Jewes had it and they tryed and condemned him for a blasphemer and the Apostles for breakers of the Law and makers of it void and so condemned the Lord of Life and the Spirit by which the Prophets and Apostles was led by even as thou doth with us and I never heard of any Political order of Church Ordinance or officers or Ordinances not of the most dark and sottishest Marchants of Babylon that ever spoke or wrote yet there was sundry gifts given and sundry Institutions in the Primitive times which were signal things of things of a more Heavenly and Celestial nature which was to be made manifest he gave some gifts to be Prophets some Evangelists some Apostles some Pastors some Teachers but these were Ministeriall for the work and service which he had appointed but this was all by one and the same spirit but I never heard of any Political order of Officeâ— or Political Ordinances ordained in the Primitive Churches but it seems you have got such in New England in the Church of Rome so called I have heard of the order of Benedict of Francis and Austin and the like and of several Ordinances instituted by their Mother to perform but I never heard of any such as a Political order of Officers and Ordinances before and this may be called an Image indeed and nothing in the world but deceit and is no Hetrodoxy that ever such a blind fellow as thou should put pen to Paper who hath crept so into the mudd and dirt that grosse Ignorance and darkness is in all thy words But the least of the children of light will see thy Ignorance so that I need not say much Concerning the magistrate they own none are lawful Magistrates who are not of their way their non-acknowledgement of the Magistrate as now established in all Christian States is more then nanifest Answ. If thy Aspersion were full proof no more need be said but the Judicious will not easily believe thee that there is a State of Magistracy is granted by us and that a true Magistrate that Rules well and Rules in the Power of God and is a terror to evil doers and a praise to them that do well and are as nursing Fathers who preserves mens Persons and Estates from devourers as a Father preserves a Child from injury these are Ordained of God and such we are subject unto for the Lords sake and for Conscience sake and to every Ordinance of man which is consistant with the honour of God and a pure Conscience but I believe you have few of them in New England who are rather like Beares and Lyons tearing and rending their Estates and rends and tears their flesh and gnawes it like Evening Wolves that the Prophet speaks of and would thou have this counted as Gods Authority and we tell thee and all the World in singleness of heart and unfeignedness that our way is Christ the way to the Father the Truth and the Life the Power of God and the Wisdom of God and all that Rule not in his Power rule in the Devils power in the Dragons power in the Beasts power who made War with the Lamb and killed the Saints and compelled them to worship and herein they that Rule in the Power of God and for God are manifest and them that rule in the Dragon and Beasts power for they that Rule in the Power of God answereth Gods witness in every man and reaches to that by his Act of Justice in the transgressor and he restraineth the evil doer within and limiteth that and preserves the Creature as much as him lies from harm and his Estate from destruction and also saveth the Innocent meek and harmless from the violence and from beating and fighting and from them that would destroy their Persons and Estates and herein the Magistrate that Rules in the Dragons power and in the Beasts power he is also made manifest he reacheth not Gods witness by his Governing he lests the transgressor live and is not a terrour to evil works and workers but a terrour to them that do well and exercise a pure Conscience towards God and man and may be cannot go into the House of Rimmon neither can bow to Baal nor be subject to that which another may set up in his will and in his pride then he afflicts the body the Creature and mars Gods Workmanship and defaces it and doth violence to the Creature and rends away his outward subsistance and sayes for his Authority It was so ordered at our General Court I must tell thee the false Church the Mother of Harlots has ridden long upon the Scarlet-coloured Beast which has been made drunk with the blood of the Saints whose Garments have been red with Scarlet colour and I know no where in any Christian State so called where he reigns in more power then in New England and you ride upon the Beast which hath risen out of the Sea which is amongst you and the beast carries you your Church on his back bears it up for all your Weapons are but carnal and that which wrestles with flesh and blood which the true Church wrestles not with nor with Creatures but with spiritual wickedness and principalities and powers of darkness in the Creature and threw that down and saved the Creature alive and redeemed it who was in Captivity Oh sottish Children when will you learn Wisdom and when will you hearken to reproof of instruction which is the way to life but remember this the beast shall be taken alive with the false Prophet and them that have wrought Miracles before him and then shall be cast into the Lake of fire They pretend to act from an Infallible light within them and professes perfection in degrees in this life and publish smart invectives against Ministers who teach the contrary Answ. We pretend to nothing