God are made and live That soul that is awakened and risen with Christ to live in the light of the inner world or new Creature and to slide from thence forth unto the darke world in the works of righteousnesse and true holiness is the soul that brings his Talent out of the earth it to improve Quest Who are they that hide their Talents in the earth to their condemnation Answ Men that sin away the light and Spirit or promise of the Father made out in their Spirits and consciences by the noble wisdome of God woing and importuning them within in the Center of their souls to turne unto the Lord and so love darkness rather then light to their owne condemnation or rather men who love to live below in flesh and sin and this creation or world rather than above with the Father and the Son making out love and truth and grace in their Spirits to bring them reconciled to God these are they who hide their Talents in the earth to their condemnation Quest Where is it and by what that God speakes unto man Answ God speakes unto man within there he stands in the gate of the soul and by many invitations woings operations which are as so many Angels or messengers of love and life he entreats men to come in and be saved as it is written Looke unto me and be ye saved for I am a God and there is none else This inward speaking of God is backed likewise with outward speakings from the heavens and earth and things that are made from the Scriptures which are a firme testimony and witnesse of the mind of God to man sometimes from Mercies sometimes from judgements sometimes from the words or mind of God put into other mens moneths All which varietie of witnesses declare the one will and mind of the Father which he is pleased more immediately to declare within by his owne voyce Quest What is that which unto the gentiles is manifest shewing unto them what of God may be knowne Answ It is the truth of the Deity or the eternall power and God-head which teaches them by the things that are made to owne and glorifie a Creator and so the unthankefull and stubborne are left without excuse Rom. 1. 20. 21. Quest. What is its operation in all from the rising of the Sun to the going downe thereof Answ The light and truth of the Deity which is manifested to and shewed in every man from the things that are made teaches every man to owne a God and to worship him and so to abstaine from evill and do good which operation being choaked and abused by most hence these wallow in the mire of sin and wickednes and superstitious vanities being given up thereunto by the Lord as a just punishment for their loving darkenes rather than the light of God Quest What is the flaming sword which turnes every way to keepe the tree of life Answ It may be the Administration of the Law within which as a light or flame shewes every man his sin and shame and so as with a sword cuts him off every way in the midst of his best actions performances and obedience from entring into life by his owne power Or the fierceness in the anger of God which turnes every way to keep every uncleance person and thing from entering into the Paradise of God to eat of the tree of life till it be washed and cleansed from its filthines as 't is written Rev. 21. 22. there shall in no wise enter into the holy City any thing that is unclean c. Quest What is the City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt Answ All the unregenerate world which are as Sodom and Egypt full of sin and wickednesse or the Antichristian formal Church which strouts it out with a shew of wisdome learning letter and History as if it were a well built City or a true Church of God but within is Wolvish Envious Dogged full of blood cruelty and persecution against Christ and every appearance of Christ in his saints This is the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was crucified And in her is found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints and of all that are ssain upon the earth In brief Egypt and Sodom are the kingdome of flesh and darknesse where Christ and the true Church are presecuted and crucified in Spirit Quest What is the language of Egypt Answ Egypt speakes nothing but bondage and warre to the people of God Egypt cannot endure that an holy Church should grow up in his dominions he will murder Abell or the innocent still Egypt is all for himself to manitaine himself in greatnesse and pompe and dominion in the world to rule and be a great potent Lord in the flesh If hee preach or pray or read or hear or appear sometimes as a seeming holy man yet all is ayming at his name greatnesse and credit in the world His heart cannot cleave to and love the Son of God He must persecute and devour the poor and needy in the earth This is the language of Egypt or that which Egypt declares Quest What is the cry of the wildernesse and what is the language of the wildernesse and whether thou wert ever in the wildernesse yea or nay Answ The wildernesse unto some is a state of confusion sin and death where God is not at all remembred minded or known The wildernesse unto others is such a state wherein the soul is awakened by the voice of Christ within to remember and mind the Lord and in the midst of all its confusions to cry and long and wait for his revealing coming manifesting And in this wildernesse I have been and here I have cryed been payned and the Lord hath heard my supplication and delivered me from my feares and brought me out into a wealthy place or into a condition of love joy rest and fullnesse in himself Further the wildernesse unto others is a condition of temptation which the Lord sometimes leades his people into to try and refine them and to make his might and power known in their preservation deliverance salvation Unto others yet the wildernesse is a condition of solitarines and retiredness of spirit where the soul is carried away from the fashions and practises of the world as likewise above the tumults rage and violence of the world sweetly to solace herself in her beloved and to walke in his way which is a way of peace light and holines The cry of the soul in this state of lonenesse is all for God and the will of God it s risen as it were out of the world and gone away from all other company to enjoy a fuller sight of the Lords beauty and to have a more exact communion with his Majestie And this is a wildernesse a gracious heart delights much to be in Quest What is the language of Canaan Answ In Canaan is heard the voice of peace love and meekenesse
priest-hood he cries out wilt thou believe nothing but Scripture Thus the man can add and take away at his pleasure though such are accursed of God Gal. 1. 8 9. Rev. 22 18. Further applying the speech of Christ unto himself before Abraham was I am I asking him whether he was not ashamed did ever Saint apply that unto himself He answered he understood it of the Spirit that was within him blasphemously applying the Divine Spirit that dwelt in the Son of God to the filthy Spirit of Belial that dwelt in him And yet this man must be perfect sinlesse and infallible But to let him alone with his father the Devil and to come to another with whom I had some dealing by conference and by questions and answers and replies on both sides This man was one Thomas Lawson who had a companion with him This man and his companion I finde contradicting the other in two things 1. Lawcock he owns the sufferings of Christ but not his dying yet another time both his suffering and dying But Lawson scoffs at the sufferings and dying of Christ in the flesh as none of his Crosse as you shall see in his papers Here 's no Harmony you see amongst the Quakers but Quaker against Quaker one against another 2. Lawson's companion told me he was Christ and what he spake was Scripture This Lawson yielded unto by his silence But Lawcock denied this speech and his brethren in it though he said in effect as much when he cried out Before Abraham was I am yet he would not be Christ Still here 's Satan divided against Satan and so it must be that his Kingdom may fall And yet these wretched men delude poor people and say that at the meetings of Quakers in the North when there have been three hundred and five hundred Quakers together they have been all of one heart and one minde and so they are indeed being all under the power of the Prince of the air the Spirit that now works in all the Children of disobedience where I leave them in chains of darknesse to the judgement of the great day As concerning their questions propounded to me in writing I gave them but a brief answer not minding to make any thing publick unto the world knowing mine inability to come forth in print in the midst of such a variety of judgements abroad yet receiving a reply from Lawson full of lying and railings and evil surmisings I was pressed in my spirit to give some satisfaction unto my friends of these mens folly and madnesse as also of mine own experiences in the dealings of God with me so far as concerns the matter in hand And therefore my dear hearts put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand in the midst of all the windes and storms of Satans fury lean to the Rock Christ wherein is everlasting strength to keep you in this hour of temptation and confusion Own the unity of the spirit the seed of God in all your companions in tribulation and make this the bond of peace All ye whose faces are toward Sion fall not out by the way Live in peace and love Though there be a variety of wayes thither according to Gods Divine dispensations yet in all the wayes of God there is an Unity and Harmony as they tend to one point and center of rest and joy in himself Make him thine aim then he is the Sion we are all going unto Be not discouraged by the way though some draw back others grow weary others step aside others revile and blaspheme Look thou to God he is thy father thou art his Son and Heir Let all thy knowledge and wisdom and light and graces and comforts thou hast received from God make thee not great and high and something but little and low and nothing still in thine own estimation Take heed of Thorns and Bryars and Chaffe and this untoward generation of Godlesse shamelesse men And so I commend thee unto him who is able to keep thee from falling and to present thee blamelesse before the Throne of his glory to whom be praise and dominion in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages world without end Thine in the Lord Magnus Byne The scornfull QUAKERS ANSWERED And their railing Reply refuted Quest WHat is the first principle of pure Religion Answ The first principle of pure Religion is the Son of God dwelling in us He is the band of union between God and us or an Emanuell God with us He who lives in this principle is taught to be Religious And so he is bound and tied by love to worship the Father in Spirit who is the Center into which all Religion runnes and where all that is pure stayes Quest What is the Yoke of Christ Answ It s the Fathers work and will This is easy to the Son because of that spirit or principle of love that dwell's in him to his Father which moves him naturally and affectionately to do the will of his Father and to finish his work And this is the yoke that lyes upon every Christian Quest What is the Burden of Christ Answ It s his sufferings under all the weaknesses infirmities and sins of the world from the beginning thereof to this very day who is therefore called the Lambe slain from the foundation of the world This is light to the invincible Spirit of Christ who alone is able to overcome evill with good though the least reproach or suffering be a grievous load and burden to the weak low Spirit of flesh and blood which centers and lives no higher than self and this creation And this is the burden of every Christian which through faith is made light and easy to overcome as it is written Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith 1 Joh. 3. 4. Quest What is the Talent which to every one is given to improve Answ It s that measure of the light and truth which is given to and manifested in every man which comes into the world as it is written of Christ He was the true light which lighteth every one who cometh into the world John 1. 9. Quest What is the Crosse of Christ and what doth it tend unto Answ It s the crucifying dying and suffering in the flesh which the head and all the members must and shall passe thorow or be baptized with before they enter into the glory of the Father which tends to the burning up of all fleshly visibilities discoveries enioyments dispensations that are temporall and shadowish that the Father and his Son and Sonnes may live in that oneness of spirit and glory where God shal be all in all Quest Who are they that bring their Talent out of the earth it to improve Answ Those who through the eternall spirit arise from under all the rubbish of the elementary world whence and where all bodies by the strong Word of
and misery and translated me into the Kingdom of his dear Son where I have righteousnesse peace and joy and that in power which makes these things in me unspeakable and full of glorie Quest Who baptized John the Baptist Answ Even he baptized him by his Spirit into his administration who sent him first forth to baptize with water he being the first who was called to that baptisme of water had no need of the baptisme of any other but of him who sent him Quest. Whether is Jesus Christ the end of all figures Answ Yea I look upon Jesus Christ as the end and fulfilling of all types and shadows he being the substance for whose sake all figures were ordained and when he is come the figure disappears or the shadow flies away Quest Whether Jesus Christ baptized any with outward water yea or nay Answ We read that Christ was baptized himself with water by John who was the Minister of water but Jesus Christ himself never baptized or administred water in his own person John 4. 1 2. Quest Whether John was a Prophet And whether Iesus Christ be the end of the Prophets and prophetical figures yea or nay Answ Iohn was a Prophet nearer the more clear Revelation of Iesus Christ than the rest and therefore more in the light for a greater Prophet than Iohn hath not risen and yet as other Prophets he was one rather upon the account of the Law than the Gospel For he who was least in the Kingdom of God or administration of the Gospel was greater than he Matt. 11. 