crying up new light we do not bring people back to the same frame of Spirit under which they were when they first made a profession of godliness as crying out against pride and other gross sins c. Ans The light of Christ is new to thee who art the old man and the Child of darkness though it be the same that was from the beginning which we cry out against pride and all gross sins which thou who art gross in thy spirituall pride art an enemie to and carping against and after confesses that they are good in themselves and needfull to be knowne so an enemie thou art to that which is good and an opposer of that which is needfull to be knowne out of thine own mouth be thou judged and whereas thou talks of progress in godliness I say godliness thou art an enemie to and thy progress is in opposition to it denying the light of Christ and his infallible Spirit and so with the Spirit of Anti-Christ art thou pleading for Preists and hirelings such as are of thine own Spirit which the Spirit of Christ beares witness against Que. 24 Thou askest whether we do beleive that the Scriptures that speaks of quaking and trembling are to be understood of the quaking and trembling of the joynts limbs and members of the fleshly body of the Creature and whether there may not be this trembling in a perfon unwrought upon by the power of God Ans The Scriptures are true what they speake but they could never be understood by thy fallible Spirit which is contrary to that which gave them forth which is infallible so to thee they are a parable who art in that generation that would wrest them to thy own destruction 2 Pet. 3. 16 and the destruction of others which were given forth to be fullfilled and not to be wrested to the understanding of the carnall Spirit And this trembling spoken on in the Scripture is not without the power of God yet there may be a work upon the soule without this trembling of the body but who art thou that would limit him which knows neither of these who without the light of Christ and the infallible Spirit in thee art judging in thy dark mind how God looks upon man falsely accusing us for putting literall senses upon the scriptures which is thine own work who art sensuall having not the Spirit thy sence must be literall and carnall and devilish Que. 8 In this Query thou askest if our maine drift be not to bring men that are begun in the Spirit to look after perfection from the flesh and thou saies there is little or nothing in our teaching or writing that a soule spirituallized can close with but rather such things as do eclipse and darken the Spirits teaching c. Ans What Spirit is it that thou art begun in who denies the infallible Spirit to be in thee is not that the Spirit of Satan which is fallible and our maine drift is to bring people from that Spirit by the light of Christ to him that is infallible which thou oppolest so let all judge who knowes any thing of light and of the Spirit be witnesses against thee whether it be not by exhorting people to mind the light of Christ and the moving of the Spirit of God within them that darkens the Spirits teaching or thou who denies the light of Christ and the infallible Spirit to set up a visible teacher in its stead And whereas thou askest what brought the Galathians who had begun in the Spirit back to look after perfection in the flesh I say it was such as thou who bewitched Gall. 3. them and led them back from the teachings of the Spirit unto the letter and carnall Ordinances and Ruidments which is thy work now and so have been with thy query and thy practice and thy lies who saies we seek to Captivate the Lords People to bring them from liberty to bondage to bring them to tremblings and feares Phill. 2. 12. which are no waies consistent with the Gospel Ministration that nothing from us is heard sutable to the teachings of the Spirit that we seldome or never speake of such truths Of the Spirits teaching and convictions Of Christ formed in the Saints Of Christ in us the hope of glory Of our being compleat in him Of Communion with the Father through him Of prayer in the Spirit Of Gods revealing his mind to his people by the Spirit And thou saies we have a designe yet unknowne and that we are carryed out by another Spirit then the Spirit of the new Testament Which are so many lying slanders heaped against us in one query which I send thee back into the pit from whence they came till thou prove them against us herein thy Spirit is seene by his fruits not to be infallible but art making a refuge of lies to save thy Image from the sword Que. 26 And in thy next Query thou adde divers more lies under the pretence of a doubtfull Question whether we do not at last come to deny the resurrection To deny the Scriptures and their authority To deny God To deny Christ and the Spirit and all and yet thou saies thou sees but our outsides though thou thus judge what we will doe and that our teachers are but imitators That our union is not so great as people imagine That we have branched our selves into severall sorts As walking singing creeping naked And virgin-Quakers And in time will break out into as many sorts of orders as there are of Fryars and thou saies Satan must discover himselfe though he loose all I say whosoever knowes Satans works in the least measure of light may see him sufficiently discovered