nor from the light within me but from the power and authourity of a Commission received from a God without me which spake by voice of words to the hearing of the ear and this is that curse that shall remain and be remembred by all those Quakers and others that are under it both in this life and to eternity 3. Thirdly I did say truely in that I said you deny both the Father and the Son to be a Person in the form of a man and that you deny the same flesh and bone of Jesus which suffered death was laid in the grave which rose again which was seen afterwards by his Apostles and others which ascended up into heaven in that same flesh and bone that he suffered death in In your Answer to this above-mentioned you charge me to mention the man and the place of his abode that denied this and is a Quaker There are some other words in this Letter of yours that is to be minded and it is this where you say Christ Jesus is the express image and substance of the Fathers person and you own the Holy Ghost and you own the Father and know them And as touching Christs flesh you are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and you have the minde of Christ and so you call me a Lyer and say let my mouth be stopt Answ This same is riddle me riddle me what 's this What a fiâ—e distinction have you given of the Trinity and whaâ— solid Arguments do you think that you have given to prove me a liar in what I have said First according to your charge I shall tell you both the place and some of the persons which did deny this The place where this was denied was in Eastcheap at a Butchers house the persons who did deny those things aforesaid one was the Butcher himself I think his name was Richard Whitpan or such a like name the Quakers Downfal doth name it right another of them was Fox the younger which is now both dead and damned to eternity another of them was John Harwood as for the other two I do n t remember their names but one of them was a great lubberdly fellow perhaps you may know him better than I these five did all of them deny that flesh and bone or body of Christ wherein he suffered death which same body is now living which they did deny for which the just Sentence of Condemnation is passed upon them as is publick in the Quakers Downfal Nay it was not onely these five Quakers that did deny these things aforesaid but all the Quakers that ever I talked with both men and women have done the same And I know that if I should but discourse with you I should finde you to do the like for it doth not stand with a right Quakers principle to believe that the same flesh and bone of Christ which suffered death was laid in the grave rose again and is now living in heaven in that same body neither can that body be in heaven without the soul or spirit for where his body is there is his spirit also for they both lived together they both suffered death together they both rose again together and are both in heaven together if so how is it possible that the Quakers should get Christ within them For if Christ be a distinct person of himself of substance flesh and bone though a spiritual body now in heaven how comes Christ to get his spiritual body into every Quakers body and every mans body else For the Scripture saith that the heavens shall contain him until the restitution of all things meaning that body of flesh and bone so that the person of Christ or his Essence cannot be in this world at all much less in the Quakers bodies nay he is not in mine though he hath chosen me to be his Messenger to declare what he is in his form and nature as hath been abundantly declared in our Writings Therefore do not you say that it is a slander and a lye for me to say that you are the very absolute spirit of Antichrist that doth deny both the Father and the Son for though you talk of a Christ and of his being the express Image of his Fathers person and of a Holy Ghost because you read of such things in Scripture which were other mens words so you reading of them have jumbled the Father Son and Holy Ghost together and so in stead of one person you have gotten three persons and yet never a person For I am sure when I talkt with John Perrot about God he could finde never a person but an infinite Spirit without a body or person at all All the Quakers that ever I have had to do withal which have been a great many I could never finde any Quaker to own God to be a person in the form of a man but an infinite Spirit that fills heaven and earth and all places and all things and so doth the Pope and all other Opinions that are which doth shew the darkness of the Quakers and the Pope and all others For if God be a person in the form of a man as I am sure he is for I do acknowledge no other God but the Man Christ Jesus who is a distinct body of flesh and bone of his own how then can he fill heaven and earth with his presence and get into the Quakers bodies and all other peoples bodies too and yet he is in heaven above the stars which heaven must retain him until the last day From this body of Christ which is the onely God have I power over all other gods or infinite spirits whatsoever I could shew in what sense it may be said that God fills heaven and earth but it would be too large to unfold besides it is declared already in our Writings There is one blasphemous saying of yours through your ignorance of the Scriptures in this Letter of yours You say that you do own Christ according to the flesh he was of Abraham Which is blasphemy to say it being quite contrary to the Scriptures for those Jews that persecuted Christ were according to the flesh the children of Abraham therefore it was they said We have Abraham for our father and never were in bondage to any for indeed all those that are the children of Abraham according to the flesh are the children of the devil or of the serpent but all those that are the children of Isaac or the children of the Promise which is the seed of Faith which are the children of Abraham according to the Spirit and so according to the faith of Abraham of which Christ came and so the Seed of Faith may say truly they are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh because the seed or spirit of Faith which Abraham the father of the faithful had in him liveth in our flesh and bone and we may be said indeed to be bone of his bone and flesh of his
flesh and so called his Brethren because we are born not of the will of man nor of the flesh but of water and of the Spirit which Spirit doth lye secretly hid in the water is the motions of peace that doth arise from the seed which is called the Spirit But on the contrary the Quakers Christ is according to the flesh of Abraham and so indeed they are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh for indeed they know no other Christ but according to the flesh that is according to the seed of Reason For in Scripture the seed of Reason is called the Flesh from whence the motions of sin doth arise which are called the motions of the flesh which I have largely unfolded in The Interpretation of the 11th Chapter of the Revelations for the Scripture taketh no notice of the outward bodily flesh but as the two seeds doth operate and work in man Reason is called the Flesh and Faith is called the Spirit wherefore it is said Let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith And so every one that doth truly believe in that flesh and bone of Christ to be now living doth eat his flesh and so Christ dwells in his heart by faith and not in his person and essence as the Quakers do vainly imagine For they make no distinction between the person and essence of Christ and the light of Christ which light of Christ is one thing and his person another as the body of the Sun is one thing and the light that shines from it is another and so according to the flesh that is according to the seed of Reason the Quakers are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh And they being the children of Abraham according to the flesh as their imaginary Christ is for all Abrahams children according to the flesh are the children of Cain who is the father of most part of the Quakers and in this sense they may say that they have the minde of Christ in them 4. You say I write if you should own Christ to be a person then that light of Christ you so much talk of would vanish like smoke and come to nothing In your Answer to this you upbraid me with my ignorance and darkness as not knowing Christ nor the Holy Ghost nor the Father nor Christs nor the Apostles doctrine and for which purpose you quote Solomons Writings which is no Scripture with some Scriptures to shew my ignorance and that my Doctrine should flie away like smoke as I said by yours with many more sayings that would be too tedious to write Answer If I were as ignorant and as dark in the knowledge of Christ and of the Holy Ghost and of the Father and of the Apostles doctrine as you are it would be no matter if my tongue should cleave to the roof of my mouth for your ignorance and darkness is plainly discovered in that you quote Solomon to prove your Scripture light and knowledge of Christ that which is no Scripture no more than the Apocrypha is but I perceive it is as good Scripture to you as any for you are but like a Parrot that speaks other mens words for it is nothing to you what Christ or the Apostles said at that time You ought to have heard what the Commission of the Spirit saith now in these last dayes for none can interpret Scripture truly but my self neither doth any man in the world truly know Christ nor the Father nor the Holy Ghost but my self and those that believe in this Commission of the Spirit for it is not with me as it is with you for you are to be judged by the letter of the Scriptures but God hath made me the Judge of Scriptures and of you also For my Commission and the Doctrine of it is as true as the Prophets and Apostles Commissions were in their time nay it is of a more higher nature than theirs were For we the Witnesses of the Spirit do know more than Moses the Prophets or Apostles did things of more higher concernment As To know the form and nature of the true God before he became flesh The form and nature of the right Devil before he be aâ—e flesh The persons and nature of Angels The rise of the two Seeds What knowledge can exceed or go beyond the knowledge of the true God and the righâ— Devil many other deep Secrets which hath been