And pag 43. by way of reproach Thou saist it because the Scripture saith it Nay do they not in page 90 of the same book answer to the second querie call the letter of the Scripture dust And calls him Serpent for asserting the word preacht as the means of Faith Serpent like saith he thou feedest upon dust And in the next page Answer to the fourth query All thy hearing and all thy pratling of that which thou callest the word by it thou shalt never get Faith which is the gift of God but it is all the Serpents meat which feeds thee thou serpent which art curst above all the beasts of the field And do not they say page 104 of that book Answer to querie the thirtieth That their giving forth of papers or printed books it is from the immediate eternal Spirit of God And then what difference between their stinking rotten blasphemous papers and the sacred Scriptures Yea to make up the measure of their blasphemie do they not say the same spirit which gave forth the Scriptures which gives forth now is as true as the Scriptures and not contrary to the Scriptures The charge being against them for magnifying papers equal to the holy Scriptures what damnable hypocrites are these to say they establish the Scriptures If we take their words in every honest mans sense But what mean these hypocrites then in saying they establish and they confirm and they witness the Scriptures Why forsooth it pleaseth their Godship and Christship or rather devilship to speak from their eternal spirit in the Scripture language and so add their Authority to it as the Papists The Scriptures are but as Aesops Fables with them if not allowed of and confirmed by the authority of their Church Or else they establish it by asserting it to be within them in the power of it For I would allow them all fair interpretation But I pray are not the Scriptures truth and the written and sacred Word of God in themselves whether man doth believe or entertain them yea or no Doth mans believing them make them the Word of God more then they were before It s true as to his comfort or advantage that receives them not to him they are not as the Word of God But in themselves they are and will be though all men in the world reject them They speak lies therefore in hypocrisie in saying they establish the word But further to discover their lying hypocrisie they speak not forsooth from the letter of the Scripture i. not as taught by or from the letter i. what they get by reading of the Scripture in the letter No though the Scripture had never been written they could have spoken as they do from and by the eternal and immediate and infallible spirit But oh ye hypocrites I 'le ask you a question did our English Translators of the Scriptures teach the eternal Spirit to speak English Or if you would speak without lying Did you never read the Scripture in our English translation that you speak the very words for the most part except your canting language from Jacob Behmen as the straying of Eves minde and lust into the visibles and being redeemed out of the perishing nature and such like stuffe will any man believe that the spirit which gives the gift of utterance and expression could not have spoken the same truths in other English As every one knows may be done and yet keep the same sense and truth But it must pedantically teach you like school-boys to speak so by rote Fye for shame It smels leave your hypocritical lying and do not so poorly and basely belye the spirit and speak against that light which is within you But once more and a little further to this what leads your Holiness forth to speak in Scripture language Is it not hypocrite-like that thereby you might catch poor simple plain-hearted people in your snares who having a due and reverent esteem of the Scriptures you allure by pretences of establishing the Scripture to insinuate those poisonous doctrines which I have before discovered you to be guilty of As for Antichrists other two Doctrines of forbidding to marry and abstaining from meats I shall not now prosecute I may speak of that when I shall a little open the effects of their teachings But before I speak to that I shall but suggest my apprehensions of the end these men may have in their undertakings and on whose errand they are come I will present them and leave them to thy judgement They may come in their own Anti-christs or the Devils errand First they may come in their own to cheat the people of the money and this hypocritical lying too For though they raile upon Ministers as Preaching for hire which who so doth let him answer for himself yet they themselves do teach That where they have planted and sown there they may reap Which in plain English is this Those whom they have seduced they may take money of and whether they do or no time will discover Sure I am they have necessary supplies for nature which some able Ministers have not and no doubt a large Diocess which these ramble over will yield more then any particular Parish And they plead hard for Community for in their Answer to the seven Priests page 22. whereas it seems they had charged them with reading for it The Quakers there answer and say Here you are against the Spirit of life For say they they that did believe were of one heart and they that do believe are born of God and amongst such there was no oppressor no taskmaster and it s said all things were common and no man said this is my own And conclude thus You who are not come to Christs Doctrine who is not come to give your coat yet who hath two you we deny So that though they come not for money before-hand they can take it afterwards and though with the Fryars they may not touch money they have a poak in their sleeve into which if you put it some can take it out and know what to doe with it So that this may be one end of their coming Secondly they may come upon Anti-Christs errand and not much improbable for Lancashire and those parts is as famous for Papists as Witches and on good grounds we may conceive them to be Anti-Christs factors if we consider their doctrins For any intelligent Reader may easily discover the doctrines of Vniversal grace Free-will Satisfaction by our own sufferings Justification by inherent holiness Ability to keep the Law Perfection Nulling the Doctrine of Original sin and the Popish real presence All which with some other things I intended particularly to evidence from their writings but I fear being too large There are many other wretched opinions of theirs worse then the Papists which others have discovered from other of their writings which I have not seen and I leave it to others who have more strength and leisure if they
