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A64259 Baxter's book entitul'd The cure of church-divisions answer'd & confuted and he prov'd to be a physitian of no value who hath manifested his folly and weakness in undertaking a work which he hath so little understanding in / by Thomas Taylor. Taylor, Thomas, 1618-1682. 1671 (1671) Wing T579; ESTC R26282 49,732 64

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God and which Things we Preach or Speak not in the words which man 's or Humane Wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2. But this R.B. comparing Spiritual things with Carnal is not wise who because old men and long Students in Arts and worldly Sciences are most Wise or likely to be so therefore they that labour and study most in Books of Divinity so call'd get most of the Spirit 's teaching O sad That ever the minds of the Children of Men should be so cover'd with darkness and yet read the Scripture of Truth which witnesses to no one thing more then to the Free Teachings of the Spirit of God without humane Helps For all the Help that is humane or that man who is ab humo that is from the Earth can afford is but natural and of this World which comes to nought therefore is it said That none of the Princes that is the chief men of this World knew the Mystery of Christ and his Kingdom then which made them so band against him see the 2d Psalm And the Natural Man with all his natural means discerns not the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discern'd So every one that would know the Mind of the Spirit of God must come to feel through the Most Holy Faith a measure of it in themselves For after ye believ'd ye were seal'd with the Spirit of Promise saith Paul And the Word is nigh thee even in thy Heart and Mouth O thou that hast an Ear to hear hear what the Spirit speaks even the Word of Faith which we Preach Therefore go not forth from the Anointing of God in thy Heart to hear the frothy and false Doctrine of such as R.B. who have run and set up themselves by their humane Helps in the place of Teachers and God never sent them and therefore they cannot profit the People at all but lead them about like silly Women laden with divers Sins and Lusts yea in their Prayers and best Performances as is manifest and so not being sent and enabled by God's Spirit they can never lead you to it but from it as is manifest Also R. B. in pag. 6. before mention'd saith The Objection hath much Confusion in it and how proves he that but by saying 1. It confoundeth the Spirit 's teaching us by inditing the Scripture with the Spirit 's teaching us the meaning of the Scriptures 2. And it confoundeth the common Knowledge of Divinity with the saving Knowledge of it No man cometh to a common Knowledge fit for a Teacher of others without the Spirit 's teaching by the Scriptures for that was the first part of the Spirits teaching us to inspire the Prophets and Apostles to deliver a Teaching Word to the Churches by which we might all be taught of God through all Generations But many men have excellent common Knowledge by this Word and by the common help of the Spirit without that special Help which begetteth saving Knowledg And all Knowledge requireth Time and Labour to obtain it though the Spirit giveth it and though it may be sanctified to us in a little time but that may be a means of saving others which saveth not the man that hath it And in pag. 114. farther saith Take them not for no Ministers that want Grace totally and marvel not that Gifts are more necessary to the validity of Ministration then Grace is he may perform the Office of a Minister to the benefit of the Church that hath no Saving Grace at all Thus for Rich Baxter O! What Sorcery and Egyptian-Darkness is here to make void the New Covenant and Free Gratious Teachings of the Spirit of God in these dayes and to establish the Letter in the room and stead thereof which only witnesses to it and is a Declaration concerning what the Spirit of God did in them and in the World before Christ's coming in the Flesh and what was done during his being in it and what the Spirit would do in the Believing Souls and in the World after that time But this the Hirelings do that they by their trading with and giving their false meanings upon the Scriptures they may keep the people in Blindness and so from the Anointing and Teaching and Enjoyment of that Spirit that was in them that gave forth Scriptures that they may not see their deceitful Doctrines and Merchandizes lest they should buy no more of them For no man that knows the Badness of Babylon will buy them any more and then will the Merchants of Souls Mourn For they that know the Lord and his Spirit 's Teaching in them which is the Good Old Way yea and the ever New Fresh Profitable and Living WAY will follow no more such men as would bring in and establish a Graceless Ministry as this Baxter doth here to his everlasting Shame But such Graceless Priests the Lord will have none of nor his People neither For my Sheep hear my Voice saith Christ and a Stranger they will not hear Surely a Graceless Man is this Stranger They to wit graceless men saith John 1 Epist. 