in these two queries and a great deal of his Treasure thou hast brought forth above twenty lies all laid at stake and all in vaine and like to be lost and swept away and the snake in the grass which thou tells on which lay hid thou hast brought into the high way but to no purpose but that his head might be bruised Query 27. In this Query thou askest if it be not the great work of Christians to expect the comming of Christ their glorious Bridegroom to marry him to himself c. Answ I say Christs comming will be a black day to thee and all the Generation of Lyars and slanderers he comes to glorifie none such nor marry them to him thou art married to the Devil and brings forth of his his brood abundantly therefore depart from iniquity till then cease to take Christ into thy polluted lips who still goes on bringing forth thy venom to cast upon us as though we perswaded the Saints that the Bridegroom is gone and will not return And that we in effect deprive Gods people of all society with their Bridegroom and that we evidently declare that we are ignorant of his glorious approaching wherein thou evidently declares that when the Ethiopian can change his skin then thou
AN ANSVVER To Twenty Eight QUERIES Sent out by Francis Harris to those People he calls Quakers Wherein his spirit is tryed to be contrary to that Spirit that was in all the Children of Light by his own words and infallible proof his slanders being removed his Queries are groundless and so the truth cleared in the sight of the least of the LORDS People Written in the defence of the truth and for the freeing the Israelite out of the hand of the Aegyptian J. N. As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these resist the truth And they bend theâ—r tongue like their bow for lyes but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth for they proceed from evil to evil and they know not me saith the Lord. Take ye heed every one of his neighbour and trust ye not in any brother for every brother will utterly supplant and every neighbour will walk with slanders and will not speak the truth they have taught their tongues to speak lyes and weary themselves to commit iniquity London Printed for Giles Calâ—erâ— and are to be sold at his Shop at the Black-spread-Eagle neere the West end of Pauls London 1655. Francis Harris ARt not thou ashamed to call us the Grand opposers of Queries and thy self hath put forth a whole book of Queries made up of slanders and false accusations which thou saies if rightly considered may be a stop to prevent falling into the snares of the Quakers and if soberly answered will occasion a discovery of truth I say in the answer of it will be discovered many of thy lies by the truth though they be too many all to mention and thy self in the snare of Satan which rightly weighed with thy work thou art found in may serve not only to prevent others for joyning with thee but also to awaken those who are a sleep in thy security for no lyer hath the truth in him nor no envious person hath eternall life abiding in him so with that light of Christ in thy conscience which thou opposest thou maist read thy work and thy condemnation In thy word to the Reader thou saies that Satan in these latter yeares hath bestirred himself to destroy the Gospel and the essence of Christianity I say what Gopel is that thou meanes of which in this latter yeares hath beene a destroying dost thou meane the Papists or the Bishops or some branches sprung from those roots no other Gospel is in danger of destroying with the light of Christ and his infallible Spirit that thou so much opposes and scornes with which the work of Christ is now carried out against all such plants which are not of his planting them to pluck up for the fire nay be ashamed of your professions who have got the finest colours to cover you with all the Turks and Heathen exceed you in Iustice mercy meeknesse and righteousness this Nation exceeding for wickednesse and the finest formes the greatest hypocrisie shall you doe all this wickednesse and be delivered in the day of the Lords judgments by crying the Gospel the Sabbath the Sacraments the Chruches the Scriptures c. When there is not a verse in the Scripture wherein you may not read your condemnation shall you be hid by saying you are sinners but harden your hearts and increase in it such an adulterous and stifnecked generation was never in the world before you with whom neither judgments nor mercies hath prevailed and now at his apperance are you gathered against him from all quarters of the Nations armed with weapons like your Master for whom you fight some with lies and slanders back-biting and false accusing laying to our charge in whom he is things we never knew and accusing us with things to come which we never intended and these are the head of the Serpent which makes way for gathering all the body and taile some with clubs and stones stocks and prisons some beating in the Synagogues and haling before Rulers some plotting in secret hatching the Cockatrice eggs which yet you have not power to bring forth and soe all is at work Gog and Magog against the Lambe and his despised ones where he is the prisons are fulfilled throughout the Nation and the Devill is come downe in great rage and the Nations are mad yet can you not believe that this is the