a hint of what certainly is and will be And so having cleared my Conscience to God and paid my debt of Love to you in this matter I leave all to him who is the righteous Judge and the true Pleader of the Cause of the Innocent in all Generations and the Avenger of all Wrongs that are done upon the Earth and rests his Servant in whose Love is my Souls Life who am a Sufferer for the Testimony of the Everlasting Truth amongst the Despised People of God whom the World in Scorn call Quakers yet the Reproach of Christ to us is great Riches Thomas Taylor An Exhortation to remember the Judgments of God HOW long O ye People of this present time will ye grieve and burden the Spirit of the Lord with your Works How long shall he suffer your Manners unpunished Is it not high time for the Lord to lay to his Hand seeing you have so covered his Law with your Traditions and vain Customs that the poor People can hardly find any one thing you do savouring of Pure Christian Doctrine or the Apostles Practice But the Hand of the Man of Sin is the Worker in you and by the power of the Earth is your Building upheld But Wo to the Building which the Lord hath not builded and Wo to the Builders of that House wherein all the Wicked of the World inhabit lye down and are at ease and bring forth their Young Is this the Church of God Nay nay this is the Synagogue of Satan and not of the Living God for the House of God is Holy and nothing but Holiness dwells there nothing that defileth can enter this day into God's Temple for Holiness is the Ornament of God's House for ever So Wo to the false Builders and Daubers that cry Peace to People in their Sins the Lord speaks no Peace to any Sinners but Judgments Plagues and Woes to Priests and People who live in their Sins and plead for a Continuance in Sin as long as they live as at this day Wo to the unspiritual Men that bind heavy Burdens upon others and will not touch them with one of their Fingers that bind the poor Men whom they call Wardens of their Church by Oath to do impossible things and punish them that make Conscience of their Ways and dare not Swear nor Forswear but would keep their Hearts clean to Christ in whose Church is neither Swearing nor Forswearing this day but the Yea is Yea and the Nay is Nay in all things in Truth and Righteousness But Wo to the wicked World that takes God's Name in their polluted Lips the Lord is arisen to judge thee in Flames of Fire for the day of the Lord is dawned upon thee and thy building will he thrown down and a visible downfall shall Babylon have upon the Face of all the Earth for the Pastors have not gathered in nor visited with Truth the good Seed but with Force and Violence over it do they Rule and therefore is the Lord arisen to plead the Cause of the Poor and Innocent as the Mouth of the Lord hath said So be it And let all the Earth fear and tremble before the Lord this day fâ—r our God the true God is a consuming Fire and will by no meaâ—s acquit the Guilty Thomas Taylor To the Unclean Communicants YOU that tell of a Communion and say you eat Bread and drink Wine in remembrance of Christ's Death and yet live in your Sins confessing with your own Mouths that you daily leave undone that which you ought to have done and do what you ought not to do and that there is no Health in you Consider of your Ways and see in what your Fellowship and Communion stands Doth it not stand in Sin and Disobedience And examine your selves what you eat Do you not eat Damnation to your selves not discerning the Lord's Body For the Lord's Body is Holy but you are Unholy and live in Unholiness as your selves confess and as is manifest in your Lives and Conversations so you have cut your selves off from being of Christ's Holy Body you that live in your Sins and do your own Wills and leave undone that which he wills now to do for no unholy or unclean thing can be joyned to Christ's holy Body Again Christ's Body is a sound and healthful Body and no Leper in it but you have no Health in you as you confess and so you are of that Body and Number who have not as yet so much as touched the Hem of Christ's Garment with a true Heart but are in the Mud and Filth and Diseasedness of this sinful lost World through which the wholsom Waters of God's Sanctuary have not run to cleanse you So all you do in this your sinful State is unclean in the sight of God and he can take no pleasure in your seeming Services because of your Sins For as the Leperous Bodies under the Law were shut out of the outward typical holy Place so the Spiritually Defiled are altogether unfit in this day to enter into or have Communion with any thing of Christ's Kingdom Thomas Taylor God's Virtue and Goodness Extolled O Thou pure God of all Heavenly Glory Virtue and Goodness how Holy are all thy Ways and Righteous all thy Judgments O how plainly and clearly hast thou manifested thy Mind and Will to Mankind in all Generations and especially since the first publishing of thy Gospel and in this of ours and yet alas with grief of Heart may it be said never was the Earth more burthened with the Evil of her Inhabitants than at this day never was there more provoking of God by evil Customs and bad Doings than now They spend their Days in satisfying the Lusts of the Flesh and of the Mind that is Earthly Sensual and Devilish and say in their Hearts unto God Depart from us for we desire not the Knowledge of thy Ways The strait way of Christ they perfectly hate and the broad way of the World which leads to Destruction they willingly chuse because their Hearts are evil and to Christ's Light they will not bring their Deeds because they be so evil that the Light will utterly condemn them And thus in the Blindness of their uncircumcised Hearts they heap up Wrath against the Day of Wrath and Revelation of God's just Judgments upon them And though the Trumpet of the Lord hath been plentifully sounded amongst them yet they will not hear nor awaken to Judgment but say in their Hearts Yet a little more Sleep yet a little more folding of the Hands to Slumber the Judgment is far off we will not forego our present Pleasures and worldly Delights for Glory to come Where is he that 's come from the Dead to tell us what 's in another World Let 's Eat and Drink and take our Fill of Pleasures for to-morrow we Dye and are not say they O the Wretched O the Atheistical Hearts of the Men of this present evil and adulterous Generation The Lord
heavy Burdens that lye upon Soul or Body and so in Deed and Truth to let the Oppressed go free and to break every Yoke and to be Merciful Pittiful and Tender-hearted one to another according to Jesus Christ O! this is the Fast that pleaseth God that which his Soul and the Soul of the Righteous Loveth But to see People gather together for a few Hours of a Day and in a few or many Formal Words Confess Sin and Wickedness and yet Live in it this is Abominable in the sight of God and all good Men. Therefore all Awake Arise and stand up to Judgment O all ye People of the Earth who are found in such Deceitful Worship for God is not Mocked neither will he be at all Reconciled to you until you from the Heart put away all your Sins whereby his Glory this Day is so much stained and until you bring forth Fruits of Righteousness and such Words and Works daily as are worthy amendment of Life Thomas Taylor Something in Answer to some Passages in that naughty Book called A Looking-Glass for Ladies HE saith in Page 89 and 90. There are two sorts of Love One Legal The other Evangelical The First which is Legal is to Love God with all our Hearts all our Souls and all our Might This saith this Man no Man can attain unto in this Life no not the Regenerate themselves To which I Answer That this Man shews plainly that he knows not what he saith but is not only a False Witness against God and his Work in his Regenerate People but also a manifest Contradicter of himself for saith he Evangelical Love is when a Man begins here truly to Love God 2. When he doth daily grow and increase in this Love 3. When he is Constant in the same to the end so that nothing can draw him from God This he and all that sort will in words confess the Regenerate in this Life may do and yet not love God with that Love the Law requires What Contradiction is this Is not this Love perfect and answerable to God's Law when one First Loves God truly Secondly Grows and Increases daily in this true Love and Thirdly When one is so constant in the same that nothing can draw the Soul from it And therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 8.3 c. That which the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned him in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Now let any who knows God give in his Witness if this Man do not deny the very End of Christ's Coming in the Flesh which was as the Apostle saith here to fulfil the Law in and for his People that they might love the Lord their God in Christ Jesus with all their Heart Soul and Might according to his Holy Law as one well said That which the Law requireth the Gospel fulfilleth But such Men as this who flatters the faln Sons and Daughters of Adam by pleading for respect to their Persons knows nothing of the Matter in themselves but only as they imagine from the Letter without they tell every Man his Dream to his Neighbour and so by their false Doctrines and Self-contradictions as is manifest here do daily make the shame of their Nakedness appear and their Envy to the Servants of God whom they Reproach under the Name of Quakers appears very much in such sayings as he there sets down saying This serves to reprove the Quakers who are possessed of Perfection through Satan's Pride and adds O that ever a poor Worm of the Earth a very Lump of Sin and Corruption to think that he dare look God in the Face in a sinless Condition These need not a Psalm of Mercy saith the Lying Spirit in this Sam. Smith that writ that Book these will not be beholding to Christ To which I answer and say First It 's Blasphemy to say That the Regenerate Man's sinless Perfection is proud Satan's Work For it is Christ's Blessed Work to perfect his Saints as Eph. 4.12 13 14. and Chap. 5.25 26 27. And Secondly It 's a false Slander and unjust Accusation of us whom the World calls Quakers to say That we either say or think that any Worm of the Earth or Lump of Sin and Corruption either dares or ever possibly can look God in the Face or ever attain to a sinless Condition for Earth Sin and Corruption cannot enter into God's Kingdom or inherit Incorruption But this we say That the Regenerate who are Born again even Born of God of the Incorruptible Seed of his Heavenly Ever-living Word are sinless and perfect in Christ Jesus with whom they are one and in him do in all Holy Humility and Acceptance with the Father stand before his Throne where no Earth nor lumps of Sin and Corruption nor no false Accuser of the Brethren nor Respecter of Persons can ever come Again whereas this Man Sam. Smith saith The Evangelical Love before described is far short of that Love the Law requireth is a false Witness and Accuser of Christ as though he came to destroy or make void the Law But do not think saith Christ that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfil And is not this the great Thing and Sum of all the Law and the Prophets thou shalt love the Lord God with all thy Soul Mind and Strength And doth not Christ the Power of God fulfil this in his Members Yea yea as Paul said expresly in Rom 8.4 before mentioned That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit But now such as profess the Letter and want the Life and so walk not after the Spirit but the Flesh these do not love wholly nay not at all in Truth and so with this Smith are Breakers of the Law of God and so not at all in the Kingdom of God The next thing observable in this wretched Man's Book aforesaid called The Looking-glass is his grievous Opposition against the Doctrine of Perfection Where he saith That there is none so Godly Righteous or Religious here in this Life or can attain to that Measure of Grace to be Perfect but stands in need of the Exhortation Prayers and Godly Advice of others To which I answer and say That though godly Exhortation Prayers and Advice amongst Brethren of Christ be lovely yet for him to say There is none so perfect but stands in an absolute Necessity of these from Man is not true for the Apostle speaking not to the Teachers only but to the Brethren of Christ in general 1 John 2.27 These Things I have written to you concerning them that seduce you but the anointing which ye have of God the Holy One teacheth you all things and you need not that any Man teach