11. Now Christ is the end or fulfilling of Iohn and the rest of the Prophets and their shadowish ministrations and all the Lords people under the ministration of Christs reign within are made Kings and Priests and Prophets unto God in their own persons Quest Whether he whose Commission is in Ink and Paper without him be not a Minister of the Letter and not of the Spirit one that walks by tradition and imitation and not by command and so shut out of the true ministerie Answ Such an one I look upon as a Thief and Robber because not entring in by the door of the Spirit within into the sheepfold And though these men speak the words of Moses of Christ and other holy men of God yet having no experience of the truth and enjoyment of what they speak within hence they can be but Lip-Ministers and make but Lip-Christians being rather mockers of Christ and his Spirit in the Saints than Ambassadours from Heaven to awaken Christ in mens consciences and to set him up to reign as King and Lord in mens Spirits which is the end of the Lord by the Ministery of those whom he sends Quest Whether Iesus Christ who sent forth Disciples sent them to spread abroad Iohn and his Ministery who was a Prophet or himself who was the end of the Prophets greater than Iohn who baptizeth with the holy Ghost in whom alone is salvation yea or nay yet who owns him sets every thing in its place time and season Answ The end of Christs sending out to preach was that thereby the Nations might be baptized not into the name of Iohn or Peter or Iames or Paul but into the name of God that they might understand and know God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent that men might become the Lords Disciples and not the Disciples of men and so we finde the Apostles not preaching up themselves but Iesus Christ the Lord and themselves servants Apostles men sent to minister as they had received And the main drift of their preaching we finde was to declare the Gospel glad tidings of grace and peace through Christ unto the Sons of men to open the mystery of Christ which was hidden from former ages and to entreat men through Christ to be reconciled unto God to bring to a receiving all from Christ and to a placing all in Christ who of God is made unto all his wisdom righteousnesse and redemption and that by way of Spirit and power working all these in their Souls In brief Christ sent out his Disciples to declare himself to preach salvation in his name and to perswade the vvorld to faith and meeknesse and love and self-denial c. through their taking in Christ to work all these in their Souls And yet they were to give every outward person and ordinance God was to make use of or had made use of before its due respect plate and season Quest Whether the baptisme unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea was outward yea or nay Answ The baptisme unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea I take not to be literal but metaphorical and a typical baptisme The Cloud typically holds forth the presence of God overshadowing protecting and defending them from their enemies And their passing through the Sea on dry ground when their enemies were overwhelmed and drowned holds forth the wonderfull power of God in their deliverance and defence These were two great Declarations of Gods power and providence towards that people by which they were baptized unto Moses that is confirmed in the truth of his administration and so taught to believe God and his servant Moses whom he had sent by a strong hand to bring them out of Egypt into Canaan Quest. Whether the one baptisme which Paul spake of who was not sent to baptize was with outward water or with the baptisme of Christ who is greater than John Answ The baptisme which Paul cals one is the baptisme of Christ upon all his whereby they are baptized spiritually into an onenesse of nature with himself as their faith is one so their baptisme one Quest Whether that baptisme which Peter witnesseth to have which was not the putting away this filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ was with outward water yea or nay Answ This baptisme the Apostle here speaks of must needs be an inward thing wrought in the soul by the resurrection or appearing of Christ there in spirit through whose coming the conscience comes to be cleansed from guilt shame and fear and so the soul can go unto God cheerfully and safely as one saved through the baptisme or spiritual work of the Son of God within Quest Whether that cup of which Jesus Christ sayd that henceforth he would not drink of the fruit of the wine till he did drink it new with them in his Fathers kingdom was an outward cup yea or nay Answ This cup and drinking in the Fathers kingdom must needs be a spiritual cup and drinking for in the Kingdom of God there 's no eating and drinking of earthly fruit all is heavenly and Paradisicall there 's no eating and drinking of any thing but what flowes from the nature and spirit and fulnes of the Father Quest Whether any outward cup be drunk in the Kingdom of God yea or nay Answ There 's no carnal sensual cup
of the flesh I live and so my latter end is worse than my beginning Answ Though thou say so yet know that I have found out sin by sin and it was well that God did awaken me though by sin It may be thine eyes see not what this means though thou art the seer Further know though I am vile in one sense yet not guilty in the sense of the world neither acquainted with many of those things which they falsly lay unto my charge where I am guilty I have grace in me to trouble me to humble me to groan in me for deliverance to make me more vile then thou canst make me and yet to keep me from returning into Egypt again but to wait for a full power to sin no more which if it might be in thy sense I should be glad but in the sense of the Scriptures I know it shall be made good and what that is thou canst not learn but by enjoyment Repl. And the baptisme in the death of Christ thou tellest me I do not witnesse neither a planting into the likenesse of death for the Crosse of Christ thou knowest not neither doest in it live by which thing this baptisme into his death is witnessed Answ 1. I finde thee still full of condemnation and yet Christ saith he was not sent to condemne the world Joh. 3. 17. but that the world through him might be saved 2. With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of thee or of mans judgement yea I judge not my self but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 3. Thou Hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brothers eye 4. Remember the death of Christ the Crosse of Christ when thou passest under thou wilt finde work enough at home but thou hast spared thy self pitied thy self slain the just one that thou mightest live and reign thou hast cried out let him be crucified that I may live in his stead and say I am he Where the Crosse of Christ hath had its power there the first man is condemned flesh withers the poor Soul is ashamed of his works and sins But thou art full and rich and high and sayest I am not the man I never Crucified the Lord of glory Judas thou knowest suspected not himself and in this Traitor see thy self and know thy own spirit 5. If I am not as I long to be yet I see the bloud of Christ cleanseth me from all my sin the Crosse of Christ makes me not to spare my self or sin I have Jesus who was dead but is alive in me making void all my glorying in flesh and bloud and he is bearing witnesse to my Crucifying and to his resurrection which is my glory And though thou a man charge me with folly yet he the true God declares me just in himself and he goes on Conquering and to Conquer and what he sees amisse in me he will tame subdue and bring under and tell thee to thy face thou art a Satan is not this a brand plucked out of the fire Therefore friend do not thou fansie a perfect knowledge of the Crosse and yet remain a stranger to the Crosse by living out of the vertue and power of it which makes all flesh as grasse and to wither as the flower of the field It is Christ in me that is my glory and his life in me springs out of his death and mine and makes void all my glory and he by his bloud and power sets me free from the condemnation of sin and the Law and he keeps me alwayes in his eye and he searches my errours and failings out to nail them to his Crosse As for that place thou quotest 1 Joh. 1. 5 6 7 8 9. look upon it better and take the tenth verse too in thy minde and see how thou canst have sin and no sin for so the Apostle saith plainly in all the Saints there 's no sin and yet there 's sin in all otherwise we make God a lyar and his word is not in us Neither is this to plead for sin as thou sayest for there 's a vast difference between saying such a thing is and such a thing out to be That the Saints have sin is a truth written in Scripture and in every mans conscience for there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sins not But that the Saints ought to have sin this the Scripture cries ought against and calls upon us to purge out more and more therefore be not alwayes catching and snarling this is not a Christian practice but let thy sin go thy exalting of thy self go and it may be thou mayest finde out the Crosse of Christ a little more exactly yet and learn better what it is to be Crucified with him and so mayest eat of his flesh and drink of his bloud Thou tellest me Repl. I know not the one baptisme which by the Spirit is witnessed which baptizeth into one body 1 Cor. 12. 13. in this body is no sin into it no deceit enters every sin that is committed is without the body Answ Thy prating words cannot make void my glorying in the Lord to thee I say the one spirit I have which witnesseth the one baptisme which is one in all the Sons of God bond or free The spirit is one the baptisme one the body one but the Members are different and have all need of one another and therefore ought not to murmure or make a rent because every one is not an eye an hand a tongue as thou doest and so sinnest within the body and committest fornication with thy self but a Member against the rest of the body making the body a Monster even all one Member not all the Members one body that thou thy self mightest be head and Members and all and so thou who makest a rent from Christ and a rent from his Members what doest thou but make a division in the body and commit sin within the body crying out of one Member he 's a Baptist of another he 's a Presbyter of another he 's a Prieâ—t And so thou ownest not every Member in its place and lookest not upon that baptisme which is one in all the Sons of God But when thine eye is open to see this thou wilt own a Member though low and weak and love a Member whoever he be and thou wilt seek to draw him indeed more into the Unity to rejoyce more in the Lords works than his own and yet thou wilt leave him in the variety to be usefull in his place to other Members of the body But all this thy great wisdom comprehends not And whereas thou makest as though every Member of Christ were free from all spot and sin because every sin that is committed is without the body 1 Cor. 6. 10. By body in that place is meant the outward Fabrick of every man in particular which ought
The scornfull QUAKERS ANSVVERED AND Their railing REPLY refuted BY The meanest of the LORDS Servants MAGNUS BYNE Beware of false Prophets They come unto you in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly are ravening Wolves Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God Because many false Prophets are gone out into the World LONDON Printed by William Bentley for Andrew Crook at the sign of the green Dragon in Pauls Church-yard 1656. To the READER DEar friend I speak to thy conscience in much tendernesse unto thy Soul Learn to fear the great God more and more For blessed is the man that feareth alwayes Wait upon the Lord and he shall renew thy strength Go unto him as unto thine exceeding joy Love all the appearances of his Son as the comfort of Saints in all generations Watch over thine own heart Stand in awe and sin not Let the Lord come into his Temple and Worship him alone Take heed of every gin and snare of the old serpent who is in a great rage because he hath but a short time Be sober and quiet in thy Spirit and hear the Lord speak His word is nigh thee within thee walk in the strength of it and this will keep thee from the paths of the destroyer Long in thy Spirit to see the new Jerusalem the new Heavens and the new earth wherein dwels righteousnesse Let thy moderation be known to all men for the Lord the desire of all Nations is at hand Stand still be calm be meek and thou shalt see his salvation Let thy Spirit groan and travel in pain with longing to see the Lord arising to work For men abused by the old Dragon seek to make void his Law And among all the vanities which I have seen under the Sun take heed of the two foolish blind mad generations of Ranters and Quakers The former of which I have seen the Lord scatter and appear in great wrath to consume rebuking the evil Spirit in them and laying them open to their shame among their enemies The latter of these I have had some dealings with and finde them more furious and raging than all that have gone before them and notwithstanding all their shew of holinesse wisdom humility temperance yet by a little dealing with them I finde nothing but impurity folly pride madnesse even to admiration and wonder in all their doting questions fowl mouthed answers vain janglings railing accusations even as if Satan had left all others and brought all his power along with him to fill their hearts and tongues with all manner of blasphemies and evil speakings against all others but their own deluded party And strange it is to see how Satan in them is divided against Satan Satan rails blasphemes and then to save himself cries out 't is Satan he blasphemes and and rails at in others The Devil mocks jeers scoffs rages in their filthy hearts and tongues and when he is seen and manifested by his carriage to be the evil one presently he condemnes himself and sayes 't is the Devil all my fury is powred out upon 't is him I condemne in men and women not the similitude of God the man or woman to whom I speak Thus the Lyar and the Murderer in these men raging speaks to excuse himself from his lying and murdering by perswading simple people 't is himself he aimes at And yet such a strong inchantment I finde in this mad carriage that some poor Souls are even overcome with their violence and have thrown away not the light and grace of God onely that once appeared in them in shew but even their reason and humanity too and subjected themselves to this carnal yoke for fear of being still condemned by the Devil Take one passage of a great Prophet of their own one Tho. Law-Cock who meeting at one Goodman Matthews house near me was called aside by the woman of the house of good report but almost turned a Quaker to whom the woman in kindenesse said Sir will you eat something which I have provided The Quaker replied What shall I eat with Devils and Dogs and pointing to a Dog There 's thy Companion thy fellow-creature of the same nature with thy self saith the Quaker and shall I eat with thee a Devil a Dog And was not this a good argument at the first meeting to perswade the woman to be a Quaker And when the woman began to reply something to excuse her great sin of asking this man of God as he calls himself to eat he opens his box again and calls her Whore and Harlot and was not this another good argument to perswade her And yet this woman and the man too begins to believe in the Quakers and to admire their light and power lusting after the painted image and innocent spotlesse religion which thâ—se poor deluded wretches have set up and made And as they have dealt with this woman so with some others whom I know prevailing with them and upon them even by the same Magical power of Satans workings in them Therefore it behooveth us all to look to our building upon the Rock to our interest in the holy one of God to our receiving and walking in Jesus Christ the Lord rooted and built up in him that so the gates of Hell may not prevail against us Further a little to lay open this blinde seer Lawcock at one meeting with some Baptists he was demanded whether Christ suffered and died at Jerusalem His answer was That Christ suffered but Christ did not die and yet it was not Christ who suffered neither but that which was born of the Virgin See here his contradictions of himself and his contempt and denyall of the death of Christ And yet afterwards at another meeting being in the presence I charged him with this and he presently cried out Thou lyest I acknowledge Christ both suffered and died and yet this man must be infallible in the midst of all these contradictions against himself Further at the same meeting when I was present and beginning to lay open his folly the Quaker exhorting to meeknesse and silence and the like but presently falling a railing cursing and roaring against Priests and hirelings I asked him in patience how these speeches could hang together we must be meek calm quiet but he must roar and rage At the first dash the man cries out thou lyest thou art a beast and the like and entreating the man to sit down and be meek according to his own speech he foams out his own shame still A litte after wondring at the madnesse of the Prophet at the trouble and torment of the evil Spirit in him I desired him to speak but two words of sense and reason and I would be silent the man roars again Thou art a belly-god thou art a beast And is not this a goodly Apostle Prophet Teacher Let all men judge that will not be like the beasts unreasonable Further desiring a Scripture to maintain something he spake against the