4. are of the World and the World hear them we are of God Stewards of the manifold Grace of God 1 Pet 4 10 And they that are of God hear us And so ever Bless'd and Prais'd be the Great and Glorious Name of the Lord Jesus who hath restor'd to them that obey him the Glorious Doctrine of the Spirit 's Teaching as was in the Apostles dayes according to his true Promise where all in the Truth of which we the People of God in scorn call'd Quakers are Members where all I say is done in and by the Holy Spirit prais'd be God and nothing own'd among'st us but what is so done Here is Praying in and by the Spirit and Preaching in and by the Spirit and Singing in and by the Spirit of our Holy Lord God and so the Head being Spiritual and the Members of the Body every one Spiritual for we are all Baptiz'd by one Holy Spirit into the one Heavenly Body our Food is also Spiritual Heavenly Bread and Heavenly Wine and the Water Spiritual that Sanctifies us and makes us clean to God in all our Sacrifices and Services for Christ gave himself for his Church which is his Body that he might wash it and present it spotless to himself and without all Deformity by the washing of Water even the Water of Life in the Word of Life the creating Word of the everlasting Father which is Spirit and Life the Resurrection and the Life in every believing Soul for we are redeemed from Death thereby that we might forever hereafter serve God in the newness of his own Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter as all such do as know no other teaching Word but the Letter as this Baxter doth and so they having gotten a little Brain-knowledge by their humane helps and not by the Spirit of Truth
freely given for the edifying and building up of the Body of Christ till we all come to a perfect man to the measure and feature of the fulness of Christ no more then the Apostle did Ephes. 4.11 c. but that which we cry down is that Antichristian spirit in R. B. and all such men as by seting up self and flesh would draw from Christ and his Teachings in Spirit to look at them and their painted words and love killing Doctrines who are this day Goliah like come forth to defie the Armies of the Living God but the Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands shall dash them and their Images all to peices Glory to the Lord for Ever And though they with their Humane or Earthly spirit and Sorceries withstand the Truth and Spirit thereof as Jamnes and Jambres withstood Moses when he was about to call Israel out of Egypt yet as their Folly was soon seen so are these and they shall not proceed far but Israel out of Egypt shall go and those Faithful ones that are escaped shall they not with all their Inchantment bring back again into Egypt Glory to the Lord for Ever Amen But wouldst thou indeed know Oh vain man R.B. for what the Apostles who had Ability to preach without mans help were sent forth then thou mayst know it was to reprove such as thee that would limit God to vain man's Help and to call his People from amongst you who lay heavy Burdens on mens Shoulders but will not touch them with one of your Fingers it is even so But whereas thou addest and say'st Those are taught of God who are taught by those who are sent of God to be their Teachers It plainly shews the numerous Company thou boasts of who believe thee are not taught of God for thy Doctrine already mentioned shews most plainly that thou wast never sent of God for never did any whom God sent set themselves against the free and Gratious Teaching and Gifts of God's Spirit to Establish Humane Helps as thou doest But as if that which thou hast said were nothing thou addest Pag. 8. Advise with the experience of all the World Who was the man that ever you knew able to Expound one Chapter in the Bible by the inward Teachings of the Spirit alone without any Labour of his own or Help from others by Voice or Writting Where dwelleth the man who by meer Inspiration can turn one Chapter out of the Hebrew or Greek into the vulgar Tongue and where is the man that can solidly unfold any Doctrine of Divinity which he never read or heard of or can Teach that Truth and deny that Religion which he was never taught by man And afterwards in his Second Direction and Pag. 16. having led his wretched Disciples into a Laborinth or Mist of words about their uncertainties in their Matters of Knowledge and having advised them to humility as he calls it or not to think too highly of their own knowledge he there adds and sayes in that 16th Page especially If you know your advantages for knowledge have been less then other mens that you are young or that it is but a few Years since you entred upon the study of the Scriptures or that you have not any stronger natural Parts then other men that you have not had that Measure of Learning which might further your knowledge of the Holy Scriptures but that others that differ from you have had much more of all these Helps and Means then you and have Prayed more and Meditated more c. And in Pag. 17. in his Answer to an Objection which is That the Learnedst men are not always the wisest in the matters of Religion he saith many men are learned in the Languages and Sciences who are not learned in the Scripture because they applyed not their Studies that way and many men are learned in the Scriptures and Sacred Languages who yet live in sin though they are able to Teach the Truth for others here by the way all may take notice what a False Teacher this Baxter is who is not ashamed to say That man that lives in sin may Teach the Truth for others for such as live in sin neither know the Truth which is Christ nor have seen him as John's first Epist. Chap. 3. expresly saith but this Baxter goeth on and saith But those that well understand