one Yet are we to understand this union to be onely in a way of relation through participation of the same Spirit and this dwelling to be onely in respect of grace and powerful operation and influence working in the hearts of believers according to the tenor of the New Covenant in making men holy and humble purifying their hearts causing them to walk in all good conscience towards God and man all which by them is trampled under foot and another kind of union and indwelling driving at in their discourses which although covertly expressed until by craft and subtilty they have prepared the hearts of simple and unstable souls to receive whatsoever they shall suggest unto them yet then is openly discovered being indeed the root of all bitternesse and desperate prophanenesse and blasphemy that can be imagined in the world for from thence they conclude that themselves are God and Christ and what God is they are and what they are God is for say they there is no spirit but one and so deny any created Angel or Spirit holding upon the same account the living soul in man to be uncreated and so consequently to be God himself and not created by God Now this being the ground-work of their delusion the building is answerable For first concluding the reasonable soul to be God Secondly they affirm that this soul being cloathed with their humane bodies or flesh is Christ or God in flesh hereupon they imagine that Jesus Christ spoken of in the Gospel as being born of the Virgin Mary accused by the Jews delivered by Pilate to be crucified dying at Ierusalem upon the Crosse rising the third day and ascending into Heaven is only to be understood Parabolically or Figuratively speaking of one thing and intending another pointing at and prefiguring a work only within us conceiving the Virgin Mary the Iewes Pilate Ierusalem the Crosse Christ rising and ascending spoken of in the Scriptures to be all within them and no such thing substantially or in truth without As they conclude all things spoken of Christ to be but in a Typical or Figurative manner intending and typifying out this God within or God incarnate in their flesh still meaning their reasonable souls conceiving this to be the substance of all those shadows so also upon this ground they are forced to conclude the whole New Testament with all the Doctrines Laws Rules and Administrations of the same to be but a shadow or figure holding forth a substance within As for instance Moses and Aaron being but figures of the substantial Saviour and Priest to come so the administrations of Moses as Mosaical were but fleshly and carnal administrations to be abolished when the substance was come they being only shadows of good things to come in like manner do they understand Christ in his Person to be but a shadow of Christ within and all his heavenly and spiritual Gospel to be but a letter and carnal History put to an end and abolished when they once come to apprehend that the substance of all is within they coming also to believe that the soul is God do thence infer that they are perfect and that they are in an happy estate as can be for this they urge 1 Cor. 15. 24. to the 28 verse to shew when the Kingdome is delivered up to the Father and then Christ ceaseth his Mediatorship and consequently all his New Testament ceaseth Now they conclude that all this is accomplished when they come to discern there is but one Spirit and their soul that Spirit which is God and then they are in the possession of all things And seeing that the Scripture declares that before our full possession of God and glory there must be a temporal death and resurrection of the body and eternal judgment they upon the former grounds judging themselves already glorified do understand this death of the body in all such Scriptures mystically and that the resurrection and eternal judgement are passed already in the soul as Hymeneus and Philetus did 2 Tim. 2. 18. compared with 1 Tim. 1. 19. Thence also they conclude that faith and justification by Christ together with all the Ordinances of Christ are abolished as fleshly forms like unto Christ that appointed them above and without all which they triumphantly in their own fancies live when they once have attained this supereminent life as they spâ—ak as being in the full fruition of God comprehending that infinite being which they blasphemously affirm themselves to do intruding themselves into things they are altogether ignorant of Hereupon it is that they as Peter saith scoffe at any second coming of Christ 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. and mock at the holy Scriptures those heavenly Oracles of God denying them to be the Word of God or that Law by which they ought to confirm their lives conceiving and uttering that there is no Law nor Rule but what is in man his light being his only Law that is to say whatever that spirit that dwelleth within which they call God within dictates to them that ought to be done by them strengthning themselves with this opinion that there is no sin but what contradicts a mans own light which is a mans only Law and sinne is onely sin to him that thinks it so and that there is no Hell but that torment that men sustain through crossing their own light which God knows is nothing but thick darknesse And then they proceed to discover the wretched effect of this damnable doctrine in the unclean lives and conversations of the followers of them which by the practises spoken against I apprehend to be intended against the Ranters that abominable crew of Religious Villains pardon the expression And I confesse these practises are the most natural issue of those opinions and doe most freely flow from them especially from the tail or hinder part on 't But when I had read some of the Quakers papers I found them building upon the same foundation and making use of the same principles and materials And I could not but observe the artifice and skill of Satan like a cunning workman employing the same stuffe to several outwardly seeming ends and purposes but in the effect and issue the same viz. destruction which is his proper work and busines for the Ranters make use of them to boulster up themselves in all manner of lusts and sensuality without scruple of conscience And the Quakers improve them to seeming holinesse and mortification to secure themselves in a proud humility which not repented of casts down to Hell as readily as the former And here Reader let 's make a stand awhile and consider what saist thou Is not here a mysterie of iniquity Is not here the head of the Serpent that old Serpent that deceived our first Parents in Paradise to the fall and what in him lay utter ruine of all mankind And is not this the tail of that great red Dragon that draws and casts down a third part of the starres of
as it is made manifest in me and to declare what Faith we own and practise and what we do deny to that end that the simple may be informed and the way of truth cleered from such deceivers who are perverters of the Scriptures who would constrain people to follow their imaginations instead of truth as these men have done whose names are subscribed And now a few words in answer to that you call your first Principle First Principle That the Scripture is the rule of knowing God and living unto him which whoso doth not believe but betakes himself to any other way of discovering God instead thereof cannot be saved Answ The Scriptures are not the Saints rule of knowing God and living unto him but that which was before the Scriptures were written by which all the holy men of God knew him and here ye have made your selves manifest that ye have not the rule which Moses had which is the spirit of light by which he made himself known unto the sons of men and ye that teach people to walk in another rule are those that put light for darkness and darkness for light shewing forth the spirit of error and here ye pervert the Scripture and Moses words which prophesied of Christ Moses bad not the people walk by the Scripture neither did he tell them that living therein was the rule of knowing God but he directed them to the Life without which all their profession was abominable but ye are not come to walk in the Letter whose lips and practice doth not concord with it who are found acting those things which it declares against Matth. 