c. And so he goes on to manifest how Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists c. are all vailed with the same veile And therefore saith he what I say to one Sect I say to all ye shall speedily receive a totall rout Yee have gathered your selve together but ye shall be scattered yea yee shall be broken in pieces Ye all have built your outward house of externall discipline upon the sand and it must fall because it is not grounded upon the Rock Christ Ye have made your communion the ground of your union and that must fall because it is not the Lords but mans building And himselfe puts the question how he knew Presbytery Independency Anabaptisme and the rest of the Sects must down and answers if Abraham by faith did see the day of Christ coming in the flesh many years before he came why may not I saith he and others see the day of Christ coming in the spirit to destroy all fleshly forms some few years before it be finished And again saith he I have by faith seen all these opinions fall and have heard from many others that they have seen them fall also Therefore that which I have heard and seen declare I unto you that ye might have fellowship with the father and the son in the spirit for then saith he and not till then ye will give over saying as in effect ye do I am of Paul I am of Apollo Then ye will not so much cry up the forme but endeavour the power of godlinesse These with many more are his words as the Reader may see in his foresaid book Now therefore if it be true that all these formes are fleshly and are not built upon the Rock Christ but upon the sand are not the Lords but mens building and therefore must fall and be broken to pieces and scattered and speedily receive a totall rout And that he by faith hath seen it all fall and hath both heard and seen what he declared that is to say Christ Jesus coming in spirit to destroy them that people might have fellowship with the Father and the Son in the Spirit Then are Robert Purnell and you found directly in the steps and practice of your Fathers the Scribes and Pharisees who when Christ came in the flesh according to the Prophecies that went before said It was the Devil a blasphemer a friend to publicans and sinners c. For ye now that Christ in spirit in life and power is appeared mighty in dispensations glorious in revelation and very strong and powerfull in operation making great alterations changes and desolations in the earth and revealing himself from heaven breaking down and scattering what he hath not built nor gathered destroying and breaking in pieces those Forms and Sects of yours which he saith are fleshly not built by the Lord but men not upon the Rock but upon the sand and speedily receives a total rout c. I say since Christ is thus appeared against all those Forms that his people may have fellowship with the Father and the Son in the spirit and not cry up the Form but endeavour to know the power of godliness according to the very words himself hath said both Robert Purnel and you agree to call it the design of the Devil asking if I be not joined with all the Papists Atheists Ranters and ungodly rabble of the world in this one great design of the Devil to break in pieces the Churches of Christ And say hath it not been the attempt of one power after another to rent break and scatter the Congregations in England under the names of Independents Anabaptists Sectaries c And hath any party gone so far in this wicked practice as you c Nay say you was there ever any partie in England or the Nations adjacent that have offered the like violence to the Lord Jesus Christ his person in his Word in his Gospel his Ordinances his Saints his wayes c. as you and your partie have done c Notwithstanding it be the very thing and no other which he in his said Book saith By faith he saw Christ in spirit coming to perform a few years before it was finished which few years its like are now accomplished it being about eight years since the said Book was published so then that which Christ cometh in spirit to perform ye call the great design of the Devil and a wicked practice and those who with Christ in his work are joined bringing to pass his determinations ye say are joined with Papists Athiests Ranters and the ungodly rabble of the world But why do Robert Purnell you now call Independent â—nd baptized Assemblies the Churches of Christ when he had before declared them fleshly Forms and Sects not built by the Lord upon the rock but by men upon the sand and must fall and be broken and scattered and receive a total rout and that he saw Christ in spirit coming to destroy them that his people might have fellowship with the Father and the Son by the Spirit and that what he declared he had both heard and seen manifesting to all the world against your wills that that which ye call and cry up as the Churches of Christ and Assemblies of Zion are indeed but fleshly Forms and Sects not built by the Lord upon the Rock Christ but by themselves upon the sands which Christ comes in spirit to destroy and therefore must fall and be broken routed and scattered and that notwithstanding among your selves it is known and manifested to be so by a spirit of faith as R. P. sayes by which it was seen Yet ye hold the truth in unrighteousness and do erre from the spirit else might ye know that the Churches of Christ which are in God the Father are not fleshly Forms and Sects like yours but is a spiritual house an holy habitation for God by whom it is built upon the rock of ages the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Christ being the corner-stone against which all the gates of Hell and powers of darkness shall never prevail to break scatter destroy or cause to fall but as mount Zion shall it stand and a burthensom stone shall it be against all fleshly Forms and Sects that fight against it in this day of the Lords appearing in the power and glory of his spirit to break in pieces scatter and destroy all your fleshly Forms and Sects which he never built upon the Rock but your selves have built upon the sands and so are no Churches of Christ but the strong holds of Satan in which he having blinded their minds keeps his goods in peace and under pretence of beating up the form the power of godliness is there denyed and not known But the desires of the flesh and of the mind are there served equally as among other people and this I do see and know otherwise had I not declared it unto you And so into the pit that ye have digged are ye fallen and
humours of pride high-mindedness and giving heed to lying Spirits violent headiness in stead of well tempered zeal for God and godliness c. All which it's like ye speak from good experience and if ye had added much more of that kind to which ye are subject I know and bear testimonie that it is true But if by mystical bodie ye mean the Church of Christ of which he is head and hath washed from all her sins in his own blood and redeemed from all iniquitie and presents holy and unblamable without spot or wrinkle then do ye speak falsely and wickedly blaspeming the bodie of Christ which is holy in which dwell no lying spirits nor windie homours as ye call it of pride and high mindedness c much lesse is it subject to those things but is more than Conqueror over it and is subject onely to Christ who is the head where other Lords have not dominion but being made free by the Son of God is free indeed while such as you are subject to such distempers and wicked spirits and humours by which ye are overcome and in bondage and never came to witness redemption and freedom by the Son of God who gave himself for us as Paul saith that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people Now if Pauls words be true as indeed they are then is your mystical distempered surfeited windie humorous proud high minded feavorish bodie which gives heed to lying spirits no Church of Christ but an absolute Harlot And so have ye your selves manifested your own bodie as filthy as ever I declared it And so what wrong have I done ye ye say in my former book there is contained many things too low and beneath you to read peruse or answer thereby manifesting your Pride for his soul that is lifted up is not upright And the Harlot sits as a Queen and counts it beneath her to answer what is spoken to her in truth But I perceive ye are making good the title of your book covering your selves with such filthie stuff where ye cannot answer and yet he that reads and understands would think ye little regard what ye say or into what confusion ye run so ye can but think to hide your heads for notwithstanding ye said but now it was below and beneath a Christian much more a whole Church to read or answer my book yet presently ye say ye shall take the Lords Counsel and answer the Author Is it beneath and too low for you to read or answer and yet doth the Lord Counsel you to answer or doth the Lord Counsel you to answer what is beneath you to read Why should ye thus take the Lords name in vain to cover and hide your deceipt Know ye not that ye cannot be by him held guiltless But this is pitiful stuff to come from a whole Church as ye call your selves need enough ye have to seek a covering to hide your folly Ye say my Pamphlet is stuâ—t in the middle and both ends with many unsavoury and unchristian like expressions and speak of vain boastings absurdities and untruths but mention not the particulars nor make it appear and so I shall let it pass as one of your lying refuges Ye say how sadly is that Scripture Acts 20.30 fulfilled both on us and you c. I answer nay not on you who are far from the condition of the elders of the Church of Ephesus to whom Paul spake whom the holy Ghost had made overseers of the flock of God which he with his own blood had purchased and they did feed who were turned from the darkness to the light but I say this belongs not to you who love darkness and hate the light of which they were children and came to see with open face as in a glass the Lords glorie which condition is witnessed in measure by thousands at this day of those whom ye call miserable deluded people Neither is it fulfilled in me who do not speak perverse things to draw people from the truth which is the light but have declared the truth concerning you Ye say when ye had read the title of my book and considered the people included and intended by me ye could not but stand amazed c. I answer yea and well ye might and be ashamed and confounded that ever a people professing themselves the Church of Christ should