Here 's no judging murmuring complaining dividing persecuting murdering These are the wayes of Egypt and Babell In Canaan there is rest from all the works of Egypt and darknesse Here 's unity in the midst of variety Here all are looking into the onenesse into the pure image and nature of the Father and this light keeps harmony and agreement between all the sons of Canaan And so in Canaan there 's joy melody singing Halleluja's Here the world is not mentioned flesh and bloud is not at all remembred with delight the former things are passed away and all is become new God alone is made mention of to be Lord and King and set up upon the Throne for ever Quest What is the vail which divides between the holy and most holy Answ It 's the flesh of Christ and all outward dispensations which divide and keep Saints whilest in weaknesse and bondage though holy in some measure from entring into the most holy into the substance truth it self or into the choisest glory of the father This vail of flesh in Christ was rent when he suffered death or was crucified in the flesh Through which death or rending of the vail of flesh he entred himself and made way also for us to enter into glory Hebâ— 10. 19. 20. Having therefore boldnesse to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh And when this vail of flesh of letter and shadows and outward dispensations is rent and crucified by the eternall spirit in the true Christian then he the Christian enters into the holiest into the glory and joy of his Father Quest What is the death which over all men is passed and how camest thou to live Answ It 's first the breaking of the body or this earthly Tabernacle which comes upon all without exception for sin Rom. 5. 12. Secondly it's the dying unto Paradise and the Kingdom of God which man hath drawn upon himself by his lusting after and eating of the fruit of the four elements By this lusting and eating he becomes infected poysoned in his minde and will with the fruit of the Sun and Stars And this is the taking and eating of the Tree of temptation and his leaving the Tree of life and the heavenly fruit And thus he becomes an earthly man and dead Death stickes in his minde and soul and man is dead to all feeding upon God and the Son of God who is the Tree of life Man can no more feed upon the fruit which grows upon this Tree of life which is Christ till Christ awake and arise in the center of his soul and carry him through all the Trees of temptation or the pleasures pompe and glory of the outward world into the inward or holy pure element of this spirituall body and pure nature and there awaken him to eat of the Tree of life and live for ever And this is the way whereby I and all the Sons of God come to passe from the spirituall death into the spirituall life in the pure nature of Jesus Christ Quest What is deaths reign from Adam to Moses And to Moses how didst thou come Answ From Adam to Moses there was no law written without all the law was within upon the conscience here was the rule or law which God gave the worlds to walk by Now the world acting against this light and law within kept sin in the world from Adam to Moses for till the law viz. given out by Moses sin was in the world Rom. 5. 13. Now sin alwayes brings men under the reign of death and so death reigned over all from Adam to Moses All had a law given within otherwise they could have had no sin for where there is no law there is no transgression Now mens breaking of this inward law was their sin and this their sin brought them all under the power and reign of death And thus it is still though there had been no Moses to write Gods commands in outward tables or Scripture yet the law being written within upon the conscience by the finger of God we sinning against this law do plunge our selves into the reign of death wrath and condemnation we kindle the Root of the fire and that being awakened makes our Hell or self-comdemnation within because we have sinned against our light Now by this light and law within we come to know Moses and that all the law she hath written are holy just and good because we finde the same within that he hath written without and nothing without but what is in spirit and power within Quest. Who are they which sin not after the similitude of Adams transgression which till Moses death reigned over Answ They are infants in years according to some who although they sin not actually after the manner of Adam yet they have sin and death written in their nature according to the weaknesse of this creation Or they are infants in knowledge who although they have not such full discoveries of the minde of God and such strength to stand as Adam had and so their sin be not so great as Adam which is to sin after his similitude yet they have a plain law within as before which bids them not act or eat that which the Lord forbids They living contrary unto this law fall into sin and death And in this childish condition are we all sound till the Lord quicken and save us Quest Art thou called immediately by the great God of Heaven and earth into the Ministery yea or nay Answ That Ministery I act in I have the anointing of the Spirit which doth sufficiently warrant my call But as for those who are called through Arts and Sciences and mens ordinations without this anointing I know they are the Pillars of Antichrist which I cannot own for the Apostles of Christ My calling teacheth me to renounce my fleshly wisdom and to live upon the grace and love of God commending that manifestation of the truth that is in me to every mans conscience in the sight of Christ Quest Hast thou seen Gods face yea or nay Answ To see the invisible God with carnal eyes I never did nor shall for no man hath heard his voice nor seen his shape but with the enlightned minde I have in some measure seen his face nay his heart in the precious revelations and discoveries of his Son towards me in love which Son is the face and heart and brightnesse of God opened in love wherein he shews and speaks forth plainly his exceeding kindnesse and goodnesse to all his Children This face of God I have thus seen which is more to me than a thousand vvorlds Quest Hast thou heard Gods voice immediately from Heaven and earth yea or nay Answ I have heard his voice as I have seen his face viz. inwardly spiritually which voice of his hath fetched me out of the grave of darknesse sin
I should be a lyar like thy self yet I finde to the praise of Gods rich grace that his sicknesse is unto death his body cannot be cured but by the Word of the Lord I shall destroy him and so in all his appearances he is seen And though thou plead his cause like a man well feed strongly against me yet he and all his Angells must to their place go where I leave thee with him in thy dark imaginations romping up and down to perish in his Kingdom unlesse the Lord arise mightily for thy deliverance But thou tellest me again Repl. I am found in the pollutions of the World in the spots thereof living in disobedience to the minde of Jesus Answ I know there is none can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Though I have not attained unto what I desire yet I have through grace still the victory in the end and I am not in the flesh but in the spirit according to Gods account and here I know all things shall work together for my good and not withstanding all thy hard speeches yet mine own conscience bears me witnesse that with my minde I serve Jesus not my self or any other man in the World and so am not seared Repl But thou tellest me In the children of disobedience the Prince of darknesse rules even the beast which all the World wander after Answ And so say I the whole World lies in wickednesse and are obedient to the Prince of darknesse in fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind and so wee are all till endued with power from on high and fetched out of this grave by the voice of the Son of God Repl. Thou sayest further When my measure I have filled up among the beast of the field and the Lamh have gored with my Hornes apace yet shall a band about my neck be put and tormented shall I be Answ As for the beasts of the field I leave thee to wander up and down with them in the field of the World till the Angell thrust in his sickle into the earth and gather the Vine of the earth and cast it into the great wine-presse of the wrath of God yet I desire thy life rather than thy death And still I say read thine own lesson over in thine own heart I know no band about my neck but the Lords work and will this keeps me from goaring the Lamb this makes me to own the Lamb still and this drives me still whither I with Christ would go into the sweetnesse and fulnesse of God where I can lye down and sleep in peace In mine answer to another of thy questions thou tellest me Repl. I am telling what the beast is and the number of his name whose number is 666. Answ Here I finde thee again shifting and scoffing and the reason is because thou wert discovered to be in the number of the beast this the wisdome of God saw afarre of and gave that answer to thy question as a sword to wound thee though thou spare and hide thy self For look the answer and compare thy spirit with it and see how right thou art in the number of the beast For art not thou one who cries out I am a God that cannot erre yet to the man that hath understanding though thy party be deluded in the midst of all thine imaginary fulnesse in thy self thou art but a poor miserable man that lies in errour this is the number of all thy wisdom 't is but fancie darknesse it is not wisdom and this is the summe of all the wisdom of the beast But thou art telling me Repl. Here is wisdom among them who are in it knit and from on high this wisdom is and was before the world was in it is no sin guile or spot Answ Here thou art lifted up on high to be without sin guile or spot and yet art blinde crafty subtle to say thou hast no sin and so thy sin remained upon the score I know the wisdom of God is high deep incomprehensible and was ever is and shall be ever the same and in this there is no sin or spot But what 's all this to make good thy dream of thine own party of knowing as they are known now and of being as pure in this earthly body as the Saints are in the heavenly Art thou as wise and as spotlesse as the wisdom of God is Ask thine own conscience and stiflle it not But go on Repl. In this wisdom and understanding thou sayest learned is the Vnity out of it the number Answ Well then out of thine own mouth art thou judged not to look upon or be in the Unity but in the number and so to make the number or variety the cause of dividing from the Unity where the Unity is appearing couldest thou be looking upon the Unity and not be telling of the number thou wouldest learn to love the Unity in the midst of variety and not cry out so much upon the variety or number where there is the Unity But to let thee alone in thy fancie though it condemne thy self Repl. Thou sayest That I who out of the light am turned am out of the Vnity and so in loftinesse in scoffing pride covâ—tousnesse fair speeches customes of the world Answ And why may not a Quaker be guilty of all these If but of one in form then of all in spirit And so to apply to thy self this Art thou not still lofty scoffing jeering cousening the simple exalting thy self idleing up and down to live upon other mens labours under a pretence of preaching the Gospel which is not the Gospel but thine own fancie vision and blasphemy many times against the Tabernacle of God and them that dwell in Heaven And are not these some of the ill nay worst customes of the world And so according to thy fine talk of the number of the beast thou art found even thou in his spots living out of the Unity which is the nature and work of God thou seest in others In the number of a man which is the variety of wickednesses in the world these thou art found alive in and making thy self great too in thine imagination at the sight of a number or variety of forms and failings thou seest many of the precious ones of God in bondage too much unto Repl. Further thou tellest me My head plots deceit Answ I could wish mine head were a fountain of tears that I could weep day night for all the deceit in the land for all the abominations that are done in the midst of this untoward generation And I can desire freely the Lord to consume and destroy all the deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse that is nourished in them that perish because they believe not the truth that they might be saved Let them be consumed by the brightnesse and coming of the Lord I have no plots in me against the very worst of men but can let them alone from being
teacheth me to plead for gifts Answ God and the Magistrate are one in work that which the Lord gives he leaves to the Magistrate to give under him and that which the Magistrate disposes of confirms maintains and gives in outward things that is of the Lord or according to the wisdom and providing of God who hath the heart of the Magistrate in his hand and turnes it which way he pleaseth so that the Magistrate as a figure of God is to imitate God in Justice and righteousnesse to look to the Lord and observe his carriage and heed his minde and will and to carry himself as the Lord doth towards men in wisdom justice and righteousnesse seeking to maintain peace liberty freedom property in this unruly world and so Tythes being a peculiar property which the wisdom of God hath directed the Magistrate to dispose of partly to the Ministers partly to others when the Magistrate doth this God doth it which the envious one cannot see but cries out blasphemy And no wonder though ye deny the lawfulnesse of this Act of the Magistrate who is but the Lords Steward seeing ye deny the Master of the house and would be wiser than Christ or man to have all at your disposing As for gifts or rewards out of the will of God I desire them not I know he is my shepheard I shall not want and though thou pray for nothing from him it seems as though thou stoodst in no need of his bread gifts and providence yet be sure if God should withdraw his gifts and favours never so little thy subsistance beauty strength life body and spirit too would soon mourn languish and wither away for want of the Lords mercies Repl. But Christ thou sayest put an end unto Tythes and is not changeable Answ If Christ put an end unto Tythes more than to any other outward property then Tythes must be a peculiar figure of something which was to come and yet in all thy wisdom thou couldest not tell what Tythes was a figure of when I put this to thee thou wast silent and thy companion with thee yet afterwards thy friend opened his mouth and said that Tythes was a figure of spiritual good things to be given out by Christ and when I demanded a Scripture to maintain that he pawsed a little and said he was Christ and what he said was Scripture Lo what your wretched blindnesse and envy hath brought you unto but to let that alone Let me demand of thee to shew a Scripture which hath put an end unto Tythes in the Letter Nay that hath either forbidden or commanded any property to all to be enjoyed or not enjoyed of a Christian in outward things It speaks indeed of forsaking Houses Lands and the like for Christ of being as the Lillies and the Sparrows And we read Act. 2. 