but to that which God hath given us through his free mercy which we have a true right unto having received him as the Father hath tendered him to be a light to open our eyes and to be a Leader unto us and all his People and to be Gods Salvation even to the ends of the earth to them that receive him and he is that Infallible light which the Father sent into the world that all men through him might believe and he is the true light that lightneth every man though every man hath not received him the fault is not in the Giver nor in the gift but in them that will not receive and he that is the life of all men hath lighted every man that comes into the world and he is in us our Hope and our Glory the riches of the Gentiles and the riches of all them that do believe he is our Way and our Life and Peace I say all Glory unto him for ever though thou debase him set him thus at naught and for his sake we can bear reproaches and become fools in that we have obtained that in which true
so all thy Interpretations are false and thine is the private Interpretation and not from that sure word of prophesie which the Prophets and believers took heed unto and through which they interpreted things truely according to the mind of God As for the story of false Teachers arising and prevailing among People and what the signal nature is and thou sayest they are sent as scourges and as judgements to them who have not received the Truth in the love of it and thou brings a Scripture I came in my Fathers Name and ye received me not John 5. but if another shall come in his own Name him you will receive It s manifest that thou comes not in his name nor in Christs Name and if not so in thy own name thou comes by the appointment of the General Court at Boston and so there will few believe thy fabulous stories which are not worth rehearsal which will cast a mist before the eyes of them who cannot see through thy deceit and the sum is thou sayest of all that the Doctrines of Devils audatiously deseminated pretending themselves to be sent of God are signal signs of evil times The Doctrine of Devils hath long been seminated audaciously by numerous false teachers and false Prophets as Christ foretold in Mat. 23. and 24. which John saw come 1 John 18. little Children it is the last times ye have heard that Antichrists should come and even now there are many and they have Ruled long in most parts of the Earth that John said the whole World wondred after the Beast and this hath been a sad time these 13. or 14. hundred years wherein the true Church the Woman cloathed with the Sun hath been in the wilderness in a solitary place exiled because of the Beasts power and the Dragons Power and the false Prophets Miracles and because of the Doctrines of Devils has made it a sad time and an evil time such as thou hast taught viz. that the light which every man is lightned with is grosse darkness and worse then grosse darkness and that Christ left Political Officers and that the Lords Supper is a visible Political Church Ordinance and that Baptism is a visible Political Church Ordinance and that it is blasphemy to hold perfection of degrees in this life and that none can be cleansed from sin while upon Earth these and the like Doctrines of Devils hath been sown which thou now audatiously Seminates by the appointment of the General Court at Boston but the time drawes near an end the night is far spent and the day is at hand when the Beast shall be taken alive and the old Dragon laid hold on and the Mother of Harlots burned with fire and the false Prophets which have wroughts miracles before the Beast and has cryed as thou cryest him up in New England who is able to make War with him who hath shed the blood of the Saints of the most high God which will lie as a stain upon your Political Church as thou calls it which will not easily be washed away the time of your mirth in Sodom and Egypt is near an end though you strengthen one another and make merry yet wo will come when all these before mentioned goes down alive into the pit together and when the Sea is dried up that your traffique will not go off then alas shall be the note of her Merchants who have traded with her Sorceries and witchcrafts and have made People drunk that they have reeled and staggered and have been all like a Sea unstable and have not known the Rock of Ages upon whom all that do believe aâ—â— established Thou sayes the Gospel is a constitution or effect tempered of the Grace of God and of the blood of Christ Answ. The Gospel thou knowes not but builds with thy untempered morter and unseasoned words and what is the Gospel an effect of it is not onely an effect of an operation but it is that which operates and is the Power of God which will confound all this mudd and all these muddy traditions which you mix with the Scriptures and calls them Gospel And now thou comes to the distructiveness of the Doctrine of the Quakers to Religion the Churches of Christ and Christian States because thou sayst iâ— appears in this from the nature of the object they single out to fight against as the Trinity Christ the Scriptâ—re Order both Civil and Ecclesiastical as instituted in 〈◊〉 Gospel As to thoâ—e Principles I have answered before in part but dost thou 〈◊〉 of civil order in your state or in your Political Church as thou calls it is that to be counted a civil State who destroyes the Creatures Gods workmanship and destroyes mens Estates and sells their free-born Children as bond-slaves dost thou