declared by this Commission of the Spirit which the Prophets and Apostles were but dark in in comparison of the Witnesses of the Spirit If so how should you Quakers come to understand any thing concerning Christ the Father and the Holy Ghost who have nothing but the dead letter of other mens words whose light was but dark in comparison of that light that comes by this Commission of the Spirit so that you can never know Christ nor the Father nor the Holy Ghost by the words of the Scripture nor by the light of Christ within you without an Interpreter there being none in the world at this day but my self Can your light within you make these three you speak of Christ the Father and the Holy Ghost to be but one person and particular body of flesh and bone in the form of a man if you can then may you truly say that you know the Father Christ and the Holy Ghost which I know no Quaker or other doth or can know at this day but this Commission of the Spirit onely Neither can any man by the light of Christ within him come to know these things aforesaid but by believing of him that 's sent by voice of words from a God without him But the Quakers were never sent from a God without them but onely from a Light within them and though it be the light of Christ yet will it not give a man the knowledge of the true God but will perish and he that hath it except it be grounded by faith to believe that God spake to such a man to the hearing of the ear and then the light of Christ in a man being grounded upon that voice he shall come to know the Father Son and Spirit to be but one personal Glory in the form of a man which no Quaker in the world doth therefore cannot know the Father Son and Holy Ghost by that light within them which they talk so much of for a childe that answers from his Catechism-book would have said as much from the Father Son and Holy Ghost as these Quakers do for a boy could have rehearsed these places of Scripture and have made as good a Confession of his faith as any Quaker doth But let that pass and come to the next 5. You say further that I have written The Quakers will have no person at all The words in your Letter to this is not worth a Reply for there is little in it but the repeating of Scripture words and what the Apostle saith of Christ being the express image of the
according to Scriptures the Man Christ Jesus who shall judge the world in righteousness whom God hath ordained and we own that according to the flesh he was of Abraham and the same that suffered rose and ascended into heaven and remains in the heavens until the restitution of all things and we sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus who is the express image and substance of his Fathers person and we own the Holy Ghost and we own the Father and knows them And as touching Christs flesh we are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and we have the minde of Christ and so thou lyer let thy mouth be stopt Thirdly Thou sayest If we should own Christ to be a person then that light of Christ which we so much talk of would vanish like smoke and come to nothing Answer To this we answer That thou hast manifested thy darkness and ignorance not knowing Christ not knowing the Holy Ghost not knowing the Father not knowing Christs flesh his blood and bone nor Christ and the Apostles doctrine nor the Law for first The Law is light saith Solomon and the law is in the heart and with the light they saw Christ yea his flesh Secondly John he bare witness to the Light that enlighteneth every man that comes into the world which is Christ And Christ saith I am the Light and believe in the light while ye have the light that ye may be children so there is no becoming children but by the light of Christ And the Apostle saith God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give us the â—ight of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus and that was the treasure in earthen vessels So first thou art ignorant of this treasure and both thee and thy doctrine and thy principle flies away like that smoke thou speaks of and the light remains which is thy condemnation the witness in thy conscience shall answer it which thou in thy uncleanness hast long rebelled against Secondly thou that so rebels against the light of Christ we speak of knows not Christ his flesh nor bone nor the Father nor the Holy Ghost As first thus the light that shines in the heart gives the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ and so without this light they have no knowledge of him and this we say to thee and all upon the earth that none knows the Father none knows the Son none knows the Holy Ghost none knows the Flesh and Blood and Bone of Christ but by the light of Christ for that reveals him and not Flesh and Blood for thou art like to the Jews who stop'd their Ears and closed their Eyes to that of God within them and therefore heard not saw not so was not converted and such professed a Christ was to come but persecuted him when he was come as thou doest now where he is made manifest in his light Fifthly Thou sayest That we will have no person at all Answer This is false though thou hast layed it down general for Christ is the express Image of the Fathers person we say as in Hebrews But thou art the man who wilt have no person at all that denies the light for they that was in darkness could not see God nor Christ nor the Holy Ghost that hated the light and the Apostle said he in the person of Christ which many doth witness now Glory to the Lord for ever for if thou doest profess them in thy words yet again in thy words thou that denies the light denies them and so Babylon and blasphemously terms it to smoak and for thy work the Lord will reward thee Sixthly Thou sayest A great part of us are of those wicked Ranters that hath been given over to blood-shed with a sword of Steel or else to all manner of lusts of the Flesh and now thou sayest we think by a more precise and exactness of Life to recover our peace with God and yet deny the very person of God without us Answer Here again thou adds lie unto lie but who is the father is known by us the children of the Most High and what doth the Devil rage in thee because some that hath been Ranters and used outward weapons formerly now they are turned from these things to God and Christ the express Image of the Fathers person and comes to live in Christ and serve him in a new life therefore doest thou rage they do not own their former principles that comes amongst us but doth judge them and deny them and all the lusts of the flesh and doth their exactness of life and good conversation judge thine that makes thee so fret and chase thy self and scoff and calls it precise and to this thou addes a lie and saith we deny the very person of God without us but to this we say God fills Heaven and Earth and Christ the express Image of the Fathers person is manifest within us and thou who railes at this doth manifest thy self a reprobate one in whom God and Christ is not and an Antichrist and a false witness and a lying spirit for Christ saith he would dwell in the Saints and God would dwell in them and walk in them and hath the devil made thee so blind and ignorant of the letter of the Scripture who art given up to believe lies and who makes lies thy refuge and hast thou no other refuge but lies who by this manifests thy self to all sober people what thou art and from whence thou comes and is not repentance hid from thy eyes it is manifest by thy spirit yet we must say this to thee thou art in the unclean flesh and hath an unclean body thy flesh burns with thy heat of thy lusts and therefore thou hast uttered forth thy ruine nevertheless here is some queries for thee to answer in writing else for ever stop thy mouth 1. Is there any such thing as sin and what is sin in it self and whether thou canst act any sin and express what is a sin to thee 2. If thou doest acknowledge sinne then shall a man while he is upon Earth be made free from sinne and come into the state that Adam and Eve was in before they fell while they be upon the earth and come to Christ a state that shall never fall while he be upon earth 3. For what end did Christ come doth Christ enlighten every man that comes into the world with a saving light and a condemning light yea or nay Is there any true Prophecy Knowledge Revelations or Witness seen or known but by the light of Jesus Christ 4. What is the Soul is it mortal or immortal What is Conscience and where is it seated in man What are the Angels and the worshippers of Angels What is the worship of the Beast and the Dragon And what is the Whore that sits upon the Beast which all nations drink her Cup and
false doctrine pride and presumption as is apparent Answer That my Commission is no pretended thing but as true as Moses and the Prophets and as the Apostles Commission was and John Reeve and Lodowick Muggleton are ordained and chosen of God by voice of words and commissionated with power as realy and truly as ever Moses and Aaron was And as Moses and Aaron were the chosen Messengers and Commissioners of the Law so likewise are we the two chosen Witnesses and Commissioners of the Spirit And as Moses and Aaron were the two first which God chose to give forth the Law and to prescribe Rules of Worship for the people of Israel so likewise we two being the two last chosen Witnesses of the Spirit we have power and authority in this Commission of the Spirit for to declare what the true God is in his form and nature and what worship doth belong to the knowledge of the true God in these latter days which cannot be known but by this Commission of the Spirit onely And as for my taking of all pardoning power from God and Christ in this you shew that you have gone no further nor hardly so far as the Priests of the Nation for you have got a God and a Christ too and yet neither your God nor your Christ hath never a body and in this you are worse than any other Sect for though other Sects of Religion will have a God and a Christ yet they can finde but one body and that is the body of Christ but the Fathers body they cannot finde at all but you Quakers can finde never a body neither for God nor Christ but your own bodies for you have got your Christ and God all within you so that Christ hath never a body of his own but is forc'd to make use of every Quakers body for his Spirit to dwell in But from that Christ which suffered