work of the Devill thus to make havocke though none of God was ever found in it but his time is short and to judgment he must come head and taile root and branch the day is at hand here is the faith and the patience of the Saints he that hath an eare can only heare and he that hath an eye can see but the world is as blind and deafe as ever The occasion of thy Queries thou saies is the increase of the Quakers in Glocestershire and thou saies in a rude manner thou did compose them which some perswaded thee to correct c. I say they are rightly called rude and so they will appeare in time and thy ignorance also who thinks to stop the work of the Lord with these Queries but if thou had taken counsell so to have corrected them as to have taken out all thy lies thou had marred the foundation of thy Queries and with the light of Christ in thy conscience thou might have answered thy selfe covered thy shame and not have brought forth such a shamefull birth as this into the world the first coppie of them thou saies thou dâ—sowned I say if ever thou own truth thou will dâ—sowne the second also but thou seemes to put the fault why thou printed them upon the Quakers who thou saies threatned to publish the Coppie in thy name and thou saies some favorites of ours perswaded thee not to publish any thing against us saying we would cast dirt and filth in thy face and set out thy miscariages in a multiplying glass alledging to thee the Counsell of Gamaliel c. I say thy speech bewrayes thee was this our friend which gave this false testimonie against us he was a friend to thee if thou couldest have seene it and have taken his Counsell after Gamaliel but he hath not spoken truth of us for I am so far from multiplying thy miscariages that a third part of thy lies I have not mentioned And the quakers had done thee no wrong had they published in thy name what thou wrote yet I judge the least of the Quakers might have been much better imployed then to fill peoples eares with such lying vanities which are most fit to rot had not thou brought them first to light And thou speaks as of some feares of some reports that are out against thee concerning thy conversation as though the Quakers should publish them to which I say if thy conscience accuse thee and being inlightned with the light of Christ owne the light and turne to it and repent of thy sin and love the light which shews it therin should I rejoyce more then in publishing
of it thou tells of a list Catalogue of as vile wretches who are lately turned Quakers as any the Country doth afford and this thou saies to deter people from following us I say that 's my joy on their behalfe though troubled for you to see the Scripture fulfilled and fulfilling they come from far and sit downe in the Kingdom but the Children of the Kingdome cast out yea Math. 21. 31. 32. publicans and harlots take the Kingdome before you good is the word of the Lord which is now fulfilling but woe unto Mat. 8. 11. you who it is fulfilled upon and thou saies in thy Queries the Reader may see not only the face but the whole body of the Quakers Tenets I say they may see a body of thy lies where withall thou art arming thy selfe against the Lord but the body of the Quakers are out of the sight of hell and death and all the darke fallible Spirits that are in covenant therewith And thou sayest our Antiscripturall inventions will of themselves shortly fall to the ground like as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when t is shaken of a mighty winde I say inventions are thine who hath not the light and Spirit in thee but for our fall that is the false prophet that speaks in thee and so it shall be seene every day more and more the might of the winde of the lyer cannot shake our foundation Yet thy Queries I shall answer so much of them as have any truth in them and some of thy lyes I shall returne thee againe which may seeme to slander the truth most and for the rest let them alone as not worth mentioning nor troubling the cares of people with them and so in plainenesse as followeth AN Answer to Twenty Eight Queries sent out by Francis Harris to those People he calls Quakers IN thy first Query thou askes the way of Gods discovery to the sons of men and whether we come from God or we speak of our selves and the Light of conscience by which we walke whether our diâ—pensation be from Mount Sinai or Zion c. Ans Our dispensation is of the Spirit of light whereby we are led and Mount Sinai we know and the law received from Gods owne mouth where the beast cannot touch and from the wilderness of sin are we journeyed and some journeying and the wilderness of Judea we know and that righteousness fulfilled where the generation of Vipers is rejected Scribes and Pharises and to Mount Sion we are come many is coming with joy songs of deliverance and sorrows tears and fighing flies away with the wild asses who snuffs up the wind and never came to the yoake kicks and scoffs at when they see others brought to teares and sorrow and so in vaine minds talks of wiping teares away where none is and talks of Sion who have the words but are still in Egypt and in the state of Iannes and Iambres withstanding Isâ—aels seed in the imitations but knows not Israels light but scoffe at it and to all such it is a Cloud and darkness which is light by night to such as beleive and are in their jorney towards Sion and with that light are we separated and our enemies condemned in darkness and shall not come nigh us though they pursue and through tâ—is are we deliâ—ered from bondage and that which tendeth to bondage and so through the law we Gal 2. 