Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	lord_n	soul_n	15,609	5	5.1843	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86489	The skirts of the whore discovered, and the mingled people in the midst of her. In a letter sent by Denys Hollister to the independent baptiz'd people, who call themselves a Church of Christ in Bristol, but are found to be a synagogue of Satan, in answer to a charge brought to him from them by some of their members, and by him ... published. Together with another letter written by him to Thomas Ewens, a teacher among them, ... referring to his speaking among his people of having Sarah Latchet a servant of Jesus, once a member among the Baptists, sent to Bridewell, and whipt for testifying to them in the name of the Lord in their meeting the second day of the ninth moneth. 1655. And likewise an answer to 16 antiqueries directed to the people called Quakers, which answer was sent to Thomas Ewens, from whom the antiqueries were received, though Iohn Pendarviss a long time after published the antiqueries by the name of Queries, without the answer to them, or taking the least notice of it in a book entituled Arrows against Babylon which hath occasiond the presenting of the one, and the other, now to the view of those who read, and understand, to judge of the whole, and of their unfaire and deceitfull dealing.	Hollister, Dennis, d. 1676?	1656 (1656)	Wing H2508; Thomason E896_3; ESTC R202571	35,627	37

to be in such confusion that you cannot discern the mother of Harlots the father of Lies neither know the Wine the Church the cup nor the Kingdom of the Lord further then you can imagine in your earthly sensual wisdom and you being so blinde and in such confusion without the power which laid the foundation as you confess we deny your spirit and account your stuff in your Answer as not worth mentioning to rake up after you but what you want in answering you can make up in asking shewing unreasonableness by your own confession And likewise appears that you would cover your selves and hide your perswasions and had rather pry into the conditions of others then bring your own deeds to the Light and seeing there is insulting because of our not answering in your time and false conclutions drawn we bear witness against your deceit and proceed to answer declaring that we differ by the power of the living God who by his spirit hath quickned us by which we see and discern you to be in the Will-worship in the wisdom which is from below of that number who are measuring your selves by your selves and comparing your selves among your selves and not according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed with which we agree but that to us from you doth not reach and therefore your voice and spirit we deny though you take the Scriptures to talk upon and trade withal in your earthly imaginations looking that the Kingdom of God should come with observation and say The cup of the Lord which is the true Vine is an outward cup when as the Kingdom of God is within O ye blinde guides how can you teach others who are your selves ignorant of the Kingdom and of the cup of the Lord and we bear witness to the sive things at least of great concernment and with your spirit we do not agree First We own and witness that God by Jesus Christ calls sinners to repentance and saves his people from their sins and redeems them from the wrath to come soul and body as many as rightly believe and work by love And that the same Jesus that at Ierusalem was crucified and before Pilate witnessed a good confession is now in the Heaven and the same that descended did ascend and comes again in like maner and also that our vile bodies shall be made like unto his glorious body and be flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone And again Every spirit we credit not but believing in the Lord Jesus we try the spirits and yours is tryed and seen to be the spirit of the world and not believed by us nor credited though you pretend to come with light therefore your spirits are rejected And lastly We know that it is not every one that saith Lord but he that doth the will of the Lord that enters into the kingdom of God And such have right to the Tree of Life and interest in the Promises made to Believers who worship God in Spirit and Truth and keep the Commandments according as they have received not by tradition nor imitation by and in the earthly carnal wisdom but led and guided by the spirit of the living God by which spirit we bear witness against your traditions and inventions and herein we differ and we do agree with that which convinceth you of sin and makes manifest your deceit and calls you to repentance from dead works that is the light which we love and you hating it and walking contrary to it and loving darkness differs you from the children of God and there is your condemnation and for answer to your other Quaeries take as followeth Query 2. Whether you doe not by many of your sayings craftily hide your perswasions from the sight of some honest people And is not this dissimulation at the best or lying after the manner of Ananias Acts 5.2 Answer Dissimulation at the best or lying against the Spirit we deny and from honest people we doe not craftily hide our perswasions but by manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans Conscience in in the sight of God not walking in craftiness but renouncing the hidden things of dishonesty and if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost Query 3. Whether your selves even all of you be not Men and Women of finfull failings and imperfections as those godly people you cry down If not tell us who are the persons among you without their failings and imperfections and how they came so to be Answer This Query is rais'd from a Lye godly people we cry not down but deceit in all we witness against by that which is Eternal without imperfection And for being free from sin we say the Sonne of God is come which takes away sinne and he that 's borne of God sinneth not he that is in Christ is a new creature and this many among us are Witnesses of but the sinfull failings are without and such we do not justifie by saying they are not where they are or pleading for them where they are Query 4. Doe your in your judgements of the Congregations of Believers look after those things which are commendable as well as those which are condemnable in their practises doc you not on the contrary cry them down in general without any mercy Answer Yea we doe look after those things which are commendable in Believers and own them but they that say they are Believers and are not are to be witnessed against But to cry all down without any mercie is false and the lyar is for condemnation with the Light and with it we have unitie Quere 5. Whether your declaring against instrumentall Teaching and yet going about informing and instructing your selves and others doth not discover a grosse contradiction between your principles and practises and whether it be right to set them against it to bring