of Christ or is this to discerne the Lords body After this having spoken something touching the Lords Supper you tell me W. T. Your modesty is good in regard of the mystery but the full answering of your Queries requires more leisure then I have and more willingnesse to be informed then you have T. S. What a pittifull lame shift have you found to cover over your ignorance withall had you not better have ingenuously confessed you knew not what to say to the Queries then offer that for an Apology for your silence which will never gaine credit from any that doe examine the truth of things before they receive them will any sober minded man beleeve that you that had leisure to write me three large sheets of paper had not then or have not had since so much spare time as to answer six short Queries And as for your assigning my unwillingnesse to be informed as another cause of your not answering them this is as manifest a pretence as the former for if my unwillingnesse to be informed were a sufficient bar against your answering of my Queries why did you answer severall other of my Queries proposed to you before and after these since I have manifested as much unwillingnesse to be informed in those as in these and that 's just none at all You glance at one of my Queries and say W. T. All Saints witnesse Christ to come though not come T. S. Did not Paul and other Saints witnesse Jesus Christ come when as he lived in them and was in them their hope of glory their strength their-life and their peace From hence you proceed to speak to what I said in my last touching Ministers My declaration touching whom beginneth thus T. S. The Ministers of Jesus Christ who have received their Ministry from him as the holy men of God of old did I own c. W. T. It were some comfort if you would tell us who they be that you judge to be made Ministers according to the will of God in Scripture and that are so pretious to you T. S. By what I have said before touching Idoll Shepheards you might well understand whom I judge to be the true Shepheards But since it will be matter of comfort to you to know more of my mind in this particular I shall be plain in making a discovery thereof unto you I judge those Ministers of Christ who run not before they are sent of him and doe abide in the doctrine of Christ who have received that gift not by expence of money in a University but freely from the Lord by which they are made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit who preach him in words and owne him by their works But I doe not judge those Ministers of Jesus Christ who abide not in his doctrine who instead of being found carefull Shepheards to guard the Sheep are themselves found Wolves persecuting and devouring the sheep who make gaine their godlinesse who covet other mens silver and gold catching those by the throats who put not into their mouths who maintaine themselves and families in pride by the sweat of other mens browes who sue those at the Law that refuse to pay them the tenth of all their labours who take Christs words and the Saints words to gaine a livelihood bypreaching to others what they themselves practise not who tell the people that a heap of stones is the Church and call those things the Ordinances and that the worship of Jesus Christ which never were of his institution These I say I judge and that according to the Scripture to be such as have not received their Ministry from Jesus Christ but are Ministers of Antichrist builders of Babylon but enemies to the glory of Zion and the new Jerusalem T. S. Where is it written that one was made a Minister by ordinary Call and another by an extraordinary W. T. The thing is written Gal. 1.1 Acts 14.23 T. S. Is there so much as mention made in either of those Scriptures of a Call ordinary or extraordinary and have you notwithstanding the confidence positively to assert that it is so written in those Scriptures Must your dreams and drowsie meanings passe for Scripture and then dare you falsly say that it is so written You told me ere while it would be some comfort if I would tell you who they were that I judged Ministers of Jesus Christ Truly not such as belye the Spirit of truth that spake forth the Scriptures by the mouths of the Saints wresting them any way to serve their owne ends and to patronize such practises as have not truth for their bottome Which thing if you did well weigh would be to you no great ground of comfort And whereas you bid me consult my own reason touching the tearms of ordinary and extraordinary Call I answer My reason is not the Scripture nor judge thereof and withall let me tell you that to fly from the Scripture which you would be thought zealously to assert when no foundation can therein be found for notions of mens creatings and instead thereof to advise me to consult with my own reason is plain shuffling Further you say that this distinction of ordinary and extraordinary Call doth not make two doores but two wayes of entring in by the same doore In answer to which I ask you Doth the Scripture know two wayes of entrance into the Sheep-fold Doth that