destructiveness of their Doctrine to the fundamental Truths of Religion is That opinion of theirs of being perfectly pure and without sin which say they tends to overthrow the whole Gospel and the very vitals of Christianity for they that have no sin have no need of Christ or of his satisfaction or blood to cleanse them nor of Faith Repentance c. Answ That the Lord God is able perfectly to redeem from sin in this life that he can cast out the strong man cleanse the house and make it fit for himself to dwell in that he can finish transgression and sin in the heart and bring in everlasting righteousness that he can tread down Satan under the feet of his Saints and make them more than Conquerors over him this they confess they steadily believe But that every one that is turned to the light of the Spirit of Christ in his heart is presently advanced to this state they never held forth but that the way is long the travail hard the enemies and difficulties many and that there is need of much Faith hope patience repentance watchfulness against temptations c. before the life in them arive at such a pitch Yet for all this saith Christ to his Disciples Be ye perfect directing them to aim at such a thing and the Apostle saith Let us go on unto perfection and Christ gave a Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints and they do not doubt but that he that begins the work can perfect it even in this life and so deliver them out of the hands of sin Satan and all their spiritual enemies as that they may serve God without fear of them any more in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of their lives Now how is this Doctrine or how is this People because of their believing and holding forth this Doctrine guilty of all this great and heavy charge that is laid upon them here as that they have no need of Christ his satisfaction his blood nor of faith repentance growing in grace Gods Word and Ordinances nor of watchfulness and prayer c. Let us consider the thing a litttle further First The Doctrine of Perfection if it should be granted to deny all this yet cannot be supposed to deny the need thereof until the state of Perfection be attained Nay they that truly believe that such a state is attainable cannot deny the use of those things which are proper to lead to that state but will conscientiously apply themselves thereto and press all others thereto who desire to attain that state And they that have either heard them speak or read their Writings with any equality of mind may abundantly testifie for them against the unrighteousness and injury of this charge Their life lies in Christ their peace in his satisfaction for them and in a sensible feeling of his blood sprinkled in their consciences to cleanse them from sin and by that faith which is Gods gift they feel and wait further to feel the righteousness of Christ imputed to them for justification And as for being perfectly just in themselves it is a very unrighteous charge upon them for their justice and righteousness is in Christ for ever and not of themselves but in the denyal and crucifying of self are they made partakers of it which is bestowed by the free grace mercy and power of him who hath mercy on them and not by any willing or running of theirs And as for Repentance they feel the need of it and find a godly sorrow wrought in them and a bitter mourning over him whom they once pierced and still pierce so far as they hearken to the Tempter and follow the motions and lusts of the transgressing nature And they do both watch and pray against sin and feel what a bitter thing it is to have the watch so slackened whereby the temptation prevails which would lead to sin And as for purifying themselves dayly and putting off the old man and putting on the new it is that which their hearts delight to be continually exercised about and all this with an hope that it may be effected that the vessel may be made holy to the Lord a fit spiritual Temple for him to dwell in that he may display his life glory power and pure presence in them But if the belief that this may be attained in the way wherein God leadeth them towards it and an hope to attain it with an acknowledgment of it so far as it is attained I say if this make them guilty of so great a charge then they are indeed guilty for they cannot but believe it wait for it hope for it and acknowledge it so far as they feel it wrought in them But how can this possibly make them guilty of denying these things seeing the exercise of these things not only standeth with but is increased by such a belief and hope Secondly The state of Perfection it self doth not exclude these things in such a way as this charge seems to intimate For in the state of perfection the blood is not laid aside as useless but remains to keep pure for ever It is the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 both the Covenant and the Blood last for ever and are useful even to them that are perfect And there is need and use of the Faith in the Blood to believe the preservation As the Covenant it self lasts so that which lets into and keeps in the Covenant lasts also That which unites and ties the soul to Christ the life abides in the soul for ever even as the union it self abides And there is a growing in the life even where the heart is purified from sin even as Christ did grow and wax strong in spirit for a state of perfection doth not exclude degrees And so there is also need of watching against temptations in a perfect state for Adam was perfect and yet he needed a watch and Christ was perfectly pure and without sin and yet he did both watch and pray So that if any were brought to the state of a perfect man even unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ which the Ministry was given to bring all the Saints unto Eph. 4.11 12 13. if any were taught and enabled so to walke in the light as to be cleansed by the blood from all sin and to have such fellowship with the Father and the Son as might make their joy full 1 Joh. 1.3 4 7. If any were brought to that state of glory as to be chast Virgins 2. Cor. 11.2 without spot or wrinkle of the flesh but holy and without blemish Ephes 5.27 If any should be made perfect in every good work to do his will which was a thing the Apostle prayed for Heb. 13.21 If any should have so put off the old man and have put on the wedding garment as to be made ready and fit to be marryed to the Lamb Rev. 19.7 Yet this would not exclude faith
can do nothing they cannot convert any man to God but the power that speaketh by them the same power worketh in other mens consciences at its pleasure And here is the beginning of the government of Christ in the heart when his truth carries conviction with it to the conscience and the conscience is drawn to yeild it self up to him then he layes his yoak upon it and takes upon him the guiding of it he cherisheth it he cleanseth it he comforteth it he ordereth it at his pleasure and he alone preserveth it pure chast gentle meek and plyable to the impressions of his Spirit And as the conscience is kept single and tender to Christ so his government increases therein but as it becomes hard or subject to mens wills so another spirit gets dominion over it Therefore the great work of the Minister of Christ is to keep the conscience open to Christ and to preserve men from receiving any truths of Christ as from them further than the spirit opens or to imitate any of their practises further than the spirit leads guides and perswades them For persons are exceeding prone to receive things as truths from those whom they have an high opinion of and to imitate their practises and so hurt their own growth and indanger their souls For if I receive a truth before the Lord by his spirit make it manifest to me I loose my guide and follow but the counsel of the flesh which is exceeding greedy of receiving truths and running into Religious practises without the spirit Therefore the main thing in religion is to keep the conscience pure to the Lord to know the guide to follow the guide to receive from him that light whereby I am to walk and not to take things for truths because others see them to be truths but to wait till the spirit make them manifest to me nor to run into worships duties performances or practises because others are led thither but to wait till the spirit lead me thither He that makes hast to be rich even in religion running into knowledge and into worships and performances before he feel a true and clear guidance shall not be innocent nor the Lord will not hold him guiltless when he comes to visit for spiritual adultery and idolatry The Apostles were exceeding tender in this point for though they certainly and infallibly knew what was to be believed yet they were not Lords over mens faith but waited till he who is Lord of the faith would open the way into mens consciences They did not take upon them to be able to turn the key to let in truth and conviction into mens spirits as men in these dayes have been too apt to undertake but directed them to him who had the key there to wait for the conviction and illumination of their minds and so to receive in as they found him give forth to them Let every man saith the Apostle be fully perswaded in his own mind take heed of receiving things tâ—â— soon take heed of running into practises too soon take heed of doing what ye see others do but wait for your own particular guidance and for a full perswasion from God what is his will concerning you Though I know this to be a truth yet do not ye receive it till God make it manifest to you receive truth from his hand stay till he give it you Indeed the main matter in religion is to keep out the wrong part the forward part the bastardly birth from running into duties catching of openings and laying hold of promises and to feel the heir born of the immortal seed to whom all belongs and that the other birth never afterwards get up above him but be subdued and brought into subjection Again saith the Apostle take heed of doing any thing doubtingly be not forward be not hasty wait for the leading wait for the manifestation of the Spirit Be sure thou receive what thou receives in the faith and practise what thou practises in the faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sin being an error from the principle of life which is to guide and thereby thou loosest ground and dishonourest Christ and comest under condemnation And so the Apostle warns believers to take heed of drawing one another on too fast or of judging one another in such things as some of them might have light in others not He that eateth not to judge him that did not eat and he that did not eat not to judge him that did eat Yea in matters of worship he that observed a day and kept a Sabbath not to judge him that observed not a day or kept not a Sabbath for the Jews which were truly converted yet were hard to be drawn off from the observation of their Sabbath and could hardly bear with the believing Gentiles who were never taught to keep their Sabbath with them but were taught to esteem every day and sanctifie it to the Lord Rom. 14.5 And these who esteemed every day and dedicated it to the Lord ceasing from sin and resting to him for under the Gospel we are not to set up a new type but to enter by faith into the true rest which is the substance of what the other signified could hardly bear with them who observed a day Even in the Apostles dayes Christians were too apt to strive after a wrong unity and uniformity in outward practises and observations and to judge one another unrighteously in these things And mark it is not the different practise from one another that breaks the peace and the unity but the judging of one another because of different practises He that keeps not a day may unite in the same spirit in the same life in the same love with him that keeps a day and he who keeps a day may unite in heart and soul with the same spirit and life in him who keeps not a day but he that judgeth the other because of either of these errs from the spirit from the love from the life and so breaks the bond of unity And he that draws another to any practise before the life in his own particular lead him doth as much as in him lies to destroy the soul of that person vers 15. This was the Apostles rule for every one to perform singly to the Lord what he did and not for one to meddle with the light or conscience of another undervaluing his brother or judging him because his light and practises differed from his vers 10. of that 14. chap. but every one to keep close to their own measure of light even to that proportion of faith and knowledge which God of his mercy hath bestowed on them And here is the true unity in the Spirit in the inward life and not in an outward uniformity That was not necessary in the Apostles dayes nor is it necessary now and that eye which so dotes upon it overlooks the one thing which is necessary Men keeping close to God the Lord will
c. saith the Apostle least any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.12 13. and persecution most hardens of any sin How cruel how bloody doth it make it even unmans men Prisons Whips cutting off of ears Banishment Death all is little enough if not too little And what reviling doth it fill mens pens and tongues with making them so hot and passionate that they cannot equally consider the cause but misunderstand it misrepresent it strive to make it appear another thing both to themselves and others than indeed in truth and plainness it is Look over your writings consider the cause again in a more meek and upright Spirit and ye your selves will easily see how in your heat ye have mistaken and dealt more injuriously with others than ye your selves were ever dealt with There is a time of righteous judgment wherein the most inward covers shall be ripped off and the sinner appear what he is and then the persecutor shall bear that shame that burthen that misery which is the portion of that Spirit It is but a small advantage to it to cover its iniquity for a little moment If ye could make all the world believe that ye are not persecutors what would this profit you if in the day of the Lord ye should be found such But having proceeded thus far it is hard for you to consider and retreat That Spirit hath great advantage over you to make you accept of any cover it can now offer you to hide your selves under Oh that ye could see how ye have wrested Scriptures and what strange kind of rguments ye have formed to make that which ye have done pass with your own hearts and to make it appear somewhat plausible to others Yet all this will not do the eye of the Lord sees through you and that light which ye reproach makes you manifest to be at present in subjection under the bloody dark power who will hold you as long as he can and furnish you with such weapons as he has against the Lamb and his followers But ye come forth to the battel in a bad day for the light is arisen to conquer and is not now to be overcome with the darkness And though ye meet the Woman and her seed with a floud of reproaches and persecutions yet that will not stop her from coming forth out of the Wilderness to shew her beauty and innocency again in the earth Consider these things and come out of this hard Spirit into tenderness if it be possible that the still meek gentle Spirit of life may be your leader from under all false covers into the truth it self where there is a gentle lying down with all that is of God and not so much as an offence because of any difference much less heart-burnings and persecutions but a sweet waiting on the Lord for every ones growth in their several ranks and stations Since my waiting on the Lord for the presence and guidance of his Spirit in the examining the foregoing Grounds and Considerations there came forth an Appendix to John Norton's Book wherein are laid down some further Grounds by way of justifying of their proceedings which for their sakes and likewise on the behalf of the truth and people of God I may also say somewhat to 1. FIrst they insinuate an argument concerning the not suffering of evil which they say is common to all that fear God with themselves Answ Evil is to be resisted