vindicate or cover himself from what was truly laid upon him yet from it hath he not delivered himselfe but the charge stands good in sound and sober words in the power of truth and whiles he covereth his sin be cannot prosper And whiles he addeth one iniquity to another he cannot come into Gods righteousnesse And oh that he would consider it and lay it to heart whiles he hath time that in the day of the Lords anger which is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty shall come he might be hid and find mercy of the Lord with whom his vain speaking of a witnesse he hath in heaven brought from thence into his heart and confirmed by the Spirit of Truth and of his being taken up into the Mount to confer with him who hath all power given him and of a Warrant sealed and given forth from him that hath al power c. is of little accompt whiles he understands not what he speaks For the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation but the kingdome of God is within and in his Kingdom he is who dwells in heaven where the Father the Word and Spirit agree of which all blind Pharisaical Professors are ignorant and cannot know it till in the light and by the spirit it be revealed and made manifest And whereas he saith All that he with the rest laid at my door was to a tittle true and that neither he nor his brethren have any reluctance for it This is all fals for I have before proved it lies and deceit and themselves have confest they found that which boiled like a furnace and scalded all that stand near it and they were near it and so resolved not to stay another time And judgement is now laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet and all refuges of lies and deceit are to be swept away and by truth and soberness such hiding places are overflown and in soberness do I stand and so much to my self am I come that I see many of his words there mentioned to veil and cover himself to be light and vain and not worth answering and that what I writ was both sober and true without fawning and flattery in which many among you are too much exercised who love to have smooth not true things spoken and would have me peaceable gentle and full of mercy to hypocrisie deceit and wickedness all which is for judgement and no peace from God is spoken to it And therefore without partiality do I declare against it in him and you as well as in others and to my self am I not a stranger And this is pure wisdom from above and moderation known unto all that receive and believe in the light by which that spirit appearing in my former book is justified though to you that hate the light and by the light are condemned it is as gall and worm-word And for sporting my self and insulting over him I did it not but it is another refuge of lies for I told him before I did not insult over him nor delight in his wo and misery but was sorely grieved as still I am to see how the wicked one whom the Lord would destroy was exalted in him and you and what I writ is true And whereas he saith I was not a in a sober mind but at a distance from it and true speaking when I mentioned to him the portion of lyars and that not any thing he said was a lie but what he said I had not his hand to as his particular affirmation and so goes on speaking many words but to what purpose I cannot see except it be by words to darken the Readers understanding But if I mistake not that which he would do is to vindicate himself from being a lyar with what else I charged upon him in my former Letter by telling me he said I had not his hand to it as his particular accusation And if this be his meaning then is it gross deceit for I never said or thought it was his particular accusation but a general accusation delivered by him in which himself and each other particular was included and so I spake to him in soberness and pitty my very howels moving towards him knowing my self innocent and that it was a dreadful thing for him in the Name or the Lord to speak a false vision or thing I asked him how he durst come to me and in the name of the Lord tell me I said the Scriptures of truth were one of the greatest plagues of the land when I never spake nor thought such a thing To which he replyed he never spake it nor laid it to my charge though out of his own mouth it came and when I told him I had it under his hand he denyed it When I told him I could shew it him he replied if I could he would acknowledge himself a lyar upon which ground I charged him for it as before and so I do still and good were it for him if he owned the judgement and repented for otherwise he cannot escape But if he forgeting that his hand was to his paper did run himself into the evil of denying it as is before exprest yet if when he came to the sight of his error he had clearly acknowledged it and owned his condemnation and repented to which in love he was advised there had been mercy for him but being convinced and reproved of the evil hardened his neck and labours to hide and cover his sin adding one iniquity unto another here he cannot prosper but brings himself justly under not onely the judgement and condemnation mentioned in my former Letter but more and more misery due to those that rebel against the light by which they are reproved and to those that add iniquity unto iniquity and must not come into Gods righteousness And from it all the waters in Jordan can never wash him not the Rocks and Mountains cover him nor all your outward observations imaginations and will-worships preserve him till he own the light by which he is convinced and reproved and the just condemnation thereof pass upon the rebellious and the transgressor which hath sinned and he brought to repentance and the acknowledgement of the truth and so his soul come to be saved in this mighty day of the Lords power And this is not from a violent heat of wild-fire as he calls it but from a spirit of soberness soundness and truth and is true love to his soul and the time is near in which he that rebuketh plainly shall find more favour then he that flattereth with his lips and my end is not to make him a transgressor before all as he supposeth but according to my measure to advise him into the way the light the life and the truth which leadeth out of transgression into the inheritance of the Saints in light and in this I do not equivocate nor evade as he falsely chargeth me but do speak plainly and truly though at
THE HARLOTS VAIL REMOVED And her lying refuge swept away by the power of Truth with which she was smitten and wounded Being an Answer to a book published in the name of about 60 persons of the Independent-Baptized and mingled peoin the midst of Babylon intit'led The Church of Christ in Bristol recovering her Vail But is manifested to be a bundle of falshood and hypocrisie a refuge of lies and deceit under which they labour to hide themselves as with a vail Likewise an Answer to Thomas Ewins his word in the close of the said book in which he acknowledgeth himself no Minister and is proved no preacher of the Gospel but in confusion and a Minister of Satan and Robert Purnel a false prophet c. Also a Short Rebuke of Ralph Farmer for lying and dissembling in the case of Constant Jessops removing from the Parish of Nicholas in the City of Bristol in which he the said Farmer was a chief solliciter though being got into his place he would excuse himself by lying in print To which are added A few words manifesting the woful fall and degenerated condition of Richard Fowler who in a late declaration put in to the Court of Exchequer against 15. persons for Tithes is stiled the lawful Vicar of the Parish Church of Westerleigh in the County of Glocester And for hire is become a Lecturer in Bristol Who hath occasioned several men that fear the Lord to be cast into prison for refusing through tendernesse of conscience to swear how many Colts Calves Lambs Pigs Geese Hens Ducks Aples Eggs Oblations Offerings c. they possest in several years that of it he might have Tithes Which monstrous practice he once so much disowned that he declared himself burthened to receive voluntary contribution from those that gave it not freely By Dennis Hollister They are all grievous revolters walking with slanders they are brasse and iron and are all corrupters reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them As a cage is full of birds so are their houses full of deceit As a fountain casteth out her waters so she casteth out her wickednesse Violence and spoil is heard in her From the least of them even unto the greatest every one is given to covetousnesse and from the Prophet even unto the Priest every one dealeth falsly And as Troops of Robber wait for a man So the company of Priests murther in the way by consent for they work lewdnesse LONDON Printed for the Author 1658. THE HARLOTS VAIL REMOVED Friends AFter I received your feigned accusations from the the mouths of your Messengers and under one of their hands I did with much faithfulness and plainness return you an answer which if you had read amongst you and observed I intended no further contest But when through deceit and hypocrisie it was not permited to be read I began to preâ—â—â—â— for the presse and to lay open your deceipt which so far exceeded yet with so much tenderness did I proceed that for your sakes I delayed the printing of it about a year waiting if God would give you the sight of your evil and repentance for the same But perceiving you to wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived setting your mouths against heaven and in your deceit to glory I gave order for its Printing but not to be made publick till my further order Neither did I suffer mâ— books being printed to be published in Bristol no not in my own family nor among my near relations till by the hand of a faithful Messenger I had conveyed them amongst your selves and into the hands of many amongst you to whom of a truth my love was hoping that upon the perusal thereof your consciences might be awakened and the witness of God therein raised and so your hearts not being hardened his voice ye had heard and to repentance had you been brought by him who is come and calleth unto it and so your sin had been covered and by him forgiven and by me not permitted to be published but in oblivion had it been buried for ever But after I had waited several dayes and found that notwithstanding anguish and torment were upon you who in your consciences were smitten and wounded so that some durst not read my book but presently returned it others beginning to read could not but laid it aside others reading it shed more tears then they read lines as themselves have said and yet against it hardened themselves and repented not And others reading it and reproved by it fell into much rage and fury and therein publishing it themselves amongst their rude companions endeavouring to raise lies and falsehood against it I say when these and such like effects appeared and not till then I consented to the making my books publick by which I perceive the sence of guilt and so of torment being encreased you grew exceeding angry and wrathful But if ye had stood in that which convinced its like I had no longer in publick view contested because I do neither desire nor endeavour your destruction but your salvation God is witness Neither in a spirit of anger and bitterness am I dealing with you whose welfare I am seeking not your hurt But in the fear of the Lord am I faithfully dealing with you of whose state and condition I am not ignorant not daring to use flattering and deceitful speeches as others do crying peace and safety to that against which I know the wrath and righteous judgement of God is near to be revealed but in much plainness in a spirit of soberness and moderation do I tell you the truth and whether ye will hear or forbear the time is at hand in which ye must witness it notwithstanding to hide your selves and cover your shame ye are striving to recover your Vail and vindicate your selves And having given heed to many false seducing and lying spirits ye have writen a book for that purpose which I received from you by the hand of a stranger supposing the conscience ye had of the deceit and falshood ye therein used so far prevailed that none among your selves could appear to deliver it But your Book I have perused and do find that your business therein is not to answer mine entituled The skirits of the Whore discovered But by subtilty and deceit the spirit of falshood and lying to cover and vail your selves from the stroak of that truth which by demonstration and plainnesse is therein declared and manifested against you So that although I had much rather be quiet waiting on the Lord than to be thus contending yet for the sake of truth and further manifesting of the deceit and hypocresie which abounds among you I am once more by you constrained to appear in the publick war which in this mighty day of the Lords power is begun between the Beast the fals-Prophet and the Lamb. 1. And first I must tell you that notwithstanding 1 advised and warned you in my former book
