denied it as nothing in comparison of the All-sufficiency of the Grace of God and the Word thereof to which only at best he was but a Servant But if it could be manifest that any under or amongst you were Convinced of the Evil of their Ways in some measure and so in their Dark Minds set upon a seeking after the unknown God which is the most can be found amongst you and that rarely neither this is no warrant either for them to stay with you who are Ignorant of the Way out of Sin unto God neither is it any proof for you to be Gospel-Ministers nor your Ministry to be a Gospel-Ministry For the Gospel-Ministry is not only Convincing but Converting and Perfecting Eph. 4. 11 12 13. which work ye have utterly denied and so shut out your selves for ever from the Gospel-Ministry and amongst the Priests of the Letter Law at best must you be reckoned which made nothing Perfect and hence it is that you are such bitter Enemies to the Spiritual Ministration or New Covenant mentioned Rev. 8. And such earnest Contenders for the outward Shadows outward Law Tythes Temples Days Priests c. as is now every where found But for the True Power and Gospel-Ministration it is risen above all your Languages and Tongues and hath darkened the Glory of all your Fleshly Forms and Likenesses And the Babes of God are in Obedience to God turned and turning from you unto this his Power that perfects to God for ever And Pharoah and all his Host will not now be able to hinder Praises to the Lord God for ever Qu. 13. In this next Query thou goest on seeking false Covers to hide thine and your Nakedness asking How can the Quakers Condemn your Congregations because of some Wicked Unprofitable Hearers when Christ himself say'st thou did not Convert all his Hearers And for this thou bringest Mat. 11. 20. and Mat. 23. 37. and Isa. 49. 4. I say all this will not cover your Nakedness Oh ye Teachers nor your Congregations for what have you to do to compare your selves with Christ and his Holy Prophets You that deny the Immediate Revelations and Teachings of God's Infallible Spirit in these Days and instead thereof set up Schools of Humane Learning to make Ministers by O Hypocrites When will you give over perverting the right Ways of the Lord and leading the Blind into the Ditch You that love to be called of Men Master Greetings in the Market uppermost Rooms at Feasts chief Places in the Synagogues as the Pharisees did all which Christ dis-allowed What have you to do to compare your selves with Christ and his Prophets They are not Hirelings and Fighters and Pleaders for the Worlds Gain as you are And so tho' all that heard the outward Declaration or Sound of Christ or his Prophets Words were not Converted yet that makes nothing for you who have only a Sound and so Convert none to God But as I said before beget them into your own Images making them more able to Dispute against the Life of Truth than some others and so greater will be your Condemnation But now your Sheeps-Cloathing being pull'd off the Lord will be Glorified in his Power in the Conversion of many to himself without you For he hath rejected your Confidence and laid waste your Mountain and the Mountain of the Lords House is on the top of all your Mountains in this great Day of the Lord wherein in all the Children of the Lord are taught of the Lord and walk only in his Light which comprehends and teaches to avoid all the cunning crafty Ways of the Serpent and now not in your Congregations but in that Holy Assembly is the Swords beaten into Plow-shares and the Spears into Pruning Hooks and no War any more learned but under the Vine and Fig-tree all sit eating their pleasant Fruits and taking the Cup of Salvation and both Praying unto and Praising the Name of the Lord. But thou say'st we have Drunkards Fornicators c. among us as well as you and that they are with us at our Prayers if we have any and that they are not so severely dealt withal as yours are for thou say'st some of yours cast them out which we do not Answ. Yea thou false Accuser such are cast out from us and from the Church of God and with us they can neither Eat nor Pray but with such as are Ignorant of Christ and the Sufficiency of his Light and know no Light nor Teacher but a Letter without as thou hast manifested in thy Queries they may both Eat and Preach and Pray and when you cast out Drunkards and Fornicators from amongst you you must cast out your selves for in that Nature you and all Hypocrites are and so some of you are Drunk with Wine and strong Drink and some with the Cup of the great Whore some in the outward Fronications others in the inward and some in both so that your Tables are full of Vomit and every Bed defiled amongst you And for the outward Drunkards and Harlots and such like though we cannot but reprove and cast them out in that State yet this we say of them that they may sooner enter into the Kingdom of God than you that judge your selves free and are not for you are so Painted and Conceited that it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of Needle than for you to enter in and