his own bulk or belly as aforesaid then I say he will speak them into his belly again so that no man need to fear damnation for all that came out of God shall go into him again and if they were made of nothing they shall turn to nothing again I speak these things that whosoever shall read this Writing may see the vanity of the Quakers doctrine and be ashamed of it 3. John Reeve doth say That God must have some place of residence when he created this world In your answer to this you flap your hand in the mouth and say God abides in himself and is what he is And further you say To create is most properly to bring something out of nothing by the powerful word of God Answ I marvel what satisfaction any man can have in his minde in believing in a Quakers God to tell a man that God abides in himself and is what he is but never tells what he is nor whether he be any glorious substance or form or whether he have any nature which to know God in his form and nature is life eternal But to say a thing abides in it self and is of its self and not to tell what that is that abides in its self it is Riddle me Riddle me what is this But it is like all the rest of the Quakers points of doctrine for they are mistaken in every true point of doctrine which are but six 1. Of the form and nature of the true God 2. The form and nature of the right devil 3. The place and nature of heaven 4. The place and nature of hell 5. The mortality of the Soul 6. The persons and natures of Angels These six Principles are the ground of all true knowledge in relation to eternal life but the Quakers doctrine is ignorant of every one of them First they are grosly mistaken in their God both in his form and nature for they say he is so big that no place neither heaven nor earth can contain him when as the Scriptures saith he made man in his own image and likeness and he calls himself a man for when the man said to Christ when on earth Good master what shall I do to inherit eternal life Christ answered and said Why callest thou me good there is no man good but one even God So that Christ did acknowledge God to be a man for he was God himself 2. The Quakers are as much mistaken in the right devil for they know not how the devil came to be nor what will become of him hereafter though many of them their own souls is the devil And so of Heaven and of hell they are ignorant of any places where they are for they know no other places of glory nor pain but what is within them 5. They have got no mortal Souls that can die 6. And as for persons and natures of Angels they know not what I mean by it so that God and devil hell and Heaven immortal souls and Angels are all within them and when they die they deliver up all this within them it goes into God again and so are no more sensible of joy nor sorrow than they were before they had a being For I perceive by this Thomas Taylor that the Speakers of the Quakers go all in one strain onely some of them are more subtile than others to hide themselves with the words of the Scriptures carrying the sense of the Scriptures in an Allegory and so gets Christ within them and so keeps his body from going up to heaven above the stars But that Christ in a body above the stars hath given me power that am but a mortal man over that Christ within you and that you shall know to your eternal pain and shame Furthermore you say To create is most properly to bring something out of nothing by the powerful word of God Answ 1 In this you shew your self to be one of the serpents seed indeed for that was the Serpent-angel his sin in heaven above the stars which you so much slight I say it was his sin before he was thrown down from heaven for be thought in himself if he had been God he would have made all things of nothing he would have created all living creatures without substance or matter that is to say of nothing This was the Serpents sin and nature when he was in the state of immortality and glory And you being of his seed you shall speak and act the same sin in the state of mortality and shame which is a clear testimony to me that you are of the Serpents seed for you will have God to do that which he cannot do to make earth and waters and all other things of nothing else you call him a devil or a false God For I must tell you that God never said so himself that he would or could make living or dead substances of nothing neither did any Prophet or Apostle or Saint believe any such thing but it was always the devils nature to look upon Gods power to be greater than it is or else to be less than it is for the devil is always mistaken in Gods Infiniteness but the Seed of Faith knoweth by faith what Gods power is so far as to the saving of the soul to wit that God did make living creatures of dead sensless matter and living forms of formless substance and that God could aâ—d did die and that he can and will raise the seed of Adam to eternal happiness and the seed of the serpent you being one to endless misery though both Seeds be asleep in the dust of the earth until the day appointed This is true faith in Gods power and that which Moses the Prophets and Apostles and us the Witnesses of the Spirit did and doth witness unto against all the seed of the serpent whatsoever for though by faith we understand the World was made yet by faith we understand and so did the Apostles that the World was not made of nothing but by the word of Gods power it was made of something to wit of earth and waters which were eternal 4. You call these wicked sayings because we say no children damned though they be the seed of the serpent if they die in their childhood To this you say That the serpent was cursed from the beginning for say you certainly all his seed young and old must be so for say you as iâ— the tree so are its fruits Answer Here you that have any light of Faith in you may see the gross darkness of this man for he cannot abide such a God that hath not power to make things of nothing and now he is angry because God doth not damn children if they be of the seed of the serpent for he is angry with John Reeve for saying all children will find mercy as aforesaid for saith he all young and old must be damned of the serpents seed and this is his ground as is the tree so are its fruits