to you again the day of the Lord is upon all the. Heathen and as thou hast done it is done unto thee and thy reward is turned upon thy own head Lock back call to mind and remember how over your high places and in your meetings before these whom ye call uncircumcised Prophane Philistines with which your assemblies are filled ye have not spared to blaspheme and to speak evil of that ye understand not some of your mouths being full of cursing and bitterness equal with others of Jacobs enemies with whom ye became as one in the day of his calamitie when he appeared small and descised foaming out your owne shame greatly provoking and enraging the evil spirits in the mindes of your evil hearers against the innocent and harmles who dwelt peaceably in their Tents amongst you moving onely as the Lord moved them for which mount Esau where the prophanenes is the Philistines uncircumcised in heart both Rulers Priests people of all sorts and sects combined to repreach abuse persecute and devour with whom ye have joyned as if your tongues had been your own and no Lord could control them But being a little rebuked by the power and spirit of the living God ye begin to crye out and say who hath his tongue unteid and doth not speak to vindicate the undeceived innocencie c. As if in one hour your glorie becautie and costly attire were laid in the dust and that if it had been a Turk a Heathen or an open enemy that had done this ye could have born it and so tell of sifting up my heel against Christ crucifying him a fresh and putting him to open shame c. All which being your own conditions uttered forth from your fountain of blindness and arrogancie I shall onely return it into your own bosomes from whom it came who cannot look the Lord in the face nor stand in the least of his appearings but with the rest of the untoward generation have set your selves and taken Counsel together against the Lord of life and glory Ye say Little did ye think I would have acted so well like Judas as first to betray you with a kiss calling you friends and then deliver you into the hands of your enemie to scourge you with the tongue c. Reply Did I therefore act like Judas and betray you because I called you friends and in faithfulness told you the truth Know ye not that it was the word of Christ to Judas who was the betraier and never the word of the betraier to the betrayed one And do ye not by this justifie the guilty betrayer and condemn the innocent betrayed one How well may the passers by as ye say clap their hands and wag their heads and say is this a Church that men call an assembly of Zion And are these your gathered Churches about which there hath been so much contending Truly the very heathen amongst you may easily discern you as far from an assembly of Zion as is betwixt Zion and Aegypt And how much more seen and known are ye by the Children of Light who never can believe your self separation to be the way of God nor the Separated Congregations as ye call them the Churches of Christ but the harlot whilest they are only in the outward Separation not separated within the precious from the vile and from that which makes a separation between God and them living in pride and high mindednesse receiving and embracing untruth and rejecting and not closing with truth but give head to lying spirits to which with the rest of the World the heathen who know not God ye are subject Ye seem offended that I stile you the mingled people and call you the Independent Baptized c. To which I say I stiled you as ye were and if ye count it a reproach to be termed so is it not a greater reproach to be so But is it not manifest you can be in covenant with that which is truly a reproach to any people But it is as death to have it published which is the harlots property who sports and pleaseth her self in her evil wates but shames to have it known Ye seem to bewail my condition and labour to perswad the Reader that I spake reproachfully of some blessed institution of Christ which he in his own person practised when he was about thirty years of age and left as a standing ordinance of the new Testament to all generations till his comming again Reply By it I suppose ye mean a commanded or an appointed thing and then I take your meaning to be that your outward washings in rivers of waters which ye call Baptism is a blessed appointment of Christ practised by himself and left a standing Ordinance of his and of the new testament to all generations till his coming again To which I reply Baptism with water was Johns Ministry who came to prepare the way of the Lord and said he shall Baptize you with the holy Ghost I come baptizing with water and how then doth it appear that it is a blessed command of Christ and left by him as a standing ordinance of the New Testament to all Generations it is true Christ was Baptized of John and so it became them to fulfiill all righteousnesse I say to fulfill it and did he by that leave it a standing ordinance of the New Testament to all Generations c. Christ was circumcised and fulfilled the Law and did he by that appoint and ordain Circumcision the Law of Moses to be a standing Ordinance of the New Testament to all generations And Paul who was a Minister of the new Testament made after the death of the Testator when the new Testament was in force said Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel c. But ye do alwaies eâ—re not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God But friends in the four and twentieth page it is said it was signed in the name and by the consent and appointment of the whole Church by Robert Purnel Thomas Ewine Robert Simpson Richard Moon John Andrews and Bryant Hanson Now if they signed it not by the consent and appointment of the whole company then have they recorded themselves a company of liars who say and publish that which never was But if they did it by the appointment and consent of the whole â—hen are many if not the greatest part of your company recorded to all Generations a company of hypocrites and deceitful workers of rebellious and disobedient Children who knowing the institutions as ye cal it of Christ which ye say is bles'd which he practised and left as a standing Ordinance of the New Testament to all Generations do neglect and disobey it and are out of the practise thereof To which give ear O earth and hear O heaven and be ye astonished what a people professing themselves the Church of Christ boasting of their abilities in giving account of their faith and of walking
ever they did those actions But if I should go about to gather up the actions and expressions contrary to truth which I have known and heard passe from some of your vvay which is a very broad way how abominable filthy would it appear But I forbear farther then it may be for your advantage Yet let me aske if none of your way which is the broad vvay leading to destruction did tell me it vvas the pride of Mordecais heart that bovved not to Haman And another that the Rulers and Elders had sinned if they had not crucified or put Christ to death because they judged him a blasphemer And another that the Pope and Jesuits do believe in Christ But this I cast not upon you vvhom I knovv not particularly guilty but that ye may see the unjustnesse of your ovvn accusations and that the guilty ones may see it and be ashamed Ye fall a vvondring at my shamelesnesse as ye call it in mentioning that some of you did beate in your meetings like the enemies of Christ in the synagogues And say yee will declare to all the world the truth of this story To vvhich I say if ye can at last declare truth it 's vvell and fit ye had done it sooner But ye tell hovv Sathan hath raged at your vvomens praying in vvhich its like ye mistake and that it vvas the vvitnesse of God that strives against your hypocrisie as it did of old against your fathers vvhen their vvaies vvere corrupt before the Lord And vvoe unto you vvhen it shall strive no more Ye say Two wretched women came rushing into the roome one of which had been an old Ranter the other a late member of this Church Whereas they had been one as much a member vvith you as the other and neither are Ranters but in sobernesse do vvalk and so came into your meeting and as ye say told you the prayers of the wicked is an abhomination to the Lord With vvhich you vvere disturbed and the Woman forced to give over reply It s like then there was power in what was spoken and its manifest the very words of the Scripture are your disturbance And therefore like the Gadarens who in this are your pattern ye desired as ye say these disturbers to depart your room as they did Christ to depart their Coasts But when they departed not ye exceeded your pattern as ye your selves confess and would have put them out its like by force which ye say is all the beating and occasion of it Which is an absolute lie for down the stairs yee would have thrown them as your fathers would have thrown Christ down the brow of the hill which to do ye did attempt haling beating and pinching them till their bodies were sore in which your marks they did bear a long time after So that here appears no truth nor ancient godlinesse but the contrary in them that did it and this wickednesse do I not justifie being condemned by the light to which it is abhomination and a more wicked thing than for two sober women to come soberly into your meeting and declare amongst you the truth whether ye hear or forbear In page 23. ye endeavour the best you can to veile your selves from the stroak of truth contained in Psalm 83. and in the Prophesie of Obadiah But all in vain for it is your portion and ye must bear it from him who with righteousnesse doth judge the poor and your demanding what grosse darkness is upon my minde that I should be crying out against you that are innocent will not veile you Nay notwithstanding ye demand again whether I be not joyned with all the Papists Atheists Ranters and all the ungodly rabble of the world in this one great designe of the Devil to break in pieces the Churches of Christ c. And then mention under the name of Anabaptists Independents Sectaries Schismaticks c. To which I answer nay with the Harlot I am not joyned for then must I be one body with you But from among you all am I separated by the power of the Lord to witnesse his presence And therefore your selves with all Papists Atheists Ranters and ungodly rabble of the world who in the great designe of the Devill are joyned to hate the light and persecute and oppose the life power of God do I deny and stand a witnesse against And although ye are the many-headed Beast in divers forms sects and opinions under the name of Papists Atheists Independents Anabaptists c. and upon a like ground pretend to Christs person Gospel and Ordinances as before I said and with one mouth and with one shoulder cry out against and oppose his light and living presence for which ye associate and take counsell together of one and the same lying spirit yet ye must be broken and as a new threshing instrument is the Lord making the worm Jacob to thresh your mountains as chaffe and your little hills as dust And the day of your distresse and visitation is begun in which all that see you shall wag the head who with the most embittered enemies are joyned against the light and life of God and with Atheists Drunkards and prophane persons who live in scoffing scorning reproaching and deriding in slandering falshood and lies do ye assemble teaching the wicked of the world your wayes and the Children that have not understanding to blaspheme the light and living way to the Father which is your own returned But can ye be honest and own what ye say and novv flie from it If so then I demand Is it indeed the great designe of the Devil to break in pieces the Congregations in England under the names of Independents Anabaptists Sectaries c. as ye pretend it is If nay then are ye false and deceitfull in what ye have written If yea then is there a false Prophet and Minister of Satan to be found amongst you in whose mouth he hath been a lying spirit to which ye ought to give no longer heed For Robert Purnell in his book entitled Good newes to sinners great joy to Saints declares the contrary And in pag. 65. undertakes to be a Prophet and saith a few words by way of prophesie of the downfall of Presbytery Independency Anabaptisme c. And then he calls upon all the servants of the most high and mighty God heirs of promise and sons of Zion to look for great alterations and changes and to see what desolations God will make in the earth and for nothing but the Lord to be revealed from heaven which saith he will be mighty in his dispensations exceeding glorious in his revelation and strong and powerfull in his operation and will bring to passe his determinations and destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the veile that is spread over all Nations which veile he saith is knowing Christ and Christians after the flesh which Paul did not do after his eyes were opened