this makes your Wound more Uncureable for you neither enter in your selves nor suffer others And for those words in thy Parenthesis whereby thou questionest Whether we have any Prayer amongst us shows thee to be a great stranger to us and our Practice for Prayer with the Spirit and with Understanding we allow and are taught to practice and say with the Apostle Pray continually but the wicked Hypocrites the Lord rejects whose Prayers to God are Abomination and so it would have become thee to have said less of us and to have judged more soberly and moderately of us until thou hast known us better than thou hast done for thou hast little knowledge of us it seems by coming into our Assemblies but only judgest by Here-say and false Reports which brings thee under Condemnation and Shame when the Light now searcheth all things but your Ways and Practices are well known to such as are now come from amongst you and so in that they cannot be deceived And now John Reynolds to proceed I see much of the Wisdom of God in bringing thee forth thus to manifest thy self in thy Queries and the next three Queries that follow do with those already mentioned fully manifest thy great Ignorance of the Reformation of things brought to pass in Christ for the Law had but a Shadow of the good things and yet thou stickest not to plead for it and so thou hadst need learn the first Principles of the Christian Religion which thou remainest Ignorant of before thou be a Christian thy self much more seeing thou takest
ordain Elders in every City with Fasting Prayer and Imposition of Hands if every Person that will may run and ordinarily Preach without any such Ordination And thou say'st you may see how Persons were sent forth to Preach in Scripture Acts. 13. 23. and 14. 23 1 Tim. 4. 14. Answ. To which I say that the purpose of God in ordaining Elders in every City as is mentioned in that Acts. 14. 23. was not that proud and covetous Men who have a little Worldly Wisdom only to talk of the Letter and wrest Scripture by should perk up and set up themselves in the place of God's Elders in God's Church But that in this Church by his Spirit in those Elders the Body might be Edified and all kept in good order amongst them through Love Mind this was the Church of God which was in God 1 Thess. 1. 1. the Body of Christ of his Flesh and of his Bone Eph. 5. 23 24. Not a Worldly People gathered in the Will of Man into a vain Form without the power not I say the Synagogue of Satan who denies Perfection and the Sufficiency of Christ's Light And that there is none knows any thing aright but by the Letter as this John Reynolds pretends is not true for the Church of God was taught of God and the Elders in this Church were not brought up at the Worlds Schools of Learning nor called of Men Master nor Hirelings nor Persecutors of the Innocent as the Presbyters of these days are but they were Holy Men of God of mean account in the World raised up meerly by God's Power out of the Heathenish and Jewish Worships to know Christs Spirit and his Anointing in them which taught them all things and they were not such as got the Magistrate to help them to great Livings and fat Benefices and compel all by his Iron Sword to come in to them but they were Sufferers under the Powers of the World as we are at this day But whereas thou speakest of every Man that is not so ordained running in his own will ordinarily to Preach thou may'st take that to thy self and your selves who never were ordained by the Holy Ghost as they were for when did the Holy Ghost in your Assemblies say as in Acts. 13. 2. Separate such and such for the work I have appointed them unto Nay nay you have run and God never sent you for you never heard his Holy Voice at any time and therefore you profit not the People at all but make them more Cunning to Dispute against the Truth than they were before they followed you But what Ordination of Man had Paul at his first going out to Preach See Gal. 1. he received not the Gospel by Man and went not to Man no not to the Apostles themselves for Ordination and Commission to Preach but immediately Preached Christ as many have done and do at this Day who go under the Reproach of the name Quaker And so God is Restoring his Church to us Primitive Purity and Power to the stopping of the Mouth and confounding the Wisdom of all Flesh whether called Pope Cardinals Bishops or Presbyters that the true Eldership and Body of Christ to God's Glory may again appear And what Rules and Orders are and shall be in this true Church is known to God and by him Manifested and to be Manifested to the Body it self and not to the World for the World must neither have the right Understanding nor Management of those things no more than they had in those Days when it was said I stand not to Mans Judgment for the Holy Anointing must be all in the Church of God for ever Qu. 10. Thy Tenth and next Query is a plain discovery of thy Folly and of thy manifest Enmity against the simple Appearance of Truth in any discovery and though thou say the Scripture is thy Rule yet by it thou canst not endure to be Ruled but plain Language it self is thy Burthen and therefore thou askest how it can be said that ever Christ or his Apostles or Patriarchs or Prophets used the words Thou and Thee when they never spake English And how can it be unlawful for us to use the word You to each other since the same words in Hebrew Greek and Latin that signifie Thou signifie You in the Singular Number also and may be Translated You as well as Thou and so it seems thou say'st 2 Sam. 15. 