this generation the observing one day above another and if so what day it is that he requires the observing of as for the 7th day of the week we know that the Lord commanded the Iewes to keep as a Sabbath and to rest But that was never commanded to the Gentiles and as for the first day of the week which is called the Christians Sabbath that is doubtful to many whether God commands and requires the observation of that day by the gentile believers yea or nay seeing that there is neither command nor binding example for it through out the Scriptures if there be any I do desire that you would shew it in your next and by what authority whether from men or from Heaven the first day of the week is now kept by you as your Sabbath for really many are doubtful in this case and you would do very well if you have a command from God or example from his servants in former ages to discover so much unto the people And as for your calling it the Lords day it is certaine every day is his and not one day more then another and as for shops opening and such things as you mention though every one that do such things may not be justified in the doing of it yet such a thing in it self may be justified if the spirit of the Lord moves unto it and who shall limit the Lord And why may not others labour in their ordinary callings that day as well as you in your ordinary callings I mean your ordinary calling of preaching that it is an ordinary calling it is certaine because you deny any extrordinary calling in these dayes and so I only query this why others may not follow their ordinary callings as well as you for it hath been affirmed very lately by some that preaching was a trade and a function for men to get a living by and we do not question but there are many now in this Nation called Ministers that do preach for that end and would cease to preach if money and tithes were ceased to be given them I speak this of some not of all which doth demonstrate that the way of your preaching is an ordinary calling which you labour in on your Sabbath day Your sixth Evidence is the powring out by many of all sects with a full mouth all manner of obloquy and contempt upon Ministry and Ministers of the Gospel openly interrupting them in the excercise of their duty whereby they are discouraged in their work while they are represented under the notion of Baals Priests Gehazaes pulpited divines distributers of Sundaies Doses Simonions Decimating Clergy common Incendiaries c. Answ. It is certain that the true Ministry and Ministers of the Gospel were in all ages and now are contemned and despised and all manner of evill spoken against them for the name of Christ But whether you are those true Ministers of the Gospel and your Ministry the true Ministry sent of Christ this is doubtful to many and by many particulars which might be instanced the contrary doth appear The Ministers of Christ in the daies of the Apostles they never complained of being interrupted for they were haled before Rulers and commanded to preach no more in that name and yet they were not discouraged thereby in their work nor when they were called movers of sedition and deceivers and such reproachful names they regarded not these things but as for you you seem to
insinuating many of their Doctrines as teaching Justification by Inherent Righteousness perfection unlawfulness in joyning in your Ordinances and nullity of your Ministry c. Answ. Now these that you call Sectaries may truly plead against you against your Church Worship Ministry and practises upon good grounds and as for Iustification by Inherent Righteousness it is a Doctrine of the Church of Christ that the Saints witnessed Christ and his Righteousness within them and that none are justified by any righteousness without them but who witness Christ revealed in them for all are reprobates that do not witness Christ in them 2 Cor. 13. 5. And as for perfection that is the doctrine of the Gospel and of Christ for the Apostles spake wisdome to them that were perfect 1 Cor. 2 6. and Christ commanded them to be perfect Mat. 5. who never commanded impossibilities You might better have charged these doctrines upon the Apostles than upon the Papists and as for joyning to your Ordinances there is many that fears God who are not Papists that for good conscience sake cannot joyn to your Ordinances nor own your Ministry neither in its Call Practise nor Maintenance and if these things were in dispute I should shew you according to Scripture that it is not lawful for the Saints of God to joyn themselves to your Ordinances nor own your Ministry but it is lawful for them both to deny your Ordinances and Ministry in their present standing and as for printing and vending so many Popish books as you say oh it had been your wisdome to have mentioned the books by name that all might have known which were Popish books but because your Charge is general I cannot answer particularly either to clear or to condemn except you had mentioned in particular which you ought to have done rather then to have slandered in the dark Your fourth reason whereby you would make your people believe that there is fear of the return of Popery is That the whole body almost of Popery is published by Sectaries especially Quakers and you say you cannot but observe a ready co-incidency with Papists in their Opinions c. Answ. As for the Quakers which you have long opposed by Prisons Goals and Persecutions and your carnal weapons and now also charge great things upon them to make them odious to the people Alas do you not know that they are blessed of the Lord Is there never a man among