44 45. of a Community of possessions and goods among the Saints which thy companion denied and said he was for his property and why not another as well as he Further the Apostle speaks of using the world as if we used it not so that the Gospel is rather against all property than commands any at all And yet the Saints of God surely may have possessions in the world but the Gospel no where commands or forbids this or that in outward things onely we ought to sit loose to the world to all things as well as some and in what state we are in therewith to be content And when you are in this frame your hearts will be levelled more than they are to all outward things and you 'l plainly see that God hath forbidden rent as much as he hath forbidden Tythes And if you have any command for your rent or any other property shew it and I will shew you the same command is as much for Tythes and if God hath put an end to Tythes he hath put the same end to rent and hath taught us all in the midst of all outward things to be as having nothing and yet possessing all things But thou sayest Repl. God gave not Tythes to his Disciples and Apostles who laboured painfully in the Word Doctrine and so surely he hath given it to swarm of locusts who live in ungodlinesse Answ The same say I God gives nothing to the wicked as a blessing but as a curse to them and yet he hath given Tythes to maintain the Ministers of his in this Nation as much as he gave his Disciples and Apostles any possessions in the world all being at the disposing of the Son the Heir to give to whom he pleaseth Further thou sayest Repl. A Minister must be Hospitable But here thou fallest fowl upon the charity of the Priests of England who Judas-like must have their bags filled and their barnes with that which others have painfully laboured for Answ But what if the Lay-man as they are called take Tythes must he be a Judas a Thief an Hireling too because he takes his property of Tythes where it is and from others who have laboured to till the ground for him But yet this man who doth nothing for his Tythes and yet takes it as due by Law is not cried out upon usually onely the Minister is reviled for Tythes or maintenance though he labour and take pains diligently in the Office and place he is called unto But why doest thou speak of Judas Did Judas take Tythes And fill his bag with Tythes that Ministers are like Judas in their Tythes By this thou wilt unawares give us an argument for Tythes But the Judas and his bag take unto thy self who wanderest up and down to sell thy Master for a piece of bread and betrayest his Gospel truth and bloud into the hands of sinners to get thy self a name and fame in the world And therefore thou biddest all others stand by I am holier and wiser than thou thou art a Traitor a Judas a Thief and sinner But I have no sin I am a Prophet Apostle Minister of the Gospel Nay I am Christ the Lord who am come to judge the world And so with thy light wanton Spirit which runs a whoring after thy flesh and self thou allurest with swelling words of vanity those who were escaped from them who live in errour again to come and live in errour And so taking no notice of thine own pride doing all to be seen of men and praised of men and accounted a Christ and God though a dark enemy to God and Christ I say taking no notice of thine own pride thou criest out against others for cuffs gaudinesse rings-hoods vails which Christ forbad thou sayest 1 Tim. 2. 9. And friend where thou seest these things used without modesty shamefacednesse and sobrietie which becomes women professing godlinesse there thou mayest vaunt and cry out aloud in thy boasting spirit that thou art not like other women and as the Priest of England are in outward pride though inwardly thou exceedest them all But to end this prattle of Judas
and women thou sayest a Minister must be Hospitable but how and with what thou knowest not give he must but wherewith to give he must not have All Tythes maintenance set wages gifts that 's Antichristian All rewards either from God or men that 's Balaam-like as thy wisdom calls it and yet the man must be Hospitable But let him preach and trust God for maintenance And so say I too Let Ministers preach the Gospell be instant in season and out of season beseech men to be reconciled to God not to this or that form custom tradition or outward societie but onely in the will of God unto God and the truth of God and the people of God in all fellowships scattered up and down the world Let Ministers do their duty and trust God for their maintenance who in the midst of all the peoples murmurings against this grievous burden of Tythes doth still make provision for his Ministers in the Nation God who takes care for Oxen takes care for those who tread out the Corn who break the shell and dispense out the word aright unto the people though the envious hard-hearted world every where repine and murmure at this provision which the Lord makes Repl. But this thou sayest both is a taking of that which another hath painfully laboured for Answ And yet this by wise men is looked upon as no oppression Tythes being a peculiar property that no man can call his own but he to whom the providence of God and the wisdom of the Nation hath given them and though it be out of anothers labours yet all Rent Customes Taxes Use are the same payes out of other mens ventures labours paines and yet the taking of them looked upon as no such grievous oppression and sin as the taking of Tythes though with much moderation by a Minister But thou sayest Repl. Let the prisons in England judge of the Priests Hospitalitie who cast the Saints into prison some prisons have five some ten twenty twenty four of the Children of God in them Answ This I own not the putting Saints in prison especially if it be for conscience towards God those who are guilty of this have a sad account to make But yet it is not the suffering but the cause that makes the martyr A man may suffer much endure much hardship grief bonds yea and death too and yet not suffer as a Christian with Christ nor for his sake and if any suffer thus what glory is it For a man may suffer as a Murderer as a Thief as an evill doer as a busie body and that many thus suffer it 's apparent And so it behoves you to be well advised for what ye suffer before ye glory too much of your sufferings as Saints But thou comest to tell me to whom my Hospitality reaches Repl. First to mine own back and belly who live in excesse and scorn such as do not then to feast Drunkards Ranters and prophane persons and to spend the time in laughter mirth folly vanity c. Answ All this is but the devise and vision of a Quakers spirit as for fine cloathes and feasts and carnall merriments I have seen vanity and madnesse in them and can be as well content without them as the strictest Christian Neither hath any company or people at any feast or meeting been so welcom to me as the Son of God As for Ranters and Atheists and men that under a conceit of being above ordinances Ministers and all worship of God have lost all Religion and appearances of grace take all those to thy self for these usually are the people that go to the making up of thy foolish building Further thou tellest me Repl. My moderation freedom and enlargement in matters of Tythes will not colour over my deceit Answ Yet all thy railing lying envy shall not make me forget my moderation and freedom in this matter or make me guilty of that deceit pride fulnesse excesse vanity thou layest unto my charge Neither shall all thy fury against the Priest-hood provoke me to plead for any of the carnall false Priest-hood who preach for lucre gifts and rewards or the like All that I aime at in pleading for the Ministery is this to make this out in thy conscience and I know it is evident there already that God hath still a precious seed in the Ministery that in our age and ages before there have been and still are some in the Ministery that have been and are precious lights unto the Saints of God men that have stood up boldly against the idolatries superstitions inventions and sins of the Nation in their time according unto their measure of grace These are men whose weaknesses the Lord covers and whose spirits he still keeps up to commend the truth to every mans conscience in the sight of God These I have seen a strong Angell protecting and providing for and all the Ministery fare the better for their sakes These are men whom the Father pleads for And though I finde too much folly selfishnes in the best of us all yet look upon any form or way in the Nation and there you may finde the same and see we have all cause to put on patience meeknesse brotherly kindnesse charity to be subject one to another in love and to walk humbly and meekly with our God And though ye are a people that are risen up above all and pretend to a light that is infallible in every particular and to an estate free from all remnants of sinne yet I know and am perswaded by the Lord that both the light within and the light of Scripture makes it out plain to your conscience that in many things ye are dark ignorant doubtfull selfish high-minded carnall and so walk as other men And though I know you 'l say the new man sins not and ye are dead indeed unto sin and the bloud of Christ grace of Christ have purged away all our unrighteousnesse and we are as God is and as Christ is in this present world All these and the like I know are high expressions of the Saints freedom dignity and honour yet they never make use of these and the like Scriptures to any other end or purpose than to set forth what they were in Gods account grace and favourable acceptation and to comfort and encourage one another in the midst of all their weaknesses and infirmities with the new birth the new man the work of God upon the heart within in which is all the fulnesse and happinesse and compleatnesse of a Christian in this world This is the use they made of such Scriptures to highten the grace of God and to further their glorying and consolations in the Lord And yet in their flesh they saw no good thing and in themselves they were conscious of errours and sins enough to be humbled for whilst in this body of clay as we see in Job David Paul and others of the precious ones of God And so to
speak a word to thee Remember from whence thou art fallen thou art fallen from thy light within thou hast lost thy tendernesse to the Saints of God because thy light within is turned into utter darknesse and now in the deep darknesse thou art high in thine own imaginations Nay thou art I am and there 's none besides thee and so thou ragest and art furious against every one that sees thy nakednesse and blasphemie Why poor vile worm where art thou and what art thou Thou art like the Egyptians flesh and not spirit thou art a man and the son of man that shall die a man full of infirmities and sins like all others of the sons of men Nay a man of sin in all thy proud exaltings of thy self a lyar a false Prophet thou art who criest out I am Christ the son of the most high lo here lo here In all this hast thou grieved the Spirit of God sinned away the promise of the Father made use of the light within to wrest the Scriptures to thine own destruction which light teacheth thee to fear the Lord alwayes for thy good to glory and triumph in him as in thy life and joy This light reproves thy drunken spirit thy wanton heart that is so farre in love with thy proud flesh that thou must needs be Christ and God This reproves thy scoffing jeering nature thy seeking to destroy the weak ones for whom Christ died This light shines in thy darnesse but thou comprehendest it not and this tells thee to thy face thou art ignorant bruitish foolish and knowest little of the mysteries of God and Christ and what thou knowest doth but puffe thee up and make thee forget thy Maker and yet loath thou art to be seen and made manifest to thy deluded party and therefore thou hatest the light of Christ and Gospell of grace and unwilling thou art to come to the light lest thy deeds should be discovered and though thou talke of being redeemed from the earth yet thou knowest not the earth wherein thou dwellest thou canst not see the earth in thine heart set nor how thou thy self art the earth wherein thou livest And here thou art rich and wise and honourable in this earth of flesh and bloud and knowest not that this earth must passe away and all the works that are therein be burnt up and consumed because that in it dwells no good thing Therefore thou proud wretch that art lifted up to heaven come down from thy Throne and see thy shame see where thou livest even where Satans seat is in that which is called the the old man the Serpent Satan the accuser This is thy nature thy seat and habitation where thou dwellest And up and down the World thou goest like thy Father to devour the noble seed of God that thou alone mayest be the seed the King the God and all Therefore be wise for thy self look home turn thine eyes inward be not alwayes like the fool abroad Thou hast a great work yet to do Nay all thy work yet to beginne which is to deny thy self Thou hast almost all the weaknesses blemishes errours sins of all the forms abroad centred in thy self and therefore lay the Ax to the root of the Tree hew down thy self or rather let the Lord do it for thee he is wiser and stronger than thy self he 'l search and prove and try what wickednesse there is in thee and lead thee in the way everlasting Know in all this I am not thine enemie mine aime is at the destruction of Antichrist and the man of sin in thee and fain I would see thee what thou pretendest to be holy harmelesse undefiled separate from sinners according to some measure of Christ learning to see the Father in the face of Jesus Christ and then thou wilt soon fall down at his feet and say I am a man a poore drop of the bucket one who cannot in all my search finde out the Almightie in his perfection he is high and deep and incomprehensible but I am vanity a weak poor shallow thing and so I cannot but in admiration of the Lord wisdom and knowledge say How unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out Who hath known the minde of the Lord or been his Counsellour For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever and ever MAGNUS BYNE A REPLY TO LAWSONS ANSWER To 28. Questions Wherein his darknesse and bitternesse are still manisted by the same Authour MAGNUS BYNE Quest 1. WHence the name arose and whether you own any such thing as the trembling and quaking of the body and flesh which hath befallen some at your meetings and whether that may not be a delusion Ans The name arose and is cast upon us by Ismaels brood a generation of scorners Repl. Ismaels brood are scorners indeed and this Spirit in thee calls me Priest Hireling c. and so thou art hereby witnessed to be of that generation of scorners but wisdom is justified of her Children Answ Further the thing quaking we own and the power of it as the Saints of God have alwayes done Repl. And why not then the name seeing names are but shadowes of things themselves and if the thing be justified by wisdom the name which is a manifestation of the thing must needs likewise be justified but me thinks I see your guiltinesse and knowledge of the thing to be a delusion that you are so offended at the name as for the trembling and quaking which the Scriptures intimate 1. It ariseth from an emptinesse of God a state of division and separation from his presence in love and light and so it belongs unto Devils and wicked men James 2. 19. the Devils believe and tremple Isa 33. 14. the sinners in Sion are afraid fearfulnesse has surprised the Hypocrite and again the wicked man shall not feel quietnesse in his belly in the fulnesse of his sufficiency he shall be in straits God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him and so they are like the troubled Sea peacelesse restlesse and where this fear is there is torment Hell because a sense of wrathfulnesse and anger began no taste of perfect love which casteth out fear this trembling is a sad judgement of God and a certain fore-runner of weeping and gnashing of teeth for ever see it threatned Deut. 18. 64 65 66 67. the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and thy life shall hang in doubt and thou shalt fear day and night at evening would God it were morning and at morning would God it were evening for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and see the world filled with this fear Psal 14. 5. and 53. 5. there were they in great fear where no fear was and the issue of such is everlasting woe Rev. 21. 8. the fearfull and unbelieving shall be cast into the lake of fire 2. There is a trembling at the coming appearing of