27. Answ John Reynolds Didst thou Read this Query twice over Or didst thou at all Consider what thou said'st in it Was either the Fear of God or Care of thy own Credit before thy Eyes when thou writest it Surely neither But thou hast judged in thy self with thy vain Thought that because thou hast used to blind thy poor Hearers and make them believe any thing for Truth thou speakest or writest therefore it will be so with others Nay nay the Day is dawned the Lord hath given his People an Eye whereby all Covers are seen through and to this Light thou hast manifested as much Nakedness and Blindness to be in thee as in the grossest of them that say Mass at Rome or read Common-Prayer in English Nay I do believe many of them would be ashamed to argue thus as thou dost to wit because Christ his Apostles Patriarchs and Prophets did not speak in the English Tongue that therefore they used not the words Thou and Thee How came the Translators to Translate their Words when they speak to a particular Person Thou and Thee and never You as may all over Scripture be easily found thou may'st as well say Christ his Apostles Patriarchs and Prophets said nothing at all that is Recorded in Scripture in the English Tongue because they spoke not English so the Lord hath catched the Wise in his own Craftiness but thou goest on and say'st the same words in Hebrew Greek and Latin that signifie Thou signifie You in the Singular Number also and may be Translated You as well as Thou which I say is altogether false for You is not at all Singular but Plural altogether and so the Translators of the Bible knew and therefore never Translated their Singular Term in the forraign Language to you in English but Thou and Thee as is before mentioned and for that place in 2 Sam. 15. 27 thou set'st down and says it seems that You is used to a singular there it shames thee for if envy to the Truth had not Blinded thee thou mightest 〈…〉 that the King speaking to Zadock and saying Your Sons and you speaks not of Zadock and his Son but of Zadock and Abiathar and their Sons as the very words next after and in Verse 29. plainly shew and so here thou hast committed that great Error thy self that thy Generation use to Charge falsly upon us to wit in taking a piece of a Verse that seems to make for thy purpose and leaves out the rest that shews fully the Sense Qu. 11. Thy Eleventh and next Query is
thou would'st prove the thing and it is Acts 19. 37. but the place being well weighed shames thee the more for the words in that place are the words of a Town-Clark a Worshipper of Idols and they are these For you have brought hither these Men which are neither Robbers of Churches as K. James's Translators of the Bible have it but in the Translation of the Bible by Beza it is You have brought hither these Men which have neither committed Sacriledge nor c. if Paul had spoken to him or others and called a Stone-house a Church as ye do it had been something to the purpose but the Heathen speaking there of Sacriledge improperly Translated Robbing of Churches can neither be understood to speak of a Christian Assembly nor the place where they Assemble for the Covetous and Idolatrous Copper-smith and his Rude Fellows matterr'd little what Paul had done to these but this Sacriledge whatever it was it must needs respect something that the Heathen had in great Esteem But thou bringing this to prove that a House may be called a Church because of the Church that may meet in it is nothing at all to the purpose for thou wilt not say it 's like that the Worshippers of Diana were the Church for he that runs without Light must needs stumble if not fall often So J. R. walk more soberly and take some Light along with thee when thou hast to do in such things Then the last thing in this thy Query is a secret Confession of a weakness of thy own Arguments in this matter and thou say'st What tho' the Worship of God be not so tyed to any place as formerly yet there should be convenient places for the Church to meet in Answ. I answer The Worship of God now is not tyed to any set place at all and so all your set places that you plead for are in the will of Man and the true Church God both hath and will order it and provide convenient places for it to meet in though the World cannot hardly afford it on Earth a place to meet in at all And for that thou concludest and sayest What though our Churches have been formerly Abused to Idolatry So were the Temples and Synagogues abused to Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship yet nevertheless did Christ and his Apostles make use of