Judge that these Rules well according to the appointment of God who is a terror to them that do well and an encourager of violence and cruelty as your late actions hath sufficiently evinced and as for the order of your Political Church we have heard of it that you are as a company of wild Beares rending and tearing and stops gloves and napkins and binds keys over their mouthes that they may not speak the Word of Truth amongst you contrary to Primitive order and as for the Doctrine of the Quakers many who knowes it better then thee knowes it to he distructive to nothing but to the Doctrine of Antichrist and such ungodly Doctrines as thou hast laid down in this Book as that that light which Christ hath enlightned every one withall is grosse darkness and worse then grosse darkness and that the Supper of the Lord is a visible Political Ordinance and such black doctrines as these our Doctrines are distructive unto And further thou goes on and tells the work against order is policy against policy the pollicy of Hell against the pollicy of Heaven It seems your order stands in pollicy both in your Church and State and in craft fraud and deceit and thou Judges that Heaven stands in policy to but he that sits in Heaven laughes you to scorn with all your deceit and pollicy And now thou comes to thy proof and saith that Doctrine that denyes obedience to Magistracy in his due Subject in effect denyes the order of Magistracy but their Doctrine denyes obedience to Magistracy in its due Subject therefore their Doctrine denyes the order of Magistracy Answ. The Major and Minor is both false for we own Magistracy in its due subject which stands in the Power of God and in the higher Power and that which leads into order and out of confusion and distruction and thou must not think to fasten Stork and Muncer upon us for thy proof what as they did stands upon their account and not upon ours and that mischievous spirit of thine is that which presseth on the Magistrate to abuse his Power and to intrude into those things which belongs not to him to keep up your confused Babel which thou
the Magistrates under the first Covenant they are all invalid as to the second Covenant for all the Kings and Magistrates in the first Covenant what as they did in and about Religion as to the punishment of the false prophets and them that had familiar spirits and wizards they were but Typical as in reference unto Christ the second Covenant who hath another way to kill the false Prophets and to make War against Heresie and blasphemy and against all Sorcerers Deceivers and Antichrists by the two-edged sword which proceeds out of his mouth with which his enemies shall be slain who will not that he should Rule and exercise his spiritual Power against his spiritual enemies Is not Heresie an Errour an inbred thing And is an outward sword like to reach to that Therefore though thou may press the Magistrates or them whom thou calls so by their Coersive power as thou calls it and promise to them devine Benediction like the Pope for making of Laws against that which thou and others may Judge Blasphemy and Heresie and execute them with Whips and Ropes and cutting off Ears and destroying the Creature yet this doth not reach to Heresie and Blasphemy and all the Balm and Physick that you have in New England wherein your hope standeth as hath yet appeared are your knotted Whips and pitched Ropes banishment and death here is Balm and Physick indeed which destroys the Creation And what was Paul a Magistrate who Censured Hymâ—nius and Alexander or else what dost thou bring this for Thou frames an Objection and also an Answer That the int 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Aâ—thority in matters of Religion is violation of Liberty of Conscience thy Answer is Church Authority is Authority were this Objection good the Church may not then thou saith Authoritatively deal with any of her Members for holding forth or teaching of false doctrine contrary to Gal. 5. 12. and Rev. 2. 2â— Answ. The Objection is good enough the interposing of Civil Authority in matters of Religion is a leading them beyond their line for that which is ordained for the ordering of Civil things is not to intrude into that which is beyond its Sphere And why may not the true Church Authoritatively deal with any of her Members for holding forth false doctrine What dost thou think that Paul in the fifth of the Galatians when he wished that they were even cut off that troubled them that he would have had them killed or beat with pitched Robes or would he have had the Galatians to have denied them and have them exercised their Authority in the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ And dost thou bring Rev. 2. 