AN ANSVVER To that common OBJECTION against the QUAKERS That they condemn all but Themselves With a Loving and Faithful Advertisement to the Nation and Powers thereof OBJECTION IT is commonly Objected against us That we condemn all but our selves all the Protestant Churches Martyrs and Worthies formerly many of whom were valiant Champions against Rome and divers of them sealed their Testimony with their blood and all sorts of Christians and Professors at present who are not just of our stamp and way though otherwise never so zealous and upright-hearted towards God ANSWER The Protestant Churches as they are called in way of distinction from the Church of Rome the blessed Martyrs who suffered for the Testimony of a pure Conscience towards God and all the Worthies of the Lord in their several Generations who fought against that Scarlet Whore were accepted of God in their Testimony against Her and are not disowned by us but dearly owned and honoured therein And for agreeing with them in their testimony in several things as against deriving of a Ministry from Rome which Luther wrote against and Iohn Hus prophesied of another Ministry to arise and against maintaining the Gospel Ministry by Tythes or any other way of forced Maintenance which till Popery grew very strong and powerful was known to have been free and against swearing c. Walter Brute said the perfection of Christian men is not to swear at all because they are so commanded of Christ whose commandment must in no case be broken although that the City of Rome is contrary to this Doctrine of Christ Fox his Acts and Monuments Page 460 461. And see also Page 495. Thorp's testimony both about Tythes and Swearing For these very things and such like as for following of Christ in not receiving or giving that honour which is out of the faith and for testifying against the hypocrisies and corruptions of our age do we suffer in this our day even as they did in their day from the same Spirit that persecuted them which though it hath much changed its form and way of appearance yet still retaineth the same nature But all things were not discovered at once The times were then dark and the light small yet they being faithfull according to what was discovered were pretious in the Lords eyes and what through ignorance they erred in the Lord winked at and overlooked being pleased with that sincerity and simplicity of heart which he had stirred up in them towards himself But if they were now alive in these our daies and should depart from the sincerity which was then in them and oppose the Light of this age they would not then be accepted of the Lord but their former sincerity would be forgotten For the Light shineth more and more towards the perfect day and it is not the owning of the Light as it shone in the foregoing ages which will now commend any man to God but the knowing and subjecting to the Light of the present age Even as in these our dayes there was some years ago an honest zeal and true simplicity stirring in the Puritans especially among the Non-conformists of them which was of the Lord and was very dear to him And had the generations of this age abode there they would have been able to have followed the Lord in every further step and leading of his Spirit But departing from that into some form or other the true simplicity withered and another thing began to live in them and so they setled upon their lees magnifying the form they had chose to themselves till at length their hearts became hardned from the pure fear even to the contracting of a spirit of prophaneness insomuch as they could mock at the next remove and discovery of the Spirit as some new Light so by degrees have grown persecutors of that Spirit in its out-goings in the people of the Lord which they themselves had once some tast of while they were reproached for Puritans And the God of this world who at first tempted them aside into the form hath at length prevailed so far to blind them therewith that they can neither see what spirit they themselves are of nor what spirit it is they persecute Let therefore people consider the truth of the thing as it is before the Lord We do not cast dirt upon any in whom the truth of God hath stirred and appeared in any measure in former ages or in this our age but this we testifie against to wit the setting up of any form without the life and power for it is the erring spirit which still cryeth up the form to keep down the power by the form and so by the help of it to bewitch from the Spirit wherein is the life and not in the form This was the painted Jezabel of the Apostles age false teachers finely dressed up themselves with the form of godliness and then under this cover they could deny the power and make head against it 2 Tim. 3. 5. how easie is it for them who appear in the form of the doctrines of the Gospel in the form of zeal in the form of holiness to pass in a Nation for the true Church and then to asperse them for Heretickes who appearing in the power cannot but deny that form which is without the power This is the great Witch of this age even that spirit of zeal and devotion which is best clothed and decked with the form without the power which though men who judge of the things of God after the flesh justifie admire and much contend for in her several shapes and dresses some being for one some for another yet the Lord is searching after her and will find her out with his eternal flames which will make her manifest and all her lovers shall dread her burning and bed of torment Now as all along the Apostacy this bewitching spirit this spirit which bewitcheth from the power hath crept up under a form of Church worship and holiness so the other Spirit the pure Spirit of life the Spirit of true zeal and fear of the Lord hath still appeared more and more out of the forms Who were the best Preachers and most eminent Christians in the Puritan daies Were they not those who least minded the form then nay indeed who were most against the form and persecuted for their conscientious stumbling at it who were the greatest persecutors then but they who were most zealous for the form both of the government and worship of the Church of England And where is the persecuting spirit next to be looked for but in the forms which should next appear And where likewise is the appearance of the true spirit next to be looked for but in those whom the Lord should raise up to testifie against those forms and to be the succeeding sufferers for their testimony as the Puritans had been foregoing sufferers for their testimony Yet if there be any persons left among any of the forms which