death in his own body and rose again in the same body and is now in Heaven in the same body according to the Scriptures from this Christ which is the onely God I say I have power over all other Gods or infinite Spirits whatsoever and from this Christ which is God-Man now above the stars have I this pardoning power and damning power neither did I take it of my self but it was put upon me by God himself for if I had not obeyed the voice of God when he spake to John Reeve then he was to pronounce me cursed to eternity and so by my yielding obedience unto the voice of God I was made partakers of that power to bless and curse to eternity and this is that power which you say I presumptuously have exalted my self neither will God give this power to any more after me neither can any man come to the assurance of the favor of God now in these days but in believing that God gave this power unto John Reeve and my self for there is no coming to know God nor see God but by the faith in this Commission of the Spirit for I having the Keys of Heaven and of Hell none can get into Heaven except the Witness of the Spirit doth open the gates and so the King of Glory may enter in that is the knowledge of the true God his form and nature may enter into your hearts by having faith in this Commission of the Spirit for God hath given me the same power now as he gave to Peter when he was upon earth and what power that was may easily be read where Christ said unto Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church Also he hid give unto Peter the Keys of Heaven and of Hell Also he should have power to binde and loose and whose sins he remitted should be remitted and whose sins he retained should be retained What is the remitting and retaining of sins but to forgive them their sins which received his Doctrine and to retain and binde their sins of unbelief more close upon their consciences for their despising of the Doctrine of Christ which he did teach And was this any less than blessing and cursing or opening the gates of Hell and of Heaven and yet you see that Christ gave this power unto man you would have said as much by Peter and others if you had been living in those days as you do by me you would have said that they did it out of the pride and presumption of their hearts though they had their Commission put upon them by God himself as I have now in this Commission of the Spirit and as Peter had power to bind and loose or to remit and to retain so likewise hath the same God given me power to bless and curse men and women to eternity and this is the keys of Heaven and of Hell for the blessing of a commissionated Prophet it opens the gate of heaven that is it opens the heart in love to that God that sent such a Messenger of glad tidings of Salvation So on the contrary the curse of a Prophet it opens the gates of Hell that is it opens the heart in envy malice and revenge nay sometimes when the gate of Hell is opened by the curse it hath caused revenge to increase so hot that it hath broken forth into a great flame the fire of Hell hath been so hot burning within them This I know by experience which I never did know until the Keys of Heaven and of Hell were put into my hands by God himself and by this I know what Peters and other Prophets power was for God hath given power for one creature to judge another and what that man doth which hath authority from God God himself cannot undo it for it is not the light of Christ within you Quakers nor the letter of the Scriptures nor God without you that shall deliver you Quakers and others that are under this Sentence from that curse which I have pronounced upon you though you call it error lying divination false doctrine pride and presumption but it will appear to be no other but the Curse of God himself though it be pronounced by a mortal man like your selves 3. And as for my being singular in doctrine knowledge judgement and Power above all men either Prophets or Apostles since the beginning of the world or that shall ever be hereafter whilst the world doth endure Answer This is as true a saying as ever was spoken for this being the Commission of the Spirit it hath more spiritual knowledge judgment and power above all men either Prophets or Apostles why because Moses and the Prophets did not know so much as the Apostles did because Moses Commission was that of the Law under the title of God the Father therefore the Apostle saith concerning those that were educated under the Law of Moses they were under a cloud and saw but darkly as in a Glass shewing the benefit which came to those that were under the Faith of the Gospel for those that were under the Law
they were come but to Mount Sina which gendred unto bondage but those that were come unto the Faith of the Gospel were come unto Mount Sion Now the Law of Moses was Mount Sina and the faith of the Gospel of Jesus was Mount Sion and this Gospel of Jesus which was committed to his Apostles was the Commission of the blood and this Commission of the blood did know more then the Commission of the Law of Moses and the Prophets did so likewise this Commission of the Spirit doth know more then either of them both for Moses and the Prophets had no Scriptures for to interpret or expound but their own prophesies therefore the Apostles must needs know more then the Prophets did because they were the only interpreters of the Law and the Prophets and of their own signs so therefore their knowledge in the Gospel must needs be greater then that of the Law so likewise we the Witnesses of the Spirit must needs know more then either Prophet or Apostle because none can interpret the Scriptures but we the Witnesses of the Spirit and this Commission of the Spirit did God force and lay upon us against our wills and withal he hath given us understanding of his minde in the Scriptures above all the men in the world which words of Gods I finde to prove true for I do certainly know that I have more spiritual knowledge then all the men in the World nay I am sure that I do know more in spiritual things then ever Prophet or Apostle did since the beginning of the World then of necessity it will follow that I do know more then any shall do to the end of the World because I am one of the two last Witnesses and Prophets that God will ever send therefore my knowledge and judgement and sentence must needs be above all that is gone before me or that shall come after me to the end of the world yet I am no ways lifted up with pride and presumption because of this knowledge and authority that God hath given me above all men since the beginning of the world to the latter end I know what I say to be truth for true knowledge is never puffed up with pride neither am I whatsoever the seed of the serpent may judge of me for I do neither bless any out of affections for any by ends but according as I do discern their Faith in the thing neither do I curse any thorough envy or malice but either it is because they have sinned against the holy Spirit a sin that is not to be pardoned or else I do know them to be of that reprobate seed and so I know my judgement is true and according to the tennor of my Commission so that I am neither lifted up with pride nor cast down or troubled with sorrow but am very well satisfied in those that go on the right hand though they are but few as I am with those that go on the left hand though they be many for I see it must be so for God hath so decreed it and he hath been pleased to make it known unto me and hath made me the onely Judge of the two seeds now in this last days which is a thing I never did desire 4. There is little of your matter in this particular but rehearsing of my words onely you say that I under the pretence of the Commission of the spirit that I do presume to exclude all true Witnesses of the Spirit and also all true Ministers Messengers and Ambassadors of Christ from the work of the Ministry both now in this age and whilest the world doth indure to the end and intent that I might set up my self alone in their places and stead Answer That my Commission of the Spirit is no pretended thing but as true as God is Truth neither is there any true Messenger Minister or Ambassador of God in this world at this day but my self neither shall there be any sent of God after me to the worlds end for there can be no true Minister except he be sent of God by voice of words to the hearing of the ear or else by him that is so authorized which I know no speakers in the world hath neither the Priests of the nation which are ordained by man nor no other Sect which by their natural wit from the letter of the Scriptures doth think because they can play upon the letter of the Scriptures as upon a Harp that they are very good Ministers of Christ but he sent them not and as for you Quakers which thinkes the light of Christ within you is sufficient to make you Messengers and Ministers of Christ you are much mistaken for you do but run into the Ministry before you were sent for the light of Christ within a man did never authorize any man to be a Minister of Christ except he be ordained and authorized from a God without him or from a man without him which you Quakers do abhor to think that there should be any other authority besides the light of Christ within you but you will finde that the authority of a God without you will be too hard for the light of Christ within you For little do you Quakers know what that Son of Man is which John in Revelation 1.13 speaketh of so in the 16 verse There went out of his mouth a sharp two-eged Sword Now this Son of Man which John speaketh of was no other but Christ himself and this Christ is the very God and he is that Alpha and Omega the first and the last he that was dead and behold he is alive for evermore and this two-edged sword that came out of his mouth he hath put into my mouth and that was when he said I have put the two-edged Sword of my Spirit into thy mouth to pronounce blessing and cursing to eternity now God having put the two-edged Sword of his Spirit which came out of his mouth and hath put it into mine how will you Quakers or any others do to deliver your selves from it for it is a two-edged Sword it cuts down the seed of faith as the wheat in love and makes it obedient unto the Commission of the Spirit and so they are gathered as Gods wheat into his barn which barn is the Commission of the Spirit for every Commission is a shelter or as a barn to keep the wind storms and rain off from the wheat but on the contrary the other edge of this Sword which is put into my mouth it cuts down the tares the tares is the Seed of Reason which are bound in bundles and cast into the fire for this edge of the Sword which is the sentence of condemnation it cuts down many bundles of the seed of reason for the fire of hel to one sheaf of the seed of faith which is gathered into Gods barn that is to believe the Commission of the Spirit Now the Quakers and all other Sects the speakers of them