but in Gods way according to Gods will and not according to the will of the flesh Spiritual evils are to be resisted by and in the faith with spiritual weapons which God hath appointed and sanctified thereto Earthly evils outward evils transgressions of the just law of the Magistrate are to be resisted by the sword of the Magistrate Here are the bounds which God hath set which he that transgresseth sinneth against the Lord and his own soul But the believer is not to step out of Gods way to resist the Magistrates evil nor the Magistrate to step out of Gods way to resist spiritual evil but both are to wait on the Lord for his blessing on the means he hath appointed and it is better for each of them not to resist evil but let it grow upon them till the Lord please to appear against it than to overcome it by an unrighteous weapon Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in Chariots Isa 31.1 2. A second argument is taken from the sole cause of their transplanting which they say was to enjoy liberty to walk peaceably in the faith of the Gospel according to the order of the Gospel Answ That there was an honest intent in many of them in transplanting into New-England I do not doubt though whether they had a sufficient warrant from God to transplant was doubted and objected against them by many of their conscientious fellow sufferers here in old England who testifie them that they did believe it to be their duty not to fly but stay and bear their testimony for God and his truth by suffering and this had been a better way of resisting that which was manifestly evil than of resisting by the sword that for evil which in due time they themselves may see and acknowledge not to have been so But if they did truly desire liberly did not the enemy tempt them to be selfish to seek it so far as might comprise themselves excluding such as might differ from them upon as just grounds as they themselves differed from others Did not they set bounds to the truth and bounds to the spirit of God that thus far it should appear and no further Whereas God hath degrees of discovering and leading out of the Antichristian darkness and he that opposeth the next discovery of truth the next step out of Babylon is as real an enemy and persecutor as he that opposed the fore going In that they testified against the Bishops they did well but if they will now set up a stand either to themselves or others and not follow the leadings of the Lamb their life may be withered and they may perish in the Wilderness while others are following the guide which they left when they set up their stand towards Canaan And as for walking peaceably That they might be free from the fear of outward powers having liberty to try what ever pretends to be of God and if it appear error be out of danger of having their consciences forced this is a great mercy But if they would live so peaceably as that no discovery of God further should ever start up among them nor the Lord himself be suffered to send any of his servants with any further discovery of light unto them this is not a peace which God allowes to any man nor which his people desire but only the carnal part which loves to be at ease and not to be at the pains of tryal in the fear
that will rest upon the persecutors though they use never so much art to make the Lambs appear guilty and themselves guiltless Their Spirit Nature manner of fighting which is with Lamb-like weapons which hurt not flesh and blood their whole course and conversation and manner of suffering c. manifests them to be Lambs this is of much more force than a bare saying they are Lambs None of this is mentioned on their behalf but only that they say they are Lambs But let us see how fairly that is overthrown Against this that place John 5.31 is alledged If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true whereupon it is said thus Had not Christ been God the reason of the Jews had been good against him Answ Doth not the Spirit of God dwell in the Sons of God and doth not the spirit of God bear witness in them that they are his Children and is not this witness true Iohn saith We know that we are of God 1 Ioh. 5.19 Was not this witness true in John because John was not God Was not the Prophets testimony true that they were his Prophets and that God had sent them and that it was his message which they brought because they were not God Shall the spirit of God work wonders in the heart and shall he not testifie concerning his own work at his pleasure Ah friends how do ye understand Scriptures and raise inferences from it thus to condemn the generation of the righteous Search the Scriptures do not the Prophets still testifie that the Lord sent them and that it was his word which they spake though they themselves were not God but persons moved by the spirit of God who stirred in his servants under the Law but dwelleth resteth and abideth in his people under the Gospel and what he testifieth is true though fleshly wise Israel who seem to themselves very skilful in the Law and letter of the Scriptures could not receive his testimony either then or now Ah friends ye had need take heed and consider lest the bastardly birth in you hath taken up an habitation in the letter without knowing the mind of the spirit whose presence killeth the carnal part and shutteth out the wisdome of the flesh from medling with the Scriptures And whereas you seem to refer all to the tryal of the Scripture both station doctrine and practise surely if ye had done so in truth ye would have more patiently heard their testimony according to the Scriptures Every man pretendeth Scripture but none truly honour it but they who are guided by that spirit which it testifieth of And they who are not guided by that spirit walk not according to the Scriptures but according to reasonings of the fleshly part which windeth it self into the letter of the Scriptures that by some kind of conformity thereto it may avoid the dint of the spirit And this is the way of Antichrists revilings by getting the form crying up that winding his own fleshly spirit into that and sheltering it self under that Thus the Jews cryed up the Temple of the Lord the Sabbath the Law of Moses and writings of the Prophets and under this cover with great zeal persecuted Christ he was looked upon as a blasphemer as one against Gods Temple his Sabbath his Ordinances c. And since the daies of Christ the Antichristian spirit speaks great words of Christ his Death Resurrection Ascention Intercession c. and of Church-order and discipline that under this cover it may fight against the comforter the spirit of truth who alone can lead into truth and which is the proper way of Gods Ministration since Christs ascention And this hath been the way of opposing truth ever since and still is and here is the Antichrist he that holds these in the wrong part and by these fights against the true spirit But if there be any truth in this that ye are willing to be tryed by the Scriptures let it yet come to a fair tryal this way and let them have free liberty to manifest among you what they have to say from the Scriptures why your Church your Ministry your order and government your whole way of teaching and worship is not of God nor according to the Scriptures but an invention and imitation set up in the way of resemblance of what once was truly so If this cannot be made good against you ye will have much advantage of shaming them and of setling your people much firmer than by prisons whips cutting off of eares banishment and death which no mans heart seriously considering it in true soberness can possibly believe to be the proper engines of setling or preserving the Gospel of peace But that the Scripture is the rule of tryal under the Gospel I read not in Scripture but that the things of the spirit are to be known in by the spirit 1 Cor. 2.12 The Apostle John speaking of Antichrists seducers and erring spirits which were to be tryed doth not bid them try them by the words which he wrote or by the other Apostles words or by the Prophets words but by the anointing which keeping close to they need fear no seducers 1 John 2.26 27. The word which was in the beginning being received abode in and kept close to tries all words and spirits That which begets to God is the spirit the great gift which is given to him which is begotten is the spirit and this being given is to become the fountaine of life to the believer John 7.38 And in this spring of life he is to live and receive milk and knowledg and here he is to walk and here he is to try all other waters even by this water And this is more to a believer and more enableth him to try than all the words of truth that ever were written though he that hath this cannot despise or undervalue any thing that the spirit ever wrote but yet the spirit it self is more to him and more certain then any words concerning the spirit Men may make false glosses and mudd and make void the Scriptures by their reasonings and interpretations and traditional apprehensions but this water ever runs fresh clear no foul spirit can defile it Moses gave the Law which directed to and ended in Christ Christ in the flesh finished the work which the Father gave him to do and directed to the comforter to be the leader into all truth yea the spring of life to the believer and here the believer is safe but the Antichristian spirit ravening from this cries up the letter in the stead of this and doth not see how the letter points to and centers in this God hath made us able Ministers of the new Testament saith the Apostle not of the letter but of the spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 he overlooked the letter that was not the thing he was chiefly to minister but the spirit the power to turn men from darkness to light that they might feel him that is
true and have the life eternal abiding in the heart But now in the Antichristian darkness the spirit being lost which is the Gospel-administration now they seemingly advance and cry up the letter putting it into the place of the spirit Yet in truth it is not the Scripture heither in its naked simplicity which is thus cryed up but mans wise reasonings about it The fleshly will the fleshly understanding the fleshly strength getting a seat there having formed a building out of it and reared strong holds in that part which can be wise and live without the spirit now its life its interest lies in the Scriptures thus believed thus understood thus practised thus therefore it cries it up not as it came at first out of the hands of the spirit nor as the truth of it is now seen in the simplicity and nakedness of the spirit but as the wisdome from below hath formed meanings and apprehensions concerning it And here every sort of men are wise in their own eyes and strong and prudent in their own conceivings and reasonings but know not the bringing to naught of that understanding which precedeth the opening of the eye of the babe which hath that sight of the things of God given which is out of the reach of all the wise and strong ones It is true under the Law they were to try by the Law and testimony Isa 8.10 but yet not in an uncertain way according to their own guessings imaginations and reasonings but according to a certain interpretation and knowledg thereof and in cases of difficulty the Judg was to have recourse to the Priest Deut. 17.8 c. and the Priests in cases of doubt had an ordinary way of enquiring by Vrim Numb 27.21 besides the way of enquiring by Prophets which was very common with them also 1 Sam. 9.9 and chap. 28.6 But now the Jews having forfeited these filling their minds with a gathered knowledge from the Law and Prophets trying Christ and his truths by this judged amiss both of him and them Now the Law was a shadow of good things to come not a shadow of another outward Law or rule but a shadow of the inward rule of the Law of the new Covenant written in the heart of the spirit put within Heb. 8. by this law is the true believer fully as able to try as they were by the former but without this a Christians tryal of things is not so certain as theirs was under the Law 4. The force of the fourth argument is to this effect that the dictate of conscience is not a sucffiient plea in case of meer and single ignorance much less in wilful and affected ignorance Answ The dictate of conscience is not made a plea by us but the answering and obeying the light of Christ in our consciences is that which keepeth them void of offence both towards God and towards men Now it is one thing for a man to act evil and plead it is his conscience and it is another thing for a man to be guided by the infallible light of the spirit or if he be not come so far yet to be made tender in his heart towards Christ concerning his practises in Religion In this last case we say that in things whose good or evil chiefly depends upon the knowledge and perswasion of the mind which Christ alone can do here Christ is the sole Lord and Judg of the conscience Rom. 14.4 and not either Minister Church or Magistrate Christ giveth knowledge Christ increaseth knowledge and Christ requireth obedience according to the knowledge given or increased That is many times required to be left upon a further degree of knowledge given which was not required to be left before and so also upon the same terms may things be required to be performed which were not required to be done before And this indeed is the very sum of the true Religion since the death of Christ and his finishing of his work here either to worship in the Spirit or to wait for the Spirit He who hath not received the Spirit he is to wait for the Spirit He who hath received the Spirit he is to wait in the Spirit for the movings and outgoings thereof and to be obedient thereto And Christians are to take heed not only of a wrong Spirit but also of quenching the movings of the true Spirit in themselves or others If the erring mind hath mistaken about worship and through its mistake set up a wrong way the Spirit in the tender plants will be moving against it which the wise reasoning fleshly part will be knocking down and so the birth which is after the flesh will be getting advantage of persecuting and keeping under the immortal seed Now suppress evil to the utmost but take heed of quenching the good in any take heed how ye stop that in its course of discovering evil in your worships or otherwise which easily passeth for good until the Spirit begin to make it manifest Ah friends if the carnal wisdome had been crucified in you and the Spirit of God had had more scope in manifesting evil among you what might ye have grown to ere this day but if the Magistrate upon every doubt or difference or startling of the tender conscience step in with his sword how is the way of the breaking forth of truth stopped up and that which is truly of God and most tender towards him is most liable to suffer this way And this is that which makes the Quakers such a suffering people because they have found the benefit of keeping the conscience tender towards God and so prize it above all things and this mercy have they received from the Lord sensibly to distinguish in this tenderness towards God and in the fear of his name between the dictates of conscience and the voyce of his Spirit there Now it is not at all pleaded by us that under a pretence of conscience ye should suffer all manner or any manner of evil but first Punish not good for evil do not punish the good in others to defend the evil in your selves Secondly That which is manifestly evil punish it by such hands and means as God hath appointed the spiritual by spiritual the temporal by temporal and do not make punishing of evil a pretence of persecuting good in others and of upholding the evil in your selves But as touching your distinction of meer and single ignorance or wilful and affected we can bless the Lord who hath delivered us from them both by the day-spring which he hath caused to arise in our hearts and we can with a farther measure of the same Spirit bear this from you with a measure whereof some of the non-conformists bore this from the conformists who would cast this upon them that their ignorance was affected they were refractory but might have been better informed if they would And we wish with all our hearts that there were not too just cause of retorting both
