Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	holy_a	person_n	23,263	5	5.9853	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56305	The church of Christ in Bristol recovering her vail out of the hands of them that have smitten and wounded her, and taken it away. Being, a just and necessary vindication, from a false and scandalous imputation cast upon her by Dennis Hollister, formerly a member of her, but now an apostate from, and an opposer of those waies, truths, and people, which once he seemed zealous for. As appears by a late pamphlet put forth by him, called, The skirts of the whore discovered. With some particular words, from some particular persons whom he hath by name abused and reproached. Likewise a word by Thomas Ewen, unto what concerns him in the said pamphlet, and also to the later part of another book, called, Satan enthroned in his chair of pestilence.	Purnell, Robert, d. 1666. aut	1657 (1657)	Wing P4232; ESTC R213966	65,602	90

reference to that seriously consider these places 2 Thes 2. 1 to 13. Rom. 14. 4 9 10 11 12 13. The Lord give you to see your wickedness in your bitter censorious spirit which sure is not small though you Ezek. 16. 1 2. Isal 30. 1. seem not to discern it but cover it with a covering that is not of Gods Spirit and so add sin to sin and the good Lord give you repentance for it you have not hurt or injured me at all by it though your self you do God hath of his infinite goodness made your hard false speeches and censorious judgings of me of good use to me though no thanks at all to you for it nor any thing but what is sad to think on can you reap from it As I have said to you somtimes upon the like occasion when you affirmed unto me that some men to wit such as then you had in admiration though for that in which they exceeded or God owns above others I never saw nor yet heard but this you affirmed to me concerning them that when they were in the light they could see what mens inward states was before God some of which as you said they saw you named to me though such as they never saw Matth. 7. 16. 19 20 1 Cor. 4. 5. Deut. 29. 22. nor yet heard of any thing visibly apparently evill by them by which man by the blessed Rule of the Scriptures of truth is to judge otherwise our rule is to judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shal every man have praise of God My answer then to you in that affirmation concerning Isai 8. 20. 1 Cor. 4 4. Job 10 15. 2 Cor. 10. 17 18. 2 Cor. 5. 9. them was this in words or to the same effect that as I could give no credence to such assertions groundedly but contrarily had more than ground of jealousie to be suspitious they were delusions as all such things and pretended revelations be which have not the Law and the Testimony to warrant them So what if all the men in the world did approve me what is that in order to certain ground of holding up my head before God in reference to it So if all did disapprove me yet upon from such a ground as that I have a sure word certain witness of Gods approving of me I should not flagg in my Spirit nor hang down in reference to that That use besides others as to my self I have endeavoured to make of those great charges you lay upon me and if your considerations Were otherwise of me as sometimes it hath been and also of others I would not in Phil 3. 3. the least heed or give any regard to it so as to flesh my self from it Phil. 3. 3. The charges indeed that you lay upon me and send me cloathed with before the world if so indeed how sad were my condition well might my countenance be changed and my thoughts be troublesome unto me and the joynts of my loyns be loosed and my knees smite one against another as if I did inhabit deceit and devise wicked imaginations and speak lies to you and that in the name of the Lord and the like Sore charges they be wickedness of the highest degree and of the dangerousest attendance that can be But truly it is sufficient to me that under all the charges you load me with that I have alwayes a witness in heaven Rom. 8. 33 34. Psal 3. 3 4 5. Job 34. 29. and brought into my own heart from thence and confirmed unto me by the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father and the Son by which I am cleared of your charges and so by that means they take no hold upon me God To wit your own private spirit and consideration 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. gives me much case under all your clamors Truly it is a very small matter to me to be judged of you I say of you who are more than apt to judg all both persons and things to be light that bears no weight in your Ballance By which Ballance I know you must not your self be weighed at the great day and appearing of the Lord Iesus but by that Ballance or Rule that who ever walk according to it peace and mercy shal be upon them the Word that John 12. 48. Christ hath spoken must judge all at that day But truly Dennis Hollister I pitie thee me thinks I could even mourn over thee in the consideration of thy being in Rev. 12 10. Luke 3. 14. Mat 12 43 44 the Divels work and imployment to wit an accuser of the brethren as I am sure thou art in thy printed Papers And for that false charge as it is altogether of my speaking lies to you in the name of the Lord. That charge of yours I know hath reference to my being as you slightly say the mouth of three Messengers sent to you by the Church to admonish you of your sins which sins of yours I am sure was obvious visible and clear Truly in order to that I knew well what I spake Mat. 28. 