the Prophets gave witness as hereafter appears L. M. Here the Reader may see how simply he proves that I have no Commission from Christ and that I am no chosen Witness of Christ R. F. 1. He tells me that there were chosen Witnesses of Christ to whom all the Prophets gave witness this he proves out of the Acts of the Apostles in divers places 2. That they had a Commission from Christ to whom all the Prophets gave witness or that he commanded them to preach to the people This he proves likewise out of the Acts of the Apostles 3. They who were chosen Witnesses of Christ whom God the Father anointed sealed and sent and had a Commission from the Spirit and Power of Christ to whom all the Prophets gave witness in testifying on the behalf of Christ their testimony stands as an evidence against as you say my pretended Commission and the doctrine thereof L. M. Reply Let any man that knows what belongs to a temporal Commission judge whether these places of Scripture which you have named doth prove me a false witness and my Commission to be a pretended thing or no for I do own and believe that the Prophets under the Law were true witnesses of Christ that is they did witness and testifie unto the people of the Jews that Christ the Savior of mankinde was to come and to be born of a Virgin this I do faithfully believe Also I do own and believe that the Prophets and Apostles were true Witnesses and Ambassadors of Christ and that the Apostles were chosen Witnesses of Christ to testifie and witness that Christ the Savior was now born in their time when they did thus witness as the Scriptures doth abundantly relate Also I do own and believe that Christ is ordained to be the Judge of the quick and the dead Also I do own and believe that the Scriptures were spoken as Holy men were inspired and so they may be called and are owned by me to be the Word or Words of God Yet this I say by the way that no man upon the earth at this day doth know the Scriptures truly nor can interpret them truly but us the Witnesses of the Spirit because all men in these days are ignorant of the form and nature of the true God and the right Devil as I have shewed in those Letters to Samuel Hooton and W. S. and to Edward Bournes and to your self Those Letters do open it more at large Again Do you blinde Quakers think that the repeating of Scripture-texts which were other mens Commissions and words that it will prove me a false witness and my Commission to be a pretended thing then I say those Jews which were under the Law of Moses might as truly have said as you do by me that the Apostles Commission wat but a pretended thing and their witness which they bore to Christ was a false witness and so they did therefore they persecuted them for it as you would do me if it lay in your power as it did in theirs 4. R. F. By their Commission they were to preach to the people and the same Commission and the doctrine thereof they were to testifie to them that Christ was ordained of God to be the Judge both of quick and dead but thou art not Christ to whom all the Prophets gave witness therefore it is evident that thou art not chief Judge ordained of God though thou presume to say that after death they shall never see any other God or Judge but the remembrance of that Sentence which you the pretended Witnesses of the Spirit did pass upon them in this life because thou falsly saith no man knows the Scriptures but thy self and that no man can truly interpret the Scriptures but thy self and that no man ought to officiate the Office of a Minister Messenger or Ambassador of Christ but such as are appointed by John Reeve and thy self Which Assertions or Doctrines of thine are false and not true for this I say that the onely knowledge and right of interpreting Scriptures belongs not to thy self but to the Lord Jesus and his blessed Spirit who is the true Judge and hath power to open mens understandings and can give them the true knowledge and right understanding of Scriptures Luke 24.32 Lodowick Muggleton 's Reply The Reader may see the gross darkness of the Quakers here he proves my Commission as he doth think to be false and a pretended thing from the letter of the Scripture as if the Prophets and Apostles Commission being repeated over so many hundred years since would make my Commission false and to be but a pretended thing when as I do declare that I do not take up my Commission from the letter of the Scriptures as other men do for that is a pretended Commission which doth counterfeit and pretend to do the same things as they did which had their Commissions signed and sealed by the voyce of God himself as Moses and Paul the Prophets and Apostles these I do own that they had a Commission from God but what is this to any Quaker or any other man doth this prove that the reading of other mens Commissions will make a man a Minister Messenger or Ambassador of Christ surely no neither will the reading of the Scriptures prove my Commission to be false and a pretended thing as you say it is for I said in those Letters to the Quakers that my Commission is as true as the Prophets and Apostles Commissions were and of a more higher nature then theirs were this I own to be true for my Commission was given by voyce of words from God as theirs were therefore it is that I certainly know that God did give a Commission to Moses and the Prophets and unto his Apostles Also as Moses and Aaron were the two first that God did chuse and give a Commission unto to act forth the Law which did signifie the water so likewise God hath chosen John Reeve and Lodowick Muggelton to be his two last Witnesses and Prophets of the Spirit so that the repeating of the true Prophets and Apostles Commissions over again now will never prove me a false witness nor my Commission to be a pretended thing for the Jews which were under the Law of Moses might and did as well say as you do by me that the Apostles Commission was false and a pretended thing by their repeating of the Law and the Prophets but the repeating of other mens Commissions will not make void that which is given by voice of words from God for that will stand for ever and that you and many more shall know to your eternal pain and shame let your pretences be what they will Also I do own that the Prophets and Apostles of Christ did witness and testifie that Christ was ordained of God to be the Judge both of the quick and the dead I also do own and believe the same thing my self but what doth this prove therefore that I have
The Neck of the QUAKERS BROKEN OR Cut in sunder by the two-edged Sword of the Spirit which is put into my Mouth First In a Letter to Edward Bourne a Quaker Secondly In Answer to a Letter to Samuel Hooton and W. S. Thirdly In a Letter to Richard Farnsworth Quaker Fourthly In an Answer to a printed Pamphlet of the said Richard Farnsworth Entituled Truth Ascended Or The Anointed and Sealed of the Lord defended c. Written by Lodowick Muggleton one of the two Iust Prophets and Witnesses unto the High and Mighty God the Man Christ Jesus in Glory AMSTERDAM Printed in the Year of our Lord God 1663. And are to be had in Great Trinity-Lane over against the Lyon and the Lamb. Lodowick Muggleton 's LETTER TO Edward Bourne I Saw a Letter of yours which you sent to Dorothy Carter wherein I perceive she did lend you a Book of ours of the Two Witnesses of the Spirit which you have perused not for your good but for your eternal hurt for you have discovered in that Paper what seed and nature you are of which is the reprobate Angels seed and nature which is called in Scripture A Serpent or Devil of whose seed or childe you are one which you have plainly expressed in your Letter by speaking evil of the things you do not know in which Book or Books you were not worthy to look into But many more besides you of the Serpents brood have stumbled at this stone even the Commission of the Spirit to their eternal condemnation which we the Witnesses of the Spirit have denounced upon them which no infinite Spirit or Light of Christ within them shall take it off from them nor deliver them in the day of trouble I shall shew in some particular places in your Letter wherein you have sinned against the Holy Ghost a sin that will never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come And so I shall proceed to the sentence of eternal death upon you First you say that you perused the Book till you was weary with looking into it for it was one of the dirtyest and confusedst piece of work that ever you saw Also you do advise Dorothy Carter to consider of it and let the witness of her own conscience answer whether it was given forth from the Spirit of Truth or from the spirit of error and deceit or not This I would have you to know though it be too late for your good that it is neither the light in her nor in you nor no man under heaven at this day that can or ought to judge of the Doctrine or Declaration of a Prophet that hath a Commission from God but ought rather to submit and yield obedience to their Doctrine for there is no eternal life to be had but in the faith of it For whosoever receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophets reward which reward is no less then the assurance of eternal life So on the contrary he that despiseth a prophet Doctrine despiseth him that sent him and shall receive from that Prophet the seal in his conscience of his eternal damnation The first thing that you take offence at is that we say that the reprobate Angel had the womb of a woman to clothe himself with flesh also to bring forth Gods design From which you do ask whether that which is the Devils work can be Gods glorious design seeing God hath manifested his Son to destroy the works of the Devil To which I answer That the reprobate Angel clothing himself with flesh in the womb of a woman it was Gods design that the