And as for the danger the Apostle reasoneth in his Epistle to the Hebrews quite contrary to this T. H. for saith the Apostle Heb. 12.25 See that ye refuse not him to wit Christ that speaketh for if they escaped noâ— that refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven Also see Heb. 2.1 c. See what thou hast chosen Tho. Hall How thou hast chosen the Earthly before the Heavenly the Killing Letter before the Heavenly Spirit of the Lord Jesus which giveth Life and the Shadowing Law of the Servant before the Living Law of the Master Jesus Christ who was counted worthy of more Glory than Moses in as much as he that Builded the House is more worthy than the House See Heb. 3.3 But when we say that Moses's Law is a killing Letter and made nothing perfect this T. Hall like a wicked Man is ready to cry out of us as though we broached some new or strange Doctrine when as it is no other than the plain downright Doctrine of the Holy Apostles and Servants of the Lord Jesus set down in Scripture as you may read without our adding or diminishing any thing at all And to this purpose see 2 Cor. 3. where are these words Verse 6 c. Who also hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life But if the Ministration of Death written and engraven in Stones was glorious Mark this though he calls the Law glorious in its time yet he calls it the Ministration of Death so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the Glory of his Countenance which Glory was to be done away How shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather Glorious For if the Ministration of Condemnation be Glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in Glory For even that which was made glorious had no Glory in this respect by reason of the Glory that excelleth For 〈◊〉 that which is done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious Seeing then that we have such hope we use great plainness of Speech And not as Moses which put a Vail over his Face that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished But their Minds were blinded For until this day remaineth the same Vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament which Vail is done away in Christ But even unto this day when Moses is read the Vail is upon their Heart Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the Vail shall be taken away Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty But we all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Here this T. Hall might as well have condemned Paul as us for I say that here is more spoken for a Jewish Spirit to catch at than in our Writings for I say nothing comparable to this can be brought out of our Writings for a seeming denial and making void of Moses's Law for here he calls it not only a killing Letter but even a Ministration of Death and Condemnation done away and abolished and never able to remove the Vail of the Heart from any in reading of it And so whereas this Hall is used to bring Psal 19 4 7 c. for establishing his Dreams about Moses's Law where it is said The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul He might easily see it was not Moses's Letter Ministration or Law which Paul here says was Kâ—lling and Condemning to all that came under it to get Life by it But David speaks there of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which opened the blind Eyes of his Mind and wrought the Holy Fear of God in his Heart and so converted his straying Soul to follow the Lord through Faith in his Name as it is with the Faithful at this day as the Apostle saith Rom. 8.1 c. There is now therefore no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of Sin and Death For that which the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh Christ doth in us and for us And that the Law of Moses made nothing perfect it is the Apostles express words also Heb. 7.18 19. For there is verily a disanulling of the Commandment going before that is as he reasons all along in this Chapter the Law of Moses in the Letter for the Weakness and Vnprofitableness of it suitable to that before mentioned in Rom. 8.3 For the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better Hope did by which we draw nigh unto God Now if any be ignorant of what this Better Hope is which makes perfect and by which Believers draw nigh to God they may know it is Christ Jesus the Lord of Life and Glory that quickning Spirit also by which the Vail of the Heart is rent away in them that believe which the Old Covenant made with the Jews at their coming out of Egypt could not do because it was weak through the Flesh as is said before And so thou T. Hall and all the Unbelieving World going out from the Spirit into the Letter in your Fleshly Minds and Wills which is Enmity to God and is neither subject to the Law of God nor indeed can be as Paul saith Rom. 8. you bring in nothing but Condemnation to your poor Souls for you are so proud in Heart that you will not come to Christ that meek lowly Lamb to be taught by his Light and Spirit which shineth in your Consciences reproving you daily for your Unbelief But you think by your exercising of your selves in your own Wills and Times in some outward Observations of your own devising called Religion to get Acceptance unto God in them though to his Son you are utter Enemies But truly instead of Life you bring Death for the Wages of these your sinful Doings and defiled Worships is Death And that thou T. Hall art an Enemy to Christ and his Blessed Spirits Teaching thy words in thy Papers will still fully and more abundantiy shew which are these which I shall now set down for thou T. Hall in Page 11. wickedly sayst Be it known unto you Quakers God and Christ had no such an intention to answer the Question of the Man in the Gospel in any such like manner to seek to the true Worshipping of God in Spirit and Truth but Christ instead of directing the Desire of the Man for the good of his Soul and Glory of
the Law was in its Childhood but when the Fulness of God's time came for the Manifestation of his Christ and the Pourings forth of his Glorious Spirit according to Prophesie and Promise then came the Church to be like the Heir at full Age entering into the Blessed Possession of the Father's Kingdom the Inheritance of Saints in Light And therefore saith Christ the Law and the Prophets were unto John since which time the Kingdom of God is preached and People press into it And amongst them that are Born of Women there hath not a isen a greater Prophet than John Bâ—pâ—â—st but he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greate than he Therefore Wo is unto thee Tho. Hall and all such Jewish Spirits that would shut up this Blessed Kingdom of God from Men and you will neither enter into the Kingdom of God your selves nor suffer others Obj. But what then was the Law for Answ Paul answers The Law was added because of Transgression till the Seed which is Christ came to which the Promise was And so saith he before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith afterwards to be revealed Gal. 3.23 Then saith he Verse 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law was our School-master unto Christ but never a word of bringing us to Christ by Moses's Law but a shuting up We were shut up schooled saith he or hard kept to our Task and Whipped But he that reveals Christ to the Soul and draws the Soul to Christ is the Father by the Living Power of his own Eternal Spirit whom the Fleshly World knows not Obj. But must not the Soul be humbled in the sight and sence of its Sin before it can receive Christ for Salvation Answ I say yea but this is the Work of Christ also who by his own Eternal Spirit which ministers his Fiery Law doth Convince the World of all their Sins of Unbelief and mighty Transgressions whereby they have dishonoured him and slighted all his Love and so that which now makes all the Sins of People so Damnable is their Sin of not believing in and receiving Christ the Light of the World into their Heares to dwell guide and rule there and so he that believeth not is Damned already saith Christ and this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men believed it not And ye search the Scriptures saith Christ to those Jews that boasted of being Moses's Disciples for in them ye think to have Eternal Life and they are they that testifie of me but ye will noâ— come to me that ye may have Life Also consider that Paul for all his Zealous Profession of Moses's Law and Letter-knowledge was never truly sensible of nor truly humbled for his Sins until Christ appeared from Heaven and struck him down See Tho. Hall how Christ here sets forth the Nature of Carnal Professors of the Letter of Scripture and Boasters of Moses's Law they are dead from God because they will not come to Christ in whom only is Life They thought to have had Eternal Life in the Scriptures which test fi d of Christ but they sticking in the Form and dead Profession of the Letter without Christ the Living Power of God to Salvation they could not have Life Eternal Foâ— he only that hath the Son of God hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life but the Wrath of God abides upon him For you being under the Law as is said before are under the Curse and the Law worketh Wrath saith Paul and that is the reason that the Carnal Professors of the Letter are Persec tors of the Life of Christ where-ever it is made manifest in Son or Daughter in all Ages as Paul saith in that forementioned place Gal. 4. He that was Born after the Flesh Persecuted him that was Born after the Spirit even so it is now But the Lamb shall have the Victory and the mouth of all Iniquity shall be stopped Glory to the Lord our God over all for Evermore Another Piece of thy Enmity Tho. Hall against Christ and his Spirit is manifest in thy Paper where thou sayest That there is no Scripture that warrants Peoples going from the Law as Moses taught though it 's a Law written in the Letter to hear and learn at any other either a Christ Called a Law-giver or the Spirit of Truth as you call it Answ So here all may see that thou art so full of Enmity against Christ that thou canst not endure to have him honoured with the Title of Law-giver and thou art so full of Darkness that thou knows not nor wilt believe that God's People have any such thing indeed as the Holy Spirit to guide and teach them but comes forth with thy scornful Words like the Jews that Crowned him with Thorns and Spit in his Face saying A Christ called a Law-giver or the Spirit of Truth as you call it So it 's high time for all People to take heed of falling into the Error of these Men to wit Tho. Hall and his Fellows who have chosen the Killing Letter of Moses's Law and denied the Son of God and his Blessed Spirit and so have Builded the Babel of their Rotten Profession upon a Foundation of Sand to wit their own Righteousness which in the Day of God will utterly fail them for every Man's Works must be tried by Fire And so all such as have not Christ for their Foundation must Perish For other Foundation can no man lay than that which is laid even Christ who is our ALL and will Reign over all his Enemies for Evermore And so let no Man trouble us any more for we bear in our Bodies the Marks of the Lord Jesus And Ever-praised be his Name who hath given us an Understanding to know him the Salvation of God to be in us and we in him and so to be Witnesses for him before Men that the time of the fulfilling of his Scriptures is come which saith Jer. 31.31 c. Heb. 8. Behold the Days come saith the Lord that I will make a New Covenant with the House of Judah and with the House of Israel after those Days not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers in the Day when I took them by the Hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt which my Covenant they broke although I was an Husband to them saith the Lord but this is the Covenant that I will make with them after those Days saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People And they shall not teach every man his Neighbours and every man his Brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest For I will be merciful to their Vnrighteousness and their Sins and their Iniquities will I remember no more Now in
How could the Word of God be called a Mystery hid from Ages and Generations but now is made manifest if the Light within be sufficient And then quotes Eph. 3.9 Col. 1.25 26. Mat. 11.25 I answer That it was within and sufficient when it lay hid as a Mystery till God's full time came of revealing it and therefore Christ compares it to many Powerful and Precious though hidden things and of little account to the outward view as to a Grain of Mustard-seed in the Earth to a little Leaven within much Flower to Treasure hid in the Field and Christ said to the Pharisees that God's Kingdom was to be found in Man he excludes none and those Scriptures thou sett'st down prove for this Truth and against thy roving Mind which is in the outward observings thinking to find the Kingdom there when Christ saith it cometh not that way see Luke 17.20 21. What wilt thou conclude it was not because it lay hid What Logick is this Doth not Paul there say that the Mystery which was so hid and which he by the Spirit now Preached which was Christ in the Gentiles the Hope of Glory And Christ was Light and to this Light he warned every Man to take heed but the little Children not the Masters obey the Voice and so are led into the Understanding of the Mystery Qu. 2. In the next general Query thou askest Are not the Scriptures the Words of the Lord whose Words are they And why is the Scripture so often called the Word of God and the Word of the Lord And for this thou brings many Scriptures as Exod. 24.4 2 Kings 20.26 27 28 29. Psal 12.6 Jer. 36.4 6 8 11. Acts 19.10 2 Cor. 2.17 1 Thes 1.8 Answ To this I say First That the Holy Scriptures were given forth by Holy Men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and so they may be called the Words of God or of the Lord not that Spirit and Living Word but that those Scriptures prove what thou bringest them for to wit that the Scriptures or Writings without is there called the Word of God is not true it is said indeed in that of 2 Kings 20.16 That Isaiah said unto Hezekiah Hear the Word of the Lord and Hezekiah said Good is the Word of the Lord and in other places of Scriptures that the Word of the Lord came to the Prophets and that in the fore-mentioned place of Acts and Corinthians and Thessalonians mention is made of the Apostles Preaching the Word of God all this is true but of Exodus and Psalms and Jeremiah mention is made of Words but what doth all this prove but only that the Word came to Holy Men this Word was God and as this Word moved in them and gave them Wisdom and Utterance they writ or spoke forth Words as a Declaration of what was in the Mind or Word of God or what God was and what though the Scriptures may be thus called The Words of the Lord or his Prophets or Apostles Acted by his Power which we never denied this is nothing to the Hypocrites who use their Tongues to say The Lord saith when he never spoke by them but make a Trade of the Scriptures for filthy Lucre and by their much pressing the Declaration to be the Word of God have quite clouded the Word it self Christ from whence true Words come from the Peoples Minds so that scarce any have any true Living Feeling after God in his Word Christ for in the beginning was the Word before all Declarations and shall be after all the Peaceable Life of all that Believe for ever So that the Lord saw it good to stir up a People in these days to be True and Living Witnesses of the Word for the stopping of the Mouths of all such as have gotten the Words as Thieves from others and so kept People in the form with themselves always Professing but never Possessing the Power which the Scripture Witness unto and so the Letter and empty Words kill'd and do kill but now the Living Spirit and Living Word being Witnessed the Scriptures is owned in its place and Resurrection to Life being felt the Crown is set upon the King's Head whose Name is called The Word of God who was and is and is to come over all God Blessed for evermore and it is considerable that the Ministers of Christ are never called