AN EXAMINATION OF THE Grounds or Causes Which are said to induce the Court of Boston in New-England to make that Order or Law of Banishment upon pain of Death against the Quakers As also of the Grounds and Considerations by them produced to manifest the warrantableness and justness both of their making and executing the same which they now stand deeply engaged to defend having already thereupon put two of them to death As also of some further Grounds for justifying of the same in an Appendix to John Norton's Book which was Printed after the Book it self yet as part thereof whereto he is said to be appointed by the General Court And likewise of the Arguments briefly hinted in that which is called A true Relation of the Proceedings against the Quakers c. Whereunto somewhat is added about the Authority and Government which Christ excluded out of his Church which occasioneth somewhat concerning the true Church-Government By Isaac Penington the Younger The Stone the Builders refused is become the head of the Corner This is the Lords doing it is marvellous in our eyes Psal 118.22 23. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Mat. 11.25 26. LONDON Printed for L. Lloyd next to the Sign of the Castle in Cornhill 1660. To the Rulers Teachers and People of NEW-ENGLAND MAny a weary step hath my poor soul fetched and many difficulties and hardships hath it met with in its pursuit after truth The immortal seed hath deeply suffered in me through the mists of darkness and various stratagems and powers of the enemy which have often encompassed me and distressed my Spirit exceedingly I have known many battels received deep wounds yea and have been in deaths and graves often where the living seed hath languished for want of the living spring Yet this thing to the praise and glory of the preserver of Israel may I speak the sence of God and the savour of his Spirit was never wholly taken away from me though many times I knew it not but was too apt to distrust it being ignorant of the way of its appearing in me The Scriptures I alwayes exceedingly prized and a deep knowledge of them from an experimental sence of the things they spake of was bestowedon me but I knew not what it was which gave me the knowledge nor how it sprang but went about still to fix it in the letter and so gave away the glory from the spirit which shines above and beyond the letter and ought so to be acknowledged Before this despised people appeared I was even quite worn out and said my hope is cut off from the Lord there is no such appearance of him to be looked for as my poor distressed soul wants Live without the presence of his spirit I could not where to meet with his spirit could I hear no news and that pretious knowledge which I had had through the operation of God upon my heart from the living spring the same hand which gave me also brake in pieces and pulled down that inward building which was reared up in my Spirit What a man of sorrows I became hereupon how I mourned all the day long and roared out after my God all the night season is not to be uttered And if it might be the Lords pleasure O that my misery might end with me and that this might be the issue of all my sufferings to fit me to be a faithful instrument in the hand of the Lord for the preserving of others there from Now this was it which undid me namely the getting up of the fleshly wisdome and understanding which though God had broken in me mightily several times yet it still had some secret device or other to creep in again unto me and to twine about my spirit undiscerned by me but this effect still attended it by degrees like a canker it eat out the sweetness and freshness of my life and Spirit and exalted that part in me which God hides the mysteries of his kingdome from At my first acquaintance with this rejected People that which was eternal of God in me opened and I did immediately in my spirit own them as children of my Father truly begotten of his life by his own spirit but the wise reasoning part presently rose up contending against their uncouth way of appearance and in that I did disown them and continued a stranger to them and a reasoner against them for above twelve months and by weighing and considering things in that part was still further and further off from discerning their leadings by the life and spirit of God into those things But at length it pleased the Lord to draw out his sword against that part in me turning the wisdome and strength thereof backward and to open that eye in me again wherewith he had given me to see the things of his kingdome in some measure from a child and then I saw and felt them grown in that life and spirit which I through the treachery of the fleshly-wise part had been estranged to and had adulterated from And now what bitter dayes of mourning and lamentation even for some years since I have had over this the Lord alone fully knows Oh I have known it to be a bitter thing to follow this wisdome in understanding of Scriptures in remembring of experiences and in many more inward wayes of workings than many can bear to hear The Lord hath judged me for that and I have born the burthen and condemnation of that which many at this day wear as their crown And now what am I at length A poor worm whom can I warn effectually whom can I help whom can I stop from running into the pit But though I am nothing I must speak for the Lord draweth and moveth me and how unserviceable soever my pitty be yet my bowels cannot but roul both towards those that are in misery and towards those that are running into misery Read in the fear and in the simplicity what was so written and the Lord open that eye in you which can see the way of life and discover the paths of the mystery of iniquity in its most hidden workings in the heart that ye sleep not the sleep of eternal death and so at last be awakned in the bowels of that wrath and fiery indignation which that spirit which erreth from and transgresseth the life and light within can neither bear nor escape J. P. AN EXAMINATION OF THE Grounds or Causes which are said to induce the Court of Boston in New-England to make that Order or Law of Banishment upon pain of death against the Quakers As also of the Grounds and Considerations by them produced to manifest the warrantableness and justness c. THat in New-England there hath been a Law made of Banishing the Quakers so called and of death in
case of return is well known in these parts but what induced them hereunto what just Grounds and Reasons they had for it many are not acquainted with but are very much dissatisfied concerning their proceedings therein fearing that they have dishonoured God brought a reproach upon the Name of Christ and his Gospel exceeded the limits of their power given an ill example of Persecution laid a foundation of hardening their hearts against God and of drawing his heavy wrath upon them all which they cannot but be deeply guilty of in case it should be proved that they have been mistaken and that these People upon a further search should appear to them to be of God as they already have to very many who have been exceedingly prejudiced against them till they came more meekly to hear and consider their case For there are many here in Old England and in other parts who once reviled reproached and thought they could hardly do bad enough against them who now in the singleness of their hearts can bless God for raising up such a People and that they themselves were not cut off in their blind zeal against them but in the rich mercy of God had a way made for the removing of their prejudices and hard thoughts and for the opening of their eyes whereby they came to see that these are indeed a pretious people of God begotten brought forth and guided by his power and that it is his living truth which they in obedience to his living power are drawn to bear witness to and to hold forth unto the World And one such testimony for them is of more weight and value in a true ballance than thousands of testimonies against them from such who are prejudiced and have not patience to consider things in equity and uprightness of heart and also whose interest lies another way Now meeting of late with a paper beginning thus At a general Ceurt held at Boston 〈◊〉 18th October 1659. wherein by way of preface there is first an account given of what induced them to make this law of banishment and death and then grounds and considerations laid down to clear it to be warrantable and just it was upon my heart to consider and examine these to see whether they did arise from the seed of God and from the true knowledge of the Scriptures by his spirit and so were weighty to the conscience which singly waits upon God for satisfaction about truth or whether they did arise from the fleshly part and from fleshly reasonings upon Scriptures and so were but chaffy and not able to satisfie the weighty considering spirit as in the sight of God And this I was the more induced to do because I found bowels rowling in me towards them and a sense of what might easily be their snare which hath overtaken and intangled many for many who have blamed others severely and really thought how well they themselves would have amended things if ever they came into place and power yet have failed and run into the very same errour when they have come to the tryal So these persons when they were formerly persecuted in England no doubt but thought and intended if ever they came to be free from it to lay a foundation against it yet when they come to the point and feel their condition changed in so much as it was now in their hand to determine what was the way of worship Church-government and order there lay a great temptation before them to set up what they judged to be right and to force all others to a conformity to it Yea now was their great danger and time to beware lest the same persecuting spirit did get up in them which their being persecuted was a proper means to keep down And if so if the same spirit which persecuted them got up in them then they who were once persecuted could not possibly forbear persecuting for that spirit will persecute wherever it gets up And having laid its foundation of persecution under a plausible cover then by degrees it more and more vails the eye hardens the heart and takes away the tenderness which was in the persons before while they themselves were persecuted Now I cannot but pitty those that fall into any snare of the enemy especially those who are taken in so great a snare and come to so great a loss of their tenderness towards God his truths and people and run so great an hazard and danger of the loss of their souls The Grounds or Causes expressed of their making that Law of Banishment are in substance these three 1. The coming of the Quakers from forraign parts and from other Colonies at sundry times and in several companies and numbers into the jurisdiction of the Massathusets Answ This of it self is far from any warrant for the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and though they laim a propriety in it yet it is still more the Lords than theirs and he may send any of his servants into it at his pleasure upon what message or service it seemeth good unto him So that the great question to be determined here is this Whether these persons came from the Lord in his will and at his appointment or whether they came of themselves and in their own wills For if they came by commission and appointment from the Lord of Heaven and Earth their warrant was without doubt sufficient but if they came in their own wills and upon their own designs then they went out of the Lords counsel and protection and must bear their own burthen Now consider whether ye were tender in the due weighing of this before your imprisoning and dealing hardly with them for if at their first coming ye imprisoned them and engaged your selves against them ye thereby made your selves unfit for an equal consideration of the cause and God might justly then leave your eyes to be closed and your hearts hardned against his truths and people for beginning with them so harshly and unrighteously and not in his fear 2. Those lesser punishments of the house of correction and imprisonment for a time having been inflicted on some of them but not sufficing to deter and keep them away Why do ye omit cutting off of ears are ye ashamed to mention that amongst the rest indeed the remembrance of it strikes upon the Spirits of people here and perhaps in New-England also Answ They that are sent by the Lord and go in the guidance of his spirit cannot be deterred from obedience to him in his service and work either by lesser or greater punishments Punishments deter the evil doer but he that doth well is not afraid of being punished but is taught and made willing and inabled to suffer for righteousness sake Phil. 1.29 And ye will find your greater punishments as ineffectual to obtain your end as your lesser For they whose lives in the power of God are sacrificed up to the will of God are no more afraid of death
house as Moses and if such a course had been necessary for the preservation of his Church surely he would not have with-held it But Christ overcomes the Devils kingdom by his spirit by that he wins souls and gathers into and builds up his Church and by that he is able to defend them By his spirit he preacheth the truth and soweth the seed of the kingdome and by his spirit he upholds and maintains it This is his way of overcoming all the mists of darknesse and false doctrines and not a Magistrates sword The weapons of our warfare saith the Apostle are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling downe of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 Are there strong holds of darkness are there false doctrines broached against the truths of Christ Who are the warriers against these Are they the civil state the Magistrate the earthly powers or are they the Ministers and servants of Christ And what are the weapons that are mighty to overthrow these Are they Stocks Whips Prisons cutting off of ears banishment death or are they of a spiritual nature The spiritual weapons are sanctified by God to this end and are mighty through him able to effect it throughly whereas the carnal weapons are weak and unsanctified and can reach only the carnal part but the strong hold remains untouched by these And it is only the carnal part which desires to have the use of such carnal weapons in the Church the spiritual man would conquer by his own weapon or not at all Christ came not to destroy mens lives nor never gave order to have men killed about his truths If his People be disobedient and broach doctrines never so contrary and destructive to his kingdom he hath a spiritual way of fighting with them now and hath appointed his servants to have his mighty spiritual weapons in a readinesse for the revenging every disobedience 2 Cor. 10.6 and he hath likewise a time of dealing with them hereafter but he hath no where appointed that his subjects if they could get the command of the sword in a Nation or Country should kill such Abundance of blood hath been shed upon this pretence which the Lord will make inquisition for it would at length be seriously inquired into what truth there is in this bloody doctrine for under this cover all the persecutions and sheddings of the Saints blood shelter themselves O consider at length how cruel and bloody men have made the Gospel of peace by this principle and what an advantage it gives to the carnal part in those that are persecuted if once they can get the command of the outward sword to forget their own sufferings and suddainly turn persecutors of such as differ from them though upon as weighty grounds if not more weighty than they differed from others upon But this they that are uppermost will not yield to that the grounds of such as differ from them are sufficient even as those that they differed from would not yield that their grounds were sufficient Thus still they whose arguments go forth under the shelter or by the command of the present authority they are