18. Mat. 18. 16 17 18. when I spake on that rate I did unto you I with my brethren that came with me had a Warrant sealed and given forth to us from him who hath all power given unto him in Heaven and Earth for what we did And if I may speak it without boasting as I trust I do so we did attempt it as those that God had vouchsafed that grace unto to take up into the Mount with him to confer with his Majesty by Christ about it before we did dare to attempt upon it his Majesty being pleased graciously to incline our hearts in some measure of holy reverence feare and trembling and in faith to wait upon his Majesty by Christ our Mediator and Iutercessor and we had a gracious answer from him by Christ to our very hearts about it And so we are strenthened to that work of the Lord which otherwise we had rather any had been Exod. 3. 11. Jer 6. 7 8 9 sent about than we And then we went not staggeringly nor yet ignorantly but knowingly and understandingly about it God having in some measure fitted us for it and left us not without some sure witness that he was with us in it And not any reluctancie have I or my brethren had for what we did but are fully satisfied that what ever was set upon you and laid at your door as your sin to a tittle Isal 28 17. is true and will be so found when the Lord shall lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousnesse to the Plummet and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place And whereas you say in the first line of your Letter to me that it

godly men I did sometimes hear expressions to this effect That there was a two-fold coming of the Spirit of Christ into the hearts of Believers The first was that by which the eyes of mens understandings are opened and they turned from darkness to light Faith and Repentance wrought in the Soul conversion regeneration or the new birth effected and so he that was once a dead sinner becomes a living Saint or Believer though as yet but weak a babe in Christ c. The Second work or coming of the Spirit is that by which the Soul is sealed confirmed established filled with joy and peace in believing and fitted and furnished to every good work that God calls them whether doing or suffering c. Now this put me upon the search of the Scripture as first Ephes 1. 13. After you believed you were sealed which Scripture relates to that Acts 19. 2. Have you received the holy Spirit since you believed c. So Acts 8. 14. to 17. Samaria having received the Word of God and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ were baptized by Philip the Deacon the Church at Jerusalem or rather the Apostles sent forth Peter and John that they should pray that they might receive the holy Ghost for as yet he was not fallen upon any of them c. Another Scripture I find Joh. 7. 37 38 39. In the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cryed saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified So Luke 11. 9. to 13. such as God is a Father unto are bid to pray to ask to seek and to knock c. with assurance by many Arguments that they should receive the holy Spirit So in the 14 15 16 Chapters of John our Saviour speaking to such as did believe in him love him and keep his Commandments c. he promiseth to send the Comforter unto them even the holy Spirit which the world could not receive c and to this agree many of the Prophecies both in Isa Jer. Ezek. Joel Zach. and others Now then as to the first work or coming of the Spirit namely to make a man to become a Saint a Christian a Believer a new Creature c. I never denied but alwayes affirmed that whosoever did believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or had the least beginning of a work of Grace in their Souls it was by the Spirit of God and they had the Spirit of Christ in the first sense according to Rom. 8. 9. now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his c. But in the second or latter sense namely to seal stablish fill with joy and comfort c. with many other glorious effects which the Scripture speaks of and which the Saints in the primative times did enjoy in this sense I have often said that I did question Whether I then had or whether many others in the Church had received the Spirit and to this you did then assent c. And therefore I did often press it in the Church that we might pray more for that blessed Spirit according to the command and promise of Christ Luke 11. 9. 13. as before and this is that which I have often called the great legacie of the new Testament and as Jesus Christ was the great promise of the first or old Testament so this blessed Spirit is the great promise of the second or new Testament which all believers are to wait pray and long for as the believers under the first Testament were to wait and long for the Messiah and this was my meaning when I have sometimes said That a man may be a Christian a Believer a converted Soul or a babe in Christ and not as yet have received the Spirit I mean still in this latter sense in respect of sealing establishing c. yet I neither did nor do expect the Gift of tongues or working Miracles c. neither do I find that the great promise of the Spirit was principally to that end though that was accomplished by it when and how the Lord pleased as Heb. 2. 4. with divers miracles and gifts or distributions of the holy Ghost according to his own will but I find rather that the great promise of the Spirit is for such glorious ends as these c. 1. To open and reveal the hidden Mysteries of the kingdome of heaven as Matth. 