you sixty one Priests so wise as Balaam was he saw there was no Inchantment against Israel nor durst he curse whom God had blessed but however they have borne with patience and they do therein continue all that you have caused to be acted and all that you have spoken against them and your words and works against them shall be your own burthen in the day of the Lord and shall sink you into misery who hath made the innocent people the people of your malice and fury but God is with them I need say nothing and why have you not particularly instanced what particular part of Popery they do publish Why will you charge in secret and prove nothing in particular therefore I do charge you to mention what particular things they do publish which is Popery and not the truths of the Gospel and then you shall have a further answer Your fifth reason is Jesuitical designs and you mention the Protestant Universities and the impoverishing and disgracing and overthrowing a godly learned Ministry c. Answ. As for the Vniversities thousands are satisfied concerning them that they are of Popish institution and are not the Fountains of Divinity as they have been falsly called for its possible I could give large testimonies of the wickedness of the educations which is these in those places and how little good they learn and how much evil But you have stated the cause wrong for the plucking down the Vniversities would rather seem to be the removing part of Popery than to be the way to let in Popery and as for a godly Ministry that is truly godly and truly learned alas there is no fear of impoverishing disgracing and overthrowing of that for that is alwayes poor and low and contemptible to the world and so it must be and it is Antichrists Ministers that feares to be made poor and that their tythes and stipends should be made less and it is they that fear to be overthrown and not the Ministers of Christ for the Ministers of Christ are out of all such fears because their standing and falling depends not upon earthly powers but are builded upon the Rock of Ages and cannot be overthrown Your sixth ground is Toleration for Popery is publikely pleaded for in print c. Answ. That Popery is idolatry and the Church of Rome 2 false Church that I have said and I hope shall never renounce it but shall alwayes give testimony until death against the Church of Rome but I must tell you plainly it is not my judgement that the Papists ought to be burned for their Religion or if a Iesuite be taken in England I would have him so tolerated that he should not have his life taken away by inhumano cruelty not for Religions sake except something can be charged upon him besides matters of his Religion or Conscience This is my judgement that both the Papists and you are Antichristian in this in that you kill each other when they take one of your Ministers and you theirs to destroy each other this is not of God but of the Dragons power in both and there ought to be more toleration in both that lives may be spared and you ought to conquer with Spiritual Weapons if that you have them and not to kill and murther persons but to judge spirits That is contrary to Scripture and the Apostles example to destroy mens lives for Religion sake And why may not the Papists have toleration in matters concerning God as well as others So those that plead for their toleration upon this account that they may be converted from sin and not destroyed in their sin this is no error that their lives may be spared but to plead for their toleration as the right Religion this is sin And thus your sixth ground wherefore you fear the return of Popery is answered Now I come to the second consideration which is The present distracted estate of Religion which you say is evidenced in divers particulars First your division in civil and spiritual things so that the wonted love and communion in holy duties is interrupted strangenesse and distances fomented censures and hard opinions of each others entertained c. Answ. Here is your error for true Religion is not distracted nor divided in it self but it is one in unity and peace and so are all they that are in it their hearts being united by the Spirit of the Lord in their Faith Practise and Worship and in all things pertaining to their Religion It s true there is distraction amongst all
the false Sects and Churches upon the earth and it must be so Babilon is divided and confounded in its self and one part of it against another so the distractions is among your selves among Papists Prelates Presbyters and the rest tearing and rending one another about Church-worship and Religion all like Wolves in sheeps cloathing biting one another being divided in civil and spiritual things one crying for this and another for the other way of Government in Church and State and you are out of the true love and true communion in holy duties and interrupts one another and what one saith is right another saith is wrong and all this is in Babilon among your selves and none of it among them that are in the true Religion and in true Church-Vnion who are gathered by the Spirit of the Lord Your second Evidence of the distracted estate of Religion as you say is the many horrid and hideous errors which for some years past have abounded amongst us against the Authority of Scriptures the Diety of Christ the Holy Ghost Trinity of Persons Immortality of Souls Doctrines of Repentance Humiliation Sanctification Resurrection from the Dead the eternal recompence of Heaven and Hell yea divers Sects encreasing every day in numbers power and malice and under the names of Quakers Ranters Seekers