looked upon as most weighty and the others cause is trampled upon though never so just innocent upright and weighty in it self and the meek of the earth the humble-hearted the tender-conscienced towards God they are still made the offenders and sufferers and their enemies are still made their Judges I do think these of New-England would have once thought it hard measure that the Conformists whom they differed from should have been the Judges whether their grounds were sufficient or no and yet they ever since they have had the power in their hands have taken upon them to be the judges of the sufficiency of the grounds of such as differ from them and have as freely condemned all that differed from them and been as sore a curb upon the tender conscience as ever the Bishops were So that it is plain that which they sought was their own liberty they did not like to be oppressed and inthralled contrary to their judgments but not the liberty of the tender conscience towards God but rather the yoaking inthralling of it to their judgments and arguments and interpretations of Scripture which he that differs from must be an offender with them even as they were once accounted offenders for differing from the Conformists and so are all become transgressors of the Law of God in doing that to others which they would not that others should do to them 2. It is requisite also to make manifest that the Doctrine of this sort of people is destructive to the fundamental truths of Religion For if it be not so then they are injured and mis-represented and both their banishment and death and all other punishments inflicted upon them on this account will prove to have been unjust There are four instances given or four particular fundamentals mentioned to which their Doctrines are said to be destructive First the sacred Trinity Secondly the person of Christ Thirdly the holy Scriptures as a perfect rule of faith and life Fourthly the doctrine of perfection Now for the making the thing clear and manifest to every sober mind it is requisite first to consider what the Quakers hold in these several particulars and then whether that which they hold in these respects be contrary to the truth of these things as they are plainly related in the Scriptures for if that which they hold be according to the naked voyce and proper intent of the Scriptures then they are not to be blamed but the blame will light on their accusers who might easily be found guilty of injuring both them and the Scriptures both in these and many other things were they not Judges 1. Concerning the sacred Trinity They generally both in their speakings and in their writings set their seal to the truth of that Scripture 1 John 5.7 That there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Spirit That these three are distinct as three several beings or persons this they read not but in the same place they read that they are one And thus they believe their being to be one their life one their light one their wisdome one their power one and he that knoweth and seeth any one of them knoweth and seeth them all according to that saying of Christs to Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father John 14.9 Three there are and yet one thus they have read in the Scripture and this they testifie they have had truly opened to them by that very Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures in so much as they certainly know it to be true and own the thing from their very hearts But as for this title of Sacred Trinity they find it not in Scripture and they look upon Scripture-words as fittest to express Scripture-things by And surely if a man mean the same thing as the Scripture means the same
the laws of the one were written outwardly in tables of stone the laws of the other were to be written in the heart That is the book wherein the laws of the new covenant were promised to be written and there they are to be read So that he that will read and obey the Laws of the covenant of life must look for them in that book wherein God hath promised to write them for though in other books he may read some outward descriptions of the thing yet here alone can he read the thing it self Christ is the way the truth and the life What is a Christians rule is not the way of God his rule is not Gods truth his rule and is not the truth in Jesus where it is taught and to be heard and to be received even as it is in Jesus Ephes 4.21 Is not he the King the Priest the Prophet the Sacrifice the Altar the way to God the truth of God the life it self the living path out of Death yea all in all to the believer whose eye is opened to behold him The Scriptures testifie of Christ but they are not Christ they also testifie of truth and are a true testimony but the truth it self is in Jesus who by his living spirit writes it in the heart which he hath made living And so a Christians life is in the Spirit if we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 The whole life and course of a Christian is in the volumn of that book as the Lord opens the leaves of it in him The gift of God the measure of faith given him by God that 's his rule that 's his rule of knowledge of prophesying of obedience Heb. 11. Rom. 1.4 and 12.6 if he keep there if he walk according to the proportion of it he errs not but out of the faith in the the error in all he knows in all he believes in all he does The new Creature that which God hath new created in the heart in which life breaths and nothing but life breaths which is taught by God and true to God from its very infancy that 's his rule whereby he is to walk the Apostle expresly calls it so Gal. 6.15 16. That which is begotten by God is a Son and the Son as he is begotten by the breath of the Spirit so he is preserved and led by the same breath and such as are so led are Sons and none else for it is not reading of Scriptures and gathering rules out thence that makes a Son but the receiving of the spirit and the being led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 15. And being the whole worship of the Gospel is in the Spirit there is a necessity of receiving that in the first place and then in it the soul learns to know and wait for its breathings and movings and follows on towards the Lord in them The Spirit cannot be with-held from breathing on that which he hath begotten and that breath is a guide a rule a way to that which it breatheth upon Now this is most manifest even from the Scriptures themselves they expresly calling Christ the way the truth c. the new creature the rule the faith grace or gift given to be the rule testifying the heart to be that which God hath chosen to write his laws in but where do they call themselves a perfect rule of faith and obedience They are they saith Christ which testifie of me and ye will not come to me that ye might have life Iâ—â— 5.39 40. Life cannot be received from the Scriptures but only from Christ the fountain thereof no more can the Scriptures give the rule but point to the fountain of the same life where alone the rule of life as the life it self can be received The Scriptures cannot ingraft into Christ nor give a living rule to him that is ingrafted but he that hath heard the Testimony of the Scriptures concerning Christ and hath come to him must abide in him and wait on him for the writing of the law of the Spirit of life in his heart and this will be his rule from the law of sin and death even unto the land of life Now if men have mistaken in the night of darkness and put the Scriptures out of their place even into the place of the Spirit and so have become Ministers not of the Spirit but of the letter whereas the Apostles were made able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 Let them not be offended at the Spirit of God for teaching us otherwise nor at us for learning as the Spirit of God hath taught us the Scriptures also testifying that this is the rule but no where setting up themselves for the rule And it is the same Spirit which would now fix men in the Scriptures to keep men from Christ the living rule and only way to life eternal as formerly kept men by traditions from the Scriptures though it is hard for them who are intangled in this deceit to see it Now for the proof of these things thus barely here charged the reader is referred to Mr. Norton's as they stile him Tractate against the Quakers Concerning the validity whereof I refer the Reader to Francis Howgils Answer thereto wishing him to read both in the fear and dread of the Almighty waiting for his counsel to guide him in the true discerning which of them savours of mans wisdome and which of them writes from acquaintance with the truth it self In which Answer of his he recites such errors of that Norton as would make a great sound against the Quakers if any such could justly be charged upon them I shall mention only two or three of them viz That God is a distinct Subsistence from the Son and Spirit and That the Son is a distinct Subsistence from the Father and the Spirit and because it is said the Father shall give you another Comforter this another he saith is intelligible of the Essence Are there then three distinct infinite Essences or Beings That the Spirit of God without the Letter is no Spirit He was before the Letter he was never limited to the Letter he will be after the Letter and he is what he is without the Letter That Christs words John 17.21 give an uncertain sound where have any of the Quakers cast such a blemish upon any portion of Scripture Surely this man had more need to seek to have his own vessel cleansed than to accuse others of Errors or Blasphemy And if he have no other way to overthrow them than by maintaining such kind of things as these against them he will never get victory over them any other wayes than by the outward sword but by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of his testimony and not loving their lives unto the death they will easily overcome all such kind of Champions 4. The fourth and last instance which they give of the
but of the World this seed the World hates and the vessels in whom it bubbles up and through whom it giveth forth its testimony against the World Object But in the new Testament Luke stiles Theophilus most excellent and Paul speaking to Festus said most noble Festus which are terms or expressions of honour and reverence Answ Christ did promise his Disciples and Ministers that he would be with them and give them what to say Now if nobility and true excellency did appear in any persons and he led them by his Spirit to acknowledge it this is no sufficient warrant for men to do the like in their own wills or to give such titles to persons being in authority whether they be such persons or no. Luke knew Theophilus to be excellent and he was led by the Spirit of God to stile him excellent for by the Spirit of God he wrote that Scripture Luke 1.3 wherein he so stiles him And for Festus he that shall strictly observe his carriage will find it to be very noble in that he would not be won by the importunity and informations of the high Priest and chief of the Jews and of the multitude also against Paul but applyed himself to an upright consideration of the cause Acts 25.2 24. to the end The same Spirit which shewed the unworthy carriage and ignobleness of the high Priest zealous professing Jews might move Paul to set this mark of honour upon Festus The Lord loveth truth in the heart and truth in words and the following of the guidance of his Spirit into truth but to give a man high titles meerly because he is great and high in the outward without discerning that he is such and without the leading of Gods Spirit so to do this is of the flesh according to the will of the flesh out of the faith and not according to truth and righteousness and in the fear of the Lord there is a watch set over our spirits in these things lest we should esteem and honour men according to the will of the flesh and not in the Lord. Titles of office or of relations as master father c. we find freedome to give but titles which tend towards flattery or exalting man out of his place and the lifting up of his heart above his brethren we have not freedome in the Lord to use and Eliah also found a restraint upon him in this respect Job 32.21 22. Object It is noted as a brand and reproach of false teachers that they despise dominion and speak evil of dignities 2 Pet. 2.10 and Jude 8. Now it is well known that the practise of the Quakers is but too like those false teachers c. Answ It were worth a narrow search and enquiry what the dominion and dignities or glories are which the false teachers speak evil of or blaspheme c. Search the Scriptures where do ye find the false teachers speaking evil of the earthly authorities nay they still cling close to them exalt them get them of their side and cry them up and will be sure enough never to fail in pleasing the Magistrate with cringing and bowing or any thing of that nature But there is the dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ in the heart there is the rule of his spirit over the fleshly part there is the truth in the inner man there are spiritual dignities or glories these the false teachers in all ages did despise and were not afraid to speak evil of though they should have feared to speak evil of the movings and guidings and lowest appearings of the spirit of God which excel in nature and worth the greatest earthly dignities yet they have not but have blasphemed the holy life and appearances of God in his people nay they have not spared his more eminent breakings forth in his very Prophets holy Apostles or Christ himself Mark what they spake evil of they spake evil of the things they knew not vers 10. What were the things they knew not The inward movings and vertue of his spirit the inward power life glory and dominion of truth in the heart they knew not it was against Christ in his people their evil deeds and hard speeches were vers 15. But as for the high and great ones the dominions and dignities of the earth they knew them well enough and did not speak evil of them but had their persons in admiration because of the advantage they had by them vers 16. They have alwayes had a double advantage from these both of gain to themselves and of overbearing the lambs of Christ by their great swelling words The Lord hath still so ordered it in his wisdome both before the coming of Christ at his coming and since that the false Prophets and Teachers should still have the advantage of the outward authorities and his people be a poor afflicted despised persecuted remnant whose glory is inward and cannot be discerned by the outward eye no not of Gods Israel See the dignities particularly expressed Revel 13.6 The name of God his holy power in his people the Tabernacle which is sanctified and made honourable for him by his spirit them that dwell in Heaven who are redeemed out of the earth and have their conversation above these are dignities which the earthly authorities nay the false teachers themselves never knew the worth of and so they are not afraid to blaspheme them The first beast on which the false church rode with the second beast which are of the very race of these false teachers making an image to the first beast because of advantage all join together in blaspheming these dignities Rev. 13. and chap. 17. To open this a little further John said in his days that it was then the last time For there were many Antichrists then come 1 Iohn 2.18 From whence came they They went out from us saith he but they were not of us ver 19. They were sensual they had not the spirit and so could not abide the presence life judgement and power of the spirit but seperated themselves Jude 19. But whither went they when they went out from the true Church why they went out into the world 1 Ioh. 4.2 They got the form of godliness which would stand well enough with the lusts ease of the flesh and went and preached up that in the world And now speaking the things of God in the worldly spirit the world could hear them v. 5. Thus having got a great party into the form of truth now they blaspheme the power now they mock at the movings of the spirit the leadings of the spirit the living name the true tabernacle the true inhabitants of heaven who have their conversation above in the heavenly nature in the heavenly principle in the pure spirit of life for as they are begotten by the spirit so they live in the spirit and walk in the spirit This the false teachers who have got the form of doctrine and the form of discipline