be so notoriously found in the Harlots steps without so much as a shew of a true covering in which to hide themselves from the rebuke of what was spoken of them as in your book the Reader may perceive but are driven to so many lying refuges to vindicate your selves and all in vain for your covering is short Ye say Is it not an high degree of Luciferian pride for a poor Creature to set his foot upon the neck of all the assemblies and Churches of the Saints calling them the wâ—ore And then put your silly interpretations upon my words us some of you use to do upon the Scriptures and draw your mistaken meanings thereon and then tell me of Shimei's cursing David and of your resolutions c. To which I reply The assemblyes and Churches of Saints oh how lovely are they unto me because the living presence and power of God is there manifested In which I have chosen rather to be a door-keeper and to suffer reproach with the people of God which was Davids portion than to dwell with you in the ungodly Tent where Shimei that Curser is But the voice of the Lords thunders being heard in the earth and his lightenings gone forth and his just visitations come and coming upon the Harlot or great whore whose judgement is now come I doe according to my measure bear testimony against her your surfeited bodie though she call her self a Church and cover her self with scarlet as with a veil yet upon her neck do I tread and all her glorie do I despise and upon all her pride and Luciferian spirit do I trample for just and true is he that hath judged her And notwithstanding ye begin to wail and lament like them Rev. 18. whose merchandise was destroyed saying O how do the daughters of the Philistines rejoyce and the uncircumcised triumph will not every prophane person that seeth us go in the streets say Lo there goes one of the skirts of the whore one of the synagogue of Satan one of the cage of unclean birds c. And if we reprove them will they not say one of your selves have written and published it And then tell how your enemies will scourge you with the tongue and condemn you c. Reply If this be so and the Philistines and prophane persons in whose nature ye are and with whose spirit ye agree do thus behave themselves towards you yet know and see the Scriptures fulfilled and as ye have loved cursing reproaching or reviling so it is unto you and the measure which ye have meted is measured
and no fear of God is before your eyes And to you may I return your own words that I stand almost amazed to think unto what an height of impudence and wickedness ye are allreadie come and whether may not poor fallen creatures run if God stop them not since ye arâ—â—â—â—eady so hardened 〈◊〉 Simson saith Thirdly your extream censoriousnesse and rash judgiâ—â—â—…nely of men abroad but also of the Church Mat. 7.1 Rom. 14. 〈◊〉 the Church of Christ an Harlot And ye say Thirdly your extream â—…tiousnesse and rash judging not onely of persons abroad but also of the â—â—urch contrary to Mat. 7.1 Rom 14.3 also your calling the Church an Harlot leaving out the word Christ in which the strength of all did lie But why were these words left out being ye say ye inserted them verbatim the Reader may take notice that after I had received the copy from Robert Simson of what ye had charged upon me viz. rash judging and calling the Church of Christ an Harlot I replied the charge was false and from the father of lies for I never called the Church of Christ an Harlot but do own it dearly but the Harlot is an Harlot and not the Church of Christ and so demonstrated by the spirit that acted you that ye were not the Church of Christ but an Harlot from which ye not being able to vindicate your selves betake yourselves again to this refuge of lies and say ye insert the charge verbatim when ye did it not but left out the main thing therein contained without which your charge hath little weight for though I never called the Church of Christ an Harlot yet I have both said and proved that ye who call your selves a Church are an Harlot and not the Church of Christ and do again plainly say and declare it so and might farther prove it were it needful which it is not since my former proof stands good and not controlled by you nor you giving proof that ye are a Church of Christ And I do once more say and affirm that your charge is false and from the father of lies who was a liar from the beginning And your labour might be saved in using arguments to prove that I said ye were an Harlot and not a Church I had so plainly published it But here ye would perswade the Reader I came in with mental reservations and ask is it honestie or any thing but deceit and hypocrisie because I said I did not call the Church of Christ an harlot but the people in Bristol c. To which I say were ye not quite blind and full of deceit and subtiltie ye might easilie see and know that I spake plainly and truly without your mentals and other carnal stuff when I said and manifested that I dearly owned the Church of Christ which were all living stones c. and did clearly bear testimony against you that ye were not so but an Harlot and herein I appear both just and honest towards the Church of Christ and towards the Harlot in hearing testimony to the former and against the latter in which no deceit nor subtilty appears but just dealing and all your equivocations and mental reservations as ye call them together with your shamelesse unchristian-like practises in which ye appear one with the black spirit of Ralph Farmer is denied together with all lies and the father thereof but the Church of Christ is lovely c. Robert Simpson saith Fourthly your asserting in the Church principles contrary to Truth as first That faith is an eternal thing Secondly That Christ and saith is all one Thirdly That Christ Jesus is not the object of faith And ye say Fourthly Your asserting in the Churches doctrines contrary to truth as first that we did not know what faith was and that faith was an eternal thing Secondly That Christ and Faith is all one Thirdly That Christ is not the object of faith Fourthly Your speaking reproachfully of the blessed scripture affirming they were blind and a plaâ—â—â— to souls and further saying that they were not the word of God nor the rule of life and this ye say is verbatim and therefore must be examined And first I find that the copy saith principles contrary to truth and ye say doctrines contrary to truth and that 's not verbatim But I take notice that I having given true answers to each particular aforesaid contained in the copie and published it in The skirts of the Whore c. which stands in sound and wholsome words unanswered by you by which your shame appears of which being sensible ye labour to recover your vail to hide your falshood and having given heed to lying spirits ye again betake your selves to your wonted refuge and say having the copie by you ye publish it verbatim And say First That we did not know what faith was every word of which is forged and feigned and not in the copie delivered to me and therefore well might ye say whether may not a poor fallen people run if God stop them not And it is no wonder ye began your book pleading for the kingdom of the Devil saying that as in the natural body there may be many infirmities so the mystical body by which its like ye mean your selves who are not a spiritual bodie as the Church of Christ is may be subject to distempers and among many other things make mention of windy humors of pride and high mindedness and giving heed to lying spirits c. It s like ye had some sence what spirit ruled you to which ye intended to give heed and with what filth and falshood ye intended to fill your book and the lying refuge to which ye intended to betake your selves before ye drew such false conclusions in the beginning thereof But this is not all in the copie delivered to me in this fourth branch were inserted but three particulars which are before mentioned to which ye adde a fourth viz. your spâ—aking reproachfully of the blessed scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls and farther saying they were not the word of God and ru'e of life and this ye say is verbatim notwithstanding that which here ye make as a fourth particular in the fourth general is in the copie a fifth general including three Particulars and so do your selves afterwards reckon it notwithstanding in the wisdom of God ye are lest to ensnare your selves and manifest it to all the world saying it is verbatim when ye have left one of your five things mentioned but the line next before It s like the pangs of a traveling woman are upon you who have so long cryed peace and safety to your selves that the sword of the Lord is upon you and your eyes utterly darkened that ye cannot see But the blind have so long led the blind that ye are all fallen into the ditch and under pretence of recovering a veil have manifested your shame and published things which ye endevoured to perswade the