spirit of the Lord or from thine own private spirit doest thou in all this rule well and over thine own will What judging and condemning for thou knowest not what Where 's thy ruling well now what like the world observing and scraping up every thing which thine own fancie makes an abomination and then charging this upon the seed of God Surely thine heart is like a City broken down and without walls and therefore nothing almost comes from it but clamouring bitternesse and evil speaking and what 's thine end in all this but to make thy self righteous and another wicked thou sounding brasse that keepest a tinckling where 's thy charity in all this love covers a multitude of sins but thou makest a multitude of sins where they are covered by love and so thou condemnest thy self not to be the Elder that rules over thine own spirit and therefore fie upon all thy profession thou who pretendest to be a Lamb an holy man of God and yet still found in Ismaels generation Quest 5. What is that provision every one ought to make for his own family seeing he who provides not for them of his own house denies the faith and is worse than an infidel Answ That provision every one ought to make for his family is to fly idlenesse ranting and waiting the creatures of God upon his own lusts and not to live on the sweat of other mens brows which who denies denies the faith and is worse than an infidel Repl. Here the Quaker is seen and known and judged out of his own mouth as one who through his lightnesse denies the faith learning under a pretense of preaching to be like the wanton widdow idle wandring about from house to house and not onely so but a tatler also and a busie body speaking things he ought not neither understanding whence his spirit comes nor whither it goes not labouring at all in the thing that good is but creeping into silly peoples affections with his shew of wisdom and humility and will worship clamouring against Magistrates Ministers Tythes Customes damning men for wearing Ribbons Cuffs Lace Rings Pins Bands Hoods Veyls Points c. and for using the civil expressions of humanity in pulling off the Hat shewing some respect love honour duty unto fathers mothers masters superious friends comers and goers about these and the like ceremonies and toyes they make a great noise and win here and there an Athiest a Ranter or some discontented people to feed upon their dregs and then to feed their hungry bodies this is their great businesse thus to add unto their fathers Kingdom by railings lyings flatterings and all that come in are cried up for Saints and Children of the Kingdom but such as receive not their Doctrine and vanities and put not into their mouths must be ipso facto excommunicated for Dogs Devils Beasts Swine Belly-Gods Bulls of Boshan Whores Antichrist Witches Sorcerers behold thy model and thy spirit friend and see thou thy self in this Looking-glasse of thine own making how wanton thou art waxed in the midst of all thy framed gravity refusing thy Saviour to be married unto a delusion in all which thou hast denied the faith and art worse than a Pagan and all that regard thy pride superstitions works of superarrogations instead of making provision make destruction for their own families forsaking usually Fathers Wives Children Families callings occupations and so cloath themselves with rags and ruine and woe But thou sayest robbery for provision the Lord hates and so say I all that use a deceitfull way to get provision by the Lord abhors but surely friends the Office of a Minister anointed and called of God is good for others they are thy forefathers strikers and railers I dare not plead their cause and the preaching of the Gospel by men sent of God is no idle imployment and maintenance from the people to whom we preach is no robbery for provision seeing it is a provision due to the Lord out of all mens substance and so no deceitfull way to provide for our families and yet the murmurer must still be wiser than God that made him Further thou sayest I run unsent to provide for my family aiming at lucre this is robbery to which I say he who sent me is the Lord by his will and power am I anointed to preach and that which he aimes at in me and by me is to catch men and to make his word a savour of life or death and what he has reserved and taken and kept for my use is no robbery to take though thou prate neither will the Lord lay this to my charge as dishonest gain as the accuser do's or tell me I sell his word for money which is not bread as thou who knowest not the word for the word is life and substance and though it take not such effect upon many as it ought they may thank thy father for it for he has stollen it away from their hearts all that I can do is to commend it to the conscience and he that has an ear to hear will hear Further thou sayest many infidels will labour painfully for their families but I live on the sweat of others mens brows and what do the Quakers then who run up and down without callings without labouring at all the thing that good is wandring up and down to foam out their own shame making it their work to sow discord among brethren living wholly upon the sweat and charge of other men deluding the people with their moderation in eating and drinking that they may the better insinuate their ceremonies and delusions and in all this they have denied the faith and are worse than infidels as for my part God has set me in my calling I act in commands me to keep in it to preach the Gospel to break his bread to the hungry and to give water to the thirsty and in this work of the Lord I finde abundance of recreation being never better satisfied than when I have occasion to preach the Gospel and this I shall do with cheerfulnesse still though many mad ignorant folk be offended at preaching and many offended at me that I live upon that allowance of Tythes which God has sanctified for my use and given me freedom to take with thanks-giving Quest 6. What is that Election and Reprobation the Scripture speaks of and whether they have relation to persons or things or both Answ That Election is Christ Jesus and all that receive him wherein the Election is in him are Elected and the rest abide under the power of darknesse where all are Reprobated who are out of the light in their own wills and know not Christ and to such persons they have Relation Repl. Christ indeed is the stone dis-allowed of men but chosen of God Elect and precious but Christ without his Church do's not comprehend all the Election the Scripture intimates but Christ together with his Church makes up the Election of God and so
though all the Members be living in him and Elected in him yet he without them is no compleat body and so no full Election and therefore as the Election takes in Christ so all the Saints of God and whereas thou sayest all that receive him wherein the Election is in him are Elected this is true if thou understand it of the manifestation of Election to us so our receiving of Christ declares to us that we are Elected and adopted of God but if thou understand it à priori of the cause and ground in God of our Election as if he had therefore Elected us because he foresaw such and such would receive Christ then thy speech savours of an old errour for this builds Election upon the foresight of merits faith and power in man to receive Christ and so it destroyes the grace of God for if Election be by grace meere grace then it is not at all upon forseen faith and works otherwise grace is no more grace read Rom. 11. 5 6 7. And so though we receive Christ because we are Elected in him Eph. 1. 4. Yet we are not therefore Elected because we do receive him all being according to the Lords good pleasure to the praise of the glory of his grace and so as 't is in the outward world there was the image or idea of every thing first mente divina in the divine minde before it came forth in the creature not first in the creature and then in the minde of God that could not be seeing the creature was not so in the spiritual world the Church things were first in God as in their ground not first in the creature and then in God and so the idea of our Election was first laid up in the Lords minde counsell grace and good pleasure not in our acting believing and receiving Christ his beloved for this no man can do till it be given and so this building Election upon our receiving Christ is a building upon the sand upon something no man where it is not not upon the Rock which is the grace and good pleasure of God and so it makes voide the nature of grace and our Election though vain man that would be wise and something cannot receive this Quest 7. What is the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace and how ye were led out of the first and established in the second Answ The Covenant of works is that which man doth from the letter thereby to get life and the Covenant of grace is that written in the heart where Christ is the Light Life and Law-giver and by him the Law is fullfilled in us who walk no more after the flesh but after the spirit and by his light were we led out of the first and by his life were we established in the second Repl. This being a sober answer I could wish it were written in thine heart and proceeded from the life and power of that Covenant where all is written and sealed within And friend if it did so though the Letter would not be unto thee as the life yet it would never be slighted by thee being a witnesse unto the life Joh. 5. 39. much lesse would so much of the Kingdom be placed in some of the lesser observations of it when the weightier are neglected though none that live in the Kingdom will account any command of God small and much lesse yet wouldest thou make the commands of God of none effect by thy traditions neglecting the Law of faith of meeknesse of love and peace because thy ceremonies and traditions are neglected by others if you ask wherein ask thine own conscience and let that be thy witnesse and testimony in all which thou art found still walking more after the flesh then after the spirit Quest 8. What is the state of sin and wrath which all men are in and under by nature and how ye were led out of this estate Answ The state of sin is a state of condemnation and wrath from God separated in which all are by nature but by that light which is contrary to nature are we led out of this estate for he 's given to be a leader Isai 55. 4. Rep. What can poor fallen Adam or man do till God comes quickens him by a word of promise given in a spirit of power for I find the state of nature is a state of sin deadness darkness as to the things of God and the life of God wherein there 's no power to believe nor light to turn us towards God and in this estate there 's a departing from God still through unbelief and a wandring in the dark after the desires of the flesh and minde and so a separation from God and a coveting to hide our selves from his presence amongst the things that are made because we finde nothing due unto us by reason of sin and nakednesse but condemnation and wrath and so we are by nature children of wrath till the Lord in mercy and great love quicken us and raise us up through the second Adam revealed in us to live in him who is our light and life and so the onely leader of lost man out of the former state of sin and wrath and so he 's given to be a Leader and Commander by being an inward witnesse of love to us and all to free us from the Law of sin death and condemnation Quest 9. Whether any in this life are totally freed from the remnants of sin and darknesse seeing Paul saith now we know but in part and he prayed for an increase of knowledge in the Saints and Peter exhorts to grow in knowledge and Paul complains of a body of sin of a Thorn in the flesh of the lusting of the flesh against the spirit and James said in many things we offend all and John if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Answ In the life wherein thou livest is no redemption from sin for that is it which cannot bear good fruit Repl. To which I say I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing for the flesh is flesh still and sinfull still and cannot bring forth the fruit of God which springs from a new birth but in the life of Christ in me or that life which springs from the new birth there is redemption from sin and this is that which brings forth in me fruit to God Answ Further to the death of the Crosse must thou subject and obedient be else not know that life and birth which is free from sin Repl. What I am I am through the grace of God and this grace abounding towards me has brought over my flesh that Crosse whereby I am in measure Crucified and so have tasted and known that birth which is free from sin Answ The life of the new man who witnesses is free from sin Rom. 6. 6 7. and 18. 22. Repl. All the freedom from sin which this
Scripture mentions I own knowing that the body is destroyed and dead and my Soul as a bird delivered from the snare Answ Further the second birth sins not 1 Joh. 3. 9. and 1 Joh. 5. 18. the second birth is without guile and spot Rev. 14. 5. and Christ is manifest to take away sin and he that abides in him sins not 1 Joh. 3. 5 6. Repl. All this I own rightly understood but 't is much besides the question for the question is not whether the new man sin but whether the man in whom this new man is manifested sin or not seeing that which is born of the spirit is spirit and that which is born of the flesh is flesh the spirit cannot sin but the flesh can do nothing but sin Rom. 7. 17 to the end and Gal. 5. 17. there you may see the two births the two men flesh and spirit and what their actions are and yet I own a taking away both of the guilt and power of sin where Christ is manifested in the new birth Answ Further but thou takest Tythes and so deniest Christ who takes away sin Repl. By the same argument thou mayest say to a Magistrate Souldier Landlord Labourer thou takest custome pay rent wages therefore thou deniest Christ who takes away sin Answ Further but Christ thou sayest has as much power to cleanse man as the first Adam to defile man Repl. Christ has more and greater Rom. 5. 15 to the end That which defiles do's not come from power properly but from weaknesse or want of power but that which cleanseth comes from the mighty power of God and yet though man be not cleansed God is not to be blamed for who art thou repliest shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Rom. 9. 