it was brought which might be enough to make a Sober Man admire what I or we did mean so to do But to be short the reason why that Scripture was brought was in answer to him who stood there to affirm Thâ—t Christ as Man was the only material Saviour without joyning the Godhead with the Manhood which place of Scripture I judge was very pertinent to that master shewing that though the Apostles had known Christ after the Flesh yet now henceforth said he kâ—ow we him no more 2 Cor. 5.16 So that of necessity the true sensibâ—e knowledge that any Man could have of Christ for the future time must be in Spiâ—it according to what Christ himself had promised wherein he said He that is with you shall be in you and again he saith in John 16.7 It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you And in the 13th Vers When he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth The next place of Scripture which he saith I repeated was the 1 Cor. 6.11 where the Apostle saith But ye are washed but ye are justified by the Spirit of God and farther he asserts that I Queriâ—d Why they meaning us might not be washed and justified by the Spirit now as well as others heretofore To which part of his reply was That I never had the Spirit of God in me and to prove it he layes down three Arguments the which I here sleight as not worth the mentioning only this I look upon as worth the noting and I would have them that reads his Book take notice of it in Pag. 65 66 67. where his Charge or Accusation concerning me as abovesaid is mentioned His Charge runs thus That I never had the Spirit of God in me and his proof is only a recharging me in different terms That I have not the Spirit of God in me his Charge in both most uncharitably excludes me from the Spirit of God saying thou never had it it is not in thee And in the other two â—f his censorious judgings his words are hast not and have â—ot Now I say a Man would think that he looking upon himself so wise and so learned as it appears by his Book he does that he should not have repeated such proofless and false Accusations as that I never had the Spirit of God in me which I know through the mercy of God he cannot prove while he lives yet what satisfaction could this be to the People that heard To the Question Propounded the Apostle speaks of some that were bad Sinners as we may read in the 1 Cor. 10.11 But they were Washed and Sanctified and Justified in the Name of the Lord Jâ—sus and by the Spirit of God And the Question to this purpose was why we might not be Washed and Justified now as well as others heretofore This Quâ—stion ought to have been answered directly to because it is commonly spoken of by many in the World that there is no Revelation now adays and no freedom from in on this side the Grave and if so then indeed there were no Spiritual Washing nor Cleansing from Sin in these days as in days past But this I have to say and through the mercy of God am a Witness of that Revelation is not ceased now adays for God hath shewed by his Spirit or Light in the Heart of Man in these days the things that belong unto his Peace he shews unto Man now as in days past that he should do Justly love Mercy and walâ— humbâ—y with the Lord and this Revelation or Manifestation of God by his Spirit or Light in the Heart and Consciences of People is very precious and by taking heed unto this Light within or measure of the Spirit or Grace of God which is all one and the same thing though called by several Names and by loving and obeying it I believe many are come to depart from Sin and Iniquity and come by it to find and feel the true peace fo God And so herein the true Spiritual Washing and Cleansing from Sin is known and witnessed ye even by the powerful working of the Spirit of God in Man But for all his bad Words and hard Speeches which he hath cast not only at me but at the Light within also which may be plainly seen in his Book I can leave him to the Lord to answer for it to whom every Man must give an account for the Deeds done in the Body be they Good or Evil. Now I having answered to his three false Accusations mentioned in the beginning which he in his Book hath cast at me I would have it considered by the Reader whether that which he hath cast at me be not come upon himself Namely where he hath striven to baffle the Apostles meanings to his own Words and give another meaning to them then the Apostle himself there doth where he saith Christ in you the Hope of Glory this Man to wit Sampson Bond calls this an inforced sense and saith It doth destroy the true nature of the Word HOPE Now I would have it well considered by the Reader who hath baffled he or I I that own the Apostles Words or he that has so far disowned them as his Words above mentioned hath made appear And where it is in all his Book that I have either baffled or prated unsound Words that I have not given a sound reason for what I have said to him ought to have been made appear But this I have to say to all People that are not yet convinced of the Truth as my Testimony for it That he or they that hath not Christ in them to wit his Spirit in them their hope of Glory cannot come to know the true living hope of true Glory in them let them Profess what they will And for this many places of Scriptures may be brought to prove As First The Apostles own Words before mentioned Coll. 1.27 where he faith Christ in you the hope of Glory Secondly Christs own Words John 15.5 For without me you can do nothing Thirdly In Phil. 2.13 For it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Fourthly Where the Apostle saith Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 4.6 And God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father Fifthly In Rom. 8.24 We are saved by Hope Sixthly Rom. 8.9 He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Seventhly It is clear that they that are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God as in Rom. 8.14 where the Apostle saith As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God Eighthly The hope of the Wicked is to
their Hats a practice never used by the Christians in former Ages that ever we Read off and to bow and scrape and such like this its like would please thee well and for want of this I judge thou art so filled with Envy against the Innocent who cannot bow to thy proud Spirit nor cannot respect persons knowing that it is contrary to the Faith of the Lord Jesus and contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostle James who saith He that respects persons commits sin and is Judged of the Law as a Transgressor Jam. 2.1.9 And because we cannot thus stoop to the proud Spirit and bow to the Exalted will who lovest to have the preminence therefore it is that thou are so filled with madness against us calling us a proud People a People of a surely Dumb Scurvy Sneaking Deportment and Carriage making us to appear to thy hearers or at least to as to many of them as will believe thee that we were the worst of Men but this is no new thing to be reviled for the Christians in the Primitive times were accounted by the World as the off-scowring of all things so we are contented to bear thy Reproaches Railing and Reviling Speeches knowing we are not above our Lord whom thou hast Reproached with as Reproachful Terms as thou canst find to cast upon us his Servants So I leave thee it this particular to the Lord to Judge thee who will reward every one according to their Works And Proceed to the Scripture mentioned by S. B. in page 46. where he saith I brought in the behalf of my Clyant the false Christ thus Doubling and redoubling his Blasphemies to the filling up the measure of his iniquity the Scripture is Joh 1.7 The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all unrighteâ—â—sness and because these Words seem to him too like a Quaker therefore after his usual manner because he cannot alter the words he will make his interpretation thereof to serve his turn and so turns all only outward Christ outward and Blood outward and Cleansing outward viz. from the Pain or punishment of Sin as is clear page 47. so perswading poor Innocent People that the Word of Life which made the World and preserves all things by the Word of his Power is such a thing or Person that might be seen with a visible Eye and whose voice might be heard with the outward Ear contrary to the Words of Christ to the Jews who did see the Body and heard the outward voice yet the same Jesus doth Testifie they neither had heard the voice of God nor seen his shape and farther he saith that God was manifest to three of the outward sences and so Lodowick Mugleton's God is S. Bs. God who said his God had Arms and Shoulders as he had and this appears to be S. B's Faith that the God head was manifest Flesh real Mankind Flesh as in page 41. so that he would have the Efficacy of the Blood extend no farther at the utmost then to take off the Punishment of Sin which is contrary to the Apostle in Heb. 9.14 Where he saith The Blood of Christ purgeth the Conscience from Dead works to serve the living God And whereas S. B. would make his interpretation seem good by the following Words if we say we have no sin we are Lyers by this he would make People believe that notwithstanding all the cleansing there spoken of yet sin remains and they are Lyers that deny it to which I give answer I do not so understand the Words but rather if any shall deny that they have any sin and so consequently that they have no need of cleansing they are Lyers and I have just reason so to Judge after the Apostle had farther Enlarged his Testimony concerning Cleansing in the last verse he speaketh thus if we say we have not sinned speaking of the time past and not of any present being of sin For indeed if there were no sin there were no need of a Saviour no need of a Sacrifice but this we do believe by Nature all are Sinners defiled with sin and children of wrath having the Heart and Soul defiled with Works of unrighteousness but now being washed and Cleansed from all unrighteousness what doeth or can remain when all is taken away then the Soul must needs confess to the Truth that he hath sinned and this must needs be the meaning otherwise the Apostle would be found contradicting his own Doctrine Chap. 3.9 He that is Born of God doth not commit sin and saith farther He cannot sin because born of God In page 48. S. B. saith he asked me a question viz. whether the Saints was cleansed from all sin by the water of regeneration or by the Blood of Justification To the which he saith I answered by the Water which he saith caused many People to Laugh Answer Of this Question I remember not one Word nor of the answer thereto annexed only this I very well remember that when I spoke of the opperation of the Blood of Cleansing he looking to the People said it was never known that ever the Blood of Christ ever cleansed any Man from Sin but he said it was the Water and said we deny the Water But having here an opportunity I do bear forth my Testimony according to the Scripture 1 Joh 5.8 There are three that bear Record on Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one so that this I believe that the Spirit Water and Blood do agree in one in their operation in Washing and cleansing the Soul from sin and there is three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost The next Scripture Alledged he saith was Heb. 10.15 But a Body hast thou prepared me to which Scripture several of us strictly urged an answer viz. who that me was for whom the Body was prepared although in his Book he said he answered that it was the God head of the Son yet I remember very well how he was at that time greviously confounded about it and no other answer could we receive from him at that time so far as I remember but this viz. by me was meant the Body though urged over and over though now after better consideration he hath brought forth a smoother answer in his Book And whereas in page 49. he saith that the Leading Quakers hath brought forth in Print that this prepared Body was prepared in Heaven and brought with him into the Virgins Womb which Body he saith that they the Leading Quakers calls a mistical Invisible Spiritual Heavenly Body of Flesh and Blood and that the mistical Invisible Body is the true and only Saviour whose Birth Death Resurrection and Glorification is only Mistical and Invisible Reply I am perswaded if this Priest had known any Quaker that had so written as concerning that prepared Body of the Son of God he had not so little Enmity in him but he would have brought forth his
to be their Guide and their Instructor and their Leader and in the Spirit they were to Worship the Father and this is the word of Faith even Christ the begetter of Faith in the Heart and must be believed in and obeyed and walked up to according to his Inward Moons and requirings which always moveth and leadeth into the things that is good and maketh manifest the Evil and reproveth for it and this is not received by Natural Generation but by the Inspiration of the Almighty which is Light which shines in our Hearts and gives the knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ and this Spirit Life and Power dwelt in the Son of God without measure but in the Saints in measure and this is he by which the Saints are Sanctified and do receive full assurance of the everlasting unchangeable Inheritance and this is wrought by degrees by the same Spirit by which the Saints are continually given up to Death to dye to Sin to dye to the Flesh to dye to the World that the Life of Jesus may be made Manifest in their Mortal Bodies And the Manifestation of this Spirit being given to every Man to profit withal and we believing that every Man hath Received a Measure of this pure Light according to Joh. 1.9 therefore do we direct People to turn in their Minds to this Heavenly Principle this Heart searching Light that makes Manifest Sin and Transgression and leads the Soul out of Captivity from under the Power thereof and these things we declare and Exhort People to submit unto the same for herein only is the true Spiritual Worship witnessed And now S. B. what wilt thou say Wilt thou judge this is to deny Christ or to make him a Lyer who was truly God or to make the Holy Spirit a Lyer to whom we thus Testifie or to make the Angels Lyers who Testified to him as a King whose Kingdom was not of this World or to make the Apostles Lyers who bare so large a Testimony to his Spiritual appearance I know and am sure had thou received thy Message from the Lord or ever walked in the Path of the Righteouss thou wouldst have had another Message to declare then any yet I can see come from thee Now all the Scriptures that S. B. brings to prove his charge they are such as proves the same Jesus to be the Saviour who was one with the Father And however these Testimonies of Christ the Spirit the Angels and Apostles seems to speak of the outward Man yet thereby we cannot understand it any otherwise then as he was the Christ and Saviour of the World who dwelt in the Father and the Father in him and the words he Spoke they were not his but the Fathers that sent him But he goes on to Revile the Light with his common term of Idol which Idols and Idolatrous practises was ever hateful unto God But the more he Reproaches it the more he doth heap up Vengeance upon his own Head to be Executed upon him in the day of the Lord. The next thing to he considered was a Sentence of Scripture Spoken by Will Harriot in denyal of the Priests false charge concerning our Mâ—etings saying The Apostle Travelled in Biraâ—h for the Gallations till Christ was formed in them which words he Spoke without naming Chap. and ver for which he derides him and calls him Impertinent Simpleton and with all he Glories that he could readily point at the Chap. and ver to which I answer is this any point of Religion Is it any matter of Salvation Is it nor rather a chief part of thy Trade which thou hast been Exercised in more then twenty years and peradventure Received for thy Hire several hundred pounds worth and this is contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and agreeable with the Practise of Balaam who Loved the wages of Unrighteousness now it were a shaâ—e for thee Trading with the Scripture so long and not to have thy Trade perfect The Scripture was Gal. 4.19 The which Scripture this Reviling Priest makes use off to Reproach the Light thus If when Paul writ to the Gallations Christ was to be formed in them then the Light in every Man the Quakers Rotten Principle which is in every Man by Natural Generation he saith is not the True Christ Rep. In defiance of this Heavenly Principle I say thou art an Ignorant Man for this Light is of a more Noble Birth and Generation for it is of Gods own begetting and so not of a Flâ—shly Generation for that which is Born of the Flesh is Flesh but that which is Born of the Spirit is Spirit And it is one thing to have this principle in them and another thing to be in Union with it it is one thing to have it in a Man and another thing to be formed into its likeness now none can Witness the formings of Christ in them but such as do receive Christ the Light they and only they receive Power to become Children of the most High God even they that believe in his Name which is the Power by which Christ Jesus was raised up from the Dead and such who by Faith lay hold on the Power the Word of Life the quickning Spirit by which the Saints are begotten again into Christs Nature and Christs own Nature raised up in them and so is Christs Word fulfilled you in me and I in you And thus to know Christ is not to deny the Body which suffered and Rose again for the Saints which Testified of the Man did also bear Witness to the Spirit which was their Guide and Leader and Instructer and Saviour and Saved them from the Body of Death and Power of Darkness and Law of Sin and Mortified Sin in them and their Vile affections which were upon the Earth was Subdued by the Spirit of Christ and they came to know him to be the quickning Spirit quickning and Enlivening them and raising them up to sit in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus so Old things were Witnessed to pass away and all things to become new new Nature Will new Assertions new Desires new all New The next thing to be considered is his Ridged sencering of Will. Harriot with his Fellow Seducers as he calls them Pag. 59 60 61. In which he shews his Persecuting Spirit in passing such a Sentance as Whipping for no other Transgression then to deny such a Doctrine as is not truly grounded upon the Scripture and not only so but in divers particulars contrary to the Scripture And for this he takes the Scripture for his Rule Joh. 2.13 And Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the Temple those that Sold Oxen and when he had made a Whip of small Cords he drove them out of the Temple and said unto them make not my Fathers House a House of Marchandice Now Mark what ground hath he or can he rightly gather from hence to punish a Man with Corporal punishment for matter of
the only Saviour Was Christ sent without the Father Did he Rise from the dead without the Fathers Power for our Justification Doth Christ only reconcile the World without God But we do confess that Jesus Christ was an Offering for the Sins of the whole World and so he suffered in the Flesh and was quickned by the Spirit and is alive and lives for evermore and so dyed for our Sins and rose for our Justification S. B. Blasphemous words Idol-Light within Page 29. Old Popish-trick Carnal-Prophetess as Carnal-Gospellers Anti-Gospellers I charge S. B. to prove these foul Words of his by Scripture S. B. Quakers Light within is but the Pope without If the Quakers Light of Christ within had been the Pope without as in Page 27. then the Pope and the Papists would never have imprisoned and persecuted the Quakers to Death like the New-England Priests and Professors have done and S. B. would not have blasphemed so against the Light And now all people consider doth not S. B. keep all people in darkness and in a reprobate State for he saith Christ within is a Devil and the Light of Christ is an Idol seducing Quakers confounding Dogs and Swine and a wretched desire to blot out of our Hearts the Blessed Name to wit Jesus all these are S. B's Lyes Again S. B. saith the Idol-Light within Obedience to the Light that unbloody Redeemer the Pope without is become the Quakers Light within Page 32. But Reader didst thou ever read such Lyes and wicked Language against the Light within and against the Quakers the Children of the Light who are redeemed by the Blood of Christ And again Frank's Seducers Titular disputant and Christs Humane Nature What Scripture hath S. B. to prove these words which he saith is his Rule but shews none as Page 34 35. And again he saith That a Quakers Saviour within is not the true Christ Surely thou canst not be so Bruitish â—s to think so but rather the contrary that is the false Christ the Devil S. B. if thou hadst been in the days of the Apostles who told the Saints Christ was in them except they were Reprobates thou would'st have said as much to them When W. B. said to S. B. That the Light makes manistest which so troubled S. B. that he said He th ught that W. B. his loud lowing and bellowing was to prevent him of asking where these Words might be sound in Scripture which he says he did forbear to ask Was this a good answer for Priest Bond Instead of answering W. B. he gives him foul Words Page 37. The Light within thee is the true not the false Christ I hope Saith S. B. Thou art not such a BULLOCK as to think it to be the true Christ Page 38. and 39. Deceivers Antichrists Smoak-Coale If Christ be not in his People by his Light Grace and Faith c. Then Priest Bond would not have spoken so many ill words against Christ and his Light within Page 40. Bonds bad words seducing Quakers seducing Quakers Deceivers and Antichrists Then he saith They are of the Dragon and Beast making War against the Lamb do deny Jesus Christ of Nazareth to be the Christ c. These are all horrid Lyes from Priest Bonds foul mouth For Christ we own as is said before and his Lyes are sent home again Pr. Bond. says THOU and YOU is Diabolical to Idolize as the Quakers do THOU and THEE making it the dayly fuel for your levelling inflamed Pride This Bruitish kind of practice see if Priest Bond be not full of Pride who cannot endure the word Thee and Thou which is so frequently practiced in Scripture which he calls his Rule A Quaker who denies the Trinity c. but he hath not proved the Three persons nor the word Trinity in Scripture which he calls his Rule Page 43. Pr. Bond Page 44. A Shame to be of your Sneaking Surly Dum and Scurvy Carriage Unwritten Scripture that Idol-Light within Page 44. Deceit Blasphemy Pride Foolishness of these four Links hath Satan made your Chain of darkness your Idolized Thou and Thee Spring of your Scurvy and Surly deportment Thus poor Ignorant ones are deluded by your equivocations the Quakers is a Conscience of obeying his proud Lusts and of disobeying Gods inspired Laws for a Quaker boldly to Blaspheme Page 45. These are Priest Bond 's Slanderous Words and Lyes The Light within is written Scripture which he saith is unwritten Scripture as you may see in 2 Cor. 4. which he blasphemously calls your Idol Light and did the Apostles Idolize Thee and Thou when they frequently used it Priest Bonds foul words You are possessed with the infernal Spirit of superlative Pride against Jesus F. E. makes another motion on the behalf of his Client the false Christ Saviour within c. To wit The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all Sin Page 46. Here you may see the false Language of Priest Bond For doth not the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God Cleanse from all sin And if Christ be not in him is he not a Reprobate But Priest Bond saith that F. E. left out some part of the Scripture to wit His Son but Priest Bond himself hath left out more but what will serve his own Turn And as for his Lyes and filthy Language he may take it to himself S. B. saith Sundry persons laught at Francis to wit when they were disputing of the things of God Page 48 Page 49. he says the Idol-Light Christ within the Word Humane comprehends both Soul and Body Page 49. But Priest Bond hath not proved with his Idol light within Christs Soul and Body to be humane by the Scripture is not the Soul Immortal And is the Soul of Christ humane and is humane Immortal And in Page 50. Priest Bond is at humane nature again and humane and humane but Priest Bond hath not proved by Scriptures any of these words which he saith is his Rule Priest Bond The Manichees Doctrine namely That Christ brought from Heaven an Invisible Body of Flesh and Blood into the Womb of the Virgin Undoubtedly the Quakers have drunk in this Poison originally from them to advance the Idol light within This Poison comes out of Priest Bonds Bottle and he may take it home again not the Quakers For we own the true Jesus Christ as both the Angel and the Apostles have declared his Conception Birth c. as he was of the Seed of David c. Pr. Bond This seducing Teacher doth not confess Jesus Christ of Nazareth the Idol Light within Juggling Cheat c. Page 52. These are Priest Bonds horrid Lies and Blasphemy Christs flesh glorified in Heaven above which precious Truths are worth nothing in the account of a Quaker These are Priest Bonds Lies And yet Priest Bond saith That the Quakers do believe in Christs Body of Flesh and Blood and that he did dye for sin and rose again and that he is mans only Saviour See
