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A54908 The spirit of error, found and discovered, in the accounted pastors and teachers of the island Bermuda, in the VVest-Indies their principles and practice also tryed by the true spirit, and found to be contrary to the Scriptures of truth, and disproved by them, though pleaded for by the strongest arguments, the said teachers could bring forth : in an answer to some queries that were sent unto them, by us called Quakers : which answer was subscribed with all their names hereafter mentioned : their deceit unfolded for the peoples sake of the island / by ... Richard Pinder. Pinder, Richard, d. 1695. 1660 (1660) Wing P2264; ESTC R10836 20,271 25

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as Pilate had who delivered the Innocent up into the hands of blood-thirsty-men such Nathaniel White as thy Brethren in New-England are whom thou so highly extolls and art a Pastor of their false Church which is of Mystery Babylons off-spring witness their drinking the Saints blood And though thou with thy two Brethren Brown and Burre tell of searching out the true sence of the Scripture by an Allegory of Faith yet we know so long as you live in headiness high-mindedness and love Pleasures more than God and accuse falsly as you many times did us who witnessed against your deceit we know so long as you are such that your minds are corrupt and that you are reprobate cancerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 which was orce delivered to the Saints before Mystery Babylon 2 Tim. 3.4 your Churches Mother brought forth such Children as you are who live in Pleasure sporting your selves in the day-time as Nathaniel White 2 Pet 2.13 witness thy playing at Bowls and yet by New-Englands false Church and Gathered Congregations is accounted a Reverend Divine The Priests say That to say their Preaching is nothing else but the telling people of their own meanings of the Scriptures is an untruth and that we are never able to prove it Answ Are not you the very men that get your living by telling the people your meanings of the Scriptures for do you not deny the Light which Christ hath enlightned every one withall which should reveal the Mystery the Scripture speaks of which is God manifest in the flesh Do you not deny this and tell people Revelation is not to be looked for in these dayes And what do you say it is an untruth to say you give your own meanings of the Scriptures If an untruth how comes it to passe then that you three Priests are not all of one judgment for certainly if you were guided by that Spirit by which the Scriptures were given forth it would inform your Judgment and bring you into oneness of mind but you being enemies unto the Spirit by which the Saints were led you cannot agree in your meanings about the Scriptures though you are made friends and agree in this thing to joyn your strength together against the Truth as Pilate and Herod But formerly have you not been at difference among your selves and are you not so still even about that you call Church-Government and about those things you say are Institutions of Christ your sprinkling of Infants and giving people Bread and Wine which you call a Sacrament which indeed both it and your sprinkling of Infants are from the POPE and ware instituted by him but as for your not agreeing among your selves about these things I need say little and also for your joyning together against the Truth These things I may both leave to them of that Island who fear the Lord to judge of for they take notice of your unstableness and the day is now coming wherein it may be you may be further tryed But all will be that the deceit and rottenness of your hearts may appear unto all that desire truly to fear the Lord that they with speed may turn from following you in your pernicious wayes lest they be destroyed with you for the snare is before you The Priests say again They use the help of Faithful and Orthodox mens Labours whom God hath commanded them to remember and to follow their faith against which way they say we nor any other can except any thing justly Answ We can justly except against and have already excepted against both you and them you account Orthodox mens Labours for are not you of the generation of men who by their Opinions and by them they count Orthodox mens Opinions have set people on heaps like one to destroy another because they are not of the same Opinion with them And hath not this been the work since the Opinions of those you call Orthodox men were cryed up and since you the Merchants of Mystery Babylon told people they must follow the Faith of those you call Orthodox men whose faith you say you are commanded to follow But alas do not they differ in their Opinions as much as you that have not people by adhering to their works which you traded withall been driven into divers Opinions Sects and VVayes and then seek to destroy one another about them and by this are not you and your Brethren found to be they that have caused so much Blood to be shed among them that have the name of Christions And why do you three Priests not tell us where you have a Command from God to follow the Faith of them you call Orthodox men seeing you say you have But doth it not plainly appear by this that you are the men who have erred from the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Acts 15.9 and which