To which I say There was a time in which many false witnesses were brought against him who was the truth and the light but they agreed not And when by the truth ye are examined it will be found that ye also are far from agreeing in testimony for proving what your selves affirme if your own testimony were admitted in your own case which it is not Ye say ye will again affirme and set your hands to it that I spake those very words And what words are they Not the same in the charge which ye say is verbatim but is much otherwise and so the charge is fall'n and false as the Reader may see And who are they that will affirme and set their hands to it Are they the whole company or but a part If it be the whole then many or most of you will affirme and set your hands to that which themselves have confest they never heard If it be but a part and not the whole then that which yee have already said is altogether false and untrue and your testimony invalid For what is said is said by the whole or else those that signed it are in this as in other things abhominable lyars Again in what ye say ye will affirme and set your hands unto there appears much uncertainty for ye say I clapt my hand on the book or table but on which I perceive ye are ignorant And ye say I said that booke or Scripture Now if ye so well remember the manner of speech as ye say ye doe it is much ye cannot remember the matter But having before accused me for saying the Scriptures were a blinde to soules and a plague to the Land Now ye say It was the booke or Scriptures that I said was one of the greatest blindes and plagues to mens soules this day in England Manifesting your selves to be at a losse and in confusion not able to say whether it were the Book or the Scriptures or what it was for indeed it was neither And so the charge or accusation is quite fallen and by your selves brought to nought And why are these words viz. one of the greatest plagues c. in England now added being left out in the place where ye say ye did insert verbatim Is here no designed subtilty and deceipt Is all proved Are here no tittles nor syllables neglected in the proof Or is what ye have published like to be true or fit to be believed Let the Reader consider it But ye say some of you sitting over against me it's like at the Table do well remember c. But why had ye not told me who these some were that sate over against me and do remember it For I know but four that were wont to sit with me at the Table and with three of them have I spoken neither of which could to my face say or affirme they ever heard me speak such things and then the some is but one and that is an hireling too a Diviner a deceitful worker that daubeth with untempered morter and cries peace peace to that to which the Lord speaks no peace and his testimony is little worth for if ye say he sate over against me at the Table when I spake such words Jane Frye contradicts him who is the only person besides himself that ever I heard or could learn had the shamelesse confidence to say she heard me speak these things with whom I had conference in the presence of other witnesse and demanded where it was spoke she replyed in mine owne house at a meeting I cold her it was much many others heard it not as well as she To which she replyed it was after the meeting was done and I was risen from the Table and stood out in the roome and there clapt my hand on the Booke and spake as before And that her selfe with her sister Hassard and her sister Anne Davis went out into the streets and bewailed it which I knowing not to be true sent to Anne Davis to enquire the truth of it by a relation of hers who answered that she never heard me speak such words nor any thing like it So that it is evident false witnesse do not agree for ye say some of you sitting over against me which must needs be at the Table upon which or upon the book ye say I clapt my hand when I spake But she saith it was after the meeting was done and I was gone from the Table in which is no agreement She said Anne Davis with her selfe and another went into the streets and bewailed it but Anne Davis denies that ever she heard it She said standing out in the room I clapt my hand upon the booke and said the Scriptures were a plague c. But ye say I clapt my hand upon the book or table and said the book or Scriptures were blinde and a plague but cannot agree whether it was a Book or a Table a book or Scripture And so are all in confusion being led by a lying spirit and able by agreement to prove nothing Besides ye say the book or Scriptures but in the copy delivered to me it was said the Scriptures of truth in which is no agreement Besides all this one of you being asked if ever he heard me speak those words answered that hee heard me speak to this effect That the Scriptures as men goe to worke with it making it a pattern of all manner of vice and wickednesse was one of the greatest plagues c. And being demanded then why ye had not laid the charge in the very words that were spoken he was silent as to that and said he had already purchased jealousie from some in the Church as one that was in danger c. And this I have under the hand of him to whom it was spoken Now let all to whom true judgement is known judge what differing testimonie here is and how like it appears to that of old in which no agreement could be against the innocent And how desperately-wicked ye appear under a cloak of Religion accusing for something but cannot manifest for what but in it contradict your selves And in some things Jane Frye is nearer the matter than the other 59. or thereabouts who false witnesses are found because after a meeting was ended in which Thomas Ewins had been speaking about that Idol called Divinity and the people mostly gone and I rose from the Table and standing neer the middle of the room did there say and declare that that accursed thing called the body of Divinity was a plague to the land or words to that effect of which I told you before though ye wickedly shut your eyes and not observed it because it was the truth And were it not so it had been one with that spirit to which ye have taken heed But suppose credit vvere to be given to such a generation vvho in testimony do not agree but are proved as before c. yet to the Reader vvould I say vvhat
probability of truth can be in vvhat they say I affirmed viz. That the Scriptures of truth were one of the greatest blindes and plagues to mens soules this day in England as if truth could be a blinde and a plague to soules vvhen it is a lying spirit is so to yours And notvvithstanding I never made a trade of the Scriptures nor preach't for hire nor divined for money as others do nor ever coveted any mans gold or silver or apparel amongst you nor accepted thereof vvhen by some I was earnestly prest thereunto but on the contrary have administred something largely of these things amongst you Yet from the Scriptures did I daily discourse as opportunity I had and by it have convinced many amongst you of your pride formality and other evils so that once ye were very much awakened and brought to some sense of your condition after ye had been too much taken with the doctrine of some called Notionists which it may be is the same ye now call Ranters whose principles and doctrines by the Scriptures I did withstand and oppose and with much labour and sore wrestlings was I instrumental to deliver you out of their mouths to whom many of you were become a prey I say much awakened ye were and the spirit which convinceth of sin began to work until another Ministry of unrighteousness came which for the wages of iniquity taught you to erre and when ye were convinced of sin and troubled within and saw your filth and wickedness appear by which your peace was broken and your consciences awakened and true judgement took hold on the transgressor prest you to believe lyes and shut out that which troubled and said it was temptations of the Devil and that your sin was done away and that God saw it not that it was all pardoned daubing with untempered morter crying peace peace to that to which no peace is spoken from God by which your bonds were made strong and the hands of evil doers strengthened that they turned not nor repented which wicked doctrine of the Devil by the Scripture I opposed and withstood perswading you to the last not to build on the sand but come down to the rock and told you your peace was but security which the Devil 's goods may attain and that all your assurance in which ye gloried was but vain confidence which in the time of tryal would deceive you and so far did I dispute it with you dailie by the Scripture that Thomas Ewins your publique Preacher told me I dasht his comforts and weakened his hands so that he was not able to preach but when into the Pulpit he was to go fear and trembling sometimes took hold upon him so that if necessity had not been upon him to speak the people being assembled he should not have spoken a word and told me of retiring to his former Calling and leaving the City with much more Others who loved to have smooth things spoken that they might be at ease in Zion who put far away the evil day complained as he said that all the comforts and joy they received and gathered from his Ministry all the day was dasht and broken by me in the evening Others complaining at last confest I led you safely though not comfortably and all was because the Devils Kingdom was disturbed and his goods not suffered to be at peace and in your consciences do you know that by the Scriptures I demonstrated what I said to which I was as true as any amongst you whatsoever And if in this ye shall say I boast remember it s you that have compelled me and if ye have a mind to gain-say or contradict any particular of it do it honestly plainly and down-rightly not coverty and deceitfullie as ye have done before that when I come to reply I may have something like as from men to speak unto and not as from a company of foolish tost children For although to this was I was at first averse yet by the power and presence of the living God shall I be free and able to quench your thorns scatter your deceit and remove your veil and discover the Harlots skirts But friends suppose all ye say were granted and that I had indeed whilst I was amongst you entertained and asserted many principles contrary to truth and said that the Scriptures of truth were a blinde to souls and one of the greatest plagues of the land which I have and utterly do deny And suppose it were granted an error and a very great sin so to say and affirm yet was not all this done in your meeting whilst I was one and amongst you and not then reproved nor gain sayed And was it not then time for all that feared the Lord and loved the truth to depart out of such an Assembly in which such things are permitted to be entertained and published without rebuke Was there any safety in being one with such an Harlot though she call her self a Church And are not these things spots whilst the true Church of Christ which is his glorious body is without spot or wrinckle Surely little cause have any who know the truth and love and believe in the light to be grieved or sad'ned that any be drawn from such an Assembly and happy for me was the day in which the light manifested you and from amongst you separated me to another people where no such principles are entertained nor permitted to be vented And for mine own part I do freely declare to all the world that since by the power of the good shepherd I was gathered from amongst you I am fan from entertaining or uttering any such things but do dearly own the Scriptures of truth as given by inspiration and see them of great use and service And if I received and entertained such principles contrary to truth amongst you with you I also left them to whom the Scripture is of little use more then to talk of and trade with for an advantage and by wresting and corrupting the same make use of it as a veil to cover your deceipt and filthiness but the life thereof do not witness But I have not yet done with your testimony in pag. 13. where ye say ye insert your admonition verbatim Ye charge me with asserting in the Church doctrines contrary to truth one of which is that the Scriptures are not the Word of God and every tittle of this ye say ye have proved notwithstanding ye have not proved any thing of it to be true but only ask if I did not at a meeting at the Red-lodge in the Garden-house before near twenty people say so one of you being by c. Truly the Harlots fore-head is very hard if at this she do not blush What! Lay a general charge and say ye will prove and have proved every tittle and yet can say nothing but ask me if it were not so And in pag 12. 13. ye lay this thing to be asserted in the Church