than he or any of the persecuting Priests in New-England who make a Trade of them and keep people always under Teaching that they may be always paying of them And Priest Bond saith The spirits are to be tryed by the Scriptures and not the Scriptures by the Spirit page 92. And in page 93. He contradicts himself and confounds all again The Holy and Blessed Spirit of God is above all Tryal Priest Bond saith We deny the written Scripture to be a witness-bearer to your Light within See how Ignorant he is of the Scripture 2 Cor. 4. God who commanded the Light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give us the Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Mark the Light that shines in the heart that is the Light within that the Scriptures bear witness too But I perceive the God of this World hath blinded Priest Bond 's eye And how can any man come to the knowledge of God and Christ without the Light of Christ within shining in their hearts And Priest Bond falls on rayling Idol light within page 94. Seducing Quakers Idol light of your own addle brains Soul-deceivers ye would lay a foundation of your own humane inventions And yet Priest Bond calls Christs Body humane which is his own Invention and not Scripture And unbloody Light within Idolized light hath no more real blood in it than there is in the Transubstantiated blood of your Popish Brethren Here the Reader may see what a rage and madness Priest Bond is in against the Light of Christ And as for Popish Brethren Priest Bond 's language bewrays him he is nearer to them than the Quakers And S. B. confesses in page 95. That the Word of God was manifest through Adam and to Cain and to Noah Our Light within is the Light of Christ the Word by which all things were made and created and in him was Life and that Life was the Light of men And this the Scriptures witness But Priest Bond saith The whimsey called Light within is the new devised ground of Faith Christ who doth inlighten every man that cometh into the World saith Believe in the Light that you may become Children of the Light And Christ is the author and finisher of our Faith and the Light of Christ that he bids us believe in is no Whimsey which Priest Bond blasphemes against And in Page 96. Priest Bond makes a great pudder about the Soul of Man and he saith That the Quakers say the Soul of Man is God in part which are not the Quakers words And then he saith the Soul cannot be God No Quakers ever said so S. B. saith The Soul of Man was made after Gods Image It is a true Image it is a very near and likely Image which appears not only in the spiritual and immortal nature of it c. All pure and righteous conformed to Gods will the Soul is a Spirit c. page 98. And when Priest Bond hath rambled over a great deal of Pages about the Soul this he is made to confess and the Quakers say God breathed into Man the Breath of Life and he became a living soul And so is not the Soul part of his Breath And Priest Bond confesses the Soul is a Spirit and then is it not part of Gods Spirit from him And the Light in Man which is the Life of Christ the Word by whom all things are made Priest Bond saith must be the Principle of true Religion in the Devils and damned Oh hellish Divinity and Doctrine for even the Devils and damned live and move c. page 96. These are Priest Bond 's false conclusions The Light which is the Life in Christ the Word they that hate the Light their deeds are evil and the Light is their condemnation for it condemns the Devil who abode not in the Truth in whom there is no Truth S. Bond saith That the Quaker doth conclude that the invisible and Infinite Godhead is divided into parts Then he cries thus senseless are they of the gross absurdities But we charge S. B. to quote the Book or the Man that ever said the Godhead is devided into parts Then S. B. falls a railing in page 99. The Idol light within And in page 90. he makes many Comparisons with his railing words betwixt the Quakers and the Papists Quakers light within Quakers light within infallible Light within infallible Spirit within erroneous high blasphemy Thus Priest Bond is in a rage and a fury against the Light of Christ and his Infallible Spirit within But I ask Priest Bond and all his fellow Priests whether the Light of Christ and his Spirit within and his Holy Ghost be infallible yea or nay And whether he can call Jesus Lord without the Holy-Ghost and whether he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is Christs yea or nay And what Brightman said of the Pope Priest Bond may take it home to himself And in page 98. The Quakers Light within his Pope without These are scornful expressions and his Lies In page 99 and an 100. Priest Bond saith the Quakers denying of the Trinity or Three persons in one Deity Three persons in one Godhead Gen. 1. Let us make man c. But hath not Priest Bond made Four here Three persons in one Deity and one Godhead S. Bond saith No Man hath seen â—od at any time Then how can he tell he is a Person then and Christ saith He is a Spirit He saith The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are declared three Witnesses c. And why cannot Priest Bond own them so but give other names to them Bu◠〈◊〉 all these Pages Priest Bond hath not proved his word Trinity nor Three Persâ—ns The Scripture mentions Christs Person but it doth not say a Trinity in Three Persons Is not Priest Bond ashamed to say That Scripture is his Rules and cannot prove his word Trinity or Three Persons by Scripture or in the Scripture But the Quakers according to the Scripture do believe that there is Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy-Ghost and these three are one mark are one which we own And there are three that bear witness in the earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood and these three agree in one which we own in 1 John 5.8 And Priest Bond goes on in his course of railing Atheistical and Idol light within which the Romish Nebuchadnezzar set up in teaching Quakers the Devil hath inspired S. B. Thus to blaspheme against the Light of Christ in his people and yet he makes people believe that he would dye for the Name of Jesus and dye like the glorious Martirs of Jesus whereas he is persecuting the true Lord Jesus of Nazareth in his people like Saul and blaspheming against the Light of Christ within his people which they believe in which shines in their hearts to give them the light of the knowledge of the
Salvation had been wholy perfected by the â—ody without the Spirit of Christ then our Faith and Hope should have stood there but the same Apostle saith Our Faith and Hope is to stand in God 1 Pet. 1.21 And the Apostle to the Hebrews saith The Hope that anchors the Soul enters within the Vail Heb. 6.19 And John did bear witness to the Word which was in the beginning John 1.1 which Word the World was made by and saith of it that it was God in this Word was Life Vers 4. and the Life was the Light of Men and this was the Light which that Faithful Witness of God John bore witness to That is the true Light that Enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World Vers 9. So People that which enlighteneth both you and us and every Man that cometh into the World is not a Natural Light as some say the Priest sometimes nor yet the Light of the Devil as the Priest saith othertimes but it is the Light of him that made the World as V. 10. and this is he that was made Flesh V. 14. the Word was made Flesh dwelt amongst us we beheld his glory the glory as of the onely begotten Son of God full of Grace Truth So here John bears a full Testimony to the Saviour of the World and so do we who is the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World it is not said he takes away the Guilt oâ— Condemnation of Sin only but the Sin it self thus do we believe in him So let People judge whether this be not the true Christ So here John did not bear Record to a Body only but to the â—nal Power and Godhead so the Apostle Heb. 10.5 bears witness to him for whom the Body was prepared saying a Body hast thou prepared me to do thy will O God So it is clear that this Body was prepared for him that was before that Body was this was he who David in Spirit called Lord saying The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my Right Hand till I have made thine Enemies thy Foot-stool And in the 2 Cor. 5.19 the Apostle gives this Testimony God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself And Jesus himself said before Abraham was I am and in another place He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also So let any one judge that hath a good Understanding whether any of the Witnesses of Christ did ever bear witness against the Spirit in the Salvation of Man but doth truly and really bear a living Testimony to the Spirit Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death now at that time when Paul cryed out of the Body of Death he was a Believer and was come so far as to a willing mind to serve the Lord but yet the Captivating Spirit was felt the Law in the Members in which state Paul did not sit down in a belief of Christ at a distance only as People now a days do but crys out for Deliverance even from the Body of Death and afterward testifies to the Law of the Spirit saying The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of Sin and Death So here is Salvation witnessed indeed he did not say Sin must live in him while he had a Body but saith Christ liveth in me Gal 2.20 And it is through the Spirit that Sin is mortified Rom. 8.13 and in Rom. 10.8 The Apostle testifies to Christ nigh and not to Christ at a distance saying The Word is nigh thee in the Mouth and in the Heart and in the 2 Cor. 13.5 Examin your selves whether ye be in the Faith try your selves know ye not your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates and in Col. 1.27 Which is Christ in you the hope of Glory For it is no other then that Christ the Saints did believe in in dayes by past It is his Spiritual indwelling in us through which we come to be sanctified and cleaâ—sed from Sin and the Comforter the Spirit of Truth which Christ promised to send to his Disciples which they were to wait for at Jerusalem and accordingly they did receive it and this dwelt in them to direct them into all Truth and so it was not a Spirit without them or a Christ without them only but within according as Christ said John 17.14 He dwelleth with you ond shall be in you And the Apostle testified in his day Christ was in the Saints who was their Hope of Glory and this hope purified their Hearts in whom it dwelt and Anchored their Souls in that which is sure and stâ—dfast and in him is our hope and confidence who we believe is able to save to the utmost all that come unto God by him And so People it is in the Name of Jesus we Witness Salvation which is his Power to which comeing we Witness Salvation thereby and so we know not another Name through which Salvation is Witnessed but through this Name and this is he whom we declare of who is not far from us and the efficacy of his Blood we feel as we abide in him to cleanse us from Sin So I do not matter what your Teacher S. B. saith viz. The Blood of Christ cleansith no Man from Sin It being so contrary unto the Apostles Doctrine 1 John 1.7 which is But if you walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another and the BLOOD of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin And we witness it in its Opperation Cleansing and Washing the Soul from the Spiritual Defilements of which some amongst us are come to the experience of in our measure So that we are not as those that beat the Air but we are come to experience in some measure as I said although S. B. did mock at it the Vertue and Power of that Grace of God which hath appeared to all Men through which the Saints were taught in dayes by past and in Ages and Generations long since to deny Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live Godly Righteously and Soberly in this present World now this Grace is the same t at ever it was and its teachings are the same to all that are Obedient in this day as it was then to bring Salvation indeed I do not know any Doctrine so plentiful in the Scripture as the Indwelling or Inward or Spiritual Appearance of his Spiritual Kingdom which whoso doth come to pertake of must be redeemed from the Kingdom of the Devil So having taken off that Reproach and Slander from Christ whom we believe in and is our Saviour the first and the last the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End of the Work of God Who S. B. call'd the Devil and said he would prove it by the Scripture but hath indeed fallen short of his
intended matter So I leave that and come a little to examin the proof of the second false Assertion viz. That the main End of the Quakers Meetings in these Islands is to make the Lords Christ his Holy Spirit his Angells and Apostles all Lyars and false Witnesses of God Now let any Reasonable Man judge what ground or foundation he hath to lay down such a positive Assertion for he never was at any of our Meetings in these Islands to know our practices in our Meetings whereby he might discover our ends but either he must have it by Information or Supposition or Consequence Which either of these may prove true or false and therefore whether the one or the other it is too slender a ground to build such an Accusation upon against an Innocent People but whither will not Envy lead a Man Even to shame himself But let us see how he will prove his Work Why Mark. First he supposes That the main end of our Meeting is to declare to People or to build up one another in this Doctrine that the Light within or Spirit of Christ in us is the Saviour This he supposeth to be the main end of our Meeting and this saith he is against the Testimony of Christ to the Man whose Eyes he had opened John 9.35 36 37. As I remember this was the Scriptu e he brought when the Blind Man enquired who the Son of God was that he might believe Jesus Answered I that speak unto thee am he This saith he was the Man or Body only from whence he doth infer that the Man Jesus considered meerly as Man is the oâ—ly Saviour and therefore saith he The Quakers main end of their Meeting is to make the Lords Christ a Lyar. Noâ— see what Weight this Argument hath in it the Weight must lie in these Words I that speak unto thee am he Now here lies the Question whether in these Words he meant the Body only or that which dwelt in the Body also Which was the Godhead joyned with the Manhood which thing was not at all proved at that time from the Scripture according to his promise and so did falsifie his Word and is it not strange that the Priest should make Christs Body to speak without his Spirit But now that People may not be left in the dark with their Understandings Clouded consider and Weigh seriously whether it was not the same Jesus which spake to the Jews in the foregoing Chapter 8 56. Abraham rejoyced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad And Verse 58. Before Abraham was I am Now the Body was brought forth in time according to Gal. 4.5 And so was not before Abraham in the Body But S. B. said That he is not the Son of God but as he was Man Now consider how grievous dark this Man is read the Scripture diligently and you shall see what a Testimony it gives concerning the Son of God Psal 2.7 The Lord hath said unto me thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee This was long before the Body was and he speaks here of the time present This Day have I begotten thee Heb. 1.2 Where he saith that God Hath in these last Dayes spoken to us by his Son whom he hath appoined Heir of all things now mark by whom also he made the Worlds So he that made the World or that Word by which the World was made was the Son of God John 1.10.3 Who being the brightness of his glory the Son of God he is the Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of his substance and upholding all things by the Word of his Power mark this was the Son of God that upholds all things by the word of his Power when he had by himself purged our Sins sat down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High So see and consider well and weigh this matter and let the wise in Heart Judge For God had promised afore by his Prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the Flesh and declared to be the Son of God with Power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead by whom we have received grace c. Rom. 1 2.3.4.5 And this is the true Christ we own in his Grace and Truth both as he was made of the seed of David according to the Flesh and as he is declared to be the Son of God with Power according to the Spirit of Holiness c. according to God and his Son and his Angels and Prophets and Apostles against all Opposers and Blasphemers but espacially against SAMPSON BOND who was Priest at Bermudas And we are sorry that the Sherriffe and Justices of Peace in Bermudas should believe or regard his Lyes and Slanders But it is clear Sampson Bond hath put the Sheep of Christ in scorn called Quakers in his Bear-Skin that such as he is might worry them Secondly He saith We in our Meetings or the main end of our Meetings is to make the Holy Spirit a Lyar and to prove this he names Luke 2.30 Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace for mine Eyes hath seen thy Salvation I hope said he you will not deny that Old Simeon spakâ— by the Spirit Now said he it was his Bodily Eyes which he spake of by which he only beheld the Body of Jesus and hence doth infer that we witnessing to the Spirit do makâ—th Spirit of God a Lyar. Let us see what weight this Argument hath in it and for the better opening of your Understandings take S. B's own Words I hope you will not deny Old Simeon to speak by the Spirit Indeed he was a Spiritual Man and so was abâ—e to discern the things of God and he was a Prophet and spake in the Spirit of Prophesie in which he spake and declared of him as a Light prepared before the face of all People not the Jews only but all People A Light to lighten the Gentiles c. And mark withal what it was that was revealed to him by the Holy Ghost that he should see Was it not the Lords Christ If the Body barely considered without the Spirit had been the Lords Christ then the Jews had seen the Lords Christ for they only saw the Body and Crucified it But the Lords Christ the Lord of Glory was vailed from their Eyes For had they seen him they had seen the Father also John 14.9 And had they known him they would not have Crucified him But now the unbelieving Iews had neither heard the Fathers Voice at any time nor seen his shape Iohn 5.37 And so it is clear though they saw the Body yet saw not the Father they saw not the Eternal Power and Godhead as they did whose Eyes where opened in and by the Spirit as Old Simeons was who saw through the Vail and beheld the endless Power of that which made the
World and upholds it by the same Word of Power who after he had purged our sins said the Apostle sat down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High Ephes 4.6 And this is he who fills all things and is above all and in us all So all those that desire to know their Sin purged must know Christ not at a distance only but nigh even dwelling in them else they are Reprobates which all the obedient in Heart do Witness according to his promise If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him So he that believeth in Christ at a distance only never knows a fulfilling of Christs Words in them who said He and his Father would make their abode with them For it was revealed by the Holy Ghost to Old Simeon before he had seen the Lords Christ and Simeon came by the Spirit into the Temple c. And the Angel of the Lord told Ioseph that which was conceived in Maâ—y is of the Holy Ghost Now Simeon by the Spirit and Holy Ghost did see the Lords Christ which was conceived by the Holy Ghost who was revealed to him by the Holy Ghost So this was a Spiritual Sight not Natural For the Natural Man receives not the things of God they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them bâ—cause they are Spiritually discerned Mat. 1.20 Luke 2.26 27. 1 Cor. 2.14 And the Angel said to Mary that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God And doth not Christ say That none knowes the Father nor the Son but by Revelation 3. S. B. saith farther we make the Angels Lyars who said he bore witness only to the Body or Man Luke 2.11 To which I Answer I deny that the Angels there do bear Witness meerly to the Body for in their Testimony they testifie to this Saviour as a King For unto you is Born said they in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Which Word Christ relates to his Kingly Power which was Spiritual as he saith My Kingdom is not of this World And the Testimony or Message the Angel brought to Mary as concerning the Son of God who was now coming to be made manifest in the Flesh said He should Reign forever and his Kingdom should have no End Luke 1.33 For the Angel said Behold a Virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son and they shall call his Name Emanuel which being Interpreted is God with us So here you may see that the Angels bore Witness more then only to the Body or Man Mat. 1.23 as Sampson Bond doth assert which he has not proved So Mary believed God and did not ascribe the Work of Salvation to him meerly as Man but to God saying My Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour Vers 47. I would not have any one to think because I plead so much for the Spirit that I deny the Body of Christ but do own it in all points as the Scripture doth declare of it and so give the Honour due unto it Though I cannot believe the things declared by S. B. in his Nonscriptural expressions The last thing which is the Apostles Testimony of Christ I have sufficiently spoke to already and so shall wave it here So People may see how far short of his promise he came in proving his Three Accusations with the greatest clearness from the Holy Scripture so hath little cause to boast or glory of his Victory for the Truth stands over his Head and will do for ever The Third and last Accusation is That the prime Principles of a Quaker is the same that was held and professed by the Beasts which Paul fought with at Ephesus And to prove this he first doth endeavour to prove that those Beasts did deny the Resurrection and said so do we I answer The first was never truly proved and the second is absolutely false his Scripture to prove the first 1 Cor. 15.32 where the Apostle saith If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus what doth it avail if the Dead rise not Doth this at all argue that this was the Ephesians profest Principles or doth it not rather argue that the Saints loses their reward for all their labour if the Dead rise not as he saith in the 19th Vers If in this Life only we have hope in Christ we are of all Men most Miserable So that he hath fallen short of his proof and so his Accusation is truly overthrown But inasmuch as he did go on to charge the thing upon us viz That we do deny the Resurrection I do here testifie that it is none of our Principles to deny the Resurrertion for we own it as the Apostles own'd it Not the same Body not a Corruptible Body not a Natural Body a Natural Body hath Flesh Blood and Bones but a Spiritual Body as the Apostle saith And a Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones said Christ which before he can prove he must be fain to get new Scripture for the Old will maintain no such Doctrines So though he did stop and hinder me that time by his Mocks and Scoffs and deriding Speeches and clamorous Noise altogether unlike a Preacher of the Everlasting Gospel as he saith in his Paper be is yet now through mercy I trust as the Truth will stand over your Heads so I shall be clear of your Blood whether you will hear or forbear I am a Friend to the Seed and a Lover of your Souls The 11th of the 3d Month 1678. Francis Estlacke Some few Lines briefly Answering some Part of SAMPSON BOND 's Book Entituled The Quakers in BERMUDAS Tryed c. THat part in his Book which I find my self chiefly concerned to make Answer to is where he makes mention of my Name viz. William Wilkinson As for my part I do not know that I should have set Pen to Paper to have made him any Answer had he laid down the Matter concerning me every way Fairly and truly without Abusing me or the Truth but I finding in several places of his Book Words printed that I cannot own to be Truth besides his reviling Speeches which he hath cast at me As Prater a Baffling Quaker and one that never had the Spirit of God in me All which things in the sense he brings them if true were a great Reproach But I knowing it is too hard a thing for him to prove or plainly to make appear do find my self justly concerned to make some reply or answers both to these and several other things for the vindicating of the Truth and my self also from him whom I find in his Book hath very much strove to make his own case appear strong and ours weak c. But according to that saying in Prov. 18.17 He that is first in his own cause seemeth just but his Neighbour cometh and searcheth
