Mountains of Imagination and the Light stands in Judgment over you and also your Book will be a Witness against you and the Spirit of God in all those that seriously read it Friends I think it had been more suitable for you to have looked back and to have considered some of the Patriarks and holy Men of God who in their day and Generation did err You might have remembred Isaac the Patriark who when he had lost the Spirit of discerning grew blind and then he was resolved that Esau should have the Blessing although it was Jacob's right to have it And you might have remembred Jacob who from a wrong Spirit rebuked Joseph when he told his Father he dreamed the Sun the Moon and the eleven Stars should bow before him And you might have remembred Aaron and Miriam who from a Spirit of Pride withstood Moses and said Hath not the Lord spoken unto us as well as unto thee And you might have remembred old Ely who from a dark Spirit rebuked Hannah who was a Woman of a sorrowful Spirit And you might have remembred Job's three Friends who undertook to Judg Censure and Condemn Job but had not Power to convince him And Friends you write against me in page the fifth and sixth because I said whatever is written to those called Churches it ought to be written in and from the Holy Ghost for if Paul did at any time speak by permission and not the Lord it is but a Mans Commandment and no Man is bound in Conscience to follow it for Paul saith Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ Now Paul he Baptized and he also Circumcised but yet he had no Commission to do it And so in time he preach'd it down as John did his Baptism but Christ in his day neither Baptised nor Circumcised any Man wherefore none are to follow Christ as having Paul for their Example but all are to follow Christ their Light within as their only Rule to walk by Neither ought any Quaker so called Man or Woman to follow the Light within as having your Orders and Dictates as a Rule and Guide for them to walk by Again you write against me because I said whatever is written from a sight or sence or sensible part and not from the Spirit of Revelation it is not to be owned by the Churches and you write thus and say in your Book that implies contradiction as much as if the Spirits Revelation should put out Sight and Sensibility and so I would have blind Elders and sensless Ministers But Friends it is the Devil that hath Power to blind the Soul and Understanding of Man and the sensible part wherefore none are to write from that part in them which the Serpent hath Power to blind for it is the Soul and Understanding of Man that receives the Sight But all are to write both in and from the Spirit of Revelation which alone hath Power to give the Creature sight and to make people sensible of their state and condition And this is the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God which gives the true Sight and can never blind it for that is the Devils work to bring blindness over the Minds of People wherefore if any speaks or writes as pretending to teach others it ought to be in and from the Holy Ghost for Christ said It is not you that speak but the Holy Ghost And the Apostle saith If any Man speak let him speak as the Oracle of God and it is the Spirit saith Paul that makes Intercession with Groans that cannot be utered for it is the Invisible Soul and Understanding that is to be Baptized with the Holy Ghost Now the thing Baptized that is not to speak in the Church because it hath been both in Error Sin and Transgression but the Invisible Man Christ he is to speak in every Vessel who redeems the Creature out of Transgression and not the Soul nor yet the Sensible part which hath been in Transgression for the Priests of England they are sensible Preachers who declare against the manifestation of the Spirit and deny also all Revelations from God and yet they tell People that if they be sensible of their state and condition it is an evident token of their Conversion But I say that all People that come truly to know God they must witness a Being gathered into that Spirit which makes them truly sensible and this is a Childs state which hath past the Tree of Knowledg and doth witness in measure of being possest of the Tree of Life And you say that I run on in my sensless Stuff because that I said the Soul is the Woman in ever Visible Man For you ask me whether I have not presumed above what is written in the Scripture Friends I perceive that you have left the Quakers first Rule which they were to walk by as their only Guide which is the Light or Spirit of Revelation within for when I was first convinced and believed in the Light then you said the Light within in every Man was the only Rule the Grace within the Mystery of Life within or Gods Spirit of Revelation or his Law written in the Heart that was to be the only Guide for the Quakers to walk by But now I do perceive that you have set up your Image or Paper of Orders Dictates and Forms that they should join with them as their Rule and Guide Friends I perceive you are determined