ye and be not afraid of their terror neither be troubled 1 Pet 3.14 and the Apostle Paul bids the Philippians stand fast in one Spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel and in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God And the same Apostle who commended the Hebrews as having done well in bearing the great sight of afflictons encourages them to go on still and not be weary or faint in their minds but resist even to blood eyeing Christ who endured the contradiction of sinners to the very last Heb. 12.3 4. And he practised as he taught for he was not terrified with bonds or afflictions nor accounted his life dear unto him but that which was dear unto him was the serving of his Lord and Master in preaching and witnessing to his truths as his spirit led him Acts 20.23 24. trusting on the Lord to uphold him in enduring of them or to deliver him out of them as he pleased 2 Tim. 3.11 but that which he and the rest of the Apostles and Saints of Christ applyed themselves to in case of persecution was to suffer 1 Cor. 4.12 And whoever they are that will be Christs faithful Disciples now must look to meet with the same cross as they did not only from the prophane World but from the worldly professors also for there were not only zealous worldly professors in that age but the same spirit hath remained in every age since which still gets into the best form it can when need requires to oppose the power thereby And they that are in the Spirit and in the power must expect to be persecuted by such and they are to bear it and not to flie from it unless by a particular call and dispensation from the Lord for a particular service which is not the rule as it is here made but rather an exception from the rule So Christ sending his Disciples in hast to preach the Gospel bids them not salute in the way Luke 10.4 nor be stopped by persecution but hasten to publish the sound of Christs coming in the Cities of Israel for the harvest was great but the laborers few Mat. 9.37 and yet notwithstanding all the hast they could make they should not have gone over the Cities of Israel before the Son of man come Mat. 10.23 There is a time to suffer persecution and a time to flee from persecution and both these are to be known in the Lord and to be obeyed in the leadings of his Spirit but to lay it down as a general rule for Christians to observe that when they are persecuted they should flee this is expresly contrary to the Scriptures afore mentioned which shew that Christians are not generally to flee but to stand in the service and work to which they are called bearing witness not only by believing and publishing but also by suffering for the testimony of the truth They are Christs Souldiers and their duty is to stand in the battel and bear all the shot and persecutions of the enemy if God call them off to any other service that is a sufficient warrant for them but flying upon other termes may prove a great dishonour to their Master and to his cause and truth and may be the occasion of a great loss to their Spirits who are so tempted to flee Neither is this bearing the brunt of persecutions and standing in Gods work and service notwithstanding them all even unto death any tempting of God but an obedient taking up of the cross according to his will and command And whereas you plead that reason requires it what kind of reason is it which bids avoid the cross of Christ and flee for safety And what kind of Spirit is that which preacheth this Doctrine laying it down as a general rule for Christians to flee when they are persecuted Is it not that Spirit which fain would be at ease in the flesh in so much as it self will rather persecute than be disturbed of its fleshly liberty though its very unwilling to bear the reproach of being accounted a persecutor Ah how did the Jews cry out against their Fathers for killing the Prophets and verily thought if they had lived in their dayes they should by no means have done it and yet the same Spirit was in them though they saw it not but thought themselves far from it That which blinded them was a wrong knowledge of the Scriptures and a great zeal and devotion about their Temple worship and Ordinances without a sensible feeling of the guidance of Gods Spirit The same Spirit that deceived them layeth the same snare in these dayes and men swallow it as greedily with as great confidence as they did the zealous professors of religion for the generality still becoming persecutors of the present appearance of truth not knowing what they do Thus in the fear of the Lord God and in love to your souls with a meek and gentle spirit not being offended at what ye have done but looking over it to the Lord who bringeth glory to his name and advantage to his truth by the sufferings and death of his Saints have I answered your grounds and considerations and in the same fear love and meekness have I some things further to propose to your considerations which are of great concernment to you and deserve to be weighed by an equal hand in the equal ballance without prejudice or partiality 1. Consider meekly and humbly whether the Scriptures be the rule of the Children of the new covenant for if the Scripture was not intended by God for the rule and ye take it to be the rule then ye may easily mistake the way to eternal life and also err in your understanding and use of the Scriptures making such an use of them as they were never intended for and so missing of the true use and intent of them Now that the Scripture was not intended nor given forth by God to be the rule of the Children of the New Covenant besides our faithful Testimony from the sight of the thing in the true eternal light weigh our arguments from the Scripture many are mentioned in our writings consider at present of these three 1. The Scripture is an outward rule or law but the Scripture saith the law of the new covenant shall be an inward law It is written in the Prophets that all the Children of the new covenant or new Jerusalem shall be taught of the Lord Isa 54.13 who teacheth them inwardly by his Spirit and writeth his law in their hearts Jer. 31.33 34. and after this manner did the Lord take his people into covenant with himself and teach them in the Apostles dayes 1 John 2.27 The covenant is inward the teacher inward the writing inward the law inward and there it is to be read learned and known where the Spirit teacheth and writeth it 2. Scripture or the writings
of Moses and the Prophets was not the law of the Children of the new covenant as such not in the time of the old covenant The law of Moses was the rule of their outward state it was the rule of the outward Israel but not the rule of the inward Israel no not then in those dayes In Deut. 29.1 Moses makes a Covenant with Israel by express command from God besides the former covenant which he made with them in Horeb. And he saith the commandment of this Covenant is not to be looked for where the other was written but in another place in a place neerer to them even in ther mouth and in their heart there they were to read hear and receive the commandment of this covenant For this commandement which I command thee this day it is not hidden from thee neither is it far off Deut. 30.11 it not in heaven ve 12. neither is it beyond the sea ver 13. but the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayst do it ver 14. and this was the way of life then ver 15. see saith Moses I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil Here thy eternal happiness depends obey this word and live disobey it and die And if they had kept to this word they would also have walked in obedience to the Law but neglecting this they could never keep the Law but still came under the curse of it and missed of the blessings They thought to please God with sacrifices and oyle and incense and observing new Moons and Sabbaths wherein the Lord still rejected them for want of their obedience to this word and the Prophets still guide them to this word bidding them circumcise their hearts which alone can be done by this word and wash away the evil of their doings which alone can be done by this water Yea after much contest between the Lord and them when they seemed very desirous to please the Lord with what he should require whether burnt offerings calves rams or oyl in great plenty the Prophet laies by all that and points them to the obedience of this word as the way to please God and as the only thing that he required of them He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Micah 6.8 All this is written in thy heart man read there obey that word that is the thing that God requires So Davids Law was the word written in his heart he saw through sacrifices and burnt offerings to the inward writing and this made him wiser than all his teachers who were busied about the outward The outward Law was but a shadow of good things to come it made nothing perfect but David knew a perfect law The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 3. The Scriptures of the New-Testament never call themseves the rule but they call another thing the rule they call the writings of Gods spirit in the hearts of his people the Laws of the new Covenant Heb. 8.10 they call Christ the way the truth the life John 14.6 the way is the rule the truth is the rule the life is the rule they call the new creature the rule walking according to which the peace and mercy is received and injoyed Gal. 6.16 they refer to the comforter as the guide into all truth John 16.13 yea as the compass of all truth wherein the believer is to have his whole life and course Gal. 5.25 live in the spirit walke in the spirit follow the spirit keep within that compass and ye connot err A man may err in understanding and interpreting of Scriptures but he that hath received the spirit knoweth the spirit followeth the spirit keepeth to the spirit so far as he doth so cannot possibly err So saith Iohn writing concerning seducers warning against them 1 Iohn 2.26 Ye have received an anointing which teacheth you of all things keep to the teachings of that in every thing and ye are safe But may we not be deceived Nay the annointing keeps from all the deceit in the heart and from all the deceits of seducers it is truth and no lie ver 27. and it leads into all truth and our of every lie And this will teach you to abide in him In whom in the word which was from the beginning which is ingrafted into the heart of the believer and into which the heart of the believer is ingrafted and so he truly is in the vine and the sap of the vine runs up into him which makes him fruitful to God he abiding in the word which he hath heard from the beginning and the word which was from the beginning abiding in him ver 24. And the Apostle Paul saith expresly that the righteousness of faith cometh by the hearing of this word making the same word the rule to the children of the new covenant now as Moses said was the commandement of God to them then quoting this place of Moses for it Rom. 10 6. c. So that Paul indeed taught nothing but Moses and the Prophets pointing to the very same word and commandement of eternal life as Moses had done That is the word of faith which we preach that word which Moses taught which he said was nigh in the heart and in the mouth no man need ascend up to heaven or go down to the deep or seek any where else for it that 's the very thing we point you to that 's the word of faith that 's the commandement of life And with what zeal would Paul were he now alive in the body declare against such who should over-look or deny this word and set up his writing with the writings of the rest of the Apostles for a rule instead thereof yea I could shew yet further how the spirit of prophecy or testimony of Jesus or living appearance of God in the heart hath been a rule to the witnesses against Antichrists deceit all along the night of Apostacy Rev. 11.3 and 19.10 though they themselves being in the night distinctly knew not what was their rule but by a secret breath of life were quickned guided preserved and in it accepted but these things will open of themselves as the mist is expelled and the vail rent which hath over-spread all Nations and covered professors generally in this night of Antichristian darkness and universal apostacy from the living power 2. Consider whether the Scripture be your rule or no that is whether in singleness of heart ye wait on the Lord to open the Scriptures to you by his spirit and to keep out your carnal reason from thence which cannot understand them but will be wresting them and making them speak as it would have them or whether ye take scope to search into them with that part which ever was shut out from the right knowledge of
them The natural man understandeth not the things of the spirit of God the spirit of the Lord alone understandeth the meaning of his own words and he alone gives the understanding of them which he gives not to the wise Searcher and Disputer nor to the prudent professor Mat. 11.25 but to the babe which he begets to which he gives the kingdom and opens the words which the Scripture speaks concerning the kingdome The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God and if that search into the Scriptures it will gather only a knowledge suitable to its enmity Thus the Jews were great enemies and strong enemies by the knowledge which they had gathered out of the Scriptures written to them and the same spirit hath also wound it self into the Scriptures written since And as then that spirit fought against Christ and his Apostles with those very Scriptures which the spirit of Christ had formerly written so the same spirit fights now against the Lambs and witnesses of Christ with the Scriptures which were written since Yea the great strong hold of Antichrist at this day is Scripture interpreted by the fleshly wisdome for Antichrist comes not in a direct denial of Christ or Scriptures he is too cunning to be found there but bends them aside by the fleshly wisdom to serve the fleshly will and thus undermines the spirit and exalts the flesh by a fleshly understanding and interpretation of those very Scriptures which were written by the spirit against the flesh And through this mistake it is that some innocently cry up things practised at the first springing up of truth not seeing of what nature they were and upon what account they were done and what of them were cast off by the same spirit which before had led to the use of them though the Scripture expresly testifieth thereof For Rev. 11.1 2. there was the measuring of the building which Gods own spirit had built part whereof was reserved for God part given to the Gentiles or uncircumcised in heart who are now the Gentiles since the breaking down of the former distinction betwixt Jew and Gentile That which God reserved for himself was the Altar the Temple the worshippers therein all these are inward The outward Court was given to the Gentiles to those who would be worshippers under the Gospel and yet had not the circumcision of the Gospel to them the Court which is without the Temple is given and this they get and cry up and then tread under foot the Holy City trampling upon the inward and undervaluing it Christ within the Spirit within the Law within the power within becomes a reproach and this they have power to do even to keep down the inward and cry up the outward all the time of the forty two months and to persecute and slay the witnesses whom God raised up to testifie for the inward and against the outward as it is now in the Gentiles hands and made use of by them to keep down the inward and so the building being thus taken down the Church flies out of it into the wilderness where she had a place prepared of God for her Rev. 12.6 Mark she is not where she was before that building was measured taken down and disposed of by God but she hath been