the Scriptures without learning the Languages which they are written in and the Customs of those Times and Countries or without much reading and long study of the Scriptures themselves and the Writings of them that better understand them are so few if any at all that if you will pretend to be one of them you had need of some Miracle or somthing like a Miracle to make your selves or others believe that you are not deceived I Might here add his other false Doctrines immediately following these in that his Book as his Answer to an Objection there set down against singularity or so the Objection is this The greater Number are not alwayes in the Right therefore why should my singulary discourage me But because his Answer hath pretty many words in it I refer it to another place and to what he hath already said do answer and say in brief thus First That as by his other words so also by these it is most manifest from what Fountain this Baxter's knowledge hath proceeded to wit not from the Inspiration of the Eternal Spirit which gave forth Scripture but from his own Earthly or Natural spirit and Humane Industery and Studies and trading in Books and Letters without him from which Earthly or Humane Spirit and Wisdom hath not come nor possible ever can come to any the right meaning and understanding of Holy Scripture as such as he would have it for the natural man as the Apostle saith Perceiveth not the things that be of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 But all false Visions and lying Divinations have ever come from that Earthly spirit and all the cruel wrestings of the Holy Scriptures from the beginning to this day have proceeded from it to the miserable and wofull undoing of the Generallity of that People called Christendom as also the Blood-sheds and all the cruel usage of Spiritual Minded Men for their pure Conscience sake have issued from that Fountain of the Earthly spirit and the false Births thereof from the beginning and that great Whore found Guilty of all for in her was found the Blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth R●●● 18.24 for what Spiritual man did ever ask such a Question or rather affirm for in him his question is an affirmation to wit That no man is able by the inward Teachings of the Spirit alone to Expound one Chapter in the Bible And that there is none can solidly Unfold any Doctrine of Divinity which he never read or heard of or can teach the Truth or defend that Religion which he was
right in all Points essential to Christianity and in the certain Way of Life he may easily conclude that to be unwarrantable separation which goeth from such But then I say How will the Protestants warrant their first separation from Popery or how did this Baxter with his Presbyterians in Oliver's time with their Directory excuse their separating from the Bishops and their Comon-prayer and how will be salve his old Non-conforming Brethren's flight into New-England where since they have shed the Blood of the Martyrs of Christ from the former Bishops But now his false Ground and Foundation being overturned it is most manifest that that separation is most lawfull which is from such who call good evil and evil good put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light as Baxter and all the Wicked do from whom the People of God in these Days separate And so in obeying the Voice of our God who saith Come out of Mystery Babylon my People lest ye pertake of her Sins and so of her Plagues we are justified for the sins of the Wicked who in words profess God and Christ but in deeds deny all is reached Heaven at this day And doth not the Apostle say If any man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolator and Covetousness by the Apostle's Doctrine is Idolatry or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such not to keep company no not as to eat with them 1. Cor. 5.11 And doth he not say in an other Place Have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness nor with the unfruitful Workers in Darkness as before but rather reprove them Ephes. 5.11 must we not yet separate from them yea yea in their very Worship Actions as well as others and when even the greater number are so far defiled and tainted with the Leprosie of Unrighteousness that they are so far from amending that they persecute all that will not be as bad as themselves Surely when the Lord hath spued out a People as he threatned to do luke-warm Laodicea Revel 3.16 yea and cast them off for their resisting of his good Spirit as he did the Jews 't is no time for his People to stay amongst them then and to continue with them in their Worship-Actions as he calls them but every one to deliver his own Soul by coming out of such Babylonish Worships whose Prayers are Abomination to God as all sinful Prayers are and neither this Baxter nor any one that he knows upon the Earth prayeth without sin as himself before hath confessed and so all of them together do daily and continually that which they should not do and leave undone what the Lord Commands them and so have no health in them and so now that the True Light shines so clear again from under the long Cloud of Antichristian Apostacy it is the wisdom of all that love God and their own Souls to joyn to the Lord in the Covenant of his Light and Spirit where no Committers of sin can joyn for Darkness and the Workers thereof can never joyn with the Light and the Workers thereof So now that the Trumpet hath