reprobate Angel should do so for this very purpose that there might be a generation of men and women of his seed brought forth here in this earth in the state of mortality being horn under the Law it being written in their seed and nature and by the not fulfilling of that law which is written in the serpents seed it is made capable to suffer the pains of eternal death which is the second death and this was Gods design that he might destroy the seed of the serpent with a second death And as for Gods destroying the works of the Devil he doth destroy them two ways that is he that is God did lay down his spiritual and heavenly glory in the womb of Mary the Virgin and so clothing himself with flesh and bone so that he might be capable to suffer the pains of death therefore it is said in Scripture that this Jesus which is called the Son of God but in other places of Scripture he is called the Very God as the Epistle of John where he saith This is the very God and Eternal Life And Isaiah where he saith To us a Childe is born to us a Son is given attributing to that Childe Jesus the Title of Everlasting Father Mighty God and Prince of Peace There might be more places of Scriptures named to prove this thing as that saying that the fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in him and that saying in the Revelation I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last he that was dead but am alive and behold I live for evermore And as the Angel by taking flesh upon him by entring into the womb of Eve brought sin and death into the world unto the seed of Adam so God by clothing himself with flesh in the womb of a Virgin that he might be put to death in that flesh and by his spirit quickning again in that flesh he will destroy him that had the power of death which is the devil and the devils works He destroyed the works of the devil in the seed of Adam by their having faith in the death of God which faith purifies the heart and is justified in the sight of God and in their own conscience and so the works of the devil are destroyed in the seed of Faith which is the seed of Adam by believing in the blood of God they having their hearts sprinkled by faith in his dâ—â—â—… and this did God procure to his own seed by clothing himself with flesh So on the contrary he by his design of clothing himself with flesh hath procured the eternal destruction to that reprobate Angel and his seed and you being one of the devils sons I know by your words for by your words you shall be condemned for you have plainly shewed unto me by your Letter what seed you are of and who your father is even the same as was Cains father you and he have all one father for you were begotten of that wicked one even that reprobate Angel which God designed him and his seed unto that endless misery as is spoken of in that Book which you call a Confusion and a Lie And not onely so but you have called many heavenly Mysteries the Bottomless pit of Confusion as that God created the person of the serpent more glorious than the rest of the holy Angels Also you
what is her Cup 5. What is the woman that fled into the Wilderness And what is the Wilderness And what are the times and time and half a time that she was to be fed theâ—e And what was the number of the Beast which is the number of a man and what is the number of a man 6. What is the Serpent And what is the Tree of Knowledge And what is the Tree of Life And what is the flaming Sword And what is the body of Death And the body of Sin is it a mans outward body yea or nay 7. Shall a man be made free from Sin and Death whilest he be upon earth and be made perfect 8. Dare thou say that thou hast the same Spirit and Power as Christ and the Apostles had 9. Hast thou heard the voice of God and Christ immediately from Heaven Hast thou seen the shape of God 10. What is the first principle of the pure Religion And what is that which leads to Repentance And what is that which gives the knowledge of God and of Christ And whether it be within man or without man 11. What and where is the Church of Christ 12. Doest thou sin or canst thou sin Or hast thou any guilt for sin 13. Hath every man the Spirit of God 14. What is the honor that is from above And what is the honor that is from below 15. Doest not thou continue in the highest strain of Ranters Seeing thy mouth is full of cursing and yet thou art finding fault with those that be changed from it 16. What is Evil And what is Good And what is Light And what is Darkness And how doest thou know them and distinguish them in thy self And if thou can distinguish the one from the other then what is it to be baptized for the dead mark we ask thee what this baptism is for the dead and what is the dead 17. What is it that leads nature out of its course And what is it that defaces the glory of the first body And what is the glory of the first body and what is it that leads nature in its course And where is it 18. What is Self-righteousness and its ground And what is the Gospel And what is Election And what reprobation And what is Cains mark Answer these things in Writing and send them to Thomas Hyfield at Notingham Lodowick Muggleton's Answer to Samuel Hooton and VV. S. Samuel Hooton and W. S. I Received a paper from you two being Quakers wherein I finde your Spirits much moved to wrath and railing because I have told the truth to one John Levens formerly a Sword-man in the Army but now turned Quaker In a Letter to him it doth concern all the Quakers all the world over and through some passages in that Letter you have been moved by that light within you to send a long railing Letter unto me with some Propositions from Scripture-texts for me to answer which railing Letter of yours is so much and your questions so many that it would take up a volumn to answer Yet nevertheless because you are not under the sentence of this Commission already and for the further information of other Quakers that are not under it And for others that shall come to hear or see this Answer I shall trouble my self so far as to give answer both to the railing part of your Letter and if your Queries be worth the answering which is not already answered in some of our writings I shall say something to them for some of those Scripture texts which you quote is not worth the answering And those that are of most concernment are interpreted and unfolded very plainly in that Treatise of the Interpretation of the 11 Chapter of the Revelation of St. John That is to say Concerning the Tree of Life The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Of the Serpent Of the Woman that fled into the Wilderness What that Wilderness is What the time and times and half a time is What the Dragon is What the Beast out of the Bottomless-pit is What the State of Adam was in his Creation with the Person and Nature of Angels and the Immortality of the Soul with many other deeper secrets then those Texts of Scripture which you mention doth or can bear which Books that are written by us the Witnesses of the Spirit such Devils as you are not worthy to look into But to give answer to the railing part of your Paper which hath very little else in it and if there be any thing in the Queries worth the Answering which is not answered already in some of our writings I shall do it not rendering railing for railing but I shall speak what I certainly know concerning you two and the Ministry of the Quakers and all those that believe them which continue in that Faith after they have heard of this Commission of the Spirit I know what I speak to be truth as with relation to your Principles and to your Eternal estate 1 Answer The first part of your Paper hath little in it but railing against me onely where you say that I am in the highest state of inchauntment in that I have slandered the Children of the most High God First I declare as I am a Prophet and Messenger of the true God that the people called Quakers are not the Children of the Most High God but for the generality of them they are the children of the devil and are the very seed of the devil and were begotten by him and I as I am an Ambassador ordained of God by voice of words can as truly say that they are of the seed of the Serpent and so the Children of the Devil as Christ did to the Jews when he said that they were Serpents yea Devils and the Devil was their Father so can I say by you Quakers and many thousands more aswell as you that you are the Children of the Devil that were begotten by him and not begotten by Adam who never came through the loins of Adam though they came through the womb of Eve For this I know that Cain was the first-born of the Devil and Adam had no part in the begetting of him And from this Cain came those Jews that Christ called Serpents and Devils And the Quakers people which you call the Children of the Most High God are the Children of Cain who was that Angel or Serpent that beguiled Eve which became flesh blood and bone and so begat millions of men and women which are his Children whereof most of the Quakers are Therefore do not you say that I slander them in saying that they are led by the spirit of Anti-christ and that they are the worst of all in point of doctrine though the best of all in practice of Life For what I have said of them will prove no slander nor ill report but truth is self Neither can any Quakers principles comprehend me nor the Doctrine declared by us the Witnesses of