c. And so he goes on to manifest how Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists c. are all vailed with the same veile And therefore saith he what I say to one Sect I say to all ye shall speedily receive a totall rout Yee have gathered your selve together but ye shall be scattered yea yee shall be broken in pieces Ye all have built your outward house of externall discipline upon the sand and it must fall because it is not grounded upon the Rock Christ Ye have made your communion the ground of your union and that must fall because it is not the Lords but mans building And himselfe puts the question how he knew Presbytery Independency Anabaptisme and the rest of the Sects must down and answers if Abraham by faith did see the day of Christ coming in the flesh many years before he came why may not I saith he and others see the day of Christ coming in the spirit to destroy all fleshly forms some few years before it be finished And again saith he I have by faith seen all these opinions fall and have heard from many others that they have seen them fall also Therefore that which I have heard and seen declare I unto you that ye might have fellowship with the father and the son in the spirit for then saith he and not till then ye will give over saying as in effect ye do I am of Paul I am of Apollo Then ye will not so much cry up the forme but endeavour the power of godlinesse These with many more are his words as the Reader may see in his foresaid book Now therefore if it be true that all these formes are fleshly and are not built upon the Rock Christ but upon the sand are not the Lords but mens building and therefore must fall and be broken to pieces and scattered and speedily receive a totall rout And that he by faith hath seen it all fall and hath both heard and seen what he declared that is to say Christ Jesus coming in spirit to destroy them that people might have fellowship with the Father and the Son in the Spirit Then are Robert Purnell and you found directly in the steps and practice of your Fathers the Scribes and Pharisees who when Christ came in the flesh according to the Prophecies that went before said It was the Devil a blasphemer a friend to publicans and sinners c. For ye now that Christ in spirit in life and power is appeared mighty in dispensations glorious in revelation and very strong and powerfull in operation making great alterations changes and desolations in the earth and revealing himself from heaven breaking down and scattering what he hath not built nor gathered destroying and breaking in pieces those Forms and Sects of yours which he saith are fleshly not built by the Lord but men not upon the Rock but upon the sand and speedily receives a total rout c. I say since Christ is thus appeared against all those Forms that his people may have fellowship with the Father and the Son in the spirit and not cry up the Form but endeavour to know the power of godliness according to the very words himself hath said both Robert Purnel and you agree to call it the design of the Devil asking if I be not joined with all the Papists Atheists Ranters and ungodly rabble of the world in this one great design of the Devil to break in pieces the Churches of Christ And say hath it not been the attempt of one power after another to rent break and scatter the Congregations in England under the names of Independents Anabaptists Sectaries c And hath any party gone so far in this wicked practice as you c Nay say you was there ever any partie in England or the Nations adjacent that have offered the like violence to the Lord Jesus Christ his person in his Word in his Gospel his Ordinances his Saints his wayes c. as you and your partie have done c Notwithstanding it be the very thing and no other which he in his said Book saith By faith he saw Christ in spirit coming to perform a few years before it was finished which few years its like are now accomplished it being about eight years since the said Book was published so then that which Christ cometh in spirit to perform ye call the great design of the Devil and a wicked practice and those who with Christ in his work are joined bringing to pass his determinations ye say are joined with Papists Athiests Ranters and the ungodly rabble of the world But why do Robert Purnell you now call Independent â—nd baptized Assemblies the Churches of Christ when he had before declared them fleshly Forms and Sects not built by the Lord upon the rock but by men upon the sand and must fall and be broken and scattered and receive a total rout and that he saw Christ in spirit coming to destroy them that his people might have fellowship with the Father and the Son by the Spirit and that what he declared he had both heard and seen manifesting to all the world against your wills that that which ye call and cry up as the Churches of Christ and Assemblies of Zion are indeed but fleshly Forms and Sects not built by the Lord upon the Rock Christ but by themselves upon the sands which Christ comes in spirit to destroy and therefore must fall and be broken routed and scattered and that notwithstanding among your selves it is known and manifested to be so by a spirit of faith as R. P. sayes by which it was seen Yet ye hold the truth in unrighteousness and do erre from the spirit else might ye know that the Churches of Christ which are in God the Father are not fleshly Forms and Sects like yours but is a spiritual house an holy habitation for God by whom it is built upon the rock of ages the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Christ being the corner-stone against which all the gates of Hell and powers of darkness shall never prevail to break scatter destroy or cause to fall but as mount Zion shall it stand and a burthensom stone shall it be against all fleshly Forms and Sects that fight against it in this day of the Lords appearing in the power and glory of his spirit to break in pieces scatter and destroy all your fleshly Forms and Sects which he never built upon the Rock but your selves have built upon the sands and so are no Churches of Christ but the strong holds of Satan in which he having blinded their minds keeps his goods in peace and under pretence of beating up the form the power of godliness is there denyed and not known But the desires of the flesh and of the mind are there served equally as among other people and this I do see and know otherwise had I not declared it unto you And so into the pit that ye have digged are ye fallen and
in the works of your own hands are ye snared and not I but ye are found joined with the ungodly rabble ye mention in the great design of the Devil opposing the truth blaspheming and offering violence to the Lord Jesus Christ and well may I return your vain words into your bosoms and say Ah pour deceived people what gross darkness hath now seized upon your minds Where are your eyes and may add what blind guide hath misled and bewitcht you thâ—â— ye should be crying out against me for that in which I am innocent and your selves so notoriously found to practice And this from amongst your selves and out of Robert Purnels mouth are ye judged But if what Robert Purnel hath said be not true but a lying spirit hath led him and that by faith he did not see Christ in spirit coming to destroy the fleshly Forms of Independency Anabaptism and other Sects there mentioned and so declared a false vision which he neither heard nor saw notwithstanding he saith he had heard and seen it Then is Robert Purnel a lyar a false Prophet a deceiver that causeth the people to erre by his lies and by his lightness and his faith by which he saw is vain and he to the true faith found reprobate and the reward of a false Prophet must he receive that hath seen vain visions and spoken lying divinations Ezek. 13.8 9. Because ye have spoken â—â—nity and seen lye therefore behold I am against you saith the Lord God and mine hand shall be upon the Prophets that see vanity and divine lyes they shall not be in the Assembly of my people neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel And his Cabinet richly stored in which he proclaims a remedy for every malady and a ready way to attain salvation as is said its like is filled with deceit and all kind of venemous filthy stuff such as comes out of the mouth of the false Prophet the dreamer that speaks a vision of his ovvn heart and not from the mouth of the Lord and therefore eâ—res in vision and stumbles in judgement vvhich vvhosoever believes and follovvs is like to find the ready vvay to destruction and not to salvation of vvhich let all people bevvare and since you proclaim your selves an Assembly of the Lords people and boast of your obedience to all his Commandements and Ordinances vvritten as you say in his Word and that your feet hath held its steps and not gone back from the Lord nor declined the Commandments of his mouth and tell of your readiness to deal vvith them that are evil c. You are charged every particular of you to look to it and approve your selves faithful and obedient to vvhat is vvritten and as you intend to ansvver before the Lord Dâ—cline not the Commandements of his mouth vvho hath said Woe to the foolish Prophets that follow their own spirits they have seen vanity and lying divinations saying the Lord saith and the Lord hath not sent them c. Because ye have spoken vanity and seen lyes therefore behold I am against you saith the Lord God and my hand shall be against the Prophets that see vanity and devine lyes they shall not be in the Assemblies of my people neither shall they be written in the writings of the house of Israel Ezek. 13. Novv if Robert Purnels Prophesie aforesaid be not true but a lying divination and a vain vision then is he by an express Commandment of the Lord not to be in the assemblies of the Lords people and therefore look to it be not deceitful nor false in what your selves have published for in it you will be observed and your obedience and faithfulness to what you say is your Rule will be tryed and if you are found false and treacherous your iniquity will be marked for you have made your selves publick and must be manifested and remember you are warned of it in time and Robert Purnel is advised to consider it and repent throughly if place for repentance to the false Prophet may be found and with shame and confusion let him manifest the same owning his just condemnation for so horrible a transgression But if his said Prophesie be true and Independency and Anabaptism so called together with other things there mentioned be but fleshly Forms and Sects not built by the Lord but by men not upon the Rock but upon the sand and that Christ is come and coming in spirit to destroy it and therefore must fall and be broken as he declares then let both Robert Purnel and every one of you look to it and repent in time of your horrible wickedness in blaspheming the work of Christ which he in spirit is come to perform in this his mighty day calling it the great design of the devil c. otherwise the just judgements of our God whom we serve who is the Creator of the ends of the earth ye cannot escape who is near to be revealed from heaven in power and great glory taking vengeance of all blasphemers and disobedient ones and will render tribulation and anguish upon every soul that doth evil and in this am I seriously under fence of your condition and therefore do warn you of these things whether you will hear or forbear and as for any other false Prophets and Deviners amongst you to whom the mysteries of Gods Kingdom which to the Saints is given to know is not revealed nor opened and so have seen nothing but vanity and lying devinations revealed The Lord hath said he is against them and they shall not be in the Assemblies of his people and it concerns you to take notice of it least you manifest your selves to be those that flatter with your mouths and lye with your tongues when your hearts are not right with God nor you stedfast in his Covenant And your own words ye may take to your selves O stand still smite upon your thighs and blush for shame at what ye have done for though man Harlots have played the harlot yet thou excellest them all who upon a lofty and high mountain hast set thy bed and speakest loftily and that it is beneath thee to answer many things contained in the skirts of the Whore fulfilling the Scriptures Pro. 30.19 There is a generation oh how lofty are their eyes c But the day of the Lord is dawned in which the eyes of the lofty must be humbled and your lofty looks abased Yea the day of the Lord of hosts is upon every one that is proud and lofty and by him who shall be alone exalted in this his day shall all those be brought down that dwell on high and by the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy is he treading down the lofty Citie to the ground And with you have I no kindred part nor inheritance who inherit lies and falshood and with it would be veiled But a witness against both it and you I stand and the harlots
nakedness must I discover and her advice to the contrary is rejected because it is her portion from the Lord and by her to have my name cast out as evil for the Son of mans sake is a blessing at which I may rejoyce and leap for joy And whereas ye wish me to take notice that ye desire your three Messengers to answer for themselves that their faithfulnesse may appeare c. This is a piece of deceipt like the rest for Robert Purnell Robert Simpson and Richard Moon who were the three Messengers to desire themselves to answer and presently put their hands to their own desires with three more two of which were never of the people with which I walked and the other long since removed his habitation near thirty miles distant But however being by themselves desired because they had none else to desire it of them they like themselves begin to answer and after many vain and idle words they say they received their commission from God to this worke and met together and considered the particulars of which they were to admonish their backslidden Brethren and Sisters Reply Here they blaspheme the holy and dreadful name of God by entituling it to their lies and slanders who never gave commission to false Prophets lyars and slanderers to admonish any of his but reproved such saying They run and I sent them not therefore they shall not profit the people And so it is with you But from what did your brethren and sisters as ye call them backslide more than from your deceitfull wayes and practices which to God are abhominable If ye say it is from your outward fellowships wayes and worships Then the Parshes from which ye have separated your selves have the same thing to admonish you of And ye justifie those filthy polluted Priests who cast out the names or persons of some from amongst them â—â—t John â—â—l guilty of 〈◊〉 because they separated themselves from their polluted worships Besides one of the three said by faith he saw the downfall of all these Sects and Forms and that it was not of Gods building and that he saw Christ coming in spirit to destroy it And then how is it that ye are not ashamed to say that to get out of that which God never built is backsliding And that God gave you a commission to admonish any for departing out of that vvhich Christ in spirit