23. who are called of men Master stand praying in the Synagogues which our Lord Jesus Christ cryed wo against and here your Faith and your Principle is descryed who are not so much as found acting in that which you call your rule Now lest you should boast in your glory and the simple be stumbled by your subtilty I am moved of the Lord to open and discover unto all that your Faith is no more then all the ungodly in this Nation doth profess and also that the Rule whereby the Saints are guided is that which was before the Scripture was First it is professed generally in this Nation that believing in the Scriptures is the rule of knowing God this have you preached for Doctrine among the people and yet the way of God is hidden from their eys who are found acting in the abominations of the Heathen as doth plainly appear by the sins of this people nay what sin is there that is not committed amongst this people which have professed the Scripture to be their rule and you that pretend to be their teachers are the greatest examples of their wicked practices Crying peace peace unto them when there is no peace one building a wall and another dawbing it with untempered morter but ye shall proceed no further but your folly shall be made manifest to all men Our rule is that whiâ—h Moses walked in and Abraham and David and all the Prophets which is Christ Jesus the light of the world which whosoever believeth not in him hath not God Moses walked in him Abraham believed in him and David delighted in his Law which is perfect and here we deny you who deny that rule in which the holy men of God walked in Second Principle That there is a God who is the Creator and Judge and Governor of the world and is to be known by Faith Answ The Saints God ye are ignorant of who put light for darkness and darkness for light and before him ye cannot stand in judgement who are found working wickedness making people believe that believing in a thing without them will bring them to the knowledge of God which none can know or understand but through death and if ever ye come to know this God whom the Saints worship in Spirit and Truth ye must witness a day of vengeance to pass through therefore stop your mouths ye proud and lustful ones the day of recompence is come in which ye shall receive double for all your wickedness The Lord is our Iudge our Law-giver and our King and this we witness though we had never seen the Scripture And here we deny you and your principles which is no more than that which the world professeth Therefore be ye ashamed ye wicked and ungodly ones who live in the beastly nature who knows no more of God than what ye have without in the Scriptures which they spoke forth that witnessed him before the Scriptures were written him we own and witness to be our King by him we are redeemed out of your generation glory to his name for ever who hath made himself manifest in us and hath brought us to that which was before the Scripture was Third Principle That this God who is Creator is eternally distinct from all other Creatures in his being and blessedness Ans God ye know not neither can ye see him but are found persecutors of him who would divide him from what he is by heathenish inventions which ariseth out of the corrupt sensual part which never shall inherit the Kingdom The being of God is not distinct from them that are begotten by him For as the Father and the Son are one without distinction so are they that are begotten by him and here you perverters of the truth are shut forth from God with all your distinctions and imaginations which ariseth out of the dark mind by which ye have all this while deceived the people Woe unto you ye enemies of God your foundation your compass and your end is made manifest unto the children of light who would divide God from his children whom he hath begotten unto himself through the word of faith in which we live and abide for ever And here I challenge you before the Lord to produce one Scripture which speaks of God being distinct from them that are begotten by him and if you cannot prove your words by plain Scripture let shame cover your faces and stop your mouthes for ever And for your fourth thing That God is three persons or substances this is also another of your lies never such a word is declared of in Scripture and thus have you made your folly manifest to all men and have cleared your selves from the Scriptures God is a mystery in whom the foundation of all things stands and he is but one in all though ten thousand times ten thousand Woe unto ye you perverters of the truth who blinds the eyes of the simple making them believe your imaginations and conceivings in stead of truth and this you run to the powers of the earth to propagate Ye men of sin did ever the Prophets declare of such Gospel as this or did ever the Apostles preach any such doctrine as this which ye would compel people to believe and would have the powers of the earth to propagate Here I challenge you again to prove your example
then whom none is more true more faithfull there 's a sure foundation a rock vnmoveable And then know further No truthe's thine own till thou art got up into the power of it And that thou square thy beliefe and life accordingly The onely way to be establisht against error and heresie As for the Mysterie of Ungodlinesse concerning it I shall give thee directions when thon commest unto it It is meet the mystery of Godlinesse should have the first place that it might take the first possession of thee as a season against the poysons of heresie and ungodlinesse And then the more full the discovery the more thou wilt abhor and avoid it This is the aime of my labour which end if I shall attaine I shall rejoyce In hope whereof I commend my labours to thee And thee and them to him who a lone is able to make all profitable Alwaies remaining Thy faithfull friend in the service of the Gospel of that Jesus Christ which dyed at Jerusalem above sixteen hundred years agoe R A. FARMER ERRATA Reader I Am to beg thy favourable excuse in regard of some errors in the printing My desire was that the Title at the head of every page should have run thus sc The great Mysterie of Godliness to the first part which extends to page 18. And the Great Mysterie of Ungodliness from thence to the end The Title The great Mysterie of Godliness and Ungodliness being intended only for the Title-Page There are some other faults in not observing full stops And new Sections marginal notes and quotations of Scriptures transposed and disordered in the first The Mysterie of Godliness which though they alter not the sense in the body of the Discourse yet they hinder the advantage that might be made by those who would examine the quotations This may possibly occasion a new impression of that part by it selfe which is but little And therefore in the mean time need not much trouble thee Some Errata which may alter