18 19 20 c. Answ Further I who lived in the wayes customes fashions pastimes and vain recreations of the world it is high time for thee to plead for sin in this life Repl. This is but thy clamour neither do I plead for sin but for the truth of God witnessed both by the Letter and spirit unto all that are not fools and blinde and thy denial of sin Satan and Antichrist to be where they are either in power or part is the old trick of the evil one to hide himself where he is and that too many have drunk in this poison and say with their hearts and practice though not with their tongues Stand by I am holier than thou thou art a sinner a Satan an Antichrist I am none that many are under this sad delusion it appears by their clamouring and condemning all that worship not under their green Tree and whether thou and they are not greater friends to the beast and sin that dream in your hearts you have no sin and so are lifted up than those who confesse they have sin and so are kept humble meek and low which of these are the greatest friends to sin I leave to the light to judge Answ Further if all have remnants of sin when then must man be cleansed seeing as the Tree falls so it lies and no unclean person no unclean thing must enter into the Kingdom when is the time of cleansing is there a purgatory after man be turned into the dust Repl. The time of cleansing is here here we are not in the flesh but in the spirit that we may be comforted and yet in the flesh as well as in the spirit that we may be humbled God beholds no iniquity in Jacob and yet Jacob sees iniquity in himself all his iniquities are covered that he may be blessed and yet his iniquities sometimes appear that he may be lesse than the least of all his mercies Friend there is a purging here a real total thorow eternal purging in Gods account who reckons Saints by his grace and yet whilest the flesh remains it will hanker after the flesh and beget such breathings after self and things below that many times the best will see cause enough to mourn and to long after a dissolution when they shall see their enemies again no more for ever so that here needs no Purgatory after this life sin is here condemned destroyed and in part executed and when the dissolution comes 't is bid farewell to all the Saints of God and left to inhabite here below something here of this thou mayest call a contradiction 't is so unto the blinde 't is not so unto the wise Answ Further all who are led by the light of Christ into his life as they come and abide so are they totally freed from the worlds life and power of sin and darknesse and to lead up to this was the Saints exhortation into the Unity out of the woe into him who is but one in whom is all truth and no sin nor self nor deceivings Repl. All who are led by the light of Christ so far as they come and abide in his life spirit through his light and leading so far no farther are they freed from the life of worldlings and the power of sin and darknesse and the end of the Lords spirit by his exhortations unto others in his messengers and Saints was and is to perswade them more into the Unity of the spirit through the bond of peace that so they might be kept from the woe of sin and darknesse through a dividing from this spirit and might learn to live in him whose light and life is one in nature though not in measure in all the sons of God and he who walks and lives in Christ and Christ in him is so far delivered from sin and self and deceit into all light and truth as he walks and abides lesse or more in a sweet manifestation of his life in Christ so that Christ manifested is still the standard and measure of all our light and truth and redemption from sin and darknesse and if this manifestation were full and compleat in this earthly house what need the Saints groan and wait for a dissolution 2 Cor. 5. 1. to 10. and for the appearance and coming of Christ in glorie 1 Joh. 3. 1 2. and through hope of this endeavour still after the Lords purity verse 3. waiting for a full enojyment and discovery of their adoption or of that unto which they are adopted Rom. 8. 23. Answ Further Paul saith we know but in part we Prophesie but in part 1 Cor. 13. 9. and so say I in the time of Prophesie man sees but in part and knows but it part Repl. Friend why doest thou here in thine ignorance like others to cover their ignorance wrest the Scriptures Paul sayes we know in part and we Prophesie in part and thou turnest it thus In the time of Prophesie indeed man sees but in part and knows but in part Paul do's not say in the time of Prophesie we know but in part but according as our Prophesie or Vision is so is our knowledge both but in
would not I finde a Law that when I would do good evill is present with me I finde a Law warring in my members contrary unto the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity unto the Law of sin which is in my members O undone man that I am c. Wilt thou imagine that this was all warfare with sin without witnessing no peace but a sword to the earth or if thou mean by earth for thy words have alwayes a double meaning the earth within in the time of his warfare how canst thou see in him a freedom from this earth or a freedom from all remnants of sin the like may be said of that Thorn in the flesh mentioned in the Corinthians in with is this remarkable that it was after his abundance of visions and Revelations being caught up into the third heaven and into Paradise where he heard unspeakable words even after all these enioyments he felt a messenger of Satan buffeting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was sent to strike me on the face with his fist as it were to upbraid me with mine inward pride and pronenesse to be exalted above measure did Paul witnesse this and canst thou see no pronenesse in thy self to sin and pride Surely thou art joyned to thine idoll and God lets thee alone to perish for want of vision Answ Further did Paul cry and groane all the dayes of his life and witnesse no deliverance did he alwayes fight and never overcome Repl. Paul never fought but was still more than a conqueror by the grace of God he had deliverance and victory still through grace and greatest deliverance when he was most sensible of his infirmities and therefore in the Lord he could Triumph and sing though in himself he was still nothing Rom 8. 2. 32. c. Col. 1. 11 12 13. And so may every Saint who lives in the light say in the Lord have I righteousnesse and strength in him I have all things and so in him will I glory and though there be a fleshly minde and will sometimes stirring in me yet greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world and so he can run his race with patience wrestle with boldnesse fight with courage and when he comes to die cry out with Paul I am now ready to be offered the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is layed up for me a Crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day Answer Further its true James sayes in many things we offend all Jam. 3. 3. here James speaks winningly for the seeds sake for the raising up of the simplicity Repl. Here 's a simplicity raised up in thee indeed by thine own evil heart and this thou lovest and this hides thy sin and folly and makes thee wrest and play with Scripture and so James must speak winningly for the seeds fake what wilt thou have James a lyar or an Hypocrite in telling the people that he and all did in many things offend and yet have no experience of this in his own Soul surely thine eye is out and darkned by the smoak and so neither Paul nor Iames nor the raising of one up from the dead will ever perswade thee to be humbled for thy sottishnesse and so Scriptures are of no force at all with thee But thou goest on and sayest that Iames in the 9. vers sayes with the tongue we curse men was Iames a curser or was he an offender in many things But to reply Iames was under the powerof no evil and yet he declares a pronenesse in himself and all flesh to run into sin and when thine eye is opened thou wilt see in thy tongue a fire a world of iniquity and how it defiles thy whole body and wipes away the glory of all thy profession and that this tongue of thine is set on fire of Hell and therefore thou goest on to hide thy nakednesse say Iames was writing to such who were getting the mastery in the flesh which is for condemnation Iam. 3. 1 2. Repl. And what thinkest thou of thy self Art not thou getting to be master and a great potent Lord in the flesh damning and judging all that wear not thy mark and so art to be judged and condemned thy self Math. 7. 1 2. But Christ thou sayest is the end of condemnation so of sin which is for ccondemnation to which I say Christ was the end of the Law for righteousnesse and he 's said to be made sin for us and to come into the world not to condemne the world but that the world through him might be saved but I never read that Christ was the end of condemnation and the end of sin though these things I know are overcome when he comes but thy phrase is new even like thy form which yet must be no form and in almost all thou sayest I see that Scripture sadly fulfilled in thee that evil men and seducers was worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Answ Further 1 Ioh. 1. 8 9. here Iohn wrote to such who were not come through the confession but to such as confesse he saith Christ cleanseth from all unrighteousnesse 1 Ioh. 1. 9. and the bloud of Iesus Christ cleansed from all sin Repl. Even before and after the confession thou mayest read there 's sin still to be confessed before if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves after if we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar and his word is not in us here 's sin still to be looked upon otherwise we deceive our selves we make him a lyar the truth is not in us his word is not in us and so he who covers his sins shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh shall have mercy and if we confesse our sins God is faithfull to forgive our sins not to impute but cover them and cleanse us from them by the pardoning and healing vertue of the bloud and spirit of Jesus this confession must be real if we look the cleansing should be real and this forgivenesse cleansing is an encouragement to us to make our confession and our resolution to sin no more which resolution being like the confession in truth God accepts of it as 't is written if there be a willing minde 't is accepted according to that a man has not according to that he hath not and so that Soul sins no more who do's not love sin peccatum facere make it to delight in it but it sins unwillingly it lusteth against lust would not for a world be under the dominion of sin this the Apostle speaks of Rom. 6. 11 12. reckon your selves sayes he to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God let not sin reign c. and so this is the reasoning of a gracious heart shall I continue in sin that grace may
there 's a kinde of infinitenesse in it which all the world cannot satisfie and therefore the man was a fool that said Soul take thine ease because thy Barnes are full and yet notwithstanding this kinde of infinitenesse in the Soul as being restlesse till it return to God yet it cannot be infinitenesse it self it cannot be the first-born for of whole man it 's said whereof the Soul is the most noble part indeed what is man that thou art mindfull of him or the Son of Man that thou regardest him thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels Heb. 2. 6 7. man you see is inferior unto the Angels much more inferior unto the Son of God seeing the Angels likewise are his inferiors and therefore when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. 1. 6. so then if Angels are inferior to Christ and men inferior to Angels surely the Soul must be far below the first-born and farther though the Soul be the seat of Christ and Christ be hid there as treasure in a field even in the innermost room of the Soul yet the Soul cannot comprehend the infinite Majesty so Christ in his Divine essence or being much lesse can it be Christ who is God over all blessed for evermore and though there be indeed a blessed Union and fellowship between Christ and an holy Soul yet still there 's a vast difference between the essence or being of the Soul and Christ the one being still a creature the other the Creatour of it thou mightest with better colour have called the Soul the light within and that likewise thou givest an hint of and this I say has more light in it than the former seeing Solomon sayes the spirit of man is the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly but yet the Soul comprehends more than this light and cannot be this Candle neither seeing the Candle may go out but the Soul remains still I say the Candle may go out Prov. 24. 20. the Candle of the wicked shall be put out and how oft is the Candle of the wicked put out Job 21. 17. but the Soul of the wicked can never be put out but their light may But what is the Soul then To make some answer to the question because it is mine own The Soul is a most noble power a living being an essence that quickens the body and yet dies not sleeps not when the body dies and sleeps but returns unto God who gave it this Soul is a little Map of the great world and makes man a little world for in his Soul is comprehended the life of plants the sense of beasts the reason of men and Angels this Soul quickens and makes man a living creature a sensitive creature a rational creature being the seat of life sense motion operation understanding reason and light in man and this Soul in the spiritualty of it the immortality of it the immensity of it not being satisfied without an infinite good and the rationality of it in the powers of the minde reason judgement will memory fancie appetite and affections in all these it 's a lively figure of God himself hence man is made after the image of God in an appearance according unto his capacity answerable unto the Divine Maiesty though still infinitely far short of what God is in his incomprehensible being who is the life of our life and Soul of our Soul called the father of our spirits in this Soul of man or in the spirit or minde of it as the highest power when 't is regenerated and resigned up lives the great King manifested here he dwells as in Mount Sion here he delights to be as in his Temple here he lives and moves and walks and feeds and takes pleasure in his own works and here he begins that life of righteousnesse joy peace rest glory which shall endure world without end and in this Soul of man un-enlightned and un-renewed Christ lies hid and is as one dead and unsavoury unto the Soul and so the Soul is in darknesse weaknesse sinfulnesse sorrow fear bondage and many times in beginnings of Hell and saddest woe for evermore and yet the world and those that perish for ever have had many times such glimmerings and such stirrings after God and good things such wrestlings between the 〈…〉 their own reason and common light and conscience as being despised and trampled upon hidden crucified and smothered in their earthly mindes provoking God thereby to give them over as a just reward for their unthankfulnesse I say they have had so much light as being rebelled against shall make them inexcuseable before the Lord at the sad hour of account and judgement Quest 16. What is the saving and losing of the Soul and the state of it after this life Answ Christ said what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul Math. 16. 26. the Scripture is plain would thou have a meaning to it is the Scripture a parable to thee yea to all vultures eyes venomo us beasts Repl. Would such an answer as this have pleased thee wouldest thou not have cried out aloud behold what bitternesse what darknesse is here Friend how has Satan still filled thine heart with lying vanities in dreaming of perfection and yet art altogether a stranger even to common humanity much more to that sweet spirit of love whereby the grace of God is manifested I know the Scriptures are a parable to vultures eyes and venomous beasts and so they are to thee as appears by thy gall and wormwood thine ignominy reproaches thou art pouring out upon thy brother and that for asking a reason with much sobernesse of the hope that is in thee I know this is the nature of those who say they are Disciples Prophets but are not being found liars to cry out loe here loe there come and follow me behold he 's in my secret Chamber in my holy form and way and all that believed not are judged condemned and given over unto the Devil Pope-like Antichrist-like but to passe to what follows to see how well thou art acquainted with the saving and losing of the Soul Answ Further all that believe in the light of Christ it leads to the knowledge of Christ the redeemer of the Soul which they that deny the light cannot see and so the Soul abides in condemnation and this is the saving and losing of their Souls and state of it after this life Repl. By this it appears by thee that the saving of the Soul is as much in mans power as the losing of it and yet Christ sayes to you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but to them it is not given Math. 13. 11. and thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast
and this builds the Temple and makes the Soul the Citie and House and Church of God by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God this grace springs out of the heart of God not out of the will of man and it's grace makes us his workmanship Citie and dwelling place and where 't is created that Soul is said to be of God and Christ is made unto it wisdom and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption efficiently and formally by working these and forming these in the heart of man and this pure building Babylon and Egypt cannot endure to see neither any that make it their businesse to wander abroad from God and go down into the Sea in ships and this Citie is the Lilly among the Thorns planted under the shadow of the Almighty where she sits down with great delight and inward recreation my Meditation of him shall be sweet I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live and I will go unto him mine exceeding joy This is she who rejoyces because the Bridegroom is come and though she have infirmities yet she 's washed and washing in the bloud of the Lambe and so the dayes of her sorrow and widdow-hood flee away this is she who is still adorning till the head and all the Members meet together in the fulnesse and joy of God and this spouse is nâ— Adulteres she loves not the voice nor love of strangers she is not something and great in her self for she is nothing but what she is in her husband by the grace of God I am what I am she cannot vvorship a shadow or form or idel as others to get her self a name in the vvorld she makes no mention but of one and to him she bowes and because all this glory is powred upon her therefore she 's despised of men hated persecuted and every where evil spoken of yet blessed because great is her reward in Heaven out if this Cities are all Harlots all vvorldlings shut all Hypocrites Backbiters strikers of their fellow servants all that make a mock of Christ of the sufferings and precious bloud of Christ all that say they are Christ lo here lo there all that stand upon their toyes ceremonies vvil-worships making the commands of God of none effect by their traditions see whether or no thou hast the name of this Citie written upon the forehead where so much railing flows from thy tongue and heart Quest 22. What is the Garden of Eden out of which Adam was driven whether it be the same with Paradise Quest 23. What is the Paradise of God and the Tree of life in the midst of it of which whosoever overcomes shall eat Quest 24. What is the hidden Manna and the white stone and the new name written in the stone which he that overcomes shall know Answ To these three queries he sayes Eden is no Garden known to the vvorld where 't is overcome with weeds and who are driven out of it is not the same with Paradise but who are come to the Tree of life the old Adam dead the man quickned which death passed over there the Garden is pressed and dressing here Eden and Paradise came to be known Repl. All this gives no satisfaction to what Eden and Paradise is though some truth there be in thy words for though Eden be every where where the presence of God is in Christ and this presence fills all places and all things we see yet 't is not known unto the world who are cast out and see Christ no more Eden was a figure of heaven where 's no want but all fulnesse all pleasure and this heaven is all over within and without unto a childe of God within he sees the Lord raiguing in his spirit without he sees the Lord in every creature the heavens declare his glory and the firmament sheweth his handy work all creatures are as Jacobs ladder to him with God at the top these are the Angels assending and dessending in continual motion but God who stands at the top hidden from the world but known unto his Saints he 's still the same and his presence in love and light is the Garden of Eden and within is Paradise joy singing and so in the presence of God in love every place is a place of joy every condition every dispensation heavenly and here the Soul has learned to discern between the form and the truth the out-birth and the father he looks unto God he 's the wheeâ—â—ithin the wheel and so a gracious Soul will honour God who is the 〈◊〉 being in every created being he can converse with God in all he sees anâ— say of every place creature condition and thing this is none other but 〈◊〉 house of God and the Gate of Heaven into this Garden the righteous 〈◊〉 and here they are inclosed and kept by the Almighties arm and here they 〈◊〉 not upon the shadow but upon the substance within they feed not upon the earthly but upon the heavenly fruit the vertue and power of God And so they live upon God in the Creatures upon God in the Scriptures upon God in every thing but the man in darknesse sees not God has not the benefit and comfort of God and so he is cast out of the Paradise and joy thus you see that Eden the wicked man knows not he sees not the presence of the great King and so he can not feed upon him the Weeds cover God and among them he hides himself and there he feeds upon the flesh not upon the substance the Tree of life this he dares not middle with being a guilty sinner and so if he would enter into the Garden he can not there is a whole principale between and the Sword is set and dye he must and come in by a Saviour and in him he must be born before the entrance can be made and when this is done and the man of sin in some measure crucified then the vilest sinner may go boldly in because the way is open by regeneration and live with God and know Eden Paradise And thou who grutchest another entrance into this Garden of Eden into the Lords presence there to be in joy and rest by feeding upon the bread of life it appears that thou art a stranger unto the Garden it is not drest for thee and though faign thou would'st put forth thine hand eat live for ever be thine own Judge enter into life through thine own power and crucifying yet there is an Angel will keep thy out till the old man begin to be annihilated and he who was dead begin to leave in thee who onely prepares the Soul for the Lord and brings it into his joy Answ Further thou sayest as the Serpent is overcome by the seed of God the Tree of life is seen and fed on which stands in the midst of the Paradise of God Repl. All this is true when man is nothing
and is at a losse in himself then Christ begins to be seen and then Christ is sweet and then he 's the onely Tree out of which life grows and so the Souls feed upon him who is that meat which perisheth not sealed by the father Further thou sayest the Tree of life comes down from heaven which is the hidden Manna and is the new name which none can know but he that hath it Repl. The Tree of life thou sayest comes down from heaven then he is not surely in the natural maâ—â—s thou sometimes dreamest if thou have this Tree in thee this liviâ—g Tree in thee why doest thou not declare him and tell us how hâ—â— the Manna and what the eating is Thou must answer nothing new no reason of thy faith hope but if these things were written in â—â—y spirit in deed and truth thou wouldest surely know that one maâ—â— end why they are given is that we might declare them Furthâ—â— thou sayest the hidden Manna the white stone the new name onely such as overcome have fed on read and know Rev. 2. 17. And yet thou in thy busie minde must needs be enquiring about it thou who art in the bondage of corruption scraping up Scriptures for sin darknesse to remain in man whil'st he is upon the earth that art an enemy to Christ the Tree of life who scoffes at yea and nay his doctrine c. Repl. All this surely do's not declare what Eden is or Paradise is or the Tree of life or the hidden Manna or the white stone or the new name unto all which thou wouldest fain pretend a peculiar interest by thine own overcoming yet canst not declare thy self surely friend if thou sawest the Lord and didst indeed abide in his presence thy foolish nature would not thus appear still in power wert thou in the light and joy of Paradise feeding upon God in thy self and upon God in every thing that is made surely thou couldest not scoffe at any truth of God and call it a scraping up of Scriptures because the Scriptures shew man his manifold errours and infirmities and so thou couldest not deny plain light written in Scripture and every mans experience that knows himself Didst thou know the Tree that the overcomer eats of surely thou wouldst not thus lye down to the Serpents power didst thou live in the Lord and feed upon the Lord who is the Paradise and Tree of life both surely thou wouldest see God in thy fellow-servant and not smite him or murmur because the Lord bears another company besides thy self for surely there 's enough in God for us all And did'st thou know the hidden Manna eat of it this would surely sweeten thine heart make thee forget the bitterness that comes through thy lips didst thou know the pure image the divine nature didst thou see this springing up in thee as a seal of life to thee surely thine heart would not thus retain the old hardnesse the old language having nothing written upon it but the name of the old man though the poor old man know it not or will not see it and so to summe up this and to leave a word or two with thee The Garden of Eden is every where where the Lord is manifested Paradise is the fulnesse and joy that grows up out of this manifestation the Tree of life is God in Christ manifested seen and know the eating is the feeding and living in our spirits upon the verâ—â—â—â— and excellencies as of God who bids all his friends eat and drink abundanâ—â—â— and the hidden Manna is the sweetnesse and inward nourishment the souâ—â—inds in God and the white stone is the purity and reality of the divine naturâ— in us and the new name written upon the stone is the Name of God the natuâ—â— minde will judgment of God the fullnesse of God let out according to oâ—â— measure into our hearts which shews to us the things that are freely given to â—s of God declares us in our experiences to be his Sons Daughters all these things are one in substance in the root being but the new man sprung up in us to bring us into Paradise and joy onely unto us thereis a variety of operations and administrations all which as we overcome so we are acquainted with Quest 25. What is the bottomlesse pit and the smoake that arises from thence and the darkning of the Sun and aire by the smoake and the locusts which came out of the smoake which John saw Answ When thou art come to the sound of the 5. Angels then thou wilt know see the bottomlesse pit out of which comes all the Sorceries Witchcrafts and Enchantments which deceive the Nations Repl. It seems thou hast heard the sound of the 5. Angels and yet hast not seen the Star fallen from Heaven unto the earth and so hast not heard the right sound if thou hast declare it neither hast thou seen the bottomlesse pit and so beholdest not the Sorceries Witch-crafts and Enchantments which come from thence neither the infatuations and strong delusions which God in wrath has given yee up unto and all your brethren in all other dark forms and superstitious vanities those delusions errours idols sins wickednesses abominations which spring up in such a variety abroad in the Nations hast thou not seen neither how all these grow up out of one original the bottomlesse pit of the angry wrathfull Kingdom of Lucifer thy father who has still been soaring up to Heaven but is still cast down unto the earth and the elect seed he cannot he must not deceive totally and finally and yet ought they alwayes to be upon their watch waiting upon their Bridegrom as knowing their own pronenesse unto evil but all yee who are secure and lofty perfect in your observations and imaginations that yee have never so much as a wandring thought prevailing much lesse sin appearing either in your lives or tongues even like your forefathers the Ranters whom yee own not in words but yet in spirit as they are pure holy undefiled in all things so are yee as they are reconciled to all things so are yee and as all that they speak is righteous altogether so all that comes from your idle lips and so yee as they are totally free from all remnants of the old Adam even ye poor wretches are thrown down into all the saddest and strongest â—â—â—usions of the evil one being down as it were at the bottom of the botâ—â—â—lesse pit perverting betraying and deceiving your selves and others with the dream of your high knowledge wisdom righteousnesse 〈◊〉 gifts high lights perfect attainments being found in all the steps 〈◊〉 the Pharisees Jews Priests Elders and Rulers of old who denied and crucified the Lord of glory And when yee pretend most love to Christ within and his light within even then ye most deny and grieve him trampling under your feet the Lord that bought yee making but a
of men But friend look into the Scriptures and be ashamed of thine ignorance in this matter was all this no suffering of Christ no part of his Crosse Doth not Peter tell us Christ suffered for us in the flesh 1 Pet. 4. 1. and was there not a real thing done by it And therefore the Scriptures say once he appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself once he appeared And in another place the way into the holiest is by the bloud of Jesus not by our bloud as if we were our own Saviours but by the bloud of Jesus And Christ laid down his life a ransome for many And we are redeemed not with Gold and Silver but with the precious bloud of the Son of God Why cannot all this Doctrine be remembred as well as thou and thee Is not this that Crosse of Christ which is foolishnesse to them that perish and a stumbling block to the wise Jews And did not the Apostle preach through this Crosse reconciliation to the world and forgivenesse of sins to all that believe Rom. 3. 24 25. Eph. 1. 7. 1 Joh. 10 7. Heb. 9. 22. to the end 10. 10. Do not all these places speak of Christs crucifying and sufferings in which crosse lies the foundation of our comfort and salvation And must all this stand onely for a figure and cypher Is thine heart so lifted up to despise what Christ hath done and suffered for thee Surely then thou hast no lot nor portion in this matter But all this is historie and hath wrought in me thou sayest we dying and suffering in the flesh and so I am still a stranger to the crosse of Christ But friend before thou judge another judge thy self and lay thy foundation low otherwise thy building will fall Lay it in the bloud of Christ otherwise there 's no remission no salvation Then descend into thine own heart and see how Christ hath layen bleeding under his crosse how thou hast made him to serve with thine iniquities and whether this have touched thine heart to bleed with him to suffer and die with him in thy flesh 1 Pet. 4. 