probability of truth can be in vvhat they say I affirmed viz. That the Scriptures of truth were one of the greatest blindes and plagues to mens soules this day in England as if truth could be a blinde and a plague to soules vvhen it is a lying spirit is so to yours And notvvithstanding I never made a trade of the Scriptures nor preach't for hire nor divined for money as others do nor ever coveted any mans gold or silver or apparel amongst you nor accepted thereof vvhen by some I was earnestly prest thereunto but on the contrary have administred something largely of these things amongst you Yet from the Scriptures did I daily discourse as opportunity I had and by it have convinced many amongst you of your pride formality and other evils so that once ye were very much awakened and brought to some sense of your condition after ye had been too much taken with the doctrine of some called Notionists which it may be is the same ye now call Ranters whose principles and doctrines by the Scriptures I did withstand and oppose and with much labour and sore wrestlings was I instrumental to deliver you out of their mouths to whom many of you were become a prey I say much awakened ye were and the spirit which convinceth of sin began to work until another Ministry of unrighteousness came which for the wages of iniquity taught you to erre and when ye were convinced of sin and troubled within and saw your filth and wickedness appear by which your peace was broken and your consciences awakened and true judgement took hold on the transgressor prest you to believe lyes and shut out that which troubled and said it was temptations of the Devil and that your sin was done away and that God saw it not that it was all pardoned daubing with untempered morter crying peace peace to that to which no peace is spoken from God by which your bonds were made strong and the hands of evil doers strengthened that they turned not nor repented which wicked doctrine of the Devil by the Scripture I opposed and withstood perswading you to the last not to build on the sand but come down to the rock and told you your peace was but security which the Devil 's goods may attain and that all your assurance in which ye gloried was but vain confidence which in the time of tryal would deceive you and so far did I dispute it with you dailie by the Scripture that Thomas Ewins your publique Preacher told me I dasht his comforts and weakened his hands so that he was not able to preach but when into the Pulpit he was to go fear and trembling sometimes took hold upon him so that if necessity had not been upon him to speak the people being assembled he should not have spoken a word and told me of retiring to his former Calling and leaving the City with much more Others who loved to have smooth things spoken that they might be at ease in Zion who put far away the evil day complained as he said that all the comforts and joy they received and gathered from his Ministry all the day was dasht and broken by me in the evening Others complaining at last confest I led you safely though not comfortably and all was because the Devils Kingdom was disturbed and his goods not suffered to be at peace and in your consciences do you know that by the Scriptures I demonstrated what I said to which I was as true as any amongst you whatsoever And if in this ye shall say I boast remember it s you that have compelled me and if ye have a mind to gain-say or contradict any particular of it do it honestly plainly and down-rightly not coverty and deceitfullie as ye have done before that when I come to reply I may have something like as from men to speak unto and not as from a company of foolish tost children For although to this was I was at first averse yet by the power and presence of the living God shall I be free and able to quench your thorns scatter your deceit and remove your veil and discover the Harlots skirts But friends suppose all ye say were granted and that I had indeed whilst I was amongst you entertained and asserted many principles contrary to truth and said that the Scriptures of truth were a blinde to souls and one of the greatest plagues of the land which I have and utterly do deny And suppose it were granted an error and a very great sin so to say and affirm yet was not all this done in your meeting whilst I was one and amongst you and not then reproved nor gain sayed And was it not then time for all that feared the Lord and loved the truth to depart out of such an Assembly in which such things are permitted to be entertained and published without rebuke Was there any safety in being one with such an Harlot though she call her self a Church And are not these things spots whilst the true Church of Christ which is his glorious body is without spot or wrinckle Surely little cause have any who know the truth and love and believe in the light to be grieved or sad'ned that any be drawn from such an Assembly and happy for me was the day in which the light manifested you and from amongst you separated me to another people where no such principles are entertained nor permitted to be vented And for mine own part I do freely declare to all the world that since by the power of the good shepherd I was gathered from amongst you I am fan from entertaining or uttering any such things but do dearly own the Scriptures of truth as given by inspiration and see them of great use and service And if I received and entertained such principles contrary to truth amongst you with you I also left them to whom the Scripture is of little use more then to talk of and trade with for an advantage and by wresting and corrupting the same make use of it as a veil to cover your deceipt and filthiness but the life thereof do not witness But I have not yet done with your testimony in pag. 13. where ye say ye insert your admonition verbatim Ye charge me with asserting in the Church doctrines contrary to truth one of which is that the Scriptures are not the Word of God and every tittle of this ye say ye have proved notwithstanding ye have not proved any thing of it to be true but only ask if I did not at a meeting at the Red-lodge in the Garden-house before near twenty people say so one of you being by c. Truly the Harlots fore-head is very hard if at this she do not blush What! Lay a general charge and say ye will prove and have proved every tittle and yet can say nothing but ask me if it were not so And in pag 12. 