the knowledge ye had of Christ shall profit you nothing and that your habitation was in deceipt and thorough deceit ye refuse to know the Lord c. Ye say in this thing ye did not violently oppose and then its like ye confess it as knowing it was the truth and why then had ye not repented Ye say some of you did often tell me that your comforts stood not so much in a knowing as in an acknowledgement of Christ to be that which he is said to be in the Scriptures and that ye own no other knowing of Christ then understandingly to know him in his person without you c. which is the sum of most of the 19. page And so have declared and clearly manifested the ground and foundation of all your Religion comforts joy and peace to be one and the same with the foundation of the Religion of the Pope Jesuits drunkards swearers prophane ignorant and superstitious people of the world namely an acknowledgement of Christ without you to be that which he is said to be in the Scriptures And so the devils in this particular excel you who did not only acknowledge him but knew him who he was Jesus the Son of God And concerning the Ministers of Christ which those of your literal profession opposed and persecuted cryed out these are the servants of the most high God But the comfort joy and peace of the children of light stands not in your ground of general acknowledgement of Christ without them to be what the Scriptures declare him to be but in a particular knowledge of him as by the spirit of holiness he is revealed within them whereby they come to witness him the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead and so Paul knew him and so to know him was and is eternal life and witnessed so to be by those to whom he is so revealed But this is a mysterie hid and unknown to all that lie in the death and never come to witness the first resurrection but declare the ground of their comforts to stand in that in which the wicked of the world with them are one And this is not to slight and nullifie that glorious person in heaven as ye falselie say many of our way do scoffing and jeering at you for speaking of the person of Christ and thinking to be saved by the blood of him that dyed at Jerusalem which is but your false accusations and slanders and proceeds from the same fountain and spirit of envy and wickedness as Ralph Farmers bundles of lies did in which he and ye are one and at an agreement for scoffing and jeering lying and false accusing being the works of darkness in which your generation are exercised is denyed by all that vvalk in the light vvhich is our vvay and the vvay everlasting But to declare against your follie and your thinkings to be saved by the acknovvledging of Christ vvithout ye whilst of him and his life ye are ignorant living in wickedness lying hypocrisie and deceipt hating the light and erring from the right way is no error but love to your souls who pretend honour to the person but hate the light of Christ and know not his Gospel which is the power of God nor his way which is everlasting and lives nor his Ordinances which are living spiritual and true not traditional invented and carnal The consideration of which together with the lying spirits to which ye give heed might justly cause you to mind whether ye are not those that stumble at Christ the corner stone and do cause others to stumble at him who is now come and witnessed in life power and spirit and living demonstrations thereof are given and manifested in thousands who by experience have known and felt the dove-like spirit of Christ of which ye speak though both to you and others who live in envie murthering the just and betraying the innocent pretending honour to the name but hating the light and persecuting the power of Christ This is hid and ye say ye will not believe it And if those that owned and seem to honour the Scripture in which Moses wrote of Christ did not believe but crucified him when in flesh he was made manifest no marvel then if ye do not believe who call the verie words of Scripture in which to you I spake page 21. of my former book strange and unchristian expressions surelie ye are strangelie erred from the way of truth and true wisdom who live in such confusion and deceit one while calling the Scriptures the Word of God and rule of life when by wresting it ye can serve your lusts but when by it ye are reproved for your wickedness then ye call it strange and unchristian expressions and say The Lord rebuke your railing as if the Scripture which ye term the Word of God and Rule of life were railing and the Prophets and holy men of God which gave it forth were railers because it bears true testimonie against your wicked wayes as well as others for the words I mentioned are recorded Isa 57. 4. Psal 2.1 2 c. and in some other Scriptures as the Reader will perceive that reads my former Book But ye say its easie to heap up good words right or wrong Alas poor blind people by what blind guides are ye led Is it strange and unchristian expressions and yet good vvords Are they good vvords and yet vvrong What exceeding confusion are the children of darknesse brought into in this day of the Lords povver in vvhich light is risen out of obscuritie and the Lords glory appeared c. In pag. 21. Ye say Though some of our way have shouted and cryed Hosannah holy holy King of Israel to James Nayler c. To which I reply When will ye be weary of lying and false accusing which is the work of the Devill for none of our way ever so cried to any man But that which is our way is the truth and the life and is everlasting the light and life of men from which whosoever turns aside forsakes the right way and turns to lying vanities as some in this day of the Lords visitation have done who must bear their burthen But ye are easily seen of what generation ye are who watch for an occasion to speak evill of the way of Truth and the Saints and Children of light who in the fear of the Lord do walk and in his Councell abide which to you is not known who are glad with an advantage by any means to speak evill of the way of Truth and the people who being gathered into it are for its sake become strangers in the earth and to their familiar friends and aliens to their mothers sons as all their fathers were But in this again are ye and Ralph Farmer one and by one and the same spirit are ye guided to whom it is known that those that cried as aforesaid are not of our way but denied and witnessed against before
in the works of your own hands are ye snared and not I but ye are found joined with the ungodly rabble ye mention in the great design of the Devil opposing the truth blaspheming and offering violence to the Lord Jesus Christ and well may I return your vain words into your bosoms and say Ah pour deceived people what gross darkness hath now seized upon your minds Where are your eyes and may add what blind guide hath misled and bewitcht you thâ—â— ye should be crying out against me for that in which I am innocent and your selves so notoriously found to practice And this from amongst your selves and out of Robert Purnels mouth are ye judged But if what Robert Purnel hath said be not true but a lying spirit hath led him and that by faith he did not see Christ in spirit coming to destroy the fleshly Forms of Independency Anabaptism and other Sects there mentioned and so declared a false vision which he neither heard nor saw notwithstanding he saith he had heard and seen it Then is Robert Purnel a lyar a false Prophet a deceiver that causeth the people to erre by his lies and by his lightness and his faith by which he saw is vain and he to the true faith found reprobate and the reward of a false Prophet must he receive that hath seen vain visions and spoken lying divinations Ezek. 13.8 9. Because ye have spoken â—â—nity and seen lye therefore behold I am against you saith the Lord God and mine hand shall be upon the Prophets that see vanity and divine lyes they shall not be in the Assembly of my people neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel And his Cabinet richly stored in which he proclaims a remedy for every malady and a ready way to attain salvation as is said its like is filled with deceit and all kind of venemous filthy stuff such as comes out of the mouth of the false Prophet the dreamer that speaks a vision of his ovvn heart and not from the mouth of the Lord and therefore eâ—res in vision and stumbles in judgement vvhich vvhosoever believes and follovvs is like to find the ready vvay to destruction and not to salvation of vvhich let all people bevvare and since you proclaim your selves an Assembly of the Lords people and boast of your obedience to all his Commandements and Ordinances vvritten as you say in his Word and that your feet hath held its steps and not gone back from the Lord nor declined the Commandments of his mouth and tell of your readiness to deal vvith them that are evil c. You are charged every particular of you to look to it and approve your selves faithful and obedient to vvhat is vvritten and as you intend to ansvver before the Lord Dâ—cline not the Commandements of his mouth vvho hath said Woe to the foolish Prophets that follow their own spirits they have seen vanity and lying divinations saying the Lord saith and the Lord hath not sent them c. Because ye have spoken vanity and seen lyes therefore behold I am against you saith the Lord God and my hand shall be against the Prophets that see vanity and devine lyes they shall not be in the Assemblies of my people neither shall they be written in the writings of the house of Israel Ezek. 13. Novv if Robert Purnels Prophesie aforesaid be not true but a lying divination and a vain vision then is he by an express Commandment of the Lord not to be in the assemblies of the Lords people and therefore look to it be not deceitful nor false in what