and time to stop his boasting over them in some things wherein they are not versed Wherein he shews both his Arrogance and Deceit pretending an Aristotelian Schooll-form before and against Men that are not skilled at that Weapon forsaking the plain Spiritual Weapons inclosed in plain words and methods which the true Preachers used Some of the Schooll-Men themselves say Baconthorp prol 4 sen q 8 Beware of Subtil Sophisters in the Doctrine of the Church The nature of Sophisms is to bring in all errors and Heresyes Wherein he shews himself unskilful as well as deceitful J. Bale as in saying The Conclusion ought not to be denyed And in proving but one part of the reason in all his four Arguments Begging the former part in all unproved The Consequence is Ungranted Ungrounded and Unproved which is in question the second part unquestioned by all is all he proves For he proves Jesus of Nazareth to be Christ by the Scriptures he brings but no where pâ—oves by the Scriptures that we own him not as Christ Onely as the Professers then saying He had an unclean Spirit a Devil So S. B. c. now saying His Spirit is an Vnclean Spirit the Devil Because they have said it it must be taken as an axiom a Maxim needing no proof because they have said it their authority is sufficient because they are Infallible their Positions are Principles Authentic Self-proof And so great is his Authority he thinks that he makes himself determinating Judge in the Schoolls Magisterially For as I remember I have read in the Master of the Sentences upon occasion of a dispute between a Presbyterian and a Baptist almost forty Years ago on that Question that several of the Fathers held That the Spirit was in Men not only efficiently or Vertually So no new Doctrine And they being in all Mens esteem greater then we how comes it that we in his esteem and not they are then the greatest Antichrists But it happens to us as Erasmus said it did to Luther when the Priests accounted that Heresy in him which they accounted Orthodox in the Fathers And as it happened to Erasmus himself Apolog. when he said to the Popish Doctors of Paris Why blame ye me for denying swearing to be lawful blame the Fathers for denying it whose Authority I bring But S. B. seperates as well as distinguishes Personal Mystical Operative but no where proves it but only by his mighty Greek Word Metonymy which he brags that F. E. understands not which he could if he had not hid himself in Greek as their manner is but call'd it in plain English as the word signifies Misnaming which he no ways proves only says it As if God were not in us of a Truth in whom we live move and have our being and not afar off as the Heathen acknowledged but only operatively working by a Metonymy a misnaming improper speaking as the Sun is at a distance and so fills not all things nor Christ where his Spirit is nor the Father where the Son Works and both where the Spirit contrary to the Schools also which say that the works of those three are indivisible ad extra Nor that Christ is not really where he is mystically so not in his Body Christ not in Christ nor the Father in the Son nor he in him Cyril on John l. 10 c. 13. nor they in the Saints nor that they dwell in them but only by a Metonymy not really and properly only by works at a distance I do not read that ever the Lutherans called Vbiquitarians were by their adversarys called for that the vilest Antichrist or other his vilest terms he bestows on us but allowed honourable Names as Zanchy called the judicious Zanchy of Ch. Relig. of true disp p. 6. 7. c. who said The Humane nature of Christ might extend from Heaven to Earth c. But to omit him and others to avoid that Name Vbiquitarian Chytraeus approved as aforesaid handling those Controversies professedly of the Son in the Articles of the Creed and opposing the prodigious Vbiquity as he calls it yet saith in the close all The Divinity of the Word which only of it self is Quickening Omnipotent and Omniscient yet shines in the whole Humane nature assumed and in it and by it is freely effectual as hot Iron possesses heat and the force of shining and burning truly and in very deed communicated in it self but not of it self For we know that all Orthodox Antiquity unanimously used this similitude And as for Ubiquity our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ Immanuel not only by his Divinity but also according to his Humane Nature to be truly present wheresoever he hath promised by his Word that he will be present we doubt not nor take away the glory of his Truth and Omnipotency due to Christ So he who would in these Controversies also have the plain words in Scriptures kept to as they sound simply properly p. 201. But S. B. also Magesterially invents a lowing new term viz. Humane p. 50. as easily found in Authours as Humane in Scriptures Also he declares without proof that in Rom. 1.19 is not meant Christ by whom the World was made p. 25. 38. though by Christ he understands God-man And that to them is not in them but without them I would have him shew how the God-head can be shewn to the outward Eye the inward being blind by the monstrous Syllogism or reasonless reason to speak plain English of this blind Sampson the Phiilstines having put out his Eyes The Psalm the Apostle grounds it on shews the inward Preacher as well as the outward declaring God as the fear of the Lord and the Words and Expressions of like signification after the Hebrews manner of speech And what Light can the Scriptures which he calls the Light give to them that have no Light in them Even as much as the Sun can give to a blind Man They would have the course of the Word to begin from externals says Oecolampadius Eze. 3.10 a chief Protestant Reformer but without ears it is in vain that the sound is inculcated so it s begun in the Spirit Abraham believed God not the Word Preached for where then were the Preachers or the Law Then it would follow that justification we e by the Works of our Hands Man should lay the first Stone so he and much more And now on mention of Justification I shall bring another Protestant chief Reformer to obviate his calling the â—uaker's Light within but the Pope without viz. to omit the rest I have largely cited elsewhere Melancton They say not well says he that by justify understand to be made just and obedient apud Pezâ—l de sign justif Aâ—g 5. and do not also therewith comprise the acceptation of the person So he contrary to S. B. his justification onely without with others his like ... And the Fathers of the first 300 Years after Christ were
the Heart and this is a certain Truth where the Heart is Purified the Hands will not be Defiled And in 1 Joh. 3.3 The Apostle gives a certain and undeniable Character of a Lively hope saying Every Man that hath this hope in him Purifieth himself even as he is pure And in the 9 ver Speaking of this Nature saith He that is Born of God Sinneth not So now compare thy self with these Testimonies of the Saints in Ages past and see if Thou can bring forth such a Testimony of the true Divine Nature in thy self If Thou should say Thou could Thy Book would stand as a Testimony against Thee especially toward the latter end where Thou art found to contend with all thy Might for Sin the Devils Kingdom that Men cannot be free as long as they are in the Body Now then tell me where is thy living Faith and lively Hope thou spoke of and art thou not then one of the Carnal Gospellers thou spoke of And whereas S. B. seeks to cast this upon the Quakers he hath fallen exceedingly short of his purpose for we are not the Men that ever said the Graces or the Effects or opperations of the Spirit within is the true Christ and our only Saviour as thou chargest us but our true Saviour is he from whom those Graces and Effects come and by whom those Opperations are wrought in us And seeing Thou wert so exceedingly mistaken that Thou didst understand indeed as by Thine own Confession that we did make the opperations of the Spirit of God within us which thou callest the effects or Graces of the Spirit to be our True and Only Saviour How darest Thou then so Wickedly to Villifie the Graces Effects and Opperations of the Spirit of God and Man if we had been so mistaken with such Ungodly Blasphemous Infamous Terms or Expressions as in many places in thy Book are found as Antichrist Cursed Gospel within Idol-Light Glow worm Familier c. How canst Thou escape the Judgment of the Righteous God for the Lord hath found Thee out and Thine Enmity against his Spirit is now discovered thy covering is found to be too short and too narrow for thou art not covered with Gods Spirit Thine own Pen hath discovered thine own Shame and the Lord will make the People to see it even as many whose Eyes he shall open and thy words shall be thy Burthen in the day of the Lord for the time draws near that the Lord will Reckon with thee he doth but wait till thy Cup is full and then he will Smite and not spare except in the mean time thou do Repent But to Proceed The next Scripture he saith mentioned by me was 1 Cor. 6.11 We be to prove Christs Inward Manifestation in the Heart to Sanctifie and save Man from the Power of Sin but ye are washed c. where he saith I Craftily omitted in the Name of the Lord Jesus to abuse their Judgments to make them believe Justification in the Sight of God is a work of the Spirit within us which I can see no other but that he would have the work of Justification altogether without and nothing of it known within But miserable is that Mans condition who hath no better Evidence of his Salvation then so but must needs leave his Assurance for another World In Page 31. Take notice of the confusion of this Priest who after he hath so strongly argued for the work of Mans Salvation viz. that the whole work was perfectly Finished at once without us in Christs own Crucified Body on the Cross Yet now he grants that it is to be wrought within us not at once but by degrees even by the Spirit of God so the work which was so perfectly and compleatly Finished before without us yet now it must be wrought within us by the Spirit of God before it can be effectual to us This is confusion with a Witness is not thy whole work overthrown let the Reader consider and judge is it not the same thing we have contended for and is it not the same thing against which thou hast hardned thy Heart and Stiffned thy Neck Is not this the Spirit of God that works thus Inwardly that which thou callest The Quakers Pretended Saviour which thou so often call The False Christ The Devil with many other Reviling Ungodly Blasphemous Speeches or did the Quakers ever pretend to any other Saviour within then the Spirit of Christ Jesus who is the Light who is the worker of the things whereof thou Speaks Well all this doth Redound to thy own Shame and will also make thy Judgment more then thou wilt be able to bear except thou speedily Repent Again in pag. 31. S. B. saith that I said that I was in some measure washed from my sins which he calls new Divinity and a most false and dangerous Doctrine for saith he he doth clearly deny that the Messiah Jesus Christ of Nazareth hath at once by his own Crucified Body without us on the Cross finished Transgression and Sin Answer When will thy confusions come to an end didest thou not say but now that though the Work of Salvation were done at once without us yet it must be wrought by degrees by the opperation of the Spirit within and now I come to bear Reoord to the same thing you cries out false and dangerous Doctrine who is so Blind that cannot see thy confused Doctrines who can but Judge thee even Drunk with Enmity as a Man overcome with Strong-Drink Reeling this way and that way and but seldome in the Right way one while confessing to the Spirits working within and by and by denying it again besides he doth not only say that it is false and dangerous Doctrine but in Pag 32. he tells wherein saying it plainly denies the one Propitiatory Sacrifice of the one Crucified Body of the Man Jesus Christ Immediately after his usual manner breaking forth in reviling expressions against the Light calling it unbloody Redeemer Idol-Light and the Pope in all which his Enmity is greatly manifested against the Graces Effects and opperations of the Spirit within which he saith in page 29. the Quakers make their true and only Saviour The next Scripture words mentioned by Friends was as he said by Stephen Bullock Rom. 8.2 The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death which was brought to prove that the Spirit of Christ in Man did save from Sin and although the Scripture was clear in it self yet it appears he would have some Argument framed by the Friend who not answering immediately Ismael like the Mocker who Mocked at Isaac the Figure of the true seed he broke forth in a Mock saying Long fasting parhaps hath made him so Empty Note this was the Friend that gave forth the Challenge to try their God by Fasting By this Scripture i. e. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the Law of Sin and Death he saith that the Apostle doth not mean that the Spirit did so free him from Sin and Death as that he was simply delivered from either but so that it should not Dominere over us nor Damn us Suppose it were so that we could grant him this yet still the Scripture stands on the Spirits side and so consequently on our side against this Priest for if he doth save but from the Dominion of sin that is no small degree of Salvation so by Right and good Reason the Spirit was in Paul as a Saviour and made him free which if this could be proved that the Spirit of Christ was ever in any Man as a Saviour thou saidst thou wouldst give up the Cudgels But it is plain that Paul became Dead with Christ Crucified to the World Dead to Sin and Alive to Righteousness and all this through the inward working of the Spirit of Christ Jesus Farther he Ignorantly affirms that the Death Paul was Delivered from was nothing else but the Power of a Natural Death here People may behold the Ignorance of the Man was it a Natural Death that Paul so much complained of Rom. 7.24 Was it not the Body of Death the Old corrupt Nature which was not yet quite overcome yet the Law or Power of this Body of Death was strong in his Members and this was it that he cryed for deliverance from and that was it from which that Law of the Spirit of life set him free In Page 34. S. B. saith F. E. stept again and said I in thee and thou in me I Answer The end for which I made use of the Scripture was to Testifie to the indwelling of Christ in the Saints against his wicked charge that the Quakers Saviour within was the false Christ which perhaps the word might be mistaken in uttering yet it stands firm in the Record of the Scripture for Truths advantage in plain Scripture Words I in them and thou in me and is part of Christ Prayer to the Father who heard him always although S. B. by his Interpretation seeks to hide the true sence thereof and to give a meaning that may answer his own End In pag 36. S. B. saith Mrs. Bullock asked him whether he did make our Christ within us to be the Devil to whom he saith he made answer viz. That he did Solemnly with much Reverence in the presence of God to whom I must shortly be accountable for my Words declare that I do most assuredly know that a Quakers pretended Christ within him Mark who Sam. Bond said that was page 29. The Graces effects and opperations of the Spirit within them whom here he calleth the false Christ the Devil with whom he saith We shall be Damned in Hell if we Repent not Damnable Doctrine indeed no wonder he put such a Blasphemous question to Will. Wilkinson viz. Whether our God were in Hell Sav'd or Damn'd such abominacle vapours assends out of his Bottomless Pit many times But of this foregoing answer his own Pen hath accused him for had not he accused himself I know not any that could but as Christ said Nothing is Hid that shaâ—l not be uncovered And for his Warrant to confirm this Sentence he urgeth Joh. 8.24 I said therefore ye shaâ—l die in your Sins which Scripture with the 21st verse to which it relates I turn back again upon himself as his own Portion for it is the Doctrine that he Preaches to the People that they cannot be free from sin while they live who can otherwise Judge if so but that both he and all that Dies in the Faith of his Lies can escape Damnation except with the Papist thou canst find a Purgatory for into the Holy City nothing must Enter that defileth or worketh abomination Rev. 21.27 Farther this Bond after his usual manner of wresting the Scripture goes on to comment upon another Scripture alledged by one of the Friends Eph. 5.13 But all things that are Reproved are made manifest by the Light c. Which by Light he saith we are to understand a sin Reproving Light which he farther saith is the Light of the Scripture But where dost thou find the Scripture called a sin reproving Light we read indeed in Timothy that it is profitable for Reproof and Instruction to make the Man of God perfect and to Furnish him throughly to every good work but though it be serviceable to reprove the Actual Sinner what is this to the manifestation of sin in the Heart before it breaks forth into Action which only is made manifest by the Light or Spirit of Christ as in Joh. 16.8 and whereas he saith the Scripture is frequently described by Light alledging for proof Psal 119.105 Thy Word is a Light unto my Steps To this I answer that Scripture is not there mentioned If he say it is the Word to this I farther give answer that the Scripture in no place calls it self the Word though S. B. without any Scripture ground calls it the Written Word but it saith God is the Word and Christ is the Word and Ezekiel saith often The Word of the Lord came unto me saying so that it notes the Word and the sayings which sayings are many of them Recorded in the Scriptures of Truth and are properly the true sayings of God who is the Word Joh. 1.1 He farther to confirm the Scripture to be the Light doth Note Joh. 3.16 Every one that doeth Evil hateth the Light But experience tells us that every Evil Man doth not hate the Scripture but delight many of them to Read it and Teach it their Children but their Enmity is against the Light that makes manifest sin and Iniquity in the Heart which is the Righteous Principle of God in the Heart the sure Word of Prophesie to which the Saints of Old did take heed which is prefer'd before the sound of Words without for the Words without may be falsly Translated and the true sense of them may be changed and falsly Interpreted or written in another Tongue or the Scripture being made up of several Creaters it is possible it may be destroyed but the Invisible Word the Light Christ Jesus could no Man destroy whom the Apostle Paul saith speaketh from Heaven Gods beloved Son whom we are to hear not rejecting the Scripture as it is truly Read for it bears witness to the Light Christ Jesus Several more Lies and false accusations I meet with in his Book as page 38. he saith the Teaching Quakers saith Christ is manifest in their real Flesh but the Flesh of Christ was only in shew and appearance And in page 38. he charges William Harriot for saying he denyed their out-side Christ which words I do not remember in the least neither do any Friend or other People that I have spoke withal witness any such word spoken by him And in page 40. he Proceeds farther with his false charges saying The Quakers deny that Christ was true Man consisting of
in the middest of us as the true assembling and gathering in the name of Jesus which is the power is truly witnessed and his workings in the particular Vessels is sundry sometimes so that the creature being sensible of the working of the Power sometimes breaths unto the Lord while sitting silent together sometimes uttering it self in a sigh or groan sometimes feeling the raptures of the heavenly joy breaks forth into singing which this mocking Priest which dwells in Ishmaels Nature deridingly calls Humming and Canting and wherâ—as some who with Eve have hearkned to the Tempter whereby their minds have been led out into disorderly and unlawful actions this he hath cast upon the true Baptisme of the Spirit but the reward of the Mocker is the Judgement of the Eternal God which shall be this Priests food for ever except he repents And so much in Answer to his second Charge by which it is manifest that the main end of our meeting in this Island is not to make the Lords Christ the Holy Spirit Angels and Apostles all Lyers and false-witnesses of God as this Priest hath falsly charged us But the main end of our meetings is to wait to feel his living motions requirings and leadings that by it we may be led to glorify the Father Word and Spirit in the true guidance of the Spirit into the true and Spiritual worship which is well-pleasing unto God I should now proceed to his third and last Charge but because W. Wilkinson hath given some answer thereto already I suppose I may sum up the Answer in the fewer words The Charge is this That the prime Principles of a Quaker are the same that were held and professed by the Beasts that Paul fought with at Ephesus To thee oh thou false Man I make this Reply in Answer to this false Charge Art not thou ashamed thus to utter Lyes oh thou false Tongue Dost not thou know thou must give an account for these things to the Lord For now had their Principles been our Principles Paul would have had no need to have made War against them neither would the Apostle have had any such causâ— to leave them under such an odium upon the record of Truth to all succeeding Generations calling them Beasts for no other cause that we can here on from thee but for denying the Resurrection and yet I can sâ—e little but thy bare word for it neither though thou saist it is manifest in 1 Cor. 15. Beside there were many that were found in this error as the Sect of the Saduces yet were not left under that odium which makes me judge that the Apostle had seen some other bruitish principle or practice which caused him thus to contend with them But if thou could prove that yet it would be too much for thee to undertake to make good thy Charge because we do not at all deny the Resurrection And to lay open the wickedness and falsity of this thy Charge I shall here declare to the World what our prime chief and leading Principle is Our prime chief oâ— leading Principle is Christ the Light whom God hath given for a Leader who hath enlightened every man that câ—meth into the world which Light hath shined in our dark Hearts and manifested it self in our Conscienâ—â—s by which we first came to see our m serable state and condition being by nature Children oâ— Wrath and under the power of Darkness in which state we were separated from God from hit Spirit and this Light which discovered our woful state under sin and in transgression we felt it also to Judge us and as we gave heed unto it and regarded its reproofs and hearkned to its voice which voice we often heaâ—d in the cool of the day But I say as we began to have regard unto it and believed in it and obeyed its voice we found it was the way of Life and its leadings we discerned was alvvays out of every thing that vvas evil and if at any time vve turned aside to hearken to the Enemy vve found it to rebuke us and Judge us and then our peace vvould be broken and pain and anguish vve should feel in our Souls and some of us sometimes vvould be afraid that it vvas the dictates of a natural Conscience and then vve vvere afraid of being deceived but coming into seriousness and vveightiness vve found that all men by nature vvere dead but this vve discerned vvas living and as vve obeyed vve felt its life to spring up in us and vve vvere quickned by it and it lead us more and more out of death and darkness and living openings in the mysteries of Salvation vve come to receive then vve began to grovv bold and confident that this Light vvas truly the Light and Spirit of Jesus So he became our Leader and as many as vvere faithful to it received povver and vvaxed strong and are brought in some measure to the Word of Life and through Christ alone hath the Lord raised us up to be a people whom the World deridingly call Quakers and for the sake of this Righteous Principle have many of this people deeply suffered yet of it we are not ashamed but are resolved to follow it although through the Tribulation through the Cross and Self-denyal believing that he will Crovvn us vvith an Everlasting Crovvn of Glory So this is our Faith That the Lord vvill raise us up at the last day for if the Dead rise not vve vvere of all creatures most miserable being given up to suffer vvhat Man shall be suffered to do unto us But this is our Faith That the Lord vvill raise us up according to his promise and vvill change our vile Bodies and vvill fashion them like unto his glorious Body So being satisfied as concerning the Love of God That there shall not be any thing vvanting to make our Inheritance perfect to our eternal content and satisfaction vve can leave that to the Lord to prepare us a Body as it pleaseth him So this Light of Jesus Christ is our Principle vvhich vvas not the prime principle of the Beasts vvhich Paul fought vvith at Ephesus for this vvas the very thing that this Apostle vvas to turn people to Acts 26.18 So I have done with this Charge only noting one thing in Page 72. vvhere he said I called to him for his Bible I call'd not to him for his Bible therefore let that be added also to fill up his measure vvho I perceive is so hardned he neither cares much vvhat he either saith or vvrites for it vvas not in my heart to call to him for his Bible but I said if I had a Bible I could prove it viz. That the dead shall not rise the same Body Immediately he profer d his and I found the place vvhere the Apostle comparing the Resurrection to a Grain of Wheat saith plainly It cometh not up the same Body but God giveth it a Body as it pleaseth him Thus have I gone through S.