and is all the time of the 42. months or 1260 daies in another place prepared by the spirit of God for her whither she fled and where she was nourished from the face of the Serpent who was seeking after her and making war with the remnant of her seed ver 14. c. And they that seek for her now in her former building will miss of her and may meet with another woman which in several appearances and disguises and practising of ordinances appertaining to the outward Court blasphemes the holy City the true Temple Altar and Worshippers Happy is he that can read this for it is the mystery of this book sealed from all the Gentiles and Worshippers in the outward Court Many sorts cry up the Scriptures for their rule but which of them is taught by the spirit to keep the carnal part out of the Scriptures Which of them keeps out their own will and understanding receiving their knowledge of Scriptures from that Spirit which wrote them Do not men rather gather a knowledge in the flesh and then grow strong and wise and able to dispute and confident in their own way and become feirce despisers of those who cannot own their interpretation of these Scriptures and thus the mind of God the true meaning of the Scriptures is not their rule but an image which they have formed out of it a meaning which their wit hath strongly imagined and fenced with arguments and the real mind and intent of the spirit is hid from them So by this means many both deceive their own souls and help to deceive the souls of others missing of the plainness and simplicity of the spirit and gathering sences in the wit and subtilty of the fleshly part where the serpentine wisdom lodgeth and twines about the tree of knowledge Now what do these men do whom do they serve and whither do they run themselves and lead many other poor souls whom they pretend to be helpful to save 3. Consider whether ye did not flee from the Cross in your transplanting into New-England and so let up that part in you there which should have been kept down by the Cross here and gave advantage to that spirit to get ground in you which ye outwardly fled from The safety is in standing in Gods counsel in bearing the Cross in suffering for the testimony of his truth but if at any time there be a fleeing of the Cross whether the inward or the outward without Gods direction the evil Spirit is thereby let in his part strengthened and the life weakned That Spirit which would save it self from the cross is the same with that which would persecute that which will not save it self Mark how sharply Christ speaks to Peter upon this account when he would have tempted him to avoid the cross get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savorest not the things of God c. Mat. 16.23 The seed offers up all to God in his service will suffer any thing for his names sake even the loss of liberty goods yea life it self for the testimony to the least truth now that which sayes to the seed when sufferings come for the testimony of truth avoid it save thy self let not this be unto thee or the like that 's Satan and if Satan be not cast behind but that counsel hearkned unto which leadeth from the cross Satan is followed And if ye fled your proper cross in your removal from hence unto New-England though ye might meet with many others there yet hereby ye lost your proper advantage of serving and honouring God in your generation yea ye lost that which would have kept your Spirits tender and
open to the voyce of Gods Spirit and then no marvel if afterwards ye grew hard and fit to persecute who first had shewed your selves unfit and unworthy to suffer Ye might meet with many crosses afterwards which might neither be able to humble you nor keep you tender having once lost that cross which was appointed of God to do it for all crosses do not break humble or keep the heart low and meek but such as are sent and sanctified by God thereunto 4. Consider when ye came to New-England whether tenderness grew up in you and was abundantly exercised towards such as might differ from you or whether ye were as eager for the way that ye thought to be right as the conformists you fled from were for the way they thought to be right When Israel came out of Egypt into their own Land they were to be tender even toward an Egyptian much more towards their own brethren Now when ye were out of danger of being persecuted your selves did ye lay a foundation of tender usage towards all that should differ from you or did you lay a foundation of persecuting such as differ and would suffer none differing from you but persecute them just as the Bishops persecuted you Did ye flee the having of your selves persecuted or did ye flee the persecuting Spirit For if ye did flee only your own persecution and not the persecuting Spirit in your selves no marvel though it fell a persecuting so soon as the fear of your own persecution was over In this fleshly part there is a persecuting Spirit which if it be not kept down by the power of God though it loves not to be persecuted yet will soon be persecuting 5. Did you feel your selves to grow in the inward life upon your coming into New-England or did that begin to flag and wither and your growth chiefly consist in form and outward order in which ye might easily be mistaken too for many who have given a true testimony and have been faithful in helping to pull down yet have erred when they came to build up That Spirit which is kept low by persecution and gives forth its testimony against things in fear and trembling is many times exalted when it is out of the fear of persecution and can weigh debate consider and resolve things in that part which cannot build for God Ephraim under the rod spake trembling but the rod being off he could exalt his own wisdome and offend in Baal That worship and way of government and order which a man takes up in the fleshly reason and which falls in with the worldly interest he serves not the true God in but Baal This is that destroyes and eats out the life of Religion in many namely the mixing of it with their worldly interest for then the offence of the cross ceases to them and they begin to be offended at others on whom the cross is still laid by God thinking that they may comply with them in joyning their religion and worldly interest together and so avoyd the cross as well as they Nay he that will follow Christ must take up the daily cross even that cross which God daily layes upon him who will still be requiring somewhat which is contrary to his own fleshly part and contrary to the fleshly part of those with whom he converses And as this cross is taken up the worldly part is offended and the life grows cutting down worldly interests and wayes of Religion daily but as worldly interests are followed and kept up the fleshly part thrives and the life decayes and suffers even till at length it come under death and then death hath the dominion 6. Consider whether your chief strength of setting up your Church Government order at first of bringing persons into it and of preserving them in it lie in the spirit and spiritual weapons or in the flesh and carnal weapons if in the spirit and spiritual weapons then ye will be able in God to perswade mens consciences to it and to preserve them by the same vertue and strength which perswaded them and this ye will still have the main recourse to but if in carnal then ye will have recourse to the carnal and there will be your main confidence of keeping up your Church For if it was built by that power it must be upheld by that power so that take that away it falls This is Antichrists strength he sets up a form in the wisdome and maintains it by the outward sword Take him off from this and put him to gaining ground by the demonstration of the Spirit to mens consciences as in the sight of God or to preserving his ground so here he is at a loss and his Kingdome daily falls even in the most refined parts of it Let every Church and people that nameth the name of Christ depart from the wayes of Antichrist and make the Spirit of Christ their strength for that is indeed the only strength of the true Religion both of the inward and outward part thereof In that it begins by that it is preserved and there also it grows and is perfected 7. Consider for it lies upon me to press it yet further and lay it yet more home to you for your good whether the persecuting Spirit did not take its advantage of assaulting you upon your getting from under the cross here into New-England and whether it did not soon find a place in you there and grow up in you and bring you from step to step to that degree of hardness that ye could at length even drink the blood of the Saints That it was then the proper time of the persecuting Spirit to seek to get an entrance into you that is very manifest but whether it did get entrance or no that belongs to you narrowly to search and examine When ye were under the hatches while ye your selves were persecuted then there was little room for that Spirit in you then was not a proper time for your entertaining of it but when ye were at liberty to chuse a way and form of worship then was a proper time for this temptation to prevail with you of setting up your own way as the chief or only way and under a pretence of zeal for God to persecute the breakings forth of his light in others for it could not be expected that that Spirit should directy tempt you who had suffered so much by persecution suddainly to become persecutors of others but to hide its bait under a cover and under a pretence of zeal for God his truths and way of worship to blind your eyes and draw you aside into that which is indeed persecution of it Sin is very deceitful and seeks covers and of all sins persecution has most need of covers it is of so contrary a nature to the tender Spirit of the Gospel Now when sin hath got its cover then by degrees it hardens the heart both from and against the truth Take heed
ruined by any appearance of God nay nor by any appearance of the powers of darkness against God for the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the true Church And there is great advantage of errors heresies to the true Church for the life grows and gets ground by a fair tryal overcoming of them and the approved are thereby made manifest 1 Cor. 11.19 Now what kind of Church is yours which is in such danger of being ruined by that whereby the true Church was advantaged So that to plead that either you must suffer your Religion your souls your liberties to be made a prey of or take this course to defend them is very inconsequent and a strong argument against you that yours is not the truth which needs such a defence as the truth hath not been used to have but hath grown up been preserved and thriven not only without it but against the strength and force of it So likewise those considerations of the Shepherds defending the flock from Wolves and of the keeper of the vineyards maintaining the hedg against wild beasts c. are not proper to the thing in hand for the spiritual sheep the soul the liberty of the Church the true Religion the true vineyard are not outward nor to be defended after an outward manner but the defence is according to the nature of the thing which is to be defended To trust or look after an outward power for defending these is to betray the faith which is the sheild Therefore let them consider whether in looking out too much at these they have not lost the true weapon and the sight of the true thing which is to be defended which the arme of the Lord alone gathers and the arme of the Lord alone preserves This argument is yet further pressed from the present state of your own people too many of them being perillously disposed as ye say to receive their doctrine being already too much disaffected if not enemies to order c. Answ Alas alas have you had your order your Church government so long up and are the multitude among you yet so ready to be shaken Behold what a weak unstable settlement ye have attained to all this time by your outward force But search honestly and see who they are that are so ready to be shaken Are they the discontented and unconscionable multitude as ye speak or are they the most simple hearted most conscientious and zealous towards God amongst you for it is experienced here in Old England that the ground they gain is not upon the unconscionable but the conscientious If it be these that are somewhat touched with the sence of their doctrine it may make you fear that there is more of God therein than you are aware of Therefore do not proceed to argue thus violently against a thing before ye have tryed it but come to a deep serious inward consideration of the thing between God and your own souls not in the pride loftiness and self willedness but in the honesty humility and meekness of your Spirits and then perhaps ye may see beauty and the life of your souls in that which ye now so revile and persecute And though ye matter not how ye imagine and speak all manner of evil falsely against us yet do not also wrong the best among your selves by tearming them discontented and unconscionable because their Spirits are not hardened by your form but yet retain some tenderness towards God his truths and people But why do ye charge following the light within so deeply as to be a giving up of mens selves to their own inclinations and that it immediately canonizeth them for Saints dischargeth them from subjection both Civil and Sacred and from the Scriptures as the rule of life and by vertue of this their Saint-ship intitles them to the estates and dignities of all who are not of their minds c. Answ Surely if ye were guided by the light within ye would be preserved from such kind of injuriousness both to persons and principles Are your tongues and pens your own at liberty to speak and write any thing that will make for your advantage how manifestly false soever If it were but a natural light yet being of God it would not deserve this deep blame Have ye ever tryed it as we have done if not why do ye speak so against it before ye have tryed it We can upon much experience testifie that it is against our inclinations that it discovers them calls from them and is a daily cross to them upon following whereof we feel the bitter dying of the earthly part and the inclinations thereof pining away And from true subjection to that which truly is of God it never discharges but leads to obedience to what is lawfully commmanded by authority to patient suffering under what is unlawfully inflicted And as for the Scriptures it opens them in the life which gave them forth it fulfils them in us it makes them our own it makes us able to set our seal to the truth of them in the sight of God and to receive that for the rule which the Scriptures say is the rule the living word Christ the living way the word in the mouth and in the heart Rom. 10. the law in the mind the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus which is the word ingrafted into their hearts who are created anew in Christ And this is the honour which we give to the Scriptures namely to receive that which they testifie of to live and walk in that spirit which they call to us to live and walk in to take heed of painting the old nature and letting the old spirit live upon its imaginations which it gathers out of the Scriptures reading them in the oldness of the letter and not in the newness of the Spirit And we profess nakedly that we believe the truth of God not meerly because the Scripture hath said it for that which is out of the truth may thus believe but also because in coming to the thing and receiving the truth as it is in Jesus we have found it to be just as the Scriptures speak of it But what do ye speak as if following the light did intitle men to the estates and dignities of all who are not of their mind Nay the light teacheth not to covet not to desire earthly dignities or estates Let it be looked at over Old England which of us so much as mind these things Nay the Lord knows that the love of these things is daily rooted out of our hearts more and more and we are a people whom the World cannot charge with covetousness or love of the World wherewith all sorts of professors hitherto have been too justly chargeable O Rulers of New-England why do ye thus overturn the cause of the innocent if we were a bad people yet to lay things so notoriously false to our charge and to charge that principle in us with it which
