should be the greatest and said unto them The Gentiles exercise Lordship one over another but it shall not be so amongst you and though Peter and the rest of the Apostles who were in the Power of God had that which did open into the Kingdom of God and shut out that which did defile yet this we are sure of he sold no Pardons nor Indulgences for Gain and filthy Lucre as many have done whom you call Peter's Successors and Christ's Vicar and Universal Bishop and visible Head but it is manifest how the Pope became visible Head and Universal Bishop not because of any Work or Labour in the Doctrine of Christ or the Work of the Gospel but by means of the Roman Emperor for while the Christians were under Persecution and Suffering there was no talk of visible Heads or much of Universal Bishop for then Rome had no more Priority then the rest for the Churches at Constantinople at Jerusalem at Caesaria at Cyprus and Alexandria for the first three hundred Years they had as much Power in their several Churches as Rome had and often the Elders or Bishops of the afore-said Churches did reprove sharply the Bishop of Rome but at last above five hundred Years or upwards Phocas to aspire to the Empire of Rome he murthered his own Master Mauritius and his Children to attain unto the Empire so at that time Boniface the third was Bishop of Rome and Phocas somewhat fearing and willing to have Boniface his Favour condesceâ—deth to all his Petitions and grants him to be Universal head-Bishop over all Christian Churches and there was the first rise of Rome â—s visible Head for this frivolous Reason of being Peter's Successor could never have raised him to that height but then the Emperor's Power and Authority became to be the more forcible Plea for before that time the Bishops of Rome were chosen by the Emperor's consent but after he had got Power Emperors could not be chosen but by the Popes consent and then came the Bishop of Rome to be a visible Head and be called Universal Bishop Christs Vicar a Lord spiritual over all the Churches and in process of time Lord temporal over all the Empire And thus your Church of Rome became magnificent and great to sit as a Queen upon the Waters Nations Kindreds and Tongues as you acknowledge your Church of Rome hath spread over and here is a Head and a Body which are joyned together in Union Christ is the Head of the true Body which is his Church and his Wife and Antichrist he is the visible Head of his visible Church and Wife Mystery-Baâ—ylon The next piece of Merchandize which the Authâ—r brings forth to view is Purgatory and prayer to be made for the dead and also prâ—yer unto Saints and the Authors proof is 1 Cor. 3.15 wheâ—e he Apostle speaks Every mans Work shall be tryed and that Work whâ—ch will not abide the Fire must be Burnt and this the Author calls The Fire of another World and Prayer for the Dead he proves out of 12 of Maccabees and prayer to the Saints he sayes it's lawful to Pray in this Wâ—rld unto good People and Paul while he lived did Pray for others and also did beg their Prayers And the Angel in the first of Zachary prayed for Iâ—rael and there can be no harm in Praying to them that can Pray for us Answ. They that dwell in the shadow of death are lik to speak out of thick darkness they that have made a Covenant with Death are loath to have it broken and they that have a mind to continue in Sin while they live have a mind to put the Evil day afar off Judgment afar off Evil-doers will never have it time to give account for their Evil deeds and so put it off till they are Dead and to another World and let â—he Devil have Prehemience in their Hearts while they live and reckon their Sins venial and Light faults this is contrary to the Doctrine of the true church of Christ and contrary to the Apostles Doctrine who said The Wages of Sin is death and there is no Sin goes Unpunished nor Unjudged and Sion is redeemed through Judgment and by the Spirit of burning and Purgatory is a Fiaction falshood and a Lye and there is no cleansing from Sin in another World Solomon saith As the Tree falleth whether to the North or to the South so shall the Tree lye and the Word of God who have received it in their Hearts which is as a Fire that purifies and the Blood of Christ is that which cleanseth from all Sin and there 's not any cleansâ—ng from any Sin but by it and there is no cleansing in another World but Purgatory hath been invented and Prayer for the Dead that thereby the Pope might be enriched and sell the invented Prayers and Aâ—e Maâ—â—es and so cheat People of their Money and there 's no Sacrifice to be offer'd for the Dead who dye in their Sins nor no Remission after this Life And as for praying to the Saints the Scripture makes no mention of and though Paul did Pray for others and beg the Prayers of others yet he prayed not for them when they were dead neither did beg the Prayer of the deâ—d but prayed for them who were Believers in the true Church and desired the Prayers of them that were living Members and were alive and lived in the World and were redeemed out of it and the Angel prayed not for the People of Israel when they were dead and that which thou calls Jeremy's prayer in the Maccabees was never spoken by the Spirit of the Lord nor the Offering was not made in the Will of God and the Prophet saith Though Abraham know us not and Israel be ignorant of us yet thou O Lord art our Father And the Lord said unto David Seek my Face and call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear and Answer Not upon Mary Peter and Paul Dominick and Anthâ—ny Again it 's contrary to the Practice of the Saints in the Primitive times and contrary to the Doctrine of Christ who said unto his Disciples Whatsoever you ask in my Name the Father shall give it to you He doth not speak of any other Name neither is any Prayer or Supplication accepted of the Father but in the name of Christ alone So these Doctrines are false and Doctrines of Devils never commanded nor Practised by any of the Saints in the Primitive time but only have been invented and practised by the Apostatesâ— who have Erred from the Faith and Practice which was onâ—e delivered unto the Saints which the church of Rome hath made Ship-wrack of in many things which I have made appear and I shall proceed to more particulars to manifest it lest any should be beguiled with such deceitful Babylonish Merchandize which the Nations are too much corrupted with already The next false Doctrine which the Author layes down is That
though with the best of all our Commodities though with Cinamom and Odours and Oyntment and Frankincense yet they will buy none of our Ware nor there 's no Hope of trading with them any more for they are come to know the Pearl which is more precious then Rubies and the heavenly Treasure that doth not rust and the Word which is sweeter then the Honey and the Honey comb there 's no Hope of them but this is the Misery they will not be content with what they have found but impart it to others and so beget a Dislike in other Peoples Minds to the best of all our Merchandize However them that are gone from us and deny our Mother and her golden Cup and deny all her Merchants great and small not only them that trade in Wood and Vessels and Brass and Iron but even them that trade with the best Merchandize as Gold Silver precious Stones Pearls fine Linnen Purple Silk and Scarlet however let us excommunicate them and give them up to Satan and let us call to the Beast with his seven Heads and ten Horns who is scarlet-coloured dreadful and terrible and let us accuse them of Heresie Schism and Blasphemy and call them Seducers Deceivers and false Prophets and let us brand them with Names of Reproach as Sectaries and say they are seditious and rebellious and mutinous and they are Enemies to Church and State and all good Government Peace-breakers factious and pestilent Fellows that bring all the Nations into an Uproar and if that will not do let us petition to Kings Princes Dukes Parliaments Protectors and Councils that some speedy and effectual Course may be taken for suppressing of these Hereticks and for stopping of these blasphemous Doctrines as that the Steeple-house is not the Church and sprinckling of Infants no Ordinance of Christ and singing of Psalms by Tradition no Part of the true Worship of God and it may be shall get some Law or Act of Parliament against them or call them Vagabonds and get them whipt abroad and put in Prisons while we take away their Oxen and Goods at home and so by this Means it will stop others whom we traffick withal that they will not dare to hearken unto them for if they will not buy our Wares and take our measures by a Glass in Love to it yet because of Fear of Imprisonment or Loss of their Goods or Estates they will be constrained to trade with us But alas it is otherwise with us now then it was in Queen Mary's Dayes when Mass Mattens and Even-songs Processionings Ave-maries Creeds and Pater-nosters took up most Part of the Time and went off among People for spiritual Worship at a good Rate neither is it with us now as it was in the Dayes of Bishop Laud our great Metropolitan and the rest of our Mother's Merchants then would Common Prayer translated out of the Mass-Book into the English and Creed Letany Pater-noster with a Lord have Mercy upon us or we beseech thee to hear us good Lord forty Times over in a Quarter of an Hour with some of David's Psalms turned into Meeter by Hopkins and Sternhold Masters of Musick sung with Organs with Choristers and Boyes with bowing to the Altar and such like Merchandize which was then precious in the Eyes of our Mother's Children then whosoever would not be obedient to all the Rites and Ceremonies we branded them with the Name of Puritans and Non-conformists and haled them before Sessions Courts and Magistrates cited them to appear before the Bishops served them up to the High-Commission-Court before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal falsly so called and there the Flesh was gnawn to the Bone and Ears cut off stigmatizing and burning with Irons Imprisonment and Banishment Now as People came nearer the Day they began to suspect all this as not to be the spiritual Worship of God having no Ground nor Footing from the Spirit of Truth nor Example from the Scripture nor from the primitive Churches then they over whom our mother once reigned began to question her whether she was the Lamb's Wife yea or nay And whether our Predecessors and Brethren were the messengers sent out by the true Church yea or nay And whether the Ordinances and Practices were the Institution of Christ and his Apostles yea or nay in the primitive Times And the Day dawned upon them and the Spirit came to be revealed and did shine into their Hearts and they began to search the Scriptures and to compare the true Church which was cloath'd with the Sun and crown'd with the Crown of twelve Stars with our mother Mystery Babylon and they began to compare the Apostles and ministers in the primitive Times with our Predecessors Babylon's merchants and also compared the Institutions and Ordinances which were delivered to the true Church with the Institutions Rites Ceremonies and Inventions of our mother Mystery Babylon and so they found all out by the Revelation of the Spirit and by searching of the Scriptures they found out the Rise of our mother after the Woman was fled into the Wilderness and that she sate not as a Queen upon Nations Kindreds Tongues and Peoples till after the Woman did fly away upon the Wings of an Eagle into the Wilderness for a Time Times and half a Time and likewise they found out that our Predecessors and Fellow-merchants were not like the ministers of Christ in the primitive Times neither our Doctrines and Ordinances like the Ordinances and Doctrines which were once delivered to the Saints before ever we merchants set sail or floated in a Ship on the Sea And so finding our City to be raised up in its Glory since the Glory of God was lost in the Earth and finding our Queen Mystery Babylon ruling in our City since the Lamb's Wife fled and finding us merchants to receive her Traffick from her City since the Faith was lost that once was delivered to the Saints and did see our Creeds and Beliefs and Pater-nosters our Prayers and our Hymns that they are quite another Thing which was Part of her Traffick they have concluded and that upon infallible Grounds warranted by a Cloud of Witnesses in the Prophets and Apostles that our mother is a Whore and her Predecessors are her merchants and that our Ordinances are and Traffick hath been invented by some of our mother's children which are Apostates and they have found us out And now alas a Ship will be hardly able to ride any more upon the Waters nor the Sea will hardly bear up our Vessels any more the Nations the Kindreds the Tongues and the Peoples are almost dryed up especially in the North Regions they will not buy our merchandize any more our Ships are like to stand still and our merchandize is like to be all shipwrackt therefore let us take counsel lest all the Sea dry up and we all sit down in Solitariness and our Song be turned into wo worth the Day misery and alas Therefore now it
none effect by your Traditions and as for Rom. 10.8 The Word is nigh thee in thy Mouth and in thy Heart and this is the Word of Faith which we preach here the Apostle saith the word is nigh thee in thy Heart but he doth not say the Scriptures is nigh thee in thy Heart which is the Word of God And 2 Cor. 2.17 For we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God he doth not say we are not as many that corrupt the Scriptures which are the Word of God or the Word of God which is the Scriptures And as for 1 Pet. 1.25 But the Word of the Lâ—rd endures forever and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto yâ—u he doth not say the Scriptures endures forever or this is the Word the Scriptures which by the Gospel is preached unto you And as for 1 Thes. 4.15 For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord that we whâ—ch ar◠〈◊〉 and remain unto the coming of the Lord shâ—ll not prevent them which are asleep he did not say this we say unto you by the Scriptures for there was not such a Scripture written before and therefore we sâ—y this unto you by the Word of the Lord And what a foolish Mâ—n is this to assert his own Imaginations and then imagines the Scriptures will prove it and what â—n improper speech were this to call twenty â—housâ—â—d Sentences one word and it is called a Declaration and what a Declâ—â—ation would that be thâ—t consisteth but of one word but enough of this hath been published before concerning the particular by divers hands so I shall be brief however R. I doubts his proof already that it will not satisfie F. H. and therefore he thought good to make this Conclusion upon him That he doth not believe the Scripture at all and though F. H say that these Sciptures are nothing at all to prove that thing to deny his Imaginations is not to deny the Scripture but F. H. believes what the Scriptures say of themselves and doth not deny the Scriptures at all but R. I. his Lye and also his false Conclusion And further saith R. I. The Scripture was delivered to the Church in writing that it might be an infallible Standard of true Dâ—ctrine and a determiner of Controversies and the Saints rule of knowing God and living to him Answer Reader take notice here is no room for the Spirit at all the Scriptures and writings have taken up the room of it in R. I. his account for it hath lost its Office if his Doctrine be true the Letter is become the infallible Judge and standard to try Doctrine and a Determiner of all controversies and of the Saints Rule of knowing God and living to him and indeed is become all in this man's Account then what doth R. I. bring Esop's Fables Oviâ—'s fictions Plato's and Diogenes Stories in this Controversie to joyne with this infallible rule and because he hath the Scriptures so high to be a tryer of Doctrines without the Spirit doubtless is the Cause here is no mention made of it and so he shall be Judged by his Rule in the 42th page take his Exposition upon the Words of Joel I will pour out of my Spirit upon Sons and Daughters and they shall Prophesie This is not meant of a ghostly Power but of an extraordinary measure of enlighting Grace Ignorant man is not Ghostly Power or spiritual Power an Extraordinary measure of enlightning Grace and was it not a spiritual Power and an extraordinary Light the Prophets Prophesied by But it is this Mans meaning that must be the Standard when all comes to all and the Determiner of Cases and he speaks contrary unto his own Rule as may be seen through his whole Book who hath either added to the Scriptures or perverted them or otherwise given his false Interpretations or Villified them in calling them the True Cards and so though he extolled them in Words he denyes them in Practice The Jews tryed Christ's Doctrine by the Scriptures and â—udged him a Blasphemer and a breaker of the Law and the Apostles Seditious and so though a man have the Scripture and have not the Spirit it is all as a sealed Book wherein such Unlearned men as this R. I is cannot read and therefore he saith in his 55th page That it is a great fault in us because we say the Law of the Spirit of Life is the Rule and so like him will not say it is imperfect as he doth and so saith R. I. it is not fit to be a rule so Blasphemously he detracts from the Authority and Power of the Spirit and like Anti-christ and his Ministers sets the Letter above it and calls it Living and an infallible standard and saith Thâ— Scripture inclines the Heart unto obedience and like a Drunken man this R I. reels up and down and contradicts himself Before he said The Law of the Spirit chiefly gave Power to conform to the Rule and wiâ—hin four Liâ—â—s Contradicts himself and saith The Scriptures incline our Hearts to the Oâ—edience of the Rule and the Scripâ—ures it self hath caused us to know it as we have it from the Church it is a probable aid and yet giveth but a confused Belief with a light Impression Answ. It is probable enough indeed that thy Faith is confused and the Faith of your Church and that makes thee utter forth all this confused Heap but in what hath been said the Spirit of this man and his Doctrines will be manifest to all whose Eyes God hath opened and so will depart out of his Paths and not give heed to his fabulous Stories It is true saith R. I. There iâ— an inward Law written in our Hearts called the Law of the Spirit of Life Rom. 8.2 And there is the outward Law written in the Scriptures now the outward and external Law is properly the rule of a christian Life and not the inward and internal Law for the outward is perfect in that it declares in what is the Will of God and in what it is not but the inward Law received and written on the Heart is imperfect and therefore unfit to be our rule the Law within is that thing that is to be ruled Psal. 17.4 The outward Law is therefore the rule Answ. This Man would set the sun by his Dial as it might be said although he confess in the very same page that the Law of the spirit of Life giveth Power to the Creature yet now it is become imperfect and not fit to be a rule this man like one unlearned sets the Law which was written in Tables of stone which the Apostle calls the Ministration of Condemnation and was glorious this he sets above the Ministration of the spirit of Life which the Apostle saith is much more glorious but nay saith R. I. the Law written in the Heart is iâ—perfect and not fit to be a rule but to be ruled contrary to
cast into the Lake and all those tyranous cruel wicked changeable murderous Laws which he hath made and forced upon Men to uphold the Power of his Dominion shall be trodden under Foot and be had in Contempt and Dishonour by all the Followers of the Lamb who is gone out conquering and to conquer and shall subdue his Enemies and overcome them and slay the wicked by the Sword that proceeds out of his Mouth And Oh what a Havock hath the Devil made in the Earth since the Dayes of the Apostles since he hath got the Form of Godliness and hath transformed himself into all outward Appearances of Worship and Anti-christ hath been exalted above the true God in the Earth and hath turned Christian in Name and hath preached Christ in Words and hath covered himself with the Sheeps Clothing the outside that he might not appear as he is an Enemy to the Power and Life of the true God that so he might deceive and hath deceived Thousands for since the Dayes of the Apostacy that the Power and the Life hath been lost the Devil and Anti-christ have turned Law-makers and Law-givers and Law-executors and Rulers of Nations and Kingdoms have made Spoil in the Nations under that Name of higher Power nay further Anti-christ hath turned Church-Member nay Church-Officer Preacher and a great Ordinance-man a Preacher a Prayer a Singer a Baptizer a Worshipper of the strictest sort in the Nations and hath taken up the visibles Actions and Practices of the Disciples Apostles Ministers and Believers so far as they have been outward and now in these things and by this stolen cover deceives Peoples and opposes the true Christ and his Life and Power and coming in the Spirit and yet notwithstanding all this large Philactary and long and large Garment yet the in-side is Devilish Hellish Murderous Cruel ravenous and devouring And who will but look back and take a view from the Beginning of the Devil's Kingdom until Christ was manifest in the Flesh shall finde these things true that under the Name of higher Power and under the Name of Holy Church he hath destroyed the Naâ—iâ—ns and hath laid waste God's Heritage and hath defaced his Image and destroyed his Workmanship and hath laid all the Blame upon the Righteous Seed and condemned them for Evil-doers for not being subject to Authority for Law-breakers and for Seditious and Tumultuous and for Heresie and Errour and Blasphemy and as Ungodly for all the Righteous Prophets and Believers in former Time were Judged and suffered as Ungodly in the Account of the Devil and his Agents as though he and his Instruments had been the greatest Friends of God and of Believers And who will but view the Scriptures of Truth from the manifesting of Christ in the Flesh till his Ascention and also afterward may see that the Devil under the Name of higher Power and under the Name of Authority hath made Spoil and Havock of men and their Estates and hath killed and destroyed the Just as Evil-doers and have exacted upon the Righteous by wicked Impositions and Cruel corrupt Laws made to uphold his Authority which standeth in Darkness And the false Church under the Name of a Holy Church hath sentenced them as Blasphemers as Erronious and as Enemies to God who kept his Commands and did the Will of our Heavenly Father as the blind Jews in their ignorance judged Christ as a Blasphemer and as an Enemy to the Law and Crucified him and Persecuted the Apostles and put them in Prison as Seditious and Tumultuous and as Pestilent and assaulted the House of Jason and beat and abused Scourged and Whipped them with Stripes and loaded them with Reproaches and haled them before Magistrates and Rulers and falsely accused them and followed them from place to Place and stirred up the ruder sort and cryed out Help men of Israel for they turn the World upside down and so Persecuted them from City to City as Evil-doers And after the dayes of the Apostles when there was a defection made from the Faith and the Power was denyed and lost yet the Form retained then Mystery Babylon began to rise and the Murderous City began to be builded and the Nations to drink of her Fornication and swallowed down her deceit Then began the Nations to be Waters and Kindreds and Tongues to reel to and fro Then all became as a Sea with Waves and Boisterous then the Beast rose out of it and he got the Name of Authority and higher Power and then turned against the Righteous and made Laws in the wicked Nature that all that would not be subject to him must be killed and they were Killed under the Name of Evil-doers for that Title they must bear and both the Beast the first and the second with the Mother of Harlots shed the Blood of the Saints as Erronious Seditious Blasphemous all this long Night of Anti-christ's Reign they that keep the Testimony of Jesus have been Killed Destroyed Persecuted some as being Enemies to the Higher Power and some as Law-breakers and Seditious and some as Erronious and Dangerous so these many hundred Years hath the Devil been exalted and Anti-christ advanced under the Name of Christ and under this Title have killed and wasted the Creatures and destroyed the Creation by the Name of Higher Power and by the Name of Holy Church and by the Name of Christians hath devoured and destroyed Thousands by Cruel Deaths Tortures Blood-shed Fining Prisoning Hailing to Prison Whipping Scourging the Righteous as Malefactors and Evil-doers them that were dear in the eyes of the Lord and were not defiled with the Abominations of the times and all them that bore Testimony to Righteousness were condemned for Unrighteous and censured as evil-doers and thus in short all may see how the Devil hath disguised himself and transformed himself into the likeness of Truth as an asserter of Righteousness and a Vindicator of Holiness and so hath deceived the Nations and led them into Blindness that he might hold up his Kingdom and Government in the Earth and that he might be Worshipped and Honoured above the True and living God and who hath but taken a view of the Ecclesiastical Histories of the affairs of things since the Apostacy may clearly see that great and many have been the sufferings of the Righteous by this Generation of Evil-doers who have got the Name of Higher Power and also of Holiness and so have turned against the Saints and faithful Witnesses of God who lived in the Life and Power thereof and have shed their Blood and made Havock and Spoil of God's Heritage and have destroyed his Workmanship and have made the Hearts of the Righteous sad whom God never made sad But what need I go backward to Ages and Generations past to demonstrate this when our Age and Generation bringeth forth so many and sad Evidences of these things which if the Sufferings and sad Persecutions were summed up of these seven Years last past
Ishmael Judas and all the Seed of Evil-doers as well as the Image of Christ or Peter Paul or Mary for any thing that they know which they have but received by Story and is but as Old Wives Fables which Paul to Timothy reproved And hath the Church of Rome no better Thing to put them in Mind of the Saints Life then a dead Picture or Image made by the Hand of the Crafts-man upon a Wall or a Board or Parchment or Paper this is Idolatry for Christ promised to his Disciples and to the true Church That he would send his Spirit to lead them into all Truth which is an invisible Thing and to bring to Remembrance whatever Christ had spoken and whatsoever was necessary as to Salvation whether the Saints Life and holy Practices which they lived in or whatsoever else as conduced to their Peace and Justification with God and what Images did God make Use of to shew his Miracles by This is but an old Fable formed by the Apostate Christians whose Minds are turned after Shadows and vain Shews and are erred from the invisible Life and worship the Works of mens Hands 2. Though Moâ—es did put off his Shoe 's according to the command of the Lord where God appeared in Power and Glory to him What is this to your purpose as to Create and form places and Consecrate them as Holy and then command Reverence and Honour unto them this is but to Worship the work of your own Hands and though David say in the 99 Psal. 5 vers Exalt the Lord God and worship at his foot-Stool for he is Holy What of all this doth God call Reliques or Images his Foot-stool And if the Author do judge that it was spoken of Zion and Jerusalem outward where Aaron and the rest of the Priests Worshipped doth not Christ say It â—s not at Jerusalem c. But they that â—orship God Worship him in spirit and Truth What! doth not the Church of Rome profess Christianity and Apostolick Doctrine and will now turn Jews or â—mitaters of them What is Rome Jerusalem or Zion And must Pictures invented and dead Pieces of Bones and Wood be recommended unto the Nations as holy things This is contrary to the Apostolick Church and with the Life of God is judged and the Life of the Saints whom you honour in Words and make Pictures of and worship the Works of your own Hands and Crucifie the Life where-ever it appears that they lived in and teach a contrary Doctrine 3. Confession may be made in Words of the true God and talk may be of his wonderous Works and yet People Idolâ—ters the church of the Jews who acknowledge the true God and had seen and heard of his wonderous works they eat and drank and rose up to Play and these were Idolaters and such is the church of Rome who take Peoples minds up with Garments and Vestments with Altars and Canales with Crucifixes and Agnus Dei with Images formed by Painters with a piece of Bread called a Holy Host and Eucharist an Unbloody Sacrâ—fice who neglect the Life and him that is the Head of the Body and his witness in their Hearts and consciences and lead them to worship and honour visible and carnal things and to busie their minds in the exercise of outward things which profit little or nothing at all and so are Idolaters Worshipping the works of your own Hands which Christ and the Apostolick church bore Testimony against for that which the creature's mind goes out after besides or without that which may be known of God in the Heart is made an Idol of and the true God is not minded and them that Honour God's Friends and Saints walk in their Foot steps live their Life and honour their sayings but your church is contrary who would Kill and have killed about these invented Fopperies which is contrary to the Apostles Doctrine God accepts not Prayers by number or tale nor for multitude of Words which are without understanding and without the Spirit this Christ counted as Evil and reprehended the Pharisees and said It was like the vain repetitions of the Heathen who thought to be heard for their much babling and the Salutation which the Angel gave to Mary is no prayer And that which is called the Apostles Creed is no prayer and them that are unconverted unto God may prattle and prate over the Words in the unbelief and never have any acceptance of God And though the Prophet did pray seven times a day it was according to the motion of God's Spirit in his own Heart which shewed him his State and necessity and what is this to imitators when they pray not with the same Spirit neither in the same words And what if Mary lived threescore and three Years who gave commandment that Hail Mary should be said threescore and three times over The rest of the Saints are like to have but small shares of worship and honour if she go with all this in a day And what five wounds is that which the Church of Rome dreams of that five Pater Nosters must be said for the honour of With Deceit and Ignorance you wound him every day and your Pater-Nosters do not honor him at all pattred 〈◊〉 over with your polluted Lips who are given to speak Lyes and yoâ—r Tongues to speak Mischief which Christ accepteth not What are you all new creatures that say Our Father which art in Heaven Are you born again Are your Natures changed Sin you not Do you hallow his Name who do not love that which shews your Evil deeds Would you see his Kingdom come which stands in Righteousness Where will you appear Or how will you stand when he appears in his Power and Glory to take Vengeance on all them that will not that he should rule in their Hearts who is the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World Would you see his will done on Earth as it is in Heaven when you walk contrary to his Doctrine which the Apostolick Church walked in and set up a numberless number of Traditions and Inventions of Men instead thereof which the Lord accepteth not and you pray not with Understanding 5. As for your Beads which are neither Jewish nor Christian but meer Heathenish as to reckon the number or tale of that which you call your Prayers by and though Kings Popes Cardinals and Bishops do the same this is but a small proof as for Authority Kings have drunk of the Whore's Cup and Popes and Cardinals have usurped Power that Christ never gave as to exercise Lord-ship and be Law-givers unto others for the Lord is the Saints Law-giver and the Saints Life and Judge and he will not give his Glory to another for Kings have drunk of the Whore's Cup of Fornication and Popes have usurped Authority and Cardinals have exercised Lord-ship over mens Consciences yea and over great Kingdoms and States too And if they pray by Beads as others do set
we are the Elders of the Church and we have the infallible Spirit and though we make Decrees contrary to what the Apostles made in their Day yet none are to question that the Church was but in its Infancy then as unwasht and unswadled and in Persecution but now she is grown up to a greater Statuâ—e and Power and endowed with greater Priviledge and that may be necessary now that was not necessary then and last of all called themselves the Clerâ—y which signifies the Heritage of God and so excluded all others but themselves And these things are true and certain and have been made good by many Sufferers for Christ and this kind of Clergy or Heritage made the Heritage of God indeed to fly into the Wilderness who had the infallible Spirit and the Witnesses to prophesie in Sack-cloth and then Mystery-Babylon began to sit as a Queen and to gild her Cup and to fill it full of Abomination and brought in Judaism and the Practice of the Apostles and their own Inventions and patched up an Endless kind of Worship and Service consisting of out-side things in a great Part in Postures and Gestures and Meats and Drinks and Days and times and Vestures and Bonnets and Caps and Coules and such other like Trumpery which they made the Nations drunk with and greedy after and if any scrupled at any of those things or any other the Holy Catholick Church hath decreed it and she cannot err for she is infallible though the Errors thereof cannot be numbred And this R. E. thou rests satisfied in as thy only Rule and Judge and Director and thou hangs all thy Faith herein and sayest Thou shalt not scruple to believe what Authority teacheth thee to be revealed by God no more then if thou heardst God himself speaking I say unto thee as the Apostle said The Serpent hath beguiled thee as it beguiled Eve and further say as the Prophet said Thou must arise and get thee hence for this is not the Rest for thou wilt see thy self plunged into such a Labyrinth of Uncertainties as thou never wast before if the Lord ever open thine Eye And R. E. gives an Account that after his reading of some controvertal Books hath made some Collections as to himself and also declares That all dissenting Judgements grant there must be a Way and a Rule appointed to teach us to deside all Doubts to judge of all Matters and to teach us the true Way to Heaven with Certainty but who this Rule or Judge is is not agreed upon by all which he hath collected into four Heads First Some set up the Spirit to direct them and to be this Means Secondly Another will have every Man 's own Natural Reason to be this Rule and Judge Thirdly Others will set up sole Scripture And the fourth assigns the Holy Catholick Church to be that Judge and Director Other then these he saith he never heard of any for he saith he alwayes esteemed the Quakers Light to be either the Spirit or Natural Reason but which R. E. doth not know and all the four before-mentioned he saith he hath examined and treateth largely upon them all wherein he goeth about and giveth Grounds and divers Reasons and divers Interpretations of Scriptures he layes waste all the former three and establisheth as he thinks the fourth as to be that Way and Rule and Judge and governing Power to decide all Doubts as that whereby all are oblieged to submit unto as to Christ himself and this was that Question which he was to gain Satisfaction in and therefore he saith He ceaâ—ed â—o enquire of their Doctrine or this or that Article of Faith and hang altogether upon this Point before-mentioned Answ. 'T is true it is granted by all that there must be a Way and a Rule as the Means appointed of God to answer all Doubts and to give Satisfaction to every Man of the Certainty of that which he believes and who this Way and Judge and Rule is every one ought to be satisfied and the four Heads into which thou hast collected the whole Controversie of all dissenting Judgments in Christianity take up the whole as to this Particular which have ordinarily been holden forth among Christians But I judge thou deal'st not wisely in thy Inquisition and Search for Satisfaction to hang all on this Pin but rather to have examined further as concerning Matters of Doctrine and Matters of Faith held forth most especially of this Party to whom thou wast so much inclined and see how thou could'st have swallowed down that Doctrine of Purgatory and Sacrifice for the Dead and Justification by a Man 's own Works and of Bread and Wine after the Words of Consecration by the Priest is transubstantiated into the very Body and Blood of Christ and becomes whole God their Saviour and Redeemer for these are principal things either greatly necessary to Salvation or greatly unnecessary and when thou had'st tryed and found these to be so repugnant unto the Doctrine and Faith once delivered among the Saints in the first Plantation of the Gospel this might have put a Stop unto thee that thou could'st not so easily close with their Judgment and pretended Infallibility who pretend to be only Guides and yet lead into the greatest Errors in Matters of greatest Moment But as to the four Particulars mentioned I shall not stand to trouble either my self or the Reader as to speak much what of that which is no Part of my Faith or Judgment but only to vindicate the Truth against the many false Conceptions of changeable Men And first of all R. E. begins to treat of the Spirit and perverts the Scripture at his first Onset and saith As touching the Spirit â—earing Witness in secret with our Spirits or he saith in plain Terms the priâ—ate Spirit this saith R. E. I considered could not be the Means to convey Faith unto the World nor the Rule Judge or Guide which I enquired after nor indeed the true Spirit of God which he promised to be Apostles Secondly Those who pretend this Guidance do not believe Godâ— but themselves only and their own Perswasions which tell them they have the Spirit of God but they can give no other Account but that they are verily perswaded so or no other Answer but I am sure it is the Spirit of God and I am a good Man and an honest Man and I believe my self but â—ther Reasons or Evidence can they give none Thirdly This pretending of a private Spirit is against 2 Pet. 1.20 That no Prophecy of Scripture is of private Interpretation Answ. This Man beats altogether beside the Anvil whatever the Matter is but that he is blinded and confounded in himself he sets but up a Shadow and then fights with it for instead of proving the Spirit of God not to be a competent Rule Judge and Guide and Instructor in all Matters of Faith necessary to Salvation he goes about to prove a private Spirit a pretended