them I answer What use Christ and his Apostles made of Temple and Synagogue of the Jews is in part before declared To which this may be added As for Christ he was according to the Flesh of the Jews made under the Law and so he was to cleanse the Temple a Figure of his Body and fulfil the rest of the Laws Shadows and Customs and so end them all and through the Gospel bring Life and Immorrality to Light and to Consecrate the New and Living Way through the death of all old things for he Nailed them all to his Cross and they died with him but he arose from the Dead and not to bring up the old Dead things again as thou J. R. and thy Generation would have but to make all things New for saith he that sitteth on the Throne Behold I make all things New Rev. 21. 5. Glory to his Name for ever but none can see God in his Throne but in the Light that comes immediately from him which Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World which the Worlds Builders did always deny and reject as they do at this day And for the use the Apostles made of the Temple or Synagogues of the Jews it was as is formerly set down to reason with them there of things pertaining to the Kingdom of God the Jews not the Christians being Assembled there as the Servants of God called by the World Quakers do at this day to bring People both then and now from the Shadows unto the Substance Christ Jesus who hath said of his Body Destroy this Temple and I will build it again in three days and so the three days being come and finished the Temple that is Holy was built again and God Worshipped and Glorified in it but nothing that is defiled or loves a Lie can enter into or be joyned unto it But the Jews were more reasonable in one thing than you Priests of England are for they suffered Paul it seems to Reason with them several of their Sabbath-days in their Assemblies quietly but now if any come amongst you upon the like account that Paul did it 's hard for such to escape your Furious Hands or a Prison in these days Whereby it appears your time is but short you are so unreasonable and full of rage But the use that those Gospel-Ministers the Apostles made of the Jewish Synagogues will not serve your turns O Parish-Masters for unless you may have them in your own dispose to bring the World into them to call you Master and put into your Mouths it will not answer your lustful Mind And so indeed with you that have put the Name of Church and Saints upon the Wild World a great Stone-house Fashioned to Solomon's Temple with an addition of an high Steeple Babel-like with Bells in it seems most convenient though it was not only acused too but even built for Idolatry so much But for the little Flock of Christ in Cities Towns and Villages a less House when they they need one will be as much if not more convenient And to conclude whereas thou intimatest that your great Stone-houses which thou callest Churches though formerly used to Idolatry yet now they are free I say thou wilt want proof for this so long as you continue in the Worshipping and Serving of Creatures and Paul's Doctrine continues true which saith Covetousness is Idolatory unless you repent and bring cleaner Vessels into your Temple than you do Qu. 15. Thy Fourteenth Query was for Set-places now this the Fifteenth is for Set-times and thou askest Had not the Saints in Scripture their Set-times for Publick Worship as well we Answ. Yea I say the Saints amongst the Jews had their Set-times for their Worship better than you for they were under the Law and that was their Warrant but you are neither under Law nor Gospel in Truth but ony Carnal lmitators in your Will sometimes of the one Customs and sometimes of the other as your Self-willed and Self-ended Hearts in your blindness Prompts you unto and so for this I say Love the Light which Christ hath lighted you withal and it will lead you to Repentance from all your vain Observings and in the Light wait that God's good Spirit you may know and receive to Teach you and lead you into all Truth according to the Promise and so wait in the Light that lets you see your wants that 's the Holy Place and wait there for him in his Fear that comes in his own not Man's time and be not as the Heathens that think to be heard for their much wording of it nor spread abroad the Sails of your vain
Imaginations when you Pray as the Hyportes do lest Satan Transformed carry you about and fill you with the Wind of his Frothy Spirit making you believe you Pray with Gods Spirit when it is his own lying Spirit as his Custom is amongst you to work Qu. 16. So thou having spent thy Strength in Pleading for your Set-Places and Times in Imitation of the Jews thou goest in this Query endeavouring to prove your Work on these times in those places from the likeness of them to theirs then And thus as you do so do the Papists for their Customs for they Reason as thou do'st For had not the Jews say they a Temple and Synagogues So we Had not they One High Priest So we who is called a Pope had not they an Altar and Sacrifice outward So we Had not they their Set-Fasts and Musick in their Temples and Quiristers and Tythes and Offerings and such things And so have we say they So saith John Reynold here in this present Sixteenth Query Had not the Saints in former Times the Scriptures Read in their Congregations Acts 15. 