for it of God and there is never a one that I have cursed that shall escape that curse which I have denounced upon them neither will any God deliver them from it for I do curse none but the seed of the Serpent who had his curse denounced upon him and his seed at the beginning by God himself Now in this last age God hath given me power and discerning to determine and give judgement upon men and women according as I do discern by their words and I thereby also know what nature and seed they are of and accordingly I give judgement upon them for I do go by as certain a rule as the Judges of the Land do when they give true Judgement according to the Law For God hath ordained me the chief Judge in the world at this day to give sentence upon men and womens spiritual and eternal estate what will become of them after death Full of this cursing I confess my mouth is and I do rejoyce in it too I know that God is well pleased in the damnation of those that I have cursed and I am wonderous well satisfied in giving judgement upon them according to the tenor of my Commission and this is that which you call swelling words You would have called the Prophet Eliahs words swelling words if you had been of those four hundred priests of Baal which he commanded to be slain by the power of his word which power of the Commission of the Spirit is of a more high nature then that of Eliah's was for his was but the sentence of death natural but this is the sentence of death eternal but because it is not immediately executed as his was you think that there is nothing in it but it will be found suddenly enough both to you and to many that are entred into the second death already for there is no time to the dead but after death to judgement which judgement they have in themselves which is the remembrance of that sentence that we who are Witnesses of the Spirit did pass upon them in this life for they shall never see any other God or Judge but that sentence that we have passed upon them You are much mistaken if you think to deal with a Prophet that hath a Commission from God as you deal with the Priests of the nation Because you Quakers have baffled the Priests of the nation by that light within you because you are faln to a more precise exactness of life then they though your doctrine is worse then theirs you must not think to do so by a Commissionated Prophet This Commission of the Spirit shall break the Neck of the Quakers as it hath done divers others for this take you notice that after the Sentence is passed upon the Speakers of the Quakers they shall never grow more to any great experience neither shall they have those Visions Apparitions and Revelations from that light within them as they had before but shall rather wither This experience hath been known by Quakers and others as John Robins John Taney John Harwood Fox the elder Fox the younger Edward Burrowes Francis Mowgil with many others with hundreds of all Sects besides which shall not escape what hath been decla ed by us the Witnesses of the Spirit As for that saying which you quote out of Christs words to his disciples before they had their Commission where he said unto them Bless and curse not that concerns not me nor any other man in the world at this day Peter and the rest of the Apostles had power both to bless and curse after they had received their Commission which was after Christs Ascension as you may read in the second of the Acts then was that saying of Christ fulfilled which he had said unto Peter I have given thee the Keys of Heaven and of Hell that what thou bindest upon earth shall be bound in heaven and what thou loosest on earth shall be loosed in heaven Or thus What sins thou remittest shall be remitted and whose sins thou retains shall be retained That is thou shalt have power to give Sentence of Blessedness to those that believe thee and Sentence of Cursedness to those that despise thy Declaration This was the remitting of sins and the retaining of them so that Peter and the rest of the Apostles were not tyed after they had received their Commission to those words of Christ which he spake unto them when they were private Believers Neither am I tyed to those words of Christ which he spake unto his disciples at that time for he hath given me power and authority to be Judge of the Scriptures he hath given me understanding of his minde in the Scriptures above all men in the world at this day nay if I should say than all the men since the beginning of the world I should not lye for I being the chosen Witness of the Spirit and the last man that shall ever speak to this bloody unbelieving world by Commission from God for he will never chuse any more after me so long as the World endureth Neither doth any man know the Scriptures neither can any man interpret the Scriptures truly but my self for God hath given the Scriptures into my hands even as he gave the Priests Office into the hands of Aaron none ought to officiate the Office of the Priesthood but Aaron and those that were appointed by Moses and him So it is now none ought to officiate the Office of a Minister Messenger or Ambassador of Christ but those that are approved of by John Reeve and my self For by reading the letter of the Scriptures or the light within a man is not sufficient to make a man a Minister Messenger or Ambassador of Christ therefore those words which Christ said to his disciples bless and curse not is nothing to me for he hath given me power since that to the contrary He hath put the Two-edged Sword of his Spirit into my mouth that whosoever I pronounce cursed through my mouth is cursed to eternity And my power is as great and rather greater than the Apostles was that you speak of which is called a cursed childe The Apostles curse was but a weak curse to that power which God hath given to me For the Apostle saith if an Angel from heaven should preach any other Doctrine than what he and the rest of the Apostles had taught let him be accursed I do not onely say let him be accursed but if an Angel from heaven should come and say I have spoken false or lyed in the Doctrine that we have declared and in those things which I have said concerning the Quakers I have power not onely to say let him be cursed but to curse Angel or man to eternity As for your judgement from the letter of the Scriptures or from the light within you it is not worth a straw but the curse that I pronounce upon men and women it is not from the light of the Scriptures
Fathers person which if it were but opened it would utterly destroy their own principles of the light of Christ within them which they are very angry with me for saying that the light within them will vanish like smoke which they will finde to be true but I shall go to the next 6. You say I write that a great part of you are of those wicked Ranters that have been given over to blood-shed with a sword of steel or else to all manner of lusts of the flesh and now I say you think by a precise and exactness of life to recover your peace with God and yet deny the very person of God without you Your Answer to this Sentence of mine is something large but most of it rayling and rehearsing the same words as were spoken before for you make a great deal of do about knowing the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and keep a stir about Christs being the express image of the Fathers person and yet all this while you cannot finde out any person of God at all onely you have gotten Pauls words and run away with them as a dog doth with a bone for the letter of the Scriptures is cast down as a bone by the Prophets Apostles and Christ himself for how would Quakers have done to have found out these words That Christ is the express image of the Fathers person if Paul had not said so I marvel how they would have known that Christ enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world if they had not found such words in Scripture But those men that spake the Scriptures know what the light of Christ was these can onely speak of it but know nothing truely what the light of Christ is nor from whence it doth arise There is one expression in this part of your Letter which would make one laugh which is this Doth the devil rage in me because some who have been Ranters and used outward weapons formerly now they are turned from these things and turned unto God and Christ the express image of the Fathers person As for those Ranters that are turned to God and Christ in the Quakers way they had better have kept themselves where they were for before they were in the wilderness but are now turned back into Egypt and so are further off from entring into the land of Canaan that is a place of rest for their souls than they were before So that the state of the Quakers is more uncapable to be saved than the Ranters for if they turn a right Quaker after they have been at the Rant there is no possibility for them to be saved for they are two-fold more the children of the Devil than they were before For if such a Quaker should give his goods to the poor and his body to be burnt for that light within him it will avail him nothing for there are but these three states in man Egypt the Wilderness and the land of Canaan But by faith in a Commission and they that truly believe in a Commission are the Saints that Christ dwells in and not the Quakers for they are for the most part of them as I said before the children of Cain who was of that wicked one which always was in bondage and there shall remain to eternity So much in answer to your railing Letter Now I have given you answer to your cursed blasphemy and railing speeches against those Truths which I have said concerning you Quakers it remains that I should give answer to your Queries which are many There are Queries enough if answered to make a Volumn bigger than the Bible for there hath been greater Volumns than the Bible made of one of those Texts of Scripture which you have propounded by wise men in reason But this seemeth to be a marvellous thing that you Quakers that are guided by the light of Christ within you and knows the minde of Christ and the Apostles doctrine and knoweth the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and Christ the express image of the Fathers person in that you should be ignorant of the knowledge of these things which you propound unto me to answer else I must stop my mouth for ever Ce tainly if you had known them your selves you would not have propounded them to me to answer neither is it the propeity of him that hath true knowledge in him to put questions to another which he cannot answer himself It is a thing I never did to any since I came to know the truth I never did propound any question to any man that I could not answer my self though I have been asked many questions by several sorts of people yet never any went empty away without an answer some satisfied and some unsatisfied because they could not question any further nay there hath not been that question that could arise out of the heart of man let it be what it would concerning spiritual things with relation to God Devil Heaven Hell or any other spiritual thing but I have given answer to it Nay some have gone so far as to ask who made God and I have given answer to that also N thing hath been too hard for me in spiritual things if it hath been propounded in English words When I say spiritual things I speak with relation to the knowledge of the true God his form and nature before he became flesh and what he is now in himself And what the right devil was before he became flesh and what he is now in himself and how Heaven and Hell doth depend upon these two with the knowledge of the persons and nature of the Angels and the mortality of the soul On these six Principles depend all spiritual and heavenly knowledge with many other heavenly secrets which floweth as a river of living water from those six heads which no Quaker doth or can know in that state of being a Quaker nor any other Opinion or Religion whatsoever but those that do believe in this Commission of the Spirit And as for those eighteen Queries that you have propounded those that are of the most highest concernment they are answered and opened at large in our Writings already And some of your Queries are of such a long nature that they are not worth the labor to answer neither would there be any great edification to any that should know them yet I shall give a word or two to the first part of your third Querie For what end did Christ come Answ Christ came into the world for this very end for to destroy him that had the power of death which is the Devil which Devil is the seed or spirit of Reason in man of which spirit of Reason which is the Devil most part of the Quakers are of his seed and Christ came into the world for to destroy that is to destroy the seed of the Serpent with an eternal death and to raise the seed of Adam up to a more happier estate than that