c. oppugning the received Doctrine and unquestionable interest of Christ Iesus amongst us Answ. That many horrid errors have abounded amongst you that 's very true as in many particulars might be instanced But why do you maliciously charge the Quakers with opposing the interest of Christ Jesus The Lord shall judge you in his day when he makes it appear to all the world that those whom you charge with the contrary are the very friends of Christs interest and have been patient sufferers for his Name sake under the wickedness of your Generation and as for the Ranters Seekers and others whom you have reckoned up together with the Quakers it is well known that we are in opposition in spirit unto all these and have given large testimony in the fear of God against them though it is certain that there is many as upright and sincere men towards God amongst these Sects you have mentioned as any of your Congregations and though in some things they are condemnable yet in some things they are as justifiable as you are before the Lord And what the Seekers Ranters Familists and the rest mentioned by you do hold as in these things you have charged them with I le leave that for I am not now pleading their cause but the Cause of God and his People whom you in scorn call Quakers and though you have joyned them in accusation with others yet I must separate them from others in my Answer and must tell you in the fear of the Lord that you have belied them and falsly accused them out of your malicious hearts for they do not deny the Authority of the Scriptures but gives that authority to them which the Spirit of God that gave them forth have formerly given neither do they deny the Deity of Christ but do say in him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead neither do they deny the Holy Spirit nor the Father Son and Spirit but say there are three and these three are one but as for your Trinity of persons that is language besides the Scriptures and we do affirm the Soul is immortal and as for the Doctrines of Repentance Humiliation Sanctification Resurrection from the dead the eternal recompence of Heaven and Hell these Doctrines are publickly held forth by them in words and also in practise more than by your selves therefore with what face you could charge them with the denial of these things it is almost wonderful and there are thousands of your Congregations that are and have been sometimes hearing in your City that shall bear witness against your accusations and give evidence that they have heard them whom you call Quakers give faithful witness of and for all these things which you charge them with denial of Do you think that your Congregations are all so blind as to receive for truth what you herein have spoken nay I must tell you some of them are offended with you because hereof First in that you have reckoned the Quakers with Ranters and others between whom there is absolute opposition and not agreement neither in doctrine nor practise Secondly That you should charge the Quak with such things as they are altogether clear of and known to be so by many but this is that your folly and weakness might appear and as you speak of encreasing every day in number power and malice some part of this is true for the Lord doth encrease his people daily in number and power by his spirit but not in malice and that is your torment the encrease of the Quakers which as they have begun to encrease so the Lord will continue them and you nor mortal men shall not be able to hinder neither the Magistrates persecution nor the Ministers instigation thereunto though you have joyned hand in hand against them for the Lord is with his people and his authority and power is their defence and they are not in empty formes as you say but in the power of Godliness and as for your Ordinances and Ministry of which you speak something I have said to it already and more I shall say hereafter Your third Evidence is the odious scandalls of those that profess themselves to be the people of God as their self seeking their unparaellel'd breach of all civil and sacred oaths whereby the mouth of iniquity is opened and the reverence of religion abated so that to us say you there appeares no visible way of repairing the credit of strict profession but by a severe punishment of Professors c. Answ. It is true many that do professe themselves the people of God but are not but by their lives and practises gives odious scandalls and are self-seeking as you say but upon whom the guilt of this may truly be charged that remains to be sought out doubtlesse it lies as neer your doors as any others for is not your pride and oppression by taking tithes and suing people at law for wages and casting them in prison because for good conscience sake they cannot pay you your seeking for your gain from your quarter and your taking great sums of money and preaching for hire taking so much yearly are not these odious scandalls and very self-seeking practices which you are guilty of while you pretend publique good as for breaches of oaths and covenants I wish you to search your own hearts for that iniquity doth lye as near your generation as any others witnesse that you and your brethren have from time to time engaged to such and such things as first did not you engage for the government to be without King and House of Lords And did not you then cry up the Protector contrary to your engagements and