them to hear your declaring altering only the name Answer Against the Teachings of Man or such who know what they know naturally we declare yet we are sent to turne from darkness to light and this is right and no contradiction but as the Prophets and Apostles who went up and down declaring against Seducers Deceivers and false Teachers and they informed and instructed and they that were of God heard them and this is not only altering the name But the Spirit is another and so the nature which beares witness against the spirit of the world where ever it rules Let your name be what it will your nature is seen and witnessed against Quere 6. Whether instrumentall Teaching be unsuitable unto the new Covenant If so why did Christ being ascended appoint Pastors and Teachers till all came into the Vnity ordaining Ministers for the Work while Work remaines did Christ burden his Saints with needlesse appointments Answer It s confest we goe about informing and instructing our selves and others and the New Covenant we own where all are taught of God and why Christ

s true I said the thing called the Body of Divinity by the Wizards of this world was a plague to the Land and doe still affirme it to be so Although I perceive some among you are so blinded by the god of this world that they know not how to put a difference between the spirit of Witchcrafts which acts in the Diana called Divinity and the pure Spirit of Christ by which the Scriptures were given forth And whereas you accuse me for saying the Scriptures were a blinding or a veil I demand where are your eyes Hath the god of this world indeed so blinded it that you cannot read plain words of Scripture but lay that to my charge as sinne which is according to that which came out of the mouth of him whom you pretend to honour Doth not Christ Jesus the Light of the world and the wisedome of God say Mdrk 4.11 12. Vnto you it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom but to them that are without all these things are done in Parables that seeing they might see and not perceive and hearing they might hear but not understand c. And the like words in Luke 8.10 Was not Isaiah sent to this purpose to make the peoples hearts fat and their eares heavy and to shut their eyes And to say unto them hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Isa 6. Doe ye not understand that the Letter killeth and the Spirit quickneth besides many other Scriptures manifesting the same thing Oh my Friends were you not wholly given over and become past feeling without any sence of the life and spirit of God how can these things be especially at such a time when the night is so far spent and the day so much appeared and the true Light come and the glory of the Lord risen and the children of the Lord walking in the light of the Lord and calling each other thereinto according to the Scriptures were it not your way to be silent and not manifest your ignorance and folly in accusing others for speaking upon the matter the very words of Scripture when it is your own ignorance even of the very Letter of Scripture that is the cause of it And whereas you accuse me for affirming in the Church that the Scriptures were not the Word of God and Rule of Life when I only propounded it among you to consider whether it was so or not In this you manifest your ignorance as well as in the former And therefore I demand of you where doth the Scripture call it selfe the Word of God and to whom was it the rule of life It is true the Holy Scriptures of Truth declare of the Word and that Word of which it declares was God and took flesh and by that Word was the world made and by the same Word it is reserved to the judgement of the great day And if you can find the Scriptures declaring of any other Word of God let me know it and till then be silent and adde not your imaginations which are onely Evill and that continually to the Scriptures Thus having answered what you sent to me I shall further adde that I take notice that God hath granted me that mercy that in all studied accusations raked up together against me you cannot finde one particular thing to lay to my charge condemned by the spirit of Christ to be contrary to the Scriptures of Truth and that all or most part of what you seem to gather up is of that which was done or spoken whilest I was among you and not then reproved and so your own evill is manifested and not mine But to conclude for my heart is moved after some of you why would you stone or otherwise harm me what evill have I done Why doe ye wait for my Halting and lay snares for him that reproved you in times past by words and now by silence Why are your spirits imbitter'd against him that thought nothing deare to doe you service Have I not served you freely many years together and been a keeper of your Vineyard In which all my reward from you was to beare and be broken under your backbitings murmurings formality and unfruitfulness and other evils not a few then in being and still is among you Is it not time now for me to look to my own Vineyard and to mind my Eternal Habitation Have I ever made a gain of you or any of you Surely I have been servant to you neer as long as Iacob was to Laban for both his wives And may I not now be permitted to mind mine own but you must pursue like Laban after poor Iacob when God bid him return I know and am perswaded that the most embitter'd spirit among you cannot but say I have been more righteous then you more discerning more faithful and diligent then you though I am not thereby justified neither have I whereof to glory And may I not say to you as sometimes the poor Ass abused by the blind Prophet said to his Master what have I done Have I not been your servant these many yeares was I wont to doe as now Surely if ever the Lord take pleasure in you and open your eyes you will soon see the Angel in the way and that the poor Ass hath more discerning then the wilfull angry and passionate Prophet You are my Witnesses that some manifestations of truth was breaking forth in me some yeares past and was sometimes manifested among you at which some of your hearts burn'd some trembled some were offended and contradicted c. My selfe in all was groaning after power spirit and life without which no satisfaction came to my soul from whence I ceased not to warn you from day to day of your danger in the state where you stood short of the life But you not being warned how often hath mine heart lamented in your hearing in these and the like words To whom shall I speak and give warning you will not hear your hearts are uncircumcised and you cannot hearken The word of the Lord is a reproach so you and you have no delight in it O that my head were water and mine eyes a fountain of tears c. Oh that I had in the Wildernesse a lodging-place of Wayfaring men that I might leave my people and goe away from them for they are Adulterers an Assembly of treacherous men and bend their tongues like bowes for lyes but are not valiant for the Truth upon Earth c. But this seemed as idle words yet was I made to proceed and to warne you of the mighty day of the Lord now at the doore in which you could never stand I told you your foundation was on the sand short of the life your profession was in words not in power and that your mountaines must be brought low and your valleys exalted before the Lord come to your Temple and at last that your Church was but an Harlot and the spirit

