come the second time without sin to Salvation even to all that look for him that he came to do the Fathers will and in the prepared body did it in which ho abolisht death offering up himself through the eternal Spirit without fault to God to purge the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. That Man must believe in this Lord Jesus Christ for remission of sins and acceptance with the Father and that by Faith Christ is applyed to the Soul for Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption and that by the imputed and imparted Righteousness of Christ man comes to be justified and accepted with God acceptance being only in him the beloved We believe the Resurrection of the dead Christ the first fruits and afterward they that are his at his coming We believe the Life everlasting Amen And for Christs sake are willing to be killed all the day long in hope of a better Resurrection seeking a Country whose Builder and Maker is God VVe own the Holy Scriptures to be of inestimable value and excellent use to all men but we say it self gives the preheminence to the Holy Spirit as that alone which leads into all truth John 16. 8. Now in opposition to the four Moniters that incinuate that we do not own and preach Christ the Eternal Son of God and after the flesh of the Virgin And the 21 that incinuate we hold antifundamental Doctrines I give forth this Testimony wherein I affirm that of the 4 to be a most detestable Lye that we preach a meer Created Light of the natural Conscience and Reason affirming that the same Jesus that the Apostles Preacht to be Preacht amongst us faith in him is preacht as the only name given by whom poor Souls can be saved and in opposition to the 21 do say if to believe in the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent be essential to Salvation if to fear God and love our Neighbours and do to all men as we would be done by even to believe in Christ as the Author of eternal Salvation to all that obey him and as is more largly afore-mentioned be with you Fundamental then your incinuation of our holding Anti-fundamentals is slanderous It is very true Baby-baptism prated prayers Sinners to sing Saints Psalms Man made-Ministers entitling every unclean harlot to Church-membership that the Merciful God decreed some men from all eternity to damnation that God offers mercy and Salvation to those he never intends it these Lies and Blasphemies wherewith you have poisoned this age all this we deny but all wholsome found Doctrine we own and are ready to make it appear to the Faces of the Stoutest of you and prove you are Slanderers of us These Lies once believing that the Quakers denyed Christ and the Scriptures and knowing the danger people are in through the subtil wiles of these men to be seduced into a Spirit of envy against the Innocent even to their everlasting Damnation I am the larger in this matter the great objection in this matter is that we preach the Light and exhort people to turn to the Light of Christ in them this is true but that this is to preach a created Light of Reason and natural Conscience oh that ever men that would be accounted the only Learned men should be thus blind and base and thus to incinuate when the Scripture so amply gives us an account of Christs preaching himself in the same Dialect that he was come a Light into the world and exhorted people to believe in the Light that they might be Children of the Light John 8. 12. and here I shall refer these Rabbies and all people to the Testimony of Paul Acts 26. giving account of his Doctrine I continue witnessing to small and great the same things spoken by Moses and the Prophets how that Christ should suffer and be the first that should rise from the dead and should shew light to the people and the gentiles Well ye Rabbies is it to preach a created Light of the Reason and natural Conscience to testifie that Christ doth shew light to all men and exhort them to turn to it you might as well have said the same of Paul had you lived in his days Oh the midnight darkness that you are in thus basely to perswade people to believe Lyes concerning us of your own forging VVhatever have been and may be your false accusations I am assured all these people called Quakers can unanimously and chearfully concerning Jesus Christ of Nazareth subscribe to that savory saying of Doctor Crisp as I remember If Christ thou knowest it will suffice Though else thou knowest not If Christ be hid thou art not wise Though all else thou art taught 21. MONITERS And yet some of them being grown Rich can and do live in in as much flesh-pleasing fulness splendor and indulging to a sensual life as others whom they have condemned I VVill readily allow these men to be competent judges of such a life according to their own Tenent that Experience is the best Teacher yet in this also their tongue is set on fire in hell according to their wonted trade to call good evil and evil good Jer. 48. 