testifie of any more then one way and that the same that is the way is also the doore even Jesus Christ the Righteous And although you passionately deny that distinction to be of your own creating but say that it hath ever been of use in the Churches of God I answer That forasmuch as the spirit of truth hath no where made mention thereof throughout the Scriptures it is but just that you should be charged as the creator of it And if to use your own language you knew and cared what you said you would not proceed in your wonted boldnesse to say that it hath ever been of use in the Churches of God when as it was never used among any of the Churches mentioned in the Scriptures Neither are the words so much as to be found through all the writings of Christ or the Apostles But it doth behoove those that dare not pretend to that Call which they had who were sent by Christ of old to tell the people they have yet another as authentick as that that so though they enter not in by the one true doore yet they may save themselves from the sentence of Thieves and Robbers by erecting a back-door which the Scripture never knew and then stile it with the name of another way through the same doore Hence you proceed on labouring by many words to prove your Call but all to little purpose for when you have said all the Tree will still be known by his fruits and they that are not found doing Christs will
CHRIST'S Innocency PLEADED Against the CRY of the CHIEF PRIESTS OR A Brief and Plain REPLY unto certain Papers received from William Thomas called Minister of the Gospel at Ubley By THOMAS SPEED a servant of that Jesus Christ who was at the request of the bloody Crew of Chief Priests and Teachers Crucified at Jerusalem Mat. 23.27 Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye are like unto whited Sepulchres which indeed appear beautifull outward but are within full of dead mens bones and of all uncleannes John 8.39 Jesus saith unto them if ye were Abrahams children ye would doe the works of Abraham Vers 40. But now ye seek to kill me a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God this did not Abraham Seneca de vit Beat. Quaeramus quid optime factum sit nen quid usitatissimum quid nos in posessione felicitatis aeternae constituat non quid vulgo veritatis pessimo inter preti probatum sit LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1656. To all the publick Teachers in this Nation who are by themselves and the world called Ministers of the Gospel SIRS THE night is far spent the day is at hand and blessed yea blessed from the Lord are all they who are found walking not as children of the night but of the day The houre is coming and now is that all coverings shall be removed and the vails pluckt from off all faces and lamentation and woe will be unto all them who are found covered but not with the covering of my Spirit saith the Lord God Awake therefore O ye Shepheards Awake Awake stand up seriously consider of and prove your coverings make diligent inquisition and search whether you are covered with power or profession with the substance or with the forme with the Spirit or with the letter onely To leane upon the Lord and say is not he in the midst of us as Micha's hireling Teachers and Prophets did crying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord will not serve the turne in that terrible day in which the righteous Judge of all the Earth shall enter into judgement with you The Scripture of truth doe bear record (a) Mat. 22 23. of a people who shall at the last day make their solemn appeal to the King of glory avouching themselves undoubted Christians pleading that they have given signall testimonies that they were such by their Prophesying casting out of Devils and doing many wonderfull works in his name on whom he will then pronounce that dismall sentence of departure as such whom he never knew for that though they had been much in preaching and profession yet they were reall workers of iniquity You doe all pretend your selves servants to the Son of God and to be Ministers by him called forth to preach the everlasting Gospel from the bottome of my heart doe I wish that I were able truly to say of every individuall of you that you are found walking worthy of such a Master and bringing forth fruit worthy of that high and holy calling with which you pretend your selves called I shall not undertake rashly to judge you or accuse you unto the world let your fruits demonstrate what trees you are and let your works judge you You pretend the Scripture to be your Rule come therefore let us plainly reason together and see if your own Rule will condemn you or absolve you The Spirit of the Lord by the mouth of his Prophet Micha (b) Mic. 3.11 accounted it among the abominations of the Priests and Prophets of those dayes that they taught for hire and did Divine for money and as an aggravation of this their wickednesse he farther testifieth That they even prepared (c) Mic. 3.5 war against him that resused to put into their mouths Let these Scriptures be your inditement before the judge of all the Earth and to