be troubled that any should speak to you or ask you a question or exhort you to repent if any out of good conscience query with you concerning your practise and Doctrine and if any exhort to good and cry against evil amongst you this you call interrupting of you in your Ministerial duty and to prison houses of Correction and to Whips and Stocks must such go which was never the Apostles practise never was any sent to prison for opposing of them and what if the Ministers of England be called Hirelings and false Prophets and greedy dumb dogs the practise of some of them doth prove it that they are so these things you must bear as coming deservedly and not unjustly upon you for the servants of the Lord in all Ages ever cried against deceivers and false Prophets and called them deceivers and greedy dumb dogs and Serpents and vipers and evil beasts and slow bellies these names and terms did Christ the Apostles and Prophets use unto such as are some of the Ministery of this Nation and not with revilings and reproachings but with the Spirit of Authority from God that reproves the wickedness of Prophets Teachers and people and tell me have not some of you sued men at the Law and cast them into prison in this City because they would not give you money and tythes and hire though such as have not heard you nor received you as Ministers not received any thing from you and such as you did never any work for have you sought wages from and caused them to be imprisoned that would not give you And tell me in good earnest can any less be said of such who thus walk but that they are insatiable hirelings and as bad as Baals Priests and even cheaters and greedy dumb dogs let the Witness in your own consciences answer and you shall have a reply Now I come to your third particular which is other causes and symptomes of Gods wrath hanging over your heads the frequent disappointment from time to time of all hopes of coming to any settlement in Government in the Nation occasioned by strange confusions which is a clear evidence that God hath in displeasure darkened our eyes and bid counsel from us say you Answ. It is very true that from time to time of late daies the Lord hath disappointed the purposes of men even concerning settling of Government and there hath been almost strange confusions in changes but to what can this be attributed Have not your fins been as great a cause of it as any others And have not you and your Generation been the Councellors in all these matters Was not some of you or your Brethren in Olivers daies and in Richards daies and in the Armies daies and in the Parliaments daies and are not you and your Brethren busie at this day in ordering a settlement of Government in this Nation But the Lord hath hitherto disappointed you and them that you have counselled and broken you into confusion and distraction and turned backwards even the proceedings of Rulers and Teachers and the spirit of deep sleep and of slumber is powred upon you all and the vision of these things is as a sealed book unto you even because of Gods displeasure against you and in that you say your eyes are darkned and counsel is hid from you in that you say true though to your own shame And what trust can be put in such Watchmen What confidence can be placed by your people in you when as you acknowledge that your eyes are darkned and counsel is hid from you the Scriptures mentioned by you doth prove there was darkness upon the Land but Isaiah doth not say nor David that counsel was hid from them or that their eyes were darkned neither did ever the Apostles say so but witnessed that the Lord was their light and in him their eyes were opened and counsel was revealed to them Secondly You say This sadly presages of unchurching the Nation or the departing of the glory of God from you Answ. By unchurching the Nation I suppose you mean making the Church no Church which if this can be done then the Gates of hell may prevail against the Church contrary to the words of Christ who said the Gates of Hell should not prevail but I must tell you the Nation of England as to the general part of it hath been long and yet is unchurched that is ungathered by the Eternal Spirit into the true fellowship in the Body of Christ for the night of Apostacy and Darkness hath been over the world since the Apostles daies and over this Nation in particular and your Churches hath been no true Churches nor the people under your Ministry truly joyned and united in true Church Order and under true Church Government though I do not say but that there are thousands of sincere people that loves the Lord yet remaining among you and the day of the Lord is appearing which will confound the Whore the false Church which hath been set up in this Nation and through the world and Assemblies which hath had the name of the Churches of Christ will be found to be otherwise in the judgement of the Lord and all the false Ordinances Practises and Ministers must be thrown down that the glory of the Lord may again appear Further you seem to charge your selves with leaving your first love and former zeal for the truth and worship of God but the present coldness and indifferency in the things of God together with your barrenness and unanswerable walking to the Gospel of Christ c. say you Answ. Though to your own shame yet I do believe this is truly acknowledged that you have lost your first love and zeal which once was in you in the daies when you were persecuted under the Bishops you were full of love and zeal for the truth and worship of God according as it was made manifest and then you were sufferers your selves but now you are causers of others to suffer and there is indeed much coldness and dryness and barrenness amongst you and your people I do truly desire you may repent you thereof that if so be the Lord may heal you and your walking indeed is unanswerable to the Gospel of Christ to wit your taking of tythes and so much by the year for preaching and suing people at the Law that will not give you wages though you do no work for them these with many other things which you practise is an unanswerable walking to the Gospel of Christ and seeing you have confessed your sius in some measure repent and sin no more that your iniquities may be blotted out Again you complain of the prevalency of Atheisme and doting upon error endless separations common ignorance unbelief prophaneness the prejudice against wholesome doctrine and all order of discipline in the Church and many other confusions are upon us say you Answ. Alas So it is but where is the blame Oh you Watchmen Should not you