them that bring them forth like them in Bedlam and what though Turks Jews Pagans Mahomet and the false Christians do pretend to the Spirit and guidance by it and yet bring forth the Fruits of the Flesh doth this make the Spirit of God void or the certainty of it to them that believe or do make their Fruits of none effect God forbid thy Ignorance is manifest but here thou ceasest not thy Tongue being thy own and thou being at liberty and speakest thy own words which in the end shall become thy Burden Thou vapours and vants over them to wit all the Nonconformists and saist What can you say for your selves any of you which these Enthusiasts who have gone before you to maintain their Errours but the Rule and judge and then thou concludes That which God hath appointed to be rule and judge to all the World and capable of being known and heard by all and cannot contradict it self nor must be contradicted by any under pain of Damnation if you cannot shew it to have been your Rule you ought to lay aside your Folly as destructive to human Society and them that have pretended the Spirit the strongest party and Sword upon the vote will prove it self the most convincing Spirit and force the weaker Spirits to submit or cry for thou concludes the Nonconformists have no other Testimony to try your contradicting Spirits in matters of greatest moment but force and success if you have I pray you inform me what it is Answ. If the Wind had not turned into another door divers Non-conformists believe we should have had another Song from thee if time had but favoured thee so far as to have granted thee priviledge of thy Troop to be Captain which Name thou holds up yet in the pride of thy Heart though thou hast lost thy force success and Pay which was the greatest plea when time was with thee and not long since too which makest thee measure every Man's Foot by thy Last and thou might receive information before thou hadst made a Conclusion had been the part of a Wise man before thou hadst set thy self as Judge over all thy former Fellowships which thou fianedly pretends so great love to and before thou hadst discovered their nakedness if it be nakedness to all the World in such a publick insulting bravado as this like Goliah of Gath and as for whatsome Non-conformists both of the Church of Rome and to the Church of England to which thou creeping and sneakingly flatters and saist it 's established and therefore thou will not meddle thou might have said dare not for thy Spirit is well enough seen by them only to have the Spirit of a Slave and not a free Member of the true Church of God and it 's no part of a Vertue nor Honour for thee to insult and glory over them who are in suffering and Adversity whenas thou darest not meddle with them who are as contrary to thee as the former this is but the Spirit of a Coward and is ignoble and base and ever so to be accounted by all the Children of Light who dare put all to venture which they do enjoy on this side of Immortality and to suffer the loss of all visible things for their Testimony and the Truth which they believe and for bearing witness against that which is contrary unto their Faith as did the valiant Primitive Christians of old and that which some Non-conformists can say is more then thou canst believe although demonstrated in the evidence of the Spirit of God with sound reason and evident Example from the Scriptures of Truth and though thou and thy former fellowships then and thy new fellowships now have made this vapour which for ought I know might lay your Hands upon your Mouths all considering what contradictory Doctrines and Fruits have been brought forth since the Night of Apostacy entred in and all the World wondered after the Beast some have this to say He that pretends to the Spirit and the thing cometh not to pass that they speak or Prophesie let him be accounted a false Prophet again they that pretend guidance of the Spirit as some formerly have done and yet bring forth the Fruits of the Flesh as variance Hatred Emulation Strife Contention Heresie false Doctrine Persecution force and violence let them be counted as truly they are Deceivers and Delâ—ders which have gone out into the World and deceived a great part of Mankind of which Rome hath not had the least share clear it when thou canst Morever he that pretends to have the Spirit of God and layes down another Foundation to build upon in matter of Faith in matter of Rule in matter of Judgment in matter of Doctrine then that which the Lord of Life and Glory hath laid down he is a Deceiver and an Anti-christ but R. E. hath laid down another Rule another way another Judge another Foundation for Faith and let himself make the Conclusion if he once dare joyn to true Judgment other Foundation can none lay then that which is â—lready laid to wiâ— Christ Jesus the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and of the Church of God by which they were all builded up as a holy Habitation for God to dwell in through the Spirit Again the Apostle saith All Judgment is committed to the Son both in Heaven and Earth and again he saith himself I am the Way the Truth and the Life and none can come to the Father but by me and again the Spirit of Truth shall lead and direct hâ—â— Disciples into all Truth and sealeth unto them their Justification Redemption and Salvation And this R. E. would lay all waste and void and why because many have pretended to it and have fallen short therefore all the aforesaid things must be laid aside as uncertain and not to be trusted unto and a certain sort of Men called the Apostles Successors who have sought their gain and worldly Interest and to enlarge their Dominions and to make themselves Lords over mens Faith and over mens Consciences whatsoever they say though never so contradictory to the Primitive Doctrine delivered in Christ and the Apostles dayes yet all must be received upon pain of Damnation as R. E. saith and this he calls the Visible Church and the infallible Judge and Rule and Director and hath laid waste the Office of Christ and turned the Spirit out of doors and made it ineffectual and would perswade all others to look to this from the Foundation and so is a deceiver and an Anti-christ Again we have this to say he that teacheth a contrary Doctrine then that which was once delivered unto the Saints is a Deceiver and deceived and this was Christ's Doctrine once delivered unto the Saints Swear not at all and love your Enemies pray for them that Persecute you do good to them that hate you And many more precepts which this visible Guide to wit the Roman Church holds not but hath made void
Devil did when he brought it is written to Christ and left out half the words so R. E. hath left out the Conditions on the Disciples part and that which was their duty teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you and then lo I am with you c. But R. E. likes not obedience it seems unto Christ's commands and yet he will needs be a sharer in the Promise and of the Power that was given and bind God unto that and he and his Church to be loose to do and to teach what they will but as to all the Scriptures he hath brought and minced them and cut them in piece-meal and all the inferences he makes this we acknowledge without multiplicity of words that whatsoever was promised to the Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ as the Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ the same Promise of Christ doth belong to the Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ in every Age and stands upon the same condition viz. Obedience unto hâ—s will and that they still do teach and no other thing but what he commands them then he is with them according to his Promise but let not R. E. nor his Roman Catholicks look if they teach things repugnant to his mind and contrary to his will and press upon others to believe that which Christ hath never taught that then the Promise of God will be so intailed to them as that they cannot Err and here the deceit of thine and your Hearts hath led you aside and this is one of the cunning sleights of Men and craftiness whereby you lay in wait to deceive and by this you have deceived many because God hath made such large Promises unto his Church how that they should be led into all Truth and preserved out of Error and you are their Successors and must needs Inherit this Promise by way of intail and you cannot Err you cannot be deceived because the Apostles were infallible therefore you must needs be infallible though you Err and go aside never so much from the infallible Spirit the true Guide and Judge of and in the Church of God as though you had been born to infallibility and the Spirit of Truth had come by succession but the inward Light which thou scoffs at and the Spirit of Truth which thou calls a private Spirit often hath discovered you and your Spirit though thou boastest of fifteen Ages that your Doctrine hath been held by the Pastours and Teachers in your Visible Church as in the fifty seventh Page of thy EPISTLE suppose I should grant the fifteen hundred Years which I neither can nor will but I will lead thee to the sixteen hundred years and try thee your Doctrine that you have held this fifteen hundred Years if it be so as thou saist but this thou likes not but seeing thou plead'st Antiquity let us come on and joyn issue prove us Transubstantiation in the first hundred Years nay I will give thee five hundred more and if I give thee five more thou would'st hardly prove it before the Council of Trent prove us the Doctrine of Purgatory in the first hundred Years and if thou take two it shall not offend me prove us the forbidding of Ministers to marry in the first hundred years and abstinence from Meats as though they were unclean which are created by God for the use of Believers prove us that Man hath a two-fold right to the Kingdom of Heaven as your great Bellarmine saith the one by Christ the other by a Man 's own Works prove us Invocation of Angels and Prayer and Sacrifice for the Dead the first hundred years after Christ prove us their selling of Pardons in Christ's and the Apostles dayes for Money prove us setting up of Images as to put Men in mind of the Saints deceased and of their Works prove us Baptism of Infants with Cream and Spittle and singing with the Cross and God-fathers and God-mothers and let us have some example beyond bare report for we dare not relie upon your infallible Spirit in these things therefore convince us for we are Gain-sayers and upon good Ground and we do look upon all these Doctrines and many more not to be of such a great Age as thou tells on neither to have any affinity or congruity with the Church of Christ in his or the Apostles time nor sundry Years after but rather look upon them as Doctrines of Devils and a very novelty a further Scripture R. E. urges 1. Tim. 3.15 the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth and may we not relie of that Pillar that God hath erected for us saith he and he that hears you hears me and go teach all Nations and I am with you alwayes and yet if after all these Promises if the Church may not be believed except she teacheth according to the Scriptures and be only infallible but when she doth her duty then the Church hath no more priviledge then the Devil hath for so long as he teaches conformable to the Scripture he may be believed and so long as he teaches Truth he may be believed saith R.E. in page 58 59. Answ. The Church is in God 1 Thes. 1. and is the Pillar and Ground of Truth she is in the World though not of the World and though the Members thereof be visible in the World yet the world that lies in Wickedness never owned them as such either saw the Glory of this Church but alwayes Persecuted it and was so far owning it as Rule and Judge as it altogether gain-sayed its direction but they that did believe in the word of Life and were separated from the World and hated by it were willing to hear the Counsel to receive the instruction of the Church of God and the Church only medled with their own Members as in matter of Judgment and not of the World further then by preaching Repentance in it for the Apostle saith What have we to do to judge them that are without and this Church as in God was secure to relie upon for she had the Oracles of God committed unto her every one may relie upon this Pillar if they dare trust it which I see R. E. dares not because he likes not to be tyed to their Doctrine declared of in the Scriptures but would have all to take what they say for granted without the Scripture or the Apostles example or Spirit and is not this unreasonable in thee that would'st have the Church to be believed or that which calls it self so by Name when she teacheth not conformable to Scriptures and to the Faith which was once delivered among the Saints and wouldst thou have a Church reckoned infallible and to be believed when she doth not her duty the Churches priviledges are in speaking Truth and judging Righteously and the Devil was a Lyer from the beginning and is out of the Truth and where hast thou read that he teaches
before-mentioned and see if thou canst receive them because the Church of Rome saith they are true and must not be questioned for if thou do thou art like to come under a hard censure by the verdict of R. E. and his Catholick Church first to be reckoned as an Unbeliever secondly to be a Hater of God and thirdly in not believing these Miracles or whatsoever else shall be declared unto thee by the said Church or else thou comest under no less Penalty then Eternal Damnation as R. E. saith in the 80th page of his Epistle but it is a small thing to be judged by man and especially such a man who hath gadded abroad and changed his way so oft so that he hath forgotten the true Path of Righteousness to walk in or else never knew it and hath turned and wheeled about and now at last doth as the poor Indian doth with his Deer-skin hangs it upon one Shoulder and so upon the other shoulder to shelter him from the Wind and Tempest that comes of that side But the day is dawned and mens Spirits are discovered beyond their Words and all the turnings and wheelings of things upside down is but as the Potter's Clay for God measures every man not by his Words but by his Heart and Spirit and Works and will judge every one in Righteousness according to their deeds And R. E. goes on as confident that his Arguments and Reasons laid down have prevailed and almost takes its for granted that it must needs be evident to all that the Roman Church is the true Church and saith He knows but one single Point between the Catholicks and them that stand divided from them and that is saith he That we follow a several Rule to Guide and Judge in the great affairs of Faith for all sides are bound to believe all Truth sufficiently propounded to them to be revealed of God and therefore if the presence of Christ in the Sacrament Purgatory Worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints and Prayer to the Dead and for the Dead If these or any other Point of Faith be sufficiently propounded by denying them God's Veracity is denyed and God thereby made a Lyar. The difference stands betwixt you and them that are divided from you in more particulars then thou art aware of or ever wilt be able sufficiently to propound them to be revealed of God though it is true some are divided from you in Circumstantials and Ceremonies and some others in some points of Faith and Worship yet some deny you in the very ground though 't is true the different Rule by which each party are directed is a great and a main thing Thou sayest This Cathâ—lick Church is the Rule but I say and am not alone that Christ is the Way to the Father and the Way to the Kingdom and the Rule and Means by which his Church is Governed and he is the Law giver and the Judge and all Judgment is committed to the Son and it is he alone that propounds Truth sufficiently and they that are in him are new Creatures and that which is the New-Creature Rule Guide and Judge is the Rule Guide and Judge of the Church of God and Christ is the Author of Faith and it is nothing that avails any thing with God but the New-Creature and as many as walk according to this Rule Peace is to them Gal. 3.16 And Christ hath not left his People without a Guide for he said Lo I am with you to the End of the World so as to commit the guidance thereof to fallible men who may assume Authority without his Power and to fasten those things upon God as to be revealed from him when the Lord hath spoken nothing and we are so far from looking that the main grounds that thou lâ—yest down to prove your Church to be this Rule Guide the many Doctrines propounded by you are not sufficiently propounded to be revealed of God but rather they are the Imaginations of your own Brain and things packt up since the Apostles dayes by different Popes and different Mutations and Alterations in your Church â—or filthy Lucres sake and so to deny them is not to deny God's Veracity neither to make God a Lyar as thou falsely sayest but thou and you are the Lyars as to propound those things to be revealed from God and to be received by all under pain of Damnation when God hath revealed no such thing but the contrary and so thy own Words at last shall turn to be thy burden because thou sayest the Lord saith and hath revealed and sufficiently proposed the real presence of Christ in your Sacrament of the Altar as a divine Revelation Worshipping of Images Prayer to the dead and for the dead and all â—hese foolish Imaginations which you have brought in and introduced and thrust upon People by force and these are sufficiently propounded as thou sayest as divine Revelations and the Father Son and Holy Ghost or the incarnation of Christ Silence deceit and for shame blush so to say the Prophets who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and Prophesied of things to come they declared of the Father Son and Holy Ghost all and prophesied long before that a Virgin should bring forth a Son whose Name should be called Emanuel God with us and the Government should be upon his Shoulders This the Pope hath usurped and you put it upon his Shoulders but your invented Doctrines aforesaid are meerly the Imaginations of your own Brain which neither the Prophets nor Apostles bore Witness unto but against And therefore it is thy and your great Presumption to make God Christ and Apostles the Foundation of all this Rubbish Straw and Stubble which thou would'st put off as divine Revelation and as sufficiently proposed as the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles was nay blush for shame they brought in the Prophets for the Peoples sake to prove that they had testified of the same before and had declared the coming of the Just One besides they commended themselves to the Witness of God in every man's Conscience and upon waiting upon the Lord and in the measure of his Spirit they found the things even so and by searching the Scriptures as the Bereans did found the things even so as had been declared of but upon due consideration we find not these foresaid doctrines so propounded as to have the Testimony of the Prophets and Apostles neither doth your Doctrine and Worship answer the Witness of God in every mans Conscience and so to deny you is not to make God a Lyar but God true the Prophets and Apostles and the Witness of God true and you Lyâ—rs who contradict them and their Testimony and the Power of God and would assume it to your selves though you be erred from the Spirit and would put all under the Name of Infallibility and by such Heavenly Arguments as R. E. calls them to wit the Miracles aforesaid by which you have deceived
I deny them and they and all vvho act in Uncleanness And thou goest on and shevvest as thou hast stollen from other mens VVords from the Prophets and Moses That the Judgment of the Lord was against all Idolaters and false Prophets and Dreamers and how they and them that served strange Gods were to be put to Death Wo unto them saith the Lord that steal my Word every Man from his Neighbour and say thus saith the Lord whenas the Lord hath never spoken unto them thou hast stoln other mens VVords and shalt be judged by thy ovvn mouth and thy ovvn Lavv that thou never hadst the VVord of the Lord made manifest nor never did the Lord speak to thee and therefore thou art that false Prophet and art that Dreamer and he that hath a Dream let him tell a Dream he that hath the Word of the Lord let him speak it novv them that speak the VVord of the Lord from the Mouth of the Lord as the true Prophets did and do then thou callest to the Magistrates to put them to Death And as for the Worshippers of strange Gods many in the County of Durham and many other Places let them declare vvhether they vvorshipped any but a strange God at a Distance and vvent after dumb Idols even as they vvere led vvhile they follovved the ministry vvhich vvas never sent but novv is the Lord made manifest and the strange Gods are put avvay and broken and the false Prophets are seen and the Prophet is raised up vvhich Moses spoak of and vvhosoever hear 's not his Words shall be slain vvith the Svvord And further thou tellest the Magistrates That if any Hypocrite shall presume to speak a Word in the Name of the Lord which he hath not commanded even he shall dye and it is an old Statute unrepeal'd Rep. If thou knevv vvhat thou spoak thou hast given Sentence against thy self I charge upon thee in the Presence of the living God that thou never heardst his Word nor spake his Word but in thy ovvn Name and I charge it again upon thee when did he ever speak to thee that Spirit by which the Prophets of the Lord spoke thou dost deride and call'st it a miraculous Infusion and so thy Spirit is another and not the same and that it is an old Statute thou shalt know that thou hast spoken in thy own Name and what thou hast learned by Tradition but in Christ all the Law and the Prophets is fulfilled and all Statutes who come to witness him he is the Law-giver Judge and King and all is fulfilled as he comes to be witnessed and all strange Gods put away even the Idols of Gold and Silver and all false Prophets by him come to be seen judged condemned and slain and thou that would'st put it upon the Magistrate without to kill Men by a Law and so to usurp the Power which is given to the Son and so make them guilty of innocent Blood thou art a Murderer And now further who must judge of the false Prophets of Heresie Schism and Blasphemy I know thou denyest Revelation and the rest of the Priests in England who trade with other mens Words and I know thou darest not say thou art infallible and thou hast not discerning of Spirits the Apostle exhorted them who dwelt in the Light to try the Spirits but he bad not them who are led by the Prince of the Air and were Children of Disobedience as thou art of a covetous earthly Mind he bad not them to try nor them who were carnal and therefore stop thy mouth thou canst not discern a Lamb from a Dog not a Kite from a Dove And let all Magistrates who fear the Lord either in this Nation or else-where take heed how they judge of Heresie and Blasphemy not that I am ignorant but that there is Heresie and Blasphemy but that none can judge who they are but who have an infallible Spirit therefore it is now as it hath been many have suffered as Hereticks as Christ for a Blasphemer and the Apostles as Setters forth of strange Gods and were persecuted to Death and many do and are like to suffer by this Spirit that dwells in Thomas Ellyson And therefore all you who are Magistrates that sit as Judges and Rulers take heed what you do and take heed of Zeal without Knovvledge for so Paul persecuted and so the Jews slevv Christ the Heir and so many vvould have their Will satisfied but thou must be judged by all vvho dvvell in the Light thou that sittest as Judge over another see that thou be judged in thy self for to take your Knovvledge and Direction from such as these men instead of planting you vvill be Destroyers And thou art offended at some that hold forth new Lights and Gifts which thou say'st the Word of God never taught us Rep. All vvho are taught by the Word vvhich is eternal are guided in one Light for the Light is but one and this is no nevv Light but the same that ever vvas but thou that callest the Letter the Light and the Word thou art blind and art a Hater of the Light from vvhich the Scripture vvas declared And in the Conclusion thou beggest That Schollars and Universities may be preserved for the breeding of able Ministers to preach the Word and hold out the Sacraments Rep. And this is the Sum of all that thou and the rest of false Shepherds may be carryed in the Bosome of the Magistrates and so to preserve you and destroy all that oppose you As for Learning it is Natural I ovvn it in its Place but that it makes and breeds able ministers I deny it and all those ministers for many filthy Frogs and unclean Spirits have come out of the Universities that have spread over the Nations as Locusts vvithout a King and all their Preaching and their Sacraments is carnal and all their Ability that is got by their Trading leads People to be seven-fold moâ—â— the Children of the Devil I speak vvhat I vvas a Witness of vvhile I follovved the chiefest of them And therefore I say unto you vvho are Governours Hold not that up which the Lord hath cursed for that which is Natural cannot lead up to God And therefore be ye all vvarned That you turn not back to build again that which God is destroying who threw out one Power after another because they would needs limit the Lord a Way to walk in And truly God vvill pour you out from Vessel to Vessel till you be emptied of all and till you give him all Power and Honour to rule over his Church and People that they may serve the Lord in Freedom of Spirit and not in the Flesh and if any vvalk disorderly and break any righteous Lavv and vvalk in the Flesh them execute your Lavv upon there is your Place but that you should prescribe a Way for God to vvalk in he cannot he vvill not be bound and you that go about to
turned from dead VVorks unto the Measure of the living God and they separated from the Temple and left Circumcision and all those things of the first Priest-hood which were commanded by God and out of the VVorld's VVayes Fashions Customs and VVorships and came to see the worshipping in Spirit and in Truth was that worship God required and the Ground of their Separation was not from any literal Command or Precept for all that was written there was flat against it but they which were Ministers of Christ which had believed in him preached him the Substance and the Measure of him and of his Grace which was in them unto whom they preached and this was the Apostles Witness in their Hearts unto which they did commend themselves in the Sight of God which is a great Mystery and they are not Ministers of the Letter but of the Spirit Now in these few words before written with much more I could write compare your Ministry and your Members gathered and you will see you differ in the Ground in the first for your Command you take from the Letter and so are Ministers of the Letter and not of the Spirit 2. Ye preach the Letter for the Word of Faith which they did not as is plain in their own Writings without adding 3. Them whom you gather it 's but into Conformity to the Letter and to that which is visible which all may be done in the Will of man which is fallen from God and see if it be not so with you both Pastors and Members not witnesses of that VVord which they preached which did beget Faith in them that received it and believed in it which Faith was in them wrought by the Power of God which gave them Assurance and their Assurance was in them and their Hope in them brought in and wrought by the Operation of the Spirit which the preaching of the Letter Sound or Declaration only of that which was in them never works Assurance nor true Faith nor Hope And now consider where had your Ground of the Knowledge of God been and your Gospel and your Faith and Hope if you had not had the Letter I speak not to upbraid you but to the Light of Christ Jesus I speak which will let you see how far short you are and that you must come back again to the first Principle and now you may see if it had been the same Word or Command it would have the same Effects as it had and Change into its own Nature all that received it now see whether a Change be wrought in you or not some of you yea many running back after the Foot-steps of the Priests preaching for Hire and upholding the Idols Temple if you can get into them and in the Customs of the World nay most of you not come to yea and nay in your Communication but one with the world in all or most of things differ only in Words and Names and your Gospel you have preached hath not begotten such a Faith as was in them that had the Gospel not to respect Persons nor none dare own cleansing from Sin in the Body but call that a Delusion but the Word and Faith which they preached and received gave them Victory over the World Sin and Death and by its Power made them more then Conquerors and their Hope purified their Hearts but you cannot believe that ever you shall be made free from Sin nor have not hope in that and therefore are ignorant of the Body of Christ you so much talk of which made them clean and free from Sin Secondly your Doctrine is the same with the World your Hope your Faith your justification is all at a Distance grounded upon the Report of Christ dying at Jerusalem and of their Report that knew him and believing this you call it Faith and so are one with the Faith and Hope which the World hath for the Report of Christ's Righteousness what he did suffer and wrought in the Saints if this be the Ground of Salvation then why have you separated from the World If you say Because the world hath not right to the Ordinances I say Doth not Faith in Christ give Interest to all his Ordinances And if this be onely your Faith the World hath as good an Interest as you so why do you separate from them And so you shall see the Matter is the same with the VVorld of which your Fellowships consist and the Name of Christ is a great Mystery which they were sent to baptize in who knew his Name his name is not Letters and Syllables and using these this with the lips speaking over is not to baptize into his Name And so Friends in Love I speâ—k unto you There was such as separated themselves and were sensual and had not the Spirit and so there was no Difference betwixt them and the World for they are Clouds without Rain appeared VVells but hâ—d no VVater in them seemed something but were but a Shew Friends your foot-steps I know your ground I know and your Compass and your Measure yet I shall not glory over you nor boast my self against you but rather to inform your Minds that you may not build upon a Foundation which will moulder away And now boast not your selves in your Ordinances as VVater bread and Wine which is but elementary and was never but a Sign and in the Day of Appearance of Christ the Elements shall melt with servent Heat and while you stand here and have Confidence in these things your Sun will set in Obscurity and you shall know the old Heavens and Earth will pass away with a Noise which when you come to know and hear your Hearts will fail for Fear for this I say to the highest of you If you build upon any thing or have Confidence in any thing which stands in time and is on this side Eternity and Being of Beings your Foundation will be swept away and Night will come upon you and all your gathered in things and taken on and imitated will all fail you Many more things I might write time would fail me to utter but these few among many I have written that you may compare your selves with the Ministers of Christ then and the Gospel which they preached which were separate from the World in the Ground and Nature and if you see your selves in the Light of Christ in your Consciences not to be the same neither in Matter nor Manner let not a deceived Heart lead you aside any longer Further I say they were sent out for the gathering in of the Saints some Apostles some Prophets some Pastors and Teachers yet all was by the Spirit Now if you deny the Command of the Spirit or cannot witness it but from the Letter take it up and talk of it because the Scripture speaks of it then your Ministry is not that Ministry Again this End was the Ministry sent forth for for the perfecting of the Saints which it did which not
Peace unto others while they run with them into Riotousness and while they put into their Mouthes and these promised Liberty to themselves and others while they themselves were Servants of Corruption and Jude bore witness that they were turned from the Grace of God into Lasciviousness and Wantonness even from the Grace that taught them to deny Ungodliness and was sufficient to preserve them from these Errors before mentioned but they went from it and the Light and Life of men and denyed him and owned another even him who abode not in the Truth the Foundation of God but went out of the Truth and so are bottomless or without Foundation and there is the very Center Ground and Residence of all the false Prophets Antichrists Deceivers all comes from or out of the bottomless Pit and leads to perdition And Paul if not in that age yet in the next age after lived and he saw the Mystery of iniquity already begin to work 2 Thes. 2.6 and Paul an Apostle of Christ wrote to Timothy his Son that the Spirit spoke expresly some should depart from the Faith and they should speak Lyes in Hypocrisie 1 Timothy 4.1 2. and in the 2 Tim. he gave him notice what Fruits they should bring forth they that departed from the Faith Chap. 4. ver 2 3 4 5 6. yea a great Apostacy from the Faith there was while Paul was yet living for he writes to Timothy 2. Tim. 1. This thou knowest that all they which were in Asia be turned away from me and there were a great People in Asia for great persecution he suffered in Asia and stayed two Years in Asia Acts. 19.10 In somuch that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the Word of the Lord yea and divers great men and of the chief of Asia were his Friends Acts 19.21 so it 's manifest there were a great people for Acts 19.26 not only at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul hath perswaded and turned away much people said Demetrius and Paul writing to the Corinthians saith 1 Cor. 19.19 The Churches in Asia salute you and Jâ—hn writes to seven Rev. 1 4. Rev. 11. and as was said before all were deceivers from the Faith even all they that are in Asia are turned away from me and the Apostle wrote to Titus Titus 1.10 11. That there were many unruly and vain Talkers and deceivers who subverted whole Houses teaching the things they ought not for filthy Lucre. And John who wrote the last in the Revelations he writes that the whole World wondered after the Beast and his Power was so great that it was said Who is able to make War with the Beast and they worshipped the Beast saying VVho is able to make War with the Beast Rev. 13.3 4. and the Beast that arose out of the Sea having seven Heads and ten Horns and upon his Horns ten Crowns and upon his Head the Name of Blasphemy and the Dragon gave him his Power his Seat and great Authority and he opened his Mouth in Blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven and it was given him to make VVar with the Saints Ver. 6.7 and to overcome them and Power was given him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations and all that dwell upon the Earth Ver. 9. shall worship him whose Names are not written in the Lambs Book of Life slain from the Foundation of the world This Beast receiving his Power and Authority from the Dragon hath prevailed he rose out of the Sea the Waters upon which the Whore sits and the Waters are Kindreds Tongues and People and the Beast arose out of the Seas also that the whole World wondered after and worshipped and John saw this coming fourteen or fifteen hundred Years ago so that in a few Ages after the Apostles all was worn out the Life lost the Dragon had Power the Beast had Power and all wondred after him and the Whore had made all Nations drunk with her Fornication and then she came to sit upon many Waters Kindreds Tongues and People here are the Waters here is the Sea out of which the Beast rose who received his Power from the Dragon and this is he who upon his Head had the Names of Blasphemy and all Kindreds Tongues and Nations whose Names were not written in the Lamb's Book they who honoured the Beast and worshipped the Beast and said who is able to make war with him admired his Power and submitted unto him and he hath had power and hath prevailed against the Saints did overcome them and the Dragon hath made War with the Seed which keep the Commandments of God and the Testimony of Jesus all this was seen many Ages ago and what Work the Dragon hath made in the Nations and in the Earth where he hath had Dominion and prevailed and what a raging the roaring Lyon hath kept in the Earth is evident seeking to destroy them in whom the Seed remained and to destroy them in whom the power of God was or the least Measure and so the false Prophets Deceivers Antichrists which went out then which the Apostle saw they cryed up that power which was from the Life of God and have cryed it up for the higher power and said all ought to be subject to it and said who is able to make war with the Beast for the false Apostles Deceivers and Anti-christs went from the Grace of God and from the Light and from the power of God into the World and into that Nature which all Kindreds Tongues and People walked in and into the Power that acts the Children of Disobedience and joyned with that Power upon which the Whore sits and they taught Nations and People to admire this Power and to admire the Beast because of his Heads Horns Crowns and Names and hath wrought Miracles before the Beast and this power which the Beast had received from the Dragon this power admires the false Prophet and the false Prophet the Beast so that none could buy nor sell nay nor live but that had his Mark or the Number of his Name and so all have been in utter Darkness and the deeds of darkness have spread themselves over the Earth for the Whore who is adulterated from God and the Dragon and the Beast and the false prophet all have acted from that power which is below the Truth and below the Life which power is at Enmity against the Truth and the Life and against the Light and this power overspread all nations the Sun being set night came over all and the shadow of death over all Nations and a Vail and a Covering hath been spread over all and so out of the midst of thick Darkness all have acted this long and dark Night of Ignorance in the Apostacy wherein the Dragon hath had power and the Beast and that power hath been admired and set up which hath transgressed the Life so that any who have been zealous for the