13. 11. to you it is given to know the Mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven c. So 1 Cor. 2. 9. to the 14. we read that those things which the eyes of men as men have not seen neither can the natural man perceive yet God doth reveal by his Spirit c. So it is promised in John to lead and guide into all truth therefore Eph. 1. 17. the Apostle prayes for believers that they might receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation c. 2. To comfort and chear up poor drooping believers filling them with all joy and peace consolation and refreshment which is one main end for which it is promised as in 14 15 16 Chapters of John to which agree many of the sayings of the Prophets c. 3. To heighten and strengthen the Saints with boldness courage constancy and resolution in their Spirits to do or to suffer for God as Acts 4 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said c. so to the 19. vers So Acts 5. 41. And they rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer c. which thing neither they nor Peter could do a little before as Mark 14. 50 66 to 71. But observe they had not then received the Spirit so Acts 16. 25. Paul and Silas sang in prison 4. To purge and purifie clense and sanctifie believers and make them holy as Isa 4. 3 4. so Ezek. 36. 25. to 29. Joel 3. 17. then shall Jerusalem be holy that is when the Mountains shall drop new wine and the hills flow with milk as vers 18. And the fountain come forth of the house of the Lord to water the valley of Shittim 5. To make poor dry barren empty souls to become fruitful to God and to grow in grace Isa 32. 5. until the Spirit be poured from on high and the wilderness become a fruitful field Isa 44. 3 4. I will pour my Spirt upon thy seed c. and they shall spring up c. so Hos 14. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel and he shall grow c. 6. To fill the Saints with meekness and love yea with end cared love towards Christ and bowels of pity towards men as we see it was with the Saints in the primitive times but is much wanting now 7. To unite

their righteousness as the light and their just dealing as the noon day in the mean time we rest and remain Reader thy friends if thou be one that art grieved for the afflictions of Joseph and art sensible of this day of Jacobs trouble and art longing for the welfare of Sion and walking in the Faith of the Gospel Then are we thy companions in tribulation for the Faith and Testimony of Jesus The Brethren of the Church in BRISTOL R.P. T.E. I.A. R.M. R.S. B.H. READER THou art desired further to take notice that Separation from a true Church of Christ and Communion of Gods People is a dangerous thing First it is sharply threatned by God Heb. 10. 38 39. Secondly severely punished 2 Pet. 2. 20 21 22. Thirdly by this they discover themselves both to the Church with whom they walked and also to those that are without that they are the men and women who have not a true foundation but onely have received some large measures of illumination and common gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost and so fall away and by their Apostacy evidence their hypocrisie Let no man think that the good can depart from the Church wind blows not away the Wheat but the vain Chaff 1 John 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us Now to prevent the spreadings of the spirit of Anti-christ and his subtil endeavours to draw more from Jesus Christ ought not the Church from whom these persons are departed in obedience to the Command of God and out of love to the souls of those that have cast the Ordinances of God behind their backs send two or three of their Members in the Name of the Lord Jesus and in the tender bowels of pity to beseech admonish and warn them to repent of their sins and refrain from their evil waies and return to the Truth Faith and waies of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. and so in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will c. Let the Reader seriously consider whether the Church is not engaged by her Head and Husband Jesus Christ Mat. 18. from 15. to 20. vers compared with Titus 3. 10. c. thus to admonish and warn her deluded back-slidden Members although perhaps some of them will not hear as in Prov 10 17. Others reject both the Reproof and the Reprovers Prov 15 10 12. And lastly perhaps another laies open his folly to the whole Nation in casting dirt in the face not only of the Reprovers but on the whole Church it self that sent them and so endeavour to shame them both see Prov 9 7. compared with Prov 15 12. Our Saviour tels us Mat 11 19. that Wisdom is justified of none but of her Children and therefore his Church may not expect justification but rather condemnation from those that are gone out from her as the snuff of a Candle If it be sufficient to be accused who can be found innocent it is the crown of those that remain stedfast in their substantial Principles to be reproached by those that did once seemingly own them and afterwards for want of grace backslid from them c. An ANSWER of a Church of Christ in Bristol who desireth and endeavoureth according to the measure of light and strength that they have received from Christ their Head to comply with him in waiting upon him in all the Ordinances of the Gospel which many cast behind their backs unto Dennis Hollister once a visible Member but now a professed Quaker c. Dennis