Ministers of the Letter or Words but of the Word and Spirit 2 Cor. 3. and that Christ and his Apostles mentioning the Prophets Words usually called them Scripture and not The Word of God as the custom of Hypocrites is now All Flesh is Grass and all outward Sounds and Signs vanish but the Word of the Lord that endures for ever and this is that Word which by the Gospel the Power of God is Preached and by nothing else savingly which when understood People are One but not before for it is the weakness which is like the Womans speaking makes Dissention so let the Scripture have its due and the Word of God its due and all is Beautiful in its place Query 3. In thy third thou askest How shall we know whether the Spirit that speaks in us be the Spirit of God or an evil Spirit but by trying them by the Scriptures And for this thou bringest 1 John 4.1 Isa 8.19 20. Acts 17.11 John 5.39 then thou replies and as it were says If you say we know the Spirit to be of God because it convinceth of Sin then I ask how do you know that to be Sin but by the Scripture For this thou bringest 1 John 3.4 Sin is a Transgression of the Law and afterwards says If we say that Spirit tells us it 's of God or that we know it but by its Fruit how do we know it not to be a lying Spirit or how do we know the Fruits of the Spirit but by Scripture Answ Now I say by all this it plainly appears that thou art no Gospel-Minister no Minister of the Spirit of God at all but art a meer talker of the Letter and Law not knowing what it faith nor whereof it affirmeth for doth not the next Covenant run thus I will put my Law in their Hearts and in their Minds will I write it Jer. 31.31 and Heb. 8.8 and the Apostle that said unto his Brethren Try the Spirits in that place 1 John 4 1. did not say you have a writing without by which you know all things but you have an Anointing from the Holy One and this abides in you and by this they know all things 1 John 2.20 27. according to what Paul in 1 Cor. 2.15 16. saith The Spiritual Man judgeth or discerneth all things but is judged or discerned of none for the Natural Man knows nothing aright though he may have all the Scriptures to talk of without him and though he may cry up in appearance even as Isaiah said to the Law and to the Testimony yet he never goes to the Law
the Ditch they are both in this day of God manifested to be and that which makes their Sin out of measure sinful is their Unwillingness to come out of it though one do reach never so loving a hand of help unto them Also by this we know that they are no Messengers of God who cannot put a difference betwixt the Precious and the Vile to wit between such as are under the Curse of the Law and such as are under Grace to wit betwixt such as are born after the Flesh and such as are born after the Spirit But here the Apostle John a true Minister of Jesus put the real difference when he said in the forementioned Epistle and Chapter Ver. 7 8 10. Little Children let no Man deceive you He that doth Righteousness is Righteous even as he to wit Christ is Righteous He that commiâ—teth Sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil And in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil Whosoever doth not Righteousness is not of God So Wo to all evil Doers and unclean-hearted hearted ones who believe not the Truth nor receive the Truth as it is in Jesus but in your Hearts suffer Madness and Folly to rest and in your Hearts continue full of Evil while you live and so with the Dead lye down in Sorrow But on the other hand Blessed and Happy for ever are all you who have believed in the Light Christ Jesus and abide in him with Thanksgiving your Cup daily overflows with Heavenly Blessings from his Heavenly Fullness and ye are Compleat in him who is the Head of all Principality and Power and in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge and in him abiding you daily witness his Circumcision in you which is made without Hands in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh and not keeping on you the Body of the Sins of the Flesh as the Hypocrites do who only talk of Christ but in his Life do not walk So all Dear People who love your own Souls and would know the Salvation that is in and by Christ Jesus come out from amongst them that plead for the Devil's hold which is Sin Folly and Madness to be in Peoples Hearts while they live as though the Son of God were not come to destroy the Devil's Work which is Sin and so to cleanse the Heart Soul and Conscience to God from Sin And being come out from amongst these Blind Guides you will come Savingly in the Light of Jesus that leads forth from them all you that follow the Light to know daily more and more the things that belong to your Eternal Peace Also to set forth the Fruits of these Teachers how little they prosit them that follow them because they have run and God never sent them I shall mention one Passage which I had with some of these Nonconforming-Priests Followers at Stafford for I being moved of the Lord to go amongst them they did not only violently hawâ— me forth with their hands and threatning Persecution to me from the Mayor but also opposed the Blessed Doctrine of Sinless Perfection by Christ with an Argument directly one in nature with that which Priest Osland one of their Teachers yesterday brought to the same end as is said and it was this Rom. 3.10 c. There is none Righteous no not one There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God None that doth good nor knows the way of Peace nor have any fear of God before their Eyes but Destruction and Misery are in all their ways c. Now when they had brought this I could not but somewhat wonder to see such gross Ignorance of the Gospel in such a Professing People for who could so have abused and wrested Scripture as to bring the wretched State of such as are manifestly declared by their Works to be under the Law and Curse to prove against the Happy State of such as by Christ are delivered from both and stated into the Holy Life of God's own Righteousness And so these Professors who know not God nor Christ are laying all these heavy Charges upon God's Elect whom he justifieth What have Christ's Members no fear of God before their Eyes And do not they know the way of Peace but Destruction and Misery in all their Ways like the wicked World whose Mouths must be stopped yea yea praised be the Lord for Ever the Day-spring from on high hath vilited us that sate in Darkness and the true Light now shineth that hath led the Zion of God out of all those Condemnable Things before-mentioned into the Way of Life Truth Holiness and Peace Glory to his Name for Ever And so by this it appears how like these Priests and their Followers are all sucking at the Breasts of that Mystical Whore and Dragon that opposes the Lamb and his Followers but the Lamb shall always have the Victory as he hath this Day Glory to his Name over all For a Voice came out of the Throne saith John Rev. 19.5 saying Praise our God all ye his Servants and all yet hat fear him small and great And I heard as it were the Voice of a great Multitude and as the Vâ—ice of many Waters and as the Voice of mighty Thunderings saying Alleluja for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour to him for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white for the fine Linnen is the Righteousness of Saints And is not this Garment sinless and without spot Yea yea And blessed are they that are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Amen Thomas Taylor To all that are Worshipping in the Outward Court without God in the World in diverse Forms THE ETernal Truth of God is now making iâ—self manifest in Sons and Daughters Servants and Handmaids according to Scripture and the Lord God of Heaven and Earth to his own Glory is raifing up his own Seed by his own Power and in this Day of ours working that Work and Wonder which the Children of the Night cannot believe though it be told them And now is the Searcher of Hearts appeared and the hidden things of Esau are in searching up and Judgment bâ—gins to take hold upon Old Ely's House and the Vengeance of the Almighty upon his Prophaâ—e Sons And now that these things are in doing the Powers of Darkness band themselves together to keep out the Judgment but all in vain for the Consumption decreed must overflow in Righteousness and the Hall shall sweep away the Refuge of Lies in Priest and People and all Fellow ships and Communions of People whose Hearts are in the Earth and who are covered but not with the Spirit of
to take it from them whether they will or no I say is not this a manifest Token that such Ministers are not sent of Christ seeing he said to his Freely ye have received freely give and the Apostle said We seek not yours but you But if you say the same Apostle also said If we have ministred to you Spiritual Things is it a great Matter if we partake of your Carnal Things 3. Then I Query to let pass the Question here concerning what you minister whether it is Spiritual or Carnal whether ever the Apostle or any true Minister of God and Christ either under the Law or Gospel did ever use any other Means for that they had allowed them of God but the Power of the Word only Or did ever the Apostle or any Minister of Christ receive much less compel by worldly Force any Maintenance for Preaching from such as denied them to be true Ministers And so such now as not only compel Wages from their own Hearers but even from such as they do no Work for do plainly manifest by their Fruits that they have run and God never sent them and are so far from being Successors of the Apostles in their Spiritual and Heavenly Ministry as that they Merit to be accounted of the Kind of Old Eli's Sons who by their Doings caused the Offerings of the Lord to be abâ—oâ—red 1 Sam. 2. from Ver. 12 to 18. 4. Whether such as cannot content themselves with the Incomes of one Parish though it be Sixty Eighty or One Hundred Pounds a Year but seek after one or more Parishes or Places of Revenue besides are not out of Measure Covetous and so palpably out of the Doctrine of Christ and so Idolaters seeing the Apostle saith Covetousness is Idolatry Eâ—â— â— 5. 5. Whether did ever any Minister of Christ's sending Preach up the Tenth of Peoples Labour or Encrease of the Earth and earthly Things as a standing Gospel-maintenance for his Ministers seeing the Apostles Writings are wholly silent in the thing And now if any of you in your high Minds think much or strange to be question'd concerning these things such may know that these are the latter Days spoken of by Jeremiah Chap. 23.20 21. wherein God hath done and is doing great things for his People And in these latter Days saith the Prophet there you shall consider perfectly of the pouring forth of God's Wrathful Indignation upon the false Prophets and Teachers who have run and God never sent them as also throughout that whole 23d Chapter of Jeremiah is to be seen Also concerning the false Prophets and Teachers you may read John 10.1 c. Isa 56.9 c. Ezek. 34.1 Mic. 3. 2 Pet. 2. with divers other Scriptures which speak of the false Prophets and Teachers also of the true Ones from all which these few amongst many plain and necessary Conclusions following may be gathered viz. 1. The true Prophet Messenger or Teacher is sent of God as before in the Power and Spirit of God with the living Word of God which is as a Hammer and a Fire to break the hard Hearts in sunder and to burn up the Chaff and Dross in the Minds of Disobedient People who know God's Will but do it not but hold the Truth in Unrighteousness The false Prophet or Teacher he runs in his own Will and having stolen the Word from his Neighbour useth his Tongue to say the Lord saith when the Lord never sent him and so with good Words and fair Speeches deceives the Hearts of the unwary Hearers making glad the Hearts of Hypocrites and crying Peace when the Lord hath not spoken it 2. The true Prophet Teacher or Minister as he hath received freely so he ministers freely but the false Teacher as he runs in his own Will so he ministers for a Self-end and if People put into his Mouth he cries Peace but if otherwise he prepares War against them and out of his corrupt Heart cries Give and can never have enough 3. The true Minister hath a Mouth always open for God and against Sin and Evil in every Appearance of it without respect of Persons and like a true Watcher gives notice of the Wolf's approach and doth not flee when the Wolf comes but opposes him in the Loss of all because Christ's Sheep are dear to him But the Hireling fleeth because he is a Hireling and careth not for the Sheep and as concerning Sin it may live in People for Ever for him for he cannot bark against Sin he is so full of it himself for how can he that is an Unclean Covetous Proud Person himself with a Face stand against such Sins in others nay nay the barking of such must needs be against such as do from the Heart depart from Iniquity and so separate from such as live in it according to the Call of the Lord. 4. The true Prophet Minister or Teacher fights the good Fight of Faith and his Weapons are Spiritual and not Carnal and so he sights not with Flesh and Blood to destroy Mens Persons Liberties or Estates but his War is with the wicked Devil the Power of Darkness in Men that separates Mens Minds Hearts and Souls from God and brings them into Sin 's Captivity and so under God's Wrath and so the true Minister's Work is to Preach People out of that woful Condition into the Liberty of the Sons of God But the false Teacher or Minister his Weapons are Carnal and he runs to the worldly Powers to help him against such as oppose his evil Doctrine and Practice crying Men of England c. help as the Jews cried out against Paul Men of Israel help and so matter not though they weary the Magistrate and set all the World in an Uproar to keep themselves up in their high Places of Deceit and so prove the greatest Enemies against God's Truth and his Servants of all other as is abundantly to be seen in Scripture concerning the Priests and their Confederates who Presecuted Christ to Death and raged against his Followers because of their holy Testimony for God against their Soul-destroying Ways 5. The true Messengers and Ministers of Jesus Christ as they are powerfully sent of God so they work effectually for God for the edifying of the Body of Christ and perfecting of his People in Holiness to God But the false Teacher as he hath run without God so his Work is for strengthning that Part in Man to wit the Serpent's Wisdom which is against God and wars against the Simplicity of Christ and Good of the Soul in all and so they being themselves out of that Heavenly Power which perfects the Soul to God and gives it perfect Victory over all Sin they cry No Perfection here no perfect Victory over Sin on this side the Grave and so they lead about a People laden with Sin and Lust silly as Woman in the Transgression ever learning and never able by their Means to come to the Knowledge of the Truth itself