pretence to justice their whole course of proceedings will prove in truth and according to righteous judgment but persecution Now the grounds of their proceedings they mention to be these 1. Their having received intelligence from good hands from Barbadoes and England of the pernicious opinions and practises of the Quakers 2. Their professed Tenents how well ye have acquitted your selves herein let all that fear God judge 3. Their turbulent and contemptuous behaviour to authority 4. Their designs to undermine and ruin the order and peace here established Answ He that is willing to receive shall never want intelligence against the truths and people of God even from such hands as he will be ready to call good it is a remnant only that receive truth the generality of professors in all ages are still ready both to send and receive intelligence against all the living appearances of it and of Gods witnesses to it Nor can he who hath already entertained prejudices ever want matter against their tenents or behaviour or to charge them with designs Have not these reproaches alwaies been cast upon every appearance of God Are not the vessels he chuses to hold forth his truths by still represented as persons of pernicious opinions and practises and their tenents charged to be wicked and they looked upon as turbulent and contemptuous c. Were not the non-conformists themselves looked upon as persons that would undermine and ruin the order and peace of the Church who for such trivial things would make such great rents and breaches marring the beauty and disturbing the unity order and peace of the Church of England sure they cannot yet forget this besides that common charge against them of contumacy against authority These are but the old weapons of the old Serpent only a little new furbished by you for your own use even the weapons which the Bishops wrested out of the hands of the Papists and which ye have wrested out of the hands of the Bishops and they are no better in your hands than they were in theirs They were good in their hands so long as they had authority to make them forcible and they have no more vertue in your hands than what outward authority and power adds to them England was once overflown with this floud of reproaches but now at length this afflicted people waiting in patience on the Lords will they have much vanished the earth helping the woman and persons generally who are any whit sober and come to consider things in fear and meekness find no such matter against them no such opinions or practises or tenents but the truths of God received and held forth in his fear their carriage and behaviour meek and humble void of turbulency and contempt towards any and they freer from designs against authority and orderly government than any sort else whatsoever This is well known in England and it cannot be denyed by the authorities and powers therof how we have still been like lambs suffering from all not contriving or so much as desiring the hurt of any The Lord knows the desire of our souls to be after truth and righteousness and our expectations for the establishing thereof to be fixed on him alone and not on any persons whatsoever but as he pleaseth to appear in them and work by them and whatever happens in the mean time is received as from his hand who ruleth on high over all so that our spirits do not so much as rise against any authorities or instruments that persecute us but we wait on the Lord our God to advantage his truth and bring about good to us thereby and we pity and pray for all who know not what they do blessing the Lord our God who accounteth us worthy to suffer for his names sake in bearing testimony at his command to any though it should be but the least of his truths Therefore take heed of going on in the hardness of your hearts but know what a people in the just judgment of God upon you your lot hath been to persecute whose blood will stick the closer to you and lie so much the heavier upon you by how much the dearer they are to God And though ye plead the safety of the People as being the soveraign Law yet the Lord God knows whether ye have aimed at the safety of the People among you in uprightness of heart or whether ye bring this in also as a further cover There is a double safety the People may justly challenge from you First the safety of their Consciences in a tender searching after truth and further removing out of Babylon Secondly the safety of their estates persons and liberties in this search They did not fly from England to be persecuted by the prevailing part among themselves but to enjoy freedome of conscience in enquiring after the Lord his truth and way of worship and not to be tyed and bound up in a form exalted and established according to the opinions and result of the reasonings of the major part Now whether ye have preserved these Liberties for them and really sought their safety or whether ye have persecuted or made a prey of them for their Conscience sake beyond whatever was done to you here in England or beyond whatever they had been like to suffer had they staid here in England the Lord in his day will righteously judge Ye have judged between Cattle and Cattle the Lord also will judge between Cattle and Cattle and in that day ye will see that as his choice have been your outcasts so your choice is rejected by him and that as his spirit is the abomination of your eyes so your formal way of worship is the loathing of his soul O that ye had eyes to see it that your hearts might not be utterly hardned against the Lord his truths and people even to your utter and eternal destruction Little do ye see poor deceived hearts what a narrow step there is between you and the pit THE Authority and Government which Christ excluded out of his Church c. MATT. 20. vers 25. to 29. But Jesus called them unto him and said ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister And whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant Even as the Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransome for many And as they departed from Jericho a great multitude followed him HEre Christ cuts off that power and authority which grows up in the corrupt nature of man which was ever and anon springing up even in the Disciples here he wholly excludes it out of his Church and sayes expresly he would have no such thing among them no such kind of greatness no such kind of authority Among the Gentiles there are
authority But he was a servant he made use of the gift of the spirit of the power of life wherewith the Father filled him to minister and serve with He did never Lord it over the consciences of any of his disciples but did bear with them and pitty them in their infirmities what can ye not watch with me one hour The spirit said he is willing but the flesh is weak He did not hold forth to them what ever he knew to be truth requiring them to believe it but was content with them in their state and waited till their capacities were enlarged being still satisfied with the honesty and integrity of their hearts in their present state of weakness Nor did he strive to reign over the world or call for fire from heaven when they would not receive him or express indignation when they desired him to depart out of their coasts or pray for twelve Legions of Angels when they came to betray â—im and most unrighteously sought his life but the life he had received of his Father he gave up as a ransom for his disciples yea and for his enemies Mark he did not make use of what was given him to raise himself up above others to make his word to stand for a Law and be received but he waited till that was opened in his disciples and in people which was able to receive his testimony and he made use of his power of life and the fulness of the spirit to inable him the more abundantly to serve and to wait in patience for the fulfilling of the will of the Father And though Israel was not gathered by him yet was he meek and patient and at rest in the will of him that sent him and instead of reigning over all could serve all and give that life whose due it was to reign a ransom for many ver 28. His kingdom was not of this world nor did he seek any greatness or authority according to this world neither over the Jews nor over the Gentiles nor over his own disciples but he served all he sought the good of all the life in him which was to reign over all yet here served all suffered for all and from all and that was his way to his crown who having finished his course fulfilled his service perfected his sufferings is sit down on the right hand of the Majesty on high where now he reigns over all and is made a King by God in righteousness And this is the pattern which all his disciples are to walk by The more life they receive the more they are to minister the more they are to serve They must not lift up themselves by their gifts they must not hereupon Lord it over others or hold forth their knowledge or doctrines and think to make others bow thereto but wait in their service till the Lord make way into mens hearts and plant his truth there and upon him also must they wait for the watering and growth of it Quest But is there to be no greatness no authority among the disciples of Jesus or in the Church of Christ Is every one to do what he will to be subject to his own fancies and imaginations to the inventions of his own corrupt heart what a confused building will this be Sure this will not long remain a Zion but soon become a Babylon even an heap of disorder and confusion Answ There is to be no such kind of greatness no such kind of authority Yet there is both a greatness and authority suitable to the state of disciples suitable to that kind of kingdome whereof they are There are Laws there are Governments there are Governors there is ruling and there is subjection but all in the spirit all suitable to that which is to bo governed but no government of or according to the flesh As Christs kingdom is not of this world so the government of his Church and people is not according to this world but as that which gathers is his spirit and that which is gathered is spiritual so that which is governed is the spirits of his people and they are to be governed by his spirit and spiritually and not after a fleshly manner Thus Christ himself though he ministred to his disciples yet he also was their Lord and Master and in the spirit and life of the Father ruled over them and thus the Apostles and other ministers of Christ had likewise in the spirit the care of the Churches and authority in the Lord by his spirit to govern the spirits of his people not to govern after a fleshly manner by their own wills not to prescribe them in a Lordly way either what they should believe or practise but in the light and in the power of the spirit to make their way into every ones conscience in the sight of God ministring to every one in the spirit according to their capacity and growth and waiting patiently for God to convey the food and nourishment and to build their spirits up in the faith thereby The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets Here is the government here is the law of rule and subjection in the life Every one feeling a measure of the Spirit in himself is thereby taught to own and subject to a greater measure of the same Spirit in another He that hath no measure of the Spirit of God he is not of God he is none of Christs and he that hath received a measure of the Spirit in the same spirit feeleth anothers measure and owneth it in its place and service and knoweth its moving and cannot quench it but giveth way to it with joy and delight When the Spirit moves in any one to speak the same spirit moves in the other to be subject and give way and so every one keeping to his own measure in the spirit here can be no disorder but true subjection of every spirit and where this is wanting it cannot be supplyed by any outward rule or order set up in the Church by common consent for that is fleshly and lets in the flesh and destroyes the true order rule and subjection The Apostles and Ministers of Christ come from Christ with a message of life and salvation with a testimony concerning the good will of God and his love to mankind pointing out the way from death to life from bondage to liberty from wrath and destruction to peace and salvation What they have seen what they have felt what they have tasted what they have handled what they have found redeem and deliver them that they declare abroad to others as they are moved as they are sent as they are guided and assisted Now that which they preach to is mens consciences in the sight of God They open the truth which they know they give their testimony in the moving leading and power of the Spirit and they leave it to the same spirit to demonstrate it to mens consciences as it pleaseth They are nothing they
unto any thing which the Lord leads him not into but rejoyce if thou find him in simplicity of heart startling at any thing for if he abide here faithful his guide will in due season appear to him and clear up his way before him but if he be too hasty he may follow a wrong guid and that guid will never lead him aright towards the Kingdom but intangle him further and further from it O how many have run a whoring from the Lord how many have first lost the guidance of his Spirit and then drowned their life in religious performances how many have drunk of the cup of fornication from the life at the hands of the fleshly wisdome how many have filled their spirits with New-Testament Idols and Images how many have even hardened their hearts and consciences by following the doctrines of men their imaginary meanings of Scriptures and the imaginations and dreams of their own hearts Is it not time for men at length to turn back towards the Lord to wait for the visitation and light of his spirit from whom they have gone a whoring and whom in all these things they have grieved And if ever any feel and enjoy the guidance of Gods spirit their conscience must be kept tender to it and ready to hear and follow his voyce who speaks in spirit to that which is born of him which insallibly knows his voyce and being kept clear cannot doubt concerning it My Sheep hear my voyce saith Christ they know it and the voyce of the strange spirit they know not so as to follow it but turn from it both in themselves and others But that which is not the Sheep but hath only got the Sheeps cloathing cries out how shall we know the voyce of the spirit We may be deceived Nay that which is born of God that which is the elect of God cannot be deceived Wait therefore for the birth of the Spirit to which the Spirit is given for a guide who infallibly guides it out of deceit All deceivers are out of this birth out of this spirit perhaps in some birth or other framed from the Letter and living in the imitation of some practises and Ordinances from the Letter under which cover they lie in wait to deceive but strangers to the life and power and to that wisdome which begets and bears to God Thus the Jews erred and deceived their proselytes before the coming of Christ Thus the Christians in name have generally erred all along the Apostasie and indeed for the generallity have not been true Christians but only a persecuted remnant amongst them whose life hath been nourished and preserved not by doctrines and observations which they have been taught by the precepts of men nor by the knowledge which they themselves have gathered but by a little bread dayly handed to them from the Father of mercies out of the Wilderness that was the thing which nourished their souls up to God though many of them knew not distinctly what it was that nourished them nor how they came by it Obj. But is not uniformity lovely and doth not the Apostle exhort Christians to be of one mind and were it not a sweet thing if we were all of one heart and one way Answ Yea uniformity is very lovely and to be desired and waited for as the spirit of the Lord which is one leads and drawes into one But for the fleshly part the wise reasoning part of man by fleshly waies and means to strive to bring about a fleshly uniformity which insnares and overbears the tender conscience this is not lovely nor spiritual nor Christian And the Apostle who exhorts Christians to one mind yet doth not bid them force one another into one mind but walke together sweetly so far as they had attained and wherein they were otherwise minded God in his due time would reveal more to them Philip. 