your selves have published for in it you will be observed and your obedience and faithfulness to what you say is your Rule will be tryed and if you are found false and treacherous your iniquity will be marked for you have made your selves publick and must be manifested and remember you are warned of it in time and Robert Purnel is advised to consider it and repent throughly if place for repentance to the false Prophet may be found and with shame and confusion let him manifest the same owning his just condemnation for so horrible a transgression But if his said Prophesie be true and Independency and Anabaptism so called together with other things there mentioned be but fleshly Forms and Sects not built by the Lord but by men not upon the Rock but upon the sand and that Christ is come and coming in spirit to destroy it and therefore must fall and be broken as he declares then let both Robert Purnel and every one of you look to it and repent in time of your horrible wickedness in blaspheming the work of Christ which he in spirit is come to perform in this his mighty day calling it the great design of the devil c. otherwise the just judgements of our God whom we serve who is the Creator of the ends of the earth ye cannot escape who is near to be revealed from heaven in power and great glory taking vengeance of all blasphemers and disobedient ones and will render tribulation and anguish upon every soul that doth evil and in this am I seriously under fence of your condition and therefore do warn you of these things whether you will hear or forbear and as for any other false Prophets and Deviners amongst you to whom the mysteries of Gods Kingdom which to the Saints is given to know is not revealed nor opened and so have seen nothing but vanity and lying devinations revealed The Lord hath said he is against them and they shall not be in the Assemblies of his people and it concerns you to take notice of it least you manifest your selves to be those that flatter with your mouths and lye with your tongues when your hearts are not right with God nor you stedfast in his Covenant And your own words ye may take to your selves O stand still smite upon your thighs and blush for shame at what ye have done for though man Harlots have played the harlot yet thou excellest them all who upon a lofty and high mountain hast set thy bed and speakest loftily and that it is beneath thee to answer many things contained in the skirts of the Whore fulfilling the Scriptures Pro. 30.19 There is a generation oh how lofty are their eyes c But the day of the Lord is dawned in which the eyes of the lofty must be humbled and your lofty looks abased Yea the day of the Lord of hosts is upon every one that is proud and lofty and by him who shall be alone exalted in this his day shall all those be brought down that dwell on high and by the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy is he treading down the lofty Citie to the ground And with you have I no kindred part nor inheritance who inherit lies and falshood and with it would be veiled But a witness against both it and you I stand and the harlots
nakedness must I discover and her advice to the contrary is rejected because it is her portion from the Lord and by her to have my name cast out as evil for the Son of mans sake is a blessing at which I may rejoyce and leap for joy And whereas ye wish me to take notice that ye desire your three Messengers to answer for themselves that their faithfulnesse may appeare c. This is a piece of deceipt like the rest for Robert Purnell Robert Simpson and Richard Moon who were the three Messengers to desire themselves to answer and presently put their hands to their own desires with three more two of which were never of the people with which I walked and the other long since removed his habitation near thirty miles distant But however being by themselves desired because they had none else to desire it of them they like themselves begin to answer and after many vain and idle words they say they received their commission from God to this worke and met together and considered the particulars of which they were to admonish their backslidden Brethren and Sisters Reply Here they blaspheme the holy and dreadful name of God by entituling it to their lies and slanders who never gave commission to false Prophets lyars and slanderers to admonish any of his but reproved such saying They run and I sent them not therefore they shall not profit the people And so it is with you But from what did your brethren and sisters as ye call them backslide more than from your deceitfull wayes and practices which to God are abhominable If ye say it is from your outward fellowships wayes and worships Then the Parshes from which ye have separated your selves have the same thing to admonish you of And ye justifie those filthy polluted Priests who cast out the names or persons of some from amongst them â—â—t John â—â—l guilty of 〈◊〉 because they separated themselves from their polluted worships Besides one of the three said by faith he saw the downfall of all these Sects and Forms and that it was not of Gods building and that he saw Christ coming in spirit to destroy it And then how is it that ye are not ashamed to say that to get out of that which God never built is backsliding And that God gave you a commission to admonish any for departing out of that vvhich Christ in spirit came to destroy But your God vvho is the God of the vvorld that gave you such a commission and put you upon those vvorks of vvickednesse is denied together vvith your selves vvho his Commissioners are vvith all your pretended admonitions inventions and deceitfull stuffe vvhich to the children of light are manifest and seen to be as light as vanitie They say They knew much themselves and what they knew not they were fully satisfied by the mouths of many faithfull and true witnesses Reply Where were they found in many particulars sithence ye are already proved an unfaithfull company of lyars and deceitful workers They say In the name of the Lord and in obedience to his command and in a filial feare to God love and pity to our souls they did admonish c. Reply Did they know the name of the Lord which is dreadfull to all deceivers false prophets and hypocrites they would not dare to name it whiles they live in iniquity but out of his name are ye all shut and have no portion in that which is a strong tower to which the righteous run and are saved Who for your rebellion and disobedience against his name who live out of his feare which is the light of the world are by the light judged and condemned who in your vaine mindes talk of love and pirty to soules but never came to witnesse the living soul nor the quickning spirit where the true love and pity comes to be witnessed But did your three Messengers in the name and in the fear and in obedience to the Lord admonish How then came it to passe that they came to a near relation of mine and told her in the name of the Lord c they were sent to admonish her also of something as sin To which she replyed to Robert Simpson that spake Hast not thou something in thee that tells thee thou dost lye in the name of the Lord For what sin do I live in which thou knowest To which he said Dear sister I doe not say in practice but in judgement To which she replying What is my judgement Canst thou tell He appeared confounded and said Doe not you heare those men meaning those called Quakers Now is not here deceit and wickednesse to pretend to admonish people in the name fear and obedience of God and at last know not for what but aske if she did not hear those men which Robert Simpson himself had often done it's like more often than she at that time Now have ye not read that God is not mocked but what ye sowe the same yee must reape Why then doe yee thus to the flesh sowe corruption falshood lying and deceit and make mention of the name of the Lord as your covering To what they said to me in particular I need not say much because what I said before stands unanswered and in power over your heads only they say the things they charged me withal are true every syllable as appears by the foregoing answer of the whole Church which is false and those they call the Church proved lyars And whereas they say they did not feare me neither did their consciences accuse them In this they presently gave themselves the lie and say the reason they staid not was because they found my spirit the time before as a boyling fornace boyling over and scalding all that stand near it which made them resolve not to stay the second time Now what deceit and wickednesse is here Who can believe a word that comes from amongst you who are out of the feare of God and therefore regard not what ye say For I having charged them in my last that they fled as men surprized with feare or accused by their own consciences They deny it and say it is false and that they neither feared me nor were accused c. And yet in 6. or 8 lines have fully granted what I said saying the reason they staid not was because they found my sprrit as a boyling fornace boyling over and scalding c. Now is it not evident they feared lest they should be scalded and what was there that scalded but the witnesse of God within themselves Poor men I knew they were wounded tormented and scalded by the witness of God in their own consciences testifying against their hypocrisie and deceit so that they could not stand nor abide it for the day of the Lord is now great and who may abide it for it is like refiners fire yea it burns as an oven and all that doe wickedly are as stubble and not onely scalded but burned