is above all and over all who was before the World was and hath brought us to reign with him eternally above the World Now here is the Joy and cause of our Rejoycing who have followed the Lamb through great Tribulation and are brought above the Tribulations to dwell in the Presence of the Living God This is Joy unspeakable and full of Glory which shall never have an end Hallelujah to our King for evermore By a Friend Thomas Taylor Watching for Sin WO to you that wake to Sin and watch for Iniquity that spend their Days in Vanity and so bring themselves with Sorrow to the Graves and their Souls to the Pit of Destruction The Trumpet of the Lord is sounding to awaken you to the Judgment of his great Day which burns as an Oven against all the Workers of Iniquity upon the Face of the whole Earth The Apostle saith Awake to Righteousness and Sin not But you that observe these Popish Wakes and Antichristian Revels you awake to Sin and Unrighteousness with the Strength and Delight of your uncircumcised Hearts like the Heathen that know not God The Papists appointed a Feast at the Dedication of their old dead Mass-houses and you their Children who uphold these Wakes bear witness against your selves that you were never yet in heart truly separated from their Idolatries O the Blindness and Deadness of your Teachers that cannot bark against this dead Idol And therefore doth the Lord warn you all to stand up from the Dead that Christ may be your Light to see such wretched and Soul destroying Vanities as these Wakes are that so through Repentance for them you may find Mercy and not perish with them that perish from the right way Rests God's Servant Thomas Taylor A Warning to the NATIONS To Layaside all Prejudice and Enmity The Ground of Strife and Wars And to come and Embrace the Light of Christ Jesus that they may see themselves and come to be Saved and Healed and United in the Love of God THE Indignation of the Lord is upon all Nations and his Fury upon all their Armies he will greatly distress the Inhabitants of the World he will now plead the Cause of his Covenant of Light against all those that withstand his Glorious Appearance and Work of Restoration in this the day of his Mighty Power wherein he is giving the Kingdom of his Everlasting Peace to Israel's Seed under the whole Heavens who fear his Great Name and tremble at his Almighty Word of Life which shakes not only Earth but Heaven also And now is the Lord God Almighty bringing forth his Glory to light and creating the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness according to his Promise Isa 65.17 c. wherein the People beat their Swords into Plow-shears and their Spears into Pruning-hooks never to learn War any more but every one now that believes in the Truth Christ Jesus the Light and true King of Righteousness and Peace shall sit under him the true Vine and none to make them afraid Isa 2.2 c. And now even now is the Lord God Almighty arisen and got up into his high Throne of Majesty and everlasting Glory to Reign and of this his Peaceable Kingdom which he hath begun to set up in his Trembling People there never shall be End The true Israel of God is now coming up out of the Spiritual Egypt indeed to possess the true Land of Promise the Inheritance and Free Gift of our God and no Inchantment shall now stand against God's Spiritual Host nor Divination against the Redeemed of the Lord who have known his Wonders in the Deep and known the Out-goings of God's Power against Pharaoh and all his Host in the Red Sea of his Fiery Indignation And now will God be exalted in Judgment and avenged in Righteousness upon all Nations and People under Heaven who hold the Truth in Unrighteousness and will not that God's Holy Son Christ Jesus the Light should reign though he be come to Reign and Judge in the Earth For to him the Light who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World is all Power in Heaven and Earth given And his Light shines freely into all your Hearts O all People of the Earth and shineth in the thickest Darkness to make manifest the Creator's Will to all your Consciences though your Darkness O People comprehends it not but it comprehends you and all your dark Ways and destroying Phoughts and lets you see plainly That for all your great Workings and toilsom Labour in an Out-side Profession in your Earthly Wills you have wrought no Deliverance in the Earth but your Souls Enemies still stand in strength And it lets you see that for all your Striving and Fighting and Killing and Spoiling and Destroying one another about Earthly Things you have done no good at all but brought God's Judgments upon all your Souls and pierced your selves through with many Sorrows And therefore the Heavenly Voice sounds through the Earth and calls aloud in your Ears and knocks at the Door of your Hearts O all People of the World High and Low Professor and Prophane Jews and Gentiles Christians so called and Turks Arise Arise Awake Awake turn in your Minds to the pure Light of Jesus Christ the Judge of Quick and Dead the Son of the eternal God Creator of Heaven and Earth who died for your Sins and rose again to give you a New Holy and Everlasting Life in himself through Faith in his Name And behold he lives for evermore And all see and search diligently in your selves what you know of his Holy Life made manifest in you to destroy the Body of Sin and Death in you which in the days of Darkness hath filled your Vessel and brought your very Soul Mind and Heart into the Thraldom of that Wicked One who is called the Devil and Satan and compassed with Terrors and Fears and Affrightments your very Life and whole Man because of the Wrath of the Almighty which you by your Sinful and Unrighteous and Unholy and Cruel Doings both against God and your Neighbour have stirred up against you And behold the Earth languisheth because of these things and the Children of Light who are redeemed to God out of these sore Evils and grievous Plagues do mourn for you and bewail your Misery Night and Day as well knowing in the Light of the Lord what your woful End will be if these Bryars and Thorns and noisom Weeds the proper Fruits of the Curse be still suffered to grow in you and cumber God's Ground Oh! how nigh unto Cursing is that Field which God's Rain rains upon and yet brings forth no better Fruit than Killing and Slaying and Spoiling and Cousening and Cheating and Defiling and Oppressing one another besides Lying and Swearing and Cursing and Drunkenness and Pride and Persecution of God's Righteous Seed with all other Abominations of the World against the Holy Light c. Checks and Reproofs of the good Spirit of the
Everlasting Father which is Spirit and Life the Resurrection and the Life in every believing Soul for we are Redeemed from Death thereby that we might for Ever hereafter serve God in the newness of his own Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter as all such do as know no other Teaching Word but the Letter as this R. B. doth and so they having gotten a little Brain-knowledge by their Humane Helps and not by the Spirit of Truth they wrest Scripture to their own and others Destruction desiring and boasting themselves to be Masters and Teachers of others whilst themselves need teaching what the very Principles or beginning Doctrines of the true Christian Religion is as is plainly manifested by his seeking to bring in a graceless Minister or Wolf into Christ's Fold surely the Wolf comes not but to rob and destroy All that ever came before me saith Christ are Thieves and Robbers and never came in by the Door as its plain the Graceless Man doth not but hath climb'd up another way by his Humane Helps as Baxter speaks and to this purpose see John the 10th and Mat. 23. where Christ at large sets forth such Wolfish Teachers who can perk themselves up in Places of Teachers by the World's help outwardly but will neither enter into the Kingdom of God themselves nor suffer others but shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men by such deceitful Doctrine and Antichristian Inventions as this R. B. hath by saying That Gifts are more necessary to the validity of Ministration than Grace is and that he may perform the Office of a Minister to the Benefit of the Church that hath no Saving Grace at all And all Knowledge requireth Time and Labour to obtain it though the Spirit giveth it which last saying doth directly thwart and contradict the Scripture which saith I was found of them that sought me not Isa 65.1 And Paul sets believing and working in this great Matter of the Knowledge of God and Christ to Salvation one against the other as the way of the Law and Gospel for to him that worketh saith he is the Reward reckon'd of Debt not Gift of Grace but to him that Believeth it is of Grace to the Glory of God's great Love to Man for saith the Scripture God so loved the World that he gave his Son that whosoever on him believe should not perish but have Life Eternal And none can truly say but those are the best knowers and wisest People that have Eternal Life in them though they never laboured for it nor sought for it and so such as this R. B. who looks at all as obtain'd by Time and Labour they are those Spiritual Proud Ones who are swelâ—ed so big with Spiritual Pride that Self-idolizing Sin which as himself saith in his second Direction so called is the great Rebel against God the chief part of the Devil's Image that one Sin which breaketh every Commandment the Heart of the Old Man the Root and Parent and Summary of all other Sin the Antichristian Vice which is most directly contrary to the Life of Christ c. and these Letter-wise Men that have parched together a Garment of Fig-leaves to cover their sinful Nakedness are Proud of meer supposed Spiritual Excellencies for the way of the Blessed Spirit and its free Gifts and free Workings in the Children of Men they are strangers unto and then through their Humane Learning and lost Labour having gotten a little or a great deal of talk from the Letter of the Scripture concerning Religion in their Earthly Spirits which sees nothing of the Kingdom of God they condemn the Generation of the Just whom God teacheth and Blesseth with all Spiritual Knowledge in Heavenly Things and call them Spiritually Proud because they cannot but speak very highly and yet in the truest humility of Heart concerning the great Things that God hath done for their Souls and because they cannot join with the Wicked whom God abhorreth neither in their Worship nor other sinful Customs And so out of that Old Bottel come all those unsavoury Expressions of R. B. before-mentioned against the free Teachings of God's Spirit yea so great an Enemy he is to the wholsom Doctrine of Free Grace that Page 7. he saith Is it not Blaspheming of God's Spirit to make it the Patron of Mens sloth and idleness under pretence of Magnifying Grace To which I answer That pretending we deny and truly say with the Apostle That God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our Hearts to give us yea most freely without our own La-Labour or any Humane Help The Knowledge of the Glory of his Kingdom and those that call this Doctrine either in the Apostle or us a Patronizing of Sloth and Idleness are those that do really Blaspheme God's Spirit which teacheth it But many Texts saith R. B. commands us diligence and sloth is a great Sin To which I say the Scripture indeed commands a diligent Improvement and holy Exercise of the free Gifts which the Spirit hath given the Faithful But the Scripture never said that Humane Labour and Helps are the Means to be used for getting the Spirit 's Teachings and without which no Knowledge in Spiritual Matters is now received Stir up the Gift of God in thee saith Paul to Timothy so say I but he no where puts the Humane or Carnal Man to Work or Labour to get the Spirit for that is quite contrary to this Scripture Gal. 3.2 as also Rom. 9.16 Obj. But this R. B. asks this Question Why hath God setled a Teaching Office in his Church and commanded all to attend and hear and learn if we are taught by the Spirit without Man's help Why were the Apostles sent forth into all the World c Answer Here is the great stumbling of these Unbelievers the Worldly-wise Ones indeed what because God in his free unlimited Spirit did begift Men and in his own Spiritual Power sent them forth to preach and publish all abroad the Glory of his Kingdom and Good Will to Men cannot People therefore be taught by the Spirit without Man's help What Reasoning's this When the Scripture expresly saith That all the Gifts and Abilities Helps and Means of bringing People to God and the Knowledge and Enjoyment of all the Good Things of his Kingdom are meerly solely and wholly from God and his Blessed Spirit 's free Gift in Christ and not from Man at all And therefore when the Corinthians began to look at Man whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas he calls it Carnal and said Christ was not divided signifying plainly it was Christ and the Spirit of his Power that alone did all in all as Christ said Joh. 15. Without me you can do nothing for in the True Church Christ ever was and ever will be all in all and and Man nothing as Paul said of himself Paul is nothing But in the False Church where R. B. is pleading for Man yea Graceless Ministers Man