the sense I have observed which I intreat thee to correct with thy pen ere thou read In the Epistle Dedicatory Page 1. line last but one r. Genius p. 2. l. 14. r. a breath p. 3. l. 9. r. But because l. 10. dele you I excuse my own misnaming at the end my self Epistle to the Reader P. 1. l. 5. r. without an Apology l. 6. for pay r. paper p. 2. l. 10. r. briefly l. 11. r. try In the Book Pa 1. l. 14. r. goodly l. 19. for observe r. subserve ib. for Ministry r. Mysterie p. 2. l. 8. dele if l. 9. for tie r. tree l. 27. r. into l. 33. after these words perversness of spirit add proneness to all manner of evil p. 3. l. 14. r. continue p. 4. margin note at the bottom for of faith by nature r. of both by nature p. 5. l. 17. dele the word all l. 35. dele fig. 1. ib. margin r. shut up as in a prison p. 8. l. 9. r. when p. 9. l. 23. dele to read that he might break p. 1. Mar. dele new sect p. 12. l. 15. for are three r. three are p. 13. l. 11. for inheris r. enter l. 27. for this r. these p. 14. l. 31. r. that though where p. 15. l. 26. dele is p. 16. l. 37. exercises p. 18. l. 10. r. freely l. 13. r. differing p. 2. l. 3 r. They are l. 21. for waders r. Readers l. 36. r. proposed l. 37. r. as their usual l. 39. for cry r. say p. 23. l. 6 for for r. to l 9. dele thou l. 10. dele the interrogative points read perceive them l. 11. for such r. thing l. 6. after old add foundations p. 24. l. â—5 for powerful r. wonderful l. 36. for works r. marks l. 39. for within r. which in p. 30. l. 31. r. these p. 32. l. 7. for this r. h s. l. 29. r. give you in here p. 34. l. 6. r. proposes p. 59. l. 9. for flesh r. flash l. 22. dele yea l. 26. r. naturally p. 71. l. 11. for law r. light p. 76. l. 13. r. hypocritically l. 24. for reading r. pleading p. 88. l. 35. for an unknown r. one unclean The great Mystery of Godlinesse and Ungodlinesse 1 Tim. 3. 16. Without controversie great is the Mystery of godlinesse God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory THe eternal invisible only wise God Father Son and holy spirit who only hath immortality dwelling in that light which no man can approach unto and which no man hath seen or can see and live who being the Authour and beginner of all things orders disposes all things as their end for his own glory This mighty God intending to make his power and god-head and glory known in the beginning of time created the godly frame of Heaven and Earth as a place wherein to manifest much of that glory And having made the Angels creatures of an intellectual spiritual and so of an invisible nature alwayes to stand before him ready to obey and execute his Commands as ministring spirits to observe and bring about this great Ministry intended made also other creatures to dwell upon the earth of a grosse and bodily substance subject unto the eye of sense and subservient also to this great design of his immortal glory And last of all as the abridgement and compendium of the whole Creation and the choycest piece os his workmanship by whom he would be most glorified he makes man consisting of a soul an immortal and spiritual nature to serve him as an Angel in a spiritual manner and of a body a grosse and visible substance to serve and honour him above and beyond other Creatures Angels and bruit Beasts in a visible and outward way of worship And to that end endowed him with his own blessed Image of righteousnesse holinesse and excellent knowledge and gave him also soveraignty and dominion over the rest of the visible Creation all things being made subservient to him By which means he was eminently qualified for special communion with and enjoyment of his Creator The whole man being in a sweet frame of holy conformity unto his soveraigns will by obedience whereunto he might have been everlastingly blessed and happy Now the Lord having made man in this estate of honour to make way for his own glory in and by this great Mystery of Godlinesse leaves him in the hand of his own counsel under a strict Command of not eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil with a kind of a Covenant and condition of everlasting life upon obedience to it And if the contrary upon the breach and disobedience of it Which tie and the Command concerning it was as a
reverence be it spoken must acquit the man though in himself ungodly for payment being made satisfaction given by the surety it is but just that the debtor be acquitted and discharged shall not the judge of all the world do right yea God is just and will declare his righteousnesse by justifying him that believeth in Jesus Now God the Father having thus reconciled the world unto himself by Christ for the farther carrying on of this work commits the ministery and service of this reconciliation to his Apostles and Ministers in their successive generations who as Heralds and Ambassadors authorized and commissionated by him should publish and in his na e preach the glad tydings of salvation this everlasting Gospell And to let all men even the Gentiles see what hope there is of their fellowship and participation of the blessings and benefits of this mysterie of godlinesse which from the begining of the world have bin hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ no nation people or person being now excluded or shut out the partition wall of Jewish ordinances being broken down and both Jew Gentile bond and free male and female all may come drink freely of that well of salvation which Christ hath opened for all persons that will come unto him whereof for his part he is so free being no niggard of his blood and merits that he intreats all to come and partake of And by his servants making a full tender of himself as Priest Prophet and King to all that will receive him And to as many as thus receive him giving them right power and just claime to become the sons of God and heires of the kingdome which he had purchased But now man by his fall being dead in the dark yea darknesse it self and so in his natural state and blindness unable to receive and comprehend this glorious and gracious mysterie of being righteous by anothers righteousness and of being saved by anothers sufferings all men Jewes and Gentiles doting and being fruitlesly set upon seeking life and happiness by their own doings and performances Therefore together with the revelation of this mysterie by the ministry of his servants sent for that purpose Christ over and above that common work of the Spirit by which he enlightens every man that comes into the world gives unto those who are given him of the Father and who are to be called according to the eternal decree and purpose which he purposed in himself and whereby he surely knowes those that are and shal be his to them he gives a mind and understanding to know him and to receive him and to be in him and to be one with him who is the true God and eternal life And now a believer having Christ who is eternal life hath eternal life in and by Christ whereas those who thus have him not sc by believing have not eternal life because what in them lies they make God a liar not entertaining and closing with that testimony and record that he gave of his son which was that in him he was well pleased not onely with him for so he could not but be in justice forhe had never offended him But in him he was