13. ye lay this thing to be asserted in the Church
To which I say There was a time in which many false witnesses were brought against him who was the truth and the light but they agreed not And when by the truth ye are examined it will be found that ye also are far from agreeing in testimony for proving what your selves affirme if your own testimony were admitted in your own case which it is not Ye say ye will again affirme and set your hands to it that I spake those very words And what words are they Not the same in the charge which ye say is verbatim but is much otherwise and so the charge is fall'n and false as the Reader may see And who are they that will affirme and set their hands to it Are they the whole company or but a part If it be the whole then many or most of you will affirme and set your hands to that which themselves have confest they never heard If it be but a part and not the whole then that which yee have already said is altogether false and untrue and your testimony invalid For what is said is said by the whole or else those that signed it are in this as in other things abhominable lyars Again in what ye say ye will affirme and set your hands unto there appears much uncertainty for ye say I clapt my hand on the book or table but on which I perceive ye are ignorant And ye say I said that booke or Scripture Now if ye so well remember the manner of speech as ye say ye doe it is much ye cannot remember the matter But having before accused me for saying the Scriptures were a blinde to soules and a plague to the Land Now ye say It was the booke or Scriptures that I said was one of the greatest blindes and plagues to mens soules this day in England Manifesting your selves to be at a losse and in confusion not able to say whether it were the Book or the Scriptures or what it was for indeed it was neither And so the charge or accusation is quite fallen and by your selves brought to nought And why are these words viz. one of the greatest plagues c. in England now added being left out in the place where ye say ye did insert verbatim Is here no designed subtilty and deceipt Is all proved Are here no tittles nor syllables neglected in the proof Or is what ye have published like to be true or fit to be believed Let the Reader consider it But ye say some of you sitting over against me it's like at the Table do well remember c. But why had ye not told me who these some were that sate over against me and do remember it For I know but four that were wont to sit with me at the Table and with three of them have I spoken neither of which could to my face say or affirme they ever heard me speak such things and then the some is but one and that is an hireling too a Diviner a deceitful worker that daubeth with untempered morter and cries peace peace to that to which the Lord speaks no peace and his testimony is little worth for if ye say he sate over against me at the Table when I spake such words Jane Frye contradicts him who is the only person besides himself that ever I heard or could learn had the shamelesse confidence to say she heard me speak these things with whom I had conference in the presence of other witnesse and demanded where it was spoke she replyed in mine owne house at a meeting I cold her it was much many others heard it not as well as she To which she replyed it was after the meeting was done and I was risen from the Table and stood out in the roome and there clapt my hand on the Booke and spake as before And that her selfe with her sister Hassard and her sister Anne Davis went out into the streets and bewailed it which I knowing not to be true sent to Anne Davis to enquire the truth of it by a relation of hers who answered that she never heard me speak such words nor any thing like it So that it is evident false witnesse do not agree for ye say some of you sitting over against me which must needs be at the Table upon which or upon the book ye say I clapt my hand when I spake But she saith it was after the meeting was done and I was gone from the Table in which is no agreement She said Anne Davis with her selfe and another went into the streets and bewailed it but Anne Davis denies that ever she heard it She said standing out in the room I clapt my hand upon the booke and said the Scriptures were a plague c. But ye say I clapt my hand upon the book or table and said the book or Scriptures were blinde and a plague but cannot agree whether it was a Book or a Table a book or Scripture And so are all in confusion being led by a lying spirit and able by agreement to prove nothing Besides ye say the book or Scriptures but in the copy delivered to me it was said the Scriptures of truth in which is no agreement Besides all this one of you being asked if ever he heard me speak those words answered that hee