with others that can for the Scriptures being truly interpreted discovereth the Quakers Principles to be the greatest cheat and deceit and more Antichristian than the Pope or any other Sect whatsoever in matter of Religion 6. You do upbraid John Reeve and my self because we are in the fallen state of Adam but you Quakers do not acknowledge your selves in that fallen state you are not willing to be found in that state for you look upon your selves so purifi'd by the light of Christ within you that you are become perfect in your own conceit but you know not what that perfection is the Scriptures speak of for I am your sure hearts are not purified by faith How can your hearts be purified by faith when as your faith hath never an object for your God nor Christ hath never a body nor person of his own but he must be beholding to every Quakers body to reside in and he is every where besides therefore what faith can you have to purifie your hearts when as no God can be found but what is within you But I shall shew what it is that purifies your hearts and what sins you are cleansed from that which purifies your hearts is the Law written in your seed and nature even the same as was written in the Angel-serpents nature before his fall which is no other but the nature of reason So the Angels nature being in you and the Moral Law being written in it it hath the same workings in you as the heathens had the Apostle speaks of to wit your thoughts accusing and excusing and the motions of this Law arising in your minds you call the light of Christ when indeed it is nothing but the light of the Law for if it were the light of Christ it would make you to own the person and body of Christ without you as well as to own Christ within you and if you Quakers should do so your Principles would quickly fall And as for the sins your hearts are cleansed from they are no other but such like as these that is to say to keep the Hat on the Head before a Magistrate and to finde fâ—â—lt with Gold-lace and a piece of Ribbin a Band-string and a gold Button and to rend and tear Gold-lace and other Lace off their Clothes and burn it and to use the language of Thee and Thou He or she that gets thee and thou perfectly is a very good Quaker they are gotten half way to the Quakers heaven These and such like righteousness is the Quakers perfection and all the cleansing of heart they have this I know to be true for I know they have no faith to purifie their hearts neither can they be justified by faith and have peace with God For how can they have peace with God when as they own no other God in a body but what is within them but they will finde that God within them to be the greatest tormenting devil of all Again I marvel how you Quakers came to make it such a great sin for a man put off his Hat to a Magistrate I do not remember any place of Scripture that it was the practice of Prophets Apostles or Saints Surely your Teachers might have given their disciples a little more liberty than they have for you Quakers do not read that the Prophets when they went with Messages from God to the Kings and Rulers of Israel I say we do not read they went before the Chief Magistrates with their hats on their heads Likewise the Apostles when they were brought before the Rulers of the Jewes we do not read they went with their hats on their heads Are you Quakers certain that Paul had his hat on his head when he spake for himself before King Agrippa and Noble Festuâ— sitting in the Judgement seat Neither did Paul use the word thee and thou altogether to them but gave them civil respect titles of Honor one Noble Festus and the other Oh King Agrippa according to the places of honor they had in this world So that the Apostles did not tye the Believers of them to the hat on and to thee and thou Magistrates as you Speakers of the Quakers do Besides if it could be proved that Prophets and Apostles did keep the hat on and thee and thou Magistrates yet would it be no ground for you Quakers to do so for God never chose nor sent you as he did them God never bestowed so much honor upon any of you to make you Messengers to Kings or Magistrates for you are but private men not chosen of God as all true Prophets Apostles and we the Witnesses of the Spirit were yet you by the light within you will imitate those that are chosen by voice of words from a God without us nay you are more impudent in your way than ever any Prophet or Apostle was who were chosen of God and made equal with Kings in power from on high yet have given civil respect unto Kings and Magistrates they being as Gods on this earth as the Scripture saith But seeing the hat put off to a Magistrate is such a great sin to a Quaker I shall let him alone in his righteousness and let him see if that righteousness will deliver him in the day of trouble I have spoken something more of the hat than I thought to do onely to inform those that