you have said if it were not reproved Again you exhort your Congregations that they manifest sincerity not only by hatred of error but by a love of the truth c. Answ. Sincerity of heart is indeed precious especially where the Spirit of the Lord is the rule of Judgement and doth mannage that sincerity but where a false spirit rules in the judgement the sincerity is often betrayed into a zeal against the truth and against the wayes of the Lord rather than otherwise and thus it was with the Iewes whose sincerity through their error of judgement was turned into zeal and bitternesse against Christ And thus it is to be feared it is with many in your Congregations who may have a zeal without knowledge and be short of true discerning between what is truth and what is error I speak not this of all but of some for it s no small thing to discern between truth and error especially in this day wherein there are so many wayes and professions of Church-Ministry and Worship and yet all professing the Scriptures are their Rule of Faith worship and practise and seeing that all Sects do professe proof from Scripture for what they hold forth what ground have the people to believe you more than others or others more than you for where people receives Doctrine or Religion by report from others without the evidence of the Spirit of God in their own hearts this is not receiving of the truth unto eternal life wherefore I exhort your Congregations that every one amongst them may wait upon the Lord to have a feeling and discerning in their own hearts and that each one may be led and taught of the Spirit of God which leads into all truth that they may deny all false Ministers and false worships and may worship God in Spirit and Truth through the ministration of his own Spirit in their hearts and consciences and thereby will they discern between truth and error and will love the one and hate the other Thirdly You exhort That they keep themselves unspotted from the prevailing corruptions of these back-sliding times c. Answ. Concerning the times many are ignorant but this is certain at the present time wherein we are is the Lord disquieting of men and its the latter daies of Antichrists Reign and Government that hath been in full power and authority for many generations and Babylon that great City her ruine is threatned because of her abominations that have been many and great for the whole earth hath been corrupted as it s written and now the Call of the Lord is that every man come out of Babylon and deliver himself that he may not partake of their plagues and happy are they that are made clean and unspotted from her sins that they may not be found covered with her garments for the day of the Lord is come and coming upon Babilon and all back-sliders from God and his wayes Now Babilon is that great City which hath ruled over the Kings of the earth and in her hath the blood of Souls and of all just men been found Fourthly You exhort to endeavour a healing of those sad breaches and divisions which have been amongst you c. Answ. Now the sad breaches and divisions which is indeed at present in this Nation cannot be healed but as the cause and ground thereof be removed which is the sins of Rulers Teachers and People and this is the cause wherefore the Lord hath brought distraction amongst them Oh what ambition and self-seeking hath been among the Rulers What judging for gifts and rewards what neglect of Mercy and Judgement amongst them And oh how have they oppressed the poor and trodden down the needy and because hereof is the righteous God vexed And oh what covetousness and greediness of gaine are the teachers guilty of How do they preach for hire and divine for money How have they unreasonably caused men to be imprisoned and their goods to be spoiled for wages and tythes and hire Oh how hath covetousnesse and idolatry and superstition abounded amongst the Teachers in this Nation Oh abominable hath been their sins their oppressions and self-seekings and because of these things hath the Lord brought distractions amongst people and the sins of Rulers and People cries for vengeance from the Lord and till these iniquities be removed by repentance and forsaken the fruit and effect thereof shall never cease but breach upon breach will the Lord make till the Rulers and Priests repent them of their iniquities Gods hand will be upon them both in Judgement and for their sakes that divine for money and preach for hire and judge for rewards Will the Lord make the Nation as heaps and as a ploughed field Therefore let all people repent of their iniquities and return to the light of Christ in their own consciences and become followers of the Lamb and this is the perfect way of healing of all breaches inwardly and outwardly Fifthly You exhort to be diligent in the spiritual and conscientious