heard me speak to this effect That the Scriptures as men goe to worke with it making it a pattern of all manner of vice and wickednesse was one of the greatest plagues c. And being demanded then why ye had not laid the charge in the very words that were spoken he was silent as to that and said he had already purchased jealousie from some in the Church as one that was in danger c. And this I have under the hand of him to whom it was spoken Now let all to whom true judgement is known judge what differing testimonie here is and how like it appears to that of old in which no agreement could be against the innocent And how desperately-wicked ye appear under a cloak of Religion accusing for something but cannot manifest for what but in it contradict your selves And in some things Jane Frye is nearer the matter than the other 59. or thereabouts who false witnesses are found because after a meeting was ended in which Thomas Ewins had been speaking about that Idol called Divinity and the people mostly gone and I rose from the Table and standing neer the middle of the room did there say and declare that that accursed thing called the body of Divinity was a plague to the land or words to that effect of which I told you before though ye wickedly shut your eyes and not observed it because it was the truth And were it not so it had been one with that spirit to which ye have taken heed But suppose credit vvere to be given to such a generation vvho in testimony do not agree but are proved as before c. yet to the Reader vvould I say vvhat
it both he and ye are offended And both Baptism and the Lords Supper I do own as before I said and all your traditions imaginations inventions carnal observations and will-worships I do deny who in the many things about which ye are troubled oftend all and are not come to the one Baptism by which the Saints were baptized into one body nor know not the Cup of the New Testament nor the bread of life which is the life of men nor the fruit of the Vine of which Christ with his Disciples drank new in his Fathers Kingdom and so are feeding your selves with that which will never satisfie but is corruptible and must perish in the using And the ground on which ye stand and question me is not good but of God is rejected and bryars and thorns doth it bring forth and its near unto cursing And whereas he saith though he was not present when I spake so reproachfully of the Scriptures yet he did believe it and still doth I Reply Here is plainly and without equivocation as he calls it the ground of your lies and slanders false accusations and charges as well as of your windy heady and powerless Religion that is to say your believing things which ye neither heard nor saw but have got by tradition and hearsay from others as he confesseth of himself in this particular and few can believe it besides those that are given over to believe lyes because there is no truth at all in it And although he saith I had not his hand in particular to what he heard not yet I know I had it to the whole of which that is a part and I have it to that which he denies and saith I had it not and well was it that I had it under hand or else how stiffely would it be denyed and gainsayed as it was directly at first and after plain conviction what shuffling and deceit is here used amongst you to hide and cover it though to little purpose And had I not by the wisdom of God had a Coppy of your charge signed by some of your selves how must all your lyes and forged accusations which ye publish and say was verbatim and proved to a tittle and syllable pass for truth because ye say it is so which by the said Coppy is proved not verbatim nor is proved true but the contrary And whereas Robert Simpson declares I had no ground at all to lay that agravavation of lying upon him viz. a lye invented a lye prosecuted a lye denyed and the lye proved and afterwards adviseth me not to evade nor equivocate but speak truly and deal plainly Reply I have before dealt so truly and plainly without flattery that ye are offended yet I shall take his advise and plainly declare the lye was invented amongst you when ye studied your accusations the lye was prosecuted by your Messengers who charged me with the guilt of what ye had falsely contrived The lye was denyed by Robert Simpson when he denied that he spake such a thing or laid it to my charge though I had it under his hand and the lye by me stands proved both on you and him from which ye can never deliver your selves by all your shifting and striving but like a bird in the snare the more ye strive the more ye are intangled till ye acknowledge your iniquitie and own your condemnation and repent And so Robert Simpsons weapons being but the wrath and deceivableness of man and not under promise of a blessing from God are found too carnal as he acknowledgeeth to war against the Lamb and his followers whose weapons are not carnal like his but mighty thorough God to the pulling down and laying low all high things so that no lying refuges nor deceitful coverings are able to stand But the Armies of the world who follow the beast to make war with the Lamb do flie and fall before them Glory to him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for evermore A Reply to Thomas Ewins his word as he calls it I Find Thomas Ewins in the beginning of his word as he calls it acknowledging the receipt of my Letter above a year since never intending to answer it but since it is published takes himself bound to answer and makes use of Solomons words to cover his deceitful pretences just like one whom God abhors which teacheth for hire