the Saints lived in which gave them victory over the world and purified their hearts Eph 2.8 For is not this the Faith which you have received by tradition from those you account Orthodox men That people cannot be free from sin while here upon earth Now if this be the Faith of the Orthodox men which you say you are to follow then we can justly except both against them and you and your Faith for it is not the Faith of Gods Elect for they that were in it witnessed victory over the world through it and were saved from sin by it 1 Ioh 5.4 The Priests say It is a lye to say they do not exhort people to come to the knowledge of the Scriptures as the free gift of God for they say in their Doctrine they declare it as a gift of Grace given to some and not all we exhort them to beg it of God by Prayer and before we preach we pray with them and for them to God that he would bestow the right understanding of his Word upon them and us they say Answ That which gives a true understanding in the Scriptures which you call the Word is the gift of God which is his Grace which hath appeared unto all men Tit. 2.11 And you that deny and would exclude this Grace from having appeared unto all men are setting up your own Doctrines and Commandments received by Tradition and are crying them up and selling them to your hearers for money and though you both preach and pray with them before you preach yet have you not money for your Praying as well as your Preaching And though you exhort people to beg by prayer from God a right understanding of his Word yet have you not money for this Exhortation But Praises be unto the Lord who among His hath manifested his Word of Life to instruct which is nigh them Deut. 30.14 even in their mouths and in their hearts that they may hear it and obey it And such who know the Instructions of the Word which gives Life they deny your Instructions and Exhortations and Preaching and
of the first Founders and Owners of that Colony so that by your Preaching the Inhabitants are not put to one peny more charges by us say you Answ But nevertheless though you have not your Wages from them whom you Preach unto this doth not make it that you are no Hirelings for we believe you make little matter whom you have it on so you have it And who is there that knoweth the state of that Island and doth not know how much the people thereof are oppressed by them whom you say payes you your Salaries that it is still but the money of Oppression For doth not the Inhabitants of the Island whom you preach unto pay unto them of whom you receive your Wages one peny half peny forth of every pound of Tobacco that they send for England except they get it away by stealth which is accounted great Oppression much more then that of Tythes And do not they your Masters who Hire you tell the Inhabitants of the Island that they take that penny half penny out of every Pound of Tobacco in part for paying you your Wages And also for your challenging of us whom you account your Adversaries to prove that the Inhabitants are put to one penny charge by you for your Preaching We say You need not have made such a great challenge for we can easily prove and bring the Inhabitants to witness for us that you put them every year to many a penny charge by Repairing the Houses you dwell in and if they do it not just when you would have them will you not frown at them So this your cover is ripped open and your challenge returned upon your selves that your nakedness more and more appears for the day hath broken forth which makes all your deceit manifest and Praises be unto the Lord many he hath visited by it who begin to see your folly and weakness concerning the things of God and are declining from you that they may be brought to know the Lord their Teacher by his Law which he hath written in their hearts and this is the Lord fulfilling for his own mercy sake in spite of all envious men who gnawes their Tongues for grief and pain Again the Priests say in their Answer to our 17th Querie which was concerning their Preaching by an Hour-glass That they have the Warrant of the custom of the Churches of God for it which they say is a sufficient Warrant against all contentious spirits and they bring 1 Cor. 11.16 to prove it by Answ That place of Scripture doth not speak any thing of the Apostles preaching by an Hour-glass as you do that we can justly contend for the Truth against your Deceit in this And I charge you three Priests to prove where ever there was such a Custom among the true gathered Churches who was gathered by the Spirit of the Lord and witnessed Praying and Prophesying by it Are you not ashamed to scandalize the Churches of God in saying it was their custom to preach by an Hour-glass But will any that have read the Scripture believe you Certainly none but who are willingly as blind as your selves Again The Priests to prove the sprinkling of Infants lawful they bring the Command of God to Abraham to Circumcise And they say sprinkling of Infants which they call Baptism came in in the room of it For they say Though they be different in the External Sign yet they are one and the same in the Inward and Spiritual Grace signified by the Signs for they say both Baptism and Circumcision signifie a being in Covenant with God and Gods Command to Abraham to Circumcise will warrant Baptising of Infants Answ As for sprinkling of Infants that without controversie was