your selves Jewes yet ye are not but do lye Yea your Conversation in the world most plainly sheweth that your spot is not the spot of his Children for we see you so mingled and interwoven in the Pride Covetousness Policie and Folly of the world that we could not by any holy walking know you or cull you out as the clean from the unclean or as Sheep from the midst of the Goats if we did not now and then hear some of you called Independants Lord how emptie a thing it is to have a Name to live and to be dead Wherefore come to him who is the Resurrection and the life which life is the light of men and becometh the light of life to all that believe and wait in it that they may bring forth fruit unto God and so become living stones built up a spiritual House for this is the Church of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven For what is it for people to cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord The Church of Christ the Church of Christ and to be polluted and unclean both in Worship and Practice or to call themselves the Children of Abraham and not to do the Works of Abraham for he forsook the Idolatry of his Fathers House and in obedience to the Lords call came into a Land that he shewed him so comming to the Cross to his own will he also saw Christs day and was glad and walked before the Lord and was upright but ye do neither of these as being still in the abominations of the Whore who have made the Nations drunk as kicking against the prick the True Light and Reprover for sin and evil and living in the Detestable Waies Customs and Fashions of the World so the Sun-shine of the Light in this the day of the Lords Power hath put and is putting out your Candle in obscuritie hath removed your Candlestick because ye repented not for he hath raised up a People at last in this Nation wherein he hath placed his Name that it might not fall in the streets who as they are faithful to the first Principle of God in them to wit the Light shall out-live out-shine and eat out the Heart and Soul of all Professors and professions in the World that are found in the Idolatry Pride and Vanity thereof though under great and fair pretences of Christian Religion which stands not in high words but in loving Mercy doing Justice and walking humbly with the Lord God so every way and in every thing keeping themselves unspotted of the World yea hating even the garment spotted with the flesh So that neither can ye Brownists or Separatists in this the Lords day escape his Righteous Judgement and censure though ye seem to stand at a greater distance from false Worship then the Independents do but being weighed in the equal ballance are found too light to be accounted by us for the True Church of Christ yet I Know that because it is said in the Scripture come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you c. ye are very confident of your standing for ye say ye are separated from the National Antichristian Worship abhorring their Idol Temples and will not hear any of their Baals Priests or break any Bread with them c. But consider impaâ—â—â—â—lly whether ye touch no unclean thing yea whether ye came not from them with their grand abomination in your bosoms which ye have ever since fostered and practised and that with a seeming no little zeal I mean the Sprinkling or Baptizing of your Infants upon the account of their being the Seed of the Covenant as they are your Children who say ye are believers a most bewiching Sorcerie this is and an exceeding betrayer of the Pure Life of God and that which bears death in the very face of it and if ye are true to your own Principles ye must needs be soon un-churched hereby and brought back to Babylon do what you can for your Children being hereby made Visible Members of your Body they must needs be accounted Brethren as they grow up in years amongst you though Regeneration be not witnessed by them for by your own Approbation and Act ye received them in before they knew their very right Hand from their left and so they must have all the priveledges of Brethren though not discerning the Lords Body or able to separate between the Precious and the Vile or not savouring the things of the Spirit of God as the Natural man doth not whereby a confused medly and mixt multitude must needs appear yea and the tares soon overspread and overgrow and overtop the Wheat if there be any and so that which ye counted the Churches of Christ plainly be come and be seen to be by those in the Light but the Field which is the World is not this to mock God and to throw down with one hand what ye would set up with the other Come to the Light of Christ in your Consciences which makes manifest all things and let True Judgement proceed But alas ye are as great Enemies to that Pure Principle of God which should reprove you for all deceitful and confused actings and give you a right discerning and purge you from all sin as any other whatsoever and are so rivited on the letter without that ye will not endure to hear of the True Light within which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World without which no mans heart could be searched or ever any man converted to God For I would know of you Separatists how any of you at first came to be troubled for sin or to have any good desires begotten in you towards the Lord or his Truth which ye desired to know and wâ—â—â— willing to suffer for was not this done by the Spirit of the Lord which moved and stirred in you and whence came this convincing and illuminating Spirit came it from above the clouds or pierced it into you from without or was the thing alwayes within you striving and strugling at several times though ye took little notice of it before ye began to be humbled by it can any man even while unregenerate flee any more from Gods presence and Spirit that his hand should not find him out then after Regeneration or could David have done so before conversion more then afterwards can the wicked hide themselves that the Lord should not see them any more then the godly I believe ye will all answer Nay and if so is the Spirit of the Lord God who filleth all places and things with its presence out of a wicked man or at a greater distance as to place from him then from a Righteous Man though in the manner of its operation in them I know it is different judging and reproving the one and comforting and encouraging the other So then the Spirit or Life being in and nigh every one