Hollister DId you never read that the Church of Christ in Scripture is resembled to a natural Body wherein are many Members united each to other and most of them to one Head and by one Spirit now as in the natural Body there may be many infirmities so also in the mistical Body sometimes it may be subject to distempers by undigested humors the want of through closing with divine truths or the receiving in of untruths may occasion a surfeit sometimes windy humors pride high mindedness and giving heed to lying Spirits by some of its Members may distemper it sometimes feverish heats of violent headiness instead of well tempered zeal for God and godliness may inflame it so that many parts of it are sorely laid open to infections from divers that seem to be of it or converse with it Art not thou the man or at least one of them oh who hath his eyes in his head and doth not see who hath his ears open and doth not hear who hath his tongue untyed and doth not speak to vindicate the undeceived's innocency as well as to publish your folly in answer to a little Pamphlet called The Shirts of the Whore discoveyed c. containing in it many things too low and beneath a serious Christians perusing or reading much more the answering it being in the middle and both ends stuft with so many unsavoury and unchristian like expressions yet we shall take the Lords connsel Prov. 26 5. and so answer the Author lest he should be wise in his own conceit in which Answer we shall not recite all the Absurdities and vain hoastings and untruths c. yet being as before beneath a Christian much more a whole Church to spend pretious time either to read or answer c. neither shall we at present so lay open your folly in all things that we have heard or seen lest our Answer should be seven times as big as your charge Now to proceed consider that as every word of God is true so hath it some more special time of fulfilling now we read Acts 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them O how truly is this Scripture fulfilled this day upon us and you first in your departing from us and now in those perverse things written and spoken by you to draw away disciples after you as is clear in many of those expressions in your Letter We have of late met with a little Book put forth by you the Title of which when we had read and seriously considered the People included and intended by you in those expressions we could not but even stand amazed to think unto what a height of Impudency and Malignity you are already come and whither may not a poor fallen creature run if God stop him not Is it not a high degree of Luciferian pride for a poor creature to set his foot upon the necks of all the Assemblies and Churches of the Saints this day in England and Wales calling them the Whore as your

such arguments as he thought might accomplish his design namely to draw away the poor Isralites out of Jerusalem where God had set them and from Hezekiah whom God had set over them to come forth to their enemies as you may read at large 2 Kings 18. 30 31 32. and therefore do you consider a little what if you should be mistaken as Rabshaketh was who was as confident as you are and suppose that some of them at least whom you have cryed down as false Prophets and Deceivers should be found the Servants of Christ or that those Churches in England that you or some of your way call the well favoured Harlots or that this poor despised people in Bristol that you so contemptuously trample upon calling them a Harlot a Synagogue of Satan c. should at last be found the Churches of Christ and that he should own them as his People his Spouse the dearly beloved of his Soul and as those whom he had shed his blood for and given Grace unto Oh! how will you then be confounded c. And why may you not be mistaken seeing you have been mistaken thus long though few men upon earth were more confident of and violent for some things than you have been and yet you have been mistaken as you now say therefore take heed cease judging of Churches persons or things but leave that till he come whose right it is to judge and who will judge right but if you shall go on still to judge us we shall make our application to the Lord as David did Psal 17. 1 2. Hear the right O Lord c. Let our Sentence come forth from thy presence But the great matter you harp upon is that your Letter could not be received nor read in the Church c. Some of us had three reasons against it first because it was not directed to the Church but as it were in a deriding manner viz. To the People called Independents though now you joyn Baptized with them therfore if you would not own us as a Church we might justly refuse to own or receive your Letter Secondly you were a person under admonishing and had refused to hear the Churches Messengers therefore we had no warrant to read nor hear your Letter Thirdly some of us understood that your main design was to draw away some more to you though the greatest part of the Church were fully satisfied about the falseness of your way yet it may be there were some weak as there was in the Church of the Romans and of the Corinthians Rom. 14. 1. 1 Cor. 8. 