the Light of Jesus Christ in every one of your consciences doe I appeal whether you are able to plead to it not guilty And if guilty how then can you escape the same sentence and condemnation that fell on those Priests and Prophets who were found in the same transgressions Jesus Christ the true and great Prophet of his people denounceth the woe against the (d) Mat. 23.5 6 7. Teachers in his dayes for that they did their works to be seen of men standing praying in the Synagogues and the corners of the Streets as also because they loved the uppermost Rooms at Feasts and the chief Seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the Markets and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi View your selves in this glasse also and let the Light of Christ in all your consciences judge whether these spots are not manifestly to be seen in your garments and if so who can absolve you from being sharers in their wo who are found pertakers with them in their evill works The Scripture (e) Joh 15.19 witnesseth that the Sheep and the Shepheards of Jesus Christ were not of the world because by him chosen out of the world and therefore by the world were they hated persecuted imprisoned stoned beaten in their Synagogues dragg'd before Rulers and Magistrates for his names sake cast out as the (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4.13 sweepings and off scouring of all things Stand to the bar O ye Shepheards before that righteous Judge that cannot be bribed and in the presence of him that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reines of all men give true answer to what I shall demand of you Are you by the world hated or are you haters of others Are you persecuted or persecutors Are you imprisoned for truths sake or are you imprisoners of others Are you stoned or stoners Are you by the world beaten in their Synagogues or do you your selves beat or cause others to be beaten Are you brought before Rulers and Magistrates for Christ's names sake or doe you dragg or cause to be dragged others before them Are you by the world cast out as the filth and off-scouring of all things or doe you so cast out others that doe refuse subjection to your lusts If these be indeed the fruits you bring forth as who is he among you that can wash his hands and say he is innocent then whether you are of the number of those that say they are Apostles and Ministers of Christ but are found to be liars let all the wife in heart judge The Scripture farther beareth record that the messengers of Jesus Christ when sent out to preach the Gospel did freely give as they had freely received they coveted (g) Acts 20.33 no mans Silver nor Gold nor Apparell and yet serving a faithfull Master they wanted nothing We never read that Paul or any of the Ministers of Christ in Scripture did so much as claime a maintenance from those without much lesse did they commence suites at Law against the
for a poor man or a mean man to say Thou and thee to a great man and a rich man These are the horrid Blasphemies and damnable Doctrines against the Abettors of which you doe at this day discharge so much passion and rage both from Presse and Pulpit calling to the civill Powers for bonds and Prisons nay fire and fagot against all those who fearing the Lord doe fear to call darknesse light and light darknesse But stop a little and consider what you are doing whilst you are upon the full carreer posting to Damascus upon Sauls bloody errand Will you not out of your own mouths be condemned before him that cannot erre in judgement Doe ye fulfill or violate that Royall Law of Christ written in your hearts to doe unto others as you would they should doe unto you Are not you as notable Hereticks in the esteem of those whose blood you thirst after as they are in yours and would you esteem it just that were the power in their hands they should meet the same measure unto you If you shall despise it as mine yet accept of it as the counsell of Gamaliel that sober Pharisee Take heed to your selves what ye intend to doe as touching the innocent whom ye now so fiercely pursue least haply ye be found even to fight against God If it were better for him that shall offend one of Christs little ones that a milstone were hanged about his neck and he drowned in the depth of the Sea where then will you appeare in that great and notable day of the Lord who doe not onely offend but doe offer all manner of violence and cruelty to the utmost extent of your power against those of whom you dare not say but they may be of the number of Christs little ones Be not too furious least in your rage you ask Barabbas and cause Jesus to be delivered over to be crucified And although in your heat you may be content upon confidence that he is a deceiver to take his blood upon the heads of your selves and your children yet know that it will prove as to the Jewes of old a burden too heavy for you to bear Fear the Lord therefore O ye Shepheards and cease to fight against the Lamb for no weapon formed against him shall prosper Cast off all your coverings that are not of the Spirit of the