faithful though ye never speak with any other Tongue than your Mother Tongue or do any outward Miracle yet speaking and declaring of all his wonderful works Now come I to stand up in defence of the Truth and true Church of the first born against all you of what sort soever you be or under what name soever ye go who being out of all those aforenamed Sects lift your heads on high snuffing up the wind and think it too low a condition for you to believe in the true light within you which secretly reproveth for all sin and evil and so to wait humbly and silently therein with the People of God called Quakers in derision because they tremble at the Word of the Lord and are afraid to offend in the least thing that of God in them for so must you much deny your selves both in wisdom talking and behaviour amongst men with whom ye converse which Cross would to them seem a ridiculous and foolish thing in you Ye will say perhaps ye are above Ordinances or shadows and can live satisfied of your selves by that which ye know and are taught of God without joyning to or walking with any But consider Friends there is one great Ordinance which ye must never get above but be in subjection to if ever ye will have true Peace with the living God and that is Christ the true light who shines in every ones heart either as a Justifier or Condemner who is the great gift of the Father to the Sons of men and him whom he hath ordained to save or destroy for ever Now whatever men may talk or tattle or boast of themselves this is a more certain truth sealed in me by the Spirit of the Lord God that whosoever he be that truly believeth in Christ the light doth whatsoever the light leadeth unto and that one special thing which it leads unto is to bring the Creature Soul Body and Spirit into a right frame and order out of its own will into the Will of its guide which is the light so as that man shall not walk at random speak or do as it pleaseth him but shall freely and naturally love the Society and joyn visibly in the bond of Amity with those that believe and walk in the light knowing a time of silence as they do and a bridle for the tongue so as to keep his mouth as with a bit and this is to walk in the foot-stâ—ps of the Flock for in this manner doth the good shepherd put his sheep forth go before them in this his day the states and conditions of all those who have been in spiritual captivity so requiring it nor is it enough for any of you to say is God tied up to a Form For we know this is no form or frame of mans devising but what the light naturally and mans condition necessarily calls him into for if his delight be with the Saints and those that excel in vertue as Davids was who had a sincere heart he cannot but come amongst them in love and if they there wait on the Lord he to wait with them if they seek the Lord he to seek him with them if they love the Lords Judgements and Reproofs he to love them also and if they rejoyce in the Lord he to rejoyce also this is to be like minded and affectionate one to another hereby doth the pure and unfeigned love appear the Unity or the Onety in the Spirit is witnessed here is a Church visible in a sweet and spiritual order and yet out of any invented or humane form for although we know and say that mans order is confusion yet we also know and say that God is a God of order not of confusion Now what is more comely than for Friends and Brethren in the truth to live together in Unity and in what way can this Unity be more shewen than by meeting and assembling together to wait upon the Lord to know his Counsel to feel his Teachings to speak when he speaketh to move when he moveth and to rest when he resteth Is not this Gods way of leading his People to Canaan yea and in Canaan is not this one part of walking in the light of the Lamb is not this a part of that one heart and one way that the Lord hath promised to lead his People in is not here a spiritual Harmony and hereby doth not the Saints in a great measure appear to be a City set on 〈◊〉 Hill that cannot be hid Let that of God answer in every one of you and not your own high conceivings But ye will be ready to say What difference is there betwixt you and other Sects in this they meet together as you do in an appointed place and at a set hour they pray sit and hear one speak to them c. and you do the like Doth not right reason unless any be past reason tell you that if Persons meet they must have a Place to meet at or in and that they must also know the time of their so assembling why then do you argue against necessity it self But if the end of your so objecting be to destroy all general Assemblings of the Saints together then I say you speak not in Gods Wisdom nor know not the thoughts of his heart for the Apostle who was in the Wisdom of God and had received the Spirit of Truth to guide him saith Exhort ye one another daily least any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin and whereas perhaps ye may think such Meetings are needless because of this day of the Lord that is risen and arising the same Apostle argues quite contrary saying Not forsaking the Assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching Oh! People consider that the perfect day of the Lord is most exceeding desirable of all the Children of light therefore the more they espy it the more they seek after it Now Exhortations or other Declarations that come from the light of life raiseth the light of life in others and so brings on the day for it is like fire begetting fire or like face answering to face in a glass not like the dead and dry words of other Assemblies where there is no waiting in the light first to feel the life but a continual trading and going on in self-strength but ye cannot nor dare not deny but that we do so wait and all words spoken out of that are judged by the same and if any one among us look out after words and is not as well satisfied without them as with them if the Lord will have all flesh keep silence before him that dissatisfaction is Judged also Besides if ye were in that which giveth a right discerning ye would see that words spoken from the life are altogether â—eedful for the conjviction and conversion of the world 〈◊〉 directing their minds to the true light
his power that none was able to enter thereinto till the seven Plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled none could fully behold and enjoy the Glory of the Lord till all his Plagues and Judgements were executed upon the Transgressor and transgression within which being finished an enterance was ministred into the New Jerusalem that came down from God whose light was clear as Chrystal and wherein John saw no Temple that is he saw no outward Constitution of a Church visible by those two signs of Water-baptism and Laying on of Hands which were called the first Beginnings or Principles in the Hebrews or breaking of Corporal Bread but the Lord God Almighty the Lamb were the Temple of it that is whosoever hath a dwelling place in God who is perfectly pure holy is in this day to be accounted a Member of this holy City which also had no need of the Sun to shine by day nor the Moon by night nor the light of a Candle all created helps and shadows were uselesse there for the Lord God alone and the Lamb are the light thereof so that by this Scripture alone are all you Baptists for ever silenced for pleading for a necessity of Baptism or laying on of Hands or breaking of Bread or Mens Teachings or Scripture-light without the true light opening them because after the coming out of Babylon there is to be no visible Temple so as to say lo here or loe there which is by a shadow or sign nor no need of any such thing to distinguish the Saints from the World or lead them up to God for they shall see his face even by his immediate light and his Name shall be in their Foreheads