and devineth for money and corrupteth the Scriptures with which he trades for doth he not know that the true reason of his intending never to answer was not lest he should be like unto me as he pretends but rather knowing the guilt dreaded the contest and would gladly bury it in silence but being made publique holds himself bound to answer not lest I be wise c. but lest his wickedness and deceit being made manifest and he proved out of the wayes and out of the life of the Ministers of Christ and in the wayes and steps of those Masters whose gain came in by devination he in this might suffer loss and accompt himself bound to prevent it and by sorcery and wicked art makes use of Solomons words as his covering Now because his word is so large and so little of worth or wisdom contained therein being a parcel of dead and dull stuff And because his ignorance lightness and confusion is so plainly to be read in his own lines by all that walk in the fear and counsel of the Lord I shall not trouble my self nor the Reader with answering every particular as it lies but rather out of his heap of confusion take up a little letting the rest remain In the first place he finds fault with me for publishing his acknowledging himself no Minister of the Gospel and declares the grounds on which he denied himself a Minister but not a Preacher of the Gospel but hath mist to insert the true ground upon which I so declared him which was that in serious dispute or discourse he hath not been able by the Scriptures to maintain himself a Minister of the Gospel but made to acknowledge the contrary and that before several witnesses But how is it that he denied himself as he saith to be a Minister but not a Preacher of the Gospel Did any ever preach the Gospel who had not the treasure of it in their earthen vessels Or did ever any who had the treasure within them preach and not minister of the same as good stewards of the grace of God Truly he that is such a man notwithstanding he may vainly boast of his abilities and approbation and being sent forth by men had need to seek a better proof of his Ministry or else must never be owned by Christ as one of his He saith he denyed himself a Minister of any Parish in Bristol a Minister in Office not having been called constituted or ordained c And that he hath put off that honour and dignity from a sense of the weight and excellency of that high calling
general and yet ye say it s verbatim But in this also not onely your falshood but also your confusion is so fully manifested that I need say no more but leave it to the Reader to judge But ye say It is for speaking against the Scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls and that they are not the Word of God nor rule of life and this ye would have understood to be verbatim though like the rest it will easily appear to be a parcel of falshood hypocrisie and deceit for besides your own confusions before mentioned in the Coppy delivered to me by Robert Simpson which he saith is true and ye 〈◊〉 testimony he is faithful it is thus Your speaking reproachfully of the pretious Scriptures of truth as first affirming that it was a blind to souls and secondly one of the greatest plagues of the Land and thirdly affirming farther that it is not the Word of God nor rule of life Now let the Reader whose eye is opened judge how these agree The person sent to admonish at the same time or thereahouts gives it under his hand that what he writ out and delivered to me was a true Coppy of what he received And the whole company after they received an answer thereunto deviseth and publisheth another and say it is verbatim though it much differs from the former The latter saith the charge there mentioned was verbatim in these words Speaking reproachfully of the blessed Scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls c. the former in these words Speaking reproachfully of the precious Scripture of truth as first affirming that it was a blind to souls and aly one of the greatest plagues of the land The one puts both together The Scripture is blind and a plague the other divides them into two particulars and saith first a blind to souls and 2ly one of the greatest plagues of the Land the one that the Scriptures were blind the other that it is a blind the one that they were blind and a plague to souls and never mentions the Land The other that it is first a blind to souls and 2ly a plague yea one of the greatest plagues of the Land and mentions not souls The one saith The pretious Scriptures of truth The other the blessed Scriptures and mentions not the words of truth And yet if any man is given over to believe lies ye will perswade him all this is true and verbatim that is word for word according to the copy And that notwithstanding this lying spirit which is found in your mouths to which ye give heed ye are a Church of Christ or a mystical body a word of deceit from the bottomlesse pit which may be subject to this spirit as it plainly appears to all beholders ye are by what your selves have published And truly the day hath manifested you very much and ye cannot be hid but by the light your deeds of darknesse are and will be reproved and your pretended admonition farther manifested to be but studied accusations and from your father the devil who was a liar from the beginning and abode not in the truth Now as that which ye call your admonition and say ye did insert verbatim as a bundle of lies and confusion as hath been manifested so is that which ye call your proof for in page 13. ye say because I said those things that is to say your charge are studied accusations