no Commission from God to be the chief Judge of Quakers and other dispising spirits That doth no ways weaken my power but rather confirm and make it the more stronger for I do believe Jesus Christ to be the the onely God both God and Man in one person by whom the world was made and from this Christ God Man am I made Judge and not from the letter of the Scriptures which were other mens Commissions so that I am no Minister of the letter but a Minister of the Spirit and so the chief Judge ordained of Christ by voice of words as Moses Elijah Paul and Peter other Prophets and Apostles were so that though Christ be chief Judge of the quick and the dead in that he hath power to raise mankinde again at the last day and so give possession of eternal happiness to the seed of Faith and possession of endless misery unto the seed of Reason and in this regard Christ is chief Judge both of the quick and the dead yet this doth no ways prove me a false Judge but rather the contrary for all Prophets and Apostles which were ordained of God were Judges and some more chief then others as Moses was a chief Judge Elijah and Elisha and Samuel and divers others were chief Judges they being above all other Prophets at that time therefore chief Judges in the time of their Commissions so likewise the Apostles were all Judges yet Peter was more chief Judge then all the rest so is it now John Reeve and my self being the last chosen Witnesses of the Spirit we are Judges but while John Reeve was living he was chief Judge but he being fallen a sleep I am chief Judge much like unto Elijah and Elisha yet in all this there is no dis-throning of Christ nor diminishing of his honor and power of being the Judge of the quick and the dead And as for my saying that no man knows the Scriptures nor can interpret the Scriptures truly but my self that is a standing truth neither shall any man or woman that I have passed the Sentence upon be delivered from it and as for the interpretation of the Scriptures belonging unto the Lord as you say and not unto my self to this I say God doth not come down from heaven upon this earth to interpret the Scriptures unto men but this was always Gods practice to Commissionate particular men and furnish them with gifts for that purpose and what interpretations of Scriptures they give it is owned of God as if he had done it himself therefore the people of the Jews would have Moses to speak unto them he being a man like themselves they could better hear him then God because Gods voice was so terrible that mortals could not bear it yet Moses words are owned to be the words of God as if God had spoke them himself and so all Prophets and Apostles could say Thus sayeth the word of the Lord so that what declaration or interpretation a Messenger of God doth give it may be said it is from God and so ought to be received by man so that Christ doth not teach every particular man neither by his Spirit nor by voice of words but if any man believe him that he is sent of God he may be said to be taught of God so that the true and right interpretation of the Scriptures it lyeth in those men that God hath chosen anointed and sealed for that purpose and men cannot come to the knowledge of God nor the true meaning of the Scriptures no other way so that I knowing these things to be true that the interpretation of Scriptures belongs unto Commissionated men and not unto Christ himself as the Quakers doth vainly imagine 5. R. F. doth say that the chosen Witnesses of Christ who had a Commission from his blessed Spirit they were anointed and sealed of God 6. Saith he for the Ambassadors who had a Commission to Preach and were anointed and sealed of God 7. He saith the Ambassadors of Christ who were anointed and sealed of God and had the ministration of reconciliation given unto them 8. The Ambassadors of Christ who were anointed and sealed of God and had the glorious ministration of the Spirit given unto them 9. He saith the Ambassadors of Christ and chosen Witnesses of the Spirit who were anointed and sealed of God they were workers together with God 10. He sayeth the true Witnesses of the Spirit and Ambassadors of Christ by the Father of Mercies and God of all Comfort they were comforted themselves in all their tribulations that they might be able to comfort them that were in any trouble by the comfort wherewith they themselves were comforted of God for which purpose he hath quoted abundance of texts of Scriptures which would be too tedious to cite L. M. Reply Here you that have any true saving light in you you may judge whether this man hath proved me a false Witness or not he tells me that the Prophets and Apostles of old many hundred years ago before I was born that they were anointed and sealed of God for the work of the Ministery that is confessed and owned by me that the Prophets and Apostles of old they had a Commission from God to ordain other men for the work of the Ministry but what doth this prove that God hath not given a Commission to John Reeve and Lodowick Muggelton because the Prophets and Apostles were anointed and sealed and had a Commission of God neither will their Commission authorize any Quakers nor no other man for the work of the Ministry but when the Prophets and Apostles were living they had power to authorize any man which they did discern fit for it but the reading of their Commission now they are dead will not impower a man to be a Minister or Messenger of Christ yet this is the course that you Quakers and most men in the world doth take to prove a live mans Commission to be false by a dead mans Commission but you will finde it to the contrary in the end Again though the Prophets and Apostles were anointed and sealed of God for that great work will it follow therefore that you Quakers because you read their writings that you are anointed and sealed of God for the work of the Ministry surely no neither will it follow because they were true Witnesses of Christ therefore I must needs be false For this I say that my Commission is from the same God as theirs was and is as true as theirs was neither have I my Commission from them but from God himself as they had so that it will prove a vain conceit of you Quakers and others that are under the sentence of this Commission of the spirit to tell me that they were that is the Prophets and Apostles were anointed and sealed of God what is that to you what they were their being true Witnesses of Christ will never a whit diminish or weaken that power and authority which God
saith that I do condemn and give judgement at my will and pleasure contrary to truth And he further saith that I do not go in so doing by so certain a rule as the Judges of the Land do Secondly He saith that I go not by so certain a rule when I pass the Sentence of death and damnation upon the souls and bodies of men as the Judges of the Land doth for which purpose he doth quote Judge Cook upon the confirmation of the Charters of the Liberties of England who sayeth this cause is worthy to be written in Letters of gold now what that clause is would be too tedious to write but the sum of all is that the Judges of the Land have certain outward known Laws as a rule of direction to guide and lead them to judgement when they give it according to Law but saith he thou Lodowick hast no certain outward known Laws either of God or the land as rule of direction and so forth Likewise he quoted many places of Scriptures and some out of the civil Law some out of Edw. third and Cooks Inst and with the Proverbs of Solomon he hath paid me with Solomons words and so bids me take notice of that which I do take great notice for I see by that that the Proverbs of Solomon is as good Scripture to the Quakers as any and how well the Quakers knows the Scriptures I am never a whit deceived in them people for they seem to have the greatest light but are the darkest people of all in the knowledge of the Scriptures and in the interpretation of Scriptures according to the common sense the Priests of the Nation doth go far beyond them for the Quakers are so choaked up with hearkening to the light of Christ within them that they despise the body or person of Christ without them but I have discovered their Antâ—christ spirit more large in other Letters unto them so that I shall say the less here L. M. Reply The great thing to be known is how I will do to prove my selfe to be the chief Judge in spiritual matters and that I do go by as certain a rule as the Judges of the Land do when as they give Judgement according to Law seeing he hath brought so many places of Scripture and the Proverbs of Solomon and Acts of Edw. 3. and Judge Cooks Judgement of the Law all to prove me a false Judge and that I do not go in my sentence by any known Law either of God nor the Land so that if this be answered most part of his Pamphlet will be answered For it doth consist most part of