even by his pure Image of Innocency and Righteousnesse which shall most plainly appear to the view of the World and so by these two things shall the Glory of the second Temple be greater than the Glory of the former And if any of you shall say This state and time is not yet come and therefore the sâ—gns visible Administrations must be practised I Answer Those that can truly say they do believe in Christ the Light and have forsaken sin as aforesaid and are purely moved to be Dipped in Water c. to help their weakness or in obedience to the inward Command let them do it and prosper but let them not sit down there alwaies or strive to bring back others thereto that see no need thereof yea rather that it would be but a hurt and cloud unto them for although many of the Saints the Lambs followers yea perhaps most do not yet witnesse a full entrance into the aforesaid Condition yet in all of them the Temple of God is opened by the light of the Lamb and the Vials are pouring out daily to destroy sin in them that vails the perfect sight of God and so now their work is to look stedfastly forward till all impediments that hinder their perfect and continual Peace be removed and not to take up their time by the way about the Exercise of those things which must not shortly appear or be of any use Thus are your skirts also discovered and your House left unto you desolate for ye have not been faithful to that pure Principle of God which at first stirred in some of you and might then move you to be Baptized with Water but are set down in a fleshly rest not waiting for the spiritual Baptism that should have made you dead to the World and Crucified you with Christ and also have Exercised you by its pure Gift in all your worshippings and goings forth so that ye hereby not growing up in that which is living and eternal are grown more earthly sensual dead carnal and formal than divers years ago when I walked among you yea even as dead and dry as the Priests themselves preaching in such a method as they setting up your Desks and Pulpits and Clocks and Hour-glasses to see how the time goes away and your Members sitting some of them in their Pride and all of them gazing upon an Image in a Desk or Pulpit yea and some of you so degenerate from your first Principles that ye as do the Independants so called mingle your selves with the Nation about sending out a Ministry yea and some of your Chief Leaders have lately not blushed openly to declare That you hold it your Duty to stand by and preserve so much as in you lies the publick Ministry of the Nation whom ye judge ought to have their Liberty So it seems ye are ready to defend them in offending and afflicting those who in the tenderness of their Consciences and holy Zeal for the dreadful pure Name of their God cannot maintain or feed but openly oppose the false Prophets the Ministers of Antichrist the Emissaries of Satan and deceivers of thousands of Souls of which sort these publick National Ministers are as denying Christ Jesus the Son of God to be both a King a Priest and a Prophet which thing you Baptists some years ago did earnestly affirm and declare For take away the Law of man from maintaining them to Usurp upon Constrain or Punish others and they are no more than other men But t is no wonder that ye so declare your selves who are so far degenerated and leavened with the Principles and Interests of these Pharisees who say and do not that ye shew the greatest Opposition to the Saints holy and zealous Practises as irrigular or out of Rule But ye have not declared what those Practises particularly are nor what rule they are out of whether that of the Old man or of the New Lord what a Church or Spouse of Christ are these pretended Believers Baptized become who have not a word to plead for him whom they own to be their Husband against the Beast but would submit in silence to any humane Government nor against the false Prophet but have a hand to preserve him accounting those that do in this day of the Lord oppose them both to be irregular as though they thereby would cast the whole bulk of persecution and rage and malice of the multitude upon the Lambs followers who are called and chosen and faithful in their measures of life and as being themselves afraid what man could and can do unto them Neither would your Independant Brethren have us to be Countenanced or Intrusted by the Nation when as none know aright how to Govern others but those that are themselves governed by the Lord Jesus who are anointed to Govern as well as to Preach for the spirit of true Government is a pure and majestical Gift of God not consisting in whorish and pompous state but in the beauty and Glory of simple Truth and naked Justice which layes the Rod upon the back of the Transgressor and smileth upon the wel-doer impartially And O Nation because thou considerest not this therefore are not thy breaches healed but rather increased unto this day Oh be ye ashamed to
them up hath betrayed the pure life in Spirit and seeing others also as the Baptists themselves who have professed to Minister those Ordinances in a right manner and to true Subjects thereof have idolized the same and become dead dry and barren therein ministring out of the life and Power and in a formality therefore the Lord as he hath done in such cases leaveth them to such Traytors Idolaters and formalists as going out of them and leading his People in this his day in a different manner even in a pure path of righteousness in the Spirit manifested by its own immediate fruits and bringing them into that wherein they see no Temple besides the Lord God and the Lamb to dwell in so that ye called Seekers waiting as ye say for a right Administrator of Baptisme c. do but from the desart look for the Kingdom to come with an outward observation when as the Kingdom of God is within you as it was in the Pharisees if ye could so see it for the light is that in which God dwelleth and by which he dwelleth in man either as a reprover and condemner or justifier and comforter and that by which he Reigneth in him as a Judge or Saviour which is Christ his Son given by him for a Covenant of light to the Gentiles which Covenant any one taking hold of is brought into it and so hath a right to come out of Babylon to Sion yea must come out thence least he be found a transgressour against it for that which sheweth him where he hath been and whither he is to go will give him strength he waiting therein to passe on till he come to appear before God in Sion which is the beautie of Holiness But to what hath been said ye will object and say Christ Mark 16 bidding his Disciples that going forth into all the world they should Preach the Gospel to every Creature and he that believed and was baptized should be saved but he that believed not should be damned said and these signs shall follow them that believe in my Name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall be well or recover So that these are the notes or marks of a true Gospel Ministry and therefore none may call himself an Apostle or Minister of Christ except he can confirm his Ministry by some of these or any call themselves