other Unholy Doctrines he saith as is before mentioned from Page 195. That there is no Man alive that worshâ—ppeth God without some sin and adds Do you ever pray your selves in secret or in your Families without sin And a better State than this he doth not believe that any shall here come unto and for being free from the Corruption of the Times what hast thou to do O R. B to talk of this who art one with the Corrupt pleading for Conformity even with the Persecutors of Godliness it self Yea seeking to make such as good and excuseable before the Lord in their Persecutions of the Godly as the Godly themselves are who in Obedience to God do separate from them What! Is Praying to God with sin in your Hearts the highest Degree of your Godliness Oh Hypocrites Yea it is And is your Conforming to the Worship-Actions of the Persecutors who take God's Name in vain when ever they mention it in that State no Corruption And not only so but your Oneness with the Times in many of their Corrupt Customs of daily Conversation as every Eye sees no Corruptions But above all Corruption is gone forth over all the Land even from the Teachers such as this R. B. is who in words can tell others of forsaking it for what greater Corruption than for the Priests to love to be called of Men Masters and to Preach for Hire and Divine for Money and to cry Peace Peace to the Wicked especially such as put into their Mouths But if any put not into their Mouths then they prepare War against them as both in Oliver's time and since they have done to the impoverishing and spoiling them that fear God of their Goods and imprisoning several to Death upon the same account What would Christ Mat. 23. and the Prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah and Micah and the rest have cried so vehemently against such things if they had not been grievous Corruptions of the Times See Jer. 5.30 31. Isa 56. Micah 3.5 c. And so when the Priests are Proud and Covetous and Cruel what can their Followers be but like them It is not the Priests telling People they must desire after Holiness and forsake the Corruptions of the Times that will do any good so long as the Teachers themselves live in Unholiness and Corruptions and smite with the Fist of Wickedness for doth not that in the Conscience say to such Thou that teachest another why doest not thou teach thy self But they have run and God hath not sent them therefore they are such Briars and Thistles and cannot profit the People at all Jer. 23. And they say to every one that walks after the Imaginations of their evil Hearts ye shall have Peace But for these things the Lord hath and yet will severely judge them Head and Tail Root and Branch in his great Day And now to that which he saith to his Disciples Be not odd and singular from ordinary Christians in lawful things if it be to go in a meaner Garb than others or not to put off the Hat or to go bare-foot or in a distinguishing Habit this gratifieth Pride Answ To this I may say Wo be to them that call Evil Good and Good Evil that account keeping on the Hat in simplicity of Heart to God as we do our other Garments without Contempt to any I say that account and call this Evil and yet account putting off the Hat in Honour to Proud Flesh Good the Apostle James saith He that hath respect to Persons committeth Sin and is convinced of the Law as a Transgressor Jam. 2.9 But R.B. in this his pleading for the Hat saith it is lawful but to keep Christ's Commands in having respect to Christ and not to the Persons of Men oddness and singularity though this Man and his Fellows condemn us for this yet Christ justifies us and so we have Peace with God And for going in a meaner Garb than others whosoever he intends by this we know that he and all such Proud Masterly Teachers are far enough from this for they are quite out in the other Extream for if you will find Pride and Prodigality who more Notorious in the Land than the Priests and their Families who live in Pride Idleness Fulness of Bread and the poor People see it though they are forced to labour and drudge for them as the Israelites in Egypt And so they spend their Money for that which is not Bread and their Labours for that which satisfies not their Souls as the Prophet of Old complain'd and that which is most sad they must do it by force for if the People do see them to be totally void of Grace in their Lives yet according to R. B's Doctrine they must not take them for no Ministers however they must be at cost with them to maintain them in their Pride and Idleness or else look for a Prison or spoiling of their Goods or the like but the Lord hath shaken his Hand at such dishonest Gain But as for a distinguishing Habit which this R. B. Charges upon the Friars how is it that he could not see himself and his Brethren in their distinguishing Habits of Black Gowns Black Cloths Tippets Hoods Surplices and the like Oh! these Unjust Men who are all Eye abroad and none at home but this was ever the Nature of such as were out of Christ's Doctrine Also whereas this R. B. by these words That all may see and say this is a singular Person in Religion doth endeavour to make People believe that our not putting off our Hats which we do meerly in Obedience to God who commands us not to honour proud Flesh is done for a selfish End and in our own Wills to get a Name is such a piece of Haughtiness and Foolishness in him that nothing but meer Envy could have taught him such a piece of Unreasonableness for who is there that sees not the contrary Effect to come of our not putting off our Hat to what R. B. here sets down For it is so far from getting us a Name of being Religious amongst Men that they do as it were with one Mouth cry out against us unmannerly Fellows and the like for it And truly but that the pure Fear of God strengthens us it were impossible for us to bear the Reproaches Finings and Beatings and daily Cross that attends this very same thing so that to cross proud Flesh in this one thing exposes the poor Creature to great Trials in these degenerate Days even amongst them that profess Christ who made himself of no Reputation in this World from whom one might expect better usage for so harmless a thing But as Christ and his Apostles and Disciples found no better usage amongst the professing Jews of those Days for doing the Will of God So we are even made content to undergo all things for the Truth 's sake from our own Country-men and Professors in these Days even from all who profess the Letter and want
to any of their proved Corruptions Then I say If we may not have Fellowship with them in their Corruptions no not so much as by consent then we must not have Fellowship with them at all for they and their Corruptions are one for saith Christ Ye are of your Father the Devil for his Works ye will do But saith Bryan Christ was a Member of this Church as he calls it of those wicked Jews because he was Circumcised and frequented the Temple and eat the Passover than which Saying of this Bryan nothing can be more False for what though Christ was Circumcised and went sometimes into the Temple and eat the Passover which had been Ordinances of God for their time and were Shadows of good Things to come What is that to prove Christ a Member of that Body whose House was left unto them desolate and who were headed by the Devil which at length put them on to murder him O fad that ever People in their love of the World should be so blind But what is Christ's conforming to the Shadows of the Law which God gave for that time and by him to be fulfilled and so ended to your requiring us to conform to you in that or those Things which God never ordained as Sprinkling of Infants and not only so but teaching for Doctrine That you make them thereby the Children of God Members of Christ and Heirs of his Kingdom and also your giving David's Psalms in Rhime and Meeter to the wicked World to sing to God's dishonour And to hear a proud Man and covetous Man who is an Idolater Preach and Pray whom God never sent yea and to maintain him in his Sins contrary to all Reason and Religion also how can we conform to you in your Corruptions of respecting Persons and of having Mens Persons in Admiration because of Advantage Contrary to the express Doctrine of the Apostle which saith James 2.1 c. Have not the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory with respect of Persons Yea and plead for their Transgressions How can we Conform to such as under the Name of Christians do live manifestly in the Sins of the Heathen as Fornication Covetousness Idolatry Drunkenness and are Railers and Extertioners and lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God from whom the Apostle bids us turn away 2 Tim. 3. and 1 Cor. 5 11 c. with whom he forbids us to eat and yet with such both R. B. and Bryan for all their former seeming hypocritical Zeal would now have us to Communicate yet not so much as consent to their Corruptions neither as their daubing contradicting Doctrine seems willing to have Then I say We must neither have Fellowship with them in their Worship-actions as R. B. calls them nor in their ordinary Conversation for all is Corrupt For what greater Assent or Consent can we give than by joyning with them or practising such things openly But it 's better to obey God than Man both in this and all things and as the Lord said to Jeremiah so in this case hath he said to us Let them return to thee but return not thou to them for what Fellowship hath Light with Darkness or the Temple of God with Idols And now I come a little to set before you poor People who have been deceived by such Men as this R. B. and Bryan are something of the Answer they give to the Arguments of the zealous People of old called Brownists who could not for Conscience-sake conform to their Common-Brayer c. Their Objection saith Bryan in Page 297 of his Book was this to wit That the People of England were never rightly called for in the beginning of the Queen's to wit Elizabeth 's Reign they were by her Command and Proclamation compelled to embrace the Protestant Religion and to conform to God's Worship whereas in the New Testament we have no Example of People compelled to the Service of God Christ commanding Fisher men to convert Souls by Preaching not Princes to make Disciples by Compulsion therefore the Church of Christ England he should have said for who ever denied the Church of Christ had no right Constitution But now see the wretched Answer of this Bryan to the said Objection of the old Non-conformists If we speak saith he of a Church first planted the People of such a Nation are first called by the Word before they come to be a Church But it is not so saith he of a Country where for a long time true Religion hath been professed which is our case And as to that part of the Objection That there is no such Example in the New Testament First The Magistrates were then Enemies to the Christian Religion Secondly saith he It sufficeth that we have Examples in the Old Testament 2 Kings 23.21 2 Chron. 15.13 and 33.16 and 34.33 nor have saith he Christian Princes less Power in their Dominion to abolish Idolatry and by Laws and Penalties to compel their Subjects where there is a Parity of Reason And after this Bryan having wearied himself with setting down several words to and against both what the Conformists said for and the Non-conformists said against these Things he takes breath and says he returns to satiâ—fie the Objection to wit The Objection before mentioned about Separation with such words as these It is not necessary and generally true saith he of all the Members of the Visible Church that they be called by the Word Answ To which I answer on behalf of Truth That it is the great Love and tender Mercy of God to our Souls that he hath delivered us from under such Men as this Bryan and R. B. are who know nothing as they ought to know but professing themselves to be wise are become most foolish and brutish in their Minds and Words by such false and Soul-destroying Doctrines as these affirming That People may be called into the visible Church without the Word and if one ask him If not by the Word by what then His answer is by Sprinkling when Infants or for fear of Man But what are these Calls into the Visible Church A strange Church must that needs be for certain where People are called into it without God's Word for certain it 's none of God's Church into which People are called without his Word It 's the visible Company of such as know not God thou shouldst have said For God's Church are the Faithful and their Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God and not without it But oh the Desolation that such Doctrine as this of Bryan and R. B. hath made amongst the poor People whose Eyes are not fully opened to see their Deceits Also this Antichristian Doctrine being laid as a Foundation in their House it is no Wonder to hear this Bryan say Page 301. That Ignorant and Prophane Persons have always been in the Church and ever will be at lest till Christ comes the second Time But by all these