19. are made free from the law and do not â—oyd the law Rom. 3. 31 God forbid And where is thou asks whether this be not done away I say thou might first know it fulfilled there shall not a jot of the law passe till all be fullfilled goe learne what that meanes Mat. 5. 17 to the end and the Saints waited to have the righteousness of the law fullfilled in them which vaine minds cast behind their backs Rom. 8. 4 and that law we see fulfilled and fulfilling which is spirituall just and good and herein Rom. 7. 12 14. our teaching and the effects thereof are one with that which the Gospel did and doth produce And thus the summ of thy first and second Queries are answered except such lies as these that we press upon people nothing but horror and amazement and that we do profess to lie under them along time seeke to affright others into them that we stumble at the noone day that there is no Gospel light in us c. which all being but lies heaped togather thou may take them back not worth answering And for thy mischievous words against us in that thou calls roareing I say thou may read thy generation and thy worke Psa 38. while David roared such as thou imagined mischiefe and his enemies was lively and strong and multiplyed against him Qu. 3 In this Query thou asks if that religion be of God which for the outward part consists in little else but thou and thee and railing against Preist and Tythes hirelings and grosse sins c An. That our religion consists of any outward thing or deportment is false But are not all these things thou carps at the practises of the Saints did not they declare against the Priests hirelings Tythes which thou calls railing in us Or did they ever use any other language but thee or thou to a particular who ever it was God or man Thou shameless man how dost thou discover thy envious Spirit against the practice of Christ and his people canst thou find nothing in us to envy against but Scripture practice be ashamed of thy doctrine who art come forth Joâ— 10. 13 into the world to plead against the Saints to hold up Job 32. â—â— 22 Hirelings Priests Tythes which Christ the Apostles cryed downe to plead for flattering Titles against the language of Scripture and against the true language of the Nation brought forth only to honour the Devils pride who is so exalted in men that he would have a better language then God and all good men have given and taken freely in all ages for God is one in all his but the Devill is legions and this thy work shews thy Master and yet in this his work thou would have the name of Christ to cover thee with but the light which thou hates is come and thou art found out by thy works thy words cannot hide thee who is bending thy wits to lead out of the Saints practice into Country customes and saies would not Christ and the pen-men of Scriptures have used it and suited with the place where they had come I say Christ and the pen-men of Scripture were in place where the Devill raigned as we are but they was redeemed from conformitie to him and his from customs of the world Nations kindreds tongues and People for which they was hated and evill spoken of by the Devills instruments who are in his Kingdom and custome and by such are we hated and slandered now for the same practises
servants of the Lord and saies they dwell in heaven who are serving their bellies with earthly things denying the light of Christ and his practice and the practice of all his and whereas thou sayest under a pretence of crying downe Priests and hirelings we cry downe all the Apostolicall institutions of Christ I say tythes and hirelings under the Gospel are not of Christs instituting nor his Apostles but by the Pope was they instituted and thou and all that takes part with him and his institutions cannot keepe them from being scattered neither are any of them the Lords people who are so gathered but now the sheepheard is come to save the sheep the wild beasts must fly every one to their harbor from whence they came and you that are come out from the stock of the Priests who came out from the root of the Pope stand up together that you may be broken roote and off spring Que. 14 Thou askes whether our selfe abasing Quakings tremblings roaring crying going in sackcloath and haire-cloath Nehemiah 9. 1. sitting in ashes living apart from our wifes silent gestures till the power move with some other lies thou adds be any other then a voluntary humility c. Ans Herein thou hast shewed how little thou knows of the Saints conditions or being acted contrary to thine own will is there any of these aforementioned but the Saints have been brought through them contrary to Psa 32. Psa 22 there own wills and have declared them in Scripture Luke 10. 13. which thou enemie to their Spirit which acted them thus calls anticke gestures and voluntary humility Luke 41. 26. canst thou judge it in us and not in them would not Ia. 22. 