performances of family duties c. Answ. Men must first be awakened and enlivened unto God before they can act for God in holy duties and as for duties performed in pretence unto God traditionally and without the teachings of the the Spirit of God is but idolatry and the Nation is weary of such a Religion which they have received and held traditionally for thereby the Soul immortal cannot be nourished unto eternal life and while you teach duties towards God by that rule while you teach praying singing repeating catechising by tradition and imitation without the leadings of the Spirit of Christ in them you do but teach idolatry as long hath been taught in the Christian Nations the doing and performing such and such things as Christian duties and practises and the forcing and compelling of doing such things upon people in the unregenerate state and unconverted nature this Religion and such performances of duties have been of Babilon and of Antichrist and a cheat upon peoples Souls whereby many have been murdered and slain in that great City and the form of Godlinesse without the Power hath been practised while duties have been performed unto God without the teachings of the Spirit of God and such their consciences are blinded and the Lord abhors their Sacrifices and people must first come to feel the Word of God in their hearts to regenerate them before they can perform any acceptable thing to God and therefore do not teach people to be hypocrites do not teach them such and such performances in the corrupt nature without the teachings of the Spirit of God in their own particulars for if you do you make them but two fold more the children of the devil and such duties performed in that nature shall not cover nor hide from the Wrath of the Lord which is comming upon all hypocrites Sixthly You exhort that they would cause their children and servants to submit to Catechisings and train them up in there verence
of godly Ministry c. Answ. It may be enquired into what you mean by cause them to submit how cause them by force and imposition upon their consciences by outward external personal punishment or threats Is this your meaning Will you set up Religion by violence And must children and servants be compelled by resraint and force This is not the right way to promote Religion and the Worship of God nor to make children and servants truly religious it was the Beast that received power from the Dragon that caused all to worship both small and great children and servants and this causing to worship was in the time of the Apostacy when the true Church was fled into the Wildernesse and all the time ever since hath Nations been caused and compelled to such and such performances and practises of Religion and Worship and such causing I am jealous your meaning is whereby you would force and compell such manner of worship and practises upon people And what do you mean by godly Ministry Will you admit of just tryal according to the Scriptures whether yours be that godly Ministry or no for all sorts of Christians Papists and Protestants and all others they will say that they are in the right way and their Ministry is the godly Ministry but the fruits of many proves the contrary and we cannot believe that yours is the godly Ministry except you will prove it to us by and according to the Scriptures Now it is certain that the Ministry of the Apostles was the true godly Ministry and if yours agree with theirs then we will confesse that yours is the true godly Ministry Therefore tel us plainly Do you agree with them in your Call and in your Maintenance and in your Practises and in your Fruits and Effects in your Lives and Conversations and in your Doctrines Are you justly according to and do you agree with the Apostles in all these things Shall we lay you to the line that you may be judged This is but as a hint at things whereby you might justly be tryed for if you agree not with the Apostles in these case mentioned then it is evident that your Ministry is not the true godly Ministry but hereafter we may have a better occasion to try you And thus the principal parts of your Exhortation is answered and if you can receive it in love TO all you sixty one Teachers in London under whose hands your Exhortation passeth This I say to you in the fear of the Lord God Oh ye men consider and let it enter into your hearts the day of the Lord is at hand upon you and account of your Stewardship must you give and his reward must you have whom you have served and you must reap the fruit of what you have sown Oh look upon your flocks and see what a condition they are in Oh what pride and vain-glory is abounding amongst them Oh how doth wickedness spring forth from them Are they like unto sheep of Christs Fold Or are not they appearing outwardly Christians when as the evil nature is uncut down in them Oh what wickednesse abounds in this City What double-dealing and dissimulation What lying and swearing and drunkennesse Oh high are all the fruits of the flesh grown amongst your Flocks Your Vineyards are not dressed as they ought to be there is abundance of corrupt trees and fruitlesse branches which cumbers the ground Oh it makes the heart of the righteous sad to walk in the streets and to view the abominations that are daily brought forth by a people professing Scriptures Church Ministry and Christ Oh! it burdens the just and grieves the righteous soul to consider how high iniquity is grown among the sheep of your Pastures whom ye should have fed with knowledge and converted unto the fear of the Lord had you been messengers sent of God the very Iewes and Heathens