for the Life of the World John 6.51 And as Godliness began to work and the Mystery thereof in the dayes of Christ and the Apostles wherein the Lord discovered much of his Wisdom and Power and manifested his pure Presence and poured out his Spirit plentifully upon Sons and Daughters and fulfilled that which Joel prophesied of Joel 2.28 which came to be fulfilled after Christ's ascension Acts 2.17 and They received the Holy Ghost and spoke the wonderful Things of God as they were revealed by the Spirit which shed it self abroad among them that waited for it so also the Mystery of Iniquity began to work even in that time and as the Apostles laid the Foundation of Truth and declared the Truth Christ to be the Foundation even so the Mystery of Iniquity did Work and a Beginning or a Foundation of error was laid by them who were gone out of the Truth the false Prophets Deceivers Anti-christs who were Professors and Preachers but they were such as were Covetous and Greedy of filthy Lucre and made Merchandize of Souls for dishonest gain and denyed the Power of God Christ and were Enemies to the Cross and gloried in the Flesh and spake Swelling words of Vanity and did all live in the Lust of the Flesh and were proud Boasters and denyed the Lord that bought them for denying the Power of God they did deny Christ though in Words they preached him as this Generation who are their Off-springs do out of Strife and Contention as the Apostles writes and they held the Form of Godliness but denyed the Power and they were they that once were Convinced of the Truth and came into the form of Truth but denyed the Power of Truth but were in Craft and Deceit and they subverted whole Houses from the Faith and led them back into the World into Unbelief in the Apostles dayes and yet had a worship and did Worship but not in the Power not the Life and this began to work and wrought more cunningly and Subtilly in the latter Times And the Apostle Paul in many of his Epistles John and Peter and Jude declare against them and Paul prophesied of them before his departure of grievous Wolves which should spring up which should not spare to make Havock of the Flock of Christ so the false Apostles Deceivers Anti-christs and deceitful Workers they went out then and did what they could to lead Disciples after them into the World inwardly they were ravened from the Spirit and were gone from it into the Earth into the world and served not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies and the God of the world which is the Devil and they went into the World and the World received them and then they and their Disciples turned against the Saints and they held Truth in Words and the Form for a wile but it was in Unrighteousness and here was the beginners and the beginning of the Apostates and of the Apostacy it was began in the Apostles dayes by them that went out of the Truth out of the Light and were ravened from the Spirit and erred from the Faith and were Enemies to the Power of God and these were the beginners and the Layers of the Foundation and then it grew that root of Wickedness faster then the Truth for the Jews resisted and the Heathens resisted and the Apostates and false Prophets resisted and they that were Apostatized they resisted and they caused many to Stumble to Err to make Ship-wrack of their Faith and so the World went after them the World the Nations the Kindreds the Tongues and the People went after Kings Princes and Potentates of the Earth and in process of time they had over-run all and Killed the Saints the Woman fled into the Wilderness and the man-Child was caught up unto God then all Nations who were gone from the Rock became as a Sea reeled to and fro Unstable Unsetled what were they like to settle in the Sea then a great beast arose with his seven Heads and ten Horns and the Whore which had Defiled the bed and She sat upon the Beast and She reached out her Cup of Fornication to the Nations and all Nations were Drunk with her Cup and then the Beast made War and the Nations were Drunk and they loved the beast and received his Mark became Cruel and pushed at the Saints and followed him and made War with them and the Whore she drank the blood of the Saints and the Dragon appeared and with his Tayl drew the third part of the Stars after him to the Earth the false Prophets they are the Tail of the Dragon who were gone from the Testimony of Jesus the Spirit of Prophecy and drew after it the third part of the Stars from the Firmament of his Power into the Earth Rev. 12.4 The man Child was caught up unto God which was to rule all Nations with a Rod of Iron and the Woman fled into the Wilderness where God hath prepared a place for her and then the Dragon went out and made War with the Remnant of her Seed to wit the Woman's Seed And so out of the Sea arose the Beast out of Nations Kindreds Tongues and Peoples which are Waters and the Dragon gave Power to the Beast and his Seat and great Authority Rev. 13.2 And all the World wondered after the beast ver 3. and ver 4. They Worshipped the Dragon which gave Power to the beast and the beast likewise and now the world cryed which wondered after the beast who is able to make War with the beast and ver 6. He opened his Mouth in Blasphemy against God to blaspheme hâ—s Name and Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven and he made War with the Saints and did overcome them and all that dwelt upon the Earth worshipped him whose Names were not written in the Lamb's Book of Life And the Beast deceived the Nations and them that dwelt on the Earth and now Kindreds Tongues People and Nations and all the World which wondered after him they who had lost the Image of God now became the Image of the Beast that blasphemed God and his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven and now the Kings of the Earth that had drunk the Whore's Cup of Fornication and the Nations Kindreds Tongues and People who were become the Beast's Image now the Image of the Beast spoak and caused as many as would not worship the Beast and the Image should be killed take notice of that all who are called Christians it was not Godâ—s Images who compelled to worship or else be killed but it was the Beasts Image and wheresoever Compulsion â—nd killing is exercised and practised they worship the Beast Chap. 13. Ver. 16. And he causeth all both small and great rich and poor bond and free to receive a Mark in their Forehead or in their right Hand and none might buy or sell but he which had the Beast's Mark or his Name or the Number of his Name
the Whore hath decked her self with and Life it shall be known in the Body and God enjoyed worshipped glorified and honoured in that which shall never alter but abides forever and this shall be and is the last Ministration that ever shall appear among the Sons of men We who are come out of the Apostacy know what was before and see what shall be after the everlasting Gospel of the Son of God shall be Preached again to them that dwell on the Earth the same that was preached to Abraham before either old or new Testament was written the latâ—er all Sects since the Apostacy call the Gospel and so greatly manifest their Ignorance for that were to make two Gospels to call the Scriptures the Gospel or that which is written and they who so err in their Judgments are yet among the Smoke of the Pit and are yet under Anti-christ's reign and are ignorant of him who is the saving health of the Nations And he living Infallible true lasting and everlasting Spirit of the Father shall be poured out again and many now witness it and a numberless number shall witness it and the Time hastens And the Lamb shall stand upon Mount Sion and many who are redeemed from the Earth and from among men which shall be the first Fruits unto God and to the Lamb and they shall sit with him and shall Reign with him and have Power over Sin Temptation and the Devil Hell and the Lake and this is to come to pass and is coming to pass and hastens greatly and the Voice out of Heaven shall be heard as the Voice of many Waters and the Voice of Harpers harping with their Harps and the new song shall be sung the pure Song of the Lamb shall be sung by all who are redeemed from the Earth in every Nation Kindred Tongue and People who have heard believed and received the joyful Sound of the everlasting Gospel again and now they shall fear God and Glorifie him and Honour him even they who have feared the Beast and glorified him in the Apostacy they shall deny his Power and own the Lamb's Power and Worship him that sits upon the Throne of Righteousness who lives forever and ever and is eternal Life it self the worship shall be now in Spirit and Truth where the Dragon cannot come neither the Beast Harlot false Prophet nor Anti-christ nor none of his followers can come and herein the Ministration shall be more Glorious after the Apostacy then it was before the Worship stood before in many outward Visible things and Representations and outward Performances and Ordinances and I manifestly say the Dragon Beast Whore and false Prophets and Apostates took up these things and Nations and Kindreds and Tongues and People who drunk of the Whore's cup and all that were gone from their Maker their Husband they have been and are acting and performing Imitating like Jannes and Jambres but since the dayes of the Apostles they corrupted these things and have made Idols of them and Painted themselves with them and have got the Sheeps Cloathing Therefore now will the Lord appear and manifest his Power Life and Glory in a way more invisible and pure then before and more divine Caelestial and Glorious where never an Hypocrite shall tread in the Path and so the restoration is a Mystery that shall be after the Apostacy the Glory is not to appear in external things for there the Mother of Harlots hath hid her self long which hath made all Nations Drunk but the Cloathing of the Lamb's wife and of the Bride shall be another thing then the attire of the Harlot for the Spouse of the Lamb shall be arrayed in the same attire that the Lamb is cloathed withall and with the same Vestment and the Tabernacle of God is to be with men and he shall dwell in them even the Lord that Spirit and shall walk in them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and in them and Sorrow shall be done away and Tears wiped away and that done away which was the cause of Sorrow Rev. 21.3 and 4. and there shall be no more Death nor crying nor any more Pain for the former things are passed away to wit Death which entred in by Sin it shall be destroyed and the Earth out of which the second Beast arose and the Sea out of which the first Beast did arise and upon which the Whore sate and Hell and the Lake which was prepared and raised up when man was degenerated from the Lord they shall be Destroyed and he also which hath the Power of Death which is the Devil he shall be destroyed and his Works the cause of scorn and then they shall see the Lord face to face even them that have but seen him darkly as in a Glass or as in a Cloud they shall see his pure living countenance which giveth Life and Death and Hell shall be cast in the Lake of Fire and whosoever is not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life must be cast into the Fire Then the new Heaven and Earth shall be seen and the heavenly City which shall come down from God out of Heaven which no mortal Eye shall behold neither shall be able to behold which hath twelve Foundations and twelve Gates and the Glory of God shall be upon her and her Light shall be as a Stone most precious and as clear as Crystal yea all things visible are too short and not to be compared to it for in it there need neither Sun nor Moon to shine in it for the glory of the Lord shall lighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof and all who have been partakers of this Glorious Ministration shall walk in the Light of the Lamb there shall be no Night nor the least appearance of a Cloud or Darkness but transparent Brightness and Glory which shall be permanent durable and everlasting for the Lord God and the Lamb is the Temple of the City in which the Saints shall Worship him that sits upon the Throne for evermore and shall give unto him Glory and Honour and Dominion and eternal Praises for evermore who alone is worthy who lives forever in eternal Glory and everlasting Light and Brightness for evermore And his Face shall be seen in whom all Figures Representations and Shadows end in and the pure River of Water of Life which is as clear as Crystal which proceeds out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb and all who have kept the Word of his Patience shall drink thereof and be nourished up in Immortality and Life everlasting forever and the Tree of Life that stands in the Paradise of God them that have overcome shall eat thereof and live forever and the Nations Kindreds Tongues People and Regions who have heard believed and received the everlasting Gospel shall know his Saving Health and the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be seen and his Servants shall serve him who
else according to those 〈◊〉 which hath been made in the Will of man in the Trangression under which we have suffered for the Truth 's sake and therein have peace And as for Ministers bringing Offenders before Magistrates that is an usurped Authority to make a Minister a Magistrate but Edward what was the offence because a company of People came to Cressage and declared the Word of Truth in your Streets and what if it had been in your Assembly this was no offence in the Church of Corinth where all might speak one by one although it 's become an Offence in your Mass-house at Cressage but the Reader may judge in whose steps thou and thy Priest walkes you have done the offence and then accuseth others to the Magistrates as Offenders Let shame cover your Lips you Impudent men Hath not Samuel Smith in his own Narration in his Book said that William Parrat Constable and Humphry Daile Church-warden according to the Ministers direction did pull down the Quakers Speaker charging some to secure him And others also of your own County secured by the Instigation of the Priest by his own Confession in the fourth page of his Book And here he and the rest of the Society at Cressage who had a Hand in this â—hing are manifest to be in the steps of the Pharisees whom Christ cryed Wo against which cast out of their Assemblies and haled the Disciples before the Magistrates and like the Envyous Jews that cryed Help men of Israel for these men turn the World up-side down but you are worse then they The Priest was the first fomenter of the Breach of the Peace the Constable and Church-warden his Executioners and yet thou tells of the Quakers being offenders Now all sober People will see your Envy and Decâ—it and that you are in Cain's way and by your false flattery and Deceit would justifie the Magistrate for your own ends and cause them to turn the Sword against the Guiltless which should be against the Transgressor And who was in the Transgression the Reader may easily judge by that which is forementioned and yet the Priest and you of his Congregation would make People believe that you did not Persecute the Priest did give order to pull down the Speaker the Constable and Church-warden they acted and secured your own Neighbours as Prisoners your own Congregation Swearing against them the breach of the Peace and getting them shut up into Prison and Sentence given against them and yet thou wouldst have this called equal proceedings but to that of God in all Consciences I leave to be Judge in this thing In the fourth and fifth Particular thou saist We have charged to be Envious and Bitter and Malicious against the most eminent Ministers of the Land Them whom thou calls eminent Ministers have charged us with many false things and have written many false things against us for which thou and they in the Dreadful day of the Lord shall give an account Envy Bitterness and malice is put away from us and we Envy no man but speak the Truth in Soberness and yet to say a lyar is a Lyar or a Deceiver a Deceiver or an hypocrite an Hypocrite when they are so is neither Railing nor Malice Christ in whom no Guile was found he said They were a Generation of Vipers and they were of their Father the Devil who were in Envy and went about to Kill him And the Apostle was not envious when he said O full of all Subtilty thou child of the Devil to one who was doing the Work of the Devil and many such workers we find and many Venomous Spirits who shoot out poysoned Arrows even bitter Words and these we must reprove sharply And those things which thou layest to our charge take to thy self for the ground of Iniquity is in thy Heart from whence thou hast uttered forth all these Disdainful Proud and Scornful words of which thou shalt be Convinced and also reproved when the Lord searcheth thy Heart when he brings Anguish and Perplexity upon thee then shalt thou confess to his righteous Judgment and so thy five Principles I have answered which thou sayest thou hast brought into thy Book to fill up the Blancks they had better have been blancks still then have spoiled so much Paper with thy Lying Disdainful Scribles which are not worth the answering In the third page thou saist Thou wilt restate the reputation of the Ministry of England to be Minister of Christ And for proof thou hast brought Col. 1.7 and Rom. 15. Those words prove that Epaphras was a faithful Minister and that Paul was a Minister of Christ to the Gentiles but what hath this proved as to the National Priests nothing at all and if thou hast no better proof then this to bring them into Reputation instead thereof thou wilt bring defamation upon them and when thou shouldst prove them Ministers thou provest that Paul and Epaphras were Ministers will not the least in the Truth see thee to be a busy-body but Fools will be medling Then thou art offended that we call them Priests for receiving of Tythes I say it 's the most proper for none but Priests and Levites did receive Tythes and how long since is it since they generally called themselves the Tribe of Levi For never Minister of the Gospel nor of the word of Reconciliation either received Tythes or commanded that they should be payed neither reproved any for not paying but said the Priest-hood was changed and the Law was changed by which Tythes were due but thou goest on and makest a sound Argument as thou judgest and sayst Abraham paid Tythes to Melchisedeck before the Law And thou askest how he did give it either by the Law of Nature which is called the Law of Reason or by the Light within or by Revelation Thou speakest thou knowst not what where readest thou of the Law of Nature called the Law of Reason except it be in the devised Fables and Stories of the Priests But what doth this prove Gen. 14. Abraham gave the tenth part of the Spoil which he had taken from his Enemies but Melchisedeck first brought forth Bread and Wine to Abraham and his company and greeted Abraham and his company Kindly and Blessed him and Abraham freely gave unto him the tenth part Melchisedeck desired none But dost thou judge that if Abraham had given him none that he would have taken by Force the tenth part of the Spoil from him Now what doth this prove for the Tything-Priests of this Nation they must first do as Melchisedeck did if they will have Melchisedeck for an Example he Blessed Abraham and brought forth Bread and Wine unto him and his Army but which of the Priests have done so which have received Tythes which is not a gift of the People but a forced thing from them If this must be thy proof for Tythes by the gift of Abraham then let the Priests cease forcing and taking them till People be
them your Original Rev. 14.6 XIX What is the false Prophet and Anti-christ inwardly ravened from and what is the Sheeps Clothing that they wore Mat. 7.15 XX. What is the Anointing in People to teach them that they need not any Man to teach them but as it teacheth them spoken of in the first Epistle of John 2.20 27. XXI What is the Light that shines in the Heart that gives People the Knowledge of God in the Face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 XXII Is any a true Christian but who hath the Law of God in his Mind and in his Heart and need not say to one another know the Lord was not this that that differed from the Jews who had the Law without them have any of these Talkers of Christ the Apostles Words Makers of Trades of them Life except they eat his Flesh and drink his Blood have ye eaten thâ—t and doth any Man eat that that doth deny the Light that hath enlightened every Man that comes into the World Heb. 8.10 11. John 6.53 54 55. XXIII Were not the Steeple-houses which ye call the Churches or Temples the old Mass-houses which ye creep into yea ar nay XXIV Was Ezra's Pulpit set up in the Temple and Synagogue ye or nay or set up in the Street before the Water-gate and how many might stand upon it and whether it was like yours yea or nay Nehem. 8.3 4. XXV And were not your Colledges set up by the Papists to make Ministers by and whether your Colledges and Steeple-houses have not the Papists Names to them and were not the Jesuites the Tribe of Black-coats whether ever yea or nay thou hast deserted at all the Habit wherewith thou wert dâ—stinguished XXVI Whether dost thou own and believe that Christ doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World yea or nay John 1.9 XXVII Whether ever any Minister of Christ did imprison any for Maintenance but on the contrary they should covet no Man's SILVER and they that were covetous crept into Houses had the FORM and denyed the POVVER whether or no they were not to be turned away from 2 Tim. 3.5 6. XXVIII And whether or no they are Ministers of Christ that swear seeing Christ saith Swear not AT ALL and James saith Above all things my Brethren swear not and whether or no they are not false Brethren that do SWEAR that fall into the Condemnation James 5.12 Matthew 5.34 XXIX Whether ever any Minister of Christ imprisoned for Tythes seeing Christ saith Freely ye have received freely give and whether ever any Minister of Christ runs to the Powers of the Earth for Maintenance seeing the Apostle saith He that feeds the Flock shall eat of the Milk whether these Things be the Fruits of the Spirit in suing men for Tythes and Maintenance they do no VVork for and if so shew the Example by Scripture if not are they not to be turned away from 1 Cor. 9.7 XXX Whether any of the Disciples of Christ carried Bag but Judas the Thief and Betrayer of the Just John 2.6 THE Mouth of the Pit STOPPED AND THE SMOAK That hath arisen out of it SCATTERED BY THE Breath of Truth IN Answer to a lying Story called Hell broken loose or the History of the Quakers published by Thomas Vnderhil a Seller of the Whore's Merchandize otherwise called a Book-seller His Lyes returned upon him his Accusations answered and his Envy declared and Truth cleared from all his Reproaches By one that waits to see Death and Hell cast into the Lake of Fire with the Beast and the false Prophet F. H. THE EPISTLE· Thomas Underhil THou Seeds-man of Lyes and Slanders and false Reports whose Hell is broken loose and is spreading where the Banks are not set nor the Bounds and thy greatest Madness and Rage is at them that tremble at the Word of God and work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling and thy Lyes and Slanders and false Reports we understand are set on Sale in such a Man's Shop to get Gain upon the Innocent and the Ground is seen and the Earth in which thou may'st sow thy evil Seed and thy Lyes Slanders and false Reports who art a Man fitted whom the Devil hath found out to go on in his Will and to do his Work for a long Time hath he been fitting of thee and for a long Time hath the Seed been sown in thee and now it is growing and buds forth and Hell is broken loose but thou art taken and the Hell who art the Seeds man of the Devil that sows Lyes the Prince of Death but all is and shall be taken and cast into the Lake of Fire the Hell the Devil the Author of thy Work and thou except thou speedily repent Was there ever such Thing heard or seen that Thomas Underhil should gather up Lyes Slanders and false Reports and set them to Sale at the Star in Pauls Church-yard as he calls it There is a Refuge of Lyes of his for any to shelter under that are given up to believe Lyes but that will not save you from the Storm nor the Wrath of the Almighty but the Beesome is witnessed that sweeps all the Refuge of Lyes into the Fire and brings the Lyar to Judgment and thou wilt become a Shame and a Stink to all modest and sober People the Witness in thy own Conscience shall witness it And dost thou think that the Nations of England Scotland and Ireland do not begin to see your Priests and such as thee that hold them up and such as thee callest Converts What a Stink and a nasty Smell there is in your Streets in your Towns in your Steeple-houses as though you had never heard Talk of God and Christ your Natures are so unchanged and your Priests haling up and down to Courts and Assizes and cast into Prison till Death for their Bellies and their Mouths such they do no Work for your Prisoning and Persecuting for not swearing to the Priests Bill and the Priests rude Miltitude breaking the Windows breaking up Meetings and breaking the Heads of People the Servants and Messengers of the Lord that you are almost become like a Field of Blood whipping such as warn you to repent and here Hell hath been broken looâ—e and thou art a Seeds-man of him that is out of the Truth who art an Encourager with thy Lyes and Slanders of these Persecutors but thy own Words shall be thy Burthen G. F. THE Mouth of the Pit STOPPED AND THE SMOAK That hath arisen out of it SCATTERED BY THE Breath of Truth IT is written He that watcheth for Iniquity shall be cut off and the Wicked shall come to an End although the Long-suffering of the Lord be great who waiteth that Men might return and cease to work Iniquity and to strive against his Holy Spirit by which he reproveth the World of Sin and the wicked of their Transgressions and to this End hath he given a Measure of his Spirit to every Man though
it self and thou may'st as well count the rule of the Sons of God Heterodox and Heretical and the Apostles Position who said as many as are the Sons of God are led by it and Christ promised unto Believers the Spirit of Truth to lead them into all Truth and to bring things to their remembrance and to guide them in the Path of Righteousness what has Envy and Madness eaten all the good out of your Hearts yet the Scripture is not so excluded by us as thou Judgest though we say the Spirit may lead and direct with it or without it yet not contrary to it for the Spirit doth will and may take up what thing it pleaseth to manifest it self and its mind unto the Creature and who art thou and what art thou any thing but an Egyptian who wouldst limit it and tie it to Paper and Ink to words and Syllables sounded and written in diverse Tongues Languages and Characters they that appointed thee for a Minister never knew God's Work and we know that there are several Ministrations and several Operations yet the same God and the same Spirit who manifested it self and formeth and Ordaineth things according to its Heavenly will to represent its Heavenly mind to the Creature and that which Christ hath Ordained and Instituted to be Worshipped in waited in and his presence seen in and the Operation of the Spirit of Grace in the work of the Ministry which is for Conversion and Edification is dearly owned by us as that whereby we have found the Lord and his pure Presence through this or that thing and without and beyond all Creatures or visible Appearances and this is not accounted Idolatry by us as thou falsly say'st which God will Judge thee for in the day when he appears to take Vengeance upon his Enemies in flames of Fire and thou that talkes of trying the Spirit by the Letter knowest no more of God then a Horse but what thou knowest naturally the Jews had it and they tryed and Condemned him for a Blasphemer and the Apostles for breakers of the Law and makers of it void and so condemned the Lord of Life and the Spirit by which the Prophets and Apostles were led even as thou dost with us and I never heard of any Political order of Church Ordinance or Officers or Ordinances not of the most dark and Sottishest Merchants of Babylon that ever spoke or wrote yet there was sundry Gifts given and sundry Institutions in the Primitive times which were single things of things of a more Heavenly and Coelestial Nature which were to be made manifest He gave some gifts to be Prophets some Evangelists some Apostles some Pastors some Teachers but these were Ministerial for the Work and Service which he had appointed but this was all by one and the same Spirit but I never heard of any Political order of the Officers or Political Ordinances ordained in the Primitive Churches but it seems you have got such in New-England in the Church of Rome so called I have heard of the order of Benedict of Francis and Austin and the like and of several Ordinances Instituted by their Mother to perform but I never heard of any such as a Political order of Officers and Ordinances before and this may be called an Image indeed and nothing in the world but deceit and is no Heâ—rodoxy that ever such a Blind fellow as thou should put Pen to Paper who hast crept so into the Mudd and Dirt that gross Ignorance and Darkness is in all thy words But the least of the Children of Light will see thy Ignorance so that I need not say much Concerning the Magistrate they own none are lawful Magistrates who are not of their Way their non-acknowledgement of the Magistrate as now established in all Christian States is more then manifest Answ. If thy Aspersion were full proof no more need be said but the Judicious will not easily believe thee that there is a State of Magistracy is granted by us and that a true Magistrate that Rules well and Rules in the Power of God and is a Terror to evil-doers and a Praise to them that do well and are as nursing Fathers who preserve mens Persons and Estates from devourers as a Father preserves a Child from injury these are Ordained of God and such we are subject unto for the Lord's sake and for Conscience sake and to every Ordinance of man which is consistent with the Honour of God and a pure Conscience but I believe you have few of them in New-England who are rather like Bears and Lyons tearing and rending their Estates and rend and Tear their Flesh and gnaw it like evening Wolves that the Prophet speaks of and wouldst thou have this counted as God's Authority and we tell thee and all the World in singleness of Heart and unfeignedness that our way is Christ the way to the Father the Truth and the Life the Power of God and the Wisdom of God and all that Rule not in his Power Rule in the Devil's Power in the Dragon's Power in the Beast's power who made War with the Lamb and killed the Saints and compelled them to Worship and herein they that Rule in the Power of God and for God are manifest and them that rule in the Dragon and Beast's power for they that Rule in the Power of God answer God's witness in every man and reach to that by his Act of Justice in the Transgressor and he restraineth the Evil-doer within and limiteth that and preserves the Creature as much as in him lies from harm and his Estate from destruction and also saveth the Innocent Meck and Harmless from the violence and from beating and fighting and from them that would Destroy their Persons and Estates and herein the Magistrate that Rules in the Dragon's Power and in the Beast's power he is also made manifest he reacheth not God's witness by his Governing he lets the Transgressor live and is not a Terror to evil Works and workers but a Terrour to them that do well exercise a pure Conscience towards God and man and it may be cannot go into the House of Rimmon neither can bow to Baal nor be subject to that which another may set up in his will and in his Pride then he afflicts the Body the Creature and mars God's workmanship and defaces it and doth Violence to the Creature and rends away his outward substance and saith for his Authority It was so ordered at our General Court I must tell the the false Church the Mother of Harlots has ridden long upon the Scarlet-coloured Beast which has been made drunk with the Blood of the Saints whose Garments have been red with Scarlet colour and I know no where in any Christian State so called where he reigns in more Power then in New-England and you ride upon the Beast which hath risen out of the Sea which is amongst you and the Beast carries you your Church on his back bears it