9. But as for your jeering at our weakness and febleness and that we were afraid of being shaken concluding that fear had surprised the Hypocrites and that we were the wicked that could not stand in Judgment c. This is like Rabshaketh dealing with Hezekiah and the poor Jews c. as we told you before but we acknowledg we are a poor weak and afflicted People even the poor of the Flock whom the Lord hath yet preserved c. You likewise jeer at our Fasting day which in other words you did to a Member of the Congregation saying to this effect What could they not open a Letter but they must pray to their God and now they have prayed will not their God hear them as another of your company also jeering at our prayers used these words 1 Kings 18. 26. O Baal hear us c. But the truth is we did keep many Fasting daies after you left us and we can say through grace that God did not shut his ear against our prayers for This passage concerning R. Simpson was inserted by some of us without his knowledge not one Soul went from us after we did so As for your reviling and reproaching that godly man our Brother Simpson by name it may be when your Pamphlet comes into a far Country where neither he nor you are known some may believe what you write but in Bristol or any other place where he and you are well known your tongue will prove no slander for his humility integrity and godliness is better known than to be darkned by your pen but we shall leave him to clear his own innocency As for your Epistle to the Churches and Elders in England and Wales and particularly to those in Essex and Norfolk we shall leave that to them either to make their Appeals to the Lord or their Answer to you As for what you observed in eminent Church-Members and other high Pretenders to Religion as you say while you sate in Parliament and other chief places of Council and trust in the Nation we shall say nothing to that only this we do remember and did observe in what a height of discontent you came home and continued one while crying out against the Priests and false Prophets another while against Hypocrites and sometimes concluding and saying that al the Religion then profest in England was nought and that we must find out a new Religion at which some of us were silent as not knowing what you had seen and observed where you had been though some of us did reply as we doubt not but you doe remember but in this posture you continued till a new Religion came which you presently within few daies or weeks embraced without so much as setting apart one hour with the Church to enquire of the Lord what was in the bottom of that new Religion but rather threatning of us that if we did not speedily come away and embrace it we were all lost though you could not tell us of any thing we should come unto We come now to your chief Letter wherein you betray us again with a kiss calling us friends c. As for your Preface wherein you first disown any power that we have over you c. we shall not dispute that but resolve to do our duty according to Scripture rule Mat. 18. Tit. 3. 10. 11. and shall leave the issue to him in whose hands are the hearts of all men Secondly as for your pretended faithfulness but most unparallel'd impudency and sensoriousness in judging us to be no Church of Christ but a Synagogue of Satan and a Cage of unclean and hateful Spirits wherein lodgeth pride hypocrisie envy slandering back-biting railing lying love to this present world and conformity to the fashions c. We confess this is a sad sentence to cloath neer threescore persons with such a spoted garment many of which are able to give a better account of the work of grace in their souls and of their faith in Christ and have a more blameless conversation than ever we could hear of you or observe in you what secret seeds may be in the hearts of any among us we cannot say neither durst we proudly boast as others do but this we must profess ingeniously that we never observed so much of those evils before mentioned to break forth upon any of those that now are together as

nor false accusers but we must turn that back again upon your self professing to all the World that you have wronged us in what you have written against us As for the other part of your Letter wherein you sometimes flatter your self and commend your self about your righteousness faithfulness diligence and deserving as likewise how freely you had served us and been a keeper of our Vineyard and that now it is time to look to your own Vineyard and to mind your eternal habitation c. We answer first as Prov. 27. 2. Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth a stranger and not thine own lips But we never did blame you nor admonish you for any good you did among us but for your departing from that which was good Jehu was not blamed for the good he did but because he took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart neither was Amaziah blamed for any good he did but because he did it not with a perfect or upright heart and as for your gift of discerning c. most of us know it was a thing you did much pretend to and boast of c. though we could observe your gross mistake therein c. And for your now looking to your own Vineyard and minding your eternal habitation c. truly we hoped you had done that when you were among us and that your care and diligence which now you speak of had been as well about your own soul as others but if it were not we wish you may make better use of your present time than you have done of that which is past As for any manifestations of truth breaking forth in you as you say page 20. at which some of our hearts burned and others were offended c. We know not any one Truth that ever you spake in the Church but it was readily assented to and seconded by those that sate by whether you did press to believing or holy walking but for other things which were not according to Scripture nor did not tend to faith or holiness c. some of us did sometimes manifest our dissent from you yet with all tenderness as knowing your spirit and the spirits of some others now with you we were not willing to offend you or them And as for that which you so often asserted in the Church and now mention page 20 21. That you did not know Christ and that that knowledge we had of him should profit us nothing and that our habitation is in deceit and through it we refuse to know the Lord c. First we did not violently oppose you in that thing as thinking that it arose from a sight and sense of the want of the Spirit of Christ to open and reveal the glory of his person virtues Offices and Mysteries more clearly unto you according to what is written Ephes 1. 