21. Luke 4. 16. and sometimes Expounded Neh. 8. 7 8. and Prayed there Verse 6. and Singing David's Psalms there 1 Chron. 16. 7. c. and Blessing the People in the Name of the Lord Num. 6. 23. c. Well this was so under the Law but what wilt thou infer from this that you may continue the Customs of the Jews in such things that follows not unless you will deny the Ascension of Christ Eph. 4. from 8. to 17. for the Jews were under the Law and so they had a Worldly Sanctuary and a Worldly Service with divers Ordinances of that Nature until the time of Reformation by Christ raised up and come again in Spirit and then says God Behold I make all things New and so he that is in Christ is a New Creature Old things passed away all things become New New Temple New Offerings and Service New Prayers Singings Preachings which no Worldly Man can get into but all with the Holy Spirit and with Understanding But thou bringest several places out of the Writings of the Apostles and Luke as in Acts Corinthians and Hebrews to prove that the Apostles and Saints use Praying Preaching Psalms and Blessing amongst them Yea but what is that to you that deny that Infallible Spirit of God to be Head in you that guided them and so get the Worlds Wisdom Acts and Helps instead thereof to make you Ministers and Saints by You have indeed in some things a Form of their Works but the Power being found not only wanting amongst you but denied by you the Children of Light are necessitated to turn away from you and thus to witness against you But thou say'st Christ did not only Read the Letter in the Jews Synagogues but also Preached from a Text of it To which I answer For his Reading he did upon account of being a Jew to fulfil all that Righteousness of the Law in his day till his Offering up but that he Preached from a Text as you Priests do I utterly deny For his doing at that time was only this He being Reading in the Prophet as is mentioned in that Fourth of Luke and in providence meeting with that place which said The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he hath Anointed me to Preach the Gospel he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted c. And the Spirit of the Lord arising in him in Life and Power and Witnessing in him to the fulfilling of that Scripture in himself He was overcome with Love and Glory and so closed the Book and gave it again to the Servant and sate down and so the Eyes of the People were sasiened on him through Admiration and Ravishments of Love and Spirit that was upon him and so as that Living Spirit gave him Utterance in the Silence of all Flesh he spoke to them and Preached in many Gracious Words the fulfilling of that Scripture in the Ears of that Day And this was Christs doing there But O you poor naked Teachers of England c. What have you to do to boast of this Example for warranting your Practice There was no choosing a Verse in a Chapter in the Will of Man which you think you can raise most words from and so consult with your own Imaginations and old rusty Books how you may raise an Hours Discourse from it and so divine to please the itching Ears of Carnal Professors that they may give you outward Honour Glebe-lands Tythes Augmentations Easter-Reckonings and the like to please your Lusts and if need be to Fight for you and lay their Sword and Law upon all that will not hold you up and Cry Peace to you O Hypocrites How have you deceived the poor People with your long wrestings of Scriptures But now that the Spirit of Truth is come it is leading us into all Truth without your help Praised be the Lord for ever And so for Christ his Expounding out of Moses and the Prophets and opening the Understanding of the Disciples to know the Scripture mentioned Luke 24. And Paul's Expounding and Testifying of the Kingdom of God and Perswading the Jews concerning Jesus both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets mentioned Acts 28. is nothing to you who now-a-days instead of Testifying to the Kingdom of God and opening the Understanding to know Scriptures and the Light of the World which they witnessed unto do Testifie of this World Pleading for your Carnal Ordinances Set Places Set Times Bowing one to another and the like as is manifest in these Queries and so instead of opening shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men and so with those of old will neither enter into the Kingdom of God your selves nor suffer others but are under the Wo as you and the People may Read all along in Mat. 23. And for Singing of Psalms it doth not say that the Saints Sung the very words of David and no other and that in Rhime and Meeter in Worldly Tunes after Mens Inventions or with Organs or so but they Sing as the Spirit gave them utterance in plain words as thou may'st Read in Acts. 4. 24. c. Which thou bringest for Singing if that may be called Singing this was a Song by the Persecuted not the Persecutors which in the Persecuted Church of God at this day is often Sung worthy Consideration but a shame for all Persecuting Priests and Professers to take these words into their Mouths And the same Apostle in that place 1 Cor. 14. 26. that saith every one hath a Psalm saith I will Sing with the Spirit and with Vnderstanding so then a Psalm was a Gift of the Spirit spoken forth from the Understanding to the Edifying of the Hearer and they were to be silent when that Gift was Exercised as well as others but your Confused Noises and Temple-songs is but as Howling in God's Ears and his Childrens Ears in this