page the seventh to set up your selves and also your Image and Superiority amongst the People called Quakers and likewise to Maintain those Doctrines amongst them that he that is not justified by the Witness of God in Friends is condemned by it in himself and that those that are unreconciled to the Church are unreconciled to God wherefore this I have to say and to all antient Friends Remember the first Testimony that was then founded amongst the People by the Quakers it was thus All People mind the Light within you turn to the Light within believe in the Light that doth both convince and make manifest Sin and all owne the Judgment of it for that is the word of Eternal Life and also the Saviour of the Soul and the Salvation of the ends of the Earth and that this was Gods Spirit by whom the World was made who was in the Beginning and before the Beginning and also without Beginning of Days or end of Life And this they said was the true Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and that this Light was both God and Christ and the only Saviour of Man and they exhorted all minds to turn to it as their God and Saviour Now you say in your Book that those that are unreconciled to the Church are unreconciled to God But now the Church in God that is Invisible as God is Invisible although it doth consist of Visible Bodies and Invisible Souls who are Invisibly redeemed from the Earth by the Spirit of
of the Body of the Quakers in general And because the Image or Paper of Orders may be known to the Quakers in general I have here inserted it word for word with the names of the eleven Elders that signed it A Testimony from the Brethren who were met together at London in the third month 1666. to be communicated to the faithful Friends and Elders in the Countries by them to be read in their several Meetings and kept as a Testimony among them WE your Friends and Brethren whom God hath called to labour and watch for the Eternal good of your Souls at the time aforesaid being through the Lord's good hand who hath preserved us at liberty met together in his Name and Fear were by the Operation of the Spirit of Truth brought into a serious Consideration of this present state of the Church of God which in the day of her return out of the Wilderness hath not only many open but some Covert Enemies to Conflict against who are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities and despise Government without which we are sensible our Societies and Fellowship cannot be kept holy and inviolable Therefore as God hath put it into our hearts we do communicate these things following unto you who are turned from darkness to light and profess with us in the Glorious Gospel throughout Nations and Countries Wherein we have travelled as well for a Testimony against the unruly as to stablish and confirm them unto whom it is given to believe the Truth which is unto us very precious as we believe it is also unto you who in love have received it and understood the Principles and felt the Vertue and Operation of it In which our spirits breath that we all may be preserved until we have well finished our Course and Testimony to the honour and glory of our Lord God who is over all blessed for ever 1. We having a true sense of the working of the Spirit which under a Profession of Truth leads into a Division from and Exaltation above the Body of Friends who never revolted nor degenerated from their Principles and into marks of Separation from the constant Practice of good and anitient Friends who are found in the Faith once delivered to us And also unto a slight esteem of their Declarations or Preaching who have and do approve themselves as the Ministers of Christ and of the Meetings of the Lords People whereby and wherein Friends are and often have been preciously revived and refreshed And under pretence of keeping down Man and Forms doing down the Ministry and Meetings or encourage those that do the same We say the Lord giving us to see not only the working of that Spirit and those that are joyned to it that bring forth these ungrateful fruits but also the evil Consequence and Effects of it which are of no less importance than absolutely tending to destroy the Work of God and lay waste his Heritage We do unanimously being thereto encouraged by the Lord whose presence is with us declare and testifie That neither that Spirit nor such as are joyned to it ought to have any Dominion Office or Rule in the Church of Christ Jesus whereof the Holy Spirit that was poured forth upon us bath made us Members and Overseers Neither ought they to act or order the affairs of the same But are rather to be kept under with the power of God till they have an Ear open to Instruction and come into Subjection to the Witness of God of the encrease of whose Kingdom and Government there shall be no end 2. We do declare and testifie That that Spirit and those that are joyned to it who stand not in Vnity with the Ministry and Body of Friends that are constant and stedfast to the Lord and to his unchangeable Truth which we have