27. Was not Israel a dirision to you even so is it with these men they deride the Israel of God and endeavour thus to draw in others to deride us and I doubt not but the cursed fire that burns in their unclean hearts against us they design to blow up in the whole Nation against us but it is like them who doctrinally apply peace where God speaks war and war where God speaks peace but they are lame in this also by their own Tenent who in their Pulpits will tell you Generals prove nothing This is a general Accusation but except they can of their own knowledge produce some particular instance it proves nothing and though I never was of their University Pupils yet do believe that by their University Rules they merit a lash for suppository Calumniation It 's true Ill-will never speaks well so to expect better from these men were to seek grapes on thorns but we know all are not dead drunk with the wine of Malice so as to believe all these men say though termed Reverend Divines Old stile though nothing more repugnant to propriety of Speech But as to that matter let all men know that if any pretending to be of us be such as indulge the flesh they are none of us but are returned to you for it is not possible they should be of our fellowship but may be fit members for your Church who doctrinally declare that Dominion over sin is not to be expected here as a great one of you in a Book called Helps to Piety thus faith The body of sin and death were born and must die together Oh rare Divines is this Doctrine a help to Piety Now to conclude this Oh ye Moniters would ye recover your long lost Reputation
A SERIOUS SEASONABLE WARNING UNTO All People Occasioned by two most Dangerous Epistles to a late BOOK of JOHN FALLDOE'S Subscribed by RICHARD BAXTER Tho. Manton Tho. Jacomb John Yates John Sheffield Ben. Needler Rob. Bragg A. Palmer Tho. Cole Tho. Dolittel Will. Cooper Will. Carslake Th. Wadsworth Geor. Griffith Matth. Barker John Singleton Andr. Parsons Steeph Ford Fran. Warham Rich. Mayo Tho. Gouge Will. Jenkins Tho. Watson Sam. Smith Will. Tutty Brethren all in Iniquity Whose Bow is alway ready bent With Quivers of Malice against the Innocent For loe the wicked bend their Bow they make ready their Arrows upon the String that they may privily Shoot at the Vpright in heart Psalm 11. 2. Whose Slanders and Lyes against the Holy People called Quakers are hereby Reproved By C. P. These things have I written to you concerning those that seduce you 1 John 2. 26. They are impudent Children and stiff hearted but surely they will not hear neither indeed will they cease for they are a rebellious house yet shall they know that there hath been a Prophet amongst them Ezek. 2. 4 5. London Printed in the Year 1675. To the People called Anthony Palmers CHURCH Mr Friends my knowledge of you hath been long about this time 20 years my Love to you can never expire being unfeigned I heard of you first at a place called London-house and am constrained to remind you of that day You then were a Reproached Suffering People and it was then a Reproach to go to your Meetings several of you in that day being Imprisoned for bearing a Testimony against the Sins of those times and in that day you being humble and meek the presence of God was amongst you in so much as a Rumer of it went through the Nation and you were visited by many choice Spirited men your heart were melted by the powerful strivings of Gods Spirit Oh ye degenerated People remember that Day But you resisting the Holy Spirit Pride and Lust and Self-seeking gat up amongst you and then you defiled your selves by touching with the Iniquities you had testified against and then a Spirit of Strife and Division entered you and brake you to pieces and ye went into Sects and Parties one Party publickly declared against another as Old Leaven purged out and thus ended your Glory and by this means were many honest hearted that uprightly sought the Lord amongst you scattered Now it is not possible to utter the grief that was in my heart in that day for I dearly loved you And when the Lord brought that great Desolation upon all professing Interests 1659. whereat even the whole world was amazed then great was my expectation that by affliction you would be turned to the Lord and that accordingly again his Presence would be found amongst you and you know what a noise you then made in your many days of Fasting Prayer then in sincerity seeking to be establisht in Religious matters expecting to be strengthned by a neerer fellowship with you so as to abide in the tryals of that day I sought to be neerly related to you and was admitted as one of your Members and the Lord knoweth I closed with you in uprightness towards him and true love to you which pure unfeigned Love still resteth upon my heart unto you And here I cannot forget and it may be good for you to be minded of it that at that time one of your Chiefest to my great disappointment told me in the hearing of several of you that you were sensible that the Presence of God was suspended from you endeavoring to satisfie me that God doth often suspend his presence from his Church I then answered that if I found a want of the Lords Presence I alway charged it upon my self as the cause of it Now after some considerable time of tryal I found you spake truth to my very great distress finding that the presence of the Lord was not amongst you and dismal and dark was that day when I came to see that I sought the Living amongst the Dead Now Oh People God Almighty that scarcheth the heart