appointed Pastors and Teachers is answer'd in the query and what he appoints is not needless Quere 7. Whether the Scriptures you bring to oppose the Practice of Gospel-Ordinances doe not serve onely to reprove the practise of Circumcision or the walking after the traditions of men or the carnal formalist practise or Idolizing of the true Gospel-Ordinances all you say making not at all against a spiritual practice of Gospel-Church-Ordinances as of Breaking of Bread and Exhorting one another c. Answer We bring not Scripture to oppose the practice of Gospel-Ordinances but we bear witness against your traditions carnal formalists and Idolizing practises by the same spirit as they did then who said It is neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature And the spiritual practice we own and press unto it and against the formall and the carnall all we say not making at all against a spiritual practice of Gospel-Church-Ordinances And whether the spiritual be taken practis'd and fulfill'd in the carnall let the Spiritual Judge who compares spiritual things with spiritual and here your queries are in your confusion who before drew a conclusion we cried all down without mercy and now say all we say makes not at all against a spiriruall practice Here the unclean Spirit hath confess'd truth Quere 8. Whether it be better to wait on God in his good old wayes expecting his work to be gradually carried on so running with patience your spirituall race or as the manner of some is to forsake the assembling our selves together in hopes to start up from a low stature suddenly into perfection by embracing a new Doctrine Answer In this query we are not concern'd by your own confession we informe and instruct our selves and others and we assemble our selves together for edifying waiting upon the Lord in patience to runne the spiritual race and for your starting up into perfection your envy is seen and against what you start and such starting we deny your slander returns upon your own head Quere 9. Whether Iesus Christ hath not prayed for those that believe through the word of the Apostles Is so whether they are not in a good and safe way who believe accordingly And whether it be better to credit their testimony so fully confirm'd and owned by the Lord or to forgoe that and embrace and follow the sayings of some of your company Answer Christ hath prayed for those that believe and they are in a good and safe way that believe accordingly and for crediting their testimony so fully confirm'd you have Drunkards Lyars Swearers Covetous proud Hyocrites and deceitful Ones to be of your company to confess the truth of their words but are as far from witnessing the life and power the Believers witnessed as the Hypocrites as the Drunkards swearers yea and many in this day of the Lord are brought to repentance and enter into the Kingdome before ye graves and painted sepulchres And for your secret slandering some of our company where nothing is instanced there needs no answer But all we say as you confess making nothing at all against a spiritual practice we judge it safe to follow that and they that believe and follow otherwise it is not for the better Quere 10. What is that Faith which the Spirit speaketh expresly some should depart from in the latter dayes giving heed to seducing spirits and dostrines of Devils Answer It is the Faith of the Son of God and Faith is a Mystery held in a pure Conscience and you that are ignorant of this Faith are among the seducing spirits and the last and perillous time is fulfilled upon you reprobate concerning the faith having a forme of godliness but denying the power as you confess that you profess no tto have the power the Apostles had by which the foundation was laid yet you say you can build but what your building is worth let the wise in heart judge who have not the power that layd the foundation O ye blind guids are your consciences so seared that you cannot see that you are out of the doctrine of Christ without the power that laid the foundation building among the company beforemention'd In the presence of the Lord are you seen witness'd against to be in the doctrine of devils without the power of God giving heed to seducing spirits seducing Repent repent ye Hyyocrites this is love to your souls and the Witness in your Consciences will answer it in the day of the Lords account Quere 11. Whether that Doctrine which in some is no more but look to the Light Within with a curse upon disobedience and a blessing upon obedience thereunto be that glorious Gospel Preached by Christ and his Apostles or whether it be not a renewing the old Doctrine of Iustification by Works w●●…ein the mystery of iniquity works to darken the grace of God in justifying the Vngodly without works freely by his grace and to make void the sufferings of Christ Answer This query is grounded upon a lye but the true Ministry is to turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God And this is the way to receive forgiveness of sinnes and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in C. Jesus and that the wrath of God is to be revealed upon the disobedient is found Doctrine and your deceitful coverings will not hide you who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ And glad tiding and plenteous redemption through his blood doe we witness and the old doctrine is denied by the summ of what we declare and the carnal profession and hypocrisie contrary to the grace of God which teacheth to deny ungodliness and the forme without the same power that laid the foundation there the mysterie of iniquity worketh and from thence came this query which is utterly false as it is applied to us Query 12. Whether the Light that is in every man doth reveale Iesus Christ as crucified for sin and risen again If so how came it to passe that so many strict men and Paul himself walking according to his Conscience before Conversion were ignorant of him Answer Do you not here shew your ignorance Is Christ reveal'd crucified for sin and raised again before Conversion Is this a learned question how it comes to passe that Christ is not known before Conversions seeing the Light reveales him The Light condemnes the Vnbelievers though they make a Profession that Christ is come and crucified for sin and risen Ye are in the darkness it self as neer Egypt as Babylon Did Paul know Christ til he was revealed in him and doth darkness reveale him While Paul walked in the zeal without the true knowledge persecuting he was ignorant and injurious and the Son not reveal'd But in the Light is Christ known and reveal'd and the true Light lighteth every man and he that believeth in the light is a child of light But one question after your manner of counting to you among