came to destroy But your God vvho is the God of the vvorld that gave you such a commission and put you upon those vvorks of vvickednesse is denied together vvith your selves vvho his Commissioners are vvith all your pretended admonitions inventions and deceitfull stuffe vvhich to the children of light are manifest and seen to be as light as vanitie They say They knew much themselves and what they knew not they were fully satisfied by the mouths of many faithfull and true witnesses Reply Where were they found in many particulars sithence ye are already proved an unfaithfull company of lyars and deceitful workers They say In the name of the Lord and in obedience to his command and in a filial feare to God love and pity to our souls they did admonish c. Reply Did they know the name of the Lord which is dreadfull to all deceivers false prophets and hypocrites they would not dare to name it whiles they live in iniquity but out of his name are ye all shut and have no portion in that which is a strong tower to which the righteous run and are saved Who for your rebellion and disobedience against his name who live out of his feare which is the light of the world are by the light judged and condemned who in your vaine mindes talk of love and pirty to soules but never came to witnesse the living soul nor the quickning spirit where the true love and pity comes to be witnessed But did your three Messengers in the name and in the fear and in obedience to the Lord admonish How then came it to passe that they came to a near relation of mine and told her in the name of the Lord c they were sent to admonish her also of something as sin To which she replyed to Robert Simpson that spake Hast not thou something in thee that tells thee thou dost lye in the name of the Lord For what sin do I live in which thou knowest To which he said Dear sister I doe not say in practice but in judgement To which she replying What is my judgement Canst thou tell He appeared confounded and said Doe not you heare those men meaning those called Quakers Now is not here deceit and wickednesse to pretend to admonish people in the name fear and obedience of God and at last know not for what but aske if she did not hear those men which Robert Simpson himself had often done it's like more often than she at that time Now have ye not read that God is not mocked but what ye sowe the same yee must reape Why then doe yee thus to the flesh sowe corruption falshood lying and deceit and make mention of the name of the Lord as your covering To what they said to me in particular I need not say much because what I said before stands unanswered and in power over your heads only they say the things they charged me withal are true every syllable as appears by the foregoing answer of the whole Church which is false and those they call the Church proved lyars And whereas they say they did not feare me neither did their consciences accuse them In this they presently gave themselves the lie and say the reason they staid not was because they found my spirit the time before as a boyling fornace boyling over and scalding all that stand near it which made them resolve not to stay the second time Now what deceit and wickednesse is here Who can believe a word that comes from amongst you who are out of the feare of God and therefore regard not what ye say For I having charged them in my last that they fled as men surprized with feare or accused by their own consciences They deny it and say it is false and that they neither feared me nor were accused c. And yet in 6. or 8 lines have fully granted what I said saying the reason they staid not was because they found my sprrit as a boyling fornace boyling over and scalding c. Now is it not evident they feared lest they should be scalded and what was there that scalded but the witnesse of God within themselves Poor men I knew they were wounded tormented and scalded by the witness of God in their own consciences testifying against their hypocrisie and deceit so that they could not stand nor abide it for the day of the Lord is now great and who may abide it for it is like refiners fire yea it burns as an oven and all that doe wickedly are as stubble and not onely scalded but burned
that if ye returned an answer ye take care it be to some purpose and not a parcel of weakness and confusion c. yet I find the conception and birth which by you who call your selves a Church of Christ is brought forth into the world is the same in which you have given so much advantage to lay open your shame and discover your skirts beyond and above others yea many of the Parish Assemblies of which you speak that I know not how to let it pass without rebuke 2. I take notice that that little book entituled The skirts of the Whore discovered hath been made effectuall through the power of the mighty God of Jacob so that the dart is struck through the liver and the arrowes of the Almighty stick fast in the hearts of the Kings enemy and torment is upon you on every side because your skirts are discovered that passers by see the shame of your nakedness and that instead of turning unto the Lord who hath smitten and wounded you whose tender mercies are towards you and therefore hath often warned you with foolish Ephraim of old you are running to the Assrians for help and into Aegypts land a place of darkness are ye gone seeking to recover a vail to hide your selves from the face of the Lamb who is the Light of the World and of the Temple in whose light ye are seen and comprehended and the deceit of your Religion and powerless profession known and manifested against which the hand of the Lord is lifted up though ye see it not nor are ashamed but under your traditional and deceitful forms and waies seek to hide and cover your selves as with a vail making lies your refuge and under falshood hiding your selves bringing the wo and the wrath more and more upon your selves who cover with a covering but not of Gods spirit rebeling against the light not knowing its wais nor abiding in its paths 3. That notwithstanding according to the prophesies that went before the true light is now come and the glory of the Lord is arisen and the children of the Lord are walking in the light of the Lord and calling others thereinto yet darkness hath covered the earth and gross darkness the people and therefore thorow the blindness of your minds whilest ye go about to vindicate your selves from the stroak of that which was justly and truly declared of you in The skirts of the Whore discovered ye manifest and prove your selves to be the same that is to say no Church of Christ but an harlot c. And this ye do in the very Title of your book which is The Church of Christ in Bristol recovering her vail out of the hands of them that have smitten and wounded her and taken it away a practise never heard of among those that were the Churches of Christ in whom the vail is done away Col. 2.19 for the Churches of Christ were all baptized by one spirit into one body and united to one head even Christ from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred encreaseth with the encrease of God And where Christ is witnessed the vail is removed and done away I Cor. 3.13 14 15 16 17.18 yea though it was over the heart in the reading of the old Testament that the people could not see to the end of that which is abolishëd yet in Christ it is done away and his Church who witness him their head and from him have nourishment ministred comes with open face to behold the glory of the Lord and by it are changed into the same image c. But to this are you strangers and aliens who are recovering the vail out of his hands that hath taken it away that with it ye may be covered Gen. 38.14 like Tamar the harlot sitting by the way whiles the witnesses of Christ and Ministers of the new Testament do not as Moses cover their face with a vail that the people may not see to the end of that which is abolished but use great plainness of speech directing the minds of the people to the light to the annointing to the unction which is in them which guideth them into all truth shewing the father and things which are to come to which agreeth the Prophet Isay who speak as he was moved of the Lord and said The mountain of the Lords house shall be exalted above the mountains c. and in this mountain the Lord will destroy the face of the covering cast over all people and the vail which is spread over all Nations c. and to this also do agree those that speak as they were moved of the holy Ghost Isa 25.7 But ye who know not that one spirit nor the Baptism nor the body nor the unity nor ever came to witness the head from which nourishment is ministred to the body and in which the vail is removed and taken away but are recovering it out of his hands who hath smitten and wounded you I sâ—y ye are hereby manifested and proved no Church of Christ but an harlot a Synagogue of Satan a cage of unclean spit it s upon whom the Lord hath stretched forth the lines of confusion and stones of emptiness and made you an habitation for dragons and a Court for owles in which the wild and cruel beasts of the earth who have no habitation in God inhabit 4. That notwithstanding you would seem to reprove me for vain boasting c. though ye know in your own Consciences I speak very soberly of my self without boasting and far beneath what I was in yours and centers account till I told you the truth yet have ye published a book and a pretty big one too mostly to commend your selves and on the other And although ye seem among other things to boast of your stability c. yet let me tell you I well remember the time when but few amongst you stood stable to your own principles of Churches and ordinances as ye call it but were like children tost to and fro with winds of doctrine embracing a Religion which consisted in great swelling words of vanity without power At which time Robert Purnel as stable as he is undertook to prophesie the down-fall of Independency Anabaptism c. and said by faith he saw it full by the comming of Christ in spirit and this he published in his book entitled Good tydings for sinners Great joy for Saints And besides if ye were indeed so stable as ye would have the world believe how commeth it to pass that at this day ye are so rossed with blasts and winds and know no stability but so many of you are of late turned Anabaptists which formerly was so odious and so sad a principle that Hannah Taylor was near casting cut from amongst you for entertaining it But it is true ye hold fast deceit and refuse to return in which ye are as stable as most that I ever knew and equal with those Parish Assemblies
in which ye make sore complaint people will rather continue than remove to you since your skirts are discovered 5. That ye are offended with me for using bitter and violent expressions towards you in which ye say nothing of the spirit of Christ appears but the contrarie And that ye are otherwise taught then to render evil for evil and railing for railing but rather to blesse having the example and precept of Christ for it yet notwithstanding your book abounds with â—ayling reviling and evil speaking And where ye cannot amongst your selves frame and make up enough ye endeavour the best ye are able to take up something from others whom ye do not name and perhaps I never saw and cast the reproach of it upon me telling me of Luciferian pride folly impudencie malignity untruths c. All which is the proper fruit of the corrupt fountain from whence it came to which it is again returned But by this the sober Reader may take notice how directly ye are found in the steps of your fathers the Scribes and Pharisees who crucified the just one and said and did not c. And what use it is ye make of Christ his precepts and examples that is to say to make them a veil or covering under pretence of which to hide your selves in your ungodly and wicked practices whiles in words ye would seem to condemn it just â—e the harlot whose words are smooth and pleasant but her pathes lead to the chambers of death and how can ye say nothing in my book appears like the Spirit of Christ when so much of it is the very words of Scripture which ye say is the word of God and the Scripture saith the father the word and holy Ghost are one are they one and not a like are they one and yet contrary or are not ye rather in blindness and confusion understanding neither what ye say or of what ye affirm To your Reader ye expresse your trouble and griese that I a man once famous for professing the truth did upon the coming of the people called Quakers own and plead for them and by so doing drew many a poor soul out of the wayes of Christ as ye say into the wayes of those miserable deluded people To which I reply that I did upon the first publishing of the glad tydings of salvation by the Ministerie of righteousness obtain mercy to own and embrace the same and by it was turned to God out of the wayes of miserie delusion and deceipt in which ye yet abide is true But that I drew any out of the wayes of Christ is false and from your father by whom the eyes of your minds being blinded ye wander and by him are led in the dark and blind pathes of lying deceipt and delusion towards death and destruction And therefore ye tell the Reader I prepared a letre with this inscription for the people called independents and by my subtilty engaged two of your brethren to present it to the Church which is an absolute lye at which ye could not but blush had ye not a whoores forhead for no such inscription at all was upon any letter of mine But for the hands of Robert Simpson and Robert Purnel c. Neither do I know any subtilty used to engage them farther than in plainnes and honesty to read it in their hearing and demand their freedom to comunicate it to those