sure Word of Prophecy here is to be understood first a sure Word secondly a more sure Word for the Apostle in that Chapter speaking of their Diligence towards them that did believe and declared unto them That they had not followed devised Fables when we made known unto you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but are Eye-Witnesses of his Majesty verse 16. and heard the Voice from this excellent Glory this is my beloved Son in â—hâ—m I am well-pleased when we were with him in the Mount This was as sure a Word to the Apostles as any that ever the Prophets had spoken before was to them so the Old Testament could not be more sure then this which they heard from the excellent Glory but this was not so sure unto them to whom Peter wrote and this was only the Apostles Declaration but the Word of Prophecy unto which he exhorted them was nearer then any of the Prophets Words or the Apostles Testimony of what they heard in the Mount the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prâ—phecy to wit that which bears witness against Sin and to Righteousness from this the Prophets spoke and this was that publick Thing or Spirit and they that speak not from it speak from a private Spirit of their own and this Word of Prophecy or that wherein they could see or foresee Things to come they were to take heed unto as unto a Light which shined in a dark Place and this was the more sure Word which he directed to which in all thy Book thou quarrelest against and through this they saw the Apppearance and knew the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in Power and great Glory and did see the Day dawn and the Day-star arise in their Hearts and they were to attend to this not only before but also after for by the Word of his Testimony the Saints did overcome And so all thy Interpretations are false and thine is the private Interpretation and not from that sure word of Prophecy which the Prophets and Believers took heed unto and through which they interpreted Things truly according to the Mind of God As for the Story of false Teachers arising and prevailing among People and what the signal Nature is and thou say'st They are sent as Scourges and as Judgments to them who have not received the Truth in the Love of it and thou bringest a Scripture I came in my Father's Name and ye received me not John 5. but if another shall come in his own Name him you will receive It 's manifest that thou comest not in his Name nor in Christ's Name and if not so in thy own Name thou comest by the Appointment of the General Court at Boston and so there will few believe thy fabulous Stories which are not worth rehearsing which will cast a Mist before the Eyes of them who cannot see through thy Deceit and the Sum is thou say'st of all that the Doctrines of Devils audaciously disseminated pretending themselves to be sent of God are signal Signs of evil Times The Doctrines of Devils have long been audaciously seminated by numerous false Teachers and false Prophets as Christ foretold in Mat. 23. 24. which John saw come 1 John 2.18 Little Children it is the last Time ye have heard that Anti-christs should come and even now there are many and they have ruled long in most Parts of the Earth that John said The whole World wondered after the Beast and this hath been a sad Time these thirteen or fourteen Hundred Years wherein the true Church the Woman cloathed with the Sun hath been in the Wilderness in a solitary Place exiled because of the Beast's Power and the Dragon's Power and the false Prophets Miracles and because of the Doctrines of Devils have made it a sad Time and an evil Time such as thou hast taught viz. That the Light which every Man is lighted with is gross Darkness and worse then gross Darkness and that Christ left Political Officers and â—hat the Lord's Supper 〈◊〉 a visiâ—le Political Church Ordinance and that Baptism is a visiâ—le Political Church-Ordinance and that it is Blasphemy to hold Perfection â—f Degrees in thâ—s Life and that none can be cleansed from Sin while upon Earth These and the like Doctrines of Devils have been sown which thou now audaciously seminates by the Appointment of the General Court at Boston but the Time draws near an End the Night is far spent and the Day is at Hand when the Beast shall be taken alive and the old Dragon laid hold on and the Mother of Harlots burned with Fire and the false Prophets which have wrought Miracles before the Beast and have cryed as thou cryest him up in New-England Who is able to make War with him who hath shed the Blood of the Saints of the most high God which will lye as a Stain upon your Political Church as thou callest it which will not easily be washed away the Time of your Mirth in Sodom Egypt is near an End though you strengthen one another and make merry yet Wo will come when all these before-mentioned go down alive into the Pit together and when the Sea is dryed up that your Traffick will not go off then Alas shall be the Note of her Merchants who have traded with her Sorceries and Witchcrafts and have made People drunk that they have reeled and staggered and have been all like a Sea unstable and have not known the Rock of Ages upon whom all that do believe are established Thou say'st The Gospel is a Constitution or Effeâ—t tempered of the Grace of God and of the Blood of Christ. Answ. The Gospel thou knowest not but buildest with thy untempered Morter and unseasonable VVords and what is the Gospel an Effect of it is not only an Effect of an Operation but it is that which operates and is the Power of God which will confound all this Mud and all these 〈…〉 dy Traditions which you mix with the Scriptures and call them Goâ—pel And now thou comest to the destructiveness of the Doctrine of the Quakers to Religion the Churches of Christ and Christian States because thou say'st It appears in this from the Nature of the Oâ—ject they single out to fight against as the Trinity Christ the Scripture Order â—oth Civil and Ecclesiastical as instituted in the Gospel As to those Principles I have answered before in part but dost thou tell of Civil Order in your State or in your Political Church as thou callest it is that to be counted a Civil State who destroyes the Creatures God's VVorkmanship and destroyes Mens Estates and sells their free-born Children as Bond-slaves dost thou judge that these Rule well according to the Appointment of God who is a Terror to them that do well and an Encourager of Violence and Cruelty as your late Actions have sufficiently evinced And as for the Order of your Political Church we have heard of it that you are as
Doctrine and further say'st Charity though shooting at Random cannot miss the right Mark Answ. It is one thing what God accounteth true Honour it is another thing what R. I. counteth Honour True Honour is to obey the Commands of Superiours who rule in the Power of God and this the Quakers do submitting to all the just and equal Commands which are required of them that rule in the Power of God and this is not to blaspheme the Name of God and his Doctrine but this Fellow would have accused the Apostles as his Generation did who put them out of the Cities charging them to speak no more in the Name of Jesus and then when the Apostles return'd plead their Authority saying Did not we command you to speak no more in his Name and now you are disobedient blaspheming the Name of God and his Doctrine Is this Good Reasoning R. I. And Charity shoots not at random neither misses the Mark but it is pure and singles out its Obâ—ect to joyn unto and joyns not unto Deceit but this is R. I. his Charity to think well of them that are doing Evil and joyn to them who are doing the Devil's Work but this Man honours Charity as he doth the Scriptures he saith Charity shoots at random and the Scriptures are the true Cards as hereafter thou shalt see And saith R. I. F. H. labours to disgrace if not to deface our Churches he like a cunning Gamster knows how to alter the Course of true Cards the Scripture as R. I calls them Answ. Because F. H. would have them to take away their Crosses and Pictures and Images which were set up in the time of gross Idolâ—try this R. I. counts graces and adorns their Churches and so he is joyned to Idols I shall let him alone and the Reader may see how R. I. honours the Scriptures when in one Place he pleads for the same Titles to be given unto them which are given to God and saith No Man can dâ—shonour Christ by giving as honoura le Titles to the Scriptures as to God or Christ then by his own Argument he hath brought a great Dishonour to God and Christ and the Scripture by giving them so base a Title as the Name of Cards and so in going about to exalt his own Imaginations he hath vilified the Scriptures of Truth And saith R. I. To call Steeple-houses Churches is no Addition to the Scripture but a true Exposition thereof and what if there be some Reliques of Idolatry in our material Temples is there are some Reliques of Sin in our living Temples 〈◊〉 they therefore be called Idol-Temples Answ. The Temple in which the Jews worshipped was builded by the Command of God which all these Steeple houses cannot be compared unto which were invented and set up in the Apostacy since Men have departed from the Faith and ruined into Formalities and Idolatry when Christ was offered up the everlasting Offering them that did believe in Christ â—eparated from the Temple and the Gentiles who believed separated from their Idols Temples and they met together in Houses which we do not read of were filled with Pictures Images and Crosses and Steeple-houses were not then invented and the Council of Nice divers hundred Years after the Apostles decreed that Images and Crosses were to be placed in the Churches and also worshipped and there is the Original of those things which R.I. saith do grace and adorn their Church And if some of the reliques of Idolatry do abide in your Temples then it demonstrates that you are in the same Spirit they were that set them up And if your Temples take their Denomination from the People that meet therein as R. I. saith in page 32. then they may be truly called Popish Houses and Mass-houses from the People that meet therein and if the reliques of Sin abide in your living Temples and bear rule there then they that defile the Temple will God destroy for Holiness becomes the Habitation of his Hâ—use forever and 1 Kings 8.11 will be but a bad Proof for thee For the Glory of the Lord shall fill the House of the Lord for that is the Temple blind man which was commanded by God and the Glory of God did appear there but if this will not serve we must have another Proof Psal. 76.2 In Salem is his Tabernacle and his dwelling-place in Sion which may be understood allegorically of our Temple saith R. I. Doth the Glory of the Lord fill your Mass-houses you glory in Deceit and in Pride and your Glorying is not good and thy Allegory is false though his Tabernacle was in Salem and his Dwelling in Sion and his Presence in the Temple is yours the Temple or Salem or Sion or the Tabernacle if not for Shame pervert not the Scripture nor bring it to cover your idolatrous Practices which R. I. pleads for and saith Images Pictures and Crosses may be continued in some Places and it is like R.I. would count it Sacriledge to take them away he is far from the Exhortation of the Apostle Abstain from every Appearance of Evil and hate the Garment that is spotted with the Flesh. And R.I. saith I plead not for Baal nor for proud phantastick Spirits and yet a little while after saith that putting off Lace Ribbons and costly Apparel may be putting on of Pride Now who will believe this R.I. that he pleads not for Baal when he pleads for Pictures Crosses and Images for Cuffs Ribbonds Lace and costly Apparel Now Reader thou may'st observe by R.I. his Decorum how the Wheels go within And further R. I. saith It is utterly unlawful for any Christian whatsoever gifted or not gifted to preach the Word in the Name of the Lord before the Church publickly assembled unless they be ordained and set apart by the Church for such a Work Answ. this man is far from Moses's Spirit who wished that all the Lord's People were Prophets and would not forbid Eldad and Medad to prophesie in the Camp which was a publick Assembly and Israel then the Church of God and R. I. hath made too hasty a Conclusion who would prohibit all from speaking the Word of God if they wanted outward Ordination then Paul was a great Transgressor who consulted not with Flesh and Blood neither with any other of the Brethren nor went not up to Jerusalem for Orâ—ination but preached three years the Word of God and then afterward went up to Jerusalem and saw none except Peter and James and no Ordaination as we read of and afetrward went into Syrâ—a and Cilicia and furthermore saith he that was not known by Face to the Churches of Judea So who ordained him all this time for there were no Churches of the Gentiles but what he had planted then and so they could not ordain him Gal. 1.17 18 19 21 22. And who ordained Apollo but it may be that R. I. will say that Paul was ordained at Antioch Acts 12.2 but I would have R. I. to
understand that here was seventeen years that he preached publickly before that and where was his Ordination Many of the Brethren who were scattered abroad in the Persecution that was at Jerusalem went every where preaching the Word of God and when or where were these ordained And who ordained the Brethren that were persecuted after Steven's being put to death who travailed as far as Phenicia and Cyprus and Antioch preaching the Word and the Hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and were turned unto the Lord Acts 11.19 20 21. yet these things I bring not as to deny but that many went out with the consent of the Church and many were ordained and many were ordained Elders who were grown up in the Truth and established who had received the holy Ghost by whom many were confirmed and strengthned in the Faith but what is all this R. I. to your Ordination and who ordained you the Pope a Bishop or a Council or a Parliament and what are they you ordain Such as learn the Art of Speech seven years at Oxford who have read Homer and Aristotle Plato and Diogenes and learn to play on a Fiddle these are no Mechanicks but gifted Men indeed and qualified and fit to be ordained and made Ministers Pastors and Elders to carry abroad the Traffick of Mystery-Babylon but this R. I. is very peremptory and saith it is utterly unlawful for any that are gifted to preach the Word contrary to the Apostle's Doctrine who saith as every one hath received the Gift so let him administer and not such as R. I. would have to be Ministers who have learned an Art to speak and this must be called a Gift and a Qualification and a fit Man to be a Pastor and thus they have ordained one another and have set up a Trade of preaching and with their confused Stories have filled the World with Darkness And as concerning an infallible Spirit saith R. I. None except Christ who was without sin can challenge it or lay claim to it and I may say of such Runnagates and wandering Stars as this F. H. and the Quakers are as John did 1 John 2.9 They are gone out from us because they were not of us Answ. However this R. I. hath cleared himself and the rest of his Brethren for being Ministers of Christ for they do not only deny an infallible Spirit neither look to be made Partakers thereof but quite shut out all the Saints from enjoying it and though in Christ the fulness of the Godhead dwelt who was full of Grace and Truth he is the Root from whence all that believe come to be made partakers of his Virtue and so many of his Members may lay claim to it as they have received it by a free Gift according to the Promise of Christ I will send you the Spirit of Truth whâ—ch shall lead you into all Truth and the Apostle had received the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus who had freed him from the Law of Sin and Death and the Sons of God had received it and they were led by it and the Ministers of Christ were made Ministers of it who hath made us able Ministers as it is written not of the Letter but of the Spirit and that Spirit was infallible and true and that Spirit which they declared of was an unerring Spirit and as they were led by it they erred not but were kept by it that the Evil one touched them not and they spoke from it and ordered the Church in it in the wisdom of God But what do these Men minister from who wait not to be made Partakers of this but deny that ever any had it or ever shall have so are but a company of Dreamers and tell their dream that they dreamed in the Night or at best steal the Words from their Neighbour and say Thus saith the Lord when God hath never spoken to them And though thou mayest say we are Runnagates because we sit not dreaming over thirty or forty Families twenty years but travail from City from Country to Country to publish the Word of Truth freely as the Apostles Ministers of Christ did we must by such as this R. I. and his Brethren who have gotten Holes and Nests in the Earth to creep into be counted as Runnagates though John said They are gone out from us because they were not of us this he spoke of them who went out of the Light in which he and the rest of the Disciples had Fellowship with God and one with another and they that went out from this went into the Spirit of the World and you are such as they that are gone out already and blasphemously call the Light of Christ Ignis fatuâ—â— and so all that fear the Lord will come out from you and out from Babylon where the Blood of the Prophets hath been shed and the Witnesses killed you who deny an infallible Spirit are like to be in blindness and follow the Spirit of Error for you have nought else to cleave unto And further R I. saith when the Lord said by Joel that he would pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh and his Sons and his Daughters should prophesie the Prophet speaks not of a ghostly Power to open the Kingdom of Heaven given by Christ to his Apostles and Successors but of an extraordinary Measure of enlightning Grace and a more copious effusion of the Spirit and also to Pastors to whom more is given more is required and this Text doth not prove that all Sheep shall be Pastors and all Schollars Teachers An. Nay this Text doth not prove all Sheep to be Pastors neither all that are taught to be Teachers for all are not Prophets neither Pastors nor Teachers for as Christ said the Labourers are but few but this Man 's afraid that there should be too many indeed there are too many hireling Loiterers that are ready to supplant one another for filthy Lucre though many may be said to believe yet all have not received the Spirit of prophecy or a Gift to be Pastors but only they to whom it is given of the Lord for the Work sake yet notwithstanding they who have received it ought not to be limited either Son or Daughter for they who do quench the Spirit and dâ—â—pise Prophecy as this R. I. doth and how should he do otherwise seeing he hath denyed the infallible Spirit from which all the Ministers ministred and all the Prophets prohesied and spoke as they were moved by the holy Ghost but R. I. saith the Prophet spoke not of a Ghostly Power to open the Kingdom of Heaven if by ghostly Power he means the Spirit 's Power as I believe he will not deny then was it not by a spiritual Power Sons Daughters prophesied and did not this Power open the Kingdom of Heaven and if it be a more copious Effusion of the Spirit which is given under the Gospel then the Law
the Apostle's Doctrine and so this R. I. is tryed by his own infallible standard to be a Deceiver who teaches contrary to that which he calls his Law and Testimony and the Law which is outward is the Law of the first Covenant which made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better Hope did by which we draw nigh unto God Heb. 7.19 Therefore the Lord sâ—â—d by the Mouth of the Prophet Behold the Dayes come that I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel not according to the Covenant I made with them when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt when I was as a Husband and unto them which Covenant they brake but I will write my Law in their Heart and put my spirit in their inward Parts I will be to them a God and they shall be unto me a People Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.9 10. Now this blind man who gropes as at noon-day saith This is imperfect which is written in the heart and so faulty with him and therefore to be ruled over and the other which is outward is perfect and faultless and so ought to be a rule but saith the Apostle contrary to R. I. If the first covenant had been faultless there had been no place for the second which second the Apostle saith is a better Covenant and stands upon better Promises but yet saith R I. this is not the rule nor fit to be a rule And furthermore the Apostle said as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and this was their Rule and the Law of the Spirit of Life made the Apostle free from the Law of Sin and Death and the new Creatures Rule by which they were led into all Truth and as many as did walk in it out of all Sin But nay saith R. I. It is not fit to be a Rule for this is imperfect and is that thing to be ruled and for his Proof brings Psal. 17.4 By the Word of thy Lips I have kept me frâ—m the Path of the Destroyer and how doth this prove that the Law in the Heart is to be ruled thou ignorant man who utterest forth nothing but Deceit and Error and so the Scriptures declare against thee for they say The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul The Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the Eyes Psal. 19.7 8. For the Commandment is a Lamp and the Law is Light Prov. 6.23 and the Commands of the new Covenant are spiritual and not carnal and they are perfect and fit to be a Rule Guide to all them that believe in a perfect Way and not as this R. I. saith unfit to be a rule because of their imperfection and would in his blind Distinctions cast a mist before Peoples Eyes And all may judge not only of this R. I. his Mistake but of his wilful Impudence in preferring that which is visible and outward and may be seen which was given forth in time viz. the Commands outward and the Letter outward above the Law of the Spirit of Life which is invisible spiritual and eternal And as I said to S. S. so I may say to thee Lean Souls are they like to be who receive such damnable Doctrine as this for Atticles of Faith but however Reader thou mayest take notice of R. I. in his Epistle to the Reader he saith the Quakers Money is counterfeit Coin which he hath nailed on the market-post and instead thereof hath tendred other Money and that thou mayest see what kind of other Money the Priests is and what Image it bears by the Principles here discovered which is altogether Tin and Dross and reprobate Silver which will be received by none but them whom the God of this World hath blinded the Eyes of that they should not see the things that belong unto their Peace And Edward Dod being sensible that he and all his Stuff or he and all his Arguments were carried captive and became a Booty and a Prey he is glad that any will step in and rescue him and flattereth R. I. and saith I am engaged to you to imbrace you as a precious Friend that of so weak Principles as mine have raised so perfect a Structure so absolute rational and demonstrative that more need not to be done Answ. R. I. his Vindication hath not redeemed E. D. his Principles at all but rather hath laboured in vain and spent his Strength for naught and hath brought forth such a Birth as sober men will blush at made up of Ignorance Blasphemy Derision and Lyes which they that have the least Moderation will abhor and detest and the Principles of E. D. and R. I. are not only weak and feeble but wicked and impious as is manifest in what hath been declared and the Structure that R. I. hath made is but builded with untempered Mortar Lyes Falshood Error false Doctrine which the stormy Wind of the Lord will rent and scatter and confound and exalt his Truth above it all But Edward Dod saith What can be said to reduce such a People I know not since so many convincing Arguments cannot prevail alas poor Men whether would you reduce us or bring us back to the slime Pits of Sodom where Edward Dod fell with his Stuff or turn us back again to Images Pictures and Crosses to Mass-houses Hirelings and Tythes to Lace Ribbons and Cuffs which both E. D. and R. I. have strongly pleaded for as faithful Servants to their Master who would not have him loose a Foot of his Territories however Edward Dod hath resolved to continue one in Life and death with R. I. who hath shaken Hands with the Prince of darkness and made a Covenant with death which must be broken and though S. S. E. D. and R. I. joyn Hand in Hand yet the wicked shall not go unpunished fore-very one shall receive a Reward according to their Works And so I have done with R. I. his Book called Ignis fatuus whose Arguments false doctrines errors and lyes are disolved into nothing his 〈◊〉 made void his Ignorance made manifest his false doctrine brought to Light and reproved by the Word of Truth only I shall return him a few of his Lyes back again for him 〈…〉 the second time and repent of them and remember the Sentence for all Lyars is The Lake that burneth Rev. 22.15 First That their Worship differs not in whole nor in Part in Matter nor in Manner from the Churches in the Primitive Times Secondly According to the Scriptures their whole Worship is framed Thirdly That Jezabel was never more madder against the Prophets then these Quakers are against Christ's Ministers Fourthly The Quakers contemn Magistracy and infect the Common-wealth with Faction Fifthly That the Quakers burnt some Houses at Oxford Sixthly That Timothy and Titus were setled in a Parochial Way in their Quarters Seventhly That F. H. complains of the Darkness of the Sun when the Fault is in his own Eyes Eighthly
now mark this that by which the Apostle gathered them from the Jewish Temples and Priest-hood and the Gentiles from their Idols Temples was by the Preaching of the everlasting Gospel to wit not the Law nor the Ordinances of the first Covenant but the Power of God and the word of Reconciliation for the first Covenant of the Jews made not the Comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Neither the Gentiles Idols Temples nor Worships made them perfect as pertaining to the Conscience but rather made them worse and more corrupted Heb. 9.9 But the Preaching and publishing of the Word of Reconciliation that did it was committed to the Disciples it was received and believed in by many both Jews and Gentiles as at Ephesus and elsewhere and they were made a Habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes. 2.22 Now mark this they preached not up the Letâ—er of the Law nor that which was written in Tables of Stone for the first Priest-hood that was ended and the Ministry of that and the Vail was over their Hearts while Moses was read and their ability stood not in the Litteral knowledge or in that which was written But they were able Ministers of the New-Testament of the Spirit and so all that did believe both Jews and Gentiles who received the word of Faith which was nigh in the Mâ—uth and in the Heart Rom. 10.8 they grew up in the Knowledge of God and of his holy Spirit and great Gifts grew amongst them as of Prophecy of speaking with Tongues of Interpretation and there was diversity of gifts and diversity of Operations yet all by the same Spirit which the Apostles were made Ministers of and which they that did believe and receive and received gifts from it and knew the Operation of it which wrought in them mightily to the throwing down the strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 And the principalities and Powers of Darkness and to the Translating and changing of them from Darkness to Light and from Satans Power to the Power of God even into the Kinâ—dom of his dear Son Col. 1.13 And several Congregations in divers Places were all one Body whereof Christ the Life was the Head in which they had believed and of whose Power they had tasted grew up in Knowledge and Wisdom and gifts and the Day of Christ approached which Abraham saw And they exhorted one another and admonished one another and when they met together at several Places every one according to the Gift of God as he had received not from the Letterâ— but from the Spirit did and might administer to the Edification one of another and to the building up and comforting one another in the most holy Faith which gave them Victory over Sin which Faith was wrought in them by hearing of the Word that was nigh them in the Mouth and in the Heart which was the Word of Consolation which was in the Beginning Moreover when they met together they might Prophesie one by one and every one Exercise his own gift to the edification and Comfort of the Body as the Spirit did lead them in Order and if any went out from his Measure he was judged by them that were in the Spirit Furthermore they that had believed the Gospel which was published to them for remission of Sin they grew up into great Enjoyments and Attainments in the righteous Life of Christ which was manifest in them And though first they knew the Ministration of Condemnation and the sentence of Death yet afterwards came to know the Ministration of the Spirit and the sweet Assurance and Testimony of it bearing Witness to the Spirit that they were the Sons of God and they were made Heirs according to the Promise Heb. 6.17 and were made joynt-heirs and co-heirs with Christ in the Kingdom which is Immortal which faâ—es not away and did dome to know Mount Sion and the City of the living God Heb. 12.22 and it were large to speak of the Glory and the Transcendent Excellency of the Church of Christ which became a purchased Possession to him in the Primitive Times or the first hundred Years after the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh. But take notice of this that they that were sent out who had received freely of the Father of Christ and of the Spirit Ministred freely as they had received freely without making any Covenants or enquiries after worldly revenews but went from City to City Preaching the Gâ—spel of Christ freely as they hâ—d received without any conditionâ— frâ—m the People And as many as believed and received the Gospel did Minister freely their Hearts being open unto them who had declared unto them spiritual Things Acts 4.34 Mat. 10.8 c. So that we read of no compulsion or forcing Maintenance from any of the Cities whether they believed or not believed the Father took care of such Harvest-men and and what they received was given freely and there was no Complaint though often they denyed that which was proferred to them and thâ—ir Câ—re was to make the Gospel of Christ not Burdensome or chargeable but rather their Hands should Minister unto their Necessities Acts 18.3 Again though divers gifts were given unto the Disciples before and after Christ's Ascension as some to be Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors some Teachers and some Elders or Bishops yet they were all made Ministers by the holy Ghost yet it were large to speak of the Power and of the Wisdom and of the Enjoyments of God in that day and time and of the Gifts and of the order which was in the Church at that time But in a Word the Son of God was made manifest and gave them an Understanding and they knew him that was true Truth it self and Christ was revealed in them and manifested to them the Hope of their Glory Col. 1.27 Furthermore they come to see over the new Moons and Fâ—sts and Feasts and Dayes and Times and Meats and Drinks and none could judge of them or ought to judge of them in those Cases for they saw the Body Christ for the man-Child was brought forth and the Woman was Cloathed with the Sun who had the Crowd of twelve Stars upon her head who brought forth the holy Child Jesus who saves his People from their Sins In whom all Shadows Types Figures Representations end This in short was part of the Glory of the Primitive Church which would be large to speak of as it was in the first State of its Purity But hereafter some fuller thing the Lord may bring forth in his own time and day CHAP. II. Concerning the entring in of the Apostacy and the Declination from the Purity of Doctrine Worship and Practice and when it began downwards from the entring of it in until this present Age and Time CHrist the true Prophet which Moses spake of whom the Lord raised up and manifested in the Fulness of time he prohesied and declared of false Prophets that should arise Mat. 7.15 Beware of
false Prophets that shall come unto you in Sheeps cloathing which are inwardly ravening VVolves ver 16. ye shall know them by their Fruits and in Mat. 24.11 But many false Prophets shall arise and deceive many and this came to be seen and fulfilled in the Age of the Disciples and Johâ— testified 1 Jâ—hn 2.18 Little Children it is the last times as ye have heard hat Antichrist should come even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last times they went out from us but were not of us chap. 4.3 So they entred in then and went out from the Light from the Power of God which the Apostles preached for the Remission of Sins and Jude testified against such as were entred in who were in Cain's way that were degenerated and killed and in Balaam's way for Gifts and Rewards and yet preached up the words which the Apostles spoke but for filthy Lucre and had Mens Persons in Admiration because of Advantage And Peter said that false Prophets and false Teachers should arise that should bring in damnable Heresies that should deny the Lord that bought them and many should follow their pernicious Wayes 2 Pet. 9.22 And the Apostle wrote to Timothy the Bishop or Overseer that the Spirit spoke expresly that in the last times some should depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking Lies in Hypocrisie forbidding to marry and abstain from meats c. 1 Tim. 4. And again Paul in 2 Tim. 3. saw the Apostacy coming in and perillous times should come that men should be lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters without natural Affection Truce-breakers false Accusers despisers of them that are good Traytors heady high-minded Lovers of Pleasures more then Lovers of God men of â—oâ—rupt minds reprobate concerning the Truth having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power and as the same Apostle saith in another Place were Enemies to the Cross of Christ and these went out into the World and this is 1400. Years ago and upwards Then the Mystery of Iniquity began to work and wrought and they went out and did not preach up the Jews Religion the Ordinances of the first Covenant but they preaâ—hed Christ in Words and transformed into the Form of the Apostles Words but denied the Cross and spoke those things they ought not for filthy Lucrâ— Sake and there was the Beginning of the Hirelings that care not for the Flock and those went out into the World and many followed their pernicious Wayes and there held the Form but denied the Power and â—o indeed preached another Gospel and they lived in the Liberty of the Flesh held people in the Liberty yet proselyted them into a kind of Faith which was feigned and these kind of false Apostles and deceitful workers led many after them and there was the beginning of the Apostacy and they published these things in the World and when the Name of Christ came to be in Reputation and the preaching of the Gospel to be in Request then they for filthy lucre went out with the Words and retained the Form not the Jewish Form altogether but the Form of the Saints worship and practice which were in the Church of Christ which were elect and precious and they grew to such a Head and to such a Body and became such a Number and yet Gainsayers and in Cain's Way for they were out of the Power and out of that which mortifies the Deeds of the Flesh and they spread themselves over Nations and Kindreds over Tongues and peoâ—ple and Nations and Kindreds and Tongues and people have now got the Name of a Church and the Seat thereof came to be great the false Church the Harlot Mystery Babylon the Mother of Harlots which had denyed the Husband Christ the Power of God her Seat was set upon Nations Kindreds Tongues and People and these were her Seat and John said these were the Waters which he saw the Whore or false Church sit upon and she turned and all her Children against the free Woman the Lord's Spouse the Lamb's Wife and made her flee into the Wilderness for a Time Times and half a Time and she reached forth her Golden Cup a fair out-side but full of Fornication within and she claimed Christ to be her Husband and sate as a Queen and the Kings of the Earth John saw in the Revelation drink of her Cup and bewitched by her Sorceries and then all the Nations becoming Water and unstable being drunk with Fornication staggered up and down and reeled up and down and stood in nothing being out of the Power which should have stablished them and then a great Beast arose out of these Nations Kindreds and Tongues and People which are these Waters with seven Heads and ten Horns and then these Apostatized Disciples or Ministers which preached for filthy Lucre and them that believed them sheltered them under the Beast and cryed who is able to make War with the Beast And the Kings of the Earth gave their Strength to the Beast which arose out of the Waters and now the false Church gets upon him these that had the Form of Godliness out of the Power and rides upon the Beast and he carries her and hath done this many Years and she hath travailed in the greatness of his Strength and then Laws began to be made about Religion and then began compelling we heard of none in the Primitive times nor in the true Church but now the false Church calling her self by the Free-Woman's Name and getting on the outward Dress and Habit and Attire saith I am she have I not the Form and Ordinanes which were practised in the Apostles Daves who doubts of that may look into the primitive times and see that I am conformable to the Form which was amongst the first Christians in things that are outward and thus she hath deceived the Nations Rev. 18.23 Now Rome look to thy Beginning and read thy Original and view thy Antiquity VVe will grant thee every Dram and every Hour of time these thirteen hundred Years and prove thee to be in the Apostacy in Doctrine and Practice from the primitive time after the first hundred Years after Christ was manifested in the Flesh And Christendom look about thee for thou art measured and thy Compass is seen If Natioâ—s and Kindreds and Tongues and People have drunk the VVhores Cup since John's Dayes as will be made manifest then what Cause hast thou Rome to boast of Antiquity and Universality for that doth the sooner prove thee to be a Harlot then the true Church and thy Universality which hath long been boasted of proves thee no more to be the true Church of Christ then the Sea can prove it self to be a Rock for if Nations Kindreds and Tongues and Languages and People universally be the Waters that the Whore sits upon and the Beast rose out of the Waters Now read thy self we have measured thee as in