17 18. Col. 2. 2. John 16. 14 15. and herein we could and did joyn with you in complaining of the littleness or smalness of our knowledg of Christ yet some of us did often tell you that our comfort stood not so much in a speculative knowing as in a believing acknowledgment of Christ to be that which he is said to be in the Scriptures and so to own him believe on him love him and obey him and therefore we did then and have since and do now declare that we owned no other Christ but that one annointed glorious person who was born of the Virgin and who is made both Lord and Christ who died rose and ascended and is now sitting at the right hand of God and is the Mediator between God and man who shall one day come again according to the Scriptures Secondly we do own no other knowing of Christ but that which is according to the Scripture namely understandingly to know him in his person without us and experimentally to know him in his Virtues or by his Spirit within us and so through grace we do know him in our measure and are waiting and praying daily for a further and clearer knowledge of him in his Virtues and powers by the revelation of his glorious Spirit according to the Scripture in the mean time we desire to acknowledge him believe on him love and reverence him as our Lord and King and do submit to his Laws and Commands lest in his Word but we did little think that your meaning had been as now you declare both in your Book and by your practice that you and we should take up that kind of notion of Christ as to call that light that is in every man both Heathens and others Christ and so to slight and nullifie that glorious person now in heaven from being the object of Faith c. as many of your way do and have done to some of our faces scoffing and jeering at us for speaking of the person of Christ and for thinking to be saved by the blood of him that died at Jerusalem and as you your self did jeeringly ask one of this Congregation to this effect whether we did believe Christ to be an old man sitting in a chair in heaven c. You further tell us page 21. That many who desired to see Christs first Appearance in the flesh became his betrayers and murderers so now in his second Appearances in life power and spirit would be found the greatest enemies to him and that some of us would betray him and then appeal to all that have any discerning to judge how sadly this is already fulfilled in us c. We grant that many did stumble at Christ when he came in the flesh and that many in all ages have stumbled at the truth and waies of Christ as likewise many do now at his person his Gospel his waies and his Ordinances c. which might put you to consider two things First whether you be not one that do so and secondly whether you be not one that have caused many to do so c. But you seem to beg the question and take it for granted that Christ is now come in life power and spirit in you and your party but truly you must give better demonstrations of it before we or any other judicious Christians will believe you for we have read much and know something by experience through grace what the sweet gentle dove-like spirit of Christ is we have seen and known by sad experience how unlike your spirit is to that Secondly how can you call this a murdering and betraying of Christ namely our sending brethren three times in love and pitie to enquire after and admonish you and the rest that departed from us we shall leave this to the Lord to determine c. As for those strange and unchristian expressions page 21. of our sporting our selves and making a wide mouth and drawing out the tongue and the hand against you c. and then calling us children of transgression a seed of falshood

comparing of us to Ishmael and Cain c. We shall say little to it onely desire the Lord to rebuke your railing yea we say again the Lord rebuke your railing Have we done any thing to you or against you more than sent three Brethren after many prayers made for to seek to recover your soul And as for our imagining a vain thing and setting our selves and taking counsel against the annointed one as you say as likewise our joining in confederacy with the enemies of God and that we must be broken to pieces for the Lord of Hostes is with you and the shout of a King is among you c. We see it is an easie thing for a man that hath brain-knowledge in the Letter of the Scriptures to heap up a multitude of good words right or wrong but whether we or you have set against the annointed one whether we or you shall be broken in pieces we shall humbly leave to the Lord of Hostes and King of Israel to determine but we deny that the shout of the true King is among you