the true Church unless such signs follow them or are found amongst them T is true these things mentioned were signs whereby their Ministry was propagated and confirmed for without the gift of tongues the Gospel could not have been so readily declared throughout the Nations into which they were to go nor without the other signs would they so readily have believed that which they had never heard of before but it doth not therefore follow that every one who went forth in the Ministry had tongues or did cast out Devils heal the sick c. For if any one were then moved by the Spirit of the Lord to Preach but in one Language even in his Mother tongue he was as truely a Minister of Christ to those to whom he spake as those were that spake to divers Nations As Apollo who we read not to have either spake with any new tongue or ever to do a miracle yet having received Wisdom and Power from on high he was an eminent Minister of the Gospel and an instrument by whom the Corinthians believed as Paul witnessed neither was alway a miracle wrought by those who might sometimes work such a thing when People were converted nay rather oftner by Preaching alone without it So the three thousand were converted by the Preaching of Peter without a miracle done at the time of their being pricked in heart and gladly receiving his Word so while Peter another time spake to Cornelius and his Family the Holy Spirit fell on them no miracle being wrought so Paul Preached two whole years in his own hired house having first declared the Truth to the Jews some of whom believed the things that were spoken and others believing not and this without a miracle So Lydia's heart was opened by Paul and Timotheus their speaking without a miracle for ye must know that although such things were signs when the Power was pleased so to operate yet the living Word being declared by the living Power was sufficient enough without any other sign to prevail and approve those so speaking to be the Ministers of Christ to whom they spake so the Corinthians were the seal of Pauls Apostleship his Gospel coming to them in the Power and demonstration of the Spirit so were they his Epistle that commended his Ministry known and read of all men Know also that though God did then freely come forth in such a way yet those who sought a sign were an Adulterous generation for if a man would but believe and keep to the Word nigh in his mouth and heart when declared in him or unto him he need not look out for any such thing And as for those signs following those who believed it could not be all those who believed for most of the believers or members of the true Church spake neither with tongues or shewed any miracles as is undeniably evident neither could those be Essential signs of Faith for nothing is the proper token of that but works of righteousness alone as James witnesseth and none ever denyed so then these signs following those that believed were indeed further confirmations that such did believe wherein they appeared while the Essential tokens thereof remained with them but if they should be absent as love which is the fulfilling of the Law though any one should speak with the tongue of men and Angels and have Faith so as to remove mountains it would profit nothing and so be no sign of his being a believer And so the false Prophets miracles which John saith he wrought before the Beast can be no sign of his Faith or of a true Ministry because he is an enemy of all righteousness But to come more home to this point I say that as the Commission was given to the Apostles and Saints to Minister in that age till the Apostacie according to the several gifts and operations of the Spirit and the work they had then to do which was a great deal in a little time as going far and near and as this Commission was declared by Christs personal mouth before his departure which was terminated in them and fulfilled in that age so in the second restauration Christ the light gives a second Commission by his Spirit to those who have waited in his light what to Minister with and how to Minister according to their work in this his last day which is first of all to unfold the skirts of the great and mystical Whore who will
acknowledge Christ and the Scriptures in words but oppose and betray his pure Life wherefore he commandeth his wiâ—nesses now to fight with her with the sword of his mouth in the Power of Wisdom which is better then outward strength and so they act and speak as he moveth and enableth them keeping to their own gift measure and work as the Apostles and Saints formerly did to theirs and not regarding how they acted or spake so as to be moved or troubled at it as to question their call to the work of the Ministry for they know if they receive the witness of man the witness of God is greater which witness is his light within them which plainly sheweth them and sealeth in them though the whole world gain-say it that they have felt in themselves the Baptism of the spirit and fire whose effects I before declared and so the operation of his living Word which hath brought thousands of others to believe in the same light and many to feel also the same living Word and spiritual Baptism which hath shaken the Earthly part within like a cottage and also the outward body of some putting words in their mouths to declare his righteousness in the great Assembly and magnifie his Holy Name in the Congregations of his Saints this was that greater work that Christ said his Disciples should do then he had done because he went to his Father for the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified this is really witnessed among us the Spirit sealing it in our hearts so that we witnesing the one Lord one Faith and one Baptism we are thereby baptized into the one body and being many are one bread and so the true Church that is come and coming out of Babylon and out of the wilderness Glory be to the Lord for ever who hath thus visited and Redeemed his People for this living Power is the gift it self tongues miracles prophesie c. are but the gifts flowing as streams from this fountain now if the Lord do keep back some streams and give us more of the fountain in this his day we are not loosers but gainers by that and so the more to be owned as the Church of Christ But ye will say when the Church was brought out of mystical Babylon John declareth there was an Angel who flow thorow the midst of heaven with an everlasting Gospel to Preach to them that dwell on the Earth and to all Nations kindreds tongues and People which since we see not how that could be without the gift of tongues sheweth us that the true Ministry must have the very same visible gifts now as the Apostles had before they undertake to go forth That People were never truely called out of Babylon before the Preaching of this everlasting Gospel is certainly true and that it is to be Preached to all sorts of People upon the Earth is as cerâ—â—in but that this Gospel must not be Preached to some till the gift of tongues be given where by it might be declared to all is false for the Wisdom of God teacheth his People in what manner and order he will