sounded all ought to come to the holy Worship of God amongst the holy Worshippers that Worship in the Spirit of Holiness and Truth where no Worker of Iniquity nor Hypocrite can come out of all the Defiled Worship of the World whatsoever or under what Name soever in the Fall But this Baxter is in such love of hypocrisie that he makes a necessity of the Hypocrites being amongst the true Members of Christ as though they knew not how to do without them as if the good Corn could not grow so well if the Weeds were wanting saying Pag. 56. It is more for the sake of the truely Faithfull then for themselves that the Hypocrites have their Station and Priviledges in the Church God makes use of their Gifts and Profession for his Elect to many great Services of the Church To which I answer That this Language berayes thee further to be of Babylon and not of Zion what R. Baxter with all his seeming Zeal for Reformation in Oliver's dayes become now a-Pleader for the Hypocrites and their great Service in the Church But this is but like his Doctrine of his graceless Ministers which he pleads for Pag. 114. of his Book so R. Baxter and his Hypocrites and graceless Brethren with their Gifts or rather Thefts void of Grace have been so far from being serviceable to the Elect True Church that they have done it and ever did all the Injury that ever they can by their wicked Doctrines Ungodly lives and heaps of Lyes and false Accusations and cruel Persecutions in somuch that the growth of the heavenly Seed the Lillies of God the true Heirs of the Kingdom hath been and is as a Lilly among Thorns But Christ and Richard Baxter are directly contrary in their Judgment one to the other for Christ would not suffer the Devil in the man to preach him but commanded him to come out and hold his peace because Christ never had need of Devils or wicked men or Hypocrites to preach him but saith to such What hast thou to do to take my Laws and Covenant in thy Mouth and hatest to be reformed Psal. 50.16 c. and so far are graceless Priests and Hypocrites from being serviceable in this matter to his Church that he saith My Sheep hear my Voyce and they follow me but the graceless Minister and Hypocrite who is a Stranger to me they will not hear for such come but to rob and destroy read John 10. and see if ever R. Baxrter understood Scripture who talks so contrary to it As did those Pharisees of old whom Christ cried out so many times Wo against Mat. 23. Who would neither enter into the Kingdom of Heaven themselves nor suffer others And those in Ezekiel who sowed Pillows under mens Elbows making glad the Hearts of the Wicked Hirelings by perswading People that they must not disown them from being Ministers though they be totally void of all saving Grace and that Hypocrites have a Station in the Church for great services with their graceless Gifts to the Elect and by pleading for Games and Fashions of Apparel yea and the Opinions in Religion of bad People yea to such a measure that he is not ashamed to say That many an Error is taken up by going too far from other mens faults as is to be seen in Pag. 224. of his Book with many such like heathenish sayings up and down his Book a few whereof I only touch here and there as they come to mind that by those the Reader may see the nature of that wretched spirit that hath long lurked in him under a cloak of zeal for Reformation when the World pretended to such things but now that the World is for a manifest establishing of their old dark Stuff he turns about and is all for them as it were and against Zeal against
Reformation Separation Revelation or any thing that may manifest People to have a care of their Souls But Oh the misery the misery the unspeakable misery of such as are not yet redeemed from under the slavery and Egyptian Bondage of such men But the Lord will break the Rod of the Oppressor as in times of old as in the days of Midian and Egypt where both Jannes and Jambres who withstood the Lord's Servant Moses in his calling Israel out of Egypt were made manifest and their Folly by all clearly seen as this Baxter's is by every open Eye Praised be the Lord for his Infinite Love in all things But the Hearts of the Righteous whom God delights to comfort he doth all he can to make sad by perswading the dark cruel World that the cause of all the miseries of the late years yea and at present in these Islands is much what if not mostly occasioned by those who in tenderness of Conscience to God could not nor cannot joyn with nor uphold the Popish Customs and Antichristian imposition in Matters relating to Religion and the Soul which is more pretious to them that know it then all the World And in the Truth we may say that if we should come amongst the Steeple-house Worshippers or any other Company who are only separated from them in form and not in Life and Power and their exercise or Gift and heavenly holy Worship and Service to the Lord Jesus Christ our God we should even sacrifice the Abomination of the Egyptians before their Eyes and would you not Stone us or Imprison us or otherwise evil intreat us even as you do and ever have done yea yea and as they dealt with the Prophet Isaiah for saying Chap. 66.3 He that killeth an Ox is as if he flew a man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs Neck c. and Chap. 1.11 c. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of them and who hath required it at your hands to tread my Courts bring no more vain Oblations c. for which it is said they slew him so they would deal with us And what measure have the dear Servants of God in New-England met withal not long since for the like witness against those Hypocrites but Death and cruel Whippings and Banishment and in old England lately but most savage and cruel usage And would this Baxter yet have us yea and those he counts his Brethren and of his Flock who have any tenderness in them to communicate with such whose Hands are full of Blood if he were as the mouth of God he would put a difference between the Clean and Unclean But he being of an other spirit is for leading People back again into Egypt not for bringing them out of Egypt into the Promised Land and so his Work and endeavour is accursed of God and abhorred of all that know God who are escaped out of Sodom and Egypt and Babylon spiritual where our Lord was crucified And to us the Lord hath said Let them return to you ye saved People but return not you to them for their Pastors are become bruitish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all their Flocks shall be scattered Jer. 10.21 He that hath Ears let him hear and he that readeth let him understand for the time is at hand for the Lord is arisen to plead with all the false Worshippers upon Earth and with him is no respect of persons And now is the Lord God of ever blessed Power and love appeared in the Earth after the long Night of Apostacy to restore all things and now are the Virgins called upon through the whole World to trim their Lamps for behold the Bridegroom is come and coming and now the foollish Virgins who have been long sleeping and slumbering in a dead Profession of Christ and the Scriptures are found wanting in their Faith Holiness Love and all other Christian Vertues and so in their Unholiness shut out yea and though they run to the Hirelings that set all things to sale to buy yet still before they come the Door is shut for whilst the Lord stood waiting upon them with his pure free and full Grace and Spirit they would have none of it but rather chosed to go their own Ways of Carnal endeavours and man commanded Religion and so like the Jewes of old going about to Establish their own Righteousness have not submitted to the Righteousness of God which is by Faith in Christ Jesus But the wise Virgins who are of an honest Heart to fear God and wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to appear in their spirits to set up his heavenly and everlasting Kingdom in them they receive daily of his fulness which filleth all in all where the true Oyl of the Kingdom is found in their holy Lamps to the praise of the Glory of the unspeakable Love and free Grace of the Almighty Father so be it Again to that part of this Baxter's former Answer where he saith That in all Ages God giveth to some few men more excellent natural Parts then others and he engageth some in deeper and more laborious Studies and he blesseth some mens Studies more then other and therefore there are still some few who know more then the rest of the Country or Mankind and it were well for the rest if they knew these and would learn of them Quer. But how may one know these hard and laborious Studiers as he calls them Oh saith this Baxter They are such as give proof of their knowledge they pretend to and they are such to imploy their knowledge to the preserving of the Peace and Concord of Believers and do not proudly make a stir with it to set up their own Names though thereby they set the World on fire To which I answer and say it is still more and more manifest that this Baxter layes all the weight and stress upon natural Parts and hard Studies as though the Kingdom of God were not at all come nor the Promise of God concerning the free Gifts and plentifull pouring forth of the Spirit not yet fulfilled and so a necessity of learning at the feet of Gamaliel and earthly Doctors still But now that the Spirit of Truth according to God's blessed Promise is come and witnessed amongst us that believe praised be God we cannot go to such as this Baxter with all their natural Parts and hard Studies for the Spirit of Truth leads us and all that obey it into all Truth but this Baxter and such as he leads are in all Error as is manifest for they are of those that lead about a Company of poor Souls silly as Women leaden with divers Sins and Lusts ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth which sets free from sin for that and nothing else is the Truth which sets free from sin for saith Christ If ye
know the Truth the Truth shall set you free indeed But this Baxter and all such teach it for Doctrine That they are so far from being free from sin that their very prayers and best performances are not free from sin but sin is in them all Oh sad that ever they should dare to pretend to the Ministry of the Gospel who preach such a Doctrine as make nothing perfect but leaves them in sin all their lives long And no wonder that they and their Doctrine should be void of all good Fruit for saith God They have run and I have not sent them therefore they shall not profit the People at all And yet they would gladly have People know them and learn of them though they can do them no good at all and this is that sorry and bad Proof that the Hirelings make of their great knowledge they pretend unto which they have gotten with their natural Parts and hard Studies and so thy own words shall witness against thee Oh Baxter and thy Brethren who have given