well pleased being in mercy and loving kindnes satisfied for the sins of all those who come unto God by him who therefore are received as sons and daughters by free grace and adoption And now that those who thus believe in Christ might have the witness in themselvs of their Sonship because they are sons God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts whereby they are imboldned to call upon God as Sons crying Abba Father being thereunto the more imboldned because by the same Spirit they are sealed and marked out unto the day of redemption And which is given to them as a pledge and earnest in hand for an assurance to them of their full inheritance when their adoption and son-ship shall be compleated by the redemption of their bodies from the power of Corruption as now their soules are from the reign and power of sin The same spirit also in the meane time leading them into all saving truth comforting them in all their troubles and helping them in all their infirmities And thus hath a Believer in himself the testimony both of blood and of the spirit witnessing to and with his spirit that he is a son and child of God But then as there are three in Heaven that bear record and give testimony to this great mysterie of godliness sc The Father the word the holy Ghost So there are must be three witnesses on earth i. The heart of a true believer before the work can be compleated which are three the Spirit Blood and Water For Christ came not by blood alone for justification nor by water onely for sanctification but by water and blood both which Sacramentally flowed forth from his precious body when he hung upon the Crosse a Sacrifice for our redemption thereby shewing forth the end of his suffering viz. both the justification sanctification of his people And therefore he that hath not the witness testim within himself of all three hath not the witness of either he whose heart conscience cannot witnes to him his faith believing in that blood of Christ shed for his justification cannot have the witness of this blood as water for cleanâ—ing and sanctification For Christ sanctifies none but whome he justifies he whose heart cannot witnes to him his faith operating on the blood of Christ as water for sanctification canot have the testimony of blood and his interest in it for justification For Christ justifies none but he also sanctifies the n. And he that hath not the testimony and witnesse in himself of his intrest in blood and water for justification sanctification cannot have the testimony and witnesse of the spirit sealing for these three agree in one all beare witness to one the same truth sc Christs comming dying to redeeme us from sin and all iniquity both in the guilt and in the filth of it both from the condemnation and from the domination of sin For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teacheth us that denying ungodlinesse and world y lusts we shâ—ud live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar and choice people zealous of good works And for asmuch as no uncleane person can enter into the Kingdome of Heaven where the inheritance is For know ye
charge to the Pastors of the Church at Ephesus and let me give thee it here in his owne words what hee gave forth to his Sonne Timothy and then I shall proceed to out businesse intended I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his Kingdome preach the Word not immediate revelations be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine for the time will come and it is now when they shall not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables immediate revelations contrary to and divers from the Word which he was to Preach but watch thou in all things endure afflictions do the work of an Evangelist or a Gospel-Preacher make full proof of thy Ministry And now having thus discovered to thee the head body and tail of this mysterie of ungodlinesse I shall lay the same part by part member by member and limb by limb upon the Quakers and make them as the image of the first Beast appear acting in and by the same power I â—peak in their own Dialect And to this purpose I shall give you in two papers of the Quakers own publishing which I caused herewith to be Printed which I rather do because their Books do mostly come to the hands of their own parties and are not therefore so common to all especially these two which I have taken most notice of and would have well considered that you may know these men and their spirit when it shall be tried For we will try their spirits whether they will or no And by the written word even in the letter which for all their sleightings of it hath light enough to discover their darknesse and hypocrisie and by it we will judge them and they shall be judged and if they repent not for all their pretensions to perfection they shall be condemned for God and his Word his written Word shall be true when all opposers shall be found liars Possibly other of their Books are as base as these for the truth is I have not read many of them as not thinking it worth the while but one of these the largest I took more notice of because penn'd or published in the name of two of those that were here in this City and did seduce the people These two which my self with others of my brethren in the Ministry had conference with before the Maior and Aldermen of which conference I hear they bray highly to their disciples But I find it observed by others that have had to doe with these kind of men that 't is their usual practise and as holy and perfect as they seem to be they can brag and lie abominably say and unsay affirm and deny even presently as some of good credit can witnesse And as for that Conference I leave it to be judged and censured by most that were present and shall proceed to the thing intended But before I present these papers to thee let me intreat thee take some directions for thy more profitable reading of them First consider whether the Queries opposed to these Quakers be not of highest concernment in Religion and so whether they deserve not a sober and serious answer Secondly observe whether they be answered to at all any of them yea or no. Thirdly do but take notice how in stead of answering they doe evade and avoid answering not so much as in shew doing it Fourthly do but take notice of the spirit of the men whether they speak from the Spirit of the holy God when in stead of giving a sober and solid answer they rail upon and revile the Querist with hellish and opprobrious speech Lastly do but observe their Heretical opinions which for thy better and more ready observation I have directed to be Printed in a differing character ANSWERS TO SEVERAL QVERIES Put forth to the despised People called QVAKERS By Philip Bennett who calls himself a Minister of Christ but is found to be a Deceiver Answered by them to whom they were directed ALSO ANSWERS To several other subtil QUERIES c. Answered by Edward Burrough and Francis Howgil who are Witnesses unto the Truth against this subtil serpent-like generation LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the black spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1654. ANSVVERS To severall Queries put forth to the despised people called QVAKERS We having received a paper which was directed to