proceed in the publishing his truth throughout the world it must begin first in Sodom and Egypt where our Lord Christ the light and life hath been crucified I mean the Anti-christian State which under pretence of professing Christ opposeth him this Beast indeed is many headed and consists of divers Nations but they must not all be cut off at once but by degrees we know by experience what ever ye believe that he hath begun his work in this Isle of the North wherein we live and that there have been wayes made somewhat to awaken other Nations also the pure Language being known a tongue hath not been wanting to speak to them in and in this one thing do I behold Gods great Wisdom that he hath taken the wise in their own craftiness that whereas the Antichristian Priests have as the Hebrew and Greek so especially idolized the Latine or Romane tongue all over Europe whereby it s become a general Language hereby a good occasion is given to spread the truth throughout all these Nations of Christendome so called also so much hath been the mutuall commerce betwixt these Antichristian People for many years as counting each other to be Christians that in any of these Nations it may be either spoken in their own Language or by an Interpreter which last way is not to be despised for the mighty God brings and will bring to pass great things in these last times by weak beginnings and none is to despise the Day of small things yea the voice hath been hard in Turkie already and if any of you shall say But what had they to do to go thither without the gift of the Tongue I answer you must ask him that moved them thereto even by turning in to Gods witness which is his true light within every one of you and waiting there for Counsel ye shall know the Lords secrets and feel his Power to arise which shall bring you into Unity with their Spirits who knew their Call which ye will not then dispute but in the mean time him that is ignorant let him be ignorant but however know that your unbelief cannot make the truth of God of none effect But is it not Prophesied by Isaiah concerning the Church that he will turn his hand upon her and pâ—rely purge away her dross and take away all her tin and will restore all her Judges as at the first and her Counsellors as at the beginning afterwards she shall be called the City of Righteousness the faithful City Zion shall be Redeemed with Judgement and her converts with Righteousness whereby it appeareth that at the Restauration of the Church the second time which is a very refining time and of Redemption through Judgement and Righteousness which ye talk so much of the Ministry of the Church shall be as they were at the first gathering of it by the Apostles and so gifted just as they were The endowing of the witnesses at their Resurrection shall be with the Spirit of life from God entring into them and so they shall be as at the first for that is the gift it self which brings into Unity of Spirit all the Prophets Apostles and Saints in all ages and into Unity in Ministry as declaring one Everlasting Truth for substance and from one Eternal Root but in respect of the gifts and operations of that one Spirit or Gift it may be different at sundry times and seasons according to the work that is to be done and the various workings of the Spirit it self So God who at sundry times and divers manners spake to the Jews by the Prophets spake in the last times by his Son by whom also he speaketh sundry wayes at sundry times though not a sundry truth for the Apostles bare witness to the true light that lightneth every man and to the Word nigh in the
A DEFENCE OF THE True Church Called QUAKERS Come and coming out of the Wildernesse Babylon and the dark Night of the Apostacy of Antichrist into their own Land which is Sion the Mountain of Holinesse there to Worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth against the several Sects and sorts of people called Independants Separatists or Brownists Baptists Fift Monarchy-men Seekers and High Notionists of all sorts who by the True Light are found and discovered to be out of the same Written by J. C. According to the measure of Wisdom given unto him from God who is the giver of every good gift LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate 1659. WHen the Jewes outward Returned from the Captivity of Babylon which was the true figure of the Saints coming out of the long and dark night of Apostacy from the Doctrine and Life of the Apostles in the Primitive Times which was the Captivity of the spiritual Seed so great and many were their Enemies who endeavoured to cause their Work in repairing the desolate and ruined places of Jerusalem to cease that those who were imployed in that Work with one hand wrought and with the other held the Weapon even so is it and must it be now at the Return of the spiritual Seed not only within by exercising Faith and Prayer upon and to him that is able to save to the uttermost and in his strength wrestling against the Dragon and his Angels Principalities Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses in High Places and sundry temptations so quenching by the Armour of Light all the fiery Darts of the wicked one but also without both by holding forth the Word of their testimony and sealing it with their bloud and sufferings for the conviction and conversion of sinners so fitting stones for Gods spiritual building and also by stopping the mouths of gain-sayers who shall not be able to resist the Spirit by which they speak So standing in the gap and quitting themselves like Spiritual-men against the Beast and false Prophet and all the Armies of the Aliens Hear now therefore all ye that are called Independants Separatists or Brownists Baptists Fift Monarchy-men Seekers high Notionists of all sorts the Apologie or Defence that I in the wisdom and strength of my God for without him I can do nothing do make against you and for the true Church called Quakers against whom and whose standing Profession ye variously have prejudice and do contend And First for you called Independants ye assume a great Name but ye are not found in the Independant nature and so are not the true Church for although ye professe your selves as to the visible Administration of Church-power not to have dependance upon other Congregations or Churches as an inferiour on a superiour yet are there many things apparently seen amongst you which do un-Church you and remove your Candlestick far off for the true golden Candlesticks among whom Christ the Son of God walketh do hold up and hold forth the true light that it may shine before men but ye as do the common multitude reject it sleight it and Dispute against it as invalid and insufficient to lead in the way everlasting and so ye would have it kept under the bushel yea quite extinguished in the hearts of men and would have the Scriptures or Writings to be a light to it and not it an enlightener and opener of them whereby ye stumble at the Scriptures themselves and cannot discern of the times and seasons or of the Saints several states and conditions to God-ward who because they sometime witnessed a war and striving