practices in the first hundred Years after Christ and if these things be found invented and without footing or Ground then let them that are informed depart from them CHAP III. But now to descend a little further nearer unto our own Age to speak something to them which I believe look upon themselves to be Catholick and Apostolick in Doctrine and Practice according to the Primitive Time and Order and that they are totally come out of the Apostacy THis I have to say to you which is my Judgment and Belief and that upon good Ground that you are in many things in the Apostacy as hereafter I shall demonstrate and to tell you nakedly and plainly we look upon the Reformation which was made in denying the Church of Rome to be but very weak and poor and feeble and imperfect comparatively with the Doctrine and Practice and Order in the primitive times insomuch that we judge upon good Grounds that it cannot be parallel'd with the Church in the primitive Times which I have spoken of before in that you have denyed the Pope to be the Head of the Church and so are called Protestants so am I knowing that Christ is the Head of the Church and ought to rule by his spiritual Scepter and his eternal Power in the Hearts and Consciences of People and in and over the true Church which is his Body whereof he is the Head and let all take heed who do intrude and take upon them that which belongeth to the King of Kings and King of Saints as to matter of Headship Regulation or Government for all power is committed unto him in Heaven and Earth and the Father hath given it to him and will not have any other have that Glory but whosoever seeks it must be condemned and his Glory he will not give to another for the Lamb is worthy of Glory and Strength And though the Church of Rome be generally acknowledged to be in the Apostacy by them that are separated from them and that upon good Ground yet I say the Separation is in some little or small part more in Name then Nature more in Form then in power more in some circumstantial things then in the very Ground it self and very many of these Doctrines practices Diâ—cipline and Order as they call it I find to be upholden practised and contended for which are found in the former I have mentioned First of all to instance that which is generally holden out by the reformed Protestants is that the Writings of Matthew Mark Luke and John and several Epistles is the Gospel which the primitive Disciples and Ministers preached and published and which people did receive and by believing the Sound thereof were accounted Christians and Believers We would have all to know the Gospel was preached to Abraham before Matthew or Mark or any of the Apostles writ a Word Moreover we would have all to know that Christ had preached glad tidings to the captives and some of the Disciples had preached the Word of the Kingdom before Matthew or Mark or Luke or John had wrote a Word my Reasons are divers Matthew Mark Luke and John must needs hear and see that done which they testified of before they writ and if Matthew Mark Luke and John be the Gospel the Writings of them I intend then the Disciples could not preach it before it was given forth and if the Epistles be a part of the Gospel this the Disciples could not preach before it was written for Paul succeeded and was converted after divers of the Apostles had preached the Gospel so then doubtless the Disciples and Apostles had something to say and declare and publish before any of the New-Testament was written and it is manifested that they were not sent out to preach the Law nor the Ordinances of the first Covenant after Christ was offered up the End of the first So then there was something and is something which was preached by them and is to be published now to all that are made Ministers by the holy Ghost and that is in few Words the Power of God which was before the New Testament so called though the Words declare of it but is not it Now they went and discipled in the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost which is a Ministry far beyond the written or declarative Sound or indeed is a spiritual and invisible Thing which the Apostle Acts 26.18 declaring his Message which he had received by the holy Ghost saith I was sent to turn them viz. the Gentiles and Jews and them of Arabia and else where he soiourned from Darkness to Light and from Satan's Power unto God's Power that they that believed in the Light and received the Power of God which he preached to them might receive Remission of Sins for Remission of Sin was only preached in his Name and there is no Name under Heaven by which Men can be saved but by the Name of Jesus though the Apostles spoke according to the Motion of the Spirit in divers Words calling him the Gift of God the free Gift of Righteousness the unspeakable Gift the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World the Power of God and the Wisdom of God which Wisdom and Power they had received and because the Son of God was revealed in them the Apostle said I am a Debtor to the Jews and the Greeks Rom. 1.14 And he having received 〈◊〉 freely of the Father he went to the Jews and went to the Greeks to the Gentiles and Heathen where the Name of this Gift and Power and Jesus had not been named and published freely without Gifts and Rewards and the Necessity did lye upon him 1 Cor. 9.16 and the Love of Chrâ—st which was shed abroad in his Heart constrained him and made him reckon himself as a Debtor unto all because of the abundant Loving Kindness and Riches of God's Love and Grace and spiritual Gifts which he had received he longed and thirsted and travailed to communicate it unto others Largely I might speak of this hidden Mystery as to demonstrate what the Gospel of Christ was and is but in what I have already said they that are any thing spiritual minded will judge that the Law and the Prophets Matthew Mark Luke and John and the Epistles were not the everlasting Gospel but it was a thing beyond and above and before any of these writings were although they all in their several Ages bore Testimony of it viz. the Power of God which condemns Sin in the Flesh and mortifies the Deeds thereof and gives Victory over it and taketh up all that believe in it into one Life Power and Virtue into pure Peace and heavenly Contentment and perfect Satisfaction So you who are calling the Letter the Gospel or the New Testament writings the Gospel I would ask you a Question also When was there a time since the first hundred Years after Christ or in that time till now that these Words and Writings have
you who Profess your selves Reformed for shame leave off these things and come out of them and deny them Secondly Parishes and Parish-Churches which were Ordained and builded in the Apostacy and dedicated unto Saints which stand to this day both in the Church of Rome and in the reformed Churches so called and Church-Yards which they call Holy and Consecrated Ground to bury their Dead in this is an invented thing and Superstitious and yet it stands as an Apostolick order both among Papists and Protestants in the Primitive times in the dayes of the Apostles the Scriptures make mention of the Jews Temple at Jerusalem and of the Gentiles Idols Temples in which they Worship the Apostles and Ministers of Christ who published the Word of Reconciliation and Christ the substance of all Figures they gathered them that did believe of the Jews from the Temple and Temple-worship and the Gentiles from their Temples and Idols to Worship God in the Spirit and they met together in Houses we read of no Parish-Churches dedicated to Saints nor Consecrated Ground for they knew the Earth was the Lord's and the fulness thereof and was clean and good and Blessed to them that believed and there was no dividing into Parishes then nor no compelling then Corinth was not divided into a Parish Antioch Philippi Thessalonica Philadelphia and Smyrna and the rest were not all made into Parishes neither were them that believed not compelled or forced to come to the Christians Meeting at Antioch Philippi Thessalonica Philadelphia or any other place that we read of in the Scriptures and the Apostles were not confined nor their Spirits were not so strait as to stay over one hundred or fifty Families twenty Years and call that their Parish between such an Hedge and such a Ditch and such a Water and such a Way as Parishes are now divided into though I say they had Houses to meet in and preached the Word and brake Bread from House to House and sometimes by the Sea-side they Congregated and sometimes on an Hill and at certain places they met together to Worship God they went not back to the Jews Temple nor Gentiles Idols Temples neither forced any of their Maintenance as to minister unto them by which all may see that these invented Churches and Church-Yards for Holy ground and Parishes are not Apostolical nor was no Catholick nor Universal thing then in the Primitive times neither was there any command given to the Christians to do any such thing neither Reprehension for not doing such things The first Church or Temple that we read of was consecrated by Pius Bishop of Rome in honour to the Virgin Prudentia and afterwards Calistus made a Temple to the Virgin Mary a place beyond Tibris and instituted a Church-Yard in Apius his Street and called it after his own Name And Dionysius in the Year 267. divided both in Rome and other places Churches and Church-Yards to Curates and made Parishes and Diocesses to Bishops commanded that every man should be contented with his Prescript Bonds and there was the Beginning of Parishes Churches and Church-Yards consecrated Ground and in Process of time when all Nations had drunk of the cup of Fornication the Nations began to imitate their Mother and to build and consecrate Temples and Churches and Church-Yards to this Saint and the other Saint as is too too manifest through Christendom to this Day And here 's the rise of Holy Parish Churches which of late have been preached up for the House of God and the House of Prayer which bears the Name yet by which the Pope Baptized them Saint Peter Saint Paul Saint Mary Saint Hellen Saint Katharine Saint Gregory Saint Maudlen Saint Alnban Saint Anthony Saint George Saint Margret Saint Dunstans Saint Clement Saint Christopher Saint Giles Saint Martin and Painting and Garnishing these Houses with Images and Pictures and hanging of Flowers and Boughs and Garlands this came from the old Heathen who Sacrificed to Saturn and Pluto and this hanging up candles and their Candlemas dayes this came of the Gentiles and Pagans who Honoured their false God Saturn and their Altar which they have builded in this Temple and their Tables upon which they offer and set their Sacrifice these Boniface the third commanded that they should be covered with Linnen clothes and here was the Beginning of these kind of Orders so that as I said before most of these things in and about the Worship which hath been since the Reign of Anti-chirst and since the Whore hath sat as a Queen they have been either borrowed from the Jews or else from Pagans and Heathens and the Mother of Harlots hath put these things off for Apostolick Institutions these many hundreds of years and divers other Things which are in and about the Parish Churches your many Crosses in and about them of Wood and Stone your Baptized Bells and consecrated Pulpits and Fonts and hour-Glasses and soft Cushions to Preach on all these the Scriptures make no mention of not in the Christian Churches the first two hundred Years after Christ. Now Protestants who have denyed the church of Rome and their Practices which was contrary to the Primitive and the Scriptures look about you and see how you are sticking in Babylon and buying yet the Merchandize thereof and as for your Holy Ground called your church-yards which you only judge fit to bury the Dead in and would compel all to come thither because there are many Officers in and about this Temple who are greedy of rewards so that they would not miss any thing that might be commodious unto them and so would compel all to come there for their Gain but Abraham was the first we read of that made any place of burial in Hebron which he bought of Ephron an Hittite for thirty shekels of Silver and there was he and his Wife buried and this was no Parish-Yard neither did he leave any Priestor Clark that we read of to receive Wages Fees for Ringing a Bell and reading and singing over the Dead and so for shame you who Profess the Scriptures and the Apostolick Order Institutions of Christ come out from among all this Trumpery and wait that you may come again into the Order of the Gospel and the Primitive order which hath been talked of these many years and yet not known CHAP. VII Concerning Swearing by the Gospel and kissing a Book and that which is commonly Confirmation or Bishoping Children things invented contrary to the Apostles Doctrine and are in the Apostacy IN the first Covenant the Jews were commanded to Swear by the Lord and Oathes were observed by the Jews that were in the first Covenant which was faulty Heb. 8.7 which Ordinance did not make perfect as pertaining to the Conscience and so there came to be an End of that Covenant and the better was brought in which stood upon BETTER PROMISES and then the Priest-hood Law first Covenant and the Ordinances thereof
already enjoy and Possess and so the Apostles brought them to a further examination not to look at things visible but to examine themselves whether they were in the Faith for he that is in the Faith is not in that which is visible Prove your selves know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 Now they who came to witness Christ in them knew the Resurrection and the Life in them and Witnessed the Life of the Son of God to live in them and they in it and this was a further State then looking at visible Things which were in remembrance only of his Death and blessed are they who have an Eye to see and an Heart to believe these things And now the Apostle spake unto wise Men and bad them â—udge what he said 1 Cor. 10.15 So that Novices or they that were young or Babes had hâ—rdly been able to discern if he had spoken such things to them but he spoke to wise men which could judge of what he said and ver 16. thus he said The Cup of blessing that we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ And the Bread which we breakâ— is it not the communion of the Body of Christ ver 17. For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one bread and that one Bread was Christ who said I am the Bread of Life and this they witnessed and these are great Mysteries and they whose Eyes are towards visible things cannot see them and what a Nâ—ise and a Stir hath been made these many hundred Years and what killing and persecuting about things that are seen And since the Mystery hath been lost and the Key which opens the mystery how People have waded in the dark till they have lost themselves and are sunk down into utter Darkness as hath been manifest about visible things which do corrupt how many have been killed about this Bread and this Cup which are visible since the Apostles Dayes and how many Institutions and Laws have been made about this and have fought like Swine about the husk and discern not the Life neither the Lords Body It is endless to declare what stir they make about this Bread and this Wine in the Church of Rome which I shall not now stand to particularize much but however after the Priest hath consecrated it they conclude it to be the very Body and Blood of Christ and yet a thing which may be seen and that is a temporal thing and so give it Names past numeration And what work have they made about times and dayes when it was fit to be received and how many Decrees have been made about these things Anacletus caused a Decree to be made that all were to come to it under pain of Excommunication and Victor denounced that those should be interdicted from all Service when they should receive the Sacrament that would not be reconciled to their Neighbours of all Grudges and Hatred again Clepharanius one hundred Years after Anaâ—letus commanded that all that professed Christ or bare the Name of Christians being of the Age of twelve or fourteen Years should at least once a year at Easter receive the blessed Sacrament Fabianus decreed that they should receive it three times in a Year and Innocentius the third decreed it should be kept in the church that it should be ready at all times lest they that were sick should want to spiritual comfort of it and Honorus the third confirmed the same and Austin concluded the Eucharist to be of absolute necessity for Infants And what a stir hath been in the reformed churches so called about this and what disorderly work and what high Imputations they have gained to it whenas they commanded the Parishes to buy it and then sell it them again that the Priest must have a Offering at Easter also a token of a piece of Lead a token that they are at Unity with the Priest or else they may not have their Bread and Wine again for which they paid before and this hath been called a great Mystery HAP XII Concerning Ministers and their Office under the Law and the Gospel BEfore the Law was given forth there were divers did offer Sacrifice and builded Altars unto the Lord as Seth Abel Melchizedeck A braham Isaac and Jacob who were Guiders and Directors of People in the Way of Righteousness who instructed their Families in the Fear of the Lord but after the Law was given forth Aaron and his Sons and they were to offer Sacrifice according to the command of the Lord and to perform the Worship that God had appointed for that Time and Age at the Tabernacle and Temple there were Levites who bore the Ark and looked to the Vessels and pitched the Camp and divers other Services as Singers and Readers of the Law and Prophets on their Sabbath Dayes and Porters and the like and all these pertained to the First Covenant and Priesthood which was to have an End both the Priesthood and the Law and the Service thereof for it was but to continue till the Substance came Now Christ being come to the End of the Law for Righteousness unto all that believe made after the Order of Melchizedeck and not by a carnal commandment he offered up himself once for all and became the Author of eternal Salvation unto them that believe put an End to the first Worship and Priesthood Before he was offered up he chose Disâ—iples unto him twelve and also seventy and endued them with Power and many did believe through their Words and they were not Men of great parts but as they were fitted by the holy Ghost that gave them Utterance and they were sent out not to preach the Law but the Word of the Kingdom and many did believe and grew and were confirmed in the Faith and after Christ s Ascension the holy Ghost was poured forth upon them in a more ample Manner and it did bring to their Remembrance as Christ had foretold and they received great Gifts for the Work of the Ministry some were Prophets some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors some Teachers and all made Ministers by the Spirit for the Work whereunto they were chosen and many were converted and did believe then they that had the Word of God to publish travailed as they were led and moved by the Spirit to publish the glad-tidings of the Gospel and when the Believers were many and many young in the Faith they ordained Overseers or Bishops or Elders who were sound in the Faith to watch over them that were begotten but mark they were approved men and faithful and of blameless lives not given to Covetousness neither did tyrannâ—ze over them in rigour but were apt to teach and instruct in Love Gentleness and they that had been ancient Labourers in God's Work did so who had received a Gift to minister unto others and as to be
helpers in the Work of the Gospel and all that were ordained were ordained by the holy Ghost although it is true they had the consent of the Brethren and the church in that thing and there were also Deacons ordained which served to look to the Widows and for the Ministration of the poor and these were faithful men and had also a Gift Stephen was one full of the holy Ghost and these were helps unto the Apostles also there were some faithful Widows who were Examples to the younger Women and to instruct them and to be Patterns unto them and were as a Body knit together in Love and served the Lord and strengthned one another in the Faith and served one another in Love and all these forementioned served the Lord freely and willingly and not for Rewards and Gifts and Benefices and earthly things â—n short this was the State and Glory of the church in that time and these are the Minâ—sters we read of in the primitive times But since the Apostacy hath entred in and the power of Godlinesâ— hath been denyed there is such a numberless number of Names crept in we never heard of them and so many Offices and yet none of that Work done which the ministers of Christ did but certain new invented things â—rought in for Worship and Service and the Power despised and men seeking Offices and great Titles and great Benefits and great Revenues and the Heritage of God is laid waste and the Earth become like a Wilderness unplanted with good and the Sheep and scattered And so all may compare these ensuing Names and Offices with the Apostles dayes and the primitive Church and see if they be alike First of all the Pope his Holiness Christ's Vicar Universal Bishop Metropolitane Bishop Lord Cardinals which were but Priests at the first ordained to baptize the Heathen who came to Rome when the Seat thereof began to be had in Honour but now they are swelled big and become Princes and the only Men to govern States also Monks of divers Orders and Fryars of divers Orders Hierom's order of Austin's Order Gregory's order Carmalite Fryars Cross or Crouchet Fryars of Dominiâ—â—s order of St. Francis's order Bennet's order and all of these orders sprâ—â—g up and were ordained in the midnight of darkness within this four hundred Years at the most as were easily proved and Trinity order and Brigandine order of Jesuites and Hermits and Anthony's order and Clunisencies order and Nuns sprung up first of one St. Clara one order then Brigidia a widow to the time of Urban the fifth in the Year 1370. And all these kind of orders were destitute of the true order of the primitive Church and their Service was appointed by them that ordained them and these practised the patched Inventions that were given them for Worship which have not concord with the primitive Doctrine but borrowed from the Jews or Heathen all these kind of Offices and Officers have been acting their parts this many years and have led People into superstitious Blindness and further from the Lord then ever But to come to the reformed Churches so called and there is so many Officers and Names but few that do accord with the Apostles times either in Name or Nature as Metropolitan-Bishops Arch-Bishops Lord-Bishops we heard not of Lord Timothy or Lord Titus Bishops before mentioned but to come on to other orders Arch-Deacons Deans and Chapters Preâ—enâ—â— and these must attend on some old superstitious Buildings call'd Cathedrals or Minsters and there perform a Service somewhat like the former and these are enjoyned their Service like the Levites and Priests of old by turns and course as once in a moneth or two it may be and have a hundred or two hundred pounds in the year for the same and hardly stir from thence till they dye except some greater advance offer it self also Commâ—ssaries Procters and Apparetors and these are subsâ—rvient to the former then Chancellors Vice-chancellors Doctors of Divinity Batâ—hellâ—rs of Divintty Doctors of Art Masters of Art Batchellors of Art Graduates Under-Graduates and these belong to the former then Prelates Parsins Vicars Priests Curates and Church-Wardens all which Titles and Names and Officers if they be but compared with the Scripture there will be hardly any parallel either concerning Office Work or Doctrine And notwithstanding all these Orders and Sorts who are fitted by humane Learning or natural Study though divers years exercised therein are not skilled in the Word of Righteousness neither have the Tongue of the learned to administer a Word in Season to the weary nor to turn the Sinner from his Sins and thus the Form of things Titles and Names are holden up but who seek after the Power of God or to be made able Ministers of the Spirit Litteral Ministers enough while maintenance lasts but the Ministâ—â—tion of the Spirit few are acquainted with and if there be any such it is well if he be not persecuted so in that which I have said the understanding will see that there hath been a great Apostacy since the Apostles dâ—yes in the Ministry in Doctrine in Worship and Practice divers of which I have touched upon to the Intent that they that enquire after the Lord may depart out of the midst of Ignorance and come to worship Gâ—d in Spirit and Truth and in the Temple made without hands and be joyned to the Church which is in God which the Gates of Hell prevail not against though many will claim Authority from the Apostles few will own their Life neither walk after their Example so take but a few more Institutions which are called Apostolick to this Day among them called Christian Churches Cletus the third Bishop of Rome was the first that wrote this Title that is Greeting and Apostolick blessing he ordained the order of Priesthood Everastus the fifth Bishop of Rome ordained that Priests should be honoured and that they should be shaven Alexander the sixth Bishop of Rome ordained that Matrimony should be only solemnized and that the married should be blessed with the Priest there was the beginning of being married by Priests Sixtus about the year 114. after Christ the seventh Bishop of Rome ordained holy water and ordered that it should be strowed abroad in christian Houses and when the People met to worship Telesphorus the eight Bishop of Rome ordained that the communion should be laid upon an Altar and that lay-People should not touch the holy Vessels nor the holy Garments of the Priests he ordained Lent which was to be kept by the Clergy in the year one hundred forty two Higinus the nineth Bishop ordained the Communion to be celebrated three times at Christmas and that Lent should be fasted Pius about the year 147. after Christ the tenth Bishop ordained that chrisme should be ministred as baptism and that children should have God-fathers and God-mothers here was the beginning of this great Ordinance and he ordained that Easter-day should be kept on
Dissention arose because of some of the Pharisees that believed and yet would needs judge it needful for all that believed to be circumcised so they that stuck in the outward Types and Figures would needs lay Yoaks upon the Necks of them who where come to the Substance So the Apostles Elders and Brethren coming together seeing how the State of the Matter stood not disputing years together as the Council of Trent forty years but they as they saw in the Wisdom of God sent some chosen men from Jerulalem to the Gentiles to certifie the Gentiles by the Spirit of the Lord that they abstained only from Meats offered to Idols and from Blood and from Things strangled and from Fornication from which if you keep your selves you shall do well Acts 15. they pressed not upon them the Ordinances of the Jews neither the Custom of the Gentiles in the â—â—belief which since this the Church of Rome hath done and divers Councils appertaining to her have cumbered People with multitudes of Things and heavy Yoaks some bâ—rrowed from the Jews in the Unbelief and sâ—me from the Heathens in the Unbelief and prest their Institutions and Inventions as Ordinances of Câ—riâ—t upon all the Members of the Church which are so many and so innumerable and all contrary to the primitive Church and they have been of the Natâ—re of those Councils that David speaks of Pâ—â—l 2. who took Counsel aâ—ainst the Lord and against his anointed and that was a Council which condemned the Son of God Christ Jesus and these Councils though Rabbies and great men yet they erred from the Life But to come downward among the Doctors and Bishops of that which they call the Catholick Church the Council that was held at Carthage under Cyprian decreed that those who were baptized by Hereticks ought to be baptized again which others called Error and that Council's Proceedings were condemned The Nicene Council decreed flat Idolatry about worshipping of Images The Council of Constantinople condemned that Proceeding and their Decrees The Council of Basil as Albertus Phigius saith decreed against all Reason and against the Scriptures The Council of Arminium decreed for the Armenians that Christ was not God The Council of Calcedon which was one of the four that Gregory the great compares to the four Gospels that the Decrees were as sure and Constitutions as certain and Infallible as the Scripture yet Pope Leo did not stick to condemn it and all them as unadvised and these Councils have been one against another and the multitude of their Votes is brought for great Proof not only amongst the Romanists but also amongst them that are separated from them so Councils have erred and have opposed one another yea and the Popes and Biâ—â—ops of Rome to Leo the fourth abrogated and made void the Acts of Adrian and yet they both said they were Peter's Successors and infallible and Stephanus Bishop of Rome made void the Acts and Decrees of 〈◊〉 and Sabinian the Pope commanded that Gregory's Mass and all Pope Gregory's Writings should be burnt and all of these said they had the Keyes to bind and loose and yet one bound that which another loosed and another loosed that which the former had bound and yet all these clâ—â—med Infallibility The Council of Carthage decreed that the Bishop of Rome would not be called high Priest nor chief of Priests nor the Head of the Church but following Councils have stiled him chief Priest chief Bishop and Head of the catholick Church The Eliberine-council decreed that no Images should be set up in the Churches nor worshipped nor the Walls painted likewise the council of Constantinople before mentioned decreed that Images were not to be â—â—ffered in the Churches or Meeting-places but on the other Side the second Nicene-council determined that Images were not only to be placed in the Churches but also to be worshipped and the Pope said that Images were to be Lay mens Calendars The latter council under Julius the second did repeal the Decrees of the Pâ—san-council The Basil-council determined that a council of Bishops was above the Pope but the Lateran-councâ—l under Leo decreed that the Pope was above the council and they decreed also that he that should â—hink otherwise should be held for an Heretick and yet the Bishops and and Abbots in the Council of Basil aforesaid decreed that they that judged that the Bishops were not above the Pope were Hereticks and yet these Councils the Church of Rome layes claim 〈◊〉 to be of their Faith and Church and yet one making void what another hath decreed the same Council did with an uniform Consent remove the Pope Eugenius and put Amidius in his place but Eugenius vilifies the Council's Decrees and condemns them The Council of Trent commanded that Bishops should teach the People and should have no more Benefit for Preferment then one Place but since they have made this Decree void and now whole Countries are too little and the Protestants imitate the same and do not teach the People and so of what Validity have these Councils been worth or of what Force hath the Decrees been of mutable Men who have been tossed up and down like Waters I nominate the several Convocations and Councils that have been amongst the reformed Churches as they are called and their Synods one while decreeing this the next throwing it down again and yet all these will lay claim to be Ministers of the true Church and persecute as Hereticks to Death them who own not their changeable Decrees and mutable Institutions but such hath been the Arrogancy and Pride of her that hath set as a Queen upon the Waters that she must be the only Judge and then the Prophets must be slain Pope Julius said no Council is of any credit unless it be confirmed by the Church of Rome And Boniface the eighth saith that no Man in the World can be saved unless he be subject to the Roman Church And Pope Paschal thus said as though said he any Council could make Laws for the Church of Rome and all Councils do subsist by it and receive their Strength from it and that which the Pope approveth or disapproveth And so all Confederacies and Councils of Men who are out of the Life and Power of God do decree that which brings the Seed of God into Bondage Now Rome look to thy Infallibility and Universality which thou so much cryest up and thy Unity one while sets up one thing another time throws it down again when it will not serve particular Interests and what a Stir hath there been amongst them that call themselves reformed in these latter Ages one setting up this and another that sometimes this Service for a Worship then the next calls it idolatrous and then another Service and this Ceremony and the other Ceremony and this Pater-noster and the other Creed this Catechism and the other Catechism these Articles of Faith and the next Synod makes them void and so leads
but in Holes hundreds of Houses burnt Men Women and Children Children taken from their Mothers Breasts and knockt against the Walls toss'd upon Pikes Spears wounded with Swords thrown into Lakes and Rivers stript Naked starv'd in cold Seasons through such like in human and Savage cruelty Commissions given from your Nuntio's and Agents to Rob to Steal even Servants from their Masters even upon this account only to weaken and enfeeble the Sectaries and Hereticks as you stile them to advance your Holiness's Chair and to propagate your holy or rather Unholy Church and Religion which things remain fresh in the memory of many Nations to this Day besides doth not your Church tolerate Stews and Adulterous Houses in the Cities where you have Dominion Besides Pride abounds amongst you more then the Nation beside And so your Church hath neither this Mark nor Sign of Holiness Fourthly As for your Church being Cathâ—lick and Universal you want this Sign also If it be One Universal comprehends all Nations like aâ— all the World in comparison were your Church What is Germany France England Scotland and Ireland nothing What is all the Turks Dominions of your Faith And thou saist In Asia Affrica and America all is coming to an End There is that risen and arising in America which must spread over the Nations the Breath of the Lord bloweth which will daily dry up the Waters which is the Seat of your Church which you so much Boast of And what have you converted all the Indians nay have you not hardned their Hearts against the Name of Christ because of your cruelty and unholy conversation among them So that the Name of Christ and christian is become as Odious unto them as Mahomet is unto you And so you are without this Sign as that you are the true church Lastly That your church is Apostolick if this be the Mark of the true church then you are without this also for you are neither Apostolick in Doctrine nor Practice your Weapons are carnal theirs spiritual their Head was Christ the Light of the World your Head is visible and carnal which darkens the World they turned People from Darkness to Light and to the Word of Faith in their Hearts and to know Christ in them to justifie them But one of your Rabbies told us lately you had no such Doctrine in the church of Rome as Christ in you The Apostles turn'd them to the Anointing and to the Spirit to be taught by it and to be led by it into to all Truth and to worship in it and you turn them to Images Pictures Crucifixes Beads and Altars and so keep People in outward things which feed the Sensual and corrupt part Lastly they said Bodily exercise profiteth little and most of your Worship stands in observing of Days Meats Drinks Washings Sprinklings Altars Tapers lighting and bearing Candles Bowing creeping to the Cross turning wheeling this way and that way in all time and parts of your Worship so that there is no time left for the Heart to be exercised towards God And so you are not Apostolical and so are without this true sign of being the true Church of God But I shall descend to particular things which are asserted and seem to be proved but very weakly But we can expect no Wine but such as is in the Bottle It is asserted by this Author That the Pope is the Head of the true Church in which Salvation is only to be expected And his proof he brings is this Christ hath so ordained it in saying to Peter Matth. 16.18.19 Upon this Rock will I build my Church and Christ hath given Power to him and his Successors to be a Head to rule and govern the Church and as there is an Emperour to be the Head of the Empire and a King of the Kingdom so Peter and hâ—s Successors are the Head of the Church and have the Keys of the Kingdom of heaven to bind and to loose and to remit and to retain Sins The Apostolick Church hath this Doctrine That Christ was given to be the Head of the Body which is the Church which is spiritual though in the World yet not of the World and the Father hath committed all Power in Heaven and Earth to the Son and hath ordained him to be a Leader a Teacher and Feeder of his Flock and to be his Salvation to the Ends of the Earth and his Glory he will not give unto another But it seemes the Church of Rome hath soared so high in their Conceiâ—s and Imaginations that they judge all this Power to be given unto the Pope Peter's Successor as thâ—y say Now we do not read of two Heads to the one Body which is the true Church Ephes. 4.4.15 And so this is a contrary Doctrine then that of the Primitive Church and Christ who is the Head of the Body he said Lo I am with you to the End of the World And so it is the meer Arrogancy and Pride of the Pope to be called the head of the Church and an intrenching Christ's Power and Prerogative and that ever Peter was called the Head of the Church we do not read and that of the 16 th of Matthew is but a poor Proof to prove Peter to be the Head of the Church for Christ spoke unto his Disciples ver 15. and asked them Whom say ye that I am Peter as one amongst the rest said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God and Christ said Upon this Rock will I build my Church viz. Upon him which was reveal'd unto Peter by the Father the Son of God which was the Rock which the Fathers eat of and drank of Christ the Rock of Ages and another Foundation can no man lay said the Apostle then that which is laid already Christ the Rock and Corner-Stone and not Peter for Christ is unchangeable and abideth for ever and so was not Peter though Peter and the rest of the Apostles received Power from Christ yet in the 22 d. and 23 d. verses of the same chapter he was gone out of the savour and discerning and Christ said unto him Get thee behind me Satan for thou savourest not the things of God and what though it could be proved that Peter was at Rome a Pastor an Elder or a Bishop who fed the Flock and did feed the Flock and so might be reckoned as an Elder and worthy of Honour in respect of his Labour and Diligence in the Work of Christ is the Promise so entailed to Rome or to any Place that the next that succeeds in that Place must needs receive the same Honour when he doth not the same Work which is worthy of Honour neither is in the same Power but this I am sure of though the Church of Rome lay claim unto Peter's Bishoprick as they say yet they have not done his Work And secondly If Peter was at Rome and a Pastor yet he was not a Lord for Christ reproved that when they strove which