12 13. thy fallible spirit have said as much to have seen them so acted before the Scripture declared it who dare thus blaspheme that Spirit now when the Scriptures hath witnessed it and yet saith the Scriptures is the judge of all Spirits so with the Scripture thy Spirit is judged to be the Spirit of the Devill who opposes and reproaches the actings of the Spirit of God in the Saints lying and saying that they are acted by the light of nature but what else canst thou judge with thy fallible Spirit of the things of God or the Saints liberty or what there is in it Que. 15 In this Querie thou askes whether the nature of the covenant of grace be not one of the most needfull truths that a people can be taught and thou sayest in all our speakings and writings we seldome are never touch upon it nor of Gods free actings in it c. Ans With thy blind fallible Spirit thou art here judging again thou knows not what who hath neither read all our writings nor been at all our meetings so with thy false judgment condemnes thy selfe to be one of those that speaks evil of that thou knows not Art not thou ashamed to accuse us for not declaring the nature of the Covenant of grace and thou thy selfe denying the light within which is the light of the Covenant is not that the thing for which thou art become our enemy because we declare the light and Covenant to be within and Gods free actings thereinâ— whiâ—'st thy envie leads thee thinking to reproach us how dost thou cover thy seâ—â—e Jeâ—e 31. 31. 33. with thine owne shame like the troubled sea casting up mire dirt Is not the new Covenant its nature promise Heb. 8. â— 10. within whicch thou art preaching without reproachest the infallible Spirit within and thou saies the new Covenant attributes the whole operation onely to God thou blind sot canst thou atribute the work in man to God who denies the infalible Spirit in man doth the Spirit of God work where it is not or thou denies his Spirit to be infallible where it is so thou that denies the infallible Spirit must attribute either to the naturall light or the Spirit of the Devills for there is nothing of God but what is infallible for so is his Spirit so is his Covnant which are within all that know it but thou art without and so without God in the World heaping up thy lies saying that we drive people into Quaking and glorys in it and attributes that to the light of nature which is the proper worke of Christ and thus thon heapes up thy lies together Que. 16 This Qâ—erie being wholly made up of lies not being worth repeating after thee I returne them to thee againe being thy owne condition but Christs meekeness we owne and selfe we deny selfe righteousness and selfe actings thou art there who hast not the infallible Spirit to act thee so thou hast nought to act thee but thy selfe or the Devill Que. 17 Thou askes if it be not the policy of Satan now that so much Gospel ight is discovered that he cannot out as act uncleane Spirits nor in Popish Antichristian formes superstitious inventions as formerly to pretend in his future actings to be for Christ thereby he may som way or other blemish his primitive administrations c. Ans Heare in thy confusion thou askes thou knowes not what The Gospel light is within and so was in the Apostles time 2 Cor. 4. Luke 17. 20. but thou that hast noe light in thee nor the infallible Spirit art in the policy of Satan and with thy uncleane Spirit acting against the light of Christ with thy lies and slanders and the primitive administrations thou knowest not but as thou hast received by tradition from the letter and so thy Administration is literall but the Saints was and is spirituall in the light and not in the letter 2 Cor. 3. And whereas thou tells of sifting us I say what hast thou to sift us with who denies the light of Christ in thee and the infallible Spirit hast thou any other but the Spirit of Satan whose desire is ever to be sifting the Saints but thy Spirit must not prevaile against the Children of light thou art without with thy sin amongst the chaffe but the wheat is within Que. 18 Whether it be safe for Christians to forsake and let goe those Gospel dispensations of the Spirit of truth in which God hath sweetly and blessedly appeared unto their soules and wherein they have had blessed experiences of God c. Ans I say what hast thou or any else who deny the light of Christ and the infallible Spirit to let goe that is worth keeping art thou affraid of losing the Spirit of delusions for the Spirit of truth thou hast not for that is infallible and that which hath appeared to thy soule who hath noe light in thee nor the Spirit of God is but the Spirit of delusion or somthing in thy imaginations who art a Child of darkness and therein is all thy experience which thou art so affraid to loose and whereas thou would make people beleive that the dispensation of the light and infallible Spirit hath noe