vindicate or cover himself from what was truly laid upon him yet from it hath he not delivered himselfe but the charge stands good in sound and sober words in the power of truth and whiles he covereth his sin be cannot prosper And whiles he addeth one iniquity to another he cannot come into Gods righteousnesse And oh that he would consider it and lay it to heart whiles he hath time that in the day of the Lords anger which is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty shall come he might be hid and find mercy of the Lord with whom his vain speaking of a witnesse he hath in heaven brought from thence into his heart and confirmed by the Spirit of Truth and of his being taken up into the Mount to confer with him who hath all power given him and of a Warrant sealed and given forth from him that hath al power c. is of little accompt whiles he understands not what he speaks For the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation but the kingdome of God is within and in his Kingdom he is who dwells in heaven where the Father the Word and Spirit agree of which all blind Pharisaical Professors are ignorant and cannot know it till in the light and by the spirit it be revealed and made manifest And whereas he saith All that he with the rest laid at my door was to a tittle true and that neither he nor his brethren have any reluctance for it This is all fals for I have before proved it lies and deceit and themselves have confest they found that which boiled like a furnace and scalded all that stand near it and they were near it and so resolved not to stay another time And judgement is now laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet and all refuges of lies and deceit are to be swept away and by truth and soberness such hiding places are overflown and in soberness do I stand and so much to my self am I come that I see many of his words there mentioned to veil and cover himself to be light and vain and not worth answering and that what I writ was both sober and true without fawning and flattery in which many among you are too much exercised who love to have smooth not true things spoken and would have me peaceable gentle and full of mercy to hypocrisie deceit and wickedness all which is for judgement and no peace from God is spoken to it And therefore without partiality do I declare against it in him and you as well as in others and to my self am I not a stranger And this is pure wisdom from above and moderation known unto all that receive and believe in the light by which that spirit appearing in my former book is justified though to you that hate the light and by the light are condemned it is as gall and worm-word And for sporting my self and insulting over him I did it not but it is another refuge of lies for I told him before I did not insult over him nor delight in his wo and misery but was sorely grieved as still I am to see how the wicked one whom the Lord would destroy was exalted in him and you and what I writ is true And whereas he saith I was not a in a sober mind but at a distance from it and true speaking when I mentioned to him the portion of lyars and that not any thing he said was a lie but what he said I had not his hand to as his particular affirmation and so goes on speaking many words but to what purpose I cannot see except it be by words to darken the Readers understanding But if I mistake not that which he would do is to vindicate himself from being a lyar with what else I charged upon him in my former Letter by telling me he said I had not his hand to it as his particular accusation And if this be his meaning then is it gross deceit for I never said or thought it was his particular accusation but a general accusation delivered by him in which himself and each other particular was included and so I spake to him in soberness and pitty my very howels moving towards him knowing my self innocent and that it was a dreadful thing for him in the Name or the Lord to speak a false vision or thing I asked him how he durst come to me and in the name of the Lord tell me I said the Scriptures of truth were one of the greatest plagues of the land when I never spake nor thought such a thing To which he replyed he never spake it nor laid it to my charge though out of his own mouth it came and when I told him I had it under his hand he denyed it When I told him I could shew it him he replied if I could he would acknowledge himself a lyar upon which ground I charged him for it as before and so I do still and good were it for him if he owned the judgement and repented for otherwise he cannot escape But if he forgeting that his hand was to his paper did run himself into the evil of denying it as is before exprest yet if when he came to the sight of his error he had clearly acknowledged it and owned his condemnation and repented to which in love he was advised there had been mercy for him but being convinced and reproved of the evil hardened his neck and labours to hide and cover his sin adding one iniquity unto another here he cannot prosper but brings himself justly under not onely the judgement and condemnation mentioned in my former Letter but more and more misery due to those that rebel against the light by which they are reproved and to those that add iniquity unto iniquity and must not come into Gods righteousness And from it all the waters in Jordan can never wash him not the Rocks and Mountains cover him nor all your outward observations imaginations and will-worships preserve him till he own the light by which he is convinced and reproved and the just condemnation thereof pass upon the rebellious and the transgressor which hath sinned and he brought to repentance and the acknowledgement of the truth and so his soul come to be saved in this mighty day of the Lords power And this is not from a violent heat of wild-fire as he calls it but from a spirit of soberness soundness and truth and is true love to his soul and the time is near in which he that rebuketh plainly shall find more favour then he that flattereth with his lips and my end is not to make him a transgressor before all as he supposeth but according to my measure to advise him into the way the light the life and the truth which leadeth out of transgression into the inheritance of the Saints in light and in this I do not equivocate nor evade as he falsely chargeth me but do speak plainly and truly though at
witnesse as within the Kingdom of God is within the light which gives the knowledge of the glory of God shines within even in the heart 1 Joh. 2.27 1 Joh. 5.10 1. Cor. 4.6 Christ is within God is within who dwells and walks in them whose bodies are his Temples yet this blinde ignorant and unlearned man is not ashamed to publish that he is no preacher of that Gospil viz. the light within but declares it pernitious doctrine and that he never read or heard that any of the Prophets Apostles or holy men of God did preach such a Gospel c. And for his speaking of Sarah Latchet asking how I can stile her a Servant of Jesus who is an Apostate and an excommunicated person going on in such rayling and calling him a deceiver Another time saying the prayers of the wicked are an abhomination to the Lord. And another time let fly at him with a multitude of rayling and reviling terms such as he saith they use to give to the Ministers of the Nation c. To this I say In that she did bear true Testimony against him I own it as a service in the Truth and her being excommunicated as he cals it by those who deny the true light proves nothing to the contrary nor her calling him deceiver or saying the prayers of the wicked are abhomination to the Lord for so are their services and sacrifices and to deny and bear Testimony against it is no Apostacy upon a true account and to be hated and separated by such from their company and by them to be reproached and to have ones name cast out as evil for the Son of mans sake who is the light of the World is a blessed thing rejoyce ye in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets Luke 6.22 23. and his word excommunication is turned back into his bundle of Popish or Heathenish ignorance as that which was never used by the Ministers of Christ And if Sarah Latchet be excommunicated as he calls it then it s like those that did it are ashamed of their work for she knew it not but saith he she let flie at me with such railing termes as they use to give the Ministers of the Nation To which I say why should not he be testified against as well as they being at least in many things found in their steps and practices But for reviling speeches let him look at home He saith she called him Deceiver and said the prayers of the wicked were abhomination to the Lord and this by him is termed rayling and reviling though it be according to the Scriptures which proceeded from those that spake as they were moved of the holy Ghost But he in his answer to Ralph Farmer saith the in-let and out-let the fore-door and back-door of much of Englands misery and consequently of Bristols is an ignorant ungodly lazie proud scandalous soule-murthering Ministry who have made themselves contemptible and base in the eyes of all good men and in the consciences of many bad Now if this be so the Quakers as he calls them did not all the mischief in Bristoll as he falsly saith they did for now he saith the in-let and out-let the fore-door and back-door of much of the misery of England and Bristol is an ignorant ungodly lazie proud scandalous soule-murthering Ministry And so hath he proved himselfe a lyar and a false accuser which the Ministers of Christ were not But who is the rayler and reviler now They that bear true testimony against him and his generation according to Scripture or Thomas Ewins in speaking his own corrupted words out of his polluted and unsanctified fountain who by his own confession questions whether ever he had received the Spirit to purge and purifie cleanse and sanctifie believers and make them holy But if it be so that the misery of England and Bristoll is such a Ministry as he hath before exprest and which he terms the Ministry of the Nation ought they not to be testified against and he also so far as he is found in their condition And may it not well be said that it is the great misery of many poor souls in Bristoll that such ignorant and blinde guides as ye are are followed which is the in-let and out-let the fore-door and back door of so much confusion as is at this day amongst you one bearing with the other in your darknesse and in your streight and large principles till ye become all quite blinde and stark drunk in your imaginations reeling and staggering so that many poor people are even at their wits end and have followed you so long till their soules are even famished and they fallen into misery But glory to the Lord God of life who hath caused light to shine out of darknesse and out of obscurity by which the deceitfull veiles and coverings of the soul-murthering Ministry are made manifest And were those savoury words for Thomas Ewins to say It were fitter such an idle huswife were whipt and sent to Bridewell to worke then to goe about rayling at people as she did Let shame cover his face for ever when he looks back on his own words which are so well like the words and deeds of the Ministers of the Nation which himselfe calls the soul-murthering Ministry that he which reads may easily perceive them to agree and that one and the same spirit leads and guides them all And did not Thomas Ewins let flye at her in envy when he spake such words and hath thus confest it to his shame among those that are not willing to joyn hand with the wicked and to take part with evill doers And for his saying that she cursed and rayled that is but the invented refuge of his lying spirit for the words he sets down as hers are no such things And for his charging her to be idle that is from the same root of lying she having been known to be diligent in an honest employment and lives not by others labours as do the soul-murthering Ministers as he calls them who preach for hire and divine for money and against those that put not into their mouths they prepare war And take liberty to themselves from their high places to reproach revile slander and belye them that feare the Lord and are obedient to Christ the light of the world But if any who feel the burthen of the word of the Lord and witnesse it as a fire in their bones and being weary of holding it in are made to pour it out against the soul-murthering Ministry c. For this they must to the whip to prison to Bridewell c. And in this Thomas Ewins is discovered And for his saying ô be ashamed and confounded poor deceived man because I said she testified from the Lord I say his own words are turned upon his own head and to bear witnesse in truth against his