20. to prove that Thyatira had not Power in the Authority of God to have thrown out and Judged Jezebel This was their fault because they suffered her who called her self a Prophetess to teach and seduce and to eat things sacrificed to Idols or thou Judges they wanted some Magistrate to kill her Authoritatively And if the Church may not deal with the Members Authoritatively who makes defection from the Faith why have you Excommunicated and thrown out so many for Hereticks in New England Thou saith Liberty of Conscience and liberty for Errour and Heresie are two things and the Error of Conscience is a Liberty to Bondage and thou brings They shall put you out of the Synagogues John 16. and to think to murther the Saints was service unto God was not from Conscience but Errour of Conscience but the Obâ—ect thou saith Subjected to the Coersive Power must be some Act of the outward man and further thou saith There is a difference between quiet Heresie and turbulent Heresie Schism and Sedition Answ. It is true Liberty of Conscience and liberty of Errour and Heresie are two things but these lyes both without the Power and the Line of any Civil Power as Civil Power to reach unto the one he should encourage that is to say them who exercise a pure Conscience towards God and towards man and as for the other Errour in Judgement it s beyond the Power of the Civil Magistrate to rectifie but as it puts forth it self in outward Acts of wickedness as to kill steal murther adultery defrauding cozening and cheating in outward things then the sword reaches to the Act outward but can reach no further And as for Heresie Schism Sedition turbulent and quiet as thou makes distinctions they are all one in the ground and you have had too many such thoughts in your hearts as that you did God service with all your Whipping cutting off Ears bearing with Ropes casting out of your Assemblies and not onely so but out of your Countrey and banishing them from their Wives and Children and all this you have done and thinks you have done God good service and have cast them out and said as the Prophet spoke of your Generation whose hearts were hardned Let the Lord be glorified these things you have to repent of before you know or will feel remission of sins from the Lord though thou say you know it belongs not to the Magistrate to compel any man to be a Believer nor to punish any for not Believing but Hereticks turbulent Hereticks we believe belongs unto him to punish and who must be Judge of turbulent Hereticks Is not a Heretick an Unbeliever And if the Magistrate ought not to punish an Unbeliever then not a Heretick for a Heretick is an Unbeliever and they which are in the Power and Authority of God can deny such a one and Judge him out by the Power of God there is his punishment according to that which thou calls Gospel Institution and beyond that or any further Act upon such a one we do not read of in all that which is called the New Testament neither that Christ his Apostles or any of the true Churches or Officers or Believers ever Commanded or Commended or Exhorted any to stretch forth their hand against the person of any who were Hereticks really so and Blasphemers really so and therefore see there is neither Command Precept nor Example Doth not thou wretchedly err in pressing on them which thou calls Believers to Act such wretched Acts of cruelty as you have done and thou vindicates them in it as their Duty It 's true we read of the Beast and of the Dragon who made War against the Saints and killed them and of mystery Babylon and of Sodom and Egypt where Christ was slain and the witnesses slain Now if thou wilt take these for proofs and for a ground thou may and so all thy twisting and twining and vain Arguments falls to the ground And doth not the Church of Rome account all you as Hereticks and is not their Judgement that they ought to punish you with corporal punishment and is not this your Judgement also page 78 that the Magistrate ought to proceed gradually That is to inflict punishment by degrees with lingring tortures like their Inquisitions And wherein doth thy doctrine differ from theirs in
Word of his patience and the word of his Testimony committed to them unto the end London the 12th day of the 11th Month 1659. OH New England whose heart is unbroken and is as hard as a stone thy fruits declares it and thy Iuhabitants are Rebellious against God thy Teachers and People are filled with enmity against the Lord and his People and they have not known sorrow nor are they acquainted with the Lord in his Judgements but the Rebellious and stiff-necked lives in them and they are covered with a Profession of Gospel but are as the Wolves in sheeps clothing who is covered with the Saints words and Practices but are destroying the Lambs of Christ oh New England what hast thou done how thou hast greedily run in the way that is not good how hast thou opposed the way of thine own peace and rejected the loving kindness of the Lord we have heard and we have seen and we have been sencible of thy wickedness of thy mercilesness and thy cruelty which abounds in thee and art without respect to God and his Eternal Power which is over you though you oppose it yet you are comprehended with it and it shall Eternally Judge you your Church hath brought forth bad fruits even of Sodom and spiritual Egypt and in the streets is the Lamb slain and the just crucified and ye are the People that have done it doth not your dealing towards the People of God called Quakers evidence this unto all the World and Nations do hisse at you what ye a gathered People what ye a seperated People and brings forth persecution in such a manner exceeding the very cruelty of the Scribes and Pharisees and the chief Priests this Nation hath wondered at your hard heartedness sober People are grieved at their hearts for you that you should so far indanger your souls to everlasting loss as to go on in this way as you have done for years together every day as it were heighthening your malice and your fury against the Lamb and his followers Oh you Teachers and Professors which hath openly appeared under the Dragons Collours who hath Warred under his Banner even the Dragon which sought to devour the man-child and by him do you make War against the Lamb