shall see it that the Scriptures doth no ways justifie such a practice but it is one of the Quakers main points of doctrine they hold forth and if that and such like things will not save them they must be damned for their righteousness is as much in the hat as in the heart for I am sure they have no true faith in their hearts nor in the true personal God the Man Christ Jesus in glory in heaven above the stars And as for us being in the fallen state of Adam I do acknowledge and confess it therefore we are redeemed by Christs death for all that are in the fallen state of Adam are made alive by Christ and all that are not found in the fallen state of Adam will certainly be damned to eternity for they that did not fall in Adam did fall in the lâ—st Angel and so have no benefit in Christs death because that Christ took not on him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham and Abraham was the seed of Adam in the fallen state and Christ redeemed him by his death and all his seed I mean by his death without me and not of his death within me as the Quakers do vainly imagine for they own no other death of Christ but what is within them what ever they pretend by using the words of the Scripture because they so frequently speak of Christs death but they own no other death of Christ nor benefit by it but what they have within them resurrection is all within them I marvel why you Quakers should talk of Christ loving his Church and that by one
suffering Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified when as yo own no body of Christ without you but it is because you read such words in the Scriptures which were other mens words and faith alas what benefit will that be to you to assume to your self that which did belong to others for what is that you what the Apostles said to those Believers at that time they understood what the Apostles meant by those sayings for the Scriptures were not spoken to Quakers nor given to them neither do you understand them the Scriptures were given to John Reeve and my self neither doth any man understand them or can truly interpret them but us two onely we being the chosen Witnesses of the Spirit for we onely can unfold what that Fountain is which is open for sin and for uncleanness for every Commissionated Prophet hath the Key of David given unto him to open the hidden mysteries even the fountain of living Water to wit the knowledge of the true God and the right devil with many other heavenly secrets hinted at in the Scriptures which to know is as a Fountain of Water of Life to those that understand them 7. We do confess that Adam and Eve were not capable of any kinde of death until they were both defiled with the sinful nature of the Angelical serpent To which this T. T. saith To the glory of truth that seeing Christ came to restore us that which Adam and Eve lost with advantage it must needs follow that the true Believers who are become even now whilest upon the earth freed from all kinde of death and so are not capable of any death in their souls no more than Adam and Eve was in their innocency because the Scripture saith that he that believes in Christ is passed from death unto life and such as abides in that faith shall never die but the Spirit of Life is in him Answ Here this man shews his gross darkness and ignorance of the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures for observe what is said before that Adam and Eve had no kinde of death in them before their fall yet this let the Reader minde that the death they did procure by their fall it was but a temporal death and that death God threatned them with it was but temporal though the fear of eternal death might be in them by reason of the fall but the death it self which God threatned upon them was but a natural death neither did God take off or free them from it for Adam and Eve did die yet they had the promise of Christ made sure to them more than any Quaker ever had And yet this promise of Christ to bruise the serpents head it did not free Adam and Eve from this first death but it freed them from the fear of the second death and from the second death it self even that eternal death But as for a natural death Adam and Eve Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself tasted death for this first death enters upon all both man and beast but the second death which is eternal it enters upon none but upon the serpent and his seed and this eternal death is that which they Adam and Eve and their seed are delivered from by believing in Christ And thus we that are found in the fallen state of Adam are restored by Christ that is we are restored to a better and a more glorious state and condition than that of Adam in the state of innocency But you Quakers do expect no higher salvation than that of Adam but you will not pass thorow death to it but you will attain it a more easie way For you say it must needs follow that the true Believers who are become even now whilest upon the earth freed from all kinde of death and so are not capable of any death in their souls To this I say that Christ never said that he would free mankinde from a natural death nor restore man to the state that Adam was in but he came to save mankinde from eternal death therefore he saith He that believeth in me shall never die And of that saying he is passed from death to life that is he shall never die a spiritual and eternal death for he is passed from the fear of this first death to the assurance of eternal life for assurance in Scripture is many times taken for the thing it self but Christ never