for religious meetings which they called Conventicles and for opening shops upon Popish Holy-dayes which themselves popishly idolized and suffered Ryots Tumults and Insurrections to be made upon the people who then were up stirred to bear testimony against those abhominations And how wickedly fierce and cruell they were in the time of the late Wars persecuting imprisoning and destroying the lives liberties and estates or those called flound-heads contriving and imposing pernicious oaths upon the people to ensnare the innocent as by their own Record it may appear which if any through tendernesse refused how crully they were persecuted and tormented is not easily forgotten And although for a season the people of God were delivered from the jawes of the oppressorâ— and the oppressed ruled over them yet since by the change of times wickednesse is exalted and opportunity is administred for the oppressors to appear how soon and how zealously are they acting as before against an innocent people who feare the Lord and in obedience to him cannot how to their wills and lusts but as they are moved of the Lord do declare his Counsell and assured judgements against false worships and worshippers and other abhominations bearing true testimony for the name of the Lord against it â—â—ld the world that the works thereof are evill yet how cruelly they have for this persecuted them under the name of Quakers as formerly they did under the name of Round-heads Puritans and Sectaries is not forgotten nor the numbers that have been imprisoned to satisfie their wills and lusts when no lavv of the Nation vvas broken nay nor the shedding the righteous blood of severall of them by cruel whippings in their Prison houses c. like the enemies of God in former ages Who eate up the Lords people as bread and accounted them as sheep for the slaughter And whose Minister then is he like to be who by such a generation is sent to preach a Gospel And whose servant is he like to prove that glories in his Call by such a people And where is his rule or example for this except in Balaam the false Prophet and Diviner vvho erring from the Spirit by vvhich he savv the goodly Tents of Jacob and blessed Israel being sent for by the Rulers of Moab the enemy of God for the love of promotion the revvard of divination and the vvages of iniquiry out of severall high places endeavoured to curse the people vvhom God had blessed And vvhereas he declares his consenting to and helping on the accusations vvhich he cals admonitions sent to me and others I say Alas poor man hovv vvilling is Diotrephes to have prâ—-eminence and therefore meddles in things in vvhich he is not concerned prating against us vvith malicious vvords not receiving the Saints but forbidding them that vvould And according to your ovvn principles vvhat hath he to do in consenting to or helping on admonitions in the Independent Church so called in Bristoll vvho is himself an Anabaptist and a member as he saith of another Church in London and vvas never admitted a member by those of Bristoll onely by them vvas sent for to preach for hire And by the Mayor some Aldermen Councellors Gentlemen and Commissioners as he calls them had the revvard of Divination promised vvhich as I remember vvas a 100 l. or 120 l. a year vvith promotion to the honour of a publique Lecture so called in the middle of the City But I say what hath this man to do being a meer hireling and never admitted nor received a member to trouble himself in helping on accusations against â—hose who have denyed him and never approved his carnall observations nor large principles only like Balaam his elder brother being sent for as aforesaid hath a minde to comply with the Rulers of Moab in cursing those whom God hath altogether blessed And blessed shall they be of the Lord whose living presence they know and feel in the midst of them And neither the Rulers of Moab nor all the false Prophets in Bristoll nor England shall be able to reverse it and this may you all know in the day wherein ye will desive to ayâ— the death of the righteous and that your latter end may be like thens And whereas he tells of many who can say the Lord is with his Ministry comforting refreshings and quickning their souls c. I say the blinde may lead the blinde till they all fall into the ditch But how can it be that the Lord is with his Ministry who himself is no Minister as he hath confest And how can there be comforting and refreshing administred from him who hath not received the Spirit to comfort and chear drooping souls and fill them with refreshment as he gives it under his hand But this I say I knew many poor souls who before he came had some sensibleness of their conditions moving in them by which they began to be awakened out of that security and deceit in which they had been aâ— ease who after they had suckt in and embraced his deceit he dawbing them with untempered motter strengthning the hands of evill doers by promising them peace healing the hurt of the people lightly crying peace peace to them while they walk in the imaginations of their hearts perswading them to believe lyes and that their sins are pardoned forgiven and blotted out when their lives and conversations declare the contrary quenching and grieving the good spirit of God and crucifying afresh the Son of God who is the faithfull and true witnesse who is come and doth convince the world of sin and bears true testimony within against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousness of men which by him was called the temptations of Satan I say after this wofull Doctrine came to be received and embraced they again fell asleep in ignorance and security and now live in pleasure and much wantonnesse whose last estate is worse then the first And this is for some amongst you to observe for your good And how well might he save his labour in many pages in which he so vainly boasts and commends himselfe for a Preacher and publisher of the glorious Gospel that needs no proof of man c. And the many hundreds that can say the Lord is with his Ministry c. I say how well might he be silent in this his own commendations who presently gives it under his hand that he much questions whether he hath received the Spirit of the New Testament to open and reveal the mysteries of the Kingdome which to the Saints is given to know For that Gospel which the Ministers of Christ did and do preach and is indeed glorious is the Gospel of the Kingdom and that Gospel was and is a mystery hid from ages and generations but was and is manifested and revealed to them by the Spirit which Spirit he having not received the mysteries of the Kingdome and of the Gospel thereof to him are not opened but are hid as it was from ages and
generations past And then poor man what hath he to preach or to minister or with what can he quicken comfort and refresh poor souls and turn them to God as he speaks Well may he feed them with ashes winde and confusion with lying visions with a vision of his own heart And by a spirit of Divination may he cause them to erre from the right way like Balaam But with the bread of life the immortall food the power of God the life and quickning of the Spirit the hidden mysteries of the Gospel in which the glory of God is manifested he is not intrusted neither of it can he at all minister to whom it is hid and not opened nor revealed And are not all those blinde and like to fall into the ditch that are led by such a guide expecting to receive joy peace establishment comfort refreshment from him who is out of it all can do nothing vvell but is dry barren and empty in the pollution and defilement not purged cleansed nor sanctified nor adorned with spirituall gifts but is himselfe out of it all and gives it under his hand that it is so And how dares he say his record is on high and that many soules that lay weltring in their blood of ignorance before he came are now turned to God For although the children of the night and of darknesse may flatter and please themselves in their imaginations and lying visions yet how can he be an instrument to turn souls to God who himselfe is out of all c. as is before mentioned and can do nothing well nor knows that God to whom he pretends to turn souls for God is light and in him is no darknesse at all and those that turn souls to God turn them to the light for God is light but of this is he no Preacher but accounts it pernicious doctrine to bid people turn to the light And whereas he saith page 59. it is his daily care and work to preach the Kingdome of God freely to sinners and the Lord Jesus Christ as the vvay to the Kingdome and to invite and encourage poor soules to come into it I say his ignorance both of the Kingdome of God and of Christ the light which is the way is seen and comprehended For the Kingdome of God cometh not with observation but saith Christ who is the true light and the vvay to the Kingdome the Kingdome of God is within you and in his Kingdome he is vvho is light and he that is the vvay and the truth the same is the light that enlightneth every man that cometh into the world And all that