against the body of sin therefore say you they must alway while they live carry it about them as though the Saints fought as those that beat the Air or as though their labour were in vain in the Lord Oh! foolish people and unwise when will ye come to the true Teacher in your selves that ye may believe and know the Promise made unto the seed That there shall be no more a pricking Bryar unto the House of Israel nor a grieving Thorn of all that are round about them that despise them and they shall know that I am the Lord Also that their Enemies which they have seen to day they shall see them again no more for ever And that ye may see their interest in Christs Prayer whom the Father heard alwayes because he did alwayes the things that pleased him who said Neither Pray I for these alone to wit for the Apostles and Saints then in the world that they might be sanctified through the Truth but for them also who shall believe in me through their words that they all may be one c. I in them and thou in me that hey may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Mark This was a state of Saints Perfection in this world that worldly Spirits might be convinced thereby but ye being in the unbelief are even as the multitude alwayes hanging upon the lips of men whose tongues are not touched as the Prophets was with a Coal from Gods Altar who witnessed his sin purged and so are ever learning and never come to the true knowledge for the Pastors and Teachers of your Congregations have not yet witnessed the Vrim of the Sanctuary I mean the true spiritual Gift by believing and waiting on the true light which shineth in their dark hearts that should give them power from on high to minister in but are either men learned with the learning of this world or such who through strength of Brain and often reading of the Letter of the Scriptures can compose a Form of Words and deliver it unto you after a Priestly manner so that ye as still unsatisfied heap to your selves National Priests also for Teachers sometimes hearing the one and sometimes the other Yea some of your Pastors so called are National Priests also Oh! Friends it might shame you and make you blush for shame if ye could rightly consider to call your selves the Churches of Christ and Independants and be thus so dependant on mans Teachings Yea joyning with the National Priests about the way of sending out a Ministrie and bearing the Beasts very Mark in your Foreheads while ye are so called owning your Baptism in your Infancie to be true though ministred to a blank and by those who sprang from a Popish stock and sprinkling your own Infants now from a false apprehension of the Promise made to you and your seed after the flesh so calling that the seed whereas the true Churches of Christ knew no such seed nor owned any but that which sprang out of Christs womb in the Regeneration who is a quickning Spirit So Christ the Corner-stone and Head of the Church even the true and universal Light is come to fight against you with the sword of his mouth and to testifie to your faces That though ye call
the true light must needs be in every one for the life is the light of men and so whatever good thing is wrought in mans heart doth not come from without him or from far but from the word within the mouth and heart and so ariseth from within himself for saith wisdom a good man shall be satisfied from himself and so did Christ promise Whosoever saith he drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but it shall be a Well of waters springing up in him to Eternal Life and so did Isaiah Prophesie As the Earth bringeth forth her bud and as the Garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the Nations Oh! the sweet springings and buddings of the pure Life of God in mans heart after a night and winter of sorrow and darkness and silent waiting upon that of God in him surely by this means and no other shall Righteousness towards man and praise and glory to the Lord God who is worthy and alone worthy spring up in the sight of others And oh ye Separatists so called how can it be expected that ye should Minister to each other in your Assemblies by the living Power of the Spirit of truth which is the Holy Annointing and the onely Exerciser of the Saints in all their administrations any more than others do but that ye should be as dead dry and formal as they in such exercises when as ye will not turn to the light which is the true Teacher and in the humility and penitency of your spirits wait in silence for the Comforters presence are ye not now comprehended and discerned by those who walk in the light as he is in the light to be dry dead and unsavoury and hating reproof and your Reprover who now calls for more living fruit in this his day of light and truth than in the times of more ignorance And are ye not proud and covetous and set down at ease in the wayes and customs of men as respecting persons c. as if there were no more cross to be taken up when the greatest is yet behind For the light shining in your dark hearts as it ariseth will cross your own wills and wisdom exceedingly and reject your vain confidence of your being the onely true Church and so ye will appear naked and bare as those that have been but in a dream that ye were come out of Babylon when as the Whore and Beasts mark is discerned in your foreheads other of her trumpery among you Wherefore I exhort you in Gods love and fear to come unto the light within which brings out of death and deadness and all transgression and out of all the wayes of confusion and that abominable practise of Infant Baptism which is a chief ground thereof and be not deceived God is not mocked for such as ye sow ye shall reap and if ye will still sow to the flesh as ye have a long time done ye shall reap corâ—uption vanity and sorrow but if ye will sow to the Spirit and lay your ground work there ye shall from thence certainly reap life Everlasting But what hath he against us and our Profession may the Bâ—ptists say who have not onely renounced ouâ— Infant Baptisme as a gross deceit but have practised in direct oppoâ—ition thereto by being dipped or baptized in water and so profess Faith and Baptism as the Apostles Saints did before the Apostacy The Spirit of the Lord hath enough against your Faith for some of you are for Free Will which ye say is a power placed in you whereby ye are able to stand or fall to your own Master of your own accord by taking heed to what the Scriptures outwardly declare some part whereof you call the Gospel and own no other so that one of ye once declared He knew no other Spirit now than the Scriptures as if the Spirit that moved the holy men of God to speak forth the Scriptures when it had so moved them had done its work and so quite forsaken the Earth when as the greatest glory of the Church and purest life of the Saints is to be brought forth in these last times as the Prophesies of the Scriptures do plentifully fore-shew which cannot be brought to pass but by the Spirit of the living God which Spirit or Life is but one in all and in all ages which is a spirit of Judgment and burning whose pure Judgements and Holy burnings