Lord Say not within your selves we are Preachers of Christs name for the Scribes and Pharisees Preached the Prophets and yet did shed the blood of Christ of whom the same Prophets testified and foretold Boast not your selves in that wisdome which you have scraped together at the feet of Gamaliel for as that wisdome shall never comprehend the mysteries of the Kingdome so likewise remember that Saul who in learning and knowledge was inferiour to none of you was not onely stark ignorant but also with his learning fought against Heaven and thought he had done acceptable service unto God in washing his hands in the blood of his Son And now what is it in all the world that I who am become your enemy because I tell you the truth doe wish unto you Teachers even this that the gracious God would grant you to witnesse the same change that Saul did that the same hand of love that strook him to the Earth would likewise bring you down from all your high thoughts and lofty imaginations to stoop to the teachings of that Jesus whom you now persecute that ye may come to witnesse all the wisdome of this world to be foolishnesse with God and may be content to become fools that ye may be wise that you may cry out from the same root of life with the same Saul Lord what would'st thou have us to doe that you may not in words onely but in truth come to witnesse all your excellency but losse and your glory but as dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ And finally that you may be made able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge All which are the hearts desires of him for you who is A cordiall lover of all your soules and a servant of that Jesus who witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilat THOMAS SPEED TO THE READER READER THou mayest understand that I writ a former Letter to my Antagonist in answer to one sent me by him from whence he raised reports touching me which were both untrue and scandalous For which cause it is principally that I have caused this Reply to come to the Presse that so all that will may read and they that fear the Lord may judge betwixt us Both his and my former I would have Printed with this but that this would thereby have encreased to too great a bulk which would have caused it to be unto thee both more tedious to read and costly to purchase Read with a single 〈◊〉 Prove all things hold fast that which is good Farewell Thomas Speed A Brief and plaine REPLY Unto certaine Papers received from WILLIAM THOMAS CALLED Minister of the Gospel at Vbley SIR I Have received your Papers bearing date May 25. which are stufft with much wrath and more confusion Plain dealing I perceive is a great stranger with you for that you give it such course entertainment when it cometh within your doors So accustomed are you to the cap and the knee to greetings in the Market-place and to be called of men Rabbi that he is presently become your enemy who durst without a complement tell you the naked truth Such smooth things as you Prophesie to the People you expect from others but to have a Lie Deceit or Hypocrisie called by their proper names must be at least rayling and reviling But be you pleased or be you more angry I must yet deal more plainly with you for terrible is the Lord to all flatterers and such as speak deceitfully to their neighbours And first I shall begin with the Proem to your Papers W. T. I am sorry that what others will think good counsell hath been so ill bestowed on you when you have got more piety and humility you will have other thoughts and when you have recovered your civility you will write other Letters T. S. That counsell that directeth my minde towards the true counsellour though from the lips of my man-servant or my maid-servant I dare not despise but counsell against truth under the affrighting notion of error I esteem not good Piety humility and civility it seems I have lost But why Because I did not swallow down what you first writ me as unquestionable Oracles of Heaven but proved what you sent me by the Scriptures of truth and from them bore my testimony against your deceit This is no judging from you presently to conclude that man a brute for so he is that hath lost piety humility and civility that doth not presently bow down and cry
and interpretations and whoso durst not own them for infallible rules are presently sentenced to be Hereticks and deceivers and denyers of Scripture But will you indeed stand to what you have said viz. that that is Scripture which is necessarily deduced from it though it be not in so many words contained in it Then let me ask you and many others in this Nation who have been Teachers some tenne some twenty some thirty years were those things that you have taught so many years together necessarily deduced from Scriptures if not then by your own confession you have taught falshood if they were then all that you have so taught is infallible for you say it is Scripture and the Scripture is infallible and dare you say that what hath been so Preached by them and you for these twenty years past hath been infallible why doe you not