are invited and encouraged to come into the Kingdome are invited and encouraged to come into it vvhere it is and that is within and not in outvvard observations and those that are encouraged to vvalk in the vvay that leadeth into the Kingdom are encouraged to receive and vvalk in the light vvhich is the vvay Christ Jesus the light of the vvorld and so all that preach the Kingdome of God preach it vvithin and all that ever preached Christ the vvay to the Kingdome preached the light for he is the true light But against all this hath Thomas Ewins declared not only his ignorance but also his enmity and saith to bid people turn to the light vvithin is pernicious Doctrine of it is he no Preacher and those that preach this Doctrine do shut up the Kingdome against themselves and others Alas poor blinde man vvhat a pittiful thing of a Preacher is he vvhose eye is so utterly darkned and made blinde by the god of the World to vvhom he turns or vvith vvhom he keeps multitudes of souls that novv the day is so much appeared he cannot see but is groping as in the night vvearying himself in his imaginations stumbling at the light which is his condemnation but the glory of Gods Israel vvho receive and believe in the same And whereas he saith he preacheth that Gospel of glad tydings which Christ gave Commandment to be preached to all Nations in which the everlasting love and good Will of God in Christ is declared to lost sinners I say that Gospel of which the Apostles of Christ were not ashamed is the power of God to salvation to all that receive his love and believe in the light but against all that walk after the flesh according to the course of this world in the imaginations of their hearts not believing in the light nor to it are obedient but hold the truth of God in unrighteousness the wrath of God is revealed and thorough the Gospel which is the power of God is tribulation and anguish ministred to every soul that doth evil and against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and the Gospel of the grace of God teacheth to deny it which Gospel according to the Commandement of Christ is now preached not onely thoroughout this Nation of England and the domions thereof but in most or all other Nations I know in the world so that the chief Cities and Seats of the Pope and Turk are not exempted and the Ministers thereof have not loved their lives unto the death nor accompted any thing too dear or too much to suffer so they may but finish their testimony and the Ministry which by God is committed to them for the Elects sake and from other Heathens do they receive the like measure abroad as they do from their own Country-men at home and account it not grievous to suffer for the name of Jesus whilst the Ministers of Satan that work deceitfully destroying souls for dishonest gain are at ease in their wealthy Parishes and Lectures living in pleasure and idleness not serving the Lord but their own bellies and by pleasing words deceive the souls of the simple speaking evil of that they understand not persecuting the truth and evilly entreating the Messengers thereof for which they must give an accompt And for what he speaks of Mary Prince which he calls Mrs. Prince accusing her of envy hypocrisie railing reproaching jeering scoffing c. I say Alas poor man why had he not first pulled the beam out of his own eye before he had sought motes in anothers eye for Mary Prince for many years past hath had and still hath so large a witness not onely in his own conscience but in the consciences of many other her enemies of her meek sober and good conversation beyond many which he himself accompts the people of God that I need not say a word in her behalf but let wickedness be upon the head of the wicked and false accuser But for what is she accused as aforesaid why for this namely bearing true testimony against his deceit and as he saith called to the people at his Lecture and bid them beware of him for she had heard him say that he had not the Spirit of God To which I say I never read of any of the Ministers of Christ that were owners of a thing called a Lecture
but why doth he call it his Lecture but because for hire he preacheth it and so the hire of about 24 l. a year being his he calls it his Lecture But was it not good counsel she gave the people namely to beware of him that by him they might not be deceived Let the Reader but consider and justly weigh what himself gives forth from pag. 51. to pag. 55. and he may easily see how needful and necessary it was for her that knew him well to give such warning being thereunto moved for if a man will take upon him to be a Preacher and a leader of others who hath not received the Spirit of God to open and reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God nor to comfort refresh drooping souls nor to strengthen and encourage them with boldness to do and suffer for God to purge purifie cleanse sanctifie and make them holy and fruitful and grow in grace and fill them with meekness and love and make them spiritual and unite them together and to adorn them with spiritual gifts and grace nor to fill them with a spirit of faith and prayer yea if he hath not received that spirit without which he can do nothing well how exceeding needful is it that people be warned thereof and how great is the love of the Lord in giving them warning in time for what can any soul receive from such a blind unholy unsanctified Ministry that can do nothing well except it be by it to be led into the ditch and caused to wander in the dark and blind paths of deceit and delusion towards death and destruction which is your own words to the Reader And if Thomas Ewins be not the man whose condition this is and hath published himself so under his own hand let the sober Reader judg and so Mary Prince is clear of the blood of them that received not warning and Thomas Ewins his accusations turn heavily on his own head but her they cannot reach who hath delivered her own soul by giving them warning And whereas he saith I tell in my Letter I was warned from invisible lights to beware of him and that by visible light he discerned his speaking was but little acceptable to me and others after he began to oppose though before he was the excellentest man that ever I met with I say what high and excellent thoughts he had of himself may be perceived and because he accounted himself so excellent 't is like he perswades himself that I accounted him so too in which he is mistaken for I was so far from it that himself declares that his speaking had so little acceptation with me and others that we were observed often to go out of the meeting when he was to speak which is an absolute lye too though by reason of his flattering daubing and deceit there might be cause enough and grief it is to see men of corrupt minds to oppose the truth And for several years his preaching and devining to me appeared so dry and empty like other of the worlds Teachers that is was truly a grief and burthen to me to sit under it And for what he speaks of my saying I was warned from invisible lights to beware of him it is a visible lye in which he is too much exercised and no such word was published by me but that I was long since warned from invisible sights or manifestations to beware of him is true something of whose woful condition was then manifested and may be accomplished towards which he hastens apace But his enmity and hatred against the light which is the glory of Gods Israel is such that he cannot but belye it And to him I say that which God hath prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles hath discovered and manifested him no Preacher nor Minister of Christ but a persecutor of the life and power of God And in the day of his distress and anguish which is coming from afar in which the men of war shall not find their hands but weep bitterly in which the strong shall be as tow and all hands be weak and all knees be feeble and all faces gather paleness in which our God shall roar out of Sion and utter his terrible voice from his holy Temple before which all the earth shall tremble in which the Lords salvation shall be manifested for his people in the destruction of all his enemies I say in that day which is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty cometh shall he see and know that by the same spirit of Prophesie which was of old in the Prophets and holy men and promised in this day to be poured out upon sons and daughters is hiâ— condition seen and known and of it hath he been truly warned And that it is not for nought that the Lord hath sent his servants in his dread and power to warn the wicked though they turn not from their wicked wayes And also that it is not for nought that those servants of the Lord that stands in his counsel and receive his will from whom God hides not the things he is about to do in the world have not loved their lives unto the death but given their backs to the smiters and their cheeks to them that pull of the hair nor hid themselves from shame and suffering for their reward is before them and their God is with them whose acceptable day to them is manifested though the Aegyptians cannot see it glory to his name for evermore And whereas he tells of his success and prosperousness in his work and the large room he hath got in the peoples hearts since I left him and the use he is of to the desolate Church I say in his work of deceiving souls doth he prosper among you more then whilst I was there to withstand his daubing work who now leads captive a company of silly people laden with sins and lusts enough who hath none to withstand him or tell how long and woe for you was the day in which the Lord left you to such a guide in whose hearts that which makes desolate hath room enough and is of use to lead on towards perdition which is the work of that which is neither called constituted nor ordained to minister for God And now Thomas Ewins whereas in thy conclusion thou sayest thou expectest many sharp arrows of bitter words to be shot at thee both by me and others and that thou matterest it not much having written in plainness words of truth and soberness rather for vindication of the truth then of thy self c. I say Thou hast sorely mist in both and hast written lyes falshood and confusion as is plainly proved to thy own shame and for it must thou come to judgement and no veil of deceit can hide or cover thee And that which I do is plainly to lay it open and manifest it that thou mayest blush and be ashaâ—ed without shooting