any answer which was their manner also in many other places fulfilling the Scripture that the Wicked cannot stand in judgement nor sinners in the Congregation of the Iust but flies when no man pursues Now forasmuch as hereby it plainly appeares that the intent and end of those who sent the aforesaid charge to me was but to slander and accuse as hath been the manner of the Devill and his Instruments from the beginning who is the accuser of the Brethren and for that hereby my just and necessary defence is kept from the simple-hearted amongst them after whom my soule longs and for whose sakes it was principally intended Therefore that they may come to the knowledge thereof and that the exceeding deceit and filthinesse of the rest may be made manifest and the skires of the Whore discovered I am even constrained thus to make it publick that not only themselves but all in whom any spark of honesty and true discerning is may read and judge and so be led to consider their wayes brought to repentance and acknowledgement of the truth that their sonles may be saved im this great and notable day of the Lord Iesus which is the true desive of him that was and is a Lover of their souls known by the nature of D. H. TO THE INDEPENDENT BAPTIZED PEOPLE IN BRISTOLL Friends WHilest I slumbred and slept in security and outward fellowship among you absent from the Bridegroom and the Fathers house and knew not the Bread of Life which came down from Heaven and is the life of men but fed you in wisedom of words and spake unto you smooth things how was I as a prophet well esteemed among you but after that the kindnesse and love of God appeared and by the ministration of the Spirit which excells in glory after which my soule had long travell'd I was made in some measure to see the sandinesse of all Foundations and Professions which stood in the Imagination not in the Life and so the emptinesse of your Forme and the foundation of your Religion to be but in the imaginations which is only evill continually and all your Worships and Services which from thence proceed to be but the Witchcrasts and Sorceries of Babylon by which Nations are deceived and the Priests your Leaders to be one in the same nature with the Magicians and Sorceres of Egypt and Babylon who by the same spirit withstood Moses and Daniel then as they and you doe now the truth and so the same necessity and ground to separate and withdraw from you and your worshipping as formerly from the Parishes and their Whoredomes and began to warn you of it how soon were you offended and some of you greatly enraged Yet so tender was my heart towards you that for your sakes I did bear my burthen among you for a season till he who hath mercy on the ignorant and those that are out of the way pluckd me as a brand out of the fire from amongst you and gave me opportunity by your passionate furious and unchristianlike behaviour in your Assembly when others took their leave and testified against you to acquaint you after I had been witness against that spirit that then acted you that although I was altogether ignorant till then of any others being there to take their leaves yet had I the same thing to propound concerning my selfe and so tender over you I was that I only desired leave till I more sully saw which way the Pillar and Cloud moved to come into your meetings or not and if I came and had not freedome to speak among you as formerly but in silence to wait that offence might not be taken by any assuring you that I made not this motion out of any levity or lightness of spirit but of awfulness sear and dread of the Living God not to satisfie the flesh the affections or lusts thereof by living idly loosely or carelesly in the World but to deny my self and crucisie the flesh by casting off whatsoever might feed and nourish the same Not because I was at all shaken in minde as to sellowship or communion of Saints but because I seared you were not the Spouse of Christ but an Harlot and that your communion and sellowship was not in the light and life of the Spirit of Christ but in the spirit of the world which is the spirit of Whoredomes And how tenderly I behaved my selfe afterwards towards you without doing or speaking ought by which you might be offended or your minds made evill-affected towards the truth is in part known to some of you Nevertheless the wrath and rage of many of you waxed great against the Truth and was made manifest by much railing reviling slandering and false accusing in your Pulpits and other your Meetings those that entertain'd the same in which my selse was a Sharer and matter was sought for whereof to accuse me but when nothing justly could be sound an accusation made up of apparent lyes falsehood and deceit as is manifest in my Reply is prepared and sent me by three of your Members being all the men you have lest of those to whom I was joyned and two of them became Imitators of Water-Baptism a practice disowned and testified by those to whom I joyned but when I had prepared my Defence in answer to your Accusations I sent for two of your aforesaid Messengers to whom I read what I had written to you and manifested my desire to have it publickly read among you at a full meeting and asked their freedome to doe it who answered they were free to doe it and saw no reason why it should not be so done and told me I had created more trouble and paines for my selfe because an Answer to it I might be sure to receive yet when it came so great was the deceit among you that it could not be permitted to have an hearing by you lest thereby as was pretended the weak should be stumbled but the truth was lest deceit and hypocrisie should be thereby manifested to the view of the simple-hearted among you who discerning the same might be drawn out of your snares and Satan lose his dominion over them and that the eyes of their minds might be the more effectually blinded kept it was till a Fasting day was appointed and therein an Answer pretended by some among you from God that it must not be read * Isa 58.4 Behold you fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickednesse And so after a moneths space or thereabouts was it return'd not into mine but into the hand of one of my servants without signifying in the least to me any reason why it was so return'd And as if your former wickedness had been too little in laying things to my charge which I never knew and refusing to receive or to heare my charge which is just and true you proceed to another wickedness little lesse then the former and send your Messengers again