though some of your way have shouted and cried Hosanna holy holy King of Israel to James Naylor and if you mean that King as they called him c. we desire with humilitie to shout and rejoice First that God hath through the riches of his grace preserved us from those strong delusions that you and others are fallen under Secondly that the Lord hath so wonderfully discovered the abominable wickedness of those proud boasters and blasphemers who called themselves Apostles and were owned by you as infallible that God should do it in this Citie even in the very faces of you that you might see it be ashamed c. You make mention in the 22. page of some of us beating in our Meetings like the enemies of Christ in their Synagogue c. Now as we cannot but wonder at your shamelesness in printing such a thing so we cannot but declare to all the world the truth of this story You know it hath been the practice of the Women of this Congregation for some years past especially since the Apostacy of you and others from us every second day of the week towards evening to seek the Lord by supplication and prayer by themselves at which Satan hath much raged and some of your way have come several times to disturb them and in particular upon the day you mention there came two Women one of which had been an old Ranter but now fallen into your way the other a late Member of this Church but now turned to your opinion these two wretched Women came rushing into the room one of our Sisters being then in prayer and so did in a most unchristian uncivil and inhumane manner walk up and down the room humming and making a loud voice at length came to the Woman that was in prayer and putting their mouth to her ear uttered these words The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord and so forced her to give over praying whereupon after many civil intreaties by some to cause them to depart and to leave off telling them that there was no place for them unless they would be quiet but this not prevailing one of the company an ancient godly Woman took one of them by the arm and would have put her forth at the door but could not she being too strong for her which striving together is that which you call a beating and so at length the Woman of the house claiming her privilege did command them to depart and this was all the beating and occasion of it c. Now let all the world see the wretched wickedness of these two women which you justifie Secondly weakness and shallowness of your foundation upon which you build your large Discourse of 11 or 12 lines together where you heap up many dreadfull expressions against this Church for this act calling it a beating like the enemies of Christ in the Synagogue whereas there was but 5 or 6 women there now is not this to justifie the wicked and condemn the rightous both of which are an abomination to the Lord as Prov. 17. 15. what more wicked act could there be than for these two wretched women to come huming ranting and roaring into the room to disturb a company of poor Christians when they were seriously powring forth their Soules to God in prayer c. You desire us page 22. to read without prejudice or deceit the 83 Psalm from end to end and see whether our practise and portion be not contained in it c. We do conclude that if you were to be our judg the things written therein should be our portion but blessed be the Lord our sentence shall come forth from him who will with rightousness judg the poor with equity reprove for the meek of the earth c. but O poor deceived man how can you apply the things written in that Psalm to us or that in Obediah from verse the 11 to the 15. as you do What gross darkness hath seized upon your mind that you should be crying out against us and threatning of us for that which we through grace are innocent of and you your self so notoriously found to practise for are not you joined with all the Papists Athiests Ranters and ungodly rabble of the world in this one great design of the Devil to break in pieces the Churches of Christ in England Hath it not been the attempt of one power and party after another to rout break and scatter the Congregations in England under the name of Independents Anabaptists Sectaries and Schismaticks c. And hath any party gone so far in this wicked practice as you and your company that call themselves Quakers have done Nay was there ever any partie in England or the Nations adjacent that have offered the like violence to the Lord Jesus Christ in his person in his Word in his Gospel his Ordinances his Saints his waies c. as you and your partie have done And what have those poor sheep done have we or have not you rather joined with the Persecutors of the waies and people of God at this day poor man where are your eyes are not you joined in practice with the most embittered spirits in England against the people of God whom you and others make the objects of your scorn Nay do not Athiests Drunkards and prophane persons cry Aha at the reading of your Book Have you not pierced the sides and hearts of Christs wounded ones and will not this be bitterness in the later end Nay have you not out-stripped all others in lies and falshoods slanders and reproaches scoffs scorns and derisions which in your Book you have unjustly cast upon us teaching the wicked of the world yea even the children that have no understanding how to blaspheme and call the Churches and Servants of Christ the skirts of the Whore Synagogues of Satan and cages of unclean birds have you