never commanded of God but is an Invention of the Popes who commanded it to be done with the sign of the Cross and though you have left it off and are become disobedient to your father the Pope yet nevertheless he was the first Author of it Though you disobey his Command and will not do it with his sign the Cross but do it after your own Invention and so you are found acting contrary to the Apostles Rule by adding your own Inventions For they never received a Command neither gave a Command to sprinkle Infants and so you are found out of their Rule and your fathers Rule the Pope also and are not faithful to his Church which is your Churches Mother that you as Rebellious Children kick against him yet you may thank him for first Instituting this Ordinance as you call it of sprinkling Infants which you in your ignorance say The Command of God to Abraham to Circumcise will warrant you in But all whose eyes God hath opened out of that great slumber you are in sees that the Command given to Abraham to Circumcise will no more warrant you in sprinkling of Infants your way than it will do the Pope in his way For we know Circumcision was given a Seal unto Abraham of the righteousness of Faith which he had being uncircumcised Rom. 4.11 but as for your sprinkling of Infants we know nothing that it is a Seal of except of your own ignorance And as for your saying that sprinkling of Infants came in the room of Circumcision do you not think that all whose understanding the Lord hath opened by his eternal Spirit will take notice of your ignorance and blindness in this thing For Circumcision as you may read Rom. 2.28 29. is not that of the Outward in the Flesh but is of the Heart in the Spirit c. That all who are not blind may see that Circumcision of the Heart with the Spirit endeth that of the Outward in the Flesh Gal. 5.6 1 Cor. 7.19 Gal. 6.15 That as for your sprinkling of Infants it is but a meer Invention and was never commanded of God as Circumcision in its time was neither ever was it practised among any we read of that in the Apostles daies by the Spirit was gathered into fellowship with the Lord for they spoke of one Faith one Baptism and were Baptised by one Spirit into one Body and so was in oneness of mind and judgement one with another for the Spirit by which they were Baptised into the death and suffering of Christ made them of one mind and soul which you three Priests who plead for the Popish institution sprinkling of Infants are not For do you not differ among your selves about it One crying of it up to be done after his way and to whose Children he will and another another way to whom he will and so are in your ignorance at difference amongst your selves But do you not think people begins to take notice of you and to see your folly though you joyn all your Forces together against the Truth and though you joyn in union with Death and Hell and make lies your Refuge Yet Judgement is laid to the Line Righteousness to the Plummet and Hail shal sweep away the refuge
of lies and your agreement with Hell shall be broken and your Covenant with Death disannulled that the Truth may appear unto all who have a desire to walk therein from under that sad sable Cloud of Obloquie which thou Nathaniel White used to tell of which indeed lies thick upon thee that thou canst not see that thou art fallen into the snare but joyns with the other two Priests Brown and Burre in those things which sometime thou wouldst have been ashamed to have owned and pleaded for But evil men and Seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived That this is written for the sake of such in that Island of Bermuda as might be deceived by you by your perverting and scandalizing the Truth in your envy and hatred against it 2 Tim. 3.13 which no little hath appeared since first the Truth was bore testimony unto before you and your Hearers a Remnant of which the Lord will yet gather from the mouths of all such dumb Shepherds that he might teach them himself according to his Promise and put his Law in their mindes and his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Heb. 10.16 The Priests in their Answer to our last Querie which was concerning singing Davids conditions in Rime and Meeter To this they say That God is no respecter of Persons but giveth the same condition to all his servants And they say They have an express Command for singing of Psalmes Col. 3.16 Jam. 5.13 And the example of Christ and his Apostles Matth. 26.30 Acts 16.25 And they say If we think that we can find more fit Psalms than Christ acknowledged to be holy Scripture we may speak our mindes and they say they will answer it Answ None of these Scriptures which you have mentioned speak any thing of singing Davids Prayers Quakings and Lamentations in Rime and Meeter as you do for Davids Psalms were turned into meeter by the Protestants since they turned from the Papists Neither do we believe that your Hearers whom you sing with are in Davids conditions but are as far from them as you Covetous Teachers are your selves that we know and believe that you cannot admonish one another in Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs nor sing with grace in your hearts unto the Lord which that place of Scripture which you mention saith Col. 3.16 For you are such whose hearts are exercised with Covetous Practices who have forsaken the right way and are