and from the father of lies c. ye shall therefore prove every tittle to be true And in page 18. ye say ye have proved every tittle to be true and clear and in page 26. your 3 Messengers who boast that they received their Commission from God to this work say that the things that they charged me withall are all true in every sillable of it as doth appear by the foregoing answer of the whole Church Now then if ye have not proved every tittle of your charge to be true and if it do not appear by your foregoing answer that every sillable of that with which your Messengers charged me is true then are ye proved both those that did send and those that were sent no Church of Christ but a company of lyars and false asserters But ye have not proved every title and every sillable thereof to be true and therefore are ye no Church of Christ but a company of lyars for first ye charged me for leaving the Church and now ye say that I have left the Church is true but no proof thereof have ye given neither is it true which ye say for the Church I have not left but to witness the Church I have left the harlot and that I have absolutely forsaken left and renounced fellowship with you in all your idolatrous heathenish wayes and worships which stand in the will and time of man and not in the will and power of God and by the mighty arm and power of the Lord am I separated from amongst you never again to have fellowship nor communion with you in those unfruitful works of darkness which by the light are reproved is granted else could I never know nor witness the Church of Christ which is in God the father But that ye are the Church of Christ is denyed and was denyed and by your fruits and what lodged in you were ye proved an harlot a synagogue of Satan c. which stands vvholly unansvvered by you And therefore it is not true but a lie to say I left the Church when I was separated from the Harlot that I might witness the Church But suppose it had been true that I had left the Church by vvhat have ye proved it Why onely your selves say it is so but that is no proof and yet this is more than tittles and syllables it is vvhole sentences ye a general charge not proved except vvhat the harlot speaks to save her head vvhen to judgement she is brought is to be believed and admitted as a proof But ye go on and say that my so doing hath drawn away some grieved others and opened the mouehs of many to speak evil of the wayes of Christ which is clear and plain and not a studied accusation but a real thing which hath been grief and sadness to the Church To which I reply if the Harlot or Synagogue of Satan might be believed in her own case when she speaks not truth then what ye say were of some value But from the Church have I drawn none nor been a grief nor sadness that I know to her with whom in some measure I have unity Neither do I know of any whose mouths I have justly opened to speak evil of the wayes of Christ which are pure and spiritual So that the whorish and adulterous harlot cannot see it who is grieved and sadned at my departure whose judgement is come and her torments from the living God are pouring and therefore hath she opened her mouth very wide and from her unclean fountain
and spirit of envie is pouring out of stoods of reviling bitternes not onely when she assembles in her harlots houses and Idol Temples with the rest of the proud and persecuting World where the Churches of Christ after they were gathered did never assemble but in her books and pamphlets speaking evil as she can not only of the Church ways of Christ which she understands not but of Christ Jesus himself who is come a light into the World ane is the light of the World which hath enlightned every man that cometh into the World and this is clear and plain and no studied accusation but a real thing and her proper sentence justly due is gone forth from the presence of the Lord and over her head doth stand And notvvithstanding ye say I gave no vvord or reason of my departure the sober Christian ye mention will easily perceive that this is another refuge of lies for it was reason enough of my departure to deny you to be a Church of Christ and to prove you an harlot a Synagogue of Satan a cage c. And all this I have done notwithstanding ye blush not to say I gave no reason of my departure c. But I perceive that which troubles you is that I who so well knew you and was so long as an Elder amongst you whom ye did so often chuse and elect to that employment and so highly esteemed should now so sadly apostatize as ye call it as not to acknowledge you a Church To which I reply Were ye indeed a Church of Christ how gladly would I acknowledge ye But till ye prove your selves so I may in the words of Thomas Ewins to Ralph Farmer in the 60 page of your book tell you though you be so wise to propose I cannot be so foolish as to grant it lest I make my selfe a transgressor like unto you and rebell against the light which hath manifested you But now let me demand your proof for although ye say ye would prove every tittle and had proved every tittle of what ye charged me withal yet is here no proof at all produced to prove that I drew any from the Church grieved and sadned many or opened the mouths of any to speak evill of the wayes of Christ yet is this more than a tittle or a syllable it is many words and sentences Oh foolish people and unwise how hath the Devill the god of the world and Rulers of the darknesse blinded you why is there no feare of God before your eyes who are adding one iniquity to another as drunkennesse to thirst and yet bespeak your selves a Church And because ye