they blaspheme against Christ through the abominations brought forth among Christians that have the name to live but are dead Oh let it enter into your hearts and smite you that your many years Ministry should have so little effect for your vineyard is like untilled ground unploughed and unbroken up Oh there is much hard-heartednesse amongst your people and their hearts goes after covetousnesse even while they professe God with their lips Oh the righteous mourns in secret to see the prophanenesse the scornings and reproaches that are brought forth in your City And oh the idolatry that abounds let it repent you that you have been so slothful and never more seek the fleece but seek the flock that 's gone astray from the Lord who is the true Shepherd whose voice hath not been obeyed and many Pastors have destroyed the Vineyard and many Shepherds have fed themselves and not the Flock Oh consider the day of the Lord is at hand and he will visit with his rod You and your Flocks prepare to meet the Lord for his Kingdome is nigh to come which will be a terrible day to all workers of iniquity And as for this your Exhortation I say as for Exhortation in it self Ministers ought to exhort their Flocks so such a thing in it self I do commend and not oppose but when I had read and seriously considered the aim and intent of your spirits in your Exhortation I found it secretly and in a measure openly opposing and striking at and secretly smiting the people of the Lord whom you have reproached by the name of Quakers who are dear to the Lord and he careth for them though you see no beauty in them but accounteth them altogether vile and in as much as you lifted up your hands against them upon that account was it upon my spirit to return something in answer for the information of many that they might be undeceived and not in envy towards any but in love to all to both you and your people and you have occasioned this upon your selves though you are reproved and not as a man of strife or contention have I proceeded but as one that desires the further manifestation of truth and that no false accusastion may rest upon it which you have secretly brought forth with which the Lord is not well pleased that you should set your selves in opposition against his people and if any of you shall receive a just reproof and repent it may prove to you an advantage of much good and be not so proud as to say in your hearts What art thou weak man that reproves us or wherefore art thou so bold thus to deal with us but rather fall under just reproof for in uprightnesse of heart have I proceeded towards you and not in mine own but in the will of the Father And oh that your Flocks would also consider among whom there are many that are zealous in their way Oh that their Zeal and Iudgements were guided by the Spirit of the Lord then should it be well with them Oh that they would be meek and humble
and learn the fear of the Lord Oh that every one of them would consider and turn from their iniquities and become followers of Iesus Christ then should the glory of the Lord be revealed unto them and peace and truth and righteousnesse should be unto them and their Families and their City if they would come into Covenant with God and he taught of him and be exercised by his Law in their hearts then should the countenance of the Lord be upon them and then should they discern between truth and error between the Ministers of Christ and Deceivers Oh! there is a pity for many poor people which are zealous in their way of Religion without knowledge and they think they do God good service while yet their consciences are not exercised by the Spirit of the Lord but a false spirit that rules and leads and many holds the truth in unrighteousnesse and they know not but they do well Oh that such would consider and not be hasty in any thing to performe or professe Religion in their degenerate estate but that they would come to know the Regeneration and the renewing of their minds by the Holy Spirit and that the Immortal Birth might be born in them even the Birth of the Spirit which is Heir of God Oh that that might live and rule in them then should they be Heirs of God and Citizens of the New Ierusalem And oh ye people of London lay it to heart you must be born again or else you can never enter into Gods Kingdome you must be changed in nature and must be crucified to this world that you may live unto God this must you come unto or else you have no part nor portion in eternal life all your duties and performances in your forms of Religion they cannot save you nor justifie you all your preaching praying singing and all your duties whatsoever they are all nothing till you come to know changing and renewing inwardly and do witness the Seed of God raised up in you and the head of the Serpent bruised in you by the Seed of the Woman this must you come to witnesse that your souls may live Oh that you would consider be not so zealous against that which you may call Heresie and Schism for while you erre in judgement you may soon speak evil of truth and persecute it under the name of error many have wofully fallen into that snare and brought sorrow upon themselves thereby The wise Iewes even the chief Priests Scribes and Pharisees they were confident in their way as you can be and yet they erred in judgement and would not receive Christ but persecuted him under the very name of a Deceiver and thus it is possible for many to do in this age What though you have Christs words and the Apostles words yet if you have not the Spirit of Christ that was in the Apostles you know nothing rightly of the