and tryeth the reins knoweth that I am deeply sensible of your state who have only a name to live but are dead and in true love to you have mourned for you and fervently desired your Salvation and indeed hoped well concerning you until lately finding the name of your Teacher A. Palmer amongst many more to a Book publisht by John Faldoe as Approvers deep sorrow even seized upon me that the Teacher of you a People that for many years have loudly proclaimed to the world That Love to all Saints is a Foundation Principle of your Fellowship should set his hand in a way of Recommendation to the world of the said book to an Epistle stufft with most detestable lies and slanders of and against a People that by many years experience I have found to be a holy People walking in the fear of God blameless and sound in the faith of the Gospel whom by your aforesaid Principle you ought to Love and knowing them to be clear of those foul things laid to their Charge by your said Teacher both as to Doctrine and Conversation I forthwith sent your Teacher one of William Pens Answers to him and his Brethren Moniters And thus wrote to him Anthony Palmer IT is so plain hereby proved that thou art guilty of Lies and Slanders against Gods People called Quakers that he that Runs may Read it and that thou art so guilty I hereby charge upon thee if thou art the A. Palmer there meant as I believe thou art and I send this that thou mayst see thy Error which if thou wilt acknowledge and send it me under thy hand that thou dost see and acknowledge thy Sin herein I shall be right glad otherwise if in some short time I do not receive such an account from thee thou mayst expect that I shall in that Congregation whom I knew I judge many years before thou didst and whose Souls Salvation I desire bear my Testimony against thee as a Slanderer and Lyar not fit for the Communion of such much less to be a Teacher of any People pretending to Christianity The 19th Day of the 10th Month. 74. After waiting many days having a great desire to have heard of his eyes being open to see his great Sin herein as saith the Prophet Amos 5. 12. I know your manifold Transgressions and your mighty Sins they afflict the Just It was in my heart to clear my Conscience publickly amongst you but my expected Opportunitie being disappointed by one of your Meeting denying to inform me where you intended to be Assembled it entered into my heart to commit my Message unto you into writing Oh People In bowels of tender Love to you I beseech you to consider the evil and danger of that Spirit that slandereth and belieth the Innocent as your Teacher hath herein done and have a care I warn you least he begetteth the same
Spirit in you And in a Conscientious discharge of my Duty to God and you I hereby bear my Testimony against what your Teacher hath written to be most detestable Slander proceeding from the old cursed Enmity of the Serpents Seed against the Seed of the Woman and I do in seriousness of Spirit hereby call upon you to consider of the state of your Souls and the sad danger you are in to be seduced by this sort of men into that detestable Spirit that hereby they have manifested to be in them having long known you and been of your number I am the more concerned for you and do beseech you to examine your Condition after so many years talk of Christ and Salvation by him I must tell you your Building is but on the Sand and the Rock you know not for you know that when the Winds blew and Waves beat upon you of Persecution you fled in that Winter there was no courage for God amongst you but you fled from your Testimony manifesting by your fainting in the day of Adversity that your strength was but small And I must clear my Conscience towards you that for many years in many places of this City made such a noise concerning Religion and when the hour of tryal came fled and turned your backs on your Testimony the cause is this your Building is on the Sand and so like the wicked you oft fled when none persued so captivated were you by the fear of man I know and your Consciences know how you consulted your fleshly Ease and Interests and fled the Cross Consider I earnestly intreat you how it came to be thus with you Men have seduced you into a false Faith and false Hope and the God and Christ you talk of I testifie unto you you know not and so in the hour of tryal how should you stand that know not the Rock Oh ye backslidden People thus it is with you whether you will hear or forbear this is the word of the Lord unto you even a Lye is in your Right hand while you are talking of Christ his Death and Sufferings and Resurrection and Justification by him yet being rebellious against his Light in you you are ignorant of and strangers to him and so truly I see and am sensible of your sad danger even to be seduced by your Teacher to stumble at the Foundation fall and perish for ever Oh that ever the Teacher of All hollows witness-bearing People should enter into a Confederacy with the worst of men against the Innocent Holy People of God for such are they who by him and his Colleagues are so Reviled I say a People sanctified by Faith in Christ Jesus Oh People the Lord hath a sore and terrible dreadful Controversie with you for you are