have recovered a veile with which your selves are blinded do think all others must be veiled too but where Christ is witnessed the veile is removed and in the light of Christ which ye have despised and set at nought are ye seen and comprehended and your hypocrisies inventions and traditions will-worships carnall ordinances together with that lying spirit to which ye give heed are in the same light judged denyed and witnessed against as that which to the Lord is abominable and burthensome in which he hath no delight but his soule hates because it is iniquity and a loathsome thing Isa 1.16 But from you whom have I drawn away Why had ye not mentioned one that some colour of truth might appear or that by it also ye might be reproved who of the strong and mighty arme and power of the Lord are ignorant by which he hath powerfully drawn and gathered many from amongst you as well as from others who in the like deceit are worshipping they know not what into his mountain of holinesse which he in this his day is setting up and establishing over your heads and a top of all mountains in which to his people the Lord is making a feast of fat things of which those that pour out a drink offering to that number must not eat in which mountain the Veile is removed the shadows taken away no Lyon or carnall devouring beastly thing can ever come but in it is the way of holinesse known and witnessed and life light and immortality reigns for evermore and the true and living God in spirit life and power known and worshipped who is light and in whom there is no darknesse at all And so although gross darknesse hath overspread the Aegyptian land where the Diviners the Sorcerers the Taskmasters and oppressors dwell yet in Jacobs Tent there is light by which the deeds of darknesse are seen and reproved And therefore although ye have taken liberty to vent your lies and slaunders and false accusations against the innocent over your high places when ye assemble by troops in harlots houses where the children of light dare not come to reproove and gainsay it except they are thereunto powerfully moved of the Lord to testifie against your deceipt and abhomination Yet must ye learn wisdome and take heed of printing and publishing such stuffe to the world else may ye be sure whilst ye seek to cover it with a veile your iniquities will be marked your filthy sepulchre opened which is already but badly painted your skirts more discovered so that shame and confusion will be your portion for evermore except ye repent And therefore of this be ye warned In your third branch ye lay the charge thus viz. your extream censoriousnesse and rash judging not onely of persons abroad but also of the Church c. And tell the world ye will prove yea that ye have proved every tittle and syllable of these things to be true when ye have not endeavoured so much as a shew of proof for ought ye speak touching persons abroad but past it over as if ye had never spoken it And yet this is tittles and syllables yea words c. But a bridle for your tongue ye want who have so long given heed to lying spirits that now ye appear to love lying more then to speak truth and being out of the fear of the Lord speak ye care not what I come now to your fifth branch and shall not trouble my selfe again with those many lies falshoods and contradictions which I there finde in what you say is verbatim having mentioned some of them before but shall examine your proof of that also and see if every tittle of it be proved or whether ye may not be proved lyars in this as in the rest Ye say I did at a meeting at mine house affirme the first part of this branch viz. That the Scriptures were blinde and a plague to souls And for proof ye again produce your own saying it is so and that some of you sitting over against me do well remember how I spake it Clapping my hand upon the book or table saying That Book or Scriptures was one of the greatest blindes and plagues to mens souls this day in England And that ye will again affirme and set your hands to it that I spake those very words
vindicate or cover himself from what was truly laid upon him yet from it hath he not delivered himselfe but the charge stands good in sound and sober words in the power of truth and whiles he covereth his sin be cannot prosper And whiles he addeth one iniquity to another he cannot come into Gods righteousnesse And oh that he would consider it and lay it to heart whiles he hath time that in the day of the Lords anger which is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty shall come he might be hid and find mercy of the Lord with whom his vain speaking of a witnesse he hath in heaven brought from thence into his heart and confirmed by the Spirit of Truth and of his being taken up into the Mount to confer with him who hath all power given him and of a Warrant sealed and given forth from him that hath al power c. is of little accompt whiles he understands not what he speaks For the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation but the kingdome of God is within and in his Kingdom he is who dwells in heaven where the Father the Word and Spirit agree of which all blind Pharisaical Professors are ignorant and cannot know it till in the light and by the spirit it be revealed and made manifest And whereas he saith All that he with the rest laid at my door was to a tittle true and that neither he nor his brethren have any reluctance for it This is all fals for I have before proved it lies and deceit and themselves have confest they found that which boiled like a furnace and scalded all that stand near it and they were near