any were otherwise minded they were to be let alone till God revealed it to them And whatsoever People or Church though they claim infallibility that teach a contrary Dâ—ctrine unto this we have good Reason to suâ—peâ—â— it to be that hasty dâ—â—ving and overdriving Spirit that would force a Faith 〈◊〉 God hâ—th not given it not to be the infallible Spirit of 〈…〉 the Church of Rome hath given a vehement 〈…〉 and Tortures they have exercised towards them who 〈…〉 their Principles and own their Judgment in all things Bâ—t 〈…〉 Gentleman blinded thy Eye 〈◊〉 he made thee 〈…〉 question 〈◊〉 truth of Scripture and â—hat it proceeâ—ed from the iâ—fall his Testimony of God's Spâ—râ—t and if thou hadst a certain feeling of the same in thy 〈…〉 Conscience to let this go and mâ—ke this void as an iâ—â—uffâ—cient Ground to receive Christianity upon and to lean to a Prop without thee and to â—e judged by men who have been as fallible and changeable in their Judgments as the Moon which have assumed the Name of Catholick Church whose Testimony thy Instrucâ—er I perceivâ— told thee ought to be received concerning what was pretended to be revealed or not revealed by God yet all must be obliged to stand to their Judgment though never so repugnant to the Doctrine of Christ and Practice of the Church of Christ in the first Primitive times truly so called yet it is granted that the Church of Christ are the dispersed Members through the World though not of it agreeing in one Faith being in the Power of God and being led and guided by the Holy Ghost their Judgments ought to be received which cannot as lead by the Spirit fail in giving true Judgment in matters of Faith which pertains to Salvation but as men they may fail and as erring from the Spirit they may fail and infallibility is not intailed to the Persons of any men but as they continue in the Grace of God and walk in the Spirit and bring forth the Fruits thereof nor to any place or City but as they continue in Covenant with God for the Promise of God was to Jerusalem and Mount Zion and to many other places and People in divers Cities where the Glory of God once appeared but now through their Apostacy and unbelief and disobâ—dience they are desâ—late as to the presence and Power of God and their Sun is set and they are covered as with the Shadow of a Cloud but this true Church whereof I have spoken was seen to Fly into the Wilderness for time times and half and that since the Apostles dayes and then was she not so Visible and Universal as she had been before the Man-child was caught up unto God now if thou reckonst the Roman Church to be this true Church shew the time times and half a time wherein she fled into the Wilderness and how long she hath been there and when was the time of her return and if ever she was there how that will hang together with yâ—ur assertion that she hath been visiâ—le and so Universal these fifteen hundred Years and if this could be proved that Rome hath been so whether doth it not rather demostrate her to be the Whore that sate upon the many Waters which Waters are Nations Kindreds Tongues and People and what Church instance if thou can doth lay claim to the Nations Kindreds Tongues and People to be your and to Rule over so many Kings of the Earth as you lay claim to be Universally of your Faith and of your Church which gives us a shrewd Character to believe that indeed you are Mystery Babylon besides the Blood of the Saints hath been shed under the Name of Hereticks by thâ—â— vâ—sible Catholick Church among the Nations this twelve hundred Years doth give clear evidence that it can be reckoned or imputed unto none but you But I would not Grate too hard upon thee being but a new Convert but when thy instructer had made thee doubt of thy won state and questioned the Foundation whereupon thou hadst received Christianity the next thing he labours to make void is the Spirit of God its Testimony which thou didst lay claim to but I feel had little Portion in what thou saidst at last he makes thee doubt of the infallibility of this Spirit which thou hadst spoken on might for ought thou knew be the Spirit of Error and thou not able to distinguish betwixt the Spirit of God in thy self which is infallible and the Spirit of error nor to distinguish betwixt their Operations he perswaded thee that all was uncertain and therefore no confidence to be given to any Spirit of Faith in ones own particular which is the most absurd and ridiculous thing in the World so to judge For if there be no certainty or assurance given to any man or means to every man wherein he may be assured of the certainty of God's will then whither should any go or upon whom should any lean seeing that no credit can be given to any thing that any man believes and this were but tossing up and down Men from Mountain to Hill that they might never have Rest for their Souls And as for Jer. 17. and Eccles. 9. Rev. 3. The Heart of man is deceitful c. No man knows love or hatred And because thou sayest I am Richand increased with Goods and have need of nothing c. These Scriptures were brought unto thee to make thee more Blind the first is spoken of the Degenerate estate where deceit bears Rule and not Truth the second is spoken of visible enjoyments which are common to all and the third was spoken to one who had erred from the Spirit and was exalted in Pride because of external performances but having lost the Power was miserable c. But what of all this doth this any whit at all detract from the certainty assurance of the Spirit of God in them that have it what shall we Reason thus because some have been led aside and are deceived by their own Hearts Lusts that therefore all may be deceived even them that have the Spirit of God God forbid and we have some-what more to Answer an Arian a Jew or a Turk if they should urge the like knowledge and feeling with the like confidence to prove they were in the Truth and Christianity a delusion and thy intructer said what would you reply to them We have more to reply in such Cases then time will permit now or the state of the Case require seeing it is but a supposition and we take no thought what to answer the Gain-sayers of Truth withall but rely upon the Promise of the Father and of his Son Jesus Christ who said to his Disciples take no thought for it shall be given you what to answer in that day which Promise all that are true Disciples shall find true to the end of the World but some-what more we have to say it may be then thou said when thou
suffered thy self to be made blind and carried Captive with another Man's Judgment neglected the measure of God's Spirit in thy self at home through which alone the secret things of God are Revealed in which true certainty and infallibility is Witnessed and not in Men who are fallible and changeable If an Arian Jew or Turk should urge their own interpertation of Scriptures which is of no private interpretation contrary to the mind of him that gave it forth I would say he perverted the Words of the Scripture which 〈◊〉 in Harmony Unity one with another as to the states and conditions they were spâ—ken to and are plain and are only read by that Spirit that gave them forth except it be in some Historical or Chronology or Genealogy of Names and Generâ—tions which might be some gathered from anothers Hands and different hands taking notice of them as to Record them there might be some variation yet the substance of the report is true but what is Calculation of Years or Dayes or reckoning up of Genealogies as to the matter of Salvation and what if we had never had them no more then we have other Histories and things that fell out among the Jews but if there be any contradiction for ought I know we may blame the Church of Rome the most of any who will needs affirm they received all or most of the things from the Apostles and if the Translations differ or be some-what uncertain what have they been doing this fifteen hundred Years with their infallible Spirit that they could not have rectified them according to their first Original and if any the foresaid Sects should pretend the certainty of the Spirit and yet not have it I should answer the Spirit is known by its Fruits and the Fruits of the Spirit are manifest and they that pretend to it and bring forth contrary Fruits are manifest to be Deceivers and deceived but their States are different and therefore require different Answers which time will not now permit to insist upon but over and beside all other Arguments perswade any man to or from any thing the witness of God in the party unto whom he speaketh is to be reached and that is beyond the understanding of Man and greater then it and more convincing then any Arguments that can be used without and he that cannot speak to this is not skilful in the Word of Righteousness That Christ was an infallible Guide who is the way the Truth and the Life is granted by all Christians and that the Apostles received the Promise of the Father and the infallible Spirit of God which led them into all Truth and this infallible assurance the Christians had that lived in the Apostles time thuâ— iâ— granted and the Apostles were infallible Guides not as Men meerly but as Men full of the Holy Ghost as Men who were filled with the Spirit of God and therefore the Apostle said be Followers of us as we are Fâ—llowers of Christ and if any controversie did arise as some there did and doubts among the then Christians the Apostles and Elders meeting together in the Power of the Holy Ghost did write their minds and Letters to the Christians to pacifie all and good Reason that they that had believed through their Word should Suâ—miâ— unto the Holy Ghost and unto them by whom they were begotten unto God by the word of Life for the ending of strife about Words and Shadows and outward things and they whose minds were outward then in Ages since and now ran into contention about outward things and such for the most part do Err from the Spirit of God in themselves But I would have thee to take notice of this and all you Catholick Members so called The Apostles of Christ only did exhort and did not force their Decrees by Penal Statutes and to be observed under the penalty of loosing Life and Limbs as since their pretended Successors have done who have Erred from the Spirit and have goâ— the Saints Words and turned against the Life and Power but the Decrees as you call them are not many nor burdensome which the Apostles wrote at Jerusalem as the many Counsels since have made they are so endless and numberless and burdensome and so contradictory one to another in divers things who will but look into the Decrees of the Counsels since the Apostles dayes that we can find little certainty in any of their Decrees but rather as thy Instructer saith the Sword of the Flesh and not the Spirit hath been the Rule and Law to Christianity but the Masters of great wit and Power and Interest have framed and made parties unto themselves and have Wars been raised among your selves about deciding your Controversies hath not the Pope Warred against the Emperour and the Emperour against the Pope were noâ— Wars raised about the Decrees when Pope Eugenius was deposed as a Heretick by the Council of Bazell and one while the Pope must be infallible as Peter's Successor and above all Councils and Churches another while the Council is above the Pope Excommunicates him as a Heretick and excludes his Infallibility and now where is the certainty and whether should one go or appeal for true Judgment so though the Church of Rome boast of Unity yet how hath one Nation made War against another and yet Professing the same Faith at divers times and in sundry Ages And to tell thee plainly and to speak the naked Truth according to the Apostles Prophecy after their Departure there was a great Apostacy and a great Falling away from the Faith and a giving heed to Lying Seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils and many were suhverted from the Faith by them that spake Lyes in Hypocrisie and took up the Priests Office for filthy Lucre and they went out into the World and the World wondred after them and they had the Form and the Sheeps Cloathing and the Saints Words but were Enemies to the Cross of Christ and to the Power of Godliness and the Kings of the Earth were bewitched with her Sorceries and then forced all and compelled all to receive and believe such Decrees and such Articles as were then set forth by a Pack of those Hirelings who minded their own Profit and their own Bellies who mingled their own Inventions and Traditions with the Doctrine of Christ and brought the Scripture for a Cloak and the Apostles Practice for a President and could â—ay falsly as the Apostles said in Truth It seems good to us and the holy Ghost that these our Decrees be observed for God hath placed us as Judges and directors as them that are appointed of God himself to which all Christians are to submit and none to question and if any do question and will not obey it is the Kings and Princes Duty in all Countries to cause all to submit to these our Decrees and Orders or else to be punished as Hereticks with Death for we are the Apostles Successors and
Spirit a Spirit of Error is not a sufficient Guide and Judge and in this he fights without an Adversary and fills the World with Noise and Darkness and the Air with Smoak and would cloud Peoples Understandings with Multitudes of Words that tend not to Edification with a quarreling wrangling Spirit which is not for Peace but I see he hath delighted in Contention and sported himself in Variance and like the Son of the Bond-Woman his Hand against every Man Secondly â— wonder why R. E. quotâ—s so much Scripture for the Proof of his Matter in Hand seeing that it is one of his great Pleas that it is insufficient to be a Rule or a Guide or a Judge as to answer any Doubts or give any satisfactory Solution to him that is enquiring and seeing he hath given in so many Reasons against it as insufficient and as much as in him lay to invalidate and set it at nought and hath laboured to set it at Odds and to make Contradictions in it as to render it insufficient for Matter of Probation in any thing which is in Controversie or how he can judge that others should receive them and his sometimes false rendering of them or his own Interpretations upon them seeing he denyes them as uncertain as they are translated and insufficient and not fit to be a Rule and who this man hath conversed with I know not that should ever affirm a private Spirit or their own Spirits to be a sufficient Rule or Guide to walk by such I deny and leave them and thee to quarrel together about your Imaginations Thoughts and Conceptions or else the Conceptions of other Men who are as uncertain and fallible as the first and shall assert the Sufficiency of the Spirit of God teaching ruling guiding and judging all true Christian Men in that certain everlasting infallible Truth which is necessary and satisfactory to the Souls of all them that do believe in it and shall deny all the Pretenders to it who run into Heaps and Heads and quarrel and fight one with another about Shadows and can give no other Account or Manifestation then I am sure I have the Spirit of God and I ought to be believed and I am a good Man and the like which thou say'st thou could'st never receive any other Evidence or Testimony and what though many have pretended to the Spirit and the Guidance thereof and in the mean while have brought forth the Fruits of the Flesh and their own imaginary false Conceptions and have put on Confidence enough to say so as thou thy self it may be hast had a Share in times past shall this make the Spirit of God insufficient and uncertain in its Teachings to them that believe in it and have received and bring forth the Fruits of it and have the Deeds of the Flesh mortified by it God forbid Thirdly Why hast thou perverted the Scripture as I said at the first Onset Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self bears Witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God and this thou hast put in in a distinct Character to be taken Notice of as though it were Scripture and render'st it thus The Spirit being Witness in secret with our Spirits or in plainer Terms the private Spirit thou must repent of this and take Heed how thou callest the Spirit of God a private Spirit for it was that publick Spirit which manifested it self among all the Patriarchs and Prophets and by which they spoke forth the Words and Mind of God unto the People and prophesied of things to come and through it alone is the deep and weighty things of God revealed and was and is the only Way and Means by which Christ promised after his Ascension to lead guide instruct and comfort his Disciples in all Truth and that it should bring to their Memory whatsoever he had spoken and that they were to be without Care or Thought for through it the Father should give them what to speak and what to answer before Rulers and Council for his Name 's sake And here the Sufficiency of it is proved to any reâ—sonable Man who hath the least Savour or Discerning of the things â—f God and this is that publick Spirit by which the Apostles published the Everlasting Gospel of Peace and which Christ the Head of the Body his Church had received without Measure and this is a private tâ—â—ining creeping Spirit of thine who hath been lost in thy own Imaginations and following thy own forward rash Spirit and hast found no Certainty in thy self of God's Spirit to stay thy Mind upon nor no Patience to wait upon it but reaching 〈…〉 at things in thy dark Mind and last of all hast brought in thy 〈◊〉 for the Devil against the Sufficiency of the holy Spirit of God 〈◊〉 Guidance amongst his People in the latter Dayes and that is thy fond Conception to say that the Spirit of God is expresly against 2 Pet. 1.20 which thou callest a private Spirit all along 't is true no Prophecy of Scripture is of private Interpretation but the holy men of God spoke it forth as they were moved by the holy Spirit which was publick and conversant among them with them and in them and they that have it can receive them as they are written and can read them and understand them as they were spoken and do see the Intent of the Holy Ghost in so speaking unto different States and Conditions notwithstanding the many Copies thou tellest on and Diversions and different Translations which thou would'st make a great Mountain on and raise it up so high to make the Scripture uncertain and low as not fit to be taken Notice on as to answer any Doubt or to be any Rule and Guide or any Example or President for any thing that I can perceive by the Courâ—e of thy Spirit which in the Truth is fathomed and comprehended though it is as uncertain as the Way of a Serpent upon a Rock yet they that have the Spirit of God see beyond all and have Unity with the Words and Mind of the Spirit of God notwithstanding the many Corruptions and Defects in Translations and the many foul Hands it hath passed through Fourthly The Spirit of Christ is the Gift of God which he giveth unto all that wait for his Appearance and his Sheep have it they that are Christ's have it for they that have not the Spirit of Christ are none of his it is that which is every Way sufficient no Way insufficient it is every Way sufficient to lead into all Truth according unto Christ's Promise and to convince the VVorld of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment again it is that which Christ promised for a Director which was with them when they healed the sick and cast out Devils and which was in them to consolate them and comfort them in the midst of Affliction as it did Peter and John and made them bold who were yet illiterate Men and
had not that Sufficiency which many look upon now they have to wit natural Tongues and Languages yet it was sufficient in them to give them Wisdom to declare the things of the Kingdom of God to the Salvation of many that did believe through their Words it was sufficient to comfort Paul and Silas when they were shut in the inner Room and their Feet fast in the Stocks when there was no outward Cause of Joy but rather of Sorrow yet they were made to sing and rejoyce because of the great Comfort and Joy that the Spirit of God filled their Hearts with again it was sufficient in the midst of great Conflicts and Tribulations which Paul and the rest suffered for the Gospel's sake and for Christ's sake and yet as Suffering did abound it was sufficient to make Consolation to super-abound to ballance the Suffering and to make it easie Fifthly It is that everlasting Covenant which the Lord promised by the Mouth of his Prophets in â—ormer Dayes that he would fulfil in the latter Dayes or after times That he would write his Law in their Hearts and put his Spirit in their inward Parts and that they should not teach every Man his Neighbour saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest and again in another Place I will pour upon them the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication and they shall see him whom they have pierced and again I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh and my Sons and my Daughters shall prophecy c. And this was fulfilled at Pentecost in Jerusalem when the Disciples met together and the Promise of the Father came to be fulfilled and the Unbelievers said They were filled with new VVine and the Lord hath a Care of his People through Ages and hath not left them comfortless not without a Guide and a certain and sure one too which Spirit is manifest among some Non-conformists whom thou takest Liberty to call Sects and the Sufficiency of it is witnessed praised be the Lord in our Assemblies both as to convince to convert to save to judge to guide to instruct to comfort and is that alone in which all true Christian Men can worship God in the Silence of all Flesh fleshly Motions Thoughts it 's that that giveth Assurance also of Acceptation with God and is that which makes the Prayers of the Saints as sweet Incense in the Nostrils of the Lord it is that which makes the Words of him like Butter as pleasant as Hony or sweet Oyl who speaks by it through it and from it whereby the Hearts of many have been pricked and the Thoughts of many have been revealed and many have been comforted with Joy unspeakable and filled with pure Love from the sensible Feeling of the Sufficiency of its Power operating in the inward Man even as when the Harvest had been gathered in and the Press been full of Grapes and the Fat 's had overflown with Abundance so that they could have rejoyced and sung and danced for Joy as sometimes David did when the Ark of God was brought from the House of Obed-Edom and placed in Jerusalem when David danced for Joy and all Israel was filled with Gladness what might I say for the Certainty Sufficiency and All-sufficiency of this holy Spirit of God I might fill my Mouth with Arguments and time might fail me in Speech to speak of the Excellency Certainty and Infallibility thereof against all Opposers and Quarellers In a Word it is that alone means through which God conveys Eternal Life to all Man-kind and it is that Rule by which all the Sons of God were led Rom. 8.14 It is that only sure Guide Judge Way Rule in which there is Certainty and Assurance of the Love of God to Man-kind it is that by which the Deeds of the Flesh are mortified and men quickened and enlivened unto God in their Hearts in which the Saints are accepted by which they are regenerated and through which they become Heirs of the Promise what shall I say but this let all Flesh be confounded before it and all Deceit stop its Mouth and all the Sons of Men bow before it all Councils and Churches all Rulers and Elders all Reason and Comprehension all Words and Writings of Men and holy Men yea of the Scriptures of Truth it gave them all a Being it was and is and is to come and will remain when all visible things are past away it is that by which God will plead with all Flesh and bring a Consumption upon all the honourable of the Earth and burn up the Mountains and make the Hills to melt and make all a Plain before him therefore make room make room make way ye Potsherds and cease all your contending and babling and bow to it and learn of it in your Hearts which R. E. like an ignorant Man calls a private Spirit that your Souls may be saved in the Day of the Lord and you may escape his Wrath which is to come against all Resisters of it Sixthly Your Catholick Church falsely so called who hath Erred from the Spirit the infallible Guide though you much boast of it both in Doctrine and Practise abundantly insomuch that your Faces seem altogether to look another way and your course to arrive at another Haven then the Apostles and all the Primitive Christians attained unto to wit everlasting Happiness and Rest of their Souls and acceptation with God in their performances and Sacrifices which they offered unto him in the Spirit of which they and all that believe in it and have received it received perfect assurance in their Hearts by the immediate Spirit of God and likewise the Protestants in general whether Lutherans or Calvinists or other Sects known by denomination are of so narrow and a pinching Spirit as that you would Pinch and shut up the Universal love of God unto all Mankind in a narrow Corner and monopolize the free Grace of God that hath appeared unto all Men that teaches all Men that receive it to deny all Heresie Falshood Opinions and Humours private Spirits and Spirits of Error which leadeth from all these and is sufficient to lead out of all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to do that which is acceptable in the sight of God and this all Sects since the Woman cloathed with the Sun fled into the Wilderness viz. the true Church and all parties have laid claim to and excluded all other that were not of the Opinion as from having any share in it as though it were given only to such a company of Men that succeeded the Apostles and by Arts and parts and Natural Language in the Course and Term or Years and at such such places as the Apostles were sometime conversant at and other Sects besides you who have kept more nearer in Conformity in Doctrine and Worship and unto the Apostles then you have done they have laid claim to the Spirit of God and to
First it teacheth its Members to Swear and again gives Absolutions to remit them of their Oath if she think fit and both must be reckoned infallible and them that are your Enemies instead of praying for them you Curse them and instead of doing good to them you Hate them and stir up all your strength against them to Destroy them instead of Convincing of them in love and sound Judgment Instance the dayes of King John and divers other Princes which felt your Fury and Wrath and also Frederick the Emperour after he was Interdicted was made to go to Rome before the Popes Palace and to stand bare Foot and bare Leg with his Wife and Children two or three dayes in Winter waiting for Peter's Successor his Absolution But it may be thou wilt say this was in love to them and in Charity to their Souls but let all unbyassed Spirits judge and whether have not you when you have been the strongest party made force Violence and success your greatest engin and plea to plead with all Nations whatsoever People that dissented from you either in matter or form instance Germany Bohemia Moravia and divers other Kingdoms and Provinces besides the Indians in America which you Destroyed chiefly for their Gold and Treasure under this pretence that they were Infidels and forced a Faith upon some and a belief by the violence of your Cruelty and Swords which made the Noble Man of India say he had rather go to Hell with the Infidels of America as you call them then to Heaven with the Spainards so cruel a People Members of your Catholick Church What might I speak of the King of Castile against the poor Moors of Grandia who were put to cruel Torments by force and violence which is a Reproach upon this sort of Christianity unto this day And what Persecution was raised against the Pyedmount Christians by the force of this infallible Judge falsly so called and what Massacres in France and also in Ireland in latter Years propagated by the Popes Nuncio a chief Embassadour from the Roman Sea to carry on that design to root out the Hereticks what destruction of People in a most Barbarous Inhuman preposterous and prodigious Cruelty some killed in their Beds some knocked in the Head like Oxen some stripped naked in cold Winter and bereaved of all their Enjoyments and driven as Sheep naked to the Shambles and at last driven by scores into Lakes and Rivers and drowned some Burned alive in their Houses some tender Woman strangled in Childbed and their tender Infants taken from their Mothers Breasts and tossed upon Spears points and to my knowledge license and Pardons given and sent from Rome to divers of their Emissaries there that it should be lawful for any Servant or Catholick bondman to Steal waste and Purloyn their Masters Goods if Hereticks for the weakening and disenabling of them to resist the Roman Enterprise begun these things and many more are legible in Bloody Characters which I hope this Generation will not easily blot out of their Memories so as to commit all Faith all Hope all Religion and all infallibility and Judgment to such a degenerated Generation as R. E. would have us do and with such Audaciousness is not ashamed to blow his Trumpets as in the head of an Host to animate and encourage all to come to this Black Standard for protection and direction Judgment certainty and infallibility under no less then pain of Damnation and why but because Peter was sometime Bishop of Rome as they say and had given unto him the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever he bound on Earth was bound in Heaven and whatsoever he loosed in Earth was loosed in Heaven and because Christ said giving an Answer to Peters's Faith upon this Rock I will build my Church therefore all the Bishops and Popes as heirs apparent succeed him in laying claim to headship and do none of his Office nor none of his Work and this foolish foppery and private interpretation hath been put off at a very great rate for Catholick Doctrine which brings to my mind a pleasant Story I have some time read of a certain poor Man meeting a certain Bishop at a certain time in great Pomp and Glory which the poor Man beholding took up a Laughter and being enquired of by the Bishop wherefore be laughed said he That Peter should be such a Fool as to live such a poor miserable Life as he did and Persecuted in the World and to leave his Successors so Rich to inherit such Pomp and Glory With that the Bishop replyed and said Thou fool I am not in this Glory as I am Bishop of such a place but as I am Duke of such a place at that the man smiled again and said When the Duke was in Hell for his Pride where then would the Bishop be But to let this pass I am sure them that lay claim to be Peters Successors as to Patrimony and Riches which he was never endowed with for sometime he said Silver or Gold have I none but do little of his Work in Converting of Souls or feeding of the Flock of Christ and do lay claim unto his Priviledge and Power but will not come near him in doctrine labour and Suffering for his Members and therefore I say to thee in thy own Words lay aside thy Folly with the consequences of it as destructive to the Church of God to hang all their Faith upon such uncertainties but even to human societies which I have mentioned and might instance more but that I would not be too tedious to the Reader Lastly Yes some have some other Testimony by which Spirits are tryed and may be tryed to be of God otherwise then by Force carnal Sword a strong Party or Success that 's thy own and not ours we have the holy Unction which is poured forth whereby the Saints knew all things and tryed the Spirits whether they were of God or no and he that confesseth not that Christ is come in the Flesh is Anti-christ and he that confesseth that Christ is come in the Flesh only in Word and because others have said so and doth not witness Sin condemned in the Flesh and turned from and to have Power over it the same is a false Witness and is an Anti christ also and also we have other Things to try Spirits by we know a proud angry hasty perverse Spirit is not the Spirit of God a persecuting lording Spirit is not the Spirit of God and again they that teach a contrary Doctrine to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles they have the Spirit of Error again they whose Practice and Conversation is not suitable to the Practice and Conversations of Christ and the Apostles and primitive Christians that they are in the Spirit of Error again they that would force a Faith by any human Constitution or Law which is repugnant to the Law of God or by Force of the Sword or any carnal