Christ 2 Cor. 4. and it is false to say that we affirm that the Word was never made Flesh and here thou maist see thy contradictions who confessest the Word Eternal in Page 8. and contradicts it and scoffest at it in Page 15. who saist Search for your Gospel Word of Faith surely not in the Scriptures without but at your Oracle that Idol Light within which you falsly call the Everlasting Gospel and Eternal Word Yet thou contradicts thy self and saith p. 8. Christ the Eternal Word enlightens every man that comes into the World And now thou callest the Light within O thou Idol Light-within Here thou maist see how thou dost Blaspheme against the true Light and the Life in Christ the Word which enlightens every man that comes into the world Which will be thy Condemnation who hatest it and blaspheamest against it More of S. B.'s bad Words Page 16. The Light within doth justify the vilest Antichrists No it condemns thee and them Page 16. S. B. saith Metonymia c. F. E. understands no more than the Hour-Glass that is before me But S. B. hath not proved that the Gospel-Ministers Preacht in a Pulpit like Ezra neither hath he proved that Ezra had a Cushion which he makes such a work about nor his Word Metonymy by Scripture which he says is his Rule S. B. saith A Cushion is familiar the Gloe-worm Light within the Idol Light within Page 18. 19. Antichristian Divinity to wit the Light in Man c. These are Priest Bonds soul words S. B. saith You blind Leaders of the blind blush and tremble at your accursed Gospel within c. page 20. Answer We are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believes Rom. 1. S. B. The Eternal Word which as ye affirm was never made Flesh page 15. and page 18. thou gives thy self the Lye when thou saist F. E. the Quaker said That the Word took Flesh of the Virgin and in that Flesh dyed for all men Thou sayst that this motion pleased F. E. so well to make a deliberate repetition of it and this thou scoffingly calledst F. E's New Divinity the Idol Light within But where did ever the Apostles call the Light of Christ which shines in the heart an Idol Light within as thou blasphemously saist But here it is clear thou hast manifested a Lying Spirit who saist page 15. that we affirm the Eternal Word was never made Flesh And then again in page 18. thou art made to confess thus viz. I shall here take up an expression which I had almost forgotten which this Disputant F. E. doubled in his Discourse namely That the Word took Flesh of the Virgin and in that Flesh died for all men That God sent Christ to save all men from sin and death as he F. Eastlack said whose Sufferings Sacrifice Mediation Intercession and Offices we do own and witness as inwardly wrought and performed in us and for us And this thou dost confess page 18. That the Quakers did confess Christ was in their hearts and scoffingly saist still the Idol Light within and callest this a New Doctrine Now here it is clear according to the Scripture we did confess the Word became Flesh and Christ was put to death in the Flesh and so died for our Sins and is risen for our Justification and is revealed in our hearts by his Spirit by which we know him to be our Mediator and Intercessor and without him we can do nothing who exercises his Prophetical and his Priestly and Kingly Office in his Church S B. And again thou saist We affirm the Eternal Word was never made Flesh and then in Page 21 thou confessest that F. E. the Quaker said that the Word took Flesh and in that Flesh Dyed for all Men Here again thou givest thy self a Lye in thy own Book In Page 20. S. B. saith You most certainly would do your uttermost to Crucifie Him again to wit Christ These are some of thy malicious Lyes for Christ is our Life and Saviour Heb. 6.7 S. B. may apply to himself and Heb. 10.29 And then S. B. is at it again That a Quakers pretended Saviour within him was not the true Christ but the false Page 22. O most Horrible Quakerisme digged out of the Bottomless Pit thy Light Christ Conscience seducing and Lying Quaker the false Christ within Page 22. See the venom of this Man for F. E. the Quaker confesseth that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was received up into Heaven Page 23. And because the Quakers say this true Christ is revealed in them by his Spirit and rules in their Hearts by Faith this S. B. with his evil Spirit calls him the Devil and the False Christ And the Quakers make a distinction betwixt the Conscience and Christ for the Conscience may be seared and the Quakers do not say that every Man that comes into the World hath received Christ because he enlightens every Man that comes into the World for them that believe in his Light are saved and them that do not are Condemned S. B's Wicked words Page 24 and 25. As Blind as Bayard the false Christ the Idol light within a Syllogysme a great Monster to him to wit to the Quaker That is not the Quakers Monster but S. B's Thou saist the Eternal Power and God-head was manifest in the unconverted Gentiles yet in another place thou saist Christ the Saviour within is the false Christ What confused Babylon Stuff is this and yet S. B. saith That this was the Gospel Word that was Preached which profited not neither Jews nor Gentiles that did not by the mouth of Faith eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of our only Saviour So then if they eat his Flesh and drink his Blood by the mouth of Faith it is within them But did they eat this outward Flesh or humane Flesh as thou callest it and yet S. B. saith in Page 26. The Quakers Saviour within is not the true Christ but of the Devil And Page 15. thou saist Where do you teaching Quakers seek for your Gospel Word of Faith Surely not in the Scriptures and in Page 26. This was the Gospel Word that was Preacht c. Saith S. B. in contradiction to himself who saith Surely not in the Scriptures without but at your Oracle that Idol light within that the Quakers have searcht for then hath not S. B. watcht for the same at his Idol light within though we do abhor his blasphemous words against the Light of Christ S. B. saith that I do affirm Jesus Christ as man is our only material Saviour and that the Manhood of the Son of God is the only material Cause of our Salvation and by necessary consequence the Manhood or humane Nature of Christ was and is our only material Saviour Page 28. But where doth S. B. prove the word Material and Humane Nature in Scripture which he calls his Rule Is Christ's Humane Nature
for his Seed remains in him and he cannot Sin because he is born of God 1 John 3.9 Now let Priest Bond prove where ever the Apostle Preached such a Doctrine as in all true Believers there is a cursed Root of Bitterness mortified and not nullified in this World Death only makes the Conquest over Sin So we must understand we must have this cursed Root of Bitterness as long as the Believers live according to Priest Bond 's Doctrine though he has not proved it by Scripture and then how can they be kept blameless to the Day of the Lord as in page 85 Priest Bond saith 't is an erroneous Principle for the Quakers to say that the Scriptures are not the word of God in page 77. and page 87. he brings many Scriptures and makes a great pudder and abuses them to prove it but to no purpose his declarative word of God but he hath not proved such a word in Scripture all Scripture is given forth by Inspiration of God c. 1 Tim. 3. Therefore saith Priest Bond the Scriptures is the word of God but that Scripture doth not say so 2 Tim. 3. And in page 88. Priest Bond falls a Railing against Quakers and saith Is there any word asserted to be the word of Christ but the written word of Truth Doth not the Apostle say that the Word of Faith is nigh in the heart let the word of Christ dwell in you c. Being born again not of corruptible Seed but of Incorruptible by the word of God the word of God endures for ever and are these Writings of the Letter And Priest Bond saith page 88. The Lord hath no other will as a Rule of Obedience than his will revealed in the written Scriptures had the Lord no other will or Rule of Obedience before the Scripture was written Prove that by Scripture Priest Bond runs into Lies and foul words the Quakers worship cannot be accepted of God Quakers are under the power of Satan gross blind and ignorant the Cavil is idle and vain These Lyes Priest Bond may apply to himself but where doth the Scripture say of themselves in so many words as S. B. doth that the Scripiures are the infallible standing Rule of his Faith and Life and yet acts contrary to them for the Scripture saith The Holy-Ghost shall lead you into all Truth and no Man knows the things of God But the Spirit of God and Holy Men spake forth Scripture as they were moved by the holy Ghost And Priest Bond falls a railing against Quakers Spirit and calls it their Idol light within seducing Quakers is blind These filthy ungodly words he had better apply to himself Priest Bond saith Because the Spirit is antecedent to the Scriptures therefore none can walk in the Scriptures till they walk in the Spirit This consequence is lame saith Bond Page 90. Howbeit the Scriptures are before the Spirit in respect of aid and assistance The Apostle doth not say so in 1 Pet. 1. The Apostle tells you The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned So it is the Spirit of God that brings people both to discern the Scriptures and to walk according to them which Spirit of God or Holy-Ghost was before they were written which moved the holy men to give them forth And Bond saith To the Law and the Testimony the Written Word he adds Written Word and yet he saith Scripture is his Rule And Bond saith When the Spirit of Truth is come it shall guide you into all truth of the Scriptures And yet he saith The Written Scriptures are the Infallible standing Rule of Faith and Life page 89. 91. And how can the Scriptures be the Rule and the Spirit of Truth must be the guide into all the truth of the Scriptures And again Priest Bond contradicts himself and saith He affirms that the matter contained in the Scriptures is the only infallible standing rule of Faith and Life Page 91. So then the Scriptures are not the only rule but that which is contained in them And what is that which is contained in them which is thy Rule seeing the Holy-Ghost was in them which moved them to speak them forth and in them that leads them into all the truth of them But Priest Bond is all the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelations thy Rule and all that is contained in them For the Scripture speaks of the Devils words and bad men's words as well as the good Priest Bond saith The People of God had no Word Written from Adam to Moses and yet they had a Word given from God to be the rule else their worship would have been like the Quakers Will-worship If Priest Bond have not the same Word and Holy-Ghost as they had he cannot Worship God in Spirit and Truth neither can he be born again of the incorruptible seed but by that Word which lives and abides and endures for ever And Will-worship is not the Quakers who worship God in Spirit and Truth but his own In Page 92. Priest Bond is full of railing against Quakers their Idol light within craftily thrown down the Scriptures this Plot cannot be from the Spirit of Christ blind rotten and wicked spirit your Light that false Christ within See how wickedly Bond torments himself and blasphemes against the true Christ and the Light in his people Priest Bond saith Where is that place of Scripture to be found which saith the Scriptures are to be tryed by the Spirit the Spirits are to be tryed by the Scripture and not the Scripture by the Spirit Then Priest Bond what Scripture had they to try withal from Adam to Moses before the Scripture was written And Priest Bond saith It is the Holy-Ghost that leads into all truth of the Scriptures Then it must try the truth of them whether they be rightly translated or no And the Spirit of God will not deny its own Words And again Priest Bond saith The Spirit witnesses in the Scripture But where doth the Scripture say such words That the Spirit witnesses in the Scripture Priest Bond saith The Spirit witnesses in the Scripture that he is a righteous man who walks in all the Commandments or Ordinances of the Lord page 99. And page 87. Thou saith in contradiction There is in all true Believeâ—â— a cursed root of bitterness and death makes only the conquest over sin But we tell thee That Christ through death destroys Death and the Devil the Power of Death and makes an end of Sin Then Priest Bond falls a railing Quakers damnable delusion hellish Impostor that Idol light for if they might herein prevail and withal get into the Saddle they would undoubtedly soon arreign try and condemn the inspired Bible of God to the Fire and Fagot These are horrid malicious Lies Blasphemed from Priest Bonds evil Tongue For we have esteemed and do own the Scriptures more
Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. And truly Priest Bonds Book is such a pack of Nonsence and Contradictions and Tautologies that it is loathsome and noisome to the Reader and in it there is more malice than matter as any rational man may see by the foulness of his Spirit and Tongue and his filthy Language and ungracious and filthy words that his ungodly Book is stuft withal Priest Bond I would have thee to prove that the Holy-Ghost is a Person which proceeded from the Father and the Son and leads into all Truth And when the Holy-Ghost fell upon the Disciples in the time of Pentecost did it fall upon them as a Person And when it fell upon Cornelius's Family did it fall upon them as a Person And Christ tells the Disciples that the Holy-Ghost the Comforter dwells with you and shall be in you John 14. And was this a Person Acts 11. Acts 19. The Holy-Ghost fell upon c. So where ever did Christ or the Apostles call the Holy-Ghost a Person S. B. is to prove this Word by Scripture which he saith is his Rule Now concerning the Scriptures which Priest Bond calls the Word of God first doth not the Scripture signify Writings And do not you teach your Children so that Scripture signifies Writings in your Catichisme and Matthew the Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ and Christ read in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and in the Book of the Words of Isaiah the Prophet Luke 3 and 4. and Luk. 4.17 Written in the Book of the Law Gal. 3.10 and Written in the Book of the Psalms Acts 1.20 And doth not Luke set forth a Declaration Luke 1. And so doth he not call that a Declaration which he set forth and so Daniel calls them the Scriptures of Truth Daniel 10.21 And Mark calls them the Scriptures Mark 12.10 and Luke 4.21 Christ calls them Scriptures and John 2.22 and in Acts 1.16 The Apostle calls them Scriptures Rom. 10.11 and 11.2 The Apostle calls them Scriptures 2 Tim. 3.16 James 2.8 2 Peter 1.20 Acts 17.2.11 Rom. 15.4 1 Cor. 15.3 Here in all these places and many more Christ and the Apostles calls them Scriptures which signifies Writings Now Scriptures of truth which signifies Writings they are called the Words of God God spake all these Words Exod. 20. And Christ saith John 3.34 The Words of God And John 5.47 John 6.62 And John 8.20.47 John 10.121 John 12.47 48. John 14.10.23.17.8 All these are concerning the Words And Acts 2.14.5.20 1 Tim. 4.6.6.3 The words in all these places and many more Revelations 1.3 that hear the words of this prophecy and until the Words of God shall be fulfilled Revel 17.17 These Words are true Revel 21.5 Testifie saith John to every Man the words of the Prophecy of this Book if any Man shall take away from the words of the Prophecy of this Book c. So here you may see the Scriptures are called Words Books Declarations and the Writings and Scripture and are called the Words of God and the Words of Christ but Christs Name is called the Word of God John 1.8 And again Christs Name is called the Word of God Revelations 19.13 So here the Quakers own the Scriptures as they have been called by Christ and his Apostles and the Prophets S. Bond saith The written Word of God the Scriptures are an infallible Rule of Faith and Life Page 88. The matter contained in Scriptures is the only Infallible Rule of Faith and Life Page 91. See here how Priest Bond contradicts himself Let the Word of Christ dwell in your hearts in all Wisdom Coloss 3. And what Priest Bond is this the Letter Priest Bond saith The Quakers worship cannot be acceptable to God Page 89. These are Priest Bonds Lyes for Quakers worship God in the Spirit and the Truth as Christ commanded and hath taught us John 4. And Priest Bond saith The Quakers reproach the Lord when they deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God Page 88. And yet Priest Bond contradicts himself in Page 87. and saith We do not affirm the Scriptures to be the Word of God but as the written Scriptures do declare the Mind of God to us So here Priest Bond is made to confess the Quakers principles but presently after he confounds it again and saith The Scripture is the Word of God And then contradicts himself again and saith The matter therein contained is the declaritive Word of God Page 87. Priest Bond saith the Quakers are apt to say there is no sin Charged upon Zachariahs Wife who was Righteous and blameless but saith Priest Bond Death took hold as well of her as of him which is the wages of sin Rom. 6. So what must we understand from Priest Bonds words Here they that put off the Earthen Tabernacle and dye in the Lord that natural death is the Wages of Sin Rom. 6.23 But let the Reader see how he abuses the Scripture for the Wages of sin is death But saith the Apostle Now being made free from sin and become the Servants of God This is while they were upon the Earth alive and is it not a denying of Christ that dyed for Sin to say that Death took hold of Elizabeth as well as Zachariah and so upon all other People to wit a natural death and that natural death which is the wages of sin as in Page 86. where he perverts Rom. 6. But the Saints and we tell Priest Bond Christ dyed for our Sins and is risen for our Justification and so whether we live or dye we are the Lords and if we dye we dye in the Lord and Blessed are they that dye in the Lord. Priest Bond They have a Light of direction from the Law of the Creation and this Light is clear and full enough to make them Guilty in Page 82. But Priest Bond dost not thou call this Light within an Idol Light Page 90 And where doth the Scripture call the Light of Christ a Law of the Creation or a natural Light And Priest Bond thou saist in Page 81. The Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law There is naturally in all Men as such a Light of direction or natural Light And Priest Bond dost not thou call this a Natural Light or by Generation this Law written in the Gentiles hearts as thou saist in Page 81. But who writ the Law in the Gentiles hearts and how doth this Light come by nature or generation prove this by express words in Scripture which thou callest thy rule Noah was a just and a perfect man c. Job was a good and perfect man And Priest Bond saith to infer and say that Noah or Job were perfect from all Sin in this Life would be a miserable perverting of other places of Scripture c. Page 78. And in Page 87. There is in all true believers a Cursed Root of bitterness not cast out Death only
their God and they shall be my people And we have the comfort of the Scripture 2 Cor. 6. And if this Christ which we own be not in Priest Bond then he is a Reprobate Priest Bond saith In all Places and Countries the generality of Quakers do purposely use these words THEE and THOU and deny all reverential respect to all sorts of men these things the unmannerly Quakers will do but the Scriptures do command all men to pray for Rulers and to submit unto them and to give the honour that 's due unto them And therefore saith Priest Bond over and over The Light of the Scriptures doth reprove them Page 41. 42 43 44 45. He makes a great pudder about THOU and THEE but to no purpose Doth THOU and THEE dishonour Magistrates and to say YOU to them is that the true honour and reverence that belongs to them If so let Priest Bond prove it by Scripture which thou saist is thy Rule And thou saist The Quakers seeming Sanctity consists in thee and thou That is false for Christ is our Sanctification and thee and thou is according to the Scripture c. And three times over in the fortieth Page Priest Bond saith That we deny Jesus Christ of Nazereth born of the Virgin Mary which are all horrid lies in Page 40. and 41. For we own Christ Jesus more than he Priest Bond saith that John Crook said it was the Light within that was Crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem These are more Lies for Christ suffered in the Flesh without the Gates of Jerusalem who enlightens every Man that comes into the World and was quickned by the Spirit Bond runs into his wicked words and tells of an Inside Christ but he hath not proved such a word in Scripture Page 39. And Priest Bond saith The inspired Scriptures of God are against the feigned Light of Christ within them But Priest Bond hath brought no Scripture against the Light of Chirst shining in our Hearts which gives us the knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Christ our Saviour And so it was the Apostles Doctrine and reaching to bring People to the Light of Chirst which shined in their Hearts which Light of Christ thou callest an Idol and a feigned Light Christ within Page 38. which thou hast not proved by Scripture which thou callest thy Rule and by it thou art reproved And Christ is manifest in us by his Spirit Priest Bond But all things reproved are made manifest by the Light of the Scripture Scripture Light Then how chanced it the Jews were not reporved by Scripture Light And what reproved before Scripture was written or them that have not nor had not the Scripture Had people no Light to reprove before the Scripture was written And Priest Bond saith Every one that doth evil hates the Light c. By the Light Christ Understand the Doctrinal Light contained in the written Scripture of the New-Testament But Priest Bond prove that the New-Testament was written when Christ Preacht that Doctrine in John 3. And every one that doth evil hates the Light and will not come to it Hath every one the Scriptures that doth evil in the World Prove that Priest Bond who saist that Scripture is the Light for do not the Scriptures declare that Christ enlightens every one that comes into the World Priest Bond saith That the True Christ hath stopped F. E's Mouth and yet F. E. and he disputes over and over in his Book afterwards And then Priest Bond goes to his Lies and Blasphemous Language False Christ the Devil Christ within is the false Christ the Devil Page 36. And yet Priest Bond is made to confess in Page 21. 23. that F. E. the Quaker did confess the word took Flesh and in that Flesh dyed for all Men and further F. E. did believe that Jesus Christ of Nazareth a Man approved of God amongst the People whom the Jews hanged and slew and God raised from the dead and also received up into Heaven was the true Christ and only Saviour And yet Priest Bond saith in the same 21. Page That the Scriptures of Truth doth plainly charge the generality of Quakers with the guilt of the Sin against the Holy-Ghost because they have sinned willfully after a Profession openly made of Faith in the Lord Christ born of the Virgin Mary c. See the Priests contradictions here in F. E's confession as Priest Bond prints them But these are all horrid Lies for we are in the same Faith which Christ Jesus is the Author and Finisher of and the Scripture charges us with no such thing which he falsly perverts and misapplies they are better applied to himself in sinning against the Holy-Ghost who calls Christ within a Devil and an Idol-Light which will be his own Condemnation Then he is making a pudder about Christs humane nature and yet cannot give a Scripture to prove it as in Page 55. And yet he saith Christs Body of flesh and bones after the Resurrection was spiritual Page 72. And in Page 69. He saith Stephen saw Christs Humane Body above Are not these contradictions And the Apostle saith All things were made by Jesus Christ and all things were made by the Word and Christs Name is called the Word of God Priest Bond saith to F. E. It is strange that thou wilt produce a Christ for Evidence in whom thou dost not believe Page 34. And in Page 40. They deny that Jesus Christ was come into the Flesh And in Page 21. 23. They confess Christs coming into the Flesh Thou saist and here thou contradicts thy self and saith and unsaith and belies the Quakers Priest Bond thou brings Christs Words I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in me to wit Christ i. e. that is in oneness of Affections but affections he hath added and what Affections them are he hath not declared Page 34. Yet thou saist The Saints must have sin in them as long as they live and shall not be made free from Sin in this Life and there is a Cursed Root of Bitterness in all true Believers and not Cast out Death only makes Conquest over Sin Page 87. So it is not Christ that makes an end of Sin and his Blood that cleanseth from Sin and make their Garments white and gives Victory and Conquest but it is death according to Priest Bonds Doctrine that Conquers Sin And thou saist If the Man Christ Jesus had not first given himself a Ransome for our Sins c. Page 32. And then thou saist You must not be free from Sin in this Life What contradictions are here And how art thou reconciled to God and pleads thou shalt not be made free from Sin in this Life which is of the Devil And Christ enlightens every Man that comes into the World who is the Redeemer which Light thou callest an Idol Light within The Quakers say thou that hates the Light of Christ and calls it an Idol thou hates