who sent the charge by them to me and this ye term subtility and deceipt when the subtilty and designed deceipt is among your selves who kept my defence from being communicated to those for whom it was intended fearing as ye confesse it might draw away more from amongst you And this was no disappointment at all of my ends neither was I enraged at it as ye say But it is another lye and your torment thereby is encreased because opportunity was thereby administred to discover your skirts and lay open your shame which otherwise its like had not been And whereas ye tell your Reader ye cannot without being guilty of my sin let my folly go unreproved but have set forth these plain words of truth and sobernes c. This is like the rest a refuge of lyes for neither true nor sober it is but full of lyes and deceipt of which I know no page free And so ye need not trouble your selves with the guilt of my sin ye have enough of your own And it is plain and true that the lyers are without and for the lake c. which is your portion from him who will clear the innocent c. with whom ye are not companions in tribulation nor are grieved for the afflictions of Joseph nor sensible of this day of Jacobs trouble nor know the welfare of Sion nor the faith of the Gospel nor the testimonie of Jesus which is the Spirit of prophecie And so I come to your book it self In the first line of which ye demand Did I never read that the Church of Christ in Scripture is resembled to a natural body wherein are many members united each to other and most of them to one head and by one Spirit and say that as in the natural body there may be many infirmities so in the mistical bodie c. I answer nay I never read such a thing in Scripture but can read you who put this queston as blind as the men of Sodom that saw not the way for where in Scripture is the Church of Christ resembled to a natural body I say a natural bodie in which are many infirmities Again where doth the Scripture say that in the Church of Christ there are many members united each to other and most of them to one head and by one spiritâ— Is there any unitie in the Church of Christ and not by the Spirit And are not all who are by the Spirit united together by the same Spirit united to the head And is not the Lord that Spirit in which the vail is removed But Babilon is your Citie your first building is confusion and had ye not thus exprest your selves ye had not so clearly manifested your gross ignorance both of the true Church her members the head and the Spirit But having thus done ye apply your selves to your blind mistaken conclusions drawn from what before ye had ignorantly propounded And say that as in the natural bodie there may be many infirmities so the mystical body also may be subject to distempers c. To which I say In your tittle page ye stile your selves the Church of Christ though ye never proved it but your language is the harlots and not the Churches In Scripture I read of a natural bodie and a spiritual bodie but never of a mystical bodie so exprest that comes from the Harlot But if by mystical bodie ye mean your selves then I easily grant it is indeed subject to destempers enough which ye number up and say is undigested humours want of closing with truth and receiving untruth windie
humours of pride high-mindedness and giving heed to lying Spirits violent headiness in stead of well tempered zeal for God and godliness c. All which it's like ye speak from good experience and if ye had added much more of that kind to which ye are subject I know and bear testimonie that it is true But if by mystical bodie ye mean the Church of Christ of which he is head and hath washed from all her sins in his own blood and redeemed from all iniquitie and presents holy and unblamable without spot or wrinkle then do ye speak falsely and wickedly blaspeming the bodie of Christ which is holy in which dwell no lying spirits nor windie homours as ye call it of pride and high mindedness c much lesse is it subject to those things but is more than Conqueror over it and is subject onely to Christ who is the head where other Lords have not dominion but being made free by the Son of God is free indeed while such as you are subject to such distempers and wicked spirits and humours by which ye are overcome and in bondage and never came to witness redemption and freedom by the Son of God who gave himself for us as Paul saith that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people Now if Pauls words be true as indeed they are then is your mystical distempered surfeited windie humorous proud high minded feavorish bodie which gives heed to lying spirits no Church of Christ but an absolute Harlot And so have ye your selves manifested your own bodie as filthy as ever I declared it And so what wrong have I done ye ye say in my former book there is contained many things too low and beneath you to read peruse or answer thereby manifesting your Pride for his soul that is lifted up is not upright And the Harlot sits as a Queen and counts it beneath her to answer what is spoken to her in truth But I perceive ye are making good the title of your book covering your selves with such filthie stuff where ye cannot answer and yet he that reads and understands would think ye little regard what ye say or into what confusion ye run so ye can but think to hide your heads for notwithstanding ye said but now it was below and beneath a Christian much more a whole Church to read or answer my book yet presently ye say ye shall take the Lords Counsel and answer the Author Is it beneath and too low for you to read or answer and yet doth the Lord Counsel you to answer or doth the Lord Counsel you to answer what is beneath you to read Why should ye thus take the Lords name in vain to cover and hide your deceipt Know ye not that ye cannot be by him held guiltless But this is pitiful stuff to come from a whole Church as ye call your selves need enough ye have to seek a covering to hide your folly Ye say my Pamphlet is stuâ—t in the middle and both ends with many unsavoury and unchristian like expressions and speak of vain boastings absurdities and untruths but mention not the particulars nor make it appear and so I shall let it pass as one of your lying refuges Ye say how sadly is that Scripture Acts 20.30 fulfilled both on us and you c. I answer nay not on you who are far from the condition of the elders of the Church of Ephesus to whom Paul spake whom the holy Ghost had made overseers of the flock of God which he with his own blood had purchased and they did feed who were turned from the darkness to the light but I say this belongs not to you who love darkness and hate the light of which they were children and came to see with open face as in a glass the Lords glorie which condition is witnessed in measure by thousands at this day of those whom ye call miserable deluded people Neither is it fulfilled in me who do not speak perverse things to draw people from the truth which is the light but have declared the truth concerning you Ye say when ye had read the title of my book and considered the people included and intended by me ye could not but stand amazed c. I answer yea and well ye might and be ashamed and confounded that ever a people professing themselves the Church of Christ should be so notoriously found in the Harlots steps without so much as a shew of a true covering in which to hide themselves from the rebuke of what was spoken of them as in your book the Reader may perceive but are driven to so many lying refuges to vindicate your selves and all in vain for your covering is short Ye say Is it not an high degree of Luciferian pride for a poor Creature to set his foot upon the neck of all the assemblies and Churches of the Saints calling them the wâ—ore And then put your silly interpretations upon my words us some of you use to do upon the Scriptures and draw your mistaken meanings thereon and then tell me of Shimei's cursing David and of your resolutions c. To which I reply The assemblyes and Churches of Saints oh how lovely are they unto me because the living presence and power of God is there manifested In which I have chosen rather to be a door-keeper and to suffer reproach with the people of God which was Davids portion than to dwell with you in the ungodly Tent where Shimei that Curser is But the voice of the Lords thunders being heard in the earth and his lightenings gone forth and his just visitations come and coming upon the Harlot or great whore whose judgement is now come I doe according to my measure bear testimony against her your surfeited bodie though she call her self a Church and cover her self with scarlet as with a veil yet upon her neck do I tread and all her glorie do I despise and upon all her pride and Luciferian spirit do I trample for just and true is he that hath judged her And notwithstanding ye begin to wail and lament like them Rev. 18. whose merchandise was destroyed saying O how do the daughters of the Philistines rejoyce and the uncircumcised triumph will not every prophane person that seeth us go in the streets say Lo there goes one of the skirts of the whore one of the synagogue of Satan one of the cage of unclean birds c. And if we reprove them will they not say one of your selves have written and published it And then tell how your enemies will scourge you with the tongue and condemn you c. Reply If this be so and the Philistines and prophane persons in whose nature ye are and with whose spirit ye agree do thus behave themselves towards you yet know and see the Scriptures fulfilled and as ye have loved cursing reproaching or reviling so it is unto you and the measure which ye have meted is measured
up to the commandments of Christ in obedience and conscience and yet be found so rebellious and stiff necked neglecting and disobeying that which themselves have published to be the institutions of Christ Yea those institutions which are blessed which he in his own person practiced and left as a standing ordinance of the New Testament to all Generations c. Know ye not that rebellion is as the sin of witch-craft and to hearken is more acceptable than sacrifice and if he that knowes not his Masters will is worthy of stripes what will your portion be who profess ye know it and can admonish others for neglecting it and yet your selves be found in the utter disobedience I know in this ye will need a vail but it will never hide nor cover your shame And for me to tell such a people they are not a Church of Christ but a harlot a Synagogue of Satan c. is not to blaspheme God and his Tabernacle of both which ye are ignorant and in your blindness worship ye know not what neither is it a writing contemptuously as ye say against any who in conscience are obedient to Christ but it is for your advantage and profit if to it ye give ear And for the accompt ye can give of your faith of which ye boast I say that where true faith is it purifies the heart from lying hipocrisie and deceit and is a mistery held in a pure conscience And Thomas Ewine acknowledgeth in the 52 53 54 pages he doth very much question as I know he hath cause whether ever himself or many of you have received the spirit to establish and confirm or to open and reveal the misteries of the Kingdom or to beautifie and adorn you with gifts and grace to purge purifie cleanse and sanctifie and make you holy or to fill you with the spirit of faith and prayer and when all this is wanting amongst you ye are sure in a very bad condition such as the Church of Christ under the new Testament was never in and so might forbear boasting either of your faith or obedience till another spirit from the Lord is powred upon you And ye might forbear so much washing the outside of your vessel in rivers and brooks tel your infide comes to be cleansed sanctified and made holy In your fifth page ye seem again displeased that I call you a mingled people c. and say if some with me had been faithful to their light and practized baptism they might he mingled too and that but one of those that haue practised that Ordinance as ye call it with you are fallen away Reply It seemeth then ye acknowledge there is a light which convinceth to which people ought to be faithful how dare ye then to reproach and speak evil of it and are not obedient when by it your evil deeds are reproved And if it be the light as ye grant it is that convinceth of the need of your water Baptism how comes it to pass ye were once so near casting out of Hannah Taylor as aforesaid for embracing it and what great glory is it that but one of your Baptists are convinced of truth and turned from darkness to the light c. Know ye not that Christ Jesus the light of the world said Publicans and harlots shall enter into the Kingdom before the Hypocrites And what advantage was it to the priests and their generations when Christ came a light into the world that but few of them believed in the truth and were obedient to that which the world with themselves opposed and said it was the Devil But if ye were able truly to manifest that but few of your company were proud cocovetous envious back-biters oppressors extortioners unjust dealers c. living in the customes and manner of other Heathens but by the power of God were turned from it this had been something and so had not ye been mingled as now ye are Ye say Hath not Christ called and owned you his Church and that I can testify ye were at first rightly constituted and have profest that Christ hath manifested his presence amongst you c. To which I say That ever Christ called such a surfeited bodie as yours a Church of his is denyed and testimonie is born against it But that his presence was amongst you and manifested to many who by the power of it are drawn and separated from amongst you is granted