are felt in this day of the Lords winnowing by those who every one in their own measure and order do silently sincerely and humbly wait for the same for although we say that every ones condemnation is just for loving his evil deeds and hating the light that shines in his heart yet no man is able in his own will distinct from this light to adde one cubit unto his stature that is to make one step in saving knowledge or obedience but is to believe in the light and wait therein so tarrying the Lords leasure till he arise in him up to the prey leading captivity câ—ptive and briâ—ging forth Judgement unto victory and if this seems a strange or foolish Language unto you know that it is because ye are in your own wills in distinction from the light which is Gods faithful witness within you which faithful witness is Christ the Power of God unto Salvation unto every one that believeth this is the Gospel or glad tidings indeed that man is not left to himself to work out his own Salvation but that the God of all grace hath left in him a seed which as a confirmation thereof was plentifully manifested in his Son made of a woman in due time in which he believing that it should break the serpents head and do all his works in him and for him so that ye Free-willers so called stumbling at this stumbling-stone and setting up the Scriptures which are but a wholsom Declaration of this seed and corner-stone in its place I do Declare against you and all such that ye are Idolaters and so out of the true Faith of Gods Elect and therefore not the true Church of Christ but the synagogue of Satan Wherefore I exhort you to come out of your own wills and carnal wisdom which begets you in your Congregations into many vain janglings rents and disputings and to wait in silence upon the Reprover in you for sin which alone is able to give you victory over sin that your mouths may be for ever stopped for pleading against the true light which is the true Prophet that ye perish not in the gain-saying of Kore who also stood up against the Lords Prophet Others deny indeed mans power will and ability to do good and so deny you as out of the Faith but how since they are become such disputers against and denyers of the true light that lightneth every man they should
themselves be in the true Faith or find power and ability to bring forth any good and acceptable fruit unto God I cannot behold for which way should ye feel his living Power to enable you thereunto or which way should the Spirit of the Lord come Do you look for him by way of local motion and so to enter from without to within you can such a thought be without setting the phansie on work and so making an Image of the Godhead within your selves but if ye will not be accounted Idolaters then must you needs come to the light within which must reveal unto you the Image of the Invisible God in the still silence and that which can reveal the Fathers Glory must most certainly discover sin and evil which vails the same while undiscovered and unjudged down and destroyed from the mind of man but this also ye Baptized Persons that say ye deny mans Free Will cannot believe for ye think and say though sin do remain in you as it must as long as ye live here yet ye have an Advocate with the Father and so are justified by Christs Merits and Righteousness the which for any one to deny ye account a denial of Free Grace yea and of Christ himself So ye think ye may behold the Fathers Presence even while sin is standing Alas alas Friends ye are much deceived as are the common multitude herein for in this day of Christ the true light another kind of Free Grace and another manner of Saviour is discovered and revealed than hath been formerly imagined for know ye that Gods Free Grace is his Free Gift in giving his Son a light into the world whereby as men come to see confess and forsake all evil in thought word and deed Justification Reconciliation and Peace with the Lord God they may come to witnesse and no otherwise for whosoever hath at any time seen his pure shape with a spiritual eye cannot imâ—gine or desire to have these any other way his pure eyes beholding no Iniquity in any one without reproof where ever he finds it neither can his all-seeing eye but see it where ever it is and this is also the Saviour that we believe in and Preach and no other to wit a Christ to be known within manifested in our â—â—esh to destroy the works of the Devil so saving us from the wrath to come for he was not at all sent to justifie or save his People in their sins but from their sins so is judgement laid to the line and equity to the plummet look how far judgement hath passed upon the transgressour in any one so far is mercy witnessed by the transgressour and no farther and it is equity that it should be so yet is it most free grace in that the Lord God Almighty freely saves in this righteous way by his own Almighty Arm but so as that the creature may remember and take notice that if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the wicked and ungodly appear neither would this Doctrine oh ye Baptists seem a hard saying unto you if ye were not double-minded loving the Lords Salvation and your sins also to wit pride covetousness deceit self-seeking respecting of Persons having mens Persons in admiration for advantage sake and such like for if your eye were single to the Lord alone ye would desire no peace at his hands but in the way of all righteousness fulfilled in your selves yea even to the silencing every idle and needless word and the removing of every vain Aiery thought in you as knowing that holiness becomes his house for ever but while ye cannot bear these true and faithful sayings know ye that ye are alinated in your minds by wicked works which ye are in love with what ever ye shall professe to the contrary and so are also out of the faith which gives victory over the world and all sin And as for your being baptized with water which is but an outward sign at the most of your being dead and buried and risen with Christ know ye that the thing signified must be witnessed before the sign can be truely applyed which cannot be till ye come to the true faith and so out of the pollutions of the world for otherwise ye set a seal to a blank as well as those who sprinkle infants neither is Baptism with water Christs proper Baptism but was begun by John who came but to prepare the way of the Lord Christ who was to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire who was to increase in this his proper work and John to decrease in his work Now I grant that Johns Baptism was not suddenly left off but decreased by degrees as the Saints came to eye and witness perfection so as to behold and hold forth Gods purity and righteousness without a sign so that it was practiced by the Apostles and Saints after Christs departure and that sometimes by way of command there being for the present a good use â—hereof yet Paul expresly declareth who was a Minister to the Gâ—ntilâ—s that he was not sent to baptize but to Prâ—ach glad tidâ—â—gs neither was that Commission of Christ to the Apostles in Mat. 28. a Commission to baptize with water as I