the sake of him whom the world knows not and therefore persecute who was ever a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief have I chosen rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God then to enjoy the Pleasures and Treasures of England and can truly say Much rather would I be a Door-keeper in the House of God where the living presence and power of God is manifested known and witnessed then with you to dwell in the Tents of ungodliness where pride oppression violence persecution is owned and practiced These things are found among you if any of you deny the Spirit of persecution let him declare it and any of you are tender hearted and desire after the Lord Come forth from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters faith the Lord God Almighty The LETTER to the INDEPENDANT-BAPTIZED People Friends ALthough I cannot own any power at all you have over me neither am careful of the judgement of man who must abide the judgement of God before whose seat all must shortly come yet some Messengers from you having some time past been with me and told me they were sent by the Church of Christ and in the name of Christ to warn me of some things they lay to my charge as sin The true love I ever had to your souls constrains me to give you an answer in all simplicity and plainness and by the same spirit by which I often spake among you when many could not bear it but were offended as they still will be which I matter not well knowing from what fountain of darkness and ignorance it comes But before I proceed to answer the Particulars I must in faithfulness to your souls tell you that I am even constrained to bear witness that you are no Church of Christ neither know the name of Christ but a Synagogue of Satan and a Cage of unclean and hateful Spirits in which lodgeth Pride Hypocrisie Envy Slandering Back-biting Railing Lying love to this present World and conformity to the fashions customs and conversation of the same notwithstanding there is that in some among you after which my soul doth greatly groan with much longings that the salvation of God were come out of Sion c. but the Temple of God is holy Christ dwells not with these unclean Spirits And it becomes all who name the name of the Lord to depart from these iniquities his Name is dreadful to it and those that know his Name know it so c. To the Particulars 1. You say my sin lies in leaving the Church which hath these three sad considerations in it as you judge The drawing of many from the Faith and way of the Gospel The offending staggering and grieving many weak souls And the opening the mouths of many to speak evill of the wayes of Truth To which I Reply That all Judgement is given to the Son whom you being ignorant of and enemies to in your minds by wicked works by what can you judge or what is your judgement worth The Church I own as the Pillar and ground of truth which are all living stones built upon the living Foundation and groweth up into an holy Temple for God through the eternal Spirit in which the Lord God Almighty dwels and walks and manifests himself which Church I have not left But if by the Church you mean a company of people dead in trespasses without the life and power of godliness or true knowledge of God by the Revelation of the Sonne living in pride in the customes and loves of the world serving diverse lusts and pleasures ever learning but never comes to the knowledge of the Truth walking like other Gentiles in the Vanities of their minds having their understandings darkned and hating the true Light so that they are alienated from the life of God through ignorance feeding on ashes not on bread having a dead Forme without the living power of Godliness From this if I turn away it is not my sin but my duty and from this if any be drawn it is matter of joy in Heaven and of no sadness except to that which is beneath and to be cast out At which that which is offended stagger'd or griev'd may wel be said to be Weak and must perish It is true the mouths of many are now open to speak evill of the waies of Truth and of things they understand not as ever it was of old But as many among your selves are not the least in that transgression so shall you not miss of righteous Judgement except you repent in this approaching day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Who is to be reveald from Heaven in flames of fire to take Vengeance on them who know not God nor obey the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ c. 2. You say my sin lies in neglecting and comtemning some of the Ordinances of Christ To which I Reply The Inventions Traditions and Imaginations of mens carnall wisedome withall that is done in the first nature being bus Cains Sacrifice and nol acceptable to God I am learning to neglect and disesteem Yea all that of which the Lord by the true Prophet Isay complaines Isay 11.10 to the 16. where you may read that in the account of the pure God the multitude of Sacrifices Oblations Incense New Moons Sabbaths solemn Assemblies appointed Feasts spreading forth the hands and making many prayers was to no purpose no delight had the Lord in it he required it not at their hands it was vain abominable and burthensome to him who could not away with it his soule hated it it was a trouble to him it was iniquity coming from impure hearts and bloody hands but the ordinances and appointments of God to his people I own approve and long after in the pure light life and spirit in which the true Saints had communion and fellowship When I asked your Messengers as they call'd themselves what they meant in particular by the ordinances that I neglected They rereplyed Baptism by Water and breaking of Bread To which I answer How can you but blush when you consider that degree of deceit and hypocrifie in which you now speak doth not that of God in all your Consciences reprove you I know it doth if you will observe it and therefore in plainness yet with true love let me ask you how can you say to me pull out the mote that is in thine eye when behold a beam is in your own eyes Can you judge me and not condemne your selves who doe the same things A Member of an Anabaptist Assembly I never was but did bear witness against it as ye know and the people with whom I walked was once neer upon casting out one for entertaining that opinion of Water-Baptism And when did you baptize as you call it your children I have known no