received and are Witnesses of and Ambassadors have not any true Spiritual Right or Gospel-Authority to be Judges in the Church and as the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ so as to condemn you and their Ministry Neither ought their judgment to be any more regarded by Friends than the judgment of other Opposers who are without For of right the Elders and Members of the Church which keep their habitation in the Truth ought to judg matters and things that differ and their judgment which is so given therein ought to stand good and valued among Friends though it be kickt against and disapproved by them who have degenerated as aforesaid And we do further declare and testifie That it is abominable Pride which goeth before Destruction that so puffs up the mind of any particular that he will not admit of any judgment to take place against him For he that is not justified by the Witness of God in Friends is condemned by it in himself though being hardened he may boast over it in a false Confidence 3. If any difference arise in the Church or amongst them that profess themselves Members thereof We do declare and testifie That the Church with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ have power without the assent of such as dissent from their Doctrine and Practices to hear and determine the same If any pretend to be of us and in case of Controversie will not admit to be tried by the Church of Christ Jesus nor submit to the judgment given by the Spirit of Truth in the Elders and Members of the same but kick against their judgment as only the judgment of Man it being manifested according to Truth and consistent with the Doctrine of such good antient Friends as have been and are found in the Faith agreeable to the Witness of God in his People Then we do testifie in the Name of the Lord if that judgment so given be risen against and denied by the party condemned then he or she and such as so far partake of their sins as to countenance and encourage them therein ought to be rejected And having err'd from the Truth persisting therein presumptuously are joyned in one with HEATHENS and INFIDELS 4. We do declare That if any go abroad hereafter pretending to that weighty Work and Service who either in Life or Doctrine grieve good Friends that are stedfast in the Truth sound in the Faith so that they are not manifest in their Consciences but disagree to the Witness of God in them Then ought they whatever have been their Gifts to leave them before the Altar and forbear going abroad and ministring until they are reconciled to the Church and have the Approbation of the Elders and Members of the same And if any that have been so approved of by the Church do afterwards degenerate from the Truth and do that which tendeth to Division and countenance Wickedness and Faction as some have done then the Church hath a true Spiritual Right and Authority to call such to Examination and if they find sufficient cause for it by good testimony may judg them unfit for the Work of Gods Ministry whereof they
A TESTIMONY Against the QUAKERS False-Doctrine And the IMAGE they have set up Being a Defence of the Book called Antichrist Transformed In Answer to a little Book published By Giles Barnadiston And for better Information the IMAGE is hereto annexed Verbatim with the Subscribers thereof Published by Geoffery Bullock LONDON Printed for the Author and to be sold by Francis Smith at the Elephant and Castle in Cornhil near the Royal-Exchange 1677. A Testimony against the Quakers false Doctrine and the Image they have set up A Testimony against those Quakers and their false Doctrines who call themselves Elders and Ministers and also their new invented Image and all that joyns with it and owns it because that those Elders who call themselves Ministers look upon themselves and their Image to be equal in Power and Glory both with the Father and the Son This Book is given forth in Answer to a little Book given forth in the name of Giles Barnadiston which I look upon to be but a pretended Answer to my first Book Friends When Israel had forgotten God their Saviour then Aaron the Priest with their Jewels made them a Calf and they danced about the works of their own Hands Psal 106. Exod. 32. But you say in the beginning of your Book that Antichrist's Transformation within is setting it self above the Light within in J. B. Now that is impossible that ever that Spirit which fell from God and so lost its Habitation in God should ever have Power to exalt himself above God again in the Sons of Men. But now this agrees with the Doctrine you Preach for you say that the Seed must be raised and God must arise and none can keep him down and that the Seed must come up and take its Dominion So that according to your Doctrine then both Man and the Darkness too have Dominion over the Light who in himself is God blessed for ever but the Devil both was and is the Author and Father of this Doctrine of yours For Adam in the day of his first Creation was above in Eden and the Garden was in God then might Adam see what