it upon this thing therefore I shall give answer to it that others may be the better informed in themselves thâ—ugh I am satisfied in it as to my self yet this I do ingeniously confess that I never did pretend the knowledge of the Civil Laws of the Land neither do I. Now all the knowledge that I profess to know of them is to yeild obedience unto them in doing of them or else to suffer the penalty or punishment of them this is the greatest knowledge I have of them for if my innocency nor mony will not deliver me I must and will suffer under it but since God hath chosen John Reeve and my self to be his last Witnesses of the Spirit I know the better true power of a Judge For as Moses and Aaron were the two first chosen Witnesses of God so likewise John Reeve and my self are the two last that God will ever chuse by voice of words to the hearing of the ear and as Aaron was given to be Moses mouth so Lodowick Muggelton was given to be John Reeve mouth these things cannot be known but by faith neither can any man tell that God chose Moses and Aaron but by faith But if it be objected that Moses did miracles To that I answer that there is as much need of faith to believe that as the other for what cannot be seen must be believed So believing that God spake to John Reeve and that God gave unto John Reeve a Commission by voice from Heaven by verbal words to the hearing of the ear three mornings together and that I was given to be his mouth and by his voice did I receive my Commission whereby I am impowered to be a Messenger and Ambassador for the great God the Man Christ Jesus which is both God and Man who hath chosen me to be at this day chief Judge and hath given me a Commiâ—sion so to be as Paul said in his time meaning himself and the rest of his Apostles We saith he are Ambassadors in Christs stead beseeching you to be reconciled and the like So say I that I am an Ambassador in Christs stead to bless them that are reconcil'd unto the true faith in Christ and to curse and damn those that despiseth and speaketh evil of them whom God hath sent So that God hath made me chief Judge now to give sentence upon men and womens spiritual and eternal estate so that I shall unfold as short as I can how I may be said to be the chief Judge and that I do go by as certain a rule as the Judges of the Land do when they give Judgement according to Law These two things I shall unfold a little more clear then in those Letters aforesaid First that I am chief Judge in spiritual matters I prove thus Because I do believe and certainly know by the revelation of Faith that God did speak to John Reeve three mornings together distinct words and sentences to the hearing of the ear in the year 1651. February the third fourth and fift and gave him a Commission as he did Moses And Aaron was given to be Moses his mouth so was Lodowick Muggelton given to be John Reeve mouth so that John Reeve being the chief while he was living but since the burthen or Commission of the Lord hath been laid upon me and as Elisha had a double portion of Eliahs Spirit so have I had a double portion of Revelation of the Spirit in opening the Scriptures since John Reeve departed this life Also God said that he had chosen John Reeve his last Messenger and that he had given him Lodowick Muggelton to be his mouth and the next words following that he had put the two edged-sword of his Spirit into his mouth to pronounce Blessing and Cursing to eternity with many other words which are in publike therefore I shall say no more of them here so that John Reeve being dead I must needs be chief Judge in these dayes neither will God Commissionate any more after me to the worlds end because he did say that he had chosen us his last Now I being his last chosen Messenger I must needs be chief Judge of spiritual matters concerning men and womens eternal estate and what will become of them after death if these things cannot be believed by you Quakers and others I cannot help that neither
doth this power which God hath given me any ways dishonor or disthrone Christ of his Office of being the Judge of the Quick and the Dead for God doth do much like unto an Earthly King for though a King be the chief Judge of those Kingdoms which he is King of yet he doth Commissionate some particular man to be chief Judge to be in his stead though the King doth Commissionate many more Judges yet there is but one particular in every Kingdom which is called Lord Chief Justice of England Scotland or Ireland these being three distinct Kingdoms they have three distinct particular persons which are called Chief Judges and they are so by Commission from the King besides all other Judges yet you see that the King though he be Chief Judge of all his Kingdoms yet he seldom or never acts in Judgement himself but doth leave it to those which he hath Commissionated for that purpose So is it with the God of Heaven though Christ which is God and Man be King of heaven and chief Judge both in Heaven and in Earth in spiritual and eternal matters yet he by Commission doth chose some particular person to be chief judge in spiritual things as Moses was chosen chief Judge and Samuel and Elijah and Elisha and divers other Prophets which did govern Israel that were chief Judges in the worship of God at that time as there must also be one particular man that must be High-priest so likewise Peter was the chief Apostle and so chief Judge so that some particular man must be chief in all places of trust whether it be under a earthly King or under the King of Heaven yet no dishonor nor dis-throning either of them both so the God and King of heaven having chosen John Reeve and my self he hath Commissionated me to be his Messenger Minister or Ambassador in his stead to set life and death before men even as Moses did to the people of Israel and as men and women do receive it they shall have life eternal abiding in them and some can witness it at this day and as men and women doth despise the Doctrine of Truth declared by us the Witnesses of the Spirit they have the sentence and seal of eternal death abiding in them and many can witness that in themselves but that they will not yet some few to my knowledge hath been forc'd to do it thorough the terror of soul but however it is not the fewness of them that do receive it nor the multitude of them that despise it doth make me question e're the more the truth of my Commission and though Christ be the King of heaven and the Judge of the quick and the dead at the last day and so he is the chief Judge in that he can raise men and women again and give the possession both of eternal happiness and eternal misery according to that sentence which the Prophets and Apostles and we the Witnesses of the Spirit did pass upon them in this life so that we see that God hath made chief Jugdes in spiritual matters we do no ways dis-throne Christ of his Office no more then the chief Judge of England doth dis-throne the King in that his Commission from the King will bear him out he judging according to the tenor of his Commission so is it with me God having made me chief judge of mens spiritual and eternal estate what will become of them after death and I going and judging according to the tennor of my Commission I do no ways dishonor my King but honor him in that I am faithful to that trust which God hath intrusted me with and I am very well satisfied in the performance of it yet this I would have the reader to know though I do own my self the chief judge in spiritual matters yet this I say that every true believer of this Commission is a judge as well as I my self and may upon occasions when they meet with despising spirits curse them to eternity if their saith be strong enough to bear them up so that they do not doubt For if any shall pass the sentence upon another and doubt the influence of that sentence will return back again to themselves this I have seen in some believers of this Commission of the Spirit some again of the believers have been so strong in their faith that the sentence which they have passed upon despising spirits it hath had as great effect upon them it was passed upon as mine hath and rather greater so that every believer of this Commission whose faith is strong is a judge as well as I though not chief judge but if peoples faith be weak and not strong enough to bear them out in it I do not tie them to any such thing but I could wish they were all so strong that the devils might be met with every where where the knowledge of this Commission of the Spirit is known and believed And as the King of earth hath many Judges in his Kingdom yet but one chief Judge in l ke manner is it with God the King of Heaven he hath many Judges of despising spirits in spiritual and eternal things yet but one chief judge and as the Apostles were chief Judges in their time yet the believers of them were saints and so judges therefore it is said that the saints should judge the earth nay saith Paul know you not that we shall judge Angels What is that That is you that are believers of our Gospel you shall be made by the power of faith to judge wise and prudent Angel-like men in the wisdom of reason which came from the fallen angels seed and nature indued with piercing rational God-like wisdom therefore called Angels these are those Angels which the Saints in Pauls time should judge so is it now with me I being chief judge in these last days I have judged many wise Luciferian Angel-like spirits within this twelve years and so hath some of the believers in this time judged many of these Angels they may be called Angels because they are of the serpent Angels seed and hath the highest wisdom of Reason in them which their fallen estate will afford but the weak and simple seed of faith must be their judges so that it may be clear to the reader that understands that all true believers of this Commission of the Spirit are judges of men and womens spiritual and eternal estate what shal become of them after death yet none to be chief judge but my self 2. The second thing is to shew that I do go by as certain a rule as the Judges of the Land do when as they give judgement according to Law To this I say that the Judges of the Land they have a Commission first from the King to be Judges 2. They have the Book of the Law to be their guides 3. They must be men supposed to know the Law 4. According to the known Law the Judge giveth sentence and