but to us of salvation and that of God But what shall I advise or counsel you I know from of old many of your hearts are hardned and you will not hear and therefore I shall say no more but with Paul From henceforth let no man among you trouble me for I must bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Iesus that the life also of Iesus may be manifested in my mortal body however you take it this is written in much feeling and love to your souls and therefore in plainness by one that hath been and still is a great lover of your souls though a witness against your deceit Known to you by the name of Dennis Hollisler POSTSCRIPT I Shall spare to make much mention to you of your carriage to a Servant of the Lord who came into your meeting the second day of this ninth moneth and of your threatning her with Whips Stripes and Prison Having written more largely of it to Th●mas Ewens your Teacher where you may see how contrary your practice is to the Saints in all ages and the Churches of Christ and one with the Seed of the Serpent the enemies of Christ who was ever found in imprisoning and persecuting the Saints as the Scriptures testifie The Letter to Thomas Ewens Thomas Ewens THy Letter of the second day of the last Moneth I received with the enclosed Papers from Henry Iessey and Iohn Pendarviss as thou saist in answer to some Queries sent to me by them which is not true for I sent none to them in particular that I know but to the People to whom they were directed viz. The Baptists of which as that time a very great number was in Town from whom some reasonable answer might be expected instead of which I reveived a Paper signed Henry Iessey Iohn Pendarvis pretending some Reasons why they answered not and in thy Letter a shew of an answer to them the said Quaeries but indeed a parcel of such dull stuff that it s not worth observing much less replying thereto by those whose time is not their own but his that sent them Enclosed thou maist receive an answer to their Anti-quaeries from those to whom they were directed A reply also to the pretended answer of the Quaeries thou and they might have expected had it been worth the while but instead thereof you viz. the Baptists are desired to review your own Answers and take notice of the confusion and deceit therein contained and how far short it is of an answer to the Queries and amend the same I shall instance in one particular namely your answer to the eight Query in which you speak of two Baptisms under the New Testament besides that of Iohn when the Scripture saith One Faith one Baptism you say Christ in his own Person onely Baptized with the Spirit none other being appointed nor inabled c. When the Scripture saith Some were made able Ministers of the Spirit not the Letter And he that ministred the spirit among the Saints Did he it by the works of the Law saith that able Minister of the Spirit And where was it that Christ in his own person Baptized in Scripture expressions Were not all the Saints Baptized by one Spirit into one Spirit into one Body See ● Cor. 12.13 without wresting sithence the Spirit was not given till that person was ascended And he that spake by the Spirit said Though ye have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know ye him so no more And what is that Name of the Lord Iesus in which you say you Baptize I shall say little to your Spiritual ends there mentioned of your water Baptism or my stical holdings out or representtions c. But would rather have the tearms and things proved by the words of Scripture to be so because the shadows do now begin to flie away and the true Light shines and deceit is manifested so that words colours and pretences will not now prevail to blinde and deceive those that live and walk in the true Light And whereas thou saist If there be any thing in either of the Papers that may tend to recover my precious Soul out of the pit and snare into which it is faln as it would be a rejoycing to others that love me so to thy self who would be as ready as ever to serve me in love and in the Lords way To which I reply Were my soul which indeed is precious in the eye of the Lord faln into a pit or snare I see nothing in either of those dull confused liveless and powerless Papers like to recover or lift it out But why dost thou not tell me what the snare and pit is into which it is faln The mistaken blinde generation in all ages accounted the people of God who were escaped their pollution and snares and turned from the darkness to the Light and from the power of Satan unto God deceived faln and mis-guided and therefore hated reviled and persecuted them as people faln into a snare fit for their prey and spoil and to be whipt and imprisoned c. I do not say in Bridewell but shall leave it to come out of thy mouth as it did the second day of this present month and is that the Lords way in which thou art so willing to serve me I utterly deny that way and the Lerd of it which is the god of the world the Devil and all that by him are led and guided therein it is the devil that casts the Saints into Prison as the Scripture saith It was wretched Pilate that scourged Iesus It was those Masters whose gain came in by Divination joyning with the multitude that carryed Paul and Silas before the Magistrates and caused them to be beaten and many stripes laid upon them and cast into prison It was Iesus that foretold his Disciples they muse be so used by the world the generation of Vipers that must fill up the measure of their Fathers iniquities that upon them may come all the righteous blood that hath been shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel c. It was Paul the able Minister of the Spirit not of the Letter that proved himself the Minister of God in much patience intumults in stripes in imprisonments c. and more a Minister of Christ then the false Ministers that encountred him were by labors more abundant in stripes above measure in Prisons more frequent that five times of the professing Iews received forty stripes save one and was thrice beaten with rods But is is Thomas Ewens a Minister of the Letter not of the Spirit as all the false Apostles and deceitful Workers were who trans form themselves into the Ministers of Christ as Satan doth himself into an Angel of Light that is at least threatning the servants of God and witnesses of Iesus with stripes with whipp ings and with Bridewel O my Friend How great is the wrath and how heavy is the indignation that from the

Lord God is gone forth against thee except thou repent who waxeth worse and worse deceiving and being deceived and little dost thou think the extream heighth of wickedness into which thou art spreading above many thy Companions if the Lord prevent not Alass alass Why was I warned from invisible sights many moneths if not years past to beware of thee something of whose condition was then manifest which I could not believe till in time it began to be made manifest by its fruits and now begins to be visible and breaks out like the fire which thou canst not contain within thee but openly opposest the appearance of Christ where it is found in life and power O my Friend Tender and open is my heart towards thee what would I not do that thou mightest escape the pit out of which no redemption can be How often am I wounded and my heart troubled in minding of thee O that thou might st know the things belonging to thy peace and how sandy thy foundation is on which thou standest and the deceit which fast thou holdect and so be led to repentance and not shut up the Kingdom of Christ against thy self and others My bowels are even turned for thee not knowing how to give thee up who am thy friend as thou lovest the light D. H. To this no answer at all was returned but many moneths after the said Antiqueries by the name of Quaeries were published in a book entituled Arrows against Babylon without taking the least notice therein of the answer given to it long before of the honesty equity and justness of which proceedings the wise in heart may judge and by the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world of