it and so resolved not to stay another time And judgement is now laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet and all refuges of lies and deceit are to be swept away and by truth and soberness such hiding places are overflown and in soberness do I stand and so much to my self am I come that I see many of his words there mentioned to veil and cover himself to be light and vain and not worth answering and that what I writ was both sober and true without fawning and flattery in which many among you are too much exercised who love to have smooth not true things spoken and would have me peaceable gentle and full of mercy to hypocrisie deceit and wickedness all which is for judgement and no peace from God is spoken to it And therefore without partiality do I declare against it in him and you as well as in others and to my self am I not a stranger And this is pure wisdom from above and moderation known unto all that receive and believe in the light by which that spirit appearing in my former book is justified though to you that hate the light and by the light are condemned it is as gall and worm-word And for sporting my self and insulting over him I did it not but it is another refuge of lies for I told him before I did not insult over him nor delight in his wo and misery but was sorely grieved as still I am to see how the wicked one whom the Lord would destroy was exalted in him and you and what I writ is true And whereas he saith I was not a in a sober mind but at a distance from it and true speaking when I mentioned to him the portion of lyars and that not any thing he said was a lie but what he said I had not his hand to as his particular affirmation and so goes on speaking many words but to what purpose I cannot see except it be by words to darken the Readers understanding But if I mistake not that which he would do is to vindicate himself from being a lyar with what else I charged upon him in my former Letter by telling me he said I had not his hand to it as his particular accusation And if this be his meaning then is it gross deceit for I never said or thought it was his particular accusation but a general accusation delivered by him in which himself and each other particular was included and so I spake to him in soberness and pitty my very howels moving towards him knowing my self innocent and that it was a dreadful thing for him in the Name or the Lord to speak a false vision or thing I asked him how he durst come to me and in the name of the Lord tell me I said the Scriptures of truth were one of the greatest plagues of the land when I never spake nor thought such a thing To which he replyed he never spake it nor laid it to my charge though out of his own mouth it came and when I told him I had it under his hand he denyed it When I told him I could shew it him he replied if I could he would acknowledge himself a lyar upon which ground I charged him for it as before and so I do still and good were it for him if he owned the judgement and repented for otherwise he cannot escape But if he forgeting that his hand was to his paper did run himself into the evil of denying it as is before exprest yet if when he came to the sight of his error he had clearly acknowledged it and owned his condemnation and repented to which in love he was advised there had been mercy for him but being convinced and reproved of the evil hardened his neck and labours to hide and cover his sin adding one iniquity unto another here he cannot prosper but brings himself justly under not onely the judgement and condemnation mentioned in my former Letter but more and more misery due to those that rebel against the light by which they are reproved and to those that add iniquity unto iniquity and must not come into Gods righteousness And from it all the waters in Jordan can never wash him not the Rocks and Mountains cover him nor all your outward observations imaginations and will-worships preserve him till he own the light by which he is convinced and reproved and the just condemnation thereof pass upon the rebellious and the transgressor which hath sinned and he brought to repentance and the acknowledgement of the truth and so his soul come to be saved in this mighty day of the Lords power And this is not from a violent heat of wild-fire as he calls it but from a spirit of soberness soundness and truth and is true love to his soul and the time is near in which he that rebuketh plainly shall find more favour then he that flattereth with his lips and my end is not to make him a transgressor before all as he supposeth but according to my measure to advise him into the way the light the life and the truth which leadeth out of transgression into the inheritance of the Saints in light and in this I do not equivocate nor evade as he falsely chargeth me but do speak plainly and truly though at