then adjoyne all your Sermons to the Scripture for if necessarily deduced thence they are Scripture and a part of the Saints rule But what a sad condition would many poor soules be in whose small estates would not amount to the purchase of a Bible so voluminous would it be by that time all the necessary deductions that you and others have made from the Scripture these many years past were added to it they must sit down in despaire of ever obtaining that which is their rule and if they could what have they but a pack of confusion and contradictions And whereas you quote Christ his proving the Resurrection of the dead c. I answer that what Christ spake was infallible he neither did nor could erre in what he said and were you as infallible in those meanings and interpretations which you force upon the Scriptures as he was in what he spake from the Spirit of the Lord I should readily close with them as the Oracles of God but till then think it not much that I embrace his interpretations and disowne yours But how long will you deal thus fraudulently with the world in crying out against such as deny your meanings as if they denyed the Scriptures and yet dare not say you are infallible in the meanings you give of them Either say to the people plainly that you are infallible if you so esteem your selves that so they may minde so great a concernment of their soules as is the receiving of your deductions from Scripture for true Doctrine nay for Scripture it selfe or else say you are what indeed you are sufficiently fallible that so they may take liberty of proving both your actions and your Doctrine and not be damned as Hereticks if they condemn that in you which the Scriptures of truth doe condemn Suffer therefore them that must die for themselves and account to the Lord for themselves to interpret for themselves and believe for themselves and not tell them they must credit your deductions from Scripture as the Scripture it self when as you that call your selves Divines doe so much disagree in your own deductions Take six of you that esteem your selves the most able Doctors and a portion of Scripture being given you to interpret shut your selves up in six severall roomes and after some time give your interpretations thereof to one that shall receive them from each of you apart from the rest and perhaps not two of the six shall agree in the same interpretation and would you have poor people adventure their soules on the truth of such mens deductions from Scripture who dwell in such vast confusion and difference in their deductions Next you urge that Scripture Deut. 5.32 33. viz. You shall not turne aside to the right hand or to the left T. S. And doth this Scripture say that the Scripture is the Saints rule or can you without blushing produce it to prove any such thing could Moses intend this in relation to the Scripture the greatest part of which was not then written was all or any of those things that were said and done by the Prophets Jesus Christ and the severall Apostles then recorded if not what a manifest wresting is it of Moses words to say that by them he mea'nt that which was not written till severall hundreds of years after unlesse you exclude all the Prophesies the sayings of Jesus Christ and the Epistles of the severall Apostles from being part of the rule which I suppose you dare not doe in word though you doe in a great measure in your practice W. T. Add here unto that Gal. 6.16 the word rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expressed T. S. Because the word rule is expressed in Pauls Epistle to the Galathians therefore the Scripture is the Saints rule Is this reasoning like to such as should come from a Minister of the Gospel May not a Heathen Philosopher reason as logically thus the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anglice a Rule is used in Aristotles polliticks therefore Aristotles polliticks are the Saints rule If you did indeed live by that rule the Apostle there speaketh of viz. the new Creature you would not write and act so irregularly as you doe W. T. Saints must walk by one rule or another I ask then what rule is there if Scripture be not the rule c. T. S. I know no new rule nor own none but the same that Abel Encch Noah Abraham Moses David Paul and the rest of the holy men of God walked by to which I much fear you are a great stranger for if the tree may be known by its fruit your fruits declare a great deal of ignorance thereof And by the same touchsone that those holy men proved the light they walked by whether it were of God or no the same and no other doe I own still Next you spend time in taking exceptions against a word inserted in a Querie I put you which was this Because they deny them to be the Saints rule doth it follow they wholly reject them To which you answer W. T. That wholly was not my word it 's of your own putting in and therefore if you doe not like it you must thank your selfe That that I said was that the Quakers in this and their other Doctrins though they doe not professedly reject the Scriptures yet really they doe T. S. I did not say it was your word I only put it in a question to you And therefore by way of just retortion I may say to you you have made work for your self and please your self with descanting upon it when you have done yet let any sober understanding judge whether your speech can intend any lesse then I asked you for when you say indefinitely they reject the Scriptures not quoting any particulars whether can it be any other way taken but that they throw them off in generall Besides that you did intend their rejection of the whole Scripture I prove thus The Scripture as the Saints rule you say they reject now whether is a part of Scripture or the whole the Saints rule If the whole Scripture