Rich. Roper and to his Quaking friend which words comes from the dark carnal mind quaking and trembling which the Saints and holy men of God witnessed we own and witnesse therefore do we deny thee and all thy dark divinations WHereas thou Philip Bennet in thy note which thou hast written to Roper in answer to a Letter which he wrote to thee wherein he charges thee to be a liar and a false accuser and charges thee to bring any man to witness what thou hast spoken by them whom thou sayes denied that Christ that died at Jerusalem and who they were that denied that Christ that suffered at Jerusalem or else acknowledge thy self to be a slanderer and in thy paper thou gives no answer at all to these words but says thou called the Congregation to witness but doth not mention one in all the Congregation that will witnesse it whereupon the lie rests upon thy head and thou found to be the liar and the slanderer and the false accuser And whereas thou says thou hast sent Queries concerning that matter thy Queries makes thee manifest what thou art many of thy own tribe and generation if they saw thy Queries would be ashamed both of thee and of thy Queries for hundreds there are in the world that knows nothing of the true and living God and yet would see thee and thy Queries not to be worth answering yet lest thou should boast in thy filthy ignorance and darknesse and for clearing of the truth to the simple something in answer to them I. Quer. Whether was the Word made flesh or the Son of God made of a woman more or oftner then once Answ In this first Querie thou hast manifested what thou art to all the children of Light and where thou art and what spirit thou art of a reprobate a child of darkness thou art thou might have spared the other nineteen Queries for in this Query thy spirit is tried and in the eternal Light seen and known Thou askes whether the Word was made flesh any more or oftner then once which makes it plainly manifest that thou knows not what thou askest and that thou doest not know nor cannot witnesse the Word to be made flesh once but art one of the Antichrists and deceivers which John speaks of that are entred into the world which cannot confesse Jesus Christ come in the flesh and therefore thou Queries
by Scripture and where ever the holy men of God did divide him into three substances And if ye refuse to prove the same I proclaim as in the presence of the Lord that ye are perverters of the Scriptures and of the right way of the Lord and your propagating the Gospel and your principles are accursed from God having no example in Scripture Fifth Principle The fifth is That Christ is the Mediator between God and man without the knowledge of whom there is no salvation Answ Him we witness made manifest in us who is the Mediator but what have you to do to speak of his name or profess his words who are found in the steps of the Scribes Pharisees that put him to death who are called of men Master have uppermost rooms at feasts stand praying in the synagogues as they did that Christ cried wo against Math. 23. Thus you are separated from Christ who are not found in his doctrine and are found among the Heathen whom the condemnation is upon and the Scripture bare testimony against you that you are not in the doctrine of Christ but are found to be lyars 1 Joh. 2. â—2 and the acts of your fathers you are found acting And in the sixth you say that Christ is the true God Here you be witnesses against your selves that you divide the Father from the Son who you say is three distinct substances But the Lord will make you manifest ye that blindfold the simple by your subtilty and witchcraft making them believe lyes in stead of truth and would divide that in which there is no division for he that hath the Son hath the Father also This man Christ Jesus who was made with an oath the everlasting covenant the oath of God is not divided from him in whom the foundations stand for without this man Jesus was nothing made and as he was so he is He that hath an ear to hear let him hear And here Sottish minds your imagined God beyond the stars and your carnal Christ which you would make appear through your heathenish Philosophy is utterly denied and testisted against by the light which comes from Christ which ye resist as your forefathers have done And in your seventh Principle ye are laid open 1 Joh. 4. 2. Hereby know we the Spirit of God every spirit that confesseth Christ come in the flesh is of God and this is he that is one with the Father even Jesus Christ the man of God who was given for a covenant but him ye are enemies unto And whereas you say in the eighth that this Christ the man of God is God and Man in one person it is a lye He is not divided from what he was before the foundations of the hills were laid but him ye know not but as ye do imagine and the Heathens do and here you are shut forth from the Scriptures and from Christ and the new man which is witnessed in the sons of God Therefore stop your mouths for ever who would make people believe that believing in those words which are declared from the Life without the same spirit as they had that spoke them forth will bring them to the same knowledg of God And thus in your Ninth you have also shewed forth your ignorance and telling people that Christ hath paid a ransom for sin This is witnessed by the children of light but what have ye to do to take these words into your mouths that never yet came to repentance for sin and if ever you witness him a Redeemer you must witness the vengeance of God which is upon the man of sin But you men of sin who live in your filthiness shall receive your recompence from the hand of the Lord and this ye shall eternally witness whether you will hear or forbear And as for the eleventh that Christ being the onely God and man in one person remains for ever a distinct person from all Saints and Angels notwithstanding their union and communion with him your words are utterly denied and detested and your distinctions are abominable I challenge you from the Lord to prove such a thing in Scripture or else stop your mouths for ever for Christ Jesus is but one in all and not distinct and you that would divide him and them that are begotten by him are enemies unto him As for the twelfth That all men by nature are dead in trespasses and sins this is fulfilled in you and ye shall receive the wages of it ye men of sin whose ungodly practises are laid open and discovered to the children of light who have obtained the victory And I tell you plainly that vengeance of God hangs over your heads and the recompence of God shall be doubled upon you that live in your sins except ye repent ye shall likewise perish And whereas ye say ye are justified and saved by grace ye are they that have turned the grace of God into wantoness and holds the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons as is made manifest by you daily And in your last you say That to continue in any known sin under what pretence soever is damnable Here be you witnesses against your selves that ye are proud and that ye live in the practice of the world which is sin and seek for your gain from your quarters which is sin and the Lord sent his prophets to declare against such and the same woe from God is upon you that act the same things Isa 56. 