at the Branches but now Christ's Axe is laid again to the Root of the Evil Tree Glory to his Name to cut it up Root and Branch that the right Heavenly Root and Branch of his own planting may bring forth Fruit to his Glory and Endless Praise who is worthy who is over all God Blessed for Ever So be it The next thing after the Children are grown up to Men and Women at least to Sixteen Years of Age or upwards and have passed the Bishops Hands as is before-mentioned they are invited to the Communion which they call the other Sacrament wherein they eat Bread and drink Wine in remembrance of Christ's Death as they say until he come But here you must understand a great Mystery of Deceit which hath crept in amongst the People called Christians since the Apostles time in the Apostacy and great Darkness of Antichrist to wit that though they tell of remembring Christ's Death till he come yet they do not believe nor would have any others ever to believe that this coming of Christ shall be whilst People are in this Body upon the Earth but they must be eating Bread and drinking Wine as a Sign and never come to see it fulfilled to them in the coming of the Substance to wit Christ in Life and Power to dwell with them and in them as he promised to them that looked for him as Christ said concerning the Fruit of the Vine that he would drink it new with his Disciples in his Father's Kingdom And as Christ taught them amongst other things to pray that the Father's Kingdom might come and is not this to be known in People whilst here Yea yea and so to feel Christ supping with them and they with him and being unto them their daily Bread as he saith in the sixth of John I am the Bread of Life thus I say they remain out of the Faith of Christ and so without Faith it 's impossible to please God Also here is to be noted another grand Deceit of the Enemy in this their Sacrament so called in that he makes them believe the Bread and Wine is not holy enough and sufficient for that Business unless the Man-made Priest have said some words over it which they call Consecration and so Consecrated it as they speak with his unholy Hands unholy I call them and that appears from their own Confession for they daily say they have no Health in them by reason of their grievous Offences but if they had not in words confessed it yet their Lives makes it manifest that they are of unclean Lips and defiled Hands which whilst so are not fit to meddle with Holy Things no more than the Lepers under the Law were fit in their Leprosie to enter into the Temple or meddle with any Holy Thing And for those words they use unto all that Communicate Hand over Head which say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy Body and Soul unto Everlasting Life It is demanded where they had them for I never read any such in Christ's giving that Bread and Wine at his last Supper nor in Paul's words to the Corinthians afterwards speaking of it where then had they them Surely they have either Invented them out of their own Heads or had them out of some Popish Book or the like For it is certain from the Lord Jesus they came not seeing they are such a Burden to the Souls of his Redeemed Ones this Day But again these words Preserve thy Body and Soul signifies the Blind Priest takes it for granted that all that he gives this Bread unto are in a good and safe Condition at present though the Lord knows and they themselves confess they remain Miserable Offenders and have no Health in them O what sad work is here amongst them O what grievous daubing First they tell them that by their sprinkling they were made so and so as is before-mentioned and in their Bishoping confirmed in it and now therefore by this eating and drinking they are preserved though to the Grief of the Spirit of God they live in their Sins and in the broad way of the Old and Evil World where the true sprinkling of the Blood of Christ is not known for saith the Apostle If we walk in the Light as he to wit God is in the Light them have we Fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.6 7. Then it must needs be that such as walk in Darkness know not Christ nor the cleansing of his Blood for he is only the Author of Life to all that obey him but the unclean World eat and drink Damnation to themselves whatsoever to the contrary they may Imagine But whence came this Custom of Consecrating Bread and Wine if not from those of Rome who falsly imagine the Real Presence as they call it to be after their Consecration For Christ's giving of Thanks at his last Supper before his giving of Bread and Wine is nothing to your Custom Also seeing you pretend to give all the Vertue to the Thing signified and not to the Signs you spoil your own Doctrine of Consecration But Popery is easilier gotten out of the Profession than out of the Heart It would be long to tell of all the bold and strange Passages they have in this their Communion as in the other of their Observations But this one more only may be mentioned and so pass on and it is this Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the Company of Heaven say they we laud and magnifie thy Glorious Name Evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Now all People whose Minds are tender towards God I Appeal to God's Witness in you whether such words as these do any way suit or agree with the Condition of the Parishes of England who thus use them For what Fellowship have such Miserable Offenders and Unhealed Souls with Angels and Archangels and all the Heavenly Company Nay nay no more than Light and Darkness hath But here the Whore that fits upon many Waters which by Exposition of the Spirit are Multitudes of People hath lifted up their Minds into a Conceit that they are Real Christians and so of the Heavenly Company because of Words when Alas they are for the most part such as the Apostle wrote unto weeping Who so walk as that they are Enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their Bellies and glory in their shame minding earthly things Phil. 3. And what shall I say of their Ring and plighting of their Troth and Worshipping one another in their Form of Wedding when they say With this Ring I thee Wed and with my Body I thee Worship but even take up a Lamentation for the People whose Eye is so blinded by the God of this World that they will not see the things that belong unto their Peace in this the Day
ascended far above all Heavens and out of all Figures and Shadows that he might fill all things with his Holy Substance And as in former Days he gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the Perfecting of the Saints for the Work of the Ministry for the Edifying of the Body of Christ till we all saith the Apostle to wit the Heavenly Body not the Body of Sinful Earthly Flesh come in the Vnity of the Faith and the Knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect Man unto the Measure of the Stature and Fulness of Christ Ephes 4.11 12 13. Even so the Lord is now giving forth of his Spirit to his Children Born of his Spirit for enabling them in this Day of Restoration for the Work of the Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints and fitting them for Glory and this now after a long Night of Darkness and Desolation is to the Praise of his Glory who hath made us in this his Blessed Day as he did his Faithful Followers in the Beginning accepted in the Beloved to shew forth his Praises to Ages to come whom he will also raise up by Christ Jesus together with us to magnifie his Mercies for Evermore But that the Parish Teachers of these Times who Preach for Hire and Divine for Money loving to be called of Men Master and like the Pharisees of old love to go in Long Robes and receive Honour one of another John 5. are such to wit so given of Christ and begifted from Heaven and fitted for so great a Work as to perfect the Saints as those before in Eph. 4. mentioned were I utterly deny and their Fruits as also the Fruits of their Hearers make manifest that they are of another Sort Seed and Generation even such as the Prophet Jeremiah speaks of and declares against who have run and God never sent them For why they waited not for the Word of God to speak in them and by them but stole the Words from their Neighbour and used their Tongues to say The Lord-saith when the Lord never spoke by them Ier. 23.30 and therefore saith the Lord these Teachers shall not profit the People at all Verse 32. For what are their Chaffy Words to the Word of God Verse 28. So the Teachers of the Parishes this day get into the Pulpit with the Words of the Prophets and Apostles in their Hand and Sin in their Hearts as those other did dreaming over them for Filthy Lucre and cry to the People BELOVED yea Beloved because they put into their Mouths Hear the Word of the Lord as you shall find it written in such a Chapter and such a Verse when the Lord never spoke to these Hirelings nor sent them thus to preach but they are Men made Ministers Men of the Evil World and great Lovers and Pleaders for it and therefore the World hears them 1 John 4.5 But â—â—e true Messenger of Christ saith for himself and his Brethren We are of God and the whole World lieth in Wickedness And saith Christ to his Disciples Ye are not of the World as I am not of the World for if you were of the World the World would love you for the World loves its own but now I have chosen you out of the World therefore the World hates you John 15.18 19. So all People fear the Lord God for the Name of Christians without the Nature of Christ will do you no good at all for the Lord is come to search all that called Christendom with Candles and to pull down the lofty Hearts and Looks of all amongst them called Christians first and then of all the World besides for now is the Lord exalting his great Name over all as in the Beginning before the Antichrist Beast False Prophet and Whore got up and who shall stop the Passage of this mighty Jehovah in the great Work of setting up his Kingdom over all the Kingdoms of the Man of Sin that the Kingdoms of this World may become the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ whose Right alone it is to Rule and Reign according to that Saying in the Prophet I will Overturn Overturn Overturn till he come to Rule whose Right it is And now Wo and Misery begins to take hold of all Hypocrites and all the Wicked because of the arising and appearing of the great God from Heaven this day who is on his Throne judging in Righteousness and in Righteousness making War whose Fiery Word his Two-edged Sword goes out of his Mouth not only to discover but also to destroy and consume the Man of Sin in all the Earth And now the Hireling Teachers of all sorts the Merchants of Mystery Babylon shall cry Alas alas that great City People begin to see us and they will not Trade with us nor buy our Merchandize as in former days but declare against it see Rev. 18.10 11. O yea it cannot be otherwise for now the Witnesses that lay slain in the Streets of the great City Sodom and Egypt Spiritually so called are arisen and stand upon their Feet praised be God And now Judgment is given to the Saints of the Most High God Dan. 7.12 25 26 27. So that though the great Antichrist under many Shapes and Appearances hath spoken great words against God his Truth and People and hath oppressed the Saints yet now the Judgment of God being set against him his Dominion shall be consumed and destroyed and the Saints of the Most High God shall have Dominion and Reign with Christ whose Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him to wit our Lord Jesus Christ for whose Blessed Name and Truth 's sake the Holy Tremblers who Tremble at his Word and follow him in the Regeneration do this day suffer it is so Thomas Taylor In the Year 1679. Something in Answer to some Passages in that Wicked Antichristian Book written Catechism-wise by some Popish Stickler for his Master the Pope the Romish Antichrist and his Followers Printed at Douay and Subscribed H. T. IN his second Chapter he saith Faith is necessary to Salvation and that Faith is firmly to believe Matters of Faith because God hath revealed them Then say I Not the Pope But saith he again It is not enough to believe all that is written in the Bible but we must believe also Apostolical Traditions citing 2 Thess 2.15 Now say I in answer hereto That through wresting and abusing of this Scripture have they made way for bringing in all their Filthy Popish Stuff whereby Thousands and Ten thousands of poor Peoples Souls both have been and are at this day miserably deluded for certainly the Traditions which the Apostle there tells of whether by Word or Epistle where all of one nature and not directly contrary or contradictory one to another But the Popish Traditions though they may falsly call them Apostolical are directly contrary to Holy Scripture But saith he The Apostles Creed is not in the
are approved may be made manifest He doth not say Heresies come for want of a Pope and General Council And I may add another Reason and that a main and universal one and that is Peoples either not living in the Spirit or not walking in the Spirit and so not keeping the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And so not keeping the Head to wit Christ in whom if the whole Body be coupled and knit together increase of the whole Body to wit the true Church is made to the Edifying of it self in Love and not otherwise Eph. 4. This is the Cause and continual Cause A Second Reason of those Differences saith that Popish Book is because the very Ground work of Protestancy is That all Men even the whole Church of God are Fallible and subject to Err so that they cannot pretend to Certainty or Infallibility saith he for any one Point of their Belief To which I say if any Protestant say the whole Church of God is Fallible and subject to Err if they understand the Church as Paul doth in Ephes 5.25 26 27. and as he doth in 1 Tim. 3.15 or as Christ doth in Mat. 16.18 where it is said The Gates of Hell shall not provail against it they do not well For though all Men as Men in Adam the Earthly are not only Fallible and subject to Err but also really in Deceit and Error yet in Christ Jesus the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven that quickning preserving Spirit of Truth there is no Fallibility nor Error as the Apostle saith 1 John 3. He that abideth in Christ sinneth not Ver. 6. And he that is Born of God sinneth not nor can sin Ver. 9. But what is all or any of this Glory to the Pope or his Synagogue which he falsly calls the Church of God For they do not attribute the Infallibility to the Eternal Spirit which is in every true Member of Christ's Church which is their Leader into and Preserver of their Souls into all Truth but to the Pope and General Councils as though Infallibility were annexed to the Dream of Peter's Chair and not to Christ's Spirit in the Faithful O the Abomination of Desolation that is in this Popish Doctrine But what is there such Unity amongst these Deluded Disciples of the Pope Surely nay for as we read there was amongst the Jews the several Sorts and Sects of Pharisees Sadducees Libertines Cirenians Alexandrians and the like yet all against Christ So in the Popish Hierarchy there are the several different and divided Sorts and Sects of Franciscans Dominicans Jesuits Cappuchins Carthusians and others all agreed this Day as of long time they have been against the Blessed Crown Kingdom Dignity and Dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ But these with all the rest of Mystery Babylon's Merchants have cause to wail because the Light and Spirit of God in Christ Jesus is broken forth in Power and great Glory this Day to judge them all that the Kingdom not Worldly but Heavenly may be given to the People of the Saints of the Most High God for an Everlasting Inheritance as in Dan. 7.27 Here also I may well take notice of some other words that this Popish Pleader hath in his Book Treating of this Matter viz. Since then saith he to be of one Religion is to be of one setled Perswasion in Points of Faith and seeling cannot be without Infallibility or Necessity it is not well possible that any two Protestants or Sectaries to be of one Religion every Man Expounding the Scripture as he lists and no one having Power to Controul the others Exposition of it I Answer and in the Power of Christ do grapple with this Beast that arose out of the Sea and with his Image also and do say That no Humane Conceit nor Natural Man's Exposition with the help of all the