will never be able to prove themselves Christs Ministers W. T. For our Calling which you and others so much agitate because it standeth and will ever stand in your way and against your erroneous wayes I shall give this account T. S. I own but one way which also is the truth against which your Calling doth manifestly stand But erroneous wayes I doe utterly deny and doe charge him to be a lyar who doth assert that of me which he neither doth or can prove to be true Were my wayes erroneous your calling would not stand against them since it is such a calling as you received from Antichrist who is the Patron of errors Neither shall it ever stand in my way any otherwise then as a Romish ragge which I shall ever have courage to tread on as a thing deserving no better entertainment with me then the salt that hath lost its savour W. T. Our gifts abilities and fitnesse for the Ministry which are Gods inward Call were first tryed and testimonialls of our carriage were given T. S. Doth the Scriptures any where say that gifts abilities and fitnesse for the Ministry are Gods inward call or that any of the Saints sought testimonialls of those among whom they lived in order to their being made Ministers Or did Paul or Peter keep any Chaplains to try men in order to their being ordained Ministers upon whose approbation they proceeded to lay hands on them But who are those that tryed you were they not such as are like unto your selfe could they try your gifts who had not the gift themselves could those that were enemies to the Crosse of Christ try who were fit to be made Ministers of Christ Could coveteous proud envious men and such that were given to filthy lucre try such as are qualified like unto themselves or could such tryers doe lesse then signifie to the Bishop and Presbyters their approbation of those men that lived in the same nature in which they themselves lived W. T. And that there might be an outward Call we were ordained by Bishops that were Presbyters and other Presbyters that were not Bishops who were to be and were joyned with them in our Ordination T. S. You have well derived your succession and very learnedly acknowledged your selfe and brethren for you speak in the Plurall number to be Romes Emissaries brats of Babylon brought forth by an abominable conjunction of Antichristian Bishops and Presbyters of their own creating Is this your Call and durst you own it as a Call from Christ did ever Jesus Christ send those that were professed enemies to his truth and people who were so far from having the power of godlinesse that they hated the very forme thereof who persecuted Christ in his Saints from City to City who like ravenons Wolves thirsted after the blood of the sheep Did Christ I say ever send such to ordain Ministers to preach his Gospel If the Scripture be your rule shew where any of Christs Ministers were thus ordained W. T. And being so ordained we have exercised and executed that Calling not without such a blessing from heaven upon our labours in this Nation as was never given to any false and unwarranted Ministry T. S. If it be a blessing from heaven to get money and grow in riches and worldly honour to advance your estates by augmentations and grinding the faces of the poore for Tithes to live at ease eating the fat and drinking the sweet having your bags and barnes filled by the sweat of other mens browes Then I must needs confesse that you and many others of your Brethren have had as large a share in the blessing of heaven as any order of men I know in the Nation But as for that blessing from heaven which attended the labours of the Apostles consisting in turning men from darkness to light from Satan unto God how few are there among you that can boast of this blessing for who is turned by your Ministry from the evill of his wayes doe not those sins that reigned among your hearers many years past remaine among them still are not they that were proud coveteous envious backbiters double dealers many yeares agoe still the same Read those words of Jeremiah Chap. 23.31 32. Behold I am against the Prophets saith the Lord that use their tongues and say he saith Behold I am against them that prophesie false dreams and doe tell them and cause my people to erre by their lyes and by their lightnesse yet I sent them not nor commanded them therefore they shall not profit this people at all saith the Lord. And are the people profited by your