as the Cauldron the Prophet speaks of with its great scum in it so it is with you the fire hath not purified you but you retain your scum of Pride Fleshly-ease and Sensuality Formality in Religion and Conformity to the world Oh that it should be thus with you after such a day as God hath brought amongst you Now I am to tell you of one great depth of Sathan whereby you have been seduced for which the wrath of God Almighty is against you and that is your offering Sacrifice when God calleth you to Service In that your Practice of keeping those Days in a way of Fasting and Prayer when God calleth you to testifie against their Superstitious Observation your Teacher aforehand tells you that such a day you will have a diversion from your Callings and therefore apoints it to be spent in Fasting and Prayer thus if any Testimony exposeth you to Sufferings you to shun the Cross to offer Sacrifice you agree O depth of Deceipt Oh ye Antients of that Congregation there was a day when your beloved John Symson exhorted you to open your shops on such days as a Testimony God required yâ—u to bear against Superstition and I have heard him reprove the neglect of it in these words I passed along the Streets such a day and scarce fee one shop open being the 25th day of the 10th Month and lamented it and reproved you for it Oh you Back-sliders compare this with the Spirit of your present Teacher Oh what a filthy pickle you are in that have thus long wallowed in your mire the Lord abhors you and all your Fastings and Prayers even as the Prophet said to degenerated Israel of old this is the word of the Lord unto you Oh People Zech. 7. 5. Speak unto all the People of the Land and to the Priests and say when ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh Month even the seventy Years did ye fast unto me did appoint it I this day testifie unto you these 14 or 15 years ye have not fasted unto the Lord but to your selves to your own Bellyes to preserve your fleshly ease and interests and it is no better than the cutting off the dogs neck or offering Swines blood Consider this Oh ye Houlers and hear as in the sight of God that justifieth me in it and requireth it of me I charge it upon you that call your selves Churches to be guilty of thickning the Veil of Darkness upon the minds of the People of this age by your deserting your Testimony against Superstition and running away in the day of suffering Oh ye Hypocrites when God calls you to a publick Testimony against Popish Observations you run into corners and keep a houling of your fears of the dark night of Popery coming upon the Nation I know your doings in the dark the Righteous God hereby chargeth it upon you to be guilty of making gross and thick the Veil of Darkness upon the minds of People in this day and in his Fear I charge it upon you Woe woe unto you from the jealous God of Israel that out of Sion this day roareth and uttereth his voice from Jerusalem against you Oh ye evil doers that have run into Corners Cole holes Closets or on tops of houses through Valleys from one house to another enquired after and consulted to have back doors and all to escape the Crosâ— Oh blush that ever men should be so impudent as to appear in this day to admonish the People that have so acted their part Now no wonder your Teacher joyns his hand with that notorious Enemy to God and Reformation R. Baxter who hath strained his wits on that Teynters to reduce this age into Aegyptian Darkness witness his Cure for Church Divisions wherein he hath condemned the Saints and Martyrs of all ages and no doubt but Ed. Bagshaw that so honestly opposed him was counted with these 25 Moniters a Reverend Divine but to pass them Oh how can I but lament that the people of Allhollows should be entered into this most detestable confederacy against the work of God in this day Oh you whom God hath emptied from Vessel to Vessel and hewed some of you to piece
and all to humble you and purifie you but alass you are turned into the degenerate plant of a strange Vine to him Jer. 2. 21. yea you are the people that having been smitten have not received correction v. 3. Oh people this is your state and as he saith v. 9. he will yet plead with you Now clearly seeing the sad danger you are in even suddenly to rush your selves â—nto an irrecoverable state by being begotten by your Teacher into a Spirit of enmity against the Lords heritagâ— which is the work of the Devil in this day in and by various Instruments and the Devil set awork these 25 Moniters to slander and reproach the holy people of God to prejudice you and others against them and their holy Testimony I hereby warn you of the danger you are in and in obedience to the requirement of the God in whose hand is my breath and to whom I must give account of all done in the body in opposition to them and all such as they are I hereby testâ—fie that the pâ—ople they slander are the Israel of God a holy unblameable people whose design in the world is the glory of God and the salvation of mens souls for which they have hazarded their all when none of these Moniters durst shew themselves and amongst them I am a witness is preacht sound Doctrine and not to be reproved the same salvation and way of obtaining it