and his followers with the Dragons weapons Prisons houses of correction whippings banishments cutting off the ears and such like cruel dealing which is of the Dragon his weapons and not the weapons of the Lamb oh what have you done is there not a wise man among you are you all besotted and inchanted are you all blind is there none among you that considers these things hath not your own doings pierced your hearts hath not the innocent blood that you have shed yet struck terrour upon your consciences can nothing awaken you will not your own doings reprove you oh consider for you are not hid from the Eternal eye of God it beholds you and you are naked and bare before it and your filthiness and wretchedness is open before it oh what floods of wickedness do you cast out and what wicked practices do you bring forth we are wounded in our spirits for you because you have lost all feeling and sence and are void of understanding your ears dull your eyes blind and your hearts hardned and hath neither Religion nor pure humanity but do you think to prevail against the Lord by your doings do you think to weary him out from among you No he is stronger and his Kingdom and Government of more force and though he is long suffering yet he can dash you to pieces and take your breath from you and cause you to melt away and sink you into confusion and destruction and his truth will prevail over you for there is a seed which you cannot quench there is a root which will bring forth though you choak it never so much and in all your glory you shall wither and pine away and your flower shall be cut down and your strength shall become weak as water and your Authority shall sink into the bottomless pit and there is no vision unto you of peace and prosperity in your way but you shall fall with no small weight of dishonour and affliction which shall be your portion for God is just and all Power is with him to break you to pieces and he can make you know that he can do whatsoever he will and you are but as the pot-sheards of the Earth which he will break and his heritage shall be increased and he will not be wanting to it his People shall have peace when you shall have trouble his People shall have joy when you shall have mourning he shall appear to their joy but you shall be ashamed for your portion shall not be like unto theirs but the wrath of the Lamb shall torment you even the long suffering of God which hath been great towards you shall be turned into a devouring fire and into fury to consume you this shall doubtless come to passe for the Lord hath said it wherefore repent ye Rulers repent ye Teachers repent ye hypocrites and if there be any among you that will be saved let him deliver himself by turning to the Lord But besides all that you have done by way of persecution imprisonment lies and slanders cutting off ears banishment and whippings and such like yet after all this here is a Book come over Called the Heart of New England Rent filled with false reproaches with slanders with false Doctrines and misinterpretations oâ— Scripture and such like stuff which we have taken notice of and viewed over and returned Answer what is this your best Divinity in New England we have heard of your wicked practices towards the people of God but now we have seen the wickedness of your Profession and the emptiness of your Religion and Doctrines and we cannot but turn them back to you again that if possible the Lord may open your eyes that you may be converted and live and what do we fear your revilings and threatnings and your persecutions in the immortal Life is our victory which Life you cannot Reach for the Devil hath not power given over it though you may have power over the body and over the goods yet the immortal Life you cannot touch and that is Eternal victory and that Life is our God bringing forth more and more and he can deliver if he will but if he will not we cannot bow to your Image nor say we have done you wrong in what we write and speak to you for this is our Religion that our Conscience may be kept clear and our zeal for God is in this that we may keep void of offence towards God and towards you by warning of you from time to time and though we are far distant in the outward man yet we have a witness in your consciences and in that we know you and by that shall be answered in the dreadful day of the Lord and that day is coming upon you and the Judgements of the Lord the wicked shall not â—scape O have you forgotten since you were sufferers your selves and then it was well with you far better then now for you are at ease in the flesh and have forgotten God and lost that sincerity which once was in you and the very spirit of the old Bishops which once persecuted you it is entered into your hearts and now liâ—es in you and acts you and in the dayes of your prosperity you are exalted and have forgotten the Lord and you requite him evil for his love and seem to be a people given up to do wickedly till the time of your distruction and like Rulers like Teachers all in the hard-heartedness and in the pathes of death and destruction your Church your Ministry your Religion is all of it a weariness and abomination to the Lord while that spirit of murder and â—alice lodges in you wherefore repent least you perissh the day of God Almighty is approaching the terrible day of the Lord is at hand I am a lover of righteousness and a friend to the Seed of God throughout the world and that waits for the Redemption thereof E. BVRROVGH THE END