of all Controversies and sole and absolute and only Judge of all Matters of Faith and of all Matters that â—ver have been or ever shall be in Controversie to the End of the VVorld without the Spirit of God neither am I of that ignorant Mind as some are that the Letter and the Spirit are inseparable as that whosoever hath the Scripture must needs have the Spirit or whosoever hath the Scripture must needs be infallible without the Spirit all that are of the aforesaid Judgment are but VVranglers for the most Part about VVords and Contenders against the Power of God and Godliness and bring the VVords to oppose the Life and them that have the Spirit and walk in it for a natural man may read the Scriptures and yet not perceive the things of God neither perceive the Mind of the Spirit but wrest to their own Destruction as Peter saith because they are unlearned and untaught by the Spirit 's Teaching though otherwise learned enough in Languages Tongues and Speeches Secondly Yet I cannot detract from them neither undervalue them or dis-esteem them as uncertain or of no Use or of little Use but whatever themselves declare themselves to be that I own them to be to wit the Words of God the Words of Christ the Words of the holy Prophets and Patriarchs and Apostles who were endued with the holy Ghost and spake forth the Scripture as they were moved thereby in several Ages of several things and unto several States and Conditions as they were led thereto by the holy Spirit and they are a certain Declaration of things that were done and believed and practised by the Jews under the first Covenant and by the Apostles and primitive Christians in the New Covenant and contain many precious and holy Precepts and Commands Doctrines Examples Exhortations Admonitions Reproofs and Instructions and are as lively Examples and holy Patterns for all the Saints in Light to follow by which we are given to understand what Faith what Hope what Patience what Love what Mercy what Long-Sufferings what Consolation what Virtue and what Inheritance the Saints in Light were made Partakers of through Faith in Christ Jesus likewise what Doctrines were held forth and what Practice they used in the primitive times when they walked in the Order of the Gospel and had Fellowship with God the Father and the Son and one with another in the Light of the Gospel which is the Power of God through which they witnessed Salvation Remission of Sins and published it unto others that they might believe Thirdly The Scriptures testifie of Christ and were written that they might be believed and received and read that thereby every one that believed might be made wise to Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3. and instructed in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished with all good Works and whosoever doth teach any Doctrines contrary unto the holy Men of God who spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God which dwelt in them the Scriptures are Witnesses against such that they have not the Spirit of God but are led by another Spirit which brings forth contrary Doctrine and another Faith then was once delivered among the Saints and whosoever brings in sets up other Precepts Constitutions Orders and Practices in Point of Worship in Opposition and contrary unto those Practices which were held forth in the primitive times and would set up other Traditions then the Apostles delivered either by Word or VVriting such are manifest to have the Spirit of Error and are Innovators and Bringers in of other things as necessary in Point of VVorship among Christians which the Apostles and Ministers of Christ did not see necessary then and yet they wanted no Part of the Counsel of God for Paul said He had declared the whole Counsel of God and furthermore they said We have the Mind of Christ and Christ's Mind is not variable Fourthly Though divers of the VVritings of the Prophets and Apostles be lost doubtless as is evident by divers Places of Scripture yet blessed be God that there are those preserved which do bear VVitness of the one thing absolutely necessary unto Salvation of the Ministrations that were appointed of the Lord for the Church of God to observe both in the first and second Covenants so that Christians of this last Age are not lest without Example and President which all ought to have an Eye unto and a diligent Regard and though there be divers Copies of that which is called the Original Tongue and divers Translations yet he unto whom the Spirit of God is given and waiteth in the Measure of Christ's Light shall receive it doth â—ee and shall see the Mind and VVill of God in every Age and the Mind and Intent of the Spirit in them that spoke forth the Scripture and can receive the Matter therein contained as though they had heard them speak that spoke it at the first and though the Translators were Men yet I have such an honourable Esteem of their Labour that I believe they have not varied wittingly and willingly from the best Copies that were extant in their Age neither that they were altogether void of the Spirit of God in such a good VVork which conduced to the Benefit of Mankind but were assisted by it for so good VVork and there be many Figures and Tropas Improprieties of Speech Mysteries and Diâ—â—iculties yet all these come to be made easie and plain to them that are Witnesses of the same Spirit that gave them forth and though there be Diversity of Judgments Professions of Religion one clashing against another thwarting and contradicting another all will seem to bring the Scripture for their Proof which yet cannot maintain and prove every thing good especially when their Doctrines contradict one another this is granted it is only their private Interpretation and not the Scripture and for Wâ—nt 〈◊〉 â—hâ—t Spirit that gave it forth for that alone gives the true Understanding of iâ— and they that are without this are like to kill one another about Words and Names Sounds Tittles and Jottas but still want the Key that opens and gives an Entrance into the Knowledge of the things of God which alone is the Spirit of God that gave forth the Scriptures Last of all R. E. after he saith The three former Props which are the Basis of the whole Foundation and glided over as slightly as he possible could although he hath never stated the Matter right indeed as to remove all things out of his Way which might hinder him in his Cause which he drives so hard on in to wit to set up a certain Company or Multitude of men Visible and Universal as he saith to be the only infallible Judge to convey Faith to the World and to be the certain and infallible Judge in all Matters that either pertain to the Worship of God and to be believed under Pain of Damnation as
the Priests and Levites were appointed by the express Commandments of God as to be Ministers unto him and to minister unto the People according unto the Covenant that he made in those Dayes and the Priests and the Levites were endowed with the Spirit from God suitable to the Ministry Charge committed to them and they were Figures of Christ the Everlasting High Priest and the Law and Judgment which was given by the Lord to Moses was delivered to the Priests and their Lips were to preserve Knowledge and good Reason because they were committed unto them and the Tables of Stone and the Commandments were not given to the Families and the rest of the Tribes and as R. E. hath answered himself neither could sufficient Copies have been written in any reasonable time to every particular Tribe Family or Person and therefore R. E. concludes full too hastily but that his Spirit indeed is by assed all along in his Discourse to aim toward the Mark he would be at to set up Men above the Spirit Scripture and Reason but I enquire of R. E. whether that the Priests and Levites and Judge did tell them any other thing or direct them in any other Way or gave Judgment after any other manner then as was written in the Tables of Stone or the Book of the Law which was written wherein the Mind of God was contain'd both in Point of Worship and also in Point of Government and why might not R. E. as well and reasonably have concluded that that which was given from the Mouth of the Lord concerning all Israel was the Direction Rule and Guide and Judge as well as the Priests and Levites and the Reason that the People or the Church having the Recourse to their Ministers appointed of God was because they had the Statutes and Ordinances of God committed unto them which was put in the Ark of the Covenant and in the Tabernacle And by the Way I would ask R. E. or any of his Roman Catholicks a Question seeing he saith That this Promise is granted and intailed unto the Church without all Limitation or Condition as to be the only infallible Rule and that they cannot err whether that these Priests and Levites ever did err yea or nay and when was the Entail cut off from them seeing the Scripture saith They had violated his Law and broken his Covenant and again The Prophets prophesied for Hire and the Priests bore Rule by their Means and the Judges judged for Rewards and as David and Paul said concerning Israel They are all gone out of the Way and there is not one that doth Good no not one and whether were they the Rule and true Guides and Judges in this revolted State yea or nay although I do not question but they retained still their Places by Way of Office and would claim the same Power which they had before from God as they stood in the Commands of God as R.E. and his Catholicks do and will lay claim to the Office and Power the Apostles had though they do err from the Spirit the Apostles were in and whether their Power of being Directors Guiders and true Judges and infallible Rule stood not upon this Condition as they did continue in the Covenant of God and kept the Precepts of God in Purity without Violation which when they did not as sometimes they did not whether were they subject to err or whether did they err yeâ— or nay viz. the Priests and Levites Judges and Heads of the People which R. E. reckons for the Church and though Christ did exhort his Disciples to hear the Scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses's Chair and to observe and do those things which they from the Law before-given read taught and instructed the People in because as I said before the Law and the Statutes were committed to the Priests and Levites and they to read it and minister unto the People by the Appointment of God and these Statutes and Ordinances were the Rule that the then Church ought to have observed yet Christ exhorted the Disciples to beware of their Leaven and of their Hypocrisie and said they said and did not notwithstanding all the Authority which R. E. saith they had and further saith Would God direct them unto and punish with Death for not obeying an Authority which might deceive them or would Christ command the doing of whatsoever should be done by an Authority that was capable of mistaking all which maks nothing for R.E. but rather would run him upon a harder Rock if this should be true or granted for then he is bound both to believe and justifie the Scribes and Pharisees in whatsoever they did or said of which methinks R. E. should be ashamed 't is true they that sate in Moses's Chair could not err nor be capable of mistaking as they continued to keep unviolate the Ordinances Statutes and Rule which were given unto them by the Command of God but when they disobeyed and set up the Traditions of Men and mingled them with the Ordinances of God and neglected the weighty Matters of the Law as Justice and true Judgment both they that taught and they that were taught came justly under Reproof And seeing R. E. reckons that the Authority of the Jews Scribes and Pharisees could not be deceived or capable of mistaking only because they bear the name of such an Authority and Office I query of R. E. again whether the Scribes and Pharisees were not mistaken yea or nay and whether they were not deceived yea or nay and wherefore Christ should exhort his Disciples to take heed of them and to beware of them and to take heed of their Doctrine and why did Christ pronounce so many Woes against them notwithstanding their sitting in Moses's chair But in what hath been said I hope will be sufficient to convince any that what R. E. hath laid down for a seeming Foundation makes altogether against himself the Premises before well considered And as for all thy collections out of the Promise of God to his Church Isa. 54. 56. and of its Endowments and Glory and Excellency and of his putting his Spirit in them and of his Word in their Mouthes and that it should not depart from the Seed or the Seed's Seed forever this is granted and the Promise is not to Men as Men but to the Seed which is not many but one but Israel was this true Church then in the time of this Prophecy though it hath Relation to future Ages also and if R. E. looks that this Promise should be to Israel after the Flesh the Church then visible and in Being he mistakes himself and he egregiously errs and contradicts the Scripture in sundry Places which saith Your House is left unto you desolate their Sacrifices ceased the Glory of God departed from them their Prophets prophesied a Divination of their own Brain and their Visions were as Visions of the Night and the Lord spake not to the most
of them yet they said falsly Thus saith the Lord in their revolted Estate for they were erred from the Spirit and gone from the Seed and joyned to another Seed and their holy Flesh was departed from them though as Men they had the same Flesh still go learn what that means and yet notwithstanding all this the Promise of God was not violated neither unfulfilled on God's Part for the Promise was not then neither now is to Natural Generations or that which is born after the Flesh or to men as men and Creatures but as they are the Seed and as they are Men of God and as they are born again and new Creatures and if thou wilt have an intailing here it is intailed which cannot be cut off for the Covenant stands not to Men in such a Place that carries the Name of Office or Authority but as they are led by the Spirit the infallible Judge Rule or Guide as they walk by this and in this they cannot err and they erring from this they are subject to be deceived and to be mistaken in all things and every thing of which there are evident Examples in the Scriptures of Truth in divers Ages of them that professed themselves Members of the Church of God and so visible as R. E. speaks of yea and the greater Part too that have erred and their Pathes have been reckoned by the Lord as crooked and perverse and their Habitations full of Cruelty and this is given for an Instance the visible Church of the Jews did err and go aside notwithstanding all the Promises of God to them and as they looked that it still belonged to them because they were in visible Profession though they had turned their Backs upon the Lord and their Hearts too and violated his Covenant yet still as I said the Promise of God and the Covenant of God is not made of none Effect nor broken on God's Part but stands with the Seed forever who are circumcised in Heart and who worship God in Spirit and Truth and in Uprightness of Heart and hath no Confidence in the Flesh nor fleshly Priviledges nor external Performances but only trusts unto the Gift of Righteousness manifest in them by which Justification comes upon all that believe and the Fulness of the Blessing of the Gospel of Christ and the Fulness of the Promise of God but these things I know though they be Holy Faithful and True are a sealed Book and hid from all Eyes living in the Flesh who have not been baptized into the Death and Suffering of Christ. Fourthly That Christ by his own Mouth and the mouths of the Apostles did Promise that there should be a Church which the Gates of Hell should not prevail against and this Church was established upon the everlasting Foundation and the Rock of Ages and was endued with Power from on High and with a great measure of the Spirit of God according unto Christ's Promise which more plentifully was poured forth after Christs departure and after his Ascension and great Gifts were given unto them the Word of Knowledge the Word of Wisdom the Interpretation of Tongues and the gift of Tongues the Gift of Prophesie the gift of discerning Spirits healing the Sick working of Miracles c. and all these foresaid gifts were given for the Work of the Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come into the Unity of the Faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and unto a perfect Man and to the measure and Stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes. 4.11 12 13. And all these were instrumental though the Spirit of God which was with them and in them the only means to bear witness unto those things that they had learned and believed and to publish the word of Faith abroad unto the World and for these aforesaid ends above-mentioned which though R. E. and his Catholicks will needs lay claim to the Succession by way of Office yet by their Doctrine deny in part the very end wherefore such gifts were given to wit the Doctrine of Purgatory for if they did perfect the Saints or were brought up to the knowledge of the Son of God and to perfect Men in Christ Jesus and to be without Sin what need had there been of raising up this damnable Doctrine out of the Pit to purge from Sin after they be dead seeing they were to be perfect Men while they were alive and the Ministry was given for this End but yours it seems cannot have these effects on this side of the Grave and therefore they perfect them in the grave and so be ministers in another World And this Church thus gathered and endued before-mentioned with the infallible Spirit of God if any that did sometime believe and were joyned unto it did walk disorderly as not becoming the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ they were to be admonished and Exhorted and if they persisted in their disorder it was to be told to the Church or the whole Body and if such a one would not hear the Church he was to be reckoned as a Publican or a Heathen and to be denyed as to have any Fellowship with him till manifest Repentance was shewn but we never read that this Church did shed any man's Blood or Burn any or give consent to Destroy any iâ—stance if thou canst though obstinate and Hereticâ— too and in this amongst many other things the Spirit of your Church is seen to be contrary to the Primitive Church and you out of Christ's Doctrine but R. E. Argues further and saith but if Christ by his Spirit doth not preserve this Church from all possibility of teaching Error instead of Truth I may receive such Errors as may damn me unto which I say Christ by his Spirit doth preserve this Church from all possibility of teaching error if they continue in the Guidance thereof and Err not from the Spirit of Christ as some Churches did which were as truly Christian and might lay claim unto Christ's promise of preservation out of error as ever Rome could do and yet six of the Seven Churches of Asia were reproved by the Spirit of Christ some of them for holding gross Error and some for suffering it but where was the fault did not Christ perform his promise to his Church or to these and other particular Churches as Corinth and Galatia yes but there was an erring from the Spirit but all that R. E. goes about is to prove which he will never be able to do that Christ is bound by Promise to make it good to them that he hath once Promised unto though they perform nothing of their part in taking heed to his direction and thus would limit the Lord and let Men go free with obedience to his commands and he cites Mat. 28.20 how the promise of Christ was and lo I am alwayes with you even to the end of the World but he hath done as the
conformable to Scripture and so may be believed is not the Promise of God to his Disciples as they continued to the End and as they kept his Commandments and were they not known to be the Church of God and Disciples of Christ by this and was not the Promise to them that hungred and thirsted after Righteousness and to them that did overcome and was not the Exhortation to the Church of Philadelphia hold fast that which thou hast that none take thy Crown Rev. 3.11 12. Was there not a possibility of letting go that which they had and of loosing the Crown or else why is the Exhortation But I see R. E. would lay claim to Promises and Priviledges without all condition and will not be tyed to keep the commands of Christ nor would not have the Church tyed to follow the Doctrine of the Primitive Church noâ— will not admit of any possibility or probability of failing or Erring nay not so much as a mistake but as to infallibility and certainty I have said enough before and the confidence or rather the impudence of R. E. is easily seen and to make up all he concludes the Apostles as Men were subject to error in their private affairs yet were they by the assistance of God's Spirit infallible in delivering matters of Faith I say as they were assisted by the holy Spirit of God they neither erred in private affairs nor matters of Faith but as they were not assisted by this they were subject to Err for in this stood their only Ability to Teach Instruct Exhort and judge and as they were guided by this Spirit they were infallible and so R. E. saith That the Prelates â—f the holy Catholick Church as Men they are fallible in their own private actions and affairs yet when they are assembled in a general Council with their supream Pastor they are still made infallible in determining matters of Faith It is well that R. E. will grant that there is any possibility for their Prelates to fail either publick or private but I say he that is not faithful in his own actions affairs can never be faithful in the Lord's but it seems â— General Council cannot faâ—l when the supream Pastor the Pope is there but if he be not it seems by R. E's discourse it is more doubtful the like he also judges if the eleven Disciples and the seventy too with the Brethren and Elders if they had all been to define matters of Faith if Peter had been wanting which this Catholick Church calls the Prince of the Apostles there had been some doubt of their infallibility in point of Faith as though the Promise of God and the Spirit of God had not been with the rest of the Apostles as well as Peter but a word or two and more hereafter of the infallibility of General Councils the Nicean Council decreed flat Idolatry about Worshipping of Images the Council at Constantinople condemned their Proceedings and made void their Decrees yet both these in R. E's account must needs be infallible the Council at Basil as Albertus Phigious saith Decreed against all Reason and against Scriptures the Council of Calcedon which was one of the four that Gregory the great compares to the four Gospels that their Decrees were as certain and infallible yet Pope Leo did not stick to condemn it and all them as unadvised Stephanus Bishop of Rome made void the Decrees of Formosus and Sabinian the Pope commanded that Pope Gregory's Mass and all his Writings should be Burned Leo the fourth abrogated and made void the Acts of Adrian the Basil Council determined that the Council of Bishops was above the Pope but the Latteran Council under Leo determined that the Pope was above the Council and they decreed also that he that should think otherwise should be held for a Heretick but the Council of Basil aforesaid decreed that they that judged that the Council was not above the Pope they were Hereticks Innumerable more instances I might give but that I will not trouble my Reader with such unprofitable Stories and all these Popes said They were Peter's Successors and had the Keys of binding and loosing and all these Councils and many more which were of the Roman Faith which in R. E's account could not err but must needs be infallible and yet are as contradictory one to another as Light is to Darkness and black to white and look with their Faces several ways like Sampson's Foxes and therefore let not R.E. nor none of his Catholicks think that the Church of Christ now coming out of the Wilderâ—ess again can receive all their contradictory Decrees and invented Fopperies Constitutions of Men for infallible the Day is broken the Light hath taken hold of the Ends of the Earth the Sun is risen which shall make all Foggy mists of Darkness Clouds of Ignorance to fly away But R. E. ceases not here but heaps up one Peice of Darkness upon another till Blackness of Darkness appears and he tells of a Visible Church Mat. 16. which is builded upon Peter that Visible Rock for that Rock there spoken of is not Christ saith he but Peter for immediately after he names Peter whereas saith he if he had meaned himself or Peter 's Confession for that saith he is too remote or mediate and antecedent for if Christ had meaned himself or Peter's Confession he should have spoken according to the Grammar Rule and Construction Upon that Rock or upon this Rock I have built I do build and not I will build In the 63d Page and in the 64th Page he tells of a Church Visible having two Heads of an Independent Head and a Dependent Head and in the 66th Page he saith He hopes that it will appear clear to all as it did to him that the Visible Church is that Rule and Judge appointed by God and all upon Pain of Damnation are to submit unto it Where R. E. hath read of a visible Church with two Heads I know not and to take it for infallible I intend not and where is Peter called a visible Rock and the chief Pastor among the Apostles doth not this contradict Scripture doth not Christ say The Gentiles exercise Dominion one over another but it shall not be so amongst you he that will be greatest among you let him be your Servant and he that will be chief let him be your Minister and as for thy visible and militant Church we read no such Words in the Scriptures of Truth we read of a Church of God of the first-born whereof Christ was the Rock and the Foundation and another Foundation can no Man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 And Paul saith in ver 10. As a wise Master-Builder I have laid the Foundation I hope R.E. will not be so impudent as to say he had laid Peter or that he had preached up Peter to believe in for Remission of Sins nor for the Foundation
of Faith for that had been contrary to the Apostles Commission and their Doctrine for saith the Apostle We have not preached our selves but Christ the Lord and our selves your Servants for his sake And I may say to thee R. E. as Paul said to the Corinthians when they were striving about Men Cor. 3.21 Therefore let no Man glory in Men for all Things are yours or as he saith in Chap. 1. Ver. 13. was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the Name of Paul were they not carnal that so glorified was Peter crucified for us or were we baptized in the Name of Peter is not your visible Church carnal who thus judgeth that Christ intended Peter to be the Foundation of his Chruch for what was he or the rest of the Apostles but Ministers by which many believed 〈◊〉 and if thou hadst been present it is very like would have instructed Christ what to have said and bidden him have spoken after the Grammer Rule and Construction upon that Rock I will build my Church for Peter 's Faith in Christ is too mediate it seems and his Confession too remote and antecedent to be the Rock meant in Mat. 16.18 and therefore Peter must be immediate and the Rock upon which Christ hath doth and will build his Church but as immediate as he was and as sure a Rock as he was when he began to rebuke Christ he turned him about and said unto Peter Ver. 23. Get thee behind me Satan thou art an Offence unto me for thou savours not the Things of God and so say I to R. E. and his Catholicks they savour not the things of God but it is thy private Spirit and your own Interpretations and not the Mind of Christ and how far antecedent is Peter's Confession of Christ the Son of the living God is it not in Vers. 16. and wherein was Peter blessed but in this that it was revealed to him that Christ was the Son of the living God the Rock of Ages and the Foundation of his Church and as for thy visible Church with its two Heads independent Head and dependent Head which sure must have two Bodies where they can be found but that I shall leave to R. E. and I hope from the Grounds that thou hast here laid which did appear so clear to thee that none will be afraid nor judge that such a visible Church with two Heads is to be Rule and Guide to all to whom all are to submit under Pain of Damnation which is to have Peter for its Rock which if he had been living he would have denyed you all as Setters up of Men and Slighters of Jesus Christ the Rock of Ages the Foundation of the Church the Head of the Body the Rule of Life the Judge of Quick and the Dead the Law-giver Director Instructer and Preserver of his Church forever but R. E. goes on and saith It only remains that we consider which among all these Congregations now on Earth which pretend themselves to be this Church of Christ for having once found her and knowing that she is so assisted with the holy Ghost that she cannot teach us an Error we shall no more dispute the Verity of her Doctrine then we would have questioned the Articles of Faith taught by the holy Apostles or the Words of Christ himself wherefore if this Church this infallible Guide shall teach us that Infants ought to be baptized and that it is as lawful to desire the Saints departed to pray for us as to desire the Prayers of them that are alive and that the Body of Christ our Saviour is really and truly present in the Sacrament of the Altar or any other Article of Faith we shall no more doubt it then the first Christians did the Verity of what the Apostles taught them Among all those Congregations on Earth that look upon themselves to be the Church and Spouse of Christ there is one if thy Eye could behold or if thou could'st discern it but before thou canst there is an Eye in thee must be put out and there is a Wisdom in thee that must be confounded and turned into Foolishness before thou canst discern it in its Glory as it is but however that is it undoubtedly which is begotten into the Faith through the Publication of the immortal Word of Life and who are translated from Death unto Life and who have received the Power and Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ and meet in his Name and Power and do witness his Presence among them and have received a Measure of that infallible Spirit of Truth which leadeth into all Truth and out of the Pollutions of the World and are dead unto the World and baptized into the Sufferings of Christ and are crucified with him who keep unviolated his Statutes and Commands without adding to or diminishing from who walk in the Order of the Gospel and are not conformable to the World nor to that which fallen Men set up but to the Power of God that worketh in the Hearts of all that believe to the framing of them a meet Habitation for God to dwell in and abide in the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and are Sayers and Doers speak the Truth and do the Truth and hold the Truth in Righteousness and the Faith once delivered to the Saints in a pure Heart and a pure Conscience who pray in the Spirit and with Understanding who publish the Truth and declare it in the Spirit reaching to the Consciences and to the Witness of God in all that hear who rejoyce only in Christ Jesus the great Power of God and the Wisdom of God and have no Confidence in the Flesh nor fleshly Performances whose Faith stands not in Words but in the mighty Power of God which she hath received according unto the Promise of God this Congregation or Congregations which is one and doth hold the one Head by which all the Members of Christ are knit together in the one Faith by which they overcame the World this undoubtedly is the Church of Christ and the Spouse of Christ But whether R. E. will not dispute against the Verity of her Doctrine I question notwithstanding all his Submission in Words and if this Church should teach that Infants are to be baptized with Cream and Spittle and signed with the Cross as absolutely necessary to Salvation or that it is the Duty of the Saints alive to pray to the Saints departed this World or to teach that Christ's Body which was broken for us and hanged upon the Tree at Mount Calvary that this should now be in a Morsel of Bread and a Sup of Wine and conveyed thither by the Priest and this to be really the Body of Christ if this Church should teach any such Doctrine there were good and weighty Reason to Question seeing that R. E. before hath said that they cannot be infallible who contradict one another and teach two contrary Doctrines and yet say they are both
infallibly directed so to teach I hope R. E. will grant that the Church in Christ's time and the Apostles was infallible it taught no such Doctrine but to the contrary therefore that Church which pretends infallibility and yet teacheth such Doctrines as before mentioned contrary unto Christ and the Apostles cannot be infallible neither led by the infallible Spirit all have good reason to Question the Verity of these things more then what the Apostles taught seeing they are contradictory to Christ and the Apostles teaching and contrary to Scripture and contrary to the witness of God in all Consciences and as I said before this Church of God whereof I have spoken now though not denominated by any other name then the Church of God is and hath been assisted so by the Holy Ghost as she hath not erred when she only hearkened to its instruction and direction but when the Wisdom of the Flesh and the Worldly part and States and Governments and Policies and Princes have been minded more then the Spirit of God then Error hath been taught and the greater Part in a Council have overswayed the rest established Error by Decree and have enjoyned it under Penalties to be received as Sacred and Holy and Infallible of which we find the Church of Rome exceedingly guilty and therefore do conclude notwithstanding the promise of God to his Church that kept in Covenant with him that this Church of Rome hath erred and doth err both in Faith Doctrine and Practice of the infallible Church in the Apostles dayes and therefore their Doctrine is more to be questioned then the Apostles and they not fit to be this Rule and Guide and director unto which R. E. saith All are to submit under pain of Damnation Scar-Crows will hardly affright Men of understanding but unreasonable Creatures they may And last of all R.E. saith He will conclude his whole Proof with an Argument from Heaven of the highest Nature make it evident That the Roman Church must be this Guide and Judge which God hath appointed because of the Gift of Miracles cites John 15.24 If I had not done among them the work that no other Man did they had not had Sin And now I say that the Roman Church hath done Works and Miracles such as no other Church hath done therefore if we refuse to believe her we shall have Sin and shew our selves haters of God And he instances St. Ber. St. Mal. St. Dom. St. Fra. which wrought Miracles and of Austin the Monk which taught Christian Faith first in England and his fellow Monks which was then confirmed by wonderful Miracles from Heaven not in confirmation of those Points and Articles of Faith which you had with us but of those which you call Popish and Superstitious as the Sacrifice of the Mass and about Respect and Veneration which is given to Saints Reliques and Images and about the Doctrine of Purgatory and Payment of Tythes and R. E. concludes if we will not believe what you have not seen you destroy Faith which is an evidence of things not seen Although R. E. makes a great boast of the Miracles of the Church of Rome which no other Church hath wrought the like therefore concludes that she is this Rule and Guide which all are to give Ear unto under pain of Damnation and these Miracles he saith are an Argument from Heaven and proof of the highest Nature believe him who can If time would but permit and the Reader have patience to read most or many if not all the Miracles he so much cries up might be declared to his and their shame the very report and relation thereof cannot but be reckoned as fabulous and fained Stories and proceed from that lying Spirit which was in the faâ—se Prophet which wrought Miracles before the Beast and deceived them that had received the mark of the Beast and them which Worshipped his Image which must be taken alive and cast into the lake of Fire Rev. 19.20 It is an adulteroâ—s Generation that seeks a sign and yet did not believe when they had Miracles wrought by the Finger of God amongst them yet they said it was by Beelzebub The Scribes and Pharisees said If he be the King of Israel let him come down from the Cross and we will believe but the Power of Christ was not to be shewed at the Blind will of the Phariâ—ees neither would they have believed if he had come down Though Miracles have been wrought by the Power of God and are according to his Heavenly will and are not limited either to Men time or place yet it is not so sufficient an Argument from Heaven as R. E. saith to prove the Church of Rome this true Church seeing that the Devil and Satan and Anti-christ shall come with Signs and lying Wonders and if it were possible deceive the Elect And Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses in working Lying Miracles before Pharaoh to the hardning of his Heart And Chrysostome in his Hom. upon Mat. 19. saith In the end of time Power shall be given to the Devil to work Signs and Miracles So that the Ministers of Christ cannot be known by working of Miracles but by working none at all And Augustine saith though some said Prayers at the Tombs of the dead and obtained their desires as they said Away with these things they be either juglings and mockeries of deceitful Men or else delusions of lying Spirits Chrysost. in his Hom. upon Mat. 49. In old time it was known by Miracles who were the true Christians and who the false but now Miracles are rather among them that are false Christians And as for your great Miracles which thou sayest the Chronologies and Histories speak of J. L. as Bed and Holingshed Stow and others we look upon them not at all as material in this thing seeing they have had the Reports from other Hands and Pens of certain Mâ—nkiâ—h Stories which they have found scattered here and there published themselves and left their Fables upon Record to deceive poor People withal for their own advantage and most of the Miracles that we hear of are either wrought about your Tombs and Sepulchers and your holy Mass and your Reliques and Images I have heard indeed how that from the skirt of an Image of yours which one in a Bloody Flux did but touch and immediatly vertue came from it and Water and Blood issued forth whereby the party was made whole by washing therein Also I have heard of the Image of the Virgin Mary first honoured by Christians in Nazareth afterwards Translated into Sclavonia and when Images began to be vilified there and dis-esteemed it removed it self from place to place as discontent did arise in it it seems at the place and People where it was situated sometimes and at lâ—st it removed a whole Island with it nearer Rome now call'd Loretta and commonly known by the Name of Our Lady of Loretta to which all the Pilgrims