Eatings and Drinkings are Dead whil'st you Live And so of you that would keep People always in the Figures and Signs saying The coming of Christ spoken of 1 Cor. 11. 26. is never to be witnessed here I demand Whether that Cup which the Apostle said The Cup of Blessing which we Bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ And the Bread which we Break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Body and one Bread for we are all Partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10. 15 16 17. I say Whether was this outward Bread and Wine yea or nay Qu. 19. And in the next Query thou comest over with these things again saying How can those Persons be Faithful to Christ Jesus and Obedient to his Gospel that refuse to Pray and Sing Psalms and Baptize with Water and receive the Lord's Supper I answer and say If any disobey God in any thing he commands them unto whether in any of these things or in any other they are not Faithful to Christ and his Gospel but those People thou here secretly shoots at are taught to obey God in all his Requirings and so to Glorifie him in their Bodies and Spirits which are his and so are we clear before the Lord from this thy Charge and also from that which follows for we Revile none much less those that in Conscience of their Duty to God observe them or any thing else And so the Reviler must lodge in thine own Bed who fears not to Revile and speak Evil of such in these days as in Conscience to their known Duty to God Worship him in Spirit and in Truth But you whose Fear towards God is taught by the Precepts of Men in vain is all your Worship for I Testifie for the Lord that whatever you do though it had the very Form of the Saints Practice of old which yours have not and not led thereinto by the Motion of the Eternal and Infallible Spirit of Life it is nothing but the Precepts of Men and Will-worship and no better than Offering Swines Blood or cutting off a Dogs Neck and for the endeavouring to keep up your Custom of Praying and Singing in mixt Congregations from the Example of Jews or them that follow Christ I say your Hypocritical Praying and Singing is good no where but Rejected of God and I see thy Pâ—ide all along that would be comparing your Congregations to those that followed Christ Nay nay for though there was One Devil yet there was Eleven Saints but when you are searched scarce One of many Twelves that hath any true Fear of God before their Eye is to be found amongst you Qu. 20 And whereas in thy last Query thou askest Whether those Persons that have Experienced the Operation of the Spirit of God in the Gospels Preaching and Administrations Convincing their Consciences Melting the Hearts Humbling the Spirits and Turning them from Darkness to Light and have afterwards Tasted much Sweetness and have felt Soul-Ravishing Comforts in the Enjoyment of God in Ordinances have not the Witness in themselves that God doth own these and Bless these Priviledges to them I answer Yea it is thus with all that in Truth have the Witness in themselves that God doth own these and Bless these Priviledges to them But those People that go under the Name Quakers have to the Praise of God's free Love the Witness in themselves of such Fruits as these amongst them from the Virtue of the Everlasting Gospel and its Administration And therefore we can Witness that John Reynolds and all such as Condemn this Ministry and Work of God amongst us as Heresie or so are Deceivers and that they are Strangers to Spiritual Communion with God whatever in words they may Boast who cannot meet with and enjoy God where we to his Immortal Praise be it in Truth spoken do experience that loving Kindness and Goodness which is better than Life it self And therefore how long may this John Reynolds or any other Seducer or painted Sepulchre talk before ever they can perswade these whom the Lord hath so loved not to believe their own Spiritual Senses and Experiencies But to conclude Whereas this John Reynolds in his high swelling Words of his last Query and the 12 th boasts much of his own and his Fellows Experiencies of Spiritual things I refer the Reader to the rest of his Queries and especially the 3 5 8 10 11 14 15 16 and to the answers to them all and to weigh all in the Ballance of Just Judgment and it will appear to him beyond words what may be Judged of them and us Thomas Taylor 1662 1662 1662. 1670