though ye have neither known nor received him but cast him off and were not obedient but have rebelled and vexed his spirit so that by the weapons of his power is he fighting against you with whom it is but the beginning of sorrowes and if ye turn not he is whetting his glittering sword and his hand takes hold of vengeance c. And if as ye say ye were at first rightly constituted then are ye your selves not I nor others with me Apostates and backslidden from that in which at first ye were gathered For then ye did disown those called Anabaptists and their practices in which ye were so zealous that ye did often admonish and reprove and were near the casting out Hanna Taylor as I have said now called Hanna Packer because she owned it But now ye do own the Anabaptists and their practices and ye your selves become Practizers thereof as ye confesse and do admonish and reprove others who in conscience and obedience to the light of Christ cannot conform to your customes and traditions but by his power reproves them standing in that by which at first they were convinced and gathered out of the world and all its pollutions so far as to them it was made manifest And therefore all your feigned words of backsliding and back-sliders Apostatizing and Apostates both in your title page and other places in your book is clearlie turned upon your selves who are the Apostates and back-sliders of which ye speak and to whom belong all the reproofes and admonitions ye pretend to others who are obedient to the light by which the deceipt of your will-worships and inventions is made manifest and denied as was that of Parishes and other assemblies before And as for the Churches of Galatia and Asia Alas what have ye to do with them in whose life ye are not and are shut and cast out an◠〈◊〉 the cursed ground where the briars and thornes grow and the beasts of prey feed and with the persecutors of the life of God which they witnessed are ye joyned against the truth and proudly have ye laboured to trample upon and cast it to the ground but all in vain for over your heads it is exalted and life and immortality is brought to light and reigns for ever more Ye say Those who were stiled a synagogue of Satan were a company of proud boasters that said they were Jewes and Apostles and were not but did lye I answer just so are ye who boast your selves the Church of Christ but are not and his commands to observe
general and yet ye say it s verbatim But in this also not onely your falshood but also your confusion is so fully manifested that I need say no more but leave it to the Reader to judge But ye say It is for speaking against the Scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls and that they are not the Word of God nor rule of life and this ye would have understood to be verbatim though like the rest it will easily appear to be a parcel of falshood hypocrisie and deceit for besides your own confusions before mentioned in the Coppy delivered to me by Robert Simpson which he saith is true and ye 〈◊〉 testimony he is faithful it is thus Your speaking reproachfully of the pretious Scriptures of truth as first affirming that it was a blind to souls and secondly one of the greatest plagues of the Land and thirdly affirming farther that it is not the Word of God nor rule of life Now let the Reader whose eye is opened judge how these agree The person sent to admonish at the same time or thereahouts gives it under his hand that what he writ out and delivered to me was a true Coppy of what he received And the whole company after they received an answer thereunto deviseth and publisheth another and say it is verbatim though it much differs from the former The latter saith the charge there mentioned was verbatim in these words Speaking reproachfully of the blessed Scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls c. the former in these words Speaking reproachfully of the precious Scripture of truth as first affirming that it was a blind to souls and aly one of the greatest plagues of the land The one puts both together The Scripture is blind and a plague the other divides them into two particulars and saith first a blind to souls and 2ly one of the greatest plagues of the Land the one that the Scriptures were blind the other that it is a blind the one that they were blind and a plague to souls and never mentions the Land The other that it is first a blind to souls and 2ly a plague yea one of the greatest plagues of the Land and mentions not souls The one saith The pretious Scriptures of truth The other the blessed Scriptures and mentions not the words of truth And yet if any man is given over to believe lies ye will perswade him all this is true and verbatim that is word for word according to the copy And that notwithstanding this lying spirit which is found in your mouths to which ye give heed ye are a Church of Christ or a mystical body a word of deceit from the bottomlesse pit which may be subject to this spirit as it plainly appears to all beholders ye are by what your selves have published And truly the day hath manifested you very much and ye cannot be hid but by the light your deeds of darknesse are and will be reproved and your pretended admonition farther manifested to be but studied accusations and from your father the devil who was a liar from the beginning and abode not in the truth Now as that which ye call your admonition and say ye did insert verbatim as a bundle of lies and confusion as hath been manifested so is that which ye call your proof for in page 13. ye say because I said those things that is to say your charge are studied accusations and from the father of lies c. ye shall therefore prove every tittle to be true And in page 18. ye say ye have proved every tittle to be true and clear and in page 26. your 3 Messengers who boast that they received their Commission from God to this work say that the things that they charged me withall are all true in every sillable of it as doth appear by the foregoing answer of the whole Church Now then if ye have not proved every tittle of your charge to be true and if it do not appear by your foregoing answer that every sillable of that with which your Messengers charged me is true then are ye proved both those that did send and those that were sent no Church of Christ but a company of lyars and false asserters But ye have not proved every title and every sillable thereof to be true and therefore are ye no Church of Christ but a company of lyars for first ye charged me for leaving the Church and now ye say that I have left the Church is true but no proof thereof have ye given neither is it true which ye say for the Church I have not left but to witness the Church I have left the harlot and that I have absolutely forsaken left and renounced fellowship with you in all your idolatrous heathenish wayes and worships which stand in the will and time of man and not in the will and power of God and by the mighty arm and power of the Lord am I separated from amongst you never again to have fellowship nor communion with you in those unfruitful works of darkness which by the light are reproved is granted else could I never know nor witness the Church of Christ which is in God the father But that ye are the Church of Christ is denyed and was denyed and by your fruits and what lodged in you were ye proved an harlot a synagogue of Satan c. which stands vvholly unansvvered by you And therefore it is not true but a lie to say I left the Church when I was separated from the Harlot that I might witness the Church But suppose it had been true that I had left the Church by vvhat have ye proved it Why onely your selves say it is so but that is no proof and yet this is more than tittles and syllables it is vvhole sentences ye a general charge not proved except vvhat the harlot speaks to save her head vvhen to judgement she is brought is to be believed and admitted as a proof But ye go on and say that my so doing hath drawn away some grieved others and opened the mouehs of many to speak evil of the wayes of Christ which is clear and plain and not a studied accusation but a real thing which hath been grief and sadness to the Church To which I reply if the Harlot or Synagogue of Satan might be believed in her own case when she speaks not truth then what ye say were of some value But from the Church have I drawn none nor been a grief nor sadness that I know to her with whom in some measure I have unity Neither do I know of any whose mouths I have justly opened to speak evil of the wayes of Christ which are pure and spiritual So that the whorish and adulterous harlot cannot see it who is grieved and sadned at my departure whose judgement is come and her torments from the living God are pouring and therefore hath she opened her mouth very wide and from her unclean fountain
and spirit of envie is pouring out of stoods of reviling bitternes not onely when she assembles in her harlots houses and Idol Temples with the rest of the proud and persecuting World where the Churches of Christ after they were gathered did never assemble but in her books and pamphlets speaking evil as she can not only of the Church ways of Christ which she understands not but of Christ Jesus himself who is come a light into the World ane is the light of the World which hath enlightned every man that cometh into the World and this is clear and plain and no studied accusation but a real thing and her proper sentence justly due is gone forth from the presence of the Lord and over her head doth stand And notvvithstanding ye say I gave no vvord or reason of my departure the sober Christian ye mention will easily perceive that this is another refuge of lies for it was reason enough of my departure to deny you to be a Church of Christ and to prove you an harlot a Synagogue of Satan a cage c. And all this I have done notwithstanding ye blush not to say I gave no reason of my departure c. But I perceive that which troubles you is that I who so well knew you and was so long as an Elder amongst you whom ye did so often chuse and elect to that employment and so highly esteemed should now so sadly apostatize as ye call it as not to acknowledge you a Church To which I reply Were ye indeed a Church of Christ how gladly would I acknowledge ye But till ye prove your selves so I may in the words of Thomas Ewins to Ralph Farmer in the 60 page of your book tell you though you be so wise to propose I cannot be so foolish as to grant it lest I make my selfe a transgressor like unto you and rebell against the light which hath manifested you But now let me demand your proof for although ye say ye would prove every tittle and had proved every tittle of what ye charged me withal yet is here no proof at all produced to prove that I drew any from the Church grieved and sadned many or opened the mouths of any to speak evill of the wayes of Christ yet is this more than a tittle or a syllable it is many words and sentences Oh foolish people and unwise how hath the Devill the god of the world and Rulers of the darknesse blinded you why is there no feare of God before your eyes who are adding one iniquity to another as drunkennesse to thirst and yet bespeak your selves a Church And because ye have recovered a veile with which your selves are blinded do think all others must be veiled too but where Christ is witnessed the veile is removed and in the light of Christ which ye have despised and set at nought are ye seen and comprehended and your hypocrisies inventions and traditions will-worships carnall ordinances together with that lying spirit to which ye give heed are in the same light judged denyed and witnessed against as that which to the Lord is abominable and burthensome in which he hath no delight but his soule hates because it is iniquity and a loathsome thing Isa 1.16 But from you whom have I drawn away Why had ye not mentioned one that some colour of truth might appear or that by it also ye might be reproved who of the strong and mighty arme and power of the Lord are ignorant by which he hath powerfully drawn and gathered many from amongst you as well as from others who in the like deceit are worshipping they know not what into his mountain of holinesse which he in this his day is setting up and establishing over your heads and a top of all mountains in which to his people the Lord is making a feast of fat things of which those that pour out a drink offering to that number must not eat in which mountain the Veile is removed the shadows taken away no Lyon or carnall devouring beastly thing can ever come but in it is the way of holinesse known and witnessed and life light and immortality reigns for evermore and the true and living God in spirit life and power known and worshipped who is light and in whom there is no darknesse at all And so although gross darknesse hath overspread the Aegyptian land where the Diviners the Sorcerers the Taskmasters and oppressors dwell yet in Jacobs Tent there is light by which the deeds of darknesse are seen and reproved And therefore although ye have taken liberty to vent your lies and slaunders and false accusations against the innocent over your high places when ye assemble by troops in harlots houses where the children of light dare not come to reproove and gainsay it except they are thereunto powerfully moved of the Lord to testifie against your deceipt and abhomination Yet must ye learn wisdome and take heed of printing and publishing such stuffe to the world else may ye be sure whilst ye seek to cover it with a veile your iniquities will be marked your filthy sepulchre opened which is already but badly painted your skirts more discovered so that shame and confusion will be your portion for evermore except ye repent And therefore of this be ye warned In your third branch ye lay the charge thus viz. your extream censoriousnesse and rash judging not onely of persons abroad but also of the Church c. And tell the world ye will prove yea that ye have proved every tittle and syllable of these things to be true when ye have not endeavoured so much as a shew of proof for ought ye speak touching persons abroad but past it over as if ye had never spoken it And yet this is tittles and syllables yea words c. But a bridle for your tongue ye want who have so long given heed to lying spirits that now ye appear to love lying more then to speak truth and being out of the fear of the Lord speak ye care not what I come now to your fifth branch and shall not trouble my selfe again with those many lies falshoods and contradictions which I there finde in what you say is verbatim having mentioned some of them before but shall examine your proof of that also and see if every tittle of it be proved or whether ye may not be proved lyars in this as in the rest Ye say I did at a meeting at mine house affirme the first part of this branch viz. That the Scriptures were blinde and a plague to souls And for proof ye again produce your own saying it is so and that some of you sitting over against me do well remember how I spake it Clapping my hand upon the book or table saying That Book or Scriptures was one of the greatest blindes and plagues to mens souls this day in England And that ye will again affirme and set your hands to it that I spake those very words