shall evidenâ—ly demonstrate for thus are the words truely to be read ouâ— of the Greek Therefore ys going forth or forward Disciple all Nations dipping or baptizing them into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit teaching them to keep all things whaâ—soever I have commanded you and behold I am with you alâ— the dayes even to the finishing of the age Hear we see they were to proceed in their work having first waited for power to do it which was to enter people into the School of Châ—ist and then to baptize them into the Name of the God-head Now the Name of the Lord is his strength and power whereby he is known wonderful in the hearts of his people so is the Name of the Lord a strong Tower Now into this name nothing could bring them but the same power from on high which the Apostles and Saints that had first waited for the same in themselves received which power was the Baptism of the Spirit whose effect was like unto fire filling them with a holy jealousie and burning up the drosse and bringing them into unitie with the Father and the Son in the Spirit soÌ„ filling their hearts with joy and gladness and putting words into their mouths and utterance to declare the wondrous Works of God several wayes according to its various workings in them and sometimes even shaking the earthly Tabernacle makiâ—g them to appear unto the blinde world like drunken men this Baptism which was truely Christs own was and is altogether necessary in the Church of Christ without whâ—ch the work of the Lord in his day could not nor cannot go on and therefore was it an Essential part of their Commission which they most carefully and faithfully regarded so that when Persons
Principle yet that the tree is known by its fruit I grant and affirm and have affirmed against all loose and ranting spirits in the world who would have no outward action to be a mark or token of the good or evil tree but the light Life or Principle must not be seperated from the action nor the action from it for if so all a mans righteousness becomes unrighteousness as acted from self in the wrong ground and his knowledge like a cloud without water But as for your objecting against our conversation in the world I say we judge our selves first and espie the beam in our own eye for being turned to the light which makes manifest the least thing that appeareth in us contrary thereto is as a beam which while standing clouds and overspreads the pure presence of God wherefore we are not at rest day or night till the beam be be plucked out and so do we espie and reprove the faults of others who either plead for sin as long as they live or excuse their own iniquity by others failings and yet think themselves safe And this I would have none of you be ignorant of that although we believe perfection to be attainable in this world yet we are very sensible that it is not the work of a day moneth or year but that there must be much waiting many a sigh and groan a great spiritual combate with the Dragon and his Angels within a diligent and expert exercising of the whole Armour of light ere such a State be witnessed but this is our comfort that we are truely turned to that which gives the victory in the end and so are not faithless but believe as also that the Lambs War is truely begun in us who fights our battels for us while we stand still and behold his Salvation with which Salvation some are already saved and others saving so every one in his own measure and order so that in few words if any or all of those things by you objected should sometime appear in or among some of us yet know they are not ours but the evil ones to whom they belong for when we speak of our selves as Saints we mind that which is born of God which cannot sin for that is the Elect Seed which is for ever joyned to the Lord and takes his part against the transgressour and this I will say not onely for my self but in the behalf of other brethren and friends in whose defence I have been moved to make this Apologie that there is never a one amongst us who are truely and sincerely come to the light but do love judgement yea wait for his judgements to be brought to light and forth to victory even as the watchman watcheth for the morning and so far are any such from pleading for any one sin in thought word or deed that it is their meat and drink to do the will of the Father and like gall and wormwood to the pure thing of God in them when it is not fulfilled neither can they be in the least content to shrowd themselves under a Profession of truth so as the more freely to act deceit thereby but both desire and witness a growth in truth and righteousness as knowing that not to go forward is to go backward And as for any that come amongst us and seem to walk with us that are otherwise minded and conditioned then I have declared by the light they are judged and by the truth denied and by the fan winnowed and in themselves condemned wherefore stumble not at the light and truth because of offences for that causeth not the offence but by degrees gathereth all things that do offend out of the Fathers Kingdom and maketh fearfulness in due time to surprise the Hypocrite so God is glorified and his truth vindicated thereby Thus the foundation of God standeth sure to the Seed notwithstanding all such objections and the true Church which is the pillar and ground of truth is appeared in this our day so that none hath any more just cause to disown it for some faults and failings that may yet be found among us then the heathen had just cause to deny the Jews outward to be the Lords people when they came out of Babylon to build the Temple because of some things that were not right and comely amongst them against which Nehemiah contested and which were also rectified which was a figure of Christ Jesus the spiritual King the Rectifier reformer and perfecter of his People And as for some outward gestures and behaviour among men which ye account as trivial and indifferent things know that though they are little in themselves yet as they flow from a pure Principle of God in us which makes us outwardly to testifie against the pride and loftiness of man which is to be brought down in this the day of the Lords exaltation they are of great and necessary use and as for taking by the hand it is a manifestation of equality and unity among friends in the life and to be done from a pure moving and not from a tie or custome but as for yea and nay whatever is more either in word or work cometh of evil And so I shall conclude with prayer to the God of all Grace that as he which hath called us by his Son is holy so we may be holy in all manner of conversation more and more till every thing that offendeth within or without be taken away that so the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth all righteousness may be enjoyed wherein love which the fulfilling thereof doth plentifully flow and not wax cold that the Lord God may be glorified in us and we in him and his Name be written in our fore-heads to the stopping of the mouths of all that oppose the truth to him be praise and glory and everlasting Dominion now and for evermore THE END