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
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
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
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
not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdome of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolators nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Theeves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God and of Christ For there shall in no wise inherit there any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie Therefore Christ who hath purchas'd his Church doth also purifie it and cleanse it that he might present it unto himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy without blemish For they are redeemed from their vaine Conversation which they learned from their Fathers and do not after they have once learned Christ and have heard him and are taught by him in truth and as the truth is in him they do not walk as other people walking in the vanities of their darkned minds being through the ignorance that is in them strangers from the life of God But being renewed in the spirits of their mind and the Image of God being restored in them by the power of their new creation in and by Christ Jesus they put off as to their former conversation and manner of life the old man which is corrupt by deceitfull lusts formerly mentioned But they now also put off all this lying and defrauding and stealing and bitternesse and wrath anger clamor evill-speaking foolish talking and unfitting jesting And putting on the new man they now use such language that do edifie and built up others in holinesse and such as ministers grace to the hearers Their conversation being now without Covetousnesse and such as becomes the Gospel And according to their hopes and expectation as knowing that though God of free grace chose them from the beginning to salvation yet the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ must be by and through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth and saithfull obedience And now acknowledging no other Soveraigne but Christ and acted by a spirit of love as sons they live to him who died for them being contented to be or to be accounted any thing so Christ may be glorified in them and by them whether by life or by death And having no confidence in the fesh or fleshy priviledges they worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus Counting all things losse and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord that they might obtaine him and be sound in him not having their own righteousness which is of the law or by the law of working but that righteousnesse which is by believing in Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith And although they know that whiles they are in the flesh they shall not be in all things perfect yet forgetting that which is behind that to which they have already attained as not answerable to their longings they presse forwards more and more toward perfection grieving under their imperfections and longing to be disburthened until they reach the mark they ayme at the price of their high calling whereunto God hath called them in by Christ Jesus desiring in the meane time so to know him by an operative and effectuall knowledge and the power of his resurrection and to have communion and fellowship with him in his sufferings that being conformed to him in his death they might by all or any attaine their part and portion in the blessed resurrection And to this duty of holy walking a believer holds himself bound by his very profession for having by baptisme put on Christ and Christian profession he thereby engages himself as the Jew by circumcision to keepe the whole law so he by baptisme to believe observe and keepe the whole Gospel That very ordinance in its intent purport and signification directing him and pointing out unto him his duty as one specially interested in the ends and benefits of Christs death thereby sealed and signified So that he doth and must conlude that where sin had abounded and reigned in him before even unto death that there now grace and favour through Christs righteousnes doth reign much more to eternall life yet he dares not he may not still continue in his sin that grace might stil abound Nay he concludes as it is indeed it is impossible For how shall they that are dead to sin and so have no more to do with it live any longer therein for they know if they know any thing that as many as are baptized into Jesus Christ thereby baptized into his death buriall and resurrection are baptized and thereby engaged not only to the name profession and calling of Christ and Christianity and to own him in these particular actings But also if they expect to finde reall benefit by the worth and merit of them that they finde the reall and efficacious fruit of all these powerfully by the spirit working in them So that he concludes the death of Christ to be the death of sin And the resurrection of Christ the resurrection of the life of his grace holines Reckoning himself now no longer debtor to live unto the flesh and its corruption but debtor to live unto the spirit and its holy motions And having alwaies an eye to the great love of Christ who by his death and blood shedding hath thus redeemed him He cannot but often thinke upon him and thankefully remember him in and by that ordinance which he appointed in an especiall manner a little before his death for that very purpose wherein he publikely owns him and makes profession to the world of his faith and hope and rejoycing in him And thus Reader thou hast a little of much more that might be written of this great mysterie of godlinesse in which thou hast a rude delineation of Gods method in restoring fallen man into his favour through the whole progresse whereof as is easily perceiveable there runs a continued line and cord of free grace and mercy thus contrived and ordered by him for a threefold reason The first reason respects God himself who hath ordered it in this manner is that he alone might have all the praise the glory If salvation had been attainable by the law of working man might have had somewhat whereof to have boasted and gloried in himself For although that working had come infinitely short in proportion to the reward proposed And although that reward therefore was but upon a free promise And so only to be claimed Not through the worthinesse of the work or worker And although that work had been performed but by strength received from him by whom the reward was promised yet if man had performed the condition on his part required the Lord would