and of the great unworthiness and unfitness he saw in himself of so glorious an employment but saith that he hath been and is though the unworthiest upon earth a Preacher and a publisher of the glorious Gospel of the grace of God both in Wales and now in Bristol he hath no need to seek a proof of me or any other man To which I say his own proof is too light and empty to prove him a Preacher of the Gospel and in it self sufficiently discovers him no Minister of Christ but in confusion for the Ministers of Christ were called but he confesseth he was neither called constituted nor ordained a Minister in Office which I take for granted and then is he to prove that they who were no Ministers either called constituted or ordained were preachers of the glorious Gospel and likewise that they who were preachers of the Gospel were not Ministers But in this his ignorance folly and confusion are made manifest for can a man be a Preacher and publisher of the glorious Gospel and yet no Minister either called constituted or ordained and can he that is no Minister either called constituted or ordained as he hath confest he is not be a publisher and a Preacher of the glorious Gospel Was not he a Minister And did not he make full proof of his Ministry who preached the Word who did the work of an Evangelist Paul was appointed a Preacher and he was called to be an able Minister but Thomas Ewins hath not been able by the Scripture to maintain that he is a Minister but enforced to deny the same and now hath given it under his hand that he was not called constituted nor ordained therefore being no Minister he is no Preacher of the Gospel but in confusion And it is much to see what poor shifts the children of darkness are put unto now in the day of the Lords power wherein light is risen out of obscurity and they that hate it are discovered and to the least child of light made manifest and denyed Besides the Gospel is the Gospel of the kingdome and to those who were Preachers and publishers thereof it was given to know the mysteries of that kingdom which to others was in parables and dark sayings that seeing they might see and not perceive c. And the Gospel is a great mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations but is now made manifest to those to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of that mysterie which saith Paul is Christ in you the hope of glory whom we preach And by revelation saith he God made known unto me the mysterie and the hidden wisdome of God we speak in a mysterie which God ordained before the world unto our glory and that which none of the Princes of this world knew nor eye hath seen nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man hath God revealed unto them by his Spirit who were the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God But Thomas Ewins hath confest that he did question whether he had received the Spirit to open and reveal the mysteries of the Kingdome unto him and so to him the vision of all is but a sealed book and to him it is but in parables and dark sayings as it was to ages and generations past to whom God revealed not the mysteries of his Spirit but seeing they did see and not perceive And how then can he be a Preacher or publisher of the Gospell yea the glorious Gospel which is the Gospel of the kingdome to whom it was never given to know it neither hath he received the Spirit to open and reveale it as is manifest under his hand Poor man were he not very blinde he might be silent and not boast to the world that he needs not a proof of any man that he is a Preacher and a Publisher of the glorious Gospel of the grace of God in Bristol who is so notoriously ignorant of it that by his own confession he hath not received the spirit to open the mysterie of it to him as the Saints had in the Primitive times and so is intruding into things he hath not seen vainly puft up with a fleshly minde and would needs be a Teacher but understands not what he saith nor whereof he affirmes but confesseth he questions whether he hath received the Spirit to open and reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom and yet saith he is a Preacher of the glorious Gospel which is a mysterie hid from all but those to whom it is revealed by the Spirit But he saith his reward is on high and that God hath given him a seale of his Ministry in Bristol and he trusts hundreds can say the Lord hath been and still is with his Ministry quickning comforting teaching c. To which I say whose work is this or of what is it a seale In page 52. he confesseth he questions whether he had received the spirit to seale c. and yet here saith God gave him a seale of his Ministry c. He hath before denied himselfe a Minister and now given it under his hand that he was neither called constituted nor ordained c. and yet saith his Record is on high and that God hath given him a seale of his Ministry Is he no Minister and yet hath God given him a seal of his Ministry What Babylonish confusision is here Hath he a seale of nothing or of a lye Can he have a seale of that which is not Or hath he a seale and not of the Spirit Is not the Record he saith he hath of this on high even with principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses where the powers of darknesse rule But how shall one trust or in what can one believe such a man who would seem to speak with so much solemnesse and seriousnesse when he speaks so much confusion contradiction and falshood And well were it that not not onely he but ye all would learn to dread the name of God and feare to take it so commonly as ye do into your mouths in vain to veile and cover your deceitfull pretences lest by him ye be not held guiltlesse But he saith It is true I am no preacher of that which you and some of your way call the Gospell namely to bid every man turn to the light within neither did I ever read or heare that any of the Prophets Apostles or holy men of God did preach such a Gospel To which I say he being no Preacher of that thing as he terms it which my selfe and some of our way call the Gospel he is no Preacher of the Truth of God nor the Gospel of God which is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes And so out of his own mouth let him be judged that he is no Preacher nor Minister either by call or practice who doth not preach that which we call the Gospel which is
helps on with his strength and so doth his company And something it was that he confesseth Ralph Farmer gave him the right hand of fellowship and was satisfied in his call By all which and much more that might be said it is manifest that one and the self same spirit guides them both onely one hath a larger measure and the other a straighter about which they need not differ But however as Pilate and Herod in some things they do disagree and are at odds yet in one are they joyned against the Lamb who is the light of which the servants of God do bear witness and although their light hit not in every thing yet are they joyned hand in hand against the true light and although Thomas Ewins in word hath denied himself a Parish Minister yet by his fruits is he manifested to be amongst them and of the same spirit with them and the day hath discovered him and sufficiently is he proved in confusion and truly your covering is the Lord ripping off and your skirts are discovered and the mingled people in the midst of Babylon where are some misbaptized people wanting light to see right administrations but think their Infant-baptism sufficient Others are thorough-paced Anabaptists some walking in straight principles others in large one thinking one thing and another another and yet you differ not Now is not this child like the mother and will not such a son help to recover the veil to cover his mothers skirts that ye may all bear with one another in darkness that your works may be hid but the Lords wayes are not yours and therefore must your skirts be laid open and your heels made bare for the year of the redeemed is come and the glory of the Lord is arisen upon his people as in dayes of old Therefore must Babylon where the darkness and confusion is be troubled and recompenced amongst which your lot is now fall'n And for the answers to the 16. quaeries which I published and he mentions I own them and not a word therein hath he disproved but tells me he might commend my wit in putting them forth after the man is dead To which I say its like he writes one thing and thinks another which with him may be an usual practice But how can I commend his honest dealing upon a just ground who had the answers delivered to him in writing some moneths before the quaeries were published And was that honest or commendable for him to be the conveyer of 16. Antiquaeries to me and in short time received an answer from those to whom the Antiquaeries were directed and either conceal them himself from John Pendarvis or else he neglect to take notice thereof and in his book several moneths after published the said Antiquaeries by the name of quaeries as if they had never been answered now if he had not printed the quaeries or printing them had also printed the answers and so had replyed thereto or if they could have disproved them it had been something like men but to print the one and conceal the other is so absolutely foul and deceitful that it was the cause of publishing those answers that he with all that were concerned in that deceit might be manifested And if Thomas Ewins will clear his fellow which is dead he may and then his own hypocrisie will the more appear And whereas he confesseth those quaeries were once answered by another and pretends the answers agree not And that if four more had answered them they might perhaps have come as near in their answers as sixe of the Preachers of England might do in their interpreting a place of Scripture To this I say wherein do the answers differ or how doth it appear that they agree not for he manifests nothing of it And since he could manifest nothing why doth he give his tongue and his pen to slandering But doth one answer build up that which another throws downe or doth one confesse that which another denies It 's true one answer may be larger then another and good reafon for there was something in the Antiquaeries which was lest out when they were printed by the name of Quaeries and was not that a difference among themselves one while to send them by the name of Antiquaeries and after they were so answered to print them by the name of Quaeries Besides did Matthew Marke Luke and John differ and not agree and therefore reproveable by him because of the thing of which they all declare they use not one and the self-same words and no more but one is larger in his Declaration then another And whereas he seemeth to compare the Antiquaeries to the Scripture and the answers to the meaning or interpretation the Priest put thereon I say his comparison will not hold for the Antiquaeries in which were lyes and deceit are not to be compared to the Scriptures of truth And if he be not wilfully blinde and ignorant he may see his own confusion and his companions who are of differing principles as much as is betwixt streight and broad and yet saith he we differ not and yet himselfe would slander others in secret for differing but no wayes makes it appeare wherein And so in this as well as in other of his works hath he manifested his owne folly and all the said answers stand uncontrolled by him in the least But why appears he in pag. 44. 63. ashamed of his call by those called a Church and saith he that is Ralph Farmer dealt dis-ingenuously in telling how they sent for him out of Wales c. when he knew he was sent for by the Mayor some Aldermen many of the Councill and other Gentlemen and Commissioners of the City of Bristoll For were he not blinde he might be silent and not have declined his Call by those himself calls a Church and claimed it from the powers of the earth who in the gainsaying generation are found from whom the servants of God who beare testimony to his name and in his power are sent and moved to declare against the abhominations and false worships of the times have and do receive the like measure now as the Prophets and Ministers of the Lord in former ages did from the Rulers and false worshippers of their times when of the Lord they were sent and moved to declare against the same And what friends to the Gospel and power of godlinesse the generality of those aforesaid have been is not unknown vvho in their several dayes appeared as bad as they durst under the powers that controlled them persecuting not onely the life and power of godlinesse but even the forme of it also a more particular accompt whereof in due season may be given as occasion is ministred to the shame and everlasting contempt of the persecutors whose names must rot 1641 1642 But can it be forgotten how they in former dayes persecuted imprisoned indicted arraigned and bound to good behaviour the people called Puritans and Sectaries