perish but he that hath the true living hope in him which the Apostle speaks of in John 2.3 purifieth himself even as he is pure And again Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he shall also quicken your Mortal Bodies Many other places of Scripture might be brought tending to the proof of what I have before asserted but these I judge might be sufficient The last thing I find my self concerned with him in his Book is in Page 69. Where he saith I called on him to make good the third part of the Charge viz That the prime Principles of a Quaker are the same which were held and professed by the Beasts that Paul fought with at Ephesus This I own indeed that I did call upon him to make good or prove as in his paper sent to us he said he would do with the greatest plainness and clearness out of the Holy Scriptures a copy of which paper I have still by me these words to wit with the greatest plainness and clearness I find he has left out and saith in his Book from the Holy Scriptures I note it because there is a great deal of difference between proving a matter with the greatest plainness and clearnness out of Holy Scriptures and proving of it by his pretended Logical Arguments and Cousequences Because the one makes a thing perfectly appear as it is but the other as ill managed and misapplyed darkens Peoples minds as his Ergo's it is so or consequently it must be or may be so in which manner of proving a matter may be gross erring as I have already shewed where he said of me That I never had the Spirit of God in me His first Argument to prove that was thus formed Using the Apostles Words in the 1 John 5.8 where he saith There are three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood and these three agree in me meaning himself But the Spirit that is in thee doth not agree with the Water of Baptism nor Blood of the Supper for thou hast renounced both the Sacraments therâ—fore the Spirit of God is not in thee Why should the Spirit that is in me agree with such a Popish Phrase as Blood of the Supper any moâ—e than with Sacrament of the Altar will this prove that I never had the Spirit of God in me or that the Spirit of God is not in me The like I never read in all the Scriptures of Truth that ever any of the true Ministers of Christ used thus to censure others on such occasion and terms But this was the way that this Man used to prove several of his charges against us But I minding this third Part of his Charge which was as beforemention'd That the prime Principles of a Qâ—ak r are the same which were held and professed by the Beasts Paul fought with at Ephesus And knowing it was too hard a thing for him to prove against all such as are call'd Quakers or any one as I know of I urged him to prove it if he could by plain Scripture but no such place of Scripture did he bring that could prove that charge for that the Principles of the People of God called Quakâ—rs and them Men called Beasts at Ephesus are far enough differing if they were Men the Apostle means as in point of Worship is well known to the Nation As in this particular that the People called Quakers do not Worship an Image an Idol God the Workmanship of Mans Hands which the Men at Ephesus called Beasts did as we may read in Acts 19.26 This Paul hath perswaded and turned away much People saying that they be not Gods which are made by Mens Hands and in Vers 27. So that not only our Craft is in danger to be set at nought but also that the Temple of the great Goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence should be destroyed whom all Asia and the World Worshippeth and in the 28 Verse And when they heard these sayings they where full of Wrath and cryed out saying great is Diana of the Ephesians and in the 35 Vers Ye Men of Ephâ—sus what Man is there that knoweth not how that the City of the Ephesians is a Worshipper of the great Goddess Diana and of tht Image which fell from Jupiter But the Principles of the People called Quakers in point of Worship is to Worship the true God in Spirit and in Truth and such Worshippers Christ himself saith the Father seeketh And their prime Principle is Christ Jesus the Power of God the Light that inlightneth every Man that cometh into the World And what other erronious Principles them Beasts at Ephâ—sus held I know the People called Quakers disown sufficiently but what need have I to make that my business to search for them now this Man viz Sampson Bond having charged us so grosly and falsly as he hath and saying He would prove with the greatâ—st in plâ—inâ—â—ss and clearness out of the Holy Scriptures it was his place if he could have done it to have brought forth the Scripture to have proved both the Principles of the one and the other and so have made them appear to be as one and the same as he in his Paper to us said he would But here I have answered that false Charge of his and made it appear by plain Scripture that their Principles or at least some of their Pâ—incipâ—es was to Worship a visible Image And no such thing can be proved against he People called Quakers Now where does it appear that the Principles of the Beasts at Ephesus these being some of theirs and the Pâ—inciples of the People called Quakers agree Surely the Principles of those called Beasts at Ephesus and the Principles of the People called Quaâ—ers are far enough from agreeing as one and the same But I find in his Book that he alleadges their Principles were First That the Body of Christ was not raisâ—d from the Dead Secondâ—y That no Mans Body shall be raisâ—d from the Dead Noâ— that these â—here the Principâ—es of these Feasts that Paul fought with at Ephesus I do not find the Scripture plain for it But that their Pâ—inciples were as I have befâ—râ—mentioned the Scripture is very plain clear for that if the Apostle speak figuratively But that it was part of the Apostles Testimony to preach unto People Jesus and the Resurrection I own and truly believe as may be plainâ—y seen both to the Aâ—henians and Corinthians and it is like to many moâ—e both Jews and Greeks and that it was strange Doctrine as we may read in Acts 17. It was to the Athâ—nians to whom Paul preached at Mars-hill â—ut what is this to prove that it was the Principles of the Beasts that Paul fought with at Ephâ—sus or of the Qâ—â—kâ—rs either This Man having given fâ—om under his Haâ—d that he would prove his charge with the greâ—test plaiâ—n ss clearness from the Holy
Scriptures I looked for it but not finding it I must needs judge his charges to be false And for his saying That it was one of thâ— Principles of the Beasts that Paul fought with at Ephesus to hold that the Body of Christ was not raised from the Dead To this I answer if it were one of their Principles to hold such a thing what is this to the People called Quakers they do not hold it for they as confidently be ieve the Resurrection of Christ â—ody as Sampson Bond or any other Man need do according to the Testimony of severa faithful Witnesses given oâ— him in the Holy Sâ—riptures of Truth The second Principle that he saith them Beasts at Eph sus held is 2dly That no Mans Body shall be raised from the Dead First This I want a plain Scripture to prove First That it was one of those Men that Paul fought with Secondly I want a place of Scripture to prove that it is the Natural Carnal or Earthly Body of all Mankind that shall rise again after Death To this I need say but little because I do not find the thing proved that is asserted But least any should think or say I make that my excuse to save my answer I answer to it thus that for many to say hold and believe that the Natural Bodies of all Mankind shall rise again after Death this I esteem great ignoracne aâ—d doth in no wise agree with the Apostles Words as may be seen in the 1 Cor. 15.35 Where the Apostle speaking concerning the Resurrection put forth a Question and afterwards answered it himself saying But some Man will say how are the Dead raised up and with what Body do they come his answer was in the 36 Vers Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it dye Vers the 37. And that which thou sowâ—st thou sowest not that Body that shall be and in the 38 Vers But God giveth it a Body as it hath pleased him Verse the 42. So also is the Resurrection of the Dead it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption and Verse the 44 of the same Chap. saith It is sown a Natural Body it is raised a Spiritual Body And this Testimony of the Apostles I own and farther do believe a Resurrection both of the just and the unjust the one namely the just or they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and the other namely they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation according to Christs own Words in John 5.29 Thus I having come through the thing which I at first intended though I could have here more inlarged concerning the Light within which Sampson Bond hath spoken so much Evil agaist it being that which our Lord Jesus Christ hath given a measure of to all Men to lead them out of Darkness and so into the Marvelous Light and Kingdom of Peace Yet here I forbear expecting that he will not miss the Hand Writing of some other to answer him both to that and several other things asserted in his Book Bermudas the 1st Month 1683. William Wilkinson A BRIEF TOUCH OF THE DECEIT AND False Doctrine OF SAMPSON BOND THe mighty strength as he thinks of this operative blind embondaged Sampson Bond lies in his 17th and 66th page wherein he grindes and grins against the Truth of the Gospel and he sayes wounds to Dâ—ath a meer Lye that which makes a Devil the spirit that now works in the Children of Disobedience and in him a Falshood a Nullity nothing in his Text an Expletive of the Translaters having nothing or it in the Greek making an Ambiguity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bipenâ—â—â— which he makes use of as his Two edged Sword his Ax to wrest the Apostles Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are Know ye not that Christ dwells in you c. not How Christ dwelleth c. which word How which Justin Martyr a most eminent Writer soon after the Apostles dayes Juâ—i Mâ—r yr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes is an Argument of Vnbelief to say How God is in men he makes his Text the Handle of his Mill the Hinge of his Work that brings him his Grist his Christ only without Word only without nothing within but his How a meer Manner Mode without Substance by his Popish Philosophy and Divinity like that of their Bread God And 't is no Wonder he lays such stress on the Translaters How not the Apostle's Know for the New Doctrine they have got up against us contrary not only to the Primitive Fathers but also to the Protestant Reformers is That the Spirit of Christ is not Objective and Perceptive See G Keith's Quakerisâ—n no Popery citing Aug. Luther Zwâ—ngl us Melancton c and h s Bâ—ok of â—â—mmediâ—te Revelation aâ—d his Answer to the Dr. of Jena in Defence of Robert Barclay on that part but only Subjective and Effective as their Terms are his is Operative here that is according to his Comparison as the Sun's Effect is on Plants c. they not perceiving it So the Son's Effect is on Men yet they not knowing but only believing the Doctrine and that they have they have it This he shews is his by his Restraint in his Interpretation of John 1.1 and there is grounded his Argument against W.W. and our Friends in pag. 66. which is Popish not Protestant Doctrine too large a Field to be entred on here against such an inconsiderable Adversary who deserves but such answer as the Man made the Popish Priest that had taught him to believe Transubstantiated Christ to be his saying Believe thou hast him and thou hast him But lest he should conceit Silence to be as empty an Answer as his Text How wherein he would place the emphasis I shall offer him t'other glass to pâ—ove it that he is not beside his Text and that seeing he sayes the Hour-glass knows as wâ—ll his Terms as his Adversary it proves not the Divisions and Terms of time better than he does those of that Scripture that is Prove and Know wherein the Apostle's emphatical stress is laid not S. B's How For on the word Prove the Apostle discants after his manner as others have also observed using the word six times here twice in this Verse once before and three times after it as in Vers 3. A PROOF of Christ speaking in me Vers 5. PROVE your selves KNOW ye not that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be UNAPPROVED Vers 7. Not that we should appear UNAPPROVED We might be as UNAPPROVED Now here this Great Greek THRASONICAL SAMPSON boasting over unlearned Men with his Metonymyes and Syllogisms proves himself REPROBATE UNAPPROVED in the Greek in the words of his Text going beside it and placing the weight of the sentence on that which is not in it in the Greek in which the Apostle wrote and omitting that on which the Apostle insists so much viz KNOW by PROOF which word signifies to
generally for it as may be read in their works and account of them and their lives J. H. his view of Antiquity He seems also in all his Arguments to beg the Question of onely solely or wholely of Christ without as then manifest Ascending c. And I find it an usual fallacy with him to have more in the Conclusion then in the Premises In his Third Argument he seems to shut out Christs Mediator and Intercessorship in the Spirit as in Rom. 8. By his Word only making the Sacrifice all Câ—ytraeus p. 151. from psa 45 and 72. Jer. 23. Isa 11. Mag. sent l. 3. d. 19. excluding his Kingly and Prophetical Office which is continually And seeing the said handler of that Controversie shews by plain Testimony of Scriptures that the Son of God from the beginning of the Church made intercession for her and that she was thereby saved and quickned and both he and the School-Men deny that Christ did it according to his Divine Nature because none is an interceeder for himself who was it then that interceeded in them of Old and spoke in the Prophets Or whether he believes them held in Limbo Oecolamp ibid. till after Christs ransom by his reason page 31. I would ask him again seeing Paul saw and heard Christ after his Ascension whether he saw and heard him in Heaven or on Earth 1 Cor. 15.8 and 9.1 Act. 9.4 and 12.14 Suiting his Question to F. E. and W. H. p. 22 23. That so he may answer and please himself which he cannot do about his great stumbling-stone the Light which he is so greatly offended at and mightily confounded about that knows not what to make it Though he would have it the Devil and if any would freely grant it sometimes Antichrist the greatest Deceiver and Idol c. Yet sometimes Reason sometimes by natutal Generation sometimes as Men come into the World p. 16. Would any to return him as due the Language he unduly gives but an unreasonable Ephesian Beast reason after this manner Is the Devil by natural Generation Or is the Devil reason And if that be by natural Generation creando infunditur infundendo creatur it must be extraduce as they term it by traduction Holds he then that the reasonable part in Men is transferred by Generation contrary to the receiv'd opinion of the Schooll whose terms he so much glorys in which says it is created and infused And if the Light be reason and by natural Generation or Traduction and that be the Devil and Christ be in Men but essentially as in Dogs and Cats as he says what reason has he to glory so of p. 64. and not rather to be ashamed of the production of it his Metonymical Sarcastical Synecdochical Metaphorical Syllogistical Samsonical Monsters he produces to fight with and and Heaven Inventions to turn off the plain words of Christ and his Apostles And indeed there 's reason enough as to himself to make his reasoning one with the Devil being a Lye a Fallacy Deceit the wisdom that 's from below Devillish That which called Christ a Devil was of the Devil And he that was his professed Disciple and yet betrayed him to the Priests and so to the Magistrates was a Devil And what means his bragging so much of the Magistrates Sheriff Justices c. And prejudicing them against us as proud Levellers for not giving them proud flattering titles as you c. Is it not to press them to execution in their way as he in his by the press the utmost he can And how pittifully he pleads for it with silly shifts his own phraise shewing himself neither ingenuous nor ingenious in it it appears so plainly so designedly knavish and so absurdly foollish do but read it As for the Scriptures he brings they appear plain Hebraisms which he urges elsewhere as they and ye p. 41. or else collectives as the Language given to the Senate was after given to the Emperor and by him usurped with their Power And so came it first in use and after by slow paced degrees till now comed to the most contemptible even to a Dog For I have often heard Men say you Vile Rascal you you sawcy Cur you c. So he might have called this a brutish practice p. 42. Wher 's then his distinction he pleads for in the use of it De scribâ—â—d Epist Vossatoreâ— See Erasmus reasons with Indignation against the Youers of his time writing a whole Chapter against them comparing them to triple Bodied Monsters c. And compare them with this Mans ridiculous reasons for his ridiculous words and gestures as if they were for distinction when they are for confusion not knowing whether one or more are spoken to to one only or to all in company They that know Languages know that in them all there is a distinction in speaking to one or more But the Hebrew manner in speaking sometimes to all severally sometimes to all as one in a collective Body some times to one in name of all and so altering speaks no such confusion As in the place for instance Isa 10.1 3 4. The Prophet speaks of them and says Woe to them that decree Vnrighteous Decrees and writers that write grieveousness prescribed c. In Verse 3. he turns his speech to them What will ye do in the day of Visitation where will ye leave your glory c. Verse 4 he again says of them Without me they shall bow down under the Prisoners c. R. R. Something further in ANSWER to Priest Bond 's Lyes Ignorance and Blasphemy In his Book Entituled The Quakers in BERMUDAS Tryed Sentenced Executed c. SAMPSON BOND saith The Quakers are Tryed Sentenced and Executed This is much like his forefathers the Scribes Pharisees who were always forward in Judging and Condemning the Innocent who cryed out against Christ Jesus our Saviour and said He was a Blasphemer and had a Devil as thou dost against his Appearance in Spirit at this day who begin'st thy Book with a Lye and Blaspheming in thy Mouth but the Life in which the Quakers live is out of thy Wrath and he in whom we believe shall bruise thy Head which is the Serpent though thou Blaspheme against his Name For S. Bond saith in the beginning of his Book That the Quakers Saviour within him is not the true Christ but the false Christ the Devil Reply He in whom we have believed for Salvation is the true Christ whom the Angel said His Name should be called Jesus and by the Prophet Emanuel which being Interpreted is God with us Mat. 1.21 22 23. Whose out-goings were from of Old who said before Abraham was I am who was with the Church in the Wilderness and they drank of the Spiritual Rock which followed them which Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 And this is he in whom we have believed who comforted and preserved his People in all Ages by his
Spiritual Appearance in the Inward Man and there is none knowes him truly to be their Saviour but who knows him Spiritually in their Hearts who workes all their workes in them and for them But S. B. such as thou Blasphemous Wretch who call'st his Spiritual Appearance the Devil may get the words of the Scripture and prate in thy Imaginations and deceive poor People with a Notion who through envy and malice which the Devil workes in thee art Smiteing and Reproaching them who live in the Life or Spirit which gave forth the Scripture which thou hast raked together in thy dark mind to prove Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among the People to be the Saviour which is not denyed by us but assuredly believed in and witnessed to be the true and only Saviour through the work of his Eternal Power in the Inward Man which is wrought through Faith in his Name who in the days of his Flesh went about doing good and wrought Miracles and did many mighty Works yet the Priests Scribes and Pharisees Envyed and Blasphemed against him a thou dost against his Spiritual Appearance at this day And we also believe Christ Jesus suffered by that envyous Generation of Professors Scribes and Pharisees and was Crucified under Pontus Pilate the Roman Governour and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and appeared to his Disciples and ascended into Heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father in Majesty on High who is the Mediator between God and Man who is ascended above all Heavens and by whom all things do consist who said I and my Father are one and he that hath seen me hath seen the Father Iohn 14.7 9 10. Who said I am in the Father and the Father in me the words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self but the Father that dwelleth in me he doth the work and so Christ Iesus hath taught us by his blessed Spiritual Appearance in our Hearts not to separate his Man-hood from the God-head As thou S. B. hast done in thy ignorant dark Spirit who hast heapt up many Scriptures together in thy Book to prove the Man-hood only the Saviour which is no more proved by thee then if thou had said nothing for these Scriptures do severally prove and hold forth the power of the God-head which dwelt in that Holy Body whereby it was carryed forth and enabled in suffering and doing good healing the Sick raising the Dead as it is written and through the Eternal Spirit offered up himself a Sacrifice for the Sin of the World So not the Man-hood without the God-head was the Saviour as thou Ignorantly Blasphemously seeks to prove against the work and power of the God-head in the Man Christ Iesus and also against his Spiritual Appearance in his People Pharaoh like hast given these wicked Epithetes to wit The Quakers Idol Glow-worm and the Devil with much more Blasphemous stuff for which God will judge thee thou Hypocrite And S. B. in the 7th and 8th Page of his Book saith He doth acknowledge with Francis Estlacke that the Word took Flesh and suffered without the Gates of Jerusalem howbeit saith S. B. as it come from a teaching Quaker it is undoubtedly no other then a deceitfull shift but saith he Alas how many Turks and Jews believe this But the Quakers attribute no more Soul-saving merit in the Body of Christ then in the Body of a Turk or a Jew Reply In this thou hast falsly accused us and seekes to make Lies thy refuge and to render us odious to the People but the Lord is opening the Understandings of Men and many know us better then to believe thy Lies and Slanders which we turn back upon thy own Head with thy story of Turks and Jews believing Christ died by History which is thy own state who art scoffing at the work of Salvation by Christ in the Hearts of his People who knowest little but by History and therefore thou knowest not the vertue of the Body of Christ Iesus but art falsly accusing others whose tongue is at liberty and thy Heart filled with malice and thou throwest out Lies at random Who that is moderate and fears God will believe thee but it may serve with the rest of thy Lies and Blasphemous stuff to make thee manifest to the People For since we have been turned from Darkness to Light and believed therein we have known Salvation and Redemption by the pretious Blood of Christ Iesus which cleanseth our Hearts from Sin And so the Quakers do not make these effects within them to be Christ their only Saviour as thou falsly chargest them but we know the Operation of his Heavenly Arm and Power within us to work these good effects for us who hath opened a Spiritual Eye in us which sees where thou art and the true Light shines although thou in the dark Blasphemes which will yet make thy Folly and Darkness manifest to them that see it not Who art pleading in thy Notion and Historical belief of Christ without thee which Drunkards and Profane Persons have as well as thee who art dividing and scoffing at his Spiritual Appearance in Man without which there is no Salvation but all are in the curse where thou art in thy Notion of Christ only without thee with the Drunkards profane Turks and Jews to receive thy person except thou find a place of Repentance for thy Faith can be no better then a Notion profess what thou wilt who scoffs and derides at the blessed Appearance of Christ Jesus in the Hearts of his People for it is that which gives life unto the Soul as Christ Jesus said Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Iohn 6.53 And he that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him Iohn 6.56 But this is a Riddle to thee and such as thou art who knowest little but what thou knowest naturally like a Beast wherein thou corrupts thy self and such as thou art in all Ages opposed the breaking forth of the blessed Invisible Life and Power of Christ Iesus who redeems Man to God out of Death and Darkness where thou art gnashing thy Teeth but the redeemed of the Lord whom thou scoffest at they rejoyce in Christ Iesus their Lord and only Saviour over thee and thy Head which is the Devil for he is a Lyar from the beginning and is the Father of all Lyars and Blasphemers in whose work thou art found and do not say this is railing for it is thy due as Christ Iesus said to thy forefathers of old Ye Generation of Vipers how can you escape the Damnation of Hell And Samuel Bond saith in the Six and Twentyeth Page of his Book Though the Spirit be the Dead Souls Quickner yet it is not the Quickned Souls Saviour Reply Where hast thou learnt this Doctrine thou Blind guide who leads all into the