Ministry Nay are you not bitter enemies to those who have profited by the teachings of the Lord Are not they in the Nation who are through grace pluck't out of the snare of the Devil the chief mark against which you shoot And as any seeing through your thin covering of outward profession doe come to bear testimony against your hypocrisie and deceit is not your fury and rage increased against them And are these things a blessing from heaven and a proof of your Ministry You charge me in the next place with closing with them who wander about the Nation leaving their own places and callings and employing themselves in a way of witnessing much whereof will be found to be a bearing false witnesse whereunto they have no due nor true call from God or man T. S. Is it wandring for any to goe too and fro to declare that which they have heard and seen of the word of eternall life if so what were Paul and Peter and many other Saints of old but wanderers and that not only about one but many Nations through which they passed declaring what was revealed to them from the Lord. With such Wanderers I desire alwayes to close And if this be the blackest character of reproach you have to fasten on me I shall yet study to become more vile in your eyes and shall esteem that my glory which you intend for my reproach Might not the false Teachers of old on as just ground revile the Saints for closing with Peter and others who left their callings wandring too and fro as the Lord directed them and for closing with Paul who as the Scripture beareth record travelled through many Nations and as he went continued * Acts 26.22 witnessing both to small and great saying no other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come As for such as bear false witnesse doe but point them out and prove their testimony to be false and if I own them then charge me with sin but till then I shall esteem your words but the birth of a scornfull and unsavory spirit You are angry but in vain that the Lord hath raised up so many to witnesse against the abominations of the Idol Shepheards in the Nation who have a long time caused the people to erre teaching for doctrine the traditions of men having on
further offer to you by way of inquiry as followeth 1 Qu Whether Christ be separable from his righteousnesse if not whether he being within the Saints his righteousnesse Be not there also And consequently whether he that denyeth the righteousnesse of Christ to be within the Saints doth not blasphemously deny Christ to be there also 2 Qu Whether Christ be not made of God unto the Saints Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption and whether is he so made to them within them or without them 3 Qu Whether redemption and righteousnesse must not be there witnessed where the seat of sin and uncleanness is And whether is that seat of sin and uncleanness within or without 4 Qu Whether doth not the Scripture witness that Christ gave himself for his that he might redeem them from all iniquity and purisie them unto himself And whether is that redemption and purisying from their iniquity and polution within them or without them As you draw nearer the conclusion of your Papers you wax more fierce and furious casting out a great deale of folly and froth from your unsavoury spirit charging me with laying foule hands on you and reviling of Protestant Ministers c. T. S. To which I Answer That it was never my Principle neither is it my practice to lay violent hands upon any man And as for that spirit that teacheth men to revile I doe abominate it as such betwixt whom and the Spirit of the Lord which is the Spirit of meeknesse there is no fellowship If I were inclined to be led by example I must needs say that I might ere this perfectly have learned how to practice both these from the example of your brethren of the Clergy and their enraged Disciples who are at this day very frequent in laying their bloody hands on the innocent beating in and casting out of their Synagogues and haling before Magistrates and Rulers those that bear testimony against the same deceit and hypocrisie in them that Christ bore testimony against in their Predecessors the Scribes and Pharisees crying out to those in Authority Crucifie them trucifie them for they are not fit to live foaming out mire and dirt speaking all manner of evill causlesly for the truths sake And are these the Protestant Ministers you say I revile because I speak the plain truth of them You pretend the Scripture for you rule then let me ask you and let that of God in your own conscience judge betwixt you and me Doth the Scripture judge those to be true Shepheards or Wolves that worrie and persecute the poor sheep Are they ever numbred among Christs sheep that devoure his innocent Lambs Is it the badge of the Dove-like Disciples of meek Jesus to be Persecutors or Persecuted Christ before he left the world foretold what should be the Portion of his Ministers and Disciples viz They should be beaten and scourged in the Synagogues be brought before Rulers and Magistrates be cast into bonds and Prisons hated of all men nay