but why doth he call it his Lecture but because for hire he preacheth it and so the hire of about 24 l. a year being his he calls it his Lecture But was it not good counsel she gave the people namely to beware of him that by him they might not be deceived Let the Reader but consider and justly weigh what himself gives forth from pag. 51. to pag. 55. and he may easily see how needful and necessary it was for her that knew him well to give such warning being thereunto moved for if a man will take upon him to be a Preacher and a leader of others who hath not received the Spirit of God to open and reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God nor to comfort refresh drooping souls nor to strengthen and encourage them with boldness to do and suffer for God to purge purifie cleanse sanctifie and make them holy and fruitful and grow in grace and fill them with meekness and love and make them spiritual and unite them together and to adorn them with spiritual gifts and grace nor to fill them with a spirit of faith and prayer yea if he hath not received that spirit without which he can do nothing well how exceeding needful is it that people be warned thereof and how great is the love of the Lord in giving them warning in time for what can any soul receive from such a blind unholy unsanctified Ministry that can do nothing well except it be by it to be led into the ditch and caused to wander in the dark and blind paths of deceit and delusion towards death and destruction which is your own words to the Reader And if Thomas Ewins be not the man whose condition this is and hath published himself so under his own hand let the sober Reader judg and so Mary Prince is clear of the blood of them that received not warning and Thomas Ewins his accusations turn heavily on his own head but her they cannot reach who hath delivered her own soul by giving them warning And whereas he saith I tell in my Letter I was warned from invisible lights to beware of him and that by visible light he discerned his speaking was but little acceptable to me and others after he began to oppose though before he was the excellentest man that ever I met with I say what high and excellent thoughts he had of himself may be perceived and because he accounted himself so excellent 't is like he perswades himself that I accounted him so too in which he is mistaken for I was so far from it that himself declares that his speaking had so little acceptation with me and others that we were observed often to go out of the meeting when he was to speak which is an absolute lye too though by reason of his flattering daubing and deceit there might be cause enough and grief it is to see men of corrupt minds to oppose the truth And for several years his preaching and devining to me appeared so dry and empty like other of the worlds Teachers that is was truly a grief and burthen to me to sit under it And for what he speaks of my saying I was warned from invisible lights to beware of him it is a visible lye in which he is too much exercised and no such word was published by me but that I was long since warned from invisible sights or manifestations to beware of him is true something of whose woful condition was then manifested and may be accomplished towards which he hastens apace But his enmity and hatred against the light which is the glory of Gods Israel is such that he cannot but belye it And to him I say that which God hath prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles hath discovered and manifested him no Preacher nor Minister of Christ but a persecutor of the life and power of God And in the day of his distress and anguish which is coming from afar in which the men of war shall not find their hands but weep bitterly in which the strong shall be as tow and all hands be weak and all knees be feeble and all faces gather paleness in which our God shall roar out of Sion and utter his terrible voice from his holy Temple before which all the earth shall tremble in which the Lords salvation shall be manifested for his people in the destruction of all his enemies I say in that day which is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty cometh shall he see and know that by the same spirit of Prophesie which was of old in the Prophets and holy men and promised in this day to be poured out upon sons and daughters is hiâ— condition seen and known and of it hath he been truly warned And that it is not for nought that the Lord hath sent his servants in his dread and power to warn the wicked though they turn not from their wicked wayes And also that it is not for nought that those servants of the Lord that stands in his counsel and receive his will from whom God hides not the things he is about to do in the world have not loved their lives unto the death but given their backs to the smiters and their cheeks to them that pull of the hair nor hid themselves from shame and suffering for their reward is before them and their God is with them whose acceptable day to them is manifested though the Aegyptians cannot see it glory to his name for evermore And whereas he tells of his success and prosperousness in his work and the large room he hath got in the peoples hearts since I left him and the use he is of to the desolate Church I say in his work of deceiving souls doth he prosper among you more then whilst I was there to withstand his daubing work who now leads captive a company of silly people laden with sins and lusts enough who hath none to withstand him or tell how long and woe for you was the day in which the Lord left you to such a guide in whose hearts that which makes desolate hath room enough and is of use to lead on towards perdition which is the work of that which is neither called constituted nor ordained to minister for God And now Thomas Ewins whereas in thy conclusion thou sayest thou expectest many sharp arrows of bitter words to be shot at thee both by me and others and that thou matterest it not much having written in plainness words of truth and soberness rather for vindication of the truth then of thy self c. I say Thou hast sorely mist in both and hast written lyes falshood and confusion as is plainly proved to thy own shame and for it must thou come to judgement and no veil of deceit can hide or cover thee And that which I do is plainly to lay it open and manifest it that thou mayest blush and be ashaâ—ed without shooting
keep the whole Law for to say we are bound to one Ceremony of the Law and not to others is no reasonable thing for saith he we are bound to all or to none And so he goes on shewing how our Priests were one with the Pharisees leaving off the ceremonies of the Law keeping onely the Commandement of Tythes And how plain it is that Christ was a Priest after the order of Melchisedech of the Tribe of Judah not of Levi and gave no new Commandement of Tything any thing to him and his Priests And when his Disciples said We have left all to follow thee what shall we have He did not say Tythes shall be paid you and that since neither by the Commandement of Christ nor his Apostles people were to pay Tythes it is saith he manifest and plain that neither by the Law of Christ nor of Moses Christian people are bound to pay Tythes but by the traditions of men c. The like testmony is born again Tythes by that valiant Martyr William Thrope of whom the Reader may read more at large in the foresaid Book of Martyrs where the largeness of his testimony the greatness of his sufferings and the resolution of his spirit for the Lord against the Priests and Tythes as well as swearing is recorded in p. 693. It appears he was accused to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the men of Shrovesbury for saying 1. That the Sacrament after consecration was bread 2. That Images should in no wise be worshipped 3. That men should not go on pilgrimage 4. That Priests have no title to Tythes 5. That it is not lawful to swear in any wise And in pag. 700. the Archbishop accuseth him for deeming holy Church to have erred in the Ordinance of Tythes and other duties to be paid to Priests To which Thrope answers That Tythes were given to Levites and Priests by the old Law that came of the linage of Levi but our priests came not of that linage and that Christ all the time of his preaching lived by pure alms and so did the Apostles by his example or by the travel of their hands and that every priest that Christ approveth knows that the Disciple is not to be above his Lord c. Upon which said the Archbishop Gods curse have thou and mine for this teaching c. To which Thrope answered in the words of one of their Doctors which he supposed was St. Jerome That those priests that now under the new Law do challenge Tythes do in effect say that Christ is not become man nor suffered death And also that since Tythes were the wages limited to Levites and priests of the old Law for bearing about the Tabernacle slaying of beasts and other observations pertaining to their Office those priests that now challenge or take Tythes deny that Christ is come in the flesh and do the office of the old Law or else they take Tythes wrongfully Upon which the Archbishop said They inforce people to expugne the freedom of holy Church To which Thrope answers Why call ye the taking of Tythes and other duties that now priests challenge wrongfully the freedom of holy Church Since neither Christ nor his Apostles challenged nor took such duties and therefore saith he all such giving and taking ought to be called and holden the slaverous covetousness of men c. And when the Archbishop demanded why he did not speak against Lords Knights and Esquires as well as against priests he declares that since Chrysostom saith that Priests are the stomack of the people and since by the vitiousness of the Priests both Lords and Commons are most sinfully infected and because the pride and covetousness of priests and the boast they make of their dignity and power destroyes not onely the vertue of priesthood in priests themselves but stirreth up God to take vengeance both on Lords and Commons that suffer them it 's needful saith he to be busie about them Famous Wickliff also bears testimony against Tythes priests c. who as the History declares had by his doctrin born so large a testimony against the proud covetous oppressing generation of priests and persecutors in his days that they greatly persecuted him whilst he lived but by the power and wisdom of God was preserved to dye in his bed and so not being able to reach his life they proceeded to judgement and condemnation of his Books and certain articles they had collected against him some of which were that he held that Tythes or tenths are pure alms and that the parishoners may for offence of their Curate detain and keep them back and bestow them on others at their own will and pleasure and that the priests are bound to get their living by the labour of their hands and he that gives any alms to them is accursed or in danger thereof against whom the rage of the persecutors was such that 41. years after his death they digged up his bones and burned them Much more might be mentioned of these and others of the Martyrs and holy men of God who in their several times suffered grievously manifold torments and miseries and loved not their lives unto the death bearing testimony for the Lord against the corruption in doctrine and practice of the priesthood of England and particularly against Tythes and swearing at all And should I but mention all that is there recorded and how they suffered imprisonment yea death it self bearing testimony against swearing upon a book and swearing at all in any case in any wise by the creature or by the Creator and against Tythes and covetous wickednesse of priests Curates and Vicars time would fail me and what I have said may suffice for a taste And by it may Richard Fowler and his Elders be tryed yea may try themselves in whose steps they are and whether they are one with the Saints and Martyrs of God who were evilly entreated imprisoned and persecuted by the wicked generation for not swearing at all and withstanding the payment of Tythes oblations and dues claimed by priests or else one with the priests and persecutors that murthered the Saints spoyling and imprisoning those that stood faithful to God testifying against such evil things and whether it is not as deep hypocrisie in them outwardly to seem to approve the Martyrs and condemn their persecutors whilst themselves are doing the same things as it was for the priests and Elders Scribes and pharisees that murthered Christ and persecuted his Saints that then were alive to approve the prophets and condemn their persecutors saying Had we been in the dayes of our Fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets c. And whether in honesty Richard Fowler and his people ought not to deny and disclaim the Martyrs and justifie their persecutors or else repent and own the shame of their present practices which by the testimony of Martyrs is condemned And if Richard Fowler thinking to excuse himself shall pretend