which Iohn was a witness come to see where deceit reigns and the spirit of whoredomes witchcrafts and abominations rules but the answers were as followeth The ANTIQUAERIES answered Query 1. Whether you be willing that the depth of your perswasions concerning Christ his being contained in the Heavens the raising of our dead Bodies after natural death try all of Spirits and Doctrines according to the Scriptures should be clearly and openly known and published Answer 1. Yea and clearly and openly do we publish and declare the way to God according to the Scripture Christ who is risen of whom we bear witness and that he is ascended into Heaven and set down on the right hand of God But as for his being contained you ask you know not what And as for our perswasion of the raising of your dead Bodies after natural death or as you say the corruptible Bodies that are laid in graves or cast into the sea literally we say flesh and blood inherits not the Kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption But our perswasion is that the wicked and unjust shall arise to shame and everlasting contempt and therefore we warn you in the presence of the Lord to hearken unto the Light that shews you sin and come to repentance that you may witness a change lest that day come upon you unawares And the resurrection of the Just we own to everlasting life but we are not of those that say How are the dead raised and with what body do they come but we know that there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body and we confess and are perswaded of the resurrection of the just and unjust and to every seed his own body according to the Scripture And trial of Spirits and doctrines we own and are willing thereunto by the Spirit of the Lord to try and to be tryed and our perswasion is known unto the children of Light and the truth is plainly published and yet not known unto the world nor by its wisdom but to the Saints well known and in the light have we fellowship with the children of God unto whom his secrets are revealed Query If so What was the reason you gave no answer when it was put to you whether you did agree to those few plain Scripture truths concerning Christ and those weighty things before named Answer The spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not limited to your time and if you do conclude because there was not an answer when it was put that we deny Scripture truths you are given over to believe lies the same may be drawn concerning you for not returning an answer to our Queries when they were put and likewise your own reasons may be turned upon you if no particular answers to your Antiqueries were given and you judged out of your own mouthes First Because there is an intruding by you into the things not revealed Secondly Because some things are of less concernment and because in the conclusion there is an answer required in a masterly maner In all which you shew you alow your selves in the things which you condemn and that you are not taught by the light within to do as you would be done unto although you say the light within which is the light of right reason shews the unreasonableness or inequality of such a way of proceeding in taking of so casie a work as to hand out a heap of questions in number twenty seven but rightly distinguished amounting to a far greater number And here you are seen not to own the light of right reason to shew you your own unreasonableness who have sent out a heap of Queries by number sixteen which are near as much if they be not altogether as our twenty seven Questions and your particular Answers to them And your Answers are dull stuff saving the Scriptures which we own as they were spoken by them who lived in the life but the unclean spirit of confusion by which you speak we utterly deny You say The Church under the New Testament being the Kingdom of God there is the cup of the Lord who is the true Vine which cup is an outward cup you say in which you shew your ignorance that you neither know the cup nor the Vine nor the Kingdom of God You say The worship of Devils and sacrificing and seasting and the cup of Devils was outward but say you the cup of fornication and abomination which all the world drinks of is not to be taken literally but mystically And here you have shewn your confusion who say The cup of the Lord which is the true Vine is an outward cup but the cup of fornication and abomination is mystically to be taken which you have done accordingly yet you say the sacrifices and feastings to Devils is an outward worship but fornication and abomination is mystical and denotes a certain measure of the delusion of the Whore And whether the drinking of the cup and sitting at the Table and feasting and sacrificing to Devils was not abomination and a certain measure of the delusion of the Whore let all that can discern judge and whether it concerns not you to examine if this be not a certain measure of the delusion of the Whore

your heap whether it be not the Prince of darkness in you which denies that the Light reveales Jesus Christ that so ye may draw people from the true light which lighteth every man to follow your own inventions building in the credit of others testimony without the power which laid the foundation and so set up a Forme without the power in your gross dark imaginations and call that Light shewing your selves to be false Christs crying loe here and loe there And seeing some may be Witches that Preach up the outward Commands in the Letter without the Spirit Whether are not you Witches that deny the power the Apostles had by which the foundation was laid and whether he that brings the same doctrine the Apostle brought hath not the same power which laid the foundation seeing he hath the Father and the Sonne and whether you that have denied this power can deny but ye are seducing spirits and in the doctrine of Devils Quere 13. Whether you have not among you many who presume to be Masters or masterly Teachers contrary to the word of Christ Mat. 23.10 Doe not they usurp authority over the Consciences and judgements of their followers requiring them to believe and obey what they say without asking their meanings and examining their sayings by the Scriptures whereas Christ expounded his sayings to his Disciples and the Bereans were commended for searching the Scripture Answer Nay we have not many such among us contrary to the Word of Christ neither do they whom we own to be Ministers usurp authority over the Consciences and Judgments of their followers requiring them to believe what is said without tryal this is an absolute lye Ah ye dissembling Hypocrites doth not the light condemne you for this Hypocrisie who are found in this very practice contrary to the word of Christ and would hide your selves by casting it upon the innocent Truly your condemnation slumbers not though your hearts may be hardned Query 14. Whether it be not high presumption and spritual pride for some among you to break Christs commands and teach men so and to judge the secrets of mens hearts and