was in his Temple or Tabernacle for there are four distinct things or Beings to be seen in the Temple that is the Light and the Darkness the Tree of Knowledg and also the first Man Adam who received a Command from God that he should live in Obedience to God and not feed upon the Tree of Knowledg but in the day that he broke the Command of God then he fell from God and lost his Habitation in God and so the Power of Darkness took Dominion over him wherefore it is the first Man Adam that came under the Power of Death Wherefore it is the first Man Adam that is to be both quickned and raised by the Spirit of Life as the Scripture saith The same Spirit that raised up Jesus shall quicken you and the Apostle saith you hath he quickned who were dead So it is not the Seed God nor Christ that is to be quickned and raised but the first Man Adam who dyed from that immortal life wherein he was at first created And you say that I am making War against the Light page the fourth and that I am pushing at it but this Lye remains upon your own heads and my first Book is a witness against you wherein I have already declared that all Sovereignty Dominion and Glory belongs to the Light that is in every Man but I do declare and disown all such who look upon themselves to be equal both in Power and Glory with the Light And Friends you say in your Book page the fifth that you are able to judg of Spirit as well as Flesh Now this I have seen and known by my own Experience that in one of our Quakers Meetings that one of those called Quakers hath both Preached and Prayed and that some of those called Elders and Ministers have publickly disowned the Testimony as not having Unity with that Spirit that Preached and Prayed And at another time the same Party hath been exercised in Preaching and Praying and several of those called Ministers have been present and they have both owned the Testimony and also had Unity with the Spirit that spoke and have incouraged the Party to go on in the work of the Lord not fearing the Face of Man nor regarding their Censures nor Judgments and is not this confusion in Babylon you tryers of Spirits who so plainly contradict one another in your Censures and Judgments And you say that I am angry because that Judgment is gone forth against me and yet in the beginning of your Book you say that I went from you Now that is very true that I first left you and I also at the present time gave forth a Testimony against you what were the reasons that I left you the which reasons and grounds are Printed in my first Book And you say in page the seventh of your Book that I have made use of my knowledg to serve Lucifers Interest and that he is become my Teacher and Leader Now Friends I was a Son of Adam by Generation in the Fall and also a Son of God by Creation and I was also a Childe of wrath being under the Spirit of degeneration then was the Serpent in many things my Teacher and Leader but now I think that in my measure I am made partaker of the Spirit of Regeneration But Friends I shall forbear declaring any state that is to be injoyed in the Spirit of God least the Boaster should get up as I fear he is gotten up in those who call themselves Elders and Ministers who say they sit in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus But Friends there is none sits there with God and Christ but those that are free from Sin as God is Again you say in page the fifth of your Book As the Father sent the Son into the World so hath the Son sent you that ye may be one as the Father is one and the Glory which the Father gave him he hath given them and hath Sanctifyed them through the Truth that they may be one with the Father and the Son O you high Boasters how is it possible that ever any Man who is begotten by Generation from Adam in the Fall to be equal with him who never fell in whom dwelt the fulness of the God-head bodily And he was begotten by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin and so he was the Son of God by Generation from God and so it was impossible that ever he should Fall and all his days he was a Man free from Sin But all you who call your selves Elders and Ministers have been under the Dominion of the Man of Sin as well as I but Christ never came under that Spirit nor Power Therefore remember what the Prophet saith That the Lord's Sword is drawn against the Man that is his Fellow So Friends I fear you are exalted upon the