no good proof of your knowledge to this day nor have thereby preserved Peace and Concord amongst Believers but done what you can to break it for that Doctrine that makes not men free from sin leaves all the seeds of Discord and Dissention still in Peoples Minds for as sin separated man from God at first so doth it to this day keep them asunder and so keeps them from Love for God is Love and none live or dwell in Love but such as live and dwell in God But such as live in sin and never pray without it are out of God as the Apostle said of People in unbelief They were without God in the World It is not any outward Conformity that will or can make them to be at peace with or love one another for if it were possible to bring Papist Athist and Carnal Protestants and Professors of all sorts into one Form of outward Worship as for Time Place Words or the like Yet there would be neither Love Peace nor Concord amongst them for want of Unity with God and his good Spirit the onely true Ground and Foundation of all true Love Peace and Concord And so Oh R. Baxter we have known thee this many years to be a great Enemy of God and therefore we may not learn of thee nor any such but of Christ do we learn ever praised be his Name who teaches his People to profit and so it s onely the poor deluded Multitude that know● thee not who learn of thee and suck in such poysoned Doctrine as makes them most uncapable of the pure Word of Life and Doctrine of Salvation so that Publicans and Harlots who make little or no Profession enter into the Kingdom of God before you And as for making a stir with thy knowledg and striving to set up thy own Name thereby though thou set the whole World on fire by it who more notorious then thy self in this R. Baxter as witness all thy lying frothy words Books and Pamphlets which thou hast spoken and written against the appearance of Christ and his Truth in these late years but thy Studies and thy Works God hath cursed for no Child of Light will ever buy any of thy Merchandize nor the deceitfull Wares of any other Merchants of Babylon for evermore Blessed be God for his unspeakable Gift Amen But the end of these words of setting the World on fire set down here by this Baxter is easily seen to be this to wit to perswade People that those who are zealous for God in these days in publishing his everlasting Gospel upon the Earth in a cross to the World are such as set up themselves and would set the World on fire And so he is manifest to be one of the old evil Generation of Priests who accused Christ for a mover of Sedition and Paul for a pestilent Fellow Oh it was that good stirring Spirit of the Lord Jesus in himself and his Followers which did so trouble the World the combustible World in all Ages that made and doth make the Hrieling Priests and their deluded Followers so rage and cry out but as for setting the World on fire in a goodsence Christ Jesus saith That he came to set Fire in the Earth But for setting the World on fire in Baxter's sence that is sowing discord and dissention amongst People this is the work and ever was the work of the Hireling Priests who loved to be called of men Masters as this R Baxter is as is said before witness not onely our own Age but the holy Scripture and the Histories of all Times and Ages as those that read may understand And yet these proud Masterly and false Teachers were ever the first and for wardst that cryed against Christ and his Followers for disturbing the World's Peace when as this Doctrine of Christ's Spirit though it did alwayes disturb the Devil's yet it did alwayes tend to the working of the hearts and Souls of the People into God's Peace and did ever and doth at this day work this glorious and blessed Effect in all that believe Whereof we are Witnesses praised be God though for the Testimony of Christ we are troubled on every side by the wicked World So that even now when the Wicked have no peace for there is no peace to the Wicked we whom the World mock stone and persecute under the Nick-Name of Quakers or so have peace in all our Dwellings And within Egypt is full of Darkness that one may feel it yet in our Goshen is plenty of Light ever praised be God And when the World of false Christians are learning War and preparing Weapons we are ceasing from War and not to learn it any more as the Lord hath said And therefore Oh ye Inhabitants of the Earth if ye knew us ye would not hate us and persecute us but love us with your Hearts because of the good will of our Hearts towards you for our Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual Not for pulling down or Destroying of you but your Enemies your sins which wars against your Souls And the Reason why we cannot joyn with you in your Liturgyes and Worship-actions is not because we hate you but because we Love God and your Souls for if we should joyn with you in your defiled Worship as your selves confess they are we should strengthen you in an evil Way But by our separating from you because of the unholiness of your Sacrifices occasion may be ministred to you to question your State and so some of you in time may come out of your Darkness into the marvellous Light of the Lord Jesus with us and praise the Lord in the Land of the Living so be it Another of this Baxter's Follies and false Doctrines I may here mention as one may read it in that Book of his that I have under hand to wit in Pag. 114. are these words It may be unlawfull saith he in a Ruler to command