Ditch that follow thee It is written The Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Iohn 5.25 So it is by Christ Iesus the dead Soul is quickened and raised to Life who is the Saviour by the powerful working and operation of his Spirit in the Inward Man and so thy blind assertion is seen to be words without knowledge and in this and much more thou art found a false witness who wouldest wholely exclude the Spirit in the work of Salvation for saist thou Though it be the dead Souls Quickner it is not the quickned Souls Saviour who is it but the blind but sees thy confusion herein for Christ Iesus and the Spirit are one in the work of Mans Salvation And S. B. saith in his 54 Page That G. F. in his Book Great Mystery Page 49 50. hath these words ye scorn me the Light in you and ye have said that I the Light am not able to save those that believe in me and further Page the 54. That if you will believe in me the Light I will purge out all your Iniquitys c. Reply Herein thou hast spoken falsly of G. F. in thy scoffing Spirit for there is no such words in his Book therefore who should mind what thou saist who art publishing thy Lies and Blasphemy in print to the World for we do not say that every measure or operation in Man is the whole Light of Christ But in him is Life and the Life is the Light of Men who lighteth every Man that is come into the World Iohn 1.4 9. And they that believe in the Light and obey it they come to be the Children of the Light and of the Day and if the Magistrates and all the People in Bermudas did believe in the Light of Christ Iesus the would soon see what a blind Guide Priest Bond is who blasphemes and derides the Light of Christ and makes Lies his refuge and would through his malice and envy stir up the Magistrates of Bermudas to Whip and Persecute a People that lives peaceably amongst them and are believers in Christ Jesus their Saviour although falsly accused by thee Sampson Bond as in the 59 60 61. Page of thy Book where thou saist Christ whipt out the abusers of the Temple and why might not the Magistrates whip W. H But Christ Jesus did not whip such as thou art who said He was a Blasphemer and had a Devil which was worse then the Abusers of the Temple who were like thee who callest his Spiritual Appearance the Devil and what Christ Iesus did in that matter it was not only in respect of that outward Temple but also Figurative of his Spiritual cleansing of the Hearts of his People in the Gospel Day But S. B. where dost thou find the Ministers of Christ preach such Doctrine as thou hast done to the Magistrates in Bermudas in these 3 Pages more like a proud Pharisee then a Minister of the Gospel as thou would be esteemed who hast got the Sheeps cloathing but art seen to be Inwardly a Ravening Wolf thy work discovers thee And Sampson Bond saith in his 58 Page When Paul was Travelling in Birth for the Galatians Christ was not formed in them therefore saith he the Light which is in every Man is not the true Christ but a Quakers rotten Principle Reply Herein Sampson Bond hath manifest himself to be one that speaks out of thick Darkness who knows nothing of the new Birth nor travail for Christ to be formed in him but calls it The Quakers rotten Principle the Devil But in Gods Day it will grind him to Powder except he can find a place of Repentance before it be too late For thou dark Man who knowest not what thou stumblest at for although Christ Iesus hath inlightned every Man that comes into the World yet many hates the Light as thou dost and so such know not the way thereof no more then thou do'st but are in Darkness as thou art but it is they who love the Light believe in it and obey it who come to know the new Birth and Christ to be formed in them which thou knows nothing of thy Speech which is in Darkness and Blasphemy bewrays thee and hast lasht thy self and feel'st it not who art Dead in Darkness And this is written that People may see where thou art like a proud Pharisee whose Tongue is at liberty and pratest like a Perrot in thy Book which is stuft with Lies Ignorance and Blasphemy against God and Christ his Holy Angels Prophets and Apostles which thou most falsly chargest upon others in the 54 Page but art really found guilty thy self And also against Gods People whom he hath raised up by the Light of his Son Christ Jesus our Lord in this Day Who art Scoffing and Deriding at them and also the Light and gracious Appearance of Christ in their Hearts whereby its manifest thou knowest nothing hereof but by Notion and History For it is by the Spiritual Appearance of Christ that the Eye of Mans Understanding is opened to see and through the work of Regeneration Man comes to know the worth of that one Offering which for ever makes perfect them that are sanctified through the belief of the truth and in walking in obedience thereunto they come truly to know Christ to govern rule and be head in them And they are Spiritual minded Men and Women who are made sensible of that great work of Mans Salvation in Christs offering up himself in the Body of his Flesh upon the Cross whereby he put an end to the first Covenant which stood in outward Sacrifices Types and Shadows and opened a Door both for Jew Gentil to receive him who is the Second and Everlasting Covenant and they that know this Spiritual work and Christ to be formed in them as aforesaid they are made pertakers of that great benefit of what Christ wrought by his suffering without them and are sate down in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord and only Saviour Whilst thou Sampson Bond and such as thou art are foaming out your own shame who saist in the 69 Page of thy Book The Quakers deny that Christs Body is risen which is another of his Lies For we do know he is risen and to our Justification who believe in his Name and to the condemnation of such false Accusers as thou art But S. B. in the 18 Page of his Book saith Christs gracious Operation in the Heart in Scripture is called Christ in you And we who thou in scorn callest Quakers do believe it is he the Scriptures bear Testimony to be within his People who is their Saviour who in the beginning of thy Book calls him the Devil and so Pharisee like thou art calling the Master of the House Belzebub And here thou hast contradicted thy self who deridest at Christs being in his People and like a Blasphemer scoffingly Queriest Whether Christ be in our Arms Leggs and
by 4 Apostolical Arguments First Because Jesus Christ of Nazareth a Man approved of God among the People was and is the true Christ and our only Saviour for to prove which he notes many Scriptures Acts 2.21 22 23 24. Acts 4.10 11 12. Acts 10.38 39 40 42 43. From these Scriptures mentioned S. B. draws this Argument If Jesus Christ of Nazareth a man approved of God among the People of Israel be the true Christ and only Saviour then a Quakers pretended Saviour within him is not the true Christ But Jesus Christ of Nazareth a Man approved of God among the People was and is the true Christ and our only Saviour therâ—fore a Quakers pretended Saviour within him is not the true but the false Christ Reply The Apostles Testimony we believe that this Jesus of Nazareth was he that was to come of whom Moses and the Prophets wrote and of whom the Apostles bore so strict a testimony especially before the Jews under the Name of Jesus of Nazareth Because they having read of the glory of this Saviour did expect it to be outward and visible and that he should have come with the Pomp and Glory of this World and that the Redemption which should have been wrought by him should have been outward and that he should have sat upon the Throne of David as an outward and visible King and when contrary to this their expectation he was raised up of so mean a place as Galilee and Nazareth and of so mean Parentage they slighted him saying Is not this the Carpenter the Son of Joseph His Father we kâ—ow and his Brethren are with us we know whence he is But when Christ cometh wâ— know not whence he is search and see say they for out of Gallilee ariseth no Prophet So they slighted and scorned him and put him to Death therefore the Apostle did bear so strict a Testimony to this Man and we do believe that this vvas he that was to come and we look not for another But that the Apostle by this Testimony did deny the Godhead or Invisible Power that dwelt in Jesus of Nazareth by which he became a Saviour we do not believe Neither do we believe that the Man Jesus of Nazareth only as Man was the Saviour of the World For in him dwells the fullness of the God-head Bodily Coll. â— 9 And Christ himself testifies that he was in the Father and the Father in him John 14.10 11. And in the same place he testifies That the Words he spake and the Works he did were done by the Father that dwelt in Him Now if the whole work of Mans Salvation had been wrought by the Body or visible Man only then must our Faith and Hope have stood there but the same Apostle saith 1 Pet. 1.21 Our Faith and Hope must stand in God By which Scripture with many more that might be named it appears that the Salvation of Mankind was wrought by the vvhole entire Christ of God vvho vvas truly God and Man And the Apostle saith That God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself 2 Cor. 5.19 So that it was the Word the invisible Power that dwelt and wrought in the Body that gave the value of the worâ— done in and by the Man by which the work of Mans Salvation was effectually wrought So after the work was performed in by the Body in order to Mans Redemption yet there remains a large work to be performed in such as believe For there is a power of Darkness in Man to be overcome the Antichristian Spirit â—s to be cast out the Body of Sin and Death is to be destroyed the captivating Spirit that captivates the Members and keeps the Members in subjection to the Law of Sin and Deaâ—h to be redeemed from yea the Regeneration is to be witnessed that begets again unto God and the new-born â—abe must be known which is born of God that cannot Sin which only is Heir to the Kingdom which is brought forth in the Image and Likeness of the Invisible God which Image stands in Holiness and Righteousness And all this is formed in the Saints through the powerful working of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World and destroys the work of the Devil in us and for us and so becomes a perfect Saviour saving to the uttermost those that come unto God by him and all this is purchased through the one offering even perfect Salvation for his People even for all those that do truly and effectually believe in him who through faith lay hold on the invisible Power so that they thereby feel the inward operation or the working of the Spirit within to wash and cleanse the Heart not only from the Guilt or Condemnation as ye say but also from the defilement of Sin So is Christ Jesus become the Author of Eternal Salvation to all that through Faith are brought into obedience unto him But these things I judge are a mystery to S. B. who is ignorant of the work of Salvation of the Grace Hope and Faith within by Christ for if he had been acquainted with the inward forming of Christ he could never have formed such an Argument as this That because Jesus Christ of Nazareth a Man approved of God among the People in whom dwelt the fulness of the God-head which was the Creator of all things was the true Christ and only Saviour that therefore the Saviour cannot be within although the Saints did witness that Christ in them was their Hope of glory But to leave this and to take a view of his 2d Argument as laid down in the second Page of his Book which is grounded upon this Because the Saints of God by the direction of his Spirit have alwayes acknowledged the Man Jesus Christ to be the true and only Saviour Upon which ground he brings forth the same conclusion viz That Christ within Man which he calls the Quakers pretended Saviour within is not the true but the false Christ Reply This Argument is also false being one with the other grounded upon a foundation as to me it appears hid in his own Breast not truly laid down in express Words yet truly intended by him which is this that Christ Jesus only as Man without the Godhead was by the direction of the Spirit always acknowledged to be their true and only Saviour if this be not the ground of his Aâ—gument then could he not have formed such an Argument as this because Christ as God is a Spirit and so within as well as without Now for the proof of his Argument he brings the words of Simeon Luke 2. from Verse 25 to Verse 31. by which words it doth not at all appear that the Man or visible Body only of it self is the only Saviour for he declares of him as a Light to go before the face of all People a Light to lighten the Gentiles and John bore witness to him and saith John 1.9
He is the true Light that enlightneth every Man that cometh into the World and Christ himself said He was the Light of the World Which things are true and his Light is truly felt and known in the Hearts of his Saints So our Testimony we are not ashamed to bring forth to the inward manifestation of the Spirit of Jesus by which we are inlightned and by vvhich the Gentiles are inlightned and is become the glory of Spiritual Israel the inward Jew whose praise is not of Men but of God And so Simeon's Words or Prophecy of him is fulfilled he is become a Light to the Gentiles and Israels glory He likewise names John 20 27. Then said Jesus reach hither thy finger c. And Thomas answered and said unto him My Lord and my God So this Scripture brought by him to prove his Argument hath quite overthrown it For by Thomas his confession the same Jesus who was the true and only Saviour of the World was God as well as Man and Christ did not at all reprove him for his Confession And if God then a Spirit and so is within as well as without As to the fourth of John 42. where he seemeth to say The Men of Samaria confest to the Man Christ only to this I answer it was the same Christ to whom Thomas confest and the same that was before Abraham was even he that whosoever saw truly to be the Christ saw the Father also So here having no ground to prove his Argument which the said S. B. calls Apostolical it doth at once fall to the ground The third Argument that this Priest uses to prove his Charge viz The Quakers Saviour within him to be the false Christ is in page 3. If the true Christ and our only Saviour did at once without us in and by his own crucfied Body on the cross finish and perfect the work office of a Saviour ithen a Quakers pretended Saviour within him is not the true Christ But the true Christ and our only Saviour did at once without us in and by his own crucified Body on the Cross finish and perfect the whole work and office of a Saviour therefore a Quakers pretended Saviour within him is not the true but the false Christ All which he grounds upon these Scriptures following Heb. 10.12 14. Heb. 2.14 1 Pet. 2.24 Eph. 2.15 16. Heb. 9.26 Eph. 5.2 Col. 1.22 Neither doth any one of these Scriptures prove the whole office of a Saviour perfected in his crucified Body at once upon the Cross Although I confess that the whole work of a Saviour so far as was of him required to be performed in and by that Body was perfectly performed and nothing wanting as pertaining to our Salvation But is this the whole office of a Saviour Is there nothing farther to be done Is the believing of this sufficient without sanctification Is it not the office of Christ as a Saviour to give rest and peace to such as he saves must he not redeem from under the power of Sin and destroy Sin in our mortal Bodys Is this no part of the office of Christ as a Saviour The Apostle Paul Rom. 8.2 testified to the work of the Spirit within saying The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free frrom the Law of Sin and Death Now this faithful Servant of the Loâ—d after he came to believe and was truly satisfied as concerning the work done by Jesus of Nazareth without him yet if you read Rom. 7. you shall see what a grievous complaint he makes concerning the Body of Death which still remained in him and of the Law in his Members that still made war against the Law in his Mind and captivated his Members to the Law of Sin and Death So that although the purchase was made the debt paid and remission of Sins obtained through the Death and Sufferings of Christ Jesus and also triumphantly manifested to the World by his Resurrection of which there were many Witnesses as the Apostle doth declare 1 Cor. 15. yet for all this the Enemy sought to keep his hold and Paul was so far sensible of the same that it made him cry out Oh Wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death which as he waited he came to know a farther work of Salvation then that which was done at once without him in the Crucified Body of Jesus on the Cross for through the power of the same Jesus not another he became crucified also to the World and the World unto him and so being Crucified with Christ by which he felt himself Dead to Sin he also did pertake of his Resurrection and so received a new Life through the quickenings of Christ Jesus who lived in him and so was truly made alive unto God Gal. 2.20 So this is the very thing that the faithful whom S. B. doth scornfully call Quakers do testifie of viz of the work of the Son of God within and of his inward quicknings in our Souls by which we also are made alive unto God though we do not deny the work of Salvation wrought by the Man Jesus Christ without us in his own Crucified Body on the Cross but believe it every whit even as the Scripture doth declâ—re oâ— it And do resolve to wait in the inward manifestation of the Son of Gâ—d wâ—o is Light whom S. B. so often reproaches in his scandalous Book â—ith wicked and reproachful Names yet we are not ashamed to own him in â—is inward manifestation through whose Power we do certainly believe and truly expect to feel the Power of Darkness Sin and Death truly vanquished in us as well as for us as it is written He doth all our works in us and for us And so he becomes the Author of Eternal Salvation to all that do obey him so Christ saves not to halves as People imagin as to pay the price of the Redemption for such as are taken Captive by the Enemy of their Souls and yet leave them under his Power and Jurisdiction but to as many as believe Love and Obey him he redeems also from under the Power of Sin and Death and gives them dominion over it and so he becomes a perfect Saviour saving both within and without saving to the uttermost all that come unto God by him So these are they who are for ever perfected through the one offering even those that according to the will of God are sanctified through the Blood and Spirit of Jesus which the Saints do inwardly feel to cleanse them from the defilements of Sin So this I Judge to any rational and unbiassed Spiritâ— is sufficient to the Answer of S. B's 3d Argument by which he seeks to prove his Charge viz That a Quakers pretended Saviour within him as he is pleased to call it is not the true Christ but the false Sam. Bonds 4th Argument in page 4. If the true Christ and our only Saviour be in Heaven
way of such as desire to know the Truth In Page 6. I take notice how Deceitfully S. B. casts a slander upon us pretending how he hath fil'd off the Rust and Ruggedness of our Expressions yet charging us with disorder dismembring the Scripture which happily we might not speak every Word yet certain I am although many things were then cast in yet I did not violate or pervert the sense of any one Scripture Again he chargeth us with Dishonesty in not Noting Chapter and Verse in which he did greatly boast To which I then answered the Words we speak were Scripture Words and he had no great cause to boast For the Scripture was not given forth in Chapter and Verse neither did the Apostles ever so declare but when they speak Scripture Words they said as it is written naming only the Prophet or writer of the same and here People may take notice of a manifest Slander viz That it is Friends usual manner to speak Scripture darkly and confusedly thereby the more easily to deceive those with whom the Scripture hath any Credit Page 6. Page 7. He goes on with his Lies and Slanders saying My design was to make the Hearers believe that the Eternal Word as distinct from the Manhood of Christ is the true Christ and only Saviour As if I had gone about directly to deny the Body which is like many more of his Charges in his Book which are absolute Lies and Slanders which I shall note hereafter as they fall in my way Neither did I ever use any such Expression for if I had said He were the true and only Saviour that is to say according to S. B's sense every way sufficient to perform the whole Office of a Saviour as distiâ—guished from the Manhood then was that work in vain viz Christ taking upon him a Body of Flesh and all his Sufferings Death and Resurrection in vain If Christ as God only did perform and perfect the work of Mans Salvation without it Presently he contradicts himself saying Hereunto agrees his Words meaning mine so often repeated by him God was manifest in the Flesh which he saith we mean all Mankind Flesh which he calls an Error Which although it is my belief that God is manifest in his glorious Light in every Man according to his measure according to John 1.9 He Enlightneth every Man that cometh into the World yet my Words chiefly had Reference to that prepared Body in which the Invisible Power did so gloriously appear to those whose Eyes was open to behold it but this his Lie and Slander I shall leave upon his own Head Another Lie or Slander is in Page 8. where he saith A Teaching Quaker whom he calls a Seducing Quaker such a Quaker saith he attributes no more Soul-saving merit to the Body of Christ then to the Body of a Turk or a Jew All that have heard or read the Declarations of Friends concerning the Manhood of Christ can do no less then Judge him to be a Slanderer and a Liar Farther S. B. saith That I insisting upon John 1.9 concluded the Light in every Man to be Christ and that Christ to be the only Saviour I confess I have said That that Light in every Man iâ— given by Christ to believe in that he may be saved from Sin But rhe word only was never used by me so as to deny the Body of Christ in which he performed the will of God upon the account of Mans Salvation yet he confesseth its true that Light in that Scripture signifieth Christ and that Christ in a sense but it must be his own sense doth Enlighten every Man that cometh into the World that is said he with reason So here he adds to the Scripture whereby he doth confound or pervert the true sense of the same by his Addition concluding that Christ the true Light that Enlightneth every Man that cometh into the World doth Enlighten Man with no other Light then the Light of Reason according to the sense of that Scripture but we believe that the Light with which Christ doth Enlighten Mankind is that Light that shineth in Darkness and the Darkness cannot comprehend and also doth detect discover and make manifest the works of Darkness and doth lead those that believe in it out of the same and this Light is manifested in some measure in every Mans Conscience as they are exercised in the affairs of this World as they heed it But a little to go back to the 2d Confession in Page 82. S. B. calls the work of the Spirit within no other but the effects of the thing done by the Man Christ without us as if to be Sanctified Washed and Purged from Sin could not possibly be wrought except first the Man Christ must have suffered without us as the Anticedent cause of those effects Whereas it is certain that many of the Prophets and Righteous Men that lived before the Appearance of Christ in the Body did Witness these things wrought within them through the effectual working of the Spirit of God in their Hearts So that it is plain that Christ was manifest to them before he took the Body as well as when he took the Body according to the Scripture Christ the same Yesterday to Day and forever So having finished this digression I go forward again In the last line of the 8th Page he saith I belie the Holy Man John that the Enlightning in every Man is Christ which I again testifie that it is a measure of the Light of the true Christ who is God blessed for ever and to prove this aâ— Error he saith That this Evangelist doth evidently affirm that the Light he â—pake of in the 9th Vers was the Man Jesus which he saith never was nor â—an be in any Man for this he brings the 29 and 30 verses of the same Chapter I Answer The Evangelist in them words cannot be so understood as a Man only for he testifies of him as a whole or perfect Saviour and if so then God for if he were Man only he could not sanctifie and cleanse the Soul from Sin and how then is he the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World or how is the Sin taken away if it still remains â—n the Heart But peradventure he will say He takes away the guilt of Sin through his Sufferings and to be Cleansed from the Defilement doth follow as the effects I Answer If it be so then it appears that the whole work of Mans Salvation and so not the whole office of a Saviour was not performed at once without us as Sampson Bond affirmeth in his 3d Argument for there is something to be effected within still and if so who as it that works those effects within if it be not the Spirit In Page Nine He goes on to prove the Light within not to be the true Christ by my Words for he saith My Words Imply That thy Light in every Man is Christ therefore