be killed by those that zealously intended the service of God thereby And if this be the portion of Christs Ministers and Disciples to be thus evilly entreated by others can they be other then the Disciples and Ministers of Antichrist who doe themselves beat and scourge or cause others to be beaten and scourged in their Synagogues who doe bring before Rulers and Magistrates who doe cast into bonds and into Prisons who doe hate nay who doe for want of power in their own hands stir up the Magistrates to proceed to take away the lives of those whom they condemne for Hereticks because they cannot bow down and worship the golden Calf which they have set up Now then judge if you can righteous judgement the Tree by his fruits and say if such as these be your Protestant Ministers for speaking truth of whom without flattery you accuse me of reviling and tell me if these be Ministers of Christ who doe not abide in the doctrine of Christ who never persecuted any man nor gave any such Commandement to those that were his but instead thereof did strive to fore-arm them against all the sore persecutions they should undergoe from the hands of the false Teachers and their zealous Proselytes And therefore whatever the doctrine of these your Protestant Ministers be sure I am their deeds are evill and may expect the reward of those that say and doe not Thus have I traced you even unto wearinesse through the dark and crooked paths of your arguings and assertions conteined in your last Papers And now a few words by way of Reply to your Satyricall Monitorie added in your conclusion and I shall close all In which you charge me very highly but prove nothing Specifie some of those wayes of practice or opinion in which I live contrary to the truth and I shall soon disown them Otherwise you beat the wind in making a great noise with your Rhetorick touching dangerous Practises and Opinions but neither have quoted nor can prove any upon me With comfort and confidence shall I dye living in the fear of the Lord and being found faithfull to the teachings of that Jesus whom you persecute That many are found passing from one fancy to another in these changing times as you call them is no wonder for they learn it from the practice of their Teachers who own and preach some one fancy some another I know no seducers in the Nation but such as draw men from the light love and fear of the Lord to listen to their own fond dreams stilling him who is the only sure Teacher of the Saints a pretended inward light And therefore by way of retortion let me advise you not to trifle in those things that are of eternall concernment calling darknesse light and light darknesse Put not far from you the Son of God because of the meannes of his Garb. Stumble not at his coming because not attended with the pomp and splendor of this decaying world The worldly-wise Jew expected him from the Pallace but the great God whose habitation is in the contrite spirit called him from the Manger This was the stone which the wise builders refused this was the Rock against which the learned and the mighty dashed themselves in pieces What the Religious Scribes and Pharisees esteemed the Deliriaor mad whimsies in the lives and teachings of the Saints in those dayes the same doe you judge now but the persons and things which they judged base the Lord hath made honourable and what proud man would root out of the Earth or shut up in the grave of silence he hath caused to flourish as a branch of renown which shall out-live all the Idols set up by the wisdome of the World Therefore look well to your standing and build not on that Religion which consisteth only in outward profession crying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord lest you be found in the great day of the Lord to be of no Religion but that which must be burned up as Hey and stubble I desire you nor to become a Disciple to any practice or opinion because mine but unto the truth turn not unto me but return unto the Lord against whom you are now found fighting You utterly mistake me in judging that I endeavour the bringing you over to any opinion for I disown that Religion that consisteth in opinions and doe desire in singlenesse and seriousnesse of spirit to wait for that power to which all Opinionists are strangers Therefore doe not esteem me studious to prevaile with you to be of this Opinion or that Sect no my hearts desire unto the Lord is that he would prevaile with you to come down from the heighth of your vain imaginations and wait to be made wise with the Wisdome of God to live low in his fear which is the beginning of that Wisdome to become a foole that you may be wise and finally to abide faithfull in that measure of light which you have received which would lead you out of the by-paths of deceit and hypocrisie and bring you to witnesse singlenesse of heart which leadeth unto that peace which the world knoweth not and to that joy which none should be able to take from you I wish eternall good to your precious soule and rest Your Friend as you owne and walke in the Truth as it is in Jesus T. SPEED FINIS