the Nations and blinded the Eyes of the People but the time is come and Light and Life is broken forth that the Skirts of the Whore must be discovered and her nakedness must appear and her Fornications and Adulteries shall be manifest unto all so that you shall not proceed much further And I hope by this time in R. E's Words it will appear evident to all whose Eyes God in any measure hath opened That this Catholick Church so called is manifest in what hath been said to R. E. not to be the Church of Christ neither their Doctrine and Practice divinely propounded neither she taken from henceforth as the only infallible Judge Rule and Director in all matters of Faith which all are to receive upon pain of Damnation as R. E. saith though she sit as Queen and hath known no Sorrow but on the contrary she to be a blind Guide that hath bewitched the Kings of the Earth and the Nations which are Waters which is the Universalâ—ty R. E. boasts of with her Inchantments Sorceries which from hence forth shall not be taken as infallible but fallible and as that Church that hath not conveyed the true Faith which was once delivered to the Saints but rather hath spread abroad Error and false Doctrine and the Traditions and inventions of Men instead of the Doctrine of Christ and would put off all thâ—s under the Name of Authority and Power from God and sufficiently propounded and infallibility and under the Penalty of the highest curse upon not receiving it but the Sun is risen which hath disovered all your deceit lay down your carnal Weapons Cain's weapons and your human Power by which you have prevailed more by force and cruelty upon the Nations then by sound Doctrine or that plea of being Peter's Successors I say come forth with your spiritual Weapons which the Church of God had in the Primitive times and prevail as far as you can but Oh! you want these and therefore you are necessitated to take up force and Violence the Dragons Power to compell all to come to your Church Further R. E. in his Postscript hath been confident of what he hath declared That it is of such force what he hath said for the Roman Catholick Church so called that he believes what he hath said cannot be answered and he saith his confidence doth not mis-become him and that it is improbable to be Answered and that he hath not yet done his All neither in his first nor second Edition but hath some-what more yet of great moment to speak as to prove the Church of Rome this only and infallible Guide Unto whom I say it had been good not to have boasted when he put on his Armour but when he puts it off and methinks having been so unstable and unsetled as he hath been formerly he should not have been so confident in opposition to Wisdom as to give such a challenge and make such a vapour of as that it is improbable to be answered and it is more then any of you or all of you can answer as his own Words are page the 9th these words are not becoming a Man indeed who saith He hath learned meekneâ—s and humility of Heart and hath such great bâ—wels of Charity as he professeth he hath page the 86th The substance of what he hath said or written which he reckons so profound and unanswerable and to be more then any or all the Non-conformists can answer they have been Answered over and over again before R. E. was born by many Learned sufficient and good Men whose Reasons and weighty Arguments about the Premisses have not been made void unto this day but have prevailed with many not only to the Convincing but also to the turning of many from that usurped Authority of the Roman Church and hath discovered the Errors false Doctrine and evil Practices notwithstanding their pretended infallibility which R E. will not be able to answer if particulars should be descended unto and though R. E. may reckon the reasons thâ—t he hath 〈◊〉 down when he haâ—h the most what taken at the gainest and reckon them as impregnable yet I hope they will not appear so to an understanding Eye which is enlightened by the Spirit of the Lord nor to them who are of a sound Judgment what others have done to answer his bold Challenge I know not because I am shut up in a Corner for the Testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God but methinks them that are concerned should not let such Boasts go unreproved neither such false Doctrine nor false suggestions as R. E. hath made to viâ—ifie and debase and set at nought all things and every thing that seems contrary unto the Judgment of this pretended Catholick Church and seeing that he shuts out all Non-conformists as to be Members of the Church or God and to be without all Rule all Order all Government and to come under the great penalty of damnation by not submitting unto whatsoever this pretended Catholick Church doth impose how Repugnant soever it be unto the Doctrine of Christ and how contrary soever it be unto the Spirit of God yet all must be received without question though it be that which the Spirit of God sometimes called the Doctrine of Devils but how it must become holy and of divine Authority and sufficiently propounded and so received because as R. E. saith Thâ—s Church cannot Err I say unto him and unto all men and to the Witness of God in every man either the Church in the Apostles dayes did Err and teach false Doctrine or this pretended Catholick Church because they teach contrary one to the other and do walk by a contrary Rule and as R. E. saith Infallibility cannot contradict it self and he hath granted that the Apostles and Primitive Christians had an infallible Spirit and did not Err then let R. E. and all take a view of the Roman Doctrine and compare it with theirs and they shall find it as far wide one from the other as the Heavens are from the Earth or Light from Darkness so that for the Truth 's sake and for the Doctrine and Faith sake that was once delivered among the Saints and for the Non-conformists sake who cannot bow their Knee to Baal neither submit to the Injunctions of changeable Men instead of the Doctrines of Christ. I could not do less then give Answer unto the substance of R. E. his Epistle which he boasted of To be more then any could answer and to reprove his false Doctrine and Error which he would perswade all unto and not to question because the Church of Rome hath propounded it as infallible most of all those Doctrines are denyed and I cannot but give my Testimony against them as to be false and that which leads People into Error and let R. E. when he brings forth his All prove to us that Infallibility as intailed to the Pope by succession and Prayer for the Dead Worshipping of
plain Words of the Scripture and Interpretation to prove his false Assertion that he laid down at the first that Christ did not forbid all Swearing I say I could willingly have been silent rather then to be found over and over again contending with every new Opposer of those old Truths that have been believed and received long before the Apostacy entered in which hath been answered by that People I own in Judgment and Conversation long ago to let pass those Disadvantages we have adventured upon our low persecuted imprisoned and in a Manner condemned Condition so that we may expect our Words how true soever yet they are not like to gain much Credit against such an eminent Man as Doctour Smalwood Again considering how we expose our selves to the Lash and Severity of a sharp Law which some Men in their blind Zeal are far more rigid and severe in their Prosecution of it then I am apt to believe the Supream Enactors of it were in their Intentions when they did enact it all which notwithstanding are no Discouragement unto me forasmuch as the internal and eternal Truth of our God which we have known received and believed is very precious in our Eyes yea far more then either Life or Liberty and Estate which some have forfeited and lost upon Truth 's Account or any external Treasure or outward Enjoyment whatsoever so that considering how the Truth lyes at Stake we cannot be silent lest thereby we should appear to some Mens Apprehensions as to be satisfied with what the Doctour hath said and own his Arguments and Reasons that he hath laid down for positive Truth I could do no less then to show our Dislike of his Doctrine and to manifest the Weakness of his Arguments about this Particular of Swearing at all under the Gospel though he hath strained very hard to prove his Assertion That Oaths may lawfully be taken by Christians in some Cases notwithstanding Christ's â—rohibition and Command to the contrary but of how little Effect or Force hiâ— Reasons are thou wilt see in the ensuing Discourse although his Book be looked upon by some to be sufficient Force to convince all Gain-sayers and although he say he hath had divers Papers and Books of Dissenters who are of a contrary Judgment where he found any Reason offered against what he has laid down for Doctrine he hath answered though indeed he hath over-riden the most weighty Matters in them and hath said little but that hath been said before by other Opposers of Christ's Doctrine though it 's very like the Doctour will count this but a loose Discourse as he hath done others of very great Weight yea indeed of more Weight and Reason in them then any thing he hath exhibited to the contrary and so count it not worth taking Notice of but though he do not it 's not of much Moment for that End only have I writ to bear my Testimony for Christ's Doctrine against all the false and feigned Interpretations of Men being that which I have stedfastly believed and is of that Force and VVeight upon many Consciences so evident by the Spirit of Christ that they can receive nothing of Mans fallen Reasons and Conceptions which are variable and changeable to answer or weigh down the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and primitive Christians who walked in the Order of the Gospel and obeyed the Commands of Christ before the Apostacy entered in and the Power was lost and the Life and Spirit of Christ erred from and mingled the Ordinances of the first and second Covenant together the Injunctions of Men among them for Doctrine and then compelled all to receive it all this long Time of Antâ—christ's Reign and the false Church's Visibility wherein she hath sitten as a Queen upon the Waters which are the Nations Kindreds Tongues and People which A. S. brings as a great Argument to prove Swearing in Use among Christians since Christ gave out that Command Swear not at all the Reasons the very strength of them I have laid down as A.S. hath published them without varying from his own Words the Answer thou may'st peruse and read without Prejudice and weigh with the Measure of God's Spirit in thy self for unto that I appeal which is a more certain Thing then Councils or Nations or Consent of Multitudes who have the Name of Christian and walk not in his Doctrine neither live his Life nor do the Things he saith I am shut up in a Corner and have not that Advantage that some Opposers have of others Labours as to bring Authors of divers Ages that denyed to swear though not only some there were but many but alas they are condemned by A. S. and others for Phanaticks and Heterodox and so their sayings will seem of less Force but however I have not much striven neither shall to fetch Things from far in the Apostacy but rest in that which makes all Things evident even the Spirit of God in thy own Heart and the Scriptures of Truth which were spoken by the Spirit which are so clear unto many that there needs not Multitude of Words to demonstrate this Truth of the Prohibition of all Oaths among true Christians but I shall not detain thee from the Matter it self and the Lord give thee an Understanding OATHS NO Gospel-Ordinance But prohibited by CHRIST THere being a Book lately published by A. Smalwood D. D. as I understand Doctor of Divinity first preached in a Sermon at Carlile I suppose before the Judges at the Assizes then holden the 17 th day of August 1664. since which I perceive many Additions by Reasons and Paraphrases are added thereunto and Printed at York In which Discourse he hath Vindicated the lawfulness of Swearing under the Gospel and hath gone about to prove it by many Reasons and Authors how that Christ upon that subject Mat. 5.34 Swear not at all did not intend an absolute Universal prohibition of all manner of Swearing under the Gospel which Book of his I have perused with an upright Heart and an impartial Eye seriously to the End I might own that which is good in it not as one being glued to an Opinion or Judgment but what as carries demonstration of Truth with it upon my Conscience and in my Heart it being a Principle well known and believed amongst us to have our Consciences void of offence towards God and towards Man and seeing my self and many more are great Sufferers at this day upon this very account which I look upon being truly and Conscientiously grounded upon the Doctrine of Christ and consonant to the Primitive Christians and seeing so large things have been written by other Hands in asserting the Truth of what we have believed which yet stands as a Witness unto the Doctrine of Christ notwithstanding all opposition and gain-saying that it hath had by many Hands I could have been wholly silent and have referred all that hath been said to the Judgment of the Lord and to
intrinsecally evil by Christ Mat. 5.39 40. But I say unto you that you resist not evil and whosoever shall smite the one Cheek turn hâ—m the other also and if a Man sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also and whosoever shall compell thee to go a mile go with him twain And it is in the new Testament I hope written Avenge not your selves And was iâ— evil in it self or morally Evil to keep the seventh day of the Week as a Sabbath or only good because commanded or was it lawful to fight with Amalicks Edomites Egyptians Canaanites because Israel was only commanded or because they were real Enemies to God in their Hearts or as Samuel Fisher well said in Answer to Doctor Gauden which A. S. quarels with that Circumcision Sacrifices and Offerings Passover and New-Moons Fasts and Swearing was not Evil in themselves but because forbidden and though A. S. give such a great Challenge to S. F. to produce one Instance that any thing was prohibited by Christ but what was intrinsecally evil or else his Argument is in vain I say the afore-mentioned thing prove it that something was forbidden that was not Evil eternally intrinsâ—â—â—lly but because prohibited and again in the same Chapter ver 44. But I say unto you love your Enemies bless them thaâ— Curse you though under the Law they did fight and might fight with the aforesaid Enemies the Canaanites and Gentiles but now I say put up forgive love your Enemies Peter put up thy Sword he that takes hold on it shall perish by it Avenge not go not 〈◊〉 Law one with another 1 Cor. 6.7 suffer forbear forgive if thy Brother siâ— against thee seventy times 7. times And though A. S. says That nothing was forbidden by Christ or in all the New-Testament but what was in it self Evil or in some respect conducing thereunto methinks he hath given 〈◊〉 bâ—ld a Challenge what will he say to all the former things mentioned and what evil had Circumcision in it or the Passover or Sacrificing or New-Moons and the Sabbath days or what tendency had they to Evil but rather were good for the end they were ordained to be Signs and Types and Figures of holy things to come like a Swearing was among the rest what-ever A. S. say or Argue and yet when the substance of the good things was to come to them that had believed and received him who was sum of all the Apostle said Gal. 5.2 3. If you be Circumcised Christ profits you nothing after he was offered up And Gal. 4.9 10 11. You observe new-Moons and Holy days and Sabbaths And these things that were once as really good as ever Swearing was considering the End wherefore they were enjoyned and these things were never Evil in themselves yet the Apostle reckoned them beggarly Rudiments and told them they had begun in the Spirit and now sought to be made perfect through the Flesh and so stood in doubt of them that his labour had been in vain and thereof if A. S. or any other will needs uphold Swearing because commanded to the Jews before the Seed Christ was revealed I say he is Gal. 5.34 a debter to the whole Law and is as much bound to keep it in all other points as this or else he is a Transgressour and is one of those that would be laying Yoaks upon the Disciples Necks unto whom they were never intended for if the Ceremonies and Rights and outward observations which properly did belong to the Jewish Church and State to observe till the fulness of time when the partition Wall should be broken down and the Jews and Gentiles should be one and one Shepherd and one Fold for them both and no longer and they were never given to the Gentiles to observe and therefore for ought I can perceive many would have the gentile-Christians who never were under the Law neither the Ordinances of the first Covenant neither ever given to them yet they would compell the Christians to live as do the Jews and to observe their Ordinances and therefore are greatly to be blamed Gal. 2.13 14. Therefore we do not look upon any Swearing to be now a duty under the Gospel among true Christians truly such as some Swearing was once under the Law but affirm all Swearing to be now a Sin because forbidden by the positive Law of Christ under the Gospel who by his Death ended the right of that and many more legal Rites and Rudiments which whoso doth observe now as Christians doth it not without Sin and Guilt and Superstition and therefore S. Fisher that faithful Servant of God who suffered in Bonds till Death for his Testimony even in this particular saith well That that sort of Swearing which was not Sin simpliciter in its Nature under the Law is now a sin upon the account of Christ's Universal prohibition of all Swearing who was of Authority to put to an End as he did by his Death unto the Law And therefore that sort of Service and Worship which stood in outward Observations which was duty because commanded under the Law and no Sin in their own Nature neither were Evil in themselves nor in any respect conducing thereto as they were observed but had some single good in them once and yet who observes them now as Service of God maketh Christ of so little effect to himself as that he profits him nothing at all I hope A. S. will not deny but these things as forbidden in the new Testament which sometime were not Evil in their own nature but now are evil when the Substance is come in whom they all End and therefore S. F. his Argument is not vain but of force And yet let A. Smallwood know that there were many things observed and done not only by the Jews but by them that believed in Christ and thought well of him while he was present with them and yet did not see to the end of those things which were Shadows and Signes and good as once commanded and had no Evilin them but were Good as commanded and for the end for which they were ordain'd which afterwards in the more full growth and Knowledge in the Mystery of Christianity they came more to be seen through and that was felt in which they all ended and though Christ came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it and to observe the Ordinances commanded in that Covenant to fulfill that which was written of him Psal. 40.6 In the Volume of the Book it is written I am come to do thy will O God And further he said himself It behoveth us to fulfill all Righteousness and that which was commanded but this was before he was offered up and was as a middle dispensation betwixt the ending of the Law and publishing of the Gospel yet howbeit Christ knew it and did speâ—k of it at some time that those things that had been sometime commanded Deut. 12 5. and
neither was there any necessiâ—y or just occasion whatever A. S. mâ—y call just occasion we cannot for he hath left such a great compass for himself to turn in though here and thâ—re he seem to disallow of customary Oaths and frequent Oaths yet notwithstanding his Discourse rather tends to an allowance of Swearing frequently and unnecessarily for we reckon it to be a piece of ordinary Communication for a Christian Minister to write a Letter of admonition or Exhortation or an Epistle unto the believing Hearers and that there is no necessity of Oaths in such a Discourse for what-ever A. S. sayes this would make the Apostle guilty of frequent and unnecessary and common Swearing which we are far from believing forasmuch as they did believe through the word of Life declared by the Spirit of God in him neither through his Epistles written being assisted by the Holy Ghost they were not like to believe him for Swearing if he had Sworn but saith A. S. If his words had really been believed which he spoke and wrote what occasion would there have been for him to have written so to the Roman 's Rom. 9.1 I say the Truth in Christ I Lye not The Apostle knew what occasion he had to speak these Words and the occasion was this that the Jews sought to be justified by the Righteousness of the Law and by the Works thereof and would needs look upon themselves as the Children of God because they were of the stock of Abraham according to the Flesh but the Apostle knew and also gave them to understand that the Children of the Promise were counted for the Seed and again for they are not all Israel which are of Israel Rom. 9.6 7 8. And thus he spake Truth unto them as it was revealed by Christ whom the Father had revealed in him and why might he not say I speak the Truth in Christ seeing that Christ was in him and he in him I Lye not my Conscience also bears me Witness in the Holy Ghost he might also as well say that Paul Swore by his Conscience seeing that he took it for a witness away away with such perverting and straining of the Scripture beyond and beside the mind of the Holy Ghost for God is witness and I speak the Truth in Christ they are no more then arden and Zeâ—lous or fervent expressions as the Spirit of God at several times did stir up in his Heart both to speak and write for the end that they unto whom he spoke or wrote might believe and therefore we conclude not as A. S. would needs have it that the Apostle spoke these fervent words unnecessarily for we know and see his end and purpose was good and therefore he spoke with fervency and with boldness the Spirit of the Lord beâ—ring witness in his Conscience that he spoke the Truth which we are fâ—r from believing is either juration or abjuration and for ought can be perceived by A. S 's disdainful Spirit all that do dissent from him in his Opinion he calls Phanaticks and Paul shall hardly go free nor divers of the ancient Fathers as Origen Chrysostome Jerome Theophilaâ—â— and others who denyed not only Swearing in private Conversation but to Swear at all but now these must be called Phanaticks who dissent from all men but themselves by A. S. and such as he who Sail with Wind and â—ide and exalt and applaud that which hath praise among men and hath not the praise of God and so the last of all he makes this Conclusion that so help me God is the most certain expression of an Oath which form of Words that though he count them certain we find not either under the Law or under the Gospel and I look upon it mâ—re as a piece of flattery in A.S. because this is the Form and the Câ—stom which 〈…〉 câ—lled Swearing which is in use in this Nation and it's stranger to us that they will reckon this so great a piece of peculiâ—â— Service which is incommunicable to any Creature but only to God whenas indeed we never find it written or commanded either among the Jews or commended or used amongst all the writings of Christ and the Apostles that hath relation to Christianity Indeed I remember that I have read that in the days when the Pope's Authority was in full Power here in England how that the Chancellour then of England said to one of John Wickliff's followers being brought before him in Examination he said unto him Lay thy Hand upon the Book thou Heretick and Swear so help me God and holy doom An old Superstitious Popish Form I look upon it to be and hath no consistance with an Oath in its true matter and Form under the Law when iâ— was commanded and for ought I see A. S. will rather take part with the Church of Rome and her Members who Persecuted rather then Wickliff that famous Reformer who had his Bones taken up and burned 41. Years after his Decease and his Books and these Articles condemned by the Council of Coâ—stance who also burned John Hus and Jerome of Prague for holding John Wickliff's Opinions which was That all Oaths under the Gospel be unlawful I say A. S. might have been more modest then with the Council of Constance condemn them for Error seeing they were the only People in their Age and time that opposed and suffered for opposing the Church of Rome in the Apostacy seeing that they are fain to own them if they look for any Reformation before Luther to be their Witnesses against the Church of Rome which I have heard many Protestants say that they were on their part against the Church of Rome and though A. S. tells us of a Generation of People quos non persuadebis etiam si persuaseris who as they will not be perswaded so they will not be counselled who will have nothing else to be the formality of an Oath but by God but this he sayes only of his own Head except he knew some People that we know not of for we say to Swear the Lord liveth as an Oath and again as the Lord lives is an Oath or by the Lord that lives forever and ever is an Oath and yet we must needs deny that Paul Swore in the 1 Cor. 15.1 when he said by your rejoycing I die daily And we never said A. S. mistook himself in saying that by as the only mark and Character of an Oath and if Austin said upon these words of Paul as A. S. tells us per vestram gloriam juratio est upon Paul's words I suspect his judgment and therefore shall not so much regard it But A. S. seems not to be at Unity in his Book with himself notwithstanding all his raveling out where he seems in his 41. page to dislike of Nicholas Fuller's Judgment viz. that there is no Oath where God is not interposed and yet in the 56. page he saith That the Substance of an Oath consists in the
but it called it self by the best Name as for the Priests of Scotland their Doctrine and Practice is made manifest and their Reformation by their Principles which I refer the Reader to intituled The Principles of the Priests of Scotland their Reformation and discipline is nearly related to the Spanish Inquisition for their Doctrine they say Grace is not free and Faith is not without Sin and the Letter is the word of God and that they are Cursed that say there is Light within which will lead up to God and as one said although it meant Christ and if any will not submit to their words and conform to their Practice and Traditions then they call a Counsel together as their fore-fathers at Trent and pronounce him a Heretick and within these few Years Banished them or else took their whole substance outward from them and if any out of Conscience could not submit unto their Invented Tradition then if he ever came to have any converse with them again he must have a Pennance before he could get an Indulgence from them like the Pope and furthermore if any deny them because they are out of the Doctrine of Christ and are contrary to the Scripture then as I said they Excommunicate them and charge all People neither to buy nor sell nor eat nor drink with them nor work for them and so the Beasts Power is exercised compelling to come to their Mass-houses and as for the denying the Bishops then you have denyed your Fathers that begat you and Ordained you then you have no Ordination but may be you have Cryed so for setling your Gospel you have got a Committee to ordain you or one Company to lay Hands on another but when receive ye the holy Ghost Oh that is an error in your Church but are not you got into the old Cathedrals so called and into the Steeple-houses and the old Mass-houses and where you had may be 20 Pounds or Forty in the Year now you have gotten a Hundred it may be two here 's Reformation indeed well we must needs remember you of your race and Stock the Apostates since the Apostles dayes and the former Practices which is found among the old Protestants and Papists is among you and you are still Drunk with the whore's Cup and are crying for Cain's Weapons to guard you well I say you are part of the Dragon's Tail that draws to the Earth and to the Pit which will be the end of all Idolaters and Apostates except they come to Repent And as for the Independants Churches so called you are a Branch of the same Root you have declared against the Bishops and court Prelates and said they were in error and many of you declared against them for Pluralists because they had too great Benefits and declared against Tythes as to be Anti-christian and whoso received Tythes denyed Christ come in the Flesh who are wheeled about and now take them your selves and Creep into the old Mass-houses and have taken that up which you condemned in others and so have made your former Testimony void and all sober People see your Hypocrisie and Deceit who have gathered a company together which you call Select People or Members of your Church and you exclude the rest who have as good right to your Ordinance as you for they profess Christ in Words as you do And yet you will receive their means whom you judge not capable of your Ordinance and your Church will no more maintain you then it would maintain them that you have denyed in Words if you had not the Beasts Power to compel your Vineyard would Starve you your Gospel and your Preaching is one with the former and the People is the same in Nature they were before you have got Bishops Lands Augmentations and Stipends more large then your fore-fathers had for the most part and sue Men at the Law and hale them before Judgments Seats and take away their Goods whom you loook upon to be in error yet this stands as good with you as any Article of your Faith to force to compel to Sue to hale into Prison to take away their Goods and get a Scripture for your Cover and say He that Preacheth the Gospel must live of the Gospel and them that neither hear you nor receive you neither believe your Gospel yet you conclude it 's lawful to take their Goods and if you cannot get them hale the party into Prison are not you drinking still the Whore's cup and do not you follow the Beast and do not you own that Law to be Just that compels People to pay Money to you who deny your Ministry and are none of your Sheep and are not your Ordinances and Worship Imitated Things from the Scripture the Saints words and yet out of their Life and Practice are not you in the Apostacy have you not your Profession and Confession of Faith to make year after year as the Magistrate changes doth not this Evidence that you are Unstable and are yet in the Waters upon which the whore Sits and situated in Babylon the Mother of Harlots who yet makes you Drunk and that makes all the Filth and Vomit appear in the Earth that Stains the Earth and your Idols corrupt the Earth all Separates under what Name soever who have not denyed the Ground of Apostacy but are in the Apostacy for all Sects since the Apostles dayes have taken up some part and left another since the Life hath been lost and the Power lost all hath been in the Idolatry and the Protestants who have denyed the Papists yet they have not denyed them in the Ground of their worship but have retained some part and have kept some part of their worship and all Sects sprung out of the Protestants in them all there is some part remaining for they have not denyed the Ground of the worship set up in the Apostacy the Whore's cup is Drunk of and the Dragon hath Power which sought to destroy the man-Child and made war with the Remnant of the Seed of the Woman who was Clothed with the Sun you all stick yet in Babylon and the best of you all are but yet in the Suburbs thereof For since the Apostles dayes their Foundation hath been either Traditions Imitations Inventions of their own or Borrowed things from the Jews in the first Covenant or at the best the Letter hath been the ground of their Faith and their Foundation which they have twined and translated this way and that according to the wit and Reason of every particular Sect and Opinion and according to the understanding of their private Spirits now all these buildings and Towers that mâ—n have builded up in the Apostacy they would fasten upon the writings of the holy men of God and so have raised an Imagination of their own and so would have the Scripture prove what they say and the writings of the Apostles theâ— all call the Gospel and the word of Faith and the Light
of the Gospel and the Foundation and the Tryer of Spirits and the Touch-stone and say it 's the Foundation of their Faith and Religion and so are all in the distraction one Envying another and Persecuting one another about the words of Truth spoken from the Spirit of Truth which cannot be understood again but by the same Spirit and so all them that have not the Spirit of Truth are in the Apostacy And all Sects Judgments and Opinions that have risen up since the Apostacy from the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints when the woman Travailed and brought the man-Child which after because of the Dragon's Power fled into the VVilderness and her Child caught up unto God all the Faith and worship that since is sprung up since the VVhore hath sitten as a Queen in Majesty is all denyed the Ground of their Worship Laws Traditions Inventions and all their invented Practices and Forms and Images and Likenesses are denyed and disowned as to be the Dress and Attire of the Whore which hath allured People through her enticing pretences and shews of Holiness when indeed all is but spiritual Adultery and this must be all turned under again the Whore's flesh Burned and her Attire plucked off and her Nakedness appear and her shame to them that have committed Fornication with her and they shall be ashamed of themselves and of her and abhor themselves and abhor her and Destroyed shall she be and the Lamb's Wife shall be beautified and come out of the secret Place into open View out of the Solitary Wilderness into the beautiful place that the Lord will bring her into and the time times and half time is out the thousand two hundred and threescore Dayes are at an End and he bears witness of it who saw her fly away upon Eagles Wings into the secret place which was prepared for her for these Dayes and Times appointed and I say he that knows the Counsel of the most High in this matter can account the time times and a half and the Dayes and what shall be after the dayes be expired which is at an end blessed is he that sees believes and Understands he shall see that which yet hath not appeared neither can it be believed by the most though it were declared but yet a little while and the Earth grows ripe and an Ear will be opened in many who cannot yet hear and for a little while in this I shall be silent and Treasure up that which the Spirit hath revealed till the time be fully accomplished which God hath determined and then his Glory shall be revealed and all the former things which have lived since the man of Sin hath been Exalted shall all dye and an utter Consumption shall be of all the changeable Laws made since the Apostacy and the many changeable Dresses of the Whore and Attires in which she hath appeared and Imaginary worships into which all have run since they were Apostatized from the Faith all this shall be disannulled and come to an End and be Blasted forever the Spirit of the Lord saith Amen How the Woman that was clothed with the Sun and had the Crown of twelve Stars upon her Head which did flee into the Wilderness comes out again after the great Whore is judged and her Child that was caught up unto God comes to appear again NOW after the time times and half a time after the thousand two hundred and threescore Dayes she returns after the Whore is judged and the great City Babylon is fallen which hath made the Nations drunk and brought forth Children in Fornication who had drunk the Blood of the Saints in the Apostacy after the Whore was judged and the Voice was heard in Heaven of much People that sang Halelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power who witnessed to the Righteousness of God's Judgment And a Voice came out of the Throne saying praise our God all his Servants and ye that fear him both small and great Rev. 19.5 6. And I heard as it were the Voice of many Waters and as a great Multitude and as the Voice of a mighty Thunder saying Halelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth the Whore is now judged the Mother of Harlots condemned with all her Inchantments and Sorceries Now the Lamb's Wife appears who is the Mother of the man-child which was caught up unto God she that was cloathed with the Sun with the glorious everlasting caelestial Light she is both the Mother and the Wife he that hath an Ear let him hear Now Jerusalem that is from above spiritually so called who was the Mother of all the Saints before the Apostacy she appears again and comes to be the Wife of the Lamb and the City of the Saints and the Mother of them that are born from above this shall be and is made manifest to some but a numberless Number shall see it and the Day hastens greatly and she is appearing again and her solitary Garments shall be put off and as she was beautifull before the VVhore made the Nations drunk clothed with the Sun and had the Moon under her Feet and a Crown of twelve Stars upon her Head and though she became Child-less and also as a VViddow and the Remnant of her Seed slain and destroyed so shall she appear again in Glory and Beauty as before and shall be made ready yea mine Eye hath seen it she is making her self ready as a Bride for her Husband and unto her is granted that she shall be arrayed in fine Linnen clean and white even arrayed in the Righteousness of the Saints which is not self-Righteousness the Garments of the Harlot and her Lovers but in the Righteousness of Christ the Lamb her Husband and Child also and she shall now bring forth many more Children though her Seed hath been slain yet a numberless Number shall appear and ten Thousand Thousand shall be brought forth by her and glory in her and reverence her and rejoyce in her forever and they shall be all clad in the same Robe which the Husband the Lamb is clothed withal and the same the Lamb's VVife this VVoman is â—lâ—thed withall and the same shall all the Children by clothed withal the fine Linnen the Righteousness of the Lamb which was dead and slain since the Foundation of the World but now alive and lives for evermore and here a heavenly Family appears now after the Apostacy and this shall be seen by all that have an Eye that can see through and beyond the Smoke of the Pit that hath darkened the Air while the Beast and Dragon have had Power but now hath her Child appeared again the man-child hath appeared again and he that was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day saw whither he was taken up to the Throne of God Rev. 12.5 and on the same Lord's Day he saw him after the Woman was fled and the Remnant of her Seed was made War with and slain in the Earth where the