have appeared whether former or later that have not lost their sincerity and true zeal towards God them we own and have unity with so far as they keep or rather are kept thereto If there be any among the Episcopal sort that in truth of heart desire to fear the Lord and look upon the Common-Prayer-Book as an acceptable way of worshipping him we pitty their blindness yet are tender towards them and would not have the simplicity persecuted in them because of this but rather cherished If there be any among the Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Seekers or any other sort that in truth of heart wait upon the Lord in those wayes and do not find a deadness overgrown them but a pure fresh lively zeal towards God with an unfeigned love to his people our hearts are one with this and we cannot fight against this good thing in any of them though in love to them we testifie that their form and way of worship is their present loss and hinderance yet we doubt not but that the Lord in his time will make manifest to such the Light of this age which is the very thing the People of God in many fore-going ages have been praying for But this is our lamentation that forms and wayes of worship abound but the Puritan-Principle the Puritanspirit is lost and drowned in them all and that men are hardened against our testimony not from the remainders of the simplicity in them but because they are erred from the simplicity and fallen in league with another spirit which hath lain lurking in forms of knowledge and worship to tempt aside from the simplicity and to hide the sight of the life and power from the panting soul all this night of the Apostacy Now mark how easie and natural it is to that spirit to enter into a form to cry up a form to set up a form in a Nation City or Country doubtless it had been done in this Nation long ago had not the mighty hand of the Lord withstood it When the evil and unclean spirit is detected and driven out of one form if it doth not get another suddenly to appear in and tempt with it must needs lose many of its Subjects The strumpet or false Church is forced as God discovers her nakedness and lewdness to change her dresses and appearances to new-trick and adorn her bed and then as if she also were changed and were now no longer the same she comes forth again with boldness and tempteth the young man again to come in unto her Prov. 7. 16. And thus she casteth down many wounded yea many strong men have been slain by her vers. 26. who otherwise would have pondered the path of life chap. 5. 6. had they not been ensnared by her flatteries who forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgetteth the Covenant of her God Chap. 2. 17. There is no more certain and ready way to suppress truth and to betray the honesty which is singly searching after it than to present a form of godliness or worship as the proper way of meeting with it for hereby the soul is lulled asleep with a false hope until the freshness of its desire begins to die and its life to wither then the fleshly part easily grows into unity with and zeal for that form wch indeed is of the flesh though it appeared and tempted as if it had been otherwise And how many have gone a great way towards Hell have bin deeply intangled and distressed in the Chambers of death by entring into this strumpets Church or house which they then through the subtilty of her deceit took for the house or Church of God Pro. 7. 27. Consider the thing a little seriously When the evil spirit is driven out of his strong hold of grosse Popery whither should he run but into Episcopacy When he is driven out of Episcopacy whither should he run but into Presbytery When he is driven out of Presbytery whither should he run but into Independency When he is driven but of Independency whither should he run but into Anabaptism When he is driven out of Anabaptism whither should he run but into a way of Seeking And what is his end of running into Episcopacy but to save alive that spirit which was hunted out of Popery and could abide no longer there and so the better and the safer from being discerned to reproach and persecute the other spirit where ever it appeared under nick-names of Puritans Separatists Brownists Round-heads c. And what is his end afterwards of running into Presbytery but to save that alive which was hunted out of Episcopacy and to persecute the former truly zealous Spirit where it should further appear afterwards by means of that form Thus the forms and appearances of things change but the fight is still the same the evil spirit still getting uppermost under a form of godliness and from thence shooting forth its arrowes at those that seek after purity of heart and cannot but testifie against those forms where the impure one lodgeth This then is the sum of our answer in this respect we are not against the true life and power of godliness wherever it hath appeared or yet appears under the vail of any form whatsoever Nay all persons who singly wait upon the Lord in the simplicity and sincerity of their hearts whether under any form or out of forms that matters little to us are very dear unto us in the Lord But we are against all forms Images imitations and appearances which betray the simplicity and sincerity of the heart keep the life in bondage and endanger the loss of the soul And too many such now there are which hold the immortal seed of life in captivity under death over which we cannot but mourn and wait for its breaking off the chains and its rising out of all its graves into its own pure life power and fulness of liberty in the Lord A loving faithful Advertisement to the Nation and Powers thereof O King O Parliament O Nation of England consider before the Decree come forth before the ruine of the Nation with the Powers thereof be irrevocably sealed for the Lord hath a controversie with this Nation and he will plead with thee O England who desirest not nor canst not bear a Government in Righteousness for the suppressing of the evil and encouragement of the good but the good is still suppressed in thee and cannot grow as it ought because of the lust of the Nation against the purity of the life of God and because of the corrupt wils ends and interests of those who still are in Power After King Henry the 8th had renounced and shaken off in part the Popes Authority in this Nation he did not let it fall to the ground as an evil thing but took upon himself the exercise of it assuming to himself the Headship and Government under Christ in all Ecclesiastical causes and matters in his Dominions The same course his