11. And here your practice and example is found among the false prophets of Israel which the Lord sent his true prophets to declare against which received his word from his own mouth for which they were both persecuted and stoned by your generation which professed that in words which they persecuted in the Saints who witnessed the life and power of what they spake Thus have ye brought shame upon your selves ye deceitful workers who are professing that outwardly in words which ye are enemies to the life of So from the Scriptures ye are razed out and your bottom and foundation is made manifest to the children of light and your deceits are made manifest by them that walk in the light at which you are stumbling as your forefathers did though you profess the words declared from the light Thus have I returned an answer to your confused Paper lest you should boast your selves in your folly and blind the eyes of the simple by your heathenish inventions as ye have formerly done and have laid your shame open unto the simple-minded that they may discover and see your confusion And now a word unto you from whom this Paper was put forth Your spirits and your actings are contrary to the Spirit of Christ as having no example from him not his Apostles for it be ye ashamed and stop your mouthes from professing godliness who are found in the pride and in the wickedness of this world out of which the Ministers of
p. 68. That when the life of Jesus is made manifest the substance of all figures is come there is no more observing them And two lines after they say Who are here in their state denies all the carnal outward observances and traditions And in the 32 page of that book they say speaking of the Ministry that they bewitch men in telling them of carnal meanes and call Ordinances a graven image and an Idol and as for Baptism in particular they say Christ did not send forth his Disciples to sprinkle a little dirty water upon childrens faces as your filthy dreamers do and they say Christ did not mention any water to his Disciples when he sent them forth So that here is no baptism with water at all neither for one nor other and thereupon call it a beastical tradition which was never commanded Truths Defence p. 98. And in the next page being demanded whether Christ did not institute his last supper with bread and wine For answer they tell the Querist The cup which thou drinkest we deny 〈…〉 or thy cup is the cup of devils and thy table is a table of devils which is an idol and an imitation and thy sacrifice is to devils and not to God And as for Prayer I suppose Reader if thou wouldst pray to God for any thing thou wouldst pray to him for Grace but that they say is a tempting of God because the grace of God hath appeared to all men freely Truths Defence pag. 65. Indeed they speak it there of all means in generall And many can witness their expressions in this kind Reader I have done with this and I suppose in these few lines it appears that they offer violence also to all the Ordinances of the Gospel And now what sayst thou to the whole matter Are not these thinkest thou these Locusts that are come forth upon the opening of the bottomles pit mentioned Rev. 9. with whom comes forth a smoak by which the sun and the air are darkned Read there their description Certainly the King that rules in them and over them is no other then that Abaddon Apollyon mentioned there v. 11. Vastator that destroyer that dissolver as the word signifies of all religion and duty And surely were I perswaded that the Book of the Revelation were written for the Meridian of England I should be also perswaded that these were the Beast mentioned v. 13. to whom was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies who opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and all that dwell therein Never men spake higher blasphemies with more or so much confidence and impudence against God and Christ and Gospel then these wretches do except those that are profest enemies to Christ and Christianity And therefore so much the more abominable in that under the name and vizor and disguise of Christian religion they dissolve and destroy all Which is that which makes it a mysterie of iniquity and is indeed the very name and title of that great Deceiver The Antichrist Rev. 17. 5. Upon her forehead was writen a name Mysterie Babylon the great The mother of harlots and abomination of the earth And though he hath horns like the lamb yet he speaks as a dragon Rev. 13. 11. And he doth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles v. 13 14. But Reader there is one mark of the Beast upon these wretches which I must needs mind thee of before I leave them which I find in the first of Tim. 4. beginning which because it so fully sets them forth I 'le give thee in the words Now the Spirit speaks expresly and therfore you may expect it that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrins of Devils speaking lyes in hypocrisie having their Consciences seared with a hot iron forbiding to marry and to abstain from meats c. They speak lies in hypocrisie and what 's this But to dissemble and to deceive to jugle and play the cheater speaking one thing and meaning another to speak plain words that other men use But with a reserved sense to themselves of their own coyning So that no man knows how in an ordinary way to understand them they pretend to speak and approve of the truth but they lie and play the deceivers not using words in that sense they are usually taken and commonly understood And if ever men were guilty of this kinde of hypocrisie these Quakers are It would be endless to trace them all along I 'le instance in one or two by which thou maist judge of them in other things they speak It s usual with them to say they own the Scriptures yea we confirm we establish the Scriptures c. Yea that they do And they witness the Scripture Now an honest man that means plainly would think that they held forth nothing but what is in and agreeable to the Scriptures and that they did believe the Scriptures which we call our Bible to be the written Word of God And the rule of a Christian to walk by in things to be believed and practised And that whoso walks accordingly shall be saved And that whoso doth not cannot be saved Thus I dare say honest plain hearted men would think by those words to be their meaning But these wretches speak lies in hypocrisie they mean otherwise they say in express words elsewhere The Scriptures are not the Saints rule of knowing God and living unto him Answer to the first Principle in their sword drawn here before Printed I will not quarrel them as I might for mangling the Principle and so altering the sense But what sayst thou Reader to their own words do these men establish the Scripture in thy sense and the usual sense of that word do not they presently say that to affirm the Scriptures to be the Rule is to put darkness for light and light for darkness What mean they then by the Scripture Not the written word without But that word that light that is within and which every man hath that comes into the world but that some stiflle it This is the Rule This is the Scripture The Scripture in its right place The Scriptures are not laid aside say they but witnessed every Scripture in its place i. e. within So they pag. 13 14. Let all see say they you to be lyars whether we do no set the Scriptures in the heart of every one How they tell you in the next words For say they every one having the light within which shews his evil deeds which light is his condemnation that hates it And brings up to salvation where followed as elsewhere often And this say they is Scripture within The Scripture without is not their Scripture We believe his Doctrine say they not an outward testimony