promise from God and that they that doe so refuse him that speaks from heaven I say herein thou manifest what thou knowes of any promise from God or voyce from heaven who Eze. 11. 19 denies it to be in the light or infallible Spirit without Jo. 8. 12. which there is no promise nor word but what is stolen Rom. 8. 9. 14. from others or out of a booke and had thou had no Isa 49. 6. book thou had no voice nor promise who hast no light nor that Spirit by which alone the love of God is sealed to all that hath it Que. 19 Whether this power we have received and press people to waite for be from God from Satan or from the Spirit of bondage and thou askes if the power of God when it hath come hath put his people into such strange fits of trembling and quaking as if their joynts were fallen in peices c. Ans That power we have received and presse people to waite for is the power of God which thou knowes not nor its effects who calls them strange fits when Daniell heard the word of the Lord he stood trembling And when Moses heard the word of the Lord he exceedingly feared and quaked And David his bones were out of Dan. 10 11 joynt this thon calls strange fits who never knew the Heb. 12. 21. word of the Lord who hath eyes and sees not eares Psa 22. 14. and heares not and so art out of the feare of God one of those thou maist read on Jer. 5. 21. 20. and Isa 56. 5 who art venting out thy malice against such as feare the Lord and tremble at his presence but to trembling thou shalt come when thou shall see his face whom thou now art reproaching then shalt thou know Belshazers condition which now with thy vaine minde thou art talking of And whereas thou tells of liberty where the Spirit of the Lord is then there is none in thee who denies the infallible Spirit in thee but thy liberty is in thy beastly sensuall imaginations and in thy naturall condition thou art who art not borne of that Spirit And it is thou that is in Satans work to drive people from Christ who denies his light and Spirit and nought else hast thou received but a Spirit of bondage who hath not the Spirit of the Father in thee and so art bound in the chaines of darkness and would keepe others with thee and thy consolation and safety is but with Carnall things who hath not in thee the infallible Spirit but our consolation is in the Spirit of God which we have in us received of him in his light Que. 30 And whereas thou Queries whether that which we call perfection be not rather imperfection c. Ans No It is that which shews thy imperfection and Pharisaicall boastings it is that which leads us from sin and to the remission and the love of God which thinks no evill And from the righteous mans state which falls seven times a day which thou tells on to Christ which doth not fall and from that state that doth offend and from selfe sufficiency to the sufficiency of Christ which tells people see they have sinned and stand in need of a Saviour who saves them from their sin whose blood cleanseth from all sin and there is the time of seeing sin and have sinned and confessing and forsaking sin and the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin and perfection is not attained in thy life thou lives in for its the man of God that 's perfect and he knowes Pauls words who serves God in newness of life and not in oldness of letter and when thou comes to Pauls life thou shalt know Pauls state which we see and know who said As many of us as be perfect be thus minded and he was one of that us who wished their perfection and we deny thy Spirit which keeps thee allwayes in the warfare but we witness the Spirit of the Apostles which is to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus and this is the Spirit the Quakers witness Que. 25 Thou Queries if it be safe for Christians to be every yeare changing their religion c. Ans Thou that hast not the Spirit that was in the Apostles thou hast the Spirit of the world where the changing religions is and that Spirit grows not nor with it thou grows not up in grace which the Spirit that was in the Apostles did and who are in it doth and so the Ranters Levellers and changing religions thou tells on are of thy Spirit whose house is not upon the Rock so now the wind blowes so many of them tumbles downe and the rest of the lies returne into thy own bosome who art one of the tempest thou tells on caryed about with wind and words of men and so not stead-fast but with the Spirit that is stedfast are discovered which tendeth into Christ where we have an interest in God who is a consuming fire who is bringing all thy actings to light and thou askes what settlement people can gather to themselves I say such a settlement as thou art in which is but vaine notions which now doth oppose the Gospel and the glorious light of it but with it thou art condemned which leads to the Rock where the love of the truth is received and now thou art left in thy confusion having not the power art turned away from and this thou calls changeing like the Pope and all sects who calls it heresie to come out from their traditions so dost thou and your argument is one and where as thou tells of a wandring Spirit I say stop thy mouth for shame what Spirit else hast thou who denies the light of Christ and the infallible Spirit have not all cause who loves the Spirit of truth or their own souls to shun thee and thy vaine notions which are not from the Spirit of God that was in the Saints Que. 22 Thou askes whether they are carried on by the power of God in their fastings and abstinence from meate when they are not fatter and fairer then they was before c. Ans Canst thou judge what power David was carried on by whose knees was weake through fasting and his flesh Psal 109. 24. 25. failed of fatness whereby he became a reproach to Psal 1019. 70. such as thee who looked on him or did the three Children fast which thou talks on that they was fairer be Psal 17. 10. ashamed of thy proof and thy experience thou declarest of the Saints conditions thou art more like one of those whose hearts were fat as greece and whose eies stood out with fatness who speaks wickedly and loftily one of the ungodly who prospers in this world who increases in riches which David spoke of Psal 73 and such was ever scoffers at the Saints fastings that in thy conscience shall witness it Que. 23 Thou askes if we under a pretence of