Scriptures neither can you understand them nor have Salvation by them for you must know Christ in you your hope of glory else you are reprobates and shut out of the Kingdome of God And search the Scriptures and see if they do not witnesse this Do not they say Christ is in you except you be Reprobates and do not they say The Law of God is written in the heart and the Spirit of God is put in the inward part And do not they say That Christ hath lightened every man that comes into the world with the true light And do not they say that the Apostle exhorts people to hearken to the Word of God in their hearts and to be followers of the Spirit of God that was in their hearts And do not the Scriptures say That it was the light that shined in the heart that gave the knowledge of God unto the Saints Search the Scriptures and see whether these things be so and must not men be born again of the immortal seed Oh consider and let not these doctrines seem new unto you neither reject them though they come unto you in weak appearance not with words of mens wisdome but in simplicity and in sincerity and in the Power of God And search the Scriptures whether these things be so were not they false Prophets that preached for hire and divined for money and sought for their gain from their quarter Were not such deceivers in the true Prophets time and them that preached for filthy lucre and for money and for gifts and rewards were not such false Brethren and false Apostles Search the Scriptures whether these things be so for the day of tryal is now come wherein all must be searched and that Religion and Worship and Ministry which is not according to the Scriptures which was given forth by the Spirit of God let that Religion Worship Church and Ministry be utterly condemned of the Lord and all his people and let such Ministers as cannot prove their call their maintenance and practises to be according to the Scriptures let such Ministers be confounded and silenced for ever and come to try this matter when you will For whereas you cry out against us as if we were deniers of Scriptures as if we were enemies to Church and godly Ministry and Religion and as if we were Deceivers Hereticks Papists c. But I say unto you these things have you never yet justly proved against us but rather accused us behind our backs to make us odious among people and though for divers years together we have been publike yet when did ever any of you Ministers seek by lawful means to convert us or shew us our errors if we were as you say of us oh it had been your time to have sought our conversion and not to have persecuted to have sent to prisons houses of correction and by such weapons of an outward force and cruelty have you dealt with us and not in meeknesse and by the Spirit of the Lord as Ministers of Christ ought to do but hath cried to the Magistrates to defend you and your Church and worship being unable as it were by the Authority of Gods Spirit to defend your selves Therefore I say unto you now lay down your carnal weapons and come out in in the spirit of meeknesse and come out in the Authority of Gods Spirit if you have it convince us thereby if we be in an evil way as you say let us hear your soundest arguments by the Spirit of God and according to the Scriptures to prove those things which you say of us prove it by evident arguments that we deny Scriptures and that we are Hereticks and that we are Papists I challenge you all in the Name of the Lord even all your Ministers of London let us hear your sound reasons openly in the spirit of meeknesse and do not back-bite nor slander in the dark neither let us be bawled against by your rude members as often we have been even in the spirit of wickednesse but come out you Ministers we are willing to be tryed according to the Scriptures and by the Spirit of God in our Religion and in every part of it and if you be the same then come forth in the spirit of meeknesse like Ministers of Christ and lay down your carnal weapons and let us have fair dealing openly that truth may be manifested publikely and errour may be discovered and let us not envy one anothers persons seek to destroy one anothers lives but let us seek to destroy the evil in one another that men might be saved and this would be a Christian-like way we would hear what you have to charge against our Religion by sound arguments in meeknesse that we may answer it and then we will charge something upon your Ministry Church Religion and Worship and we will prove what we say against you according to the Scriptures and we will not impose our Religion upon you by the force of outward Powers and outward Lawes neither would we have you force your Religion Ministry and Church upon us by such means but we will leave the effect of all things to the Spirit of God and come out when you will in such a way as this and this would satisfie thousands and let meeknesse and the fear of God be amongst you and this is the way to exalt Religion and we would think it a happinesse more then otherwise to be joyned in sober debate and dispute against you that you and we in your Religion Church and Ministry and in ours also might be tryed according to the Scriptures that all may be satisfied who are doubtful and may hear your principles and our principles discussed in the presence of the people who may judge by the light and witnesse in their own consciences for to that in all we do appeal and in such a proceeding come forth when you will lay down your carnal weapons and take the weapons of the Spirit and come to the tryal for the day of the Lord is approaching upon all the world THE END