1. And consider now if thy pride live thou thy self and thy will live then Christ is still under his crosse to thee and thou canst not bear witnesse unto his crosse but if thou even thou thy self art dead and crucified with Christ then thou knowest his crosse and art conformable to him in death and then thy sin and flesh will die and thy painted holinesse thy blameless life thy strictnesse righteousnesse and all thine observations will die and wither too in justification as it was with Paul Phil. 3 7 8. And so thou wilt glory in nothing but Christ and what he acts for thee and works in thee who was dead but now is alive for evermore and so thou wilt empty thy self of thy self thou wilt be nothing base and vile in thine own eyes humble meek and lowly But this thou art a stranger unto and see the root of thy sins remaines within in the pride of thine heart and this makes thee binde heavy burdens upon others but if they want thine helpe thou wilt not touch it with one of thy fingers they must look for nothing but Pharaohs cruelty and chiding As for mine own part I look for nothing from man my help is in the name of the Lord and my share in the crosse and death of Christ and in his resurrection I look for no help from man who is a lyar And this lyar in thee tels thee I am an enemy unto the crosse of Christ live in the flesh dead to the life of God But to thee I say so long as mine own heart condemnes me not I can see mine enemy is slain my will crucified and I am quickened to passe more and more into the life of God A sense of this within upon my spirit makes void all the accusations and condemnations of the world Repl. But thou tellest me I minde earthly things my God is my belly I have got the Tythes of two Parishes to maintain me in pride fulnesse Answ Though the old man minde the earthly with thee yet Christ in me minds the heavenly and he teacheth me to make the Father of all my comforts not my belly my God Further know my Tythe of two Parishes is not so much of mine own getting as thy Pigge and Duck and maintenance thou gettest from silly women in their husbands absence for saying an old tale â—ver that thou hadst said fourty times over before If thou wilt know where this was ask thy conscience and that will tell thee As for that providence that feeds me and thee thou knowest it not and so art angry at all which God gives unto thy fellow-servant Repl. Further thou sayest I reproach such who run not into the same excesse of riot with me Answ As for excesse in evil the grace of my God teacheth me to abhorre it and so I cannot chuse but reproach such with it who run into it but if I see men modest sober and scrupleing outward things as Tythes or the like out of meer conscience such I cannot but own and love especially if I see them free from pride and glorying in what they do which is the spoil of all Repl. But thou seest destruction to be mine end thou sayest and an Antichrist I am and all Tythe-mongers Answ Yet surely with God there is mercy and I shall look to him not man to be saved Further thou knowest he is an Antichrist who exalts himself and denies the Father and the Son this is Scripture not he who takes Tythes or denies Tythes that 's not Scripture And so though thou denie Tythes yet thou art still an Antichrist who exaltest thy self not the Father and the Son Therefore look to it that destruction and condemnation be not thy portion for ever Repl. Further thou sayest though I have glorious words of Christ yet I know not the Crosse of Christ being alive in the flesh not crucified not dead to sin for where the dying is that nature is limited c. Answ Here thou makest a vain repetition of Words and like the Pharisee thou canst acknowledge no truth in another for this would spoil the sale of thy perfect form Hadst thou read mine answer with understanding thou mightest have learned in it that the Crosse of Christ must be passed under by every truely anointed Christian as well as by Christ the head And so we must suffer in our flesh as he did in his flesh and when we thus suffer the man of sin is crucified and limitted This thou mightest have seen in mine answer hadst thou eyes to see but the pride and fulnesse of thy fleshly heart hath closed them up As for my dying and suffering in flesh and sin I desire the just God not unjust man to be the Judge he knows what sin is and the dying is but the heart of man is
deceitfull above all things and knoweth nothing by nature of the spirituall things of God If thou hadst the Lord the just Judge in the midst of thy spirit quickened he would have shaken thee out of thy earthly heaven and digged up that root of bitternesse out of thine heart which springs from the bottomlesse pit in thee which root hath been spared through thine own indulgence to thy self as that within thee beares thee witnesse Repl. Thou tellest me The crosse is foolishnesse to me Answ It is so to reason in me but to faith it 's the power of God and the wisdom of God to thee indeed it is foolishnesse who instead of beleeving in the crosse of Christ makest nothing of the bloud of Christ shed at Jerusalem and so art fondly prying into the mysterie before the foundation be laid Repl. Thou sayest When I am searched into I am found an Alien to the ground of truth and yet through the pride of mine heart I said to such as I had formerly bewitched through my lies in hypocrisie that the questions were low and simple things Answ Thou I say art not capable of discerning either the truth or an Alien from it who hast no other ballance but thine own weak reason and dream to weigh things with As for my bewitching any through my lies let them speak and shew me what errour or sin or mischief I ever perswaded them unto If they came to me they were welcome if they are nearer to God 't is well if further off that 's ill I never did much glory in their company since I found them carried about with winde and fables As for thy questions thou seest I make a sober answer without bitternesse or railing though some of them I found alike and some of them I know not what This I know will grieve thee to see thy glory stained and slighted never so little seeing thou art the Pharisee that gloryest in thy questions Repl. Thou sayest The least measure of the life of the kingdom is hid from me Answ The life of the kingdom begins in the crosse of Christ since this hath had it's power in me to my crucifying and slaying in any measure I have found the life of the kingdom springing up and in this kingdom I have some measure of righteousnesse peace and so it is not altogether hid from me But thou rebellious wretch where wilt thou begin to enter into the kingdom where life is who lookest upon the crosse of Christ as a foolish thing and makest his sufferings and crucifyings in the flesh no crosse no part of his crosse and so swine-like tramplest under thy feet the precious bloud of the Son of God and makest it veil to thee so knowest not where life begins though the crosse of Christ without in the flesh and history thou mayest read and learn exactly too and yet not begin the life of the kingdom without the vertue and power of it crucifie thy self and flesh and arm thee with the minde of Christ to empty thy self of all thy glory and to humble thee at the feet of God to death as Christ did Repl. But thou sayest I use my tongue and say the Lord sayth when I have nothing but the letter and harlot-like trim my self with it and sit in an high seat in my imaginations even above the seed which by the fowls of the aire is devoured Answ The letter of the Scriptures being a declaration of the minde and love of God to man I look upon as one of the choice vessels of the Lords sanctuary and the flesh body and sufferings of Christ to purchase and make peace for us I look upon as a vessel without which the Lords sanctuary cannot be furnished with the Oyle of life or the beginnings of salvation This letter concerning Christ especially together with all the rest of the Scriptures I look upon as a precious mercy and light unto the Sons of men And yet all this without the meaning and fulfilling of Scriptures in us and to us by the anointing of the spirit availes nothing unto our salvation and inward consolation so that letter and history joyned with the spirit of the Lord opening and sealing the meaning and substance to my spirit is the Word of the Lord to me And friend this tongue of mine which thou sayest I use was given me to this end to use against all such as shall no lesse than commit fornication with the letter when it seems to favour their weak imaginations and formes but yet cannot endure to unite with the meaning and mystery couched or vayled under the letter And thus it is with the Quakers in their carnall tremblings Cattle of Tythes Priests the word Master Father the titles of thou you yea nay and the like In these things their souls are drunk with the letter and made they are against all interpretations and meanings put upon the letter though by the Lords spirit but in the great things of Christ and resurrection and judgement and heaven and hell after this life here the letter is prophanely trampled upon slighted abused contradicted and their fancie meanings and sensuall interpretations must be all the Scripture in such matters and so sometimes they are glorying in the letter but cannot endure the meaning and fulfilling at other times they are glorying in the mysterie and meaning but cannot endure the letter See here friends what a nose of wax as the Papists call it ye make of the Scriptures of truth and how they are wrested by you as by all other dark forms and professions onely to uphold your golden image that your own fingers have made This I cannot passe by in you with silence neither that high seat ye seek to creep into even the seat of God crying out lo here lo there I am Christ I am wise I am perfect without all spot All this is so manifest against both letter and meaning of Scriptures that though I should hold my peace the stones in the street would cry out against you And so thou who sayest I harlot-like trimme my self with the letter take heed how thou harlot-like trimmest thy self with Gods glory that others may ignorantly worship thee for God who art a poor broken idoll And take heed how by talking of a light within which I own in it's place thou prophanely despisest what is written in the letter seeing that also is a light that shines in a dark place and so to be owned of us too And take heed how in thy high-flowen lofty spirit thou be not found in that which thou condemnest in another viz. among the fowles of the ayre seeking to devour all the precious seed of God that is sown in any form or people besides thine own Repl. But I would deceive such thou sayest who are going right on their way Answ If by way thou understand a following of Christ in the way of life such I cannot deceive for no man can pluck such out of Christs
to be consecrated unto the Lord in holinesse as well as the spirit and therefore saith the Apostle in the last verse of that Chapter Glorifie God with your bodies and with your spirits which are Gods This body must be kept clean for the Lord not defiled with fornication flie fornication every sin that a man doth is without the body but he who committeth fornication sins against his own body intimating that this sin leaves a greater defilement upon the body than other sins so that by body there cannot be meant the Church of God which are all the body of Christ and so that place is wrested by thee to the proving of the spotlesse perfection of every Member of Christ and yet in the Lord I acknowledge every Member is compleat righteous holy but look upon the Member it self there we finde it lyable to all manner of infirmities yea to sin too onely the Lord Christ the righteous one the root he is free from all sin And therefore Christ teacheth us to pray for forgivenesse of sin This I know will be looked upon as a low thing and yet it is a truth of God and should teach us all to hunger continually after more of the righteousnesse of sanctification and after a plainer manifestation too of the righteousnesse of Christ in our justification Thou sayest Repl. I am ghessing what the baptisme unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea should be and thou sayest I tell thee of Metaphorical that word thou deniest and tellest me my shifts are seen and my darknesse found Answ Did ever wretch in the world so plainly confute his words in his constant practice as thou doest who dreamest of persecution and yet hast nothing in all thy Paper appearing but vanity pride and folly Surely the spirit said not in vain A wise man feareth and departeth from evil but the fool rageth and is confident And the heart of the righteous studieth to answer but the mouth of the wicked poureth forth evil things And there is that maketh himself pure yet his heart is not cleansed from his filthinesse Look upon all these things in thy self But to return to thy reply wherein instead of answering something thou talkest of ghessing and carpest at Metaphorical But didst thou never read in Scripture a thing like this Look Gal. 4. 24. which things saith the Apostle are an Allegory The difference between these two it may be thy learning may ghesse for thou tellest the people thou art a Scholar and hast been a Priest and yet never sawest a Metaphor in Scripture But to go on Thou tellest me Repl. I darken counsel by words without knowledge Answ Whether this be thy practice or mine let all men judge who sometimes turnest all the Scriptures into an Allegory and deniest the truth of the Letter as in the Crosse of Christ the resurrection and the like and yet sometimes there must be nothing but Letter when thou seest thy self alive in the Allegory as about the name Master Father Lord and the like But see how thou art presently found in an Allegory ghessing at the baptisme of Moses and saying Moses as a servant in his house was faithfull But thou must be the Master not a servant and this makes thee unfaithfull in the house of God like a Thief coming in to steal and to kill and destroy And hence thou criest out and liftest up thy voice in the street against all but such as wear thy mark thou art flesh thou art damned thou art a witch a ravenous beast there 's no pity nor mercy nor anointing with Christs nature appearing in thee and all because thou art not content to be servant but must be Master of all mens faith Repl. But thou sayest Moses saw the Egyptians drowned in the Sea and over them he sang which thou doest not know Answ Here 's an Allegory indeed see the question is what is the baptisme unto Moses in the Cloud and in the sea Answer Moses saw the Egyptians drowned in the Sea and over them he sang And is not this a learned Metaphoricall answer coming from a perfect man But by good ghesse thou hast spoken a truth though besides the mark It is so indeed Moses saw the Egyptians drowned in the Sea and yet there 's one Egyptian still alive in thee and he prattles on and saith Repl. I am in the fruits of the flesh and act contrary to the light of my conscience and so am for condemnation with the light Answ What 's all this to the baptisme of Moses Seeing our answer was denied we looked to have had some satisfaction from thee but all that I hear of is I must be condemned with the light Here thou alterest the phrase of Scripture to make void no doubt all other condemnation and Hell but what is within from the light This is good news for the World and so thy Religion like to prevail much with the vessels of wrath fitting for destruction But I must be condemned with the light The phrase is not proper nor savouring of the light of God for it seems as if the light and I should be condemned together and so we are by this dark generation But thy meaning is the light shall condemne me because I act contrary unto it And yet I desire to stand or fall unto the light of the Lord not to the judgement of this wise generation who put darknesse for light and light for darknesse and so the wo is upon them Isa 3. 10. Repl. But I oppresse the just lay heavy burdens upon them who out of the house of bondage would go the living God to worship so that a rest there is but I and all Magicians who deceive people with liknesses no further than the Sea must come there must I and all my glory Perish Answ Here no doubt are some of the Egyptians mentioned which I never saw drowned in me yet Yet know friend that I am so farre delivered from these Egyptians that I cannot oppresse either the just or unjust it is against my nature I cannot lay heavy burdens upon them and not touch them with one of my fingers this is enough for a Pharisee Neither am I desirous to see any soul in the house of bondage longer than the appointed time of the Father All that ever I aimed at was this to let people know that God goes down with his into Egypt is with them in their forms and bondage where they will be and stay till the day and time of their redemption and freedom But thee I see not going out of Egypt the living God to worship but to make thy self a God so know though a rest there be yet thou and all murmurers against thy fellow-servants and contemners of the wise dispensations of God because he goes down with his into Egypt together with all thy Magick and enchantments images and liknesses of holinesse and purity when the bitter root of pride remaines undestroyed all these Persons and things must