World's Wit and Skill whether Pope or other is infallible or binding or controuling But by the same Spirit that gave forth Scripture whether in a Fisherman Tradesman or other now as well as formerly is the Scripture rightly Understood and Expounded So the true Oneness in Religion stands in the Oneness of that Spirit that gave forth Scripture and gives a right understanding of it and of all things as the Apostle saith The Anointing which ye have of the Holy One teacheth all things and by it you know all things 1 John 2.20 And he that hath not this Spirit is none of Christ's Rom. 8.9 And he that is guided by this Spirit is a Spiritual Man and so not to be judged or controuled in his Spiritual Concernment by any Man of this World neither Pope nor other as saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.10 15. It is so But whereas he tells of every Man Expounding the Scripture as he lists I say this is the Pope and all his Priests Fault and of all the wicked World besides who are not in Heart and Life subject to that one Pure and Holy Spirit that is of Jesus that leads Spiritually into all Truth which Truth is one And so though they that are of another Spirit may agree never so much and in never so great numbers in their several Ways of Deceit yet the true Religion of God's Holy Ones in Light they still remain ignorant of And so his Blindness of imagining that Protestants and Sectaries as he calls them cannot be two of them of one Religion doth hereby fully appear For not only they but all the People of the Earth under what Name Notion or Profession soever are either the Children of Light or Children of Darkness and so not only two but all of the same sort may and do agree in the Root in their Religion if it may be called so though we know there is but one true Religion and that is truly and properly the Religion of God's People the Children of his Light even that which in Purity and Holiness binds their Hearts to God And so by this word Controuling which this Remish Agent here useth it is easily seen how the Pope hath set up and maintained his Wicked Kingdom that is to say by a Worldly Controuling Power over Mens Souls and Consciences and not by the Power of Truth For if his Earthly Power with his Worldly Assistants were taken from him his Decretals Expositions Bulls Excommunications and Curses for not obeying his Commands would be of little force this Day in the Earth because of the Light that God hath raised up in the Hearts of People this Day to discover him Glory to his Great Name for Evermore And so the true Judge and Controuler of all Judgments and Controulers is on his Throne this Day judging in Righteousness and on his White of Glorious Power going on Conquering and to Conquer the Man of Sin in all Lands and his Holy Ones in Light His Called Faithful and Chosen follow him with great Joy of Heart Rev. 19.11 12 13. He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit
Christ his Honour grutch And do not rather such rebuke and say If you 'll not Hear we 'll quickly turn away And shake your Dust from off us we 'll be free From you and yours that all may truly see We are not such as would our selves advance Nor Mens Estates of any sort inhance But seek to set up Christ to be the Head Of all things in all Worlds with Fear and Dread And thus it was with Good and Godly Men In the beginning of the Gospel when The Spirit of the Lord did teach them what to say And Men did walk i' th' Sun-shine of the Day Before I say that Pope and Turk arose Who to Christ's Kingdom are Professed Foes And would themselves set up o're th' Sons of Men To Rule as Gods that neither Tongue nor Pen Might Publish ought but what their Heads devise Whose Wisdom out of the dark Pit doth rise And which for Ages hath spread over all To bring the Souls of many into thrall But now the Lord of Great and Endless Power Is making bare the skirts of that great Whore And giving double of his Furious Cup To such as of her Wine still dare to Sup It 's her strong Poysoned Wine that makes Men mad In Persecuting of the Just O sad That ever any who do Christ Profess In Words should seek his Members to Distress So then if you be Wise you 'll search and see How from that Monst'rous Haâ—lot you are free For if in Hand or Head her Mark you bear The Lord amongst his Enemies will you tear If you your Ways Reform not which are ill He will not spare he will your Glory spill He 'll Fight against you with his Fiery Word Which Kills and Slays as doth a two edg'd Sword Live in Deceit and turn which way you will His Sword will reach you and your Cup will fill With Woes and Sorrows and sad Acclamations The just Reward o' th' Wicked in each Nation Yea tho' the Name of Christians you may bear Yet it 's his Nature must the Lawrel wear For Christ your Persons doth not now Regard But as your Works are he will you Reward If you 'll not give a Reason of your Faith But Trample under Foot what any saith Concerning things that are amiss amongst you And to the Powers cry out they hate and wrong ye And thus with Fig-leaves seek from Men to hide Your Crying Sins of Avarice and Pride And Persecution and instead of mending Still Harbour Evil Thoughts which tend to Rending Then know for certain in a Moment God Will Visit you with his Almighty Rod And you who have not Visited in Love His suffering Servants will his Enemies prove And when his Peoples Sufferings are Compleat Then they shall Feed when you shall pine for Meat So be it And if the Writers Name in Writing you would see A Lover of God a Lover of Man is he This is my Natures Name which shall Remain When Sinful Men are Dead and all Disdain And God the Worker of my Souls Salvation Shall Rule and Reign as Head in every Nation And though the Devil fret yet Truth shall stand Over all and be the King in every Land for evermore Amen And to you called Church-wardens and Sideâ—men how weak is your Hearts and how slavish are your Minds through unbelief become that you cannot withstand and avoid such a manifest Temptation and Danger as to come under and Swear to the Bishops Articles for which of you either do or can or intend to Perform according to what you seem therein to engage your selves unto And that which is sad to consider the more ready you are to Engage and the more observant in the Performance the more Miserable oftentimes are you for thereby you must not only accuse the Drunkard and Swearer your own Mothers Sons but even the People of God also for their pure Consciences sake and so you had need all and every one of you Repent lest the Lord Swear in his Wrath against you that you shall never enter into his Rest as he did against those that had grieved him Forty Years in the Wilderness Thomas Taylor Certain Queries Propounded to the People called Anabaptists especially to such as believe and hold forth that Water-baptism is an Ordinance and Command of Christ Jesus the Door of Entrance into the True Church and so of such Absolute Necessity as that there can be no True Gospel-Church-Fellowship without it 1. WHAT do you believe concerning the Baptism of John the Son of Zacharias the Priest who was sent to Baptize in Water Was he in and under a pure Evangelical Office and Ministration and his Baptism in Water a Gospel Ordinance to continue to the end of the World If yea prove it by plain Scripture 2. What do you believe concerning the Witness or Prophesie of John Recorded John 3.30 I must decrease but he to wit Christ who was to Baptize with the Holy Ghost John 1.33 must increase Did he speak this of his own Person and of the Person of Christ or of the Office and Administrations which they respectively were sent to Execute and Administer If of the Persons then tell us how and wherein the Person of John decreased and how and wherein the Person of Christ increased and whether that saying Recorded Mat. 11. He that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John was spoken of or in relation to John's Person also and not concerning his Office or Ministration 3. Is that Baptism which you Administer and so earnestly press People unto John's or Christ's seeing John himself did expresly distinguish betwixt his Baptizing in Water and the Baptism which Christ was to Baptize in John 1.26 And Christ also and his Apostles did distinguish betwixt John's Baptism and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost Acts. 1.5 Luke 20.4 Acts 13 24 and Chap. 18.25 26. Chap. 19.3 4. into which Christ Baptized Mark 1.8 And are these distinct diverse or several Baptisms Or do you believe that they are but one Baptism and so no distinction to be put betwixt them If yea then tell us upon what Ground and Certainty you would have us believe you seeing therein you agree not in Doctrine with John nor with Christ and his Apostles 4. Is that Baptism which you Administer a Figure of the Spiritual Washing away of Sins by the Blood of Christ and of Plunging into his Name Spirit and Life Or is the outward Water in which you Baptize and your Act of Baptizing that is Plunging or Dipping in it really Sanctified to the doing of it and so consequently doth that Work and so no Sign Type nor Figure Tell us plainly what you your selves believe concerning it 5. Do you believe that those mentioned Acts 19. on whom Paul laid his Hands and the Holy Ghost came upon them who were Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus and had before that been Baptized in or unto John's Baptism who Baptized in Water were they then again
and no better than Offering Swines Blood or cutting off a Dogs Neck and for the endeavouring to keep up your Custom of Praying and Singing in mixt Congregations from the Example of Jews or them that follow Christ I say your Hypocritical Praying and Singing is good no where but Rejected of God and I see thy Pâ—ide all along that would be computing your Congregations to those that followed Christ Nay nay for though there was One Devil yet there was Eleven Saints but when you are searched scarce One of many Twelves that hath any true Fear of God before their Eyeâ— is to be found amongst you Qu. 20 And whereas in thy last Query thou askest Whether those Persons that have Experienced the Operation of the Spirit of God in the Gospels Preaching and Administrations Convincing their Consciences Melting the Hearts Humbling the Spirits and Turning them from Darkness to Light and have afterwards Tasted much Sweetness and have felt Soul-Ravishing Comforts in the Enjoyment of God in Ordinances have not the Witness in themselves that God doth own these and Bless these Priviledges to them I answer Yea it is thus with all that in Truth have the Witness in themselves that God doth own these and Bless these Priviledges to them But those People that go under the Name Quakers have to the Praise of God's free Love the Witness in themselves of such Fruits as thâ—se amongst them from the Virtue of the Everlasting Gospel and its Administration And therefore we can Witness that John Reynolds and all such as Condemn this Ministry and Work of God amongst us as Heresie or so are Deceivers and that they are Strangers to Spiritual Communion with God whatever in words they may Boast who cannot meet with and enjoy God where we to his Immortal Praise be it in Truth spoken do experience that loving Kindness and Goodness which is better than Life it self And therefore how long may this John Reynolds or any other Seducer or painted Sepulchre talk before ever they can perswade these whom the Lord hath so loved not to believe their own Spiritual Senses and Experiencies But to conclude Whereas this John Reynolds in his high swelling Words of his last Query and the 12th boasts much of his own and his Fellows Experiencies of Spiritual things I refer the Reader to the rest of his Queries and especially the 3 5 8 10 11 14 15 16 and to the answers to them all and to weigh all in the Ballance of Just Judgment and it will appear to him beyond words what may be Judged of them and us Thomas Taylor A Testimony to the True and Spiritual Worship And a Word of Consolation to the Children of Light GOD is a Spirit all Pure Holy Just and True and therefore in Spirit Purely Holy and Truly will he be Worshiped of all that come to him and therefore all that Worship which stands in the Impure Unholy nature of the flesh is of no acceptance with him Cain may Sacrifice and Israel may be Circumcised and Judas do something like an Apostle but so long as the Murderous Scoffing Covetous Trayterous Nature of the Flesh stands all is nothing The Lord God Blessed for ever hath in this day of his Powerful Love made manifest himself amongst the Children of Men on Earth and now Sons and Daughters do Prophesie and Old and Young do Sing of his Praise and Sound forth with Joyful Hearts of the worthy noble Acts of his Right-Hand because his Kingdom is come and his Glory in Sion is appeared and the Tabernacle of God is indeed with Men and he himself not a Shadow or a Figure or ontward Representation of him but he himself who is over all God Blessed for ever dwells in and with his People his dearly beloved Sâ—ed who have believed in Light that true Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and have not despised the day of Small Things but have waited in the Light in the Faith of his Holy Power for the fulfilling of his Promises and so through Faith and Patience have received the Promises of Everlasting Life and Salvation fulfilled in them whereby the Mountains are thrown down and Vallies lifted up and all made Plain Pure and Perfect for the Holy God and Father of all Mercy and Goodness to dwell in and walk in Glory Glory to his great Name who hath not left himself without a Witness of his Faithfulness this day nor left the Throne of Davids Kingdom without an Heir to sit upon it to Order and Establish it in Righteousness And now even now in this our Day the Day which the Lord hath made is the Blessed Fountain of the great Depth of the Love of God in Christ Jesus truly opened and the Waters of the Heavenly Temple are so deep that a Man may swim in them and it is not now as sometimes in times past here a line and there a line here a little and there a little but now hath the Lord our God according to his excellent Loving-kindness fully opened to Judah and the Children of the Heavenly Mother Jerusalem the Mystery of his Will and Fountain of his Eternal Goodness in Christ Jesus the Light whereby our Souls are satisfied and Sin and Transgression done away and the Everlasting Righteousness which makes Pure and Perfect the very Heart Soul and Conscience to God brought in ever Blessed be his Glorious Name for his unspeakable Gift Amen and Amen And now are all false Religions seen and by the Light which makes them manifest Judged for the false Births which are of the great Whore Mystery Babilon whose Religions are carried on by the will of the Flesh as by the Fleshly Wisdom they were Invented stand all in the Curse where nothing is perfect but their own Misery and Wretchedness Remains and therefore it is that both Priest and People in this Wretched State do all with one consent cry out against the perfect Work of Jesus Christ in his People saying None can be Perfect here And so do in a Word deny the very End for which Christ came and the End for which the Ministry of Christ was given for Christ gave himself for his People That he might wash them in the Word of Life and so present them to himself a Glorious Congregation without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing Ephes 5.25 c. And thou art all Fair my Love saith Christ to his Spouse And there is no Spot in thee And the Law made nothing Perfect but the bringing in of a better Hope Christ in us the Hope of Glory Col. 1.27 Heb. 7.19 And the very end of the Ministry was for the Edifying and Perfecting the Saints who are Christs Body Eph. 4.12 And we labour to present every Man Perfect to God in Christ Col. 1.28 And John 17.23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made Perfect in one But now the false Ministry which stands in the Flesh in which no good thing