3.15 16. He that hath to him shall be given And the intent and work of the Ministry with the several ministrations of it is to bring into the unity Ephes 4.13 as persons are able to follow and not to force all men into one practise or way that 's the way to destroy the faith and the true unity and at best can introduce but a fleshly appearance of unity in such a form of worship and godliness as eats out the power And for being of one heart and one way blessed be the Lord this is in measure known and witnessed The way is one Christ the truth of God and he that is in the faith and in the obedience to that light which shines from his spirit into the heart of every believer hath a tast of the one heart and of the one way and knoweth that no variety of practises which is of God can make a breach in the true unity This is the one way for every one to be subject to that light of Christs spirit which he hath received from Christ and every one keeping here there is also one heart kept in the midst of all the variety and diversity of practises And the unity being thus kept all will come into one outwardly also at length as the light growes in every one and as every own growes into the light but this must be patiently waited for from the hand of God who hath the right way of effecting it and who alone can do it and not harshly and cruelly attempted by the rough hand of man Some Considerations concerning the State of Things relating to what hath been now is and shortly is to come to pass warning all People to look about them and to wait on the Lord for the unerring light of his Spirit that they may know the times and seasons and the work which God is now about in the world which is great and wonderful and so may not be found fighters against God his Truths and the Witnesses of this Age and Generation more particularly lamenting over and exhorting England With a faithful Testimony concerning the Quakers 1. THat the Spouse of Christ the true Church which God built in the Apostles daies by his Spirit the Church against which the gates of hell could not prevail the Church which was the Temple of the living God the pillar and ground of truth the Woman which was cloathed with the Sun who had the Moon under her feet and was crowned with a crown of twelve Stars c. This Church at the close of the fight between Michael with his Angels and the Dragon with his Angels fled into the Wilderness into the place prepared of God for her Revel 12.6 having two wings of a great Eagle given her that she might fly thither to her place where she was to abide and be hid from the face of the Serpent and to be fed with the living nourishment from the hand of the Father all the time of Antichrists reign which is said to be a time times and half a time vers 14. or one thousand two hundred and
sixty dayes as vers 6. or forty two months as Chap. 11.2 And she was accordingly gone out of sight insomuch as the Serpent could find her no more but went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ Revel 11.17 2. That the true Church cannot come out of the Wilderness till the time of her abobe there the set time appointed by God be ended nor then neither but by the outstretched arm of the Lord Psa 102.13 She may mourn over her desolate Wilderness state but she cannot fly out of it without the help of the wings of the same Eagle which were given her to fly into it The Lord must pitty the dust of Sion and by his everlasting strength and compassion raise up the tabernacle of David which is fallen down or it can be restored no more vers 16. Revel 21.3 3. That the state of the people of God all this time of the true Churches absence hath been a state of captivity The seed hath been in bondage in Egypt the dark Land in Babylon the Land of confusion for such all the Church buildings order and government have been in compare with the true order and government of the Church by the Spirit which was known and enjoyed by the people of God before this her flight where they have been mourning under their chains of darkness and lamenting over their mother for Zion hath been laid wast and Jerusalem the holy City hath been troden under foot by the Gentiles to whom the outward Court was given when God took down his building and secured his Temple Altar and the worshippers therein Rev. 11.2 And in this state God finds his people when he comes to overthrow her to bring death and mourning and famine and fire upon her Rev. 18.8 and to redeem them for then the voice goes forth from the spirit of the Lord to the spirits of his people Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins c. ver 4. Why were the people of God in her till now yea till the very hour of her judgment and are many of them in great danger of staying there even till they feel her plagues They that sit down in any Church-building taking it for Sion before Gods season of building his Sion sit down but in Babylon it is no other though they who have drunk of the false womans cup new mixed for them and so are inchanted a fresh into some new fine-painted bed of her fornication cannot believe it to be so 4. That when God redeems his people out of Babylon he brings them not immediately unto Sion not immediately into a built City but into the wilderness where the Church lies unbuilt where they are prepared and fitted for the holy Land and circumcised in spirit before their entrance There is a long travel from Babylon to Zion wherein the hasty spirit the rough spirit the exalted spirit the murmuring spirit the self-will self-worship self-wisdom knowledge and righteousness all which are of great price in Babylon is cut down and the spirit broken emptyed made poor deeply humbled and so prepared for Gods holy Hill When a Babylonish building or way of worship is discovered man would fain have another ready to put in the place of it so soon as it is pulled down Thus mans wisdome would order it but the Lord will not have it so but there must be a season of desolation of stripping of nakedness of being uncloathed of all the purple and scarlet dye of Babylon Rev. 17.4 a pulling off the ornaments of all the knowledge worship ordinances duties experiences c. which are held and practised out of the pure life And in this state of misery and fore distress the Lord laies the foundation of the new heavens and of the new earth in the spirits of his people which when it is finished then at length he saith to Zion Thou my people Isa 51.16 Observe therefore the error of the reformations since the Apostacy They have been still building too fast and not waiting on God to be hewn and squared and fitted for his building The reformed Churches have still been built of stones before they were made ready for the building They have not waited their time of preparation in the wilderness nor have they waited for Gods building them up into a Temple nor for the time and season wherein it is Gods pleasure to build So that though they did well in seperating from that which was corrupt and manifestly evil yet they did not well in making hast into another way of their own forming but should have waited for Gods manifestation of the good and for his leading of them by his spirit into it And by this means it hath come to passe that though there hath been a pure thing often stirring towards reformation yet by an over forward hastening to build the good hath been quenched and the evil hath again under a new cover or form of worship overgrown it and then hath been ready to revile and persecute the good in others but this the eye which is overtaken with the appearing beauty of its building having concluded it to be according to the will of God revealed in the Scriptures cannot discern 5. That when Zion is rebuilt when the Church its heaven is again stretched forth wherein she was seated before she fled into the Wilderness Rev. 12.1 those that are Gods faithful witnesses into whom his spirit of life hath entred and whom he hath caused to stand upon their feet shall ascend up to heaven in a cloud which their very enemies shall behold Rev. 11.12 And this was done in the time of a great Earth-quake wherein the tenth part of the City fell ver 13. The shaking at this time is very great in this Nation let men mark what will be the issue and observe whether notwithstanding all the seeming contrarieties the Lord God do not so order it as to bring a considerable part of Babylon down and of the powers that uphold her The people of God all this time of Antichrists reign have been a suffering people The tender-hearted every where whose souls could only bow to the Lord who could not receive doctrines from men or fall into worships and practises at the will of man have lain open to Church-censures as they call them and to the Magistrates indignation under the names of Hereticks Blasphemers Seducers and disturbers of the peace both of Church and state and indeed so far as any have tasted of the true light and power of Christ and have been called forth by him to be his witnesses they could not but be disturbers of the carnal peace and security of the Antichristian congregations against whom they witnessed When the true Church fled into the Wilderness the Serpent cast a flood after her she was reproached and blasphemed for an Harlot a Strumpet one that was not the Lambs wife as she
lead them on fast enough and give them light fast enough for he taketh care of such and knoweth what light and what practises are most proper for them but for men to walk on faster than the Lord holds forth light to them this overturns them raising up a wrong thing in them and the true birth hereby comes to suffer to shrink and be driven back And O how sweet and pleasant is it to the truly spiritual eye to see several sorts of believers several forms of Christians in the School of Christ every one learning their own lesson performing their own peculiar service and knowing owning and loving one another in their several places and different performances to their master to whom they are to give an account and not to quarrel with one another about their different practises Rom. 14.4 For this is the true ground of love and unity Not that such a man walks and does just as I do but because I feel the same spirit of life in him and in that he walks in his rank in his own order in his proper way and place of subjection to that And this is far more pleasing to me than if he walked just in that track wherein I walk nay so far as I am spiritual I cannot so much as desire that he should do so until he be particularly led thereto by the same spirit which led me And he that knows what it is to receive any truths from the spirit and to be led into practises by the spirit and how prone the fleshly part is to make hast and how dangerous that hast is will not be forward to press his knowledge or practises upon others but rather wait patiently till the Lord fit them for the receiving thereof and fear least they should receive and practise too soon even in that part which cannot serve the Lord. And this I can truly say concerning my self I never found my Spirit forward to draw any either to any thing I believed to be true or to any practise or way of worship I observed or walked in but desired that the power and leadings of life might go before them and was afraid lest men should receive things from my hand and not from the Lords Yea and this I very well remember that when I walked in the way of Independency as it hath been commonly called I had more unity with more love towards such as were single hearted in other wayes and practises of worship whose spirits I had some feeling of in the true simplicity and in the life than with diverse of such who were very knowing and zealous in that way of Independency in whom a wrong thing in the mean time had got up which had caused them to swerve from the life and from the simplicity So that the true Church Government being in the spirit and over the conscience as in the sight of God the great care must be to keep it within its bounds that nothing else govern but the Spirit and that the government be extended only unto that which is to be governed First care must be had that nothing govern in the Church of Christ but the Spirit of Christ that nothing else teach nothing else exhort nothing else admonish and reprove nothing else cut off and cast out Every Minister in the Church is to watch over his own Spirit that it intrude not into the work of God that it take not upon it to be the teacher the exhorter the reprover c. And every member is to wait in that measure of the Spirit which he hath received to feel the goings forth of the Spirit in him that teacheth and governeth and so to subject not to man but to the Lord to receive from the Lord to obey the Lord. Not to know any Minister according to the flesh but to receive and submit to what comes from the Spirit in the Spirit Not to know Paul or Apollo or Cephas but the Spirit ministring in them Paul may erre Apollo may erre Peter may erre and did erre when he compelled the Gentiles to live as the Jews Gal. 2.14 for which Paul withstood him to the face vers 11. and Barnabas also did erre vers 13. but the Spirit cannot erre and he that keeps to the measure of the Spirit in himself cannot let in any of their errors if they should erre but is preserved For the least measure of the Spirit is true and gives true judgment but he that receiveth never so great a measure of the Spirit yet if he keep not low therein but lifteth up himself because thereof above his brethren may easily erre himself and draw aside others into his error Secondly Care must be had that the conscience be kept tender that nothing be received but according to the light in the conscience The conscience is the seat of faith and if it be not kept close to the light which God lighteth there faith is soon made shipwrack of Christianity is begun in the Spirit which keepeth out the fleshly part with all its fleshly wisdome and reasonings about spiritual things and as the beginning is in the anointing so must the progress be As the Spirit begins in the conscience by convincing that by perswading that by setting up his light there and leading the soul by that light so that light must still be eyed and according to its growth and manifestation in the conscience so must the soul stand still or go on The great error of the ages of the Apostasie hath been to set up an outward order and uniformity and to make mens consciences bend thereto either by arguments of wisdom or by force but the property of the true Church Government is to leave the conscience to its full liberty in the Lord to preserve it single and entire for the Lord to exercise and to seek unity in the light and in the spirit walking sweetly and harmoniously together in the midst of different practises Yea and he that hath faith and can see beyond another yet can have it to himself and not disturb his brother with it but can descend and walk with him according to his measure and if his brother have any heavy burthen upon him he can lend him his shoulder and bear part of his burthen with him O how sweet and lovely is it to see brethren dwell together in unity to see the true image of God raised in persons and they knowing and loving one another in that image and bearing with one another through love and helping one another under their temptations and distresses of spirit which every one must expect to meet with If thou art a Christian indeed and in truth preserve thy conscience pure and tender towards God do not defile it with such religious practises duties ordinances c. as thou dost not feel the Spirit leading thee into for all such are Idols and exceedingly pollute thee And be tender also of thy brothers conscience and be not an instrument to draw him