freed his Disciples from a temporal death notwithstanding they had eternal life abiding in them And that Apostle who said We are passed from death to life did die a natural death himself and so did the Prophets of old as in the Acts it is said by Peter to the Jews Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted and have slain which shewed of the coming of the Just One And was not Steven stoned to death a man full of the holy Ghost yet his soul was put to death and Peter himself and the rest of the Apostles and those that believed their doctrine did not they die or else were put to death yet these were all passed from death to life yet they all died a natural death or was put to death for it cannot properly be said to die if the soul slips out of the body and leaves the body behinde as you Quakers and many others do vainly imagine so that your ignorance in the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures is bewrayed for you Quakers are the darkest pieces to interpret Scriptuâ—e of any other Opinions in the world for you will name places of Scriptures but never interpret any that makes all the Quakers so dark for ask them a question in Scripture they will give you no answer but perhaps bid them minde the light within them or else say it is the flesh that asks or such like sayings so they baffle and trouble ignorant people which knoweth not their Principles nor the meaning of the Scriptures I thought good to answer these few particulars they being of some concernment for those to know who are not well grounded in the Doctrine contained in those Books you so much villifie and speak evil of for I would have others to see this Writing as well as your self for you Speakers of the Quakers seldom let any of your believers see my Writings lest you should loose them by it or your Antichristian spirit be discovered by them for none can discover the Quakers cheat and deceit but us the chosen Witnesses of the Spirit for your Doctrine is altogether Antichristian which doth deny both the Father and the Son to be in the form or person of a man in heaven above the stars distinct of himself from Angels and man and any other creature And if you look but into The Quakers Neck broken you may see what you are for that is the fittest Book for Quakers to look into there I have had to do with such like spirits are you are who have gone in the same steps of despising and blaspheming against the Doctrine of the true God declared by us the Witnesses of the Spirit as you have for you have most wickedly spoken evil of as pure Truths as ever was spoken or revealed by Prophet or Apostle for God hath chosen us by voice of words as he did them and hath given us the Spirit of Revelation and Interpretation as he did them and who ever despiseth the Doctrine of us the Witnesses of the Spirit despiseth him that sent us even Jesus Christ the living God who hath chosen us to pull down and cut in sunder such Antichristian devil as you are who owneth no other God but what is within you which hath caused you to blaspheme against the person of God without you even the Man Christ Jesus in glory for those Books of John Reeve's writing do own no other God but the Man Christ Jesus in glory who spake to him three mornings together to the hearing of the ear First you have called that Voice A Dream you have called that God or Christ that could not make all things of nothing A false Christ a devil you have called the Doctrine of the true God A Lye a Deceit Error Darkness Blasphemy with many other wicked blasphemous speeches in the Margent of the Book too tedious to relate Therefore for these your wicked Blasphemies against the holy Spirit of Christ that sent and revealed those Doctrines unto us I do pronounce Thomas Taylor Quaker cursed and damned both in soul and body from the presence of God elect men and Angels to eternity neither shall the Light within you nor Infinite Spirit which you call God without you deliver you from that Curse I have pronounced upon you but you shall know that God the Man Christ Jesus hath given power unto his Messengers and Witnesses to curse you to eternity deliver your self from it if you can And if you do but read The Quakers Neck broken you may see others of your brethren who have walked in the same steps of blasphemy as you have and will have the same reward with you That Book would have been as a Looking-glass for you to see what your Principles are in the root and what will be the fruit of them Written by Lodowick Muggleton one of the two last Prophets and Witnesses unto the High and Mighty God the Man Christ Jesus in glory in Heaven above the Stars FINIS
This man would have God to do that which he cannot do as I said before so he would have God to be more cruel then he is to condemn children who have done neither good nor evil which the Scriptures doth no wayes justifie for though God doth say He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated before they had done good or evil And that saying The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head And of that saying The election of God stands sure All these places of Scriptures doth not reach that children should be damned although the seed of the serpent is For this is to be minded that the Scriptures were spoken to men and women capable of understanding for God did not say to children I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy it was to men that understood what Moses said Likewise the Apostles spake to men and women and not to children else why should the Apostles exhort the people to make their