like Not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm when they speak of such things because to the Kingdom of Heaven within in Man they are Strangers Eyes they have but see not and Ears but hear not for the inward Eye which should see have they fast closed and the Ear which should hear have they shut lest they should see and hear and be converted and be saved But Blessed is the Eye that sees the Kingdom of God which he hath set up and is setting up in his Trembling People and the Ear that hears the unutterable Word of the Living Father which raiseth the Dead they shall ever be Prasing of him in the Congregation of the Righteous where none can come to make affraid for these Love and Fear the Lord and that frees them from the Fear of Vain Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils But all whose Religion stands upon the Sandy Foundation of Mans Wisdom and Thoughts and Doings which Perfects not to God these will be like the Chaff which the Wind scatters to and fro the Regenerating Power of Gods Eternal Spirit they being ignorant of in themselves all their shew of Religion is meer Hypocrisie and the Religion of Hypocrites shall never be established for all who gather not with Christ shall scatter and every Plant that his Heavenly Spiritual Hand hath not Planted shall be rooted up O! What Darkness have you wrapt your selves in and how is the Understanding Part clouded in you that you will neither see nor learn to know the things that pertain to Everlasting Life Can you say the Branches of the fallen Tree the first Adam are Unholy and Corrupt because of the Unholiness of the Root And will you not see that the Members of the Heavenly Man Christ Jesus who never fell are Holy because of the Holyness of the Root For if the Root be Holy so are the Branches Anoint your Eyes with Eye-Salve that if possible you may see and know a better Root in you than the fallen Mans Nature to grow on that the Kingdom of Holiness you may feel come near you For they that are in the Flesh cannot please God whatever they may profess And this adds to their Misery that when they have brought forth the Deadly Works of the Flesh they would charge them upon Gods Elect and make their Works like their own These Fleshly ones are great Enemies to Christ and his Righteousness and his Members for they that are in Christ are New Creatures and to Abel and his Offering God hath still Respect though Cain and his Offering was always Rejected because Polluted with Sin as the Prayers and Performances of all Hypocrites are at this day Therefore for this purpose was the Son of God manifested and is at this Day Received of the Faithful even to destroy Sin which is the Devils Work And in him to wit Christ Jesus the Light is there no Sin nor Sinsul Narure So they that Love Christ and Walk in his Life and Light please God for he is that Way Undefiled wherein no Unclean can Walk but the Redeemed are here And what if I should set down the words of Jesus to wit Whosoever abideth in Christ Sioneth not whosoever Sinneth hath not seen him nor known him 1 John 3.6 Can you believe it I know you cannot whilst you stand reasoning with Flesh and Blood not Believing in the Light that Lighteh every Man that cometh into the World but call the Light of Christ in Man Natural and thâ—n put the Letter which only witnesses to the Light instead of it And then the Enemy works in your Natural Earthly Wisdom causing you to wrest Scriptures to Establish your Empty Forms which maks nothing Perfect and this was the Sin of the Old Jews who though they talked of the Messiah yet when he appeared they would not come to him that they might be saved and so under the Dead Profession of the Letter they lay Slain And tho' they had a Zeal for God as you have now yet it was not according to Knowledge and so stumbled at the Stumbling-Stone and so in their dark minds would needs keep up the Forms and Shadows of things in opposition to the Substance the thing it self Christ Jesus when he appeared as you do now O! that you could be perswaded of this how well would it be for your Poor Souls in time to come Therefore now that the True Heavenly Everlasting All-sufficient Light is broken forth again from under the Clouds after the long Dark Night of Apostacy turn your Minds in to know a measure of it in you and wait therein to be led out of all the Dark Paths of Sin and Error by it For I am the Way saith Christ the Light that true Light which Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and I will send my Holy Spirit of Truth to lead into all Truth He is come and his Promise fulfilled Glory to his Name forever And do you not know that Christ is in you except you be Reprobates saith the Apostle And if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light then have we fellowship one with another and the Blood of this innocent Lamb cleanseth from all Sin and washeth from all Unrighteousness all real Comers thereunto saith the same Spirit Therefore go not forth for without are Doggs and all Liars but Truth and the Kingdom of it is to be found within nigh in the Heart O how Beautiful is the Way of the Just Holiness is the Girdle of their Reins continually their Hearts ponder deep things in Holiness they do no Iniquity who walk in this Everlasting Undefiled WAY Christ Jesus the Light for by the Light are they led out of all Defilements and to such there is no occasion of Stumbling O stoop down low with your minds to the Light of Christ in you that convinceth you of Sin and Evil that through the Light the true Door and Daily-Cross to the Carnal Mind you may come into the Sheep-fold for all who clime up another Way are but as Thieves and Robbers and must be judged as Goats and set on the left hand because they would not hear Christ's Voice the Light in the Conscience to be led by it Great Wo to the Climers over the Door such neither receive Christ nor his Servants whom he sends but choose rather to follow such as love to be called of Men Master and live in the respect of Persons and Persecuting Nature and daub over an old Heart with fair Promises of Life as it is amongst you this Day for what tho' some in the outward stand against you for your Form and Words sake as the Heathen of old did the outward Jews yet both those outward Jews then as you outward Professors do now stood and do stand against Christ and us for his Truths sake For we find it true from you all that whosoever walketh in Christ and holdeth forth his Life and so Worshippeth God in Spirit and Truth shall
be hated of all men whether Professors or Prophane who are out of that Life and Holy Worship even for Christs very Name and Life's sake because it is a Cross and Offence to all the World who are in their own Wills under what Form or Profession soever who are gotten into a Profession of Christ without Christ and the daily Cross which his Followers bear Therefore all who are climed up into the Tree of an outward Profession without the true real seeling and Spiritual acquaintance with the daily Cross and fiery Law of the Lord and flaming Sword which Guards the Tree of Life which is in the Hand of the Angel of the Covenant for the cutting down of the Man of Sin that the Birth Immortal which is Holy may onter in and possess the Inheritance must come down again I say they must come to the beginning from which in their fallen Wisdom they are wandred to learn of him in Silence who speaks from Heaven whose Word is nigh in the Heart before ever they be established for except you become as little Children not in Talk but in Truth ye cannot enter God's Kingdom O ye People hearken awhile whether Teachers or Hearers You who have been feeding upon the Tree of Knowledg and never came through Gods Judgments the Flaming Sword to the Tree of Life Your Food is Death your-Works will Burn and your Fig leaf-Covers will fall off you and you be left Naked and Bare to the shame of your Nakedness as in the day that you were Born For what is any Covering unless it be that of the Spirit of Christ The Lord God who is of Purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity will bring your Deeds to the Light of his Judgments from which you cannot flee and before him will nothing stand but that which is Pure Your defiled Preachings Prayings Singings Hearings Readings will be rejected and cast out as Dung from the Presence of the Pure Holy God that is a consuming Fire You have multiplied words without Knowledge Ye have not been neither yet are ye Doers of Gods Will to the Witness of God in your Consciences I speak therefore in vain do you say Lord Lord and he will not hold them Guiltless that take his name in Vain Your Garment is not of the Pure White Linnen which is the Saints Righteousness but Linnen and Woollen is your Covering a thing forbidden by Gods Law Your Field is not sowen with the one Heavenly kind of Grain the Good Wheat but another Seed have you mingled with it and the mixture is so great that the Bad hath almost choaked and covered the Good in you If you will work you must into Gods Vineyard and be exceeding Diligent and Laborious in Spirit in plucking up the Weeds by the Roots in you the Light of Christ in your Conscience waiting in it will give thee Understanding But Wo will be to them who call the Light Darkness and put Darkness for Light and so suffer the Good in them to wither and nourish the Bad Part in them which is like the Grave that never hath enough but is always learning at Man without and not at Christ within and Ministring from the outward Dead Spirit of the World and not from the measure of the Living Spirit of Christ and so not taking heed to the Word of Faith which is nigh in the Heart the Word of Christ which is Spirit and Life they never get Victory over their Sin as is manifest but go laden Teacher and Hearer all their Life long with divers Sins and Lusts as was said before So Wo to the selfish Workers who speak their own words and think their own thoughts on this the Holy Sabbath Day of the Lord God wherein he hath given his People rest from all their weary Labour and Burdens The outward Day the first Day of the Week shall not Cover you nor be a Sabbath to you but in the breach of Gods Holy and Everlasting Spiritual Sabbath of Rest you being found you must bear his Judgment Behold all ye that kindle a Fire this Day and that compass about your selves with Sparks walk in the Light of your Fire and in the Sparks that ye have kindled yet know that your reward from the Lords Hand is to lie down in Sorrow I say all you who feed upon and whose Faith stands in the wisdom of Vain Mans words raised up in the subtility to please the itching Ear and not in the Power of God which washeth the inside a Day of Scattering cometh upon you it cometh and a grievious Whirl-wind from the Lord and the Pleasant Breasts of Mystery Babylon which you so much delight in shall be dried up for the Lord hath rejected your Confidence because you have rejected his Good Word and Counsel and chosen your own Delusion and evil entreated his Servants whom he sent rising up early and sending them time after time to warn you to come out of all your Dead Forms and Dead Faith into the Living Virtue and Power of his eternal Spirit of Truth to Worship him there and to know it in you but you would not therefore the Lord will yet do that Great Work and Wonder amongst you he will confound the Wisdom of your Wise and bring to nought the understanding of your Prudent Men and they shall be as Women weak and feeble the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and the Songs of your Temple shall be Howlings in that Day because of the Vine of Sodom that will bear no more Grapes but so many as have drunk of the Wine of her Fornication must Drink of the Cup of Gods Wrath. And all you who talk of your Faith and suffering Condition and yet Live in your Sin you know not what Spirit you are of for the same mind that you think to suffer in is it which by Transgression grieves the Spirit of God and stands against the setting up of his Kingdom in your selves and the Testimony thereof in his redeemed Ones this Day And so if you could give your Bodies to be burnt in this your Unsaved and Unsanctified Condition it would prosit you nothing at all Wherefore come out from amongst them all you that would be happy and touch no unclean thing but give your Hearts to the Lord to know his Light in you to teach you and he will receive you and hide you from the Wrath that is to come upon all that are not in him as saith his Spirit in his Servant This is a Message of Truth to all you in and about Stafford and those of like Spirit with you elswhere who go under the Name of Presbyterians Teachers and Hearers to Read and Ponder in the cool mind that you may know what the Lords Mind is concerning you in this his day wherein he is manifest with his Fan in his Hand to purge the Floor that he may gather to himself the good Wheat and burn up the Chaff For we knowing the Terrors of the Lord