and had also left their first Love And hath not God in the Ages and Generations past discovered the Sins of his own People witness Adam and Israel of old and also David whose Sins are left upon record And further you say in the end of your Book You have omitted many gross Absurdities Confusions and Follies But I think that you should have done well to have made both my Error gross Absurdities and Follies manifest in your Book that People might have known them else how can people believe what you say to be true And so here followeth some Queries for you Elders and Ministers so called by the Quakers to Answer First Whether the Light in every Quaker be not sufficient to justify them although you say it is the Light in you that condemns them 2. Whether the Light in any Man or Men be able and sufficient to save or justify any other Men but themselves 3. Whether Men cannot be reconciled to God except they be reconconciled to the Church called Quakers and whether a Man may not be reconciled to your Church and yet not be reconciled to God 4. Whether the Light in one Man or Men hath power to open the Understanding of another Man seeing that God hath placed a measure of his own Spirit in every Man 5. Whether there be not both Darkness and Light in every one that is called a Quaker as well in those called Elders and Ministers as any others 6. Whether the Light and also the Darkness hath not been and also is in all the Sons and Daughters of Men ever since the first Man Adam's Transgression 7. Whether the Light in every Man be either the Soul or Spirit of a Man or whether the Light is not a distinct Being by himself 8. Whether People are not wholly to depend upon the Light or Spirit or Christ within for Life and Salvation 9. Whether the same Light or Spirit was not in the Gentiles in those days when Christ was in the World in that Body which the Father had prepared for him although the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ's body 10. Now where was that Flesh and Blood and what was it that Christ told the People in the days of his Flesh that they must both eat and drink or else they could have no life in them 11. Whether the Visible Man Christ who was Crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem whether his Body or Temple which was like unto ours Sin only excepted was dissolved or changed into a Spirit and that Spirit now manifested in the Gentiles or where do you believe that Christ's Body now is 12. Or whether there was any Visible Church so called or separation among the Gentiles which have not been bewitched and also led into error by their heaps of Teachers 13. And whether those heaps of Teachers by gathering of themselves together and by their Consultations and taking Counsel one of another have not brought in Errors and False-Doctrines in and among the Separations of our Churches of the Gentiles ever since the Night of Apostacy even to this very day 14. And whether those heaps of Teachers who have had a sight given them from Gods Spirit to see the Errors of other Teachers among the Gentiles that were before them and yet have not themselves also run into Errors as well as others But yet they would not believe it the Devil had so blinded their Minds and Understandings and that with a zeal too even as he did the Jews of old 15. And hath not all Persecution risen from a blind mad Zeal both as to Words and Actions in matters of Conscience under a Notion of Profession of both God Christ and the Scriptures 16. Whether Men must come to the Scriptures and outward means first before they can know their duty towards God And whether they must not first come to the Light and Manifestation of the Spirit within them before they can learn their duty towards God or what God requires of them to do 17. Whether God be changed or the way of his making known himself be changed And whether any Man or Men can come to the knowledg of God as to Life and Salvation but in and by the Spirit of Revelation Or whether Men did not know God before the Scriptures were 18. Whether any of your Writings although they should be given forth in and from the Spirit of God are an Instrumental Means to bring People to the Knowledg of God as to the Souls Salvation in these days any more than the Scriptures did bring the Jews to the knowledg of Christ in the days of his Flesh or Paul in his days Or by what outward means did you at first come to see beyond others or was it not the Light or inward Manifestation of the Spirit as a free gift from God that gave you to see beyond others and not by any outward Writings But yet one of your Ministers so called said that Friends Books were Instrumental to bring People to the Knowledg of God But if that be true what he said then is the way of God's making known himself to the Sons of Men changed For Men knew God before there was either Scriptures or Writings by any Man Neither do I read that ever the Scriptures brought any Man to the Knowledg of God So that your Writings must have Authority in them beyond the Scriptures For Man at first never knew God by the Scriptures but God hath ever made known himself to the Sons of Men by his Light or Spirit that was in them that is by revealing himself unto them Wherefore I would have all People that read my Book take notice of these following particulars which are owned by the Quakers which I do disown First That none can be justifyed by the Light or Witness of God in those called Ministers and Elders amongst the Quakers but all must be justified by the Light in their own particular or else they are condemned Secondly It is neither the Light God Christ nor the Seed that is to be quickned and raised up in the Sons and Daughters of Men but it is the