calling and election sure It would have been a vain thing to give exhortation to children And as for the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent it is in relation to men and women for doth not men and women that are the seed of the woman who have faith in their hearts by their patient sufferings break or bruise the head of the serpentine men and women who are the seed of the serpent who doth rage and rail and persecute the innocent so that children have nothing to do in this matter And as for that saying of Jacob and Esau the one being loved of God and the other hated when they were both in the womb To that I say though Jacob was in Gods decree beloved and Esau in Gods decree hated or reprobated yet this I say they were decreed and appointed to live to mans estate so that they might both be capable of election and reprobation and not to die in their childehood And this I say further that if you T. T. had died in your childehood you should have been saved though I know you are of the seed of the serpent but you being appointed to be damned to eternity you were appointed to live to despise the living God and blaspheme against the Doctrine of the true God declared by those Messengers whom he hath sent And as for that saying of yours As the tree is so is the fruit Your meaning is if the serpent be damned the children that are his seed must be damned also Here you shew your gross darkness and ignorance in the Scriptures because the Scripture saith A good tree bringeth forth good fruit and an evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit therefore you conclude that children are fruits of the serpent he being that evil tree 5. To this I answer That the meaning of the Scriptures in those words aforesaid is not meant that children that are begotten and born I say they are not counted the fruits of the serpent for we see by experience and by the Scriptures that sometimes reprobate men and women who are both of the seed of the serpent yet the childe that is begotten by them is of the elect this I know by experience since I came to know the Scriptures and could distinguish between the two Seeds Likewise it is clear by Scripture that a faithful man and woman they being both of them the Seed of Faith that is the Seed of the Woman for there is but two Seeds spoken of in Scripture that hath begotten reprobates as that of Isaac and Rebecca they being both of the elect Seed yet they begot Esau which the Scriptures brands for a Reprobate So that sometimes two reprobates may get an elect childe one or more and two of the faithful seed may beget one or more reprobates so that children are not called in the Scriptures fruits of the Serpent tree for children are trees themselves if they live to maturity of age 3. But those motions and actions which these trees bring forth in their lives and conversations are called in Scripture fruits of the tree if good motions and actions then called a good tree if evil and sinful motions then called an evil or corrupt tree for the good tree bringeth forth good fruit even the fruits of the Spirit which is patience meekness love and faith in God and such like fruits which good trees which are men and women do bring forth So likewise the evil tree is men and women also and they bring forth evil fruits even the fruits of the flesh which is envy unbelief persecution blasphemy against the true God these and such like fruits proceed from the evil tree of the reason in man and the good fruits proceed from the good tree which is the faith in man for there is but two trees spoken of in Scriptures to wit the Tree of Life signifying the Tree of Faith and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil signifying the tree of reason so that all men good and bad are ranked under these two trees and those men that bring forth fruits of Faith as aforesaid may be said to bring forth good fruit and those men that bring forth fruits of reason as aforesaid may be said to bring forth evil fruit as you have done So that what fruits man or woman bringeth forth in their life being come to age is counted by the Scriptures good or evil fruit and so said to proceed from a good tree or an evil tree and not with any relation to the fruit of the womb that is generated and begotten as children Therefore when John Baptist said The axis laid to the root of the tree he meant wise and prudent men who were wicked persecutors he did not mean that their yong children should be hewen down and cast into the fire So likewise when the Apostle speaks of the fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of the flesh he tells what they both are so that children are not called the fruits of the serpent-tree though they be of the same seed for seed is one thing and fruit is another so you erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God for I never knew any Quaker give any Interpretation of Scripture but speaks the words as they lye which is the cause of their gross mistake of the meaning of the Scriptures and run into those and such like errors that God fills heaven and earth from these words they believe God is so big as to fill heaven and earth And of that saying Know you not that Christ is in you except you be reprobates From these words they ground their faith that Christ is within them and so will admit of no body or person of Christ without them nor in heaven above the stars and so of other sayings in Scripture As that that Christ enlightneth every man that cometh into the world but will admit of no interpretation themselves because they cannot but are angry