Successors followed keeping the very Title which the Pope gave to him of Defender of the Faith And so Parliaments in their dayes as if the Government of the Church were a right and priviledge of the Nation and not peculiar to Christ have taken upon them to make laws and orders about the Government of the Church and people of God in spiritual things as well as about matters of State Now it would fairly and honestly with the spirit of meekness and in the fear of the Lord be enquired into whether the Popes Power and Authority in this Nation was a true Church-Power and Authority that is whether it was such a Church-Power and Authority as Christ had instituted or of another nature even of a nature contrary to Christ and to his inward Government in the spirits of his people For if the Popes power and Authority was a true Church power and Authority then it may be lawful in another hand though not in the Popes but if it was an usurped kind of Authority and Government in it self then it cannot be lawful in it self nor serviceable to Christ in any other hand but will prove an instrument of War against him in whose hands soever it be put And let it be singly considered whether the Church-power in this Nation hath not been a curb to the rising of the purity of Religion even a sharp check upon the tender conscience but such as the loose yea prophane spirit would take pleasure in and contend for The true Church-power is onely the power of the spirit of Christ That converts men to God and that alone is able to govern them in the affairs of his kingdom being converted Man medling with Religion and Church-Government in his wisdom is but a beast and must govern like a beast namely with force and cruelty over the spirit and conscience which is tender towards God As the Lord God of heaven and earth never gave the converting power to any so neither did he ever give this governing power to any further than as they were endued with his spirit for that is the Scepter of his Church and Kingdom which is a Scepter of Righteousness which leads on in the love and gentleness of the Spirit that which is to be dealt gently with and spiritually cuts off by its severity and sharpness that which is to be cut off And here are Christs limits of Government which that spirit and wisdom which exceeds errs and does hurt both to it self and others Now if in the mist of darkness wch hath long over-spread the earth for though there brake out a little Light to discover the thick blackness of Popery and to cause some Reformation out of it yet the mist was not expelled this Nation hath erred her Princes her teachers her Parliaments and all sorts of persons in laying hold on and establishing a wrong Church-power which power hath had a bad effect namely in suppressing the progress of the reforming spirit and raising up a formal spirit if not a spirit of looseness and prophaness which ran backwards towards Popery and not forwards from it yet let them not love error and so strive against the light which shineth forth to discover the error to them But let them humble themselves before Christ the Lord of all and restore unto him that which is his due least they provoke him to wrath and cause him to take from them what they look upon as their due For is it not just with Christ to take that power from men which they so long as they have it will not forbear mannaging and making use of to keep him from his power Consider these things O England for they belong to thy peace and toward the mitigation of thy sorrow and misery in the day of thy calamity This is from one who hath mourned over thee while thou hast been rejoycing Isaac Penington the younger O that thou couldst know at least in this last hour of thy day how to make thy peace with the Lord and not begin that controversie a fresh with him which he hath already so much shattered and broken thee about that the dregs of the cup whereof thou hast already so largly drunk might pass from thee An Explanatory POST-SCRIPT WE read of the getting up of another Power than Christs in the Church after the dayes of the Apostles 1 Thes. 2. 4. Rev. 13. 2. which Power was to last 42. Months even all the time of Anti-Christs Reign by which Power the Beast should make war with and overcome the Saints in all Kindreds Tongues and Nations vers. 5 6 7. And all this wickedness and persecution of the Saints should be committed under a pretence of Righteousness as if it were for Christ and the well-government of his Church from a true and rightly-derived and well-ballanced Power 1 Thes. 2. 8. 9. Now this Power will last in one Form or other even till the very coming of Christ and then shall that wicked Spirit in all his workings in all his various appearings and transformings as if he still were for God and for the right and orderly Government of his Church and Temple be discovered by degrees consumed and at last destroyed vers. 8. And then the Kings or Powers of the earth which give their power and strength to the Beast helping him to cause men to worship Rev. 13. 15 16. making war with the Lamb and his suffering Saints by their Laws whips prisons fines c. shall be overcome by him who fighteth against them with the spirit of his mouth and by his truth meekness and righteousness which shines in the hearts and conversations of his called faithful and chosen Rev. 17. 13 14. Psal. 45. 4 5. The power of Christ cannot hurt any of his Lambs it never forced the weak ones the tender conscienced but he carries the Lambs in his bosome and gently leads those that are with young Isa. 40. 11. He had rather have many Hypocrites spared than one Ear of Wheat plucked up Mat. 13. 29. That Power therefore in the Church which spares the Hypocrites who can easily comply with an outward conformity in Worship without feeling an inward life or vertue but lights heavy on that which is tender and shie in matters of Worship knowing that it must give an account thereof to Christ that is not the true Church-Power but at best but a counterfeit of the true THE END LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Black-spread Eagle and Wind-Mill in Martins Le Grand 1660.