first Man Adam that is to be both quickned and also raised up by the Arm of God's Power revealed Thirdly It is neither the Soul nor yet the sensible part or Understanding of Man that is either to Pray or Preach in a Meeting but it is the work of the Holy Ghost to speak in every Man Therefore what do you minister from and what do you minister to in the Sons and Daughters of Men Or what is that which is to attend your Declaration in those that hear you Therefore examine your selves by the Light what Spirit it is that speaks in you I have written this to the Elders and Ministers of the Quakers because there is nothing to be put to print amongst them without their approbation as their Image or Paper of Orders saith And also because your Book is written in the vindication of the Practice
have rendred themselves unworthy and so put a stop to their proceedings therein And if they submit not to the judgment of the Spirit of Christ in his People then ought they publickly to be declared against and warning given to the Flock of Christ in their several Meetings to beware of them and to have no fellowship with them that they may be ashamed and Lambs and Babes in Christ preserved 5. And if any man or woman which are out of the Unity with the Body of Friends print or cease to be printed or published in writing any thing which is not of service for the Truth but tends to the scandalizing and reproaching of faithful Friends or to beget or uphold Division and Faction then we do warn and charge all Friends that do love Truth as they desire it may prosper and be kept clear to beware and take heed of having any hand in printing republishing or spreading such Books or Writings And if at any time such Books be sent to any of you that sell Books in the Country after that you with the advice of good and serious Friends have tried them and find them faulty to send them back again whence they come And we further desire from time to time faithful and sound Friends may have the view of such things as are printed upon Truth 's account as formerly it hath used to be before they go to the Press that nothing but what is sound and savory and that will answer the Witness of God even in our Adversaries may be exposed to publick view 6. We do advise and counsel That such as are made Overseers of the Flock of God by the Holy Spirit and do watch for the good of the Church meeting together in their respective places do set and keep the affairs of it in good order beware of admitting or encouraging such as are weak and of little faith to take such trust upon them for by hearing things disputed that are doubtful such may be hurt themselves and may hurt the Truth not being grown into a good understanding to judge of things Therefore we exhort That you who have received a true sense of things be diligent in the Lord's business and keep the Meetings as to him that all may be kept pure and clean according to that of God which is just and equal We also advise That not any be admitted to order Publick business of the Church but such as have felt in a measure of the Universal Spirit of Truth which seeks the destruction of none but the general good of all and especially of those that love it who are of the Houshold of Faith So dear Friends and Brethren believing that your Souls will be refreshed in the sense of our spirits and integrity towards God at the reading of these things as ours were while we sate together at the opening of them and that you will be one with us on the behalf of the Lord and his precious Truth against those who would limit the Lord to speak without Instruments or by what Instruments they list and reject the Counsel of the Wise-men and the Testimony of the Prophets which God sanctified and sent among you in the day of his Love when you were gathered and would not allow him liberty in and by his Servants to appoint time and place wherein to meet together to wait upon and worship him according as he requireth in Spirit and calling it Formal and the Meeting of Man We say believing that you will have Fellowship with us herein as we have with you in the Truth we commit you to God and the Word of Life which hath been preached to you from the beginning which is neither limited to place nor time nor persons but hath power to limit us to each as pleaseth him that you with us and we with you may be built up in our most holy Faith and be preserved to partake of the Inheritance which is heavenly amongst all them that are sanctified Richard Farnsworth Alexander Parker George Whitehead Josiah Coale John Whitehead Thomas Loe Stephen Crispe Thomas Green John Moon Thomas Briggs James Parkes This Book is given forth from one who hath born the Name of a Quaker this twenty years and more who was a Son of Adam by generation in the Fall but now an Informer against Antichrist in his Ministers and also a Member of the visible Creation amongst the Sons of Men wherein God dwells called by the Name of Jeffery Bullock This Book was given forth by Jeffery Bullock whose outward Being is in Sudbury in Suffolk in the Year 1677.