rathly without knowledge of mens conversations to affirme they have not the Spirit may not others know by such things how to judge of you Answer This Query as t is laid down is a lye and by your uttering forth such deceit we know how to judge of you We deny breaking Christs commands and teaching men so bring in those some and let them be made manifest else ye are slanderers manifest But to judge the secrets of mens hearts the Lord doth it by which spirit the Saints are guided and judge the Vnlearned and Vnbelievers the thoughts of their hearts being made manifest and this we witness against spiritual pride which would not be judged Query 15. Whether you doe not esteem the sayings of some among you of equall authority with the sayings of God in Scripture and as readily or more to be believed or obeyed without enquiring whether they agree with Scripture or no even though they plainly contradict the Written Word Is it not an usuall thing with many of you to travell up and down to and fro farre and near in obedience to such voices not warranted by Scripture but contrary thereunto Answer This query is absolute Lyes as t is laid down But that which God speaks now we own to be of the same authority with what he spake formerly and is to be believed and obeyed accordingly though the wicked generation who have the words formerly spoken doe reject the Word of the Lord now as the Hypocrites did who had the Prophets words but owned not them who spake by the same Authority your building the tombs of them your fathers slew wil not serve to hide you in the dreadful day of the Lord you will know that the Lord hath sent his Witnesses among you and for contradicting the Scripture it is not shewed in what let the slander lie upon you As for wandring up and down to and fro farre and neer that is not contrary to Scripture but was the practice of the holy men who spake as they were moved and wandred up and down and to the voice of God were obedient in so doing and some of them to the going naked though you be so blind and ignorant as to oppose the same in them who witness it a sign to such as you Query 16. Whether Satan that old deceiver who often changeth his shape being discovered in many of his old devices may not now be expected to come in his best dresse as an Angel of Light And if so ought not all men to take heed how they believe every spirit as also how they hear and follow every Prophet that comes in sheeps cloathing and are not such in the way to be easily seduced who are taken with a fair covering and outside carriage of persons as to embrace their Principles without a serious spirituall Scripture-triall Answer Satan in his best dresse is discovered by the Light and the children of the Light are not ignorant of his wiles but by the power of the Lord are we preserved from that transforming and see him to become working his lying wonders with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish and though you have got into as high a form as you can even professing the doctrine of the Apostles yet wanting the power the Apostles had which laid the Foundation we see your dress to be the well-favour'd Harlot And seeing it is so we believe not your spirit but try you and find you to be Wolfes and false Prophets and they that receive you and follow you or such are in the way easily to be seduced and here again is confusion in the Queries who speak of spiritual pride in judging secrets and say the outside the carriage and the covering is faire and said all we say makes not against a spiritual practice and yet condemnes us deceivers Ye blinde guides who are expecting that Satan may come and are so blinded by him at present that you are acting his part One of you said his soul was in the pit to whom these Antiqueries were sent was not that judging a secret and whether such deceit lying and confusion from such blinde guides and seducing spirits be more likely to recover souls out of the pit or lead those who follow them into the pit let the impartial spiritual Judges bear Witness And here your queries are answered in particular in clearness and plainness in our own Judgements and Consciences and they whose eyes are opened may see your Errour and give glory to God Answered by them to whom they were directed To England I have this to say OH England England who wast Chief among the Nations and Princely among the Provinces in the midst of which the right hand of the Lord became glorious in power and dasht in pieces his Enemies and in the great●esse of his Excellencie overthrew and brought downe the Oppressour and gave thee opportunity to performe thy Vowes Promises and Declarations which in the day of thy distresse thou madest to God and men against Injustice Oppression Tyranny and Wrong and in the behalfe of Equitie Truth and Right But now the Lord by his power having given thee Victorie and Peace How soone is the just man perished and the upright in thee not found but the wonders of the Lord forgotten and his wrathfull judgements against Oppressors and the Proud accounted happy and they that tempt God and doe wickedly delivered and exalted whom Pride compasseth as a chaine and violence take hold as a garment so that the wicked compasse about the Just and devoure the man that is more righteous then he How wofully is truth fallen in thy streets and equitie cannot enter but he that departs from iniquity is made a Prey Judgment turned away backward Justice standeth afar off Oh how is the Foundations broken up and the Sluces opened whereby injustice oppression and almost all ungodlinesse hath again overspread thy face beyond what it did in the day before thou wast made a field of blood so that by the overspreading of abomination how great is thy desolation and all thy seeming Religion and high Profession which stood in Words and Forms but not in the Life discoverd and manifested to be but scum and deceit in this day when God hath tried thee How is thy Silver become drosse and thy Wine mixt with water and the faithful City become an harlot in which Righteousnesse once seemed to lodge but now murderers and all thy Vowes Promises and Engagements both to God and men forgotten in this day of thy pride and how are the hidden things of Esau sought out and the blood-thirstinesse of Edom in thee manifested and the wise men destroyed out of Edom and understanding out of the mount of Esan whose calamitie commeth upon him from the Lord for his perpetual hatred against his Brother as the Scripture witnesseth which also saith As Troops of Robbers wait for a man so the company of Priests murther in the way by consent and commit lewdnesse as it is seen this day Who would have thought that the wonders of the Lord should be so soon forgotten in thee and the wayes of the Heathen so exactly learned and the deeds of the wicked overpassed whom the Lord cast out as thou hast seen How shall the Lord pardon thee for these things or how shall thy heart endure when he shall visit it upon thee whose controversy is so much increased because truth and mercy is perished in thee FINIS