School-Learning and Fleshly Wisdom are able to attain to the knowledge of the Invisible God as it is written 1 Cor. 1.21 The World by Wisdom knew not God but this Apostle witnesseth that they viz. that wicked Generation had known God but did not like to Retain him in their knowledge vers 28. So then if the true knowledge of God cannot be Attained too by the Wisdome of this World which is not able to search into the Misteries of the Visible things as is plain by the Apostles words in the forenamed 1 Cor. 1.17 The World by Wisdom knew not God then its clear that they had another Teacher that Informed them in the knowledge of God besides the Visible Creation The next Scripture this said Priest undertakes to open is in Page 25. John 6.63 The Flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth About the Interpretation of which he seems to be greatly confounded not knowing what Flesh that is that profiteth nothing and what Flesh that is that is the Souls Food that came down from Heaven of which if any Man cat he shall live for ever So having opposed the pure Heavenly Light who is the Saints Teacher he himself is left in the Dark with which his own deceived Heart is Darkned So though he said these Scriptures did not appear to Answer the matter in Hand yet they are of good service to make manifest the Darkness of the Man And whereas Christ saith It is the Spirit that quickeneth after S. B. in his ordinary manner of turning and winding of that word at length brings forth this conclusion viz. though the Spirit be the Dead Souls quickner yet it is not the quickned Souls Saviour Rep. To me this seems as strange and as Dark and as confused a Sentence as ever I heard expressed by one that pretended himself a Wise-Man But herein is the Scripture fulfilled Job 5.13 He taketh the Wise in their own Craftiness For it seems very strange to me that any Man should be so Dark as to conclude that that Spirit that giveth Life doth not save from Death Now Man naturally is Dead according to the Word of God In the Day thou Eatest thereof thou shalt surely Dye and Death having got an Entrance into the World through Sin it passed over all Men because all have Sinned now Death got Entrance through the First Man Adams offence and Man now being under the Power of Death by what means doth Man come to Witness Salvation or Deliverance from Death but by Christ who is a Quickening Spirit which giveth Life to the Soul thus Captivated under the Power of Death which is Christ Jesus the Quickening Spirit which makes the Dead to Live and sets free from the power thereof as is Witnessed Rom. 8 2. So this is my Testimony for Christ Jesus who is the Lord from Heaven the Quickning Spirit who is the Resurrection and the Life and raises such to Life who are Dead and Buried in the pit of Death and Darkness and makes them to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus so I say it is he and he alone who is the Saviour of Mankind to S. B. might see if the God of this World had not Blinded his Eye that the True Christ the Quickening Spirit saves as well within as without so that this Scripture was not mentioned in vain but plainly proves the Spirit of Christ Jesus in the Saints to be their Saviour both by delivering them from the Captivity of Sin and being delivered to preserve them from the Power thereof The next Speaker he saith was Patience Bullock who he said propounded a question to him Whether Christ could have saved us without his being God His answer he grants it and saith the Godhead gave the Efficacy and excellency to the Manhood and in the 28th Page he tells us that the humane Nature of Christ was the only matter of our Salvation contradicting the latter by granting the first Now S. B. what will the result of all this be unto thee will not all thy wicked Blasphemies against the Lord and thy revilings of the pure Light and the Dirt and Mire cast upon the Throne of God in Man now return upon thine own Head thy wickedness may be seen in this particular in many Pages of thy Book sometimes calling the Light a Glow-worm sometimes a cursed Gospel within Page 20. and frequently the Idol Light within but especially in Page 15. there thou art found to joyn both the Light which we know and is sure is a Measure of Gods Spirit in Man and the Conscience made tender by it which is his Throne in which he doeth chiefly manifest himself I say thou hast Joyned both together under a reproachful Term that Idol Light tender part within so casting Infamy and reproach at it So that which thou said of me in Page 5. viz. is truly come upon thy self for thy Throat is an open Sepulchre casting out abominable Stinck and Noisome unsavory scents in the Nostrils of God and all Godly Men. So with most reviling Speeches thou goest on charging the Light with Antichristianisme and Villany beyond all the Antichrists that yet hath appeared which ungodly charge is Recorded against thee in Eternal Record which thou shalt as surely feel the waight of it upon thine own Head as ever thou spoke it and so I leave thee to the farther Judgment of the mighty God whose Spirit thou hast Villified But to proceed to thy Inferrences upon Patience Bullocks question Page 29. Let me ask you this question Art not thou one of those Carnal Gospelers thou speaks of that rests in a bare Historical Assent that the Man Christ Jesus of Nazareth is the true and only Saviour while sayest thou they are in no degree partaker of the Divine Nature for certainly if thou wert in that Nature it would manifest it self otherwise then it hath done of Instance thy mocking Friends in thy House of worship in Devonshire Tribe calling one of the Friends Checker-work and when I reproved thee for it as a thing unbeseeming thy profession thou answeredst wantonly saying why is not his Name White and his Hatt Black is not that Checkerwork This is no Fruit of the Divine Nature which is that which is Heir to the Kingdome but on the contrary it is a manifest Fruit of Ishmaels Nature scoffing thee at Isaac's Son and the Bond Woman which is to have no part of the Heavenly Inheritance several other things I might Alledge as truly gathered out of thy Book which I forbear here to mention and only content my self with some of those particulars Noted by thine own self as Signs or Fruits of the Divine Nature which are a Lively Faith and a Lively hope which both these do Manifest themselves where-ever they are by Holiness and Purity as we may Read in Acts 15.9 How that the Gentiles who Lived in the Heathenish Nature when they come to Receive the true and Living Faith it manifested it self by Purifying
Body and Soul which is another Lie and in the same page he saith A teaching Quaker doth deny Jesus to be the Christ and therefore a Teaching Quaker is a Lier and an Antichrist O thou shameless Man when wilt thou cease to cast Dirt at Gods Herritage when wilt thou cease to accuse the Innocent whom dost thou think to Harm by thy Slanders and Evil aspersions for they return upon thine own Head and that most justly for thy Nakedness is hereby uncovered to thy shame yet canst thou not cease but still goest on to defame those Innocent People whom the Lord loves and delights in even those whom thou disdains whom the Lord hath Begotten his own Image in even those doest thou accuse to be of the Dragon and Beast and to be contradicters and Blaspheamers Well The Lip of Truth shall be Established for ever but a Lying Tongue is but for a moment Prov. 12.19 Another Grand accusation S. B. lays down in page 41. viz. The professed perfection of a Quakers seeming Sanctity consists in thee and thou thereby denying all Reverential respects to any sort of Men of what Ranck or Quallity soever Reply Though it be certainly true that the Faithful People called Quakers do use the Words thee and thou to a Singular yet it is most false to say that we do it for that End to deny all Reverential Respects to all sorts of Men c. In denyal of this his false Accusation I do here Testifie in the presence of God that when I first took it up it was in the true tenderness of Conscience and in obedience to the Inward requirings of Gods Spirit in my Heart who required obedience of me And when I first used the word to my Superiours it being in the Infancy of Truth in this Island and People had not been used to such a manner of Speech and my self having been accustomed to say you to a particular Person it became an exceeding great Tryal so that if I could have had Peace where I stood I believe I should not have Submitted but it was Manifest that it was the practice of the Saints in all Ages of the World to the end of the Primitive times so that this manner of Speaking you to a Singular Person came up under the Reign of Antichrist in the Dark Night of Apostacy in which State I stood as well as many more but when the Lord was pleased to begin to Rend the Vail that was over the Hearts of People and the Morning Star arose and the day of Christ began to break forth most clearly then the Lord was pleased to begin to open mine Eyes and I saw among the many things that then appeared to be parted with that this was one that I must part with and I must come to the plain Language which the Saints were in in Ages by past every one Speaking Truth to his Neighbour otherwise I must part with Truth it self so I was even constrained to take up the Cross in the self denial otherwise I saw I could not be Christs Disciple So that this is another Slander against the Innocent tending to the Filling up of S. Bonds Cup to make way for Gods wrath to be Executed upon him For this I know the Saints Leader is one and Leads in the Path of Humility all that do truly obey him and in Humility I took up this Practice and not in any Pride the Lord knows but can as truly give Magistrates their due aâ— ever always having an Eye to Conscience to keep that undefiled that the Lord may have first his due So the Honour belonging to Men to Fathers and Mothers is in the Lord and this is right and according to the Gospel order Eph. 5.1 Now S. B. in his mannageing of this assertion against us he lays down his Foundation thus that thee and you you and thou are not always in Scripture of distinct signification but are sometimes of the same signification and to prove this he names Lev. 19.12 Ye shall not Swear by my Name Falsly Neither shalt thou prophane the Name of thy God and to this adds Jer. 3.12 Return thou Back-Sliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to burn forth against you Reply Take notice of the Subtilty of this Crafty Priest he not being willing to come to the true Language neither being able himself to bear it he seeks to Blind the Eyes of People that so he may keep them in their Sins by perswading them that God himself puts no difference sometimes between the words but makes them both of one signification And thus he seeks to Blind People perverting or hideing the true sence of the Scripture and putting upon them a sence best pleasing to himself for the carrying on of his intended design But for all that thou hast said or all that thou hast yet farther to say shew me but one Scripture in all the Bible where the Lord or any one particular Saint ever made use of this word you to any one particular Person where there was no more at least included otherwise thy Argument will fall to the Ground like an old Building whose Foundation is Rotten and as in reason to use the word thee or thou to many is Ridiculous among Men they being evermore proper to the Singular number and altogether improper to the Plural So on the other hand you being formed of yea the Second Person in the Plural Number is likewise Ridiculous to be put to the Singular And as to the Scriptures by thee mentioned according to the true Sence of them the plain Language is not at all confounded neither is the words thou or you at all used out of their proper place but each bears its own proper distinction and signification for when the Lord speaks to the Multitude of the Sons of Jacob as to many as it is written I will Multiply thy Seed as the Stars of Heaven then he uses the word you but when he Speaks to his People in a particular or singular Sence as to one House the House of Israel or to one particular Nation he makes use of the word thou or thee so the Scripture stands clear from S. Bonds false Interpretation and the plain Language among Men unconfounded So this practice it is agreeable both to Scripture Precept Example and Right Reason But whereas S. B. would make his Hearers believe that the Ancient Saints did use it only as moved by the Spirit it is true the Spirit always moves Men to Speak Truth but let him shew me in any one particular were they did use any other manner of Communication then thee and thou to a particular in their common Discourse and yet it did no ways hinder them Saints from giving to every one their due Honour to whom Honour Tribute to whom Tribute c. Neither were those Saints exalted with Pride as thou falsly chargest us but Pride doth Manifestly appear in thee who would have all to bow under thee and put off
Judgment and opinion because he cannot receive his Doctrine was this for which they were Whipped Judgment or Opinion was it not rather matter of Fact and so justly deserving Corporal punishment for they were Buying and Se ling contrary to the Law of God And how c nst thou be justified S. B. who art found doing the same things who pretending to be a Minister of Christs and to have received a gift for the Service of the Church which is Christs Spiritual Temple and yet contrary to the Doctrine of Christ who Taught his Discâ—ples to dispence their gift freely thou makes Sale of this thy pretended gifâ— making Merchandice of the Scriptures and of thy Prayers and of that which ye commonly call Sacraments and thus thou art making Traffick of thy pretended gifts So now do thou seriously consider and tell me which way thou canst clear thy self from this Transgression and so from just punishment according to thy Transgression Secondly thy Transgression is beyond the Transgression of William Harriot if thou couâ—dest make him out to be a Transgressor or if thou couldest make good thy charge against him he did not Curse or Reproach or Villifie Christ as thou hast done against the inward manifestation of the Spirit in the Saints whom we believe and are suâ—e is that very Spirit in Measure in each that dwelt in Jesus Christ without Measure whom thou hast Reviled Blasphemed and Reproâ—ched whom the Lord wiâ—l reward according to thy Works And thus thy persecuting Spirit doth manifestly appear so that we see plainly had thou Power in thy Hands what would become of all such as Decented from thy Doctrine Corporal punishments would soon attend them Whipping Posts and Gibbets and Halters and such-like would soon be our Portion from thee whom I once heard to say that we Lackt a Halter to Choak our Errors a manifest Token of a Persecutor who art also found here pressing the Magistrate as much as in thee lyes to Execute their Power against such as Dâ—scent not from the Scripture but from thy Judgment or opinion of the Scripture nor from the true Christ The next Prater he saith was William Wilkinson who becâ—use himself hath answered the several particulars wherein he was chiefly corcerned I do not find such a necessity so much to concern my self with the same In the 62 Page this Priest reasoning strongly with William Wilkinson against the inward appearance of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World he saith that Fran. Estlack shot his Boult and said the Deity was in him Answer The word Deity was not mine but his own Nevertheless I did bear my Testimony to the Indwelling of the Spirit of Christ And here Mark he undertakes to know and declare my meaning meaning said he that the Deity only was my true and only Saviour which by adding this Word only seeks to perswade People that I deny the Body of Christ but to this I have said sufficient before but immediately in a kind of deriding manner in answer to my Words said So he is in Catts and Doggs Judge is not that an Irreverent Expression But here by the way I cannot but take notice of his exposition of the words of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.16 Though we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we him so no more Here he saith Flesh is not here taken for the mankind nature of Christ but Flesh is to be understood in this sense viz. we must know him no more after worldly greatness and honour creature Pomp and Dignity So this Priest saith the word Flesh is to be understood To which I answer although the Jews did expect the Messiah so to come this was but their blind imagination But when was he ever known so to come When did either Jew or Gentile so know him Therefore I say plainly to me it doth appear that S. B. hath greatly wronged this Scripture for he viz. the Apostle doth seem to confess that they had known Christ after the Flesh but sure I am they never so knew him as decked with the Glory of this world for he said The Son of man hath not where to lay his head So by the Flesh could not be meant of a fleshly glory From whence I thus argue If Christ must be known no more after the Flesh then he must now be known only after the Spirit or else the knowledg of Christ must cease for that will truly follow And if so then the Flesh of Christ as Man and the Spirit which is God is truly distinguished so God is not the Flesh of the outward Man neither is the Flesh of the outward man God as this Priest doth presumtuously seem to affirm without any true ground of Scripture to maintain his Doctrine But this by the way But to return again to the words or expression of this Priest for which I did before charge him with Blasphemy he sought to gloss it over before the people as if he spake of God in a more general way although by his own confession in his Book he spake of him as a Saviour as the Being of all Beings and gives Life and Breath unto all living and is the upholder of the Creation without whom nothing could consist Which he pretending this to the people it was not at all out of the good order to press the inward presence or manifestation of Christ in his Saints Yet a little farther I still making use of the former Scripture which is Christ in you the hope of Glory At which he said he was moved and it was manifest by his prophane and ungodly expression If Christ be in you whether is he in your Brains Leggs or Guts But this expression as S. B. then spake it he hath not truly set it down in his Book But it appears he hath been exercising his File he spake of in the bâ—ginning of his Book having seen some Ruggedness in his expression which hath perhaps caused him to mince it and also to change the word Guts into Bowels to which he saith my answer was ready this is an Ishmael Yea and I say again thou art an Ishmaelite and I believe according to the name in one sence thou art heard of God for the Lord hath heard thy revilings and thy Scornings and they are recorded and written as with the point of a Diamond which shall never be razed out except thou repent And by these thy mocking and sâ—offing expressions that Nature doth manifest it self in thee more and more to be Ishmael's Nature the Son of the Bond-woman who hath no part in the Inheritance with the Son of the Free woman but must be cast out because he was seen to mock at Isaac the figure of the blessed Seed But thou art here sound mocking at the true Seed as it is raised up to raign in the hearts of Gods Elect. The next thing I take notice of was the passage about old Henry Smith who was as at that day above Eighty years of Age
Bond hath proved himself to be in the Spirit of the Scribes and Pharisees who profest Christ to come and when he was come they said he had a Devil and by the Prince of Devils cast out Devils And now the true Christ is come that dyed and rose again and ascended at the right hand of God and is revealed in his people as he was in the Apostles and now this true Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in his people who are no Reprobates Priest Bond in his false wicked blasphemous Charge to prove this true Lord Jesus Christ in his people a false Christ an Antichrist a Deceiver a Devil in this he hath proved himself a Deceiver and a Reprobate and no true Christian but hath manifested his folly and madness to all that read his Book Sampson Bond who stiles himself late Preacher of the Gospel in Burmoudas who saith he had a Dispute with the Quakers in Burmoudas and they did say in Joh. 1.9 That that was the true light which enlightens ever man that comes into the world and this Scripture F. E. he more especially insisted on S. B. saith to prove Christ to be the true Light and that Light to be the only Saviour which is in every Man that comes into the World whence saith S. B. F. E. Argued That the Quakers pretended Saviour within is the true and not the false Christ And S. B. answers and saith It is true that by the Light in that place of Scripture the true Christ and only Saviour is meant Here S. B. makes a publick confession in Print and saith It is true that by Light in that place of Scripture Joh. 1. the true Christ and only Saviour is meant So then here S. Bond doth confess that it was the true Christ whose Name is called the Word of God by whom all things was made and in him was Life and this Life is the Light of men and this was the true Light which is the Life in Christ the Word that was made Flesh who enlightens every man that comes into the World John 1.9 as in Page 8. And in Page 10. thou saist As for your Idol Light-Christ c. and scoffingly saist Did ever the Jews Crucifie your feigned God-head-Light within Here thou hast overthrown thy confession as before in Page 8. who saist It 's true that by Light in that place of Scripture John 1.29 the true Christ and our only Saviour is meant c. and now thou callest him our Idol Light-Christ in Page 10. But we tell Priest Bond That Christ did not dye as he was God or his Godhead but he was Crucified in the Flesh and as he was Man whom we believe and confess according to the Scripture Jesus of Nazareth was born of the Virgin who dyed for our Sins and is risen for our Justification who is ascended at the right hand of God and is revealed in us his people Priest Bond thou saist in Page 12. 13. These Scriptures Rom. 10. c. the Word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and heart that is the Word of Faith which we Preach And further saist I do not apprehend how these Scriptures answer the Arguments which proveth a Quakers pretended Saviour within him to be the false Christ the Devil nor how they prove their pretended Saviour within to be the true Christ In this Priest Bond thou hast shewed thy malice and blasphemy against our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who dyed for our sins and is risen for our Justification c. and is revealed in us by his Spirit and rules in our hearts by Faith yea he whose Name is called the Word of God and we are not of them who say Who shall ascend into Heaven to bring Christ down from thence or who shall descend into the deep to bring Christ again from the dead but the Word is nigh us even in our hearts and mouths according to the Apostles Doctrine And so we do believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus Christ whom God hath raised from the dead by whom we are justified and saved Here the Reader may see some of Priest Bond 's filthy lying blasphemous Language that he hath Printed against the people of God called Quakers Your Idol Light-Christ Page 10. Quakers are filled with envy and speak against those things which were spoken by Paul O seducing Quakers twice over In Page 12. hath S. B. uttered these horrid Lies Did ever Paul Preach Christ Jesus till God had revealed his Son in him Again S. B. saith A Quakers pretended Saviour within to be the false Christ the Devil Page 13. S. B. We believe thou art nearer the Devil than thou art the true Christ the Saviour who rules in the hearts of his people by Faith who through death destroys Death the Devil the Power of Death and the false Christ also S. B. saith A Quakers c. Saviour within is not the true but false Christ Page 14. These are Lies without proof and this Lying Spirit that rules in S. B. may as well falsly accuse the Apostles as the Quakers who said to the Church of Corinth Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates And again the Apostle saith Christ in you the hope of glory whom we Preach c. 2 Cor. 13. 1. Col. 27.28 and yet S.B. saith If thou confessest with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and shall believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved But S. B. did Paul confess Christ till he was revealed in him And can Reprobates confess Christ to their Salvation in whom Christ is not S. B. Thou saist in Page 15. Where do you Quakers search for your Gospel Word of Faith surely not in the Scriptures without but at your Oracle that Idol-Light c. O! thou Idol-Light within c. But Priest Bond Is not the Wâ—rd of Faith in the heart Gospel Dost not thou say it is true in that place of Scripture John 1 By that Light which enlightens every man that comes into the World the true Christ and our only Saviour is meant and in Page 15. thou calls the Light of Christ within an Idol-Light and saist O thou Idol-Light within What mad confusion art thou in And then thou saist That Idol-Light tender-part within which you falsly call the everlasting Gospel and Eternal Word as in Page 15. and yet thou confessest in Page 8. that every man that comes into the world is enlightned by Christ the Son of God as he is the Eternal Word And is not the Gospel the Power of God And is not that Eternal or Everlasting Rom. 1. Rev. 14. Is not the Light called the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God c And God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus
say That the Word took Flesh of the Virgin and that he suffered without the Gates of Jerusalen c. And therefore Priest Bond is to prove who ever said That the Body of Christ attributes no more Soul saving Merit than to the Body of a Turk or a Jew And again Priest Bond saith I do acknowledge with him to wit the Quaker that the effects of Christs death and sufferings are to be inwardly Witnessed within us Page 8. And yet Chirst within is a Devil his Light an Idol within How agrees the Blasphemy with the Confession And who is it that works Doth not Christ work inwardly in his People by his Faith Light and Spirit And Priest Bond hath made a great stir in three or four Pages about the False Christ and he may apply all these Pages to himself for they do not at all concern the Quakers And all his Lies and Slanders and filthy calumnies and his ungracious filthy Language in his Book doth manifest him to be no Minister of the Gospel but a Minister of soul Language and Lies neither hath he proved the Quakers principles to be erroneous but hath manifested his own erroneous Principles 75 times over Priest Bond saith The Quakers in Burmoudos Tryed found guilty Sentenced and Executed But Priest Bond here is both False-witness False Accusor and Flase Judge and Party and yet accuses Francis Eastlack and saith He that was the Party made himself the determinating Judge Page 6. But the Quakers are clear of all his Slanders and he is found Guilty of all the false Charges that he would falsly Charge upon the Quakers in Burmoudas and others that he hath mentioned and wronged in his wicked Lying Book and therefore he may take them home for they are fittest for him and his Condemnation with the Light of Christ Priest Bond saith As I was about to read some of G. F 's Doctrine they grew impatient and by no means would have it read thereupon I did forbear But I have here inserted it to wit G. Fox in his Boook entituled the Mystery Page 49. 50. Hath these words Ye scorn me the Light in you they have disobeyed it and called it a natural Light and ye have said that I the Light am not able to save these that believe in me Furthermore Page 54. that if ye would believe and wait on me the Light I will purge out all your iniquity and forgive all your Trespasses and I shall change your natures if you hearken to me and obey the Light within These are the words I would have read but being hindred c. Answer These are Priest Bonds horrid Lies for there is not one of these words in all the Pages of G. F's Book which Priest Bond brings S. Bond thou brings G. F's query which any that reads G. F's Book may see which he queries of the Priest F. Higinson Where doth the Scripture speak of Humane the word Humane where is it written tell us that we may search for it S. B. forger of these Lies Now we do not deny that Christ according to the Flesh was of Abraham but not the word Humane and Christs Nature is not Humane which is Earthly for that is the first Adam And this is G. F's answer to Higinson who said That Christs Nature was Humane c. And S. Bond in Page 50. makes a great pudder about it but instead of proving of it which he hath not by Scripture but hath made the matter worse and saith G. F. puts no difference betwixt Humane and Humane which S. Bond hath proved neither of these words by Scripture which he calls his Rule And when he hath been beating the Air he confesses We have not such a Word And yet S. B. saith Having the thing who contradicts himself but he hath not proved it And again S. Bond saith Christ is also said to be from Heaven Page 50. and yet Humane And again Page 69. S. Bond saith Stephen saw Christs humane Body in Heaven Acts 7. Here thou wrongest the Scripture and Stephen for there is not the word Humame in Acts 7. But Stephen being full of the Holy-Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing on the Right Hand of God and said behold I saw the Heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the Right Hand of G d So he saw Christ being full of the Holy-Ghost And yet Priest Bond saith Chirsts Flesh and Bones was Spiritual after he was Risen Page 72. And the Quakers say The Word of God is nigh thee even in thy Mouth and in thy Heart which is the Word of Faith that we and the Apostle preacht And S. Bond saith c. I do not apprehend in Rom. 10.6 c. How these verses do answer the argument of any one of them which proves a Quakers pretended Saviour within to be a false Christ the Devil Page 13. Or how they preve the pretended Saviour within to be the true Christ and yet Priest Bond saith As the righteousness of Faith is the Redeemer against all doubts of Salvation c. But Priest Bond is not this Righteousness of Faith within the Hearts of Gods people And hi Page 15. S. Bond contradicts himself and saith That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved that is to say the word of Faith Preacht is nigh in our Mouths We have received Christ whom God hath revealed in our hearts and hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Aba Father Gal. 4. this we witness 2. Cor. 13. Now S. Bond finds fault with G. F. for using the word their for our as in Page 51. and saith It is contrary to the Apostle But in page 15. Priest Bond uses the word is nigh in our Mouths instead of saying The word is nigh thee even in thy Mouth And so doth not he himself abuse the Apostles words as in Rom. 10. And I bring but this for him to see his own folly who is Straining at Gnats and swallowing Camels though G. F's word our to us and their to the Apostles is proper enough and the word of Faith is nigh us in our hearts and mouths as well as in thy as the Apostle said but Priest Bond who cavils at Words may see how he mistakes himself and utters forth his own Folly S. Bond brings Thomas Moors saying in Page 51. That Christ was absent from us while we were in this Mortal Body And G. F. answers contrary to the Apostle who said The Life of Christ is manifest in their Mortal Flesh yes and we say again that the Life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our Mortal Flesh and Christ is in us the hope of Glory But Bond makes a great pudder that the Life of Christ Jesus might not is but be made manifest in not their but our mortal Flesh But
is Incorruptible And we say that we were never able to pay or satisfy God yet Christ leadeth his people by his Spirit and reconcileth them to his Father c. And we dare not for all the World to assert that which R. W. hath affirmed here to wit That the Flood of Christ is Corruptible and did Corrupt For we know that we are Redeemed not with corruptible things c. but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and spot 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 3. R. W. affirmed That Salvation was by a way that was corruptible I do not say corrupted So far R. W. J. B. answered and said to this purpose I desire not to grate upon the Antient man but am sorry that he should so overshoot himself as he hath done so far to deny Christ and undervalue his appearance both inward and outward as to say That Christ within was but a fancy and a false Christ as he then affirmed and That Christ without was Corruptible contrary to the Apostle who said His Flesh saw no Corruption and also of his appearance without who then also said That his Blood was Corruptible and corrupted as I believe many of the people that was there may yet remember I shewed then how that he had brought upon himself that charge and proved himself guilty of that for which he indeavoured to condemn us And I spoke at that time of our owning of the true Lord Jesus Christ in his appearing in that Body and of his suffering and resurrection according to the Scriptures and also of his spiritual appearance in his Saints after his ascension according to the promise of Christ and the testimony of his Apostles as I then brought many testimonies â—ut of Scriptures to maintain and prove the same and so signified fully to the people of our true owning of Christ and there bore testimony against his dangerous words that he had then uttered before them in speaking contrary to what is written of Christs being corruptible and his Blood And was as I then signified truly sorry that he should so sin against God and Christ and wrong his own Soul 1. And now how could W. E. do any otherwise but charge R. W. with Blasphemy against Christ his Body and Blood for he affirms That the Light of Christ is an Idâ—l a Fancy a Frantick-light and Christ within an Imaginary Christ as you may see in many places of his Book 2. He affirms That Salvation was by a man that was corruptible and that his Blood was Corruptible and Corrupted Now we do charge R. W. and all the New-England Priests together with these Baptists that took his part against us at Rhode-Island and Providence at the Dispute to make those his assertions good by Scripture if they can which we do affirm are Blasphemies and shew us Chapter and Veâ—se which he saith is the Rule and Touch-stone and so let his Hâ—rrible Blâ—â—â—hemies be touched and tryed with Scriptures For David saith Psal â—6 My Heart is glad and my Glory rejoyceth my Flesh also rests in Hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy one to see corruption And again the Apostle saith who spoke of the Resuâ—â—â—ction of Christ that his Soul was not left in Hell neither mark His Flesh did sâ—e Corruption Acts 2.27.31 And Acts. 13.34 Thou shalt not â—uffâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Holy one to see Corruption David saw corruption but he whom God raised â—gaiâ— â—â— witâ— Christ saw Mark no corruption Now if R. W. and the New-England Priests be Redeemed by Corruptible Man and a corruptible Blood that did Corrupt this is contrary to what the Apostle saith His Flesh saw no corruâ—â—â—on â—nd they were not Redeemed with Corruptible things but with the Precuâ—us woodâ—t Christ So it is clearly proved that Christ his Flesh and Blood is noâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—ptible but Incoruptible and therefore R. W's Corruptible Man and Coâ—â—uptible Blood â—â—at did Corrupt by which he pretends he is Saved is a saite Christ and not the Christ the Apostles Preached the true Lord Jesus whose Flesh and Blood did not Corrupt and if the Flesh and Blood of Christ as R. W. affirmeth be Corruptible then how is he in Heaven with Corruptible Flesh and Blood when the Apostle saith Corruption doth not inherrit Incâ—rruption 1 Cor. 15.50 Christ Sanctifieth the people with his own Blood Heb. 13. And 1 Pet. 1.2 The Saints were Sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus And 1 John 1 The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all Sin And Revel â—1 He hath washed us from our Sins and Christ hath Redeemed us to God by his Blood Rev. 5.9 And the Saints Garmets were made white in the blood of the Lamb. â—ev 7. And the Saints overcame by the Blood of the Lamb. Rev. 12.11 And Christ saith Whâ—â—â—teth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood c. And my Blood is Drink indeed Now was it Corruptile Blood or Corruptible Flesh that the â—â—ints did eat and Corruptible Blood which cleanseth from all Sins and madâ— the Saints Garments white by which they overcome O Horrid darkness for will not Corruptible stain and not fetch out the Stain and the Saints were to have Faith in Christs Blood Rom. 25. The Saints are made high to God by the Bloâ—d of Christ the Flock of God which Christ hath purchased with his own Blood Acts 20.28 Now if this be the New-England Priests prnciple Profession and Judgement that they be Redeemed by a corruptible man and the Blood of Christ Jesus was corruptible and corrupted then they that have tolerated R. W. his Blasphemous Book to be Printed that held forth those abominable things in his Dispute before a great assembly of people at Newport in Rhode Island how can we say otherwise but they are Blasphemers and own not the true Lord Christ Jesus Whose Flesh saw no corruption neither was his Blood corruptible And therefore we do conclude with the Apostle that R. W. and they that held forth this Doctrine with him are such as have trodden under Foot the Son of God and counted the Blood of the New-Covenant wherewith they were Sanctified an unholy thing and have done despite unto the Spirit of Grace and have Crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to open Shame Now see if this man R. W. that hath spoken those blaphemous Words against Christ Jesus his Body and Blood and Spirit and Light is fit to take the Name of Christ in his mouth and yet this man he brought this saying of the Priest to be G. F's to prove That our Christ was not the true Christ Which words proving to be the Priests and not G. F's he R. W. stood by them and maintained them against us and so by his own Argument and Judgement by the same rule and words that he would have disproved ours he hath proved his own Christ not to be the true Christ But should we the People of God in scorn called Quakers have come and Preached in New-England and told you That you were saved by a Man that was Corruptible and that Christ's Blood was Corruptible and Corrupted and that you were wash't and cleansed by such a Blood then ye might have said what a Hellish Doctrine is this indeed which we abhor and such Doctrines as R. W. hath Preached to us in the dispute And our desires are that the Lord God of Heaven may deliver all people from such Doctrines of all the Doctrines that ever we read we never heard the like THE END Books Printed and Sold by John Bringhurst at the Sign of the Book in Grace Church-street near Cornhill 1. Counsel to the Christian Traveller also Experiences made publick As a Testimony to the right way of God Revealed and made known in this the Day of his Glorious Appearing in his People That they may be encouraged to walk therein to the end thereof By William Shewen price 1 s. 2. A general Epistle given forth in Obedience to the God of Peace For the Preservation and Increase of Charity and Vnity amongst the Professors of Christ Jesus And the Teachings of his Divine Light within By Wilâ—iam Gibson Price 1 s. 3. The Testimony of Truth exalted By the Collected Labours of that worthy Man good Scribe and faithful Minister of Jesus Christ By Samuel Fisher Price 10 s. 4. the Life of Christ magnified in his Minister being Seventeen Friends Testimonies concerning Giâ—es Barnadiston Price 3 d. 5. A way to prevent the Indignation and Judgements of the Lord from coming on a Nation or Family By G.F. Price 1 d. 6. The Devil was and is the old Informer against the Righteous By G. F. Price 1. d. 7. Concerning Persecution in all Ages to this Day By G. F. Price a Half-penny 8. To all Rulers and Magistrates to be tender and take heed of Persecuting and Imprisoning and spoiling the goods of Gods People for obeying serving and worshipping the Lord God that made them By G. F. Price 1 d. 9. An Epistle to the Houshould of the Seed of Abraham By G. F. Price a Haâ—â—-penny 10. An Epistle to all Christians Jews and Gentiles By G. F. Price a Half-penny 11. Concerning the upright and good Conversation of the Saints in Christ and in Heaven By G. F. Price a Half-penny 12. To all the faithful Flock of God in suffering whether in Prison or at Liberty In scorn called Quakers By Ambrose Rigge Price a Half-penny 13. An Epistle to Friends By Ed. Bourn Price a Half-penny 14. Something concerning Agbarus Prince of the Aedesseans also Pauls Epistle to the Laodiceams Price 1. d. 15. Primitive Christians bearing their Testimonie in time of Persâ—eâ—tion Price a Half-penny
A Bermudas Preacher Proved A PERSECUTOR Being a JUST TRYAL OF Sampson Bond 's Book ENTITULED A Publick Tryal of the QUAKERS c. Fraught with Fallacies False Doctrine Slanders Railings Aspersions Perversions and other Abuses herein Detected Disproved and Wiped off And that the True Christ is Owned by the People called QUAKERS plainly Made Manifest By those that have been more particularly concerned and Eye and Ear-Witnesses in the Dispute at Bermudas and those that have had the perusal of his Book which manifests it self The Wicked has digged a Pit for others and is fallen into it himself Psal 7.15 A Lying Tongue is but for a Moment Prov. 12.19 LONDON Printed by John Bringhurst at the Sign of the Book in Grace-Church-street 1683. To the Inhabitants of these Islands BERMUDUS A Testimony for the Truth and People of God called Quakers against the Reproaches Scandals and Slanders of Sampson Bond Who calls himself a Minister or Preacher of the Everlasting Gospel in the said Islands Friends and People all COnsider seriously your condition for it is exceeding Dangerous at present for the Everlasting state of your Souls is herein nearly concerned for he only that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned according to the Scripture Therefore Friends and People all be advised by him who is your Friend and take the Counsel of the Apostle in the 2 Cor. 13.5 Examin your selves whether you be in the Faith c. For through Faith alone you come to have an Interest in the Salvation purchased by Christ Jesus the Eternal Son of the Father who was in the Beginning with the Father as it is in Prov. 8. from 22 to 31. read them Verses and consider and weigh them well for this is he in whom your Faith must stand and not in another this is he whose delight is with the Children of Men and through whom the Wonderful love of God came to be made manifest unto the Sons and Daughters of Men in the Restoration after Man had run into Rebellion against God and lost that glorious Likeness or Image that he had at the first when God Breathed into him the Breath of Life through which he became a living Soul and so long as he kept in faithfulness to the Lord he kept his Dominion over the Creatures and his Habitation as in the Garden of God the Garden of his delight where the Trees of God did flourish and the Tree of Life in the midst thereof The Lamb was not slain then But when Man turned aside from following the Lord and hearkened to the voice of the Serpent then Death was known then was the Lamb slain when this World of Wickedness the Foundation thereof was laid by the Enemy then was Man cast out of the Paradise of God into the Earth which was cursed for his sake where the Thornes and Thistles is brought forth and the way to the Tree of Life stopped up for the Cherubim and the flaming-Sword was there which turneth every way that Man in the old Adams state cannot come neer to Eat or Tast of the Tree of Life Oh People Behold here is your state every one in Old Adam all separate from God from the Covenant of Life without God in the World even in the World of Wickedness in Death in the Curse this is your state and condition whilest you remain here untill you come to know a coming forth till you come to witness the Seed of the Woman to Bruise the Head of the Serpent to overthrow his Power who is the Prince of Darkness and is the chief Ruler in Man in the state of Disobedience So Friends it is high time for you to return to the Lord and consider even in this your Day the things that belong to your Peace before they be hidden from your Eyes for such a time will assuredly come to pass as ever it did upon the Old World they had a day when the Lord strove with them but they would not hearken but turned aside into the Evil Imaginations then their day passed over and the Spirit of the Lord ceast striving and the Flood came and destroyed them all except eight Persons so mind your time lest it pass over your Head ere you are aware and the Flood of Gods Wrath come and sweep you all away as it did them So all People come unto Christ Jesus the Gift of God and believe in him that through him you may come to witness Salvation For as the Servant of the Lord did testifie in Ages by past so do we witness the same there is no other Name given under Heaven whereby we may be saved but by Jesus Christ alone which is not the bare Outward Visible Appearance or Body only but as he was testified of by Gods faithful Witnesses even in that Age who although they did bear witness to the Outward Man or Body yet they did not exclude the Godhead when they said Act 2. Jesus of Nazareth a Man approved of God by Miracles and Wonders c. The same Jesus which ye Crucified hath he made both Lord and Christ Friends consider well this matter for this Scripture was brought by your own Minister against us and the Truth which we profess thereby to prove if he had been able that the Body without the Godhead or Jesus of Nazareth 〈◊〉 Humane Nâ—ture as he called it without the Spirit was the only Maâ—â—◠〈…〉 To which I answer It was the chief work of that day or time to bear witness to him who had been set at nought by the Chief Priests and Rulers and by the generality of the People whom they also put to Death even to the shameful Death of the Cross as it was written by the Prophet long before He was numbred with Transgressors c. For notwithstanding all the Miracles which he had wrought among them they would not believe that this was he that should come no more then People now adays can believe in his Spiritual Appearance but they were looking out in the Carnality of their Minds for another to appear according to their Imaginations as People are in this Age and Generation and will not receive the true Christ within them therefore the Witnesses of God in that day were the more engaged to bear so strict a testimony to his Bodily Appearance that this was he that was to come and they were not to look for another And so gives them plainly to understand that the Lord had exalted him into his Kingdom for he had made him both Lord and Christ whose Kingdom was not Carnal but Spiritual as he himself said my Kingdom is not of this World But did this Testimony deny the Godhead for consider by what Power were these Miracles done was it as he was meerly Man or by a higher Power See John 14.10 The Father that dwelleth in me he doth the works saith Jesus himself he there bearing witness to the Eternal power that dwelt in him And verily People if Mans
Name or Book whereby it might have been made manifest but in as much as he hath done neither I return it back upon him again as an Imagination forced upon his own Heart And as for that of George Fox concerning the Nature of Christ that it was not humane but Divine I have bore my Testimony agreeable thereto before and so leave S. B. to prove it by the Scripture which lies upon him as a necessity in as much as he hath laid it down as a necessary point of Faith One thing more of which he chargeth the Faithful Servant of the Lord G. F. is that he hath abused the Scripture 2 Cor. 5.11 For we which live are always delivered unto Death for Jesus sake that the Life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our Mortal Bodies Now the abuse charged on G. F. is that he reads it thus the Life of Jesus is manifest in our Mortal Bodies thereby making that present which the Apostle makes future at the Resurrection Answ The words might be doth not so much note the time as the end wherefore the Saints were always delivered up to Death even for that very end that the Life of Christ might be Manifest in their Mortal Bodies all that might Dye to the Flesh and to the World and Sin might no longer Live in them but that the Life of Jesus might be Manifest in their Mortal Bodies Now if G. Fox witnessing the fulfilling of this and did Testifie to the same how did he abuse the Scripture or belye the Apostles words as thou hast falsly charged him but it is plain thou hast wrested the Scripture in that thou say'st it is only at the Resurrection when Paul himself witnessed the same thing before he went out of the Body Gal. 2.20 And yet in contradiction Priest Bond saith in pag. 72. that the Body shall be raised Spiritual as Christs Body of Flesh and Bones after the Resurrection was Spiritual our Bodies shall not be raised Natural corruptible Bodies but Spiritual Incorruptible Bodies though the Body of Man be not Natural corruptible or Mortal Flesh and Blood and as saith unfit for the Kingdom of God but in the Resurrection the Body will not be so for it will then be Spiritual incorruptable immortal Flesh and Blood Priest Bond in this hath contradicted himself and is made to confess the Quakers Principles And for what thou hast to charge Isaac Pennington withal I believe he was a Spiritual Man and was better acquainted with Heavenly things then Sampson Bond and so could speak as he had known felt and received them in Spirit which is a Mystery to every Natural Man for the Wisdom of this World with all the acquired parts that it can Furnish the Natural Man withal cannot know or Receive the things of God because they are only known and received in the Spirit But it had been a great point of Wisdom in this Priest to have been still and quiet and not to speak Evil of the things he knew not neither understood but he that thus will rail against the Light of Christ which the Saints believe in will not spare his Disciples Thus have I searched over the first part of his Book which concerns his first charge wherein I have noted some of the abuses Slanders Blasphemies Confusions and soft contradictions of S. B. and according to the Measure of Light I have Received briefly answered the same I shall now pass on to the Second charge viz. that the main end of the Quakers Meeting in these Islands is to make the Lords Christ his Holy Spirit his Angels and Apostles all Lyers and false Witnesses of God And to make good this his Ungodly false charge against us he lays down this for his Foundation viz. That we are G. Fs. Disciples and therefore that this is our Principal that the Light is in us which he calls pretended Light is our true Christ Teacher Rule and Guide to be heard believed in walked unto and obeyed as the only Saviour to give Remission of Sins and Salvation with God to which he said we consented from whence he draws down this conclusion viz. That we did thereby Grant that the end of our Meetings is to Teach a denial of Jesus Christ of Nazareth the Man approved of God to be our true and only Saviour which Teaching said he is to make the Lords Christ his Holy Spirit his Angels and Apostles all Lyers and False Witnesses of God Reply The Ground of this his charge is of the same Nature with the former because we confess to the Spirit within which is Light and therefore he concludes that it must needs follow that we do deny the true Christ which he concludes to be the Man Jesus without without having any respect to any thing that dwelt within or at least without any Respect to the Spirit of Christ whose Office it is to cleanse the Soul from Sin and so consequently doth save and Redeem from under the power of Death Reply This his charge is absolutely false for our Hearts viz. The Hearts of the Faithful amongst us is truly set to serve the Lord and our main end is truly to Worship him in Spirit and in Truth and if in the Indeavours of our Hearts to bring this our end to pass and for want of a true understanding in the Scripture we had mist of the thing must it needs be charged on us that it was our main end so to do I believe few that have any tenderness in them will believe thee But on the other Hand it is Manifest that the Man Jesus did declare himself the Light of the World Joh. 8.12 and so to be believed in Chap. 12 46. now as Man barely understood how could he be the Light of the World which Light is a Heart searching Light Rev. 2.23 therefore it must be understood in the Spirit and he declares himself one with the Father Joh 10.30 in whom dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodyly who was before Abraham John 8. and it was the Godhead the Invisible power for which the Body was prepared and this power dwelling and acting in the Body was that which unheld it in this great work of Mans Salvation and it was through the excellency worth and power of the Indwelling Spirit which was one with the Father which the Invisible Eye only could behold by which the satisfaction was made and the purchase of the Heavenly Inheritance obtained by whom Remission of Sins Justification Sanctification and Everlasting Redemption is obtained this is he in whom we confess to be our true and only Saviour in whom we believe And in as much as he did direct his Disciples that after his departure they should wait for his Spirit which the World could not receive then no more then they can do now which saith he dwelleth with you and shall be in you and this Spirit was to be waited for even by his Disciples that had been taught by him and he was