make us all able wise vigilant faithfull and succesfull So prayes he who is The furtherer of thy faith and the helper of thy joy RA FARMER And now Reader having laid before thee this great mysterie of Godlinesse from the un-erring truth of the eternall word revealed in the scriptures I shall discover unto thee a great mysterie of ungodlinesse a mysteric of iniquity and of abhomination even that abhomination which maketh desolate destroyeth all Christian Religion from the writings and speakings in a generation of men called Quakers And here in â—he first place I shall communicate unto thee that which I confesse was the first ground of the discovere of this my sterie unto me and that you shall finde in a beok intitl'ed A Confession of Faith of the several Congregations or Churches of Christ in London which are commonly though unjustly as they say called Anabaptists Vnto which is added Hearts-bleedings for Professors abominations Or a faithfull generall Epistle from the same Churches Presented to all who have known the way of truth forewarning them to flee security and carelesse walking under the profession of the same discovering some of Satans wiles whereby also wanton persons and their ungodly wayes are disclaimed The fifth impression Which Book is signed in the name and by the appointment of the aforesaid severall Churches meeting in London By William Kiffen John Spilsberry and twelve more of them And these men I look upon as competent for this discovery for several reasons first in respect of their residence and habitations sc London a place where if any where all Religions Opinions Professions are to be found secondly the parties themselves sc the Anabaptists a sort of men in many things many of them neer of kin I charge no man in particular but generally they have bin a sort of people much given to Enthusiasmes and immediate Calls Revelations and apt to entertain fantastick dreams and fancies And concerning them I fully concurre with that precious Servant of Christ now in heaven Mr. Cuthbert Sidenham in an Epistle of his before his excellent Book concerning Infant-Baptism and singing of Psalms where speaking of the Opinion of Anabaptists denying Infants Baptism An opinion saith he which hath been alwayes ominous and of a powerfull strange influence accompanied with the most dangerous retinue of errors since the first Embryo of it was brought forth whether by a judgement of God or from its naturall or secret connexion with other principles of darknesse I will not determin Only God hath shewed some black Characters on it in every Nation where it hath prevailed though we cannot but say many Saints are innocently under the power of it Thus farre he Now these men therefore both in respect of the conveniency of the place but especially in the likelyhood of acquaintance and familiarity with this kind of people who mostly have been Members of their Congregations and have departed from them which may be one of the black works before spoken of these Anabaptists may have probablie plowed with their heyfer and so may best unfold their riddle and discover their ungodly Mysterie within their generall Epistle before mentioned after some little Preface they do in these words To all the Churches os God sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place professe the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours Beloved Brethren HAving these many years through the grace and free-mercy of our God been kept in the profession of the Name of Christ contained in the holy Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles and findding the exceeding benefit and comfort of walking with God in some measure suitable to what he hath made known unto us and well knowing that we are called to live in the last ages of the world wherein iniquity abounds and the love of many waxeth cold as likewise considering those peculiar times spoken of in 2 Tim. 3. 1. c. are come upon us wherein men who sometimes have made a large profession of God and godliness are turned aside to commit all manner of uncleanness with greedines having turned the grace of our Lord Jesus into lasciviousness calling darkness light and light darkness by meanes of whom the way of truth is evill spoken of and many poor souls through temptations ready to quit their professions and to be taken with their snares We thought it our duty to declare our utter dislike abhorring and detestation of all such evill persons and wayes who shall under pretence whatsoever plead for or practise any way of ungodlinesse And having been through the goodness of our God inabled to discern the secret and subtill designs and snares of Satan which he hath laid to entrap poor souls in by carrying them from step to step untill they have bin wholly captivated in his snares and fitted by him to do him service We could doe no lesse then according to that measure of light we have received from the Lord to discover his wiles and stratagems and to caution all that professe the feare of the Lord to watch over their own hearts and ways and to take heed lest they fall into the same condemnation For this we have found that that way which God in his infinite wisedome taketh to bring souls unto himself by viz. the presenting unto men his great love in giving Jesus Christ to suffer death and his great salvation to all that believe in his name Satan that old serpent through his instruments under the specious pretences of beating men off from all false rests endeavours with all his strength to oppose and make void perswading the sonnes and daughters of men that what is declared concerning the death of Christ at Jerusalem and his bearing our iniquities in his own body upon the Crosse is but a meer History and shadow the Scriptures are but a letter and the Ordinances of God but fleshly forms thereby labouring to beget in the peoples mindes a contempt and sleight esteem of Christ his Word and Ordinances and that he might cheat them to purpose tells them of a God within and a Christ within and a Word within and that God and Christ and they are one without any true distinct knowledge of the true meaning of that which is expressed whereby poor souls with great and swelling words of vanity triumph in a great mysterie of meer nothing but emptiness and confusion speaking things whereof they know not and many poor souls knowing such expressions to be Scripture phrases do greedily embrace them without a true distinct and clear understanding the sense of what is spoken having the persons of those who speak such language in great admiration as the chief tender charitable knowing high and spiritual Christians Whereas indeed although the words spoken by them are many of them true in themselves without which Satan could not so effectually deceive as that God and Christ and the Spirit dwell in us and that God and Christ and the Saints are
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