that as the Apostle said began first to be spoken by the Lord and after by them that heard him and I here testifie unto you that you are their enemies because you know them not but did you see them in themselves stript of the false dresses of Faldoe and these Moniters and all such as they there is so much honesty in many of you that a love would arise in you to them yea you would lay hold on their skirt and their God should be your God A zeal is in my heart towards God and in pity to poor deluded people by these wicked men and therefore beseech you and all people to consider your state and take heed to your Spirit as was the antient exhortation of Esay the Prophet so to you all I say Oh harden not your heart by continuing in your provocation And to you in particular once more I say consider your state and be honest and true to your selves you know not how short your time may be oh be not bewitched by corrupt men but consider what was the cause you could not stand in the hour of tryal but for fear of a Constable or Soldiers ran away from your Prayers and Preachments yea from your Bread and Wine too that you call a Sealing Ordinance of your eternal Inheritance but you have manifested what a sense you have of the vallew of an eternal Inheritance in your taking your evidences unsealed rather than expose your bodies to a Prison or shame amongst men there is that in you that sheweth you that if you would do your selves justice you would confess you love your bellye 's more than God seek the well-fare of your bodyes not your souls Oh repent and be converted that you may know a blotting out of your sins Oh ye Summer-fruit if you reform not your lives the next winter of snow and frost of Persecution ye will all drop again as rotten fruit fit for nothing but the dunghill as Christ saith of the unsavory salt therefore even as was said to them of old Rev. 3 18. I councel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire or I assure you if you know not a purging of the dross from the silver you will never be vessels for the Finer Prov. 25. 41. But depart from me ye cursed I know you not will be the dreadful portion of all of you so now I proceed to examin somwhat of the Moniters Epistle which I testifie against to be a Compound of Lies and Slanders sufficient to send all those to hell that shall swallow the least dose of it Not that I intend a general answer to it that would swell to a large Volume so to rip it up and respond to it but as to that part of it that once my self being infected with and thereby prejudiced against the holy people of God and their Testimony the Lies I once believed I am now to testifie against truly I believed them not simply of my self but as they were influenc'd into me by such persons as these as no doubt is into you and in Conscience towards God and his dear People that I say these Moniters have falsely represented and detestably slandered I thus proceed 21. MONITERS Excepting some juggling Socinianized Persons or Papists that assume their Name HEre they plainly endeavour to incinuate into peoples minds that we are in Affinity with the Papists and have Papists amongst us This horrid Slander and Lye I once believed through the like Incinuations of such and some of these men Now indeed the deadly Venome of their Monition Lyes here being the old Weapon whereby they have for many years endeavoured to destroy our Reputation and thereby our Being in the Land of our Nativity and truly these men consider not in their heart that God remembreth all their Iniquity Hos 2. 7. and so they go on to drink up iniquity as the Ox drinks water and in this matter they have been so manifestly proved Lyars that were they not the impudent Sons of Jezebel the Seducer Rev. 2. 20. they would never have raged thus more exccepting that God will have them discovered to be of the same Spirit with their Brethren in New England for these 25 Moniters are a Complication of Presbyterians and Independants and it is to be perpetuated as most requisite for the Information of succeeding Ages That it was Preaching Praying Fasting Presbyterians and Independants that Murthered the Saints in New England Now in this horrid Impious Incinuation of us to be Popish they yet manifest the depth of Villany Hos 6. 10. that lodgeth in their Hearts to incinuate this afresh into Peoples minds but Lyes are their Refuge as Needham used to say of their Enemies This Lye was their Weapon 1659 when they put forth their Monition in this City Now that through so much Tryal and Tribulation since even to the general satisfaction of Magistrate and Subject the contrary hath been manifested These Men herein I Charge 1. With most horrid impudency and malice 2. To be manifestly hereby convicted to have a design to debauch the Peoples minds in perswading them to believe the contrary to their experience and what is repugnant to the conviction of their Conscience contrary to experience that sometimes these Moniters will say is the best Teacher herein they are chargeable with Debauchery and better for their work sake merit the termâ— Debauchers than Divines This looks Pope like that people must not see with their own eyes It is sufficiently known how oft Baxter hath flown up and down the Nation in