and of the great unworthiness and unfitness he saw in himself of so glorious an employment but saith that he hath been and is though the unworthiest upon earth a Preacher and a publisher of the glorious Gospel of the grace of God both in Wales and now in Bristol he hath no need to seek a proof of me or any other man To which I say his own proof is too light and empty to prove him a Preacher of the Gospel and in it self sufficiently discovers him no Minister of Christ but in confusion for the Ministers of Christ were called but he confesseth he was neither called constituted nor ordained a Minister in Office which I take for granted and then is he to prove that they who were no Ministers either called constituted or ordained were preachers of the glorious Gospel and likewise that they who were preachers of the Gospel were not Ministers But in this his ignorance folly and confusion are made manifest for can a man be a Preacher and publisher of the glorious Gospel and yet no Minister either called constituted or ordained and can he that is no Minister either called constituted or ordained as he hath confest he is not be a publisher and a Preacher of the glorious Gospel Was not he a Minister And did not he make full proof of his Ministry who preached the Word who did the work of an Evangelist Paul was appointed a Preacher and he was called to be an able Minister but Thomas Ewins hath not been able by the Scripture to maintain that he is a Minister but enforced to deny the same and now hath given it under his hand that he was not called constituted nor ordained therefore being no Minister he is no Preacher of the Gospel but in confusion And it is much to see what poor shifts the children of darkness are put unto now in the day of the Lords power wherein light is risen out of obscurity and they that hate it are discovered and to the least child of light made manifest and denyed Besides the Gospel is the Gospel of the kingdome and to those who were Preachers and publishers thereof it was given to know the mysteries of that kingdom which to others was in parables and dark sayings that seeing they might see and not perceive c. And the Gospel is a great mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations but is now made manifest to those to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of that mysterie which saith Paul is Christ in you the hope of glory whom we preach And by revelation saith he God made known unto me the mysterie and the hidden wisdome of God we speak in a mysterie which God ordained before the world unto our glory and that which none of the Princes of this world knew nor eye hath seen nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man hath God revealed unto them by his Spirit who were the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God But Thomas Ewins hath confest that he did question whether he had received the Spirit to open and reveal the mysteries of the Kingdome unto him and so to him the vision of all is but a sealed book and to him it is but in parables and dark sayings as it was to ages and generations past to whom God revealed not the mysteries of his Spirit but seeing they did see and not perceive And how then can he be a Preacher or publisher of the Gospell yea the glorious Gospel which is the Gospel of the kingdome to whom it was never given to know it neither hath he received the Spirit to open and reveale it as is manifest under his hand Poor man were he not very blinde he might be silent and not boast to the world that he needs not a proof of any man that he is a Preacher and a Publisher of the glorious Gospel of the grace of God in Bristol who is so notoriously ignorant of it that by his own confession he hath not received the spirit to open the mysterie of it to him as the Saints had in the Primitive times and so is intruding into things he hath not seen vainly puft up with a fleshly minde and would needs be a Teacher but understands not what he saith nor whereof he affirmes but confesseth he questions whether he hath received the Spirit to open and reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom and yet saith he is a Preacher of the glorious Gospel which is a mysterie hid from all but those to whom it is revealed by the Spirit But he saith his reward is on high and that God hath given him a seale of his Ministry in Bristol and he trusts hundreds can say the Lord hath been and still is with his Ministry quickning comforting teaching c. To which I say whose work is this or of what is it a seale In page 52. he confesseth he questions whether he had received the spirit to seale c. and yet here saith God gave him a seale of his Ministry c. He hath before denied himselfe a Minister and now given it under his hand that he was neither called constituted nor ordained c. and yet saith his Record is on high and that God hath given him a seale of his Ministry Is he no Minister and yet hath God given him a seal of his Ministry What Babylonish confusision is here Hath he a seale of nothing or of a lye Can he have a seale of that which is not Or hath he a seale and not of the Spirit Is not the Record he saith he hath of this on high even with principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses where the powers of darknesse rule But how shall one trust or in what can one believe such a man who would seem to speak with so much solemnesse and seriousnesse when he speaks so much confusion contradiction and falshood And well were it that not not onely he but ye all would learn to dread the name of God and feare to take it so commonly as ye do into your mouths in vain to veile and cover your deceitfull pretences lest by him ye be not held guiltlesse But he saith It is true I am no preacher of that which you and some of your way call the Gospell namely to bid every man turn to the light within neither did I ever read or heare that any of the Prophets Apostles or holy men of God did preach such a Gospel To which I say he being no Preacher of that thing as he terms it which my selfe and some of our way call the Gospel he is no Preacher of the Truth of God nor the Gospel of God which is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes And so out of his own mouth let him be judged that he is no Preacher nor Minister either by call or practice who doth not preach that which we call the Gospel which is