following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousness as you do 2 Pet. 2.14 15. That you are far from Davids Condition and from singing unto the Lord with grace in your hearts for they are carried away with Covetousness as your fruits make it manifest in your so much pleading and preaching for filthy lucre which Christ and his Apostles whose words you Covetous men are not ashamed to speak of declared against And you need not tell us of Christs owning Davids Writings to be holy Scripture for we know that David was a man that feared God and hated such covetous practices as you are found guilty of But we know no command Tho. Sternhold nor John Hopkins had nor yet the New-England blood-thirsty-men for putting his Writings in Rime and Meeter neither to adde their own Inventions to them to make them that Drunkards and Swearers might sing them in a Tune which even thou Nathaniel VVhite dost often bid them keep when they are not diligent in singing as thou wouldst have them but misses Tune And that place you mention Mat. 26.30 speaks nothing of Christ and his Apostles singing Davids Writings but saith they sung an Hymn And we know Paul sung Praises unto the Lord as in Acts 16.25 though he was put into the Stocks and received many Stripes for reproving the Spirit of Divination in the Woman who through South-saying brought in her Master great gain but when he saw the hope of it was gone he went about to persecute the Servants of the Lord in whom the Spirit of Truth was and haled them before the Magistrates as Nathaniel White George Rofe was for speaking to thee that when thou perceivedst that thy deceit was like to be laid open to the people cryed out to the Magistrates beseeching them not to let him speak there But Nathaniel VVhite if thou hadst spoken nothing but sound words which could not have been condemned why didst thou not stand by them For if thy Church be the true Church it is built upon that which the gates of Hell cannot prevail against But you Priests being erred through Covetousness and your Church being of her off-spring which is to be burned with fire and you having lost the Spiritual Weapons you are fain to fly to the Mountains and Hills for defence but they cannot defend you nor cover you but your deceit and nakedness daily appeareth as it doth in this thing your pleading for the singing of Davids Conditions in rime and meeter which conditions you your selves never knew that though you say God giveth the same Condition to all his Servants yet you are not come to the Servants state but are with many of your hearers like a company of untamed Heifers who are not accustomed to the yoke nor are not yet come to know the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom nor to depart from iniquity which is the good understanding that you are not like to sing with the Spirit and with understanding so long as you live in those things which the Spirit testifies against That if you three Priests truly search your selves and let the Witness of God rise in you it will let you see that you are such as James speaks of in that place you mention Iam. 5.12 who were fallen into the condemnation and so are short of the condition James speaks of in ver 13. in which every one that was afflicted might pray and he that was merry sing Psalms For you may also read Jam. 1.22 That he whose tongue is not bridled his Religion is vain And how had Jonathan Burre his tongue bridled when he called George Rofe Butter-whore and prating Asse But it may be Nathaniel White thou wilt say thou dost not own him in it but tell me then how it comes to passe that thou joynest with him and Brown in pleading for such things as here before-mentioned which was set down in you● own Paper by way of Answer to our Queryes which Paper was given into my hands with all your Names to it And many things more I might have gathered out of it than here is by which I might have manifested your erring from the Scriptures of Truth but so much here is discovered of your Blindness and Ignorance of the things of God that any who love the appearance of the Witness of Truth in themselves may easily see of what sort of Teachers you are And you the Inhabitants of Bermuda who are following on after those Traditions which these men which before I have spoken of lead you unto that you may confider what you joyn with and receive for Doctrine for as you may read in the Scripture there were some that taught the Commandments of men for Doctrine and so through their own Traditions made void the Law of God Matth. 15.9 Mark 7.11 Col. 2.14 20 21. and the Righteousness which is of Faith which who cometh to know knows it to end all those things which stood in the Law contained in Ordinances and divers Washings and such things which was imposed until the time of Reformation that the Seed should come which ends all the Types Figures and Shadows and gives to see beyond all external things which the minds of people are after until they come to feel that Righteousness which is of Faith revealed in them which saith on this wise Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead But what saith it the Word is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it and this is the Word of Faith which we preach Deut. 30.14 Rom. 10.6 7 8. THE END LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson at the Sign of the Black-spread-Eagle and Wind-mill in Martins Le Grand 1660.