wilt leave false accusing and slandering And thou tells of the Children of the Bride-Chamber cannot mourn while the Bridegroom is with them and of putting people into a watching frame of spirit I say what Bridegroom knowes thou with thee who deny the light of Christ and the infallible spirit in thee And what spirit wilt thou watch withall the lying spirit never knew him nor must not enter with him but is shut out with the Sorcerers and Whoremongers Query 28. In this thou askest whether our tenents shall not decay and fall as Satan is discovered in his mysterious actings c. Answ I answer no as Satan is discovered with his lies and filthiness so shall the light of Christ and the infallible spirit be advanced which discovers all inventions new and old and all Satans mysterious actings whereby you cannot long continue in your forms and changeable wayes invented lies and slanders covered over with a profession whereby the Nation is deceiâ—ed which deceivers with him are for the bottomless pit But our safety and the safety of all Christians is to dwell in the light of Christ and his Spirit and so to withdraw from all disorderly walkers hypocrites lyers and slanderers who have not the Spirit are out of the light enemies to purity who are under the power of the man of sin fighting against God reproaching his Spirit denying his light under a pretence of exhorting the Lords people which is thy work exhorting them to returne to their former works I say what works would thou have them to return to who are yet in the world and never was out of it they make a bad returne who ever knew any thing of God and returne to thee and thy practice who art opposing the light reproaching the Spirit pleading for tythes and hirelings preists heaping up lies and slanders too many to be numbered for all which thou shalt answer as that in thy conscience shal witness against thee herein if thou it minde though the truth thou canst not touch for as the lyer and envious one is discovered so our tenents which are in the truth the light and Spirit which cannot lie shall prosper so behold thy Queries when thou writes againe learne to write rruth and prove thy slander before thou spread it and mind that which leads thee to doe as thou would be done unto and thou wilt see the lyers mouth stopt the slanderer and false accuser And now I shall send thee back the summe of thy queries and of that which thou opposest in these few words to which thou mayest returne an answer when thou hast learned to speak truth First whether is not the ministration of law and Gospel both by one Spirit and both for one end to wit to hold forth Christ And whether the ministration ingraven in stone be done away in the matter of it or in the letter of it or both or can it passe away as to any particular man or woman till it be fullfilled And whether is the law of the Spirit of life and the Covenant of grace within or without or where is it to be known by them that seeke it whether woe to the wicked be not a Gospel ministration is there any entrance into the Kingdome but through the woes and tribulation whether thee and thou declareing against tythes and hirelings was not the practice of Christ and the Apostles and is not that the Spirit of Satan that was and is offended at their practice now and then and is their language and practice an afâ—ront to Majestrates now more than then whether Christ in Spirit or the letter be the rule of Christians and guide in all things And can any thing be sufficient for a ground of faith but that Spirit which is infallible is the way of God new or old to the world doth Christ enlighten every man that comes into the world or no if not who is it that is not enlightned and what shall be his Condemnation or his guide and was that light John came to witness Iohn 1. 9. a naturall light or the light of Christ And was John an Idolater in preaching that light that through him all might beleive in it whether the Saints did quake and tremble as the Scripture speaks or some other thing whether any who have not the infallible Spirit can judge of any thing of God aright or hath any such any dispensation of the Spirit of truth is perfection a thing to be beleived and preached in the Gospel yea or no must not all religions whatsoever change or do worse who have not an infallible Spirit and foundation is fasting a sin under the Gospel if God so command Is the light of Christ legall bondage or doth it lead from the Spirit to be made perfect in the flesh or doth any other thing discover the mysterious actings of Satan but the infallible Spirit in the light of Christ Here being the summe of thy queries give thy answer in truth and plaineness thereto and thou may discover thy foundation more plaine to the simple that yet see thee not but who are in the light needs no farther discovery then what already is THE END