see cause to discover to the world And truely it is not improbable that some of these fellows themselves may be of the Popish tribe and Schollers though professing themselves mechanick for is it not usual And there is a notable story to this purpose lately printed alled The false Jew wherein is expressed his designe and his discovery from his own acknowledgment how that he was sent over from Rome by a special order from the Jesuits and with personal unction and benediction from the Pope and how one while he was to have come over under the notion of a Tailor with direction to joyn with the Anabaptists and to preach Notions But now he came over under the pretext of being a Converted Jew being an excellent Hebritian and circumcised at Rome for this purpose To what and whither will not a deluded spirit lead a man And in that relation you shall find how he joyned with the Anabaptists at Wrexham and was rebaptized by them where he preached notions among them Amongst others this was one That that place Luke 17. 21. where it is said The Kingdom of God is within you he gave this as the most proper sence of the Original sc The Kingdom of God is so within you as that it is not without you in Forms and Ordinances with which interpretation he said Lieutenant Col. Paul Hobson a Teacher among the Anabaptists was mightily taken How many flies may the blind man swallow Another design of this deceiver was to bring the authority of our Translation of the Scripture into question And prevailed so far that some of them entertained scruples about it But now the design is new moulded And now not translations onely but all outward Scriptures must be denyed and rejected And these men can from their infallible spirit make new ones Witness the daring boldness and impudence of these Quakers and their hypocritical lying and belying the Scriptures For Fox and Hubberthorn in their book bring in these words Take heed to the light of God within you And not onely produce them in another character the same with their Scripture quotations But also urge them as the Apostles words thus sc As the Apostle said Take heed to the light of God within you Neither citing what Apostle or where As indeed 't is no where in all the Scripture And Farnworth in his late piece of womens speaking in the Church Printed by Calvert 1654. In the head of his discourse where usually in printed books the Text is placed He hath these words in a distinct character as his Authority for his following discourse But the spirit of truth may declare through the Temple and dwell in it which the world cannot receive And then quotes 1 Cor. 6. 19. Joh. 14. 16 17. Now what man in the world can finde any such words as the former part in all the Scriptures Should we add to and mangle the Scriptures thus how should we be curst and raild at as well we might by every true Christian but not by these men Indeed Reader 't is manifest these mens intents are to fetch people off from the Scripture altogether That so the Authority thereof being rejected they may be the better prepared upon a new assault in another disguise to entertain the infallible Authority of the Romish Chair For the same course the Papists take to render them of small esteem do these men run For the learnedst of them pick out all such places as seem contrary one unto another and urge them to the people denying to any a power of reconciliation referving that to their own un-erring spirit And from thence assume a power to make the whole Authentical or otherwise And do not these men the same It may therefore be very probable all forewritten considered they come of Antichrists errand And thirdly and lastly They may come of the devils errand He hath many messengers and servants and some serve him more eminently and immediately then others And they are Hereticks False Teachers and Seducers I shall take this for the present granted And that these men are sent by him in a more especial manner is extremely probable If you consider the manner of their coming and their matter Their matter you have seen sc reviling railing reproaching lying falsifying blaspheming c. And for the manner entitling the Eternal Holy most pure and unerring Lord God to all these horrid abominations Being seconded with preternatural obsessions possessions operations upon the bodies and spirits of men women and children by violent impulsions motions and actions The parties being so carryed on without confederacies and fore-contrived designes And meerly patients in the business and not able to withstand them And being for confirmation of such diabolical doctrines must needs be the devils operations For this is a sure Conclusion The blessed spirit of Truth will never give testimony to lies And indeed the very nastiness and beastliness of their quakings purging upwards and downwards with most distorted gestures may easily perswade they come from that unclean spirit And that they are swinish possessions not divine raptures I shall not enter upon discourse of these things It hath been done by others I shall therefore give the Reader in two stories from the North which may give some satisfaction in this particular Both stories I have taken out of the Mirrour for Saints and Sinners written by that industrious servant of Christ Mr Samuel Clark Pastor of Benet-Finck London the second Edition The second story is by him contracted and I was the more willing to to take it so to save labour I had the story it self at large in print but having lent it forth could never recover it The first is this ANno Christi 1653. about the month of October came some Quakers out of the North into Wales about Wrexham endeavouring to win some professors to their party Their principal design was to disgrace the Ministry and all publike Ordinances They held Universal redemption Free-will and falling from grace They published that all men have the pure seed of God in them boasting that themselves were perfect and without sin that they knew at the first sight sincere Christians from hypocrites At meetings after long silence sometimes one sometimes more fell into a great and dreadfull shaking and trembling in their whole bodies and all their joynts with such risings and swellings in their bellies and bowels sending forth such shreekings yellings howlings and roarings as not only affrighted the spectaters but caused the dogs to bark the swine to cry and the cattel to run about to the astonishment of all that heard them By these artifices one William Spencer was drawn to leave the Church and to follow them whereupon at several times he fell into the same quaking fits and lying with one of them three several nights the last night being much troubled and not able to sleep upon a sudden he heard something buzzing and humming about the Quakers head like an humble-bee